VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Syntactic variation and stratification in Imperial-era Greek prose
Keywords: register
Second Sophistic
syntax
postclassical Greek
variation
Atticism
sociolinguistics
modality

The thesis aims to provide an image of sociolinguistic strata of the language of Greek prose in the second century CE by analyzing variation in the modal domain, particularly in the use of optative constructions. It is divided into four chapters, an introduction and a conclusion, and has three main parts, which could be respectively labeled theoretical, sociohistorical, and empirical. Chapter 1 introduces the main aims of the thesis. The first part (chapter 2) outlines the notions necessary to build a framework to assess variation; those of register and legitimate language play a particularly important role. The second part (chapter 3) is a sociohistorical sketch of various approaches to linguistic problems in the technical literature of the Hellenistic and, primarily, Roman periods, as well as of the development of grammatical instruction as a social practice. Towards its end, ways in which legitimate registers were imparted are suggested; the role of what was labeled ‘Attic’ is discussed in particular. The third part consists of chapters 4 and 5. The former provides further theoretical notions necessary to investigate modal categories and presents the baseline subcorpus of classical prose of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE as the main comparandum. The latter analyzes the data from Imperial-era literary and technical prose and documentary papyri: the outcome is that patterns of variation differ both across contemporary authors and between Imperial-era and classical Greek in systematic ways. The conclusion (chapter 6) summarizes the results and highlights the ways in which they converge.
Coolant migration in double-wall effusion cooling systems
Keywords: flow networks
coolant migration
turbine cooling
heat transfer
double-wall effusion cooling
turbomachinery

Over recent decades, aeroengines have seen continuous rises in Turbine Entry Temperature (TET) as engineers seek to achieve greater values of turbine thermal efficiency. As TETs continue to climb, increasingly sophisticated cooling systems are required to keep component temperatures below their softening levels. This thesis examines the application of one such high performance cooling system: double-wall effusion cooling, which combines impingement, pedestal, and effusion cooling. A particular focus is placed on the effects of coolant migration, where coolant in the pedestal cavity moves under the influence of an external pressure gradient, potentially producing a dangerous maldistribution of outlet coolant flow which could lead to hot gas ingestion.
A Low Order Flow Network Model (LOM) is built up to allow rapid analysis of mass flow distributions in a double-wall set-up. This is done by approximating flow through the cooling system as a one-dimensional pipe network, for which literature-based empirical correlations can be used for flow rates and mass flow continuity can be resolved at junctions. The LOM is validated experimentally and used to demonstrate the effects of select geometric features on the outlet flow distribution, such as restrictive fences, chamfered impingement holes, and extended pedestals. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based methods are then utilised to explore more complex geometric features which could be used to reduce coolant migration.
The LOM is then expanded to incorporate thermal effects, allowing the assessment of cooling performance. Literature-based empirical correlations are used to find heat transfer rates, allowing a network based on the conservation of energy to be solved alongside the original Continuity LOM. Comparisons with experiments show that the Thermal LOM predicted coolant consumption and cooling effectiveness to within 15% and 10% respectively. The Thermal LOM is then used to demonstrate the effect of Coolant Migration on the external cooling performance.
Analysis of a double-wall effusion cooling system in a full Nozzle Guide Vane is carried out using the Thermal LOM. It’s high solving speed is exploited to produce a full vane cooling system using a Genetic Algorithm optimisation method, producing a design which minimises coolant consumption whilst maintaining adequate cooling. Potential performance changes due to manufacturing variations are then examined using high-sample Monte Carlo analysis. Within standard manufacturing tolerances, maximum metal temperatures are shown to vary by ±30 K for a baseline double-wall effusion cooling system, which would have a major effect on component life variation.
The beginnings of narrative closure in Homeric Epic
Keywords: endings
poetry
Homer
closure
ancient Greek
epic
narrative theory
Odyssey
classics
Iliad

The Homeric epics are the earliest specimens of classical narrative that have come down to us. They have also exerted a lasting influence throughout antiquity and beyond; indeed, they may be termed the "founding narratives" of Western literature. For these two reasons they offer an ideal focus for a study which attempts to begin developing a flexible yet systematic approach to narrative closure, in which it is hoped that modern literary theory and practice can inform a new reading of the Classics and vice versa.
The term "closure" itself has been invested with a myriad of meanings and has not always been employed with the necessary clarity because of the continuing boom in closural studies, not only in literary criticism. A brief but comprehensive review of the subject will help clarify this central concept and lead up to a definition of closure which will be most useful for its investigation in narrative, and ancient epic in particular. In this context it is further suggested that a generic approach might offer particular advantages, at least with reference to Classics. A study of closure, if appropriately and clearly defined, should - paradoxically - open up new perspectives on a work of literature, and a more detailed methodological section offers a preliminary overview of possible avenues of investigation in ancient (especially epic) narrative; these include the role of plotting and of characters in the development of closure, and the contribution and interaction of various thematic and structural devices. While my approach is informed by discourse theory and narratology, specialized vocabulary is generally kept to a minimum.
Based on this theoretical framework, readings of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" assess the crucial, though characteristically different role of closure in both epics, following a brief review of scholarly opinion on Homeric closure up to date. The narrative dynamics and preoccupations of each poem are illuminated through this new perspective, thus contributing to a fresh understanding of disputed features (in particular in the "Odyssey"). The results of these two related but separate discussions are then summarized and compared, illustrating the sophistication of texts even at what is for us the beginning of Western narrative. The final section returns the closural strategies explored in the Homeric epics into the context of the broader theoretical discussions set out in the introduction. It concludes with a short overview of possible ways in which the study of epic and narrative closure might fruitfully be pursued.
The genetics of blood pressure in 150 000 Mexican adults
Keywords: blood pressure
population structure
Genetic Epidemiology
admixture

Introduction Elevated blood pressure is the leading cause of disability-adjusted life years lost globally, but most studies of its determinants and effects are in high-income populations of European ancestry.
Methods The Mexico City Prospective Study (MCPS) recruited 159 775 participants aged >35 years between 1998 and 2004. Follow-up is via the national mortality register. Genetic data for ~140 00 participants has been generated.
Haplotype-based principal components (PCs) were generated with IMPUTE5 and compared to genotype-based PCs. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP) and pulse pressure (PP) were conducted using SUGEN and conditionally-independent signals identified with a forwards-selection-backwards-elimination algorithm. Enrichment analyses were conducted with GARFIELD. Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses were conducted using trans-ancestry SBP and DBP genetic scores and the ratio method and compared to conventional epidemiological analyses.
Results Haplotype-based PCs delineated prevalent ancestries at lower dimensionality than genotype-based PCs in an unrelated sub-sample. However, they could not be effectively applied to the whole cohort.
GWAS of SBP, DBP, MAP and PP identified 71 signals at 66 loci, 53 signals at 52 loci, 74 signals at 71 loci and 24 signals at 24 loci, respectively. Meta-analysis of external summary statistics replicated 2/14, 0/15, 3/21 and 1/2 novel signals for SBP, DBP, MAP and PP respectively. GARFIELD identified endothelium and renal tract as more likely to harbour GWAS-significant variants.
MR estimates of the SBP and DBP‘s effects on premature cardiovascular mortality were approximately twice as strong as conventional estimates, reflecting the life-course nature of genetic exposures. SBP may cause kidney disease, but more events are needed.
Conclusions MCPS harbours novel blood pressure associations, but replication in more Latin American-ancestry cohorts is required. Lowering blood pressure continues to offer large benefits to population health and should remain a key public health focus.
Data integration and simulation of population immunity at the beginning of a pandemic
Keywords: pandemic preparedness
data integration
shielding
data-scarce scenarios
population exposure
COVID-19 pandemic

Accurate knowledge of population exposure at the outset of a pandemic has critical ramifications for preparedness plans for future epidemic waves. In this thesis, I developed a mechanistically informed statistical model to integrate multiple epidemiological datasets in different settings and in different population and to estimate key epidemiological parameters as well as population exposure using Bayesian inference.
First, I present a dynamic model to link together three key metrics for evaluating the progress of COVID-19 epidemic in England: seroprevalence, PR-PCR test positivity and death. While estimating the IgG antibody seroreversion rate and region-specific infection fatality ratios, I find that epidemic progression resulted in an increasing gap between measured serology prevalence levels and cumulative population exposure to the virus. Ultimately, this may mean that twice as many, or more, people have been exposed to the virus relative to the number of people who are seropositive by the end of 2020.
Moreover, I demonstrate that the model could reconstruct the first, unobserved, epidemic wave of COVID-19 in England from March 2020 to June 2020 as long as two or three serological measurements are given as inputs, with the second wave during the winter of 2020 validated by the estimates from the ONS Coronavirus Infection Survey. Comparing with the inferred exposure, I find that the UK official COVID-9 online dashboard reported COVID-19 cases only accounted for less than ten percent by the end of October 2020. I then generalise the model to account for the undocumented COVID-19-related mortality and sparse measurements of seroprevalence. I apply this in the context of Afghanistan COVID- 19 epidemic and find the population exposure in nine regions of Afghanistan were all higher than the seroprevalence survey suggested by July 2020.
Finally, I assess the impact of shielding among pregnant patients by comparing their exposure with the estimated exposure of the general population. To approach this, I develop a dynamic model to link RT-PCR and antibody testing results from patients who gave birth and then apply Bayesian inference to estimate transmission parameters and exposure among pregnant patients. I find that after considering the duration of each pregnancy pre-COVID onset and after, the impact of shielding on reducing the level of exposure among pregnant patients during early 2020 who gave birth in this New York City hospital were approximately 50%.
Stereoselective cyclisation cascades mediated by carbon electrophiles to access novel polycyclic scaffolds
Keywords: polyene cyclisation
lactonisation
enantioselective catalysis
organic chemistry
carbocations

The research outlined in this thesis describes the progress achieved in carbon electrophile-triggered cationic cyclisation cascades. The cation-initiated polyene cyclisation to form carbocyclic rings, as well as heterocyclisation to form novel lactones, has been explored. High levels of diastereoselectivity in setting up new stereocentres during the cyclisation were achieved. Furthermore, initial studies to control the absolute configuration of products were conducted. The results and all the experimental data are discussed in detail in the corresponding chapters.
Chapter 1 provides a literature overview of the current stereoselective polyene cyclisation and heterocyclisation methodologies. Different modes of initiating a cascade cyclisation are discussed. In addition, the role of HFIP solvent in facilitating cationic transformations, such as carbocation generation, is described.
Chapter 2 describes the development of a novel cation-triggered polyene cyclisation cascade. First, the formation of single ring systems is explored. The results from this part are then used to achieve the formation of multiple carbocyclic rings in a single step bearing a new exocyclic C-C bond. Finally, the developed methodology is applied for the synthesis of steroid-like compounds, including the formal synthesis of (±)-nor-estradiol.
Chapter 3 outlines the progress achieved in alkylative lactonisation via previously an unexplored 5/6-exo-trig cyclisation pathway. The synthesis of fused and spiro-lactones using HFIP-alcohol system is detailed, accompanied by control experiments and mechanistic studies aimed at elucidating the reaction mechanism.
Chapter 4 details the initial studies on enantioselective Ir-catalysed polyene cyclisation and heterocyclisation via asymmetric allylic substitution.
Chapter 5 provides the summary and major conclusions of the conducted research. Furthermore, potential future work is discussed.
Chapter 6 lists all the experimental procedures and analytical data for all the compounds discussed in this work.
Unraveling the Weddell Gyre: exploring its dynamics and influence on Southern Ocean ventilation
Keywords: climate change
Weddell Gyre
oceanography
subpolary gyre
model discretization
ocean circulation
southern ocean
gyre
vorticity
ocean modelling
eddies
ocean ventilation
shelf processes
Weddell Sea

The Southern Ocean is an area of great importance when considering anthropogenic climate change but also an area of great uncertainty. Between climate projections, the Southern Ocean is where one finds the most disagreement in both heat and carbon uptake. The Weddell Gyre is the largest coherent circulation south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and mediates the transport of water to and from the Antarctic shelf. Here we use a diverse range of methods to study the dynamics of the Weddell Gyre and its role in Southern Ocean ventilation.
An idealized model of the Weddell Gyre and the ACC is used to investigate the gyre’s sensitivity to mesoscale eddies. The gyre is particularly strong at eddy-permitting resolutions (45 Sv with a noisy bathymetry) and weakest at eddy-parameterized resolutions (12 Sv). Simulations with partially resolved eddies have the largest horizontal density gradients. The steep isopycnals intensify the gyre's thermal wind transport and fuel tall columns of eddy kinetic energy which excite the gyre circulation at the sea floor.
The vorticity budget of a realistic Weddell Gyre simulation is calculated to identify important forces for the circulation. The gyre’s vorticity budget is dominated by a spurious component of the Coriolis force which emerges from the C-grid geometry. We identify two topographic and two non-topographic components of the spurious force. The topographic components can be mitigated by using a terrain-following coordinate and all components vanish when the B-grid is adopted.
Backwards-in-time trajectories are used to identify spatial and temporal patterns of Southern Ocean ventilation on a thirty-year timescale. Practically all ventilation occurs between August and November. Sites of deep convection are responsible for 60% of open ocean ventilation. Almost no ventilation occurs within the subpolar gyres but their western boundary currents are the primary export pathway for shelf-ventilated water.
Writing a Trans History of HIV/AIDS in Britain, 1985-1996
Keywords: gender identity clinics
transgender
britain
eugenics
HIV/AIDS
Lesbian and Gay Switchboard

There is currently no trans history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Britain, despite modern transgender people being considered an ‘at-risk’ group. This thesis represents a first attempt to construct this history, focusing on archives over oral histories to contend head-on with how this history has been systemically un-seen. Analysing British gay and transfeminine organisations in the 1980s and 1990s – namely, comparing the relationship between The London TV/TS Group and the Lesbian and Gay Switchboard - this thesis argues that the pathological gaze of ‘transsexuality’ through the panopticon of NHS Gender Clinics prohibited subjects from conceiving trans people as susceptible to HIV/AIDS. In the style of Jules Gill-Peterson, this thesis introduces the framework of ‘transsexual eugenics’: the roots of transsexual medicine lay in eugenic science, and I argue that this relationship with eugenicism enforced its patients to rescind all attachments to life beyond heteronormativity, and AIDS was conceived as the antithesis of normativity through popular associations with homosexuality and sex work. After Chapter One establishes the theoretical basis in postcolonial and transgender theory, Chapter Two expands on ‘transsexual eugenics’ through arguing the largest trans organisations during the AIDS epidemic were too intertwined with Gender Clinics to realise their internalisation of eugenic rhetoric, thus rendering AIDS unthinkable alongside a diagnosis of transsexuality. Chapter Three concludes by analysing the reciprocal relationship between the London TV/TS Group and Switchboard to conclude that the transmission of eugenicist Gender Clinic rhetoric from the Group into Switchboard prevented Switchboard from delivering AIDS sexual health information to trans callers. This thesis hopes to inspire historical interest in the British trans history of HIV/AIDS, as well as further critiques of mid-twentieth century transsexual medicine.
Politics and imagination : Soviet children's culture and the space age, 1957-1964
Keywords: astronautics
children
civilisation
culture
space age
civilization
Soviet Union
imagination
politics

As the first man-made satellite orbited the Earth in October 1957, radios worldwide transmitted its persistent signal. Sputnik’s pulsing beep was either the most exhilarating proof to date of man’s rapid technological development, or a haunting reminder that, in the bi-polar world, science and technology had become the yardstick by which ideological battles were won or lost. For some the incessant tone represented the triumph of Soviet socialism. For others, it meant a new and harrowing challenge to Western democracy and capitalism. Though these perspectives were, in fact, inseparable, each represented a quantitatively different world view in the ideologically contentious atmosphere of the Cold War. Regardless of where one stood in this polemic, Sputnik represented the first foray into a realm previously explored only in works and dreams of scientific and literary visionaries.
The emergence of the space age in the middle of the twentieth century had an enormous impact on virtually every sphere of international life. Sputnik was the ‘shot’ that set thousands of scientists, millions of rubles (and dollars), and a seemingly endless stream of propaganda in motion, from both East and West. The early years of the Soviet space program offer an interesting and important perspective on Soviet history precisely because of this massive mobilization of resources. No group, from the most exalted party apparatchik to the lowest kolkhoz worker (and such class distinctions were well entrenched and problematic for the Khrushchev regime, as chapter 3 will discuss) was immune from Sputnik’s influence. This paper seeks to explore the influence of this epoch-defining event on a group whose members were not defined primarily by class affiliation or profession but rather by age: Soviet children.
Continued in thesis ...
On robustness for natural language processing
Keywords: robustness
linguistics
NLP

As a discipline, machine learning has contributed to significant breakthroughs in Natural Language Processing (NLP), aiming to design algorithms to manipulate text and produce insights, such as classification and summarization, comparable to those of humans. Natural language poses challenges that reflect peculiarities of human intelligence, such as grasping the meaning of a sentence or preserving long-term relationships between words that possibly appear distant from each other.
A considerable body of recent literature provides evidence that NLP models behave inconsistently on slight manipulations of a text, as in the case of word substitution. Differently from computer vision (CV), where a pixel manipulation produces a (possibly not natural) image, NLP algorithms rely on text representations in the form of embedded vectors, where the linguistic constituents (i.e., words, phrases, sentences) are transformed into multi-dimensional vectors of real-valued numbers, marking a clear separation between human and machine representation.
In this thesis, we investigate guarantees and the formal explainability of NLP models through the lens of adversarial robustness. We review the applicability of adversarial robustness, as defined in CV, as the region of maximal safety of a neural network (NN) decision against discrete and continuous perturbations. We develop an evaluation framework that certifies adversarial robustness for different models, and we analyze how the validity of such certificates vanishes in settings that grow in complexity. This investigation is a prelude to novel definitions of robustness that are aligned with linguistics, aiming to assess a model's syntactic and semantic capabilities.
With semantic robustness, we introduce a framework to test a model against linguistic phenomena. In contrast, syntax robustness aims to falsify the hypothesis that NLP models embed high-order linguistic structures such as syntactic trees. Extensive experimentation on various architectures and benchmarks validates the proposed concepts and sheds light on how brittle these architectures are against slight linguistic variations, against which humans are exceptionally robust.
We finally investigate the role of robustness as a property to explain neural networks: we propose the notion of optimal robust explanation (ORE) as the robust and optimal portion of an input text that is nevertheless sufficient to imply a model's decision. We implement and test this notion of explanations on various neural networks and datasets to reveal the explanatory landscape of NLP models through the lens of robustness.
All the software and tools of this thesis have been released under permissive, open-source licenses to satisfy reproducibility requirements and encourage other researchers to develop tools to assess and improve the robustness of NLP models against edge cases and linguistic phenomena, which by their nature constitute a non-negligible part of the spectrum of human language.