VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Sport in Greek and Roman epic: an affective-narratological approach

Despite scholarly interest in the affective power of epic sport, its emotional potential has never been examined in detail. In exploring this subject, the present thesis pursues two goals: first, to offer detailed interpretations of a selection of epic sports narratives by a text-centred reading of their potential to create emotive effects, and secondly, to develop these readings by means of diachronic comparison. The prolegomena of the thesis first set the parameters of the investigation, establishing the material of the study, the reader model to be used, and the emotive effects it targets. In the chapters that follow, two of these effects, suspense and pity, are selected for an in-depth theoretical discussion, resulting in narratological categories of analysis.
The main section of the thesis comprises six case studies which fall into two groups. The first is occupied with racing in the context of funeral games and examines three chariot races (Homer, Statius, and Silius Italicus) and a naval contest (Virgil). Based on models delineating the conditions under which a narrative might plausibly elicit an effect, these studies provide new readings of the contests, illuminating, for example, how narrators create suspense as to the victor’s identity and pity for the defeated, but also elicit surprise when a pursuit ends contrary to expectations. With the progression of these investigations, the comparative approach intensifies. One result is the emergence of a pattern showing different tendencies of effects in the four races; another is the increasing importance of allusion in influencing affective engagement. The second group of case studies illustrates ‘challenge contests’ and covers two versions of the boxing match from the Argonautica saga (Apollonius Rhodes and Valerius Flaccus). These chapters reveal, among other things, how the two narrators use allusion to establish the protagonist and the antagonist and build emotional engagement with the contestants ahead of the fight and towards its outcome, but also how the Flavian account aims for a stronger impact; the chapters moreover consider how the rich embedding of these contests into the plot of the epic in different ways influences their affective power. The concluding discussion is devoted to a review of the main results; it closes by indicating some areas of interest for future research into emotive effects, sport, and epic.

Keywords: pity
ship race
Valerius Flaccus Argonautica 4
affective narratology
boxing
Silius Italicus 16
Virgil Aeneid 5
Homer Iliad 23
epic sport
chariot racing
suspense
Statius Thebaid 6
Apollonius Rhodes 2
Advisor: Currie, B
Rood, T
Hutchinson, G
Structural and electronic properties of Si:TiO2 interfaces from first principles


A number of transition metal oxides that serve as electron/hole selective contacts in solar cells have attracted attention due to their simple and low-cost deposition methods. Among them, TiO2 has been identified as a promising electron transport layer in Si solar cells. Experiments have shown that the Si:TiO2 interface undergoes structural changes depending on how it was fabricated. However, the sensitivity of electronic properties, such as band alignments, to different structural features of the Si:TiO2 interface is not well understood. In this thesis, first-principles calculations are performed to calculate the band alignments between Si and anatase TiO2, investigating different surface orientations and terminations. By using the vacuum-level alignment method, a 2.1 eV reduction in band offsets is observed for the O-terminated Si slab compared to other terminations. However, this large reduction in band offset is not found when using the heterointerface alignment method in which band offsets are obtained with four different heterointerface models. Even though these heterointerface models contain an excess of oxygen, their offsets agree well with the vacuum-level alignments using stoichiometric or H-terminated slabs. Moreover, a 0.4 eV increase in band offset is found for the anatase (101) surface compared to the (001) surface for both alignment methods. Additionally, different exchange-correlation treatments are investigated including rSCAN, PBE+U, and post-processing GW corrections. By considering the results of calculations on a test set of 21 semiconductors, rSCAN is demonstrated to provide more accurate band offsets than PBE, but the errors are still of order 0.7 eV. Next, the infrared spectra of two Si:TiO2 interface models are calculated to assist future spectroscopy experiments in assigning observed features to particular structures. Finally, a comparison of oxygen and hydrogen-terminated surfaces is carried out for Si and C, linking the current study to previously published work on diamond-C surfaces.

Keywords: photovoltaics
band alignments
infrared sprctra
Advisor: Patrick, C
Yates, J
A linguistic, analogical, and computational analysis of the Syriac d-stem in Psalms I-XXX according to the Peshiṭta version

The function of the Semitic Doppelungsstamm, or D-stem, has proven one of the most vexing problems in Semitic linguistics. While grammarians regularly associate the D-stem with some manner of plurality, the precise contours of this relationship have remained obscure. By deductively testing the way in which a sample corpus from the Peshiṭta Psalms employs the D- stem in translation of various linguistic items in its Hebrew Vorlage, the present study seeks to ascertain the nature and type of plurality that the Syriac translators may have intended by their use of the form. The hope is that by clarifying the enigmatic plural function of the D-stem in one member of the Semitic family of languages it might be possible to contribute to its understanding in others.
To accomplish this, a sample corpus from the Peshiṭta Psalms was subjected to a computational machine learning analysis whose statistical results were used to determine which occurrences of the D-stem should be subjected to analysis as well as those that have the greatest potential to yield meaningful results. Then, the various ways in which the form has been associated with plurality by both ancient and modern grammarians was explored and honed in light of general linguistic theory. This was done to provide the deductive basis by which the Syriac D-stem forms in the sample corpus could be evaluated for plurality and to allow the contributions of a discipline that has seldom been brought to bear on the topic inform the analysis.
The results of the study revealed a function of the Syriac D-stem consistent with the marking of plural events as originally intimated by ancient Semitic grammarians and later termed "event-internal pluractionality" in the linguistics literature, while also revealing additional insights into Syriac's event construal vis-à-vis Hebrew and the prospect of D-stem lexicalization.

Advisor: Taylor, D
Algorithmic problems for subsemigroups of infinite groups

This thesis is concerned with several algorithmic problems for subsemigroups of infinite groups. The main objective is to construct algorithms that decide various properties of finitely generated subsemigroups of a given infinite group G (for example, a matrix group). Such problems might not be decidable in general. In fact, they gave rise to some of the earliest undecidability results in algorithmic theory. Nevertheless, when the group G admits additional structures, many algorithmic problems become decidable for its subsemigroups. In this thesis, we study the decidability and the complexity of these algorithmic problems in the cases where G is nilpotent, metabelian, or represented as a low-dimensional matrix group.
Two of the main problems we consider are the Identity Problem and the Group Problem. Given a finite subset X of a group G, the Identity Problem asks whether the semigroup ⟨X⟩ generated by X contains the neutral element, and the Group Problem asks whether this semigroup is a group. We show that both problems are decidable in finitely generated nilpotent groups of class at most ten, and in PTIME if the input is given as unitriangular matrices. We also show the decidability of these problems in finitely generated metabelian groups, as well as their NP-completeness in the special affine group SA(2,Z).
Apart from the Identity Problem and the Group Problem, we also consider Semigroup Intersection and Orbit Intersection. Given two finite subsets X and H of the group G, Semigroup Intersection asks whether the semigroups ⟨X⟩, ⟨H⟩ generated by X and H have empty intersection, while Orbit Intersection asks whether the sets S · ⟨X⟩ and T · ⟨H⟩ intersect for given elements S, T ∈ G. We show that Semigroup Intersection is decidable in class two nilpotent groups (PTIME if the input is given as unitriangular matrices), and that Orbit Intersection is decidable in the Heisenberg group H3(Q).
We apply a large variety of mathematical tools in the study of these problems, ranging from Lie algebra, algebraic geometry and number theory, to combinatorics, graph theory and convex geometry. By adding these techniques into the toolbox, we are able to significantly advance the current state of art in the algorithmic theory of semigroups.

Keywords: computational group theory
infinite groups
decidability
semigroups
Advisor: Haase, C
Droplet-on-hydrogel bilayer based assay for functional study of membrane proteins

Functional study of membrane proteins, especially when a transmembrane potential is required for protein function, is notoriously difficult. In this thesis, I introduce an experimental assay that adapts the droplet-on-hydrogel technique for a high-resolution functional study of membrane proteins with independent control of the electrical and chemical transmembrane potential.
This experimental assay is the next step toward studying a membrane protein of interest embedded into an energised lipid bilayer. The bilayer is formed between a 200 nl water droplet and a supporting layer of hydrogel, granting a stable, functional, and accessible lipid bilayer. Delivery of proteins, labels, substrates, or ions to the droplet above the bilayer is achieved through a low-cost custom-built electronically controlled perfusion system. Experiments presented in this work show a stable perfusion with 26.68 ± 2.5 nl steps.
The main motivation for creating this experimental assay is a desire to observe the ATP synthase F1Fo in conditions mimicking the protein’s natural environment. This complex of two molecular motors - membrane-embedded Fo and water-soluble F1 - catalyses the synthesis of ATP molecules, the basic energy units of life. Using site-directed mutagenesis, I modified TA2.A1 F1Fo in two places, to be able to label the protein with a gold nanorod and anchor it to the agarose-streptavidin gel for a high-resolution functional study experiment. The assay may allow us to study the activation potential of the protein at different conditions, as well as to observe high-resolution single-molecule rotation steps of F1Fo at the time scale of a few microseconds.

Keywords: ATP synthase
proton-motive force
F1Fo
electrochemical potential
droplet-on-hydrogel bilayer
perfusion system
membrane proteins
functional study of membrane proteins
molecular motors
transmembrane potential
Advisor: Berry, R
"I just have to do this.": Native American student perceptions of the US college application process

The project presented here explores how Native American students perceive the process of applying to college in the United States in the twenty-first century. Little research has been done on student perceptions of the application process in general, and even less scholarship has been dedicated to the Native American experience of applying to college. Without research in this area, universities, governments, and outside organizations remain unable to provide targeted support to ease the challenges Native American college applicants face.
The dissertation combines two theories—Markus and Nurius’ (1986) possible selves lens and Cotton et al.’s (2017) resilience framework—to create a more complex analytical theory, which allows for the findings to be analyzed in chronological cross-sections, revealing the changes and continuities of participants’ experiences and perceptions over time. Informed by the theoretical framework, the data consists of ten semi-structured interviews which asked participants to recall their memories, experiences, feelings, and stories from their college application process in three stages: before applying, while applying, and after applying.
The findings reflect the participants’ overwhelmingly challenging and isolating application experiences; nine out of ten characterized their experience as wholly negative. The most striking message in the findings was that participants viewed attending college as a necessary life step; no matter how frustrating or even impossible the application seemed, the participants persevered. As one participant put it, speaking as her high school self, “I just have to do this.”

Keywords: Native American
college application
higher education
United States
Advisor: Inouye, K
Cooperation unavowable: British government relations with communists in Britain and France, 1938 – 1945

More than thirty years on from the dissolution of the USSR, British government interaction with the Soviet Union, representatives of the Communist International (Comintern) and individual communists in the period 1938 - 1945 continues to be viewed primarily through the lens of ideological disparity and mutual suspicion, of espionage and counter-espionage. Nowhere has this been truer than in accounts of the activity of Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), and its predecessor Section D, in France and the United Kingdom. While the past decade has seen an interest in the role of SOE in supporting, for example, the communist resistance in Yugoslavia, relatively little research has been conducted into the dynamics of proactive engagement between representatives of the British government and communists who followed the Soviet line (as well as the many who did not) or the impact of these associations on British colonial policy. Triangulating a broad range of archival evidence against literature from the UK, Germany and France, this thesis argues that there is much to be gained from adjusting what are effectively Cold War narratives to allow stories of transnational, and trans-ideological cooperation, however mutually manipulative, to emerge. By plotting a series of projects in which British representatives not only controlled, but also supported and learnt from current and former members of the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD), the International Brigades, and the Soviet Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del (NKVD) along a continuum of cooperation spanning the years 1938 to 1945, the thesis complements recent studies around transnational anti-fascist cooperation, urging a re-assessment of the geographical, political and temporal boundaries of British government involvement in anti-Nazi resistance.

Keywords: counter-espionage
espionage
transnational resistance
Cold War
NKVD
Karl Retzlaw
Resistance
SOE
Karl Groehl
Section D of SIS
Hugh Sinclair
KPD
Intelligence
Parti Communiste Francais (PCF)
Laurence Grand
Communism
World War 1939 - 1945
Continuous hidden Markov models and the sequential probability ratio test

We consider Hidden Markov Models that emit sequences of observations which are drawn from continuous distributions. For example, such a model may emit a sequence of numbers, each of which is drawn from a uniform distribution, but the support of the uniform distribution depends on the state of the Hidden Markov Model. Such models generalise the more common version where each observation is drawn from a finite alphabet. We consider a distance measure on Hidden Markov Models called the total variation distance. When this distance is 0 we say the models are equivalent. When this distance is maximal we say the models are distinguishable. We prove that for two Hidden Markov Models with continuous observations one can decide in polynomial time whether they are equivalent and also whether they are distinguishable. We also consider the Sequential Probability Ratio Test applied to Hidden Markov Models with finite observations. Given two distinguishable Hidden Markov Models and a sequence of observations generated by one of them, the Sequential Probability Ratio Test attempts to decide which model produced the sequence. We show relationships between the execution time of such an algorithm and Lyapunov exponents of random matrix products. Further, we give complexity results about the execution time taken by the Sequential Probability Ratio Test.

Keywords: HMM
exponent
variation
Lyapunov
total
model
hidden
distance
SPRT
probability
distinguishable
ratio
equivalence
equivalent
likelihood
sequential
Markov
distinguishability
test
Advisor: Kiefer, S
Polymerisation catalysts enabling carbon dioxide utilization

This thesis describes the development of homogeneous catalysts for epoxide/carbon dioxide (CO2) ring-opening copolymerisation (ROCOP). The objective is to increase understanding of the polymerisation mechanism and factors controlling catalyst performance. It ends with an application of the best catalyst to polymerisation of epoxide, carbon dioxide and lactide using ‘switch’ catalysis.
Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the ROCOP of epoxides and CO2, with a particular focus on catalyst development and mechanism. It also introduces the concept of ‘switchable’ catalysis.
Chapter 2 details the mechanistic exploration of a high performance heterodinuclear Co(III)K(I) catalyst for propylene oxide/carbon dioxide (CO2) ring-opening copolymerisation (ROCOP). A detailed computational investigation of the full catalytic cycle is performed and barriers match with experimental ones. The proposed mechanism occurs with a rate determining step involving epoxide activation at Co(III) and nucleophilic attack by a carbonate bound to the K(I). Further examination, both experimentally and computationally, of the cyclic carbonate formation is undertaken and showed that it occurs via both a random chain scission and chain ‘unzipping’ mechanism.
Chapter 3 details a structure-activity study of the Co(III)K(I) catalyst system underpinned by the findings in Chapter 2. The investigation explores the effect of ligand structure on the Co(III/II) redox potential, activity and selectivity in propene oxide (PO)/carbon dioxide (CO2) ring-opening copolymerisation (ROCOP). It rationalises the effects of these changes using the polymerisation mechanism. The key finding is that a lower redox potential, corresponding to higher electron density at Co(III), leads to higher activity and selectivity in propylene oxide (PO)/carbon dioxide (CO2) ringopening copolymerisation (ROCOP).
Chapter 4 details the application of a high activity and selectivity Co(III)K(I) catalyst to the ‘switchable’ catalysis of ally glycidyl ether (AGE)/CO2 and L-lactide (L-LA), producing a block polymer (PLLA-b-PAGEC-b-PLLA). The experimental method, involving a new gas line, is developed and the characterisation proofs of ‘switch’ are presented.
Chapter 5 outlines the key developments of this thesis and suggests potential future directions for the research.
Chapter 6 provides experimental details for Chapter 2-4.
Chapter 7 is an appendix that provides supplementary information, figures and data that support the work and discussion through Chapter 2-4.

Keywords: polymerisation
carbon dioxide
ring-opening copolymerisation
homogeneous catalysis
carbon dioxide utilisation
catalysis
Advisor: Williams, C
Acoustic cue-weighting in L1 and L2 English vowel perception

Listeners identify phonemes of a language via acoustic cues. For instance, the English /i:/-/ɪ/ vowels are distinguished by the vowel length and spectral range between the first (F1) and second (F2) formant frequency of the vowels. The research in this dissertation examined perceptual weighting of two acoustic cues, namely vowel duration and spectra, in the perception of English /i:/-/ɪ/ vowel contrasts by native speakers of British English and Chinese L2 learners of English. First, it asked how native speakers and L2 English learners weighted the cues at the group level. Second, it investigates the individual differences for the native and L2 group and what had caused such variability in the L2 speakers. Third, this research examined instruction’s role on cue weighting of English /i:/-/ɪ/. In Experiment 1, a total of 29 native speakers of British English and 29 Chinese L2 learners of English identified the vowels in synthesized ‘bead-bid’ and ‘steet-stit’ continua which differed in 7 spectral and temporal steps. After the forced-choice task, each participants completed a background questionnaire. Experiment 2 adopted a pre- and post-test design, where a total of 48 L1- Mandarin L2 English learners (23 participants in the control group and 25 in the experimental group) completed similar word identification task as in Experiment 1. The experimental group completed a treatment session where they were explicitly instructed in the differences between English /i:/-/ɪ/, while the control group heard the same minimal pairs of the contrast without the instruction. Participants in Experiment 2 also completed the background questionnaire. The results showed that, at the group level, both the native speakers and L2 learns relied predominantly on vowel duration. Substantial variability of cue weighting behaviors was found at the individual level for both L1 and L2 English speakers, but neither self-perceived English proficiency nor experience of living in English-speaking countries were found to have significant influence on cue weighting at the group level. Regarding the role of instruction, Experiment 1 found previous instruction as a significant predictor of the L2 cue weighting pattern. Experiment 2 found no evidence of such influence of instruction from the correlational perspective, but it did find that, from the causal perspective, intervention of explicitly instructing the participants about the differences between English /i:/-/ɪ/ had led the experimental group to down-weigh the vowel duration.

Keywords: L2 phonology acquisition
English /i:/-/ɪ/
acoustic cue weighting
ALSLA2023