VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Strategic partisan policy-seekers
Keywords: European democracies
health and health policy
Welfare state reform and change

This dissertation begins from a desire to explain situations in which left-wing parties appear to adopt policies that are more typically associated with right-wing thinking. A standard explanation for such behaviour is that relatively weak left-wing parties are drawn to adopt those policies as a way of getting elected — commonly expressed as convergence on the median voter. The puzzle, however, is that this explanation often seems to fall foul of the empirical reality that left-wing parties adopt these policies when they are relatively strong, not weak. The explanation for this advanced here is that parties, seeking to improve outcomes for their constituencies both now and in the future, often operate in political environments which lead them to assign a high probability that today’s policy choices will not survive the predations of government by opposing parties tomorrow. Where this is the case, there is incentive to pursue policies that are less efficient, but which have inbuilt political defence mechanisms: with the main such mechanism focused upon here being the power of organised public sector labour. The effect of partisanship is, therefore, conditioned by expectations about the future political power of parties. Where left-wing parties expect to be weak, they will tend to adopt the highly statist, bureaucratised, nationalised policies that are traditionally associated with the Left as these will tend to embody large amounts of organised labour that will be a counter to future right-wing governments. Where left-wing parties expect to be strong, the costs associated with such policies come to outweigh the beneﬁts, with the result that they do not need to pursue such ‘left-wing’ policies. These ideas are developed heoretically within an institutionalist framework, yielding a synthesis between the historical and rational choice institutionalisms. Empirically, the theoretical framework is applied to the development of welfare states and to the issue of privatisation of state-owned enterprises.
Human genetic susceptibility to common infectious diseases in Europe
Keywords: infectious disease
Genetics

Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are one of the most common infectious diseases in Europe and worldwide. Very little is known about the genetic factors associated with susceptibility to LRTI and so far studies have only analysed candidate gene loci.
This work aimed to find genetic loci associated with susceptibility to severe and mild LRTI. To analyse severe LRTI, a European cohort of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) sepsis patients was used. To analyse mild LRTI, patients attending primary care with a cough were recruited across Europe.
Two important candidate genes for susceptibility to severe and mild LRTI were studied. None of the four functional polymorphisms analysed in MBL2 were associated individually or when combined with susceptibility to LRTI or survival from severe LRTI. Rare homozygotes for rs12252 in the IFITM3 gene were found to associate with susceptibility to mild and severe viral LRTI, particularly influenza infection.
Using a combination of genome-wide and candidate gene methods, 93 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were chosen to genotype and analyse for susceptibility to mild LRTI. A gene region containing the MPHOSPH8, TPTE2, PSPC1 and ZMYM5 genes was found to associate with susceptibility to rhinovirus infection. A functional promoter SNP in the IL6 gene and a gene region containing the SAP18, MRP63 and SKA3 genes were associated with susceptibility to mild LRTI in smokers. A GWAS was performed for susceptibility to CAP sepsis in Europe. Genotypes were imputed for eight GWAS data sets comprising over 1000 CAP sepsis cases and over 4000 controls. Preliminary analysis results suggest an association in a chromosome 1 region containing the genes VASH2, ANGEL2 and RPS6KC1.
This thesis presents results of the largest known genetic association study for susceptibility to CAP sepsis, and the only known genetic association study for mild LRTI. These novel findings will facilitate further research which may lead to better treatment and outcome for LRTI.
The Lipopolysaccharide of Haemophilus parainfluenzae
Keywords: lipooligosaccharide
phosphocholine
O-antigen
bacteria
LPS
phase variation
endotoxin
Haemophilus
lipopolysaccharide
parainfluenzae
influenzae
otitis media
simple sequence repeats

Haemophilus parainfluenzae (Hp) and H. influenzae (Hi) are closely related members of the Pasteurellaceae family and are common commensal bacteria of the human nasopharynx. Whilst Hi is frequently implicated in meningitis, otitis media and respiratory tract infections, reports of pathogenic behaviour by Hp are very rare. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a key component of the Gram negative cell wall, and its structure influences the ability of Haemophilus to interact with the host and evade immune clearance. A better understanding of the differences in LPS structure between Hi and Hp could help to ascertain which parts of the molecule are important for commensal and pathogenic behaviour.
Hi LPS comprises lipid A, a conserved oligosaccharide inner core, and an oligosaccharide outer core that differs between strains. The latter is partly phase variable by the slipped strand mispairing during replication of DNA repeat tracts within several LPS biosynthesis genes. Very little was known about LPS in Hp so we investigated its biosynthesis and structure in a panel of 20 Hp carriage isolates. Using PCR, DNA sequencing and Southern analysis we demonstrated that Hp possesses homologues of the Hi lipid A and inner core LPS synthesis genes and a few of the genes for outer core synthesis; however, homologues of the Hi phase variable outer core genes were largely absent and did not contain repeat tracts. The results of immunoblotting and collaborative structural analysis were consistent with this data. Phosphocholine, a phase variable Hi LPS epitope that has been implicated in otitis media, was found to be absent in Hp LPS due to the lack of four genes required for its biosynthesis and incorporation. The introduction of these genes into Hp led to the phase variable addition of phosphocholine to the LPS, indicating that there is no fundamental reason why Hp could not use a similar mechanism of variation to Hi if it was advantageous to do so.
SDS-PAGE data suggested the presence of O-antigens (repeated chains of sugars) in many of the Hp strains, an unusual feature for Haemophilus, and all of the strains were found to contain a potential O-antigen synthesis locus. Each locus encodes homologues of several glycosyltransferases in addition to either the Wzy polymerase- or ABC transporter-dependent mechanisms of O-antigen synthesis and transport. Comparisons of wild type and isogenic mutant strains showed that the O-antigen enhances resistance to complement-mediated killing and appears to affect adhesion to epithelial cells in vitro. Hp is a successful commensal organism but lacks the flexibility of adapting its LPS using repeat-mediated phase variation, potentially limiting its range of host niches.
Investigating the effects of a point mutation in the TRPC3 channel – cause of cerebellar ataxia in Moonwalker mice – on the Purkinje cells in mice
Keywords: TRPC3
neuroscience
cerebellum
brain

The Moonwalker (Mwk) mouse is a mouse model of cerebellar ataxia that harbours a point mutation in the Trpc3 gene. TRPC3 is a non-selective cation channel, most highly expressed in the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum. The gain-of-function mutation in the TRPC3 protein affects the development of Purkinje cell dendrites by reducing their branching, and also leads to abnormal motor coordination and cerebellar ataxia in Mwk mice at the age of 3 weeks. The aim of this thesis was to determine how the mutation in the TRPC3 channel results in the observed pathology.
Proper function of the TRPC3 channel relies on its interaction with other proteins, hence we investigated binding partners of TRPC3. The study revealed PI synthase and CaMKIV as novel interaction partners of TRPC3. PI synthase is implicated in the upstream signalling events leading to TRPC3 activation, whereas CaMKIV is activated by Ca2+, possibly due to TRPC3 activation. We have identified alterations in phosphorylation of several key Ca2+ signalling proteins (CaMKII, CaMKIV, CREB and ERK), which indicates that there are changes in Ca2+ homeostasis in Mwk cerebella. Down-regulation of CaMKIV and up-regulation of CREB phosphorylation occurs as early as P21, which indicates that their abnormal activity could contribute to the Mwk phenotype. Microarray analysis comparing wild-type and Mwk Purkinje cells has revealed gene expression changes, which are likely due to abnormal Ca2+ signalling. Genes Ipo5, Opn3 and Sv2c are up-regulated at P11; Car2 and Stk17b are down-regulated at P14; and Cntn3 is up-regulated at P18 in Mwk Purkinje cells. High quality RNA from Purkinje cells was extracted using an optimised laser-capture microdissection method.
Work on the Mwk mice points to the importance of TRPC3 activity for the proper development of Purkinje cell dendrites and depicts TRPC3 as a possible target for cerebellar ataxia treatment.
"'The master's tools': Bolivia's landless peasant movement, the international legal turn, and the possibilities and perils of law-based resistance to neoliberalism"
Keywords: law; social movements; neoliberalism; Bolivia; Landless Peasants' Movement

A perennial question amongst social movement strategists is to what extent movements can use the tools of the system they are struggling against in their efforts to change that system. Whilst this debate traditionally distinguishes between two camps – radical and reformist approaches – this thesis investigates one movement that breaks this mould. The thesis uses the example of Bolivia's Landless Peasants' Movement (MST) to intervene into renewed theoretical discussion about the possibilities and perils for such movements of using the legal system in the pursuit of systemic social change. Through its tactic of land occupation, the MST breaks the law by occupying unused land on large estates, whilst also invoking other laws stipulating that unused land must be redistributed to those who will work it. The thesis situates the MST's approach to law in the context of an intensified process of juridification in the neoliberal period, through which the logic and language of law increasingly have come to structure political debate and dissent, creating particular pressures for radical movements to engage with the law. Yet it also suggests that movements like the MST have developed subversive ways of engaging the law in response. By examining the MST's tactic as it interacts with this broader context of intensified juridification, the thesis clarifies and nuances the theoretical discussion by identifying how the particular conditions of political mobilisation in the neoliberal period bear on this theoretical debate. Moreover, by examining specifically how this movement's approach to law is differentiated from traditional radical and reformist approaches, and from other attempts to combine the two, the thesis reveals further potential options for radical movements seeking to engage the law. The thesis ultimately suggests that the transformative potential of law may not lie in employing the content of individual laws but in strategic manipulations of the contradictions inherent in the liberal legal form.
Punishing the poor again? Irregularity, the 'criminalisation of migration' and precarious labour markets in the UK and Germany
Keywords: migration controls
exploitation
precarious work
Varieties of Capitalism

The increasingly punitive nature of immigration control across the Western world and the overrepresentation of foreign nationals in European prisons has revitalised criminological interest in issues of migration. Alessandro De Giorgi (2010: 153) and others contend that restrictive, 'illegalising' immigration admission policies and 'hyper-criminalising' immigration controls create a population of migrant workers on European territory, whose legal precarity makes them ideal fodder for employment in post-Fordist neoliberal labour markets.
This thesis refines the neoliberal-materialist analysis of immigration policy, as described most succinctly by De Giorgi (2010), through a comparative case study of the UK and Germany. To this end, it explores the various economic, political and cultural factors that have driven the development of a punitive regulation of immigration in the two countries and compares immigration control practices. It also examines the ways in which immigration status siphons immigrants into precarious work and how this process occurs differently in the UK and Germany.
An underlying concern is to examine the extent to which differences in the underlying labour markets of the two countries, as described in Hall and Soskice's (2001) Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) typology, structure differences in the processes outlined in the neoliberal-materialist analysis. While the development of immigration controls is motivated by a wide variety of factors outside of the labour market, the fact that motivating factors are largely shared among countries of the same VoC type suggests some relationship with the underlying economic structure. In addition, the thesis argues that foreigners are vulnerable to specific forms of workplace exploitation and social marginalisation in 'coordinated' Germany because of factors associated with the VoC – a finding that also has important connotations for understanding the more intense overrepresentation of foreign nationals in German prisons. At the same time, it highlights the importance of other cultural and social factors, unique to each country, in the politics of immigration.
The final section reverses the previous line of the enquiry by examining whether immigration 'neoliberalises' industrial relations in Germany. It finds that immigration's effects depend, to a significant extent, on the degree to which foreigners are constructed as precarious workers through state policy. In turn, immigration policy's wider effects on the labour market suggest native workers might also have an interest in preventing the precaritisation of their immigrant counterparts. Finally, immigration status may become less and less important in understanding the exploitation of workers in Europe, as citizenship is associated with fewer rights.
Law and religious organizations: exceptions, non-interference and justification
Keywords: freedom of religion

While the United Kingdom has a general commitment to religious freedom, there is currently very little written on what this commitment ought to mean for religious organizations. This thesis contributes to religious freedom literature by considering when United Kingdom law ought to apply to religious organizations. It answers this question by exploring certain potential conflicts between United Kingdom law and religious organizations paying particular attention to those that are under-examined and where the possibility of differential treatment is strongest.
The thesis is divided into three parts. Part One consists of Chapter One and sets out the doctrinal and theoretical foundations of religious freedom. Here the thesis accepts that autonomy is the liberal normative justification for religious freedom.
Part Two consists of Chapters Two to Chapter Seven and examines the interaction between United Kingdom law and religious organizations in six contexts: employment; the provision of goods and services; membership admission; internal discipline, internal property disputes; and family matters. Each chapter in Part Two is divided into two parts. The first part considers the legal doctrine that applies to religious organizations in that context. It then considers whether that approach can be justified in light of the commitment to religious freedom and autonomy identified in Part One.
Part Three consists of the final chapter, Chapter Eight. This chapter uses the conclusions from the preceding doctrinal chapters to suggest a general approach for determining when law should apply to religious organizations. The thesis concludes that a contextual approach, that considers the often competing interests involved, is the best way of determining when law should apply to religious organizations. Such consideration ought to pay special attention to the importance of the particular activity to ensuring that the option of a religious way of life is available.
Techniques and tools for the verification of concurrent systems
Keywords: process algebra
abstraction
model checking
SAT
automated verification
CSP
static analysis
FDR
concurrency
CEGAR
tools
livelock
symbolic techniques

Model checking is an automatic formal verification technique for establishing correctness of systems. It has been widely used in industry for analysing and verifying complex safety-critical systems in application domains such as avionics, medicine and computer security, where manual testing is infeasible and even minor errors could have dire consequences.
In our increasingly parallelised world, concurrency has become pivotal and seamlessly woven within programming paradigms, however, extremely challenging when it comes to modelling and establishing correctness of intended behaviour. Tools for model checking concurrent systems face severe limitations due to scalability problems arising from the need to examine all possible interleavings (schedules) of executions of parallel components. Moreover, concurrency poses additional challenges to model checking, giving rise to phenomena such as nondeterminism, deadlock, livelock, etc.
In this thesis we focus on adapting and developing novel model-checking techniques for concurrent systems in the setting of the process algebra CSP and its primary model checker FDR. CSP allows for a compact modelling and precise analysis of event-based concurrency, grounded on synchronous message passing as a fundamental mechanism of inter-component communication. In particular, we investigate techniques based on symbolic model checking, static analysis and abstraction, all of them exploiting the compositionality inherent in CSP and targeting to increase the scale of systems that can be tractably analysed.
Firstly, we investigate symbolic model-checking techniques based on Boolean satisfiability (SAT), which we adapt for the traces model of CSP. We tailor bounded model checking (BMC), that can be used for bug detection, and temporal k-induction, which aims at establishing inductiveness of properties and is capable of both bug finding and establishing the correctness of systems.
Secondly, we propose a static analysis framework for establishing livelock freedom of CSP processes, with lessons for other concurrent formalisms. As opposed to traditional exhaustive state-space exploration, our framework employs a system of rules on the syntax of a process to calculate a sound approximation of its fair/co-fair sets of events. The rules either safely classify a process as livelock-free or report inconclusiveness, thereby trading accuracy for speed.
Finally, we develop a series of abstraction/refinement schemes for the traces, stable-failures and failures-divergences models of CSP and embed them into a fully automated and compositional CEGAR framework.
For each of those techniques we present an implementation and an experimental evaluation on a set of CSP benchmarks.
Green Star Japan: language and internationalism in the Japanese Esperanto movement, 1905-1944
Keywords: transnationalism
internationalism
Esperanto
modern Japan

The planned language Esperanto achieved popularity in early twentieth century Japan, inspiring a national movement which was the largest outside Europe. Esperanto was designed to facilitate greater international and inter-cultural communication and understanding; the history of the language in Japan reveals a rich tradition of internationalism in Japan, stretching from the beginnings of the movement, in the wake of the Russo-Japanese war, through the end of the Pacific war, when, for a brief period, organised Esperanto in Japan ceased.
Building upon existing studies of internationalism amongst elite opinion makers in Japan, this history of Esperanto reveals unexpected examples of internationalism amongst the broader Japanese public, a number of competing conceptions of the international world, and their realisation through a range of transnational activities. Esperanto was at once an intellectual phenomenon, and a language which could be put into immediate and concrete practice. The diversity of social groups and intellectual positions within the Japanese Esperanto community reveals internationalism and cosmopolitanism, not as well defined, static concepts, but as broad spaces in which different ideas of the world and the community of mankind could be debated. What linked the various different groups and individuals drawn into the Japanese Esperanto movement was a shared desire to make contact with, and help to reform, the world beyond Japan's borders, as well as a shared realisation of the vital role of language in making this contact possible. From radical socialists to conservative academics, and from Japanese diplomats at the League of Nations to members of rural communities in the deep north of Japan, although their politics often differed, Japanese Esperantists came together to participate in the re-imagining of the modern world; in doing so they became part of a transnational community, one which reveals insights into both modern Japanese history, and the nature of internationalism.
Functional organisation of the Hrd1 ubiquitin ligase complex and its role in ERAD
Keywords: ERAD
Hrd1
FAM8A1

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated degradation (ERAD) of misfolded proteins of the secretory pathway is crucial for ER homeostasis and the physiological importance of this mechanism is reflected by more than 60 diseases that have been linked to ERAD to date. The best characterised mammalian ERAD complex is centred on the ubiquitin ligase Hrd1, and for a complete understanding of the dynamics of the ERAD network it is important to thoroughly characterise the interactions within the Hrd1 complex and to decipher the functions of the individual accessory factors.
SEL1L is a well characterised interaction partner of Hrd1 and here we identify a highly hydrophobic region in the lumenal part of SEL1L as necessary, but not sufficient, to interact with Hrd1; as a consequence, the topology of SEL1L may need to be re-evaluated. Furthermore, we investigate the roles of the novel Hrd1 interaction partners AUP1 and FAM8A1 in ERAD. We establish here that AUP1 adds to the complexity of the ERAD network by making the cognate E2 of gp78, Ube2g2, accessible to Hrd1 and by regulating the access of polyubiquitinated proteins to the Hrd1 complex. Moreover, we demonstrate that Hrd1 is the regulator of FAM8A1 half-life and that the interaction between these two proteins is necessary for degradation of the lumenal ERAD model substrate TTRD18G.