VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
We the burden: equal citizenship and its limits in EU law
Keywords: EU citizenship
EU constitutional law
nationality discrimination
equal treatment

The dynamic interpretation of EU citizenship as a 'fundamental status of all Member State nationals' has opened the door for more horizontal conceptions of equality in European Union law. At the same time, the meaning and purpose of equal treatment in the case of economically inactive and dependent EU citizens has remained ambiguous. The objective of this study is to clarify what normative justifications, other than to eradicate the obstacles to the internal market, can be offered for more just and equal relationships between EU citizens within the existing constitutional order of the EU.
What defines EU citizenship as an equal status is how those individuals who hold this status are treated in relation to one another. The thesis discusses in detail how the rationale for discrimination analysis under Article 18 TFEU has changed in parallel with the evolution of EU citizenship. The question of how unlawful discrimination differs from legitimate differential treatment under the so-called 'real link' case law leads to a more theoretical question of what philosophical justifications underlie the EU principle of equality.
The democratic theory of equality is used to support the argument that the current bias in favour of 'activity' at the expense of ‘status’ in EU equality law is rooted in a narrow and individualistic view of agency. The thesis, then, argues that recognizing the inherent connection between EU citizens' agency and their subjectivity can provide a justification for a more relational conception of equality even in the absence of a full democratic pedigree in EU law. This analysis contributes a perspective which is usually not there by examining how EU citizenship can benefit from the psycho-dynamic theories of subjectivity that underlie the feminist critique of 'citizenship as agency'.
Tying down the Gullivers: tripartite strategic balancing in unipolar international systems
Keywords: United Nations
Polarity
French Foreign Policy
International Relations
Polish Foreign Policy
Great Power Politics
Russian Foreign Policy
Balance of Power
Soft Balancing
International Relations Theory
International Law

This dissertation seeks to conceptualise and operationalise the concept of soft balancing in international relations by articulating a “theory of tripartite strategic balancing” which is applicable to both international and regional unipolar systems. It has a twofold purpose: one theoretical and the other empirical. First, it seeks to develop a theory of tripartite strategic balancing which encompasses three forms of strategic balancing: internal, external, and soft balancing. The second part seeks to test the theory’s utility in explaining international political outcomes in the post-Cold War international system. In particular, it seeks to ascertain whether and how “second-tier great powers” have strategically balanced against the United States on a global level since the end of the Cold War. The analyses will focus largely on the foreign policies of Russia and France – the chief soft balancers.
However, this dissertation also seeks to extend the concept of soft balancing into the regional level of analysis by examining whether and how minor-regional powers soft balance against regional unipolar leaders. For instance, it will examine whether and how the Russian Federation has been soft balanced against by states in the “European Near Abroad.” The analyses will focus primarily on the foreign policies of Poland – the chief soft balancer in the region. The dissertation will employ three in-depth case studies – the Kosovo Crisis (1999), the Iraqi wars (1991-2003), and the Georgia Crisis (2008) – to verify whether or not tripartite strategic balancing is actually occurring as the theory predicts. It will heavily rely on sources and interviews conducted during my time working at the United Nations Security Council and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These findings seek to contribute a more nuanced strand of thinking to the realist paradigm in international relations, and they offer practical implications for both US and Russian foreign policymaking.
Aspects of low Reynolds number microswimming using singularity methods
Keywords: singularities
slender-body theory
low Reynolds number
swimmer
viscoelastic fluid
viscous fluid

Three different models, relating to the study of microswimmers immersed in a low Reynolds number ﬂuid, are presented. The underlying, mathematical concepts employed in each are developed using singularity methods of Stokes ﬂow.
The ﬁrst topic concerns the motility of an artiﬁcial, three-sphere microswimmer with prescribed, non-reciprocal, internal forces. The swimmer progresses through a low Reynolds number, nonlinear, viscoelastic medium. The model developed illustrates that the presence of the viscoelastic rheology, when compared to a Newtonian environment, increases both the net displacement and swimming efficiency of the microswimmer.
The second area concerns biological microswimming, modelling a sperm cell with a hyperactive waveform (vigorous, asymmetric beating), bound to the epithelial walls of the female, reproductive tract. Using resistive-force theory, the model concludes that, for certain regions in parameter space, hyperactivated sperm cells can induce mechanical forces that pull the cell away from the wall binding. This appears to occur via the regulation of the beat amplitude, wavenumber and beat asymmetry.
The next topic presents a novel generalisation of slender-body theory that is capable of calculating the approximate ﬂow ﬁeld around a long, thin, slender body with circular cross sections that vary arbitrarily in radius along a curvilinear centre-line. New, permissible, slender-body shapes include a tapered ﬂagellum and those with ribbed, wave-like structures.
Finally, the detailed analytics of the generalised, slender-body theory are exploited to develop a numerical implementation capable of simulating a wider range of slender-body geometries compared to previous studies in the ﬁeld.
On affluence and poverty: morality, motivation and practice in a global age
Keywords: Institutional Design
Moral Psychology
Global Justice
Cosmopolitanism

This thesis looks at the failure of individual people living in affluent societies to do more to help those living in conditions of extreme poverty at the present moment. Affluent people have the capacity to assist, by contributing additional funds to aid and humanitarian organisations. Given an understanding of what is at stake, the fact that they fail to do so is both morally problematic and difficult to explain. Yet, without an understanding of the causes of inaction, it is difficult to know what measures may be taken to alleviate extreme suffering in the world today.
The thesis draws upon different philosophical accounts of practical reason to argue that the conduct of the affluent can only be understood in one of three ways: these people may lack decisive reason to assist, they may be misinformed, or they may be rationally deficient in some regard. Considering each possibility in turn, it advances two central arguments. Firstly, the normative reasons claim is sound: affluent people, who do not incur minor costs by assisting, ought to do more. Secondly, these people tend to have false beliefs about the nature of poverty, to make substantive errors of judgement, and to follow flawed patterns of reasoning when they deliberate about what to do. Taken together, these factors explain their failure to act.
Building upon this diagnosis, the thesis then considers how to respond to the problem of inaction, advancing a solution that is institutional in character. It argues for the construction of a division of labour between state and citizen, at the national level, which would see political institutions take on responsibility for poverty eradication, thereby leaving individuals freer to pursue their own personal goals and objectives. In order to perform this function effectively, wealthy nations would have to improve the quantity and quality of assistance that they provide to low-income countries. They would also have to cease partaking in practices that harm the global poor. This approach has a number of advantages over reliance on private philanthropy alone: it forms part of a fair and effective solution to the problem of motivating assistance, the arrangement it proposes is both stable and legitimate, and it is also something that could be achieved in practice. Therefore, it represents part of the best possible way in which to proceed.
Immunomodulatory properties of IgG glycosylation and the anti-inflammatory mechanism of intravenous immunoglobulin
Keywords: IgG
IVIg
sialylation
Fc glycosylation
Fc gamma receptors
antibody engineering

The IgG Fc domain mediates a range of antibody effector functions, including antibody dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC), complement activation, phagocytosis, and the recently emerged general anti-inflammatory effect of immunoglobulin therapy (IVIg). The conserved N-glycan attached to Fc N297 maintains the Fc structural integrity for the effector functions, while its glycoform is known to modulate the affinity for the Fc γ-receptors (FcγRs), complement, and the C-type lectin DC-SIGN. IgG Fc exhibits protein-directed glycosylation characterized by a series of biantennary complex type glycoforms, with a small population of sialylated species. The sialylated Fc has been proposed to bind DC-SIGN and initiate an anti-inflammatory signalling pathway. The restricted Fc glycan processing is partially attributed to the hydrophobic interaction between Fc glycan and the hydrophobic Fc protein backbone. Mutations within the hydrophobic Fc protein-glycan interface dramatically increases Fc glycan processing, while concomitantly decreases Fc affinity for the FcγRs. However, it is unclear whether this disrupted Fc-FcγR interaction was due to the increased terminal glycan processing, or the perturbed Fc protein-glycan interface. Here, the integrity of the Fc protein-glycan interface was demonstrated to be important in maintaining the productive Fc-FcγR interaction independently of glycoform. This glycoform-independent effect was exploited to generate novel inhibitory Fc variants. In addition, the interaction between sialylated IgG and the putative IVIg receptor DC-SIGN was re-evaluated. Analysis shows that IVIg binds DC-SIGN in a glycan-independent, Fab-mediated manner. Furthermore, the effect of IVIg sialylation on human antigen presenting cells was examined; evidence presented here indicate that IVIg deglycosylation, not desialylation, has an anti-inflammatory effect on human dendritic cells (DCs). These data suggest the need for a general re-evaluation of the current mechanistic model of anti-inflammatory IVIg.
Law’s author, things personated, political representation
Keywords: Representative Democracy
Rousseau
Democracy
Hobbes
Representative Government

This dissertation proposes a normative theory of political representation grounded in popular sovereignty and positive law, rather than in democracy and efficient labour allocation. The first three chapters assess the contributions to the idea of representation of three early modern thinkers. Hobbes proposes a formal model of authorised action at a distance, but, contrary to a long-standing consensus in political thought, not an actual theory of representation. Rousseau, a well-known opponent of representation, proposes ideas about government, sovereignty, and positive law, which, despite his contrary intentions, form a foundation for a normative theory of representation. Sieyes refines concepts from both to create a more mature practical statement on representation which he attempts to implement in three revolutionary constitutions in France in the 1790's.
The next three chapters make an argument connecting representation to law creation. First the concept of a decision is defined, and then abstracted through various levels of political authority and action. Law creation is distinguished from all other classes of authorised political decision making by four unique properties which tie in with problems initially raised by the early modern philosophers regarding popular sovereignty. Various numbers of authorised actors are considered as constituting political bodies credentialed to carry out the relevant decisions identified as meeting the minimal conditions of law, and ultimately only assembly — a body numbering in the hundreds, with a reserved place for making recognised decisions, and a formal connection to expressed popular preferences — meets the conceptual requirements of the class of decisions mooted. The thesis ends with an argument connecting law to representation as the solution to the problem of plurality.
Bayesian Gaussian processes for sequential prediction, optimisation and quadrature
Keywords: changepoint detection
observation selection
global optimisation
Bayesian inference
Bayesian quadrature
Gaussian processes
sensor networks

We develop a family of Bayesian algorithms built around Gaussian processes for various problems posed by sensor networks. We firstly introduce an iterative Gaussian process for multi-sensor inference problems, and show how our algorithm is able to cope with data that may be noisy, missing, delayed and/or correlated. Our algorithm can also effectively manage data that features changepoints, such as sensor faults. Extensions to our algorithm allow us to tackle some of the decision problems faced in sensor networks, including observation scheduling. Along these lines, we also propose a general method of global optimisation, Gaussian process global optimisation (GPGO), and demonstrate how it may be used for sensor placement.
Our algorithms operate within a complete Bayesian probabilistic framework. As such, we show how the hyperparameters of our system can be marginalised by use of Bayesian quadrature, a principled method of approximate integration. Similar techniques also allow us to produce full posterior distributions for any hyperparameters of interest, such as the location of changepoints. We frame the selection of the positions of the hyperparameter samples required by Bayesian quadrature as a decision problem, with the aim of minimising the uncertainty we possess about the values of the integrals we are approximating. Taking this approach, we have developed sampling for Bayesian quadrature (SBQ), a principled competitor to Monte Carlo methods.
We conclude by testing our proposals on real weather sensor networks. We further benchmark GPGO on a wide range of canonical test problems, over which it achieves a significant improvement on its competitors. Finally, the efficacy of SBQ is demonstrated in the context of both prediction and optimisation.
Towards a Nigerian objectives based triple peaks financial regulation	
Keywords: Comparative Financial Regulation

This is a normative research on how best to structure financial regulatory agencies and principles consistently with the core objectives of financial regulation in such a manner that can yield an effective regulatory framework for Nigeria. It moves forward the debate on what an effective financial regulatory ought to be relative to a country's national context, its developmental stage and how international financial regulatory best practice principles can be 'woven' into the design of an enduring regulatory architecture in a developing economy such as Nigeria.
The thesis contributes to three areas namely: the literature on comparative financial regulation, financial legal transplantation, and financial regulatory reform. On comparative financial regulation, it contributes a developing world perspective on the legal and institutional challenges of financial regulation and how to deal with these challenges. On financial regulatory transplantation, it contributes to the debate on how best to conceptualise a financial regulatory architecture that mirror contemporary international best practices and that fits into the Nigerian context. In relation to financial regulatory reform, the thesis makes two major sub-contributions. First, it links financial regulation in Nigeria with robust and multi-layered regulatory accountability mechanisms including judicial and democratic accountability. Second, it generates principles that can be transformed into laws and policies to achieve the following: (a) the imposition of mandatory inter-agency co-ordination among financial regulators; (b) imposition of a statutory duty on financial regulators to prevent regulatory failure; (c) the imposition of liability for a supervisory failure induced collapse of a financial institution and (or) a financial crisis; (d) the use of irreversible convertible debentures as a corporate governance disciplinary mechanism to deter imprudent business model and to serve as a forward looking strategy to address the 'historical inevitability of financial crises' in the unlikely event that the financial regulatory system fails.
Vanna-Volga and Karasinski Risk Correction Methods
Keywords: Finance
Volatility
Finite Difference
Vanna-Volga
Correction
Numerical
PDE
Calibration
Greeks
FX

The Vanna-Volga (VV) method has been in wide use as one of the major tools for several years among foreign exchange (FX) trading desks. Despite its popularity, the properties of the VV method are not well studied and understood. This thesis attempts to understand better why and when the VV method makes sense, and how to use it better. Often under practical circumstances the state of calibration can be described as being frequent but imperfect. To take advantage of this level of calibration, we studied the properties and benefits of the Karasinski method, and extended this method to a few useful applications. We have found that the Karasinski method, if used with a reasonably calibrated model, can provide significant performance improvement over the VV method.The VV and Karasinski chapters contain most of the original research in this thesis; there are a wealth of discoveries made in these chapters. Novel methods and applications related to the VV and Karasinski methods are proposed, and some of which can be readily applied to the practical trading environment. To make the VV and Karasinski methods work well in practice, the numerical issues for computing the price and Greeks have been carefully addressed with finite difference schemes that are second-order convergent and fast to compute. As an example of easy-to-compute but difficult-to-calibrate model candidates for the Karasinski method, the Multi-Heston model has been discussed too. A sound computational preparation enables the VV and in particular Karasinski methods to enjoy high viability as being fast, efficient and practical. This thesis is tailored to the purpose of making a detailed study on these useful methods whose great potential has not been adequately understood and fully realised.
Theories of millenarianism considered with reference to certain southern African movements
Keywords: Cattle-killing
Millenarianism
Cape Colony
Southern Africa

The early recorded history of the Cape of Good Hope, from the time of the founding of van Riebeeck's revictualling station on the slopes of Table Mountain in 1652, until the power of the African chiefs was finally broken in the nineteenth century, was one of almost constant strife among the peoples who came to settle in this part of Southern Africa. At first the contest was between European colonists and the indigenous Khoisan-speaking peoples of the Cape, but by the beginning of the nineteenth century, far more redoubtable contestants in the form of Negro peoples, speaking Bantu languages, were to enter the field. It was not until the power of the Bantu African chiefs was broken that the Cape Colony was to enjoy comparative peace. Ironically, their power was not destroyed by forces of arms so much as by what seemed to all observers a self-engendered religious movement. This movement cost the lives of an estimated 117,000 people.
Carbon isotopic dietary signatures of amino acids
Keywords: HPLC
13C
archaeological science
isotope
Amino acid
Palaeodiet

In an exploratory study, techniques were developed for isolating bulk plant proteins and measuring the 13C isotopic compositions of their constituent amino acids by HPLC-IRMS. Samples of plants expected to be of potential palaeodietary significance in northwestern Europe were selected for investigation.
Different tissues of plants, leaves and seeds, may be distinguished from each other by the relative 13C isotopic compositions (‘isotopic signatures’) of the amino acids of their constituent proteins. For each tissue type, different plant types may be distinguished in the same way. These signatures can vary slightly according to environment and season, but the variation among types is greater than this. For leaves, isotopic signatures can be used to differentiate (i) nettles, (ii) true grasses, (iii) reeds etc, (iv) trees, (v) legumes, (vi) maize, (vii) freshwater plants and (viii) marine algae. For seeds, these signatures are able to differentiate (i) wheat-type cereals, (ii) barley-type cereals, (iii) C4 cereals, (iv) pseudocereals, (v) legumes and (vi) tree nuts.
From investigations using a mixing model, it appears that these signals, particularly those of essential amino acids, are reflected in the tissues of their consumers. Freshwater plants are identified as the base of the food chain for dragonfly larvae, marine algae as the diet of marine molluscs and grass as the diet of archaeological cattle and aurochs. Isotopic ‘marine signals’ identified by previous researchers have been refined using these data and the isotopic signatures of fish muscle.
These findings are expected to be of particular value in the study of palaeodiets using proteins from archaeological tissues, especially bone and hair. This approach will also find application in the fields of plant physiology and biochemistry.
Microstructural control of al alloys using intrinsic oxides
Keywords: Intermetallics
Solidification
Aluminium
TP1

Currently, there is not enough information available on the effect of inclusions on extrusion alloys. Theoretical calculations in the past demonstrated the probable role of oxides in Fe-intermetallic phase selection (Cao et al., 03). However, no concrete evidence can be found in the literature to support this argument. This study investigates the role of in-situ oxides in intermetallic phase selection. Various Mg oxides (spinel and MgO) were formed in-situ by adding different levels of Mg. A special intermetallic extraction process was used for 3D analysis. SEM, EDS and XRD analysis were used for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Dry and wet surfaces of the oxide bi-films were observed with the wet surfaces highly associated with MgO and spinel particles. MgO particles had spherical morphology and there average diameter was observed to be in the range 200nm-400nm, whereas spinel particles had octahedral morphology with average length of the side in the range 1-2μm. MgO was found in locations which appear to be the most probable nucleation points of α-AlFeSi intermetallics and Mg2Si. These results provide a new and more distinctive perspective on the actual morphology of Fe-rich intermetallics and Mg oxides than the ones that exist in the literature. It also provides direct evidence of the role of inclusions (oxides) in intermetallic phase nucleation. This information can be utilised to improve the surface properties in 6xxx extrusion alloys.