VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Random finite sets for multitarget tracking with applications
Keywords: Bayesian statistics
random finite set theory
mathematics

Multitarget tracking is the process of jointly determining the number of targets present and their states from noisy sets of measurements. The difficulty of the multitarget tracking problem is that the number of targets present can change as targets appear and disappear while the sets of measurements may contain false alarms and measurements of true targets may be missed. The theory of random finite sets was proposed as a systematic, Bayesian approach to solving the multitarget tracking problem. The conceptual solution is given by Bayes filtering for the probability distribution of the set of target states, conditioned on the sets of measurements received, known as the multitarget Bayes filter. A first-moment approximation to this filter, the probability hypothesis density (PHD) filter, provides a more computationally practical, but theoretically sound, solution.
The central thesis of this work is that the random finite set framework is theoretically sound, compatible with the Bayesian methodology and amenable to immediate implementation in a wide range of contexts. In advancing this thesis, new links between the PHD filter and existing Bayesian approaches for manoeuvre handling and incorporation of target amplitude information are presented. A new multitarget metric which permits incorporation of target confidence information is derived and new algorithms are developed which facilitate sequential Monte Carlo implementations of the PHD filter.
Several applications of the PHD filter are presented, with a focus on applications for tracking in sonar data. Good results are presented for implementations on real active and passive sonar data. The PHD filter is also deployed in order to extract bacterial trajectories from microscopic visual data in order to aid ongoing work in understanding bacterial chemotaxis. A performance comparison between the PHD filter and conventional multitarget tracking methods using simulated data is also presented, showing favourable results for the PHD filter.
Investigation of the role of ASPP2 in tumourigenesis
Keywords: p63
epithelium
ASPP2
notch
squamous cell carcinoma

The skin is the site where two of the most common types of epithelial cancer, basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), arise. In this work, we have investigated how ASPP2, a member of a family of proteins that interact with the p53 family, can affect skin tumourigenesis. ASPP2 is expressed in the squamous epithelia of various organs, localising exclusively in the upper and most differentiated layers. We show here that Balb/c ASPP2-null and heterozygous mice develop spontaneous SCCs. To investigate how the absence of ASPP2 from the epithelial compartment could lead to tumour formation, we analysed ASPP2’s relationship with pathways involved in the normal homeostasis of the epithelium, such as p63 and Notch. ΔNp63 is the main p63 isoform expressed in the adult epidermis, and its function is to drive the proliferation of the basal keratinocytes. Aberrant or misplaced activation of ΔNp63 in the epithelium is a known initiating cause for SCC. Consistent with this, ΔNp63 was found to be highly expressed in tumours derived from ASPP2-deficient mice. Our results indicate that ASPP2 is important in limiting ΔNp63 expression in the differentiated epithelium, preventing cell proliferation in the upper layers of the skin. This is achieved by antagonising ΔNp63 transcript and protein expression, resulting in a mutually exclusive expression pattern during differentiation of keratinocytes, as well as in epithelial cancer. ASPP2 expression was found reduced or lost in human SCC cell lines and during head and neck cancer progression, reflecting what was observed in ASPP2-deficient mice. Overall, our results indicate a possible mechanism by which p63 expression can be regulated in the skin, and provide a new model for the spontaneous formation of SCC in vivo. Additionally, we found that ASPP2 can cooperate with and enhance the activity of skin pro-differentiation pathways, such as Notch. In contrast to p63, ASPP2 and Notch1 are co-expressed in the differentiated layers of the squamous epithelium. Moreover, ASPP2 can interact with components of Notch nuclear transcriptional machinery, and it is shuttled into the nuclear compartment upon activation of Notch pathway. This recruitment results in modulation of Notch transcriptional activity on specific target genes with a differential pattern of binding sites, providing new insights into the understanding of Notch transcriptional regulation.
Quantifying the strength of evidence in forensic fingerprints
Keywords: weight of evidence
forensic identification
marked point process
bayesian alignment
likelihood ratio

Part I presents a model for fingerprint matching using Bayesian alignment on unlabelled point sets. An efficient Monte Carlo algorithm is developed to calculate the marginal likelihood ratio between the hypothesis that an observed fingerprint and fingermark pair originate from the same finger and the hypothesis that they originate from different fingers. The model achieves good performance on the NIST-FBI fingerprint database of 258 matched fingerprint pairs, though the computed likelihood ratios are implausibly extreme due to oversimplification in our model.
Part II moves to a more theoretical study of proper scoring rules. The chapters in this section are designed to be independent of each other. Chapter 9 uses proper scoring rules to calibrate the implausible likelihood ratios computed in Part I. Chapter 10 defines the class of compatible weighted proper scoring rules. Chapter 11 derives new results for the score matching estimator, which can quickly generate point estimates for a parametric model even when the normalization constant of the distribution is intractable. It is used to find an initial value for the iterative maximization procedure in §3.3.
Appendix A describes a novel algorithm to efficiently sample from the posterior of a von Mises distribution. It is used within the fingerprint model sampling procedure described in §5.6. Appendix B includes various technical results which would otherwise disrupt the flow of the main dissertation.
From the cradle to the craze: a study on China's indigenous automobile industry, 1953-2007
Keywords: Chinese indigenous automobile industry
Chinese domestic car industry
Chinese automobile industry
Chinese indigenous car industry
Chinese domestic automobile industry
Chinese car industry

The Chinese automotive industry has evolved substantially over the last 55 years, in spite of multiple historical and economic hurdles. The change in the governmental policy during 1980s regarding ownership of private automobiles, from prohibition to encouragement, initiated rapid growth in the Chinese automobile industry. In the last two decades, China progressed from being nearly a truck-only producer to becoming a major producer of passenger and commercial cars. Economists consider the time between 2001 and 2007 to be a period of ‘blowout’ in the Chinese automobile industry. To date, little is known regarding this emerging automobile industry: What are the features of Chinese automobile industry? Has the Chinese automobile industry become a global player in its industry and reached economy of scale? How is the indigenous automobile sector different from international joint ventures in China? Have Chinese companies gained full transfer of technology and come to possess the capacity to develop their own designs? The subject is complicated, with many contradictory facts and interpretations. This thesis intends to address these questions by focusing on the Chinese indigenous automobile sector, through its three stages of development, using it as a model to examine the validity of various interpretations. I hope the historical appraisal of the industry’s initial development, its difficulty in transition and the internal-external factors affecting the later growth will help us understand the industrial and technological development of China’s emerging economy.
Modelling the impact of an alien invasion: Harmonia axyridis in Britain
Keywords: Traits
Distribution
Harmonia axyridis
Great Britain
Coccinellidae
Colonisation
Niche overlap
Habitat
Diet breadth
Niche breadth
Climate
Native species
Biotic resistance
Enemy release hypothesis
Community
Range size
Coleoptera
Range fill
Natural enemies
Extinction
Invasive alien species

Harmonia axyridis is a ladybird native to Asia, but introduced widely as a biocontrol agent. It is invasive and detrimental to native species in North America, which meant its arrival in Britain was met with concern. Establishment was seen as an opportunity to track the spread of an invasive alien species (IAS) whilst also monitoring impacts on native species.
The aims of this thesis were to examine the responses of native British ladybirds to the arrival of H. axyridis, to establish the effect of the IAS on native ladybirds when compared to other drivers, and to investigate the possible facilitation of the H. axyridis invasion by natural enemy release.
Modelling ladybird distributions with life-history and resource-use traits found that species predatory on a wide range of prey families had larger range sizes than those which ate fewer prey types. This suggests that the wide diet breadth of the IAS is likely to have played a critical role in the species’ rapid spread. Dietary niche overlap between H. axyridis and native ladybirds showed positive correlation with declines of native ladybirds. This indicates that the IAS is playing an important role, but the significance of urbanisation suggests habitat destruction is also significant.
Abundance of H. axyridis was influenced by habitat type and aphid abundance, but not by the native ladybird community, suggesting the spread of the IAS will not be slowed by biotic resistance. Harmonia axyridis is attacked by native parasitoids, but at a much lower rate than is the native Coccinella septempunctata, in line with natural-enemy release theory. There was no evidence of attack rate increasing with time since arrival in an area.
Overall, H. axyridis is an extremely successful IAS, with detrimental effects on native ladybirds which are likely to continue.
The developmental and genetic basis of explosive pod-shatter in cardamine hirsuta
Keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana
fruit morphology
gynoecium
fruit development
Cardamine hirsuta
seed dispersal
FRUITFULL
pod shatter

Dispersal is a key trait across biology. Within plants, a variety of explosive seed dispersal mechanisms are seen. Whilst ecological and mechanical studies have described this important evolutionary adaptation in many species, a genetic and developmental understanding of explosive seed dispersal is lacking.
In this thesis, the morphology and development of the explosive seed pods of Cardamine hirsuta – a member of the Brassicaceae – are characterised in detail, with reference to its close relative, the model organism A. thaliana. Comparison of fruit morphology between these two species and across other Brassicacean species generated hypotheses regarding the function and polarity of morphological features.
In order to identify genes that are necessary for C. hirsuta fruit development, a genetic screen was conducted and a range of mutants identified and subsequently characterised. Analysis of the indehiscent valveless (val) mutant revealed a loss of valve tissue and an expansion of valve margin identity in the silique. Mapping and sequencing identified a mutation in the MADS-box gene FRUITFULL (FUL), which results in a truncated protein, as the likely cause of the val phenotype. Consideration of ful mutants in C. hirsuta and A. thaliana allowed comparison of the genetic patterning of the fruit dehiscence zone in these two species.
The genetic interactions between fruit mutants characterised in this thesis and mutants in shoot patterning genes revealed common regulatory networks underlying leaf and fruit development in C. hirsuta.
Together, comparison of wild-type and mutant C. hirsuta siliques with those of A. thaliana and other Brassicacean species suggests that specialised cell layers within the valve silique region are of key importance to C. hirsuta’s explosive dehiscence mechanism.
Stars in their eyes: contemporary artists' expressions of fandom and how fan identities influence art
Keywords: Celebrity
Contemporary Art
Ryan McGinley
Stella Vine
Karen Kilimnik
Fandom
elizabeth peyton

Fandom is, as scholars in relevant areas of Media Studies and Sociology attest, a vibrant aspect of contemporary culture and influential in individuals' expression and construction of their identities. This thesis examines and endeavours to challenge how fandom, defined as "emotionally involved consumption of a given popular narrative or text," is conceived and received in contemporary art. It addresses misconceptions about art by four artists who explicitly express their fan identities in their artwork and examines how a finer understanding of fandom can enrich contemporary art discourse and illuminate the artists' works.
Bringing together the fields of art criticism and cultural studies, the thesis explores the impact of contemporary artists' fandom on their depiction of celebrities and the critical reception these artworks have received. The principal artists whose works and fan identities are analysed are: Ryan McGinley (b. Ramsey, New Jersey, 1977-), Elizabeth Peyton (b. Danbury, Connecticut, 1965-), Karen Kilimnik (b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1955-) and Stella Vine (b. Alnwick, England, 1969). In addition to these, art works by eleven other prominent late twentieth and early twenty-first century artists are presented as revealing contrasts.
These artists, the principal artists and their comparisons, all are not only doing something interesting artistically; their work presents different approaches to expansive concerns about the nature and function of fans and celebrity in wider culture. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate how fandom manifests itself in artists' work, whether fan feelings are discernible in their artwork and how admissions of fandom, either through artists' public declarations or evidence in their art, influence critical interpretation of art and colours public perception of the artists themselves.
Learning place-dependant features for long-term vision-based localisation
Keywords: robotics
computer vision
localisation
navigation

In order for autonomous vehicles to achieve life-long operation in outdoor environments, navigation systems must be able to cope with visual change---whether it's short term, such as variable lighting or weather conditions, or long term, such as different seasons. As a GPS is not always reliable, autonomous vehicles must be self sufficient with onboard sensors. This thesis examines the problem of localisation against a known map across extreme lighting and weather conditions using only a stereo camera as the primary sensor. The method presented departs from traditional techniques that blindly apply out-of-the-box interest-point detectors to all images of all places. This naive approach fails to take into account any prior knowledge that exists about the environment in which the robot is operating. Furthermore, the point-feature approach often fails when there are dramatic appearance changes, as associating low-level features such as corners or edges is extremely difficult and sometimes not possible. By leveraging knowledge of prior appearance, this thesis presents an unsupervised method for learning a set of distinctive and stable (i.e., stable under appearance changes) feature detectors that are unique to a specific place in the environment. In other words, we learn place-dependent feature detectors that enable vastly superior performance in terms of robustness in exchange for a reduced, but tolerable metric precision. By folding in a method for masking distracting objects in dynamic environments and examining a simple model for external illuminates, such as the sun, this thesis presents a robust localisation system that is able to achieve metric estimates from night-today or summer-to-winter conditions. Results are presented from various locations in the UK, including the Begbroke Science Park, Woodstock, Oxford, and central London.
Results from the laser-wire at ATF2 and development of a fibre laser for its upgrade
Keywords: photonic
diagnostic
ATF2
laser
accelerator
laserwire
fibre
fibre laser

The commissioning and development of a laser-wire transverse electron beam profile monitor at the Accelerator Test Facility 2 in Japan is presented. The experimental setup used including a gigawatt laser system is detailed and characterised. Results from data taking in December 2010 are presented detailing the use of the laser-wire to tune the electron beam.
In conjunction with this, the use of a fibre-based laser system as a suitable laser source for a laser-wire is discussed. A test bed fibre laser system was constructed to investigate the suitability of fibre lasers and the results are presented demonstrating high efficiency and excellent spatial quality. From this, a laser system capable of high resolution and high repetition intra-train scanning for demonstration at the Accelerator Test Facility 2 was designed, constructed and characterised. A commercial fibre laser system was extended using a photonic crystal fibre where periodic amplification designed to match the duty cycle of an accelerator was used advantageously to achieve higher than normal pulse energies. The results and techniques developed to measure them are presented.
Theorising the doctrine of joint criminal enterprise in international criminal law
Keywords: Organisationsherrschaft
JCE
perpetration
international law
criminal law

This thesis develops a theoretical account of the basis and justification for the doctrine of Joint Criminal Enterptise in international criminal law by examining principles governing the ascription of criminal responsibility in English and German criminal law. The first part consists of a comprehensive review of the development of the JCE doctrine, including its historical antecedents, its initial formulation by the ICTY, its subsequent explication by tribunals and academics, and recent alternatives doctrines proposed by the ICC and by commentators. It identifies the main loopholes and contradictions in the construction of these theories, and presents factual scenarios for which these theories, particularly JCE, either have no answers, or problematic ones. The second part examines whether any of the variants of JCE can be justified as principal responsibility. It first identifies elements that distinguish international crimes from their domestic counterparts, and which are pertinent in developing an account of criminal responsibility for international crimes. It also examines the concept of perpetration responsibility in English and German criminal law and theory. It then combines the insights gleaned from these analyses to conclude that only JCE I can be appropriately considered as perpetrator responsibility and proposes a modified version of the doctrine of Organisationsherrschaft in German criminal law as a more accurate characterisation of the role and function of high level participants in mass atrocity. The final part focuses on the concept of accomplice responsibility in German and English criminal law and doctrine to address whether JCE II and JCE III can be justified as modes of secondary criminal responsibility. It concludes that JCE II and JCE III can be retained as distinct modes of accomplice liability using expressive and risk justifications, provided their operation is limited in ways that correspond to principles of secondary responsibility in domestic jurisdictions.
Ties that bind? Networks and Gender in International Migration 
Keywords: gender
migrant networks
international migration
social capital
Senegal

his thesis examines the roles of migrant networks in the migration and subsequent economic integration of Senegalese men and women in France, Italy and Spain. It challenges the assumption that networks are invariably sources of assistance in the migration process and examines the factors responsible for variations in their influence. In doing so, it uses quantitative methods and analyzes recently collected longitudinal data within the framework of the Migration between Africa and Europe (MAFE) project. Migrant networks -– members of the respondent’s personal circle that have international migration experience – are conceptualized as a form of individual-level social capital that may or may not shape specific outcomes. The thesis contributes to the literature by adopting a longitudinal view of the migration process and considering both migration behaviour and migrants’ labour market trajectories at destination. In doing so, it bridges two areas of research that have mostly developed separately. Second, the intersections between migrant networks and gender, insufficiently studied so far, are here examined in detail. Furthermore, the role of networks in different forms of female mobility – often confounded in previous work - are here analysed separately. Last but not least, the thesis makes a methodological contribution by operationalizing migrant networks in a more dynamic way than previous work.
Findings suggest that migrant social capital has a large influence on migration behaviour, while playing a lower and more ambivalent role in migrants’ labour market outcomes at destination. Furthermore, several dimensions are found to shape the extent and channels of networks’ influence. First, men and women do not rely on the same ties in their migration process. Also, women migrating independently of a partner make a different (and greater) use of their migrant connections than those joining their spouse abroad. Migrant social capital is found to work along gender lines: only access to male migrant networks increases the migration likelihood or the job prospects at destination for prospective male migrants. On the other hand, female networks play a crucial role in independent women’s migration process. However, while they greatly increase women’s likelihood of moving to Europe on their own, they also lead them to lower-status jobs. Last, the context of destination was found to shape the operation of migrant networks. In France, where a socio-economically diverse Senegalese community has long been established, pre-migration ties at destination lead to better economic opportunities. In contrast, migrant networks in Italy or Spain appear to channel male migrants into street-selling activities. Thus, bonding social capital in the form of migrant networks appears to reproduce the ethnic niches developed at destination and the gender-segmented nature of the labour market.