VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Punishment in times of conflict: justifications, rationales and effects

Throughout the history of conflict, states have used various mechanisms to confine enemy fighters, including detention as Prisoners-of-War, administrative detention, and imprisonment as convicted offenders. This thesis studies incarceration in times of conflict as a form of punishment. It explores various forms of detention during hostilities and identifies common themes of unwarranted severity, deviation from basic criminal law principles and the targeting of minorities. The thesis proposes the term conflict penality to capture the special characteristics of how states punish perceived enemies. It develops the conceptual framework of conflict penality by examining the case study of Israel’s penal policies against Palestinian insurgents. It does so by discussing separately the approaches of the prisons, the political administration, and the Supreme Court of Israel. Exploring how different state actors engage with and justify special penal policies, the thesis provides a close analysis of how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shaped Israel’s punishment of Palestinians, and vice versa, how state authorities use their penal power to better manage Israel’s interests in the ongoing conflict, in ways that exacerbate the political divide. The thesis develops several insights into how conflict reveals the politicisation of punishment, and how the framework of conflict penalty can improve our understanding of general criminal justice practices that operate in societies stratified by class and race tensions.

Keywords: conflict
punishment
prisoners of war
security
enemy criminal law
Aeschylean tragedy and the cultivation of fear in classical Athens

This thesis explores a particular discourse of fear in Classical Athens, most richly developed in the tragedies of Aeschylus, but detectable also in the writings of Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle. In these authors, fear is not merely a primal instinct for self-preservation but a reasonable and political emotion which, if cultivated in the correct manner, has a part to play in wisdom, virtue, and civic prosperity.
After considering the lexical range of Greek fear, I progress, in Part One, to the historiography, exploring the significance of the emotion in Thucydides’ system of causation, its ambiguous value in battle, diplomacy, and politics, and the dubious prospects of its education through historical example. A second chapter tracks the emergence in Plato, and development in Aristotle, of a new, ‘cognitive’ understanding of fear, which nevertheless remains connected to the body; I link the paradox of ‘fearless’ courage to the paradox of aesthetic emotion.
In Part Two, three Aeschylus plays are studied in depth. In Chapter Three, on the Suppliants, I return Pelasgus’ famous deliberation to its dramatic context, and show how the Argive king combines feeling and thinking in a way that is compatible with Aristotelian psychology. Chapter Four takes a sociological approach to fear in the Seven Against Thebes, demonstrating the difficulty of governing fear, as well as its capacity for sympathetic expansion. Chapter Five is addressed to the Oresteia, and the accommodation of fear at the end of the Eumenides; I show that this is not a miraculous ‘transformation’ but a recognition and representation of the salutary potential of the emotion that has been latent throughout the trilogy.
Composing the decorative: Maurice Denis, music, and the search for French cultural tradition

This project focuses on the decorative work of the painter Maurice Denis (1870 – 1943), who is perhaps best known for his involvement with the Nabis, a group of young painters culturally prominent in the Paris of the early 1890s. Much work remains to be done on assessing the wider significance both of his turn-of-the-century ‘conversion’ to classicism, and of his increasingly earnest determination to revitalize sacred art in France. Therefore my thesis concentrates primarily on the artist’s post-Nabi decorative work, and how it was not only shaped by, but also helped to strengthen, classicising and religious tendencies within French art, as well as associated conservative ideological currents within French culture more broadly. The thesis considers how Denis’s life-long commitment to establishing an artistic doctrine, a ‘French order’, rooted in a tradition both Catholic and classical, entered into cultural debates stimulated by the consequences of such events as the Dreyfus Affair (1894 – 1906), the Separation of the Church and the State in 1905 and the First World War. Denis himself was well aware that decorative commissions (both public and domestic) were frequently understood as reflecting contemporary social values. I argue that an examination of Denis’s links to his musical contemporaries (principally the composer Vincent d’Indy and the pupils of César Franck), who themselves were active in these debates on matters of cultural identity, reveals much about the significance of his art and of the wider character of a renascent cultural nationalism in early twentieth-century France. By seeing his work as drawn into the ambit of France’s musical world, we will, I hope, go some way towards understanding Denis’s importance in the more general context of the period’s ideology and aesthetics.

Keywords: art history
neo-classicism
symbolism
France
music
Third Republic
post-Impressionism
Catholicism
decorative art
Advisor: Wright, A
The language of revolution: a study of language change during stasis in Ancient Greek and Roman thought

This thesis is an intellectual history of how Ancient Greek and Roman authors understood the relationship between language change and stasis. Focusing on Thucydides, Plato, Sallust, and Tacitus, it chiefly examines the ways they used paradiastole in their accounts of civil conflict. Each author used paradiastole to explore how moral evaluations changed before or during stasis, and how other linguistic changes accompanied it. For each author, paradiastole illuminated the core conflicts of value in stasis, and was therefore central to their analyses. Each author believed they could help understand and rectify these linguistic conflicts, thus preventing stasis or mitigating its effects. Their responses to linguistic conflict reveal a commitment to moral realism, and contrast with Nietzschean accounts of paradiastole.
Chapter One offers a new analysis of Thucydides’ account of transvaluations during stasis in 3.82.4, drawing on the contrast between peacetime and wartime values in the History and in post-war Athens. It argues that the transvaluations are part of a wider picture of how the war warped communication, and that Thucydides offers his History as a solution. Chapter Two examines Plato’s treatment of language change and stasis in the Republic and the Laws. It analyses the transvaluations in Republic 560; discusses Thrasymachus’ arguments in Republic Book One; and explores how Plato revisited these topics in Laws Book Four. This chapter is followed by a short interlude on paradiastole in Aristotle’s Rhetoric.
Chapter Three focuses on the Bellum Catilinae, arguing that Sallust saw the loss of traditional Roman valuations as closely connected with stasis. It studies the analysis of that loss in Cato’s speech and Sallust’s attempt to address it through his text. It also looks at how his understanding of paradiastole and stasis developed in the Histories. Chapter Four examines how Tacitus contrasted two linguistic and evaluative frameworks—one republican, the other imperial—throughout his oeuvre. He explored the conflict between them in various settings, but always did so using paradiastole.

Advisor: Ash, R
Rood, T
An uncommon community : France and the European Defence Community, 1950-1954

This thesis examines French policy towards the European Defence Community from 1950-1954. In October 1950 the French government proposed the creation of a European defence community (EDC), modelled on the European Coal and Steel Community plan, in reponse to US pressure for West German rearmament. After two years of negotiation a treaty establishing this force was signed between France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux on 27 May 1952. It took a further two years before the project collapsed, the result of the French National Assembly’s failure to ratify the treaty in August 1954. The thesis traces this tortuous path and argues that, despite the apparent inconsistency, the preoccupation which prompted France to introduce the EDC proposal was the same one that led to the rejection of the project four years later. The concern throughout was with securing a position of leadership in the Western Alliance.
The principal factor facilitating French EDC policy continuity, this study contends, was the small circle of individuals that dominated French EDC policymaking. The thesis identifies two principal groups involved in the formulation and management of French EDC policy throughout the four year project: senior administrative officials in the Foreign Ministry and the small transatlantic network of Jean Monnet, the original framer of the EDC proposal. Their perceptions, preoccupations and activities are the key to explaining the paradox of continuity in French EDC policy.
Primary sources form the basis of this study: French, US and British government papers and private papers are used extensively to draw together the complex story of this important episode in the construction of the Western Alliance framework.

Keywords: European Defense Community
French military policy
French military relations
European military relations
Europe
Advisor: Deighton, A
Engineering enhanced enzyme variants to boost photosynthesis in C4 plants

Major food and biofuel crops maize, sugarcane and sorghum utilise a specialised type of photosynthesis termed C4 photosynthesis, in which carbon is first fixed into a four-carbon compound by phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC). The enzymatic rate of PEPC limits the rate of photosynthetic carbon assimilation under conditions of low CO2 in the mesophyll cell, for example shortly after photosynthetic induction or under stress conditions when stomatal conductance is limited. Here, a system has been established in which the growth rate of Escherichia coli is dependent on the enzymatic rate of C4 PEPC derived from the model C4 species Setaria viridis. Concurrently, a site-saturation mutagenesis technique has been optimised and libraries of PEPC variants generated, targeting sites that are likely to be influential for C4 PEPC kinetics. E. coli were transformed with PEPC variant libraries, and a screen was undertaken whereby E. coli cells that expressed a PEPC variant that conferred a growth advantage to the cell became enriched in the bacterial culture over time. Three PEPC variants with P531A, F794V and N863K mutations emerged as candidates for in planta testing and provide insight into the molecular basis of C4 PEPC kinetics. In summary, the high-throughput screening pipeline established here has accelerated the identification of promising PEPC variants that could increase the rate of photosynthesis and yield in C4 plants.

Keywords: plant science
photosynthesis
synthetic biology
phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase
c4 photosynthesis
Advisor: Kelly, S
Jarvis, R
Inclusion of nuclear quantum effects in thermal conductivity prediction from path integral techniques

Path integral based methods to approximately include quantum mechanical effects in the motion of nuclei have thus far appeared insufficient to describe the thermal conductivity of a system from the Green-Kubo relation. In this thesis the possible reasons for this are examined, and an approach to improve the estimation of the thermal conductivity using path integral methods is developed.
The thesis begins by considering how the thermal diffusivity, the ratio of the thermal conductivity and the heat capacity, may be related to the equilibrium density fluctuations within a liquid, using the theory of linearised hydrodynamics. Application of this to liquid parahydrogen using centroid molecular dynamics (CMD) showed that the CMD estimate of the thermal diffusivity is accurate, but that the CMD estimate of the heat capacity is not. This is used to propose a means to correct the CMD estimate of the Green-Kubo thermal conductivity, allowing for an efficient and accurate determination of the thermal conductivity in both liquid parahydrogen and normal liquid helium.
Following this, the same methodology is applied to the calculation of the CMD thermal conductivity in liquid water. The agreement with experiment is found to be less convincing, which may partly be due to the use of an inaccurate potential model.
The thesis finishes by showing that the thermal conductivity may be deter- mined from the equilibrium density fluctuations at temperatures above 30 K for crystalline Lennard-Jones argon in the classical limit. At lower temperatures, the fraction of the signal dependent on the thermal conductivity is found to become very small, but it is shown in this case that the equilibrium local temperature fluctuations may be used instead. However, extension of this to an accurate path integral based method for quantum mechanical thermal conductivity prediction in a crystalline solid appears to be a very challenging problem that is beyond the scope of this thesis.

Keywords: path integral molecular dynamics
hydrodynamics
centroid molecular dynamics
molecular dynamics
thermal conductivity
Advisor: Manolopoulos, D
English as a post-colonial lingua franca: 
A multivariate analysis of English-ownership and 
language-In-Eeducation model preference among Ghanaian tertiary students

Ghana, like many postcolonial African nations, is at a sociolinguistic crossroads in which English is believed to be encroaching on sociocultural domains, while the country’s indigenous languages are being promoted by governments to have a stronger presence in mainstream education. The current study therefore aimed to understand the extent of English ownership and Language-In-Education model preference (LIEMP) among tertiary students in Ghana to investigate whether the attitudes of the country’s most active English users corroborate these governmental initiatives. The study also considered the influence of sociodemographic factors, namely (i) L1, (ii) Age, (iii) Gender, (iv) SES, (v) Region, (vi) Academic Discipline, (vii) Most Spoken Language, and (viii) English Variety Preference, on students’ attitudes towards English in Ghanaian society and indigenous languages in Ghanaian mainstream education. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, with quantitative data collected through an online questionnaire completed by 159 participants and analysed through descriptive, correlative, and regression analyses, and qualitative data obtained through 4 semi-structured interviews that were analysed thematically. While the questionnaire results revealed that most of the sample did not claim ownership of English on a macro-level, their self-directed LIEMP varied strongly based on select sociodemographic factors, namely L1, Home Region, and SES. A relationship was also found between participants’ lack of ownership and LIEMP, with qualitative findings indicating that, regardless of which LIE model the students prefer, they view implementing appropriate curricula for all L1 groups as impractical or simply irrelevant to the Ghanaian market at large. These results demonstrate the importance of attitudinal studies to appropriately strategise language planning through “bottom-up” incentives, as well as the need for prestige planning to accompany acquisition planning in order to facilitate public sensitisation towards L1-incorporated education in postcolonial Africa.

Keywords: Language Shift
English as a Lingua Franca
Language Policy
Minority Languages
Language-In-Education
Dominant Indigenous Languages
Mother Tongue Medium of Education
Post-colonial Africa
Language Attitudes
English Ownership
Bilingual Education
Endonormatisation
Ghana
Advisor: Chalmers, H
Essays on constraints and solutions to women's human capital development in India

Despite three decades of rapid economic development in India, there continue to be significant gender gaps and challenges for women’s human capital development. This thesis, written in a three-paper format, seeks to identify multiple constraints and test interventions to improve women’s educational and labor market outcomes in India.
Using a combination of experimental and quasi-experimental methods, I present research which sheds light on, as well as addresses, interlinked constraints related to women’s advancement in their education and careers. My first paper examines whether working women in India face a penalty in the marriage market, using an online correspondence study on a marriage website. I find that women who signal wanting to work after marriage face a sizeable penalty in the marriage market, and receive significantly less interest from male suitors relative to women who have never worked or are willing to give up work after marriage. The second paper evaluates a post-primary technology-aided remedial education program to improve learning and educational outcomes, in a context with acute learning deficits. The program leads to large gains in basic reading and math skills for male and female students, but fails to translate into better scores on the national exam which measures grade level competencies. The third paper assesses the implementation and impact of gender quota introduced for boards of all listed companies in India. While the law succeeded in increasing women’s representation on corporate boards, it unexpectedly increased gender pay gaps for board membership. Using an established instrumental variables strategy where I instrument on pre-reform variation, I also find evidence that the law improved firm performance and personnel-related outcomes, but that there was no ripple effect on women’s employment. Taken together, these research papers contribute to a deeper understanding of barriers and potential solutions to enhance women’s human capital development in India.

Keywords: human capital development
labour
gender
education
Advisor: Mani, A
Leaver, C
Complex transcription units in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Overlapping antisense transcription, once thought to be an exceptional event, has become established as a common feature of transcription units. However, despite its prevalence, a bona fide biological consequence or function of overlapping transcription has yet to be ascribed, with the exception of a few locus-specific examples. In this analysis a multi-dimensional systematic approach was employed to interrogate the antisense-producing HMS2 locus. As a result, two additional layers of transcription unit complexity were described: temporal separation of sense and antisense transcription states and transcript-end heterogeneity. Additionally, by observing transcription state-switching in near real time, evidence was provided that links the two phenomena in which changes in the dominant antisense isoform correlate with sense/antisense state switching. Furthermore, in the case of HMS2 regulation, a gene displaying expression periodicity in the metabolic cycle, it was demonstrated that the adoption of sense or antisense states bears consequences at neighbouring loci, showing that modulating antisense transcription can coordinate expression of a cluster of genes. Taken together, this study supports a general model in which sense/antisense state switching at a single locus, modulated by transcriptional regulation of both 5’ and 3’-end promoters, as well as adopting alternative transcript isoforms, can have long-range effects at neighbouring genes, ultimately providing cells with the ability to tailor a wider transcriptional landscape, so that they may adjust their genetic responses to their specific environmental or physiological needs.

Advisor: Mellor, J
Homer beyond Homer: a comparative approach to the question of oral composition in performance

The present study is an attempt to compare three different poetic traditions whose origins are believed to have been influenced to a significant degree by oral composition in performance: the Ancient Greek, the Sanskrit, and the Old English. These traditions all belong to the Indo-European language family, with interesting parallels not only in the realm of themes and motifs, but also of diction and poetic turns of phrase. The aim of this study is to explore whether similar resemblances may also be found on the deeper level of composition. By taking into account the simplicity and complexity of different poetic units, I investigate (and, wherever possible, reconstruct) certain mechanisms and techniques for the production of poetry during composition-in-performance. The chief texts under scrutiny are four (Iliad, Odyssey, Mahābhārata, and Beowulf), where I explore three distinct poetic contexts: greetings and well-wishes in Chapter 1, traditional similes in Chapter 2, and battle scenes in Chapter 3. My results will hopefully show that, at least in these contexts, we may be able to understand how certain compositional techniques might facilitate the task of the singing poet, as he strived to produce sophisticated lines in his performance under the constant threat of metrical breakdown.

Keywords: Homer
oral poetry
Mahābhārata
Beowulf
composition in performance
Advisor: Metcalf, C
Efficient and elastic LiDAR reconstruction for large-scale exploration tasks

High-quality reconstructions and understanding the environment are essential for robotic tasks such as localisation, navigation and exploration. Applications like planners and controllers can make decisions based on them. International competitions such as the DARPA Subterranean Challenge demonstrate the difficulties that reconstruction methods must address in the real world, e.g. complex surfaces in unstructured environments, accumulation of localisation errors in long-term explorations, and the necessity for methods to be scalable and efficient in large-scale scenarios.
Guided by these motivations, this thesis presents a multi-resolution volumetric reconstruction system, supereight-Atlas (SE-Atlas). SE-Atlas efficiently integrates long-range LiDAR scans with high resolution, incorporates motion undistortion, and employs an Atlas of submaps to produce an elastic 3D reconstruction.
These features address limitations of conventional reconstruction techniques that were revealed in real-world experiments of an initial active perceptual planning prototype. Our experiments with SE-Atlas show that it can integrate LiDAR scans at 60m range with ∼5 cm resolution at ∼3 Hz, outperforming state-of-the-art methods in integration speed and memory efficiency. Reconstruction accuracy evaluation also proves that SE-Atlas can correct the map upon SLAM loop closure corrections, maintaining global consistency.
We further propose four principled strategies for spawning and fusing submaps. Based on spatial analysis, SE-Atlas spawns new submaps when the robot transitions into an isolated space, and fuses submaps of the same space together. We focused on developing a system which scales against environment size instead of exploration length. A new formulation is proposed to compute relative uncertainties between poses in a SLAM pose graph, improving submap fusion reliability. Our experiments show that the average error in a large-scale map is approximately 5 cm.
A further contribution was incorporating semantic information into SE-Atlas. A recursive Bayesian filter is used to maintain consistency in per-voxel semantic labels. Semantics is leveraged to detect indoor-outdoor transitions and adjust reconstruction parameters online.

Keywords: active mapping
LiDAR
semantic mapping
reconstruction
robotics
Advisor: Fallon, M