VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
A study of the life and public career of Frederick Howard, fifth Earl of Carlisle, 1748-1825

The fifth Earl of Carlisle's name appears regularly in works dealing with English political history of the later eighteenth century, but our knowledge of his life and works is nevertheless scanty. Accordingly this thesis seeks to furnish a fairly complete picture of Lord Carlisle, placing special emphasis on his contribution to politics and dealing at some length with his public offices, in particular his position on the Peace Commission which went to America in 1778, his presidency of the Board of Trade from 1779 to 1780, and his viceroyalty of Irelcud from 1780 to 1782. His official life, however, was brief, but contrary to received opinion it will appear in this thesis that for the rest of his life he was by no means politically inactive. Liberating himself to some extent from the influence of more powerful political characters, he deliberately refused office on several occasions and seems to have established himself consciously as a disinterested independent. Such a condition, especially in an aristocratic context, has received little attention from historians, preoccupied with the growth or collapse of party. Aside from politics, some time has also been spent on Carlisle's involvement in local politics and in other traditional practices of the time, and where possible these have been used to illustrate his political attitudes. In particular, for example, there was a direct correlation between his estimation of the value of local political influence and his conception of the structure of politics at Westminster. Finally, it is not claimed in this thesis that Carlisle was an historically influential figure in the official political establishment of his day. Independents do not seek political power. But it is suggested that he was uncommon in his conscious independence, and that he was probably only one of a more numerous body of principled independents than is generally acknowledged.
Dynamics on scale-invariant structures

We investigate dynamical processes on random and regular fractals.
The (static) problem of percolation in the semi-infinite plane introduces many pertinent ideas including real space renormalisation group (RSRG) fugacity transformations and scaling forms. We study the percolation probability to determine the surface critical behaviour and to establish exponent relations. The fugacity approach is generalised to study random walks on diffusion-limited aggregates (DLA). Using regular and random models, we calculate the walk dimensionality and demonstrate that it is consistent with a conjecture by Aharony and Stauffer. It is shown that the kinetically grown DLA is in a distinct dynamic universality class to lattice animals. Similarly, the speculation of Helman-Coniglio-Tsallis regarding diffusion on self-avoiding walks (SAWs) is shown to be incorrect. The results are corroborated by an exact enumeration analysis of the internal structure of SAWs.
A 'spin' and field theoretic Hamiltonian formulation for the conformational and resistance properties of random walks is presented. We consider Gaussian random walks, SAWs, spiral SAWs and valence walks. We express resistive susceptibilities as correlation functions and hence e-expansions are calculated for the resistance exponents. For SAWs, the local crosslinks are shown to be irrelevant and we calculate corrections to scaling.
A scaling description is introduced into an equation-of-motion method in order to study spin wave damping in d-dimensional isotropic Heisenberg ferro-, antiferro- and ferri- magnets near pc . Dynamic scaling is shown to be obeyed by the Lorentzian spin wave response function and lifetime. The ensemble of finite clusters and multicritical behaviour is also treated. In contrast, the relaxational dynamics of the dilute Anisotropic Heisenberg model is shown to violate conventional dynamic scaling near the percolation bicritical point but satisfies instead a singular scaling behaviour arising from activation of Bloch walls over percolation cluster energy barriers.

Advisor: Stinchcombe, R
Confusing credentials: the cross-nationally comparable measurement of educational attainment

The quality of educational attainment measures lies at the heart of many cross-national micro-sociological research projects and international education statistics. This study aims at validating cross-nationally comparable measures of educational attainment, among which are the International Standard Classification of Education 1997 (ISCED 97), the CASMIN education scheme and years of education. Following a conceptual discussion of what educational attainment means, the most common ways of measuring educational attainment cross-nationally as well as previous evaluations thereof are reviewed. Then, the implementation of ISCED 97 in cross-national surveys is examined by looking at both the resulting educational attainment distributions in three European surveys as well as the data generation and harmonisation processes. Finally, a number of cross-national measures of educational attainment are compared with country-specific measures with respect to their information content by firstly examining the dispersion of educational attainment, and secondly the predictive power when explaining two core social stratification outcomes, occupational status and social class attainment, by educational attainment. The main results of the study are that the measurement of educational attainment in cross-national surveys is affected by a number of avoidable weaknesses which adversely affect the validity of claims based on analyses of these data: 1. Countries and surveys are inconsistent in the way they measure educational attainment and apply ISCED 97 to national data; and 2. actual years of education and the one-digit version of ISCED 97 distort measures of association to differing degrees in different countries. Both make cross-national comparisons using these measures highly problematic. Therefore, some amendments to the implementation of ISCED 97 in cross-national surveys and coding for statistical analyses are proposed. As part of the latter, an alternative simplification of ISCED 97, optimised for European survey research, is developed and validated. Moreover, suggestions for data collection procedures are made to improve the measurement of educational attainment nationally and cross-nationally.

Keywords: survey research
education
ISCED
measurement
comparability
Advisor: Heath, A
The Padang, the Sahib and the Sepoy - The role of the Indian Army in Malaya, 1945 to 1946 

This thesis analyses the nation-building work that the Indian Army undertook during the military administration of Malaya, 1945-6. This was a two-part process, taking in military-led relief work and a political reform scheme. Historians have conducted little work on the Indian Army’s role in the British return to empire in Malaya, thus the army’s crucial and nuanced role has been overlooked. This limits the understanding of the army’s institutional development and role in Malayan nation-building between 1945-6. This thesis redresses this. It argues that the military administration of Malaya encapsulated the culmination of wartime changes to the role of the Indian Army fighting soldier. Whereas before the war the Indian Army found it expedient to keep its soldiers isolated from current affairs, British experience during the Second World War instead suggested that soldiers educated in current affairs could be very effective. Concurrently, British military leaders began to think on the role of the Indian Army and its men after the war. They concluded that the Indian Army’s soldiers could become catalysts of national political and social development, and initially identified this as a role for the army in post-war India. Furthermore, it was felt that the Indian Army could contribute both to the Commonwealth and United Nations ideals. The return to Malaya encapsulated these changes to the conception of the Indian Army soldier and was a practical expression and measure of these. The soldiers became agents of political change, imperial re-entrenchment and administration – which this thesis terms ‘soldier-administrators’. The Indian Army, it is argued, was deployed consciously as a nation-building force, using the new thinking on the role of Indian Army soldiers. In so doing, the Indian Army partook in targeted schemes for military relief, political reform and nation-building to try to build the new Malayan nation.

Keywords: history
Britain
Singapore
Malaya
Malaysia
Commonwealth
India
Indian Army
Advisor: Grey, D
Misra, A
The universality and demarcation of lexical categories cross-linguistically

Drawing data from a variety of sources, this thesis compares functional evidence regarding lexical categories from a number of Salish and Wakashan languages, as well as from the Michif language. It then applies Prototype Theory to examine the structure of the lexicons of these languages. They are described in terms of prototype categories that overlap to varying extents, with each category and each area of overlap defined by a central set of prototypical features. A high degree of gradience appears to exist between categories in Salish and Wakashan languages, with no clear boundary between categories or areas of overlap, indicating that lexical categories in these languages, rather than being clearly demarcated, are instead fuzzy categories with very little distinguishing them. Categories in Michif, on the other hand, exhibit far less overlap. This variation is compared to variation in conceptual categories across languages, and challenges the notions of the universality of clearly demarcated lexical categories and the existence of separately stored language module in the human mind. In spite of the variation in lexical category demarcation observed across the languages studied, it is possible to demarcate the categories of Noun and Verb to at least some extent in all languages, as well as a category of Adjective in some languages. This supports the proposed universality of the categories of Noun and Verb, as well as the implicational universals proposed in the Amsterdam Model of Parts of Speech (Hengeveld 1992a, b). It is also possible to identify a number of defining characteristics for each lexical category that appear to hold across languages. Since similar characteristics can be identified across languages for all categories, but the categories themselves display varying degrees of overlap in individual languages, this research supports the proposal that language universals, rather than consisting of structures, rules, and categories that are identical in all languages, are rather collections of prototypical characteristics for grammatical categories that are similar across languages (Croft 2000).

Keywords: linguistic categories
Wakashan languages
Prototype theory
functional linguistics
fuzzy grammar
Salish languages
cognitive linguistics
typology
lexical categories
categorization
Michif
Advisor: Dalrymple, M
Garcia Bellido, P
Characterisation of AEBP2: a polycomb repressive complex 2 component

Polycomb complexes act as repressors of transcription at many developmentally important genes. Repression by polycomb-repressive complex 2 (PRC2) is mediated by the deposition of a tri-methylation mark on lysine 27 of the histone H3 tail (H3K27me3). The PRC2 complex consists of three core proteins: EED, SUZ12, and one of either EZH2 or EZH1, which contain the enzymatic activity. The zinc finger containing protein AEBP2 (AE1 binding protein 2) has been co-purified with the PRC2 complex. The aim of this thesis was to study the function of AEBP2. Chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments indicate that AEBP2 is enriched at the same genomic locations as H3K27me3 genomewide. Using an X inactivation model, I found that AEBP2 and H3K27me3 also co-localise by immunofluorescence upon Xist induction.
Large scale immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometry confirmed the interaction of AEBP2 with PRC2 complex members. Interestingly, I did not detect any peptides of the Polycomblike (PCL) family proteins. These proteins have previously been shown to interact with the PRC2 complex. Their absence in the AEBP2 immunoprecipitation, together with published work demonstrating an absence of AEBP2 in PCL purifications, suggests that AEBP2 and PCL family proteins might be mutually exclusive in PRC2 complexes.
I have created an embryonic stem cell line in which both alleles of Aebp2 contain a gene-trap. This cell line was used to address the suggestion that AEBP2 might use its zinc finger domain to act as a sequence-specific PRC2 recruitment factor. AEBP2-depleted cells do not show diminished recruitment of PRC2. Additionally, electromobility shift assays failed to show that AEBP2 could bind DNA. Furthermore, recruitment of AEBP2 to genomic targets depended on the presence of the core PRC2 protein EED. Together, this makes it unlikely that AEBP2 acts as a sequence-specific PRC2 recruitment factor.
In keeping with the lack of effect on PRC2 enrichment, preliminary experiments have shown that AEBP2 depletion does not greatly affect levels of H3K27me3, or the expression of PRC2 target genes. The Aebp2 gene-trapped cell line will be used to investigate further functions of AEBP2. Additionally, these cells have been used for blastocyst injection to create an Aebp2 gene-trapped mouse. Future work will show the effect of AEBP2 depletion on development.

Keywords: Developmental biology
polycomb
embryonic stem cells
epigenetics
Advisor: Brockdorff, N
Codimension-two free boundary problems

Over the past 30 years the study of free boundary problems has stimulated much work. However, there exists a widely occurring, but little studied subclass of free boundary problems in which the free boundary has dimension two fewer than that of the underlying space rather than the more commonly studied case of one less. These problems are called `codimension-two' free boundary problems. In Chapter 1 the typical geometries required for such problems, the main mathematical techniques and the methodology used are discussed. Then, in Chapter 2, the techniques required to solve them are demonstrated using the particular example of the water entry problem. Further results for the water entry problem are then derived including an analysis of the relatively poorly understood water exit problem. In Chapter 3 a review is given of some classical contact and crack problems in solid mechanics. The inclusion of a cohesive zone in a dynamic type-III crack problem is considered. The Muskhelishvili potential method is presented and used to solve both a contact and crack problem. This enables the solution of a type-I crack problem relating to an ink delivery system to be found. In Chapter 4 a problem posed by car windscreen forming is addressed. A local solution near a corner is analysed to explain when and how point forces occur at the corners of the frame on which the simply supported windscreen rests. Then the full problem is solved numerically for different types of boundary condition. Chapters 5 and 6 deal with several sintering problems in viscous flow highlighting the value of the methodology introduced in Chapter 1. It will be shown how the Muskhelishvili potential method also carries over to Stokes flow problems. The difficulties of matching to an inner as opposed to an outer region are investigated. Last two interface problems between immiscible liquids are considered which show how the solution procedure is adapted when the field equation in the thin region is non-trivial. In the final chapter results are summarised, open problems listed and conclusions drawn.
Dendritic cell function in HIV disease

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a worldwide epidemic where infected individuals usually develop acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV is primarily spread by sexual transmission across mucosal tissue where dendritic cells (DC) reside. DC regulate immune responses through their unique ability to capture antigen, migrate to lymphoid tissue, and activate naive T cells. In this Thesis, we have investigated whether HIV influences the migration of DC, thereby influencing their capacity to regulate immune function and facilitate transport of HIV to T cell rich lymphoid tissue.
Transmigration assays demonstrated that the predominant HIV strain during primary infection, R5 HIV-1, was chemotactic for immature DC (iDC). Addition of soluble CD4 enhanced iDC migration to R5 HIV, presumably by binding to R5 HIV and altering the conformation to enhance binding to CCR5. Our results suggested that iDC migrated specifically to R5 and not X4 HIV gp120, through interactions between the extracellular loop-2 (ECL-2) domain of CCR5 with the V3 loop region of R5 gp120.
iDC prepared from HIV-infected subjects were shown to have impaired chemotaxis to inflammatory chemokines compared with iDC from healthy individuals. Furthermore, the level of inhibition appeared to be proportional to the severity of disease progression in HIV infected subjects. Interestingly, chemotaxis of iDC from long-term non-progressor individuals was similar to normal individuals, whereas migration of iDC from typical progressors was greatly impaired. These differences did not appear to be related to the level of CCR5 expression or patient viral load. The protease inhibitor Indinavir used in antiretroviral therapy, limited DC trans-endothelial migration to chemokines, reduced DC-SIGN expression and increased CD83 on iDC. The results suggested that Indinavir inhibited proteases necessary for DC migration by adversely affecting interactions between DC-SIGN, VLA-4 and VLA-5 and ligands on the endothelium and underlying fibronectin matrix.
A novel method has been successfully developed for amplifying rare HIV-specific CDS cells using DC transfected with HLA antigens matching HIV-infected subjects. This has enabled us to amplify HIV-specific CDS T cells by 10- to 60-fold. This may help us to clone and characterise HIV-specific CDS T cells from highly exposed persistently seronegative (HEPS) individuals.
In summary, the results in this Thesis demonstrate that R5 HIV mimics chemokines to subvert the natural trafficking of DC. Indeed, we have shown that DC from typical progressors have severely impaired migration. This may have serious consequences on DC immunoregulation, compromising the immune function of these infected individuals.

Advisor: Rowland-Jones, S
Stereoselective cyclopropanations of allylic amines and derivatives

This thesis is concerned with the development and application of methods for the stereoselective cyclopropanation of allylic amines and derivatives. Firstly, a highly chemo- and stereoselective cyclopropanation of N,N-dibenzyl-protected allylic amines was developed using the highly reactive Shi’s carbenoid [CF₃CO₂ZnCH₂I]. Subsequent mechanistic studies revealed that the high diastereoselectivity of the reaction was likely to be due to coordination of the amine to the zinc carbenoid reagent. It is then shown that the reaction is general for a wide range of both cyclic and acyclic substrates giving the corresponding cyclopropanes in high yields and diastereoselectivities. Secondly, a novel stereodivergent cyclopropanation of allylic carbamates and amides was developed. It was found that reaction of cyclic allylic carbamates with the Wittig-Furukawa reagent [Zn(CH₂I)₂] typically gives the syn-diastereoisomer in high yields and diastereoselectivities, whilst treatment of the same substrates with Shi’s carbenoid [CF₃CO₂ZnCH₂I] gives the corresponding anti-diastereoisomers in high yields and diastereoselectivities. Mechanistic investigations suggested that reactions with the Wittig-Furukawa reagent proceed via a N-directed intramolecular cyclopropanation step whilst those with Shi’s carbenoid proceed via a sterically directed intermolecular cyclopropanation step. Unsuccessful investigations into an asymmetric variant of the cyclopropanation reaction utilising chiral carbamate protecting groups are then described. Finally, studies towards the total synthesis of the potential anti-obesity therapeutic trans-SCH-A and its epimer cis-SCH-A are described. A stereodivergent route towards the epimeric products was developed through the cyclopropanation of a common allylic carbamate intermediate with either the Wittig-Furukawa reagent or Shi’s carbenoid to give the corresponding trans-2-amino-5-arylbicyclo[3.10]hexane or cis-2-amino-5-arylbicyclo-[3.10]hexane intermediates respectively.

Keywords: Shi's carbenoid
cyclopropanation
allylic amines
Advisor: Davies, S
Functionalised polymers by surface modification using diaryl carbenes

This thesis is concerned with the synthesis of diazo compounds for the introduction of various functional groups on the surface of polymers by means of carbene insertion and diazonium coupling. Characterisation and investigation of their properties were conducted.
A library of functionalised polystyrene beads containing pyridine rings has been established for the coordination of metal ions and metal complexes. The pyridyl system on the surface has demonstrated its capability to bind with zinc complexes of bis(thiosemicarbazones) and release the corresponding copper complexes upon transmetallation.
A spiropyran derivative has been introduced onto the surface of polystyrene and polyethylene terephthalate. The chromophore on both polymers exhibited photoswitchability as determined from colour change and wettability.
Polystyrenes with either pyridine or spiropyran units have been investigated for reversible immobilisation of bioactive species. Materials coated with penicillin V gave significant inhibition zones in antibacterial assays, showing efficacy in drug delivery.
Finally, a range of diazo compounds with different substituents has been synthesised and their thermal stabilities have been assessed by differential scanning calorimetry technique.

Keywords: modification.
Polymer
surface
Advisor: Moloney, M
A critique of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Ireland v United Kingdom, and its effect on Article 3 jurisprudence

Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights ostensibly provides absolute protection against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Despite what the Court says, this protection is not unqualified. Article 3 now embodies a two-tiered protection, with torture alone attracting a ‘special stigma’. This hierarchical approach is traceable to the seminal decision of Ireland v United Kingdom, and Part A of this thesis demonstrates that it is deeply flawed. The hierarchy between torture and other forms of ill-treatment (the Ireland hierarchy) has become entrenched in the Court’s case law. It continues to manifest in the Court’s narrow definition of torture, and its expansive interpretation of inhuman and degrading treatment. This thesis argues that the growing breadth of the latter concept has occurred in tandem with, and may partly explain, the rapid increase in the number of Article 3 violations found by the Court each year. These developments have carried important consequences. There have been policy consequences for the member states in areas such as national security (where deportation of terrorist suspects is sought to be used as a policy tool) and prisoners’ rights (where the proportionality of sentences, conditions of detention and administrative penalties within prisons, are all now subject to European supervision). In addition to the policy consequences, the expanding second tier of the Ireland hierarchy has carried legal consequences for the Court’s conception of Article 3. It has compelled the Court to introduce limiting devices into its case law on inhuman and degrading treatment. The introduction of these limiting devices, into what is an ostensibly unqualified domain, challenges the position of Article 3 as an absolute right.

Keywords: human rights
non-refoulement
inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment
extradition
cruel
torture
Advisor: Lazarus, L