VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Normative uncertainty

Very often, we are unsure about what we ought to do. Under what conditions should we help to improve the lives of distant strangers rather than those of our family members? At what point does an embryo or foetus become a person, with all the rights that that entails? Is it ever permissible to raise and kill non-human animals in order to use their meat for food?
Sometimes, this uncertainty arises out of empirical uncertainty: we might not know to what extent non-human animals feel pain, or how much we are really able to improve the lives of distant strangers compared to our family members. But this uncertainty can also arise out of fundamental normative uncertainty: out of not knowing, for example, what moral weight the wellbeing of distant strangers has compared to the wellbeing of our family; or whether non-human animals are worthy of moral concern even given knowledge of all the facts about their biology and psychology.
In fact, for even moderately reflective agents, decision-making under normative uncertainty is ubiquitous. Given this, one might have expected philosophers to have devoted considerable research time to the question of how one ought to take one’s normative uncertainty into account in one’s decisions. But the issue has been largely neglected.
This thesis attempts to begin to fill this gap. It addresses the question: what ought one to do when one is uncertain about what one ought to do? It develops a view that I call metanormativism: the view that there are second-order norms that govern action that are relative to a decision-maker’s uncertainty about first-order normative claims. In consists of two distinct parts.
The first part (Chapters 1-4) develops a general metanormative theory. I argue in favour of the view that decision-makers should maximise expected choice-worthiness, treating normative uncertainty analogously with how they treat empirical uncertainty. I defend this view at length in response to two key problems, which I call the problems of merely ordinal theories and the problem of intertheoretic comparisons.
The second part (Chapters 5-7) explores the implications of metanormativism for other philosophical issues. I suggest that it has important implications for the theory of rational action in the face of incomparable values, for the causal/evidential debate in decision-theory, and for the value we should ascribe to research into moral philosophy.

Keywords: moral philosophy
intertheoretic comparisons
decision theory
normative uncertainty
Advisor: John, B
Krister, B
Effective design of marine reserves: incorporating alongshore currents, size structure, and uncertainty

Marine populations worldwide are in decline due to anthropogenic effects. Spatial management via marine reserves may be an effective conservation method for many species, but the requisite theory is still underdeveloped. Integrodifference equation (IDE) models can be used to determine the critical domain size required for persistence and provide a modelling framework suitable for many marine populations. Here, we develop a novel spatially implicit approximation for the proportion of individuals lost outside the reserve areas which consistently outperforms the most common approximation. We examine how results using this approximation compare to the existing IDE results on the critical domain size for populations in a single reserve, in a network of reserves, in the presence of alongshore currents, and in structured populations. We find that the approximation consistently provides results which are in close agreement with those of an IDE model with the advantage of being simpler to convey to a biological audience while providing insights into the significance of certain model components.
We also design a stochastic individual based model (IBM) to explore the probability of extinction for a population within a reserve area. We use our spatially implicit approximation to estimate the proportion of individuals which disperse outside the reserve area. We then use this approximation to obtain results on extinction using two different approaches, which we can compare to the baseline IBM; the first approach is based on the Central Limit Theorem and provides efficient simulation results, and the second modifies a simple Galton-Watson branching process to include loss outside the reserve area. We find that this spatially implicit approximation is also effective in obtaining results similar to those produced by the IBM in the presence of both demographic and environmental variability. Overall, this provides a set of complimentary methods for predicting the reserve area required to sustain a population in the presence of strong fishing pressure in the surrounding waters.

Keywords: mathematical biology
integrodifference equations
branching processes
approximation
marine conservation
spatial management
marine reserves
Advisor: Maini, P
Bonsall, M
Polarisation controlled quasi-phase matching of high harmonic generation

This thesis focuses on the development of high harmonic generation (HHG) by using polarisation controlled quasi-phase matching QPM as well as related topics.
A new class of QPM techniques called polarisation-controlled QPM is introduced where linear or circlar birefringence enables the modulation of the driving field's polarisation state called polarisation-beating QPM (PBQPM) for linear birefringence and optical rotation QPM (ORQPM) for circular birefringence respectively. PBQPM uses a linear birefringence to modulate periodically the driving pulse between linear and circular/elliptical polarisation states. Because elliptical or circular polarisation of the driving pulse suppresses harmonic generation, by appropriately matching the beat length of the driving field's polarisation state to the coherence length of the harmonic generation, QPM can be achieved. In the second technique, ORQPM, propagation of the driving radiation in a system exhibiting circular birefringence causes its plane of polarisation to rotate; by appropriately matching the period of rotation to the coherence length, it is possible to avoid destructive interference of the generated radiation. Not only does ORQPM have similar enhancements as true-phase matching, it is also the first proposed QPM source for circularly polarised high harmonics.
The importance of phase modulation in QPM, especially relating to modebeating in hollow-core waveguides where harmonics is being generated are also explored theoretically. Based on this, a novel technique for analyzing random phase matching using a continuous phase-diffusion treatment has been developed; theoretical analytical models are shown to produce excellent agreement with simulations. It is further shown that random phase matching may be responsible for additional broadening of the high harmonic spectrum, especially at higher harmonic orders.
Because mode and polarisation control is central to polarisation-controlled QPM, four waveguide mode decomposition techniques from single shot CCD data have been developed. The extraction of phase and coupling coefficients are demonstrated experimentally. A novel analytical general solution for the phase introduced by a phase-only spatial light modulator to generate a given far-field phase and amplitude was developed. The solution was demonstrated experimentally and shown to enable excellent control of the far-field amplitude and phase.
Finally, circular and linear birefringent waveguides were explored. Analytic solutions to rectangular birefringent hollow-core waveguides were developed and some initial demonstration experiments were performed.

Keywords: waveguides
high harmonic generation
Advisor: Hooker, S
Studies on the location and function of some peptidase enzymes in the nervous system

Four L-leucine-β-napthylamide (LβNA) hydrolyzing activities were studied in the rat CNS.
Three LβNA activities were resolved using a method developed with non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) in a continuous Tris/Glycine buffer system at pH 8.5. The major activity peak of these three was studied in detail and found to have a Km of 1.34 ± 0.54 μM and a Vmax of 447.8 ± 141.2 pmol/min/mg protein for hydrolysis of LβNA and a molecular weight of either 115 or 58 kDa on 2-dimensional PAGE with SDS in the second dimension.
The distribution of the three activity peaks separated by non- denaturing PAGE was studied among eight areas of the rat brain and was found to be almost homogeneous. An unusual pattern was found in trigeminal nerve where the three peaks had different activities from those found in brain.
The subcellular distribution of the three peaks was also studied. All three activity peaks were found predominantly in the soluble fraction with some found in the synaptosomal fraction.
The three peaks as separated by non-denaturing PAGE were later resolved by Ion Exchange Chromatography in DEAE-Sephacel under neutral conditions into four peaks, two of which corresponded to the minor peaks found on PAGE and the other two corresponded to two parts of the major peak on PAGE.
The four peaks were found to differ from each other in their hydrolysis of LβNA and other aminoacyl-β-naphthylamides, and in molecular weight.
One of the four peaks had similar properties to the previously characterized enzyme, soluble enkephalin degrading aminopeptidase.
Improvements to the non-denaturing PAGE method are proposed to enable it to be used to resolve the four peaks and thus emphasising the validity of this sensitive method.

Advisor: Cook, W
Essays on how scenario planning and the building of new social capital are related

This dissertation explores the relationship between scenario planning and the building of new social capital in addressing potential or actually perceived environmental turbulence. In particular, the research explores how, when environments around organizations risk unpredictable and disruptive change, people in those organizations can act to develop new social capital that contributes to their survival. In this research, I present scenario planning as a mechanism for organizations to build this new social capital.
Scholars have suggested that certain forms of social capital are more conducive to being directly built than others. My research indicates that scenario planning entails aspects which, in effect, are direct investments in creating the cognitive social capital resources that make new sense of turbulence. These resources are created with the scenario process articulating new conceptual framings and possibilities for the future, thereby re-conceptualizing the situation. The resources enable new shared meanings to be created - directly building the cognitive dimension of new social capital while enabling the more researched structural and relational dimensions to be built as by-products. This dissertation also suggests that social capital can be built more quickly than researchers have previously indicated. By directly investing in the creation of new shared meanings, scenario planning can build new social capital faster than the centuries that Putnam and generations that Emery and Trist suggested were needed.
The dissertation’s contribution to the social capital literature is to suggest how new social capital, by foregrounding the cognitive dimension, can be purposefully and more quickly built to address turbulent conditions. The contribution to the scenario planning literature is to propose a scholarly explanation for how scenario planning builds new social capital, suggested in practice but not yet theorized, and in so doing, provide practitioners with a new purpose to strengthen the return on investments these efforts require.

Keywords: cognitive social capital
building social capital
scenario planning
Advisor: Ramirez, R
Numerical analysis and laboratory test of concrete jacking pipes

Pipe jacking is a trenchless construction technique for the installation of underground pipelines. Although pipe jacking is widely used, fundamental research is still needed to understand fully the factors affecting the process and to prevent unexpected failure. With the time and financial limitation, it is difficult to explore all aspects of these factors with experiments; and it is also difficult to study them by analytical methods because of the complexity of the problem. This thesis describes the use of the finite element technique to study the pipe performance under different environments and the laboratory tests of several different joint designs. The emphasis of the current research is on the performance of the concrete pipes during jacking under working conditions and to seek possible improvements in the design of pipes and pipe joints by numerical modelling. In the finite element modelling, a simplified two-dimensional model is used for a preliminary study, then the analyses are carried out with three-dimensional models A, B and C representing a complete pipe, a pipe with surrounding soil and a symmetric three-pipe system respectively. Several factors affecting the pipe performance have been examined, for example, the properties of the packing material, the stiffness of the surrounding soil, the misalignment angle at the pipe joint, and the interaction between the pipe and surrounding soil. The numerical results show that the misalignment of the pipe is the dominating factor inducing both tensile stresses and localized compressive stresses in the concrete pipe, especially with a high misalignment angle which results in separation between packing material and the pipe. The packing materials with high Poisson's ratio and high stiffness also induce higher tensile stresses in the pipe, and the influence of Poisson's ratio is significant. Under 'diagonal' loading, both the stiffness of the surrounding soil and the interaction between the pipe and the surrounding soil have a significant effect on the stresses within the concrete pipe. Under 'edge' loading, the greatest potential damage is at the pipe joint due to the tensile stresses in the hoop direction; while under 'diagonal' loading, the damage is most likely the cracking on the external surface of the pipe along a line connecting the two diagonal loaded corners. The results show that the Australian model gives somewhat good prediction about the maximum normal stress and the diametrical contact width at pipe joint. Based on the numerical results, several different joint designs for improving the pipe strength have been proposed and tested in the laboratory. Both the laboratory tests and the back analyses suggest that the local reinforcement and the local prestressed band at the pipe joint will improve the pipe strength.

Keywords: pipe jacking
Advisor: Burd, H
Milligan, G
The American Civil War and black colonization 

This is a study of the pursuit of African American colonization as a state and latterly a federal policy during the period c. 1850-65. Historians generally come to the topic via an interest in the Civil War and especially in Lincoln, but in so doing, they saddle it with moral judgment and the burden of rather self-referential debates.
The thesis argues that, whilst the era’s most noteworthy ventures into African American colonization did indeed emerge from the circumstances of the Civil War, and from the personal efforts of the president, one can actually offer the freshest insights on Lincoln by bearing in mind that colonization was, above all, a real policy. It enjoyed the support of other adherents too, and could be pursued by various means, which themselves might have undergone adjustment over time and by trial and error.
Using an array of unpublished primary sources, the study finds that Lincoln and his allies actively pursued colonization for a longer time, and with more persistence in the face of setbacks, than scholars normally assume. The policy became entangled in considerations of whether it was primarily a domestic or an international matter, whilst other overlapping briefs also sabotaged its execution, even as the administration slowly learned various lessons about how not to go about its implementation.By early 1864, the resulting confusion, as well as the political fallout from the fiasco of the one expedition to go ahead, curtailed the president’s ability to continue with the policy. There are strong suggestions, however, that he had not repudiated colonization, and possibly looked to revive it, even as he showed a tentative interest in alternative futures for African Americans.
This thesis makes a case against unrealistically binary thinking, anachronistic assumptions, abused hindsight, sweeping interpretive frameworks, and double standards of evidentiary assessment respecting a technically imperfect and ethically awkward policy.

Keywords: Abraham Lincoln
African Americans - Colonization
Advisor: Sexton, J
Oxidation and crystallisation of amorphous alloys

Amorphous alloys have a range of desirable ferromagnetic, electrical, mechanical and chemical properties. For instance, the application of Fe-based soft ferromagnetic amorphous alloys as transformer core materials can cut the transformer core losses to about 1/4, with considerable energy saving. However, during manufacture, heat treatment and in service, amorphous alloys may need to be exposed to moderately high temperatures for a period of time, with possible degradation caused by oxidation and crystallisation. There has been almost no previous study of oxidation behaviour and the relationship between oxidation and crystallisation in amorphous alloys.
Eight important amorphous alloys and an industrial crystalline silicon steel have been studied in the present work; amorphous Fe78Si9Bl3, Fe40Ni40B20, Fe40Ni40P14B6, Co58NilOFe5SillB16, Fe32Ni36Crl4P12B6, Co66Fe4NilSil5B14, Co76Fe2Mn4Si6B12 and Ni78Si8B14, and crystalline Fe94Si6. A combination of thermogravimetry, optical and electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis, X-ray diffractometry and differential scanning calorimetry has been used to investigate the oxidation and crystallisation kinetics, oxide structure and composition, oxidation and crystallisation mechanisms and the effect of crystallisation on the oxidation behaviour. The results show that the oxidation resistance at 350 C in air increases in the order Fe40Ni40- P14B6 < Fe94Si6 < Co66Fe4NilSil5B14 < Co58NilOFe5SillB16 < Co76MnFe2- Si6B12 < Fe40Ni40B20 < Si78Si9B13 < Ni78Si8B14 < Fe32Ni36Crl4P12B6. Most of the amorphous alloys obey a parabolic oxidation rate law, but the oxidation kinetics, oxide growth mechanism and resulting oxide structure change sharply when crystallisation takes place in the amorphous alloys. Amorphous Fe78Si9B13 and Fe40Ni40B20 have better oxidation resistance than the corresponding crystalline alloys, while amorphous Fe40Ni40P14B6 and Co58NilOFe5Sil1B16 have poorer oxidation resistance than the crystalline counterparts. Most of the crystalline alloys also obey a parabolic oxidation rate law, except for the crystalline Co based alloys and Fe40Ni40B20, which obey a logarithmic rate law. In most cases, the amorphous and crystalline alloys oxidise to form a fine-scale multiphase oxide scale, except for amorphous Fe40Ni40P14B6, which oxidises to form a whisker-like thick layer of Fe203- In general, ion diffusion through fast transport paths such as grain boundaries and dislocations is the rate controlling process for oxide growth. Different oxidation kinetics and oxide growth mechanisms in amorphous and crystalline alloys of the same composition are caused by micro-chemical segregation of the alloying elements during crystallisation.

Advisor: Cantor, B
Reactive hydride composites for efficient hydrogen energy storage

Solid state chemical storage of hydrogen in metals offers promising advantages over compressed hydrogen gas and condensed liquid hydrogen, especially for mobile applications with respect to safety and energy efficiency. However, no single metal hydride simultaneously satisfies the essential performance criteria for onboard hydrogen storage namely, high gravimetric and/or volumetric energy density, fast kinetics and favorable thermodynamics.
Recently, a breakthrough achievement was made by the development of reactive hydride composites in which two metal hydride systems (e.g. NaBH4 and MgH2) are mixed together resulting in better sorption properties than the individual pure systems. In this approach, the formation of MgB2 by exothermic reaction destabilizes the composite and consequently reduces the overall enthalpy and sorption temperature of the endothermic desorption reaction.
In this work the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of reactions in 2NaH + MgB2 + 4H2 ↔ 2NaBH4 + MgH2 and 3NaH + MgB2 + 4H2 ↔ 2NaBH4 + NaMgH3 were established using multiple experimental techniques like volumetric measurements, ex-situ and in-situ X-ray diffraction, calorimetry, and especially electron microscopy.
Under the applied experimental conditions of 50 bar hydrogen and 400 °C during the hydrogenation of 2NaH + MgB2 and 0.1 bar hydrogen and 450 °C during the dehydrogenation of 2NaBH4 + MgH2, both reactions were kinetically limited and proceeded in multisteps. The absorption reaction was partial, being restricted by the unexpected formation of NaMgH3 which limits the formation of NaBH4 while the desorption reaction was complete and limited by the growth of MgB2 through some intermediate complexes at the Mg/NaBH4 interface where the intermediate phase forms a barrier to diffusion.
Conversely, in the 3NaH + MgB2 system, absorption in 100 bar hydrogen and 300 °C was complete but slow, while in the 2NaBH4 + NaMgH3 system, complete desorption was achieved in multisteps under 0.1 bar hydrogen and 450 °C.
The formation of intermediate and stable complexes during these reactions poses a significant restraint to hydrogen sorption reactions. However, lower onset sorption temperatures have been established in these systems than in the pure compounds due to their simultaneous destabilization in the composite state.
This study have demonstrated the complexity of desorption and absorption mechanisms in these composite systems and the difficulty of obtaining such reactions at low temperatures required for mobile applications. This understanding of the rate limiting reaction steps in reactive hydride composites provides the basis for further optimization of these materials for efficient hydrogen storage applications.

Keywords: Hydrogen storage
Hydrides
Electron microscopy
Borohydrides
Reaction mechanism
X-ray diffraction
Advisor: Sykes, J
Hutchison, J