The triumph of pragmatic imperialism: Lord Minto and the defence of the Empire, 1898-1910

While relatively neglected in the historiography, the 4th Earl of Minto, who achieved the distinction of serving consecutively as Governor-General of Canada and Viceroy of India from 1898-1910, is more truly representative of the methods Britain adopted to govern its Empire than his more illustrious contemporaries. He was one of the many aristocrats who, while increasingly marginalised in other aspects of British political life, were believed to possess important qualities that made them ideally suited to the highest levels of imperial service. As part of the governing elite, Britain’s aristocrats shared many of the assumptions held by politicians, civil servants and military officers, about imperial governance. Vague notions circulated about Britain’s duty to civilize its possessions, but most policy-makers eschewed ‘ideological’ visions in favour of a more pragmatic approach based on recognition that protecting the empire from both internal and external threats was vital to maintaining Britain’s leading position amongst its rival Great Powers. The pragmatism of its governors provided an element of continuity in the diverse territories of Britain’s empire. This thesis examines the role of Lord Minto in the formation of defence and foreign policy to illustrate the centrality of the pragmatic approach to British imperialism. He held his posts at a time of transition for the Empire. Ideas about the duties of imperial governors were changing, as power shifted either to local governments in the self-governing colonies or back to the metropole from the periphery. Yet as Britain faced an increasing range of challenges, governors remained able to influence many of the decisions made in response. Like most governors Minto worked under a series of constraints. He was forced to repair the damage caused by his predecessors and contain the unrealistic aspirations of his superiors, although, a soldier himself, he found his military colleagues a valuable source of support throughout his career. In Canada Minto worked hard to ensure that Laurier’s government accepted its imperial responsibilities, most notably during the South African war, but also that his British superiors understood Canadian attitudes towards the Empire and rapprochement with America. As Viceroy, Minto’s priority remained protecting the security of the Raj, particularly the strategically vital North West Frontier, often against the insistence of a Liberal government focused on economic retrenchment. That he was able to achieve these aims and restore stability to previously troubled territories is a tribute to the effectiveness of pragmatism

The impact of climate change on blond sandstone decay in Glasgow

Glasgow contains many buildings made from local ‘blond’ sandstones that are showing the legacy of 150 years of urban weathering and this decay may accelerate as climate changes in the future. Most of the blond sandstones are Carboniferous in age and comprise of micaceous quartz arenites with varying amounts of diagenetic minerals including ankerite and kaolinite. Chemical decay can be visually identified in the carbonate minerals, but the combination of quantitative X-ray microanalysis (chemistry of mineral) and Raman spectroscopy (structure of mineral) also allows chemical decay to be observed in both kaolinite and muscovite. The Raman spectroscopy shows a variation in the muscovite minerals between the outermost surface and internal region (20 mm depth), demonstrating that structural decay is occurring within the micas and reduces them to an “ionic slurry state” in a relatively short time frame. The impact of microbial colonisation on the stones was also investigated. Using osmium stained polished blocks, complimented by scanning electron microscope imaging, microorganisms were found to be living cryptoendolithically in a few samples but at very shallow depths (<2 mm). Light penetration results revealed that a thin weathered crust (<1 mm) on the surface of sandstone will restrict the transmission of light into the rock, thereby preventing the colonisation of photosynthetic microbes. As a result, most microbial communities are restricted to the stone surface but only where they will not be subjected to photo-oxidative damage, which frequently occurs during summer months. Consequently, the most extensive microbial colonisation is restricted to the sandstone’s surface and during the winter. Using novel internal microclimate monitoring technologies it was found that stone temperature and humidity is decoupled from ambient conditions. During the summer the stone interior is considerably hotter than air temperature, whilst relative humidity is generally comparable to external conditions, whereas in the winter interior temperatures are closely related to ambient conditions and relative humidity is generally much higher. To understand how sandstone buildings will react to a change in climate, current conditions were extrapolated to 2080 using predictive models for the Glasgow region and the impact of these conditions was investigated by accelerated weathering experiments in a climate chamber. Results reveal rapid granular disintegration, the rates of which are independent of grain size. Overall, this study concludes that rates of chemical decay will increase as the climate warms and becomes wetter overall, primarily iii through dissolution, decay and loss of diagenetic minerals, and the extent of microbial activity will change, but these effects will be strongly dependent on local microenvironment. Implications of these findings are that more work on conservation and preservation techniques will be very important to protect the stone-built heritage of Scotland

Regulators of autophagy in Leishmania major

Autophagy is a conserved lysosomal degradation pathway for recycling long-lived proteins and organelles that is thought to be required for life cycle progression and virulence of Leishmania. ATG8 is a ubiquitin like protein that is required for the formation of autophagosomes, and Leishmania uniquely possesses a set of ATG8-like proteins in addition to ATG8, that are distributed in three multi-gene families called ATG8A, ATG8B and ATG8C. The localisation and expression of ATG8A, ATG8B and ATG8C were analysed using GFP fusion proteins and affinity purified antibodies. ATG8A exhibited a dramatic relocalisation to punctate structures under starvation conditions, suggestive of a specific role for ATG8A in starvation induced autophagy. Although ATG8 and ATG8A both participate in a response to starvation, they differed in their sensitivity to the PI(3) kinase inhibitor wortmannin, responded differently to the presence of energy sources, and labelled distinct subsets of vesicles. When the data generated in this thesis was considered together with recent analyses of the functions of the cysteine peptidases ATG4.1 and ATG4.2, evidence for distinct roles of ATG8 and ATG8A emerged. ATG8B and ATG8C localised to single punctate structures close to the flagellar pocket in a small proportion of promastigotes grown under nutrient rich conditions. The distribution of ATG8B and ATG8C labelled structures did not change during differentiation or starvation, suggestive of a role distinct from autophagy. ATG8B labelled structures appeared to be duplicated during cell division, and might be derived from endosomal membranes. ATG8A, ATG8B and ATG8C expression was shown to be developmentally regulated with all expressed at high levels in stationary phase promastigotes. Conjugation of ATG8 to phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) is required for the association of ATG8 with autophagosome membranes, and while ATG8 was shown to be conjugated to a phospholipid, no evidence was obtained to suggest that ATG8 paralogues are modified by a lipid. High molecular weight proteins were detected by western blot with anti-ATG8, ATG8A, ATG8B and ATG8C antibodies, perhaps indicating associations with other proteins in complexes. Two ubiquitin fusion proteins and a putative SNARE were identified in co-immunoprecipitation experiments performed with anti-ATG8B antibodies, although further experiments are required to determine the validity of these interactions. To analyse the role of a predicted presenilin-1 (PS1) homologue in L. major, Δps1 null mutants were generated. These mutants were not defective in their ability to differentiate into infective metacyclic promastigotes, and could establish infections in vivo and in vitro, demonstrating that PS1 is not essential and is not a good target for drug development. Large autophagosomes accumulated in Δps1 mutants suggesting that PS1 might be involved in the regulation of autophagy, although it seemed that the parasites could compensate for this, as autophagy was restored to normal levels in Δps1 mutants that had undergone differentiation into amastigotes. Antibodies were raised against a PS1 peptide that recognised L. major PS1 only when over-expressed, suggesting that endogenous PS1 is expressed at a low level. PS1-HA that was stably integrated into the genome localised to a structure close to the flagellar pocket, although a different localisation was observed when PS1-GFP was over-expressed, and investigation is required to clarify the subcellular localisation. In summary, the regulation of autophagy in L. major has been investigated from two different angles, leading to the characterisation of a unique family of ATG8-like proteins and an aspartic peptidase, presenilin-1

The director of devised theatre: facilitating, collaboration, ownership and empowerment

The relationship between collective theatre-making and the necessary yet problematic role of a director figure are indicative of a tension involved in devised theatre practices. As Deirdre Heddon and Jane Milling identify, the director’s function within devising practices ‘complicate[s] the notion of non-hierarchical work of democratic participation’. As such, this thesis aims to further develop and understand the role of the director within a collaborative environment. To investigate the inherent complexities and contradictions of the director’s function within collaborative practices it is necessary to ask; What is the role of the director in devised theatre? is director even the right word? What might a model of directing for collaborative practices entail? How might the director facilitate this (supposed) collaboration? What stakes of ownership are deployed in the work created in collaborative devising contexts? How is devised theatre written? Can/should we attribute authorship to anyone in this process? Through answering the above questions this thesis will contribute to a more nuanced investigation into the distinct relationships involved in the making of contemporary theatre. By asking what the role of the director in contemporary collaborative devised performance is and exploring how they might facilitate collaboration, ownership and empowerment, I wish to place importance on the distinct job of the director within collaborative theatre-making

On the early diagnosis of schizophrenia

No abstract available

Marx, Aristotle and beyond: aspects of Aristotelianism in Marxist social ontology

Marx's debt to Aristotle has been noted, but inadequately. Usually commentators focus on the parallels between discrete ethical theories of both writers. However, for Marx, ethics is not a discrete field, but is founded on a conception of social ontology. This thesis links the two by showing that, precisely because of its Aristotelian roots, Marx's political economy of bourgeois society demands an ethical view arising from alienated labour. Marx conceives of bourgeois society as an organic whole. But this entails that is social matter can only exist potentially, and not fully setting up a tension that points to the eventual supercession of its social form. In this manner, Marx's Aristotelian hylomorphism provides the link between the early and the later Marx, between the critique of alienation and the mature works of political economy. This reading of Marx is facilitated by combining it with recent developments in philosophy. The works of Harré, Kripke and Wiggins, in particular have helped retrospectively to justify Marx's intuitive realism. Their contributions on explanation identity and sortals are applied in order to elucidate and justify his ontology. In the course of this, the problematic boundary between analytical philosophy and social theory is crossed. Marx restates ancient beliefs about the transitory nature of existence and the eternal nature of change. In particular, there are strong parallels between Marx's account of the decline and eventual fall of capitalism, and the Aristotelian message that all sublunary entities come to be and pass away. These parallels are sufficiently striking to allow us to recognise that Marx's account of the crisis ridden and ultimately doomed perspective for capitalism, overlooked by his protagonists, is but a variant of the Aristotelian theory of passing away or phthorá

Understanding heterogeneously catalysed transformations

Industrial reactions can either be catalysed by acidic, basic or neutral supported catalysts. The work within this thesis includes two different projects of industrial interest, both of which are catalysed by basic and acidic supported catalysts. (1) Acrylonitrile is one of the top twenty large-volume commodity chemicals in the world. Nearly every person in the modern world owns something that is made of acrylonitrile. Currently acrylonitrile is synthesised industrially by the ammoxidation of propylene. During this process acetonitrile is produced as by product and is used commercially as a solvent. However, the production of acetonitrile is far greater than demand therefore considerable interest lies in the conversion of acetonitrile to acrylonitrile. In our studies the synthesis of acrylonitrile from methanol and acetonitrile was attempted using magnesium oxide and chromium-doped magnesium oxide catalysts. The catalysts were initially prepared by impregnation methods and then subsequently characterised. It was found that an impregnation of the magnesium hydroxide by chromium salt decreased the phase transformation temperature from magnesium hydroxide to magnesium oxide and yielded larger crystallite sizes. Using the chromium-doped magnesium oxide catalyst the reaction between acetonitrile and methanol gave 100% selectivity towards acrylonitrile. It is suggested that CrVI/V species play an important role in this reaction and act as a stabiliser for the acetonitrile carbanion. Further study showed that the main deactivation route was the reduction of the chromium from CrVI/V to lower oxidation states and the deposition of coke. It was found that over the course of a year the Cr/MgO catalyst significantly aged. Because the extent of ageing was so significant, it was decided to cease work on this project as it was of concern that the relationship between structure and activity would be difficult to rely on. (2) Hydrogen is one of the clean sources of energy which is currently obtained by the steam reforming of non-renewable fossil-fuel resources. However the rapid depletion of fossil-fuel resources has spurred further research into alternative and renewable H2 sources. Among the many different renewable sources available for H2 production, the steam reforming of bioethanol has attracted significant interest in recent years. However, crude bioethanol contains organic impurities which may deactivate the catalyst more rapidly than the pure ethanol. Therefore in the current project we have examined the tolerance of pure Al2O3 and Al2O3 supported noble metal (Rh, Ru and Pt) catalysts to the different impurities present in crude bioethanol. The direct use of crude bioethanol in the steam reforming reaction could result in a huge saving in capital expenditure for an industrial plant, as huge capital costs are associated with the distillation of the crude bioethanol. In the initial stage of the project, the Al2O3 and the noble metal impregnated Al2O3 catalysts were tested over a range of temperatures, under 20 barg pressures and a 5:1 steam to ethanol ratio. This was to determine the optimum temperature of reaction. A temperature of 500oC was found to be the optimum reaction temperature due to “hard” coke formation at higher temperatures over the Ru and Rh catalyst. The effect of the different impurities was examined by systematically adding 1mol.% of each impurity separately with respect to ethanol content in the water/ethanol mixture. The different noble metal catalysts showed similar tolerances towards the impurities. The addition of C3 alcohols significantly decreased the conversion of ethanol and increased the rate of catalyst deactivation. This deactivation of the catalyst in the presence of C3 alcohols was attributed to high olefin formation and incomplete decomposition of the C3 alcohols which deposited over the catalysts as coke. Separate propanal, propylamine and acetone addition to the water/ethanol mixture significantly increased the ethanol conversion and the activity of all the noble metal catalysts tested. It was found that the presence of these impurities in the ethanol significantly decreased the C2H4 in effluent mixture as these impurities blocked the acidic sites of the catalysts. The compound C2H4 was found to be the main route towards coke formation

Interaction between the ovine Bst-2 paralogs and sheep Betaretroviruses

There is a delicate evolutionary balance between viruses and their hosts. The host has evolved the intrinsic, innate and adaptive immunity to fight viral infections. However, viruses have acquired several counteracting measures to evade host defences. Ovine Betaretroviruses, including the exogenous and pathogenic Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) and the highly related endogenous enJSRVs are a unique model system to investigate virus-host interaction over long evolutionary periods. Sheep have co-opted some defective enJSRV loci to (i) counteract infection by exogenous viruses and likely (ii) to cope with the continuous retroviral invasion of their genome. In addition, various genes of the innate and intrinsic immunity of the host have evolved to block viral replication. The work presented in this thesis focuses on the ovine bone marrow stromal cell antigen 2 (Bst-2)/ tetherin, a recently identified cellular restriction factor with a broad antiviral activity, and its interaction with sheep Betaretroviruses. In sheep, the BST-2 gene is duplicated into two paralogs termed oBST-2A and -2B. Studies presented in this thesis show that oBST-2B possesses several biological properties distinct from the paralog oBST-2A and from all the other BST-2 orthologs. oBST-2A prevents the release of JSRV/enJSRV viral particles by ‘tethering’ them at the cell membrane similarly to what observed by human BST-2. On the other hand, oBST-2B, does not reach the cell membrane but remains within the Golgi stacks and the trans-Golgi network. Several lines of evidence obtained in this thesis suggest that oBST-2B reduces significantly Env incorporation into viral particles. Therefore, oBST-2B possesses a unique antiviral activity that complements the classical tethering restriction provided by oBST-2A

The investigation of hippocampal and hippocampal subfield volumetry, morphology and metabolites using 3T MRI

A detailed account of the hippocampal anatomy has been provided. This thesis will explore and exploit the use of 3T MRI and the latest developments in image processing techniques to measure hippocampal and hippocampal subfield volumes, hippocampal metabolites and morphology. In chapter two a protocol for segmenting the hippocampus was created. The protocol was assessed in two groups of subjects with differing socioeconomic status (SES). This was a novel, community based sample in which hippocampal volumes have yet to be assessed in the literature. Manual and automated hippocampal segmentation measurements were compared on the two distinct SES groups. The mean volumes and also the variance in these measurements were comparable between two methods. The Dice overlapping metric comparing the two methods was 0.81. In chapter three voxel based morphometry (VBM) was used to compare local volume differences in grey matter volume between the two SES groups. Two approaches to VBM were compared. DARTEL-VBM results were found to be superior to the earlier ’optimised’ VBM method. Following a small volume correction, DARTEL-VBM results were suggesitive of focal GM volumes reductions in both the right and left hippocampi of the lower SES group. In chapter four an MR spectroscopy protocol was implemented to assess hippocampal metabolites in the two differing SES groups. Interpretable spectra were obtained in 73% of the 42 subjects. The poorer socioeconomic group were considered to have been exposed to chronic stress and therefore via inflammatory processes it was anticipated that the NAA/Cr metabolite ratio would be reduced in this group when compared to the more affluent group. Both NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr hippocampal metabolite ratios were not significantly different between the two groups. The aim of chapter 5 was to implement the protocol and methodology developed in chapter 2 to determine a normal range for hippocampal volumes at 3T MRI. 3D T1-weighted IR-FSPGR images were acquired in 39 healthy, normal volunteers in the age range from 19 to 64. Following the automated procedure hippocampal volumes were manually inspected and edited. The mean and standard deviation of the left and right hippocampal volumes were determined to be: 3421mm3 ± 399mm3 and 3487mm3 ± 431mm3 respectively. After correcting for total ICV the volumes were: 0.22% ± 0.03% and 0.23% ± 0.03% for the left and right hippocampi respectively. Thus, a normative database of hippocampal volumes was established. The normative data here will in future act as a baseline on which other methods of determining hippocampal volumes may be compared. The utility of using the normative dataset to compare other groups of subjects will be limited as a result of the lack of a comprehensive assessment of IQ or education level of the normal volunteers which may affect the volume of the hippocampus. In chapter six Incomplete hippocampal inversion (IHI) was assessed. Few studies have assessed the normal incidence of IHI and of those studies the analysis of IHI extended only to a radiological assessment. Here we present a comprehensive and quantitative assessment of IHI. IHI was found on 31 of the 84 normal subjects assessed (37%). ICV corrected IHI left-sided hippocampal volumes were compared against ICV corrected normal left-sided hippocampal volumes (25 vs. 52 hippocampi). The IHI hippocampal volumes were determined to be smaller than the normal hippocampal volumes (p<< 0.05). However, on further inspection it was observed that the ICV of the IHI was significantly smaller than the ICV of the normal group, confounding the previous result. In chapter seven a pilot study was performed on patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). The aim was to exploit the improved image quality offered by the 3T MRI to create a protocol for assessing the CA4/ dentate volume and to compare the volume of this subfield of the hippocampus before and after treatment. Two methodologies were implemented. In the first method a protocol was produced to manually segment the CA4/dentate region of the hippocampus from coronal T2-weighted FSE images. Given that few studies have assessed hippocampal subfields, an assessment of study power and sample size was conducted to inform future work. In the second method, the data the DARTEL-VBM image processing pipeline was applied. Statistical nonparametric mapping was applied in the final statistical interpretation of the VBM data. Following an FDR correction, a single GM voxel in the hippocampus was deemed to be statistically significant, this was suggestive of small GM volume increase following antiinflammatory treatment. Finally, in chapter eight, the manual segmentation protocol for the CA4/dentate hippocampal subfield developed in chapter seven was extended to include a complete set of hippocampal subfields. This is one of the first attempts to segment the entire hippocampus into its subfields using 3T MRI and as such, it was important to assess the quality of the measurement procedure. Furthermore, given the subfield volumes and the variability in these measurements, power and sample size calculations were also estimated to inform further work. Seventeen healthy volunteers were scanned using 3T MRI. A detailed manual segmentation protocol was created to guide two independent operators to measure the hippocampal subfield volumes. Repeat measures were made by a single operator for intra-operator variability and inter-operator variability was also assessed. The results of the intra-operator comparison proved reasonably successful where values compared well but were typically slightly poorer than similar attempts in the literature. This was likely to be the result of the additional complication of trying to segment subfields in the head and tail of the hippocampus where previous studies have focused only on the body of the hippocampus. Inter-rater agreement measures for subfield volumes were generally poorer than would be acceptable if full exchangeability of the data between the raters was necessary. This would indicate that further refinements to the manual segmentation protocol are necessary. Future work should seek to improve the methodology to reduce the variability and improve the reproducibility in these measures

Experimental investigations into diffractive optics and optomechanical systems for future gravitational wave detectors

In 1916 Einstein published his General Theory of Relativity, from which the existence of gravitational waves was predicted. Gravitational waves are considered to be ripples or fluctuations in the curvature of space-time, propagating isotropically from their source at the speed of light. However, due to the weak nature of gravity, observing this phenomenon presents a great challenge to the scientific community. Small deviations in the apparent positions of stellar objects were measured by Eddington during a solar eclipse in 1919, which confirmed the curvature of space-time and its effect on light, and there have since been many astronomical observations of gravitational lenses. In 1993 Hulse and Taylor were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their observations of a pulsar in a binary system, providing strong evidence for energy loss by emission of gravitational waves. However, the quest for a direct detection of gravitational waves is ongoing through the development of ever more sensitive technology. The development of laser interferometry, based on Michelson topologies, pro- vides the most encouraging route to observing gravitational radiation. There is currently a global network of first generation interferometric gravitational wave detectors in operation, including GEO600 (UK/Germany), Virgo (Italy/France) and TAMA (Japan) as well as several second generation detectors under construction such as Advanced LIGO (USA) and LIGO-Australia (Australia). In the coming years GEO600 will also undergo a series of small sequential upgrades to GEO-HF, while Virgo aims to become an order of magnitude more sensitive across the entire frequency band, as Advanced Virgo. The Institute for Gravitational Research (IGR) at the University of Glasgow has for many years been in strong collaboration with the Albert Einstein Institute in Hanover and Golm, the University of Hanover, the University of Cardiff and the University of Birmingham. The Glasgow group have been involved with developments on GEO600 since its initial construction in 1995, from which a lot of technology has been subsequently adopted for use in other large baseline detectors. There is a 10m prototype interferometer housed in the JIF laboratory at Glasgow, which is utilised for testing new technology and optical configurations of interest to this and the wider collaboration. The research contained in this thesis has been carried out on the Glasgow prototype to investigate novel technology of potential importance to future generations of gravitational wave detectors. In Chapter 1 the history of gravitational radiation is discussed, along with a summary of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity to reveal the nature of gravitational radiation production. From this analysis several potential sources of astronomical origin are detailed for which the design of ground based detectors are optimised. Various interferometric solutions for detecting gravitational waves are described in Chapter 2, beginning with the most fundamental Michelson topology and thereupon key enhancements, such as Fabry-Perot cavities, power recycling and signal recycling are outlined. The Pound-Drever-Hall scheme used to sense and control the relative distances between each optical component is detailed, including modifications to this technique for controlling significantly more complex systems with many optical elements. The most important attribute in the overall design of an interferometric gravitational wave detector is the total noise limit to the sensitivity, which is comprised of both technical noise and fundamental noise. A summary is provided of the seismic, thermal, and laser noise contributing to technical noise as well as the fundamental quantum noise, consisting of photon shot noise and radiation pressure noise. From this discussion, the author introduces the current global network, and proposed future generations of ground-based detectors intended to open a new field of gravitational wave astronomy. In all proposed upgrades and future detectors the input power must be increased to improve detector sensitivity. Two experiments were designed, con- structed and completed at the Glasgow prototype interferometer related to separate issues of concern for high power regimes. In the first experiment, one of the arms of the Glasgow prototype was commissioned as an all-reflective optical cavity, whereby the partially transmissive input mirror was replaced with a three-port diffraction grating mounted on the bottom stage of a triple pendulum. This investigation was designed to characterise the performance of the grating compared to the conventional input mirror of a Fabry-Perot cavity, whilst revealing issues related to the dynamics of suspended grating input couplers on the control signals. The realisation of grating devices for use in interferometric systems would open a pathway to mitigating the otherwise limiting thermal noise associated to the mirror coatings. The other arm of the Glasgow prototype was chosen to investigate the modified dynamic behaviour of suspended cavity mirrors when signifiant radiation pressure forces are incident. The experiment involved replacing one of the suspended cavity mirrors with a light-weight counterpart designed specifically to increase the overall sensitivity to radiation pressure. By probing the system response for different cavity detunings, it was possible to observe and char- acterise the opto-mechanical resonance, commonly termed an optical spring, which induces optical rigidity at lower frequencies and enhanced sensitivity around the resonant feature. Although optical rigidity suppresses the system response, which is otherwise undesired within gravitational wave detectors, it does however enable systems, which under the right conditions can be self-locking, i.e. the mirror control turned off. Furthermore, the enhanced detector sensitivity at the optical spring frequency can be optimised for different frequencies of interest, and could potentially be used to beat the limit imposed by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle for independent cavity mirrors. Together, these experiments may provide information useful to the design of future interferometric gravitational wave detectors