VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Josephus on the servile origins of the Jews in Egypt
Keywords: Natural slavery
Exodus
Josephus
Ancient ethnography
Ancient historiography
Ancient Judaism
Jewish Origins

The Exodus story of the Israelites’ slavery in Egypt and subsequent redemption was central to Jewish accounts of their national origins and was an important component of Jewish self-identification in antiquity. Although Greek and Latin sources appear ignorant of the Exodus story, ancient ethnographies of the Jews in non-Jewish sources claim that the Jews were originally Egyptian. This thesis examines how Josephus presents the Exodus story of the Jews’ servile national origins in Egypt to a Roman audience who had biases against slaves, freedmen, and Egyptians, and little knowledge of Jewish origins apart from reports that they were Egyptian by origin.
Josephus’s first work Jewish War, a politico-military history, includes tangential remarks about Jewish origins, but implies in the proem that the Jews were originally Egyptian. Jewish Antiquities, which rewrites the biblical account of Jewish origins, explicitly denies that the Jews were originally Egyptian and deliberately omits mention of the Jews’ servitude in Egypt at important points in the narrative where it would have been expected. In Against Apion, an apologia, Josephus subtly uses keywords and the rhetorical technique of insinuatio to prove that the Jews were not originally Egyptian without stating openly that this is a goal of the work.
Several factors explain these results. Aristotle’s theory of natural slavery, which posits that slaves are innately defective, was part of the ideological assumptions of first century CE Roman elites. Romans were also ambivalent about their own partly-servile origins in Romulus’s asylum. Influenced by Augustan propaganda about Actium, first-century Roman sources deride Egyptians with a range of negative stereotypes. Josephus denies that the Jews were Egyptian and omits their servile origins at important points in the narrative where the Bible mentions it in order to portray the Jews as favorably as possible.
Illuminating the deep: an exploration of deep-sea benthic macrofaunal ecology in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean
Keywords: Benthic ecology
deep-sea
Peracarida

Understanding of the fundamental ecology of deep-sea ecosystems remains immature relative to more familiar shallow-water and terrestrial habitats, despite more than two hundred years of scientific investigation. This thesis aims to progress knowledge of deep-sea benthic ecology by the analysis of over three hundred box core samples collected from the Northwest Atlantic continental slope as part of the international NEREIDA programme. Aspects of the ecology of Peracarida (Crustacea) are studied, and this is facilitated by the coupling of a large faunal dataset with extensive environmental information. To further enhance the power of this dataset, phylogenetic and functional characteristics of assemblages are investigated. Using community phylogenetic methodology, it is demonstrated that the peracarid assemblages studied are structured more strongly by variation in environmental parameters than they are by competitive interactions. Analyses demonstrate that the intensity of bottom trawling, seafloor temperature, current speed, food availability, sediment characteristics and physical habitat heterogeneity all influence deep-sea peracarid assemblage biodiversity metrics. Further, the importance of high poriferan biomass for the promotion of peracarid assemblages of high density, biomass, richness and diversity is highlighted. Of relevance to the management of deep-sea ecosystems, the results of this thesis suggest that caution should be exercised when applying species distribution models to data-deficient environments, whilst the location of spatial closures in the NAFO Regulatory Area may not be fully optimal for the protection of all components of diverse benthic assemblages against the impacts of bottom trawling. The importance of deep-sea diversity is demonstrated by the finding of positive biodiversity – ecosystem functioning relationships. However, the form of these relationships is found to be dependent on the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning metrics employed, and a hypothesis for a generalised form of biodiversity – ecosystem functioning relationships is proposed. Finally, this thesis calls for more ambitious deep-sea ecological investigations, and it is hoped that its findings will encourage future research initiatives, helping to further illuminate this enigmatic and fascinating environment.
Enhancing speech fluency using transcranial direct current stimulation
Keywords: transcranial current stimulation
randomised controlled trial
speech disorders
developmental stuttering

Producing speech is a highly complex task, involving the integration of sensory and linguistic information, with the precise, high-speed, co-ordination of muscles controlling breathing and the movement of the vocal folds and articulators. In spite of this complexity, producing fluent speech – moving smoothly from one speech sound to the next – can appear effortless. Speech fluency is highly socially valued, and the personal and societal costs of living with a disorder of fluency, such as developmental stuttering, are considerable. The outcomes of behavioural therapies to increase fluency are limited, however, especially for those seeking treatment in adulthood.
The overarching aim of this thesis was to investigate how anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (A-TDCS) can be used to increase speech fluency, with a particular focus on the potential application to developmental stuttering. A-TDCS is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that can enhance the effects of motor, speech, and language training.
First, in a series of single-session experiments in typically fluent speakers, I demonstrated that applying A-TDCS over the left IFC increased speech motor learning relative to a sham control, but did not improve consolidation of this learning (chapter 2). Furthermore, I found that neither increasing stimulation intensity from 1 mA to 2 mA, nor changing from a unihemispheric to a bihemispheric configuration, had an additional effect on learning.
Next, in single-session study with adults who stutter, I assessed the feasibility of using A-TDCS to improve fluency (chapter 3). Fluency was temporarily induced, by speaking in unison with another person, but the concurrent application of 1-mA unihemispheric A-TDCS over left inferior frontal cortex did not significantly prolong this fluency. Nevertheless, a trend towards stuttering reduction gave some indication that fluency might be increased using a multiple-session approach. Furthermore, I gained a number of important insights from these single-session studies, which I used to inform the design of the final multiple-session trial.
In this final study, I completed a randomised controlled trial in 30 adult males with moderate to severe stuttering. Participants were randomized to receive either 1-mA A-TDCS or sham stimulation over left inferior frontal cortex combined with temporary fluency inducing behavioural techniques, for 20 minutes a day over 5 days (chapter 4). A-TDCS significantly reduced disfluency for at least 5 weeks following this intervention. The effect was specific to the speech impairment of development stuttering, as measures of the psycho-social consequences of stuttering were not modulated by A-TDCS.
The findings of these studies offer significant promise for the future application of non-invasive stimulation as an adjunctive therapy for adults who stutter. In the concluding chapter, I discuss the important implications of my findings for the future use of this technique.
Temperature and density measurements of plasmas
Keywords: HEDP
Plasma
Langmuir Probes
Lab Astro
XRTS
X-ray Thomson Scattering
Laboratory Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Density Physics
Physics

Diagnosing the temperatures and densities of plasmas is critical to the understanding of a wide variety of phenomena. Everything from equations of state for warm dense matter (WDM) found in Jovian planets and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) to turbulent and dissipative processes in laser-produced plasmas, rely on accurate and precise measurements of temperature and density. This work presents improvements on two distinct techniques for measuring temperatures and densities in plasmas: x-ray Thomson scattering (XRTS), and Langmuir probes (LPs).
At the OMEGA laser facility, experiments on warm dense matter were performed by firing lasers at an ablator foil and driving a planar shock into cryogenically cooled liquid deuterium. XRTS in the collective scattering regime was implemented to probe the matter, measuring densities of ne ~ 4.3 × 1023 cm−3, temperatures of Te ~ 12 eV and ionizations of Z ~ 1.0. Through an extension to XRTS theory for inhomogeneous systems, it was possible to extract an additional parameter, the length scale of the shock, whose value of Λ ~ 1.33 nm was consistent with the predicted mean free path, and therefore the thickness of the shock.
A unique triple Langmuir probe prototype was designed and tested at the Gregori group’s lab at the University of Oxford. This probe was designed for a high temporal resolution of ~ 200 MHz for probing laser-produced shocks. The probes were used to measure the shock formed from ablating carbon rods in an argon gas fill. The probe yielded plasma parameters of ne ~ 1.0 × 1017 cm−3 , and Te ~ 1.5 eV, consistent with measurements from interferometry and emission spectroscopy.
Neolithic agricultural management in the Eastern Mediterranean: new insight from a multi-isotope approach
Keywords: stable carbon isotopes
Aegean Neolithic
strontium isotopic ratios
stable nitrogen isotopes
Anatolian Neolithic
stable oxygen isotopes

The work presented in this dissertation explores the nature of agro-pastoral strategies developed by Neolithic farmers as a way to understand how early food production was inter-twined with environmental and socio-economic opportunities and constraints. Towards this end, a multi-isotope approach is used to address questions of scale and intensity of crop cultivation and animal management at the archaeological sites of Kouphovouno, southern Greece, Makriyalos, northern Greece, and Çatalhöyük, south-central Turkey. Measurements of stable carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium isotope values of carbonized plant remains, human and animal bone collagen and animal tooth enamel are used to examine the similarities and differences in the types of treatments that individual species of plants and animals received during the agricultural cycle at the distinct locations. The results show that farmers at the three sites developed variable methods for exploiting the arable and pastoral landscape and catering to their economic and culinary needs. The discussion considers the implications of these findings to our understanding of the complexity and adaptability of early farming systems.
On the use of metacognitive signals to navigate the social world
Keywords: advice taking
belief change
metacognition
decision making
confidence

Since the early days of psychology, practitioners have recognised that metacognition - or the act of thinking about one’s own thinking - is intertwined with our experience of the world. In the last decade, scientists have started to understand metacognitive signals, like judgments of confidence, as precise mathematical constructs. Confidence can be conceived of as an internal estimate of the probability of being correct. As such, confidence influences both advice seeking and advice taking while allowing people to optimally combine their views for joint action and group coordination.
This work begins by exploring the idea that confidence judgments are important for monitoring not only uncertainty associated with one’s performance but also, thanks to their positive covariation with accuracy, the reliability of social advisers, particularly when objective criteria are not available. I present data showing that, when adviser and advisee’s judgments are independent, people are able to detect subtle variations in advice information, irrespective of feedback presence. I also show that, when such independence is broken, the use of subjective confidence to track others’ reliability leads to systematic deviations.
I then proceed to explore the differences existing between static and dynamic social information exchange. Traditionally, social and organisational psychology have investigated one-step unidirectional information systems, but many real-life interactions happen on a continuous time-scale, where social exchanges are recursive and dynamic. I present results indicating that the dynamics of social information exchange (recursive vs. one-step) affect individual opinions over and above the information that is communicated. Overall, my results suggest a bidirectional involvement of confidence in social inference and information exchange, and highlight the limits of the mechanisms underlying it.
The impact of walking and cycling infrastructure on personal travel and carbon emissions: the case of Cardiff Connect2
Keywords: GIS
Cycling
Carbon emissions
Travel surveys
Personal travel
Travel behaviour
Walking
GPS

There is a growing recognition of the role that walking and cycling can make in reducing traffic congestion and air pollution whilst also contributing to improved personal health and wellbeing. While studies suggest that infrastructure is required to promote walking and cycling, there is a lack of evidence at the micro level on how interventions aimed at improving connectivity for walking and cycling influence travel behaviour and whether they promote a modal shift away from short car journeys.
The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which the implementation of a high quality traffic free route, delivered by a recent programme targeted at everyday walking and cycling in the UK – the Sustrans Connect2 Programme – influenced individuals' day-to-day travel decisions, changed the spatial and temporal nature of their journeys and impacted on overall carbon emissions from motorised travel. To achieve this aim an in-depth longitudinal panel study of a community of residents living next to a totemic Connect2 scheme in Penarth, Cardiff, was conducted. A panel of purposively selected participants (N=50) were interviewed and asked to record their travel behaviour using personal GPS devices and travel diaries over two seasonally matching 7-day time periods in 2011 and 2012. This novel GPS based mixed-method approach provided a detailed account of participants' travel behaviour in the local area (n=2664 journeys) and a comprehensive understanding of how, why and for whom the Connect2 intervention was likely to influence travel behaviour and the longevity of effects.
The findings revealed that participants used the new Connect2 scheme regularly during the period of the study (36% in 2011; 26% in 2012); however, the new scheme was likely to have a greater impact for recreational journeys rather than for everyday travel. Spatial data provided new insights into the complexities of walking behaviour and factors influencing cycling for everyday travel or recreation, including route choice decisions, destinations where activities were conducted and the role of the new Connect2 infrastructure in supporting this. Further findings support the potential of active travel in replacing short car trips (20%) and its impact on carbon emissions from personal travel (4.9% among the study sample). However, results suggest that the new Connect2 scheme alone was unlikely to promote a significant change in travel behaviour and carbon emissions from (displaced) car journeys.
The study contributes to the debate on the effectiveness of interventions targeted at promoting walking and cycling and the importance of wider infrastructural improvements that may be required to encourage their wider uptake. The combination of methods for data collection developed and employed in this study also helps to inform future travel behaviour research.
Pompeii, Insula IX.3: a case study of urban infrastructure
Keywords: city infrastructure
Pompeii
property ownership

This thesis takes insula IX.3 in Pompeii as a case study and examines how life-sustaining basic utilities and services were made available in this city block. The evidence comes in the form of finds, as documented by nineteenth-century excavators, and structures, either those still standing or those discovered during recent excavations by the Expeditio Pompeiana Universitatis Helsingiensis. Building on concepts deriving from consumption studies and studies of humans and their material culture, this thesis focuses on patterns and non-conformity, and approaches observed phenomena from the point of view of need and desire, cost and efficiency, ownership and law.
An analysis of broad-ranging evidence is made possible by operating at a city block level, and patterns can be recognized because the city block contains 19 units. Comparative material and written sources are used to put the evidence in context. Some of the evidence conforms to previously-identified patterns while other evidence reveals new patterns, to be tested further in other contexts. It is shown that basic utilities and services were generally readily available. Nonetheless, there are clear differences between units, and some parts of the city block were more advantageously positioned than others. These reveal differences in hierarchies of needs, social and economic standing, and the impact of the physical constraints in the arrangement of utilities.
Some units shared the use of particular utilities. Servitudes, which made these kinds of arrangements possible between adjacent properties, best explain some situations. However, in the majority of cases they most likely derive from common ownership. As a result, the city block contained fewer properties than the number of units. This sheds light on the social relations within the city block and gives grounds for discussion of dominance and dependence. It is shown that the city block contained four clusters of units dominated by large households which were surrounded by dependent units smaller in size. The configuration enabled the owners to play out and gain social, political and economic power.
COIN-operated anthropology: cultural knowledge, American counterinsurgency and the rise of the Afghan diaspora
Keywords: counterinsurgency
cultural knowledge
Militarism
Diaspora
Knowledge production
Afghanistan

This thesis explores the encounter between the Afghan-American community and the U.S. military-industrial complex in the production of cultural knowledge for counterinsurgency (COIN) operations in Afghanistan. It focuses on the narratives mobilized as 'expertise' by Afghan-American contractors from the major diaspora hubs in California and Virginia, who were employed as role-players, translators, and cultural advisors by the U.S. military and defense contractors. I discuss how such narratives gained currency and shaped the perceptions of Afghanistan in the U.S. foreign and security policy communities. The goal of the thesis is to demonstrate the extent to which COIN-centered cultural knowledge production both defined political strategies toward Afghanistan and also reconstituted the Afghan diaspora in America. The thesis contributes to emergent ethnographic studies on militarism by looking at its effect on American society in general and the Afghan diaspora in particular. The broader application of the thesis findings is to move beyond critiques of the troubled connection between anthropology and the military, and to analyze the relationship between citizens and the state in terms of national and biopolitical security.
Fine structure of the HIV-1 glycan shield
Keywords: HIV
N-glycosylation
mass spectrometry
Vaccine design
glycobiology

The HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein trimer (Env) is covered by an extensive array of glycans that shield it from immune surveillance. The high density of glycans on the trimer surface imposes steric constraints that limit the actions of glycan processing enzymes, such that multiple under-processed structures remain on specific locations. These oligomannose-type glycans are recognized by broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) that are not thwarted by the glycan shield but, perhaps paradoxically, target it. In multiple studies, bNAbs have been shown to be capable of providing passive protection from viral challenge, making Env a focus of antibody-mediated vaccine design.
Here, the development of a workflow for the semi-quantitative, site-specific N-glycosylation analysis of a soluble recombinant, native-like trimer mimic (BG505 SOSIP.664) is reported. The resulting data reveal a mosaic of dense clusters on the outer domain of Env and allow mapping the extremes of simplicity and diversity of glycan processing. Although individual sites usually minimally affect the global integrity of the glycan shield, examples are identified of how deleting certain glycans can subtly influence neutralization by bNAbs that bind at distant sites.
Env is a trimer of heterodimers of gp120 and gp41, which is generated by cleavage of an endogenous protease. In this thesis, the detailed effect of protease cleavage on glycan processing is examined by comparing the site-specific N-glycosylation profiles of the native-like trimer mimic to the corresponding uncleaved pseudotrimer and the matched gp120 monomer. Trimer-associated glycan remodeling forms a localized subdomain of the native mannose patch.
Furthermore, the glycosylation analysis of further Env immunogens – a glycan-depleted trimer and a flexibly-linked, uncleaved trimer (both based on BG505 SOSIP.664) – provides important insights into the robustness of the HIV-1 glycan shield and the Env maturation pathway. Overall, this thesis reveals how structural constraints shape Env glycosylation and the network of bNAb-targeted glycans that should be preserved on recombinant vaccine candidates.