VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Manifesting religious belief: a matter of religious freedom, religious discrimination, or freedom of expression?

This thesis asks how manifestation of religious belief by religious individuals can best be protected in English law. It is particularly concerned with the protection available to religious individuals in the public sphere. This thesis assesses the current state of protection under religious freedom and religious discrimination models, before considering the potential for increasing protection by reconceptualising the right to manifest religious belief as an aspect of freedom of expression. This thesis asks whether the practical and conceptual limitations of a religious freedom model, and Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in particular, can be overcome by reliance on alternative modes of protection, namely religious discrimination protections in domestic, Convention, and EU law, or through litigating religious manifestation claims as freedom of expression cases under Article 10 of the ECHR. The difficulty of communicating the harm in being denied the ability to manifest religious beliefs publicly is a key limitation of both religious freedom and religious discrimination models. Similarly, this thesis highlights the difficulty in assessing what weight should be attributed to such religious harm within a proportionality exercise balancing the rights of religious individuals with the rights and interests of other parties. The analysis in this thesis draws primarily upon the sources of law which shape domestic English law in this area, namely the ECHR and European Union law. However, this thesis also considers foreign precedent and case law from the United States in particular. This thesis contends that no one model can address the range of cases where manifestation of religious beliefs arise, and that litigants should be able to draw from religious freedom, religious discrimination, and freedom of expression protections depending on the nature of their case.

Keywords: european court of human rights
religious discrimination
human rights act
religious freedom
freedom of expression
religion
article 9
article 10
Advisor: Young, A
A cohomological approach to the classification of $p$-groups

In this thesis we apply methods from homological algebra to the study of finite p-groups. Let G be a finite p-group and let Fp be the field of p elements. We consider the cohomology groups H1(G,Fp) and H2(G,Fp) and the Massey product structure on these cohomology groups, which we use to deduce properties about G. We tie the classical theory of Massey products in with a general method from deformation theory for constructing hulls of functors and see how far the strictly defined Massey products can take us in this setting. We show how these Massey products relate to extensions of modules and to relations, giving us cohomological presentations of p-groups. These presentations will be minimal pro-p presentations and will often be different from the presentations we are used to. This enables us to shed some new light on the classification of p-groups, in particular we give a treeconstruction′illustrat∈ghowwecanproduce' p-groups using cohomological methods. We investigate groups of exponent p and some of the families of groups appearing in the tree. We also investigate the limits of these methods. As an explicit example illustrating the theory we have introduced, we calculate Massey products using the Yoneda cocomplex and give 0-deficiency presentations for split metacyclic p-groups using strictly defined Massey products. We also apply these methods to the modular isomorphism problem, i.e. the problem whether (the isomorphism class of) G is determined by \FpG. We give a new class C of finite p-groups which can be distinguished using FpG.
A psychological study of new age practices and beliefs

This thesis consists of a study of the motivational, cognitive and personality implications of adherence to New Age practices and beliefs. The New Age, unlike traditional Western religion, possesses no church-like structure and is usually characterised as a loose network of self-development practices, with a belief system centred on the spiritual evolution of the individual through successive reincarnations and the idea of a magical interconnectedness between all things. The studies carried out used a series of psychological measures, including self-report scales, analysis of self-concepts, autobiographical episodes and attributions to life events, and experimental visual and semantic tasks. Groups of traditional religious and non-religious individuals were also assessed to serve as contrasts to the New Age group.
Following from previous sociological literature on the individualist character of the New Age, the first study dealt with individualist and collectivist motivations. New Age individuals were found to emphasise more individualistic values than Catholics, but still differed from non-religious individuals in that they stressed more self-transcendent universalism values and global-holistic self-concepts. This pattern was labelled as 'holistic individualism' and the second study sought to define it more accurately by focusing on the analysis of agency and communion motivations through the analysis of autobiographical episodes. In this study, the New Age group showed a higher frequency of agency and a lower frequency of communion themes than traditional religious and non-religious participants and, in particular, emphasised life stories of self-empowerment by non-material 'energies' or entities.
The last two studies looked more closely at the New Age tendency towards highly abstract cognitions, in particular its sense of connectedness, by focusing on magical thinking and personality traits. New Age individuals were found to attribute events to magical rather than naturalistic causes much more often than the other groups. This cognitive disposition was confirmed in the last study, which found a positive association between the adherence to New Age practices and schizotypal personality traits, emotional hypersensitivity, and cognitive-perceptual looseness. Women were also found to be keener adherents to the New Age than men.
Given this set of results, it is suggested that the New Age should be thought of primarily as a magical, rather than a religious, system of practices and beliefs. It is also proposed that an individual may be drawn to the New Age not only because of its modern individualistic appeal, but in virtue of possessing a particular personality and cognitive disposition towards magical ideation and unusual perceptual experiences.

Keywords: psychology of religion
magical thinking
modern spirituality
schizotypy
Advisor: Lalljee, M
Claridge, G
The identity, application and legacy of Paul Hindemith’s theory of music

This thesis investigates the relationship between Hindemith’s music theory and his evolving compositional practice. It focuses on the first volume of his Unterweisung im Tonsatz (1937); both evaluating the very identity of the treatise and analysing how it may be applied to free composition. Above all, this work highlights the increased use of quartal pitch collections found in Hindemith’s Unterweisung-based compositions. Archival documents from the universities of Yale, Berlin, Buffalo, and the Frankfurt Hindemith Institute augment this process, and are used to revise our understanding of how Hindemith’s music theory originated, and how it relates to his practice and teaching.
The dissertation begins by exploring the theoretical and intellectual climate of the Rundfunkversuchsstelle at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik within a critical commentary of Hindemith’s music theory. It then develops a new theoretical perspective of quartal pitch space, and atonal prolongation, to provide an analytical toolkit. The list of compositions in the Unterweisung appendix, which Hindemith felt most successfully demonstrated his theory in practice, structures the next three chapters. The Sonata for Solo Viola op. 25/1, a pre-Unterweisung composition, is followed by the Ludus Tonalis, which was published soon afterwards, which is investigated for its explicit theoretical connections. The third analytical chapter focuses on the Das Marienleben cycle as a work written before the Unterweisung, and subsequently revised with theoretical concerns.
The final two chapters investigate the prominent decline in popularity experienced by Hindemith, both regarding his theory and compositions, from the 1950s. This is epitomised by a number of strongly-worded polemics published in The Music Review, much of which, it may be argued, is inaccurate or unduly critical. The thesis ends by constructing a Hindemith legacy based on a selection of archival documents and scores, together with a selection of trends in composition and music theory.

Keywords: Third Reich
Schenkerian Analysis
Music Theory
Paul Hindemith
Set Theory
Music Analysis
Advisor: Clarke, E
Cross, J
Essays on product quality, international trade and welfare

This dissertation consists of four related, sole-authored chapters. It considers the microeconomic mechanisms for gains from trade in the presence of quality investments by firms. It shows within the framework of a quality-augmented heterogeneous firms model that the quality dimension matters for welfare gains from trade. It also provides novel empirical evidence on adjustment mechanisms of aggregate quality as a consequence of globalization. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first contribution to provide a comprehensive analysis of the role of endogenous product quality in the determination of gains from trade.
I first offer an explanation for observed industry heterogeneity in trade-induced productivity gains and show that results depend on whether or not firms have the option to invest in quality. I then take a broader view of welfare gains from trade, looking beyond productivity improvements. I find that globalization can imply a quality-variety trade-off when consumer quality preference is strong - a finding which holds under firm heterogeneity and symmetry. Nevertheless, overall gains from trade are positive. With quality being itself an important channel for gains from trade, I also investigate the detailed mechanisms by which aggregate quality changes as a consequence of globalization. This is done within the same theoretical heterogeneous firms framework as well as empirically using firm-level export data matched with firm-level quality ratings. I argue that firm heterogeneity matters for gains from trade by giving rise to an additional welfare channel in the presence of variable elasticity of demand preferences: high quality firms expand sales disproportionately in a larger market, thereby raising aggregate quality. This theoretical prediction is confirmed by the data. Furthermore, I study the mechanisms for gains from trade in a symmetric firms version of the baseline model. This allows me to isolate the role of firm heterogeneity in driving earlier results. In addition, I analyse the efficiency properties of the market equilibrium for the symmetric firms case.

Keywords: JEL: F15
international trade
JEL: L11
JEL: L15
international economics
JEL: F12
JEL: F61
JEL: L25
industrial organisation
JEL: F14
Advisor: Neary, J
Javorcik, B
Casus Belli: Giuseppe Gioachino waging war between tradition and experimentation

This thesis explores the notion of opposition in the Sonetti romaneschi by the Roman poet Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (1791-1863). It sees the poet as a warring rebel on the literary scene and examines his poetics and rhetoric of war through his choice of form (the hallowed sonnet structure), language (the ‘rotten’ vernacular) and subject (the downtrodden, previously voiceless underclass); it shows that these cornerstones of Belli’s opus are in polemical response to literary stimuli and intimately connected to the political, religious and sociological upheavals in and beyond Rome in the troubled run-up to Unification. Chapter one, entitled ‘Breaking the mould’, draws on Belli’s explicit declaration of war on his literary predecessors, and considers the influence of the Milanese writer Carlo Porta, arguing that Belli is more inimical than amicable, and not the simple imitator as thought to date. Chapter two, ‘A passage of arms: possessing the dialogue sonnet’, maintains that the fulcrum of Belli’s antagonistic poetics and his realist enterprise lies in his unprecedented use of the dialogue sonnet form and the staging of direct debate. Chapter three, entitled ‘The Battle of the Sexes’, treats opposition at a thematic level, applying gender studies and related theory to Belli for the first time. Chapter four, ‘War and peace: the silent revolution’, examines Belli’s creation of a totally new literary language, fulfilling the criteria for what Deleuze and Guattari, within broadly Marxist parameters, would identify as a ‘minor literature’ in the work of Kafka, in which a major language is somehow wrested from its anchors of power, or ‘deterritorialized’, to subvert the literary world from within. The thesis shows that Belli is more revolutionary than previously thought as a literary innovator, and an understudied giant of modern European literature as opposed to the marginal figure the historiography is wont to maintain.

Keywords: dialect poetry
Sonetti romaneschi
19th Century
sonnet
Italy
Belli
Advisor: Zancani, D
The Marseilles working-class movement, 1936-1938

The purpose of this thesis is threefold: firstly, to serve as a contribution to the history of the Marseilles working class; secondly to illustrate the impact of the Popular Front at local level; and thirdly, to act as a case study of working-class mobilisation.
In the first section of the thesis the Marseilles working class is briefly described. It was highly heterogeneous, being made up of various racially, occupationally, and spatially-defined communities. The divisions between these communities were to some extent neutralised by a strong sense of the local community of Marseilles. Marseilles' claim to special status within the nation was, however, increasingly coming under challenge.
Prior to the Popular Front the most successful political organisations on the Left in Marseilles integrated themselves into the rich community life of the town by playing down ideological issues and by practising the politics of locally-based clientelism rather than those of class. The movement for the Popular Front encouraged a new mood of militancy within the Marseilles working class which both contributed to, and was itself encouraged by, the growth of Communist influence within the Popular Front alliance.
At different moments the strikes of the period facilitated or prejudiced the unity of the working class and its integration into the nation. Initially (1934-1937), the strikes which were undertaken advanced the interests of workers against those of employers whilst increasing working-class unity and support for the Popular Front. At the same time the election of a Popular Front Government and its success in resolving strikes to the satisfaction of workers aided the integration of the working class into a new, enlarged, national political consensus. The fragility of this consensus was, however, later revealed (1938-1939), as the Government called for sacrifices in the workplace and the Communists called fcr the launching of an unpopular war against fascism.
Roles of oxygenases in nucleic acid modification

2-Oxoglutarate (2OG) and Fe(II) dependent oxygenases have a broad range of substrates, extending from histones to fatty acids. Several 2OG oxygenases have nucleic acid substrates, with members of the AlkB subfamily being responsible for nucleic acid modification and repair. The AlkB protein itself is part of the Escherichia coli adaptive response, protecting the DNA from methylation damage. Methyl lesions are repaired by a direct removal mechanism via a hydroxylated intermediate, with release of formaldehyde. Homologues of AlkB have been identified throughout the vertebrates, with nine known human homologues: AlkB homologue 1-8 (ABH1-8) and Fat, mass and obesity associated protein (FTO). ABH2, ABH3 and FTO catalyse similar reactions to AlkB, whereas ABH8 methylates then hydroxylates modified wobble-position uridines in tRNA. The remaining homologues are of unknown function.
The FTO gene is associated with obesity in humans, a link confirmed by mouse models; mice lacking FTO are thinner than wildtype individuals, whereas overexpression of FTO leads to increased mass. Investigation of recombinant FTO identified a novel C terminal helical domain which appears to mediate protein dimerisation in vitro. A loss of function mutation in this C terminal domain produces a lean phenotype in mice, emphasising the importance of this domain for the protein’s function in vivo. The FTO protein was further studied in cells, and localisation of several protein variant constructs were studied by immunofluorescence. Cell lysis and immunoprecipitation techniques were developed that enable proteomic analyses of proteins with which FTO may interact in cells. No protein interactors were confidently identified, suggesting that FTO may not interact with specific proteins in cells, and instead may preferentially interact with nucleic acids.
Studies were initiated on two further members of the ABH family, ABH1 and ABH7. Recombinant proteins were prepared and characterised as 2OG oxygenases, however initial attempts to identify potential histone or nucleic acid substrates were not successful. Both proteins were found to be localised in the mitochondria, however proteomic analysis was unable to identify proteins interacting with either protein in cells.
Selective inhibitors are required for in vivo inhibition of the ABH proteins. AlkB and ABH2 proteins were purified and characterised, and a formaldehyde dehydrogenase-coupled assay was developed to follow activity of these DNA demethylases. A dynamic combinatorial mass spectrometry method was employed to identify novel inhibitor scaffolds for AlkB, leading to the successful discovery of the first series of potent and selective inhibitors for this class of enzymes. Crystal structures of AlkB in complex with the most potent compounds were obtained, rationalising the inhibition observed. This work therefore suggests that therapeutic inhibition of this family of 2OG oxygenases is likely to be tractable.

Keywords: cell biology
protein chemistry
enzymology
DNA repair
medicinal chemistry
molecular biology
proteomics
Advisor: Schofield, C
Immunosuppression with monoclonal antibodies in neural transplantation

The ability of two different immunosuppressive monoclonal antibodies to prolong the survival and function of neural allografts and xenografts in mice and rats was studied.
YTS 191.1, a rat IgG2b monoclonal antibody against the L3T4 surface antigen found on murine helper T-cells, was injected intraperitoneally into mice for thirteen consecutive days. Mice received various grafts of central nervous system (CNS) tissue to their third ventricle or parenchyma on the third day. The mice were examined to observe the specific depletion of helper T-cells and the neural grafts were examined histologically for surviving tissue at various time points. Mice immunosuppressed with YTS 191.1 had significant prolongation of both allograft and xenograft tissue compared to control animals given saline or an antibody against the Lyt-2 surface antigen on cytotoxic T-cells. Xenografts of rat neuronal tissue containing gonadotrophin releasing hormone neurons were shown to function in the third ventricle of hypogonadal mice at thirty days.
NDS 63, a mouse IgG1 monoclonal antibody against the rat interleukin-2 receptor, found on activated T-cells, was injected intraperitoneally into rats for ten consecutive days. The rats received CNS allografts and xenografts to their third ventricle and striatum on day one. Rats irnmunosuppressed with NDS 63 had significant prolongation of survival of all neural grafts. Fetal human mesencephalon was shown to function for at least six months in a hemi-Parkinson model of rats irnmunosuppressed with NDS 63.
The benefits of monoclonal antibodies for immunosuppression was discussed.

Advisor: Charlton, H
Wood, K
Dallman, M
Finite permutation groups

Two problems in the theory of finite permutation groups are considered in this thesis:
A. transitive groups of degree p, where p = 4q+1 and p,q are prime,
B. automorphism groups of 2-graphs and some related algebras.
Problem A should be seen in the following context: in 1963. N.Ito began a study of insoluble, transitive groups G of degree p on a set Ω, where p = 2q+1 and p,q are prime, showing among other things, that such a group G is 3-transitive. His methods involve the modular character theory of G for both the primes p and q (developed by R.Brauer). He uses this theory to prove facts about the permutation characters of G associated with Ω(2) and Ω{2}, the sets of ordered and unordered pairs (respectively) of distinct elements of Ω. The first part of this thesis represents an attempt to extend these methods to the case p = 4q+1. The main result obtained is
Theorem. Let G be an insoluble, transitive permutation group of degree p, where p = 4q+1 and p.q are prime with p>13. Then G is 3-transitive. Also some progress is made towards a proof that the groups in Problem A are 4-transitive.
In the second part of this thesis (Problem B) certain algebras are defined from 2-graphs as follows: let (Ω,Δ) be a 2-graph, that is, Δ is a set of 3-subsets of a finite set Ω such that every 4-subset of Ω contains an even number of elements of Δ. Write Ω= {e1....,en}. Given any field F of characteristic 2, make FΩ into an algebra by defining [see text for continuation of abstract].

Advisor: Neumann, P
T-cell receptor (TCR) usage in HIV-2 infection

Long-term non-progressors (LTPNs) in HIV infection target the structural protein Gag more frequently than individuals who progress to disease. However, the targeting of Gag per se does not always distinguish these two groups. Various factors have been put forth as likely explanations for this discrepancy including differences in the breadth and magnitude of observed responses, the HLA type of the host, the nature of the individual epitopes targeted and the ability of the virus to mutate these antigenic regions.
The purpose of this thesis was to examine, using PBMCs isolated from HIV-2 infected LTNPs and CTL clones established in vitro, the clonotypic architecture and quality of an immunodominant HIV-2 Gag-specific response directed towards the HLA-B*3501-restricted epitope NPVPVGNIY (NY9: Gag245-253). The data presented in this thesis show that in spite of the expression of multiple inhibitory receptors on the surface of NY9-specific CD8+ T-cells, the NY9-response, which is a clonotypically 'private' response, bears a signature characterised by an increased cytotoxic sensitivity and the production of an array of cytokines, most notably IFN-γ and MIP-1β. Moreover, the results of this thesis indicate that the NY9-specific CD8+ T-cells are able to cross-recognise and lyse target B-cells pulsed with the corresponding HIV epitope PY9 and its variants at functional avidities (EC50) that are close to those exhibited by PY9-specific T-cells. However, not all mobilised TCR clonotypes are equally sensitive or equally cross-reactive. When individual CTL clones were studied it emerged that dominant clonotypes within the NY9-specific CD8+ T-cell memory pool possessed a higher avidity for tetramer and sensitivity for antigen than subdominant ones and demonstrated a better cross-reactive potential towards variants of the HIV-2 epitope.
Hence, future HIV vaccine strategies may benefit from the inclusion of epitopes like NY9, the presentation of which appears to mobilise CD8+ T-cells with superior functional profiles.

Keywords: cytotoxic T-cells
HIV/AIDS
CD8+ T-cells
HIV-2
Advisor: Rowland-Jones, S
Dong, T
Stewart-Jones, G