VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The human rights based approach to climate change mitigation: legal framework for addressing human rights questions in mitigation projects
Keywords: CDM
mitigation
climate change
human right

Over the last decade, the effects of an unprecedented rise in global temperature due to climate change, on the enjoyment of human rights, especially the right to life, have been subjects of intensive scholarly attention. Gallons of juristic ink have been spilled on the need for States to adopt policy measures aimed at combating climate change. However, recent findings show that policy measures and projects aimed at mitigating climate change are in turn producing even more serious human rights concerns, especially in developing countries. These human rights issues include: mass displacement of citizens from their homes to allow for climate change mitigation projects; lack of participation by citizens in project planning and implementation; citing and concentration of projects in poor and vulnerable communities; lack of governmental accountability on projects and the absence of review and complaint mechanisms for victims to obtain redress for these problems. These secondary human rights impacts of policy measures and projects aimed at mitigating climate change have not received sufficient attention in existing literature.
The aim of this research is to examine and analyse the effects of climate change mitigation projects, specifically Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, on the enjoyment of fundamental human rights. It considers how lessons from the approval and execution of CDM projects could inform thoughts on the value and requirements for mainstreaming human rights safeguards into international climate change regimes in general. It analyses the legal and theoretical prospects and paradoxes of adopting the United Nations Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) as a framework through which human rights standards may be systemically integrated and mainstreamed into extant and emerging international legal regimes on climate change.
Large-scale genetic analysis of quantitative traits
Keywords: anthropometric
genetics
meta-analysis
mega-analysis

Recent advances in genotyping technology coupled with an improved understanding of the architecture of linkage disequilibrium across the human genome have resulted in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) becoming a useful and widely applied tool for discovering common genetic variants associated with both quantitative traits and disease risk. After each GWAS was completed, it left behind a set of genotypes and phenotypes, often including anthropometric measures used as covariates. Genetic associations with anthropometric measures are not well characterized, perhaps due to lack of power to detect them in the sample sizes of individual studies. To improve power to detect variants associated with complex phenotypes such as anthropometric traits, data from multiple GWAS can be combined. This thesis describes the methods and results of several such analyses performed as part of the Genome-wide Investigation of ANThropemtric measures (GIANT) consortium, and compares various different methods that can be used to perform combined analyses of GWAS. In particular, the comparisons focus on comparing differences between meta-analysis methods, in which only summary statistics that result from within-study association testing are shared between studies, and mega-analysis methods in which individual-level genotype and phenotype data is analysed together. Finally, a brief discussion of technological means that have the potential to help overcome some of the challenges associated with performing mega-analyses is offered in order to suggest future work that could be undertaken in this area.
A survey of G protein-coupled receptor stoichiometry
Keywords: Rhodopsin
GPCR
BRET

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) represent the largest family of transmembrane proteins in the human genome. Their biological and medical significance has driven extensive research into their structure and function, yet a number of important aspects of their behaviour remain unresolved. Arguably the most contentious debate in the field concerns whether or not the receptors form stable homo- and hetero-oligomeric interactions, and there is currently no consensus on the extent or purpose of GPCR oligomerisation. In this thesis, the ‘typical’ stoichiometry of Rhodopsin family GPCRs is investigated via the examination of more than 60 receptors natively expressed by human HEK 293T cells using bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET). Assaying receptors in the cells in which they are natively expressed maximises the likelihood of authentic assembly and trafficking while simultaneously providing an unbiased cross-section of the whole GPCR family. In order to make such an investigation possible, the sensitivity of existing BRET approaches for partial homodimers had to be, and was, confirmed, and a complementary competition-based BRET method suitable for a semi high-throughput analysis was developed. Application of these assays to the HEK 293T GPCR repertoire revealed that the Rhodopsin family is very predominantly monomeric but contains a small fraction of independently evolved dimers comprising small phylogenetic clusters of receptors. The mechanism of Rhodopsin family dimerisation was in some cases found to be reliant on interactions between transmembrane helices, in contrast to other families of GPCRs, which were observed or are known to be exclusively dimeric due to interactions between their N-terminal domains. The mechanism of dimerisation in Rhodopsin family GPCRs may preclude constitutive dimerisation but allow heterodimerisation of closely related receptors, as observed for a subset of receptors using a third type of assay designed to detect heterodimers. Taken together, these observations suggest a model of GPCR evolution in which dimers either have a selective disadvantage compared to monomers, or for which dimerisation offers no apparent selective advantage. These findings suggest that receptor stoichiometry is at least partly responsible for several of the remarkable features of GPCR family structure, including the very large size of the family as a whole, the great diversity of Rhodopsin family GPCRs, and the origins of sensory receptors.
Investigation of charge-transfer dynamics in organic materials for solar cells
Keywords: Transient Absorption Spectroscopy
Organic Semiconductors
Photovoltaic power generation
Dye-sensitized solar cells

This thesis improves our understanding of the charge-transfer dynamics in organic materials employed in dye-sensitized and nanotube-thiophene solar cells. For the purpose of this work, a femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy setup was built. Additionally, microsecond transient absorption spectroscopy was utilised to explore dynamics on a longer time-scale.
In the first study, the dependence of dye regeneration and charge collection on the pore- filling fraction (PFF) in solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is investigated. It is shown that while complete hole transfer with PFFs as low as ~30% can be achieved, improvements beyond this PFF are assigned to a stepwise increase in the charge-collection efficiency in agreement with percolation theory. It is further predicted that the chargecollection efficiency saturates at a PFF of ~82%.
The study is followed by an investigation of three novel hole-transporting materials for DSSCs with slightly varying HOMO levels to systematically explore the possibility of reducing the loss-in-potential and thus improving the device efficiency. It is shown that despite one new HTM showing a 100% hole-transfer yield, all devices based on the new HTMs performed worse than those incorporating spiro-OMeTAD. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the design of the HTM has an additional impact on the electronic density of states present at the TiO2 electrode surface, and hence influences not only hole- but also electron-transfer from the sensitizer.
Finally, a study on a polymer-single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) molecular junction is presented. Results from femtosecond spectroscopic techniques show that the polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) is able to transfer charges to the SWNT within 430 fs. Addition of excess P3HT polymer leads to long-lived free charges making these materials a viable option for solar cells.
Measurement of Neutral-Current π$^0$ production for $ν_µ$ interactions in ND280
Keywords: nd280
oscillation
neutrino
pi-zero
current
pi0
T2K
neutral

This thesis presents a study of neutral-current π0 production from νµ interactions. The study uses data taken at the Tokai-to-Kamiokande off-axis experiment's near detector (ND280). Monte Carlo studies were used to develop selection criteria to reconstruct event signatures produced from such interactions. This physics analysis focuses on the tracker region of the ND280 subdetector. Other π0 analyses using different detector regions are either underway or completed. The physics analysis, after being developed from Monte Carlo studies, was then run on real data.
This analysis goes partway towards measuring the neutral-current π0-producing neutrino interaction cross-section, by measuring the rate of such interactions in the T2K experiment's near detector, ND280. The observed results were:

N NCπ0
Data
(1)
This rate measurement, when made as a ratio of the predicted Monte Carlo rate, yields a ratio of:

(2)
RData
RMC   = 1.20 ± 0.13stat ± 0.72syst
Romanticising crisis: digital revolution and ecological risk in late postmodern American fiction 
Keywords: experimental literature
Post-1945 literature
Romanticism
digital culture
ecocriticism
American counterculture
postmodernism
Transcendentalism
american literature

This thesis probes how recent experimental American "crisis fictions" from authors including Mark Z. Danielewski, Kathryn Davis, and Evan Dara reformulate transatlantic Romantic literary debates about technological and environmental change. Arguing that such texts extend previously theorised ties between Romanticism and postmodernism, it identifies enduring ties between late-postmodern accounts of crisis and those of Romantic predecessors. Responding to the upheavals of digital revolution and ecological risks, these texts, published between 1995 and 2012, inventively engage several linchpin constructs in transatlantic Romantic writing: chiefly, the imagined supersession of subjective and temporal boundaries; a sense that the natural and non-human world is of crucial importance; and a reliance on idioms of sublimity to suggest the unrepresentability of the aforementioned crises.
Although numerous critics have traced similarities between Romantic and postmodern modes, this thesis considers those resonances as deeper questions of cultural and literary history. It proposes to more carefully historicise the Romantic intellectual heritage in late postmodernism, identifying intermediating moments that inform contemporary accounts of crisis. It unearths how late postmodern technocultural and environmentalist imaginaries were always already Romantic. Deeply informed by countercultural, mid-century American movements and ideas that themselves drew significantly from transatlantic Romanticism, contemporary figurations of upheaval, syncretically figured in mid-century publications such as the Whole Earth Catalog, are indebted to both Romantic and neo-Romantic heritages.
This thesis additionally argues that the digital revolution and unprecedented environmental crisis act as pressures on postmodern literary practices from the mid-1990s onward. Digital speeding and a looming sense of ecological risk register as even earlier crises than the terrorist attacks of "9-11", requiring a recalibration of what the postmodern might mean and do. Crucially, in their preoccupation with embodied realities and environments, including natural ones, the contemporary narratives examined here diverge from the assumption that the natural world bears little importance in postmodern fields of representation.
Finally, many recent literary experiments figure themselves as materially participating in the technological and medial systems they respond to; formal experimentation is, accordingly, another centre of interest. This research examines how select texts deploy formal strategies to "materially instantiate" Romantic ideas, to borrow Katherine Hayles's term. Although numerous critics have suggested that Romantic discourse permeates digital cultural imaginaries, existing scholarship devotes little attention to how formal experimentation intersects with narrative strategies.
Temporal dynamics of resting state brain connectivity as revealed by magnetoencephalography
Keywords: Resting State Networks
Functional Connectivity
Magnetoencephalography
Hidden Markov Model
Neuroimaging
MEG

Explorations into the organisation of spontaneous activity within the brain have demonstrated the existence of networks of temporally correlated activity, consisting of brain areas that share similar cognitive or sensory functions. These so-called resting state networks (RSNs) emerge spontaneously during rest and disappear in response to overt stimuli or cognitive demands. In recent years, the study of RSNs has emerged as a valuable tool for probing brain function, both in the healthy brain and in disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. However, analyses of these networks have so far been limited, in part due to assumptions that the patterns of neuronal activity that underlie these networks remain constant over time. Moreover, the majority of RSN studies have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in which slow fluctuations in the level of oxygen in the blood are used as a proxy for the activity within a given brain region.
In this thesis we develop the use of magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study resting state functional connectivity. Unlike fMRI, MEG provides a direct measure of neuronal activity and can provide novel insights into the temporal dynamics that underlie resting state activity. In particular, we focus on the application of non- stationary analysis methods, which are able to capture fast temporal changes in activity. We first develop a framework for preprocessing MEG data and measuring interactions within different RSNs (Chapter 3). We then extend this framework to assess temporal variability in resting state functional connectivity by applying time- varying measures of interactions and show that within-network functional connectivity is underpinned by non-stationary temporal dynamics (Chapter 4). Finally we develop a data driven approach based on a hidden Markov model for inferring short lived connectivity states from resting state and task data (Chapter 5). By applying this approach to data from multiple subjects we reveal transient states that capture short lived patterns of neuronal activity (Chapter 6).
The role of IL-18 in intestinal immune regulation
Keywords: Intestine
IL-18
Th17
Immunity
Foxp3

Elevated levels of the cytokine interleukin-18 (IL-18) are found in many chronic inflammatory disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the role of IL-18 in mucosal immunity and inflammation is not well understood. At mucosal and environmental interfaces, Th17 cells have been shown to contribute to protection from pathogenic infection. In contrast, regulatory T (Treg) cells maintain intestinal homeostasis by preventing aberrant inflammatory responses to the resident microbiota. We demonstrate that under homeostatic conditions, colonic Th17 cells highly express IL-18 receptor (IL-18R1) and that intestinal epithelial cell production of IL-18 acts directly on CD4+ T cells to limit colonic Th17 differentiation. Furthermore, whilst IL-18R1-signalling is dispensable for induction of colitis, we observed a critical role for IL-18R1-signalling in Foxp3+ Treg mediated control of colitis. Together, these studies demonstrate that the intestinal epithelium regulates colonic CD4+ T cell responses through production of the cytokine IL-18.
Designing a quantum computer based on pulsed electron spin resonance
Keywords: quantum information processing
Pulsed electron spin resonance
high magnetic fields

Electron spin resonance (ESR) experiments are used to assess the possibilities for processing quantum information in the electronic and nuclear spins of endohedral fullerenes. It is shown that ¹⁵N@C₆₀ can be used for universal two-qubit quantum computing. The first step in this scheme is to initialize the nuclear and electron spins that each store one qubit. This was achieved with a magnetic field of 8.6 T at 3 K, by applying resonant RF and microwave radiation. This dynamic nuclear polarization technique made it possible to show that the nuclear T₁ time of ¹⁵N@C����� is on the order of twelve hours at 4.2 K. The electronic T₂ is the limiting decoherence time for the system. At 3.7 K, this can be extended to 215 μs by using amorphous sulphur as the solvent. Pulse sequences are described that could perform all single-qubit gates to the two qubits independently, as well as CNOT gates. After these manipulations, the value of the qubits should be measured. Two techniques are demonstrated for this, by measuring the nuclear spin. Sc@C₈₂ could also be useful for quantum computation. By comparing ESR measurements with density functional theory calculations, it is shown how the orientation of a Sc@C₈₂ molecule in an applied magnetic field affects the molecule's Zeeman and hyperfine coupling. Hence the g- and A-tensors are written in the coordinate frame of the molecule. Pulsed ESR measurements show that the decoherence time at 20 K is 13 μs, which is 20 times longer than had been previously reported. Carbon nanotubes have been filled with endohedral fullerenes, forming 1D arrays that could lead to a scalable quantum computer. N@C₆₀ and Sc@C₈₂ have been used for this filling in various concentrations. ESR measurements of these samples are consistent with simulations of the dipolar coupling.
On Auslander-Reiten theory for algebras and derived categories
Keywords: Auslander-Reiten theory
Derived Categories
Hopf algebras

This thesis consists of three parts. In the first part we look at Hopf algebras. We classify pointed rank one Hopf algebras over fields of prime characteristic which are generated as algebras by the first term of the coradical filtration. These Hopf algebras were classified by Radford and Krop for fields of characteristic zero. We obtain three types of Hopf algebras presented by generators and relations. The third type is new and has not previously appeared in literature.
The second part of this thesis deals with Auslander-Reiten theory of finitedimensional algebras over fields.
We consider G-transitive algebras and develop necessary conditions for them to have Auslander-Reiten components with Euclidean tree class. Thereby a result in [F3, 4.6] is corrected and generalized. We apply these results to G-transitive blocks of the universal enveloping algebras of restricted p-Lie algebras. Finally we deduce a condition for a smash product of a local basic algebra Λ with a commutative semi-simple group algebra to have components with Euclidean tree class, in terms of the components of the Auslander-Reiten quiver of Λ.
In the last part we introduce and analyze Auslander-Reiten components for the bounded derived category of a finite-dimensional algebra. We classify derived categories whose Auslander-Reiten quiver has either a finite stable component or a stable component with finite Dynkin tree class or a bounded stable component. Their Auslander-Reiten quiver is determined. We use these results to show that certain algebras are piecewise hereditary. Also a necessary condition for the existence of components of Euclidean tree class is deduced. We determine components that contain shift periodic complexes.
Pretexts for writing: German prefaces around 1800
Keywords: Fragment
Prefaces
Post-Structuralism
German Literature 18th &amp; 19th century
Paratexts
European Romanticism

Throughout history, there have been playful prefaces to literature (or in classical oratory, before display pieces). But German examples written by authors around 1800 to their own works, together with contemporary, self-authored prefaces to speculative philosophy, constitute a peculiarly paradoxical text type. Once literature was conceived as an autonomous domain rather than as a branch of general learning; as a popular book market took hold; and once systematic philosophy competed with literature’s broad acclaim as well as intellectual independence, the preface became not only a pragmatic, but also a creative and conceptual problem. Hence the preface became complicated as a form, in a broadly Romantic tradition of thought in which every act of genuine reflection was understood to expose epistemological contradiction. After my general, theoretical Preface and my comparative, historical Introduction, I focus on three preface paradoxes and three case studies of remarkably complex textuality: on Goethe, Jean Paul and Hegel. Most notable among their prefatory texts are the prefaces to Werther (1774), to a fictive second edition of Quintus Fixlein (1797) and to Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807). This trajectory is a story that begins with literary creativity and moves towards greater philosophical intricacy.
The significance of my study is threefold. First and foremost, considering prefaces in this period of German literature and philosophy complements and augments the negative, subjective Early German Romantic idea of irony, Romantic textual fragmentation, as well as Jean Paul’s and Hegel’s literary and philosophically informed attempts to render both concepts and their manifestation on the page more positive and objective. Fragments are conventionally conceived as additive pieces, fortifying or undermining works. This conception can hold true for prefaces, including those by Goethe, Jean Paul and Hegel. At the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, though, a number of writers of fragments argued that their works should be understood as wholes. Precisely some prefaces by Goethe, Jean Paul and Hegel can be read so paradoxically: as unifying, wholesome (in a Sentimental sense) and systematic fragments respectively.
Second and third, I show the wider importance of the German preface at the turn of the nineteenth century. Authors around 1800 not only displayed, but discovered and debated a prefatory paradoxicality that we encounter in post-Romantic, post-Structuralist and post-modern literature, theory and philosophy, too. Moreover, I demonstrate the ways in which prefaces by particularly Jean Paul and Hegel influenced especially Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Derrida.