In search of the Holy Grail : how viable is John Rawls' purely political conception of justice?

Please consult the paper edition of this thesis to read. It is available on the 5th Floor of the Library at Call Number: Z 9999 P65 Y68 1995No Abstract Supplied

Production of HMF, FDCA and their derived products: a review of life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) studies

The chemical industry is increasingly looking to develop bio-based alternatives to petroleum-based platform chemicals, in order to reduce dependence on diminishing fossil resources and to decrease GHG emissions. 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) are two examples of bio-basedchemicals which could allow for the synthesis of a wide range of chemicals and materials, particularly polymers, from renewable feedstocks. This review paper summarises and critically evaluates results from existinglife cycle assessment (LCA) and technoeconomic analysis (TEA) studies of HMF and FDCA synthesis and, bydoing this, provides several points of advice for future investigations and assessments of synthetic routestowards these bio-based products. Chemical considerations such as choice of solvent system, catalyst andenergy production are reviewed; and methodological issues in LCA, such as treatment of biogenic carbonand allocation methods, are discussed. Overall, results suggest that the production of HMF and FDCA-basedproducts may offer lower impacts from CO2 emissions than their fossil-based counterparts, but this oftencomes with an increase in environmental impacts in other impact categories. Higher operating costs fromexpensive fructose feedstocks and high energy demands also make HMF and FDCA less economicallyviable than current chemicals. Moving forwards, further investigation into different lignocellulosic feedstocks, energy production units and the development of new catalytic systems may help in making HMFand FDCA production more favourable than the production of fossil-based counterparts

Politician's Privacy

During the preceding four decades, the “private” lives of politicians have been subjected to an increasing degree of public scrutiny; so much so that it might be argued that those pursuing or occupying elected office – especially senior positions (e.g., Cabinet ministers) – are often denied a degree of privacy commensurate with adequately respecting and protecting human dignity. In this essay I argue that, while politicians should not be expected to forsake all hope of privacy, the voluntary character of, and responsibilities attached to, elected political office, coupled with citizens’ democratic right to choose their political representatives freely, renders it ethically legitimate for the “public” and many of the “private” elements of politicians’ lives to receive a degree of public scrutiny that greatly exceeds that experienced by their fellow citizens

The viability of the concept of political liberalism

This thesis examines the viability of the concept of political liberalism. Since its emergence, the idea of a purely political liberalism has been the subject of a voluminous amount of discourse and debate. The concept of political liberalism has been presented as both a solution to the problems of justice and political stability troubling liberal democracies and an exemplar of all that is wrong with contemporary political philosophy; it has, quite literally, altered the landscape and the vernacular of contemporary political theory. Herein it is argued that, despite the significant amount of literature that has been devoted to the analysis of the idea of a purely political liberalism, the idea itself has yet to be subjected to the type of critique that is required if one is to assess its viability effectively. Though there have been a number of contemporary political theorists who have developed conceptions of political liberalism which they believe differ in important ways from those of their doctrinal colleagues, detailed analyses of the concept of political liberalism have and remain focussed almost exclusively on a single formulation: namely, Rawlsian political liberalism. This singular focus has precluded the completion of a comprehensive assessment of the viability of the concept (as opposed to a single conception) of political liberalism as represented both by Rawlsian and non-Rawlsian models. This thesis confronts this problem by expanding the scope of investigation to include a fulsome examination of other prominent paradigmatic conceptions of political liberalism namely, those developed by Charles Larmore and Judith Shklar and in so doing provides a more inclusive and, subsequently, thorough critique than has previously been offered. Adopting such an approach reveals that, despite protestations to the contrary, the prominent paradigmatic conceptions of political liberalism are sufficiently similar in all important respects to enable their conflation for the purpose of analysis; and when subjected to a thorough analysis, the idea of a purely political liberalism proves itself to be untenable.Political ScienceD. Litt. et Phil. (Politics

Conserved but flexible modularity in the zebrafish skull: implications for craniofacial evolvability

Morphological variation is the outward manifestation of development and provides fodder for adaptive evolution. Because of this contingency, evolution is often thought to be biased by developmental processes and functional interactions among structures, which are statistically detectable through forms of covariance among traits. This can take the form of substructures of integrated traits, termed modules, which together comprise patterns of variational modularity. While modularity is essential to an understanding of evolutionary potential, biologists currently have little understanding of its genetic basis and its temporal dynamics over generations. To address these open questions, we compared patterns of craniofacial modularity among laboratory strains, defined mutant lines and a wild population of zebrafish ( ). Our findings suggest that relatively simple genetic changes can have profound effects on covariance, without greatly affecting craniofacial shape. Moreover, we show that instead of completely deconstructing the covariance structure among sets of traits, mutations cause shifts among seemingly latent patterns of modularity suggesting that the skull may be predisposed towards a limited number of phenotypes. This new insight may serve to greatly increase the evolvability of a population by providing a range of 'preset' patterns of modularity that can appear readily and allow for rapid evolution

Factors Associated with Employment among Latinos Living with HIV/AIDS

This investigation explored the utility of various demographic, health-related, and psychological variables in predicting employment among Latinos living with HIV/AIDS. Results of an analysis of variance indicated that employed participants were younger, evinced significantly greater CD4 counts, physical and mental health functioning, and internal locus of control beliefs than those who were unable to work due to disabilities. A backward binary logistic regression demonstrated that age, CD4 count, internal locus of control, and mental health functioning contributed to the explanatory power of the final model. This model correctly classified group membership 72% of the time, 78% of participants who were unable to work due to disabilities, and 65% of employed participants. The authors propose a variety of intervention strategies and directions for future rehabilitation research among Latinos living with HIV/AIDS

On the zero forcing number of the complement of graphs with forbidden subgraphs

Motivated in part by an observation that the zero forcing number for the complement of a tree on $n$ vertices is either $n-3$ or $n-1$ in one exceptional case, we consider the zero forcing number for the complement of more general graphs under some conditions, particularly those that do not contain complete bipartite subgraphs. We also move well beyond trees and completely study all of the possible zero forcing numbers for the complements of unicyclic graphs and cactus graphs.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

Static and fluctuating zigzag order, and possible signatures of Kitaev physics, in torque measurements of α{\alpha}-RuCl3{_3}

We have measured magnetic torque on a T${_N}$ = 7 K single crystal of ${\alpha}$-RuCl${_3}$ , as a function of the field angle in the ab-plane, focusing on temperatures between 2 and 20 K and fields from 0 to 9 T. We find a rich spectrum of signals, many of which can be classified by their angular periodicity. The sample shows an oscillation with a period of 180$^{\circ}$ (i.e. two-fold periodicity) which we argue is due to residual strain within the crystal, rather than being intrinsic. In addition, within the magnetically ordered zigzag phase there is a 60$^{\circ}$ period (i.e. six-fold) sawtooth pattern, which can be explained by reorientation of the zigzag domains as the crystal rotates in the applied field. Suppressing the zigzag order with an applied field above ${\sim}$ 8 T at low temperature, a six-fold sinusoidal signal remains, suggesting that there is fluctuating zigzag order in the putative field-induced quantum spin liquid state. Finally, our key finding is a sharp, step-like feature that appears at low temperature for fields just above the zigzag phase boundary, at the so-called B2-axes. This is similar to theoretically predicted behaviour for a state with Ising topological order, which is expected for a Kitaev spin liquid in an applied magnetic field

A protocol for a systematic review of randomised evaluations of strategies to improve recruitment of rural participants to randomised controlled trials

Peer reviewedPublisher PD