VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Making space for the future: imagining the Smart Nation in Singapore

People imagine futures through sensory and affective engagements with materials like the smart city’s smart urban infrastructures. Through an ethnography of two “Smart Nation” smart home projects in Singapore, I detail how state planners project and replicate future imaginaries through the smart city by repeatedly materialising them in smart urban infrastructure. These historically-rooted planning practices project some residents as representing and productive of national futures while excluding others. Residents repeatedly and materially engage with these imaginaries, sometimes replicating and sometimes reimagining them, through everyday embodied engagement with smart urban infrastructures.
Drawing upon the rich literature on imagining futures through sociotechnical projects of city and nation building in Singapore, I deepen the science and technology studies (STS)-informed theory of co- production using the feminist posthumanist concept of differentiated repetition to detail the specific, differentiated forms of “technical agency” afforded by the Smart Nation (Neff et al. 2012). I engage scholarship on refusal and resistance in quotidian practice with critical data studies of racialising surveillance to detail how residents disrupt and create un-accounted for data flows in their daily lives. Differences in ease of refusal make a difference for racial minorities, queer residents, and non- citizens for whom data flows mean continued exclusion from national futures. Overemphasis on visible protest in public space neglects the impacts of these quotidian acts of political resistance, particularly in highly surveilled contexts. I complicate existing smart citizenship research in which a sovereign republican subject engages in either wholesale acceptance of or resistance to the smart city. Analysing instead how differentiated residents navigate their “technological everyday” (Amin 2007) by spatialising “geographic counter-stories” (Kobayashi 2005), I argue, shows how state power is expressed and experienced through smart urban infrastructure. It also illuminates residents’ agency in co-producing smart city futures, constructing their senses of self and nation, and practicing (smart) citizenship.

Advisor: Neff, G
Rose, G
Bifunctional iminophosphorane superbase catalysed enantioselective intramolecular michael reactions

Chapter 1 introduces the strategies to prepare enantioenriched compounds, specifically focusing on tertiary amine-based and superbasic bifunctional organocatalysis. Bifunctional iminophosphorane (BIMP) catalysis will then be detailed in its discovery and applications.
Chapter 2 outlines the development of a squaramide BIMP-catalysed enantioselective intramolecular aza-Michael reaction (IAMR) of both aromatic and aliphatic ureas to tethered α,β-unsaturated esters, furnishing decorated enantioenriched hydroquinazolines.
Chapter 3 demonstrates the enantioselective preparation of structurally diverse enantioenriched cyclic ethers via a BIMP-catalysed intramolecular oxy-Michael reaction (IOMR) of alcohols to tethered α,β-unsaturated esters and amides. The improved efficiency (1 day vs 7 days) and a far broader scope than the previous syntheses will be described. Subsequently, the pronucleophile scope of the IOMR will be extended to phenols and benzylic alcohols, thereby delivering enantioenriched dihydro-(iso)-benzofurans and iso chromans.

Keywords: organocatalysis
heteroatom Michael reaction
superbase BIMP
enantioselective
Advisor: Dixion, D
Phylogenomics and biogeography of the calamoid palms

Tropical rainforests are the most diverse terrestrial biome, but their origins remain incompletely understood. Detailed analyses of the temporal and spatial context of the evolution of old and species-rich tropical rainforest lineages have potential to yield novel insights. However, only few such analyses are currently available.
The palm subfamily Calamoideae is proposed here as an appropriate study system to address this knowledge gap. It has a rich fossil record, comprises 555 species, and has a pantropical distribution with the centre of diversity in the Asia-Pacific region. There is a general understanding of its taxonomy, phylogeny, and distribution, but species-level relationships, divergence times, and biogeographic history of the subfamily are known only in vague outlines.
Here, three steps were undertaken to realise the full potential of the Calamoideae for providing new insights into the origins of tropical rainforests. First, targeted sequencing of 971 genes of 75 species was conducted, resulting in a robust phylogenomic framework of the Calamoideae. Second, sequencing was expanded to 653 calamoid specimens representing 502 species (90%) of the Calamoideae, resulting in 381 species (68%) in the final species-level phylogeny after data filtering. Divergence times were estimated based on four dating strategies, indicating an Early Cretaceous age of crown Calamoideae but an Oligocene and Miocene origin of most extant species. Finally, ancestral ranges and dispersal patterns were inferred for the Calamoideae in the Asia-Pacific region following the testing of 198 biogeographic models, showing that the subfamily reached its broad distribution during the Oligocene and Miocene convergence of Australia and Asia, and that migration pathways closely followed a stepping-stone model with dispersals out of the centre and into the periphery of the Asia-Pacific region.
This work represents the largest densely sampled and dated molecular phylogeny of any major pantropical rainforest lineage to date and elucidates the biogeographic history of a characteristic component of the tropical rainforests in the Asia-Pacific region in unprecedented detail. It is hoped that it will serve as a detailed framework for future comparative analyses.

Keywords: rattan
arecaceae
phylogenomics
Asia-Pacific
calamoideae
fossil calibration
biogeography
divergence time estimation
molecular dating
systematics
Advisor: Hiscock, S
Baker, W
Chomicki, G
Eiserhardt, W
Bellot, S
Some contributions to stochastic differential equations

This thesis elaborates topics on a type of McKean–Vlasov stochastic differential equations and forward–backward stochastic differential equations arising from physics models.
Mainly, this thesis is divided into three parts. Chapter 2 consists of preliminary definitions and results from the theory of parabolic equations, stochastic differential equations and backward stochastic differential equations. Some key results are summarised for subsequent developments.
Motivated by the random vortex method for the Navier–Stokes equation, Chapter 3 studies a special type of McKean–Vlasov stochastic differential equation (MVSDE), whose kernel function is assumed to be continuous except at few singularities in Rd. With some technical estimates, we establish the existence and uniqueness of both the weak and the strong solutions to the MVSDE theoretically. The numerical simulations are also conducted to approximate the MVSDE and the corresponding velocity field in the three dimensional space.
Chapter 4 is devoted to studying a system of forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs) arising from the porous medium equation. The gererating function of the backward equation for this class of FBSDEs has quadratic growth in the variable Z. We construct the unique solution on a small time interval by using a fixed point argument, and further extend the study to a class of quadratic FBSDEs with more general growth conditions.

Keywords: aronson estimates
vorticity equation
forward-backward SDEs
Cameron-Martin formula
McKean-Vlasov SDEs
quadratic BSDEs
diffusion processes
strong solution
Advisor: Qian, Z
Gottfried Leibniz in his world: the making of a Savant (1672-1679)

This thesis examines Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s early career in its intellectual and social contexts, arguing that his thought must be understood not as the production of an isolated genius but as fundamentally conditioned by the contingencies of his existence as an aspiring scientist and courtier in Mainz (1670-72), Paris (1672-76, with a trip to London in 1673), and Hanover (1676-79). The analysis consists primarily in examining his and his peers’ correspondence during those years and shedding light on how Leibniz sought to position himself at the intersection of the political and scientific realms in France and Germany, but also how his various political and scientific projects were perceived by his contemporaries. The thesis is divided into two parts focusing on his time in Paris and Hanover respectively.
Leibniz’s five year sojourn in Paris, in particular, was a revelatory and formative experience for him. This part examines how he took advantage of the city’s cultural life, moving in multiple intellectual and scientific circles, partaking in the intellectual debates of the time, gathering information, inventing the calculus and his calculating machine, advocating his scientific agenda at court, and promoting both scientific societies and various technological and commercial ventures in the hope—disappointed—of securing a position at the Académie des Sciences.
Leibniz’s Parisian period acted as a catalyst through helping spawn a period of innovation upon his move to Hanover in 1677 in the service of Duke Johann Friedrich. The second part of the thesis focuses on how he sought to establish himself as the duke’s commercial and technological advisor while pursuing his activities as a ‘projector’, seeking to implement his various technological, legal, and theological proposals. From Hanover also he used his extensive epistolary network as an instrument for acquiring and disseminating information.

Advisor: Brockliss, L
Macroecological consequences of biotic and abiotic factors in marine ecosystems through time

This dissertation statistically investigated putative biotic and abiotic drivers of ecological characteristics over the spatial scale of ocean basins and temporal scale of millennia to millions of years. For three fundamental hypotheses in evolutionary ecology, I compared patterns of natural experiments from the fossil record against expectations from theory. The first empirical study appraised the hypothesis that competition restricts geographic distributions at the species level, and thus taxa are more widespread when in the presence of fewer competitors, such as after mass extinction events. Contrary to the prediction of competitive exclusion, brachiopod and bivalve distributions were invariant to inferred biotic pressure, while habitat type and lineage age had detectable effects on range expansion or contraction on the scale of geologic stages across the Phanerozoic. The second study estimated the degree to which plankton modulate thermal preferences vs. migrate in response to glacial–interglacial climate fluctuations. Species conserved abiotic niches over the Middle–Late Pleistocene study interval, suggesting marine species will track preferred environments rather than adapt to Anthropogenic climate warming. The final study explored relative niche change within lineages vs. across an evolutionary tree of macroperforate planktonic foraminifera. The stark stasis observed within lineages could suggest niches evolve primarily during speciation, but any signal of such punctuated equilibrium was undetectable statistically with the small phylogenetic tree and large variance within and between species. Together, these results add perspective to longstanding debates about the scaling of population- to species-level ecology and micro- to macro-evolution.

Keywords: species distributions
fossil record
planktonic foraminifera
spatial sampling standardization
ecological release
Antell GT
Gawain Antell
Advisor: Saupe, E
Developing ways of implementing biocatalytic hydrogenation reactions in flow

The use of enzymes as catalysts is becoming more common, in part due to their high selectivity under mild reaction conditions. However, many redox enzymes require cofactors (NADH or NADPH) as an electron source to operate.Due to the high cost of NAD(P)H, cofactor regeneration systems have been developed, which often involve addition of a second enzyme and/or a sacrificial reductant. Furthermore, the enzymes can be difficult to recover from solution, which can inhibit the uptake of biocatalytic processes. Immobilising enzymes on a support allows for easier recovery and re-use of the biocatalyst, lowering the cost of the process, however, no enzyme immobilisation system has found ubiquity.Flow chemistry is a technique that has seen an increase in research and industrial implementation in recent years, for its greener and more efficient chemical production.Supported biocatalysts are suited to use in flow reactors, where the catalyst is retained within the reactor and substrates are continuously pumped through.The work in this Thesis seeks to address the challenges associated with using immobilised redox enzymes for chemical synthesis in continuous flow. First, the translation of industry standard cofactor recycling systems (FDH–formate and ADH–IPA) onto a simple carbon particle support and into flow was studied. The continuous synthesis of industrially relevant enantiomerically pure molecules was demonstrated for both systems. Next, work focused on translating aH2-driven cofactor recycling system into continuous flow. The H2-driven ‘HydRegen’ system uses a robust hydrogenase and NAD+ reductase immobilised onto an electron conducting carbon support to regenerate NADH. Application of the H2-driven cofactor regeneration system in a commercially available hydrogenation flow reactor demonstrated high turnover frequencies of 85,200 h−1 and the production of an industrially relevant molecule.

Advisor: Vincent, K
Layered double hydroxide based materials for carbon dioxide capture

This thesis discusses the development of layered double hydroxides (LDHs), layered double oxides (LDOs) and their composites for use in CO2 capture.
Chapter One introduces LDHs, providing a background into their flexible composition and versatile application. A brief description of core@shell materials is also provided. Materials used in CO2 capture in research and industry are discussed and compared. A background to the polyurethane (PU) curing process is also introduced.
Chapter Two investigates the acidity and basicity of solvent treated LDHs and LDOs (aqueous miscible organic (AMO) and aqueous immiscible organic (AIM) solvents). Their Brønsted and Lewis acidities and basicities are probed using titration, in situ fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) respectively. Solid state NMR (ssNMR) is used to probe both the composition and surface sites, and a novel hypothesis regarding solvent interactions upon calcination is proposed. The CO22 adsorption of solvent treated LDOs are tested to determine the optimal solvent for the process.
Chapter Three focuses on determining both the chemical and process parameters that affect the CO2 capture performance of MgxAl LDH/LDOs in CO2 capture. Process parameters, such as calcination temperature, calcination time and heating ramp rate, are investigated. Spectroscopic techniques, including ssNMR, TPD and surface hydroxyl titration, are used to observe the differences in the materials in order to determine the physicochemical factors that control CO2 capture performance. By combining the result from Chapters Two and Three, an MgxAl LDH optimised for CO2 capture is synthesised.
Chapter Four describes the synthesis of carbon@Mg2Al LDH core@shell materials. The effects of varying LDH composition upon the morphology and growth of the core@shells are investigated. The series of materials is explored for synergy with regards to CO2 capture with minimal pre-treatment. Calcination parameters for carbon@Mg2Al LDH are varied and optimised for the CO2 capture. Different carbon-based core materials are investigated in order to improve the overall CO2 capacities of the core@shell composites. Post-synthesis modifications, such as solvent and ammonia treatment, are also investigated for potential improvement on CO2 capture.
Chapter Five is a preliminary study of use of LDH-based materials during the curing of polyurethanes (PUs), with the ultimate goal of reducing curing time and eliminating CO2 production during the curing.
Chapter Six includes the experimental details of the work described in this thesis. Lastly, the findings of the work of this thesis is summarised in Chapter Seven. Any supplementary information and other data referred to in the main text are found in the Appendices.

Keywords: core-shell
layered double oxide
Layered double hydroxide
carbon dioxide
Advisor: O'Hare, D
The heirs of Theodore: Aḥob of Qatar and the development of the East Syriac exegetical tradition

This thesis is a study of Aḥob of Qatar, an important but under-researched late 6th-century East Syriac biblical commentator, and his surviving Old Testament exegetical works (mostly in the form of scholia). It further examines what can be deduced of Aḥob’s influence on the later East Syriac exegetical tradition, and it details the originality of his exegesis, especially in comparison with earlier and/or contemporary Greek and Syriac sources. My argument will be twofold: 1) Aḥob’s exegetical and theological impact on the East Syriac exegetical tradition was more extensive than previously considered, and 2) Aḥob represents a distinct voice within the East Syriac exegetical tradition and so should not be equated with a presumed harmonized monologue in East Syriac biblical exegesis which repeats Theodore of Mopsuestia’s (350-428) exegesis and theology line-by-line.
In Chapter 1, I examine the surviving biographical data relating to Aḥob’s life and works. In Chapter 2, I present an annotated edition and English translation of Aḥob’s Cause of the Psalms and surviving attributed Old Testament scholia, as well as a discussion of disputed scholia and spurious scholia connected to Aḥob. In Chapters 3 and 4, I analyze Aḥob’s Old Testament exegetical works as they were used and developed by later East Syriac writers and manuscript traditions, including Nathniel of Shirzor’s (ca. 600) Cause of the Psalms, The Commentary on Genesis-Exodus 9:32 (first half of the 8th century), Theodore bar Koni’s Scholion (792/793), the Denḥa-Grigor Commentary (first half of the 9th century?), Isho‘dad of Merv’s (fl. ca. 850) Commentary on Genesis, 1 Samuel, and Psalms, the Anonymous Commentary (10th century), Bar Bahlul’s Lexicon (mid-10th century-early 20th century), and Isaac Shbadnaya’s (fl. 1439/1440) prose commentary on his Poem on God’s Governance from ‘In the Beginning’ until Eternity. In Chapter 5, I investigate four aspects of Aḥob’s Old Testament exegetical works: 1) their original form, 2) their original purpose, 3) their multiple sources, and 4) their overall distinctiveness within the East Syriac exegetical tradition. I conclude this thesis with an Appendix, which presents an edition of the Introduction and select parts of thirteen psalms from the Denḥa-Grigor Commentary, to which Aḥob’s Psalm scholia are connected.

Keywords: the Physiologus
scholia
Basil of Caesarea,
church architecture
Aḥob of Qatar
The Commentary on Genesis-Exodus 9:32
East Syriac exegesis
cosmology
Theodore of Mopsuestia
East Syriac liturgy
the Denḥa-Grigor Commentary
Isaac Shbadnaya
the School of Seleucia
Jewish exegesis
Nathniel of Shirzor
the language of Qatar
Bar Bahlul’s Lexicon
East Syriac Christology
Theodore bar Koni
the Anonymous Commentary
Isho‘dad of Merv
Advisor: Taylor, D
Nature-watching and affective encounters with more-than-human beings in post-reform Beijing

Cities as purely social spaces have long held sway over dominant understandings of cities. This thesis sets out to make visible the many ways that more-than-human beings permeate urban life to unsettle the deeply ingrained assumption of “anti-nature” cities. To do so, It scrutinises a variety of visual practices to engage with an array of living beings in Beijing that I refer to as “nature-watching” (ziran guancha 自然观察). I argue that nature-watching practices create a condition of affective and intense encounters with more-than-beings, and foster the flourishing of cross-species relatedness in the city. By drawing on a mixture of ethnographic methods including participant observation, visual methods and crucially my participant learning experience, it seeks to unveil how Beijing nature-watchers are enabled to learn to sense, know, open up to, care for and build civic solidarity with more-than-human beings in new ways. This thesis suggests a research agenda to conceive cities anew as more-than-human spaces, and to call for attention to the caring and relational potentials of visual practices.

Keywords: Affect
Urban nature
Cross-species relateness
More-than-human ethnography
Advisor: Hsu, E
Carbon dioxide utilisation in block polymers: catalysis and functional materials

The following thesis describes the synthesis of block polymers comprising polycarbonates (derived from carbon dioxide) and polyesters, and their evaluation as functional materials and possible renewable alternatives to current petrochemical-based plastics. The preparation of the polymers utilises efficient and sequence-controlled polymerisation catalysis, combining lactone ring-opening polymerisation (ROP) and epoxide/CO2 ring-opening copolymerisation (ROCOP) cycles through a single catalyst.
Chapter 2 evaluates heterodinuclear zinc(II)/magnesium(II) catalysts for the switchable polymerisation catalysis of lactone and epoxide/CO2. The heterodinuclear catalyst, [LZnMg(OBzNMe2)2] where L = macrocyclic ancillary ligand, OBzNMe2 = parasubstituted benzoate, is initially assessed for the preparation of ABA-type triblock polymers, but because of poor end-group fidelity the development of a new organometallic catalyst, [LZnMg(C6F5)2] is undertaken. The organometallic catalyst shows strong performance with equivalent high activity for epoxide/CO2 ROCOP and enhanced activity for lactone ROP compared with the benzoate variant. Importantly, it delivers higher molar mass ABA triblock polymers (Mn > 20 kg mol-1 ) with block sequence-selectivity and with excellent end-group fidelity.
Chapter 3 further explores the application of the organometallic Zn(II)/Mg(II) catalyst in switchable polymerisation catalysis. High molar mass ABA triblock polymers (38 < Mn < 71 kg mol-1) with varying degrees of CO2 utilisation (6 – 23 wt %) are prepared by controlling the starting monomer stoichiometry, with the final materials comprising hard polycarbonate “A” blocks and a soft polyester “B” block. The effects of varying the relative block ratio on the thermal and mechanical characteristics of the polymers are analysed, and their performance as toughened plastics, elastomers, and pressure-sensitive adhesives is evaluated.
Chapter 4 investigates the synthesis and thermal/mechanical effects of changing the polymer architecture by varying the initiating alcohol groups, from linear to stars. A range of tri-, tetra-, and hexafunctional star block polymers are synthesised from vinyl-cyclohexene oxide (vCHO), CO2, and ε-decalactone (ε-DL). It also investigates the selective postpolymerisation modification of the polycarbonate block at fixed relative block composition. Multi-arm star-like polymers are fashioned using a “core-first” approach by employing chaintransfer agents with varying numbers of hydroxyl groups. Trends in thermomechanical and morphological characteristics for both the non-modified and modified polymers are analysed in relation to molar mass (overall and individual arm) and number of star ‘arms’, and a preliminary assessment of particular advantages/disadvantages for star vs. linear architectures in these polymers is presented.

Keywords: Polymer materials
Block polymers
Carbon dioxide utilization
Polymers
Catalysis
Advisor: Williams, C