Advancing Visual-Instrumental Agreement in Dental Colorimetry: Development and Validation of Novel Assessment Methodologies

This thesis investigates the measurement of tooth colour in restorative dentistry and its relationship to visual perception, challenging longstanding assumptions in dental colour science. While instrumental approaches have traditionally treated tooth colour as a physical property measurable in spaces such as CIELAB or CAM16-UCS, this research emphasises the psychophysical nature of colour perception and the role of parametric effects—such as translucency, morphology, and surface texture—in determining appearance. Through a series of experimental studies, the thesis introduces the Visual Instrument Agreement Scale (VIAS), a novel method for evaluating the congruency between visual assessments and device-based measurements. The research also provides a detailed mapping of the natural tooth colour gamut, identifying 1,173 perceptually unique colours and introducing a compact system of 92 ‘super shades’ capable of minimising shade matching error. Furthermore, the study critically examines the impact of illuminant metamerism and finds it to be clinically negligible in modern materials. In addressing device-dependent variability, this work proposes updated perceptibility and acceptability thresholds and confirms the superior performance of the ∆E*ab colour difference equation for visual-instrumental consistency. These findings support a shift away from rigid notions of “accuracy and precision” and toward perceptually grounded, context-specific evaluation methods in dental colourimetry. This thesis contributes a new framework for shade-matching performance evaluation and offers practical pathways toward digital, shade-guide-free workflows in restorative dentistry

Assessing the impacts of natural flood management on downstream flood risk: a case study of the River Aire

Natural flood management (NFM) offers a potentially sustainable solution to mitigating flood risks, yet its effectiveness at larger catchment scales and under varying rainfall intensities remains uncertain. This thesis combined a quantitative meta-analysis of 454 NFM studies with hydrological (SD-TOPMODEL) and coupled hydrological-hydrodynamic (SD-TOPMODEL to Flood Modeller 2D) modelling in the River Aire Catchment (81.4 km2), to address research gaps. The meta-analysis revealed a shift in focus over time from localized flood mitigation to catchment-wide strategies, accompanied by increasing emphasis on ecosystem services. Contrary to previous findings, the effectiveness of NFM interventions were not found to diminish with increased catchment size nor rainfall intensity. Using SD-TOPMODEL, this research simulated diverse NFM interventions and their combinations at a high resolution (5m), including woodland planting, soil aeration, and hedgerow planting, achieving 4.2-16.0% flood peak reductions. NFM interventions were found to be most effective during single-peaked storm events and dry antecedent conditions. Combined interventions demonstrated greater resilience and effectiveness than single interventions in the catchment, emphasising the importance of integrated flood management strategies. A coupling of SD-TOPMODEL with Flood Modeller 2D was used to investigate downstream impacts of NFM scenarios (combining leaky dams, riparian buffer strips and other interventions mentioned above) and the maximum catchment woodland scenario, revealing changes in inundation extent and depth. An unintended inundation increases for a large village occurred under a widespread woodland creation scenario highlighting the importance of integrated and targeted NFM planning at the catchment scale. This thesis concludes that storm characteristics and pre-event conditions play a more significant role in determining NFM efficacy than catchment size or rainfall intensity. The findings emphasise the need for strategically designed, catchment-scale intervention networks and advocates for modelling approaches as essential tools for optimizing NFM planning and ensuring its effectiveness in wider flood risk management

The life-course determinants of molar incisor hypomineralisation of children participating in a birth cohort.

Background: Molar Incisor Hypomineralisation (MIH) is a significant dental condition with an uncertain aetiology. The Southampton Women’s Survey (SWS), a birth cohort from Southern England, provided data from prenatal, perinatal and postnatal periods, offering an ideal setting to explore the aetiology of MIH. Aims: This study aimed to identify key variables associated with MIH from the literature and to examine their association with MIH in 12-year-old children enrolled in the SWS. Methods: A comprehensive literature review used three online databases: PubMed, Medline, and Embase, to identify key candidate variables associated with MIH. Specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were established to ensure the review focused on the most relevant studies regarding the aetiology of MIH in children. Based on the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry criteria, three paediatric dentists evaluated intraoral photographs of 12 years of children in the SWS for MIH. Oliver’s criteria were used to determine the severity of MIH. Results: The study identified key candidate variables across prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal periods, including maternal education, maternal health, medications used during pregnancy, mode of delivery, complications at labour, the duration of breastfeeding, and antibiotics during the first year of life. The SWS dataset provided vitamin D levels measured at different developmental stages of tooth formation, assessed during early and late pregnancy, in cord blood at birth, and via Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scans for bone mineral content (BMC) at age four. Out of 659 photographed children, 551 had sufficient intraoral photographs to permit the presence or absence of MIH to be diagnosed. The prevalence of MIH was at 8.2%, with incisor hypomineralisation (IH) at 4.7%. The majority of MIH cases presented with mild molar hypomineralisation. No significant associations were found between MIH and any key candidate or demographic variables. Conclusion: This study quantified the prevalence of MIH and incisor hypomineralisation (IH) among children in the SWS and explored early-life aetiological variables associated with MIH. Key candidate variables at the prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal periods were identified, and potential associations with MIH were investigated; however, no statistically significant associations were found. The findings enabled an exploration of vitamin D levels measured at multiple time points. However, no statistically significant associations were identified between MIH and Vitamin D. These findings provided a foundation for clinicians and public health officials to understand MIH better and guide future research and prevention strategies. Additionally, this study underscored the utility of intraoral photographs in conducting large-scale epidemiological studies

Improved Fuel Consumption Measures and Emissions Inventorying for Local Aircraft Fleets Using Airline Information Management System (AIMS) Data

This study takes a unique approach to investigating real-world automated aircraft activity data. The research methodology was implemented, with data collected via wireless data transfer from an Airline Information Management System (AIMS) archive and manually collected Passenger Statistics (PAX) data from aircraft operated by Aero Contractors Company (Lagos, Nigeria). This data has not been fully explored in previous research. Addressing the existing gaps in this area aims to provide a deeper understanding of the potential trade-offs and challenges associated with using such automated onboard data within an airline. The initial findings revealed that the AIMS data did not contain associated or allied data, such as passenger statistics; this necessitated the merging of such passenger data with the automated data. The process of merging the AIMS and PAX datasets using take-off timestamps achieved an impressive 60% merging efficiency, which, while reasonable, excluded a significant proportion of atypical flights, most notably those associated with delays. An analysis of the alignment performance indicated that the failure to align more AIMS and PAX correctly was due to the two datasets logging different take-off time indicators. A strategy was adopted, allowing a few AIMS-PAX take-offs of up to 1 hour, improving the merging efficiency to over 85%. Furthermore, increases in time with a higher cut-point achieved a merging efficiency better than 90%. However, increasing this difference also increases the potential for misalignment and duplicate alignments. A rolling fit strategy was devised that first fit the nearest AIMS and PAX flights. Then, excluded these before extending the allowed time difference forward and backwards and locating the next most likely fits, and the results achieved a better than t92% merging efficiency with negligible multiple matches of 3 out of 46,912 or less than 0.0001% of cases in the resulting merged dataset. This better merging efficiency across the ranges of other parameters in both datasets arguably demonstrates the more robust nature of the merging strategy. Early investigations provide insight into model-derived estimates of the fuel for ‘Single Aisle Jet’ types, known as narrow-body commercial airliners, was carried out. The meta-analysis suggests that flight distance ranges, aircraft types, and modelling techniques all play a significant role, to varying degrees, in explaining the variations in parameter estimates, model-derived fuel estimates (fuel burn) and flight distance. They suggest that the model-derived fuel estimates per flight distance travelled for narrow-body commercial airliners operating short and medium-haul flight aircraft types decrease with increasing flight distance. This trend is observed across different flight distance ranges, with flights over 500 km suggesting lower model-derived fuel estimates. However, it is important to note that a non-linear association between model-derived fuel estimates and flight distance was found, indicating a more complex relationship. Furthermore, the findings of this research demonstrate a positive association between model-derived fuel estimates and flight distance travelled for Boeing 737s. Accordingly, models such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Fuel Estimation Tool (IFSET) were investigated. The IFSET model may be used with flight distance and flight time as input. The performance of IFSET was investigated, and results show small overestimates of about 4% and 17% for comparisons of AIMS measurements with distance and time-based IFSET predictions, respectively. To address these issues, the IFSET model was recalibrated. The recalibration process involved adjusting the model’s parameters to fit the actual data better, thereby reducing the bias that distorts the comparison of fleets operating over different distances and times. Recalibration resulted in a significant reduction in IFSET bias, demonstrating the importance of this continuous improvement process. In addition, aircraft-related effects were quantified, suggesting some, most likely small, aircraft-to-aircraft variation in fuel economy. The majority of the B737-500s (i.e., 5N-BKQ, 5N-BKR, 5N-BLC, 5N-BLD, 5N-BLE, and 5N-BLG) with similar engine types (CFM International-CFM56-3C1) show slightly lower fuel consumption rates (4.01–4.19 kg/km). In contrast, B737-400s (5N-BIZ and 5N-BJA) with similar engine types (CFM International-CFM56-3B2) – were moderately at 4.48 kg/km and 4.56 kg/km, respectively, and one, a B737-400 (5N-BOC) with a similar engine to the B737-500s (CFM International-CFM56-3C1), showing 4.87 kg/km. Additionally, aircraft engine thrust ratings were extracted from the CFM56-3 Engine Handbook and merged with the AIMS automated data for each aircraft. The OAT from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) database was then integrated with the AIMS dataset based onflight date (AIMS) / date (OAT) and taxi-out time (AIMS) / hourly window (OAT). Notably, outside air temperature (OAT) and EGT emerged as pivotal factors in model performance, overshadowing flight time. This insight, gleaned from the comparison of spline term response ranges, is a significant contribution to understanding EGT as it affects aircraft fuel consumption, providing a deeper understanding of the factors influencing aircraft fuel consumption. EGT predictions suggest a near-linear EGT gradient of 3 °C for a 1 °C rise in OAT for the fleet under investigation when compared with a gradient of 3.2 °C for every 1 °C of OAT reported in the CFM56-3 Aircraft Owners and Operators Handbook. Also reported in the CFM56-3 Aircraft Owners and Operators Handbook is an EGT of 32 °C at an OAT of 20 °C compared to an OAT of 10 °C. However, EGT predictions are 40 °C at an OAT of 20 °C compared to an OAT of 10 °C. The resulting steep gradients underscore the pressing need for a deeper understanding of the EGT and fuel consumption relationship in aircraft operating in warmer climates, such as the Aero Contractor fleet. This study’s findings suggest that using automatic onboard logging data can be beneficial. Automatic onboard logged data were found to aid in positively understanding the sources of fuel economy. The implications of these findings are significant for the aviation industry, as they can inform strategies for improving fuel efficiency and reducing environmental impact. Specifically, the research suggests that the industry should consider incorporating automated data into their fuel efficiency strategies, as this could lead to significant cost savings and environmental benefits

Exploring the correlation between conspiracy theories and vaccine intentions: Characteristics, dynamics, and strategies to generate resistance to it

Conspiracy theories are considered as one of the factors that influence vaccine propensity. Not only specific vaccine conspiracy theories, those who endorse conspiracy theories in general or having conspiracy mindsets, for instance: “The government agencies monitor all citizens” can influence vaccine evaluation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theories became a prominent issue, gaining a significant amount of attention from psychology and public health scholars. Numerous studies have demonstrated a significant association between conspiracy theories and vaccine hesitancy where increases in conspiracy theories correspond to higher levels of vaccine hesitancy. Why do conspiracy theories influence vaccine hesitancy? What possible factors might strengthen or weaken the correlation between variables? What are potential strategies to generate resistance to anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs? This thesis will address these by testing specific hypotheses to explore the correlation between conspiracy theories and vaccine intentions, providing current evidence to understand the association between them. By relying on cross sectional and longitudinal data, four studies were conducted to provide evidence to explore the association between the study variables. The first study examined the confirmation bias hypotheses where anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs were presumed as an expressive responding-an intention to accept misinformation to reinforce their pre-existing beliefs. This hypothesis suggests that those who endorse conspiracy theories may not genuinely believe in the conspiracy proposition. Unfortunately, study 1 failed to test this hypothesis due to non-significant effects of the experimental treatments. We continued to follow up this hypothesis in study 2 using the the data from the Trust in Scientists & Science-Related Populism (TISP) project initiated by Harvard University. Here, we tested the confirmation bias hypotheses from study 1 using non-experimental approaches and found that correlation between vaccine conspiracy beliefs and vaccine intentions was stronger in those who mistrust scientists. In study 3, we explored the correlation between conspiracy mentality and vaccine intentions with longitudinal panel data from the COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) project initiated by University of Sheffield, Ulster University, University College London, University of Liverpool and Royal Holloway University of London. This study extended the correlational analysis between conspiracy mentalities and vaccine intentions and found social events as the possible moderator where the correlation between conspiracy mentalities and vaccine intentions were stronger during the initial introduction of COVID-19 vaccines in December 2021. For the final study (study 4), we replicated Banas et al. (2023) to re-examine the effect of inoculation messages on anti-vaccine conspiracy attitudes. Although we failed to replicate the significant effect of the original study, this replication provided a valuable contribution for the inoculation theory

Distributing Music in Space: Exploring the Impact of Spatial Directionality on Musical Material in a Composition Portfolio of Instrumental/Vocal Music

This research focuses on exploring how the spatial division of musical material can affect the perception and interpretation of music. Specifically, the study examines how allocating fragmented musical material to different musicians positioned around an auditorium can alter the listener’s overall experience. To investigate the questions of how the spatial distribution of musical material affects its perception in terms of distance and directionality and what compositional strategies can be employed to enhance the spatial experience for listeners in a live performance setting, I have created a portfolio of instrumental/vocal compositions experimenting with different approaches to distributing musical material in space. Each of the pieces explores a different arrangement of musicians to create a spatially dispersed sound. Through this arrangement, I aim to examine the impact of the spatialisation of musical elements, focused more on their directional orientation (though I also consider distance), on the listener’s perception of various musical features, including structure, timbre, texture, rhythm, and harmony. The research may contribute not only to music composition and performance but also to aspects of spatial sound design. By clarifying how spatial distribution shapes musical material, the study offers techniques for composing and performing instrumental/vocal music that is sensitive to its spatial context. Ultimately, it seeks to enhance listener engagement by opening new avenues for immersive and dynamic musical experiences. Practically, these findings can inform repertoire planning, staging and rehearsal strategies for ensembles that use spatial placement as a perceptual structuring device in live performance

Beyond the Canvas: Translations Across Media and Dimensions, the Popular Canon and 'Printorial' Reform in the Long Nineteenth Century

Across the long nineteenth century, image reproductions acted as sites of experimentation that were key to establishing art history as a discipline. Chains of reproductions developed as images were repeatedly copied and translated into a wider range of media than ever before. Though widespread, this expansion of images into multiple media has received limited exploration, often in favour of reproductions into traditional printed, painted and drawn media. Focusing on reproductions where images were translated into relief formats, this thesis identifies a new ‘printorial’ genre that expanded the prominent graphic pictoriality of prints to a wide range of reproductive objects. Imagery was translated to be understood beyond the canvas through new media and contexts that exemplified the nineteenth-century preoccupation with reform, with a focus on developing aesthetic skill and knowledge. This study works at the intersection of print, sculptural, reception, art theoretical and material culture studies to explore how ‘printorial’ objects reformed visual and material culture through widening popular access to imagery. In working across reproductions in different media, scales and dimensions, this thesis challenges the tendency to prioritise ‘high art’ mediums and forms connections between women, educational projects, amateur productions, industrial firms and professional artists. This methodology reveals a much fuller understanding of which images were most frequently reproduced and formed popular canons for audiences, often in contrast to that promoted by academic authorities. Through exploring a holistic view of the intersections of intermediality, secular and religious contexts, and high and low culture, this thesis highlights the hitherto unrecognised, but fruitful, relationship between material experimentation and the translated dissemination of a popular visual canon. Exploring the realms of creating and displaying reproductions, and how viewers might interact with these, evidences the versatility and expanse of ‘printorial’ reliefs as a mode of visual reform in the long nineteenth century

Investigating the Mechanobiology of Macrophages: Implications for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Macrophages are essential cells of the innate immune system, playing a key role in regulating inflammation, tissue repair, and homeostasis. Their behaviour is tightly controlled by various signalling pathways, including mechanical forces that influence their shape, movement, and function. This process, known as mechanotransduction, allows cells to sense and respond to mechanical signals from their environment, converting these signals into biochemical responses that regulate cellular behaviour. Dysregulation of macrophage functions can lead to chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer. Recent studies have shown that mechanical cues, such as extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness, fluid flow, cell crowding, and topography, modulate macrophage behaviour in various physiological and pathological contexts. However, the effect of ECM stiffness at relevant physiological levels, particularly in inflammation and fibrosis, has not been fully understood. Previous studies have often relied on single or limited marker approaches, which may not capture the full complexity of macrophage polarization. To address this gap, we conducted a series of experiments aimed at characterizing THP-1 and bone marrow-derived macrophage (BMDM) protocols to ensure proper validation and reproducibility for our study. We then adapted ECM stiffness values, mimicking the conditions seen in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), representing both normal and inflamed-fibrotic tissue. Experiments were conducted to assess macrophage polarization states in response to varying stiffness levels. Our results reveal that increasing ECM stiffness promotes the expression of YAP and IL-6 in M1 macrophages, driving a shift towards a pro-inflammatory phenotype. In contrast, M2 macrophages exhibited elevated levels of the anti-inflammatory markers CD163 and IL-10, reflecting an adaptive response to softer ECM conditions. Interestingly, M0 macrophages, which are considered to be non-polarized, adopted a hybrid phenotype, expressing both YAP and CD163, underscoring the inherent plasticity of macrophages when subjected to mechanical stress. In primary BMDMs, stiff ECM conditions induced also mixed phenotypes with favoured M1 polarization, as shown by a significant overlap with established M1 gene expression signatures, further emphasizing the role of ECM stiffness in driving pro-inflammatory responses. These findings challenge the traditional binary M1/M2 polarization model, suggesting that macrophage responses to mechanical cues are nuanced and context dependent. In the second part of this thesis, we investigated the mechanical regulation of the Poly(C)-binding protein 1 (PCBP1) in macrophages and its role in macrophage polarisation. PCBP1 is a multifunctional RNA-binding protein that plays a crucial role in regulating mRNA stability, splicing, and translation. It is also involved in iron metabolism, acting as an iron chaperone, and is involved in DNA damage repair. Our experiments demonstrate that ECM stiffness and cell density regulate PCBP1 subcellular localization in macrophages. In stiff ECM and low-density environments, PCBP1 localises mainly to the nucleus, while in soft ECM and high cell density, it remained cytoplasmic. PCBP1 knockdown increased CD163 expression, suggesting it modulates M2 polarization. Finally, we demonstrate a possible role of PCBP1 in ECM stiffness dependent DNA damage repair, suggesting a novel mechanism of mechanoprotection