VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The right to political speech and the ban on hate speech
Keywords: freedom of expression
free speech
legitimacy
hate speech

This thesis contributes to the debate on hate speech by arguing for a compromise solution. It breaks with the absolutist solutions under which either all hate speech should be banned or all should be protected. The prohibition of some hateful expressions is assumed to be legitimate. This follows the European constitutional tradition. However, the prohibitionist norm should be reconciled with the right to political speech. This flows from the normative importance of free political expression that is widely endorsed. The research relies on three theoretical pillars. First, it defines the strongest democratic justificatory case for political speech in liberal democracies. Then, it argues for a richer understanding of what should count as political speech. The proposed approach assigns more weight to the political circumstances than to the sheer content of speech. The argument then proceeds through investigating the strongest objections against protecting hate speech. These prohibitionist arguments assert that hate speech incites against, silences or vilifies vulnerable groups, moreover that hate speech harms democracy. The thesis disputes these objections as applied to political hate speech. The conclusion is that political hate speech narrowly defined should be an exception from the otherwise legitimate ban on hate speech. In the final two chapters, the theoretical findings are applied to the case law of the ECtHR and to the United Kingdom’s statutory hate speech regulation. The critical evaluation of hate speech judgments and statutes is coupled with suggestions how to reform the broadly prohibitionist position that these jurisdictions had come to endorse.
The grand machinery of the world: race, global order and the black Atlantic
Keywords: Race
Internationalism
Africa
Nationalism
Postcolonialism

This thesis examines the ways in which the interwar global order came to be theorised by African writers, and those of African descent, in specific territories bordering the Atlantic. It asks how those views can inform a richer understanding of the construction of our contemporary world. In particular, it seeks to understand the centrality of race to the imperial order and to many of the oppositional projects that emerged in relation to the order. A global order perspective can, it is argued, help to explain the salience of race to the interwar world as well as its enduring power beyond that period.
Using as its primary sources the vibrant black print cultures and circuits of the interwar period, the thesis examines the close concomitance of national and transnational thinking during the ‘Belle Époque’; the global vision of Marcus Garvey’s black nationalism in the United States; the emergence of critical theorisations of colonialism across British-controlled West Africa; the languages of race and whiteness in interwar France, from the black press of Paris to the early texts of Négritude; and the role played by Haiti, Liberia, and Ethiopia—the only independent states of the period governed by Africans or African-descended people—as instantiations of the racialised nature of interwar sovereignty, targets of both imperial designs and anticolonial activism.
Interrogating the conceptual boundaries between race, nationalism, and pan-nationalism, the thesis suggests that such affinities are best understood not as abstractly-definable and opposing doctrines, but as political projects that have emerged historically in relation to global order as a whole and out of specifically enabling material conditions. As well as assessing diverse bodies of writing in terms of their contribution to international theory, the thesis explores how changes in material conditions and imperial infrastructures—particularly the spread of newspapers—facilitated a range of counter-readings of dominant discourses, imaginative acts of traversal, and other practices of oppositional power, whose consequences reach far beyond the interwar period.
Incentives for teachers: a theoretical framework and a structural model
Keywords: set identification
intrinsic motivation
structural model
performance pay
motivation crowding out
group incentives

This study provides structural analysis of teacher behaviour under the provision of individual and group monetary incentive schemes using data from a randomised control trial conducted in India (Muralidharan and Sundaraman, 2011). I develop a theoretical principal-agent model explicitly allowing for both intrinsic motivation and a crowding out effect of explicit performance pay on intrinsic incentives. Theoretically, I show that intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation through performance pay are substitutes under the optimal incentive scheme in the presence of motivation crowding out. Applying the theoretical framework for structural analysis, I identify the sets of teacher heterogeneity consistent with each effort choice in the treatment and control group schools. Using the barycenters of these sets, I calculate that increasing the effort of the average teacher who did not change his/her effort under the experimental incentive payment of Rs. 500, would require increasing the incentive bonus to Rs. 730 under the individual incentive scheme. The corresponding figure lies between Rs. 720 - Rs. 1020 depending on the reported group cooperation level under the group incentive scheme.
Sensorimotor adaptation: mechanisms, modulation and rehabilitation potential
Keywords: Computational neuroscience
Sensorimotor adaptation
Stroke rehabilitation
Neuroimaging
Brain stimulation

Adaptation is a fundamental property of the nervous system that underlies the maintenance of successful actions through flexible reconfiguration of sensorimotor processing. The primary aims of this thesis are 1) to investigate the computational and neural underpinnings of sensorimotor memory formation during prism adaptation (PA) in humans, and 2) how they interact with anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) of the primary motor cortex (M1), in order to 3) improve efficacy of prism therapy for post-stroke spatial neglect.
In chapter 4, we modify an influential state-space model of adaptation in order to characterize the contribution of short and long memory timescales to motor behaviour as sensorimotor after-effects (AEs) develop during PA. This enables us, in the multimodal 7 Tesla MRI experiment reported in chapter 5, to demonstrate that the level of M1 excitation:inhibition causally sets the relative contribution of long versus short memory timescales during PA, thus determining behavioural persistence of the AE at retention in young healthy adults. This finding offers a bridge between different levels of investigation by providing a biologically plausible neuro-computational model of how sensorimotor memories are formed and enhanced by a-tDCS. In chapter 6, we use the ageing motor system as a model of reduced GABAergic inhibition and show that the age-related decrease in M1 GABA explains why older adults demonstrate more persistent prism AEs. Taken together, these data indicate that the reduction in M1 GABAergic inhibition via excitatory a-tDCS during PA has the potential to enhance persistence of adaptation memory in both young and older adults.
Informed by these results, we subsequently ask whether standard (multi-session) PA therapy combined with left M1 a-tDCS translates to greater and/or longer-lasting clinical improvements in post-stroke spatial neglect patients. In chapter 7, we compare the multimodal neuroimaging data of six neglect patients to normative data of age-matched controls. We show that in all patients, the lesion interrupted long-range frontoparietal connections, and we provide direct evidence for a pathological left dominance of activity within the lateral occipital cortex during deployment of bilateral visuospatial attention. In chapter 8, we present the behavioural performance of these patients throughout the two phases of the clinical study (i.e. before and after either PA + real M1 a-tDCS or PA + sham M1 atDCS). There was no clear effect of a-tDCS on the therapeutic effect of PA in these patients.
The results of the studies presented in this thesis provide a novel insight into the neurocomputational mechanisms of sensorimotor memory formation and its modulation by a-tDCS in the healthy brain. Further investigation of how these mechanisms relate to therapeutic improvements following PA in certain neglect patients is needed.
Ce qui s’enseigne. The Querelle des collèges and the Emergence of Littérature, 1750–1789
Keywords: Émile, ou de l'éducation
Querelles
Littérature
Rousseau
École militaire
Collèges
Jesuits

This study examines an important eighteenth-century French querelle about literary education which has so far gone unacknowledged by scholars as a querelle and which, I argue, helped redefine contemporary notions of littérature. This querelle is the series of disputes about how to reform literary education in the collèges, which gathered momentum in the early 1760s, following the expulsion of the Jesuits and the publication of Rousseau’s Émile (1762). I propose that we call this querelle the Querelle des collèges.
Using a combination of close reading, sociological methodologies, and scholarly approaches to the study of early modern querelles, I examine how a diverse corpus of texts debated how to reform collège literary teaching practices. By resituating Émile in this context, I show that it was one among many interventions in the Querelle des collèges. My study of this Querelle demonstrates that querelleurs increasingly reached a consensus that practices associated with the disciplines of rhétorique and belles-lettres should be replaced by new practices of littérature, which were intended to turn boys into French ‘grands hommes’. This Querelle was not only constituted by texts, but also by pedagogical practices, as evidenced by the results of my original archival research into the literary teaching practices of the École royale militaire, founded in 1751. Finally, my analysis situates the Querelle des collèges in the context of broader eighteenth-century debates about education, which I argue should be understood as the Querelle de l’éducation, and I provide the first corpus of this Querelle.
This thesis challenges scholarly claims that littérature is a nineteenth-century invention. It argues, instead, that modern notions of littérature as ‘an aesthetically pleasing, valued text’, and ‘a national canon’, which began to appear in the late seventeenth century, were stabilised and legitimised by being written into the school discipline of littérature, which emerged between 1750 and the Revolution, in the context of the Querelle des collèges.
Mathematical modelling of elastoplasticity at high stress
Keywords: Equation of state
Plasticity
Asymptotic analysis
Elasticity

This thesis is concerned with the mathematical modelling of elastic-plastic deformation in regimes of stress far exceeding the yield stress. Such scenarios are typically encountered in violent impact testing, where millimetre-thick samples of metal are subjected to pressures on the order of the bulk modulus of the material.
We begin with an overview of violent impact testing, with particular attention paid to a specific class of experiments known as isentropic compression experiments (ICEs), which will provide motivation for the mathematical modelling and analysis in subsequent chapters. In chapter 2, by appealing to sound notions from rational mechanics and thermodynamics, we construct a mathematical model which aims to encapsulate the essential phenomena involved in violent elastic-plastic deformation. This is followed in chapter 3 with a numerical analysis of the mathematical model in uniaxial strain, which is the geometry relevant ICEs. In chapters 4 and 5, we corroborate the observations made in chapter 3 via a systematic mathematical analysis. In particular, our focus will be on the elastic and plastic waves that can propagate through finite metal samples during isentropic compression. Finally, in chapter 6, we explore the applicability of our model to other geometries, specifically the radially axisymmetric expansion of a circular cavity embedded in an infinite elastic-plastic medium. We conclude with a summary of our findings and suggest some avenues for future investigation.
The response of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to the French Revolution
Keywords: Goethe
conservatism
political philosophy
French Revolution

This thesis seeks to explain the reasons behind Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s critical response to the French Revolution, and to identify his broader political views. It casts Goethe as a reform-minded conservative, who strove to advance civilisation and law-abiding liberty, and deplored tyranny, whether of the few or of the many. He deemed the Revolution politically and socially destructive, as it countered Enlightenment values of reason, tolerance, independent thought, and self-cultivation. While acknowledging the faults of the traditional ruling elite of the monarchy and aristocracy, Goethe also recognised the inherently flawed nature of human beings. This led him to support modest changes to redress specific grievances, rather than to overturn an entire political system in the utopian hope of realising a vice-ridden ‘brotherhood of Man’. The fictional works indicate an author who favoured clearly definable freedoms over an abstract ‘universal’ freedom, who believed that Bürger should develop their intellect and find an occupation best suited to their personal attributes, and that the most temperate and politically astute among them should influence government by co-operating with aristocrats. Goethe also portrays the fall of the ancien régime as largely self-inflicted, presenting many selfish and gullible courtiers, and incompetent kings. He appears to lament its demise, however, and not wish for a repeat in Germany, as the insurgent Bürger-dominated and/or republican regimes seem even more reckless. The advocates of 'liberté, égalité, fraternité' generally come across as perilously naïve or fraudulent, often using altruistic rhetoric to conceal egocentric and vindictive aims. The best cure for a flagging regime is (sometimes considerable) reform, not revolution. Political power should be treated with humility and self-restraint, and the relationship between rulers and subjects should be as intimate as possible. Above all, no part of the social hierarchy should suffer oppression from another, and people should be free to express various opinions, and criticise their government. For Goethe, the Revolution thwarted such principles.
Coeliac disease: health-related quality of life and patients' experiences of health care services
Keywords: Patient-reported outcome measure
Patient experience
Quality of life
Coeliac disease

Coeliac disease (CD) is a chronic gastrointestinal condition, the only treatment for which is a gluten-free diet (GFD). Following a GFD is restrictive, burdensome, and can impact health-related quality of life (HRQOL). People with CD can experience long delays to diagnosis and evidence suggests large variations in follow-up care, but the relationship between health care experiences and HRQOL is unknown.
The main aim of this research was to develop a patient-reported outcome measure and patient experience questionnaire, and use these to investigate the relationship between adults’ experiences of health care services and HRQOL in CD. The questionnaires, named the Coeliac Disease Assessment Questionnaire (CDAQ) and the Coeliac Disease Patient Experience Questionnaire (CD-PEQ), were developed following qualitative interviews with adults with CD, and refined with input from experts, and cognitive interviews. The CDAQ was also subject to a translatability assessment to assess its linguistic and cultural translatability, and a cross-sectional survey to assist with item reduction and scale generation. Members of Coeliac UK (n=267) completed the CDAQ and CD-PEQ, together with the SF-36v2 and demographic questions as part of a postal survey.
Psychological health, vitality, general health, and dietary burden were found to have the greatest impact on HRQOL, with physical health and social isolation the least affected. HRQOL was found to have a strong correlation with patients’ experiences of health care services. Aspects most strongly related were: the provision of information; communication with HCPs; difficulty obtaining prescriptions; and GPs' knowledge.
This research has identified aspects of health care services that are strongly related to HRQOL in CD. Health care providers are recommended to focus service improvement efforts on these areas. A reliable and valid disease-specific patient-reported outcome measure and patient experience questionnaire have been developed as part of this study. The CDAQ is suitable for use in research studies, including clinical trials, to assess HRQOL in CD.
Kinship and strategies for family survival on Bodmin Moor during the long nineteenth century (1793 - 1911)
Keywords: micro-history
reconstitution
Cornwall
Cornish

This thesis has used family reconstitution techniques in order to analyse kinship patterns for the Bodmin Moor parishes of St Neot and Bolventor in Cornwall. A kinship database of more than 13,000 individuals was created and kinship links between households in 1793, 1851 and 1911 were then measured. The results revealed the persistence of dense kinship networks that were very different from those found in English studies, and similar to those found in Wales and Brittany.
Twelve factors were identified that contributed to the creation and persistence of high kinship densities. However, the principal underlying reason was the remarkably consistent spatial pattern of Cornish rural society. St Neot and Bolventor, with their structures of hamlets and small, isolated farm settlements, matched the pattern found across most of Cornwall. It was a structure that enabled people to find both marriage partners and employment in close proximity to their places of birth.
Kinship densities were reinforced by remnants of ancient Cornish manorial systems that survived until the end of the eighteenth century, and then by the ultra-local structures of Methodism in the following century. The latter grew at the same time as the rapid expansion in copper mining. Surprisingly, migrating miners from mid and west Cornwall were also found to have dense local kinship networks. Enclosure also reinforced kinship patterns because of the security of tenure offered to occupiers of the newly created moorland farms, and also because the spatial pattern of settlements repeated the structure of lowland communities enclosed in the medieval period.
The collapse in mining and the greater general mobility of the population did result in a weakening of kinship densities towards the end of the nineteenth century. Despite this, first-order kinship links at the beginning of the twentieth century remained higher than for any comparable study of modern or early modern agricultural or mining communities in England, yet remarkably similar to those in Wales. This shared Welsh and Cornish kinship culture provides fresh evidence, along with other factors such as religious experience and a Brittonic language heritage, to support a Celtic narrative for Cornwall that is perhaps more comprehensive and enduring than has sometimes been supposed.
Prospects for enhancing malaria vaccine efficacy by combining pre-erythrocytic antigens
Keywords: Malaria
Vaccine
Immunology

Malaria causes almost half a million deaths each year. Existing interventions will almost certainly not be enough to tackle this enormous public health problem on their own. An effective vaccine is urgently needed. The leading malaria vaccine, RTS,S, confers suboptimal protective efficacy, and in addition targets only Plasmodium falciparum and not the other major species of human malaria, P. vivax. This thesis investigates the potential of combining pre-erythrocytic malaria vaccines as a means of enhancing protective efficacy. A novel mathematical model was developed which expresses probability of protection as a function of vaccine-induced humoural and cellular responses. The model predicts that combining partially effective vaccines should result in more than additive improvements in protective efficacy. This was supported by an experiment combining Rv21, a P. vivax circumsporozoite virus-like particle, with viral vectored P. vivax TRAP, the two leading pre-erythrocytic malaria vaccine antigens; this combination raised protective efficacy from 50% and 0%, respectively, to 100% sterile protection. It was also found that antigenic interference, a reduction in anti-CSP titres when Rv21 and PvTRAP are combined, occurred only in the presence of Matrix M adjuvant, and not when using alum, AddaVax or no adjuvant. With a view to creating a single-component multi-antigen vaccine, which would be more cost-effective than a multi-component vaccine, experiments were carried out to establish the virus-like particle Qβ as a platform capable of eliciting protective immunity via the display of short peptides derived from the CSP repeat region of both P. vivax and P. falciparum. For the first time, a tetramer peptide derived from the CSP repeat region of P. vivax VK210, AGDR, was shown capable of eliciting protective immunity alone. Finally, five novel linear B-cell epitopes were discovered, one from P. falciparum CSP, three from P. vivax TRAP and one from TRSP, each capable of conferring partial protection on mice. These epitopes were identified using novel screening methods, using sera from whole-protein vaccinated mice or by exploiting conservation within invasion protein sequences. Two of the protective epitopes, (NANP)6 and (ADGN long) were combined and found to enhance protective efficacy as predicted by the mathematical model. Thus this thesis lays the groundwork for the development of a single-component multi-epitope malaria vaccine with enhanced protective efficacy.
Supergravity duals to five-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories
Keywords: Dualities
AdS/CFT correspondence
Supergravity
Gauge Theories

In this thesis we study gauge/gravity duals in the 5d/6d AdS/CFT correspondence. We start with field theories defined on squashed five-spheres with SU(3) × U(1) symmetry. These five-sphere backgrounds are continuously connected to the round sphere. We find a one-parameter family of 3/4 BPS deformations and a two-parameter family of (generically) 1/4 BPS deformations. The gravity duals are constructed in Euclidean Romans F(4) gauged supergravity in six dimensions, and uplift to massive type IIA supergravity. We holographically renormalize the Romans theory, and use our general result to compute the renormalized on-shell actions for the solutions. The results agree perfectly with the large N limit of the dual gauge theory partition function, which we compute using large N matrix model techniques. In addition we compute BPS Wilson loops in these backgrounds, both in supergravity and in the large N matrix model, again finding precise agreement. We conjecture a general formula for the partition function on any five-sphere background, which for fixed gauge theory depends only on a certain supersymmetric Killing vector. We then proceed to study Euclidean Romans supergravity in six dimensions with a non-trivial Abelian R-symmetry gauge field. We show that supersymmetric solutions are in one-to-one correspondence with solutions to a set of differential constraints on an SU(2) structure. As an application of our results we (i) show that this structure reduces at a conformal boundary to the five-dimensional rigid supersymmetric geometry previously studied, (ii) find a general expression for the holographic dual of the VEV of a BPS Wilson loop, matching an exact field theory computation, (iii) construct holographic duals to squashed Sasaki-Einstein backgrounds, again matching to a field theory computation, and (iv) find new analytic solutions to the squashed five-sphere background. We also analyse the classification of gravity duals with zero B-field.