VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Polanyi, China and the environmental impasse: unconscious retrogression and conscious advance
Keywords: China
Wet market
Environment
Karl Polanyi
Ecovillage

This thesis re-examines core concepts of Polanyian thought in order to evaluate the contemporary value of Polanyian theory. Since the 2008 financial crisis there has been an increased focus on Polanyi’s double movement and countermovement concepts to help explain the fallout of 2008. However this thesis argues a significant proportion of the contemporary Polanyian literature has mis-interpreted these core concepts leading to interpretations that undercut the explanatory potential of Polanyi’s main arguments. Through an interrogation of the countermovement and double movement concepts this thesis puts forward a new vocabulary of consciousness, which I argue can help better understand general Polanyian thought. To demonstrate the potential importance of the new vocabulary, as well as Polanyi’s contemporary value, I use this re-examination to interrogate two Chinese case-studies. The first examines what I argue is an unconscious countermovement occurring in wet markets in China as people look to the rural as a sphere of food safety from the negative effects of China’s rapid market transformation and agroindustrialization. The second case study examines what I term conscious Polanyian movements; urban residents ‘returning’ to the rural to gain refuge from the market. These movements are ‘conscious’ as they explicitly attack market ideals and call for a new political synthesis in similar ways to Polanyi. The environmental crisis is at the core of these communities’ ideology and they connect that crisis to market norms. Both these case studies illuminate the importance of the consciousness vocabulary within Polanyi’s work as well as bring out specific issues within Chinese political economy. The final chapter puts forward a contemporary interpretation of the unconsciousness/consciousness dichotomy by examining the current environmental crisis impasse. It argues that only conscious Polanyian movements, which bear responsibility for our part in mutual human relationships, are able to solve our collective climate emergency. Consciousness of this responsibility would necessitate dramatic changes in the social and economic structures of the global north. The interpretation of Polanyi’s theory in this thesis is important for scholars to use to demonstrate the explanatory potential of Polanyi’s thought in future analysis.
Understanding small molecule conformations using statistical machine learning
Keywords: Conformers
Conformational sampling

The generation of conformations for small molecules is one of the cornerstones of computational chemistry. Identifying diverse low energy conformers and, in particular, the lowest energy conformer are essential for applications, such as molecular docking and molecular property predictions. The large conformational space of flexible molecules and the high computational cost of accurate energy evaluation with methods such as quantum mechanics are two key challenges.
This thesis explores the use of statistical techniques to (i) understand the factors governing the conformational preferences of small molecules and their population, and (ii) improve the efficiency in finding the lowest energy conformer of a molecule. I first provide an overview of conformer sampling and Bayesian optimisation, followed by an introduction to circular data analysis for analyzing torsional distribution in small molecule conformations.
I demonstrate the effectiveness of Bayesian optimisation algorithm in finding the lowest energy conformation of molecules, which requires orders of magnitude fewer energy evaluation to find the lowest energy conformation. I also show how sampling efficiency can be further improved by biasing the search towards low energy regions through a knowledge-based acquisition function. To extend the sampling framework, I explore the use of Cremer Pople puckering parameters to characterise complex ring geometries, and study the resulting ring puckering preferences extensively.
Finally, I investigate the factors contributing to the conformational entropies of small molecules, and develop linear models that predict the conformational entropies of small molecules accurately and rapidly.
In summary, this thesis contributes an improved understanding of small molecule conformational preferences, and introduces new methods to improve the efficiency of sampling conformers and entropy calculations.
The promises of “Going digital” for all: where technology meets social policy? A Statistical Analysis of European Union’s Digital Skills Inclusion Policies and Digital Skills Inequality
Keywords: Digital Agenda for Europe
Digital skills
Digital Welfare State
Digital inclusion
Skill inequality
Digital skills policies
Digitalisation

Digital skills have never been more relevant to social policy. The European Union’s policy agenda has been increasingly linking digital skills to social matters such as employment, poverty, income or education. However, wide disparities in national levels of digital skills are observed across member states. This study investigates the associations between digital inclusion policies and national levels of digital skills across the European Union using Eurostat data from 2010 to 2019. Digital skills inequalities are also explored by gender and educational levels. Results suggest that public digital skills policies are associated with higher levels of digital skills, and lower levels of digital skills inequality. Conversely, private digital skills policies increase digital skills inequality. This paper explicitly links digital skills with social welfare, bridging human capital and labour market perspectives with nuanced understandings of digital skills and their reflection of preexisting socio-economic inequalities. The main theoretical contributions lie in thinking of digital skills policies within a social investment framework, inciting a broader reflection on the role of digitalisation for the future of social policy and the welfare state.
The Manases: an influential Catholic Armenian family in the service of the Ottoman court in the 18th and 19th centuries
Keywords: Ottoman imperial portraiture
Armenian
catholic armenian
Manas
Ottoman
Armenian bankers

This dissertation aims to explore the lives, activities, experiences, and the social impact of the members of the virtually unstudied Manas family who operated in the fields of art, diplomacy, and finance, and to analyze the ramifications of the family’s controversial Catholic identity in the 18th-and 19th-century Ottoman context, by tracking the individual stories of the Manases as social and cultural actors, and knitting them together with the lived realities of other members in order to situate them both individually and cumulatively into the social and political matrices of the period. In order to decipher the motivations and aspirations of the individual Manases, the current study will use the family as a nexus through which to discern the Manases’ engagement with the society and the state. The multiple social, religious, and vocational layers in which this family existed, as Armenian by ethnicity, Catholic by denomination, and court artisan, diplomat, and banker by profession will be used to reflect on the travails of the Manases, as well as their comfort and success.
This study has been able to fill in many of the extensive lacunae in the narratives of the Manas family members as well as rectify misconstrued facts about their lives and careers through rigorous archival research, enabling a firm scaffolding to stand on while tackling the family in a much more nuanced and profound manner. It places the Manas family within the context of a multivalent and porous society as opposed to one with impermeable barriers between its various communities, thereby understanding its members as part and parcel of Ottoman existence and history in contrast to dichotomizing frameworks that sever Armenian reality from its historical context. Through this approach it restores the historicity of the Manases as Ottoman actors, who were not extraneous to the axes of social and political change, but were participants in the processes of negotiation with the state alongside other Ottomans of various ethnic, social, and religious backgrounds to effectuate change.
The dearth of insightful scholarship on the family in contexts where they have so far been discussed will be addressed in the first part of this dissertation. Chapters One and Two dealing with the family members’ activities pertaining to imperial identity construction, through sultanic portraiture and diplomacy, respectively, aim to correct the historical record and offer further insights through the greater contextualization and analytical synthesis of the already available data with the vast body of newly introduced documents. The latter two chapters, which are centered around the Catholic identity of the Manases and the discussion of banking, prestige, and wealth in relation to the family, draw on a range of hitherto unstudied archival sources. These chapters considerably develop the extant scholarship, breaking ground to establish new frameworks for discussing the Manases.
The myth of the benevolent autocrat? Internal constraints, external constraints, and economic development in autocracies
Keywords: Elites
Autocracies
Economic development
Civil society
Accountability

Why do some autocracies produce high economic development while others falter? Despite the large literature comparing democracies and autocracies we know little about differences amongst autocratic regimes. I focus on the rule of one autocrat over time instead of comparing across regimes, and argue that an autocrat can be constrained by both a strong ruling elite (internal constraints) and an organized civil society (external constraints). I depart from the literature focusing on institutional constraints and use Arendt’s concept of isolation to conceptualize constraints. The two types of constraints generate political accountability. This will result in a pluralistic and thoughtful decision-making process and a better environment for investment. I theorize that both types of constraints are associated with better economic outcomes, but that only external constraints promote better human development. To test this, I rely on three analyses. First, I conduct a cross-national analysis using a novel dataset, WhoGov, which provides information on the ruling elites. I show that only constrained autocrats are punished for governing over a severe recession. Furthermore, the same dictator governs over better economic outcomes when his rule is constrained. That said, only external constraints are related to improvements in human development. Second, I use a synthetic control design to investigate the effect of the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, and show that the regime, despite not democratizing, increased public spending on health care and education. Third, I show that there is a cost to the ruling elite if they unsuccessfully try to coup the autocrat. In addition, I find that a successful coup is associated with better growth when there is an orderly transfer of power to a new, constrained autocrat, but not if the coup causes political instability. Overall, I show that the belief in the developmental benefits of having a strong autocrat is not supported empirically. Instead, autocrats govern over worse economic development when they become more powerful.
Spin systems and boundary conditions on random planar graphs
Keywords: Matrix model
Spin systems
Dynamical triangulations
2D quantum gravity
Liouville quantum gravity
Random planar graphs
Random matrices

In this thesis we discuss the multi-matrix integral formulation of spin systems on random planar graphs, as a discretised model of 2D Euclidean quantum gravity coupled to matter.
We begin by extending a recent analysis of the q-states Potts model with p < q allowed, equally weighted spins on a random lattice with a connected boundary. We explore the(q < 4, p < q) parameter space of the model, classify solutions in (q, p) that yield finite-sheeted resolvents, and derive the associated critical exponents. For the particular case of q = 3 we find a new solution with p = 3/2, which we conjecture to be the random lattice analogue of the New boundary condition.
Following this we study the Kramers-Wannier dual of the 3-state Potts model on the random lattice. We explicitly construct the known boundary conditions and show that the mixed boundary condition is dual to the New boundary condition, in accordance with the fixed lattice identification. However, we find that the mixed boundary condition of the dual theory, and the corresponding New boundary condition are not described by conventional resolvents.
Finally, we formalise a combinatorial method for calculating the partition function of the 3-states Potts model on a random planar lattice with various boundary conditions imposed. We determine the p = 1, 2 and 3 boundary conditions via this technique, and discuss other types of boundary condition that may be calculated, before turning our attention to the dilute Ising and dilute Potts models, where we compute the p = 1 boundary condition.
Understanding past abrupt climatic change through the reduction of chronological uncertainty
Keywords: Tephrochronology
Time transgression
Romania
Pollen
Radiocarbon
Preboreal Oscillation
Bayesian age-depth models
Palaeoenvironmental records
Abrupt climatic change
Younger Dryas
Tephrostratigraphy
Cryptotephra
Europe

Across Europe, palaeoclimatic records dated to the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT; 16-8 cal. ka BP) provide evidence for several abrupt climatic oscillations on millennial and centennial-timescales. Understanding the spatial and temporal environmental response to these climatic events on a continental scale is important for providing insight into future climate scenarios. This relies on providing precise chronologies for palaeoenvironmental records, but issues with large dating uncertainties, and the practice of tuning/wiggle-matching different records together, has limited our ability to test for (a)synchroneity for abrupt climate transitions.
In this study, the temporal and spatial complexity of LGIT climatic events, specifically, the Younger Dryas (YD) and earliest Holocene (EH) were investigated. Several of the most precisely dated pollen records were selected, spanning from northern to southern Europe. These sites were chosen using selection criteria that required independent chronologies based on radiocarbon dating and tephrochronology. To broaden the geographic range, a cryptotephra investigation was also undertaken on two palaeoenvironmental records from Romania (Lake Lia and Lake Brazi).
Using Bayesian chronological modelling, each site’s ages and the widespread tephra layers were remodelled. Pollen records were also re-investigated using the statistical methods of Principal Curve analysis to assist in identifying abrupt climatic transitions. The INTIMATE Integration tool was utilised to enable quantified comparisons between these terrestrial sites and the high-resolution Greenland ice core records.
The results from the Romanian cryptotephra investigation highlight the importance of this region to expand tephrostratigraphic frameworks across Europe, the Mediterranean and Anatolia. The identification of ultra-distal tephra layers allowed for a broader investigation into the timing of LGIT events.
This study showed that even with the most precisely dated sites and, despite the methodological approaches employed here, identifying a clear time-transgression for the YD and centennial-scale events within the EH remains difficult due to chronological uncertainties. Issues with proxy and dating resolutions currently limit the chronological approach undertaken. Nonetheless, using widespread tephra layers and statistical methods on proxy records can help to evaluate the potential asynchrony of abrupt climate transitions and the possible climatic drivers.
Overall, this study highlights the need to provide robust chronologies by undertaking high-resolution radiocarbon dating and proxy reconstruction, supplemented by tephrochronology. By employing these approaches with Bayesian age modelling, the temporal and spatial response to abrupt climatic shifts can be further explored.
LEXICAL innovation and Latin philosophical vocabulary: from Cicero to Boethius
Keywords: neology
lexical innovation
Latin philosophy
Greek philosophy
Boethius
Cicero
vocabulary
translation

This thesis studies the related linguistic phenomena of ‘lexical innovation’ and ‘lexical augmentation’ in selected Latin authors who translated Greek philosophical terminology between the Late Republican era to the sixth century A.D. It is the first kind of comparative study of philosophical lexicalisation in Latin, collating and evaluating lexical data from the corpora of influential Latin authors, using a blend of synchronic and diachronic analyses. One of the arguments of the thesis is the bifurcated tradition of Greco-Roman intellectual thought: one, a continuous transmission of philosophical expression in Ancient Greek from Plato to Byzantium in the East; another, a process of renovation and synthesis, principally from the first century B.C. with authors such as Titus Lucretius Carus and Marcus Tullius Cicero. The findings suggest that the philosophical vocabulary of the Greeks was redefined through the creative literary projects of Latin intellectuals, forging their own terms within the linguistic, stylistic, and conceptual parameters of their language’s grammar. This ‘refraction’ of thought carried far-reaching consequences for early Christian authors and the Scholastic movement of the Middle Ages. To understand the emergence of ‘philosophical Latin’, it is important to note that the development of this technical vocabulary comprised an ensemble of semantic and morpho-syntactic strategies: linguistic practices that engendered the expansion of philosophical expression, (neologism, calques, semantic extensions, and loan-words, among others). The analysis begins with an overview of past scholarship, contextualising this work in the light of modern linguistic and translation theories on the topic, which provide the rationale for the arguments advanced throughout the thesis. The structure is divided over five chapters based around qualitative and quantitative analyses of Latin philosophical terms introduced as the result of translations from Greek terms. This relies on specified criteria applied to new terms and meanings first attested in a given author; that is, there must be some textual ‘signalling’ (such as glossing or direct translation) to indicate certain Latin terms or meanings correspond with Greek ones. These analyses are applied using a case-study approach, beginning with Lucretius and Cicero, then Seneca the Younger, Apuleius, Tertullian, Calcidius, and concluding with Boethius. Within the analyses of Cicero’s and Apuleius’ philosophical works, there are additional selective linguistic commentaries, first on Cicero’s translation of Plato’s Timaeus dialogue in Chapter One followed by Apuleius’ De Platone et Eius Dogmate and his translation of the Pseudo-Aristotelian De Mundo in Chapter Three. The study is accompanied by four sets of appendices for reference, collating and summarising the findings of this thesis.
Measuring and forecasting public opinion with non-representative samples
Keywords: non-representative surveys
MrP
public opinion
boosting
social-media
random forests
machine learning

In this doctoral thesis, I reflect on methods to leverage non-representative samples to measure and forecast public opinion in the run-up to an election. The thesis is made up of three separate papers, dealing with a number of issues around the topic of convenience samples; these issues include a) how and where to collect non-representative data, and how to enhance them with external, auxiliary sources; b) how to construct reliable and deep stratification weights, when these are not immediately available from the census, and when no single dataset contains an exhaustive set of the desired post-stratification information; c) how to optimise learning models to automate variable selection, produce accurate out-of-sample predictions, and improve fitting speed. Findings from this thesis suggest unrepresentative samples can be used to obtain real-time readings of public opinion, at a fraction of the cost of traditional survey methods, provided a number of non-trivial and computationally demanding model adjustments are implemented to smooth and re-weight the samples.
The United Kingdom and the European Community’s Common Fisheries Policy, 1971–1983
Keywords: Negotiation Analysis
EU Politics
Common Fisheries Policy
European Community
British Politics
European Economic Community

This thesis examines how the United Kingdom negotiated the Common Fisheries Policy with the European Community in two rounds: firstly, between 1971 and 1972, before Britain’s joining of the Community in 1973; secondly, between 1976 and 1983, when negotiations on the comprehensive Common Fisheries Policy package concluded. It is based upon primary archival research, as well as elite interviews and secondary sources.
This case-study traces Britain’s bargaining objectives, and assesses the United Kingdom’s performance in these intensely contested negotiations. Drawing on new institutionalism and Putnam’s two-level game theory, this thesis demonstrates how European Community membership affected Britain’s bargaining capacity at the European level. It reveals, counterintuitively, that membership of the European Community did not in itself bring bargaining success to the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, in fisheries bargaining, the United Kingdom consistently pursued its interests in a rational, utility-oriented manner, and it acted cooperatively in order to secure agreement with its partners at the European level.
By demonstrating how the United Kingdom negotiated on fisheries, the thesis also explores the broader paradigm of, and assumptions about, ‘British exceptionalism’ in the European Community. It makes clear that even powerful states have to navigate carefully through the Community’s dense institutional network in order to negotiate successfully.
Structure-aware tools for the development of therapeutic antibodies from natural immunoglobulins
Keywords: therapeutic antibodies
screening library
antibody database
developability
antibody repertoire
coronavirus
B-cell receptors
structural profiling

In this thesis, we establish the foundations for structure-based antibody drug discovery from natural immunoglobulin sequences. This is achieved through two novel software packages: ‘Repertoire Structural Profiling’ (RSP), as a means of generating structurally-diverse virtual screening libraries, and the ‘Therapeutic Antibody Profiler’ (TAP), for rapid structure-aware developability assessment of candidates in early-stage antibody drug discovery. Our approaches are orthogonal to existing work in these fields and yield new insights into the diversity of the adaptive immune system and the physicochemical characteristics of therapeutic antibodies. We also describe a new database (Thera-SAbDab), which provides the increased therapeutic antibody sequence and structural data necessary to benchmark RSP and TAP, and to facilitate future investigations in the area. Finally, we report our work in the COVID-19 response effort, which, through a novel database of thousands of coronavirus antibody-binders (CoV-AbDab), has already contributed functional annotations to SARS-CoV-2 immune response repertoires.