VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The pathless sky: violence and culture in First World War air services
Keywords: aviation
violence studies
history of war
Royal Air Force
Service Aéronautique
First World War
British military
air forces
French military
fighter pilots
World War I
aviation history
American military
military psychology
aerial combat
war violence
military history
military culture
transnational history
cultural history of war
history of medicine
combat culture
Royal Flying Corps
US Army Air Service

The First World War has almost always been the impetus behind new developments in critical studies of violence, in fields as diverse as psychology, strategic studies, and cultural history. Western Front infantry soldiers remain central to cross-disciplinary interpretations of combatant experience, identity, and community. This thesis reframes these fundamental relationships between war violence and community by considering an under-explored First World War battlefield: the air. It explores French, British, and American fighter pilots as a transnational combat culture emerging in dialogue with a distinctive, new type of warfare.
Though still largely relegated to popular history and one-dimensional stereotypes, First World War flyers vividly expose the wartime processes of navigating ‘unprecedented’ violence. Air services began the war affiliated with older military services and without a clear picture of what an aerial conflict entailed. As such, pilots themselves were disproportionately important to shaping the practices, rules, language, and uses of military aviation. The thesis follows fighter pilots through the process of learning to fly into informally organised combat, establishing their under-explored reliance on peacetime transnational aviation networks and elite flying ‘aces’ to share information and create communal practices. Pilots who flew in the three-dimensional battle space above the Western Front relied upon complex embodied relationships with their rapidly militarising aircraft to survive, a process that directly informed the ways in which they did, suffered, and survived aerial violence. The thesis explores the impact of these shared experiences, demonstrating First World War aerial violence’s profound disruption of military and class hierarchies and its post-war commodification as a cultural tool.
Allied aviators’ transnational combat culture was shaped by what this thesis terms ‘violent flight’, or the embodied experience of flying in a dangerous combat zone. As pilots considered this to be work, the thesis establishes a materially informed, geographically specific interpretation of pilots as gendered labourers to elucidate the development of their wartime communities into a unified combat culture. This deliberately transnational, multi-disciplinary approach urges new, post-centenary conversations about the place of violence in First World War historiography and establishes a specific, complex symbiosis between violence and war cultures.
Graphical ekphrasis in contemporary music
Keywords: ekphrasis
composition
transmediality
contemporary music

This thesis is, primarily, a treatise supporting a new approach to ekphrastic frameworks within contemporary music. Deriving from the Greek for ‘description’ [ἔκφρασις], ekphrasis traditionally relates to descriptions of art works as literary devices, with Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn (1819) being a well-known example. Through a re-evaluation and extension of Siglind Bruhn’s seminal work on ekphrasis within a musical context, I suggest that the construction of compositional grammars deriving from distinctly visual stimuli allows for a deeply embedded poetic and formal connection between the two media, which I deem a 'graphical ekphrasis'. To demonstrate this concept, three case studies are used which exhibit a variety of compositional methods and graphical sources. The first two studies adopt a largely work-centric focus, taking score analysis as the key interrogative method, supported by composer testimony or writings. The final case study explores the place of graphical ekphrasis in my own music, highlighting the potential of the rhetorical model and compositional method. Finally, an argument is proposed for the ways in which this concept may be developed, focusing on the construction of a composite framework for ‘transmedial’ aesthetics which can cut across both historical periodisation and disciplinary boundaries.
Electrochemistry of hydrazine
Keywords: hydrazine oxidation
catalysis
electrochemistry
Palladium

The electrochemical oxidation of hydrazine is of widespread importance particularly in the area of fuel cells and also provides the basis for chemical sensors for this toxic chemical. In this thesis, electrochemical methods including cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry and nano-impacts are employed to develop a comprehensive understanding of the reaction mechanistically and kinetically.
Chapter 1 introduces the basic principles of electrochemistry and electrochemical techniques while the generic chemicals, reagents and instrumentation used in this thesis are summarised in Chapter 2.
Chapter 3 reports the electrochemical characterisation of Palladium nanoparticles decorated graphene oxides nanoplatelets (Pd/GO) via nano-impacts in terms of the hydrogen evolution (HER) and oxidation reactions (HOR). The key conclusion is that only the zone of the individual platelets physically close to the electrode surface is effectively catalytic, and this insight provides the basis of the study of the Pd/GO catalytic ability towards hydrazine oxidation in Chapter 6.
The investigation into hydrazine oxidation starts in Chapter 4 where the focus is placed on the interpretation of the mechanism and kinetics of hydrazine oxidation at generic carbon surfaces, necessarily prior to any catalysis study. It was found that the Marcus-Hush theory is more appropriate for describing the voltammetry of hydrazine oxidation in comparison with the well-recognized Butler-Volmer theory.
In Chapter 5, the mechanism of hydrazine oxidation is probed further at carbon surfaces meanwhile with focus on the variation of the pH and buffer capacity of the electrolytes. It is revealed that the oxidation reaction is self-inhibited as the protons released from the oxidation easily combines with the electro-active N2H4 molecules (local to the working electrode surface) to form inactive N2H5+.
Chapter 6 targets the catalysis of the above-mentioned Pd/GO nanoplatelets towards hydrazine oxidation via studies using both macroelectrodes modified by drop-casting and by single entity electrochemistry using nano-impacts, demonstrating that the first electron transfer of the four electron, four proton oxidation of hydrazine is rate-determining and involves no proton loss in the initial step. The electro-catalysis towards hydrazine oxidation is then extended to bulk Palladium (Chapter 7) and Palladium nanoparticles (Chapter 8). Chapter 7 evidences the existence of a long-lived radical di-cation N2H5•2+ on the voltammetric timescale. Finally in Chapter 8, the markedly reduced over-potential for the oxidation at the surface of Palladium nanoparticles is identified quantitatively to arise from partly the increased surface area of the interface and partly an increased catalytic ability of the nanoparticles relative to the bulk Palladium.
Demoicratic authority: nature and ground of the EU’s right to rule
Keywords: Political Obligation
Legitimacy
Demoicracy
Authority
Authority Claims
EU

This thesis examines the nature and ground of the EU’s legitimate authority. It provides an original account of the preferred moral standard to evaluate such authority and studies its effects on the practical reasoning of those subject to the EU’s authority. The overarching objective of the thesis is to overcome court-centred discussions about conflicting claims to ultimate authority and Kompetenz-Kompetenz, and to initiate a debate on the more substantial and prior question of the moral grounds of the EU’s authority. The thesis draws on the rich literature concerning the political authority of states and the emerging discussions on international authority. It shows that searching for the moral ground of the EU’s authority can provide a fresh perspective on important legitimacy challenges in the EU, especially in relation to the authority of the Member States. This is not only theoretically important in that it highlights a previously neglected perspective on the EU’s authority claim. Beyond that, a whole range of factors illustrate the practical relevance of this investigation: growing nationalism in the Member States, ever more opposition from national constitutional courts, and ultimately Brexit highlight the fact that the authority of the EU is under strain. The three parts of the thesis reflect the three main steps of the argument. Part I makes the case that the concept of political authority (both the study of the nature and of the legitimacy of authority) is applicable to political communities and organisations beyond the state. Part II focuses on the nature, scope and addressees of the EU’s authority claim. It uses the notions of institutions and membership to understand the EU’s authority claim and to relate it to national and international authority claims. The main goal is to gain analytical clarity about what kind of authority the EU claims that is in need of legitimation. Part III engages with the appropriate moral standard to ground and evaluate the EU’s authority. It looks at both the EU institutions’ vision as well as at various implicit and explicit academic models used to evaluate the legitimate authority of EU law. In the final two chapters, the thesis proposes an original account of demoicratic authority, which takes the EU’s constitutional peoples as principal sources of the EU’s authority and is based on the value of the EU’s institutional set-up to allow the peoples to exercise joint self-determination beyond the state and thereby secure their autonomy as constitutional collectives.
Insights into viral RNA synthesis by the influenza A virus and SARS-CoV-2 RNA polymerases
Keywords: SARS
influenza
virus
coronavirus
polymerase
RNA

Influenza A virus and SARS-CoV-2 are RNA viruses which cause severe respiratory disease and death in humans. Both encode RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRps), which are responsible for synthesising viral RNA as part of a larger complex of viral proteins; for influenza A virus this complex is called a ribonucleoprotein (RNP), and for SARS-CoV-2 the replication- transcription complex (RTC). In this work I elucidate mechanisms used by influenza A virus and SARS-CoV-2 to synthesise viral RNA.
I first present evidence that the influenza A virus RdRp maintains the structural integrity of RNPs during transcription by binding to the 3′ end of viral genomic RNA. I then go on to demonstrate that in order to initiate viral RNA synthesis, the influenza A virus RdRp requires trans-activation through dimerization. Furthermore, I show that the influenza A virus RdRp co-opts the host protein ANP32A to help it form a second structurally-distinct dimer, which has the role of encapsidating nascent viral RNA into progeny RNPs. Collectively, these findings allow me to present a more detailed molecular model for how influenza viral RNA is synthesised and assembled into new RNPs.
One role of the influenza A virus RNP is to hide highly immunogenic viral RNA from cellular innate immune receptors such as RIG-I. The SARS-CoV-2 RTC instead synthesises 7- methylguanosine (m7G)-capped viral RNA which does not activate RIG-I. In this work I also show that one of the domains in the SARS-CoV-2 RdRp is a guanylyltransferase enzyme, which resolves a missing link in the mechanism of coronavirus m7G cap synthesis. Together, these studies improve understanding of the diverse mechanisms used by RNA viruses to synthesise viral RNA, and identify multiple functionally important sites on the influenza A virus and SARS- CoV-2 RdRps which could be exploited for future antiviral strategies.
Optimising network modelling methods for fMRI
Keywords: deep learning
fMRI
time-varying functional connectivity
machine learning
functional connectivity

The activity of functional brain networks is responsible for the emergence of time-varying cognition and behaviour. Accordingly, functional connectivity (FC) in fMRI has been shown to be predictive of behavioural traits and psychiatric and neurological conditions.
Many studies estimate FC by calculating the average correlation across an entire fMRI scanning session data (static FC). A major goal of such neuroimaging studies is to develop predictive models to analyze the relationship between whole-brain FC patterns and behavioural traits. However, there is no single widely accepted standard pipeline for analyzing static FC. We proposed six steps for designing FC-based predictive models. This standardized framework for estimating static FC should accelerate both congruence and scientific progress within the neuroscientific community.
However, there is also increasing interest in studying the time-varying nature of FC in fMRI (time-varying FC). Typically, methods that measure time-varying FC have several limitations that bias the estimation of time-varying FC, to appear more stable over time than it actually is. We designed a new method, MAGE, that offers a potential explanation and a solution for the homogeneity of time-varying FC seen in existing approaches. This new framework for estimating time-varying FC showed that FC is not static over time and fluctuates on a sub-minute time-scale during resting-state fMRI.
This work also investigates the clinical applications of both static and time-varying FC. We found that MAGE estimated time-varying FC can provide a more precise understanding of how brain networks are related to cognitive abilities, both in health and disease. Lastly, we demonstrated thatMAGE can reliably capture the time-varying changes in FC across a range of behavioral and cognitive tasks, overcoming the limitations of most popular existing methods.
Fine root dynamics and morphological traits in tropical forest ecosystems
Keywords: Fine roots
allocation
productivity
residence time
fine root morphological traits
biomass

A major challenge in tropical belowground carbon allocation ecology is to understand how fine root dynamics and traits change across different ecosystems and environmental gradients. This study examines the spatial variation of fine root carbon stock, productivity, fractional carbon allocation of total productivity to the fine roots, and residence time across pantropical forest types. At a regional scale, this thesis investigates the vertical distribution and seasonal variation of fine root carbon stock, productivity, mortality, and residence time in lowland Amazon rainforests and Andean montane forests. In addition, this thesis examines how fine root morphological traits are related to soil properties and climatic variables from lowland to montane forests.
My first study was the largest fine root carbon stock and dynamics study across tropical forests in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. The analysis was carried out separately in lowland and montane forests to understand the spatial variation and the effect of soil properties and climate variables. Root dynamics were better predicted by soil properties, such as soil sand content, soil pH, and soil phosphorus content than by climatic variables, and a different set of predictors were identified for lowland and montane forests. Lower values of mean annual productivity of fine roots were observed in upper montane forests and Southeast Asian lowland forests.
My second study examined the vertical and seasonal variation in fine root dynamics in the Amazon-Andes region. The vertical distribution of fine root carbon stock and productivity in the soil profile showed proportionally more stock and productivity in the surface soil in montane forests, particularly in lower montane forests, than in lowland forests, which was related to the thickness of the organic layer. Root mortality increased in the dry season in both lowland and montane forests.
I concluded my thesis by analyzing fine root morphological traits and the root-environment relationships. These features were strongly related to soil properties and some root dynamics traits. Root tissue density emerged as the principal trait in determining the variation in root morphological traits and the rate of root foraging for resources.
This is one of the first pan-tropical studies to explore fine root dynamics along environmental gradients in neotropical and paleotropical regions. I worked with the Global Ecosystems Monitoring network teams across old-growth tropical forests ecosystems. Ultimately, my thesis provides a common analytical framework for estimating below-ground dynamics in different environmental gradients across the tropics, and the results may be used for improving global vegetation models.
Investigating the effects of oxidative stress on extracellular vesicle function and RNA cargo loading
Keywords: exosomes
Drosophila
Extracellular vesicles
RNA
oxidative stress
EVs

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a heterogeneous group of membrane-enclosed structures which have been suggested to play a critical role in maintaining intracellular homeostasis through the elimination of unnecessary biological material from EV-producing cells, and as a delivery system enabling intercellular communication between distant cells. Although extensive study has revealed many RNA biotypes that are associated with EVs, and has begun to elucidate the mechanisms of their packaging and delivery, little is currently known about how these processes are conserved in different species and under different cellular conditions. In this thesis, an in vitro Drosophila model in S2R+ cells was set up to investigate EV biology under normal and stress conditions, as a complement to an in vivo system being set up in Drosophila larvae. Under hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress, an increase to EV number was seen, whilst no changes to size or protein marker composition were evident. Preliminary work indicated that these stress-cell- derived EVs acted to induce cell death in recipient cells. Characterisation of the total RNA content of cells and EV samples under control and oxidative stress conditions revealed that EV RNA was not representative of parental cells, but was instead enriched for ribosomal RNA, Copia retrotransposon, snoRNA, and RNAs relating to cytoskeletal and developmental functions. Investigation of potential loading motifs in mRNA 3’UTRs found no sequences which could differentiate mRNA packaging under stress conditions. Further exploration of mRNA loading in EVs found no preference for short mRNA transcripts, but an enrichment of intronic and untranslated regions, and 3’ end degradation, under stress. A striking increase in base mismatch in the RNA of EV preparations was seen under stress, possibly indicative of targeting of aberrant RNA to EVs, or of RNA modification. These results present strong evidence that the RNA content of Drosophila EVs is altered under oxidative stress and provides several avenues for further investigation of mechanisms by which it may occur. Furthermore, these data indicate the potential increased importance that EVs may play in metabolic and signalling functions under different cellular stress conditions, which has great relevance for disease pathology.
Digital diplomatic crisis communication: diplomatic signalling and crisis narratives in an age of real – time governance
Keywords: Digital Diplomacy
Technology
Ukraine
Diplomacy
Israel
Facebook
Twitter
Crisis Communication
Palestine

The practice of digital diplomatic signalling (DDS) and online crisis narratives (OCN) offers unexplored potential for analysing the creation and exercise of diplomatic communicative strategies during times of political crisis. Set within the global information space, the processes of DDS and OCN today carry the potential, to act as communicative tools for foreign policy power projection, and virtual powers of enlargement as the ‘battle for crisis narratives’ is now played out online. By developing a unique conceptual lens in which to view and analyse these communicative processes online, this research argues that digital signalling and online crisis narratives have become essential components of a Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) communicative toolbox, and worthy instruments in which they can seek to exert and extend their diplomatic influence both at home and abroad. Using DDS and OCN as conceptual lenses in which to view diplomatic crisis communication practices, we see that the power inherent in digital mediums becomes a communicative advantage during a crisis and a strategic instrument for the achievement of foreign policy goals. A new crop of studies which addresses the emergence of communicative power under the label ‘foreign policy in global information space’ adds substantial weight to these claims, supplying, new ways of extrapolating the power projections of digital diplomatic actors online. Through the exploration of two distinct case studies, the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, and 2013/4 Euromaidan crisis, this research therefore taps into the unexplored potential of the process of DDS, its power to create OCN’s, and ultimately expand a state's power and influence during times of crisis.
Community and belief: the development of Anglo-Saxon Christian burial practice, AD 700-1066
Keywords: mortuary archaeology
Anglo-Saxon
burial practices
medieval history
archaeology
material culture
early medieval
cultural history
religious history

The central aim of this thesis is to reveal patterns about burial practices over time and across the physical space of Anglo-Saxon England between 700 and 1066. This integration of geographical and chronological distribution analysis is achieved through bringing a breadth of unpublished Anglo-Saxon-period archaeological data to the fore that is now available due to advances in digitisation. It is argued that middle and Late Anglo-Saxon burial practice highlighted different levels of communities visible through burial practices: the family, who choose to overlap their graves to be together; the village community, which chooses to include the poor or ill and the dangerous in their midst; the region, in which the community travels or trades, and share the same custom of grave types; the religious community, which, in teaching about the Day of Judgement, leads the ‘little community,’ and fuses local practice, religious identity, and social rank. This is demonstrated through a combination of examination of the literary sources and both simple and statistical analysis of a broad sweep of new archaeological material. This thesis hopes to provide a typology and chronology for mid- to late Anglo-Saxon burial practice, creating a systematic, clear view of the consolidation, then diversification, of Christian burial practices in and across Anglo-Saxon England before the Conquest on a regional and national level.