VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The demand for small arms and light weapons in Senegal
Keywords: West Africa
conflict
human security
peacebuilding
small arms
disarmament

Most scholarly research and international policy initiatives on small arms control (SALW) tend to focus exclusively on the supply side of arms control, while the demand side for small arms remains relatively unexplored. The general assumption is that by regulating the international and regional supply of SALW, and by preventing and tracking the illicit flow that drift into the open markets, armed violence can be reduced. However, empirical evidence suggests that attempts to control and reduce the supply of weapons through sanctions, embargoes, and regional commitments alone have hardly stopped or mitigated armed conflict. In looking at the global arms trade, one sees that often countries subjected to supply side restrictions have managed to acquire arms through finding willing sellers, black market acquisitions, and/or domestic production.
This dissertation examines the factors that drive the demand for SALW in weak states by identifying the important gaps in literature on demand, providing a consistent and systematic framework to address these gaps, and applying the framework to a single country case study. The main argument in this study is that in order to understand group arming behaviour, its relationship to the dynamics of armed conflict, and the kind of incentives integral to the design of interventions that seek to influence behaviours associated with arms acquisitions during post-conflict arms management, there needs to be a better understanding of the independent variables shaping the demand for SALW. Too often, analysts conflate the reasons why groups acquire SALW with the reasons why groups go to war. However, if the act of acquiring SALW occurs at a different point in time from the process of organising and planning armed conflict, the two events need to be analysed separately. This study uses a human security analytical approach to understand sources of threats to security at the household level. It employs a nationally representative rapid household survey (n=1200) on SALW ownership, acquisition and attitudes, and focus group discussions (n=77) implemented in select locations to unpack responses which have not been thoroughly addressed during the survey. In-depth interviews with key informants, civilian firearm permit records, and public health data were also collected to supplement primary data. The design is applied to a single case study, the Casamance in Senegal.
This study illustrates that an increased level of weapons accumulation does not always necessitate an automatic rise in SALW related violence or local level arms races at the outset of armed conflict. This works contributes to the growing body of literature on SALW by advancing an analytically applicable concept of demand to increase our understanding of what motivates the choices groups make in acquiring and using small arms. Lastly, this study develops a replicable template that can be applied to further research on SALW demand in conflict-ridden regions.
Ethnic mobilisation and the Liberian civil war (1989-2003)
Keywords: moral ethnicity
moral economy
Liberia
civil war
identity politics
horizontal inequalities

This thesis examines the relationship between ethnicity and violent group mobilisation in Liberia’s civil war (1989-2003). It focuses on Gio, Mano and Mandingo mobilisation to investigate how and why internal dynamics about moral norms and expectations motivated leadership calls for violence and ethnic support.
Much of the existing literature interprets popular involvement in violent group mobilisation on the Upper Guinea Coast as a youth rebellion against gerontocracy. I argue that such an approach is incomplete in the Liberian case, and does not account for questions of ethnic mobilisation and the participation of groups such as the Gio, Mano and Mandingo. At the onset of hostilities, civilians in Liberia were not primarily mobilised to fight based on their age, but rather as members of ethnic communities whose membership included different age groups. I explore constructivist approaches to ethnicity to analyse mobilisation for war as the collective 'self-defence' of ethnic groups qua moral communities.
In the prelude to the outbreak of civil war, inter-ethnic inequalities of access to the state and economic resources became reconfigured. Ethnic groups—as moral communities—experienced external 'victimisation' and a sense of internal dissolution, or threatened dissolution. In particular, the understanding of internal reciprocal relations between patrons and clients within ethnic groups was undermined. Internal arguments about morality, personal responsibility, social accountability/justice, increased the pressure on excluded elites and thus incentivised them to pursue violent political strategies. Mobilisation took on an ethnic form mainly because individuals believed that they were fighting to protect the moral communities that generate esteem and ground understandings of good citizenship.
Therefore, ethnic participation in the Liberian countryside differed from the model peasant rebellion that seeks to overthrow the feudal elites. Rather than a revolution of the social order, individuals regarded themselves as protecting an extant ethnic order that provided rights and distributed resources. Even though some individuals fought for political power and resources, and external actors facilitated group organisation through the provision of logistical support, the violence was also an expression of bottom-up moral community crisis and an attempt by politico-military elites to keep their reputation and enforce unity.
The politics of factional conflict and collective violence: the Cultural Revolution in Guangzhou, 1966-1968
Keywords: Cultural Revolution
political movement
China
factional politics
Red Guard

This thesis examines the nature of mass factionalism and rebellious alignment during the Chinese Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1968. This period in Chinese history presents an internecine mass conflict that boasts the largest political upheavals of the 20th century. The most puzzling question of the explosion of this intense rebellious rivalry lies in the mechanisms and processes of insurgents’ political choices: Why did people join and affiliate with different insurgent groups? What decision did people make and what were their reasons?
In conventional social structural analyses of contentious politics, mass actors’ decisions are affected by functionally differentiated interests inherent in their pre-existing social positions. This model defines mass rebellion and factional alignment as a form of interest group politics, attributing political choices to participants’ pre-existing sociopolitical status quo and thus pits different social groups against one another. As a result, similar occupational and status groups in the previous hierarchical structure would make similar political choices that lead them to form well-defined competing factions.
In contrast to this static structural interpretation, I propose a contextual process model to analyze processes of political division and factional contention within political movements. With a case study of Guangzhou, I argue that rebellious alignment was rooted in their political interactions in a rapidly evolving phase of the conflict, rather than rising from the tensions that existed between different socio-economic layers of society. During the times of radical instability such as the Chinese Cultural Revolution, political ambiguity and contingency were the defining characteristics. In such unstable political environment, the basic elements of the movement changed so many times: each phase of the rebel movement projected itself by means of different actors, agendas, targets, and so on. Consequently, individual rebels observed their embedded local political environment, interpreted it, and subsequently chose a course of action in a dynamic process. In this regard, mass actors from identical social strata in the previous hierarchical structure would make different political choices and tactically choose their factional camp.
MicroRNA expression and activity in high-grade serous ovarian cancer
Keywords: genomics
miRNA
ovarian cancer
gene expression
classification

miRNAs are critical modulators in the development and progression of cancer. Emerging evidence suggests that they are drivers of ovarian cancer. A better understanding of the molecular underpinnings of the development, progression and chemoresistance of the disease is critical for the development of new, more eﬀective therapies. Here we explore the expression patterns of miRNAs as they relate to gene expression, as they diﬀer across molecular subtypes of the disease.
We examine the correlation structure of miRNA expression with mRNA expression in two distinct genomic datasets and report on patterns in correlation structure in several subsets of the data. We ﬁnd that the datasets show consistency in their correlation structure, and in the speciﬁc miRNA-mRNA pairs that are either highly positively or negatively correlated. The data include a larger number of strong positive and strong negative correlations than would be expected by chance, indicating that biological relationships between the types of data are detectable in these datasets. We further ﬁnd an enrichment for positively-correlated miRNA-mRNA pairs in which the miRNA is encoded in close proximity to the mRNA. The correlation of miRNA and mRNA is apparently unaﬀected by miRNA and mRNA expression level; similarly the two molecular subtypes do not contain diﬀerences in their correlation.
We ﬁnd that the recently described poorer prognosis, or angiogenic, subtype has a generally lower miRNA activity than the second, non-angiogenic, subtype. The subtypes are characterized by a consistent pattern of diﬀerential miRNA expression. We also report on a switch-like relationship between the expression levels of certain miRNAs and the genes that are anticorrelated with them. We propose these miRNAs drive many of the diﬀerences in the subtypes both directly, by RISC-mediated repression of target messages and indirectly, by repressing transcription factors that regulate expression in the cell.
We build models of patient survival and time-to-relapse based on these miRNA expression data and inferred miRNA activity scores, using several types of univariate and variable selection models. We ﬁnd essentially no survival-predictive information provided by the RE score data. While the direct miRNA expression measurements may contain some predictive power, we ﬁnd that a larger dataset and the segretation of that dataset into distinct molecular phenotypes is likely to be necessary to produce a useful model of survival in ovarian cancer.
Personal status law reform in Egypt: Women’s rights NGOs navigating between Islamic law and human rights
Keywords: human rights
personal status law
family law
women's rights
Islamic law
NGO

This thesis explores the ways in which Islamic law and human rights interact within the work of women’s rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that advocate the reform of the Egyptian Personal Status Law (PSL) in the period between 2006 and 2010.
The thesis shows the relevance of the human rights framework as well as the flexibility of Islamic legal discourse in the work of the NGOs. Drawing on both Islamic law and human rights enabled NGOs to develop a more gender-sensitive religious discourse, which supported their PSL reform demands. However the interaction between these two frameworks was largely affected by several important factors, which sometimes led NGOs to dilute some of their demands. These factors included the implications of the change in the form of Shari‘a as codified law under the modern nation-state; the Egyptian political context both internally and externally; the common local perception that human rights are a Western production and an extension of Western colonialism; the dominant religious but patriarchal discourse governing the PSL; the implications of activism through the NGO structure; and the personal religiosity of individual activists.
The thesis explores NGOs’ PSL reform demands in depth bearing in mind these factors. It investigates NGOs’ discourse and shows its strengths and weaknesses. It shows that the interaction between Islamic law and human rights within NGOs’ work in this particular Egyptian context produced reform demands that were innovative and practically appealing on one hand, but epistemologically problematic in some instances, on another.
Investigating the role of iASPP in cutaneous disorders 
Keywords: developmental eyelid closure
iASPP
wound healing
palmoplantar keratoderma
desmosome
desmoplakin

Desmosomes are intercellular junctions that anchor intermediate filaments to the sites of intercellular contacts. They are critical for maintaining the integrity of tissues that experience constant mechanical and structural stresses, like the skin and heart. Perturbation of desmosomal adhesion can lead to devastating epidermal and myocardial diseases. However, little is known about the regulators of desmosomes and the role of desmosomes in cell signalling events.
Recent work has suggested that iASPP, an inhibitor of the p53 family of proteins, localises at the intercalated discs where desmosomes reside. However, its role at the desmosomes has remained elusive. Thus, in this thesis, it was investigated whether iASPP is a dual function protein that links desmosome adhesion to gene expression and if desmosome-related diseases develop in the absence of iASPP. iASPP was found to be a novel regulator of desmosomes, co-localising with them by physically interacting with the desmosomal components desmoplakin and K5 intermediate filaments. Loss of iASPP resulted in increased phosphorylation and solubilisation of desmoplakin, leading to the formation of K5 aggregates. This culminated in disrupted intercellular adhesion and enhanced cellular migration. Consistent with the role of iASPP in the maintenance of desmosomal adhesion integrity, focal palmoplantar keratoderma was observed in iASPP-deficient mice — a disorder often associated with desmosome dysfunction. This was accompanied by disrupted intracellular signalling, as exemplified by the disrupted expression of differentiation markers; an increase in the thickness of cell layers expressing differentiation marker K1 was noted, and K5 and K6 cells were ectopically expressed throughout the diseased palmoplantar epidermis. Impaired intercellular adhesion and migration had consequences for wound healing, as iASPP-deficient mice exhibited delayed wound closure. Furthermore, defects in eyelid closure in iASPP-deficient mice were found to be due to increased apoptosis. The localisation of apoptotic cells at the leading edge of the eyelid epidermis implied that apoptosis might have occurred due to a loss of cell-matrix or cell-cell contact, i.e. anoikis. Taken together, these results suggest that iASPP is involved in pathological (palmoplantar keratoderma), physiological (wound healing) and developmental processes (embryonic eyelid closure) through its regulation of desmosomes and their dynamics. Therefore, iASPP represents a new candidate gene in cutaneous disorders and could be implicated in a variety of epidermal and myocardial diseases.
Epic reduction: receptions of Homer and Virgil in modern American poetry
Keywords: classical reception
Virgil
Homer
twentieth-century American poetry
modernism

The aim of this project is to account for the widespread reception of the epics of Homer and Virgil by American poets of the twentieth century. Since 1914, an unprecedented number of new poems interpreting the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid have appeared in the United States.
The vast majority of these modern versions are short, combining epic and lyric impulses in a dialectical form of genre that is shaped, I propose, by two cultural movements of the twentieth century: Modernism, and American humanism. Modernist poetics created a focus on the fragmentary and imagistic aspects of Homer and Virgil; and humanist philosophy sparked a unique trend of undergraduate literature survey courses in American colleges and universities, in which for the first time, in the mid-twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of students were exposed to the epics in translation, and with minimal historical contextualisation, prompting a clear opportunity for personal appropriation on a broad scale.
These main matrices for the reception of epic in the United States in the twentieth century are set out in the introduction and first chapter of this thesis. In the five remaining chapters, I have identified secondary threads of historical influence, scrutinised alongside poems that developed in that context, including the rise of Freudian and related psychologies; the experience of modern warfare; American national politics; first- and second-wave feminism; and anxiety surrounding poetic belatedness.
Although modern American versions of epic have been recognised in recent scholarship on the reception of Classics in twentieth-century poetry in English, no comprehensive account of the extent of the phenomenon has yet been attempted. The foundation of my arguments is a catalogue of almost 400 poems referring to Homer and Virgil, written by over 175 different American poets from 1914 to the present. Using a comparative methodology (after T. Ziolkowski, Virgil and the Moderns, 1993), and models of reception from German and English reception theory (including C. Martindale, Redeeming the Text, 1993), the thesis contributes to the areas of classical reception studies and American literary history, and provides a starting point for considering future steps in the evolution of the epic genre.
Isolated Ficus trees and conservation in human-modified landscapes
Keywords: India
Frugivore
Conservation beyond protected areas
Assam
Birds

The destruction of tropical forests is the most concerning current threat to biodiversity. Although protected areas have long been used as the primary tool for biodiversity conservation, there is an increasing need to find suitable conservation strategies for the growing area of human-modified land. This thesis addresses three themes that have been identified as the most pressing areas for research in human-modified landscapes: biodiversity conservation beyond protected areas, forest restoration, and the human–environment relationship. By studying the interactions between birds, plants, and people with isolated Ficus (Moraceae) trees in Assam, India, this thesis reports several important findings: 1) isolated Ficus trees are extraordinarily important to frugivorous bird communities that inhabit human-modified landscapes; 2) the frugivores visiting these isolated trees still sustained the majority of ecological function found in trees close to the forest edge; 3) isolated Ficus trees are also exceptionally important feeding sites for insectivorous birds in human-modified landscapes, compared to other trees; 4) Ficus trees are better restoration nuclei than other isolated trees; 5) although the sacred status of Ficus trees in Assam has a major influence on their abundance and distribution, faith-based values are insufficient in ensuring their conservation. In conclusion, this thesis finds that isolated Ficus trees are critically important micro-sites for conservation in human-modified landscapes, the loss of which may lead to avifaunal collapse and a reduction in restoration potential. However, by stressing their ecological and cultural properties, it may be possible to build a strong case for the conservation of isolated Ficus trees in Assam and elsewhere.
Linguistic regulation and interactional reality: a sociolinguistic study of call centre service transactions
Keywords: sociolinguistics
Danish
linguistic regulation
call centres
English

This thesis aims to contribute to the study of workplace talk, language and gender, and the sociolinguistics of globalization by exploring the phenomenon of ‘linguistic regulation’ in call centres. ‘Linguistic regulation’ refers to the practice, now widespread in the globalized service economy, of codifying and enforcing rules for employees’ use of language in service interactions with customers. Drawing on authentic service interactions from call centres in the UK and Denmark, and interviews and communication material from both those countries as well as Hong Kong and the Philippines, this study shows that linguistic regulation exerts a significant influence on the language used by call centre agents, and suggests that this has implications for all three areas of inquiry. In relation to the study of workplace talk, the findings raise questions about the degree of local management and individual speaker agency that has often been asserted in previous work. In the area of language and gender studies, the finding that female speakers in both countries show a higher degree of compliance with linguistic regulation than male ones is related to ongoing debates about the local variability of gender. It is argued that the field may benefit from supplementing the currently favoured locally-based methods with one which seeks to link linguistic behaviour with supra-local systems of inequality. Finally, in relation to the sociolinguistics of globalization, this thesis documents the existence of a distinct, globally prescribed, call centre style which is culturally marked as North-American. In practice, this style is locally inflected, with British agents exhibiting greater conformity to the prescriptions than their Danish counterparts. It is argued that this may be because the prescribed style conflicts with the Danish cultural preference for ‘getting to the point’. These findings highlight the importance of considering language in the context of a global system. The thesis concludes by considering what the research it is based on may contribute, not only to academic debates in sociolinguistics and the sociology of work, but also to professional discussions within the call centre industry.