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An indispensable resource for today's active commodity, currency, futures, and ETF trader In the 2013 Edition of the Commodity Trader's Almanac, Jeffrey Hirsch has once again put together an essential tool for both professional traders and those who are just getting started and need to understand the complex and exciting world of alternatives. Created in a similar fashion to the Stock Trader's Almanac-trusted for over 40 years-the Commodity Trader's Almanac is a comprehensive guide featuring monthly strategies, patterns, trends, and trading techniques geared towards the major commodities and currencies, as well as ETFs, futures, and options. It also contains in-depth insights on various topics of interest to the active trader and investing public; as well as market highlights that cover key supply, demand, and seasonal tendencies on markets including crude oil, ethanol, and precious metals; critical agricultural products such as corn, wheat, and cattle; and foreign currencies like the British pound and the Euro. The Commodity Trader's Almanac also describes how investors can utilize futures, options, and ETFs in their endeavors. Helps you understand how commodity pricing works and offers great insight into investing in them Alerts you to little-known market patterns and tendencies to help forecast commodity market trends with accuracy and confidence Contains expanded coverage on timing tools with tips on utilizing candlesticks and pivot points to better time seasonal trades, and more Includes business cycle analysis and trading tips for the current climate Intended for active traders and investors interested in making the most out of today's commodity, ETF, futures, options, and currencies markets, this guide will make you a better trade in the search for greater profits.

Active transport in the cytoplasm plays critical roles in living cell physiology. However, the mechanical resistance that intracellular compartments experience, which is governed by the cytoplasmic material property, remains elusive, especially its dependence on size and speed. Here we use optical tweezers to drag a bead in the cytoplasm and directly probe the mechanical resistance with varying size a and speed V. We introduce a method, combining the direct measurement and a simple scaling analysis, to reveal different origins of the size- and speed-dependent resistance in living mammalian cytoplasm. We show that the cytoplasm exhibits size-independent viscoelasticity as long as the effective strain rate V/a is maintained in a relatively low range (0.1 s−1 < V/a < 2 s−1) and exhibits size-dependent poroelasticity at a high effective strain rate regime (5 s−1 < V/a < 80 s−1). Moreover, the cytoplasmic modulus is found to be positively correlated with only V/a in the viscoelastic regime but also increases with the bead size at a constant V/a in the poroelastic regime. Based on our measurements, we obtain a full-scale state diagram of the living mammalian cytoplasm, which shows that the cytoplasm changes from a viscous fluid to an elastic solid, as well as from compressible material to incompressible material, with increases in the values of two dimensionless parameters, respectively. This state diagram is useful to understand the underlying mechanical nature of the cytoplasm in a variety of cellular processes over a broad range of speed and size scales.

A new approach is proposed for simulating binodal and spinodal curves of phase diagrams for binary polymer systems. It is shown that the Flory–Huggins theory makes it possible to predict phase behavior in a wide range of temperatures and concentrations based on limited data on the components’ solubility. The approbation data of the technique are presented in the example of PS–PB and PS–PMMA systems, for which generalized phase diagrams are constructed.

The static stability and dynamical behavior of active magnetic bearings made of n arbitrary pairs of electromagnet coils (PEC) are investigated. Nonlinear equations governing the dynamics of the rotor-shaft with two degrees of freedom are derived as a function of n and from which the stability state diagram of the generalized model is established. This diagram is presented as an essential tool in the designing of AMBs and also helps to specify conditions of use for optimal operation of the device. The results highlight its strong dependence, quantitatively and qualitatively, on the number of PEC of the bearing. In the dynamic regime, the obtained frequency-amplitude response of the system shows that the increasing of the number of PEC in the bearing and the choice of the proportional gain of the controller greater than a threshold value lead to the decreasing of the amplitude of vibration of the system and also allows to avoid the appearance of the jump phenomena. Diagrams summarizing procedure leading to the best choice of the characteristic parameters of the bearing and controller have been drawn up.

In this present study, the thermodynamic and thermal properties of glycerol and nisin-incorporated gum ghatti (GG, Anogeissus latifolia)-based films were determined. The films exhibited type III isotherm behaviors. Moisture content (MC) of films was increased with increasing water activity (aw) and decreased with higher temperature. The incorporation of glycerol and nisin increased the sorption ability of GG films. The net isosteric heat of adsorption (qst) and differential entropy (Sd) were decreased with increasing MC, showing an exponential negative correlation between them. Spreading pressure (φ) was increased with increasing aw, but decreased with higher temperature. This incorporation of glycerol and nisin increased the qst, Sd and φ of the GG films. The sorption behaviors were enthalpy-driven and non-spontaneous processes. The glass transition temperature (Tg), critical MC and aw of the films were decreased, and increased respectively with the incorporation of glycerol and nisin. This work provides a theoretical basis for the application of edible films in fresh food preservation.

Noncrystalline, freeze-concentrated structures are formed during food freezing. Such freeze-concentrated food materials often exhibit crystallization and recrystallization phenomena which can be related to the state of solutes and water. State diagrams are important tools in mapping the physical state and time-dependent properties of frozen materials at various storage temperatures. Transition of simple solutions, such as sucrose, can be used to describe vitrification and ice melting in freeze-concentrated materials. A maximally freeze-concentrated material often shows glass transition at Tg′. Ice melting occurs at temperatures above Tm′ These transitions at temperatures above Tm′ can be used to estimate crystallization and recrystallization phenomena and their rates in frozen foods. Furthermore, frozen food deterioration accelerates above Tm′ and particularly as a result of temperature fluctuations during frozen food distribution and storage.

This paper introduces a rigorous framework for function modeling of complex multidisciplinary systems based on the system state flow diagram (SSFD). The work addresses the need for a consistent methodology to support solution-neutral function-based system decomposition analysis, facilitating the design, modeling, and analysis of complex systems architectures. A rigorous basis for the SSFD is established by defining conventions for states and function definitions and a representation scheme, underpinned by a critical review of existing literature. A set of heuristics are introduced to support the function decomposition analysis and to facilitate the deployment of the methodology with strong practitioner guidelines. The SSFD heuristics extend the existing framework of Otto and Wood (2001) by introducing a conditional fork node heuristic, to facilitate analysis and aggregation of function models across multiple modes of operation of the system. The empirical validation of the SSFD function modeling framework is discussed in relation to its application to two case studies: a benchmark problem (glue gun) set for the engineering design community; and an industrial case study of an electric vehicle powertrain. Based on the evidence from the two case studies presented in the paper, a critical evaluation of the SSFD function modeling methodology is discussed based on the function benchmarking framework established by Summers et al. (2013), considering the representation, modeling, cognitive, and reasoning characteristics. The significance of this paper is that it establishes a rigorous reference framework for the SSFD function representation and a consistent methodology to guide the practitioner with its deployment, facilitating its impact to industrial practice.

The possibility of using thermoplastic polymers in photopolymer compositions for SLA and DLP is discussed in this article. The diffusion and mutual solubility of uncured systems based on tert-butyl acrylate (tBA) and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers (EVA) or low-density polyethylene (LDPE) were studied. The solubility and diffusion of tBA with EVA containing 7, 20, and 40 wt.% vinyl acetate (VA) and with LDPE in the temperature range 20–75 °C were studied by optical micro-interferometry method. Phase diagrams of LDPE–tBA, EVA-7–tBA, and EVA-20–tBA systems were obtained. It is shown that the compositions are characterized by the phase-state diagrams of amorphous separation with the upper critical solution temperature (UCST). The concentration dependences of the interdiffusion coefficients as well as dependences of the self-diffusion coefficients on VA content and on temperature were plotted. The activation energy of self-diffusion of EVA and LDPE was calculated. It was shown that the most promising tBA modifier is EVA-40, which is completely soluble at all studied temperature ranges. The obtained data on the mixing of the initial components is valuable for further studies of the processes of structure formation during photocuring of compositions, regulation of the phase structure and, as a consequence, the performance characteristics of the 3D printable materials.

Currently, there is no quantitative approach for the phase structure of cured thermoplastic systems modified with thermoplastic predicting. To solve this problem, we carried out the first stage of the study on a model polycaprolactone–epoxy oligomer (PCL–DGEBA) system. Using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), refractometry and optical interferometry, a phase diagram for PCL–DGEBA mixtures was constructed, and the Flory–Huggins interaction parameters of PCL–DGEBA mixtures were calculated. The structure of PCL–DGEBA mixtures with different PCL content was analyzed by optical microscopy. The change in the structure formation mechanism with increasing PCL concentration was shown. The diffusion coefficients are calculated by the Motano–Boltzmann method. The values of the apparent activation energy of the viscous flow PCL and of self-diffusion of DGEBA are determined. The obtained data will be used for the in situ curing kinetics and phase equilibria in the diffusion zone investigations in order to develop a quantitative method for predicting the phase structure of cured systems.

In symmetric cryptography, block ciphers, stream ciphers and permutations often make use of a round function and many round functions consist of a linear and a non-linear layer. One that is often used is based on the cellular automaton that is denoted by χ as a Boolean map on bi-infinite sequences, F 2 Z . It is defined by σ ↦ ν where each ν i = σ i + ( σ i + 1 + 1 ) σ i + 2 . A map χ n is a map that operates on n -bit arrays with periodic boundary conditions. This corresponds with χ restricted to periodic infinite sequences with period that divides n . This map χ n is used in various permutations, e.g., Keccak -f (the permutation in SHA-3), ASCON (the NIST standard for lightweight cryptography), Xoodoo, Rasta and Subterranean (2.0). In this paper, we characterize the graph of χ on periodic sequences. It turns out that χ is surjective on the set of all periodic sequences. We will show what sequences will give collisions after one application of χ . We prove that, for odd n , the order of χ n (in the group of bijective maps on F 2 n ) is 2 ⌈ lg ( n + 1 2 ) ⌉ . A given periodic sequence lies on a cycle in the graph of χ , or it can be represented as a polynomial. By regarding the divisors of such a polynomial one can see whether it lies in a cycle, or after how many iterations of χ it will. Furthermore, we can see, for a given σ , the length of the cycle in its component in the state diagram. Finally, we extend the surjectivity of χ to F 2 Z , thus to include non-periodic sequences.