VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Intravesicular solids in chemical and biological systems

This thesis is concerned with the formation and nature of intravesicular solids in chemical and biological systems. The precipitation of Ag2O within unilamellar vesicle microvolumes is described in detail. Formation of small (<10nm) single-domain cubic Ag2O crystallites occurs on membrane diffusion of hydroxide ions. Nucleation initiates at a single site on the inner membrane surface followed by slow crystal growth. No precipitation is observed below an extravesicular pH (pHOUT) of ca. 11.0. Permeable intravesicular nitrate ions permit hydroxide influx only when a critical membrane potential gradient is surpassed. Above a pHOUT of 11.0 rate of precipitation is dependent on the rate of crystal growth. Kinetics are firstorder with respect to intravesicular Ag(I) concentration and approximately first-order with respect to hydroxide concentration below a pHOUT of 12.0. Solubility equilibria for intra-and extravesicular Ag2O formation are the same.
Further in situ intravesicular precipitation reactions are described for FeO(OH) (crystalline), FeO(OH) (amorphous), Ag2SiO3 (crystalline), CoSiO3 (amorphous), Co(OH)2 (amorphous), Ag2S (crystalline), CoS (amorphous), and Agl (crystalline). Precipitation of single oxidation state compounds is the same in vesicle space as for normal aqueous solution. For a mixed valency state solid, Fe304, intravesicular precipitation results in an amorphous material compared with a crystalline material prepared in aqueous solution. Inclusion of pre-formed Fe304, into vesicles is of potential use as a magnetic drug carrier system and n.m.r. relaxation probe.
Intravesicular silica deposition in Stephenaoeca diplocostata Ellis is investigated. Siliceous costal strips are found to be extremely amorphous in structure, have surfaces active to Co(II) and Fe(III) ions, and demineralise from their centre of axis. T-joins of costal strips in intact loricae are found to be joined by a connective material containing amorphous silica centred around a filamentous material of unknown composition. Sectioned material indicates that silicification possibly initiates on an organic preformer laid down within an elongated intracellular vesicle.
Potential EM stains, K5SiPhGeW11039, Gd(fod)3, and t-BuNH3[(nC22H45PO3)2Mo5O15] interact with vesicle bilayers resulting in observable images in the EM. Binding of K5SiPhGeW11039 can be followed by 1H n.m.r. spectroscopy . Gd(fod)3 loaded vesicles are potential n.m.r. probes for protein - membrane binding studies.

Advisor: Williams, R
Studies in cardiovascular mechanics

The thesis reports an investigation of the mechanisms whereby the femoral artery supplying blood to a temporarily vasodilated skeletal muscle bed also dilates. Arterial diameter was continuously measured by an ultrasonic transit time technique, calibrated against distance by separate determination of the velocity of ultrasound in blood. An instrument capable of sampling up to four distances at repetition frequencies above 1andnbsp;kHz was developed, and new methods of transmitter pulse triggering and received pulse amplification and detection are described. Design of optimal transducers for arterial, cardiac, venous and transcutaneous use is discussed in terms of testing by beam visualisation and other methods. The system runs for several hours without temperature drift and will resolve distance changes smaller than one micron. Trials by measurement of dynamic distension of a long water-filled rubber tube and comparison with manometrically measured phase velocity showed that the technique yields results within the range of predicted values from the various theories of pulsatile flow in rubber tubes.
Blood pressure and flow and vessel diameter were measured from the exposed femoral arteries of anaesthetised greyhounds. Transient hyperaemia was induced by distal injection of vasodilator substances, nerve stimulation or occlusion of the femoral artery, and sustained high flowrate by establishing an arteriovenous shunt. Dilatation of up to 3% was observed in less than half of the experiments. The effects on the response of altering blood pressure, arterial constriction, and various degrees of arterial exposure and handling were observed. The data on exposure illuminate the controversy over the applicability to unexposed vessels of data obtained invasively.
Locally originating response mechanisms were tested by perfusion of excised arteries at varying flowrates, pressures and pharmacologically induced tonic constriction levels. Conduction of constriction and relaxation was tested in vivo and in vitro by procedures to show the distant effects of locally applied pharmacological agents.
Pressure and distension data were digitised and analysed by computer to determine wave velocities, elastic moduli and the importance of elastic non-linearity. Methods of finding phase, group and foot velocities were compared.
The femoral dilatation response occurred after distal arterial section and when an arteriovenous shunt was established. Therefore the mechanism is not thought to involve conduction of dilatation commands from peripheral vessels. Temperature changes caused an opposite effect to high flow dilatation: the artery dilated slightly on cooling during occlusion and vice versa. The dilatation response is considered to depend on local sensing of increased arterial blood flowrate. Two such possible mechanisms are discussed.
Machine Learning Techniques Applied to Multi−Agent Cooperation

Recent rapid advances in technology mean that robots are being used for an ever widening range of tasks. While traditional robotics tasks have typically involved robots operating individually, there is now an increasing need for development of techniques that may be useful for cooperation between robots, in other words for multi-agent cooperation. This field requires robust and versatile solutions since robots must typically operate in noisy and uncertain environments. Robot football is an increasingly popular academic discipline worldwide. The challenges offered by robot football are numerous, and solutions to robot football problems often apply to a wider range of robotics applications. This makes robot football an ideal testbed for the study of multi-agent cooperation problems. In this thesis, two areas of multi-agent cooperation are approached within the framework of robot football: collision planning and path planning. Artificial neural networks are applied to specific problems in each of these areas, and in both cases lead to an increase in performance. In the case of path planning, a novel approach is proposed. All experiments are undertaken within the simulator developed for the FIRA robot football simulation league. The results of these experiments indicate that machine learning techniques are well suited to solving multi-agent cooperation problems. Certain machine learning techniques are particularly suitable for certain types of problems. Machine learning techniques outperform non-learning techniques in a number of cases, and there is extensive scope for machine learning techniques to be applied to a wider range of collision and path planning problems, and to multi-agent collaboration problems in general.
The life within

Analysis of organic form begins not with plants but with the problem of Cartesian dualism. Inadvertently, its effect was to remove God from the natural world, thus opening the way to atheism. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this was refuted by stress on God's active role in nature. The presence and operation of his intellect was equated with life as the primary force in the natural world. Later natural philosophy developed a theory of power which was also equated with life and mind.
The subject of Wordsworth's two-part Prelude is the relation of the mind to this life or permeating spirit, and the epistemological uncertainties which it entails. While proposing a view in which the individual is integrated into the totality, the poem also raises the problem of how the individual can also be contradistinguished from it.
Blumenbach, under whom Coleridge studied in 1798-99, proposed a different theory of life in which it was defined as a nisus formativus, or inner self-generating power, which creates the form of the living body. Coleridge developed this into a theory of life as individuation, which resolved the opposition of the infinite and the individual. Study of Kant also showed how the nisus formativus could be allied to a theory of method based on a priori cognitive structures.
The expansion of The Prelude in 1804 is related to Wordsworth's identification of the self, as the inner principle of life, with the a priori guiding Idea of his poem. Imagination, the "co-adunating Faculty," links the two together. Wordsworth's related theory of poetry views mind and language as integrated in the same way as mind and body, life and matter, and God's mind and nature. Together, these provide the basis for an understanding of the structure of the poem, and, in particular, its "fall."
Christian Science

This thesis seeks to show the acceptance of Christian Science, an American healing religion, in British society, c.1895-1940. It has two primary aims. The first is to chart the progress and growth of the movement in London and some provincial towns and cities up to the First World War; the second concentrates on reaction, both from the British public at large and the specific areas of society most affected by its claims: the Anglican Church and the medical profession. The second of these aims has been given more importance. Responses in religious and secular newspapers and published works, and accounts in the main journal of the movement which illustrate problems faced by early Christian Scientists in Britain have therefore been given throughout the chapters on establishment and expansion. Although background information is given, the thesis does not attempt detailed analyses regarding the doctrine and organization of the movement, nor does it seek to provide precise details with regard to the numbers of churches and adherents. It has drawn on an existing body of sociological scholarship into these questions to provide a basis for its different concerns.
Starting from a discussion on background influences and a brief history and explanation of Christian Science within its American context, subsequent sections explore the progress of the American "missionaries" of the movement and the earliest British membership, discuss public reaction to its growth and to the opening of various churches, and analyze the social composition of the British following, including a social and political elite. The more farreaching responses from the affected establishment groups mentioned above, constitute the core of the thesis. Finally, two chapters analyzing public reaction in the realm of jokes, cartoons and novels have been included, while an appendix exploring the widening outreach of Christian Science-type ideas in the form of New Thought, concludes the thesis.
The neurophysiology of sedation

We recognise consciousness in ourselves and in those around us. Consciousness is the essence of our existence, who and what we are, but we are willing and able to let go of it daily during sleep, which we welcome and associate with rest, recovery and well being, knowing that consciousness will return reliably, when we are ready. Yet we cannot define this thing or process which makes us "us". We do not understand how it is constructed from the activity in our brains, how it is deconstructed by sleep, drugs or disease, or how it can be reconstructed by waking or recovery. Our ignorance renders us reliant on inadequate means of measuring consciousness, dependent on movement for its detection.
Propofol is an intravenous anaesthetic drug with the capacity to safely, rapidly and reliably produce sedation and anaesthesia, providing an ideal model of unconsciousness for study. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides a non-invasive means of measuring activity within the brain. EEG is a convenient broad measure of neuronal activity. This thesis exploits the advantages of each of these techniques, fMRI and EEG, first separately and then together, to link highly informative, spatially specific fMRI observations to convenient, reproducible electrophysiological surface measurements.
A safe and reliable model of unconsciousness suitable for fMRI interrogation is first developed and explored. Changes in the spatial extent and interregional correlation of neuronal activity when subjects become unresponsive show that the functional connectivity of the striatum is specifically impaired as perception fails. Disruption of the brain’s internal temporal frame of reference impairs the synthesis of perceptions from their fragments. The second experimental chapter specifically examines the behaviour of sleep oscillations during ultraslow increases and decreases in the depth of sedation with propofol. Functional activity shows that the brain is intensely active despite loss of consciousness and reveals measurable transitions in neuronal activity. Combined simultaneous EEG/FMRI then shows that these transitions reflect stepwise changes in the processing of experience and a shift from externally modulated thalamocortical signaling to an internal dialogue.

Keywords: consciousness
sedation
propofol
anaesthesia
Advisor: Tracey, I
Essays on interconnected markets

This thesis consists of three essays that explore the dynamics of interconnected markets and examine the relationships between markets, investor behavior, and fundamental characteristics of the firm and the economy.
In the first essay, we investigate the role of trade credit links in generating cross-border return predictability between international firms. Using data from 43 countries from 1993 to 2009, we find that firms with high trade credit in producer countries have stock returns that are strongly predictable based on the returns of their associated customer countries. This behavior is especially prevalent among firms with high levels of foreign sales. To better understand this effect we develop an asset pricing model in which firms in different countries are connected by trade credit links. The model offers further predictions about this phenomenon, including stronger predictability during periods of high credit constraints and low uninformed trading volume. We find supportive empirical evidence for these predictions.
The second essay investigates the dynamics of commodity futures volatility. I derive the variance decomposition for the futures basis to show how unexpected excess returns result from new information about expected future interest rates, convenience yields, and risk premia. Using data on major commodity futures markets and global bilateral commodity trade, I analyze the extent to which commodity volatility is related to fundamental uncertainty arising from increased emerging market demand and macroeconomic uncertainty, and control for the potential impact of financial frictions introduced by changing market structure and index trading. I find that a higher concentration in the emerging market importers of a commodity is associated with higher futures volatility. Commodity futures volatility is significantly predictable using variables capturing macroeconomic uncertainty.
The third essay investigates the differential explanatory power of consumer (importing countries) and producer (exporting countries) risk in explaining the volatility of commodity spot premia and term premia using trade-weighted indices of GDP volatility. Using data for major commodity futures markets, bilateral commodity trade, exchange rates, and GDP for countries trading these commodities, I test hypotheses on the heterogeneous impact of consumer and producer shocks, potentially driven by differences in hedging preferences and investment planning horizons. Producer risk is significant for both short-dated and long-dated maturities, while consumer risk has greater explanatory power for the volatility of the term spread.

Keywords: economic uncertainty
international finance
financial economics
market frictions
term structure
predictability
customer-supplier relations
trade credit
commodities
international equity markets
emerging markets
futures markets
information asymmetry
commodity volatility
asset pricing
Advisor: Ramadorai, T
Marking time: the decision-making processes of examiners of History and English ‘A’ level

In the UK examiners assign marks to A level examination scripts using extensive mark-schemes. Examiners work under strict time constraints, and must consider various sources, from script to mark-scheme to exemplar marked scripts. Essay subjects, such as History and English (two subjects which are associated with difficulty of marking), are likely to form a particular cognitive challenge for examiners, and their marking has not been extensively researched. Most examiners mark within accepted variations of reliability, as determined by Awarding Bodies’ monitoring systems. The question is, then, how they make these decisions, given the amount of information and the limited time available. The training process which is intended to bring the examiners’ decisions into line with the standard of the Principal Examiner also represents a lacuna in the literature. This study therefore sought to investigate examiners’ decision-making processes and the process of the training meeting.
Five day-long standardising meetings (four examiners’ meetings and one senior examiners’ pre-standardising meeting), split between English and History, were recorded, transcribed and subjected to discourse analysis; three examiners, spread between the four units, provided additional Verbal Protocol Analysis data while undertaking live marking. A survey, which presented preliminary conclusions from that data and some extracts from examiners’ discourse, was used to collect further data from a larger sample of History and English A level examiners. The data are considered in relation to the theory of heuristics, which has been used to consider examining at other levels, or in other subjects, and with other question types. The data are also considered in the light of other theories, including those of expertise and construct-referenced assessment.
The data demonstrate that decisions were not usually made in the rule-based way which is suggested as the ideal by the regulations, and which would be assumed from the mark-schemes and rubric issued by the exam boards. The mark-scheme did provide a guide to the foci which should, and can be seen to, attract examiners’ attention. However, a great deal of ‘professional judgement’ was also exercised, and examiners used a number of informal heuristics, and made relative judgements to reach a mark; comparison is established as a major mechanism of their decision-making. These behaviours do not necessarily lead to bias, however, and many were actually suggested during the training process. Some were suggested consciously by senior examiners, but some appeared to be unconsciously modelled during the training meeting. The theory of heuristics is seen to be widely applicable to the data; the choice of material and training mitigated the potential bias which heuristics could cause. A wide range of cognitive processes are demonstrated in the data, which were used to varying degrees by different examiners, at different times within and between scripts.

Keywords: decision-making
A level
judgement
examiners
marking
Advisor: Lunt, I
Stanley, G
Fiction, deceit and morality in the plays of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, 1580-1639

Alarcón was writing at a time when Spaniards increasingly came to perceive Spain as a nation in decline, and to seek the remedy for their country's malaise in a whole series of economic, political, social, and, in particular, moral reforms. One consequence of this was to intensify the debate concerning effect of the theatre on the moral values of the young, another was to stimulate a renewed interest in the art of war and the martial virtues which were held to have been the source of earlier glories, and yet another was to impel political philosophers and theologians alike to consider anew how the necessities of government in this uncertain political and economic climate might be reconciled with the ethical principles promoted by the Catholic Church.
This study contends that both the style and the content of his plays show Alarcón to have been both well-informed and keenly interested in such matters, and indicate that, whilst he concurs with many contemporary moralists in identifying the source of the national malaise as a self-indulgent obsession with sensual pleasure and social posturing, and in suggesting that the cure lies in an adoption of a moral code based upon stoic self-discipline and other such virtues, he makes it clear that the implementation of these virtues in the complex situations encountered in everyday life depends to a large extent upon the prudent use of deception.
Thus, in his work, Alarcón presents two principal forms of deception: the lies, slanders, illusions, and acts of imposture of those who seek the illicit gratification of their worldly desires; and the cautious equivocation, concealments, disguises, and stratagems of those who know that appearances deceive and who seek to ensure the reputation, integrity and safety of their compatriots and co-religionists.
I also maintain that this is a distinction which applies to the comedia as much as to the world which it portrays, and that Alarcón is critical of the indecorous actions and the ornate language, music and spectacle of the comedia as popularised by Lope, and develops a dramatic technique which requires the spectator to submit his initial emotional and imaginative response to the drama to the scrutiny of reason if he is to understand the play. In this way, Alarcón's own creative technique proves to be yet another example of the prudent use of deception illustrated in his plays.
Beta adrenergic blokade in myocardial infarction

This thesis is concerned with the influence of acute and long-term beta-adrenergic blockade on myocardial infarction in man. An original statistical evaluation of all published and some available unpublished clinical trials is presented in Chapter I.
Chapter III and TV concern the measurement and evolution of infarct size in man. In Chapter III, praecordial ECG mapping and the standard 12 lead ECG have been correlated with cumulative release of the MB isomer of creatine kinase. Using these techniques, I have found that approximately 50% of eventual infarction is complete in 6 hours; implying that interventions designed to salvage ischaemic myocardium may be feasable (Chapter IV).
In Chapter V, I have demonstrated delayed beta-adrenergic blockade after oral administration of atenolol and that an initial intravenous dose is essential to achieve early and effective beta-blockade.
In a randomised control trial of 215 patients, atenolol administered intravenously within 12 hours of pain, prevented infarction in treated patients with initial threatened infarcts and reduced infarct size and morbidity in those with initial definite infarcts (Chapter VI).
Patients with anterior myocardial infarction, randomised to receive atenolol for a year, showed significantly greater R wave recovery and Q wave disappearance on serial praecordial maps compared to placebo patients. In a further study, this was demonstrated to be due to lowering the heart rate. This phenomenon of improved EGG recovery with atenolol was reproduced in experimental infarction and was shown to be due to improved scar shrinkage (Chapter VII).
The implications of these studies are discussed. It is likely that both early and long-term beta-blockade will be beneficial to patients with myocardial infarction.

Advisor: Sleight, P