VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Rethinking Chinese national identity. The wider context of foreign policy making during the era of Hu Jintao, 2002–2012.

This thesis analyses China's national identity construction and its foreign policy implications especially towards Japan and the United States during the Hu Jintao period 2002-2012. The vast literature on China's rise takes “rising nationalism” in China as one of the key indicators of increased likelihood for aggressive behaviour in the future. This work problematizes some of the simplified assumptions made in this literature by emphasising the domestic context from which foreign policies rise. I argue that culture specific values deriving from national identities shape attitude structures and affect the whole thinking and conceptualisation related to foreign policy with wide-ranging consequences. Thus, in this research national identity is operationalised through values and attitudes deriving from it. With empirical evidence, I show in my thesis that most things discussed as "nationalism" in China studies literature can be analytically separated into at least two components, each with different foreign policy relevant correlates. Analysing two sets of survey material with statistical methods I show that the type of national attachment in China constrains foreign policy preferences in a different way than often assumed in the literature: "patriots" support an internationalist stance in contrast to "nationalists" who favour more assertive behaviour towards Japan and the US as well as generally protectionist economic policies. In addition to analysing the associations between core values and foreign policy preferences, I also provide other examples of cultural factors shaping Chinese foreign policy context including the role of historical legacies and their political use, and the role of the media in the formation of foreign threat perceptions and foreign policy preferences. The need to better understand these national identity dynamics is emphasised because of the ongoing pluralisation of Chinese foreign policy establishment, which gives more space to domestic input from various levels of society.

Keywords: foreign policy
the United States
national identity
Japan
political psychology
public opinion
China
patriotism
nationalism
Advisor: Mitter, R
British music criticism in a new era: Studies in critical thought 1894-1945

The mid 1890s witnessed the start of a new era in British music criticism heralded by George Bernard Shaw. A preliminary study of the nineteenth-century critical context provides some reasons for its emergence. The new temper was defined by two critics: John F. Runciman. the self-appointed leader of the New critics. and the Rationalist Ernest Newman. Henry Hadow's Studies in Modern Music set a new standard and added impetus to discussion of critical theory. Several other critics associated with Oxford, including Parry, Tovey, Walker and Colles, formed a body of opinion that shared common values and continued a tradition stemming from Victorian writers such as Grove and Stainer. Discussions of critical theory, especially those of Newman and M. D. Calvocoressi. are given prominence.
Two new trends emerged after the First World War. The first, a reaction against the German repertoire, focused on Stravinsky and the composers associated with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Foremost among those who championed the aesthetic of 'objective empiricism' were Edwin Evans and Leigh Henry. A second and more conservative tendency carne predominantly from two composer-critics associated with Philip Heseltine's journal of the 1920s. The Sackbut: Cecil Gray and K. S. Sorabji. Constant Lamben continued along broadly similar lines to Gray during the 1930s, notably in his Music Ho!. and is included as a member of the Sackbut coterie. Contrast between the criticism of Eric Blom and that of the poet W. J. Turner demonstrates the range of independent thought characteristic of the new era.
Consideration of individual endeavour rather than collective trends of critical thought provides the method of documentation. The thesis attempts to elucidate the diversity of critical views without refuting a critic or entering into a polemical discourse. while in no way shirking the responsibility of arriving at an assessment of his position and achievement. Certain recurrent issues. including those surrounding Romanticism. nationalism and the rise of modernism. reflect the primary concerns of the period.
A table showing music critics of leading British newspapers and a selected chronological list of one hundred books of music criticism published in Britain between 1890 and 1950 are contained in the appendices.

Keywords: music criticism
Advisor: Warrack, J
In Egyptian service

In 1919 the number of British officials employed by the Egyptian Government reached a peak of over 1,600, a substantial figure in relation to a colonial administration like the Indian Civil Service. However, due to the anomalous nature of Britain's occupation of Egypt, the workings of British administration there were left deliberately ambiguous. Thus although we have an extensive knowledge of imperial policy with regard to Egypt, we have little understanding of how British rule there actually functioned, certainly nothing to compare with numerous local studies of the Raj or Colonial Service at work.
By studying the British administrators of the Egyptian Government, this thesis casts new light on Britain's middle years in Egypt, which saw formal imperial control succeeded by informal hegemony.
We begin by analysing the Anglo-Egyptian administrative structure as a product of its historical development. We examine how well this muted style of administrative control suited conditions in Egypt and Britain's requirements there, considering the fact that by 1919 the British officials had become a major source of nationalist grievance. This loss of reputation caused the Milner Mission to select the British administration as a principal scapegoat in its proposed concessions. Moreover, it was the belief of certain leading officials that Britain's responsibility for Egyptian administration was no longer viable which finally helped precipitate the 1922 declaration of independence.
The Egyptian Government now took actual rather than nominal control of its foreign bureaucrats, yet even in 1936, over 500 British officials were still employed in finance, security, and in technical and educational capacities. The changing role of these officials within an evolving mechanism of British control illuminates one of the earliest experiences of transfer of power this century.
Essays on the perception, representation, and categorisation of colour

This thesis develops and explores a constitutive approach to colour vision, which serves as an alternative to the standard experiential view of colour vision operating in the philosophy of colour. The approach seeks to describe the nature or essence of colour vision qua psychological kind. I argue that it is constitutive of colour vision that an organism possesses the ability to achieve colour constancy. An important feature of my account is that colour constancy is characterised as the ability to discriminate differences in surface reflectance properties across changes in illumination conditions. This differs from the standard ‘appearance invariance view’, which characterises colour constancy by appealing to the phenomenology of apparent colour. I consider an important objection to the appearance invariance view posed by the argument from illumination, which might also seem to carry over to the reflectance discrimination view. The objection is based on the claim that in standard cases of colour constancy the phenomenology of apparent colour is partly illumination-dependent. I argue that the reflectance discrimination view is perfectly able to accommodate this point. As a case study in applying the constitutive approach to illuminate the distinctive nature of colour vision, I argue that a vivid feature of our ordinary experience of colour known as categorical perception should be dissociated from our colour vision abilities. Although colour ontology often is not at the forefront of discussion, these constitutive theses support the ontological view of colour known as reflectance physicalism. I critique the argument from colour similarity, which many take to pose the greatest threat to reflectance physicalism. The thrust of the argument is that colours phenomenally appear to stand in similarity relations that do not correlate with the similarities that are evident among reflectance properties. This argument lacks much force, however, as it fails to acknowledge the extreme context sensitivity of similarity and the presentation sensitivity of our knowledge of similarities.

Keywords: perception
colour
representation
categorisation
Advisor: Williamson, T
Hawthorne, J
The spatial construct of social relations: social transformation in early Kaushi, Taiwan

This research attempts to extend the application of spatial analysis to the investigation of human agency in social relations. Marcos Llobera's research framework on modelling daily experience and social space showcases great potentials of utilising Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to explore the perception and behaviour of individual agents. By expanding Llobera's work and incorporating Tim Ingold's wayfaring theory to explore the human agency in the context of social relations, this research proposes a new analytical method to investigate social relations through the accumulation of intimate interactions. Exemplified with detailed analysis on two settlements of Kaushi people in Taiwan, the proposed analytical method demonstrates great strength and yields fruitful insights into their social structure and transformation. In addition, this method is particularly instrumental in unravelling specific relations between individuals, as well as between social groups. The application of this method on Kaushi settlements yielded fruitful insights of their social structure and transformation. On the other hand, the side products of this approach can be further employed to investigate the visual structure and movement intensity of a site, as well as to experiment alternative 'what if' scenarios relating to visibility, movement, and interaction. In sum, this research augments the potential of spatial analysis to explore human agency in a social context and lays out a further platform for the investigation of social relations at a settlement scale.

Keywords: GIS
Social Relations
Spatial Pattern
Settlement
Taiwan
Advisor: Gosden, C
Lock, G
The role of thermal processing and protein oxidation in peanut allergy

Food allergies are an increasing health problem throughout the developed world. Among these, peanut allergy is particularly significant, due to its exceptional severity and frequent lifelong duration. Much of its aetiology remains unclear. In particular, it remains unknown why, unlike other food allergies, peanut allergy incidence correlates poorly with average dietary peanut consumption. A popular explanation for this discrepancy is that peanut allergy is more common in regions where predominantly dry-roasted (DR) peanuts are consumed, leading to speculation that DR-induced chemical modifications may contribute to pathological Th2 responses in humans. Yet to date, no research group has demonstrated an enhanced immunogenicity of DR peanuts relative to raw in a murine model of sensitisation.
This thesis begins with the hypothesis that dry-roasting does indeed alter the chemical composition of peanut proteins in such a way as to increase immunogenicity and allergenicity. To test this hypothesis robustly, I have first addressed flaws in previous studies by developing a methodology to thoroughly characterise samples of raw and DR peanut protein, as well as purifying samples of individual peanut allergens. Using these samples, I have demonstrated an enhanced immunogenicity of DR peanut protein relative to raw, in intragastric, subcutaneous and epicutaneous models of mouse sensitisation, and furthermore, that such enhanced responses feature a pronounced Th2 bias and functional IgE production. I will present evidence that this difference is not caused by either protein aggregation or the presence of other non-protein substances, but is due to an intrinsic property of the DR peanut proteins. I will go on to clarify candidate molecular mechanisms of this effect, examining several putative receptors and probing the effects of roasting on dendritic cell binding and interactions of peanut proteins. I conclude in light of these investigations that the dry-roasting hypothesis remains the most plausible explanation for the epidemiological distribution of peanut allergy, although many additional questions remain regarding the nature of the chemical modifications produced by roasting and the molecular basis of their recognition by the immune system.

Keywords: dendritic cells
innate immunity
peanut
protein purification
immunology
allergy
food processing
antigen uptake
Advisor: Sattentau, Q
Moghaddam, A
Mating system, sex-specific selection and the evolution of the avian sex chromosomes

Sex chromosomes experience distinct evolutionary environments, due to their unusual pattern of inheritance, and studies of sex chromosome evolution can shed light on the fundamental evolutionary forces acting across the genome as a whole. Here, I combine genomic and transcriptomic data across a wide range of avian species to explore the evolutionary processes governing sex chromosome evolution. Birds are female heterogametic and therefore it is possible, via comparisons with male heterogametic species, to identify the fundamental factors driving sex chromosome evolution, versus those associated with sex.
In this thesis, I uncover a complex mosaic of recombination suppression between the Z and W chromosomes, characterized by repeated and independent divergence of gametologs, together with ongoing genetic exchange. Additionally, I highlight the role of mating system, and interplay between evolutionary forces, in driving coding and expression evolution on the Z and W chromosomes. My findings indicate that although the Z chromosome is masculinized for male-specific effects, the magnitude of genetic drift acting on Z-linked genes is elevated in promiscuous relative to monogamous mating systems. In contrast, evolution of the female-limited W chromosome is governed predominately by purifying selection. Together, my results suggest that the role of the Z chromosome in encoding sexual dimorphisms may be limited, but that W-linked genes play a significant role in female-specific fitness. In conclusion, my findings reveal the power of mating system in shaping broad patterns of genome evolution.

Keywords: Genomics
Sex chromosomes
Evolution
Biology
Advisor: Mank, J
Pizzari, T
Machine learning in multi-frame image super-resolution

Multi-frame image super-resolution is a procedure which takes several noisy low-resolution images of the same scene, acquired under different conditions, and processes them together to synthesize one or more high-quality super-resolution images, with higher spatial frequency, and less noise and image blur than any of the original images. The inputs can take the form of medical images, surveillance footage, digital video, satellite terrain imagery, or images from many other sources.
This thesis focuses on Bayesian methods for multi-frame super-resolution, which use a prior distribution over the super-resolution image. The goal is to produce outputs which are as accurate as possible, and this is achieved through three novel super-resolution schemes presented in this thesis.
Previous approaches obtained the super-resolution estimate by first computing and fixing the imaging parameters (such as image registration), and then computing the super-resolution image with this registration. In the first of the approaches taken here, superior results are obtained by optimizing over both the registrations and image pixels, creating a complete simultaneous algorithm. Additionally, parameters for the prior distribution are learnt automatically from data, rather than being set by trial and error.
In the second approach, uncertainty in the values of the imaging parameters is dealt with by marginalization. In a previous Bayesian image super-resolution approach, the marginalization was over the super-resolution image, necessitating the use of an unfavorable image prior. By integrating over the imaging parameters rather than the image, the novel method presented here allows for more realistic prior distributions, and also reduces the dimension of the integral considerably, removing the main computational bottleneck of the other algorithm.
Finally, a domain-specific image prior, based upon patches sampled from other images, is presented. For certain types of super-resolution problems where it is applicable, this sample-based prior gives a significant improvement in the super-resolution image quality.

Keywords: machine learing
super-resolution
Image
Advisor: Zisserman, A
Roberts, S
Cellular distributed and parallel computing

This thesis focuses on novel approaches to distributed and parallel computing that are inspired by the mechanism and functioning of biological cells. We refer to this concept as cellular distributed and parallel computing which focuses on three important principles: simplicity, parallelism, and locality.
We first give a parallel polynomial-time solution to the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) based on a theoretical model of cellular distributed and parallel computing, which is known as neural-like P systems (or neural-like membrane systems).
We then design a class of simple neural-like P systems to solve the fundamental maximal independent set (MIS) selection problem efficiently in a distributed way, by drawing inspiration from the way that developing cells in the fruit fly become specialised.
Building on the novel bio-inspired approach to distributed MIS selection, we propose a new simple randomised algorithm for another fundamental distributed computing problem: the distributed greedy colouring (GC) problem.
We then propose an improved distributed MIS selection algorithm that incorporates for the first time another important feature of the biological system: adapting the probabilities used at each node based on local feedback from neighbouring nodes. The improved distributed MIS selection algorithm is again extended to solve the distributed greedy colouring problem. Both improved algorithms are simple and robust and work under very restrictive conditions, moreover, they both achieve state-of-the-art performance in terms of their worst-case time complexity and message complexity. Given any n-node graph with maximum degree Delta, the expected time complexity of our improved distributed MIS selection algorithm is O(log n) and the message complexity per node is O(1). The expected time complexity of our improved distributed greedy colouring algorithm is O(Delta + log n) and the message complexity per node is again O(1).
Finally, we provide some experimental results to illustrate the time and message complexity of our proposed algorithms in practice. In particular, we show experimentally that the number of colours used by our distributed greedy colouring algorithms turns out to be optimal or near-optimal for many standard graph colouring benchmarks, so they provide effective simple heuristic approaches to computing a colouring with a small number of colours.

Keywords: Randomised Algorithms
Time and Message Complexity
Distributed Networks
Distributed and Parallel Computing
Bio-inspired Computing
Advisor: Jeavons, P
Crystallisation kinetics and optical properties of Ge₂Sb₂Te₅

This thesis reports on the work carried out by the author on the crystallisation kinetics and optical properties of thin amorphous Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ films. This study is prompted by the application of these films in optical phase change recording media. The work is partly theoretical and partly experimental in nature. Starting from the general nucleation and growth theory, it was shown that the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK) equations are equally valid under linear heating conditions as under isothermal annealing conditions. All peak shift methods for determining the JMAK parameters were shown to be equivalent and valid within the JMAK framework. The crystallisation kinetics of amorphous Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ films were investigated under isothermal annealing conditions. Crystallisation was found to be preceded by a temperature dependent incubation time. The JMAK parameters were determined and found to be in good agreement with the nucleation and growth parameters, which were determined independently. The optical properties of many materials can be described by three parameters: the plasma energy, Ep, an effective transition energy, Δ, and a damping constant, Γ. A theoretical model was developed that aims to calculate these parameters from the co-ordination of nearest neighbours in the structure. The model was found to work for a simplified silicon Hamiltonian and it is described how the model could be extended to include more realistic systems. Ep, Δ and Γ were determined before and after crystallisation of amorphous Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ films. From the numerical values of these parameters, it was concluded that the change in the reflectivity upon crystallisation is primarily due to the change in Δ. The change in the co-ordination of nearest neighbours upon crystallisation was investigated. The topological co-ordination was found to be very similar in both phases. The change in the optical properties is thought to be due to the change in chemical order of the nearest neighbours.

Advisor: Petford-Long, A
Dobson, P
Dr. Amanda Petford-Long, P