VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Human-structure interaction in cantilever grandstands
Keywords: dynamics

There is a risk that excessive vibration in long span cantilever grandstands can be triggered by the spectators synchronising their jumps to the music played. If the jumping frequency excites a resonance of the grandstand, large force could be generated. This thesis studies human-structure interaction in cantilever grandstands, with emphasis on modelling the passive and jumping crowds, and analysing the response of a single degree-of-freedom (SDOF) structural system. Preliminary work on analysing a cantilever occupied by seated humans shows that it is acceptable to use a SDOF structural system for analysis which meant emphasis of later work could be placed on understanding the interaction between a passive crowd and the structure. Human dynamic models from published biomechanics studies are used to develop a passive crowd model. A transfer function, fitted to the crowd apparent mass, is used to define the crowd model. It is found that the passive crowd can be approximated well by using a single 2DOF system. The combined passive crowd-structure system is modelled as a feedback system and a parametric study is conducted. It is found that the passive crowd adds significant mass and damping to the structure and these effects vary with the natural frequency of the structure. Records of forces of people jumping to a beat are used to develop a probabilistic model of crowd jumping loads. Key parameters are introduced to characterise the timing and shape of the jumping impulses. An analytical function is used to approximate the impulse shape. All parameters are characterised with probability distribution functions. Using the fitted probability distribution functions, the Monte Carlo method is used to simulate individual jumping load-time histories and to obtain the structural responses due to group jumping loads. The variations of the structural response with the natural frequency of the empty structure and the size of the active crowd are presented in charts. As expected, the worst response is found on structures with natural frequencies coinciding with the first three harmonics of the crowd jumping loads. For structures occupied by passive crowds, a significant reduction in the structural response is found at resonance excited by the second and third harmonics, due to high levels of damping provided by the passive crowds. On variation of the structural response with the crowd size, it is found that the structural response becomes asymptotic for groups larger than 16 people. Experimental individual jumping and bobbing tests are conducted at six distinct beat frequencies to look at the variations of the impulse shape and degree of synchronisation with the beat frequency. The bobbing action is found to have a higher inherent variability between individuals compared to jumping. Jumping tests involving two people facing each other are also conducted. The results show that there is a better synchronisation when two people are jumping together compared to when jumping alone.
Harm and responsibility in hate speech
Keywords: harm
free speech
responsibility
hate speech

The legal restriction of hate speech – i.e. speech that expresses contempt for people on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, or sexuality – is now commonplace in liberal legal systems outside the United States. This thesis takes up the question of whether restrictions on hate speech are generally justifiable. I begin by explaining why liberals should not dismiss anti-hate speech law from the outset as an intolerable violation of free speech. My analysis of the case for anti-hate speech law is thereafter framed by two main concerns. Firstly, I stress that if we are to impose legal restrictions on hate speech, we must establish not just that there are harmful outcomes associated with hate speech, but that those who engage in hate speech are responsible for those outcomes. Secondly, I argue that restrictions on hate speech should be assessed in two distinct classes. Inquiries into the justificatory bases of anti-hate speech law are typically conducted as if informative generalisations can be made about how the law should respond to anything that is properly called hate speech. Against this approach, I argue that while the liberal state can and should impose restrictions on directly harmful hate speech (in which hate speech is used to threaten, harass, and incite violence), restrictions on indirectly harmful hate speech – in which hate speech (allegedly) contributes to identity-based social hierarchies and their concomitant harms – are not justifiable. The problem with restrictions on indirectly harmful hate speech is not the structure of the liability-ascription framework under which they operate. Rather, I argue, the problem is epistemic: we cannot confidently judge that hate-speakers are in fact responsible for contributing, more than trivially, to the harmful patterns of identity-based inequality and disadvantage in light of which restrictions on indirectly harmful hate speech may be defended in principle.
Identification and characterisation of determinants of genome stability in response to a double-strand break
Keywords: DNA damage repair
oncology

Chromosomal rearrangements can lead to loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and oncogene activation, both of which represent possible causative events in cancer development. Such outcomes can result from the misrepair of DNA damage arising from a variety of events including DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), collapsed replication forks, and dysfunctional telomeres. In response to a DSB, chromosomal stability is principally maintained through the two major DNA repair pathways; non- homologous DNA end-joining (NHEJ) and homologous recombination (HR).
The objective of this thesis was to identify novel factors functioning in prevention of chromosomal instability in response to a DSB in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. To achieve this, a central aim was to identify the genes mutated in a number of radiation-sensitive mutants in fission yeast, previously isolated by the laboratory. These include the ‘loh’ mutants loh-2, loh-5, loh-6 and loh-7, which were found to harbour mutations in known DNA repair genes rad3, rad17, and rad57.
Further, a pan-genomic screen for novel HR repair factors was carried out. The Bioneer Version 2 deletion-library, consisting of 3308 haploid deletion strains, was screened for strains displaying hypersensitivity to the DNA damaging agents MMS, bleomycin and camptothecin. This screen yielded 209 hits which were further characterised, utilising a set of non-essential Ch16 minichromosomes . The minichromosome Ch16-LMYAU harbours an HO endonuclease recognition sequence and a centromere-distal ade6-M216 heteroallele. Following break-induction, failed repair of the DSB leads to loss of the ade6 allele, indicated by pink sectoring on low adenine plates. 39 sectoring hits were identified and further characterised to quantify levels of gene conversion via HR in response to a DSB, utilising Ch16-RMYAH. As a result of this study, a group of novel genes functioning in HR repair were identified.
Finally, one of these hits, putative RNA metabolism protein Nrl1, was subjected to further characterisation, associating this protein with DNA damage repair for the first time.
The work presented here, documents the approaches taken to successfully identify novel DNA repair factors in fission yeast.
Examination of the epidemiology of acute myocardial infarction in England using linked hospital and mortality data
Keywords: survival
incidence
linked data
England
myocardial infarction

Background: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a major public health concern. There are limited recent national-level population-based epidemiological data on AMI in England. As a result, the current burden of disease is difficult to quantify.
Aim: This thesis addresses gaps in knowledge on AMI in England. It aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of AMI epidemiology over the last decade.
Methods: This is a population-based study using person-linked routine hospital and mortality data for England for the period from 1 April 1998 to 31 March 2008. Main outcome measures include: trends in event rate, case fatality, and mortality for AMI, as well as trends in characteristics of, and hospital care for, the AMI patient population between 1999 and 2007; rates of occurrence and case fatality for first and recurrent AMI in 2007; and five-year survival and risk of a second AMI for 2003 to 2007.
Results
Conclusions: There have been substantial improvements in AMI occurrence, survival, and mortality over the last decade in England. This was driven by improvements in prevention and acute medical treatment. The results in this thesis emphasise the importance of both.
The politics of brokerage and transnational advocacy for LGBT human rights
Keywords: activism
anthropology
human rights
organizational ethnography
LGBT

In this project, I look at the work of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and the role that brokers at the organization play in constructing, promoting, and institutionalizing a body of LGBT human rights. While a great deal is being written about the diffusion of LGBT politics and human rights discourses from the Global North, there are few ethnographic analyses of who is doing the exporting, how, and toward what ends. Based on a year of fieldwork in IGLHRC’s New York and Cape Town offices, I look at the history of IGLHRC, the interactions among brokers and how these shape their daily work, how brokers understand their mandate and the hybridity that it so often requires, and how partnership with groups in the Global South, the production, verification, and circulation of information, and the possibilities and constraints of the formal human rights arena all shape the work that brokers do. Ultimately, I conclude that human rights advocacy must be understood holistically if it is to be understood at all. Such advocacy always necessarily involves a degree of theoretical elaboration, promotion, and codification by human rights defenders and NGOs, and focusing exclusively on one or another of these aspects paints a skewed portrait of what it means to work within a human rights framework. Drawing from the anthropology of sexuality, queer theory, literature on brokerage, and interdisciplinary studies of transnational advocacy networks, this project aims to deepen understandings of how LGBT NGOs and the brokers that animate them regularly engage in the construction, promotion, and institutionalization of particular understandings of sexuality and the claims that can be made by sexual subjects globally.
Writing religious communities: the spiritual lives and manuscript cultures of English women, 1740-90
Keywords: women
life writings
diaries
letters
religion

This thesis examines the spiritual lives of eighteenth-century English women through an analysis of their personal writings. It explores the manuscripts of religious women who practised their faith by writing letters, diaries, poetry, and other highly personal texts—texts that give unique access to the interior, spiritual lives of their authors. Concerned not only with the individual meaning of those writings but with their communal meanings, it argues that women’s informal writing, written within personal relationships, acted to undergird, guide, and indeed shape religious communities in vital and unexplored ways. Through an exploration of various significant personal relationships, both intra- and inter-generationally, this thesis demonstrates the multiple ways in which women were active in ‘writing religious communities’. The women discussed here belonged to communities that habitually communicated through personal writing. At the same time, their acts of writing were creative acts, powerful to build and shape religious communities: these women wrote religious community.
A series of interweaving case studies guide my analysis and discussion. The thesis focuses on Catherine Talbot (1721–70), Anne Steele (1717–78), and Ann Bolton (1743–1822), and on their literary interactions with friends and family. Considered together, these subjects and sources allow comparison across denomination, for Talbot was Anglican, Steele Baptist, and Bolton Methodist. After an introductory chapter, Chapter Two focuses on spiritual friendship, showing how women used personal writings within peer relationships to think through religious ideas and encourage faith commitments. Chapter Three considers older women as spiritual elders, arguing that elderly women sometimes achieved honoured status in religious communities and were turned to for spiritual direction. Chapter Four explores the ways in which women offered religious instruction to spiritual children through the creative use of informal writings, including diaries and poetry. And Chapter Five considers women’s personal writings as spiritual legacy, as they were preserved by family and friends and continued to function in religious communities after the death of their authors.
Interfacial instabilities and wetting behaviour in confinement
Keywords: droplet pinch-off
wetting
Saffman-Taylor instability
contact line instability
colloid-polymer mixtures
Physical and theoretical chemistry

Interfacial instabilities and wetting phenomena of phase separated colloid-polymer mixtures are addressed in this study. Colloidal particles offer certain advantages over molecular systems, due to their larger lengthscales and slower timescales. Moreover, the phenomena can be directly visualised using laser scanning confocal microscopy, and a perfect match with soft-lithography fabrication techniques can be exploited.
In particular, we study the viscous fingering instability in three dimensions, focusing on the role of wetting conditions and of thermal fluctuations. Combined with results obtained by lattice Boltzmann simulations, we reveal that the cross-over of the meniscus in the direction across the channel thickness is controlled by the capillary and Peclet numbers, and viscosity contrast of the system. The curvature of the meniscus has a pronounced effect on the onset of the Saffman-Taylor instability, in which the formation of the viscous fingers is suppressed up to a certain threshold. Furthermore, we investigate a related contact line instability, which leads to entrainment and subsequent droplet pinch-off. A theoretical prediction for the onset of the instability is developed, which shows a good agreement with the experimental observations and yields a method to directly measure the slip length of the interface. The large thermal fluctuations of our interface play an important role in pinch-off events, leading to periodic emission of droplets of similar sizes.
Finally, we study wetting phenomena at geometrically sculpted walls. We focus on the shape, the thickness and the radius of curvature of the adsorbed liquid film, and find good agreement with theory. Changing the curvature of the wedge from a flat surface to a capil- lary slit furthermore smoothly connects wetting behaviour and capillary condensation, again in qualitative agreement with theory. Non-equilibrium effects may interfere with the data and are difficult to rule out. We end with recommendations for future work.
Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models with money, default and collateral
Keywords: dynamic stochastic general equilibrium
collateral
money
default

This D.Phil. dissertation investigates the areas in financial stability. The three comprising essays have a common ground: money, default and collateral in the theory of finance.
Chapter Two (co-authored with Prof. Dimitrios Tsomocos), which is titled “A Dynamic General Equilibrium Model to Analyse Financial Stability”, aims to refine and improve existing DSGE models in two ways. First, it incorporates hitherto neglected components such as endogenous default, money via cash-in-advance constraints and heterogeneous banking sectors. Thus, in contrast to the New Keynesian approach, here it is liquidity and default that are the driving forces behind our results. Second, in focusing on both monetary policy and fiscal policy, it elucidates how interactions between the two policy arenas affect macroeconomic fluctuations, particularly in regard to financial stability. Through these refinements, we put forward the policy response necessary to achieve a stable financial system using a calibrated DSGE model.
Chapter Three, entitled “Monetary Policy in a Time of Natural Disaster”, investigates the appropriate monetary policy response to natural disasters in the DSGE framework. I develop a realistic model for financial turmoil by evaluating the impact of natural disasters on credit markets by including financial frictions such as endogenous default and liquidity constraints. I show that the standard Taylor rule (1993) response in models with money and default is to increase the nominal interest rate after a disaster shock. However, in fact an inflation-targeting policy (i.e. monetary contraction) is not compatible with mitigating financial fragility in the highly indebted economy with near-zero interest rate, and arguably the `Taylor Principle' does not hold in such as economy (e.g. Japan in 2011). Nevertheless, expansionary monetary policy induces a debt overhang even further.
Chapter Four, “Collateral, Default and Asset Prices”, uses a DSGE framework to put forward a model of how agents adjust their asset holdings in response to deflationary shocks. By introducing collateral constraints in the default decision, I capture some original features of the early debt-deflation literature, such as distress selling and instability. The estimated model successfully delivers a procyclical feedback loop for the default channel, which consists of foreclosure, high borrowing costs, inefficient capital allocation, and a further decrease in the output level. I investigated recessionary shocks inducing deflation in commodity and/or asset prices for monetary policy experiments. This, therefore, underlines the importance of monetary policy in restoring financial stability during a deflationary period.
Non-invasive structural and functional connectivity of the in-vivo human brain
Keywords: functional MRI
brain connectivity
human connectome
MRI
diffusion imaging

Neuroimaging enables us to image the human brain and reveal information about its structure and function. Diffusion imaging infers anatomical white matter trajectories. Resting state functional MRI indirectly measures neural activity by determining Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signal response at rest, inferring functional connections between brain areas. These independent neuroimaging modalities are advantageous due to their non-invasive and in-vivo nature, providing insight into the human connectome. Their relationship is yet not understood. We explored the structural and functional connectivity of the human brain at a macroscopic level, and the extent to which anatomical connections constrain functional connections. We analysed the correlations between functional and structural connectomes and found a strong correlation beyond the mere effect of distance between brain regions (Chapter 6). Next we delved into two different types of brain organisations - topographic and nuclear. Topographic connections between cortical areas are often ignored in macro-connectome models. We investigated such arrangements by modelling and simulating gradient of connectivity patterns as an example to encourage and bring awareness of their properties for future involvement into studying brain connectivity (Chapter 7). Finally we studied nuclear brain organisations in the human amygdala. The amygdala can be clustered into two main subdivisions, basolateral and centromedial. The basolateral complex consists of the lateral, basal and accessory basal subnuclei, whereas the centromedial complex comprises of the central and medial subnuclei. We utilised the two independent imaging modalities to parcellate the amygdala into its respective subnuclei in a data-driven approach using the Human Connectome Project (HCP) data. We studied the distinct afferent/efferent cortical projections of the human amygdala, and we parcellated the amygdala into its five subnuclei, anatomically and into two subdivisions, functionally (Chapter 8). Studying the structural and functional connectivity in-vivo and non-invasively has provided evidence of their similarities, at the cortical and subcortical level.
Descartes, Entretien avec Burman
Keywords: Philosophy
Descartes, René, 1596-1650
Burman, Frans, 1628-1679

The Conversation with Burman, a comprehensive and densely packed philosophical interview, is a work of extraordinary interest. In it, Descartes is closely questioned about some of the most central problems in his philosophy and expresses himself with a directness and informality which is not to be found in the published works or correspondence. Isolated references to the Conversation sprinkled through articles on Descartes, particularly in recent years, show that its importance is being increasingly recognised; but it has never been translated into English, and the work as a whole has received no systematic attention by philosophers. It is the aim of this thesis to fill both these gaps, by presenting and English version of the work and by providing a detailed philosophical commentary on the text. The main purpose of the Commentary is to show how the Conversation throws a fresh light on some of the most vexed and crucial issues in Descartes' philosophy. [...]
Do the middle shout loudest? Signs and (counter)signals of trustworthiness and toughness
Keywords: Laboratory experiments
Information
Trust
Costly signals
Toughness
Conflict

What do we do when we realise that others with whom we interact already know something about relevant qualities of ours? Do we relying on the information that we naturally emit to get our message across, or do we take actions to try to change the situation in our favour? And, does the information that we emit, generated intentionally or unintentionally, allow us to cooperate with others and conflict to be resolved peacefully? Drawing on signalling and 'countersignalling' theories, and a recent behavioural theory, I explore these questions using two experiments in which the relevant qualities are trustworthiness and toughness, and observational data from the 1997 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities concerning violence among prisoners. In the experiments, subjects, who do not know what will follow, initially create a natural indicator of their qualities, and subsequently, have the opportunity to send another indicator, this time fully informed. In one experiment, consistent with countersignalling theory, subjects whose generosity is clear deign to send further information, while those whose generosity can be called under question choose to update their initial action the most. In the other, the toughest subjects put the most effort into getting their message across. Consistent among both, senders' actions correspond to receivers' evaluations. Finally, I find that pertinent information can allow conflicts to be resolved successfully; it is linked with less violence in prison and in a laboratory-based contest.