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Thyristor-Controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC) is considered as solutions to the fast increasing demand in modern power systems. The TCSC project located at Hutton substation in the Great Britain (GB) power system is used to reinforce the existing transmission line to meet the 2020 target by introducing more renewable energy into the network. It is also able to provide system stability improvement and Sub-Synchronous Resonance (SSR) mitigation with its flexbile operational princinples. SSR problems in power systems are caused by the interaction between the mechanical turbine shaft system and the electrical system resonance. The capability of TCSC in SSR mitigation in High Voltage Alternative Current (HVAC) systems is investigated. The study is conducted in two aspects, the inherent capability of TCSC to mitigate SSR and the active control scheme of TCSC for SSR damping. The operational principle of TCSC and the dynamic performance of TCSC under SSR impacts are analysed. It is found that the regulation of thyristors allows TCSC to transform sub-synchronous components into fundamental components. This ability of TCSC contributes to an improvement in SSR damping. A Sub-Synchronous Damping Controller (SSDC) for TCSC is to secure the mitigation of SSR. But conventional SSDC has its limitations and challenges in implementation. These limitations include communication delays due to remote information transmitting at the generator side and the poor performance of bandpass filters due to its variable frequency response. A new SSDC scheme is proposed to solve the limitations and to improve the performance of SSR damping. A physical TCSC device is designed and implemented at the laboratory scale. By interconnecting with Real-Time Digital Simulation (RTDS) and Power Amplifier (PA), III a TCSC platform is set up to perform experimental tests. The effectiveness of the proposed SSDC scheme is validated with both simulation software on PSCAD/EMTDC and the TCSC platform. The simulation results agree with the experimental test results. The developed TCSC platform can be utilised for testing other control schemes for SSR mitigations.

Insurance fraud is perhaps one of the most pressing problems challenging the insurance industry. The judiciary plays a significant role in tackling insurance fraud: the burden is on their shoulders to identify the appropriate legal rules governing fraudulent claims and determining the consequences of fraud. However, regrettably, this process has long remained elusive and in the recent decades the courts have tried but failed to formulate clear principles for the treatment of insurance fraud, so the process is, still, continuing. This judicial process is not free from difficulty particularly with regard to the consequence of presenting fraudulent claims. The failure of judicial attempt to formulate clear principles in this jurisdiction has attracted the attention of the Law Commissions which intend to pursue a reform at the legislative level. At the current stage, the law seems to stand at a turning point and try to adapt itself to the new situation. The author is of the opinion that this is the right time to provide a full-scale research in the jurisdiction of insurance fraudulent claims for the purpose of identifying the existing difficulties and confusions, shaping the appropriate legal regime and contributing to the evolving reform process of English insurance contract law. The author is also of the opinion that considering the viability of reform proposals from a novel perspective, namely economics and law, might add a very interesting dimension to the debate. It is believed that the law and economics debate would be helpful in explaining the outcomes of certain legal solutions and identifying the most appropriate legal remedy. Finally, the author also intends to examine to what extent the Law Commissions' proposal could be defended in the light of author's legal and economic analysis.

The direct detection of blood proteins can benefit a number of scientific and clinical applications, one of which is glycated protein monitoring for diabetes diagnosis and treatment. The formation of glycated proteins is proportional to the average glucose concentration over a certain past time period. Thus, the protein glycation level can reflect the long-term glycemic compliance according to a specific protein’s half-life. Albumin has a short half-life of 2-3 weeks and the glycated albumin (GA) level could indicate the average plasma glucose concentration on a monthly basis, which provides valuable complementary information for more complete assessment of glycemic control in comparison to conventional glucose and HbA1c testing. (HbA1c is a common long-term glucose indicator with a half-life of 7-8 weeks).According to a literature review, no glycated protein monitor, other than HbA1c, is currently on the commercial market for diabetes guidance. A cost-effective, real-time monitoring approach to assess the HbA1c and other proteins (such as GA) could bring significant advantages for diabetes diagnosis and treatment, whereas the existing monitoring technology does not make this economical.In this research project, the feasibility of using an aptamer-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors for the real-time detection of glycated blood proteins (i.e., GA) has been studied. For the purpose of establishment, the well documented thrombin binding aptamers were immobilized onto a gold sensing surface using a two-step amine coupling method. The experimental results show that the aptamer functionalized SPR is a well suited sensing platform for selective blood protein detection applications. To obtain the specific receptors that enable selective detection, the human serum albumin (HSA) binding aptamer has then been developed using the magnetic beads-based Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential amplification process (MB-SELEX). The experimental protocol of the in vitro selection process have been standardized. The developed aptamers have shown a common pattern in sequence and a similarity in secondary structures. Furthermore, the glycated albumin (GA) binding aptamers have been identified and the sensor performance has been characterized under different binding conditions. The aptamer functionalized sensor has shown a better performance in both sensitivity and selectivity for the detection of GA compared to the well documented phenylboronate monolayer-based sensor, indicating that aptamers are a better receptor choice for GA detection applications.Finally, a novel multi-channel aptamer functionalization sensor and a feedback data processing model have been developed based on the glycated and non-glycated albumin binding aptamers. The experimental results demonstrate that the aptamer-based SPR sensor has the ability to detect GA levels within a 25 % error range.This dissertation provides the essential foundation experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of using aptamer-based SPR sensor for the detection of glycated protein. It is expected that the further engineering and improvement of the sensor will eventually lead to a fast, reliable, label-free, and cost-effective glycated protein detection sensor, which may prove useful in the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes.

Abstract: Osteoporosis is a bone disease characterized by the degradation of mechanical competence and support of the skeleton, leading to fracture risk of the wrist, vertebrae, and hip. The disease is due to major decrease of mass and deterioration of micro-structure of bone tissues. In this study, bone imaging methodologies are developed to image the internal structure of long bones and to estimate particularly the top cortical thickness using zero-offset data acquired on the bone surface. The inversion algorithm, which requires a background velocity model, is based on Born scattering theory implemented with conjugate gradient iterative method to seek an optimal solution. In case the velocity model is multilayered, ray tracing through a smooth medium will be used to calculate the travelled distance and travelling time. Using the simulated data, the forward and adjoint operators of the inversion method are validated for its feasibility, accuracy, and quality of the reconstructed images. The values of some inversion variables, such as frequency range, frequency sampling rate, beam aperture, source wavelet, noise level, temporal sampling interval, pixel size, spacing interval of acquisition, and inversion regularization, are also investigated to optimize the quality of the reconstructed images. To image the top cortical layer, a good estimate of the background velocity can be obtained by linear regression method using the offset axial transmission data. The inversion algorithm is applied to image four real bone samples in vitro. The results demonstrate the top cortical interfaces can be reconstructed and correspond favorably to the CT image. The measurements show the sectional mean thickness (SMT) is a better and robust estimate for the average thickness of the cortex. The thicknesses of the bovine, cervine and ovine samples are 5, 4 and 3 mm, respectively, which correspond to absolute errors of 1.9%, 4.6% and 3.2% in comparison with the CT images. Due to the tissue absorption, interface curvature, and local heterogeneities, imaging the other interfaces was less successful. However, the current imaging method has successfully recovered the top cortical layer, offering a potential diagnostic tool to estimate cortical thinning for osteoporosis assessment.