VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
What to do when there isn't enough: the fair distribution of scarce goods
Keywords: lotteries
scarcity
distributive ethics
value theory
fairness

My DPhil submission consists of a series of papers on related topics on the moral philosophy of scarce benefit distribution. It focuses on two types of scarce benefit distribution case.
The first type occurs when which all potential beneficiaries of a good each have an equally strong moral claim on an equal benefit from the resource but scarcity or indivisibility prevents us from benefiting all potential beneficiaries. Call these cases equal conflict cases. In 'Anti-Majoritarianism', I argue against the view defended by both utilitarians and non-utilitarians that in equal conflict cases you always ought to give the benefit to as many people as possible. I argue that doing so is neither morally right nor fair. In 'Weighing Up Weighted Lotteries', I argue that the philosophical debate between unweighted and weighted lottery benefit distribution procedures has been misconceived and that fairness requires us to use a new kind of weighted lottery that I call the exclusive composition-sensitive lottery. In 'Can't Get No Satisfaction', I defend a new view that I call the dual-structure view about how lotteries satisfy potential beneficiaries' claims in equal conflict cases and highlight the implications of that view for the distribution of donor corneas to those who have suffered corneal degeneration.
The second type of this distributional problem occurs when we can either benefit a very large number of potential beneficiaries with a very small benefit (call these the many) or a very small number of potential beneficiaries with a very major benefit (call these the few). In "Valuing the Few Over the Many" I argue that there are cases where not only ought we to benefit the few over the many no matter how numerous the many are, but it is also better to do so. However, this conclusion can be shown to conflict with a number of widely held tenets of value theory. I evaluate different ways of accommodating these intuitions and argue that in some contexts, benefits are not of finite value. The view I defend in 'Valuing the Few Over the Many', combined with some intuitively plausible axiological claims, is inconsistent with the transitivity of the 'better than' relation. In 'Making Betterness Behave' I argue that for what I call the conditional non-coextensive thesis: if 'better than' is not transitive, one ought to take the position that 'more reason to bring about rather than' is transitive. I argue that one can generate a transitive 'more reason to bring about rather than' deontic ordering from a non-transitive axiological ordering in a principled way. This deontic ordering avoids the major practical objections (money pumps, moral dilemmas and threats to practical reasoning) to non-transitivity of the 'better than' relation.
Essays in industrial organisation
Keywords: switching
multiproduct search

This thesis presents four largely independent essays on industrial organisation. The first three essays examine how search and switching costs distort competitive markets, whilst the fourth essay studies how firms themselves might eliminate competition by agreeing to fix the market price. The key insight from the first two essays is that by choosing to pay a search cost, a consumer reveals to a retailer some private information about their product valuations. In this context the first essay re-examines the well-known theoretical Diamond Paradox in which markets completely break down if firms sell only a single product. I demonstrate that multiproduct retailers offer an elegant and realistic way of overcoming this Paradox, and then apply the model to supermarkets. In particular, this essay provides new insights into why convenience stores charge high prices and why grocery stores use selected loss-leaders. The second essay looks at internet search and therefore focuses on the special case in which search frictions become very small. It seeks to explain why retailers pay so much for online advertising, when consumers can easily click on whichever links they like. I show that if consumers have prior information about products, their search behaviour is limited but very informative about their preferences. This places prominent firms in a privileged position, and makes them substantially more profitable. The third essay provides a simple model in which small switching costs are pro-competitive and beneficial to consumers. This challenges the conventional wisdom, but also argues that switching costs should be less of a policy priority than search costs. The final essay examines a game in which two firms bargain over a collusive price. It is shown that entry into such a market may make collusion easier, and may increase price.
E2F7: a member of the E2F family with a novel mechanism of transcriptional repression
Keywords: cell cycle
cancer
E2F
E2F7

The mammalian E2F family of transcription factors plays a crucial role in the regulation of cellular proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation. E2F7 and E2F8 are the most recently identified family members and have unusual features that distinguish them from other members in the E2F family, including two distinct DNA-binding domains that bind to DNA in a DP-independent manner. E2F7 and E2F8 have been shown to be transcriptional repressors. However, the mechanism by which E2F7 represses E2F responsive gene expression remains to be elucidated.
The results presented here provide the first insight into the E2F7-mediated transcriptional mechanism. E2F7 was shown to contain a CtBP binding motif and form a complex with CtBP in both HeLa and MCF7 cells. An E2F7 deletion mutant lacking the CtBP binding motif was unable to form a complex with CtBP and repress the transcription of E2F target genes in luciferase assays, suggesting that this motif is essential for E2F7-dependent repression. Furthermore, the E2F7-CtBP complex was shown to be stable under different types of damage, such as following etoposide and UV treatment, and under different cell redox states. Interestingly, however, E2F7 was unable to repress the transcriptional activity of E2F target genes following treatment with the CtBP substrate MTOB. Moreover, E2F7 endogenous immunoprecipitations showed that E2F7 forms a complex with the chromatin-modifying enzymes HDAC1, HDAC2 and LSD1 and the co-repressor CoREST. Interestingly, via chromatin immunoprecipitations, E2F7 was shown to recruit these co-repressors to a subset of E2F-responsive promoters where they affect the activity of these promoters in a target gene-specific manner. Furthermore, results presented here suggest that CtBP could play a dual role in E2F7 function, not only being involved in E2F7-mediated repression but also in the repression of E2F7 itself as siRNA mediated CtBP depletion was shown to cause an upregulation of E2F7 protein levels. These results implicate a repertoire of co-repressors in a target gene-specific E2F7 repression mechanism, and as such define a new level of complexity in cell cycle control.
Geometric multigrid and closest point methods for surfaces and general domains
Keywords: multigird methods
Surface partial differential equations
Closest Point Method
finite difference methods

This thesis concerns the analytical and practical aspects of applying the Closest Point Method to solve elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs) on smooth surfaces and domains with smooth boundaries. A new numerical scheme is proposed to solve surface elliptic PDEs and a novel geometric multigrid solver is constructed to solve the resulting linear system. The method is also applied to coupled bulk-surface problems.
A new embedding equation in a narrow band surrounding the surface is formulated so that it agrees with the original surface PDE on the surface and has a unique solution which is constant along the normals to the surface. The embedding equation is then discretized using standard finite difference scheme and barycentric Lagrange interpolation. The resulting scheme has 2nd-order accuracy in practice and is provably 2nd-order convergent for curves without boundary embedded in &Ropf;2.
To apply the method to solve elliptic equations on surfaces and domains with boundaries, the "ghost" point approach is adopted to handle Dirichlet, Neumann and Robin boundary conditions. A systematic method is proposed to represent values of ghost points by values of interior points according to boundary conditions.
A novel geometric multigrid method based on the closest point representation of the surface is constructed to solve the resulting large sparse linear systems. Multigrid solvers are designed for surfaces with or without boundaries and domains with smooth boundaries. Numerical results indicate that the convergence rate of the multigrid solver stays roughly the same as we refine the mesh, as is desired of a multigrid algorithm.
Finally the above methods are combined to solve coupled bulk-surface PDEs with some applications to biology.
Construction of national identities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine in Soviet historiography (1936-1953)
Keywords: Soviet Union
Azerbaijan
historiography
World War II
Stalinism
Kazakhstan
Russia
nationalism
Ukraine

This dissertation aims to explain how Soviet national historiographies were constructed in Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, in 1936-1953 and what the political and ideological reasons were behind the way they were written. The dissertation aims to contribute to current scholarship on Soviet nationality policies; on Stalinist nation-building projects; and to the debate on whether the Soviet period was a project of developmentalist modernization or not. This dissertation aims to examine the process of national history writing in three republics from the local point of view, by using the local archival sources. For this research, archival materials that have been overlooked by scholars up to this point from the archives of the communist parties, academy of sciences, and central state archives in Kiev, Ukraine, Baku, Azerbaijan, and Almaty, Kazakhstan have been collected. The timeline starts with Zhdanov’s commission in 1936, which summoned historians and ideologues of the Communist Party in Moscow to write an all-Union history because a parallel campaign of writing national histories had been initialized by the local communist parties. The first two chapters cover the pre-war (1936-1941) period, when national histories were written after the demise of Pokrovskiian historiography. Although there was one ideology, there were different preferences in solving the problem of ethnogenesis, defining national heroes, and also different preferences among the sections of the past that national histories emphasized. The third chapter explains the construction of national histories during the war period (1941-1945). The chapter also presents how national histories were used for wartime propaganda. Finally, the last chapter is about the post-war discussions and the shift of emphasis from ‘national’ to ‘class’ that occurred in the non-Russian national narratives in the Zhdanovshchina period. While there was an ‘imperial design’ for the necessities of managing a multi-national state, the Soviet Union also appears as a modernization project for all three cases by constructing national narratives. Though non-Russian Soviet historiographies produced contradictory narratives in different decades, they also homogenized, codified and nationalized the narrative of the past. Regional, dynastic, religious, tribal figures and events incorporated into grandiose national narratives. Nations were primordialized and their national identities armed with spatial and temporal indigenousness within the borders of their national republics. Modern national identities of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine gained from this homogenization and codification by the Soviet regime. Although modernism is not only about construction of national narratives, the latter points out the developmental and modernizing character of the Soviet period.
Gauge theory on Calabi-Yau manifolds
Keywords: holomorphic bundles
Gauge theory
moduli
Calabi-Yau
coherent sheaves

We study complex analogues on Calabi-Yau manifolds of gauge theories on low dimensional real manifolds. In particular we define a holomorphic analogue of the Casson invariant, counting coherent sheaves on a Calabi-Yau 3-fold.
Systematic review of suicidal behaviour and related issues of wellbeing in the veterinary profession
Keywords: epidemiology
suicide
wellbeing
occupation

Population-based studies of suicide prevalence have identified certain occupational groups to be at particularly high risk of suicide. There is recent evidence that rate of suicide may also be significantly elevated in the veterinary profession. However, relatively little is known about the contributory factors that may explain this phenomenon. The present study is the first systematic review of the research literature on the prevalence of, and factors associated with, suicidal behaviour in the veterinary profession. An extensive search strategy was performed in order to identify studies that presented data on these issues. Studies were categorised into two main groups: those that presented epidemiological data from observational studies of suicide prevalence and those that were survey-based studies of suicidal behaviour and associated issues of wellbeing in the veterinary profession. In total, 89 papers were included in the final review. Nineteen studies of suicide prevalence were identified and 11 of these provided data on the relative risk of suicide in the veterinary profession. All but one of these studies found suicide to be significantly elevated in the veterinary profession. Interpretation of studies of highest quality found that the proportion of suicide in the veterinary profession was at least four times that of the general population. Data from 70 survey-based papers identified the prevalence of various aspects of suicidal behaviour in veterinary populations and the psychiatric, occupational and psychological risk factors that may help explain the reasons for the elevated rate of suicide in the veterinary profession. Knowledge of suicidal behaviour and wellbeing in the veterinary profession is still very much in its early stages. The limitations of research studies reviewed have been identified and suggestions made about the direction of future research. Suggestions for methods of preventing suicide in this high-risk group are also made, based on the current research reviewed, and existing strategies in other groups at high risk of suicide.
A study of ammonia borane and its derivatives
Keywords: neutron scattering
ammonia borane
hydrogen storage

This thesis reports the investigation of molecular materials for hydrogen storage applications with a particular emphasis on alkali-metal amidoboranes. I have developed new routes for the synthesis of alpha-LiNH2BH3 and NaNH2BH3, and have studied their hydrogen storage properties by thermogravimetric analysis, variable temperature X-ray and neutron diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering. I report the synthesis and full structural characterization of two new materials, KNH2BH3 and beta-LiNH2BH3, and have performed initial studies on a tetragonal phase of a variant of LiNH2BH3 with a preliminary structure solution. I have also performed variable temperature neutron diffraction on ammonium borodeuteride, ND4BD4, and report the full structural characterisation of the three phases identified as a result of these measurements. Furthermore, variable temperature inelastic neutron scatting (INS) measurements were performed on ammonia borane, NH3BH3, and the results are discussed in terms of crystallographic phase changes.
Studies in electrode kinetics
Keywords: Simulation
Electrode kinetics
Marcus theory

This thesis is concerned with the study of electrode kinetics, which we shall examine via comparison between theory with experiment. As such the first two chapters outline the basic principles of electrochemical experiments and their simulation.
First, we examine the properties of voltammetry at porous electrodes by means of both simulations and experiments.
We then introduce the symmetric Marcus-Hush (SMH) model of electrode kinetics as an alternative to the empirical Butler-Volmer model. First, we examine different methods for modeling the voltammetry of kinetically inhomogeneous electroactive monolayers. Next, we perform a critical evaluation of the SMH model for solution-phase systems through extensive comparison to experiments under diffusion-only and convective mass transport conditions using both cyclic and square wave voltammetry. The model is compared with the Butler-Volmer model throughout and is ultimately found to be poorly suited to the parameterisation of electrode kinetics, despite its foundations in the microscopic Marcus theory.
We then introduce the asymmetric Marcus-Hush model, which removes the assumption that the Gibbs energy curves for reactant and product have the same curvature. This modification results in an additional parameter which quantifies the asymmetry of the system. A similar evaluation of this model is then undertaken for both surface-bound and solution phase systems and the asymmetric model is found to be a great deal more successful than its symmetric predecessor.
Finally we outline a novel technique for extracting kinetic information directly from experimental cyclic voltammetry. The method is simple to implement and is general to all electrode geometries with one-dimensional symmetry.
Torre Abbey: locality, community, and society in medieval Devon
Keywords: Devon
Premonstratensian Order
monasteries

Torre Abbey was a rural Premonstratensian monastery in south-east Devon. Although in many ways atypical of its order, not least in the quality and quantity of its surviving source material, Torre provides an excellent case study of how a medium-sized medieval monastery interacted with the world around it, and how the abbey itself was affected by that interaction. Divided into three broad sections, this thesis first examines the role of local landowners and others as patrons of the house in the most obvious sense, that of the bestowal of lands or other assets upon the house. Torre was relatively successful in this regard, and an examination of the architectural and archaeological record indicates a continuation of that relationship after the thirteenth century. The second section notes areas of conflict with the laity. Disputes could and did arise over both temporal and spiritual affairs, as well as through the involvement of a number of lay figures in the administration and patronage of the house. In both respects, notable incidents in the mid-fourteenth century highlight the complexities of the canons’ relationships with the secular world. These are further explored in an analysis of the abbey’s role during the Hundred Years’ War and the Wars of the Roses, two conflicts which greatly affected the locality, but required vastly differing approaches by the canons. Finally, the effect of society on the canons themselves is considered. It is possible to recover some picture of their origins, both social and geographic, as well as some idea of the size of the community in the fifteenth century, and discuss the repercussions for an understanding of monastic recruitment. Finally, the dynamic of the community over the entire history of the abbey is considered in terms of the scattered source material, utilising both architectural and documentary evidence.
Women and childbirth in Haile Selassie's Ethiopia
Keywords: history of public health
gender
preventive medicine
childbirth
Ethiopia
women

As the first analytic history of Ethiopian medicine, this thesis explores the interchange between the institutional development of a national medical network and the lived experiences of women as patients and practitioners of medicine from the years 1940-1975. Using birth and gender as mechanisms to explore the nation's public health history allows me to pursue alternative threads of enquiry: I ask questions not only about state activities and policy pursuits, but also about the relevance and acceptance of those actions in the lives of the citizenry. This thesis is also the first medical history of a non-colonial African country, opening up new questions about the role of non-Western actors in the expansion of Western medicine in the twentieth century. I explore the ways in which the exceptional history of Ethiopia can be couched in existing narratives of African modernity, medicine, and birth history. Issues of local agency and the creation of new social elites in the pursuit of modernity are all pertinent to the case of Ethiopia. Through both extensive archival research and oral interviews of nearly 200 participants in Haile Selassie's medical campaigns, I argue that the extent to which the imperial medical project in Ethiopia 'succeeded' was highly predicated on pre-existing conditions of gender, class, and geography.
Assessing the role of ADAM10 in Trastuzumab treatment and resistance
Keywords: ADAM10
HER2
trastuzumab

Overexpression of the HER2 receptor occurs in about 15-20% of all breast cancers and is correlated with poor prognosis. Trastuzumab (Herceptin®), a monoclonal antibody targeting HER2, was shown to prolong survival of these patients. However, primary or acquired resistance remains a drawback for the drug. Understanding the mechanisms behind Herceptin resistance is crucial in order to increase the efficacy of the treatment. Many factors have been shown to contribute to resistance, including the protein family of the ADAMs (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase). One of them, ADAM10, cleaves several pro-ligands for the HER-family, such as betacellulin and HB-EGF. It is also responsible for shedding the extracellular domain of HER2. The objective of my M.Sc. is to understand the role of ADAM10 in relation to Herceptin treatment and resistance. In this thesis, it was shown that Herceptin treatment increased ADAM10 levels via an AKT/PKB feedback loop in HER2 positive cells and xenograft tumour samples and that ADAM10 was increased in Herceptin resistant cell lines. The increase of ADAM10 was correlated with an upregulation of the ligand betacellulin in the media. Inhibition of ADAM10 enzymatic activity or knockdown of the protein decreased the activation of HER family members and downstream markers in sensitive and resistant cell lines and was additive to Herceptin treatment in decreasing cell viability in sensitive cells. The TMA samples from a cohort of HER2 positive breast cancer patients have been stained for ADAM10 expression and positive staining was significantly correlated to poorer relapse free as well as overall survival. Both in vitro and in vivo data of this project suggested an important role of ADAM10 in Herceptin treatment of HER2 positive breast cancer.