Web based Recommender Systems and Rating Prediction

This project implements a recommender system on large dataset of Netflix’s movies. This project also tries to improve recommender systems by incorporating confidence interval and genres of movies. This new approach enhances the performance and quality of service of recommender systems and gives better result than Netflix commercial recommender system, Cinematch

Spillover impacts of the US macroeconomic news: Australian sectoral perspective

We study the spillover effects of the US macroeconomic news on different sectors of the Australian stock market. We find that an indication of economic contractionary from the US raises the conditional mean, and most news elicits the associated volatility in the Australian stock markets. While the US news has been absorbed relatively quickly on the conditional mean, the volatility impact speed is unclear. More importantly, we reveal that the US GDP news has the strongest impact on both the first two moments of the Australian daily returns and help reduce volatility in the latter market.Spillover effects; Macroeconomic news; Australia stock markets; EGARCH

Schr\"{o}dinger operator with a complex steplike potential

The purpose of this article is to study pseudospectral properties of the one-dimensional Schr\"{o}dinger operator perturbed by a complex steplike potential. By constructing the resolvent kernel, we show that the pseudospectrum of this operator is trivial if and only if the imaginary part of the potential is constant. As a by-product, a new method to obtain a sharp resolvent estimate is developed, answering a concern of Henry and Krej\v{c}i\v{r}\'{i}k, and a way to construct an optimal pseudomode is discovered, answering a concern of Krej\v{c}i\v{r}\'{i}k and Siegl. The spectrum and the norm of the resolvent of the complex point interaction of the operator is also studied carefully in this article.Comment: 43 pages, 6 figure

Synthesis and Reactivity of Main Group Complexes for Applications in Small Molecule Activation

The work described in this thesis is focused on the preparation of a series of novel main group complexes, featuring unusual structural and bonding situations, and the study of their reactivity toward small molecules. The new zinc complexes dimphZnBu (V-2) and dimphZnCl2Li(THF)3 (V-3), supported by a diiminophenyl (dimph) ligand were prepared. The reaction of complex V-3 with LiHBEt3 resulted in hydride transfer to the C=N imine group to give an unusual zinc dimer (V-7). The latter transformation occurs via formation of compound (ɳ1(C),ĸ1(N)- 2,6-(2,6-iPr2C6H3N=CH)2C6H3)2Zn (V-5) which can be also accessed by reduction of V-7 with KC8. Diiminophenyl (dimph) proved to be an excellent ligand platform to stabilise a low-valent phosphorus centre. The resultant compound dimphP (VI-2), which can be rationalised as an imino-stabilised phosphinidene or benzoazaphopshole, shows remarkable chemical stability toward water and oxygen. VI-2 reacts with excess strong acid HCl to generate the P(III) chloride (dimHph)PCl (VI-6). Surprisingly, substitution of the chloride under some nucleophilic (KOBut) and electrophilic conditions (Me3SiOTf) regenerates the parent compound VI-2 by proton removal from the weakly acidic CH2N position. A related species (dimH2ph)P (VI-10) is produced upon thermal rearrangement of the hydride (dimHph)PH (VI-9). The molecular structure and reactivity of compounds VI-2 and other related compounds are also discussed. The reduction of the O,C,O-chelated phosphorus (III) chloride (VI-16) ( O,C,O = 2,6-bis[(2,6-diisopropyl)phenoxyl]phenyl) with KC8 or PMe3 resulted in the formation of a cyclic three-membered phosphorus compound (VI-18). The intermediacy of phosphinidene VI-17 was confirmed by trapping experiments and a VT 31P{1H} NMR study. The reaction of in-situ generated phosphinidene with either PhSiH3 or HBpin resulted in the formation of an unprecedented phosphine (VI-23). The treatment of VI-16 with two equivalents of DippNHC carbene led to ArP(Cl)NHC product (VI-24). The germylone dimNHCGe (dimNHC = diimino N-Heterocyclic Carbene, VII-8) was successfully prepared by the reduction of germanium cation (VII-7) with KC8. The molecular structure of VII-8 was unambiguously established, using NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The reactivity of VII-8 was investigated. VII-8 is inactive towards butadiene but undergoes an oxidative cyclization with tetrachloro-o-benzoquinone to give a tetragermanium derivative. VII-8 undergoes oxidation addition of CH3I and PhI, followed by an unusual migration of the Me and Ph groups from germanium to the carbene ligand. Related chemistry takes place upon protonation with dry HCl, which results in the migration of the hydride to the carbene ligand

Ko modrec postane »božanstvo«: poduhovljena konfucijanska sekta Minh Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo iz Južnega Vietnama

Southern Vietnam’s tradition has been mainly built on Confucian ideology, although it is a transformed one. There have been two types of Confucianism in the region: state-sponsored and mass Confucianism. During the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, under harsh colonial rule, a number of messianic religious movements emerged. The Minh Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo sect (MĐNGĐĐ, founded in 1932 in Trà Vinh province) is one such movement. The sect takes Confucian norms and values as its basic platform and further acculturates and transforms the philosophical values and rituals of Buddhism, Daoism, and Caodaism, as well as popular religions, to consolidate its settings.This article uses fieldwork––survey data and written documents––and applies historical particularism and acculturation theories, as well as the concepts of “standardization” and “de-standardization” by Watson (1985), to generalize the birth and features of MĐNGĐĐ in the local context. The study provides a comprehensive means to access the history of social thought in pre-modern Vietnam and possible principles of Confucian propagation and transformation in the country. The study finds that Confucianism may easily transform into a religious institution if the civilizing missions of local elites are missing.Tradicija Južnega Vietnama je bila osnovana predvsem na konfucijanski ideologiji, pa čeprav v njeni dokaj prirejeni obliki. V regiji sta obstajali dve vrsti konfucijanstva: konfucijanstvo pod pokroviteljstvom države in konfucijanstvo množic. V času med poznim devetnajstim in zgodnjim dvajsetim stoletjem so pod jarmom trde kolonialne oblasti vzniknila številna mesijanska verska gibanja, med katerimi je bila tudi sekta Minh Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo (MĐNGĐĐ, osnovana leta 1932 v provinci Trà Vinh). Osnova sekte so konfucijanske norme in vrednote. Da bi utrdila svoj položaj, sekta v svojo osnovo prav tako akulturira in preobraža nekatere filozofske vrednote in obrede iz budizma, daoizma, caodaizma in popularnih religij.Članek umešča nastanek in značilnosti MĐNGĐĐ v njen lokalni kontekst, pri čemer uporablja terenske raziskave – podatke anketiranja in pisne vire –, teoriji zgodovinskega partikularizma in akulturacije ter Watsonova (1985) koncepta »standardizacije« in »destandardizacije«. Ta študija tako ponuja sredstvo, s katerim je mogoče izčrpno dostopati tako do zgodovine družbene misli v predmodernem Vietnamu kakor tudi do možnih načel širjenja in preobrazbe konfucijanstva v državi. Študija razkriva, kako se, kadar pri lokalni eliti primanjkuje pobude za civiliziranje, lahko konfucijanstvo enostavno preobrazi v versko ustanovo

CHARACTERISTICS OF RECEIVING WATERS IN A SHRIMP AQUACULTURE AREA IN CAI NUOC, CA MAU

Unregulated shrimp aquaculture development has posed several negative impacts to the receiving waters of the coastal Cai Nuoc district, Mekong delta of Vietnam where most of the land area was converted to shrimp farms since 2000. Enhanced organic loadings and salinisation of surface water and sediment are the major physico-chemical impacts. Increasing levels of organic loadings and suspended solids were found in the receiving waters, mainly as a result of shrimp farm discharge and run-off. The salinization has been caused by the irrigation of saltwater to the interior fields for shrimp culture. The shrimp aquaculture practice has also caused a reduction in phytoplankton diversity and changes in the structures of zooplankton and zoobenthos community. The bacterial community in the receiving waters has also been enriched as a result of enhanced organic loadings. Shrimp aquaculture practices might deteriorate the quality of the receiving waters, which is used as input water for shrimp farms