Esterification of Acetic Acid with Butanol: Operation in a Packed Bed Reactive Distillation Column

The esterification reaction between acetic acid and butanol was investigated in a reactive distillation column. The thermodynamic aspects of considered system are discussed, equilibrium constant, vapor pressures and UNIQUAC interaction parameters were investigated. Reactive distillation experiments were carried out to provide high purity butyl acetate. For this purpose, a 2 m column with nonreactive and reactive zones filled with Amberlyst 15 and Raschig rings, were used in the experiments. Several operating conditions such as total feed flow rate, molar ratio of butanol to acetic acid, amount of catalyst and reboiler temperature and three different column configurations were realized experimentally. The experimental optimum values of these parameters obtained were 1.6 mol h–1, 1, 25 g and 383 K, respectively within the range of study. The butyl acetate purity of 82 % and acetic acid conversion of 80.5 % were obtained at the optimum operating conditions

The Adequacy of Retirement Savings: Subjective Survey Reports by Retired Canadians

We examine retired Canadians’ subjective survey reports of satisfaction with finances,and with life, relative to the period before retirement.retirement, savings, subjective survey reports

New Evidence on Taxes and Portfolio Choice

Identifying the effect of differential taxation on portfolio allocation requires exogenous variation in marginal tax rates. Marginal tax rates vary with income, but income surely affects portfolio choice directly. In systems of individual taxation – like Canada’s – couples with the same household income can face different effective tax rates on capital income when labor income is distributed differently within households. Using this source of variation we find statistically significant but economically modest responses to taxation. In a “placebo” test, using data from the U.S. (which has joint taxation), we find no effect of the intra-household distribution of labor income on portfolios.Household portfolio choice, taxes

New Evidence on Taxes and Portfolio Choice

Identifying the effect of differential taxation on portfolio allocation requires exogenous variation in marginal tax rates. Marginal tax rates vary with income, but income surely affects portfolio choice directly. In systems of individual taxation – like Canada’s – couples with the same household income can face different effective tax rates on capital income when labor income is distributed differently within households. Using this source of variation we find statistically significant but economically modest responses to taxation. In a “placebo” test, using data from the U.S. (which has joint taxation), we find no effect of the intra-household distribution of labor income on portfolios.Household Portfolio Choice, Tax

Do the Rich Save More? Evidence from Canada

This paper provides new evidence on the long-standing question of whether more affluent households save a larger fraction of their income. The major difficulty in empirically assessing the relationship between incomes and saving rates is to construct a credible proxy for long-run income-purged of transitory fluctuations and measurement error. The Canadian Family Expenditure Survey provides us with both unusually good data on savings rates and potential predictors with which we can construct reliable long-run income proxies. Our empirical analysis suggests that the estimated relationship between saving rates and long-run incomes is sensitive to the predictor used to proxy long-run income. Nevertheless, our preferred estimates indicate that, except for poorest households (who simply do not save), saving rates do not differ substantially across predicted long-run income groups

Quadrilateral meshes with provable angle bounds

In this paper, we present an algorithm that utilizes a quadtree data structure to construct a quadrilateral mesh for a simple polygonal region in which no newly created angle is smaller than 18.43∘(=arctan(13)) or greater than 171.86∘(=135∘+2arctan(13)). This is the first known result, to the best of our knowledge, on a direct quadrilateral mesh generation algorithm with a provable guarantee on the angles

Quadrilateral Meshes with Bounded Minimum Angle

This paper presents an algorithm that utilizes a quadtree to construct a strictly convex quadrilateral mesh for a simple polygonal region in which no newly created angle is smaller than . This is the first known result, to the best of our knowledge, on quadrilateral mesh generation with a provable guarantee on the minimum angle

Quadrilateral Meshes with Bounded Minimum Angle

This paper presents an algorithm that utilizes a quadtree to construct a strictly convex quadrilateral mesh for a simple polygonal region in which no newly created angle is smaller than . This is the first known result, to the best of our knowledge, on quadrilateral mesh generation with a provable guarantee on the minimum angle

Quadrilateral meshes with provable angle bounds

In this paper, we present an algorithm that utilizes a quadtree data structure to construct a quadrilateral mesh for a simple polygonal region in which no newly created angle is smaller than 18.43∘(=arctan(13)) or greater than 171.86∘(=135∘+2arctan(13)). This is the first known result, to the best of our knowledge, on a direct quadrilateral mesh generation algorithm with a provable guarantee on the angles