VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The touchable and the untouchable: an investigation of touch in modern Japanese literature

This thesis examines how the experience of touch is depicted in modern/contemporary Japanese literature and culture. Employing touch-related 20th century French thought (Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Nancy) and psychoanalytic theory (Klein, Anzieu, Kimura), it discusses how the representations of touch illuminate various aspects of human existence, specifically: the mediated nature of touch, the process of the bodily encounters, the formation of subject identity, sexual differences, and the way memories of touch depicted in literature affect our sense of temporality.
Touch is a particularly interesting way of approaching Japanese literature because touching between people (apart from mother and child, called skinship) has been considerably repressed at least until after WW2, due to the relative absence of public practices of touch, authors’ aesthetic choices and censorship. Opposing this tendency, female authors born postwar write freely about touch. In comparison to Judeo-Christian cultures, Japanese culture has historically not been open to tactile communication, nor is explicit articulation of internal experience, as in psychoanalysis, particularly prominent. Japanese literary characters are thus especially self-conscious about touch.
Following a theoretical and historical overview regarding touch and contact in the Introduction, Chapter 1 discusses different ways of mediating touch in the works of Yoshiyuki Junnosuke, Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, and Abe Kōbō. Chapter 2 argues how high levels of mediation affect the manners of engaging in direct encounters with others in Yoshiyuki, Kawabata Yasunari, and Matsuura Rieko. Chapter 3 discusses the temporality of tactile memories in Yoshiyuki, Kawabata, and Ogawa Yoko.
Reflecting on such a complicated portrayal of touch in Japanese culture will help fill a gap in the existing scholarship regarding touch in literature. By critically examining the relationship between theories and literature in the East and West, this thesis also significantly contributes to the field of comparative literature and cultural studies as an example of cross-cultural research on touch.

Keywords: Skinship
Touch
Incorporation
Mediation
Membrane
Senses
Advisor: Flores, L
Ffrench, P
ANSA-bridged and binuclear metallocene compounds of zirconium and hafnium

This thesis describes the synthesis and characterisation of new mononuclear and binuclear zirconium and hafnium compounds containing ansa-bridged ligands. Some olefin polymerization studies, employing the new compounds as catalysts, are also presented.
Chapter 1 begins with an introduction to Ziegler-Natta polymerization of olefins, concentrating on recently developed metallocene-based catalyst systems. The second part of the Chapter charts the development of group 4 ansa-metallocene derivatives, especially their use as stereospecific catalysts. Finally, a review of binuciear group 4 metallocene compounds containing bridging bis(cyclopentadienyl)-type ligands is presented.
Chapter 2 describes the synthesis and characterisation of some novel mononuclear metallocene compounds of zirconium and hafnium containing ansa-bridged ligands. The ansa-bridged mononuclear compounds [{Me2C(η5-C5H4)(η2-C9H6)}M(η5C5H5)Cl] (M = Zr, Hf), [{(CH2)5C(η5-C5H4)(η2-C9H6)}M(η5-C5H5)Cl] (M = Zr, Hf) and [{Me2(η5-C5H4)(η3-C13H8)}Zr(η5-C5H5)Cl] are described, along with the X-ray crystal structures of the zirconium compounds. The η2-indenyl and η3-fluorenyl coordination modes observed for these compounds are unprecedented. The synthesis and characterisation of the novel, mononuclear ansa-bridged compounds [{Me2C(η5-C5H4)}M(η5-C5H5)Cl] (M = Zr, Hf) is also described, along with their X-ray crystal structures. The variable temperature solid state 13C CP/MAS NMR spectra of [{Me2C(η5-C5H4)}M(η5-C5H5)Cl] (M = Zr, Hf) show slow rotation of the C5H5 ring on the NMR timescale.
Chapter 3 describes the synthesis and characterisation of some novel homo- and hetero-binuclear metallocene compounds of zirconium and hafnium in which the metals are bridged by an unsymmetrical ansa ligand. The novel, chiral homobinuclear compounds [(η5-C5H5)MCl2{(η5-C5H4)CMe2(η5-C9H6)}MCl2(η5-C5H5)] (M = Zr, Hf) are described. The ansa-bridged mononuclear compounds [{Me2C(η5-C5H4)(η2-C9H7)M(η5-C5H5)Cl] (M = Zr, Hf) are used as reagents for the selective synthesis of the heterobinuclear analogues [(η5-C5H5)MCl2{(η5-C5H4)CMe2(η5-C9H6)}M*Cl2(η5-C5H5)] (M = Zr, M* = Hf ; M = Hf, M* = Zr) and the unsymmetrical homobinuclear compound [(η5-C5H5)ZrCl2{(η5-C5H4)CMe2(η5-C9H6)}ZrCl2(η5-C5Me5)]. The methylated derivatives [(η5-C5H5)M(CH3)2{(η5-C5H4)CMe2(η5-C5H6)}M*(CH3)2(η5-C5H5)] (M = Zr, M* = Zr, Hf; M = Hf, M* = Zr, Hf) are also described. The structurally related mononuclear compounds [(η5-C5H5)MCl2{(η5-C5H4)CMe2(C9H7)}] (M = Zr, Hf) and [(η5-C5H5)Zr(CH3)2{(η5-C5H4)CMe2(C9H7)}] have also been prepared.
Chapter 4 presents some olefin polymerization studies using the new compounds described in Chapter 3 as catalysts, along with either methylaluminoxane or the recently developed co-catalysts [Ph3C]+[B(C6F5)4]- and B(C6F5)3.
Chapter 5 provides the experimental details for the reactions described in this thesis and the characterising data for all new compounds are given in Chapter 6
Crystallographic data for the for the X-ray structure determinations in Chapter 2 are given in the Appendices.

Advisor: Green, M
‘Apprendre à voir’: the quest for insight  in George Sand’s novels

This thesis examines the novels of George Sand (1804-1876) and analyses representative examples from her entire œuvre. Its overall aim is to re-evaluate Sand’s standing as a writer of intellectual interest and importance by demonstrating that she is engaging with a cultural and intellectual phenomenon of particular relevance to the nineteenth century: the link between different ways of seeing and knowledge or understanding, which I term ‘insight’.
The visual dimension of Sand’s novels has so far been overlooked or reduced to a rose-tinted view of the world, and my study is the first to examine vision in her work. I argue that Sand demonstrates a continuous commitment to ways of engaging with the world in visual terms, incorporating conceptual seeing, prophetic vision, as well as physical eyesight. Contesting the prevailing critical view of Sand’s œuvre as one which declines into blandness and irrelevance after the 1850s, this thesis uncovers a model of expansion in her writing, as she moves from her focus on the personal in her early novels, privileging internal vision, to wider social concerns in her middle period in which she aims to reconfigure reality, to her final period in which she advocates the physical observation of the natural world.
Rejecting the perception of Sand as a writer of sentiment at the expense of thought, this study argues that her writing constitutes a continuous quest for understanding, both of the physical world and the more abstract, eternal ‘vérité’. I show that Sand transcends binary divisions between science and art, the detail and the whole, the material and the abstract, and that she ultimately promotes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the world. This also enables me to reassess Sand’s poetics by arguing that her rejection of the mimetic model is founded on her conception of the world as multiple and constantly evolving.

Keywords: vision
nineteenth-century novel
George Sand
insight
Advisor: Warman, C
The structural and magmatic evolution of the Lebombo monocline, South Africa, with particular reference to Swaziland

The Lebombo Monocline is a large flexure of Karroo age extending from Southern Rhodesia to Natal. It consists mainly of a thick sequence of Karr basalts and rhyolites overlying the Archaean crust. The Karroo strata dip eastwards beneath Cretaceous cover at angles of up to 50°. Four 1:50,000 detailed maps have been produced of the volcanics in Swaziland.
The basalts form a monotonous and poorly exposed succession. They are about 5 km thick but a large dyke swarm and strike-faulting serve to increase the apparent thickness. A few acidic interbeds occur near the base. The rhyolites overlie the basalts with little interbedding. They are also about 5 km thick and can be divided into 30 flows which are interpreted as rheoignimbritic in origin because of the presence of characteristic ignimbrite features and flow-folded tops to the flows.
A dense dyke swarm intrudes the basalts and is younger than most of the basaltic succession; five granophyre bodies intrude the basalts close to the base of the rhyolites.
The monocline is block-faulted in the south but becomes progressively more flexural in the north. The jointing in the rhyolites can be divided into groups related to basement structures, monoclinal flexuring and post-Karroo tectonic activity respectively.
Major and trace element analyses for seventy rocks show that the chemical variation in the rhyolites can be explained by Rayleigh fractionation of a dacitic magma produced by fractional crystallisation of a basaltic precursor. The more basic and most acid rhyolites have compositions more compatible with partial melting of a solid basaltic source. The rhyolite magma was nearly dry but the vapour phase was rich in CO2.
The acidic interbeds within the basalts have depleted trace element abundances and relatively radiogenic isotopic chemistry and were produced by crustal anatexis.
The tectonics and magmatism of the Lebombo are discussed in relation to the break-up of Gondwanaland.

Advisor: Cox, K
The effect of disability on children with cerebral palsy and their families

ObjectivesTo describe the 'activities and participation' of children with cerebral palsy, as defined by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), using family-assessed instruments.
MethodsA structured review of family assessed instruments appropriate for measuring children's activities and participation was undertaken to identify questionnaires for use in a postal survey. The survey involved a geographically-defined population of children with cerebral palsy between 6 and 12 years old, identified from the 4Child database in Oxford. Indices of children's 'activities and participation' were families' assessment of the Gross Motor Function (GMFCS) and Manual Ability (MACS) Classification Systems, the Activities Scale for Kids (ASK) and Lifestyle Assessment Questionnaire (LAQ-CP). To determine the reliability of families' assessments their classifications of the GMFCS and MACS were compared to ratings made professionals; the response frequencies and internal consistency of the ASK and LAQ-CP scales were also examined. Details of children's impairments and abilities were then used as explanatory variables in multiple regression analyses to identify the effect of disability on children's activities and participation.
ResultsFamilies of 129/314 (41%) of the children fully participated in the survey and 175/314 (56%) provided a classification using the GMFCS. These children did not differ from children who did not take part by age, gender or characteristics of their cerebral palsy and associated impairments. Although there was not always perfect agreement the families' classifications of children's movement and manual abilities using the GMFCS and MACS were highly reliable compared to those of health professionals (ICC>0.9). Analysis of the ASK and LAQ-CP showed these also to be reliable. Scores for the ASK and LAQ-CP were generally best predicted by children movement, manual and intellectual disability.
ConclusionsFamily assessment of children's movement and manual abilities using the GMFCS and MACS was highly reliable compared to health professionals. In concordance with similar studies that used professionally-assessed measures, children's activities and participation were most adversely affected by movement, manual and intellectual disabilities. Family assessment offers a highly reliable method for measuring activities and participation; however currently available instruments do not fully represent all the domains in the ICF.

Advisor: Fitzpatrick, R
Hybrid technologies for remediation of recalcitrant industrial wastewater

In metal machining processes, the regulation of heat generation and lubrication at the contact point are achieved by application of a fluid referred to as metalworking fluid (MWF). This has the combined features of the cooling properties of water and lubricity of oil. MWFs inevitably become operationally exhausted with age and intensive use, which leads to compromised properties, thereby necessitating their safe disposal. Disposal of this waste through a biological route is an increasingly attractive option, since it is effective with relatively low energy demands when compared to current physical and chemical options. However, biological treatment is challenging since MWF are chemically complex, including the addition of toxic biocides which are added specifically to retard microbial deterioration whilst the fluids are operational. This makes bacterial treatment exceptionally challenging and has stimulated the search and need to assess technologies which complement biological treatment. In this study the remediation, specifically of the recalcitrant component of a semi-synthetic MWF, employing a novel hybrid treatment approach consisting of both bacteriological and chemical treatment, was investigated. Three chemical pre-treatment methods (Fenton’s oxidation, nano-zerovalent iron (nZVI) oxidation and ozonation) of the recalcitrant components followed by bacterial degradation were examined. The synergistic interaction of Fenton’s-biological oxidation and nZVI-biodegradation led to an overall COD reduction of 92% and 95.5% respectively, whereas pre-treatment with ozone reduced the total pollution load by 70% after a post-biological step. An enhancement in biodegradability was observed after each of the chemical treatments, thus facilitating the overall treatment process. The findings from this study established that the use of non-pathogenic microorganisms to remediate organic materials present in MWF wastewater is a favourable alternative to energy demanding physical and chemical treatment options. However, optimal performance of this biological process may require chemical enhancement, particularly for those components that are resistant to biological transformation.

Keywords: metalworking fluid
remediation
Fenton
zerovalent iron
biodegradation
ozone
Advisor: Thompson, I
Dobson, P
Categoricity and covering spaces

This thesis develops some of the basic model theory of covers of algebraic curves. In particular, an equivalence between the good model-theoretic behaviour of the modular j-function, and the openness of certain Galois representations in the Tate-modules of abelian varieties is described.

Keywords: Manin-Mumford
spaces
models of the theory
Advisor: Pila, J
Zilber, B
A reassessment of the interaction between complement C3d and complement receptor CD21 SCR1-2

Biophysical characterisation of protein – ligand interactions can provide vital information to dissect complex biochemical binding mechanisms. C3d has been shown to interact with a number of different protein ligands, namely CD21 SCR1-2, S. aureus Efb-C, S. aureus Ehp, S. aureus Sbi and complement regulatory protein factor H. Although much is known about the relationship of C3d and CD21 in the induction of humoral immunity, the structural aspects of this interaction remained controversial until very recently. The aim of this thesis was to gain a detailed understanding of the C3d/CD21 SCR1-2 interaction using different biophysical methods and to identify potential low molecular weight inhibitors of the interaction.
A crystal structure of the C3d/CD21 complex solved by Szakonyi et al. in 2001 indicated the C3d binding site on CD21 was in the SCR2 domain. It did not agree with mutagenesis studies and recent NMR titration experiments show that only residues from the SCR1 domain of CD21 appear to mediate binding under physiologically relevant ionic strength. In the current work, NMR was employed to monitor ligand binding to C3d and to provide residue specific information that reflects a physiologically relevant binding mode to complement the crystallographic model solved by van den Elsen and Isenman in 2011. Microcalorimetric analysis on the site-directed mutagenesis studies also supported a model of hydrophobically- and electrostatically-driven protein-protein interaction for C3d and CD21 SCR1-2.
Complement C3d forms a non-specific thioester linkage with antigen, which then binds to CD21 SCR1-2 and coligates with membrane immunoglobulin of the B cell receptor. While the interactions triggers B cell activation and hence the production of antibody under normal circumstances, it has been demonstrated that the interactions also lead to undue B cell activation and auto-antibody production. There is a well established collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mouse model to support the significance of C3d and CD21 in disease susceptibility. To this end, a high-throughput SPR-based screening platform was set up to screen a fragment library against C3d, so as to identify low molecular weight compounds that could serve as a starting point for drug development programme. Unfortunately, the work did not yield C3d-binding inhibitors and future work could include screening large fragment libraries that are designed to target protein-protein interfaces.

Keywords: drug screening
crystallography
complement
NMR
C3d
CD21
Advisor: McDonnell, J
Noble, M
Fleets and manpower on land and sea: the Italian "classes" and the Roman Empire 31 BC - AD 193

This thesis re-evaluates the nature and roles of the Italian classes (fleets) of the Roman empire between 31 BC and AD 193. Studied through the prism of naval history, the classes have been portrayed either as ineffective forces left to decay, or maritime institutions supporting military logistics. By starting from the position that the classes cannot easily be compared to other fleets, I argue that they should be regarded as a flexible manpower pool, placed in the same broad category as other soldiers in the Roman empire, who were drawn upon to perform a range of tasks on land and sea to the benefit of the Emperor, and who were integrated into systems supporting the functioning of the empire, which I term imperial organics. Chapter One discusses primarily epigraphic evidence for the classis servicemen, to argue that they considered themselves and were considered as milites who were trained to row, and who could be given tasks suitable to their abilities and places of deployment. Chapter Two, building on earlier discussion of the origins of the servicemen, examines second century AD papyrological evidence for recruitment from the Egpytian Fayoum. It posits recruitment systems which relied on several elements outside the control of Roman authorities, but which nonetheless ensured that the Italian classes were a well supplied manpower pool, perhaps because they did not rely on the so-called gens de mer. Chapter Three re-examines the main “naval bases” of the classes at Misenum and Ravenna, arguing that rather than purely military ports they should be understood as sites concentrating imperial resources to aid imperial activity in regions where concentrations of imperial property are attested. Drawing on arguments in the previous chapters, Chapter Four considers three case-studies for the functions of the Italian classes: their role in Roman military mobilisation and redeployment systems, their involvement in imperial communications, and their possible place in a coastal system on the western coast of Italy suggestive of imperial authority and benefaction. In all three it seeks to present evidence for imperial organics, low-level systems, possibly engendered by imperial activity, but which could persist of their own accord and which were essential to the workings of empire.

Keywords: Roman Empire
Roman Navy
Roman Government
Roman History
Advisor: Purcell, N
Prag, J
Intersection topologies

Given two topologies, T1 and T2 on the same set X , the intersection topology with respect to T1 and T2 is the topology with basis
{U1 ∩ U2 : U1 Є T1, U2 Є T2}
Equivalently, T is the join of T1 and T2 in the lattice of topologies on the set X . This thesis is concerned with analysing some particular classes of intersection topologies, and also with making some more general remarks about the technique.
Reed was the first to study intersection topologies in these terms, and he made an extensive investigation of intersection topologies on a subset of the reals of cardinality N1, where the topologies under consideration are the inherited real-line topology and the topology induced by an ω1-type ordering of the set. We consider the same underlying set, and describe the properties of the intersection topology with respect to the inherited Sorgenfrey line topology and an ω1-type order topology, demonstrating that, whilst most of the properties possessed by Reed's class are shared by ours, the two classes are strictly disjoint.
A useful characterisation of the intersection topology is as the diagonal of the product of the two topologies under consideration. We use this to prove some general properties about intersection topologies, and also to show that the intersection topology with respect to a first countable, hereditarily separable space and an ω1-type order topology can never be locally compact.
Results about the real line and Sorgenfrey line intersections with ω1 use various properties of the two lines. We demonstrate that most of the basic properties of the intersection topology require only the hereditary separability of R, and give examples to show that 'hereditary' is essential here. We also show that results about normality, ω1-compactness and the property of being perfect, all of which are set-theoretic in the classes of real-ω1 and Sorgenfrey-ω1 intersection topologies, can be shown to generalise to the class of intersection topologies with respect to separable generalised ordered spaces and ω1.

Advisor: Reed, G
Reed, M