VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Local elites and local coinage: elite self-representation on the provincial coinage of Asia 31 BC- AD 275

The focus of this thesis is the nature of the interaction between the civic elites and the civic coinage for which they were responsible. The Roman Province of Asia provides the ideal context for the study of local elites and their coinage because of the prevalence and prominence of the names of individual local notables, henceforth known as eponyms, recorded in civic coin legends. By combining the study of the function of coin eponyms and the prosopographical analysis of individual eponyms in the epigraphic record, it is possible to identify and explain the profound changes that affected civic coin production in the first three centuries AD. Local elites perceived coinage not only in terms of a functional means of exchange, but as a medium for personal and civic display. In this way the local elites exploited coin iconography in ways that paralleled other media of monumental display. New coin legends were developed, which identified explicitly the dedicatory nature of the coinage and the iconographic repertoire of coin types was radically expanded to express the cultural agendas and priorities of the civic elites.
The first half of the thesis is devoted to the study of the relationship between office holding and coinage and the development of coin legend formulae during the first three centuries AD. The pattern and distribution of the various legend formulae is analysed in order to determine the extent of the eponym’s involvement in the production of coinage. In particular, this section intends to establish the extent to which coinage production was funded privately. The fourth chapter is arranged into a series of case studies discussing individual cases of personalized coin iconography. The final chapter of the thesis outlines how the civic elite’s conceptualization of coinage changed over the course of this period. It is argued that contact with the Roman monetary tradition affected civic elites’ attitude to coinage and that this manifested itself in the iconography and the fabric of the coins themselves.

Keywords: Roman Provincial Elites
Roman Asia Minor
Ancient Numismatics
Advisor: Howgego, C
Thonemann, P
Left ventricle functional analysis in 2D+t contrast echocardiography within an atlas−based deformable template model framework

This biomedical engineering thesis explores the opportunities and challenges of 2D+t contrast echocardiography for left ventricle functional analysis, both clinically and within a computer vision atlas-based deformable template model framework. A database was created for the experiments in this thesis, with 21 studies of contrast Dobutamine Stress Echo, in all 4 principal planes. The database includes clinical variables, human expert hand-traced myocardial contours and visual scoring. First the problem is studied from a clinical perspective. Quantification of endocardial global and local function using standard measures shows expected values and agreement with human expert visual scoring, but the results are less reliable for myocardial thickening. Next, the problem of segmenting the endocardium with a computer is posed in a standard landmark and atlas-based deformable template model framework. The underlying assumption is that these models can emulate human experts in terms of integrating previous knowledge about the anatomy and physiology with three sources of information from the image: texture, geometry and kinetics. Probabilistic atlases of contrast echocardiography are computed, while noting from histograms at selected anatomical locations that modelling texture with just mean intensity values may be too naive. Intensity analysis together with the clinical results above suggest that lack of external boundary definition may preclude this imaging technique for appropriate measuring of myocardial thickening, while endocardial boundary definition is appropriate for evaluation of wall motion. Geometry is presented in a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) context, highlighting issues about Gaussianity, the correlation and covariance matrices with respect to physiology, and analysing different measures of dimensionality. A popular extension of deformable models —Active Appearance Models (AAMs)— is then studied in depth. Contrary to common wisdom, it is contended that using a PCA texture space instead of a fixed atlas is detrimental to segmentation, and that PCA models are not convenient for texture modelling. To integrate kinetics, a novel spatio-temporal model of cardiac contours is proposed. The new explicit model does not require frame interpolation, and it is compared to previous implicit models in terms of approximation error when the shape vector changes from frame to frame or remains constant throughout the cardiac cycle. Finally, the 2D+t atlas-based deformable model segmentation problem is formulated and solved with a gradient descent approach. Experiments using the similarity transformation suggest that segmentation of the whole cardiac volume outperforms segmentation of individual frames. A relatively new approach —the inverse compositional algorithm— is shown to decrease running times of the classic Lucas-Kanade algorithm by a factor of 20 to 25, to values that are within real-time processing reach.
Visible light commuinications using optical OFDM

This thesis presents an investigation into designs and developments of indoor visible light communication (VLC) systems using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) schemes. The novel contribution of this thesis is a development of a visible light communication system that incorporates OFDM and imaging-diversity multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques, which allows robust transmissions on multiple channels at high data rates.
The characteristics of VLC systems are presented, one of which is VLC communications channel exhibits high Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). The major constraint however, is the low modulation bandwidth of typical high power white LED sources.
The performance of OFDM as a modulation scheme is investigated. OFDM offers the possibility for bit and power loading to increase bandwidth efficiency, as well as a straightforward equalisation in time and frequency domains to compensate the low pass frequency response of the LED. This allows transmission rates of up to ~310Mbps at a BER of 2x10-3 on a single-channel link using 16- QAM DCO-OFDM. Further increase in data rates for this transmission is constrained by the available signal power due to a dynamic range limitation at the receiver. An increase in signal power will results in the OFDM waveform to be clipped, which incurs a clipping noise.
MIMO systems offer a linear capacity gain to a number of transmission channels in an ideal configuration. These systems mitigate the dynamic range limitation, as power is divided between multiple channels. The performance of a MIMO transmission system is investigated under the same dynamic range constraint. A 4-channel MIMO transmitter is built using four sets of transmitter components of the single-channel link. An imaging system is used to separate the received optical power onto multiple detectors, and MIMO processing relaxes the requirements for precise mechanical alignments. The experiment has shown that the imaging MIMO system further improves data rates and transmissions of up to ~1.1Gigabit/s at a BER of 2x10-3 are achieved. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the highest reported for an indoor VLC MIMO-OFDM transmission. Also presented is an analysis of MIMO system scalability to provide room-wide coverage.
Finally, this thesis presents an extended analysis of several other optical OFDM approaches, and concludes with recommendations of future work to increase the data rates of indoor VLC systems.

Keywords: MIMO
OFDM
VLC
Advisor: O'Brien, D
Cape policies towards African law in Cape tribal territories, 1872-1883

One of the main themes of South African history is the modification of African tribal life and institutions by the impact of the white society. Both British officials and settlers played a part in this process, but with very different motives and effect. The British, anxious above all else to save defence expenditure, were not prepared to risk provoking a war and had very little incentive to invest large sums in the administration of tne tribes. Settlers, on the other hand, had a vested interest in manipulating tribal society for their own ends: not only did their personal security rely upon quiescent tribesmen, but so did the economic development of the colony, dependent as it was on trade and labour. in addition, the settlers lived, at least along the eastern border, in close contact with the tribes, and were therefore more conscious than officials of those aspects of tribal life which offended Victorian Christianity's ideas of decency and morality. Tribal society was regulated by tribal law under the control of the chiefs; in order to attack aspects of the society, alterations had to be enforced in tribal law. As a result, once the grant of Responsible Government in 1872 gave the settlers control of their own internal affairs, Cape policy on tribal law becomes of particular Interest as a study of how a colonial society attempted to impose often unwelcome changes on an indigenous people, and with what results for both societies. As the problem presented by the African tribes bulked so large in the settler view, there is very little documentation available on the position of the few Khoi and San still living in tribal units, and they have not been included in this study.
[Please see pdf. for full abstract.]
A causal perspective on random geometry

In this thesis we investigate the importance of causality in non-perturbative approaches to quantum gravity. Firstly, causal sets are introduced as a simple kinematical model for causal geometry. It is shown how causal sets could account for the microscopic origin of the Bekenstein entropy bound. Holography and finite entropy emerge naturally from the interplay between causality and discreteness. Going beyond causal set kinematics is problematic however. It is a hard problem to find the right amplitude to attach to each causal set that one needs to define the non-perturbative quantum dynamics of gravity. One approach which is ideally suited to define the non-perturbative gravitational path integral is dynamical triangulation. Without causality this method leads to unappealing features of the quantum geometry though. It is shown how causality is instrumental in regulating this pathological behavior. In two dimensions this approach of causal dynamical triangulations has been analytically solved by transfer matrix methods. In this thesis considerable progress has been made in the development of more powerful techniques for this approach. The formulation through matrix models and a string field theory allow us to study interesting generalizations. Particularly, it has become possible to define the topological expansion. A surprising twist of the new matrix model is that it partially disentangles the large-N and continuum limit. This makes our causal model much closer in spirit to the original idea by 't Hooft than the conventional matrix models of non-critical string theory.

Keywords: hep-th
Asymmetric conjugate addition reactions

This thesis is concerned with the asymmetric conjugate addition reactions of a range of chiral nucloeophiles.
Chapter 1 introduces the conjugate addition reaction as a valuable carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bond forming reaction in organic chemistry, and explores the asymmet- ric conjugate addition of a range of chiral and achiral carbon and nitrogen nucleophiles to a range of acceptors.
Chapter 2 explores the use of the N-benzyl-N-(α-methylbenzyl)amino group as a chi- ral auxiliary, by employing the attempted conjugate additions of both N-benzyl-N-(α- methylbenzyl)hydrazine and N -benzyl-N -(α-methylbenzyl)hydroxylamine as chiral ammo- nia and water equivalents respectively.
Chapter 3 describes the asymmetric and stereoselective preparation of a range of 4,4- disubstituted isoxazolidin-5-ones from the conjugate addition of lithium (S)-N-tert-butyl- dimethylsilyloxy-N -(α-methylbenzyl)amide. The isoxazolidin-5-ones are then globally de- protected via hydrogenolysis, giving rise to the corresponding β2,2,3-amino acids.
Chapter 4 focuses on the development of a protocol to effect the conjugate addition of a chiral aniline equivalent. The scope of the reaction is delineated by varying both the nu- cleophile and the α,β-unsaturated ester. Finally, cyclisation of the β-N-arylamino esters to the corresponding tetrahydroquinolines is explored, and an application to the synthesis of the natural product (−)-angustureine is presented.
Chapter 5 contains full experimental procedures and characterisation data for all com- pounds synthesised in Chapters 2, 3 and 4.

Keywords: organic chemistry
asymmetric synthesis
conjugate addition
chemical methodology
Advisor: Davies, S
Solids mixing in spouted beds

Many industrial processes require contact between particles and a fluid or spray in order to effect drying, coating or granulation. One device capable of contacting fluid and particles efficiently is a spouted bed in which a jet of fluid is injected into solid particles. This forms an open channel or spout and induces material circulation in a downward moving annulus. For the continuous throughput of solids, knowledge is required of the mixing and particle motions within the bed.
When processing mixtures of particles differing in size or density, the components are often found to segregate into regions rich in larger or denser particles. In a spouted bed this tendency could affect the mixing of solids and residence times of different size fractions with which the process performance is associated.
Distributions of particle residence times were measured using a novel magnetic method of tagging. A thin coat of soft iron powder was applied to form tracer particles, a technique having potential for the investigation of mixing in many industrial processes. In this study, perfect mixing was observed for mono-size particle feeds and perfect self-mixing of each component in binary-size feeds. Generally, although not universally, the smaller particles in a mixture passed through the bed more quickly than larger particles. As the bed depth and gas flow rate were increased independently, the difference between the mean res- idence times of the components became greater and was also shown to be dependent on the position of the solids outlet.
The difference in residence times is attributed to segregation within the bed. Different residence times for each component will arise if the particles segregate in the spout, the fountain, the free surface, the annulus or as they are drawn off from the outlet. From the studies on a 150 mm diameter bed, the key processes occur on the free surface and in the neighbourhood of the outlet. In larger diameter beds, segregation on the free surface is predicted to be of prime importance, especially when economy dictates the operation of the bed at low gas flow rates. The particles would then be deposited on the free surface near the spout and the cascading of solids towards the perimeter would lead to segregation.

Advisor: Bridgwater, J
Principles of hydrogen catalysis in the presence of oxygen by a [NiFe] hydrogenase from E. coli

[NiFe] hydrogenases are metalloenzymes that act as highly efficient molecular electrocatalysts for the interconversion of protons and molecular hydrogen. Unlike any other known molecular electrocatalyst, the members of a subgroup of respiratory membrane-bound [NiFe] hydrogenases are able to maintain H2 catalysis in the sustained presence of O2. This O2-tolerance depends on the ability to respond to oxidative inactivation by O2 by exclusively forming rapidly reactivated active site states, thus implying a catalytic cycle in which O2 acts as a competing substrate to H2.
Using isotope ratio mass spectrometry it is proven that the O2-tolerant Escherichia coli Hydrogenase 1 responds to O2 attack by acting as a four-electron oxidoreductase, catalysing the reaction 2 H2 + O2 → 2 H2O, equivalent to hydrogen combustion. Special features of the enzyme’s electron relay system enable delivery of the required electrons. A small fraction of the H2O produced arises from side reactions proceeding via reactive oxygen species, an unavoidable consequence of the presence of low-potential relay centres that release electrons from H2 oxidation. While the ability to fully reduce O2 to harmless H2O at the active site to generate the rapidly reactivated state Ni-B, determines if a hydrogenase is O2-tolerant, the ratio of oxidative inactivation to reductive reactivation rates determines how tolerant the enzyme is.
It is shown by protein film electrochemistry that the (αβ)2 dimeric assembly of Hyd-1 plays an important role in O2-tolerance by aiding reactivation of one catalytic unit through electron transfer from the other. The teamwork between two redundant partners implicates a new role for dimerisation and represents a new example of cooperativity in biology.
Finally, the non-natural amino acid p-azido-L-phenylalanine was synthesised and incorporated into Hyd-1, testing the possibility of introducing labels at specific sites.

Keywords: mass spectrometry
reactive oxygen species
hydrogen
nickel-iron hydrogenase
oxygen isotopes
oxygen tolerance
oxidase
Advisor: Armstrong, F
Metamorphic studies in the south-east Tauern window, Austria

Detailed structural and mineralogical mapping was undertaken in an area of 130 square kilometres within the Pennine Zone of the south-east Tauern Window, the Eastern Alps.
A coherent tectono-metamorphic history is established for this area. Three pre-Alpine metamorphic events are recognised. The Alpine history involves two discrete phases of intense penetrative deformation which occurred under conditions of rising temperature, a widespread phase of thermal crystallisation at 35-40 mybp representing the attainment of maximum temperatures, and a minor post-metamorphic phase of deformation. The regional tectonic significance of this sequence is discussed.
The spatial variation in Alpine peak metamorphic conditions is examined in terms of the distribution of mineral zones and isograds in metapelites. Staurolite+biotite assemblages were developed at low structural levels, and chloritoid+biotite assemblages along a thin wedge-shaped zone. Barrovian and Stonehavian facies series are both represented.
Oxygen isotope studies on whole-rocks and mineral separates suggest that widespread circulation of metamorphic fluids did not occur during Alpine metamorphism.
Thermodynamic calculations indicate that metamorphic conditions during the Alpine thermal peak were 570ºC and 7 kb at the basement-cover interface. These results can be reconciled both with models in which tectonic burial alone was sufficient to cause Alpine metamorphism of the Pennine Zone and with models in which a transient high heat flow regime is invoked.

Advisor: Oxburgh, E
The politics of interpretation: language, philosophy, and authority in the Carolingian Empire (775-820)

Is language a tool of empire or is empire a tool of language? This thesis examines the cultivation of Carolingian hegemony on a pan-European scale; one defined by a renewed interest in the study of language and its relationship to Carolingian eagerness for moral and spiritual authority. Intended to complement previous work on Carolingian cultural politics, this thesis reiterates the emergence of active philosophical speculation during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Prior research has ignored the centrality of linguistic hermeneutics in the Carolingian literate programme. This thesis addresses this lacuna, demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between spirituality, language, and politics within the Carolingian world.
The work appropriates prior investigations into the connection of semiotics and Christian philosophy and proposes the development of a renewed interest into ontology and epistemology by Carolingian scholars, notably Alcuin of York and Theodulf of Orléans. The correlation between linguistic philosophy and spiritual authority is confirmed by the 794 Synod of Frankfurt, at which accusations towards both the Adoptionist movement of northern Spain and the repeal of Byzantine Iconoclasm were based on the dangers of linguistic misinterpretation. The thesis also explores the manifestation of this emergent philosophy of language within the manuscript evidence, witnessed by the biblical pandects produced by Alcuin and Theodulf. Desire for the emendation of texts, not to mention the formation of a uniform script (Caroline Minuscule), abetted the larger goal of both infusing a text with authority (both secular and divine) and allowing for broader spiritual and intellectual understanding of a text. Increasing engagement with classical philosophy and rhetoric, the nature of Carolingian biblical revision, and the cultural politics as seen at the Synod of Frankfurt depict the primacy of language to the Carolingians, not only as a tool of imperialism, but the axis of their intellectual and spiritual world.

Keywords: Medieval history
Charlemagne
Christian philosophy
philosophy
language
Carolingians
Advisor: Wickham, C
Leyser, C
Genetic analysis of human evolutionary history with implications for gene mapping

Genetic variation contains detailed and quantitative evidence about the history of populations. The historical traces of demographic growth and contraction, as well as the history of human disease, have left traces on the patterns of modern variation and can be studied by sampling present-day populations. However, the data sets that are necessary in order to take full advantage of this living archaeological record have not been available until recently. The quality and quantity of data have increased dramatically during the past decade because of the identification of polymorphisms, including SNPs and microsatellites, that are much more amenable to mathematical modeling and efficient genotyping than earlier marker systems. The research in this thesis has been carried out in response to the need to provide new methods of analysis to match the new types of data. Chapter 1 describes multilocus tests of demographic history and their application to real data. Chapter 2 describes how the pattern of linkage disequilibrium around a disease-predisposing mutation can be used to estimate the date of a mutation that is, the age of the most recent common ancestor of a set of modern samples. Finally, Chapter 3 draws several direct connections between human evolutionary history and medical genetics.