VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
How could shared patient experience support the process of decision-making in starting insulin therapy in non-insulin-treated adults with type 2 diabetes in the UK?
Keywords: diabetes
shared patient experience
peer support
insulin

Background: Many individuals with type 2 diabetes are reluctant to accept insulin treatment. As a complementary resource to formal support, an intervention based on shared patient experience might be able to facilitate such a process. Presently, however, there are many uncertainties about the evidence to support the pragmatic use of shared patient experience.
Methods: Several research techniques were used to examine these issues. A review of existing systematic reviews was conducted to clarify the idea of shared patient experience in a context of type 2 diabetes management in general. Second, a systematic review explored the impact of shared patient experience on health in adults with type 2 diabetes. Third and fourth, two linked studies, a narrative literature review of qualitative studies and a secondary analysis of an existing collection of qualitative interviews examined patients’ attitudes, experiences, information/support needs in relation to the initiation of insulin therapy. Fifth, a primary qualitative study investigated patients’ views and preferences toward the use of shared patient experience to support the process of decision-making in starting insulin. Finally, a proposed intervention design was developed based on all the evidence provided by the previous studies.
Results: More new knowledge was contributed to the field of shared patient experience in diabetes care by identifying a working definition of shared patient experience, some common components of shared patient experience and some studies highlighting the evidence of the effects of shared patient experience on disease-related health in type 2 diabetes. It also revealed the patients’ reluctance about moving onto insulin, concerns about the lack of communication about insulin with their healthcare providers prior to insulin, a range of valuable potential shared patient experience has to help patients in the decision-making process, and the patients’ preferences about different formats of shared patient experience. This evidence suggested that shared patient experience, delivered though a face-to-face one-to-one discussion and/or an online curated collection of the filmed narrative interview material conveying certain key elements of peers’ stories, could be an appropriate, efficient and acceptable way to deliver such an intervention in the context of insulin decision-making in type 2 diabetes.
Conclusion: There are still many patients being left with psychological concerns about insulin and without sufficient support to overcome such concerns, suggesting a need for additional support which can be delivered as a supplement to formal support provided by healthcare professionals. Shared patient experience could be one of the potential strategies to help ease the process of insulin decision-making.
Multisensory decision-making: Spatiotemporal dynamics and computational principles
Keywords: Structure inference
Decision-making
Prefrontal cortex
MEG
Flexible behaviour
Magnetoencephalography
Parietal cortex
Causal inference
Computational model
Multisensory integration
Multisensory computation
Representational similarity analysis

Humans have evolved to fuse information across senses by weighing the reliability of each modality (e.g., a viewer relies more on the picture to follow a drama if the TV audio is faulty; Ernst & Banks, 2002) as well as to infer unseen causes of sensory events by inverting internal generative models of the world (causal inference or CI: “Was the film dubbed or not?”). These multisensory strategies resemble Bayesian inference, but the mechanism whereby the inference unfolds step-by-step in a biologically plausible fashion remains poorly understood. Moreover, the reliability-weighted fusion and CI strategies have complementary costs and benefits, but sometimes seem to describe human choices in experimental conditions that presumably only satisfy the assumption of each particular strategy (e.g., De Winkel, Katliar, & Bülthoff, 2015; Meijer, Veselič, Calafiore, & Noppeney, 2019).
In this thesis, I present converging evidence, from a series of human neuroimaging and psychophysics studies, suggesting that these rival accounts of multisensory inference can be reconciled by a time-resolved mechanism: The brain rapidly derives a fused sensory estimate for computational expediency and, later and if required, filtering out irrelevant signals based on the inferred sensory cause(s).
First, analysing time- and source-resolved human magnetoencephalographic data (chapter 2), I unveil a systematic spatiotemporal cascade of the relevant computations for multisensory inference, starting with early segregated unisensory representations, continuing with sensory fusion in parietal-temporal regions, and culminating as CI in the frontal lobe. This suggests that the distinct computations required for flexible multisensory behaviour (fusion and CI) coexist, but each dominates at different times and in distinct regions (chapter 3).
Furthermore, using behavioural paradigms such as speeded-judgement under deadline-induced time pressure as well as psychophysics leveraging sensory masking (chapter 4), I explicitly quantified how the unfolding of neural representations can be read out to drive behaviour. Collectively, slower versus faster behavioural choices reflect more of CI versus sensory fusion, respectively, indicating that the mapping from neural representational activity to behavioural choice corroborates the temporal hierarchy revealed in the neural data.
#Voteleave or #Strongerin: resonance and rhetoric in the EU referendum
Keywords: EU referendum
Natural language processing
Internet linguistics
Political campaigning
Digital rhetoric
New media
Brexit
Social media
Twitter
Discourse analysis

This thesis explores the persuasive function of tweets in the context of the 2016 European Union membership referendum. What makes a message resonate with its audience on social media? How can the message be expressed and delivered most effectively? What strategies do individuals and organisations use when they send a tweet and why?
To explain tweet success, or resonance, an interdisciplinary framework centred around rhetoric was established. It is comprised of nine different features: discoverability, organisational authority, message framing and structure, emotions, topical issues, resolution, questions, and playfulness.
A multi-method design is adopted to address the research questions from micro- and macroscopic perspectives. Approximately 9.8 million referendum-related tweets were collected from Twitter during the referendum period (15 April-22 June 2016). A random sample of 2,976 was hand-coded according to the framework. Semi-supervised algorithms were used to label the features in the full dataset, and multivariate regressions were computed to assess the influence of each feature. This quantitative analysis is complemented by interviews with 22 campaign leaders, journalists, politicians, digital marketing experts, and private individuals who tweeted actively during the referendum. Interviewees included the CEOs of Vote Leave and Stronger In, BuzzFeed’s Europe Editor, a Twitter board member, and a former MP and Minister of State for Europe. Finally, exceptional tweets and users were identified from the regression models and interview data and rigorously scrutinised.
The overarching conclusion is that in the fast-paced and high-volume landscape of social media, discoverability is more important for resonance than content or style. Increasing the likelihood that a message is seen matters more than what is said or how it is said, because the vast majority of tweets are not seen. As such, this thesis introduces a revised schema for the resonance of digital cultural objects premised upon algorithmic power, visual media, and organisational authority.
Forward to the past: regression in Galatians
Keywords: faith and works
Galatians
accommodation
Gal 4.8-11
Paul
Paul within Judaism
new perspective
στοιχεῖα
Pauline theology
regression
stoicheia

Paul’s letter to the Galatians indicates not only that his Gentile readers stand on the brink of Jewish proselyte conversion but that compliance will involve returning to the norms of their pagan past (Gal 4.8-9; 5.1). In what sense can this possibly be true?
This thesis accords Paul’s warnings about regression greater significance in his argument than has previously been acknowledged, and finds existing explanations (Paul’s readers had substantial past exposure to Judaism, he played the regression card merely for rhetorical effect etc.) inadequate. None of these alternatives explains the striking difference between Paul’s tolerance of law-observance among Jews (Gal 2.6-10; 5.3, 6; 6.15) and his insistence upon its dangers among Gentiles.
On the basis of a thorough and original study of Graeco-Roman and Jewish backgrounds in central Anatolia and characterisations of Gentile religion and the weaknesses associated with it in Paul (e.g. 1 Cor 8.1-13) and in his wider Jewish milieu, I propose that his regression terminology reflects a concern about the enduring magnetism and intuitive plausibility of his readers’ entrenched religious presuppositions.
Interpreting στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου in Gal 4.3 as basic elements of religious behaviour common to Judaism and paganism but implemented with different motives and significations in each case, I argue that exposure to these elements through the medium of Jewish observances was reawakening assumptions associated with them in the Galatians’ pagan past.
Reading ‘enslavement under the στοιχεῖα’ in Galatians 4 as equivalent to ‘imprisonment under in the law’ and ‘life under the curse’ in Galatians 3, and noting that belief in the possibility of justification by works is limited to Gentiles in Gal 2.15-16, I argue that pagan, and not Jewish, presuppositions about the efficacy of works in divine-human interactions emerge as the foil against which the letter’s call to action is designed to make sense.
Negotiating youth deviance and parenting: exploring the effects of social class in professional interactions
Keywords: children's services
negotiating trouble
habitus and field
social class
polity model
parenting
youth justice
youth deviance
professional interactions
moral understanding of social class

Recently, socially decontextualised understandings of youth crime as triggered by individual and familial risk factors have anchored themselves in criminological theory and the UK’s youth justice practice. At the same time, research has exposed classed selection effects of institutions that propel behaviourally challenging young people and their parents into the system not only based on the seriousness of their cases, but also according to the family’s reputation and their social disadvantage. As such effects remain largely unexplored, this thesis aims to analyse the processes behind agency contact, and examine how they could be directing individuals of diverse social locations on different pathways. It employs participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups to gather the views of young people, their parents, and practitioners on whether, how and why interactions between professionals and their clients might differ according to social class and with what consequences. Drawing mainly on Bourdieu’s critical sociology, Emerson’s work on negotiated trouble, Sayer’s moral understanding of class, and Boltanski and Thévenot’s polity model to make sense of the data, the thesis finds that a family’s social location, institutional discourses, and organisational rules within youth justice and children’s services all affect the views of practitioners and how they respond to children’s conduct and parents’ childrearing.
Studies of genetic variants in monogenic renal tubular disorders
Keywords: Renal tubules
Familial Hypocalciuric Hypercalcaemia
Familial Juvenile Hyperuricaemic Nephropathy
FJHN
Kidney
FHH
Monogenic disorders
Mutation analysis
Dent's disease
Variant analysis

The renal tubules are the functional unit of the kidneys, responsible for: reabsorption of many substances including ions, solutes and water; and the secretion of waste products. The molecular mechanisms underlying these processes are tightly regulated by transporters, channels and receptors, which have different expression profiles within the renal tubular segments and their disruption can lead to disorders, with local and systemic phenotypes. Thus, monogenic renal tubular disorders affecting different segments are excellent tools for the study of specific pathways and mechanisms vital to reabsorption and secretion processes; as well as for gaining an insight into the biological and molecular differences between renal tubular segments. This thesis used next generation DNA sequencing (NGS) and Sanger DNA sequencing methods to identify novel candidate genes, and hence to study the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying three monogenic renal tubular disorders: Dent’s disease (DD), familial juvenile hyperuricaemic nephropathy (FJHN) and familial hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia (FHH), each affecting different renal segments. For each of these disorders a large proportion of patients (25-55%) lack mutations in any of the known associated genes. However, one of the main issues with NGS remains accurate variant interpretation and therefore, the first aim was to investigate the effectiveness of in silico analysis tools to identify pathogenic variants and to determine the optimum parameters, which were then applied to the ‘gene-discovery’ studies. This thesis identified novel candidate genes for DD (CLCNKA), FJHN (CLDN3 and DENND4C) and FHH (KLOTHO) and revealed an approach for its potential successful application in the clinic for diagnosis.
Humble geopolitics: rethinking natural hazards in South Iceland
Keywords: Natural hazards
Disaster studies
Ethnography
Heimaey
Westman Islands
STS
Environmental geography
More-than-human geography
Iceland

This thesis is concerned with the ways that communities in South Iceland are negatively affected by their geologically active environment. I argue that contemporary theorisations of hazards in human geography retain a militaristic preoccupation with catastrophe, antagonism and annihilation that actively impedes a fuller attention to the ways that communities live with hazards. In this thesis, I develop a new set of theoretical concepts which together map out the dimensions of what I term a ‘humble geopolitics’ of natural hazards. Humble geopolitics draws attention to the complex spatio-temporal, non- catastrophic dimensions of geo-tectonic hazards and brings into relief the partialities of official programmes of hazard management in Iceland. I show the value of this reformulated geopolitics by working this concept through three empirical case studies that explore the role of a museum, citizen science and local community groups in catalysing experiences of earthly volatility and configuring modes of public response to it. These case studies illuminate the different space-times in which hazards are experienced, the diverse practices through which public participation is expressed and the different logics that underpin everyday modes of hazard governance. In the conclusion, I argue that this work opens up important new avenues for the geographical study of natural hazards, human geography more broadly, and for disaster risk reduction policy.
The systematic seed anatomy of the meliaceae - with particular reference to the seed-coat of the melioideae
Keywords: seed-coat
meliaceae
seed
anatomy
systematic
melioideae

Detailed and original descriptions and illustrations of the seed anatomy (especially that of the seed-coat) are presented of the tribes Turraeeae, Melieae, Trichilieae, Guareeae and Sandoriceae. Homologies of the seed-coat strata are established as far as possible, the taxonomic utility of each of the many characters assessed for each tribe and the taxonomic implications gauged using Pennington and Styles’ (1975) generic monograph of the Meliaceae as a basis.
Seed-coat characters seem particularly useful in several cases of generic delimitation and show great promise at the infra-generic level, their characters being relatively constant at the species level, but showing great variation between species. At the tribal level, they seem to be of less use in delimitation than do morphological characters but, nevertheless, do give an indication of affinities.
Particular attention is paid to the systematic anatomy of 'arillate' and 'sarcotestal' seeds in the Meliaceae and an attempt is made to establish a nomenclatural basis for fleshy seed types in the family. The phylogenetic implications of seed-coat characters are discussed at length on a generic and tribal basis and the functional significance of fruit and seed anatomical characters examined as far as is possible.
Channels and circuits: biophysical and network models of neuronal function
Keywords: ion channels
associative memory

Neuroscience research studies the brain at various different levels of detail. Experimental work explores everything from the molecular machinery within each neuron, to the behavioral output of an organism. Similarly, computational models are designed to operate at many scales, and can address different questions depending upon the complexity of the description.
Detailed biophysical modelling incorporates findings about neuronal physiology and structure in order to test hypotheses and generate predictions. However, due to the complexity and number of modelling studies, it is difficult to compare models and to assess biological fidelity. In this work we present a curated database of nearly 3000 voltage-gated ion channel models used in published neuronal simulations, called ICGenealogy. Furthermore, we present a standardized formulation for ion channel dynamics which we fit to all models on this database. Through these two endeavors, we facilitate better experimentally-constrained modelling, while also providing insight into the diversity and complexity of ion channel dynamics seen in single neurons.
At a higher level, neuronal network models integrate findings about neuronal activity and cell types in order to explain representations and computations. Here, we present a model of context-dependent associative memory, which incorporates known principles of memory function from psychology research and proposes concrete functional roles for different components of neural circuits. Through analytics and simulations, we show that a contextual memory system not only provides benefits for memory capacity and robustness, but also enables control of memory expression. This work provides new conceptual ideas for memory research, suggests functional roles for different inhibitory cell types, and may help us to understand the interaction of different memory systems in the brain.
Together, the work presented here spans two distinct levels of detail and addresses current challenges both in biophysically detailed models, as well as computation in abstract network models.
Novel assessment of cardiorespiratory interactions in aortic stenosis
Keywords: Emphysema
Right Ventricle
COPD
Imaging
CMR
Aortic Stenosis
Xenon
Valvular Heart Disease
Aortic Valve Replacement
Cardiopulmonary
Cardiovascular
Dyspnoea
CT
Cardiac Function

The outcome in aortic stenosis (AS) depends on the correct timing of aortic valve replacement. Currently, this is based on symptoms and cardiac response to pressure overload. In patients with multiple medical conditions, uncertainty exists concerning their symptomatic onset and in distinguishing cardiac from respiratory causes of breathlessness. An accurate assessment of lung disease and optimal tools to discriminate between cardiac and respiratory dyspnoea are needed in AS, in whom decompensation may confound respiratory assessment, and conversely, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major reason for delay or avoidance of surgery. Advanced imaging allows the assessment of cardiac and respiratory co-morbidities, potentially reducing the misinterpretation of symptoms, and, therefore, may enable more appropriate treatment in cardiopulmonary disease.
The thesis explores the importance of lung disease in AS and the limitations of standard respiratory assessment in decompensated cardiac disease. Secondly, novel ways of discriminating between respiratory and cardiac effects in AS are assessed. Lastly, the importance of the right ventricular response to pressure overload is evaluated. In summary, this thesis demonstrates the role of cardiorespiratory assessment in cardiac disease, including novel morpho-functional imaging evaluation of the cardiopulmonary interactions in AS. Patients with advanced lung disease who would not improve after valve replacement may in the future avoid a high-risk futile intervention. On the contrary, those with a hyperdynamic right ventricle and apparent respiratory dysfunction determined by cardiac disease might avoid cardiac under-treatment.
Elucidating the non-apoptotic role of the caspases in the Drosophila intestinal system
Keywords: Intestine
Cancer
caspase-9
caspase
melanogaster
non-apoptotic
Cell Biology
Drosophila
gut
Dronc

The deregulation of caspase activity and stem cell properties are often correlated with the appearance and propagation of cancer, including colorectal cancer. However, the caspase-dependent regulation of the intestinal system remains poorly understood. Taking advantage of the powerful genetic tractability of Drosophila melanogaster, I aimed to decipher the functional role of the caspases within the intestinal system, in addition to their role in tumour formation. In this thesis, I demonstrated that using an apical-caspase reporter, I was able to observe widespread and stereotyped patterns of caspase activation within the intestinal system. Furthermore, this activation was non-apoptotic and occurred in non-regenerative conditions. Upon conditional knockout of the mammalian caspase-9/2 orthologue, Dronc, in intestinal progenitors, I demonstrated that Dronc was required to restrain proliferation and prevent the premature differentiation of Enteroblasts into Enteroctytes. Additionally, this activity of Dronc relied on its catalytic activity but not the canonical apoptotic pathway. Using a Dronc-protein reporter I was able to correlate these functions with its specific accumulation within the Enteroblasts. Molecularly, the non-apoptotic activity of Dronc in this context relies on the activity of the Notch and Insulin-TOR pathways. Using the Drop-seq single-cell sequencing technique, I observed the misexpression of several regional and cell-specific genes following loss of Dronc. Furthermore, these Dronc-specific effects may result in the deregulation of the intestinal microbiota. Collectively, this data provides novels insights into the caspase-dependent but non-apoptotic regulation of the intestinal system in non-regenerative conditions. Furthermore, these findings could explain the correlation between caspase-9 misexpression and the bad prognosis observed in patients suffering from colon cancer.