VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Numerical modelling of damage to masonry buildings due to tunnelling

Accurate assessment of the damage to buildings due to tunnelling in soft ground becomes an important issue when a tunnel is constructed under historic masonry buildings in urban areas. The current two-stage approach in which settlement estimated from a Gaussian curve are applied to a building does not consider soil-structure interaction and fails to give a correct prediction of the damage. This thesis describes a complete three-dimensional finite element model for assessment of the settlement damage to masonry buildings induced by tunnelling in London Clay, and an investigation of the interaction between a masonry building and the ground. A macroscopic elastic no tension model, which assumes the material has zero tensile strength but infinite compressive strength, is developed to simulate the behaviour of masonry. Numerical techniques are proposed to improve the stability of the calculation. The comparison of the no tension and elastic models, by applying Gaussian curve settlement troughs to both a plain wall and a facade, shows that the no tension model predicts different behaviour of the masonry building during tunnelling, including different cracking patterns and damage grades. Two-dimensional finite element analyses combining the building, modelled by the no tension material, and the ground, modelled by a nested yield surface model, give insight into the interaction between the masonry structure and the ground. They suggest the importance of the stresses in the soil prior to the excavation in affecting the ground movements during tunnelling. Thus the weight of the building controls the overall magnitude of the ground movements beneath the building, while the stiffness of the building affects the shape of the trough. A key aspect of the behaviour of the masonry building is the formation of stress arches. Finally the three-dimensional finite element analyses are described. Both symmetric and unsymmetric cases are analysed. The results show that the three-dimensional analysis gives more realistic modelling of the problem and is likely to be necessary for practical situations, especially when a building is not symmetrically located with respect to the tunnel - a case which cannot be analysed in two-dimensions. A special tying scheme is proposed for the connection of the nodes belonging to elements of different types, which are defined in their own local co-ordinate systems. Different types of tie elements are formulated and implemented for connection between two-dimensional and three-dimensional elements in various combinations.

Keywords: tunnelling
settlement
Advisor: Houlsby, G
Images and identities in the funerary art of Western Anatolia, 600 - 450 BC: Phrygia, Hellespontine Phrygia, Lydia

The dissertation analyses the reliefs and paintings on thirty-one different tombs in Western Anatolia erected between 600 and 450 BC, in order to illuminate the ways in which non-Greek elites were identified on their memorials. The tombs from three areas are treated: Phrygia, Hellespontine Phrygia and Lydia, where the primary language groups were Phrygian, Mysian and Lydian. There is little literary evidence for these regions, and what there is tends to focus on political developments. Descriptions of people and society are few, and tend to represent them from an outside perspective, grouping them according to cultural characteristics which differentiate them from Greeks. It is clear, however, that the regions were important, prosperous places, controlled by illustrious grandees and land marked with a relatively high proportion of monumental tombs. Of these monumental tombs, there is a relatively high number decorated with striking and articulate images. There is much to be gained from examining the images on these tombs, as ‘indigenous’ sources for how elite Western Anatolians described themselves. Previous approaches to the tombs and their images have tended to look at them individually or in smaller groups, and to concentrate on the transmission and reception of Persian and Greek culture in the Achaemenid provinces. This dissertation contributes a broader comparative study of the decorated tombs, focussing on the kinds of statuses the images represent and the cultural forms these took. By comparing the various methods of self-representation, it clarifies patterns of identities in Western Anatolia and their relationship to historical circumstances. The dissertation is divided into five chapters. An introduction outlines the scope and sample, the historical background, previous studies of the monuments, the definition of ‘identity’ and the methods of analysis adopted here. Three case study chapters present the regions and the decorated monuments within them. A concluding chapter synthesises three aspects: social identities (roles and spheres of life represented); geographic and chronological patterns; and cultural affiliations and orientations. The dissertation concludes that a tension between Persian identities and local traditions is evident in some of the tomb images, which relates to the political upheavals in Western Anatolia and the Aegean at the time of the Persian Wars.

Keywords: Greco-Persian
Granicus
Arslan Tas
Graeco-Persian
stelae
Bursa
Aslan Tash
archaic Asia Minor
Troad
Kelainai
Perso-Anatolian art
stelai
wall paintings
Biga Plain
Sultaniye
Sardis
Afyon
burial
Phrygian Highlands
ekphora
chamber tombs
Odemis
Daskyleion
banquets
Yilan Tas
convoys
Tatarli
Polyxena Sarcophagus
Advisor: Smith, R
The community of Saint Cuthbert

Symeon of Durham's history of the church of Durham, a number of earlier narratives and the fine collection of twelfth century Durham charters formed the basis for this history of the Community of Saint Cuthbert before 1150. They generally concentrated upon the acquisition and maintenance of the community's lands, the changes in which reflected the major events in northern history. The survival of the sources and the story they tell bear witness to the remarkable resilience and continuity of the community. At no time did it suffer the destruction characteristic of northern monasticism, often flourishing at times of upheaval, as during the Scandinavian and Norman Conquests.
In its first days the acquisition of land was, predictably, associated with early Anglian settlement, especially royal sites. Throughout the period the growth of the patrimony was largely dependent upon royal patronage, though some bishops were also avid acquirers of land. Royal and other lay patronage can be directly associated with the need to gather support in the north. Rulers secure in the north, as native northern earls, or strong enough to subdue the area were unlikely to be great benefactors and were inclined to despoil the church.
For the Cuthbertine community jurisdictional rights were important and there is evidence to suggest that there existed a substantial jurisdictional immunity within the patrimony by the tenth century. The rights of sanctuary of a mother church and the immunities of church land in the seventh century seem to have been important factors in its establishment, rather than, as has generally been suggested, the alienation of comital rights to Durham in the late eleventh century.
The combination of landed wealth, jurisdictional privilege and survival accounts for the immense power of the community in the north from the seventh century onwards.
Explaining meaning: towards a minimalist account of legal interpretation

To interpret is to seek understanding. This formulation hides as much as it reveals and I propose to unpack it.
I argue that interpreting is only a part of what legal theorists and practitioners do. In Part I, I attempt an ‘in vitro’ analysis and present the bare concept of interpretation: interpretation is an activity that needs an object; interpreting is reasoning about meaning when there is a possibility of mistake about that meaning.
Part II focuses on two domains of interpretation: musical performance and adjudication. I rely on Joseph Raz’s account of interpretation as explanation or display and identify the former domain as a paradigm of display and the latter as a paradigm of explanation. Both are examples of interpretation for others and involve a claim to theoretical authority on the part of interpreters. But, unlike musicians- who interpret only works of music- judges interpret a great variety of objects. Musical interpretation is identified by its object, whereas legal interpretation is not. Legal interpretation is explanation of legal meaning.
I then discuss the tenets of the minimalist view of legal interpretation: (i) legal rules are not interpretable and legal texts are not primary objects of legal interpretation; (ii) there is a difference between interpretative authority (a form of theoretical authority) and legal authority (a form of practical authority) and interpretative conclusions can be theoretically authoritative without being exclusionary reasons for action; (iii) Interpreting and adjudicating are different activities. Interpretation explains, adjudication resolves. Legal interpreters do not produce legal rules: they are required to be guided by them.

Keywords: adjudication
legal meaning
theoretical authority
reasons for action
Interpretation
reasons for belief
practical authority
legal reasoning
Advisor: Gardner, J
The role of NK family receptor interactions with HLA-B27 in Ankylosing Spondylitis pathogenesis

Possession of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) allele, HLA-B27 (B27), strongly predisposes to the development of spondyloarthritis. Furthermore, B27 exists as polymorphic variants, with some subtypes (such as B*2705) being more strongly associated with disease than others (B*2709). The immunological function of MHC molecules is to present peptides in a heterotrimeric complex with beta-2-microglobulin (β2m); however, B27 has also been observed to form non-classical (β₂m –free) homodimers at the cell surface. It has been suggested that there may be a pathogenic role for cell surface B27 homodimer interactions with Natural Killer (NK) cell receptors, such as Leukocyte Immunoglobulin like Receptors (LILRs). In this thesis I characterise these interactions and investigate molecular differences between two B27 subtypes.
Here I show that the B*2705 subtype forms homodimers more readily than the B*2709 subtype, but once formed, B27 homodimers of the 2 different subtypes exhibit comparable binding specificities and affinities to the NK receptors. On the other hand, I show significant differences in the binding specificities and affinities of these receptors to B27 homodimers and heterotrimers. LILRB1 does not bind B27 homodimers, but does bind B27 heterotrimers. LILRB2 binds B27 heterotrimers with a KD of 22μM, whereas LILRB2 binds B27 homodimers more strongly with a KD of 2.5μM. In addition to these main findings, I have characterised the specificity and affinity of candidate B27 homodimer-specific antibodies. I have performed epitope-mapping experiments and developed a model for binding to the B27 homodimer. Finally, I have identified crystallisation conditions for the B27 homodimer in complex with a Fab, allowing for X-ray crystallography studies.
In this thesis, I have characterised for the first time the molecular interactions of the B27 homodimer with NK cell ligands and show that they are different from those with the B27 heterotrimer. This work supports a hypothesis of B27 homodimer induced pathology involving NK receptors.

Keywords: HLA-B27
LILRB2
Ankylosing Spondylitis
Advisor: Bowness, P
Kollnberger, S
Statistical methods for mapping complex traits

The first section of this thesis addresses the problem of simultaneously identifying multiple loci that are associated with a trait, using a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. It is applicable to both case/control and quantitative data. I present simulations comparing the methods to standard frequentist methods in human case/control and mouse QTL datasets, and show that in the case/control simulations the standard frequentist method out performs my model for all but the highest effect simulations and that for the mouse QTL simulations my method performs as well as the frequentist method in some cases and worse in others. I also present analysis of real data and simulations applying my method to a simulated epistasis data set.
The next section was inspired by the challenges involved in applying a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to genetic data. It is an investigation into the performance and benefits of the Matlab parallel computing toolbox, specifically its implementation of the Cuda programing language to Matlab's higher level language. Cuda is a language which allows computational calculations to be carried out on the computer's graphics processing unit (GPU) rather than its central processing unit (CPU). The appeal of this tool box is its ease of use as few code adaptions are needed.
The final project of this thesis was to develop an HMM for reconstructing the founders of sparsely sequenced inbred populations. The motivation here, that whilst sequencing costs are rapidly decreasing, it is still prohibitively expensive to fully sequence a large number of individuals. It was proposed that, for populations descended from a known number of founders, it would be possible to sequence these individuals with a very low coverage, use a hidden Markov model (HMM) to represent the chromosomes as mosaics of the founders, then use these states to impute the missing data. For this I developed a Viterbi algorithm with a transition probability matrix based on recombination rate which changes for each observed state.

Keywords: Markov chain Monte Carlo
Bayesian statistics
Advisor: Holmes, C
Mott, R
Coulomb excitation and break up

Break up processes involving a three body system in the Coulomb field are studied. A method is developed for the realistic treatment of such a system, and is applied to the break up of the nucleus, 7Li. The Simple Cluster Model of 7Li and the Coulomb excitation code COULVAR are used for the calculations. The continuum states of the α + t system are treated as a set of discrete states, by confining the relative motion of the clusters to a spherical box. The infinite set of states is then truncated by imposing an energy cutoff so that only the states below this energy are considered. The density of these states varies according to the box radius and the energy cutoff. The stability of the model is tested by varying these two parameters. The corresponding calculated probability of excitation of 7Li has converged for a box radius of 20 fm and an energy cutoff of 20 MeV. The level energies and the wavefunctions of the continuum states are then easily obtained and are used to calculate the important matrix elements for the electromagnetic transitions between the bound states and the continuum states of 7Li. The method is used to calculate the probability of excitation of 7Li to its first excited state in the inelastic scattering experiments. It successfully reproduces a range of available data. An approximation is then developed to calculate the nuclear-Coulomb interference at low energies (well below the Coulomb barrier). The results of its application supports the need for renormalisation of the nuclear potentials suggested by inverse scattering calculations. The method closely reproduces The 7Li data in this region with the refitted nuclear potentials. The application of the three body model to the break up of 7Li on heavy targets at high energies produces very interesting results. It predicts reasonably good cross sections in the regions of pure Coulomb interaction. It also shows that at high energies the nuclear forces become very strong and affect the classical Rutherford orbit of the projectile. These effects are enhanced for heavier targets and the observed small scattering angle should not be taken as the angle of a classical orbit. Finally improvements towards the generalisation of the method are suggested so that it will be capable of coping with any three body system in a strong Coulomb field.

Advisor: Buck, B
The formation of ultracold rubidium molecules using ultrafast photoassociation

The establishment of robust laser-cooling techniques for the formation of ultracold atoms has provided a test-bed for low-temperature science, with scattering events changing character from incoherent thermal interactions to coherent quantum mechanical events. A natural extension is the pursuit of ultracold molecules in prescribed low-energy internal states. Atomic cooling techniques, however, do not generalize to the molecular regime due to the complex energy-level structure afforded by its extra degrees of motion. An indirect approach to ultracold molecule formation - photoassociation using ultrafast laser pulses - is the focus of this thesis. A broadband field associates atom pairs into a localized molecular wavepacket that evolves within the attractive excited-state potential. A suitably timed dump pulse may thus be applied to stabilize population into deeply bound ground vibrational states. This strategy may be generalized to any species whose spectroscopy matches the pulse spectrum, and offers a coherent population transfer scheme that does not require precise knowledge of the system. This thesis presents experiments using high-energy photoassociation pulses applied to ultracold rubidium atoms. The pulses quench the background ground-state molecular population but form bound dimers within the excited state. A pump-probe experiment was designed to chart the excited-state dynamics; however, the oscillations predicted by theoretical calculations were not evident in the molecular signal. The nature of the dynamics is expected to be strongly dependent on the initial state of the atom pairs addressed by the ultrafast pulse: a bound molecular population provides an additional candidate to free atoms. A spectroscopic measurement characterizes these bound molecules and identifies their formation mechanism. A subsequent experiment provides evidence that the predominant contributor to the pump-probe signal is the unbound initial population. The consequences with regard to both the observation of excited-state dynamics and the subsequent application of a dump pulse are discussed.

Keywords: coherent control
ultracold
pump-probe
photoassociation
ultrafast
femtochemistry
quantum control
spectroscopy
Advisor: Walmsley, I
The thermal shallow water equations, their quasi-geostrophic limit, and equatorial super-rotation in Jovian atmospheres

Observations of Jupiter show a super-rotating (prograde) equatorial jet that has persisted for decades. Shallow water simulations run in the Jovian parameter regime reproduce the mixture of robust vortices and alternating zonal jets observed on Jupiter, but the equatorial jet is invariably sub-rotating (retrograde). Recent work has obtained super-rotating equatorial jets by extending the standard shallow water equations to relax the height field towards its mean value. This Newtonian cooling-like term is intended to model radiative cooling to space, but its addition breaks key conservation properties for mass and momentum.
In this thesis the radiatively damped thermal shallow water equations are proposed as an alternative model for Jovian atmospheres. They extend standard shallow water theory by permitting horizontal variations of the thermodynamic properties of the fluid. The additional temperature equation allows a Newtonian cooling term to be included while conserving mass and momentum. Simulations reproduce equatorial jets in the correct directions for both Jupiter and Neptune (which sub-rotates).
Quasi-geostrophic theory filters out rapidly moving inertia-gravity waves. A local quasi-geostrophic theory of the radiatively damped thermal shallow water equations is derived, and then extended to cover whole planets. Simulations of this global thermal quasi-geostrophic theory show the same transition, from sub- to super-rotating equatorial jets, seen in simulations of the original thermal shallow water model as the radiative time scale is decreased. Thus the mechanism responsible for setting the direction of the equatorial jet must exist within quasi-geostrophic theory.
Such a mechanism is developed by calculating the competing effects of Newtonian cooling and Rayleigh friction upon the zonal mean zonal acceleration induced by equatorially trapped Rossby waves. These waves transport no momentum in the absence of dissipation. Dissipation by Newtonian cooling creates an eastward zonal mean zonal acceleration, consistent with the formation of super-rotating equatorial jets in simulations, while the corresponding acceleration is westward for dissipation by Rayleigh friction.

Keywords: geophysical fluid dynamics
computational applied mathematics
Jupiter
zonal jets
Hamiltonian mechanics
asymptotic analysis
thermal shallow water equations
Advisor: Dellar, PJ
The role of stock exchanges in shaping more sustainable company and market practices

Recent years have seen the emergence of stock exchange led initiatives which in various ways aim to enhance awareness and performance by listed companies and investors regarding environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. This thesis explores issues of importance to understand the role of stock exchanges in promoting more sustainable company and market practices. First, the thesis establishes rationales for increased efforts by stock exchanges in this area by investigating the agenda of responsible investment and the debate about market dysfunctionalites which has intensified after the financial crisis. Second, the role, functions and institutional characteristics of stock exchanges are researched. The insights from these investigations are fed into a new framework designed to assess the potential stock exchanges have to contribute to more sustainable company and market practices, as well as impediments and enablers for this to happen. The findings suggest that stock exchanges have potential to make a positive impact on sustainability related matters, but are likely to face constraints. Realizing this, the thesis concludes that a case can be argued for including to a larger extent sustainability related issues in conventional financial market regulation to ensure long-term financial stability and well-functioning financial markets. However, this raises new questions. Different issues may hamper the effectiveness of such regulation, among others competition between financial centres and jurisdictional limitations of national regulation. This suggests that international standard setting bodies may have an important role to play.

Keywords: financial markets
responsible investment
stock exchanges
corporate governance
sustainability
Advisor: Clark, G