In this thesis, I present a decentralized sparse Gaussian process regression (DSGPR) model with event-triggered, adaptive inducing points. This DSGPR model brings the advantages of sparse Gaussian process regression to a decentralized implementation. Being decentralized and sparse provides advantages that are ideal for multi-agent systems (MASs) performing environmental modeling. In this case, MASs need to model large amounts of information while having potential intermittent communication connections. Additionally, the model needs to correctly perform uncertainty propagation between autonomous agents and ensure high accuracy on the prediction. For the model to meet these requirements, a bounded and efficient real-time sparse Gaussian process regression (SGPR) model is needed. I improve real-time SGPR models in these regards by introducing an adaptation of the mean shift and fixed-width clustering algorithms called radial clustering. Radial clustering enables real-time SGPR models to have an adaptive number of inducing points through an efficient inducing point selection process. I show how this clustering approach scales better than other seminal Gaussian process regression (GPR) and SGPR models for real-time purposes while attaining similar prediction accuracy and uncertainty reduction performance. Furthermore, this thesis addresses common issues inherent in decentralized frameworks such as high computation costs, inter-agent message bandwidth restrictions, and data fusion integrity. These challenges are addressed in part through performing maximum consensus between local agent models which enables the MAS to gain the advantages of decentral- ization while keeping data fusion integrity. The inter-agent communication restrictions are addressed through the contribution of two message passing heuristics called the covariance reduction heuristic and the Bhattacharyya distance heuristic. These heuristics enable user to reduce message passing frequency and message size through the Bhattacharyya distance and properties of spatial kernels. The entire DSGPR framework is evaluated on multiple simulated random vector fields. The results show that this framework effectively estimates vector fields using multiple autonomous agents. This vector field is assumed to be a wind field; however, this framework may be applied to the estimation of other scalar or vector fields (e.g., fluids, magnetic fields, electricity, etc.).

Multi-agent systems are employed for a group of agents to achieve coordinated tasks, in which distributed sensing, computing, communication and control are usually integrated with shared resources. Efficient usage of these resources is therefore an important issue. In addition, in applications such as robotics, a group of agents may encounter the request of a sequence of tasks and deadline constraint on the completion of each task is a common requirement. Thus, the integration of multi-agent task scheduling and control synthesis is of great practical interest. In this thesis, we study control of multi-agent systems under a networked control system framework. The first purpose is to design resource-efficient communication and control strategies to solve consensus problem for multi-agent systems.The second purpose is to jointly schedule task sequence and design controllers for multiagent systems that are subject to a sequence of deadline-constrained tasks. In the first part, a distributed asynchronous event-triggered communication and control strategy is proposed to tackle multi-agent consensus. It is shown that the proposed event-triggered communication and control strategy fulfils the reduction of both the rates of sensor-controller communication and controller-actuator communication as well as excluding Zeno behavior. To further relax the requirement of continuous sensing and computing, a periodic event-triggered communication and control strategy is proposed in the second part. In addition, an observer-based encoder-decoder with finite-level quantizeris designed to deal with the constraint of limited data rate. An explicit formula for the maximum allowable sampling period is derived first. Then, it is proven that exponential consensus can be achieved in the presence of data rate constraint. Finally, in the third part, the problem of deadline-constrained multi-agent task scheduling and control synthesis is addressed. A dynamic scheduling strategy is proposed and a distributed hybrid control law is designed for each agent that guarantees the completion and deadline satisfaction of each task. The effectiveness of the theoretical results in the thesis is verified by several simulation examples. / <p>QC 20180918</p>

Inhibition of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 increases cardiovascular deaths. Identifying a biomarker of COX-2 is desirable but difficult, since COX-1 and COX-2 ordinarily catalyze formation of an identical product, prostaglandin H2. When acetylated by aspirin, however, COX-2 (but not COX-1) can form 15(R)-HETE, which is metabolized to aspirin-triggered lipoxin (ATL), 15-epi-lipoxin A4. Here we have used COX-1- and COX-2-knockout mice to establish whether plasma ATL could be used as a biomarker of vascular COX-2 in vivo. Vascular COX-2 was low but increased by LPS (10 mg/kg; i.p). Aspirin (10 mg/kg; i.v.) inhibited COX-1, measured as blood thromboxane and COX-2, measured as lung PGE2. Aspirin also increased the levels of ATL in the lungs of LPS-treated wild-type C57Bl6 mice (vehicle: 25.5±9.3 ng/ml; 100 mg/kg: 112.0±7.4 ng/ml; P<0.05). Despite this, ATL was unchanged in plasma after LPS and aspirin. This was true in wild-type as well as COX-1−/− and COX-2−/− mice. Thus, in mice in which COX-2 has been induced by LPS treatment, aspirin triggers detectable 15-epi-lipoxin A4 in lung tissue, but not in plasma. This important study is the first to demonstrate that while ATL can be measured in tissue, plasma ATL is not a biomarker of vascular COX-2 expression.—Kirkby, N. S., Chan, M. V., Lundberg, M. H., Massey, K. A., Edmands, W. M. B., MacKenzie, L. S., Holmes, E., Nicolaou, A., Warner, T. D., Mitchell, J. A. Aspirin-triggered 15-epi-lipoxin A4 predicts cyclooxygenase-2 in the lungs of LPS-treated mice but not in the circulation: implications for a clinical test.

This thesis details the development of the radiation transport code torus for radiation hydrodynamic applications and its subsequent use in investigating problems regarding radiative feedback. The code couples Monte Carlo photoionization with grid-based hydrodynamics and has the advantage that all of the features available to a dedicated radiation transport code are at its disposal in RHD applications. I discuss the development of the code, including the hydrodynamics scheme, the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) framework and the coupling of radiation transport with hydrodynamics. Extensive testing of the resulting code is also presented. The main application involves the study of radiatively driven implosion (RDI), a mechanism where the expanding ionized region about a massive star impacts nearby clumps, potentially triggering star formation. Firstly I investigate the way in which the radiation field is treated, isolating the relative impacts of polychromatic and diffuse field radiation on the evolution of radiation hydrodynamic RDI models. I also produce synthetic SEDs, radio, Hα and forbidden line images of the bright rimmed clouds (BRCs) resulting from the RDI models, on which I perform standard diagnostics that are used by observers to obtain the cloud conditions. I test the accuracy of the diagnostics and show that considering the pressure difference between the neutral cloud and surrounding ionized layer can be used to infer whether or not RDI is occurring. Finally I use more synthetic observations to investigate the accuracy of molecular line diagnostics and the nature of line profiles of BRCs. I show that the previously unexplained lack of dominant blue-asymmetry (a blue-asymmetry is the expected signature of a collapsing cloud) in the line profiles of BRCs can be explained by the shell of material, swept up by the expanding ionized region, that drives into the cloud. The work in this thesis combines to help resolve the difficulties in understanding radiative feedback, which is a non–linear process that happens on small astrophysical timescales, by improving numerical models and the way in which they are compared with observations.

Cette thèse a pour objet l’analyse de la cinétique de la conversion de l’acétaldéhyde, CH₃CHO, à des concentrations initiales inférieures ou égale à 5000 ppm dans un mélange de gaz à base d’azote et contenant jusqu’à 20% d’oxygène, à température ambiante. L’étude a été réalisée en utilisant trois réacteurs mettant en œuvre des décharges de qualités spatiales différentes. Il s’agit d’un réacteur (UV510) à décharge pré-ionisée (photo-déclenchée) par rayonnement UV produisant un plasma homogène, et de deux réacteurs à décharge à barrière diélectrique (DBD), de géométrie plane (plan-plan) et de géométrie cylindrique (tige-tube) alimentés par impulsion HT et produisant des plasmas non homogènes à faible (plan) ou forte (cylindre) filamentation ; un diagnostic d’imagerie rapide (ns) de la DBD de géométrie plane montre que le plasma peut être considéré quasi-homogène. En s’appuyant sur une modélisation 0D auto-cohérente de la décharge photo-déclenchée, l’étude de la cinétique du mélange N₂/CH₃CHO montre l’importance des états métastables de la molécule d’azote, triplet A³Σu⁺, et singlets (groupe a' ¹∑⁻u, a ¹∏g, et w ¹Δu) dans la dissociation de l’acétaldéhyde. Un coefficient minimum de 6.5×10⁻¹¹ cm³.s⁻¹ est estimé pour le quenching des singlets par l’acétaldéhyde. Le coefficient du triplet est estimé entre 4.2×10⁻¹¹ cm³.s⁻¹ et 6.5×10⁻¹¹ cm³.s⁻¹. Cette dissociation produit des radicaux (CH₃, CH₃CO, HCO, H, O) et des molécules (CH₄, CH₂CO, C₂H₄, C₂H₂, H₂, CO). Ainsi les sous-produits majoritaires mesurés à la fin de la post décharge temporelle sont le méthane, le dihydrogène, le monoxyde de carbone et l’éthane. Les minoritaires sont l’acétylène, l’éthène, l’acétone et l’acétonitrile. Dans les mélanges contenant de l’oxygène, l’importance de la dissociation de CH₃CHO par quenching des états métastables de N₂ diminue au profit des processus d’oxydation par le radical hydroxyle, OH, et l’oxygène atomique, O (³P). La mesure résolue en temps du radical OH dans la post-décharge du réacteur UV510 montre une très forte réactivité de ce radical avec les sous-produits de conversion de l’acétaldéhyde. Une densité maximum de OH égale à 3.5×10¹⁴ cm⁻³ a été mesurée pour 10 % d’oxygène et 5000 ppm d’acétaldéhyde. Le schéma cinétique adopté pour ces mélanges donne, par la modélisation auto-cohérente, une valeur de densité plus élevée. Toutefois, la conversion de l’acétaldéhyde dans N₂/O₂/CH₃CHO est bien expliquée par le modèle, de même que les concentrations produites de méthane et d’éthane. Enfin, la comparaison de l’efficacité énergétique des trois réacteurs étudiés montre que l’homogénéité de la décharge favorise, pour des milieux pauvres en oxygène (moins de 2 %), la conversion de l’acétaldéhyde. / The present study deals with the kinetics analysis of acetaldehyde (CH₃CHO) conversion in electrical discharges with different spatial qualities et at room temperature. Acetaldehyde concentrations up to 5000 ppm in nitrogen-based gas mixture containing up to 20% of oxygen have been investigated. Three different plasma reactors were used: an UV510 reactor producing a homogeneous plasma thanks to a pre-ionization by UV radiation (photo-triggered), a plane-to-plane and a rod-tube dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) reactors, In both DBDs reactors discharges were driven by high voltage pulses allowing the production of weakly inhomogeneous plasma in the plane geometry and highly filamentary discharges in the cylindrical one. A high speed imaging diagnostic (ns range) of the plane-to-plane DBD shows that the plasma can be considered quasi-homogeneous. Based on a self-consistent 0D model, the kinetics study of the N₂/CH₃CHO mixture conversion in the photo-triggered discharge shows the importance of nitrogen molecule metastable states , i.e. the triplet A³Σu⁺ and the singlets group a' ¹∑⁻u, a ¹∏g, et w ¹Δu, in the acetaldehyde dissociation process. A minimum coefficient of 6.5×10⁻¹¹ cm³.s⁻¹ has been estimated for the quenching of N₂ singlets state by acetaldehyde. For the triplet states quenching the coefficient of has been evaluated between 4.2×10⁻¹¹ cm³.s⁻¹ and 6.5×10⁻¹¹ cm³.s⁻¹. This dissociation process produces radicals as CH₃, CH₃CO, HCO, H, O, and molecules like CH₄, CH₂CO, C₂H₄, C₂H₂, H₂, CO. Thus, the major by-products detected at the end of the post-discharge time are methane, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and ethane; smaller amounts of acetylene, ethene, acetone and acetonitrile were also detected. In containing oxygen mixtures, the importance of the CH3CHO dissociation processes due to N₂ metastable states quenching of decreases in favor of oxidation processes promoted by the hydroxyl radical, OH, and atomic oxygen, O (³P). Time-resolved measurements of the OH radical in the photo-triggered post-discharge show a very high reactivity of this radical with the by-products of acetaldehyde conversion. A maximum density of OH radical equal to 3.5×10¹⁴ cm⁻³ was measured for 10% oxygen and 5000 ppm of acetaldehyde. The kinetic scheme adopted in the self-consistent model for the same gas mixture gives a higher density value; by the way the model is in good agreement with the acetaldehyde conversion in N₂/O₂/CH₃CHO mixtures, as well as with the methane and ethane produced concentrations. Finally, the comparison of the three studied reactors energy efficiency shows that, for low oxygen content (less than 2%), the homogeneity of the discharge promotes the acetaldehyde conversion.

The design and implementation of self-powered, low power implant microcontroller, with wireless data transmitter system that captures data as subcutaneous bio-sensing platform has been achieved with glucose fuel cell (GFC) energy harvesting power solution. Data transfer is unidirectional, implant to reader and is initiated by a single transmission from the external reader. The implant's memory contents are transmitted as a stream of wireless pulses to the reader. This work explored two different approaches on current technologies used for designing self-powered bio medical devices (BMDs) and active implantable medical devices (IMDs), their processing, sampling data, transmission of data and energy hasting powering techniques with a view to identifying state-of-the art technologies and methods to improve the long-term powering and recharging of IMDs via a highly safe, efficient and convenient way. The designed low power implant microcontroller, with wireless data transmitter system combines glucose energy harvesting technique by using materials with efficient catalyst capabilities based on platinum nanoparticles supported on Vulcan carbon cloth (PtVCC) as a cathode electrode for GFC configuration, while plain Platinum (Pt) mesh/sheet acted as anode. The PtVCC and Pt electro-reaction, catalytic activities and stability resulted in a design of a direct GFC with high output voltage and current, >0.4V and >300μA respectively per cell, and increased this voltage to value >4V, to power the implant system, by using a voltage booster; direct current to direct current (DC-DC) converter circuit, and a rechargeable battery. The innovative self-powered bio-sensing platform integrating GFC design, meets the self-powered IMDs expectations in terms of simplified fabrication and materials that allows one-compartment design that can directly be placed on the surface of medical implant to provide sufficient output power boosted by DC-DC converter to produced higher output voltage ten times greater than the input value, enough to power most efficient electronic devices. This research therefore proposes the practicability and potential of designing and implementing a wireless bio sensor system powered by an energy harvesting solution, based on GFC to produce a proof-of-concept design system and integration, including power management and data communication (sampling and transmission) platform suitable for self-low-powered periodically-activated IMD.

<p>Physico-chemical characterisation of structure and stability of liposomes intended for drug delivery is the central issue in this thesis. In addition, targeted liposomes to be used in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) were developed.</p><p>Lysolipids and fatty acids are products formed upon hydrolysis of PC-lipids. The aggregate structure formed upon mixing lysolipids, fatty acids and EPC were characterised by means of cryo-TEM. A relatively monodisperse population of unilamellar liposomes was detected in mixtures containing equimolar concentration of the three components. </p><p>The interactions between alternative steric stabilisers (PEO-PPO-PEO copolymers) and conventional PC-and pH-sensitive PE-liposomes were investigated. Whereas the PE-liposomes could be stabilised by the PEO-PPO-PEO copolymers, the PC-liposomes showed an enhanced permeability concomitant with the PEO-PPO-PEO adsorption.</p><p>Permeability effects induced by different PEG-stabilisers on EPC liposomes were shown to be dependent on the length of the PEG chain but also on the linkage used to connect the PEG polymer with the hydrophobic membrane anchor.</p><p>An efficient drug delivery requires, in most cases, an accumulation of the drug in the cell cytoplasm. The mechanism behind cytosolic drug delivery from pH-sensitive liposomes was investigated. The results suggest that a destabilisation of the endosome membrane, due to an incorporation of non-lamellar forming lipids, may allow the drug to be released. </p><p>Furthermore, sterically stabilised liposomes intended for targeted BNCT have been characterised and optimised concerning loading and retention of boronated drugs. </p>

Physico-chemical characterisation of structure and stability of liposomes intended for drug delivery is the central issue in this thesis. In addition, targeted liposomes to be used in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) were developed. Lysolipids and fatty acids are products formed upon hydrolysis of PC-lipids. The aggregate structure formed upon mixing lysolipids, fatty acids and EPC were characterised by means of cryo-TEM. A relatively monodisperse population of unilamellar liposomes was detected in mixtures containing equimolar concentration of the three components. The interactions between alternative steric stabilisers (PEO-PPO-PEO copolymers) and conventional PC-and pH-sensitive PE-liposomes were investigated. Whereas the PE-liposomes could be stabilised by the PEO-PPO-PEO copolymers, the PC-liposomes showed an enhanced permeability concomitant with the PEO-PPO-PEO adsorption. Permeability effects induced by different PEG-stabilisers on EPC liposomes were shown to be dependent on the length of the PEG chain but also on the linkage used to connect the PEG polymer with the hydrophobic membrane anchor. An efficient drug delivery requires, in most cases, an accumulation of the drug in the cell cytoplasm. The mechanism behind cytosolic drug delivery from pH-sensitive liposomes was investigated. The results suggest that a destabilisation of the endosome membrane, due to an incorporation of non-lamellar forming lipids, may allow the drug to be released. Furthermore, sterically stabilised liposomes intended for targeted BNCT have been characterised and optimised concerning loading and retention of boronated drugs.

Earthquake triggered landslides cause loss of life, destroy structures, roads, powerlines, and pipelines and therefore they have a direct impact on the social and economic life of the hazard region. The damage and fatalities directly related to strong ground shaking and fault rupture are sometimes exceeded by the damage and fatalities caused by earthquake triggered landslides. Even though future earthquakes can hardly be predicted, the identification of areas that are highly susceptible to landslide hazards is possible. For geographical information systems (GIS) based deterministic slope stability and earthquake-induced landslide analysis, the grid-cell approach has been commonly used in conjunction with the relatively simple infinite slope model. The infinite slope model together with Newmark's displacement analysis has been widely used to create seismic landslide susceptibility maps. The infinite slope model gives reliable results in the case of surficial landslides with depth-length ratios smaller than 0.1. On the other hand, the infinite slope model cannot satisfactorily analyze deep-seated coherent landslides. In reality, coherent landslides are common and these types of landslides are a major cause of property damage and fatalities. In the case of coherent landslides, two- or three-dimensional models are required to accurately analyze both static and dynamic performance of slopes. These models are rarely used in GIS-based landslide hazard zonation because they are numerically expensive compared to one dimensional infinite slope models. Building metamodels based on data obtained from computer experiments and using computationally inexpensive predictions based on these metamodels has been widely used in several engineering applications. With these soft computing methods, design variables are carefully chosen using a design of experiments (DOE) methodology to cover a predetermined range of values and computer experiments are performed at these chosen points. The design variables and the responses from the computer simulations are then combined to construct functional relationships (metamodels) between the inputs and the outputs. In this study, Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are used to predict the static and seismic responses of slopes. In order to integrate the soft computing methods with GIS for coherent landslide hazard analysis, an automatic slope profile delineation method from Digital Elevation Models is developed. The integrated framework is evaluated using a case study of the 1989 Loma Prieta, CA earthquake (Mw = 6.9). A seismic landslide hazard analysis is also performed for the same region for a future scenario earthquake (Mw = 7.03) on the San Andreas Fault.

Time-Triggered Controller Area Network (TTCAN) is a hybrid communication paradigm with combining both time-triggered and event-triggered traffic scheduling. Different from the standard Controller Area Network (CAN), communication in TTCAN is performed according to a pre-computed, fixed (during system run) schedule that is called as TTCAN System Matrix. Thus, communication performance of TTCAN network is directly related to structure of the system matrix, which makes the design of system matrix a crucial process. The study in this thesis consists of the extended work on the development of a systematic approach for system matrix construction. Methods for periodic message scheduling and an approach for aperiodic message scheduling are proposed with the aim of constructing a feasible system matrix, combining three important aspects: message properties, protocol constraints and system performance requirements in terms of designated performance metrics. Also, system matrix design, analyses and performance evaluation are performed on example message sets with the help of two developed software tools.