VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Militarised cities? Housing and garrisoning the French Empire’s troops in the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy

This thesis examines military accommodation in the Republic/Kingdom of Italy, the main satellite state of France in the north of the peninsula throughout the Napoleonic Wars. Military accommodation, in the form of billeting in civilian homes and barracksing, rekindled long-term problems of army presence in a deeply upset geopolitical context; studying it helps understanding the logistical response to intense fluxes of large-scale military mobility, the hallmark of Napoleonic warfare. Such a response needed contact zones between army, institutions and society to function, challenging notions of militarism and total war applied to this conflict that do not adequately take logistics into account, and the levels of civil-military cooperation and negotiation that logistics had to entail.
The research starts by looking at the French Napoleonic war administration and its regulations on military accommodation, as the template on which Italian institutions and laws were modelled in their specific context. This highlights the importance of the Napoleonic imperial integration for military mobility, where the Kingdom of Italy was a hub of military corridors and étapes. To keep barracks supplied along the lieux d’étape, the Italian government shifted from general contracts to municipal management, while a network of custodianship staff oversaw the edifices and the supply materiel. Devolution of garrison barracksing services to the municipalities also involved barracks infrastructures and maintenance, shared uneasily between the military engineer corps and the municipalities. Space was shared, too, in the barracks and the billets between military and civilians, investing contested usages of the buildings and rising concerns over domestic privacy. The same happened with regard to terrains used for troop manoeuvres, as the military claimed land from agricultural profit and unwittingly pitted the war effort against the interests of the landowning élites on whose support the regime sought to base itself.

Keywords: napoleonic wars
barracks
logistics
19th century
italy
military history
Advisor: Broers, M
Bioavailability of matrix-bound growth factors in cartilage injury

Articular cartilage is a dense extracellular matrix-rich tissue that degrades following chronic mechanical stress, resulting in osteoarthritis. In this work, hepatoma-derived growth factor, previously uncharacterised in cartilage, was discovered to be bound to extracellular matrix heparan sulfate in cartilage. Previously described pericellular matrix growth factors fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF/CCN2), along with hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF) were all rapidly released upon injury, independent of cellular viability, and were displaced by exogenous NaCl. I hypothesised that matrix sodium, sequestered within the further removed, aggrecan-rich matrix, was responsible for displacing growth factors upon injury, thereby enhancing their bioavailability. This was confirmed by showing that NaCl was able to release growth factors from cartilage. Furthermore, growth factor release was abrogated by interleukin-1 mediated depletion of matrix aggrecan and sodium, and also in severely damaged human osteoarthritic cartilage with reduced matrix sodium. Finally, a flux in free matrix sodium upon mechanical compression of cartilage was directly visualised by 23Na-MRI imaging. These data corroborate an increase in free matrix sodium upon mechanical injury, able to displace heparan sulfate-bound growth factors in healthy cartilage, which is lost in osteoarthritis. Preliminary data after inducing osteoarthritis in Hdgf -/- mice indicated that HDGF, like FGF2, is chondroprotective in vivo, with putative proliferative effects on mesenchymal stem cells. Together, these results describe a novel intrinsic repair mechanism, mediated by free sodium, in which heparan sulfate-bound growth factors are released from cartilage upon injurious load. They identify aggrecan as a depot for sequestered sodium, and explain why osteoarthritic tissue loses its ability to repair. Treatments that restore matrix sodium to allow appropriate release of growth factors upon load may therefore restore intrinsic cartilage repair in osteoarthritis.

Keywords: growth factor
cartilage
injury
osteoarthritis
extracellular matrix
Advisor: Vincent, TL
Role and regulation of chemotaxis and motility in the Rhizobium-legume symbiosis

Fertilisers are used to provide crop plants with essential nutrients such as nitrogen but with a high energy cost and detrimental environmental effects. The symbiosis of legumes with rhizobia exhibits none of these problems since the bacteria provide fixed nitrogen directly to the plant. Further understanding of the initiation of symbiosis may enable improvements to the farming of crop legumes and enable the same processes to be mimicked in engineered systems of other crops. Although motility and chemotaxis are known to be crucial for competitive plant root colonisation (the first stage of symbiosis), little is known about their importance after this stage. In this thesis, I aimed to describe the importance of chemotaxis and motility in sequential stages of symbiosis up to the generation of root nodules filled with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia. To this end, the chemotaxis and motility systems of the model rhizobia Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viciae 3841 (Rlv3841) were characterised, in both free-living and plant-associated states.
Rlv3841 motility is driven by flagella rotation modulated by two chemotaxis systems, Che1 and Che2, that respond to signals sensed by chemoreceptors. In this work we found that Rlv3841 has a diverse set of chemoreceptors that enable the bacteria to sense and respond to a variety of chemical gradients, by both externally sensing in the periplasm and internally sensing metabolic state. We also found a novel system that halts the bacteria in response to high concentrations of TCA cycle intermediates independent of the chemotaxis systems. An inorganic phosphate uptake system (PstSCAB) and a putative methyltransferase (encoded by RL3464) were found to be critical to the response, although their downstream effectors were not identified. Finally, we characterised the importance of the chemotaxis and flagella systems of Rlv3841 at sequential stages of the symbiosis. This involved marking bacteria with luminescence, fluorescence and enzymatic activity and assaying the bacteria by optical imaging, flow cytometry and staining. We found that there are several critical stages in which chemotaxis and motility are essential and that these occur after the plant root has been colonised by the rhizobia. In particular, we found that Che1 and flagella are important for movement around the root and to root hair tips and that Che2 is involved in infection thread formation and bacteroid differentiation. Overall, this work improves our understanding of the chemotaxis and motility systems of Rlv3841 and their importance across the whole Rhizobium-legume symbiosis cycle.

Keywords: rhizobia
Rhizobium leguminosarum
Rhizobia-legume symbiosis
motility
chemotaxis
Advisor: Poole, P
Preston, G
Developing critical appraisal of systematic reviews reporting network meta-analysis

The aim of the research presented in this thesis was to advance the critical appraisal of systematic reviews using network meta-analysis (NMA) methods for synthesis. My review of systematic reviews using NMA methodology for synthesis and their characteristics found a rapid increase in publication of such reviews between 2008 and 2012, which has since continued. My survey of the authors of these reviews identified standards for reporting such reviews that were consistent with those subsequently included in the 2015 PRISMA extension statement for reporting of NMA. My programme of research then moved on to summarise how evidence from synthesis using NMA was used in NICE clinical guidelines published or updated during 2015-16. This found that although NMA methods were used far less often than pair-wise meta-analysis, they were used or considered for nearly one quarter of the guidelines reviewed. However, recommendations in the guidelines were more often based on results of NMA conducted by the Guideline Development Group than on results from previously published systematic reviews using NMA methodology. This finding, and reservations expressed by authors in my survey, supported the need to identify a critical appraisal tool to help users identify the quality of systematic reviews that use NMA methodology. After my review of existing critical appraisal tools failed to identify one suitable for systematic reviews using NMA methods for synthesis, I constructed a new tool, using the CASP format and based on items contained in the most current and most widely used related tools. The new tool was tested for inter-rater reliability and the findings of that testing and those from other elements in this programme of research allow the thesis to conclude with implications and some recommendations for further optimisation and validation of the tool.

Keywords: systematic review
network meta-analysis
critical appraisal
Advisor: Clarke, M
Studio sul mito nell’opera di Carlo Emilio Gadda

This thesis investigates mythopoesis in the works of the Milanese writer Carlo Emilio Gadda (1893-1973). It aims to contextualize the category of myth within the epistemological construction that underlies Gadda’s oeuvre.
The project consists of two sections. The first section (chs. 1-2) brings to light two original hermeneutic horizons of Gadda’s inquiry into myth: here, the philosophical essay Meditazione milanese (1928; 1974) marks the author’s conceptual transition, from the modules of psychologism and physiological Kantianism, to his exposure to 20th century epistemological debate. With regards to this period of transition, we hypothesized that an important and previously unappreciated role was played by the philosopher Antonio Banfi and the intellectuals of the Milanese circle that surrounded him (L. Anceschi; R. De Grada; E. Paci; E. Vittorini; G. Ferrata; A. Vigevani). This hypothesis was supported through the study of documents preserved in numerous archival collections.
Following from the first section’s discussion of Gadda’s philosophical turn, the second section of the project (chs. 3-4) analyzes the terms, modalities, and functionalities by which myth penetrates the author’s speculative sphere in two particular works: L’Adalgisa. Disegni milanesi (1944) and Eros e Priapo (1944-45; 1967). This section offers an in-depth critical analysis compared to traditional readings and sources on the two texts. It addresses the question of myth from different disciplinary coordinates: respectively, the socio-psycho-ethno-anthropological in L’Adalgisa, and the political-ideological in Eros e Priapo.
In an inextricable interplay between poetics and gnoseology, the theoretical framework that arises from this study demonstrates how myth is a means by which the author attempts to finalize his tormented exploration of the world. With it, he invents and perfects his psychology and elaborates a personal sociology and anthropology, reinvigorating, at the same time, the lines of a peculiar metaphysics.

Keywords: Carlo Emilio Gadda
philosophy
myth
Advisor: Stellardi, GA
Homogeneous catalysts for the ROCOP of CO2 and epoxides

The ring-opening copolymerisation of carbon dioxide and epoxides, yielding aliphatic polycarbonates, is a useful means to valorise waste gas and to reduce pollution in polymer manufacturing. Key to the success of this polymerization is the catalyst controlling both rate and selectivity. This thesis details the synthesis, characterisation and application of various inorganic complexes as homogeneous catalysts for these copolymerisations. Two different classes of catalysts are examined: (1) Heterodinuclear complexes, combining Mg(II) and various first-row transition metal(II) elements, are investigated to understand the potential for bimetallic synergy. Overall, the thesis provides insight into catalyst mechanisms and future design options. (2) Mononuclear indium(III) complexes.
Chapter 1 contains a literature review of existing catalysts and mechanisms. It ends with an overview of the thesis aims and rationale for the selection of the catalysts.
Chapter 2 provides an overview of selected material characterisation methods relevant to both the inorganic catalysts and the polymerisation catalysis.
Chapter 3 compares catalysis using a series of heterodinuclear complexes of the form MgM where M = Mg(II), Cr(II), Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II). The most active catalysts are MgFe or MgCo ‒ both show very high activity and selectivity for cyclohexene oxide / carbon dioxide ROCOP. The catalysts are also active using vinyl cyclohexene oxide, cyclopentene oxide and 3,4-epoxytetrahydrofuran/CO2 and for norbornene anhydride/CHO.
Chapter 4 describes the synthesis and characterisation of a series of salen and salan In(III) catalysts. The influence of electron donation of both the imine backbone (C=N, C‒N and C‒NMe) and para-phenolate position (tBu, OMe and Me) upon the catalysis are compared. The optimum catalysis conditions are under 40 bar carbon dioxide pressure and with a PPNCl cocatalyst.
Chapter 5 provides and overall conclusion and outlook to the research presented in this thesis.
Chapter 6 describes the experimental methods and techniques used in this thesis.

Keywords: Homogeneous catalysis
Polymerisation
Advisor: Williams, C
Mountford, P
Non-equilibrium dynamics of active enzymes

Observations of behaviour usually associated with micron-scale living systems and self-propelled particles in enzymatic systems have been attributed to their catalytic activity. In light of the conformational changes that accompany the catalytic cycle, the exciting possibility that an enzyme molecule can generate enough mechanical work to overcome the noisy conditions inside a cell is being investigated, due to its implications on biological self-organisation and intracellular transport. To this end, we develop a theoretical framework for studying the effect of catalytic activity on the dynamics of catalysing enzymes.
Using a simple generic model of an asymmetric dumbbell made of two subunits that are coupled through hydrodynamic interactions, we study the effect of conformational fluctuations of modular macromolecules, such as enzymes, on their dynamical properties. We show that thermal fluctuations can lead to an interplay between the internal and external degrees of freedom, with the consequence of a negative fluctuation-induced correction to the overall diffusion coefficient of the asymmetric dumbbell compared to a rigid symmetric object. This result is directly applicable to studying the effect of the catalytic cycle on the diffusion of the model enzyme, by considering the internal fluctuations in the presence of substrate molecules which can bind and unbind to the enzyme.
We investigate the effect of the modular structure and internal fluctuations on the dynamics of the model enzyme in a concentration gradient of its substrate. The model enzyme is shown to have three types of response to the chemical gradient, including a drift velocity that is modified by hydrodynamic interactions between its constituents, and alignment. In addition to the chemically induced alignment, we predict a second alignment mechanism in response to density gradients.
Finally, we study the effect of hydrodynamic coupling of a pair of our model enzymes on their internal dynamics and show that the sign and strength of the coupling depend on their separation and proximity to a symmetry-breaking region.

Advisor: Golestanian, R
Towards molecular simulations of glycans, glycoproteins, and membrane-membrane interactions

Close apposition of membranes is a frequent occurrence in biological systems,and one of considerable physiological and pathological significance. The geo-metric and compositional complexity of such associations, and in some casestheir transient and/or rare occurrence, makes them challenging to study ex-perimentally, and necessitates a multidisciplinary approach to their investiga-tion. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have considerable potential toform part of the toolkit for studying membrane interactions, being able to pro-vide molecular-level insight into the time-dependent behaviour of biologicalsystems. However, there at present is no standard approach to prepare and sim-ulate membrane-membrane interactions for MD simulations. In this work, Ipresent progress towards the development of methods that could prove valuablein preparing simulation systems for this purpose.

Keywords: glycoprotein
biomembrane
glycan
simulation
glycosylation
membrane
MD simulation
glycolipid
CGMD
coarse-grained
molecular dynamics
Advisor: Sansom, M
The role of the United States in the European Union's decision-making on security policy: 2001-2005

At the start of the 21st century, the European Union had entered the realm of security policy, gaining legal competence and building institutional structures. Yet it was not the only actor or institution in European security. Its constituent member states had independent security policies; most were part of the formal institution of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; and all existed within the informal institution of the transatlantic security community. The United States was the most powerful actor in the two latter institutions and had longstanding bilateral ties to EU member states. Given the overlapping institutional nature of this field and the United States' unique pertinence to European security, it seems possible that the US, although a non-member state, might have causal significance when the EU deliberates security policy. This thesis seeks to investigate this possibility and to identify what role the United States may play in the EU's decision-making process. It does so using a typology of roles – accommodator, entrepreneur, spoiler and veto player – created from examples in European and institutional literature and grounded in the history of European security since the end of the Cold War. The American role is explored with three case studies of EU security debates from 2001 to 2005: the discussion over EU security structure prompted by the April 29, 2003, Mini-Summit on European Security and Defense Policy; the political agreements surrounding the creation of the Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System; and the dispute over lifting the EU's arms embargo on the People's Republic of China. In each case study, the European Union is a significant force and its internal dynamics are difficult for the United States to penetrate. However, in each episode, the US is ultimately a causally significant player in the EU's decision-making process, most resembling, according to the typology, a veto player.

Keywords: security
European Security and Defense Policy
NATO
European Union
embargo
Galileo Satellite System
arms control
United States
Advisor: Deighton, A
Micro- to nano-scale characterisation of the morphology, structure and composition of γ΄ precipitate populations in a new nickel-base superalloy

The emerging need to reduce CO2 emissions, while simultaneously improving the efficiency of aeroengines drives the continuous quest for new nickel-base superalloy formulations with improved thermal and mechanical properties. Aiming to expand the operational limits of superalloys outside the current envelope, higher γ′ volume fraction alloys have been developed considering the fundamental role of γ′ precipitation in the high temperature mechanical performance. The main objective of this study has been to investigate the multimodal distribution of the γ′ precipitate populations in a new high γ′ content nickel-base superalloy. Advanced experimental techniques were employed providing complementary information about the γ′ precipitate phase not only at the overall level in terms of coherency with the γ matrix, but also at very local level regarding local lattice variations between γ′ precipitate populations. Morphological, compositional and structural variations between different γ′ precipitate populations were detected and explained using thermodynamic principles. Operando observations revealed differences in terms of evolution (growth, dissolution) between different γ′ precipitate populations, shedding light on the underlying physical phenomena that accompany their formation. This Thesis provides useful guidelines to optimise the processing conditions to tailor the distribution of γ′ precipitate populations to obtain the desired mechanical performance. The research presented in this Thesis provides valuable findings developed for high γ′ content nickel base superalloys but with broad applicability to various precipitation-hardened alloy systems.

Keywords: kinetics
precipitate size distribution
neutron diffraction
dissolution
precipitation
γ΄ precipitates
HR-STEM
heat treatment
growth
nickel-base superalloys
Advisor: Korsunsky, A
Modular origami-inspired kinematic metamaterials

This dissertation proposed a kinematic-based construction method for reconfigurable mechanical metamaterials. This was achieved by entrenching kinematic mechanisms with predefined motion paths within the unit cells of the metamaterial and connecting the units according to carefully chosen topology pattern. The developed metamaterials are able to perform complex transformation between different configurations, which brings superior tuneable physical properties. The major findings of this dissertation are in following four areas.
First, this research built a bridge between mechanism networks and mechanical metamaterials. The theories of planar and spatial mechanisms were utilised to analyse and program the behaviour of metamaterials. Various interesting metamaterials were developed, including materials whose expansion ratio, volumetric strain and porosity are programmable; structures with multiple deformation paths due to their built-in kinematic bifurcation; and metamaterials with constant negative Poisson’s ratios that can be programmed by the parameters of the building blocks. The kinematic-induced design strategy paves the way for a new class of metamaterials that can perform reliable large deformation along predefined motion paths.
Second, different strategies to construct three dimensional (3D) kinematic metamaterials were investigated. While most current origami metamaterials focus on thin shell planar structures, this thesis endeavoured to explore 3D materials. A tilting unit method was proposed for single layer 3D metamaterial, whereas a spatial mechanism-entrenched design strategy was developed for more general 3D metamaterials. The topology and transformation of the unit cells were obtained using the kinematic analysis so that the tuneability of the material became a built-in feature of these metamaterials.
Third, an application of kinematic metamaterials as frequency selective surfaces has been investigated. The metamaterials were designed to have multi-stable states so that it can be locked mechanically in various configurations corresponding to specific passband. The metamaterials were fabricated and tested in electromagnetics experiments to validate their functionality.
Finally, the fabrication strategies of various kinematic metamaterials were explored. Laser engraving technique was mainly used for planar metamaterials. For 3D metamaterials, a multi-material 3D printing method was investigated for millimetre-scale samples, and a multi-process lamination method was developed for meso-scale paper prototypes. These methods provided rich and useful experience for the development of functional metamaterials in the future.

Keywords: shape morphing
linkage mechanisms
reconfigurable metamaterial
modular origami
mechanical metamaterial
kinematics
Advisor: You, Z