VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Burning water - the state, irrigation technology and the production of scarcity in Spain

Through studying the adoption of groundwater abstraction technology in the twentieth century in La Mancha, this research investigates the historical role of the state in the development of modern groundwater-fed irrigation in Spain between the 1940s and 1985. By focusing on the Mancha Occidental aquifer and the Las Tablas de Daimiel wetland, this study also scrutinizes how the adoption of groundwater abstraction technology led by the state fed back into the environment through ecosystem degradation and groundwater scarcity at the local and regional level.
By examining the historical links between technology adoption, statecraft and ecological change, this study explores the different ways through which the state has taken a prominent role in producing groundwater-fed irrigation socio-ecologies. Additionally, it traces the socio-political mechanisms involved in the progressive desiccation of the Las Tablas de Daimiel wetland and its transformation into a burning dryland.

Keywords: La Mancha
environmental degradation
Spain
irrigation politics
colonisation
technology
groundwater
Advisor: Hope, R
Metal coating of optical fibres

This thesis is concerned with the production of metal-coated optical fibres, the fibres being drawn within a vacuum. Most common methods for producing optical fibres employ an oxy-gas ring burner or an inert gas resistance furnace to reach the high temperatures necessary to melt silica. These methods have the disadvantage of exposing the molten or hot silica fibre to the atmosphere before a protective coating is applied, thereby increasing the possibility of contaminants being present at the fibre surface.
A novel though more elaborate method of producing fibres is described, with preliminary experimental results. Vacuum production allows the fibre to be metal-coated, using a magnetron sputtering technique, before exposure to the atmosphere, and the methods by which this is achieved are described.
An electromagnetically operated optical fibre switch utilising a ferromagnetically-coated optical fibre is also described.

Advisor: Walsh, D
Synthesis and reactivity of titanium hydrazido(2-) complexes

This Thesis describes the synthesis and characterisation of titanium hydrazido(2-) complexes and their reactivity towards unsaturated molecules. Exploration of the bonding in titanium hydrazido(2-) complexes is performed through structural and computational studies.
Chapter 1 introduces current Group 4 hydrazido chemistry and describes its relevance with comparison to Group 4 imido and mid/late metal hydrazido examples.
Chapter 2 describes the synthesis and characterisation of new titanium hydrazido(2-) half-sandwich complexes. A general route to new titanium hydrazido(2-) chemistry is described and suppression of dimerisation pathways common to Group 4 alkyl hydrazido(2-) chemistry is investigated.
Chapter 3 describes the synthesis, bonding and preliminary reaction chemistry of a new titanium hydrazido(2-) sandwich complex. Through structural and computational techniques, the bonding in the sandwich complex Cp2Ti(NNPh2)(py) (14) is explored and the implications to the reactivity of this complex considered.
Chapter 4 describes the synthesis of new titanium hydrazido(2-) synthons which is extended to the synthesis of new titanium hydrazido(2-) complexes with diamide-amine type ligands. The bonding of the hydrazido(2-) ligand is explored through structural and computational study of these complexes.
Chapter 5 describes the novel reaction chemistry of a diamide-pyridyl titanium hydrazido(2-) complex Ti(N2Npy)(NNPh2)(py) (23). Novel reactivity of both the Ti=Nα and Nα-Nβ bonds is presented with the mechanisms of some of these transformations probed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations.
Chapter 6 presents full experimental procedures and characterising data for the new complexes reported.
CD Appendix contains .cif files for all new crystallographically characterised complexes described.

Keywords: hydrazide
hydrazido(2-)
hydrazido
titanium
Advisor: Mountford, P
Evolution and taxonomy of myrmecophytes with particular reference to Myrmecodia and Hydnophytum

Those epiphytes which are inhabited by ants are reviewed; they comprise nine genera in four families. All are tropical and most are from the Far East. They probably all gain mineral nutrients from material brought by the ants. This contrasts with myrmecophytic trees and shrubs which are defended against insect herbivores by ants collecting food produced by the plant.
five of the nine genera of ant-epiphytes belong to the Rubiaceae; two of these, Hydnophytum and Myrmecodia are highly diversified and specialized. They are found throughout the tropical Far East in a range of habitats, but are most abundant in open canopies. Ants (Iridomymex cordatus and I. cf. scrutator) occupy cavities in the enlarged hypocotyl.
The 'tuber' cavities and other unusual morphological features are elaborated in Myrmecodia. For instance, spines of different types are derived from adventitious roots; internodes are condensed and covered by outgrowths at each leaf-base; stipules are enlarged and differ in their splitting. The inflorescence rachis is progressively reduced in Hydnophytum, and the flowers sunk in the stem in Myrmecodia. These structural changes possibly benefit the ants, but may have reduced the frequency of crosspollination, though some heterostyly is present. The morphology of the satellite genera (Myrrnephytum, Anthorhiza and Squamellaria) shows some parallels with that of Myrmecodia.
The five genera are united as a subtribe - the Hydnophytinae. Detailed taxonomic treatment of Myrmecodia and the satellite genera, but not Hydnophytum, is given. Myrmecodia is reduced from 43 to 18 species. One is a variable, widespread, lowland species which is divided into informal categories. One is polytypic with three subspecies, four are variable, but not divided, and the rest are monotypic, geographically restricted, mostly montane species. The pattern of variation is often reticulate, and a hierarchy or infrageneric grouping was not identified.
Myrmecodia and the satellite genera appear to have evolved independently from Hydnophytum-like ancestors. Structures probably advantageous to the ants have arisen repeatedly, but may also have led to inbreeding and taxonomic difficulty. The more sophisticated symbiosis in Myrmecodia may be reflected by the more mesomorphic nature of that genus, and is a prime example of coevolution between higher plants and animals.

Keywords: epiphytes
taxonomy
Advisor: White, F
The role of clothing and fashion in the household budget and popular culture, Britain, 1919-1949

The central theme of the thesis is how clothing and, to a lesser degree, fashion affected the lives of women in the period from 1919 to 1949. The practical impact of clothing on women is rarely assessed to the same degree as other essentials of life such as food and housing, yet obtaining, maintaining and renewing clothing stocks were issues of the utmost importance to women, particularly those from low-income households, in the inter-war period and the Second World War.
The first half of the thesis concentrates upon the role of clothing in the home and in popular culture in the inter-war period. Of particular importance is the role of clothing in the household budget, a subject which has received limited attention from social historians. In households with limited incomes, finding the means to purchase clothing was problematic, and women often resorted to unconventional methods of saving and spending. The role of clothing in middle-class households is examined as well, with an emphasis on the many varieties of shops which supplied ready- to-wear clothing, as well as souces of made-to-measure clothing. And, while antiquarian and sociological studies of fashion abound, little has been written on the practical impact of fashion in the lives of ordinary people. With the development of a mass market after the First World War, the influence of fashion was extended to most of the social classes. Rather than re-examining the changing modes themselves, it is useful to study the impact these fashions had upon people: in the way they regarded and treated one another; and in the way they perceived themselves.
The study of the inter-war years thus offers a foundation from which to examine the role of clothing in the Second World War. The price of clothing and footwear rose steeply in the early months of the war, but stabilised once rationing and austerity measures took hold. The ways in which women budgeted, saved for and purchased clothing are discussed, with an emphasis on how these methods differed from pre-war habits. Although the development and implementation of government initiatives is described, the latter portion of the thesis concentrates on the practical effects of such schemes in the day-to-day lives of the British people. The role of fashion in the wartime economy is addressed as well. Austerity programmes stalled any extreme changes in fashion, people wore the same clothing year after year, and uniforms were almost universal. Nevertheless, issues of fashion and style remained important to the public, who in any case were encouraged to maintain high standards of dress and appearance as a sign of patriotism.
The study of DNA methylation anomalies in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

Many haematological malignancies are associated with widespread alterations of the transcriptional and epigenetic programmes. Changes in DNA methylation provide the clearest example of epigenetic changes, but the mechanism(s) underlying such changes is unknown. To investigate this I studied DNA methylation across an ~80kb segment of the genome which is not known to be mutated in haematological malignancies. Methylation was perturbed in 35-100% of samples of DNA from individuals with a wide range of haematological malignancies but not in non-malignant haematological disorders. DNA methylation was comprehensively assessed by Southern blot analysis, classical bisulphite sequencing and using a newly developed capture bisulphite sequencing protocol. The results were also compared with analysis by MeDIP, an immunoprecipitation-based technique. These analyses provide methylation status at various levels including individual CpG resolution. This showed both gain and loss of methylation at CpG dinucleotides. Of interest, hypomethylation was most frequently seen in intergenic regions corresponding to transcription factor binding sites and areas of increased chromosome accessibility. These observations suggested that hypomethylation of the genome in haematological malignancies could arise from aberrantly expressed DNA binding proteins which, recruited to sequences in regions of open chromatin, would protect the underlying CpG dinucleotides from the methylation machinery. This, in turn, could lead to passive demethylation accumulating with increasing cell divisions. This hypothesis was tested with electrophoretic mobility shift assays using oligonucleotides representing the DNA underlying one such region. This showed that, compared to nuclear extracts from the lymphocytes of normal individuals, those from patients with CLL were enriched for a protein which binds to oligonucleotides containing the underlying sequence. Using a mass spectrometry approach, I identified a variety of proteins that may bind such regions and account for their passive demethylation in haematological malignancies.

Keywords: malignancy
epigenetics
methylation
chronic lymphocytic leukaemia
Advisor: Higgs, D
Gibbons, R
Methodology for designing megawatt-scale yokeless and segmented armature (YASA) generators for wind turbines

This thesis develops design methodologies for megawatt(MW)-scale yokeless and segmented armature (YASA) generators for wind turbine applications. The methodologies include the electromagnetic, the structural and the thermal designs of a YASA generator.
The design process starts with developing an analytical method to generate preliminary machine designs for a megawatt-scale YASA generator. This analytical approach considers both electromagnetic and structural aspects of a generator, the parameters of which were obtained and visualised on a design reference map. This new concept of displaying machine parameters is useful for a designer to identify the relationship between them. An optimisation tool using pseudo-weight approach is integrated into the analytical tool to determine a optimum machine design. This is a flexible optimisation tool, allowing the user to give priorities to each objective function. The analytical calculation has reduced the design space for suitable machine candidates to be applied in further finite element analysis (FEM). In finite element analysis of an optimised YASA machine, the electromagnetic performance of a 1 MW YASA generator was produced and verified with analytical and experiment results. This is followed by structural optimisation with finite element method, where a spider wheel with a support ring geometry is applied to the rotor plate. This reduces the structural weight by more than 50% while the structure retain strong stiffness. Finally, the cooling system of the stator of the YASA generator is studied and the cooling channels design is proposed. Simulation results show that the stator of a 1 MW YASA generator can be effectively cooled with forced air.

Keywords: direct drive
wind turbine generator
YASA
optimisation
axial flux machine
Advisor: McCulloch, M
Modelling microstructural evolution in binary alloys

In this thesis morphologies, coarsening mechanisms and kinetics are examined in a systematic way, when phase separation and subsequent microstructural coarsening is modelled using deterministic mean field and stochastic Monte Carlo methods. For the mean field approach a microscopic diffusion equation due to Khachaturyan is employed, and a variation of it with an environment dependent mobility. Monte Carlo simulations are carried out with vacancy and Kawasaki dynamics, and a residence time algorithm is applied in the vacancy case.
In mean field models microstructural evolution results from a direct minimization of a free energy functional, and the mechanism of atomic diffusion does not appear explicitly. In Monte Carlo models, changes in site occupancies are effected by direct exchanges of neighbouring atoms (Kawasaki dynamics), or through vacancy motion. In this thesis the correspondence between mean field and Monte Carlo models in describing phase transformations in binary alloys is examined. Several examples of cases in which these differences between deterministic and stochastic models affect the phase transformation are given, and the underlying differences are analyzed.
It is also investigated how the choice of diffusion mechanism in the Monte Carlo model affects the microstructural evolution. Most Monte Carlo studies have been carried out with Kawasaki dynamics, although in real metals such direct exchanges are very unlikely to occur. It will be shown how the vacancy diffusion mechanism produces a variety of coarsening mechanisms over a range of temperatures, which the Kawasaki dynamics fails to capture. Consequently, kinetics and resulting morphologies, especially at low temperatures, are affected.
Finally, the question of physicality of time scales in mean field and Monte Carlo models is addressed. Often a linear dependence between Monte Carlo time and real physical time is assumed, although there is no rigorous justifcation for this. In mean field models, time is defined through the atomic mobility.By examining the effect of a realistic diffusion mechanism in systems undergoing phase transformation, a critical discussion of time scales in microscopic mean field models and a Monte Carlo model with Kawasaki dynamics is presented.

Keywords: coarsening
Monte Carlo methods
ordering
microstucrures
mean field methods
alloys
modelling
phase separation
Advisor: Sutton, A
Structure and dynamics in network liquids

The onset of the Glass Transition in tetrahedral network liquids is associated with the over-constrained nature of the structure and the low ability of the ions to move relative to one another. We investigate the interplay between the structure and dynamics in BeF2, a template for the ideal tetrahedral system. We see that the ionic diffusion coefficients can be predicted from the calculated viscosity of the system using the Eyring hopping model of diffusion, with a diffusive jump length approximately corresponding to the radius of the first coordination sphere. Novel correlation functions are developed which enable us to identify the events responsible, on an atomistic level, for the structural rearrangements which correspond to the barrier crossing in this hopping model of diffusion, and we find that these events can be identified as the exchange of ions in the local coordination poly- hedra, or cage, of the cations. The calculation of the rate of the decay of these cages allows us to predict the macroscopic diffusion coefficients with the definition of a jump length over which the diffusive hops occur, and to scale the behaviour of the system at different temperatures by setting the cage lifetime as an effective clock for the system. Comparison between simulations performed with and without the inclusion of the effects of anion polarisation suggest that the polarisation plays an important role in the ability of the system to undergo the cage decay events and to create the defect sites which facilitate a decrease in the number of constraints acting in the system.
The decay of the cages describes the local rearrangement of the ions in the first coordi- nation shell of a given ion. The development of other correlation functions allows us to investigate the spatial relationship between these cage decay events over longer length and time scales, and also to investigate how the local structure of the first coordination shells of the cations relates to their ability to undergo the cage decay events and to form the defects.
These functions are then used to investigate the link between the structure and the dy- namics in some molten trichloride systems, which have different network structures, and hence a different relationship between the cage decay and the diffusion.
Finally, we investigate the effect of changing the potential parameters in BeF2, and we find that the effective polarisability of the system can be controlled such that a less diffusive system may be described, giving a good representation of both structural and dynamical experimental data.

Advisor: Madden, P
Bourdieusian political theory and social science: the field of war correspondence 1990-2003

This thesis examines the cogency of Bourdieusian political theory and social science on phenomenological, empirical and normative grounds. It investigates whether Bourdieu's philosophy of science leads logically to the political content of Bourdieusian theory, and concludes that the originary determinism which characterises Bourdieu's work is a normative commitment. Rather than characterising that which is bracketed out of Bourdieu's neo-Marxist phenomenology - that is, the level of determination accessible neither to the consciousness of the social agent nor the social scientist - as inherently coercive, the thesis argues that the Bourdieusian modeal can be defended on deontological grounds. Specifically, this entails a deontological acceptance of the cultural value of autonomy and accountability. The tension between these two in turn raises the problem of acceptable levels of exclusion and decontestation, and the thesis concludes that a qualified elitism is defensible and compatible with Boudieusian principles. The thesis incorporates a case study which serves two functions. First, it puts into empirical practice the principles of Bourdieusian philosophy of social science to ascertain what implications and normative commitments are built into Bourdieusian methodology. In this regard it concludes that while it is possible to produce constructive analysis of systematically misrecognised economies, it becomes necessary to delineate the point beyond which positing further levels of coercive determination is counter-productive - and this can only be done according to deontological criteria. Second, it assesses the merit of Bourdieusian sociologies relative to existing accounts of the journalistic field. It concludes that while Bourdieu is excessively dismissive of individual awareness of the conditions of their field, Bourdieusian field analysis produces significant insights into the processes of naturalisation, self-identification, esotericisation and disinterestedness.

Keywords: practice
field
Bourdieusian political theory
journalism
symbolic system
war correspondence
habitus
Advisor: Frazer, L
Hodgson, G
Financial and political aspects of state intervention in the British film industry, 1925-1939

During this period the state's interest in the film industry took several different forms. The area of films policy explored in this thesis is the economic protection of the commercial film industry against the high percentage of American films screened in Britain and the Empire. I begin in 1925 because it was not until then that active steps were taken by the government, in response to agitation from producers and those who saw film as a bond of Empire and advertisement for British goods and 'way of life', leading to the Cinematograph Films Act, 1927. This proposed, for political, cultural, moral and economic reasons, that renters and exhibitors should acquire and show a percentage of British films. There was no subsidy for producers or a heavy duty levied on American film imports.
The origins, impact and character of official film policy are explored in the thesis with particular attention to financial and political aspects. An attempt is made to explain why policy was limited to film quotas together with an assessment of their impact on the industry's economic development. Details are also given on how the film industry's affairs became caught up in wider debates on tariff policy in the 1920s and in Anglo-American relations ten years later.
The first three chapters deal with the evolution, promulgation and initial impact of the Cinematograph Films Act, 1927. Chapter 4 examines the deliberations of the Moyne Committee, established in 1936 to review the film industry's progress. The last three chapters analyse the three major influences on policy during the making of the 1938 Films Act: the campaigns of British film trade interests; the state of Anglo-American relations and film finance. In the final assessment the major influences that shaped policy are outlined together with conclusions on the industry's position and problems on the eve of the Second World War.