The word 'strategy' has represented many concepts since it originated in a military domain. Fundamentally, it is concerned with determining how best to direct systems in a changing world. However, in today's increasingly complex and vertically separated sectors, conventional top-down approaches to strategy design are becoming less applicable. The proverb 'I am because you are' encapsulates the idea that the world is not formed of independent, separate entities, but that all beings and actions are connected. This thesis puts forward a case for applying that way of thinking in a systems approach to strategy design. The proposed approach comprises three processes which are aligned with systems engineering principles, to plan, capture and communicate strategy. It is argued that strategy documents produced by following the approach would be clearer and more rigorous. To the field of strategy, this research offers a language framework for discussing strategy concepts, a new approach for designing strategy, and pragmatic guidance for strategy design exercises. In the field of systems thinking, it contributes to the challenge of translating systems engineering principles for non-traditional domains.

Air pollution from DEEEs is becoming an increased international concern, and whilst attention has been primarily focused on the automotive industry, concerns have also been raised about emissions from diesel rail vehicles. The research is designed to assess the hypothesis that diesel rolling stock severely impacts air quality at Birmingham New Street station due to the station’s enclosed nature. To assess this hypothesis, an extensive series of long term measurements were made at Birmingham New Street station. The monitoring campaign consisted of diffusion tube measurements, to measure NO2 at locations in and around the station, followed by measurements of NOx, PM, CO2 and BC at stationary and mobile sites at the platform level. The results illustrated that diesel trains serving the station elevated pollutant concentrations, particularly oxides of nitrogen. During the sampling campaign the average NO2 concentration in the centre of platform 10/11 was 407 μg/m3, approximately 10 times greater than the EU ambient air quality limit. NO exceed its WEL 35% of the time during the monitoring campaign for the same site. Furthermore, this research concludes that CO2 is not suitable as a surrogate for assessing DEEEs exposure. NO2 concentrations exceeded their relevant exposure limits, whilst CO2 did not exceed the ventilation system’s 50% speed threshold, as a result it is unlikely that harmful pollutants were being successfully exhausted from the station. The environmental analysis identified a potential trapped vortex in the West end of the station, which could have an impact on the ventilation system in place at Birmingham New Street station. It is clear that this research has been pivotal in driving a focus towards air quality with the railway industry and has prompted further research at other enclosed railway stations.

The issue of managing a large and complex railway system with continuous traffic flows and mixed train services in a safe and punctual manner is very important, especially after disruptive events. In the first part of this thesis an analysis method is introduced which allows the visualisation and measurement of the propagation of delays in the railway network. The BRaVE simulator and the University of Birmingham Single Train Simulator (STS) are also introduced and a train running estimation using STS is described. A practical single junction rescheduling problem is then defined and it investigates how different levels of delays and numbers of constraints may affect the performance of algorithms for network-wide rescheduling in terms of quality of solution and computation time. In order to deal with operational dynamics, a methodology using performance-based supervisory control is proposed to provide rescheduling decisions over a wider area through the application of different rescheduling strategies in appropriate sequences. Finally, an architecture for a real-time train rescheduling framework, based on the distributed artificial intelligence system, is designed in order to handle railway traffic in a large-scale network intelligently. A case study based on part of the East Coast Main Line is followed up to demonstrate the effectiveness of adopting supervisory control to provide the rescheduling options in the dynamic situation.

The development of the alternating current field measurement (ACFM) technique for high-speed inspection of railway wheels/track is important to ensure the integrity of railway assets. The stress and conditions at the wheel/rail contact patch, severity of rolling contact fatigue (RCF) damage and changes in microstructure and hardness with tread depth for railway wheels are investigated. This study employs experimental measurement of RCF defects in railway wheels to understand ACFM sensor signal - RCF defect relationships. The influence of sensor frequency and speed, sensor angle relative to crack angle, lift-off distance, crack propagation angle and inter-crack spacing distance are investigated. Low rather than high frequency sensors are better suited at sizing cracks in railway wheels and track. The optimum signal is obtained when the sensor is oriented parallel to the crack angle. The signal is reduced at higher speeds. The maximum change in the normalised Bx signal component of the sensor’s magnetic field is greater for closely spaced cracks (< 5 mm) and thus overestimates the defect. Inter-crack spacing distances of 15-20 mm yield estimates for crack pocket depths that are oversized by 20-36%. The inner cracks in a cluster with four defects yields higher Bₓ values than expected and thus significantly over sizes the defects at 15-20 mm inter-crack spacing distances, whereas, the sensor provides reasonable depth estimates for the outer cracks. Crack propagation angle affects the signal. Scans conducted with the probe oriented at 90° to the cluster of cracks consisting of a deep central crack surrounded by shallow cracks results in a distinct central sensor Bₓ signal that consists of a peak due to a flux leakage effect, thus, identifying the critical defect.

The author of this thesis deals with the issues of real time traffic management in junction areas and bottleneck sections on mainline railways in the event of service disturbances. A systematic methodology is proposed for modelling and solving real time train rescheduling problems in junction areas and bottleneck sections, including train re-sequencing and train re-timing. A formal mathematical model, the Junction Rescheduling Model (JRM) is proposed, based on a Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) to minimise a Weighted Average Delay (WAD). An innovative algorithm based on Differential Evolution algorithm, named DE_JRM is proposed for solving real time train rescheduling problems formulated with JRM. The performance of the algorithm DE_JRM has been evaluated with a stochastic method based on Monte-Carlo simulation methodology. The evaluation results show a good performance for both flyover and flat junctions compared with First Come First Served (FCFS) and a conventional ARS strategy. The author also extends the proposed methodology, including JRM and the algorithm DE_JRM, to model and solve real time train rescheduling problems for bottleneck sections of railway networks. Finally, an integrated system architecture for the traffic management and train control is introduced for system implementation of the proposed methodology of train rescheduling in junction areas and bottleneck sections on mainline railways.

The rail industry has focused on the improvement of maintenance through the effective use of online condition monitoring of rolling stock and rail infrastructure in order to reduce the occurrence of unexpected catastrophic failures and disruption that arises from them to an absolute minimum. The basic components comprising a railway wheelset are the wheels, axle and axle bearings. Detection of wheelset faults in a timely manner increases efficiency as it helps minimise maintenance costs and increase availability. The main aim of this project has been the development of a novel integrated online acoustic emission (AE) and vibration testing technique for the detection of wheel and axle bearing defects as early as possible and well before they result in catastrophic failure and subsequently derailment. The approach employed within this research study has been based on the combined use of accelerometers and high-frequency acoustic emission sensors mounted on the rail or axle box using magnetic hold-downs. Within the framework of this project several experiments have been carried out under laboratory conditions, as well as in the field at the Long Marston Test Track and in Cropredy on the Chiltern Railway line to London.

Through the use of new communication-based train control (CBTC) systems, modern metro railways have been able to provide a more efficient, more reliable and more eco-friendly transport services. The main advantages of the CBTC systems are achieved by utilising modern communication technologies. The performance of the communications network is dependent on a well-designed access point (AP) deployment, as this determines the overall communication capability and impacts the cost. In this thesis, a systematic methodology is proposed for formulating and solving AP deployment planning (ADP) problems in two scenarios: (i) a tunnel section area; and (ii) a real-world metro system. Different mathematical models are presented for modelling the ADP problem in these two scenarios. In addition to mathematical models, an exhaustive search and a customized search algorithm, which uses a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D), are proposed for solving the ADP optimisation problems. The methodologies are applied to the scenarios mentioned above. To evaluate the optimisation results, the optimised AP deployments are tested on a simulation platform integrating a railway network simulator and a communication network simulator. The test result shows that with the optimised AP deployments the DCS can achieve a better performance while using fewer APs.

This thesis looks at five case studies of attempted co-operation between British political parties. The objective is two-fold: to provide an explanatory framework to better understand instances of potential cooperation within the institutional context of British politics, and to build analytical narratives that shed light on the inter- and intra-party dynamics when co-operation between parties has been mooted in Westminster. It addresses a lacuna in the study of British Politics by providing a temporal comparison of understudied examples of attempted co-operation. This comparison inductively draws out what lessons can be learnt about why co-operation is attempted, and the factors that inhibit it. This framework suggests that these examples of mooted co-operation constitute disruptions of the majoritarian norms which inform the British Political Tradition. It does so through a historical institutionalist lens: the cultural norms of Westminster provide a strategic context, but elite political agents strategically interact with this institutional environment. This tradition is manifested through intra-party pressure against co-operation, and a belief that co-operation is electorally disadvantageous. Equally, actors' interpretation of what is possible or desirable within the perceived constraints of Westminster party politics really matters. This suggests a role for situated agency and strategic leadership, captured through the concept of a disruption/defence of existing institutional equilibrium derived from heresthetics. This thesis contends that the discourse around co-operation holds a rhetorical and performative purpose beyond the success or failure of formal co-operation. Institutional context and memory create incentives for actors to either accentuate or downplay the effect of co-operation, but do not determine the shape and aims of cooperation. As a result, both culture and calculus are all-important to inter-party co-operation.

A partir de uma aplicação da Forma Canônica de Jordan, construímos uma base para o espaço atrator para operadores quânticos de dimensão finita. Essa base é formada pelos autoespaços correspondentes a autovalores de módulo 1. Com essa construção, descrevemos o comportamento da dinâmica assint otica dos operadores quânticos, obtendo assim, o resultado principal do texto. A dinâmica depende dos vetores duais, cuja definição não é feita a partir de uma forma explicita, mas por propriedades relacionadas ao traço. Investigando propriedades dos operadores estritamente positivos, definimos um produto interno que relaciona o produto interno de Hilbert-Schmidt com um operador estritamente positivo. Com isso, obtemos uma forma explícita para os vetores duais. / From an application of the Jordan Canonical Form, we construct a basis for the attractor space for quantum operations of nite dimension. This basis is formed by eigenspaces corresponding to eigenvalues of modulus 1. With this construction, we describe the behavior of the asymptotic dynamics of the quantum operations, thus obtaining the main result of the text. The dynamics depends on the dual vectors whose de nition is not made in an explicit form, but by properties related to the trace. Investigating the properties of strictly positive operators, we de ne an inner product that relates the Hilbert-Schmidt inner product with a strictly positive operator. Thus, we have an explicit form for the dual vectors.

Em virtude da grande proporção das falhas humanas em relação ao número total de falhas, dos gargalos de fornecimento de energia elétrica e do histórico de falhas humanas ocorridas nos últimos anos no sistema elétrico brasileiro, a análise da confiabilidade humana é relevante para o setor elétrico para o aumento da confiabilidade e mitigação da ocorrência de corte de fornecimento de energia aos consumidores. Nesse contexto, esse trabalho objetiva aplicar uma metodologia existente para analisar a probabilidade de ocorrência de falha humana em uma subestação de energia elétrica. Aborda o assunto inicialmente revisando a evolução do cenário de falhas humanas, desde o período da Guerra Fria (1945 a 1989), quando se realizaram os primeiros estudos, até o atual momento, para contextualizar a necessidade de atualização dos conhecimentos sobre confiabilidade humana. No referencial teórico, compilaram-se as conceituações dos diversos métodos utilizados para realização da análise da confiabilidade humana e os fatores que exercem influência sobre o desempenho do operador na execução das tarefas. Elaborou-se uma tabela com o objetivo de propiciar a comparação entre os diversos métodos com suas vantagens e desvantagens. Na sequência, faz-se a apresentação da metodologia para análise da confiabilidade humana, com a definição do cenário crítico, análise dos fatores que exercem influência sobre o desempenho dos operadores e estruturação e análise da árvore de decisão holística com os possíveis valores de probabilidade de ocorrência de erros humanos. Os resultados de sua aplicação em uma subestação do setor elétrico localizada no Estado de Mato Grosso indicaram um valor inicial de probabilidade de ocorrência de erro humano para o cenário analisado. O resultado da pesquisa demonstra qualitativa e quantitativamente quais fatores exerceram mais influência sobre o desempenho humano para esse cenário. Verificou-se que ações para melhoria dos níveis de qualidade dos fatores de desempenho avaliados negativamente, reduzem significativamente a probabilidade de ocorrência de erro humano. Com a determinação da probabilidade de erro humano e dos fatores que exercem influência sobre o operador para sua ocorrência, esta metodologia poderá ser aplicada como ferramenta adicional de gestão do processo de prevenção de falhas humanas e aumento da confiabilidade do setor elétrico. / Due to the large proportion of human failures in relation to the total number of failures, the restrictions in the supply of electric power and the history of human failures in recent years in the Brazilian electricity system, human reliability is relevant for the electric sector to increase the reliability and mitigation of the occurrence of power outages to consumers. In this context, this work aims to apply an existing methodology to analyze a probability of occurrence of human failure in an electric power substation. It addresses the subject initially by reviewing the evolution of the scenario of human failings, from the period of the Cold War (1945 to 1989), when the first studies were carried out, to date, to contextualize the need to update knowledge about human reliability. The theoretical framework supported the compile the concepts of the various methods used to perform the human reliability analysis and the factors that influence the performance of the operator in the execution of the tasks. A table that compares the more relevant methods presents the advantages and disadvantages of each one. Afterwards, the methodology for analysis of human reliability is presented, with the definition of the critical scenario, analysis of the factors that influence the performance of the operators, and the structuring and analysis of the holistic decision tree with the possible probability of occurrence of human errors. The results of its application in a substation of the electric sector located in the State of Mato Grosso indicated an initial probability of occurrence of human error for the analyzed scenario. The results of the research demonstrate qualitatively and quantitatively which are the factors that exerted the most influence on human performance for the scenario. Actions to improve the quality levels of the performance factors evaluated negatively reduce significantly the probability of occurrence of human error. With the determination of the probability of human error and which are the factors that influence the operator for its occurrence, this methodology can be an additional tool to manage the process of human error prevention and increase the reliability of the electric power system.