VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Spatial dialectics: poetic technique and the landscape of old English verse
Keywords: Spatial dialectics
Poetics
space

This thesis examines the role of spatial representation in Old English poetry. Focusing on the presentation of setting and spatial relationships in narrative poetry, it argues that sensibility towards the creative potential of spatial representation within a conventional tradition constitutes a significant element of Old English poetic technique. It emphasizes the importance of intertextual reading practices which recognize the dialectics of text and tradition underlying spatial representation in individual examples.
Chapter one introduces the subject, outlining the relevant critical contexts in which the thesis stands and describing the methodology that is followed in the subsequent chapters. It also describes the connection between the representation of space and critical assumptions regarding vernacular poetic composition.
Chapter two focuses on poetic accounts of the angelic rebellion. The presentation of this event as a territorial and spatial conflict establishes a contrast between vertical and horizontal spatial relationships which relates to concerns prevalent throughout the Anglo-Saxon period over conflicting models for power relationships. The prominence of vertical spatial relationships in these accounts serves to legitimize hierarchical power structures.
Chapter three considers territorial conflict in Old English battle poetry. Similarities in the use of setting and the construction of a sense of place in these texts suggest the influence of established poetic conventions. However, poetic artistry is evident in the ways in which spatial representation contributes to the wider thematic and artistic concerns of these texts.
Chapter four examines poetic representations of the prison. Whilst such representations do partially reflect conceptualizations of the prison current in Anglo-Saxon England, they also demonstrate a deeper interest in the valence of enclosed space. The chapter extends the intertextual approach of the thesis to consider the possibility of direct borrowing between poems.
Chapter five clarifies the argument of the thesis regarding the relationship between spatial representation and poetic technique and identifies some directions for further work.
Physical and numerical modelling of offshore foundations under combined loads
Keywords: clay
foundations
offshore

In addition to vertical loads, the foundations of offshore structures are subjected to horizontal loads and overturning moments as a result of environmental (wind and wave) loading. The behaviour of circular footings on cohesive soil under conditions of combined vertical, horizontal and moment (V, H, M) loading is the primary concern of this thesis. A programme of physical model tests, involving combined loading of circular footings on reconstituted Speswhite kaolin, is reported. The shape of footing used is typical of the "spudcan" foundations of independent leg jack-up drilling platforms. Previous experience with combined loading of footings on sand has revealed that the observed load:displacement behaviour is best understood, and theoretically modelled, in terms of work hardening plasticity theory. The present tests on clay confirm this, and the results are interpreted to give empirical expressions for (i) the combined load yield surface in V:H:M space, and (ii) a suitable flow rule to allow prediction of the corresponding footing displacements (z, h, θ) during yielding. Extension to a complete plasticity model is achieved using theoretical stiffness factors to define elastic behaviour, and theoretical lower bound bearing capacity factors (derived specifically for this work) to define the size of the yield surface as a function of vertical penetration. The predictive capabilities of the numerical model are evaluated by retrospective simulation of various footing tests. Finally some plane frame structural analyses of a representative jack-up unit are described; some of these analyses incorporate the plasticity-based numerical model of spudcan footing behaviour under combined loads.
Defining the castle through twelfth-century chronicle perceptions in the Anglo-Norman regnum
Keywords: castle
medieval

The medieval castle is one of the most popular topics in medieval historiography and interest in this structure has institutionalized it in modern medieval scholarship. Unfortunately, this does not mean that modern historians understand it. The problem lies in the narrow and isolationist definition used by many scholars who see it as simply a fortified private residence representing and defending power. This thesis will demonstrate that the castle’s contemporaries understood it as an identifiable and distinguishable structure and symbol with a singular yet multi-dimensional characteristics as a fortified, personal, and multifunctional resource.
The twelfth-century Anglo-Norman realm has been chosen as a focus for this thesis because of the specific differences between the reigns of Henry I, Stephen, and Henry II. This period, particularly the nineteen years of Stephen’s reign, experienced significant castle warfare, which provides a great deal of material for this study. In chapters 1-3, each of the above characteristics and their corresponding details will be analysed individually. In chapter 4, three case studies will be presented to demonstrate how these independent characteristics were perceived of as acting simultaneously. Chapter 5 will compare perceptions of castles to other medieval buildings. Finally, chapter 6 will test the definition’s legitimacy by applying it beyond the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman realm.
This dissertation will demonstrate that there was a contemporary understanding of the castle which encompassed its fortified nature, its personal possession, and its multifunctional resourcefulness. If we are to understand this phenomenon as its contemporaries did, then we need to alter our modern definition and expand our understanding in order to come to a truer and more complete appreciation of this essential resource in the Middle Ages.
Low energy background in the NCD phase of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
Keywords: radioactivity
assay
solar neutrinos

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) was a 1 kilotonne heavy water Č{C}erenkov detector. Evidence for flavour changing neutrino oscillations was found by comparing the rate of Charged Current interactions with that of Neutral Current (NC) interactions.
This thesis is concerned with the accurate determination of the NC flux in the Neutral Current Detector (NCD) phase of SNO. The measurement and understanding of radioactive backgrounds arising from decays of naturally occurring 232Th and 238U chain nuclei is crucial. This is because their daughter nuclei can produce neutrons via photodisintegration of deuterium. These would be indistinguishable from those produced by NC neutrino interactions. As the probability of neutron production was dependent upon the nature and location of activity, each contribution had to be determined separately. Of particular concern were 232Th and 238U in the D2O and Neutral Current Detectors (NCDs). A maximum likelihood method was developed that exploited differences in the event isotropy and radial profile of each event class. These results were in agreement with water assay results and pre-deployment radioassays of the NCDs.
An independent measurement of the 232Th content in the D2O and H2O was made by regularly assaying the water using filters loaded with hydrous titanium oxide. The concentration of 232Th in the water was determined by coincidence counting of the final assay sample. A new counter system was designed and built and the calibration and use of this system are presented.
Two areas of increased activity were discovered on two of the NCDs deployed in the detector which would have prevented an accurate measurement of the NC flux. A method was devised to determine the composition and activity of one of these hotspots. The results were in good agreement with two independent methods and the uncertainty on the NC flux was reduced from > 7% to > 1%. The total number of neutrons produced per day by photodisintegration for 232Th and 238U in the D2O and NCDs was measured to be 0.66+0.08-0.07. This was significantly less than the expected 12.6 NC neutrino interactions per day.
In the third phase, two independent data streams existed: PMT and NCD. A Monte Carlo study was undertaken to determine whether an accurate measure of the NC flux could be obtained using only PMT data. Results showed that no improvement could be made upon results from previous phases and the best measurement of the NC flux in the final phase would be made using PMT and NCD data.
Bullet hole constellations: Berlin's Neues Museum, a case study in cultural memory
Keywords: museums
20th/21st century
Neues Museum
Berlin
cultural memory

This dissertation explores a shift in cultural memory theory and praxis that loosely coincides with the turn of the century. With Berlin as its focus, I trace this shift through three of its museum institutions (the Jewish Museum, the Masterplan Museumsinsel, and the Neues Museum). I specifically look at three aspects: their museum practices (how history is expressed), the main narratives embodied in their spaces (what history is being expressed), and the critical contexts in which they are embedded (what do these practices and narratives mean in the wider cultural context).
Throughout, I develop the idea of a cultural memory that emphasizes how we use the past, or what we do with our cultural inheritance. This runs counter to the cultural memory that sees remembering as a categorical imperative ('never forget' or 'lest we forget'), a memory that is clearly embodied in Libeskind's Jewish Museum and is typified in critical work that either prioritizes trauma (Caruth, LaCapra) or stresses cultivating specific empathetic responses (Landsberg's 'prosthetic memory,' Hirsch's 'postmemory'). My cultural memory hypothesis fits within the general German field of Cultural Memory Studies, as typified in the work of Jan and Aleida Assmann. The outcome of thinking about memory as use, appropriation, and transformation of cultural inheritance is the characterization of the past as an analytical tool. This notion sits well amidst current work by Dekel and Arnold-de Simine who read museum/memorial spaces as facilitators of civic engagement.
This new cultural memory can be found embodied in the architectural and curatorial framing of the Neues Museum, in its phenomenological approach to history, its narrative of fragmentary wholeness, as well as in its placing of the twentieth century in long narratives of historical continuity. These characteristics allow me to read the Neues Museum as an example of contemporary thinking about modernism, and thus as part of a discourse that looks to restore and transform crucial mythological tendencies.
Stochastic model predictive control
Keywords: Model Predictive Control
Stochastic MPC
Tube MPC

The work in this thesis focuses on the development of a Stochastic Model Predictive Control (SMPC) algorithm for linear systems with additive and multiplicative stochastic uncertainty subjected to linear input/state constraints. Constraints can be in the form of hard constraints, which must be satisfied at all times, or soft constraints, which can be violated up to a pre-defined limit on the frequency of violation or the expected number of violations in a given period.
When constraints are included in the SMPC algorithm, the difficulty arising from stochastic model parameters manifests itself in the online optimization in two ways. Namely, the difficulty lies in predicting the probability distribution of future states and imposing constraints on closed loop responses through constraints on predictions. This problem is overcome through the introduction of layered tubes around a centre trajectory. These tubes are optimized online in order to produce a systematic and less conservative approach of handling constraints. The layered tubes centered around a nominal trajectory achieve soft constraint satisfaction through the imposition of constraints on the probabilities of one-step-ahead transition of the predicted state between the layered tubes and constraints on the probability of one-step-ahead constraint violations. An application in the field of Sustainable Development policy is used as an example.
With some adaptation, the algorithm is extended the case where the uncertainty is not identically and independently distributed. Also, by including linearization errors, it is extended to non-linear systems with additive uncertainty.
Development of the cone pressuremeter
Keywords: cone pressure
sand

The cone pressuremeter is an in situ testing device comprising a pressuremeter mounted behind a cone penetrometer of the same diameter. Previously reported tests had indicated that the cone pressuremeter can provide measurements of soil strength, stiffness and in situ stress. The study presented in this thesis is aimed at developing methods of interpretation of the cone pressuremeter that can be applied with confidence to a variety of soil types. Carbonate sands have been the cause of significant problems associated with the design of foundations for offshore structures. A programme of cone pressuremeter testing in a carbonate sand from the west coast of Ireland is presented. Tests were carried out in a calibration chamber where conditions of vertical and horizontal stress and relative density were controlled. The influence of these parameters on measured values of cone resistance and pressuremeter limit pressure is assessed. Similar tests were also carried out in a felspathic sand, and correlations have been presented for deriving horizontal stress and relative density that are applicable to most types of sand. The influence of creep strains and of overconsolidation were other features of carbonate sand that have been assessed with the cone pressuremeter. A numerical model which accounts for the crushing characteristics of carbonate sand is presented, and is shown to improve significantly predictions of limit pressure measured in the calibration chamber. Cone pressuremeter tests were carried out in soft clay at the Bothkennar test site in Scotland. An analysis based upon cavity expansion theory was shown to provide good estimates of undrained shear strength and stiffness compared with results from other in situ and laboratory tests. Estimates of the in situ horizontal stress were found to be unrealistically high. Shear modulus in both sand and clay has been measured from unload-reload cycles carried out during pressuremeter expansion. The stress levels and strain amplitudes of these cycles have been shown to influence the shear modulus greatly. In sand, a procedure for relating these moduli to those at an extremely small reference strain is presented. In clay, shear moduli are shown to give a remarkably close agreement to others reported from Bothkennar, when due account of the strain amplitude is made. Finally, a time/cost analysis between the cone pressuremeter, the cone penetrometer and the self-boring pressuremeter is presented. The cone pressuremeter is found to be a cost-effective device bearing in mind the amount and quality of information it can provide.
Targeting EGFR signalling pathway in triple negative breast cancer 
Keywords: Cetuximab
Triple negative breast cancer
EGFR
drug resistance
cell biology
genomics

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is frequently overexpressed in the majority of triple negative breast cancer patients (TNBC). However, the molecular determinants behind their limited response to EGFR-targeted therapies are poorly understood. Here, both the acute and chronic responses of TNBC to the EGFR-targeted therapy, cetuximab (CTX), have been investigated.
The expression of EGFR has been analyzed in a cohort of 2000 breast cancer tumours from the public dataset as well as in a panel of breast cancer cell lines. Furthermore, the response of TNBC cell lines to CTX has been investigated using conventional biochemical methods. Finally, a comprehensive transcriptomic profiling of an acquired CTX-resistant TNBC model by RNA sequencing has been performed to understand the molecular determinants of acquired CTX resistance.
The results confirmed that EGFR is highly expressed in TNBC in comparison to non-TNBC breast cancer tumours and cell lines, which was associated with adverse clinical outcomes. Targeting EGFR in TNBC cell lines using CTX failed to completely inhibit the EGFR signalling pathway and was associated with an increase in ADAMs-mediated release of endogenous EGFR ligands, EGF and TGFα. Inhibition of ADAMs (ADAM10 and ADAM17) significantly enhanced the anti tumour efficacy of CTX both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, transcriptomic profiling of the acquired CTX-resistant TNBC cell line (MDA-MB-468CR) revealed an activation of several key oncogenic pathways and genes, including the TGFβ/BMP pathway. Blocking BMP receptors (BMPRs) restored the sensitivity of resistant cells to CTX treatment.
Collectively, current findings offer alternative strategies that could enhance the CTX response in TNBC. We further reported that simultaneous targeting of both EGFR and BMPR pathways could overcome CTX resistance, which might have important implications for the treatment of TNBC.
Understanding the nature of the faint radio-source population
Keywords: AGN
optical
infrared
radio sources
observational cosmology
quasars
radio

This DPhil dissertation presents two new and independent samples of faint radio sources. The first sample is the 37 SXDS radio sources with flux densities at 1.4-GHz above 2 mJy, a spectroscopic completeness of 65% and a median redshift z_med ≈ 1.1. The second sample is the 47 TOOT00 radio sources with flux densities at 151 MHz above 100 mJy, a spectroscopic completeness of 85% and z_med ∼ 1.25. Optical, near- and mid-IR photometry, optical spectroscopy, and radio observations are used in the analysis and comparison of the two samples. The quasar fraction in the TOOT00 radio sources is 0.13 < f_q < 0.25 above the FRI/FRII break in radio luminosity, while use of 24 μm data reveals objects with significant but sometimes obscured accretion and gives quasar-mode fraction of 0.5 → 0.9 above the FRI/FRII break. The FRI/FRII divide seen at z < ∼ 0.5 is also observed at z ∼ 1 for FRII objects in the TOOT00 and SXDS samples, but examples of FRI radio sources above the FRI/FRII break do exist. The total number of the TOOT00 objects and their distribution are consistent with simulations based on extrapolations from previous work, while for the SXDS objects the results are only broadly similar. Based on that comparison, the redshift spikes seen at z ∼ 1.3 in TOOT00 and at z ∼ 0.65 & 2.7 in SXDS appear to be significant, and might be due to Large-Scale Structure. A V/Vmax test suggests the cosmic evolution of the TOOT00 and SXDS samples, is different. The TOOT00 radio sources are 2-times more luminous in host-galaxy starlight than the SXDS radio sources. The almost proportionality between radio luminosity at 1.4 GHz and 24 μm luminosity suggests that L_rad traces accretion luminosity and L[OII] ∝ L_rad^0.7 may reflect imperfections in the L[OII]-accretion luminosity scaling. Mid-IR 24 μm observations in the SXDS sample suggest that 30% of the light from the nucleus is absorbed by the torus and re-emitted in the mid-IR, while ∼ 1% of the light is scattered above and below the torus.
The political economy of internal displacement in Colombia : the case of African palm oil
Keywords: Colombia
internally displaced persons
political economy
African palm oil

Some 5 million people were classified as internally displaced in Colombia at the end of 2012, which represented about 10 per cent of the population and the highest number in the world at the time. Colombia differs from other countries with high levels of displacement in that it is comparatively politically stable, has effective national institutions, a relatively strong formal economy, and can by no means be described as a ‘failed’ or ‘failing’ state. The displacement literature tends to characterise the phenomenon as a humanitarian crisis and a side effect of the long-running civil war. But Colombians continue to be displaced in very large numbers despite the formal demobilization of the paramilitaries in 2006 and the diminished military capacity and engagement of the guerrillas since about the same period: the same groups that are widely regarded as being the main perpetrators of displacement.
This thesis contends that displacement of the civilian population in Colombia is frequently not a consequence of violence, but rather the primary objective, where violence plays a facilitatory role. Moreover, the thesis asserts that these massive levels of displacement are substantively linked to predominantly economically-motivated logics and are regionally specific. By examining an agricultural commodity that has significantly expanded relatively recently in Colombia - African palm oil - this research examines if and how expanded cultivation may be linked to displacement. Using a political economy framework of analysis combined with empirical fieldwork, it explores the ‘localised displacement logics’ whereby land is coercively acquired by powerful local groups.
The thesis concludes that the abandonment and dispossession of land from poor and marginalised groups constitutes part of an ongoing process of capitalist expansion and statebuilding in Colombia. Contrary to assertions that it is the intra-state conflict that constitutes the central obstacle to development, Colombia’s current trajectory of capitalist development may actually be a central obstacle to sustainable peace and not lead to an end to displacement.
Protein fold evolution on completed genomes: distinguishing between young and old folds
Keywords: protein folding
protein evolution
protein structure

We review fold usage on completed genomes in order to explore protein structure evolution and assess the evolutionary relevance of current structural classification systems (SCOP and CATH). We assign folds on a set of 150 completed genomes using fold recognition methods (PSI-BLAST, SUPERFAMILY and Gene3D). The patterns of presence or absence of folds on genomes gives us insights into the relationships between folds and how we have arrived at the set of folds we see today. In particular, we develop a technique to estimate the relative ages of a protein fold based on genomic occurrence patterns in a phylogeny. We find that SCOP's
α
β
′classhasrelativelyfewerdist∈ctfoldsonlar≥≥nomes,andt
ˆ
f
oldsofthisclasstend→beolder;foldsofSCOP′s
small protein' class follow opposite trends. Usage patterns show that folds with many copies on a genome are generally old, but that old folds do not necessarily have many copies. In addition, longer domains tend to be older and hydrophobic amino acids have high propensities for older folds whereas, polar - but non-charged - amino acids are associated with younger folds. Generally domains with stabilising features tend to be older. We also show that the reliability of fold recognition methods may be assessed using occurrence patterns. We develop a method, that detects false positives by identifying isolated occurrences in a phylogeny of species, and is able to improve genome wide fold recognition assignment sets. We use a structural fragment library to investigate evolutionary links between protein folds. We show that 'older' folds have relatively more such links than 'younger' folds. This correlation becomes stronger for longer fragment lengths suggesting that such links may reflect evolutionary relatedness.