VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Becoming Paul, becoming Christ: the Nag Hammadi "Apocalypse of Paul" (NHC v,2) in its Valentinian context
Keywords: Apocalypse
Saint Paul
Valentinian

This thesis seeks to demonstrate the Apocalypse of Paul’s position within the broader Valentinian literary corpus from the Nag Hammadi codices. Previous scholars, notably William Murdock and Michael Kaler, have gestured in this direction, but no attempt has been made to systematically situate the Apocalypse of Paul in relation to other Valentinian sources. Quite possibly this desideratum exists because although the Apocalypse of Paul’s debt to Jewish apocalypticism is self-evident, scholars of Valentinianism have generally neglected those ideas in Valentinian literature which are derived ultimately from Judaism, often received via Paul or other New Testament writers. These would include the notion of the Name of God as a saving power, even a soteriological agent, and the image of a surrogate heavenly temple through which favoured adepts may ascend in the present. These come to be combined in Valentinian thought through a high-priestly Christology in which it is by virtue of bearing the Divine Name that one may enter this ideal temple in the fashion of the old Jewish high priest, and now Christ. On the other hand, Valentinians downgrade the biblical creator-God to the level of an imperfect demiurge, placing him in an inferior heavenly temple while supplanting the Pleroma atop him as the true spiritual temple housing the Father of Christ.
The development of this constellation of ideas is traced principally from Valentinus himself, through the Gospel of Truth and the Excerpts from Theodotus, to the Gospel of Philip, where it receives its most extensive explication. It is argued that the Apocalypse of Paul consciously builds on this intellectual current using the apostle’s image in order to construct an ideal authoritative account of how such ascent ought to appear among Valentinian initiates and thereby contribute to the rhetorical and psychological construction of future experiences among the elect community.
Is home where the heart is? Landscape, materiality and aesthetics in Tibetan exile.
Keywords: Social Anthropology
Materiality
Aesthetics
Anthropology
Refugee
Material Culture
Home
Tibet
Ethnography
Landscape

In 2000, Tim Ingold argued: 'people do not import their ideas, plans or mental representations into the world, since that very world … is the homeland of their thoughts. Only because they already dwell therein can they think the thoughts they do' (2000: 186). He thus stressed the importance of place in the construction and reproduction of culture. How does this play out, however, among refugees who by virtue of their displacement must 'import' cultural concepts into alien environments? For those outside a 'homeland' how do they make sense of the world? In this thesis I examine the relationship between Tibetan refugees, the landscapes of their exile and their wider material environment. Drawing on theory in material anthropology and thirteen months’ ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two contrasting Tibetan refugee settlements in northwest India, I analyse how Tibetan refugees are affected by, and in turn exert agency over their material world.
Through this discussion, I reflect on the multiple and mutable meanings of home for Tibetan refugees, many of whom were born and/or raised in India. Few scholarly discussions of home encompass both its affective and imaginary dimensions; this thesis achieves this by focusing on the material and aesthetic aspects of home. Through this lens, I explore how refugees both work hard to develop a sense of home in exile, yet simultaneously destabilise this by orienting themselves towards an imagined home in a future 'free Tibet'. The discussion unfolds thematically, through chapters focusing on several material categories: landscape, the built environment, dress and objects. I develop my analysis via existing theoretical literature in material anthropology and its sub-disciplines, transnational and migration studies, and area-specialist literature in Tibetology.
Structural studies of peptide binding to chicken class I MHC molecules, the CD6-CD166 interaction and enzymes involved in bacterial sulfur metabolism
Keywords: Class I MHC
Activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM)
Bacterial sulfur metabolism
T cell activation
CD166
Major histocompatibility complex (MHC)
CD6
X-ray crystallography
Chicken MHC

T cell activation is critical for the initiation of the adaptive immune response against both pathogens and malignant cells. This process depends on a complex set of finely tuned interactions, not only between the T cell receptor (TCR) and peptide-MHC complexes, but also between numerous accessory molecules. Chapter 2 of this thesis examines CD6, a transmembrane glycoprotein predominantly found on the surface of T cells, and its interaction with CD166, another transmembrane glycoprotein found on the surface of antigen presenting cells (APCs), amongst others. This interaction is required for optimal T cell activation. I have solved the X-ray crystal structures of the three extracellular SRCR domains of CD6 and the two membrane distal IgSF domains of CD166. In collaboration with colleagues, the ligand binding sites on both CD6 and CD166 have been further defined. We have also shown that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in CD6 caused glycosylation, hindering the CD6/CD166 interaction. Finally, native mass spectrometry revealed competition between the heterophilic CD6/CD166 interaction and the homophilic CD166 interaction.
The ethics of deception: secrecy, transparency and deceit in the origins of modern political thought
Keywords: tacitism
privacy
secrecy
reason of state
statecraft
deception
history
dissimulation
transparency
political thought

The purpose of this thesis is to reflect on the importance that deception has had on the efficient functioning of societies and the development of individuals. I attempt to do so by adopting an historical perspective, analysing the development of the notion of lawful deception during the Middle Ages and, mainly, the Early Modern Age through theological and political discourses.
The scope of my investigation is pan-European. I examine sources from the major Western territories, but I pay special attention to those produced in the Spanish-Habsburg Empire, which was a major political and cultural entity during this period.
My claim is that between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, the West witnessed the formation of what I call an "Ethics of Deception:" a trend of thought that, without challenging the Augustinian prohibition of lying, recognised deception as intrinsic to nature and mankind, thereby justifying its use from moral and political perspectives. I explain how this intellectual process was conducted, fostered by new social realities, and helped by the flourishing of casuistry, tacitism and neostoicism.
Furthermore, I argue that the acceptance of deception contributed to the creation of a new view of the world, language and human interaction. A view that is in the very basis of some of the most characteristic features of Baroque art and that opened the door to some of the most transcendental cultural changes of the period, such as the creation of politics governed by reason rather than faith, the secularisation of social behaviour, and the emergence of the notions of individualism, privacy and freedom of thought. For these reasons, I claim that deception played an important role in the shaping of Modernity.
Anion-induced molecular motion within interlocked structures
Keywords: Molecular machines

This thesis describes the construction and exploration of a variety of interlocked structures that exhibit anion-induced molecular motion of their constituent parts.
Chapter One provides a brief overview of the field of supramolecular chemistry; in particular anion recognition and the concept of mechanically interlocked molecules and their applications in the fields of nanotechnology.
Chapter Two describes the preparation of a series of bistable [2]rotaxanes followed by thorough investigation of their dynamic properties. Specifically, the success of an iodo-triazolium–naphthalene-diimide-based two-station axle component to facilitate halide-stimulated large-amplitude translational motion of the macrocyclic wheel in a [2]rotaxane is demonstrated.
Chapter Three expands on the design principles established in the previous chapter with the synthesis of exotic higher-order structures including the first halogen bonding [3]rotaxane. These systems are capable of the recognition and colorimetric sensing of oxoanions via a novel dynamic pincer-like motion of the macrocycle components.
Chapter Four further highlights the capabilities of controlled co-conformational switching in interlocked structures, resulting in a unique mechanism to accomplish anion sensing. The incorporation of C60 fullerene- and ferrocenyl-reporter groups into a four-station [3]rotaxane enables sensing of chloride to be realised by a dual fluorescence response.
Chapter Five presents the synthesis of novel interlocked structures containing a substituted perylene diimide motif that functions as a recognition site for macrocycles. Chloride binding stimulates translational motion in a [3]rotaxane and unprecedented rotary motion in a [3]catenane, with co-conformational changes in both systems resulting in a colorimetric response for this anion.
Chapter Six describes experimental procedures used throughout this work and details the characterisation of novel compounds.
Chapter Seven provides a summary of the major conclusions from the research described in this thesis.
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Residual stresses, cracking and stress intensity factors for vickers indentations in ceramics
Keywords: Residual stresses
fluorescence
indentation
Raman

Vickers hardness indentations on AI2O3 were studied comprehensively. Beneath indentation, there is a well-defined interface between the plastic zone and the elastic region and the radius of the plastic zone is close to half the indentation diagonal length. The residual stress field around the indentations has been measured by optical fluorescence microscope (FLM) scans. Yoffe's stress model predicted higher stresses than the experimental stress results. the radial crack lengths were measured by FLM scans, and the optical microscope (OM) and SEM methods for crack length measurements were found to significantly underestimate the crack lengths. Post indentation slow crack growth was found on the radial cracks were determined. The radial-median crack system was found for alumina indentations. Lateral cracks were also found for all the indentations, and their depths were close to the half diagonal lengths. the lateral cracks joined the tips of the radial cracks and had the similar growth rates to the radial cracks.
The indentation parameters of SiC and 3Y-TZP indentations were also measured. Lateral cracking was observed beneath in SiC indentations but not in case of £Y-TZP. The depth of the lateral crack of the SiC indentation was found to be close to the half diagonal length. the residual stresses and surface profiles around SiC and 3Y-TZP indentations were measured. the lateral crack lengths of the SiC determined from the surface profiles were close to the radial crack lengths. For TZP indentations, the highest volume fraction of the monoclinic zirconia phase was found near the edge of the indentations. Surface uplifts around indentations were found to have the profiles matching with distributions of the volume fraction of the monoclinic phase.
A new Vickers indentation residual stress model has been presented using assumptions based on the experimental findings on alumina indentations. The main novelty of the model is that it predicts the stresses in the presence of cracking, and is therefore testable. The residual stress model has successfully predicted the stress fields around the polycrystalline alumina and SiC indentations but failed on TZP indentations because of the lack of lateral cracking and the tetragonal-to-monoclinic phase transformation. From the residual stress model, a new formula for the indentation stress intensity factor K was derived, which provided good results for threshold stress intensity factor, K10, on alumina, and fracture toughness, KIC, for SiC, and Si3N4. Three adjustable parameters can be added to strengthen existing model.
Background independence in classical and quantum gravity
Keywords: Background independence
Spacetime theories
General relativity

Background independence is sometimes claimed to be the defining characteristic of general relativity (GR), and a necessary feature of any candidate quantum extension. In this thesis, we appraise numerous definitions of background independence, before assessing whether various spacetime theories—both classical and quantum—manifest this quality. Our aims are threefold: (i) to clarify the best possible understanding of background independence; (ii) to assess the extent to which, at the level of classical spacetime theories, background independence is characteristic of GR alone; and (iii) to assess whether this quality is in fact manifest in some of our best candidate quantum gravity theories.
Single-molecule imaging of electroporated chemotaxis proteins in live bacteria
Keywords: Electroporation
Chemotaxis
Single-molecule microscopy
Bacterial flagellar motor

Many species of motile bacteria use rotating extracellular filaments to propel themselves through liquid media. Each filament is driven by a membrane spanning rotary nano-machine called the bacterial flagellar motor. In Escherichia coli and Rhodobacter sphaeroides the motor is powered by a transmembrane flux of H+ and the chemical energy is converted into work through a ring of stator units pushing on a central rotor.
Chemotaxis is the biasing of movement towards regions that contain higher concentrations of beneficial, or lower concentrations of toxic, chemicals and is one of the most well-understood bacterial sensory pathways. Upon phosphorylation, the response regulator protein CheY transduces changes of environmental chemical gradients detected by specific transmembrane chemoreceptors to the flagellar motors: it binds to the N-terminus of the FliM proteins in the C-ring part of the motor inducing a cascade of conformational changes that modulate the direction of rotation (in E. coli) or the motor stopping (in R. sphaeroides).
In this project, a novel technique for protein internalisation in live bacteria based on electroporation and single-molecule imaging using a custom-built microscope are combined to perform an in-depth investigation of the interactions between wild type and mutant chemotaxis proteins, chemoreceptors and the motor complex in vivo.
Chemotaxis proteins are purified, labelled with organic dyes and inserted into live E.coli and R. sphaeroides cells by electroporation. In typical experiments exploiting this new capability, video fluorescence microscopy shows single molecules diffusing within cells, interacting with the sensory clusters and individual flagellar motors. The work described in this thesis allows for the first time imaging and tracking of single dye-labelled chemotaxis proteins performing their function as response regulators in real time. Diffusion as well as relevant binding constants and dwell times at each end of their journey are measured, providing also a comparison of such quantities across different protein mutants, genetic backgrounds and environmental conditions.
Formal analysis of modern security protocols in current standards
Keywords: actor key compromise
KCI
AKC
IEC
TLS
security standards
security protocols
standardisation
ISO
IETF

While research has been done in the past on evaluating standardised security protocols, most notably TLS, there is still room for improvement. Modern security protocols need to be rigorously and thoroughly analysed, ideally before they are widely deployed, so as to minimise the impact of often creative, powerful adversaries. We explore the potential vulnerabilities of modern security protocols specified in current standards, including TLS 1.2, TLS 1.3, and SSH. We introduce and formalise the threat of Actor Key Compromise (AKC), and show how this threat can and cannot be avoided in the protocol design stage. We find AKC-related and other serious security flaws in protocols from the ISO/IEC 11770 standard, find realistic exploits, and harden the protocols to ensure strong security properties. Based on our work, the ISO/IEC 11770 working group is releasing an updated version of the standard that incorporates our suggested improvements. We analyse the unilaterally and mutually authenticated modes of the TLS 1.3 Handshake and Record protocols according to revision 06 of their specification draft. We verify session key secrecy and perfect forward secrecy in both modes with respect to a powerful symbolic attacker and an unbounded number of threads. Subsequently, we model and verify the standard authenticated key exchange requirements in revision 10. We analyse a proposal for its extension and uncover a flaw in it, which directly impacts the draft of revision 11.
Methods for determining lung function from tracer gas concentrations
Keywords: Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC)
Lung function testing
Mathematical modelling
Parameter estimation
Model selection
Mechanical ventilation
Ventilator associated lung injury
Intensive care unit

The ability to routinely determine Functional Residual Capacity (FRC) or the ventilation-volume homogeneity of ventilated patients has been a long held goal. Such measures have the potential to greatly improve the treatment of patients by preventing ventilator related lung injuries. Many methods have been proposed, but none have seen routine clinical use. This thesis develops methods of determining such information from tracer gas concentrations, modelling the concentration of the entire expired breath in an attempt to extract more information from the data.
A method of using such models to produce a distribution of alveolar volumes, which broadens with an increase in the inhomogeneity of simulated data, was developed. When compared to the Homogeneity Index [Whiteley et al., Respir. Physiol., 124(1):65-83.], the method determines the homogeneity more robustly, particularly when noise is present in the flow signal. In real data from a water-displacement bench lung it also produced tentatively better results. However it did not perform as expected for 25% of the data sets.
Investigations into determining FRC, highlighted the need to include mixing within the dead space, which is a move away from traditional dead space models. In human data a dead space with two mixing compartments provided the best FRC results, reducing the mean limits of agreement with plethysmography by 32% when compared to the other practical methods investigated. Compared to data from the literature, this method was no worse than Helium Dilution (the bias and limits of agreement were within the 95% confidence interval) and the limits of agreement were significantly better than for the LUFU device. Thus, if the results are replicated in clinical practice, the method is likely to be robust enough to positively influence patient care. Attempts to correct for time offsets between the flow and concentrations signals did not improve results for humans, despite showing some improvements for a water-displacement bench lung.
Risk-based flood protection decisions in the context of climatic variability and change
Keywords: decision analysis
nonstationary
flood risk assessment

Flood events have caused detrimental impacts to humans' lives and anthropogenic climate change is anticipated to exacerbate the impact. It has been recognized that a long-term planning through risk-based optimization of flood defence will lead to a cost-effective solution for managing flood risk, but the prevailing assumption of stationarity may lead to an erroneous solution. In attempt to investigate the potential impact of the uncertain underlying statistical characteristics of extreme flow series to flood protection decisions, this research explores risk-based flood protection decisions in the context of climatic variability and change. In particular, the implications of persistence series and nonstationarity were investigated through hypothetical and real case studies. Monte Carlo simulation approach was adopted to capture the uncertainty due to the natural variability. For persistence model, AR(1) was integrated with the GEV model to simulate extreme flow series with persistence. To test the effects of nonstationary, GEV models with a linear location parameter and time as covariate were adopted. Rational decision makers' behaviours were simulated through a designed decision analysis framework. One of the main findings from the research is that the traditional stationary assumption should remain the basic assumption due to insignificant difference of the decisions’ economic performance. However, exploration of the nonstationarity assumption enabled identification of options that are robust to climate uncertainties. It is also found that optimized protection of combined measures of flood defence and property-level protection may provide a cost-effective solution for local flood protection. Overall, the simulation and case studies enlighten practitioners and decision makers with new evidence, and may guide to practical enhancement of long term flood risk management decision making.
Three-dimensional dislocation dynamics modelling of particle-reinforced ferrous alloys for nuclear applications
Keywords: Irradiation damage
Oxide Dispersion Strengthening (ODS)
Dislocation dynamics

An existing point defect bulk diffusion model of dislocation climb is developed to incorporate both vacancies and interstitials, and supersaturations of these defects. Calculations are carried out for body-centred cubic (bcc) iron using this model, which show that the interstitial nature of experimentally observed irradiation-induced damage loops can be explained by the preferential osmotic absorption of supersaturated interstitials over vacancies by damage loops.
The model is implemented into a 3D dislocation dynamics code, together with a dual glide and climb time step method, and spherical obstacles which are impenetrable to dislocations, all of which required original code development. Simulations of dislocation-inclusion unpinning via climb in particle-reinforced bcc iron are conducted, and the creep strain rate is estimated from the unpinning time data. The thermal creep strain rates are seen to be strongly temperature-dependent, as expected. Varying the applied load and dispersion properties is seen to have a relatively small effect, and remarkably the creep rates exhibit no dependence on the particle size and number density for a given volume fraction of obstacles. The thermal creep strain rates predicted are consistent with experimental observation.
The irradiation creep strain rates are seen to vary much less strongly with temperature, also as expected. These results suggest that in particle-reinforced alloys under advanced nuclear reactor operating conditions, it is possible the irradiation creep rate will be orders of magnitude larger than the thermal creep rate at this temperature, depending on the value of the steady-state point defect supersaturations available to drive dislocation climb. In this case, the use of such alloys for advanced nuclear applications will be somewhat limited.