With the rise of microfinance in developing countries and its evolution to a business model in developed nations, microfinance has fully transitioned to the internet, taking the distinctive form of social lending. However, the marketing trends of emerging peer-to-peer micro-lending websites have been largely unexplored during its rise to recognition due to most studies focusing on financial, ec...

Microfinance institutions focus on providing financial services for low-income citizens who typically lack access to traditional banking systems. In recent years there has been an significant growth in the number of online microlending sites that connect lenders to microfinance institutions and individuals that require funding. Although traditional (offline) microfinance has been widely studied...

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion is being considered as an alternative to conventional engine combustion systems due to its high efficiency and low engine-out emissions. To prepare a homogeneous mixture for diesel HCCI combustion, two types of low pressure (5MPa~20MPa) injectors were considered: a swirl injector and a multi-hole injector. A modified version of the KIVA-...

The objective of this paper is to present recent research on the use of a Reynolds Stress Closure Model (RSCM) for a Lean Direct Injection (LDI) combustor with swirlers. This paper will provide comparisons between RSCM results, k-ε turbulence model results, and experimental data for chemically nonreactive swirling flows. The results show that, for high degree swirl flow, the RSCM can provide pr...

One strategy to decrease the amount of oxides of nitrogen formed and emitted from certain combustion devices, such as the internal combustion engine, is to recirculate and introduce a portion of the unburned product gases with the air and fuel. The effect of the re-circulated gases is to decrease the maximum temperatures in the flame zone, and hence decrease NOx formation. However, dilution of ...

The n-butanol/n-octanol fueled reactivity-controlled compression ignition engine was numerically studied based on the KIVA-CHEMKIN code. First, knocking combustion characteristics were analyzed while functioning with a premixed n-butanol percentage of 20% (B20), since it exhibited most severe knocking. Ten local regions monitored to obtain data, such as pressure and heat release rate. oscillati...