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Macro-economic and socio-cultural dynamics and their influence on women's leadership in public higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia
No full textMagic, astrology, and reputation in seventeenth-century England
Get PDFThis thesis discusses the reputations of astrologers, cunning folk, and magical practitioners in seventeenth-century England, identifying key features of these reputations, their significance, and the means by which they were constructed, maintained, and propagated.
The importance of reputation in early modern England has been long acknowledged, especially by social and economic historians, and the profusion of magic and magical practitioners in seventeenth-century society is likewise well established. But the study of reputations has focused primarily on economic credit and some other areas such as sexual morality, rarely extending into other areas of life. Few scholars have considered reputation as a relevant category in studies of magic, especially outside of the context of witchcraft accusations. Likewise, magic has very rarely been one of the social, cultural, or economic activities given consideration by studies of reputation.
This thesis will address this gap with an examination of magical reputations and their holders, further grounding magic and astrology in their social context, as well as broadening conceptions of reputation and its components. This will be done using a mix of cases and methodologies. The first half uses archival methods to reconstruct elements of the reputations of ‘ordinary’ practitioners, and the second half focuses on case studies of high-profile magical practitioners, whose reputations are the subjects of a diverse range of sources.
Magical reputations emerge as complex and varied, but with certain important themes throughout, particularly trust and truthfulness, the interconnection of reputations, and scales of fame, notoriety, and celebrity available to magical practitioners
Reflexive modules, the infinite root algebra and the generating hypothesis
Get PDFThis thesis concerns the algebraic consequences of Freyd’s Generating Hypothesis, and explores the question of whether there exists a self-injective ring R that can be constructed purely algebraically that exhibits some of the known properties of the stable homotopy ring, including some conjectured properties that follow from Freyd’s Generating Hypothesis. As an example, we investigate the infinite root algebra of Hahn series P, firstly by establishing results for the related Hahn ring A. In particular, we prove that the Θ-reflexive A-modules and the multibasic A-modules are the same
Energy, economic and safety evaluation of blue hydrogen production through modelling and simulation
No full textDriven by net-zero emissions scenarios, global demand for hydrogen (H2) is growing rapidly and expected to exceed 200 million tonnes/year by 2030. Currently, steam methane reforming (SMR) remains the primary hydrogen production method but it generates significant carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Blue hydrogen production (BHP) aims to mitigate this impact, though challenges in energy efficiency, cost, and safety remain. Through optimizing processes, modifying configurations and developing risk assessment systems, these challenges can be addressed.
A rate-based model of post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) process was developed at pilot scale and scaled up to commercial scale for capturing CO2 from SMR process. The energy performance of this PCC process using piperazine (PZ) and advanced flash stripper (AFS) configuration was investigated and compared with the standard PCC process using Monoethanolamine (MEA). The results indicated that the energy consumption of PZ was lower than that of MEA, and that can be further reduced by using AFS configuration.
The detailed models of the commercial-scale SMR process was developed and integrated with PCC process. A novel configuration was proposed to lower both costs and energy consumption. Compared to the standard BHP process, the proposed energy and cost-saving blue hydrogen production (ECSB) process using 30 wt.% PZ reduced energy penalty by 36 % and levelized cost of blue hydrogen (LCBH) by 20 %.
An integrated model is developed based on the ECSB process to investigate the relationship between potential process safety improvements and economic benefits. In addition, a weighted risk index (WRI) method is proposed to assess the overall process risk of BHP process. The results of integrating risk and economics analysis showed that the recommended operating temperature should be between 800-1000 oC. The operating pressures above 30 bar should be avoided
Analysis of peptidoglycan structural diversity using LC-MS/MS and peptidoglycomics software
Get PDFPeptidoglycan (PG) is a complex and essential macromolecule found in the bacterial
cell envelope. The structural analysis of PG requires the purification of this molecule
and its enzymatic digestion to produce disaccharide-peptides. PG fragments (called
muropeptides) are analysed by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry
(LC-MS/MS) and the structure of the intact molecule is inferred from the composition
of muropeptides and their crosslinking patterns. Despite tremendous progress in the
LC-MS/MS instrumentation, existing ‘Omics software are not suitable, and PG analysis
therefore, remains a mostly manual, tedious, biased, and error-prone process. This
work builds on the recent development of PGFinder, an open-access software tool
dedicated to PG analysis. Using bacteria displaying distinct PG compositions as model
systems, this work contributed to optimise LC-MS/MS conditions, the capabilities of
PGFinder and provided a detailed and consistent strategy for PG structural analysis.
This represents a major step towards making peptidoglycomics a full-fledged
disciplin
A Flock of Dodos and the Battle Against the Zombies: Scientific Expertise and a Scientific Expert Epistemic Injustice
No full textIn this thesis, I define a unique kind of epistemic injustice that occurs due to epistemic pathologies that develop between scientific experts and non-experts. The epistemic pathologies I have in mind are pseudoscience and science denialism. I argue that these pathologies produce epistemically detrimental dissent—dissent that is counter-productive to scientific inquiry—and ‘downgrades’ the epistemic authority of scientific communities and their members. This downgrading results in epistemic harms where individual scientific experts are especially vulnerable. I sketch the ideal relationship between scientific experts and non-experts to use in my analysis of the epistemic pathologies. I explain the notion of scientific expertise by considering the kind of epistemic authority scientific experts have, where it can only come from a scientific consensus and collective knowledge produced within a particular community. This specific community—a scientific community—is diverse and has specific underlying mechanisms necessary to deliver the knowledge we hope to get from science. When scientific experts testify, they provide preemptive reasons for belief, where preemptive reasons for belief can only be provided when someone has epistemic authority. Preemptive reasons for belief are the kinds of reasons that replace our reasons, and this means that we no longer rely on our reasons for belief. From this, I show how the epistemic pathologies between scientific experts and non-experts are the result of the rejection of epistemic authority or the claim that the non-expert possesses the kind of epistemic authority that only scientific experts can have. The rejection of the epistemic authority of scientific experts ‘downgrades’ their epistemic authority, which is the key to understanding the epistemic injustice and distinct harms involved. I define the epistemic injustice as a scientific expert epistemic injustice which occurs when scientific experts are epistemically harmed due to the wrongful downgrading of their epistemic authority when they testify about matters relevant to their scientific expertise
Identity and Political Participation among First-Generation Immigrants from Mainland China in the UK
Get PDFThis thesis interrogates how first-generation migrants from Mainland China in the UK construct identity and navigate participation with a particular focus on the complex legacies of ‘authoritarian socialisation’. Departing from assimilationist and behavioural models, it reconceptualises political participation not as a checklist of visible actions, but as a strategic form of identity regulation shaped by various contexts: authoritarian residues, institutional constraints, and digital infrastructures.
Methodologically, drawing on auto-photography, political photo elicitation and semi-structured interviews, the study adopts a multi-modal qualitative methodology rooted in the constructivist ontology and interpretivist epistemology. The analytical process is guided by Reflexive Thematic Analysis, which can provide thick and in-depth interpretation of complicated contents.
The thesis advances four identity strategies and two identity-political participation co-construction frameworks: the Networked Political Model, which explains how participation adjusts rather than transforms pre-existing identity structures; and the Dialectical–Emergence Model, which captures moments of rupture, reconstitution, and ideological recalibration. These are further elaborated through six sub-models that illuminate the diverse strategies migrants employ when negotiating identity shifts and political engagements.
The thesis culminates in the articulation of the Modular Identity–Participation Configuration (MIPC)—a synthetic framework that reframes political participation not as an extension or result of stable identity formation or evolution, but as an assemblage of strategically deployed identity modules. It theorises migrants not as subjects progressing toward political legibility, but as strategic actors configuring visibility across conflicting contexts and engaging with political activities selectively and wisely.
This research is one of the first systematic studies that reveals political participation and identity among the first-generation mainland Chinese immigrants. Although the finding may not be representative of the political activities of the entire Chinese community in the UK, it contributes to the theorisation of diasporic political participation in a transnational context. The MIPC framework shows that first-generation migrants from mainland China integrate into society neither through complete assimilation nor through complete rejection, but rather through dynamic adjustments of silence, expression, and selective visibility in overlapping contexts—including the Chinese political system, British multiculturalism, and transnational digital space
Investigation of potato protein-based microgels: From bulk to interface
No full textTo implement the use of widely-available plant protein as a sustainable ingredient, potato-protein microgels (PoPM) present a platform to increase protein functionality in their use as foam or emulsion stabilisers. This thesis presents an in-depth analysis of PoPM in comparison to non-microgelled potato protein (PoP) from nanoscale to air-water and oil-water interfaces, both experimentally and in the form of real foams and emulsions
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