VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Imperial villas in Italy, Antoninus Pius to Maxentius: a study in architecture and functions

This thesis considers the architecture, functions, and usage patterns of imperial villas in Italy, with a focus on the period between Antoninus Pius and Maxentius (AD 138–312). Modern scholarship has been concerned either with imperial ownership— which has been examined in its historical issues—or with Roman villas; some imperial villas have been analysed individually, but a work addressing them as a study subject per se is lacking. Using data from ten residences, combined with textual and epigraphic evidence concerned with the period under consideration, this thesis investigates the forms in which imperial villas provided a venue for the activities which emperors performed in fulfilment of their role. After discussing villa-use patterns as they emerge from literary sources, the study tackles the settings of the emperors’ official business, the entertainment buildings installed at imperial residences, their bathing suites, dining halls, and the facilities for wine production. Lastly, it looks at the features employed to define a spatial hierarchy within individual residences, and seeks to define the routes on which different categories of individuals could circulate to reach the areas where they were permitted access.
The thesis reveals that, both in the villas built from scratch and in those which were altered in the timeframe under consideration, the necessities of more-or-less long stays of the imperial court are reflected in their configuration: a concern existed towards equipping imperial villas with the facilities which emperors needed to fulfil their functions when they were not in Rome. It shows that a distinction existed between villas which were alternative to the main residence in Rome, and others which were ancillary to it: the acquisition of the functions of the Palatium on the part of specific residences culminated in the institution of the Tetrarchy and in the consequent creation of four different imperial seats.

Keywords: Architectural Design
Roman Emperors
Entertainment Buildings
Imperial Functions
Italy
Private Baths
Imperial Activities
Triclinia
Advisor: DeLaine, J
Maschek, D
Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-22

This thesis studies the career of Thomas of Lancaster from Edward II’s accession to the earl's execution in 1322. It opens with an analysis of Lancaster's ancestry, lands, wealth, and retinue, the four factors which made him the most powerful noble of his day and from which he drew his political strength. The cost and size of the retinue are discussed and it is suggested that the maintenance of a large following, together with other necessary expenditure on building and display, was mainly responsible for the earl's continuous pressure on his lands. New evidence drawn from petitions is used to show that while Lancaster may have been a generous lord to his knights his generosity could only function at the expense of his tenants and neighbours. Lack of material makes any full consideration of his economic position impossible, but from the rather fragmentary evidence available it seems likely that Lancaster, in spite of his vast lands, was in financial difficulties for much of his life. The bulk of the thesis deals with Lancaster's role in the political history of the reign. At first friendship and profit bound him to the crown, as the concessions made to him both by Edward I and his son make clear, but from 1303 onwards he was in almost continuous opposition to the king. He was probably the guiding force behind the establishment of the Ordainers and the responsibility for Gaveston's execution was almost certainly his. A dissection of the events leading to the execution and of the negotiations following it shows the pains which the opposition took to defend its actions and how its whole case rested on Gaveston's extra-legal status at the time of his death; this does something to counterbalance the usual picture of Edward II's barons as men who were entirely lacking in political ability and who were motivated only by self-interest.
Continued in thesis ...

Keywords: Great Britain
14th century
Thomas, Earl of Lancaster
Thomas of Lancaster
fourteenth century
government
politics
Separation of powers? The power relations between king and bureaucracy in Chosŏn Korea during the reigns of Kings Kwanghae and Injo (1680-1649)

This thesis examines the constitutional framework of early seventeenth-century Chosŏn Korea and how power was shared between key actors and relevant institutions at court as well as the question of how these institutions related to and interacted with each other. Previous research has shown that the power of the Chosŏn monarch was not absolute. Court officials and bureaucrats could exercise control over the monarch, but their control remained limited. The main research objective of this study is to determine which factors influenced or determined whether the king could sway the court on individual policy decisions and vice versa.
Court debate stands out as a method of peaceful conflict resolution. King and court officials engaged in what can best be described as legal debates in order to determine whether a policy would be in accordance with precedents, ethical treatises, and various other sources of law. This study also examines the role of heretofore ignored further political actors with the power to influence or determine policy decisions, namely the Queen Dowager as head of the royal household, and the Ming court.
The thesis provides a series of case studies outlining instances of dispute between the monarch, top-level bureaucrats, members of the royal family, and representatives of the Ming court. In chronological order the case studies include King Kwanghae’s family politics, namely his fratricides, the posthumous promotion of his mother, the imprisonment of the Queen Dowager, his foreign policy of non-alignment in the Later Jin-Ming conflict, as well as the dethronement of King Kwanghae and the development of royal authority under the rule of King Injo.
It is hoped that this thesis will contribute to a deepened understanding of Chosŏn statehood and shed more light on the Kwanghae-Injo period.

Keywords: Ming
Korean history
Queen Dowager
Chosŏn Korea
Inmok
Kwanghae
Advisor: Lewis, J
The study of the thermal properties of gases in relation to physical theory, from Montgolfier to Regnault

One of the most important events in nineteenth-century physical science was the emergence, about the middle of the century, of a well founded and acceptable kinetic theory of gases. According to his theory gases were thought to be composed of particles which moved about rapidly with the walls of the containing vessel and so giving rise to the phenomenon of pressure. Since this is basically the view which we still accept today, it is not surprising that its origins and early development have provided a popular and profitable subject for historical research. Attempts to understand what it was that the kinetic theory replaced, on the other hand, have been far less numerous and all too often the earlier, erroneous opinions on gas structure have been dismissed in a brief introductory paragraph. We are told that before the advent of kinetic theory the particles of gases were thought to be stationary and that repulsive forces between them were postulated in order to account for pressure and for the characteristic property which all gases possess of expanding to fill completely any vessel in which they are placed. Such an account is essentially correct but it contributes little to our understanding of the true achievements of the early kineticists. It does not tell us, for example, whether the static theory which they rejected had developed over the years and attained some real degree of sophistication or whether it had never progressed beyond the status of a vague and arbitrary guess. Was it a fruitful theory which had been at the centre of scientific debate, throwing up important theoretical issues, or had it rather been an inhibiting factor? From one point of view the work which follows can be seen as an attempt to answer such questions as these by examining a research tradition to which the almost universal acceptance which was accorded the ‘static’ theory in the first half of the nineteenth century is obviously and specially relevant.
Continued in thesis ...

Keywords: heat
gases
physical theory
Regnault
Montgolfier
thermal properties
Advisor: Crombie, AC
A theory of multimodal translation for cross-cultural viewers of South Korean film

Foreign film research presents a unique situation in which the researcher is placed in the role of a multimodal translator, finding themselves responsible for interpreting multifaceted mean-ings using their own semiotic repertoire (Kiaer and Kim, 2021a; 2021b). Some aspects of film-ic discourse are inevitably going to be untranslatable, resulting in the risk of inferences being naturalised and the analysis ultimately ineffective in its goals (Willemen, 2006., Higson, 2000). Although this is an issue that effects even closely situated languages and cultures (Venuti, 2009), it is severe between those with vast disparities, as between Korean and English (Kiaer, 2020; 2019; 2017). In foreign film studies, a lack of cultural and linguistic knowledge and the cross-cultural gap this presents is often identified as a short-coming (e.g., Matron, 2010., and Kaplan, 1993), and with much of textual film research being conducted in Europe, many textual frameworks are Eurocentric too (Kiaer, 2017., Bhabha, 1994). This means that not only are cross-cultural gaps not addressed by Western researchers, but that non-European films aren’t being analysed in the context of their own culture and language to begin with. The aim of this thesis is to develop a logical framework for the textual analysis of South Korean film (K-film), that provides a means for Anglophone (Western) researchers to interpret K- filmic discourse within its own cultural and linguistic context. This will be achieved by imple-menting and developing Kiaer and Kim’s (2021a) framework for identifying common forms of Korean socio-pragmatic expression, and their meaning potentials in K-films (a set of Korean ‘socio-pragmatic primitives’), which often create this cross-cultural gap (Kiaer, 2017; 2019; 2020), within the framework of multimodal film discourse analysis ‘Segmented Film Discourse Representation Structures’ (SFDRS) (Wildfeuer, 2014); a combination which is proposed as a potentially significant advance in the analysis of K-films (Kim and Kiaer, 2021).

Keywords: Korean language
Korean film analysis
Multimodal Film Discourse Analysis
Korean gesture
Segmented Film Discourse Representation Structures
Film language
Korean film
Translation
Advisor: Kiaer, J
Cation exchange chemistry as a route to induce noncentrosymmetry in layered perovskite oxides

This work is focused on the synthesis and characterisation of n = 2 Layered Perovskite Oxides.
KNdM2O7 (M = Ta, Nb) were synthesized by a two-step cation exchange reaction from RbNdM2O7 via NaNdM2O7. The K-phases adopt a polar Im2m structure. A competition between the requirement of bonding optimization of the K+ and Nd3+-cation sites is demonstrated.
A’BiNb2O7 (A’ = Rb, Li, Na, K) were synthesized and their structures were determined. All four compounds adopt noncentrosymmetric crystal structures. Comparison with the spherical Nd-analogues demonstrates that although the Rb and Li phases adopt polar structures described in the same space group, the presence of the asymmetric Bi3+ enhances the polarity in these structurers. In the NaBiNb2O7 phase, the noncentrosymmetry is generated from the 6s2 electronic configuration of the Bi3+. The KBiNb2O7 phase exhibits frequent “axis switch” stacking faults in which the (0, ½, z) stacking changes to (½, 0, z) stacking and vice versa.
Members of the solid solution with composition Li2SrxCa1-xTa2O7 were synthesized and demonstrated that a structural transformation takes place from hybrid improper A21am structure to proper Pna21 structure with Ca-substitution. Some of the room temperature A21am phases in this series of compounds were shown to have a phase transition to the Pna21 structure at low temperature. Similar phase transition behaviour was observed for the Li2SrNb2O7 phase. The polarity in the Pna21 phase is driven by the SOJT effect of the 4d0-Nb5+ cation. Substitution of 4d-Nb by 5d-Ta in the Li2SrNb2O7 structure lowers the SOJT effect which lowers the stability region of the Pna21 phase.
The lifting of inversion symmetry in the polar structures of Li2La(TaTi)O7 and Na2La(TaTi)O7 occurs via two different mechanisms: a trilinear coupled hybrid-improper mechanism for the Li-phase and a more conventional SOJT-driven mechanism for the Na-phase. The operation of these two different mechanisms in materials with a common La(TaTi)O7 core suggests they compete against each other, and further suggests this competition is also occurring in other hybrid-improper ferroelectric phases which contain SOJT active cations.
MnCaTa2O7 was synthesized by a topochemical cation exchange reaction from Li2CaTa2O7. MnCaTa2O7 adopts a polar P21nm structure where Mn2+ cations are ordered in chequerboard arrangement. Mn2+ magnetic moments order antiferromagnetically below 56 K. Further cation exchange reactions were performed to synthesize MCaTa2O7 (M = Fe, Co, Zn). Successful synthesis of these phases indicates that the cation exchange chemistry could be used to incorporate divalent transition metal cations within the distorted double perovskite frameworks of n = 2 Ruddlesden-Popper phases.

Keywords: layered perovskites
improper ferroelectrics
perovskites
topochemical reactions
noncentrosymmetric compounds
cation exchange reaction
Advisor: Hayward, M
Deep-sea archaeology in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cyprus

Cyprus is currently undergoing something of a hydrocarbon explorations boom in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) with multiple companies undertaking survey work in deep waters and reporting the accidental discovery of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) sites. This is a double-edged sword, as while the oil and gas industry funds and undertakes the majority of deep-sea explorations in which these new discoveries are made, the datasets disclosed to the relevant authorities remain largely confidential and inaccessible for further academic studies. This thesis provides a rare insight into how the oil and gas industry generates geophysical and Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) video-photography datasets and highlights that datasets are primarily produced for industry purposes and thus lack the appropriate recording strategies for the adequate documentation and thereby preservation by recorded of accidental UCH discoveries. In the absence of national standards specifying how UCH discoveries should be adequately surveyed and reported when discovered during oil and gas operations, the main contribution of this thesis is the proposal of a robust set of minimum professional by-standards that can be specified by national heritage agencies to oil and gas companies operating in the deep waters of the EEZ. These derive from the analysis of ROV video-photography, side-scan-sonar (SSS), multibeam-bathymetry-echosounder (MBES) and backscatter datasets submitted by fourteen oil and gas contractors operating in the deep waters of Cyprus, for a period of roughly a decade (2011 to 2021). The observations emerging from these datasets are worked to different levels of surveying with the associated by-standards presented therein pertaining to how offshore oil and gas contractors/subcontractors may best adapt marine geophysical surveys and their data outputs to incorporate elements of maritime archaeological surveying. These guidelines intend to promote the best practical solutions at a technical and operational level and are concerned with the effective detection, survey, in situ and by recorded preservation, reporting, data-submission and archiving of output datasets and UCH discoveries made in the EEZ of Cyprus during the course of deep-water oil and gas explorations.

Keywords: Maritime archaeology
Oil and gas archaeology
Cyprus
Eastern Mediterranean
Shipwrecks
Deep-sea archaeology
Advisor: Robinson, D
The ‘corporate cultural system’: examining the twenty-first century business practice of constructing and managing meaning

This thesis brings the fields of Business Studies and Religious Studies into dialogue to examine the contemporary corporate practice of the manufacturing and management of ‘meaning.’ In particular, it explores how the practitioners, academics, and consultants who make up the business community conceptualize companies’ meaning-making activity. What do they consider corporate ‘meaning’ to be, how do they understand the work to construct it, and what ends do they believe it can support?
This thesis studies the language and practice of the business community across three distinct contexts in which the corporate business is perceived to participate in meaning-making activity. First, in the marketplace arena, where corporations can create meaning for consumers through the construction of a resonant commercial brand. Second, in the workplace arena, where a corporation’s intentionally cultivated employee culture can stabilize, energize, or mobilize the employee community to support strategic goals. And finally, in the societal arena, where crafted corporate morals can guide a business’ activities in a way that can positively impact the world.
The primary contribution of this thesis is its identification, across these discrete contexts, of consistent and coherent internal formulations about corporate meaning. I show that in each arena, the business community understands companies to construct what they perceive to be a system of symbols that promotes a particular worldview and inscribes certain patterns of behavior. While this formulation is resonant of anthropologist Clifford Geertz’s theory of religion as a ‘cultural system’, the distinction is that the Corporate Cultural System, as I call it, is professionally crafted compared to the self-sustaining cultural system of Geertz.
In addition to enabling the identification of this theoretical construct for the first time, throughout, ideas from Religious Studies allow us to parse a more dimensional and critical understanding of the myths, meanings, motivations, and morals crafted within corporate contexts.

Keywords: marketing
meaning
cultural systems
CSR
branding
religion
corporate social impact
corporate social responsibility
corporations
corporate cultlure
Advisor: Jones, J
'Tabloidization' and the internet age

Claims asserting a decline in journalistic values are not new, dating back to the rise of the penny press in the 1830s. With the ascendance of the Internet, however, such claims have proliferated. These assertions, often referenced as a so-called ‘tabloidization,’ have frequently cited an ascension of tabloid values and content, and/or a decline in the values and content traditionally characteristic of ‘quality’ newspapers. The scholarship, however, lacks longitudinal empirical data from before and during the Internet era which supports, refutes, or modifies these allegations, a lacuna which is particularly problematic in view of the pivotal role of journalism in upholding democracy.
This thesis intervenes methodologically and theoretically in the literature, investigating a possible ‘tabloidization’ of tabloid and ‘quality’ British newspapers between 1968 and 2016. ‘Tabloidization’ is defined as the convergence of ‘quality’ newspapers towards ‘soft’ news content, and the journalistic values of sensationalism and personalization seen as traditionally characteristic of tabloid newspapers. In line with the relevant literature, economic, technological, and cultural factors are assessed as potential agents of these possible shifts. Methodologically, change and continuity in journalistic values and content are examined through application of corpus linguistic and content analytic methods, with a composite tabloidization measure generated to account for changes across values and content.
Findings show that between 1968 and 2016, a tabloidization of newspapers has not occurred. In particular, while tabloid elements have increased between 1968 and the end of the 20th century, in the wake of the Internet’s ascendance, tabloid characteristics have declined, and ‘quality’ elements have augmented. The identified shifts in journalistic values and content indicate that newspapers have maintained and even increased their public service function, marking an intervention to media and journalism scholarship lamenting a disintegration of journalism in the public interest ostensibly connected to the Internet’s ascension. Recent changes in newspapers can be understood as a means for reassurance, rather than despair, for those concerned by a putative decline in ‘quality’ journalism.

Keywords: tabloidisation
internet studies
tabloidization
journalism
media linguistics
British journalism
corpus linguistics
content analysis
tabloids
Advisor: Bright, J
Blank, G
On the many facets of the AdS/CFT correspondence – from bootstrap to supergravity

In this thesis we consider two distinct approaches to the study of the AdS/CFT correspondence. In the first we study correlation functions of local operators in holographic SCFTs, which from the bulk perspective represent the most natural generalization of flat-space scattering amplitudes to AdS backgrounds. For maximally supersymmetric CFTs, all four-point functions between single-trace half-BPS operators have been recently computed at tree level, using the idea of maximally R-symmetry violating (MRV) limit. In this thesis we illustrate how the MRV limit can be used to derive analogous results in theories with less than maximal supersymmetry, where the external operators that we consider are dual to gluons in AdS. We analyze our results in detail, finding several interesting features of (super) gluon scattering amplitudes in AdS, ranging from color-kinematics duality to Parisi-Sourlas supersymmetry and hidden conformal symmetry. We also revisit the results for maximally supersymmetric theories, where the half-BPS operators are dual to gravitons, in particular examining certain properties related to dimensional reductions: the existence of protected sectors and again Parisi-Sourlas supersymmetry.
In the second approach we consider the holographic realization of renormalization group (RG) flows between SCFTs living in different spacetime dimensions. From a string/M-theory perspective this is understood in terms of branes wrapping compact cycles in special holonomy manifolds. We consider in particular the case in which the compactification space is a spindle Σ, an orbifold which is topologically a two-sphere with conical singularities at the poles. We describe solutions of the form AdS × Σ of gauged supergravities in various dimensions, that can be then uplifted to D = 10/11 supergravity and we argue that they describe holographically the compactification of certain SCFTs on Σ. This interpretation is supported by a field theory computation based on anomaly polynomials and extremization principles in even dimensions. Spindles have several novel features with respect to other supergravity solutions describing RG flows across dimensions, most prominently the fact that supersymmetry is not realized with a topological twist, as we discuss in detail. In the case of four dimensions we also discuss the relation between spindles and accelerating black holes, whose conformal boundary is studied in detail to elucidate certain aspects of how spindles preserve supersymmetry.

Keywords: AdS/CFT correspondence
Supergravity
Quantum field theory
Conformal field theory
Advisor: Alday, LF
Sparks, J