VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Speed control for low-energy on-time buses

In 2015, 40% of the total energy used by final users in the United Kingdom was used in the transport sector. Hence it is important to minimise the energy consumption in the transport sector. This research focuses on the energy consumption minimisation of a bus using the approach of optimal control.
The four objectives defined for this research are (i) the setting up of an optimal control problem for a bus journey, (ii) the formulation of a real-world bus route for open loop optimisation, (iii) the estimation of on-road bus speed for open loop optimisation, and (iv) the setting up of a real-time system to provide and update the optimal speed. An optimal control problem is set up to minimise the energy consumption and the discrepancy between the arrival time and the scheduled time at bus stops. The formulation of on-demand bus stops, compulsory bus stops, and slope changes is discussed. On-demand bus stops are formulated in the bost function, compulsory bus stops are formulated using multiphase approach, and the slope changes are interpolated using a smooth linear interpolation method. PSOPT, an open source optimal control program which implements the direct collocation method is used to solve the optimal control problem. The optimal profile of a basic route is compared with the profile resulted from an aggressive driving style. The optimal profile is found to consume 60% less energy than the aggressive driving profile.
Two aspects are studied to incorporate a real-world bus route into the open loop optimisation process. The first aspect is the location-related aspect addressed by objective (ii). Methods to translate geodesic coordinates of a bus route and the bus stops are explored. The procedure to identify the stopping probabilities at bus stops is also discussed. The second aspect is the traffic-related aspect addressed by objective (iii). On-road traffic affects the ability of the bus to be optimally driven, therefore neural networks are designed to estimate the bus speed on both the mixed traffic lanes and the bus lanes.
A real-time on-board system is set up to provide and update the optimal speed on the bus. The system acquires real-time information of the bus and adapts the optimal profile using a proposed adjustment algorithm when there are disruptions to the optimal driving. The adjustment algorithm found to be able to provide a near-optimal result with only 0.23% extra energy consumption compared to the optimal result with shorter execution time.
This thesis uses a real-world bus route from Oxford City Centre to Pear Tree Park and Ride for case studies in different sections.

Advisor: McCulloch, M
Alveolarization in Hong Kong Cantonese: a sociophonetic study of neogrammarian and lexical diffusion models of sound change

This thesis is a quantitative study of sociophonetic variation which focuses on the Hong Kong Cantonese velar coda consonants -η and -k. These codas have, under certain linguistic contexts, become increasingly realized as alveolar nasal and oral stop consonants, [-n] and [-t], respectively. For the purpose of this thesis, the phenomenon of sound shift from -η and -k, to [-n] and [-t] respectively will be termed 'alveolarization'. Insofar as the language of a speech community is a shared vehicle for communication and sound changes are constrained by the need for mutual intelligibility, the central aim of this thesis is to uncover the factors which contribute the most to driving this sound change. In describing the variation in these consonants, I examine the concomitant social and linguistic factors which might help explain it. While this study focuses on one specific set of linguistic variables, it aims to analyse a broad set of factors to obtain a picture of the complexity of this sound change.
The sound change is of theoretical interest as it provides an opportunity to evaluate the neogrammarian regularity hypothesis and the lexical diffusion model of sound change. The neogrammarian regularity hypothesis states that sound changes are regular and admit no exceptions—they are purely driven by phonological context and show no lexical variation. On the other hand, the lexical diffusion model predicts that sound changes progress through the lexicon in a gradual manner. By examining the effects of neighbouring phonological environment on the velar codas, and by analyzing which lexemes might be leading the change, as well as whether there are any lexical frequency effects, this thesis sets out to test both models of sound change.

Keywords: Sociophonetics
Advisor: Coleman, J
A critical edition of Contra valor no hay desdicha by Lope de Vega

Contra valor no hay desdicha was first published in 1638 by María de Quiñones, and appeared in Parte XXIII of the comedias of Lope de Vega.
As no modern edition of the play exists, my work has been to produce a scholarly study of it that encompasses the elements necessary for a modern critical edition. These include: a synopsis of the play; a study of its historical sources; an exploration of its characterization, imagery and themes; a discussion of its original and contemporary staging; analysis of its versification; and an in-depth examination of previous printed editions of the play and the date of its composition (including an investigation into its authenticity).
In terms of the text itself, the version settled upon in this edition is the result of consideration and comparison of all seven previous printings of Contra valor (two from the seventeenth, three from the eighteenth and two from the nineteenth centuries). I have also identified and corrected some errors in the text that have crept in through transmission and are present in the most widely-used edition, that of Menéndez y Pelayo (RAE, 1896). Footnotes and endnotes have been added to the text, and a list of textual variants is included.
Through this undertaking, I have been able to identify key themes within Contra valor - in particular that of kingship - which place it comfortably alongside recent scholarship on Lope's drama. In addition, my analysis of the play's versification and linguistic data, in addition to its thematic content, show it to be almost certainly the work of Lope de Vega. This conclusion is significant given Morley and Bruerton’s previous classification of Contra valor as a play of 'doubtful authenticity' (due in part to the lack of a manuscript copy).

Keywords: Critical Edition
Lope de Vega
Advisor: Thacker, J
Contextualising the contrafacta of trouvere song

Scholarship on medieval contrafacture has long been engaged in the Kontrafakturjagd, the hunt for songs whose textual and structural similarities suggest they might also share melodies. By making melodies freely exchangeable, this practice has tended to treat the music of medieval song as if it were an empty vessel, overlooking the ways in which contrafacta might construct musical meaning to serve various political, devotional, or aesthetic ends. Rather than making a case for contrafacture among songs whose shared melodies are questionable, this dissertation provides a context rich perspective on certain groups of 'close contrafacta'—songs whose status as contrafacta is already known and supported by strong musical, textual, and contextual evidence. In five case studies, all of which take at least one song from the trouvère repertory, and which represent the most common contrafact genres—political serventois, Marian song, and crusade song—I consider the ways in which their melodies could signify. More specifically, I examine the interrelated layers of the melody's performed sound structures, its cuing of previous texts on the listener, and its integration of old and new contexts.
The case studies reveal a culture that cared about melodic association and used it in sophisticated ways. In the first two chapters, which address political contrafacture, the music's textual associations form a background against which the contrafact text reacts ironically, while its melodic origins evoke precise geopolitical loyalties or antagonisms. The third and fourth chapters on Marian song, conversely, point toward efforts to intensify and develop a song's meaning through contrafacture, while the fifth chapter's contrafact text cites its own affective reason for melodic re-use. In all case studies, not only does the music cue text and context synoptically; its performed structures also intensify and subvert textual meanings, showing how music can enrich literary interpretations of medieval song.

Keywords: contrafacture
vernacular song
medieval song
courtly song
medieval music
Advisor: Leach, E
Incorporating psychological theory into the model of diffusion of innovations in healthcare

Evidence-based medicine calls for the use of current best evidence (together with individual clinical expertise). Guidelines aim to distil such evidence, yet clinical practice often fails to follow guidelines, for multiple reasons that are still not well understood. One under-researched aspect of the gap between guidelines and practice is psychology. My literature review found that the application of psychology to implementation research has been limited, and such research is not well integrated into wider implementation research. In this study, I sought to a) systematically apply psychological theory to understand the different psychological processes in the stages of adoption described in the diffusion of innovations model; b) collect and analyse data to explore and test this new, psychologically-enhanced model of guideline adoption; and c) improve and extend my model in the light of my empirical data.
Having populated my proposed framework with potentially relevant psychological theories based on my literature review, I undertook a first assessment of the validity and added value of this proposed theoretical framework through a case study of the implementation of guidance on universal offering of HIV testing in hospitals serving populations meeting the criteria for high HIV prevalence in the catchment population, interviewing 20 healthcare professionals across two sites. My findings broadly supported my proposed theoretical approach, and illustrated relevant psychological theories for different stages of adoption.
My findings support two provisional conclusions. First, that there is potential to improve the effectiveness of efforts to implement guidelines by augmenting the widely-used innovation adoption model with specific psychological theories. Second, that policymakers would do well to shift from viewing the health system as a complicated entity that policy can control and direct is misconceived; I recommend shifting to a perspective of the health system as a complex system, and rethinking the role of policy from that perspective.

Keywords: Behavioural science
Implementation science
Diffusion of innovations
Health professionals
Healthcare
Advisor: Greenhalgh, T
Shaw, S
The reception of Thucydides in contemporary America

References to Thucydides in American public debate, especially in discussion of foreign policy matters, have become the focus of increased attention from classicists in recent years. Scholars have noted the importance of Thucydides, to the near exclusion of other classical authors, in the academic discipline of International Relations theory, and also the status he is accorded in the American War Colleges, where the highest-ranking military leaders are trained.
This thesis considers not only these trends but also a previously unexamined sphere, that of political speech in the US Congress. It describes what role Thucydides plays in each of these spheres of discourse and how Thucydides, as opposed to any other writer (classical or non- classical), came to fulfil that role. What emerges as a clear, unifying thread between these disparate receptions is the influence of practices within American higher education over the twentieth century, which have helped to shape how educated but non-specialist readers access and interpret classical works. The 'Great Books' pedagogical model and popular movement, in which well-known works of Western literature are read via English translations without extensive reference to their historical background, has had the greatest impact on this process.
Comparison with England, a country which does not have an equivalent to the Great Books model in its educational tradition, reveals surprising absences and presences of Thucydides in those spheres that correspond to the American ones under scrutiny. The thesis concludes by suggesting how analysis of these trends can contribute to our theoretical understanding of classical receptions, and proposes an evolutionary metaphor for reception which takes into account both the wider context and the material resources through which the classical world is interpreted today.

Advisor: Pelling, C
Optical properties of semiconductors at finite temperatures from first principles

In this thesis we develop a new first-principles method for the calculation of optical absorption spectra and band structures in semiconductors and insulators at finite tem- peratures. The theoretical framework of our methodology originates back to 1950s in two pivotal research papers by F. Williams and M. Lax. Here, we expand the scope of the pioneering works by Williams and Lax, and we present a new theory of phonon- assisted optical absorption and temperature-dependent band structures. We demon- strate that our technique is highly efficient and simple to the point that a single calcu- lation is sufficient to capture temperature-dependent absorption coefficients including the effect of quantum zero-point motion. We report calculations of optical absorption spectra and of direct and indirect band gaps of Si, C, GaAs and MAPbI3 . We obtain good agreement with experiment and with previous calculations. The approach pro- posed in this thesis is highly versatile, and can straightforwardly be combined with improved descriptions of the dielectric function by including electron-hole effects via the Bethe-Salpeter and GW equations. In this thesis we also investigate the underly- ing mechanisms leading to the "inverse Varshni effect" in materials that belong to the family of metal halide perovskites. We show, using the example of MAPbI 3 , that the vibrational modes with metal-halide-metal bending or rocking character are the major cause of the band gap opening with increasing temperature. To this aim we present an approach for elucidating the physics underpinning the changes of the band gap with vibrational motion. Our methodologies developed in this thesis are simple to imple- ment in any electronic structure package as a post-processing step, having the potential to find broad applications in the ab-initio community. We anticipate that our work will open the way to predictive calculations, as well as will contribute to the better under- standing of the optoelectronic properties of solids at finite temperatures.

Keywords: Band gap
Advisor: Giustino, F
Mobilizing bodies: unsettling sustainable mobility through cycling in Los Angeles

The figure of the human body and notions of its sustenance, wellbeing and need for change are central, if often latent, within discussions of contemporary eco-social 'crises'. This dissertation considers cycling practices in Los Angeles as a 'case' to ask how conceptions of human bodies - the intertwined ideas and materials that constitute them –need reconsidering. Cycling, particularly when replacing car journeys, is increasingly promoted as a solution for some of these 'crises': Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, traffic congestion and alleviating health concerns associated with sedentary lifestyles and mental health. Much cycling advocacy and research is focused on improving the cycling experience and enhancing rates of cycling in cities, yet rests on dominant ontological presumptions around human bodies, their categories of identity and their normativity - both what is considered 'normal' as well as aspirations of 'good' in terms of health and sustainability.
In this dissertation, I work through a methodology of 'riding theory' by bringing together (material) feminist, queer and critical race theories with multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork on cycling practices, focusing mainly on Los Angeles, California. Rather than building on automatic assumptions of cycling as a 'solution', I ask in what ways cycling practices manifest through relations of power. This rests on an ontology of 'flesh' and 'enfleshment' – indebted to the work of corporeal and black feminist theorists - whereby cycling is understood not as modulated by relations of power, but becoming-as and through these relations in highly uneven ways.
Through cycling in Los Angeles, intertwined techniques of power are discussed as: categorization (the naming and reproduction of identities and bodily difference); configuration of matter and meanings through spacetime (the configuration and affordances of cycling lungs, exposures, taking up spacetimes, speeds and locomotion) and valuation (the enrolment of cycling subjectivities and energies within the reproduction and circulation of value). As opposed to cycling futures reconfigured to fulfil alternative criteria of valuation, I consider what a cycling ethic of response-ability might do: An ethic that arises from the ontologies of enfleshment and that requires a working-with the affordances of cycling. Thinking through these ontologies and/as ethics, I argue, forces emergent reconsideration of how cycling subjectivities and responsibilities, justice, health and sustainability are understood.

Keywords: the body
flesh
mobilities
cycling
Los Angeles
feminist theory
queer theory
Advisor: Schwanen, T
Whatmore, S
The role of ASPP2 in intestinal homeostasis and tumourigenesis

The intestinal epithelium represents one of the most actively renewing tissues in the body, and is widely used as a model system to study epithelial cell biology. ASPP2, a member of the ASPP (apoptosis stimulating protein of p53) protein family, has been shown to act as a regulator of epithelial cell polarity and tumour suppressor. This study investigated whether the dual function of ASPP2 is involved in the regulation of intestinal homeostasis and tumourigenesis, with a particular interest in the distinction between epithelial cell autonomous and non-autonomous mechanisms.
Germline and intestinal epithelial cell-speciﬁc ASPP2 conditional knockout mice were employed in this study. Deﬁciency of ASPP2 in the intestinal epithelium resulted in delayed recovery from dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced acute colitis, concurrent with a reduction in the expression of proinﬂammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6. Moreover, ASPP2-deﬁcient mice showed increased susceptibility to Azoxymethane/DSS-induced colorectal tumourigenesis. While wild-type and ASPP2-deﬁcient crypts showed similar incidence of tumour formation, the local immune microenvironment of ASPP2-deﬁcient mice favoured tumour progression.
The intestinal organoid culture was established to supplement in vivo experiments. The feasibility of the system was demonstrated with small intestinal organoids, in the context of proliferation, differentiation, and cell death. Using the established workﬂow, a colonic organoid-based tissue regeneration model was developed. The intrinsic susceptibility of organoids to DSS-induced cell death was not affected by the loss of ASPP2. However, ASPP2-deﬁcient colonic organoids were less responsive to the pro-proliferative effects of IL-6, but were more sensitive to tumour necrosis factor-α-induced cell death in the presence of IL-22.
In conclusion, this project undertook parallel examinations of animal models and organoids, demonstrating that a deficiency of ASPP2 in the intestinal epithelium results in dysregulated epithelial–immune cell interactions. This may partially explain the pathological conditions observed in ASPP2-deficient mice. Importantly, this study highlights the possibility of using organoids to investigate epithelial cell non-autonomous factors implicated in intestinal pathogenesis.

Keywords: ASPP2
Organoid
Colorectal Cancer
Inflammation
Intestinal Stem Cell
Advisor: Lu, X
Stationary and temporal structure of antibody titer distributions to human influenza A virus in southern Vietnam

Seroepidemiology aims to understand population-level exposure and immunity to infectious disease. Serological results are normally presented as binary outcomes describing the presence or absence of antibody, despite the fact that many assays measure continuous quantities. A population's antibody titers may include information on multiple serological states – naiveté, recent infection, non-recent infection, childhood infection – not just seropositivity or seronegativity. In the first part of this thesis, I investigate 20,152 general-population serum samples from southern Vietnam collected between 2009 and 2013 from which I report antibody titers to the influenza virus HA1 protein using a continuous titer measurement from a protein microarray assay. I describe titer distributions to subtypes 2009 H1N1 and H3N2, and using a model selection approach for mixture distributions, I determine that 2009 H1N1 is best described by four titer subgroups while H3N2 is best described by three titer subgroups. For H1N1, my interpretation is that the two highest-titer subgroups correspond to recent and historical infection, which is consistent with pandemic attack rates. For H3N2 however, right-censoring of titers makes interpretations difficult to validate. To move beyond this stationary interpretation of titers, I developed two methods for analyzing this serum collection as a time series. First, I attempted to analyze mixture categories in individual time windows. This approach did not lead to a consistent temporal picture of titer change; results differed by site and were sensitive to assumptions in the mixture fitting. Second, I attempted to fit a hybrid-dynamical model with free incidence parameters. This inference was robust to parameter assumptions, consistent across sites, and in agreement with the incidence reported in Vietnam's influenza surveillance network. In addition, my new approach showed evidence that there was a second silent wave of the 2009 influenza pandemic that was not recorded in national surveillance, which is this thesis' main novel result.

Keywords: Protein microarray
Influenza
Sero-epidemiology
Antibody titers
Advisor: Boni, M
Baker, S
Simmons, C