VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The personnel of French public education, 1809-1830

The material for the study came primarily from the F 17 series of the National Archives, where the documents of public education are dispersed through a number of liasses. and in the T series of the archives of the Maine-et-Loire, the Mayenne, and to a lesser extent of the Sarthe. Forays into the departmental archives of the Morbihari, Ille-et-Vilaine, Seine-Atlantique, the Nord and Cher were of great help as well.
In the National Archives, the chief type of document was the correspondence of the recteur of Angers with Paris, either in the form of single reports or pacquets that contained the letters and petitions of principals, professors and local notables. This correspondence was scattered through boxes seemingly unrelated to the Academy as well as through the liasses of the municipal schools. The research was by no means limited to this one jurisdiction; much work was done on the correspondence of other academies in the attempt to make a comparative analysis. The departmental archives of the Maine-et-Loire contained the papers of the old rectorate and were indispensable in providing details on the more human side of life in the Academy. Those of the Mayenne and the Sarthe offered less information ... [see pdf file for full abstract].
Mitochondrial disease with abnormal mitochondrial morphology

Mitochondrial encephalopathies are a clinically, biochemically and genetically heterogeneous group of disorders and less than 50 % of patients receive a molecular diagnosis. Due to the bi-directional relationship between mitochondrial morphology and metabolic function, it is thought that in many of these cases the primary defect lies in a gene involved in the regulation of mitochondrial dynamics, rather than in a gene directly involved in mitochondrial metabolism. To date, patients diagnosed with diseases of mitochondrial dynamics present first and foremost with neurological symptoms and onset occurs in the first two decades of life. This project has characterised a novel group of previously undiagnosed patients with early-onset mitochondrial disease apparently due to a primary genetic defect in mitochondrial dynamics. Key common symptoms were lactic acidosis and acute encephalopathy. Primary skin fibroblasts showed abnormalities in the distributions and activities of multiple mitochondrial enzymes, in the content and distribution of mitochondrial DNA, and in the morphology of the mitochondria. In each case, the primary genetic defect was not identified but progress was made towards understanding the nature of the defect in the context of the cellular phenotype and suggestions were made for future work.

Keywords: mitochondrial transport
ER-mitochondria tethering
lactic acidosis
mitochondrial fusion
mitophagy
CMT4A
optic atrophy
CMT2A
mitochondrial morphology
AKAP149
encephalopathy
peroxisomes
mitochondrial fission
mitochondrial dynamics
Advisor: Brown, G
Beryllium-sensitive nuclear protein kinases

Much effort has been spent over the last decade in producing so called "Machine Vision" systems for use in robotics, automated inspection, assembly and numerous other fields. Because of the large amount of data involved in an image (typically ¼ MByte) and the complexity of many algorithms used, the processing times required have been far in excess of real time on a VAX-class serial processor. We review a number of image understanding algorithms that compute a globally defined "state", and show that they may be computed using simple local operations that are suited to parallel implementation. In recent years, many massively parallel machines have been designed to apply local operations rapidly across an image. We review several vision machines. We develop an algebraic analysis of the performance of a vision machine and show that, contrary to the commonly-held belief, the time taken to relay images between serial streams can exceed by far the time spent processing. We proceed to investigate the roles that a variety of pipelining techniques might play. We then present three pipelined designs for vision, one of which has been built. This is a parallel pipelined bit slice convolution processor, capable of operating at video rates. This design is examined in detail, and its performance analysed in relation to the theoretical framework of the preceeding chapters. The construction and debugging of the device, which is now operational in its hardware is detailed.

Advisor: Ord, MG
Stocken, LA
Empirical essays on political economy

This thesis is about how elected politicians stay in power and about some of its economic and social consequences, fundamental political economy questions. It takes advantage of the decentralized political structure in the Philippines to test models of voter and politician behavior. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on clientelism and retrospective voting.
In Chapter One, I assess the impacts of targeted government transfers on a local incumbent's electoral performance. I use the randomized roll-out of a CCT program in the Philippines where a number of municipalities are tightly controlled by political dynasties. In a competitive political environment, incumbent vote share is 26 percentage-points higher in municipalities where the program was implemented in all villages than in municipalities where the program was implemented in half of them.The program had no impact in municipalities with low levels of political competition.
In Chapter Two, I test for the presence of political business cycles in Philippine municipalities over the period 2003-2009, a context where according to the literature such cycles are likely to be observed. I find robust evidence for the presence of political business. This effect is only present when I use quarterly data and vanishes when I aggregate the data at the yearly-level. The difference is not merely driven by a decline in statistical power due to aggregation: point estimates for the overall effects are 7 times larger when I use quarterly data than when I use yearly data. This discrepancy can be explained by a drop in employment post-election that dilutes the yearly effects.
In Chapter Three, we estimate the impacts of being connected to local politicians, either currently in office or in opposition, on occupational choice. We use a large administrative dataset collected between 2008 and 2010 on all individuals in 700 Philippine municipalities along with information on all candidates in the 2007 and 2010 municipal elections. We rely on local naming conventions to assess blood and marriage links between households. Using individuals connected to successful candidates in the 2010 elections that did not run in 2007 as a control group, we find that connections to current office-holders increase the likelihood of being employed in better paying occupations. Individuals connected to candidates that were close to being elected in 2007 are less likely to be employed in better paying occupations.

Keywords: voting
political connections
political economy
decentralization
elections
the Philippines
electoral budget cycles
Advisor: Fafchamps, M
Visible light communications with single-photon avalanche diodes

This thesis explores the use of single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) for visible light communications (VLC). The high sensitivity of SPADs can potentially enhance the performance of VLC receivers. However, a SPAD-based system has challenges that need to be addressed before it can be considered as a viable option for VLC.
The first challenge is the susceptibility of SPAD-based receivers to variations in ambient light. The high sensitivity of SPADs is advantageous for signal detection, but also makes SPADs vulnerable to variations in ambient light. In this thesis, the performance of a SPAD-based receiver is investigated under changing lighting conditions. Analytical expressions to quantify performance are derived, and an experiment is conducted to gain further understanding of system performance. It is shown that a SPAD-based receiver is highly sensitive to illumination changes when on-off keying (OOK) is employed, and that pulse-position modulation (PPM) is a preferred modulation scheme as it is more robust.
The second challenge is broadcasting to SPAD-based receivers with different capabilities. A traditional broadcasting scheme is time-sharing, whereby a transmitter sends data to receivers in an alternating manner. Broadcasting to SPAD-based receivers is challenging as receivers may have diverse capabilities. In this thesis, a new multiresolution modulation scheme is proposed, which can potentially improve system performance over the traditional timesharing approach. The performance of the proposed scheme is analyzed, and a proof-of-concept experiment is performed to demonstrate its viability.

Keywords: visible light communications (VLC)
multiresolution PPM.
pulse-position modulation (PPM)
broadcasting
photon-counting receivers
single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs)
on-off keying (OOK)
Advisor: O'Brien, D
An investigation of the extended application of the Oxford Knee Score in research and clinical practice

The Oxford Knee Score (OKS) is a popular single summary questionnaire developed to measure the effect of knee replacement surgery from the patients' perspective. There has been a recent interest in the use of the OKS in populations of patients and in roles it has not been originally developed for. To date, no evidence has been provided about the measurement properties of the OKS when it is used outside the context or purpose for which it was originally designed.
The general aim of this thesis is to investigate the measurement properties of the OKS when used in extended roles: a) within the population for which the OKS was originally intended and developed for (knee replacement) and, b) when applied on a different population, viz. patients undergoing non-operative treatment for knee osteoarthritis (OA).
Four existing large-scale databases of patients undergoing knee replacement surgery and a database obtained from a prospective study on patients undergoing non-surgical management for knee OA were analyzed. The results demonstrate that: 1) it is possible to extract separate information on pain and functional disability from the OKS in a meaningful way (in the form of subscales). 2) For the first time, anchor-based Minimal Important Change (MIC) of 9 points and Minimal Important Difference (MID) of 5 points were established for joint replacement surgery. 3) The OKS demonstrated satisfactory evidence reliability, validity, responsiveness, and interpretability, when used in patients who are undergoing non-operative management for their knee OA. 4) Further evidence of validity was demonstrated by fitting the OKS to the Rasch model. 5) Lastly, it was demonstrated that thresholds can be applied on the OKS to distinguish between patients who consider their knee problem to be severe enough to warrant joint replacement surgery versus patients who do not. This supports the potential use of the OKS in decision making aids for secondary care referral.
Overall the thesis provides critical evidence, not previously existing, to support the continued use, and extended use, of the OKS in orthopaedic medicine.

Keywords: Validation
Oxford Knee Score
Patient Reported Outcomes
Osteoarthritis
NHS
Knee Replacement
Advisor: David, B
Andrew, P
Jill, D
The finance of climate change

Financial markets play a vital role in the allocation of the world’s resources. Yet financial markets are also prone to booms and busts as financial intermediaries imperfectly respond to the world around them. This thesis examines the role of financial markets in the context of climate change. It examines how financial markets are slowly, though imperfectly, moving towards addressing one of the greatest economic and scientific challenges of our century. I examine in-depth a number of areas where financial markets are operating effectively to address the challenges of climate change. I also identify those areas where market failures signal the need for further government intervention. This thesis proceeds in four substantive chapters. My approach is empirical and employs both quantitative and qualitative techniques. I first address financial market theory on the role of information in efficient market operation (Chapter 3). I then examine behaviourally how financial markets are integrating new climate-related information in investment decisions (Chapter 4). This thesis then examines the two financial markets in depth. The first is an empirical examination of how carbon markets have influenced publicly listed markets in energy stocks within Europe (Chapter 5). The second is an empirical examination of direct investment (venture capital and private equity) in clean technologies in Europe and North America (Chapter 6). Four findings emerge from this thesis: Firstly, financial market reform must begin with greater information disclosure to the market on the physical and carbon-related risks facing corporations and the community. Secondly, large asset owners (such as pension funds) should demand greater integration of long-term systemic risk considerations in their asset allocation decisions if they are to adequately respond to climate change. Thirdly, market structure appears to materially influence the operation of a carbon price signal within an energy market. This indicates further empirical research is needed by governments to examine whether carbon markets achieve their intended aims. Fourthly, the flow of direct investment (private equity) in emerging clean technologies is highly contingent on geography. The size and direction of capital flows is influenced by regulation, capital market structures, and physical environmental variables. Government must bear this in mind when formulating appropriate technology and industry policy to spur clean technology investment.

Keywords: climate change
innovation
Economic geography
Advisor: Clark, G
Structural and functional studies on human complement factor I

The complement system is considered as the chief recognition and effector component of innate immunity; it is involved in inflammation and enhances the adaptive immune response. Factor I (fI) is a heterodimeric serine protease consisting of a heavy (HC) and a light-catalytic (LC) chain; it circulates in an active form regulating complement by selectively cleaving only C3b or C4b in the presence of a cofactor such as factor H (fH), CR1, MCP or C4bp. The cleavage of C3b occurs through a ternary complex formed between fI, C3b and a cofactor like fH and yields iC3b, a major opsonin.
The structural and functional properties of fI were investigated. The interchain disulphide bond formed between C309-C435 tnat links the HC and LC of fI as well as the composition of the TV-linked carbohydrates of fI were determined. By using two independent assays, the proteolytic and amidolytic assays, the catalytic properties of human fI were characterised in detail. The catalytic subunit, the SP domain, was shown to have a native conformation that accommodates substrate recognition and cleavage, fI has specificity similar to thrombin, but exhibits lower catalytic activity. fI amidolytic activity reaches optimum at pH 8.25 and is insensitive to ionic strength. This is in contrast to its proteolytic activity within the fI-C3b-fH reaction, in which the pH optimum for C3b cleavage is <5.5 and the reaction rate is highly dependent on ionic strength. The rate of cleavage of tripeptide AMC substrates by fI was unaffected by fH or C3(NH3) at optimum pH.
fI and the isolated SP domain were found to have similar amidolytic activities, but strikingly different proteolytic activities on C3(NH 3 ). fl did not cleave C3(NH3) in the absence of fH, but cleaved it rapidly at two sites in its presence. The SP domain however, cleaved C3(NH3) slowly in the absence of fH, at more than two sites. Cleavage by the SP domain was inhibited, not stimulated, by fH. These results suggested that the HC domains and/or the cofactor must orient the natural substrates and restrict cleavage by fI to the two sites which yield iC3b. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Advisor: Sim, R
‘The Standard-bearer of the Roman Church’: Lorenzo da Brindisi (1559-1619) and Capuchin Missions in the Holy Roman Empire

This thesis examines the missionary work of the Italian Capuchin Lorenzo da Brindisi. Renowned in his own day as a preacher, Bible scholar, missionary, chaplain, and diplomat, as well as vicar general of his Order, Lorenzo led the first organised, papally-commissioned Capuchin mission among the non-Catholics of Bohemia in the Holy Roman Empire from 1599 to 1602, and returned there, again under papal mandate, from 1606 to 1613. This thesis examines Lorenzo’s evangelistic and polemical activities in Central Europe in order to shed light on some of the ways the Capuchins laboured in religiously divided territories to confirm Catholics in their faith and to win over heretics.
The introduction explains, principally, the thesis’s purpose and the historiographical background. Chapter one provides a brief biographical sketch of Lorenzo’s life followed by details of his afterlife. Chapter two examines his leading role in establishing the Capuchins’ new Commissariate of Bohemia-Austria-Styria in 1600, and specifically its first three friaries in Prague, Vienna, and Graz. Chapter three treats his preaching against heresy. Chapter four focuses on how Lorenzo, while in Prague, involved himself directly in theological disputations with two different Lutheran preachers. The first dispute, with Polykarp Leyser, took place in July 1607, and dealt with good works and justification. The second, with a Lutheran whose name is not known for certain, and which occurred in August 1610, concerned Catholic veneration of the Virgin Mary. Chapter five analyses the Lutheranismi hypotyposis, Lorenzo’s literary refutation of Lutheranism following additional contact with Polykarp Leyser in 1607. The conclusion considers briefly the effectiveness of Lorenzo’s apostolate and closes with a review of the thesis as a whole.

Keywords: theological disputations
doctors of the Roman Catholic Church
early modern preaching
Prague
Capuchin Order
Counter-Reformation
Lutheranismi hypotyposis
Graz
early modern religious polemics
Polykarp Leyser
early modern Catholicism
Commentariolum
religious orders
Rudolf II
Vienna
Lorenzo da Brindisi
Advisor: Davidson, N
Interaction of molecular Rydberg states with metal surfaces

The interaction between high-n Rydberg states of molecular hydrogen and metal surfaces has been investigated for the first time. Rydberg states of hydrogen possessing either 0 or 2 units of rotational angular momentum, defined by the quantum number N+ , and principal quantum numbers in the range n= 17 22 (for the N+= 2 states) and n=41-45 (for the N+= 0 states) are directed at a grazing angle onto a metal surface (gold or aluminium). At a sufficiently close distance ionisation may occur via tunnelling of the Rydberg electron into the vacant metal conduction band. Any ions formed in the vicinity of the metal are extracted by the application of an electric field and information about the distance at which the ions are formed can be inferred from the magnitude of the applied field required for detection.
Two novel effects are observed. Firstly, it appears that the rotation of the H2+ core has a significant effect on the ionisation properties of the Rydberg states in a manner akin to rotational autoionisation, such that the rotational energy of the core is given up to the Rydberg electron. Secondly, the surface ionisation profiles do not vary smoothly with applied field suggesting that at certain fields the feasibility of ionisation is either enhanced or reduced. A preliminary discussion of the origin of the structure is presented in terms of the crossings in the Stark map between the N+= 0 and N+= 2 Stark manifolds.
The development of a theoretical model, and an associated Fortran program, involving the technique of complex scaling is also reported. The hydrogen molecules are modeled using an atomic hydrogen system which provides a good first approximation to the behaviour of the Rydberg electron for states with n > 5. Energies and linewidths, for states with principal quantum number n= 6 9 interacting with a model surface, are explicitly calculated at a range of surface separations. From this information, predictions of the ionisation behaviour expected for states of higher principal quantum number are presented.

Advisor: Softley, T
Palladium catalysed allene carbocyclisation

In this thesis, firstly, a Pd-catalysed diastereoselective carbocyclisation of allenes with aryl halides or vinyl iodides was designed and developed to form arylative or vinylative spirolactam compounds. High yields and diastereoselectivities were obtained in the presence of Pd2(dba)3/dppe and K2CO3 in DMSO at 70 °C, particularly when spiropiperidin-2-ones were formed. The method is simple to perform and broad in scope.
Having established the diastereoselective methodology for the arylative or vinylative allene carbocyclisation, a Pd-catalysed enantioselective version was developed by using bisoxazolines as chiral ligands. Aryl halides and vinyl iodides were investigated in this carbocyclisation. High yields and enantioselectivities were obtained in the presence of Pd(OAc)2, a bisoxazoline ligand L7d derived from L-isoleucine and Ag3PO4 in 1,2-dichloroethane at 70 °C. No olefin isomerisation was observed when cis-vinyl iodides were used. The method is mild, efficient and broad in scope.
A palladium catalysed diastereoselective allene carbocyclisation reaction was developed via enamine catalysis and palladium catalysis, which allows for the efficient carbocyclisation of formyl or ketone allenes. Good yields and high diastereoselectivities were obtained in the presence of Pd(OAc)2 and pyrrolidine in toluene at 60 °C when formyl allenes were investigated.
The cyclisation is diastereoselective and can also performed as a catalytic asymmetric reaction by using prolinol derivatives as chiral catalysts. Good yields and high diastereo- and enantioselectivities were obtained in the presence of catalyst (S)-L19.
Additionally, a boronic acid catalysed ene carbocyclisation of acetylenic dicarbonyl compounds was developed. An attempted transesterification of a β-ketoester substrate bearing a pendent terminal alkyne substituent at the β-position led to the discovery of an efficient 3-nitrobenzeneboronic acid catalysed ene carbocyclisation of acetylenic dicarbonyl compounds. The reaction is easy to perform, efficient, broad in scope and provides a convenient transition metal-free alternative to existing catalytic protocols.

Keywords: Palladium
Carbocyclisation
Allene
Advisor: Dixon, D