VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Fragmented Truth

This thesis comprises three main chapters—each comprising one relatively standalone paper. The unifying theme is fragmentalism about truth, which is the view that the predicate “true” either expresses distinct concepts or expresses distinct properties.
In Chapter 1, I provide a formal development of alethic pluralism. Pluralism is the view that there are distinct truth properties associated with distinct domains of subject matter, where a truth property satisfies certain truth-characterizing principles. On behalf of pluralists, I propose an account of logic and semantics that shows how they can answer central conceptual and logical challenges for their view.
In Chapter 2, I motivate and develop a modal account of propositions on the basis of an iterative conception of propositions, where the modality is logico-mathematical. The modal account of propositions takes the conception to motivate an inherently potential hierarchy of propositions. I show that the account helps provide satisfying solutions to the intensional paradoxes of Russell-Myhill, Kaplan, and Prior.
In Chapter 3, I propose that “true” is polysemous. I suggest that “true” is initially polysemous between correspondence truth and disquotational truth, and further polysemous between the meanings corresponding to the subconcepts of the concept truth generated by the indefinite extensibility of that concept. I show that the proposal provides satisfying solutions to the semantic paradoxes.

Keywords: Pluralism
Paradoxes
Truth
Logic
Advisor: Williamson, T
Halbach, V
Cavity-Enhanced Detection of Biologically Relevant Magnetic Field Effects

Magnetoreception is the ability of some animals to use the weak magnetic field of the Earth for navigation over long-distance migrations. It is a well-known phenomenon, but its underlying biophysical mechanisms remain poorly understood. One proposal involves light-induced, magnetically sensitive chemical reactions occurring within cryptochrome proteins, rationalised via the radical pair mechanism (Chapter 1). The absence of evidence in support of this hypothesis is in part due to the lack of sufficiently sensitive techniques to measure magnetic field effects (MFEs) in biological samples.
Cavity-enhanced detection, most commonly in the form of cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) or cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS), is widely used in the gas phase to provide significant sensitivity gains over traditional single-pass measurements (Chapter 2). However, successful studies in the condensed phase are less prevalent due to the additional background losses inherent to the sample.
This thesis reports on the application of broadband (i.e. monitoring > 100nm) variants of CRDS and CEAS to the study of MFEs on the radical recombination reactions of flavin-based systems in solution. The broadband CRDS (BBCRDS) instrument employed in Chapter 4 is able to monitor the spectral changes induced by magnetic fields with submicrosecond time resolution. However, the need to scan both the probe wavelength and time delay to construct time-resolved spectra leads to prohibitively long acquisition times, and hence exposure of sensitive samples to high numbers of photons. The broadband CEAS (BBCEAS) studies reported in Chapter 5 combine the high irradiance and spectral coverage of a supercontinuum radiation (SCR) source with a CCD detector to simultaneously acquire absorption spectra across the visible region (480–700nm). The CW nature of this technique precludes the possibility of following radical pair kinetics in real time.
In an effort to combine the respective advantages of these two instruments, which individually have represented powerful advances in capability, a new cavity-enhanced technique is reported for the first time (Chapter 6). The result, optical cavity-enhanced transient absorption spectroscopy (OCTAS), is able to simultaneously monitor spectral evolution and associated MFEs on the microsecond timescale, with comparable sensitivity to the existing techniques.
Magnetic responses in animal cryptochrome proteins have successfully been recorded using all three techniques, lending considerable weight to the hypothesis that these molecules are at the heart of the magnetic sense in animals.

Keywords: Radical Pairs
Magnetoreception
Magnetic Field Effects
Spin Chemistry
Cavity-enhanced Spectroscopy
Cryptochromes
Advisor: Mackenzie, S
The human medial temporal lobe, brain connectivity, and recognition memory

The brain is made up of networks of brain regions that interact through white matter fibre tracts. These pathways are collections of thousands of axons and are vital for the successful functioning of the brain. The recent development of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has made it possible to investigate the integrity of these tracts in the human brain, whilst advances in the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data have enabled the functional interaction between brain regions to be assessed. The first aim of this thesis was to investigate one of the main white matter tracts of the medial temporal lobe (MTL), a region of the brain that has been implicated in long-term memory (LTM) functioning. Specifically, the relationship between the microstructural integrity of the fornix, the major efferent of the hippocampus, and recognition memory performance (as assessed by an experimental task) was explored in young adults (Chapter 2). Our results showed that the ability of young adults on recollection, but not familiarity, memory correlated significantly with fornix microstructural integrity. These results speak to theories of MTL function and highlight a role for the hippocampus in recollection. In Chapter 3, it was investigated whether variations in fornix microstructure in young adults are also associated with differences in recall and recognition memory abilities as measured by standard psychometric memory tests. Although aspects of the results from this work converged with those from the first study, an inconsistent pattern of findings was observed overall, perhaps reflecting the relative insensitivity of the standard memory tests used. Next, the consequences of organic brain damage to MTL regions on white matter and resting-state functional connectivity of the brain were investigated in two amnesic patients with focal MTL lesions (Chapter 4). DTI and resting-state fMRI revealed that, compared to age-matched neurologically healthy controls, a patient with gross MTL damage had significant white matter changes in her fornix and right uncinate fasciulus, and also reduced functional connectivity between brain regions associated with the posterior hippocampus resting-state network. Surprisingly, a patient with selective bilateral damage to the hippocampus did not have any significant changes to her resting-state networks or white matter integrity. Finally, a large scale behavioural study was conducted to determine whether a single cognitive training task could be created to improve LTM. This was the first stage of a project designed to determine whether the improvement of LTM via cognitive training is supported by changes in white matter integrity and functional connectivity (Chapter 5). It was found that extensive cognitive training in young adults on a complex spatial working memory task was able to stimulate improvements in recognition memory in some participants. The limitations and implications of the findings from all of the aforementioned studies are considered in the concluding chapter (Chapter 6).

Advisor: Lee, A
Nobre, K
Narrative battles: competing discourses and diplomacies of Sudan's "southern problem", 1961-1991

This dissertation explores the discursive and diplomatic feud between Southern Sudanese rebels in exile and the Sudanese government from 1961 to 1991. It argues that the discursive battle waged for international legitimacy represents a strategic, but often overlooked aspect of the wars in Southern Sudan. The "Southern Problem" – a popular phrase for the series of debates surrounding the political status of Southern Sudan, as a region of a unitary Sudan, an autonomous part of a federal Sudan or an independent state – constituted the focus of the feud. The thesis traces the competing constructions of the "Problem" by a series of rebel groups from Southern Sudan and Sudanese governments, specifically designed for international audiences, and how they interacted abroad. During the thirty-year window, 1961-1991, in which the global Cold War served as the backdrop, the thesis shows that each of the discursive competitors drew on lexicons and logics that were internationally resonant during those historical moments, which rendered the "Southern Problem" legible to various audiences. It charts the shifting discourses constructed amidst the intellectual ferments of Pan-Africanism, Black liberation politics, decolonisation, and socialist internationalism.
The thesis traces the construction, dissemination, reception and reproduction of these discourses, through a variety of uneven networks. It shows how they were refracted through the local politics of audiences, and were reframed over time for a variety of political purposes. These discourses were consequential abroad: they informed diplomatic action and efficacy; rebel discourses in particular shaped the political subjectivities of ordinary Southern Sudanese refugees and rebels in exile. By using the large corpus of rebel writings and of Sudan's diplomatic texts, as well as oral history and memoirs, the thesis addresses questions neglected in the literatures regarding the intellectual and socio-historical aspects of the transnational relations of Southern Sudanese rebels.

Advisor: Alexander, J
A ‘parade of nobodies’?: Antony Gormley’s One and Other project

This thesis uses different research methods and sources to investigate Antony Gormley's participatory artwork One and Other, 2009. It starts with a discussion of participatory art practice, which provides a backdrop to the main thesis topic. Gormley's One and Other is introduced as aspiring to enact a form of direct democracy. However it is noted that aspects of Gormley’s artwork limited rather than extended a form of direct democracy. A considered description of One and Other is progressed, the result of which is a reconsideration of One and Other as a complex artwork with plurality at its centre. The concept of civil society is introduced. Its structuring around private and public realms, as well as its end goals of individual autonomy and voluntary association, make it the ideal context within which to comprehend One and Other. This points the way to a reappraisal of One and Other and its place within participatory art. In conclusion the thesis asks for One and Other to be reconsidered. Despite its manifest defects, One and Other was a genuinely interesting artwork in which competing forces and different identities productively developed, together. Even though it seemed an unlikely candidate, One and Other has a lot to offer participatory art and those who wish to use this field of art to develop democratic agendas. Ultimately it is the mixed nature of One and Other, framed through the multi-faceted nature of civil society, that produces the artwork's democratic effect and not the aspiration to realise an archaic form of direct democracy. Paradoxically One and Other did achieve its desire to enable men and women to 'self-realise' and 'self-represent', but the path to this goal was contradictory and imperfect.

Advisor: Bull, M
Catalytic asymmetric reactions employing chiral cations

This thesis describes two new phase-transfer catalysed processes, in which asymmetry is mediated via ion-pairing with a chiral cation. In the first chapter, an enantioselective method for N functionalization of pyrroles is described and a phase-transfer catalysed approach to axial chirality via a cation-directed SNAr reaction is discussed in Chapters 3, 4 and 5.

Keywords: Axial Chirality
Enantioselective
Biaryl
Phase Transfer
Atropisomerism
Catalysis
Advisor: Smith, M
Spirituality and the everyday: a history of the cistercian convent of Günterstal in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

This thesis explores the evolving history of the Cistercian convent of Günterstal in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is structured around the anointing of the Last Rites of a Günterstal nun who was blessed on her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, heart and feet. The thesis takes each body part as a symbol for understanding the changing environment and practices of the convent, especially the relationship between the nuns' spiritual and everyday lives, and the ways in which the nuns interacted with the world outside.
It argues that the nuns developed a spirituality in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries which was closely connected with the everyday world around them in a series of practices which went into decline following the criticism of the Reformation. Many of these were strategies developed by the nuns themselves for breaking down boundaries between convent and world. Attempts at revival in the later sixteenth century of convent life sought to heighten the distance between the convent and the world, in part by developing new forms of internalised spirituality. Yet these attempts at reform were made more difficult by the conflicting interests of those who sought change, the criticism which had come before, and the response of the nuns themselves.
The thesis analyses a number of different external symbols of convent life, from the spaces they inhabited to the objects they handled, and shows how these represented a number of different values of what it meant to be a nun in this period, values which did not always sit easily with each other. Günterstal maintained a noble character throughout this period and the social profile of its inhabitants often jarred with the push towards religious uniformity. This thesis shows that the symbolic value of these markers became increasingly heightened over the sixteenth century and took on new forms as a direct result of the attack on the convent way of life in the Reformation.

Keywords: Günterstal
Christian literature, German
Freiburg im Breisgau
Cistercians
Reformation
Late medieval, 1400-1500
Convents
Advisor: Roper, L
Who cares? Analysing the place of children in maternal sentencing decisions in England and Wales

When children face separation from their parents as a consequence of state action in the family courts, their best interests are the paramount consideration of the court and they have legal representation. Children who face separation from their mother as a consequence of sentencing proceedings in the criminal courts are neither represented nor acknowledged. The thesis analyses this differentiated treatment and explores its consequences for children, society and the state.
Explanations for the differentiated treatment are tested with reference to existing literature and original empirical research. The impact on children of imprisoned mothers is investigated to determine whether or not they suffer harm. The parameters of the state duty of care towards children are explored, to see if children of defendant mothers fall outside of it, and the way sentencing judges construct and interpret their duty towards mothers and their children within the sentencing process is examined.
This thesis establishes that without legal or moral justification, children of maternal defendants are treated without the concern given to children who face separation from their parents in the family courts. Children of defendant mothers suffer as a consequence of the 'secondary prisonisation', 'secondary stigmatisation' and 'confounding grief' which they experience, and the state has failed to uphold their rights under Articles 3, 12 and 20, and is in breach of its duty under Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. The guidance and mechanisms for considering their welfare exist but are not engaged with by the sentencing courts, local authorities, legislators or policy makers. This has negative consequences for children, their caregivers and wider society. The thesis concludes with consideration of the implications of these findings for the state and suggests changes to ensure equitable treatment of children of defendant mothers in England and Wales.

Keywords: Crime and the family
sentencing
Sentencing of mothers
women's imprisonment
Prisoner's Families
Children of Prisoners
Advisor: Condry, R
Functional lung assessment using hyperpolarised xenon gas magnetic resonance imaging

Purpose
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide. The standard method for assessing lung function in COPD is spirometry, which provides global lung function information but is a poor predictor of disability and quality of life. The overall aim of this thesis is to develop utility of hyperpolarised xenon gas magnetic resonance imaging (HP 129Xe-MRI) as a technique to evaluate regional lung function.
Methods
Studies were approved by the National Research Ethics Service (NRES). Eleven volunteers and 25 patients with COPD underwent HP 129Xe-MRI, pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and quantitative computerised tomography (QCT). Gravitational-dependent gradients of HP 129Xe-MRI were compared between prone and supine postures in healthy volunteers. Lobar quantification of HP 129Xe-MRI was completed in COPD patients, who also underwent time-resolved HP 129Xe-MRI and HP 129Xe-MRI pre- and post-salbutamol to determine feasibility of detecting regional delayed ventilation and post-intervention change. The relationship between study measures was assessed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient.
Results
HP 129Xe-MR ventilation gradients were more marked in the supine than prone posture in healthy volunteers, whereas diffusion-weighted gradients were more uniform. HP 129Xe-MRI was successfully quantified according to pulmonary lobes and correlated with lobar lung anatomy (QCT) and global functional transfer capability (TLCO) (r=-0.61, p&LT;0.005). Delayed ventilation was observed with time-resolved breath-hold HP 129Xe-MRI. Differential regional ventilation change was detected with HP 129Xe-MRI post-salbutamol.
Conclusion
These data demonstrate technical optimisation of HP 129Xe-MRI in healthy volunteers and COPD patients. Successful generation of lobar HP 129Xe-MRI parameters offers an automated analysis method that can be adopted into the clinical workflow. Finally proof-of-principle data have identified roles for HP 129Xe-MRI in evaluating regional treatments and assessing therapeutic response. Future work will evaluate the role of HP 129Xe-MRI in patient selection for lung volume reduction therapy and as a surrogate end-point in drug development studies.

Keywords: Functional lung imaging
Hyperpolarised xenon gas MRI
Advisor: Gleeson, F
A complicated compassion: the paradox of sympathy in Mary Shelley's fiction

This study explores the formation and evolution of Mary Shelley’s philosophy of sympathy, one which she continued to revise and refine throughout her lifetime. Her novels, journals, and letters reveal a persistent desire to understand what she perceived to be a deeply fraught emotion, a moral sentiment grounded in paradox. Engaging with the Moral Sense philosophy of Anthony Ashley Cooper, the third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713), Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), David Hume (1711-1776), and Adam Smith (1723-1790), Shelley insists that sympathy lies at the very heart of our ethical being, encouraging recognition of and respect for the other. Yet, as she demonstrates in her fiction—from Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) to Falkner (1837)—when felt to excess, sympathy can mutate into an unnatural and harmful emotion capable of provoking antisocial, immoral, incestuous, and even suicidal behaviour. More than this, Shelley’s investigation of sympathy exposes its serious limitations. Predicated on a similarity to self, sympathy, Shelley suggests, often fails when confronted with difference. Finally, through multiple perspectives, Shelley illustrates the complex and contradictory motivations behind sympathy, showing that it can arise from genuine benevolence, self-interest, or a combination of the two, an entangling of intentions that serves to further complicate this moral sentiment. Ultimately, Shelley’s philosophy of sympathy acknowledges its shortcomings and potential dangers but nonetheless celebrates sympathy as a social virtue, as the locus of our moral selves.

Keywords: Mary Shelley
Suicide
Sympathy
Advisor: Newlyn, L
The role of interleukin 33 in intestinal homeostasis

IL-33 is a pleiotropic cytokine that orchestrates both innate and adaptive immunity. It is commonly associated with type 2 immune responses but recently expression of the IL-33 receptor, ST2, was reported on Treg cells found preferentially in non-lymphoid tissues, such as the visceral adipose tissue, muscle or colon. A crucial role of Tregs in maintaining intestinal homeostasis has been well described. However, little is known about the functional relevance of the ST2-expressing Treg population in the colon.
Phenotypic and functional characterisation of Tregs in the gut revealed the presence of two distinct populations: ST2+/Gata3+ and Rorγt+ Tregs. Thymic-derived ST2+/Gata3+ Tregs showed a more activated phenotype and produced IL-10 under homeostatic conditions. Upon microbial challenge and colitis, ST2+/Gata3+ Tregs were decreased, while Rorγt+ Tregs expanded. Furthermore, in vitro experiments demonstrated that IL-33 directly induced activation of the Gata3 pathway in Tregs, which enhanced expression of Foxp3 and ST2. Additionally, amphiregulin was also induced in Tregs upon stimulation with IL-33. However, in vivo, IL-33 was dispensable for both the maintenance of Treg cells under homeostatic conditions and Treg function in Helicobacter hepaticus−driven colitis. Investigation of the negative regulators of IL-33 showed that IL-23 inhibited IL-33-mediated effects on Tregs. We also observed increased production of soluble ST2 by stromal cells during intestinal inflammation, which likely contributed to the reduction of IL-33 bioavailability. Finally, a systematic analysis of the cellular source of IL-33 revealed that PDGRFα+ stromal cells located in the T cell zone of secondary and tertiary lymphoid tissues were a major IL-33-producing cell population in the gut.
Collectively, our findings suggest that signals received by the stromal compartment upon cell injury may trigger a specific phenotype of Tregs with a repair capacity, and thus, promote intestinal homeostasis. These findings improve our understanding of tissue-resident Tregs and open an exciting avenue to explore heterocellular signalling between stromal cells and Tregs.

Keywords: Regulatory T cells
Interleukin 33
Intestinal homeostasis
Advisor: Powrie, F