VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Ce:LiLuf4 lasers

The research in this project was directed, firstly towards gaining an understanding of the effect excited-state absorption (ESA) has on gain and lasing in broadly tunable Ce:LiLuF lasers and secondly towards the development of Ce:LiLuF lasers suitable for spectroscopic applications.
Detailed measurements of the single-pass, small-signal gain in Ce:LiLuF were undertaken, with a gain coefficient as high as 30±1 cm-1 at 309 nm, with an absorbed pump fluence of 0.46 Jcm-2. Further, the ESA in Ce:LiLuF at 261 nm and 349 nm was measured. Using both the gain and ESA results in a computer model, the effective gain cross-sections at 309 nm and 327 nm and the ESA cross-sections at 261 nm, 309 nm, 327 nm and 349 nm were determined. The ESA cross-sections were found to be of the order of 10-18 cm2. The effective gain cross-section in Ce:LiLuF was found to increase with decreasing temperature. This was proposed to arise from a decrease in the ESA cross-section with decreasing temperature in the Ce:LiLuF.
An in-depth parametric study of Ce:LiLuF laser operation and tunability was undertaken. The results of these studies, together with computer modelling, enabled the importance of ESA and other effects on lasing to be established. In particular, the gain competition effects and ESA were found to lead to inefficient laser operation unless σ-polarised lasing was suppressed. With polarisation selection, efficient operation was obtained, with continuous tunability between 305 nm - 335 nm.
Narrow bandwidth operation of Ce:LiLuF for use in OH radical detection in the atmosphere was investigated. Narrow bandwidth operation was achieved for the first time in Ce:LiLuF using a Eittrow grating with a telescopic and prism beam expansion system. Tunable lasing between 306.5 nm and 311.5 nm was obtained, with a spectral bandwidth of 0.7 cm-1.
Finally, highly efficient Ce:LiLuF lasing was achieved with a new all-solid-state, 289 nm frequency-quadrupled Raman-shifted Nd:YAG laser. Slope efficiencies as high as 62±3% were achieved. This slope is believed to be the highest obtained in any cerium laser to date. The IR-to-UV conversion efficiency was 0.41% and the UV-to-UV conversion efficiency was 41%. These high efficiencies were attributed to high pump beam quality and good mode matching.

Advisor: Coutts, D
The collocation of words for treasure in Old English verse

This thesis uses a study of the collocation of words for treasure to address the question of the relationship between the conventionality and originality of Old English verse. Collocation will be defined as the tendency for words to appear together. Such a definition allows for the examination of patterns of repetition beyond the half-line while also including the half-line formula thereby including stylistic features which have been considered, negatively, as constraints and restrictions on the freedom of the Old English poet, as well as other stylistic features which have been considered positively, as evidence of the rhetorical skill of the Old English poet. Rather than restrict the number of poems which I study, I have chosen to restrict the number of words to five words (mađm, hord, gestreon, sinc and frætwe} for treasure. This restriction allows for a wide spectrum of Old English verse to be examined since the words appear widely throughout the corpus. I hope thus to avoid the tendency common in scholarship to study not the whole of Old English poetry but to focus on Beowulf and verse at one time thought to be at least partly heroic. With few exceptions, the study of the style of Old English verse has largely ignored meaning. The restriction of this study to five words will allow for comments on stylistic features to be drawn with reference not only to the needs of verse form but with careful attention to the subtlety of the semantic fields of the words involved.
In Chapter One, I review past scholarship on the lexis and style of Old English Verse with particular emphasis on the question of conventionality and originality.
Chapter Two examines the place of treasure in Old English verse.
Chapter Three focuses on the semantic analysis of the five words for treasure. I devote attention to the referents of each word and also include an account of such semantic aspects as nuance, connotation and themes associated with each word.
Chapter Four consists of a study of the lexical collocations associated with each of these five words for treasure.
Chapter Five considers the implications of the collocations of words for treasure for the conventionality and originality of the style and lexis of Old English verse.
The conclusion attempts to comment on the style and quality of individual Old English poems.
Lexical collocation is an aspect of lexis and style which has been largely ignored and which offers a new vantage point from which to consider Old English poetics further.
An information-theoretic approach to data fusion and sensor management

The use of multi-sensor systems entails a Data Fusion and Sensor Management requirement in order to optimize the use of resources and allow the synergistic operation of sensors. To date, data fusion and sensor management have largely been dealt with separately and primarily for centralized and hierarchical systems. Although work has recently been done in distributed and decentralized data fusion, very little of it has addressed sensor management. In decentralized systems, a consistent and coherent approach is essential and the ad hoc methods used in other systems become unsatisfactory.
This thesis concerns the development of a unified approach to data fusion and sensor management in multi-sensor systems in general and decentralized systems in particular, within a single consistent information-theoretic framework. Our approach is based on considering information and its gain as the main goal of multi-sensor systems. We develop a probabilistic information update paradigm from which we derive directly architectures and algorithms for decentralized data fusion and, most importantly, address sensor management. Presented with several alternatives, the question of how to make decisions leading to the best sensing configuration or actions, defines the management problem. We discuss the issues in decentralized decision making and present a normative method for decentralized sensor management based on information as expected utility. We discuss several ways of realizing the solution culminating in an iterative method akin to bargaining for a general decentralized system. Underlying this is the need for a good sensor model detailing a sensor's physical operation and the phenomenological nature of measurements vis-a-vis the probabilistic information the sensor provides. Also, implicit in a sensor management problem is the existence of several sensing alternatives such as those provided by agile or multi-mode sensors. With our application in mind, we detail such a sensor model for a novel Tracking Sonar with precisely these capabilities making it ideal for managed data fusion. As an application, we consider vehicle navigation, specifically localization and map-building. Implementation is on the OxNav vehicle (JTR) which we are currently developing. The results show, firstly, how with managed data fusion, localization is greatly speeded up compared to previous published work and secondly, how synergistic operation such as sensor-feature assignments, hand-off and cueing can be realised decentrally. This implementation provides new ways of addressing vehicle navigation, while the theoretical results are applicable to a variety of multi-sensing problems.

Advisor: Durrant-Whyte, H
Formations of death: instrumentality, cult innovation, and the Templo Santa Muerte in Los Angeles

This thesis examines the Templo Santa Muerte in Los Angeles, a small, loosely organized spiritual group dedicated to the veneration of La Santa Muerte, or the Holy Death. Although originating in the urban barrios (neighborhoods) of Mexico City, Santa Muerte is now venerated in the southwestern United States as well, primarily among working-class Mexican Americans. Although Santa Muerte has been condemned by the Catholic clergy and vilified in mass media and popular culture for its ties to crime and gang violence, my fieldwork at the Templo Santa Muerte demonstrates that not all devotees of Santa Muerte can be characterized in this way. For Templo members, Santa Muerte is foremost a supernatural instrument whose appeal is in large part derived from her singular commitment to satisfying their corporeal needs and material wishes. While this quality is also attributed to many Catholic saints, Santa Muerte is believed to operate independently of Church orthodoxy and is viewed to be more powerful because of this. The Templo Santa Muerte, on the other hand, incorporates some features of formal Catholic liturgy while simultaneously organizing its services around the individual petitions of its members. In doing so, the Templo’s founders maintain an effective balance between liturgical features familiar to their mostly Catholic members and the fundamentally instrumental relationship they have with Santa Muerte. I argue that this balance is central to the appeal of the Templo and to the logic of its founders, who took advantage of the tolerant and diverse cultural atmosphere of Los Angeles to establish a spiritual enterprise that is truly the first of its kind. My methodology and theoretical approach acknowledges this, favoring an ethnographic examination grounded in respondent testimonies, direct observations, and relevant ethnohistorical interpretations of the symbolism and ritual behavior associated with Santa Muerte. At its most general, my analysis of the cult and Templo of Santa Muerte is framed around three separate but mutually interactive and informative dimensions: the instrumental and social manifestations of the cult and Templo, respectively, and the structuring influence that Catholic soteriology and cultural materialism exerts over both.

Keywords: Santa Muerte
Death
Mexico
Syncretism
Cult of the Saints
Folk Catholicism
Advisor: Parkin, R
Molecular dynamics studies of anomalous properties in network-forming materials

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate the anomalous properties, for instance, the density maxima, found in network-forming materials. In particular, we adopt the Polarisable-Ion Model (PIM) as the potential energy model used for the simulations. The advantage of employing this model is that only one parameter, the anion polarisability, is varied whilst others are kept fixed; therefore, we can systematically study how it affects these anomalous properties. The increase in the anion polarisability causes the change in the microscopic nature of the materials in that it decreases the average bond angle. This also leads to the change in the macroscopic properties in that it moves the regions of anomalies to lower temperature and higher density, which is towards the supercooled regime. However, the change in the anion polarisability does not affect the order of regions in the cascades of anomalies.

Keywords: molten salts
polarisable-ion model
network-forming materials
molecular dynamics
density anomaly
Advisor: Wilson, M
Genetics determinants of vaccine responses

Vaccines have had a profound influence on human health with no other health intervention rivalling their impact on the morbidity and mortality associated with infectious disease. However, the magnitude and persistence of vaccine immunity varies considerably between individuals, a phenomenon that is not well understood. Recent studies have used contemporary technologies to correlate variations in the genome and transcriptome to complex phenotypic traits, and these approaches have started to provide fresh insight into the intrinsic factors determining the generation and persistence of vaccine-induced immunity.
This thesis aimed to describe the relationship between genomic and transcriptomic variations, and the immunogenicity of childhood immunisations. Candidate gene and genome-wide genotyping was conducted to evaluate the influence of genetic variants on vaccine-induced immunity following childhood immunisation. Furthermore, contemporary methodologies were used to assess non-coding and coding gene transcript profiles following vaccination, to further dissect the molecular systems involved in vaccine responses.
Key findings from this thesis include the description of the first genome-wide association studies into the persistence of immunity to three routine childhood immunisations: capsular group C meningococcal (MenC) conjugate vaccine, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) conjugate vaccine and tetanus toxoid (TT) vaccine. Genome-wide genotyping was completed on over 2000 participants, with an additional 1000 participants genotyped at selected genetic markers.
Genome-wide significant associations (p<5×10−8) were described between single- nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in two genes, CNTN6 and ENKUR, and the persistence of serological immunity to MenC following immunisation of children 6-15 years of age. In addition, genome-wide significant associations were described between SNPs within an intergenic region of chromosome 10 and the persistence of TT-specific IgG concentrations following childhood immunisations. Furthermore, a number of variants in loci with putative involvement in the immune system such as FOXP1, the human leukocyte antigen locus and the lambda light chain immunoglobulin locus, were shown to have suggestive associations (p<1×10−5) with the persistence of vaccine-induced serological immunity. The fundamental challenge will be to describe functional mechanisms associated with these findings, and to translate these into innovative and pragmatic strategies to develop new and more effective vaccines.

Keywords: Genetics
Vaccine
Immunology
Transcriptomics
Advisor: Pollard, A
Asylum as reparation

In this thesis, I examine the theoretical and practical implications of understanding asylum as a form of reparation. My basic contention is that offers of asylum potentially constitute a means through which states can discharge their special obligations towards refugees for whose flight they are responsible. Asylum, on my account, is an institution that can contribute to the rectification of the unjustified harms that states may have caused refugees by forcing them to flee.
The thesis is divided into three main parts. In Part I, I lay out a basic theory of asylum as reparation, explaining my conception of asylum and its potential moral functions in Chapter 1, and demonstrating the ways in which asylum may act reparatively in Chapter 2. In Part II, I seek to identify the conditions under which states owe asylum as reparation to refugees. Over the following three chapters, I argue that states have such an obligation when they bear outcome responsibility for unjustified harms experienced by refugees as a result of their flight, and when asylum is the most fitting form of reparation for those harms that is available.
In Part III, I apply my theory to the case of Iraqi refugees generated since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and explore some of the practical implications of my approach. In Chapter 6, I argue that the US and UK owe asylum as reparation to large numbers of Iraqi refugees. In Chapter 7, I examine the implications of my approach for domestic asylum politics, questioning how states should prioritise refugees to whom they owe reparation vis-à-vis other refugees, and exploring its potential impact on debates over asylum. In Chapter 8, I identify its implications for the international politics of refugee protection, anticipating some of the incentives that it might create for states.

Keywords: Asylum
reparation
refugees
displacement
injustice
Advisor: Gibney, M
Female criminality 1780-1830

This thesis studies aspects of women's criminal behaviour during the period from 1780-1830, using the criminal court records from two juridical areas: the City of London and the county of Berkshire. It considers all types of indictable crime, that tried in the local quarter session court and in the assize (high) court. It first establishes the numerical significance of female crime, which accounted for as little as one tenth of all indictments, with some variation between different courts and urban and rural areas. It also establishes some characteristics of female criminals, their age, marital status and place of birth. Compared to men, women's crime was less concentrated in the years of early adulthood, though the ill-defined nature of marriage among the lower orders at this period makes it difficult to establish any firm conclusions about the influence of marriage on a woman's criminal career.
To attempt to explain these patterns, this work studies the social context of women's criminal activity, for this purpose separating property and violent crime. In the former case, a stress upon the practical, organizational aspects of crime suggests correlations between criminal potential and wider social freedoms. In the field of violent crime, women's involvement was more prevalent than might have been expected, challenging the notion that women's experience of violence is predominantly as a victim.
Finally, the idea that women's lenient treatment by prosecutors accounts for their absence from the criminal records is addressed. From media accounts of women's crime there is evidence of a general disinclination to invest women with any criminal potential. A study of sentencing patterns reveals that women were less likely to be harshly treated that their male counterparts, though with some variation between crime types. It is argued however tha it is women's lesser criminal capacity, pre-determined by her social position, which creates these patterns, rather than the "chivalry" of male prosecutors.

Keywords: criminal behaviour
Advisor: Innes, J
The clinical and molecular epidemiology of Streptococcus agalactiae in Kenya: maternal colonisation and perinatal outcomes

Two cellular processes of central importance to cancer and neurodegeneration are apoptosis and cellular senescence. Both are a means of cellular suicide that are utilized in time- and context-dependent manners and have important evolutionary purposes. However, they are also the drivers of many deleterious processes underlying cancer and neurodegeneration. Many of the cellular responses to aging and age-related diseases, including apoptosis and senescence, converge on the tumor suppressor pathway, p53.
Here I examine the molecular basis for loss of cell polarity and accelerated cell death mediated by apoptosis stimulating protein of p53 2 (ASPP2) in neurodegeneration. In this study we find that ASPP2 mediates STAT1Linduced apoptosis. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces ASPP2 mRNA expression in vitro. Also, LPS induces nuclear ASPP2 in vivo at the blood-cerebral spinal fluid-barrier (BCSFB), the brain's barrier to inflammation. Consistent with ASPP2's role as a gatekeeper to inflammation, ASPP2 mutant mouse brains possess enhanced neuroinflammation. Elevated ASPP2 expression is also observed in mouse models and human neuroinflammatory disease tissue in astrocytes. The identification of ASPP2 as a novel transcriptional target of STAT1 and the observed increase in ASPP2 expression in both mouse and human neuroinflammatory disorders, suggests that the identified STAT1/ASPP2 pathway may connect tumor suppression and cell polarity to neuroinflammation.
Additionally, I investigate the regulation of cellular senescence by p53 isoforms as a means to enhance neuroprotection of astrocytes in chronic neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Here we report that p53 isoforms, Δ133p53 and p53β, are endogenous regulators of cellular senescence in the central nervous system (CNS). Δ133p53 functions as a dominant-negative regulator of full-length (FL)Lp53 and represses senescence, while p53β as a co-activator of FLLp53, promotes senescence. In neurodegenerative disease brain tissue, FLL53 and p53β are upregulated while Δ133p53 is downregulated. We demonstrate that Δ133p53 and p53β directly regulate astrocyte senescence, including the release of key neurotoxic proL inflammatory cytokines such as ILL6 and ILL1β. Also, we show that the p53 isoform switch that occurs during aging and neurodegeneration promotes neuronal toxicity using coL culture experiments with human iPSC-derived motor neurons and human astrocytes. We also demonstrate that astrocyte senescence can be rescued through overexpression of Δ133p53, revealing a promising therapeutic approach to delay or inhibit the progression of neurodegeneration.

Keywords: neonate
streptococcus
Kenya
stillbirth
Advisor: Berkley, J
Crook, D
Studying marcomolecular transitions by NMR and computer simulations

Macromolecular transitions such as conformational changes and protein-protein association underlie many biological processes. Conformational changes in the N-terminal domain of the transmembrane protein DsbD (nDsbD) were studied by NMR and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. nDsbD supplies reductant to biosynthetic pathways in the oxidising periplasm of Gram-negative bacteria after receiving reductant from the C-terminal domain of DsbD (cDsbD). Reductant transfer in the DsbD pathway happens via protein-protein association and subsequent thiol-disulphide exchange reactions. The cap loop shields the active-site cysteines in nDsbD from non-cognate oxidation, but needs to open when nDsbD bind its interaction partners. The loop was rigid in MD simulations of reduced nDsbD. More complicated dynamics were observed for oxidised nDsbD, as the disulphide bond introduces frustration which led to loop opening in some trajectories. The simulations of oxidised and reduced nDsbD agreed well with previous NMR spin-relaxation and residual dipolar coupling measurements as well as chemical shift-based torsion angle predictions. NMR relaxation dispersion experiments revealed that the cap loop of oxidised nDsbD exchanges between a major and a minor conformation. The differences in their conformational dynamics may explain why oxidised nDsbD binds its physiological partner cDsbD much tighter than reduced nDsbD. The redox-state dependent interaction between cDsbD and nDsbD is thought to enhance turnover. NMR relaxation dispersion experiments gave insight into the kinetics of the redox-state dependent interaction. MD simulations identified dynamic encounter complexes in the association of nDsbD with cDsbD. The mechanism of the conformational changes in the transport cycle of LacY were also investigated. LacY switches between periplasmic open and cytoplasmic open conformations to transport sugars across the cell membrane. Two mechanisms have been proposed for the conformational change, a rocker-switch mechanism based on rigid body motions and an “airlock” like mechanism in which the transporter would switch conformation via a fully occluded structure. In MD simulations using the novel dynamics importance sampling approach such a fully occluded structure was found. The simulations argued against a strict “rocker-switch” mechanism.

Keywords: NMR spin-relaxation
NMR
MD simulations
NMR dynamics
Advisor: Redfield, C
Sansom, M