VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The ecology of black guillemots Cepphus grylle in Shetland

Following a large kill of Black Guillemots in the Esso Bernicia oil spill in Shetland, this study was initiated to determine the population size and distribution of the species at different times of year and to investigate its ecology. The results will enable oil spill contingency plans to be made for this species and provide a base-line against which future work can be compared. This is the first major study of Black Guillemots in the UK.
There were large diurnal and seasonal fluctuations in colony attendance patterns which were investigated in relation to various factors. Reliable census techniques were devised and suitable stretches of coastline were established as monitoring units.
Black Guillemots rarely foraged in water more than 40-50 m deep, and seldom moved more than 3 km from the nest during the breeding season. The proximity of suitable breeding sites to shallow water feeding grounds accounted for the fairly regular breeding dispersion. On islands with mammalian predators only nest sites in inaccessible cliffs were used. In many areas breeding numbers were limited by nest site availability. The distribution at other times of year was more irregular. After breeding adults congregated in traditional moulting areas where they became flightless for 4-5 weeks. These flocks of up to c.600 adults constitute vulnerable "hot spots" at which the effect of oil pollution would be most severe. In winter there was some movement away from exposed coasts, resulting in concentrations in more sheltered, inshore waters.
A wide range of fish and invertebrates were eaten by adults, largely reflecting the diversity of inshore benthic communities. There appears to be a greater dependence on invertebrates during the winter months, when fish are scarcer. Chicks were fed almost exclusively on fish: their diet composition was determined primarily by local availability, although some adults specialised on particular species. When large gadoid fish became available in late summer adults were able to provide more energy per feed and consequently chicks were heavier at fledging.
Breeding parameters were quantified and analysed in relation to various factors. Breeding success and chick growth compared very favourably with results of studies elsewhere, indicating that conditions for breeding were good for Black Guillemots in Shetland. In a year of more favourable environmental conditions a greater proportion of inexperienced birds were able to reach the condition threshold for breeding. These birds tended to lay single-egg clutches, in sub-optimal sites at which egg predation was heavy and breeding success low. Some pairs of Arctic Skuas benefit ed considerably from kleptoparasitism of chick feeds at larger colonies, but Black Guillemot breeding success was not affected and chick growth was only depressed at high rates of piracy.
Overall, conditions in Shetland are favourable throughout the year for this seabird, whose ecology is moulded to the exploitation of an inshore feeding niche.

Advisor: Perrins, C
Harris, M
Drs. Chris Perrins and Mike Harris
Luke's account of Peter in his strategy of proclaiming a gospel for all people

In his two-volume account of Christian beginnings Luke fills out for already instructed Theophilus Mark’s account of Jesus, and extends it to tell of the bringing of ‘good news’ for all people, offering a tested alternative to the pagan world-view, worthy to be adopted by citizens of the Roman empire. Primarily employing ‘redaction-critical’ methods and seeking narrative patterns with variations within the whole text, we analyse the roles of Peter in the first half of Acts and the influences upon Luke in their making. They portray the pattern of apostolic witness in message, deed and life, and anticipate the extending of the mission to Gentiles, which is taken up in a heroic way by Paul in the second half of Acts. Then analysing Luke’s reshaping of the account of Peter before Easter in his first volume, we show it is done with an eye to how it will be completed in Acts, how Peter will repent from denying Jesus to strengthen his brother apostles and urge repentance on his fellow-Jews. Luke’s captivating narrative is persuasive for its implied reader in the context of the post-apostolic age, that the apostolic kerygma proclaims the divine gift of salvation expected by Israel’s prophets, despite its rejection by much of Judaism. The missions of Paul are to be received as being in harmony with Peter’s. A foundation has been established which will outface Christian rivalries and strengthen believers under persecution. The influence of Luke’s account on other early Christian writers is tested where evidence is available. Luke’s success is that his account became, almost without rival, the canonical New Testament account of Christian beginnings.

Keywords: the Apostle Peter
Luke-Acts
Advisor: Tuckett, CM
Problems of the documentary novel

The thesis examines Bolivian fiction written about the war with Paraguay (1932-35), known as the Chaco War. The study takes two different perspectives: the first considers the fiction as works of literature, and studies three major aspects of fictional writing: narrative organization, characterization arid figurative language, in order to investigate the constraints imposed upon writers who produce fiction about an historical event, (in this instance a military conflict). The second perspective views the works of fiction as historical documents and assesses their informative value by comparing factual information supplied in the novels with that provided in historiographical accounts and also by examining the kind of information which is the peculiar contribution of fiction to the understanding of an historical event.
These two examinations are undertaken in Chapters V and VI respectively, and constitute the main body of the thesis. In order to place them in a wider context, the thesis considers previous critical studies of Chaco War fiction (in the Introduction). There follows a study of the relationship between the writing of contemporary history and documentary fiction (Chapter I), a brief summary of the Chaco War (Chapter II), an examination of some possible influences and precedents (Chapter III) and a survey of the writers and the works of Bolivian fiction of the Chaco War (Chapter IV). The conclusion suggests that the problems encountered by writers of documentary fiction are those faced by any naturalist writer, compounded here by the nature of the subject matter. If they cannot fully succeed on an artistic level, however, these works do provide a view of the historical facts of the war which is reasonably accurate. In addition they lead to a distinctive understanding of the war as an historical experience which no historiographical work can produce.
The dark side of Vesuvius: landscape change and the Roman economy

This study investigates the territories of Neapolis and Nola in order to understand what role they played in the economy of their cities and in Campania. It further explores the difficult relationship between mankind and the fragile landscape of Vesuvius, how eruptions changed settlement patterns, exploitation strategies, and how people dealt with other smaller natural disasters that frequently occurred in that area.
The thesis is organised in nine chapters, each describing a separate layer of the landscape. The introduction analyses the reasons for the apparent lack of data for the northern slopes of the volcano and further discusses the theoretical issues pertaining to the economy of the countryside. The history chapter lists the major facts of the histoire événementielle and their connection with the landscape’s longterm history. The third chapter studies the features of the static landscape and the exploitation of bedrock resources. Vesuvius is the subject of the fourth chapter, in which are discussed its shape and the eruptions' effects on the static landscape. Chapter five discusses the river Sebethus and how the intermingled action humans and nature created the marshes. Agriculture and animal breeding are analysed in chapter six, settlement patterns in chapter seven, trade in chapter eight.
Through archival research and field survey it has been possible to plot 820 sites from ancient southern Campania, 263 of which from the territories of Neapolis and Nola. This evidence has been matched with environmental and archaeological datasets to provide estimates on agricultural produce and population, thus defining surplus and dependance for certain products.
The results reveal a high compartmentalisation and degree of dependence of each micro-regional area on the others, for which one can deduce a high specialisation of each economic agent but not necessarily a high productivity for each of its units.

Keywords: Roman Economy
Archaeology
Landscape Archaeology
Pompeii
Campania
Vesuvius
Advisor: Wilson, A
Towards reconsideration of the intersection of the charter right to freedom of expression and copyright in Canada

This thesis explores the intersection of freedom of expression (as protected in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter)) and copyright in Canada. In this thesis, I argue that both lower Canadian courts and the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) should reconsider their approaches to this intersection. Lower Canadian courts have consistently rejected arguments that provisions of Canada's Copyright Act unjustifiably infringe the Charter right to freedom of expression. The SCC, on the other hand, has consistently interpreted provisions of the Copyright Act in such a manner as to result in expanded protection for the expression interests of non-copyright owning parties. It has done so not by relying explicitly on the Charter right to freedom of expression, but through a process of statutory interpretation.
I argue that both approaches merit reconsideration. Specifically, I argue that the approaches adopted by lower Canadian courts to the intersection of the Charter right to freedom of expression and copyright are based on now-invalidated approaches to both copyright and to freedom of expression, and are thus themselves invalid; that to the extent to which the SCC's approach to this intersection assumes that the Charter right to freedom of expression can be protected, in the context of copyright, through statutory interpretation alone, that it fails to adequately protect the Charter right to freedom of expression; that other leading national courts from which the SCC has previously sought assistance have explicitly engaged with this intersection, and that the SCC should follow suit; and that the SCC's own copyright and freedom of expression jurisprudence suggests that provisions of the Copyright Act may unjustifiably infringe the Charter right to freedom of expression. These four arguments, taken together, suggest that the time is ripe for reconsideration of this intersection.

Keywords: Copyright
Freedom of Expression
Canada
Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Advisor: Pila, J
Evaluation of relational algebra queries on probabilistic databases: tractability and approximation

Query processing is a core task in probabilistic databases: Given a query and a database that encodes uncertainty in data by means of probability distributions, the problem is to compute possible query answers together with their respective probabilities of being correct. This thesis advances the state of the art in two aspects of query processing in probabilistic databases: complexity analysis and query evaluation techniques. A dichotomy is established for non-repeating, con- junctive relational algebra queries with negation that separates #P-hard queries from those with PTIME data complexity. A framework for computing proba- bilities of relational algebra queries is presented; the probability computation algorithm is based on decomposition methods and provides exact answers in the case of exhaustive decompositions, or anytime approximate answers with absolute or relative error guarantees in the case of partial decompositions. The framework is extended to queries with aggregation operators. An experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithms’ implementations within the SPROUT query engine complements the theoretical results. The SPROUT2 system uses this query engine to compute answers to queries on uncertain, tabular Web data.

Keywords: database
uncertain database
computational complexity
Probabilistic database
database system
Advisor: Olteanu, D
Social assistance outcomes in Southern Europe: an actor-centred approach

This study analyses the evolution of social assistance in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, and closely examines the four countries’ different experiences with Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) schemes. A process-tracing methodology uses data from secondary sources, archival material, and 46 interviews to construct an actor-centred model and pursue a multiple-causality, historical approach. Outcomes are shown to result from interactions among central governments, religious organizations, secular organizations and territorial actors; and also from destabilizing forces. It is assumed that social assistance beneficiaries are forced to rely on these actors, whose attitudes are found to vary significantly due to their different interests, subjective perceptions of fairness, and preferences.
Case histories of the four countries show that the periods prior to the 1970s were marked by minimal central government interest; indifferent, hostile, and/or divided secular organizations; and governmental partnerships with religious organizations. In the post-1970s periods, destabilizing forces co-occurring with centre-left governments resulted in new policies and changes, with relevant actors/organizations gradually welcoming pluralistic social assistance systems.
The existence and extent of GMI schemes has been the principal factor differentiating social assistance developments among the four countries in more recent decades: Portugal is the only country with a national GMI, Italy and Spain have solely regional schemes, and Greece has no GMI at all. Because GMIs cut across traditional social assistance categories and are often linked with overall welfare system restructuring, establishment of GMIs and their subsequent maintenance require the co-occurrence of destabilizing forces and strong pro-GMI coalitions.
Portugal exhibits the highest level of pro-GMI consensus nationwide, Greece the lowest,while Italy and Spain occupy intermediate positions. The institutional empowerment of territorial actors in the latter two countries was a precondition to emergence of local schemes, while destabilizing forces and strong local pro-GMI coalitions greatly increased the odds for establishing and maintaining them.

Keywords: southern Europe
Advisor: Bermeo, N
Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Anton Kippenberg of the Insel-Verlag: a case study of author-publisher relations

Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian poet, dramatist, and essayist (1874-1929), published with the Insel-Verlag from its inception in 1901 until his death. This work examines Hofmannsthal's relationship with his publisher Anton Kippenberg (1874-1950). The author was drawn to the Insel-Verlag initially through his association with its founders, Alfred Walter Heymel and Rudolf Alexander Schröder, who published the short-lived periodical Die Insel. Known for its emphasis on aesthetics, the magazine set a tone that became characteristic for the firm. As a poet, Hofmannsthal found the climate beneficial and the audience of the Insel-Verlag receptive to his early lyrical works and certain other writings outside the mainstream of his later production. Under Anton Kippenberg's direction, these works were assured careful attention to detail; typeface, binding, illustrations, and all aspects of the physical book were designed to harmonize with its contents, enabling Hofmannsthal to present his writings in a format which did his creations honor. Hofmannsthal published four categories of material with the Insel-Verlag: his early lyrical works; republications issued as deluxe editions; reprints of selected texts in the inexpensive but elegantly designed Insel-Bücherei, and other Insel publications such as the Insel-Almanach or Inselschiff; and introductions and essays composed in his role as editor of compilations appearing under the Insel imprint. Hofmannsthal showed a great awareness of the Insel's particular Verlagsprofil in his selection of texts issued under its signet. Anton Kippenberg brought financial stability, business-like organization, and sound aesthetic judgement to the Insel-Verlag, creating an atmosphere in which Hofmannsthal's works could thrive. Early in his association with the Insel-Verlag, Kippenberg advanced a program which echoed many of Hofmannsthal's concerns and thus further solidified their relationship. Kippenberg proposed to give a book the design and format appropriate to its contents, to serve world literature, to expand the market for these titles without sacrificing quality to economics, and to support a select group of contemporary authors. Hofmannsthal's association with publisher Anton Kippenberg was a complex and often stormy one. United through shared goals, the two men worked to achieve a relationship mutually beneficial to each, one in which both the reputation of the individual and that of the firm were enhanced by their cooperation.

Keywords: Anton Kippenberg
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Insel-Verlag
Advisor: McClain, W
Essays in climate policy and exhaustible resource economics

Owners of exhaustible resources will respond to climate policies, and these policies have to take such responses into account. This thesis considers three separate instances in which market power and exhaustible resources interact with climate policy.
Chapter 2 considers research and development (R&D;) into green substitutes to oil as a climate policy instrument. Oil exporters will respond to such R&D; efforts in ways which reduce the effectiveness of the policy. Making substitute technologies competitive against current oil prices is not sufficient. R&D; efforts will only force higher oil supplies, aggravating short-term pollution. Eventually, the oil age will end as the substitutes become competitive against the marginal cost of producing oil. This motive encourages an R&D; push to leave more oil underground. Strategic gaming between the importers and exporters may reduce both oil supply and R&D; efforts.
Chapter 3 considers fixed costs into opening a deposit of an exhaustible resource. Counterintuitively, a monopolist may invest too early, into too much capacity. I then apply this model to an unconventional exhaustible resource: empty space underground, in which to store captured carbon emissions. I focus on the case of storing European emissions under the North Sea. Monopolistic storage is only a concern if storage space is sufficiently abundant. In this case, the monopolist will not invest enough, to cut back the cumulative storage capacity. Duopolistic storage may involve tacit collusion.
Chapter 4 considers an unconventional climate policy instrument: capital income taxes imposed on oil exporters. Such taxes can motivate conservation of polluting resources and allow oil importers to appropriate some oil wealth. These benefits come at the cost of inducing productive distortions, which diminish overall economic output.

Keywords: exhaustible resource
climate policy
Advisor: van der Ploeg, F
Cameron, H
Coarse-grained modelling of DNA and DNA self-assembly

In this thesis I present a novel coarse-grained model of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The model represents single-stranded DNA as a chain of rigid nucleotides, and includes potentials to represent chain connectivity, excluded volume, hydrogen-bonding and base stacking interactions. The parameterization of these interactions is justified by comparing the model's representation of a range of physical phenomena to experimental data. In particular, the geometrical structure and elastic moduli of duplex DNA, and the flexibility of single-stranded DNA, are shown to be physically reasonable. Additionally, the thermodynamics of single-stranded stacking, duplex hybridization, hairpin formation and more complex motifs are shown to agree well with experimental data.
The model is optimized for capturing the thermodynamic and mechanical changes associated with duplex formation from single strands. Considerable attention is therefore given to ensuring that single-stranded DNA behaves physically, an approach which differs from previous attempts to model DNA. As a result, the model is the first in which an explicit stacking transition is present in single strands, and also the only coarse-grained model to date to capture both hairpin formation within a single strand and duplex formation between strands.
The scope of the model is demonstrated by simulating DNA tweezers, an iconic nanodevice -- the first time that coarse-grained modelling has been applied to dynamic DNA nanotechnology. The simulations suggest that branch migration during toehold-mediated strand displacement -- a central feature of many nanomachines -- does not have a flat free-energy profile, as is generally assumed. This finding may help to explain the observed dependence of displacement rate on toehold length.
Finally, the operation of a two-footed DNA walker on a single-stranded DNA track is considered. The model suggests that several aspects of the walker will reduce its efficiency, including a tendency to bind to an undesired site on the track. Several design modifications are suggested to improve the operation of the walker.

Keywords: nanotechnology
simulation
DNA
Advisor: Louis, A
Literary citizenship and the politics of language: the Galician literary field between 1939 and 1965

My thesis, Literary Citizenship and the Politics of Language: The Galician Literary Field between 1939 and 1965, is the first attempt to examine the building process of Galician national literature by focusing on one of its constitutive elements, the linguistic criterion. Drawing on Mario Santana's concept of literary citizenship, which can be defined as membership of a literary community, it pays attention to the development of the idea that Galician literary citizenship is language specific, in other words, that to be a member of the national literature, writers have to write in Galician. It does so by focusing on one of the most neglected periods in Galician and Spanish Studies (1939–1965).
Chapter one, 'Going Public: The Adventure of Galician Publishing, 1939–1965', presents the first ever account of the publishing world in the studied period. Chapter two, 'From Region to Nation: Galician Literary Studies', argues that the main battleground in the definition of Galician literary citizenship was the field of Galician literary studies, where the concept of literary citizenship was naturalised and then institutionalised. Chapter three, 'Negotiating Identities', explores writers' language choices, paying special attention to those who wished to earn a language-specific Galician literary citizenship. Apart from native and exophonic writers, the chapter addresses writers who did so through translation. Chapter four, 'No Man's Land: Female Writing and Language', argues that female writers had a double-edged experience in the literary field. The patriarchal literary institutions were interested in their symbolic capital but they exercised firm control over them. The conclusion, 'A New raison d'être for Galician Literary Studies', summarises the main argument put forward by this thesis, that to understand fully the development of Galician literary citizenship, literature must be studied outside the national framework.

Keywords: Galician literature
Galician language
bilingualism
translation
literary history
Advisor: Rutherford, J
Hooper, K