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Understanding the discourse of creative economy and its international dissemination: The case of the Czech Republic between 1999 and 2017
Get PDFThis thesis explores the relation between culture and the state and presents a critical analysis of the proliferation of new cultural policy discourse, the discourse of creative economy, in the Czech Republic between the years 1999–2017. Drawing on post-structuralist ontology and language-focused analytical methods, the thesis analyses 12 national and city policy documents, and transcripts of 40 interviews with Czech and foreign cultural policy actors, such as public officers, policy consultants, artists and directors of arts institutions. The thesis reveals the interrelations between the agency of policy actors and the trans-national institutions’ turn towards creative economy and explains the social, political, and ideological logics of the creative economy discourse in the Czech cultural policy field. The analysis exposes and critiques the rhetorical strategies of the Third Way politics, such as the shift towards an instrumentalist rhetoric, appeal on consensual interconnection of antagonistic political positions throughout the cultural sector and the acts of foregrounding the use value of the arts for economy. Based on a detailed analysis of argumentative structures, metaphors and narratives, the study reveals how ideological beliefs embedded in common sense combined with specific circumstances such as extremely precarious working conditions in the cultural sector, socio-economic spatial differentiation, corruption and ‘informal politics’ lead to ideological closures and help to constitute and maintain hegemonic power of neoliberal cultural policy regimes
The myth of extraction in Mandarin Chinese: Licensing wh-fronting and wh-extraction from coordination
Get PDFThis thesis investigates the licensing conditions for wh-fronting and wh-extraction from coordinate
structures in Mandarin Chinese, with a comparison to those in English. We argue that
wh-fronting in Mandarin Chinese is a discourse-driven movement that is licensed by the Referential
Constraint and that exhibits strong existential commitment: the former requires the
wh-phrase to be D-linked, while the latter requires the answer to a fronted wh-question to be
positive. We adopt an attitude particle analysis, and analyse it as the movement of the D-linked
wh-phrase to [Spec, AttP], which realises the strong existential commitment.
For asymmetric extraction from coordination in Mandarin Chinese, we argue that the whextractee
is subject to the Specificity Constraint, which requires the extractee to denote a proper
subset of the contextually salient set, a condition that differs from the licensing condition governing
asymmetric extraction from coordination in English. We suggest that the specificity and
D-linkness of the wh-phrase are realised at the D head and the Dem head, respectively: Dlinking
requires the lexical realisation of the Dem head, and specificity is established via Agree
between the D head and the relevant wh-element. We further propose a measure of the island
strength of the non-initial conjunct with respect to the referentiality of the wh-phrase, showing
that the resistance to extraction from the non-initial conjunct is greater in Mandarin Chinese
than in English.
For ATB extraction from coordination in Mandarin Chinese and English, we recast the structural
parallelism requirement as the landing site requirement, which requires the extractee to
land in the same position. This uniformly accounts for the presence/absence of the structural
parallelism requirement in English and Mandarin Chinese. We ultimately adopt a featureintersection
approach to ATB constructions: the extractees are presented as feature bundles
and move to the same landing site. Feature intersection takes place at that position, yielding a
single feature bundle prior to Vocabulary Insertion. This leads to the unification of the conditions
on ATB constructions, with the landing site requirement and the morphological identity
as sub-conditions of the single constituent requirement
(After)Lives: A Multimethod Bioarchaeological Study of Identity at Corinth, ca. 1050-300 BCE
No full textWith reference to skeletal, archaeological, and historical data, this thesis aims to develop a multimethod bioarchaeological approach to ancient identities at the Greek polis (city-state) of Corinth, ca. 1050-300 BCE.
Guided by new materialist and critical posthumanist principles, multifaceted identities are conceptualised as figurations arising in and through skeletal bodies, while skeletal bodies are understood as assemblages emerging from the onto-epistemological entanglements of bioarchaeological analysis. Bridging the gap between theory and data are concepts of the life course, emotional community, and osteobiography, which roughly correspond to the analytical scales employed (population, small group, and individual). Bioarchaeological data is worked/reworked within these frames, and, lastly, fictive narrative is also employed as a way to ‘write into’ gaps in the hegemonic classical archive.
The study period encompasses Corinth’s development into an urbanised and powerful polis (Early Polis), as well as its political and economic decline against a backdrop of regional conflict (Late Polis). Data on physiological stress, oral pathology, mechanical stress, trauma, and biological distance was recorded from a skeletal sample (151 individuals). Analysis of these data focused on how patterns relating to age (age-at-death) and gender (skeletal sex) changed through time, as these principles underpinned the naturalised ‘ancient Greek life course’ throughout the study period.
Idealised, binary gender roles only tangibly affected the experiential materialisation of identities during the Late Polis; multiple lines of evidence suggested their increasing rigidity in response to broader geopolitical unrest. Using osteobiographies and emotional communities to explore difference allowed for the sensitive consideration of intangible aspects of identity, such as disability, emotion, kinship, hardship and aesthetic response. Lastly, the fictive ‘history’ of Corinth constituted an explicit exploration of processes of archaeological meaning-making. It drew on information gleaned from all the preceding analyses, sitting within the creative space between ontological understandings and psychosocial experiences of identity
Qubit chains’ emergent behaviour from biologically-inspired dynamics
Get PDFBuilding on Torres and Manzano’s “A model of interacting quantum neurons with a dynamic synapse” (2022), our research extends the model from two to chains of qubits. By examining a three-qubit chain and longer chain we show how depression and facilitation mechanisms can significantly alter the state transfer period, modulating state localization and delocalization. Tracking entanglement dynamics reveals how these interactions impact information transfer and entanglement creation within the chain. This work can offer potential applications for quantum computing or quantum information systems
A Study of a Liquid Piston System and its Integration with Liquid Air Energy Storage, NH3 and CO2 Cycles: Modelling, Simulation, and Experimental Design
No full textThis study studies the performance of a Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) system integrated with a Liquid Piston (LP) system for electricity generation. The novel LAES-LP system incorporates an LP device to recover energy during the discharge phase of the LAES plant. It replaces the conventional air turbine with an LP system, which expands vaporised air to generate power. LP expansion systems generate mechanical work by utilising gas pressure within a liquid reservoir. The potential energy of the gas performs boundary work on the liquid gas interface, enabling the liquid to gain momentum as it flows outside the container. The liquid goes towards a hydraulic turbine to generate power. The benefits of integrating LP technology into a LAES system, are high conversion efficiency (70-96%), high specific power (100-220 kJ/kg), design flexibility, scalability, cost reduction, and increased life span. The research aims to enhance the round-trip efficiency (RTE) of the LAES-LP system. Additionally, there is an objective to experimentally investigate the novel LP system in collaboration with the Technical University Federico Santa Maria in Chile. The methodology of the study is by performing modelling, simulation, and optimisation of the LAES and LP using gPROMS Model Builder®. This content is presented in Chapter 3, where the equations and assumptions for the LAES and LP models are detailed. The validation of the models is shown in Chapter 4, where the simulation results of the LP system are contrasted with similar LP systems of power ratings of 300 W and 4 kW. The predicted relative errors were less than 6.4%. Moreover, the results of the LAES model validation for predictions of parameters such as temperature, liquid yield, and round-trip efficiency (RTE) were less than 2.8% with experimental data, thus validating the research methodology
Sulfation patterns of chondroitin sulfates at the glial scar induce distinct reactive astrogliosis responses
No full textAstrocytes play an essential role in regulating homeostasis and physiological functions within the central nervous system (CNS), including the homeostasis of extracellular matrix (ECM) formation and degradation. Following traumatic brain or spinal cord injury (SCI), astrocytes upregulate the expression of chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans (CSPGs), which facilitate the formation of glial scar, and inhibit axonal regeneration and neurite outgrowth. Previous studies have demonstrated that enzymatic removal of CS glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) on CSPGs using chondrotinase ABC (ChABC) enhances axonal regeneration and facilitates functional recovery. However, the specific role of CS-GAGs on astrocyte themselves remains to be elucidated. Here, we hypothesise that upregulated CS-GAGs at the glial scar contribute to the maintenance of reactive astrogliosis post-injury in the CNS.
We first assessed the presence of known CS receptors on the astrocyte surface. Both Contactin-1 (CNTN-1) and receptor tyrosine phosphatase-sigma (PTPRσ) were observed on the astrocyte, suggesting their ability to bind and potentially react to CS-GAGs. Primary astrocytes isolated from rat cortices were then treated with varying concentrations of chondroitin 4 sulphate (C4S) and chondroitin 6 sulphate (C6S), two major CS sulphation, to assess their metabolic activity and proliferation. Our results showed that incubation with C4S results in a dose-dependent decrease in astrocyte proliferation (up to 200 μg/ml), but C6S did not. Both molecules do not affect the cell viability up to 1 mg/ml and metabolic activity. Immunocytochemistry analyses revealed that both C4S and C6S treatment increases GFAP expression and induces reactive astrogliosis in 200 μg/ml and 1 mg/ml concentration. However, they induce distinct phenotypes of reactive astrogliosis. C4S induces the S100 calcium binding protein A 10 (S100A10)-positive anti-inflammatory A2 reactive astrogliosis and the complement component 3 (C3) proinflammatory reactive astrogliosis marker, while C6S induces the C3 expression only. . C4S reduces the size of astrocytes, circularity, and solidity, but C6S only reduces the circularity. Both molecules affect the CNTN1 distribution on the astrocytic surface, and CNTN1 may play a role in this process. In conditional carbohydrate sulfotransferase 11 (CHST11) knockout (KO) mice, which show reduction in C4S synthesis in the CNS, we confirmed that C4S play a vital role in A2 reactive astrogliosis and it has a crucial role in morphological changes induced by reactive astrogliosis. Our findings suggest that C4S and C6S may have a role in inducing reactive astrogliosis and maintaining glial scar after spinal cord injury, and the mechanism under this process can be an important therapeutic target to provide regeneration after spinal cord injury
Integrative structural and biochemical insights of COMATOSE and MsbA, two type IV ABC transporters
Get PDFATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are proteins that move a wide range of substrates across cellular membranes. Among them, type IV ABC exporters can play central roles in lipid handling, from the bacterial MsbA, which flips lipid A precursors across the inner membrane, to the plant peroxisomal transporter COMATOSE (CTS/AtABCD1), which delivers fatty acyl-CoAs for β-oxidation. Although decades of biochemical and genetic research have established CTS as indispensable for plant development, many important questions about its transport mechanism remain unanswered. By optimising expression and purification strategies, native CTS and catalytically inactive mutants were recovered in stable, active forms suitable for functional and structural studies. Activity assays confirmed ATPase activity in both detergent and lipid environments, providing a foundation for further exploration through transport assays. The reconstitution system allowed for the apparent binding affinity of substrate C18:0-ether-CoA to be reported. Integrative modelling using AlphaFold2/3 and docking simulations identified a conserved acyl-CoA binding pocket, where distinct residues appear to mediate substrate recognition and potentially contribute to the intrinsic thioesterase activity. Conservation analysis and comparisons with human homologues show evolutionary commonalities in substrate handling across the ABCD family. In parallel, this work evaluated emerging cryoEM technologies using the archetype transporter MsbA. It demonstrated the potential of new time-resolved cryoEM approaches to broaden the range of methods available for studying membrane proteins. These findings provide new mechanistic insights and set the stage for future high-resolution exploration of these challenging yet intriguing proteins
Understanding the molecular mechanisms of killer toxin defence in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Get PDFA/B toxins are a well-characterized family of toxins—including cholera, Shiga, and ricin toxins—that cause severe disease and significant mortality worldwide. Due to their pathogenic impact, there is growing interest in understanding mechanisms related to A/B toxin biology and identifying potential therapeutic targets. A recent discovery in yeast has revealed a defence factor, Ktd1 (Killer toxin defence factor), that provides resistance against K28, a yeast-secreted A/B toxin. As Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a eukaryotic model organism and naturally harbours a defence factor against its own A/B toxin, it presents a valuable system to study toxin resistance and regulatory mechanisms relevant to higher organisms. As Ktd1 was only recently identified protein, very little is known about how it is regulated. This study investigates whether Ktd1 function is modulated by post-translational phosphorylation. To test this, we optimized two complementary assays and screened S. cerevisiae phosphatase and kinase mutant strains for sensitivity to K28. Of the strains screened, 7 phosphatases and 28 kinases showed potential sensitivity in the primary assay. After validation using a more sensitive assay, the candidates were narrowed to 5 phosphatases (glc7-DAmP, sit4Δ, yvh1Δ, ssu72-DAmP, and ptc4Δ) and 22 kinases, including (ctk3Δ, ctk2Δ, bud23Δ, hog1Δ, pbs2Δ, skm1Δ, bck1Δ, and ste11Δ). Complementation of mutants by Ktd1 overexpression was used to prioritise enzymes that potentially co-function with Ktd1. Initial fluorescence microscopy work on the kinase Hog1 and the phosphatase Glc7 suggest they may be involved in Ktd1-mediated defence. Understanding how Ktd1 is modulated could offer insights into similar defence systems in higher eukaryotes and support the development of strategies to combat A/B toxin-related diseases in humans
Identifying Enzymes in Webbing Clothes Moths (Tineola bisselliella) for Valorisation of Keratinous Waste
Get PDFAssessing the influence of aircraft/engine integration and design on contrails
No full textAviation's environmental impact extends beyond CO2 to also include non-CO2 effects, with contrails and contrail cirrus as the dominant contributors. Understanding factors influencing contrail properties and mitigation pathways is key to climate-neutral aviation.
This thesis develops a workflow to assess how aircraft/engine design affects contrail properties while considering aerodynamic performance, bridging the gap between low-order models and LES to capture near-field exhaust and aircraft interactions.
A parametric aircraft geometry is used within power-on CFD simulations with a coupled engine model to simulate cruise conditions. A contrail microphysics model is developed and implemented within a CFD solver to assess ice particle formation, dynamics and evolution. Engine particle emissions are predicted using a machine-learning model trained on ground data and scaled to cruise conditions. These results are then applied as a CFD boundary condition for contrail simulations.
The workflow first assesses the influence of engine integration on contrail properties. It is shown that there is significant interaction between the engine exhaust and wingtip vortex, which dictates ice crystal distribution within a contrail. Including aircraft performance within the workflow makes beneficial changes regarding emissions via engine positioning complex without further airframe optimisation.
High-level engine architectures are also investigated regarding aircraft emissions. Contrail formation is first assessed using the engine model only, where a dependence on the detailed engine exit conditions used is shown to alter formation prediction results. A preliminary investigation of the potential benefits of mixed exhausts is outlined for higher fidelity studies. CFD shows contrail properties are dictated by emission particle number, then engine efficiency. Hence, future engine design choices must consider all engine emissions in a multidisciplinary manner to assess their overall environmental impact.
This thesis demonstrates a workflow which integrates aerodynamic, propulsion, and contrail modelling, providing a basis for design-based contrail mitigation strategies to be explored within a multidisciplinary framework
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