Analysis and Forecasting of Seasonal Changes in Cash Prices for Corn, Wheat, and Oats Grown in South Dakota

The overall objective of this study is to identify the seasonal patterns in S.D. cash prices (received by farmers) for corn, wheat, and oats. Seasonality in S.D. cash prices may be different from the seasonality in the U.S. cash prices for a commodity. The reasons for this may be differences in the seasonal supply and demand for the commodity and the supply and demand for substitutes. The availability and price of storage and transportation can also have substantial impact on regional commodity price seasonality. Therefore, it is important that the relationship between the seasonal fluctuations in S.D. cash prices and the seasonal fluctuations in the U.S. cash prices be analyzed. Since the seasonal indexes are computed using historical data, it is important to investigate the impact of the length of the historical data series on the reliability of the seasonal indexes. For each of the selected grains, corn, wheat, and oats, the specific objectives are as follows: 1) To identify the seasonal patterns in S.D. and U.S. cash prices. 2) To investigate if the seasonal patterns in S.D. cash prices are different than the seasonal patterns in the U.S. cash prices. 3) To investigate if the seasonal pattern in S.D. and U.S. cash prices are changing over time. 4) To analyze the impact of the length of the historical data series on the reliability of the forecasted price patterns

Optimization of a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) for High Technology Product Producing Factory via the Modularization of Production Systems

The objective of this research is to justify the utilization of buffers in High Technology Product Producing Factories (HTPPF) especially in the hard disk industry. This is significantly different from the trend in other industries such as canned food or car, where machines are joined and the process are continuous from start to end. In the latter industries, buffers are counted as stock and a waste, but in HTPPF, buffers are critically important to enable research activities to achieve daily upgrade of the Key Quality Characteristics (KQC) of the product. This has enabled the hard disk industry to increase the data capacity of a 95mm diameter Al-NiP disk from 1 GB in 1995 to 800 GB in 2012. A common trend among hard disk manufacturers, especially in Japan, Taiwan and also the Western Digital factory in Johor, was to join up all the production machines, which is preventing research activities. The assumption made by HTPPF is that dedicated research lines should be a good enough test bed for research activities required to achieve the technological improvements to the products. This is a wrong assumption because research lines are not always running and it is a fact that upon startup of a line, the yield is bad and this has to stabilize before any research changes can be made. Therefore the best test bed for research is a production line, which already has a good yield and a small change in chemical for example, can show up at the final test point to indicate if improvement to the KQC has occurred. Lack of awareness of this technique has caused a number of HTPPF to have decreased market share or close down. The few successful HTPPF that utilizes buffers operates them manually. This introduces human made defects, contamination and also a decreased throughput. In this research, designs were developed to automate these buffers such that humans need not handle the products, while at the same time enabling researchers to stop the production line to test out their hypotheses. Having designed these improvements, the next problem to solve is the throughput of HTPPF. So designs were made to solve the defect detection system (DDS) which is always the bottleneck in HTPPF. The next problem is to solve the wastage in the current system due to the inaccurate demand predictions at the factory, wholesaler and supermarket. To solve this problem a feasibility study was made to enable a customer ordering a product with a credit card to initiate factory machines to immediately manufacture it

Photovoltaic versus Micro-Hydropower for Rural Non-Grid Connected Areas of Equatorial Sarawak

There is currently a large expansion in photovoltaic installation worldwide especially in the temperate regions of the world which have tended to influence electrical power decisions in developing countries at the equator.  This research clearly justifies hydropower over photovoltaic electricity generation in non-grid connected regions of equatorial Sarawak, Malaysia.  A case study was made of photovoltaic installations versus micro-hydropower installation in these regions.  There are problems of micro-hydroelectricity especially during dry seasons but this work justifies allocating more resources in improving micro-hydroelectricity research such that eventually it will produce enough electricity even with the low water flow rate of the dry seasons.  This research can be done locally compared to photovoltaics whose research tends to be mostly imported into Malaysia.  Some comparisons are made to grid connected hydroelectric dams to depict capabilities of this technology given sufficient research allocations

Determinants of a pre-treatment model in achieving economic and environmental sustainability in membrane desalination

Feedwater pre-treatment plays a significant role in the production performance of water desalination operations. This study aims to formulate a pre-treatment model to evaluate the determinants in achieving economic and environmental sustainability. The research is oriented toward the goal of productivity and performance improvement in the water desalination process. The main objective of this study was to better understand the relationship between feedwater pre-treatment and demineralised water production. The secondary objective was to investigate the effect of an ultrafiltration membrane (UFM) on feedwater production performance. Case studies and literature review are included in this paper. Factors that potentially hinder the efficiency and reduce the load capacity of the desalination process include sand, high levels of ionic bond, biomass and colloid materials. These fouling factors could be eliminated efficiently from the feedwater during pre-treatment. Results demonstrated that the contribution of all inputs to achieve targeted pre-treated water quality (SDI < 3) was significant (p < 0.05) except for activated carbon. Investigations of the pre-treatment process have shown that the silt density index (SDI) is reduced by 45% using a UFM. Higher performance in water desalination was achieved through a higher efficiency in the removal of bacteria, sand, biomass and natural organic materials. Economic analysis showed that overall capacity utilization and operating performance had increased by 11%. This study concludes that quality pre-treatment is essential for achieving higher performance in membrane desalination operations

A study into the feasibility of consumers triggering factory robots to start production over the internet to optimize the current purchasing system

This paper aims to study and justify the feasibility of developing a more efficient purchasing system due to the inefficiencies in the current system which is an economic waste and source of global warming. Today if products are not sold they are dumped by supermarkets, wholesalers, warehouses and factories. All this happens because of incorrect demand predictions. But if products are manufactured only after their credit cards has been debited there will not be a problem of incorrect demand prediction all along the supply chain. This will lead to a purchasing system where customers deal directly with factories, which is favorable to producers as well as customers because cost will go down and wastages will reduce

Photovoltaic versus Micro-Hydropower for Rural Non-Grid Connected Areas of Equatorial Sarawak

There is currently a large expansion in photovoltaic installation worldwide especially in the temperate regions of the world which have tended to influence electrical power decisions in developing countries at the equator. This research clearly justifies hydropower over photovoltaic electricity generation in non-grid connected regions of equatorial Sarawak, Malaysia. A case study was made of photovoltaic installations versus micro-hydropower installation in these regions. There are problems of micro-hydroelectricity especially during dry seasons but this work justifies allocating more resources in improving micro-hydroelectricity research such that eventually it will produce enough electricity even with the low water flow rate of the dry seasons. This research can be done locally compared to photovoltaics whose research tends to be mostly imported into Malaysia. Some comparisons are made to grid connected hydroelectric dams to depict capabilities of this technology given sufficient research allocations

Men and Women; An Analysis of the Difference Status of Men and Women Especially in the Asian Regions

This paper aims at resolving the mass murder of female babies or fetuses in India, China and elsewhere. The number of female babies or children killed in India and China alone is running at over 220 million over this generation alone. The only thing humans at large can do about this appalling genocide (the killing of babies without the Y gene) is to foster equal status of men and women and bring about men of quality who respects women’s equality. This genocide has been covered up with names like infanticide but it is actually the worst genocide in the history of earth. The word genocide has been adopted by United Nations to have legal consequences in January 1951. Once a situation categorized as genocide, countries are compelled to take action. 140 nations have rectified this convention so far. This United Nations charter came about due to the vigorous campaign by a lawyer named Raphael Lemkin to prevent the horrors of the holocaust from ever happening again

The Options And Design Improvements Of The Electric Grid Of Sarawak As An Example For Developing Countries

This research is a reference for decision makers of electric grids especially in developing countries. This is done by describing the 90 year old Sarawak electric grid, including design improvements to further enhance it. The grid includes the power plants, the substations and the transmission and distribution lines. Grid equipment (notably power stations) is so expensive that only politicians of the highest level can make decisions regarding them. The problem is only a few engineers are in politics. Therefore there is a need for an easily accessible scholarly paper on the power system options for developing countries