VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Consistency in sentencing: Is the current guidance in England and Wales adequate?

Consistency in sentencing is widely considered to be an essential component of a fair sentencing system; but what is consistency? This thesis argues that it incorporates both procedural and substantive elements, focussing upon the proper application of principle. In doing so, the notion of comparing ‘like’ cases is rejected as simplistic, impractical and unprincipled. It is argued that a more principled approach reconciles the tension between consistency and individualised justice which has been argued to exist. In the face of clear and consistent empirical evidence – from multiple jurisdictions – of inconsistency in the face of an absence of structure, it is vital that sentencers’ powers are structured in a way which encourages sentences to be imposed in accordance with the principles underpinning the scheme while maintaining the ability to individualise sentences. This thesis focuses upon England and Wales and therefore the concept of consistency concerns the application of the principles underpinning the largely retributive scheme in operation in that jurisdiction. Parliament, the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) and the Sentencing Council all provide structure as a means of promoting consistency. The methods employed by these institutions are critically examined to establish the combined efficacy of the structure in place in England and Wales. This thesis concludes that they provide an adequate degree of structure as means of promoting consistency, though more could be done. In particular, the Sentencing Council’s guidelines represent the most promising means of structuring discretion. Guidelines provide a clear approach to the assessment of the key factors driving the determination of sentence, namely culpability and harm, which must be followed. In particular the ‘ranking’ of factors relevant to this assessment strongly encourages consistency of approach which, it is argued, is highly likely to produce greater consistency of outcome. This structure is adequate, though improvements could be made to achieve greater consistency without unduly restricting sentencers’ powers.

Advisor: Roberts, J
Predictive sensing for field robotics

The global autonomous robot market is expected to be worth more than eleven billion US dollars by 2024, with a need - across industries - for autonomous robots able to operate safely in complex and dynamic real-world environments. In this thesis, we argue that this will require developing robots able to develop situational awareness by constructing a higher level understanding of the world beyond the instantaneous and limited data provided by their sensors. We suggest this can be achieved by enabling robots to learn directly from their environment to predict the future evolution of the world and performance of their systems.
Robust mobile autonomy is developed around the three pillars of navigation, perception, and planning. For an agent to effectively plan a route through its environment, it needs to know where it is in its environment and what is going on around it. To do so, it is equipped with localisation and perception systems which can interpret incoming data from onboard sensors. Localisation systems typically provide instantaneous information with regards to whether an agent is localised or lost. Perception systems typically tracks objects in the environment using multi-stage pipelines which operate independently, require much hand-engineering, and show little robustness to natural occlusions. These low-level interpretations of incoming data often contribute to poor situational awareness and make it difficult to plan ahead with far-sightedness.
In this thesis we address both shortcomings and propose data-driven approaches to increase situational awareness for a localisation and perception system operating in the field. In the area of navigation, we propose a novel framework for predicting ahead of time how well a robot will be able to localise in a given environment given an appearance model of the scene. In the area of perception, we extend an end-to-end deep-learning framework for predicting near-future scene occupancy beyond natural occlusions, to operate in the real world, from a moving platform, and taking into consideration the scene context.
In doing so, we contribute to developing greater situational awareness for robotic systems operating in real world environments. We argue that robotic systems can make greater sense of what their are perceiving by moving away from instant sensing to predictive sensing.

Keywords: autonomy
machine learning
robotics
Advisor: Posner, I
Newman, P
Engineering quantum states of fermionic many-body systems

Controlling and stabilising collective phases of many-body quantum systems is a problem of deep fundamental and technological interest. In this thesis, we perform a theoretical investigation on how useful quantum phases may be engineered in strongly correlated fermionic lattice systems, especially through periodic driving.
We first compute the phase diagram of the one-dimensional t–J model with the addition of non-standard pair hopping terms. We show that at dilute fillings these terms enhance superconductivity while, counter- intuitively, suppressing it at large fillings. We argue that this is due to dynamical constraints originating from the fact that local pairs cannot overlap. We conjecture that these constraints may play a more significant role in the physics of two-dimensional systems where the t–J model is studied as a candidate model of high-Tc superconductivity. We begin to investigate these dynamical constraints on a ladder geometry.
We then study the fermionic Hubbard model under periodic driving. We show that the driving induces a strong and robust singlet-pairing effect consistent with a superconducting state. This could provide a new mechanism for light-induced superconductivity in some classes of strongly cor- related materials. We show using Floquet theory that the dynamics of the driven Hubbard model are described precisely by the t–J model studied in the previous section. As the driven Hubbard model is also implementable with ultracold fermions in an optical lattice, our results could lead to their use as a quantum simulator for a broad class of candidate models for high-Tc superconductivity.

Keywords: Floquet theory
t-J model
Tensor networks
Hubbard model
Advisor: Jaksch, D
Simulation of superparamagnetic particle trajectories in a microfluidic device for magnetic separation purposes

Magnetic particle separation in microfluidic systems is a method for enriching or isolating biological entities such as cells or biomarkers of diseases using magnetic beads that covalently bind to a target; it is compatible with lab-on-a-chip technology and has potential to be integrated with other functional blocks. This thesis describes the operation of a magnetic particle separator using a novel configuration of permanent magnets to provide higher separation efficiency with minimum trapping of particles. The novel magnet configurations consisted of two (Double Magnet) or four (Quadrupole) rectangular permanent magnets arranged around a microfluidic channel. The magnet configurations guide magnetic particles along adjustable trajectories by simply varying the separation distance between the magnets or their aspect ratio. Influence of the salient geometrical parameters on the behaviour of the trajectory was studied and experimental verifications are presented using particle suspensions of 1 μm and 2.8 μm sized magnetic beads. In addition, it was discovered that the magnetic beads gather along a line that can be uniquely positioned within the fluidic cell leading to improved performance.
The performance of the magnetic separator was studied for five magnetic particle types by simulating 400 individual particle trajectories following an Eulerian-Lagrangian model. The model incorporated experimentally found particle properties such as size and susceptibility. Magnetic separation was performed in continuous flow and pulse mode operation. In continuous separation a maximum separation efficiency of 35% and 55% was found experimentally for the Double Magnet and Quadrupole configuration, respectively, and in pulse mode operation a separation efficiency of more than 80% could be achieved in experiments and simulations.
Further, in order to improve the accuracy of the magnetophoretic force calculations, the magnetic responsiveness of the particle types across a magnetic field range of 38-70 mT was studied using a particle tracking system and SQUID relaxometry. The susceptibility of all particle types showed a magnetic field dependence and a promising correlation between the two measurement techniques could be found.

Advisor: Sheard, S
3D multi-scale characterization and modelling of damage in ceramic matrix composites

The SiC/SiC composite has been proposed as a candidate material for the fuel cladding component in advanced nuclear reactors. The present thesis aims to characterize the damage evolution within a SiC/SiC composite in different conditions and then validate a multiscale damage model. In order to gain insight into the damage mechanisms, in situ experimental methods are required to detect damage development and quantify the mechanical response at different scale to support the reliability assessment and simulation modelling of the components.
In this thesis, in situ 3D laboratory and synchrotron X-ray computed tomography and quantitative digital volume correlation have been applied to characterize the damage evolution in a SiC/SiC composite, with respect to its heterogeneous microstructure and macroscale mechanical response. The quantified information from tomography further helps the development of an advanced multiscale model with the microstructure sensitivity. Experimental methods for the direct in situ observation of damage have been developed for SiC/SiC C-ring specimens at both room temperature and elevated temperature. The time-resolved tomography allows the continuous observation of the damage within the heterogenous microstructure and the macroscale deformation. The development of the damage in the composite depends on the loading history, and the high temperature (900°C) in air degenerates the mechanical properties of the SiC/SiC composite as shown in the observations of the crack paths. The hoop pressurization test of the SiC/SiC composite tube via an expanding plug revealed the distribution of the matrix cracks at both the interior and outer surfaces of tube sample for the first time. The full-field multiscale in situ observation quantifies the non-uniform deformation of the composite tube under internal pressure with the corresponding strain measurement. It also allows a more accurate experimental measurement of the mechanical response in the composite tube component. Damage simulations have been performed in the finite-element microstructure meshfree (FEMME) model. The 3D experimental observation provided the statistical description of the microstructure for the model. The virtual damage simulated by the FEMME model is compared with the experimental observations in both the C-ring and hoop pressurization tests. The capability of the microstructure sensitive model has been demonstrated with a high fidelity of the simulated damage evolution and mechanical response in the composite. This coupled experimental and simulation studies could provide a more comprehensive understanding of the damage mechanisms in the SiC/SiC composite.

Advisor: Marrow, J
A critical survey of the Qur’ānic qul verses and their literary function in selected polemical exchanges

For what is often described as ‘the most common command in the Qur’ān’, the literary function of the word qul (meaning ‘Say!’, in the second person singular imperative form) still remains unclear and continues to pose ‘one of the most vexed questions of Qur’ānic rhetoric’. According to the standard concordance to the Qur’ān, the word qul appears 332 times in fifty-seven of its 114 sūras. Scholars have put forward a variety of classifications and interpretations for its Qur’ānic usage. This thesis explores existing interpretations of the word qul and I then analyse and classify all 332 qul statements according to their function in the respective passages in which they occur.
I posit that the vast majority (93%) of the qul statements are related to an antecedent in the Qur’ān. In many instances, these qul statements form one part in a complex matrix of responses to an antecedent, and the rhetorical effect of a qul statement in a given passage is determined by the antecedent, other responses and the syntagmatic interplay between them. This thesis demonstrates that the function of the word qul varies depending on the theme and the antecedent to which it is related. For example, quls in the form of rhetorical questions mostly draw attention to an aspect of God’s power, and they usually form a question and affirmation exchange; also nearly half of the quls in the Qur’ān respond to an audience question or statement beginning with an introductory verb derived from the Arabic letters q/w/l, such as, ‘They say (yaqūlūna), “…”’. Documenting the qul statements highlights the Qur’ān’s pervasive engagement with an audience, as well as its disputational character. Unlocking the function of qul statements reveals how Qur’ānic polemics work, and in turn how the Qur’ān engages with its audience. In the final chapter of this thesis, selected passages are examined in detail to demonstrate how the word qul in some selected passages strings together statements, objections, questions, and arguments.

Keywords: Qur’an
Qul
Prophet
Islam
Advisor: Sinai, N
The relationship between self and pain in healthy adults: competition and individual differences

Understanding the mechanisms that underlie psychological pain treatments is vital to improving them. Attention plays a crucial role in the development of chronic pain, and recent research has highlighted the need for better assessments of attentional bias towards pain. Attention is also important for pain treatments that rely on distraction, including novel virtual reality-based interventions. Distraction is hypothesised to reduce perceived pain intensity by diminishing cognitive resources available to process pain. Pain parameters, inter-personal differences and distraction task characteristics impact distraction effectiveness, but the role of motivational distraction components such as reward is little understood. The relationship between pain- and self-schemas has also been proposed as a factor in chronic pain. The schema enmeshment model (Pincus & Morley, 2001) postulates that frequent pain experience causes integration of pain- and self-schema, which maintains chronic pain and leads to detrimental pain outcomes in patients.
This thesis addresses 3 questions in healthy individuals: 1) Can a pain adaptation of the Perceptual Matching Paradigm (PMP; Sui, He & Humphreys, 2012) assess pain-bias, 2) Can self-related task content enhance the effectiveness of distraction from pain, and 3) does self-pain enmeshment reflect non-clinical variations in pain experience, or individual differences in self- or pain-related cognition?
In the PMP Bias task, our healthy sample prioritised pain as expected, but it is doubtful whether pain-processing was successfully elicited and pain-bias demonstrated. The relative effectiveness of neutral and self-related distraction task content and performance-based monetary reward was explored in a between-group cold pressor pain induction study. Basic distraction effects could not be replicated, although a self-related distraction reduced attention to pain more effectively than a neutral task. Finally, we showed that self-pain enmeshment is linked to increases in pain-related disability and locus of control in healthy individuals. Our findings support and add to the enmeshment model, suggesting interpersonal differences and pain disability contribute to schema enmeshment.

Advisor: Martin, M
Fox, E
Understanding the origins of strong multivalent cooperativity

This thesis presents a combined experimental and computational evaluation of chelate cooperativity. The principal result from the thesis is that host-guest design cannot be limited to chemical intuition. By using a combination of theoretical approaches, we determined a procedure for a qualitative prediction of chelate cooperativity.
Chapter 1 briefly reviews the concepts of supramolecular chemistry and cooperativity, its different types and presents experimental methods used to quantify cooperativity.
In Chapter 2, host-guest are designed to probe different influences on chelate cooperativity. The synthesis of the studied host-guest library is presented.
In Chapter 3 we show whether cooperativity can be predicted based on simple molecular structures. Therefore, we determined binding constants for the selected systems and compared the chelate cooperativity strength qualitative and quantitative. Our conclusion is that even systems only exhibiting chelate cooperativity are too complex to base cooperativity prediction exclusively on molecular structure.
In Chapter 4, the cooperativity study of the presented host-guest systems is extended and contributions of entropy and enthalpy on chelate cooperativity are separated. The results have shown that the intramolecular process is driven by favourable entropy, but additional factors such as solvation lead to entropy-enthalpy compensation.
In Chapter 5, computational results on the prediction of effective molarities and cooperativity strength are presented. A benchmark compares different methods on the evaluation of supramolecular systems. The results have shown that theoretical methods allow a qualitative prediction of chelate cooperativity strength. A comparison of different solvation models revealed a procedure to reproduce experimental results.

Keywords: supramolecular chemistry
multivalency
host guest library
binding studies
entropy enthalpy compensation
chelate cooperativity
cooperativity
Advisor: Anderson, HL
Variants of Schur-Weyl duality and Dirac cohomology

This thesis is divided into the following three parts.
Chapter 1: Realising the projective representations of Sn
We derive an explicit description of the genuine projective representations of the symmetric group Sn using Dirac cohomology and the branching graph for the irreducible genuine projective representations of Sn. In [15] Ciubotaru and He, using the extended Dirac index, showed that the characters of the projective representations of Sn are related to the characters of elliptic graded modules. We derive the branching graph using Dirac theory and combinatorics relating to the cohomology of Borel varieties Be of g. We use Dirac cohomology to construct an explicit model for the projective representations. We also describe Vogan's morphism for Hecke algebras in type A using spectrum data of the Jucys-Murphy elements.
Chapter 2: Dirac cohomology of the Dunkl-Opdam subalgebra
We define a new presentation for the Dunkl-Opdam subalgebra of the rational Cherednik algebra. This presentation uncovers the Dunkl-Opdam subalgebra as a Drinfeld algebra. The Dunkl-Opdam subalgebra is the first natural occurrence of a non-faithful Drinfeld algebra. We use this fact to define Dirac cohomology for the DO subalgebra. We formalise generalised graded Hecke algebras and extend a Langlands classification to generalised graded Hecke algebras. We then describe an equivalence between the irreducibles of the Dunkl-Opdam subalgebra and direct sums of graded Hecke algebras of type A. This equivalence commutes with taking Dirac cohomology.
Chapter 3: Functors relating nonspherical principal series
We define an extension of the affine Brauer algebra called the type B/C affine Brauer algebra. This new algebra contains the hyperoctahedral group, and it naturally acts on EndK(X ⊗ V ⊗k). We study functors Fμ,k from the category of admissible O(p; q) or Sp2n(R) modules to representations of the type B/C affine Brauer algebra. Furthermore, these functors take non-spherical principal series modules to principal series modules for the graded Hecke algebra of type Dk, Cn-k or Bn-k.

Advisor: Ciubotaru, D
Specialist environment courts: an interactional theory for legitimacy

Specialist environment courts are, in the main, reflective of highly dynamic forms of adjudication, mixing judicial forms with powers more traditionally found in the executive. However, despite their novel legal nature the literature on specialist environment courts is predominantly promotional and it fails to address the challenges to legitimacy and governance engendered by these institutions. Nor does it evince a robust theory of environmental adjudication. These omissions not only impoverish the discourse but practice unsupported by theory is creating an unstable edifice. This thesis develops a new theoretical model capable of explaining and accommodating environmental adjudication. The theory suggests that normative legitimacy will be fostered if the adjudicatory body responds to, rather than ignores, the inherent nature of the problems it is charged with resolving. Further, to ‘respond’ appropriately necessitates an interactional process. In the context of environmental adjudication four factors are indivisible parts of the whole: identifying the inherent nature of environmental problems; acknowledging the commensurate challenges for law and dispute-resolution; developing legal principles, procedure and remedies that respond to those challenges; and acknowledging that particular adjudicative forms and functions can facilitate this process.

Keywords: Public law
Adjudication
Legal theory
Environmental law
Advisor: Fisher, L
Three dimensional characterization and multi-scale modelling of deformation in biomaterials

Mollusc shell and bone are two interesting materials with complicated morphological geometries and hierarchical microstructures, which present a good combination of stiffness, strength and toughness and therefore attract interests of researchers from engineering and clinic fields.
In this work, in-situ mechanical tests during X-ray tomography have been done on common British limpet and bones (cortical bone and trabecular bone), which provide geometric and microstructural information for modelling. The 3-D displacement fields within deformed biomaterials have been extracted by digital volume correlation (DVC), which provides either boundary conditions for modelling or experimental comparison for simulated results. Different modelling approaches have been employed in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of mechanical properties of biomaterials.
A value for the elastic modulus of the mollusc shell, which is consistent with literature, has been obtained using a finite element (FE) model with simple boundary conditions (experimental load) which incorporates the morphological information of limpet. Additional information of possible fracture sites within limpet have also been successfully predicted from the model, and the strain field within the deformed shell has been calculated using FE model with the 3D full displacement field from DVC analysis as boundary conditions. FE models of indentation tests on cortical bone have also been built which provide insight into the mechanical behavior of bone under indentation loading. A cellular model, PReMISe, which was designed for the prediction of elastic modulus of quasi-brittle and porous materials, has been employed in cortical bones. From this, the intrinsic elastic moduli of cortical bone have been obtained, with a good agreement with literature measurements by nanoindentation. To characterize the fracture resistance of trabecular bone, which has a very complex porous microstructure, in situ tomographs of a pre-notched test specimen were analysed to extract the averaged displacement fields from DVC to allow J integral calculation using the JMAN code. The obtained critical stress intensity factor (K) has a good agreement with literature.

Advisor: Marrow, J