This study assesses the short-term and long-term interactions between firm performance, financial education and political instability in the case of Malaysia Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The simultaneous insertion of financial education and political instability within the study is done intentionally to inspect the effect of these two elements in one equation for the Malaysian economy. Using the bound testing methodology for cointegration and error correction models, advanced within an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework, we examine whether a long-run equilibrium connection survives between firm performance and the above mentioned independent variables. Using this method, we uncover evidence of a positive long-term link between firm performance and financial education, as well as a negative long-term relationship between firm performance and political instability. It has been suggested that SME owners enhance financial literacy and to be cautious about political indicators of the country
Natural convection in a trapezoidal enclosure with partial heating from below and symmetrical cooling from the sides has been investigated numerically. The heating is simulated by a centrally located heat source on the bottom wall, and four different values of the dimensionless heat source length, 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5 are considered. The laminar flow field is analyzed numerically by solving the steady, two-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes and energy equations. The Cartesian velocity components and pressure on a collocated (non-staggered) grid are used as dependent variables in the momentum equations discretized by finite volume method; body fitted coordinates are used to represent the trapezoidal enclosure, and grid generatio
... Show MoreImitation learning is an effective method for training an autonomous agent to accomplish a task by imitating expert behaviors in their demonstrations. However, traditional imitation learning methods require a large number of expert demonstrations in order to learn a complex behavior. Such a disadvantage has limited the potential of imitation learning in complex tasks where the expert demonstrations are not sufficient. In order to address the problem, we propose a Generative Adversarial Network-based model which is designed to learn optimal policies using only a single demonstration. The proposed model is evaluated on two simulated tasks in comparison with other methods. The results show that our proposed model is capable of completing co
... Show MoreIn recent years, it has been evident that searching for alternative methods with low-price and eco-friendly features that produce high-quality adsorbents is in high demand. In the present work, Rice husk from Iraqi rice named (Amber) had been used as the primary source to produce rice husk ash (RHA) for the removal of the antibiotic metronidazole (Flagyl) from water. After optimum drying of rice husk, rice husk ash (RHA) was obtained at 600 °C using an electric oven. RHA has been investigated for properties using X-ray diffraction (XRD), porosity, and surface area (SA). The experimental work adsorption data were optimized to evaluate Langmuir and Freundlich constants. The thermodynamic parameters likely a change in Gipp's energy (ΔG),
... Show MoreThe present work aims to study the possibility of utilization a forward osmosis desalination process as an alternative method to extract water from brine solution rejected from reverse osmosis process.
Experiments conducted in a laboratory–scale forward osmosis (FO) unit in cross flow flat sheet membrane cell yielded water flux ranging from (0.0315 to 0.56 L/m2 .min) when using CTA membrane,and ranging from (0.419 to 2.785 L/m2 .min) for PA membrane under 0.4 bar. Two possible membrane orientations were tested. Sodium chloride with high concentrations was used as draw solution solute. The effect of membrane orientation on internal concentration polarization (ICP) was studied. Two regimes of ICP; dilutive and concentrative were desc
The world is confronted with the twin crisis of fossil fuel depletion and environmental degradation caused by fossil fuel usage. Biodiesel produced from renewable feedstocks such as Jatropha seed oil or animal fats by transesterification offers a solution. Although biodiesel has been produced from various vegetable oils such as Jatropha seed oil, the reaction kinetics studies are very few in literature, hence the need for this study. Jatropha curcas seed oil was extracted and analyzed to determine its free fatty acid and fatty acid composition. The oil was transesterified with methanol at a molar ratio of methanol to oil 8:1, using 1% sodium hydroxide catalyst, at different temperature
... Show MoreNew technologies have risen into popularity causing the Liquid membrane techniques to evolve over other separation techniques due to its high selectivity and recovery, increased fluxes, and reduced investment and operating cost. This work focuses on extracting Methylene Blue (MB), a cationic dye using a simple BLM separation technique from its aqueous phase. It combines extraction and stripping in a single unit operation. The feed phase was an aqueous solution of MB, the solvent chosen was soybean oil for the liquid/organic membrane phase, and tri-octyl amine acted as a carrier. The strip phase was a hydrochloric acid solution for this study. A two-phase equilibrium study was done to choose the correct solvent, carrier,
... Show MoreAfter the fall of the Iraqi regime in the 9th of April 2003, and after the disintegration of the country, political and party political chaos that had never been witnessed before, has now taken over. In the past 2 years, the American military forces had a primary role in spreading this chaos and disorder by applying a set of wrong measures and policies. This chaos that is still affecting the iraqi people was completely ignored by the USA even 2 years after the occupation, no serious steps have been taken in order to bring back order and security, on the other hand, most of the government institutions and its forces were disintegrated, along with the decision made by Paul Bremer of dismissing all the iraqi journals and the workers of the
... Show MoreIn order to reduce hydrostatic pressure in oil wells and produce oil from dead oil wells, laboratory rig was constructed, by injecting LPG through pipe containing mixture of two to one part of East Baghdad crude oil and water. The used pressure of injection was 2.0 bar, which results the hydrostatic pressure reduction around 246 to 222 mbar and flow rate of 34.5 liter/hr fluid (oil-water), at 220 cm injection depth. Effects of other operating parameters were also studied on the behavior of two phase flow and on the production of oil from dead oil wells.

