Monday, 13 March 2023 VICE-RECTOR PROMOTED ELEVEN NEW DOCTORS OF SCIENCE
On Monday, 13 March 2023, a solemn promotion of Doctors of Science of the University of Primorska took place in the hall of the Armeria Palace in Koper. The Vice-rector of the University of Primorska promoted eleven new Doctors of Science, who completed their doctoral studies between October 2022 and February 2023. As of today, the University of Primorska has 320 Doctors of Science. This year UP FAMNIT gained eight new doctors of science.
Miha Markelj defended his doctoral dissertation at the UP FTŠ - Turistica entitled »Designing and Applying the Method for Cultural Landscape Evaluation and Sustainable Tourism Development: Example of the Selščica valley« under the mentorship of izr. prof. dr. Igor Jurinčič
Doctoral dissertation summary
»DESIGNING AND APPLYING THE METHOD FOR CULTURAL LANDSCAPE EVALUATION AND SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: EXAMPLE OF THE SELŠČICA VALLEY«
In the protected cultural landscape Sorica-Danje-Torka, the dissertation, takes into account the knowledge of early historical development and shows the possibility of long-term preservation and development of the cultural landscape area. A clearly defined and applicable methodological basis, based on the strict evaluation of individual spatial or cadastral units, gives us a new and a wider set of data whose implementation in sustainable tourism products and later in selected scenarios of sustainable tourism development clearly shows us how to preserve and develop such cultural landscape area while taking into account it cultural and natural specific features.
Žiga Velkavrh defended his doctoral dissertation at the UP Famnit entitled »Behavioral traits across time and countries: essays on indirect reciprocity, deception and nationality«;; under the mentorship of prof. dr. Klavdija Kutnar and co-mentorship of izr. prof. dr. Aljaž Ule
Doctoral dissertation summary
»BEHAVIORAL TRAITS ACROSS TIME AND COUNTRIES: ESSAYS ON INDIRECT RECIPROCITY, DECEPTION AND NATIONALITY«
In the doctoral dissertation we use controlled lab economic experiments to investigate altruism and (dis)honesty in situations where helping strangers and honesty are socially desirable but individually suboptimal. We manipulate the access to reputation information. We also examine the behavioral strategies of individuals and conclude that behavior based on personal experience should not be neglected in the future. We conclude the doctoral dissertation with the results of cross-national study, in which we find that Slovenian and international students are similar, while the behavior of Dutch students slightly deviates.
Andrès David Santamaría-Galvis defended his doctoral dissertation at the UP Famnit entitled »On partitionability and shellability of relative simplicial complexes« under the mentorship of izr. prof. dr. Russ Woodroofe
Doctoral dissertation summary
»ON PARTITIONABILITY AND SHELLABILITY OF RELATIVE SIMPLICIAL COMPLEXES«
Shellability and partitionability are two well-known and mutually related combinatorial properties of simplicial complexes. In his doctoral work, Andrés David investigated what spaces admit a partitionable triangulation, like the real projective plane, the dunce hat, and the open Möbius strip. In this endeavor, he developed tools that reduce the discussion about partitionability or shellability of a given complex in terms of simpler constituent relative subcomplexes. Andrés David also explored some computational aspects of shellability, namely, that the property is NP-complete.
Dean Lipovac defended his doctoral dissertation at the UP Famnit entitled »Human preference for wooden materials and their role in restorative environments« under the mentorship of doc. dr. Michael David Burnard
Doctoral dissertation summary
»HUMAN PREFERENCE FOR WOODEN MATERIALS AND THEIR ROLE IN RESTORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS«
Lipovac’s dissertation examined the role of wood in restorative environments, environments where people can relax and recover from stress. Through a review article and four empirical studies, Dean Lipovac investigated whether wood can improve the comfort and well-being of building occupants by examining how people perceive and respond to different wood materials in different contexts. The results show that people prefer wood in different contexts, but that exposure to smaller wood surfaces is unlikely to significantly affect people's emotional states, physiological activity, and cognitive performance.
Bojan Dolar defended his doctoral dissertation at the UP FM entitled »The intergenerational succession of leadership in a family business« under the mentorship of prof. dr. Roberto Biloslavo
Doctoral dissertation summary
»THE INTERGENERATIONAL SUCCESSION OF LEADERSHIP IN A FAMILY BUSINESS«
The research purpose was to explore in-depth the first-generation succession in a family business from the perspective of the incumbent and the successor, in order to gain new insights, improve knowledge and understanding of this phenomenon and contribute to its better effectiveness.
The applied qualitative multiple case study and content analysis method led to some recognizable contributions to science such as the five-dimensional conceptual framework and the successional orientation and to several findings useful for succession practice.
Renè Rodriguez Aldama defended his doctoral dissertation at the UP Famnit entitled »Generic constructions of minimal codes from special classes of functions over finite fields« under the mentorship of prof. dr. Enes Pasalic and co-mentorship of doc. dr. Nastja Cepak
Doctoral dissertation summary
»GENERIC CONSTRUCTIONS OF MINIMAL CODES FROM SPECIAL CLASSES OF FUNCTIONS OVER FINITE FIELDS«
In recent decades, linear codes have been successfully employed to build strong security algorithms. A special class of codes called minimal has been used to derive secure two party computation protocols and secret sharing schemes. René's doctoral thesis introduces generic methods to obtain minimal codes using the theory of Boolean functions and finite fields. Moreover, since the geometric and combinatorial nature of the constructions cover a wide range of possibilities, codes with flexible parameters and additional properties are built, for instance, not satisfying the so-called Ashikhmin-Barg bound or with a large minimum distance.
Amar Bapić defended his doctoral dissertation at the UP Famnit entitled »Constructing new superclasses of bent functions and further constructions of cryptographically significant mappings outside M#« under the mentorship of prof. dr. Enes Pasalic and co-mentorship of doc. dr. Samir Hodžić
Doctoral dissertation summary
»CONSTRUCTING NEW SUPERCLASSES OF BENT FUNCTIONS AND FURTHER CONSTRUCTIONS OF CRYPTOGRAPHICALLY SIGNIFICANT MAPPINGS OUTSIDE M#«
The thesis introduces results which lead to new secondary constructions of (vectorial) bent functions outside the completed Maiorana-McFarland class and it introduces two new superclasses of bent functions: SC and CD, with their applications. Some known constructions of bent functions (e.g. indirect sum and 4-decomposition) are studied as well and conditions for which the obtained functions lie outside M#.
Marc Elmeua González defended his doctoral dissertation at the UP FVZ entitled »Biomechanical analysis of equestrian sports« under the mentorship of prof. dr. Nejc Šarabon
Doctoral dissertation summary
»BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF EQUESTRIAN SPORTS«
This thesis presents a compilation of four studies on muscle activity and biomechanics of riding, as well as on measures to make riding safer. The aim of the thesis is to describe the biomechanical responses of the rider to the horse's movement and how these are influenced by training interventions and equipment modification.
Differences in muscle activation patterns and mechanical stress redaction on the trunk have been observed between advanced riders and novice riders. Furthermore, it appears that adjustments to riding equipment and feedback training can reduce the mechanical stress redaction.
Blas Fernandez defended his doctoral dissertation at the UP Famnit entitled »On certain problems related to Terwilliger algebras and distance-balanced graphs« under the mentorship of prof. dr. Štefko Miklavič and co-mentorship of izr. prof. dr. Ademir Hujdurović
Doctoral dissertation summary
»ON CERTAIN PROBLEMS RELATED WITH TERWILLIGER ALGEBRAS AND DISTANCE-BLANCED GRAPHS«
Blas Fernandez's doctoral dissertation consists of two parts. In the first part, Blas discusses the so-called Terwilliger algebra of a graph. In the past, this algebra was mainly used to study distance-regular graphs and associative schemes. The main contribution to science in the first part of the doctoral dissertation is therefore the use of the Terwilliger algebra for the study of classes of graphs that are not necessarily distance-regular. In the second part of the dissertation, Blas studies the so-called distance-balanced graphs. In this work, Blas resolves several open questions about these graphs raised by other researchers in the literature and classifies a special subclass of regular distance-balanced graphs. The results, which are covered in the doctoral dissertation, are published in six articles in international SCI journals.
Jaka Gašper Pečnik defended his doctoral dissertation at the UP Famnit entitled »Advanced Adhesive Applications for Timber Construction Elements« under the mentorship of izr. prof. dr. Matthew Schwarzkopf and co-mentorship of viš. znan. sod. dr. Vaclav Sebera
Doctoral dissertation summary
»ADVANCED ADHESIVE APPLICATIONS FOR TIMBER CONSTRUCTION ELEMENTS«
The PhD conducted by Jaka Gašper Pečnik entitled »Advanced adhesive applications for timber construction elements«; is focused on several innovative adhesive applications and experimental methods from static to dynamic loadings in the field of adhesives use in strucutral timber elements. The finding of the study emphasised the complexity of material variability, from selection of the adhesive systems to the type of wood species, and showed how these variabilities reflect in the performance of composites, joints, or modified wood.
Sadmir Kudin defended his doctoral dissertation at the UP Famnit entitled »Specifying bent functions outside M# and some results on correlation immune functions« under the mentorship of prof. dr. Enes Pasalic and co-mentorship of doc. dr. Samir Hodžić.
Doctoral dissertation summary
»SPECIFYING BENT FUNCTIONS OUTSIDE M# AND SOME RESULTS ON CORRELATION IMMUNE FUNCTIONS«
This thesis investigates and clarifies relations between certain classes of bent functions, namely: the Maiorana-McFarland class, the C and D class, and the PSap class. It also introduces and investigates several new notions related to vectorial Boolean functions, namely: vectorial bent-negabent functions and vectorial bent functions weakly or strongly outside of a given class of bent functions. Some open problems about correlation-immune and resilient functions are also investigated and solved in the thesis.
Sincere congratulations to all new Doctors of Science!
