VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The good consideration rule: an enrichment explanation

This thesis investigates what the correct justification in principle for the good consideration rule is. It concludes that the answer to that enquiry lies within the elements that complete a cause of action in unjust enrichment. On the best interpretation, the good consideration rule is an enrichment qualification. The defendant’s prima facie enrichment through the receipt of a benefit is balanced off by the discharge of an obligation owed to the defendant. In net terms therefore, the defendant is not enriched. However, this reasoning is conditional on the acceptance of two prior premises.
First, the good consideration rule and the legal obligation qualification are distinct restrictions on claims in unjust enrichment. Two features in particular distinguish them: (a) the operation of a legal obligation between the claimant and the defendant; (b) the fact that the payment was intended to discharge a debt owed to the defendant. This thesis concerns the good consideration rule alone.
Secondly, in evaluating the defendant’s enrichment, conditionally related disenrichments must be accounted for (the ‘net benefit approach’). Thus, when the defendant receives a benefit on the condition shared between the parties that the defendant will in turn suffer a disenrichment, the defendant’s true enrichment is the difference between those values.
At first blush, there are at least three major objections to the enrichment thesis — the decision of the High Court of Australia in Roxborough, the House of Lords’ decision in Deutsche Morgan and the law on restitution of mistaken payments made to discharge unenforceable debts. On closer examination however, all three can be overcome.
Finally, the enrichment thesis fares better than its rival explanations in accounting for the features of the good consideration rule. The ensuing doctrinal consequences are also largely in line with the prevalent judicial and academic thinking on the good consideration rule.

Keywords: Restitution
Good Consideration
Unjust Enrichment
Advisor: Stevens, R
Sir William Cornwallis the Younger (c.1579-1614) and the emergence of the essay in England

This thesis provides a full-length critical treatment of the Essayes (1600-01) of Sir William Cornwallis (c.1579-1614). Cornwallis' Essayes are the first examples of the ‘familiar’ essay in English: to which the rhetorical shaping of persona and the use of the personal voice are central. This is the first such study of Cornwallis since the first half of the twentieth century, and situates his Essayes within their cultural, social, and material contexts. The thesis draws upon previous work on Cornwallis and his Essayes from the 1930s and 1940s, but also on recent developments in early-modern English studies, especially in the fields of the history of rhetoric and the history of reading. The thesis challenges the assumptions behind two major critical approaches to the early-modern essay: firstly that it is a form in which the personal voice can be unambiguously expressed, and secondly that it is an essentially unoriginal genre which is more closely related to reading than to writing. This thesis qualifies these approaches, while demonstrating that the origins of each are found in the rhetorical practices of early English essays. This thesis argues however that Cornwallis’s essays are elaborate fusions of classical commonplaces, humanistic rhetoric, and ethical theories of how to live, resulting from complex interactions between different strands of humanistic educative practices, and that Cornwallis’s use of the personal voice is shaped by ethically-inflected rhetorical theories of affect and imitation. The thesis further attempts to think about how essays were being read in this period, and to do so offers a study of the material traces of reading, in the form of annotations and commonplace books, left by early-modern readers of John Florio’s English translation of Montaigne (1603).

Keywords: essays
history of reading
Cornwallis
marginalia
Florio
Montaigne
rhetoric
Advisor: Lewis, R
Distant obscured quasars

This thesis presents a study of high-redshift obscured (type-2) quasars, selected at mid-infrared and radio wavelengths. This population had remained elusive, even to hard X-ray surveys, and in Chapter 2 I compare the selection of type-2 quasars in X-ray and mid-infrared surveys, as well as explaining the criteria I will use to search for these objects at z ~ 2, around the peak in the unobscured (type-1) quasar activity.
Chapter 3, presents a sample of radio-intermediate type-2 quasars selected from the criteria de- scribed in Chapter 2. Optical spectroscopy shows indeed that at least half of the objects have the characteristic narrow emission lines, and lie around the expected redshift of z = 2. The other half of the objects are consistent with also being type-2 quasars at similar redshifts, although no emission lines are visible.
In Chapter 4,1 discuss the possibility of two types of obscured quasars, some obscured by a dusty torus and some by a dusty host galaxy, to explain the lack of emission lines in half of the sample. I model the number of type-1 quasars expected to follow similar selection criteria and at the same redshifts as our type-2 quasars, and find that the obscured quasars outnumber the unobscured by a ~2-3:1 ratio. I conclude that most supermassive black hole growth is obscured by dust. When comparing this to predictions from unified schemes, I find that this result is only consistent with the schemes provided host-obscuration is indeed happening. The lower ratio of type-2 to type-1 quasars inferred from X-ray surveys (~1:1) suggests that some of the type-2 quasars in this sample might be Compton thick.
Radio data taken at three frequencies, are presented in Chapter 5, to study the spectral properties and intrinsic luminosities of our sample. I show that some type-2 quasars have flat radio spectra, which is inconsistent with obscuration by the torus, but consistent with host-obscuration. Some gigahertz-peaked spectra, characteristic of young radio jets, are present, but the majority of the sources have very steep spectra. These steep spectral indices can be explained by active developed jets in which continuous injection of electrons is accompanied by inverse-Compton losses against the cosmic microwave background.
In Chapter 6, I select a similar sample of type-2 quasars in a different field, where X-ray data are available. The selection criteria are kept identical, except for the radio flux density cut, which is lowered. This is expected to introduce significant numbers of starburst contaminants. To filter these out, and due to a lack of spectroscopy, I use a bayesian method to fit the spectral energy distributions, obtain photometric redshifts, and select between a quasar and a starburst model. I measure the X-ray properties for the resultant sample of type-2 quasars. The entire sample is found to be Compton-thick, and repeating the modelling of Chapter 4, I find that the population of Compton-thick quasars is at least comparable to the population of unobscured quasars, and probably larger.

Advisor: Rawlings, S
'Exile-and-return' in medieval vernacular texts of England and Spain 1170-1250

The motif of 'exile-and-return' is found in works from a wide range of periods and linguistic traditions. The standard narrative pattern depicts the return of wrongfully exiled heroes or peoples to their former abode or their establishment of a superior home, which signals a restoration of order. The appeal of the pattern lies in its association with undue loss, rightful recovery and the universal vindication of the protagonist. Though by no means confined to any one period or region, the particular narrative pattern of the exile-and-return motif is prevalent in vernacular texts of England and Spain around 1170–1250. This is the subject of the thesis. The following research engages with scholarship on Anglo-Norman romances and their characteristic use of exile-and-return that sets them apart from continental French romances, by highlighting the widespread employment of this narrative pattern in Spanish poetic works during the same period. The prevalence of the pattern in both literatures is linked to analogous interaction with continental French works, the relationship between the texts and their political contexts, and a common responses to wider ecclesiastical reforms. A broader aim is to draw attention to further, unacknowledged similarities between contemporary texts from these different linguistic traditions, as failure to take into account the wider, multilingual literary contexts of this period leads to incomplete arguments. The methodology is grounded in close reading of four main texts selected for their exemplarity, with some consideration of the historical context and contemporary intertexts: the Romance of Horn, the Cantar de mio Cid, Gui de Warewic and the Poema de Fernán González. A range of intertexts are considered alongside in order to elucidate the particular concerns and distinctive use of exile-and-return in the main works.

Keywords: Exile; anglo-norman literature; medieval spanish literature; romance; epic; comparative literature; medieval studies
Advisor: Ashe, L
Hazbun, G
Hook, D
Synthetic and spectroscopic studies on heterometallic clusters of platinum

This Thesis describes the synthesis and structural characterisation of a range of heterometallic cluster compounds of platinum. Chapter 1 reviews the current knowledge in this area and gives examples of the kinds of cluster compounds which have been characterised, with some emphasis on their mode of synthesis and their structural and spectroscopic characterisation. The structures of the cluster compounds are rationalised in terms of the triangular Pt3 unit which dominates the cluster chemistry of platinum. The bonding in the simplest triplatinum cluster compounds is analysed and is used as a basis for understanding the interconversion of platinum cluster compounds and the formation of heterometallic platinum-gold cluster compounds.
Chapter 2 describes the synthesis and characterisation of the homometallic platinum cluster compounds which are convenient precursors for the formation of heterometallic cluster compounds. A general synthetic route to the platinum carbonyl phosphine clusters has been developed and the exchange of bridging CO and S02 ligands in this type of cluster was investigated. The synthesis of a new type of anionic 44 electron triplatinum cluster, [Pt3(μ-S02)2(μ-X)(PR3)3]¯ described.
The syntheses of heterometallic clusters from the trianguloplatinum cluster compounds are reported in Chapter 3. The use of [AuPR3] as a capping fragment generates clusters with a tetrahedral Pt3Au framework. The synthesis and characterisation of two novel "sandwich" compounds are reported in which a gold or copper atom is coordinated between two parallel triplatinum units. A full single crystal X-ray crystallographic study has been carried out on each of these compounds and their geometric parameters contrasted.
Chapter 4 describes the reactions of the platinum-sulphide complex [Pt2(μ-S)(CO)(PPh3)3]. This compound is found to be chemically robust. The pt-Pt bond has so far proved resistant to insertion reactions and only the ligands trans to the sulphur atom are readily exchanged. The bridging sulphido- group appears to have an extensive coordination chemistry which has lead to the synthesis of some heterometallic complexes. This property does not, as yet, provide a route into cluster formation but instead produces complexes which are aggregates of metal atoms.
The application of 31P and 195Pt NMR studies to the characterisation of platinum cluster compounds is discussed in Chapter 5. The solution NMR spectra of compounds synthesised in the course of this research are described and analysed in detail. A large amount of NMR data for homometallic triplatinum clusters has been gathered and it has been possible to characterise a number of such compounds having relatively low symmetry. The heterometallic complexes described in Chapters 3 and 4 have also been characterised using NMR spectroscopy by considering the extra MPR3 fragments as perturbations on the spectra of the compounds from which they were derived. Analysis of the complex spectra obtained for such compounds was greatly assisted by the use of computer simulation techniques.

Advisor: Mingos, D
Mechanisms of reactions at solid-liquid interfaces

The work described in this thesis applies the channel flow cell methodology to the study of the mechanism of the hydrolytic dissolution of triphenylmethyl chloride (TPMC1), the kinetics of dimerisation of the methyl viologen radical cation (MV+) and the reactive dyeing processes. New detection techniques based on AC impedance spectroscopy and ultravioletvisible spectroscopy have been developed in order to facilitate investigation of these processes.
The hydrolytic dissolution of TPMC1 in aqueous solution was shown to proceed via a direct heterogeneous process, whereby the reaction occurs at the solid-liquid interface rather than in solution after the prior dissolution of TPMC1. Potentiometric and AC impedance detection techniques were implemented to interrogate the dissolution of the particulate TPMC1 samples under a wide range of salt concentrations. Kinetic parameters, including the effect of ionic strength, were derived. Moreover, the potentiometric technique was employed to examine the hydrolytic processes occurring at specific TPMC1 crystal planes which had been indexed unambiguously using a genetic algorithm-based program. It was demonstrated that the rate of the interfacial reaction is dependent upon the availability of exposed chlorine atoms in the reacting crystal plane. In situ atomic force microscope (AFM) studies indicated that the TPMC1 surface, once in contact with water, is covered rapidly by a product layer which, however, has negligible effect on the reaction rate because of its high porosity.
The development of a channel flow cell specifically for ultraviolet-visible spectroelectrochemical experiments is also described. The performance of this cell was characterised using the one-electron oxidation of N,N,N','N-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine in aqueous electrolytes. Excellent agreement between the evolved theory and the experimental results was noted. This method was then utilised to study the dimerisation rate of electrochemically generated MV+ and the rate constant is quantified for the first time. The aforementioned spectroelectrochemical channel cell was then adopted to scrutinise the reactive dyeing kinetics on a cotton fabric. Kinetic results showed that the dye adsorption to the fabric is controlled by a solid-liquid interfacial reaction which is first order with respect to the surface concentration of the dye. However, the rate of this process is governed by the availability of the reaction sites for adsorption of dye molecules onto the fabric surface. It was demonstrated that the presence of supporting electrolyte in high pH media, and mercerisation pretreatment of the fabric, are essential to increase the dye uptake rate. Ex situ AFM studies suggested that mercerisation leads to a disordered fibre surface which may be responsible for the enhanced dye absorption rate.
Property and the power to say no

This thesis examines the relationship between property and freedom in both the continuous sense of the word and the status sense of the word. Status freedom concerns the distinction between a free person and an unfree person. Continuous freedom concerns the continuum of liberties that make a person more or less free, whether they affect her status as a free person or not. Part One defines a status freedom as effective control self-ownership - the effective power to have and to refuse active cooperation with other willing people. It argues why this concept of freedom is important, situates it among the recent theories of freedom, and examines the conditions necessary to secure it. It concludes that a free person requires at least some unconditional access to property and that basic income is one way to secure that access. Part Two considers what kind of property-rights regime provides the greatest freedom in the continuous sense. It argues that Lockean and right-libertarian property theories fail to establish that full liberal ownership rights are consistent with the greatest freedom for all. It concludes that a payment from property owners to the propertyless in the form of an unconditional basic income from is necessary to establish property rights consistently with maximal equal freedom. Part Three examines whether social duties can take precedence over the commitment to effective control self-ownership and basic income proposed in the first two sections.

Advisor: White, S
Technology, human capital and efficiency in manufacturing firms

Accounting for output per worker differences across countries has been an ongoing topic of research in economics. This thesis expands upon standard approaches by allowing for technological heterogeneity and exploiting firm and worker level data to determine the microeconomic sources of variation in both productivity and earnings.
An intercontinental comparison using production functions for the Ghanaian and South Korean manufacturing sectors in Chapter 2 finds, in contrast to the conclusions of much of the macroeconomic literature, that there is no difference in total factor productivity (TFP). The microeconomic sources of the difference in value added per worker lie within the technology of firms, which is defined as the way in which inputs are used. Two important dimensions of this difference are the larger role of material inputs and the much lower rate of return to schooling in Ghana.
In Chapter 3 a more general specification investigates intra-African variation in production, which is much smaller than the intercontinental difference. The pattern of cross-country heterogeneity is that, as GDP per capita rises, the relative input of materials falls, those of capital and labour rise and the returns to education increase. Differences in TFP are limited.
Possible sources of the low returns to schooling in Ghana are investigated in Chapter 4 using earnings and production functions. Conditional upon selection into occupations, the only group of workers for whom education appreciably increases earnings are those employed in skilled jobs with more than ten years of education. The evidence is consistent with a lack of technological sophistication being the source of these low returns.
Investment in new production processes by firms will increase the return to education and raise incomes and output. Reducing the share of intermediate inputs in production is key to the transition from low to high productivity activities. Technology is the critical element that can explain the performance of manufacturing firms across countries.

Keywords: human capital
technology
production function
manufacturing firms
Advisor: Teal, F
Transcription regulation of Nrp1 during endothelial cell differentiation

Various diseases, including cancer, stroke and heart attack, are associated with disruption of the vascular system. However, lack of a profound understanding of the transcription regulation during vascular development hinders the formation of effective molecular intervention strategies targeting angiogenesis. Here we describe an enhancer of Neuropilin1 (Nrp1) from the second intron of the gene that directs arterial and coronary endothelial cell-specific expression. Mice transgenic for either human or mouse sequences of the Nrp1in2 enhancers drove expression of the LacZ reporter gene specifically in the endothelial cells within the arterial compartment from early in development, while no expression was detected in veins. In addition, the hNrp1in2 enhancer directed expression to the endothelial cells in the developing coronary vasculature, with the initial expansion from around the sinus venosus at E11.5, and eventually contributed to the capillary, venous and arterial compartments of the coronary vessels but not the endocardium. This expression pattern is consistent with that reported in the Apelin-nlacZ line (Red-Horse et al., 2010), making the Nrp1 enhancer the first identified mammalian regulating enhancer of the coronary endothelial cell. Phylogenetic footprinting, and a tissue culture reporter assay suggested that this enhancer contains a 184bp minimal core region hNrp1in2peakA2 that recapitulates the expression profile of the full length enhancer. hNrp1in2peakA2 has conserved and in vitro validated recognition sites for Gata, Ets, and Fox. The validated Fox and Ets sites form a functional FOX:ETS motif, and the FOX:ETS motif is responsible for synergistic activation ofthe enhancer by FoxC2 and Etv2 in reporter assays. Mutation introduction to the functional Ets sites or compound ablation of the Gata and Fox site in hNrp1in2peakA2 result in total loss of vascular expression, in terms of both arterial and coronary expression. The Fox, Ets and Gata recognition sites may be sufficient to achieve arterial- and coronary- specific expression of the hNrp1in2peakA2.

Keywords: Nrp1
VEGF
coronary
artery
vascular
FoxC2
enhancer
endothelial cell
vein
transcription regulation
Etv2
Advisor: De Val, S
The role of IL-33 and ST2 in early pregnancy

Regulation of the growth and differentiation of trophoblast cells is critical for successful embryo implantation and placentation. Cytokines are key players in these processes, as well as modulating the maternal immune response to prevent rejection of the conceptus. This thesis focused on the investigation of the cytokine interleukin (IL) - 33 and its receptor, ST2. ST2 has two isoforms, a functional cell surface receptor (ST2L) and a soluble decoy receptor (sST2). Previous work in this laboratory had shown that the human placenta expresses both IL-33 and sST2 at term. The aim of this thesis was to investigate IL-33 and ST2 in early pregnancy, the time when trophoblast is at its most active, with a view to better understanding their role. IL-33 and ST2 mRNA and protein were examined in 14 first trimester placentas from 6-12 weeks of gestation. IL-33 was localized to cells in the villous stroma, whereas ST2 was present in the syncytiotrophoblast, villous cytotrophoblast and the invasive extravillous cytotrophoblast of the cell columns. Secretion of sST2, but not IL-33, by the placenta was found. Investigation of pre-implantation embryos showed the presence of ST2, but not IL-33 protein. Decidualized endometrium was investigated as a potential source of IL-33 and sST2 at the maternal-fetal interface and, although mRNA for both was present, no protein could be found. The key finding was that sST2, rather than ST2L, was the predominant isoform in the placenta. This led us to reconsider the hypothesis that IL-33/ST2 interactions in the placenta are important for successful pregnancy and raised the possibility that they may have independent roles. Using trophoblast cell lines as a model, it was shown that sST2 binds to trophoblast cells, significantly inhibits their proliferation and stimulates their invasion in vitro. This is the first report of this novel role for sST2 in pregnancy. Thus these studies have shown that sST2 may play an important role in implantation and placentation through controlling trophoblast invasion.

Keywords: IL-33
placenta
first trimester
ST2
Advisor: Sargent, I