VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The role of the state in the development of the mining industry in Morocco under the French Protectorate (1912-1956)

During the Protectorate period (1912-1956), the vast majority of Moroccan mines were privately owned. The investors were mainly French. This general picture is in agreement with the fact that Morocco was under the domination of France and consequently a privileged field for French investors.
However two major events do not fit into the above description. The first occurred in 1921 : the creation of the Office Chérifien des Phosphates, a public company which had the monopoly of the exploration and the exploitation of Moroccan phosphate. The second occurred in 1928 : the creation of the Bureau de Recherches et de Participations Minières, a public body which acquired one third of the only Moroccan coal mine, and obtained afterwards shares of several mines and directed oil exploration in Morocco.
In order to integrate these two events into the global development of the Moroccan mining industry it will be shown that these authoritarian measures on the part of the State were taken because it was necessary to find a way of bypassing the international constraints bearing on Morocco at the beginning of the Protectorate period.
European countries did not object to French domination over Morocco as long as French investments would not be favoured against those of other countries. Therefore the open-door regime was established in Morocco. In the twenties, the French Government and the Protectorate administration were increasingly worried by the growing influence of foreign investors and by the very slow rate of development of the Moroccan mining industry. Therefore, as French interests could not be favoured directly, because of the open-door regime, the only solution was to reinforce the power of the State.
From the thirties onwards, French investors were in a dominant position and no longer needed State intervention in order to protect them. Consequently, the role of the Bureau de Recherches et de Participations Minières was reduced to that of a public fund which only invested in those sectors which were not considered as profitable by private investors.
NLO QCD And two weak bosons at the LHC

We present original calculations of standard model processes involving two weak bosons at NLO in QCD, and study related phenomenology with reference to Higgs boson and new physics searches at the LHC. We employ a new theoretical technique, D-dimensional generalised unitarity, to obtain the multi-particle, one-loop scattering amplitudes for the processes pp → W+W- + 1j, pp → W+W- + 2j, pp → W+W+ + 2j, and gg → W+W-g. We consider the LHC phenomenology of: the W+W- + n jets background to Higgs searches, for n = 0,1,2; the effects of anomalous tri-linear gauge couplings in WW and WZ production; the background W+W+ + 2j to new physics searches involving like-sign leptons; and a method of spin determination of new states in a scenario where conventional methods fail.

Keywords: QCD
NLO
LHC
Advisor: Zanderighi, G
Studies on the genetic and environmental basis of endometreosis

There is now considerable evidence that endometriosis is likely to be a complex multifactorial trait, such as diabetes or asthma, in which a number of susceptibility loci interact with each other, and the environment, to produce the disease phenotype. This thesis presents studies on the genetic and environmental basis of endometriosis in both a non-human primate model and in women.
The study of the autopsy records of 399 female rhesus monkeys identified 81 (20%) with spontaneous endometriosis. Age, exposure to ≥ 3 oestradiol implants (relative risk 9.7, P < 0.001) or ≥ 1 hysterotomy (relative risk 5.8, P = 0.006) were significant risk factors as determined by conditional logistic regression. Living descendants of the affected animals had MRI scans which suggested that 8/113 (7%) had at least one endometriotic lesion >1 cm in diameter. Segregation analysis was conducted on the resulting 12 pedigrees, which contained 64 half sib-pairs, 2 full sibpairs and 11 mother-daughter pairs.
Human, affected sib-pairs and families were recruited for the OXEGENE study to conduct sib-pair analysis using microsatellite markers at 10cM resolution across the entire genome. MRI studies of the first-degree relatives of women with rAFS stage III-IV disease estimated that the relative risk (λR) may be as high as 14 (95% Cl 4.8 - 30.3). Candidate gene studies, comparing the frequency of the GALT N314D polymorphism, the CYP1A1 MspI polymorphism and the GSTM1 and T1 null mutations in two case groups, with either sporadic disease or a family history of endometriosis, and two control groups, did not show evidence of association. Linkage analysis using three microsatellite markers and 50 affected sib-pairs in the region to which GSTM1 maps (1p13) did not show evidence of linkage to this region. However, there was an apparent relationship between the presence of both the GSTM1 null mutation and the CYP1A1 MspI polymorphism and an increased risk of endometriosis. The initial findings of a sib-pair analysis, using 29 microsatellite markers across chromosome one in 128 affected sib-pairs, did not reveal evidence of linkage.
These findings provide some insight into the aetiology of endometriosis in women.
Greek Post-Symbolist poetics

This thesis explores the poetics of the Greek Post-Symbolists, a group of early twentieth-century poets whose main period of activity falls in the years between the Generation of the 1880s and that of the 1930s.
By focussing on Post-Symbolist concepts of the role of poetry and on the way in which Post-Symbolist poems are constructed, this thesis examines the poetic system of a group of poets who occupy a transitional period in the history of Modern Greek literature.
The Post-Symbolists question both the nationalism of poets of the Generation of the 1880s and their own place in society. Post-Symbolist poetry focuses on themes related to the interior landscape of the individual. It promotes negation and absence, de-emphasizes external reality, foregrounding a poetic reality created through the acoustic links between words, and it undermines the importance previously attached to metre and rhythm in poetry.
In this way Post-Symbolist poetic language constitutes a reaction against the dominant poetic discourse of the time, and a turning-point in twentieth-century Greek poetry.
This thesis explores both the internal structure of Post-Symbolist poetry and the relationship between Post-Symbolism on the one hand and the discourses of the Generation of the 1880s and of the Generation of the 1930s on the other, placing this in the historical, socio-political and ideological context of time.

Keywords: absence
symbolism
poetics
Advisor: Mackridge, P
Aspects of wave dynamics and statistics on the open ocean

Water waves are an important design consideration for engineers wishing to design structures in the offshore environment. Designers need to know the size and shape of the waves which any structure is likely to encounter. Engineers have developed approaches to predict these, based on a combination of field and laboratory measurements, as well theoretical analysis. However some aspects of this are still poorly understood; in particular there is growing evidence that there are rare "freak" waves which do not fit with our current understanding of wave physics or statistics. In the first part of this thesis a new approach is developed for measuring the directional spreading of a sea-state, when the free surface time-history at a single point is the only available information. We use the magnitude of the second order "bound" waves to infer this information. This is validated using fully non-linear simulations, for random waves in a wave-basin, and for field data recorded in the North Sea. We also apply this to the famous Draupner wave, which our analysis suggests was caused by two wave systems, propagating at approximate 120 degrees to each other. The second part of the thesis looks at the non-linear evolution of Gaussian wave-groups. Whilst much work has previously been done to investigate these numerically, we instead derive an approximate analytical model for describing the non-linear changes to the group, based on the conserved quantities of the non-linear Schrodinger equation. These are validated using a numerical model. There is excellent agreement for uni-directional waves. The analytical model is generally good for predicting change in shape of directionally spread groups, but less good for predicting peak elevation. Nevertheless, it is still useful for typical sea-state parameters. Finally we consider the effect of wind on the local modeling of extreme waves. We insert a negative damping term into the non-linear Schrodinger equation, and consider the evolution of "NewWave" type wave-groups. We find that energy input accentuates the non-linear dynamics of wave-group evolution which suggests it may be important in the formation of "freak" waves.

Keywords: ocean
Draupner
Schrodinger
NLS
freak wave
rogue wave
Advisor: Taylor, P
Who makes international law? How the World Health Organization changed the regulation of infectious disease

This thesis investigates the impact of international organizations on the making of international law by applying insights on how international organizations work—or fail to work—to the process of institutionalized treaty making. Specifically, I probe the relationship between the World Health Organization (“WHO”) and international infectious disease law, focusing in particular on the 2005 International Health Regulations (“2005 IHR”), which was negotiated, adopted, and is now being implemented under WHO’s auspices.
The 2005 IHR is the most recent development in international infectious disease law, the history of which extends back to the beginning of international health cooperation in the mid-nineteenth century, before any international health organization was formed. Relying on secondary sources, WHO documents, archival materials, and personal interviews, I chronologically trace the evolution of international infectious disease law across changing institutional settings. I first examine the incremental growth of the older “barrier” approach to infectious disease regulation, initially developed in the absence of any international health organization and then with the aid of one of WHO’s predecessor organizations. I then analyze the decline of the barrier approach and the rise of the new “epidemiological” approach embodied by the 2005 IHR, with the aid of WHO.
Based on my empirical analysis, I conclude that WHO has radically changed the process of making international infectious disease law as well as its content. On its own initiative and without member state demand, WHO’s permanent staff experimented with novel practices that subsequently became the basis for the 2005 IHR. WHO’s work reduced the length of formal negotiation needed to arrive at a new agreement and the uncertainty associated with adopting a novel regulatory system. Its influence also raises normative questions about the proper role of international organizations in making international law—questions that require further exploration.

Keywords: International Health Regulations
World Health Organization
Advisor: Woods, N
Taming the dragon: rural land takings law in modern China

This thesis examines the theories and practices surrounding the rural land takings law in modern China. It identifies and rejects the dominant Transition Paradigm in the existing literature which treats the contemporary crisis of rural land expropriation in China as a case of unfulfilled constitutional promise and dispenses prescriptions aimed at developing the Chinese expropriation law towards the supposedly more advanced models of takings law found in other countries, especially the USA. By unearthing the long overlooked historical lineage within which the rural land takings law evolves over the past century in China, including the almost forgotten original takings clause in the 1954 PRC Constitution and the foundational theories propounded by both the communist and nationalist parties, this thesis offers a much richer picture on how and why the Chinese expropriation law has become the way it is today. It shows that the widely recognized phenomenon of “land finance” is a symptom rather than cause of the problem, which lies in the deeply entrenched tradition of rural land takings for the party-state’s social transformative programmes, rendering the Chinese experience incomparable to that of any other countries. The current takings clause in the 1982 PRC Constitution and the present law in this area, despite the relevant reforms over the past decade, remain to faithfully reflect such a tradition characterized by the state’s plan-based top-down control over rural land and the presumption of state expropriation in non-agricultural use of rural land. Since these have been the paramount features of the Chinese land regime for over half a century and are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, most of the reform recommendations made in the existing scholarship are either irrelevant or unfeasible. However, this is not to say that no change is possible. A more modest yet more realistic reform proposal will be put forward.

Keywords: law
China
land expropriation
property
Advisor: Craig, P
Thornton, P
Quantitative measurement of pH in stroke using chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and adult disability worldwide. The major therapeutic intervention for acute ischemic stroke is the administration of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) to help to restore blood flow to the brain. This has been shown to increase the survival rate and to reduce the disability of ischemic stroke patients. However, rtPA is associated with intracranial haemorrhage and thus its administration is currently limited to only about 5% of ischemic stroke patients. More advanced imaging techniques can be used to better stratify patients for rtPA treatment.
One new imaging technique, chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) magnetic resonance imaging, can potentially image intracellular pH and since tissue acidification happens prior to cerebral infarction, CEST has the potential to predict ischemic injury and hence to improve patient selection. Despite this potential, most studies have generated pH-weighted rather than quantitative pH maps; the most widely used metric to quantify the CEST effect is only able to generate qualitative contrast measurements and suffers from many confounds. The greatest clinical benefit of CEST imaging lies in its ability to non-invasively measure quantitative pH values which may be useful to identify salvageable tissue.
The quantitative techniques and work presented in this thesis thus provide the necessary analysis to determine whether a threshold for the quantified CEST effect or for pH exists to help to define tissue outcome following stroke; to investigate the potential of CEST for clinical stroke imaging; and subsequently to facilitate clinical translation of CEST for acute stroke management.

Keywords: Amide Proton Transfer (APT)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST)
pH
Stroke
Advisor: Payne, S
Chappell, M
Diffusion Maps: Analysis and Applications

A lot of the data faced in science and engineering is not as complicated as it seems. There is the possibility of ¯nding low dimensional descriptions of this usually high dimensional data. One of the ways of achieving this is with the use of diffusion maps. Diffusion maps represent the dataset by a weighted graph in which points correspond to vertices and edges are weighted. The spectral properties of the graph Laplacian are then used to map the high dimensional data into a lower dimensional representation. The algorithm is introduced on simple test examples for which the low dimensional description is known. Justification of the algorithm is given by showing its equivalence to a suitable minimisation problem and to random walks on graphs. The description of random walks in terms of partial di®erential equations is discussed. The heat equation for a probability density function is derived and used to further analyse the algorithm. Applications of diffusion maps are presented at the end of this dissertation. The first application is clustering of data (i.e. partitioning of a data set into subsets so that the data points in each subset have similar characteristics). An approach based on di®usion maps (spectral clustering) is compared to the K-means clustering algorithm. We then discuss techniques for colour image quantization (reduction of distinct colours in an image). Finally, the diffusion maps are used to discover low dimensional description of high dimensional sets of images.
Social dynamics in natural populations of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Microbes rely on collective behaviours, such as communication and cooperation to survive and form communities. The majority of these social behaviours are mediated by the secretion of public good molecules into a shared environment such that they can be utilized by neighbouring cells. Therefore, individuals that engage in costly cooperative behaviour are susceptible to exploitation by selfish cheats that gain the benefit of cooperation without investing their share of the public good cost. Understanding such bacterial social interactions and the underlying molecular mechanisms gives insight into their complex social life in natural environments and can be used to develop alternative treatments for pathogenic bacteria that rely on such social interactions for virulence and to infect hosts. In this thesis I examine social behaviours expressed by the opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. I develop an understanding of bacterial social dynamics, particularly competitive dynamics between cooperator and cheat strains and strains that engage in bacteriocin-mediated chemical warfare. I investigate bacterial cheat-cooperator systems in several ways: 1) I begin with a review describing the evolution of and response to cheating across a range of organisms and discuss the confusion that arises in identifying cheats particularly in microbial studies and therefore propose a key to identify cheating behaviour. 2) I empirically test whether cheating behaviour is context dependent in bacterial populations and reveal that the ability to cheat varies with the abiotic and social environment, which are two fluctuating conditions in natural environments. 3) I take an experimental approach to investigate why cheat invasion is not commonly observed in natural bacterial populations by testing the effect of cooperative bacterial growth dynamics on cheating ability. I find that secretion of public goods varies with bacterial growth dynamics and physiological growth stages which may explain why cheat invasion is more commonly observed in lab cultures and not in established natural populations. 4) In the final chapter I experimentally use natural isolates to examine the role of bacteriocins in mediating competition in pathogenic populations and find that contrary to empirical and theoretical work, bacteriocins do not play a significant role in strain competitive success and dominance. The thesis has laid groundwork for studying and understanding the role of social behaviours in bacterial systems and for further exploring social dynamics in natural bacterial populations.

Keywords: social evolution
microbes
evolutionary biology
Advisor: Griffin, A
West, S
Two-dimensional colloidal systems: grain boundaries and confinement

The behaviour of colloidal particles in two-dimensional (2D) systems is addressed in real space and time using magnetic fields, optical tweezers and optical video microscopy. First, the fluctuations of a grain boundary in a 2D colloidal crystal are analysed. A real space analogue of the capillary fluctuation method is derived and successfully employed to extract the key parameters that characterise the grain boundary. Good agreement is also found with a fluctuation-dissipation based method recently suggested in simulation. Following on from analysis of the interface fluctuations, the properties of the individual grain boundary particles are analysed to investigate the long standing hypothesis that suggests that grain boundary particle dynamics are similar to those in supercooled liquids. The grain boundary particle dynamics display cage breaking at long times, highly heterogeneous particle dynamics and the formation of cooperatively moving regions along the interface, all typical behaviour of a supercooled liquid. Next, the frustration induced by confining colloidal particles inside a pentagonal environment is investigated. The state of the system is adjusted via two separate control parameters: the inter-particle interaction potential and the number density. A gradual crystalline to confined liquid-like transition is observed as the repulsive inter-particle interaction potential is decreased. In contrast, re-entrant orientational ordering and dynamical effects result as the number density of the confined colloidal particles is increased. Finally, the dynamics of colloidal particles distributed amongst a random array of fixed obstacle particles is probed as a function of both the mobile particle and fixed obstacle particle number densities. Increasing the mobile and the obstacle particle number density drives the system towards a glass transition. The dynamics of the free particles are shown to behave in a similar way to the normal glass transition at low obstacle density and more analogous to a localisation glass transition at high obstacle density.

Keywords: optical tweezers
soft matter
colloids
grain boundaries
optical microscopy
glasses
crystallisation
Advisor: Dullens, R
Optimised label-free biomarker assays with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

There is huge academic interest and clinical need associated with the development of biomarker immunoassays where general aims are the generation of highly specific, convenient and sensitive sensing formats. In this project, a powerful electrochemical technique, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), is applied in the establishment of powerful biomarker detecting protocols. Firstly, ultrasensitive, label-free and reusable insulin sensors, based on an antibody-PEGylated thiol self-assembly monolayer (PEG thiol SAM) interface, were produced and characterised via Faradaic EIS, presenting a detection limit (LOD) of 1.2 pM, a linear range across four orders of magnitude, and high sensitivity in even 50 % serum. By applying similar surface chemistry, a label-free biosensor, specific for the detection of α-synuclein antibodies, was fabricated. The α-synuclein interfaces used enabled the reliable detecting of this biomarker in patient sample serum. The concentration levels in the control and a patient group were determined to be significantly different, and, significantly, this difference was consistently across two different cohorts. Strikingly, this could potentially underpin an entirely new means of early Parkinson’s disease (PD) diagnosis. Non-Faradaic EIS methods were additionally applied to label-free insulin assays at both PEG thiol SAM and zwitterionic polymer film interfaces. The latter presented not only an exceptionally non-fouling interface, but also one seemingly both highly biocompatible and facilitating enhanced receptor: target binding. Finally, impedance assays, though potent, generally, operate by sampling only one of a limited number of available experimental variables, typically, Rct for Faradaic EIS, or C or Z for non-Faradaic EIS. Work carried out herein also explores the generation and utility of a portfolio of mathematically derived immittance functions all obtained from the same raw data sets. A particular focus was the examination of whether these were capable of increasing assay sensitivity and efficiency above normal impedance treatments.

Keywords: Diabetes
Parkinson's Disease
Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS)
Immunoassays
Advisor: Davis, J