VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The fragility and potential of the Rome Statute system: an empirical study of international and domestic trial justice paths in the situation of Uganda
Keywords: transitional justice
International Criminal Court
Lord's Resistance Army
International Crimes Division
Dominic Ongwen
Uganda
trial justice
Rome Statute system
Thomas Kwoyelo
Rome Statute

Since 1998 the Rome Statute system and the International Criminal Court have become the most prominent international institutional set-up created to address the question of formal accountability for international crimes. While the ICC has been the subject of in-depth studies and critiques, a holistic analysis of the Rome Statute system’s limitations and potential is still missing. In this thesis I turn this overarching question into a question viable for an empirical analysis of the system of Rome: What factors affect the success or failure of ICC-led and state-led trial justice paths in the context of the Rome Statute system? I address this question by viewing the system of Rome as an operational system designed to produce courtroom-based justice through the actions of the ICC and state actors on the basis of the roadmap of the Rome Statute. From this definitional standpoint, I analyse what factors hinder or determine the ICC and state actors’ ability to bring trials to fruition in practice and thus make them effective vehicles of trial justice. I conduct this analysis ethnograpically, analysing the case study of Uganda, where an international and a domestic trial justice route have been pursued concomitantly by the ICC and state institutions. Through the analysis of this case study, I demonstrate that factors related to the institutional nature of and rapport between the ICC, domestic courts and state actors, to the day-to-day practice of trial justice and to the Rome Statute’s blueprint for action, all impact the potential for success of ICC and state-led prosecutorial paths. By extension I demonstrate that systemic fragility and potential can be found in the system’s architectural institutional framework, in the practice of trial justice and in the Rome Statute’s ability to function as a ‘best practice’ model for the ICC and domestic courts alike. This thesis is based on extensive fieldwork conducted at the ICC and in Uganda.
The adaptation and critique of the Abhidharmic theory of perception in the Yogācāra works of Vasubandhu and their commentaries by Sthiramati
Keywords: Yogācāra
Vasubandhu
Abhidharma
perception
Sthiramati
Buddhist philosophy

The purpose of the dissertation is to analyse the Yogācāra adaptation of the Abhidharmic theory of perception in the late works of Vasubandhu and their commentaries by Sthiramati. The framework of my investigation is provided by the Triṃśikāvijñaptibhāṣya where, following the Abhidharmic model, Sthiramati claims that all forms of consciousness necessarily possess a cognitive object (ālambana), a support (āśraya), an object-form or mode of grasping (ākāra) and are associated with certain mental concomitants (caitta). The core chapters of the thesis explore how these four constituents of the perceptual process are (re)interpreted by Vasubandhu in his Yogācāra works.
Focusing primarily on the difference between the ontological stances of the Abhidharma and the (idealist) Yogācāra works, scholarly narratives tend to emphasise the two traditions’ critical relationship. However, putting the ontological perspective aside, we find remarkable continuities between their doctrines that call for more attention. In this thesis, I aim to show that, despite the various criticisms raised by Vasubandhu, the theory of perception he puts forward in his Yogācāra treatises remains continuous with its Abhidharmic past. Vasubandhu does not only preserve many of the Abhidharmic notions, definitions and even classifications concerning ordinary, unenlightened sense perception. But he also adheres to traditional frameworks such as the abovementioned fourfold model of the perceptual process, even if he spells out some of its constituents differently in terms of the entities they refer to.
The dissertation provides a close reading and historically sensitive comparison of primary sources preserved either in their Sanskrit originals or in Tibetan translations, first of all, the Karmasiddhiprakaraṇa, the Pañcaskandhaka, the Triṃśikā, the Viṃśikā (together with its vṛtti) as well as their commentaries by Sthiramati, the Pañcaskandhakavibhāṣā and the Triṃśikāvijñaptibhāṣya. As for the Abhidharmic background, I rely on Vasubandhu’s magnum opus, the Abhidharmakośa(bhāṣya) and its commentary by Yaśomitra, the Sphuṭārthā Abhidharmakośavyākhyā.
Polyphonic vespers c.1550 – c.1700: Sources, repertory, genres and performance practices in six Iberian religious institutions
Keywords: Iberian Renaissance polyphony: Vespers Music: Sacred Music

This dissertation focuses on the sacred polyphonic repertory for the liturgical Hour of Vespers performed in religious institutions in the Iberian Peninsula, within the chronological period c.1550-c.1700. Six institutions were chosen as case-studies for this research.
The project examines the musical and liturgical practices (and the interface between them) at polyphonic Vespers in terms of its sources, the settings chosen by the chapel masters for performance (among the ones in each institution’s collections) and also performance practices. The genres most commonly set in polyphony at Vespers are analysed and exemplified from both printed and manuscript musical sources.
The choice of the above-mentioned time frame is based on questions of production and of musical style, liturgical reform, and of broader historical forces, already under way before the mid-sixteenth century, such as the crucial importance of text and textual perception.
All these had a direct influence on both the composition and the performance of Vespers music. The changes taking place, both from a textual and musical point of view, are patent not only in newly-composed items but also in those settings which became part of these institutions’ repertory for lengths of time which surpass, in some cases, the chronological limits of this dissertation.
The study of sources and repertory in different Iberian religious institutions reveals some settings common to all (the most obvious example of which is the collection of Morales’s Magnificat settings) but also locally produced unique works, something particularly noticeable in the genre of hymns.
Ceremonials and other sources show a wide variety of performance practices at Vespers, especially with regard to their alternatim practices, which reveal a much richer and diverse pattern than the standard odd-and-even-verse scheme usually found in printed sources from this period.
Using extraterrestrial 3He concentration to examine changing sedimentation rates over climate cycles and climatic disturbances: evidence from the Cenomanian-Turonian of the Umbria-Marche Basin, Italy
Keywords: Cenomanian
age model
OAE2
precession
helium
IDP

The concentration of extraterrestrial 3He (3HeET) measured in pelagic sediments may be used as a proxy for sedimentation rate, allowing the construction of high-resolution timescales over “short” geological intervals (100s kyr), with temporal resolution in theory limited only by sampling resolution. The construction of a 3HeET timescale through the Bonarelli Level, a ~1 m thick interval of interbedded black and grey shales and radiolarian sands which is the sedimentary expression of Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (~94 Ma) in Umbria–Marche, Italy, provides not only a novel method for estimating the duration of this record (478±160 kyr), but also allows rates and durations to be attached to the environmental shifts recorded in changing styles of sedimentation and/or changing geochemical records. Slow-downs in sedimentation rates are associated with the intervals of biotic turnover represented by the lithological shift from limestone to black shale at the base of the Bonarelli Level, and from black shale to limestone at its top. A transient increase in the accumulation rate of carbonates above the Bonarelli Level likely reflects enhanced biogenic calcite preservation due to build-up of excess alkalinity during OAE 2.
Precession cycles within the rhythmically bedded Scaglia Bianca Formation, a sequence of pelagic limestones well characterised by cyclostratigraphy that underlie the Bonarelli Level, were also investigated using 3HeET timescales. Exploration of the timings and possible drivers of lithological change within these Scaglia Bianca precession cycles provides insight into how local palaeoclimatic and Earth System processes reacted to ‘base level’ orbital forcing in the Cenomanian prior to the perturbation associated with OAE 2. Precession cycles deposited under eccentricity maxima (expressed as limestone-black shale-black chert sequences) and minima (expressed as limestone laminated limestone-grey chert) were selected for comparison. Calculation of the proportion of time per cycle represented by silica- and organic-rich facies indicates that, when the amplitude of precessional insolation forcing was greatest (at eccentricity maxima), the palaeoenvironmental system spent longer in the more nutrient-rich environment under which silica- and organic-rich sediments were deposited, reflecting increased time spent above a ‘threshold’ insolation level.
This work expands the use of extraterrestrial timescales to stratigraphic sections with heterogeneous lithologies, including organic-rich black shales and cherts. 3HeET is shown not to be liberated during the diagenetic process of chert formation. Various methods of calculating 3HeET background flux in sections with heterogeneous lithology were also evaluated, and a best-practice method proposed.
High-precision molecular measurements in an electrostatic fluidic trap
Keywords: single-molecule trapping
molecular modeling
molecular structures
escape-time electrometry
electrostatics

Measurement of molecular properties at the single-molecule level can reveal valuable information, often hidden in ensemble measurements. In this Thesis, we present a range of novel high-precision molecular measurements in solution enabled by the electrostatic fluidic trapping approach.
The working principle of an electrostatic fluidic trap relies on the equilibrium thermodynamic repulsion experienced by a charged object confined in a fluidfilled gap between two like-charged surfaces. Geometric tailoring of one of the surfaces by nanostructured surface indentations reduces interaction energy, creating an electrostatic potential well capable of stable trapping of a charged object in solution. The ability of a recently developed escape-time electrometry (ETe) technique to precisely measure the depth of potential well underlies the high-precision measurement of effective electrical charge, qeff, of a trapped molecule.
In the original work, upon which this Thesis is based, we first focus on expanding the capabilities of the electrostatic fluidic trapping approach. We demonstrate the ability of stable trapping in a range of solvents of different polarities and present a novel approach for measuring the net surface charge at the solid-liquid interface. We further explore the applicability of charged lipid bilayer systems for single-molecule electrostatic trapping and describe how chemical composition of nanostructured supported lipid bilayers can be measured by means of ETe.
We finally demonstrate the ability to use the qeff of a biomolecule in solution to infer key details of its atomic level structure. Performing ETe measurements on A- and B-form (RNA and DNA) double helixes, we achieve a ∼ 1Å and ∼ 0.1Å precision on the helical radius and rise per basepair, respectively. Moreover, in conjunction with a recently developed theoretical approach to model electrostatics of biomolecules in solution, our examination of structural parameters provides an unprecedented new view of the molecule-solvent interface.
Bridging probabilistic forecasts and power system optimization considering uncertainty: a joint chance-constrained perspective
Keywords: distributionally robust optimization
uncertainty quantification
probabilistic forecasting
power system operations
joint chance-constraints

Power systems globally are significantly integrating renewable energy to achieve net zero emission targets. Nonetheless, these renewable energy sources are weather-dependent and uncertain, bringing challenges to ensure operational reliability. Additionally, extreme weather and natural disasters damage power infrastructure, leading to contingencies or large-scale blackouts occasionally. These pressing issues necessitate uncertainty-aware power system management and give rise to the main research question, how to apply the joint chance-constrained (JCC) formulation in uncertainty-aware power system operations using probabilistic forecasting information?
A literature review discusses different machine learning (ML) probabilistic forecasting models and uncertainty-aware formulations in power system operations. Selected ML models are then compared for weather-informed net-load probabilistic forecasting. Leveraging probabilistic forecast, this thesis investigates and applies two uncertainty-aware formulations in power system operations, the JCC and distributionally robust optimization (DRO). Case studies are demonstrated on solar-powered networked microgrids.
The first case study investigates solar-powered networked microgrids during utility contingencies. A distributionally robust joint chance-constrained (DRJCC) framework is developed to control this networked microgrid considering the worst-case solar forecast error distribution. The DRJCC problem is reformulated into a tractable individual chance-constrained formulation with unspecified individual violation rates. A novel evolutionary algorithm is designed to approximate the optimal individual violation rates, known as the NP-hard Bonferroni Approximation problem. The solution is proven to be reliable and less conservative in out-of-sample tests compared to other methods.
The second one focuses on networked microgrids in the power markets. It envisages that, due to stochastic solar power generations, the imperfect real-time reserve provisions from multiple microgrids simultaneously could result in unexpected load shedding. Lever- aging historical forecast error samples, the reserve bidding strategy of each microgrid is formulated into a two-stage Wasserstein-metrics DRO model. A JCC regulates the under-delivered reserve capacities of all microgrids in a non-cooperative game. To approximate the optimal individual violation rates of microgrids with the changing correlation, the Bayesian optimization method is introduced. This DRJCC game framework is simulated with up to 14 players in a 30-bus network. The proposed Bayesian optimization method can identify the optimal reserve violation rates, which effectively regulate the joint violation rate of the under-delivered reserve whereas securing the profit of microgrids.
On the margins but not of the state: young Jerusalemites' navigating citizenship and welfare in a settler-colonial context
Keywords: citizenship
settler-colonialism
welfare

This thesis explores notions of ‘citizenship’ among young Palestinian Jerusalemites displaced by the Separation wall, in occupied East Jerusalem. Jerusalemite Palestinians’ only ‘legal’ bond to the state and access to their city is through the ‘permanent residency status’, which may be revoked at the discretion of the Israeli Interior Minister, rendering it particularly precarious. The historical trajectory of Israeli policies since the 1967 annexation of East Jerusalem has created a situation in which Palestinian Jerusalemites have been gradually encouraged to move to areas beyond the Separation Wall, ultimately displacing thousands and effectively containing them in a series of enclaves.
The thesis comprises four stand-alone papers; ‘Citizenship, surveillance and control: Young Palestinians navigating transitions on Jerusalem's margins’; ‘Health on the margins of Jerusalem: Privilege or Control?’; ‘Compromised belonging and (ID)entity crisis: The case of Palestinian youth on Jerusalem’s enclaves’; and, ‘Thresholds of dughutaat: Future oriented hopes and decisions in slow violence’; all linked in relation to the localised enclave context, with a focus on young people’s experiences. Each paper addresses the themes arising from young people’s narratives on their experiences navigating a tenuous legal status and living in precarity, and within a broader context of military occupation and settler-colonialism. As a whole, they discuss the interlinked, and at many times ‘messy’ contours of what is referred to as a form of ‘coercive non-citizenship.’ The thesis concludes with a discussion of how the overall context, and the narratives of young people in particular, problematize notions of citizenship in a context of prolonged military occupation and settler colonialism and render existing theories inadequate in illuminating this seemingly paradoxical reality.
Inferring eco-evolutionary feedbacks from time series data using neural ordinary differential equations
Keywords: eco-evo feedbacks
ecological interactions
neural networks
neural ordinary differential equations
time series
eco-evolutionary dynamics
Darwin's finches
rotifer

Ecological and evolutionary dynamics were thought to operate on different time scales. Recent evidence showed that evolution could be rapid enough to interplay with ecological dynamics and form eco-evolutionary feedbacks. These feedbacks are hard to identify in nature, due to the complexity of the mechanisms and the difficulty of obtaining phenotypic, demographic, and environmental variables. We lack quantitative evidence on feedback effects in real systems, which prevents us from painting a complete view of feedback architectures. We develop a mathematical framework, neural ordinary differential equations (NODEs), to quantify feedbacks from time series data of the evolutionary, ecological, and environmental variables in the system. The framework combines ordinary differential equations and artificial neural networks, to identify, non-parametrically, drivers of evolutionary and ecological dynamics, and relies on the Geber method to recover the contribution of ecological change to evolution, and vice versa. We apply the technique to recover the coupling between the dynamics of three species in a prey-predator system. We find that main interactions, between the prey and top predator are conserved across replicates, while weaker interactions, between the intermediate predator and the other species, are not. We also apply the technique to recover eco-evolutionary feedbacks in two of Darwin’s finches species. We find that feedbacks involve a direct coupling between population dynamics and phenotypic change in only one of the species, while the other involves a coupling with resource levels. Our work demonstrates the potential of NODEs in uncovering drivers of dynamics in systems where prior mechanistic knowledge is lacking, and shows the importance of indirect effects in driving eco-evolutionary feedbacks in nature.
A history of Pakints': indigenous politics in Shuar mining encounters
Keywords: indigenous history
Western Amazonia
resource extraction
Amazonian anthropology
Shuar

This thesis is an ethnographic study on the prevalence and consequence of indigenous historical knowledge in lowland South America. The account I provide here details the political history of an indigenous reserve in an often-overlooked swath of Shuar lands in Southeast Ecuador (referred to as ‘the South’ in this ethnography), and analyses what Shuar people in the region call ‘Shuar history’. Shuar use this term to underscore their agency and political autonomy and to make sense of the ambiguities and uncertainties recently brought by large-scale industrial mining to their lands. In so doing they provide a historical account of ‘real history’, that not only intends to oppose and counteract colonial accounts and descriptions of the region but currently serves to redefine industrial mining politics under indigenous terms. Shuar history thus plays an essential role in Shuar understandings of resource extraction in the region and helps shape indigenous outlooks over a contested and conflictive future.
Shuar history, as I show in this thesis, offers an indigenous interpretation of change and continuity, and an indigenous background for historicity through its own account of Shuar colonial encounters and entanglements. I aim to explain how Shuar people engage in political action drawing upon their knowledge of the past and how Shuar history affects ongoing social, political, and economic changes brought about in the context of resource extraction. This study is therefore an ethnographic enquiry into Shuar notions of the past as it is an analysis of indigenous politics in an extractive context. It should be read as a demonstration that studies on resource extraction on indigenous lands in lowland South America stand to gain considerable depth by paying closer attention to indigenous cosmologies.
Coming to terms with forced migration: an intergenerational study of Asia Minor refugee memory in Greece
Keywords: oral history
identity
memory
forced displacement
migration

This thesis is a comparative – intergenerational and interregional – history of Asia Minor memories and identities of forced displacement that examines the multilayered relationship between contemporary attitudes and refugee past. In light of the centenary of the Asia Minor population transfer and the current migration and refugee crises, this study explores refugee memories and identities of expulsion, their intergenerational transmission, and the way people with these memories think about subsequent migrations. While focusing on the case of Greece, the research questions that this thesis addresses are: How have memories of the 1922-24 forced displacement changed over time from one generation to the next? How do people with these memories and identities think about subsequent migration? Following a regional history approach and an oral history approach, this study draws upon literature from several disciplines and rests upon oral testimony. Specifically, it employs a methodology of collecting primary sources using oral testimonies (262 life history interviews) and archival evidence (5000 oral testimonies) based on three regional case studies, namely the borderland island of Lesvos, Central Macedonia in northern Greece, and Attica. Refugee identity is a capacious and dynamic platform of ongoing understanding as well as a limited space of domination and competition. Elucidating the attitudes of refugee descendants and unfolding key patterns about the complex role of refugee memory and identity, this thesis brings together the intersection of three interlocking elements, time (refugee generations), place (refugee locations), and subsequent migration (waves of other migrations). In short, Coming to Terms with Forced Migration sheds light on the convoluted relationship between contemporary attitudes and refugee past, providing a nuanced history of the 1922-24 memories and identities of forced displacement.