VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Out in Morocco: homosexuality and transnationalism in the writings of Rachid O. and Abdellah Taïa

This is the first comprehensive study of the work of Rachid O. and Abdellah Taïa, two contemporary Moroccan authors whose writings deal with same-sex desire. Offering a close reading of the work of Rachid O. and Taïa, this study assesses how same-sex desire is expressed in a discursive space which does not acknowledge homosexuality and to what extent these forms of desire need to be situated in the transnational space and amid the sexual-political context of Morocco and the West. One of the foci of this study is to compare and contrast queer contemporary Moroccan writing with western queer theory and to examine to what extent Rachid O.’s and Taïa’s writings challenge or inform queer western scholarship. I offer two principal arguments. First, I suggest that Rachid O. and Abdellah Taïa loosen rigid ideologies around masculinity, sexuality, and gender in Arab/Muslim culture and offer a new understanding of sexuality and sexual orientation in their culture. By re-appropriating a heritage around same-sex love rooted in Arab/Muslim culture, they proffer a more inclusive, visionary idea of Islam, affording space for the sexually different. Second, I demonstrate that the invention of different ways of experiencing masculinity, homosexuality, and Islam is also facilitated by the West – specifically France. It illustrates how both authors critically engage with western modes of homosexuality, the notion of being ‘out’, the idea of living in an equal relationship with a same-sex partner, sometimes adopting these models, sometimes creating hybrid forms, often, however, problematically distancing themselves from western concepts and assessing their racial bias. Drawing upon western queer theory, postcolonial studies and a wide range of sociological accounts of homoeroticism in the West and North African society, this study makes an empirical and theoretical contribution to queer theory, to transnational conceptualizations of gender and sexuality, and to new understandings of masculinity in Morocco today.

Keywords: Rachid O.
Francophone Literature
Abdellah Taïa
Moroccan Literature
Queer Writings
Postcolonial Literature
Advisor: Hiddleston, J
Atomic structure and dynamics of defects in transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as MoS2 and WS2, are direct band gap semiconductors in their monolayer form and indirect band gap semiconductors in bulk. They offer band gaps in the red visible spectrum and semiconducting properties that expand the application of the two-dimensional (2D) materials beyond what graphene alone can achieve. These layered materials are stacked through weak interlayer van der Waals interactions. Their bilayer structures offer an extra layer degree of freedom, which introduces performance enhancements compared to their monolayer counterpart. Interaction between MoS2 or WS2 layers as well as the specific stacking arrangement can significantly modify their electrical, optical and vibrational properties. The presence of defective structures has been proved to exert significant influences on TMD monolayers. Understanding the atomic structures and the dynamics of these defects in layered materials and their differences from those in monolayers is important for revealing their impact on TMD bilayers, leading approaches for their future device application.
Aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy (AC-TEM) is one of the leading approaches to study the atomic structure of defects on 2D materials, laying the foundation for the first experiment, which involves the production and aggregation as well as observation of vacancies and line defects in differently stacked MoS2 bilayers at atomic-level resolution. DFT calculated models prove the main discrepancy between defective monolayer and bilayer systems, which is assigned to the interlayer van der Waals force in the bilayer system. In the next experiment, we move forward to probe the atomic structure of a more complex defective structure, the anti-phase grain boundary in MoS2 bilayers using annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (ADF-STEM). Our results show the anti-phase GB in thebottom layer leads to the coexistence of both 2H and 3R stacking in the same bilayer domain, which is attributed to the lattice compression in the dislocation core due to the interlayer van der Waals force in the bilayer system. In the next experiment, the use of in-situ heating holder in the ADF-STEM makes the direct visualization of atomic structures and dynamics at elevated temperatures possible. Surface ripples, which are also denoted as stacking boundaries due to their morphologies in bilayer systems are analyzed at both micrometer and nanometer levels. These surface ripples introduce two perfect stacking orders with nanometer-wide transition regions, the morphology of which is decided by the interlayer van der Waals forces. The reversibility of these structures under temperature perturbation and beam irradiation is also studied.

Keywords: van der Waals interactions
Aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy
bilayer structures
Transition metal dichalcogenides
annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy
Advisor: Warner, JH
A critical edition of the poems of Hildebert of Le Mans

This edition consists of three chapters of general introduction, followed by introduction, text and notes on each of the four divisions of Hildebert’s poetry, namely the Shorter Poems, Biblical Epigrams, De Mysterio Missae and Life of St. Mary the Egyptian.
Hildebert was born at Laverdin around 1056. After a period as scholasticus at Le Mans he became archdeacon in 1091. In 1096, on the death of Hoel, he was elected bishop, though not without a contest. Hildebert's first test as bishop came in 1099 with the attack on Le Mans by Helias, count of Maine, which was then held by William Rufus. Rufus, having succeeded in dislodging Helias, suspected Hildebert of complicity in the attempt, and took him with him back to England, His threat to demolish the towers of the cathedral of S. Julien were however left unfulfilled at his death. When peace returned Hildebert journeyed to Rome and the Norman lands of S. Italy (1100). This peace was broken by the fighting between Henry I of England and Louis VI, and it was at this period that Hildebert was imprisoned at Nogent-le-Rotrou. A different kind of trouble faced Hildebert some years later in the shape of the heretic Henry of Lausanne, who by his preaching succeeded in turning the people completely against their clergy. Even after his ignorance in religious matters had been shown up by Hildebert it was a long time before his influence was eradicated from the diocese. In 1125 Hildebert, now an old man, was elected archbishop of Tours. Here his refusal to install as dean and archdeacon the nominees of Louis VI, to whom Tours belonged led to the King cutting off the archiepiscopal revenues, and these were not entirely freed until 1150. Hildebert died in 1135.
Continued in thesis ...

Keywords: poems
edition
Hildebert
critical
Students’ experience of using primary sources at A-level and in an honours degree in history: an exploratory case-study

The use of primary sources plays a significant role in history teaching in England. With the development of the School Council History Project (1976), the establishment of the GCSE (1985) and the National Curriculum (1991), students’ work on primary sources became fully integrated within history teaching, with assessment objectives specifically devoted to it.
Scholars in history education have investigated how students make sense of primary sources and develop historical thinking, by emphasising the importance of understanding sources in their context. Much less attention has been paid, however, to the ways in which students themselves think about the process and purpose of using sources within their study of history. In seeking to address this gap, my research uses a cross-sectional case-study design to examine the ways in which students approach the use of sources within history courses at A-Level and when within a single-honours history for an honours degree. Therefore, this dissertation aims to explore students’ perspectives of the journey towards becoming historians, examining the process of transition from working with sources at school, within a tightly structured programme tailored to A-Level examinations, to looking at primary materials when studying at university, with a more independent approach to the subject.
Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, in which both A-Level students and third year undergraduates were involved. The analysis of the data collected revealed how A-Level students perceived a certain disconnect between historians’ methodology and the work done with primary sources during their course. Instead, undergraduates viewed more positively the tasks with sources carried out during an honours degree in history, highlighting how this work was often similar to historians’ way of thinking.

Keywords: primary sources
A-Level
historians' methodology
honours degree in history
Advisor: Burn, K
Ingram, J
Radio astronomy instrumentation for the AVN

The African VLBI network (AVN) is a proposed network of VLBI capable radio telescopes to be situated in the African countries that will later host antenna elements of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope. This network was proposed to help develop human capital in the African partner countries in preparation for the SKA. Once completed the network will consist of telescopes implemented both by converting decommissioned telecommunication ground stations, and new purpose built radio telescopes. This thesis presents the design and development of a potential cryogenic radio receiver for one of the new purpose built AVN elements. Since the telescope is still under development, I will present my contribution towards this design effort.
The front end of the receiver features a corrugated wide-flare angle feedhorn design compatible with the SKA antenna optics for operation over 4.6 to 8.5 GHz bandwidth and a scaled version to cover 8.3 to 15.3 GHz. The design process is presented along with how the simulated performance compares with potential SKA feeds. Measurements of the prototype's beam pattern are also presented.
A novel 3.3:1 bandwidth, 3-probe triple-ridge transducer (TRT) was designed and prototyped. The simulated and measurement results agree and confirm the broad-band spurious-free characteristics of the TRT. The derived analytic expressions for extracting linear orthogonal polarisations is presented, along with the experimental results.
For receiver gain stabilisation, a new technique based on cross-correlation whilst only using a single receiver chain was explored. Experimental results confirm gain stabilisation using this technique is possible without noticeable degradation in the receiver noise temperature.
A brief description of the cryostat housing the LNAs and TRT is presented. The radio frequency (RF) Analogue signal processing architecture is based on quadrature sampling. This required the design and prototyping of the RF bandpass filter, anti-aliasing lowpass filter and mixer chip circuit board. For the receiver backend, an RF system on chip (RFSoC) FPGA based digital signal processor is proposed. This will provide the reconfigurability needed to switch between single dish and VLBI observations. Finally, the thesis closes with a presentation on the expected radio telescope system temperature and it's implications on the sensitivity and mapping speed.

Advisor: Jones, M
Vaccine design for global health pathogens

MERS and malaria are two global infectious diseases with no commercial vaccines available. This thesis describes work undertaken to develop and improve adenovirus-based vaccines for these infectious diseases.
In the case of MERS coronavirus, a highly effective heterologous prime-boost vaccination based on a chimpanzee adenovirus was created (ChAdOx1). In order to further optimise its immunogenicity, previously described genetic designs modulating transgene expression were evaluated. It was found that ChAdOX1 encoding the MERS S glycoprotein induced high levels of antigen-specific immune responses. Such levels were further increased by boosting with an MVA encoding the same antigen. The inclusion of a tissue-plasminogen activator leader sequence (tPA-LS) had a positive impact on the levels of antigen-specific antibody responses, while the inclusion of the early promoter F11 in the MVA had a positive impact on the levels of antigen-specific cellular responses.
In the case of malaria, the immunological effects of recently discovered adjuvants were explored. Spermidine induced higher levels of antigen-specific CD8+ T cell responses from spleens, induced by an adenovirus vaccine model 3 (AdHu5). Nevertheless, no influence of the spermidine was found on PBMCs. In the case of 2’3’-cGAMP, the adjuvant enhanced the immunogenicity of the capsid proteins of the adenovirus, but not the transgene antigens. An optimisation of the use of this adjuvant using bivalent adenoviruses resulted in a significant enhancement in transgene immunogenicity. Furthermore, it was found that IFN-β, induced during the activation of the cGAS/STING pathway, affected adenovirus transgene expression and immunogenicity.
It is hoped that the results presented in this thesis contribute to the advancement in the creation of safe and effective vaccines for MERS coronavirus and malaria.

Keywords: Malaria
MERS coronavirus
Advisor: Hill, A
Spencer, A
Douglas, A
Large data problems in fluid dynamics and general relativity

In this thesis we contribute to the study of two large data problems within the realm of Hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations. The first result concerns the Relativistic Euler equations, which adequately describe fluid motion in the context of special relativity.
The main result is the provision of a both necessary and sufficient condition on the initial data, uniformly away from vacuum, for the formation of singularities in finite time under the evolution of (1) in the case d = 1. This is joint work with Shengguo Zhu.
The second project developed in this thesis shifts focus from the area of conservation laws to that of mathematical General Relativity. We provide, in joint work with Xinliang An, a trapped surface formation criterion for the Einstein–Maxwell system where the right–hand side corresponds to the Maxwell energy–momentum tensor that models electromagnetic effects.

Keywords: Hyperbolic PDEs
Fluid Dynamics
PDEs
Partial Differential Equations
Mathematical Analysis
General Relativity
Trapped Surfaces
Athanasiou
Advisor: Chen, GQ
Wang, Q
Gold for secrets: the Hartlib Circle and the early English empire, 1630-1660

In this thesis I place the intellectual and practical work of Samuel Hartlib and his associates in its appropriate imperial and global settings, notably in the Atlantic World of mid-seventeenth-century English colonialism. I argue that the participation of the Hartlib Circle in the improvement programme that contributed to the construction of English colonies has been insufficiently recognised, either in scholarship on the Hartlibians or in the general literature on early modern English colonial expansion. This study addresses this issue through a detailed examination of private and official correspondence, chronicles, sermons, legislation, journals, and other texts that directly or indirectly related Hartlib and his allies to the Early English Empire. In order to properly address the full extent of the participation of Hartlib and his network in English imperialism, the thesis draws on approaches in the history of science and imperial history to examine four Atlantic English colonial regions during the period 1630-1660. As a result, this thesis reveals for the first time Hartlib’s extensive participation in efforts to use empirical practical methods to improve Ireland, New England, Virginia, and the West Indies from the reign of Charles I, through the civil wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate, and to the Restoration.

Keywords: Arnold Boate
John Cotton
sugar
Robert Boyle
America
Huguenot
West Indies
Providence
New England
History of Science
Virginia
Barbados
Peter Le Pruvost
Plantation
Virginia Ferrar
Boston
Harvard
New World
Millennial
colonies
Benjamin Worsley
Seventeenth Century
William Berkeley
Jamestown
Cressy Dymock
Gerard Boate
Native American
Ireland
survey
John Dury
Science and Religion
John Winthrop
Early English Empire
colonization
Hartlib Circle
George Starkey
Imperialism
Henry Vane
Ulster
William Petty
Natural History
Jamaica
silk
Hugh L'Amy
Puritan
Katherine Jones
Bermuda
Richard Ligon
Yale
Robert Child
tobacco
Colonies
John Rulice
Samuel Hartlib
John Davenport
Advisor: Iliffe, R
Nietzsche’s reception of Heraclitus and the Pyrrhonists

The goal of this thesis is to shed light on Nietzsche’s reception of Heraclitus and the Pyrrhonists by focusing on the theme of philology. The thesis examines how Nietzsche’s understanding of philology has a profound influence on his interpretation and analysis of ancient Greek thinkers, especially Heraclitus and the Pyrrhonists. The Nietzschean philological method stands in sharp contrast to the wissenschaftlich (‘scientific’) philological tradition typical of 19th German scholarship, which involves a reconstruction of the past primarily based on historical facts. The thesis argues that Nietzsche does not attempt to outline an objective interpretation of Greek culture. Rather, he develops a theory on ancient Greece to which it is possible to attribute some key features of his own philosophical views.
In his reception of both Heraclitus and Pyrrhonism, Nietzsche applies a philological method that has three distinct features. First, Nietzsche’s history of philosophy is, in fact, neither objective nor scientific. Second, Nietzsche’s analysis is motivated by aspects of his epistemic, biological and metaphysical doctrines, which he developed independently, such as ‘perspectivism’ and the ‘will to power’—and he attributes these notions to Heraclitus and the Pyrrhonists. Third, the goal pursued by Nietzsche, by these means, is to address questions and issues that he finds particularly interesting and compelling. These issues range from the Christian belief in anthropocentrism, to the nature of Socrates’ dialectical abilities, Plato’s metaphysics and Epicurus’ attitude towards suffering.
The thesis concludes that an appreciation of the way in which Nietzsche conducts his history of philosophy offers a means of resolving the vexed scholarly issue as to what significance may be attributed to the remarkable degree of similarity between many Nietzschean, Heraclitean and Pyrrhonian ideas and arguments, such as perspectivism and suspension of judgment, and the will to power and the doctrine of flux. My contribution to the field is the demonstration that Nietzsche’s discussion of Heraclitus and the Pyrrhonists goes further and runs deeper than a simple attempt to draw attention to such similarities: Nietzsche’s discussion consists in addressing important themes that range from issues inherent to Christianity, to the beliefs of past thinkers, such as Socrates, Plato and Epicurus.

Keywords: Nietzsche's reception
Nietzsche's will to power
Nietzsche's philology
Nietzsche and Heraclitus
Nietzsche's perspectivism
Nietzsche and Pyrrho
Nietzsche and Pyrrhonists
Nietzsche and the Greeks
Nietzsche's philological method
Advisor: Castagnoli, L
Prescott-Couch, A
Adaptive optics for phase and polarization control

Adaptive optics (AO) is a powerful tool for microscopy. It helps to improve the image quality and resolution by correcting the aberrations that arise in the optical system or through external disturbance. Most AO technologies concern phase distortion, which is the main issue in the mainstream microscopies.
However, the correction is limited by the capabilities of the adaptive optical devices, e.g. in correction range and correction accuracy. Apart from that, phase distortion is not the only aberration that can affect microscopes. Polarization error is also a major concern for some polarization-sensitive microscopes such as Stimulated Emission Depletion Microscopy (STED) and Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM).
Therefore, in this thesis, I firstly investigated the capabilities and limitations of a phase correction device, a deformable mirror (DM), specifically its correction range and accuracy based on Zernike mode aberrations. Then an adaptive polarization control (APC) system was developed through both hardware and software aspects. The APC consists of polarization state generator (PSG) and polarization state analyzer (PSA). The two modules were investigated separately first and then integrated together.
The system functionality was then demonstrated using different kinds of samples. Results show that this system is able to correct the external birefringence disturbance dynamically and the measurements could be tailored to the ability of prior knowledge about on the samples. This system could be combined with conventional phase AO methods to provide further improvements in system correction in applications ranging from quantum optics to microscopy imaging.

Keywords: Adapative Optics
Microscopy
Phase
Ploarization
Advisor: Booth, MJ
Adiposity and smoking in relation to risk of endometrial cancer

The associations of adiposity and smoking with endometrial cancer risk, although well established, are not fully understood. Most previous studies have relied on relatively crude measures of exposures and were not large enough to examine reliably these associations by population characteristics and tumour subtypes. This thesis aims to characterise in unprecedented detail the associations of both adiposity and smoking with endometrial cancer risk.
The analyses were performed using data from UK Biobank and the Million Women Study. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for the associations of different measures of adiposity and smoking with endometrial cancer risk were estimated using Cox regression models.
Analyses involving 135,110 postmenopausal women in UK Biobank demonstrated that body mass index (BMI) and more specific indices of overall adiposity obtained from bioimpedance analysis (such as fat mass) were broadly similar in their associations with endometrial cancer risk (HR per 1-SD BMI = 1.71, 95%CI 1.61-1.82; fat mass = 1.73,1.63-1.85). These associations were mediated, in part, by inflammation and alterations in free testosterone levels. Central adiposity was associated with a small increase in risk of endometrial cancer independently of BMI (HR per 1-SD waist to hip ratio = 1.13, 1.01-1.26). Data from up to 674,971 postmenopausal women in the Million Women Study showed that the risk associated with adiposity was more pronounced in never and past HRT users than current users. The association between adiposity and risk was significantly stronger for type I than type II tumours. Analyses involving up to 195,446 UK Biobank women and 743,114 Million Women Study participants demonstrated that current and past smoking reduced the risk of endometrial cancer by 27% and 11%, respectively, compared with never smoking. The risk reduction was dose-dependent, consistent across tumour subtypes and persisted for more than 20 years after smoking cessation.
These results suggest that both overall and central adiposity contribute to endometrial cancer risk and provide support for the hypothesis that adiposity influences endometrial cancer risk through pathways involving sex hormones and inflammation. The findings also indicate that smoking confers long-term protection against endometrial cancer risk and highlight the need for further research to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the reduced risk of endometrial cancer among smokers.

Keywords: Adiposity
Waist circumference
Endometrial Cancer
Obesity
BMI
Bioimpedance
Advisor: Sweetland, S
Allen, NE