VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
High resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis of trace elements in cereal grain and roots
Keywords: high resolution SIMS
plant science
iron
materials science
microscopy
selenium
nutrition
trace elements
arsenic

This thesis presents information on the subcellular localisation of two important trace elements, selenium and arsenic, in wheat, rice and rice roots for what is believed to be the first time. The general aim of this work was to illustrate the potential of using physical science techniques to solve biological problems. High resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry was undertaken using the CAMECA NanoSIMS50 with a sensitivity down to ppm concentrations and a lateral resolution of less than 100 nm. Selenium in wheat grain was found to be distributed across both the bran layer and the endosperm region with Se-rich hotspots found in the aleurone cells and a higher intensity of Se in the subaleurone region. Arsenic in rice grain was found in two key regions. In grains with high As and high dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) content, As was predominantly localised to the subaleurone region yet in lower concentration, hydroponically grown As(III)-treated grains the As was only localised to the aleurone layer near the ovular vascular trace (OVT). A combined NanoSIMS and S-XRF experiment revealed As hotspots near the OVT. A combination of high pressure freezing, high resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry and TEM was used to localise As in the roots of rice plants revealing a contrasting subcellular distribution of As and Si in the roots even though arsenite and silicic acid are transported across the plasma membranes by the same transporters. Fe plaque forms only on the root epidermis and was shown to be a strong sink for As. Colocalisation of S with As in the vacuoles of the endodermis, pericycle and xylem parenchyma supports the notion that As is stored as arsenite-phytochelatin complexes in the roots while Si is localised in the endodermis cell walls and is not strongly affected by the Lsi2 mutation.
Building workers’ power against globally mobile capital: case studies from the transnational garment sector
Keywords: workers' rights
global value chains
labour movements
garment sector
globalization

Garment sector trade unions have proved largely powerless to combat hypermobile transnational capital’s systematic extraction of surplus value from the newly industrialized Global South. Optimized conditions for accumulation coupled with the 2005 phase-out of the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) have meant a radical geographic reconfiguration of the globalised garment industry heavily in favour of capital over labour.
The thesis approaches the global garment sector from multiple vantage points across the world with the goal of uncovering the obstacles to workers' organisation, examine workers' strategies of resistance, and analyse the changing composition of labour and capital within the clothing commodity chain. The thesis highlights five distinct but interconnected case studies including a transnational workers campaign from a garment factory in Honduras; a history and present-day feasibility of establishing a transnational collective bargaining from El Salvador to Turkey to Cambodia; the prospects for a countermovement in the organizing strategies at the bottom of the clothing commodity and supply chain in Bangalore; the growth of a 'full package' denim manufacturer in changing the relationship between 'buyers' and 'suppliers' on the outskirts of Bangalore; and finally a continuation of this analysis the case of a strike at a monopoly footwear supplier in China.
The central research question is: How do workers build power and establish workers' rights in the globally hypermobile garment sector? Ultimately, what is demonstrated within this thesis is that the actions of garment workers shaped and circumscribed the actions of capital in the sector, and as capital transformed new landscapes for accumulation new vistas for opposition begin to emerge.
Determination of the CKM phase γ at LHCb using the decay mode B± to DK± and a study of the decays D0 to KS0K±π∓ using data from the CLEO experiment
Keywords: CLEO
LHC
LHCb
CP violation
Dalitz Analysis
CERN

This thesis documents studies of CP violation in B± to [KS0h⁺h⁻]DK±, (h = π/K) decays using data taken by the LHCb experiment during 2011, and the first measurement of γ to be made at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), γ = (45+43-38) degrees.
Also included is a study of D0 to KS0K∓π± decays using CLEO III and CLEO-c data, resulting in the first amplitude models to be published for these decays and a measurement of the ratio of their branching fractions.
Proton radiotherapy uncertainties arising from computed tomography
Keywords: medical physics
proton beam therapy
computed tomography image artefacts
radiotherapy treatment planning
charged particle therapy
proton therapy

Proton radiotherapy is a cancer treatment which has the potential to offer greater cure rates and/or fewer serious side effects than conventional radiotherapy. Its availability in the UK is currently limited to a single low-energy fixed beamline for the treatment of ocular tumours, but a number of facilities designed to treat deep-seated tumours are in development. This thesis focusses on the quantitative use of x-ray computed tomography (CT) images in planning proton radiotherapy treatments. It arrives at several recommendations that can be used to inform clinical protocols for the acquisition of planning scans, and their subsequent use in treatment planning systems.
The primary tool developed is a software CT scanner, which simulates images of an anthropomorphic virtual phantom, informed by measurements taken on a clinical scanner. The software is used to investigate the accuracy of the stoichiometric method for calibrating CT image pixel values to proton stopping power, with particular attention paid to the impact of beam hardening and photon starvation artefacts.
The strength of the method adopted is in allowing comparison between CT-estimated and exactly-calculated proton stopping powers derived from the same physical data (specified in the phantom), leading to results that are difficult to obtain otherwise. A number of variations of the stoichiometric method are examined, identifying the best-performing calibration phantom and CT tube voltage (kVp). Improvements in accuracy are observed when using a second-pass beam hardening correction algorithm.
Also presented is a method for identifying the proton paths where stopping power uncertainties are likely to be greatest. Estimates of the proton range uncertainties caused by CT artefacts and calibration errors are obtained for a range of realistic clinical scenarios. The current practice of including planning margins equivalent to 3.5% of the range is found to ensure coverage in all but the very worst of cases. Results herein suggest margins could be reduced to <2% if the best-performing protocol is followed; however, an analysis specific to the CT scanner and treatment site in question should be carried out before such a change is made in the clinic.
The legitimacy of international legal institutions
Keywords: democracy
legitimacy
international organisations
authority
Joseph Raz
transparency
participation
moral reasons

This thesis is about the legitimacy of political authority in general and international legal institutions (ILIs) in particular. It is divided into two parts with three chapters corresponding to each part. The first part presents an account of legitimate political authority that is based on Joseph Raz's service conception of authority but also makes some important modifications to it. The central claim of the first part is that the legitimacy of political authorities in general, as measured by the standard of Raz's Normal Justification Thesis, depends in a crucial way on the ability of the subjects to get involved –more so than Raz is prepared to admit– in the activities that are relevant in the political domain.
The thesis offers a general account of legitimate political authority, i.e. one that is valid for any type of political authority. The second part, however, examines the implications of this account for the legitimacy of ILIs. These are non-state authorities, such as the World Trade Organisation or the International Criminal Court, that deal with problems of global political relevance. Because of this global approach, the subjects of ILIs (i.e. those whose reasons are to be served by the ILI) are not confined to the boundaries of regions or states, but distributed across the world. ILIs operate by creating, interpreting, and applying public international law.
Despite some striking differences between ILIs and other types of political authority (particularly states), I argue that they all ought to be measured by the same standard of legitimacy, namely the Normal Justification Thesis. But I also argue that the requirements for meeting this standard of legitimacy may vary according to the type of political authority (especially with regard to the requirement of democracy).
'Misery in the moorlands': lived bodies in the Landes de Gascogne, 1870-1914
Keywords: modernisation
gender
history of the body
fairy tales
folklore
environmental history
folk songs
werewolves

This thesis explores the embodied experiences of the rural population in nineteenth-century France. The prevailing historiography has treated rural bodily culture as a cultural survival swept away by ‘modernisation’ in the nineteenth century. By turning to the lives and words of rural labourers and artisans from the Landes de Gascogne, the thesis questions this account, instead showing ways that popular cultures of the body were flexible traditions, adapted by individuals to meet new needs. It does so through a close focus on the stories, songs, and other oral traditions collected by Félix Arnaudin (1844-1921) in the Grande-Lande between around 1870 and 1914. The thesis focuses on the lives of a few of Arnaudin’s 759 folklore informants, showing both how their bodily experiences were changing during this period, and how songs and stories were creative interventions, designed to shape bodily possibilities from below.
The thesis draws attention to the surprising shape of rural experiences of the body, which focused on body parts such as the legs and skin for reasons specific to everyday life, while largely ignoring issues that historians might have assumed would be important, such as religion. It argues that the ordinary men and women who performed stories and sang songs were active agents in constructing their own bodies in response to material conditions of physical illness and disability, as well as a changing environment, changing class relations, or changing sexual norms in the Grande-Lande. The thesis presents an emotional and experiential view of rural bodies with a sensitivity to the different experiences of men and women, young and old, poorer and richer, but emphasizes that the body must be seen in the round, as a unifying concern that links together issues of social class, environmental change, sexual relations, work, disability, and religion.
Adverbs in conceptual semantics
Keywords: predicate-oriented modification (by manner adverbs)
participant-oriented evaluative modification
conceptual semantics
adverbs
formal semantics

The thesis discusses and evaluates semantic representations of predicate-oriented modification (specifically by manner adverbs) and participant-oriented evaluative modification (by so-called “subject-oriented” adverbs). Analyses are proposed within the framework of Conceptual Semantics.
Accountability interactions: mutliple accountabilities in the Murray-Darling basin plan
Keywords: Public accountability
Accountability politics
Multiple accountability
Water regulation
Multiple accountabilities
Accountability

This thesis investigates whether different public accountability forums interact with one another when they oversee the same decision maker. It contributes to the larger study of how decision makers are held to account in constitutional democracies where the simultaneous operation of multiple accountability relationships has become routine. Looking beyond the dominant assumption that multiple forums autonomously assess a decision maker's accountability against different and diverging standards, I aim to understand whether forums can influence the standards against which other forums evaluate the same decision maker.
I draw on political and normative understandings of public accountability to answer one central question: do different public accountability forums interact with one another in a way that influences the scope of what a decision maker is obliged to account for and the normative standards against which that account is evaluated? Answering this research question involves examining the mechanisms by which interactions might occur and the motivations of actors to interact.
I begin by critically reviewing the literature on multiple accountabilities, arguing that existing approaches can only partially explain how public accountability is constructed in multiple accountability regimes. I argue the focus on typologies of accountability emphasise the attributes of individual forums and overlook the broader dynamics of the accountability regime. I then develop an analytical framework to examine how the interactions between different forums, and other actors, might reshape the accountability dialogue.
This framework is used to analyse the case of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in Australia (2008-2012). By presenting a contextSrich analysis of interactions between forums, and other actors, I find that multiple forums act in concert with one another and other actors to contest and then reshape the standards against which the two decision makers are evaluated. The thesis concludes by discussing the implications of recognising accountability interactions for understanding multiple accountability regimes.
Intertextuality, exegesis, and composition in polytextual motets around 1500
Keywords: Polytextuality
Motets

Over 450 motets survive from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries which were composed with multiple simultaneously sounding texts. The size of this repertory has been underestimated and its importance under-acknowledged. Narratives of the genre overemphasize early fifteenth-century (and earlier) polytextuality due to its association with arcane rhythmic structuring techniques while stressing a new musical-textual ideal later in the century. This thesis is the first attempt to address the repertory of polytextual motets from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries as a whole. It resituates polytextuality as a central aspect of the genre even after the supposed rise of musical humanism. It suggests a new partitioning of the repertory based on different relationships of texts and cantus firmi. It proposes that the function of cantus firmi shifts during this period toward acting in dialogue with the text(s) of the other voices, even though this dialogic aspect fades away by the mid-sixteenth century. It engages in case studies on small groups of motets, in which the notation, composition, and texts of motets are analyzed, especially concerning cantus firmi as elements of musical structure and as bearers of liturgical, biblical, devotional, and other associations. While scholars have undertaken numerous analyses of individual motets, less common are case studies which ask both why certain texts and cantus firmi were combined and how they were integrated into the musical structure. The appendix includes a catalogue of the repertoire of polytextual motets and chansons with Latin cantus firmi over this period, with indexes by cantus firmus and composer. Also included are transcriptions of seven polytextual compositions without published editions. My research demonstrates the importance of polytextuality within the genre, the sophistication of the compositions using it, and its ability to provide commentary on a number of theological, devotional, political, and aesthetic issues.
Paul's 'new moment': the reception of Paul in Alain Badiou, Terry Eagleton, Slavoj Zizek
Keywords: Interpretation
Paul
Ricoeur
Gadamer
Marxist
Appropriation
Badiou
Reception
Eagleton
Continental Philosophy
Zizek
Hermeneutics

This thesis traces the ‘New Moment’ in Pauline reception in the writings of Alain Badiou, Terry Eagleton and Slavoj Žižek. It explores how the Pauline epistles are read and feature in their thought. An answer to the question, 'why Paul?' prompts reflection on what it is to read and understand the Apostle.
An introduction sets out the writers of this ‘New Moment’ [Jacob Taubes, Giorgio Agamben, Stanislas Breton, as well as Badiou, Eagleton and Žižek] before isolating the figures of this study. The reception of this ‘moment’ by mainstream New Testament studies is considered, and with it the charge of ‘appropriation’. The concept of ‘appropriation’ is explored, and a definition arrived at, for the purpose of evaluating the readings we will go on to discover.
As part of this notion of ‘appropriation’, the turn to Gadamer in recent New Testament study is surveyed. We suggest another potential hermeneutical approach that derives from Gadamer is possible. Thus, the object of this study is both an instance of, and means by which to critique the understanding of, New Testament Wirkungsgeschichte.
Each of our thinkers is then considered in turn. The outline for each chapter is the same. A brief introduction to the figure with bibliographical background salient to his Pauline reading precedes some textual examples indicative of that reading. We then move to analyse the manner of that reading and certain conceptual problems which are revealed in the course of the engagement with Paul.
The conclusion analyses the approaches, and reasons for turning, to Paul on the part of these thinkers. Salient differences between each thinker's reading are noted and the charge of appropriation is evaluated afresh. The implications of such readings for conventional biblical criticism are considered, and the success of an approach which explores a Gadamerean-inspired interest in reception in the manner adopted by this thesis is judged.
Identification and functional analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms that affect human cancer
Keywords: p53 pathway
single nucleotide polymorphisms
snp

Aims: The p53 regulatory network is crucial in directing the suppression of cancer formation and mediating the response to commonly used cancer therapies. Functional genetic variants in the genes comprising this network could help identify individuals at greater risk for cancer and patients with poorer responses to therapies, but few such variants have been identified as yet. Methods: We first develop and apply three different screens that utilize known characteristics of functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the p53 network to search for variants that associate with allelic differences in (i) recent natural selection, (ii) chemosensitivity profiles, and (iii) the gender- and age- dependent incidence of soft-tissue sarcoma. Secondly, we study and explore the functional mechanisms associated with the identified variants. Results: We identify SNPs in the PPP2R5E, CD44, YWHAQ and ESR1 genes that associate with allelic differences in the age of tumour diagnosis (up to 32.5 years, p=0.031), cancer risk (up to 8.1 odds ratio, p=0.004) and overall survival (up to 2.85 relative risk, p=0.011) in sarcomas, ovarian and pancreatic cancers, and exhibit allelic differences in the cellular responses to cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents (up to 5.4-fold, p=5.6x10-47). Lastly, we identify candidate causal SNPs in those genes and describe the regulatory mechanisms by which they might affect human cancer. Conclusions: Together, our work suggests that the inherited genetics of the p53 pathway have a great potential to further define populations in their abilities to react to stress, suppress tumor formation and respond to therapies.
Specters of poverty and sources of hope in the novels of Amitav Ghosh and Rohinton Mistry
Keywords: postcolonial
Rohinton Mistry
Amitav Ghosh
Jawaharlal Nehru
Matthew Arnold
poverty
hope

This thesis attempts to reformulate the concept of hope represented in, and inflected by, the Indian English novel. This comparative literary study focuses primarily on Amitav Ghosh and Rohinton Mistry, whose novels offer myriad examples and resultant effects of a reflexive hope. I argue in light of their work to refigure hope in its varied and multiple articulations: positive and negative, for-life and for-death, dependency, waiting, nostalgia, narcissism. All of these, I suggest, manifest in a nominal-messianic hope that formulates a powerful critique of global capital most advantageously constellated in these Indian English novels. I arrive at this from the early writings of Jawaharlal Nehru and his unshakable belief in socialist progress that informs the productive tension within hope that inform the readings of Ghosh’s and Mistry’s novels. Concomitant to this thesis on hope is the recalibration of definitions of poverty to the principles of capabilities that allow for the simultaneous discussion of how the state can shape social opportunities for its citizens. This, I argue, is necessary for the flourishing of more nuanced understanding of hope. Moving away from purely quantitative measurements of poverty to more qualitative capabilities pushes the novel to the foreground of these arguments. Just as Nehru explores his own formulations of hope and hopefulness through the poetry of Matthew Arnold, the Indian English novel, here, is best able to enunciate a reflexive hope that is central to the notion of capabilities. This is why poverty studies in India needs the Indian English novel.
Distinguishing bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder: an exploration of clinical and neuroscience informed approaches
Keywords: bipolar disorder
borderline personality disorder

Bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder are common psychiatric diagnoses. One is a mood disorder with a strong genetic basis while the other is a disorder of personality commonly related to abusive experiences in childhood. Despite contrasting aetiologies they can be difficult to differentiate because of overlapping clinical presentations and symptoms. Diagnostic accuracy is important because of their polarised treatment approaches: long term treatment with mood stabilizers for bipolar disorder and psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder.
A qualitative study of psychiatrists revealed comprehensive knowledge of the diagnostic criteria however, many expressed the view that diagnostic criteria did not assist diagnostic differentiation. These findings were validated in a large electronic survey of UK psychiatrists. A detailed study of actual diagnostic processes revealed that this scepticism appeared to influence actual practice. Clinicians largely ignored diagnostic criteria but continued to give diagnoses.
Age and IQ matched women with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and a healthy control group were compared in a series of cognitive tasks. Borderline personality disorder was associated with a failure to establish and maintain reciprocal cooperation in a game theoretic measure of social exchange. This behavioural change was not seen in euthymic bipolar disorder. Borderline personality disorder was also associated with an insensitivity to reward and losses in a risky decision-making task. Using a simple two-choice reaction task post error slowing was significantly amplified in the borderline group despite overall reaction times and error rates being similar in all three groups.
Clinical diagnostic practice as revealed in this study is not adequate to reliably differentiate between bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. Laboratory measures of social exchange, decision making and post-error slowing highlight fundamental difficulties in borderline personality disorder not seen in euthymic bipolar disorder. These findings support the differentiation of bipolar disorder from borderline personality disorder and offer translational models for developing and evaluating new treatments for borderline personality disorder.