VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The productivity of unemployment: emerging forms of work and life in urban South Africa
Keywords: social stratification
marginality
inequality
youth politics
South Africa
gender
masculinity
unemployment
precarity
kinship

With two-thirds of South Africa’s young people unemployed, mass joblessness is widely regarded as the country’s most pressing socio- economic crisis. This thesis examines young men’s everyday experiences of unemployment in South Africa. It challenges the dominant understanding of unemployment as a condition characterised by an absence – of income, something to do, or a place in society. Instead, this thesis offers an account of unemployment as an agentive and socially productive experience – punctuated by a multitude of actions, choices, and complex relations of inter-dependence. The findings of this thesis also challenge the assumption that unemployment is inevitably the result of a lack of jobs, showing instead that jobs at the bottom-end of the labour market are at times rejected in favor of alternative modes of socioeconomic life.
The thesis is based on twelve months of ethnographic research in Zandspruit, an informal settlement on the outskirts of northern Johannesburg. It offers a detailed account of the ways in which young men make a living outside of wage work. It argues that men’s alternative economic practices are not a last resort, as is often presumed, but rather an active attempt to guard themselves against succumbing to precarious and insecure wage employment. The thesis reveals how young men’s social position within the specific socio-spatial location of Zandspruit mediates their economic choices and work-related decisions while also reinforcing local inequalities. Finally, the thesis examines the wider social, existential, and political implications of such shifts in the historically close relationship between wage work and social order. The findings in this thesis confront a dominant discourse that propounds a ‘crisis of masculinity’ caused by unemployment. They do so by showcasing the diversity of ways young men negotiate their social obligations alongside the other demands in their lives.
By revealing the ways in which young men refuse wage work and socially, economically and politically navigate unemployment, this thesis contributes to current political and economic debates about (un)employment and inequality in South Africa – and beyond. In so doing, this thesis makes a case for re-thinking the normative centrality of work both in academic scholarship, and in our social policies and political visions of economic redress and emancipation.
Navigation in Procellariiform seabirds
Keywords: Scopoli's shearwater
Sun compass
Cognitive Map
Navigation
Olfactory navigation
Procellariiform seabirds
Manx shearwater

Much of what is known about avian navigation results from half a century of displacement experiments with the homing pigeon, the main model in avian navigation. Whether the same processes underpinning navigation in the homing pigeon are also integral to navigation in other species remains an open question. In particular, how Procellariiform seabirds, which routinely travel huge distances over open ocean, might navigate is of interest because of the contrast in sensory environment compared to terrestrial species. In this thesis, I have three aims. First, to investigate whether the mechanisms involved in homing pigeon navigation might also guide Procellariiform seabirds over the ocean. Second, to establish whether GPS-tracked, free-ranging Procellariiform seabirds might be able to offer insights into avian navigational mechanisms. Third, to investigate some of the ecological drivers of long-distance movement facilitated by these navigational mechanisms in Procellariiform seabirds. By combining novel experimental and analytical approaches, I attempt to answer some of these questions. I find that many of the mechanisms though to guide homing pigeons also appear to underpin Procellariiform navigation. In particular, the involvement of information from the time-compensated sun-compass, central to structuring spatial representation in terrestrial species, seems to be very similar to that observed in pigeons. Furthermore, like pigeons, olfaction seems to play a specific role in Procellariiform seabirds’ map sense. However, there are differences too. I make the tentative discovery that, perhaps unlike pigeons, shearwaters might be able to derive information exocentrically about their location at sea in the form of a vector of direction and distance from the home colony, implying a geometric cognitive representation of large-scale environmental gradients. Finally, in terms of ecological drivers of long-distance movement, I find that Manx shearwaters’ migratory phenology is probably constrained by their environment and not by their condition, in-keeping with the idea that long-distance movement comes at a low cost for Procellariiform seabirds.
Drawing: the point of contact
Keywords: drawing
haptic visuality
blindness
practice-based research
phenomenology

This thesis is a study of the point of contact between pencil and paper during certain acts of drawing. It comprises three elements. Firstly, five ‘drawings’ which together raise the central question of the thesis: what arrests me, in the manner of a Barthesian punctum, about the point of contact between pencil and paper (and their proxies) in these particular drawings? These drawings are in evidence through written accounts introducing each chapter, and they are: (1) a practice of ‘half-blind’ life drawing; (2) a line drawn around the internal perimeter of a house; (3) several voice recordings made while walking in the dark; (4) a biro line drawn across a bed sheet; (5) a row of ink blots at the foot of a page. Secondly, the present document, which shows the endeavour of answering this question. Thirdly, a display of artefacts left over from the five drawings and the writing, which pose a question at the close of the thesis: when the writing is completed, what is left of the drawings that set it going?
The present document is undertaken ‘drawingly’: employing a methodology and form learned from the point of contact at its centre and developed as a mode of enquiry adequate to this punctum’s apparent resistance to being named or wholly analysed. Building upon Jean-Luc Nancy’s characterization of a working drawing as a search for form, Derrida’s description of the ‘aperspective’ of the drawing stylus, and Laura U. Marks’ analysis of haptic visuality, this methodology lies at the intersection between the blindness associated with drawing, the association of vision with knowledge, and the association of creative work with not knowing. It is characterized by moving forward with acute attentiveness and close proximity to the object under scrutiny; paying myopically close attention to associations when and where they arise; accepting and thematizing the fact—and the risk—that such a perspective restricts the view of an end-point, of the wider imaginative and critical landscape around, and indeed of a blind spot at the centre of the object; and heeding the prospect—and, again, the risk—of ‘surfacing’ from myopia into circumspect analysis. Like Nancy’s working drawings, the completed thesis is proposed as a working document that bears the marks of the search for form it constitutes.
In these terms, the present document arrives at a description of the point of contact as a figure for the ultimately frustrated attempt to consummate or cancel out some experience that is felt to be excessive. Finally, the document itself is proposed as such a figure, a proposal that in turn revises the original assumption that the punctum is the point of contact in drawing, instead revealing this point of contact as a highly wrought description of some further object that remains unidentified and unconsummated, but somewhat changed by being described.
Evaluation of the non-specific effects of Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination in healthy UK adults
Keywords: Non-specific effects of BCG
Vaccine
Bacille Calmette-Guérin

Tuberculosis is the leading single infectious disease killer in the world, and the global burden of LTBI and TB disease, with the addition of antimicrobial drug resistance means there is a desperate need for a safe and effective TB vaccine. BCG is the only licensed vaccine and extremely variable in efficacy. However, BCG potentially exerts a non-specific beneficial effect - protecting infants from other causes of death such as respiratory infections and fever. Data from randomised and observational studies in support have been variable in quality; however the WHO reviewed the data and concluded that the effect was likely real, but that more robust data was needed. The aim of this my study was to evaluate the potential non-specific effects of BCG using an in-vitro whole blood growth inhibition assay as a surrogate marker of an individual’s ability to control growth of bacteria before and after vaccination with BCG. Identification of improved control of bacterial net growth following vaccination with BCG would provide evidence to support large, costly, randomised control trials in TB high burden countries. The assay did not demonstrate improved control of growth of four pathogens in the whole blood GIA following BCG vaccination and was subject to bacterial inoculum batch effect and other variables such as haemoglobin. A PBMC GIA potentially detected a subtle improvement in control of bacteria in the same volunteer cohort, but requires further optimisation. Volunteers who received BCG vaccination had an expected clinical and immunological reaction to vaccination with BCG. Pilot data exploring innate immune ‘memory’ through secondary antigenic stimulation of PBMCs did not demonstrate a significant increase in cytokine production, but numbers were small and more work is necessary.
What is called schooling?
Keywords: Punishment
Ethnnography
Discipline
School
Managerialism
Accountability

Much has been said about the accountable school, the performative school, the school wholly given over to a corporate cult of assessment and accountability; the monarchy of criteria; and the sovereignty of the exam. Lamentations resound as the trend deepens and the cult starts to bites. But let us look another way. Based on a two year ethnographic study of an inner city comprehensive school in North London, this thesis tries to illuminate all of those mechanisms, technologies, processes, and structures, through which an attempt is made to bind us to an order of truth, fix us to a regime of conduct, and render us subject to definite arrangements of knowledge and power. Regimes of truth, orders of conduct, and modes and mechanisms of attachment. Positing as problematic those studies which take as their object a part or aspect of a system or structure that exceeds them, this thesis tries to grasp something of the whole, standing beside the student and following the thing as they make their way through the school’s gauntlet, attempting to detail all of those moments in which they are analysed, classified, sorted, distributed, trained, punished, and corrected.
Electronic structure of topological quantum materials probed by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy
Keywords: ARPES

This thesis investigates the electronic structure of four separate topological quantum material systems by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES):
1. LaBi is a semimetal with an extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) that remains unsaturated even at large magnetic fields. Our ARPES measurements of LaBi indicate the existence of a strong topological phase that may be unique within the family of lanthanum monopnictides. Additionally, our characterization of its bulk electronic structure finds a large imbalance between the electron and hole carrier densities, which challenges the previously assumed scenario of perfect carrier compensation as the origin of the XMR.
2. Three dimensional topological insulators (TIs) can be divided into two classes: strong TIs that host TSSs on all surfaces, and weak TIs, which host TSSs only on some surfaces, which are expected to harbour novel physical phenomena. Yet, despite multiple theoretical proposals and experimental reports, "smoking-gun" evidence for the existence of a weak topological phase is still elusive. Here, by performing ARPES measurements for the surface states of two distinct crystal surfaces, we can conclusively confirm the existence of a weak topological phase in the semimetal TaSb2, which may be related to its negative longitudinal magnetoresistance. Additionally, we present evidence that TaAs2 and NbAs2 are also topologically nontrivial.
3. Graphene is predicted to be a quantum spin Hall insulator, but due to the weak spin-orbit coupling (SOC) of carbon, the predicted bulk energy gap at its Dirac point remains unresolved. Here, we grow ultrathin layers of germanium on Au(1 1 1) in the attempt to realize germanene, a buckled honeycomb structure of germanium atoms, which is predicted to host a similar band structure as graphene with a much larger energy gap. Our ARPES studies of those films reveal the existence of multiple Dirac-like bands that can be tuned by changing the film thickness.
4. The family of A3BO antiperovskites (A=Ca, Sr; B=Sn, Pb) is predicted to form topological crystalline insulators (TCIs). Our ARPES studies of intrinsically hole doped Sr3SnO, Ca3PbO, and Sr3PbO find good agreement with bulk band structure calculations, but cannot probe the predicted bulk and surface Dirac cones in the unoccupied states. For the superconducting hole doped Sr3SnO, which may realize unconventional odd-parity Cooper pairing, we can resolve a controversial question about its Fermi surface morphology that may be relevant for its pairing mechanism.
The impact of genetic variation on IFITM3 related influenza virus restriction
Keywords: SNP
Infection
Influenza
rs12252
IFITM3
Genetic

The IFITM3 protein is a prominent restriction factor of influenza virus that has been shown to antagonise the cellular entry of influenza virus. In 2012, the minor allele of a synonymous SNP in IFITM3, known as rs12252 (major T, minor C), was shown to be associated with severe influenza virus infection. Numerous studies have corroborated this association, showing clear links between the C allele and increased risk of severe influenza virus infection in East Asian and European populations. It was hypothesised that the observed effects of rs12252-C were related to aberrant splicing of IFITM3, causing an isoform coding for an N-terminally truncated variant of the protein. More recently, additional IFITM3-associated genetic risk factors for severe influenza virus infection have also been uncovered.
In this thesis, we investigated the molecular mechanisms of rs12252. In chapter 3, we show that the IFITM3 splicing profile is consistently dominated by the canonical isoform, and that truncated isoforms are produced at extremely low levels regardless of rs12252 genotype. In chapter 4, we investigated associations between rs12252 and expression of IFITM3 at mRNA and protein level, using in vitro systems and healthy donors. We show that rs12252 is an expression Quantitative Trait Locus (eQTL) for IFITM3, and its activity is potentially tissue dependent. We also uncovered potential effects of this SNP on blood transcriptional signature. Next, in chapter 5, we identified two novel eQTLs for IFITM3, which may be risk variants for severe influenza virus infection. Finally, in chapter 6, we analysed the association between rs12252 and severe influenza infection using several model systems. These findings uncovered potential associations between rs12252 and differential interferon signalling, although further experimentation is required to confirm this.
Warlordism, insurgency and public opinion: explaining civil war in Afghanistan
Keywords: Civil War
Afghanistan
Insurgency

Current explanations for civil war are divided between grievance and opportunity-based paradigms. This thesis bridges these two theoretical schools by emphasizing elite fragmentation as an understudied variable in the onset and spread of insurgent violence. The three articles of this thesis examine these dynamics through the case study of the post-2001 civil war in Afghanistan. First, I compare variations in political violence within two neighboring provinces of northern Afghanistan, demonstrating how fragmentation between armed groups produces heightened grievances amongst civilians, incentivising them to defect to insurgent groups. Second, I show additional evidence challenging the legitimacy of armed commanders through a conjoint experiment demonstrating that Afghan citizens have strong preferences for leaders who are young and highly educated over older leaders with military experience. Third, I examine why attempts to redress public grievances with large injections of foreign aid have largely failed to win over the population in insecure areas with a case study of the National Solidarity Program in Wardak province. Together, the chapters of this thesis contribute to current literature on civil war while suggesting important policy implications for how the international community should engage in civil wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Identifying and comparing meteorological and geographical influences on high resolution climate signals in the oxygen isotope values of different environmental archives
Keywords: palaeoclimate
oxygen
Greenland
oscillation
proxy
Exmoor
isotope
tree ring
climate variability
horse hair
ice core
Iceland
United Kingdom

This thesis explores how δ18O values in horse hair relate to local meteorological observations; how Greenland ice core records relate to European terrestrial climate records; and how atmospheric changes are reflected in terrestrial and biological records. Bringing together analysis of increasingly complex palaeoenvironmental proxies, δ18O measurements within atmospheric, terrestrial and biological systems are critically assessed across geographical transitions, ultimately leading to greater understanding of the utilisation of oxygen isotope data for seasonal climate analysis. Horse hair sampling and δ18O analysis were conducted on horse hair from: the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) in Selfoss, Iceland; the Thordale Stud in the Shetland Islands, United Kingdom; the Exmoor Pony Centre (EPC) in Somerset, UK; and the Pigeon House Equestrian centre in Oxfordshire, UK. The North Greenland Ice Core (NGRIP2) was sampled and analysed for δ18O, and compared to a master tree ring dataset of compiled δ18O values in the UK. The results confirm that rainfall quantity and continental effects dominate both the horse hair and ice core δ18O records. The growth rates of the hair were seen to decrease with an increase in latitude; and comparison between horse hair δ18O and meteorological variables clearly indicates a rainfall influence. Comparison between the ice core δ18O and historical coastal temperature reconstruction shows a similar gradient to what is seen in modern temperature records. The comparison between tree ring isotopes can be interpreted as showing a similar amplitude to the historic temperatures, but with a slight dampening in regards to lower peaks values. Comparison of the tree ring and ice core values indicated a significant negative correlation, with smaller amplitude changes within the tree ring δ18O results. Wavelet analysis suggested a common influence from teleconnections at several timescales in both the tree ring and ice core datasets, including the El Niño Southern Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation. This study demonstrates that geographical and meteorological influences are similarly reflected within palaeoenvironmental proxies of increasing complexities. It also identifies periods of common influence from climate drivers and provides detail of the greatest effects on isotopic variation in the UK, Iceland and Greenland.
Biologic therapies and the need for hip and knee replacement amongst patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A population-based epidemiology study using electronic medical records and registry data
Keywords: Health Services Research
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Joint Replacement
Interrupted Time Series
Musculoskeletal
TNFi therapy
Hip
Biologics
Knee
Epidemiology

Registry reports indicate over 200,000 hip or knee replacements are performed annually in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with approximately 1-2% carried out for inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of this DPhil was to estimate the impact of biologic therapies on the need for major joint replacement amongst RA patients using observational health data.
An interrupted time-series analysis was used to estimate the impact of NICE approval of biologics on population-level temporal trends of total hip replacement (THR) and total knee replacement (TKR) amongst RA patients in England and Wales. Similar analyses were repeated for Denmark and Ontario. Overall, these studies indicated a decrease in TKR but not THR for RA patients following the introduction of biologics. When the rates in non-RA patients were taken into account (in Denmark and Ontario only), there was an inferred reduction in both THR and TKR for RA patients within the biologic era. There was a lack of guidance on sample size planning for such analyses, so a simulation study was also conducted to estimate power in various time-series scenarios.
A patient-level analysis was then conducted using UK registry data, applying various novel methodologies to account for the inherent problem of confounding by indication. The results suggested no significant impact of biologics on rates of joint replacement, although in age-stratified analyses biologics was associated with a 40% reduction in THR rates amongst patients ≥60 years old.
To conclude, a reduction is observed in population-level rates of THR and TKR amongst RA patients (compared to non-RA patients) following the introduction of biologics. Patient-level analyses confirmed a favourable impact on THR rates amongst older patients, but otherwise no significant associations. More patient-level analyses are required to confirm and/or further elucidate the impact of biologic therapies on the need for joint replacement in RA.