The Technology of Mould Steel for Online Pre-hardening

AbstractThis article describes a production method of mould steel pre-hardening, and focus on the advantage of this method, The technical core of method is the variable frequency and variable amplitude pulse uniform high-precision temperature control, which achieved by using strong-medium-weak water cooling, gas-water cooling and gas mist cooling composite cooling control technology. Optimizing the cooling rate path is a good method of optimizing quenched organization and structure

Ion–Conducting Ceramic Membrane Reactors for the Conversion of Chemicals

Ion–conducting ceramic membranes, such as mixed oxygen ionic and electronic conducting (MIEC) membranes and mixed proton–electron conducting (MPEC) membranes, have the potential for absolute selectivity for specific gases at high temperatures. By utilizing these membranes in membrane reactors, it is possible to combine reaction and separation processes into one unit, leading to a reduction in by–product formation and enabling the use of thermal effects to achieve efficient and sustainable chemical production. As a result, membrane reactors show great promise in the production of various chemicals and fuels. This paper provides an overview of recent developments in dense ceramic catalytic membrane reactors and their potential for chemical production. This review covers different types of membrane reactors and their principles, advantages, disadvantages, and key issues. The paper also discusses the configuration and design of catalytic membrane reactors. Finally, the paper offers insights into the challenges of scaling up membrane reactors from experimental stages to practical applications

Modelling the system dynamics of household food, water, and energy nexus effects

The food-energy-water nexus (F-E-W) serves as a crucial resource for the sustainability of households, while the efficiency of resource use largely depends on our understanding and management of the nexus including all three factors. Limited research has been conducted on this topic thus far because of the increasing complexity of home technologies and data availability. This study develops an evidence-based system dynamics model for assessing the synergy and trade-offs of the household F-E-W. By applying the system dynamics (SD) methodology, the FEW consumption and generation originating from home appliances were modelled and simulated. The model was applied to an eco-house in Tokyo, and its efficacy was validated with one-year hour-based observations of a home energy management system (HEMS). The findings revealed that water-related and food-related energy use accounted for approximately 55% of the total energy use. In addition, water-related energy use showed high uncertainty, suggesting a management potential of approximately 24% for reduction, and was significantly correlated with household carbon emissions. Moreover, this result verified that the effective management of household energy consumption requires the adept manipulation of the diverse array of energy sources employed for air and water heating, while HEMSs could play a key role in implementation

The adoption and impact of E-commerce in rural China: Application of an endogenous switching regression model

Rural e-commerce is embraced as an opportunity for economic advancement for farmers in developing countries. However, little empirical evidence has been presented about the factors that affect farmers' decisions to adopt e-commerce, and how much farmers benefit from as well as cost on the adoption. This study addresses this research gap by analyzing rural household data collected in the Shandong, Henan and Shaanxi provinces of China in 2019, utilizing an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model to address the self-selection bias issue. The empirical results show that education level, smartphone use, off-farm employment and social capital significantly impact farmers' decisions to adopt e-commerce. E-commerce adoption drives a significant increase in selling price; yet simultaneously causes a tremendous increase in marketing costs for farmers. The operation of e-commerce requires farmers to pay considerable costs that were formerly undertaken by intermediaries in conventional exchange transactions. Still, farmers are seen to benefit from adopting e-commerce, as the gross return shows an increase. The PSM approach is employed for the robustness check, which obtains consistent results with the ESR model. The results of the heterogeneous analysis show that the rural households that are located closer to the local township benefit more from the adoption of e-commerce. Overall, this study presents a better understanding of the actual impacts of adopting e-commerce for farmers in rural China, which provides valuable insights for other developing countries or regions that also engage in rural e-commerce to promote the development of rural economy

What drives farmers’ willingness to adopt e-commerce in rural China? The role of internet use

This letter investigates the factors that drive farmers’ willingness to adopt (WTA) e-commerce, with a focus on the role of Internet use. The recursive bivariate probit model is applied to analyze data collected from rural China. The empirical results reveal that Internet use increases the likelihood of farmers’ WTA e-commerce by 20%. Further, we show that the WTA effects of Internet use are heterogeneous between male and female household heads and among different regions

Competitive Analysis of Online Price Discount Replacement Problem

When a paid price discount activity occurs, the decision-maker must decide whether or not and when to pay the additional fees for preferential price in an online fashion. This problem which generalizes the basic leasing problem has been introduced and studied by Fleischer et al. In this paper, we extend the basic model to consider differ-ent price discount replacement case and present the opti-mal deterministic online CA algorithm. Moreover, the risk-reward framework is introduced into the model to allow the decision-makers to manage their risk and utilize their fore-casts. We give a new online risk algorithm and derive an improved competitive ratio, which is the function of the risk tolerance λ and forecast F. It is found that with the com-petitive risk analysis, the flexible competitive ratio has the decreasing character of the risk tolerance. 1

What Motivates Farmers’ Adaptation to Climate Change? The Case of Apple Farmers of Shaanxi in China

Past studies showing that barriers to farmers’ adaptation behaviors are focused on their socio-economic factors and resource availability. Meanwhile, psychological and social considerations are sparingly mentioned, especially for the related studies in developing countries. This study investigates the impact of psychological factors and social appraisal on farmers’ behavioral intention to adopt adaptation measures for the aforementioned reason, due to climate change and not to anthropogenic climate change. Drawing on the protection motivation theory, a threat, coping, social appraisal, maladaptation and behavioral intention to adopt adaptation measures (TCSMBI) model was proposed to predict farmers’ adaptation. A structural equation model was then employed to analyze the relationships between variables in the TCSMBI model with 658 apple farmers in Shaanxi province, China. The empirical results showed that threat appraisal and coping appraisal have positive and significant impacts on behavioral intention to climate change. Moreover, threat appraisal reduces the occurrence of maladaptation, and social appraisal tends to have significantly positive impacts on threat appraisal and coping appraisal

The effect of blood transfusion on sublingual microcirculation in critically ill patients: A scoping review

Purpose: To investigate the effects of red blood cell (RBC) transfusion on sublingual microcirculation in critically ill patients. Methods: Systematic strategy was conducted to search studies that measured sublingual microcirculation before and after transfusion in critically ill patients. This review was reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses Scoping Review Extension. Results: The literature search yielded 114 articles. A total of 11 studies met the inclusion criteria. Observational evidence showed diffusive capacity of the microcirculation significantly improved in intraoperative and anemic hematologic patients after transfusion, while the convective parameters significantly improved in traumatic patients. RBC transfusion improved both diffusive and convective microcirculatory parameters in hypovolemic hemorrhagic shock patients. Most of the studies enrolled septic patients showed no microcirculatory improvements after transfusion. The positive effects of the leukoreduction were insufficiently supported. The effects of the storage time of the RBCs were not conclusive. The majority of the evidence supported a negative correlation between baseline proportion of perfused vessels (PPV) and changes in PPV. Conclusions: This scoping review has catalogued evidence that RBC transfusion differently improves sublingual microcirculation in different populations. The existing evidence is not sufficient to conclude the effects of the leukoreduction and storage time of RBCs

The role of agricultural cooperatives in serving as a marketing channel: Evidence from low-income regions of Sichuan province in China

Although cooperative organizations aim to enhance agricultural production and marketing, in some countries such as China, not all members sell their products through agricultural cooperatives. This study examines the determinants of using agricultural cooperatives as a marketing channel and its effects on farm income and household income, using survey data collected from cooperative members in low-income regions of Sichuan province in China. We employ both propensity score matching model and inverse probability weighting estimator with regression adjustment to address the sample selection bias issue. The empirical results show that risk attitude, farm size, machine ownership, sales ability, and demonstration level of cooperatives are main factors that determine the members’ decision to use agricultural cooperatives as a marketing channel, and the marketing channel users obtain significantly higher farm income and household income than non-users. Our findings highlight the importance and necessity of promoting agricultural cooperatives as a marketing channel among non-users

Impact of Grassland Transfer on Technical Efficiency of Livestock Production in Northern China

This paper estimates the impact of grassland transfer on the technical efficiency of livestock production, using the cross-sectional data collected from herders in Northern China. The propensity score matching approach and selectivity-corrected stochastic production frontier model are employed to address the selection bias issues. The empirical results show that, on average, the average technical efficiency score of herders with grassland transfer is significantly higher than that of herders without grassland transfer, which are 0.56 and 0.41, respectively, after addressing both observed and unobserved selection biases. The livestock revenue is positively and significantly affected by forage grass use, machinery use, stocking rate, family and hired labors use, and veterinary investment. Our findings highlight the importance of facilitating grassland transfer to increase livestock production efficiency and boost farm performance