VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Becoming queen: voices, bodies, and technologies in drag lip-sync performance
Keywords: Lip-syncing
Phenomenology
Performance studies
Queer theory
Lipsynching
Psychoanalysis
Drag queen
Synchrony

Lip-syncing is foundational to drag performance. While it may have had rather humble beginnings, responding to exigencies of frugality rather than artistry, drag lip-syncing has become a highly refined and stylised mode of performance, but also one that has been left relatively unexamined. This thesis seeks to interrogate drag lip-sync performance from a variety of angles, providing solid theoretical frameworks for how lip-syncing functions as well as its unique attraction and self-actualising benefits for the performing queen. To this end, I split the thesis into four sections – The Silent Voice, The Imaginary Voice, The Material Voice, and The Queer Voice – and draw my conclusions through the help of five London-based drag queens: ShayShay, Rodent, Sue, Bougie, and Ruby. I begin by looking at lip-syncing’s theoretical importance to voice studies, arguing that lip-syncing evidences a special type of “silent voice”, a voice that is generated through silence, and also a voice that reflects the extimate silence of all speech acts. In the second section, I am more concerned with why drag queens choose to lip-sync, and what benefits it holds for the queen. Through psychoanalytical and ethnographic work, I argue for a complex series of identifications that take place, across multiple bodies and voices. The third section attends to the affective materiality of lip-syncing, first by theorising the necessity of loud sound in lip-sync performance and an attendant type of listening I coin as “haptic aurality”, and second by exploring the limits of the body in lip-syncing through an analysis of a performance by ShayShay. Finally, I turn to the queer voice – a voice that speaks queerly in its structure, but also to queer people through affective ties of memory and sound. Ultimately, this thesis seeks to uncover what lip-syncing can teach us about more typical acts of voicing, and also to make clear the abundant variety of ways in which drag queens use lip-syncing creatively in order to gain confidence and self-surety. As such, lip-syncing is conceived of throughout as, at base, a political act. Lip-syncing is a site of relation, an active creative process, and one that aids the performing queen in a constant process of becoming.
The role of the microbiome in musculoskeletal disease: a focus on tendinopathy
Keywords: musculoskeletal
epidemiology
microbiome
rheumatoid arthritis
data science
tendinopathy

Although pathogenesis of musculoskeletal diseases is incompletely understood, the role of inflammation is now accepted to be important. The microbiome - all non-human microbiota residing in humans – is increasingly of interest as a potential trigger of musculoskeletal disease. Using surrogates for an altered microbiome state (dysbiosis), this thesis employed three scientific approaches to determine whether the microbiome has a role in tendinopathy.
Firstly, epidemiological (case-control, cross-sectional studies) approaches identified and verified an association between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and tendinopathy (OR 2.11, 95% CI 2.08-2.15) and rate of IBD in tendinopathy patients (standardised rate of 19.7%); and confirmed the association between IBD and RA (OR 1.88, 1.70-2.07). Secondly, pharmaco-epidemiological (case-control) techniques found an association between beta-lactam and tetracycline antibiotics, (OR 1.59, 1.57-1.60 and OR 1.08, 1.06-1.11 respectively) and tendinopathy. Similar trends were found between beta-lactam and quinolone usage and tendon ruptures (OR 1.42, 1.27-1.58 and OR 1.11, 0.97–1.27 respectively). Index RA was associated with beta-lactam and quinolone use (OR 1.32, 1.26-1.38 and OR 1.23, 1.16-1.29 respectively). These associations were dose-dependent and demonstrated a temporal association. Moreover, a self-controlled case series study found an association between RA flares and sulphonamide and trimethoprim use between one and twelve months after prescription.
Thirdly, an experimental murine model of tendinopathy was validated (at 72-hours, two-weeks and ten-weeks post-injury). This showed reproducible tendinopathy-relevant changes in histological scores (including calcification) and gene expression (RNAseq). This model was propagated using mice raised in germ-free (GF) or specific pathogen free (SPF) conditions at ten-weeks post injury. There was no significant difference in histological scores, however, significantly lower ossification was observed in mice raised in GF conditions (0.0058mm3 ±0.0017 in GF vs 0.0488mm3 ±0.0197 in SPF, p<0.0001).
This thesis demonstrates an association between dysbiosis (IBD, antibiotic usage, SPF over GF conditions) and tendinopathy, suggesting a role for the microbiome in tendinopathy. Further work should investigate the mechanism by which the microbiome mediates tendinopathy.
Holomorphic Yukawa couplings in heterotic string theory
Keywords: Yukawa couplings
complete intersection Calabi-Yau manifolds
line bundle models

This thesis is concerned with heterotic E8 ×E8 string models that can produce quasirealistic N = 1 supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model in the low-energy limit. We start rather generally by deriving the four-dimensional spectrum and Lagrangian terms from the ten-dimensional theory, through a process of compactification over six-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifolds, upon which holomorphic poly-stable vector bundles are defined. We then specialise to a class of heterotic string models for which the vector bundle is split into a sum of line bundles and the Calabi-Yau manifold is defined as a complete intersection in projective ambient spaces.
We develop a method for calculating holomorphic Yukawa couplings for such models, by relating bundle-valued forms on the Calabi-Yau manifold to their ambient space counterparts, so that the relevant integrals can be evaluated over projective spaces. The method is applicable for any of the 7890 CICY manifolds known in the literature, and we show that it can be related to earlier algebraic techniques to compute holomorphic Yukawa couplings. We provide explicit calculations of the holomorphic Yukawa couplings for models compactified on the tetra-quadric and on a co-dimension two CICY. A vanishing theorem is formulated, showing that in some cases, topology rather than symmetry is reponsible for the absence of certain trilinear couplings. In addition, some Yukawa matrices are found to be dependent on the complex structure moduli and their rank is reduced in certain regions of the moduli space.
In the final part, we focus on a method to evaluate the matter field Kahler potential without knowing the Ricci-flat Calabi-Yau metric. This is possible for large internal gauge fluxes, for which the normalisation integral localises around a point on the compactification manifold. We illustrate the procedure on CICYs embedded in the ambient space P1 × P3, and express our result in terms of globally defined moduli.
Structural studies of bacterial adhesion
Keywords: caulobacter
cryo-EM
cryo-ET
chaperone usher protein
holdfast
pseudomonas

Adhesion to abiotic and biotic surfaces is essential for numerous bacterial developmental processes including biofilm formation. While the general role of adhesins in biofilm formation has been explored, the arrangement of these structures on the cell surface and how these structures interact with substrates at the molecular level remain unclear. In this project, the CupE chaperone usher fimbriae of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the holdfast polysaccharide of Caulobacter crescentus were investigated as models of proteinaceous and polysaccharide-mediated adhesion respectively.
Using structural biology methods, including electron cryomicroscopy (cryo-EM) and electron cryotomography (cryo-ET), this thesis provides molecular details of a previously uncharacterized mechanism of polysaccharide adhesion. The holdfast is a polysaccharide adhesin which is anchored to the surface of C. crescentus by a defined molecular complex made up of the HfaABD proteins. The HfsDAB secretion proteins are required for assembly and localization of the HfaABD anchor, which spans the outer membrane of the stalk tip. The anchor protein HfaB is the major component of the anchor complex located on the periplasmic side of the outer membrane, while HfaA and HfaD are located on the cell surface. HfaB is the critical component of the complex, without which no HfaABD complex is observed in cells. Finally, anchor densities are present along the cell envelope of other alphaproteobacteria including Asticcacaulis and Hirschia spp., supporting a conserved mechanism in holdfast anchoring.
Additionally, this thesis provides insight into the regulation, structure and physiological role of archaic CupE fimbriae in P. aeruginosa. Deletion of the PA2133 phosphodiesterase gene upregulates CupE filaments under static conditions, indicating that filament assembly is promoted upon c-di-GMP elevation and surface sensing. CupE fimbriae are a major contributor to biofilm formation in DPA2133 mutants, with increased biofilm formation at the air-liquid interface, as well as cell clustering and organisation at the microscopic level. The diameter of CupE filaments is ~4 nm, consistent with fimbriae of the archaic s-clade. The cryo-EM structure of native CupE, at a resolution of 4.5 Å, reveals a single-start, helical morphology that does not resemble the tubular structure of classical chaperone usher assemblies. These findings provide the first structural insights into a fully assembled, archaic chaperone usher filament in bacteria and support CupE fimbriae function as an adhesin during biofilm formation.
Two-photon polymerisation direct laser writing for liquid crystal photonics
Keywords: laser microfabrication
smart materials
2PP-DLW
3D printing
3D laser printing
polymerizable liquid crystals
liquid crystals
two photon polymerization
liquid crystal devices
TPP-DLW
nanoprinting
direct laser writing
DOEs
smart resins
3D nanoprinting
laser micromachining
laser fabrication
functional materials
reactive mesogens
liquid crystal polymers
topological defects
diffractive optical elements

This thesis investigates the use of two-photon polymerisation direct laser writing (2PP-DLW) in liquid crystal materials, with an emphasis on the development of applications in photonics. 2PP-DLW is a 3D printing technique employed in the fabrication of multi-dimensional structures with micro- and nano-scale dimensions. As a maskless microfabrication method, it is typically used as a rapid-prototyping tool for solid polymer objects. However, there is increasing interest in the technique as a way to manufacture functional materials and devices that cannot be produced via other means. Crucial to this effort is the development of smart resins, whereby the physical properties of a resin can be varied and controlled in-situ during the fabrication process. In this thesis, liquid crystal mixtures containing reactive mesogens are shown to be a promising smart resin material due to their anisotropic physical properties and ability to respond to external electric fields.
Stabilisation of the voltage-dependent states of the nematic Fréedericksz cell via the fabrication of polymer micropillars with 2PP-DLW is described and analysed. The polymer structures are studied with polarised optical microscopy and an electrically-tunable visibility phenomenon is characterised and explained. By synchronising the fabrication of polymer features with the application of different voltages, reconfigurable images are inscribed into liquid crystal devices. Potential applications are explored with a demonstration of a prototype anti-counterfeiting security marking.
Topological defects in nematic liquid crystal pi-cells are fabricated and electrically-controlled via the fabrication of topologically discontinuous polymer structures using 2PP-DLW. A control system for electrical-tuning of defects is developed and advanced concepts for confinement of disclination lines are demonstrated. The transport of a microparticle by a defect is presented with the potential for applications in defect templates for micro/nano assembly.
Switchable diffractive optical elements (DOEs) are fabricated with 2PP-DLW in liquid crystals and their diffractive behaviour is characterised. A model of a laser-written diffraction grating is developed using a continuum theory approach to director simulations and a wave-optics approach to the diffraction of light. The 3D capabilities of 2PP-DLW are exploited to fabricate switchable bilayer DOEs and computer-generated holograms.
This work in this thesis has important technological implications in both the development of smart resins for 2PP-DLW as well as in the development of advanced alignment and control techniques for liquid crystal devices.
The host determinants of treatment outcomes of multi-drug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis
Keywords: vitamin D deficiency
Diabetes mellitus
host factors
LTA4H genotype
treatment outcomes of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has been an emerging public health problem. MDR-TB is a fatal disease whilst treatment of MDR-TB is prolonged but less effective and toxic. Inter-individual variations in clinical presentation and treatment response have been reported in tuberculosis (TB). Identifying host determinants for MDR-TB is important in the search for adjunctive therapy to improve treatment outcome for MDR-TB. This thesis aims to evaluate the impacts of three host factors of leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H) genotype, diabetes mellitus (DM) and vitamin D on clinical presentation, treatment response and treatment outcome of pulmonary TB patients, particularly MDR-TB.
The first results chapter, chapter 3, illustrates the picture of increasing MDR-TB in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from 2011 to 2015 and its risk factors for poor treatment outcomes.
In chapter 4, LTA4H genotype showed no significant association with clinical presentation, bacterial burden, extent of lung damage, treatment response or outcome in 312 MDR-TB and 600 drug susceptible (DS) TB patients. Although a potential marker for host-targeted therapy for TB meningitis, this genotype does not appear to be such for pulmonary TB.
In chapter 5, the detrimental effect of DM on clinical presentation, bacterial load, disease severity, increased inflammation and treatment response was clearly observed in pulmonary TB. Although not a significant risk factor for mortality and poor treatment outcome, DM prolonged sputum culture conversion of MDR-TB and should be considered as an important host factor to adjust for.
Chapter 6 reveals the association between vitamin D and extent of lung damage, severity and inflammatory response through blood biomarkers among 309 MDR-TB and 301 DS-TB patients. Vitamin D deficiency caused an adverse effect on MDR-TB, but not on DS-TB during treatment. The work of this thesis has provided more evidence on host factors in efforts to improve treatment outcomes for pulmonary MDR-TB.
The relationship between occupation characteristics and mortality in England and Wales, 2003–2017
Keywords: factor analysis
occupation
mortality
prospective
proportional hazards
ONS LS
O*NET

Jobs are an important determinant of mortality, influencing health through both the direct effects of physical exposure and psychological conditions, and the indirect effects of income, social status and lifestyle. This project investigates the relationship between job characteristics and incidence of mortality. 51 interpretable characteristics were extracted by factor analysis from the US Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database, and linked at the occupation level to the UK Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study. The sample consisted of n = 279,368 individuals from England and Wales whose occupations were recorded at the 2001 UK census. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to examine the relationship between the occupation features and mortality over 15 years of follow-up (2003–2017). Models were fit which adjusted for socioeconomic status—as measured by education, marital status, housing status and vehicle ownership—and for self-reported health in 2001.
Repetitive work contexts—characterised by repetitive tasks, repetitive physical motions, high levels of automation and time pressure—predict the greatest mortality risk, with a hazard ratio of 1.39 (1.24, 1.56) under the model adjusted for socioeconomic status. Other results support previous findings, such as greater job control (here measured as “self-directedness”) and more technical occupations predicting lower mortality. These results are likely due to a mixture of the direct and indirect effects of occupations, as well as potential residual confounding. Further evaluation of the results—including model goodness-of-fit and sensitivity to alternative analysis choices—would be desirable.
Valuation struggles in the Ecuadorian Amazon: oil ‘non-conflicts’ and the inevitability of change among the Quichua people of the Lower Napo River
Keywords: ecological economics
multi-criteria analysis
oil conflicts
valuation struggles
ecological crisis
indigenous people
political ecology

The thesis investigates the acceptance of the ITT oil extraction project by the Quichua communities of the Lower Napo River, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and the consequences of such a project on people and territories. It sheds light on the structural mechanisms behind the apparent inevitability of oil extraction, development and change in the ribera – despite the struggles each step of incorporation triggers and ultimately leading to the weakening of already-weakened subsistence economies and an ecological crisis at the local level. The thesis seeks to reconceptualise the frameworks of ecological and cultural distribution conflicts – developed by Martinez-Alier (2002) and Escobar (2008) respectively in Political Ecology to explain the opposition of indigenous and poor people to ecologically damaging projects in their territories – in order to contribute to the search for solutions to the global ecological crisis which is at the heart of the project Ecological Economics. It argues, in particular, that because 1) valuation at one point in time is different from values and 2) values change in the process of change, indigenous people might embrace ecologically damaging projects in their territories in spite of their ecological and cultural ‘difference’ (Escobar, 2008), and in the name of ‘equality’. Oil extraction might thus result in non-conflictive, yet problematic situations rather than conflict. It follows that the challenge, rather than the use of alternative decision-making tools (such as multi-criteria analysis), which would allow a ‘better’ choice between various alternatives which are not satisfactory anyway, lies in the design of development alternatives which would go beyond the recurrent dilemma between ‘difference’ (the preservation of culture and the environment) and ‘equality’ (development), systematically faced not only by a growing number of indigenous people around the world but by the human species as a whole, in the context of an unprecedented ecological crisis.
Working-class women's experiences of higher education in post-war Britain
Keywords: Gender history
Oral history
History of education
Social mobility
Post-war
Twentieth century
Higher education
Class
Britain
Women's history

This thesis is the first focused study of working-class women who attended higher education institutions in England and Wales in the 1960s and 1970s. A very small proportion of working- class women completed courses of higher education in this period, despite educational reforms such as the Education Act of 1944 and the Robbins Report of 1963. As a result, historical studies of working-class women in the post-war period have not focused on those who pursued higher education, while studies of higher education rarely pay attention to the experiences of working-class women. By analysing thirty-seven oral history interviews, together with published statistics, written reminiscences, and contemporary social surveys, this thesis explores the impact of higher education on the lives of working-class women who matriculated between 1965 and 1975. By taking a life history approach, it analyses the place of higher education in women’s life trajectories, rather than focusing on the experience of higher education alone. The thesis explores, in turn, how women came to apply to higher education; women’s experiences of higher education; and women’s post-graduate careers and social mobility. By exploring experiences at colleges of higher education as well as universities, this thesis offers the first insights into differences between types of institution for working-class women students. At the same time, this thesis considers whether and why these women had a distinctive generational experience. This thesis argues that higher education had a significant impact on these working-class women’s lives, by facilitating social and occupational mobility and influencing women’s senses of class and generation. Crucially, this impact was facilitated by the post-war social and economic context, particularly the introduction of mandatory student grants in 1962. However, this thesis also contends that this was not a golden age of social mobility through education. Thus, this period was one of both unprecedented opportunities and continuing limitations.
The effects of energetic expenditure tactics and life-history variability on European badger (Meles meles) ecology
Keywords: Individual heterogeneity
Pace of life syndrome
Energy expenditure
Life history
Badger
Meles
Bet hedging

Wild animals have evolved a diverse range of energy-budgeting tactics to cope in situ with rapid environmental change. My thesis investigates these tactics and their underlying mechanisms in a population of wild European badgers (Meles meles): 1) over the course of an individual’s lifetime and 2) in response to fine-scale changes in energetic context.
Chapter 1 derives a novel minimum number alive abundance estimator, incorporating variable capture efficiency to more accurately quantify changing social context for subsequent analyses. Chapter 2 exposes how changing population metrics and weather drive sex-specific life-history responses, producing diverse co-occurring paces-of-life and potentially contributing to substantial sex ratio skew at higher densities. Chapter 3 uncovers a threshold-bounded relationship between body condition and survival probability, whereby most badgers exhibit flexible somatic phenotypes within what I term an “energetic safe zone”; adverse weather and life-history risk factors can tip individuals over the threshold, but a minority of high-quality individuals exhibit high reproduction probability and lower mortality risk despite reduced body condition.
Chapter 4 uses 3D printing to streamline production and reusability of bespoke multi-sensor collars, enabling simultaneous fine-scale quantification of overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA, measuring mechanical energy expenditure) for multiple individuals. Chapter 5 applies this technology and finds season-specific fine-scale activity responses to prevailing weather conditions, according to individual energetic context; in particular, low body condition constrains energetic tactics. Chapter 6 combines ODBA with quantification of daily energy expenditure (DEE) using doubly-labelled water, demonstrating that individuals expend energy differently under the same conditions; ODBA/DEE, measuring proportional energy expenditure on activity, correlated negatively with next-season body condition.
The range of energetic expenditure tactics sustained in this population support the existence of adaptive heterogeneity. I present an argument predicated on Jensen’s Inequality for the maintenance of this diversity, and reflect on implications for resilience to ongoing anthropogenic change.