VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Essays on banking
Keywords: banking
economics
finance
banking regulation

This work consists of five separate essays that examine the banking industry from a number of viewpoints.
In the first essay, I consider how the ratchet effect interacts with workers' ability to cooperate to determine effort provision in teams. I show how the dominant constraint varies with both the size of the team and the members' ability to monitor each other's effort. Small teams tend to have their effort provision constrained by the ratchet effect; large teams are instead constrained by the inability of the team members to demand effort from each other.
In the second essay, I examine the phenomenon of large team transfers in professional service firms, especially investment banks. I argue that large team moves occur because employees benefit by working with the most talented coworkers. Above-average teams may move together to effectively exclude younger, less-talented workers. These team transfers are optimal when employees are remunerated with team-based bonuses, which may explain their significance in investment banking.
In the third essay, I consider the securitization market. First, I provide an explanation for equilibrium credit ratings inflation that does not require investor irrationality. Second, I argue that moral hazard in securitization results in banks either selling the entirety of securitized products, or none at all. Finally, I consider a number of possible government interventions in the market and conclude that many proposed interventions are either ineffectual or counterproductive.
In the fourth essay, we design an improved LIBOR reporting mechanism. This mechanism, which we name the "whistleblower mechanism," uses the revealed preference of other banks to determine the borrowing rate of a given bank. Truthful reporting is the sole equilibrium of the mechanism that we design; the mechanism is budget-balanced.
In the fifth essay, we consider the analogy between systemic risk and pollution. We argue that an ex post tax cannot replicate capital regulation because of a 'polluter cannot pay' problem. Secondly, we show an equivalency result between ex ante taxation and capital regulation. We then show that unless the ex ante tax is levied in capital, however, it may perversely increase the amount of debt in the financial system. We argue for further capital regulation.
Clefts, relatives, and language dynamics: the case of Japanese
Keywords: relative clause constructions
cleft constructions
dynamic syntax
Japanese
nominalisations

The goal of this thesis is to develop a grammar model of Japanese within the framework of Dynamic Syntax (Cann et al. 2005, Kempson et al. 2001), with special reference to constructions that involve the nominaliser no: clefts and certain kinds of relatives. The more general theoretical position which it aims to defend is that an account of these constructions in terms of ‘language dynamics’ is preferable to other ‘static’ approaches currently available. What is here meant by ‘language dynamics,’ in a nutshell, is the time-linear processing of a string and attendant growth of an interpretation.
First, I shall motivate, and articulate, an integrated account of the two types of no- nominalisation. These two classes are uniformly modelled as an outcome of incremental semantic-tree growth. The analysis is corroborated by naturally-occurring data extracted from the Corpus of Spontaneous Japanese (CSJ). Moreover, novel data with regard to coordination are accounted for without losing uniformity.
Second, the composite entry of no and the topic marker wa handles the two types of clefts uniformly. This account fits well with the CSJ findings. New data concerning case-marking of foci are explained in terms of whether an unfixed relation in a semantic tree is resolvable in incremental processing. The account also solves the island-puzzle without abandoning uniformity. As a further confirmation, the analysis is extendable to stripping/sluicing, making some novel predictions on case-marking patterns.
Third, the entry of no characterises free relatives and change relatives in a unitary manner. Furthermore, the composite entry of no and a case particle predicts a vast range of properties of head-internal relatives, including new data (e.g., negation in the relative clause, locality restriction on the Relevancy Condition).
In sum, the thesis presents a realistic, integrated, and empirically preferable model of Japanese. Some consequences stand out. The various new data reported are beneficial theory-neutrally. Formal aspects of Dynamic Syntax are advanced. The insights brought by a language dynamics account challenge the standard, static conception of grammar.
Antiviral mechanisms of small molecules targeting the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus
Keywords: Glycobiology
Antiviral mechanisms
Glycosidase Inhibitors
Biochemistry

N-linked glycosylation is the most common form of post-translational modification in nature and is essential to almost all enveloped viruses, including members of the Flaviviridae family. The host cell N-linked glycoprotein processing pathway is utilised by these viruses and as such has long been identified as a potential target for the development of antiviral drugs. Here, the antiviral mechanisms of three classes of small molecules targeting the secretory pathway and altering viral envelope glycosylation are investigated, using the HCV surrogate model, BVDV. The antiviral activity of imino sugars, principally through α-glucosidase inhibition, is well-characterised and here, a group of novel adamantyl coupled imino sugars are investigated and demonstrated to inhibit ER α glucosidases, which correlates with their antiviral activity against BVDV. Additionally, BVDV is used to study the antiviral mechanism of action of nitazoxanide. Nitazoxanide, the parent compound of the thiazolide class of structures, is a broadly antimicrobial compound with antiviral activity against HBV, HCV, influenza, JEV and others. Here, nitazoxanide is shown to be antiviral against BVDV by inducing Ca2+ release from ATP-sensitive intracellular calcium stores, disrupting ER-Golgi trafficking and inhibiting complex glycan formation. Finally, the potential of Golgi endo-α-mannosidase as an antiviral target is explored, using the endomannosidase inhibitor glucose-isofagomine in conjunction with the imino sugar α-glucosidase inhibitor NAP-DNJ. Endomannosidase is shown to be a valid antiviral target for BVDV, both alone and in combination with α-glucosidase inhibition, and is utilised by viral glycoproteins to acquire complex glycan structure, even in the absence of α-glucosidase inhibition. Altogether, this work furthers our understanding of the varied antiviral mechanisms of small molecules targeting the secretory pathway, enhancing the search for novel antiviral drugs directed against host cell machinery.
The heroism of Byron's heroines
Keywords: heroism
Byron
orientalism
epic
romanticism
gender

Byron’s women characters have typically been seen as, in Hazlitt’s early observation, ‘yielding slaves’. My study re-examines that assumption, finding instead, across Byron’s career, an abiding concern with the active individuality of women, and, more especially, with the creation of a specifically female form of heroism.
Recent critical attention has discussed women in Byron’s poetry in general, notably Nigel Leask (British Romantic Writers and the East: Anxieties of Empire, 2004) and Susan Wolfson (Borderlines: The Shiftings of Gender in British Romanticism, 2006), but Byronic female heroism has gone unstudied. Caroline Franklin’s sociologically couched work (Byron’s Heroines, 1992) is one of the few to tackle the heroine, but she understands the term merely as ‘female protagonist’: my interest, by contrast, is in the development of a specific, new kind of gendered heroism.
Byron’s representation of women takes shape within a number of discrete but inter-related discourses. The thesis examines the manner in which Byron engaged with previous literary and historical representations of proscribed gender roles. I remain alert to the literary heritage of Byron’s representation of female heroism, which extends beyond his own socio-historical context.
The thesis is organised within the three major influences: (i) contemporary writings on gender and women, and a consideration of how Byron has ‘resisted’ availability for feminist critique, this being a result of an insufficiently nuanced approach to his poetry; (ii) eighteenth-century writings on the Orient and Oceania, which examines the concepts of Orient and Other as central to the destabilization of fixed perimeters of gender spheres in Byron’s Turkish Tales; (iii) epic, which establishes Byron’s relationship with his literary predecessors as one of reformation and resistance before demonstrating how Byron’s particular form of heroism and epic was one way that he made room for the heroic female.
The thesis concludes with a brief coda, which extends the parameters of the governing concerns of the thesis, gender and heroism, arguing that Don Juan becomes a formal realization of the gendered heroics of Byron’s poetic consciousness.
Population genetics of rifampicin-resistant pseudomonas aeruginosa
Keywords: experimental evolution

Antibiotic resistance is generally associated with a cost in terms of reduced competitive fitness in the absence of antibiotics. Despite this `cost of resistance', the cessation of antibiotic treatment does not result in significant reductions in the prevalence of resistance. The maintenance of resistance, in spite of the costs, has been attributed to the rarity of reversion mutations, relative to compensatory mutations at other loci in the genome. However, the large size of bacteria populations, and the potential for migration, suggest that reversion mutations should occasionally be introduced to resistant populations. In this thesis, I show that additional mechanisms can prevent fixation of reversion mutations even if they do occur. Using an experimental evolution approach, with rifampicin resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a model system, I measured the costs of resistance in several environments and followed the adaptive dynamics of resistant populations where a sensitive lineage had invaded by migration. The results suggest that several additional mechanisms contribute to the maintenance of antibiotic resistance. Most rifampicin resistance mutations are not unconditionally costly in all environments, suggesting that migration between environments could maintain a resistant reservoir population. In environments where resistance is initially costly, the fixation of a revertant is not guaranteed, even if introduced through migration. Revertant fixation was impeded or prevented by clonal interference from adaptation in the resistant strain. Revertants that did successfully replace the resistant strain were forced to adapt to do so. Contrary to assumptions in the existing literature, fitness in the resistant strains was not recovered by general compensatory mutations, but instead by adaptive mutations specific to the environment. The data challenge several assumptions about the maintenance of antibiotic resistance: that resistance mutations are always costly, that the rarity of back mutations prevents the reversion of resistance, and that resistant strains recover fitness by compensatory mutations.
Mathematical modelling and optimal control of constrained systems
Keywords: middle-distance running
calculus of variations
burglary
crime
R&amp;D expenditure
optimal control

This thesis is concerned with mathematical modelling and optimal control of constrained systems. Each of the systems under consideration is a system that can be controlled by one of the variables, and this control is subject to constraints. First, we consider middle-distance running where a runner's horizontal propulsive force is the control which is constrained to be within a given range. Middle-distance running is typically a strategy-intensive race as slipstreaming effects come into play since speeds are still relatively fast and runners can leave their starting lane. We formulate a two-runner coupled model and determine optimal strategies using optimal control theory. Second, we consider two applications of control systems with delay related to R&D; expenditure. The first of these applications relates to the defence industry. The second relates to the pharmaceutical industry. Both applications are characterised by a long delay between initial investment in R&D; and seeing the benefits of R&D; realised. We formulate models tailored to each application and use optimal control theory to determine the optimal proportion of available funds to invest in R&D; over a given time horizon. Third, we consider a mathematical model of urban burglary based on the Short model. We make some modifications to this model including the addition of deterrence due to police officer presence. Police officer density is the control variable, which is constrained due to a finite number of police officers. We look at different control strategies for the police and their effect on burglary hot-spot formation.
Measurement of the CP violating phase βs in B0s → J/ψφ decays
Keywords: B_s mesons
Tevatron
CP violation
CDF

The CP violating phase βJ/ψφs is measured in decays of B0s &rightarrow; J/ψφ. This measurement uses 5.2 fb-1 of data collected in √—s = 1.96 TeV p̅p collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron with the CDF Run-II detector. CP violation in the B0s-̅B0sbar system is predicted to be very small in the Standard Model. However, several theories beyond the Standard Model allow enhancements to this quantity by heavier, New Physics particles entering second order weak mixing box diagrams. Previous measurements have hinted at a deviation from the Standard Model expectation value for βJ/ψφs with a significance of approximately 2σ. The measurement described in this thesis uses the highest statistics sample available to date in the B0s rightarrow; J/ψφ decay channel, where J/ψ &rightarrow; μ&plus; μ− and φ &rightarrow; K&plus;K−. Furthermore, it contains several improvements over previous analyses, such as enhanced signal selection, fully calibrated particle ID and flavour tagging, and the inclusion of an additional decay component in the likelihood function. The added decay component considers S-wave states of KK pairs in the B0s &rightarrow; J/ψK&plus;K− channel. The results are presented as 2-dimensional frequentist confidence regions for βJ/ψφs and ΔΓ (the width difference between the B0s mass eigenstates), and as a confidence interval for βJ/ψφs of [0.02,0.52] Ｕ [1.08, 1.55] at the 68 % confidence level. The measurement of the CP violating phase obtained in this thesis is complemented by the world's most precise measurement of the lifetime τs = 1.53 &pm; 0.025 (stat.) &pm; 0.012 (syst.) ps and decay width difference ΔΓ = 0.075 &pm; 0 .035 (stat.) &pm; 0.01 (syst.) ps−1 of the B0s meson, with the assumption of no CP violation.
The long run evolution of inequality and macroeconomic shocks
Keywords: income distribution
macroeconomic crises
inequality
financial instability
banking crises
top income shares
consumption

This thesis is concerned with two main questions. Do systemic banking crises substantially affect the income distribution in a country? Is income inequality a destabilising factor for the macro-economy? In order to answer the first question, this thesis examines a panel of 26 countries since 1900 and assembles a new database of crises, finding that the impact of major banking crises on the national income shares detained by the income groups within the richest decile is mostly small in magnitude. Indeed, the estimated impact is never bigger than a standard deviation of the specific top shares under investigation. Results are also confirmed in a separate analysis for the United States and are robust to a series of checks. These findings lend indirect support to the structuralist hypothesis that only substantial changes in government policies and institutional frameworks can bring about radical changes in income distribution. The analysis also highlights interesting heterogeneity across different income groups, country groups and time periods. The second question is addressed by making use of a newly assembled database on different dimensions of economic inequality. The new data helps to reject the statistical validity of the hypotheses that either growing inequality or a high level of inequality may systematically precede the onset of major banking crises. In addition, simulations based on the UK Family Expenditure Survey data find that even a full equalisation of income would increase the aggregate consumption by 3 percentage points at most. These findings, taken together, point out that an increase in income inequality may not concur to reduce the pressure on aggregate demand or be adduced as a structural factor of financial instability. Nonetheless, the evidence is not yet clear cut as the work further documents that periods of increasing income inequality in the UK were also associated with a reduction of the saving rates across the whole income distribution since 1968. The analysis contends that such evidence of under-saving behaviour may be consistent with the relative income hypothesis and some of its recent formulations such as the ’expenditure cascades’ theory.
The identification and validation of Auger electron-emitting radiopharmaceuticals targeting telomerase for cancer therapy
Keywords: molecularly-targeted radiotherapy
telomerase
cancer therapy
Auger electron
radiopharmaceutical
systemic radiotherapy

Telomerase is expressed in the majority (>85%) of tumours but not in differentiated normal tissue. This enzyme catalyses the elongation of telomeres – a process critical for continued cell proliferation. Telomerase is a potential novel target for molecularly-targeted radiotherapy (mRT), due to its nuclear localization and expression profile. The radiolabelling of telomerase inhibitors may accelerate and enhance the cytotoxicity of such molecules, as a result of irradiation of the DNA.
An oligonucleotide targeting telomerase RNA (hTR), shown to inhibit enzyme activity in vitro, was selected for study. Complementary and non-targeting control oligonucleotides were conjugated to a metal chelator (DTPA) to allow radiolabelling with indium-111. The radioiodination of MST-312, BIBR-1532 and flavonoid-derived small molecule inhibitors of telomerase was also pursued. The inhibitory activity of the candidate molecules was analysed using the telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP). The internalization of inhibitors was assessed by gamma-counting following cell lysis. The clonogenic assay was employed to measure the effect of modified inhibitors on cell survival.
Small molecule telomerase inhibitors were modified for labelling with iodine-123, which led to a modest decrease in inhibitory potency, compared to the parent molecules. Radiolabelled small molecules exhibited poor stability and internalization into cancer cells, so were unsuitable for mRT. Modified oligonucleotides potently inhibited telomerase activity, whereas a non-targeting oligonucleotide exhibited no inhibitory activity. Indium-111 radiolabelled oligonucleotides decreased the clonogenic survival of telomerase-positive breast cancer cells but not telomerase-negative cells, in a sequence-specific manner. Accordingly, complementary radiolabelled oligonucleotides were found to induce the DNA damage marker γH2AX. Oligonucleotides localized to nuclear Cajal bodies, the sites of telomerase assembly, in a proportion of cancer cells.
Telomerase inhibitors of different classes were radiolabelled with Auger electron-emitting radionuclides, and delivered to cells. Radiolabelled oligonucleotides targeting telomerase significantly reduced the clonogenicity of cancer cells in vitro. This study represents a novel approach for the mRT of telomerase-positive cancers.
High-resolution interferometric diagnostics for ultrashort pulses
Keywords: interferometry
phase retrieval
nonlinear optics
high-harmonic generation
ultrafast optics
metrology
ultrashort pulses

I present several new methods for the characterisation of ultrashort pulses using interferometry.
A generalisation of the concatenation algorithm for spectral shearing interferometry enables interferograms taken at multiple shears to be combined. This improves the precision of the reconstructed phase in the presence of detector noise, and enables the relative phase between disjoint spectral components to be obtained without decreasing the spectral resolution. The algorithm is applied to experimental data from two different implementations of spectral shearing interferometry for ultrashort optical pulses. In one, the shears are acquired sequentially, and in the other they are acquired simultaneously.
I develop a form of spatio-temporal ultrashort pulse characterisation which performs both spatial and spectral shearing interferometry simultaneously. It requires a similar geometrical setup to common implementations of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction, but provides complete amplitude and phase characterisation in time and one spatial dimension.
I develop the theory of lateral shearing interferometry for spectrally resolved wavefront sensing of extended ultraviolet and soft x-ray pulses generated using high-harmonic generation. A comprehensive set of wavefront measurements of harmonics 13-25 in Krypton show good agreement with theory, validating the technique.
I propose and numerically demonstrate quantum-path interferometry mediated by a weak control field for high harmonic generation. This is a general technique for measuring the amplitude and relative phases of each contributing quantum path. The control field perturbatively modulates the phase of each path. The differing sensitivity of each path to the parameters of the control field allows their contributions to be distinguished from one another.