VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Non-equilibrium dynamics in tunnel-coupled Bose gases

This thesis presents four theoretical studies on pairs of tunnel-coupled one-dimensional Bose gases. It first recapitulates how at low energies, the gases’ symmetric and antisymmetric combinations of density and phase are governed by two Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquids (TLL). Tunneling between the gases is believed to yield a quantum sine-Gordon model for the antisymmetric sector. The theoretical background and various applications of this model are summarized, before presenting the first new theoretical results. These show in detail how matter-wave interference measurements can access eigenvalues of the relative phase operator from the TLL, allowing to study the operator’s distribution functions and multi-point correlators. The derivation clarifies why this construction is limited to short expansion times and weak interactions and what modifications occur away from this limit. This leads to a new formula predicting longitudinal “density ripples”.
The second half of the thesis was stimulated by recent and unexplained experimental results in the tunnel-coupled case, where density-phase oscillations were seen to rapidly damp out. The work first studies whether this can be explained within a translationally invariant sine-Gordon model. Treating this model in a self-consistent harmonic approximation leads to a negative conclusion. Second, the next leading perturbation due to the tunnel-coupling is investigated in a box geometry. Although this yields a non-negligible coupling between the (anti)symmetric sectors, the effects are not strong enough to explain the damping. Finally, a new low-energy theory is developed, which does not rely on the TLL and which allows to study the roles of both higher excited levels of the transverse potential and of a realistic longitudinal potential. Strong damping is observed as a result of the longitudinal potential, with a dependence on the particle number that is compatible with experimental results. This indicates that performing the experiments in a hard-wall box potential might eliminate the damping effects.

Advisor: Essler, F
New military culture of the mid-Ming literati: its origins, development, and legacy

Recent research has shed light on imperial military culture of the early Ming, where the emperors actively engaged in martial activities such as military reviews and royal hunts when they were not leading armies in the field. The production of this culture was aided by the court officials who wrote celebratory paeans in praise of these activities, recorded and interpreted these events. However by the mid-Ming, a new military culture emerged and replaced the state-directed one. Spearheaded by the literati, this new military culture was a result of the increasing militarisation of the civil officials vis-à-vis the demilitarisation of the Ming emperors after the Tumu incident when the emperor-led Ming army was routed and the commander in chief was abducted by the Mongols. This thesis deals with this new military culture by examining it from three angles. First, I will examine the life and career of the celebrated literatus Tang Shunzhi who managed to successfully express his martial ideals in his literary output and also his service to the state. Next, at the other end of the spectrum, we have He Liangchen whose life and career that we know little about and his only claim to fame was a military text he wrote. With this juxtaposition, I hope to cast a wider light on how literati from different social backgrounds actually engaged with the military culture. Finally, my examination concludes with a collective of literati who belonged to the institution of the private secretariat or mufu, which I believe, provided an official platform for these literati to take part in the production and consumption of this military culture. This new military culture spearheaded by literati elites was to leave a lasting legacy till the end of the dynasty.

Advisor: Ter Haar, BJ
Constitutional hybridity, the party-state and executive-legislative relations in Chinese Polities: China, Hong Kong and Taiwan

This research explores how the constitutional hybridity of different traditions shape the core political institutions in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Three sets of constitutional traditions mix, intertwine and interact in these political systems: a Chinese tradition, a Communist tradition, and a Western tradition. The most crucial platforms on which these dynamics play out are the party-state, in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and executive-legislative relations (PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan). It is exactly through such interplay that the core features of Chinese political systems are formulated. The contents of such traditions are carefully analyzed in this thesis, to highlight the core elements that shape the constitutional landscape of Chinese political systems. By investigating the relevant literature on constitutional hybridity, especially literature about the mixed constitution and hybrid regimes, this thesis identifies some major dynamics of constitutional hybridity. Among them, regime inclusiveness, legitimacy clash, the institutionalization of politics, and political opportunism are of exceptional significance regarding Chinese polities. The explanatory powers of this thesis apply but are not limited to the actual patterns of governance in China, the failure of Hong Kong’s supposed executive-led governance, and political gridlock in Taiwan. This research also shows that constitutional hybridity is not inherently positive or negative. It depends on the outcomes it produces. If these above-mentioned problems could be curbed, then hybridity could be effectively mobilized to facilitate political reform. Based on such understanding, the thesis formulates certain institutional suggestions for the further political reform of Chinese polities.

Keywords: Party-State
Constitutional Hybridity
Authoritarianism
Inclusiveness
Agenda-setting
Executive- Legislative Relations
Legitimacy
Institutional Conflicts
Institutionalization
Veto-playing
Constitutional Tradition
Advisor: Barber, N
Competitive learning in rate coded and spiking neural networks models with applications to vision and audition

Competitive learning is a common and successful approach used to train unsupervised rate-based neural network models. We apply such a technique in this thesis and produce a rate-coded neural network model of pitch processing which provides insights into the training protocols necessary to develop robust pitch representations. However, the extension of reliable unsupervised competitive learning approaches from rate-coded to spiking neural networks has proven challenging, especially when biological plausibility and detail are desired. Transitioning to spiking neural network models is made more difficult by the comparatively high computational cost and complexity of these network models compared to rate-based models.
We describe a transition from rate-based to spiking neural network models and address these outstanding issues. First, we focus on increasing simulation efficiency. We develop a state of the art graphical processing unit (GPU) based spiking neural network simulator which adopts optimisations from central processing unit (CPU) and cluster-based simulators. In benchmarks, we show that our novel simulator is capable of simulation speeds up to an order of magnitude greater than contemporary simulators. This greater simulation speed is intended to enable a higher throughput of spiking neural network simulations and thereby accelerate research. In order to ensure that present and future simulators can be efficiently and effectively compared, we also compile a repository of benchmarks which allow validation of simulator performance and simulated neural network dynamics.
Having developed efficient simulation techniques, we propose a novel excitatory plasticity rule which, when used to train spiking neural networks in conjunction with an existing inhibitory plasticity rule, produces reliable competitive learning. These rules are both unsupervised, use local only information, and depend upon spike-timing in order to compute synaptic weight updates. This learning rule framework is used to produce a model of V1 simple cell receptive field development and shows qualitatively similar behaviour to traditional sparse coding models. During the development of these models we come across a number of challenges, especially in the interactions of inhibitory and excitatory neurons. We pose solutions to these challenges and thereafter suggest some future research questions and avenues for exploration.

Keywords: pitch processing
competitive learning
neural networks
spiking networks
spike timing dependent plasticity
Advisor: Stringer, S
Walker, K
The wholeness of early Chinese texts: Mu Shi 牧誓, Huainanzi 淮南子, and Wu Cheng 武成

What does it mean for a text to be a whole? How do texts achieve wholeness? And how can one determine when they do so? Questions of wholeness have been at the heart of Chinese text studies since the Western Han 漢 (205 BC–9 AD), when scholars attempted some of the earliest known reconstructions, and constructions, of pre-imperial texts. In the two millennia since, almost all early Chinese texts studied have been evaluated in terms of their wholeness, yet within this scholarship, there are many ideas about what makes these texts whole. In many cases, “wholeness” refers to the extent to which a text is seen to resemble an earlier, if not an imagined original form. Alternatively, “wholeness” is taken to refer to a function of texts’ intrinsic features, such as their content or structure. This project, by contrast, posits that “wholeness” does not refer to an immutable property of texts themselves, but to a contingent hermeneutical device or function within the open, kaleidoscopic process of reading, itself negotiated and re-negotiated through this very process. Reading, in short, does not reveal text wholeness (or lack thereof), but rather allows for texts to be made whole, in different and plural ways.

Keywords: Wu Cheng
Early China
Shangshu
Mu Shi
Textuality
Huainanzi
Advisor: Meyer, D
'See and read this book': Reading the typography of English, 1509–1592

This thesis gives a timeline of English typography between 1509 and 1592, and uses it to examine some ways sixteenth-century typography could and can be read. It is founded on a database of typographic descriptions of 10,645 books printed in England or English between 1509 and 1592, representing 82% of known editions for this period.
Chapter 1 applies the data to interrogate the truism that blackletter signified English, while also showing correlations for other languages. The broad developments in the relationship between the English language and the three typefaces are described. The second half of the chapter zooms in to the imperfect manifestation of language on the page. Chapter 2 begins with hypotheses that connect typography to certain religious movements. It shows that typographically anomalous books are often those written by dissident authors, and in this group we find the first English book in roman, the first English roman W, and the first English book in italic. The continental design of English books printed by the Marian exiles in Geneva is read as an index of their enfranchisement in a transnational Calvinist community.
The topic of Chapter 3 is subject. A broad statistical picture of the relationship between typography and subject is given. Two distinct groups of books are considered in this context, both involving the reprinting of extant works. The first shows a fresh enthusiasm for roman type in humanist books between 1519 and 1522; the second argues that William Copland consciously archaized his vernacular reprints of the 1550s and 60s. Chapter 4 applies the concept of skeuomorphism to early modern book history in order to demonstrate how printers evoked engraved texts in printed books. The inscriptional origins of uppercase roman were exploited to evoke certain connotations of that medium, both in paratexts and endotexts. In light of the significance of typography explored in these chapters, Chapter 5 surveys the various strategies used to remediate typography in the present day, often causing its transformission.

Keywords: fonts
Thomas Berthelet
Richard Pynson
Humanism
blackletter
Geneva
Reformation
early modern printing
Database
typography
roman
print
William Copland
italic
Advisor: Smyth, A
Griffiths, J
Dynamics and dimensionality of information representation for higher cognitive function

Many cognitive functions are thought to rely on higher brain regions, in particular the prefrontal cortex. However, neural processing in prefrontal cortex can be notoriously complex, both in single neurons as well as at the population level. This thesis aims to investigate some of the representations and dynamics that emerge from the concerted activity of many neurons during cognitive processing. All experiments in this thesis involved the analysis of electrophysiological recordings from non-human primates taken while the animals performed complex cognitive tasks involving working memory and decision making components. In the first experiment, I analysed prefrontal cortex recordings from animals trained on a cognitively demanding dual-task that required simultaneous performance of two overlapping tasks. I found that many neurons were tuned to mixtures of features from both tasks, thus indicating possible interference on the neural level. However, despite mixed responses in single neurons, population level representations of the two tasks were nearly orthogonal effectively resolving interference between task representations. The temporal dynamics of the dual-task seemed to play a critical role in this orthogonalization process. In a second experiment I took a closer look at the temporal dynamics during cognitive processing by analysing recordings from multiple brain regions while animals performed a working memory task. I found that the heterogeneous dynamics of single neurons i.e. dynamic or stable delay coding could be predicted by their intrinsic temporal firing stability. In the last experiment I investigated how correlations between neurons influence the processing of decision related variables in single neurons. I found that decision related activity in response to a perceptually ambiguous stimulus was predicted by different timescales of interneuronal correlations. Finally, I summarize the major findings of this thesis and discuss future lines of research that aim to explore the circuit mechanisms underlying the observed task representations and how they might arise during learning.

Advisor: Stokes, M
Krug, K
Novel nanocomposites integrating Metal-Organic Frameworks (mofs) for biomedical engineering

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are fascinating hybrid materials, considered as promising nanocarriers for drug delivery. Their tailorability sets MOFs apart from their porous inorganic (zeolites and silica) and organic (carbon nanotubes) counterparts. To enable the use of MOFs for biomedical applications, new developments of sustainable MOF fabrication and characterization methodologies are sought. In this work, a detailed study the fundamental potential of MOFs as a ‘host’ to encapsulate various ‘guest’ drug molecules was carried out. Mechanochemistry and water-based approaches were systematically applied for the preparation of two model systems - the copper-based HKUST-1 and the iron (III) carboxylate MIL-100 (Fe), and theirvfeasibility for the fabrication of drug@MOF assemblies was demonstrated.
First, by leveraging two different mechanochemical approaches (i.e. manualvgrinding versus automated vortex grinding), the effects of different mechanochemical environments on the drug confinement were investigated. The outcomes were reflected in the release kinetics of 5-FU from the MIL-100 host, in which different guest–host interactions yielded from each technique led to variations in the release rate. Secondly, the mechanochemical preparation of drug-loaded MIL-100 (Fe) systems, comprising 5-FU, caffeine, or aspirin as guest molecules revealed the undocumented ‘modulator’ effect presented by 5-FU and caffeine. These molecules can be used to replace highly toxic mineralizers (e.g. hydrofluoric acid) in the preparation of crystalline MIL-100 (Fe). Thirdly, a novel water reconstruction process was developed to acquire highly crystalline MIL-100 (Fe). This approach was harnessed for the facile fabrication of the drug@MIL-100 systems, accomplishing up to ∼65 wt.% of drug cargo. Both strategies, mechanochemical and water-based synthesis, elucidated much-needed pathways towards an environmentally friendly and energy efficient preparation of MOF and guest@MOF systems, with improved cargo encapsulation capabilities.
New possibilities presented by high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering were brought to light for the characterization of drug-MOF interactions and structural changes arising from nanoscale confinement. Finally, this work presented the innovative application of synchrotron microspectroscopy to track the release of 5-FU molecules from a (5-FU@HKUST-1/PU) composite. Using experimental time resolved infrared spectra, jointly with newly developed density functional theory calculations, the detailed dynamics of vibrational motions underpinning the dissociation of 5-FU bound to the framework of HKUST-1 upon water exposure were revealed.
Overall, this work contextualizes future developments of MOFs as efficient drug delivery systems and expands the portfolio of synthetic and characterisation techniques applicable to the large realm of guest@MOF systems.

Keywords: Synchrotron microspectroscopy
Inelastic Neutron Scattering
Mechanochemistry
Drug Delivery
Metal-Organic Frameworks
Advisor: Tan, JC
The hungry self: biomedicine, Buddhism, and the management of craving

This dissertation imagines food attachment as a visceral and relatable manifestation of the existential craving elaborated in Buddhist philosophy. The work examines the accelerating biomedical epidemic of food-related diseases through Buddhist notions of craving, attachment, and addiction, and the potential for their alleviation. Data for this qualitative study was collected through participant-observation at two institutions in a field site: Hennepin County Medical Center and Common Ground Meditation Center in Hennepin County, Minneapolis. The results of this research establish that the biomedical response to food attachment reinforces suffering, and the Buddhist conceptual framework of craving elucidates both the perpetuation and potential for alleviation of this suffering.
Overeating and its corresponding illness conditions constitute the majority of doctor visits within the clinical context studied. The demise of cultural regulators of food leaves eaters confused and stressed in their decisions about what to eat. Patients consistently turn to their physicians for advice about problematic eating, extending the jurisdiction of the medical establishment into the daily technicalities of eating behavior. Doctors, reticent to engage in these conversations to the extent desired by patients, approach food attachment problems from the interventionist frame, relying on referrals, medication, surgery, and a future-based narrative of illness and fear to motivate behavior change. Buddhist thinking, in contrast, regards food attachment as one appearance of the ubiquitous, nonpathological craving that is a predictable part of human existence.
From the Buddhist framework arises myriad mindfulness-based interventions, many of which offer relief from countless symptoms, as evaluated by biomedical (empirical) metrics. However, these efforts are ultimately self-limiting. Rather than incorporating an understanding of the attention needed to root out the craving that leads to suffering (of which food attachment is merely one form), biomedicine folds mindfulness interventions into the same self-based symptom-reduction view that increases suffering in the face of chronic illness. Biomedicine reduces Buddhist practices to the smallest clinically implementable parts (i.e. mindfulness interventions). Instead, considering Buddhist frameworks for understanding craving better informs the inadequate biomedical response to food-related, and other forms of, chronic suffering.

Advisor: Hausner, S
Effect of processing techniques on the secondary intermetallic phases and thermomechanical behaviour of 6xxx  series aluminium

For this project, an AlMgSi alloy with small additions of Fe was examined. It is established that the presence of Fe introduces secondary intermetallic phases α-AlFeSi and β-AlFeSi. It is also known that introduction of 5:1 Al-Ti-B type grain refiner encourages the formation of β-AlFeSi, while the introduction of Zr encourages the formation of α-AlFeSi.
The overall objective of this investigation was to establish the role of secondary intermetallic phases α-AlFeSi and β-AlFeSi on the hot tearing properties of a 6xxx series aluminium alloy. The approach was to isolate ‘phase identity’ and consequently phase morphology as the variables between two alloys that were being tested. This was achieved by processing a base 6063 alloy, and then making small additions of Zr and 5:1 Al-Ti-B type grain refiner to encourage the specific intermetallic phase identities. To maintain consistent non-dendritic grains of comparable size, the alloys were processed using semisolid technique, which also ensured the alloys experienced the same cooling conditions.
The microstructures of the resultant alloys were then characterised in terms of grain and cell sizes using macro-etched and annodised surfaces, intermetallic phase morphology and phase interconnectivity in both topographical examinations and overall 3D structures using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The intermetallic phase selections of all alloys were also determined using X-ray diffraction analysis, and their thermodynamic behaviours were observed using differential scanning calorimetry analysis. Finally, the alloys with highest and lowest levels of α-AlFeSi were selected for thermomechanical examinations.
The most notable ones were found in the alloy containing Al-Ti-B type grain refiner: the morphology resembled that of a 6-petal flower. Despite in-depth examination no initiation point could be clearly established. Chemically verified Ti-B particles were not observed in association with these ‘flower’-like structures. The thermomechanical tests revealed that the alloy with β-AlFeSi phase present was more susceptible to hot tearing.

Keywords: 6xxx Series Aluminium
Secondary Intermetallic Phases
Thermomechanical Behaviour
Advisor: O'Reilly, K