VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Cataclysmic variables in globular clusters and low mass X-ray binaries

An introduction is given to cataclysmic variables (CVs), low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) and globular clusters. The radio properties of LMXBs are reviewed. I present optical spectroscopy and photometry of the globular cluster CV candidates, V4 in M30, V101 in M5, the CV candidates in M71 and of the LMXB 4U06144-09. VLA observations of the globular cluster X-ray sources in NGC7078, NGC6712, NGC6624 and NGC1851 and a "snapshot" of the galactic LMXB 4U2129+47 are presented.
The quiescent colours of V4 indicate that its orbital period is <5 hours. Its radial velocity, quiescent and outburst magnitudes show that it is probably not a cluster member. A hump in the light curve of V101, its quiescent colours, outburst magnitude and the results of quiescent state time resolved spectroscopy are all consistent with an orbital period of ~5-8 hours. V101 is the only CV whose photometric properties are compatible with cluster membership. Spectroscopy of the two brightest CV candidates in M71 shows that they are subdwarf B stars. The nature of the remaining candidates is discussed.
Radio counterparts to the X-ray sources in NGC7078 and NGC6712 are discovered. The observed emission is interpreted in terms of the synchrotron emission mechanism. Upper limits are placed on radio emission from the X-ray sources in NGC6624 and NGC1851 and from the galactic LMXB 4U2129+47.
4U0614+09 displays photometric variability on two timescales; 10 days and 1 hour. The former is interpreted as a precessing accretion disc whilst the latter could be either long timescale QPO or the orbital period. The optical spectrum is unusual because it only displays the Bowen blend (λ4640-4660) emission feature not He II λ4686. Possible explanations for this behaviour are discussed. Simultaneous optical and X-ray photometry shows that the optical flux was anticorrelated with the X-ray emission.

Advisor: McHardy, I
A POD-Galerkin approach to the atmospheric dynamics of Mars

The observation of less chaoticity and enhanced interannual periodicity of transient waves in the Martian atmosphere in comparison with that of the Earth suggests the hypothesis of a low-dimensional underlying atmospheric attractor. Grounded on this hypothesis, two questions can be asked: is there a small set of atmospheric modes, measured and classified by a suitable norm, capable of describing the atmosphere of Mars? If this set exists, are those atmospheric modes able to reproduce the dynamical behaviour of the atmosphere of Mars? The answer to these questions, constituting the central focus of this thesis, has led to the first application of POD-Galerkin methods to a state-of-the-art Mars general circulation model. The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) as a method for extracting coherent structures, called empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs), provided a means to answer the first question in the positive. An important amount of atmospheric total energy (TE) was found to be concentrated in a few EOFs (e.g., 90% TE in 20 EOFs). The most energetic EOFs were identified with atmospheric motions such as thermal tides and transient waves. The Galerkin projection of the hydrostatic primitive equations onto the span of the EOFs provided a systematic method to establish physically plausible interactions between the most energetic EOFs. These interactions were complemented with closure schemes representing interactions with unresolved modes. This requirement proved to be essential in order to obtain bounded behaviour. In the diagnostic analysis, represented by the POD alone, increasing the number of EOFs directly leads to a better approximation of the atmospheric state. In contrast, the dynamic reconstruction of the atmospheric evolution does not depend only on the number of included EOFs. Other important factors to obtain realistic evolution are the inclusion of every mode involved in the description of a particular kind of motion (diurnal tide, semidiurnal tide or transients) and the retention of higher order modes that may interact strongly with the modes of interest. Once these conditions are satisfied the behaviour of the reduced models is greatly improved. Implications of these findings for future work are discussed.

Keywords: low-order models
atmosphere
Mars
proper orthogonal decomposition
Advisor: Moroz, I
Read, P
Change and continuity in United Stated [sic] -Colombian relations, during the war against drugs, 1970-1998

This thesis addresses almost three decades of U.S.-Colombian relations and asks two main questions. Why did relations remain friendly for so long given the many problems associated with drugs, and the notion that drugs and drug trafficking constituted a security problem? And what changed in 1995 so as to alter the course of friendship?
It argues that U.S. and Colombian preferences over illegal drug control policy have not always been at odds, and disagreements have not precluded cooperation and joint action on drug control matters over a significant period of time. Nor can power asymmetry, a constant feature in the relationship, account for change. A successful account of both friendship and antagonism can be given only by spelling out the ideational and normative components that have contributed to define the character of the relationship and to determine the attitudes and behaviour towards each other. These components refer to the understandings of the drug problem, ideas on what constitutes mutually acceptable political and economic behaviour and their underlying norms, and the images that relevant policy-makers have of each country. This thesis also underscores the need to take stock of the cumulative process by which Colombia and the United States embraced and expanded drug prohibition.

Advisor: Hurrell, A
A semantics for aspects by compositional translation

We analyse the semantics of aspect-oriented extensions to functional languages by presenting compositional translations of these primitives into languages with traditional notions of state and control. As a first step, we examine an existing semantic description of aspects which allows the labelling of program points. We show that a restriction of these semantics to aspects which do not preempt the execution of code can be fully abstractly translated into a functional calculus with higher order references, but that removing this restriction requires a notion of exception handling to be added to the target language in order to yield a sound semantics. Next, we proceed to show that abandoning the labelling technique, and consequently relaxing the so-called obliviousness'' property of aspectual languages, allows preemptive aspects to be included in the general references model without the need for exceptions. This means that the game model of general references is inherited by the aspect calculus. The net result is a clean semantic description of aspect-orientation, which mirrors recently published techniques for their implementation, and thereby provides theoretical justification for these systems. The practical validity of our semantics is demonstrated by implementing extensions to the basic calculus in Standard ML, and showing how a number of useful aspect-oriented features can be expressed using general references alone. Our theoretical methodology closely follows the proof structure that often appears in the game semantics literature, and therefore provides an operational perspective on notions such as bad variables'' and factorisation theorems.

Keywords: translation
full abstraction
aspect oriented programming
imperative programming
game semantics
programming language semantics
Advisor: Ong, C
Perisomatic-targeting interneurons control the initiation of hippocampal population bursts

Replay of spike sequences can be seen during sharp wave – ripple population burst activity in the hippocampus. It is thought that this activity, which occurs during rest and sleep, is involved in memory consolidation. The cellular mechanisms underlying the initiation of these replay events are not well understood. To investigate this, a hippocampal slice model, showing spontaneous sharp wave – ripple activity, and a combination of planar multi-electrode array recordings and whole-cell patch-clamp recordings of anatomically identified hippocampal neurons were used. Firstly, the spatial and temporal profile of sharp waves in vitro was analysed in detail. Sharp waves were generated by changing subpopulations of pyramidal neurons in the CA3 region and had characteristics similar to those found in vivo. Secondly, four major receptor types present in hippocampal CA3, namely NMDA, AMPA, GABAA and GABAB receptors, were investigated for their involvement in sharp wave generation. Surprisingly, not only AMPA receptor-mediated events, but also phasic GABAA receptor-mediated inhibition, were necessary for sharp wave generation. Thirdly, single perisomatic-targeting interneurons were activated. This experiment showed that induced spiking activity of an individual perisomatic-targeting interneuron can both suppress and subsequently enhance local sharp wave generation. Spiking activity of other neuron types (i.e. pyramidal neurons, dendritic-targeting interneurons and interneuron-selective interneurons) had no significant effect on sharp wave incidence. Finally, it is suggested that this post-inhibitory enhancement of sharp wave generation can be mediated by a transient increase in the ratio of excitation to inhibition in the local network. In conclusion, these results suggest a new role for perisomatic-targeting interneurons in controlling the local initiation of sharp waves by selectively suppressing and subsequently enhancing recruitment of a subpopulation of pyramidal neurons. These results further imply that interneurons may play an integral part in the local information processing that takes place in the hippocampal network.

Keywords: sharp waves
population bursting
ripple oscillations
inhibition
interneurons
CA3
hippocampus
Advisor: Paulsen, O
Csicsvari, J
Comparative analysis of derived mutations across human populations.

Multiple factors, including the rate of mutation of different types, the action of natural selection, recombination and population history all influence the distribution of genetic variation within and between populations. Here, we seek to explore the relative contributions of different factors to notable aspects of the derived site frequency spectrum in different populations from the 1000 Genomes Project. Specifically, we ask whether individuals from different populations carry different numbers of mutations (indicative of differences in the mutation rate or average generation time of populations) and whether patterns differ between types of mutation in different sequence contexts. Our results indicate that the average mutation rate (per year) in African populations has been slightly, but significantly, higher than in non-African populations which has led to an enrichment in the number of derived alleles harbored in African populations. In a departure from the literature, we find that the non-synonymous mutation load does not vary between populations. We present weak evidence for differential mutational processes at CpG sites in African individuals and estimate a TMRCA of the human population as approximately 3.5 mya. Last, we suggest ways in which our knowledge of derived alleles can allow us to make improvements to existing population genetic methods, such as the sequentially Markov coalescent.

Keywords: Human population genetics
Advisor: McVean, G
HR23B, a biomarker for HDAC inhibitors

As our understanding of cancer biology increases and novel therapies are developed, an increasing number of predictive biomarkers are becoming clinically available. Aberrant acetylation has been strongly linked to tumourigenesis and the modulation of acetylation through targeting histone deacetylase (HDAC) has led to the introduction of many HDAC inhibitors. To date, two have had regulatory approval for the treatment of cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL). Modifications in chromatin control underpin the mechanism of action of HDAC inhibitors. A genome wide loss-of-function screen identified HR23B as a gene that governs sensitivity to HDAC inhibitors. HR23B shuttles ubiquitinated cargo proteins to the proteasome and elevated levels may contribute to cell death mediated by this pathway. It also governs cell sensitivity to drugs that act directly on the proteasome. HDAC inhibitors influence proteasome activity and there may be a synergistic interaction with proteasome inhibitors. HR23B and HDAC6 interact and HDAC6 may be a negative regulator of apoptosis and a positive regulator of autophagy and through its ability to down-regulate HR23B, may impact on the cellular outcome of HDAC inhibitor treatment. Expression of HR23B has been correlated with clinical response to HDAC inhibitors in a retrospective analysis of CTCL patients. The tissue expression of HR23B and the autophagy marker LC3 has been investigated and there may be a reciprocal relationship in their expression in some tumours which may provide prognostic information and patients with low HR23B expression but high levels of autophagy appear to have a particularly poor prognosis. Well designed, biomarker-driven prospective clinical trials are needed to clarify the predictive and prognostic roles of HR23B.

Keywords: HDAC inhibitor
apoptosis
cancer
HDAC 6
autophagy
biomarker
HR23B
Advisor: La Thangue, N
Emergent social structure and collective behaviour from individual decision-making in wild birds

Social behaviour is shaped by complex relationships between evolutionary and ecological processes interacting at different scales. Benefits gained from social associations can range from predator dilution to collective sensing, but little is known about how these can be influenced by social structure and phenotypic composition. In this thesis, I investigated how individual decision-making affects phenotypic social structure, and how this mediates social behaviour through emergent properties of collective group behaviour.
First, using mixed-species flocks as a model system, I showed individual tits (Paridae, chapter 2) and thornbills (Acanthizae, chapter 3) varied significantly in their social positions. Within-species variation in network position was as large as between-species variation, sug- gesting that prescribing functional roles at the species level may not sufficiently account for potential differences in fitness operating at the individual level. Rather, this suggested that structure may be driven by phenotypic traits, underpinning network structure (chapter 4).
Next, I used an extensive data set of foraging records to explore factors determining the composition, of flocks of great tits (Parus major, chapter 5). For example, assortment by dispersal phenotype (immigration status) was the result of spatial disaggregation, and I showed that this may facilitate social selection for breeding territories (chapter 6).
Finally, I investigated how decision-making shaped mixed-species social structure. I found that tits used a common strategy for managing pressures of predation and starvation by shifting from exploration to exploitation at different times of the day (chapter 7). I then found that a very simple interaction rule successfully replicated mixed-species group structure (chapter 8). Strikingly, the same rule was applied to both conspecifics and het- erospecifics, potentially playing an important role in the maintenance of flock structure. Through experimental manipulation of ecological conditions, I found that heightened per- ceived predation resulted in stronger social attraction overall, whereas increased competition led to a reduction in attraction to conspecifics (chapter 9). Simulations suggested this could be one potential mechanism underpinning fission-fusion dynamics in these species.
Together, the results in this thesis form a framework linking social behaviour to individ- ual fitness where natural selection is shaped by the social environment. This approach may prove useful for testing whether following common social rules reduces variance in benefits accrued by individuals, and how within-species variation in social behaviour can impact emergent properties of groups.

Keywords: Social behaviour
Interspecific interactions
Social selection
Ornithology
Wytham Woods
Mixed-species flocking
Self-organisation
Social networks
Collective behaviour
Paridae
Advisor: Sheldon, B
Garroway, C
Anti-socialism in British politics, c.1900-1922

The thesis, "Anti-Socialism in British Politics, 1900-1922," is an attempt to combine the approaches of intellectual and political history in explaining the development of Conservative Party politics at a crucial period of social and political change. It pays particular attention to the relationship between political thought and action through the medium of 'ideology.' It attempts to illuminate this process with an extended case-study of the ideological opposition to 'Socialism' between 1880s and 1920s; it then traces the impact of these ideas to the strategic calculations and policy programmes of the Conservative party. It concludes by arguing that the ideological character of inter-war Conservatism can be best understood by reference to its resistance to Socialism, and it is through this doctrinal prism that the transformation of the Party into one dedicated to protecting the interests of industrialists and the middle-class, suburban salariat can be best understood. The thesis examines the processes of ideological innovation and operationalisation by which these interests were appealed to, and also reveals the political constraints which prevented Conservatives making too overt an appeal to the property-owning classes. The first half of the thesis is concerned with various intellectual and ideological responses to 'Socialism'; the contents of these critiques are treated as interesting in their own right, but are also related to the demands of a wider political culture, particularly as they were constructed with political needs in mind. The second half examines the political impact of Anti-Socialism in British politics at local and national level after 1906. It concludes by arguing that the relationship between Conservatism and the free market, limited government ideal of 'liberal' Individualism was closer than sometimes argued, that 'Anti-Socialism' brought the two creeds together, but in the end it was the 'common sense' Conservative modification of the Individualist creed which dominated political rhetoric and helped overcome many of the hidden tensions present in creating a Party for the 'property-owning democracy.'
Measurements of vector boson production in association with jets at the LHC using the ATLAS detector

This thesis presents measurements of the cross section for the production of a W boson in association with jets and the ratio of the cross sections for the production of a W boson and a Z boson in association with jets. Both measurements are performed in proton-proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb-1. The dataset allows for the exploration of a large kinematic range, including jet production up to a transverse momentum of 1 TeV and multiplicities up to seven jets. Results are presented as a function of jet transverse momenta and rapidities and as a function of event variables such as the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of the jets. Results as a function of dijet angular variables are also presented. The measurements are compared to several state-of-the-art QCD predictions including next-to-leading-order perturbative calculations, resummation calculations and Monte Carlo generators. Finally, the effect of the results on parton distribution functions is explored.

Keywords: QCD
Standard Model
jets
Z boson
W boson
Advisor: Cooper-Sarkar, A
Synthetic inorganic chemistry

This thesis is divided into two parts. The first part concerns the synthesis and characterisation of substituted metallocene complexes of the transition and main group metals. The second part describes the preparation and characterisation of inorganic fullerene (IF)-related materials.
Chapter 1 reviews the chemistry of dialkyl- and diaryl-phosphino substituted cyclopentadienyl complexes of the transition metals.
Chapter 2 describes the synthesis and characterisation of the new ligands [M(C5Me4)CH2PMe2] (M = H, Li, Na and K) via the precursors [HC5Me4)CH2PHMe2][X] (X = Cl and PF6). The synthesis, characterisation and chemical reactivity of the compounds [Zr{{η-C5Me4)CH2PMe2}2Cl2 and [Mn{η-C5Me4)CH2PMe2}2] is reported together with supporting evidence for the synthesis of the bimetallic complex [Zr{U+03B7-C5Me4)CH2PMe2}2Cl2PtI2] and the complex [Mn{η-C5Me4)CH2PMe2B(C6F5)3}2].
Chapter 3 provides a brief introduction into the field of main group metallocenes and describes the synthesis and characterisation of the new main group metallocenes [M{η- C5H4)CMe2PMe2}2] (M = Pb and Sn). The B(C6F5)3 adduct [Pb{η-C5H4)CMe2PMe2(B(C6F5)3}2] has also been synthesised. The main group - transition metal bimetallic complex [Pb{η-C5H4)CMe2PMe2}2PtI2 in which the substitutedplumbocene acts as a bidentate ligand, has been characterised by mass spectrometry and 31P{1H}NMR spectroscopy.
Chapter 4 provides an introduction into the field of IF-related materials and an overview of the analytical techniques used in their characterisation.
Chapter 5 describes the preparation and characterisation of IF-MoS2 and IF-(Nb,W)S2 materials from MoC and the binary oxides Nb8 W9O47 and Nb4W13O47 respectively. A powder X-ray diffraction study of the conversion of WC to WO3-X and the subsequent sulfidisation by H2S to form novel IF-WS2 morphologies is also described.
Chapter 6 describes the preparation of amorphous Group 5 metal (V, Nb and Ta) oxides using the metal vapour synthesis technique. These amorphous precursors have been annealed in a reducing atmosphere to form the oxide phases U+03B1-V2O3, NbO2 and TT-Ta2O5 which have been identified by powder X-ray diffraction. Upon reaction with H2S, the crystalline oxides afford layered sulfides of the form MS2 (M = V, Nb and Ta), some of which exhibit behaviour typical of IF-like materials and have been characterised by HRTEM, powder X-ray diffraction and EDX analysis.
Chapter 7 outlines the experimental details for the synthesis, characterisation, reactions and compounds described in the preceding chapters.
Chapter 8 presents the characterising data for the new compounds described in chapters 2 and 3.
Appendix A contains details of the crystallographic data for the structurally characterised compound [Mn{η-C5Me4)CHPMe2}2].

Advisor: Green, M