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Predictive modelling is a state-of-the-art technique for which an objective variable is predicted given a set of environmental parameters. Many types of models exist and most of them can be built with different architectures. This project comes from the necessity to improve the measurement of biometric indicators and understand how team performance can affect their level in a defence training context. The biometric indicators of interest are the player’s heart rate and stress index, which are going to be related to information extracted from the GPS coordinates they have. The objective has been to study the evolution of the stress index during an exercise period, trying to determine how the other biometrical and positional factors influence its level. After reviewing existing work in the medical field for stress monitoring and team performance in an educational context, it has been observed that no literature involved both topics relating them to each other, let alone in a defence environment. A list of quality indicators has been defined to assess the quality of the provided raw datasets, the information from which has been managed to build a single dataset that could be used to train a model. The results of the quality assessment have shown that the recording frequency for the different indicators should be modified to a common value since the existing time difference between recordings has proven to be a complex issue to solve when building the model. Regression, neural network, and random forest models have been tested, with the latter being the one offering the best precision. The heart rate, the duration of the exercise, and the distance from the player to the opposite team were the variables that played a major role in the prediction. Overall, a valid prediction has been reached despite the missing gaps in the provided datasets. The key features to predict the stress index have been identified and recommendations in terms of data quality have been made so the

Emerging technologies and new forms of organising have rekindled debates on how to foster and manage disruptive innovation. While academics and practitioners alike have given much attention to disruptive innovation since Christensen proposed it (1997), our understanding of how organisational culture impacts disruptive innovation remains incomplete, where organisational culture refers to the values, beliefs, and norms that guide how people interact within the organisation. This study addresses this gap by collecting qualitative data about organisational culture practices, integrated values, and disruptive innovation activities and processes via semi-structured interviews with managers and experts in the innovation of different commercial companies based in Europe. The thesis is based on qualitative data and grounded theory inside action research with an inductive approach to bring to light the organisational culture features that foster disruptive innovation. This thesis focuses on contributing to developing a conceptual framework to facilitate the implementation of disruptive innovation by an effective organisational culture in commercial companies. The identified research gap enables three key contributions from this study: First, the Cultural Enablers of Disruptive Innovation framework which connect the following components: (1) suitable organisational structure, (2) main values to cultivate among employees, (3) interventions to facilitate the introduction of disruptive innovation, and (4) disruptive innovation process. Second, this research contributes to the literature by demonstrating how changes in organisational structure and culture can impact positively introducing disruptive innovation. Third, it contributes to discussions on the vital organisational culture values and interventions needed for introducing disruptive innovation emphasizing the leader’s contribution and organisational efforts to achieve successful implementation. Finally, it supports the aca, Outgoing

This study reports the influence of vehicle characteristics on the cornering behaviour of a narrow-tilting vehicle (NTV). A single-track vehicle dynamics model was used for all the analyses and linear and nonlinear tyre models were applied. Vehicle tilting and roll were assumed from wheel camber, only considered in the front axle, and front motorcycle and rear passenger-car tyre characteristics were considered. Handling and stability analysis was performed in steady-state and transient cornering conditions. Moreover, rear steering, variable track width and roll effects were discussed on vehicle handling and stability properties. The study results showed an understeer vehicle behaviour for all the operational speeds of the vehicle. Contrary to the vehicle responsiveness, which was obtained to increase with increasing speed, the stability of the handling steady- state solutions was observed to decrease the higher the speed. On another hand, the rear steering system was obtained to produce more lateral slip than the front steering system in steady-state conditions and less dynamic response to any disturbance or sudden steering change. Furthermore, higher tilting angle limits were associated with wider tracks in a vehicle stable range. Finally, more lateral force resulting from camber thrust was obtained to increase yaw rate. This was perceived in the vehicle trajectory results, which showed accentuated vehicle turning

With many opportunities emerging in creating digital twins, the key to creating system autonomy requires integrating technology infrastructure. This is a challenging task, and its implementation requires right mix of technologies, domain expertise, and partnership ecosystems. Investing efforts help overcome the various complexities during system interactions, the lack of agility, organisational cultures, comprehensive data sets and the relationship between data. Cognitive Twins are being championed as the next generation Digital Twins which are equipped with cognitive capabilities. This is enabled by using knowledge graphs and machine learning models to offer insights and decision-making options to multiple domain. In particular, the knowledge graph describes the domain-specific knowledge regarding entities and interrelationships related to a maintenance process. It also contains information on possible decision-making options that can assist decision-makers at the strategic level. In this project, a structured framework will be proposed to develop a novel Cognitive Digital Twin framework to integrate the relevant enabling technologies. For this, a knowledge graph modelling approach will be used to construct cognitive digital twins that capture specific knowledge related to the maintenance domain. This project will demonstrate the benefits of integrating concepts of knowledge graph modelling to develop cognitive digital twins. The key requirement to be satisfied here is demonstrating a cognitive digital twin that can make decisions. The developed framework is successfully validated by its application to a real case study taken from previous paper on UAV fuel system. The results show that CDT is able to use cognitive capabilities to answer questions related to maintenance and deliver decision-making options to the users., Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura::9.b - Donar suport al desenvolupament de tecnologies, investigació i innovació nacionals als països en desenvolu­pament, garantint també un entorn normatiu propici a la diversificació industrial i l’addició de valor als productes bàsics, entre d’altres

During the last decades, wind turbine technology development has been phenomenal in the renewable field, as we are witnessing the construction of enormous wind turbines in the middle of oceans. The blades of wind turbines are an engineering marvel consisting of complex curved geometry surfaces. Optimising the blade shape can significantly improve the energy output. This project focused on the study of the operating logic of wind turbines, and in particular, their blades’ design. XFOIL was used to study the aerodynamic behaviour of the NACA four-digit airfoils family. This study allowed to characterise the aerodynamic properties of each airfoil, which were then validated by direct comparison with Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations’ results and third- party experimental work. Then, an algorithm based on the Blade Element Momentum methodology was programmed, to configure and predict the performance of a certain blade design through and iterative process. Optimisation methods were applied to find a set of profiles, chord and attack and twist angles distribution, to compose a blade design that optimises the aerodynamic performance of the blade, thus maximising the harvestable energy from the wind. The optimisation resulted in a blade design that has increased the power obtained by 67% with respect to the non-optimised base case., Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::7 - Energia Assequible i No Contaminant::7.b - Per a 2030, ampliar la infraestructura i millorar la tecnologia per tal d’oferir serveis d’energia moderns i sos­tenibles per a tots els països en desenvolupament, en particular els països menys avançats, els petits estats insulars en desenvolupament i els països en desenvolupament sense litoral, d’acord amb els programes de suport respectius

Global warming has become a major issue over the last thirty years, with research being carried out to reduce the amount of pollution emitted by developing new ways of producing day-to-day needs. Vehicles, as daily transport needs are not an exception, and they are becoming more and more electric as well as automated and instrumented. Consequently, it emerges a need to develop machine learning models that can detect faults dynamically in every part of a vehicle, especially in batteries, which are the new vehicles’ fuel. As mentioned, the primary requirement is to detect battery issues, with research being conducted to establish methods to achieve them. Further, the focus is to enable early adequate maintenance decisions to maximise asset as well as business value. Nevertheless, literature on this topic is still lacking. To switch it, this research work presents a framework that clarifies which maintenance types exist as well as processes for each one when a battery fault occurs. An Excel-based tool to analyse the costs of every maintenance type is developed and a case study is employed to validate the proposed framework and toolkit. The main steps of the Excel toolkit are to choose the user’s parameters, analyse the costs of the battery fault process and visualise the results in a dashboard after a failure simulation to help in decision-making., Outgoing, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::12 - Producció i Consum Responsables

Manual inspections of railway tracks continue to have an impact on the number of accidents they cause each year. The lack of accuracy of the human factor continues to cause catastrophes in the railway sector. In recent years, thanks to advances in technology, artificial intelligence is being applied to various sectors to improve and streamline inspection and maintenance processes. Focusing on the railway sector, this paper analyses three of the most innovative object detection models: YOLOv5, Faster RCNN and EfficientDet. In the literature review there are several studies that have applied machine learning in the sector, but few studies have studied defect detection using object detection tools. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies which compare different models using the same source of information, the same dataset. This paper compares the 3 models by testing a dataset with 31 images containing 3 different railway track elements. This dataset contains both faulty and non-faulty images to obtain the most detailed results possible, as six different classes have been differentiated in the training of the programmes: 3 faulty and 3 non-faulty. The results obtained highlight the good precision (equivalent to 1) of the 3 models in detecting non- defective elements. On the other hand, the recall obtained for defective elements is not so high, led by Faster RCNN with a value of 0.9375, followed by EfficientDet with 0.8125 and finally YOLOv5 with a value of 0.6875. It should be noted that the lack of images of some of the defective elements has led to this low recall for some of the classes., Outgoing

The demand of rapid, portable and effective point of care testing has been increasing in the last decade. Point of care (POC) testing devices can rely on several analytical signals such as electrochemical (i.e. glucose meter used by diabetic patients) and optical (colorimetric, as in pregnancy tests). However, this project will focus on fluorescence signals. The ultimate aim will be to develop a POC based on a sandwich immunoassay with antibodies labelled with fluorescent probes (i.e. quantum dots) that can recognise and quantify simultaneously important disease biomarkers (such as the interleukins IL-6 or IL-1). For that, this work has been focusing on the first step and specifically on the fluorescence approach and the probes that will be used in the sandwich assays and will give the possibility to do multiple quantifications. One of the approaches investigated has been the FRET method and it has been discovered that it is necessary to have a complete overlapping between the acceptor (i.e. dye) excitation and the donor (i.e. quantum dot) emission for it to work properly. The second approach was to find fluorescent probes with similar excitation wavelength, but well separated emissions to permit their simultaneous quantification when they are present in the same solutions. A dye and a quantum dots were selected and tested here in this format and the results showed that, it is easy to quantify them simultaneously, when present in the same solution, by recording their fluorescence at different wavelengths, Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i Benestar

Due to the need of higher control strategies for the viability of autonomous vehicles on an ever changing environment, this thesis will cover the development of an autonomous vehicle simulation considering longitudinal control from an Adaptive Cruise Controller (ACC) and lateral control from a Lane Keeping Assist (LKA) controller. The implementation of the control model and code will be made in Simulink and Matlab and simulated using the virtual testing software IPG CarMaker. The vehicle simulated is a Volkswagen Beetle equipped with two sensors. For the ACC, a radar sensor is placed at the front bumper providing relevant information about the preceding traffic object, in particular, the presence of an object and the relative distance and velocity. On the other hand, a line sensor is placed behind the windshield rear-view mirror to monitor the lane bounds and provide the relative position of the lane with respect to the sensor. A line sensor, essentially, emulates a camera sensor with some image processing layers capable of reliably detect lines. To enable longitudinal control, the Intelligent Driver Model calculates the desired acceleration by comparing the desired ego car speed with the actual value. Also, it compares the actual relative distance to a desired distance calculated by considering a standstill gap, a desired time gap at a certain speed and the relative velocity with a preceding vehicle. This model though does not precisely track the relative distance when approaching the desired speed. To address this issue, an algorithm that enables this functionality is implemented monitoring the relative velocity beyond the speed limit to avoid undesired driving conditions. On the other hand, lateral control is achieved by considering both degrees of freedom of a four wheeled vehicle, yaw angle and lateral deviation from the lane centreline. For this, Catmull-Rom curves are fitted in the lane centre to measure both magnitudes and compare them to their ego vehicle’s

Atmospheric pressure plasma technology has many surface processing applications. Specifically, it has been demonstrated to be effective in cleaning solar reflector surfaces and reducing water consumption in Concentrating Solar Power plants. This project studies the adaptation of this technology on real plant sites. Research on the CSP plants and their current cleaning procedures is undertaken. Several solutions are identified that enable the plasma torch to move over the CSP mirrors. A qualitative analysis is done for the solutions, quantifying the most important traits for each solution. The solutions include considerations of the industrial sponsor. The surface robot design is the optimum outcome, and as a result, its viability in terms of cost and energy consumption is studied. Finally, a conceptual 3D model is built on CAD software, to visualise the layout of the solution. The outcome of the design is practical for this application. Moreover, this novel design may also be applied to other surface engineering applications, which require plasma torches to independently move over surfaces, in industrial settings.

Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a discipline used by decision makers to evaluate conflicting features when choosing among alternatives. MCDA methods are applied in the field of sustainable manufacturing to weigh the importance of traditional criteria when compared to sustainability indicators. However, a recurring issue in MCDA is the uncertainty in the assessments of alternatives. In this project, a novel framework to deal with uncertainty in MCDA has been developed. It uses scenario planning to get optimistic and pessimistic assessments for the different alternatives. Then, assigning probabilities to the scenarios and applying COPRAS-N, an introduced modification of COPRAS-G, 11 weighted scenarios are calculated. Finally, the relative significance and ranking of each alternative are graphed according to the weighted scenarios so that their evolution and the different situations are represented. With the presented approach, internal and external uncertainties can be dealt with at the same time. The final decision is made by analysing the graphics and results and, if necessary, looking at the concepts of expected scenario and average performance introduced in this project. The framework has been applied to 3 case studies with a focus on sustainability found in the literature. The results show that providing a final ranking of alternatives without considering other likely scenarios may lead to wrong decisions. In fact, in Case study 1, the choice of the best alternative would have changed if the developed framework had been applied. Representing all the scenarios has proved to ensure the final decision and enable to evaluate all the possible outcomes, solving in this way the uncertainty., Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura

The current research explores the connection between gazing and locomotion of acoustic guided animals and the application of this in autonomous vehicles guidance and navigation strategies. Research groups worldwide are currently investigating different technologies and autonomous guidance algorithm-based strategies. The use of nature-inspired innovations ensures both the efficiency and the robustness of guidance strategies. The current research looks to fill the lack of research of those methodologies using bio-inspired techniques for acoustic guided animals as only visual-based methodologies have been implemented for a variety of tasks. Also, to connect the results from bat¿s flight experiments of Moss et al. with the Tau Theory of David Lee. The connection between the Tau Theory and flight dynamics and manoeuvring is another interesting topic not only for autonomous navigation but also for handling qualities and safety improvement. After carrying out a data analysis of Bat flight experiments through the cluttering of the environment and connecting the flight behaviour with the extensive research done upon environmental cues perception guiding locomotion action for visual and acoustic cues. This concept is in an early phase of development and therefore, the aim is to set the baseline for further research on the topic. Results showed that bats perform a controlled braking manoeuvre when closing gaps, which is coined the term Energised Approach However, biased errors were found in some cases hence the results were negatively impacted, causing the results to be inaccurate in certain phases of the analysis. Despite the error found post-analysis, the results found in this research can still be considered insightful however artificial intelligence algorithms should be incorporated in future studies in order to achieve a more accurate result and finding., Outgoing

This thesis project focus on adapting the optimal control of the lap time simulation for racing cars to racing powerboats. The intention of this lap time simulation is to develop a study regarding the influence of certain geometric parameters of the boat to the performance and the stability of itself. The optimal control problem stated considers the weight, hydrodynamic forces, and thrust that affects the behaviour of the boat in calm waters. Some issues during the simulations have been found not allowing to obtain results for manoeuvres no longer than a certain length. The main issue is identified and recommendations on how to solve the OCP for longer manoeuvres and even whole circuits are given.

[ES] El Valle del Ica ha sufrido una significante transformación y crecimiento, cuya producción actual contribuye aproximadamente a un tercio de la agroexportación total nacional. La expansión agrícola está teniendo lugar a expensas de los recursos hídricos, tanto superficiales como subterráneos. Las abstracciones incontroladas de aguas subterráneas están provocando una sobreexplotación del acuífero Ica-Villacurí, la mayor reserva subterránea en Perú. Este estudio tiene el objetivo de valorar las necesidades hídricas del regadío en el Valle del Ica y evaluar los niveles de escasez de agua y sostenibilidad hídrica de la agricultura de regadío. En primer lugar, el estudio evalúa la situación actual, las tendencias históricas de los cultivos, la composición entre pequeñas y grandes áreas de cultivo, el comercio exterior, y las abstracciones de agua. Se estima la huella hídrica actual y futura, distinguiendo la procedencia del agua entre superficial y subterránea, para evaluar la escasez de agua y la sostenibilidad a través de los indicadores de estrés hídrico y deuda hídrica, respectivamente. Esta distinción de huella hídrica ligada a la procedencia del agua es particularmente novedosa puesto que este enfoque aún no se ha aplicado en Perú. Los resultados muestran que la huella hídrica subterránea es 1.5 veces mayor que la superficial. Se demuestra que la agricultura de regadío en el Valle del Ica tiene un potencial efecto negativo sobre los recursos hídricos, especialmente los subterráneos, dado que se ha estimado que muestran niveles moderados de estrés hídrico. Según las condiciones climáticas y los patrones de cultivo del 2017, la agricultura de regadío se considera localmente insostenible, puesto que 8 años son necesarios para reponer los recursos hídricos que son usualmente consumidos por la producción agrícola en un año. Por tanto, hay una necesidad urgente de incrementar la disponibilidad hídrica y/o mejorar la renovabilidad si se prevé continuar con el modelo a, [EN] The Ica Valley in Peru has undergone significant agricultural transformation and growth, with current production contributing to approximately one third of the country’s total agro-exports. Agricultural expansion is taking place at the expense of water resources, both surface and groundwater. Uncontrolled groundwater abstractions have led to over-exploitation of the Ica-Villacuri aquifer, the largest groundwater reserve in Peru. This research aimed to assess the irrigation water needs in the Ica Valley and evaluate levels of water scarcity and sustainability of irrigated agriculture. Firstly, the research evaluated the current situation and historical trends in cropped area, the composition of small and large-scale farms, export trade, and water abstractions. Historical and current blue water footprints (WF) were then estimated, distinguishing the water source between surface and groundwater, to assess water scarcity and sustainability through water stress and water debt indicators, respectively. This distinction of WF linked to source was particularly novel since this approach has not previously been applied in Peru. The results show that the groundwater footprint is 1.5 times higher than the surface water footprint. It has been demonstrated that irrigated agriculture in the Ica Valley has potentially a very detrimental effect on water resources (notably groundwater) given the moderate levels of water stress that were estimated. Based on climate conditions and existing cropping patterns from 2017, irrigated agriculture is considered to be locally unsustainable since 8 years are required to replenish the water resources that are typically being consumed by agricultural production in one year. There is thus an urgent need to either increase water availability and/or improve renewability if the current model of agricultural expansion and production is expected to continue. Otherwise, urban supply in Ica and the countries which rely on importing fruits and vegetab

[EN] This work analyses the viability of the theory of critical distances (TCD) using mesh control for fretting fatigue lifetime assessment. More than seven hundred sets of simulations were performed by taking seventy different experimental tests reported previously in the literature. The outcome of the present study suggests that the TCD mesh control method can be extended to fretting fatigue problems by the reasonable assumption of setting the right element size proportional to critical distance. In this study, a significant computational time reduction of up to 97% was obtained. Thus, this study provides a simple method to design complex 3D industrial components subjected to fretting fatigue phenomena using finite element analysis efficiently without requiring complex remeshing techniques

The main goal of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of the influence that the various perturbations exert on the trajectory calculations performed by the JPL ephemeris model to provide high-fidelity ephemeris in support of spacecraft navigation and other activities related to Solar System bodies. One of the drawbacks behind such a complex method are the large machine-oriented technical requirements it has in terms of time and computational cost. The algorithm that integrates the full dynamical model of the N-Body differential equations of motion requires a continuous update of the dynamical states (positions and velocities) of a large number of bodies for each new integration step, regardless of the perturbation model applied or the nature and diversity of the sources of perturbations other than those gravitational considered. This work focuses especially to the gravitational implications of interplanetary trajectories, based on the fact that within its main and longest phase (the cruise phase) a spacecraft is essentially affected by a multi-body attraction. A procedure has been conducted to build a tool that, applied to any given interplanetary trajectory, has the ability of predicting which gravitational perturbations are not relevant and can thus be neglected without a significant loss of accuracy. Validation tests based on the BepiColombo interplanetary ephemeris trajectory planned mission proved that no significant differences are found when comparing the discrepancies exhibited by a numerical propagation of its initial conditions with the N-Body differential equations of motion, including all planetary perturbations or only those indicated as relevant by the developed 2D maps. A comparison is also carried out between two of the most popular special perturbation techniques, Cowell and Encke, which demonstrated that round off errors take its toll even working in double precision and showed that Encke’s method performs much better for interplanetary, El objetivo principal de esta tesis es profundizar en la comprensión de la influencia que las diversas perturbaciones ejercen en los cálculos de trayectoria realizados por el modelo de efemérides JPL que proporciona efemérides de alta fidelidad en apoyo de la navegación de naves espaciales y otras actividades relacionadas con los cuerpos del Sistema Solar. Una de las desventajas de un método tan complejo son los grandes requisitos técnicos orientados a la computación que tiene en términos de tiempo y costes de cálculo. El algoritmo que integra el modelo dinámico completo de las ecuaciones diferenciales de movimiento de N cuerpos requiere una actualización continua de los estados dinámicos (posiciones y velocidades) de un gran número de cuerpos celestiales para cada nuevo paso de integración, independientemente del modelo de perturbación aplicado o de la naturaleza y diversidad de las fuentes de perturbaciones distintas de las gravitacionales consideradas. Este trabajo se centra especialmente en las implicaciones gravitatorias de las trayectorias interplanetarias, basadas en el hecho de que dentro de su fase principal y más larga (la fase de crucero) una nave espacial se ve esencialmente afectada por una atracción multicuerpo. Se ha llevado a cabo un procedimiento para construir una herramienta que, aplicada a cualquier trayectoria interplanetaria, tiene la capacidad de predecir qué perturbaciones gravitatorias no son relevantes y, por lo tanto, pueden ser ignoradas sin una pérdida significativa de precisión. Las pruebas de validación basadas en la misión planificada de trayectoria de efemérides interplanetarias de BepiColombo demostraron que no se encuentran diferencias significativas al comparar las discrepancias exhibidas por una propagación numérica de sus condiciones iniciales con las ecuaciones diferenciales de movimiento incluyendo todas las perturbaciones planetarias o sólo aquellas indicadas como relevantes por los mapas 2D desarrollados. También se realiza, Outgoing

This thesis aims to build an ERP selection approach for the implementation of ERP systems in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Currently, the majority of local companies with few workers manage all their information manually through emails, spreadsheets and text documents – client’s details, projects status, employees’ payrolls, material planning, etc –. However, these companies are living a forced transition to adapt to automated processes – especially when working with larger enterprises which use different ERP systems –, as technologies are evolving, and more companies are using automated systems. Moreover, all companies are using web services to store all information and keep it accessible to employees, however, most of the times this function is not fully integrated, and issues are experienced when it comes to smaller enterprises.

Sustainable manufacturing is becoming increasingly common and necessary among the different manufacturing industries around the world. It is essential to aim resources at improving the environmental, social and economic issues of manufacturing; if we, as a society, want to achieve a sustainable development. In this thesis project, two cast aluminium components are analysed throughout their product life cycle in order to know which life cycle stages should be targeted so as to improve their overall level of sustainability. These components belong to a product created by Vitsœ, a leading company in the furniture industry. The CES Edu Pack software has been used to conduct life cycle assessments and try to solve the challenge of finding the dominant life cycle phase. During the project, it has been discovered that the material life cycle phase is responsible for nearly 90% of the total energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the products life, so the next step in the project is finding ways to improve this life cycle phase’s sustainability. Relate to this issue, another big challenge in this project is finding ways to reduce the high embodied energy and CO2 emissions that come along with the aluminium industry. Consequently, in the project’s discussion and conclusion, different suggestions such as using new manufacturing systems like Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing, redesigning the product, changing the product’s material or evaluating how recycled material affects the product life cycle, are analysed and presented; finding that these suggestions can be good strategies to follow., Outgoing

As motorsport is heading to a hybrid and electric era, purely ICE engine cars are starting to look slightly outdated but keep this feeling of the purest kind of racing. A successful hybridization wouldbe the one that maintains the purity of racing while adding an electric powertrain that providesa more exciting visual spectacle. ERS(Energy Recovery System)systems have been implemented successfully in F1(Formula One)and are meant to be extended to nearly every sort of motorsport. In a motorsport race, thereare three relevant things related to the performance in a race: Car, driver and strategy. In theTCR(Touring Car Racing), strategy can be more relevant if a push-to-pass system is implemented, as the drivers must use it in the right moment and way to increase their performance in race events. A realistic conceptual design and modelling of a hybrid push-to-pass system has been done to analyse the effect of it. From real data acquired fromMontmeló circuitusinga CUPRA RacingLeón TCR, an analysis of the behaviour and effect of the system has been done for three different motors and three braking strategies. At the end of this thesis, aselection ofthe best packagewasdone and simulated to find the finalresults of the application of this push-to-pass system, Outgoing

Among the key technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, connectivity, internet of things, big data and analytics are frequently used to drive performance improvements for products, processes, and services. In this context, a key contributor to achieving competitive services is the ability to define appropriate practices to optimise services. A key challenge is to deliver actionable analytics, i.e. outcomes that can lead to action recommendations.This project focuses on the area of distributed field services and in particular on the way to link connected field services with performance analytics and evaluate performance benefits through simulation, optimised on the basis of operational data. Such an approach can bring many benefits to businesses, both at strategic and tactical levels, offering potential to consider different scenarios and evaluate how the business will react and perform, leading to action recommendations.A simulation-basedapproach has been developed to optimise the size and distribution of field service workforce. This has been applied on an industrial case study involving real data

Nowadays, concentrated solar power plants are widely used to respond to the continuous rise in energy consumption in the world. By 2030, these plants together with other clean and sustainable energy providers, will completely replace the use of fossil resources. Therefore, it is important to study the effect that may have a solar power plant implementation on its surrounding environment. The aim of this project is to fully understand these environmental implications. To reach that knowledge, the consequences on the physical environment in terms of flora, fauna and water usage will be taken into account, as well as social, cultural and health impacts. Subsequently, an assessment framework including all these parameters will be created. This work will help evaluating the environmental impact of the plant and how the drawbacks regarding the environment can be reduced. During the project, several conclusions will be drawn from the assessment framework. It will be proved how the majority of the negative and harmful impacts will appear during the construction phase. Moreover, it will be observed how during the operational phase of the plant these impacts will reduce its negativity due to the environmental adaptation. Finally, more than the half of these impacts will be positive after the dismantling phase because the initial state of the land will be recovered. This report proposes the study of the environmental impacts of a CSP plant and states that there is still future work to do in order to reduce them. Nowadays, new technologies are constantly evolving and these should be used for the reduction of the CSP installation drawbacks., Outgoing

The emergence of new technologies and their introduction in society and business during the last few years has made digital transformation a priority issue for organisations that want to be up to date and not be overtaken by competitors.However, while adopting digital transformation strategies, companies are not addressing some issues that could deliver benefits in a short term with little investment. Companiesare not taking full advantage of this relatively new digital tools for their simpler tasks. One of these digital toolsismodern business intelligence platforms.This research aims to answer, for large companies, the following three questions: how are modern BI platforms changing organisations? How are these organisations using modern BI platforms? And, what are the benefits of using them?The investigationtakes two different approaches in order to study this topic: a generic and a specific approach. On the one side, the generic approach consistsof several interviews with experts of this matter. The results of these semi-structured interviews are summarised in a set of key ideas. On the other side, the specific approach consists of the case studyof the implementation of the MicroStrategy BI platform for a client that wants to reduce the dedication time for the generation of several reports. This specific approach provides more tangible and real data.The results of the analysis of these two sources are compared and combined, as their findings complement each other, aiming to answer the same research questions.The revealed findings provide enough evidence to encouragethe academic community to conduct further work related to this topic, Outgoing

Removing unsightly graffiti is costly and estimated to exceed 200 million per year in the UK alone. Moreover, it is also clear that graffiti commonly found in schools and shops, flats and on public transport signifies sociological decay, causing anguish and stress in those directly affected. Fortunately, a new generation of anti-graffiti coating has been recently developed, which is proving effective in the ease of removal as well as being environmentally friendly. This project aims to ascertain the performance of the TGC Ultra Guard anti-graffiti coating by TGC (The Graphene Corporation) applied to a range of substrates (wood, glass, brick, concrete, glazed wall tile, anodised aluminium, painted steel, structural plastic panel and stainless steel) which have been exposed to different types of graffiti (spray and permanent marker) and conditions such as the time until their removal. It is worth mentioning that research and application of test methods to evaluate the physical performance of the coating has been made. Furthermore, those surfaces containing anti-graffiti additives have been compared to the bare substrate surface for adhesion of materials and removal thereof. The results will provide valuable feedback and comparison of the performance of the coatin the different surfaces, types of paint and time before remova, Outgoing

The Oxford – Milton Keynes – Cambridge (OMC) arc is one of the fastest growing regions of the United Kingdom. The connection of OMC cities via new infrastructure services is seen vital for long-term economic growth of the arc. This growth is expected to increase the arc’s population by 1.9 million and create 23,000 new jobs by 2050. With world-class universities, research locations and high-tech firms, the arc’s future economic growth is threatened by the absence of affordable housing and appropriate connective infrastructures. Since residential and commercial buildings account for half of UK energy use, it is important to plan new housing development in a smart way by including low carbon technologies so as to reduce demands for energy. Therefore, this thesis studies the relationship between the urban development and energy and investigates the potential of low carbon technologies and associated grid impacts for the arc’s new housing development. The study considers PV panels with storage systems such as lithium nickel-cobalt-aluminium and lead-acid batteries as low carbon technologies and analyses their potential to reduce demand for energy from new housing development. Additionally, the growing use of electrical vehicles (EVs) and their impact on the grid has also been included in the investigation. The study calculates and compares the energy demand for the new housing development with and without the low carbon technologies under alternative scenarios which has been characterised as ‘degree of smartness’. The results show that installing PV panels coupled with energy storage systems reduce the dwellings’ demand from the grid as well as it is economically advantageous. Particular considerations about smart EV charging along with load shifting of appliances are highlighted to reduce the number of PV panels and the size of batteries to be installed., Outgoing

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[EN] The technological innovations experienced in the past decades, together with the revolution of the Internet have changed the banking industry and the way customers perform their banking transactions. With the integration of mobile devices in our everyday life, Mobile Banking (MB) seems to be the next logical step in the evolution of the banking industry. However, MB adoption is still relatively low. Why is this happening? What is stopping customers from using mobile devices to conduct their banking transactions? Lack of trust has been identified as one of the main barriers in the adoption of Internet related technologies. This Thesis Project aims to explore the role of trust and identify which trust determinants are inhibiting customer acceptance of MB in order to support banks to efficiently shape their marketing strategies. A final comparison with Internet banking literature has been conducted in order to identify possible differences and give a fuller understanding of how different customers should be addressed differently. The theoretical model tested in the present dissertation is an extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a widely used model to study user adoption of ITs. The model was extended to include trust and its determinants, with the inclusion of Technological Trust, Perceived Security and Awareness. The results show that Trust plays a major role in the adoption of Mobile banking. The main trust determinants affecting customer adoption are Technological Trust and Perceived Security., [ES] Los avances tecnológicos experimentados en las últimas décadas junto con la revolución que ha supuesto la aparición de Internet, han cambiado el sector bancario y la forma en que los clientes llevan a cabo sus transacciones. Con la integración de los dispositivos móviles en nuestro día a día, la banca móvil es considerada el próximo paso en la evolución de la industria bancaria. Esto supone una serie de retos y oportunidades que no deben pasar desapercibidos. Los bancos deberían así concentrar sus esfuerzos en: - Retener a los clientes actuales incitándoles a utilizar los nuevos canales de distribución. - Convertir a los usuarios de teléfonos móviles al uso del nuevo concepto de banca. Para ello, el sector debe ser conocedor de qué factores afectan al comportamiento de los consumidores. La falta de confianza ha sido identificada como la principal barrera en la utilización de canales virtuales como la banca electrónica. Con todo lo anterior, los objetivos planteados para la realización de este proyecto fueron: - Definir el rol de la confianza del consumidor en la banca móvil - Identificar los principales factores que afectan a la confianza - Comparar los resultados obtenidos con los de la banca a través de Internet - Determinar futuras estrategias para el sector bancario que ayuden a impulsar la confianza del consumidor Para la consecución de dichos objetivos, se llevaron a cabo los siguientes pasos: 1. Construcción del modelo y definición de hipótesis: Diversos modelos teóricos han sido ampliamente utilizados en la literatura para analizar la confianza del consumidor. En este trabajo, se ha tomado como base el modelo TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) utilizado para identificar las variables que afectan a la adopción de tecnologías, y se ha extendido para incluir los principales factores que determinan la confianza del consumidor. 2. Desarrollo de las encuestas: Para poder proceder a la estimación de las variables latentes del modelo, se diseñó una encuesta que

Tidal currents are one of the most promising sources of power within the renewable energy sector, especially for countries with suitable marine conditions. The United Kingdom has the edge over the rest of countries in this type of renewable energy and leads the innovation race in order to keep the UK economy competitive in future years. Following these reasons, several types of marine turbines are currently being developed and tested. Nevertheless, one of the key issues, in the future development of marine hydrokinetic power generation systems, is to properly understand their prospective performance, not only for each power generation device alone but also for an array of devices as a whole. Recent theoretical studies have suggested that a dense cross-stream array of turbines (so-called turbine fence) is a promising way to extract power from marine currents; however, its optimal intraturbine spacing depends on several physical factors, some of which are still uncertain. One of those uncertain factors is the effect of seabed friction causing vertical shear of the flow, which is difficult to study theoretically and requires 3-D CFD simulations. Also, little is known about the performance of multiple rows of marine turbines. Consequently, throughout this thesis, numerous arrangements of marine turbines (modelled as actuator disks) have been tested using ANSYS Fluent®, with the idea of assessing the effects of various parameters such as: intra-device spacing, number of rows and turbine resistance coefficient. These CFD simulations have been compared with existing theoretical models (two-scale actuator disk models) for the power extracted by the turbines with the aim of validating these theoretical models. Also, the results of CFD simulations have been analysed in detail to better understand the characteristics of flow past these turbine arrays., Outgoing

Within the overall framework of Through-Life Capability Management (TLCM) that underpins United Kingdom (UK) defence procurement, one of the key challenges is that of achieving the appropriate balance between expenditure on the initial cost of a platform or equipment and between that devoted to its ongoing maintenance and support. Against the background of a shrinking defence budget and a highly challenging series of operational tasks, reductions in the cost of support that do not diminish the output will clearly provide some welcome relief in the face of challenging financial pressures. Protagonists of “lean thinking” have argued that this concept does, indeed, provide increased efficiency without compromising effectiveness; however, it is usually associated with commercial production in a relatively stable physical and marketing environment. Using the UK’s Defence Lines of Development as an analysis framework, we present a case study that demonstrates the application of lean thinking in the uncertain environment of military operations. In the case study, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the concept in a specific historic situation, that of the 15 Equipment Support Company in Operation TELIC (the UK counterpart of Operation Iraqi Freedom). However, we suggest the approach has broader applicability. In common with examples previously reported from the world of commerce and industry, lean measures require significant top-level commitment to change entrenched attitudes and approaches. Additionally, the successful inclusion of lean thinking as part of the overall approach to support for operations has the potential to lead to a significant reduction of the associated costs and, hence, that of UK defence acquisition as a whole.

This thesis conducts a profitability analysis of investments in Photovoltaic (PV) installations connected to the Spanish electrical grid system, focusing on the regulatory framework and investment returns. The thesis takes the investor’s perspective on the analysis of policy support systems and contributes by bringing closer policy design and policy results. Key aspects of PV investments are studied including the influence of the parameters involved in the economical evaluation of PV plants and the investment costs that will make no longer necessary to have a support scheme for these investments. In addition, the returns required by investors are studied and, with assumed investment costs reductions, a de-escalating feed-intariff (FIT) for PV investments during 2011-2015 is proposed. The results obtained indicate that grid-parity will be reached at a turnkey (all-included) cost of about 2676 €/kWp, which requires a cost reduction of 40% from current costs and it will not happen earlier than 2016. In addition, during the next few years, to maintain a sustainable amount of investments, the FIT should be reduced at a rate very close to the forecasted costs reductions and the regulatory framework should be updated to eliminate the administrative costs incurred due to the capacity limits, adopting a more dynamic and market-based support scheme., Outgoing

This paper is conceptual in nature and reviews five of the key management challenges that are facing those charged with the management of the UK Defence. It is argued that similar challenges face many Western governments, albeit the solutions are likely to be country-specific. Given the paucity of academic research into the general area of defence management, there is considerable potential for focused application of ideas and concepts from a broad range of disciplines. This will help improve the UK’s ability to maintain its peacetime military capability efficiently whilst retaining the capacity to conduct operations effectively. Whilst the paper does not seek to recommend solutions for the issues identified, it does seek to expose the essential features as a means of broadening the reader’s understanding of the nature of the challenge—and, hence, to help shape the research agenda.

The gradual liberalization of intra-community air services began when Europe?s airlines were going through a profitable period (1983-1989), but the more fundamental changes arising from the second (effective November 1990) and especially the third (effective January 1993) liberalization packages occurred at a time when economic recession and a downturn in demand growth pushed many airlines into deficit and several into a loss making spiral. This paper considers recent research that has attempted to distinguish responses and actions that would have occurred anyway from those that arose directly as a result of the liberalization process and the Community liberalization. It thus seeks to draw some preliminary conclusions as to the success of the EU measures. The scope of the analysis will be restricted to cross-border intra-European air services. It is based on extensive research carried out by the author and a team from Cranfield University over 1995 and 1996. This included desk research, a survey of and interviews with EU airlines and aviation authorities, and five more-detailed airline case studies. This has been updated to take into account more recent developments, especially regarding new entrant airlines. However, many of the airlines? strategic changes were more in response to developments in global rather than EU markets. Consumers have benefited from greater competition in promotional fares, and more dynamic pricing tactics overall have led to higher intra-EU traffic growth in the early 1990s than would have been the case without liberalization. There was also a substantial growth in the number of EU cities served by non-stop services, and some encouraging trends from new entrant airlines in some countries. On balance, it is argued that the net result has been disappointing; but this is hardly surprising given the timing of the final stage of liberalization in the middle of an economic recession, the concern of the larger airlines with more global events, and