VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The lawmaking of national parliaments: rethinking Europeanisation patterns
Keywords: the European Union
lawmaking
Barroso initiative
de-parliamentarisation
EU lawmaking
acquis communautaire
legislative process
subsidiarity
Europeanisation
Treaty of Lisbon
Europeanization
approximation of laws
national parliaments
national legislatures
COSAC
parliamentary scrutiny
EU legislative process
parliamentary democracy
European integration

National parliaments are frequently labelled as the ‘victims’ of European integration and the EU is accused of causing the erosion of parliamentary democracy. This thesis reviews these claims by examining the influence of the European Union on national parliaments in their lawmaking capacity. The Europeanisation of legislatures is analysed at the level of the transformation of their competence as domestic lawmakers and ‘European players’ (Europeanisation of competence) and at the level of institutional and procedural adaptation (institutional Europeanisation). In this way, the thesis addresses some of the major cleavages causing disagreement between the proponents and opponents of the disempowerment of national parliaments. It is argued that the EU brings not only restrictions, but also benefits to the legislative activities of national representative institutions; and, in fact, the strengthening or weakening pattern of Europeanisation largely depends on parliamentary capacity and willingness to adapt. The study not only assesses the pattern of EU influence on the national parliaments of its Member States, but also examines whether similar processes can be identified in non-Member States. The analysis regarding non-Member States looks beyond the examples that are typically assessed by Europeanisation studies (e.g. the EEA, the EFTA and the candidate countries) and instead focuses on the case of Ukraine. The latter represents the Eastern neighbours of the EU that lack creditable membership prospects and would therefore be expected to demonstrate a weaker (if any) impact of the EU on its parliament. By building the links between the processes of Europeanisation within the EU and ‘far beyond’ its borders, this thesis aims to prove that the ‘de-parliamentarisation vs. re-parliamentarisation’ discussion is of much wider geographical relevance than it might appear at first sight.
Autoduality of the Hitchin system and the geometric Langlands programme
Keywords: Geometric Langlands
Hilbert schemes
Higgs bundles

This thesis is concerned with the study of the geometry and derived categories associated to the moduli problems of local systems and Higgs bundles in positive characteristic. As a cornerstone of our investigation, we establish a local system analogue of the BNR correspondence for Higgs bundles. This result (Proposition 4.3.1) relates flat connections to certain modules of an Azumaya algebra on the family of spectral curves. We prove properness over the semistable locus of the Hitchin map for local systems introduced by Laszlo–Pauly (Theorem 4.4.1). Moreover, we show that with respect to this Hitchin map, the moduli stack of local systems is étale locally equivalent to the moduli stack of Higgs bundles (Theorem 4.6.3) (with or without stability conditions). Subsequently, we study two-dimensional examples of moduli spaces of parabolic Higgs bundles and local systems (Theorem 5.2.1), given by equivariant Hilbert schemes of cotangent bundles of elliptic curves. Furthermore, the Hilbert schemes of points of these surfaces are equivalent to moduli spaces of parabolic Higgs bundles, respectively local systems (Theorem 5.3.1). The proof for local systems in positive characteristic relies on the properness results for the Hitchin fibration established earlier. The Autoduality Conjecture of Donagi–Pantev follows from Bridgeland–King–Reid’s McKay equivalence in these examples. The last chapter of this thesis is concerned with the con- struction of derived equivalences, resembling a Geometric Langlands Correspondence in positive characteristic, generalizing work of Bezrukavnikov–Braverman. Away from finitely many primes, we show that over the locus of integral spectral curves, the derived category of coherent sheaves on the stack of local systems is equivalent to a derived category of coherent D-modules on the stack of vector bundles. We conclude by establishing the Hecke eigenproperty of Arinkin’s autoduality and thereby of the Geometric Langlands equivalence in positive characteristic.
Molecular biophysics of strong DNA bending and the RecQ DNA helicase
Keywords: Molecular simulation
DNA minicircles
Monte Carlo simulation
Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)
Supercoiling
Computer simulations
Helicase
Molecular dynamics
RecQ
DNA cyclization
DNA
DNA bending
Biophysics
Single molecules

Molecular biophysics is a rapidly evolving field aimed at the physics-based investigation of the biomolecular processes that enable life. In this thesis, we explore two such processes: the thermodynamics of DNA bending, and the mechanism of the RecQ DNA helicase. A computational approach using a coarse-grained model of DNA is employed for the former; an experimental approach relying heavily on single-molecule fluorescence for the latter.
There is much interest in understanding the physics of DNA bending, due to both its biological role in genome regulation and its relevance to nanotechnology. Small DNA bending fluctuations are well described by existing models; however, there is less consensus on what happens at larger bending fluctuations. A coarse-grained simulation is used to fully characterize the thermodynamics and mechanics of duplex DNA bending. We then use this newfound insight to harmonize experimental results between four distinct experimental systems: a 'molecular vise', DNA cyclization, DNA minicircles and a 'strained duplex'. We find that a specific structural defect present at large bending fluctuations, a 'kink', is responsible for the deviation from existing theory at lengths below about 80 base pairs.
The RecQ DNA helicase is also of much biological and clinical interest, owing to its essential role in genome integrity via replication, recombination and repair. In humans, heritable defects in the RecQ helicases manifest clinically as premature aging and a greatly elevated cancer risk, in disorders such as Werner and Bloom syndromes. Unfortunately, the mechanism by which the RecQ helicase processes DNA remains poorly understood. Although several models have been proposed to describe the mechanics of helicases based on biochemical and structural data, ensemble experiments have been unable to address some of the more nuanced questions of helicase function. We prepare novel substrates to probe the mechanism of the RecQ helicase via single-molecule fluorescence, exploring DNA binding, translocation and unwinding. Using this insight, we propose a model for RecQ helicase activity.
Hydrogen-bonding motifs for non-covalent synthesis
Keywords: chemistry
supramolecular
hydrogen-bond
synthesis

This work describes the design and synthesis of a set of four organic molecules that are intended to hydrogen-bond to each other in a pairwise manner. The four hydrogen-bonding units, termed ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’, when placed in solution together, are designed so that A binds only to B, and C binds only to D. Each unit does not bind to itself, nor to either of the other two units to which binding is not intended. For example, A binds to B, but not to A, C, or D. Each unit contains an array of four hydrogen-bonds for strong binding to its partner, is designed to be as rigid as possible, as non-tautomeric as possible, and utilises a staggered non-symmetrical architecture.
Of the four intended compounds, three were successfully synthesised (A, B and D). Units B and D were soluble in CDCl3, but Unit A was not. Therefore, the design and synthesis of Unit A was amended, and two variants of Unit A that are both soluble in CDCl3 were successfully synthesised.
1H NMR binding experiments were performed between Unit B and each of the two variants of Unit A. Their binding behaviour was described. A binding constant could not be calculated because the units did not bind in a 1:1 fashion.
Leisure and pleasure in London society, 1760-1820: an agent-centred approach
Keywords: social structure
Leisure
London

The historiography of leisure has focused on class conflict, commercialization, and the arts. In the latter two areas historians have attempted to make statements about consumers, but as historians of consumption have demonstrated, examining the consumer from the perspective of producers is insufficient. This thesis demonstrates what the developing methodologies used to examine practice and consumption reveal about leisure and recreation. Exploration of forty-five diaries kept in London between 1757 and 1820 makes it possible to consider different aspects of choice with reference to recreation. This dissertation analyses how simple determinants of choice such as time, location, and cost shaped behaviour before moving on to the more complex and fuzzy concepts of social position, the role of domesticity, and taste. Choice is central to understanding what amusement was in Georgian society, therefore it is necessary to consider both people’s scope for choice, and the forces shaping those choices. Following an introductory section, chapters two to four examine choice by looking at simple factors. London was by far England’s largest city, but the distribution of establishments and patterns of mobility affected different segments of society in complex ways. In addition, leisure routines and the ability to spend money on recreation differed between socioeconomic groups who had different amounts of time and money to use. Affinities within social groups appear, but diaries also illuminate the importance of individual variations. Chapter four signals a shift in the analysis by looking at determinants of choice like feeling obliged, wanting to please friends or family, or the impact of social networks on reactions to activities. Chapters five to eight examine interpersonal relationships and the function of recreation in eighteenth-century society and raise questions about how we combine agency and structure in our models of society. This account challenges claims that group identities were the only identities available to Georgians and that individual variations were downplayed before the nineteenth century. Rather, individuals existed in networks that had to be negotiated and maintained.
Gender and honour in middle-class Cape Town : the making of colonial identities, 1828-1850
Keywords: social life
customs
middle-class
Cape Town
Sex
19th century history
South Africa
Gender

This study comprises an examination of the role of ideas concerning gender roles and respectability in the elaboration of a specific notion of a white colonial middle class in Cape Town, Cape Colony, in the decades before the establishment of Representative Government at the Cape. It pays particular attention to the cultural interaction of the incoming British settlers with the older Dutch society already in place in Cape Town. The insertion of British middle-class ideals of domesticity into Cape society had a decisive impact upon the public culture which would underpin the new political dispensation in the colony when a Representative Assembly was set up in 1853. The thesis argues that the new colonial political order which was enshrined in the constitution of 1853 was grounded upon a new gender order which set out distinctive roles for middle-class men and women and which allowed for the expression of a particular kind of personal and social respectability. Political developments in the Cape colony were thus inextricably tied to the elaboration of this new gendered social system. The thesis approaches the question of white colonial identity through several avenues. These include: the creation of a public sphere and changes in commercial culture; the importance of issues of the family and domestic service in structuring reform initiatives; the nature of male and female honour and its defence through defamation cases; the role of marriage in Cape colonial society; and the mediation of sexual transgressions through religious and civil authorities. Finally, the manner in which domestic ideology impacted upon political culture is approached through two case studies of political crisis during this period. The thesis thus seeks to advance South African historiography by undercutting the traditional division between studies of private and public life at the Cape in this period.
Tectonic evolution of the Malay and Penyu Basins, offshore Peninsular Malaysia
Keywords: Malay Basin
tectonic subsidence
gravity anomaly
geology
Penya Basin
thermal history
backstripping

The Malay and Penya Basins, offshore Peninsular Malaysia, were formed during the early Oligocene as a result of regional dextral shear deformation caused by the indentation of India into Eurasia in the early Tertiary. Pre-existing basement inhomogeneities exerted a strong control on basin development. The Penyu Basin developed, initially, as isolated grabens and half-grabens at basement fault intersections, in response to roughly N-S extension. The major structures which include low-angle listric normal faults, pull-apart rhomb grabens and flower structures, suggest that "thin-skinned" crustal extension and strike-slip tectonics have played an important role in basin evolution.
Basement faults in the Malay Basin are oblique (E-W trending) to the basin trend (NW-trending). The Basin developed by transtension of NW-trending sinistral shear zone, in which fault-bounded blocks rotate in response to the shear deformation, producing a series of E-trending half-graben depocentres. The Basins were subjected to transpressive inversion during the middle-late Miocene, as a result of rotation of the regional stress field, caused by progressive indentation of India into Eurasia.
Subsidence analysis suggests that lithospheric stretching was the dominant process of basin formation. The high heat flows (85-100 mW m⁻²) are consistent with stretching factors, β, of 1.2 to 4.3. In the Malay Basin, uplift of the basin flanks preceeded subsidence during the rifting phase as a result of non-uniform stretching and lateral heat flow from the centre of the Basin. Both basins are undercompensated isostatically and characterised by low negative free-air gravity anomaly in the order of -20 mGal. Undercompensation suggests that the basins were formed, partly, by "thin-skinned" crustal extension which did not involve stretching of the subcrustal lithosphere.
Novel imaging biomarkers for the diagnosis and study of Neuromyelitis optica
Keywords: multiple sclerosis
imaging
Neuromyelitis optica

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is a relapsing demyelinating neurological condition that requires prompt diagnosis and treatment to prevent the accrual of significant disability, such as blindness and immobility. It is caused by antibodies to the aquaporin-4 water channel, which can be detected within the serum of patients and are therefore a highly specific biomarker for the condition. However NMOSD can have overlapping clinical features with the more prevalent demyelinating disease relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Thus in the situation of a negative aquaporin-4 antibody assay result diagnostic distinction can be difficult to achieve. This in turn leads to a treatment dilemma as NMOSD requires long term immunosuppression, and disease modifying therapies used in RRMS can worsen disease activity in NMOSD.
The work presented in this thesis aimed to find further biomarkers of NMOSD, focusing on conventional and quantitative magnetic resonance imaging, and markers of neurodegeneration. The principle findings are:
Lesion probability mapping analysis revealed that T2 lesion distribution and morphology can distinguish RRMS from NMO with a 92% sensitivity and 96% specificity. Radiological criteria to aid diagnosis have been proposed.
Quantitative imaging methods that provide complementary micro-structural measures within CNS tissue have shown that RRMS is associated with widespread neurodegenerative changes in the normal appearing tissue, where as NMO is lesion focused.
NMO is not associated with diffuse global neurodegeneration in the non-lesioned CNS tissue over a one-year period as determined by serial MRI.
Normalised thalamic and whole brain volume can be used in a function to help discriminate NMOSD and RRMS
This thesis therefore contributes the knowledge that conventional and quantitative imaging can distinguish NMOSD and RRMS, and provides practical methods in which to apply this to patient management. It is the first longitudinal quantitative imaging study of NMOSD and lends further proof that global or diffuse neurodegeneration of the normal appearing brain or spinal cord tissue is not a feature of this condition.
Host and viral factors that determine the clinical outcome of hepatitis C virus genotype 3a infection
Keywords: T-cell
treatment
hepatitis C virus
genotype
E2 protein

HCV infects 170 million persons worldwide and is a serious global health problem. Genotype-3a is the dominant genotype in newly diagnosed infections within the UK and has a high response rate to interferon therapy, with up to 70% patients achieving a sustained virological response (SVR). The reason(s) for this are unknown; therefore the aim was to assess host and viral factors that determine treatment outcome of subtype-3a infection.
Full-length subtype-3a viral sequence analysis identified 2 novel regions of hypervariability within E2 - HVR495 and HVR575, that are subject to positive selection pressure. A 5 amino-acid insertion found only in subtype-3a and a putative glycosylation site were contained within HVR575. These data suggest that HVR495 and HVR575 may serve as major antigenic sites in subtype-3a HCV infection. Successful treatment of chronic subtype-3a infection was not associated with pre-treatment quasispecies diversity and complexity, PePHD, HVR495 or HVR575 sequence. Different patterns of quasispecies variation were observed in patients that failed treatment.
Subtype-3a specific CD8+ T-cell responses in chronic infection target non-structural proteins, in contrast to pre-dominant genotype-1 core-specific CD4+ T-cell responses. SVR was associated with a decline in subtype-3a specific and non-specific T-cell responses, and also total lymphocyte counts, which all recovered after treatment. These data do not support the theory that clearance of subtype-3a is associated with an enhancement of antiviral T-cell responses. Overlapping peptides detected a greater number of subtype-3a T-cell responses compared with peptides representing putative predicted CD8 epitopes. Therefore subtype-3a HCV is distinct from genotype-1 in terms of genome sequence, effect of treatment on quasispecies and subtype-3a specific T-cell responses, further emphasising the importance in understanding this distinct subtype.
The honesty of thinking: reflections on critical thinking in Nietzsche's middle period and the later Heidegger
Keywords: authenticity
psychology
self-knowledge
aesthetics
identity
sociology
agency
self-knowing
critical thinking
ethics
intellectual virtue
Nietzsche
language
Heidegger
honesty
hermeneutics
phenomenology

This dissertation engages with contemporary interpretations of Nietzsche and Heidegger on the issue of self-knowing with respect to the notions of honesty and authenticity. Accounting for the two philosophers' developing conceptions of these notions allows a response to interpreters who conceive the activity of self-knowing as a primarily personal problem. The alternative accounts proposed take as a point of departure transitional texts that reveal both thinkers to be engaged in processes of revision. The reading of honesty in Chapters 1 and 2 revolves around Nietzsche's groundwork on prejudice in Morgenröthe (1880-81), where he first problematizes the moral-historical forces entailed in actuating the 'will to truth'. The reading of authenticity in Chapters 3 and 4 revolves around Heidegger's lectures on what motivates one's thinking in Was heißt Denken? (1951-52). The lectures call into question his previous formal suppositions on what calls forth one's 'will-to-have-a-conscience', in an interpretation of Parmenides on the issue of thought's linguistic determination, discussed further in the context of Unterwegs zur Sprache (1950-59). Chapter 5 shows how Heidegger's confrontation with Nietzsche contributed to his ongoing revisions to the notion of authenticity, and to the attending conceptions of critique and its authority. Particular attention is given to the specific purposes to which distinct Nietzschean foils are put near the confrontation's beginning--in Heidegger's lectures on Nietzsche's second Unzeitgemässe Betrachtung (1938), and in the monograph entitled Besinnung (1939) which they prepare--and near its end, in the interpretation of Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-85) presented in the first half of Was heißt Denken? Chapter 6 recapitulates the developments traced from the vantage point of the retrospective texts Die Zollikoner Seminare (1959-72) and the fifth Book of Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (1887). Closing remarks are made in relation to recent empirical research on the socio-environmental structures involved in determining self-identity.
British intelligence and policy in the Palestine mandate, 1919-1939
Keywords: Saudi Arabia
Istiqlal
Middle East
Palestinian nationalism
near east
British empire
intelligence
policy
Zionism
imperialism
Palestine
colonialism
League of Nations
nationalism

This research argues that during the inter-war years in Palestine, British power was dependent upon intelligence. Intelligence was fundamental to the security of the country, since it varyingly augmented understrength force, or supported overwhelming force. Intelligence also supported policymakers as issues of governance were debated. It allowed British decision makers to avoid making a decision on self-government during the 1920s and it supported Britain’s failed attempts to introduce a constitution during the 1930s. Intelligence also was crucial to Britain’s relations with the Arab nationalist and Zionist communities. Of particular importance was Britain’s partnership and subsequent war with the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. This thesis sheds new light on the role of intelligence in British colonial policymaking, the development of the Arab-Zionist conflict, and how Britain failed to manage communal violence.
This research offers a new and improved explanation of the origins, unfolding, and defeat of the Palestinian Arab rebellion. British intelligence and policymakers failed to grasp the sophistication of the Palestinian national movement until the mid-1930s, and even then, they focused on clan competition and the politics of ‘notables’. Intelligence and military records explain how British police and military struggled, but ultimately succeeded to suppress and defeat this rebellion. Victory was made possible by innovations within the intelligence and planning staffs, as well as Zionist cooperation.
Intelligence shaped policy most clearly at the beginning and end of the period under examination. During 1918-20, the military government was administered by intelligence officers who guaranteed Britain’s future control in Palestine both domestically, and at the League of Nations. In 1939, British policy abandoned its traditional Zionist partners when the need to impose a solution on Palestine coincided with the opportunity, revealed by signals intelligence, to bolster and leverage the influence of ‘Abdul ‘Aziz ibn Sa’ud over the Arab national movement.