VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The dissolution of constitutions: Aristotle in Italian political thought from Niccolo Machiavelli to Giovanni Botero
Keywords: Aristotle
Segni
Machiavelli
Botero
Brucioli
Tyranny
Reason of State
Renaissance
Le Roy
Case
Aristotelianism
Settala
Republicanism
Prince
Bruni
Politics

This thesis studies the reception of Aristotle's political thought in sixteenth-century Italy. It focuses on Aristotle's discussion of the dissolution of constitutions in Book 5 of the Politics and aims to show how Aristotle's political thought remained central to late Renaissance political discourse. No comprehensive study of the topic exists. Modern historiography on Renaissance political thought generally downplays the importance of Aristotle in the history of sixteenth-century Italian political thought and emphasises the Roman tradition over the Greek. This research aims to fill the gap in modern scholarship and revise modern interpretation of Renaissance political theory. This thesis is essentially divided into three parts, each part containing two chapters. Part I is largely introductory. Chapter 1 offers a historiographical review of modern scholarship on the reception of Aristotle in the Renaissance and early-modern political thought. Chapter 2 explores the revival of Greek studies in the fifteenth century and the changing perception of Aristotle's Politics in the Renaissance. Part II focuses on Aristotle and Machiavelli. Chapter 3 examines the similarities between Aristotle's analysis of the means of preserving tyranny and Machiavelli's discussion of how to mantenere lo stato in The Prince. Chapter 4 explores the effects that these similarities between Aristotle and Machiavelli had on the reception of Aristotle in Renaissance political thought. Part III centres on Aristotle in the republican and vernacular traditions. Chapter 5 explains the importance of Aristotle's discussion of the dissolution of constitutions to Renaissance republican political thought. Chapter 6 underlines the continuous relevance of Aristotle's Politics in the second half of the sixteenth century. The conclusion sums up the central argument of each chapter and invites us to explore the influence of Aristotle on reason of state literature.
Anti-Popery in early modern England: religion, war and print, c. 1617-1635
Keywords: Print
17th century
Protestantism
Thirty Years' War
Anti-popery
Anti-Catholicism
Foreign relations-England-Europe
Political culture

This thesis is about anti-popery in early modern England, how its meanings and political uses in printed literature changed in response to the dramatic developments of the Thirty Years' War. I contend that the languages of anti-popery, though structured by binary oppositions, were being used to express complex, multifaceted views about Catholic states in the 1620s and 1630s.
The new perspective that this research offers is two-fold. Firstly, it asserts that anti-popery was an active and flexible tool of English Protestant debate about foreign affairs. 'Popish' tyranny, variously embodied in the Counter-Reformation papacy or Habsburg imperialism, was a malleable concept that adapted its meanings and associations with the political circumstances. Our early modern subjects were capable of separating anti-Catholic beliefs about idolatrous worship from political questions of how to identify, and combat, the threat of papal tyranny. Thus, this thesis argues that a greater range of irenic attitudes towards relations with Catholic powers were circulating than previously thought.
Secondly, this thesis argues that several different anti-papal languages were operating alongside, and in competition with, one another in early Stuart political culture. As a fluid set of tropes, associations and prejudices, anti-popery had different meanings for different authors and incorporated a range of political and religious agendas. Anti-popery, therefore, was not simply a tool of Puritan opposition to the non-interventionist policy of the Stuarts, but, I argue, was also compatible with a more moderate or conciliatory attitude to Catholic states, including Habsburg Spain.
The printed debates of the 1620s and 1630s expose the tensions that existed between competing ideas about the nature of the external popish threat. By 1635 and the reversal of Protestant fortunes on the Continent, these competing anti-papal ideas were exposing the tensions within England about the nature of its Protestantism, and thus helped precipitate the Civil Wars.
Quantum dot lasers
Keywords: Colloidal Quantum Dots
Lasing
Microcavities
Gain Spectroscopy

Here we present direct investigation of the lasing behaviour by performing gain spectroscopy of solution-based CQDs enabled via in-situ tuning of the feedback wavelength of an open-access hemispherical microcavity. The investigation is performed on two different types of CQDs, namely spherical CdSe/CdS core-shell CQDs and nanopletelets (NPs). The lasing threshold and the differential gain/slope efficiency of the fundamental cavity mode are measured as a function of their spectral position over a spectral range of &Tilde; 32 nm and of &Tilde; 42 nm for the spherical CQDs and NPs, respectively. The results of the gain spectroscopy are described using theoretical models, providing insights into the mechanism governing the observed lasing behaviour. Furthermore, the open-access cavity architecture provides a very convenient way of producing in-situ tunable lasing, and single-mode lasing of the fundamental cavity mode over a spectral range of &Tilde; 25 nm and &Tilde; 37 nm is demonstrated using spherical CQDs and NPs, respectively. In addition, the stability of laser emission is investigated, with the lasing intensity of the fundamental cavity mode remaining constant over a time period of almost 6 mins. It is hoped that the results will provide a detailed understanding of the lasing behaviour of CQDs. This information can be fed back into the design of CQDs in which the lasing threshold can be reduced to the point where useful devices can be constructed, and in the design of resonant optical feedback structures for which the appropriate wavelength must be carefully selected.
The bounded H^{infinity} calculus for sectorial, strip-type and half-plane operators
Keywords: Bounded calculus
Semigroups
Unbounded operators

The main study of this thesis is the holomorphic functional calculi for three classes of unbounded operators: sectorial, strip-type and half-plane. The functional calculus for sectorial operators was introduced by McIntosh as an extension of the Riesz-Dunford model for bounded operators. More recently Haase has developed an abstract framework which incorporates analogous constructions for strip-type and half-plane operators. These operators are of interest since they arise naturally as generators of C0-(semi)groups.
The theory of bounded H∞-calculus for sectorial operators is well established and it has been found to have many applications in operator theory and parabolic evolution equations. We survey these known results, first on Hilbert space and then on general Banach space.
Our main goal is to fill the gaps in the parallel theory for strip-type operators. Whilst some of this can be deduced by taking exponentials and applying known results for sectorial operators, in general this is insu_cient to obtain our desired results and so we pursue an independent approach. Starting on Hilbert space, we broaden known characterisations of the bounded H∞-calculus for strip-type operators by introducing a notion of absolute calculus which is an analogue to the established notion for the sectorial case. Moving to general Banach space, we build on the work of Vörös, broadening his characterisation for strip-type operators in terms of weak integral estimates by introducing a new, but equivalent, notion of the bounded H∞-calculus, which we call the m-bounded calculus.
We also demonstrate that these characterisations fail for half-plane operators and instead present a weaker form of the bounded H-calculus which is more natural for these operators. This allows us to obtain new and simple proofs of well known generation theorems due to Gomilko and Shi-Feng, with extensions to polynomially bounded semigroups. The connection between the bounded H-calculus of semigroup generators and polynomial boundedness of their associated Cayley Transforms is also explored.
Finally we present a series of results on sums of operators, in connection with maximal regularity. We also establish stability results for the bounded H∞-calculus for strip-type operators by showing it is preserved under suitable bounded perturbations, which at time requires further assumptions on the underlying Banach space. This relies heavily on intermediate characterisations of the bounded H∞-calculus due to Kalton and Weis.
The poetics of colour in Stefan George, Rainer Maria Rilke, Wassily Kandinsky and Else Lasker-Schüler
Keywords: poetics
colour
aestheticism
expressionism

This thesis looks at the poetics of colour in Stefan George, Rainer Maria Rilke, Wassily Kandinsky and Else Lasker-Schüler. It argues that focusing on colour words allows us to think more carefully about the sort of making that poetry, around the turn of the twentieth century, was seen to be, its purpose and effects. In doing so it thinks also about this making—about the ways that words can be seen as the material of poetry, the ways poems relate to objects, and are objects, the ways poets negotiate semantic space and communicability.
While other accounts argue for the specificity of a particular period, author, or hue, I argue for the specificity of the medium, a conclusion which seems necessary when considering how these particular poets thought about and through colour. While the poets’ projects differ, colour can be used in each case like a prism, to separate out their attitudes and commitments towards their medium and its place in the world.
The combination of these four poets, which is, to the best of my knowledge, unique, also allows new connections to be seen, whether, facing inward, in terms of colour itself, or outward towards the commitments regarding the poem that an approach via colour exposes. The four poets share an interest in the involvement, and in some cases, aesthetic education, of readers, and in how and what we can learn through reading, and particularly reading colour. What we learn has less to do with colours and how they are experienced than to do with the constructed world of the poem and its mechanisms, and of the role we have to play in animating this world.
The handling, analysis and reporting of missing data in patient reported outcome measures for randomised controlled trials
Keywords: Randomised controlled trials
Multiple imputation
Missing data

Missing data is a potential source of bias in the results of randomised controlled trials (RCTs), which can have a negative impact on guidance derived from them, and ultimately patient care.
This thesis aims to improve the understanding, handling, analysis and reporting of missing data in patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) for RCTs.
A review of the literature provided evidence of discrepancies between recommended methodology and current practice in the handling and reporting of missing data. Particularly, missed opportunities to minimise missing data, the use of inappropriate analytical methods and lack of sensitivity analyses were noted.
Missing data patterns were examined and found to vary between PROMs as well as across RCTs. Separate analyses illustrated difficulties in predicting missing data, resulting in uncertainty about assumed underlying missing data mechanisms.
Simulation work was used to assess the comparative performance of statistical approaches for handling missing available in standard statistical software. Multiple imputation (MI) at either the item, subscale or composite score level was considered for missing PROMs data at a single follow-up time point. The choice of an MI approach depended on a multitude of factors, with MI at the item level being more beneficial than its alternatives for high proportions of item missingness. The approaches performed similarly for high proportions of unit-nonresponse; however, convergence issues were observed for MI at the item level. Maximum likelihood (ML), MI and inverse probability weighting (IPW) were evaluated for handling missing longitudinal PROMs data. MI was less biased than ML when additional post-randomisation data were available, while IPW introduced more bias compared to both ML and MI.
A case study was used to explore approaches to sensitivity analyses to assess the impact of missing data. It was found that trial results could be susceptible to varying assumptions about missing data, and the importance of interpreting the results in this context was reiterated.
This thesis provides researchers with guidance for the handling and reporting of missing PROMs data in order to decrease bias arising from missing data in RCTs.
Questioning the patient, questioning Hippocrates: Rufus of Ephesus and the limits of medical authority
Keywords: medical authority
patients in the ancient world
Rufus of Ephesus
Hippocratic questioning
clinical encounter
patient's perspective
Aelius Aristides illness
patient compliance

Rufus of Ephesus's Quaestiones Medicinales is an under-studied work by one of the most respected doctors of Greco-Roman antiquity. This thesis presents a new translation – the first in English of the complete work – and a reassessment of the treatise. I propose that, far from being a simple handbook teaching doctors how to take a patient history, as has hitherto been assumed, QM is an ardent plea for doctors to recognise the limits of their own knowledge and the indispensability of questioning the patient. I argue that QM articulates the idea that the aim of medicine cannot be achieved through medical knowledge alone, and that, in constructing the patient as an essential partner in diagnosis and decisions about treatment, Rufus implies a sharing of authority between doctor and patient that is noticeably different from the emphasis that other authors, particularly the determinedly hierarchical Galen, place on securing patients’ obedience, a subject on which Rufus is noticeably silent. I argue that Rufus is unusual in the clarity and candour with which he perceives and acknowledges the limits of medical knowledge, in his conceptualisation of questioning as a discursive rather than a formulaic activity, in his explicit insistence that it must be addressed directly to the patient, in his psychological concept of habits, and in his recommendation of questioning as a strategy for resolving the tension between universal theory and individual experience. I look at modern cross-cultural research into the factors that drive patient compliance, and note that chief among them is patients feeling they are partners in the treatment process. This raises the question whether and to what extent the features that drive compliance are diachronically as well as cross-culturally consistent, and whether Rufus's shared authority model is more likely to have produced successful treatment outcomes than the autocratic paradigm promoted by Galen, and subsequently absorbed into Western medical tradition, that seems to have met with so much resistance.
Embodying trace: the theatre of Wajdi Mouawad
Keywords: Phenomenology
Mouawad
Patočka

This thesis explores the profound influence of twentieth-century philosophy, and in particular the writings of phenomenologist Jan Patočka, on Wajdi Mouawad. While Mouawad's literary and dramatic sources have been widely discussed in recent scholarship, his philosophical sources have remained under-explored. Seeking to rectify this critical lacuna, the thesis addresses the key concepts Mouawad draws from the writings of Patočka including the central role of 'trace'. Through its investigation of Mouawad’s engagement with Patočka, this thesis delineates Mouawad’s philosophical and ethical aims.
The thesis first considers the multiplicity of self in Mouawad's work, and its relationship to Patočka's 'shakenness' and 'care for the soul'. Chapter 1 investigates how an internal confrontation provoked by trace leads to a search for meaning as ‘the soul discovers itself'. It analyses Mouawad's first play, Willy Protagoras enfermé dans les toilettes, and the more recent Seuls, to address the evolution of Mouawad's notion of self. Chapter 2 explores the significance of temporal awareness and time, as Patočka's three movements of human existence drive Mouawad's protagonists in their experience of shakenness. The plays discussed are Littoral, in which Mouawad first essayed non-linear time structures, and Incendies, which utilises a complex temporal oscillation. Chapter 3 turns to space as what arises through the individual’s relationship to the world, focusing on Forêts and Ciels, two of Mouawad's most spatially complex productions. Chapter 4 examines two of Mouawad's recent plays, Temps and Sœurs, in its investigation of the role of testimony in developing the solidarity that emerges through the encounter with the other. The thesis then concludes with a discussion of how, and to what extent, Mouawad tackles his ambitions, particularly in their relation to trace.
Imagined futures of the everyday: middle class households in south-east London
Keywords: London
Home
Material Culture
Household
Middle class
Ethnography

Discussions of hope and the imagined future have thus far focussed on grand ambitions at the expense of the more mundane, modest wants that are the preoccupation of everyday life. Studies of the home have demonstrated the role of material culture in embodying memory and household pasts but little has been said of household futures and their impact on household presents. This ethnographic study of the lives of three middle class households in south-east London addresses these gaps through an exploration of the role of imagined futures in orienting everyday life in the household. The ways in which householders work to make household life what they want it to be, and to secure the longer-term futures they imagine for their children, are explored through the frustrations, disappointments and anxieties that stem from the frequent failures of these efforts. Objects are demonstrated to be both the means through which householders attempt to make household life what they want it to be – their potentiality shaping and enabling imagined futures – and the means through which these imagined futures are reconfigured or derailed. The period of maternity leave, that all three of my women participants were in the midst of, is shown to be one in which the work of bringing the household's imagined futures, and children's imagined futures to fruition falls disproportionately to mothers, often at the expense of their own wants. Finally, a broader lens is used to explore how middle class householders' efforts to live the life they want contributes to and shapes the processes of gentrification credited with bringing dramatic change to south-east London.
‘Fixed fate, free will’: fate, natural law, necessity, providence, and classical epic narrative in Paradise Lost
Keywords: Virgil – literary criticism
Early Modern Materialism
Statius – literary criticism
Fate and Providence in Epic
Lucretius – literary criticism
Homer – literary criticism
Lucan – literary criticism
Milton, Paradise Lost

The present thesis considers the allusive and narrative function of fate and its associated concepts of providence, free will, necessity, and natural law in Paradise Lost. It argues that the narrative function of these concepts is shaped by Milton's allusions to classical epic, and assesses their impact on the Christian theology of the poem. It identifies unnoted allusions to well-known epic models (Homer, Vergil, Lucan), and examines how Lucretius’ account of natural laws and post-Vergilian representations of epic aftermath influence Milton's own depiction of transgression and its aftermath in Paradise Lost.
Chapter 1 considers Satan and other fallen angels' definition of fate as a materialist alternative for the personal rule of the Father. It traces several allusions to fate in cosmological and ethical settings, in Lucretius, Vergil, Lucan, and Statius, and analyses how these allusions interact with the Hesiodic mythical material in the opening books of Milton’s epic.
Chapter 2 focuses on a pattern of previously unnoted allusions to Lucretius' De Rerum Natura in the narrative of the Fall, culminating in Book 9. It argues that in his temptation of Eve, Milton’s Satan subverts Lucretian teachings about the boundaries governing the physical universe as he persuades Eve to transgress her natural state in Eden.
Chapter 3 discusses the appearance of the Father in an allusive epic council scene in Book 3. In the dialogue between Father and Son, I suggest, Milton evokes negotiations between the Homeric and Vergilian deities, depicting his God as surpassing his pagan epic counterparts who can only delay the fate of mortals, but not change them.
Chapter 4 suggests that Milton’s depiction of the aftermath of the Fall is indebted to post-Vergilian epic narratives of 'aftermath'. The final Books of Paradise Lost and the portrayal of Adam and Eve's moral freedom as they leave paradise, with providence their guide, should be read, I posit, against the backdrop of scenes and imagery from Lucan’s Bellum Civile and Statius' Thebaid.
Generalized geometry of type Bn
Keywords: twisted cohomology
generalized geometry
complex geometry
deformation theory
generalized complex geometry
Lie algebroid
almost contact geometry
G2(2)-structure
3-manifold

Generalized geometry of type Bn is the study of geometric structures in T+T&ast;+1, the sum of the tangent and cotangent bundles of a manifold and a trivial rank 1 bundle. The symmetries of this theory include, apart from B-fields, the novel A-fields. The relation between Bn-geometry and usual generalized geometry is stated via generalized reduction.
We show that it is possible to twist T+T&ast;+1 by choosing a closed 2-form F and a 3-form H such that dH+F2=0. This motivates the definition of an odd exact Courant algebroid. When twisting, the differential on forms gets twisted by d+Fτ+H. We compute the cohomology of this differential, give some examples, and state its relation with T-duality when F is integral.
We define Bn-generalized complex structures (Bn-gcs), which exist both in even and odd dimensional manifolds. We show that complex, symplectic, cosymplectic and normal almost contact structures are examples of Bn-gcs. A Bn-gcs is equivalent to a decomposition (T+T&ast;+1)&Copf;= L + L̄ + U. We show that there is a differential operator on the exterior bundle of L+U, which turns L+U into a Lie algebroid by considering the derived bracket. We state and prove the Maurer-Cartan equation for a Bn-gcs.
We then work on surfaces. By the irreducibility of the spinor representations for signature (n+1,n), there is no distinction between even and odd Bn-gcs, so the type change phenomenon already occurs on surfaces. We deal with normal forms and L+U-cohomology.
We finish by defining G22-structures on 3-manifolds, a structure with no analogue in usual generalized geometry. We prove an analogue of the Moser argument and describe the cone of G22-structures in cohomology.