Soils provide many essential functions that underpin the delivery of key ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling. While many factors regulate the functioning of soil, biotic interactions between plants and soil microorganisms are of central importance. Plant traits are increasingly being used to interrogate these interactions and provide a fram...
The electricity generation and demand have increased rapidly in recent years due to the improved quality of life, developed renewable energy strategies (RES), and electrification of traditional heat and transport energy sectors to replace fossil fuels. To accommodate this trend, electric utilities try to avoid the expensive traditional solution of ...
Lean duplex stainless steels (DSS) combine good corrosion resistance with improved mechanical properties compared to austenitic counterparts, making them key candidate materials for cost savings through weight reduction designs. However, the occurrence of localised corrosion and environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) is not fully understood, and i...
Radio sky surveys using single-dish radio telescopes are conducted at frequencies ranging from 300 MHz to 857 GHz. Examples include the WMAP and Planck cosmic microwave background satellites, C-BASS, and the GMIMS polarization survey which uses Penticton in Canada. In all such surveys, the telescope measures the brightness distribution of the radio...
In this thesis a novel method for quality control of the cooling half-rings in the pixel endcaps is described. The half rings are used to provide the cooling for pixel modules in the new Inner Tracker of the ATLAS experiment that will operate during the runs of the High Luminosity LHC. In the quality control, they are analysed using infrared measur...
Robots stand at the heart of a techno-scientific revolution which promises to alter the way in which we conceive our society. Recent discoveries point towards a future in which artificial agents will become fully integrated in our social structures, thus becoming important actors in our life. In this scenario, it will be critical for them to be abl...
Background and objectives: With the increase in the number of South Asian international students at universities in the UK in recent years, many cross-cultural issues have arisen. The literature review in this thesis introduces the challenges faced by international students, including language and cultural barriers, academic and financial difficult...
Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in developed countries. It is well known that myocardial ischemia predisposes ventricular tachyarrhythmias and fibrillation. Early and effective diagnosis of myocardial ischemia is essential for treating patients with cardiac ischemia to save their lives. The newly developed...
In the era of all-sky surveys and the upcoming era of extremely large telescopes, exoplanet astronomers will need to select transiting exoplanets for atmospheric study via transmission spectroscopy from a large and growing sample of confirmed planets. In this new asset-starved regime, it will no longer be practical to manually select planets for fo...
Clouds play a critical role in the Earth's climate system by virtue of their ability to regulate the radiative budget. The brightness and albedo of clouds are highly determined by cloud droplet number concentration (Nd). Atmospheric aerosol particles can serve as cloud droplet seedsâcloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and become cloud droplets throug...
