VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The impact of the coexistence of multiple norms from different sources of international law on change to the jus ad bellum
Keywords: use of force
jus ad bellum
sources of international law
self-defence
collective security
humanitarian intervention
UN Charter
jus cogens
public international law
international law
customary international law
peremptory norms

This thesis analyses what would be required as a matter of international law to establish that a change to the jus ad bellum has occurred; that is, that states are permitted to use force in situations where it was previously unlawful under international law, or are prohibited from using force in situations where that conduct was previously lawful. More specifically, this thesis analyses how the international law norms that regulate the use of force may be modified, given that the jus ad bellum comprises multiple international law norms, from different sources of international law, some with distinctive characteristics such as jus cogens status, some of which address the same subject matter, and some of which refer to, limit the scope of, or provide exceptions to each other. It is argued that this coexistence of different kinds of international law norms impacts how those norms are modified, and so will affect how the jus ad bellum can change.
The thesis analyses each of the different kinds of norm in the jus ad bellum in turn, to determine how norms of customary international law, treaty law, and norms with jus cogens status may be modified. The thesis then analyses the structure of the jus ad bellum and the relationships between the different international law norms and considers how these processes of modification are impacted by the coexistence of different kinds of norms in the jus ad bellum. In this way, the thesis seeks to identify what would be required, in terms of the practice, opinio juris and/or agreement of states, to demonstrate that a new exception to or limitation on the scope of the prohibition on force has come into existence, or that the content or scope of self-defence and collective security have changed.
Understanding the Landau equation as a gradient flow
Keywords: Kinetic Theory
Gradient Flow
PDE
Plasma

This thesis provides and investigates the rigorous gradient flow viewpoint of the spatially homogeneous Landau equation for soft potentials. This extends the similar perspective recently developed for the Boltzmann equation with Maxwellian potentials by Erbar. Taking advantage of the H-theorem for the Landau equation, we construct a metric from a dynamic optimal transportation viewpoint (Benamou-Brenier and Dolbeault-Nazaret-Savaré) for which the Landau equation can be viewed as the gradient flow of the Boltzmann entropy with respect to this metric. The gradient flow description is further reinforced by recovering the grazing collision limit from the Boltzmann equation to the Landau equation with simpler arguments and intuition in the spirit of Gamma-convergence (Sandier-Serfaty). Finally, a robust and efficient particle approximation is numerically analysed for a regularised version of the Landau equation which preserves the gradient flow structure.
This thesis invites and advertises the use of gradient flow techniques to pursue some of the future research directions discussed here.
The logic of consistency and the rise of human rights institutions
Keywords: Treaty Bodies
rhetoric
institutions
universalism
hypocrisy
Universal Periodic Review
consistency
Special Procedures
United Nations
monitoring
human rights

This thesis proposes a theory to explain the conditions under which moral argument matters in world society, called the logic of consistency. The theory is the result of an examination into the rise of international scrutiny of national human rights practices, with a focus on the three United Nations monitoring institutions: the Treaty Bodies, the Special Procedures, and the Universal Periodic Review. The move to these institutions, which serve to identify, verify, and publicise the (in)ability of states to comply with their human rights obligations, represents a curious phenomenon that cannot be explained by IR middle-range or grand theories, but it can by the logic of consistency. The logic of consistency identifies and connects traces of political action in relation to international scrutiny of human rights over the last hundred years, offering a revisionist account of the rise of human rights institutions. Building exclusively on primary sources, the empirical analysis demonstrates how appeals of political actors to universal principles has generated a universal horizon that pulls them towards the spirit of the universal principles they invoke, irrespective of their intentions. This universal horizon has subverted the resistance of states to external scrutiny and has compelled them to embrace permanent scrutiny of all states, in relation to all rights at all times, with or without their consent. The logic of consistency reveals the immanent ground of universalism, beyond metaphysical principles or assumptions of cultural unity in world society. It draws on philosophy, sociology, history, legal theory, and politics and aspires to contribute to the understanding of the behaviour and significance of moral argument in all these fields. Its scope is so wide that it is hard to identify social norms and institutions not shaped by it. Indeed, the social world is unthinkable without consistency.
Evaluating the liking effect paradigm and the impact of realism in face processing among neurotypical and autistic populations
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder
ASD
Face perception

The face plays an important role in human interactions, from identifying others to their to understanding their emotions and mental state. Particularly, eyes play a significant role in human communication. Individuals tend to follow the direction of another’s eye gaze, resulting in faster more accurate processing. Furthermore, gaze cues may influence functional processing, such as improving memory and influencing affective judgments of objects. The observed preference for objects that have been cued by faces, referred to as the liking effect, only occurs when faces are used to cue objects. This notable difference between a gaze and a spatial cue opens the potential for this paradigm to investigate differences between faces of different levels of realism, a topic that could improve our understanding of face perception deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorders.
A series of experiments are presented across four chapters. In Chapter 2, the liking effect is investigated in long-term memory. Initially there were issues in replicating the cueing bias for visuospatial measures. To overcome this, the complexity of task was raised, emphasising the importance of the task in gaze cueing experiments. There was no explicit liking effect found, although there was a preference for items that were presented as part of learning trials. Experiments in Chapter 3 replicated the original experiment to investigate whether the effect occurs in both Schematic and Photographic faces. Initially, experiments failed to replicate the liking effect. Further experiments were able to replicate the liking effect with more detailed Schematic stimuli, but only if the target objects were cued by multiple Photographic faces. Chapter 4 was unable to replicate these findings across individuals with High and Low levels of autistic traits. The complexity of the design and limitations with sample size make it difficult to extrapolate the results beyond the current experiment. Finally, in Chapter 5 an eye-tracking study is presented to investigate the effect in an ASD and a NT sample. It was found that the effect occurred in the NT group, but not in the ASD group. Insights from the eye tracking results suggest that explicit time observing each target may explain the effect and differences between the groups. In Chapter 6, findings are in the context of the wider literature. Conclusions are drawn about the efficacy of the liking effect as an index for studying the processing of facial realism in general and in ASD more specifically.
“Wherever I could move around”: The worldmaking work of gays and girls in the archived photographs and testimony of Kewpie of District Six
Keywords: Archive
Queer
South Africa
Worldmaking
Photography

In 1998, the recently established Gay and Lesbian Archive of South Africa acquired 600 photographs and three interviews conducted with their original collector, Kewpie. The Kewpie Collection, as it is now known, remains the only official archival resource that depicts and was created by the collective of people from District Six, Cape Town, who described themselves as gays and girls and referred to each other using she/her pronouns after being assigned male at birth. Classified “Coloured” under apartheid, the girls were forcibly removed from District Six after it was declared “Whites Only” in 1966. Three decades later, as legal apartheid was being dismantled, the constitution of the Kewpie Collection as such was informed by a proliferation of historiographical and archival practices coupled with the urgent emergence of the question of gay rights within the public sphere. Notwithstanding its intentions and successes, one effect of the Collection’s archivalisation has been to obscure the fundamental work gays and girls undertook to both survive and imagine other ways of being in the world.
As it is discernible in the Kewpie Collection, this necessarily collaborative labour is elaborated in this thesis as a theory-practice of worldmaking. Seeking to expand available possibilities and make diverse forms of existence more possible, the girls of District Six were not only producers of gay counterpublicity, but key agents in multiple and expansive projects to reformulate inherited conditions of social existence into new possible worlds. Worlds thus created may have been actualised, contingently and ephemerally, in the scenes of their creation. Because they were non-hegemonic, they could not be sustained. Yet these worlds are indexed, in virtual form, by the Kewpie Collection. Because they transform inherited conditions, meanings and materials the girls produce risk recuperation as evidence of enabling past or indeed present conditions. Ultimately, however, this worldmaking continues to unfold as the materials are circulated.
Luminescent guest encapsulated metal-organic framework composites for photonic sensing technology
Keywords: luminescence
sensors
metal-organic frameworks
guest-host interactions

Luminescent metal-organic frameworks (LMOFs) are promising hybrid materials and are considered ideal for fabricating sensors and optoelectronics. A unique direction of LMOFs research is to harness MOFs as ‘hosts’ to encapsulate various luminescent ‘guest’ (LG) molecules for producing LG@MOF systems. However, feasible design ideas and in-depth mechanism analyses are scarce, compromising their practical engineering potential. This section, combined with the structure, synthesis, types, and applications of LG@MOF systems, is described in detail in Chapter 1 and 2.
In Chapter 3, 4, and 5, three new LG@MOF systems have been designed and prepared. The results demonstrated that effective wavelength-tuning (~ tens of nanometres) or turn-on (~ tenfold) type sensing materials could be readily synthesised even with common fluorescent materials (e.g., rhodamine B, tetraphenylethylene, perylene). Different polymers have been combined with the obtained LG@MOF systems to enhance stability and processability.
Detailed photophysical characterisations have been conducted to investigate the obtained LG@MOF systems. By analysing the excitation, emission, lifetime, and quantum yield, three novel sensing mechanisms have been proposed: (i) Guest aggregates of different sizes are protected differently by the MOF, thus, generating sensing behaviours. Moreover, the configuration of the guest aggregates may change under stimuli leading to further sensing performance (Chapter 3); (ii) MOF can provide a strong caging effect to aggregation-induced emission (AIE) materials resulting in turn-on type mechanochromism (Chapter 4); (iii) The lattice of MOF can influence the electron-phonon coupling of guest excimers causing distinct luminescent properties (Chapter 5).
Overall, this work helps address the pain points of LG@MOFs research and illustrates the possibility for large scale production, which may inspire more research into high-performance fluorescent sensors. These are summarised in Chapter 6, along with some specific examples of future development.
Nutrient cycling of Bornean tropical forests
Keywords: net primary productivity
nutrient resorption
nutrient cycling
carbon cycling
Malaysian Borneo
SAFE Project
nutrient uptake
tropical forest
ecophysiology

The thesis addresses a novel topic of nutrient cycling of tropical forests and substantially adds to the small amount of currently available data in the area. While nutrients like nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are considered to limit net primary productivity (NPP) in lowland tropical forests, direct evidence of nutrient limitation of NPP is scarce.
The thesis focuses on humid lowland tropical forests along a disturbance gradient in Malaysian Borneo and quantifies key biological processes of nutrient cycling: nutrient requirement, uptake, use efficiency, resorption and allocation. The first empirical chapter examines wood-specific nutrient concentrations and their radial and vertical allocation within a whole tree. The second and third empirical chapters examine the effects of logging disturbance and soil availability on net primary productivity and nutrient cycling. Five macronutrients of N, P, potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and carbon (C) are considered. I developed and employed a novel approach of coupling data on nutrient stoichiometry and NPP to provide direct estimates of fluxes and allocation of nutrients within forest ecosystems.
In logged forests, the contribution of leaf resorption towards meeting nutrient requirement and the allocation of nutrients to canopy were lower, while allocation of nutrients to wood was higher than in old-growth forest. Contrary to expectation, NPP did not correlate with soil nutrient availability of any elements, suggesting soil availability is a weak predictor of NPP. Depending on the nutrient, different strategies, such as changes in resorption rates and changes in nutrient use efficiency, were adopted to compensate for low supply of that nutrient. Overall, this study demonstrates the value of coupling NPP with stochiometric data to gain insights into the nutrient cycle of intact and disturbed forests. These insights explain how limited supply of P, K and Ca is a challenge in lowland tropical forest ecosystems.
The study found higher concentrations in sapwood relative to heartwood for Dipterocarp species, which provide empirical support for wood resorption during sapwood senescence. It also showed exceptionally high nutrient concentrations in the bark, which suggest debarking during logging operations could substantially contribute to maintaining nutrients within forest ecosystems.
Aspects of disease burden and risk factors for bacterial disease in low- and middle-income countries
Keywords: vaccine probe
low and middle income country
recursive partitioning
clinical trial
infectious disease

Bacterial infections cause substantial morbidity and mortality, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Strained healthcare systems, limited access to clean water, and fragmented hygiene and sanitary infrastructure increase risk of disease transmission. However, effective vaccines have been developed and can be deployed strategically to prevent disease. This thesis sets out to measure aspects of cholera and typhoid disease burden and to evaluate how natural infection and WASH affect disease risk in endemic settings. The analyses are performed on historical datasets of clinical studies of cholera and typhoid vaccines that were conducted in Bangladesh and India, respectively. Using a vaccine probe analytical approach, I assessed whether there was evidence of cholera in diarrhoeal cases that tested negative for cholera by conventional faecal culture and provided evidence that cholera cultures are highly sensitive. Secondly, I developed a clinical definition for typhoid fever that satisfied the criteria of being predictive of culture-confirmed typhoid fever and being protected against by an effective typhoid vaccine. Thirdly, I measured the degree to which natural typhoid protected against a subsequent typhoid fever episode and found little evidence for the development of natural immunity. Finally, I evaluated which components of household WASH in a typhoid endemic setting were associated with reduction of typhoid risk and asked whether WASH and vaccine interventions acted synergistically to control typhoid.
Melancholia, noise and intertextuality in Louis Andriessen’s La Commedia and portfolio of original compositions
Keywords: Louis Andriessen
The Divine Comedy
melancholia
opera
music theatre
La Commedia
intertextuality
composition
noise
Dante

While questions of irony and politics abound in the literature on Louis Andriessen (1939–21), a critical evaluation of intertextuality in his work does not yet exist, despite the composer’s constant drive towards a polystylistic language in music and theatre that very often incorporates multiple outside sources and a wide range of texts as compositional or narrative inspiration. La Commedia (2004–08), a ‘film opera’ by the composer with filmmaker Hal Hartley, provides a useful case study for opening this discussion as it comprises many textual, visual, and musical voices (often overlayered and semantically obscured) to express something of a deeply intertextual and sometimes impenetrable author and text: Dante and his Divine Comedy. This thesis hypothesises that the intertextuality of La Commedia is not just a postmodern and irreverent commentary on the Comedy, but that the opera’s intertext is a way of reflecting the most important narrative, historical and theological aspects of Dante’s complex epic. To interrogate this idea, this thesis proposes that two themes operating as dramatic devices throughout the work are inextricably linked to its intertextuality—and, therefore, to Dante—so must shape the analysis of its music, media, and staging: melancholia and noise. Appended to this thesis is a portfolio of five original compositions by the author: Grim's Ditch, Jacinto Chiclana, The Beginning of an Idea, Life Piles Up, and FLUX.
The making of first movers: a micro-level study of high-risk dissent initiators in Burma 1988-2011

Keywords: micromobilization
Dissent
first movers
protest
democratization
Burma
Authoritarian countries
political dissent

In the high-risk environment of authoritarian regimes, why do some people dissent while others do not? Specifically, what motivates some people to be the first to dissent when there is no safety in numbers, and no guarantee that others will join? The willingness of some individuals to seemingly disregard the high personal risk of dissent, evincing a readiness to bear costs, puzzles scholars in the social sciences.
This project draws on semi-structured interviews, archival evidence, and secondary sources from the United States, Burma, and the United Kingdom to investigate first movers in Burma and their attempts to initiate dissent that took place between 1988-2011. Based on my data, I developed a narrative-driven grounded theory on what motivates some individuals to become first movers – the initiators – of high-risk dissent against authoritarian regimes at high personal risk.
This project’s overarching theoretical claim is that first movers are made, not born. My cumulative three-part theory is as follows: The individuals in my sample who became first movers of high-risk dissent had been experienced dissenters who (1) acquired informal political education and had undergone socialization among dissenters; (2) were radicalized by state repression into becoming “devoted dissenters”; and ultimately (3) viewed participation in high-risk dissent to be in their self-interest.
First movers are the human catalysts for every political event that has the potential to snowball into a consequential episode of dissent in an authoritarian country. This question is important because the kind of mass protests that upend authoritarian regimes cannot transpire without this subset of high-risk political dissidents who instigate dissent activity. This project will attempt to play a role in better understanding this small group of people whose human agency can lead to lasting changes to undesirable regimes.
The geometry and stability of fibrations
Keywords: Holomorphic submersions
K-stability
Optimal symplectic connections
Weighted cscK metrics
Canonical Kähler metrics

This thesis concerns two topics. First is the existence of optimal symplectic connections on holomorphic submersions, and links to algebro-geometric stability of fibrations. The main result is that a fibration admitting an optimal symplectic connection is stable with respect to a large class of fibration degenerations. The second topic is the deformation theory and families of Kähler metrics with weighted constant scalar curvature. Here we study the existence of such metrics when either the complex structures or the weight functions vary, and also prove the existence of a weighted Weil--Petersson metric associated to a family of these metrics. The results are new even in the fibrewise extremal and Kähler--Ricci soliton settings.