"For any who have the Power": John Milton's the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649) and the ideology of oligarchic republicanism in the English Revolution

John Milton's political philosophy, and its relation to the events and ideologies of the English Revolution (1640-1660), is the subject of fierce debate among literary scholars and students of political thought. In 1977 the great English social historian Christopher Hill published a monumental work, Milton and the English Revolution, which portrayed the epic poet as a political radical. This thesis challenges Hill's analysis of Milton based on a new socioeconomic and political contextualization of Milton's regicide tract, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, published in 1649. The thesis employs an Aristotelian theory of oligarchic government, an understanding of political ideology inspired by Marx, and Robert Brenner's study of the role of colonial interloping merchants in English politics during the Revolutionary period, to argue that The Tenure reflects the political consciousness of oligarchic republicanism. Milton wrote the tract to defend the execution of Charles I, an act carried out against the will of the political nation by an oligarchic revolutionary alliance. The Tenure evidences an ideology of aristocracy to justify the actions of this oligarchy, and makes its case in the political language of oligarchic republicanism. The thesis also outlines Milton's personal affiliation with key members of the revolutionary alliance. The political ideology of Milton's regicide tract, his connection to revolutionaries, and his service on behalf of the oligarchic Commonwealth regime, point toward the conclusion that John Milton was a political oligarch.Master of Arts in Histor

Enclosing the Maximum Likelihood of the Simplest DNA Model Evolving on Fixed Topologies: Towards a Rigorous Framework for Phylogenetic Inference

This issue was undated. The date given is an estimate.14 pages, 1 article*Enclosing the Maximum Likelihood of the Simplest DNA Model Evolving on Fixed Topologies: Towards a Rigorous Framework for Phylogenetic Inference* (Sainudiin, Raazesh) 14 page

Rigorous numerical approaches in electronic structure theory

Electronic structure theory concerns the description of molecular properties according to the postulates of quantum mechanics. For practical purposes, this is realized entirely through numerical computation, the scope of which is constrained by computational costs that increases rapidly with the size of the system. The significant progress made in this field over the past decades have been facilitated in part by the willingness of chemists to forego some mathematical rigour in exchange for greater efficiency. While such compromises allow large systems to be computed feasibly, there are lingering concerns over the impact that these compromises have on the quality of the results that are produced. This research is motivated by two key issues that contribute to this loss of quality, namely i) the numerical errors accumulated due to the use of finite precision arithmetic and the application of numerical approximations, and ii) the reliance on iterative methods that are not guaranteed to converge to the correct solution. Taking the above issues in consideration, the aim of this thesis is to explore ways to perform electronic structure calculations with greater mathematical rigour, through the application of rigorous numerical methods. Of which, we focus in particular on methods based on interval analysis and deterministic global optimization. The Hartree-Fock electronic structure method will be used as the subject of this study due to its ubiquity within this domain. We outline an approach for placing rigorous bounds on numerical error in Hartree-Fock computations. This is achieved through the application of interval analysis techniques, which are able to rigorously bound and propagate quantities affected by numerical errors. Using this approach, we implement a program called Interval Hartree-Fock. Given a closed-shell system and the current electronic state, this program is able to compute rigorous error bounds on quantities including i) the total energy, ii) molecular orbital energies, iii) molecular orbital coefficients, and iv) derived electronic properties. Interval Hartree-Fock is adapted as an error analysis tool for studying the impact of numerical error in Hartree-Fock computations. It is used to investigate the effect of input related factors such as system size and basis set types on the numerical accuracy of the Hartree-Fock total energy. Consideration is also given to the impact of various algorithm design decisions. Examples include the application of different integral screening thresholds, the variation between single and double precision arithmetic in two-electron integral evaluation, and the adjustment of interpolation table granularity. These factors are relevant to both the usage of conventional Hartree-Fock code, and the development of Hartree-Fock code optimized for novel computing devices such as graphics processing units. We then present an approach for solving the Hartree-Fock equations to within a guaranteed margin of error. This is achieved by treating the Hartree-Fock equations as a non-convex global optimization problem, which is then solved using deterministic global optimization. The main contribution of this work is the development of algorithms for handling quantum chemistry specific expressions such as the one and two-electron integrals within the deterministic global optimization framework. This approach was implemented as an extension to an existing open source solver. Proof of concept calculations are performed for a variety of problems within Hartree-Fock theory, including those in i) point energy calculation, ii) geometry optimization, iii) basis set optimization, and iv) excited state calculation. Performance analyses of these calculations are also presented and discussed

A Case Study of Northern California: An Evaluation of Stream Restoration and the Success of Increasing California\u27s Native Salmonid Stocks

Over the past decade, Stream Restoration has become a management tool in helping combat the degradation of our streams. This case study compares three watersheds in Northern California, the Klamath River Basin, Russian River Basin and Lower Putah Creek. The comparison determines whether or not their implemented stream restoration projects over the years have been successful. The case study revealed gaps in information. The lack of tools for evaluation of past and current restoration projects has left the stream restoration field unable to advance. If there is no evaluation of the restoration projects then there is no way to determine if the actions and millions of dollars of grant funding is having the positive impact on habitats and increasing populations of California’s Native Salmonid stocks. The case study identified the gaps in stream restoration projects as lacking standardization, and sustainable funding for the maintaining, monitoring and data collection that is needed post-implementation. The methods used were a literature review and a comparison of the watersheds using a hierarchical strategy and comparison of how watersheds handled limiting variables within stream restoration projects. There were three main findings, the first finding was that for stream restoration projects to be successful a top-down approach is needed to fully understand the root of degradation occurring in the steam which means doing an assessment at the watershed level and at the sub watershed levels. The second finding was the importance of a stream advocate such as a “Streamkeeper” whose purpose it to make sure the streams needs are heard while decisions are being made. The final finding was that alternate funding sources needed to be pursued for stream restoration besides state and federal grants. Such sources will allow for the continuation of projects when grant funding is no longer available and past implementation phase. All of this together tells is that the field of stream restoration has room for improvement so that we get the most out of the projects and help stabilize California Native Salmonid stock populations

Social webs and family nets: cultural differences in adolescents' perceptions and expectations of family life

Investigations of adolescents whose parents have divorced (and perhaps remarried) have mainly been concerned with issues typically associated with self-concept, parent-child, sibling, and peer-group relationships, educational pertormancs, psychological disturbance, economic hardship, and socialization. Relatively little is known about the adolescent's own perceptions of and expectations towards marriage and parenting, divorce and remarriage. Little is also known about the extent to which cultural differences impinge upon the adolescent's developing perceptions in these areas. Consequently, the present study is concerned with some cultural differences and similarities in such perceptions of a sample of 332 Scottish and 499 Calitornian adolescents. Specifically, employing both survey methods and a number of 'in-depth' interviews, the cross-cultural study undertook to question how adolescents understand and/or relate to the divorce of their parents, to the concepts of divorce, of marriage and remarriage, and especially of their expectations concerning their own future familial relationships. The expectation - based on the greater incidence of divorce and remarriage in California - that there would be a marked difference in perceptions of marriage between the two cultures was not borne cut and adolescents in both cultures were remarkably similar in their outlook. Rather, the more obvious differences in responses to the various issues of marriage investigated, were based on family composition differences, common to both cultures. Specifically, adolescents from single/blended families were less traditional arid conservative in their views than were adolescents from both-parent families. The former more than the latter indicated future expectations of their own divorce and remarriage

'Rime and reason': the political world of the English broadside ballad, 1640-1689

This thesis explores political broadside balladry in England in the period from c.1640 to the Glorious Revolution, and argues that it was a medium by which the political ideals of Christian humanism were transmitted to a socially and geographically diverse audience. The investigation is based on an analysis of all extant broadsides and titles of the period in conjunction with contemporary sources such as diaries, discourses on literature and politics, state papers and court records. No comprehensive historical study of this material across such a broad period has been done to date. The thesis is divided into three sections: the market, the medium and the message of the broadside ballad world. These analyse the range and nature of products and consumers in the political ballad market, set out the functions of the political ballad and present the political analysis that ballads offered contemporaries as they sought to render comprehensible the political world in a period of momentous change. The findings of the thesis are first, that the use of cheap print as a source by historians necessitates a serious engagement with the material culture, the genre and the content of print products. Second, it challenges the long-standing orthodoxy that the broadside ballad functioned primarily as a news medium and offers an accurate assessment of the ballad genre as political cultural broker between centre and periphery and a more nuanced explanation of the ballad as vehicle of choice for political debate. Third, in the light of material and generic insights and through detailed content analysis, it reveals the way in which the most traditional broadside ballads, printed for most part in black-letter, used Christian humanist ideas, based on Aristotle and the New Testament, to explain the trauma of the civil war and interregnum, to complain at the incursions into law and liberty by corrupt and radical Stuart government and to lay out the constructs and constraints of a political world which made it possible for the xenophobic English to eject an English King in 1688-9 and make a Dutch one acceptable, by dressing him in the mantle of an English Protestant hero

'Rime and reason' : the political world of the English broadside ballad, 1640-1689

This thesis explores political broadside balladry in England in the period from c.1640 to the Glorious Revolution, and argues that it was a medium by which the political ideals of Christian humanism were transmitted to a socially and geographically diverse audience. The investigation is based on an analysis of all extant broadsides and titles of the period in conjunction with contemporary sources such as diaries, discourses on literature and politics, state papers and court records. No comprehensive historical study of this material across such a broad period has been done to date. The thesis is divided into three sections: the market, the medium and the message of the broadside ballad world. These analyse the range and nature of products and consumers in the political ballad market, set out the functions of the political ballad and present the political analysis that ballads offered contemporaries as they sought to render comprehensible the political world in a period of momentous change. The findings of the thesis are first, that the use of cheap print as a source by historians necessitates a serious engagement with the material culture, the genre and the content of print products. Second, it challenges the long-standing orthodoxy that the broadside ballad functioned primarily as a news medium and offers an accurate assessment of the ballad genre as political cultural broker between centre and periphery and a more nuanced explanation of the ballad as vehicle of choice for political debate. Third, in the light of material and generic insights and through detailed content analysis, it reveals the way in which the most traditional broadside ballads, printed for most part in black-letter, used Christian humanist ideas, based on Aristotle and the New Testament, to explain the trauma of the civil war and interregnum, to complain at the incursions into law and liberty by corrupt and radical Stuart government and to lay out the constructs and constraints of a political world which made it possible for the xenophobic English to eject an English King in 1688-9 and make a Dutch one acceptable, by dressing him in the mantle of an English Protestant hero.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceUniversity College, Northampton (UCN)Victoria and Albert Museum. Research Dept. (V&A)GBUnited Kingdo

'Transcription' as Cultural Translation: Transforming horizons for the classical guitar ensemble

This thesis comprises a Dissertation and a Creative Project Portfolio of transcriptions, scores and recordings, for guitars in ensemble. This dissertation seeks to fill the lacuna between transcription theory and practice, investigating how the ‘spirit’ inherent in the source work is ‘translated’ into a new work. The theoretical foundation hinges on the anthropological concept of ‘cultural translation’, which developed out of the field of language translation. Cultural translation investigates how a text from one historical or cultural context can be relocated and received in another. Whilst early language translation theories were committed to the authority of the source text, cultural translation emerged as a paradigm that offered a broader understanding of the translation process. By extension, this paper interrogates the concept of music transcription in terms of the concept of cultural translation. In so doing, it explores the aesthetic choices made by the transcriber who creatively reshapes the identity of the original composition, placing the new transcription somewhere along a spectrum of transformation from the literal to the recomposed. My case studies investigate transcriptions from five classical guitar quartets between 1960 and 2010, namely: Los Romeros -the “Royal Family of the Guitar” (USA, 1960-present), the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (USA, 1980-present), the Sydney Guitar Quartet (Australia, 1980-1990), Guitar Trek (Australia, 1987-present) and the Tetra Guitar Quartet (UK, 1988-2013). Qualitative interviews with the key practitioners in each group reveal a range of philosophies and practices that challenged musical prejudices, augmented the repertoire, and enkindled new compositions - all of which transformed the horizons for the guitar quartet. Acts of translation have increasingly come to be understood as creative work where the transcriber, positioned between the source culture and the target culture, interprets the ‘spirit’ of the original work in ways that give voice to the ethos of the contemporary moment. The transcription philosophies and practices outlined in the dissertation inform the collection of transcriptions in my Creative Project Portfolio. This Portfolio offers a significant original contribution through expanding horizons for contemporary guitar ensemble repertoire

Evaluation of process systems operating envelopes

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 2013.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-238).This thesis addresses the problem of worst-case steady-state design of process systems under uncertainty, also known as robust design. Designing for the worst case is of great importance when considering systems for deployment in extreme and hostile environments, where operational failures cannot be risked due to extraordinarily high economic and/or environmental expense. For this unique scenario, the cost of "over-designing" the process far outweighs the cost associated with operational failure. Hence, it must be guaranteed that the process is sufficiently robust in order to avoid operational failures. Many engineering, economic, and operations research applications are concerned with worst-case scenarios. Classically, these problems give rise to a type of leader-follower game, or Stackelberg game, commonly known as the "minimax" problem, or more precisely as a max-min or min-max optimization problem. However, since the application here is to steady-state design, the problem formulation results in a more general nonconvex equality-constrained min-max program, for which no previously available algorithm can solve effectively. Under certain assumptions, the equality constraints, which correspond to the steady-state model, can be eliminated from the problem by solving them for the state variables as implicit functions of the control variables and uncertainty parameters. This approach eliminates explicit functional dependence on the state variables, and in turn reduces the dimensionality of the original problem. However, this embeds implicit functions in the program, which have no explicit algebraic form and can only be approximated using numerical methods. By doing this, the max-min program can be reformulated as a more computationally tractable semi-infinite program, with the caveat that there are embedded implicit functions. Semi-infinite programming with embedded implicit functions is a new approach to modeling worst-case design problems. Furthermore, modeling process systems--especially those associated with chemical engineering--often results in highly nonconvex functions. The primary contribution of this thesis is a mathematical tool for solving implicit semi-infinite programs and assessing robust feasibility of process systems using a rigorous model-based approach. This tool has the ability to determine, with mathematical certainty, whether or not a physical process system based on the proposed design will fail in the worst case by taking into account uncertainty in the model parameters and uncertainty in the environment.by Matthew David Stuber.Ph.D

WEIGHTED QUANTILE SUM REGRESSION FOR ANALYZING CORRELATED PREDICTORS ACTING THROUGH A MEDIATION PATHWAY ON A BIOLOGICAL OUTCOME

Abstract Weighted Quantile Sum Regression for Analyzing Correlated Predictors Acting Through a Mediation Pathway on a Biological Outcome By Bhanu M. Evani, Ph.D. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2017. Major Director: Robert A. Perera, Asst. Professor, Department of Biostatistics This work examines mediated effects of a set of correlated predictors using the recently developed Weighted Quantile Sum (WQS) regression method. Traditionally, mediation analysis has been conducted using the multiple regression method, first proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986), which has since been advanced by several authors like MacKinnon (2008). Mediation analysis of a highly correlated predictor set is challenging due to the condition of multicollinearity. Weighted Quantile Sum (WQS) regression can be used as an alternative method to analyze the mediated effects, when predictor correlations are high. As part of the WQS method, a weighted quartile sum index (WQSindex) is computed to represent the predictor set as an entity. The predictor variables in classic mediation are then replaced with the WQSindex, allowing for the estimation of the total indirect effect between all the predictors and the outcome. Predictors having a high relative importance in their association with the outcome can be identified by examining the empirical weights for the individual predictors estimated by the WQS regression method. Other constrained optimization methods (e.g. LASSO) focus on reducing dimensionality of the correlated predictors to reduce multicollinearity. WQS regression in the context of mediation is studied using Monte Carlo simulation for mediation models with two and three correlated predictors. WQS regression’s performance is compared to the classic OLS multiple regression and the regularized LASSO regression methods. An application of these three methods to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) dataset examines the effect of serum concentrations of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (independent variables) on the liver enzyme, alanine aminotransferase ALT (outcome), with chromosomal telomere length as a potential mediator. Keywords: Multicollinearity, Weighted Quantile Sum Regression, Mediation Analysi