VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The establishment of the French war machine in the First World War
Keywords: France
war
artillery
industry
armaments

The First World War placed enormous pressures on the home fronts of all belligerents as they sought to provide the unprecedented levels of armaments required by twentieth century warfare. France proved to be both militarily and industrially unprepared for the task and was almost defeated in the early months of the war as the army was severely constrained by shortages of shells and artillery. However, by 1918 French industry was able to produce more materiel than Britain while also supplying the arriving American Expeditionary Force. This thesis explores how this tremendous feat was achieved by examining the actions and interests of the high command, the government and the industrialists. Throughout the war, the specific needs of the French commanders would fluctuate, but the desire for quantity and speed of delivery was constant, often at the expense of quality. The Ministry of War attempted to appease both the army and the industrialists in order to mobilise industry rapidly to meet the requirements of the front line. Despite the apparent success of its efforts, the government’s response to the pressures of war was ad hoc and reactionary. It had little time to formulate a cohesive plan, nor could it ignore the short-term necessities in favour of a longer-term strategy. Thus it created and faced a number of problems that complicated the mobilisation process, which the government sought to resolve through an increasing reliance on bureaucracy and state intervention in a previously liberal economy. Ultimately, as output expanded, constraints on the army eased, and industry was able to supply armaments in both high quality and large quantities, facilitating an operational approach that became ever more reliant on materiel as manpower resources dwindled. French efforts thus demonstrated the importance of economic management in wartime and greatly influenced post-1918 planning for future wars.
Graded blocks of group algebras
Keywords: stable equivalences
group algebras
gradings
symmetric algebras
quivers
derived equivalences

In this thesis we study gradings on blocks of group algebras. The motivation to study gradings on blocks of group algebras and their transfer via derived and stable equivalences originates from some of the most important open conjectures in representation theory, such as Broue’s abelian defect group conjecture. This conjecture predicts the existence of derived equivalences between categories of modules. Some attempts to prove Broue’s conjecture by lifting stable equivalences to derived equivalences highlight the importance of understanding the connection between transferring gradings via stable equivalences and transferring gradings via derived equivalences. The main idea that we use is the following. We start with an algebra which can be easily graded, and transfer this grading via derived or stable equivalence to another algebra which is not easily graded. We investigate the properties of the resulting grading. In the first chapter we list the background results that will be used in this thesis. In the second chapter we study gradings on Brauer tree algebras, a class of algebras that contains blocks of group algebras with cyclic defect groups. We show that there is a unique grading up to graded Morita equivalence and rescaling on an arbitrary basic Brauer tree algebra. The third chapter is devoted to the study of gradings on tame blocks of group algebras. We study extensively the class of blocks with dihedral defect groups. We investigate the existence, positivity and tightness of gradings, and we classify all gradings on these blocks up to graded Morita equivalence. The last chapter deals with the problem of transferring gradings via stable equivalences between blocks of group algebras. We demonstrate on three examples how such a transfer via stable equivalences is achieved between Brauer correspondents, where the group in question is a TI group.
Vision and laser for road based navigation
Keywords: mapping
calibration
computer vision
multi-modal calibration
life long robotics
localisation
robot navigation

This thesis presents novel solutions for two fundamental problems associated with autonomous road driving. The first is accurate and persistent localisation and the second is automatic extrinsic sensor calibration.
We start by describing a stereo Visual Odometry (VO) system, which forms the basis of later chapters. This sparse approach to ego-motion estimation leverages the efficacy and speed of the BRIEF descriptor to measure frame-to-frame correspondences and infer subsequent motion. The system is able to output locally metric trajectory estimates as demonstrated on many kilometres of data.
We then present a robust vision only localisation system based on a two-stage approach. Firstly we gather a representative survey in ideal weather and lighting conditions. We then leverage locally accurate VO trajectories to synthesise a high resolution orthographic image strip of the road surface. This road image provides a highly descriptive and stable template against which to match subsequent traversals. During the second phase, localisation, we use the VO to provide high frequency pose updates, but correct for the drift inherent in all locally derived pose estimates with low frequency updates from a dense image matching technique. Here a live image stream is registered against synthesised views of the road image generated form the survey. We use an information theoretic measure, Mutual Information, to determine the alignment of live images and synthesised views. Using this measure we are able to successfully localise subsequent traversals of surveyed routes under even the most intense lighting changes expected in outdoor applications. We demonstrate our system localising in multiple environments with accuracy commensurate to that of an Inertial Navigation System.
Finally we present a technique for automatically determining the extrinsic calibration between a camera and Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) sensor in natural scenes. Rather than requiring a stationary platform as with prior art, we actually exploit platform motion allowing us to aggregate data and adopt a retrospective approach to calibration. Coupled with accurate timing this retrospective approach allows for sensors with non-overlapping fields of view to be calibrated as long as at some point the observed workspaces overlap. We then show how we can improve the accuracy of our calibration estimates by treating each single shot estimate as a noisy measurement and fusing them together using a recursive Bayes filter. We evaluate the calibration algorithm in multiple environments and demonstrate millimetre precision in translation and deci-degrees in rotation.
SO(N) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions
Keywords: SO(N) gauge theories
lattice field theory

We calculate the string tensions, mass spectrum, and deconfining temperatures of SO(N) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions. After a review of lattice field theory, we describe how we simulate the corresponding lattice gauge theories, construct operators to project on to specific states, and extrapolate values to the continuum limit. We discuss how to avoid possible complications such as finite size corrections and the bulk transition.
SO(N) gauge theories have become recently topical since they do not have a fermion sign problem, are orbifold equivalent to SU(N) gauge theories, and share a common large-N limit in their common sector of states with SU(N) gauge theories. This motivates us to compare the physical properties of SO(N) and SU(N) gauge theories between 'group equivalences', which includes Lie algebra equivalences such as SO(6) and SU(4), and particularly a large-N equivalence. We discuss the large-N orbifold equivalence between SO(N) and SU(N) gauge theories, which relates the large-N gauge theories perturbatively. Using large-N extrapolations at fixed 't Hooft coupling, we test to see if SO(N) gauge theories and SU(N) gauge theories share non-perturbative properties at the large-N limit. If these group equivalences lead to similar physics in the gauge theories, then we could imagine doing finite chemical potential calculations that are currently intractable in SU(N) gauge theories by calculating equivalent quantities in the corresponding SO(N) gauge theories.
We show that the SO(N) and SU(N) values match between group equivalences and at the large-N limit.
The influence of parenting on the development of callous-unemotional behaviors from ages 2-9
Keywords: callous unemotional
intervention design
conduct problems
structural equation modeling
parenting

The purpose of this thesis was to examine associations between parenting and child callous-unemotional (CU) behavior in a high-risk sample of children aged 2-9 years. First, a narrative review examined the construct of CU behavior, focusing specifically on definitions and measurement of the affective and interpersonal dimensions of psychopathy, and their applicability to youth. Second, a systematic review examined evidence from 30 studies that had investigated associations between dimensions of parenting and CU traits. Studies were classified as testing one of five different research questions. Third, five different empirical studies tested various research questions pertaining to associations between parenting and CU behavior. Data from mother-child dyads N = 731; 49% female) were collected from a multi-ethnic and high-risk sample, and included multi-method observed measures of parenting. Study 1 found that observed harsh and positive parenting predicted child CU behavior from ages 2-4, controlling for earlier child behavior and various demographic covariates. Study 2 employed a moderator design, and found that harsh and warm parenting were more strongly related to the conduct problems of children with high versus low levels of CU behavior. Study 3 tested cross-lagged simultaneous and reciprocal effects models, and found that parental warmth (observed and expressed by parents in speech samples) uniquely predicted child CU behavior versus conduct problems. Study 4 tested the factor structure of Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU; Frick, 2004), finding support for a three-Bifactor structure. Finally, Study 5 found that parent-child affective interactions at ages 2-3 predicted CU traits at age 9, over and above general behavior problems. Taken together, the results of this thesis suggest that CU features are more malleable than previously thought. In particular, aspects of parental affect and warm parenting behavior appear to be important key targets of investigation for future empirical and intervention studies.
Single-molecule studies of transcription initiation
Keywords: Abortive Initiation
RNAP
Transcription

Single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) has emerged as an important tool for studying biological reactions. This thesis describes smFRET investigations into the mechanism of bacterial transcription initiation.
We developed protocols to immobilize RNAP-DNA initiation complexes using vesicles and antibodies. We used these techniques to show that the transcription bubble conformation in immobilized complexes exhibits inter-molecular heterogeneity. We observed large FRET changes that we attribute to transcription bubble opening and closing dynamics. We found that σ70 region 3.2 (σR3.2) influences the kinetics of the bubble dynamics, which supports proposals that σR3.2 interacts with the transcription bubble template strand.
We extended our investigations to RNA synthesis and were able to observe abortive initiation cycles directly. We observed RNAP pausing and backtracking for the first time in transcription initiation. We obtained data suggesting that σR3.2 stabilises short RNAs at the active centre and forms a barrier to the extension of RNAs longer than 5-nt in length.
We extended our abortive initiation assay to observe signal changes that we attribute to promoter escape. Our data revealed the number of abortive cycles that occur prior to escape, the kinetics of promoter escape, and pausing events that may have some regulatory function.
We investigated the conformational dynamics of the RNAP β' clamp and observed dynamic conformational changes between clamp-open and clamp-closed states. Our work confirms proposals that the clamp remains stably closed once the open complex (RPO) is formed. We investigated what affect the antibiotics Myxopyronin and Lipiarmycin have on the clamp conformation. Our results revealed that Myxopyronin traps the clamp in a closed conformation, while Lipiarmycin traps it in an open conformation.
Overall, we made a number of novel observations that we believe advance our understanding of the mechanism of transcription. We hope that the discoveries reported here will direct future research efforts into RNAP function.
The CLASS act and long-term care policy: the politics of long-term care financing reform in the United States
Keywords: American Public Policy
Health Policy
Long-Term Care Financing

This thesis seeks to contribute to the knowledge base about social policy in the United States, using long-term care (LTC) financing policy reform as an illustrative example. Specifically, this thesis explores LTC financing reform efforts during three U.S. Presidential administrations: Bill Clinton (1993-2001), George W. Bush (2001-2009), and Barack Obama (2009-2010). Within this historical framework, the LTC provisions of the Health Security Act of 1993, the development of the Community Living Assistant Services and Supports or 'CLASS' Act during the Bush Administration, and the legislative success of the CLASS Act as a part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 provide comparable cases to compare the drivers of social policy.
Drawing on the explanatory frameworks of the welfare state such as ideology, historical institutionalism, and an actor-centered approach to policy analysis, this thesis argues that successful path-departing legislation is difficult to achieve due, in part, to the presumed high costs of social programs and the complex institutional framework of the American political system. Policy outcomes result from the interaction between the complex processes and dynamics of the political system through which policy change (or the failure to change) actually occurs. The fact that the CLASS Act was politically successful, yet administratively inoperable as designed, reinforces the argument that social policy outcomes in the United States are reflective of a complex, enduring struggle of competing ideologies. This continual struggle, coupled with a heightened concern over cost control and fiscal austerity, helps to ensure that policies which are legislatively successful within the institutional architecture of the American political system are unlikely to produce major expansions of the welfare state. Social change is therefore highly difficult to achieve, even in the face of significant unmet social needs. Comprehensive reform of U.S. LTC financing arrangements will remain an elusive goal for the foreseeable future. Instead, incremental, highly pro-market solutions are likely to be the types of policies promoted in the years of ahead.
Entanglement detection and fractional quantum Hall effect in optical lattices
Keywords: quantum Hall
entanglement
optical lattice

We consider the purity-based entanglement detection scheme introduced in [C. Moura Alves and D. Jaksch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 110501 (2004)]. We describe how it could be implemented in an optical lattice using two-atom loss, and prove that in this form it detects all pure entangled states even without any spatial resolution. We then prove that correcting for certain reasonable types of experimental error is possible, and practical for error rates up to the order of one over the number of lattice sites considered. Limited spatial resolution similarly becomes a significant improvement over no spatial resolution only at nearly single site level. We also show how to use this process for state parameter estimation and collapse-revival evidence of entanglement, for which it remains useful even when the error rate is too high to permit unambiguous entanglement detection. We also consider an optical lattice bosonic analogue of the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) effect. This system can reach high “magnetic fields” very difficult to attain in the solid state FQH system, where the discrete nature of the lattice becomes important. Near simple rational numbers l/n of flux quanta per lattice cell, we find that the single particle states become nearly periodic with period n lattice sites, and have an n fold degeneracy which leads to FQH states resembling those of n-internal-state particles. Standard time of flight expansion would reveal this periodicity and be able to distinguish FQH states from vortex lattice or Mott insulator states. Shot noise correlation would provide further information on the nature of the FQH states.
Modelling of calcium handling in genetically modified mice
Keywords: genetically modified mice
mathematical modelling
cardiac electriphysiology
Calcium handling

This thesis develops biophysically-based data-driven mathematical models of intracellular calciumdynamics in ventricularmyocytes for both normal and genetically modified mouse hearts, based on species- and temperature-consistent experimental data. The models were subsequently applied to quantitatively examine the changes in calcium dynamics in mice with cardiomyocyte-specific knockout (KO) of the cardiac sarco/endoplasmic reticulum ATPase (SERCA2) gene, to determine the contributing mechanisms which underlie the ultimate development of heart failure in these animals. In Chapter 1, with emphasis on calcium dynamics and calcium regulation in heart failure, an overview of cardiac electrophysiology, excitation-contraction coupling and mathematical models of cardiac electrophysiology is provided. In Chapter 2, models of calcium dynamics in the ventricular myocytes from the C57BL/6 mouse heart at a physiological temperature is developed and validated based on species- and temperature-consistent measurements. In Chapter 3, the C57BL/6 model framework is re-parameterised to experimental data from the control and SERCA2 KO mice at 4 weeks after gene deletion. The models are then used to quantitatively characterise changes in calcium dynamics in the KO animals and the role of the compensatory mechanisms. In Chapter 4, the model framework is extended to include differential distributions of ion channels in the sarcolemma and the calcium dynamics in the sub-sarcolemmal space, with parameters in these sub-components fitted to experimentally measured calcium dynamics from the control and KO cardiomyocytes at 7-week after gene deletion. Finally in Chapter 5, conclusions are drawn, the limitations of this study are discussed, and the future extensions to this study are described.
Photoemission spectra of nanostructured solar cell interfaces from first principles
Keywords: photoemission spectroscopy
excited states
molecular photovoltaics

Photovoltaic (PV) technologies could provide abundant, clean and secure energy through the conversion of sunlight into electricity, but currently are too expensive to compete with conventional sources of power. Novel PV devices incorporating nanostructured materials, such as the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC), have been identified as viable, low-cost alternatives to traditional solar cell designs. In spite of technological progress in the field over the last twenty years, the underlying physics governing DSC operation is still not well understood. In this thesis, first-principles (i.e. parameter-free) calculations are performed with the aim of connecting experimentally-measured photoemission data to the underlying atomistic and electronic structure of interfaces found in DSCs. The principal system under study is the interface between anatase titanium dioxide (TiO2) and the "N3" dye molecule, one of the most widely-investigated device designs in DSC research. Atomistic models of the interface are determined within density-functional theory. Core-level spectra of these interface models are then calculated using a ∆SCF approach. Comparison of the calculations to published experimental data finds that intermolecular interactions have a significant effect on the spectra. Next, the electronic structure of bulk TiO2 and of isolated N3 molecules is calculated using the GW approximation and ∆SCF method respectively. For the former, it is shown that including Hubbard U corrections in the initial Hamiltonian reduces the GW gap by 0.4 eV. These calculations are then used to determine the valence photoemission spectrum of the full interface. By including image-charge effects, thermal broadening and configurational disorder, quantitative agreement with experimentally-measured spectra is demonstrated. In addition to the N3/TiO2 system, calculations of the core-level spectra of the interfaces between TiO2 and H2O and bi-isonicotinic acid are also presented. The thesis concludes with a study of the X2Y3/TiO2 interfaces (X=Sb, Bi; Y=S, Se) found in recently-developed semiconductor-sensitized solar cells.
Judicial statecraft in Kenya and Uganda
Keywords: governance in Africa
International Criminal Court
post-conflict justice
truth and reconciliation commission
accountability
Uganda
socio-legal studies
Kenya
transitional justice
international criminal justice

Transitional justice has undergone tremendous shifts since it was first used in Latin American and Eastern European countries to address post-authoritarian and post-communist legacies of atrocity and repression. In particular, the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has increased the demand for prosecutions within a field that was previously marked by compromise and non-prosecution. While there are increasing expectations that countries with unresolved claims of human rights abuses should enact transitional justice policies, most of the literature on the subject largely omits to explain how elites from those countries choose among the possible options of transitional justice, and specifically, how they choose among international prosecutions, domestic prosecutions, and truth-seeking. Using case studies of Kenya and Uganda, this dissertation examines this decision-making process to understand how elites choose and reject different transitional justice policies. Theoretically, the research examines how preferences for transitional justice policies are constituted through “judicial statecraft”: the strategic efforts by heterogeneous, interest-pursuing elites to use justice-related policies as carrots and sticks in the overall contestation of power. The research finds that the choices of elites about judicial statecraft depend on three factors: the extent to which the elites are secure that their policy choices cannot be subverted from within; the cost and credibility of transitional justice threats; and the effects, both intended and unintended, of history.