VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Byblos in the Late Bronze Age: interactions between the Levantine and Egyptian worlds

This thesis investigates the position and role of the Lebanese city of Byblos in the local and international context of the Late Bronze Age Levant, when the city was a “contact zone” between the Near East and Egypt. In spite of its central role in the regional geopolitical landscape, Byblos has attracted relatively little attention among scholars. This is particularly true for the Late Bronze Age, which however appears as a crucial period, as it saw Byblos passing from being a prosperous and powerful city during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages to become a small and peripheral town in the Iron Age. This thesis addresses this gap in research, aiming to re-contextualise the role, interactions, and development of the city in the regional Late Bronze Age geopolitical landscape. The method adopted, combining archaeological and written evidence, compensates for the scattered nature of the sources and makes it possible to look at the city from di erent perspectives. Various aspects of Byblos’ society are thus reconstructed, and the general development of the city is sketched within a descriptive theoretical framework. There emerges a picture of a dynamic kingdom that went through periods of power and prosperity and of hardship and decline in uenced by micro- and macro-regional economic, strategic, and ideological factors. In particular, it can be shown that the di culties for Byblos started well before the end of the Late Bronze Age and the troubled period that followed. This observation not only highlights the complexity of the processes a ecting Byblos, but it also suggests that focusing the attention at a small scale, looking at the speci cities of the development and interactions of small realities such as those of cities or local kingdoms, is a fruitful approach that can yield new insights to understand the dynamics of the region as a whole.

Advisor: Baines, J
Dahl, J
Frood, E
Precision QCD at the LHC: from the structure of the proton to all-order resummations

Experiments at the LHC are collecting a wealth of data with an unprecedented level of precision. As a consequence, the theoretical error is now starting to lag behind the experimental one, and a ceaseless effort is required to reduce the theory uncertainty to match the precision of the data. At hadron colliders, QCD predictions are obtained by convoluting perturbative parton-level results with non-perturbative parton distribution functions (PDFs), whose precise determination is crucial to reach percent accuracy in the theoretical predictions.
At the parton level, cross sections are obtained through a perturbative expansion in the strong coupling parameter. In some cases, large terms appear at all orders, spoiling the convergence of the series. The perturbative description is rescued by performing an all-order resummation of the series, thereby making theory calculations accurate in regions where a fixed-order treatment is not sufficient.
In this thesis I first present two global PDF sets where fixed-order calculations are supplemented by threshold and high-energy resummation, respectively. In the first case, it is found that including resummation into PDFs can compensate for the enhancement in the partonic cross sections, with implications for high-mass resonance searches. In the second case, resummation quantitatively improves the description of the HERA structure functions, thus providing evidence of the onset of a new dynamical regime of QCD in the HERA data.
I then focus on Higgs production in gluon fusion. The effect of threshold resummation on the total cross section is found to significantly improve the convergence of the perturbative series and to provide a robust method for estimating missing higher order uncertainty. Finally, I present predictions for the Higgs transverse-momentum spectrum both in the inclusive case and within fiducial cuts, exploiting a novel approach where transverse-momentum resummation is performed in direct space.

Advisor: Rojo, J
The association of natural resources and human conflict — natural gas and the peace process in Cyprus

It is rare for a discussion of natural resources to solely refer to natural resources. Rather, to speak of natural resources often involves the entanglement of the matter with issues of a very political nature. This doctoral thesis revolves around a contemporary example of the above phenomenon with reference to the context of Cyprus and the global natural gas industry. Here, the question of “can natural gas be catalyst for peace?” has firmly taken root, largely as a result of a popularised association between a process to develop natural gas, and the seemingly intractable political peace process on the island. Indeed, the relationship espoused has been of serious commercial and political consequence. To understand exactly how, why, and exactly what has been at issue, I critically investigate the nature of the relationship established between these two expansive processes. Through over a hundred semi-structured interviews with international diplomats, industry professionals, local politicians, journalists, and academics, triangulated with detailed archival material and ethnographic work at relevant industry conferences and public forums, I explore the view of natural resources as a contingent socio-material assemblage. I expound the view of natural resources as ontologicallyrelational entities to be viewed in epistemologically processual terms. I evidence the complex ways that the axioms of time, relations of power, and the role of human emotion, have all coalesced to profoundly influence perceptions of the role, value, and nature, of natural gas.
In this thesis, I find that what natural gas is understood to be and the agency it can seemingly exercise, is intimately tied to the ebb and flow of the peace process on the island in a reciprocal manner. Fundamentally, I argue that the issue of natural gas is an epiphenomenon of a Gordian knot of latent passionate political disputes commonly referred to as the ‘Cyprus Problem’. Beyond the generation of knowledge controversies regarding the future trajectory of the global natural gas industry, forecasts of supply and demand, and various development pathways, it is in relation to this complex political situation on the island from which natural gas has initially acquired meaning, significance, and power. Ultimately, the saga evidenced in this doctoral thesis is of interest to those curious of: the perennial debate vis-àvis natural resources and human conflict, the use of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies in this intellectual space, the potential political and commercial consequences of the extractive industries, and finally to those who seek a more critical appraisal of the Cyprus peace process.

Keywords: Political Geography
Process Philosophy
Commodity Industry
Materiality
Geopolitics
Natural Resources
Cyprus
Natural Gas
Energy
Causality
Advisor: Powell, RC
McConnell, F
Optimising the implementation of advance care planning in heart failure

Clinicians are hesitant to talk to patients suffering from heart failure about their care preferences should they become seriously ill. Similarly, patients suffering from heart failure lack the tools to help them identify their care needs and communicate these to their healthcare professionals. This process is also known as advance care planning (ACP). Some studies show that ACP can improve the quality of life in life-threatening illnesses like heart failure. Patients expect their clinicians to initiate conversations about ACP. But as a result of clinicians’ hesitance, ACP rarely takes place and patient care is affected. The overall aim of this thesis is to develop a behaviourally informed intervention targeting clinicians to engage with ACP for patients suffering from heart failure.
The different stages of the project were informed by the Medical Research Council’s framework for the development and evaluation of complex interventions. The early development phase of the intervention started with an exploration of the evidence base for the impact of ACP on heart failure. The literature suggested that this led to an improved quality of life, better patient satisfaction with end-of-life care and an improved quality of communication between clinicians and patients. This was followed by a component analysis to identify interventions which had the greatest potential in changing clinicians’ behaviour to engage with ACP. Patient-mediated interventions, reminders systems, educational meetings and academic detailing were among the most promising intervention categories. A subsequent literature review analysed the barriers and facilitators for ACP in heart failure leading to the design of an early model of the intervention. Findings from a clinician interview series advanced the early model and shaped the prototype of the intervention based on the Theoretical Domains Framework and Behaviour Change Techniques. The findings from a focus group study including patients and carers refined the final version of the intervention consisting of:
1. A patient-led Question Prompt List
2. A shared decision-making tool in the form of a Choices of Care Table
3. A clinician-owned ACP Reminder Sheet
4. An ACP Practice-Based Training Session
A detailed protocol for a feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial was developed to address issues surrounding the feasibility and acceptability of delivering the intervention in clinical practice. Finally, the results from this thesis informed a model for the involvement of the intervention in the clinical management of heart failure.

Keywords: Optimising implementation
Complex intervention development
Advisor: Wee, B
Perera, R
MacArtney, J
Search for resonant Higgs boson pair production in the semi-leptonic bb ̅WW* decay channel with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider

This thesis presents the search for resonant Higgs boson pair production with the bbWW* decay mode in the semi-leptonic final state containing one electron or muon with multiple jets and missing transverse momentum. The Standard Model of particle physics predicts only non-resonant pair production of Higgs bosons but a number of theoretical models predict massive new particles that decay to two Higgs bosons. The search is performed using ps = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected in 2015 and 2016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36:1 fb-1, recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider.
The search focuses on TeV-scale resonances which decay to two Higgs bosons with large transverse momenta. Jets with large radius parameter are used to reconstruct the kinematics of one of the Higgs bosons which decays hadronically into a pair of b-jets. The invariant mass of the reconstructed Higgs boson pair is used to test the compatibility of the observed data with the Standard Model background prediction. No statistically significant excess is observed in data over the expected Standard Model background and upper limits are placed with 95% confidence level on the resonant Higgs boson pair production cross section times branching ratio for narrow spin-0 and wide spin-2 resonant states.
Techniques which use advanced subjet reconstruction algorithms to improve identification of high momentum Higgs boson decays to b-jets are also presented. The three algorithms demonstrate significant performance improvements in simulation compared to the standard method currently used by the ATLAS collaboration.

Keywords: Large Hadron Collider
ATLAS Experiment
Higgs Boson Pair Production
Advisor: Issever, C
Investigating the molecular mechanisms of recombination-dependent replication in fission yeast

Perturbation of DNA replication is a major cause of cancer and other pathological states causing loss of genome integrity and catastrophic chromosomal rearrangements. To guard against such disaster, mechanisms exist to process and stabilize replication forks (RFs) blocked at barriers, restart collapsed forks and ensure faithful fork merging and termination. Despite recent advances, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that drive recombination-dependent replication at the replication fork barriers (RFBs) is far from comprehensive, and in particular we know very little about mechanisms used to govern its accuracy.
To characterize factors that are needed for the successful processing and restart of blocked RFs at the site-specific RFB Replication Termination Sequence RTS1 in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, I focused on studying a putative partner protein of the Fml1 DNA helicase called Dbl2; its orthologs can be found from yeast to human. I used a combination of yeast genetics, fluorescent microscopy and live cell imaging to investigate the role of Dbl2. Data from epistasis analysis, with key components of the homologous recombination machinery, highlights differences with a fml1∆ mutant and suggest that Dbl2 is involved in destabilizing the Rad51-nucleoprotein filament in conjunction with the Fbh1 DNA helicase. However, this genetic analysis also revealed that Dbl2 has functions that are independent of Fbh1 in the regulation of Rad51-independent Rad52-dependent recombination, spontaneous and induced at RTS1. This may include a role in and/or regulating other helicases such as Fml1 and Pfh1. Structure–function studies using a series of truncation and internal deletion mutants of Dbl2 demonstrate that the cooperative action of all regions is required for Dbl2 function to limit recombination induced at RF blocked at RTS1, to counteract Rad51 activity in the presence of Rad55 and for its nuclear localization to the multiple sites across the genome. However, only its middle region is important to confer resistance to genotoxins and genetic interaction with most Rad51 mediator proteins. In addition, I have developed expression and purification strategies for full-length Dbl2 and its functional domain and conducted preliminary experiments for the characterization of the conserved N-terminal domain DUF2439 structure.

Advisor: Whitby, M
Financial sector change in the context of oil-abundance: Angola, 1991-2014

This thesis contributes to our understanding of the drivers of financial sector change in the particular case of resource-rich authoritarian countries. Existing studies assume that political leaders in countries characterized as resource-rich and authoritarian are disinterested in advancing financial markets. These studies moreover assume that the resource wealth that these leaders have at their disposal makes them act to the detriment of the financial sector without bearing any consequences. This thesis challenges these existing interpretations.
Building on a detailed qualitative case study of financial sector change in Angola, covering the period from 1991 to 2014, the thesis argues that contrary to what prevailing theories might expect, the financial sector has been useful for maintaining Angola’s resource rich ruling coalition in a position of power. Financial sector change in the country is explained by political leaders’ need to appease supporters coupled with the latter’s ability to balance the pressure of domestic excluded factions and external actors. When political leaders are not able to satisfy their supporters, they are inclined to introduce financial sector change. Their ability to do so, however, depended on political leaders’ ability to balance the pressures exerted on them by domestic and external actors.
The study contributes to the political economy of finance literature by offering a new take on how the financial sector can benefit regime survival and using this logic to explain the process of financial sector change in the setting of a resource-rich and authoritarian country. This study of Angola moreover adds to the growing scholarship seeking to nuance the assumption that leaders of resource rich authoritarian countries are autonomous from societal demands. Drawing on data collected over five months of fieldwork in Angola, the thesis also contribute empirically by being amongst the first studies to critically examine the political economy of postcolonial finance in one of Africa's largest economies.

Advisor: de Oliveira, R
Post-translational regulation of transcription factor EB

The bHLH-LZ transcription factor EB (TFEB) is a master regulator of lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy, it also plays an important role in lipid and glucose metabolism, mitochondrial biogenesis, integrated stress response and immunity. Dysregulation of TFEB family is implicated in cancer as well as neurodegenerative diseases. TFEB subcellular localisation and transcriptional activity are regulated by cellular nutrient and energy status. Elucidating the mechanism of TFEB regulation is the key to understanding its role in maintaining cellular homeostasis as well as providing therapeutic insights. In this study we showed that TFEB subcellular localisation is regulated by both amino acids and glucose availability. Low glucose levels activate mTORC2-AKT signalling, leading to the inactivation of GSK3β, and GSK3β kinase activity is required for TFEB cytoplasmic localisation. We also demonstrated that GSK3β phosphorylates TFEB at S138 only after a priming phosphorylation event at S142. The sequential phosphorylation is required for CRM1-depedent nuclear export of TFEB via a novel nuclear export signal. This mechanism is important for the rapid cytoplasmic relocalisation and inactivation of TFEB upon nutrient replenishment. Additionally, we performed a high-throughput screen of 1,600 FDA-approved drugs and identified around 100 chemical modulators of TFEB and TFE3, of which around 50 % exhibited lysosomal biogenesis promoting potential. In particular, trifluoperazine, pimozide and loperamide induce TFEB nuclear translocation, lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy in an mTORC1- and AMPK- independent manner.

Advisor: Goding, C
A quest for precision: theory and phenomenology of strong interactions at hadron colliders

This thesis considers recent advances in applications of perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) to hadron collider physics, especially the LHC. In the main part it focuses on combining fixed-order predictions with all-order methods such as resummation and parton showers.
After a general introduction to the realm of pQCD we consider a take on the resummation technique in momentum space to provide results for colour singlet production processes for distributions of transverse inclusive observables that vanish away from the Sudakov region. We work at (next-to-)3-leading-logarithmic (N3LL) accuracy and match our results to the (next-to-)2-leading order (NNLO) calculations. We present results for distributions of the transverse momentum of the Higgs boson as well as the transverse momentum of the Z boson and phi-star in the Drell-Yan production process.
In the second part we discuss matching of the NNLO accurate calculations to parton showers using the MiNLO technique. The results are obtained by reweighting a sample of hard events at the partonic level with a K-factor that is fully differential in the Born phase space of the considered process. We treat the case of associated Higgs production (VH). We provide validation of our results and a short phenomenological study. In case of the HZ production we have considered the Higgs boson decay into a pair of b-quarks at the next-to-leading (NLO) order in QCD. Similarly we provide a phenomenological overview.
In the last part we examine a constraint on the Higgs boson self-coupling that may be obtained in the HL-LHC programme. We work in the framework of Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SM EFT) and consider loop-induced effects of one additional dimension-six operator that modifies the SM Higgs sector.

Advisor: Zanderighi, G
Teper, M
The problem with practicality: rethinking late medieval English medical recipes, 1375-1500

This thesis explores the validity of seeing late medieval vernacular remedies as more than just utilitarian texts. Until now, most commentators have argued, or assumed, that medical recipes were conceptualised by their earliest writers and readers as texts solely designed to serve a curative or therapeutic purpose: they have looked for physical evidence of use in the manuscripts; connected particular codices to specific medical practitioners; discussed the scientific principles behind the efficacy that some remedies may have had, and explored whether specific types of cure, such as charms, were deployed by specific types of medical practitioner.
My thesis does not dispute that many remedy collections were put to practical use, but argues that writers and readers conceptualised recipes in a range of other ways too. An introductory chapter explores the types of people who engaged with medical knowledge and the way recipes portray them. Then, Chapter Two uses codicological evidence, such as scribal organisation and reader annotation, to suggest that some writers and readers derived pleasure, pride or satisfaction from the acts of producing, possessing and reading remedy books, rather than using them. The next two chapters explore – first in verse (Chapter Three) and then in prose (Chapter Four) – the remedies’ formal, phonetic, and linguistic features, considering the ways that they fulfil, impede or overshadow the texts’ practical purpose. In this section, I also compare the ways in which the language and figurative devices used in recipes work in other kinds of writing, in order to develop a more precise understanding of the connections and distinctions between discourses.
The last part of the thesis focuses on thematic connections between recipes and other text-types. In Chapters Five and Six, recurring motifs and similar attitudes to time, wonder and transgression suggest reciprocal imaginative exchanges between remedies, romances and fabliaux. Chapter Seven examines unexpected parallels between serious and parodic remedies, arguing that this blurred boundary creates interpretive challenges for readers. In these final three chapters, I hope to draw attention to an interpretive element overlooked in the recipes: the texts do not just contain instructions to be translated into real-world referents and actions; they can also bring words, forms, and ideas into play with one another, eluding straightforward interpretations as resolutely as literary texts.

Advisor: Wakelin, D
Turner, M