VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
A citizen’s stake in sovereign wealth funds
Keywords: Democratic control
Qualitative research
Ethical investment
New Zealand
Responsible investment
Sovereign wealth funds
Democratic theory
Norway
Focus groups
Alaska

Over the past five years, Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) have become a prominent phenomenon in contemporary capitalism. Described as government investment vehicles that invest state wealth in financial markets, the majority of the world's 60-plus funds have been established since the year 2000. Despite extensive treatments of SWFs' geopolitical and international significance, ethical and domestic level analyses are sparse. In response, this thesis interrogates three key normative questions raised by the funds for the domestic citizen-state relationship: (1) How (and by whom) should sovereign funds be managed? (2) How should sovereign wealth be invested? (3) How should the earnings of sovereign fund investment be distributed? In answering these questions, this thesis aims to dispel ambiguity over the ownership status of sovereign funds, evident in popular and academic discourse and within communities that establish these entities. For this task, it draws on recently revived fiduciary theory of the citizen-state relationship to argue that the rightful owner of these funds is the citizenry - not states or governments who enjoy physical and legal possession of SWFs. It goes on to examine the implications of this fiduciary state conception of SWF ownership, asking how citizen-owners should enjoy control over and benefit from the distinct constituent parts of their SWF property: the institution of the fund, the underlying sovereign wealth and the financial returns earned on the investment of its assets. The model of citizen ownership defended demands substantially increased popular control over SWF management and the investment of sovereign wealth, as well as direct benefit rights for citizen-owners to fund income through individualised distribution of investment returns. Examination of existing practice among SWFs demonstrates that this normative ideal is far, although not impossibly distant from current institutional practice.
Evolutionary competition in microbial communities: from population dynamics to single-cell behavior
Keywords: Biofilms
Competition Sensing
Chemotaxis
Microbial Communities
Antibiotic resistance

Microbial life in nature is typically associated with two distinctive features: (i) the formation of densely packed groups, mostly on surfaces, within which social interactions are rife, and (ii) mixing with multiple strains and species, which brings with it the potential for strong evolutionary conflict. However, most microbiology still rests upon the study of single genetic backgrounds, often in shaking flasks. There is a need then to better integrate the natural ecology and evolution of microbes into microbiological studies. My thesis combines ecoevolutionary theory with the empirical study of both population dynamics and single-cell behavior to understand social interactions within microbial communities. This systems biology approach suggests that competition, not cooperation, is central to understanding diverse microbial communities and can explain key social phenotypes including cross-feeding, biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance. Specifically, I study the theoretical limits for cooperation within microbial communities and conclude that natural selection will rarely favor cooperation between genotypes; I show that antibiotic competition between strains is an important driver of biofilm formation, which is consistent with the idea of competition sensing (the ability to use antibiotics, or more generally any form of biotic stress, as a cue to detect and respond to ecological competition); I establish the behavioral and genetic basis of chemotaxis on surfaces at the single-cell level and discuss how this phenotype can be useful in the social milieu of microbial communities where positioning is a major determinant for evolutionary competition; and finally, I show that bacteria are able to climb antibiotic gradients via twitching chemotaxis and achieve an unprecedented level of resistance in a few hours by simply modulating their physiology. Again, and as for antibiotic-induced biofilm formation, I argue that this perplexing phenotype has its natural roots in competition sensing. The study of microbial interactions has emphasized the importance of cooperation between cells of a single genotype. My thesis shows the need to consider the other side of microbial interactions: evolutionary competition. A cell will commonly face intense competition from other strains and species, and only by appreciating this evolutionary conflict will we fully understand microbes and their complex communities.
States, citizens, and global injustice: the political channels of responsibility
Keywords: Citizenship
Global Justice
Collective Responsibility

This thesis has two parts, which together seek to explore the political channels of responsibility for global injustice. While there is much that we might owe each other as persons, the thesis argues that our political arrangements and interactions generate further duties for citizens, both as a collective and individually, and for states as political agents.
Part I explores what states, as equal agents in the global sphere, owe to each other. It presents two sets of duties held by states: firstly, non-relational duties of non-harm, rescue, and the provision of basic human necessities; and secondly, a relational duty to respect the principle of equality in negotiation. Drawing from this foundation, Part II offers an account of citizen responsibility for states' failure to fulfil these duties. The thesis supports existing claims that citizens ought to bear the burdens of their participation in the state but makes a further claim that citizens of liberal western democracies can be held collectively morally responsible for the unjust acts of their state. This responsibility is grounded in citizens' endorsement of democracy, their influence and benefit from state action, and their unique position to hold the state accountable.
As a result of this responsibility, the collective can be blamed, punished (within limits), expected to apologize, and held liable for remedial duties. In turn, citizens will have individual duties to 'do their bit' in fulfilling these collective remedial duties, as well as the collective duty of holding their state accountable. Each citizen's share of these collective duties will be determined by their capacity and effectiveness in contributing to the fulfilment of the duties, and their share of the influence over, and benefit from, the injustice.
A formal refinement framework for the systems modeling language
Keywords: CSP
Behavioural consistency
SysML
Formal methods

The Systems Modeling Language (SysML), an extension of a subset of the Unified Modeling Language (UML), is a visual modelling language for systems engineering applications. At present, the semi-formal SysML, which is widely utilised for the design of complex heterogeneous systems, lacks integration with other more formal approaches. In this thesis, we describe how Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) and its associated refinement checker, Failures Divergences Refinement (FDR), may be used to underpin an approach that facilitates the refinement checking of the behavioural consistency of SysML diagrams. We do so by utilising CSP as a semantic domain for reasoning about SysML behavioural aspects: activities, state machines and interactions are given a formal process-algebraic semantics. These behaviours execute within the context of the structural diagrams to which they relate, and this is reflected in the CSP descriptions that depict their characteristic patterns of interaction. The resulting abstraction gives rise to a framework that enables the formal treatment of integrated behaviours via refinement checking. In SysML, requirement diagrams allow for the allocation of behavioural features in order to present a more detailed description of a captured requirement. Moreover, we demonstrate that, by providing a common basis for behaviours and requirements, the approach supports requirements traceability: SysML requirements are amenable to formal verification using FDR. In addition, the proposed framework is able to detect inconsistencies that arise due to the multi-view nature of SysML. We illustrate and validate the contribution by applying our methodology to a safety critical system of moderate size and complexity.
Model-free trading and hedging with continuous price paths
Keywords: Financial mathematics
pathwise integration
model-free derivative hedging

This thesis explores the question of model-free trading and hedging in markets where traded asset prices are continuous and where one may trade continuously in time with no transaction costs. In particular, we make no assumptions on the volatility of traded asset prices. The contributions of the thesis are as follows. First, we propose a framework of model-independent replication of financial derivatives based on solutions to systems of PDEs evaluated at market-observed inputs. This provides a model-independent extension of the paradigm of dynamic hedging to general markets with continuous prices. We then relate these replication strategies to local martingales of a certain closed form and characterise the latter for several specifications of markets. The markets we consider are: (1) a market with no traded claims, (2) a market with an underlying asset and a convex claim, (3) a market with an underlying asset and a set of co-maturing call options. The auxiliary results for the latter two markets may be of interest outside of the local martingale characterisation results. Thirdly, we propose a definition of integration with continuous paths that justifies a probability-free version of the hedging results outlined earlier. Finally, we present a number of smaller contributions related to model-free hedging and to probability-free integration with continuous paths.
Genomic approaches in medical and population genetics
Keywords: Recombination
Population genetics
Genome assembly
Platypus
Sex chromosomes
Sleep/wake cycle disturbance
Maternal age effect on recombination
Epilepsy
Whole-genome sequencing
Circadian rhythm disruption

Over the last fifteen years, rapid advances in genotyping and DNA sequencing technologies have revolutionised genetic and biomedical research. In this thesis, we present some applications of these technologies in studying rare disease, population genetics and meiotic recombination. We begin by reviewing previous research in these areas in Chapter 1. Then in Chapter 2, we present some case studies of Mendelian neurological disorders that were carried out as part of a large clinical whole-genome sequencing project, WGS500. These led to the discovery of several new genes for a type of severe early-onset epilepsy called Ohtahara Syndrome, and of a particularly interesting mutation that tentatively suggests a role for a glutamate receptor gene, GRIA3, in circadian rhythm control. In Chapter 3, we examine some general lessons learnt from the WGS500 project, including the utility of sequencing family members to reduce the number of candidate pathogenic variants, and the perils of focusing on candidate genes. Chapter 4 describes a population sequencing project on the platypus, in which we sequenced 58 samples from across the whole species range. Our results provide insights into the population structure and history of this fascinating mammal, and also into the ongoing evolution of its remarkable chain of ten sex chromosomes. Finally, in Chapter 5, we describe a study of the effect of maternal age on meiotic recombination, the largest of its kind to date. Our results from multiple cohorts suggest a small but significant positive effect of maternal age on the number of crossovers, but with substantial heterogeneity between cohorts that is likely due to sampling noise, though confounders may also play a role. These studies illustrate the power of genomic approaches for investigating fundamental biological processes at the population, individual and cellular levels.
Electoral system reform in early democratisers
Keywords: single-member plurality
Electoral reform
two-round systems
proportional representation
electoral systems

On the basis of case studies of 19th and early 20th century Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, I address the question of how and when incumbent right elites reformed electoral systems under a rising political threat from the left. Some states adopted proportional representation (PR) earlier than others. Why did different states adopt PR at different times? One important factor was the existing electoral system before the adoption of PR. This has been missed in academic research since most scholars have assumed that the electoral system in place before the adoption of PR in most Western European states was single-member plurality (SMP). I show that the system in place prior to PR in most Western European states was not SMP but a two-round system (TRS). TRS effects are still poorly understood by political scientists. I argue that both PR and TRS were used as safeguards by the parties on the right against an electoral threat from the left, which originated from the expansion of suffrage. PR was used as a last resort after other safeguards had been exhausted. I state that in the presence of a strong left threat, countries with TRS could wait longer to implement PR than countries with SMP in place. Under TRS, the adoption of PR was considerably delayed since electoral coordination between parties could be applied more effectively than under SMP systems. This was largely due to the increase of information and time after the first round of TRS elections, which was used by right parties to coordinate votes around the most promising candidate before the second round. First round results under TRS were used as an "electoral opinion poll". Based on these results, the right could react more effectively than the left in order to improve outcomes in round two.
Metalloenzymes as reversible electrocatalysts for artificial photosynthesis - from mechanism to model devices
Keywords: Photoelectrocatalysis
Artificial Photosynthesis

Artificial photosynthesis, an important route towards future supply of renewable energy, seeks to convert sunlight into storable chemical energy such as fuels. Building upon the principles of biological solar energy conversion, artificial photosynthesis can be broken down into four essential processes: harvesting of visible light, charge (electron-hole) separation, oxidation of water to dioxygen, and fuel formation. Importantly, unlike natural photosynthesis, artificial photosynthesis is solely dedicated to efficient formation of fuels and is not restricted by the availability of arable land.
Both water oxidation and fuel formation require efficient and selective catalysts. This work utilises certain metalloenzymes, which have evolved to catalyse fuel-generating reactions such as the formation of H2 or the reductive activation of CO2 to carbon-based fuels with unmatched efficiencies. In contrast to most artificial catalysts, these enzymes are composed solely of abundant elements and operate efficiently at neutral pH. Thus, although not suitable for scale-up, they can be used to mimic conditions under which future devices will have to operate and provide design criteria for the components of applied technologies.
In this thesis, physico-chemical techniques are used to study the mechanism of [FeFe]-hydrogenases, the most proficient H2 evolving catalysts that rival platinum in activity, by investigating how reversible inhibitors intercept transient enzyme states. The interaction of fuel-forming enzymes with light-absorbing semiconductor electrodes is also explored, leading to the construction of a photoelectrochemical cell for the selective, light-driven reduction of CO2. Furthermore, this thesis demonstrates that metalloenzymes can be used to establish new directions in artificial photosynthesis research, driving endergonic organic reactions such as specific C=C hydrogenation.
Mathematical modelling of cell growth in tissue engineering bioreactors
Keywords: mathematical modelling

Expanding cell populations extracted from patients or animals is essential to the process of tissue engineering and is commonly performed in laboratory incubation devices known as bioreactors. Bioreactors provide a means of controlling the chemical and mechanical environment experienced by cells to ensure growth of a functional population. However, maximising this growth requires detailed knowledge of how cell proliferation is affected by bioreactor operating conditions, such as the flow rate of culture medium into the bioreactor, and by the initial cell seeding distribution in the bioreactor. Mathematical modelling can provide insight into the effects of these factors on cell expansion by describing the chemical and physical processes that affect growth and how they interact over different length- and time-scales.
In this thesis we develop models to investigate how cell expansion in bioreactors is affected by fluid flow, solute transport and cell seeding. For this purpose, a perfused single-fibre hollow fibre bioreactor is used as a model system. We start by developing a model of the growth of a homogeneous cell layer on the outer surface of the hollow fibre in response to local nutrient and waste product concentrations and fluid shear stress. We use the model to simulate the cell layer growth with different flow configurations and operating conditions for cell types with different nutrient demands and responses to fluid shear stress. We then develop a 2D continuum model to investigate the influence of oxygen delivery, fluid shear stress and cell seeding on cell aggregate growth along the outer surface of the fibre. Using the model we predict operating conditions and initial aggregate distributions that maximise the rate of growth to confluence over the fibre surface for different cell types.
A potential limitation of these models is that they do not explicitly consider individual cell interaction, movement and growth. To address this, we conclude the thesis by assessing the suitability of a hybrid framework for modelling bioreactor cell aggregate growth, with a discrete cell model coupled to a continuum nutrient transport model. We consider a simple set-up with a 1D cell aggregate growing along the base of a 2D nutrient bath. Motivated by trying to reduce the high computational cost of simulating large numbers of cells with a cell-based model, and to assess the validity of our previous continuum description of cell aggregate growth, we derive a continuum approximation of the discrete model in the large cell number limit and determine whether it agrees with the discrete model via numerical simulations.
Machine learning to assess the fetal brain from ultrasound images
Keywords: Brain development
Ultrasound
Regression forests
Fetal brain
Gestational age

Obstetric care decisions fundamentally rely upon accurate estimation of gestational age (GA). Ultrasound- (US) based measurements provide reliable estimates of GA, if performed early in pregnancy. However, in low-income settings, the lack of appropriately trained sonographers and the tendency for women to present for care late in pregnancy are barriers to the use of US for dating purposes. In this thesis, we propose to exploit sonographic image patterns associated with dynamic fetal brain development to predict GA. We designed an algorithm which automatically estimates GA from an US scan collected from a single visit, thereby enabling clinically useful estimates of GA to be made even in the third trimester of pregnancy: a period complicated by biological variation and unreliable size-based estimates.
The presented model was conceived on the basis that fetal brain development follows a precise spatiotemporal pattern, with folds emerging and disappearing on the surface of the brain (cerebral cortex) at fixed time points during pregnancy. This timing is so precise that post-mortem neuroanatomical and MRI evidence suggest that the 'developmental maturation' of the fetal brain may be a better predictor for GA than traditional size-based estimates.
We capitalize on these age-related patterns to develop, for the first time, a unified model which combines sonographic image features and clinical measurements to predict GA and brain maturation. The framework benefits from a manifold surface representation of the fetal head which delineates the inner skull boundary and serves as a common coordinate system based on cranial position. This allows for fast and efficient sampling of anatomically-corresponding brain regions to achieve like-for-like structural comparison of different developmental stages. Bespoke features capture neurosonographic patterns in 3D images, and using a regression forest classifier, we characterize structural brain development both spatially and temporally to capture the natural variation existing in a healthy population (n=448) over an age range of active brain maturation (18 to 34 weeks).
Our GA prediction results on a high-risk clinical dataset (n=187) strongly correlate with true GA (r=0.98, accurate within ± 6.10 days), confirming the link between maturational progression and neurosonographic activity observable across gestation. Our model also outperforms current clinical methods, particularly in the third trimester. Through feature selection, the model successfully identified regional biomarkers of neurodevelopmental progression over gestation. Guided by these regions, we present a novel approach for defining and testing hypotheses associated with neuropathological deviations.
Governing deceleration: the natures, times, and spaces of ecotourism in South Korea
Keywords: Environmental politics
Governmentality
Human-nonhuman relationships

This thesis explores the governmentalities of ecotourism in South Korea in relation to the specific historical-political experience of accelerated modernisation, focussing on three selected analytical themes of nature, time, and space. It develops a theoretical framework that combines Foucauldian governmentality analysis with concepts and insights related to nature, time and space developed in more-than-human and relational geographies and cognate social sciences. Drawing on three cases of tidal flat tourism, countryside walking, and whale tourism, it first examines the assemblages and technologies of ecotourism governance. It argues that ecotourism in South Korea is characterised by a decentralised mode of governance involving an array of political actors. This mode relies less on sovereign power and more on disciplinary and biopolitical techniques. Second, it examines the ways in which political technologies relating to nature, time, and space are engaged in the governmentalities of South Korean ecotourism. The analysis centres on: understandings of nature enacted through the discourse of saengmyeong [life] and therapeutic experiences; a discourse of slowness enacted through a paradoxical temporal organisation of accelerated slowness; and the multiple spatial relations entangled in the geographical-historical connections of South Korean modernisation. Together, these political technologies are deployed to create an ecotourism subject who cares about the self and the environment, which differs from the prevalent South Korean positions of the disciplined worker and the practical user of nature. This thesis argues that ecotourism in South Korea serves as a new biopolitical intervention to conduct the conduct of its human participants in ways that differ from those established through accelerated modernisation. By offering one of the first social science accounts of ecotourism in South Korea, it provides novel concepts and practices for the analysis of ecotourism. These differ from the mainstream approaches that deploy a political economy framework and focus largely on examples drawn from Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.