VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Student politics in Gujarat: 1967 - 1985

This thesis is an attempt to write a history of student politics between 1967 and 1985 in Gujarat, India, and while doing so, understand the role played by it in the rise of the Sangh Parivar (Sangh) in the state. While there were a number of other factors at play, it is the role of student politics, regarding which there has been little research, in aiding the Sangh’s expansion and development up to this point that is sought to be examined.
Using primarily, hitherto unexamined, written official and non-official sources in English, Gujarati, and Hindi the thesis attempts to, in the first two chapters, provide a comprehensive history of student politics in Gujarat between 1967 and 1985. From this, in Chapter 3, certain characteristics of student politics during this time are sought to be established such as the unorganised nature of student politics, an aversion to “politics” being prevalent even in the most political of agitations, the decline in influence, over time, of progressive groups within the student body and the role of police action in escalating student protests. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on the Sangh, its relationship with student politics and its interventions in Gujarat respectively. Chapter 4 explores the organisation of the ABVP, its position in the Sangh’s organisational structure as well as the strategies and tactics employed for the organisational expansion of the ABVP, focusing especially on the ways in which service activities were utilised and the image of the ABVP being “non-political” and an “organisation with a difference” was sought to be built. Chapter 5 explores the interventions of the Sangh in student politics of Gujarat. The tactics utilised for its early expansion, the claims related to its involvement in the Navnirman Agitation which form a central part of Sangh hagiography, the increasing influence of the Sangh in student politics after the Navnirman Agitation and the methods utilised by the Sangh in engaging with the two anti reservation agitations, with a particular focus on the student component of these agitations are sought to be understood.
The thesis argues that student politics contributed in various ways and at different times to the rise of the Sangh- from allowing it to re-gain legitimacy to creating conditions for it to escalate what was initially a minor student protest into an agitation involving widespread caste and communal violence lasting almost six months.

Keywords: Gujarat
Hindu nationalism
students
Navnirman
Sangh
student politics
Advisor: Gollin, D
An assemblage and material agency approach to the function of jades in a mortuary context: the case of Fu Hao's tomb in late Shang China

This research investigates the function of jades from “Fu Hao’s tomb”, a late Shang burial (c. 1200 BC) in central China. Contrary to previous typological approaches, this research argues that the function of jades should be examined in specific context, and the burial itself should be considered as a context of jade use in the past. It applies recently developed assemblage thinking and material agency in archaeological theories to study the role of jades in this context. By asking research questions — “who”, where, when, how, and why in terms of the participation of these jades in the burial process, this research regards the role of jades as participants in the creation of the past, instead of merely human affiliations. Through this new theoretical lens, this context of jade use is understood as an assemblage of both human and nonhuman actors, who/which gathered for the transformational rites of passage of the deceased. Through an examination of the material properties of jade, this research analyses possible ways in which jades could have taken part within the assemblage in relation to both human and nonhuman others. Based on their position inside the tomb, this research argues that while involved in multiple stages of the burial ceremony, jades were used in close association with the tomb occupant in this burial. They could have facilitated the transformation of the social status and social relations of the person, constituted composite objects as either their accessory or defining parts, and added to the whole assemblage by improving its status. This research aims to contribute to the contemporary discussion on the role of material things in the world in general.

Keywords: assemblage
jade
Late Shang China
material agency
Advisor: Gosden, C
Deep generative models for biology: represent, predict, design

Deep generative models have revolutionized the field of artificial intelligence, fundamentally changing how we generate novel objects that imitate or extrapolate from training data, and transforming how we access and consume various types of information such as texts, images, speech, and computer programs. They have the potential to radically transform other scientific disciplines, ranging from mathematical problem solving, to supporting fast and accurate simulations in high-energy physics or enabling rapid weather forecasting. In computational biology, generative models hold immense promise for improving our understanding of complex biological processes, designing new drugs and therapies, and forecasting viral evolution during pandemics, among many other applications. Biological objects pose however unique challenges due to their inherent complexity, encompassing massive spaces, multiple complementary data modalities, and a unique interplay between highly structured and relatively unstructured components.
In this thesis, we develop several deep generative modeling frameworks that are motivated by key questions in computational biology. Given the interdisciplinary nature of this endeavor, we first provide a comprehensive background in generative modeling, uncertainty quantification, sequential decision making, as well as important concepts in biology and chemistry to facilitate a thorough understanding of our work. We then deep dive into the core of our contributions, which are structured around three chapters. The first chapter introduces methods for learning representations of biological sequences, laying the foundation for subsequent analyses. The second chapter illustrates how these representations can be leveraged to predict complex properties of biomolecules, focusing on three specific applications: protein fitness prediction, the effects of genetic variations on human disease risk and viral immune escape. Finally, the third chapter is dedicated to methods for designing novel biomolecules, including drug target identification, de novo molecular optimization, and protein engineering.
This thesis also makes several methodological contributions to broader machine learning challenges, such as uncertainty quantification in high-dimensional spaces or efficient transformer architectures, which hold potential value in other application domains. We conclude by summarizing our key findings, highlighting shortcomings of current approaches, proposing potential avenues for future research, and discussing emerging trends within the field.

Keywords: generative models
computational biology
protein modeling
deep learning
protein engineering
Advisor: Gal, Y
Restitution for a failure of condition

This thesis examines the justification for restitutionary awards for a failure of condition and considers when, given this justification, such awards should be made. It is argued that restitutionary awards for a failure of condition give effect to, but do not enforce, an agreement between the parties. As to when such awards should be made, it is argued that restitution for a failure of condition should generally be awarded where C and D agreed that D’s entitlement against C to a payment made by C to D, a performance of a service by C for D, or transfer of a right from C to D remained subject to a condition and that condition has failed. It is further demonstrated that where D’s entitlement against C to the transfer of a right was subject to a condition that has now failed, D may come under a restitutionary duty to transfer a right to C, which a court may specifically enforce.

Keywords: restitution
failure of condition
agreements
Advisor: McFarlane, B
From demonetisation to Covid-19: Insights on the dynamics between informality and financial inclusion from the city of Kolkata, India

The policy of demonetisation (2016) and outbreak of Covid-19 (2020) that accelerated digitalisation were claimed by the Indian government as two events that would reduce the role of informality as a barrier to financial inclusion. This thesis challenges this top-down narrative through a bottom-up approach, based on quantitative and qualitative data collected over eight months of fieldwork in the city of Kolkata, India.
Drawing on existing literature on informality, financial inclusion, and their relations shaped by multiple and intersecting social factors, the thesis develops an analytical framework for assessing the role of informality in financial inclusion with empirical evidence collected in the field. The scope of the concept of financial inclusion is broadened to cover the access to and use of a wide range of traditional and digital financial services. Three forms of informality— economic, urban, and financial—are specified and a typology of financial informality is advanced to explain its more complex implications for financial inclusion. This thesis also improves the theoretical rationale for the linkages between informality and other intersecting social factors, including class, gender, occupation, education, and age, and identifies systemic challenges to financial inclusion that are unrecognised or underestimated by the government.
Empirical research finds that while Demonetisation and Covid-19 managed to reduce some forms of financial informality associated with the use of cash in saving, payment, and borrowing through their catalytic effects on digitalisation, other informal financial practices persisted or even increased, serving as substitutes for or supplements to insufficient and dysfunctional formal ones. There also persisted economic and urban informality, intersecting social inequalities, and systemic failures as barriers to broad-based financial inclusion. These serve to counter the narrative of the government that ignored other impact mechanisms of these two events and exaggerated the welfare effects of digitalisation.

Advisor: McCartney, M
Whittaker, H
Bhatia, J
B cells, T cells and sepsis: understanding the adaptive immune response

Sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction resulting from a dysregulated host response to infection. Globally, sepsis is responsible for 11 million deaths each year and is the most common reason for admission to adult intensive care units (ICUs) in the UK. Despite its significant impact, there are currently no sepsis specific treatments targeting the host response. Sepsis is associated with high mortality, estimated at 30% for the initial episode, and around 15% of survivors die within the following year. Healthcare-associated or secondary infections and recurrent sepsis are common causes of long-term mortality, suggesting that persistent alterations in adaptive immunity contribute to the detrimental effects of sepsis. A greater understanding of underlying disease mechanisms is paramount for reducing the associated socio-economic burden.
To elucidate the adaptive immune response in sepsis, I have conducted the first comprehensive longitudinal study of the B and T cell receptor (B/TCR) repertoire using high-throughput multiplex PCR and next generation sequencing (NGS). Seventy-two patients with sepsis and twelve matched healthy controls were sampled at three time points, days one, three and five, post-ICU admission to understand the dynamic immune response. Patients were recruited as part of the UK Genomic Advances in Sepsis (GAinS) study.
As part of this thesis, I developed an optimised data dimensional reduction pipeline called repertoire (r) WGCNA which utilises weighted gene correlation network analysis. I demonstrate how rWGCNA can be used to identify a small number of modules which capture the combined effect of several correlated immune repertoire features (e.g. diversity and V gene usage). By applying conventional statistical analysis, I used these modules to characterise the alterations to the adaptive immune repertoire during sepsis, effectively distinguishing between health and disease. Additionally, I identified repertoire features with significant associations to clinical variables, Sepsis Response Signatures (SRS), and mortality, focusing on novel biology and generating hypotheses for future research.
Finally, by integrating matched bulk RNA sequencing data from whole blood, I identified genes and pathways associated with various aspects of the adaptive immune response, including clonal expansion and diversification. These findings provide a foundation for future research aimed at understanding the pathophysiology of sepsis.

Keywords: TCR repertoire
BCR repertoire
immunology
sepsis
Advisor: Knight, J
Bashford-Rogers, R
Mathematical models of filtration

Filtration is the removal of particles from a fluid suspension by forcing it, either using a constant flow rate or pressure drop, through a porous material, which causes particles to become captured in the pores. Filtration using membranes is a well-studied industrial process with multiple important applications. Experimental observations of particle–pore interactions to gain insight into the filtration process are difficult and sometimes destructive. Some existing mathematical approaches either ignore important microscale information, such as the particle- and pore-size distribution or the connectivity of the pores, or are too computationally expensive for filter scale experiments. In this thesis we motivate, derive, solve, and discuss three novel models for particle filtration: (I) A size-structured model. In this work, the particle and pore sizes are treated as independent variables, which gives rise to a system of partial integro–differential equations within which the filter is treated as a macroscale continuum. We demonstrate that consideration of size structure allows for greater understanding of the filtration process; (II) A network model. Here, the filter is treated as a network composed of pores, which are modelled as edges, and junctions between pores, which are modelled as nodes. The connectivity of the network changes as particles deposit in pores. This gives rise to a system of ordinary algebraic–differential equations for variables defined at each pore and junction of the network. We show that this consideration of the structure of the microscale leads to physically intuitive behaviour of macroscale quantities, such as the flow rate and pressure; (III) A multiscale model. In this work, we extend the method of network homogenisation to apply to networks whose connectivity varies in time. We use this to derive a system of partial differential equations defined on the continuous macroscale geometry that is coupled, via its parameters, with variables that are defined on the discrete network that defines the microscale. We show that solutions of this multiscale model match those of the network model from (II) in a particular asymptotic limit, even though they are obtained at considerably reduced computational cost. These three models increase our understanding of the filtration process. The computational tractability of the models means that they are suitable candidates for filtration process optimisation tasks that involve repeated solution in future work.

Keywords: homogenisation
differential equations
mathematics
size structured
filtration
simulation
multiscale model
mathematical
dynamical systems
asymptotic analysis
network model
industrial mathematics
network homogenisation
modelling
age structured
models
Advisor: Breward, C
Chapman, S
Griffiths, I
The independent curator: origins, politics, problems & prospects

This thesis is the first study of the now widespread phenomenon of the ‘independent curator,’ specifically focusing on the pioneering figure of Harald Szeemann (1933–2005).
Traditionally, curators have been custodians of permanent collections in museums or similar institutions, tasked with preserving, researching, and exhibiting them. The 1960s, however, saw a new breed of independent curators emerge who appropriated creative and authorial roles that had previously been the domain of artists alone. Emancipated from any specific gallery and its holdings, these new curators have become freelancers who travel the world, capitalizing on their vast network of connections to stage themed exhibitions with artworks sourced from a variety of artists, collectors, and galleries.
Hitherto art historical writing has paradoxically heroized these independent curators as either ‘genius’ figures or, by complete contrast, forerunners of today’s precarious labourers. My thesis instead situates them as interlocutors in the debates over autonomy and authorship that embroiled not only artistic-cultural circles, but, more broadly, a post-war society that increasingly embraced neoliberal theories of individuality and subjectivity. By examining curation during the 1960s and 1970s, this thesis demonstrates that Szeemann’s exhibitions straddled two competing political strains: burgeoning neoliberal theory and the more Utopian/Anarchic/communitarian ideas that still infuse notions of artistic freedom.
This thesis’ narrative of curatorial independence, however, also recognizes the potential of curators and their exhibitions to be instrumentalized for political ends. Its particular case study is the museological projects that aimed, first, to support the government of Salvador Allende in Chile, and then to restore democracy after the coup d’état of 1973. Tracing curation’s subsequent deterioration into a self-reflexive and academic endeavour, the thesis calls for greater awareness of curation’s political entanglement, before examining the challenges it continues to face.

Advisor: Gardner, A
Gaiger, J
The role played by ethics in the decision-making process of senior leaders: a study of health care during an extreme crisis

This dissertation researches ‘do senior leaders incorporate ethics into their decision-making during extreme crises and, if so, how?’ The research question arose from identifying a gap related to decision-making involving ethics in the ethics, leadership and crisis literature.
The research initially investigated whether and how ethical considerations were incorporated into the decision-making of 15 senior leaders. The interviewees included Australia’s health minister, a health department head, MDs of commercial organisations, and CEOs in national border force, child protection and emergency management.
Following the first findings, and consistent with grounded theory, the research proceeded to a 15-month case study at the second-largest public hospital in Australia, Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH). The case study involved over 45 interviews with a total of 16 senior leaders, including senior nurses, clinicians and a social worker. This was the only non-medical research permitted at RMH during the pandemic. This privileged access enabled an in-depth analysis of senior leaders’ decision-making at key phases of the COVID-19 crisis.
The research finds that the senior leaders drew upon multiple forms of ethics and adapted their ethics-based practices while making decisions. They included ethics in their decision-making to lead change in the crisis. These key findings contribute to the literature and extend current knowledge as to how senior leaders engage in ethics-based decision-making.
The thesis also makes a practical contribution to the field of ethics-based decision-making by setting out an original decision-making framework that is intended to assist senior leaders to make ethics-based decisions in highly pressured situations as experienced in a crisis.

Keywords: ethics
senior leaders
decision-making
crisis
Advisor: Michie, J
Thompson, M
Mathematical foundations for a compositional account of the Bayesian brain

This dissertation reports some first steps towards a compositional account of active inference and the Bayesian brain. Specifically, we use the tools of contemporary applied category theory to supply functorial semantics for approximate inference. To do so, we define on the 'syntactic' side the new notion of Bayesian lens and show that Bayesian updating composes according to the compositional lens pattern. Using Bayesian lenses, and inspired by compositional game theory, we define fibrations of statistical games and classify various problems of statistical inference as corresponding sections: the chain rule of the relative entropy is formalized as a strict section, while maximum likelihood estimation and the free energy give lax sections. In the process, we introduce a new notion of 'copy-composition'.
On the 'semantic' side, we present a new formalization of general open dynamical systems (particularly: deterministic, stochastic, and random; and discrete- and continuous-time) as certain coalgebras of polynomial functors, which we show collect into monoidal opindexed categories (or, alternatively, into algebras for multicategories of generalized polynomial functors). We use these opindexed categories to define monoidal bicategories of 'cilia': dynamical systems which control lenses, and which supply the target for our functorial semantics. Accordingly, we construct functors which explain the bidirectional compositional structure of predictive coding neural circuits under the free energy principle, thereby giving a formal mathematical underpinning to the bidirectionality observed in the cortex. Along the way, we explain how to compose rate-coded neural circuits using an algebra for a multicategory of linear circuit diagrams, showing subsequently that this is subsumed by lenses and polynomial functors.
Because category theory is unfamiliar to many computational neuroscientists and cognitive scientists, we have made a particular effort to give clear, detailed, and approachable expositions of all the category-theoretic structures and results of which we make use. We hope that this dissertation will prove helpful in establishing a new "well-typed'' science of life and mind, and in facilitating interdisciplinary communication.

Keywords: Bayes' law
relative entropy
fibration
statistical games
neural circuits
polynomial functor
chain rule
predictive coding
dynamical systems
functorial semantics
Bayesian
applied category theory
compositionality
Bayesian brain
cybernetics
copy-composition
category theory
open systems
free energy
Advisor: Stringer, S
Buckley, M