VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Urban lives and urban legends: re-examining the slum in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Keywords: Tanzania
Slums
Housing markets

This thesis brings together literature on slums in urban economics and institutions in political science with new empirical data. In doing so, it contributes knowledge to both bodies of research while also advancing the multidisciplinary discourse on cities in international development. It uses a mix of research methods to examine theories about the emergence and persistence of slum deprivation. It takes a case study approach, drawing on large-scale household survey data to measure patterns in characteristics of slum households and their housing as well as semi-structured interviews and focus groups to understand the processes that underpin these observations. This analysis reveals that most slum households in Dar es Salaam are not poor, and that there is no clear relationship between informality and housing quality. Institutions play a key role in explaining these results: strong informal land ownership and transfer arrangements eliminate differences in transaction risks across formal and informal owners, while weak land coordination institutions trap well-located middle-income housing at slum standards. The analysis shows that slum theories which rely on expectations about market behaviour will have limited explanatory power unless they can better account for the mediating influence of informal market institutions on this behaviour. Improved understanding of informal institutions is needed to refine these theories and to improve their predictive power. The thesis concludes by drawing insights from the analysis of informal institutions in Dar es Salaam into potential foundations of a more complete market theory of slum deprivation.
Wetting of pulsed plasma fluoropolymers
Keywords: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
T1
Surface Rearrangement
Acrylate
Wetting
X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
Fluoropolymer
Chemical Warfare Agent
Atomic Force Microscopy
AFM
Plasma
Fluorocarbon
Spin Lattice
Fluoroalkyl
XPS
Methacrylate
Surface Reconstruction
NMR
Perfluoroalkyl
Plasma polymer
Contact Angle

The work presented in this thesis is an investigation of the surface properties of fluoropolymers synthesized via pulsed plasma polymerization. The focus is on perfluoroalkyl acrylate (PFAC-n, where n is the number of carbons in the perfluoroalkyl chain) polymers which are used in the manufacture of military protective clothing. The aim of the study is to understand how PFAC-n polymer surfaces interact with liquids, particularly chemical warfare agents (CWA’s). The properties of some other fluoropolymers are also briefly investigated; the acrylate group in PFAC-6 is exchanged for an alkene (PFO) and a perfluoroalkyl (PFH) group. Additionally, a co-polymer of PFAC-6 and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) was synthesized which shows good potential for use in oil/water separation.
The surfaces were characterized using 19F solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and contact angle goniometry. It is shown that plasma conditions resulted in degradation of PFO and PFH, whilst PFAC-n polymerizes with retention of functionality. PFAC-4 and -6 exist in the liquid state at room temperatures, whilst PFAC-8 and -10 are disordered polycrystalline solids. All show increased side-chain ordering at the surface compared to the bulk, with preferential segregation of CF3 at the surface. The two liquids have increased ordering compared to the solids at room temperature and are therefore lower in surface energy.
The time- and temperature-dependence of contact angles of ethylene glycol (EG) and n-hexadecane (n-HD) is investigated, and these are shown to trigger surface reorganization of PFAC-n when the polymers are in the liquid state. The wetting behaviour of some CWA’s and CWA simulants is also examined, and it was found that the CWA’s display lower contact angles on PFAC-n than predicted by the wetting of conventional probe liquids, such as ethylene glycol and n-hexadecane, or by the wetting of CWA simulants.
A physical-organic approach to asymmetric catalysis: design and synthesis of chiral ligands using multivariate modelling
Keywords: Sterimol
linear free energy relationship
asymmetric conjugate addition
ligand design
quantitative structure−selectivity relationship
phosphoramidite
multivariate modeling
asymmetric catalysis

Discovery of new asymmetric metal-catalyzed transformations is closely related to the development of efficient and robust chiral ligands, such that ligand optimisation is a crucial step in reaction development but its success is highly uncertain. Mostly based on trial-and-error, such a daunting task can be intellectually frustrating and exhausting, wherein the use of any predictive tool is much appreciated. The limited mechanistic knowledge in asymmetric catalysis is unfortunately prohibitive to the use of many computational techniques. As a result, we turn our attention toward multivariate modelling, a data-driven statistical approach which is believed to be a promising platform to rationally drive the successful identification of a highly enantioselective ligand.
In this work, we introduce the importance of ligands in asymmetric catalysis and detail the notion of ligand design, and more particularly, we fully report the multivariate modelling approach (Chapter 1). We then apply such a strategy on systems developed in our group where the ligand design previously failed using traditional approaches. For instance, Chapter 2 fully uses multivariate modelling to reoptimize a copper-catalysed asymmetric conjugate addition of alkylzirconium species that failed on sterically challenging linear substrates. While modelling this asymmetric transformation, we realized that conformational flexibility of ligands could produce large amplitudes of underestimated uncertainty in predictions. Thus, conformational effects on physical-organic descriptors are explored in Chapter 3 with the specific case of steric Sterimol parameters, from which new descriptors called wSterimol (“weighted Sterimol”) were developed. Inspired by the success of our approach in Chapter 2, the ligand design workflow is applied to the development of a copper-catalysed asymmetric conjugate addition to exocyclic enones (Chapter 4). Finally, we examine the remaining challenges for the data-driven approach to become a go-to method and we envision the future of ligand design in asymmetric catalysis (Chapter 5).
Seismic tomography of the La Réunion mantle plume
Keywords: Tomography
Mantle plumes

This study aims to generate a multifrequency tomography model of the mantle beneath the Réunion hotspot, where a whole mantle conduit may be present.
From 2011 to 2016, the RHUM-RUM project (Réunion Hotspot Upper Mantle – Réunions Unterer Mantel) instrumented a 2000 km × 2000 km area of the Indian Ocean seafloor, islands and Madagascar with broadband seismometers and hydrophones. The central component was a 13-month deployment of 57 German and French Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS) deployed at 2300-5600 m depth. This was supplemented by deployments of 37 stations on Réunion, Mauritius, Rodrigues, the southern Seychelles, the Iles Eparses and southern Madagascar. More than 200 teleseismic events during the 13-month long deployment were recorded and additional 400 events before and after the main OBS deployment were recorded by permanent stations.
Here, I present the data yield, processing methods and P wave images based on over 55,000 multifrequency cross-correlations measurements in passbands between 30 and 2.7 seconds dominant periods. Ideally, all frequency bands that efficiently transmit body-waves would be used but this meets practical limits in the noise characteristics of ocean-bottom recordings. The multifrequency traveltime observations are embedded into a global ray theoretical inversion. This new high resolution tomographic model, which illuminates the mantle column beneath La Réunion and surrounding areas, is discussed and compared to existing global models.
The model reveals a massive upwelling rooted in the African LLVP. Branches tilting up- and outward from a central cusp at around 900 km above the CMB (∼2000 km depth), and connect to the hotspot locations of La Réunion, Afar, Kerguelen, and possibly Crozet. These mantle connections support evidence of long-standing observations of geochemical similarities across Indian Ocean hotspots.
The material culture of remembrance and identity
Keywords: war memory
national identity
Imperial War Graves Commission
British empire
cemeteries
memorials

This thesis examines the relationship between material culture, war memory, and identity for South Africa, India, Canada, and Australia in the First World War’s aftermath 1918-1938. Their material culture of commemoration on the battlefields fell under the Imperial War Graves Commission’s remit; this complicated the decision-making processes for these sites, and caused them to serve as stages upon which relationships between national, imperial, collective, and individual identities were negotiated and performed in stone. Using five memorials in France and Belgium as case studies and also incorporating cemeteries, this thesis is a transnational, comparative, and interdisciplinary work. It advances new evidence for the spatial and conceptual relationships that existed between landscape, memorial, cemetery, the dead, and the living in imperial remembrance contexts, and uses representative engagements – objects, events, and decisions – to demonstrate how the articulation of identities was embedded in and navigated through them. The chapters interrogate the relationships between place, object, people, and distance, through the lens of absence and presence. They argue that links between landscape, material culture, and the dead created reciprocally conferred meanings; that memorials and cemeteries for India and the Dominions were objects with agency; and that connection across distance was crucial in how these places functioned as sites of identity. The material culture of remembrance is increasingly at the heart of First World War memory; as living memory has faded, it is the tangible remains – artefacts, memorials, and cemeteries – that we ask to tell us stories about our countries, our predecessors, and ourselves. Today, their contemporary relevance is prominently recognised in the public consciousness and media. It is critical that we have an understanding of these sites’ significance to the people who derived meaning from them at the time of their creation.
Manifestation und Konstruktion von Frauenmystik. Prozessuales Schreiben in der oberdeutschen Überlieferung der Mechthild von Hackeborn
Keywords: Mechthild von Hackeborn
Historiography
Mysticism
Hagiography

This thesis suggests a new methodological approach towards medieval mystical texts associated with a female author figure. Instead of a historical-critical method, it proposes adopting a perspective rooted in the individual manifestation that places the text within its cultural context within and outside the manuscript. The 'Liber specialis gratiae' by Mechthild of Hackeborn provides a case study due to its large transmission and its textual instability, resulting in a variety of functional usages. The distribution of manuscripts across a wide area offers insights into the way in which different monastic orders, monasteries, or even individual recipients read the text. Compared to texts transmitted only in a small number of manuscripts, the 'Liber specialis gratiae' therefore allows an examination of the different layers of reception. Passages of the text can be presented as prayer books, didactic manuals, hagiographic manuscripts as well as textual witnesses transmitting the 'Liber' as its only text. By rearranging different sections or just individual phrases, alternative ways of reading are offered. Simultaneously, the context of reception acquires significance, for example the way in which the manuscripts were produced, distributed, and kept within monasteries. The change from manuscript to print and its effect can also be observed, leading to differing manifestations. Moreover, the material offers insights into the fact that reception does not stop at the end of the manuscript era but continues into the period of printed editions and academic engagement with the text. Considering how Mechthild and the 'Liber' were perceived across time is therefore an integral part of this study.
Hydrophobic gating and functional annotation of ion channels
Keywords: hydrophobic gating
ion channels
functional annotation
electrowetting
polarisable force fields

Ion channels are integral membrane proteins that facilitate the permeation of ions through lipid bilayers. By means of a molecular mechanism known as hydrophobic gating, these proteins can close their conduction pathway to ion flow without the need for steric occlusion. Hydrophobic gates pose a challenge in the analysis of novel ion channel structures, as they cannot be detected by measuring the physical dimensions of a channel pore. This thesis therefore presents the Channel Annotation Package (CHAP), an open-source software tool for the functional annotation of ion channel structures based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and capable of reliably indentifying hydrophobic gates. The cation-selective 5-HT3 receptor and the anion-selective glycine receptor served as test cases to demonstrate the utility of CHAP. The functional status of several recent structures of these two channels was determined through MD simulation and hydrophobic gates were identified in both receptors. Furthermore, a high-throughput survey of ion channel structures enabled by CHAP revealed that hydrophobic gates occur in ~20% of the ion channel structural proteome. Next-generation polarisable force fields were used to explore the importance of electronic polarisation in MD simulations of ion channels. Water molecules passing a hydrophobic gate experienced a significant reduction of their dipole moment, mirroring the behaviour of water in a liquid-vapour phase transition. Polarisable ions interacted more strongly with uncharged protein residues than simulations employing traditional additive force fields suggest. Incorporating polarisation effects will thus be an important aspect of future computational studies of ion channel structure and function. The impact of a transmembrane potential on the hydrophobic gate in the 5-HT3 receptor was studied through atomistic MD simulations. Electrowetting occured only at supraphysiological voltages, while at lower field strengths pore de-wetting effectively prevented ion permeation. The hydration response of the channel could be quantitatively described by a thermodynamic model that includes the influence of the charged amino acid residues of the channel protein. Electric field effects are unlikely to play an important role for hydrophobic gating in biological ion channels, but may potentially be exploited in the design of gated artificial nanopores.
Modelling of arterial and haemogenic endothelium development from mouse and human pluripotent stem cells
Keywords: Arterial Endothelium
Pluripotent Stem Cells
Haematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells
Haemogenic Endothelium

One of the most promising objectives of clinical haematology is to derive transplantable autologous haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) from human pluripotent stem cell (PSC) sources in vitro, but efficient and clinically relevant methodologies remain unavailable. Observations in the developing vertebrate embryo indicate that the haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) capable of long-term engraftment are produced by the third and last wave of haematopoietic development. This occurs in the developing dorsal aorta (DA) from haemogenic endothelium (HE) in close association with an arterial vascular endothelial niche. Notch and Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) signalling pathways are critical regulators of arterial identity and HSPC development.
To better understand the lack of engrafting HSCs in in vitro PSC differentiation protocols, we further characterised a previously published, serum-free murine embryonic stem cell (mESC) embryoid body (EB) differentiation system. Results showed lack of a robust arterial niche and Notch signalling, and production of HSPCs resembling the erythro-myeloid progenitors (EMP) normally detected during one of the earlier, extra-embryonic waves of haematopoietic development. We then showed that transiently culturing cells with high concentrations of VEGFA led to activation of an arterial programme in cultured cells, though this was insufficient to drive HSC differentiation. Importantly, we showed the haematopoietic potential of arterial delta-like 4 (DLL4) expressing cells depends on VEGFA concentrations in the culture, demonstrating the potential of arterial cells to become HE.
To adapt these findings to a more clinically-translatable setting, we also characterised a serum-free, monolayer-based system for the differentiation of human HSPCs previously developed in the lab, commercially available as STEMdiff™ Hematopoietic Kit. Similar to results in the murine system, the supporting niche showed limited arterial vascular endothelium differentiation and was instead primarily composed of mesenchymal stromal-like cells. Culturing cells in high concentrations of VEGFA markedly enhanced arterial endothelium formation throughout culture, and concurrently decreased mesenchymal stroma. Likewise, we observed the presence of immunophenotypic DLL4+ HE at early stages in cultures treated with high VEGFA concentrations, confirming data obtained from the mESC system. Despite lack of engraftment capacity of HSPCs, our studies contribute potential insights to the question of the haematopoietic potential of arterial endothelium. This will guide further improvement of currently available protocols to support in vitro HSPC differentiation.
Ego-motion estimation and localization with millimeter-wave scanning radar
Keywords: Localisation
Radar
Odometry
Scanning radar
Frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar
Ego-motion estimation

In contrast to cameras, lidars, GPS, and proprioceptive sensors, radars are affordable and efficient systems that operate well under variable weather and lighting conditions, require no external infrastructure, and detect long-range objects. For these reasons, radar is a reliable and versatile sensor well suited for ego-motion estimation and localization. However, various radar artifacts and characteristics— including speckle noise, receiver saturation, multipath reflections, low spatial res- olution, and slow update speeds—make it an especially challenging sensor with which to work.
In this thesis, we present algorithms for radar-only odometry and localization for mobile autonomous systems. We focus primarily on odometry and show that our approach can be adapted for localization. Using a frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) scanning radar, we first extract keypoints from radar scans in a manner that avoids redundant returns, accounts for high levels of noise, and reduces reliance on the amplitude of received power as an indicator of occupancy. To estimate relative motion from the keypoint sets, we then perform scan matching by greedily adding point correspondences based on unary descriptors and pairwise compatibility scores in a graph matching framework.
Our pipeline achieves reliable and accurate ego-motion estimation under challenging conditions and across a range of settings. The pipeline of our most recent paper requires only one input parameter and no outlier detection, no model-reliant motion filters, nor any additional sensors. Our system operates well even in the absence of a motion prior and is highly robust to radar artifacts. We demonstrate its ability to match the performance of visual odometry and GPS/INS, remaining precise and robust even under difficult conditions that cause the latter two systems to fail. Additionally, it adapts effortlessly to diverse environments, from urban UK to off-road Iceland, achieving an average scan matching accuracy of 5.20 cm and 0.0929 degrees when using GPS as ground truth.
Arrangement, listening, and the music of Gérard Pesson
Keywords: Pesson
Music
Couperin
Fidelity
Erasure
Transcription
Brahms
Noise
Arrangement
Metaphor
Adaptation
Kitsch
Gérard
Temporality
Bruckner
Listening
Recomposition
Mahler

This thesis develops a critical framework for the study of musical arrangement and its relationship with concepts of listening through interpretations of music by Gérard Pesson (born 1958). It begins by identifying and accounting for persistent interpretative reflexes in existing discussions of arrangement, arguing that arrangement is best understood not as a type of musical object defined by fidelity to an original but rather as a way of listening influenced by this and other concepts. The four case studies that follow explore different implications of this shift in critical perspective, combining close reading and listening, philosophical reflection (in particular insights offered by conceptual metaphor theory and figures including Bergson, Sartre, and Adorno), and studies of reception. The first case study displaces the ‘original’ as the primary source of an arrangement’s significance, arguing that Nebenstück (1998) plays extensively on the meanings of medium, through the manipulation of timbre and noise. The second considers the idea of linear temporal fidelity to a source as an engagement with notions of structural listening, using an examination of Ambre Nous Resterons (2008) to demonstrate that such fidelity is not a condition of arrangement but an ideal from which arrangements might meaningfully depart. The third complicates the relationship between the timbral and temporal aspects of arrangement discussed in the previous two chapters, exploring how Pesson manipulates both aspects in Wunderblock (2005) to suggest the absence rather than re-presentation of a source. The fourth probes the fraught relationship between notions of arrangement, fidelity, and kitsch within the overlapping contexts of modernism and historical ‘authenticity’, analysing the discourses surrounding Kein Deutscher Himmel (1997) supplied by Pesson himself, the transcription’s commercial distribution, and a variety of its listeners. Finally, this thesis considers the extent to which musical arrangements, in particular those of Pesson, might be interpreted as offering ‘critical’ perspectives on listening.