VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Spectroscopic stellar surface gravities from metallic line profiles

Accurate surface gravities are needed for studies of stellar atmospheres and to determine stellar masses. It is suggested that measurements of gravities for late type stars are usually subject to great uncertainties, especially as the results are sensitive to the assumed effective temperature. A method is therefore proposed using the damping wings of metal lines to measure the gravity; and weak lines from the same lower level as the strong line to determine the metal abundance.
Low excitation lines of Pel are used to demonstrate the method and new oscillator strengths are given for 51 transitions from the 0.00-0.12 and 0.86-0.99 eV levels. Using the furnace absorption technique the precision obtained is about 0.02 dex. Comparison with other authors' results shows systematic discrepancies between emission and absorption methods.
The oscillator strengths are used to interpret the observed line strengths and profiles in the solar spectrum. From 5 model atmospheres a microturbulence of 0.8 km/sec is found, and iron "abundances" of 7.5-7.7. Damping constants are found for strong and medium-strong lines and the values are close to the predictions of classical theories in contrast with the greater damping predicted by more recent calculations.
Using the measured oscillator strengths and damping constants the spectrum of Arcturus is used to derive an iron abundance of 6.99 and a microturbulence of 2.1 km/sec. The abundance is sensitive to the effective temperature, and 4400K is proposed from the observed flux distribution. The gravity determined from the profile of the line FeI 5269.5A is however insensitive to the adopted temperature and the measured value is log g = 1.45 &pm; 0.15 corresponding to a mass of 0.56 M(sun) for a radius of 23 R(sun). The gravity and mass are greater than the results of other methods which assume, and are sensitive to, lower effective temperatures.
It is concluded that metallic line profiles in the spectra of cool stars can yield precise gravities which are insensitive to the assumption of LTE or to the temperature in the atmosphere.
Membrane transport alterations in disease states

The present thesis investigates cell membrane abnormalities in selected diseases. Membrane transport systems are studied in chronic renal failure (CRF), endstage diabetic nephropathy, renal transplantation and atherosclerotic vascular disease. The role of membrane cholesterol concentration in modulating transport activity is also explored.
Erythrocyte choline uptake is elevated in CRF and here it is shown that transporter activity returns to normal following a successful kidney transplant. Choline uptake recovers in parallel to the plasma creatinine changes. Plasma factors are suggested to play a role in transport activity in uraemia. The activity of the leucocyte sodium-hydrogen antiporter (Na/H) is shown to be normal in CRF with or without end-stage diabetic nephropathy. Erythrocyte lactate transport was investigated at 37°C for the first time. Kinetic parameters of transport were characterized. Lactate uptake in erythrocytes is mediated mainly via the monocarboxylate carrier. No lactate transport alterations are present in uraemic patients when compared with normal subjects.
The possible influence of membrane cholesterol on the activity of transporters in disease was approached in two ways. First, cell cholesterol content was modulated in vitro employing liposomes. With this approach, lymphoblast Na/H antiporter activity is inhibited by cholesterol-enrichment while activation is seen with cholesterol-depletion. Erythrocyte choline uptake was insensitive to cholesterol modulation. It is suggested that membrane cholesterol content is unlikely to contribute to the membrane transport abnormalities in the uraemic syndrome. In erythrocytes liposome depletion of cholesterol reduced Na/Li countertransport activity. In vivo treatment with the HMG CoA reductase inhibitor simvastatin, which reduces plasma cholesterol levels, was employed to look at Na/Li countertransport activity in patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease. Although simvastatin reduces mean cholesterol by about 30%, there was no change in erythrocyte mean cholesterol content. Erythrocyte Na/Li countertransport was unaffected by simvastatin treatment. Accordingly an in vivo relationship between membrane cholesterol and Na/Li countertransport activity could not be tested in this study.
The present results emphasize the selective nature of alterations in membrane composition and function in various disease states.
Some aspects of hemispheric asymmetry and face processing

The eventual aims of this thesis were threefold. The first was to investigate the patterns of impairments suffered by prosopagnosic subjects, measuring both reaction times and errors, with conclusions being drawn about the heterogeneity of the neurological disorder. Three prosopagnosic subjects were tested on a number of face processing tasks, investigating facial identity matching, facial expression matching and the perception of eye gaze direction. They were found to have different patterns of impairments, reflecting the different causes of their prosopagnosia.
The second aim was to investigate cerebral hemispheric asymmetry in normal subjects for both face processing and word processing. Using split- field tachistoscopic presentation of visual stimuli, facial identity matching and facial expression matching were tested, followed by making syntactical judgements for words and finally reading words out loud. No hemispheric differences were found for facial identity or facial expression matching, except where the faces to be matched only comprised internal features, when a right hemisphere advantage was found. The majority of the word processing studies elicited a left hemispheric superiority. It was also shown that words were recognised more easily when they contained fewer syllables, and were more common and familiar to the reader.
The third aim of the thesis was to test two additional subjects, who had been shown, on the basis of PET imaging, to have reversed cerebral asymmetry, specifically right hemispheric activity for linguistic tasks. These subjects were tested on the facial identity matching and word processing tasks. No hemispheric advantage for face processing was found, but either a right hemisphere advantage or no hemispheric advantage was found for both of them for word processing, whereas on the same tasks control subjects showed a significant left hemisphere advantage. As a result of this finding, it is suggested that one of the word tasks could possibly be used for further clarification when the results of the WADA test, used for assessing the language dominance of epileptics prior to surgery, are unclear. Alternatively, the results of such a task could be correlated with the results of PET and MRI scans to further investigate hemispheric asymmetry in a quantitative way, thus using converging evidence from both experimental psychological and neurological methods.
Poetry and the court in the reign of Charles I

The court poetry of the 1630s is usually seen as flattering and escapist. However, the court poets had more to do with each other than with the king and official policy. They wrote in the context of a social coterie underpinned by patronage relationships. They did not write directly to dissent from or support the king's policies, but they were members of his court, which he intended should be exemplary, representing the nation to itself and to the world. They found ways of representing the nation in their poetry by relating Britain to other legendary or semi-legendary worlds: Arcadia, Jerusalem and Rome. Their English Arcadia was a blessed island free from war, derived from the many classical myths of idyllic western islands. Court culture pictured an Arcadian England in gardens, portraits, and masques. The English Jerusalem was an island church where order and peace prevailed, and the material world became a medium for the spiritual. Rome differed from these two alternative worlds because it was a historical state, and could provide political parallels to England. The court poets, however, used it unhistorically to create a Roman England which borrowed the authority but not the history of its original.
There is a sharp break between 1630s court culture and the 1640s, when, although the court was dispersed and defeated, court poetry began to be published. The volumes of the 1640s attempted to replace the court. Their presentation was usually royalist, and they were designed to create a world which did not nostalgically evoke the past decade but which was an alternative world related to the troubles of the 1640s. This tendency is particularly strong in Lovelace and Herrick. Herrick's Hesperides (1648) was designed to suggest a garden, where art transforms nature, and in it real events were frozen by art to become part of a timeless, idealized England.
The idea of a transcendent God

'Transcend' comes from the Latin 'tran(s)cendere': 'to climb over or beyond, surmount.' Obsolete uses of 'transcend' reflect this origin, having to do with the surmounting of some obstacle. 'A transcends B' has also been used to imply the relative superiority of A to B. 'Transcendent' has had a technical use in philosophy, where it tends to represent that which falls outside the bounds of some standard classification.
Running through the various senses of 'transcendent' is the idea of surmounting limits of various kinds. These may be spoken of in a 'neutral' or a 'loaded' way. In the loaded sense, limits constitute relative disabilities; in which case we are apt to call them 'limitations' . In general, transcendence has to do with rising above limits or limitations. Talk of divine transcendence broadly accords with this. God's being 'above', independent of and distinct from the world, may be construed as his being; unbounded in many ways that the world and its parts are bounded.
[Please see pdf. for rest of abstract.]
Structural and chemical studies in the niobium oxides and related compounds

The chemistry and thermodynamics of the Nb-O system and the related Ti-Nb-O system were studied to elucidate: 1) Kinetic characteristics of block structure oxides at T>1300°C , 2) Thermo dynamic properties of block structure oxides at T>1300°C and 3) Phase equilibria in the metastable Nb2O5 systems.
Single crystals of B- and P-Nb2O5. were prepared by the Chemical Vapour Transport Technique Tinder predominantly convection controlled conditions. Phase equilibria experiments were carried out in a Cahn microbalance system and a newly designed Horizontal Quench Furnace line. Controlled oxygen potentials were generated from CO2/CO or CO2/H2 gas mixtures. Structural studies of the oxides involved X-ray diffraction, electron diffraction and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM).
Results of phase equilibria studies in the NbO2 - (B-Nb2O5) system at 750°C <T<900°C indicated that the transformation of B- to the block structure phase takes place readily on the area of contact with the Pt. container, probably catalyzed by the platinum surface. The transformed oxides contained both disordered and ordered fragments. In diffraction studies, the disordered structures simulated the tetragonal symmetry of M-Nb2O5, the existence of which was contradicted by HRTEM results. A new phase Nb43O107 having monoclinic lattice parameters of a = 20.3 Å, b = 3.8 Å, c = 61.5 Å and β = 117° was detected in the ordered crystals. Its structural relationships with the neighbouring phases in the Nb-O system is discussed. At 700°C and controlled oxygen potentials, B-Nb2O5 transformed directly into NbO2 on reduction. In the system NbO2 - (P-Nb2O5) at isotherm 750°C and controlled oxygen potentials, Nb12O29 existed as the only stable intermediate phase.
Phase equilibria in the system (Ti-Nb-O) were determined by equilibrating TiNb2O7, Ti2Nb10O29 and TiNb24O62 at 1400°C. The oxide-gas equilibrium was attained rapidly (< 1 hr). The (p, x) isotherms showed complete bivariance in the systems (Ti,Nb)O2 - TiNb2O7, (Ti,Nb)O2 - Ti2Nb10O29 and (Ti,Nb)O2 - TiNb24O62. HRTEM results showed that the bivariance was due to coherent intergrowth of neighbouring phases in the host lattice, suggesting that Wadsley defects were thermodynamically stable. An abrupt process: TiNb2O7 → metastable transient Me25O60 → Ti2Nb10O29 was also detected. Associated with the reduction of Ti-Nb oxides is the generation of a rutile phase TixNb1-xO2, the composition of which is dependent upon the oxygen potential. The results are summarised in a ternary phase diagram.
Geometric and mechanical modelling of the human locomotor system

A critical review of studies related to the modelling of the human locomotor system is given. Kinematic and dynamic modelling and analysis of the pelvis-leg apparatus as an ensemble of four rigid body segments are described.
Experiments were performed on two patients with custom-made instrumented massive proximal femoral prostheses implanted after tumour resection. Telemetered axial forces transmitted along the prostheses, together with kinematic, force plate and electromyographic data, were recorded synchronously during level walking, single and double leg stance, and isometric tests of the hip muscles.
A sagittal plane model of the locomotor system, with an anatomical model of the knee joint, was developed from an existing model and used for a comparative study of methods for the calculation of the internal forces. A three-dimensional computer graphics-based animated model of the locomotor system was developed, with the hip as a ball-and-socket joint, the knee as a parallel spatial mechanism and the ankle as a two-hinge complex. Thirty-four muscles or muscle groups were included. A method for the determination of the orientation of multi-joint systems from surface markers was developed to take account of measurement errors including skin movement artefacts. Both the 2D and 3D models of the locomotor system were evaluated and validated quantitatively with the telemetered femoral axial forces.
It is concluded that (a) a significant part of the bending moments along limbs are transmitted by a combination of tensile forces in muscles and compressive forces in bones so that moments transmitted by the bones are much less than the limb moments, (b) bi-articular muscles play a major role in modulating forces in bones, (c) appropriate simulation of muscle forces is important in experimental or theoretical studies of load transmission along bones, (d) computer graphics-based modelling and animation are important tools in bridging the gap between clinical users and biomechanists.
Socio-economic aspects of peacebuilding : UNTAES and the reintegration of Eastern Slovenia, 1996-2000

This thesis examines the experience of the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, and Western Sirmium (UNTAES), which was set up in 1996 with the task of administering the North-Eastern region of Croatia during its transition from rebel-Serb control to Croatian sovereign control. The thesis provides an assessment of UNTAES from the perspective of a developmental approach to peacebuilding, by examining UNTAES's record in three functional areas - employment, education, and housing and property - as examples of its more general approach to socio-economic policy. In addition to concentrating on the ways in which UNTAES addressed the regulation and reintegration of these policy areas within the Croatian system, and hence on the period covering the duration of its mandate (1996-1998), the effects of the mission's policy in the immediate post-reintegration phase up to 2000 are also considered. The thesis draws primarily on evidence collected through fieldwork in the territory formerly administered by UNTAES, including key documents concerning the reintegration of Eastern Slavonia, and interviews with participants and other individuals with close knowledge of the mission.
Development is increasingly recognised in scholarly and policy literature as a crucial element for achieving sustainable peace. Although the mission's mandate reflected this trend, the thesis argues that UNTAES was reluctant to interpret its developmental tasks in a comprehensive way, in particular when this involved initiating potentially destabilising and expensive policies. Rather, UNTAES's approach was dominated by short-term imperatives and expedience to the detriment of long-term processes, such as reconciliation and the establishment of an integrated multiethnic society. The conclusions drawn are that such a course of action has proved inadequate for building sustainable peace and the success of this mission can, in this respect, be questioned. Furthermore, the experience of UNTAES makes clear that development and peacebuilding, although increasingly integrated in peacebuilding theory and in UN rhetoric, in practice, still operate as largely distinct fields.
The synthesis of some new sulphur containing heterocycles

Earlier work on the synthesis of thiophenes and thiophenophanes is reviewed. The main objective of the research was to synthesize cyclic sulphonium salts, such as (1) or (1, but m=n=CH=CH), where aromaticity might be shown and the normal tetrahedral configuration of sulphur might be flattened.
Attempts to prepare (1O) and (11), precursors for (1) and an analogue, by cyclization of 2-substituted 2, 5-diphenylthiophenes failed. The main synthetic objective was (1, but m=n=CH=CH) . The diyne (3) was prepared, but conversion to (5) by hydrogen sulphide was not achieved. The synthesis of (4) was accomplished by coupling (12) with ethynyltrimethylsilane under new conditions to (12, but X=C=CSiMe3, which with n-Bu3SnH/Pd(PPh3)4, gave (13), a new type of selective reduction. Desilylation and intramolecular coupling afford (4), which is the first example of a dibenzo-fused {l3} annulenone having partially saturated double bonds. Sodium sulphide treatment yielded (14), but prior reduction to (4, but Y=CHOH) then yielded (6), the first example of a dibenzo-fused thiophenophane. This scheme leading to (6) could have wide application. The iodo and triflate derivatives of (6) decomposed to (7) with no sign of (1, but m=n=(CH 2)2), while (6, but Y= C=O)p-tosylhydrazone on LDA treatment gave (7), (7, but Y=ZCH=CH) and (8). Attempted dehydrogenation of (6, but Y= C=O) by DDQ or chloranil eliminated hydrogen sulphide yielding (4), while other reagents did not react or caused polymerization. A general synthesis of the ethynylaldehyde (15) was discovered in the synthesis of (16), a possible precursor of (2). Attempts to prepare (1, but m=CH=CH) were unsuccessful because of difficulties in synthesizing 2,5-disubstituted thiophenes of type (9) . Some experiments towards the synthesis of (17) were made. Compound (18) was prepared by a 7-stage synthesis and demethylated to (19). Oxidative demethylation of (18) and oxidation of (19) using various reagents did not give (2O).
The thesis concludes with an experimental section (90 pages) and a bibliography (226 references).
[Numbers in brackets in abstract refer to chemical diagrams. See pdf. for full abstract including these illustrations]
Aspects of four-dimensional black holes with hair : stability and entropy considerations

In recent years, a large number of black holes have been presented as candidates for an evasion of the "no-hair" conjecture. These examples typically have two features: a non-Abelian gauge field and instability. A large part of this thesis is devoted to a detailed study of the Einstein-Yang-Mills-Higgs (EYMH) black holes, including the analytic proof of the evasion of the "nohair" theorem in this case and proving that the black holes are unstable. We also consider an example of a "hairy" black hole not involving a non-Abelian gauge field, which arises in a higher derivative model of gravity derived from string theory, and prove analytically how the "no-hair" theorem is evaded.
The rest of this thesis is concerned with the thermodynamics and quantum field theory of these black holes. In a first order approximation to the unknown theory of quantum gravity, we calculate the entropy of the "hairy" black holes. This turns out to be divergent, and parts of the divergences are attributed to the effect of hair on information loss processes occurring as the black hole evolves in time. We pursue this idea further by making a preliminary estimate of the magnitude of the quantum de-coherence effects on the state of the quantum field as time proceeds. These processes may be of interest phenomenologically in the future.
The extension of the theory to non-static geometries is also discussed, by describing the results of bringing rotation into the picture. We prove that the Hartle-Hawking state is not regular everywhere outside the event horizon of a Kerr black hole, with the result that quantum field theory on rotating black hole space-times is more complicated than on static geometries.
Molecular biology of antibiotic resistance elements in human haemophilus SPP

Antibiotic resistance in Haemophilus influenzae emerged in the 1970s and rapidly rose in prevalence worldwide. The principal source of resistance was a large conjugative resistance element often referred to as a plasmid. The origins of this resistance element that integrates and conjugates have not been determined. The main aim of this thesis was to investigate the origin of this integrative and conjugative element (ICE) through comparative analysis of whole sequenced elements. Two Haemophilus resistance ICEs, ICEHin1056, from the UK, and ICEHin299, from Greece, were completely sequenced. Two further ICEs, ICEHin2866 from the USA and ICEHpa8F from a UK Haemophilus parainfluenzae were compared. These ICEs consisted of highly homologous sequences that were predicted to form functional modules. The properties of these predicted modules accounted for replication, conjugation and integrative and excisive recombination with tRNAleu. As the sequence diversity of resistance associated genes common to these ICEs were highly conserved compared to core ICE sequences they probably have been recently acquired by these ICEs suggesting a relatively recent origin. Further comparative analysis of these ICEs revealed a common evolutionary origin with genomic islands (GIs) found among bacteria belonging to β- and γ-Proteobacteria. These GIs share coherently organised core genes indicating that they have originated from a distant common ancestor. This finding contradicts the hypothesis that GIs were derived from independently evolving modules. Furthermore, the preservation of a coherent core gene structure between distantly related GIs suggests these core genes acting together confer a particular fitness advantage, which has contributed to the dissemination of adaptive genes such as antibiotic resistance genes. The methods used to compare these genomic islands could in the future be used to classify all genomic islands.