VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Compound shock waves and creep behaviour in sediment beds

This research is a theoretical, experimental and numerical study of the one-dimensional deformation of suspensions. The study is focussed on the transition between sedimentation and consolidation, and creep during soil consolidation. In the literature, sedimentation, traditional large strain consolidation and creep are explored independently. The theory of sedimentation has been derived in parallel with the mathematical description of shock waves. The large strain consolidation theory of Gibson et al. (1981) has been adopted, and attention is given to the material properties of compressibility and permeability. Traditionally creep has been studied on thin samples, and a review is given to identify parallels with creep behaviour of the thick samples studied here. The experimental work was carried out in the laboratory using settling column tests. During the sedimentation stage, when the soil particles are fluid supported, shock waves were monitored and tracked by means of an X-ray absorption technique to allow for the calculation of experimental flux functions. Settling column experiments on different natural soils have been performed to study the consolidation behaviour by means of the measurement of pore water pressure and X-ray density measurements. An in-depth study of the development of effective stress has been performed to quantify the creep behaviour of the soils studied in a strain rate surface. The sedimentation equation is classified as a hyperbolic partial differential equation. In this kind of equation, discontinuities can propagate, and standard solution methods, eg finite differences, fail to give adequate results. For this reason codes have been developed using the finite volume method (FVM) to solve the sedimentation equation numerically. A standard numerical code has been developed for the solution of the large strain consolidation equation, while for the unified sedimentation-consolidation model the finite volume method (FVM) has been used. The shock waves monitored in the experiments are successfully predicted by the sedimentation model using experimentally derived flux functions. This study made it possible to formulate a physically and mathematically correct definition of the transition from sedimentation to consolidation. The strengths and weaknesses of the traditional large strain consolidation model have been identified by means of an international Class A prediction seminar. A new unified sedimentation-consolidation model is proposed using a flux function, a permeability relationship and a strain rate surface as material functions. Successful predictions of experiments have been performed, showing the transition from sedimentation to consolidation and the inclusion of creep.

Keywords: clay
consolidation
Advisor: Sills, G
Silver nanowire transparent conductors for quantum dot photovoltaics

This thesis studies the application of silver nanowire transparent conductors in PbS quantum dot photovoltaics.
Silver nanowires were synthesized using a colloidal method and characterized using scanning electron microscopy. Nanowires were deposited on glass substrates by a stamp transfer process to generate a low density continuous network of conductive nanowires. This resulted in a highly conductive and transparent film appropriate for optoelectronic applications. Nanowire synthesis, deposition, and processing were optimised to produce transparent conductors suitable for thin film photovoltaics.
These nanowire films were used to fabricate lead sulphide (PbS) colloidal quantum dot solar cells. In this structure, p-type PbS quantum dots form a junction with a n-type ZnO nanoparticle layer. A variety of fabrication and processing treatments were developed in order to reduce short-circuiting of devices and to enhance cell performance. Moderate nanowire density, improved ZnO adherence, slight device aging, and increased PbS film thickness proved to result in the highest quality devices. The champion device developed in this thesis achieved a power conversion efficiency of 2.2%.

Keywords: quantum dot
photovoltaics
nanowire
Advisor: Watt, A
The organisation of the English secular church in the reign of Henry I

Summary.
This is a study of the structure within which the English church was governed and administered under Henry I, although it has sometimes been necessary to draw on evidence for a rather longer period.
Although the Anglo-Norman church was recruited from a single bodey of men governed by a single powerful king there was still an importand sense of separate identity in the English church, particularly expressed in the celebration of 'national' councils. By 1135 it was also very rare for the Normans appointed to high office in the English churchto have spent any substantial period in a Norman benefice; the English church was at least as distinct from its Norman counterpart as English society. By the end of the reign it was easier to define the limits of this church; although York retained important claims north of the Scottish border the creation of the diocese of Carlisle has done much to make the ecclesiastical frontier coincide with political realities; in Ireland the primatial claims of canterbury had recieved a decisive check, but the absorption of the Welsh hierarchy into her province was almost complete, at least at the higher levels.
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The signature of a rough path: uniqueness

The main contribution of the present thesis is in two aspects.
The first one, which is the heart of the thesis, is to explore the fundamental relation between rough paths and their signatures. Our main goal is to give a geometric characterization of the kernel of the signature map in different situations. In Chapter Two, we start by establishing a general fact that a continuous Jordan curve on a Riemannian manifold can be arbitrarily well approximated by piecewise minimizing geodesic interpolations which are again Jordan. This result enables us to prove a generalized version of Green’s theorem for planar Jordan curves with finite p-variation 1 ≤ p < 2, and to prove that two such Jordan curves have the same signature if and only if they are equal up to reparametrization. In Chapter Three, we investigate the problem for general weakly geometric rough paths. In particular, we show that a weakly geometric rough path has trivial signature if and only if it is tree-like in the sense we will define later on. In Chapter Four, we study the problem in the probabilistic setting. In particular, we show that for a class of stochastic processes, with probability one the sample paths are determined by their signatures up to reparametrization. A fundamental example is Gaussian processes including fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter H > 1/4, the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process and the Brownian bridge.
The second one is an application of rough path theory to the study of nonlinear diffusions on manifolds under the framework of nonlinear expectations. In Chapter Five, we begin by studying the geometric rough path nature of G-Brownian motion. This enables us to introduce rough differential equations driven by G-Brownian motion from a pathwise point of view. Next we establish the fundamental relation between rough (pathwise theory) and stochastic (L2-theory) differential equations driven by G-Brownian motion. This is a crucial point of understanding nonlinear diffusions and their generating heat flows on manifolds from an intrinsic point of view. Finally, from the pathwise point of view we construct G-Brownian motion on a compact Riemannian manifold and establish its generating heat flow for a class of G-functions under orthogonal invariance. As an independent interest, we also develop the Euler-Maruyama scheme for stochastic differential equations driven by G-Brownian motion.

Keywords: signature
rough paths
G-Brownian
Jordan curves
nonlinear heat flow
Advisor: Qian, Z
Multiscale docking using evolutionary optimisation

Molecular docking algorithms are computational methods that predict the binding site and docking pose of specified ligands with a protein target. They have proliferated in recent years, due to the explosion of structural data in biology. Oxdock is an algorithm that uses various techniques to simplify this complex task, the most significant being the use of a multiscale approach to analyse the problem using a simple representation in the early stages. Oxdock is shown to be a very useful tool in computational biology, as exemplified by two cases. The first case is the analysis of the NMDA subclass of neuronal glutamate receptors and the subsequent elucidation of their function. The second is the investigation of the newly discovered plant glutamate receptors and the clarification of their natural ligands. The results in both instances open new areas of research into exciting areas of biology.
Despite its effectiveness in solving many problems, Oxdock does fail in a number of circumstances. It is thus important to devise a new and improved method for molecular docking. This is achieved by combining the speed of the multiscale approach with the optimising ability of Evolutionary Programming. This yields an algorithm that is shown to be precise, accurate and specific.
The new algorithm, Eve, is then modified to illustrate its potential in both lead optimisation and de novo drug design. These capacities, combined with its ability to predict the location of binding sites and the docking pose of a ligand, highlight the promise of computational methods in solving problems in many areas of biological chemistry.

Advisor: Grant, G
The ethics of Otium: pastoral, privacy and the passions 1559-1647.

This thesis studies the literary genre of pastoral between 1559 and 1647. The first of these dates is that of a work that changed the course of early modern pastoral, Montemayor’s Diana; and the second marks the English translation of Gomberville’s Polexandre, a pastoral romance which exemplifies the shifts in cultural values that re-shaped Montemayor’s model over the century that followed its publication.
My study focusses on the significance for this genre of the ethical quality known to classical moral philosophy as otium, and translated in early modern English by words such as peace, leisure, retirement, ease and idleness. Otium has strong historical associations with the tradition of Virgilian pastoral. Its significance in early modern pastorals, however, has been largely overlooked, despite the fact that early modern interest in otium had been revitalised by the rediscovery of some of its most important classical discussions. This renewed interest in otium, I argue, was essential to the development of early modern pastoral.
My argument challenges both old and new critical perspectives on pastoral, and engages with key issues in early modern culture which literary scholars have neglected. Older studies understood pastoral otium simply as idyllic retreat; newer ones accept this view, but argue against its privileged and quietist political implications, preferring to concentrate on the tradition of interpreting pastoral as political allegory. Otium’s principal connotations, however, were neither quiet nor idyllic. Though its restorative qualities were sometimes cautiously acknowledged, otium’s potential to corrupt was ever-present, and affected a range of areas including privacy, politics, moral psychology and medicine. When people wanted to imaginatively explore those effects, I argue, pastoral was the genre to which they were most likely to turn. Listening to what pastorals say about otium can play an important role in reconstructing this crucial and misunderstood aspect of early modern culture.

Keywords: Pastoral
Comus
Milton
Montemayor
Melancholy
Gomberville
Suffocation of the Mother
Otium
Sidney
Advisor: Burrow, C
Determinants and outcomes of foreign acquisitions

This study investigates the causes and consequences of acquisitions primarily foreign acquisitions undertaken by UK publicly listed firms. Firm- and country-specific factors are found to influence the propensity to acquire and the location of the acquired subsidiary. Indicators of a firm's organisational experience, such as firm size, profitability, and its investment history, increase the probability that an acquisition (relative to no acquisition) is undertaken. Larger and more profitable firms are also more inclined to invest abroad (rather than at home), as are firms engaged in RandD activities. In choosing among foreign locations, an increase in country-specific uncertainty (proxied by exchange rate and stock market volatility) deters a firm from investing in that location. Likewise, at the firm level, uncertainty is found to discourage a firm from acquiring (relative to not acquiring), and to deter an acquirer from undertaking a foreign (relative to a domestic) acquisition.
Based on changes in industry-adjusted profit levels, acquiring firms in general perform poorly after making large foreign acquisitions. However, examining profit variability reveals interestingly that firms more likely to experience a decline in profit levels are also more likely to enjoy a reduction in profit variability, and vice versa, which suggests that a risk-return tradeoff could be a consideration when acquisitions are undertaken.
When acquisition performance is evaluated on the basis of a firm's share price response to its acquisition announcement, the event study shows no evidence of negative performance. Resolving this discrepancy between the two performance measures leads us to examine the reliability of the stock market as an indicator of acquisition outcomes. On the one hand the immediate stock market reaction has some ability to predict a firm's postacquisition performance, while on the other post-acquisition stock returns are shown to be not completely consistent with market efficiency.

Advisor: Mr Donald Hay, S
Re-conditioning England: George Orwell and the social problem novel

"What can the England of 1940 have in common with the England of 1840? But then, what have you in common with the child of five whose photograph your mother keeps on the mantelpiece? Nothing, except that you happen to be the same person".
This comes from George Orwell's wartime pamphlet The Lion and the Unicorn in which, according to Tosco Fyvel, he sought "to identify himself with England in its finest hour". Orwell offered a more prosaic justification – "I don't share the average English intellectual's hatred of his own country" – in one of his regular "London Letters" to the American Partisan Review and from these three sources a complex constellation of questions emerges. The issue at stake is Orwell's relationship with his country and it involves ideas of identity, history, ownership, love, hatred, community and, crucially, his position as spokesperson. Drawing and expanding upon work on Orwell and Englishness, focusing on Orwell's often overlooked originality as a novelist and challenging Raymond Williams' influential account in Orwell and Culture and Society, "Re-Conditioning England" seeks to negotiate a path through this complex of questions. This path, as the title and opening quotation imply, is guided by the past and by Orwell's engagement with the mid-nineteenth century mode of social realism. It is informed by Williams' conception of the novel as a "knowable community" and Benedict Anderson's of the nation as an "imagined community". A chronological and contextual study, the thesis pays attention, throughout, to both when and where Orwell wrote. It places his work within contemporary debates over the status of Charles Dickens, poetry, language and the nation to the end of arguing: in his engagement with contemporary social-problems, Orwell first consciously updates and then self-consciously critiques the nineteenth-century genre of condition-of-England writing.

Keywords: Englishness
England
George Orwell
Advisor: Marcus, L
Miscarriages of justice: a definition

To date, debate and discussion about ‘miscarriages of justice’ has occurred without any firm understanding of what the term does, or should, signify. This thesis argues that in light of the significant conceptual distinctions which must be drawn between the numerous flaws and injustices which can arise at each stage of the criminal justice system, the best approach is to aim for a principled and consistent functional definition. The definition offered here is functional in that it provides a means by which attempts to identify and remedy miscarriages of justice can be analysed.
Key to the proposed definition is the act of convicting an individual of a criminal offence. This act is central to the criminal process, and therefore central to any meaningful account of miscarriage of justice. Furthermore, it is an act which is conceptually distinct from any other activity in the criminal justice system, and one which is of such significance that its improper imposition is of such concern that it warrants consideration in isolation.
In a criminal justice system which is premised on the fair and equal treatment of its citizens as moral actors, there are three distinct circumstances in which a conviction cannot stand. The first two concern themselves with situations where an individual is either innocent, or has been put at unfair jeopardy of conviction in circumstances where they may not be guilty. That is: when the individual is factually innocent of the crime of which they have been convicted or when there has been a material breach of a due process protection provided by positive law. The final situation where a conviction ought not to be upheld is not one in which the innocence of an individual is in doubt, but rather where the integrity of the criminal justice system as a whole is impugned.
Other definitions are both possible and plausible, as the distinctions drawn in order to arrive at this point are contestable. However, taken together, these three categories provide a consistent and principled account of the matters which an entity charged with reviewing criminal convictions ought to concern themselves with, and therefore a tool for analysing their success or failure.

Keywords: wrongful convictions
criminal justice
evidence
miscarriages of justice
appeals
Advisor: Ashworth, A
Vibrational spectroscopic studies of matrix isolated molecules

The Raman spectrum of polycrystalline or matrix-isolated S2N2 shows three bands attributable to its Raman active fundamentals, including two in close proximity; the possibility of Fermi resonance is discounted. The infrared spectrum.of polycrystalline S2N2 shows five bands, including three attributable to the infrared active fundamentals, while the others are associated with some intermediate species in the polymerisation of S2N2.
The vibrational spectra of matrix-isolated S4N4 are consistent with previous observations in the solid state and in solution, also with the established cage structure of the molecule.
The stretching force constants of S2N2 and S4N4, lower than those predicted on the basis of observations on acyclic S-N molecules, are correlated with the strain in the molecules and their associated thermodynamic instability. The interaction force constants indicate delocalised π-bonding, apparently more extensive in S2N2. Substantial cross-ring S-S bonding is evident in S4N4; S-S interactions in S2N2 are apparently non-bonded and repulsive in nature.
The infrared spectrum of matrix-isolated Cr0C13 contains bands attributable to the fundamentals of this molecule, along with several indicating the presence of Cr02C12 and possibly other related molecules. The Raman spectrum shows just three strong bands, all below 250 cm-1, assumed to arise from the deformation fundamentals of Cr0C13; the form of the spectrum is attributed to absorption or fluorescence. The force constants derived for Cr0C13 correspond closely to their counterparts in V0C13 and Cr02C12, suggesting similar force fields in the three molecules.
The infrared spectrum of the volatile products of the reaction between PC13 and NaN3 indicates the presence of several molecules, possibly including C12PN3 and oligomers of C12 P = N, although no definite conclusions are drawn. Spectroscopic evidence also suggests that the reaction between (CH3)2PC1 and NaN3 yields (CH3)2PN3 as a major product, although observations such as the effect of ultraviolet photolysis remain unexplained.

Advisor: Downs, A
Starving for their art: hunger, modernism and aesthetics in Samuel Beckett, Paul Auster and J. M. Coetzee

As literary modernism was emerging in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a number of its most important figures and precursors began to talk about their own writing as a kind of starvation. My doctoral thesis considers the reasons for and development of this previously little-explored trope, arguing that hunger becomes a focal point for modernism’s complex relationship to aesthetic autonomy. I identify a specific tradition of writers, beginning in the nineteenth century with proto-modernists such as Melville and Rimbaud, flourishing in the pivotal figures of Knut Hamsun, Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett, and expiring with modernist-influenced contemporary writers such as Paul Auster and J. M. Coetzee. Although these writers are avid readers and devoted disciples of one another, mine is the first study to read them alongside one another as a coherent literary tradition. Reading them in this way, I am able to trace the development of the ‘art of hunger’ as a locus for a crisis in aesthetic autonomy that spans the twentieth century.
I develop this line of argument in two phases. In the first, I trace the emergence of an art of hunger out of modernist engagements with philosophical aesthetics and its notions of aesthetic autonomy. Readings of the “art of hunger” in Herman Melville, Arthur Rimbaud, Knut Hamsun, Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett’s post-war work reveal that starvation carries autonomy to an extreme and hyper-literal endpoint, revealing both its desirability as an aesthetic ideal and the impossibility of art’s complete autonomy from the body, the market or the social dimensions of language.
In the second phase, I consider how this trope has animated later twentieth-century engagements with modernism. For authors writing in the aftermath of modernism, hunger provides a way of considering new complications to aesthetic autonomy in the light of both their debt to modernism and their specific historical circumstances. In this light, I consider three different extensions of the modernist art of hunger: its absorption into high formalism in Beckett’s late prose; its collapse in the face of an emerging concern with the social in Paul Auster; and its transformation into an ethical aesthetics of food taboos, restriction and asceticism in J. M. Coetzee.

Keywords: Knut Hamsun
modernism
hunger in literature
Paul Auster
Franz Kafka
aesthetics
J. M. Coetzee
Samuel Beckett
Advisor: Mukherjee, A