VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Palaces and elite residences in the Hellenistic East, late fourth to early first century BC: formation and purpose
Keywords: History of architecture
Antigonids
Hellenistic Middle East
spatial function
Hellenistic architecture
Hellenistic kingship
palaces

This thesis investigates the morphology and the purpose of palaces in major and minor kingdoms of the Hellenistic World. Elements of architecture, spatial organisation and decoration are analysed in the attempt to clarify issues of chronology and in order to identify function. The analysis places the material into its social and ideological context by taking into consideration the role of kingship ideologies in the formation of space used by royal courts. Comparison with residences of the elite demonstrates the reception of palaces not only as architectural models, but also as mechanisms of power manifestation.
Macedonia is the starting point of the discussion as the homeland of the first Hellenistic kings. In the light of evidence recovered in the last twenty years and not comparatively studied before, the chapter brings together various chronological phases of the buildings. Questions of definition and on sources of inspiration are clarified further in the following chapters. The third chapter uses textual evidence and finds from the royal district of Alexandria to understand the meaning of palace architecture for the Ptolemies, while the seat of a local official in Transjordania reveals mechanisms of emulation. In chapter four the case of Pergamene palaces and their relationship with residences in the city demonstrates that formation of these royal seats corresponded to ideals of Attalid kingship. Seats of officials in the Seleukid Empire and palaces in Bactria and Kommagene, the subject of the fifth chapter, provide an insight into the position of palace architecture in processes of hybridisation in material culture. The last chapter is a synthesis of patterns of form and function and unifies the conclusions for each separate region. It emerges that shifts in power relations and the structure of the royal court, especially towards the end of the third century BC, were a crucial factor in shaping palace forms. The concluding chapter also provides a view from the West: examples from the late Roman Republic indicate that the role of Hellenistic palaces as models for power display went beyond the limits of royal courts.
Processes of pairbonding
Keywords: pair-bonding
love
kissing
mating strategies
romantic relationships

This thesis expands our understanding of the role of several different mating behaviours in the process of forming and maintaining human mating pair-bonds. Chapter 2 investigated within-sex mating strategies and found that their distribution reflects the presence of two phenotypes, one favouring the pursuit of short-term mating and one the establishment of mating pair-bonds, each driven by prenatal testosterone exposure. Chapter 3 investigated the possible functional role of kissing in mating relationships, and found that it was utilised divergently by individuals pursuing different mating strategies, with those interested in short-term mating utilising it to assess the suitability of potential mates at initial relationship stages, and those interested in long-term mating using it to mediate pair-bond attachments. Chapter 4 examined female attitudes towards kissing across the menstrual cycle and found that attitudes varied with cycle phase, mediated by fluctuations in the hormone progesterone. This chapter also investigated the effects of kissing-related information on mate assessment and found that such information influenced mate desirability, even in the presence of typically dominant visual cues. Lastly, Chapter 5 investigated the cognitive effects of established pair-bonds, finding that individuals ‘in love’ with a mating partner show improved empathising abilities, particularly males when it comes to assessing negative emotional states in others.
Using an evolutionary framework, each chapter of this thesis contributes novel insights to our understanding of these diverse behaviours. These results suggest that that future research must take into account within-sex phenotypic differences in order to truly understand human mating strategy decisions, and that different mating strategy phenotypes might adaptively utilise the same courtship behaviours in divergent ways. Furthermore, these results also suggest that pair-bonding in humans may be a relatively recent phenomenon, and that the formation of such pair-bonds can have adaptive cognitive effects for males within such bonded relationships.
Greek and related pottery from Al Mina. A case study of production, consumption and distribution of Greek pottery in the Eastern Mediterranean from the 9th to the end of the 7th century BC.
Keywords: trade
Greeks in the East
consumption
Greek pottery

The present thesis provides and examination of the Greek imports from Al Mina dating from the end of the 9th to the end of the 7th centuries BC. Al Mina, located on the Orontes river in the Hatay province of Turkey, was excavated by L. Woolley in 1936 and 1937. In particular the large quantities of Greek imports recovered from the sites triggered a debate about the site’s function and it’s foundation date.
In order to overcome past deficiencies the present thesis provides a detailed record of the Greek pottery recovered from the site. The fragments are analysed stylistically and dated in order to establish a local chronology. Further, a detailed statistical study of the whole assemblage, which comprises about 4800 pieces, reveals evidence for local consumption patterns and further sheds light on the ports external contacts during the 8th and 7th centuries BC. The study also entails a contextual analysis of specific Near Eastern sites in order to set Al Mina in its regional context. Three questions are of major concern in this respect: is it possible to identify the users of Greek pottery in the East in terms of their socio-economic background? Further, is Greek pottery better understood as a commodity or as a gift? Finally, What role does Greek tableware play within the trade with other commodities?
The study illustrates that pottery primarily circulated within the lower social classes. It also highlighted a diverse pattern in which high quality products are circulating besides “mass ware”. This can be understood as a diversification process that was initiated in order to reach a wider range of consumers.
Writing the Indian Ocean in selected fiction by Joseph Conrad, Amitav Ghosh, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Lindsey Collen
Keywords: Lindsey Collen
East Africa
Zanzibar
Mauritius
spatial
Joseph Conrad
Indian Ocean
oceanic
Amitav Ghosh
India
Abdulrazak Gurnah

Tracked and inscribed across the centuries by traders, pilgrims and imperial competitors, the Indian Ocean is written into literature in English by Joseph Conrad, and later by selected novelists from the region. As this thesis suggests, the Indian Ocean is imagined as a space of littoral interconnections, nomadic cosmopolitanisms, ancient networks of trade and contemporary networks of cooperation and crime. This thesis considers selected fiction written in English from or about the Indian Ocean—from the particular culture around its shores, and about the interconnections among its port cities. It focuses on Conrad, alongside Amitav Ghosh, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Lindsey Collen, whose work in many ways captures the geographical scope of the Indian Ocean: India, East Africa and a mid-point, Mauritius. Conrad’s work is examined as a foundational text for writing of the space, while the later writers, in turn, proleptically suggest a rereading of Conrad’s oeuvre through an oceanic lens. Alongside their diverse interests and emphases, the authors considered in this thesis write the Indian Ocean as a space in and through which to represent and interrogate historical gaps, the ethics and aesthetics of heterogeneity, and alternative geographies. The Indian Ocean allows the authors to write with empire at a distance, to subvert Eurocentric narratives and to explore the space as paradigmatic of widely connected human relations. In turn, they provide a longer imaginative history and an alternative cognitive map to imposed imperial and national boundaries. The fiction in this way brings the Indian Ocean into being, not only its borders and networks, but also its vivid, sensuous, storied world. The authors considered invoke and evoke the Indian Ocean as a representational space—producing imaginative depth that feeds into and shapes wider cultural, including historical, figurations.
New approaches for improving the immunogenicity of modified vaccinia virus Ankara as a recombinant vaccine vector
Keywords: immunogenicity
Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara
poxvirus
transgene expression
vaccine
viral vector
promoter

The CD8&plus; T cell response to a transgenic antigen expressed in Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) can be augmented with enhanced transgene expression. This thesis presents different approaches to increase transgene expression in MVA. The transgene used was the sequence of the pb9 murine malaria epitope, fused to Renilla luciferase gene, and then fused to a secretion leader sequence (tPA) at the N terminus. The insertion of Internal Ribosomal Entry Site (IRES) upstream of the transgene, driven by the pB8 promoter and inserted at the B8R locus, or the modification of the pB8 promoter by nucleotide substitution both failed to enhance the transgene expression or immunogenicity. However, utilising endogenous promoters such as the pB8, pE3, and pF11 at their natural loci to drive the transgene resulted in lower transgene expression in vitro, but stronger immune responses to the pb9 epitope in BALB/c mice, as compared to the conventional p7.5 or mH5 promoters. Utilising these promoters at the TK locus (ectopic promoters) revealed similar patterns of transgene expression and immunogenicity, indicating that the improved immunogenicity is linked to promoters despite the low transgene expression measured in vitro. Therefore, the pF11 promoter was further studied to determine its activity in vivo and showed higher transgene expression, as compared to the mH5, which correlated with in vivo immunogenicity. Inactivation of the TK gene in MVAs with endogenous promoters showed reduced in vivo transgene expression and immunogenicity. Finally, in a related attempt to enhance MVA immunogenicity, deleting multiple immunomodulatory genes from the MVA genome did not affect MVA cellular immunogenicity in a range of vaccination regimens, testing either the pb9 epitope or the M. tuberculosis antigen 85A.
An archaeology of memory: the 'reinvention' of Roman sarcophagi in Provence during the Middle Ages
Keywords: Provence
sarcophagi
Roman
Middle Ages
medieval

This thesis is an exercise in the archaeology of memory. It investigates the reuse and ‘reinvention’ of late antique sarcophagi during the Middle Ages in the southern part of Gaul, with a particular emphasis on their reinvention for saints. The region of Provence has a large number of sarcophagi reused for the burial of saints (at least 20), including many of its most important holy figures such as Mary Magdalene, Cassian and Honorat.
I shall analyse three groups of sites: the Alyscamps in Arles, Saint-Maximin and Tarascon (the sites connected with Mary Magdalene and her companions) and the monastery of Saint Victor in Marseille. In each case, the sarcophagi became part of an invented narrative created around the imagined antiquity of the site. These narratives varied significantly: some were monastic, others episcopal or biblical, still others heroic: but all were created around antique sarcophagi. Antiquities thus became monumental realms of memory for individuals and events that were thought to have been of significant historical importance in Provence. They formed part of the popular history and collective identity of the region. I will show that their association with saints changed the very function of these objects, as many were no longer seen simply as tombs but also as relics in their own right.
I use a variety of sources to help reconstruct this imagined history, particularly saints’ vitae that often provide information about cults, particularly regarding the location of sarcophagi and sometimes even details of miracles that they produced, but also medieval chartae, sermons, and pilgrims’ descriptions of sites and rituals.
The results of this study show that sarcophagi were of major importance in the religious history of Provence during the Middle Ages, as they became "proof" of the antiquity of local cults and of the histories based on these legends that the region created for itself. My work contributes to our knowledge of medieval Provence and the history of its collections of sarcophagi.
Essays on semantic content and context-sensitivity
Keywords: Compositionality
Variable binding
Narrow content
Quantifiers
Two-dimensionalism
Semantics
Semantic externalism
Semantic internalism
the a priori
Relativism
Operators

The thesis comprises three foundational studies on the topics named in its title, together with an introduction.
Ch. 1 argues against a popular combination of views in the philosophy of language: Propositionality, which says that the semantic values of natural language sentences (relative to contexts) are the propositions they express (in those contexts) and Compositionality, which says that the semantic value of a complex expression of a natural language (in a context) is determined by the semantic values its immediate constituents have (in that same context) together with their syntactic mode of combination. Ch. 1 argues that the Naïve Picture is inconsistent with the presence of variable-binding in natural languages.
Ch. 2 criticizes the strategy of using “operator arguments” to establish relativist conclusions such as: that the truth values of propositions vary with time (Time Relativism) or that they vary with location (Location Relativism). Operator arguments purport to derive the conclusion that propositions vary in truth value along some parameter P from the premise that there are, in some language, sentential operators that operate on or “shift” the P parameter. I identify two forms of operator argument, offer a reconstruction of each, and I argue that both they rely on an implausible, coarse-grained conception of propositions.
Ch. 3 is an assessment of the prospects for semantic internalism. It argues, first, that to accommodate Putnam’s famous Twin Earth examples, an internalist must maintain that narrow semantic content determines different extensions relative to agents and times. Second, that the most thoroughly worked out version of semantic internalism – the epistemic two-dimensionalism (E2D) of David Chalmers – can accommodate the original Twin Earth thought experiments but is refuted by similar thought experiments that involve temporally or spatially symmetric agents.
Gentlemen revolutionaries: power and justice in the new American Republic, 1781-1787
Keywords: early American Republic
United States of America
American revolution

In the aftermath of the American revolution, elites sought to defend their power and status against newly empowered popular governments and egalitarian demands. They developed new discursive and political strategies, transforming pre-revolutionary ideas about authority and legitimacy, moving from traditional forms of hierarchy based on deference and allegiance, towards a structure of power relations based on the inviolability of property and contractual rights. A new American ruling class began to constitute itself through these strategies and ideas during the 1780s, replacing structures of British imperial rule. It did so in response to threats from popular and (white male) egalitarian politics—that is, class struggle and class formation drove each other. Both, in turn, generated identities and ideologies that were central to the development of capitalist ideology in the following century.
This thesis gives an account of that process from the perspective of a variety of American elites, focusing on the fragmented and contradictory nature of elite discourse and strategy as well as on the emergence of commonalities and the role of class interests. It deals with the formation and early controversy around the Society of the Cincinnati; with the development and debate over new conceptions of public education; with the elaboration of various legal and discursive mechanisms for the defence of property rights; with the interrelated roles of land claims, banking, corporations, and the rights of contract; and with the elite sense of the dual threat posed both by state legislative democracy (tyranny) and by rural insurrection (anarchy). It also assesses the role of the 1787 constitutional convention within this process, as a radical move that can be seen as both a culmination and a break from prior elite strategy.
An investigation of neural and behavioural substrates of pathological gambling as an addictive disorder
Keywords: disordered gambling
addictions
pathological gambling
substance use disorders

Pathological gambling is a maladaptive behaviour associated with diminished self-control over persistent compulsive gambling behaviour despite negative consequences. A significant revision to the clinical perspective of pathological gambling is underway, and the disorder will likely be recognized as a behavioural addiction in the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, the neurobiological, cognitive and behavioural processes that drive a ‘behavioural addiction’ are unclear.
A series of five studies were conducted to investigate cognitive mechanisms associated with neural and behavioural substrates of addictive processes in disordered gambling. Studies 1 through 3 investigated neurobiological correlates of addiction in individuals with pathological gambling as compared to individuals with cocaine dependence, and as compared to non-addicted healthy controls. Study 1 investigated brain activity associated with anticipatory and consummatory reward processing during slot-machine gambling. Study 2 investigated executive control processes by examining functional brain networks associated with loss-chasing behaviour. Study 3 employed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to explore alterations in grey-matter volumes in individuals with addictive disorders. Studies 4 and 5 investigated the behavioural substrates of addiction in regular gamblers utilizing emerging and novel research techniques. Study 4 examined continuous hand motion trajectories to explore approach biases and implicit processing. Study 5 employed an adaptive testing methodology to explore the influence of gaming machine preferences on cognitive processes and gambling behaviour.
Research identified neurobiological and behavioural substrates of gambling-related beliefs and biases that indicate significant contributions of cognitive mechanisms to the development and persistence of a behavioural addiction. Results suggest addictive disorders may share some common features of anticipatory reward processing and brain structure (Studies 1 and 3), while neural signals associated losing outcomes and decision-making during gambling may be specific to disordered gambling (Studies 1 and 2). Furthermore, cognitive distortions in regular gamblers may influence reinforcement and executive control processes (Study 4), and individual preferences for gaming speed may influence cognitions and behaviour during machine gambling.
As additional psychological disorders are being considered for classification as behavioural addictions, and clinicians will be faced with the challenges of treating individuals with these non-substance-related addictive disorders, a better understanding of behavioural addictions, through the study of disordered gambling, will be essential under the new diagnostic framework.
Cosmology with power spectrum measurements from galaxy surveys
Keywords: peculiar velocities
dark matter
galaxies
cosmology
dark energy

The nature of dark matter and dark energy are currently two of the most important questions in cosmology. In this thesis, we consider studying the dark universe with the redshifts and peculiar velocities of galaxies. In the first half of the thesis, we analyse current peculiar velocity measurements of the bulk flow of our local volume to estimate the underlying dark matter power spectrum. In the second half of the thesis, we consider the prospects for measuring dark matter and dark energy with future galaxy redshift surveys, particularly via redshift space distortions. Fundamentally, bulk flow measurements and redshift space distortions are both sensitive probes of the power spectrum and growth rate of cosmic structure. In the final chapter, we directly compare power spectrum measurements with both methods.
Shakespearean arrivals: the irruption of character
Keywords: AC Bradley
rupture
Macbeth
drama
Cavell
Kierkegaard
Hamlet
event
subject
King Lear
arrival
tragedy
Zizek
Bergson
Shakespeare
void
Whitehead
Badiou
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
character
dramaturgy
criticism

This thesis re-examines Shakespeare’s creation of tragic character through the concept of ‘arrivals’. What arrives is not an ‘individual’ but what I call a ‘subject’, which is a diffused dramatic process of arriving, rather than a self-contained entity that arrives in a final form. Not all characters are ‘subjects’. A subject only arrives through dramatic ‘events’ that rupture the existing structures of the play-world and the play-text. The generators of these irruptions are found equally in the happenings of plot and in changes of poetic intensity and form. The ‘subject’ is thus a supra- individual irruption that configures new forms of language, structure, and action. Accordingly, I explain why scrupulous historicism’s need for nameable continuums is incommensurate to the irruptive quality of Shakespearean character.
The concepts of ‘process’, ‘subject’ and ‘event’ are informed by a variety of thinkers, most notably the contemporary French philosopher Alain Badiou. Badiou develops an ‘evental’ model of subjectivity in which the subject emerges in fidelity to a ‘truth- event’, which breaks into a situation from its ‘void’. Also important is the process- orientated philosophy of Bergson and Whitehead, which stresses that an entity is not a stable substance but a process of becoming. The underlying connection between the philosophers I embrace – also including the likes of Žižek, Kierkegaard, Latour, Benjamin, and Christian thinkers such as Saint Paul and Luther – is that they establish a creative alternative to the deadlock between treating the subject as either a stable substance (humanism) or a decentred product of its place in the world (postmodernism). The subject is not a pre-existing entity but something that comes to be. It is not reducible to its cultural and linguistic circumstances but is precisely what exceeds those circumstances. Such an excessive creativity is what gives rise to Shakespeare’s subjects and, I argue, underpins the continuing force of his drama. But it also produces profound dangers. In Shakespeare, ‘events’ consistently expose subjects to uncertainty, catastrophe, and horror. And these dangers imperil both the subject and the relationship between Shakespeare and the affirmative philosophy of the event.