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A state-dependent international CAPM for partially integrated markets: Using local and US risk factors
No full textThis study investigates the impact of emerging economies' trade levels with the US and exchange rate systems on their interdependency with the US market. We employ a comprehensive approach, analyzing both local factors (such as illiquidity and dividend yield) and US risk factors (including the S&P500 Index, US effective exchange rate, and term spread) to discern various market phases and capture equity returns. Utilizing a State-dependent International CAPM framework, we reveal a common trend among market returns: the reduced informativeness of both US and local variables during transitions from low to high volatility states. Notably, the majority of emerging markets respond to signals from the US equity market during bullish periods. We also highlight the critical role of exchange rate regimes in explaining the sensitivity of emerging markets to US risk factors. While the illiquidity ratio emerges as a significant local risk factor, its informativeness wanes during bear markets. These findings offer valuable insights for asset allocation, diversification, and risk management strategies tailored to the dynamic nature of emerging markets.</p
Machine talking: speculative conversations with AI through practice-oriented research
No full textThe advent of social AI marks an important shift in modern understandings of communication: once typically considered an act between two humans, it is now occurring between a human and a machine; and voice, once considered the distinct biomarker of a human, is now replicable and scalable, and can become an attribute of a digital application. This study describes how developments in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) are increasingly leading humans and machines to communicate using natural human language. The study evaluates the sophistication of these technologies, as evidenced through the proliferation of conversational agents, such as voice-enabled virtual assistants and text-based chatbots, that we interact with daily and which are capable of fulfilling our online banking queries, curating our news and information feeds, and offering us companionship. Despite the apparently seamless insertion of these technologies into our private and public lives, the complex mechanisms behind them remain largely opaque to their users. Machine Talking explores how the deployment of audio interface design techniques, including attributes such as a human voice and distinct personality traits, work to engender a sense of trustworthiness and relatability in a technology, and questions what myths about human–AI relationships these attributes perpetuate. Using a combination of methodologies drawn from human–machine communication, creative practice ethnographies and speculative design, this practice-based research project deploys conversations with and about AI to inform the production of a series of creative artefacts, the iterative development of which culminated in the production of an immersive audio installation. This soundscape presents a portrait of AI as a ubiquitous yet fragmented technology, by weaving together stories of speculative encounters which guide the audience to question prevalent myths about AI, and to reflect on how societal assumptions have informed their interactions with the technology. In this way, Machine Talking contributes to a growing body of work, theoretical and creative, that scrutinises how the aesthetics of AI-driven technologies enable a subjective shift and brings attention to the blurring of ontological boundaries this change represents
Experimental and modelling studies of heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production
No full textUtilisation of a wider variety of feedstocks for renewable biodiesel as drop-in energy sources requires a significant increase in the research of heterogeneous catalysts. Substitution of corrosive and process-intensive homogeneous catalysts presents a major hurdle. Increasing catalyst activity through variations in structure is a central focus of catalyst design. Such structure-activity relationships are a core concept of increasing feasibility of heterogeneous catalyst-led sustainable processes. In this thesis, several families of heterogeneous base or acid-base catalysts were synthesised and investigated both experimentally and computationally to improve biodiesel production reactions.
Primary aminopropyl groups grafted onto silica supports were used in the transesterification of triglycerides. A commercial mesoporous silica, a mesoporous soft-templated ordered SBA-15, and a hierarchically porous MM-SBA-15 containing soft-templated mesopores and hard-templated ordered macropores were used as supports for the basic amines. Incorporation of macropores resulted in a turnover frequency increase by factors of 4 and 6 for the C4 triglyceride and C8 triglyceride, respectively.
Molecular dynamics modelling of these aminopropyl groups on a representative silica surface was performed to better understand both aminopropyl behaviour and their interactions with biodiesel forming reactants. Custom force field parameters were calculated using quantum mechanics methods and the force field toolkit and compared to those generated by analogy. The Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson mechanism was found to be the most likely based on the number of solvent-surface interactions, with the methanol and triglyceride preferentially adsorbing to the amine and silanol, respectively.
Development of a porous material with spatially separated acid and base catalyst sites allows for simultaneous transformations of triglycerides and free fatty acids, two components of biodiesel feedstocks. A series of co-located magnesium oxide grafted sulphated zirconia samples were synthesised to replicate the simultaneous catalysis of reactants while protecting the basic magnesium oxide from the antagonistic free fatty acids. Ultimately these simple materials could not convert triglyceride and free fatty acids in a 1:1 molar ratio. This highlights the need for well-designed materials for complex reaction systems. In particular, spatially separated active sites facilitating stepwise reactant-catalyst interactions allow antagonistic reactant mixtures to be converted without additional, energy-intensive processing
Application of CAE modeling to establish the interior seating dynamics of autonomous driving passenger vehicles
No full textAutonomous Driving (AD) Technology represent a major innovation for the automotive industry. It is no longer a question of “if” but “when” Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) be available for private use. There are several advantages which AD offer. One of the most important advantages of AD is the value-added-time, which the drivers/users would enjoy, when the tedious task of driving a vehicle becomes obsolete. The users can use this value-added-time to participate in activities other than driving.
The primary aim of this research project is to understand the different non-driving secondary activities associated with AD and to derive comfortable seating postures for these activities in the confined space of a passenger vehicle.
A survey of scientific literature is conducted using recent sources published until 2019 in the fields of public opinion, user acceptance, challenges and future opportunities associated with AD passenger vehicles across the globe. According to the critical literature review, some of the most popular activities that people spend their travel time include taking a nap, relaxing, and doing nothing, talking to fellow passengers, watching outside the window, working on a laptop, mobile phone, or a tablet. Depending on the nature and duration of travel, the same user could choose to participate in a range of activities. Because of the lack of knowledge in the body of literature, an initial experiment was conducted in static conditions to understand the user-acceptance of the seating conditions in a passenger vehicle. The seating postures selected for the experiment were derived from their original environments, i.e., an upright position for working and a rather flat posture for sleeping. These seating postures were negatively rated.
With the knowledge gained from this experiment, a second experiment was conducted, and this time when the vehicle was being driven in city conditions and with a speed ranging from 30km/h to 50km/h. For this study, the participants could select the seating postures themselves and after they confirmed the posture offered the best comfort for the given activity, the body angles (knee, hip, upper back, and neck flexion angle) were measured using preinstalled sensors attached to the body of the subjects. The derived results were clustered under the percentile groups (95, 50 and 5 percentile female and male). The comfort body angles derived from the experiment are validated using an objective comfort questionnaire. This project is the first of its kind to investigate comfortable seating postures and the associated human body angles associated with the most popular AD non-driving secondary activities.
These validated comfort seating postures and body angles are used in the quick space analysis (QSA) model, which is the novum of the thesis. Using the concept of QSA, Digital human modelling (DHM) and kinematic principles of computer aided design (CAD), a model is developed in the engineering design software CATIA V5. This CAD model acts as a three-dimensional virtual representation of the QSA principle and has direct implementation in the interior development of AD vehicles.
The QSA predicts a comfort position for the given use-case, personalized to the user percentile, anthropometry, and sex. The model aims to achieve the comfort seating posture in the shortest timeframe possible, using the lowest power consumption, with optimum use of the space available in the vehicle and without compromising the comfort of the rear-seat and/or front passengers.
One of the common engineering and design problems in the automotive field is the fact that the human element and the human machine interfaces are not considered early and thorough enough in the product development process. This leads to increased time to market, loss of market share and increased last minute product release costs. The developed model is a step forward to close this gap and offers a wide range of industrial applications.
The biggest value-added benefit of the model lies in occupant packaging. Occupant packaging focuses on the system integration of the occupants, that is, the vehicle driver and the passengers, with the emphasis on human anthropometry, biomechanics, psychology, statistics and so forth. Occupant packaging aims to ensure that there is a best possible fit between the vehicle, the driver, and the passengers. Occupant packaging also ensures that a large range of occupants are comfortably accommodated in a vehicle and can participate in a range of non-driving activities in a level-4 & level-5 AD passenger vehicle.
Secondly, in the strategy and concept development phase, the model could be used to do a preliminary analysis and understand if certain use-cases and non-driving activities, are feasible for the given vehicle platform. Currently there are no off-the-self-model which allows to perform an investigation of this nature in a short frame of time. Understanding the geometrical constraints early in the development phase, allows the project team to take informed decisions, saving valuable time and eventually cost.
Thirdly, the model can also generate bounding geometries of the seat kinematics including the different percentile (95, 50 and 5 percentiles including male and female) manikins. These bounding geometries are important for total vehicle integration and component packaging. The bounding geometries for seat kinematics are state-of-the-art, however bounding geometries of the seat, plus the occupant/manikin in new knowledge for industrial application in occupant and component packaging
Selfie or self-acceptance: does matching of brand communication content to consumer goals enhance consumer evaluations?
No full textA large body of research suggests consumers are disillusioned with brands, disappointed by marketing strategies and increasingly aware of brand persuasion tactics. This has led to increased ad avoidance and loss of interest in brand communication as a resource for consumer identity formation. Brands have misunderstood what consumers are seeking and flooded them with artfully designed brand communication instead of finding ways to engage that consumers perceive as meaningful. The question remains, how to provide consumers with identity-relevant brand communication that assists consumers in their search for meaning to facilitate deeper brand connections. This thesis responds to this apparent disconnect and addresses whether matching brand communication content, either as a print ad or as a story, to consumer goals leads to more favourable consumer evaluations. Four studies were conducted with findings obtained through Structural Equation Modelling suggesting that a match between consumer goals and goals displayed in brand communication positively impacts consumer evaluations. This effect was shown via an increase in perceived state-authenticity, which also results in a reduction in situational persuasion knowledge. In contrast, a mismatch had the opposite effect. Persuasion knowledge by itself did not mediate the relationships. Stories were identified as a suitable application strategy to improve brand evaluations through narrative transportation but are ineffective or even backfire when the story does not match consumer aspirations. The last and therefore fifth study in this series used a Virtual Reality shopping centre to allow behaviour to be observed whereby consumers showed preference for a window display aligned with their aspirations. The data was analysed using Binary Logistic Regression. In addition to adding to the current theories surrounding the matching hypothesis, this thesis aimed to provide marketers with insight into improving brand communication and building meaningful brand-consumer connections, which may contribute to reducing ad avoidance
Synthesis of bismuth halides and chalcohalides for optoelectronic applications
No full textRecently, a great interest has emerged for lead halide perovskites as a leading contender in optoelectronic applications due to their excellent light absorption properties and low cost fabrication. The highest efficiency for a single photovoltaic device based on perovskites has been recorded at 25.8%, which rivals commercial silicon solar cells. Beside the applications in photovoltaics, perovskites have been used in high performing photodetectors and light emitting devices. The major obstacle in commercialization of these materials is lead toxicity and instability in ambient conditions. Research into alternative materials with similar composition has led scientist to bismuth based compounds. Bismuth-based semiconductors, especially halides, chalcohalides and perovskites have seen encouraging breakthroughs in the fields of optoelectronics.
This thesis focuses on the synthesis and characterisation of bismuth halides and chalcohalides for use as the absorber layers in photovoltaics and photodetectors. Although these compounds have promising optoelectronic properties, the applications of these materials in the devices hinges on fabrication of high quality thin films. However, fabrication of compact films with large grains has been challenging as the solution chemistry of the solvents and precursor solution impacts the morphology of this materials. Gaining control over the crystallization and optimizing the film morphology will benefit the device integration, and consequently help facilitate the incorporation of this material into devices, or as precursors for derivative compounds such as bismuth halide perovskites.
In this project, I have explored a new combination of solvent and specific additives for solution processing of BiI3 thin films. The technique is a simple, one step method to form compact, uniform film with optimal morphology. It allows a complete control over morphology of the films by varying annealing temperature, concentration of solutions, amount and type of additives in the solution. The relationship between synthesis methods and morphological/structural properties is then elucidated by analysing the performance of BiI3-based optoelectronic devices (photodetectors and solar cells).
Further, the knowledge obtained from the fabrication of BiI3 thin films is then utilized in the formation of bismuth chalcohalides thin films. To accomplish this, an entirely new method for the fabrication of bismuth chalcohalide thin films (BiOI and BiSI) is developed. This method does not involve the use of any ligands or counter ions at any point during fabrication. Consequently, the semiconductor thin films produced are highly pure and free of carbon residues and other contaminants. Building on this, BiSI thin films are integrated into photodetectors, which show outstanding performances and high stability. The measured direct ~1.55 eV band gap of BiSI accommodates optical sensing over the full visible spectrum. The performance of these BiSI photodetectors is the best value reported to date across chalcohalide materials of any type. The dynamics of photocurrent generation are demonstrated to be dominated by photoconductive gain. These results cement BiSI as an exciting candidate for high performance photodetector applications and encourage further work in BiSX (X=Cl, Br, I) materials for optoelectronics.
Lastly, I present a comprehensive investigation of the conversion from BiOI to two phases of bismuth chalcohalides - BiSI and Bi13S18I2. Pure bismuth sulfide iodide thin films at relatively lower temperatures are demonstrated for both phases. A detailed study of structural, morphological, optical and electronic properties is conducted to fully characterize the properties of these two materials, with a focus on iodine deficient phase - Bi13S18I2. After exploring the parameter space of the BiSI to Bi13S18I2 conversion, the iodine deficient phase is incorporated in photodetectors, demonstrating infrared detection up to 1200 nm. This study is the first to report responsivity and detectivity of Bi13S18I2 in photodetectors
Using innovative remote sensing techniques to improve the quality and accuracy of koala habitat mapping in eastern australia
No full textResource demands required by increasing human populations are accelerating; these demands are exacerbating world-wide species extinctions. Globally, 42,100 species are threatened with extinction (https://www.iucnredlist.org/about/background-history). Reducing the likelihood of species extinction requires addressing imbalance between competing demands, which often occur in the same locations. Unfortunately, the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) provides an ideal case study of this conundrum, and is the subject of this thesis. The koala is an arboreal marsupial species primarily relying on eucalypt species for food and shelter. Koalas are widely distributed in eastern Australia, but distribution is patchy for several reasons. While many eucalypt species may be available in any particular area, koalas rely on a few highly-preferred species found on fertile soils which have been largely cleared for human needs, e.g., farming, infrastructure and housing. Allied to this, many studies show that koalas prefer taller trees, which are favoured by the logging industry. Finally, although hunting for the fur trade ceased in the 1930s, it is likely that many local koala populations have never recovered and are now extinct. The koala is now listed as endangered in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, and Queensland (Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water 2022), and, while researchers provide information and recommendations, it is incumbent upon Governments to incorporate these findings into policies aimed at preventing further declines.
Early research in the 2000s highlighted the need to identify areas with higher koala habitat use, which could then be given greater protection within habitat management plans. At local government scales (e.g., >50,000 ha) this was, and still is, accomplished in two stages. Preferred tree species are first identified from plot data. This information is then incorporated into existing forest community maps which enable the production of habitat-quality maps suitable for management use. Determining the resource value of particular species, and species proportions within forest maps, has resulted in several different habitat map schemas, potentially producing conflict between different map users and interest groups. The fundamental problem with all habitat maps is widespread species heterogeneity within eucalypt forests, i.e., where local variation is not captured by habitat classification.
This prompted my first research questions: what are the limitations of existing habitat maps, mapped at low resolution? I used four different habitat schemas to assess differences in mapped habitat quality. Three maps shared the same internal consistency (i.e., high to low values) but only one captured the degrees of difference required to highlight the differing habitat values between communities. This study also examined habitat quality variation between 44 plots within a 60-ha focal study area. Two map schemas correctly classified the entire community polygon within their respective schemas, but plot food tree percentages varied markedly, and only 52% - 64% of plots fell within the correct habitat class. This highlights the scale at which habitat assessment conflict occurs, and the need to address these shortcomings, which can be only reduced by methods which improve habitat mapping at the required spatial resolution.
Problems associated with low spatial-resolution habitat mapping prompted my next research question: are there other methods we could use to highlight differences in habitat quality? Many studies have shown that koalas prefer larger/taller trees, so I next investigated tree height using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). This study also had two components. Across southeast Queensland, I selected 238 “virtual” LiDAR plots within a forest community known to be used by koalas, and extracted the maximum canopy height within each 30 m x 30 m plot. Assessing this data, I concluded that canopy height varied markedly across the region, and concluded that the best way to capture height variation was to use a polygon-by-polygon approach. An expert panel examined several spatial clustering
techniques which classified contiguous height classes within each polygon, and which would be suitable for map interpretation, and identified a suitable algorithm. This algorithm also successfully captured a forest ecotone dominated by one particular highly-preferred koala tree species, and so, potentially, has wider application to improve the resolution of both existing habitat and forest-type maps.
For my third research question, I examined whether spatial clustering of canopy height might provide some insight adding to our knowledge of koala ecology. I obtained radio-tracking data for 135 koalas in southeast Queensland, and generated home ranges (95% kernel estimate) and core home ranges (50%). For individual forest types within home ranges, I used the previously-identified clustering algorithm, and determined that core home ranges, compared to the remaining home range portion, had 30% more of the highest canopy class. I concluded that areas of higher canopy were indeed an important factor in habitat use by these individual koalas.
My final research question was: how important is the canopy height factor in comparison to other known habitat factors? I chose a 25,000-ha (25 km2) study site in the Strathbogie ranges in northeast Victoria, and derived factors known to influence habitat occupancy (forest cover, preferred species cover, etc), and used these as variables in a generalised linear mixed model. This study was limited by the smaller extent of LiDAR data and, likely because of this limitation, this factor was not important in the final model. However, I showed that habitat use was primarily influenced by terrain slope at the plot scale. Previous broad-scale studies had identified elevation as an important factor, but, at my study scale, slope provided a framework incorporating other factors known to be important to koalas, e.g.,
soil fertility and higher soil moisture have influence on both species composition and forest structure.
In summary, my thesis firstly identified limitations of existing low-resolution habitat maps when used at higher-resolution management scales. Following a literature review showing koala preference for higher trees in some areas, I developed methods to further investigate this preference, and how this might be depicted in a map which might assist habitat management. I then demonstrated that areas with higher canopy height are, indeed, preferentially used by koalas. Unfortunately, data limitations prevented the full use of canopy height information in a generalised linear mixed model, but this model showed that terrain slope can be a major factor in habitat use. Both canopy height and slope can be derived from remotely-sensed LiDAR data, and conveniently depicted as a higherresolution layer for use in conjunction with current lower-resolution habitat maps.
My research has potential for wider application beyond the field of koala ecology. Firstly, in Chapter 2, I have highlighted problems encountered by koala ecologists, and others, who are required to use low-resolution, general-purpose vegetation and forest-type maps in their work. This is an issue which likely applies to management of other fauna and flora species globally. Secondly, in Chapter 3, I assessed spatially-constrained methods to classify a raster canopy height. This approach has potential application for classification of other discrete raster data, and particularly in the field of satellite derived spectral imagery classification. In Chapter 4, I successfully demonstrated an application of these methods to assess resource use in koala home ranges, this approach could have wider application
to other fauna and flora with defined home ranges
Raw dataset for article: "A wind-tunnel gust generator for soaring birds and small UAVs
No full textThis is the raw flow characterisation data associated with the publication "A wind tunnel gust generator for soaring birds and small UAVs". The data is contained in a MATLAB table, saved in .mat file format. Each row of the table contains a different measurement. </p
Is the availability and quality of local early childhood education and care services associated with young children's mental health at school entry?
No full textPurpose: This study investigated the relationship between geographic availability (and quality) of local early childhood education and care services and children's early mental health outcomes for all children entering their first year of full-time school in Melbourne, Australia. Methods: We capitalise on a unique population linked dataset, the Australian Early Development Census – Built Environment, which combines geospatial measures of children's neighbourhoods with demographic information and child mental health outcomes for all school entrants in Australia's 21 most populous cities and towns. Objective early childhood education and care service location and quality exposures were developed for each study child based on home addresses. Four geographic availability exposures (counts within 3 km) were examined for cross-sectional associations with child mental health outcomes (externalising and internalising difficulties, competence). We estimated associations using multilevel logistic regression (Markov Chain Monte Carlo estimation) adjusting for child demographics and stratifying by urbanicity. Results: Children with higher counts of high-quality preschool services within 3 km of home had lower odds of difficulties and higher odds of competence. Overall, exposures were most consistently associated with children's competence. Across all outcomes, the most consistent patterning was observed for children living in the inner city and middle ring. Results varied depending on whether service quality was accounted for in measures of availability. Geographic availability of early childhood services showed patterning by neighbourhood disadvantage and by maternal education. Conclusion: We found some evidence that geographic availability of high-quality preschools was associated with better child mental health outcomes, but results varied by urbanicity. While future research is required to unpack these differences, these findings indicate the importance of accounting for both geographic availability and service quality simultaneously in future research, policy and practice.</p
Evaluating the Use of Cannabis Extract (PHEC66) as an Anti-Cancer Agent for Melanoma
No full textMelanoma comprises less than 5% of all skin cancers; nevertheless, it is the deadliest. It is derived from epidermal melanocytes and is a highly metastatic form of cancer with increasing incidence and low survival rates. The survival rate melanoma cancer remains poor, particularly in the advanced stage, despite the recent advances in pharmacotherapies. Chemotherapeutic agents used to treat melanoma, such as dacarbazine, cisplatin, and carmustine, are administered solely or with immunomodulators, including interleukin IL-2 and interferon IFNγ. They can lead to significant adverse effects and typically provide only moderate progress in terms of patient survival at the late stage. In the last decade, scientists have investigated the effect of cannabinoids on cancer treatment. These studies examined the effect of cannabinoids on various cell lines, such as prostate and breast cancer cells. Numerous preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies showed that cannabinoids have a potential pharmacotherapeutic effect on different tumours. They can exert various effects on multiple levels of tumour progression, such as inhibiting cell proliferation, as well as inducing apoptosis and inhibiting angiogenesis, and cell motility. Herein, we investigated the effects of the cannabis extract PHEC-66 on melanoma cells. PHEC-66 is a proprietary formulation standardized by MGC, consisting predominantly of approximately 60% CBD and containing minor amounts of THC, as well as other cannabinoids. During the initial stage of this project, we evaluated the capacity of the current pharmacotherapy used in melanoma cell line treatment and the potential of cannabinoids as a potential additive remedy by reviewing several in vitro studies. Thereafter, a systematic review was conducted of in vivo studies to evaluate the potential of using cannabinoids for treating melanoma, with a total of six relevant studies identified. Based on the comprehensive literature review, it was clear that cannabinoids can play a significant role in skin homeostasis, including halting abnormal cell growths such as melanoma. Subsequently, different assays were conducted to assess the inhibitory effect of the cannabis extract PHEC-66 (high-CBD(Cannabidiol)-cannabis strain) on different melanoma cell lines. Also, equivalent amounts of CBD, one of the constituents of PHEC-66, were included in the assessments. The inhibitory effects of these agents were individually tested on various melanoma cell lines, both primary and secondary, with BRAFV600E mutation and BRAF WT. This assessment was aimed at evaluating the impact of PHEC-66 on different types of melanoma cell lines, including MM418-C1, MM329 as primary, and MM96L as secondary melanoma tumor cell lines. The assays performed include MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide), colony formation, 3D spheroid, wound healing (scratch assay). Cell morphological changes were observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Furthermore, comparison studies concerning the differences between the effects of the PHEC-66 and an equivalent amount of pure CBD were performed utilizing the same cell lines. The results from the four different assays showed that melanoma cell lines, with BRAFWT and BRAFV600E, demonstrated significant sensitivity towards PHEC-66 and CBD, evaluated through unique IC50 measurements for each agent. Nevertheless, these sensitivities varied between the different melanoma cells that were tested. Furthermore, the comparison studies between PHEC-66 and pure CBD showed that PHEC-66 demonstrated a significantly distinctive inhibitory against most melanoma cell lines compared to only CBD. Interestingly, the non-cancerous cell lines were insignificantly affected by both PHEC-66 and CBD. These findings motivated us to advance to the subsequent stage of this investigation, where we aimed to elucidate the molecular inhibitory mechanism of PHEC-66 on melanoma cell lines. Several assays were employed in this chapter, including the gene expression (qPCR), the gene antagonist assay, the apoptosis assay, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) assay, and the cell cycle assay. The gene expression outcomes revealed a notable overexpression of CB1 and CB2 genes in primary cell lines and CB2 in secondary cell lines following the administration of PHEC-66. Such inhibitory effect was not notable after blocking the receptor by the respective antagonist, suggesting a mediated molecular inhibitory mechanism of the action exerted by PHEC-66. The apoptosis test complemented these results, which showed that the late apoptotic state was parallel to gene expression after PHEC-66 administration. Furthermore, the apoptotic outcomes were confirmed using TEM, and changes in the expression of Bcl-2 and BAX genes. These genes were affected by ROS assay. We also conducted an apoptosis assay to identify the apoptotic effect of PHEC-66. The results indicated a substantial increase in ROS levels in treated cells, including MM418-C1, MM329, and MM96L, compared to the control. However, the cell cycle analysis demonstrated a significant cell cycle arrest in phase sub G1 and subG1/G1 in treated cells compared to the control group suggesting a coupling mechanism BAX and Bcl-2 enhancing the apoptotic process. The final chapter of this project evaluated the additive effect between some of the current synthetic therapies, individually and combined with PHEC-66. Auranofin, docetaxel, and cisplatin were tested individually against, MM418-C1, MM329 D24, and C32 cell lines, followed by a combination with PHEC-66. The results showed a significant additive effect exerted by auranofin and docetaxel in combination with PHEC-66. Comparatively, cisplatin and PHEC-66 demonstrated a reduced effect relative to stand-alone cisplatin. Overall, these results suggest that cannabinoids might be a potential additive therapy in melanoma treatment; however, further pharmacological tests for purified constituents are required.</p