VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Working the border : contact and cooperation in the border region, Ireland 1949-1972
Keywords: geopolitics
Northern Ireland
Irish question
border region
boundaries

The Irish border runs for 450 kilometres across a previously undifferentiated landscape. Along its length, two political entities struggled for political identity and recognition. Their national posturing reverberated at the local level, where residents continued to live, attempting both to maximise the advantages of their peripheral location and to minimise its disadvantages, while effectively carrying out their economic roles despite, around, and through the political divide.
The thesis examines the local contact networks which operated across the Irish border in the years between the declaration of the Republic in 1949 and the early years of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Focusing on the experiences of border communities and organisations which sought to deliver similar services on either sides of the divide, it aims to shed light on the reality of international frontiers for those living immediately around them.
The thesis focuses on five contexts of interaction: personal and economic; and professional contact between police, tourism, and local government authorities. Through these, the factors necessary for successful interaction across an international border are examined. Over the length of the period, the effects of different states of unrest or rapprochement at the national level on local and professional networks are examined.
The thesis makes extensive use of interview data with participants, both major and minor; published personal recollections; the local press; and local council reporting, in order to explore a border community within a cross-section of time. The focus is on local communities’ own words and self-perceptions, in order to counteract top-down discussions of the frontier, to illuminate the effects of political decision-making on the ground and the local factors which help shape national policy.
Optimisation and evaluation of antibody-based immuno-PET/SPECT imaging of intranuclear epitopes
Keywords: Molecular imaging
PET/SPECT
Antibody based molecular imaging

PET and SPECT imaging of intranuclear epitopes using antibodies (IgG) tagged to cell penetrating peptides (CPPs), such as TAT (GRKKRRQRRRPPQGYG) has great potential given the versatility, specificity and sensitivity typical of antibodies. However, this process is technically challenging because of the location of the target. Previous research has demonstrated a variety of intranuclear epitopes that can be targeted with TAT-IgG-based radioimmunoconjugates (RICs). In this thesis, I set out to determine the technical limitations of intranuclear PET/SPECT using IgG-TAT-based RICs, notably the lower target abundance detection threshold.
I stably transfected the lung adenocarcinoma cell line H1299 with an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-tagged histone protein (H2B-EGFP) and generated four cell lines expressing increasing levels H2B-EGFP. EGFP levels were quantified using western blot, flow cytometry, and ELISA (0 - 1 Mcopies/cell, including H1299 WT cells). In parallel, a murine anti-GFP monoclonal antibody was produced, purified and validated for selective binding to H2B-EGFP.
Having established a model system for interrogating the limits IgG-TAT RICs, I developed a novel conjugation strategy to label antibodies with azide modified derivatives of the CCP TAT (TAT-N3) and chelator DTPA (N3-Bn-DTPA) using strain-promoted alkyne-azide cycloaddition (SPAAC) click chemistry. This method of conjugation, referred to as the DBCON3 method, was optimised and followed by radiolabeling with 111In (111In-DTPA-GFP-G1- TAT) prior to in vitro comparison with the conventional method of IgG-TAT RIC conjugation (EDC-NHS crosslinking), using the H2B-EGFP / GFP-G1 model system.
With this new conjugation strategy in place, the cellular uptake of 111In -DTPA-GFP-G1-TAT across the H2B-EGFP transfected clones was evaluated to determine the lower abundance detection threshold in vitro. Using the same model, tumour uptake in xenograft-bearing mice was quantified to determine the smallest amount of target epitope that could be detected using 111In-DTPA-GFP-G1-TAT in vivo.
Finally, I attempted to apply IgG-TAT RICs to a practical application by imaging the DNA damage response (DDR) by targeting the serine/threonine protein kinase ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), an apical regulator of the cellular response to DNA double strand breaks (DSBs).
Here, I present a proof-of-concept demonstration of what is currently possible with RIgG-TAT based RICs whilst simultaneously providing a platform for further exploration and optimisation of this technology, potentially yielding a new generation of more potent whole-body immunoimaging devices.
The Bohun and Lancaster lordships in Wales in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries
Keywords: March
lordships
fifteenth century
fourteenth century
Wales
Marches
Bohun
15th century
Lancaster
14th century
Welsh Marches

The present thesis is a study of three of the greater marcher lordships of mediaeval Wales - Monmouth, Cydweli and Brecon, as well as of smaller units, both within and outside the marches, which were administratively attached to them - Ogmore, Caldicot and a few manors in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, These lordships were part of the landed inheritances of two of the greatest fanilies of later mediaeval England - the house of Bohun (until its failure in the male line in 1273) and the house of Lancaster, and it is on the relatively abundant records of these families, supplemented wherever possible by other non-seignorial sources, that the study is based. It is essentially a study in three dimensions.
Continued in thesis ...
Somewhere between Memaw and the Academy: a compositional balancing act
Keywords: aesthetics
contemporary classical Music
composition
Georgia

This essay, accompanying a portfolio of compositions, is being submitted for a doctoral degree in composition. It describes the results of my engagement with questions of classical music, how it fits within the wider world, and how these ideas are encompassed in the accompanying music. The questions of how the marketplace mentality of the world affects its thinking about classical music, classical music’s subsequent relevance, and how classical music is presented via the concert, lead to points of increasing musical specificity such as my use of discourse, determinacy, tonality and modality in the compositions, and my belief in the validity of the classical concert ritual. To make these points, I specifically turn to the musicological work of Julian Johnson, Christopher Small, and Milton Babbitt, engaging with and questioning each so as to describe how I decided on various aesthetic positions. Following this, I analyse three pieces of music by Arvo Pärt, Howard Skempton, and Martyn Harry to demonstrate how these ideas have been realised by other composers and what inspiration I took from them in my own compositions. The essay is closed with a detailed discussion of two large projects; one that was undertaken in 2013, and one that is currently in progress. In doing so, I hope to show how my engagement with larger questions has affected not only the music I have written, but also the way in which the music is presented. The essay is intentionally written with a more personal tone so as not to cause a discrepancy with the music in my portfolio, all of which was written with genuineness as the paramount concern. Lastly, I begin my argument by starkly contrasting different viewpoints. It has admittedly been challenging to find a balance in describing the extreme positions in a way that isn’t unnecessarily provocative to my aims. Provocation is certainly not my intention. So, in short, stick with me; all will be made clear as the dissertation progresses.
Connecting theories and practice of governance networks and sustainability policies in cities
Keywords: sustainability strategy
sustainable urban development
network governance

This research analysed the effectiveness of governance networks on the design and implementation of sustainability strategies of two European cities – Glasgow and Copenhagen. European municipalities are actively developing strategies that require collaboration between a plethora of stakeholders, often found in networks. Stakeholder collaboration was examined through three features of governance network theory: inter-dependency, coordination and pluralism. The research explored network management and normative issues in relation to network leadership, power and accountability challenges in order to better understand the stakeholder interactions and their impact on sustainability decision-making.
The design of sustainability strategies was explored through a comparative analysis of governance networks and implementation was analysed through projects in each city. Data collection was informed by a literature review which was analysed to shape key themes. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews of network stakeholders. Interview questions directly correspond to key features identified. Social network analysis was then employed to categorise and standardise data into a schematic network diagrams by mapping and quantifying patterns of connection between stakeholders in each network. Qualitative data collected enabled an exploratory analysis of why patterns and relationships exist and how they impact the design and implementation of sustainability strategies.
Research has shown that the key features of governance networks are evident in Glasgow and Copenhagen, however, future studies could consider integrating more flexibility to reflect regional contexts. The ‘transition’ cities experience between formal and informal governance must be integrated. Networks can effectively enable municipalities to leverage stakeholder resources within decision-making. However, clarity on sustainability objectives and indicators is necessary, as well as more ambitious target setting in city’s sustainability strategies. There is no recipe for a ‘successful’ decision-making process; results identified elements that help and hinder governance networks which must be addressed to accelerate the reduction of carbon emissions in 21st century cities.
Looking to the North Sea: isotopic and osteological evidence for medieval diet, mobility, and health at Stoke Quay, Ipswich
Keywords: carbon isotope analysis
medieval
archaeology
early medieval
strontium isotope analysis
oxygen isotope analysis
nitrogen isotope analysis
paleopathology

The North Sea trading emporia of the early medieval period were instrumental in the redevelopment of overseas exchange networks in post-Roman Britain, southern Scandinavia, and Western Europe. These trade centres catalysed the process of urbanisation that intensified throughout the subsequent centuries, giving rise to the social and economic landscape of pre-modern England and Europe. Studying the emporia and their evolution into towns can provide insights into the factors that fuelled urbanisation, and can demonstrate the effect of this phenomenon on human diet, health, and mobility in the medieval period.
This thesis approaches issues of medieval urbanisation and its effects through chemical and osteological analyses of skeletal remains from 363 humans and 99 animals from the recently excavated site of Stoke Quay, Ipswich (late 6th-late 15th centuries AD). Through stable carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and radiogenic strontium isotope analysis, paired with osteological and palaeopathological observations, this research characterises the degree and timing of urbanisation at Ipswich, and its impact on the population buried at Stoke Quay. Specific research questions address the timing and extent of the ‘fish event horizon’ in England, the effects of urbanisation on health, and the extent of mobility and treatment of foreigners in medieval English towns.
The paired isotopic and osteological findings challenge the current view that men were the only early consumers of marine fish, but support the hypothesis that intense marine fish consumption was linked to maritime trades. The results indicate that foreigners were subject to higher rates of violence than locals, and that this violence increased over time along with nonspecific stressors and infectious disease. This thesis demonstrates that Ipswich was an exceptional location from the outset, with significantly higher and more widespread consumption of marine resources than contemporary sites across England and around the North Sea, and with a more diverse and dynamic population than was previously imagined.
Virginia Woolf and literary objects: description, philosophy, and affect
Keywords: objects
Virginia Woolf
intellectual history
philosophy
affect

This thesis offers a philosophical and affective history of the subject-object encounter in Virginia Woolf’s writings, examining how she negotiates the relationship of the (writing) subject to objects. It extends recent literary materialism(s) that emphasise how thoughts and subjects are entangled with things. The desire for such intimacy emerges in pertinent trends in Woolf’s intellectual milieu – the late-Victorian and Edwardian approach to objects as signifiers of personality, continental theories of empathy, and the continuing allure of Romantic unity between self and world. However, Woolf is ambivalent about subject-object intimacy because objects tacitly inculcate a doctrine of the “real” by reifying social forms; furthermore, many traditions of subject-object intimacy cloak a radical subjectivism that threatens the object qua object by defining the object as a private sense-impression. Woolf’s father, Leslie Stephen, powerfully summarised how eighteenth-century empiricism’s emphasis on psycho-sensory privacy led to a rejection of mind-independent objects that, in turn, ultimately attenuates language, time and intersubjectivity. I argue that empiricism’s lonely worlds of experience and subject-object intimacy both raise the problem of radical subjectivism. Skilfully negotiating this dilemma, Woolf replaces subject-object intimacy with impersonality, suggesting that the ontological autonomy of objects is necessary to intellectual freedom, acknowledgement of otherness, and the alleviation of human loneliness. Distance and difference between subjects and objects becomes the ground of Woolf’s ethics, as shared attention to objects becomes a synecdoche for a shareable world. Subjectification and art itself are reformulated in terms of a non-appropriative “pointing towards” that recentres and demythologises the artist’s role by gesturing at the limits of description.
This study uncovers complex dialogues with contemporary authors, theorists, and philosophers and illuminates the significance of objects to larger modernist preoccupations. Furthermore, it foregrounds the difficult relationship between materiality, language, and representation, contributing towards a theoretical reappraisal of objects in fiction.
The effects of an exogenously-induced ketosis on human exercise physiology, metabolism and capacity
Keywords: metabolism
exercise
ketosis
physiology
ketone

Ketosis is a pivotal metabolic adaptation to starvation that prolongs survival by altering fuel utilisation. If harnessed outside the context of starvation, ketosis may provide a method to enhance physical performance. Therefore, this Thesis explored the effects of an exogenously-induced ketosis on human exercise physiology, metabolism and capacity. First, how the mild-ketoacidaemia associated with ketone supplementation affects the physiological response to incremental-intensity exercise and athletes’ perceptions of exercise exertion were determined (Chapter 3). To compensate for ketoacidaemia, exercise ventilation was increased by 5% and exercise-induced hyperventilation was at a 20 W lower intensity. Perceptions of exertion were greater during ketosis, primarily due to the increased acid load. Chapter 4 determined the effects of blood β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB) concentration and exercise intensity on βHB oxidation rates. Increasing blood βHB concentration from ≈2 mM to ≈4.5 mM did not affect βHB oxidation rates. βHB oxidation rates peaked during 50% maximal power (WMax) intensity exercise, although the greatest relative contribution to overall energy expenditure was during 25% WMax intensity exercise and just 4.5%. Despite this, delta efficiency was increased during ketosis. Finally, in Chapter 5, the effects of prolonged exogenously- and endogenously-induced ketoses on exercise capacity and adaptive responses to exercise training were compared. Ketone supplementation improved exercise capacity by 4 - 6% on 50% of training days versus a carbohydrate (CHO) control, but markedly impaired whole-body insulin sensitivity. Conversely, a ketogenic diet substantially increased fat oxidation by ≈60% during exercise. In part, this was caused by changes in skeletal muscle protein content, most notably a 5-fold increase in pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4. However, exercise capacity was decreased by 41 - 48%. In conclusion, despite increased awareness of exercise exertion, and low βHB oxidation rates, supplementing athletes with ketones may enhance exercise efficiency and capacity in athletes. However, prolonged supplementation during exercise training may result in unfavourable metabolic adaptations to CHO metabolism, without reciprocal increases in fat metabolism, as observed with an endogenously-induced ketosis.
Sea ice effects on the upper ocean: internal waves, ice-covered gyres and the seasonal ice zone
Keywords: stratified shear flow
Antarctic
Ekman pumping
internal waves
sea ice
polar oceanography
Arctic
rheology

The polar oceans are currently experiencing significant changes. Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extent and volume are changing, with a poorly constrained implication for future climate. Understanding the interactions between sea ice and the underlying ocean is fundamental for understanding current changes, and predicting future ice-states.
In this thesis I study several aspects of the under-ice boundary layer and the coupling to the deeper polar ocean. First, I conduct numerical simulations of fluid flow using the Lattice Boltzmann Method to investigate the effects of stratification and roughness on ice-ocean drag and heat flux below a ridged ice floe overlaying a stably stratified ocean. It is found that sea ice generated internal waves can cause order of magnitude variations in the simulated drag coefficient and modest variations in area-integrated heatflux and its spatial distribution.
A parameterization is developed for wave drag as a scaling law in terms of upper ocean velocity, stratification, and ridge geometry. To understand the potential impact, this parameterization is applied to an idealized conceptual model of an ice-covered ocean gyre. The model extends previous descriptions of ocean density variation subject to applied wind stress to account for ice-ocean wave drag and a simple treatment of ocean surface stress redistribution within the ice via a viscous ice rheology. I find that in certain stratification regimes, inclusion of internal wave effects significantly alters ice-velocity and ice-ocean stress with implications for the freshwater content of the gyre.
I also explore how seasonal variations in ice cover impact the water mass properties of the Southern Ocean. A 1D ice-ocean model is adapted and compared to oceanographic float observations in the Antarctic seasonal ice zone. I find that Ekman upwelling has a leading order impact on the seasonal evolution of the upper ocean water masses and stratification.
The limits of intangible property rights
Keywords: philosophy
political philosophy
cultural appropriation
philosophy of rights
intellectual property rights
distributive justice
economic rent

A large proportion of our wealth comes from utilizing intangible resources — technologies, knowledge, literature, etc. — left to us by past generations. Does anyone have a right to exclude others from accessing these resources? How should the benefits they make available be distributed? This thesis aims to answer these two questions. The thesis proceeds in three chapters. The first chapter advances an account of when rights are justified, which builds on the interest theory of rights tradition. The second chapter aims to address the first question. It evaluates the normative status of exclusion rights to intangible goods and concludes that although some exclusion rights are justified, they need to be limited in scope and duration. The third chapter aims to answer the second question. It focuses on the economic rent portion of income that derive from intangible goods. It ultimately argues that transactors have no right to this portion of income and the latter, therefore, ought to be redistributed. The results of the thesis challenge the IPR policies and institutions that have prevailed in the last century. It urges us to imagine a more open and equal future that intangible goods have made possible.
Raising capital with purpose: challenges and opportunities in using corporate debt for environmental sustainability
Keywords: green financing
greenbond
green debt

Through a set of four empirical chapters, this research provides insights into and understandings of corporate finance in relation to its environmental exposure and pricing in financial markets. After considering the nature of the relationship between stakeholders and the firm, as well as the nature of the power that these stakeholders possess, I decided to focus this thesis on the creditors.
In the first part of this thesis, therefore, I investigate the relationship between debt structures and environmental sustainability. The outcomes of the first study suggest that companies are sensitive to the cost of debt when deciding whether to invest in environmental sustainability projects. The outcome of the second study finds a negative association between the cost of debt and the environmental sustainability of a company, implying that firms with higher environmental sustainability scores are perceived as less risky and therefore awarded cheaper costs when issuing new debt. Drawing on these theoretical insights, the second part of the thesis is dedicated to the green bond market, a distinct debt security created to raise financing for environmental projects. The third study, therefore, focuses on the supply side of green bonds, identifying major drivers for their surge among developed and developing countries. Finally, having investigated the existence of the yield premium of green bonds, I found that the market appears to perceive green bonds issued later by the same issuer as riskier and with higher levels of yield spread over the government bonds compared with those issued earlier.