Academic literature on the topic 'Stock vs flow'

In Islamic economics, the concept of money is very clear that money is a medium of exchange in muamalah, instead of capital (commodities). That money is objected that are approved by the public as an intermediary tool to hold the exchange or trade. Differences concept of money in Islamic and conventional economics are on the money that is not identical to the capital, the money is public goods, capital is private goods, money is a flow concept, and capital is a stock concept in the concept of money in Islam. While the conventional concept of money in the currency identified with capital money (capital) are private goods. Money (capital) is a flow concept for Fisher, and money (capital) is a stock concept for Cambridge School.

A study on the flow of financial transactions needs to be carried out considering that activities in the financial sector require quick and relevant decisions. The flow of financial transactions in the business world is almost similar to direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC). The phenomenon is that many business people want their funds to be spread outside the company, and some want their funds to only revolve around the company. This study tries to analyze the results of investment flows of funds outside the company and within the company in the scope of the Indonesian capital market. This research is a research using a descriptive approach. The descriptive approach is intended to describe phenomena that occur in the field. The number of sample companies is 175 companies (holding and non-holding). Each company is given a code (code 1 for holding, and code 0 for non-holding), and company data is screened according to research needs on aspects; profit return, stock return, stock price, and profit and loss. Data mining in the field is carried out by researchers by means of secondary data analysis techniques for the capital market through analysis of financial statements from the side of the transaction flow. Then the results of the analysis of the company's flow of funds are processed, compared, and used as the basis for drawing conclusions. The results provide evidence that holding financial flows are more profitable than non-holding according to AC/DC transaction flows. This is in accordance with the risk reduction theory that many developed countries do by controlling the circulation of money only around their country. Theoretically, the results of this study contribute that holding companies have advantages over non-holdings, and practically this research provides a discourse for business people that it is better to run the business alone and not depend on outside parties.

Forest ecosystems are important providers of ecosystem functions and services belonging to four categories: supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services. Forest management, generally focused on timber production, has consequences on the ability of the system to keep providing services. Silviculture, in fact, may affect the ecological structures and processes from which services arise. In particular, the removal of biomass causes a radical change in the stocks and flows of energy characterizing the system. Aiming at the assessment of differences in stored natural capital and ecosystem functions and services provision, three differently managed temperate forests of common beech (Fagus sylvatica) were considered: (1) a forest in semi-natural condition, (2) a forest carefully managed to get timber in a sustainable way and (3) a forest exploited without management. Natural capital and ecosystem functions and services are here accounted in biophysical terms. Specifically, all the resources used up to create the biomass (stock) and maintain the production (flow) of the different components of the forest system were calculated. Both stored emergy and empower decrease with increasing human pressure on the forest, resulting in a loss of natural capital and a diminished ability of the natural system to contribute to human well-being in terms of ecosystem services provision.

SUMMARYThe unique environment of the Mediterranean Sea makes fish stock assessment a major challenge. Stock identification of Mediterranean fisheries has been based mostly from data on biology, morphometrics, artificial tags, otolith shape and fish genetics, with less effort on the use of parasites as biomarkers. Here we use some case studies comparing Mediterranean vs Atlantic fish stocks in a multidisciplinary framework. The generalized Procrustes Rotation (PR) was used to assess the association between host genetics and larval Anisakis spp. datasets on demersal (hake) and pelagic (horse mackerel, swordfish) species. When discordant results emerged, they were due to the different features of the data. While fish population genetics can detect changes over an evolutionary timescale, providing indications on the cohesive action of gene flow, parasites are more suitable biomarkers when considering fish stocks over smaller temporal and spatial scales, hence giving information of fish movements over their lifespan. Future studies on the phylogeographic analysis of parasites suitable as biomarkers, and that of their fish host, performed on the same genes, will represent a further tool to be included in multidisciplinary studies on fish stock structure.

This research aims to compare two methods of forecasting, i.e Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and Genetic Algorithm-Neural Network (GA-NN), in forecasting dividend payout of Indonesian manufacturing company listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2010-2014. Having collected 1384 firm-year observations, the result shows that these two methods could be used to predict dividend payout by considering earnings, free cash flow, growth opportunity, leverage, liquidity and size. This resesarch finds that even though both methods are powerful in prediction, yet in this case, MLR outperforms GA-NN. Keywords : Forecasting, Genetic Algorithm-Neural Network (GA-NN), Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), Dividend Payout Policy , Indonesian Manufacturing Companies

Abstract Background CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T cell therapy expansion and persistence in peripheral blood has been shown to correlate with responses against B cell malignances (Hay, Blood, 2018; Ayuk, Blood Adv, 2021). CAR-T cell enumeration is typically achieved through quantitative PCR (qPCR) or flow cytometry (FC). qPCR, however, requires techniques that may not be locally validated and, unlike FC, cannot simultaneously address T cell immunophenotype. Existing FC reagents to detect CD19 CAR-T cells are mostly specific for a given CAR sequence or bind non-specifically to the introduced protein (e.g. Protein A). Utilizing glycosylation data from the structure of CD19(Teplykov, Proteins, 2018), we created a stable, biotinylated CD19 ectodomain glycomutant reagent (gmCD19) that binds to the CD19-directed scFv in CAR constructs and can be detected by FC. Methods The gmCD19 ectodomain (amino acids 21-227, N138Q) was expressed in 293 Freestyle™ cells with a C-terminal 6x Histidine-AviTag™ to facilitate expression, purification, FC detection (with fluorophore-bound streptavidin) and enable tetramer formation. We used FC to determine limit of detection (LoD), defined as the percent of detectable CAR-T cells when spiked into peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) at known concentrations. We used a CD19-directed CAR-T cell that co-expresses truncated EGFR (EGFRt) to benchmark gmCD19 and compare our reagent with commercially available detection reagents. This was quantitated by Pearson correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman measure of bias - defined as the mean of differences between tests on the same sample. We also tested reagent stability by assessing for decrease in mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) and the percent of CAR-T cells detected after multiple freeze-thaw cycles of the gmCD19 reagent. We compared CAR-T cell detection by gmCD19 with qPCR from actual patient samples treated with axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) and collected into three different anticoagulants. Results gmCD19 detected as few as 0.25% CAR-T cells by FC and was highly correlated with EGFRt expression (r=0.9993, p<0.0001). When benchmarking gmCD19 with EGFRt expression and comparing gmCD19 quantitation with other commercially available CD19 scFv detection reagents (Acro and BioSwan), gmCD19 showed the least bias (0.04 vs -1.225 and 61.66, respectively), and was the only method that demonstrated statistically significant agreement with EGFRt. Following each freeze-thaw cycle of gmCD19, there was no statistically significant decrease in percent of CAR-T cells detected with only a slight decrease in MFI (~2% decrease per cycle). Detection of axi-cel from patient samples was highly correlated with CAR copy number determined by qPCR, regardless of the anticoagulant in which the patient sample was collected (r=0.9387, 0.9849 and 0.9373 for sodium heparin, sodium citrate and EDTA, respectively) with equivalent coefficients of variation (11.0% vs 11.4% for gmCD19 and qPCR, respectively). Conclusion The availability of multiple CD19-directed CAR-T cell products and the importance of monitoring CAR-T cell expansion and persistence in patients undergoing CAR-T cell therapy creates the necessity for an easily applied, stable, and reliable quantitation FC method. We show that our gmCD19 accurately measures CD19-directed CAR-T cells across a variety of CAR-T cell constructs, including commercially available products. Disclosures Sheih: Umoja Biopharma: Current Employment. Fiorenza: Bristol Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Link Immunotherapeutics: Consultancy. Hirayama: Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria. Chou: Genentech: Current Employment. Gauthier: Legend Biotech: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Multerra Bio: Consultancy; Larvol: Consultancy; JMP: Consultancy; Eusapharma: Consultancy. Correnti: Link Immunotherapeutics: Current Employment, Current holder of individual stocks in a privately-held company, Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company. Turtle: PACT Pharma: Consultancy; Amgen: Consultancy; Asher Bio: Consultancy; Myeloid Therapeutics: Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company, Other: Scientific Advisory Board; T-CURX: Other: Scientific Advisory Board; Century Therapeutics: Consultancy, Other: Scientific Advisory Board; Arsenal Bio: Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company, Other: Scientific Advisory Board; Eureka Therapeutics: Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company, Other: Scientific Advisory Board; Caribou Biosciences: Consultancy, Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company, Other: Scientific Advisory Board; Precision Biosciences: Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company, Other: Scientific Advisory Board; Nektar Therapeutics: Consultancy, Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Research Funding; Juno Therapeutics/BMS: Patents & Royalties: Right to receive royalties from Fred Hutch for patents licensed to Juno Therapeutics, Research Funding; TCR2 Therapeutics: Research Funding; Allogene: Consultancy.

Abstract Background: Vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) are the hallmark of sickle cell disease (SCD) and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Crizanlizumab, a first-in-class humanized anti-P-selectin IgG2 mAb, is approved in >40 countries to reduce/prevent VOCs in SCD patients aged ≥16 yrs. Inclacumab, a fully human anti-P-selectin IgG4 mAb, is in clinical development for SCD. In vitro data suggest that inclacumab may show stronger affinity to P-selectin and greater maximal inhibition of cell-cell interactions vs crizanlizumab (Geng et al ASH 2020). Aim: We investigated in blinded experiments whether crizanlizumab and inclacumab can be differentiated in terms of P-selectin binding and inhibition of P-selectin-mediated cell-cell interactions, via 5 different in vitro assays, including testing of blood samples from healthy volunteers and SCD patients. Methods: For both mAbs, we assessed: P-selectin affinity (surface plasmon resonance [SPR]/Biacore assay); inhibition of adhesion of P-selectin-expressing cells to P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1; cell adhesion bioassay); inhibition of platelet aggregation in native blood from healthy volunteers (whole blood impedance aggregometry [WBA] and flow cytometry-based platelet-leukocyte aggregate [PLA] assays); and inhibition of adhesion of SCD patient whole blood or isolated leukocytes to P-selectin-coated substrate under physiologically relevant shear rates in microfluidic systems (flow adhesion bioassays). Results: The SPR/Biacore assay indicated that both mAbs recognize P-selectin with binding affinities of the same order of magnitude, although there was a trend towards higher binding affinity with inclacumab (mean equilibrium dissociation constant [K D ± standard deviation]: 12.4 ± 1.0 nM [crizanlizumab] vs 6.7 ± 0.7 nM [inclacumab]). However, the function-related cell adhesion bioassay revealed a significant difference between the mAbs in their ability to inhibit adhesion of P-selectin-expressing cells to PSGL-1. Crizanlizumab showed stronger inhibition than inclacumab (potency vs crizanlizumab reference standard: 98.0% for the crizanlizumab control sample [95% CI 85.2‒112.7%] and 26.2% for the inclacumab sample [95% CI 20.7%‒32.6%]). Native whole blood samples for WBA and PLA assays were provided by 12 and 10 healthy volunteers, respectively. Blocking of platelet (WBA assay) or platelet-leukocyte aggregation (PLA assay) in whole blood was comparable for crizanlizumab and inclacumab, with a clear trend towards stronger inhibition by crizanlizumab. In the WBA assay, the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC 50) was twice as high with inclacumab (10.36 μg/mL) as crizanlizumab (5.11 μg/mL); similar data were seen in the PLA assay (Figure 1; IC 50: 4.11 vs 2.81 μg/mL for inclacumab vs crizanlizumab). Blood samples were provided by 9 SCD patients for the flow adhesion bioassays. Dose-dependent inhibition of adhesion of whole blood and isolated leukocytes to P-selectin was seen with both crizanlizumab and inclacumab, with no difference observed between them (Figure 2). A mAb concentration of 10 μg/mL resulted in statistically significant inhibition of adhesion by 60‒75%; further increasing the mAb concentration did not result in stronger inhibition of adhesion beyond this threshold. In relation to the clinically approved crizanlizumab dose (5.0 mg/kg), a concentration of 100 μg/mL corresponds with the maximum plasma concentration (C max) and ~10-15 μg/mL corresponds with the trough concentration (C trough). Conclusions: While the SPR/Biacore data suggested higher P-selectin binding affinity for inclacumab compared with crizanlizumab, there was a stronger inhibition of P-selectin-mediated cell adhesion with crizanlizumab vs inclacumab in other well-characterized functional in vitro assays. In microfluidic flow adhesion bioassays, blockage of cell adhesion from SCD whole blood and leukocytes was comparable for both mAbs. In summary, these data indicate that comparable or stronger blockage of cell adhesion with crizanlizumab vs inclacumab does not require superior P-selectin binding affinity. The data from healthy volunteers will be complemented by data from SCD patients for the WBA and PLA assays. Ultimately, clinical data are required to evaluate potential differences in the profiles and efficacy of crizanlizumab and inclacumab as treatments for SCD patients. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Rubic-Schneider: Novartis Pharma AG: Current Employment. Sundd: CSL Behring Inc: Research Funding; Bayer: Research Funding; Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Ledieu: Novartis Pharma AG: Current Employment, Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company. Garcia: Novartis Pharma AG: Current Employment. Hehlen: Novartis Pharma AG: Current Employment. Burnet-Merlin: Light Chain Bioscience - Novimmune SA: Current Employment; Novartis Pharma AG: Ended employment in the past 24 months. Cochin de Billy: Novartis Pharma AG: Current Employment. Greutmann: Novartis Pharma AG: Current Employment, Current holder of individual stocks in a privately-held company, Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company. Krӧner: Novartis Pharma AG: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company, Patents & Royalties: WO2021087050A1. Verneret: Novartis Pharma AG: Current Employment, Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company. Bruederle: Novartis Pharma AG: Current Employment. Gao: Functional Fluidics: Current Employment. Dajee: Novartis: Current Employment.

The existing building stock is largely made up of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings, constructed between the post-World War II period and 1981, and mostly consists of buildings constructed very quickly to meet the great housing demand of this period, and buildings that do not adhere to anti-seismic and energy regulations. Today, after more than fifty years, these buildings have reached the end of their useful life cycle and their maintenance is not sustainable, presenting a series of structural, energy and architectural problems and criticalities. The myriad of possible retrofit interventions currently available for these RC structures drastically reduces when the main requirement for interventions is to avoid operational interruptions to buildings. In this case, an additive structure, operating exclusively from the outside as an exoskeleton, is typically used for achieving appropriate retrofit. In this paper, two solutions are proposed and addressed for the retrofit of an existing RC building in Italy, one through the application of a steel exoskeleton and the other through the application of an RC exoskeleton system. A set of push-over (PO) analyses is carried out to define the performance point of both the original and combined systems. The comparative results of these solutions are then discussed.

Natural capital is the primary and fundamental pillar allowing humans to thrive on Earth and sustain the functioning of human society and economy. Several ecosystem services (i.e. of the kind of provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services) are the tangible benefit to humans and are generated by natural capital in the form of stocks and flows of resources. Fully understanding and evaluating these ecosystem services is thus crucial for tracking the consumption of natural resources and properly managing natural capital. This thesis presents an in-depth analysis of the Ecological Footprint methodology, which is one of the most popular environmental accounting tools able to evaluate ecosystem services from a biophysical perspective. Ecological Footprint is defined as the biologically productive surface required to provide a specific sub-set of ecosystem services humans demand. It is compared with the capacity of existing biologically productive surfaces to produce such ecosystem services (i.e. biocapacity). Despite its growing popularity, Ecological Footprint has been subject to critical views on its rationale, methodology, and policy usefulness. This thesis aims at addressing part of these criticisms, specifically those related to the method’s inability to track depletion of natural capital stocks as well as those concerning a specific component, the carbon Footprint. Since Ecological Footprint is currently a measure of the use of resources and services in their flow dimension, the thesis presents a preliminary analysis of the feasibility of implementing a measure of stock depletion within this methodology. As such, this thesis first provides a comprehensive description of Natural Capital as well as of resources’ stocks and flows and their multiple relationships. Then, Ecological Footprint is explored according to its methodological premises, rationale and unit of measure and conceptually investigated for implementing the distinnction of stock vs flow of resources in the accounting framework. This issue was found to be vast and more complicated than expected; as such the thesis concludes this part by setting up a research agenda with the needed future steps to guide research on this topic. Following this process of refinement and development, the thesis addresses the stock and flow distinction in one specific component of Ecological Footprint, the carbon Footprint. It represents the largest input on the overall result and a review process around its rationale, calculation steps and a key parameter (the Average Forest Carbon Sequestration, AFCS) is performed to increase transparency and accuracy of its accountings. As a consequence of this refinement process, a new AFCS value is provided according to accurate and reproducible dataset on forested surface and average biomass growth in forest. These results represent one of the major changes adopted in 2016 Edition of National Footprint Accounts, the main application of Ecological Footprint accounting at national and world level annually published by Global Footprint Network. As such, new results of carbon Footprint, as well as of total Ecological Footprint, have been tested at geographical level and compared at national level among countries. This analysis highlights the relevant implications of the consumer approach adopted by the Ecological Footprint to assign responsibility of CO2 emissions. Finally, thesis supports the policy relevance of the Ecological Footprint method and its carbon Footprint component in light of the Paris agreement, the treaty stipulated in December 2015 to combat climate change and limit temperature rise below 2°C by 2050. Despite acknowledged limitations and the need to keep improving the methodology of this relatively young accounting tool, Ecological Footprint could still represent a relevant monitoring tool to keep track of resources and help society flourishing within the limit of our planet.

Most game-designers likely stick to the assumption that background music is a design feature for fostering fun and game play. From a psychological point of view, these (intuitive) aspects act upon the intrinsic motivation and the flow experience of players. However, from a pure cognitive perspective on instructional design, background music could also be considered to be redundant information, which distracts from learning. The presented study investigated the influence of background music (present vs. not present) within an educational adventure game on motivational (intrinsic motivation, experienced flow) and cognitive variables (cognitive load, learning success). The results suggest a high motivational potential of background music. However, neither positive nor negative effects on learning were detected. Thus, background music can be considered as a motivating design element of educational games without negative side-effects on learning.

Most game-designers likely stick to the assumption that background music is a design feature for fostering fun and game play. From a psychological point of view, these (intuitive) aspects act upon the intrinsic motivation and the flow experience of players. However, from a pure cognitive perspective on instructional design, background music could also be considered to be redundant information, which distracts from learning. The presented study investigated the influence of background music (present vs. not present) within an educational adventure game on motivational (intrinsic motivation, experienced flow) and cognitive variables (cognitive load, learning success). The results suggest a high motivational potential of background music. However, neither positive nor negative effects on learning were detected. Thus, background music can be considered as a motivating design element of educational games without negative side-effects on learning.

This chapter examines the role of developing countries in the contemporary global economy. It first provides an overview of trends in the global economy, taking into account the implications of globalization for the developing world and the question of free trade vs protectionism. It then considers three key features of an increasingly globalized economy and their significance for the developing world: trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), and financial flows. It also discusses the role(s) of developing countries in global trade, the advantages and disadvantages of FDI, and two major components of the global economy that can cause serious economic disruptions: the buying and selling of currencies and stocks and shares in local economies, and the rapid movement of capital across borders. The chapter concludes with an assessment of factors that can reduce the economic well-being of countries in the developing world.

Abstract After the oil price crashes in 2014 & 2020 several M&A deals ended up in legal debates because operators cancelled major projects or infills wells that were booked in the "probable" reserves only. This document challenges the compatibility between the deterministic incremental reserve assessment method (PRMS2018, chapter 4.2.1.3), and the concept of split condition (PRMS2018 chapter 2.2.0.3), which is not allowed for reserves booking under PRMS. With a few examples, we explain why the incremental method may be misleading investors, if used wrongly. Policies, stock market requirements, or simply the understanding of reserves guidelines may differ from one company to another. Many filers and auditors are still keen on using the deterministic incremental approach. This method consists in "defining discrete parts or segments of the accumulation that reflect high, best, and low confidence regarding the estimates of recoverable quantities under the defined development plan". In principle, this should give similar result to the widely accepted scenario method (PRMS2018, chapter 4.2.1.3) but in reality, major discrepancies are observed. Some reserve evaluation may also become misleading for banks, investors, or even for good asset management. I many cases, the estimation of recoverable volumes is reasonable, but it does not match the company CAPEX requirements, affecting corporate cash flow as well as potential Reserves Based Lending (RBL) requirements. In another case, the 1P case will be robust, but the 2P may be grossly overestimated, affecting M&A or share price. "Reserves guidelines are principle based" this has recently become a very fashionable statement in the context of SEC bookings. Similar discussions will also occur when reviewing PRMS reports. However, different interpretations for keywords such as "Project", "Spit condition", or "FID" should not prevent the evaluator to provide a reliable reserves estimation to investor or company management. This document questions the threshold where ethics disappears, and a Madoff scheme may become legal.

Building energy contributes approximately 40% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and 75% of emissions in some urban areas. Evaluating modifications to existing building stocks is essential to a proper assessment of GHG reduction policy at various levels. With deeper penetration of intermittent renewable energy resources, supply and demand effects at a high resolution (e.g. hourly) will become more important as variations in grid emissions will become more significant. City-level hourly electricity load data is available; however, effects of building stock changes on usage profiles are not easily analyzed, and on-site fossil fuel usage — the dominant loads in many urban areas — are generally only available annually. Building energy models allow for detailed simulation of building systems, but existing building models must be calibrated to actual energy usage to predict the effects of energy conservation measures. Reference building models developed by the U.S. Department of Energy for the EnergyPlus software tool were used as the basis for a set of calibrated building energy models to perform community-scale energy conservation measures on the dominant building classes in NYC (i.e. residential and office buildings). A statistical analysis of zip code-level annual electricity and fuel usage data was performed to determine electricity, space heating fuel and domestic hot water (DHW) fuel usage intensities (EUIs) for three broad building categories encompassing these building types in New York City. Several parameters were adjusted for each model until simulations produced the EUIs from the statistical analysis: Thermal envelope characteristics, peak electric equipment and lighting loads, DHW flow requirements, cooling equipment coefficient of performance and heating equipment efficiency. Cooling energy demands were adjusted based on the electricity demand vs. temperature behavior during the cooling season. The hourly daily usage schedules of internal electric and lighting loads were then adjusted for all models, targeting the actual hourly electricity demands for NYC. Because hourly changes affect annual EUIs, the calibrations were performed iteratively until the model outputs, weighted by each building type’s total NYC square footage, equaled the annual EUIs for each building type and the hourly electricity demand data. This paper shows that this comprehensive calibration approach can achieve root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) of 7% from the average annual electricity demand for these building types, compared to a 31% RMSD for an approach using annual energy calibration only.

This paper aims to analyze the efficiency, in its weak form, in the markets of commodities, Platinum (London Platinum Free Market $/Troy oz), GOLD (Gold Bullion LBM $/t oz DELAY), SILVER (Silver – Zurich SW. francs/kg) and the stock markets of KOREA, CHINA, JAPAN, PHILIPPINES, IN¬DONESIA, from January 1, 2019 to October 20, 2020. To perform this analysis, different approaches were undertaken to assess whether: (i) the Gold, Platinum, Silver markets have more robust levels of efficiency when compared to Asian stock markets? The results of the variance test indicate that the random walk hypothesis is rejected in the Gold, Platinum and Silver markets, as well as in the Asian stock markets, with no differences between markets. These findings show that profitability is auto-correlated over time, with a reversal of the mean, because the values of variance ratios are lower than the unit, i.e., price fluctuations are not i.i.d. The results have significant implications for investors, as market inefficiency can affect the domestic and international flows of an economy. In conclusion, the hypothesis of market efficiency, in weak form, may be questionable, since the prediction of the movement of a given market can be improved if the out-of-the-current movements of the other markets are considered, thus enabling the occurrence of arbitrage operations. These findings also make room for regulators in these markets to take steps to ensure better information between these markets and international markets.

A three-dimensional numerical procedure to predict the performance of a molten carbonate fuel cell has been developed. The Navier-Stokes, energy, and species equations are solved to obtain the velocity, temperature, pressure, and concentration distributions in the cathode/ anode channel. The channel with the trapezoidal supports is approximated by an anisotropic porous medium, of which the effective permeability and conductivity are obtained by separate 3D FVM calculations. For a given average current density, the local current density, which is directly related to the rate of chemical reaction and heat generation on the reaction surface, and the cell voltage are determined to satisfy the electrochemical relations at the electrode surface. The process is iterative and the solution is assumed to have converged when the cell voltage and the local current density fall within the specified convergence limits. The unit cell characteristics, such as current-density distribution, and average current density vs. cell voltage are presented and discussed. Once the relation between the flow rate and the pressure loss in a unit cell are known, the mass flow to each cell of a MCFC stack is estimated by coupling the manifold flow and the flow within the unit cell. The stack performance is then calculated by integrating the individual cell performance using this information.

Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell converts directly electrochemical energy into electricity. Flow channels in bipolar plates, a critical component of fuel cell, were designed, simulated and tested. The bipolar plate used a mixture of graphite materials, and was fabricated using a Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) process. The fabricated green parts were carbonized at high temperatures and converted into brown parts. Infiltration of resin was used to enhance the electric conductivity and strength of the bipolar plate. Finite element simulations were performed to investigate the state of species (hydrogen, oxygen) in the channels and Gas Diffusion Layers (GDLs) for four flow field designs including parallel, serpentine, single Hilbert and composite Hilbert. The simulation results were used to obtain the polarization curves and the relationships between stack power and current density, and to discuss the effect of temperature on fuel cell performance. Experiments were conducted to validate the simulation results on voltage and power vs. current density and the effect of temperature on fuel cell performance for the different flow field designs.