VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
A search for supersymmetry with jets and missing transverse energy at the Large Hadron Collider, and the performance of the ATLAS missing transverse energy trigger

Attempting to find evidence for supersymmetry (SUSY) is one of the key aims of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. This thesis is concerned with searching for supersymmetry in final states with 2-4 hadronic jets, missing transverse energy and no electrons or muons. In the first part, a search strategy is developed using 1.04 fb−1 of data from the first half of 2011. No excess over the Standard Model expectation is observed, so the data are used to set limits on two SUSY simplified models, in which pair-produced squarks or gluinos decay directly to neutralinos and jets. Good limits are achieved for scenarios where the neutralino is nearly as massive as the squark/gluino, compared to an earlier ATLAS analysis using the same dataset. For example, for pair-production of squarks decaying directly to neutralinos, all neutralino masses below 200 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level when the squark mass is 300 GeV. Similarly, for pair-produced gluinos, neutralino masses below 300 GeV are excluded when the gluino mass is 400 GeV. The equivalent neutralino mass limits in the earlier analysis are 130 GeV and 240 GeV respectively. In the second part, the performance of the ATLAS missing transverse energy trigger is studied, and its suitability for use in the SUSY search is evaluated. The behaviour is found to be consistent with expectations, and the trigger strategy for 2010 data-taking is described.

Keywords: supersymmetry
missing energy
ATLAS
LHC
particle physics
physics
trigger
HEP
Advisor: Barr, A
Unframing existence: an ethical and theological appropriation of Heidegger's critique of modernity

This thesis argues that Heidegger’s thought offers crucial insights into the structural challenges that modernity poses to being an ethical and religious person. I argue that these difficulties come down to an instrumentalist conception of truth, a denial or repression of finitude as the condition of meaningfulness, and a philosophical anthropology that is both too subjectivistic and too objectivistic. Yet while Heidegger was good on the diagnosis, he was reluctant to give more than digressive and opaque prescriptions to these problems. My thesis seeks to respond to this lacuna by putting Heidegger’s critical observations in the service of articulating a positive religious ethics. To that end, it seeks to locate—as well as redefine from an ontological perspective—the human dispositions and practices that expose truth in a non-instrumental light, that show finitude as a positive condition of meaningfulness, and that reveal the essence of the human being in non-subjectivist and non- objectivist terms. I argue that these include listening and gratitude—dispositions and practices I claim should form the backbone of any religious ethics, and yet which I also claim should not be limited to those who believe in a personal, theistic God. My thesis contributes to the fields of modern theology and Heidegger Studies in four ways. First, it shows that Heidegger’s critics (such as Levinas and Adorno) are wrong to oppose ontology to ethics. Second, it shows that Heidegger’s critics (such as Marion and Jonas) are wrong to oppose ontology to theology. Third, it shows that Heidegger’s own ambivalence about the ethical and theological relevance of his thought allows for the development of a deeply ethical and theological posture. And fourth, it offers a unique, post-Heideggerian interpretation of gratitude, one in which it is understood as a structure of Dasein that is both “always already” and “not yet” operative.

Keywords: gratitude
Heidegger
ontology
Heidegger's critics
ontological ethics
postmodern theology
phenomenology
listening
Advisor: Pattison, G
Wolfe, J
Random fractal dendrites

Dendrites are tree-like topological spaces, and in this thesis, the physical characteristics of various random fractal versions of this type of set are investigated. This work will contribute to the development of analysis on fractals, an area which has grown considerably over the last twenty years.
First, a collection of random self-similar dendrites is constructed, and their Hausdorff dimension is calculated. Previous results determining this quantity for random self-similar structures have often relied on the scaling factors being bounded uniformly away from zero. However, using a percolative argument, and taking advantage of the tree-like structure of the sets considered here, it is shown that this condition is not necessary; a simple condition on the tail of the distribution of the scaling factors at zero is all that is assumed. The scaling factors of these recursively defined structures form what is known as a multiplicative cascade, and results about the height of this random object are also obtained.
With important physical and probabilistic applications, the heat equation has justifiably received a substantial amount of attention in a variety of settings. For certain types of fractals, it has become clear that a key factor in estimating the heat kernel is the volume growth with respect to the resistance metric on the space. In particular, uniform polynomial volume growth, which occurs for many deterministic self-similar fractals, immediately implies uniform (on-diagonal) heat kernel behaviour. However, in the random fractal setting, this is frequently not the case, and volume fluctuations are often observed. Motivated by this, an analysis of how volume fluctuations lead to corresponding heat kernel fluctuations for measure-metric spaces equipped with a resistance form is conducted here. These results apply to the aforementioned random self-similar dendrites, amongst other examples.
The continuum random tree (CRT) of Aldous is an important random example of a measure-metric space, and fits naturally into the framework of the previous paragraph. In this thesis, quenched (almost-sure) volume growth asymptotics for the CRT are deduced, which show that the behaviour in almost-every realisation is not uniform. Applying the results introduced above, these yield heat kernel bounds for the CRT, demonstrating that heat kernel fluctuations occur almost-surely. Finally, a new representation of the CRT as a random self-similar dendrite is presented.

Advisor: Hambly, B
Gregory the Great

Gregory preached seven series of homilies on books, or groups of books, of the Old Testament: on Job, Ezechiel, the Heptateuch, the Prophets, the Books of Kings, Proverbs, and the Song of Songs. The homilies on Job survive in full in his own revision. The homilies on Ezechiel were never completed; he edited the twenty-two sermons preached, twelve on Ezechiel I:1 - IV:3, and ten on Ezechiel XL, and they survive in the two books of his revision of 601. The remaining series of Old Testament homilies, for the most part, are not extant, but his comments on the first eight verses of the Song of Songs, and on the first sixteen chapters of the first Book of Kings (I Samuel), survive in a recension by Claudius, Abbot of Classis. All of these homilies, with the exception of those on Ezechiel, were preached to the monks of St. Andrew's, Gregory's own foundation, between 579 and 585, when he was apocrisiarius in Constantinople, and 585 and 590, when he was monk and deacon in Rome. The series of Old Testament homilies was revived in 593, again at the request of the St. Andrew's monks, but the pressure of events prevented the completion of the homilies on Ezechiel. Gregory's audience for his monastic homilies was a small, ascetic circle, and most of its members were well know to him; this was a decisive influence on the contents and methods of his exegesis. The Pastoral Rule is best seen as the crystallization of his efforts as exegete around the theme of the episcopal office. As pope he preached a series of Gospel homilies during the liturgy, at first with enthusiasm; but they were abandoned early in 593. Out of the anecdotes from his monastic experience contained in them grew the Dialogues, written at the request of his monks for the purpose of spiritual encouragement.
The ecology of risk in an informal settlement: interpersonal conflict, social networks, and household food security

Kenyan informal settlements have been thoroughly depicted by previous researchers as biophysical, epidemiological, and economic risk environments in which food insecurity is recognised as one of the most persistent everyday challenges. Although unemployment and illness are key contributors to the inability to purchase sufficient food, the reasons why households experience food insecurity are more complicated and not fully understood. Part of the problem is that few previous studies have privileged socio-political contributions (e.g. gender-based power inequalities and the impacts of social networks) to household food security risk. Whilst food security researchers commonly utilise the concept of vulnerability to address household-scale risk, this concept is rarely applied to interpersonal dynamics within households. Using data gathered through participant observation, questionnaires, and 109 in-depth interviews with 67 participants, this thesis provides an ethnographic account of household food insecurity in an informal settlement which addresses three primary questions: (1) In what ways might interpersonal relationships within households contribute social and political obstacles to achieving food security? For instance, how and why might risk for food insecurity emerge from experiences of interpersonal conflict? (2) What role do extra-household social networks play in experiences of food security within households? (3) How useful is the concept of vulnerability for addressing experiences of risk which are negotiated between household members?
In the informal settlement of 'Bangladesh', Mombasa, Kenya, conflict within domestic, especially conjugal, relationships represents a potential source of risk to food security for individual members or entire households. Contributing to this conflict are gender inequality, power differentials, the failure to meet marital expectations, and how people respond when presente with risk. Resulting experiences of food insecurity are shown to contribute to further conflict in the household, thereby creating a cycle of conflict and food insecurity. Those who find that they have insufficient food at home may receive assistance (food or money) from members of their social networks. However, these relationships may also contribute to experiences of conflict, and therefore insecurity, within households. Applying concepts of vulnerabilty to account for experiences of risk and their consequences (food insecurity) requires differentiating between what represents a hazard, a response, and an outcome. Within multi-person households, it is exceedingly difficult to divide lived experiences involving interpersonal conflict among these three categories. Thus, I argue that vulnerability is less useful for research concerning intra-household dynamics than it is for studies which assume households to be undifferentiated units.

Keywords: abuse
gender-based violence
Kenya
social networks
Mombasa
medical anthropology
conflict
anthropology
food security
informal settlements
Advisor: Ulijaszek, S
Topochemical synthesis of novel electronic materials

units separated by rock salt SrCl layers. Variable-temperature diffraction measurements reveal that these sheets undergo a cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion at T ~ 200 K due to unevenly filled degenerate (dxy, dyz) orbitals. This material adopts a magnetic structure in which the moments within each sheet are ordered antiferromagnetically, but the sheets are aligned ferromagnetically.
An investigation was carried on the reduction behaviour of Ru-doped Sr(RuxFe1-x)O3. It was found that the reduction was non-topochemical for values of x > 0.5. For values of 0 < x < 0.5, no single phase precursor material could be formed. For the material with x = 0.5, reduction with CaH2 produced a new phase with composition Sr(Ru0.5Fe0.5)O2. This material is the first reported instance of Ru2+ in an extended transition metal oxide. DFT calculations reveal that, while the iron centres adopt a high-spin configuration, the ruthenium centres are in an intermediate-spin S = 1 configuration. Resulting competing magnetic interactions lead to frustration and lack of ordering.
In order to further study the reduction behaviour of extended transition metal oxides containing ruthenium, the reduction of Sr2(Ru0.5Fe0.5)O4 and Sr3(Ru0.5Fe0.5)2O7 was performed using CaH2 as a solid state reducing agent. In these cases, reduction leads to segregation of the materials into multiple phases adopting closely related structures that differ mainly in their oxygen content. In these materials, the ruthenium centres are preferentially reduced, such that starting from materials containing Ru5+ and Fe3+, materials containing Ru(3-7 δ)+ and Fe3+ are produced.
Similarly, the low-temperature oxidation using CuF2 as a solid state fluoride source was performed on materials with composition Sr3(Ru0.5M0.5)2O7 (M = Ti, Mn, Fe). In the case of M = Mn and Ti, materials with composition Sr3(Ru0.5Fe0.5)2O7F2 are produced in which the ruthenium centres are oxidised to Ru6+. For the M = Fe material, oxidation results in partial exchange of O for F and a material with composition Sr3(Ru0.5Fe0.5)2O5.5F3.5 in which the ruthenium centres are oxidised from +5 to +5.5 while the iron centres remain in a +3 oxidation state. While fluorination of the M = Ti leads to increasing itinerant electronic behaviour, fluorination of the M = Mn and Fe materials induces a twisting of the MX6 octahedra that enables magnetic order to emerge at low temperatures.
Finally, reaction of the SrO(SrVO3)n (n = 1, 2, ∞) series of phases with CaH2 results in the formation of phases with composition SrO(SrVO2H)n (n = 1, 2, ∞), the first examples of stoichiometric oxyhydride materials. SrVO2H is magnetically ordered at room temperature, while the n = 1 and n = 2 materials order at 170 K and 240 K respectively. The high magnetic ordering temperature arises from strong interactions between (dxy, dyz) orbitals in a manner analogous to the reduced iron-containing phases SrO(SrFeO2)n.

Keywords: topochemical synthesis
electronic materials
Advisor: Hayward, M
The world bank and the rhetoric of social accountability in Ethiopia

Following the controversial Federal election in Ethiopia in 2005, in which the ruling party regained power amidst allegations of state-sanctioned violence, the World Bank, along with other bilateral donors, stopped providing Direct Budget Support. In 2006, the Bank formed an agreement with the Ethiopian Government for an International Development Association (IDA) grant for the Protection of Basic Services. The project design for the grant was one of the most complex in the Bank's operations worldwide and featured a component for the implementation of social accountability, financed by a Multi-donor Trust Fund. This thesis critically examines the evolution within the Bank of this policy of 'social accountability' in relation to aid. Situated within the literature on the re-politicisation of aid, it questions the plausibility of implementing such a policy in Ethiopia where the dominant party was seeking ways to extend its power over society.
Fieldwork for this thesis was conducted at the World Bank in Washington D.C. and in Ethiopia: in Addis Ababa, and in the region of Tigray. The evidence assembled in this thesis is drawn from 135 semi-structured interviews and a range of primary source documents. Using an historical method, this thesis argues that the primary purpose of social accountability was rhetorical and the deployment of this language by actors was cynical. Not only did donors have a limited purchase on a complex social reality in Ethiopia, but they also tolerated the misuse of social accountability by the dominant party to extend the power of the state. What was produced in Ethiopia was radically outside of what donors imagined, although they were remarkably relaxed about this fact. This thesis challenges the conventional assumptions that actors in aid negotiations are rational and that aid programs involve the imposition of rationalising high-modernist schemes.

Keywords: Ethiopia
Aid
Social Accountability
World Bank
Civil Society
Advisor: Power, T
A first measurement of electroweak production of a W boson in association with two jets with the ATLAS detector

A first measurement of Electroweak W + 2 jets production at high dijet mass is performed using sqrt(s) = 7 TeV pp collision data from the Atlas experiment corresponding to 4.6 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The background only hypothesis is excluded with a significance of 4.89-σ. A cross section of σ = 325 ± 6 (lumi) ±32 (stat) +63−70(syst) ±86 (theo) fb is extracted in the fiducial region.

Keywords: VBF
ATLAS
jets
W boson
Advisor: Hays, C
Vulnerability to depression and emotional processing

Risk factors for depression have long been identified. However, it remains unclear what are the mechanisms whereby these risk factors lead to depression. Therefore the current research examined cognitive and neurophysiological functioning in a sample of high risk vs. low risk never-depressed young adults. Risk for depression was defined by high neuroticism (N) scores on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). Results indicated that, compared to low N volunteers, high N volunteers show widespread negative biases across emotional processing tasks, including self-referent words categorization and memory, facial expression recognition, and emotion potentiated startle. The neural substrates of these negative biases were further illustrated by our brain-imaging experiments using fMRI. In these studies, high N is associated with increased neural signals for negative self-referent personality attributes and fearful facial expressions in a distributed network known to be involved in emotional processing, including the fusiform-amygdala circuitry, anterior cingulate, and the superior parietal cortex. By contrast, these neurocognitive biases did not seem to be accompanied by impairments in more global executive function or disturbances in biological response to stress measured by awakening salivary cortisol. Consistent with the idea that emotional processing biases represent key mechanisms underlying vulnerability to depression, our final longitudinal study showed that depression symptoms in high N volunteers were well predicted (up to 91%) at an 18 month follow up by a combination of these negative biases and stressful life events. Taken together, the current investigations therefore suggest that neurocognitive biases in emotional processing are trait vulnerability markers for depression prior to illness onset.

Keywords: neuroticism
emotional processing
risk for depression
fMRI
longitudinal
Advisor: Harmer, C
The European Court of Justice and social policy: a mixed methods analysis of preliminary references from the EU-15, 1996-2009

Although social policy was once perceived to be solely within the purview of the nation state, there has been a move toward a more European social policy. The European Court of Justice for the European Communities (‘Court of Justice’ or ‘Court’) determines the scope of European law and how it affects national welfare states. The court’s decisions will affect not only the national law of the member states with regard to social policy but also the direction of European social policy as it expands. However, the ECJ does not choose the policy areas in which it makes its decisions, but instead reacts to the preliminary references that are sent by the national courts of the Member States. These preliminary references from the Member States will set the Court’s agenda. Preliminary references are unevenly distributed across the Member States of the EU, and some Member States’ preliminary references are concentrated in particular policy areas. The jurisprudence of the Court, and consequently the social policy of the EU, could be steered by this uneven distribution.
This thesis will answer the threshold question of why scholars of social policy should care about the Court of Justice, with a legal analysis of some key themes in the Court’s decisions in the area of social policy. It will then employ a mixed methods research design to explain the variation in rates of social policy preliminary references from the EU-15. First, a Time Series Cross-Section (TSCS) model will be used to test a series of hypotheses generated from the literature, and three novel hypotheses, in a dataset of social policy preliminary references from the EU-15 from 1996 to 2009. Next, a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) (Ragin 2000) will group the variables that were found to be significant into sets of conditions, or ‘causal pathways,’ that lead to higher and lower rates of social policy preliminary references. Finally, two qualitative case studies will be conducted, in the UK and France. Analysis of documentary evidence and 25 expert interviews in the two member states and at the Court of Justice will further explain and illuminate the differing usage of preliminary reference process. The analysis of the mixed methods is integrated in the final stage. Implications for the direction of EU law related to social policy and the future development of European social policy will be considered in the concluding chapter.

Keywords: governance
social policy
preliminary references
courts
European institutions
European Court of Justice
civil society
Advisor: Seeleib-Kaiser, M
On designing algorithms for controlling pH

This thesis describes an investigation of how techniques of modelling, estimation and control can be used to improve regulation of pH.
A novel mathematical model of neutralization is used which explicitly accounts for two separate sources of non-linearities in pH systems: the inherent non-linearity of the pH measurement and the variable and uncertain non-linearity of the neutralization chemistry.
A detailed interactive simulation package was developed. It has been used to study:
1. The application of a Bayes' non-linear estimator to a noisy pH measurement. The estimator is used in conjunction with an Extended Kalman Filter in order to generate estimates for use in combined feedforward/feedback controllers. A novel version of the Bayes' estimator is developed which successfully estimated jumping and drifting bias on the pH measurement.
2. A novel cautious stochastic control law which uses the generated estimates and allows for their uncertainty. Reduced quality of estimation forces the controller to regulate the pH at an optimally tuned target value where control is easier.
3. Comparisons of a variety of modern and conventional control algorithms. The modern algorithms include three self-tuners, the non-linear estimators and the cautious controller. The conventional algorithms include a PID controller, analytical linearisation of the pH measurement and the use of estimated or measured feedforward signals. Twenty-five pH control laws are simulated.
The quality of regulation which can be achieved depends on what prior information is available about the neutralisation process. A strategy is proposed which matches controller structure to available information. This strategy provides guidelines to the control configurations that can be implemented as well as their relative limitations.
It is shown that improvement in performance over a PID regulator is possible if one uses more complex controllers. This improvement is investigated by simulation because it varies from one process to another. It is also shown how the resulting simulation package has been used for computer aided design of pH control systems in the chemical industry.

Advisor: Jacobs, O