VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Functional significance of human sensory ERPs: insights from modulation by preceding events
Keywords: electroencephalogram (EEG)
functional significance
nociceptive system
sensory event-related potentials (ERPs)

The electroencephalogram (EEG) reflects summated, slow post-synaptic potentials of cortical neurons. Sensory, motor or cognitive events (such as a fast-rising sensory stimulus, a brisk self-paced movement or a stimulus-triggered cognitive task) can elicit transient changes in the ongoing human EEG, called event-related potentials (ERPs). ERPs are widely used in clinical practice, and believed to reflect the activity of the sensory system activated by the stimulus (for example, laser-evoked potentials are used to substantiate the neuropathic nature of clinical pain conditions). When ERPs are elicited by pairs or trains of stimuli delivered at short inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs), the magnitude of the ERP elicited by the repeated stimuli is markedly reduced, a phenomenon known as response decrement. While the interval between two consecutive stimuli becomes longer, the reduced response is recovered. Thus, this phenomenon has been traditionally interpreted in terms of neural refractoriness of generators of ERPs ("neural refractoriness hypothesis"). This thesis, however, challenges this neural refractoriness hypothesis by describing the results of manipulating the preceding events of the eliciting stimulus. The first study examined the effect of variable and short ISIs on sensory ERPs, delivering trains of auditory and electrical stimuli with random ISIs ranging from 100 to 1000ms. In the second study, pairs of laser stimuli were presented in two comparable conditions. In the constant condition, the ISI was identical across trials in each block, while in the variable condition, the ISI was variable across trials. By directly comparing ERPs elicited by laser stimulation, this study aimed to explore whether lack of saliency in the eliciting stimulus could explain the response decrement during stimulus repetition. Finally, the third study tested the hypothesis that the reduced eliciting ERPs would recover if saliency were introduced by changing the modality of the preceding event. Thus, trains of three stimuli (S1-S2-S3) with 1s ISI were presented; S2 was either same or different in modality as S1 and S3 in each block. Results from these three experiments demonstrate that this "refractoriness hypothesis" does not hold, and suggest that the magnitude of ERPs is only partly related to the magnitude of the incoming sensory input, and instead largely reflects neural activities triggered by salient events in the sensory environment. These results are important for the correct interpretation of ERPs in both physiological and clinical studies.
Justice, constructivism, and the egalitarian ethos
Keywords: constructivism (Philosophy)
G. A. Cohen
equality
distributive justice
egalitarianism
John Rawls

This thesis defends John Rawls’s constructivist theory of justice against three distinct challenges.
Part one addresses G. A. Cohen’s claim that Rawls’s constructivism is committed to a mistaken thesis about the relationship between facts and principles. It argues that Rawls’s constructivist procedure embodies substantial moral commitments, and offers an intra-normative reduction rather than a metaethical account. Rawls’s claims about the role of facts in moral theorizing in A Theory of Justice should be interpreted as suggesting that some of our moral beliefs, which we are inclined to hold without reference to facts, are, in fact, true, because certain facts obtain. This thesis and the acknowledgement of the moral assumptions of Rawls’s constructivism help to show that Rawls does not, and does not need to, deny Cohen’s thesis.
Part two defends the characterization of the decision problem in Rawls’s original position as a decision problem under uncertainty. Rawls stipulates that the denizens of the original position lack information that they could use to arrive at estimates of the likelihood of ending up in any given social position. It has been argued that Rawls does not have good grounds for this stipulation. I argue that given the nature of the value function we should attribute to the denizens of the original position and our cognitive limitations, which also apply to the denizens of the original position, their decision problem can be characterized as one under uncertainty even if we stipulate that they know that they have an equal chance of being in any individual’s place.
Part three assesses the claim that a true commitment to Rawls’s difference principle requires a further commitment to an egalitarian ethos. This egalitarian ethos is offered as a means to bring about equality and Pareto-optimality. Accordingly, I try to undermine the case for an egalitarian ethos by challenging the desirability of the ends it is supposed to further or by showing that it is redundant. I argue that if primary goods are the metric of justice, then Pareto optimality in the space of the metric of justice is undesirable. I then argue that if the metric of justice is welfare, depending on the theory of welfare we adopt, an egalitarian ethos will either be redundant or will have objectionably paternalistic consequences.
Towards and understanding of the role of associative learning in risk for mental health problems
Keywords: individual differences
associative learning
configural learning
emotion processing
neuroticism
attention

The ability to prioritize information enables us to think and take action without being overwhelmed by external stimuli or internal thoughts and feelings. Neuroticism is associated with altered processing of emotional information but differences in the processing of emotional information may arise from basic differences in information processing, such as altered processes of attention, changes in sensitivity to salient information, or differences in the ability to encode conjunctions of information. Through this thesis, I explore the relationship between neuroticism and processing of non-emotional information, with a particular focus on learning about combinations of information.
Associative learning paradigms were used to test ability to learn about combinations of information and neuroticism was observed to be associated with strong non-linear discrimination learning. The tendency to focus on specific details was associated with weak non-linear discrimination learning. A novel model of associative learning is presented, offering an account for how variation in the ability to engage in non-linear discrimination learning might be understood.
Mechanisms underlying the association between neuroticism and strong non-linear discrimination learning were explored. Neuroticism was not found to be associated with a tendency to focus on specific details or shifts in attention towards goal relevant information. Neuroticism was not found to be associated with enhanced ability to identify feature conjunctions, altered sensitivity to the relative validity of stimuli or pre-exposure of stimuli.
The importance of understanding individual differences in processes of associative and the value of associative learning tasks to look at information processing biases underlying neuroticism are discussed.
Beltway battles: ideology and infighting in US foreign policy toward the Middle East 2001-2006
Keywords: US foreign policy
bureaucratic politics
Iran
Libya
Foreign policy analysis
Lebanon
Middle East
neoconservatism
Iraq

The record of American foreign policy in the Middle East between 2001 and 2006 is marked mostly by failures of the Bush Administration to achieve its stated objectives, including reducing terrorism, stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and spreading liberal democracy. Still, there are also notable bright spots, including the case of Libya’s diplomatic rehabilitation. What is it, then, that accounts for this success in the face of so many other failures where the policy goals were markedly similar? I argue that a partial explanation of this discrepancy can be found in the nature of infighting between ideological realists and neoconservatives within the foreign policy bureaucracy. In doing so, process tracing is used to examine policy development toward four country cases: Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and Libya, with Libya acting as the control. The object of these case studies is to demonstrate existence of a previously undescribed model of bureaucratic infighting, based on competing ideological differences regarding the fundamental direction and conduct of US foreign policy. I call this the Ideological Infighting, or I2, Model. Whereas previous works of US foreign policy analysis have focused only on the roles of individuals’ ideology or on bureaucratic interests, this study unites both. In doing so, it describes the policy effects that result from ideological disagreements within the executive agencies, rather than viewing a presidential administration as an ideologically coherent entity. It also refines understandings of the relationship between the President and his advisors. Finally, although this work deals specifically with the Middle East, the model is generalizable to all areas of US foreign policy.
Computational methods for the estimation of cardiac electrophysiological conduction parameters in a patient specific setting
Keywords: parameter estimation
cardiac simulations
cardiac electrophysiology
Bayesian inference

Cardiovascular disease is the primary cause of death globally. Although this group encompasses a heterogeneous range of conditions, many of these diseases are associated with abnormalities in the cardiac electrical propagation. In these conditions, structural abnormalities in the form of scars and fibrotic tissue are known to play an important role, leading to a high individual variability in the exact disease mechanisms. Because of this, clinical interventions such as ablation therapy and CRT that work by modifying the electrical propagation should ideally be optimized on a patient specific basis. As a tool for optimizing these interventions, computational modelling and simulation of the heart have become increasingly important. However, in order to construct these models, a crucial step is the estimation of tissue conduction properties, which have a profound impact on the cardiac activation sequence predicted by simulations. Information about the conduction properties of the cardiac tissue can be gained from electrophysiological data, obtained using electroanatomical mapping systems. However, as in other clinical modalities, electrophysiological data are often sparse and noisy, and this results in high levels of uncertainty in the estimated quantities.
In this dissertation, we develop a methodology based on Bayesian inference, together with a computationally efficient model of electrical propagation to achieve two main aims: 1) to quantify values and associated uncertainty for different tissue conduction properties inferred from electroanatomical data, and 2) to design strategies to optimise the location and number of measurements required to maximise information and reduce uncertainty. The methodology is validated in several studies performed using simulated data obtained from image-based ventricular models, including realistic fibre orientation and conduction heterogeneities. Subsequently, by using the developed methodology to investigate how the uncertainty decreases in response to added measurements, we derive an a priori index for placing electrophysiological measurements in order to optimise the information content of the collected data. Results show that the derived index has a clear benefit in minimising the uncertainty of inferred conduction properties compared to a random distribution of measurements, suggesting that the methodology presented in this dissertation provides an important step towards improving the quality of the spatiotemporal information obtained using electroanatomical mapping.
Managing nature, producing cultures: Inuit participation, science and policy in wildlife governance in the Nunavut Territory, Canada
Keywords: governance
wildlife co-management
Nunavut
polar bear
Inuit
common eider

In this thesis, a critical analysis is proposed of the relationships between Inuit participation, science and policy in wildlife governance in the Nunavut Territory, Canada. This analysis situates the emergence of a participatory regime for the governance of wildlife in Nunavut, explores its performance and examines the relations between the ways in which wildlife governance arrangements are currently represented in policy and how they are played out in practice across the territory.
To pursue these objectives, this research draws upon a number of theoretical perspectives and methodological strategies poised at a crossroads between environmental geography, science and technology studies, political ecology and ecological anthropology. It combines participant observation, semi-directed interviews and literature-based searches with approaches to the study of actor-networks, hybrid forums and scientific practices associated with Latour and Callon, as well as with Foucauldian and post-Foucauldian analyses of power, governmentality and subjectivity.
This analysis suggests that the overall rationale within which wildlife governance operates in Nunavut remains largely based on a scientific and bureaucratic framework of resource management that poses significant barriers to the meaningful inclusion of Inuit views. In spite of their participation in wildlife governance through a range of institutional arrangements, consultation practices and research initiatives, the Inuit of Nunavut remain critical of the power relations embedded within existing schemes, where significant decision-making authority remains under the control of the territorial (or federal) government, and where asymmetries persist with regard to the capacity of various actors to produce and mediate their claims. In addition, while the use of Inuit knowledge, or Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, in wildlife governance in Nunavut has produced some collaborative research and management endeavours, it has also crystallised a divide between ‘Inuit’ and ‘scientific’ knowledge, generated unresolved conflicts, fuelled mistrust among wildlife co-management partners and led to an overall limited inclusion of Inuit observations, values and beliefs in decision-making.
Moving & feeling
Keywords: tactile perception
goal-directed movement

This thesis focuses on tactile perception and aims at a comprehensive analysis of its characteristics over the time-course of various goal-directed movements. Tactile perception is assessed by means of discrimination and detection paradigms, as well as event-related potentials (ERPs). The main question investigated throughout the thesis is: ‘What changes in tactile perception, if any, take place over the time course of a goal-directed movement?’ In Chapter 2, the mechanisms related to such identified changes are examined: a facilitatory one – attention, and an inhibitory one – suppression. The experiment in Chapter 3
tests, at a brain level, amongst several explanations of the experimental results outlined in Chapter 2: timing-based, effector-based, and modality-based attentional/suppressive influences. In Chapter 4, other naturalistic movements are investigated (i.e., the movements involved in juggling and throwing/catching a basketball).
The results indicate a lack of facilitation in the processing of tactile information during the preparatory phase of the movement. Furthermore, differential changes are identified in tactile perception over the execution phase of the movement: At a behavioural level, tactile sensitivity significantly declines over the execution phase of the movement (though the detection of incoming tactile stimulation is enhanced), while at a neuronal level the same period exhibits significantly enhanced responses to somatosensory stimulation.
The experiments reported here thus bring evidence in favour of a dissociation between detecting and discriminating what is felt while moving. These results suggest that the quality of what is felt while moving may not be important for movement and, at the same time, that different pathways in the brain may be responsible for detecting and discriminating what is felt over the time course of a goal-directed movement. Based on these findings, in Chapter 5, the implications of these results are discussed and directions for further research are outlined.
The power of time: old age and old men in ancient Greek drama
Keywords: old age
Aiskhylos
Euripides
Greek comedy
Aeschylus
Sophokles
Greek tragedy
Sophocles

The study of old age in the humanities has developed significantly in the last few decades, but there is still much scope for progress. This thesis, therefore, seeks to contribute to the growing academic discourse in this area by considering ageing as it is represented in ancient Greek theatre. At the same time, it seeks to take its place within Classical Studies by developing new readings of the plays. To develop a context for its analysis, this study begins with consideration of the contemporary demographics, social position, and stage portrayal of old age, and following this dedicates a chapter to each of the four surviving fifth century dramatists. In Aiskhylos’ Agamemnon, old age emerges as a crucial element in choral self-identity, and an important component of the authority that they display. Following this, the thesis considers the chorus of Euripides’ Herakles, in particular its use of metadramatic language, and the impact this has on plot-development and the representation of their age. The next chapter, on Oidipous Koloneus, shifts to consideration of the protagonist. The old age of Oidipous emerges as a powerful driver of his mental and spiritual power, and forms a striking background to the exploration of his character. The final chapter of the thesis examines how mechanisms of renewal that old men undergo in Aristophanes’ comedies (Knights, Akharnians, Peace, Wasps, Birds) differ across the dramas, and the impact this difference has on their interpretations. Such reassessments of ancient dramatic texts through the lens of old age can provide significant insight into the complexity of old men’s characterisations and of their involvement in the dramas. At the same time (from a gerontological perspective), this thesis’ analysis contributes to the developing discussion of the history of ageing, and highlights the differences between the ancient and modern worlds in this respect.
Makeshift freedom seekers: Dutch travellers in Europe, 1815-1914
Keywords: transport
accessibility
identity
expectations
education
modernization
tourism
knowledge
travel
egodocuments
clothing
mobility
nineteenth century
practice
material culture
Netherlands
technology
social status
experience
Europe
interpersonal contacts
passports
visiting
identification
social connections
weather
aspirations
modernity
appearance

This thesis questions a series of assumptions concerning the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century modernization of European spaces. Current scholarship tends to concur with essayistic texts and images by contemporary intellectuals that technological and organizational developments increased the freedom of movement of those living in western-European societies, while at the same time alienating them from each other and from their environment. I assess this claim with the help of Dutch travel egodocuments such as travel diaries and letters. After a prosopographical investigation of all available northern-Netherlandish travel egodocuments created between 1500 and 1915, a selection of these documents is examined in greater detail.
In these documents, travellers regarded the possession of identity documents, a correct appearance, and a fitting social identity along with their personal contacts, physical capabilities, and the weather as the most important factors influencing whether they managed to gain access to places. A discussion of these factors demonstrates that no linear increase, nor a decrease, occurred in the spatial power felt by travellers. The exclusion many travellers continued to experience was often overdetermined. The largest groups affected by this were women and less educated families. Yet travellers could also play out different access factors against each other. By paying attention to how practices matched hopes and expectations, it is possible to discover how gravely social inequities were really felt by travellers. Perhaps surprisingly, all social groups desired to visit the same types of places. Their main difference concerned the atmosphere of the places where the different groups felt at home. To a large degree this matched travellers' unequal opportunities. Therefore, although opportunities remained strongly unequal throughout the period, this was not always experienced as a problem. Also, in cases where it was, many travellers knew strategies to work around the obstacles created for them.
'Radical Orthodoxy' and debating the foundations of the legal protection of religious liberty
Keywords: England and Wales
religious liberty
Radical Orthodoxy
law and theology

This thesis examines the rationale for religious liberty in England and Wales. Currently, United Kingdom religious liberty literature shows very little sustained interrogation of the topic. Authors are likely to assume religious liberty is, most notably, a species of personal autonomy. This fails to explain why we should care about religious liberty and deepens religion’s privatisation, its separation from politics or public life.
Drawing from a theological sensibility known as Radical Orthodoxy (RO), this thesis criticises current assumptions and argues that religious liberty discourse should be re-envisioned.
The Introduction and Chapter One explore the current problems facing religious liberty discourse and map rationales given by prominent authors. Chapter Two argues that the main problem is that current discourse is shaped by a secularisation narrative: the differentiation of religious and secular spheres. Chapter Three relates the RO argument that this differentiation is underpinned by three themes, all of which have theological components: the rise of secular order as the protection of individual rights; the invention of private religion in modernity; and the contemporary shift to 'authenticity' or diffuse individual experiences as the hallmark of religion. Chapter Four contends that these three themes are echoed in religious liberty discourse and jurisprudence, leaving us with the question of why religious liberty matters.
Chapters Five and Six explore the RO-influenced alternative, in theory and with reference to common questions in religious liberty discourse: the relationship between an individual claimant and the group; the reality of plural religious traditions; and the tension between sexual orientation non-discrimination and religious liberty. On the RO-influenced account, religious liberty concerns, against sphere differentiation, a commitment to the flourishing of multiple groups contributing to desirable social ends, understood ultimately as participating in the life of 'charity', the love of God and of others. This encapsulates two themes, both rooted in the Christian tradition: judgement against politics (as reflected in the secular order), and transformation of society along social pluralist lines. These two themes, the thesis argues, better explain why religious liberty matters.