VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Clayful Phenomenology and material engagement: explorations in contemporary cognitive archaeology

The thesis explores the phenomenology of creative cognition from the viewpoint of a contemporary ceramic workshop. Over five chapters, six clay sculptural projects track the development of a method I call ‘clayful phenomenology’. Informed by Material Engagement Theory (MET), the method takes sculptural development (normally understood to be the realization of an artist’s vision) and reformulates it so that a body of clay becomes a transient, diffuse, knowledge-producing assembly. The reformulation replaces subjective experience with a systemic, phenomenological proposal for extended sentience. Clayful Phenomenology turns material culture from an object of study into a method for investigating its own creative becoming. Videos, photos and written notes record the materialization and evolution of ideation as it is enacted in the gestural relationship between clay and hand, what Malafouris calls “creative thinging”. This account of sculpting by sculpting gives unique access to the three principles of MET and focuses on how: 1. thoughts, feelings and sensations establish themselves through gestural activity in the workshop rather than neural activity in the brain, thus extending the mind; 2. intention develops through the making and breaking of habitual practices imbuing material with agency; 3. signification, enacted and ideated through material change, enables each project to learn itself into existence. Clayful phenomenology gives reason to question the meaning of ‘cognitive’ in ‘cognitive archaeology’ by suggesting the discipline might move away from retrofitting cognitive science models to past human thinking and towards using the archaeological study of material culture to challenge neuro-centric conceptions of the mind. The first three chapters develop the method by elaborating five contemporary examples of creative thinging. The final two chapters introduce a form of experimental cognitive archaeology during which clayful phenomenology explores the enactive signification of a prehistoric artefact: a Jōmon flame pot. This diffractive analogical approach does not attempt to uncover past meanings but to make sense of the archaeological record by creating new experiences of its traces in the present. The thesis concludes with a review of extended sentience in relation to the ownership of feelings and letting go of affective intentions.

Keywords: extended consciousness
Material Engagement Theory
extended mind
clay
sculpture
Clayful Phenomenology
Advisor: Malafouris, L
The violinist in London's concert life, 1750-1784 : Felice Giardini and his contemporaries

According to Burney, Giardini began 'a memorable æra in the instrumental Music of this kingdom' with his first performance in London in 1750 [1751]. The period up to his departure in 1784 saw a proliferation of musical activities - winter subscription and benefit concerts (featuring the most modern music), oratorio performances, societies (some favouring ‘ancient’ music) and summer gardens concerts, besides productions at the Italian Opera and English playhouses. Private concerts abounded and music at court was far from negligible.
Many foreign violinists were attracted by British wealth. Still prominent were Italians, notably Giardini, but later in the period Germans rivalled them, especially Cramer and Salomon; and occasionally a Frenchman such as Barthelemon came to London. These four, together with the natives Pinto, Hay and Fisher, were London's principal resident violinists, , opposition occasionally being provided by visitors such as Pugnani and Lamotte. Though several were significant composers, London's violinists were primarily in demand as leader and soloist. The violin solo (with continuo) remained a virtuoso showpiece until 1773, after which it rapidly declined in face of the textural variety of concert chamber music. The violin concerto was able to survive stylistic changes and its popularity was not threatened by the sinfonia concertante, a genre often heard from 1775.
Accounts of some 80 violinists are included, and also a biography of Giardini, an outstanding violinist of the century, noted for his tone and graceful. style rather than for technical wizardry. He was involved in concert and opera management; he organised charitable performances (especially for the Lock Hospital); he was a noted leader and teacher, as well as a prolific composer; and he was acquainted with many members of aristocratic and artistic circles.
Appendices list London's concert and oratorio series during the period, Giardini's works, contemporary violinists and their violin music.

Keywords: music
violin music
England
London
18th century
Felice Giardini
concert life
eighteenth century
violinists
concerts
Advisor: Olleson, E
Generalized spatio-temporal model for the optimal sizing, operation, and location of energy system assets

Future energy systems will contain large amounts of distributed energy resources (DER). In DER-based energy systems asset related to energy demand, supply, transport, storage, conversion, and demand response will be deeply coupled. This thesis develops the Space-Time Energy Vector Flow Networks (STEVFNs; pronounced like the name “Steven”) unified asset model, framework, and tool for the optimal design of DER-based energy systems. This thesis is the first to develop a generalized spatiotemporal asset model that unifies energy demand, energy supply, energy transport, energy storage, energy conversion, and demand response assets. STEVFNs enables energy system design by co-optimizing the sizing, operation, and location of energy system assets. It utilizes modern advancements in convex programming and is the first to enable the optimization of energy system design with rapid scenario assessment. It is demonstrated using a case study of designing an energy system to satisfy Singapore’s hourly electricity and high temperature heating demand using intercontinental solar and wind farms, distributed batteries, HVDC lines, distributed ammonia storage, ammonia transport, and various conversion technologies. STEVFNs is available as an open-source tool on GitHub for the co-optimization, with rapid scenario assessment, of the sizing, operation, and location of energy system assets that can provide energy demand, supply, transport, storage, conversion, and demand response.

Keywords: optimization
systems engineering
system of systems
renewable energy
energy systems optimization
Advisor: McCulloch, M
An emerging labour market player: the evolving role of employment agencies in Japan and China


This thesis is a comparative study of labour market institutions and actors in Japan and China. It focuses particularly on an increasingly influential, yet little-studied labour market actor: for-profit employment agencies. Fieldwork conducted in both countries reveals the development and influence of employment agencies. By combining the views of historical institutionalism, actor-centred institutionalism, and compressed development, this thesis traces the co-evolution of employment policies, employment practices, and employment agencies. Key findings are the following:

(1) Overall, Japanese and Chinese employment agencies followed surprisingly a similar timing and pattern of evolution, although changes have been more drastic and uneven in China than in Japan.
(2) The motivation to promote flexible employment was more aligned among labour market actors in China than in Japan, which accelerated labour market change.
(3) Employment agencies have been most active in providing ‘non-regular’ workers in ‘external’ labour markets, but in the past decade, they have become involved in core corporate strategies (i.e. ‘internal’ labour markets), more significantly in China than in Japan.
(4) The growing policy influence of employment agencies is shown by their constant re-interpretation and evasion of regulations, which has prompted various reactive policy changes in both countries.

Comparison of such co-evolution and influence in the two countries will reveal historical, geopolitical, and socioeconomic contexts that contribute to the change and continuity of labour market institutions and actors, and identify factors that contribute to unequal labour market outcomes and precarious employment.

Keywords: China
Japan
institutionalism
employment agencies
labour markets
compressed development
Advisor: Whittaker, H
Dharmakīrti versus Akalaṅka on the nature, object, and structure of perception

This thesis reconstructs and analyses the philosophical debate between the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti (between mid-6th and mid-7th century CE) and the Jaina philosopher Akalaṅka (c. 8th century CE) regarding the nature, object, and structure of perception (pratyakṣa) qua source of knowledge (pramāṇa). Through a comparative study of Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika and Pramāṇaviniścaya alongside Akalaṅka’s Laghīyastraya and Nyāyaviniścaya, this thesis shows that there are three main points of contention between Dharmakīrti’s theory of perception and Akalaṅka’s theory of perception: (1) Is perception non-conceptual (Dharmakīrti) or conceptual (Akalaṅka) in nature? (2) Does perception apprehend forms (ākāra) internal to awareness (Dharmakīrti) or mind-independent external objects (Akalaṅka)? and (3) Is perception structured non-dualistically (Dharmakīrti) or dualistically (Akalaṅka)? While chapters 1 and 2 introduce Dharmakīrti’s theory of perception and Akalaṅka’s theory of perception respectively, each of the subsequent chapters (chapters 3, 4, 5) examines a particular point of contention by (a) explaining the philosophical issue at stake, (b) reconstructing and analysing the arguments advanced by both sides for their respective positions, and (c) reflecting on the significance of the debate. Through philologically accurate reading of the primary texts, philosophically charitable analysis of the individual arguments, and judicious engagement with classical commentaries, this thesis argues that the Buddhist and the Jaina theories of perception under discussion are philosophically interesting because both of them are characterised by a distinctive combination of philosophical commitments not found in the theories of perception defended by other classical Indian philosophical schools (darśana). While Dharmakīrti defends the unique triad of perceptual non-conceptualism, epistemic idealism, and non-dualism with a hitherto unseen philosophical rigour, Akalaṅka carves an equally novel path for himself through his defence of a thoroughgoing perceptual conceptualism and a defiant common-sense realism. By bringing to light this sophisticated Buddhist-Jaina philosophical debate, this thesis may contribute to the following areas of study: (1) The reception of Dharmakīrti’s philosophy by Jaina philosophers, (2) The philosophical polemics of marginalised Jaina philosophers such as Akalaṅka, and (3) The history of Indian philosophy understood as an integral part of the global history of philosophy.

Keywords: Akalaṅka
history of philosophy
Jainism
Jain philosophy
Dharmakīrti
perception
Buddhism
Buddhist philosophy
Indian philosophy
Advisor: Acharya, D
Alkaline-earth catalysts for biorenewable polymer synthesis

Plastics have become essential to 21st century human life; it is therefore unrealistic to reduce the usage of such single-life polymers enough to offset their hazardous environmental impacts. This has prompted research into the development of greener, non fossil-fuel based alternatives. Polylactide (PLA) is one such material; it is a biorenewable, biocompatible, aliphatic polyester that is most efficiently produced via the ring-opening polymerisation (ROP) of lactide (LA). The use of alkaline-earth metals, particularly the heavier congeners, in catalysts for this process has been understudied even though they offer advantages like high activity, low toxicity, low cost and lack of colour. The aims of this Thesis were therefore: (i) to prepare new alkaline-earth-based bimetallic, bis(phenoxy-imine) systems, (ii) to test their performance as initiators in LA ROP and (iii) to evaluate the benefits of bimetallic complexes/cooperativity for this type of polymerisation.
The Thesis begins by offering a brief introduction to lactide as a biorenewable monomer in ring-opening polymerisation. The general ROP mechanisms are presented alongside a discussion of polymer characterisation techniques. An overview of previously reported catalysts for the ring-opening polymerisation of lactide is also described.
A series of alkaline-earth complexes based on the “NOON” motif (H2DippL; 2,7-(HC=NDipp)-1,8-OH-C10H4) were synthesised and fully characterised. These compounds were applied towards the ROP of L-, D-, rac- and meso-LA; a variety of polymerisation conditions (temperature, monomer stereochemistry and initiator concentration) were studied to determine the kinetics, mechanism and overall rate equation of the polymerisation. It was found that all of the prepared initiators were active however, they either suffered from low activity (kobs = 0.0046–0.091 h–1 (Mg)) or poor polymerisation control (1.23
Related alkaline-earth “NON” (HR,DippL; 1-OH-2,6-(HC=NDipp)-4-R-C6H2 where R = H, Me, tBu) systems were then prepared and fully characterised in attempts to improve polymerisation control and activity. The homo vs. heteroleptic nature of these complexes was found to differ between metals as a result of varying steric shielding and bonding lability. In most cases, these monometallic species showed improved polymerisation activity (kp = 966 vs. 3.19 M–1 h–1 (Mg)) and control over their “NOON” counterparts. A variety of techniques were used to characterise the resultant polymers in order to deduce tacticity (Pr = 0.48-0.67), molecular weights and chain end groups.
The “NON” framework was then explored, via several synthetic routes, for the formation of cationic, bimetallic alkaline-earth complexes. The generation of protonated proligands which could then be utilised for the insertion of multiple metals (Zn/Ca) by protonolysis was found to be a promising protocol.

Keywords: lactide
bimetallic
phenoxy-imine
polymerisation
polylactide
alkaline-earth
catalysis
Advisor: O'Hare, D
The Yamabe problem on non-compact manifolds of negative curvature type

We study existence and uniqueness results for the Yamabe problem on non-compact manifolds of negative curvature type. Our first existence and uniqueness result concerns those such manifolds which are asymptotically locally hyperbolic. In this context, our result requires only a partial C2 decay of the metric, namely the full decay of the metric in C1 and the decay of the scalar curvature. In particular, no decay of the Ricci curvature is assumed. In our second result we establish that a local volume ratio condition, when combined with negativity of the scalar curvature at infinity, is sufficient for existence of a solution.

Keywords: Yamabe problem
Advisor: Nguyen, L
The topology and geometry of causality

Quantum theory is manifestly in tension with the classical notion of causality. How do we recover causal reasoning in the quantum regime? In this dissertation, we propose a framework where such causal idiosyncrasies are identified as obstructions to the existence of global sections for presheaves of causal data. We do so by extending the Abramsky- Brandenburger framework for non-locality and contextuality [6] to situations where measurement contexts are allowed to be signalling. This results in a theory-independent phenomenology of causality, which can be used to reason about causal structure in any theory exhibiting contextuality.
In the first part of this dissertation, we study the specific phenomenology of coherent control of quantum channels, giving rigorous operational meaning to the superposition of causal order. We pursue a bottom-up approach—alternative to the process matrix formalism—by investigating how indefiniteness of causality emerges from specific characteristics of operational theories. This provides the recipe for building processes with indefinite causality, which are then causally analysed using tools described in the second part of the thesis.
The second, more substantial part of this dissertation is devoted to building the sheaf- theoretic framework unifying non-locality, contextuality and indefinite causality. We provide a combinatorial description of the operational assumptions underlying definite and indefinite causal order, and characterise the emergent topologies of classical contexts. We explain how to associate causal data to such topologies and detail the relationship between the covers for a topological space and varying degrees of classicality. We develop a complementary geometric understanding of the space of empirical models for this presheaf, and show how it can be used to perform theory-independent causal analysis of empirical data. We conclude by providing novel examples of such causal analysis, showcasing the existence of the phenomenon of contextual causality. Importantly, our examples demonstrate that such phenomenon can be witnessed in quantum theory, as long as coherently control of causal order is allowed for quantum processes.

Keywords: causality
quantum theory
nonlocality
sheaf theory
Advisor: Gogioso, S
Between the caves and the sea: the Late Glacial occupation of the English East Midlands

This thesis investigates the degree of intensity of Late Glacial human occupation of open landscapes in the English East Midlands, including evidence for chronological and regional patterns in the timing of human re-occupation and presence during the Late Glacial Interstadial (GI-1e-a; c. 14,700 to 12,900 BP; Rasmussen et al. 2014:Table 1). The regional focus is on the open, low-lying landscapes situated between known Late Upper Palaeolithic cave sites in central England and the present-day North Sea coast. Emphasis is placed on the identification of preferential site location patterns in riverine and lacustrine environments, as investigated through two site datasets comprising data from legacy site archives, Historic Environment Records, and the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Further attention has been directed towards lithic typological and technological attribute analyses of three open-air site assemblages (Farndon Fields, Nottinghamshire, Seamer Carr K, North Yorkshire, and Risby Warren, North Lincolnshire).
This thesis presents evidence that the current understanding of Late Upper Palaeolithic uplands site distribution only affords a partial view of the intensity and degree of human presence during the Late Glacial Interstadial. Based on significant new discoveries of diagnostic surface finds, lithic scatters, and open-air locales of high archaeological potential this picture is gradually beginning to change. The findings of this thesis strongly indicate that the open, lowland landscapes in the extended East Midlands research area were occupied by Late Glacial human groups to a far greater degree of intensity than posited by existing estimates and interpretations. In documenting how low-lying riverine and lacustrine environments out in the open landscapes represented particularly attractive focal points for human occupation during the Late Glacial Interstadial, my observations and results clearly provide essential evidence to better contextualise the existing information concerning human occupation of upland areas and cave sites.

Keywords: Federmesser
Late Upper Palaeolithic
British Palaeolithic
Bølling
Creswellian
lithic analysis
British Archaeology
late glacial period
human re-occupation patterns
Late Glacial Interstadial
Early Mesolithic
River Trent
Allerød
Advisor: Barton, N
An examination of the nature and significance of the comprehensive ways of thinking exemplified by some recent contributions to American constitutional thought

American Constitutional scholarship is at present unsure of its aims and purposes; this unsureness makes a re-assessment of our ways of thinking about what the Constitution is and means appropriate. Three thinkers much respected in the Constitutional community, John Marshall Harlan III, Ronald Dworkin, and Robert Cover, provide examples of what the best or ideal way of thinking about American Constitutional politics might be. The differences among the comprehensive ways of thinking practiced by these three men are reflected in the forms of their reasoning, in their treatments of metaphorical and distinctive language, in their views of what interpretation is, in their responses to the problem of civic education, and, most generally, in their opinions of what good reasoning is and what the place of reason in the American regime is. Harlan's comprehensive way of thinking, a way which stresses the superiority of a form of reasoning guided by Constitutional purposes to two other forms of reasoning, "mechanical" interpretation and “unguided speculation," has a good claim to be the Constitutional way of thinking but nonetheless may perhaps be inappropriate to contemporary Constitutional politics and scholarship. The difficulty of deciding whether Harlan's or Dworkin's or Cover's way of thinking best comprehends the experience of the Warren Court may be partly responsible for the contemporary unrest in American Constitutional scholarship.

Keywords: Political science
representative government
Democracy
Political sociology
United States
United States Constitution
Politics
representation
American constitutional thought
Advisor: Finnis, J