VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The effect of colloidal aggregates on fat crystal networks
Keywords: Fat Crystal Networks
Rheology

The effect of fumed silica aggregates on fat crystal networks is studied using a combination of rheology, differential scanning calorimetry and polarized light microscopy. We probe a model system for fat-structured foods with the aim of reducing the amount of fat whilst retaining the desirable mechanical and thermal properties. We begin with oscillatory rheology to investigate the effect of added silica and different fat concentrations on the resulting gel networks. The addition of silica is shown to increase the linear viscoelastic region, without significantly changing the storage modulus within this region. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements show that the presence of silica slightly increases the crystallization temperature but does not act as a seed for nucleation or significantly affect the melting profile of the system. We propose the formation of a composite gel network structure with a layer of silica on the surface of the fat crystal chains. We demonstrate that it is possible to create reduced-fat alternatives with similar rheological behaviour and thermal properties as the full-fat systems through the addition of colloidal silica. Next, we look at the effects of silica concentration, surface area and surface chemistry on the model system. In particular, we focus of the storage modulus, the length of the linear viscoelastic region and the rate of network breakdown after the linear region. We interpret these results in terms of hydrogen bonding between the silica aggregates and its role in reinforcing the fat crystal networks. Then, we study the time-dependent rheological behaviour of this system using the three interval thixotropy test. We measure the deformation under an applied stress and the recovery of structure once the applied stress is removed. We show that, under certain conditions, both fat and silica networks are thixotropic, leading to a full recovery after an applied deformation. We observe a synergistic effect leading to much stronger gel networks when fat and silica are present together. We use polarized light microscopy to gain a more direct insight into the effect of silica aggregates on the fat crystal microstructure. In particular, we study the effects of different fat concentrations, cooling rates, silica concentrations and silica surface chemistries. We use various image analysis techniques to quantify the fat crystal microstructure and find no significant difference in the presence of silica, at low concentrations.
Halogen bonding, hydrogen bonding and Lewis acidic receptors for anion recognition
Keywords: Anion
Rotaxane
Hydrogen bonding
Cyclodextrin
Halogen bonding

This thesis describes the preparation of acyclic, macrocyclic and interlocked receptors for the recognition of anions in competitive organic and aqueous solvent media.
Chapter One introduces the field of anion supramolecular chemistry, with a particular focus on the non-covalent interactions used for anion recognition and the synthesis of mechanically interlocked molecules.
Chapter Two discusses the preparation of halogen bonding and hydrogen bonding acyclic and interlocked pyridinium-based receptors. Investigations into their anion selectivity trends are undertaken using 1H NMR titration experiments. The anion sensing properties of analogous hosts containing a fluorescent quinolinium motif are also described.
Chapter Three presents the synthesis of acyclic and macrocyclic receptors containing the dicationic 1,2-bis(pyridinium)ethane motif. Attempts towards the preparation of interlocked receptors containing the motif are also discussed.
Chapter Four focuses on a series of water-soluble receptors based around functionalised α-cyclodextrins. Isothermal titration calorimetry experiments are used to investigate differences in the thermodynamics of anion binding to halogen bonding and hydrogen bonding analogues.
Chapter Five details the preparation of a [2]rotaxane containing a Lewis acidic triarylborane motif. Investigations into its anion binding properties are conducted using multinuclear NMR and UV-visible spectroscopies.
Chapter Six provides the experimental details and characterisation data for the compounds discussed in Chapters Two to Five. Protocols for the titration experiments conducted are also described.
Full crystallographic data is provided in the Appendix.
The intellectual context for the development of Quakerism, 1647-1700
Keywords: Keithian controversy
Quakerism
Christology
Religious experience
Robert Barclay
Enlightenment theology
Light within

This thesis considers the development of Quakerism from 1647 to 1700. Changes affecting the movement in this period are often explained as the result of the Quakers' desire for socio-political respectability – that is, their desire to reduce persecution and social exclusion. This thesis does not deny the importance of socio-political factors. However, it argues that they have been exaggerated as a historical force, and that theological factors driving change have been comparatively neglected. The thesis therefore explores the Quakers' desire for 'theological respectability', by examining the scope and impact of their constructive engagement with outsiders. The project begins with an investigation into the Quakers' understanding of their personal experience, noting both continuities and underlying theological changes which cannot be explained in socio-political terms – namely, a changed view of divine immanence, a strengthened group identity, and the loss of a sense of prophetic vocation. The rest of the thesis explains these developments in their theological context. The Quakers' engagement in Christological debate forms the central case-study. Individual chapters examine the Quakers’ earliest Christology, first responses to criticism, the early career of William Penn, the intellectual development of Robert Barclay's Vehiculum Dei, the Quakers' place in the early Enlightenment, and the Keithian controversy. In particular, the need to articulate a positive theology of the Incarnation led the Quakers into conversation with many influential figures outside the movement, which in turn encouraged an increasingly derivative understanding of the Light within and more optimistic view of physical matter. These shifts relate directly to the religious changes explored in the first part of the thesis. This study illustrates the necessity of theological analysis as part of historical investigation and provides a sustained intellectual history of seventeenth-century Quakerism, demonstrating its important contribution to the intellectual landscape of the early Enlightenment.
Colloidal particles for confocal microscopy and optical tweezing
Keywords: Confocal Microscopy
Optical Tweezing
Colloids

A novel colloidal model system is developed for the purpose of achieving simultaneous three-dimensional (3D) confocal imaging and optical tweezing of impurity probe particles embedded in a dense material of colloidal host particles. First, the colloidal host particles are developed from 3-trimethoxysilyl-propylmethacrylate (TPM), and the solvent mixture is tuned to match the refractive index and the density of the particles. A sedimentation-diffusion equilibrium profile of the TPM particles was imaged in 3D to establish suitability of the system for 3D confocal laser scanning microscopy, and to study its phase behaviour and particle dynamics. Then, core-shell particles, which consist of a high refractive index core and a TPM shell, are synthesised to be used as the impurities. The versatility of the two-step coating procedure with TPM has been demonstrated on several core materials, and the optical properties of the core-shell particle are established using digital holographic microscopy and their optical trapping strengths. Together with the TPM host particles, the core-shell particles are shown to be suitable impurity probes in dense colloidal materials, as they can be manipulated using optical tweezers in all three-dimensions, whilst the structure and dynamics of the surrounding host particles can be imaged simultaneously using fast confocal laser scanning microscopy. Subsequently, to demonstrate the capability of the TPM-based colloidal model system, the depletion potential of a pair of core-shell probe particles embedded in a sea of TPM host particles has been measured using optical tweezing. This is derived from comparing the direct pair potential between the core-shell particles in a TPM refractive index matching solvent, and the potential of mean force for the core-shell particles embedded in a dense fluid region of the TPM host particles. Direct visualisation of the liquid structures of the TPM host particles in the binary system around the probe particles has been linked to the form of the depletion potential, and its oscillatory nature as a function of the particle separation. Lastly, the formation of colloidal dumbbell particles is discussed. The dumbbell formation has been rationalised in terms of the total surface energy of droplet formation on spherical surfaces and the calculations are compared with experimental results from coating various seed particles with TPM. Using optically anisotropic dumbbell particles and tuning the refractive index of the dispersion medium, a preliminary two-trap experiment has been conducted which shows unusual trapping behaviour when a time-delayed feedback trapping trajectory has been applied.
Revealed preference and welfare analysis
Keywords: Applied microeconomics
Inflation
Cost of living index
Happiness
Welfare analysis
Household expenditure
Revealed preference
Econometrics

This thesis uses nonparametric revealed preference methods to derive new tests for consistency with models of consumer behaviour, and discuss the implications for welfare analysis. Chapter 1 demonstrates how to conduct revealed preference analysis when prices, and hence budget constraints, are only partially observed. This chapter extends the revealed preference results of Crawford and Polisson (2015), derived for the static case, to dynamic settings, allowing for storability of goods. Necessary and sufficient conditions for consistency with intertemporal models are derived, which do not require the researcher to distinguish between corner solutions and unavailability of the good, or to impute prices. Chapter 2 discusses the validity of using reported happiness measures as proxies of utility or social welfare, by testing for consistency between revealed and reported preference orderings in Japanese household survey data. Although the expenditure behaviour of most households is consistent with standard models of utility maximisation, it is generally inconsistent with the preference ordering given by their reported happiness. This inconsistency is likely due to reporting error in the happiness measure, and suggests that happiness and utility are empirically distinct and noninterchangeable. Chapter 3 investigates the effect of price inattention on inflation misperceptions and cost-of-living indices, by developing a behavioural model in which consumers only notice price changes above a certain threshold. A data application, using supermarket scanner data, demonstrates that this model generates plausible results; in particular, consumers have more accurate perceptions of inflation during periods of high or volatile inflation, but may substantially misperceive inflation when it is low. These results have important implications for conducting welfare analysis when consumers are not fully attentive to price changes.
The design of gene regulatory networks with feedback and small non-coding RNA
Keywords: Gene Circuits
Gene Regulatory Networks
Tetracycline Repressor
Rhamnose Activator
System Biology
Synthetic Biology
Feedback

The objective of the field of Synthetic Biology is to implement novel functionalities in a biological context or redesign existing biological systems. To achieve this, it employs tried and tested engineering principles, such as standardisation and the design-build-test cycle. A crucial part of this process is the convergence of modelling and experiment. The aim of this thesis is to improve the design principles employed by Synthetic Biology in the context of Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs). Small Ribonucleic Acids (sRNAs), in particular, are focussed on as a mechanism for post-transcriptional expression regulation, as they present great potential as a tool to be harnessed in GRNs. Modelling sRNA regulation and its interaction with its associated chaperone Host-Factor of Bacteriophage Qβ (Hfq) is investigated. Inclusion of Hfq is found to be necessary in stochastic models, but not in deterministic models. Secondly, feedback is core to the thesis, as it presents a means to scale-up designed systems. A linear design framework for GRNs is then presented, focussing on Transcription Factor (TF) interactions. Such frameworks are powerful as they facilitate the design of feedback. The framework supplies a block diagram methodology for visualisation and analysis of the designed circuit. In this context, phase lead and lag controllers, well-known in the context of Control Engineering, are presented as genetic motifs. A design example, employing the genetic phase lag controller, is then presented, demonstrating how the developed framework can be used to design a genetic circuit. The framework is then extended to include sRNA regulation. Four GRNs, demonstrating the simplest forms of genetic feedback, are then modelled and implemented. The feedback occurs at three different levels: autoregulation, through an sRNA and through another TF. The models of these GRNs are inspired by the implemented biological topologies, focussing on steady state behaviour and various setups. Both deterministic and stochastic models are studied. Dynamic responses of the circuits are also briefly compared. Data is presented, showing good qualitative agreement between models and experiment. Both culture level data and cell population data is presented. The latter of these is particularly useful as the moments of the distributions can be calculated and compared to results from stochastic simulation. The fit of a deterministic model to data is attempted, which results in a suggested extension of the model. The conclusion summarises the thesis, stating that modelling and experiment are in good qualitative agreement. The required next step is to be able to predict behaviour quantitatively.
On the edge of history: small political parties & groupings in South Africa’s transition, 1990-1997
Keywords: Conflict resolution
Constitution
Negotiation
Political Parties
Democratization

Much of the academic - and popular - literature on the South African negotiations process focuses on the two principal players, the African National Congress (ANC) and the National Party Government. A significant number of other political groupings were vying for influence at this time and although they would not fare well electorally in 1994, their influence and also their symbolic importance has been overlooked. Four groupings that have found themselves on the margins of the South African transition are the subject of this thesis: The white right wing (Afrikaner Volksunie, the Conservative Party, the Freedom Front); the homelands (in particular Bophuthatswana, KwaZulu and Transkei), the Democratic Party (DP) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). All four of these political groupings were deeply involved in the transition process and critically, offered very different options and scenarios for the future. These included alternative visions of a federal South African state, a more independent judiciary, stronger provincial powers and greater degrees of cultural and territorial self-determination. For some of the parties - notably the PAC- the compromises reached in the constitution around property rights were unacceptable. In the case of the PAC, Inkatha and some far-right Afrikaner groupings, there was a turn to violence - even if not always sanctioned by leadership - that had an important impact on conditioning the settlement. The differing trajectories and prescriptions of these groupings offer up important lessons regarding the history of the negotiations period, the potential for alternative pathways during this time as well as the deficiencies of the current constitutional order. The histories of these marginal groupings on the sidelines of a historic settlement speak to longstanding fault lines in South Africa’s political discourse, including the role and salience of liberalism, socialism and ethno-nationalism in the post-apartheid era.
Coherence for 3-dualizable objects
Keywords: Duals
Adjoints
Coherence

A fully extended framed topological field theory with target in a symmetric monoidal n-catgeory 𝐶 is a symmetric monoidal functor Z from Bord(n) to 𝐶, where Bord(n) is the symmetric monoidal n-category of n-framed bordisms. The cobordism hypothesis says that such field theories are classified by fully dualizable objects in 𝐶.
Given a fully dualizable object X in 𝐶, we are interested in computing the values of the corresponding field theory on specific framed bordisms. This leads to the question of finding a presentation for Bord(n). In view of the cobordism hypothesis, this can be rephrased in terms of finding coherence data for fully dualizable objects in a symmetric monoidal n-category.
We prove a characterization of full dualizability of an object X in terms of existence of a dual of X and existence of adjoints for a finite number of higher morphisms. This reduces the problem of finding coherence data for fully dualizable objects to that of finding coherence data for duals and adjoints. For n=3, and in the setting of strict symmetric monoidal 3-categories, we find this coherence data, and we prove the corresponding coherence theorems. The proofs rely on extensive use of a graphical calculus for strict monoidal 3-categories.
Perceptual error in medical practice
Keywords: Situational Awareness
Inattentional Blindness
Perceptual Errors
Attention
Change Blindness

Introduction
Medical errors are major hazards, and lapses in non-technical skills such as situational awareness contribute to most incidents. Risks are concentrated in acute care, and in crisis situations clinicians can apparently ignore vital information. Poor workplace ergonomics contributes to risk.
Existing work into perceptual errors offers insights, but these phenomena have been little researched in medicine. This thesis considers medical non-technical skills and how they are taught, and explores vulnerability to inattentional and change blindness.MethodsMedical human factors and the psychology of perceptual error were reviewed, and a mixed-methods assessment of postgraduate medical curricula completed.Experiments assessed clinicians’ interaction with clinical monitoring devices using eye-tracking, and studies were conducted exposing clinicians to various perceptual error stimuli using non-clinical and clinical videos, and simulation. A survey was also conducted to assess clinicians’ insight into the phenomena of perceptual error.ResultsNon-technical skills feature poorly in medical curricula, and equipment is poorly standardised in critical care areas. Unfamiliar devices slow response times and increase error rate.Clinical training confers no generalisable advantage in perceptual reliability. Even expert clinicians miss important events. Two out of every three life-support instructors for example missed a critical failure in the patient’s oxygen supply when watching a recorded emergency simulation.The insight and understanding healthcare staff have of perceptual errors is poor, leading to significant overestimates of perceptual reliability that could have consequences for clinical practice.ConclusionsPerceptual errors represent a latent risk factor contributing to loss of situational awareness. High rates of perceptual error were observed in the video-based experiment. Although lower rates were observed in simulation, important events were still missed by participants that could have serious consequences.The incidence of perceptual error appears sensitive to the method used to test for it, and this has important implications for the design of future experiments testing for these phenomena.Mitigating perceptual error is likely to be challenging, but relatively simple adjustments to team practices in emergency situations may be fruitful.
International crimes prosecution case selection: the ICC, ICTR, and SCSL
Keywords: justice in conflict
justice cascade
war crimes
aggression
prosecutorial discretion
international crimes case selection
justice capture
core international crimes
crimes against humanity
international crimes prosecutions
power and international criminal justice
crimes against peace
genocide
prosecution case selection
political interference in criminal processes

International crimes prosecutions have become more common since 1993, both domestically and at international courts and tribunals. The advance of this norm confronts realist state interests causing debate about the norm’s status. Kathryn Sikkink views a norm as cascading when enough states adopt it to cause international influence, without domestic pressure, to procure levels of conformity. This thesis considers the degree of conformity by observing the level of case selection independence to determine whether this norm is cascading.
By identifying the jurisdictional and functional elements of case selection independence, I develop a framework for observing the interface between politics and law. While Sikkink errs towards the quantity of international crimes prosecutions, I focus on the quality. This project examines case selection independence at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Court, in Uganda. The project considers whether case selection has become more or less independent at these courts – whether the norm of international crimes prosecution has cascaded or contracted. In observing the various case selection independence elements I attempt to explain the observed cascades and contractions at each court. I then consider whether a cascade or contraction occurred during the period of the courts’ collective design and function.
The research qualitatively observes a cumulative justice contraction. The research observes a combination of factors affecting case selection independence, including shifts in power dynamics between and among weak and powerful states, increasing state sophistication in international court engagement, a shift in jurisdiction triggering actors and forums, and realist state co-option of norm entrepreneurs via endearing explanation of independence- diminishing policies.