VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The mind on trial: mental illness and capital punishment in America's highest execution state
Keywords: racial stereotypes
masculinity
criminal responsibility
sentencing mitigation
death penalty
future dangerousness
capital punishment
insanity
criminal trials
mental illness

Mentally ill and intellectually disabled capital defendants are regularly sentenced to death in Texas, America’s highest execution state. Psycho-legal scholars argue that the reason for this phenomenon is that Texas courts rely on out-dated clinical criteria and stereotypes without scientific foundation in their mental incapacity evaluations. While existing literature offers significant insights regarding the treatment of mentally incapacitated capital defendants in this and other US jurisdictions, it provides a decontextualized view of the problem which takes for granted the underlying assumptions upon which notions of mental illness and criminal responsibility are based. Starting from the idea that such interpretations are historically contingent and socially constructed, the thesis seeks to identify the ways in which scientific developments, mental health caselaw, and shifting values and standards of behaviour have influenced expert and lay discourse on the intersection of mental illness and crime in the psycho-legal literature and in Texas courtroom interactions. To accomplish this goal, the thesis utilises a socio-historical methodology based on in-depth archival research. Specifically, the thesis analyses forensic psychiatric publications, trial records of male capital defendants who claimed insanity or asked for a mitigation of the sentence due to mental illness, and social and cultural histories of forensic psychiatry and psychology spanning the 20th century. Drawing from critical theory and cultural studies, the thesis argues that despite their claims to scientific objectivity and legal neutrality, American psycho-legal theorists and Texas expert witnesses, defence attorneys, prosecutors, and appellate courts provide morally charged descriptions of mentally ill offenders which reveal a far from dispassionate approach. Moreover, the thesis proposes that, through their arguments and opinions, psychiatrists and legal actors in Texas courts have contributed to the labelling of marginalised male offenders in a way that increases the stigma attached to particular social categories, while encouraging punitive responses amongst Texas jurors.
Biochemical and structural studies of metallo-β-lactamase superfamily enzymes
Keywords: Biophysical characterisation
Protein production
Glyoxalase II
MBL superfamily
X-ray crystallography
Enzyme kinetics
Cytidine monophosphate N acetylneuraminic acid hydroxylase
CMAH

The metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) superfamily is characterised by a unique αββα structural fold and is widespread in nature. Whilst best known for its name-lending members that hydrolyse β-lactam antibiotics and contribute to antimicrobial resistance, other members of the MBL superfamily also utilise metal ions to catalyse various hydrolysis and redox reactions. The work described in this thesis focuses on characterisation of two MBL proteins – cytidine monophosphate N acetylneuraminic acid hydroxylase (CMAH) and glyoxalase II (GloB).
CMAH catalyses hydroxylation of a sialic acid cytidine monophosphate N-acetylneuraminic acid (CMP Neu5Ac) to CMP-N-glycolylneuraminic acid (CMP-Neu5Gc) in the presence of O2, cytochrome (cyt) b5, cyt b5 reductase and NADH and is found in animals of the Deuterostomia lineage. Human (h) CMAH is catalytically inactive due to a deletion which occurred approximately 3 million years ago. Understanding the differences between hCMAH and its catalytically active homologues could provide insight into the CMAH mechanism and the function of hCMAH in humans. In this thesis, development of expression systems for hCMAH and its active mouse homologue mCMAH, their initial characterisation and efforts to obtain the first CMAH structure are described.
Despite the lack of catalytic activity of hCMAH, the human CMAHP gene is transcribed in cells suggesting an alternative function. Studies on the cellular localisation of hCMAH revealed cytoplasmic localisation with some compartmentalisation being observed. Additionally, attempts were made to detect proteins interacting with hCMAH and mCMAH in mammalian cells.
GloB is involved in the methylglyoxal detoxification pathway. GloB catalyses hydrolysis of S-D-lactoylglutathione to glutathione and D-lactate. The thesis described work on the characterisation of GloB from Escherichia coli. Kinetic studies using various transition metals are described as well as the search for potential inhibitors. Crystal structures of GloB at 1.1 Å and 1.8 Å resolution are reported and initial attempts to obtain the structure of an enzyme substrate complex are described.
Overall, the work described in this thesis explores the biochemical, functional and structural features of two very different MBL superfamily proteins and provides insights into the scope of differences present within the superfamily.
The business of peace and the politics of inclusion: What role for local 'licit' and 'illicit' business actors in peace mediation?
Keywords: War to peace transitions
Local turn in peacebuilding
Business actors
Private sector
Inclusion
Mediation
Illicit business
Peace agreements
Business for peace
Peace

The increasing recognition of the negative and positive roles played by local business actors in countries in conflict has yet to translate into their consistent inclusion in peace mediation. Despite the ‘local turn’ in peacebuilding, local businesses actors are excluded from the United Nations-led discourse on inclusion, which prioritises non-state armed groups, civil society, women and, increasingly, youth. This discourse overlaps with the discourse on ‘business for peace’ (B4P), which constructs businesses as economic actors and excludes peace mediation from its definition of ‘peace’. Consequently, there are no Security Council resolutions on business, peace and security; no UN guidance notes, internal briefings or protocols; no UN Staff college trainings; and, no UN leaders advocating for business actors to have a seat at the table, or even in the broader process. As further evidence of their ‘neglect’ and/or exclusion from peace mediation, since 1990 only: 13.3 per cent of peace agreements reference at least one ‘licit’ business actor; 4.4 per cent reference ‘illicit’ business actors; and, merely 2.5 per cent reference both - 22 peace agreements out of 889 in 30 years. Using case studies on Yemen (2011-2016) and Somaliland (1990-1997), this thesis demonstrates that both ‘licit’ and ‘illicit’ business actors play distinctly political roles in war to peace transitions, as: supporters and/or humanitarian aid providers (‘benefactors’); beneficiaries of the government and the war economy (‘profiteers’); mediators and peacemakers (‘intermediaries’); and, conflict actors or spoilers (‘agitators’). Indeed, such actors are deeply enmeshed in the dynamics of conflict and peace, and simultaneously in the production of statehood and in processes that undermine it as a result of social ties that inform, shape and constrain the roles business actors play. Their exclusion from the analyses, strategies and considerations of international mediators may inadvertently be contributing to pervasive cycles of violence and conflict. This thesis advances the theory – and, practice - of a ‘local business lens in peace mediation’ which can be used by international mediators across all mediation ‘tracks’ to engage meaningfully with local power dynamics through the inclusion of local business actors in: mediation strategies/processes; peace agreements/settlements; and to better inform the structure of peace processes.
Dynamic imperfections in the Compact Linear Collider
Keywords: Electron Beam Dynamics
Passive Shielding
Compact Linear Collider
Dynamic Imperfections
Stray Magnetic Fields
Ground Motion
Integrated Simulations

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a proposed TeV-scale electron-positron collider under development at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). CLIC adopts a staged approach with three centre-of-mass energies: 380 GeV, 1.5 TeV and 3 TeV. This work focuses on the first stage, which has been optimised for studies of the Higgs boson and top-quark physics.
A high luminosity is achieved by targeting ultra-small beam sizes at the collision point. Realising these beam sizes relies on the production and transport of ultra-low emittance beams. The preservation of emittance is important in three sections: the Ring to Main Linac (RTML), the Main Linac (ML) and the Beam Delivery System (BDS). Typically, each section is studied individually. In this work, they are integrated into a single simulation, referred to as an 'integrated simulation'. In an integrated simulation, particles are tracked through the RTML, ML and BDS to reach the collision point. The luminosity is calculated with a full simulation of the collision including beam-beam effects.
Imperfections lead to emittance growth and degrade luminosity. Integrated simulations are performed to evaluate the impact of static and dynamic imperfections. The impact of static imperfections is mitigated with well known beam-based tuning procedures. This work focuses on the impact of dynamic imperfections and their mitigation.
A well studied dynamic imperfection is ground motion. Integrated simulations in this work show ground motion can be mitigated with a feedback system that corrects the beam trajectory and a stabilisation system for quadrupole magnets.
Much of this work is devoted to a newly considered dynamic imperfection, that is stray magnetic fields (SFs). CLIC is sensitive to sub-nT SFs. The typical amplitude of SFs found in an accelerator environment is several orders of magnitude larger than this. Therefore, SFs are a serious consideration in the design and operation of CLIC.
A dedicated mitigation system is needed to ensure SFs do not significantly impact luminosity. A passive shielding technique is investigated. Measurements of the shielding provided by mu-metal for small-amplitude external magnetic fields are performed. With these measurements, a magnetic shielding model is validated. The proposed mitigation strategy for CLIC is to surround sensitive regions of the beamline with a 1 mm mu-metal layer.
SFs at two accelerator facilities at CERN are surveyed. With these measurements, a model for SFs is developed. Integrated simulations including SFs are performed and show luminosity loss is effectively mitigated with a beam trajectory feedback system and mu-metal shield.
A study of Hume's philosophy of the passions in book two of A Treatise of Human Nature
Keywords: animals
passions
David Hume

The topic of this dissertation is David Hume’s philosophy of the passions, as set out in Book Two of his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40). My central thesis is that Hume’s writings on the passions in Book Two display a considerable unity of purpose when read as an attempt to avoid (1) favourably comparing human sociability and actions to animal sociability and actions, and thus supposing that human beings are essentially superior to animals, and (2) unfavourably comparing human sociability and actions to an imagined ideal of perfect wisdom, and thus supposing that human sociability and actions are inferior versions of analogous divine capacities for sociability and action. Hume attempts this, I claim, by giving efficient causal explanations of man’s passions and will that are equally applicable to animal passions and volitions. His aim in doing so, I conclude, was to displace human beings from the centre of the moral universe by revealing their essential similarity with animals, but to do so without conceptualising this shift as a fall from grace.
I argue for this thesis through a close study of Book Two that imbeds Hume’s writings on the passions in what I believe are their most philosophically relevant intellectual contexts.
Rural mobility and climate vulnerability: evidence from the 2015 drought in Ethiopia
Keywords: Household consumption
Household agricultural production
Rural Ethiopia
Drought
Transport
Climate Change
Mobility

In 2015, parts of Ethiopia experienced the worst meteorological drought in decades. Using this event as a natural experiment, I investigate vulnerability to drought in rural Ethiopia using a difference-in-differences strategy. I construct a Standardised Precipitation Index from 35 years of satellite rainfall data to exogenously measure local drought intensity. I combine this with nationally representative household panel data, collected before and soon after the drought. Results show that households experiencing at least a one in 20-year drought suffer, on average, from 12 percent lower annual consumption and 38 percent lower agricultural production than they would otherwise have in a typical year. Results are robust to varying sets of counterfactuals, placebo treatments and identification using the change-in-changes method. Drought has a greater impact on poorer households, female headed households and larger producers. Production is sensitive to drought severity. In a context of increasing drought frequency and severity, these findings imply lower expected returns to investment in agriculture, hindering rural development. Results also suggest drought induces positive production spillover effects to nearby areas, which subsequently support consumption for affected households. This mechanism may be facilitated by increased factor mobility and market interactions between villages during times of drought. Evidence from rural Ethiopia indicates that transport services, mobile phones and social networks are important for resilience, but the effect of road infrastructure alone is less clear. Public investment in these services may have untapped potential to reduce climate vulnerability.
Studies in classical simulation vs quantum advantage for algorithms and communication
Keywords: Quantum Algorithms
Quantum Computation

This thesis studies computational advantages that could be achieved by using quantum resources in two different contexts.
The first part studies Permutational Quantum Computing, a quantum computational model developed to study computation by spin recoupling. It was a conjecture, stated by Jordan in [Quantum Inf. Comput., 10, 470–497 (2010)], that the model solves problems that have no efficient classical algorithms by approximating its transition amplitudes to polynomial precision. Here we give a classical algorithm that disproves this conjecture and also prove that the computational complexity class PQP, defined to capture the computational power of the model in this regime, is entirely classical. The simulation algorithms are derived by utilizing the computational tractability framework of van den Nest [Quantum Inf. Comput., 9–10, 784–812 (2011)]. We look for other sources of quantum advantage in the computational model and rule out the possibility that it encodes answers to computationally hard problems in patterns of small number of significantly large output probabilities. This analysis extends the results of Schwarz and van den Nest [arXiv:1310.6749].
The second part of the thesis studies advantages achievable in the context of communication complexity. We take inspiration in the proof of the Pusey-Barrett-Rudolph theorem and devise a simple communication task based on the concept of quantum state antidistinguishability. We show that there is an exponential separation between one-way exact classical and quantum communication complexities for the task, but also that the separation for this particular task disappears if we allow for interaction or require only a bounded error solution. We conclude by stating and numerically justifying a conjecture about quantum state antidistinguishability that could have some implications for quantum foundations.
Noblewomen and family fortunes in seventeenth-century France and England. A study of the lives of the Duchesse de la Trémoïlle and her sister-in-law, the countess of Derby.
Keywords: gender
court
nobility
material culture
Huguenots
history
Mazarin
France
Civil War
Henrietta-Maria
letters
religious

This thesis offers an analysis of the Huguenot nobility under Richelieu and Mazarin, based on the example of one of the most prominent French Protestant families, the La Trémoïlle of Thouars, and examines the bonds that existed with members of the family who married abroad, such as Charlotte de La Trémoïlle, who was wedded to James Stanley, future earl of Derby, in 1626. By privileging the female point of view, this investigation attempts to overcome the nationalistic frame, which characterises traditional historiography. It brings to the fore a trans-national network of support, based on a common religious outlook and family alliances. The main focus is on the friendship between Lady Derby and her sister-in-law, Marie de La Tour, duchesse de La Trémoïlle, a relationship cultivated through an epistolary exchange that stretched over forty years. The analysis of the lives of these two women, who originated from the same social milieu but were exposed to very different political cultures, highlights similarities and divergences of the female condition in seventeenth-century France and England. The duchesse de La Trémoïlle and the countess of Derby promoted themselves as well as their family through active interventions in landed administration, architectural and artistic patronage, and court politics. Duchess Marie played, moreover, an important role in the patronage of the Reformed churches, despite the conversion of her husband, Duke Henri, in 1628. There is no attempt at a generalisation; instead this thesis offers a critical appreciation of the freedom of action individual noblewomen could enjoy within the patriarchal framework of both countries. Exceptional political circumstances, such as those created by the English Civil War, might have made it easier for women to intervene in the 'public sphere', but the very distinction between 'public' and 'private' realms in the seventeenth century is called into question by this study.
Tradition and innovation in late South Asian Buddhism: the impact of spell practices on the recasting of Prajnaparamita scriptures
Keywords: Buddhism
South Asia

The present study explores the later phase of Prajñāpāramitā scriptural production (ca. 8th-12th C), with special emphasis on South Asian sources. These scriptural sources, usually extremely concise, include materials also found in earlier strata of Prajñāpāramitā writing, but also add spells (dhāraṇīs), as well as occasional references to practices linked with mature esoteric Buddhism.
This study looks at such connections in detail, outlining the ways in which Prajñāpāramitā interacted with other Buddhist traditions in this period - being shaped by them, but also shaping them in return. Attention is also given to extant Sanskrit manuscripts, and occasionally to available epigraphical and art-historical materials.
It is argued that the switch to a new scriptural format partly affected textual dissemination. For example, the primary sources often occur in composite manuscripts along with various dhāraṇī works.
While spell practices are often associated with mundane benefits, such as e.g. curing diseases, the primary sources show a remarkable emphasis on less immediate results, such as the attainment of after-life states and conditions seen as conducive to spiritual awakening.
As for issues of affiliation, the primary sources maintain important links with earlier Prajñāpāramitā writing. However, such links mainly take the form of inserted stock-phrases and lists.
Perhaps the most innovative trait is the occasional appearance of mature esoteric features. However, their presence shows an awareness of current esoteric trends, rather than a full endorsement of them. Complex dynamics of borrowing and cross-reference can be detected, which ultimately might have been beneficial to both traditionalists and innovators within the late Mahāyāna cultural milieu.
In this study, Prajñāpāramitā emerges as a dynamic and adaptable tradition which helped shape the character of Mahāyāna Buddhism between the 8th and 12th Centuries and beyond.
Surveillance games: the international political economy of combatting transnational market abuse
Keywords: insider trading
markets
qualitative
time
surveillance
white-collar crime
SEC
financial crime
consolidated audit trail
interviews
CAT
high-frequency trading
international regulatory cooperation
strategy
regulation
FCA
historical institutionalism
equities
market manipulation
international relations
international political economy
ontario securities commission
transgovernmentalism
archive

Over the last 30 years, globalization and advances in algorithmic trading have created new opportunities to engage in transnational market abuse, i.e., insider trading and market manipulation perpetrated across national borders. Regulators use various institutional arrangements to detect these schemes. What explains this variation? Or, more broadly, what determines the form of international cooperation public agencies utilize to detect transnational phenomena?
To answer this question, I present and test the Two-level Cooperation Framework (TLCF). The TLCF’s core argument is that public agencies’ decision to outsource surveillance to non-state actors (i.e., regulatory intermediaries) in the past impacts the form of cooperation they utilize in the future. The TLCF conceptualizes this process as a sequential two-level game, in which public agencies must engage their regulatory intermediaries in a strategic interaction (domestic game) before negotiating with their foreign counterparts (international game). The sequential outcomes of these ‘surveillance games’ will, I contend, determine the form of cooperation public agencies utilize.
A structured-focused comparison of five case studies corroborates the TLCF’s theoretical expectations. To perform these case studies, data was collected from numerous archives, a Freedom of Information Act Request, and 86 interviews in six countries. The results contribute to our understanding of International Relations (IR) by challenging a widely held implicit assumption that state and sub-state actors are able to share information with their foreign counterparts. By relaxing this assumption, the TLCF unveils novel causal pathways by which public agencies’ previous outsourcing decisions impact their future capacity and/or desire to engage in certain forms of cooperation. These observations are potentially generalizable to an increasing number of policy arenas governed by public-private partnerships. Through its analysis of transnational market abuse, this thesis pushes IR to consider the potential consequences of these partnerships for the form and effectiveness of international regulatory cooperation.