VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Cost semantics for heterogeneous parallel functional languages
Keywords: functional programming
semantics
parallel computing
functional languages
parallelism
programming languages
cost semantics

In today's world parallelism is ubiquitous, and different types of parallel models and processors are becoming increasingly common. Moreover, while our programs become increasingly heterogeneous in the parallelism they employ, user-visible parallelism in our languages becomes increasingly homogeneous, with the parallelization onus put more and more on the compiler or runtime. This increasing divide between what is seen and what happens in our languages makes being able to determine the costs of running the same program on different types of hardware evermore important. And, in such a world, having the means to profile programs by their underlying semantic properties is crucial.
However, while there are means of semantically profiling parallel programs written for the CPU, there are still no means to profile and reason about parallel programs that use multiple types of parallel processor based upon their underlying semantics. In this dissertation, we set out to solve this problem by presenting a cost semantic theory that allows profiling for both time and space in heterogeneous parallel programs, while also allowing higher-order constructs on the GPU. Specifically, in this dissertation we develop cost semantics for region-based heterogeneous parallel functional programming languages. We do so by developing it for a core calculus that is readily extendable to other functional programming languages.
In order to develop a cost semantics for such a language, we first develop a novel cost semantics for a region-based homogeneous-parallel functional language residing on the CPU, along with a novel trace-based cost semantics for a similarly region-based homogeneous-parallel functional language residing on the GPU. We then develop and present a way to glue together these two languages that reside on different computational realms---statically, semantically, and operationally---to arrive at a region-based heterogeneous parallel language, and a cost theory that is able to profile programs written in that language. We then implement and evaluate our theory and show that it accurately reflects the real-world runtime characteristics of source programs.
Black soldiers in the Rhodesian Army 1956-1981: The loyalties of professionals
Keywords: Zimbabwe War of Liberation
Black soldiers in the Rhodesian Army
Politics of memory
Counter-insurgency conflict
Rhodesian African Rifles
Wars of decolonisation
Zimbabwe
Oral history
Soldierly loyalty
Military professionalism
War narratives

During Zimbabwe’s war of liberation, the regular Rhodesian Army was, paradoxically, dominated by black soldiers. These soldiers have long been chastised as collaborators and ‘sellouts’ of dubious motive, or their service rendered in neo-Rhodesian accounts as an endorsement of Ian Smith’s racist regime. This thesis argues that such conceptions are fundamentally wrong. Instead, it contends that these troops possessed loyalties that were particular to regular soldiers.
These comprised ‘regimental loyalties’, in which black soldiers’ allegiance was pledged not to the Smith regime, but instead to their unit, and only then to the wider Rhodesian Army. ‘Regimental loyalties’ were undoubtedly important, however during combat they were superseded by another set of solidarities at the micro-level. I argue that black Rhodesian soldiers abided by an ethos of what I term ‘professionalism’, in which their military efficacy was inextricably linked to their deep bond with their comrades. These ‘professional’ loyalties were forged only once within the military milieu, through intensive and lengthy processes of training and military socialisation.
These ‘regimental’ and ‘professional’ solidarities distinguished black Rhodesian soldiers from other types of combatants during the war. Despite the systematic racism of the Rhodesian Army, these loyalties remained strong, largely as the regiment in which most served, the Rhodesian African Rifles, possessed a distinctive military culture. I argue that, as the conflict wore on, experiences of combat, and guerrilla targeting of black soldiers and their families, cemented these loyalties. My interviewees characterised their service as ‘apolitical’, and I contend that it was both this ‘apolitical’ status and their military proficiency that led to black Rhodesian soldiers being retained by Robert Mugabe’s government after independence. During Zimbabwe’s tumultuous first two years they played a key role fighting for a government headed by their erstwhile wartime enemy, which my interviewees argued demonstrated the enduring power of their soldierly loyalties.
Synthesis of low dimensional boron nitride nanomaterials for thermal management applications
Keywords: Chemical Vapour Deposition
Growth Mechanism
Boron Nitride Nanotubes
Thermal Conductivity

This thesis investigates the synthesis of boron nitride (BN) nanomaterials using the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technique, in order to propose an efficient means of generating high-quality BN nanomaterials of different morphologies whose properties can be controlled, so that they can be optimised for real-world applications, particularly for thermal management.
It is found out that the growth of BN nanotubes (BNNTs) followed a tip-growth mechanism and this was confirmed by varying the duration of reaction studied through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This study shows that the powder precursor of boron and magnesium oxide generated gaseous boron oxide and magnesium that was found to be deposited on the surface of the SiO2 target substrate in the form of magnesium borate. This observation was investigated by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) depth profiling. The lower melting point of magnesium borate compared to the synthesis temperature enabled the formation of catalyst droplets that was found to be crucial to generating the nanotubular structure. Hindering the formation of catalyst droplets resulted in the synthesis of BN nanosheets. Hybrid one-dimensional nanostructures such as BNNTs coated with CNT were synthesised by adding methane as carbon source in the synthesis.
The properties of BN nanomaterials can be tailored by controlling their morphology that has been observed by the increase of thermal conductivity of BN nanotubes compared to BN nanosheets at the same weight percent in isopropanol that was measured using the transient plane source (TPS) method. These controllable properties make BN nanomaterials a promising material that can be used as fillers in composites and liquid solutions for thermal management and other applications.
Performing Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations showed insights regarding BN bond formation and it was found out that a small difference of energy barrier was present between the synthesis with and without the catalyst droplet, from which it can be inferred that BN bond formation can still occur in the absence or presence of the catalyst droplet. BN bond formation occurring on the MgO (100)-(111) step-edge surface was shown to have more stable energy than those on the MgO (111) facet surface, which led to the development of zigzag chirality. These theoretical findings are found to be in good agreement with the empirical results. Lastly, it was found out that the activation energy for BNNT growth is 58.88 kcal/mol by correlation of the growth rate and the Arrhenius equation.
Wrinkling instabilities: modelling, analysis and computation
Keywords: solid mechanics
wrinkling
amplitude equation
finite element method
perturbation methods
weakly nonlinear analysis
nonlinear elasticity
bifurcation analysis
morphoelasticity

Wrinkling is a universal instability occurring in a wide variety of engineering and biological materials. Despite extensive study across different systems, a full description is still lacking, particularly in the case of growing materials. Most studies consist of some combination of a substantially simplified elastic model, an analysis that does not go beyond first order, and numerical simulations in commercial software packages that do not necessarily correspond to the mathematical system studied. This thesis addresses all three of these shortcomings by providing a systematic analysis of a fully hyperelastic bilayer past the linear stability threshold into the weakly nonlinear regime, along with a carefully discretised numerical bifurcation analysis of the system.
For comparison, we assume that wrinkling is generated either by the isotropic growth of the film or by the lateral compression of the entire film-substrate system (both in plane strain). We adopt a stream-function-based formulation and perform an exhaustive linear analysis of the wrinkling problem for all stiffness ratios and under a variety of additional boundary and material effects. Namely, we consider the effect of added pressure, surface tension, an upper substrate, and fibres. We obtain analytical estimates of the instability in the two asymptotic regimes of long and short wavelengths.
We then carry out a weakly-nonlinear analysis to derive an amplitude equation that describes the evolution of the wrinkling amplitude beyond the bifurcation point, followed by a comprehensive numerical bifurcation analysis of the problem using the finite element method. We demonstrate excellent agreement between the weakly-nonlinear analysis and the numerical experiments and are also able to directly solve for the bifurcation point in our discretised system and characterise the effect of implementation details such as the aspect ratio of the computational domain on the observed bifurcation point.
We then explore solutions of the amplitude equation in the case that the wrinkling amplitude is allowed to vary over long spatial and/or temporal scales. Finally, we demonstrate that our numerical experiments are able to identify secondary bifurcations in the system similar to those observed in experiments for which analytical methods have thus far been unable to provide a complete explanation.
Patterns of settlement in the early prehistory of Cyprus
Keywords: antiquities
prehistoric
Neolithic
land
Cyprus
patterns
settlement
peoples

The present Thesis examines certain aspects of settlementpatterning in the earlier prehistory of Cyprus by reference to one particular problem, namely the absence in Cyprus of those tell-formations so characteristic of neighbouring countries in the Levant. Although much of the discussion concentrates on this central problem, its empirical basis takes the form of a Catalogue of all Sites and Finds of the period under discussion. An Introduction to the Catalogue explains the sources from which it is compiled, the entries listed under each Site, and the Code of attributes by reference to which the archaeological material is described. Various Appendices to the Catalogue collate the information in earlier publications where inconsistent with the method of recording or with the criteria for inclusion which have been adopted here.
Continued in thesis ...
The ecology and behaviour of closely related species in Gibraltar (with special reference to swifts and warblers)
Keywords: swifts
ecology
Blackcap
behaviour
warblers
species
Gibraltar

Bird communities at Gibraltar are examined and the ecology and behaviour of two species pairs which dominate numerically, the Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla and the Sardinian Warbler S.melanocephala in Matorral, and the Swift Apus apus and the Pallid Swift A.pallidus in the air, are compared.
The communities exhibit seasonal changes in species and biomass probably due to habitat seasonality and geographical location, The latter in part produces the large migrant element in the communities. Largest seasonal fluctuations occurred in the simplest habitats. The number of species which potentially interacted with the two species pairs studied changed with season, The communities at Gibraltar differ from those studied by others elsewhere in the Mediterranean Basin.
The Blackcap and the Sardinian Warbler are resident and exhibit morphological deviations from other known forms. The local Blackcap population is intermediate morphologically between the Sardinian warbler and the nominate Blackcap population, which arrives at Gibraltar in winter, The life cycle of the residents is related to climatic conditions, food supply and the presence of migrants. The two species overlap extensively in resource use but the Sardinian Warbler is broader-niched. Interspecific aggression end territoriality spaces individuals all year. Resident warblers accumulated fat during favourable periods, Mortality was high in both species, Northern Blackcaps returned in successive winters.
Swifts exploited seasonal resources and left in autumn. Life histories are modified accordingly. Overlaps in resource use are high but there is spacing out of groups. Pallid Swifts are less specialised than swifts and remain longer at Gibraltar, raising two broods instead of one. Pallid Swift mortality is low but higher than for Swift.
The two pairs studied may not be in equilibrium and behavioural interactions maintain resources partitioned. The question is raised as to whether territoriality is related to competition or to interference.
Numerical approximations for stochastic differential equations
Keywords: Orthogonal polynomials
Brownian motion
Stochastic differential equations
Numerical approximations
Lévy area
Variable step size methods
Langevin dynamics
Inhomogeneous geometric Brownian motion
Cox-Ingersoll-Ross model

In this thesis, we consider problems related to the numerical simulation of stochastic differential equations (SDEs). In particular, we are interested in methods that use both increments and areas of the Brownian path. For example, time integrals of Brownian motion carry useful information whilst being normally distributed and thus straightforward to generate. We will make precise the "path information" contained by such integrals and present a polynomial approximation theorem for Brownian motion. Since the Gaussian coefficients given by this expansion are independent, we can express Brownian motion as a polynomial with additional noise. We shall then use this simple observation to develop high order methods.
The majority of these methods approximate SDEs through the use of ODEs, which can be accurately discretized using state-of-the-art solvers. To numerically demonstrate these approaches, we will simulate four SDEs: Inhomogeneous Geometric Brownian Motion, Cox-Ingersoll-Ross model, underdamped Langevin equation and the Lévy area of Brownian motion. The code for these examples can be found at github.com/james-m-foster.
We also study problems related to variable step size methods for SDEs. Most notably, we investigate which numerical methods and variable step size strategies can ensure pathwise convergence to the true SDE solution. Our analysis is based on rough path theory and requires methods to be locally close to an ODE driven by a piecewise "Brownian polynomial". This result can therefore be applied to the Heun and midpoint methods. In order to prove convergence, we will require variable step size strategies to produce a nested sequence of partitions with mesh size tending to zero.
Model-driven design and uncertainty quantification for cardiac electrophysiology experiments
Keywords: hiPSC-CM
high-throughput
variability
model discrepancy
ion channel
hERG
patch clamp
temperature dependence
Bayesian inference
uncertainty
experimental design
cardiac drug safety
cardiac model

The goal of systems biology is to provide a predictive and quantitative understanding of complex biological systems and their experimental data using mathematical and computational models. Mathematical modelling and computational simulation has been a crucial tool for basic research in cardiac electrophysiology for decades, and has provided remarkable insights into many physiological mechanisms. More recently these quantitative cardiac models have begun to transition into safety-critical clinical and pharmaceutical development applications. Using cardiac mathematical models in such applications requires high levels of credibility as well as an accurate quantification of the uncertainty in the model predictions. In this thesis, we develop a suite of Bayesian inference and uncertainty quantification techniques and software tools to study cardiac cellular electrophysiology. We then design and perform high-throughput experiments to construct and validate cell-specific mathematical models for human Ether-à-go-go-Related Gene (hERG) channel dynamics, and to study its temperature dependence, which is important for cardiac safety pharmacology and cardiac action potential models. Using the Bayesian statistical framework together with the high-throughput measurements allows us to quantify the uncertainty and variability of the model parameters. We also model and analyse how experimental artefacts contribute to the observed variability of these recordings, allowing us to separate the effects of these artefacts from physiological behaviour. A similar approach for uncertainty characterisation and experimental design will have to be adapted for other ion currents to create better predictive models, as accurate ion channel models are essential for constructing trustworthy cardiac action potential models.
Ludovico Ariosto's lyric poetry in the literary context of his time
Keywords: Renaissance Poetry
Renaissance Self-Fashioning
Italian Literature
Lyric Poetry
Ariosto
Ludovico Ariosto
Courtly Poetry
Love Poetry
Duchy of Ferrara
Medici Dynasty

This thesis is conceived as a monograph on the vernacular lyric poetry by Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533). It aims to show that, although the rime belong to the ‘minor works’ of the author of the Orlando furioso, they nevertheless testify to Ariosto’s search for a personal poetics also in the lyric genre.
The thesis is divided into four chapters (with an introduction and a conclusion), each of which focuses on a different leitmotif in the lyrics. Chapter I centres on the self-fashioning of the lyric ‘I’ in some poems adopting the terza rima and dealing with a typically elegiac theme: the speaker’s sorrow at being parted from his beloved. Chapter II looks at the way Ariosto fashions the love relationship; in particular, I highlight (once again) his debts towards the Latin elegy, and the way these debts are intertwined with motifs belonging to the tradition of Petrarchism. Chapter III is concerned with Ariosto’s treatment of the descriptio puellae; it examines Ariosto’s tendency to feature details clearly drawn from life (eschewing the mere repetition of topoi) and to praise his beloved’s intellectual qualities, not merely her beauty. In the fourth and last chapter, I investigate the treatment of political themes, showing how they coincide with a set of references to members of the Medici family, Ariosto’s opinion of whom I try to reappraise.
The purpose of the thesis is to understand the relationship (both stylistic and thematic) between the rime and the context of lyric vernacular poetry of Ariosto’s time: I show how they are poised between fifteenth-century courtly Petrarchism and a more modern fashion, and furthermore bear the marks of a strong classical inspiration. I provide, where relevant, some comparisons with the Furioso and the Satire, in order to investigate how the same themes are treated by Ariosto in different poetic genres.
McKean-Vlasov diffusion and the well-posedness of the Hookean bead-spring-chain model for dilute polymeric fluids
Keywords: McKean–Vlasov diffusion
equilibration in momentum space
Fokker–Planck equation
Oseen equation
Hookean bead-spring-chain model
global weak solution
small-mass limit

We reformulate a general class of classical bead-spring-chain models for dilute polymeric fluids, with Hookean spring potentials, as McKean–Vlasov diffusion. This results in a coupled system of partial differential equations involving the unsteady incompressible linearized Navier–Stokes equations, referred to as the Oseen system, for the velocity and the pressure of the fluid, with a source term which is a nonlinear function of the probability density function, and a second-order degenerate parabolic Fokker–Planck equation, whose transport terms depend on the velocity field, for the probability density function. We show that this coupled Oseen–Fokker– Planck system has a large-data global weak solution. We then perform a rigorous passage to the limit as the masses of the beads in the bead- spring-chain converge to zero, which is shown in particular to result in equilibration in momentum space. The limiting problem is then used to perform a rigorous derivation of the Hookean bead-spring-chain model for dilute polymeric fluids, which has the interesting feature that, if the flow domain is bounded, then so is the associated configuration space domain, and the associated Kramers stress tensor is defined by integration over this bounded configuration domain. We close by establishing the short-time existence of strong solutions to the corresponding Navier–Stokes–Fokker– Planck system.
Exploring the impact of TGF-β superfamily cytokines on HIV-1 replication
Keywords: innate immunity
BMP
transforming growth factor beta
TGF beta
HIV
cytokine
activin
bone morphogenetic protein

The transforming growth factor (TGF)-β superfamily comprises evolutionarily conserved cytokines including TGF-β isoforms, activins and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs). Recent work has shown that TGF-β superfamily cytokines elicit transcriptional changes overlapping with those of type I interferons (IFNs) in hepatoma and epithelial cells and control the replication of several viruses by IFN-dependent and -independent mechanisms. Type I IFNs play a complex role in HIV-1 infection, restricting virus replication and transmission but also driving immune activation and apoptosis. However, the roles of TGF-β superfamily cytokines in HIV-1 infection are less well understood. In this thesis, both the induction of TGF-β superfamily cytokines during HIV-1 infection and their putative roles in HIV-1 control and pathogenesis were explored.
TGF-β1 was found to be systemically induced very early in acute HIV-1 infection (prior to the innate cytokine “storm”), likely due to release from platelets; remaining upregulated throughout infection. In contrast, activins A and B, and BMP-2 were not found to be significantly perturbed during acute or chronic infection. TGF-β1 inhibited HIV-1 replication in primary, activated CD4+ T cells in vitro, but had no effect on HIV-1 replication in less activated cells or in macrophages. Other TGF-β superfamily cytokines did not inhibit HIV-1 replication in any of the cell types tested. Neither TGF-β1, activin A nor BMP-2 upregulated antiviral genes or modulated type I IFN signalling genes in activated CD4+ T cells. Further investigation of how TGF-β1 restricts HIV-1 replication suggested that TGF-β1 may reduce the proportion of Th17 cells in activated PBMC cultures. Most notably, TGF-β1 reduced cell activation status and proliferation; and diminished transcriptional activity from the HIV-1 promoter. This study gives insight into the utility of harnessing TGF-β1 activity for HIV-1 prophylaxis or therapy, and provides broader insight into an apparent cell type-dependent nature of innate antiviral activity of TGF-β superfamily cytokines.