VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Disenchanting political theology in post-revolutionary Iran; reform, religious intellectualism and the death of utopia

This thesis delineates the transformation of Iran’s so-called post-revolutionary ‘religious intellectuals’ (rowshanfekran-e dini) from ideological legitimators within the political class of the newly-established theocratic-populist regime to internal critics whose revised vision for the politico-religious order coalesced and converged with the growing disillusionment and frustration of the ‘Islamic left’, a constellation of political forces within the governing elite of the Islamic Republic, that following the death of Ayatollah Khomeini increasingly felt itself marginalised and on the outskirts of power.
The historical evolution of this complex, quasi-institutionalised and routinized network, encompassing theologians, jurists, political strategists and journalists, which rose to prominence in the course of the 1990s, and its critical engagement with the ruling political theology of the ‘guardianship of the jurist’, the supremacy of Islamic jurisprudence, political Islamism and all forms of ‘revolutionary’ and ‘utopian’ political and social transformation, are scrutinised in detail. In this vein, the thesis examines the various issues provoked by the rowshanfekran-e dini’s strategic deployment and translation of the concepts and ideas of a number of Western thinkers, several of which played a pivotal role in the assault on the ideological foundations of Soviet-style communism in the 1950s and 1960s.
It then moves to show how this network of intellectuals and politicos following the election of Mohammad Khatami to the presidency in May 1997 sought to disseminate their ideas at the popular level by means of the press and numerous party and political periodicals, and thereby achieve ideological and political hegemony. The thesis proceeds to demonstrate the intimate connection between the project of ‘religious intellectualism’ and elite-defined notions of ‘democracy’, ‘electoral participation’, ‘reform’ and ‘political development’ as part of an effort to accumulate symbolic capital and assert their intellectual and moral leadership of the polity.

Keywords: 'Abdolkarim Sorush
political theology
Iran
post-revolutionary Iranian reformist politics
Fada'ian-e Islam
Mostafa Malekian
Islamic modernist critiques of nomocracy
elite factionalism and competition in post-revolutionary Iran
Islamic ideology
religious intellectuals
post-revolutionary Iranian intellectual history
Mohammad Mojtahed-Shabestari
Shi'ism
constitutionalism in modern Iran
Ali Shari'ati
Sa'id Hajjarian
Shi'i clergy
Islamic Republic of Iran
post-revolutionary Iran
political Islam
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
Navvab Safavi
Shi'i legalism
history of post-revolutionary Iranian reformists
Usulism
Advisor: Homa, K
European gender equality under and after State Socialism: legal treatment of prostitution in the Czech Republic

The thesis looks at the legal responses to prostitution in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic under State Socialism and in Transition, and the understanding of gender equality therein. It argues that both, the legal regimes and the understandings of prostitution, varied between these periods. Under State Socialism, professional prostitutes were criminally liable under provisions on parasitism. In Transition, the ‘boom’ of prostitution after 1989 lead to the adoption of containment provisions, the violation of which results in fines for prostitutes. While being repressive toward prostitute as a work-shirker, the Socialist State, inspired by Marxist ideology, had aspirations to eliminate prostitution, which it saw as exploitation of women. Policy influencing actors in Transition, on the other hand, have become resigned to its existence. Prostitution has been seen as pathological but inevitable. As prostitutes have been mostly considered agents making free choice, they have been treated as legitimate objects of containment, state regulation and control. Gender equality, it is argued, was insufficiently considered during both periods. Because feminists (the sex-work and the sexual domination positions) fundamentally disagree about the best legislative regime, the thesis chose to work with the standard of ‘well-being of the prostitute’. At least, this requires for prostitutes not to be treated worse than procurers or clients, for example with regards to administrative, health or criminal obligations and liability. The thesis argues that State Socialism as well as Transition failed this minimal test – both regimes are marked by an absence of feminist analysis of the phenomenon of prostitution and a legal conceptualization of it as a gender equality issue.

Keywords: post-communism
post-socialist transition
gender equality
prostitution
Advisor: Fredman, S
Neural vulnerability in models of Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with no known cure. This thesis explores the degenerative process in two neurotoxin-based models, the 6-hydroxydopamine and the chronic 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine(MPTP)/probenecid mouse models, to yield important information about the pathogenesis of PD.
Neuronal survival patterns in Parkinsonian patients and animals are heterogeneous. More dopaminergic neurons are lost from the ventral tier of the substantia nigra (SN) than from the dorsal tier or the adjacent ventral tegmental area, possibly due to differential expression of the calcium-binding protein, calbindin D28K. Brain sections were processed for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and calbindin (CB) immunocytochemistry to distinguish the dopaminergic subpopulations. I show that more TH+/CB- and TH-/CB+ than TH+/CB+ neurons are lost in both models, suggesting that CB confers some degree of protection for dopaminergic neurons. With respect to connectivity, I show that both TH+ and CB+ neurons receive striatal and dorsal raphe inputs.
I investigated the possibility of a progressive loss in midbrain neurons by prolonging the post-lesion survival period. In both models, there is an irreversible neuronal cell loss of TH+, CB+ and TH+/CB+ neurons but the effects of survival time and lesion treatments differ for the three neuronal types. The lesions also appear to be toxic to GABAergic neurons.
I explore whether, once neurodegeneration has started, neurons can be rescued by pharmacological intervention. Salicylic acid appears both to reduce microglial activation and significantly improve TH+, but not CB+ or TH+/CB+ neuronal survival.
PD appears multifactorial in origin and may involve complex interactions between genetic and environmental influences. I show that a xenobiotic-metabolising enzyme, arylamine N-acetyltransferase may fulfil a neuroprotective role in the SN by limiting the environmental risks. Taken together, this study provides a body of information on two different mouse PD models and highlights possible genetic predispositions to PD neuropathology.

Advisor: Totterdell, S
Physics of microorganism behaviour: motility, synchronisation, run-and-tumble, phototaxis.

Microorganisms have evolved in a low Reynolds number environment and have adapted their behaviour to its viscosity. Here, we consider some features of behaviour observed in microorganisms and use hydrodynamic models to show that these behaviours emerge from physical interactions, including hydrodynamic friction, hydrodynamic interactions and mechanical constraints.
Swimming behaviour is affected by surfaces and observations of Vibrio cholerae show that it swims near a surface with two distinct motility modes. We develop a model which shows that friction between pili and the surface gives the two motility modes. The model is extended to study the behaviour of bacteria which are partially attached to a surface. Observations of Shewanella constrained by a surface show several different behaviours. The model shows that different degrees of surface constraint lead to different types of behaviour; the flexibility of the flagellar hook and the torque exerted by the flagellar motor also cause different behaviours. Near surface behaviour is important for understanding the initial stages of biofilm formation.
Chlamydomonas swims using synchronous beating of its two flagella. A simple model of Chlamydomonas is developed to study motility and synchronisation. This model shows that the stability of synchronisation is sensitive to the beat pattern. Run-and-tumble behaviour emerges when we include intrinsic noise, without the need for biochemical signalling. The model is also used to show how observed responses of the flagella to light stimuli produce phototaxis. Finally we study hydrodynamic synchronisation of many cilia and consider the stability of metachronal waves in arrays of hydrodynamically coupled cilia.
This thesis shows that physical interactions are responsible for many behavioural features and that physical models provide a useful technique for exploring open questions in biology.

Keywords: Hydrodynamics
synchronisation
microorganism motility
Advisor: Golestanian, R
Immigration and public opinion in Europe: the case of the 2004 enlargement

After the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, large numbers of Central and Eastern Europeans moved to work in Western Europe. The aim of this thesis is to use the case of migration after the enlargement to further our understanding of the relationship between immigrant group size and natives’ attitudes. Recent scholarly debates raise questions about how immigration affects European societies and the political durability of European welfare states. This research puts forward two questions: Does an increase in Eastern European immigration after the enlargement explain differences in civic attitudes in Western Europe? And second, does this relationship (if any) depend on national contextual factors? The relationship between immigration and three categories of public attitudes are examined: attitudes towards immigration, attitudes towards welfare and attitudes of trust. This thesis draws on ethnic competition theory, which postulates that group competition over resources provokes the natives to perceive immigration as a threat to their own or their group’s interests. To test this theory, this study uses data from the European Social Survey from 2002 to 2010 to build multi-level pooled time series models. The results find only partial support for ethnic competition theory. When a greater proportion of E-8 migrants live in the country, individuals tend to have more positive views about immigration. The results also show that this positive relationship is weakened when national economic conditions are more precarious. Additionally, the results do not find that E8 migration is negatively related to Western European attitudes regarding trust or welfare. This implies that as more immigrants arrive, Europeans can potentially acknowledge immigration’s economic and cultural benefits. Moreover, these results challenge pessimistic scholarly predictions that immigration erodes trust and support for welfare in Europe. This thesis offers two academic contributions. First, it considers the case of E8 migration, which has been ignored by existing comparative attitudinal studies about immigration. Second, focusing on post-enlargement migration helps this thesis to overcome common empirical obstacles such as cross-country differences in immigrant composition and admission criteria.

Keywords: public opinion
immigration
enlargement
European Union
Advisor: Kemp, P
Need we kill to dissect? Attempt at a contextual approach to the EU economic freedoms

A different type of polity requires a different type of constitution; more importantly, it also requires a different way of thinking, a new constitutionalism able to address the relevant descriptive and normative questions facing this new political entity. This thesis tries to contribute to the development of EU constitutionalism by focusing on the interplay between the different normative concerns behind the EU’s market freedoms identified in traditional legal discourse – as results mainly from court decisions and academic discussions –, and the institutional environment which mediates the freedoms’ application. It is hypothesised that such interplay can be better understood by reference to the findings of some disciplines ‘external’ to internal legal discourses such as economics, philosophy, or political science. Normatively, it is hoped that debates concerning the market freedoms that take into account ‘external elements’ will be more attractive to the legal community than those that do not include such considerations. Descriptively, it is submitted that the incorporation of insights arising from these ‘external’ disciplines into the traditional modes of discourse and analysis on the EU market freedoms – in effect, the internalisation of these ‘external’ elements – can provide better descriptive fits of the law and its development than theories that do not take them into account. An incidental result of this approach is that by the end of this thesis a theory of the market freedoms will have been sketched: by combining ‘internal’ and ‘external’ elements, an analytical framework can be developed that is able to make descriptive sense, formally and substantively, of free movement law at both its most general – where formal common structures seem to be undeniable, and a minimum common substantive content can be found –, and at its most detailed levels – where substantive variations and greater normative specification seem to exist.

Keywords: EU law; Free Movement; Constitutional Law; Rights Theory; Intercontextuality
Advisor: Weatherill, S
Polymer carriers of toll-like receptor-7/8 agonists as vaccine adjuvants

There is currently a need for vaccine adjuvants that are effective for eliciting Th1-type CD4 and CD8 T cell responses when formulated with protein and peptide-based subunit vaccines. Some of the most promising adjuvants in this regard are combined small molecule Toll-like receptor-7/8 agonists (TLR-7/8a). However, poor pharmacokinetic properties have precluded TLR-7/8a for use in vaccines.
In this thesis, polymer carriers were used to control pharmacokinetics and to modulate activity of TLR-7/8a for use as vaccine adjuvants. Combinatorial synthesis and in vivo structure-activity studies were used to evaluate how properties of Polymer-TLR-7/8a conjugates (Poly-7/8a) influence innate immune activation in lymph nodes that drain the site of vaccine administration. The most striking finding was that particle formation by Poly-7/8a strongly enhances the magnitude and duration (>14 days) of innate immune activation in lymph nodes by restricting agonist biodistribution and promoting uptake by dendritic cells. Particle-forming Poly-7/8a optimized for activity were found to induce only local innate immune activation (not systemic) and were effective for eliciting Th1-type CD4 and CD8 T cells that mediated protection against infectious challenge. Based on the importance of particle formation for activity of Poly-7/8a, thermo-responsive Poly-7/8a were developed that exist as single water-soluble macromolecules in solution but undergo temperature-driven particle formation in vivo. In conclusion, polymer carriers of TLR-7/8a represent a versatile and effective platform for modulating innate immune activity and warrant further investigation as a class of adjuvants for vaccines.

Keywords: cellular immunology
nanobiotechnology
drug delivery
vaccines
adjuvants
polymer chemistry
Advisor: Seymour, L
The syntax and semantics of infinitives of result in English

This thesis concerns infinitives of result in English, examples of which are given under (a-c).
(a) John designed a battery to operate at high temperatures.
(b) John designed a battery to win a prize.
(c) John designed a battery for the competition, only to discover that he was ineligible.
The infinitive in (a) is called a Purpose Clause; the infinitive in (b) is called a Rationale Clause; and the infinitive in (c) is called a Telic Clause. These infinitives are optional modifiers of the verbs with which they occur. I argue, however, that important characteristics of their form and interpretation follow naturally if the infinitives are assumed to have argument structures which must be incorporated into the argument structure of the verb they modify.
In Chapter 1, I introduce the constructions and offer a general discussion of the problems posed by modifiers in a study of natural language semantics, arguing that these problems are best addressed by viewing modifiers as predicates of a standard sort. This establishes a central hypothesis of this thesis, namely that the syntax and semantics of modification should be incorporated into the theory of argument structure, or "theta theory".
In Chapter 2, I offer a summary of key works in the literature in two areas: theories of argument projection by Williams and Higginbotham and studies of infinitives of result by Faraci, Bach, Chierchia, and Jones. In Chapter 3, I apply a range of syntactic tests to establish the structural relation of the infinitives to the sentences they modify. I argue that the infinitives are embedded at an increasing distance from the modified verb, from which important characteristics of their distribution follow.
In Chapter 4, I turn to the internal syntax of the constructions and consider the nature and distribution of the gaps that occur within each infinitive and the manner in which those gaps are interpreted. I relate key characteristics of the infinitives to the nature of their argument grids. I also address constraints on interpretation introduced by pronominal binding in the infinitives.
In Chapter 5, I discuss a variety of problems on the syntax-semantics interface involving argument structure and control. The issues raised move from the relatively syntactic (phrase structure accounts of Purpose Clause antecedence and the possibility of event control for the Rationale and Telic Clauses) to the philosophical semantic (causal efficacy and the nature of resultant states in the interpretation of the Purpose Clause).
I then offer a full sample analysis of a sentence modified by all three infinitives of result. My conclusion points again to the importance of argument structure in an analysis of infinitives of result in particular and of modification in general.
Engineered α-hemolysin pores with chemically and genetically-fused functional proteins

Protein engineering could be used to bring two proteins together, which don't normally interact, in an oriented configuration. Using computer modelling and experimental work involving mutagenesis, a new dimer complex, (α7)2, was engineered with two α-hemolysin (αHL) heptamers (α7) units linked via disulfide bridges in a cap-to-cap orientation. The structure of (α7)2 was confirmed by biochemical analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and single-channel electrical recording. Importantly, it was shown that the one of two transmembrane  barrels of (α7)2 can insert into an attoliter liposome, while the other spans a planar lipid bilayer. (α7)2 pores spanning two bilayers were also observed by TEM. In potential, (α7)2 could be used for small molecule transfer between micron-sized vesicles (minimal cells) and would have applications in forming proto-tissues from minimal cells. Another target has been to couple a highly processive exonuclease, λ-exonuclease (λ-exo), which functions as a trimer, with the α7 pore for DNA sequencing and single molecule studies of λ-exo. Several genetic fusion constructs of λ-exo and αHL were screened and optimized for activity. By linking the N-terminus of λ-exo monomer to the C-terminus of the αHL monomer (α1), a new kind of processive exonuclease (AE) was synthesized that can form pores in bilayers. AE and wild-type α1 could be integrated into hetero-heptamers with different number of AE subunits. To achieve a hetero-heptamer with only one λ-exo trimer molecule mounted on the αHL cap, a concatemer of 2 λ-exo (exo3) was made by genetically linking the monomers of λ-exo with 15 and 17 amino acid linkers. The immediate next step is to link exo3 to α1 and then to co-assemble the exo3-α1 fusion construct with α1 to make the λ-exo-αHL pore complex. Using similar strategies as described in this thesis, other proteins could be linked to αHL increasing the scope of the nanopore technology.

Advisor: Bayley, H
Obeloi and iron in archaic Greece

This thesis studies spits and iron in Archaic Greece and Cyprus. Chapter One surveys previous research on spits and iron. Chapters Two to Six consider the evidence for spits in detail with the following agenda: who used them, when, where, for what, how, and what were their associations? Chapters Two, Three and Four focus on archaeological finds from funerary, settlement and sanctuary contexts respectively. Chapter Five looks at the iconographic evidence, and Chapter Six deals with written references to spits in inscriptions and literary texts.
Throughout these chapters, the ancient tradition that spits were used as a favoured form of pre-coinage money is considered carefully. It is concluded that the material evidence fails to support this interpretation, and that the tradition was invented in the fourth century. Nevertheless, denominations of coins were named after spits, and it is hypothesised that this resulted from the appropriation of spits and bundles of spits as visual analogies with which to describe the relationship between obols and drachmas.
Chapter Seven observes that in Aegean Greece and Cyprus, metal spits were manufactured exclusively from iron from the tenth /ninth century onwards. Moreover, they were one of the largest of a range of new iron types to be introduced during the Early Iron Age, were manufactured from high quality metal, and were a long-lived type. As such, they offer an "index" of the value of iron.
Chapter Eight uses this index to argue that, contrary to established views, the high Late Bronze Age value of iron persisted into the tenth century, and though it declined thereafter, it did so gradually. Moreover, iron did not become a cheap alternative to bronze. These conclusions have important ramifications for the interpretation of the transition from bronze to iron. Chapter Nine provides a brief summary of the thesis.