VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The secular liturgical office in late medieval England

This thesis challenges existing preconceptions about the textual uniformity of the late medieval English Office liturgy. The received narrative is that all breviaries of the same liturgical Use are in large part identical. This study demonstrates that all complete, surviving manuscript breviaries and antiphonals of each secular liturgical Use of medieval England (dating from s.xiii – s.xvi) do share a common textual ‘fingerprint’ particular to each Use. But this is in large part restricted to the proper texts of universal or popular observances. Other features of these service books, even within the sources of the same Use, are subject to significant variation, influenced by local customs and hagiographical and textual priorities, and also by varying reception to liturgical prescriptions from ecclesiastical authorities. Distinct regional patterns, especially in the kalendar, are a principal result. Rubrics (giving details of ritual) and lessons (at Matins) in particular suggest that the manuscripts are witnesses to textual subfamilies, and that these represent succeeding stages of the promulgation of the major Uses across England. The identification of the characteristic features of each Use and the differentiation of regional patterns have resulted from treating each manuscript as a unique witness, a practice which is not common in liturgical studies, but one which gives the manuscripts greater value as historical sources. The unique character of each allows it to be situated in its temporal and intellectual context and indeed to illuminate that context. For instance, properties of individual manuscripts can be compared with other evidence for the prescription of liturgy in England in order to assess the efficacy of ecclesiastical orders of this nature. A descriptive catalogue of 115 manuscripts and transcriptions of their liturgical kalendars provide both a resource for further research and a proof of concept of the methodology.

Keywords: liturgy
Advisor: Sharpe, R
Dondi, C
Novel synthetic routes towards trans-THFs and application towards the FG fragment of pectenotoxin-4

trans-2,5-Disubstituted tetrahydrofurans (THFs) are a common structural motif in a multitude of biologically active natural products. This thesis explores new synthetic routes for their synthesis and subsequent application towards the C31-40 fragment of pectenotoxin-4.
Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter reviews methods for the synthesis of trans-2,5-disubstituted tetrahydrofurans with a special emphasis on those that have been applied towards the synthesis of natural products.
Chapter 2: Results and Discussion The Acyloin Coupling Reaction towards trans-THFs A brief overview of the acyloin coupling reaction is followed by description of the aim for this part of the project, using this process as a key step towards trans-THFs. Work directed towards the stereoselective protonation of the bis-enolate intermediate formed during the acyloin coupling is discussed. The exploitation of A1,3 strain was the most effective strategy found to control the diastereoselectivity in the protonation of the bis-enolate intermediate.
Desymmetrisation Using Sharpless Asymmetric Epoxidation towards trans-THFs Strategy developed towards the synthesis of a 2,5-disubstituted 3-hydroxy trans-THF is studied. The optimisation of the synthesis of meso-hepta-1,6-diene-3,5-diol was examined and subsequent desymmetrisation using the Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation was explored.
Approaches towards the FG Fragment of Pectenotoxin-4 The previous synthesis of the FG fragment was reviewed. Details of the retrosynthesis to be employed for the preparation of the southern hemisphere of pectenotoxin-4 are discussed. The desymmetrisation strategy previously explored was applied towards forming the F ring of pectenotoxin-4. The C31-40 carbon skeleton was successfully formed in 12 steps using a convergent synthesis. The elucidation of an X-ray crystal structure requires further exploration to confirm the relative and absolute configuration of the THF formed.
Chapter 3: Experimental Full experimental procedures and characterisation of compounds are reported.

Keywords: trans-THFs
Pectenotoxin-4
Advisor: Donohoe, TJ
A performance-oriented account of money awards for breach of contract

It is generally accepted that the award of contract damages in English law is governed by the expectation principle. This principle provides that following an actual or anticipated breach of contract the innocent party is entitled to be put into the position that he or she would have occupied had the contract been performed. There is significant ambiguity over what ‘position’ means in this context. The conventional understanding of the expectation principle is that it stipulates the appropriate measure of loss for an award of compensation. This thesis challenges this understanding and proposes a new performance-oriented account of awards given in accordance with the expectation principle.
The thesis is in two parts. Part I outlines and challenges the orthodox understanding of awards given in accordance with the expectation principle. Chapter One outlines the orthodox account, and explains the traditional interpretation of loss in this context. Chapter Two mounts a doctrinal challenge to the orthodox account, demonstrating the existence of many awards for breach of contract that do not reflect the actual loss suffered by the innocent party. Chapter Three highlights the conceptual difficulty of the orthodox account and outlines the problems with conventional terminology, proposing stable definitions for important legal concepts.
Part II advances an alternative account of contract damages that draws a distinction between two different kinds of money awards. The first is an award substituting for performance. The second is an award compensating for loss. Chapter Four outlines the account’s foundations by defending the existence of the right to performance and the existence of the proposed distinction. Chapter Five explains the quantification and restriction of money awards substituting for performance. Chapter Six explains the nature of money awards compensating for loss. Finally, Chapter Seven defends English law’s preference for awarding monetary substitutes for performance rather than ordering specific performance.

Keywords: mitigation
damages
compensation
specific performance
remoteness
loss
Contract remedies
contract theory
performance interest
Advisor: Edelman, J
Gardner, J
The limits of community participation: examining the roles of discourse, institutions, and agency in the promotion of community participation in Thailand

This thesis is a study of how community participation is understood, enacted, produced and governed in the context of an organization that promotes community participation. The contribution of this thesis is to shed light on the frequently found gap between the expectations and the reality of community participation.
In examining how community participation is promoted, the thesis focuses in particular on actors such as community leaders and development workers, and the interactions between them. The thesis applies a multi-disciplinary theoretical framework, which is built through combining theoretical approaches that include discourse analysis, institutional analysis, and the actor-oriented approach. The framework accommodates the examination of the roles of various types of social factors in shaping the workings of community participation. These include the idea of community, social relations in communities, and the agency of actors who are promoting the approach. This thesis conducts a case study of the Council of Community Organisations (CCO) programme in Thailand, which is a large-scale promotion of community participation in development and governance. The case study examines the operation of the programme from national to local level, and explores several localities where the programme is being implemented.
The exploration of the CCO programme illuminates pathways through which the approach’s inner mechanisms can constrain it from fulfilling the expectations. The thesis identifies how the idea of community, through its association with the sense of collective identity, tends to distort community participation from achieving empowerment. Moreover, the social relations in communities, generally characterised by inequality and diversity of interests, frequently constrain the approach from achieving effective mobilisation of collective action. Such a constraint is often accentuated by adverse incentives that community leaders face when they become part of development interventions. Finally, it is found that the deficiencies of community participation are likely to persist. This is because the actors who are promoting the approach usually manoeuvre to gain advantages from their roles in ways that reinforce the influence of the aforementioned factors.

Keywords: Thailand
Community Participation
Development Programme
Advisor: Walker, R
The sentinel and the evolution of Rebecca West's early writing, 1910-1922

This thesis aims to re-examine the first decade of Rebecca West's literary and journalistic career, based on an analysis of a newly discovered novel West began writing in 1909/1910. "The Sentinel", although incomplete and unrevised, is a key text to an understanding of West's early literary and feminist apprenticeship, helping to enrich reconsiderations of West's oeuvre in recent criticism. The recovery of West's writing into a female modernist canon provides a useful starting point, although the intertextual analysis of West's fiction and non-fiction during this period will show that this kind of categorisation is an inadequate representation of the complexity of her work. The limited time-frame of this study, 1910 to 1922, magnifies West's writing processes to reveal her self-conscious negotiations as a woman writer with the ferment of ideas and changes arising during the pre-war and war period, particularly in relation to contemporary feminism and an emergent male modernist aesthetic.
The first chapter is concerned with identifying, dating and examining the significance of "The Sentinel" as source material for West's later published fiction and non-fiction. Many of West's pervading interests are already evident in the novel, illustrating in retrospect how her writing was shaped by differing literary contacts, feminist affiliations, the war and personal experience. Chapters Two and Three consider the impact on West's journalism and fiction of her associations with the radical feminist journal, The Freewoman, and her introduction to avant-garde writers. West's unsuccessful attempt to rewrite "The Sentinel" as the novel, Adela, is discussed in relation to selected feminist articles and the short story, "Indissoluble Matrimony", illustrating her attempts to adapt her feminist interests to aesthetic ones. Chapter Four shows how the war provided a cutting edge and a point of definition in West's writing at this time, both in her consideration of the role of art and of the gendered structures of society. The influence of writers such as H.G. Wells, Ford Madox Ford and Henry James is discussed in relation to West's preoccupation with the role of women during the Great War. This material provides an important context for the analysis of The Return of the Soldier in Chapter Five. Chapter Six is a transitional one, describing the effect of the war and its aftermath on contemporary feminist ideology, and evaluating Rebecca West's attempt to position herself as a writer and a feminist in relation to these changes. Chapter Seven argues that The Judge (1922) offers a cumulative history of West's literary and feminist apprenticeship, at once completing the cycle begun with "The Sentinel" and initiating a different stage of writing for West during the twenties.
Studies in the Book of Jubilees

This thesis is divided into three distinct yet related chapters. The first chapter deals with the question of the actual calendar which is used in Jubilees. The work criticizes scholarly opinions concerning the calendar which have gone relatively unchallenged since the Qumran discovery. The chapter concludes that while the calendar question is difficult and many calendars can be detected as functioning in the work, it is the 28-day month which is dominant and not months of 30, 30 and 31 days.
In the second chapter which deals with the genealogy of the patriarchs, the attention of the reader is directed to the names of the wives of the patriarchs. The question which the thesis raises at this point is related to the function of these women in the narrative in relation to the etymology of their names. The conclusion reached is that the narrative and the etymology of the names are clearly related. For example, when the etymological meaning of a woman is favourable, the narrative at that point is positive and vice versa.
Chapter Three deals with chronology which is in close proximity to both calendar and genealogy. The question the thesis asks is how the chronology of Jubilees relates to the chronologies of MT, LXX and SP and also raises the question as to which chronology that of Jubilees is dependant upon for its structure. It is determined that Jubilees and SP are most closely related. The structure itself of the chronology of Jubilees is examined and it is concluded that the design is more concerned with past history than future history.
The implications of the thesis on the questions of date and authorship are considered. The conclusion is reached that the author is a member of an unnamed conservative-pietist sect who wrote at a time later than Antiochus IV.
Factors influencing damage to cerebral white matter in the elderly

BACKGROUND: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) appearing on magnetic resonance images (MRI) occur in the non-demented and demented elderly. Age is an established risk factor associated with WMH. Other possible risk factors include sex, smoking, hypertension, biochemical markers and genotypes associated with B vitamin status, and APOE ε4 status. WMH have been associated with an increased risk of depression and cognitive dysfunction.
OBJECTIVES: To investigate factors associated with WMH 2 to 5 years later in healthy elderly. Measures of cognitive impairment, depression, and brain volume were also evaluated in relation to WMH.
METHODS: 155 healthy volunteers (60 to 90 years) were included (49% women). Participants completed approximate yearly examinations including a medical history, cognitive assessment, depression survey, T1 and T2-weighted MRI, blood samples measuring markers and genotypes associated with B vitamin deficiencies, and APOE ε4 status. Associations were investigated by Pearson correlations, followed by linear regression, adjusted for age and sex.
RESULTS: Age was positively associated with WMH. Other significant prospective risk factors included systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). DBP and total WMH were positively associated in hypertensive, but not normotensive participants. Elevated homocysteine was positively associated with WMH within the top tertile. No other factors were significantly associated with WMH. Baseline WMH were negatively associated with follow-up (3 to 5 years) cognitive assessments of executive function and processing speed, and positively associated with depressive symptoms. Furthermore, WMH were positively associated with ventricular cerebrospinal fluid volume and negatively associated with percent brain volume change and grey matter volume, but not white matter volume.
CONCLUSIONS: Age is the most striking risk factor associated with WMH; other significant factors include SBP and DBP. Baseline WMH were associated with decreased performance on tests of executive function, processing speed, and increased depressive symptoms. These data suggest that WMH is not a benign process of aging considering the positive associations to hypertension, cognitive impairment, and depression.

Keywords: homocysteine
MRI
MMA
vitamin B12
folate
White matter hyperintensities
Advisor: Smith, D
The Rexist movement in Belgium, 1940-1944

The Rexist movement led by Léon Degrelle was the principal francophone collaborationist grouping in German-Occupied Belgium during the Second World War. In the 1930s, the Rexists had been a movement on the Catholic right of the political spectrum who advocated the replacement of the outmoded parliamentary regime by a more authoritarian New Order which would enable a return to the spiritual values of the Catholic faith. Soon after the Belgian defeat of May 1940, they emerged as enthusiastic advocates of an agreement with the apparently victorious German invaders and in January 1941 Degrelle publicly declared his support for the Nazi cause. This resulted in a marked decline in popular support for Rex but did not bring it the German recognition which he craved. Only in the summer of 1941 with the formation of a Légion Wallanie which fought with some distinction alongside the German armies on the Eastern Front was the basis created for closer links between the German authorities and Rex. Subsequently, many Rexists were appointed by the Vehrmacht administrators of Belgium to positions of public responsibility and in January 1943 Degrelle announced the abandonment of his former belief in a unitary Belgian state in favour of the absorption of the francophone Walloons into a Germanic empire. During the latter war years, the Rexists were often the target of attacks by Resistance groups and the atmosphere of fear created by these attacks together with the opportunistic efforts of Degrelle to .forge an alliance with the SS led to a progressive radicalization of the movement. By 1944, the Rexists had become a beleaguered marginal grouping who increasingly resorted to violence to counter their many enemies and in September 1944 many Rexists fled from the Allied liberators to exile in the German Reich.
Act your age: reading and performing Shakespeare's ageing women

This thesis provides the first study of the representation, performance, and reception of Shakespeare’s ageing women in early modern and present-day England. It contributes an exposition of the physiology and theory of early modern ageing, drawing on this original material to make an argument for the ageing woman as a source of anxiety within the plays as they were originally staged, and as they are performed and received today. It finds the old and ageing woman in Shakespeare’s drama to be represented as physically and verbally excessive; the thesis also identifies a corresponding urge in the plays and in their reception towards the ageing woman’s containment and control. This containment is exercised in the text, the rehearsal room, the theatre, and the public space of performance reviews.
My introduction determines my methodology and establishes the terms of reference for the project. The first chapter defines early modern old age and delivers a study of the early modern literature and theory of the ageing body. Each of the four subsequent chapters explores an ageing female character or characters through the lens of a theme: magic, motherhood, sexuality, and memory. The characters studied are drawn from The Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, Coriolanus, King John, All’s Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, and Richard III. Some brief concluding remarks complete the thesis.
The larger project of the thesis is a cultural study. Throughout, I am keen to learn how characters are talked about as well as written and performed. My effort to understand the work which Shakespeare’s older women are asked to carry out in the present day defines my methodology: I draw on prompt books, production recordings, reviews, costume, photographs, programmes, and interviews with actors and directors to aid my investigation, juxtaposing these with close study of the written plays and the early modern culture and knowledge which underpins them. The word count, exclusive of bibliography but inclusive of all footnotes and an appendix, is approximately 92,000.

Keywords: women
ageing
Shakespeare
performance
old age
Advisor: Smith, E
The role of mechanical loading in osteoarthritis of the knee

Medial osteoarthritis (OA) and lateral OA have distinct characteristic cartilage lesion locations and knee flexion angles associated with lesion development. These types of OA are suggested to be caused by loading when the knee is in extension and mid-range flexion, respectively.
This project used subject-specific finite element (FE) models to investigate contact conditions within the extended and flexed knee. A method of creating subject-specific FE models by combining geometry (derived from magnetic resonance imaging scans) and load cases (calculated from motion analysis data) collected from the same subject was developed. This model creation method was validated by comparing experimentally-measured pressure data to contact data calculated by FE models.
Models of normal knees in three subjects were created first. Models with larger subject-specific loads had larger displacements and higher stresses and contact pressures. Contact occurred over most of the articulating cartilage surfaces, both in areas of typical cartilage lesions and outside areas of typical cartilage lesions.
Parameters in the normal models were then altered to reflect three mechanical changes hypothesized to lead to OA: increased loading, globally decreased cartilage stiffness, and locally decreased cartilage stiffness. Increased loading led to increased displacements, stresses, and contact pressures. Contact shifted anteriorly in the extended knee models to locations of typical medial OA cartilage lesions; contact remained stationary with elevated stress magnitudes in the flexed knee models. Globally decreasing cartilage stiffness had limited effects on contact results. Locally decreased cartilage stiffness led to locally increased displacement and strain and locally decreased stress and contact pressure. Contact again shifted anteriorly in the extended knee models.
Potential mechanisms of OA initiation were then proposed. Increased weight or locally decreased cartilage stiffness increased strains within the cartilage. High strains can damage the cartilage matrix fibres, further decreasing cartilage stiffness and eventually leading to cartilage lesions and OA.

Keywords: validation study
finite element modelling
subject-specific
osteoarthritis
knee
Advisor: Zavatsky, A
Gill, H