VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Discharge of contractual obligations

Modern orthodoxy claims that the English law of contract recognises three distinct doctrines that discharge parties from their contractual obligations: (i) termination for breach, (ii) frustration, and (iii) common mistake. This thesis challenges the modern orthodoxy. It argues that each ‘doctrine’ is best explained as an instance of discharge for failure of condition. The reason one or both parties are discharged from their obligations is that their obligations are expressly or implicitly conditional upon the existence of particular facts or the occurrence of particular events that do not exist or have not occurred.
The central claim made in this thesis is not new. It is broadly consistent with how these ‘doctrines’ have been understood for hundreds of years. But the modern view is that the law has moved on. This thesis takes aim at this view and argues either that the law has not moved on or that where the law has moved on, it has taken a wrong turn.
In explaining these instances of discharge in this way, this thesis illuminates the relationships between seemingly disparate areas of contract law and provides a coherent and compelling explanation of each. It also grounds the justifications for these instances of discharge in the parties’ agreement. Finally, this thesis shows how the failure of condition model can provide better answers to difficult questions that arise on the orthodox approach.
Ultimately, this thesis challenges current perceptions of contract law and demonstrates the lessons that are to be learnt from understanding the basis of discharge in these cases. It is the failure to appreciate the nature of the concepts in play that has caused so many of the modern problems in the law of discharge of contractual obligations.

Keywords: conditions subsequent
waiver
implied conditions
discharge of contractual obligations
breach
common mistake
anticipatory breach
frustration
repudiation
mistake
conditions precedent
failure of condition
estoppel
contract
termination
promissory conditions
concurrent conditions
conditions
Advisor: Häcker, B
Modelling the impact of cyclic hypoxia on cell-cycle regulation in cancer cells

In vivo observations show that oxygen levels in tumours can fluctuate on fast timescales. As a result, cancer cells can be periodically exposed to pathologically low oxygen levels; a phenomenon known as cyclic hypoxia. Even though in vitro models of cyclic hypoxia exist, they fail to capture the complex and heterogeneous oxygenation dynamics of real tumours. Mathematical models can help to overcome current experimental limitations and, by doing so, offer new insights into the biology of cyclic hypoxia by predicting cell responses to a wide range of cyclic dynamics. Recent experimental evidence suggests that cyclic hypoxia alters the progression of cancer cells along the cell-cycle. In this thesis, we use a range of mathematical approaches to study cell-cycle dysregulation in cyclic hypoxia and its impact on the growth and survival of cell cultures.
Accordingly, we develop and analyse a series of mathematical models that can be used, alongside in vitro experiments, to increase understanding of cell responses to cyclic hypoxia. First, we present a deterministic cell-cycle model to describe the dynamics of a population of cells growing in different oxygen environments, in the absence of competition for space. Our model comprises a system of 6 linear differential equations with two time delays and describes the evolution of the number of cells in different cell-cycle states. The impact of hypoxia on cell-cycle progression is captured by introducing arrest (or checkpoint compartments) and allowing the rates at which cells transition between different cell-cycle states to depend on the oxygen environment they experience. We then develop a corresponding individual-based model to study the impact of cyclic hypoxia on cell survival in the presence and absence of treatment.
We apply the models we develop in two different ways. On the one hand, we use a combination of analytical and numerical approaches to identify cell-cycle control strategies that favour proliferation and/or cell survival in different oxygen environments. Specifically, we identify environmental regimes in which cells may, or may not, benefit from having defective cell-cycle checkpoints. Furthermore, we illustrate how our models can be used as a tool to complement and design in vitro experiment to uncover the biological mechanisms that drive cell responses to constant and cyclic hypoxia.

Keywords: cancer
delay-differential equations
structured population models
cyclic hypoxia
Advisor: Byrne, H
Pitt-Francis, J
Maini, P
Hammond, E
Assumption violations in instrumental variables regression: weak 
instruments in subvector testing under heteroskedasticity and 
assessing the exclusion restriction

Instrumental variables (IV) is a commonly used regression technique to estimate treatment parameters when the treatment is not random, i.e., it is endogenous. It relies on key assumptions and this dissertation explores strategies to deploy when those assumptions may not hold. Chapter 1 deals with the case of testing a subset of non-random treatment parameters when both the assumptions of strong instrument relevance and homoskedasticity fail. We recommend bootstrapping the Kleibergen-Paap Test or a 2-step LIML-based J-test in this situation. Chapter 2 considers a different assumption of IV regression: the exclusion restriction. We prove that the test devised by Kiviet (2020) does not function as a true test of the exclusion restriction and recommend reformulating it as a test of the endogeneity of the treatment variable, a test that is only valid when the exclusion restriction holds. Thus while the problems considered in Chapter 1 - weak instruments and heteroskedasticity - can be addressed by using the tests we recommend in the subvector case, the exclusion restriction, considered in Chapter 2, is not easy to relax or test. It is a foundational assumption of IV regression without a simple workaround, although past work offers adjustments if a certain type of subsample is available (van Kippersluis and Rietveld, 2018) and our endogeneity test can provide limited information in assessing whether the exclusion restriction holds for a particular instrument, even though a true test of endogeneity remains impossible.

Keywords: Endogeneity
Instrumental variables
Subvector testing
Weak instruments
Heteroskedasticity
Exclusion restriction
Advisor: Windmeijer, F
Advanced cracking catalysts for the conversion of naphtha into light olefins

To meet the current global warming limit of 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels, an urgent requirement is to develop advanced technologies fully- able to decarbonise the energy industry and other sectors. It is also expected that the demand for fossil of derived fuels will start declining in the coming years. Thereby, a significant fraction of the still vast resources of fossil hydrocarbons will be targeted towards the production of petrochemicals, notably to the production of light olefins, especially propene, and aromatics within an environmentally–friendly, climate-conscious perspective. The main scope of the project is to design and develop highly selective solid based catalysts and also to optimize the reaction conditions for converting the relatively high molecular weight hydrocarbons present in naphtha into the desired compounds.
ZSM-5 is the most efficient catalyst for naphtha cracking to light olefins. Our initial studies reveal that, for these catalytic processes, the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio is not perhaps the primary criterion for the assessment of the performance of the zeolite catalyst.
When compared to the catalyst formulation that was created by the impregnation approach, Cr2O3 loading on HZSM-5 (SiO2/Al2O3 = 80) zeolite using the mechanical mixing (MM) method results in a better n-heptane conversion (i.e., 95 wt.%) than the impregnation method (IMP). The inclusion of Cr had an effect on the physicochemical parameters of the catalysts, as well as their catalytic activity and selectivity. The optimum amount of Cr loading, which was 10% by weight, resulted in an increase in selectivity toward olefins, especially ethylene. In order to gain an understanding of the interaction mechanisms of the catalyst components and the role of support in the catalytic cracking of n-heptane over a hybrid of zeolite-matrix catalysts, it was investigated the effect of different matrix over ZSM-5 zeolite.
The advance made in this thesis is based on the designed combination of HZSM-5 with kaolin, the latter being a highly versatile catalyst and support matrix. This inert, inexpensive and earth-abundant material significantly improves the catalyst's sustainable features alongside the effective production of light olefins from n-heptane (a model compound) and naphtha (the actual petrochemical feedstock). The matrix alters the texture, morphology, surface density and strength of acid sites of HZSM-5 zeolite hence, enhancing the production of light olefins, particularly propene, followed by ethene and in minor extension C4H8 compound.
This work highlights the favourable impact of carefully tuning the strength and surface density of acid sites in HZSM-5 by combining it with a natural clay! This strategy enhances the production of light alkenes, particularly propene, and even aromatics via the catalytic cracking of naphtha.

Keywords: ZSM-5
light olefin
catalytic cracking of naphtha
kaolin
Cr2O3
Advisor: Edwards, P
Hayward, M
Hydrogen production from crude oil using microwave-initiated catalytic technology

The current target of limiting global warming to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels is recognised as a demanding task. Should renewable technologies, for example, wind and solar, be not able to decarbonise the energy industry sufficiently in the near future, other approaches are needed to generate energy without the emission massive amounts of CO2.
Hydrogen as an energy vector or fuel of the future has many advantageous properties compared to the current fuels. At the present, hydrogen production relies on fossil fuels and this trend will continue in the foreseeable future. As a result, hydrogen plants are and will remain a major source of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. Decarbonisation is rapidly becoming a pressing but attractive challenge for worldwide fossil fuel utilization.
Here, we present an application of this new approach to the deep-dehydrogenation of Saudi Arabian light crude oil (LCO) - a liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely-. Hydrogen from fossil LCO - without significant CO2 production - is realized through microwave-initiated catalysis on activated-carbon-supported inexpensive Fe catalysts. Further optimisation can make the new process potentially competitive with current H2 production technologies, typically involving the steam reforming of methane, which invariably involves the release of significant amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere.
This environmentally - acceptable approach - to clean hydrogen production directly from fossil fuels and having near - to - zero CO2 production can make this new process potentially competitive with the current hydrogen production technologies, particularly through the portal of a carbon tax on energy producers. It, therefore, ushers in a new era …. The decarbonization of fossil fuels.

Keywords: fossil fuel
microwave
activated carbon
syngas
hydrogen
iron
Advisor: Clarke, SJ
Toward a Catholic theology of money

The Catholic tradition is rich in supplying the principles by which to evaluate theological matters—and usually quite comprehensive in applying them as well. A great lacuna in them, however, is in the context of money. For all the Catholic vitriol on the evils of money, the tradition has not sufficiently grappled with the nature of money, instead leaving us to wonder whether or not it is opposed to God and the Church. Given the rise of Catholic social doctrine since Pope Leo XIII (d. 1903)—which has developed theological understandings of many financial techniques and systems—it is surprising that there is no evaluation of money as the foundational financial instrument. Catholic economic insight will be limited until it has effectively considered money. This thesis begins to fill that gap. Chapter 1 considers various contemporary theories attempting to define the essence of money, concluding that they are insufficient precisely because the various forms of money arising in history do not neatly fit into a singular category; they all have a different etiology and function. Instead, we must ask which type of money is simplex or ideal for human communion. Chapter 2 considers that question by examining the only treatise in patristic or scholastic literature that systematically addresses it—Nicole Oresme’s De moneta, in which he argues for decentralized commodity money. From there I attempt an evaluation of that specific form of money—its metaphysical predicaments (Chapters 3 and 4) as well as its redemption (Chapter 5), entering into a debate with the Austrian school of economics in doing so. In the final chapter of the thesis, I consider the nature of money as capital and argue that the attempt to render all money as primarily a productive asset undermines the stability of just exchanges. Ultimately, while this thesis resurrects and defends the neglected Catholic endorsement of a stable currency, I argue that returning to sound money is not first and foremost a policy proposal, but a derivative of a disposition that either makes the just use of money easy or difficult—a catalyst for moving further into abstraction or an aid to better live in reality.
Of triggers, supersymmetry and photons: triggers for dark matter and a search for gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

This thesis summarises research using the ATLAS experiment to search for Dark Matter. A performance study of the ATLAS Run 2 E
miss
T
trigger is presented, introducing relevant performance metrics and the algorithms that have lead to the successful operation of the trigger during LHC Run 2. The \texttt{trktc} algorithm, a candidate algorithm for the Run 3 E
miss
T
trigger, and its performance are discussed in detail, motivating the combination of a tracking-based algorithm with a Run 2 algorithm in constructing the Run 3 primary trigger. A search for new physics in hh
+invisible in 139fb−1
of pp
data collected at
√
s
=13TeV
with the ATLAS experiment is presented. Searches are performed for events in which one Higgs boson decays to γγ
and the other to b
ˉ
b
. The final state of γγb
ˉ
b
+E
miss
T
was previously unexplored by the ATLAS experiment. No evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model has been found. Results are interpreted in the context of Gauge-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking models. Limits are presented assuming a pure Higgsino neutralino, which decays via
˜
χ
0
1
→h
˜
G
or
˜
χ
0
1
→Z
˜
G
. Assuming BF(
˜
χ
0
1
→h
˜
G
)=100%
, models with m(
˜
χ
0
1
)≤300GeV
are excluded. For lower branching fractions of BF(
˜
χ
0
1
→h
˜
G
)=75%
, models with neutralino masses of up to ∼250GeV
are excluded. Models with m(
˜
χ
0
1
)=130GeV
are excluded for branching fractions as low as 40%
. The presented search almost completely closes a gap in the ATLAS experiment's sensitivity to Dark Matter models.

Keywords: gravitino
GMSB
particle physics
trigger
supersymmetry
new physics
Advisor: Barr, A
The shiftiness dilemma applied to telling and its norms

This thesis represents an attempt to argue that there is an invariant epistemic standard that governs the assertability of knowledge attributions, and that any context variability with practical stakes is owed to the interpersonal norm that constitutes the speech act of telling. The way I reach my conclusions is by arguing that the subject matter of epistemic contextualism has been analysed in a sub-optimal way, and that this has led to a significant omission of an important aspect of knowledge attributions and denials, namely their interpersonal normativity. The literature on this issue has been universally analysing all of the examples that have motivated arguments between epistemic contextualists, classical invariantists, and subject-sensitive invariantists as cases of assertions of knowledge attributions and denials. I propose that there is a more precise way in which we can analyse the same examples, namely as cases of telling, which will require contextualists and invariantists alike to make room in their analyses for interpersonal normativity.
These two proposals, of analysing examples of knowledge attributions and denials more precisely, and of accepting that telling, as a speech act, involves an interpersonal norm, are not too controversial independently. However, I will use their combination to argue that the context-sensitivity exhibited by uses of knowledge ascriptions and denials owes to the interpersonal norm that constitutes telling, which stipulates that in telling their audience that p, the speaker takes responsibility for the truth of p. I finally argue that the practical stakes involved in a situation determine the amount of epistemic warrant that one needs to have in order to be warranted in taking responsibility for the truth of p.
If all of the arguments presented above are right, I manage to provide a way of evading the context shiftiness dilemma, which is an argument made by the contextualist against the classical invariantist. Moreover, a strong invariantist case has been built.

Keywords: Telling
Invariantism
Epistemic Contextualism
Contextualism
Advisor: Williamson, T
The Christian life and the disclosure of being : Karl Barth's Christology and Martin Heidegger's Question of being

The aim of this thesis is to explore the ethical dimensions of both Barth’s and Heidegger’s works, and to present them as the unifying element of their diverse publications. This ethical dimension can be best described as their concern that human beings conceal ultimate reality by way of their existence, and thus as the imperative to exist in a way that allows reality to reveal itself, unhindered by the projections of human worldviews.
For Barth, the proper way of existence, through which we disclose our present situation under God’s Lordship, consists in prayer. Yet prayer involves, for Barth, both anticipation and remembrance of the history of the covenant. The exposition of the meaning of prayer therefore leads to a consideration of the history of the covenant, according to its biblical witnesses. The thesis therefore explores Barth’s exegetical interpretation of the two main perspectives of the history of the covenant in the New Testament, and reconstructs Barth’s understanding of the covenant-history as the hermeneutical framework of the disclosure of our present situation under the Lordship of God. Next follows the exposition of our concrete ethical obligations within the hermeneutical framework of the covenant-history. This exposition proceeds via a comparative study of Barth’s Minster ethics-lectures and his Church Dogmatics. Given that, for Barth, our concrete ethical obligations involve allowing ourselves to be challenged by a different perspective of reality, this thesis introduces Heidegger as a dialogue partner. The presented reading of Heidegger’s major works and lecture-circles focuses on his understanding of the interrelation between human existence and the self-manifestation of being as the final paradigm of meaning and horizon of this existence.
The thesis concludes with a dialogue between Barth and Heidegger, which aims to create the space for a new self manifestation of reality through the experience of a conflict between different perspectives of reality, and to translate Heidegger’s perspective of reality into Barth’s, in order to reconstruct Barth’s perspective in a process in which reality can reveal itself anew.

Keywords: Christology
being
Heidegger
Christian life
Martin Heidegger
Question of being
Karl Barth
Barth
disclosure of being
Christ
ontology
Über die Linie
Jesus Christ
Development of a diverter piloted switched vortex valve for secondary flow modulation

Active modulation of coolant flow rates would improve cycle efficiencies for jet engines. This thesis presents a proof of concept multistage fluidic device, the staged switched vortex valve (staged SVV), which modulates flow rates by switching between high and low flow impedance states. It is shown that the device can be actively switched between states using conventional mass flow injection and, with minimal modifications, 200 Hz acoustic tones.
A grey-box model of the staged switched vortex valve is developed as part of the investigation. This model encapsulates the complex fluid interactions associated with the vortex chamber and the diverter switch sections within black-box objects tuned with steady-state and transient characteristics. The model convincingly reproduces pressures and mass flow rates associated with steady conditions, switching events and self-excited oscillatory instabilities. Furthermore, the model can predict the conditions that will trigger switching and oscillatory instabilities.
The model is used in conjunction with the physical device to investigate the effects inter-stage duct impedances and sub-switching control signals can have on the stability and performance of the staged SVV. It is discovered that an appropriately sized inter-stage impedance can be used to improve the steady-state performance, with a localised constriction area ratio of 0.25 in one of the ducts affecting a 3.8% increase in the device’s turn-down ratio (TDR). However, the resulting increase in inter-stage pressure losses also makes the device more susceptible to self-excited oscillations. Sub-switching acoustic signals can also be used to improve steady-state performance. A 5.6% increase in the TDR is achieved by applying a 640 Hz acoustic tone to the unattached side of the pilot diverter section. Moreover, sub-acoustic tones can also be used to stabilise the staged SVV and suppress self-excited oscillations.

Keywords: coolant flow
switched vortex valve
fluidics
flow modulation
aeronautic
jet engine
diverter
active control
staged fluidic
Advisor: Bacic, M