VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The material and immaterial connectivity underpinning Iran–Central Eurasia relations: elite discourse in Baku and Tashkent

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of the republics of the South Caucasus and Central Asia opened a window of geopolitical opportunity to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Like Turkey, Iran could henceforth start leveraging millennia-worth of ‘immaterial connectivity’: religious, linguistic, cultural and historical commonalities, hitherto impeded and obscured by decades of Soviet hegemony. Compared to Turkey, however, Iran has a clear advantage in terms of ‘material connectivity’, by virtue of directly bordering both sub-regions, as well as the Caspian Sea waterway. It has thus been able to court the bulk of its landlocked interlocutors with the promise of enabling access to international shipping routes via the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, as well as overland transport along east–west and north–south Eurasia-spanning axes respectively. With interlocutors such as Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, the latter has been done without much compounding complexity, largely in pursuit of pragmatic interests, especially once it became clear that Iran’s northern policy vector is an overwhelmingly-de-ideologized pragmatic one. By contrast, the two most complex constituent dyads of the Iran–Central Eurasia regional nexus—namely the Tehran–Baku and the Tehran–Tashkent relationship, which are both explored here and compared in an in-depth manner—have been experiencing particular volatility over the course of the past three decades. Applying the theoretical framework of constructivism and relying on the methodological tool of analysing all hegemonic national discourse where Iran is the common denominator—discourse relayed over the course of elite interviews in Baku and Tashkent in the 2021–2022 period—one can discern some overarching trends. Firstly, in addition to Tehran systematically deferring to Moscow on Eurasian matters, the two aforementioned relationships have operated as a function of the broader Tehran–Baku–Yerevan and Tehran–Tashkent–Dushanbe ‘relationship triangles’ respectively. Assumptions of the latter’s perennial nature are refuted by a key finding that the latter dynamic had been limited to the Karimov era in Uzbekistan and is no longer operational. Secondly, Iran’s conspicuous post-Cold War cultural redeployment, occurring against the backdrop of proliferating material links in the area transport infrastructure, has been challenging elements of Azerbaijan’s and Uzbekistan’s still-consolidating nationbuilding narratives. Particularly in the former—Shia-Muslim-majority—case, strong cultural and historical proximity to Iran and shared legacies of Persianate elite culture has shown to hinder the development of closer regional ties, rather than being conducive to it.

Keywords: national identity
Turkic
Eurasia
infrastructure
Persianate
South Caucasus
Central Asia
Persian
diplomacy
regionalism
post-Soviet
Iran
Advisor: Herzig, E
Allison, R
Structure and properties of zinc 1,3-bdc metal-organic frameworks

Complexity in material design is widely recognised as a means of introducing unique properties that may be beneficial for various applications. The project described in this thesis aims to explore the efficiency of introducing such complexity into materials through the incorporation of low-symmetry components. Due to their ability of offering control over the geometry of building blocks, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were selected as the platform for this exploration.
The presented results revolve around the structures and chemical/physical properties of five crystalline MOFs obtained by combining zinc with the low-symmetry bent linker 1,3-benzene dicarboxylic acid (1,3-bdc): TRUMOF-1, MOX-2, MOX-3, MOX4, and MOX-5. As highlighted in Chapter 3, these structures exhibit significant disparity in their topologies, with that of TRUMOF-1 being particularly intriguing due to its aperiodic nature.
The true structure of TRUMOF-1, as described in Chapter 7, was characterised using a Truchet-tile analogy. Its maze-like pore network was found to adsorb different types of gases and, more interestingly, enhance its elastic stability through the internal reorganisation of different local motifs. Being the first topologically aperiodic material to be reported, TRUMOF-1 likely possesses many other interesting properties with the potential for various applications, including error-correcting memory storage.
Our findings ultimately confirm the efficacy of incorporating low-symmetry components in obtaining complex materials. The role of 1,3-bdc in introducing this complexity, both through its bent shape and the flexibility of the carboxylate torsion angles, is discussed in Chapter 8.
Yet, there is still a need for a systematic approach to purposely synthesise complex structures such as TRUMOF-1. The difficulty in finding suitable synthetic parameters, together with the ultimate goal of controlling the complexity, are important aspects to focus on in future research.

Keywords: Monte-Carlo
metal-organic frameworks
crystallography
diffuse scattering
inorganic chemistry
Advisor: Goodwin, A
Offshore tax avoidance and the British state, 1894-1939

This is a study of tax policy and administration from the introduction of estate duty in 1894 to the outbreak of World War II. The thesis analyses the response of the British state to offshore tax avoidance, defined as the legal reduction of taxes by the use of cross-border regulatory arbitrage. The periodization is deliberately chosen to problematize two common assumptions: first, that offshore avoidance began with and was caused by tax rises during World War I; and secondly, that offshore avoidance was comparatively trivial in the interwar period and only saw significant growth after World War II. The thesis argues that in fact, offshore avoidance was a concern for the authorities well before 1914, while from a British perspective, the interwar years arguably marked its apotheosis, because stringent measures taken to suppress it in the run-up to World War II made it harder to achieve from then on. The questions that the thesis addresses are why offshore avoidance was able to flourish with virtual impunity until the mid-1930s; and whether there was an essential difference between the state’s approach to avoidance by individuals and its attitude to avoidance by business. Engaging with those issues entails diverging from the existing literature, which is generally content to assume that the prevalence of tax avoidance is a function of the tax rate. The thesis proceeds by reconstructing the changing shape of the British tax code and investigating the forces that shaped its evolution, in order to understand how offshore avoidance was implemented and why it proved so difficult for the authorities to counteract. By the end of the period, the state was in the ascendant, yet this was not a smooth progression; it was one characterized by bargaining and punctuated with reversals. The history of offshore avoidance is to an extent cyclical, and the underlying tensions reflected in that process are still relevant today.

Keywords: Regulatory arbitrage
Tax avoidance
Tax havens
Fiscal policy
Legal history
Offshore finance
A measurement of charm mixing using D0->K±π∓π±π∓ decays at LHCb and the performance of a TORCH prototype

A measurement of the charm-mixing parameters is made using promptly produced D0 →K±π∓π±π∓ decays, exploiting proton-proton collision data collected by LHCb during 2015–18 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.9 fb−1 . The effective mixing parameters are interpreted in terms of the hadronic parameters of the D0 decay, which are valuable for studies of CP violation. This is the first measurement of D∗ →D0π, D0 →K±π∓π±π∓ decays in bins of phase-space at a hadron collider.
A prototype Time Of internally Reflected CHerenkov light (TORCH) detector, designed to identify pions, kaons and protons in the momentum range 2–20 GeV/c, is employed in beam tests at the CERN PS. Measurements of the collected photon yields and single-photon time resolutions are performed for different particle entry points on the plate and compared to expectations. These studies show that the performance of the TORCH prototype approaches the design goals for the full-scale detector.

Advisor: Wilkinson, G
Harnew, N
Harnessing the power of topology in oxide electronics for future IT components

Whirling magnetic textures can have topological properties, enhancing their stability over and above that derived from energetic considerations. Such structures have been proposed as data carriers in next-generation post-Moore computing. Whilst abundantly observed in ferromagnets, their antiferromagnetic counterparts are more elusive. Interest in antiferromagnetic topological textures for device applications is growing, due to their predicted ultra-fast, deflection-free dynamics whilst being robust against external fields. In this thesis, I develop processes for imaging, nucleating and controlling topological textures in antiferromagnets, targeted towards their integration in next-generation racetrack-based oxide electronics. The prototypical canted antiferromagnet α-Fe2O3 is used throughout as an interesting test case, due to the family of topological textures present at room temperature that can be repeatedly nucleated via a Kibble-Zurek-like quench.
I developed analytical and micromagnetic models for topological textures in A-type antiferromagnets, focusing on the scaling of textures with relevant material parameters, allowing us to push towards the ultra-small sizes relevant for device applications. This was also used to predict the existence of the long sought-after topological antiferromagnetic skyrmions. I investigated freestanding crystalline α-Fe2O3 nanomembranes, a novel form of matter developed by my collaborators. One key conclusion of these experiments was that defects strongly affect the first-order Morin transition, whilst maintaining the Kibble-Zurek phenomenology observed in thin films attached to substrates. Magnetic fields cause domain repopulation in this canted AFM, but topological textures were observed to be stable in the presence of moderate field perturbations. Finally, freestanding crystal membranes can host relatively large strains compared to attached thin films or bulk crystals, which have similar lateral dimensions but the latter are drastically thicker. This was used to produce an athermal route to nucleate topological textures and tune domain populations, opening novel pathways for exploring Kibble-Zurek phenomenology in crystal membranes, as well as providing an interesting route towards device applications.

Keywords: skyrmions
topological textures
magnetic dichroism
micromagnetics
antiferromagnets
bimerons
Advisor: Radaelli, P
The Muslims of Buganda: a communography of the experiences and lives of the Baganda Muslims during the colonial period

This dissertation examines the lives, experiences, and leadership of the Baganda Muslim community during the colonial period (ca. 1900 – 1962). Through an examination of the leadership of the Kibuli Muslim Community and how this group interacted with other Muslim communities within Buganda, this thesis analyses the ways in which the Baganda Muslims worked to navigate the marginalization they faced from the colonial state. This dissertation argues that the discrimination which the Muslims faced from their colonial government was multifaceted and was rooted in part in European fears of Islam and ideologies such as Islam noir. By analysing the colonial state’s approach to education, this thesis shows that educational policies were one of the central ways in which Muslims were marginalized during colonial rule. However, this dissertation also argues that the Muslims found and developed their own routes to educational attainment, working to negotiate the marginalization they faced from the anti-Muslim policies of the colonial government.
Furthermore, this dissertation also studies the ways in which Islam evolved in Buganda and how Islam worked as a tool for social, cultural, and political development. By showing the ways in which Islam was localised, and thus distinct, in Buganda this dissertation argues against unhelpful terminology such as ‘Africanized’ when referring to Islam in the Sub-Saharan region. This dissertation contends that this language is overly racialized and limits understandings of Islam on the African continent; thus it should no longer be used when studying Islam or religion in this region. Finally, this dissertation argues that the political experiences of the Baganda Muslims were distinctive, especially as compared to their Christian counterparts. While elite leaders cultivated an extent of political power, the majority of Ganda Muslims remained removed from national and kingdom level politics. However, this did not mean that Ganda Muslims were apolitical. Rather, they found local ways to engage with political dialogues and effect change for their communities.

Advisor: Reid, R
Syntactic variation and stratification in Imperial-era Greek prose

The thesis aims to provide an image of sociolinguistic strata of the language of Greek prose in the second century CE by analyzing variation in the modal domain, particularly in the use of optative constructions. It is divided into four chapters, an introduction and a conclusion, and has three main parts, which could be respectively labeled theoretical, sociohistorical, and empirical. Chapter 1 introduces the main aims of the thesis. The first part (chapter 2) outlines the notions necessary to build a framework to assess variation; those of register and legitimate language play a particularly important role. The second part (chapter 3) is a sociohistorical sketch of various approaches to linguistic problems in the technical literature of the Hellenistic and, primarily, Roman periods, as well as of the development of grammatical instruction as a social practice. Towards its end, ways in which legitimate registers were imparted are suggested; the role of what was labeled ‘Attic’ is discussed in particular. The third part consists of chapters 4 and 5. The former provides further theoretical notions necessary to investigate modal categories and presents the baseline subcorpus of classical prose of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE as the main comparandum. The latter analyzes the data from Imperial-era literary and technical prose and documentary papyri: the outcome is that patterns of variation differ both across contemporary authors and between Imperial-era and classical Greek in systematic ways. The conclusion (chapter 6) summarizes the results and highlights the ways in which they converge.

Keywords: register
Second Sophistic
syntax
postclassical Greek
variation
Atticism
sociolinguistics
modality
Advisor: Willi, A
Coolant migration in double-wall effusion cooling systems

Over recent decades, aeroengines have seen continuous rises in Turbine Entry Temperature (TET) as engineers seek to achieve greater values of turbine thermal efficiency. As TETs continue to climb, increasingly sophisticated cooling systems are required to keep component temperatures below their softening levels. This thesis examines the application of one such high performance cooling system: double-wall effusion cooling, which combines impingement, pedestal, and effusion cooling. A particular focus is placed on the effects of coolant migration, where coolant in the pedestal cavity moves under the influence of an external pressure gradient, potentially producing a dangerous maldistribution of outlet coolant flow which could lead to hot gas ingestion.
A Low Order Flow Network Model (LOM) is built up to allow rapid analysis of mass flow distributions in a double-wall set-up. This is done by approximating flow through the cooling system as a one-dimensional pipe network, for which literature-based empirical correlations can be used for flow rates and mass flow continuity can be resolved at junctions. The LOM is validated experimentally and used to demonstrate the effects of select geometric features on the outlet flow distribution, such as restrictive fences, chamfered impingement holes, and extended pedestals. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based methods are then utilised to explore more complex geometric features which could be used to reduce coolant migration.
The LOM is then expanded to incorporate thermal effects, allowing the assessment of cooling performance. Literature-based empirical correlations are used to find heat transfer rates, allowing a network based on the conservation of energy to be solved alongside the original Continuity LOM. Comparisons with experiments show that the Thermal LOM predicted coolant consumption and cooling effectiveness to within 15% and 10% respectively. The Thermal LOM is then used to demonstrate the effect of Coolant Migration on the external cooling performance.
Analysis of a double-wall effusion cooling system in a full Nozzle Guide Vane is carried out using the Thermal LOM. It’s high solving speed is exploited to produce a full vane cooling system using a Genetic Algorithm optimisation method, producing a design which minimises coolant consumption whilst maintaining adequate cooling. Potential performance changes due to manufacturing variations are then examined using high-sample Monte Carlo analysis. Within standard manufacturing tolerances, maximum metal temperatures are shown to vary by ±30 K for a baseline double-wall effusion cooling system, which would have a major effect on component life variation.

Keywords: flow networks
coolant migration
turbine cooling
heat transfer
double-wall effusion cooling
turbomachinery
Advisor: Ireland, P
The beginnings of narrative closure in Homeric Epic

The Homeric epics are the earliest specimens of classical narrative that have come down to us. They have also exerted a lasting influence throughout antiquity and beyond; indeed, they may be termed the "founding narratives" of Western literature. For these two reasons they offer an ideal focus for a study which attempts to begin developing a flexible yet systematic approach to narrative closure, in which it is hoped that modern literary theory and practice can inform a new reading of the Classics and vice versa.
The term "closure" itself has been invested with a myriad of meanings and has not always been employed with the necessary clarity because of the continuing boom in closural studies, not only in literary criticism. A brief but comprehensive review of the subject will help clarify this central concept and lead up to a definition of closure which will be most useful for its investigation in narrative, and ancient epic in particular. In this context it is further suggested that a generic approach might offer particular advantages, at least with reference to Classics. A study of closure, if appropriately and clearly defined, should - paradoxically - open up new perspectives on a work of literature, and a more detailed methodological section offers a preliminary overview of possible avenues of investigation in ancient (especially epic) narrative; these include the role of plotting and of characters in the development of closure, and the contribution and interaction of various thematic and structural devices. While my approach is informed by discourse theory and narratology, specialized vocabulary is generally kept to a minimum.
Based on this theoretical framework, readings of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" assess the crucial, though characteristically different role of closure in both epics, following a brief review of scholarly opinion on Homeric closure up to date. The narrative dynamics and preoccupations of each poem are illuminated through this new perspective, thus contributing to a fresh understanding of disputed features (in particular in the "Odyssey"). The results of these two related but separate discussions are then summarized and compared, illustrating the sophistication of texts even at what is for us the beginning of Western narrative. The final section returns the closural strategies explored in the Homeric epics into the context of the broader theoretical discussions set out in the introduction. It concludes with a short overview of possible ways in which the study of epic and narrative closure might fruitfully be pursued.

Keywords: endings
poetry
Homer
closure
ancient Greek
epic
narrative theory
Odyssey
classics
Iliad
The genetics of blood pressure in 150 000 Mexican adults

Introduction Elevated blood pressure is the leading cause of disability-adjusted life years lost globally, but most studies of its determinants and effects are in high-income populations of European ancestry.
Methods The Mexico City Prospective Study (MCPS) recruited 159 775 participants aged >35 years between 1998 and 2004. Follow-up is via the national mortality register. Genetic data for ~140 00 participants has been generated.
Haplotype-based principal components (PCs) were generated with IMPUTE5 and compared to genotype-based PCs. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP) and pulse pressure (PP) were conducted using SUGEN and conditionally-independent signals identified with a forwards-selection-backwards-elimination algorithm. Enrichment analyses were conducted with GARFIELD. Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses were conducted using trans-ancestry SBP and DBP genetic scores and the ratio method and compared to conventional epidemiological analyses.
Results Haplotype-based PCs delineated prevalent ancestries at lower dimensionality than genotype-based PCs in an unrelated sub-sample. However, they could not be effectively applied to the whole cohort.
GWAS of SBP, DBP, MAP and PP identified 71 signals at 66 loci, 53 signals at 52 loci, 74 signals at 71 loci and 24 signals at 24 loci, respectively. Meta-analysis of external summary statistics replicated 2/14, 0/15, 3/21 and 1/2 novel signals for SBP, DBP, MAP and PP respectively. GARFIELD identified endothelium and renal tract as more likely to harbour GWAS-significant variants.
MR estimates of the SBP and DBP‘s effects on premature cardiovascular mortality were approximately twice as strong as conventional estimates, reflecting the life-course nature of genetic exposures. SBP may cause kidney disease, but more events are needed.
Conclusions MCPS harbours novel blood pressure associations, but replication in more Latin American-ancestry cohorts is required. Lowering blood pressure continues to offer large benefits to population health and should remain a key public health focus.

Keywords: blood pressure
population structure
Genetic Epidemiology
admixture
Advisor: Emberson, J
Haynes, R
Staplin, N
Torres, J