The Nucleus

Deployment of a Smart Trading System for Intelligent Stock Trading

I. Ali, S.Z. Mahfooz, N.Q. Mehmood, M.N. Mehmood — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0500

In this article we evaluate the deployment of a smart trading system that exploits the features of different technical indicators for intelligent stock trading. Depending on their behaviors, these indicators help in trading under various market conditions. Our smart trading system uses a unified trading strategy that selects five indicators from three well-known categories referred as leading, lagging, and volatility indicators. The trading system looks for common trend signals from at least three indicators within a certain period of time. Collectively generated signals from the technical indicators are used to train a neural network model. The trained neural network model is then used to produce buy and sell signals for trading in stocks. The system is efficient and convenient to use for both individual traders and fund managers. We tested the model on actual data collected from Saudi Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange. The performance of the model was checked in terms of percentage returns. The results of the proposed trading model were compared with the benchmark trading strategy. The deployed smart trading system is efficient to produce significant returns over the longer and shorter timeframes.

Reliance of the Strength of a Sandstone on Petrographic Attributes: A Preliminary Study

M. Yar, A. Meraj, A. Basit, F. Naseem, M.A. Khan — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0500

For the present preliminary geotechnical investigation, sandstone from Dandot Formation of Permian age has been selected with eighteen samples that were collected for detailed petrographic analysis while three bulk samples were collected for geotechnical analysis. On the basis of grain size sandstone of Dandot Formation was divided into three parts. The lower part was mostly very fine, middle part was generally fine and upper part was of medium grain. Texturally and mineralogically the sandstone was sub-mature. Framework grains in the studied samples essentially consisted of variable amount of quartz (62 to 73%), feldspar (10 to 19%), and rock fragments (3 to 6%). Accessory minerals include muscovite, biotite, iron ore minerals, zircon and glauconite. The cement type in the samples was clayey ferruginous. The modal composition of the sandstone falls in the category of Arkose. The strength test including unconfined compressive strength, unconfined tensile strength, shear strength, specific gravity, and water absorption tests were employed on the rock samples to assess their geotechnical utilities. After evaluating these properties, the acquired test results indicated that the sandstone is very weak and hence cannot be used for construction purposes.

Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Land Use Change and Its Driving Factors in Layyah, Punjab, Pakistan

M. Sajid, M. Mohsin, M. Mobeen, A. Rehman, A. Rafique, M. Rauf, G. Ali — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0500

Specific objective of this study was to find out the distribution of various land use changes in District Layyah from 2000 to 2020 using geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) techniques, and the forces or factors that lead to land use change. District Layyah has experienced remarkable land use and land cover (LULC) changes for the past three decades. Three Landsat satellite images i.e. thematic mapper (TM), Landsat enhanced thematic mapper plus (ETM+) and operational land imager (OLI)/ TIRS for the years 2000, 2010 and 2020 were acquired from USGS website in order to detect the land use changes. By using ERDAS Imagine software, the maximum likelihood classification was employed in order to classify the images. The spatial and spectral distribution of five land use types was made including i.e. Water, Built-up, Vegetation, Desert, Bare and Sparse land. Ground Truth points were noted and these points were used for the validation and classification of the images. This accuracy showed an overall accuracy rate of 85% with a Kappa coefficient of 0.9 which demonstrated the basic classification method because the images used in the research were highly good. Results showed that the rise was revealed in Vegetation, Built-up and Water land uses from the year 2000 to 2020. On the other side, the decrease in Bare and Sparse land and Desert land use was calculated. The main driving factors behind these LULC changes were found the growth in population, agro-technological advancement and various physical factors (e.g. availability of water and so on), resulting an increase in built-up area. Present research will be beneficial in understanding the most important land use changes to estimate the future change trends in various land use classes for policy making and land use management.

Review of Different Models of Coastdown Transient in Pressurized Water

S. Ahmad, I. Ahmad — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0500

Problems related to the loss of coolant flow in nuclear reactor may initiate fuel meltdown and fuel-cladding interaction (FCI) due to the overheating of fuel and are therefore of great concern in power reactor safety. Therefore, licensee must provide evidence through rigorous analyses of all conceivable flow problems that plant’s engineered safety systems (EES) have the capability to maintain fuel and cladding temperatures well below the melting point. Among the loss of flow events the flow coastdown transient is also a critical issue considered for the safety analysis of Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR), which is characterized by a sudden loss of power to the main reactor coolant pump (RCP). There has been a provision in RCP to maintain flow through reactor core for some time, immediately after the loss of power to pump, like in case of Station Blackout (SBO) due to the flywheel mechanism of RCP. However, that is inadequate for the extended times following the SBO and RCP must be powered by emergency diesel generators (EDGs) to maintain flow through the reactor core to remove heat from the fuel without any break. After the event of Fukushima, a lot of progress has been made to analyze situations, where the EDGs become inundated or unavailable. Analytical and empirical models have continuously been evolved to simulate the characteristics of pumps in such a crucial event to guide accident prevention and mitigation strategies. These models are divided into two broad categories like the short models and detailed models. The short models take into account the inertia of the flywheel, pump speed and the flow rate in core. The detail models also consider the pump characteristic curve on which homologous curves are derived and help to establish head and flow rate third degree polynomial. It has been observed that the detail models predict more accurate results in comparison with the experimental data. It has also been observed that the accuracy of the simulated results also relies on the inclusion of the pump mechanical friction losses in the model. Moreover, an attempt has been made to extend the coastdown transient analysis to predict the core outlet temperature during the course of the accident which requires an efficient solution strategy for solving models for the pump, coolant half time and the core time constant. In this article, evolution of different models has been discussed in detail.

Some Historical Briefs and Outlooks of the Chemical and Biological Acid Leaching of Uranium Ores

Tariq M. Bhatti, O.H. Tuovinen — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0500

The purpose of this paper is to briefly review early developments in the chemical and biological acid leaching of uranium ores in Portugal, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Pakistan. Uranium exists in tetravalent (U(IV)) and hexavalent (U(VI)) oxidation states in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary mineral deposits. Acidic ferric sulfate is a chemical oxidant of tetravalent uranium and is regenerated from ferrous iron in the leachate and produced also from pyrite (FeS₂, cubic), marcasite (FeS₂, orthorhombic), greigite (Fe₃S₄) and pyrrhotite (Fe_1-xS) by acidophilic Fe- and S-oxidizing bacteria and archaea. The hexavalent uranium is soluble in sulfuric acid solution (lixiviant) and is recovered in downstream hydrometallurgical processing to produce a concentrate (yellowcake). The acid bioleaching reactions are optimal at pH 1.5-3 as the low pH facilitates proton attack on minerals and alleviates the precipitation of metals in the leachate and on mineral surfaces. Uranium is extracted from ores on a commercial scale using heap, dump, and stope leaching processes. In some operations other metals can also be recovered as byproducts in the process.

Performance Evaluation of Various Algorithms for Cluster Head Selection in WSNs

H. Afzal , S. Kanwal, M. Zulfiqar , H.B. Gill, M.R. Mufti — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0500

With the huge growth of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and massive rise in upcoming electronic devices, network management becomes difficult as it affects the overall performance of the wireless networks. Earlier, in WSN, simple clustering was employed to cover this limitation but over the time, it became evident that without an effective mechanism of the cluster formation and cluster head (CH) selection, effective WSN performance cannot be achieved. As CH selection is one of the important phases of wireless communication, that is why, it becomes essential to enhance this phase. This enhancement reflects the great improvement in the overall performance of WSNs. Different types of methodologies have been introduced in the last 10 years for cluster formation and especially for CH selection. In this article, we investigate some important methodologies such as A-LEACH, MWCSGA, DEEC-Gauss, and eeTMFO/GA of cluster formation and CH selection. From the analysis, significant results such as the energy consumption, reliability, number of alive nodes, the lifetime and throughput of network are computed that can be further utilized in selection of the best algorithm for CH selection.

Mechanical Design Verification of CHASNUPP Bottom Nozzle

Waseem, M.A. Anwer, A. Siddiqui — Fri, 05 May 2023 00:00:00 +0500

The bottom nozzle is a critical component of the fuel assembly of 340 MWe PWR Nuclear Power Plant at Chashma site (CHASNUPP). It bears axial loads during fabrication, handling, transportation, and reactor operation. The perforated plate, containing flow-holes of complex orientation, is the main critical load bearing and supporting component of the bottom nozzle. Therefore, mechanical strength and stresses of the bottom nozzle need to be analyzed and tested under limiting load conditions, i.e., transportation load 6g. The present study is an attempt to develop the finite element (FE) methodology in order to assess the structural integrity and determine the maximum stress concentration area of the bottom nozzle at applied limiting load of 6g, at standard temperature and pressure (STP). The FE model of the bottom nozzle was produced by solid element (C3D8R) and solved by the static linear analysis using computer code ABAQUS/CAE 6.10-1. Final results acquired from the FE analysis are compared with the mechanical compression test results for mechanical design verification. The values of maximum stress calculated through FE analysis are much comparable with the stress values obtained from each strain gauge at similar locations, which confirmed the accuracy of the FE methodology. The value of the max. von-mises stress (Seqv.), obtained by the FE analysis, and max. value of the stress obtained through test, under applied load of 6g, are less than the design stress limit (yield strength) of bottom nozzle material, SS-321, thereby verifying its structural integrity as well as satisfying its mechanical design criteria under limiting load of 6 g.

Value Addition in Gemstones by Nuclear Techniques

W. Ahmad, F. Mohiuddin — Tue, 23 May 2023 00:00:00 +0500

Northern areas of Pakistan are rich in minerals and different types of precious/ semi-precious gemstones. One of these gemstones called topaz is quite abundant in Gilgit-Baltistan, Skardu and Kashmir regions. Although, topaz is a semi-precious stone but pink topaz from Mardan district in KPK province has a high worth in its natural form because it is rare in the world. In general, topaz is a colorless transparent stone, which is not very expensive. These semi-precious stones can be made precious by adding colors using different treatments like thermal heating, electron beam exposure, gamma rays or neutron irradiations. Except for electrons and neutrons, all other treatments give brown, golden or light blue colors, which are of low worth. The colors are usually not stable and fade away with the passage of time. About 30-40 times value can be added if the color is persistent dark blue. This deep blue color in topaz can be produced by neutron irradiation from a nuclear reactor. At present, for semi-precious stones, the world market is in the hands of blue topaz; typically named as Sky blue, Swiss blue and London blue. Countries like Indonesia, Thailand and US are already in this business and making significant profit. Pakistan Research Reactor (PARR-1) at the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science & technology (PINSTECH) has the capability to produce these desirable colors. Therefore, handsome revenue can be generated by utilizing this methodology. Apart from this, the other benefits are the development of a useful technology, collaboration between public and private sectors and application of nuclear techniques for peaceful purposes, which is one of the objectives of Pakistan Nuclear Society (PNS).

Quenching of Fluorescent ADS680HO molecule with Eco-Friendly Synthesized Silver Nanoparticles

V. Tangod — Mon, 22 May 2023 00:00:00 +0500

In this work, we have collected spectroscopic optical fluorescence and absorption spectra of the highly fluorescent laser dye molecule ADS680HO in different spectroscopic grade solvents with and without the amalgamation of eco-friendly synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNP’s), which resulted in the spectral intensities displaying quenching in the fluorescence and absorption intensities. It attributes the shape, dimension and bonding between the AgNP’s and ADS680HO molecules, as well as the transfer of energy among the fluorescent probe and AgNP’s. Fluorescence quenching of dye has innumerable uses for progress in cutting-edge bio-molecular labeling, fluorescence patterning and cancer treatment with chemotherapy.

Thorium Based Indian Nuclear Program

W. Hussain, K.M. Ahmad, A. Azam, S. Rehman — Mon, 22 May 2023 00:00:00 +0500

India has the largest thorium reserves in the world. Normally, it is deposited in the rocks and can be extracted through specific processing, however, in India, it is available in pure and refined form. India has included utilization of Thorium as a major goal in its nuclear energy program because it has the large amount of thorium as compared to meager uranium reserves. Indian ambitious three stage nuclear program is aimed to fulfill its objective to achieve energy security whereas nearly 300 million of the population in India is estimated to be out of the national electricity grid. India is expanding its nuclear energy production to achieve the target of 63 GW into the total power share by 2032 and plans to further increase this share to 25% by 2050. However, the technology to use thorium as a fuel is quite complicated and no country has yet achieved this capability owing to the involvement of reprocessed nuclear fuel, which is quite hard to handle. While India is struggling to achieve a breakthrough in the development of technology to use thorium as blanket fuel for use in advanced reactor. The overall implications of such developments would result in the exponential increase in Indian fissile materials consequently jeopardizing the deterrence stability in South Asia. Once India is able to tap the weapon grade U-233 from thorium, then its fissile material stocks would increase exponentially resulting in exacerbating the Pakistani security dilemma vis-à-vis India.

Continuous Heating and Cyclic Heating for Composite Materials Containing PA2200 and Ceramic Additives (Al2O3, MgO and Nanoclay) Monitoring System

M. Danish — Sun, 28 May 2023 00:00:00 +0500

In this harsh competition, additive manufacturing (AM) is an incredible breakthrough for aerospace, automobile and tooling industries. It can transform a computer-aided-design (CAD) into 3D component without tools or human intervention. Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is an AM technique that utilizes high power laser to sinter tiny particles of a polymer powder into a solid object based on 3D model data. This work focuses on improving material optimization for the SLS process and establishing the best fabrication settings for developing products with superior attributes. By combining a commercially-available SLS materials like: PA2200 (polyamide) with ceramic additives (e.g., Al₂O₃, MgO and Nanoclay), new composite materials have been produced. It is shown that these composite materials are capable to produce sintered specimens that have superior mechanical and flammability properties than that of pure PA2200.