VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Music, timbre, colour in fin-de-siècle Vienna: Zemlinsky, Schreker, Schoenberg
Keywords: Fin de Siècle

Timbre and orchestration are neglected parameters in analytical writing, partly because analysis traditionally privileges pitch organisation as the primary structural parameter in music, but also because timbre appears more resistant than pitch to theoretical abstraction and systematisation. Yet, in the music of early twentieth-century Viennese composers such as Schreker, Zemlinsky and Schoenberg, timbre often assumes a pre-eminent place in musical design and formal architecture. In such works, timbre often moves from what Robert Hopkins (1990) describes as a 'secondary parameter' to the forefront of a listener's consciousness. Conventional analytical approaches—including Schenkerian, Neo-Riemannian or pitch-class set theories—arguably have little to offer at such moments.
This thesis begins by examining the 'crisis of response' to timbre in fin-de-siècle Austro-Germanic circles and, in particular, to the increasingly complex timbral constructions of many Viennese composers, such as Franz Schreker and Arnold Schoenberg. The crisis of response appeared to stem from an inherited nineteenth-century view of orchestration as ornamental in function, as well as the lack of an appropriate analytical framework and meta-language with which to critique the growing importance of timbre as a musical parameter.
This thesis contributes to the discussion as to the how the area of timbral analysis might develop: firstly, by treating timbre as an 'emergent' property rather than an absolute analytical category (i.e., that timbre often results from a complex interaction of multiple musical parameters); secondly, by considering the effect of timbre's spatial properties within the auditory scene on subject-position through examination of contemporary and more recent theories on the convergence of the visual and auditory arts; and thirdly, through timbre's ability to function as an agent of immanent musical critique through disjunctive juxtapositions, or by historically-contextualized responses to codified orchestral tropes as found in Alexander Zemlinsky’s 'Der Zwerg'. Timbre certainly was not always the secondary parameter some fin-de-siècle critics suggested it was, or wanted it to be.
The joint purpose of this thesis is to offer historically-engaged analytical readings of neglected works from twentieth-century Vienna (alongside a few better-known works whose timbral construction had been left unanalyzed), and to reflect on the benefits of applying recent research to contemporary theories of timbre. These two aims are set in productive counterpoint rather than a straightforward synthesis, with the adoption of recent cognitive research and theories of subject-position feeding into analyses of historical work in order to try to mediate the gap between theory, text, and musical practice.
The world upside-down in sixteenth-century French literature and visual culture
Keywords: Emblem Studies
Early Modern Eschatology
Francois Rabelais
Religious Polemics
French Wars of Religion
Paradox

To call something 'inverted' or 'topsy-turvy' in the sixteenth century is, above all, to label it as abnormal, unnatural and going against the natural order of things. The topos of the world upside-down brings to mind a world returned to its initial state of primeval chaos, in which everything is inside-out, topsy-turvy and out of bounds: fish live in trees, children rule over their parents, wives command their husband and rivers flow back to their source.
This thesis undertakes a detailed account of the development of the topos of the world upside-down in sixteenth-century French literature and visual culture. By examining different uses of this topos – comic, moralising and polemical – it relates the transformations of the topos to religious, social and political conflicts of the period. To explain the shift of this topos from comic and moralising device to satirical and polemical tool, this thesis argues that troubled times produce troubled texts.
In order to demonstrate this hypothesis, two kinds of evidence will be examined: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 present diachronic evidence of the 'polemicisation' of the topos of the world upside-down in literary genres of the period (adages, paradoxes and emblems) and within François Rabelais's body of work; Chapter 3 and 4 provide synchronic evidence of the polemical use of the topos of the world upside-down during the French religious wars in Huguenot and Catholic polemic and in depictions of socio-political turmoil.
Charting the variety of uses of the topos of the world upside-down throughout the sixteenth century, this thesis connects the world upside-down and its historical context; and contributes to the scholarship on religious polemic.
Images of rural activities on mosaic pavements in Late Antiquity in the Levant
Keywords: Hunting mosaics of Antioch

Images of rural activities become very popular in mosaic floor decoration in the Levant during the Late Antique period. I aim to explore different categories of iconography and discuss the images of people engaged in rural activities, such as pastoralism; hunting, fishing and activities connected with the vintage. I also aim to look at imagery that is often discussed in isolation without relation to other connected iconographic categories. The symbolic meaning of the representations of the zodiac found in synagogues, for example, is often discussed in detail without also looking at the rural calendars that appear in Christian contexts during the same period in the same region.
I also want to explore the archaeological evidence for the activities that appear on the mosaic pavements. Studying both the archaeology and the iconography will, I hope, help us understand what the use of these particular categories of iconography in decorative schemes can tell us about the society that created them.
Teaching Russian classics in secondary school under Stalin  (1936-1941)
Keywords: Russian classical literature
Educaiton
Identity formation
Indoctrination
Soviet education
Ego writingс

This thesis contributes to existing discussions of Soviet subjectivity by considering how the efforts of the Party leadership and state agencies to shape personal and collective identities were mediated by the teaching of Russian classics to teenagers. It concentrates in particular on the history of literature course provided by Soviet schools for the upper years. The study addresses the following questions: (1) How was literary expression employed to instigate children’s emotions and create interpretive habits as a way of inculcating a Soviet worldview? (2) What immediate effects did the methods have on teenagers? (3) What were the long-term effects of this type of indoctrination? Answering these questions required close reading of material produced by official authorities, such as methodological programmes, teachers' aids, professional journals, and textbooks for class instruction, and also of material produced by those at the receiving end of Stalinist literary instruction, including both sources contemporary to the period under scrutiny (i.e. diaries written between 1936 – 1941), and later autobiographical material (memoirs, oral history).
I argue that for many teenagers growing up during this period, indoctrination in the classroom blurred the boundary between reality and fiction, and provided a moral compass to navigate their social environment, to judge others as well as themselves along prescribed lines, and model their lives on the precepts and slogans of the characters and authors they encountered, particularly the 19th-century radical democrats. Retrospective accounts – interviews, memoirs, and written responses to questions – expose the durability of the moral and ethical lessons derived from Russian classics and reveal the enduring Soviet emotional complex formed by this literary instruction.
Investigating the impacts of the study of Russian classics on Soviet recipients, particularly from elite groups such as the city intelligentsia, my discussion highlights the political traction of the literary in, for instance, forming feelings of group belonging and strong emotional responses to differing views. I conclude with a discussion of the relation of this to long-term political effects, including the re-appraisal, in the twenty-first century, of Stalin-era teaching methodology as an effective way of instilling patriotic sentiments in students, and the legacy of Soviet perceptions and practices in the expression of personal and collective identities in the post-Soviet period.
Pedestrian-induced lateral excitation of footbridges
Keywords: centre (center) of pressure
Pont du Solferino
human structure interaction
centre (center) of mass
inverted pendulum model
medial-lateral
Millennium Footbridge

This thesis investigates human-structure interactions between pedestrians and oscillating footbridges via experimental kinematic and kinetic tests. The first aspect was to improve and validate a simple frontal plane gait model, the Inverted Pendulum Model (IPM), based on kinematic and kinetic gait data for stable ground walking. Next, test subjects were recorded while crossing a laterally swaying footbridge in order to examine kinematic and kinetic walking patterns and assess the model's accuracy at predicting unstable gait.
Participants were recorded walking over force plates in a gait laboratory so their normal ground forces could be compared to each other and the IPM. High inter-subject variability and low intra-subject variability were observed. The IPM did not reproduce transient components of the ground forces. An analysis of the IPM's inherent assumptions revealed that some were inappropriate. A Modified Inverted Pendulum Model (MIPM) is proposed, eliminating some of the IPM's assumptions. For all samples examined, the correlation between the real ground forces and the MIPM was higher than that of the IPM.
Custom-designed force plates were installed into a novel laboratory footbridge rig. The footbridge was excited naturally by the participants' walking and the participants responded naturally to the swaying of the bridge. The participants' step widths could be predicted by the phase of the structure at the previous heel strike. At high structural amplitudes, CoP and ground force patterns were dominated by the motion of the structure. Centre of Mass (CoM) motion was found to be 'fixed-in-space' with patterns dissimilar to those anticipated by the IPM. The MIPM was typically better than the IPM at predicting ground forces on the moving base.
Finally, a spherical model was compared to the two-dimensional MIPM. The model exhibited few discrepancies to the spherical kinematic data, but the predicted medial-lateral ground forces were significantly different to the force plate data.
Persistent current joints between NbTi superconducting wires
Keywords: Superconducting joints
Inductive resistance testing
Current decay method
Niobium titanium wires
Persistent current joints

Persistent current joints are critical components of superconducting magnets, and improvements in their properties are key to the production of next generation devices. Despite having been made routinely for more than half a century, the science underpinning the performance of joints between NbTi wires remains poorly understood. At this critical juncture, where new jointing methods are being sought for NbTi, it is essential that we develop a sound understanding of the factors in uencing joint quality.
The aim of this thesis was to identify the characteristic microstructural and superconducting properties of joints produced by the three standard jointing methods for NbTi: soldering, spot welding and cold pressing.
There were three main components to this work. The first was to obtain a complete characterisation of Jc(B, T) and Bc2(T) for the raw materials from which the joints were made, which was done by standard magnetic methods. Where relevant, the results have been interpreted in terms of the basic pinning mechanisms and microstructures in the materials tested. The implications for joint performance are discussed.
Secondly, a novel magnetic method was developed to measure the superconducting performance of joints over an unprecedented range of operational conditions. The method involves winding a very small NbTi coil, closing the coil with the joint of interest, and testing the sample in a conventional SQUID magnetometer. The current carrying ability of joints can be measured simply from magnetic hysteresis loops, which enabled the performance of a range of joints to be analysed in fine detail and with considerable convenience. Furthermore, owing to the extremely low coil inductance and highly sensitive SQUID magnetometer employed, current decay curves corresponding to voltages as low as 10-14 V could be obtained in very short measurement times of just 20 minutes. Unfortunately, unexpectedly large drift in the background magnetic field was found to dominate in most measurements, but nevertheless the measurements provided an extremely rapid method of proving that the joints are truly superconducting. Suggestions are made as to how the technique could be improved to permit precise measurements of joint Ic(B, T) and V-I curves in the persistent mode regime, which would enable much needed fundamental studies into superconductivity in joints.
Finally, the joint testing technique was employed to measure the superconducting performance of soldered, spot welded and cold pressed NbTi joints. The results were analysed along with the raw material superconducting properties and microstructures in the joints, which were obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This allowed the performancelimiting factors in each joint to be established. As a result of this study, a new soldering/cold pressing method is proposed which may permit direct metal-to-metal bonding between NbTi materials without the need for Pb or harmful chemicals.
Porous borders: the amorphous nature of magical realist fiction in Asia and Australasia
Keywords: world literature
translation theory
Mo Yan
Witi Ihimaera
Amitav Ghosh
Keri Hulme
Australian literature
postcolonialism
Alexis Wright
Salman Rushdie
Southeast Asian literature
magical realism
Chinese literature
genre theory

This thesis aims to broaden the scope of magical realism by examining contemporary fiction in Asia and Australasia, regions which have been largely neglected in critical discussion of the narrative mode. My research seeks to modify and expand our collective conception of magical realism through key texts that challenge not only how we read the narrative mode, but also our expectations of it. My analysis involves a dual intervention in the fields of postcolonial studies and world literature. I supplement existing scholarship of magical realism with new paradigms of critical thought, such as epistemology, mythopoeia, ecocriticism, intertextuality and discourse on human rights. Each of the key authors – Indigenous Australian Alexis Wright, New Zealand Maoris Keri Hulme and Witi Ihimaera, Indian-born cosmopolitans Amitav Ghosh and Salman Rushdie, and Chinese Nobel laureate Mo Yan – subjects the narrative mode to differing intellectual, socio-cultural and historical frameworks, and in the process reinvents magical realism to serve their own artistic purposes. The authors' key texts demonstrate the need to recalibrate theory on magical realism in contexts such as Alexis Wright's depiction of ongoing colonisation of Australia's first inhabitants in a supposedly postcolonial country, and Mo Yan's critique of post-communist China. I argue that magical realism has porous borders, not only geographically and culturally, but also in the sense that the narrative mode frequently spills over into other, different generic kinds such that the distinctions between them are often blurred. In addition, magical realism’s constant state of transformation makes it particularly difficult to define. Therefore, I propose a minimalist definition of the narrative mode and a flexible approach. However, underlying cultural elements and individual artistic expression in a text may sometimes limit magical realism’s utility as a tool for literary analysis. Finally, I explore the notion of a genealogy of magical realism based on polygenesis, emerging in different cultures at different times.
Narratives of a nation: excluded episodes in Bahrain's contemporary history
Keywords: National Assembly
Bahrain
Constitutional Assembly
Ashura

In this research, I aim to present a narrative of the process of nation building in Bahrain—to further analyze it, interrogate it, and capture an aspect of its complexity. By focusing on the years following Bahrain’s independence from Britain in 1971, I examine the period in which a constitution was introduced and a short-lived parliament was dissolved after two years of operation. The hypothesis underlying this thesis project is that the dominant historical account, which is provided and sponsored by the government, does not mirror the historical narratives of the various Bahraini communities. The central argument is advanced by examining the state sponsored public articulations of identity, which portray a continuum of exclusions by omitting significant historical episodes. By consulting archival material, oral narratives, and secondary sources, I aim to question the official historical narrative and show the polarized versions of history that can occur when such exclusions take place.
Mindfulness during pregnancy: an evaluation of mindfulness and negative mood over the perinatal period
Keywords: Mindfulness
Perinatal depression
Online interventions

Perinatal depression is widespread and disabling with a number of negative consequences for the mother, father and child. Prenatal depression, stress and anxiety and a history of depression are significant predictors of perinatal depression suggesting a need for preventative interventions. Helpful psychological interventions for this period are currently scarce and expensive and research examining preventative interventions is lacking. Preliminary evidence suggests that generic and pregnancy-tailored mindfulness courses can reduce stress, anxiety and depression in this population. Because, more broadly, access to mindfulness courses is inequitable, research has begun to focus on the possibility of delivering such courses online, resulting in potentially beneficial courses becoming available with a reduction in cost to the participant and health service. The aim of this doctorate was to conduct a series of sequenced studies culminating in an overall evaluation of mindfulness courses for expectant mothers. In cross-sectional analyses, higher levels of dispositional mindfulness were associated with healthier mood levels suggesting that increasing mindfulness in this population (via a course) may be beneficial. A preliminary evaluation of a face-to-face mindfulness-based course for childbirth and parenting showed promising results for prospective mothers and fathers and further research would be useful. An online mindfulness course delivered to expectant mothers improved prenatal mood compared to a waitlist control group but there was a high level of drop-out for course completers. This high attrition rate, though often noted in internet intervention research, is concerning and warrants further investigation. More generally, mindfulness courses for expectant parents show potential and future work would benefit from larger samples and control group comparisons.
Novel methods in glycosaminoglycan and proteoglycan synthesis
Keywords: carbohydrates
glycosaminoglycans

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in general and heparin/heparan sulfate in particular are implicated in various biological functions by interacting with various protein partners. To elucidate the structure activity relationship (SAR) of these carbohydrate chains, considerable efforts towards the synthesis of these complex molecules have been made. Because of the heterogonous structure of these highly negatively charged molecules, a general approach towards synthesis of these molecules has not been possible. The central objective of this thesis was to develop a generic modular approach for the synthesis of defined thiomimics of heparin and heparan sulfate. Specifically we sought to utilize the unsaturation developed at the non-reducing end of heparin/heparan sulfate oligosaccharides by the action of lyases, for thiol-ene radical reaction to generate defined thiomimics of heparin
Chapter -2 Thiol-ene radical reaction on model substrates
The thiol-ene radical reaction on endocyclic double bonds in sugar molecules was initially established on protected model substrates and more importantly on deprotected model substrates in aqueous conditions. This demonstrates the first example of radical reaction in aqueous conditions for glycosylation between two carbohydrate substrates.
Chapter-3 Towards building S-linked heparin and heparan sulfate mimics using thiol-ene chemistry
The thiol-ene radical glycosylation strategy established on model substrates was utilized on both non-sulfated and sulfated building blocks of heparin/heparan sulfate to build novel thiomimics of heparin/heparan sulfate. The labile sulfate groups of heparin were found to be compatible with the reaction conditions. Initial biological studies done with the synthesized thiomimics did not show significant binding activity, probably due to the small size of the synthesized mimics.
Chapter -4 Glycosyltransferase utilization for heparin thiomimic synthesis
Natural glycosyltransferases were investigated for extension of the carbohydrate backbone of the thio mimics. Specifically, it was shown by MS for the first time that glucuronyltransferase can accept a thio mimic with unnatural stereochemistry as an acceptor.