VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Time, change and reality
Keywords: persistence
philosophy of time
metaphysics
change

In my thesis I will be proposing situationalism: a new theory of how it is that things change over time. It is B-theoretic, eternalist and endurantist. The central contention of the theory is that what is true can differ in a metaphysically significant way from time to time.
The theory emerges as a solution to the problem of change. In my first chapter, I argue that change is genuinely problematic (contra some of the recent literature). There are at least three ways to generate problems from change, and I elucidate problems from the law of non-contradiction and the indiscernibility of identicals. In the second chapter, I examine the nature of change and contend that the current major solutions to the problem fail to uphold our intuitive notion of change. Chapter 3 introduces the idea of a situation; a part of reality. The fourth chapter applies situations to the problem of change and comes up with a new solution. The solution relies on a denial of universal persistence; the denial of the idea that what is true in a situation s is thereby true in every situation of which s is a part.
Chapter 5 considers the infamous Ship of Theseus case, and concludes that situationalism can also solve this problem. The situationalist account of the Ship of Theseus puzzle enables us, in Chapter 6, to briefly demonstrate the analogous application of the solution to a series of other persistence puzzles.
The seventh chapter discusses the metaphysical consequences of such a view. The core claim is of the primacy of parts of reality over reality as a whole. It is a position according to which truth in situations is fundamental and situations needn’t cohere. I hold that the theory has significant costs but also substantial benefits. For this reason it is worth serious consideration.
Structure-function studies of the bacterial dsDNA translocase FtsK
Keywords: Escherichia coli
helicase
triplex displacement
translocase
biophysics
chromosome segregation
structural biology

DNA translocases are molecular motors that use energy from nucleotide triphosphate (NTP) hydrolysis to move along, pump, remodel or clear DNA. Unlike helicases, double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) translocases do not unwind DNA; their action has no net product apart from inducing supercoils as a result of groove-tracking, which has hampered their characterisation. Many dsDNA translocases appear to have biased directionality. However, the inherent symmetry of dsDNA requires that translocase activity is regulated by specific sequences or through modulation by interaction partners.
FtsK is a highly conserved bacterial cell-division protein, localised to the dividing septum, that coordinates chromosome segregation with cytokinesis. It is responsible for the resolution of chromosome dimers by activating the tyrosine recombinases XerCD bound to the 28bp chromosomal site dif. The C-terminal domain of FtsK (FtsKC) is a dsDNA translocase (speed ~5 kb/s, stall force ~60 pN) most closely related to superfamily 4 helicases and is active as a hexameric ring. A winged-helix subdomain at the C-terminus of FtsKC, FtsKgamma, binds to specific 8 bp sequences, KOPS, that are polarised in the bacterial chromosome from the origin to towards dif. FtsKgamma also interacts with XerD, activating it for catalysis.
Studies of FtsK translocation have differed over whether KOPS act as a loading or a reversal sequence for FtsK. In Chapter 2, I use a continuous ensemble assay for dsDNA translocation to show that FtsK initiates rapidly at KOPS, with loading dependent on FtsKgamma. Translocation requires moderately cooperative ATP binding, while ATP hydrolysis has a more relaxed cooperativity. I have determined the ATP coupling efficiency of translocation to be ~1.6 bp/ATP, in line with theoretical estimates. Though FtsK probably strips most proteins from DNA, I show in Chapter 3 that FtsK stops translocating when it encounters XerCD bound to dif. The interaction is most likely a specific down-regulation, but surprisingly does not depend on FtsKgamma or on the catalytic or synaptic activity of XerCD. In Chapter 4, I show some preliminary structural data of FtsKC bound to dsDNA, with the aim of determining the first high resolution structure of a ring dsDNA translocase bound to nucleic acid.
Jewish identity construction and perpetuation in contemporary Britain
Keywords: Minority
Britain
Jews
Judaism
Britishness
Religion
Culture
Nationalism
Identity
Ethnicity
Diaspora

This thesis attends to the major question ‘how is Jewish identity created and maintained in contemporary Britain?’ To answer this question, I have done one year of ethnographic fieldwork in Britain, which included 121 interviews with Jewish people of various ages and across different religious as well as non-religious denominations.
This thesis identifies four major elements informing the creation and perpetuation of Jewish identity: One, a sense of difference from the majority population creates and maintains the identity. Jews can perceive themselves to be different religiously, nationally, ethnically and/or culturally from white Christian British people. Two, trauma memory has an impact on the creation and sustenance of this identity. Vicarious group trauma, meaning trauma experienced by proxy of previous generations, can inform identity through its influence on everyday experiences. Three, community affiliation plays a role in creating and particularly reinforcing the identification. The Jewish community provides resources, social interaction and thus signalled attention, and regard; all of them respond to innate human needs that a person aims to have satisfied. Four, a group norm of continuity is important in the perpetuation of this identity within and across generations. This norm is created and sustained by its members through their focus on endogamy. Wanting to have a partner from one’s own group, have Jewish children and raise them in a Jewish lifestyle can, thereby, reinforce and maintain a sense of Jewishness (inter-) generationally. Without members marrying within the faith and having children that are raised with Judaism, it would be difficult to preserve Jewish identity in a country where the group does not constitute the majority.
The thesis concludes that there are two reasons why Jews in diaspora have been able to sustain as a group and maintain their identity over time. Firstly, the multi-dimensionality of the Jewish group and respective affiliation platforms have allowed its members to create a multi-faceted meaning of being Jewish, and, secondly, continuous external challenges to the group’s security together with constant reminders of those challenges; both have prevented the group from assimilating into mainstream society.
The employment of women in Great Britain 1891-1921
Keywords: women's riights movement
sex division of labour
women's work
equal pay for equal work

This is a study of women’s employment in Great Britain from 1891 to 1921 with special reference to its division from men’s. It examines, first, the occupational distribution of the nation’s labour force during the 1891-1914 period and finds a definite division between the work done by women and the work done by men. It then asks what factors underlay women’s absence from the work men did and women’s presence and men’s absence from the work women did. After answering these questions it shows and accounts for the major changes that occurred in women’s employment between the pre-First World War years of 1891 to 1914, the First World War years of 1914 to 1918, and the post-First World War years of 1918 to 1921 and considers what effect they had on the sex division of labour.
Of secondary interest is the reaction of women to their own employment position. The 1891-1921 period coincides with the advance of the so-called women’s rights movement whereby women, as active agents in furthering their interests as citizens, wives, mothers, and persons, also undertook to improve their position as workers. Why was there dissatisfaction with it? What were the measures taken to better it? How effective were they? What did they signify for the division of labour? This thesis encompasses these questions as well.
Descriptively this thesis sets out, in more statistical and narrative detail than has ever before been attempted for the 1891-1921 period and for Great Britain as a whole, the existence of a sex division of labour, secondly, its extensiveness, and thirdly, the position of the dividing line.
Analytically it isolates the principal factors affecting the determination of what was women’s and what was men’s work. In the process it shows that any analysis that begins with the character of the supply and demand for male and for female labour as given facts cannot adequately explain the sex division as it fails to explain why sex as such appears as a differentiating factor. For this, account must be taken of how males and females were transformed into masculine and feminine persons and how masculinity and femininity as contemporaneously defined affected a person's labour attributes and, directly and indirectly, an employer’s choice of labour.
Finally, this thesis, by considering women’s employment over a period of time, becomes a record of how it changed as the factors affecting its determination were modified. Moreover, by focusing attention on the contemporary developments making for change between 1891 and 1921, this thesis provides a springboard for analyzing subsequent changes in women’s employment.
Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd and the limits of reform in contemporary Islamic thought
Keywords: Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd
Contemporary Islamic Thought

This thesis examines in depth the thought and ideas of the Egyptian intellectual Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd as a representative of modernist Isalmic thought. In unpacking and analysingAbu Zayd’s ideas, this thesis focuses on five major issues: shari‘a, Islam and politics, the Arab-Islamic heritage, history, and the issue of women’s rights. This thesis argues that Abu Zayd’s thought suffers from some of the same weaknesses he attacked in traditional and Islamist thought. By focusing on Abu Zayd I not only contribute to understanding a major intellectual in contemporary Islamic thought but also shed light on his wider intellectual family.
Embroidered figures: commerce and culture in the late Qing fashion system
Keywords: Chinese dress
narrative imagery
Chinese fashion
Chinese embroidery

Contrary to Westerners' long-maintained denial of fashion in Chinese dress, recent scholarship has provided convincing textual evidence of fashion in early modern China. Research into this fashion commentary has complicated our understanding of Chinese consumption history, yet we still know little about fashion design, production, or dissemination. By prioritising the textual over the visual or material, this history remains confined to the written source, rather than asking what objects might tell us of Qing fashions. Though many fashionable styles of dress survive in Western museums, these are rarely considered evidence of the Chinese fashion system. Instead museum scholarship remains influenced by twentieth-century interpretations of Chinese dress as art; dominated by dragon robes and auspicious symbols, oriented around the trope of the genteel Chinese seamstress. Within this art historical account, nineteenth-century women's dress has been characterized by decay and viewed with disdain.
This thesis questions these assumptions through the study of a group of late Qing women's jackets featuring embroidered narrative scenes, arguing that in this style - regulated by market desires rather than imperial edict - fashion formed at the intersection of commerce and culture. Contrary to the prevailing production model in which the secluded gentlewoman embroidered her entire wardrobe, I position the jackets within the mid-Qing commercialization of handicrafts that created networks of urban guilds, commercial workshops and sub-contracted female workers. By drawing the contours of Suzhou's commercial networks - a region renowned for its embroidery - I demonstrate how popular culture permeated the late Qing fashion system, and explicate the appearance and conceptualization of the embroidered scenes through contemporary prints and performance. My exploration of how dramatic narrative was represented in female dress culture highlights embroidery's significance as a tool to reflect upon contemporary culture, a finding I support by recourse to representations of embroidery as act and object in Suzhou's vernacular ballads and dramas. Thus, these little-studied jackets not only evidence how fashionable dress articulated women's relationship with popular culture, but also how embroidery expressed contemporary concerns, allowing a re-appraisal of women's role as cultural consumers and producers.
Highly efficient quantum spin dynamics simulation algorithms
Keywords: electron paramagnetic resonance
nuclear magnetic resonance
computer simulation
simulation methods

Spin dynamics simulations are used to gain insight into important magnetic resonance experiments in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, and physics. Presented in this thesis are investigations into how to accelerate these simulations by making them more efficient.
Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the methods of spin dynamics simulation used in the rest of the thesis. The `exponential scaling problem' that formally limits the size of spin system that can be simulated is described.
Chapter 2 provides a summary of methods that have been developed to overcome the exponential scaling problem in liquid state magnetic resonance.
The possibility of utilizing the multiple processors prevalent in modern computers to accelerate spin dynamics simulations provides the impetus for the investigation found in Chapter 3. A number of different methods of parallelization leading to acceleration of spin dynamics simulations are derived and discussed.
It is often the case that the parameters defining a spin system are time-dependent. This complicates the simulation of the spin dynamics of the system. Chapter 4 presents a method of simplifying such simulations by mapping the spin dynamics into a larger state space. This method is applied to simulations incorporating mechanical spinning of the sample with powder averaging.
In Chapter 5, implementations of several magnetic resonance experiments are detailed. In so doing, use of techniques developed in Chapters 2 and 3 are exemplified. Further, specific details of these experiments are utilized to increase the efficiency of their simulation.
The role of employability in the labour market transitions of older workers: a cross-national study in Europe
Keywords: employability
labour market transitions
older workers

In light of current population dynamics across Europe, employability has been highlighted in policy circles as a way to enhance the employment situation for older people and to extend working lives. This research examines the concept of employability in the context of older workers (aged 50-64) in a number of European countries. The definition of employability is elaborated through prior research to develop a conceptual framework for analysis. This multidimensional framework is then applied using multiple waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The analysis identifies the associations of indicators representing the dimensions of employability on labour market status through a cross-sectional approach, before expanding to explore their relationship with labour market transitions in and out of employment. This is first done using English data before introducing macroeconomic variables in a multilevel model of 13 European countries to incorporate the cultural and contextual factors that may impact trends in labour market outcomes of older workers. Overall, the findings suggest that, while some of the conceptual dimensions of employability are associated with labour market outcomes, many of these relationships relate to broader socio-economic factors as well as the contextual environment in which older workers find themselves. In other words, for policy approaches to improve employment in later life, a focus on the concept of employability may be a less effective approach than concentrating on more specific factors that shape the structure of opportunities for older workers.
Measuring antineutrino oscillations with the MINOS experiment
Keywords: MINOS
oscillation
neutrino
antineutrino
NuMI

MINOS is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. A manmade beam of predominantly muon neutrinos is detected both 1 km and 735 km from the production point by two functionally identical detectors. A comparison of the energy spectra measured by the two detectors shows the energy-dependent disappearance of muon neutrinos characteristic of oscillations and allows a measurement of the parameters governing the oscillations. This thesis presents work leading to measurements of disappearance in the 6% v̅μ background in that beam.
A calibration is developed to correct for time-dependent changes in the responses of both detectors, reducing the corresponding uncertainty on hadronic energy measurements from 1.8% to 0.4% in the near detector and from 0.8% to 0.4% in the far detector. A method of selecting charged current v̅μ events is developed, with purities (efficiencies) of 96.5% (74.4%) at the near detector, and 98.8% (70.9%) at the far detector in the region below 10~GeV reconstructed neutrino energy. A method of using the measured near detector neutrino energy spectrum to predict that expected at the far detector is discussed, and developed for use in the v̅μ analysis. Sources of systematic uncertainty contributing to the oscillation measurements are discussed.
In the far detector, 32 v̅μ events are observed below a reconstructed energy of 30 GeV, compared to an expectation of 47.8 for Δm̅2atm = Δm2atm, sin2(2̅θ23) = sin2(2θ23). This deficit, in such a low statistics sample, makes the result difficult to interpret in the context of an oscillation parameter measurement. Possible sources for the discrepancy are discussed, concluding that considerably more data are required for a definitive solution. Running MINOS with a dedicated v̅μ beam would be the ideal continuation of this work.
Identification and characterisation of homologous recombination genes in Schizosaccharomyces pombe
Keywords: DNA double-strand break
Schizosaccharomyces pombe
DNA repair
genome instability

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are highly genotoxic lesions, which can promote chromosomal rearrangements and tumorigenesis through oncogene activation or loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at tumour suppressor loci. To identify new genes involved in DSB repair and genome stability, an S. pombe deletion library was screened for mutants which exhibited sensitivity to the DNA damaging agents bleomycin and/or MMS. 192 mutants were isolated which exhibited increased sensitivity to one or both of these agents. These mutants were further analysed in a sectoring assay and mutants sought which exhibited elevated levels of break-induced loss and rearrangement of a non-essential minichromosome. Using this approach 57 genes were identified, including all known homologous recombination (HR) and DNA damage checkpoint genes present in the library. Further, quantitative analysis of DSB repair indicated that 25 of these genes functioned to promote efficient HR repair, thus representing a comprehensive HR gene set in fission yeast. Included in this gene set are 10 genes not previously implicated in HR repair; nse5⁺, nse6⁺, ddb1⁺, cdt2⁺, alm1⁺, snz1⁺, kin1⁺, pal1⁺, SPAC31G5.18c⁺ and SPCC613.03⁺. Detailed characterisation of ddb1Δ and cdt2Δ established a role for the Ddb1-Cul4Cdt2 ubiquitin ligase complex in HR. The findings presented here support a model in which break-induced Rad3 and Ddb1-Cul4Cdt2 ubiquitin ligase-dependent Spd1 degradation promotes ribonucleotide reductase activation and nucleotide biosynthesis, which is required for post-synaptic ssDNA gap filling during HR repair.
Lastly, the role of HR genes in suppressing chromosome loss and rearrangements was examined. A striking inverse correlation between levels of gene conversion and levels of both chromosome loss and LOH was observed across the HR gene deletion set. These findings support a common and likely evolutionarily conserved role for HR genes in suppressing both chromosome loss and break-induced chromosomal rearrangements resulting from extensive end processing associated with failed HR repair.
Investigating the function of Drosophila MAPs Msd1 and dTD-60 in mitotic spindle assembly
Keywords: Augmin
Drosophila
Msd1
Microtubule

Mitosis is the process by which new cells are formed. Following accurate duplication of chromosomes, a cell must segregate its chromosomes into separate daughter cells with great accuracy. Failure to do so can result in genomic instability. Thus, entry into mitosis is tightly regulated via complex protein interactions. Microtubules (MTs) are versatile Tubulin polymers that constitute a considerable portion of the cytoskeleton, and it is the dramatic rearrangement of MTs upon mitotic entry that is required to build the mitotic spindle – the structure responsible for segregating the duplicated sister chromatids. MTs are modulated by MT-Associated Proteins (MAPs) that enact major MT rearrangements during mitosis. Identifying and understanding the role of MAPs is essential to the study of MT behaviour during mitosis.
Recently, an RNAi screen for Drosophila MAPs identified two proteins that are the subject of this thesis; Msd1 and dTD-60. This thesis demonstrates that Msd1 is a novel MAP that is a component of the recently identified Augmin complex – the action of which is to generate a novel and redundant population of MTs within the mitotic spindle from existing MTs. Experiments described below demonstrate that Msd1 is required for Augmin-directed MT generation, and further investigate the role of this novel population of MTs within the developing fruit fly. Furthermore, a role for Msd1 in central spindle formation during anaphase in Drosophila is identified.
dTD-60, the Drosophila homologue of human TD-60 (hTD-60), is the subject of another study described in this thesis. While hTD-60 has a role in metaphase progression through interaction with the Chromosomal Passenger Complex, a contrasting role for dTD-60 is investigated here. This thesis describes both a divergent localisation and phenotype of dTD-60, and further investigates the role of dTD-60 and its interactors in mitotic spindle formation.