3,781 research outputs found

    Undergraduate Catalog of Studies, 2023-2024

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    Alʔilbīrī’s Book of the rational conclusions. Introduction, Critical Edition of the Arabic Text and Materials for the History of the Ḫawāṣṣic Genre in Early Andalus

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    [eng] The Book of the rational conclusions, written perhaps somewhen in the 10th c. by a physician from Ilbīrah (Andalus), is a multi-section medical pandect. The author brings together, from a diversity of sources, materials dealing with matters related to drug-handling, natural philosophy, therapeutics, medical applications of the specific properties of things, a regimen, and a dispensatory. This dissertation includes three different parts. First the transmission of the text, its contents, and its possible context are discussed. Then a critical edition of the Arabic text is offered. Last, but certainly not least, the subject of the specific properties is approached from several points of view. The analysis of Section III of the original book leads to an exploration of the early Andalusī assimilation of this epistemic tradition and to the establishment of a well-defined textual family in which our text must be inscribed. On the other hand, the concept itself of ‘specific property’ is often misconstrued and it is usually made synonymous to magic and superstition. Upon closer inspection, however, the alleged irrationality of the knowledge of these properties appears to be largely the result of anachronistic interpretation. As a complement of this particular research and as an illustration of the genre, a sample from an ongoing integral commentary on this section of the book is presented.[cat] El Llibre de les conclusions racionals d’un desconegut metge d’Ilbīrah (l’Àndalus) va ser compilat probablement durant la segona meitat del s. X. Es tracta d’un rudimentari però notablement complet kunnaix (un gènere epistèmic que és definit sovint com a ‘enciclopèdia mèdica’) en què l’autor aplega materials manllevats (sovint de manera literal i no-explícita) de diversos gèneres. El llibre obre amb una secció sobre apoteconomia (una mena de manual d’apotecaris) però se centra després en les diferents branques de la medicina. A continuació d’uns prolegòmens filosòfics l’autor copia, amb mínima adaptació lingüística, un tractat sencer de terapèutica, després un altre sobre les aplicacions mèdiques de les propietats específiques de les coses, una sèrie de fragments relacionats amb la dietètica (un règim en termes tradicionals) i, finalment, una col·lecció de receptes mèdiques. Cadascuna d’aquestes seccions mostren evidents lligams d’intertextualitat que apunten cap a una intensa activitat sintetitzadora de diverses tradicions aliades a la medicina a l’Àndalus califal. El text és, de fet, un magnífic objecte sobre el qual aplicar la metodologia de la crítica textual i de fonts. L’edició crítica del text incorpora la dimensió cronològica dins l’aparat, que esdevé així un element contextualitzador. Quant l’estudi de les fonts, si tot al llarg de la primera part d’aquesta tesi és només secundari, aquesta disciplina pren un protagonisme gairebé absolut en la tercera part, especialment en el capítol dedicat a l’anàlisi individual de cada passatge recollit en la secció sobre les propietats específiques de les coses

    The ins and outs of open-angle Glaucoma:drugs, diet, and defecation

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    Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness and second leading cause of blindness. The primary aim of this thesis is to provide insight into the role of systemic effectsin the pathophysiology of OAG.<br/

    Structural features of early-stage OA:Keep your menisci in good shape

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    Determinants of embryonic and foetal growth

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    The main aims of this thesis were:1. To investigate whether there are associations between determinants related to the living environment (in particular neighbourhood deprivation and air pollution) and embryonic growth, foetal growth and pregnancy outcomes;2. To assess the associations between maternal cardiometabolic determinants in pregnancy (lipid status and the presence of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy)and embryonic growth, foetal growth and childhood outcomes;3. To investigate the impact of neighbourhood deprivation on the effectiveness ofthe mHealth “Smarter Pregnancy” program, aimed at improving nutrition and lifestyle behaviours;<br/

    UMSL Bulletin 2023-2024

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    The 2023-2024 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1088/thumbnail.jp

    Multidisciplinary perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and the law

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    This open access book presents an interdisciplinary, multi-authored, edited collection of chapters on Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) and the Law. AI technology has come to play a central role in the modern data economy. Through a combination of increased computing power, the growing availability of data and the advancement of algorithms, AI has now become an umbrella term for some of the most transformational technological breakthroughs of this age. The importance of AI stems from both the opportunities that it offers and the challenges that it entails. While AI applications hold the promise of economic growth and efficiency gains, they also create significant risks and uncertainty. The potential and perils of AI have thus come to dominate modern discussions of technology and ethics – and although AI was initially allowed to largely develop without guidelines or rules, few would deny that the law is set to play a fundamental role in shaping the future of AI. As the debate over AI is far from over, the need for rigorous analysis has never been greater. This book thus brings together contributors from different fields and backgrounds to explore how the law might provide answers to some of the most pressing questions raised by AI. An outcome of the Católica Research Centre for the Future of Law and its interdisciplinary working group on Law and Artificial Intelligence, it includes contributions by leading scholars in the fields of technology, ethics and the law.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Overcoming biodiversity blindness: Secondary data in primary citizen science observations

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    1. In the face of the global biodiversity crisis, collecting comprehensive data and making the best use of existing data are becoming increasingly important to understand patterns and drivers of environmental and biological phenomena at different scales. 2. Here we address the concept of secondary data, which refers to additional information unintentionally captured in species records, especially in multimedia-based citizen science reports. We argue that secondary data can provide a wealth of ecologically relevant information, the utilisation of which can enhance our understanding of traits and interactions among individual organisms, populations and biodiversity dynamics in general. 3. We explore the possibilities offered by secondary data and describe their main types and sources. An overview of research in this field provides a synthesis of the results already achieved using secondary data and different approaches to information extraction. 4. Finally, we discuss challenges to the widespread use of secondary data, such as biases, licensing issues, use of metadata and lack of awareness of this trove of data due to a missing common terminology, as well as possible solutions to overcome these barriers. 5. Although the exploration and use of secondary data is only emerging, the many opportunities identified show how these data can enrich biodiversity research and monitoring

    Computational and experimental studies on the reaction mechanism of bio-oil components with additives for increased stability and fuel quality

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    As one of the world’s largest palm oil producers, Malaysia encountered a major disposal problem as vast amount of oil palm biomass wastes are produced. To overcome this problem, these biomass wastes can be liquefied into biofuel with fast pyrolysis technology. However, further upgradation of fast pyrolysis bio-oil via direct solvent addition was required to overcome it’s undesirable attributes. In addition, the high production cost of biofuels often hinders its commercialisation. Thus, the designed solvent-oil blend needs to achieve both fuel functionality and economic targets to be competitive with the conventional diesel fuel. In this thesis, a multi-stage computer-aided molecular design (CAMD) framework was employed for bio-oil solvent design. In the design problem, molecular signature descriptors were applied to accommodate different classes of property prediction models. However, the complexity of the CAMD problem increases as the height of signature increases due to the combinatorial nature of higher order signature. Thus, a consistency rule was developed reduce the size of the CAMD problem. The CAMD problem was then further extended to address the economic aspects via fuzzy multi-objective optimisation approach. Next, a rough-set based machine learning (RSML) model has been proposed to correlate the feedstock characterisation and pyrolysis condition with the pyrolysis bio-oil properties by generating decision rules. The generated decision rules were analysed from a scientific standpoint to identify the underlying patterns, while ensuring the rules were logical. The decision rules generated can be used to select optimal feedstock composition and pyrolysis condition to produce pyrolysis bio-oil of targeted fuel properties. Next, the results obtained from the computational approaches were verified through experimental study. The generated pyrolysis bio-oils were blended with the identified solvents at various mixing ratio. In addition, emulsification of the solvent-oil blend in diesel was also conducted with the help of surfactants. Lastly, potential extensions and prospective work for this study have been discuss in the later part of this thesis. To conclude, this thesis presented the combination of computational and experimental approaches in upgrading the fuel properties of pyrolysis bio-oil. As a result, high quality biofuel can be generated as a cleaner burning replacement for conventional diesel fuel

    UMSL Bulletin 2022-2023

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    The 2022-2023 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1087/thumbnail.jp
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