VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The development of resilience in two cohorts of older, single women, living on their own, in a small rural town in Australia

Australian rural women are stereotypically perceived as stoic, self-reliant, and used to handling adversity. Since this iconic portrayal of resilience is traditionally (and contemporaneously) located in the harsh countryside, it is surprising that there are few articles examining this environment, person, and resilience nexus. This thesis addresses this omission by exploring the development of resilience in two cohorts of single, older women, living on their own in rural Australia. Accordingly, an ethnographic study was conducted in a small Australian town in 2012. Documentary evidence, participant observation, and interviews captured the separate and intersecting environment and person related contributors to resilience, mediated and moderated through situational relations over time. The results revealed the persistence and reinforcement of rural historical cultural stereotypes about older women, and the systematic exclusion of younger women retirees who chose to move to the town but did not fit these embedded cultural norms. When confronted with a societal attitude that socially constrains their social identity and role, and boxes them in, the older old women pragmatically accepted their situation, and successfully adapted to their new circumstances. For them, resilience is a reactive response to regain and maintain equilibrium in their lives. Conversely, the late middle-aged retirees were boxed out from actively participating and contributing to the community; for these women, resilience is equated to resignation and endurance. And as there is a symbiotic relationship between a town and its residents, this community represents a constraining force, both in terms of its stalled response to sociodemographic and structural change, and its passive indifference to the older women as exemplars of resilience. In effect, the community exerts an oppressive, dampening effect on the women’s agentic resiliency; thus contradicting the prevailing literature where resilience is widely portrayed as a positive and active agentic concept.

Keywords: rural resilience
community resilience
resilience
older women
Advisor: Leeson, G
Mobilisational citizenship: identity and collective action in Santiago de Chile’s underprivileged neighbourhoods

The Chilean urban poor led crucial mobilisation throughout most of the 20th century. Scholars argue that different factors explain the demobilisation of that sector during the democratic transition (the early 1990s). Through an ethnographic comparative approach, this thesis compares two neighbourhoods. Their similitudes cannot explain why while one of them sustained contentious collective action in time, the other became demobilised as most other neighbourhoods. As in many other studies, what explains the survival of contentious collective action is a mobilisational identity. This research moves beyond those accounts to explain why mobilisational citizenship emerges in some communities and not in others. The interaction between four dimensions explains mobilisational citizenship: agentic memory, belonging, boundaries, and decentralised leadership. The sustainability of mobilisational citizenship depends on grassroots activists’ capacity to transmit collective identity as political capital.
The Chilean case shows that autonomy is crucial for mobilisational citizenship. In cases in which political parties establish networks of loyalty and clientelism promoting the monopoly of political capital at the grassroots level, communities cannot develop and sustain a mobilisational identity.

Advisor: Payne, L
#Ebola and Twitter: lessons learned

Background: Twitter plays a role in information distribution during emergencies, and it is widely used by public health organisations during public health crises. Twitter has facilitated transmission of both accurate information and misinformation during the West African Ebola outbreak.
Study objective: To investigate the ways in which Twitter was used during the West African Ebola outbreak by the general Twitter population as well as by the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in order to better inform future efforts to harness the public health potential of Twitter.
Methods: The full historic Twitter dataset of over 60 million Ebola tweets from December 2013 to May 2015 was analysed using a platform for machine data analysis (Splunk Enterprise 6.3.0). In addition to descriptive statistics of Twitter use and engagement, content analysis was conducted to categorise Twitter accounts and tweets of interest.
Main results: The temporal tweet frequency distribution corresponded with key Ebola news events with a substantial proportion of tweets coming from West Africa. News, humour, Twitter celebrities’, and celebrities’ accounts achieved the highest level of engagement with the general Twitter population. The WHO and CDC also ranked high in engagement levels. Both the WHO and CDC actively used Twitter to communicate with the Twitter public. However, their strategies at disseminating public health information and guidance varied.
Conclusion: Twitter activity during the Ebola outbreak was more likely to coincide with news events rather than disease dynamics. Twitter provides a unique opportunity for public health organisations to listen to their audience and to share scientifically accurate information. Public health organisations could do more to engage with the Twitter population during the West African Ebola outbreak. Such organisations may benefit from employing humorous and emotional content and/or collaborating with accounts with a high level of Twitter engagement.

Keywords: social media
CDC
ebola virus disease
Twitter
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
WHO
World Health Organization
health communication
ebola
Advisor: Van Loggerenberg, F
Ariana, P
Central African lowland forest resilience to fire disturbance and climate change : answers from the past

Tropical rainforests have been and will remain subjected to various natural and human pressures, which have already led to rainforest degradation and disappearance. This thesis aims to improve our current knowledge of the likely future trajectory of the persistence of the tropical African rainforest under climate change and fire impact through reconstruction of past vegetation and burning dynamics using palaeoecological records from sedimentary sequences.
I used several types of palaeoecological proxies (i.e., fossil charcoal, phytolihs, and fossil pollen) from sediment records collected in the Sangha River region, in the northern part of the Republic of Congo, to explore past fire dynamics between four different forest types (i.e. mixed forest, swamp forest, Marantaceae forest and monodominant Gilbertiodendron forest), and to reconstruct the vegetation history of two endemic types of African forest i.e., the Marantaceae forest and the monodominant Gilbertiodendron forest, for the last 2500 cal BP. Lastly, I combined fossil pollen records from the literature with ecological niche models (ENM) to explore the relationship between climate and rainforest distribution over the last 6000 cal BP.
My results demonstrate that the past frequency of predominately human-induced fires was significantly higher in areas currently covered by Marantaceae forest compared to areas currently covered by any of the other forest types, and that this high frequency of fires has therefore contributed to the maintenance of Marantaceae forest. Thus, the two Marantaceae forest sites I studied are of recent formation (around 450-600 cal BP) and were previously covered by the mixed forest type. Out of all the considered forest types, the mixed forest is the most vulnerable to both climatic and fire disturbances while the monodominant Gilbertiodendron forest has been most resilient to past climatic events, with no major change in its composition for the last 2700 cal BP. I also found that monodominant Gilbertiodendron forest has persisted during this time period mainly under the absence of burning which supports the hypothesis of long term minimal burning disturbance being a key factor for monodominant forest persistence. At the biome level, my results show that the relationship between climate and African rainforest has partially shifted over the last 6000 years, thus opposing the idea of climatic niche conservatism of this biome in the African continent.
This thesis provides new information of the past ecological responses of African rainforest to major environmental disturbances. African rainforests represent a globally important and largely understudied forest region, and my thesis offers fundamental insights into its ecology and biogeography.

Keywords: tropical forest
palaeoecology
quaternary
Congo
Advisor: Willis, K
Breman, E
The surface chemistry and interface engineering of lead sulphide colloidal quantum dots for photovoltaic applications

This thesis examines the effect of lead sulphide (PbS) CQDs’ surface chemistry and interfaces to their photovoltaic performance.
Using PbS CQDs as the starting material, cation-exchange was utilised to form PbS/CdS core/shell CQDs, which were thoroughly characterised and the improved surface passivation was shown by increased photoluminescence yield and lifetime. The core/shell CQDs were incorporated into a ZnO/CQD heterojunction solar cell device and showed a substantial improvement of the mean open-circuit voltage (Voc), from 0.4 V to 0.6 V, over PbS reference devices. By optimising shell thickness and surface ligands, core/shell CQD devices with average device efficiency of 5.6 % were fabricated as compared to 3.0 % for unshelled PbS devices.
The lower defect density due to better passivation confers lower carrier density in core/shell CQD film. To take advantage of low defect concentration and to aid charge extraction, a 3 dimensional quantum funnel concept was sought of by blending two populations of PbS/CdS CQDs of different sizes. By incorporating a blend component within a heterojunction device, even when the device thickness is beyond what is optimal for the depletion width and the diffusion length of the system, high Voc is still maintained. In a separate study, a p-i-n device strategy was examined, and with this approach, a maximum device efficiency of 6.4 % was achieved.
Despite the improvements made to Voc by optimizing surface passivation, fill factors of the devices are low. By using poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) as a hole transport material (HTM), fill factor and the overall performance improved over a reference device without the HTM. Further studies showed that oxidation of the HTM material results in increased p-type characteristic, thus optimising hole transport. This beneficial oxidation process also makes the device air-stable. From this, devices of up to 8.1 % efficiency and devices with fill factor as high as 0.72 were fabricated.

Advisor: Watt, A
Assender, H
Social dictatorships : the political economy of the welfare state in the Middle East and North Africa

This dissertation explores the diverging social spending patterns in labour-abundant regimes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It is motivated by two main research questions: 1. Why have social spending levels and social policy trajectories writ large diverged so drastically across labour-abundant MENA regimes? 2. How can we explain the market persistence of spending levels after divergence?
To answer the first question, this study develops a theory about the emergence of authoritarian welfare states. It argues that autocratic leaders need both the incentives and the abilities to distribute welfare for authoritarian welfare states to emerge. The former are shaped by coalition building dynamics at the onset of regime formation while the latter are conditioned by the external environment. At the level of incentives, broad coalitions emerge in the presence of intra-elite conflict and the absence of salient communal cleavages and, if present jointly, provide a strong incentive for welfare provision. Conversely, a cohesive elite or salient communal division entail small coalitions with few incentives to distribute welfare broadly. At the level of abilities, a strong external threat to regime survival is expected to undermine the ability to provide social welfare in broad coalitions. Facing a 'butter or guns' trade-off, elites shift priority to security expenditures and the population accepts that because no alternative regime could credibly commit to neglecting external defence in the presence of external threats. Only an abundant resource endowment can provide the necessary resources to avert this trade-off.
To answer the second question, I rely on two important mechanisms in the welfare state literature to explain path dependance. The first one can broadly be summarised as 'constituency politics' in that beneficiaries of social policies succesfully avert deviations from the spending path in the form of systemic reforms or large-scale spending cuts. Mobilisation of these constituencies should be particularly vigourous if initial advantages conferred to these groups habe been reinforced over time, for instance, because these groups grew in size or got entrenched in the state administration. The second mechanisms are spill-over effects to unintended beneficiaries who can over time become important gatekeepers against path divergence.
Methodologically, the study is characterised by a mixed-methods approach which combines quantitative tests with the analysis of qualitative evidence in the form of arhcival material, newspapers, and field interviews. Moreover, the study also follows a multi-level approach in that the viability of the argument is tested comparatively at the cross-country level and process-traced at the micro-level in two in-depth case studies of Tunisia and Egypt.

Advisor: Bermeo, N
Towards a formalist theological poetics : practising what you preach in the prose writings of Thomas Merton

The argument of the thesis is that the literary forms of Thomas Merton’s prose writings embody theological claims he makes elsewhere at the level of content. Specifically, the five chapters of the thesis show that Merton not only writes about the themes of self-denial, simplification, observing the ‘thereness’ of the world, and (in two distinct ways) apprehending God in darkness and obscurity, but that he also enacts those themes in the way he writes prose.
The thesis offers an original and significant contribution to three main fields of enquiry. Firstly, when analysing Merton’s prose I employ methods espoused by New Formalist literary critics, but I apply their reading strategies to the theological dimensions of literary form. Secondly, my work builds upon claims made by theologians of form about the link between literary genres or forms and issues surrounding, for instance, the character of God, but it does so in a novel way, by employing New Formalist close reading strategies. Thirdly, the thesis offers a new method of enquiry for Thomas Merton Studies, by performing the first extended literary-critical account of his prose. In sum, the thesis opens up new theoretical territory for Formalism, new specific material for the theology of form, and a new methodology for Merton Studies.
Besides the introductory and concluding chapters, all of the chapters of the thesis are structured in the same way. Each includes an expositional section in which I quote from Merton’s thoughts on, for example, self-denial, and a literary-critical section, in which I read the forms of Merton’s prose in terms of the content-claims already outlined. The goal of this methodology is, at every stage, to show that Merton enacts his own theologically-rooted content claims in the forms of his prose.

Advisor: Ward, G
Development and application of a new class of potent bifunctional organocatalysts

This thesis describes the development and application of a new class of bifunctional organocatalysts, incorporating the novel triaryliminophosphorane organosuperbases, for asymmetric synthesis. This thesis seeks to address some of the limitations of organocatalysis, namely long reaction times, high catalyst loadings and poor atom economy was sought. Chapter 2 outlines the design and synthesis of the bifunctional iminophosphorane (BIMP) catalysts such as 1 which were synthesised on gram scale.
Chapter 3 describes the application of the BIMP catalysts to the first general organocatalytic enantioselective ketimine nitro-Mannich reaction. Twenty ketimines 2 were investigated and the β-nitroamine products 3 were formed in up to 97% yield and 95% ee. The reaction was demonstrated on a 10 gram preparative scale with 1 mol% catalyst.
Chapter 4 describes the first organocatalytic enantioselective sulfa-Michael addition of alkyl and benzylic thiols 5 to simple α-substituted α,β-unsaturated esters 6. The reaction required the development of BIMP catalysts such as 4 that incorporated an amide thiourea H-bond donor group. 31 examples were investigated with quantitative yields and up to 96% ee obtained in the formation of β-mercaptoesters 7. Catalyst loadings as low as 0.05 mol% were achieved on a 100 mmol scale.
Chapter 5 describes some structure and stability properties of the BIMP catalysts. The work disclosed in chapter 6 demonstrates the rate enhancements of the BIMP catalysts relative to tertiary amine bifunctional organocatalysts in the key steps of Dixon's total syntheses of nakadomarin A. Rate enhancements of up to 1300 times were observed in related reactions such as the Michael addition of β-amido ester 8 to nitrostyrene 7.
Chapter 7 describes a miscellany of reactions catalysed by the BIMP catalysts to demonstrate the efficacy of the new catalysts. The organocatalytic enantioselective addition of nitromethane to β-substituted α,β-unsaturated esters 10 such as methyl crotonate is disclosed with quantitative yields and enantiomeric excesses up to 73% achieved.

Keywords: organocatalysis
Optimising mesenchymal stromal cell harvesting in orthopaedic surgery

Musculoskeletal tissue is prone to age-related degeneration and to damage which heals poorly. Many current treatments are able to treat only the end stages of these conditions, such as the use of total knee replacements in osteoarthritis. Cellular therapies are seen as a potential source of effective treatments for the earlier stages of these conditions. Orthopaedic surgery has been at the forefront of cellular therapies with treatments such as microfracture and autologous chondrocyte implantation to treat chondral defects.
As the largest area of current cell therapy research, stem cells have become an area of high interest for developing novel treatments. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have provided the basis of the majority of orthopaedic treatments because of the relative ease of obtaining them. Despite the development of a number of treatments using both freshly harvested MSCs and culture expanded MSCs there is still a large gap in our knowledge of the mechanisms of actions of these cells and the most appropriate locations for obtaining autologous samples.
This thesis seeks to examine the best source of MSCs for surgery around the knee, comparing the pelvis to the femur and tibia. It also seeks to determine if it is possible to improve the yield of MSCs using a simple modification of the standard method of aspiration.
Assessments of the yield of all cells and MSCs showed that the pelvis was the optimum source for MSCs in terms of cell numbers. There was also a large amount of inter-subject variation in the number of cells obtained. There was no difference in the functional abilities of cells from any location. Modification of the aspiration technique did not improve the cell yield.
Future work should focus on improving yields from the pelvis and investigate methods of overcoming the inter-subject variability in yields if standardised treatments are to be successfully developed.

Advisor: Price, A
Carr, A
Ye, H
Completeness and the ZX-calculus

Graphical languages offer intuitive and rigorous formalisms for quantum physics. They can be used to simplify expressions, derive equalities, and do computations. Yet in order to replace conventional formalisms, rigour alone is not sufficient: the new formalisms also need to have equivalent deductive power. This requirement is captured by the property of completeness, which means that any equality that can be derived using some standard formalism can also be derived graphically.
In this thesis, I consider the ZX-calculus, a graphical language for pure state qubit quantum mechanics. I show that it is complete for pure state stabilizer quantum mechanics, so any problem within this fragment of quantum theory can be fully analysed using graphical methods. This includes questions of central importance in areas such as error-correcting codes or measurement-based quantum computation. Furthermore, I show that the ZX-calculus is complete for the single-qubit Clifford+T group, which is approximately universal: any single-qubit unitary can be approximated to arbitrary accuracy using only Clifford gates and the T-gate. In experimental realisations of quantum computers, operations have to be approximated using some such finite gate set. Therefore this result implies that a wide range of realistic scenarios in quantum computation can be analysed graphically without loss of deductive power.
Lastly, I extend the use of rigorous graphical languages outside quantum theory to Spekkens' toy theory, a local hidden variable model that nevertheless exhibits some features commonly associated with quantum mechanics. The toy theory for the simplest possible underlying system closely resembles stabilizer quantum mechanics, which is non-local; it thus offers insights into the similarities and differences between classical and quantum theories. I develop a graphical calculus similar to the ZX-calculus that fully describes Spekkens' toy theory, and show that it is complete. Hence, stabilizer quantum mechanics and Spekkens' toy theory can be fully analysed and compared using graphical formalisms.
Intuitive graphical languages can replace conventional formalisms for the analysis of many questions in quantum computation and foundations without loss of mathematical rigour or deductive power.

Keywords: quantum computing
stabilizer quantum mechanics
graphical calculus
categorical quantum mechanics
Advisor: Coecke, B
Abramsky, S
Camera Iranica: Popular digital photography in/of Iran

This thesis explores the contemporary genre of popular digital photography, with a specific look at photographs taken in/of Iran. It focuses on the contemporary practice of 'photoblogging' or photography-based weblogging. Photoblogs are the result of the daily posting of digital photographs concerning everyday life in Iran on personal blogs specifically dedicated to photography. The title of the thesis, Camera Iranica, refers to the subject and scope of the study, as well as to its digital-ethnographic field site. I demarcate this as a conceptual and transnational cultural field, encompassing the multitude of places and spaces, on- and offline in which Iranians across the world engage in the practice of producing and viewing popular digital photography. Iranian photoblogs are shown to operate in a manner contingent upon a particular 'visual legacy' of contested cultural identity politics since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, propagated inside Iran and in 'the West'. The thesis traces the social, economic and political implications of developments in photography and digital technologies in Iran in light of this backdrop, and explores how and why Iranians in Iran and abroad are taking up popular digital photography for visual storytelling projects, with 'Iran' as their visual subject. Based on the study's empirical findings, I extrapolate theoretical arguments concerning historical and cultural understandings of digital photographs shown and seen in online environments, and propose innovative methodological strategies for digital-visual anthropologists to continue work in these fields.

Advisor: Talib, M
Harris, C