VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Tradition and innovation in the Mamluk period: the anti-bid‘a literature of Ibn al-Ḥājj (d. 737/1336) and Ibn al-Naḥḥās (d. 814/1411)

This study seeks to contribute to a growing discussion about Islamic intellectual endeavours in the Middle Periods, providing new evidence from the genre of anti-innovation tracts (anti-bid‘a tracts) that has hitherto received relatively little modern scholarly attention. Specifically, this thesis examines tradition and innovation in Islam during the Mamluk period (648/1250 – 922/1517) through the lens of two jurists and their anti-innovation tracts. Ibn al-Ḥājj (d. 737/1336) was a Mālikī from North Africa who wrote Madkhal al-shar‘ al-sharīf. Ibn al-Naḥḥās (d. 814/1411), by contrast, was a Shāfi‘ī (and former Ḥanafī) from Damascus, who wrote a tract contained within his Tanbīh al-ghāfilīn, a work concerned with the duty of commanding right and forbidding wrong, and with naming and briefly discussing various sins and innovations.
Ibn al-Ḥājj’s and Ibn al-Naḥḥās’ anti-innovation tracts are studied here for the first time in their own right, together with English translations of representative passages of their work that allow the reader to gain a direct impression of them. In addition to this, this thesis makes three unique arguments. First, anti-innovation tracts should be read as prescriptive yet flexible examples of furū‘. Second, the authors of the tracts investigated here, Ibn al-Ḥājj and Ibn al-Naḥḥās, were both ‘outsiders’ to Mamluk Egypt, who used this genre to define and regulate correct Muslim practices, in less formal ways that were both new and continuous with earlier thinking. Ibn al-Ḥājj’s programme - urging fledgling scholars, in almost encyclopaedic fashion, to know about and teach against innovative practices - was more important for him than addressing the topics of intention and innovation that feature in the full title of his work. Ibn al-Naḥḥās is an interestingly obscure figure. In an abbreviated and direct style, he urged non-specialists in Mamluk lands to censure innovations, and even to prevent them. Third, Ibn al-Ḥājj and Ibn al-Naḥḥās conceived of loyalty to their legal school in ways that require us to expand the terms of modern scholarly debates about such loyalty.
This study contributes to the relatively recent, and fast-growing, literature on the Mamluk period in general, and its legal literature in particular. It supports a recent perspective on the Mamluk period, by illustrating the continuity and evolution of legal thinking during this period, which is both predicated upon, and differs substantially from, earlier periods of Islamic history. and deserves study in its own right.

Keywords: innovation
Intellectual history
Islam
Islamic law
tradition
Mamluk period
Advisor: Pfeiffer, J
The application of electronic techniques to high energy particle detection

The technical implications are discussed, of the physical principles behind ISIS, a large volume nuclear particle detector. The particular solution adopted in ISIS is described, for the accurate acquisition of data at high rates and under poor signal-to-noise conditions.
A computer program has been written to simulate the processing of signals and noise within ISIS. To check the validity of the simulation, its predictions have been compared with the results of experiments using prototype equipment. With the aid of the simulation, the performance of ISIS has been investigated as regards the spatial resolution and the particle-identification capability of the device. An optimum design for the whole ISIS device has been attained, as a compromise between this performance and tolerable systematic effects. In addition, it has been shown that, around the operating point, there is an adequate window within which satisfactory performance is maintained.

Advisor: Allison, W
Quantitative verification of real-time properties with application to medical devices

Probabilistic model checking is a powerful technique used to ensure the correct functioning of systems which exhibit real-time and stochastic behaviours. Many such systems are embedded and used in safety-critical situations, to mention implantable medical devices. This thesis aims to develop a formal model-based framework that is tailored for the analysis and verification of cardiac pacemakers. The contributions are novel approaches for the automatic verification and validation of real-time properties over continuous-time models, which are applicable to software embedded in medical devices.
First, we address the problem of model checking continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) models against real-time specifications given in the form of temporal logic, namely, metric temporal logic (MTL) and linear duration properties (LDP), or as timed automata (TA). The main question that we address is “given a continuous-time Markov chain, what is the probability of the set of timed paths that satisfy the real-time property under consideration?”. We provide novel algorithms to approximate the probability through generating systems of linear inequalities over variables that represent the waiting times in system states, and then solving multidimensional integrals over this set.
Second, we present a model-based framework to support the design and verification of pacemakers against real-time properties. The pacemaker is modelled as a network of timed automata, whereas the human heart is modelled either as a network of timed automata or as a network of hybrid automata. Our framework can be instantiated with personalised heart models whose parameters can be learnt from patient data, and we have done so to validate our approach. We introduce property patterns and the counting metric temporal logic (CMTL) in order to specify the properties of interest. We provide new verification algorithms for networks of timed or hybrid automata against property patterns and CMTL.
Finally, we pose and solve the parameter synthesis problem, i.e., given a network of timed automata containing model parameters, an objective function and a CMTL formula, find the set of parameter valuations, whenever existing, which satisfy the CMTL formula and maximise the objective function. The framework has been implemented using Simulink, Matlab and Python code. Extensive experimental results on pacemaker models have been carried out and discussed in detail. The techniques developed in this thesis can assist in the design and verification of software embedded in medical devices.

Keywords: Probability
Approximation Algorithms
Model Checking
Computing
Algorithms
Verification
Advisor: Marta Zofia Kwiatkowska, M
Purism in the German language during the nineteenth century, 1789-1889

Even more novel to the English speaker than the fact that foreign words should represent a problem at all are the frequent, often concerted reactions against them in Germany from the seventeenth century on. These reactions - attempts to eliminate borrowed words and replace them with German expressions - have been relatively little studied and the references in histories of language usually apply to the baroque Sprachgesellschaften and one or two individual purists. No detailed general survey of German purism is available, there is no bibliography on the subject, and the contribution of the purists has not been fully assessed. This study is intended as a preliminary step towards meeting these needs and offers a critical, fully documented account of purism in the hundred years between 1789 and 1889. This period begins with J.H. Campe, the most important German purist, who was the first to approach the question systematically and in great detail, and ends with the Berlin Declaration of 1889 objecting to the policies of the newly founded Allgemeiner Deutscher Sprachverein. The Sprachverein has fully documented its own history and achievements, but for the rest only Campe and F.L. Jahn have been studied critically. I have sought to investigate who the purists were, how they approached language, why they considered purism necessary, what foreign words they rejected, how they tried to replace them, and to give an account of their activity.
[See pdf. for rest of abstract.]
On cleavability

This thesis concerns cleavability. A space X is said to be cleavable over a space Y along a set A subset of X if there exists a continuous function f from X to Y such that f(A) cap f(X setminus A) = emptyset. A space X is cleavable over a space Y if it is cleavable over Y along all subsets A of X.
In this thesis we prove three results regarding cleavability.
First we discover the conditions under which cleavability of an infinite compactum X over a first-countable scattered linearly ordered topological space (LOTS) Y implies embeddability of X into Y. In particular, we provide a class of counter-examples in which cleavability does not imply embeddability, and show that if X is an infinite compactum cleavable over ω1, the first uncountable ordinal, then X is embeddable into ω1.
We secondly show that if X is an infinite compactum cleavable over any ordinal, then X must be homeomorphic to an ordinal. X must also therefore be a LOTS. This answers two fundamental questions in the area of cleavability. We also leave it as an open question whether cleavability of an infinite compactum X over an uncountable ordinal λ implies X is embeddable into λ.
Lastly, we show that if X is an infinite compactum cleavable over a separable LOTS Y such that for some continuous function f from X to Y, the set of points on which f is not injective is scattered, then X is a LOTS.
In addition to providing these three results, we introduce a new area of research developed from questions within cleavability. This area of research is called almost-injectivity.
Given a compact T2 space X and a LOTS Y, we say a continuous function f from X to Y is almost-injective if the set of points on which f is not injective has countable cardinality. In this thesis, we state some questions concerning almost-injectivity, and show that if lambda is an ordinal, X is a T2 compactum, and f is an almost-injective function from X to lambda, then X must be a LOTS.

Keywords: ordinal
scattered
compact
cleavability
LOTS
homeomorphic
continuous
Advisor: Knight, R
Peter, C
Out of many, one: epigram anthologies in pre-modern Arabic literature

This is the study of a previously neglected genre in pre-modern Arabic literature: the (poetic) epigram anthology. The epigram anthology was pioneered by a handful of poets in 14th-century Syria, but the genre was soon taken up by anthologists across the pre-modern Middle East and soon became one of the most popular types of Arabic poetry up until the modern period. This study is divided into two parts. Part One deals with critical issues in literary history and comparative literature, while Part Two is made up of three encapsulated studies on specific aspects of the social and literary (structural and textual) composition of the texts. In Part One, the epistemological background of the terms epigram and anthology is surveyed and their suitability for application to pre-modern Arabic literature is evaluated. Part One also includes a comprehensive history of the maqāṭīʿ (sing. maqṭūʿ, also maqṭūʿah) genre in Arabic as well as a detailed explication of this style of poetry, its anthological context, its generic status in the Arabic literary tradition, and its relation to the wider world-literary category of epigram. The three chapters of Part Two are devoted to the social network of anthologists and poets, the structure and composition of the anthologies themselves, and the way in which anthologists used a technique, which is called ‘variation’ in this study, to link the cited poetic material into an organic whole respectively. NB: This is a literary-historical study informed by the discipline of comparative literature; it is not primarily a philolological, biographical, or codicological investigation. The literary material presented here is what has been deemed most relevant for the purposes of the larger generic discussion at the centre of this literary-historical study. An annotated bibliography of unpublished sources is provided in an appendix in order to help the reader navigate the tricky present status of many Mamluk and Ottoman era sources.

Keywords: Epigrams
Poetry Anthologies
Arabic Poetry
Advisor: Van Gelder, G
Exploring the reactivity of cationic rhodium xantphos complexes with amine-boranes

This thesis explores the reactivity of amine-boranes with the {Rh(Xantphos)}+ fragment, with the aim of gaining mechanistic insight into the catalytic dehydropolymerisation of the amine-borane H3B∙NMeH2 to yield the polyaminoborane [H2BNMeH]n.
Chapter 2 describes the synthesis of suitable RhIII and RhI Xantphos precursors to be used in this investigation. Moreover, the first example of the dehydrogenative B—B homocoupling of the tertiary amine-borane H3B∙NMe3 to form H4B2•2NMe3 is reported.
The synthesis of the RhI precatalyst introduced in Chapter 2 entails the hydroboration of tert-butylethylene by H3B∙NMe3. In Chapter 3, the ability of the {Rh(Xantphos)}+ fragment to mediate this hydroboration in a catalytic manner is explored, and a mechanism is presented in which reductive elimination is proposed to be turnover-limiting. Other alkenes and phosphine-boranes are also trialled to determine the scope of the hydroboration.
Chapter 4 investigates the catalytic dehydrocoupling of H3B∙NMe2H and H3B∙NMeH2 with {Rh(Xantphos)}+ to form the dehydrocoupling products [H2BNMe2]2 and [H2BNMeH]n, respectively, and the dehydrocoupling mechanisms are shown to be similar. Both involve an induction period in which the active catalyst is formed (thought to involve N—H activation), and saturation kinetics operate during the productive phase of catalysis. H2 is shown to inhibit the dehydrocoupling, and lead to production of shorter chain [H2BNMeH]n. Conversely, using THF as the dehydropolymerisation solvent instead of C6H5F results in longer chain [H2BNMeH]n.
Finally, Chapter 5 presents new dicationic {Rh(Xantphos)}-based dimers, the formation of which involves loss of a phenyl group from the Xantphos ligands by P—C activation. The dimers are produced by routes involving either dehydrogenative homocoupling of H3B∙NMe3, or dehydrocoupling of H3B∙NMe2H. One of these dimers was tested as a catalyst for the dehydrocoupling of H3B∙NMe2H, and the reaction kinetics appear closely related those obtained using {Rh(Xantphos)}+, suggesting that the active catalysts in each system may be related.

Keywords: dehydrocoupling
Amine-borane
Xantphos
rhodium
Advisor: Weller, A
H.D.: Her life and work

This thesis argues that H.D.'s creativity originates in a flight from reality. Hilda Doolittle's adoption of her initials is interpreted as a sign of the writer's rejection of any identity located in the shared reality of the historical and the quotidian. From childhood her personality presented itself to her as a duality; detaching herself from the merely visible and material world, H. D. created an intense inner life which asserted itself in the dimension of artistic realization. It is argued that paradoxically the unevenness and discontinuity that characterize H.D.'s work derive from the same roots as her artistic originality and power: in her "split dual personality" which posited reality in the disembodied self. H.D. discovered in ancient Greece a metaphor and a direction for her own inner world. However her Imagist poems are not imitative but genuinely original: H.D. invented a new reality which she projected as a world devoid of all traces of human presence. H.D.'s subsequent shift of interest towards autobiographical prose is interpreted as a response to the threatened disintegration of her identity after World War I. The formlessness and repetition of much of H.D.'s prose is thus attributed to the exacerbation of the writer’s dichotomy of being. However, in some of her prose works H.D. succeeded in transfiguring the autobiographical material through the reinvention of reality in the image of her own subjectivity. Seeking new forms for her projection of the self, H.D. turned increasingly towards the occult which she understood as the science of the invisible dimension. She conflated with the occult her discoveries of the cinema as self-projection, and psychoanalysis as an instrument of knowledge of the inner being. It is argued that these interests exacerbated the solipsism inherent in H.D.'s rejection of external reality. With the exception of the war Trilogy, H.D.'s work becomes locked in private meanings which render it increasingly inaccessible to the reader. It is argued that after her mental breakdown in 1946, H.D. never recovered her vitality and originality as an artist. The space that this thesis devotes to the life of H.D. does not intend to justify her work by her life, but to signify that the literary message cannot be isolated from the circumstances in which the process of creation takes place. Thus H.D.'s flight from reality is not judged from an existential point of view as a diminution of being, since it is out of her "split dual personality" that H.D. emerges as a genuinely creative and original artist.

Advisor: Weaver, M
Brokers of uncertainty?: a sociology of law enforcement analysis

Law enforcement analysis is increasingly utilized by police organizations to help its warranted officials understand the public safety and security environment and make decisions about threats, harms and risks. While there is a well-developed practitioner literature and a number of evaluative studies about law enforcement analysis, there has been little empirical research into the day-to-day work practice of law enforcement analysis. This thesis utilizes participant observation and semi-structured interviews to construct an ethnography of the daily work practice of law enforcement analysis in three sites in the USA, Ireland and the UK. This empirical research at the intersection of the organizational structures and work cultures of both the law enforcement analytic units and the larger police organisation to which they belong helps explain not only how knowledge is created but also what knowledge and why. The thesis concludes that while law enforcement analysis produces valuable knowledge about current threats and harms and plays a role in organizational risk management, a variety of factors circumscribe the type of knowledge that is produced. The result is that the future is left largely unknown and that law enforcement analysts play a limited role in brokering organizational uncertainty about the public safety and security environment.

Keywords: policing
Advisor: Loader, I
Characterisation of syncoilin

Syncoilin is a 64kDa intermediate filament protein (IF) first studied because it binds to the dystrophin associated protein complex (DAPC) through α-dystrobrevin. Syncoilin is highly expressed in skeletal and cardiac muscle, but the function of syncoilin in muscle remains largely unknown. A recently generated syncoilin null (sync-/-) mouse has almost no muscle phenotype. This thesis makes significant progress in characterising the function of syncoilin in muscle and nerve and discovering a phenotype in the sync-/- mouse. The first half of this thesis attempts to further elucidate the function of syncoilin in muscle. Two new syncoilin isoforms were discovered in muscle, and syncoilin was shown to be upregulated in muscle during atrophy and regeneration. Sync+/+ and sync-/- primary muscle cell lines were generated in an attempt to elucidate a signalling role for syncoilin in muscle, but no difference was discovered between the two cell lines in cell growth, drug resistance or protein synthesis. Recent discoveries from this laboratory reveal that syncoilin is also expressed in neurons. The second half of this thesis is an attempt to characterise the function of syncoilin in neurons. Two potential syncoilin neuronal binding partners were examined. Syncoilin and α-tubulin bind via co-immunoprecipitation, but there is no co-localisation between the two proteins in sciatic nerve. Peripherin was shown to co-localise with syncoilin in sciatic nerve, and co-transfections suggest that syncoilin acts to regulate peripherin filament formation. Finally, a neuronal analysis of the sync-/- mouse shows decreased motor function in a range of behavioural tests. This observation is confirmed with the discovery that motor neurons in the sync-/- mouse have decreased axon calibre when compared to the sync+/+ mouse. The possibility that syncoilin plays a vital role in neuronal function is a significant discovery and opens an exciting new avenue of research.

Keywords: ventral root
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
syncoilin
neurons
axon caliber
peripherin
intermediate filaments
Advisor: Davies, K
A study of irradiation damage in iron and Fe-Cr alloys

Irradiation damage structures induced in pure Fe and Fe-Cr (up to 14%Cr) alloys by 2 MeV Fe+ ion irradiations in the temperature range 300-460°C were investigated by transmission electron microscopy. Specimens were irradiated in bulk to doses of 1.5 x 1019 Fe+/m2 (about 2.5 displacements per atom: dpa) and 4.5 x 1019 Fe+/m2 (about 7 dpa).
In most cases, damage took the form of dislocation loops with diameters from 2-100nm; the loops were distributed uniformly within all the samples. At higher irradiation temperatures (400°C, 460°C), complex microstructures such as finger loops (50nm in width and 1 micron in length) and perpendicular <100> loop clusters, were observed in both pure Fe and Fe-Cr samples.
Loop sizes and densities were seen to change as a function of irradiation temperature and dose. Loop sizes were seen to increase as the increase of irradiation temperatures and doses, while loop densities only increased with increasing doses and decreased as increasing temperatures. Loops with both types of Burgers vectors (<100> and ½<111>) were observed in all the samples. The proportion of <100> loops was higher in Fe than that in Fe-Cr alloys at the same irradiation condition, which has can be attributed to the high mobility of ½<111> loops in Fe, so that a large proportion of them will escape to the (001) foil surface.
A transition in loop Burgers vectors as a consequence of increasing temperature was observed. In Fe, the proportion of <100> loops increased with increasing irradiation temperature from 40% at 300°C to 60% at 460°C. A similar trend was found in the Fe-Cr alloys, but due to the higher proportion of ½<111> loops in these alloys, the increase of <100> loops was not that obvious, being from 30% at 300°C to 45% at 460°C(Fe-11Cr).
The effects of irradiation dose rate on the formation of dislocation loops by 2 MeV Fe+ ions were also investigated. These irradiations were carried out at 300°C with two different implantation dose rates: 6 x 10-4 dpa/s and 3 x 10-5 dpa/s. The implantation dose for both implantations was 0.38 x 1019 Fe+/m2 (0.5 dpa). Both the average loop size and loop densities for the Fe-Cr specimens subjected to the high dose rate irradiation were higher than that in the low dose rate irradiations. Take Fe-14Cr as an example, that the loop densities in high dose rate irradiation increased about 90% compared to that in low dose rate, and the average loop size in high dose rate irradiation was 30% larger than that in low dose rate irradiation.
The ‘inside-outside contrast’ method was applied to determine the loop nature in all the samples. It was found that all the large loops (>5nm) are of interstitial type. Any vacancies are believed to exist in the form of small dislocation loops (<5nm) or sub-microscopic voids.

Keywords: iron
radiation damage
transmission electron microscopy
Advisor: Roberts, S
Jenkins, M