VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Officially autonomous: anglophone literary cultures and the state since 1945
Keywords: British state
Arts Council
The state
multiculturalism

This thesis examines the role of the modern democratic state as a sponsor of literature in the English-speaking world between 1945 and 2000. Working with, and modifying, Bourdieu's conception of the literary field, it considers the often paradoxical consequences of the state's shift from censor to guarantor in this period. Granting 'official autonomy' in this way had numerous unexpected and often fraught effects on the writers, readers and institutions that shaped the literary field. To keep this large subject firmly based on available historical evidence, this thesis considers a series of distinct 'moments' of state intervention through detailed case studies of three specific institutions: the international Congress for Cultural Freedom (1960-1968), the Arts Council of Great Britain (1960-1990), and the private examination boards that implemented the National Curriculum in the UK (1989-2000). In each case, it shows how these different but related moments, and the larger diachronic narrative of which they form a part, take place against a backdrop of interlinking historical and socio-political transformations, including the Cold War, decolonisation and multiculturalism.
Drawing on evidence in literary and other public archives, the thesis not only brings into view questions about the public status of literature in recent history, it shows how an understanding of the state’s role enables us to think differently about the cultural consequences of modern democratic liberalism. The methodological emphasis it places on institutions challenges critical and popular orthodoxies, associated chiefly with the liberal tradition, which conventionally set the overbearingly powerful and monolithic state against the inescapably vulnerable but also courageous individual. The alternative picture that emerges reveals a world in which the actions of various individuals can be understood partly via the institutional roles they perform, and institutions operate as sites that negotiate competing ideas of literature and literariness, and implement state power in variegated, diffuse and contested ways. Each of the case studies provides a different, though comparable, perspective on this larger picture. As such, the thesis opens up a nuanced way of analysing the interventions of writers, critics and reading communities, while also offering a differentiated approach to understanding the state and its evolution.
Genetic and genomic analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana with low-coverage next-generation sequencing data
Keywords: Recombination
Genetic variation
Low-coverage sequencing
Structural variation
Genomic imputation
Next-generation sequencing

Next-generation sequencing technologies have transformed our understanding of genetic variation segregating in populations and its relationship with phenotypic traits. Sequencing large populations at low coverage, thus sampling only a fraction of the genome of each individual, may increase statistical power in genetic mapping [Pasaniuc,2012] compared to genotyping arrays. This thesis explores several novel applications of low-coverage population-based sequencing, using data from 488 recombinant inbred lines from the MAGIC population of Arabidopsis thaliana, descended from 19 inbred founder accessions. Based on the full catalogue of genetic variation that is available in the 19 founders [Gan, 2011], I describe every MAGIC genome as a mosaic of founder haplotypes and analyse the accuracy of the mosaics by simulation. I then use the mosaics in three ways. First, I investigate structural variation using a novel method that treats anomalies in the alignment of sequencing reads, potentially representing signatures of structural variants (SVs), as quantitative traits. These can be mapped genetically to identify loci in which genetic variation correlates with signatures of SVs. The method can distinguish short- (e.g. indels) and long-range (e.g. translocations) SVs and has led to the discovery of a large number of SVs segregating in the MAGIC population, including thousands of long-range SVs. I show that SVs have a significant impact on silencing gene expression and that they explain a large fraction of the phenotypic variation in several physiological traits. Second, I use the mosaic structure of the MAGIC lines to map recombination events and analyse lineage-specific recombination in MAGIC. I infer recombination hotspots and compared recombination in the MAGIC lines to the Arabidopsis genetic map. Finally, I detect bacterial endosymbionts hosted in MAGIC genomes from unmapped reads that have high sequence similarity with bacterial DNA and examine whether variation in the presence of endosymbionts can be explained by host genetic variation.
Keeping up with technologies: revisiting the meaning and role of internet access in digital inclusion
Keywords: digital divide
internet use
smartphones
mobile internet
new media

The ways people go online have been transformed by the emergence of new mobile Internet technologies. As modes of Internet access are becoming increasingly diverse, this thesis sets out to examine how various forms of access shape engagement with online resources. Inequalities in Internet access have been neglected in the "second-level digital divide" research, which has focused on differences in skills and usage. Thus, I argue that inequalities of access have to be revisited and their role in digital inclusion reassessed.
To study individuals' arrangements of Internet-enabled devices and locations holistically and as a dynamic entity, access is conceptualised as infrastructure. Theoretically, I distinguish between material dimensions of access and social practices shaping access, and draw on existing models of digital inclusion to examine the role of these dimensions and practices in online engagement. Empirically, a mixed methods research design is employed, complementing longitudinal analyses of survey data representative of the British population with 29 qualitative interviews with British Internet users.
This study contributes to our understanding of material and social dimensions of access and their impact on Internet use patterns. First, the conceptualisation of Internet access as infrastructure is empirically validated. Second, quality, locality and ubiquity are established as material dimensions of access, where offline social and economic resources most strongly affect inclusion in high-quality, multi-local and ubiquitous Internet access. Third, three specific practices encompassing how users develop and maintain their access infrastructures are identified: spotlighting, distributing and being stranded. They reflect differences in roles Internet technologies play in individuals' daily lives as well as differences in availability of offline resources. Fourth, the results show that, controlling for a range of digital inclusion factors, the access inequalities have significant effects on a range of online engagement types, but are most strongly related to commercial and communication uses of the Internet.
In sum, this study provides a nuanced understanding of how different mechanisms underlie the development, maintenance and engagement with Internet access, depending on whether access arrangements are shaped by digital exclusion or choice. Specifically, by outlining critical differences among all-round, mobile-mostly, mobile-only and home-only Internet users, broader policy and research implications are also discussed.
The development of resilience in two cohorts of older, single women, living on their own, in a small rural town in Australia
Keywords: rural resilience
community resilience
resilience
older women

Australian rural women are stereotypically perceived as stoic, self-reliant, and used to handling adversity. Since this iconic portrayal of resilience is traditionally (and contemporaneously) located in the harsh countryside, it is surprising that there are few articles examining this environment, person, and resilience nexus. This thesis addresses this omission by exploring the development of resilience in two cohorts of single, older women, living on their own in rural Australia. Accordingly, an ethnographic study was conducted in a small Australian town in 2012. Documentary evidence, participant observation, and interviews captured the separate and intersecting environment and person related contributors to resilience, mediated and moderated through situational relations over time. The results revealed the persistence and reinforcement of rural historical cultural stereotypes about older women, and the systematic exclusion of younger women retirees who chose to move to the town but did not fit these embedded cultural norms. When confronted with a societal attitude that socially constrains their social identity and role, and boxes them in, the older old women pragmatically accepted their situation, and successfully adapted to their new circumstances. For them, resilience is a reactive response to regain and maintain equilibrium in their lives. Conversely, the late middle-aged retirees were boxed out from actively participating and contributing to the community; for these women, resilience is equated to resignation and endurance. And as there is a symbiotic relationship between a town and its residents, this community represents a constraining force, both in terms of its stalled response to sociodemographic and structural change, and its passive indifference to the older women as exemplars of resilience. In effect, the community exerts an oppressive, dampening effect on the women’s agentic resiliency; thus contradicting the prevailing literature where resilience is widely portrayed as a positive and active agentic concept.
#Ebola and Twitter: lessons learned
Keywords: social media
CDC
ebola virus disease
Twitter
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
WHO
World Health Organization
health communication
ebola

Background: Twitter plays a role in information distribution during emergencies, and it is widely used by public health organisations during public health crises. Twitter has facilitated transmission of both accurate information and misinformation during the West African Ebola outbreak.
Study objective: To investigate the ways in which Twitter was used during the West African Ebola outbreak by the general Twitter population as well as by the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in order to better inform future efforts to harness the public health potential of Twitter.
Methods: The full historic Twitter dataset of over 60 million Ebola tweets from December 2013 to May 2015 was analysed using a platform for machine data analysis (Splunk Enterprise 6.3.0). In addition to descriptive statistics of Twitter use and engagement, content analysis was conducted to categorise Twitter accounts and tweets of interest.
Main results: The temporal tweet frequency distribution corresponded with key Ebola news events with a substantial proportion of tweets coming from West Africa. News, humour, Twitter celebrities’, and celebrities’ accounts achieved the highest level of engagement with the general Twitter population. The WHO and CDC also ranked high in engagement levels. Both the WHO and CDC actively used Twitter to communicate with the Twitter public. However, their strategies at disseminating public health information and guidance varied.
Conclusion: Twitter activity during the Ebola outbreak was more likely to coincide with news events rather than disease dynamics. Twitter provides a unique opportunity for public health organisations to listen to their audience and to share scientifically accurate information. Public health organisations could do more to engage with the Twitter population during the West African Ebola outbreak. Such organisations may benefit from employing humorous and emotional content and/or collaborating with accounts with a high level of Twitter engagement.
Central African lowland forest resilience to fire disturbance and climate change : answers from the past
Keywords: tropical forest
palaeoecology
quaternary
Congo

Tropical rainforests have been and will remain subjected to various natural and human pressures, which have already led to rainforest degradation and disappearance. This thesis aims to improve our current knowledge of the likely future trajectory of the persistence of the tropical African rainforest under climate change and fire impact through reconstruction of past vegetation and burning dynamics using palaeoecological records from sedimentary sequences.
I used several types of palaeoecological proxies (i.e., fossil charcoal, phytolihs, and fossil pollen) from sediment records collected in the Sangha River region, in the northern part of the Republic of Congo, to explore past fire dynamics between four different forest types (i.e. mixed forest, swamp forest, Marantaceae forest and monodominant Gilbertiodendron forest), and to reconstruct the vegetation history of two endemic types of African forest i.e., the Marantaceae forest and the monodominant Gilbertiodendron forest, for the last 2500 cal BP. Lastly, I combined fossil pollen records from the literature with ecological niche models (ENM) to explore the relationship between climate and rainforest distribution over the last 6000 cal BP.
My results demonstrate that the past frequency of predominately human-induced fires was significantly higher in areas currently covered by Marantaceae forest compared to areas currently covered by any of the other forest types, and that this high frequency of fires has therefore contributed to the maintenance of Marantaceae forest. Thus, the two Marantaceae forest sites I studied are of recent formation (around 450-600 cal BP) and were previously covered by the mixed forest type. Out of all the considered forest types, the mixed forest is the most vulnerable to both climatic and fire disturbances while the monodominant Gilbertiodendron forest has been most resilient to past climatic events, with no major change in its composition for the last 2700 cal BP. I also found that monodominant Gilbertiodendron forest has persisted during this time period mainly under the absence of burning which supports the hypothesis of long term minimal burning disturbance being a key factor for monodominant forest persistence. At the biome level, my results show that the relationship between climate and African rainforest has partially shifted over the last 6000 years, thus opposing the idea of climatic niche conservatism of this biome in the African continent.
This thesis provides new information of the past ecological responses of African rainforest to major environmental disturbances. African rainforests represent a globally important and largely understudied forest region, and my thesis offers fundamental insights into its ecology and biogeography.
Development and application of a new class of potent bifunctional organocatalysts
Keywords: organocatalysis

This thesis describes the development and application of a new class of bifunctional organocatalysts, incorporating the novel triaryliminophosphorane organosuperbases, for asymmetric synthesis. This thesis seeks to address some of the limitations of organocatalysis, namely long reaction times, high catalyst loadings and poor atom economy was sought. Chapter 2 outlines the design and synthesis of the bifunctional iminophosphorane (BIMP) catalysts such as 1 which were synthesised on gram scale.
Chapter 3 describes the application of the BIMP catalysts to the first general organocatalytic enantioselective ketimine nitro-Mannich reaction. Twenty ketimines 2 were investigated and the β-nitroamine products 3 were formed in up to 97% yield and 95% ee. The reaction was demonstrated on a 10 gram preparative scale with 1 mol% catalyst.
Chapter 4 describes the first organocatalytic enantioselective sulfa-Michael addition of alkyl and benzylic thiols 5 to simple α-substituted α,β-unsaturated esters 6. The reaction required the development of BIMP catalysts such as 4 that incorporated an amide thiourea H-bond donor group. 31 examples were investigated with quantitative yields and up to 96% ee obtained in the formation of β-mercaptoesters 7. Catalyst loadings as low as 0.05 mol% were achieved on a 100 mmol scale.
Chapter 5 describes some structure and stability properties of the BIMP catalysts. The work disclosed in chapter 6 demonstrates the rate enhancements of the BIMP catalysts relative to tertiary amine bifunctional organocatalysts in the key steps of Dixon's total syntheses of nakadomarin A. Rate enhancements of up to 1300 times were observed in related reactions such as the Michael addition of β-amido ester 8 to nitrostyrene 7.
Chapter 7 describes a miscellany of reactions catalysed by the BIMP catalysts to demonstrate the efficacy of the new catalysts. The organocatalytic enantioselective addition of nitromethane to β-substituted α,β-unsaturated esters 10 such as methyl crotonate is disclosed with quantitative yields and enantiomeric excesses up to 73% achieved.
Completeness and the ZX-calculus
Keywords: quantum computing
stabilizer quantum mechanics
graphical calculus
categorical quantum mechanics

Graphical languages offer intuitive and rigorous formalisms for quantum physics. They can be used to simplify expressions, derive equalities, and do computations. Yet in order to replace conventional formalisms, rigour alone is not sufficient: the new formalisms also need to have equivalent deductive power. This requirement is captured by the property of completeness, which means that any equality that can be derived using some standard formalism can also be derived graphically.
In this thesis, I consider the ZX-calculus, a graphical language for pure state qubit quantum mechanics. I show that it is complete for pure state stabilizer quantum mechanics, so any problem within this fragment of quantum theory can be fully analysed using graphical methods. This includes questions of central importance in areas such as error-correcting codes or measurement-based quantum computation. Furthermore, I show that the ZX-calculus is complete for the single-qubit Clifford+T group, which is approximately universal: any single-qubit unitary can be approximated to arbitrary accuracy using only Clifford gates and the T-gate. In experimental realisations of quantum computers, operations have to be approximated using some such finite gate set. Therefore this result implies that a wide range of realistic scenarios in quantum computation can be analysed graphically without loss of deductive power.
Lastly, I extend the use of rigorous graphical languages outside quantum theory to Spekkens' toy theory, a local hidden variable model that nevertheless exhibits some features commonly associated with quantum mechanics. The toy theory for the simplest possible underlying system closely resembles stabilizer quantum mechanics, which is non-local; it thus offers insights into the similarities and differences between classical and quantum theories. I develop a graphical calculus similar to the ZX-calculus that fully describes Spekkens' toy theory, and show that it is complete. Hence, stabilizer quantum mechanics and Spekkens' toy theory can be fully analysed and compared using graphical formalisms.
Intuitive graphical languages can replace conventional formalisms for the analysis of many questions in quantum computation and foundations without loss of mathematical rigour or deductive power.
The assessment of a number of different meso-porous silica nanoparticles for delivery of chemotherapeutics and siRNAs
Keywords: Chemotherapeutics delivery
Nanomaterials
siRNA delivery
Mesoporous silica nanoparticles

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) are of interest as effective drug carriers because of their controllable physical properties and biomedical compatibilities. A number of different MSNPs have been assessed for their suitability as intracellular nano-scale carriers of chemotherapeutics and siRNAs.
Four morphologically different MSNPs were synthesised after optimisation of existing protocols. The MSNPs were characterised with regards to size, porosity, surface area, surface charge, cytotoxicity and biodegradability. Their suitability as drug carrier in vivo was examined in terms of cargo loading, ability to be endocytosed by cells and take ad-vantage of the Enhanced Permeability and Retention effect.
The loading and unloading profiles of two model compounds and a potential chemotherapeutic agent LY294002 were investigated. The release behaviours of the cargoes were altered by modifying the particle surface with polymeric capping agents. In addition, the particles were capped with pH-sensitive molecules, and the release behaviour in low pH was assessed since tumours are known to have an acidic microenvironment.
The physiological function of LY294002 on selected cancer cell lines was also studied. LY294002 was shown to affect the proliferation, survival, and metabolism of selected cells under different oxidative conditions. The effect differed when cells were under oxi-dative stress and/or glucose stress. Cell viability was also compromised after treatment with LY294002 loaded MSNPs. The sensitivity to each LY294002 loaded MSNP differed between cell lines.
Engulfment and cell motility 1 (ELMO1) - targeted siRNA was also delivered using MSNPs to two distinct rhabdomyosarcoma lines. Significant knock-down of the ELMO1 gene was shown, illustrating that MSNPs could be efficient transfection agents for siRNA. In particular, the two MSNP candidates were shown to be significantly better than a current commercial product.
A co-delivery system for LY294002 and ELMO1-targeted siRNA was established. Cell viability and ELMO1 expression were both suppressed after treatment with the co-delivery system.
Small molecule inhibitors and substrate analyses of protein arginine methyltransferases
Keywords: Mono-methyl Arginine
Epigenetics
Protein Arginine Methyltransferases

Chapter 1 introduces the Protein Arginine Methyltransferases (PRMTs) as epigenetic regulators that decorate peptidic arginine with methyl groups. Evidence for PRMT involvement in cancer pathogenesis is reviewed and their plausibility as therapeutic targets is introduced. The methylation patterns conferred by the PRMTs is described, and the existence of novel patterns is considered. Techniques for assaying PRMT activity are compared and contrasted and a discussion of current PRMT inhibitors is presented. The chapter concludes by outlining the aims of the thesis.
Chapter 2 describes synthesis towards novel methylated arginine molecules that are fully protected for inclusion in peptides via solid phase peptide synthesis.
Chapter 3 outlines the total synthesis of protected δ-monomethylated arginine for peptide synthesis. This methylation pattern is known in yeast but has not yet been identified in humans.
Chapter 4 details a new mass spectrometry-based assay that can be applied for inhibitor and substrate analyses. Synthesis of a novel histone peptide containing the δ-monomethylated arginine, produced in Chapter 3, is also described and this is tested for relevance as a human epigenetic marker. Novel polymethylation patterns are also explored in a total of five histone peptides. This chapter concludes with discussion of possible methylation pattern rearrangements.
Chapter 5 describes the synthesis and testing of two series of putative PRMT inhibitors based on previously identified scaffolds within this research group. Data obtained from three different assays, including that outlined in Chapter 4, are analysed and suggestions as to the direction of PRMT assay design are offered.
Chapter 6 provides the experimental data to support Chapters 2-5, including all organic synthesis procedures, protein & peptide syntheses and assay methodology.