VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Linguistic transfer and dialect levelling: a sociophonetic analysis of contact in the regional French of Béarn.

This thesis investigates the genesis and evolution of the regional variety of French spoken in Béarn, southwestern France, by considering phonetic and phonological changes taking place in two different contact situations: language contact between French and Béarnais, and dialect contact with other contemporary varieties of French. Through an examination of linguistic transfer, in a situation of bilingualism, and of levelling and diffusion during dialect contact, the thesis challenges two long-standing assumptions about regional French: that it results from ‘substrate residue’ and that this ‘residue’ is ephemeral and will therefore be lost over time. The methodology is sociophonetic, combining traditional Labovian data collection techniques with detailed acoustic phonetic analysis. The acoustic analyses focus on the mid-vowel and nasal unit systems of Béarnais and French, first examining L1-to-L2 transfer and subsequently investigating apparent-time changes taking place in regional French as a result of dialect contact. The findings show that, while this variety of regional French contains clear cases of ‘substrate residue’ from Béarnais, its formation during language contact is better accounted for by a combination of linguistic transfer, divergence and innovation, with structural correspondences between the surface phonologies of the languages influencing the outcomes of contact in each case, as predicted by Flege’s Speech Learning Model. The assumption that regional French features are transitory is refuted: the results of the apparent-time study show that young speakers in Béarn are not simply involved in the wholesale adoption of the northern French norm over time. Contemporary regional French in Béarn is shown to constitute a distinctive combination of local, supralocal and innovative features resulting primarily from the various mechanisms which constitute Kerswill’s model of Regional Dialect Levelling.

Advisor: Temple, R
Effects of real and imagined contact under conditions of socially acceptable prejudice

The objective of this thesis was to examine the effectiveness of contact and imagined contact (a derivative of direct contact) in reducing intergroup prejudice when the prejudice in question is deemed socially acceptable. Studies focused on two populations that are targets of socially acceptable, prejudice – people suffering from schizophrenia in the U.K., and homosexual men in Jamaica. These target groups were selected because they are similar in that they are both targets of socially acceptable prejudice, but also because of their differences in that the stereotypes associated with them are quite dissimilar. The first part of the thesis empirically tested the assumption that the aforementioned populations are targets of socially acceptable prejudice. Two cross-sectional studies, one of which was also cross-cultural, measured motivation to control prejudice against these target groups, and compared it to motivation to control prejudice against targets of socially unacceptable prejudice. I found that motivation to control prejudice against people with schizophrenia in the U.K. was lower than motivation to control prejudice against Black people in the U.K. Also, motivation to control prejudice against homosexual men was higher in the U.K. and the U.S.A. than in Jamaica, and differences in motivation to control unspecified prejudice were significantly smaller. The second part examined the association between actual contact and prejudice for both populations. Two cross-sectional studies, one of which was also cross-cultural, found that contact was associated with less prejudice. This effect was mediated by intergroup anxiety in all cases, and also by fear in the case of people with schizophrenia. Furthermore, I found that contact was more strongly negatively associated with anti-homosexual prejudice in Jamaica, where the prejudice is socially acceptable, than it was in Britain, where the prejudice is not socially acceptable. The third part tested the effect of imagined contact, a form of extended contact, on prejudice against people with schizophrenia. Four experimental studies demonstrated that imagined contact can be an effective means of reducing prejudice against this group. However imagined contact must be conducted in very specific ways, otherwise it has the potential to increase prejudice against people with schizophrenia.

Keywords: contact
homosexuality
imagined contact
social norms
schizophrenia
prejudice
Advisor: Hewstone, M
Pompai

This thesis investigates the significance of ritual movements in theatre and society of fifth-century Athens. The focus falls on processional movement, the definitive characteristics of which are drawn from the ancient Greek concept of pompe, i.e. a movement towards a defined destination, involving the conveyance of a ritual symbol (or an object or a person) between specific points of departure and arrival. The social contexts of divine and heroic cult, funerals and weddings prove to be the main occasions for the performance of such processional movements. In the world outside the theatre, processions are shown to be crucial in defining transitions, shaping social relations, and manifesting the action and inviting the attention of the divine.
The socio-religious significance of processions is fully appropriated and explored by tragedy. Processional action, recurrently evoked in the tragic plays, proves to be crucial for the articulation of the tragic δρώμενα. This is argued in the collection and analysis of a number of scenes from extant fifth-century tragedy in which processional resonances permeate the action. The interpretation of the scenes in the light of the ritual background which shapes them considerably enhances the understanding and appreciation of the plays as theatrical experience - experience which explores the potential of spatial configurations and visual symbolism, in a context of symbolic communication which is largely defined by participation in the rituals of the community.
The thesis argues that the importance of processions in the theatre is inextricably connected with their power - as manifested in the ritual life of the polis - to gather the community and to initiate the process of θεάσασθαι, implicating both active participants and θεαταί in the performed action. Greek tragic theatre builds upon this basic function of processions and activates their power. Thus it also combines their potential to define transitions with the significance of tragic μετάβασις; and with the importance of demarcation of space and transformation of time in the theatre. Ritual experience is activated, reshaped and enlarged, enabling the re-creation and transformation of the experience of the audience. Processions can illuminate the nature of tragedy itself.
The development of a novel technique for characterizing the MICE muon beam and demonstrating its suitability for a muon cooling measurement

The International Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) is designed to demonstrate the currently untested technique of ionization cooling. Theoretically, this process can condition the high quality muon beams required to build a neutrino factory or muon collider which will be the next generation of machines for the study of Particle Physics. The beam line to transport muons into the MICE cooling channel lattice cell was installed in December 2009. Step I of the experimental programme, whose goal was to demonstrate that the beam line can generate beams similar to those expected in a neutrino factory cooling channel, was completed in August 2010.
Methods were developed to use time difference measurements in the MICE time of flight counters (TOFs) to obtain a transverse spatial resolution of approximately 10 mm and to track muons through the focusing elements of the beam line, thus allowing the trace space vectors of individual muons to be reconstructed and their integrated path length to be calculated. The TOFs were used to make an absolute measurement of the momentum of muons with zero bias and a systematic error of less than 3 MeV/c.
The measured trace space vectors of single muons were used to estimate the emittances and approximate optical parameters of eighteen muon beams. The results of beam line simulations were compared with the measurements and, once the effects of experimental resolution had had been included, found to be in good agreement.
A sample of individual muons whose phase space vectors had been measured was injected into a simulation of the full MICE cooling channel; the beam was found to be suitable for demonstrating muon cooling, although some fine tuning of the cooling channel optics will eventually be required.

Keywords: MICE
muon
emittance
betatron function
ionization cooling
neutrino
ionisation cooling
momentum spectrum
muon collider
neutrino factory
Twiss parameters
time of flight
emittance measurement
Advisor: Cobb, J
Facing climate change in the Marshall Islands

The Marshall Islands may be rendered uninhabitable by sea level rise and other consequences of global climate change within 50 years, a threat with which locals are increasingly familiar via educational events, firsthand environmental observation, and Biblical exegesis. This thesis explores Marshallese attitudes towards this spectre, in particular explaining why ‘ordinary’ Marshall Islanders (if not their government) have strongly favoured a response strategy based on self-blame and local mitigation, rather than other-blame and protest of industrial nations. I argue that this strategy does not stem from ignorance or disempowered pragmatism, but from a moral reading of climate change consonant with Marshallese values. Bringing together literature on traditionalism, entropy, and the cultural cognition of risk, I demonstrate that Marshallese reactions to climate change are intelligible in light of a vigorous pre-existing narrative of self-inflicted cultural decline. Climate change becomes framed as both a cause and a consequence of weakening custom, the over-reliance on foreign things, transforming global warming into a locally resonant, and indeed ideologically appealing, risk. Based upon this case study, I sketch a ‘trajectorial theory of risk perception’ and accompanying research agenda.

Keywords: climate change
Marshall Islands
risk perception
small island states
Advisor: Whitehouse, H
Symbolic and ideological representation in national parliaments

Using a cross-national perspective covering all free and partly free countries, this thesis addresses two questions: What factors are associated with levels of gender representation, ethnic group representation, and ideological representation? And what are the relationships between levels of gender, ethnic group, and ideological representation? Ideological representation regards policy positions in different issue domains, whilst gender and ethnic group representation are concerned with the inclusion of women and ethnic groups in parliament. The representation of ethnic groups is approached in a multivariate cross-national analysis for the first time. Cultural rather than institutional factors seem to be the best predictors for the different levels of gender representation and ethnic group representation. Cultural attitudes are measured with survey questions on attitudes to women as political leaders, and tolerance of marginalized groups in society. The thesis finds that on average quotas for women and ethnic groups are not associated with higher levels of representation, perhaps because of issues regarding how quotas are implemented. Broadly speaking, little effect of the electoral system on any form of representation could be observed. Looking at levels of ideological representation, in line with some recent studies, the thesis suggests that the electoral system is not associated with different levels of ideological representation. I show that this is the case across various policy domains. Furthermore, the thesis finds no evidence for a direct relationship between levels of gender representation and levels of ethnic group representation, but levels of gender representation may be associated with levels of left–right representation. The relationship between different forms of representation might be shaped by the salience of ideological domains and awareness of under-representation of ethnic minority groups. Overall, the thesis argues that cultural attitudes are central to understanding levels of political representation, a factor often neglected in the literature.

Keywords: gender
issue positions
parliament
political representation
ethnic groups
Advisor: Fisher, S
The mechanical response of low to high density Rohacell foams

The main aim of this thesis is to generate a deeper understanding of the mechanical behaviour of cellular materials, specifically for their use in aerospace applications. A closed-cell polymer foam material (Rohacell) of various foam densities was chosen for this investigation, and a comprehensive experimental study was conducted which generated significant findings that hitherto have not been reported in the literature.
The research presented in this study revealed the following: The quasistatic response of Rohacell foam displays a compression/tension asymmetry in moduli and strength. In-situ experiments revealed that different macroscopic collapse mechanisms at different foam densities drove this behaviour.
Improved experimental methods were developed to characterise the material response at various loading rates. Under compressive loading, as the relative density and loading rate increased, a transition in material behaviour from a ductile to brittle response at very high rates (~5x10^3 s^-1) was found, and tests conducted at different temperatures were used to validate and provide a better understanding of the causes for the observed rate dependency.
The compression and tension properties of pre-crushed Rohacell foam loaded in different directions were measured, and with the use of three-point-bend tests it was shown that when the foams’ tension/compression asymmetry, or the changes in stiffness and strength due to pre-crushing (i.e. strain-induced anisotropy), are neglected, this leads to incorrect predictions of the foams’ structural response. Finally, a review of some existing Finite Element foam material models was conducted, and their ability to predict the foam response under complex loading was identified.
The new data and understanding generated from this thesis will allow engineers and researchers, who are developing constitutive models for predicting the response of foam materials, specifically in aerospace applications, to account for more aspects of the mechanical behaviours in their Finite Element models.

Keywords: microscopy
high strain rate
Foam
density
temperature
Advisor: Petrinic, N
Siviour, C
Tagarielli, V
Emotion, thought, and therapy

Hume and Spinoza are the most systematic representatives of two opposing traditions of argument about the relation of thought and feeling in the emotions. The Humeans treat emotions as essentially feelings (impressions or affects) with thoughts incidentally attached. The Spinozists say roughly the reverse, treating emotions as essentially thoughts ('ideas' or 'beliefs') with feelings incidentally attached. It is argued that the Spinozists are closer to the truth, that is, that thoughts are of greater importance than feelings fin the narrow sense of felt sensations) in the classification and discrimination of emotional states. It is then argued that if the Spinozists are closer to the truth, we have the beginning of an argument to show that Freudian or, more generally, analytic therapies make philosophic sense. That is, we can begin to understand how people's emotional lives might be trans- formed by consideration and interpretation of their memories, beliefs, etc.; how knowledge might help make one free.
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On two-phase flow models for cell motility

The ability of cells to move through their environment and spread on surfaces is fundamental to a host of biological processes; including wound healing, growth and immune surveillance. Controlling cell motion has wide-ranging potential for medical applications; including prevention of cancer metastasis and improved colonisation of clinical implants. The relevance of the topic coupled with the naturally arising interplay of biomechanical and biochemical mechanisms that control cell motility make it an exciting problem for mathematical modellers.
Two-phase flow models have been widely used in the literature to model cell motility; however, little is known about the mathematical properties of this framework. The majority of this thesis is dedicated to improving our understanding of the two-phase flow framework. We first present the simplest biologically plausible two-phase model for a cell crawling on a flat surface. Stability analyses and a numerical study reveal a number of features relevant to modelling cell motility. That these features are present in such a stripped-down two-phase flow model is notable. We then proceed to investigate how these features are altered in a series of generalisations to the minimal model. We consider the effect of membrane-regulated polymerization of the cell's actin network, the effect of describing the network as viscoelastic, and the effect of explicitly modelling myosin, which drives contraction of the actin network.
Validation of hydrodynamical models for cell crawling and spreading requires data on cell shape. The latter part of the thesis develops an image processing routine for extracting the three-dimensional shape of cells settling on a flat surface from confocal microscopy data. Models for cell and droplet settling available in the literature are reviewed and we demonstrate how these could be compared to our cell data. Finally, we summarise the key results and highlight directions for future work.

Keywords: poroviscoelastic
two-phase flow
cell motility
poroviscous
Advisor: Oliver, J
Whiteley, J
Waters, S
Failure of condition

This thesis is an investigation of a doctrine generally known as ‘failure of consideration’, but which I term ‘failure of condition’. I have two principal aims. First, to clarify quite what the doctrine of failure of condition is. Secondly, to explain why it has the effects it does – in particular, why it justifies the response of restitution. The doctrine, at core, concerns conditional transfers: when a transfer is made conditionally, and the condition fails, the transfer can be recovered. For this reason, I term the doctrine ‘failure of condition.’ I investigate the nature of this relationship and argue that the reason why the transfer is conditional is that the agent’s intention to make the transfer was itself conditional. The justification of restitution is a more complex affair than is customarily accepted – but there is a valid justification lurking not far from the surface of orthodoxy.
A secondary concern of the thesis is to re-examine an old theory in the field of common mistake, frustration and termination following a breach of contract. It used to be thought that these doctrines could be explained by failure of condition. That theory has fallen out of favour – it seems that no one accepts it today. This rejection rests upon a confusion over the nature of the doctrine of failure of condition. Once the nature of this doctrine has been clarified, we can see how closely the various doctrines align with one another; we can also see where the true difficulty with the failure of condition explanation lies.

Keywords: restitution
failure of consideration
unjust enrichment
Advisor: Mitchell, C
Quantum effects in artificial atoms

This thesis contains a theoretical and experimental investigation of semiconductor quantum dots (artificial atoms). The first part presents a numerical study of spin effects in GaAs/AlAs modulation-doped quantum dots containing 0 to 50 electrons. A theoretical model is developed to calculate confinement potentials and ground-state electron density distributions using the Kohn-Sham local spin-density approximation. Spin polarization, defined as the difference between the up- and down-spin electron densities, is predicted to occur spontaneously in symmetric quantum dots and in quantum point contacts in the lowdensity regime as a result of electron exchange interactions. This spontaneous magnetization can be controlled by an applied gate voltage, which opens up applications in spintronics and provides a possible explanation for the non-integer quantization of the quantum point contact conductance.
The second part describes experimental techniques to investigate photon-exciton coupling in InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots. Two experiments on resonant excitation of a single quantum dot are proposed, whereby the quantum-dot emission is distinguished from resonant pump light by either photon bunching of collected photons with reference photons, or Michelson interferometry. The feasibility study of the proposed experiments shows that the photon-exciton coupling efficiency must be dramatically increased by putting the quantum dot inside an optical microcavity. Novel types of high-quality, low mode-volume semiconductor microcavities containing quantum dots are designed, fabricated, and studied on a newly built setup. We present the first results of photoluminescence studies of InAs quantum dots inside both GaAs single-defect square-lattice photonic-crystal slabs and GaAs/AlAs micropillars, and InAs artificial molecules formed by vertically coupled strain-assisted quantum dots. The results indicate the potential of these nanostructures for implementing resonant transfer of quantum information, developing quantum repeaters and entangled-photon sources, and studying QED effects in the strong-coupling regime.

Advisor: Bouwmeester, D
Infrared problems in gauge theories

After introductory remarks on the question of colour confinement in non-Abelian gauge theories of the strong interactions, Chapter 1 presents a brief review of the infrared (IR) phenomena in QED, with a comparative discussion of the non-Abelian case.
In Chapter 2, the singularities arising in a purely massless process (Compton scattering in massless QED) are studied in perturbation theory. The IR and mass singularities from soft and hard bremsstrahlung are computed, and the cancellation implied by the Kinoshitaandndash;Leeandndash;Nauenberg theorem is verified. The appearance of mass singularities in the renormalization process is discussed in the context of dimensional regularization.
The first sections of Chapter 3 are devoted to the examination of general features of the IR divergence cancellation in the Yangandndash;Mills theory. By making use of the Ward identities for on-shell amplitudes, soft virtual corrections and emission of soft and hard Yangandndash;Mills quanta (gluons) are analyzed. In Section 3.4, the interest of considering a purely massless process in order to bring out characteristic features of the non-Abelian theory is emphasized, and gluon scattering in a colourless external potential is discussed Soft and hard gluon emission corrections are computed, and the inclusive transition rate is found to be free of singularities, to lowest non-trivial order in perturbation theory. Thus we extend previous investigations restricted to massive fermions and soft gluon emission. Our treatment includes non-leading singularities in the order considered and questions of gauge independence.
Renormalization group-type equations which have been proposed, and which are presumed to sum up the singularities in perturbation theory, are described in Chapter 4. From the invariance of the S-matrix under the renormalization group, equations of the Callanandndash;Symanzik type involving variations with respect to the IR cut-off are derived, and their significance is discussed. Questions related to the massive fermion decoupling theorem, zero-mass renormalization and dimensional regularization are also discussed.