VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Rhetoric in 1 Esdras 3:1–5:6 (the story of the three bodyguards): integration of Greek and Jewish features

The origin and purpose of 1 Esdras have long been debated in relation to the canonical texts of 2 Chr 35–36, Ezra 1–10, and Neh 7:72[73]–8:13a, as well as the original language and composition process of 1 Esdras. The story of the Three Bodyguards (1 Esd 3:1–5:6) is a key text for illuminating these debates. My main objective is to demonstrate the purpose and function of the story of the Three Bodyguards in relation to the purpose and composition of 1 Esdras. To achieve this purpose, I employ rhetorical criticism to identify rhetorical features in the speeches of the story and to demonstrate that their significance in and beyond the story is associated. These rhetorical features help us to recognise the purpose and function of the Story and of 1 Esdras as a whole, and also shed light on the compositional development of the entire work. Further, I highlight the relationship of the Story to other Jewish literature of the Second Temple period, including the Jewish novella and the court tale (e.g., Greek Esther).
Through multi-layered rhetorical analyses, I demonstrate that all the speeches in the story contain rhetorical features that have been influenced by Greek culture (e.g., Greek rhetoric) as well as derived from the Hebrew Bible and/or the Septuagint. I argue that the Story’s mixed character represents the author’s selective scribal activity and reveals the literary aspect, theme, and motif of the story of the Three Bodyguards. All of which, I show, are of relevance to the structural features and purpose of 1 Esdras.
Through this process, I conclude that the book of 1 Esdras, including the story of the Three Bodyguards, was originally written in Greek and composed by the single author who acquired a Greek and Jewish education during the Hellenistic period. Further, the author’s purpose was to deliver the rhetorical message: Remember God’s truthful and salvific action and live together in accordance with God’s character, Law, and action.

Keywords: Humour
The Story of the Three Bodyguards
Septuagint
1 Esdras
Advisor: Salvesen, A
The conquered and the conquerors: representations of warfare and combat in Greek and Egyptian literature

This thesis is a study of the ways in which Greek and Egyptian authors reacted to being conquered, focusing particularly on how these reactions were manifested in representations of war. The point of comparison is the Greek and Egyptian diachronic changes in their depictions of warfare and combat, and how these related to respective changes in geopolitical and military supremacy. To examine these changes, texts are selected from four periods: two Greek periods and two Egyptian; two periods of military supremacy (Greek texts from the early-mid Hellenistic period, c. 300–130 BC, Egyptian texts of the 18th and 19th Dynasties of the New Kingdom, c. 1550–1186 BC) and two later periods under foreign rule (Greek texts from the Imperial period, c. 200–300 AD, Egyptian Demotic texts from the Graeco-Roman period, c. 300 BC–200 AD). A Preface provides dates and locations for the sources, and sets out principles of transliteration and translation. After considering what the purpose and role of comparison is within studies of the ancient world in the Introduction, this thesis moves on to four chapters that cover important concepts repeatedly brought out in representations of war: the nature of war in terms of semantics and temporality; ethnicity (the identity given to both participants and audience by the authors, studied with particular attention paid to the use of similes and comparisons); gender and sexuality (the presence or absence of women in war, and the application of stereotypically masculine or feminine traits); social status (the structuring of society, from the gods down). The Conclusion draws these threads together, summarising how the Greeks and Egyptians reacted – or did not react – and to what extent ideas of resistance are present in the sources. Although the texts of the conquerors display similar attitudes to many of these concepts, a comparison of the changes that took place in Greek and Egyptian representations of war shows that their reactions to being conquered diverge, revealing different approaches to their culture’s loss of military power.

Keywords: New Kingdom
Inaros-Petubastis Cycle
Demotic Literature
Posthomerica
Hellenistic Literature
Advisor: Kelly, A
Frood, E
Spin(7) Instantons on asymptotically conical Calabi-Yau Fourfolds

The present thesis examines the role of Hermitian Yang-Mills (HYM) connections in Spin(7) instanton moduli spaces over asymptotically conical (AC) Calabi-Yau (CY) fourfolds. The starting point is Lewis' energy estimate: Lewis: if a principal G-bundle P over a closed CY fourfold X8} admits HYM solutions, then all Spin(7) instantons on P are HYM. The question we are interested in is whether this result persists in the AC setting.
A first-order approach is to pass to the (Sasaki-Einstein) asymptotic link, which is not Ricci flat and could thus be homogeneous. The role of the Spin(7) instanton equation is assumed by the G2 instanton equation and that of the HYM equation by the contact instanton equation. It is easier to explore the relationship between these 7-dimensional systems instead. Imposing equivariance reduces the PDEs to representation theory. This allows us to exhibit an explicit non-contact G2 instanton on S7. This example agrees with the limiting connection of the standard octonionic instanton of Fubini and Nicolai. Prior to the results of this thesis, this was the only known non-HYM Spin(7) instanton on a CY fourfold. It originally appeared in the physics literature. We provide an alternative construction, in line with the modern framework for equivariant gauge theory. Because its limiting connection is not contact, its moduli space cannot contain HYM connections. Consequently, it does not help resolve the question we set out to answer.
We extend Lewis's theorem to the AC setting, conditioning on decay rates.
We construct the moduli space of SO(5)-invariant Spin(7) instantons with structure group SO(3) on the Stenzel space. These new instantons sit exactly at the slow-rate cut-off point of our extension of Lewis's theorem. They provide a negative answer to the question we set out to answer: the moduli space is one-dimensional and contains precisely two HYM connections. One of these is the epicentre of a removable singularity/ bubbling phenomenon and the development of a corresponding Fueter section. We compute this explicitly and verify (after suitable modifications) an infinite-energy version of Tian's energy conservation identity. This phenomenon hints at a possible relationship between the AC Spin(7) instanton and HYM systems.

Keywords: Calabi-Yau Fourfolds
Spin(7) Instantons
Exceptional Holonomy
Hermitian Yang-Mills Connections
Higher Dimensional Gauge Theory
Advisor: Lotay, J
Dancer, A
Corporate action on climate change: perspectives on time, risk, and value

Companies are increasingly under pressure from governments, investors, and consumers to act on climate change by reducing, and ultimately eliminating, carbon emissions (decarbonisation). Yet companies continue to be held accountable for generating strong financial results and safeguard, if not maximise, shareholder value. This raises an important question: How do companies act on climate change in the face of intensifying decarbonisation and ongoing commercial imperatives? This thesis examines corporate action on climate change through three complementary perspectives on time, risk, and value. Drawing on economic geography, organisation and management, and accounting research, the thesis investigates: (1) the relationship between organisational time orientation and cor-porate carbon emissions; (2) how companies reconcile institutional demands to reduce carbon emissions (climate-stewardship logic) with pressures to create shareholder value (market logic); and (3) the determinants and capital market implications of corporate climate risk disclosures.
The thesis finds that (1) long-term oriented companies generate less carbon emissions, (2) companies reconcile market and climate-stewardship logics by transforming the system-level problem of climate change into the managerial – and thus manageable – object of climate risk, and (3) self-reported corporate climate risk exposures are largely not reflected in stock market values. Together, these insights shed light on the antecedents, processes, and consequences of corporate action on climate change, an issue that has received limited attention by economic geographers to date. Overall, this thesis provides evidence on the contours of an emerging carbon economy through the eyes of its central actors – companies in carbon-intensive industries – and highlights the importance and potential of researching the ways in which companies navigate and shape the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Keywords: accounting
climate risk
corporate strategy
climate change
risk management
Advisor: McElroy, C
Mikes, A
Generalizing speech recognition techniques for monotonic sequence modeling applications

This thesis demonstrates how modeling techniques from speech recognition can be advantageous in a variety of other problems. The problems to which we apply these techniques include visual-only speech recognition (lipreading), restoration of characters missing from old Hawaiian orthography but present in the modern orthography, and an interactive lipreading-based keyboard.
In particular, modeling techniques from speech recognition carry two main benefits applied throughout this thesis. The first is their exploitation of monotonicity, a property found widely across sequence modeling problems besides just speech. The second is the separation of the problem into a combination of learned and fixed pieces, the latter of which facilitates the injection of expert knowledge (in the form of finite state transducers) at arbitrary places in a larger system. These features for encoding inductive biases about our problem improve data efficiency, which is especially beneficial when paired data for learning the end-to-end problem from scratch is insufficiently plentiful or entirely unavailable. We can thus get the best of both worlds: explicit representation of our expert knowledge and other inductive biases, and learned neural network components for those that are hard to model by hand and have plentiful data.

Keywords: speech recognition
recurrent neural networks
visual speech recognition
sequence modeling
lipreading
Advisor: de Freitas, N
Blunsom, P
Accurate and precise 3D T1 mapping of the human liver at 3T using widely available magnetic resonance imaging methods

Better diagnostic and treatment methods are needed to counteract the steep increase of liver diseases. A promising non-invasive biomarker for the diagnosis of liver diseases is the longitudinal relaxation time (T1) of liver tissue, measured through quantitative magnetic resonance imaging. T1 correlates with liver fibrosis and inflammation. However, non-contrast T1 mapping is currently restricted to a single slice cross sectioning the liver and uses specialist cardiac imaging sequences that are often unavailable. As such, the main questions addressed in this thesis were: Is it possible to map T1 across the whole liver using only widely available pulse sequences? If so, can one obtain an unbiased estimate of liver T1 with sufficient precision for the diagnosis of liver diseases?
To answer these questions, a set of T1-weighted sequences capable of achieving whole liver coverage was adopted. The large covariance between T1 and the transmitted magnetic field (B1+) highlighted the need for an accurate B1+ map. Slice profile effects and several off-resonance based B1+ confounders were identified and corrected. Uncorrected, the median B1+ error in a phantom was -5.2%, producing a median T1 error of 10.5%. After applying all corrections, the median T1 error decreased to -0.3% with an interquartile range of [-2.5 2.1]%.
A theoretical framework was developed to calculate the T1 variance, including the noise propagated from the B1+ map into the T1 map. This framework was validated in vivo and used to find the optimal flip angles that resulted in the highest precision across a range of T1s and B1+ factors observed in the liver at 3 T.
Using scanner-agnostic sequences together with corrections for the confounding factors, a variable flip angle 3D T1 mapping method was developed requiring 7 breath-holds. A study across 10 healthy volunteers at 3 T validated the method’s accuracy, scan/rescan repeatability and precision. The 3D T1 maps yielded mean T1 values that, on average, were 5% lower than alternative single-slice T1 maps, with a repeatability coefficient of 49 ms and a median T1 standard deviation of 31 ms, showing potential to diagnose liver fibrosis.

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging
T1 Mapping
MRI
Liver imaging
B1+ Mapping
Advisor: Tunnicliffe, EM
Tyler, DJ
Robson, MD
Characterization of nanoparticles with optical fluidic cavity

The optical trapping of nanoparticles and biomolecules has recently attracted considerable attention as a means for the manipulation and characterization of target analytes. Nano-particulate pollutants and microbiological organisms, such as viruses, have optical characteristic signatures based on their refractive index, size, and polarizability, as well as spectral signatures. By leveraging these properties, optical sensing and spectroscopy techniques have proven to be powerful tools for detecting and characterizing nanoparticles at the single-particle level. In this work, we show that the confined optical field in a Fabry-Perot style microcavity resonator can be used as a means for both trapping and measuring nanoparticle characteristics with high resolution. This characterization is performed by recording the spectral shift of the mode wavelength when the particles diffuse through the microcavity. The maximum mode displacement provides an accurate measure of the polarizability of each particle. We illustrate an accurate measurement of the distribution of polarizabilities in a solution containing a mixture of 50 nm, 75 nm, and 100 nm polystyrene particles in water. This work also studies the theory behind the behavior of particles in an optofluidic microcavity based on the particle size, the optical power, and throughput of a given instrument. Based on the developed theory, the dynamic characteristics of particle trapping in an optofluidic microcavity are further investigated by simulating a stochastic model of nanoparticle dynamics. Furthermore, this work introduces a new model for analyzing the dynamics of nanoparticles in fluidic systems and studying the optical trapping potential. This model allows to accurately design an optical microfluidic system for trapping the desired range of particles based on the flow rate and the optical power, and subsequently detect nanoparticles with high resolution. We express the trapping rate of nanoparticles as a function of the flow rate, the optical power, and the size of particles. Thus, the technique proposed in this work provides a deep understanding of the optical trapping of nanoparticles in flowing fluid, which is crucial for trapping and manipulating nanoparticles and biomolecules. We also show that similar-sized particles of different materials can be distinguished as a result of the difference in refractive indexes, which means the introduced method is sensitive to the refractive index. Therefore, it can be a powerful method to analyze nanoparticles in a solution in applications where we need high-resolution measurement at the single-particle level.

Keywords: Optical trapping
Nanoparticle Characterization
Optical microcavity
Optofluidic Microcavity
Advisor: Smith, J
Study of novel electron injection mechanisms for laser-wakefield accelerators

Laser-driven plasma wakefields are structures that can sustain large electric fields and offer a promising route to reducing the size and cost of electron (or positron) accelerators with applications in areas such as fundamental research, (biomedical) imaging or radiotherapy. In this thesis, I discuss novel mechanisms through which electrons are injected into the accelerating structure and methods used to achieve better control over experimental conditions. Experimental and numerical results are presented for injection of electrons into a wakefield driven by a short relativistic laser pulse propagating through a plasma of overcritical nanometre-sized clusters. The wakefield structure is found to be modified by the clusters and the creation of high-charge large energy spread electron beams is discussed. Furthermore, experimental and numerical results are presented for externally induced ionisation injection using two pulses of equal wavelength decoupling the processes of driving the accelerating structure from the injection into the structure finding quasi-monoenergetic electron beams. Finally, a reinforcement learning based algorithm for laser beam alignment is introduced and training results of alignment performance for an interferometer set-up as well as an off-axis parabolic mirror are presented.

Advisor: Norreys, P
Looted letters. Book culture of Ḥafṣid Ifrīqiya (1229-1574) and Arabic manuscripts in early modern Europe after the sack of Tunis (1535)

The present thesis is based on the study of the Arabic manuscripts looted during the sack of Tunis in 1535, and then brought to Europe and sold or donated to important scholars and institutions in Italy, France, and the Habsburg Empire. The manuscript corpus examined here is thus delimited by a common provenance and collection history.
The main objective of the project is to reconstruct this corpus of Ḥafṣid manuscripts. Situated in the research field of the Material Culture of the Islamic Mediterranean, the core of the dissertation is an in-depth study of manuscripts from Ḥafṣid Ifrīqiya (1229- 1574). They are studied with regard to their aesthetic and codicological aspects, in order to understand Ḥafṣid book production. It will be argued that uncovering the visual choices behind stylistic developments helps to reveal the decisions behind the process of establishing a Ḥafṣid (imperial) identity. Furthermore, the manuscript notes – such as owner-marks and endowment deeds – help to recreate the context of the manuscripts, as well as the practices and agents involved in the book culture of Ḥafṣid Ifrīqiya.
In addition to providing an art-historical and sociohistorical interpretation of the manuscripts and contributing to the study of North African material culture, the corpus allows this research to offer new perspectives on a range of related topics. Starting with the re-evaluation of contemporary sources on a landmark event in Early Modern history, and an innovative focus on its interpretation, the project adds a missing aspect to the otherwise well-studied and important research field of Charles V and the sack of Tunis in 1535. The project brings Early Modern scholarship on Arabic texts and language into context by utilising the manuscripts from Ifrīqiya as a source to map the interest in, and scholarship on, Arabic manuscripts in Early Modern Europe.

Keywords: Tunis Expedition
Republic of Arabic Letters
Arabic Manuscript
Islamic Art
Ḥafṣid Ifrīqiya
Advisor: Johns, J
Bongianino, U
‘What to cook and how to cook it’: Understanding the interplay of subsistence, ceramic technology, and local environments in the emergence of pottery in northeast Asia through residues

Since the early 2000’s, archaeological excavations in the Nenjiang River Basin have led to the discovery of some of the oldest pottery assemblages in northeast China. The main objective of the DPhil research presented here is to understand what role vessel technology played in human lives over an extended time span regarding diets, food preferences, and human environmental interactions in this region. Pottery analysed in this thesis comes from the site of Houtaomuga 后套木嘎 located in the Lower Nen River Valley on the Song-Nen Plain, Jilin province northeast China. Using molecular and isotopic analysis, this thesis characterised lipids extracted from archaeological pottery using advanced analytical methodologies to understand pottery use at the initial implementation of the technology and over the course of the Neolithic. Results of lipid residue analysis presented as a part of this research were also described in context with other regions in northeast Asia, such as Russia’s Far East and Japan, which also have pottery bearing hunter-gather sites from the Neolithic which are contemporaneous.
Before turning to the analysis of the archaeological material from Houtaomuga, this thesis undertook a method optimisation to understand the efficiency and limitations of current techniques. This method development ensures that the method of analysis was adequate to answer proposed research questions prior to sampling and will improve upon methods for lipid residue analysis which are currently standard practice within archaeological science. As a result, this thesis presents the first extensive application of non-destructive supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of ancient lipid residues followed by isotopic characterisation. Results indicate this novel method workflow is comparable to current methods which are highly destructive to ceramic artifacts. By using this workflow, it was determined that pottery at Houtaomuga was primarily used for cooking aquatic molluscs and C3 plant resources. While other proxies indicate that human diets at Houtaomuga were highly diverse, pottery use was highly specified for all four phases of Neolithic occupation of the site, suggesting people preferentially chose certain foods or dish types to prepare in vessels.

Keywords: Archaeology
Northeast China
Residues
Supercritical Fluids
Advisor: Hein, A
Devièse, T
Joseph Brodsky and the visual arts: consumer, practitioner, interpreter

Joseph Brodsky (1940–1996) was a highly visual writer. This thesis looks at his poems and essays, and a range of unpublished archival documentation to argue that he was an individual sensitive to visual stimuli in his environments, whose texts are in dialogue with non-literary worlds as much as they are with literary ones. More generally, I foreground the importance of looking at literary texts from non-literary points of view.
My study is comprised of four main chapters, each dedicated to a different visual form: cinema, postcards, photography, and drawing. All were integral parts of Brodsky’s daily life and helped him express his personal experiences. These forms have been chosen as he worked directly with them all. He approached each form in a different manner and gave distinct values to each. For Brodsky, all four are united by the interdependent themes of imagination and memory.
I show how he associates cinema with imagination (Chapter One), postcards with documentation (Chapter Two), photography with perception (Chapter Three), and drawing with private dialogue (Chapter Four). As I move from Chapter One to Chapter Four, I also chart a move from forms Brodsky associates more with imagination than memory to those where memory is more prevalent. This move from imagination to memory proceeds in tandem with another development, namely one from forms that are more manufactured, and more resistant to personalisation, to those where the opposite is true. In my conclusion, I show how judgments about his treatment of visual forms, and visual experiences, more generally, can be articulated when medium-specific observations are seen comparatively.
Brodsky’s work about, and in, each of these forms gives us fresh insights into his biography and writings. The interplay between his biography, writings, and work in these visual forms, is central to each chapter. Archival documentation allows one to analyse anew each of these three components as well as the relationships between them.

Keywords: Joseph Brodsky
Russian literature
Brodsky
Russian poetry
Advisor: Zorin, A