Vertical specialisation indicator based on supply-driven input-output model

“Import content of exportsâ€, based on Leontief’s demand-driven input-output model, has been widely used as an indicator to measure a country’s degree of participation in vertical specialisation trade. At a sectoral level, this indicator represents the share of inter-mediates imported by all sectors embodied in a given sector’s exported output. However, this indicator only reflects one aspect of vertical specialisation – the demand side. This paper discusses the possibility of using the input-output model developed by Ghosh to measure the vertical specialisation from the perspective of the supply side. At a sector level, the Ghosh type indicator measures the share of imported intermediates used in a sector’s production that are subsequently embodied in exports by all sectors. We estimate these two indicators of vertical specialisation for 47 selected economies for 1995, 2000, 2005 using the OECD’s harmonized input-output database. In addition, the potential biases of both indicators due to the treatment of net withdrawals in inventories, are also discussed.Developing countries, Developed countries, Input-output tables, International trade, Vertical specialisation, Ghosh inverse, Supply-driven, Input-output

Application of factor decomposition techniques to vertical specialisation measurements

The increasing importance of vertical specialisation (VS) trade has been a notable feature of rapid economic globalisation and regional integration. In an attempt to understand countries’ depth of participation in global production chains, many Input-Output based VS indicators have been developed. However, most of them focus on showing the overall magnitude of a country’s VS trade, rather than explaining the roles that specific sectors or products play in VS trade and what factors make the VS change over time. Changes in vertical specialisation indicators are, in fact, determined by mixed and complex factors such as import substitution ratios, types of exported goods and domestic production networks. In this paper, decomposition techniques are applied to VS measurement based on the OECD Input-Output database. The decomposition results not only help us understand the structure of VS at detailed sector and product levels, but also show us the contributions of trade dependency, industrial structures of foreign trade and domestic production system to a country’s vertical specialisation trade.Developing countries, Developed countries, International trade, Input-output tables, Vertical specialisation, Factor decomposition, Input-output

A continuous flow elevator to lift ore vertically for deep mine haulage using a cable disc elevator

Vertical continuous ore haulage with elevators in mining for deep haulage is virtually non-existent. In this, research investigations concentrated on a cable disc elevator. The problem of using a cable disc elevator is the friction between the elevator fixed tube and the moving ore on the disc. This research establishes the friction forces existing as the elevator cable and discs are elevated up a stationary tube. Then the focus is to find a way to eliminate that friction. The method involved developing three test rigs: Test Rig 1 measures static friction with the ore placed on a disc in a tube mounted on load cells to measure the resistance with the ore on the disc lifted by a counterweight. This is relevant for an elevator that has stopped under load. Test Rig 2 measures the dynamic friction in an operational 5-inch elevator with the tube on the lifting side held stationary by load cells when the cable discs are lifting the ore. Test Rig 3 eliminates friction in the lifting tube by using a pipe conveyor that travels vertically at the same speed as the cable disc elevator to contain the ore on the cable disc elevator. The cable disc elevator does all the ore lifting. The research generated results for static and dynamic friction for gravel, granite and coal. Cable tension required for ore lift of 1000 metres and the maximum hoisting distance for some existing cables are calculated. Implications of this research are that the cable disc elevator has the potential to haul from depths greater than existing elevators, has a small footprint in a mine, and with some further development could eliminate the need for truck haulage in open cut and underground mining from the mine.Doctor of Philosoph

Defining File Format Obsolescence: A Risky Journey

File format obsolescence is a major risk factor threatening the ongoing usefulness of digital information collections. While the preservation community has become increasingly interested in tools for assessing a wide range of risks, the National Library of Australia is developing mechanisms specifically focused on the risks of format obsolescence. The paper reports on the AONS II Project, undertaken in conjunction with the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR). The project aimed to refine and develop a software tool that would automatically find and report indicators of obsolescence risks, to help repository managers decide if preservation action is needed. The paper discusses the current mismatch between this objective and the available sources of information on file formats, and emphasises the need to take account of both local and global factors in assessing risk. The paper calls for the preservation community to engage with the further development of thinking about file format obsolescence. Th

Dry weight model, capacitance and metabolic data as indicators of fungal biomass growth in solid state fermentation

Developing improved industrial bioprocesses has been a driver for the growing research attention to solid state fermentation, in particular involving filamentous fungi. Accurate description of fungal growth in these systems is crucial and certainly needed to enable optimal deployment of subsequent engineering work. This manuscript proposes a model based on total dry weight measurement to describe biomass growth for Aspergillus awamori on wheat grains in two systems: Petri dishes and a 1L packed bed bioreactor. The proposed dry weight model can be used not only for identifying growth phases of the fungus but also to calculate key growth parameters such as specific growth rate and maximum biomass concentration. The use of techniques based on capacitance measurements and on metabolic data were also used in order to estimate fungal growth and to validate the proposed model

Digital conversion of Nineteenth century publications - production management in the Australian Cooperative Digitisation Project 1840-45

This article will discuss and evaluate the management and production issues of the Australian Cooperative Digitisation Project 1840-45 - a collaborative project funded by the Australian Research Council. The completion of this digital library project allows the authors to reflect on the technical issues and the interrelationships of the content, project organisation, the production model with its access and preservation goals, and issues of quality control, in relation to the future viability of such projects. -- " It may in truth be said, that in no country, and at no period since the invention of printing, has there appeared a greater necessity for a periodical conducted with spirit and principle, in the popular cause, than there does appear to exist in the colony of New South Wales at this moment. The only journals of character now existing upon any basis that offers to be permanent, boast of their “moderate conservatism”; a term which according to our interpretation means just as much oppression of the many by the few as the spirit of the age will bear.....unless the people are fully represented in the periodical press, as well as in the councils of the country, their rights will in the conflict of factions and interests be greatly endangered” - The Weekly Register of politics, facts and general literature, vol 1 no 1 July 29 1843. -- The period 1840-45 was a seminal period in the development of an Australian colonial culture. This period, following the end of convict transportation and preceding the influx of the gold-rushes, was characterised by exploration and expansion, conflict, commercial growth, political agitation and a surge in local publication reflecting the issues and concerns of the time. Journals, such as the Weekly Register, led and engaged in the political and social debate of the time, and remain today as the voice and contemporary record of the period. The Australian Cooperative Digitisation Project, 1840-45 (ACDP) was funded, through an Australian Research Council grant, to both digitise this contemporary record for access and ensure its long term preservation. The project has been a collaborative initiative between the University of Sydney Library, the State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW), and the National Library of Australia (NLA) Fundamental to the success of this project was the need to establish practical and implementable standards for large-scale digital conversion, in the context of the hybrid (microfilming and imaging) production model adopted using external vendors. The project - following the access and preservation initiatives developed in the US - has been described in a number of earlier articles (these can be found at the project site at http://www.nla.gov.au/acdp/), and we do not intend to revisit these descriptions in detail. This article will address and evaluate the management and production issues of what has been a complex developmental digital library project.. This complexity can best be characterised by the interrelationships of the nature of the content, the project organisation, access and preservation goals, production issues and management, and image quality control

Advantages of Fuzzy Control While Dealing with Complex/ Unknown Model Dynamics: A Quadcopter Example

Commonly, complex and uncertain plants cannot be faced through well-known linear approaches. Most of the time, complex controllers are needed to attain expected stability and robustness; however, they usually lack a simple design methodology and their actual implementation is difficult (if not impossible). Fuzzy logic control is an intelligent technique which, on its basis, allows the translation from logic statements to a nonlinear mapping. Although it has been proven to effectively deal with complex plants, many recent studies have moved away from the basic premise of linguistic interpretability. In this work, a simple fuzzy controller is designed in a clear way, privileging design easiness and logical consistency of linguistic operators. It is simulated together to a nonlinear model of a quadcopter with added actuators variability, so the robust operation of the controller is also proven. Uneven gain, bandwidth, and time-delay variations are applied among quadcopter’s motors, so the simulations results enclose those characteristics which could be found in reality. As those variations can be related to actuators’ performance, an analysis can be driven in terms of the features which are not commonly included in mathematical models like power electronics drives or electric machinery. These considerations may shorten the gap between simulation and actual implementation of the fuzzy controller. Briefly, this chapter presents a simple fuzzy controller which deals with a quadcopter plant as a first approach to intelligent control

Digital conversion of Nineteenth century publications - production management in the Australian Cooperative Digitisation Project 1840-45

This article will discuss and evaluate the management and production issues of the Australian Cooperative Digitisation Project 1840-45 - a collaborative project funded by the Australian Research Council. The completion of this digital library project allows the authors to reflect on the technical issues and the interrelationships of the content, project organisation, the production model with its access and preservation goals, and issues of quality control, in relation to the future viability of such projects. -- " It may in truth be said, that in no country, and at no period since the invention of printing, has there appeared a greater necessity for a periodical conducted with spirit and principle, in the popular cause, than there does appear to exist in the colony of New South Wales at this moment. The only journals of character now existing upon any basis that offers to be permanent, boast of their “moderate conservatism”; a term which according to our interpretation means just as much oppression of the many by the few as the spirit of the age will bear.....unless the people are fully represented in the periodical press, as well as in the councils of the country, their rights will in the conflict of factions and interests be greatly endangered” - The Weekly Register of politics, facts and general literature, vol 1 no 1 July 29 1843. -- The period 1840-45 was a seminal period in the development of an Australian colonial culture. This period, following the end of convict transportation and preceding the influx of the gold-rushes, was characterised by exploration and expansion, conflict, commercial growth, political agitation and a surge in local publication reflecting the issues and concerns of the time. Journals, such as the Weekly Register, led and engaged in the political and social debate of the time, and remain today as the voice and contemporary record of the period. The Australian Cooperative Digitisation Project, 1840-45 (ACDP) was funded, through an Australian Research Council grant, to both digitise this contemporary record for access and ensure its long term preservation. The project has been a collaborative initiative between the University of Sydney Library, the State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW), and the National Library of Australia (NLA) Fundamental to the success of this project was the need to establish practical and implementable standards for large-scale digital conversion, in the context of the hybrid (microfilming and imaging) production model adopted using external vendors. The project - following the access and preservation initiatives developed in the US - has been described in a number of earlier articles (these can be found at the project site at http://www.nla.gov.au/acdp/), and we do not intend to revisit these descriptions in detail. This article will address and evaluate the management and production issues of what has been a complex developmental digital library project.. This complexity can best be characterised by the interrelationships of the nature of the content, the project organisation, access and preservation goals, production issues and management, and image quality control

Cable disc elevator : static friction investigation

This paper describes the application of a cable disc elevator to continuous lift ore vertically from underground mines. Application of this system requires the tensions developed within the cable must remain within the carrying capacity of the cable including applicable safety margins. A critical element occurs at starting the system when it is fully loaded which requires the force developed by the system to exceed the static friction forces. This paper describes the laboratory rig developed to investigate the static friction forces. Details of the results of tests on three different ores for both dry and wet conditions are given. These results are discussed. © 2020, Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc