Interest and profit

This paper argues that it is important to distinguish between the real rate of interest on money and the profitability of business enterprise. The former is a purely financial or monetary phenomenon （as claimed by Keynes） and the latter is in the nature of a surplus over and above the costs of production, including financing costs. There is an inverse relationship between the real rate of interest on money and the average mark-up or profit share. A synthetic theory of profit illustrates these points.

Multi-objective optimization of rolling schedule based on cost function for tandem cold mill

In terms of tandem cold mill productivity and product quality, a multi-objective optimization model of rolling schedule based on cost fimction was proposed to determine the stand reductions, inter-stand tensions and rolling speeds for a specified product. The proposed schedule optimization model consists of several single cost fi.mctions, which take rolling force, motor power, inter-stand tension and stand reduction into consideration. The cost function, which can evaluate how far the rolling parameters are from the ideal values, was minimized using the Nelder-Mead simplex method. The proposed rolling schedule optimization method has been applied successfully to the 5-stand tandem cold mill in Tangsteel, and the results from a case study show that the proposed method is superior to those based on empirical formulae.

Economic Valuation of Health Impact of PM_(10) Pollution in Beijing from 2001 to 2006

In light of the practical need for research to inform policy in Beijing,this study evaluates the economic cost of the impact of PM 10 pollution in Beijing from 2001 to 2006,taking health as the main impact,and mortality as the main outcome.Based on the literature review,this study adopts relatively conservative parameters as the basis for calculating the health impacts.It concludes that nearly 30%of mortality among registered residents above age 30 in Beijing can be attributed to PM 10 pollution,and that the economic cost equals 0.8%-1.2%of the city's GDP over the same period.This is lower than the results of previous studies,but still high enough to warrant a commitment to solve the city's air pollution problem.

Design, Development and Test of a Small Scale Mango Juice Extractor

Mango fruit （Mangifera indica） is very rich in fibre and vitamin C which are the required nutrients for good health and easy digestion of food in human body system. However, the fruit is highly perishable in its natural state after harvest due to the chemical deterioration and environmental effects. Due to the perishable nature, abundant wastage during the production season and relative scarcity during the off season were recorded by farmers. Processing the fruit into the form that can easily be stored, preserved, packaged, transported or consumed is crucial to having the product all the year round. Besides, mango juice can be consumed freshly, processed into dry powder, mixed or blended with other juice to make fruit jams, or evaporated to concentrates. These products have a lot of potential in food and beverage industries for export and foreign exchange earnings. Therefore, a small scale machine to process mango fruits to high quality juice is highly essential to reduce the postharvest loss and then add value to the commodity. To achieve this purpose, an abrasion-macerating device （AMD） was designed, fabricated and tested for small scale mango juice extraction. Design considerations focused on the techno-economic status of the micro and small scale fruit juice processors who are the intended users of the machine. The major components of the machine included hopper, perforated drum, screw conveyor, juice outlet, waste outlet, frame, electric motor and motor stand. Other components included screw shaft, the juice collector, top cover and the transmission system. In operation, the screw conveyor conveys and presses the mango fruits against the perforated roughened drum. The abrasion/tearing process of the screw on the flesh of the fruit and further pressing against the drum squeeze enough juice out of the fruit. The juice extracted is drained through the perforated mesh of the juice channel into the juice outlet from where it is collected while the residual waste is collected at the waste outlet. The machine was tested using freshly harvested mango fruits and results obtained showed an average juice yield, extraction efficiency and extraction loss of 34,56%, 55.14% and 10.15%, respectively. These values of juice yield, extraction efficiency and low level of extraction loss indicate satisfactory performance of the machine. Powered by a 2.5 hp single-phase electric motor, the machine has a production cost of USD565 with the construction materials being locally available at affordable costs. A cottage mango juice extraction plant based on this technology can provide employment for at least two persons at the same time providing fresh juice at low costs and residual waste as an ingredient for livestock feed manufacturing.

Prospect of the Seawater Desalination Technology

This article classifies the seawater desalination technology into four types of hot method, membrane method, electric field method and solvent method. Electric field method and solvent method still remain experimental stage, while hot method and membrane method have been realized in commercialization but are difficult to be promoted. The problem lies in high water-producing cost. It is difficult for membrane method seawater desalination technology to reduce the water-producing cost. The heat utilization efficiency is not high for the current hot method seawater desalination technology and there is large amount of heat lost with the emission of concentrated seawater. The new hot method seawater desalination technology and new solar-powered seawater desalination technology can divide the seawater into fresh water and solid salt without any emission of concentrated seawater so that the heat utilization efficiency can reach theoretical limit to multiply reduce the water-producing cost. They will become the mainstream technology for seawater desalination and can totally eliminate the global water crisis.

Technology issues and prevention strategies on sunlight greenhouse vegetable

Energy-saving solar greenhouse vegetables cultivating is to create and improve microclimate environment with greenhouse in those seasons impossible for open cultivation production and in order to achieve the purpose of harvest in advance or in delay. Since a greenhouse needs huge construction expenses and high production costs, only though the improvement of facility utilization can we obtain better economic benefits. Vegetable germination and seedling stage need a long time for ground, so they need smaller standing area. So we concentrated in a small area of cultivation can not only create a suitable environment easily, nurture strong age seedling, but also can avoid greenhouse waste. Make transplanting to greenhouse after Seedlings breeding can effectively reduce the fertility cycle and substantially increase greenhouse utilization.

The Application of Automatic Welding in Mechanical Welding

With the development of science and technology, automation technology has begun to be applied to various fields. Automatic welding technology is increasingly used in the welding industry in the area. The introduction of automatic welding technology not only improve the quality and production efficiency, but also reduce production costs, the production environment in which the staff has also been improved. This paper discusses the current situation of automatic welding technology, mechanical industry, the demand for automatic welding, automatic welding technology advantages and development trends.

Changes in Profitability of Chicken Broiler Production in 2008-2013

The profitability of broiler chicken production depends on many interrelated factors, such as the size of the farm, farming system, the genetic potential, feed price and the quality of chicken meat obtained as a final product, e.g., meat, and a strategy of their sales on the domestic and foreign market. Economic analysis were conducted in randomly selected farms growing commercial broilers, from April 2008 to March 2013 （28 cycles all together）, at the same time in three buildings, with 46 thousands to 54 thousands one-day chickens. In the analyzed period, broilers were reared for 35-50 d. The average slaughter body mass ranged from 2.36 kg to 2.99 kg with feed conversion ratio （FCR） 1.68 kg of feed/kg of body weight gain to 1.78 kg of feed/kg of body weight gain. Stock mortality at that time ranged from 3.5% to 6.4%. On the basis of macroeconomic data, a clear relationship between the increase in the period particularly from 2004 onwards, prices of feed 33.6% and the purchase price of livestock 22.5% in the case of the evaluated farms were found. These values were 27.9% and 31.7%, respectively. From the analysis of the relationship between different types of broiler production costs, it was concluded that the main determinant of the profitability of live poultry production was the cost of feed and first of all was the prices of feed. This means that the boom in live poultry production is variable, resulting in consequences for production and income.

清洁发展机制(CDM)对中国企业经营绩效影响的实证检验

CDM项目早期在国内的迅速发展主要依赖政策引导和扶持,但企业本身参与项目的主动性不高。因此,随着《京都议定书》到期,政策引导力减弱,CDM项目的参与度迅速回落。实际上,CDM项目的意义并不仅局限于环境绩效和减排额收入,其有相当一部分附加商业价值被忽略,比如CDM项目对发展企业出口业务和节约生产成本的潜在利好。综上所述,本文旨在通过揭示CDM项目的真实商业价值重塑企业和政府对CDM的认知,调动企业开发项目的积极性。实证结果显示,参与CDM项目对于企业出口比例有显著提升作用,但CDM项目对生产成本率的影响存在明显的行业分化,对于集中于主流项目、平均绩效指标(盈利水平、流动性、负债水平)良好的行业(如电力、水泥、环保等),CDM项目能够显著降低生产成本率,其余行业(包括钢铁、煤炭、造纸等)则无法受益。因此,本文建议有意图开拓海外市场的企业可以考虑借力CDM项目,而希望通过开发CDM项目降低生产成本率的企业则需要结合项目类型和自身实力谨慎决策。同时,政府部门应该引导不同类型项目平衡发展,并适时对亟待绿色转型的企业予以补贴。