VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Inverter reactive power control for the integration of distributed generation

This thesis sets out to answer the following question:
To what extent can inverter reactive power control, combined with voltage regulators, increase network effciency and hosting capacity of distributed generation?
The first part of this thesis is concerned with analytic methods for studying this question; therefore, a two-bus network model is used. Two aspects of the problem are considered using this model. Firstly, the maximum power transfer capabilities of distributed generation are considered. This bounds the maximum generation of a network, even if the marginal costs of both real and reactive power are zero. It is shown that losses caused by the reactive power and generation result in maximum power transfer before stability limits, in networks with high impedance (R=X) ratios.
Secondly, analytic bounds on a proposed 'relative energy loss fraction' are derived in closed form, using the LinDistFlow approximate solution. The bounds are validated by comparison with both the exact solution of the two-bus equations, and on a set of unbalanced distribution networks. The relative energy loss fraction was found to be as high as 30%, with the approximate bounds able to estimate the true bounds to within 5%.
The next part of this thesis studies how reactive power and taps can be used to increase hosting capacity under uncertainty in the locations and sizes of domestic generation. A linear method is proposed that is shown to reduce the computing runtime by as much as 1000 times. A proposed hosting capacity sensitivity is shown empirically to correlate well with the error caused by linearization. Centralised control of taps and regulators are shown to increase hosting capacity by as much as 70%.
Finally, an optimization is proposed to study the impact of taps and domestic inverter control on the feeder total power draw. The use of regulator control in isolation results in benefits of up to a 5% reduction in feeder power; the use of inverter reactive power control further reduces the feeder power by up to 0.5% of the load. A control scheme is proposed with a reduced communications overhead, which can obtain up to 97% of the potential benefits of full inverter control.

Advisor: McCulloch, M
Interferometric scattering microscopy: from bacterial dynamics to molecular assembly

We explore the capabilities of interferometric scattering microscopy (iSCAT) by investigating a series of biophysical systems that span a range of particle sizes, down to the single particle level.
The work presented starts with single particle tracking of 20 nm gold nanoparticles bound to single myosin 5a molecules. We identify temporally and spatially constrained transient states of the different domains of myosin 5a, shedding light on the structural transitions that the molecule undergoes. The work demonstrates iSCAT's ability to reveal global conformational changes and relative motions of different domains in a single protein.
Next, we make the transition to explore iSCAT's capability for label-free studies of complex biophysical systems. By minimising iSCAT's phototoxicity, we visualise bacterial protein filaments extending from the bacterial cell body. This allows us to understand the roles of different proteins which are employed under varying friction environments to maintain pili function.
By further improving iSCAT's ability to measure smaller scattering signals, we next monitor the assembly kinetics of a MDa-sized gold coordinated protein cage, label-free, in solution. The work demonstrates iSCAT's suitability to determine kinetic information from biological systems, as a dynamic approach complementary to cryoEM.
Lastly, we present an experimental assay to measure the dissociation constant of a simple interaction between two 55 kDa proteins, highlighting the potential for iSCAT to become a universal analytical tool for quantifying protein-protein interactions.

Keywords: TRAP
Myosin V
iSCAT
Single Molecule Biophysics
Tubulin
Interferometric Scattering Microscopy
Pili
Advisor: Kukura, P
The comedia de privanza in Spain in the reign of Philip III

This study examines the comedia de privanza in Spain in the reign of Philip III (1598-1621). The accession of Philip III to the Spanish crown saw the raising of the Duke of Lerma to office as the most powerful privado, or favourite, in Spain since the infamous medieval privado, Don Álvaro de Luna. In response, Spain’s corrales saw an explosion of plays that explored every nuance, both political and philosophical, of the nature of privanza. This study traces the development of this theatrical genre, focussing on the works of one minor and three major playwrights: Salucio del Poyo, Lope de Vega, Vélez de Guevara and Mira de Amescua. It identifies Salucio del Poyo as the first playwright to pen a comedia de privanza, and analyses the literary features that he established and that would become characteristic of the genre. The following chapters will show how each playwright, in his own way, both imitated and innovated upon Poyo’s initial examples in order to suit his own abilities and agenda. It demonstrates the individual traits of each playwright, and the ways in which they each responded to the events they saw unfurl in Philip’s court, but it also attempts to show the overarching development of the genre as Philip’s reign progressed. Therefore, the thesis seeks to answer the following questions: what are the literary and thematic characteristics of the comedia de privanza as established in the earliest years of Philip III’s reign by Salucio del Poyo? How do later playwrights develop and innovate on the first examples of the genre? And finally, what was the relationship between these plays and contemporary political thought and events?

Advisor: Thacker, J
Sartre and the possibility of authentic love

In 'Being and Nothingness', Jean-Paul Sartre claims that all love is doomed to failure. According to Sartre, love is a bad faith attempt to capture the Other’s freedom in order to secure for oneself a fixed nature. This thesis presents a novel argument for the possibility of authentic romantic love. I propose that the capacity for authentic romantic love is grounded in a prior experience of authentic love in early infancy.
Drawing on Sartre’s characterisation of the mother-child relationship in 'The Family Idiot', I argue that mother and infant exist in an ambiguous union; a relation where the boundaries between self and Other are in a process of becoming. The infant’s original awareness of the Other as a subject is acquired through being the object of a loving Look. This Look, since it is non-conflictual, allows for an authentic relation of mutual comprehension to develop between mother and child.
However, as the child matures, she comes to realise her ontological separation from the Other; this, combined with her socialisation into bad faith, is what makes the Look turn hostile. Alienated by the Other’s Look, the child takes up the bad faith project of trying to capture the Other’s freedom, causing relations with others to become conflictual.
I argue that authentic romantic love is the result of a dialectical movement that combines and surpasses the original ambiguous union and our alienated separation from the Other. In authentic love, the lovers comprehend each other as ambiguous beings whilst retaining an awareness of their ontological separation. This thesis therefore concludes that authentic romantic love is possible. I consider an implication of this for Sartre’s ontology: by tracing the ontological formation of the subject, we can enhance our understanding of being-for-the-Other.

Keywords: Love
Maternity
C20th French Philosophy
Phenomenology
Jean-Paul Sartre
Existentialism
Advisor: Schear, J
Howells, C
Experiences of exile in early modern Europe: the Palatine family and the Thirty Years’ War, 1632-48

This thesis examines the experience of exiled royal and noble dynasties during the early modern period through a study of the electoral Palatine family during the mid-seventeenth century. By utilising a wide range of archival materials, including financial records, printed manifestos, and considerable quantities of diplomatic and personal correspondence, the work will examine the resources available to the Palatine exiles, as well as the ways in which they were employed in attempts to recover the lands and titles lost by elector Frederick V in the opening years of the Thirty Years’ War. In particular, the emphasis placed on conspicuous display and diplomatic recognition by contemporaries allows the work to comment on the important interplay of the ceremonial and the political in seventeenth-century Europe. The thesis not only contributes to the growing scholarship on exiled peoples in the early modern era, but also the Thirty Years’ War in general, as it covers the years between 1632 and 1648, a period which is greatly understudied in examinations of both the Palatine family and the European conflict.
By studying the experiences of exiled elites in early modern Europe, this work will also reveal the interplay of dynastic and political considerations in the high politics of the period. By assessing the belief of both exiled regimes and their extended family in the obligations produced by familial ties, and the subsequent impact this had on the policy-making of powerful European states, the thesis will demonstrate that dispossessed rulers and houses were not automatically rendered politically insignificant after losing their lands and titles. Although the Palatine family were driven into exile at the start of the Thirty Years’ War, the ‘Palatine Question’ remained one of the most divisive and important issues of the conflict, as well as in the Westphalian peace negotiations.

Advisor: Tapsell, G
Wilson, P
Osteoclasts are multinucleated cells that degrade cartilage as well as bone

Osteoclasts are essential for bone remodelling and are normally found at the bone surface where they create resorption pits. Osteoclasts are present in diseased cartilage in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis as well as in primary bone sarcomas including osteosarcoma, giant cell tumour of bone and osteochondroma. Whether osteoclasts can also degrade cartilage has been little explored. The aim of this thesis was to characterise how osteoclasts can affect cartilage degradation.
Diseased human cartilage and elephant dentine (positive control) were compared as substrates for osteoclasts. It has been observed by SEM that the cartilage surface around osteoclasts was damaged, suggesting their ability to degrade cartilage. The capacity of CD14+ monocyte-derived osteoclasts and primary human osteoclasts to release glycosaminoglycan and collagen from cartilage was observed in this thesis. Glycosaminoglycan release was reduced by both a pan-MMP inhibitor (GM6001) and TIMP1, suggesting that osteoclasts use soluble MMPs to degrade cartilage by release of proteoglycans. To find the key candidate(s), RT-qPCR and RNA sequencing were performed on osteoclasts cultured on plastic, dentine or cartilage. MMP- 8 and MMP-9 genes and proteins were highly expressed in osteoclasts on cartilage and gelatin zymography and siRNA experiments confirmed their activity and involvement in proteoglycan degradation. Finally, we confirmed the presence of MMP-8 and MMP-9 in tissue sections from conditions characterised by OA.
This thesis highlights the morphological, immunophenotypic and gene expression differences when osteoclasts are cultured on different substrates. This thesis also highlights the necessity for contact between osteoclasts and cartilage for direct proteoglycan degradation whilst indirect interaction with osteoclasts degrading bone significantly decreases collagen release from cartilage. Direct and indirect chondrocyte and osteoclast co-culture experiments demonstrated the ability of chondrocytes to control osteoclast formation and activity, potentially via an increase in OPG and RANKL expression. Understanding and controlling the activity of osteoclasts might represent an interesting perspective for pathologies characterized by cartilage degeneration and would present an attractive target for further research.

Advisor: Knowles, H
Snelling, S
A room temperature single photon source, cavity coupling of single solid-state defects to open-access microcavitie

Room temperature solid-state emitters provide a promising source of single photons for use in quantum technologies. The emitters studied in this thesis are the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond, and defects in two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). In this thesis, I present investigations into the coupling of these defects to open-access microcavities at room temperature. The optical microcavity serves to confine the electric field down to mode volumes on the order of λ3, increasing the spontaneous emission rate of these emitters and channelling this emission into well defined cavity modes. The general properties of both emitters will be presented, including examples of single photon emission, emission spectra, saturation behaviour and photo-stability. A few examples highlighting the long-term photo-stability of the NV centre under pulsed excitation will be displayed. This will highlight the suitability of the NV centre for a practical device. Following the preparation and characterisation of each emitter, single photon emission into the cavity modes is verified, reaching single photon purities greater than 97%. Enhancements in the spectral density of photons were observed for both the NV centre (~25×) and defect in hBN (~3×), along with decreases in the excited state lifetimes. While the NV centre provides a stable source of single photons, the cavity enhancement is limited by its broad emission spectrum. Defects in hBN present near-ideal optical properties in the absence of the cavity, and were expected to deliver superior results within the cavity. However, the poor photo-stability of these defects did not allow complete characterisation of the cavity coupled emission. FDTD simulations were combined with changes in the excited state lifetime to infer the quantum efficiency of these defects. The results of this thesis form the foundation for the realisation of a robust room temperature single photon source.

Keywords: Microcavities
Nitrogen-vacancy centre
Single Photon Emission
Nanodiamonds
Advisor: Smith, J
Preaching, print, and politics: the sermons of the Royalist and Episcopalian clergy, 1642-1660

This thesis explores the sermons of royalist and episcopalian clergymen during the English Civil Wars and Interregnum. While contemporaries and historians have long ascribed a central role to parliamentarian preachers in fomenting rebellion, attempts to harness the power of the pulpit for conservative, loyalist purposes have gone largely unstudied. Despite this historiographical neglect, this thesis argues that those churchmen committed to both the king and the pre-war Church of England came to regard sermons as a vital means of responding to and negotiating the radical politico-religious changes with which they were confronted over the course of these two tumultuous decades.
Both the pulpit and the printed sermon provided a platform from which different audiences – king, parliament, people – could be appealed to and influenced as changing circumstances dictated. These opportunities became ever more valuable for clergymen who found themselves steadily marginalised, by the king’s supporters as well his opponents. Moreover, in their efforts to manipulate popular allegiance and direct the decision making of political elites at critical moments of the crisis, they exploited the traditional authority of preachers to interpret scripture and providence, and to adjudicate in matters of conscience. Although the royalist and episcopalian clergy have sometimes been presented as comparatively passive or moderate in these years, their preaching is here depicted as belligerent, divisive, and polarising, intimately involved with the processes by which violent conflict was driven forward and the attempts of successive regimes to ‘heal and settle’ undermined.
Close attention is also paid throughout the thesis to practices of publication, and to the ways that rhetorical strategies and homiletic conventions evolved in response to the new print, political, and religious culture that emerged from the early 1640s. This thesis therefore enhances our understanding of royalism and episcopalianism; of the early modern sermon and its evolution; and of the interrelation between the religious and the political spheres in seventeenth-century England.

Advisor: Tapsell, G
Molecular mechanism of Asi- mediated protein quality control

Misfolded proteins in the membrane and lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are eliminated by a quality control system called ER-associated protein degradation (ERAD). ERAD comprises several branches, each dependent on a different ubiquitin ligase complex with a preference for a particular type of misfolded protein. A third ERAD branch in Saccharomyces cerevisiae acting specifically at the inner nuclear membrane (INM) was uncovered. The core component of this branch is the Asi complex, consisting of the ubiquitin ligases Asi1 and Asi3 and the accessory protein Asi2. Asi complex promotes the degradation of ER proteins that mistarget to the INM and misfolded proteins thereby contributing to the quality control at the INM. However, how these proteins are unnoticed by ER ubiquitin ligases and selectively recognised by the Asi complex at the INM is unclear. We found that unassembled subunits of membrane complexes are prone to mislocalize to the INM and targeted by Asi complex for degradation. Using in vivo and in vitro studies, we show that recognition of the unassembled proteins is by direct binding of the transmembrane domain of the substrate to Asi2, subsequent ubiquitination by Asi1/3, extraction by the Cdc48 ATPase and finally degradation. Thus, our data suggest that protein complex assembly in the ER is facilitated by spatially restricting quality control of unassembled subunits to the INM. This INM quality control contributes to maintaining of the INM proteome identity and overall ER homeostasis.

Keywords: Quality control of protein complex
ERAD
Endoplasmic Reticulum Associated degradation
Asi complex
Advisor: Carvalho, P
Jamaican creole heritage language instruction in Toronto

The aim of the study was to explore the nature of attitudes towards Jamaican Creole Heritage language instruction in the city of Toronto, as well as how such attitudes were affected by an individual’s level of ethnic orientation, age, and immigrant generation. The study involved 43 individuals between the ages of 18-60+ of Jamaican heritage or who were connected to Jamaican heritage by means relationships. A mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis was employed. Quantitative data was collected through a questionnaire and analysed using multiple regression analysis, while qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. Overall, findings revealed the complex and multi-layered nature of attitudes towards Jamaican Creole. Though participants largely expressed positive attitudes and feelings towards the language, attitudes towards formal Jamaican Creole heritage language instruction were largely dismissive and did not appear to be mediated by ethnic orientation, age, or immigrant generation. Such findings highlight a need for Jamaican Creole language awareness raising initiatives in Toronto as well as the development of Jamaican Creole literature of more varied genres, particularly those of an academic nature. Such advances may increase the perceived instrumentality of the language and address concerns about standardization, both factors which appear to have some bearing on attitudes to Jamaican Creole heritage language instruction in the city.

Keywords: ALSLA2018
ALSLA
Second generation superagonistic anti-PD-1 antibodies

Antibodies known as ‘superagonists’, such as those raised against CD28, induce high levels of signalling activity. Based on the kinetic-segregation model, a hypothesis arose: the greater potency of superagonists arises from their ability to more effectively exclude large phosphatases from the vicinity of CD28, favouring its phosphorylation. This hypothesis can be further extrapolated so that any immobilized antibody binding to a membrane-proximal epitope on a receptor with tyrosine phosphorylation motifs should induce signalling by that receptor. Previous studies indicated that antibody epitope positions are related to their signalling induction abilities. Earlier findings demonstrated that strong inhibitory signalling could also be induced by 1st generation anti-PD-1 antibodies that bind close to the membrane with high affinity, or away from the membrane with very low affinity. We have combined the apparently advantageous features of both sets of antibodies into a single 2nd generation anti-PD-1 antibody using a mutagenesis approach and subsequently tested their binding to PD-1 via surface plasmon resonance (SPR). We generated a new model of the superagonistic complex from our mutational SPR data and previous mutational data on PD-1. This model confirmed that it is indeed the position of the epitope, not the chemistry of binding, that dictates whether an antibody is an effective agonist and a blocker of TCR signalling or not. We then devised different in vitro assay formats, plate-bound and in solution, to investigate the effects of these anti-PD-1 antibodies on cytokine generation and cell proliferation. By adding higher levels of anti-PD-1 antibodies, greater IL-2 suppression was observed, regardless of the antibody presentation method. Synergistic inhibitory effects were further observed with combinations of these antibodies. Similarly, we studied the inhibitory effects of our antibodies on germinal centre B cell formation, primary antibody response, antibody affinity maturation and CD8+ T cell response in vivo. Our in vivo assays showed that a higher concentration of anti-PD-1 antibody application led to larger inhibitory effects, therefore dose optimisation will also be key for maximisation of antibody inhibitory potential. Compared to the 1st generation antibodies, the 2nd generation antibodies displayed reduced PD-1 cell surface downregulation in vivo. Our results provided evidence that PD-1 downregulation can be uncoupled from receptor triggering by altering affinity. This could potentially help deliver sustained inhibitory PD-1 signalling. The experiments demonstrated in this thesis provide a foundation for generating a novel class of potentially therapeutic antibodies, the inhibitory superagonists.

Keywords: antibodies
Advisor: Davis, S