VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Vital heat, conception and development in Aristotle

In this account of the pan that heat plays in the conception and development of living substances according to Aristotle, I begin by examining the concept of heat. I discover that Aristotle uses a distinction between to thermon and thermotes: the former is, in living substances, material; the latter is never material, being the powerful aspect of heat. For example, an animal possesses heat (to thermon) which maintains it through its power (thermotes) to concoct.
I then turn to the biological works. Conception, it seems, does not fit the standard account of change, but is rather a concoction, performed by the heat of the semen. Nor is the usual account of conception ascribed to Aristotle adequate: I attempt to demonstrate that he held a more moderate account in which pneuma, the nature of which is to thermon, is transmitted to the embryo.
I then examine the development of the embryo, which is performed using to thermon as a tool. The transmission and development of the rational psuche in particular has often caused problems: I offer an account of the transmission of psuche from parent to embryo, and describe the part that pneuma plays in this transmission and in the development and operation of the various levels of psuche. Development extends from foetal development until adulthood, and this poses another problem for the standard account of change as it appears to be neither substantial nor accidental change, yet these are apparently exhaustive possibilities. I conclude that development, like conception, is a concoction performed by the vital heat.
Finally, I turn to the conception and development of spontaneously generated animals, and of abnormal animals such as monsters. I demonstrate the relationship between these generations and sexual generation, and the significance of heat and pneuma.
Amperometric gas sensing

Amperometric gas sensors are widely used for environmental and industrial monitoring. They are sensitive and cheap but suffer from some significant limitations. The aim of the work undertaken in this thesis is the development of ‘intelligent’ gas sensors to overcome some of these limitations. Overall the thesis shows the value of ionic liquids as potential solvents for gas sensors, overcoming issues of solvent volatility and providing a wide potential range for electrochemical measurements. Methods have been developed for sensitive amperometry, the tuning of potentials and especially proof-of-concept (patents Publication numbers: WO2013140140 A3 and WO2014020347 A1) in respect of the intelligent self-monitoring of temperature and humidity by RTIL based sensors. Designs for practical electrodes are also proposed. The specific content is as follows.
Chapter 1 outlines the fundamental principles of electrochemistry which are of importance for the reading of this thesis. Chapter 2 reviews the history and modern amperometric gas sensors. Limitations of present electrochemical approaches are critically established. Micro-electrodes and Room Temperature Ionic Liquids (RTILs) are also introduced in this chapter.
Chapter 4 is focused on the study of analysing chronoamperometry using the Shoup and Szabo equation to simultaneously determine the values of concentration and diffusion coefficient of dissolved analytes in both non-aqueous and RTIL media. A method to optimise the chronoamperometric conditions is demonstrated. This provides an essential experimental basis for IL based gas sensor.
Chapter 5 demonstrates how the oxidation potential of ferrocene can be tuned by changing the anionic component of room temperature ionic liquids. This ability to tune redox potentials has genetic value in gas sensing.
Chapters 6 and 7 describe two novel patented approaches to monitor the local environment for amperometric gas detection. In Chapter 6, an in-situ voltammetric ‘thermometer’ is incorporated into an amperometric oxygen sensing system. The local temperature is measured by the formal potential difference of two redox couples. A simultaneous temperature and humidity sensor is reported in Chapter 7. This sensor shows advantageous features where the temperature sensor is humidity independent and vice versa.
The Shoup and Szabo analysis (Chapter 4) requires ‘simple’ electron transfer and as such the reduction of oxygen in wet RTILs can be complicated by dissolved water.
Chapter 8 proposes a method to stop oxygen reduction at the one electron transfer stage under humid conditions by using phosphonium based RTILs to ‘trap’ the intermediate superoxide ions.
Chapters 9 and 10 report the fabrication of low cost disposable electrodes of various geometries and of different materials. The suitability of these electrode for use as working electrodes for electrochemical experiments in aqueous, non-aqueous and RTIL media is demonstrated. Their capability to be used as working probes for amperometric gas sensing systems is discussed.

Keywords: gas
ionic liquids
electrochemistry
amperometric sensing
sensors
detection
oxygen
Advisor: Compton, R
Climate processes over the Himalaya – the added value from high resolution regional climate modelling

The Himalaya plays a vital role in shaping the hydro-climate of South Asia and beyond, but their climate has not yet been monitored and modelled as well as some other regions. As the summer monsoon is the dominant climate system over South Asia, including the Himalaya, realistic simulation of the South Asian summer monsoon (SASM) should be a prerequisite for the satisfactory simulation of the Himalayan climate. The present research tests the assumption that higher resolution modelling will provide improved representation of the SASM, both regionally and over the Himalaya region. The first part of this research assesses the strength and stability of the temporal relationships between the monsoon rainfall indices (MRIs) and the large-scale monsoon circulation indices (MCIs), as a precursor to using such indices for model evaluation. The remainder of the thesis evaluates model performance in simulating various characteristics of SASM, mainly with regard to precipitation. In particular, the sensitivity of a regional climate model (RCM) simulation to domain size and added value of high resolution RCM simulation are evaluated. For this purpose, the Hadley Centre unified model - HadGEM is utilized in its regional and, in few instances, global configurations. The RCM simulations are performed at 0.44° and 0.11° horizontal resolutions and they are forced by the ERA interim dataset. Results show that i) the MRI-MCI relationship exhibits considerable low-frequency variability, ii) RCM simulation of SASM, particularly precipitation, shows sensitivity to domain size and simulation with a moderately sized domain that partially excludes bias prone equatorial Indian ocean outperform those with larger domains, iii) high resolution RCM simulation adds value in many aspects of SASM precipitation, including the seasonal mean, relative frequency distribution, extremes, and active and break monsoon composites, but the improvements are generally seen over the Indo-Gangetic plain rather than the Himalaya. The findings promote use of a high resolution RCM over a moderate sized domain (˜ 25,000,000 sq. km) for the realistic simulation of SASM, but the study needs to be repeated with multiple realizations and different RCMs before arriving at a robust conclusion.

Keywords: Indian monsoon
South Asia
regional climate model
added value
Nepal
Himalaya
Advisor: New, M
Jones, R
On the determination and macroeconomic consequences of public financial policy

This study develops a theoretical framework for the analysis of regular patterns in public financial behaviour, and applies that framework in an empirical assessment of budgetary policies in the United States and in the Netherlands.
Its purpose and scope are threefold. First, it sheds theoretical light on economic considerations guiding public financial behaviour in a dynamic model of optimal taxation. The resulting idea, that it may be sensible to smooth taxation over time,is subsequently extended to a more general model of the public finances, which involves spending, taxation, debt and money creation in an effort to control the government budget.
Second, using modern econometric methods the practical relevance of this model is illustrated with estimations for the United States and the Netherlands.
Third, the model is sufficiently flexible to allow for a number of more institutional insights. In this respect the emphasis is placed on the Dutch economy and public finances.
The thesis thus engages economic theory, econometric technique and institutional and macroeconomic background in a combined effort to understand and evaluate regular patterns in public financial behaviour. Its findings have implications for each of these three areas of economic interest.
Essays on information disclosure in auctions and monopoly pricing

The existing literature on information disclosure commonly assumes full commitment to truthful disclosure and therefore revelations are always credible, which can be quite unrealistic in many circumstances. This thesis mainly contributes to the literature by studying information disclosure in the form of cheap-talk in auctions and monopoly pricing, which allows for mis-reporting and false disclosure.
The thesis is composed mainly of three research papers. The first paper (Chapter 2), also the major chapter of this thesis, investigates cheap-talk information disclosure in auctions, where bidders' preferences are horizontally differentiated. The seller may reveal information of product attributes before the auction, and the disclosure policy is characterized by a partition of the attribute space. In a symmetric setting, I first show that informative equilibria reveal the feature that more precise information is provided for less popular product attributes. Second, I prove an equilibrium existence theorem that an informative equilibrium can be supported by an information partition of any degree, as long as the number of bidders is sufficiently large. And finally, the optimal disclosure policy reveals a complementarity relationship between the number of bidders and the optimal degree of equilibrium partitions. In this chapter, optimal information structure is endogenously determined.
In the second paper (Chapter 3), I turn to study how a monopoly seller should reveal a product's horizontal attributes, when consumer preferences conform to a mixture distribution. I show that the optimal disclosure policy largely depends on the characteristics of the mixture distribution. Specifically, when consumer preferences are highly heterogenous, it is better for the seller to reveal information and serve different groups of consumers separately. And when the preference distribution becomes more asymmetric, cheap-talk disclosure is more likely to be dominated by no disclosure at all. In this chapter, information structure is taken as given.
The third paper (Chapter 4) studies optimal regulation of risk-averse producers, in a setting of complementary production with independent cost realization. The production can be organized in the form of either component, or integrated production. I show in this paper that the relative virtues of these two forms of production depend on the degree of risk aversion of the producers.

Keywords: auctions
cheap talk
monopoly pricing
information disclosure
Advisor: Jewitt, I
Declaring war no more: the use of international legal frameworks and the expansion of the presidential war power

The struggle between the President and the Congress over the power to control the use of military force is an enduring dimension of U.S. foreign policy. In the 20th century Arthur Schlesinger labeled the growth of Presidential war power the “Imperial Presidency.” While some scholars have attempted to explain the expansion of Presidential power based on the Cold War or nuclear weapons, there has been little work studying the link between America’s ascending role in international legal frameworks and this domestic legal transformation.
In this dissertation, I argue that America’s participation in international legal frameworks, such as the United Nations and NATO, has been a central factor in enabling the growth of Presidential war power. These international frameworks allow the President to circumvent Congress and to assert that the use of military force was something other than a ‘war’ that would need Congressional authorization. In case studies of pre-WWII aid to Great Britain, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, I demonstrate how the rise of executive war power relied on America’s growing participation in international legal frameworks.
The dissertation contributes to the nexus of International Relations and Constitutional scholarship. It offers a unique interpretation of Presidential war power while also offering new insights on the nature of the United States’ relationship with international legal frameworks. I argue that participation in international legal frameworks has been ‘democracy-undermining’ as the President utilizes those frameworks to circumvent the Constitution’s restrictions on Presidential war power.

Keywords: presidency
war powers
Korean War
Congress
Vietnam War
Gulf War
constitution
Advisor: King, D
Towards cavity quantum electrodynamics and coherent control with single InGaN/GaN quantum dots

Experimental investigations of the optical properties of InGaN/GaN quantum dots are presented. A pulsed laser is used to perform time-integrated and time-resolved microphotoluminescence, photoluminescence excitation, and polarisation-resolved spectroscopy of single InGaN quantum dots under a non-linear excitation regime.
The first micro-photoluminescence results from InGaN/GaN quantum dots grown on a non-polar crystal plane (11-20) are presented. Time-resolved studies reveal an order of magnitude increase in the oscillator strength of the exciton transition when compared to InGaN quantum dots grown on the polar (0001) plane, suggesting a significantly reduced internal electric field in non-polar InGaN quantum dots.
Polarisation resolved spectroscopy of non-polar InGaN quantum dots reveals 100% linearly polarised emission for many quantum dots. For quantum dot emissions with a polarisation degree less than unity, a fine structure splitting between two orthogonal polarisation axes can be resolved in an optical setup with a simple top-down excitation geometry.
A statistical investigation into the origins of spectral diffusion in polar InGaN quantum dots is presented, and spectral diffusion is attributed to charge carriers trapped at threading dislocations, and itinerant and trapped carriers in the underlying quantum well layer which forms during the growth procedure. Incorporating quantum dots into the intrinsic region of a p-i-n diode structure and applying a reverse bias is suggested as a method to reduce spectral diffusion.
Coherent control of the excited state exciton in a non-polar InGaN quantum dot is experimentally demonstrated by observation of Rabi rotation between the excited state exciton and the crystal ground state. The exciton ground state photoluminescence is used as an indirect measurement of the excited state population.

Keywords: quantum dots
InGaN
coherent control
Advisor: Taylor, R
Model-based analysis of mammograms

Metastasised breast cancer kills. There is no known cure, there are no known preventative measures, there are no drugs available with proven capacity to abate its effects. Early identification and excision of a malignancy prior to metastasis is the only method currently available for reducing the mortality due to breast disease.
Automated analysis of mammograms has been proposed as a tool to aid radiologists detect breast disease earlier and with greater efficiency and success. This thesis addresses some of the major difficulties associated with the automated analysis of mammograms, in particular the difficulties caused by the high-frequency, relatively insignificant curvi-linear structures (CLS) comprising the blood vessels, milk-ducts and fibrous tissues. Previous attempts at automation have been overlooked these structures and the resultant complexity of that oversight has been handled inappropriately.
We develop a model-based analysis of the CLS features, from the very anatomy of the breast, through mammography and digitisation to the image intensities. The model immediately dictates an algorithm for extracting a high-level feature description of the CLS features. This high-level feature description allows a systematic treatment of these image features prior to searching for instances of breast disease.
We demonstrate a procedure for implementing such prior treatment by 'removing' the CLS features from the images. Furthermore, we develop a model of the expected appearance of mammographic densities in the CLS-removed image, which leads directly to an algorithm for their identification. Unfortunately the model also extracts many regions of the image that are not significant mammographic densities, and this therefore requires a subsequent segmentation stage. Unlike previous attempts which apply neural networks to this task, and therefore incorporate inherent insignificance as a consequence of insufficient data availability describing the significant mammographic densities, we illustrate the application of a new statistical method (novelty analysis) for achieving a statistically significant segmentation of the mammographic densities from the plethora of candidates identified at the previous stage.
We demonstrate the ability of the CLS feature description to identify instances of radial-scar in mammograms, and note the suitability of the CLS and density descriptions for assessment of bilateral and temporal asymmetry. Some additional potential applications of these feature descriptions in arenas other than mammogram analysis are also noted.

Advisor: Brady, M
Repentance in Christian late antiquity, with special reference to Mark the Monk, Barsanuphius and John of Gaza, and John Climacus

From its beginnings, Christianity has been fundamentally conditioned by the idea of repentance. However, while the institutional practice of repentance in the early Christian world has received much scholarly attention, relatively little exists which deals with the development and applications of the wider concept (of which its institutional aspect is only a part). The purpose of this dissertation is to provide both a re-assessment and a re-framing of this foundational concept of repentance in Christian late antiquity, with special reference to formative Greek monastic sources from the fifth to seventh centuries. Following a discussion of scholarship, terms, and methodology in chapter one, the question of defining repentance in the Greek patristic world is addressed in chapter two, looking first at the major sources for later approaches (the Septuagint, the New Testament, and Classical/Hellenistic texts). A significant re-appraisal of the dominant scholarly narrative of repentance in the early church will be offered in the following chapter, making way for a close study of the chosen monastic authors: Mark the Monk, Barsanuphius and John of Gaza, and John Climacus in turn. A threefold framework whereby their respective approaches to repentance can be understood in their integrity and diversity will be suggested, involving 1) initial or 'cognisant' repentance, in which the sinner recognizes his or her fallen state and turns it heavenward; 2) 'existential' repentance, which involves the living out of repentance as a way of life, governing all the Christian's actions and intentions; 3) 'Christ-like' repentance, which serves as the summit and ultimate goal of the Christian's personal repentance, whereby the loving and sacrificial 'repentance' of Christ for others and the world at large is assimilated and worked out in the Christian's own life. It will be argued that this framework provides a new and significant hermeneutical lens through which not simply the early Christian concept of repentance in itself can be better understood, but also through which the development of early Christian self-identity and self-perception, particularly in an ascetic context, can be gauged.

Keywords: Barsanuphius and John of Gaza
asceticism
Mark the Monk
penance
repentance
Christian late antiquity
John Climacus
Advisor: Baun, J
Analysis of the centromeric region of the human Y chromosome

The centromere is an important region of the chromosome which ensures correct segregation at cell division. The DNA sequences which make up human centromeres are poorly understood. An analysis of the human Y chromosome centromere DNA has therefore been undertaken. The structures of 23 yeast artificial chromosomes (YAC) clones and 4 cosmid clones have been determined and these have contributed to a map of ~7Mb of DNA which span the centromere.
The centromeric region of the human Y chromosome contains a single major block of tandemly repeating alphoid DNA which is variable in size. The 5.7kb alphoid subunits are all orientated in one direction and become diverged at the edges of the array. Flanking the alphoid DNA are small blocks of other known tandemly repeated sequences, the 5bp, 48bp and 68bp satellites. These satellites are arranged in an asymmetric manner and are interspersed with a range of low to moderate copy number repeats. Only one putative single copy sequence has been detected. Nearby lie two regions of X-Y homology: a more proximal region which contains a gene (amelogenin) and a more distal region which has previously been shown to result from a recent X-Y transposition event.
These results show that the centromeric region of the human Y chromosome is a complex mosaic of tandem repeats and other repeats. Furthermore, they provide a detailed map of the region and thus provide a solid basis for functional studies of candidate centromere determining sequences.

Advisor: Tyler-Smith, C