VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Efficient algorithms for compressed sensing and matrix completion

Compressed sensing and matrix completion are two new data acquisition techniques whose efficiency is achieved by exploring low dimensional structures in high dimensional data. Despite the combinatorial nature of compressed sensing and matrix completion, there has been significant development of computationally efficient algorithms which can produce accurate desired solutions to these problems. In this thesis, we are concerned with the development of low per iteration computational complexity algorithms for compressed sensing and matrix completion.
First, we derive a locally optimal stepsize selection rule for the simplest iterative hard thresholding algorithm for matrix completion, and obtain a simple yet efficient algorithm. It is observed to have average case performance superior in some aspects to other matrix completion algorithms.
To balance the fast convergence rates of more sophisticated recovery algorithms with the low per iteration computational cost of simple line-search algorithms, we introduce a family of conjugate gradient iterative hard thresholding algorithms for both compressed sensing and matrix completion. The theoretical results establish recovery guarantees for the restarted and projected variants of the algorithms, while the empirical performance comparisons establish significant computational advantages of the proposed methods over other hard thresholding algorithms.
Finally, we introduce an alternating steepest descent method and a scaled variant especially designed for the matrix completion problem based on a simple factorization model of the low rank matrix. The computational efficacy of this method is achieved by reducing the high per iteration computational cost of the second order method and fully exploring the numerical linear algebra structure in the algorithm. Empirical evaluations establish the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms, compared with other state-of-the-art algorithms.

Keywords: hard thresholding
matrix completion
compressed sensing
low per iteration complexity
numerical algorithms
alternating minimization
Advisor: Tanner, J
Through the eyes of justice: a comparative study of liberationist and women's readings of the Qur'an

The shari‘a, or the inherited legal tradition, has tended to dominate discussions of contemporary Islam. Relatively little attention has been given to the Qur’an, however, despite its importance both in terms of Muslim theology, in which it is understood as the actual Word of God, and of Islamic reformist thought. Far from being marginal, the Qur’an has emerged as a rich resource for theological reflection and sociopolitical action. Specifically, it has become a source of empowerment, speaking to contexts of oppression. This thesis examines the commentaries of four Muslim intellectuals who have expounded the Qur’an as a liberating text – namely, the South African Farid Esack (b. 1956), the Indian Asghar Ali Engineer (b. 1939), the American Amina Wadud (b. 1952) and the Pakistani Asma Barlas (b. 1950) – supplemented by in-depth interviews. In so doing, this study seeks (i) to fill a major gap in the literature by offering the first comprehensive survey and analysis of their readings and (ii) to challenge common portrayals of justice-based exegesis as being an obscure, fundamentalist scripturalism; as being rooted in North America; and as being focussed primarily, even exclusively, on gendered oppression. Indeed, the centring of the Qur’an in Islamic thought, I argue, is an increasingly mainstream practice – a global hermeneutic – as Muslims throughout the world seek answers in scripture to the pressing problems of the present. Furthermore, justice-based exegesis has been holistic, addressing (in addition to patriarchy) poverty and racism, communal violence and imperialism. Liberationist and women’s readings are significant, I conclude, for two reasons. Firstly, they shed new insights into the rise of ‘thematic commentary’ (tafsir mawdu‘i) in Qur’anic exegesis. Secondly, their expressly political character exposes the hegemony of Islamism over our understanding of ‘the political’ and ‘the radical’ in an Islamic context, thereby forcing us to redefine political and radical Islam.

Keywords: political Islam
Islam
liberation theology
religion
theology
radical Islam
feminism
Qur'an
Advisor: McDougall, J
Rowland, C
Pricing American Options using Monte Carlo Method

This thesis reviewed a number of Monte Carlo based methods for pricing American options. The least-squares regression based Longstaff-Schwartz method (LSM) for approximating lower bounds of option values and the Duality approach through martingales for estimating the upper bounds of option values were implemented with simple examples of American put options. The effectiveness of these techniques and the dependencies on various simulation parameters were tested and discussed. A computing saving technique was suggested to reduce the computational complexity by constructing regression basis functions which are orthogonal to each other with respect to the natural distribution of the underlying asset price. The orthogonality was achieved by using Hermite polynomials. The technique was tested for both the LSM approach and the Duality approach. At the last, the Multilevel Mote Carlo (MLMC) technique was employed with pricing American options and the effects on variance reduction were discussed. A smoothing technique using artificial probability weighted payoff functions jointly with Brownian Bridge interpolations was proposed to improve the Multilevel Monte Carlo performances for pricing American options.
Functional investigation of microRNA pathways in human speech and language disorders

The forkhead-box protein P2 (FOXP2) is a transcription factor implicated in an inherited human speech and language disorder. A heterozygous R553H mutation in the gene is associated with a monogenic form of developmental verbal dyspraxia. Reduced functional dosage in mice brains causes altered synaptic plasticity in cortico-striatal circuits, and impairs motor learning. Genome-wide in vivo ChIP–chip screens for Foxp2 binding in the developing mouse brain have identified a set of microRNAs (miRNAs) whose promoter regions were occupied by Foxp2. Thus, I employed microarray expression profiling to identify microRNAs regulated by Foxp2 in the embryonic mouse brain. Interestingly, the microarray results were divergent from in vitro effects of Foxp2/FOXP2 on these microRNAs, suggesting that regulation of these microRNAs is context-specific. In light of the regulation of MIR137 by FOXP2, I went on to study a putative genetic network involving FOXP2, TCF4, CNTNAP2 and MIR137. While TCF4, CNTNAP2 and MIR137 each are regulated in vitro by FOXP2, the regions bound by FOXP2 were insufficient to generate the anticipated transcriptional regulation when cloned upstream of a reporter gene. To test if FOXP2-regulated microRNAs are risk factors for specific language impairment (SLI), I performed candidate association analyses on a large family-based cohort of SLI probands. I also identified 5 common variants and 3 rare variants in predicted microRNA binding sites in the 3' UTR from the exomes of 48 of these probands. I tested them for association with SLI in the larger cohort. rs72727021, lying in the miR-192/215 binding site of the C9ORF100 3' UTR, was significantly associated with nonword repetition in the SLI cohort (p-value = 2.75 X 10-4). Testing of rs72727021 and the 3 rare variants with a luciferase reporter assay revealed that 2 rare variants affected gene expression levels independently of the microRNA, suggesting that these 2 microRNA binding sites might be risk factors contributing to the SLI phenotype. FOXP2/Foxp2 is likely to act through microRNAs to generate and fine-tune neural gene expressionpatterns that underlie neuronal function and neural circuits important for vocal learning, and for human speech and language.

Keywords: FOXP2
exome sequencing
microarray
microRNAs
Advisor: Fisher, S
Newbury, D
Vernes, S
Canadian policy towards international institutions, 1939-1950

This thesis is a study of the attitude of the Canadian Government towards the organization and operation of international institutions rather than a study of the policies pursued in them. Special emphasis is laid, upon two basic problems: the broad institutional framework of international society, dealt with in Part I, and the relationship of great and small states, the theme of part II. Each Part is prefaced by a brief analytical chapter (Chapters IX and VIII). Apart from the introductory chapter, the thesis is almost entirely confined to the period from the outbreak of war in 1939 to the immediate aftermath of the invasion of South Korea in 1950.
The opening chapter traces the development of Canadian policy towards international institutions from the early days after Confederation to the post- war period. During the inter-war years, the primary appeal of tie League of Nations to Canada was as a means of asserting her international status. At the same time, she was most reluctant to assume international responsibilities, particularly obligations to impose automatic military sanctions against an aggressor. Early in the Second World War, her attitude began to change, and she earns to accept not only the principle of collective security but also the need to play her full part in it. The Canadian Government was also determined to ensure that, in the reconstruction of international government, the fullest attention was paid to the question of removing the underlying economic and social causes of war. [Please see pdf. for full abstract.]
Anion and neutral molecule recognition by electron deficient boranes 

This thesis reports on the synthesis of a series of Lewis acidic boranes used as detectors for the cyanide or fluoride ion, and for the activation of molecular oxygen.
Chapter III focuses on the formation of monodentate boranes featuring a pendant ferrocenyl moiety. A systematic study of the fluoride and cyanide binding capabilities of isomeric ferrocenyl-functionalized phenyl boranes was conducted via spectroscopic, crystallographic and voltammetric techniques. The synthesis of receptors supported by an indenyl scaffold was also investigated and the binding properties of such systems studied in details. All receptors proved to be competent at binding both cyanide and fluoride in dry solvents; moreover one such indenyl receptor can selectively bind cyanide in aqueous media and signal the binding event by a green-to-red colour change.
Chapter IV constitutes an extension of the previous chapter targeting bidentate receptors with an (indenyl)(cyclopentadienyl)iron(II) back bone. A principle objective was the development of systems offering the chelation of fluoride, and hence a measure of selectivity over the more strongly basic cyanide ion. While bis(dimesitylborane) receptors proved to be synthetically inaccessible, a series of phosphine- and phosphonium-borane species was prepared and their comparative F-/CN- binding abilities determined. Thus, while cationic phosphonium boranes favour fluoride binding by employing a bifunctional binding motif, the neutral phosphine boranes exclusively bind cyanide.
Chapter V details the activation of molecular oxygen by pentafluorophenyl-boranes in presence of weak reductants featuring a ferrocene unit. The highly Lewis acidic ferrocenyl bis(pentafluorophenyl)borane was initially studied, and its reaction with dry dioxygen shown to generate a (fully characterized) ferrocenium peroxoborate. Similar reactivity was observed for simple metallocenes such as cobaltocene and ferrocene (or even organic reductants) in presence of a strong Lewis acid, with the trapping of the O22- ion by the borane thought to be a key thermodynamic driving force for the O2 reduction.

Keywords: inorganic chemistry
molecular chemistry
boranes
Advisor: Aldridge, S
Asymptotic structure of banach spaces

The notion of asymptotic structure of an infinite dimensional Banach space was introduced by Maurey, Milman and Tomczak-Jaegermann. The asymptotic structure consists of those finite dimensional spaces which can be found everywhere `at infinity'. These are defined as the spaces for which there is a winning strategy in a certain vector game. The above authors introduced the class of asymptotic ℓp spaces, which are the spaces having simplest possible asymptotic structure. Key examples of such spaces are Tsirelson's space and James' space. We prove some new properties of general asymptotic ℓp spaces and also compare the notion of asymptotic ℓ2 with other notions of asymptotic Hilbert space behaviour such as weak Hilbert and asymptotically Hilbertian. We study some properties of smooth functions defined on subsets of asymptotic ℓ∞ spaces. Using these results we show that that an asymptotic ℓ∞ space which has a suitably smooth norm is isomorphically polyhedral, and therefore admits an equivalent analytic norm. We give a sufficient condition for a generalized Orlicz space to be a stabilized asymptotic ℓ∞ space, and hence obtain some new examples of asymptotic ℓ∞ spaces. We also show that every generalized Orlicz space which is stabilized asymptotic ℓ∞ is isomorphically polyhedral. In 1991 Gowers and Maurey constructed the first example of a space which did not contain an unconditional basic sequence. In fact their example had a stronger property, namely that it was hereditarily indecomposable. The space they constructed was `ℓ1-like' in the sense that for any n successive vectors x1<…<xn,
1
f(n)
∑
n
i=1
‖xi‖≤‖∑
n
i=1
xi‖≤∑
n
i=1
‖xi‖, where f(n)=log2(n+1). We present an adaptation of this construction to obtain, for each p∈(1,∞), an hereditarily indecomposable Banach space, which is `ℓp-like' in the sense described above. We give some sufficient conditions on the set of types, T(X), for a Banach space X to contain almost isometric copies of ℓp (for some p∈[1,∞)) or of c0. These conditions involve compactness of certain subsets of T(X) in the strong topology. The proof of these results relies heavily on spreading model techniques. We give two examples of classes of spaces which satisfy these conditions. The first class of examples were introduced by Kalton, and have a structural property known as Property (M). The second class of examples are certain generalized Tsirelson spaces. We introduce the class of stopping time Banach spaces which generalize a space introduced by Rosenthal and first studied by Bang and Odell. We look at subspaces of these spaces which are generated by sequences of independent random variables and we show that they are isomorphic to (generalized) Orlicz spaces. We deduce also that every Orlicz space, hϕ, embeds isomorphically in the stopping time Banach space of Rosenthal. We show also, by using a suitable independence condition, that stopping time Banach spaces also contain subspaces isomorphic to mixtures of Orlicz spaces.
Aspects of the calcium carbonate-water interface

The channel flow method has established the net dissolution kinetics of calcite single crystals at high pH (7.7-9.7) and varying bulk Ca2+ concentrations (0-10 mM), using wide ranges of solution flow rates (10-3-0.3 cm3 s-1). Literature rate equations were in poor agreement with experiment. Modelling with the following mechanism, where Ca2+ and CO32- undergo Langmuirian adsorption:
Ca2+(aq) ⇄ Ca2+(ads)
CO2-
3 (aq) ⇄ CO2-3 (ads)
Ca(sup>2+
(ads) + CO2-3 (ads) ⇄ CaCO3 (ads)
CaCo3 (ads) → CaCo3 (lattice)
and the consequent rate law
Jnet/mol cm-2
s-1 = kpKCaKCO3 {Ksp - [Ca2+]o[CO2-3]o _________________________________________________________________________________________________ (1 + KCa[Ca2+]o)(1 + KCO3[CO2-3]o)
gave excellent agreement with experiment under all conditions studied. This mechanism is shown to explain all literature streaming potential, electrophoresis and kinetic salt effect data.
Dissolution of calcite under the above conditions was strongly inhibited by Mg2+ and fully deprotonated forms of succinic acid, 2-sulphobutanedioic acid, phthalic acid and maleic acid. Mechanisms were established; for the maleate dianion, the inhibition was due to the blocking of the dissolution sites at which CaCO3 units are incorporated into the crystal lattice. For the other ions, inhibition arose from competitive Langmuirian adsorption either between CO32- and the anions, or between Ca2+ and Mg2+.
A new method to quantify the inhibited dissolution of particulate CaCO3 (=10 μm) via enhanced mass transport of solution to the rotating disc electrode, due to the rotation of the particles in the diffusion layer, has been established. Good agreement was found with that measured independently using the channel flow cell.
A.c. impedance spectroscopy has been used to characterise scaled (CaCO3) steel tubes. Results provide scope for (i) monitoring scale growth, and (ii) use in safety control devices for alerting to the scaling of pipe-work.

Advisor: Compton, R
Wittgenstein and Sellars on intentionality

The aim of the thesis is to explore Ludwig Wittgenstein’s and Wilfrid Sellars’s views on intentionality. In the first chapter I discuss the account of intentionality and meaning the early Wittgenstein developed in his Tractatus logico-philosophicus. I present his idea that sentences are pictures of states of affairs with which they share a ‘logical form’ and to which they stand in an internal ‘pictorial relationship’. I argue that Wittgenstein thought of this relationship as established by acts of thought consisting in the operation of mental signs corresponding to the signs of public languages. In the second and third chapters I discuss the later Wittgenstein’s criticism of ideas at the heart of the Tractarian account of intentionality, as well as his explanations of the phenomena that motivated it. In the second chapter I examine his rejection of the idea that thinking consists in the operation of mental signs and his criticism of the idea that meaning and understanding are mental processes accompanying the use of language. In the third chapter I turn to Wittgenstein’s criticism of the idea that representations stand in an internal ‘pictorial relation’ to objects in the natural order that are their meaning. I illuminate his later views by discussing Sellars’s non-relational account of meaning, in particular his claim that specifications of meaning do not relate expressions to items that are their meaning, but rather specify their rule-governed role in language. I conclude with a discussion of the later Wittgenstein’s account of the relationship between intentional phenomena and the objects at which they are directed. In the final fourth chapter I provide a detailed discussion of Sellars’s account of thinking. I conclude with some criticisms of Sellars’s views.

Keywords: Wilfrid Sellars
intentionality
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Advisor: Hyman, J
The late Ming courtesan Ma Shouzhen (1548-1604): visual culture, gender and self-fashioning in the Nanjing pleasure quarter 

Ma Shouzhen (1548-1604) was a cultured courtesan who lived in the famous pleasure quarter along the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, the southern capital of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). She was talented in dance and music, painting and poetry, and surprisingly for her time, she was also a playwright. Although she was a celebrity of the prolific Nanjing cultural milieu and there is a good corpus of extant material by and about her, the particular contribution of Ma Shouzhen - her character and her work - have been marginalised, or even neglected, by the previous scholarship.
This thesis is a cross-disciplinary study of Ma Shouzhen and is the first in-depth scholarly investigation into the entirety of her activities. It employs material and methods traditionally pertaining to the disciplines of sinology, history, art history, literary and drama studies. The thesis has a dual aim: first, to provide a nuanced understanding of the courtesan, her cultural production and social practice; second, to reclaim the agency and legacy of her character within the cultural milieu of late Ming Nanjing and beyond. These aims will be achieved through two main research objectives: (1) recovering and re-evaluating visual and written sources by and about the courtesan; (2) investigating those sources in order to comprehend her modes of self-representation and strategies of self-fashioning, analysed especially through the lens of gender.
The main body of the thesis is composed of an introduction, five core chapters, and an epilogue; the chapters are structured so as to provide as complete a picture of Ma Shouzhen as possible. Chapter Two explores the space of the pleasure quarter, Ma’s biography and its entwinement within the complexities of the historical moment. Chapter Three focuses on her painting, Chapter Four considers her poetry, and Chapter Five explores her theatre practice; Chapter Six extends the investigation to focus on the construction of Ma’s historical character in later decades.
In its content and aims, this thesis contributes to women’s and gender history, as well as to studies in visual culture and literature.

Keywords: visuality
courtesan
early modern courtesanship
Ma Shouzhen
gender
social networks
women's history
self-fashioning
Chinese visual culture
Nanjing
Chinese painting
Chinese women artists
Advisor: Clunas, C
Freedom and subjectivity in Marx, liberalism and the work of Cornelius Castoriadis

This D.Phil, dissertation looks into different conceptions of freedom in contemporary and earlier modern philosophy. It concentrates on the accounts of K. Marx, I. Kant, J. S. Mill, I. Berlin and C. Castoriadis, and focuses on their portrait of the agent of freedom. From this standpoint, the thesis singles out three strands of thought: an essentialist paradigm of freedom, traditional liberal alternatives, and a contemporary anti-essentialist school. The main objective is to elaborate and vindicate the antiessentialist approach as exemplified by the work of C. Castoriadis. The central argument is that contemporary anti-essentialist thought has outlined a compelling idea of freedom, which overcomes the defects of earlier conceptions.
The essentialist paradigm, as represented by K. Marx and I. Kant, imputes specific universal features to the subject of freedom, which fix permanently the chief object, the basic norms or the fundamental conditions of freedom. Individuals are bound thus to definite forms of life, to the effect that choice and autonomy are significantly restricted. Negative liberty and J. S. Mill's notion are less attached to generic models of life, but they fail to provide an adequate corrective to essentialist freedom. Negative liberty does not grapple with the manifold constraints on freedom that operate from within the self, while J. S. Mill's ideal ties the self to the realisation of specific talents and inclinations. The anti-essentialist view challenges the commitment to an abiding essence of the self and brings out the power of individuals to create themselves and their world in new ways. Freedom is recast as a critical, creative and open-ended process of self-formation through choices which draw on an indefinite range of different possibilities. The thesis examines this construal of freedom in the work of C. Castoriadis, and goes on to explore the anti-essentialist paradigm more widely.
With respect to its method, the dissertation has two key features: it proceeds through a closed reading of specific authors and it delves into epistemological and ontological questions (theories of society and the self) that bear profoundly on the conceptualisation of freedom.

Advisor: Dr Lois McNay, S