VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
An investigation into the regulatory capacity of invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells during the innate and adaptive immune response to influenza infection
Keywords: Influenza
invariant Natural Killer T cells
Myeloid Cells

Influenza A virus (IAV) infection is a highly contagious respiratory disease, which can cause substantial morbidity and occasionally death. Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, a subset of CD1d-restricted T lymphocytes, have been identified as important modulators of immunity, mediating both pro- and anti-inflammatory responses. We show that iNKTs play an important role for the generation of protective innate and adaptive immune responses to IAV, and enhance heterotypic immunity to influenza virus following vaccination with a novel pseudotyped virus, S-FLU, which lacks HA expression.
iNKT-deficient mice (Jα18-/-) showed increased susceptibility and lung pathology following IAV infection, which correlated with an exaggerated accumulation of inflammatory monocytes and neutrophils in the lung. Consistent with these findings, we demonstrated in IAV-infected CD1d-/-:CD1d&plus;/&plus; mixed bone marrow chimeric mice, that the lack of CD1d expression on myeloid cells purified from the lungs of IAV-infected mice significantly increased expression of genes linked to cell activation, survival and polarisation between pro- and antiinflammatory responses. We extended these results by examining the role of chemokine signalling during IAV infection, and identified a novel role for fractalkine (CX3CL1) and its receptor (CX3CR1) in innate immune cell recruitment. The use of CX3CR1-iNKT cell double knockout mice revealed that, although upregulated in Jα18-/- mice, CX3CR1-CX3CL1 signalling is not required for cell migration during exacerbated IAV-responses.
Finally, we showed that iNKT-deficient mice displayed reduced longevity of peripheral IAVspecific CD8&plus; T cells following S-FLU vaccination, compared with wild-type mice. S-FLU vaccination protected mice following 5 day heterotypic challenge, however vaccinated mice exhibited reduced viral clearance, and importantly a significant reduction in IAV specific memory T cell response, suggesting a possible role of iNKT cells during T cell priming in modulating the lifespan of antigen-specific T cell responses. Although additional experiments are warranted, these results suggest that harnessing iNKT cells should be considered to modulate the innate and adaptive immune response to optimise heterotypic vaccine design and for therapeutic intervention against acute influenza infection.
Semantics, meta-semantics, and ontology
Keywords: metaphysics
philosophy of language
semantics
ontology

In this thesis, Semantics, Meta-Semantics, and Ontology, I provide a critique of the method of truth in metaphysics. Davidson has suggested that we can determine the metaphysical nature and structure of reality through semantic investigations. By contrast, I argue that it is not semantics, but meta-semantics, which reveals the metaphysically necessary and sufficient truth conditions of our claims. As a consequence I reject the Quinean (semantic) criterion of ontological commitment. In Part I, chapter 1, I argue that the metaphysically primary truth bearers are not propositions, but rather concrete representations, either beliefs or sentences. I show, in chapter 2, that we can give sense to a truth predicate applying to sentences, given a truth operator and quantification into sentence position. I argue that this strategy does not commit us to the existence of propositions serving as truth bearers. In Part II I argue that although we must assign semantic values to sentences and/or predicates, the meaningfulness of these expressions is not thereby explained. In chapter 3 I articulate Davidson’s problem of predication and his solution, but argue that he was wrong to attribute this solution to Tarski. In chapter 4 I examine the semantics of modal languages; I conclude that although they require semantic values for predicates and/or sentences we should be instrumentalists about these theories. In Part III I consider the relationship between truth and existence. In chapter 5, I defend Pluralism about truth: in some (though not all) domains of discourse, I claim, semantic reference plays a merely instrumental role in explaining truth. In chapter 6, I show that Hume’s Principle, which is committed by the Quinean criterion to the existence of numbers, can be true even though numbers do not exist. In doing so, I appeal to meta-semantic and diachronic considerations. In the conclusion I compare my views on ontology and commitment to Jody Azzouni’s; and in the appendix I suggest how one might pursue diachronic linguistics.
Sensitivity enhancement in micro-electromechanical systems for sensor applications
Keywords: velocity feedback
sensors
NEMS
mass detection
Q-factor
MEMS

Micro-mechanical sensors are typically fabricated both in large numbers and economically using the photolithographic processes that were originally developed in the integrated circuit industry. The magnitude of a change in resonant frequency of a micro-me chanical structure can be used to quantify a change in mass of such a device. Hence, when packaged with integrated measurement, actuation and control electronics, it is possible to deliver a low-cost and small system in a package using fabrication techniq ues that are both mature and widely available. A micro-mechanical resonator has been designed for this project and samples of the prototype resonator were used to investigate various methods for detecting a change in resonant frequency using discrete elec tronic components. The system that has been designed can eventually be integrated with a small micro-mechanical structure to create a mass sensor. Resonators have been fabricated at QinetiQ as part of the Europractice Foundry Access Program and characteri sation of typical devices is described in this thesis.
A popular method for controlling the behaviour of resonant micro-mechanical sensors is a force feedback technique designed to increase the effective quality factor of the resonant system. In this thesis, an increase in the effective quality factor of the prototype system has been demonstrated. When the resonator operates in air at atmospheric pressure, an improvement in the effective quality factor of two orders of magnitude was achievable. This meant that it was possible to assess the potential benefits offered by the force feedback technique by testing the various detection schemes that have been implemented at the natural quality factor and also at a high effective quality factor. A prototype control system has been built using simple digital electroni cs, a key component of which is a direct digital frequency synthesis chip used to provide a stable and accurate driving frequency. Methods for determining a change in the resonant frequency of a micro-mechanical resonator using this control system have be en investigated. A method has been developed for determining the magnitude of a shift in resonance when the frequency of the excitation force is fixed. This thesis contains a description of the technique and also results demonstrating the corresponding de tection capability of the prototype sensor.
Multicultural harmony? Mirpuris and music in Bradford
Keywords: diaspora
mirgation
Mirpuri
multiculturalism
Islam

Focusing on Mirpuris and music in Bradford, this doctoral thesis offers an ethnomusicological dimension to continuing debates on multiculturalism in Britain, within the fields of anthropology, sociology and political science. I engage ethnographically with three spaces of Mirpuri music making – the mehfil, the street, and the festival – in order to develop a ground-level perspective on what it means to live in an increasingly diverse society. By paying close attention to intra-communal generational discourses and practices of music, a synchronic picture of multiculturalism is developed that takes into account local, national and transnational histories. I argue that discursive senses of belonging, articulated through and by music, offer alternative and more broadly inclusive insights into what it means to migrate to Britain, what it means to be born in Britain, and, ultimately, what it means to ‘be’ British. Drawing on theories of multiculturalism, music and migration, nationalism and segregation, my broad argument is that an ethnographic map of Mirpuri music making in Bradford provides a more contemporarily relevant picture of multicultural society than one drawn along racial, or religious, lines alone.
The symphonies of Charles Villiers Stanford: constructing a national identity?
Keywords: Irish Identity
Charles Villiers Stanford
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish Music
Symphonic Music
Symphony
Anglo-Irish Identity
Nationalism

Writing in 2001, musicologist Axel Klein concluded that Stanford’s reception history has been significantly impacted by the complicated national identities surrounding both the composer and his music. A lifelong devotee of the nineteenth-century Austro-Germanic tradition, Stanford’s status as an Irish-born leading figure of the ‘English’ Musical Renaissance has compromised the place that the composer and his musical output occupy within the history of Western music.
Stanford is well-known for being an outspoken critic on matters musical and Irish. Although his views seldom appear ambiguous, there is still a sense that the real Stanford remains partially obscured by his opinions. Through an examination of his symphonic works, this thesis seeks to readdress our understanding of Stanford and his relationship with Ireland and the musical community of his time. Although A. Peter Brown has stated that the symphony was not a central genre for the composer, it is my argument that, on the contrary, the symphony was a pivotal form for him. Considering these works within the broader history of the symphony in Europe in the nineteenth century, and through a critical examination of Stanford’s relationship with Ireland, this thesis seeks to demonstrate that these seven works can be read as an allegory for the composer’s relationship both with his homeland and with the musical community of his time. His struggle to combine the universality of symphonic expression with a need to articulate his Irish identity parallels Stanford’s own attempts to integrate himself within both British and European musical communities, and further demonstrates, in his eventual rejection of it, that it was only when he attempted to forge a more individualistic path through his music that he found a way of expressing his individual Irish identity.
Quantitative structural and compositional characterisation of bimetallic fuel-cell catalyst nanoparticles using STEM
Keywords: STEM
cross sections
ADF STEM
EDX
Quantitative
Catalysts

Platinum-based catalysts for hydrogen fuel-cell applications have progressed greatly with the addition of a second element in either a mixed-alloy or core-shell structure. Not only do they contain a reduced amount of the more expensive platinum metal but they have been shown to demonstrate a significant improvement in catalytic activity. Further improvement of these systems can only be made by careful investigation of such catalyst panoparticles on an atomic scale. These nanoparticles provide a significant characterisation challenge due to their minute size and beam sensitivity.
A new method of quantifying the annular dark-field (ADF) scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) signal on an absolute scale has been developed to address this problem. Experimental images are scaled to a fraction of the incident beam intensity from a detector map. The integrated intensity of each individual atomic column is multiplied by the pixel area to yield a more robust imaging parameter: a scattering cross section, σ.
Using this cross section approach and simulated reference data, I show it is possible to count the number of atoms in individual columns. With some prior knowledge of the sample, this makes it possible to reconstruct the 3-dimensional structures of pure platinum nanoparticles. Such an approach has subsequently been extended to bimetallic particles here the elements are close in atomic number, using the platinum-iridium system as an example.
In the same way that the cross section can be calculated from ADF image intensity, it is possible to calculate an energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) partial scattering cross section, beneficial especially because of the simplicity of its implementation. In sufficiently thin samples such that the number of x-ray counts is linearly proportional to sample thickness, we can determine element-specific atom counts. Finally, it is possible to combine EDX and ADF cross sections to provide us with quantitative structural and compositional information.
The role of autophagy in CD8+ T cell immunity
Keywords: infection
T cells
autophagy
ageing
immunity
Immunology
lymphocytes
influenza
vaccination

CD8&plus; T cells form a crucial arm of the adaptive immune system and act as sentinels against infection and cancer. The role of autophagy, a major lysosomal degradation pathway, in T cell biology is currently limited. Here, we show that autophagy is required for naïve CD8&plus; T cell homeostasis. When the essential autophagy gene Atg7 is deleted in the T cell lineage (T-Atg7-/- mice), mice develop lymphopaenia leading to increased CD8&plus; T cell homeostatic proliferation. When CD8&plus; T cells encounter antigen, they undergo an initial expansion before contracting, leaving behind a population of long-lived memory cells that provide long-lasting immunity. How CD8&plus; T cells utilise autophagy when responding to infection is currently unknown. We demonstrate that autophagy is dispensable for CD8&plus; T cell expansion, but loss of Atg7 results in the failure to establish CD8&plus; T cell memory to influenza and MCMV infection. Interestingly, CD8&plus; T cell memory becomes defective in old age, although the cellular mechanism for this is largely unknown. Here, aged mice were shown to exhibit defective CD8+ T cell expansion and memory formation to immunisation. Autophagy levels were diminished in antigen-specific CD8&plus; T cells from aged mice and the CD8&plus; T cell response of old mice to vaccination could be rejuvenated in an autophagy-dependent manner using the compound spermidine. These results suggest that targeting of the autophagy pathway might be beneficial as a route to effective T cell modulation and enhanced immunity to infection and vaccination.
The future of the second sophistic
Keywords: Roman Greece
Philostratus
Imperial Greek Literature
future
second sophistic

This thesis explores the anxieties and opportunities that attend fame and posterity in the second sophistic and how they play out in both literary and monumental expressions of cultural production. I consider how elite provincials in the Roman empire, who are competitive, bi- or even tri-cultural, status-driven, often politically active, and engaged in cultural production, attempt to construct a future presence for themselves either through the composition of literature that is aimed (at least in part) at the future or through efforts to write themselves into the landscape of their native or adopted cities. I argue that the cultural and temporal perspective of these men drives their multifarious, playful, and self-reflexive approach to the production of literature or monuments. For those men engaged in the ‘second sophistic’, in the narrower, Philostratean definition, there is an ever present tether on their creative efforts, in that for contemporary success they must immerse themselves in the culture of classical Athens; and the prominent practice of epideictic oratory, with its promotion of improvisation and lack of repetition, discourages the kind of literary effort that aims at eternity. At the same time, their attempts to build themselves into the hearts of cities is less restricted, in that those who possess or have access to sufficient wealth can grant elaborate benefactions which essentially stand as monuments to their financer. Nevertheless, their belated position with respect to the Greek literary canon and the heights of political and cultural prestige invested in classical Greece infuses the cultural efforts of the second sophistic with a sense of pathos that acknowledges the impossibility of creating and controlling one’s future reputation regardless of how much effort is applied. At the same time, this impossible position, rather than limiting them, endows these men with a varied, self-ironizing, intertextual, intermedial, and unique approach to cultural production that actively engages with the inescapable and laudable past in order to carve a lasting impression on the literary and physical landscape of the Roman empire.
Non-equilibrium strongly-correlated quantum dynamics in photonic resonator arrays
Keywords: strongly-correlated systems
quantum optics
non-equilibrium

Strong effective photon-photon interactions mediated by atom-photon couplings have been routinely achievable in QED setups for some time now. Recently, there have been several proposals to push the physics of interacting photons into many- body distributed architectures. The essential idea is to coherently couple together arrays of QED resonators, such that photons can hop between resonators while interacting with each other inside each resonator. These proposed structures have attracted intense theoretical attention while simultaneously inspiring experimental efforts to realise this novel regime of strongly-correlated many-body states of light. A central challenge of both theoretical and practical importance is to understand the physics of such coupled resonator arrays (CRAs) beyond equilibrium, when unavoidable (or sometimes even desired) photon loss processes are accounted for.
This thesis presents several studies whose purpose can roughly be divided in two aims. The first part studies just what constitutes a valid physical and computational representation of non-equilibrium driven-dissipative CRAs. Addressing these ques- tions constitutes essential groundwork for further investigations of CRA phenomena, as numerical experiments are likely to guide and interpret near-future experimen- tal array observations. The relatively small body of existing work on CRAs out of equilibrium has often truncated their full, rich physics. It is important to establish the effects and validity of these approximations. To this end we introduce powerful numerical algorithms capable of efficiently simulating the full dynamics of CRAs, and use them to characterise the non-equilibrium steady states of arrays reached under the combined influence of dissipation and pumping.
Having established the rigour necessary to realistically describe CRAs, we exam- ine two novel phenomena observable in near-future small arrays. Firstly we relate a counter-intuitive ‘super bunching’ in the statistics of photons emitted from arrays engineered to demonstrate strong effective photon-photon repulsion at the single and two-photon level, to an interplay between the underlying eigen-structure and details of the non-equilibrium operation. Secondly we characterise a dynamical phenomenon in which domains of ‘frozen’ photons remain trapped in sufficiently nonlinear arrays. Finally we present a preliminary characterisation of a previously unexplored phase diagram of arrays under coherent two-photon pumping. Com- petition between the coherence injected by the pumping, photon interactions and delocalisation processes lead to interesting new physical signatures.
Diastereocontrolled synthesis of hetero- and carbocycles via manganese(III) and copper(II): towards a novel prostaglandin total synthesis
Keywords: manganese acetate
cyclisation reactions
natural product synthesis
radical reactions

The prostaglandins are a unique family of natural products found in all mammalian life, including humans. Their biological significance is profound, and they are responsible for a vast array of bodily functions. This importance, coupled with their low concentration in vivo, has made them attractive targets for total chemical synthesis.
The work herein describes synthetic efforts towards their synthesis using an oxidative radical cyclisation to construct the key [3.3.0]-bridged bicyclic lactone, from which the prostaglandin skeleton may be derived. Key to this was the development of manganese(III) acetate and copper(II) triflate as optimal reagents for this cyclisation of unsaturated malonate/malonic acid derivatives. To study this, several model substrates for this crucial cyclisation were synthesised, and their cyclisation analysed.
Chapter 5 describes the design and synthesis of several model substrates containing malonate groups for the oxidative radical cyclisation. The results of the cyclisation with manganese(III) and various copper(II) salts influenced the design of the substrates, and led to the use of malonic acids as more effective substrates for the formation of [3.3.0]-bicyclic lactones. A catalytic process, in which atmospheric oxygen is the terminal oxidant was also developed.
Chapter 6 describes the studies towards a total synthesis of the prostaglandin family. Two potential routes are followed, the first of which used a key asymmetric epoxidation to install asymmetry. A Suzuki coupling was used to deliver the desired diene required for the cyclisation substrate, which was successfully cyclised using manganese(III) acetate and copper(II) triflate, creating the desired [3.3.0]-bicyclic lactone in good yield and with excellent diastereomeric control. A second, shorter route to the same lactone was also developed, using a novel asymmetric deconjugative aldol condensation to establish asymmetry. Cyclisation of this analogous substrate was also successful, delivering the same lactone after olefin metathesis.
A history of youth politics in Limpopo, 1967 - 2003
Keywords: apartheid
South Africa
youth politics
student politics

This thesis is an exploration of student and youth politics in the Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo Province) from the height of apartheid in 1967 through the first decade of the ANC’s rule until 2003. It analyses three major trends over this period: the elite-led protest politics of the Black Consciousness era in the late 1960s and 1970s, the turn to mass-mobilized protest of the 1980s, and the consolidation of student and youth movements around the reconstituted ANC Youth League in 1990. It is primarily concerned with exploring the intersection of education and political protest in Limpopo, and the effect of mobilizing ideologies such as radical Christianity, Africanism, and non-racialism, on student and youth activists. It argues that across decades, organisations, and ideologies, this region has produced generations of influential young political leaders. It provides an institutional history of the University of the North and situates that university in a broader narrative of South African political history: from its contribution to the roots of Black Consciousness in student Christian movements, and the role of local university politics in influencing national protests, to the geography of the university itself as a place of political education (for students and nonstudent youth alike) and as a battleground between students and police. It considers the introduction of violence into student protests, the regional expansion of school and then youth politics beyond the crucible of the university, and the refashioning of social structures (like arbitrating in witchcraft accusations and domestic disputes) in homeland villages by politicized youth. It further contributes new insights into the formation and emergence of the ANC Youth League in the 1990s, and suggests that understanding student organisations and events during the 1970s and 1980s, in particular, sheds light on the shape of South African youth politics today.