VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Brain plasticity and aerobic fitness
Keywords: Neurogenesis
Plasticity
MRI
Brain
Neuroimaging
Learning
Exercise
Fitness
Neuroscience
Hippocampus

Regular aerobic exercise has a wide range of positive effects on health and cognition. Exercise has been demonstrated to provide a particularly powerful and replicable method of triggering a wide range of structural changes within both human and animal brains. However, the details and mechanisms of these changes remain poorly understood. This thesis undertakes a comprehensive examination of the relationship between brain plasticity and aerobic exercise.
A large, longitudinal experiment was conducted in which healthy but sedentary participants were scanned before and after six-weeks of monitored aerobic exercise. Increases in the volume of the anterior hippocampus were observed, as previously reported in an older cohort after a longer exercise intervention. Multimodal imaging methods allowed an in-depth exploration of the mechanisms underlying this volume change, which proved to be dominated by white matter changes rather than the vascular changes that have been previously reported. A surprising global change in the balance of CSF, blood, and brain tissue within the cranial cavity was also observed.
Cross-sectional differences in memory and brain structure associated with fitness were also observed. The volume of the anterior hippocampus was shown to correlate with a measure of working memory. Higher cerebral blood volume throughout the brain was found to correlate with greater fitness and better working memory. Focal associations between fitness and magnetic susceptibility, a measure of iron content, were also observed in the basal ganglia. These findings demonstrate that aerobic fitness is associated with improved cognition and brain structure throughout the lifespan rather than simply acting to mitigate age related brain atrophy or accelerate brain development.
Finally, a new pipeline was developed for analysing hippocampal morphometry using high-resolution, 7 Tesla scans. Striking variability in the convolution of the hippocampal surface is reported. This technique shows promise for imaging the precise nature of the change in hippocampal volume associated with aerobic exercise.
This thesis adds to the evidence that aerobic exercise is a potent catalyst for behavioural and brain plasticity while also demonstrating that the mechanisms for those plastic changes are likely different than previously supposed. Future work will refine these measurement techniques, perhaps to a point where brain changes can be monitored on a single subject level. This work will provide an important tool to understand how best to utilize aerobic exercise to facilitate adaptive behavioural changes, mitigate the negative effects of ageing and disease on the brain, and maximize the benefits of active lifestyles.
Essays in panel data and financial econometrics
Keywords: nonlinear dynamic panel data
composite likelihood
hedge funds
GARCH
bias reduction

This thesis is concerned with volatility estimation using financial panels and bias-reduction in non-linear dynamic panels in the presence of dependence.
Traditional GARCH-type volatility models require large time-series for accurate estimation. This makes it impossible to analyse some interesting datasets which do not have a large enough history of observations. This study contributes to the literature by introducing the GARCH Panel model, which exploits both time-series and cross-section information, in order to make up for this lack of time-series variation. It is shown that this approach leads to gains both in- and out-of-sample, but suffers from the well-known incidental parameter issue and therefore, cannot deal with short data either. As a response, a bias-correction approach valid for a general variety of models beyond GARCH is proposed. This extends the analytical bias-reduction literature to cross-section dependence and is a theoretical contribution to the panel data literature. In the final chapter, these two contributions are combined in order to develop a new approach to volatility estimation in short panels. Simulation analysis reveals that this approach is capable of removing a substantial portion of the bias even when only 150-200 observations are available. This is in stark contrast with the standard methods which require 1,000-1,500 observations for accurate estimation. This approach is used to model monthly hedge fund volatility, which is another novel contribution, as it has hitherto been impossible to analyse hedge fund volatility, due to their typically short histories. The analysis reveals that hedge funds exhibit variation in their volatility characteristics both across and within investment strategies. Moreover, the sample distributions of fund volatilities are asymmetric, have large right tails and react to major economic events such as the recent credit crunch episode.
Chiral counter-ion controlled asymmetric electrocyclic reactions
Keywords: catalysis
asymmetric
electrocyclization
organic

The aim of this project was to develop new catalytic methods to control asymmetry in electrocyclic reactions, and to apply these methods to generate complex molecules. Initial efforts were directed towards the catalysis of anionic 8π electrocyclizations (Chapter 2 and Figure i).
8π electrocyclization was not achieved due to issues with alkene geometry and anion stability. Our efforts were then directed towards using phase-transfer catalysis to generate complex polycyclic compounds via a cascade electrocyclization-1,4-addition (Chapter 3 and Figure ii).
Pyrrolidines and indolizidines were generated in excellent yield from simple starting-materials with high levels of stereocontrol. Finally, we investigated the catalysis of a 6π [1,6] electrocyclization to generate dihydroquinolones (Chapter 4 and Figure iii).
A novel BINOL-derived copper(II) catalyst was developed, and afforded dihydroquinolones directly from their amine and aldehyde precursors with good yields and enantioselectivities.
Economic thought and policy in the Liberal Party, c. 1929-1964
Keywords: economic policy
Liberalism
Liberal Party
economic thought

This thesis examines the reception, generation, and use of economic ideas in the British Liberal Party during the period between its decline in the inter-war years and its revival under Jo Grimond. It uses archival sources, party publications, and the political press to reconstruct the Liberal Party’s internal discourse about economic policy from the 1920s to the 1960s, and sets this discourse in the context of wider economic and political developments: the ‘Keynesian revolution’ in economic theory and British public policy, recurrent political interest in economic planning, and growing concern about relative economic decline.
The strength of the two-party system which developed after the First World War meant that the Liberal Party spent most of this period in opposition, and even in the coalition governments of 1931-2 and 1940-5 Liberals had limited input into economic policy-making. As historians have frequently noted, however, the party played an important role in introducing Keynesian ideas to British politics through Lloyd George’s 1929 pledge to ‘conquer unemployment’, and seemed to anticipate the post-war managed economy in important respects. At the same time, the party maintained a close relationship with the economics profession, and vocally championed free trade and competitive markets.
This thesis highlights the eclecticism of the Liberal Party’s economic heritage, and its continuing ambivalence towards state intervention. Although Liberals were early and sincere supporters of Keynesian demand-management policies, and took a close interest in economic planning proposals in the 1920s, 1940s and 1960s, their interventionism was frequently constrained by their internationalism and their support for free markets. Most Liberals, then, were neither unreconstructed Gladstonians nor unequivocal supporters of Britain’s post-war settlement. Rather, successive party leaders sought to integrate new economic knowledge with traditional Liberal commitments, in order to make both a credible contribution to policy debates and a distinctive appeal to the electorate.
The role of charge and orbital ordering in quadruple perovskite materials with multiferroic potential
Keywords: Neutron
Ferroelectrics
Multiferroics
Microscopy
Ferromagnetics
X-ray
Crystallography
Perovskite
Diffraction

With the overriding goal of developing functional multiferroic systems with technological potential, this thesis focuses on the role of orbital and charge ordering in coupling magnetism and ferroelectricity in synthetic quadruple perovskites. Using x-ray diffraction as the primary characterisation tool, modulations to crystal ordering have been interpreted in terms of orbital occupation and charge variation.
Expanding on previous magnetic structure studies and polarisation measurements, structural analysis of CaMn7O12 has led to the experimental realisation of a new mechanism for multiferroicity, resulting from a "magneto-orbital helix". Motivated by the idea of tuning multiferroic properties through varying manganese valence, the doped system CaCuxMn7-xO12 has been studied. Structural models considering the possibility of domain formation and multiple coexisting modulations have been tested against x-ray diffraction data. Finally, motivated by theoretical predictions of ferroelectric phases and multiferroicity in doped, simple, manganite perovskites, a structural model for the low temperature phase of NaMn7O12 has been developed, based upon theoretical predictions for orbital ordering and the experimentally determined magnetic structure. This model has been tested against previously measured neutron diffraction data. The importance of understanding crystal formation and domain structures when applying theoretical models has been highlighted, and has prompted the consideration of future work involving viewing and manipulating twin formation.
New evidence on the development of Australian refugee policy, 1976 to 1983
Keywords: refugee studies
Australian history
asylum seekers
refugee policy
immigration policy

This thesis aims to improve historical knowledge of Australian refugee policy between 1976 and 1983, a unique and transitional moment in the nation’s history and in international refugee movements. The discussion will be based on original evidence drawn from archival records and oral history interviews, and informed by a broad literature which recognises that refugee policy is a product of varied political imperatives and historical context.
First, Chapter Three reveals that because the Fraser government could not deport the Indochinese boatpeople who sailed to Australia, it sought to approve their refugee status in order to legitimate its announcements that only ‘genuine’ refugees were being admitted. In doing so, the Fraser government was required to defend the processing of boat arrivals to the public and within the bureaucracy.
Chapter Four finds that historical and political considerations informed the Fraser government’s choice not to reject or detain boat arrivals but to instead introduce legislation against people smuggling. The chapter presents new evidence to disprove claims expressed in recent academic and media commentary that the government’s Immigration (Unauthorised Arrivals) Act 1980 (Cth) marked a particularly harsh stance and that passengers on the VT838 were deported without due process, and draws from ideas within the literature concerning the need for states to promote the integrity of the refugee concept.
Chapter Five contributes to international literature on refugee status determination procedure by studying the Australian government’s assessment of non-Indochinese. Through a dataset created from UNHCR archives it is found that the quality of briefing material and political considerations could influence deliberations on individual cases. Chapter Six contributes to literature on in-country processing, revealing how Australia’s programme in Chile and El Salvador was a means of diversifying the refugee intake but caused tensions between the Department of Immigration and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The search for continuity in the face of change in the Anglican writings of John Henry Newman
Keywords: doctrine
Newman
Catholic
development
Anglican
Vatican II
dogma
Roman Catholic

This dissertation provides an analysis of the attempts by John Henry Newman to account for the historical reality of doctrinal change within Christianity in the light of his lasting conviction that the idea of Christianity is fixed by reference to the dogmatic content of the deposit of faith. The existing literature on Newman is enormous and wide-ranging but this present work fills a notable gap by treating Newman at any particular point in the account as a person with an open future, where his present acts are not determined by later events, and where any apologetic intent has to be identified and accounted for by reference to the immediate matter under consideration and the contemporaneous evidence. The argument of the thesis is that Newman proposed a series of hypotheses to account for the apparent contradiction between change and continuity, that this series begins much earlier than is generally recognised and that the final hypothesis he was to propose, contained in An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, (‘Essay’), provided a methodology of lasting theological value.
The introduction establishes the centrality of the problem of change and continuity to Newman's theological work as an Anglican, its part in his conversion to Roman Catholicism and its contemporary relevance to Roman Catholic theology. It also surveys the major secondary literature relating to the question, with particular reference to those works published within the last fifty years. In the first main chapter, covering the period to the publication of his first major work, The Arians of the Fourth Century, in 1833, Newman's earliest awareness of the problem and first attempts to solve it are considered. The growing confidence of Newman's Tractarian period and his development of the notion of the Via Media form the second chapter and the collapse of that confidence, the subject matter of the third. The fourth chapter is concerned with the emergence of the theory of development and the writing and content of the Essay. The conclusion considers the legacy of the Essay as a tool in Newman’s theology and in the work of later theologians, finally suggesting that it may offer a useful methodological contribution to the contemporary Roman Catholic debate about hermeneutical approaches to the Second Vatican Council.
Autonomy, rationality and contemporary bioethics
Keywords: freedom
bioethics
autonomy
consent
rationality

Personal autonomy is often lauded as a key value in contemporary bioethics. In this thesis, I aim to provide a rationalist account of personal autonomy that avoids the philosophical flaws present in theories of autonomy that are often invoked in bioethics, and that can be usefully applied to contemporary bioethical issues. I claim that we can understand the concept of autonomy to incorporate two dimensions, which I term the 'reflective' and 'practical' dimensions of autonomy. I suggest that the reflective dimension pertains to the critical reflection that agents must carry out on their motivating desires, in order to be autonomous with respect to them. I begin by rejecting prominent desire-based and historical accounts of this dimension of autonomy, before going on to defend an account based upon a Parfitian analysis of rational desires. Following this analysis of the reflective dimension of autonomy, I argue that autonomy can also be understood to incorporate a practical dimension, pertaining to the agent's ability to act effectively in pursuit of their ends. I claim that recognising this dimension of autonomy more comprehensively reflects the way in which we use the concept of autonomy in bioethics, and makes salient the fact that agents carry out their rational deliberations in the light of their beliefs about what they are able to do. I go on to argue that this latter point means that my account of autonomy can offer a deeper explanation of why coercion undermines autonomy than other prominent accounts. Having considered the prudential value of autonomy in the light of this theoretical analysis, in the latter half of the thesis I apply my rationalist account of autonomy to a number of contemporary bioethical issues, including the use of human enhancement technologies, the nature of informed consent, and the doctor-patient relationship.
The achievement of female presence on film
Keywords: Film Aesthetics
Presence
Female Presence
Film

This thesis examines the different ways films have explored female presence as a narrative and stylistic concern. The role of female presence in the creation of film meaning has often been reductively minimised or altogether neglected within many theoretical approaches to cinema. Depictions of female characters—especially those found in Hollywood films—have been viewed by feminist critics only in terms of the manifestation of sexist ideological principles, whilst more recently, 'affective' film theorists have reduced the role of presence to a simple question of fluctuating physical intensity. This thesis contests these limiting and monolithic understandings of the function of female presence by demonstrating how films have produced complex and diverse meanings through their portrayals of women characters. Closely analysing films by six directors from various styles of cinema, including examples from Classic Hollywood film and more experimental or avant-garde works, the thesis contends that films can raise the question of the condition of a female character's presence as a vital component of meaning. It illuminates how the subject of female presence is advanced, moment-to-moment, as a crucial element in the achievement of these films' intricately wrought dramas. The thesis therefore shows that female film presence is neither simply a symptom of ideology, nor a vehicle for varying degrees of affective intensity. Rather, it is something which is actively at stake in the drama and the design of films.
The economics of Ireland's property market bubble
Keywords: property market
housing markets
bubble
real estate
Ireland
economics

This doctorate explores key aspects of the economics of housing by examining Ireland's housing market bubble of the early 2000s. For earlier chapters, the main source material is a previously unused dataset of almost two million property listings, covering the entire country from 2006 until 2012, maintained by property website daft.ie. An initial chapter outlines stylised facts of Ireland's housing market 2007-2012, including a greater spread of prices over property size in the crash but a narrower spread of rents. In contrast, the geographical spread of prices and rents was largely unchanged. The spread of rents was constrained relative to the spread of prices, suggesting either renter search thresholds or buyer "lock-in" effects. To examine which was at work, the daft.ie dataset is combined with information on a range of amenities, including landscape, transport, education, social capital and market depth. Overall, there is clear evidence that the rent effects of a range of amenities are smaller than the price effects. There is limited evidence of procyclical amenity pricing, which would indicate "lock-in" effects, with the analysis suggesting instead countercyclical pricing, or "property ladder" effects during the bubble. Results from these analyses are based on listed price and rents, rather than transaction prices. The relationship between the two is examined in a separate chapter, using an additional Central Bank of Ireland dataset on mortgages. The spread between list and sale prices gap that exists between the two is decomposed into four parts, a selection spread, a matching spread, a counteroffer spread and a drawdown spread. A selection spread of up to 10% emerged in the Irish housing market after 2009, while the counteroffer spread was positive before 2009 but negative for much of the period 2009-2011. The final chapter uses both inverted-demand and price-rent ratio methods to examine the long-run determinants of house prices in Ireland from 1980 on. In addition to careful treatment of standard fundamentals, it includes a measure of credit conditions as well as the ratio of persons to households, both contributions to the literature. The resulting inverted demand error-correction model shows a clear and stable long-run relationship, which is largely preserved when cointegration between series is explored. Similarly, a model of the price-rent ratio from 2000 shows clear error-correction properties. Together, they suggest that while a range of factors drove Irish house prices 1995-2001, credit conditions were largely responsible for the subsequent increase.
The role of CD5 in T lymphocyte activation
Keywords: Tyrosine Phosphorylation
T Lymphocyte
Immunology
Signalling
CD5
Scavenger Receptor Cysteine Rich

In order to prevent autoimmune diseases the immune system must be tightly regulated. One mechanism that the immune system uses to prevent autoimmunity is through the use of regulatory receptors on the surface of T lymphocytes. In this thesis I have concentrated on the role of one such receptor, CD5, in T lymphocyte activation. CD5 is a member of the scavenger receptor cysteine rich superfamily and is expressed, along with the closely related CD6, on T cells and a subset of B cells. CD5 is known for its inhibition of thymocyte selection but its function in peripheral T cell activation remains unclear.
In this thesis I demonstrate that OX19, a rat CD5 monoclonal antibody (mAb), will block extracellular engagement of CD5 in vitro resulting in an increase in proliferation following T cell activation. In demonstrating the mode of action of OX19 I show that extracellular engagement of CD5 will inhibit T cell activation in vitro. I also demonstrate that OX19 does not modulate CD5 from the surface in vitro whereas it does modulate CD5 in vivo.
Another key finding in this thesis is that differential phosphorylation of the three tyrosines in the CD5 cytoplasmic tail can account for positive and negative signalling by CD5 during T cell activation. Evidence here demonstrates that CD5 Y1 is required for positive signalling which becomes more apparent in the absence of costimulation by the coreceptor, CD2. CD5 Y2 and Y3 are required for the CD5 mediated inhibition of T cell activation. Phosphorylation of these tyrosines is also necessary for CD5 regulation of CD3 down modulation following TCR triggering. These data point to a potential molecular mechanism involving CD5 regulation of CD3 down modulation creating control of T cell activation as well as a potential for cross talk between another coreceptor CD2.
Direct and indirect associations of the phosphorylated tyrosines in CD5 was analysed here using a combination of a screen of binding affinities of SH2 domains with CD5 phospho-peptides and mass spectrometry of CD5 associated proteins. SH2 domains measured in this thesis did not show a high binding capacity to tyrosine phosphorylated CD5 peptides indicating that CD5 mediates transient interactions with signalling proteins. The region in the cytoplasmic tail in CD6, CD6Y3Y4, which lies at the same distance from the membrane as the C-terminus of CD5, will bind to Itk and Lck. Given CD5 and CD6 are often coexpressed this would allow phosphorylation of CD5 by these two kinases providing a molecular mechanism underlying cooperation between CD5 and CD6.