VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Optimal control and stability of four-wheeled vehicles

Two vehicular optimal control problems are visited. The first relates to the minimum lap time problem, which is of interest in racing and the second the minimum fuel problem, which is of great importance in commercial road vehicles. Historically, minimum lap time problems were considered impractical due to their slow solution times compared with the quasi-steady static (QSS) simulations. However, with increasing computational power and advancement of numerical algorithms, such problems have become an invaluable tool for the racing teams. To keep the solution times reasonable, much attention still has to be paid to the problem formulation. The suspension of a Formula One car is modelled using classical mechanics and a meta-model is proposed to enable its incorporation in the optimal control problem. The interactions between the aerodynamics and the suspension are thereby studied and various related parameters are optimised.
Aerodynamics plays a crucial role in the performance of Formula One cars. The influence of a locally applied perturbation to the aerodynamic balance is investigated to determine if a compromise made in design can actually lead to lap time improvements. Various issues related to minimum lap time calculations are then discussed.
With the danger of climate change and the pressing need to reduce emissions, improvements in fuel consumption are presently needed more than ever. A methodology is developed for fuel performance optimisation of a hybrid vehicle equipped with an undersized engine, battery and a flywheel. Rather than using the widely used driving cycles, a three-dimensional route is chosen and the optimal driving and power management strategy is found with respect to a time of arrival constraint. The benefits of a multi-storage configuration are thereby demonstrated.
Finally, the nonlinear stability of a vehicle model described by rational vector fields is investigated using region of attraction (RoA) analysis. With the aid of sum-of-squares programming techniques, Lyapunov functions are found whose level sets act as an under-approximation to the RoA. The influence of different vehicle parameters and driving conditions on the RoA is studied.

Keywords: Fuel minimisation
Stability
Flywheels
Suspension
Optimal Control
Sum of Squares
Pseudo-spectral
Parameter Optimisaiton
Vehicle dynamics
3D routing
Minimum lap time
Hybrid Vehicles
Lyapunov stability
Formula One
Advisor: Limebeer, D
Enhancing the efficiency of thin-film solar cells using rear-electrode plasmonic gratings

This work describes an investigation into optical methods to improve the optical absorption properties of thin-film organic solar cells. The focus lies on the incorporation of nano-scaled gratings into the rear metallic electrode of the cell. Finite Difference Time Domain simulations are used to explore the absorption of light within the solar cell structure, building on similar work by Abass et al. and Sefunc et al. Planar devices can be optimised by altering the layer thicknesses to achieve optimal absorption within the photoactive region. When gratings are incorporated, they are found to have significant effects on the absorption within the active layer, due to the excitation of surface plasmons, total internal reflection, and shifts in interference within the multilayer stack. The enhancements are analysed in greater detail by comparing with dispersion plots generated both theoretically and using further simulations, and provide a useful reference for future device design. Devices incorporating triangular, rectangular, and sinusoidal gratings, using both silver and aluminium electrodes, are investigated and demonstrate enhancements compared to optimised planar devices of up to 10% and 4.5% respectively using a triangular grating. Aluminium is therefore shown to be a useful material in the design of plasmonic solar cells incorporating gratings. Rectangular and sinusoidal gratings are also shown to provide enhancements of up to 6.5% and 8% respectively for silver gratings. Devices incorporating 2D gratings are shown to have similar enhancements and are insensitive to incident polarisation. Devices incorporating gratings display broad intolerance to grating parameters and good insensitivity to the angle of incidence up to around 15°. Factors that influence absorption in practical devices incorporating gratings such as illumination conditions and choice of substrate are discussed. Alternative active layer materials are discussed in terms of their likely impact on featured devices, including the effect of the introduction of additional layers. Practical steps towards the fabrication of experimental devices are described, including a demonstration of the use of a Focussed Ion Beam technique to generate ridges with periodicity down to 300 nm. Transfer to a soft intermediate polymer. PDMS is also demonstrated through a simple method with very high fidelity.

Advisor: Smith, J
Watt, A
Assender, H
Land and cult: society and radical religion in the diocese of Milan, c.990-1130

This thesis asks how cities changed the world, by conducting a close study of urban change in Milan during the long eleventh-century. The growth of the city both transformed and responded to religion and the rural landscape around it. The radicalism of social change in this period is above all reflected by the emergence of the popular movement for religious reform known as the Pataria. Between 1057 and 1075 this social campaign against simony and clerical marriage revolted against episcopal authority, and the kinship groups which stood behind it. In size and radicalism, the social movement had no parallel in contemporary Europe. In order to account for the extent of social and religious change in eleventh century Milan, this thesis engage with both the historiography of socio-economic change, and contemporary religious reform. Chapter 1 characterises the political and religious institutions which shaped Milan in this period. Chapter 2 studies how property relations and land management changed under the pressure of urban growth, underlining the precocious extension of city market relations from the 1050s in the north-east of the diocese. These rural changes enabled rapidly expanding growth and complexity in the city, mapped using a range of evidence in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 offers a new social account of the origins of the Pataria, which foregrounds the transformation of social relations in the north-east of the diocese especially. Chapters 5 and 6 explore how saints' cults and urban ritual and liturgy were crucial to the reproduction of authority in an evermore complex urban environment, and how for this reason these structures were contested by the Pataria.

Advisor: Wickham, C
Leyser, C
The media and cultural productions in the context of the “Third Chimurenga” in Zimbabwe, 2000 to 2005

This thesis explores the role of the media in a "hybrid regime". Taking post-2000 Zimbabwe as a "hybrid regime" in flux over time, the thesis explores the media policies and strategies deployed by the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party in the context of the "revolutionary" seizure of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s, what became known as the "Third Chimurenga". I examine how the ZANU (PF) media strategy was developed under the newly created Ministry/Department of Information and Publicity in line with the hegemonic ambitions and legitimation needs of the hybrid system that the party built during this period. Through this, the thesis exposes the shortcomings in the literature on hybrid regimes and a Zimbabweanist scholarly literature on the media and 'patriotic history', which both overly emphasise the formal media, and argues for a much deeper understanding of the role of the 'non-traditional' media and political practices that are historically and culturally constituted in the survival or persistence of these regimes. By showing the importance of history and culture in practices of regime legitimation and survival, the thesis challenges much of the assumptions within the literature on hybrid regimes which is largely quantitative and electoralist in approach. This thesis explores: i) the means and mechanisms of media control in a hybrid regime; ii) the tensions and contradictions that characterise a hybrid media system; iii) the role of the media in legitimacy construction, specifically how journalists framed events, and; iv) the role of the 'non-traditional' media or the forms of media drawn from history and culture in regime legitimation and survival. The thesis is based on interviews with ZANU (PF) elites, senior government officials, journalists, artists and a media content analysis as well as a variety of political actors in Murewa, a particularly violent and contested district in Zimbabwe.

Keywords: Patriotic History
Media
Framing the "Third Chimurenga" in Zimbabwe
Advisor: Alexander, J
Immune responses to vaccines against malaria

The development of a malaria vaccine is necessary for disease eradication. Successful vaccine candidates to date have targeted the asymptomatic, pre-erythrocytic stage of the disease, however even the most efficacious vaccines are only partially protective. Research undertaken in our laboratory has demonstrated that one such regimen, using an 8 week prime-boost viral vector approach of ChAd63 ME-TRAP and MVA ME-TRAP, induces sterile efficacy in 21% of vaccinees, with a key role identified for TRAP-specific CD8+ T cells. The work described in this thesis explores the most immunogenic regimen by which to administer these two pre-erythrocytic malaria vaccines. A shortening of the prime-boost interval from 8 to 4 weeks, and the addition of an extra ChAd63 ME-TRAP priming vaccination, both demonstrated improved T cell immunogenicity over the standard 8 week regimen. Further to this, novel assays were developed to aid the evaluation of vaccine-induced immune responses. Adaptations of the existing methodology for ELISpot analysis and to whole blood flow cytometry techniques, enabled more detailed analyses of paediatric vaccine-induced T cell responses in The Gambia. This work also permitted the comparison of vaccine immunogenicity in this paediatric population, with malaria-naïve and malaria-exposed adult vaccinees. The results suggest that vaccine-induced T cell responses in infants of 8 weeks and older are comparable to that of adults. A second approach involved the development of a novel functional assay. This assay quantitatively measured the in vitro inhibition of intrahepatic Plasmodium parasite development using T cells from ChAd63.MVA ME-TRAP vaccinated volunteers. The assay demonstrated the ability of CD8+ T cells to inhibit parasite development in a TRAP-specific manner, and provides a platform with which to further explore pre-erythrocytic immune responses.

Keywords: Viral vector
in vitro assay optimisation
T cell mediated parasite inhibition
Liver stage malaria
Transgenic sporozoite
Malaria vaccines
Flow cytometry
T cell responses
Malaria clinical vaccine trials
Adult and paediatric immunogenicity
Vaccine immunogenicity
Advisor: Hill, A
Spencer, A
Ewer, K
Fine scale mapping of genetic loci associated with human disease

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) use custom SNP arrays that provide ef- fective genetic coverage, but do not detail the association of confirmed susceptibil- ity regions with as dense a marker map as possible. In this thesis I will describe a fine mapping study across 14 associated regions, in 8,000 samples from three dis- eases (Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D), coronary artery disease (CAD) and Graves Disease (GD)) and a control group, including over 5,500 successfully genotyped SNPs. We defined using Bayes theorem sets of SNPs (credible sets) that were 95% likely (posterior probability) to contain the causal disease variants. In three of the 14 regions TCF7L2 and CDKN2A/B in T2D and CTLA4 in GD, we found that much of the posterior probability after the fine mapping rested on a single SNP. In seven of the 14 regions (CDKN2A/B in CAD, CTLA4 in GD, and CDKAL1, FTO, HHEX, TCF7L2) and CDKN2A/B in T2D), including the three just mentioned, the credible sets are relatively small. For these regions, the fine mapping experi- ment has provided useful information, at least in excluding large numbers of SNPs from being causal. Almost none of the SNPs in our credible regions had obvious functions, illustrating our lack of knowledge of genome sequence in modulating gene expression and susceptibility to common disease. Based on this experiment, I outline and discuss the possibilities and challenges in identifying causal variants for complex traits through fine mapping of GWA signals. Further, I evaluate the possibility of using genotype imputation in the context of fine mapping, both as a method for fine mapping and as a way to increase efficiency in fine mapping studies.

Advisor: Donnelly, P
On the interaction of DNA nanostructures with lipid bilayers

Much of our knowledge of cellular biology arises from direct observation of active cellular functions. Tools and techniques have steadily developed over the past several hundreds of years to aid in our understanding and control of the nanoworld and are referred to as nanotechnologies. In the context of nanotechnology, DNA is not used as a carrier for genetic information (as it is in cell), but as a construction material. DNA offers unprecedented control over the construction of simplified biomimetic models for the study of biological processes. This thesis first introduces and defines the field of DNA nanotechnology, with particular emphasis on the interaction of snthetic DNA nanostructures with biological membranes. Inspired by the protein clathrin, three-fold symmetric DNA tile made of eight, short DNA strands and capable of polymerising is described and studied, with the aim to interact with and controllably bend a membrane bilayer. This structure presented challenges during construction so an enhanced three-armed DNA structure built with DNA origami was designed. The succesful assembly of a rigid and functionalisable nanostructure is described. This origami structure was polymerised into large constructs in solution and on a supported lipid membrane. The shape of the structure was modulated to vary its curvature and apply a bending force to a lipid vesicle when anchored to it. Following the conclusion of this study, we present the construction of a small, unique DNA structure for enhanced electron microscopy imaging in cell lysate. This project is part of a developing technique to couple the interaction specificity of dyes in super-resolution microscopy and the high-resolution output of electron microscopy. Finally, the optimisation procedures and recommendations for TEM imaging of samples of DNA origami and lipid structures are discussed.

Keywords: Cryo-EM
Triskelion
confocal microscopy
Fluorescence microscopy
cholesterol anchors
DNA origami
membrane bending
biomimetic
TEM
Advisor: Turberfield, A
Water Security, Droughts and the Quantification of their Risks to Agriculture: A Global Picture in Light of Climatic Change

As a consequence of climatic change, climate variability is expected to increase and climate extremes to become more frequent. Rising water and food demand are further exacerbating the risks to global water and food security. The variability but also the spatial inter-connectedness in our globalized world make our systems more vulnerable to shocks and disasters. To sustain the global water and food security, more knowledge about risks, especially risks of simultaneous shocks is needed.
This thesis maps and quantifies risks to global water and food security from a water-food-climate perspective. It starts on a global scale looking at water security in major river basins and then concentrates on major food producing regions of three important crops.
The thesis explores how storage can buffer inter- and intra-regional hydrological variability. A water balance model is developed and used to find hotspots of water shortages and to identify river basins where more investment in infrastructure is needed to improve and sustain water security.
Looking at food security, global wheat, maize and soybean breadbaskets are identified and used to estimate risks of simultaneous production shocks. Focusing on wheat, I apply different copula approaches to model joint risks of low yields. It is shown quantitatively that (i) it is important to include spatial dependencies in risks studies and that (ii) inter-regional risk pooling could decrease post-disaster liabilities of governments and international organizations.
The last part of the thesis focuses on climate impacts on food production. Relevant climate variables for crop growth in the breadbaskets are identified and joint climate risks are estimated using regular vine copulas. It is shown that so far, only wheat has experienced an increase in simultaneous climate risks. In maize and soybean production regions, positive and negative climate risk changes are offsetting each other on a global scale. Looking at future projections, however, it is shown that under a 1.5 and 2 °C global mean warming, simultaneous climate risks increase for all three crops, especially for maize where the return periods of all five breadbaskets experiencing climate risks decrease from 16 to every second year.
The findings of this thesis can inform policy makers, businesses and international organizations about risks to global water and food security resulting from climate variability and extremes. It indicates where policies and infrastructure investments are needed to maintain water security, it can assist in building inter-governmental risk pooling schemes and contribute to current climate policy discussions.

Advisor: Dadson, S
Hall, J
Modelling the progression of neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative disease is an umbrella term for pathologies that primarily damage neurons. As their incidence increases with age it is becoming of a greater concern for the west, due to its aging population. Due to their chronic nature and the difficulty to create reliable and reproducible animal models of these diseases their pathophysiologies are still poorly understood.
For all these reasons, a mathematical modelling approach is suggested. The methodology of the work here consisted of identifying the state of the art models that describe the healthy behaviour of cells (e.g. metabolism and ionic regulation) and adapting them for pathological environments. With these models hypotheses provided by clinicians and pathologists were tested. The work focuses on developing models of mechanisms common to neurodegenerative diseases, which include: glutamate excitotoxicity, aquaporin water kinetics, inflammatory complement lysis and acute inflammation.
Glutamate excitotoxicity was modelled by creating a compartmental model of glutamate exchange between neurons and astrocytes. This model was the first model of glutamate kinetics validated in an ischaemic stroke context.
The aquaporin water kinetics and complement lysis models were developed in the context of the autoimmune disease Neuromyelitis Optica. Through this project a hypothesised trigger for the pathology was confirmed. Additionally, the first model of astrocytic cytotoxic oedema due to complement lysis was developed. Finally, a preventative drug for complement lysis was simulated.
Acute inflammation was explored in the context of understanding the potential of chemerin as a pro-resolving cytokine. To that effect, a model of acute inflammation was developed where pro-resolving mechanisms were included. This model was the first to attempt model the effects of an intervention in inflammation. The results indicated that there is a maximum inhibitory effect of chemerin on inflammation. Additionally, two preventive avenues for chronic inflammation were found.
With this work, the first attempts of capturing relevant mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases were presented. These models can now be further developed and adapted to other pathological environments.

Advisor: Payne, S
(En) Corps Sonore: towards a feminist ethics of the ‘idea’ of music in recent French thought

This thesis explores the way music is characterized, used, or accounted for in recent (post-1968) French thought, focusing in particular on the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, and Alain Badiou. In spite of the differences in their philosophical-theoretical positions, all of these writers invoke music – both directly and indirectly – to negotiate their relationship to ontological, political, ethical and aesthetic concerns, particularly in terms of how it relates to the (im)possibility of a subject, the condition of truth, and the role of philosophical thought itself. The thesis situates these texts in a longer genealogy of musico-philosophical interactions and also brings them into dialogue with recent musicological approaches, thus showing how an inherited idea of what music ‘is’ is often assumed rather than critically re-evaluated. In short, by tracing the musical-transcendental baggage of an inherited metaphysical conception of music – one which often understands music in close relation to the feminine, (sexual) excess, and the beyond of language and/or the symbolic – the thesis shows that though music is instrumentalized by progressive thinkers as a way of shifting theoretical/philosophical paradigms, it nonetheless does so in a way that has a strong sense of continuity with previous thinking on music. Secondly, the thesis highlights the way in which music in its metaphysical-ontological guise is often conceived as synonymous with Western high art classical music (which is itself constructed as absolute and transcendent, and ontologically independent of its means of (re)production or context) whilst non-literate, popular, folk and world musics – on the occasions that they are considered and not simply ignored or denigrated – are notably considered almost exclusively in terms of their social-cultural or technological contexts. Finally, the thesis demonstrates that much of this takes place through a simultaneous instrumentalization of gender as an organisational category for philosophy, and one which all too often has the consequence of sending women – along with music – to the beyond of pre-, inter-, or post-signification.

Advisor: Maclachlan, I