Process studies of odour emissions from effluent ponds using machine-based odour measurement

Replicable experimental studies using a novel experimental facility and a machine-based odour quantification technique were conducted to demonstrate the relationship between odour emission rates and pond loading rates. The odour quantification technique consisted of an electronic nose, AromaScan A32S, and an artificial neural network. Odour concentrations determined by olfactometry were used along with the AromaScan responses to train the artificial neural network. The trained network was able to predict the odour emission rates for the test data with a correlation coefficient of 0.98. Time averaged odour emission rates predicted by the machine-based odour quantification technique, were strongly correlated with volatile solids loading rate, demonstrating the increased magnitude of emissions from a heavily loaded effluent pond. However, it was not possible to obtain the same relationship between volatile solids loading rates and odour emission rates from the individual data. It is concluded that taking a limited number of odour samples over a short period is unlikely to provide a representative rate of odour emissions from an effluent pond. A continuous odour monitoring instrument will be required for that more demanding task

East Asia’s Counterweight Strategy: Asian Financial Cooperation and Evolving International Monetary Order

This study seeks to explain the origin, process, and prospects of East Asia’s “counter¬weight” strategy in the arena of international finance, and its significant implications for global financial governance. Overall, this study addresses three key questions: (i) What motivated East Asia’s counterweight strategy and the emergence of Asian financial arrangements such as the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) and the Asian Bond Fund Initiative (ABFI)? (ii) What are the nature and purpose of the CMI and the ABFI? (iii) What would determine the future trajectory of the Asian financial cooperation and East Asia’s counterweight strategy? The central argument of the present study is that East Asian countries search for counterweight strategies that will enable them to avoid over¬dependence and loss of autonomy by developing regional alternatives even as they maintain collaborative relations with the G-7-centred global financial institutions (e.g. the IMF). Policy makers in East Asia are thus hedging their economic bets about the uncertain prospects of both the creation of regional institutions and the reform of global institutions. My findings also suggest that four key factors, such as regional economic conditions, geopolitical rivalry, the IMF reforms, and the United States and EU reactions would possibly shape the future development of East Asia’s counterweight strategy and Asian financial cooperation.

Why are there singles: Being single in equilibrium as a partner discipline device

Although people constantly search for partners, there are always some ones who are left as singles. This paper provides a simple model to demonstrate that this can happen even in the environment most conducive to partnership, when monitoring infidelity is not perfect. The intuition is that, when having a partner is preferred to being single, being single can be used as a discipline device to prevent infidelity.Partner

School and subject choices in education

Effects of school choice have not been satisfactorily resolved empirically and theoretically. I provide a theory of school choice. I show that a positive assortive matching between teachers and students maximizes the production of education. Also the production can be augmented by letting students choose subjects that they are good at rather than do everything.