VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Science collection, exhibition, and display in public museums in Britain from World War Two through the 1960s

Science and technology is regularly featured on radio, in newspapers, and on television, but most people only get ﬁrsthand exposure to ‘cutting-edge’ technologies in museums and other exhibitions. During this period, the Science Museum was the only permanent national presentation of science and technology. Thus, it is important to acknowledge the Museum’s history and the socio-political framework in which it operated. Understanding the delays in the Museum’s physical development is critical, as is understanding the gradual changes in the Museum’s educational provision, audience, and purpose. While the Museum was the main national exhibition space, the Festival of Britain in 1951 also provided a platform for the presentation of science and technology and was a statement of Britain’s place within the new post-War world. Speciﬁcally, within its narrative, the Festival addressed the relationship between the arts and the sciences and the inﬂuence of science and technology on daily life. Another example of the presentation of science was the quest for a planetarium in London - a story that involves the Science Museum, entrepreneurs, and Madame Tussauds. Comparing the Museum’s efforts with successful planetarium schemes isolates several of the Museum’s weaknesses - for example, the lack of consistent leadership and the lack of administrative and ﬁnancial freedom - that are touched on throughout the work. Since most of this history is unknown, this work provides a fundamental basis for understanding the Museum’s current position, for making connections and comparisons that can apply to similar problems at other institutions, and for learning lessons from the struggles that can, in turn, be applied to other institutions.

Keywords: Science Museum
Festival of Britain
United Kingdom
UK
victoria &amp; albert
greenwich
education
planetarium
british
1951
museums
british museum
20th century
centre block
collections
twentieth century
Advisor: Bennett, J
Weak cost automata over infinite trees

Cost automata are traditional finite state automata enriched with a finite set of counters that can be manipulated on each transition. Based on the evolution of counter values, a cost automaton defines a function from the set of structures under consideration to the natural numbers extended with infinity, modulo a boundedness relation that ignores exact values but preserves boundedness properties.
Historically, variants of cost automata have been used to solve problems in language theory such as the star height problem. They also have a rich theory in their own right as part of the theory of regular cost functions, which was introduced by Colcombet as an extension to the theory of regular languages. It subsumes the classical theory since a language can be associated with the function that maps every structure in the language to 0 and everything else to infinity; it is a strict extension since cost functions can count some behaviour within the input.
Regular cost functions have been previously studied over finite words and trees. This thesis extends the theory to infinite trees, where classical parity automata are enriched with a finite set of counters. Weak cost automata, which have priorities {0,1} or {1,2} and an additional restriction on the structure of the transition function, are shown to be equivalent to a weak cost monadic logic. A new notion of quasi-weak cost automata is also studied and shown to arise naturally in this cost setting. Moreover, a decision procedure is given to determine whether or not functions definable using weak or quasi-weak cost automata are equivalent up to the boundedness relation, which also proves the decidability of the weak cost monadic logic over infinite trees.
The semantics of these cost automata over infinite trees are defined in terms of cost-parity games which are two-player infinite games where one player seeks to minimize the counter values and satisfy the parity condition, and the other player seeks to maximize the counter values or sabotage the parity condition. The main contributions and key technical results involve proving that certain cost-parity games admit positional or finite-memory strategies.
These results also help settle the decidability of some special cases of long-standing open problems in the classical theory. In particular, it is shown that it is decidable whether a regular language of infinite trees is recognizable using a nondeterministic co-Büchi automaton. Likewise, given a Büchi or co-Büchi automaton as input, it is decidable whether or not there is a weak automaton recognizing the same language.

Keywords: automata theory
monadic second-order logic
cost functions
parity games
Advisor: Ong, C
The circulation of bronze coinage in N. Gaul in the mid-fourth century A.D

The aim of the thesis is to use numismatic evidence to extend the picture of N. Gaul in 350-361 which is available from other sources, and in particular to ascertain details about the usurpation of Magnentius in 350-353, the German invasions of 350-355 and the activities of Julian in 355-361.
103 hoards from Britain, Holland, Belgium, France, W. Germany and Switzerland are analysed, together with 54 site-finds from Belgium and the Rhineland which are compared with 5 site-finds from Britain and 6 from elsewhere in the Roman world.
A basic pattern of coin-loss in N. Gaul is identified from the site-finds which, when compared with the pattern found elsewhere, reveals a shortage of coin in N. Gaul in 354-361 as a result of the German invasions. One answer to this shortage was to strike barbarous copies, the distribution of which is seen to correspond to the areas which had survived the invasions or where the scene of Julian's work of reconstruction. In addition a series of hoards, destruction levels and intensively occupied hill-top refuges helps to plot the course of the German invasions.
More general matters of coin-circulation are discussed. Various circulation-"pools" are identified and their relationship to one another analysed; coin supply as well as the reasons for and the speed of coin movement are studied. Movements of personnel or troops, as well as administrative links, are identified as the main factors in coin movement in N. Gaul.
Particular attention is paid to methods of analysis and to the reliability of the evidence from hoards and site-finds, especially the latter, and ways are determined of recognising distorted or unreliable finds.
Structural studies on oligosaccharides from mammalian glycoproteins

A method for the purification of human serum immunoglobulin Al (IgA1), suitable for subsequent oligosaccharide analysis, was devised. The N- and 0-linked glycans of normal human serum IgA1 were released from the protein and the structures determined by a combination of gas-chromatography mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and enzymatic degradation. The glycans from serum IgA1 from normal humans and patients with rheumatoid arthritis were compared. Contrary to observations for immunoglobulin G (IgG), no significant alterations in the IgA1 glycans were encountered in the disease state, suggesting that the defect is IgG specific. The antibodies HNK-1 and L2 bind to a number of glycoproteins important in neural cell adhesion and also recognise glycolipids with a sulphonylglucuronic acid residue. The saccharide from these glycolipids influences neural cell adhesion

Advisor: Dwek, R
Rademacher, T
The structure of alphoid satellite DNA on normal and abnormal human Y chromosomes

The long-range structure of the Y chromosome alphoid satellite DNA has been determined in the cell lines 3E7 and OXEN. Variation in alphoid DNA block size and restriction enzyme sites were observed. The alphoid block size and restriction enzyme site variations were determined for a collection of 42 normal Y chromosomes. The alphoid DNA polymorphisms observed denned 24 Y chromosome alleles. Unexpectedly, the Y alphoid DNA alleles analysed revealed two distinct groups of Y chromosomes indicating that most of the Caucasian and Asian men analysed were descended from one of two males.
The structure of the alphoid DNA was determined for 25 cell lines expected to contain abnormal Y chromosomes. Six of the cell lines lacked Y chromosomes. Four lacked both alphoid DNA and Y a centromere. 13 out of the remaining 15 Y chromosomes had centromeres and Y alphoid DNA block sizes and restriction enzyme site variation similar to that of normal Y chromosome alphoid DNA. Two of the abnormal cell lines had alphoid DNA blocks significantly different from the normal Y alphoid DNA structure. These results confirm that alphoid DNA is located very close to, or at the centromere and make it a prime candidate for a functional mammalian centromere sequence.

Advisor: Tyler-Smith, C
Interferometric spatio-temporal characterisation of ultrashort light pulses

The main topic of this thesis is the development of novel diagnostics for the characterisation of infrared femtosecond and extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) attosecond pulses. High-resolution interferometric methods are applied to high harmonic radiation, both to measure the properties of the XUV light and to relate this information to the physics of the fundamental generation process. To do so, a complete high harmonic beamline has been built and optimised to enable the observation of strong signatures of the macroscopic response of the medium. The distinct spatial characteristics of long and short trajectories are studied, as well as the interference between them. An interferometric measurement allows the extraction of the atomic dipole phase, which gives direct access to the sub-cycle electron dynamics.
A major focus of this thesis is on the development of a novel method which simultaneously characterises two independent electric fields as a function of any degree of freedom in which it is possible to shear one of the beams. Since each field alternately takes the role of the reference to retrieve the other field, this technique is referred to as mutual interferometric characterisation of electric-fields (MICE). One of the key features of MICE is that no sheared but otherwise identical replica of the test pulse needs to be generated, which is a typical requirement of self-referencing techniques. Furthermore, no a priori information is needed for the reconstruction. The strength and the wide applicability of MICE are demonstrated using two fundamentally different examples. First, the temporal pulse profiles of two infrared femtosecond pulses are simultaneously reconstructed in a single laser shot. In the second demonstration, the MICE approach is used to simultaneously reconstruct the wavefronts of two high harmonic beams. Having this new technique at hand, the phase properties of the different quantum trajectories are compared.
All pulse characterisation techniques implicitly assume full coherence of the beam. This, however, is often not the case in practice, in particular when dealing with complex XUV light sources. Here the standard characterisation techniques fail to provide an accurate description of the electric field. Instead, the electric field must be seen as a statistical mixture of different contributions to the overall field. Here an interferometric experiment is first proposed and then performed involving multiple lateral shears to measure the two-point correlation function of high harmonic radiation. This directly provides information about the existence and the magnitude of partial coherence of high harmonics.

Keywords: Optics
Femtosecond Science
Ultrafast Metrology
Interferometry
X-Ray Science
Attosecond science
Laser Science
Ultrafast Science
Advisor: Walmsley, I
States’ international obligations to control private military & security companies

Tens of thousands of contractors work for private military and security companies (PMSCs) in armed conflicts around the world, often hired by states to fulfil functions that were once the exclusive domain of the armed forces. In this context, PMSCs have performed a wide range of activities including offensive combat, prisoner interrogation, military advice and training, armed security, intelligence and logistics.
The proliferation of PMSCs during the past two decades has challenged conventional conceptions of the state as the primary holder of coercive power in the international arena. Nonetheless, this Thesis argues that the traditional state-centred frameworks of international law remain vitally relevant to the regulation of private security activity in contemporary armed conflict. Three states are in a strong position to influence PMSCs in this context—the state that hires the PMSC, the state in which the company is based or incorporated, and the state in which the company operates—and this capacity for influence enables international law to regulate PMSC activities indirectly using these states as an intermediary.
This Thesis critically analyses the pertinent international obligations on these three categories of states and identifies the circumstances in which PMSC misconduct may give rise to state responsibility in each case. It also examines the recent practice of certain key states in order to evaluate their compliance with these obligations. By providing a clear and in-depth analysis of states' international obligations to control PMSCs in armed conflict, this Thesis may not only facilitate the assessment of state responsibility in cases of PMSC misconduct; it may also play an important prospective role in setting standards of conduct for states in relation to the private security industry. This in turn may encourage and assist states to develop their domestic laws and policies in order to improve overall PMSC compliance with international law.

Keywords: human rights
iraq
afghanistan
state responsibility
attribution
mercenary
security
international humanitarian law
jurisdiction
military
privatization
blackwater
Advisor: Akande, D
Goodwin-Gill, GS
The self-assembly of nucleic acid bases on metal and mineral surfaces

The ability of RNA bases to self-assemble into larger structures is an important research area relevant to the origins of life. In the RNA helix the bases are arranged on a sugar-phosphate carcass but it has been suggested that the initial ordering could form on a flat surface. This thesis is an attempt to establish experimentally whether the complementary RNA bases, adenine and uracil, have the ability to self-assemble into large ordered structures when adsorbed on metal and mineral surfaces. The Au (111) surface was chosen as a preferred substrate as it is flat, relatively free of defects, chemically inert and reconstructs in a characteristic pattern of corrugation lines, which provide a reference for crystallographic directions. Six of the molecular phases shown were observed for the first time with molecular resolution and the possible two-dimensional arrangements of adenine and uracil molecules for these phases are proposed. The pure adenine and pure uracil structures have chiral unit cells and in the case of pure uracil alternating monochiral domains within the polychiral islands are created. Well-ordered intricate uracil-adenine bimolecular networks were also observed. The self-assembly of both uracil and adenine appears to be weakly influenced by the surface crystallography. The (100) surface of the mineral pyrite (FeS₂) was chosen as the alternative substrate as it is the most common face that occurs naturally in pyrite crystals. The experiments show the formation of small adenine and uracil crystals at the terrace edges. Neither uracil nor adenine were observed to form a monolayer on the surface of the terraces. The results of the experiments described in this thesis are very interesting in terms of establishing the possible mechanisms for creating regular chiral molecular networks and provide a useful insight into the role of surfaces in the processes of self-assembly of RNA bases.

Keywords: Au (111)
STM
origin of life
RNA
self-assembly
adenine
molecular self-assembly
gold (111)
pyrite (100)
uracil
scanning tunneling microscopy
nucleic bases
Advisor: Castell, M
Fraser, D
Conservation, error and dynamics in protein interaction networks.

The availability of large scale protein interaction networks for several species has motivated many comparative studies in recent years. These studies typically employ network alignment algorithms for the task and use the sequence similarity of proteins to aid the alignment process. In this thesis I use a quantitative measure of protein functional similarity and show that the results are superior to sequence based network alignment. I present a method for module detection that combines results from network alignments with clustering measures to achieve superior results over several existing methods. Next, I address the issue of generally low conservation detected by alignments of interaction networks from model organisms. By explicitly modelling evolutionary mechanisms on pairs of networks I test the hypothesis that divergent evolution alone may be the cause. I use a distance metric based on graph summary statistics to assess the fit between experimental and simulated network alignments. Our results indicate that network evolution alone is unlikely to account for the poor quality alignments given by real data. We also find that false positives appear to affect network alignments little compared to false negatives indicating that incompleteness, not spurious links, is the major challenge for interactome-level comparisons. Finally, I focus on the comparative analysis of a subset of the interaction network related to mitosis in Yeast, Human and Fly. Manual ordering of mitosis-related functional annotations allows the study of temporal aspects of the network. I also use a Markov random field approach to infer temporal labels for unlabelled proteins. Sequence based network alignment of the mitotic networks in the three species finds little conservation despite the proteins being functionally very similar. Further investigation suggests a fuzzy relationship between protein sequence and function that may have implications for future network alignment studies.

Keywords: network alignment
protein interactions
Advisor: Deane, C
Hell

This thesis examines some major attempts made during the twentieth century to defend the doctrine of hell in the light of charges made against it. It aims to provide a survey of major statements of the doctrine, evaluate the coherence of the various arguments involved, and then determine what is the most adequate and coherent defence of the doctrine.
The second and third chapters provide a backdrop to the rest of the thesis, detailing the traditional model of hell as presented in the works of St. Augustine and Jonathan Edwards, and then examining the modern reaction against hell as eternal retributive punishment.
Chapter four addresses the question of whether Karl Barth was a universalist, and concludes that because he cannot logically avoid the charge of universalism, his theology is not able to provide an adequate defence of the doctrine of hell.
The Roman Catholic theologians Hans Küng, Karl Rahner, and Hans Urs von Balthasar are examined in the fifth chapter. They provide a wealth of information on topics dealing with hell, and although hopeful that there will be a universal outcome in the eschaton, they defend the possibility of hell.
The sixth chapter looks at the impact and influence of C.S.Lewis' work on hell, whilst the seventh addresses a recent debate concerning whether or not those in hell will cease to exist. Although the position known as conditional immortality may be viable, as a defence of hell in itself it is insufficient.
The eighth and ninth chapters examine arguments used in the philosophy of religion. William Lane Craig and Thomas Talbott have debated the possibility of hell using the concept of Middle Knowledge. While Middle Knowledge is found wanting, this debate is particularly helpful in highlighting the issues involved in defending hell, and these are then considered in more detail in the ninth chapter which examines free will defences of hell.
Finally, the conclusion argues that the most adequate and coherent defence of hell available to the modern mind rests itself on the principle of free will. When this defence addresses particular issues highlighted throughout the rest of the thesis, then a coherent defence of the doctrine of hell can be provided.
Juglans regia L: genetic variation and provenance performance

A range-wide collection of Juglans regia seeds was undertaken in autumn 1997 from 12 countries, including 25 provenances and 375 half-sib progenies. 2200 seedlings were produced using innovative nursery techniques. The seedlings were planted in three provenance trials in southern England in 1999, the largest of which acted as a combined provenance/progeny trial. After one growing season, survival was 98.9 %, mean height growth 35 cm, and mean stem diameter increment 5 mm. Provenance differences for both height and stem diameter increment were highly significant (p<0.001). There were no significant genotype × environment interactions. Flushing assessments revealed few significant differences between provenances and flushing was complete by early April. Family heritability for tree height was 0.19 at one site and, with combined selection, genetic gain was estimated at 8 %. The effects of three types of treeshelter and a stumping treatment on walnut establishment were tested over three growing seasons. Treeshelters were found beneficial to height increment. However, 120 cm tall shelters promoted early flushing, and consequent risk of increased frost damage, and caused more stem die-back than 75 cm shelters. Stumping promoted rapid early height increment but gave no longer-term benefit. The crown (cd) and stem (dbh) diameter at breast height relationship of open growing trees in Britain was assessed and was highly significant (r2 = 0.96, p<0.001). The regression equation (cd = 2.71 + 17.6dbh) permitted the estimation of suitable planting densities for the provenance trials and the calculation of a thinning regime. Isozyme analysis of the 375 genotypes identified 20 loci in 15 enzyme systems with seed embryo extracts. Using young leaf extracts, the polymorphic locus Pgm-1 indicated low expected heterozygosity of 0.06 both within populations and at the species level. FST and GST estimates, both 0.05, indicated high uniformity among populations. Genetic distance estimates did not identify significant clustering consistent with geographic origin.

Keywords: forestry
provenance
Juglans
walnut
genetic variations
Advisor: Savill, P
Harris, S