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The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) specified that children with disabilities have the right to equitable educational and mainstream services that are irrespective of context. However, obtaining equitable education for children with disabilities is challenging in low- and middle-income countries (e.g., Bangladesh) due to limited resources, stigma, accessibility and fundings. The goal of this study was to explore the experiences of families in their journey to obtain equitable education for their children with disabilities in Bangladesh. This study was conducted in one school, in a major city in Bangladesh, that was founded by families of children with disabilities. These families advocated for change at the micro level in response to a lack of support and options for securing services to meet the needs of their children in their city of residence. Three founding members of this school were interviewed to learn about their rationale and process while establishing the school. Additionally, 17 family members of students who are currently attending this school were also interviewed to learn about their perceptions of this school as well as the processes they encountered on their journeys. Through my interviews, I learned about the ways that families navigated through their societies in efforts to tread uncharted environments that ultimately landed them to defy status quo and push boundaries in support of children with disabilities. [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.]

Within contemporary processes of forced displacement, complex concepts of home, place and belonging produce personal and collective behaviour based on the interactions with a refugee's host land. These reactions to displacement continue, no matter how long the exile is protracted. The impact of unstable feelings and perceptions of home and belonging will remain within the individual and the diaspora and are passed down through generations. Their emergence is specified by locality, experiences and interactions that generate feelings of disorder, complexity and chaos. The main contribution of this exegesis, which reflects on visual art practice as research, is a new perspective into a recognised key problem of the perceptions of home amongst diaspora communities. An empirical connection between people and places through an artist's experience is used to examine this sense of dislocation. The critical reflection on artistic practice responds to the refugee crisis within the Middle East after 1990 and the direct influence of my visual art practice through 32 years, including as a forcibly displaced artist. Personal experiences of displacement underpin both art practice and critical reflection. The methods used form an interplay between theory and practice, based on the production of a series of sculptural and installation works and a written exegesis that draws attention to the social production of home and belonging; modern perspectives of home are analysed through literature, context and creative practice. The significant problem of identifying and perceiving other places as home is approached from an artist's perspective to obtain outcomes that differ from conventional models. Detailed outcomes expose mixed processes of creating that are all related to an artist's voice and vision. The approach taken provides an alternative method of studying the concept of home through visual art and conceptual creative practice. Further contributions and comparisons with various artist practitioners are made throughout this exegesis and provide a significant foundation for study of the visual representation of perceptions of home in a new setting, portraying a continued sense of exile between homeland and host land.

Soil compaction represents a major agronomic challenge, inhibiting root growth and resource capture, causing significant yield losses. Roots employ ethylene to sense soil compaction as its reduced air space causes this gaseous signal to accumulate around root tips (Pandey et al., 2021). One of the key aims of Chapter 2 is to investigate the underlying hormonal signals and regulatory genes that control compaction resistance in tomato. The aims will be achieved by exploiting prior knowledge gained from the model plants and crops (i.e., Arabidopsis, rice, and maize). My results reveal that during soil compaction stress tomato roots employ the volatile hormone signal ethylene to promote root growth inhibition. For example, less ethylene-sensitive tomato lines were observed to exhibit root growth resistance to compaction stress. The aim of my thesis objective is to identify the underlying genes that control root penetration to provide a mechanistic understanding of root-determined processes that influence traits within and beyond the root. This knowledge can be vital for longer-term breeding strategies to deliver novel varieties into commercial practice. Hormone signals like ethylene have recently been reported to play a critical role in soil compaction responses in crops like rice (Pandey et al., 2021). Ethylene is likely to employ other downstream signals to mediate these compaction responses like cortical radial cell expansion. Rice roots grown in compacted soil conditions exhibit elevated levels of the signal abscisic acid (ABA). In Chapter 3, I explore the role of ABA during rice root compaction responses. My results reveal that soil compaction inhibits rice root growth by increasing the ethylene response, which then upregulates several abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis genes. Testing the functional importance of their upregulation revealed mutations in rice ABA biosynthetic genes like OsMHZ5 disrupt radial cortical expansion in compacted soil, suggesting ABA acts downstream of ethylene to control this adaptive response. Water stress regulates several root adaptive responses including compaction (focus of Chapter 3). In Chapter 4, I investigate how water stress controls lateral root outgrowth. Lateral root branching and length play essential roles during adaptation to water stress. To identify potential regulators of this adaptive process, GWAS predictions on a root phenotype dataset generated for a maize diversity panel subjected to water stress were analysed. One promising loci predicted by GWAS encoded a suberin synthesis gene. I tested the impact of a loss-of-function mutant allele in Arabidopsis, which exhibited significantly higher lateral root (LR) length compared to wild-type (WT; Col-0). Moreover, mutant roots display a similar longer lateral root phenotype as suberin degradation line pCASP1::CDEF, suggesting there is a link between root surface area and suberin-based water-impermeable barrier formation in roots. The spatial relationship between suberin biosynthesis and lateral root development under environmental stress conditions awaits expressing these transgenic lines in a mutant background.

Purpose: 1) To ascertain whether a) first-order statistical features from 18F-fluoride and 18F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography / computed tomography (PET/CT), or b) non-invasive measurement of changes in plasma clearance of 18F-fluoride (Ki) to bone mineral on 18F-fluoride PET/CT could provide incremental value in response assessment of breast cancer bone metastases compared with maximum standardised uptake value (SUVmax). 2) To ascertain whether for 18F-fluoride PET, mean SUV (SUVmean), metabolic tumour volume (MTV) or total lesion metabolism (TLM) parameters for whole skeletal (WS) could differentiate between progressive disease (PD) and non-PD better than the average of 5 target ROIs, the biggest or hottest lesions, and if any of the WS parameters were able to predict survival. 3) To ascertain the robustness of a clinical reference standard for response assessment of breast cancer bone metastases in order to determine its reliability. Methods: 18F-FDG and 18F-fluoride PET/CT scans were acquired before and 8 weeks after commencing treatment. Percentage changes in SUV parameters, Ki, MTV, TLM, standard deviation (SD), entropy, uniformity and absolute changes in kurtosis and skewness, from the same ≤ 5 index lesions, were measured. Associations were made between parameters and progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Venous blood samples were taken at 55 and 85 minutes post-injection of 18F-fluoride to calculate Ki in individual bone metastases. Clinical response up to 24 weeks was used as a reference standard. 3-D segmentation of the skeleton on 18F-fluoride PET was performed using semi-automatic methods. An anonymised questionnaire was formulated containing all the relevant clinical patient information at 8, 12 and 24 weeks. Results: In patients with PD, 18F-fluoride PET/CT TLM and kurtosis predicted PD better than SUVmax on a per-patient basis (4, 4 and 3 out of 4, respectively) and TLM, entropy, uniformity and skewness on a lesion basis (18, 16, 16, 18 and 15 out of 20, respectively). Kurtosis was independently associated with PFS (p = 0.033) and OS (p = 0.008). In patients with PD, mean 18F-fluoride Ki significantly increased (>25%) in all, SUVmax in 3 and SUVmean in 2. In non-PD patients, Ki decreased or remained stable in 7, SUVmax in 5 and SUVmean in 6. A significant mean percentage increase in Ki from baseline occurred in patients with PD compared with SUVmax and SUVmean (89.7% vs 41.9% and 43.8%, respectively; p<0.001). Using the ROC cut-offs, in all 19 patients; WS SUVmean, performed better than 5 ROIs, biggest and hottest lesions (16, 15, 14, 14 out of 19, respectively). Generally, in all patients, correlations were present between WS and 5 ROIs and WS and the hottest lesion for SUVmax {(r=0.847, p=0.001), (r=1.00, p<0.001) respectively}, SUVmean {(0.779, p<0.001), (0.467, p=0.044), respectively} and TLM {(0.686, p=0.001), (0.535, p=0.018), respectively). In the 4 patients with PD, correlations were seen between WS and 5 ROIs for SUVmax (1.00, p<0.001) and SUVmean (1.00, p<0.001), respectively. In WS, the median % changes in TLM and MTV were statistically significantly higher in patients with PD than non-PD {171.4% vs 5.2% (p=0.002), 141.8 vs 3.5% (p=0.004) compared to median % changes in SUV parameters. Using 5 ROIs, median % changes in SUVmax, SUVmean, TLM and MTV were not significantly different in patients with PD or non-PD. None of the parameters for the WS were able to predict survival. When clinical responses were classified as PD and non-PD, the strength of agreement was highest (very good) at 24 weeks, κ=0.87 (CI=0.64, 1.0). The median OS and PFS was higher in patients with PD than non-PD, though not statistically significant. Conclusion: 1) With 18F-fluoride PET/CT, some first-order features provide incremental value over SUVmax in predicting clinical response and survival in breast cancer bone metastases treated with endocrine therapy. 18F-fluoride Ki more reliably differentiates PD from non-PD than SUVmax and SUVmean. 2) Overall, WS tumour burden assessment on 18F-fluoride provides no incremental value over methods such as the average of 5 ROIs; the biggest and the hottest lesions in predicting response to treatment in breast cancer bone metastases. 3) Using a clinical reference standard derived from standard clinical, imaging and biochemical tests at 24 weeks to differentiate PD from non-PD categorisation is reproducible.

High shear melt granulation (HSMG) is an established technology for a production of densified granules. In this project, it was used as a novel solvent-free method for the preparation of cocrystals. Cocrystals produced by HSMG were compared to those prepared by Hot Melt Extrusion (HME) to investigate the influence of variable parameters and conditions on the process of cocrystal conversion. The potential for the active control of cocrystals polymorphism utilising the intrinsic properties of lipids was also investigated in this project. Different cocrystal pairs were prepared by both cocrystallisation methods using glycol derivative polymers. Thermal analysis, powder X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy were used as analytical techniques to determine the cocrystal yield and purity. The results obtained from HSMG suggest that sufficient binder concentrations (above 12.5% w/w) in a molten state and continuous shearing force are necessary to achieve a complete cocrystals conversion. Further increase in binder concentration (15% w/w) was found to provide more regular shape and smooth surface to the prepared spherical granules. Cocrystals preparation by HME was achievable after introducing a mixing zone to the extruder configuration (Conf B and Conf C) providing densified extrudates containing pure cocrystals. In conclusion, HSMG was found as a versatile technique for the preparation of pure pharmaceutical cocrystals embedded in polymer matrix within a spherical shape granule of smooth surfaces, providing additional desirable characteristics. Intensive surface interaction, enhanced by sufficient mixing under optimal parameters, was found as a key influencing factor in cocrystallisation. Cocrystals polymorphism was actively controlled by employing the intrinsic properties of polymers and lipids.

This thesis is focused on the most salient area within the public private partnerships (PPPs) literature, namely, the concern about the attainment of the public interest. Accordingly, it addresses the gap identified in the PPP research field with regards to assessing the governance of PPPs from a broader stakeholder perspective and investigating the question of how the public interest could be served. The fundamental ideas of the Strategic Choice Framework (SCF) are adopted for this study as a means to explore democratic governance and to examine the performance of the market-based reform of the important strategic sector of electricity, and how PPP projects might be in the public interest. The thesis enriches our understanding of PPPs through a unique case study investigation of a developing economy, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). In evaluating PPP project performance, the study incorporates the concept of 'practice of contracting' to the SCF to assess dynamic economic efficiency. The study shows that the choice of adopting PPP projects to reform the electricity sector has not been based upon the diverse and democratically chosen wider public objectives. The KRI's electricity sector case shows that the wider stakeholder objectives of developing the electricity sector through PPPs should be incorporated in order to attain outcomes that are in the public interest. The research also explores the governance structure of PPPs and the electricity sector as a whole to identify the governance issues and their implications for wider stakeholder interests. The study suggests public participation in PPP governance and the design of an effective process to engage stakeholders so as to have 'voice' in the strategic decision-making and development processes. The study incorporates the Senecah's (2004) 'Trinity of Voice' concept in order to examine the ways in which stakeholder engagement in the strategic decision-making process can be effective.

The important role of the central intermediary metabolite acetyl-coenzyme A (AcCoA)for several anabolic and catabolic pathways is well characterised. However, the role of AcCoA as the only known donor of acetyl groups for protein acetylation in regulation of enzyme activities, protein complex stability as well as epigenetic status off chromatin, is only recently emerging. Among multiple other pathways, the autophagy pathway has now been shown to be directly regulated by protein acetylation and deacetylation. Therefore, it was reasoned that the availability of AcCoA, via the modulation of AcCoA generating enzymes, may regulate autophagy. This study has focussed on the role of the acetate-mediated route to nuclear-cytosolic AcCoA synthesis, catalysed by AcCoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2), in the regulation of autophagy.

The current study is a diachronic study of the use of English loan words in Kurdish political discourse between 1993 and 2013, based on political articles in the Xebat newspaper. During this period a series of radical changes have occurred in socio-political domains in Kurdish society. The coincidence of these changes is expected to have caused a considerable number of borrowings in the representation of political notions. The motivation behind this study is the frequent use of English loan words in the Central Kurdish dialect as a consequence of the period of intense contact between Kurdish and English in the Kurdistan region of Iraq from 2003 to 2013. The data demonstrates that there is a dramatic increase in the frequency of use of English loan words most notably in 2005 and 2011 in response to political, economic, and cultural changes in Kurdish society and its increased contact with the English language. In contrast, the frequency of Arabic loan words reduced gradually after Arabic ceased being used as an official language for education, administration, and politics in Iraqi Kurdistan, in 1992. The data shows that lexical transference is definitely the most common category of transference from English into the dialect as a consequence of the lexical needs of different political terminologies. The examination of semantic fields in this study indicates that English words have been borrowed across a range of political and general spheres. In particular, the results suggest that the high level of borrowing was caused by lexical gaps, such as in the lexis of administration. The Kurdish language had many gaps in this field because its users did not use their language in any administrative official structure until after 1992, when the new political processes necessarily required a great deal of new terminology relating to forming administrative and economic structures and, ultimately, a new government. The study also explores the process of adaptation by which loan words from English are modified within the structure of the Central Kurdish dialect. The results indicates that the majority of these loan words are adapted to the phonological, orthographical and morphological structure of this dialect of the Kurdish language and that many have become productive elements within the dialect.

This research critically challenges the conventional understanding of terrorism, which is influenced by the views of states that label certain non-state actors as terrorists and their action as terrorism. The research demonstrates that there is a need to critically study the characteristics of every armed conflict constructed as terrorism. This is the case of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, which is constructed in the Turkish official discourse as a phenomenon of terrorism perpetrated by the PKK. In addition, the Turkish narrative of terrorism is not limited to the PKK, but it transcends to the Syrian Kurdish PYD and YPG, and other Kurdish movements and individuals. The findings of this research reveal that the Turkish official narrative of terrorism functions to achieve two main goals. The first goal is to delegitimize the PKK and the other Kurdish movements. The second goal is to legitimize the repressive policies of the Turkish authorities regarding these movements in particular and the Kurds in general. This is interconnected with the denial of the existence of the Kurdish question and framing it in the context of the narrative of terrorism. The research also reveals that the language and policy of peace and war could change according to the interests of states’ elites. This is the case of the approach of the Turkish authorities regarding the Kurdish question, which changed under the influence of the elections and voting agendas of Erdogan and AKP. The research found that during the peace process and before the June 2015 elections, the approach of Turkish authorities was pro-peace negotiations and non-military action. However, as the AKP was not able to secure the majority that it sought in the June elections, the AKP authorities abandoned the peace process and adopted a military campaign and repressive policies. The latter matched the appeal of the AKP leadership to the votes of nationalist Turks in the November 2015 elections and the April 2017 referendum.

This study investigates the Middle–Upper Jurassic strata of Northern Iraq. These Jurassic strata crop out as isolated patches in eroded cores of a highly folded and imbricate thrusted zone of the Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq. Three field campaigns covered seven different areas, in a transect approximately 450 km long from Chnaran to Bank village. In total almost 500 samples were collected, and approximately 350 thinsections were prepared. The goal of this study was to describe lithofacies in detail and establish a better understanding of the depositional environments and basin evolution through field description, petrography, SEM, and microfacies analyses. The study also aimed to understand the sequence stratigraphic development of the Upper Jurassic in the Gotnia Basin generally, and their influence on the study area specifically. Specific work focused on investigating the possible causes of Posidonia and radiolaria concentrations, and reconstruct their depositional environment. Determine the causative factors in facies transitions that may represent rapid shifts from open-marine pelagic to sabkha environment. The upper part of the Sargelu Formation comprises a mixture of three different lithofacies alternating with each other at intervals of several decimetres thick, and these lithofacies comprise Posidonia-bearing limestone, radiolarian bedded chert, and black shale. Seasonal monsoonal upwelling can explain radiolarite deposition in the central Neotethyan basins during the Jurassic. The upwelling is the most likely source of chert formation at the upper part of Sargelu Formation. Detailed examination of different lithofacies in Sargelu Formation also reveals sedimentary features interpreted here as resedimented carbonate turbidite strata. Five members are recognised in the Naokelekan Formation composed of a mix of black shale, limestones, including thick-bedded mottled limestones, and evaporites. The topmost strata in the formation include evidence for relatively shallow environments such as oolites and oncolites. Deep-sea microbial stromatolite overgrowths on ammonite shells, oncolites, bioturbation, encrusting foraminifera, coccoliths, and calcispheres are the most distinctive features of the Naokelekan Formation, which can be prominently observed at all localities. Condensed pelagic microbial stromatolite facies are comparable in many respects to the ammonitico rosso facies. Three lithofacies are distinguished in the Barsarin Formation; including microbial laminite limestone, blister and flat laminated limestones and thick interbeds of dolomite and limestone. These strata are interpreted as several higher-frequency cycles, comparable in many ways with the Trucial Coast sabkha model. The ideal shallowing-upward cycles comprise microbial stromatolite of subtidal environment, (ii) blister and flat, of an intertidal environment, and (iii) thick-bedded dolomite and limestone, of a supratidal environment.

Over the past decade research into electric vehicles’ (EVs) safety, reliability and availability has become a hot topic and has attracted a lot of attention in the literature. Inevitably these key areas require further study and improvement. One of the challenges EVs face is speed/position sensor failure due to vibration and harsh environments. Wires connecting the sensor to the motor controller have a high likelihood of breakage. Loss of signals from the speed/position sensor will bring the EV to halt mode. Speed sensor failure at a busy roundabout or on a high speed motorway can have serious consequences and put the lives of drivers and passengers in great danger. This thesis aims to tackle the aforementioned issues by proposing several novel sensorless schemes based on Model Reference Adaptive Systems (MRAS) suitable for limp-home mode of EV applications. The estimated speed from these schemes is used for the rotor flux position estimation. The estimated rotor flux position is employed for sensorless torque-controlled drive (TCD) based on indirect rotor field oriented control (IRFOC). The capabilities of the proposed schemes have been evaluated and compared to the conventional back-Electromotive Force MRAS (back-EMF MRAS) scheme using simulation environment and a test bench setup. The new schemes have also been tested on electric golf buggies. The results presented for the proposed schemes show that utilising these schemes provide a reliable and smooth sensorless operation during vehicle test-drive starting from standstill and over a wide range of speeds, including the field weakening region. Employing these new schemes for sensorless TCD in limp-home mode of EV applications increases safety, reliability and availability of EVs.

One of the characteristic features of parasitic infections is the chronicity and persistence of the infection for long time. Their success is due to its ability to deviate the immune response of their host toward the immunoregulatory or immunosuppressive state. IL-10 is a multifunctional cytokine with both immunosuppressive and immunostimulatory effects during parasite infection, playing a crucial role in the regulation of the immunity by ameliorating the destructive immunopathology associated with excessive inflammation but often suppressing effective immune responses against pathogens and impairing parasite clearance. Several transcription factors have been characterised that act on the promoter region of human and mouse IL-10 and their role in the transcription of this cytokine has been experimentally verified. In our study, a 570 bp fragment of the 5' UTR region flanking the bovine il-10 gene was cloned and characterised by sequencing. Several SNPs relative to the reference sequence are described, the putative polymorphisms lie within the transcription factor binding sites Sp1, Cap, HSF, ADR1, MZF1, GATA1 and Hb. We have investigated the role of GATA1 in regulation of IL-10 expression from fluke naïve PBMCs in response to LFH and FhTLM and we demonstrate that both LFH and FhTLM treatment induced GATA1 expression from PBMCs. These molecules showed distinct effects on PBMC functions i.e. stimulation of IL-10 in response to FhTLM and inhibition when LFH is used. However, both factors inhibit PBMCs proliferation and IFN-γ expression. We have also found that FhTLM binds to bovine TGFβ-RIED and TGFβ-RIIED fusion proteins but with a higher avidity to TGFβ-RIIED. These results highlight the role of FhTLM as a potent immunomodulatory of the bovine immune system by binding to bovine cytokine receptors. Neospora caninum infection is the major cause of abortion in dairy cattle. Infection with this parasite leads to a polarized Th1 response with high IFN-γ and IL-12 which provide protection aginst N. caninum infection. We have determined the effects of IL-10 in the regulation of IFN-γ and its association with production parameters (milk yield, lactation numbers) by measuring the levels of these cytokines in serum of infected animals and relating these to the key production parameters. Our results have shown that 84 % of high seropositive dams gave birth to seropositive calves and IL-10 concentration was higher in seropositive animals compared to seronegative. However, no correlation was found between the IL-10 concentration of seropositive dams and their calves. Together these indicated that IL-10 is an important cytokine during neosporosis, which modulate the immune response and allow the transmission of the infection to the offspring. Finally, our results for association of the IL-10 with lifetime daily yield demonstrated that IL-10 has a negative association with milk production during infection with N. caninum. Results of our study demonstrate a key role for bovine IL-10 in the regulation of multiple facets of parasite infection and immunity.

This thesis is an exploratory empirical study of the development of inclusive practices in two mainstream private primary schools in Karachi, Pakistan. While inclusion in education is generally conceived of as a wide-ranging attempt to ensure that all children’s rights to an education are met, in Pakistan, this term is most frequently applied in the context of educating those who are deemed to have some learning difficulties or who have some form of disability. In Pakistan, there is a rhetorical commitment about the importance of inclusion evident at the national level, specifically with reference to children with special needs (CWSN). The Government of Pakistan has been a signatory to many of the international documents that argue for inclusion as well as to the Salamanca Statement from UNESCO (1994) that clearly outlines the imperatives of inclusive education and how these should be implemented. However, in practice, the turbulent social context in Pakistan means that while the nation may well sign up to international agreements in the area of inclusion, the socioeconomic position of the country as well as its complex geo-political and cultural make up, including the widespread marginalisation that occurs based on factors like caste, race and disability, have hindered the implementation of inclusive education. This study draws on the beliefs and practices of classroom teachers in two schools in Karachi where attempts are being made to include children with special educational needs. Through analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews, teachers’ views on their school’s ethos and their beliefs about special needs and inclusion are explored as well as how these perspectives influence their pedagogical practices in addressing the inclusion of CWSN in their mainstream classrooms. Two theoretical dimensions frame this study. First, the study draws on inclusion based on a human rights perspective, where education is positioned as a fundamental right of 'all children' including those who are deemed as having special needs/disability (UNESCO, 1994, 2000, 2012). Second, the study is underpinned by the stance that inclusion can only be promoted where a whole school positive perspective is adopted. The findings of the study are organised under three main themes. The first set relates to teachers’ views about their school's whole school approaches in creating and promoting an ethos of inclusion. Both schools were working to include CSWN based on a human rights perspective, but there were some points of tension as the two schools were simultaneously pursuing academic excellence, as illustrated in their mission statements. There was a trade off between the extent to which they could provide sufficient support for CWSN so as to give them meaningful learning experiences, whilst maintaining high standards for all. The second set of findings concerns teachers’ beliefs about special needs and inclusion. Teachers held a range of different perspectives; while the majority were positive about advocating for inclusion in the mainstream setting, a minority questioned this approach citing the limitations posed by contextual factors of lack of time, limited support, poor resources and inadequate training. Teachers reflected on how their beliefs had undergone changes, positive and negative, through their experiences of working with CWSN. From what the teachers reported, they used various forms of differentiation in order to meet the needs of the children in their classrooms although many of the teachers were concerned about their own lack of professional preparation in this area of pedagogy. One key finding was the collaborative practice evident in both schools, between the leaders and teachers, teachers and teachers as well as teachers and parents, to ensure that CWSN were being included in both schools.

The variation between surface and air temperature within a city and its surrounding area is a result of variations in surface cover, thermal capacity and 3-dimensional geometry. This study examines the spatiotemporal formation of the daytime Surface Urban Cool Island (SUCI) and night-time Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) effect in Erbil, Iraq, as a case study for cities in semi-arid climates more generally. It furthermore quantifies the influence of rapid urban expansion on the urban heat/cool island effect over a 20 year period. Satellite images acquired by Landsat 4, 5, 7 and 8 between 1992 and 2013 are used to retrieve Land Surface Temperature (LST). Normalised Ratio Scale (NRS) is applied to the multi-mission Landsat data, which is used to adjust the temperature range for different acquisition times of images within the same temporal range. In addition, LST data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board Aqua and Terra from January 2003 to December 2014 are analysed. In order to establish the drivers of the observed patterns of LST and SUCI/SUHI, the relationships of LST with wetness, greenness, NDVI, soil moisture and other variables are assessed. The results indicate that during the daytime in summer, autumn and winter, densely built-up areas had lower LST acting as cool islands (SUCI) compared to the non-urbanised area around the city. In contrast, at night-time, Erbil experienced higher LST and demonstrated a significant SUHI effect. The mean LST of the newly urbanised and vegetated areas between 1992 and 2013 decreased by 2.28°C and 7.29°C respectively. Soil moisture (wetness) is the main marker of the SUCI/SUHI effect, whilst urban expansion may cause a decrease of daytime LST in dry climate zones. The NRS method is appropriate for detecting temperature trends greater than 2°C in Landsat data.

The aim of the thesis is to investigate the feasibility of using text mining methods to reconstruct patient journeys from unstructured clinical narratives. A novel method to extract and represent patient journeys is proposed and evaluated in this thesis. A composition of methods were designed, developed and evaluated to this end; which included health-related concept extraction, temporal information extraction, and concept clustering and automated work-flow generation. A suite of methods to extract clinical information from healthcare narratives were proposed and evaluated in order to enable chronological ordering of clinical concepts. Specifically, we proposed and evaluated a data-driven method to identify key clinical events (i.e., medical problems, treatments, and tests) using a sequence labelling algorithm, CRF, with a combination of lexical and syntactic features, and a rule-based post-processing method including label correction, boundary adjustment and false positive filter. The method was evaluated as part of the 2012 i2b2 challengeand achieved a state-of-the-art performance with a strict and lenient micro F1-measure of 83.45% and 91.13% respectively. A method to extract temporal expressions using a hybrid knowledge- (dictionary and rules) and data-driven (CRF) has been proposed and evaluated. The method demonstrated the state-of-the-art performance at the 2012 i2b2 challenge: F1-measure of 90.48% and accuracy of 70.44% for identification and normalisation respectively. For temporal ordering of events we proposed and evaluated a knowledge-driven method, with a F1-measure of 62.96% (considering the reduced temporal graph) or 70.22% for extraction of temporal links. The method developed consisted of initial rule-based identification and classification components which utilised contextual lexico-syntactic cues for inter-sentence links, string similarity for co-reference links, and subsequently a temporal closure component to calculate transitive relations of the extracted links. In a case study of survivors of childhood central nervous system tumours (medulloblastoma), qualitative evaluation showed that we were able to capture specific trends part of patient journeys. An overall quantitative evaluation score (average precision and recall) of 94-100% for individual and 97% for aggregated patient journeys were also achieved. Hence, indicating that text mining methods can be used to identify, extract and temporally organise key clinical concepts that make up a patient’s journey. We also presented an analyses of healthcare narratives, specifically exploring the content of clinical and patient narratives by using methods developed to extract patient journeys. We found that health-related quality of life concepts are more common in patient narrative, while clinical concepts (e.g., medical problems, treatments, tests) are more prevalent in clinical narratives. In addition, while both aggregated sets of narratives contain all investigated concepts; clinical narratives contain, proportionally, more health-related quality of life concepts than clinical concepts found in patient narratives. These results demonstrate that automated concept extraction, in particular health-related quality of life, as part of standard clinical practice is feasible. The proposed method presented herein demonstrated that text mining methods can be efficiently used to identify, extract and temporally organise key clinical concepts that make up a patient’s journey in a healthcare system. Automated reconstruction of patient journeys can potentially be of value for clinical practitioners and researchers, to aid large scale analyses of implemented care pathways, and subsequently help monitor, compare, develop and adjust clinical guidelines both in the areas of chronic diseases where there is plenty of data and rare conditions where potentially there are no established guidelines.

Tehran, the capital of Iran, on the one hand faces extensive deterioration in its inner-city neighbourhoods and on the other hand, faces rapid population growth. The government has adapted urban regeneration as a policy that not only accommodates this growth within the city boundaries, but also tackles the deterioration problems. In this respect, this research compares two urban regeneration models, namely piecemeal and comprehensive redevelopments. In doing so it tries to understand how these two redevelopment models operate in deteriorated neighbourhoods of Tehran. This question is addressed by analysing the implementation and property development aspects of each redevelopment, with a specific focus on developers’ behaviour regarding these two models. At the theoretical level this research compares direct versus indirect planning in urban regeneration interventions from an institutional perspective. This derives from the work of Webster and Lai (2003) where they examined spontaneous planning versus centralised planning and Carmona (2009) where he analysed different modes of planning that on the one hand ranges from plan-based to opportunity-based, and on the other hand, from state-led to market-led modes of planning. Further, by building on the institutional perspective offered by Healy and Barret (1990) and Guy and Henneberry (2000) this thesis utilises the structure and agency approach to unravel the behaviour of property actors. Two neighbourhoods that have undergone redevelopments in Tehran, one piecemeal and one comprehensive, are chosen as case studies. As such, this research is an empirical account of two developments, utilising institutional analysis as a qualitative methodological approach in unravelling the ways in which property actors see the development process and their subsequent actions. Semi-structured interviews with property actors are a critical part of data collection, alongside documents and local and national census, and direct observations. The thesis improves our understanding of the process of built environment production, and the role of the state in the development process. It has demonstrated that the development decision-making cannot be solely understood as the result of economic rationality, as it occurs within institutional contexts structured by dynamic needs and concerns of actors. In advancing institutional analysis, this thesis by focusing on two specific projects, demonstrates the different approaches taken by property developers, development organisations and planners as they engaged differently with the wider structures set by the government through different policies.

Over reliance on fossil fuels, rising global population, industrialization, demands for a higher standard of living and transportation have caused alarming damage to the environment. If current trend continues then catastrophic damage to the earth and its environment may not be reversible. There is an urgent need to reduce the use of fossils fuels and substituting it with renewable energy sources such as wind, tidal and hydroelectric. Solar source seems to be the most promising due to its environmental friendly nature, portability and reliability. This source was examined in terms of microbusinesses such as SMEs including hair dressing salon, education centre, fried chicken outlet and printing shop. Small businesses account for a large proportion of the economy. The analysis developed could be applied to small business to show their contribution to the carbon footprint and how this could be reduced using solar energy. The proportions of their current electricity usage that could be substituted with solar cells were calculated. Combined these have a significant impact. These businesses were considered for UK and Iraq with the former being more amenable to solar energy implementation. Analysis of the four SMEs showed that the most energy intensive business was fried chicken take away using a large amount of electricity and the least energy intensive business was the education centre. In the latter in UK 57% of the electricity usage could be replaced by solar energy compared to Kurdistan, which generated a surplus energy that could be fed into the national grid. The gents groom hairdressing and blue apple businesses gave intermediate figures. Parallel conclusions were drawn regarding CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere with education centre being the most environmentally friendly and the fried chicken the least. In addition, a larger public space, an international airport data was analysed and the value of solar replacement demonstrated. The methodology and data analysis approach used may be implemented for other business units and larger public spaces such as hospitals, shopping complexes and football stadiums.

A novel algorithm for fingerprint template formation and matching in automatic fingerprint recognition has been developed. At present, fingerprint is being considered as the dominant biometric trait among all other biometrics due to its wide range of applications in security and access control. Most of the commercially established systems use singularity point (SP) or ‘core’ point for fingerprint indexing and template formation. The efficiency of these systems heavily relies on the detection of the core and the quality of the image itself. The number of multiple SPs or absence of ‘core’ on the image can cause some anomalies in the formation of the template and may result in high False Acceptance Rate (FAR) or False Rejection Rate (FRR). Also the loss of actual minutiae or appearance of new or spurious minutiae in the scanned image can contribute to the error in the matching process. A more sophisticated algorithm is therefore necessary in the formation and matching of templates in order to achieve low FAR and FRR and to make the identification more accurate. The novel algorithm presented here does not rely on any ‘core’ or SP thus makes the structure invariant with respect to global rotation and translation. Moreover, it does not need orientation of the minutiae points on which most of the established algorithm are based. The matching methodology is based on the local features of each minutiae point such as distances to its nearest neighbours and their internal angle. Using a publicly available fingerprint database, the algorithm has been evaluated and compared with other benchmark algorithms. It has been found that the algorithm has performed better compared to others and has been able to achieve an error equal rate of 3.5%.

We study the appearance of a novel phenomenon for coupled identical bursters: synchronized bursts where there are changes of spike synchrony within each burst. The examples we study are for normal form elliptic bursters where there is a periodic slow passage through a Bautin (codimension two degenerate Andronov-Hopf) bifurcation. This burster has a subcritical Andronov-Hopf bifurcation at the onset of repetitive spiking while the end of burst occurs via a fold limit cycle bifurcation. We study synchronization behavior of two Bautin-type elliptic bursters for a linear direct coupling scheme as well as demonstrating its presence in an approximation of gap-junction and synaptic coupling. We also find similar behaviour in system consisted of three and four Bautin-type elliptic bursters. We note that higher order terms in the normal form that do not affect the behavior of a single burster can be responsible for changes in synchrony pattern; more precisely, we find within-burst synchrony changes associated with a turning point in the spontaneous spiking frequency (frequency transition). We also find multiple synchrony changes in similar system by incorporating multiple frequency transitions. To explain the phenomenon we considered a burst-synchronized constrained model and a bifurcation analysis of the this reduced model shows the existence of the observed within-burst synchrony states. Within-burst synchrony change is also found in the system of mutually delaycoupled two Bautin-type elliptic bursters with a constant delay. The similar phenomenon is shown to exist in the mutually-coupled conductance-based Morris-Lecar neuronal system with an additional slow variable generating elliptic bursting. We also find within-burst synchrony change in linearly coupled FitzHugh-Rinzel 2 3 elliptic bursting system where the synchrony change occurs via a period doubling bifurcation. A bifurcation analysis of a burst-synchronized constrained system identifies the periodic doubling bifurcation in this case. We show emergence of spontaneous burst synchrony cluster in the system of three Hindmarsh-Rose square-wave bursters with nonlinear coupling. The system is found to change between the available cluster states depending on the stimulus. Lyapunov exponents of the burst synchrony states are computed from the corresponding variational system to probe the stability of the states. Numerical simulation also shows existence of burst synchrony cluster in the larger network of such system.

The major objective of this thesis was to investigate whether myocardial ischaemia can be reliably detected from intracardiac electrograms (EGMs) that are potentially available in implanted devices such as pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators. It also investigated whether novel parameters of repolarisation (T wave morphology descriptors) can be used as indices to monitor myocardial ischaemia. The first study investigated the optimal unipole for monitoring myocardial ischaemia (induced by balloon inflation during angioplasty) from a quadripolar intracardiac electrode placed within the right ventricle. This study showed that EGM recordings obtained from unipoles near the distal tip of the electrode are less sensitive in detecting myocardial ischaemia when compared to recordings obtained from more proximal unipoles. Due to the direct contact of the tip electrode with the myocardial wall, the EGM from more distal unipoles are often superimposed by local signals with morphologies similar to local action potentials. Consequently, in order to improve the sensitivity of intracardiac EGM monitoring, the average recording of the two most proximal unipoles within the right ventricular cavity were used as “a single unipole”. This was then used in the subsequent two studies for multilead bipolar EGM reconstruction. The second and third studies investigated the diagnostic accuracy of detecting myocardial ischaemia using four bipolar leads reconstructed from the unipoles that are potentially available in implanted devices. The fourth study investigated the application of novel descriptors of T wave morphology in monitoring myocardial ischaemia. In summary, the presented clinical studies demonstrate that monitoring myocardial ischaemia from intracardiac electrodes, analogous to those of implanted cardiac devices is feasible. However current technology limits this detection ability. The development of novel T wave morphology descriptors may improve the diagnostic accuracy of monitoring myocardial ischaemia.

The pupils of Bangladeshi origin in Westminster have been identified as one of the lowest attending ethnic groups. However, so far, no specific academic study had been conducted to examine the underlying causes of absenteeism among them. Therefore, this study, qualitative in nature, set out to identify the most common factors contributing to absenteeism amongst the focus group who represented one in every ten pupil-population of the borough. Cross-sectional examination of the perceptually developed hypotheses was mainly carried out in five primary schools and one secondary school, located in different geographical areas of the Westminster Local Education Authority. The sample included 140 pupils (100 primary and 40 secondary), most of their parents guardians, head teachers, teachers, home-school liaison workers, community leaders/workers, Westminster Education Welfare Officers, LEA Officers and Attendance Advisor at DjES. Semi-structured interview and questionnaire schedules were used as the main tools for data generation. The findings of the study suggested that poor health was the most prevalent reason for low attendance among the focus group, followed by extended holidays which resulted in considerable numbers of absences -both authorised and unauthorised. Family poverty did not evidently appear to.be a causal explanatory issue for poor health and low attendance of the pupils. An overwhelming majority of the pupils, particularly primary girls, showed positive attitudes towards education and schools too. Female education was receiving increasingly positive support from the Bangladeshi parents. A sizeable number of unauthorised absences of both primary and secondary pupils were also referred to system or registration procedural errors. However, no cultural, racial or religious concerns were cited as reasons for absenteeism. The study strongly recommended an immediate clinical investigation into the causes of the high incidence of health vulnerability among the focus group.

Total hip replacements have been in use for over 30 years, and have shown great improvement from design to surgery since the first generation of implants were introduced. The greater need for hip replacements has led to the development of test methods that can be applied in the lab, which can predict the lifetime of a particular implant. To achieve this aim this study has sought to investigate key parameters, which may affect wear and its subsequent effect upon the production of particles for various material combinations and bearing geometries, under high (jogging) and low (walking) loads, with concurrent assessment of wear reduction, particle size and morphology. The clinical use of cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) has been shown to reduce wear and thereby the onset of osteolysis in total hip arthroplasty. Hip simulator studies have suggested that while XLPE generates low wear under smooth counterface bearing surfaces, there appears to be an increased sensitivity to scratched femoral head conditions which can occur in the patient. However, these simulator studies have not combined damaged articular surfaces with a severe gait model, representing the worst-case scenario for high-risk, active patients. This hip simulator study has shown that the size distribution of wear particles generated in tests on 5 MRads crosslinked polyethylene can be influenced by the degree of patient activity. Fast jogging showed a greater influence on the number of sub-micron-sized wear particles (5-fold increase compared to walking) than on volumetric wear rate (26 mm3/106 cycles compared to 29 mm3/106 cycles). Fast jogging also did not generate the largest wear particles (>I 0p m) produced by normal walking. Roughening of the Co-Cr-Mo femoral heads created a 1700-fold increase in the numbers of sub-micron PE particles under fast jogging. The clinical significance of this result suggests that highly active patients will generate high numbers of bioactive PE wear particles within the accepted bioactive range, 0.2-10μm. Metal-on-metal (MOM) hip arthroplasty has also seen rapid growth worldwide. However, there remains concern over their long-term biocompatibility due to systemic ion release. Therefore, the aim of this current investigation was to test the hypothesis that larger diameter MOM bearings (greater than 40 mm) will generate smaller Co-Cr-Mo wear particles compared to a 28 mm size bearing, and reduce the total wear particle surface area, and to test the hypothesis that `severe' gait conditions will greatly increase the size of Co- Cr-Mo wear particles, thereby causing a sizable increase in wear particle surface area. Walking with a 28 mm bearing produced the largest wear rate of at 0.92 mm3/106 cycles, whereas the 40 mm and 56 mm bearings, generated lower wear rates of 0.39 mm3/106 cycles and 0.32 mm3/106 cycles respectively. Simulated fast jogging created a 3-fold increase in the number of elongated (needle) wear particles compared to normal walking, and generated a 20-fold increase in total wear particle surface area per year of use compared to normal walking. The clinical significance of this result suggests that highly active patients with MoM implants will exhibit greater ion release, although this may be minimised by using larger diameter bearings for active or younger patients.

In the genus Lupinus, L. mutabilis has been recognised as potential breeding material to improve the quality and quantity of widely grown L. albus, through interspecific hybridisation. These species remain under-utilised due to the presence of certain undesirable characteristics such as alkaloids, indeterminate growth habit and susceptibility to diseases and pathogens. However, introgression of useful traits between the two species is difficult due to incompatibility barriers at the post-fertilisation level. The objective of this work was therefore, to develop appropriate technique(s) for hybridisation between L. albus and L. mutabilis species. Interspecific compatibility between L. albus and L. mutabilis was investigated using a wide range of parental genotypes with equal number of somatic chromosomes (2n = 48). Comparative analysis of species on the basis of their morphological characteristics was carried out. The pollen viability of both species was also investigated. Following self and interspecific pollination it was observed that germination of pollen grains on the stigma and pollen tube growth in the styles were not inhibited. However, isolating mechanisms due to post-fertilisation barriers resulted in zygotic failure and thus hybrid embryo abortion at an early stage of development, which subsequently caused pod abortion within two weeks of pollination. Pod/seed development studies were carried out in the species and their reciprocal crosses and the time of embryo abortion was determined. In interspecific crosses it was observed that the period between 4th and 5th day after pollination was crucial for both pod and seed development. The normal development of hybrid pods and seeds for the first three days after pollination indicated fertilisation and early development of the hybrid embryos. The possible reason of embryo degeneration may be due to disharmonious interaction between embryo, suspensor, endosperm and maternal tissues. Growth regulators were applied to enhance pod development and to prevent early embryo abortion. The growth regulators were found not to be as effective in encouraging hybrid embryo development as in pod growth. Regardless of the genotype and growth regulator applicator, interspecific crosses resulted in pod abortion.

Perhaps the most critical component in determining the ultimate performance potential of a multicomputer is its interconnection network, the hardware fabric supporting communication among individual processors. The message latency and throughput of such a network are affected by many factors of which topology, switching method, routing algorithm and traffic load are the most significant. In this context, the present study focuses on a performance analysis of k-ary n-cube networks employing wormhole switching, virtual channels and adaptive routing, a scenario of especial interest to current research. This project aims to build upon earlier work in two main ways: constructing new analytical models for k-ary n-cubes, and comparing the performance merits of cubes of different dimensionality. To this end, some important topological properties of k-ary n-cubes are explored initially; in particular, expressions are derived to calculate the number of nodes at/within a given distance from a chosen centre. These results are important in their own right but their primary significance here is to assist in the construction of new and more realistic analytical models of wormhole-routed k-ary n-cubes. An accurate analytical model for wormhole-routed k-ary n-cubes with adaptive routing and uniform traffic is then developed, incorporating the use of virtual channels and the effect of locality in the traffic pattern. New models are constructed for wormhole k-ary n-cubes, with the ability to simulate behaviour under adaptive routing and non-uniform communication workloads, such as hotspot traffic, matrix-transpose and digit-reversal permutation patterns. The models are equally applicable to unidirectional and bidirectional k-ary n-cubes and are significantly more realistic than any in use up to now. With this level of accuracy, the effect of each important network parameter on the overall network performance can be investigated in a more comprehensive manner than before. Finally, k-ary n-cubes of different dimensionality are compared using the new models. The comparison takes account of various traffic patterns and implementation costs, using both pin-out and bisection bandwidth as metrics. Networks with both normal and pipelined channels are considered. While previous similar studies have only taken account of network channel costs, our model incorporates router costs as well thus generating more realistic results. In fact the results of this work differ markedly from those yielded by earlier studies which assumed deterministic routing and uniform traffic, illustrating the importance of using accurate models to conduct such analyses.

The present study set out to assess genetic diversity of jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) in Bangladesh, to selects its superior germplasm, and to develop suitable methods of vegetative and in-vitro propagation. The genetic diversity of jackfruit in Bangladesh was assessed by means of a farmers' participatory survey, a study of morpho-agronomic characteristics and an isozyme study in the laboratory. The superior types were selected on the basis of farmers' preferences. Ten superior types were recommended on the basis of yield per plant, fruiting season, flesh colour, flesh texture and sweetness. Cultivation of superior types may increase the production of quality jackfruit and would also extend the fruiting season in Bangladesh. An attempt was made to develop propagation methods. Air-layering gave 86% rooting success when it was done in the month of November on current year shoots in mature trees of jackfruit. The subsequent growth of the layers in the nursery was found to be good after one years of establishment. The success rate in the nursery after one year was 80%. The methods of grafting in respect of different seasons were standardised using scions from mature trees. Among the methods, veneer grafting in April gave the highest (80%) success. The seasons of grafting could be extended to October with epicotyl grafting and to November by cleft or splice grafting. The subsequent growth and establishment of these grafts were also found satisfactory. In the study of in-vitro methods, 2.0 mg/1 of BAP or 0.5 mg/1 of TDZ were the effective cytokinins for multiple shoot regeneration. GA₃ or Kinetin did not produce multiple shoots on a large scale. The regenerated shoots were rooted using IBA at concentrations of 2.0 to 2.5 mg/1 in in vitro culture. The in-vitro plantlets were established in the nursery. The success rate of establishment was 81-88%. The protocol for hardening and establishment of in-vitro derived plantlets in the nursery was developed for a higher success rate.

Pasteurella haemolytica, a Gram-negative bacterium, is the principal causative agent of pneumonic pasteurellosis in cattle and sheep. The presence of plasmids in various isolates of this species and their relationship to antibiotic resistance and to the health status of the source animal were investigated. Plasmids conferring resistance to ampicillin were analyzed and the plasmid-encoded p-lactamase enzymes characterized. A suitable plasmid was identified for the construction of shuttle cloning vectors for P. haemolytica. Thirty five typable and untypable isolates of P. haemolytica from cattle or sheep were screened for the presence of plasmids and for resistance to a range of antibiotics. Eight strains (four of serotype Al, three of serotype A2 and one untypable) contained plasmid DNA. Isolates of the same serotype had similar plasmid profiles, which were different from those of the other serotypes. All but one of the plasmid-bearing strains were isolated from pneumonic, or from animals in contact with pneumonic, cattle or sheep. In A2 and untypable strains, there was no obvious correlation between antibiotic resistance and the presence of a specific plasmid. In contrast, all plasmid-bearing Al strains exhibited ampicillin resistance, which was shown by transfer studies (transformation and conjugation) to be plasmid-mediated. Plasmid DNA prepared from ampicillin-resistant E. coli transformants was not routinely detected on ethidium-bromide-stained agarose gels, but could be amplified to detectable levels by treatment of cultures with chloramphenicol or by modifying the growth conditions. Terrific broth or broth supplemented with 1% yeast nitrogen base was found to be the best growth medium for plasmid amplification. All Apft plasmids had a similar size (~4. 3 kb), and one of them (pPH843) was highly amplifiable and more stable in E. coll compared to the other plasmids (pPH2, pPH33 and pPH821). An improved method was developed for the large-scale purification of covalently closed circular plasmid DNA molecules over a wide size range. The protocol used an alkaline-lysis procedure followed by acid-phenol extraction and included several modifications to previously reported methods. Two principal modifications were the replacement of NaCl by MgCl in the extraction buffer and vortexing instead of shaking the crude DNA suspensions to more efficiently remove chromosomal and other non-CCC plasmid DNA and to improve yield of purified CCC DNA forms. The Apft plasmids from P, haemolytica were identical by restriction enzyme analysis. Restriction analysis and hybridization data indicated that these plasmids were closely related to the prototype ROB-1 p-lactamase-encoding plasmid, originally isolated from Haemophilus influenzae, but a part of the DNA sequence < ~0. 7 kb) from the Haemophilus plasmid was not present in the Pasteurella plasmid. This suggested that one plasmid had been derived from the other during the course of evolution. From substrate profiles and isoelectric focusing data, the p-lactamases encoded by the P. haemolytica plasmids were found to be indistinguishable from the ROB-1 0- lactamase. A restriction map of plasmid pPH843 was constructed and the putative Apft, oriV, and mob regions of the plasmid were located by deletion and fusion experiments. The plasmid was converted into a series of possible cloning vectors (pAKAlb, pAKA15-l, pAKA16, pAKA16-l and pAKA17) by insertion at different points in the plasmid of the lacZ alpha-peptide-coding gene and a multiple cloning site (for insertional inactivation of beta-galactosidase activity) from the E. coli vector pIC20H and an IncP mobilization function from plasmid RK2. Transconjugants obtained by transfer of the constructs from E, coli to P. haemolytlca were found to be unstable on subculture, although they were stable upon transfer to another E, coli strain. This indicated that P. haemolytlca might have a restriction/modification system which affected plasmid DNA previously propagated in E. coli.

The present thesis is a monograph on the life and short poems of Isvarcandra Gupta, an extremely popular poet in mid-nineteenth century Bengal, It falls into three parts. The first part discusses the existing accounts of Isvarcandra Gupta's life, assesses the additional information adduced by two modern scholars, Bhabatoa Datta and Brajendranath Bandyopadhyay; and also adds gleanings from a newspaper file not previously examined by other scholars. The second part constitutes a thematic discussion of the contents of Gupta's short poems. This discussion reveals Gupta's attitudes towards religion, contemporary Hindu and European society, contemporary political events, and the glimmerings of patriotism inherent in his poetry. The final part studies the development of literary criticism in Bengal and the beginnings of comparative criticism in Bengali, It also assesses Gupta's place in both contemporary terms and also in terms of Bengali literature as a whole. The final chapter throws light on Gupta's literary technique and suggests that even Gupta was unaware, that his contemporary and posthumous reputation would rest upon his hastily written short satires.

The results of the first series of experiments performed in the neutron spectrum generated by the converter facility NISUS are presented. The neutron spectrum inside the facility was measured by means of the foil activation technique. Absolute reaction-rates of 8 threshold detectors and several capture reactions were measured. Irradiated foils were gamma counted on a calibrated Ge(Li) detector and their absolute activities evaluated. The fast fission ratio was measured inside the facility by both the integral counting technique and the La-140 counting technique. The absolute reaction-rates were used with an average set of differential cross-section data to determine the fast neutron spectrum. Three unfolding techniques have been employed and the resultant unfolded spectra are compared. Only threshold detectors were used for the spectrum unfolding and hence the resultant spectrum is valid above 1 MeV. The agreement between different techniques is assessed and the final spectrum envelope has a spread of ±12% at low energies (1 MeV to 3 MeV) decreasing to ±6% at middle energies and ±9% at high energies (above 8 MeV). The results are compared to theoretical predictions and also to the results of spectrum measurements using Li-6 sandwich detectors. A comparison is also made between the experimental spectral indices obtained in NISUS and those obtained in a similar facility.

Specialized and optimized low pressure direct oxidation technique have been implemented to synthesize high quality VO2 thin films on various substrates (sapphire, SiO2/Si, AT-cut quartz, GaN/AlGaN/GaN/Si and muscovite). Structural and surface characterization methods such as X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy have been administered on the grown VO2 films which indicate their material quality. Transition of characteristics of the VO2 films are caused by semiconductor metal transition (SMT). This phenomenon is attributed as the change maker in transition of resistivity and transmitted optical power through the VO2 films. Apart the substrates mentioned, metal doped VO2 films have been synthesized and characterized on quartz and muscovite, which are found to have transition temperature near the room temperature level, indicating to the possibility of high sensitive VO2 based sensors to be manufactured. Also, the VO2 films on flexible muscovite displays the direct effect of mechanical strain on the electrical and optical characteristics of the films. After metal finger patterning and releasing the VO2 membranes from the synthesized thin films, combination of all these characteristics of VO2 thin film is the reason of transmitted infrared beam through the VO2 membrane being modulated periodically due to implementation of external electric field at different frequencies.

Due to the depletion of finite fossil resources and increasing concerns for mitigating the environmental damages causing global warming, the global scientific community is emphasizing the valorization of alternative resources. Among the alternative resources, lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable source with the valorization potential to produce fuel, materials, and a spectrum of chemicals from it. Lignocellulosic biomass has three structural fractions: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Lignin is the structural component of lignocellulosic biomass that contributes the most recalcitrance to its overall valorization because of its complex structure and physicochemical properties. Unlike cellulose, a complete understanding of lignin’s structure at the molecular level is yet to be established. Moreover, lignin can be categorized into various forms, including native and technical forms. Significant structural differences exist among these different types of lignin, which makes improving the existing processes and developing novel processes of biomass and lignin valorization challenging. The atomistic modeling methods, such as the electronic structure method, can be particularly helpful for lignin research as they allow one to model lignin biopolymer and extract quantum-level insights about its structure, property, and reactivity during different valorization processes. Because of its cost-effectiveness, pyrolysis is one of the most promising and extensively investigated processes that thermochemically convert lignin into several types of value-added products. Despite an extensive research effort to improve and develop this process for lignin valorization, this is still far from being an established process for biorefineries, which warrants further research. In this dissertation, the lignin pyrolysis process has been studied by employing molecular modeling and simulations to provide novel insights in terms of kinetics and thermodynamics. Lignin pyrolysis is a complex and multistep process in which the initial step involves the homolytic cleavage of the β-O-4 present in lignin. This dissertation presents reaction energetics studies for this initial step in lignin pyrolysis using model lignin oligomers. To my best knowledge, the largest molecular models for lignin were used in these studies to investigate reaction energetics for pyrolysis using the electronic structure method. A molecular mechanics-based conformational sampling method was developed to identify the lowest energy conformers, later used in Density Functional Theory (DFT) and statistical mechanics calculations. In addition to checking a hypothesis regarding the bond dissociation enthalpy calculation using these large molecular models for lignin, the computed range of reaction enthalpies and standard thermodynamic properties were reported in these studies. To shed light on the reaction mechanism for lignin pyrolysis, automated reaction network generation and microkinetic modeling approaches were employed to construct comprehensive reaction networks using model lignin compounds and dimers for this process. Detailed reaction mechanisms were proposed under this research domain for fast pyrolysis of anisole, guaiacol, and phenethyl phenyl ether as the model compounds and dimer representing lignin. Extensive reaction pathway analysis was performed to identify the precursor for major product formation involved in these processes. Simulation results from the computational works presented in this dissertation were compared with the available experimental studies. This allowed us to identify the areas of further improvement for applying automated microkinetic modeling for reaction mechanisms in lignin pyrolysis. Overall, this dissertation attempts to use computational chemistry, lignin chemistry, and reaction engineering to provide novel insights into reaction energetics and mechanism for lignin pyrolysis.

This study conducted in 2023 aimed to enhance nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in wheat and corn grown in South Dakota. Based on dynamic weather conditions and other factor interactions, conventional nitrogen (N) recommendations need to be improved. Soil properties information, including electrical conductivity, was used to create management zones. In each zone, three N-rich spots were established as biosensors. Drones and satellites collected imagery data, and an AI-driven approach assessed the crop response to applied N. A dynamic N application approach, integrating aerial data with historical records, was developed and evaluated. Our methodology, at a 95% confidence level, resulted in a 12.4% higher yield in wheat and a potential 4.77% increase in corn yield compared to conventional approaches, with a 16.2% and 10% reduction in N application in wheat and corn fields, respectively. This led to cost savings and environmental benefits. The financial outcomes revealed cost savings of $7.87 per acre in wheat and $3.62 per acre in corn. The wheat yield increased to 75.09 bu/ac compared to 66.61 bu/ac in control plots, generating an additional revenue of $57.82 per acre. The corn yield increased to 173.75 bu/ac compared to 165.84 bu/ac, indicating a potential increase of 6.89 bu/ac and additional revenue of approximately $34.11 per acre. Moreover, there was a 16.2% increase in NUE in wheat and a 4.3% improvement in corn compared to traditional methods. The findings from this study will be applicable for farmers as a decision-making tool, providing a straightforward approach to enhance NUE while increasing their farm profit.

Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) Technology scaling has slowed down. One promising approach to sustain the historic performance improvement of computing systems is to utilize hardware accelerators. Today, many commercial computing systems integrate one or more accelerators, with each accelerator optimized to efficiently execute specific tasks. Over the years, there has been a substantial amount of research on designing hardware accelerators for machine learning (ML) training and inference tasks. Hardware accelerators are also widely employed to accelerate data privacy and security algorithms. In particular, there is currently a growing interest in the use of hardware accelerators for accelerating homomorphic encryption (HE) based privacy-preserving computing. While the use of hardware accelerators is promising, a realistic end-to-end evaluation of an accelerator when integrated into the full system often reveals that the benefits of an accelerator are not always as expected. Simply assessing the performance of the accelerated portion of an application, such as the inference kernel in ML applications, during performance analysis can be misleading. When designing an accelerator-based system, it is critical to evaluate the system as a whole and account for all the accelerator taxes. In the first part of our research, we highlight the need for a holistic, end-to-end analysis of workloads using ML and HE applications. Our evaluation of an ML application for a database management system (DBMS) shows that the benefits of offloading ML inference to accelerators depend on several factors, including backend hardware, model complexity, data size, and the level of integration between the ML inference pipeline and the DBMS. We also found that the end-to-end performance improvement is bottlenecked by data retrieval and pre-processing, as well as inference. Additionally, our evaluation of an HE video encryption application shows that while HE client-side operations, i.e., message-to- ciphertext and ciphertext-to-message conversion operations, are bottlenecked by number theoretic transform (NTT) operations, accelerating NTT in hardware alone is not sufficient to get enough application throughput (frame rate per second) improvement. We need to address all bottlenecks such as error sampling, encryption, and decryption in message-to-ciphertext and ciphertext-to-message conversion pipeline. In the second part of our research, we address the lack of a scalable evaluation infrastructure for building and evaluating accelerator-based systems. To solve this problem, we propose a robust and scalable software-hardware framework for accelerator evaluation, which uses an open-source RISC-V based System-on-Chip (SoC) design called BlackParrot. This framework can be utilized by accelerator designers and system architects to perform an end-to-end performance analysis of coherent and non-coherent accelerators while carefully accounting for the interaction between the accelerator and the rest of the system. In the third part of our research, we present RISE, which is a full RISC-V SoC designed to efficiently perform message-to-ciphertext and ciphertext-to-message conversion operations. RISE comprises of a BlackParrot core and an efficient custom-designed accelerator tailored to accelerate end-to-end message-to-ciphertext and ciphertext-to-message conversion operations. Our RTL-based evaluation demonstrates that RISE improves the throughput of the video encryption application by 10x-27x for different frame resolutions.

Polycrystalline VO2 thin films synthesized on two piezoelectric substrates (AT-cut quartz and GaN/AlGaN/GaN/Si) using low pressure direct oxidation technique have been characterized and compared to VO2 grown on traditional non-piezoelectric substrates sapphire and SiO2/Si. X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy characterization performed on the as grown films confirmed high quality of the VO2 films grown on both the piezoelectric and non-piezoelectric substrates. Changes in material properties associated with the semiconductor metal transition (SMT) of the VO2 films were investigated through resistivity and transmitted optical power changes measured across the SMT. It was observed that the VO2 films grown on the piezoelectric substrates are of high quality, and their electrical and optical properties changes are quite comparable to the best reported values on films synthesized on various substrates using different synthesis processes.