VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Young adults’ perspectives on their experiences of different types of placement in Romania
Keywords: foster care
children in care
domestic adoption
intercountry adoption
residential care
Romania

This study explores the childhood experiences and transitions to adulthood of 39 Romanian care leavers and adoptees, born around 1989 - 1990. In the past, Romania’s children in care became known to the world as 'the Romanian orphans' and some of them have been subjects to neurodevelopmental research studies focusing on the setbacks posed by institutionalisation in early life. This research project takes a different angle by:
• Using life history approach and therefore capturing the participants’ in-depth accounts of how they recall their childhoods and the challenges they encountered in their transition to independent life;
• Exploring four different types of placements and how they affect transition to independent life, from a user’s perspective.
The fact that Romania undertook reform of the child protection system within the timespan of this generation of children provided a research opportunity to collect the users’ views on different types of placement that belonged to the unreformed system of the 1990s (large residential care and intercountry adoption) and the new types of placement (small group homes and foster care). For comparison purposes, I also included domestic adoption, a type of placement that was less controversial than the others at the time reforms were being introduced. Thus, the types of placement that are analysed through the research participants’ accounts are:
• Residential care (institutions and small group homes)
• Foster Care
• Domestic Adoption
• Intercountry adoption
The study addressed two research questions:
1. How do Romanian born young people who grew up in care understand and narrate their experiences in different types of placement?
2. What narratives of agency are constructed by Romanian-born adults who grew up in different types of placement when they describe their transition to adulthood?
By taking an interpretive stance, this study brings in the academic arena the voices of care leavers and adoptees. By using narrative analysis and focussing on the concept of dignity by employing identity theories, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Capabilities Approach, the study makes an important contribution to knowledge, with implications for further research, policy and practice.
While interventions in child protection are influenced in each country by cultural, political and socio-legal factors, understanding the basic needs of children who are not raised by their birth families is important across different child protection systems. Therefore, the relevance of the research findings is not limited to Romania.
The patho-aetiology of hip osteoarthritis
Keywords: Hip
Ostheoarthritis
Femoroacetabular impingement
Dysplasia

Osteoarthritis of the hip frequently occurs in the absence of osteoarthritis in other large joints, suggesting that local factors are important in its pathogenesis. Hip morphology has been recognised as a potential local biomechanical risk factor for the development of hip osteoarthritis. There are no adequate studies examining osteoarthritis development in the hip. Historical cohorts are either limited by a short follow up or by small numbers.
This thesis explores the natural history of hip osteoarthritis in a large population cohort with particular attention to hip morphology as a predictor of osteoarthritis development.
Software was developed which allows objective measurements of hip morphology in a reproducible manner. Hip morphology was then measured in a 1000 subject cohort. A detailed description of hip morphology is presented in this thesis, with interesting observations of wide variation and a bimodal distribution for alpha angle (a measure of cam-type femoroacetabular impingement). This is suggestive of a discrete pathological entity, which was associated with osteoarthritis in the cross-sectional analysis.
No signiﬁcant changes exist in terms of morphology during the course of the study and no signiﬁcant relationship exists between age and hip morphology.
Longitudinal analysis of hip morphology with radiographic osteoarthritis and total hip replacement revealed a signiﬁcant association between cam-type femoroacetabular impingement and acetabular dysplasia with both outcome measures. Measurements of hip morphology were independently predictive of outcome when controlling for baseline age, BMI and joint space width, and signiﬁcantly increased our ability to predict osteoarthritis and total hip replacement. Similar associations were seen when considering hip pain and symptomatic osteoarthritis as the outcome measures of interest.
Pincer-type femoroacetabular impingement was not signiﬁcantly associated with any of the outcome measures of interest and pain remains relatively poorly explained by both hip morphology and/or radiographic change.
The understanding of hip morphology and its role in the natural history of osteoarthritis is signiﬁcantly improved by this research. Further research is now required to determine whether these morphological abnormalities represent modiﬁable risk factors for osteoarthritis progression.
Shocks, the state, and support under electoral authoritarianism
Keywords: Authoritarian politics
Russia
Public opinion

The literature on authoritarian politics emphasises the threat unexpected shocks such as economic downturns or political and security challenges pose for regime stability. However, we know relatively little about how incumbents can influence the process by which citizens evaluate government performance and attribute blame in non-democratic regimes. To gain insights into these questions, I study how government responses to collective shocks to citizen income and security influence support for electoral authoritarian regimes, i.e. those that combine authoritarian practices with multiparty elections. I propose that when shocks make information about government performance publicly observable, illiberal governments can take action that moderates or ameliorates their effect on the levels of support they enjoy. Little constrained by constitutional rules, critical media or coalition partners, electoral authoritarians can use tactical redistribution to appease the discontented electorate on the one hand and propaganda to manipulate attributions of responsibility for the shock on the other. Repression against opposition parties and activists in this context is used rarely, and only after targeted transfers and propaganda have failed to prevent support from eroding and crowds from taking to the streets. The thesis illustrates arguments with the case of contemporary Russia – an electoral authoritarian regime with high levels of personalist rule – and leverages evidence from government and citizen responses to natural disasters, economic downturns, terror attacks and electoral protests. Empirical analysis combines original datasets on the framing of economic news in Kremlin-controlled media, the forced dismissals of government actors, the provision of tactical redistribution, and the use of repression against opposition parties and activists with over 60,000 responses from nationally and regionally representative public opinion surveys. Bringing new data and evidence from individual-level surveys to bear on the debate of how non-democratic governments manage public opinion, the thesis makes an original contribution to scholarship on authoritarian vulnerability and resilience.
Studying α-Synuclein pathology using iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons
Keywords: synuclein
dopaminergic neurons
Parkinson's disease
iPSC

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterised by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the Substantia Nigra pars compacta in the midbrain and the presence of intracellular aggregates, known as Lewy bodies (LBs), in the surviving neurons. The aetiology of PD is unknown but a causative role for α-Synuclein (SNCA) has been proposed. Although the function of αSyn is not well understood, a number of pathological mechanisms associated with αSyn toxicity have been proposed. In this study, nine induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) lines from healthy individuals and PD patients carrying the A53T SNCA mutation or a triplication of SNCA were differentiated to dopaminergic neurons (iDAn). All iPSC lines differentiated with similar efficiency to iDAn, indicating that they could be used for phenotypic analysis. Quantification of αSyn expression showed increased αSyn intracellular staining and the novel detection of increased αSyn oligomerization in PD iDAn. Analysis of mitochondrial respiration found a decrease in basal respiration, maximal respiration, ATP production and spare capacity in PD iDAn, but not in undifferentiated iPSCs, indicating the cell-type specificity of these defects. Decreased phosphorylation of dynamin-1-like protein at Ser616 (DRP1Ser616) and increased levels of Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-α (PGC-1α) in A53T SNCA iDAn suggest a new pathological mechanism linking αSyn to the imbalance in mitochondria homeostasis. Markers of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress were found to be up-regulated, along with increased β- Glucocerebrosidase (GBA) activity, perturbation of autophagy and decreased expression of fatty acids binding protein 7 (FAPB7) in PD iDAn. Lastly, lentiviral vectors for RNAi-mediated knockdown of αSyn were developed and these reduced αSyn protein levels in iDAn, resulting in increased expression of FABP7. These results describe a novel functional link between αSyn and FABP7. This work demonstrates that iDAn are a promising and relevant in vitro cell model for studying cellular dysfunctions in PD pathology, and the phenotypic analysis of A53T SNCA and SNCA triplication iDAn enabled the detection of novel pathological mechanisms associated with PD.
The local governance of European social citizenship
Keywords: European Union
migration
social rights
EU citizenship

This thesis is a study of EU migrant citizens' substantive social rights. Much research has concerned itself with the expansion of freedom of movement and cross-border social rights in the EU. However, most of this research has analysed only formal rights, overlooking substantive rights. In the multilevel setting that is the EU, social rights are being adjudicated at a supra-national level, but realised at the national and sub-national level. Numerous different regulations, actors and practices thus shape the substantive social rights of EU migrant citizens, making their rights especially prone to distortion in the process of practical implementation. Examining how formal rights translate into substantive ones is important to understand how and where the lines of exclusion and inclusion of European social citizenship are drawn.
Specifically, the thesis looks as how formal social rights translate into substantive rights with a focus on the local level. This is where any pressures from internal EU-migration on social provision are felt, where gaps in the social protection of EU migrant citizens make themselves evident, and where many social rights are exercised. The central research question of the thesis is thus: how are EU migrant citizens’ social rights governed at the local level?
The thesis adopts a qualitative and explorative method. More specifically, it examines barriers that EU migrant citizens face when trying to access social benefits and services. The study also takes a comparative approach, and contrasts localities across two member states that can be seen as critical cases: Germany and Sweden. In two cities in each country (Berlin and Hamburg, Gothenburg and Stockholm), interviews were conducted with local public administrators, welfare providers and advocacy organisations. The interviews were later related to relevant policy documents in a thematic analysis guided by the overarching research question.
The main contribution of the thesis lies in identifying certain direct and indirect factors that shape EU migrant citizens’ access to social benefits and services – and thus their substantive social rights. Specifically, the thesis argues that (1) certain structures of welfare systems (which become evident through a bottom-up study of supra-national social rights), and (2) the entrepreneurship of local actors, are crucial to understanding how formal rights of EU migrant citizens translate into substantive ones.
Asymmetric total synthesis of inthomycin c and studies towards the total synthesis of oxazolomycin b
Keywords: oxazolomycin
total synthesis
inthomycin

This thesis describes research towards the total syntheses of two bacterial polyene natural products, inthomycin C and oxazolomycin B, as well as preliminary studies on the biological activity of inthomycin C and structural analogues against human cancer cell lines. A novel total synthesis of inthomycin C has been accomplished in 11.4% yield and 89% ee over ten linear steps from oxazole. This synthesis is the shortest and highest yielding asymmetric total synthesis of inthomycin C to date and, unlike all previous syntheses, it avoids the use of toxic organotin reagents. Main features of this synthesis include cross-metathesis as key C–C bond-forming step, methoxy group elimination to construct the triene moiety and asymmetric Mukaiyama–Kiyooka aldol addition to install the (3R) alcohol stereocenter on inthomycin C. Both NMR data and optical rotation data for the sample of inthomycin C synthesised in this work are in agreement with those previously reported. Viability and cytotoxicity assays of inthomycin C and analogues against various human cancer cell lines have been carried out for the first time. Despite all compounds tested having proved inactive against all cancer cell lines, an ester derivative of inthomycin C has been found to exhibit weak reversible proteasome inhibition activity against two cancer cell lines. On the other hand, and building on previous work in the Donohoe group, the synthesis of an advanced amide intermediate in the route towards oxazolomycin B has been achieved, which contains the complete carbon backbone of oxazolomycin B. Key features of this synthesis include a highly diastereoselective organocerium nucleophilic addition to an aldehyde precursor, a Nozaki–Hiyama–Kishi reaction and an amide coupling to access the final amide fragment.
My enemy or my brother? Spanish representations of Muslim and Jewish culture during the colonial campaigns in Morocco, 1909-1927
Keywords: Orientalist
Twentieth century Spain
Colonial studies
Visual studies

This thesis examines Spanish representations of Muslim and Jewish cultures in Morocco during the colonial campaigns in the Rif (1909-1927) in relation to constructions of Spanish identity during this period. It focuses on visual and textual narratives in the press (colonial photojournalism) and on three literary texts: Carmen de Burgos' En la guerra (1909), Ernesto Giménez Caballero's Notas marruecas de un soldado (1923) and Arturo Barea's La ruta (1943). The analysis undertaken centres on the use of the motifs of the body and the city and references to the medieval Castilian ballad tradition, the Romancero, by writers and photographers to explore the cultural relationship between Spain and North Africa.
The chapters explore the delineation of boundaries between Spanish and Moroccan cultures by contemporary commentators and the power structures that underpin those boundaries, considering the different hierarchies that are established in Spain’s relationship with Moroccan Muslims and Jews. Chapter 1 concerns the socio-historical context of the colonial campaigns and highlights the significance of the question of Spain’s identity in relation to Morocco during this period. Chapter 2 compares representations of cultural and ethnic affinity between Spain and Morocco, arguing that beyond merely serving as a tool of colonial domination, they are harnessed in some cases to support the colonial venture, in others to challenge it, and yet in others to explore the pre-modern origins of the Spanish nation. In many of the examples examined, a process of self-Orientalisation is observed, where the 'Orientalist' and colonialist gaze is turned back on Spain as well as on Morocco. Chapter 3 examines representations of Muslim and Jewish alterity, arguing that these assertions of difference reveal Spanish anxieties about non-difference from North Africa, cultural regression, national fragmentation, and Spain's ability to dominate the protectorate. I conclude that these anxieties provide the fundamental underpinning to Spanish constructions of Morocco during the Rif War, and that this self-awareness about non-difference and failures of domination unsettles the predominant paradigm of discourse analysis within colonial studies.
Quantification of regional cardiac function: clinically-motivated algorithm development and application to cardiac magnetic resonance and computed tomography
Keywords: Cardiac Computed Tomography
Mesh Registration
Cardiac Magnetic Resonance
Regional Cardiac Function
Medical Image Analysis
Deep Learning

Techniques described to date for the reproducible and noninvasive quantification of regional cardiac function have been largely relegated to research settings due to time-consuming and cumbersome image acquisition and analysis. In this thesis, feature tracking algorithms are developed for 2-D+Time cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and 3-D+Time cardiac computed tomography (CCT) image sequences that are easily acquired clinically, while emphasising reproducibility and automation in their design.
First, a commercially-implemented CMR feature tracking algorithm for the analysis of steady state free precession (SSFP) cine series is evaluated in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), which primarily affect the left ventricle (LV) and right ventricle (RV), respectively, and functional impairment compared with control populations is found in both cases. The limitations of this implementation are then used to guide development of an automated algorithm for the same purpose, making use of fully convolutional neural networks (CNN) for segmentation and spline registration across all frames simultaneously for tracking. This study is performed in the subjects with HCM, and functional impairment is again identified in disease subjects. Finally, as myocardial contraction is inherently a 3-D phenomenon, a technique is developed for quantification of regional function from 3-D+Time functional CCT studies using simultaneous registration of automatically generated Loop subdivision surface models for tracking. This study is performed in canine mongrels, and compared with the current state of the art technique for CCT functional analysis.
This work demonstrates the feasibility of automated, reproducible cardiac functional analysis from CMR and CCT image sequences. While work remains to be done in extending the principles demonstrated and modular components described to fully automated whole-heart analysis, it is hoped that this thesis will accelerate the clinical adoption of regional functional analysis.
Quantitative approaches to investigating epithelial morphogenesis
Keywords: vertex model
Bayesian inference
tissue size control
cell tracking

Morphogenesis - the generation of biological shape and form - is fascinating, and its study promises to shed light on a wide range of developmental defects and inform strategies for the artificial growth of organs. Recently, the experimental study of morphogenesis has thrived due to a rise in quantitative methods.The resulting avalanche of quantitative data requires us to rethink the scientific method. We need to design quantitative hypotheses through mathematical models, make quantitative experimental predictions, devise methods for quantitative data analysis, and design methods for quantitative inference using models and data. This thesis aims to enable this transition for the integrative analysis of morphogenesis in epithelia, one of the major tissue types in animals. We begin by conducting the first systematic numerical analysis of a widely used cell-based model of epithelia, the vertex model, and estimate to what extent quantitative model predictions may be influenced by parameter values and implementation details. We then apply this model to a key question in developmental biology by constructing a quantitative theory for tissue size control in the embryonic epidermis of the fruit fly Drosophila, using the model to predict the outcomes of future experiments. Subsequently, we devise a method for estimating mechanical parameters of vertex models from imaging data and quantifying the uncertainty associated with such estimates. Finally, we propose a novel algorithm for robust cell tracking in live-imaging microscopy videos of epithelial tissues that illustrates how graph theoretic concepts may be used to overcome challenges in quantitative data analysis. Together, the contributions in this thesis will enable the quantitative study of epithelia for a wide range of applications.
Musical culture and the spirit of Irish nationalism, c. 1848-1972
Keywords: Culture
Politics
Ireland
Nationalism
Music

This thesis surveys musical culture’s relationship with Irish nationalism after the Irish confederacy’s rebellion in 1848 until the beginning of the Northern Irish Troubles in 1972. It is the first such study to engage with a wide range of source material, including not only songs but also sources generated by political actors and organisations. It thus asks how far music and dance contributed to political movements and identities. It demonstrates that music provided propaganda, while performances created spectacles that attracted attention and asserted the strength, territorial claims, and military credentials of particular movements. Nationalists and unionists appropriated music and musical rituals from history, Britain, and one another. Appropriated British army rituals represented paramilitaries as legitimate national armies. Recycling songs made compositions easier to learn and suggested that new organisations acted as part of a continuous, historical movement. Appropriating songs and rituals from opponents asserted superiority over those opponents. Songs marked national allegiance and were therefore fought over extensively. For theorists and revivalists, defining Irish music and dance constructed notions of Irish nationhood. However, this thesis is as much about qualifying the claims often made for musical culture. One result of the failure to engage comprehensively with extra-musical source material is that studies often crudely credit music with having inspired unity among Irishmen and resistance against the colonial ruler. Music's relationship with resistance was more nuanced, and could cultivate disunity as much as the opposite. This study also problematises distinctions between British, unionist, and nationalist culture. These were not discrete categories, but overlapping soundscapes that interacted with and penetrated one another. Nor is 'traditional' music neatly distinguished from 'modern', 'commercial' music. As this study explains, traditional music's advocates demonstrated a consistent willingness to adapt and engage with modern methods. Overall, this thesis provides unprecedented insight into music’s impact on nationalist politics.