VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
‘Abd al-Karīm al-Jīlī’s Sufi metaphysical treatment of the scriptures in al-Insān al-kāmil

This thesis is a study of the Sufi metaphysics of ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (d. early 9th/15th century), focusing in particular on his treatment of the scriptures. It begins with an overview of al-Jīlī’s general Sufi metaphysics, as presented in his influential yet relatively little-studied work, al-Insān al-kāmil (The Perfect Man). I identify three principal theories within al-Jīlī’s Sufi metaphysics: the theories of universal theophany, the levels of existence, and the Perfect Man. I show how these ideas are grounded in the Sufi metaphysics of Ibn ‘Arabī, yet are elaborated in a somewhat different way to what we find in the works of Ibn ‘Arabī and his best-known interpreters.
Having thus set out al-Jīlī’s broader intellectual scheme, I subsequently show, through a close reading of chapters thirty-four, thirty-six, and thirty-eight of al-Insān al-kāmil (which have not previously been translated into a European language), how he applies that scheme to the most important scriptures universally recognised in Islam: the Qur’an, Torah, and Gospel. As al-Jīlī sees it, these different scriptures constitute different forms of divine manifestation (tajalliyyāt), and thus reveal different aspects of the divine to differing degrees of completeness. From this idea there emerges a hierarchy of scriptures, as well as a corresponding hierarchy of prophets. At the top of this hierarchy stand the Qur’an, which manifests the simple divine essence itself, and Muhammad, who similarly manifests the divine essence and attributes in the most complete way, and is thus the archetypal Perfect Man (al-insān al-kāmil). Below the Qur’an and Muhammad come the Gospel and Jesus and the Torah and Moses, each of them constituting genuine yet limited manifestations of God. This sense of hierarchy is reinforced by al-Jīlī’s discussion of the various forms of knowledge (‘ulūm) or mysteries (asrār) contained in the different scriptures, and the various doctrines that are subsequently derived from them by the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. By insisting on the superiority of the Qur’an, Muhammad and Islam, al-Jīlī remains within the overall framework of the orthodox Sunni Islamic view of sacred history, even while presenting a Sufi metaphysical version of that orthodox narrative. The thesis thus serves as a case study into how an important figure in the Ibn ‘Arabian tradition engages with and develops an important aspect of the Islamic tradition from his particular Sufi metaphysical perspective.

Keywords: Scriptures
Interreligious
Islam
Sufism
Advisor: Nettler, R
Quantitative studies of the nanoscale mechanical properties of metal organic framework materials

The nanoscale mechanical properties of metal-organic framework (MOF) materials including the elasticity (Young’s modulus), plasticity (hardness, yield stress, ultimate strength, and work hardening coefficient), adhesion property (adhesive force and energy), and failure mechanisms (failure modes, corresponding threshold forces and failure strengths) have been studied in the range of sub-nm to ~100s nm in depth. MOF materials are a topical class of porous crystalline solids that are constructed from the self-assembly of metal clusters and organic linkers, to yield tuneable framework structures with a vast range of physical and chemical properties. Herein, three model MOF systems are of particular interest: the nanocrystals and micron-sized crystals of ZIF-8, two-dimensional nanosheets of CuBDC, and submillimetre-sized crystals of HKUST-1. The three MOF materials were prudently selected because they represent three distinctive structures in terms of the response to stress.
In this work, depth-sensing nanoindentation techniques, particularly the ‘conventional’ instrumented indentation technique (force sensitivity ~ 50 nN) and the atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based nanoindentation (force sensitivity < 0.05 nN), have been intensively employed and adapted to enable the accurate characterisation of the fine-scale mechanical behaviour of MOF materials. By leveraging the force and displacement sensitivities of the AFM instrument, the AFM-based nanoindentation method has been rationally established and improved by extending its application to study MOF mechanics at the nanoscale. This is a challenging field that has not yet been rigorously addressed by means of detailed experiments. Amongst the depth-sensing techniques, the AFM-based nanoindentation measurements are usually criticised for their instability and low reproducibility. Herein, the major factors that could interfere with the measurement precision have been systematically investigated. The research has led to the development of comprehensive approaches for AFM instrumental controls to achieve reliable force-displacement data and improved contact models for nanoindentation data analysis.
Quantification of the nanoscale mechanical properties sheds light on the complicated deformation behaviour of the porous MOF structures. AFM nanoindentation data obtained at the nanometre length scale reveal new structure-property information about the surface energy, incipient plasticity, and fracture mechanisms underpinning the inorganic-organic building blocks of MOF systems. Accurate materials data about mechanical performance and durability will be fundamental towards the development of functional devices and practical applications.

Keywords: Nanoindentation
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)
Instrumented Indentation Technique
Advisor: Tan, J
Can intergroup contact foster more continuous, fluid, and inclusive social identities?

This thesis examines whether intergroup contact can foster more continuous, fluid, and inclusive social identities—and, if so, how more continuous, fluid, and inclusive social identities relate to intergroup bias and support for social change. Chapter 1 introduces relevant research on social identification along a single category and across multiple categories, and develops the hypotheses tested throughout this thesis. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the empirical research, and introduces the statistical methods used to analyse findings from that research. Chapter 3 reports research developing and validating a novel measure of social identity continuity and fluidity, and examines whether contact with sexual and gender minorities fosters more continuous and fluid conceptions of sexuality and gender. Studies 1–3 found that intergroup contact was associated with more continuous and fluid social identities, but that more continuous and fluid social identities were not, in turn, associated with less intergroup bias. Chapter 4 reports research testing whether contact with caste or religious outgroups fosters more inclusive social identities in South India. Study 4 found that, as hypothesised, cross-group friendship was associated with more inclusive identities, while more inclusive identities were associated with less intergroup bias. Chapter 5 reports research testing how intergroup contact relates to support for social change in advantaged and disadvantaged groups. Studies 1 and 3 found that for disadvantaged-group members, negative contact, but not positive contact, was associated with more collective action. For advantaged-group members, positive contact predicted more solidarity-based collective action. More continuous and fluid identities did not mediate any of these relationships. Study 4 found neither intergroup contact nor more inclusive identities to be associated with support for or opposition to social change. Chapter 6 summarises and discusses the research presented in this thesis, highlighting its implications for intergroup relations research.

Keywords: Intergroup Contact
Social Change
Intergroup Relations
Social Identity
Collective Action
Advisor: Hewstone, M
Schmid, K
Shocks and policy over time and space

This thesis aims to advance our understanding of the spatial and temporal propagation of economic shocks across the UK economy.
The first chapter sets out the data I will use throughout this thesis. The second examines the role of cash-flow shocks on household and firm behaviour. I find that the reduction in monthly mortgage payments resulting from monetary policy stimulus in the autumn of 2008 significantly boosted employment in the depths of the Great Recession. The neighbourhood-level cash-flow effect varied with the proportion of fixed-rate mortgagors across the country, and its interaction with the structure of local employment markets led to regional heterogeneity in the potency of monetary policy. I find that the effect of monetary policy on overall annual employment growth varied by around 1.5 percentage points across local authorities.
The third chapter explores how local demand shocks associated with house price changes affect employment growth, and whether these shocks are transmitted across firm establishment networks. I find little evidence that credit or informational frictions have played much of a role since the Great Recession. But the employment effects of these local demand shocks do extend beyond administrative boundaries and ripple short distances across the country.
The fourth chapter revisits the Granular Hypothesis and its implications for the UK. I find that the UK firm-size distribution exhibits a quantitatively fat tail, but this is dominated by firms that generate revenues from customers living nearby. The size of such firms is naturally driven by the number of establishments in their network, which means they tend to have low geographical concentration. Since I find limited evidence for establishment-network transmission of local demand shocks, this suggests the propagation of idiosyncratic shocks to large firms is more likely to emanate from supply chain disruptions than from shocks to demand.

Keywords: employment
size distributions
house prices
monetary policy
Advisor: Ellison, M
Muellbauer, J
The early evolution of sea turtles

Turtles are a major group of reptiles with moderate species richness (335 extant species) but high ecological diversity, inhabiting terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats. Stem-turtles evolved in the Late Permian or Early Triassic, and the crown-group appeared during the Jurassic. Fossils suggest that even the earliest turtles were ecologically diverse. As an ecologically diverse group with an excellent fossil record, turtles provide information on evolutionary dynamics of ecological transitions in vertebrates. For instance, marine ecologies evolved several times within turtles, although only chelonioid sea turtles survive to the present. Uncertainties regarding the relationships of extinct clades render the precise number of marine transitions uncertain. The unresolved phylogeny further impedes on understanding of trait evolution during early chelonioid evolution.
I address these knowledge gaps by detailed anatomical study of relevant turtle groups. I present new phylogenetic hypotheses of turtles using different inference methods (parsimony, Bayesian). A taxonomically comprehensive dataset (every extant and most extinct clades sampled) of morphological characters was derived from high-resolution computer-tomography data and vetted to reflect homology. Results suggest that protostegids are crown- or stem-group chelonioid sea turtles, implying a single origin of a pelagic lifestyle in turtles. A general flipper bauplan was established early during chelonioid evolution, and modified subsequently in different subgroups.
Time-calibration suggests an Early Cretaceous divergence time for chelonioids. This implies that some main clades of extant cryptodires (Chelonioidea, Chelydroidea, Testudinoidea) diversified earlier that commonly thought, during the Early Cretaceous and simultaneously with pleurodires and trionychians. A range of Jurassic–Cretaceous ‘stem- cryptodires’ (e.g. sinemydids) are found as stem-turtles. Non-pleurodiran marine turtles from the Jurassic–Paleogene (sandownids, thalassochelydians) form a previously unrecognized clade of stem-turtles, Hyphalochelydia. Marine ecologies evolved five–six times in turtles. All three Late Cretaceous marine turtle clades (hyphalochelydians, chelonioids, bothremydid pleurodires) survived the K/Pg mass extinction despite high levels of extinction in other marine reptiles.

Keywords: time calibration
Taxonomy
Protostegidae
fossilized birth death
CT scanning
evolutionary transition
Thalassochelydia
neuroanatomy
flipper evolution
sea turtles
marine adaptation
Chelonioidea
diversification
Angolachelonia
Phylogeny
Advisor: Benson, R
Barrett, P
Group 2 and Group 12 metal-metal bonded complexes

This Thesis describes the synthesis and characterisation of new alkaline earth-transition metal complexes and the synthesis and characterisation of group 12 complexes featuring metal-metal bonds. Experimental and computational studies were performed to investigate the structure and bonding in these complexes.

Keywords: Coordination Chemistry
Inorganic Chemistry
Metal-Metal Bonding
Advisor: Mountford, P
Single cell RNA-sequencing in the upper gastrointestinal tract

Barrett's oesophagus is a precursor of oesophageal adenocarcinoma. In this common condition, squamous epithelium in the oesophagus is replaced by columnar epithelium in response to chronic acid reflux. Barrett's oesophagus is highly heterogeneous and its relationships to normal tissues are unclear. In this thesis, I investigate the cellular complexity of Barrett's oesophagus and the upper gastrointestinal tract using RNA-seq of single cells from multiple biopsies from six patients with Barrett's oesophagus and two patients without oesophageal pathology. I show that cell populations in Barrett's oesophagus, characterised by LEFTY1 expression, exhibit a profound transcriptional overlap with oesophageal submucosal gland cells, but not with gastric or duodenal cells. Additionally, SPINK4 appears to mark cells that precede morphologically identifiable goblet cells in Barrett's oesophagus, potentially aiding the identification of metaplasia. Then, using a machine learning-based approach to improve the accuracy of single nucleotide variant identification in single cell RNA-seq data ('snv.predict'), I show the mutational profiles and genetic relationships of cells in Barrett's oesophagus, demonstrating clonal phenotype heterogeneity and a common mutational link between Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal submucosal glands. Finally, with the help of modifications designed to improve the practicality of plate based single cell RNA-seq in clinical science, I identify an adaptive-to-innate immune switch in tumour cells from a single patient with oesophageal adenocarcinoma treated with immunotherapy (anti PD-L1), as part of a clinical trial.

Advisor: Lu, X
Middleton, M
Climate change in the Congo basin: evaluating coupled models

The convective region of the Congo Basin is a vital component of both the tropical and global circulation, but despite its importance, the climate system is the least studied of any African region. This is due in part to the severe scarcity of recent observational weather data, which in turn has consequences for the use of climate models for providing reliable future projections. Models are usually tested on their ability to reproduce the historical climate, but this approach is unsuitable where observations are lacking. To circumvent this issue, this thesis develops an alternative methodology of model evaluation which does not rely on observational data. This regionally-focussed, process-based approach determines the credibility of multiple state-of-the-art coupled model (CMIP5) simulations of rainfall by assessing the representation of physical processes known to be important for rainfall. The models diverge vastly in the historical period over the Congo Basin, with mean climatological rainfall differing by a factor of five across models in some months. In all seasons, the amount of rainfall in the basin is positively correlated (p<0.05) with low-level moisture flux convergence over the basin and low-level moisture flux into the basin across certain boundaries, which with targeted observational data could be used to provide one constraint on the spectrum of model rainfall. In the September-November (SON) wet season, model wetness in the west Congo Basin relates to the strength of the tropical Atlantic SST bias, casting doubt on models which are extremely wet. In the east, model wetness is related to the strength and structure of the African Easterly Jets. There is also uncertainty amongst models as to the direction and magnitude of future rainfall change. A process-based assessment of future change in SON finds that in some areas, spurious climatologies in the historical period result in distinct future rainfall change signals, casting doubt on the plausibility of those changes. This thesis finds that a process-based approach to climate model evaluation can be used to help determine model credibility in the historical period in the absence of observational data, and is a promising method for constraining uncertainty in the future climate signal.

Keywords: Climate change
Climate model evaluation
Tropical climate
Congo Basin
African climate
Coupled models
Advisor: Washington, R
Migration, poverty, and violence in Mexico: the role of casas de migrantes

Throughout the past three decades, poverty, violence, and assistance/care have emerged as three interrelated and self-reinforcing dynamics in the migration process in Mexico. However, the study of migration in Mexico has mostly focused on migrants’ journeys or structural dynamics such as violence, neglecting a more systematic analysis of the relationships between migrants, humanitarian actors, contexts, and effects generated by their interactions. The role of poverty in migration processes and how humanitarian organizations function as migration intermediaries also remain underexplored in migration studies.
This study contributes toward filling this gap on the bases of an interdisciplinary theoretical framework and qualitative research conducted along migration routes in Mexico. The project explores different dynamics in the migration process by analysing the interactions between migrants and casas de migrantes (migrant shelters) in Mexico. It incorporates semi-structured interviews that include a multidimensional poverty measurement; in-depth interviews with migrants, humanitarian organizations, and other actors; and participant observations. Methodologically, casas de migrantes are an object of inquiry, the place where the interactions with migrants occur, and the space where the dynamics of poverty, violence, and assistance/care converge.
This study demonstrates how poor migrants use casas de migrantes as one of several resources to cope with hardship and precariousness during their journeys. At the same time, the study reveals how violence plays a significant role in migrants’ journeys, leading them to seek safety in shelters. Thus, the main contributions of this research are the conceptualization of casas de migrantes as a type of humanitarianism that I call ‘humanitarianism from below’, and an understanding of the significant role the casas de migrantes play as migration intermediaries, which makes them part of the humanitarian governance architecture of migration in Mexico.

Keywords: Mixed Migration
Poverty
Violence
Mexico
Humanitarian Aid
Transit Migration
Humanitarianism
Migration
Migration Industry
Advisor: de Haas, H
Betts, A
William Lithgow's Totall discourse (1632) and his science of the world

This thesis is an examination of William Lithgow (1582-1645?), and travel and travel writing in the early seventeenth century. Lithgow’s chief work, The Totall Discourse of the rare Adventures and Painefull Peregrinations…. (1632), is notable for its outspoken treatments of Roman Catholicism in Europe and Palestine, its melancholy assessments of Mediterranean civilisation, its remarks on combined English and Scottish colonial enterprises in Ireland, and its ‘eye-witness’ descriptions of the Spanish Inquisition. The four main chapters of this study examine these episodes along Lithgow's itinerary and highlight characteristics of his self-presentation in each: Italy (Protestant/Catholic antagonism), the Mediterranean (tensions between the use of sources and first-hand observation), Ireland (responses to colonialism), and Spain (‘fictionality’ in contemporary travel narratives).
To establish the likely reasons and sources for Lithgow’s narrative style, the thesis examines several calamitous events before, during, and after his travels; his religious upbringing and educational background; and his response to and adoption of other texts and generic models -- fictional and nonfictional, classical and contemporary, Catholic and Protestant. Unlike better-known English travel writers, such as Moryson, Coryat, and Sandys, Lithgow substantially rewrote and reissued his account twice -- the 1614 edition of his first journey was rewritten in 1623, then further descriptions of his second and third journeys were added to the ‘Totall’ 1632 edition. Changes to successive editions suggest his increased preoccupation with appearing as a divinely-countenanced Protestant pilgrim and with presenting his endeavours as the pursuit of the ‘science of the world’, or the careful compiling of first-hand observations and information from other sources. By focusing on his long-neglected work, the thesis examines how Lithgow refashions his narrative and his narratorial persona, considers the similarities and differences between the Totall Discourse and other works, and seeks to qualify the author’s reputation as ‘lying Lithgow’.

Keywords: seventeenth-century
Lithgow
Totall
discourse
travel-writing
travel-writers
Protestant
Hybridisation of high penetration photovoltaic, anaerobic digestion biogas power plant and electrical energy storage

This thesis presents the development of methodologies for the hybridisation of an energy system with a solar Photovoltaic (PV), an Anaerobic Digestion biogas power plant (AD) and an electrical energy storage (EES). This includes the system sizing and operating regime. The key aspect is to evaluate the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for the system and the generation assets.
The challenge arises in analysing the economic projections on PV and EES hybrid systems. EES does not produce electricity as it is not a conventional generation source. Commonly, the cost of a generating asset or the power system is evaluated using LCOE. Levelized Cost of Delivery (LCOD) has been proposed to calculate the LCOE for the EES.
A deterministic approach for sizing an off-grid PV and EES with AD biogas power plant to meet a proportional scaled-down demand of the national load has been implemented. The aim is to achieve a minimal LCOE for the system while minimising the energy imbalance between generation and demand due to both AD and PV generator constraints.
To reduce the amount of irradiance data and to provide a standardised methodology for PV system design and analysis, feature extraction technique has been used to discover Clearness Index (CI) patterns and to construct centroids for the daily CI profiles. Fuzzy C-Means with Dynamic Time Warping has been used for daily CI profiles’ classification.
An operating regime has been proposed for the hybrid system, and the EES degradation cost has been considered via a capacity fade model.
The work presented in this thesis has been supported with case studies from real-life solar irradiance and national load data. The proposed methodologies have contributed to a more efficient and cost-effective method for PV-AD-EES hybrid system sizing and operation.

Keywords: Levelized cost of energy
Electrical energy storage
Clearness Index
Hybrid energy system
Advisor: McCulloch, M