Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF LICENTIATE OF ENGINEERING

The demand for maritime transport has increased with the growing demand for worldwide trade. This has led to a major increase in maritime traffic and ship sizes over the last decades, which raises the probability of accidents. The methods used in maritime risk assessments today are based on old hypotheses that do not include all data available today. The main objective of this thesis is to develop numerical models and methods for the analysis of what is considered as normal navigation behaviour at sea today and improve the analysis of probability for shipbridge allisions. The first part of the thesis describes what is considered as normal meeting distance at sea today. This information is later used while identifying failure events to ensure that the event behaviour was not caused by other ships. These few cases are excluded from the methodology since the communication and situational awareness in the situations are not known. However, while studying the probability of ship-bridge accidents, it is also important to understand how waterway restrictions may affect the probability of ship-ship collisions. Therefore, this thesis also includes a study of how the improved knowledge concerning meeting distance could be used in a near ship-ship collision identification model. One of the main findings considering normal meeting distance is that small and large ships meet each other at a similar distance at sea. In the second part of the thesis, a methodology is proposed to estimate the probability of shipbridge allision. The presented methodology uses Automatic Identification System (AIS) data and a ship manoeuvring simulator to simulate and analyse marine traffic with regards to risks for accidents, such as ship-bridge allisions. A failure event identification method is also presented, which is needed to determine the frequency, duration and behaviour for the accident scenarios. The three events that were modelled and simulated in the simulator were: drifting ship, sharp turning ship and missing turning point. The probability of the different failure events corresponded to previous statistics confirming the AIS-based methodology. This means the methods to obtain the probability and duration of the failure events could be utilised in other areas. The simulation methodology was confirmed with the probability of grounding in the Great Belt VTS area. This thesis firstly contributes to a better understanding of the modelling of probability for shipbridge allisions. This will support bridge-building engineers who need to take into account accidental loads from ship-bridge allision while designing bridges. Secondly, this thesis also contributes to a better representation of normal behaviour at sea, which is used both in fairway designs and in estimations of ship-ship collisions.
Monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of multiple myeloma

Despite recent advances in treatment that have significantly improved overall survival, multiple myeloma (MM) remains incurable. Although rituximab, the first monoclonal antibody (MAb) evaluated in MM treatment, provided only very limited benefit, research is ongoing into a number of other MAbs directed against a variety of MM‐related target antigens. Given the inherent immune dysfunction associated with MM, newer strategies that may enhance immune function in conjunction with antibodies may also provide a more fruitful clinical approach. Potential MAb targets in MM include growth factors and their receptors, other signalling molecules, and antigens expressed exclusively or predominantly on MM cells. MAb therapy involves a range of mechanisms, including antibody‐dependent cellular cytotoxicity, complement‐dependent cytotoxicity, interference with receptor‐ligand interactions, and MAb conjugation to radioisotopes or toxins. The antigens currently targeted in MM therapy are discussed, along with the development status of the corresponding MAb therapeutics. Elotuzumab, an anti‐CS1 MAb, has recently achieved clinically meaningful responses when combined with lenalidomide or bortezomib in patients with relapsed and relapsed/refractory MM. Other MAbs are also showing early promise. More ongoing clinical research is required to identify optimal combination regimens and biomarkers that may help predict response to specific MAb‐based combinations.
ADVECTIVE-DIFFUSIVE AND HYDRAULIC TRAP MODELING IN TWO AND THREE LAYER SOIL SYSTEMS

Downward and upward (hydraulic trap) advective-diffusive transport of chloride was modeled in two and three layer soil laboratory systems with Darcy velocities ranging from 3×10 m/s to 5.7×10 m/s. Two layer soil models simulated a compacted clayey layer over a sandy layer, underlying a landfill. Three layer soil models simulated an unsaturated secondary leachate collection system in a landfill with overlying and underlying saturated compacted silty liners. The effect of the hydarulic trap in minimizing diffusive downward chloride movement was investigated in both models. The agreement between the experimental results and theoretical predictions suggests that existing solute transport theory can adequately predict chloride migration through two saturated layers of clay over sand and also three layer soil systems consisting of two saturated silt layers with an unsaturated sand drainage layer in between. The comparison of the downward and upward advective-diffusive transport in two and three layer soil models, having two different Darcy velocities and soil density, showed that the upward flow (hydraulic trap) could reduce the concentrations in the underlying receptor reservoirs in both models. The rate of the Darcy velocity (or soil density) played a controlling role in chloride movement in both systems. Keywords– Laboratory models, two and three layer soil, hydraulic trap, advection, diffusion
Formulation and Evaluation of Sustained Release Atorvastatin Tablets Using Natural Polymers, with a Focus on Okra Gum

This research study presents the development and evaluation of sustained-release tablets of Atorvastatin using five distinct natural polymers, namely guar gum, xanthan gum, hibiscus gum, okra gum, and soya bean gum, at different drug-polymer ratios. The formulations underwent rigorous pre-compression and post-compression assessments to ensure their quality and efficacy. The utilization of natural polymers in drug formulations has gained significance due to their cost-effectiveness, biocompatibility, and eco-friendliness. In this study, we investigated the potential of these natural polymers to create sustained-release tablets, a vital need for long-term management of conditions like hypercholesterolemia. Atorvastatin, a BCS class-II drug, was chosen as the model drug for this study, as it plays a crucial role in managing cardiovascular diseases related to high blood pressure. The pre-compression tests ensured that the formulations met pharmacopoeial standards for characteristics such as bulk density, angle of repose, compressibility index, and Hausner's ratio. The post-compression studies confirmed that the tablets exhibited acceptable features, including hardness, friability, and weight variation. In vitro dissolution studies revealed that formulation F8, incorporating okra gum as the rate-retarding polymer, exhibited an impressive 98.5% drug release after 10 hours. This suggest that okra gum holds promise as a natural polymer for designing sustained-release drug formulations. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the use of natural polymers for the controlled release of drugs, particularly Atorvastatin, and could pave the way for further research in this field.
Decomposition Characteristics of Emergent Aquatic Plant Residues from the Lakeshore of Erhai Lake and their Environmental Effects

The decomposition characteristics of four types of main emergent aquatic plants,Zizania caduciflora,Typha latifolia,Phragnites australis and Scirpus validus,from the lakeshore of Erhai Lake were studied using experimental simulation.The results showed that during the decomposition processes over 21 days,the decomposition rate of S.validus was the largest among these aquatic plants,the next were those of Z.caduciflora and T.latifolia,and the least was that of P.australis. The order of total nitrogen amount released from the four aquatic plants(per dry weight) was S.validus,Z.caduciflora/T.latifolia and P.australis. The order of total phosphorus amount released was S.validus,Z.caduciflora,T.latifolia and P.australis. The percentage of nitrogen decomposed was lower than that of phosphorus,and the proportion of decomposed total phosphorus entering the water was higher than that of total nitrogen.The mass concentrations of total nitrogen,total phosphorus and CODCr in the water increased rapidly during the initial stage of the plant decomposition processes(1-3 d),and then decreased slowly.However,the values of pH and the mass concentration of DO decreased quickly during the initial stage,and then increased slowly.Combined with spatial distribution investigation of emergent aquatic plants in the lakeshore of Erhai Lake,the weights of total nitrogen and total phosphorus contained in these four emergent aquatic plants were estimated to be 17.622 and 2.870 t respectively,and the proportions of total nitrogen and total phosphorus contained in Z.caduciflora and T.latifolia were 91% and 95% respectively.The timely and appropriate harvesting of Z.caduciflora and T.latifolia in the lakeshore of Erhai Lake has great significance for improving water quality.
Management of biofuel sorghums in Kansas

Current demand for ethanol production is stressing feedstock production. Previous research has shown sweet sorghum and photoperiod sensitive sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] as viable feedstocks which may supplement or replace current feedstocks. Studies were conducted at two dryland locations in north central and northeast Kansas in 2008 and 2009 to determine the effects of cultivar, nitrogen fertilizer rate, plant density, and harvest date on sweet sorghum juice and biomass yields. The cultivar study indicated the cultivar ‘M81E’ generally had the greatest yield. Other cultivars were not well suited for this region. No significant results were found in the nitrogen rate trial, indicating sweet sorghum may be insensitive to nitrogen fertilizer applications. The plant density trial results indicated that sweet sorghum possess a great ability to compensate for plant spacing. No differences were found in juice yields across densities, and the only difference found in total dry biomass was at the highest plant density. Results from the harvest date study indicate that sweet sorghum harvest should be delayed until at least the grain soft dough stage and can be continued for at least 10 days after a killing freeze without a yield penalty. Delaying harvest allowed for an increase in total dry matter and fermentable carbohydrates without a decrease in juice yield. Two studies were conducted at two dryland locations in northcentral and northeast Kansas in 2008 and 2009 to determine the effects of plant density on photoperiod sensitive sorghum yields, with an additional study to determine the effects of winter weathering. Photoperiod sensitive sorghum was found to be similarly insensitive to plant density, with few differences found in total dry biomass yield. Yields were found to decrease significantly due to winter weathering. A final study was conducted to examine a variety of sorghums as biofuel feedstocks. Photoperiod sensitive sorghum yielded the greatest in 2008 while sweet sorghum yielded less. In 2009, sweet and photoperiod sensitive sorghum yielded less than the cultivar TAMUXH08001. Sweet sorghum yields are generally the greatest with ‘M81E’ and when harvested after soft dough. Yields of both sorghums are occasionally influenced by plant density.
Strength in Numbers: How does data-driven decision-making affect firm performance?

How do firms make better decisions? In more and more companies, managerial decisions rely less on a leader’s “gut instinct” and instead on data-based analytics. At the same time, we have been witnessing a data revolution; firms gather extremely detailed data from and propagate knowledge to their consumers, suppliers, alliance partners, and competitors. Part of this trend is due to the widespread diffusion of enterprise information technology such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems (Aral et al. 2006; McAfee 2002), which capture and process vast quantities of data as part of their regular operations. Increasingly these systems are imbued with analytical capabilities, and these capabilities are further extended by Business Intelligence (BI) systems that enable a broader array of data analytic tools to be applied to operational data. Moreover, the opportunities for data collection outside of operational systems have increased substantially. Mobile phones, vehicles, factory automation systems, and other devices are routinely instrumented to generate streams of data on their activities, making possible an emerging field of “reality mining” (Pentland and Pentland 2008). Manufacturers and retailers use RFID tags to track individual items as they pass through the supply chain, and they use the data they provide optimize and reinvent their business processes. Similarly, clickstream data and keyword searches collected from websites generate a plethora of data, making customer behavior and customer-firm interactions visible without having to resort to costly or ad-hoc focus groups or customer behavior studies.
Disentangling the Relationship between Ownership Concentration and Firm Performance in Emerging Markets: A Meta-Analysis

The relation between ownership concentration and firm performance has attracted much interest, yet yielded many inconsistent empirical results. It is still not known that whether there exists a common population correlation between ownership concentration and firm performance in countries with similar ownership structures and institutional environments, and what contribute to the conflicting empirical findings. Using meta-analysis, we construct a comprehensive database of 313 correlations and their corresponding study characteristics obtained from 27 primary studies, which investigate the relation between ownership concentration and firm performance in emerging markets. We first assess whether there is a homogeneous ownership concentration-performance correlation, and then use meta-regressions to investigate factors that may moderate the correlation. Although the aggregated statistics suggest a modest positive relation between ownership concentration and firm performance, our homogeneity test rejects the
On Seasonal Hydrographic Variety and Environmental Capacity of Poyang Lake

This paper analyzes the seasonal hydrographic characteristics and environmental capacity of Poyang Lake according to the present situation.The result indicates that the frequency of water level above 19.5 m mainly occurred in 1990s,the frequency of water level blow 7.5 m mainly occurred in 1960s.The seasonal change in hydrographic characteristics of Poyang Lake is prominent.The multi-year maximal making average content is two quantitative scales more than the minimal one,the maximal content is in July,with 182.4×108 m3,the minimal content is in January,making 4.4×108 m3.It has a 19-day self-purification period,and the coefficient of water exchange is 21.33. The environmental capacity of Poyang Lake varies remarkably with seasons.The maximal capacity is in July,and the minimal capacity is in January.The capacity to COMMn beyond the III is in the period from May to October,it is at the critical dot in April and November,it is below the III in the other months;the maximal environmental capacity is 111 446 t,and the minimal capacity is 2 649 t.The capacity to TP is below III in the whole year.The capacity to TN beyond the III is in the period from April to November,below the III in the other months;the maximal environmental capacity is 18 574 t,and the minimal capacity is 442 t.There no large-scale eutrophication has occurred in Poyang Lake;which is related to the seasonal variety of water content.
Spectroscopic Characterization of Olivine ((Fe, Mg)2 SiO4) in Madadevpur H4/5 ordinary chondrite

This study demonstrates for the first time, the spectroscopic characterization of Mahadevpur H4/5 chondrite that fell at Mahadevpur near Namsai town (Lat.27°40′ N, Long. 95°47′ E, Auranachal Pradesh, India) on 21 February 2007. The olivine group [(Mg, Fe)2SiO4] in Mahadevpur is characterized by the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Laser-Raman spectroscopic (RS) method. A comparison of results with Dergaon H5 chondrite is presented. Particular emphasis is given to the 10μm (1000cm -1 ) and 20μm (500 cm -1 ) region of infrared and Raman bands, which is originated from tetrahedral vibrations of silicates. [The Journal of American Science 2009; 5(4): 71-78]. (ISSN: 1545-1003)
Green Synthesis Of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles: Characterization, Organic Dye Degradation And Evaluation Of Their Antibacterial Activity

The aim of this work is the green synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) via red onion extract. The ZnO NPs wurtzite hexagonal structure was identi ﬁ ed through radiography diffraction (XRD) analysis, with an average crystallite size of 8.13 nm. The capping and stabilization of ZnO NPs biosynthesis were supported by an analysis of fourier transform infrared (FT-IR). The absorption peak at 374 nm with an energy bandgap of 3.32 eV was discovered via ultraviolet e vision (UV e Vis) analysis. A morphological study was done by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) techniques and showed that spherical ZnO NPs with diameters ranging from 2.83 to 15.35 nm had formed. Using EDS, it was possible to identify the high purity, intensity, and crystalline width of zinc and oxygen. The removal rates of methylene blue (MB) by photocatalysis and adsorption were compared utilizing ZnO NPs. Under sunlight, the photodegradation of MB 10 mg/L has been examined. It was found that maximum decolorization ef ﬁ ciency happened after 120 min and a dose of 25 mg of ZnO NPs. The adsorption capacity (q m ) was calculated by the Langmuir equation to be 10.8 mg/g. The kinetic analysis suggests the pseudo-second-order model was followed during MB adsorption via the NPs. The ﬁ ndings showed that the photocatalytic and adsorption approaches removed the dye up to 95.2% more ef ﬁ ciently than in earlier research. ZnO NPs exhibited better antibacterial action against Escherichia coli than Staphylococcus aureus bacteria when compared with a common antibiotic like Cipro ﬂ ox-acin .
UNIVERSIDAD CENTRAL DE VENEZUELA

Nonlinear matrix equations arise in different scientific topics, such as applied statistics and control theory, among others. Standard approaches to solve them include and combine some variations of Newton’s method, matrix factorizations, and reduction to generalized eigenvalue problems. In this paper we explore the use of secant methods in the space of matrices, that represent a new approach with interesting features. For the special problem of computing the inverse or the pseudoinverse of a given matrix, we propose a specialized secant method for which we establish stability and q-superlinear convergence, and for which we also present some numerical results. In addition, for solving quadratic matrix equations, we discuss several issues, and present preliminary and encouraging numerical experiments.
Combining satellite-derived products and geo-spatial health information for assessing the impacts of drought conditions on children's respiratory diseases in the Brazilian Amazon

It is generally acknowledged that climate change will have an impact on human health, however within a region as vast as the Amazon; research on the topic is scarce. This study analyses the impacts of the 2005 drought on respiratory diseases in children under five years of age. Satellite observations of rainfall, active fires and aerosol were used to assess the extent of the drought, and hospitalisation data was used to establish general trends and changes during the drought. We identified critical areas of the 2005 drought, and established the peak period of respiratory diseases over a ten year period (2001-2010). Throughout the basin respiratory diseases for children under five years of age peaked at the end of the wet season. The 2005 drought affected south-west Amazonia; during this period increases in active fires were recorded. In Acre in 2005 the peak of respiratory diseases shifted to later in the year corresponding with the peak of the drought. Critical areas of drought were explored in more detail at a micro-region and municipality level. Aerosol is the main driver influencing respiratory disease hospitalisations during July, August, September period of 2005. During this period hospitalisations for respiratory diseases in children under five years of age increased 54% in Acre, 99% in Rio Branco, & 195% in Porto Acre in relation to the ten year mean.
The Power of Words: An Empirical Analysis of the Communicative Value of Extended Auditor Reports

We examine the communicative value of extended auditor reports in the United Kingdom (UK), where ISA 700 (UK and Ireland) requires auditors to disclose the risks of material misstatement that had the greatest effect on the audit – key audit matters (KAM). By using methods from computational linguistics, we find that different proxies for communicative value (i.e., readability, evaluative content, visual aids, and specificity) improve in post-ISA 700 periods. Cross-sectional tests show that the improvement differs across audit firms and audit clients as well as KAM disclosure characteristics. Finally, broadly consistent with concurrent studies, we find no evidence that several proxies for communicative value are informative to investors. However, we find initial evidence that a more specific description of KAM is significantly and positively associated with capital market reactions, suggesting that investors value precise information. Overall, this study directly responds to the call for more research on how KAM are worded.