VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Impersonal selves: flat characters in the neoliberal novel
Keywords: don delillo
impersonality
salvador benesdra
flat characters
roberto bolaño
latin american literature
neoliberalism
david foster wallace

The thesis starts from the observation that a significant number of novels from the 1990s and early 2000s present two salient stylistic features. First, they are sprawling with characters; second, these fictional renditions often read as ‘flat’, in that they are endowed with little psychological specificity. I contend that the sub-genre I identify as the ‘neoliberal novel’ originates at the intersection of these two traits, and that its specimens can be said to be ‘neoliberal’ inasmuch as they respond to the challenges posed by their historical juncture. Through their deployment of characters, these novels delineate the problematic nature of the idea of ‘person’ in the age of neoliberalism and elaborate varieties of perception and experience that can be said to be ‘impersonal’. Often, in the neoliberal novel, flatness of character represents impersonality, and the latter is consistently associated with the specifically biopolitical aspects of neoliberal ideology. 
In order to explore these issues, I read four novels from the United States and Latin America: David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996), Don DeLillo’s Underworld (1997), Salvador Benesdra’s El traductor (1998) and Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 (2004). I contend that the American hemisphere is particularly productive as a point of observation of the general workings of the ‘neoliberal novel’ in that the historical facts surrounding the spread of neoliberal policies and practices in the region makes the continent a compendium of its stratified social and anthropological effects. Finally, I conclude that impersonality per se, while offering an escape route from the traps of liberal individualism, does not stand in any definite relationship to either authority or social change. Rather, it represents the plane of contrast in which the two constantly made and re-made each other.
Towards an efficient spin-photon interface based on cavity-coupled NV centres in diamond membranes
Keywords: quantum information processing
nitrogen-vacancy centre
light-matter interaction
diamond
micro-cavity
solid-state
qubit
quantum computation
spin-photon interface
single-photon emitter

Quantum computation and information processing is an exciting multi-disciplinary field, whose objective is to harness the power of superposition and entanglement of quantum states to establish a new regime of computation for Mankind. This work demonstrates our efforts, in both materials and device engineering, towards building an efficient spin-photon interface for a promising solid-state spin qubit, namely the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in diamond. Improvement in optical coherence of NV centre is realised via the novel laser-writing fabrication technique and quantified using high-resolution spectroscopy. A new metric concerning the charge-state stability of the NV centre is introduced to better translate the measured NV quality to entanglement generation efficiency. To address the low branching ratio of NV emission into the zero-phonon line (ZPL) transition, a hybrid open-cavity device incorporating low-dimensional micro-structured NV-containing diamond membrane is fabricated and characterised. In addition to the more commonly quoted emission enhancement factor, the collection efficiency of the cavity device is also quantified via numerical simulations. Combining all observed improvements in key metrics under the framework of double-heralding entanglement schemes, a two order of magnitude increase in entanglement generate rate can be expected. The established simulation methodology is widely applicable in the design and analysis of similar devices with an emitter-in-cavity setup.
Contingent Chaucer: experience, time, and modality in Chaucerian poetics
Keywords: medieval poetics
epistemology
metaphysics
scholasticism
Chaucer
nominalism
contingency

This thesis makes a new case for Chaucer as a philosophical poet, arguing that his art is profoundly entwined with the philosophy of contingency. Previous studies of contingency in Chaucer have interpreted the poet’s treatment of related issues (such as the mutability of language and the nature of free will) in relation to contemporaneous doctrinal controversies such as nominalism, voluntarism, and Lollardy. Going beyond these approaches, this thesis contends that Chaucer, synthesising a memorial omnium gatherum of philosophical learning, innovated a radical, anti-teleological poetics of contingency. Chaucerian contingency, the thesis states, is a comprehensive (yet by its nature fragmentary and modular) understanding of the relationship between individual lives and artistic creation under the conditions of phenomenal experience: the experience of time as linear, sequential and extensive; the translation of immediate consciousness into discrete concepts and words; the epistemological limits imposed by the temporality and multivocality of language. The thesis moves retrospectively through Chaucer’s career, first reassessing the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale and Clerk’s Tale, before passing through Troilus and Criseyde and the House of Fame, revealing in each case how Chaucer reworks his sources to articulate his vision of contingency, and contest humanist narratives of utopian perfectibility and idealistic, teleological poetics. It situates each poem’s ideas of contingency in their fuller context within intellectual history, tracing the arc of Chaucer’s developing philosophical vision. In the process, it frees Chaucerian contingency from the strictures of nominalist analyses, using a new paradigm which asserts the basic homology and continuity of medieval and postmedieval thinking on the subject. Linking the conceptual affinities of Chaucer’s sources in the Neoplatonic, Augustinian, Boethian, Scotist and Thomist traditions with their counterparts in postmedieval contingency theory, it concludes that Chaucer was a critical node in a period-spanning tradition of literary explorations of contingency.
Effects of labour and credit market frictions on shock propagation, allocation, and recoveries
Keywords: Non-performing loans
Search and Matching
Investment
Capital allocation
Job ladders
News and Noise
Directed search block recursive equilibrium
Information frictions
Uncertainty
Business Cycles
Labour Markets

This thesis contains three papers studying the consequences of labour and credit market frictions on the efficient allocation of resources and business cycle dynamics. A common theme of the three papers is that they focus on markets, where some market elements can be captured well with search frictions. The first paper estimates the extent to which aggregate job creation is driven by non-fundamental noise rather than fundamental news shocks employing maximum likelihood estimation of a DSGE model with search and matching in the labour market. The paper finds noise to play no role in aggregate job creation. Motivated by survey data on income growth expectations and labour market flow data, the second paper develops a mechanism where the information acquisition about idiosyncratic match quality is pro-cyclical. The mechanism, which is integrated into a directed search dynamic block recursive equilibrium model allows for a parsimonious explanation of observed survey data, labour market transition rates and finds counter-cyclical labour market mismatch. The third paper finds that the share of non-performing bank loans in total bank loans can be viewed as a mirror image of capital misallocation in many developed countries. The model developed from this observation shows that search frictions in used capital markets may drive non-performing, as will forbearance incentives. The paper estimates the extent to which changes in forbearance incentives and in the efficiency of used capital were responsible for variation in the share of non-performing loans. The introduction and conclusion of the thesis explain common themes and point to further applications of the content in the papers.
Representative democracy and political entitlement
Keywords: representative theory
Right to candidacy
democratic theory
political parties
legitimacy
democratic justice
electoral rights

The thesis is a monographic work on the Right to Candidacy, in relation to the way in which it is most commonly shaped within extant practice today. The matter has been so far neglected by democratic theory. The focus of attention of democratic interest has been on the role, duties and claims of citizens as voters. But the Right to Candidacy is also a paramount political right within modern representative democracies. Glossing over its status has led to a myopic understanding of the status of citizens as political equals, handicapping their agency in the amelioration of the problems that democracy faces, and impeding the achievement of democratic justice. As a response to this, my thesis asks and answers what the scope and the content of the Right to Candidacy would be if it were a (reasonably) substantive democratic right within contemporary liberal and representative democracies?
Chapter 1 presents an overview of extant empirical practice in relation to legal qualifications for office, which formally define the set of its right-holders. It contrasts them with those of the Right to Vote and claims that the formal construction of the limits of the Right to Candidacy should be symmetrical with that of the Right to Vote. Chapter 2 looks at the hurdles on the individual right to candidacy set at an informal level that impede substantive equality of opportunity for the exercise of the right. It argues that the instauration of intra-party candidate nomination quotas can constitute a salutary measure against this. Chapter 3 develops an argument for the claim that, other things equal, intra-party deliberation is a civic responsibility for political parties in face of their role as funnels of candidates for political office in the sort of representative democracies we have today.
Evolved P450 mutants for streamlining synthesis via late-stage C-H activation
Keywords: Natural Product Synthesis
Biocatalysis
Enzymatic Oxidation
Organic Synthesis
Enzymes
C-H Activation
Cytochrome P450
Viridiol
Indanes
Steroidal Scaffold

This thesis describes synthetic studies towards the carbon framework of the natural product viridiol and the application of mutant P450 enzymes to effect late-stage oxidations on these substrates.
The introduction provides a short summary of existing C-H activation and biocatalytic strategies in synthesis. An overview of P450 enzymes is also given and the background of viridiol and past synthetic studies are discussed.
Chapter 1 explores the construction of the ABE tricycle of viridiol, starting from the furan unit.
Chapter 2 introduces an alternative synthetic approach, focusing on the synthesis of the steroidal core from cyclohexenyl and 4-indanyl fragments. The challenges encountered in the preparation of single regioisomers of the indanyl system are also discussed.
Chapter 3 describes the development of an efficient route to 4-substituted indanes.
Chapter 4 continues the synthesis of the steroidal core from the 4-indanyl unit and details the completion of the viridiol carbon framework.
Chapter 5 investigates the late-stage oxidation of both tri and tetracyclic substrates with mutant P450 enzymes.
Mathematical modelling of electrical, thermal, and chemical processes occurring within a silicon furnace
Keywords: heat radiation
reacting flow
asymptotic analysis
magnetohydrodynamics
electromagnetism
heat and mass transfer
silicon furnace
mathematical modelling
electric arc

Silicon is produced in submerged arc furnaces (SAFs), with the heat needed for the endothermic chemical reactions provided by an electric current. The interacting physical processes occurring in SAFs are tightly coupled, and vary over a range of timescales. As a result, SAF modelling efforts have generally neglected to include many of the chemical, thermal, and electrical effects. In this thesis, we develop a mathematical framework to understand the mechanisms by which these processes interact.
We propose a new, simplified model for electric arcs in a SAF, with heat radiation as the dominant heat loss mechanism, based on dimensional analysis of a magnetohydrodynamic model. To understand the alternating current effects, we incorporate this arc model into an equivalent-circuit model for the SAF electrical system. We investigate the effects of hot gases flowing through the porous bed of raw materials in a SAF, by studying the interaction of a counter-current flow with an endothermic, temperature-dependent chemical reaction in the asymptotic limit of large Péclet number. Having better understood these mechanisms, we then develop a tractable model for the coupled processes taking place within a SAF, combining our arc model with simplified models for the raw material bed. In order to efficiently model processes on both the fast timescale of the alternating current, and the slower timescale of heat transfer and flow of the raw materials, we perform a multiple-timescale homogenisation.
Our modelling efforts give insight into the interaction of a counter-current flow with an endothermic chemical reaction across a range of parameter values for the heat transfer coefficient between the phases. Our arc model is derived from first principles, and compares favourably with empirical models currently used in the metallurgy literature and industry. Our homogenised furnace model provides a simple framework to explore interacting furnace processes of industrial relevance; solutions provide insight into the distribution of current in the furnace, the evolution of the internal structure, and how stoking may improve furnace efficiency.
The role of CD1a in dengue infection
Keywords: CD1a
Dengue virus
T cell

Dengue is one the most prevalent tropical infectious diseases. It causes a heavy healthcare burden globally, while treatment and prevention approaches are limited. Like other virus-induced diseases, T cells are considered to play an important role in the immunity against dengue virus infection. However, compared to conventional MHC-activated T cells, the role of CD1a-restricted, lipid-specific T cells in dengue infection has not been studied.
The aim of this project was to investigate the role of CD1a in the immunity of dengue virus infection.
Human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) were used as models to study the regulation of surface CD1a expression in the context of dengue virus infection. Components in sera derived from acute phase dengue patients were found to downregulate CD1a expression by moDCs which may in part be explained by IL-10. To investigate the effect of dengue infection on the function of CD1a-reactive T cells, polyclonal blood T cells from patients and controls, and CD1a-autoreactive T cells clone/lines were utilised. The production of IFN-γ and GM-CSF by CD1a-autoreactive T cells was reduced when co-cultured with dengue-infected presenting cells. Receptors for dengue viral entry are incompletely understood. Langerhans cells represent an early target cell for dengue virus, and express langerin, a C-type lectin which supports CD1a antigen presentation. Here, we define langerin as a novel target for dengue NS1 and E proteins in vitro, and provide data supporting an anti-viral effect of langerin engagement.
In summary, this thesis describes the first study of the role of CD1a in dengue virus infection. The data show that the expression of CD1a and the activity of CD1a-reactive T cells are regulated by dengue virus infection, and that langerin is a novel dengue receptor. Collectively the data implicate the CD1a pathway in dengue pathogenesis and provide insights into future therapeutic and vaccine development.
SPARCLE: an instrument for aerosol size and refractive index measurement
Keywords: aerosol
refractive index
Optical Particle Counter
particle size

In the last few decades, there is an increasing need to improve in situ aerosol measurements. The improved measurements can provide a better understanding of the role of atmospheric aerosol on the Earth climate change. The improved measurement can also help to indicate the quality of ambient air to prevent health problems caused by aerosol exposure. Most in situ optically based aerosol photometer assume the refractive in- dex of measured particles to give size-estimate. This type of instrument can have a bias when measuring a particle whose refractive index is differ- ent from the assumed value. SPARCLE was designed with two measure- ment goals. First, SPARCLE measures both the size and refractive index of a particle provided that the particle is a homogeneous sphere. Second, SPARCLE is able to measure particles whose sizes range from 500 nm to 2,500 nm. This size range is within the range of the accumulation mode of tropospheric size distribution.
The purpose of this work is to investigate the feasibility of SPARCLE. A threshold level to detect particles was applied to differentiate between background and scattering signals and it was found that applying the threshold level can limit SPARCLE to detect particles smaller than 640 nm. SPARCLE was calibrated using four monodisperse aerosols containing Polystyrene latex (PSL) beads. The mean size of the aerosols are 1,100 nm, 1,800 nm, 2,000 nm and 3,000 nm. The refractive index of PSL is 1.59. The results indicate that SPARCLE can measure the aerosols with the deviation of the measured size and refractive index less than 2.2% and 1.05%, respectively, of the size and refractive index specified by the aerosol manufacturers.
SPARCLE was used to measure a test aerosol. The test aerosol was a mixture of water and liquid soap. The refractive index of the liquid soap is 1.37. One of the main ingredient of the liquid soap is sodium dodecyl sulphate whose the refractive index is 1.44. The refractive index of the test aerosol measured by SPARCLE is 1.47. This value is close to the refractive index of the sulphate suggesting that the test aerosol was quickly dried and, then, a solid aerosol was formed which mainly composed of the sulphate.
Processing collocations in the L2: semantic transparency & congruency
Keywords: ALSLA2021
quantitative
L2 English
ALSLA
applied psycholinguistics
vocabulary acquisition
lextale
generalised linear mixed-effects models
semantic acceptability judgement task
multi-word units
L1 Portuguese
MScEducation
phraseological framework
applied linguistics
collocations
SLA
second language learning

Mastering collocations is one of the most challenging aspects of vocabulary acquisition, especially for adult learners of a second language (L2). Research shows that frequency, congruency, and semantic transparency are important factors that affect L2 collocational processing. Frequency is known to interact with both congruency and semantic transparency. However, congruency and semantic transparency have not been explored simultaneously. This study aims to investigate L2 collocational processing in proficient L2 English speakers (L1 Portuguese) by exploring the role of semantic transparency in conjunction with congruency. Specifically, it investigates whether free combinations, congruent collocations, and incongruent collocations differ in terms of processing by incorporating congruency into Howarth’s Continuum Model.
A semantic acceptability judgement task was completed by 329 adults (122 Brazilian Portuguese, 108 European Portuguese, and 99 L1 English speakers). The reaction times and error rates were analysed using Generalized Linear Mixed-effects Models. The results showed that the Brazilian Portuguese speakers processed free combinations faster and more accurately than congruent and incongruent collocations. The European Portuguese speakers processed free combinations faster and more accurately than incongruent collocations. Both groups processed congruent collocations faster and more accurately than incongruent collocations. The L1 English group showed no processing advantages for any of the three conditions. Moreover, the L1 group outperformed the L2 groups only on the incongruent condition.
Although there seems to be an effect of semantic transparency in the results of the L2 groups, it could not be isolated from the effects of frequency and congruency. Future research should consider testing incongruent free combinations along with incongruent collocations to properly isolate these effects. With respect to congruency, this study lends support to the growing body of evidence that L2 speakers incur processing costs for incongruent collocations. This highlights the critical role of the L1 in L2 collocational processing. Based on these findings, recommendations are made for incongruent collocations to be explicitly taught in the L2 classroom.
Trusting judges: a socio-legal inquiry about access to health care via litigation in Brazil
Keywords: trust
empowerment
socio-legal
social-economic rights
pharmaceutical
litigation
brazil
health care
judicial activism
separation of powers
third-party funding
constitutionalism
health

In 1988, the Brazilian Constitution enshrined in its text the right to universal health care, which formed the basis of the public health system, SUS. However, since the 90s the country observed an increasing trend of citizens starting legal action against the State to get access to drugs, treatments and medical devices not offered by SUS. The stark increase in successful health care cases is today a source of major concern. Against this backdrop, this thesis aims to understand what are the main socio-legal factors that influence the rise of successful litigation for access to health care in Brazil.
To answer this question, the thesis provides an in-depth analysis of qualitative empirical data about health care litigation in Brazil, based on semi-structured interviews with 55 actors – with a particular focus on judges and litigants.
The main outcome of the research is a middle-range theory about the links between internal and external socio-legal factors that influence the rise of successful health care litigation in Brazil. The thesis argues that there is a complex socio-legal web which combines various types of factors. A central factor which influences judges to grant health care claims is a deep-sited distrust in the quality of the health care public policy and the policy maker, aligned with an individual self-empowerment and tendency to altruism. The result is an attenuated form of judicial activism which uses the substantive constitutional law as a hindsight justification for granting claims. In parallel, a utilitarian trust in the positive outcome of legal action and low costs of litigating incentivises litigants to start legal action against the state. These various factors are analysed in the context of a post-colonial society, where citizens’ individualist approach to the state, and the commodification of health incentivise the multiplication of individual litigation for access to health care.