VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Parameter recovery in AC solution-phase voltammetry and a consideration of some issues arising when applied to surface-confined reactions
Keywords: parameter estimation
electrochemistry
numerical solutions
AC voltammetry
voltammetry
mathematical modelling
inverse problems

A major problem in the quantitative analysis of AC voltammetric data has been the variance in results between laboratories, often resulting from a reliance on "heuristic" methods of parameter estimation that are strongly dependent on the choices of the operator. In this thesis, an automatic method for parameter estimation will be tested in the context of experiments involving electron-transfer processes in solution-phase. It will be shown that this automatic method produces parameter estimates consistent with those from other methods and the literature in the case of the ferri-/ferrocyanide couple, and is able to explain inconsistency in published values of the rate parameter for the ferrocene/ferrocenium couple. When a coupled homogeneous reaction is considered in a theoretical study, parameter recovery is achieved with a higher degree of accuracy when simulated data resulting from a high frequency AC voltammetry waveform are used.
When surface-confined reactions are considered, heterogeneity in the rate constant and formal potential make parameter estimation more challenging. In the final study, a method for incorporating these "dispersion" effects into voltammetric simulations is presented, and for the first time, a quantitive theoretical study of the impact of dispersion on measured current is undertaken.
Comic leadership and power dynamics in Aristophanes 
Keywords: power
sacrifice
gender
sex
leadership
competition
magic
rhetoric
women
food
cannibalism
tragedy
medicine
costume
Comedy
rituals
Aristophanes

This thesis investigates the concept of leadership in four comedies of Aristophanes.
In the first chapter (Lysistrata) I focus on the relationship of the female leadership with religious rituals and medical pathology, and I show that the power of women lies in their important biological role and their ability to conceive and (re)produce life in the context of marriage.
In chapter two (Knights) I examine the operation of leadership through the alimentary and sacrificial codes of the play. I argue that the Sausage-seller gradually manifests himself as the sacrificial cook Agorakritos who sacrifices Demos. In this way he puts an end to the politics of savage, raw consumption as they were employed by Paphlagon (and, occasionally, by Demos himself), and saves the day by inaugurating a new era of political practice.
In chapter three (Birds) I focus on the political competition between the former leader of the Birds, Tereus, and the newcomer Peisetairos. I argue that Peisetairos captivates his audience through the abuse of rhetoric and sophistry, and gradually adopts more brutal ways, by perverting the ritual of hospitality, committing cannibalism, and becoming sexually aggressive. In this respect, Peisetairos is assimilated to the tragic Tereus of the Sophoclean tragedy, but finally emerges as a more successful version of both the comic and the tragic Tereus.
In the fourth and last chapter (Ecclesiazusae) I discuss the women’s disruption and overturn of the normal social order by focusing on the practice of cross-dressing and on love-magic rituals: the exchange of costume between the two sexes, as well as the control of magic practices by the women over men, empower women and, by contrast, disempower and ridicule men, who are finally reduced to a state of impotence, infertility and almost death.
Mathematical modelling and analysis of aspects of bacterial motility.
Keywords: velocity jump process
bacterial motility
tracking
mathematical ecology
correlated random walk
bacterial chemotaxis
hidden markov model

The motile behaviour of bacteria underlies many important aspects of their actions, including pathogenicity, foraging efficiency, and ability to form biofilms. In this thesis, we apply mathematical modelling and analysis to various aspects of the planktonic motility of flagellated bacteria, guided by experimental observations. We use data obtained by tracking free-swimming Rhodobacter sphaeroides under a microscope, taking advantage of the availability of a large dataset acquired using a recently developed, high-throughput protocol. A novel analysis method using a hidden Markov model for the identification of reorientation phases in the tracks is described. This is assessed and compared with an established method using a computational simulation study, which shows that the new method has a reduced error rate and less systematic bias. We proceed to apply the novel analysis method to experimental tracks, demonstrating that we are able to successfully identify reorientations and record the angle changes of each reorientation phase. The analysis pipeline developed here is an important proof of concept, demonstrating a rapid and cost-effective protocol for the investigation of myriad aspects of the motility of microorganisms. In addition, we use mathematical modelling and computational simulations to investigate the effect that the microscope sampling rate has on the observed tracking data. This is an important, but often overlooked aspect of experimental design, which affects the observed data in a complex manner. Finally, we examine the role of rotational diffusion in bacterial motility, testing various models against the analysed data. This provides strong evidence that R. sphaeroides undergoes some form of active reorientation, in contrast to the mainstream belief that the process is passive.
Pollution, interests and everyday life in Lake Titicaca: negotiating change and continuity in social-ecological systems
Keywords: water
Bolivia
Peru
social-ecological systems
pollution

Environmental governance is a challenging topic in development contexts. On the one hand, the traditional development paradigm is based on economic growth through environmental exploitation; on the other, environmental degradation reduces vulnerable populations’ options for development. In the last thirty years numerous attempts to integrate environmental concerns in development policies have proved unsuccessful, raising questions as to whether the current governance system can address the challenge. The literature on environmental management has focused on identifying rules for successful governance, leaving little space to explore the complexities of the interactions between actors and their environments, wherein the reasons for sustained degradation might lie. The questions that this thesis asks are: How do diverse groups of actors rationalize and interact with degraded ecosystems? And what role does the governance system play in codifying these interactions? To answer these questions, the thesis engages in an institutional study of Lake Titicaca, between Peru and Bolivia. The lake has witnessed a degradation of its bay in the last thirty years, as a result of urban and mining development in the region. A complex web of organizations that go from the bi-national to the community level manages Lake Titicaca. The investigation of the questions asked is particularly relevant in the current context, as the countries to which the lake belongs put forward significantly different visions of the environment. By drawing on the strengths of social-ecological systems frameworks proposed by the two mains schools – the Resilience Alliance and Bloomington Workshop – and filling some of their deficiencies using insights from the sociological literatures on negotiation and justification, I hope to have created a composite framework with which to give an insightful account of the complexity and diversity at play in the field. The thesis adopts a broad range of qualitative methods (observation, interviews, document analysis) completed with descriptive statistics for budget analysis. The thesis argues that the actors’ approaches to the ecosystem are complex, diverse and constitutive of social-ecological systems wherein relationships are negotiated between actors, between actors and the ecosystem and ‘within’ actors as they hold competing visions and strategies. Some of the variables shaping these negotiations are crafted through the interaction between social and ecological elements, which also influence the actors’ understanding of the system. Others are determined by parameters crafted in the social sphere, and the ways in which social-ecological interactions fit with those. Policy interventions to improve the condition of Lake Titicaca need a more sophisticated understanding of these social-ecological systems.
Seasonal and interannual variability in Saturn's stratosphere
Keywords: climate
seasons
stratosphere
Saturn

The stratosphere of Saturn is highly variable. With an axial tilt of 26.7°, Saturn experiences seasons like Earth and is currently approaching northern summer solstice in 2017. In addition to general seasonal change, previous studies have highlighted that Saturn's stratosphere is host to a range of dynamical phenomena. These processes have an observable effect on the vertical temperature profile and stratospheric concentrations of acetylene (C2H2) and ethane (C2H6), which may be determined or retrieved from thermal infrared observations of Saturn. This thesis presents an analysis of observations of Saturn acquired by Voyager's IRIS (Infrared Interferometer Spectrometer, 180 - 2500 cm-1, Hanel et al.,[1980]) instrument in 1980, Cassini's CIRS (Composite Infrared Spectrometer, 10 - 1400 cm-1, Flasar et al.,[2004]) instrument from 2005 to 2012 and the Celeste spectrometer (400 - 2000 cm-1, Moran et al.,[2007]) on NASA's IRTF (Infrared Telescope Facility) in 2012 in order to track seasonal and interannual changes in Saturn's stratosphere.
The concentrations of C2H2 and C2H6 were seen to decrease at 15°S and increase at 25°N from 2005 to 2009/2010. These changes at 15°S and 25°N respectively indicate upward and downward branches associated with cross-equatorial seasonally-reversing Hadley circulation that has been predicted by a general circulation model [Friedson and Moses, 2012]. Strong cooling of up to 17 K at high-southern latitudes from 2005 to 2010 suggests an autumnal weakening of a vortex that appears to form at the pole of the summer hemisphere [Fletcher et al., 2008]. The emergence of a similar northern polar vortex as northern summer solstice approaches was yet to be observed in 2012. Interannual differences in the equatorial temperature structure between 1980 and 2009/2010 suggest Saturn's semiannual oscillation (or SSAO, Fouchet et al. [2008]; Orton et al. [2008]) has been captured in a different phase from one year to the next. This is puzzling since the oscillation would be expected to have undergone two cycles assuming its period is half a Saturn year (14.7 years). This contrast is suggestive that the period of the SSAO is more quasisemiannual.
The bases for the authority of the Australian Constitution
Keywords: Australia
popular sovereignty
Constitution
authority

What are the possible bases for the authority of the Australian Constitution? Why should people and judges ever obey the text of the Constitution? The developing tools of analytical jurisprudence assist in answering these questions.
Despite its currency, the concept of "sovereignty" provides little assistance in understanding how law provides reasons for action. The concept of authority is more useful. The text of the Australian Constitution has authority in that it provides presumptive reasons for action, overruled when they appear sufficiently erroneous on a cursory examination.
The Constitution is part of the Australian legal system. A legal system is normally identified partly by moral norms. These moral norms themselves require that legal systems also be identified where possible by reference to the directives of a previous de facto authority - even when that previous authority no longer has power to make new legal norms. A legal system will be "legitimate" if any improvement to be achieved by revolution would be outweighed by the uncertainty revolution creates.
Against this theoretical background, various theories about the Constitution's authority can be assessed. Although the enactment of the Constitution by the Imperial Parliament provides the Constitution with legal authority, it does not confer moral legitimacy.
Contrary to a growing judicial and academic consensus in Australia, the Constitution's legitimate authority is not derived from the "will of the people". Nor is it derived from the Constitution's Founders. The will of the people cannot be identified reliably, and wound not provide sufficient reasons for action. The Constitution does embody a federal compact between the colonies. Because it is worthwhile to keep political promises, the polities of the States should fulfil this compact, even though the compact only imposes weak obligations on the Commonwealth.
Other possible bases for the Constitution's authority are also inadequate. These include claims that judges are bound to apply the Constitution because their authority is based upon it; that the Constitution embodies "associate obligations", and that the Constitution isa commitment to protect individual rights and democracy.
Instead the Constitution has legitimate authority principally because it coordinates individual action towards desirable goals. The Australian Constitution settles the location of authority by authority.
The implications of the structure of the regulatory expropriation enquiry in international investment law
Keywords: regulatory expropriation
ECHR
right to property
5th amendment
expropriation
MPRDA
bilateral investment treaties
piero foresti v south africa
article 1 protocol 1
International investment law
black economic empowerment

This thesis examines the structure of enquiry that arbitral tribunals use to distinguish between regulatory expropriation and legitimate non-compensable regulation in international investment law. The thesis proposes a new taxonomy of the possible structures of enquiry: the enquiry could look exclusively to the effects of the measure on the protected property; exclusively to the characteristics of the impugned measure; or to both the effects on the property and the characteristics of the measure. The application of this taxonomy shows that there is no agreed structure of enquiry in decisions on regulatory expropriation in international investment law. However, various threads of jurisprudence do show some degree of internal consistency. The thesis identifies six approaches in the decisions of arbitral tribunals: two that look exclusively to the effects of the measure; one that looks exclusively to the characteristics of the measure; and three that consider both the effects and the characteristics of the measure. Of the three approaches that consider both the effects and the characteristics of a measure, one is a direct adoption of US 5th Amendment jurisprudence and another is a direct adoption of ECHR Article 1 – Protocol 1 jurisprudence. Chapters 4 and 5 examine the jurisprudence of the US and ECHR in detail. These chapters show that, unlike international investment law, each of these jurisdictions has an established structure of enquiry in cases of regulatory expropriation. All six approaches to regulatory expropriation are sketched as models. These model approaches are applied to the case study of Piero Foresti. The case study demonstrates the most significant conclusion of this thesis: that different structures of enquiry, and different approaches within those structures, necessarily entail different legal outcomes on the same facts.
Legal encounters: law, state and society in Zimbabwe, c1950-1990
Keywords: law
state
Zimbabwe
history

This study examines the role of law in the constitution and contestation of state power in African history. Using Zimbabwe as a case study, it analyses legal struggles between Africans and the state, and amongst Africans themselves between 1950 and 1990. In doing so it intervenes in a number of scholarly debates on the relationship between law, state power and agency in African history. Firstly, I examine the role of law in constituting state power by exploring the interplay between legitimation and coercion in long term perspective. Secondly, I interrogate legal centralism as an approach to understanding developments in the legal sphere in African history and make the case for legal pluralism as a more appropriate approach. I argue that during the period under study, Zimbabwe witnessed a process of evolving legal pluralism characterised by the mutual appropriation of forms, symbols and concepts between state law and the ‘customary law’. Thirdly, I contribute to the debate on African legal agency by demonstrating that its significance went beyond the utility of the law in specific social, economic and political struggles. I argue that it also gave expression to emergent political imaginaries, shifting ideas of personhood and alternative visions of the social and political order. Lastly, I argue that, by undertaking a historical examination of legal struggles, this study provides a useful foundation from which to analyse contemporary legal struggles in Zimbabwe and in Africa more generally. The findings presented here caution against being drawn in by the apparent novelty of contemporary legal struggles. In addition, they suggest the means by which human rights discourse in Africa might be reinvigorated.
Selection mechanisms for working memory
Keywords: oscillations
attention
reward
working memory

The experiments in this thesis investigated the mechanisms controlling input and output gating of working memory. In chapter 3, accuracy and reaction time data from a precision/capacity working memory task with prospective and retrospective cues were analysed. The results suggest that retrocues boost performance by facilitating output gating from working memory. In chapter 4, the role of perceptual cortex in mediating the cue benefits in this task was investigated with magnetoencephalography (MEG). The pattern of alpha (8-12Hz) power in visual cortex was modulated by cue direction following both precues and retrocues, but whilst this modulation was sustained following a precue (until presentation of the memory array) it was transient following a retrocue, suggesting that a memory representation was briefly retrieved or refreshed, but that there was not a sustained biasing of top-down input to visual cortex following retrocues. This argues against the standard model of working memory as sustained attention to internal representations, and in favour of a more dynamic view in which perceptual cortex is recruited transiently, and otherwise freed up for on-going processing. In chapter 5, the role of frontal networks in precueing and retrocueing was investigated. An fMRI meta-analysis identified control networks involved in preparatory and mnemonic selection: whilst the fronto-parietal network is recruited in both cases, the cingulo-opercular network is recruited only by retrocues. This spatial pattern was replicated with a source-space ROI analysis of MEG induced-responses. These data also characterised the time-course of control network activation shedding light on their functional roles. The fronto-parietal network was activated immediately following both precues and retrocues, consistent with a direct role in top-down influence over perceptual cortex. By contrast, the cingulo-opercular network was activated following retrocues only after the perceptual refreshing event was complete, suggesting a downstream role, perhaps in selecting representations to guide action. Chapter 6 investigated the role of reward associations in controlling access to working memory, testing behavioural predictions of two theories implicating the dopamine system and basal ganglia in control of working memory. The results supported a temporal gating account in which encountering reward associated items triggers a brief (<300ms) window in which there is a boost of encoding for WM. Chapter 7 discusses the implications of the current work and suggests some future directions.
'Hybrid' non-destructive imaging techniques for engineering materials applications
Keywords: imaging
diffraction
tomography
X-ray

The combination of X-ray imaging and diffraction techniques provides a unique tool for structural and mechanical analysis of engineering components. A variety of modes can be employed in terms of the spatial resolution (length-scale), time resolution (frequency), and the nature of the physical quantity being interrogated. This thesis describes my contributions towards the development of novel X-ray “rich” imaging experimental techniques and data interpretation. The experimental findings have been validated via comparison with other experimental methods and numerical modelling.
The combination of fast acquisition rate and high penetration properties of X-ray beams allows the collection of high-resolution 3-D tomographic data sets at submicron resolution during in situ deformation experiments. Digital Volume Correlation analysis tools developed in this study help understand crack propagation mechanisms in quasi-brittle materials and elasto-plastic deformation in co-sprayed composites.
For the cases of crystalline specimens where the knowledge of “live” or residual elastic strain distributions is required, diffraction techniques have been advanced. Diffraction Strain Tomography (DST) allows non-destructive reconstruction of the 2-D (in-plane) variation of the out-of-plane strain component. Another diffraction modality dubbed Laue Orientation Tomography (LOT), a grain mapping approach has been proposed and developed based on the translate-rotate tomographic acquisition strategy. It allows the reconstruction of grain shape and orientation within polycrystalline samples, and provides information about intragranular lattice strain and distortion. The implications of this method have been thoroughly investigated.
State-of-the-art engineering characterisation techniques evolve towards scrutinising submicron scale structural features and strain variation using the complementarity of X-ray imaging and diffraction. The first successful feasibility study is reported of in operando stress analysis in an internal combustion engine.
Finally, further advancement of ‘rich’ imaging techniques is illustrated via the first successful application of Time-of-Flight Neutron Diffraction Strain (TOF-NDST) tomography for non-destructive reconstruction of the complete strain tensor using an inverse eigenstrain formulation.
Models and software for improving the profitability of pharmaceutical research
Keywords: decision analysis
pharmaceutical research

Pharmaceutical R&D; is time-consuming, extremely costly and involves great uncertainty. Although there is a broad range of literature on statistical issues in clinical trials, there is not much that focuses directly on the modelling of pre-clinical research.
This thesis investigates models and associated software for improving decisionmaking in this area, building on earlier work by the same research group. We introduce a class of adaptive policies called forwards induction policies for candidate drug selection, and show that these are optimal, with a straightforward solution algorithm, within a restricted setting, and are usually close to optimal more generally. We also introduce an adaptive probabilities model that allows the incorporation of learning from a project’s progress into the planning process. Real options analysis in the evaluation of project value is discussed. Specifically, we consider the option value of investing in clinical trials once a candidate drug emerges from pre-clinical research. Simulation algorithms are developed to investigate the probability distributions of the total reward, total cost, profitability index and the required future resource allocations of a pharmaceutical project under a given allocation plan. The ability to simulate outcome distributionsmeans that we can also compare the riskiness of different projects and portfolios of projects.