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Flexible piezoelectric energy harvester devices for biomedical applications have been developed and characterized using different encapsulation polymers and ZnO NW growth patterns. A flexible piezoelectric energy harvester device must be biocompatible, cheap, low-temperature, and scalable. The device must also produce a minimum voltage output of 1 volt for pacemakers. This work examines the growth of hydrothermal-grown ZnO NWs in terms of length, diameter, and density under different growth conditions. Precursor concentration, substrate type, and seed layer thickness were considered. Kapton film and silicon substrates were compared to understand how surface roughness affects ZnO NW growth. The best vertically aligned ZnO NW growth occurred at 200 nm silver seed layer thickness and 40 mM precursor concentration. Synthesis took 18 hours at 90 °C. The devices were sandwich-like nanogenerators with ZnO nanostructures embedded in a dielectric polymer matrix between top and bottom electrodes. Testing showed that the best encapsulation was Polyimide (PI) with a thickness of 7 μm and a resistance of ~24 MΩ. Electrical leakage during polarization prevented PVDF-TrFE encapsulation from working. For ZnO NW growth, a circular seed layer with varied diameter was designed. Circular area diameter increases piezoelectric response. As the seed layer diameter increased, ZnO NW growth morphology showed an increase in small empty patches. Thus a new design with several 1 mm by 1 mm square areas patterned within a larger 15 mm by 15 mm area with varying distances between the small squares. When the squares were 0.1 mm apart, piezoelectric response (1297 mV) and sensitivity (14.75 mV/kPa) were best. The software Coventorware10 was used to run simulations using the finite element method (FEM). The ZnO NWs height, diameter, density, substrate area, applied pressure, encapsulating polymer, and design are some of the variables that will affect the piezoelectric response and sensitivity of the device. The FEM simulations that were run help in understanding these variables. Using collected data, the optimised device was made. Substrate (Kapton film), seed layer (200 nm Ag), polymer encapsulating ZnO NWs (PI 7 μm), and design (distance between 1 mm by 1 mm ZnO NWs pads of 0.1mm). Finally, the fabricated flexible pressure sensor was compared to FEM simulations. Trends are similar. The findings from this research can potentially be valuable in understanding the fabrication and design of a flexible MEMS pressure sensor in biomedical applications and potentially for other applications.

Compressed natural gas (CNG) is currently one of the promising and more established alternative to liquid fossil fuels. The combined utilisation of CNG and gasoline in spark-ignition engines can provide strong synergies between the two fuels leading to lower fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. However, no study to date has investigated the performance of the aftertreatment system designed for dual-fuel engines, with all studies either limited to combustion analysis of the dual-fuel or for dedicated CNG fuelled engines. As such, the aftertreatment system of a dual-fuel gasoline-CNG engine is investigated in this study by the use of several dedicated CNG catalysts. A dual-fuel injection strategy was implemented where methane gas was port-injected into the intake in stoichiometric conditions at levels corresponding to 20 and 40% energy density replacement of gasoline. High, medium and low loaded Pd/Rh catalysts were used and compared to study the effect of PGM loading on the catalyst light-off activity for methane. Results indicate that increasing the Pd loading led to significantly earlier light-off temperatures achieved at relatively lower temperatures of 340, 350 and 395°C respectively. However, the benefit diminishes above Pd loading >142.5 g ft⁻³. To complement this work, the performance of two full-scale CNG catalysts with different PGM loadings under various engine lambda conditions and cyclic air/fuel ratio was investigated. In addition, cycles have been developed with the aim to enhance fuel economy while reducing exhaust emissions. Additional research into the usage of the dual-fuel injection system to reduce the higher particulate emissions produced by GDI engines, as well as reducing their gaseous exhaust emissions is included in the study. Various characteristics of the released particles, including their size distributions, reactivity, morphology, and nanostructure, were evaluated. Other benefits of the dual-fuel system are presented in this study in terms of 10% and 54% lower engine output CO₂ and CO emissions respectively and up to 90 to 98% reduction in particle number. However, high NH₃ levels were observed primarily formed from steam-reforming reactions due to the increased level of methane in the exhaust stream.

Buildings consume approximately 40% of the world's primary energy, and half of this energy demand stems from space cooling and heating. To meet the targets of designing high performance buildings, intelligent solutions need to be integrated into the design process of buildings to achieve indoor environmental comfort and minimize energy consumption. In particular, the building façade plays a crucial role, as it acts as a separator element that can control the indoor environment and energy performance. This is even more important in buildings with extensive glazing systems particularly in harsh, hot climates. As stated in the literature, buildings are exposed to dynamic environmental factors that change continuously throughout the day and the year. Nonetheless, regardless of the climatic variations, building skins have been typically designed as static envelopes, which are limited in terms of their responsiveness to indoor or outdoor environmental conditions. In contrast, adaptive façades (AFs) are flexible regarding the adaptability of the system to climatic conditions enabling them to respond to short-term changes in the environment. In practice, assessing the performance of AFs during the early stages of the design is still a challenging task due to their time-varying dynamic behaviour. Most current building performance tools (BPS) were originally developed to assess fixed façades where changes to the geometry of the façade are not taken into consideration during simulation. To that end, adaptive systems require a more complex workflow that can correctly predict their performance. This research is intended to assist architects and façade specialists in two main aspects; firstly, an algorithmic framework was developed to predict the energy performance of AFs in the early design stages. The algorithmic workflow creates a link between plug-ins including the Ladybug and Honeybee tools, and EnergyPlus for running the simulation with the built-in tool energy management system (EMS) to program a code to actuate the AF system in an hourly time step (Figure 1). The workflow considers the time-varying dynamic behaviour of AFs based on different environmental parameters. The aim is to accurately evaluate the potential of AFs in energy performance in an office tower. Secondly, by exploring the complexity and limitation of current tools, a novel method is proposed to assess the energy performance of AFs using machine learning (ML) techniques. Two different ML models, namely, an artificial neural network (ANN) and a decision tree (DT), were developed to predict the energy performance of AFs in the early design stages in a significantly faster time compared to simulation. The surrogate models were trained, tested, and validated using the generated synthetic database by simulation (hourly cooling loads of AF and hourly solar radiation). During the training phase, a hyperparameters tuning procedure was carried out to select the most suitable surrogate model (Figure 2). By comparing the static shading system with AFs in terms of energy consumption, the results confirmed that the AFs were more effective in terms of cooling load reductions compared to static façades where cooling loads were reduced by 34.6%. The findings also revealed that the control scenario that triggered both incident solar radiation and operative temperature in a closed loop mechanism performed better than other control scenarios. Regarding the surrogate models, this research found that ML techniques can predict the hourly cooling loads of AFs with a high accuracy in the range of 85% to 95%. In particular, the DT model showed a 17% improvement in R2 accuracy over the ANN model in predicting the hourly cooling loads of AFs.

Opioids are the mainstay of pain management. Their use comes with side effects such as respiratory depression, constipation, addiction and tolerance. Opioids interact with opioid receptors; classical μ (MOP), δ (DOP) and κ (KOP) and non-classical N/OFQ receptor or NOP. Classical is naloxone sensitive and the main target for clinical opioid medications. There is considerable interest in designing MOP opioids with reduced side effects. Opioids couple via G-protein and β-Arrestin pathways and there is strong evidence from knockout animals that ligands biased to G-protein and away from β-Arrestin produce analgesia with reduced side effects. This has been questioned. Recently, oliceridine has been approved for use by FDA. We have studied Oliceridine, PZM21, 381G (Putative G-bias) and 433β (Putative β-Arrestin bias) in; (1) radioligand receptor binding. (2) GTPγ[³⁵S] binding (G-protein pathway), (3) β-Arrestin recruitment and (4) MAPK activation (potentially uses both pathways). Oliceridine, PZM21 and both biased peptides bound to MOP receptor and stimulated GTPγ[³⁵S] binding. Importantly, Oliceridine and PZM21 were partial agonists relative to the endogenous opioid Endomorphin-1. This was confirmed by Oliceridine and PZM21 antagonism of the response to Endomorphin-1. All ligands tested activated MAPK (ERK1/2 but not P38). In a range of β-Arrestin assays 433β and Endomorphin-1 were active, Oliceridine, PZM21 and 381G were not. There was some variation between BRET assay in a neuronal background and pathHunter assay in CHO cells. The BRET assay we had available proved unstable so we manufactured a new line by double expression in a CHO background. This consistent cell background allows comparison with G-protein data. Collectively this thesis has used a range of assays to show differential pathway activation by a number of putative biased ligands. Our most important finding is that Oliceridine and PZM21 are partial agonists at G-protein and this can easily explain potential bias.

The underlying premise of the research is to argue that the Shariʿa, as a source for the development of law, is flexible, adaptable, and malleable, even for those aspects of the Shariʿa that have historically been seen to be sacrosanct. This research will question the perceived current opinion amongst some members of the Muslim community that whether the law is based on the Qur'an, the Sunnah, or the opinion of jurists, it is fixed for eternity, and that change or Ijtihad is not allowed. Once the principles of Shari'a and its interpretation into law is explained, an analysis will be given of the Shariʿa laws of inheritance, highlighting the fact that no specific law more clearly represents the position of women in most Muslim majority countries than the double share of inheritance given to males when sharing an estate with a female in the same class. Current laws of inheritance are explained to be based on clear Qur'anic injunctions that stipulate the distribution to be in a ratio of two to one in favour of a male. The interpretations of that injunction over the past 14 centuries have reinforced the double share for males, as has codified law in almost every Muslim majority country. It will be argued that Shariʿa, as a process of law, has shown a historically inbuilt mechanism that has allowed communities to interrogate the suitability of any law based on changes in circumstances of a society at a given time. Examples of temporarily, or permanently, suspending the application of a clear Qur'anic injunction will be shown to be prevalent throughout Islamic history and it will be shown that many Muslim majority countries selectively choose those laws that need to be temporarily suspended, regardless of the background or historical interpretation of the Shariʿa. Laws on slavery, adultery, consumption of alcohol, gestation, or paternity are either interpreted liberally, or have been officially suspended and replaced by a more socially, and globally relatively acceptable set of state laws. The contention of this thesis is that the UAE, based on its current social, political, and economic circumstances is ideally suited to consider a suspension of the current laws of inheritance. The research shows that the phenomenal pace of social change in general, and female participation in the fabric of UAE society specifically, have allowed the community to recognize the need to change, as long as that change does not conflict with what they see as being the laws of the Shariʿa. This thesis argues that the only way gender equality can be achieved in inheritance law in the UAE would have to be based on a Shari'a compatible approach, using language, and logic that appeals to the religious sensibilities and outlook of the community at large, and the religious class specifically. The processes that could, and should be used, include principles that have long been embedded in jurisprudential discourse since the very beginning of the Islamic legislative process such as Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa, Maṣlaḥah, and Ijmā῾'. Other tools that are available to be used include procedural rules that are also embedded in Shari'a methodology such as the principle of Ḥiyal which have been used in other Muslim majority jurisdictions. These processes are explained to a cross section of Emirati society, and their collective responses are presented as an example of the potential for the acceptability of suspending Qurʾanic law amongst a conservative Muslim community depending on the approach that is taken when the social circumstances warrant a review of the law.

This doctoral thesis aims to explore the parental role in children's food socialisation. Despite the current consumer socialisation literature demonstrating that parents are the most influential socialisation agent for children, little is known about the role fathers play in shaping and forming their children's (un)healthy habits early in life. To address this gap, this doctoral thesis explores the role of the male heads of the family - fathers - as key agents of socialisation who influence their children's (un)healthy food consumption in the culturally distinctive nation of Saudi Arabia. To seek an understanding of how fathers shape the food socialisation process for their children, I collected qualitative and interpretative data from 32 fathers from Saudi Arabia adopting combination data collection tools, namely, food choice diaries, in-depth interviews, and accompanied shopping trips. The findings from the primary research indicated that fathers transfer certain skills, knowledge, and attitudes to their sons regarding food choices in food stores through overt communications and observations, and thus they have a great influence on the development of their sons' consumer skills, knowledge, and attitudes. Moreover, the findings suggested six factors shaping fathers' socialisation of their children's food habits. While social, economic, and religious factors were the most powerful, physiological, nutritional knowledge and beliefs, as well as marketing factors were less influential. Furthermore, the findings stressed that fathers perceived their roles and responsibilities as food socialisation agents for their children, for example (1) food availability, (2) role modelling, (3) teaching children about food, (4) restricting and controlling children's unhealthy food consumption, and (4) encouraging children to consume healthy food and rewarding them for doing so. Overall, fathers encounter different and diverse challenges balancing healthy and unhealthy food choices and socialisation for their children. This doctoral thesis makes several substantial contributions to the present consumer socialisation literature. My research is the first study to adopt consumer socialisation theory in family food consumption, specifically fathers' food choices for their children, in the context of Saudi Arabia culture. Furthermore, it contributes to understanding the phenomenon of fathers' roles in food consumption practices with reference to the epidemic of childhood obesity. Moreover, it contributes to understanding father-son interaction with respect to why and how fathers teach their sons not daughters about (un)healthy foods in the context of food stores. Additionally, it contributes to understanding how different factors form or limit fathers' efforts to socialise their children into (un)healthy food consumption. Lastly, it contributes to knowledge about how fathers' feeding practices are shaped by responsibilities. The primary research has important implications for healthy food marketing policies. Based on the data, the implications could be classified into three categories, namely, health education campaigns, marketing campaigns, and suggestions for policymakers.

This narrative study explores the identities of Turkish teachers of English, who engage in volunteering activities in addition to their everyday teaching. These activities include writing local and international development projects for students and communities, spending an entire summer holiday to volunteer in an orphanage in Africa, running an amateur football club for the community, voluntarily tutoring for the economically disadvantaged kids for free, and volunteering in health-related organisations. Being a Middle Eastern country between Asia and Europe, the Turkish context seems to constrain than to support the teachers to engage in volunteering for others, especially in addition to their everyday teaching duties. In this vein, with accountability and standards they enforce, neoliberal trends affect education negatively. Additionally, it is difficult to define the engagement of these teachers within the current literature, as teacher volunteering does not capture what they do, making it necessary to gaze towards teacher activism. Yet, activism, especially in the Turkish context, has different connotations. Hence, while there are already limited studies on the identities of international teachers of English, this study enriches the existing literature around the topic by bringing a unique perspective, identifying the similarities and differences between teacher volunteering and teacher activism as well as offering an additional discourse to teacher activism. Through two in-depth interviews each with five Turkish teachers of English that are analysed narratively, participants' discussions around activism and volunteering led to the construction of a 'teacher of action' concept. Teacher of action recognises the participant teachers' authentic ways of engaging in volunteering, taking action for others as well as encompassing teacher activism and volunteering. Some teachers in this study choose to see teaching as a political act. Others deliberately refrain from politics to carry out their agendas, whether they have ideas on politics and activism or not. Their engagements are a combination of their personal and professional identities and values, which affect and, were affected by, their actions. In this regard, taking action eventually becomes a stance for them, which informs their behaviours and actions in their personal and professional lives. Taking action as a stance, they are not only active in organised projects but also their everyday teaching, through big and small acts. Moreover, they do not limit themselves to the spheres of school and education, as their engagements are not limited to these spaces, while all affect their professional identities. What they have in common is their beliefs in the transformative power of education and urge to take action to make that transformation more possible, which affects and reconstructs their personal and professional identities. The study demonstrates that taking action can be possible for all teachers and has various benefits for teachers' identities as well as their motivation in teaching, as it is driven by their beliefs in the transformative power of education, the values they hold about teaching, as well as their care for their students, families, communities and others.

This thesis was conducted in Saudi Arabia in two recently established universities. These universities are given pseudonyms for ethical considerations. The study aimed to investigate the opinions of faculty members and learners about the integration of technology in Saudi universities, especially those established recently. The participants in this study were educators and students from both universities. Data was gathered using questionnaires and interviews, based on the TAM model. The results from the study indicate that the adoption and integration of technology in education environment by both educators and students was rare. As well as, the study mentioned that more training and encouragement for both educators and students are needed in order to improve the current adoption of eLearning initiatives in teaching and learning process.

Background and aims: Two human mutations affecting the α-synuclein protein confer the most clinical severity in Parkinson's disease; endogenous αSyn over-expression due to gene multiplication and αSynG51D due to a missense mutation. The main hypotheses include 1) αSyn over-expression may affect cortical neuronal differentiation, 2) αSyn over-expression influences vulnerability to Lewy-like pathology in human cortical neurons, and 3) the SNCAG51D mutation alters susceptibility to Lewy-like pathology in a novel rat model of PD.Methods: Transgenic human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) over-expressing αSyn were differentiated into cortical neurons and analysed for gene expression. Cortical neurons were challenged with recombinant human wild-type αSyn monomers or pre-formed fibrils (PFFs) for 1 week. Subsequent analysis for phosphorylated αSyn (pS129-αSyn), an early disease marker, was performed two to three weeks later. In the second model, novel CRISPR-edited SNCAG51D/G51D rats and SNCA+/+ control rats received unilateral intracortical injections of αSyn PFFs, and pS129-αSyn structures were quantified at six months. Results: Transcriptomic analysis of hESCs and immature cortical neurons, as well as mature cortical neuron counts, showed αSyn over-expression did not impair cortical neurogenesis. Mature cortical neurons with high endogenous αSyn that were challenged with αSyn PFFs, but not αSyn monomers or unseeded neurons, readily formed pS129-αSyn inclusions (p < 0.001). In the SNCAG51D/G51D rats, αSyn PFF-injection led to defined, mature-appearing, Lewy-like (pS129-αSyn) inclusions with a predilection for the striatum in mutant rats, although not statistically significant. PFF-injected SNCA+/+ rats had diffuse pS129-αSyn pathology in similar interconnected regions to PFF-injected mutant rats. Conclusion: αSyn over-expression in hESCs did not impair differentiation into cortical neurons, which helps to clarify conflicting data in the literature on the role of αSyn in neurogenesis. Secondly, exposure to αSyn PFFs in human cortical neurons with high endogenous αSyn expression produced significantly more pS129-αSyn inclusions than neurons with wild-type levels of αSyn expression. Finally, the SNCAG51D/G51D rats developed more defined Lewy-like pathology in PD-vulnerable regions than controls after PFF-injection. These two accelerated disease models may provide further mechanistic insight in PD.

There is a long history of corporate scandals and failure in accounting performance around the globe as a result of weak government mechanisms overseeing companies due to the absence of clear government laws and legislation governing the relationship between shareholders (owners, investors) and executive managers (internal management) in a firm. Weak government mechanisms reinforce the greed of the dominant and influential groups within the various companies. This weakens the accounting and financial performance of a firm and leads to it being unable to generate sufficient profits to satisfy its shareholders, as well as being unable to attract new investors or encourage them to invest within the firm. As a result, various researchers are investigating the impact of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms on firm performance. The majority of the research regarding corporate governance and its impact on firm performance has been conducted in developed countries, especially in the US and UK. Relatively less evidence is available in the Middle East, particularly in Jordan. Thus, the aim of the current study is to investigate the impact of various corporate governance mechanisms on firm performance for Jordanian non-financial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange during the period 2012 – 2018. Different hypotheses have been generated through agency theory to explore the relationship between the corporate governance mechanisms and the accounting performance of Jordanian nonfinancial companies. Agency theory is employed because it explains the agency problems between the corporate manages and shareholders, which have a negative impact on the value maximisation objective. It has been claimed that various features of the board of directors’ act as effective corporate governance mechanisms for solving the agency problem between corporate managers and shareholders. This study uses multiple regression panel data analysis to analyse the data. A fixed effect model is used to investigate the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on firm performance. Secondary data is collected xi for 95 Jordanian non-financial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. The data is collected from three different sources: the Amman Stock Exchange website, the annual reports of the selected companies and from the DataStream database. A mixed set of results is observed from the empirical investigation. The findings of the study reveal a significant negative impact of board size on firm performance, which indicates that large board size tends to be inefficient due to poor coordination and communication. The findings of the study also reveal that non-executive directors (NEDs) have a significant negative impact on firm performance. The findings are not in line with the hypothesis generated from agency theory, which states that NEDs play a vital role on the board by monitoring the firm’s performance and providing valuable suggestions to the executive directors, as they are experts in their field and have years of experience. However, CEO duality has a significant positive impact on firm performance, which reveals that Jordanian firms perform better if the roles of CEO and Chairman are performed by one individual. These findings are also inconsistent with the Jordanian CG code, which emphasises the separate of the role CEO and Chairman for implementing the strict check and improve the balance of the board of directors. The findings indicate that three board committees (audit, remuneration and nomination) have a significant positive impact on the firm performance. These findings are consistent with the empirical results and Jordanian CG code because establishment of board committees tends to streamline various business operations, which has a positive impact on firm performance. A corporate governance (CG) index has been generated based on the Jordanian corporate governance code requirements. Compliance with the corporate governance index has been checked for the Jordanian nonfinancial firms. The findings indicate that the corporate governance index also has a positive and significant impact on firm performance. xii The findings of the current study will help the Jordanian regulators to amend the current Jordanian corporate governance code because the impact of different CG mechanisms on the firm performance has been checked through real data and statistical tests. Further, the findings can assist the Jordanian corporate boards and managers to improve their companies’ corporate governance system by implementing the significant CG mechanisms that are explored by this study.

CMOfunctions are completely multiplicative functionsffor which∑∞n=1f(n) = 0.Such functions were first defined and studied by Kahane and Sa ̈ıas [31]. We extendthese to multiplicative functions with the aim to investigate the theory of the extendedfunctions and we shall call themMOfunctions. We give some properties and findexamples ofMOfunctions, as well as pointing out the connection between thesefunctions and the Riemann hypothesis at the end of Chapter 2.Following this, we broaden our scope by generalising bothCMOandMOfunctionsto Beurling prime systems with the aim to answer some of the questions which wereraised by Kahane and Sa ̈ıas. We shall call these sets of functionsCMOPandMOPfunctions. Such generalisations allow us to look for new examples to extend ourknowledge. In particular, we explore how quickly the partial sum of these classesof functions tends to zero with different Beurling generalised prime systems. Thefindings of this study suggest that for allCMOPandMOPfunctionsfoverNwithabscissa 1, we have ∑n≤xn∈Nf(n) = Ω(1√x).

The uterus and placenta are essential organs playing key roles in reproductive processes. Labour is modulated by several factors such as sex hormones, nitric oxide, prostaglandins and the ROCK pathway, which stimulate the uterus via the phosphorylation of myosin-light chain (MLC). Abnormal function of these factors may lead to preterm labour (PTL) which still has no effective management strategies. The aims of this project were to: (i) examine the regulation of myometrial contractility in non-pregnant and pregnant mice, (ii) assess the ability of ripasudil (a ROCK inhibitor) to diminish uterine contractions, (iii) evaluate the effect of NO on myometrial contractility, and (iv) investigate the influence of administrating empty and NO-loaded liposomes on the level of lipid mediators in the uterus and placenta from C57 and eNOS KO pregnant mice at term. Results showed a significant higher contractility of the upper segment of uterus as compared to the lower segment (p < 0.05). During pregnancy, stimulation of the uterus by oxytocin, U46619 and 5-HT upregulates the production of the di-phosphorylated MLC by 378.1%, 379.6% and 271%, respectively. Ripasudil was able to inhibit spontaneous and drug-induced myometrial contractility in non-pregnant and pregnant mice. Ripasudil inhibited the mono- and di-phosphorylation of MLC in the myometrium from both mice; it was more effective on ppMLC formation (88.61% and 86.76%). The lack of NO caused a significant increase in myometrial (by 132.5%) and amplitude of contractions (by 132.1%) in eNOS KOs. Vehicle- and SE175-Liposome treatments led to a significant reduction in the level of Cyclooxygenase (COX) and Lipoxygenase (LOX) derived lipid mediators in the myometrium and placentas from pregnant C57 WT and eNOS KO mice. Exposure to the SE175-Liposome significantly increased the level of myometrial DHETs (by 199.1%, 153% and 450.6%) and placental DiHDPA (by >4×108 ) compared with the Free SE175. SE175 significantly increased the concetration of the 15 HETrE. The majority of lipid mediators detected were the LOXderived (myometrium) and COX-derived (placenta). In conclusion, the data support the higher myogenic activity of uterus in pregnant mice. It demonstrated for the first time that ppMLC is expressed in mouse myometrium and that ROCK inhibition is a promising tocolytic candidate for the treatment of PTL. Targeted liposomes were effective in modulating the level of certain lipid mediators. Administration of NOdonors at late pregnancy can regulate uterine activity and control placental blood flow.

This thesis aims to show how Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin have been exposed to Islamic and Arabic-speaking audiences. It compares Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin and their Arabic counterparts in terms of structural, socio-cultural, religious, and ethnical differences. It focuses on investigating the way such elements were adapted in the process of being transferred into the Arab world. The thesis argues that many modifications to the texts of origin were essential to make them readable in the Arab world, and the thesis discusses the different methods that Arabic publishing houses or Arab editors have resorted to in order to align the albums with Arabic cultural traditions and Islamic norms. Amendments on the textual and visual levels were utilised to avoid cross-cultural differences, implicit or explicit tabooed language, sensitive subjects, negative images, and the stereotypical depiction of Arabs. The study consists of five chapters. The opening chapter provides an introduction to the thesis, background and rationale of the study, theoretical framework (including consideration of Tintin’s albums in the Arab world through aspects of adaptation theory, and Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’), and a review of the literature that identifies the primary sources and the major secondary sources that have been influential in the current study. The aim here is to establish the significance and originality of the thesis and to determine the gap(s) that are addressed in the study. In addition, the literature review demonstrates the scheme of the study and the data that have been used and analysed. Chapter two reviews Arabic children’s literature and literary illustration. It also focuses on the condition of Arabic comic magazines in the Arab world. The chapter discusses the historical background of Hergé’s albums and his style (Ligne Claire) in penning the stories. In addition, the chapter discusses Arab publication houses’ attitudes towards the Tintin albums with particular reference to their style, editors, translators, and themes as well as how the albums were received in the Arab world. The chapter ends with a section discussing Arab editors’ attitudes towards the structural adaptation of the Tintin stories. The first part of chapter three deals with the cultural adaptations of the characters’ personal names in the Arab World. The second part focuses on first, the cross-cultural differences between the proverbs in Tintin’s albums and their Arabic counterparts; second, a definition of proverbs, their taxonomies, and their relationship to metaphor; and third, a discussion of ‘fixed proverbs’ and ‘proverbial phrases’ as described by Wolfgang Mieder, with selected examples from Tintin’s stories. Chapter four analyses the alterations of the visual and/or verbal tabooed references such as alcohol, language (swear words or profanities, slang, jargon, and insults), and cultural and religious references. In addition, the chapter aims to throw light on the cultural dimensions of such topics with reference to Tintin’s stories in Arabic. It analyses the euphemisms and other strategies employed by editors of the Arabic texts to mitigate and neutralise such taboos. Based on Said’s concept of ‘Orientalism’, chapter five aims to explain why some of Tintin’s stories were not available to Arab readers. In doing so, the chapter pays particular attention to Said’s concept of ‘Orientalism’, its definition, and how it assists in understanding the (mis)representation of Arabs in Tintin’s albums. In the conclusion, I summarise how different Arabic magazines took different approaches to the texts of origin, from minor changes on social, cultural, and religious levels to a complete re-drawing of several textual and visual aspects of Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin.

Current wind turbine and power grid industry have relatively little research and development with regards to implementing novel communication network and intel- ligent system to overcome issues that pertain to network failure and lack of monitor- ing. Wind turbine location could be a big concern when it comes to identifying an efficient location for future wind turbine and the impact of a site with non-efficient meteorological parameters can result in relocation of a wind turbine and revenue- loss. Unplanned wind turbine shutdowns that are considered to be one of the major revenue-loss factors of a modern wind farm business. Typically, the unplanned wind turbine shutdown is a result of sensors fail due to harsh environment challenges that prevent hardware status from being available on the monitoring system. The above mentioned research problems pertain to wind turbine site assessment and predic- tion of power. In this thesis, a novel programmable software-defined robotics and IoT testbeds are proposed with the fusion of Artificial Intelligence and optimiza- tion methods to solve specific problems related to wind turbine site assessment and fault management. The site selection process is implemented using proposed aerial and ground robotic systems that are incorporated with Software-Defined Networks and OpenFlow switching capabilities. A second stage development of the system is proposing a prediction platform that run on the aerial robot cluster using neural net- works optimization regression techniques. To overcome the unplanned wind turbine network outage, an IoT micro cloud cluster system is proposed that act as immedi- ate fail-over platform to provide continuous health readings of the wind turbine to ensure the turbine in question will not get shutdown unnecessarily. The proposed system help in minimizing revenue-loss caused by stopping a wind turbine from op- eration and help maintain generated power stability on the grid. Additionally, since large wind farms require an agile and scalable management of selecting the most efficient wind turbine location install. Thus, a softwarized cognitive routing proto- col is proposed. The group of quadcopters is a redundant failover Software-Defined Network/OpenFlow system that can cover every single way point of the farm land. Although, power consumption is essential for the continuity the service, a Software- Defined charging system testbed is proposed that uses inductive power transfer with low-cost implementation to provide control over the sub-nodes system and continuously provide charging capabilities with no interruptions. Furthermore, the internal power grid network is persistently subject to faults due to high traffic congestion that effect traditional networking engines. Therefore, an intelligent routing protocol is proposed to optimize the data center network traffic and path selection to reduce failures caused by high link congestion. The metric selection is optimized using Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. Alongside the grid network, many of the distribution transformers in Iraq lack to a robust network monitoring system that cause it to suffer from continuous outages and faults, for that reason, a Software-Defined Network IoT condition monitoring testbed is proposed with fault prediction system that is based on a customized Software-Defined Networking capabilities. Neural network algorithms are implemented such as Feed-Forward and Decision Tree to predict the future failures and to reduce the number of faults. In closing, the current Iraqi Grid Network lacks to smart meter network implementation in any form and currently, old traditional disc metering system is used that is inefficient and does not provide an overview of the entire power consumption and identification of faults. Furthermore, traditional smart meters only provide how much power was consumed in real-time and they are dependant on the grid network to provide data warehousing and management. Therefore a special kind of intelligent power meter is proposed that is standalone and have OpenFlow forwarding capabilities. The proposed meter can predict power utilization without depending on the cloud, thus reducing traffic congestion and minimizing failures in the cloud network. The Systems implements neural networks classification algorithm such as Support Vector Machine Kernel and Decision Tree.

Traumatic dental injuries (TDI) are oral conditions which are often overlooked, despite their relatively high prevalence and its significant impact on the individual and their family. Most dental injuries tend to frequently occur within the 8-9 year old age group with the upper maxillary incisors being the most affected teeth. The consequences of TDI is dependent on the severity of the injury with pulp necrosis, pulp canal obliteration, root fracture, root resorption and loss of the tooth being the most commonly reported sequalae. There is a link between malocclusion and incidence of TDI with increased overjet and incompetent lips being significant factors leaving the upper incisors unprotected to dental injuries. Literature has shown that 20% of children had sustained trauma by the time they graduated from school and as many as 1 in 10 patients referred to an orthodontists had a history of dental trauma prior to active orthodontic treatment. Orthodontics therapy has been suggested as a preventative measure in correcting unfavourable malocclusions and potentially avoiding TDI's. The drawback to orthodontics is that it shares many of the complications reported in traumatic dental injuries, mainly pulp necrosis, pulp canal obliteration and root resorption. It is unknown whether these risks become amplified when traumatised teeth are orthodontically treated. To date, this is poorly understood in literature. Aim: The aims of this project were two fold. The first was to determine if orthodontic treatment of teeth with a history of dental trauma increases the risk of pulp necrosis, root resorption, pulp obliteration and root fracture. The second was to evaluate whether orthodontists considered the endodontic implications associated with the orthodontic treatment of teeth with a history of dental trauma. Methods: The systematic review was conducted to answer the first aim according to internationally recognised PRISMA methodology. A specific question was constructed according to PICO principles. Electronic databases were searched (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library) from 1970 to 2019. Different combinations of keywords were used for searching e.g., 'Orthodontics', 'tooth movement', 'dental pulp', 'dental trauma', 'pulp necrosis', 'root resorption', 'pulp obliteration' and 'root fracture'. Inclusion criteria included clinical studies (any design) of people (aged >7 years) who had undergone orthodontic treatment using any orthodontic appliance with a history of dental trauma prior to or during orthodontic treatment. Literature reviews, case reports, animal studies, commentaries and letters to editors were excluded. For the second study, a mixed methods vignette survey was designed, piloted and distributed to UK registered specialist orthodontists electronically over a 4 month period from May–Sept 2019 using social media forums and emails. GDPs, orthodontic trainees and incomplete surveys were excluded from the study. The survey was split into three parts. Part one explored the orthodontist's professional background, part two examined orthodontists experiences and training in dental trauma and part three consisted of three vignette clinical scenarios with open and closed questions to explore the orthodontist's understanding of endodontic risk with the provision of orthodontic treatment of three cases, which were a mid-root fracture, pulp canal obliteration and an immature non vital central incisor. Results: Searches retrieved 5382 citations. After screening titles and abstracts only, 29 potentially eligible papers were identified; six retrospective cohort studies were retained after the inclusion criteria were applied. Included studies were assessed as having a low risk of bias (using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale). Evidence from narrative synthesis (participants, n= 1897; incisors, n=3659) suggests a positive correlation exists between orthodontic treatment and an increase in pulp necrosis, pulp obliteration and root resorption in teeth with a history of dental trauma versus non-traumatised teeth. This risk is increased with more severe periodontally injured teeth. There were no published results regarding root fractures. With regards to the vignette survey, 76 orthodontists responded from the UK. Following quantative analysis of the data and thematic analysis of the transcripts, the following was identified; with regards to diagnosing dental trauma, 46% of orthodontists utilised an OPT and 53% did not carry out pre-treatment sensibility tests in the assessment of patients with a history of dental trauma. 46% of orthodontists felt they had insufficient training in dental trauma and 42% lacked confidence in the management of teeth with a history of dental trauma. In addition, 32% of clinician's felt there is lack of guidance in the orthodontic treatment of traumatised teeth and pulpal Sequalae. Qualitative themes identified were: Non-standardised pre- treatment examination, dental trauma experience, dental trauma training and lack of evidence based guidance on the orthodontic treatment of traumatised teeth. Conclusion: The systematic review showed that there is insufficient scientific evidence regarding orthodontic treatment of traumatised teeth. However, a history of dental trauma may be considered a risk factor for loss of pulp vitality and increased pulp canal obliteration. Orthodontists should therefore be aware of these risks. The pulpal condition should be monitored frequently by intraoral radiographs and sensibility testing throughout orthodontic treatment and during the retention period. With regards to the vignette survey, orthodontists are not following a standardised protocol in their examination of teeth with a history of trauma prior to orthodontic treatment. There is a need within orthodontics, to create a standardised protocol to assess teeth with a history of dental trauma. In addition, there is a need for orthodontists to gain greater training in the management of patients with dental trauma.

The ionosphere has the largest contribution to the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) error budget. Its background effect can be mostly modelled, but sharp gradients in its Total Electron Content (TEC) adversely affect differential GNSS due to error decorrelation. Furthermore, irregularities in the ionosphere cause signal fluctuations known as scintillation, which may lead to cycle slips, accuracy degradation and even loss of receiver lock on satellite. In the last few decades, specialized GNSS Ionospheric Scintillation Monitor Receivers (ISMRs) have been developed with a view to support continuous ionospheric monitoring and modelling by estimating TEC and different scintillation parameters, and to help develop future receivers with robust tracking under extreme ionospheric conditions. However, it is not a straight forward task to derive accurate TEC information from these specialized receivers because the recorded pseudorange measurements are contaminated by instrumental biases, the so-called Differential Code Biases (DCBs). The Nottingham Geospatial Institute (NGI) - former Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy (IESSG) - pioneered and currently undertakes scintillation and TEC monitoring in Northern Europe using dual frequency GPS receivers, the NovAtel/AJ Systems GSV4004, and in the last decade the relatively new multi-frequency multi-constellation Septentrio PolaRxS Pro receivers. Considering the hardware delays existing within these scintillation monitors to be stable for reasonable periods of time, the recorded TEC measurements have been used quite successfully on a relative basis in a number of experiments. Yet, to enable the calculation of absolute TEC, either for ionospheric monitoring or to facilitate non-differential positioning techniques such as Precise Point Positioning (PPP), these (and indeed any other conventional multi-frequency) receivers must be calibrated to account for their respective DCBs. The research work presented in this thesis has been carried out in two main phases. The first phase involves estimating the DCB of a multi frequency, multi constellation GNSS receiver (such as the Septentrio PolaRxS Pro) using a hardware signal simulator, whereby the state of the ionosphere and other variables can be controlled. It has been shown that a hardware signal simulator such as the Spirent GSS8000 can be used effectively to estimate a consistent and more realistic set of DCBs between different signal pairs for any multi frequency, multi constellation receiver. The second phase replicates the procedure carried out by the International GNSS Service (IGS) or the Multi GNSS EXperiment (MGEX) to determine receiver and satellite DCBs in a global ionospheric analysis using the IGS/MGEX network. By including the calibrated receiver from the first phase in this network, it has been proved that for all practical purposes of ionospheric modelling, using the 'known' receiver DCB of that receiver as an external constraint, is a valid approach to resolving the rank deficiency problem that arises in DCB estimation for receiver/satellite networks. One final aspect that this research aims to address was the possible benefit of estimated DCBs in PPP processing. From initial investigations, no plausible benefit was observed and hence it was decided not to proceed further because of time constraints. The indications are that the effect of the estimated DCBs cannot be observed in PPP while working with the Ionospheric Free (IF) combination, whereas in the case of PPP based on uncombined raw observations, the estimated DCBs derived from relatively noisy pseudoranges in comparison to the carrier phase observations, are not of sufficient accuracy to be used for correcting the ionospheric delay. This needs to be further investigated in future.

Electrical steels play a vital role in the generation and use of electricity as they are widely used in a range of electrical equipment for industrial and domestic appliances. The material is usually manufactured in the form of cold-rolled thin strips that are stacked together to form the laminated stacks used to form the stator and rotor parts of electric motors. As the individual layers are made mostly by blanking and piercing processes the quality of the final product directly affects the performance of the electrical machines. The blanking process results in local plastic deformation and texture modification in electrical steels which will affect the magnetic and mechanical performance of the electric motors and transformers. Therefore, the main aim of the project is to obtain a better understanding of the global and local magneto-mechanical properties of the sheet material at the cut edge and vicinity area to optimise design parameters used for the final products. An experimental investigation was designed and implemented to study the mechanism of blanking operation and local magneto-mechanical properties of thin strip electrical steels at the cut edge. The deformation at the cut edges was identified regarding main blanking parameters such as deformation rate, material thickness and sheet orientation at a specific clearance. The thickness of individual laminates plays a critical role in the magnetic performance of the manufactured power units. However, the thinner gauges introduce challenges to the manufacturing and processing of the material, especially in the high-speed cutting operations. Therefore the study was considered using two different thin gauge thickness with different grain orientations of electrical steel with nominated thickness 0.2 mm and compare results with those for 0.35 mm sheet thickness. A novel blanking experiment together with Digital Image Correlation was designed in order to identify local strain distribution in laminates of both the used thicknesses during the blanking process. That was done to achieve a better understanding of deformation induced microstructural damage in the vicinity of the cut edge. Also, a bespoke single sheet magnetic tester was designed and built to determine the effect of blanking induced cut edge damage on magnetic properties in the form of hysteresis losses and quantify magnetic deterioration in the produced laminations. The microstructure of cut edge deformation and the fracture surface was observed using both optical and scanning electron microscopes. Furthermore, Nano-indentations tests were implemented in the deformed area at the cut edges to characterize local deformation. The results showed that the cutting process parameters have a significant impact on the mechanical and magnetic properties and the cut edge quality. The reduced thickness also introduced a great challenge in preparing samples for all the tests that were done. Sheet thickness had a significant role on the hysteresis loss and extension of deformation and strain amount. The results also showed that the blanking speed also has an important influence on blanking results and thereby more affected in mechanical and magnetic properties. However, it was observed that the thickness of the laminations plays an important role due to the small number of grains in the thickness direction causing the individual grains to have a significantly high effect on the local properties of the produced parts. The change in the cutting location regarding the grains could cause different deformation state. This variations in the blanking deformation make it very difficult to determine the extension of deformation or give clear trend to the blanking behaviour effects upon the mechanical and magnetic properties. The achieved results can be used to enhance our knowledge and be practically implemented through the interconnection between the inputs of the cutting process and the outputs represented by the edge quality and affected properties. This investigation can also be incorporated in improving the manufacturing process in order to manage magnetic property deterioration, thereby exploiting the full potential of the magnetic materials; as a result, improving the machine's performance.

This thesis focuses on applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods for detecting, classifying and predicting the faults in induction motors in order to prevent any failures happening during their operation due to loading conditions. It is very important to monitor and detect any faults in the motor during its operation in order to alert the operators so that potential problems could be avoided. In this study, a new AI algorithm has been developed and applied to detect, classify and predict the induction motor faults at an early stage. This is based on a hybrid approach using the Bees Algorithm (BA) and Data Mining called Bee for Mining (B4M), which overcomes the drawbacks of current AI methods in achieving higher classification accuracy with reduced rule set generated from the training data. The proposed B4M algorithm has been implemented, tested and validated using the University of California at Irvine (UCI) dataset, and was compared with other well-known classifiers. Later, the proposed B4M algorithm was applied in dealing with two most common faults, firstly, that of rotor (one rotor bar, four rotor bars and eight rotor bars), and secondly, bearing defects (inner race, outer race and ball bearing defects). In this research, three condition monitoring techniques involving thermal imaging, current and vibration signal processing have been used to monitor these faults. Further, features such as image metrics and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) coefficients were extracted from the thermal images, and DWT coefficients from the current and vibration signals. Later, five-feature selection methods were applied in order to select the best features for defect classification. Finally, an improvement to the proposed B4M was made by producing a new hybrid classification algorithm by combining Genetic Algorithm (GA) with B4M referred to as GA-B4M where the GA was used for feature selection. The new algorithms were successfully implemented on MATLAB and its performance was tested on real data and compared with other algorithms using the WEKA software. The results obtained for the thermal image monitoring data showed 98.97% classification accuracy with a reduced rule set containing 10 rules for B4M while a 100% accuracy with a larger rule set of 63 and 72 rules were achieved by Decision Table and OneR classifiers respectively. For the current monitoring data, the classification accuracy fell to 79.62% with only 8 rules for B4M, while 79.20% with 837 rules was achieved by Random Tree. Similarly, for the vibration monitoring data the B4M achieved 80.05% with 7 rules in comparison with Naïve Bayes tree at 79.25% with 31 rules. Furthermore, the results achieved by the proposed hybrid approach GAB4M on thermal imaging dataset also showed an overall improvement on the classification accuracy reaching 99.85% with 7 rules. Similarly, on the current and vibration dataset the GA-B4M obtained 79.98% with 16 rules and 98.74% with 7 rules respectively. This study has shown that the new proposed classification algorithms B4M and GA-B4M are able to detect, classify and predict the induction motor faults more reliably.

This study evaluates the feasibility of the use of satellite radar for dam deformation monitoring. Spaceborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has long been used to monitor geohazards, including earthquakes, landslides, and volcanos. However, few studies have recently investigated its feasibility for localised deformation monitoring such as of earth dams. Here two case studies are presented of the monitoring of dams in Iraq. Mosul dam is one of the most dangerous dams in the world. Previous studies have reported that over a million human lives would be potentially at risk should dam failure occur. Therefore, investigation of its health using precise and continuous observations is crucial. This was achieved with two independent geodetic datasets from levelling and InSAR, and the results show continuous vertical displacements on the dam crest due to the dissolution of foundations. Vertical displacement rate estimates from levelling and InSAR for the period 2003-2010 are in good agreement, with a correlation of 0.93 and an RMSE of ± 1.7 mm. For the period 2014- 2017, the correlation is 0.95 and the RMSE is ± 0.9 mm. The movement of the dam was evaluated using settlement index which is not referring to critical instability of the dam. However, the spatial and temporal displacement anomalies emphasize that a careful monitoring and remedial work should continue. The continuous displacement in the dam foundation could loosen the compaction of the embankment and result in internal erosion. In a separate study, Darbandikhan dam was monitored using a global positioning system (GPS), levelling, and Sentinel-1 data to evaluate its stability after the 2017 Mw 7.3 Sarpol-e Zahab earthquake. The large gradient of the dam's displacements on its crest hindered the estimation of co-seismic displacements using medium-resolution SAR data. However, Sentinel-1 images were sufficient to examine the dam's stability before and after the earthquake. The results show that the dam was stable between October 2014 and November 2017, but after the earthquake continuous subsidence on the dam crest occurred between November 2017 and March 2018. For the first time the stability of the Mosul and Darbandikhan dams has been assessed using an integration of InSAR and in-situ observations. Different types of deformations were recognized, which helped in interpreting the dam's deformation mechanisms.

Impaired wound healing is associated with hyperglycaemia in patients suffering from diabetes mellitus. Hyperglycaemia induces protein glycation and the formation of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs). The accumulation of AGEs in the body leads to structural and functional modifications of tissue proteins. Protein glycation is believed to play an important role in the development of diabetic complications. Thus, inhibition of AGE formation may have a role in the prevention of diabetic complications. This thesis was set out to evaluate the potential effects of compounds with antiglycation activities. The investigated compounds include S-allyl cysteine (SAC), N-acetylcysteine (NAC), as well as the synthesised derivative known as compound A. The extent of glycation in the presence and absence of a number of inhibitors include SAC/NAC and compound A were assessed by several methods including fluorescence, sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE)-silver stain, western blotting and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Moreover, this work aimed to evaluate and quantify the potential of human adipose mesenchymal stem cells (hADMSCs) to release these 'drugs' as potential therapeutics, and therefore hADMSCs were primed with SAC/NAC, compound A and concentration analysed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The SAC/NAC and compound A showed protective effects against AGEs formation. These inhibitors reduced the cell migration and tube formation of cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs) while conditioned medium from SAC/NAC- and compound A-loaded hADMSCs induced the cell migration and tube formation in BAECs. HADMSCs provide a unique opportunity for developing a novel targeting and drug delivery system, which could effectively deliver therapeutics to specific regions of wounds or other damaged tissues. The results show the potential of hADMSCs as a drug delivery method with potential to improve wound healing. The findings from the in vitro study suggest that dietary supplementation with SAC, NAC, and compound A may offer protection against the damage from cross-linked AGEs and therefore would be a potential therapeutic targeting for the development of diabetic complications.

This dissertation study investigated the implementation and perception of special education at international schools in Cairo, Egypt. Of particular interest was the implementation and perception of national government disability policy and the special education policies of the individual international schools in this study. Additionally, this research examined school faculty's perceptions of special education students and their school's ability to meet these students' educational needs. An expanded mixed method sequential explanatory design was employed. Participants completed an electronic survey and a nested sample of respondents participated in semi-structured interviews. Surveys were transcribed then coded. This expanded design included a priori coding followed by emergent coding. Results indicate that school faculty's previous experiences influence their perception of special education in general, and their school's policies and students in particular. While international schools are permitted to have their own policies, existing Egyptian national policies are seen as barriers to the effective implementation of inclusive education policies. This research found that local context eclipsed international influences. As Egyptian policy evolves, international schools in Egypt would benefit from policy implementation guidelines that support effective inclusion practices. This study adds to the now growing research base on disability and special education in Egypt and the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA). [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Spasticity is a common presentation in a wide variety of neurological disorders like cerebral palsy (CP), multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injury. Management of spasticity involves multiple modalities such as physical and occupational therapy, oral medicines, Botulinum toxin injection, and orthopaedic and neurosurgical intervention. Intrathecal Baclofen (ITB) therapy is one neurosurgical intervention to control spasticity in CP patients. The ITB pump is implanted subcutaneously or sub-facially in the abdomen which delivers the baclofen directly to the intrathecal space via a catheter. As a result of by-passing the blood-brain-barrier, intrathecal administration of a hundredth part of the oral baclofen dose is sufficient to relieve spasticity and therefore preventing the peripheral side-effects seen with oral administration. Although the ITB delivery systems demonstrate significant effectiveness in improving spasticity, the ITB delivery system is associated with a high complication rate which could interfere with the desired effect of ITB therapy. Therefore, in a retrospective observational study we aimed to analyse the ITB complications in a large (n=222) consecutive series of patients. The complication rate in relation to the long period of follow-up (939 pump years),was found to be similar or less than those reported in literature. Dystonia, young age and presence of gastrostomy tube were significantly associated with infective complications. Catheter complications were influenced by presence of dystonia and the surgical technique, whether it was a subfascial or subcutaneous implantation. The pump is refilled by baclofen solution. The frequency of refilling is dependent on the daily dosing regime and the concentration of the aqueous solution of baclofen in the pump. Baclofen solutions are available as commercial and compounded products. An experimental controlled study was conducted to evaluate the safety of using higher concentrations of compounded baclofen in comparison to commercial baclofen. Baclofen concentration of the compounded solution was found to be less accurate than the commercial product although it was within an acceptable range from the expected value. The number of invisible particulates was significantly higher in the compounded solution than in commercial baclofen. However, no clinical complications were reported in the compounded or in the commercial baclofen groups. As patients receiving ITB therapy may have clinical benefits of reduction of the severity of spasticity, they could also have improvements in their functional status and quality of life. A survey study to evaluate changes in functional status and heath related quality of life, showed improvement in both aspects, moreover, the improvement in the health related quality of life was more significant than the change in functional status.

The work presented in this thesis is focused on two specific areas of supercritical water oxidation (SCWO). Firstly, the design and testing of an innovative anticorrosive reactor design that can be used for the SCWO of hazardous organic waste. Secondly, exploiting the merits of counter current mixing reactor in combining two processes; Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) and supercritical water hydrothermal synthesis (SCWHS) in one reactor. In Chapter 1, an introduction to supercritical fluid and supercritical water oxidation is given, followed by a brief account of the main problems associated with SCWO. This includes a review of the experience to date, with different reactor designs for corrosion control. This Chapter also provide an introduction to hydrothermal methodology and continuous flow reactor design for nanoparticle production, along with the aims and objective of this PhD. Chapter 2 details the components and construction of the experimental rigs used in this thesis. Additionally, this Chapter presents the principles behind the main analytical techniques used throughout this work, along with the definition of some important parameters. Chapter 3 reports the use of a physical modelling approach to assess mixingdynamics inside three different types of reactor where supercritical water is mixed with a second colder, waste containing, effluent flow. Physical or `pseudo'modelling was used to simulate the general flow patterns and mixing regimes in transparent pseudo reactors (to allow visualization). Towns water was used to simulate the supercritical water flow and 40% w/w aqueous sucrose solution to simulate the cold aqueous effluent flow. This visual technique allowed the quantification of mixing efficiency, as well as identification of issues such as flow recycling, stagnant zones, and other inconsistencies in the mixing dynamics. An upwards co-current protected wall reactor arrangement provided the `best' mixing i.e. with minimal wall contact during the downstream oxidation process. A combined process of SCWO and SCWHS in a continuous counter current reactor is the focus of Chapter 4. Acrylic acid was chosen as a model compound to represent an organic wastewater and the effects of the reaction temperature, residence time, oxidant ratio and acrylic acid concentration on chemical oxygen demand (COD) were all investigated. Two different experimental configurations for oxidant delivery were carried out in `pre-heated' and `non-preheated' oxidant configurations. With a stoichiometric excess of 100% oxygen, COD reduction levels of 80% (non-preheated) and 15% (preheated) were achieved with very short residence times. SCWHS was achieved through the addition of small amounts of various soluble metal salts in the cold up flow resulted in nanoparticles forming which increased the reaction rate and hydrothermal oxidation efficiency. The addition of small amounts of chromium nitrate (>5mM) results in nearly 100% COD reduction at 380C and residence times of 0.75 seconds. The potential economic benefits of combining the two processes together, in the different configurations, were also evaluated. In Chapter 5, The results of the catalytic oxidation in supercritical water of a non-biodegradable and highly toxic organic compound (phenol) are presented. The reactions were studied in a continuous counter current reactor through the in-situ formation of Fe2O3 catalyst. The preliminary results showed that catalytic non-preheated oxidant configuration resulted in increased COD removal when compared to other oxidant delivery methods. It was shown that temperatures below 400C could be used to decompose these compounds into final product and that complete conversion of COD could likely be expected within less than 1 second. It was demonstrated that SCWO combined with SCWHS is a feasible and cost-effective alternative for the destruction of contaminants in water. In Chapter 6, A laboratory-scale protected wall reactor rig was designed, constructed, tested, and operated to validate the pseudo modelling for application to SCWO. SEM, SEM/EDS, and XRD results showed that 1 meter long protected wall reactor was divided into two regions. 25% of the reactor length was protected by the flow of clean supercritical water. Near complete removal of the organic content of 2,4-DCP was obtained at mild operating conditions. To conclude, a summary of the work detailed in this thesis is delivered in Chapter 7. The most pertinent findings from this work are put forward, followed by a discussion of future work which could lead on from this thesis.

Introduction: Interestingly, polyamidoamines (PAAs) are a group of biodegradable cationic polymers that exhibit a transfection efficiency comparable to that obtained with PEI but with a low cytotoxicity compared to other polycationic vectors. However, their cellular adverse effects have only been probed in assays indirectly measuring the cell metabolic activity based on the reduction of tetrazolium salts into coloured formazan derivatives by mitochondrial enzymes such as the MTT, MTS or XTT assays. There is therefore a need for a deeper insight into their cytotoxic profile before their potential as delivery agents in gene therapy can be fully appreciated. Furthermore, the intracellular fate of PAA polyplexes remains unclear to date, prompting questions around the mechanisms underlying their ability to mediate gene transfer. The present work explored cellular events induced by DNA polyplexes prepared using a linear PAA with a methylenebisacrylamide/dimethylethylenediamine (MBA-DMEDA) backbone of a molecular weight over 10kDa with the aim to confirm and better understand the absence of relationship between cytotoxicity and transfection efficiency reported with those vectors. Methods: Complexes were formed between pDNA and branched polyethyleneimine (BPEI, 25 kDa) or various PAAs including a homopolymer of a molecular weight >10 kDa (HP->10), a PEGylated Triblock Copolymer (CP) and a blend of CP and HP->10 to form a bioreducible cross-linked delivery system. Physicochemical properties of pDNA polyplexes were analysed by using simple techniques including gel electrophoresis, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and zeta potential measurement. The transfection efficiency of pDNA complexes was compared in A549 cells using a luciferase reporter gene assay. The impact of endo/lysosomal escape on transfectionefficiency of pDNA polyplexes was investigated by transfecting cells in presence of bafilomycin A1 or chloroquine, whereas the role of reactive oxygen species in transgene expression was evaluated by using hydroquinone as antioxidant. Cytotoxicity caused by the vectors was evaluated by measuring cell metabolic activity, lactate dehydrogenase release, formation of reactive oxygen species and changes in mitochondrial membrane potential. Results: Gel electrophoresis showed complete incorporation of pDNA by individual and cross linked PAA polyplexes at a similar polymer to DNA (RU:Nt) ratio of (2:1). In comparison, pDNA incorporation was achieved by BPEI at a 3:1 RU:Nt ratio. All polymers were able to condense pDNA into nanoparticles of ≤200 nm in diameter with a positive surface charge. Non-PEGylated PAA polyplexes showed higher luciferase activity than the PEGylated counterparts, but lower than that of BPEI. However, in contrast to BPEI vectors, PAA polyplexes caused negligible cytotoxic effects. The transfection efficiency of PAA polyplexes was significantly reduced in presence of bafilomycin A1 while chloroquine either enhanced or decreased transgene expression depending on the RU:Nt. No changes were found in the transfection of PAA polyplexes in the presence of hydroquinone compared to BPEI. Conclusions: PAA polyplexes displayed a pH-dependent endo/lysosomal escape which was not associated with cytotoxic events, unlike observed with BPEI polyplexes. This is likely due to their greater interactions with biological membranes at acidic than neutral pH. The presence of excess polymer is considered necessary for improving transfection efficiency of PAA polyplexes. PAA was identified as promising and safe candidate for in vitro gene delivery and has potential for future in vivo gene therapy.

This thesis reports an investigation about range of intelligent tyre technologies. A piezoelectric transducer was utilized to measure tyre inner liner strain in the longitudinal direction. Tyre driving condition can be recognized from different tyre strain pattern data which is collected from the piezoelectric transducers. Tyre load, slip angle, and rolling speed can be identified from the tyre strain pattern throughout the tyre contact patch area strain pattern. A novel circumferential four-chamber tyre concept was designed, manufactured and tested in this study. These four-chamber prototypes can have independent inflation pressure in each chamber to provide wide range of tyre behavior which is suitable for different road surfaces and driving conditions. The multi-chamber tyre has a range of modes to accommodate urban and motorway driving for rolling resistance and grip control. A multi-chamber tyre finite element model using ABAQUS software was developed from a conventional tyre model to design and validate these tyre prototypes. These multi-chamber tyre prototypes were manufactured with the assistance of Fusion Innovations Ltd and tested in the University of Birmingham tyre test rig. Finally, a shape memory alloy valve design was investigated to control the air flow in the multi-chamber tyre.

Despite having roots in 19th century Europe, Marxism had a deep impact on the trajectory of political ideas in the non-European world in the twentieth century. In particular, anti-colonial thinkers engaged productively with Marx’s ideas as part of their struggle against Empire. Yet, little attention has been paid to the displacements and innovations in political thought as a result of this encounter between anti-colonialism and Marxism. This dissertation aims to fill this gap by studying the history of Indian communism, focusing on the first three decades of the communist movement (1921-1950). I claim that this is an ideal time period to interrogate the formation of political ideas in India, since they presented themselves with particular intensity in the midst of an unfolding anti-colonial struggle, and arguably, the birth of the Indian political. The entry of communist ideas into the charged political environment of the 1920s had an impact on the ideological debates within the Indian polity, as well as stamping Indian communism with its own specific historicity. Through a tracing of debates among communist leaders, as well as their non-communist interlocutors, this work seeks to provide a novel lens to consider the relationship between ideas and their historical actualization, or between the universal and its instantiation in the particular. Moreover, the dissertation argues that the radically different socio-political and historical landscapes of Western Europe and colonial India necessitated a confrontation with the stagist view of history dominant in the history of Western Marxism, prompting novel theoretical work on the issue of political temporality. Consequently, the relationship between necessity and volition, central to enlightenment thought, was radically transformed in the colonial world, particularly in terms of its entanglement with the problem of subjective violence. Engagement with such questions not only impacted Indian political thought, but transformed global communism itself, putting into question the concept of an “originary site” for political ideas. Thus, this work intervenes in debates in three distinct registers: Global Intellectual History, Marxist theory and Indian political thought.

The past century has witnessed significant developments in the field of Performance Measurement Systems (PMSs) in a wide range of disciplines, such as business management, engineering and computer science. Since 2007, PMSs have emerged in the Building Information Modelling (BIM) domain, with at least sixteen BIM Assessment Methods (BIM-AMs) developed to date, in both academia and industry. The need for BIM-AMs has been widely recognised, since they help businesses to track their progress of BIM Implementation and compare their capabilities against other companies. But despite these recent developments, BIM-AMs still face some fundamental challenges, in particular the way most assessments still rely on qualitative and subjective judgements, raising questions over accuracy, practicality and validation. This research presents a new approach to BIM-AMs and combines theory with practice. On the theoretical side, the thesis starts with a comparative overview of current Assessment Methods (AMs) to explore their various characteristic including what they evaluate (projects, organisations, teams or individuals), their range of measures and the way in which they communicate results. On the practical side, three AMs are applied to real case study projects in association with multiple Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) companies. This combination of theory and practice expands and challenges what is currently known about BIM-AMs. It offers a solid foundation to build more in-depth research on BIM measurement. In order to optimise the current AMs, an automated plug-in is developed to measure the Level of Detail of model elements. The automation of BIM assessment is shown to have the potential to deliver less qualitative, more objective and practical approaches of assessment. It has the potential to turn subjective and qualitative measures into quantifiable and objective data and provides fast and user-friendly assessment for the AEC businesses. The positive impact of BIM-AMs has been recognised by academics, professionals and policy-makers. Existing AMs have contributed enormously to the field of BIM assessment, but they will only lead to sharper and more efficient businesses if coupled with automation in evaluation and innovation in choosing appropriate measures.

Power dividers are vital components and widely used in radio technology, such as antenna arrays, power amplifiers, multiplexers and mixers. A good example is the well-known Wilkinson power divider with its distinctive feeding network characteristics. A comprehensive review indicated that limited research is carried out in the area of planar multiport and reconfigurable power dividers in terms of the power levels between output ports. The main objectives of this work were to develop a small size power divider, a planer multi-output ports power divider and a power divider with a reconfigurable power division ratio. These power dividers were designed to operate over either an ultra-wideband frequency (3.1-10.6 GHz) or WLAN bands (2.4 or 5.2 GHz). A novel multi-layered topology solved the complexity of interconnecting isolation resistors by introducing an additional layer below the ground layer. The prototype was fabricated and tested to validate the results. The measurements and simulation were in good agreement. Finally, a novel uniplanar power divider with reconfigurable output power level difference was developed. The configurability feature was achieved by tuning the quarter wave transformer using one varactor diode. The power divider was applied to improve a full duplex system cancellation performance at the receiver element caused by interference from in-site transmitting antennas. This study investigated fixed power dividers, multi-output power dividers and reconfigurable power dividers. The measurements validated by the simulation results and applications proved the designed power dividers could be used in practical applications.

Polar codes were invented as the first error-correcting codes to achieve the capacity for the discrete channels with relatively low-complexity for encoding and decoding. However, this is only possible with significantly large code lengths which are not practical for many systems. Meanwhile, the performance of the finite-lengths polar codes is not competitive with other modern error-correcting codes. This can be attributed to the suboptimality of the decoding process and the relatively poor minimum Hamming distances. This thesis aims to improve the performance of polar codes. The contributions include improving the performance of the conventional successive cancellation decoder. This is based on a novel technique, namely one-step decision delay, which incorporates some extra computational nodes to the code tree. Also, this thesis presents two methods for increasing the Hamming distances of polar codes; in the first, the code rate remains unchanged, while in the second, that produces superior performance, a modest reduction in the code rate occurs. Both methods enhance the performance with using belief propagation decoder. In addition, the latency of the decoding process is reduced by applying the fast Hadamard transform decoder on polar codes for the first time. In this regard, a method to modify the encoder is presented for some lengths that are not normally compatible with the proposed decoder. Interestingly, this modification method has another advantage that in the sense that it increases the minimum Hamming distances of the codes. Furthermore, this thesis presents the utilisation of polar codes in some practical communication systems. Firstly, polar codes are examined over power line communication systems. In this respect, the construction of polar codes is analysed by using three different methods. Additionally, the practical performance of polar codes is illustrated for both single-carrier and multi-carrier channels. Secondly, this thesis explores polar codes for unequal error protection by partitioning the information sets into a number of subsets with different reliabilities. JPEG2000, which is an image compression method, is used for validating the advantages of the proposed technique. Moreover, a new joint source channel decoding is proposed from the combination of the polar decoder and JPEG2000 decoder in order to enhance the quality of the compressed images. Finally, polar codes are investigated for the energy transfer by presenting new subcodes that are chosen according to the weights of the produced codewords. In this context, two modes of energy transfer are presented. The proposed modes can successfully extend the lifetime of the receiver's battery.

An Early Silurian sag basin has been investigated by integration of sedimentological, biostratigraphic, wireline log and seismic data over Central Arabia. This intra-cratonic basin fill includes deep marine, submarine slope, shelf and fluvial deposits, representing a complete basin fill cycle during a long-term post-glacial sea level highstand, with constituent high-order transgressive-regressive cycles. Recent 3D seismic data images large 700 metre high clinoforms downlapping on the base Silurian with an extensive network of slope channels. This study integrates seismic analysis of these features with borehole data, stratigraphic and regional analysis to constrain this ancient depositional system, which is the only documented case (as of 2018) of shelf-prism clinoforms from the pre-vegetation world. Absence of land plants is considered to have enhanced the fine-grained portion of the sediment budget bypassed to the shelf and affected deep water deposition. This study shows these basin margin clinoforms have a very high progradation rate, comparable to that of Quaternary glaciated margin clinoforms of the North Sea. The combined progradation rate and decompacted clinoform thickness indicate an extremely high long-term sediment flux. Sediment provenance and drainage area analysis suggests this high sediment volume into the Rhuddanian basin was provided by a 4-million-square-kilometre catchment extending into the Gondwanan interior. A statistical source-to-sink analysis has helped reconstruction of many of the large-scale morphological and sedimentological parameters of the Rhuddanian succession in central Arabia. The continental-scale drainage is associated with high palaeo-water and -sediment discharge rates, incompatible with the persistent hyperpycnite facies observed throughout the succession, the latter suggesting drainage by smaller rivers. This implies pre-vegetation catchments were drained by many smaller rivers rather than a single large system. Climate simulation of the Early Silurian for an un-vegetated Gondwana shows a cold/temperate climate over the studied depositional system with highly seasonal precipitation, which would promote river flooding and recurring hyperpycnal flows. Analysing Rhuddanian deep-water slope channels shows rapidly-prograding slope clinoforms are associated with low-sinuosity channel elements due to inability of channel-confined turbidity flows to reach equilibrium with the channel floor in such conditions. This study also demonstrates that rapid mud-rich slope progradation associates with highly-organised channel stacked patterns due to the enhanced mud volume entering the slope which increases flow over-spilling and levee development. High slope accretion could lead to basin floor fans made of poorly interconnected lobes because of the constant basinward shift of the sediment entry point into the basin floor.

The Time Reversal (TR) techniques achieve spatio-temporal refocusing either by physical or synthetic retransmission of signals acquired by a set of transceivers in a time-reversed fashion which can be used in various applications, including microwave imaging of hidden targets. This is due to the invariance of wave equations in lossless space. However, the existence of dispersion and loss in the propagation medium breaks this invariance and the resultant TR focusing exhibits frequency and time-dependent degradation. Compensation methods can tackle this degradation to improve focusing resolution under such conditions. In this thesis, we propose an algorithm that utilises inverse filters with threshold approach and different type of windows to compensate for this additional attenuation. The proposed threshold approach reduces the amplification of the unwanted noise in the received signals at the application of the inverse filters. Furthermore, optimum settings for window type and length in the Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) method are obtained through a scanning operation in the propagation medium. While utilizing a large number of windows with short spatial lengths provides improved TR focusing performance, it also increases the overall cost and complexity of the imaging system. The threshold method introduced here achieves improved TR focusing performance without increasing the cost by utilising a lower number of inverse filters. We also identify the limitation of the STFT compensation method in some human tissues. The limitation is overcame by our proposed compensation method with the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) technique. The CWT method uses a size-adjustable window while the STFT method uses a fixed window. This thesis investigates the performance of conventional TR, TR MUltiple SIgnal Classification (TR-MUSIC) and total focusing techniques to detect a tumour in the lung after application of the CWT compensation method to the observed signals.

Conventional solid-state and mass storage memories (such as SRAM, DRAM and the hard disk drive HDD) are facing many technological challenges to meet the ever-increasing demand for fast, low power and cheap data storage solutions. This is compounded by the current conventional computer architectures (such as the von Neumann architecture) with separate processing and storage functionalities and hence data transfer bottlenecks and increased silicon footprint. Beyond the von Neumann computer architecture, the combination of arithmetic-logic processing and (collocally) storage circuits provide a new and promising alternative for computer systems that overcome the many limitations of current technology. However, there are many technical challenges that face the implementation of universal blocks of both logic and memory functions using conventional silicon technology (transistor-transistor logic - TTL, and complementary metal oxide semiconductors - CMOS). Phase-change materials, such as Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST), provide a potential complement or replacement to these technologies to provide both processing and, collocally, storage capability. Existing research in phase-change memory technologies focused on two-terminal non-volatile devices for different memory and logic applications due to their ability to achieve logic-resistive switching in nanosecond time scale, their scalability down to few nanometer-scale cells, and low power requirements. To perform logic functionality, current two-terminal phase-change logic devices need to be connected in series or parallel circuits, and require sequential inputs to perform the required logic function (such as NAND and NOR). In this research programme, three-terminal (3T) non-volatile phase-change memories are proposed and investigated as potential alternative logic cells with simultaneous inputs as reconfigurable, non-volatile logic devices. A vertical 3T logic device structure is proposed in this work based on existing phase-change based memory cell architecture and original concept work by Ovshinsky. A comprehensive, multi-physics finite-element model of the vertical 3T device was constructed in Comsol Multiphysics. This model solves Laplace's equation for the electric potential due to the application of voltage sources. The calculated electric potential and fields provide the Joule heating source in the device, which is used to compute the temperature distribution through solution of the heat diffusion equation, which is necessary to activate the thermally-driven phase transition process. The physically realistic and computationally efficient nucleation- growth model was numerically implemented to model the phase change and resistance change in the Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) phase-change material in the device, which is combined with the finite- element model using the Matlab programming interface. The changes in electrical and thermal conductivities in the GST region are taken into account following the thermally activated phase transformations between the amorphous-crystalline states using effective medium theory. To determine the appropriate voltage and temperature conditions for the SET and RESET operations, and to optimise the materials and thicknesses of the thermal and heating layers in the device, comprehensive steady-state parametric simulations were carried out using the finite-element multi-physics model. Simulations of transient cycles of writing (SET) and erasing (RESET) processes using appropriate voltage pulses were then carried out on the designed vertical 3T device to study the phase transformations for practical reconfigurable logic operations. The simulations indicated excellent resistance contrast between the logic 1 and 0 states, and successfully demonstrated the feasibility of programming the logic functions of NAND and NOR gates using this 3T configuration.

Consumer behaviour is determined by various factors, therefore it is considered as very complex and difficult to predict. This study is an attempt to explore and establish the relationships between various factors that result in impulse buying behaviour during online and offline buying. A preliminary qualitative study was carried out to understand the various situations in which impulse buying takes place. For the preliminary study data was collected by conducting semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis approach has been used for data analysis. The results of the study reveal that in the offline buying store environment, presence of others and crowding plays a vital role, while in online buying website quality, visual appeal and usability of the website increases the chances of impulse buying. In addition it has been found that situational factors such as mood, sales promotion, availability of time and availability of money also have an influence. Important literature was reviewed first and a conceptual framework consisting of the different hypotheses was proposed; then those hypotheses were empirically tested. Quantitative data was collected for the main study by using questionnaires and a self-administrative technique; a total of 312 respondents took part in this study, for which a pilot study was carried out to refine the final questionnaire. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to evaluate the model fit and for further refinement of the constructs. Data was analysed by using structured equation modelling and this approach was used for testing the hypothesized relationship between independent variables (store environment, website characteristics) and dependent variable (impulse buying behaviour). Results of the mediating test shows that situational factors fully mediate the relationship between store environment and impulse buying behaviour. While on the other hand situational factors partially mediate between website characteristics and impulse buying behaviour. The results further reveal that apparel products are impulsively purchased by females most of the time. Food and food items are purchased impulsively by most of the respondents (140) most of the time, whereas a very small number of respondents mentioned that they purchase books impulsively. Results also reveal that situational factors partially mediate between store environment, website characteristics and impulse buying behaviour.

Pervasive wireless communications rely enormously on spectrum utilization; the increase in demand for new wireless services and their application has led to spectrum scarcity. Spectrum limitations can be resolved by cognitive radio (CR) which is a technology that allows secondary users (SUs) to use the spectrum when it is not occupied by primary users (PUs). In this thesis, the security issues that decrease CR performance are discussed; there are two major threats i.e. primary user emulation attack (PUEA) and spectrum sensing data falsification attack (SSDF). Firstly, the CR network (CRN) is simulated whereby PUs and SUs are presented in the system with the presence of multiple malicious users that are randomly located within a circle of radius (R). The simulation results, based on an analytical model, show that the false alarm probability is significantly affected by the network radius Rand malicious users' number, and it is proved that there is a range of R over which the PUEAs are most successful. Secondly, a transmitter verification scheme (direct scheme) and indirect trust scheme that considers the users' history are presented; the results proved that if the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is raised, correspondingly the t:rnstworthiness of the PU is considerably increased. Based on these two schemes, the trnstworthiness of the PU is much higher than that of the malicious user and because the indirect scheme considers the historical behaviour of the user, it improves the user's trustworthiness. Finally, cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) approaches are proposed, namely, a trust based approach, a punishment based approach and a dedicated punishment based approach. It is proved that these proposed CSS approaches outperform the traditional majority scheme despite a high number of malicious users. In addition, the dedicated punishment approaches which punish only the malicious users outperform the other approaches.

In this Work, the potential and feasibility of using structured silicon membranes as an active electro-optical light modulators in the Mid-Wave Infrared MWIR range are evaluated and compared. The near IR pump-Mid IR probe used to investigate spectral, fluence dependence and time dependence optical properties of nano and microporous silicon membranes. The results indicated that the spectral features of both samples is structure dependent parameter including the skeleton dimensions , pore and porosity . Both membranes demonstrated ground state transmission of about 90 % with 60% achievable modulation when pumped at fluences less than 5mJ/cm2. The nanoporous membrane demonstrated response time as fast as few tens of picoseconds allowing its use in the GHz regime, while microporous silicon demonstrated three order of magnitude slower allowing its use in the MHz regime. The time resolved results indicated that the carrier recombination of the microporous silicon follows Shockly Read Hall (SRH) with recombination coefficient of about 1.65 s-1. For nanoporous silicon, the SRH type dominates the recombination at low excitation fluencies, while at higher excitations, the Auger type competes with SRH and even dominates the recombination process. The longer SRH recombination observed at 3.5 µm attributed to vibrational-electronic state coupling.

Urban design emerged in the 1980s linked to the trends of urban marketing in which architecture and its outcomes, i.e. new forms of buildings, have become a physical expression of an economic-political process. However, the quality of these forms has varied from the excellent to the awful and many questions have been raised about the merit of such products, particularly in cities with historic urban contexts. Urban design has provided toolkits that have been applied at different stages of the design control process in order to improve the production of contemporary designs in historic urban contexts, focusing on how all buildings, old and new, work with each other to create spaces and a sense of place, which is seen as influencing the quality of life for communities. This thesis investigates the role of the urban design approach in fitting new proposed forms into their historic contexts, by reviewing its application in a selected number of real-life projects in Edinburgh and York, both of which have substantial and sensitive historic urban contexts. This is done through an examination of documentary evidence of the application of urban design tools and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in the design control process (regulators, developers, designers and a wider range of actors involved in the process). Ultimately, the research proposes, based on the two cities’ experience, some lessons for the city of Damascus in relation to how local planning authorities can improve design quality of proposed new forms into historical urban contexts through applying urban design tools.

Purpose: This research studies the relationship between corporate heritage brand identity and customer satisfaction of John Lewis Partnership (JLP) which is one of the most successful British retail heritage brands internationally. It conceptualizes and addresses the key factors of corporate heritage brand identity including brand price, quality, design, and symbol. It examines the corporate heritage brand experience of JLP customers through which corporate heritage brand identity influences customer satisfaction. It also establishes the moderating role of brand innovation, word of mouth and multiple time dimensions on these relationships. Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual framework of corporate heritage brand identity is developed from the literature review. To improve the validity of this study, semi-structured interviews were carried out with JLP managers, senior partners and their loyal customers recommended by JLP. These interviews have verified and advanced the hypotheses informed from the reviewed literature. This study mainly adopts the quantitative survey research method approach to test the conceptual framework. An online questionnaire was sent to JLP customers through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Off-line paper-based survey questionnaires were collected from customers in JLP stores located in five cities in the UK (London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester and Southampton). In total, a sample of 596 clean questionnaire responses were collected and used for this study to test the developed hypotheses. Findings: Data analysis results have confirmed the dynamic and essential role of heritage brand identity on attaining and sustaining customers' satisfaction of a corporate heritage brand from the retailing industry in the UK. The results revealed that corporate heritage brand identity dimensions (price, quality, design and symbol) are effective in representing the strength of corporate heritage brand identity. The confirmed that the dimensions of the corporate heritage brand identities of this study are indicating positive impacts on corporate heritage brand experience according to the data analysis results. The findings also suggest that these brand experience dimensions (sensory, affective, behavioural and intellectual) have a positive influence on improving customer satisfaction. Additionally, brand innovation and the time stream in this study strengthens the relation between corporate heritage brand identity and corporate heritage brand experience. Furthermore, word of mouth and the prospect future of a corporate heritage brand are of significance to improve customers' satisfaction through positive heritage brand experience. Originality/value: This is one of the few attempts to develop a conceptual framework of corporate heritage brand identity. The conceptual framework has confirmed the multiple dimensions of corporate heritage brand identity (including brand price, quality, design and symbol) and their impact on customers' experience and satisfaction. This study also identified the moderating role of brand innovation, word of mouth and multiple time dimensions on the relationships between corporate heritage brand identity and customers' experience and satisfaction. This is one of the first attempts to study corporate heritage branding management in the retailing industry sector. Managerial implications: The corporate heritage brand identity dimensions identified from this study have the potential to help brand managers develop and augment their corporate heritage brand management strategy, especially for the retailing industry as revealed in this study. Marketers and brand managers need to be aware of their corporate heritage brand treats such as price, quality, design and symbol to satisfy and sustain their customers. The findings reflect the importance of sustaining the traits of corporate heritage brand and being responsive and innovative to the market on time. Additionally, the fundamental function of Word of Mouth (WOM) in extending the communication channels between a brand and customers. The findings confirmed that Time Streams have a central role in demonstrating the identity and sustainability of a corporate heritage brand.

Since the discovery of DNA as the template for protein synthesis, great effort has been made by researchers to develop DNA as a target for drugs and biosensors. For biosensors small molecules DNA-binder are required that change chemical and physical properties (such as absorbance spectra, redox properties) on binding. Proteins and enzymes are still a predominant target for disease therapy. However, DNA can also be a target for medicine.1 In fact,small molecules which bind to DNA function as drugs or as sensitisers in biosensors. This chapter gives a general overview of the DNA structure. Chapter one starts by introducing some important concepts of development of biosensors. The chapter discusses DNA functions and the mode of interaction of small molecules with doublestranded DNA as well as the types of binding, such as electrostatic, intercalation and groove interactions. Moreover, the chapter briefly describes supramolecular and self-assembled nanostructured materials based on natural and synthetic polymers. The chapter finishes with the biophysical techniques which can be used to quantify the interaction between molecules and duplex DNA, such as UV-visible spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) and isothermaltitration calorimetry (ITC).

In an industrial climate where the reduction of carbon emissions are paramount to meeting industry standards for a sustainable future, the cement industry is looking for alternative and creative solutions to reducing its carbon footprint and energy consumption. The title thesis develops a novel process for the production of calcium sulfoaluminate (C$A) cement, a material produced in the Chinese construction industry for use as a rapid hardening binder for 5 decades; but now undergoing rapid change. The novelty of the proposed process lies partly in its source of sulfur. Typically provided by gypsum in conventional raw feeds, the novel process instead sequesters sulfur into the cement solids through the combustion of elemental sulfur. This combustion event, in turn, contributes towards the calorific value required to heat and maintain kiln temperatures by burning fossil fuel, e.g. natural gas. The combustion of sulfur also provides various added benefits. The resultant sulfur-containing atmosphere in the reaction system provides a protective environment which represses S volatilisation at the operating temperatures used for C$A production, ca 1200-1300°C. The studies reported in this thesis were conducted as part of the Green Concrete Project (GCP) funded by the Gulf Organisation for Research and Development (GORD). The novel process is intended to be developed for commercial production in Doha, Qatar. The combustion of sulfur would be additionally beneficial due to the nation's production of vast quantities of natural gas; elemental sulfur is a by-product of the Claus process, used for the desulfurisation of natural gas or sour crude. The proposed novel process would thereby utilise a waste product, i.e. sulfur, for the production of a low carbon cement product.

The first stage of atherosclerosis is endothelial dysfunction (ED) which occurs at sites where the endothelial cell layer is exposed to injury or stress. Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling molecule secreted by the endothelium which regulates function of this vascular barrier. Reduced NO availability is a hallmark of ED. In contrast, inorganic nitrate and vitamin C may boost NO availability. Data synthesis from 14 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) demonstrated that supplementation with inorganic nitrate or beetroot (a rich source of nitrate) improved flow mediated dilation (FMD) significantly. However, the improvement in FMD tended to be smaller in older, overweight/obese participants and in those with underlying cardio-metabolic disease. An umbrella review of 10 meta-analyses revealed weak evidence for an overall effect of vitamin C supplementation on biomarkers of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk but subgroup and meta-regression analyses indicated significant benefits in participants with advanced age, higher BMI, lower vitamin C intake and higher CVD risk. In the first crossover RCT, I tested the effects of a single dose of inorganic nitrate on markers of vascular function (skin microvascular blood flow and circulatory biomarkers) in younger and older obese individuals subjected to acute hyperglycaemia. Inorganic nitrate supplementation produced greater improvements in biomarkers of inflammation (interleukin-6) and oxidative stress (3-nitrotyrosine) in older compared with younger participants. Conversely, greater improvement in biomarkers of endothelial function (P- and E-selectin) was observed in younger rather than older participants. In the second RCT, younger and older non-obese participants were supplemented with inorganic nitrate and vitamin C in a 2x2 factorial design. I found that the administration of inorganic nitrate and vitamin C, individually or combined, significantly improved blood pressure (BP), arterial stiffness and heart rate variability (HRV) indices in older participants. Moreover, inorganic nitrate significantly modified the effects of vitamin C on diastolic BP and HRV in younger participants. Finally, inorganic nitrate and vitamin C co-supplementation yielded synergistic effects on arterial stiffness, HRV indices and circulatory biomarkers. In conclusion, age, obesity and metabolic disorders modify the cardiovascular effects of inorganic nitrate and vitamin C.

This study investigates sociolinguistic variation and change in the dialect of Ha’il city, a dialect that belongs to the Najdi type of dialects, especially Northern Najdi. Two traditional linguistic features of Ha’ili Arabic (HA) are examined: the realisation of the feminine ending (ah) and realisation of the feminine plural suffix (a:t), in relation to three social factors: age (Younger, Middle-aged, Older), gender (Male, Female) and levels of contact (High, Low) with people from different dialectal backgrounds. Raising of the feminine ending -ah is defined as: fronting and raising of short /a/ to /ɛ/ or /e/. In traditional Ha’ili Arabic, /a/ is raised unconditionally in all environments even after guttural and emphatic sounds (Abboud, 1979). The results, however, show progressive lowering of the (ah) variable, constrained by social and linguistic factors. Younger female speakers especially those with high level of contact lead the change toward the innovative and supra-local variant [a], while older speakers, even those with high level of contact, maintain the use of the traditional variant [e] at a very high rate (96%). Women are slightly ahead of men in using [a]. Such gender patterning can be interpreted in relation to the fact that there is no negative social meaning associated to the use of the two variants. Regarding the second variable (a:t), /t/ in the feminine plural suffix -a:t can be lenited to /h/ or /j/ in HA. According to previous research (Abboud, 1964 and Ingham, 1982, 2009), lenition of /a:t/ is linguistically conditioned by the following environment. It is promoted pre- pausally and when the following word begins with a consonant, but it is precluded when followed by a vowel across word boundary. The results show that the innovative variant [a:t] is highly favoured when it is followed by a vowel across word boundary. Additionally, the number of syllables and the stress on the final syllable appear to have a minimal effect on the realisation of (a:t). All the younger speakers, except low contact female speakers, use the innovative variant categorically, while the older speakers use it at a rate of 52%. Concerning gender, men are found to lead the change in using [a:t] than women. This gender pattern is explained with reference to men’s social interaction, mobility and to the overt stigmatisation associated with the use of the traditional variants [a:j] and [a:h] by male speakers. Overall, a progressive levelling out of local/marked features in HA has been observed in favouring the innovative features found in the emerging supra-local variety in the central region of Saudi Arabia.

Petroleum companies contribute to the largest proportion of environmental degradation in Libya. In support, the 2014 environmental performance index ranks Libya 120th out of 178 countries which suggest the country faces serious environmental degradation, unlike the developed countries. It is necessary to critically investigate the key environmental sustainability issues faced by the Libyan petroleum companies to develop a Sustainability Management System (SMS). The research aims to develop a SMS for the petroleum companies through critical investigations of sustainability-related impacts, issues, and barriers to the sustainability approaches, and to develop suggestions for reduction of the adverse effects. The mixed-methods approach involved a survey-based questionnaire and field visits for interviews (semi-structured) with a number of stakeholders. An Environmental Impact Assessment study (EIA) was also conducted as a case study in one of the field visits. Furthermore, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study to Libyan crude oil. The survey questionnaire was used to collect data from the workers. The interviews provide insight into the concerns, barriers, and challenges from the policy makers, environmentalists, and industrial professionals at a senior level. The use of life-cycle assessment (LCA) has further outlined the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the petroleum industry in Libya. Data analysis was performed through triangulation of the qualitative and quantitative approaches. The LCA results show that there are diverse environmental impacts caused by the Libyan petroleum industry, which require the implementation of an SMS to minimise these impacts. EIA results revealed high levels of environmental impacts mainly associated with air emissions such as GHGs and hazardous H2S along with oil spillages, at the upstream and downstream levels of production. Interviews and the survey confirmed that there are issues/obstacles associated with sustainability in the Libyan petroleum sector which limits the provision of quality and efficient services. The current approaches adopted by companies are neither matched with the developments in the sustainability field in other developed countries nor fit, with the managerial or governance processes. The proposed SMS, applicable in developing countries, proposes the incorporation of environmental factors to increase the scope of stakeholders’ participation in the process, as well as the environmental performance of petroleum companies.

A high level of competition in the food industry, specifically in the Middle East and the UK has forced companies to improve their processes by reducing lead time, waste, and costs and increasing production efficiency. The main challenge to the achievement of the process improvement objectives is the high level of process variability. Therefore, this research investigates the different types of variability in food production system and proposes a methodology to reduce the effect variability in food production system. The variability can be caused by several factors, for instance, in biscuit production lines variability can be induced due to short breakdown and long breakdown, variable processing times, variable temperature, etc. The proposed approach addresses process time variability issues associated with both make-to-stock (MTS) and make-to-order (MTO) manufacturing environments using an iterated approach. The proposed methodology integrates process mapping, (which is a lean tool for identifying value added and non-value added activities), discrete event simulation (to mirror the real production line), Taguchi orthogonal arrays (to generate different scenarios in order to investigate the effect of variability on the simulation model), correlation analysis (to identify the highest variability factors), and the rule based system (to improve food production system performance based on identified key performance indicators (KPIs)). The research uses a biscuit production line as a case study to validate the proposed methodology. The application of the proposed approach determines that the highest effected KPI is %working. The results showed that after implementation of the rule-based system, key performance improved in high variable areas. Results analysis based on before scenario shows that %working performance indicator is highly effected by variable temperature, speed, and breakdown factors for high variable areas such as baking, cooling, aligning, and packing. Based on identified factors and high variable areas, rules are developed by applying standardisation setting (SOP, WI, PP) in high variable areas and the results shows %working improved in baking by 4.78%, in cooling by 16.06%, in aligning by 0.35%, in packing machine1 by 2.5%, in packing machine2 by 2.37%, in packaging1 by 3.35%, and in packaging2 by 3.16%. The integrated method allow quick response , control the environment without production interruption, reduce number of experiments , and reducing variability in high variable areas, which narrowed the improvement in the required areas and increased its effectiveness.

Crude oil is arguably one of the most complex organic mixture in nature. Therefore, crude oil characterisation requires the use of high resolution and high mass accuracy mass spectrometer such as FT-ICR MS; needed to resolve thousands of ions and assign their elemental formulae. Different heteroatom containing compounds classes are present in crude oil such as N1, S1 and O2 containing compounds. These compounds cause variety of different problems such as N containing compounds cause catalyst deactivation for processes such as hydrodesulfurisation. The choice of the ionisation technique and its polarity is critical to the type of compounds that are observed in a crude oil mass spectrum. Two main studies for crude oil samples are covered in this thesis. The first is crude oil-1, 2 and 3 characterisation using ESI and APPI. The second is structural elucidation of nitrogen containing compounds in crude oil-2. Positive ion ESI FT-ICR MS ionises basic molecules in crude oils. In the literature crude oil samples are dissolved using different ratios of toluene:methanol. The effect of using different solvent composition is often not regarded as important factor to consider. One of the reasons is the addition of ionisation enhancing additive such as formic acid, thought to normalise the ionisation response across different sample solvent composition. However, the solvent composition study data show that different toluene:methanol ratios play a critical role on the ionisation response of nitrogen containing compounds in different crude oils even with the addition of formic acid. Three different ratios were used which are toluene:methanol solvent ratios of 1:9, 3:7 and 6:4 with and without the addition of 0.1% formic acid for the analysis of crude oil-1, 2 and 3. The highest ionisation for N1 containing compounds are achieved through using toluene:methanol ratio of 1:9 with 0.1% formic acid. Further to this the increase of toluene content in the sample solvent decreased the ionisation of N1 containing compounds in the analysed crude oils even with the addition of formic acid. However, the rate of decrease in the ionisation of N1 containing compounds is more significant for crude oil-1 and 2 compared to crude oil-3. Thus, comparing nitrogen containing compounds among different crude oils should be undertaken using the solvent composition, toluene:methanol ratio of 1:9 with 0.1% formic acid. Another aspect for the solvent composition study is that multimer formation is not only concentration driven but as well sample solvent composition dependent. The data showed that multimer formation in N1 DBE versus carbon number plots are reduced with acid addition and methanol content increase in the sample solvent. The use of positive ion ESI allowed the ionisation of basic compounds in crude oil-1, 2 and 3. To ionise non-polar classes such as aromatics and thiophene containing compounds in crude oil-1, 2 and 3 positive ion APPI is used. Aromatics and thiophene were the most abundant ions in crude oil-1, 2 and 3 mass spectra. No significant difference in ion intensities for these ions were observed for crude oil-1, 2 and 3 mass spectra. However, the use of negative ion APPI showed major differences in the ions intensities of crude oil-1, 2 and 3 regarding HC, HC-R, N1, S1 and S1-R classes. Further, comparable data for the O2 class were obtained using negative ion ESI and APPI Orbitrap MS for crude oil-1, 2 and 3. Thus, negative ion APPI Orbitrap MS can be used to compare the O2 class relative abundance among different crude oils. Further to the characterisation study, structural elucidation of nitrogen containing compounds in crude oil-2 using positive ion ESI FT-ICR MS/MS was undertaken. Understanding the chemical structure might have applications in designing more effective catalysts for HDN process. At first a method development approach was undertaken to reduce the analysis time to 4.5 min and increase detection of low m/z low intensity fragment ions. This aim was achieved through increasing the ion accumulation time from 0.05 s to 5 s with averaging 40 spectra. Different N1 precursor ions were isolated at different DBE values and degree of alkylation. A collision energy of 60 V was required to observe characteristic fragment ions such as N expulsion for N1 precursor ion with DBE value of 13.5. While for N1 precursor ion at DBE value of 6.5 a CE 40 V was enough to observe characteristic fragment ions. However, different approach was used for N1 precursor ion with low DBE values, isolating the precursor ion with the lowest degree of alkylation. This approach was essential to observe N expulsion fragment ions for N1 precursor ion with DBE value of 6.5. The core aromatic structure for N1 precursor ions from DBE values of 3.5 to 10.5 were suggested. This suggestion was based on N expulsion fragment ion and the dealkylated fragment ion. Furthermore, N expulsion from the aromatic ring supports the postulation that the nitrogen in the various precursor ions discussed is pyridinic. This was further confirmed for N1 precursor ion with DBE value of 6.5 using a model compound, 2-butlyquinoline.

Up to 10% of patients following Total Hip Replacement (THR) are symptomatic for a Leg Length Inequality (LLI), commonly being up to 20mm longer on the operated side. With 100,000 patients undergoing THR in 2015, 8.7% of all errors in the NHS being attributed to an LLI and malpractice claims being frequent, understanding why certain patients are symptomatic whilst others remain asymptomatic is of great importance. Anthropometric and demographic measurements together with gait analysis results were compared between a group of 26 symptomatic LLI patients following THR, 14 asymptomatic THR patients and 38 healthy individuals using Plug-in-Gait. Statistically significant results were found for height, with LLI patients generally being 6% shorter than their THR counterparts. Gait analysis results using Visual3D and AnyBody found LLI patients demonstrated reductions in peak joint forces, ground reaction forces, moments and knee flexion relative to the THR and healthy group. This was linked to LLI patients walking 20% and 59% slower than their THR and healthy counterparts respectively. Wear analysis found that LLI patients had 9% greater sliding distances than THR patients per stride together with more unidirectional motion paths. A thorough critique of Plug-in-Gait found the clinical results were generally reliable. Further sensitivity analyses however highlighted the weaknesses of the model if used improperly, with a 45mm error in lateral thigh marker positioning leading to a 10% change in hip flexion angle. The choice of hip joint centre regression equation, errors in joint width measurement and the use of CAST over PiG were also found to have a profound effect on kinematic results. It was concluded that LLI patients were symptomatic due to a combination of a greater LLI magnitude to height ratio, leading to greater pelvic obliquity in smaller individuals, and weakened muscles/soft tissues at the hip causing an asymmetric gait.

The thesis aims to deconstruct the traditional dualities between design and use and blend the boundaries between them. It characterises design as a process that is complex, dynamic, and integral to other processes, such as use. The thesis utilises Latour's concept of the collective. Although this concept has been applied to architectural contexts in previous studies, this thesis expands the collective to include actors of use. The thesis elaborates on the inscription and description of technologies inspired by Akrich (1992). It shows how the collective is shaped and reshaped through such processes. Building parallels with previous studies, it analyses the importance of fluidity and fluid actors in de-scribing technologies and reshaping the collectives. The thesis utilises the case of Masdar City, which has been designed in the UK by the architectural and urban planning firm Foster + Partners and implemented in the Middle East, specifically in the United Arab Emirates. The thesis focuses on its first developed stage represented by Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST). Based on a qualitative and inductive approach, the conducted research utilises interviews and site observations with the designers, users, and other main contributors. Through this approach, the thesis reflects on the concept of sustainability that is itself contested, changeable, and vague. The thesis concludes that sustainable design processes should be seen as continuous loops between design and use. In acknowledging this, it is further suggested that concepts such as the living laboratory, which support the adaptation of designs and learning from use, are adopted at the outset in architectural production.

As part of the natural evolution and continued optimisation of their designs, current and future magnetic recording heads, used and proposed in technologies such as perpendicular recording, shingled magnetic recording and two-dimensional magnetic recording, often exhibit asymmetry in their structure. They consist of two semi-infinite poles separated by a gap (where the recording field is produced), with an inner gap faces inclined at an angle. Modelling of the fields from asymmetrical structures is complex, and no explicit solutions are currently available (only implicit conformal mapping solutions are available for rational inclination angles). Moreover, there is limited understanding on the correlation between the gap corner angle and the magnitude, distribution and wavelength response of these head structures. This research was therefore set out to investigate approximate analytical and semi-analytical methods for modelling the magnetic potentials and fields of two-dimensional symmetrical and asymmetrical magnetic recording heads, and deliver a quantitative understanding of the behaviour of the potentials and fields as functions of gap corner angles. The accuracy of the derived expressions (written in terms of the normalised root-mean-square deviation) was assessed by comparison to exact available solutions for limited cases, and to finite-element calculations on Comsol Multiphysics. Two analytical methods were derived to approximately model the fields from two-dimensional heads with tilted gap corners in the presence and absence of a soft magnetic underlayer (SUL): in the first method, the potential near a single, two-dimensional corner held at a constant potential is derived exactly through solution of Laplace's equation for the scalar potential in polar coordinates. Then through appropriate choice of enclosing boundary conditions, the potentials and fields of two corners at equal and opposite potentials and displaced from each other by a distance equal to the gap length were superposed to map the potential and field for asymmetrical and symmetrical heads. For asymmetrical heads, the superposition approximation provided good agreement to finite-element calculations for the limited range of exterior corner angles 0 from 0 (right-angled corner) to 45, due to the mismatch of surface charge densities on both poles for this geometry. For symmetrical head structures, the superposition approximation was found to yield remarkable agreement to exact solutions for all gap corner orientations from 0 (right-angled head) to 90 ("thin" gap head). In the second method derived in this research for modelling asymmetrical heads involved using a rational function approximation with free parameters to model the surface potential of asymmetrical heads. The free parameters and their functional dependence on corner angle were determined through fitting to finite-element calculations, enabling the derivation of analytical expressions for the magnetic fields that are in good agreement with exact solutions for all corner angels (0 to 90). To complement the two approximate methods for modelling the fields from asymmetrical and symmetrical heads, a new general approach based on the sine integral transform was derived to model the reaction of soft underlayers on the surface potential or field of any two-dimensional head structure, for sufficiently close head-to-underlayer separations. This method produces an infinite series of correction terms whose coefficients are functions of the head-to-underlayer separation and gap corner angle, that are added to the surface potential or field in the absence of an underlayer. This new approach demonstrated good agreement with finite-element calculations for sufficiently close head-to-underlayer separations, and with the classical Green's functions solutions for increasing separations. Using the derived analytical method and explicit expressions in this work, an understanding of the nature of the magnetic fields and their spectra as functions of the gap corner angles is gained. This understanding and analytical theory will benefit the modelling, design and optimisation of high performance magnetic recording heads.

Motion is a very important part of understanding the visual picture of the surrounding environment. In image processing it involves the estimation of displacements for image points in an image sequence. In this context dense optical flow estimation is concerned with the computation of pixel displacements in a sequence of images, therefore it has been used widely in the field of image processing and computer vision. A lot of research was dedicated to enable an accurate and fast motion computation in image sequences. Despite the recent advances in the computation of optical flow, there is still room for improvements and optical flow algorithms still suffer from several issues, such as motion discontinuities, occlusion handling, and robustness to illumination changes. This thesis includes an investigation for the topic of optical flow and its applications. It addresses several issues in the computation of dense optical flow and proposes solutions. Specifically, this thesis is divided into two main parts dedicated to address two main areas of interest in optical flow. In the first part, image registration using optical flow is investigated. Both local and global image registration has been used for image registration. An image registration based on an improved version of the combined Local-global method of optical flow computation is proposed. A bi-lateral filter was used in this optical flow method to improve the edge preserving performance. It is shown that image registration via this method gives more robust results compared to the local and the global optical flow methods previously investigated. The second part of this thesis encompasses the main contribution of this research which is an improved total variation L1 norm. A smoothness term is used in the optical flow energy function to regularise this function. The L1 is a plausible choice for such a term because of its performance in preserving edges, however this term is known to be isotropic and hence decreases the penalisation near motion boundaries in all directions. The proposed improved L1 (termed here as the steered-L1 norm) smoothness term demonstrates similar performance across motion boundaries but improves the penalisation performance along such boundaries.