Novel approaches to the synthesis of aromatic compounds

Imperial Users onl

The establishment and operation of national negotiating machinery in the London Clearing Banks

The central problem around which the research is located concerns the rivalry between - the different forms of unionism in banking, and the response of the employers to this, particularly through national negotiating machinery. The thesis is divided into three parts. In the first, the attempts to develop national machinery during and after the war are examined. This is an historical account which seeks to illustrate the special nature of the inter-union rivalry between, on one side, the staff associations, committed to a co-operative relationship primarily with their own bank, and on the other the TUC union which was committed to an industry-wide basis of organisation. It also demonstrates how the associations, initially very dependent upon the employers, became more independent and operated like trade unions through bargaining while retaining their distinctive ethos. Thirdly, it demonstrates the evolution of employer strategies on this issue. Having formed national machinery, the second section considers the conflicts between the unions which, while formally co-operating together, were still opposed to each other's principles. It looks at the two employer sponsored attempts to resolve this difficulty through the promotion of a merger, and the reasons for their failure. In the third section the operation of national machinery is examined. The thesis considers the bargaining strategies of the unions, arguing that there were in fact considerable points of agreement between them despite their ideological disputes. It also considers the strategies of the employers, and relates these to their corporate objectives in order to contextualise the inter-union rivalry as part cf a broader strategy of stability and control. In the concluding chapter the developments since the demise of joint union working are examined. It is argued that employer strategies have shifted significantly under the influence of corporate developments, and that these have impacted upon the banks' policies towards the competing unions, which are currently operating separately

Dollars Damn Me : Editorial Politics and Herman Melville\u27s Periodical Fiction

To illustrate Melville’s navigation of editorial politics in the periodical marketplace, this study analyzes two stories Melville published in Putnam’s in order to reconstruct the particular historical, editorial, social, and political contexts of these writings. The first text examined in this study is “Bartleby,” published in Putnam’s in November and December of 1853. This reading recovers overtures of sociability and indexes formal appropriations of established popular genres in order to develop an interpretive framework. Throughout this analysis, an examination of the narrator’s ideological bearings in relation to the unsystematic implementation of these ideologies in American public life sets forth a set of interrelated social and political contexts. Melville’s navigation of these contexts demonstrates specific compositional maneuverings in order to tend to the expectations of a popular readership but also to challenge ideological norms. Israel Potter, Herman Melville’s eighth book-length novel, serialized in Putnam’s from July of 1854 to March of 1855, is the focus of the second case study. This study tracks Melville’s engagements and disengagements with a variety of source materials and positions these compositional shifts amid contemporaneous political ideologies, populist histories, middle-class values, audience expectations, and editorial politics. This study will demonstrate that Melville set out to craft texts for a popular readership; however, Melville, struggling to recuperate his damaged credentials, seasoned by demoralizing business dealings, his ambitions attenuated by the realities of the literary marketplace, undertook the hard task of self-editing his works to satisfy his aspirations, circumvent editorial politics, and meet audience expectations

Chivalric schism : the man who occupies the masculine and the feminine.

Designated male and female gender roles have created a certain set of expectations that shape the lives of men and women. Although there are benefits and drawbacks for each of the sexes as a result of these sets of rules, males have unquestionably seen themselves the beneficiaries throughout the course of history far more often than their female counterparts. I would argue, however, that chivalric codes, behaviors ascribed to men of the knightly class in the Middle Ages, are confusing and even contradictory for their subjects, thus negating some of the advantage typically granted by virtue of being a male. This paper posits that these codes truncated the advantage that certain male characters received due to gender inequality, by creating a masculine/feminine dichotomy among men. I intend on examining two major Medieval themes appearing across three texts of the time to illustrate this dichotomy; the amorphous concepts of rape and shamfastnesse

Abductive Reasoning in Multiple Fault Diagnosis

Abductive reasoning involves generating an explanation for a given set of observations about the world. Abduction provides a good reasoning framework for many AI problems, including diagnosis, plan recognition and learning. This paper focuses on the use of abductive reasoning in diagnostic systems in which there may be more than one underlying cause for the observed symptoms. In exploring this topic, we will review and compare several different approaches, including Binary Choice Bayesian, Sequential Bayesian, Causal Model Based Abduction, Parsimonious Set Covering, and the use of First Order Logic. Throughout the paper we will use as an example a simple diagnostic problem involving automotive troubleshooting

Exploring the improvement of human cell cryopreservation

Regenerative medicine is an emerging technology and with hundreds of cell therapies currently in clinical trials there is a need to expand the limited knowledge related to their storage, shipment and preservation. The most widely used medium for human cell cryopreservation is 10%wt dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) in serum. However given its potential toxicity, DMSO usage is a key issue in cryopreservation. Methods specify the need to reduce cell exposure time to DMSO above 0°C as much as possible but the maximum amount of time cells can be exposed to DMSO to prevent a detrimental effect needs to be clarified. There are also regulatory issues and concerns with the xenotoxicity, ethics and supply of the other core component in the standard cryomedia formulation: Foetal Bovine Serum (FBS). Developing a viable alternative to FBS is crucial. In cryobiology literature thawing appears poorly understood. A stable process is as vital as freezing to prevent injury to cells. Protocols are currently too vague for cell therapy regulation and need improvement. The time dependent DMSO cytotoxicity was evaluated by overexposing cells to DMSO during and/or after cryopreservation. A broad investigation found that after 1 hour overexposure post thaw viability of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) was reduced from 96.3±0.6% to 74.1±4.0% and the co-expression of five key hMSC markers was changed from 97.9±1.3% to 68.3±2.6%. This significant change could cause indicate a change in product efficacy and affect patient health, to prevent this, DMSO exposure must be kept to below 1 hour. A range of alternative vehicle solutions were screened and human platelet lysate (hPL) investigated as an alternative. In depth experimentation with hPL as a cryopreservation vehicle solution and culture supplement (in place of FBS) found it to be a worthy, statistically similar alternative. With no xenological or ethical concerns, lower costs than other serum-free alternatives hPL could allow for a move away from xenological components. A heat transfer model was developed and determined that 720J is required to thaw a vial. Using the heat transfer model and additional factors such as pre-thaw stabilisation and on thaw dilution, a two-stage experiment found that the current standard process (warming in a 37°C waterbath) within the current paradigm of a 1.8mL cryovial is optimal but further work is required to define the process for scaled-up product