VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Pro-jecting beyond the self: a study of subjectivity in the thought of Jean-Paul Sartre

This thesis proposes a fresh reading of subjectivity in Sartre’s thought through close textual engagement with Sartre’s post-war thought, guided by the theme of pro-jection – the motion by which Sartrean consciousness meets the world. From the origins of the theory of the project in L’Etre et le Néant, the thesis quickly shifts its focus to the layers of socio-material reality that grow out through Sartre’s post-war thought. I aim to reorient the discussion of Sartrean subjectivity away from its overwhelming focus on L’Etre et le Néant, showing the radical transformation the project undergoes once recontextualised in a complex socio-material reality.
Tracking the form of the project across the Critique de la raison dialectique and L’Idiot de la famille, the thesis explores what remains of pro-jection in the mediating structures of the pratico-inerte and the restrictive environment of the pledged group. Analysing the dynamics of the Flaubert family (in L’Idiot) through the group structure presented by the Critique, I then aim to shed new light on the implications of Sartre’s final great work for the relation between consciousness and world.
In the exposition of a project that, once enmeshed in socio-material demands, begins and ends in otherness, the thesis hopes, finally, to contribute to the reassessment of Sartre’s relation to post-structuralism. In search of the foundations for a fruitful comparison between the motions of pro-jection and différance, I turn to their common origin: Husserlian intentionality. Engaging more closely with Husserl’s primary material than previous studies of Derrida and Sartre, I try to find what it is that différance does to radically transform Husserl’s theory of transcendental subjectivity from within. As I try to pin down différance, without smothering it into presence, I (very cautiously) borrow certain conceptual frameworks from quantum mechanics – another model that dislocates our classic notions of time, space and world.

Keywords: Derrida
Sartre
subjectivity
consciousness
Advisor: Howells, C
The role of AML secretome and bone marrow microenvironment in establishment and maintenance of leukaemia initiating cells

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is the most common acute leukaemia in adults and is characterised by the accumulation of immature malignant precursors in haematopoietic and other tissues. Even though next-generation sequencing has dramatically advanced our understanding of the genomic landscape of AML and identified many leukaemia-associated gene signatures, intensive chemotherapy remains the mainstay of the general therapeutic strategy without much progression over decades. In addition, AML still has the worst overall survival among adult haematological malignancies. The prognosis and survival for elderly patients who are too frail to be eligible for intensive chemotherapy can be even poorer. Therefore, the identification of novel AML dependencies is urgently needed to develop less toxic therapeutic strategies that can potentially eliminate AML cells, especially the self-renewing leukaemia initiating cells (LICs).
One potential therapeutic target could be the cell surface receptors on LICs, which covey autocrine and paracrine signals existing in the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment, as there is considerable evidence that de-regulated BM microenvironmental factors could contribute to AML development. In order to identify cell surface receptors essential for LIC maintenance, I performed in vivo CRISPR-based screens focused on the cytokine and chemokine receptor genes in the context of a murine model of bi-allelic CEBPA mutant AML. This murine AML model, as opposed to the commonly used MLL-AF9 model, is strictly BM microenvironment-dependent, which allows better characterisation of the interplay between LICs and the microenvironmental factors. By doing this, I identified and successfully validated 2 cytokine receptor genes, Ccr1 and Il7r, as in vivo AML dependencies. Of note, these 2 genes are highly overexpressed across different subtypes of human AML cells, indicating their potential use as therapeutic targets for patients with AML.
Besides, in light of previous evidence suggesting the aged BM microenvironment’s implication in AML propagation, I sought to investigate further the biological basis for the aged BM microenvironment’s ability to facilitate AML progression. Several inflammation-related process networks were simultaneously enriched in BM stromal cells during ageing and AML development. In particular, I demonstrated that both physiological ageing and CEBPA mutant AML progression induced elevated protein levels of the pro-inflammatory CCR1 ligands, CCL3 and CCL5, in the BM cavity. This implied the role of CCR1 signalling as an ageing-associated AML dependency. Indeed, expansion of the murine Cebpa mutant AML cells in the unperturbed aged BM was significantly impaired by a selective CCR1 inhibitor. This suggests that physiological ageing harnessed CCR1 ligands as a critical mediator in age-associated AML predisposition, and targeting CCR1 can potentially benefit elderly patients with AML.

Keywords: cytokine receptor
leukaemia initiating cells
AML
microenvironment
Advisor: Valletta, S
Nerlov, C
Modelling oxygen transport and tissue damage in the human brain

Healthy brain function depends on continuous blood flow carrying oxygen and metabolites. Ischaemic stroke, caused by an occlusion in the cerebral artery that disrupts blood and oxygen supply and leads to irreversible tissue damage, is one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world.
To complement clinical trials to improve the functional outcomes of stroke patients, computational models have been developed to build a virtual platform (i.e. an in silico trial) to test the feasibility of new treatments. However, the role of the human cerebrovascular system in oxygen transport and tissue health remains poorly understood, which limits the utility of current brain models. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new models of oxygen transport and tissue damage for the human brain to improve our understanding of brain physiology and diseases.
This thesis first models oxygen transport in human capillary networks using a Green’s function method. The effects of microembolism on oxygen delivery are simulated to derive a quantitative relationship between tissue hypoxia and vessel blockage. In human cortical columns supplied by a single penetrating arteriole, oxygen transport is simulated after the arteriole tree is occluded by a 25 μm microthrombus to mimic a rodent experiment of microembolism. Reasonable agreement has been shown between simulations and experiments measuring the spatial correlation between hypoxic regions and occlusion sites.
A novel 3-state cell death model and a thrombus extravasation model are then proposed to simulate the irreversible tissue damage caused by cerebral microvascular occlusions. The cell death model is further developed to simulate brain tissue damage over time under different ischaemic conditions. A full in silico trial of ischaemic stroke can thus be built by coupling the cell death model with existing whole brain models of cerebral blood flow and ischaemic stroke.

Keywords: micro thrombi
oxygen transport
hypoxia
cell death
Green's function method
in silico trials
brain damage
cerebral blood flow
Ischaemic stroke
thrombus
microcirculation
Advisor: Payne, S
Unconventional functions of MR1 restricted T-cells

The non-polymorphic MHC class I-related protein 1 (MR1) is an antigen presenting receptor that displays endogenous or microbial-derived metabolic intermediates. The commensal antigens, such as intermediates of the riboflavin synthesis pathway, are the most well understood so far and, these are known to activate mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT) cells. MAIT cells have been widely studied for their innate-like properties and, their strong pro-inflammatory and anti-microbial functions in response to TCR-dependent and TCR-independent signalling. These characteristics confers them with an important, but so far unclear, role in mucosal immunity and autoimmune diseases. Other non-MAIT MR1-restricted T (MR1T) cells have shown specificity to both commensal and endogenous antigens; however, we are still far from understanding the diversity in their functions, phenotype, antigenic specificity and, TCR repertoire.
In this thesis, we used RNAseq analysis to dissect the downstream effects of TCR-dependent and TCR-independent signals on their own and in combination. Our experiments revealed that while the inflammatory responses are tightly regulated and primarily driven by TCR-independent signalling, TCR-mediated activation elicit other unexpected functions related to homeostasis and tissue repair. These data provide a deeper insight on how MAIT cells balance inflammatory and protective functions at barrier sites under constant exposure to the microbiota.
We also explored MR1 as a target molecule for TCR-based immunotherapy against cancer disease. We hypothesised that the endogenous metabolic intermediates could be antigens of interest for the specific targeting of cells undergoing metabolic stress, such as transformed cancerous cells. In this thesis, we collaborated with Immunocore, a leader in TCR-based immunotherapies, to validate the role of MR1T cells in cancer disease and analysed the specificity of 2 new autoreactive MR1T cells. This work also proposes new methods to accelerate the discovery of antigens and TCR sequences in the unexplored field of MR1T cells.

Keywords: tissue repair functions of MAIT cells
MR1 based immunotherpay
MR1
regulatory functions of MAIT cells
MR1T
cancer immunotherapy
mucosal associated invariant T-cells
MR1 restricted T-cells
endogenous antigens
MAIT
Advisor: Klenerman, P
Lepore, M
Cole, D
Origami- and kirigami-adapted thick-panel folding

This dissertation is concerned with folding rigid panels of uniform thickness into a compact volume and deploying it back to a continuous and flat surface in a predictable manner afterwards. This was achieved by either forming an assembly with a single degree-of-freedom (DoF) through special geometric designs of thick-panel kirigami or ensuring a collision-free deployment of a multiple-DoFs system through dynamics simulations. Four major findings of this dissertation were as follows. First, kirigami patterns were investigated to enable the folding of a chessboard-like array with identical panels into two stacks without any voids. Revolute joints (also known as hinges or rotational joints) and slits are placed to connect or disconnect panels according to a Hamiltonian circuit (HC) (Hamilton, 1856) that was drawn over the array. If multiple HCs were found, a method was proposed to select the ones that could be folded into two stacks. Physical prototypes were made to validate the designs. Secondly, simple spring-loaded hinges were used to synchronise the deployment of a multiple-DoF assembly resulting from the HC approach. An optimisation method was proposed to select the stiffness of hinges to ensure a collision-free deployment. Dynamic simulation of the deployment and collision detection method were incorporated into the optimisation process. By this approach, the trajectories of panels were sequenced to avoid collisions during the deployment, and the array was always deployed to a flat surface from packaged stacks, which were further validated by experiments. Thirdly, through special geometric designs, interlinked regular flat rigid panels of uniform thickness were folded into compact stacks with a single DoF. Kinematically the deployable structure is an assembly of several 8R closed chains. Although such a chain with eight rigid bodies and eight revolute joints would have two DoFs in general, a single-DoF assembly was created by combining them in a particular way. The bi-directional folding concept can be extended to fold an assembly consisting of an infinite number of panels. Not only can this work be directly applied to the design of future flat arrays, but is also important in the theory of mechanisms as the proposed assemblies are rare examples where a kinematic loop consisting of linkages of multiple DoFs possesses single mobility. Finally, a modular approach was proposed to fold arrays composing squares or the combination of squares and half-square triangles into a compact volume that is conforming to the shape of a CubeSat. The obtained arrays could possess a single DoF or a small number of DoFs.

Keywords: compact folding
Hamiltonian circuit
uniform thickness
thick-panel kirigami
single-DoF assembly of 8Rs
spring-loaded hinges
collision-free deployment
Unsupervised learning of 3d objects in the wild

We live in a physical 3D world. Being able to perceive the world in 3D allows us to confidently navigate and perform sophisticated actions in it. Developing 3D perception systems is not only key to many AR and robotics applications, but also fundamental to the goal of visual understanding. However, most existing learning-based image understanding models process images simply as compositions of 2D patterns, ignoring the fact that images arise from a physical 3D world. Recent advances in differentiable rendering have opened new possibilities for learning physically-grounded disentangled 3D representations from raw images, marrying geometry with learning at last.
Learning 3D representations typically requires 3D supervision. This has previously come in the form of 3D labels, shape models, multi-views, or 2D geometric annotations, such as keypoints, masks and camera viewpoints. However, all of these are prohibitively expensive to collect on a large scale, which has become a major obstacle for learning 3D representations of general objects in the wild.
In this thesis, we explore the possibility of learning deformable 3D objects simply from raw casually recorded 2D image data “in the wild”, such as online photos and YouTube videos, without relying on heavy manual supervision. At the core of our approach is a Photo-Geometric Autoencoding framework that decomposes images into a set of physically-grounded photometric and geometric factors, including 3D shape, pose, shiny surface material, environment lighting and camera parameters, with the objective of recomposing them to reconstruct the input images through a differentiable renderer. In order to resolve the ambiguity in this highly ill-posed task, we propose to inject generic inductive biases to exploit the symmetries and regularities of the world. The resulting model is able to learn disentangled 3D priors of various deformable object categories, allowing for single-image inference at test time.

Keywords: unsupervised 3d learning
Advisor: Vedaldi, A
Rupprecht, C
Bank failures: what failure? Distress, development, and supervision in Italian banking, 1926-1936

This dissertation studies the experience of Italian commercial banks between 1926 and 1936. To do so, it employs a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. It presents a new database of banking distress, which includes not only outright bank failures but also those failures that were hidden and resolved behind the doors. This reconstruction is based on extensive archival research using the classified documents of Italian banking supervision (Archivio Storico della Banca d’Italia, and Archivio Centrale dello Stato). It reveals that the distress of small and medium banks was anything but negligible. Once distressed but resolved banks are considered, the magnitude of the crisis would be considered ‘systemic’ by today’s standards. It also shows important regional patterns: in terms of bankruptcies, Southern Italy suffered relatively more than the rest of the country. This thesis advances a new narrative on the causes of this crisis of Italian commercial banks. I argue that banking distress was not the outcome of a ‘bad credit boom’, but it is better understood as a process of ‘financial development gone wrong’. The 1920s were a crucial period of banking development for Italy, when the number of banks and branches expanded considerably. Coeval observers, however, considered this expansion as ill-fated. Regression analysis on bank balance sheets confirms their interpretation. The archival research conducted for this dissertation also sheds new light on banking supervision under the 1926 banking law – a law mostly known in the literature for having failed to prevent the failure of the big four universal banks in the 1930s. Using unexplored archival sources, this thesis documents in detail the functioning of banking supervision. I argue that, once the day-to-day functioning of the law is taken into account, the new regulation and its enforcement through supervision had a positive impact on small and medium commercial banks.

Keywords: financial development
bank failures
overbanking
banking supervision
banking crises
banking regulation
Great Depression
Advisor: A'Hearn, B
The assessment of surgeon-patient communication: An examination of validity


The ability to communicate competently is essential in medicine since it is integral to the provision of effective healthcare. This dissertation investigates how a surgeon’s communication skills are assessed within the context of Part B of the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) examination. Through an exploration of perceived authenticity, this study examines if the communication skills component of the MRCS Part B is a valid reflection of clinical practice and whether it is a worthwhile assessment of surgeon-patient communication.
An online questionnaire was completed by 63 junior surgical trainees who sat the MRCS Part B between October 2018 and February 2022. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven consultant surgeons and three senior surgical registrars, all of whom work in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). The responses were analysed with descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and inductive thematic analyses.
It was found that certain variables, such as the behaviour of simulated patients and the scenarios that frame the communication skills stations, shape how candidates communicate. Some candidates do not necessarily communicate in the exam as they communicate in clinical practice, which threatens the validity of the interpretations made and the actions taken based on the outcomes.
This study highlights several benefits of the communication skills component of the MRCS Part B, including its attempt to corroborate that a Core Surgical Trainee is competent to progress to Specialty Training. However, the impact on the patient must be brought to the forefront. If the exam confirms a candidate can communicate effectively, its outcomes must be valid to reflect this.

Keywords: MEA 2022
MEA
Discontinuous Galerkin methods for Friedrichs systems with irregular solutions

This work is concerned with the numerical solution of Friedrichs systems by discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods (DGFEMs). Friedrichs systems are boundary value problems with symmetric, positive, linear first-order partial differential operators and allow the unified treatment of a wide range of elliptic, parabolic, hyperbolic and mixed-type equations. We do not assume that the exact solution of a Friedrichs system belongs to a Sobolev space, but only require that it is contained in the associated graph space, which amounts to differentiability in the characteristic direction.
We show that the numerical approximations to the solution of a Friedrichs system by the DGFEM converge in the energy norm under hierarchical h- and p- refinement. We introduce a new compatibility condition for the boundary data, from which we can deduce, for instance, the validity of the integration-by-parts formula. Consequently, we can admit domains with corners and allow changes of the inertial type of the boundary, which corresponds in special cases to the componentwise transition from in- to outflow boundaries.
To establish the convergence result we consider in equal parts the theory of graph spaces, Friedrichs systems and DGFEMs. Based on the density of smooth functions in graph spaces over Lipschitz domains, we study trace and extension operators and also investigate the eigensystem associated with the differential operator. We pay particular attention to regularity properties of the traces, that limit the applicability of energy integral methods, which are the theoretical underpinning of Friedrichs systems. We provide a general framework for Friedrichs systems which incorporates a wide range of singular boundary conditions. Assuming the aforementioned compatibility condition we deduce well-posedness of admissible Friedrichs systems and the stability of the DGFEM. In a separate study we prove hp-optimality of least-squares stabilised DGFEMs.

Advisor: Suli, E
Graph geometry from effective resistances

The main subject of this thesis is the effective resistance — a measure of distance between the nodes of a graph which reflects how close or well- connected two nodes are, taking into account all paths between them and their interconnections.
The effective resistance has many other properties, however, and the contribution of this thesis is twofold. First, we provide a self-contained and unified exposition of some important but not well-known results on the effective resistance: the Fiedler–Bapat identity between Laplacian and resistance matrices and the graph–simplex correspondence. Second, we introduce and study two new applications of the effective resistance: a distance-based measure of variance for distributions on the nodes of a graph, and two resistance-based graph invariants p and σ2 which we interpret in the context of discrete curvature.
These contributions are unified in their geometric perspective on the effective resistance — ranging from the celebrated concept of resistance distance, to the lesser-known but far-reaching relation to simplex geometry and finally, a newly discovered relation to discrete curvature.
While the focus lies on developing the mathematical theory of effective resistances in a unified matrix-theoretic language, we also discuss many examples and some applications. In particular, the proposed measures of variance and covariance are readily applicable in practice to study functional data (signals, distributions, etc.) defined on graphs.
We hope that the exposition in this thesis will enable and stimulate further research on this fascinating subject and in particular on the theory of the resistance-based graph invariants p and σ2, the full depths of which still remain to be explored.

Keywords: discrete curvature
effective resistance
network science
simplex geometry
Advisor: Lambiotte, R
The investigation of particles from deuterium reactions

Following a general introduction, this thesis describes experimental work undertaken to improve the performance of two high voltage generators. The inherent ripple of these Cookcroft and Walton cascade generators has been reduced by two methods, the second generator now installed in the laboratory having a power frequency fluctuation of less than 100 volts under normal conditions.
The original generator was used to accelerate He3 ions onto a deuterium ice target from which long range protons from the reaction
D12 + He 32 = He 41 + H '1 + 18.4 MeV
were reported for the first time. The proton spectrum was investigated but showed no subsidiary proton groups and hence no excited state of the alpha-particle.
[This abstract continued in thesis]