VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
People power in struggling cities: Pressure groups in Liverpool and Baltimore, 1980-1991

Liverpool and Baltimore in the 1980s were amongst the poorest cities in the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively. Since the 1960s, the ports on which they had built their economies and their reputations had all but collapsed and thousands of manufacturing jobs had been relocated or slashed. Property-led regeneration did more for the investors behind projects and the tourists who enjoyed them than for the cities' working classes. In such cities, battered by forces largely beyond their control, what could people disadvantaged by race and/or economic status do to compete for the resources necessary to improve their living conditions and wield power on a citywide level? This thesis explores the capacity of poor and middle-income people’s pressure groups to successfully accomplish their goals in Liverpool and Baltimore during the 1980s. To do so, it examines three case study groups in Liverpool, the Merseyside Community Relations Council, the Eldonian Community Association, and the Anti-Cuts Campaign; and one in Baltimore, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development. It follows their trajectories under unusually authoritarian local political regimes, the Militant Tendency-directed Labour city council in Liverpool and the Schaefer mayoral administration in Baltimore, through local elections in 1987, and finally under the more open local political regimes following those elections. Their success depended on three sets of factors. First, strong leadership and an animating cause were necessary conditions for groups to cohere, but were not sufficient to ensure their success. That further depended on a group's goals and the distribution of resources necessary to accomplish those goals, which in turn shaped the strategies each group chose to pursue its agenda. Third and finally, the effectiveness of those strategies depended on the group's ability to access and influence the resource-holders identified and, finally, on the scope for action of those resource-holders themselves.

Keywords: pressure groups
community power
Liverpool
Baltimore
urban governance
Advisor: Carter, H
Caratheodory cubature measures

We introduce an efficient algorithm for computing Carathéodory cubature measures, which are defined as interpolatory cubature measures with positive weights, whose cardinality grows polynomially with dimension, as proved in [16]. We discuss two Carathéodory cubature problem formulations. Both are based on thinning the support of the Cartesian product cubature measure, whose cardinality grows exponentially with dimension, via a formulation of a suitable feasibility LP (Linear Programming) problem. A basic feasible solution to the latter fully characterises a Carathéodory cubature measure.
The first problem formulation, initially presented in [48], employes the Simplex Algorithm or Interior Point Method to construct a basic feasible solution to the aforementioned LP problem. The complexity of this method is dependent on the number of nodes in the Cartesian product cubature and thus grows exponentially with dimension.
The second problem formulation constitutes the main contribution of the present work. Starting from the LP problem, arising from the Cartesian product cubature construction, we employ a hierarchical cluster representation of the underlying constraint matrix and the strictly feasible solution, arising from the weights of the Cartesian product cubature. Applying the Recombination Algorithm, introduced in [96], to this hierarchical data structure, we recursively generate a sequence of smaller LP problems. We construct a basic feasible solution to each LP problem in turn, by employing a novel algorithm, based on the SVD (Singular Value Decomposition) of the constraint matrix, culminating in a basic feasible solution for the original LP problem. The complexity of this algorithm, is independent of the number of nodes in the Cartesian product cubature, and can be shown to grow polynomially rather than exponentially with dimension. Moreover, the novel SVD-based method for computing basic feasible solutions, produces a one order of magnitude speed-up of the overall algorithm, when compared to the algorithm in [96], and is therefore preferable.

Advisor: Lyons, T
MicroRNA-196a in human adipose tissue

MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that have been shown to play a role in adipose tissue biology. Adipose tissue depots differ in terms of the metabolic risk that they confer. Therefore, I aimed to identify microRNAs which regulate body fat distribution. An initial microarray screen of abdominal subcutaneous and gluteal adipose tissue, with validatory qPCR, identified microRNA-196a as being more highly expressed in gluteal adipose tissue. These expression patterns were retained in primary and immortalised pre-adipocytes from abdominal subcutaneous and gluteal adipose tissue. The precursor of miR-196a contains a single nucleotide polymorphism, rs11614913. Genotyping was performed on 5,823 individuals from the Oxford Biobank and combined with detailed information on body composition by DXA scanning and miR-196a expression determination in fat biopsies. This revealed that the rs11614913 TT genotype was associated with a 32% reduction in miR-196a expression in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (p=0.002), an expansion in waist-to-hip ratio and an increase in mean adipocyte size in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue in males. RS11614913 was also found to be associated with bone mineral density, and the relationship between bone mineral density and body fat distribution was explored using the Oxford Biobank. To establish a functional role for miR-196a, the Pt2 abdominal and gluteal cell lines were validated as models for pre-adipocyte proliferation and adipogenesis. MiR-196aKO pre-adipocyte cell lines were generated. MiR-196aKO was found to reduce proliferation in abdominal subcutaneous (p=0.002) and gluteal (p=0.002) pre-adipocytes, with no effect in adipogenesis. In addition, transcriptomic profiling of miR-196aKO pre-adipocytes revealed enrichment for GO term clusters related to extracellular matrix and angiogenesis, suggesting a mechanism by which miR-196a might regulate regional adipose tissue expansion.

Keywords: microRNA
Advisor: Neville, M
Karpe, F
Fundamental rights adjudication in the European Union: Exploring the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice

The protection of fundamental rights by the Court of Justice of the EU ("CJEU") is no longer a marginal issue, but is the central legal and political issue of coming years, to which all roads in EU scholarship lead back. The objective of this thesis will be to trace the evolution of the CJEU's jurisprudence, from the application of the general principles to the CJEU's interpretation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, in a bid to discern the proficiency of the CJEU's methodology. Along the course of this enquiry, the thesis seeks to explicate judicial developments, rules and techniques governing the CJEU’s review of EU legislative and administrative action, as well as Member State action when executing EU policy objectives and when derogating from EU law obligations, for compliance with fundamental rights. Interlocking themes addressed include: the nature and function of fundamental rights; the enforcement of fundamental rights in the context of the internal market; the horizontal application of fundamental rights; and the elements of interpretation shaping adjudication. Binding these themes together is the scope and method of fundamental rights protection. Eschewing any notion of a grand narrative, it will be shown that the CJEU's case law and method defy being classified as a natural and linear progression from dark to light, or novice to expert judicial control, in that the CJEU’s initial blueprint for resolving fundamental rights cases has been largely unaltered by constitutional developments.

Advisor: Weatherill, S
The African policy of Justinian I

In 533, Justinian I ordered the conquest of the former Roman provinces of Africa, which had been lost to the Vandals a century earlier. The ‘reconquest’ has been regarded, by contemporaries and modern scholars alike, as one of the defining successes of the reign. However, despite the evident achievements of the campaign, Roman victory over the Vandals marked little more than the beginning of the Eastern Roman Empire’s attempt to consolidate its position in Africa. The unanticipated threat posed by hostilities from the Berber tribes would continue until 548.
Roman-Berber relations, unlike other aspects of Justinian’s foreign relations, have received comparatively little attention, and this study aims to reassess the establishment of Roman authority in Africa and the Eastern Roman Empire’s response to the Berber threat. In particular, it considers whether this response should be seen as a series of ad hoc reactions to immediate circumstances, or whether it is possible to identify a coherent Roman policy vis-àvis the Berbers.
The major conclusions of this study fall in two areas. First, it argues that Roman objectives in Africa were far more limited than has generally been supposed, with the empire’s territorial ambitions not extending beyond key coastal positions which offered strategic and commercial advantages, and from which the empire could project its limited authority into the interior. Second, this study concludes that the Eastern Roman Empire’s actions with respect to the Berber tribes lacked coherence. Attempts to implement a system of client rulers were unsuccessful, partly as a result of the competition between individual Berber leaders as they sought to establish independent polities within the frontiers of the former Roman Empire; and partly as a result of an increasing lack of resources, as well as the instability caused by constantly changing leadership within the African civil and military administrations, which prevented the development of coherent long term strategies for addressing the Berber threat.

Advisor: Howard-Johnston, J
Development of a microfluidic tool for understanding whole cell algal cultures

This project focuses on the development, characterisation and use of a microfluidic tool to study cells in suspension, and the motility of cells. This microfluidic tool is designed to have a low convective flow, so transport is dominated by diffusion, which allows a 2D concentration gradient to be maintained and manipulated, and cells to swim without advection.
The rheology of the whole cell cultures was measured and found to shear thinning. Bubbles rising through the fluid was modelled. Despite this, it was found that bubbles rising through whole cell culture would impose a shear that correlated to the viscosity at the high shear plateau. That is bubble size did not significantly affect the apparent viscosity. The medium around bubbles of any size, from 1 mm to 100 mm, has a viscosity of 0.001 Pas.
Numerical simulations are used to characterise and optimise the design and operation of the microfluidic devices. Low advection within the central chamber, with desired concentration gradients, was attainable with provided the geometry and operation were within certain limits. Recommendations regarding the geometry of the device include an inlet width to inlet neck length ratio of less than 2 and a radius of less then 400 um. The inlet velocity controlled the maximum velocity within the chamber.
PDMS devices were fabricated and operated and it was found that concentration gradients could be maintained, but there were limitation regarding the syringe pump.
Proof of concept is presented for visualising cells within this microfluidic device.
From this thesis, it has been shown that microfluidic devices have important potential for understanding the motility of microalgae in real environments and in controlled concentration gradients, although they require careful analysis and thoughtful fabrication.

Advisor: Lubansky, A
Ye, H
Modernism in mainstream magazines, 1920-37

This thesis studies five mainstream British weekly magazines: 'Time and Tide', the 'Nation and Athenaeum', the 'Spectator', the 'Listener', and the 'New Statesman'. It explores how these magazines reviewed, discussed and analysed modernist literature over an eighteen-year span, 1920-37. Over this period, and in these magazines, the concept of modernism developed. Drawing on work by philosopher Ian Hacking, this research traces how the idea of modernism emerged into the public realm. It focuses largely on the book reviews printed in these magazines, texts that played an important and underappreciated role in negotiations between modernist texts and the audience of these magazines.
Chapter 1, on 'Time and Tide', covers a period from the magazine's inception in 1920 to 1926, and draws particularly on Catherine Clay's work on this magazine. It discusses the genre of 'weekly review' that this new magazine attempted to join, and the cultural place of modernism in the early 1920s. Chapter 2, on the 'Nation and Athenaeum', covers Leonard Woolf's literary editorship (1923-30), under the ownership of J. M. Keynes, and makes use of Keynes’s archive at King's College, Cambridge, and Woolf’s at the University of Sussex. Chapter 3, on the 'Spectator', covers Evelyn Wrench’s editorship (1925-32), and explores the relationship between this magazine, ideologies of conservatism, and modernism. Chapter 4, on the 'Listener', focuses on the magazine’s publication of new poetry, including an extraordinary 1933 supplement that printed W. H. Auden’s 'The Witnesses'. This work revolves around Janet Adam Smith, literary editor in these years, and draws on Smith’s archive at the National Library of Scotland as well as the BBC archives at Caversham. Chapter 5, on the 'New Statesman' in the 1930s under new editor Kingsley Martin, explores a period when modernism was more widely recognized, and pays particular attention to a short text by James Joyce printed in 1932, 'From a Banned Writer to a Banned Singer'.

Keywords: Modernism
Modernist Periodicals
Modernist Literature
Advisor: Whitworth, M
Spatial community structure and epidemics

Networks are a useful quantitative representation for complex systems of interacting entities arising in fields such as biological, physical and social sciences. A network representation provides a degree of simplification while capturing key connectivity patterns. This thesis focuses on two main themes: the study of community structure, an important mesoscopic feature of many networks, and its application to study spatiotemporal spread of infectious diseases.
Community detection seeks to partition a network into dense sets of nodes that are connected sparsely to other dense sets. The notion of denseness is often relative to some "null model" that describes baseline connectivity that can be construed to occur randomly. In the first part of the thesis, we discuss the incorporation of spatial information into null models for community detection. We develop a spatial null model based on the radiation model of mobility. We test different spatial null models using static and temporal (multilayer) spatial benchmarks with planted partitions that represent interactions between human populations. Our results indicate that it is important to incorporate spatial information into null models for community detection, but it is best to incorporate only relevant information into null models, as extraneous information can lower performance.
In the second part of the thesis, we present the results of community detection with different null models on disease-correlation networks generated form real and synthetic time series of disease occurrence. We use data sets for endemic diseases (established in a region, with occasional epidemic outbreaks) and emerging diseases (newly-discovered or introduced into a region for the first time). We study the spatial and temporal organization of partitions. Finally, we apply community detection with different null models to synthetic time series generated from an agent-based model (ABM) simulating the spread of endemic and emerging diseases between spatially-embedded cities with a planted, transport-based community structure. We compare the findings on real and synthetic data sets, and we searched for model parameter regimes in which we are able to detect planted partitions or other interesting communities.
For emerging diseases, we find spatial communities that are associated with the first times the infection reached a node in both ABM and disease data. For endemic diseases, we are unable to find planted or spatial communities in the ABM data, but we detect spatial communities for two of the three disease data sets. For these diseases, we also detect temporal communities corresponding to some of the important time points in disease history.
We hope that these results show that community structure of disease correlation networks appears to be more complicated than simple spatial patterns and is a fascinating topic to study.

Advisor: Porter, M
Mind the gap: Flânerie in Baudelaire and Woolf

This research stems from an interest in the role of the flâneur and his interaction with the city. The flâneur has been theorised as one of the most prominent figures in understanding modernity. This study draws upon two well-known modernist writers, Baudelaire and Woolf, using their literary flânerie to understand modernity from a twenty-first-century vantage point. The purpose of this thesis is to interrogate and reinterpret the notion of modernity: experience of modernity is that of spatiotemporal dislocation, a sense of in-betweenness that can be likened to the gap between a train and the platform. From the gap imagery, this thesis explores the paradoxical nature of modernity demonstrated in the writing of Baudelaire and Woolf. While existing studies have discussed the theme of flânerie extensively, the discourse is dominated by Benjaminian assumptions, which results in a visuo-centric bias. With recourse to Merleau- Ponty's phenomenology, this thesis provides a more holistic understanding of the intertwining relationship between the flâneur, the city, the writer, and the text. Comparing the flâneur to a writerly device, this study explains how the flâneur(offers the writer a novel perspective on the city. The aim of the writer's manipulation of the flâneur is to approach what I call line-scape. This notion designates an ideal literary horizon which the writer constantly endeavours to reach, to no avail. Various implications of line-scape are investigated, most notably through landscape painting tradition, to highlight the way in which the writer deploys the flâneur figure as an implied observer of line-scape. Translation theories and phenomenology-inspired studies are also incorporated into the research. Ultimately, flânerie as a clue to line-scape takes part in the current literary landscape, allowing for a revaluation of modernist writing, engendering novel interpretations of the act of walking, and renewing interest in modernity and the city.

Advisor: Bourne-Taylor, C
The abstract structure of quantum algorithms

Quantum information brings together theories of physics and computer science. This synthesis challenges the basic intuitions of both fields. In this thesis, we show that adopting a unified and general language for process theories advances foundations and practical applications of quantum information. Our first set of results analyze quantum algorithms with a process theoretic structure. We contribute new constructions of the Fourier transform and Pontryagin duality in dagger symmetric monoidal categories. We then use this setting to study generalized unitary oracles and give a new quantum blackbox algorithm for the identification of group homomorphisms, solving the GROUPHOMID problem. In the remaining section, we construct a novel model of quantum blackbox algorithms in non-deterministic classical computation. Our second set of results concerns quantum foundations. We complete work begun by Coecke et al., definitively connecting the Mermin non-locality of a process theory with a simple algebraic condition on that theory's phase groups. This result allows us to offer new experimental tests for Mermin non-locality and new protocols for quantum secret sharing. In our final chapter, we exploit the shared process theoretic structure of quantum information and distributional compositional linguistics. We propose a quantum algorithm adapted from Weibe et al. to classify sentences by meaning. The clarity of the process theoretic setting allows us to recover a speedup that is lost in the naive application of the algorithm. The main mathematical tools used in this thesis are group theory (esp. Fourier theory on finite groups), monoidal category theory, and categorical algebra.

Keywords: Frobenius algebras
Group homomorphisms
Monoidal Categories
Advisor: Coecke, B
Olivervicary, J
Structure of the PfEMP1:EPCR complex and inhibition of the interaction

The Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) family is central for Plasmodium falciparum infection. This family mediates interactions between the infected erythrocyte and the host endothelial surface, making it an obvious vaccine target. However this family is very diverse, with sixty different variants in the genome of each parasite. Despite the diversity within the PfEMP1 family, only around ten ligands have been identified. This suggests that there must be conservation of ligand binding amongst the sequence variety, which could be targeted in vaccine design strategies.
This thesis explores this possibility, using the interaction between the CIDRα1 domain within the PfEMP1 and endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) as an example, as this interaction has been associated with severe childhood malaria. This thesis details the solution of the first PfEMP1:ligand crystal structure. The two CIDR:EPCR complex structures show the binding surface of the CIDR domains to consist of a central hydrophobic residue which protrudes into a hydrophobic groove in EPCR, surrounded by a ring of hydrophilic residues. This surface mimics features of the natural EPCR ligand, protein C, and can block this ligand interaction. Combination of this structure with sequence data from 885 CIDRα1 domains show that the EPCR-binding surfaces of CIDRα1 domains are conserved in shape and bonding potential, despite dramatic sequence diversity. Having identified the conserved features of this interaction, three synthetic immunogens were designed to elicit cross-inhibitory antibodies against this interaction site. The work within this thesis shows for the first time how the malarial PfEMP1 proteins manage to simultaneously diverge whilst maintaining the capacity to bind to their ligand, and explores vaccine design strategies to raise a cross-inhibitory response.

Advisor: Higgins, M