This paper investigates the Baltic Dry Index; an often misunderstood index, which tracks the cost of shipping dry bulk cargo globally. The research is based on the hypothesis that movements in the Baltic Dry Index price are driven largely by changes in the underlying demand for goods which are consumed globally. Accordingly, this paper aims to investigate whether changes in the Baltic Dry Index price may be used to predict future economic movements in a South African context. In this regard, the paper first conducts a thorough synthesis of the available literature, in order to formulate the conclusion that the Baltic Dry Index price is driven by a multitude of variables, including the global demand for goods, the global supply of ships, the laycan period, bunker prices, global piracy, global winter severity, as well as the inclusion of a cyclical component. The global demand for goods is concluded to be chief among these. Based on these findings, the paper then conducts empirical testing on the usefulness of the BDI in a South African context, and concludes that the Baltic Dry Index is useful when used as a leading economic indicator in South African, especially when used in order to predict long-term economic movements, across a period of 3 – 4.5 years. Finally, strong evidence is found to support the existence of a relationship between the BDI and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Mining Index, although further investigation is required in order to form a definitive conclusion in this regard.

Weed control is challenging for Mississippi peanut producers. Research was established during 2017 and 2018 at the Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville, Mississippi, to evaluate herbicide programs for weed control and reducing weed seed production in Mississippi peanut production. Treatments were combinations of acetochlor, clethodim, flumioxazin, lactofen, paraquat, and S-metolachlor with their respective adjuvants if needed. Treatments were applied: PRE, early-POST (EPOST), and/or mid-post (MPOST). All treatments included a PRE application followed by (fb) application of EPOST and/or MPOST application. Flumioxazin PRE fb lactofen plus clethodim MPOST provided greatest weed control and peanut yield. This treatment provided 88 to 100% control of barnyardgrass, hemp sesbania, Palmer amaranth, pitted morningglory, and prickly sida. Additionally, this treatment reduced total weed seed production 88% compared to the nontreated control. Flumioxazin PRE fb lactofen plus clethodim EPOST fb acetochlor MPOST provided similar weed control and peanut yield as flumioxazin PRE fb lactofen plus clethodim MPOST. This treatment provided 88 to 100% control of all weed species present and reduced total weed seed production 93%. Sequential applications of PRE, EPOST, and/or MPOST herbicide treatments provided the best season-long control of weeds and weed seed suppression in Mississippi peanut.

3D printed on-skin electrodes are of notable interest because, unlike traditional wet silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) on-skin electrodes, they can be personalized and 3D printed using a variety of materials with distinct properties such as stretchability, conformal interfaces with skin, biocompatibility, wearable comfort, and, finally, low-cost manufacturing. Dry on-skin electrodes, in particular, have the additional advantage of replacing electrolyte gel, which dehydrates and coagulates with prolonged use. However, issues arise in performance optimization with the recently discovered dry materials. These challenges become even more critical when the on-skin electrodes are scaled down to a miniaturized size, making the detection of various biosignals while keeping mechanical resilience under several conditions crucial. Thus, this thesis focuses on designing, fabricating, optimizing, and applying a personalized, fully 3D-printed permeable skin patch with miniaturized octopus-like suckers and embedded microchannels for enhanced mechanical strengths, breathability, and biosignal monitoring. The developed device showcases a rapid, cost-effective fabrication process of porous skin patches and the printing process of ink metal-based materials that expands its applications to low-resource settings and environments.

The absence of water mains in rural areas has the potential to seriously complicate rural wildfire and structure fire suppression. The installation of dry fire hydrants can tremendously reduce these difficulties. But fire managers must then decide where to place these hydrants to efficiently and effectively serve their area of concern. This thesis investigates the role of GIS location-allocation model (LAMs) as a tool to aid fire managers in planning the locations of numerous dry hydrants. LAMs are designed to place central service facilities in a configuration that optimally serves geographically dispersed demand. One of the objectives of this thesis is to determine whether or not this optimization is achieved based on the management needs of the Virginia Department of Forestry. Many variations of LAMs are examined and the most appropriate model, the Maximal Covering Location Problem (MCLP), is selected. The flexibility of the MCLP model is then tested by imposing fine manipulations of hydrant demand weighting schemes. / Master of Science

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Yes / Building roofs represents a critical pathway for sediment mixing with rainwater. This study aims to explore the correlation between roof-top deposited sediment matter in the different areas of the Ikorodu Local Government Area in Lagos, Nigeria. The deposition rate on the roof was studied for 34 weeks in total (i.e., 17 weekly analyses in the rainy season and 17 weekly analyses in the dry season). The total deposition was collected by a 10 inch funnel and directed into a 5 L container, which was partially filled with sterilised water. The roof-top deposition in four different areas was inspected and analysed. The four areas were selected based on the levels of sanitation and vege-tation. The experimental results showed that the enumerated total depositions in different areas were higher in the dry season than the rainy season, with the highest deposition occurring in the Harmattan period. The data obtained from this study have evidenced that the contamination from roof-harvested rainwater can mainly be attributed to atmospheric deposition. Another key factor was the hygiene and sanitation of the harvesting areas, including the gutter, pipes and proximity to animal faeces.