Thesis (MBA.) --University of Limpopo, 2019. / The study is carried out in order to evaluate the readiness of new car dealerships in Polokwane for the possible levying of carbon taxes. The study is set out to determine the level of understanding and knowledge of carbon taxes by the new car dealerships. With the continuous changing climate, the weather patterns have worsened and the resultant impacts seen through storms, hurricanes, droughts and floods, to name a few, around the globe. This has been as a result of the carbon emissions that has damaged the ozone layer. The ideology of the carbon instruments is that the emitters of carbon will divert to more environmentally friendly methods of running their operations. South Africa is one of the countries that has adopted to implement carbon taxes and the implementation began in 2010 within the motor vehicle industry. However, the motor vehicle industry does not seem to have prepared for the possible implementation of carbon taxes. With Polokwane being a developing city, the researcher aims to determine whether new car dealerships in the city of Polokwane were prepared for the implementation of the carbon taxes. The study was mainly qualitative and borrowed from quantitative methodology for data analysis. The total population amounted to 20 new car dealerships and a sample of 10 was selected for the purpose of the research. The evaluation of readiness was carried out by sampling of ten new car dealerships within Polokwane where a questionnaire was prepared and the participants requested to complete the questionnaire truthfully. The literature review considered prior research in relation to carbon emissions and carbon instruments. Some of the findings include identifying that there is still a gap in terms of knowledge and understanding of how carbon instruments work. However; if carbon instruments are correctly applied and implemented, provides for a good stimulation of economic growth. The laws and regulations around carbon tax still need to be refined to ensure that the desired outcomes are obtained.

INTRODUCTION: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a new treatment for hematologic malignancies including aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). Although it has provided an effective treatment option for patients who have few options, CAR T-cell therapy does have many associated toxicities. Prolonged cytopenias are one of the lesser understood toxicities that can affect upwards of 40% of patients. METHODS: In this retrospective study, we reviewed 106 patients who received commercial CAR T-cell therapy between November 2017 and September 2019. Prolonged cytopenias were defined as having absolute neutrophil count (ANC) <1000/mm3, platelets (PLT) <50,000/mm3, and/or hemoglobin (Hgb) <10 g/dL at least once after 30 days post-CAR T-cell infusion. Furthermore, if only one incidence of cytopenia was recorded 30 days post infusion, we required that the patient had to have received either a transfusion or granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (GCSF) after the date of the recorded cytopenic value to be considered a part of the cytopenic cohort. RESULTS: 22 patients met the criteria of having prolonged cytopenias. 64% of the cytopenic cohort had >1 type of prolonged cytopenias. Anemia was the most prevalent affecting 72% of cytopenic patients. The length of time from diagnosis of aggressive B-cell NHL to date of CAR T-cell infusion was found to be positively correlated with an increased risk of developing prolonged cytopenias following CAR T-cell therapy. Additional risk factors associated with an increased risk of delayed cytopenias by univariate analysis included neutropenia on the day of infusion (day 0), a high C-reactive protein (CRP) before lymphodepletion and on day 0, day 0 PLT count, and Hgb before lymphodepletion and on day 0. On multivariate analysis, only high CRP before lymphodepletion was associated with an increased risk of prolonged cytopenias while high ferritin and PLT values on day 0 were associated with not developing prolonged cytopenias. There was no statistical difference between the cytopenic and non-cytopenic cohorts in rates of progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Also, no difference was seen in rates or severity of other toxicities between cohorts. 41% of the cytopenic cohort experienced infectious complications post-infusion with one patient dying from their infectious complications. However, there was no association with incidence of infection and prolonged cytopenias when compared to the incidence of infection in the non-cytopenic cohort. CONCLUSIONS: A longer time from diagnosis of aggressive B-cell NHL to time of CAR T-cell infusion was associated with prolonged cytopenias while the number of lines of prior chemotherapy and rate of prior high dose chemotherapy with an autologous stem cell transplant (HD-ASCT) were not associated. It would be valuable to confirm this association and why it is associated since the other two factors were not. We lacked bone marrow biopsies before CAR T-cell infusion and did not have bone marrow biopsies for many patients after CAR T-cell infusion. It would be beneficial to collect data regarding bone marrow biopsies from these time points to highlight any changes that could be related to CAR T-cell therapy. Cytogenetic information of individual patient’s diseases would be worth analyzing to help determine if there are biological factors associated with prolonged cytopenias in response to CAR T-cell therapy. Additional studies should investigate the laboratory values we found to have associations with either cohort to help identify possible predictive values providers could use to identify patients at higher risk of having prolonged cytopenias. There is also a need to see if specific prior chemotherapy regimens increase a patient’s risk of having prolonged cytopenias. Overall, since prolonged cytopenias after CAR T-cell infusions have not been heavily investigated, further investigation is needed to better understand the predictive factors and identify possible mechanisms of prolonged cytopenias seen in CAR T-cell patients.

abstract: The success of genetically-modified T-cells in treating hematological malignancies has accelerated the research timeline for Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T (CAR-T) cell therapy. Since there are only two approved products (Kymriah and Yescarta), the process knowledge is limited. This leads to a low efficiency at manufacturing stage with serious challenges corresponding to high cost and scalability. In addition, the individualized nature of the therapy limits inventory and creates a high risk of product loss due to supply chain failure. The sector needs a new manufacturing paradigm capable of quickly responding to individualized demands while considering complex system dynamics. The research formulates the problem of Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T (CAR-T) manufacturing design, understanding the performance for large scale production of personalized therapies. The solution looks to develop a simulation environment for bio-manufacturing systems with single-use equipment. The result is BioMan: a discrete-event simulation model that considers the role of therapy's individualized nature, type of processing and quality-management policies on process yield and time, while dealing with the available resource constraints simultaneously. The tool will be useful to understand the impact of varying factor inputs on Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T (CAR-T) cell manufacturing and will eventually facilitate the decision-maker to finalize the right strategies achieving better processing, high resource utilization, and less failure rates. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Industrial Engineering 2020

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第22643号 / 医博第4626号 / 新制||医||1044(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 髙折 晃史, 教授 斎藤 通紀, 教授 生田 宏一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第22882号 / 医博第4676号 / 新制||医||1047(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 髙折 晃史, 教授 濵﨑 洋子, 教授 羽賀 博典 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

A car with underinflated tires can lead to both safety and environmental issues. To combat this, markets have begun requiring new cars to feature a Tire Pressure Monitoring System. Systems without pressure sensors are referred to as indirect Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems, often utilizing wheel speed sensors in combination with other available sensor information to detect tire pressure losses.  NIRA Dynamics is a company founded in Linköping, Sweden, most known for its indirect Tire Pressure Monitoring System called TPI. TPI needs to be verified in a large number of scenarios, which may be both difficult and expensive to realize in real vehicle tests. The purpose of this master thesis was to investigate and model what physical phenomena are associated with having a trailer connected to a car, relevant for TPI. The goal was to construct a hybrid simulation framework, making it possible to modify car-only data to reflect the effects of having a trailer connected.  A car-trailer model was developed, showing close resemblance in simulations to real collected car-trailer sensor data. The model was then used to design a hybrid simulation framework, where car-only sensor signals were modified to mimic having different types of trailers attached. The hybrid simulation results show close resemblance to real collected trailer sensor data. By not requiring real trailer data for every scenario to evaluate software performance on, the proposed framework opens up the possibility to simulate data from a much larger number of trailer combinations than would otherwise have been feasible to test in real vehicle tests.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第23320号 / 情博第756号 / 新制||情||129(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科社会情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 吉川 正俊, 教授 伊藤 孝行, 教授 畑山 満則 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

The aim of the diploma thesis is the design of mechanical parts of the rear axle driveline suitable for rebuilding of a given sports car into an electric car. The introductory part briefly explains the physical principles of the drive and contains a brief summary of the current concepts of electric vehicle propulsion. Afterwards, there is a comparison and selection of a suitable concept for a given electric vehicle, determination of the basic vehicle parameters based on the calculation of the longitudinal vehicle dynamics and the gearbox calculation on the basis of which the design is solved. The next part is dedicated to the computational inspection of parts using the finite element method. The final part deals with the placement of the assembly inside the vehicle and the evaluation of the drive mechanism.

This thesis deals with the examination of damper characteristics and influence of individual parameters on vehicle handling, primarily with the use of computer program Matlab Simulink.

This diploma thesis is focused on the matter of radiation heating, thermal comfort maintenance and setting optimal operation parameters for heating system equipped with radiation panels. The research section summarizes the effects most important for thermal comfort, methods of its determination, heat exchange distribution between the human body and its environment, and technical possibilities of heating car interiors. The central points of this work are the simulation of car interiors heated with radiation panels and the evaluation of thermal comfort with a virtual mannequin. Thermal state was determined via the equivalent temperature and thermal comfort zones diagram (method by O.H. Nilsson). Forty-two simulated scenarios led us to conclude that thermal comfort is not possible to obtain with panels exuding a maximum temperature of 43 °C and the combination of several heat sources is required. Nevertheless radiation heating considerably contributes to energy savings without the loss of thermal comfort in assessed car.