VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Divine justification: Flavian imperial cult

It is the aim of this thesis to examine and contrast three aspects of the Roman state imperial cult as it existed under the Julio-Claudians and Domitian: the official state cult recorded by the Arval brothers (chapter one), and the roles of the Genius of the princeps (chapter two) and the divi (chapter three) in Roman state imperial cult. I will identify fundamental remodelling of several key aspects of the cult, and argue that this reflects changes to the ideology of imperial power that the cult expressed. Specifically I will argue that the imperial cult under the Julio-Claudians expressed the dynastic and earthly sources of their power – their hereditary claim to power and the powers they were invested with by the senate – and also created a cult of personality around each individual princeps, treating them as a prince of Rome. I will show that it was exactly these aspects that were largely removed from the form of the imperial cult by the reign of Domitian. Under Domitian, rather than concentrating on the claim to power of an individual charismatic princeps, cult focussed on the Principate as an important institution in Rome that had to be maintained over individual reigns and even dynasties. As a result of these changes the princeps was also largely represented as a chief magistrate who acted for the benefit of the state. The subsidiary goal of this thesis is to suggest the possibility that the majority of this remodelling in fact took place during the reign of Vespasian, but the evidence surviving from his reign is too limited to confirm this suggestion with certainty.

Keywords: Cults - Rome
Emperor Worship - Rome
Rome - Religion
Rome - History - Flavians 69-96
Fratres Arvales
Advisor: Quinn, J
Isolation and characterisation of the B42 mating type locus of Coprinus cinereus

The B mating type locus of the basidiomycete Coprinus cinereus contains a multiallelic gene complex encoding peptide pheromones and transmembrane receptors. There are an estimated 79 B mating specificities in C. cinereus, any two of which are sufficient to promote B-regulated development following cell fusion. The isolation of the B42 locus is described along with the DNA sequence analysis that identified nine B mating type genes within a 27kb B42 -specific DNA sequence. Six of the genes, with small transcripts of 800-900nt, encode the mating pheromone precursors and the other three, with 1.9 to 2-5kb transcripts, encode the transmembrane pheromone receptors. The genes are arranged in three groups, designated group 1, 2 and 3, each consisting of one receptor gene and two pheromone genes. B42 and B6 share the same alleles of the group 1 genes, but not those of groups 2 and 3. This was demonstrated by DNAsequence analysis and Southern blot analysis. None of the group 1 genes from B42 were able to activate B -regulated development in a B6 host when introduced by transformation but with one exception, all genes from group 2 and group 3 were able to do so. This analysis led to the recognition that the three genes in any one group are held together in an allele-specific DNA sequence and that Southern blot analysis and transformation can be used to identify shared alleles in uncloned loci. Extensive Southern analyses using cloned genes to probe genomic DNAs from strains having other B mating specificites showed that different B loci may share identical alleles of two groups of genes. Mating partners thus require different alleles of only one group of genes to generate a compatible B mating interaction. Transformation analyses with the same cloned genes confirmed the conclusions derived from the hybridisation data. Multiple B mating specificities thus appear to be derived from three groups of multiallelic and functionally redundant genes. A tenth gene located within the B42- specific DNA sequence encodes a putative transporter protein belonging to the major facilitator superfamily (MFS). In other genomic backgrounds this gene lies in homologous flanking sequences and its presence within the B42 locus is unlikely to be related to mating type function.
Defining and explaining positive psychological outcomes in people with physical health conditions

Experiencing a physical health condition can have wide ranging physical and psychological outcomes for an individual, impacting on many aspects of daily living. The psychological outcomes can vary widely, from extreme psychological distress to psychological growth, and are complex and dynamic. Traditionally, research has focused on those experiencing psychological distress, despite evidence showing that many individuals are able to achieve positive psychological outcomes. The literature is unclear in defining different positive psychological outcomes, and indeed distinguishing different outcomes and processes from one another. Attention needs to be paid to the definition applied to individuals who are reporting positive psychological outcomes following physical health difficulties and further understanding the process through which individuals achieve these outcomes.
This empirical study aimed to address some of the gaps in the literature, by exploring how six individuals reporting positive psychological outcomes following spinal cord injury described and explained these outcomes. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to investigate the experience of these individuals. Three superordinate themes were extracted: "Living a normal life, just doing things differently", "Overcoming challenges: Determination to succeed" and "Using the resources available to me". The research supported the idea that positive psychological outcomes arise through a complex interplay between personality, cognitive and environmental factors. Theoretically, this research has implications for defining positive psychological outcomes following spinal cord injury, in addition to contributing towards future theoretical frameworks that aim to provide a basis for understanding the process through which positive psychological outcomes following spinal cord injury are achieved. Clinically, this research provides a narrative that can be used with people following spinal cord injury and also provides evidence for the use of cognitive screening measures such as appraisal style, to identify individuals who may be showing less adaptive cognitions.

Keywords: psychology
spinal cord injury
resilience
posttraumatic growth
physical health
Advisor: Paul, K
An invisible terrain: John Ashbery and nature

This thesis reads John Ashbery as a major poetic thinker about nature whose work convenes a multitude of nature writing traditions, from classical pastoral to the 21st-century eco-sublime. Challenging a critical consensus that would cast Ashbery as either a belated romantic in search of lost nature or an arch-postmodernist who dissolves "nature" into text, this study reveals his deep historical awareness of the transmission and collision of literary ecologies. The poet who emerges delights in putting different poetic natures into contact with each other—and in humorously making nature unnatural. Surveying Ashbery’s long historical moment, the thesis uses four terms of critique—transparency, vagrancy, flow, and badness—to map his "invisible terrain."
Chapter one historicizes Ashbery’s turn to a poetics of contradictory "transparencies" during his sojourns in France from 1956-1965 and his concurrent dream of writing poems that would be like "natural landscapes" in a world of "painted ones." Chapter two considers the pastoral and anti-pastoral topoi of Ashbery’s Vietnam-era poetry and his tendency to "wander away" from political commitment. Chapter three examines Ashbery's recurrent tropes of "flow" and his tendency to literalize the stream-of-consciousness metaphor and "dissolve" his own style at decisive moments of his career. Chapter four reads the "bad" nature poetry of Ashbery’s late period (1987 to the present) as the culmination of a career-long investment in camp irony’s "good taste of bad taste" and as a response to ecological crisis. The coda, a survey of Ashbery’s critical prose, examines his penchant for “a completely new kind of realism."

Keywords: nature writing
John Ashbery
American poetry
nature poetry
eco-theory
Advisor: Bush, R
Functional differential equations and lens design in geometrical optics

The subject of this thesis is lens design using a system of functional differential equations arising from Fermat's Principle in geometrical optics. The emphasis is primarily on existence, uniqueness, and analyticity, properties of solutions to these equations, but some asymptotic methods are developed for special cases. Three specific lens problems are considered in detail: the first is an axial lens having two pairs of foci on the optical axis, the second is an axial lens which focuses light at two different frequencies to two distinct points, the third is a lens symmetric about an axis having foci not on said axis.

Advisor: Ockendon, J
McLeod, J
Chewong modes of thought

This is an ethnographic study of the Chewong, a small group of aboriginal people who live in the tropical rain forest of peninsular Malaysia. They are shifting cultivators, hunters and gatherers.
After an introductory chapter in which language, history, ecology, economy, demography, and kinship are briefly examined, the main body of the thesis is presented in three parts.
In Part Two, "Relationships", I suggest that a lack of hierarchy on the political level is only one manifestation of a fundamental egalitarian value system permeating Chewong beliefs and practices. Not only are no humans imbued with a higher status than any other, but also the numerous superhuman beings who inhabit the Chewong universe are not regarded as superior to human beings, nor to one another.
In Part Three, "Consciousness and Relativity", the discussion focuses upon Chewong conceptionsof what it means to be human. This includes an evaluation of their concepts of soul, its relationship to the body, and other aspects of the individual. These concepts are then contrasted with Chewong ideas about the rest of nature as well as the superhuman beings. The suggested conclusion is that although there is an envisaged unity of nature (including human beings) and supernature, consciousness is nevertheless species-bound.
Part Four, "Rules and Classification" first examines the implications of the numerous rules which govern Chewong behaviour. These are seen to constitue their moral universe and to form a theory of causality. The issue of symbolic classification is then addressed. Taking those rules which refer to animals, an attempt is made to determine explicit or implicit principles which might account for the allocation of specific animals to specific rules. The data are also subjected to a Principal Components Analysis. No underlying principles were found. In view of this it is concluded that membership of a class is due only to contingent circumstances.
Functional specialisation of GABAergic cells in the basolateral amygdala

The amygdala, in particular its basolateral part (BLA), plays a critical role in binding affective qualities to otherwise neutral stimuli, and in eliciting emotional behaviors. Plasticity of inputs to BLA projection neurons involved in emotional memory has been extensively studied. However, how BLA neurons collectively process sensory information to encode and stabilize emotional memories is unknown. Precise coordination of BLA network activities seems critical. Specifically, timed integration of salient stimuli, and synchrony with hippocampal theta oscillations appear to be important.
Recent reports suggest that GABAergic neurons may be instrumental in shaping ensemble activity in the BLA. Studies of neocortex and hippocampus showed that diverse GABAergic interneuron types play highly specific roles in coordinating network operations. The presence of similar interneuron populations in the BLA suggests comparable mechanism may govern its activities. However, GABAergic cell types and their functions have not been characterized.
In this thesis, I tested the hypothesis that GABAergic neurons innervating the BLA contribute to noxious stimulus integration and are engaged in hippocampal-amygdala synchrony in a type-dependent manner. I combined the analysis of in vivo firing of BLA neurons with their post hoc anatomical characterization. Local field potentials were recorded in dorsal hippocampus simultaneously with unit activity in the BLA of urethane-anesthetized rats. Hindpaw pinches and electrical footshocks were used as noxious stimuli. After recording, neurons were filled with Neurobiotin using juxtacellular labeling. Cells were identified on the basis of their axonal and dendritic patterns, neurochemical contents and postsynaptic targets, using light and electron microscopy.
Five types of GABAergic neurons innervating distinct targets in the BLA were unambiguously characterized. Their firing was differently coupled to hippocampal theta oscillations and noxious stimuli. This work provides a first evidence of GABAergic cell type-specific roles in coordinating BLA activities. In addition, I show that amygdala and cortical activities follow distinct rules. The cooperative actions of GABAergic neurons in the BLA may ensure timed integration of salient stimuli and ongoing brain oscillations, thereby contribute to form precise and stable emotional memories.

Keywords: pain
in vivo
amygdala
GABA
hippocampus
theta oscillations
histochemistry
electrophysiology
interneuron
juxtacellular
Advisor: Capogna, M
A construction of the psychological

Paul Grice has argued that a methodological procedure termed 'constructionism' is suitable to elucidate our folk-psychological concepts. The methodology is foundationalist: beginning with a psychologically simple creature a sequence of increasingly psychologically complex creatures is developed through the application of a set of construction routines and constraints.
This thesis develops Grice's claim. My main aim is to demonstrate the methodology by producing a construction. My secondary aim is to illuminate the concepts of desiring and valuing by means of the described construction.
In Chapter 1, I claim that constructionism provides an answer to problems associated with a certain form of holism which permeates the psychological.
In Chapter 2, I discuss and criticise the detail of Grice's account for the development of a construction.
In Chapter 3, I set out the foundations for my construction. In Chapter 4, I describe a simple creature with a single recurrent need inhabiting a simple environment consisting of four features. These features are manipulated to determine how the creature would need to develop in order to survive. The end of this chapter sees the ascription of a discriminatory capacity in response to the need to track and manipulate objects. This capacity might plausibly be described as 'presentational'.
In Chapter 5, I attribute to the creature multiple needs and the capacity for Associative Learning. At this stage desires emerge. The rest of the chapter is concerned with assessing the modified creature's capacity for continued survival. By the end of the chapter the creature is shown to lack the capacities necessary to form preferences suited to the specific contexts in which it acts.
In Chapter 6, I claim that a creature with an objective conception can form the necessary preferences. I ascribe to the creature those capacities necessary to for objective conception. The upgraded creature is described as capable of valuing.
Identity in the early works of John Marston, 1575-1634

Among Marston's earliest works are two books of verse satires (Certaine Satyres and The Scourge of Villanie, both 1598) and three plays (Antonio and Mellida, Antonio's Revenge and What You Will, all between 1600-1602) in which he explored the composition of human identity. From the initial premiss that the self is socially constructed and tends always to be dependent on the social and material contexts in which it exists, he developed a conception of existential struggle, in which the individual self either succumbs to the influence of its environment, or else achieves an authentic autonomy by imposing its own reality on the world around it.
The thesis is in five main parts. Chapter I reviews theories of identity in the sixteenth century, analyses the Roman verse satires on which Elizabethan satires were modelled, and gives an account of the developments in English society at the end of the sixteenth century that helped to generate a satirical discourse in which anxiety as to the stability of the self was prominent. Chapter II examines these satires, focusing on Marston but paying close attention also to such other authors as Donne, Hall, Guilpin, Lodge and the anonymous author of Micro-Cynicon. Chapters III and IV are a close reading of the three plays named above; it is argued that in them Marston developed the ideas about identity which he had first conceived in the satires into a considered anatomy of the self. Chapter V looks briefly at Marston's later plays, especially Sophonisba (1606) with the same principles in mind.
As will be apparent, the emphasis of the thesis is on Marston as a thinker, rather than as a poetic technician or man of the theatre, although these aspects of him are considered where they are relevant.
Nature, power and participation: an exploration of ecology and equity in Kingston, Jamaica

Kingston is a city facing serious environmental challenges. In common with other Third World cities, these have usually been documented from the perspective of affluent and powerful urban residents. Very little research has explored the spatial and social distribution of environmental problems in the city, or has examined the ways that individual citizens from a variety of backgrounds understand the urban environment. These problems have often been packaged as discrete issues, when in fact they cannot be understood or alleviated without knowledge of their economic, political, and cultural aspects. Urban environmental problems require political solutions that address uneven power relations and ineffective structures of urban governance. In this thesis, I address these issues in Kingston through an application of the themes of nature, power and participation. A mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods were used to explore the ways in which urban residents from different age, gender and class backgrounds construct the city and its environmental problems. The knowledge of marginalised individuals and groups is placed in the foreground and is used to provide an alternative analysis of Kingston’s ecology. These understandings are then used to assess critically the structures of urban governance, and to suggest possible changes that could be made to these. The research confirms that there are significant environmental problems in Kingston, and that these have serious negative impacts on many urban residents. It shows that these problems are understood differently by the various social groups within the city, and that the burdens of environmental problems vary socio-spatially across the Kingston Metropolitan Area. Despite this, there is a general consensus that environmental improvement is desirable. However, for this to be achieved there need to be fundamental alterations in the social structures and political organisation of the city.

Keywords: Kingston
urban
environment
political ecology
Jamaica
Advisor: Clarke, C
Music and text: centre and absence

This dissertation examines Boulez's notion of 'centre and absence' in relation to his use of text in composition and how his ideas have acted as a springboard for my own compositions. Boulez's writings about 'centre and absence' are investigated as well as its implementation in two vocal works: Improvisation II of Pli selon Pli and Cummings ist der Dichter. This is followed by a detailed commentary on my own music, demonstrating why and how I became interested in Boulez's notion of 'centre and absence' and the effect this has had on both my vocal and my instrumental music. The culmination of this study is my work Sense of Place, for large ensemble, which uses the novel Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino as a 'centre and absence'.

Keywords: Boulez
composition
music
contemporary
Advisor: Saxton, R
Slip and edge effect in complete contacts

The general problem of an anticrack, present in a simple domain and subject to general remote loading is solved using distributed line forces, acting as strain nuclei, along the line of the anticrack. Subsequently, both dislocations and point forces are used as strain nuclei to achieve mixed boundary value conditions. The influence function for a pair of forces applied to the faces of a semi-infinite notch is found and finally this is used to find the true closure length and interfacial contact pressure.
When a sharp-edged indenter is pressed into a half plane material in the half-plane is displaced and 'laps around' the edges of the punch, possibly making contact with the side faces. This phenomenon is quantified within (coupled) half-plane theory, and applied first to an idealised indenter having the cross section of a trapezium, and then to a semi-infinite indenter. The latter allows an asymptotic form to be found which, through a generalised stress intensity factor may be collocated into the edge of any notionally sharp-edged indentation problem.
The effect of surface strains on the local slip angle, when an infinite cylinder is slid skew-wise across an elastically similar half-plane is found. It is shown that local frictional orthogonality is not completely consistent with global orthogonality.
The problems of a square-ended and an almost square-ended rigid punch sliding with both plane and anti-plane velocity components are studied. It is shown that, for a truly complete contact, if the contacting body is incompressible, convection effects are absent. Introducing either: (a) local rounding or (b) finite compressibility of the contacting body into the problem introduces convection, giving rise to an inconsistency between the global and local requirement of the orthogonal friction law.
The state of stress in a three-quarter-plane undergoing antiplane shear deformation is studied, due to the presence of a screw dislocation along one of the projection lines extending from the free surfaces. A simple, accurate formula for the state of stress along the line is found, providing a useful kernel for the solution of crack and contact edge slip problems.
The state of stress induced in an axi-symmetric solid formed from a half-space and a bonded semi-infinite rod, by a family of ring dislocations of arbitrary Burgers vector is found. Particular care is given to the interaction between the Cauchy singularity near the dislocation core and the geometric singularity at the rod/half-space junction. Torsional contact between a semi-infinite elastic rod with square ends and an elastically similar half-space was then solved using the ring dislocations as influence functions. This provides an excellent illustration of the imposition of orthogonality condition for a complete contact.

Advisor: Hills, D