VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Between two civilisations

Buddhism is believed to have all but died out in India following the thirteenth century Muslim invasion. However, in Bengal groups of non-Bengali people have continued to practice Therāvada Buddhism, which they are said to have imported from nearby Burma, or which they were converted to from other forms of Buddhism after migrating to Bengal. Their practices were "reformed" in 1856 by Burmese monks.
An analysis of the historical material reveals a tendency by non-Buddhist Bengalis to downplay any relationship between the Buddhist traditions of Burma and Bangladesh, and to represent Buddhism as a phenomenon of the past. This reinterpretation of historical data is part of the formation process of a Bangladeshi national identity.
That this process is in progress is confirmed by the existence in Bangladesh of a centralised and standardised educational system, having among its aims the integration of the national population. Religious education, in Bangladesh as elsewhere, plays within this system an important role in national integration.
On the other hand, certain institutions of Bangladeshi Buddhism, such as temporary ordination, and features like the importance attributed to the Mahāmuni temple (which houses a replica of a very sacred Buddha image from Burma) confirm the historical connection between the Bangladeshi and the Southeast Asian Buddhist traditions.
Any remaining doubts about the nature of Bangladeshi Buddhism are dispelled by the reading of a devotional song belonging to the genre known as Bauddha pālā kīrtana. The kīrtana, a ballad originating within the Hindu devotional movements, is very popular among all Bengalis, with no distinction of faith. The subject of this text, deriving from an apocryphal birth-story of the Buddha of Southeast Asian origin, reveals once again a link between the Buddhist traditions of Southeast Asia and Bangladesh, its Indian style just indicating regional taste.
Real-time single-molecule observations of conformational changes in DNA polymerase

Genetic information is encoded in the long sequence of bases which form DNA, which is replicated during cell division by enzymes known as DNA Polymerases. Polymerases replicate DNA extremely accurately to avoid errors which can cause cell death and diseases such as cancer, although the mechanisms behind these extraordinary fidelities are not well understood.
A large conformational change in the protein, in which the “fingers" subdomain closes around an incoming nucleotide, is thought to be implicated in these fidelity mechanisms. Here we present an assay to monitor this conformational change in single polymerase molecules, in real-time. We achieve this using total-internal-reflection-fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy to monitor the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) of an intra-protein dye labelled DNA Polymerase I (KF) as it binds to surface-immobilised DNA.
Initially, we investigated the polymerase fingers-conformations during the pre-chemistry polymerisation reaction, resolving forward and backward rates which would be challenging to observe using ensemble techniques. These observations confirmed that KF closes rapidly around complementary nucleotide, but we discovered that the reverse step, fingers-opening, is particularly slow relative to chemistry. These finger kinetics act to remove the influence of the reaction rate-limiting step on fidelity, surprising given decades of investigations have focused on the rate-limiting step as the key determinant of fidelity. We also use our kinetic measurements to quantify contributions of different reaction steps to the macroscopic error rate of the polymerase.
Subsequently, we developed our assay to investigate the fingers-conformations across the entire DNA polymerisation reaction. We observed single-nucleotide incorporations, and processive DNA polymerisation at high and low nucleotide concentrations, which suggested heterogeneous nucleotide incorporation rates. The observations demonstrated that the post-chemistry slow step that limits processive polymerisation occurs before post-chemistry fingers-opening, or is accounted for by post-chemistry fingers-opening. We observe a correlation in turn-over kinetics and binary complex kinetics, suggesting that turn-over rates could be limited by the intrinsic dynamics of the binary complex, as seen in other protein systems, although more work is needed on this.

Keywords: DNA POLYMERASE
BIOPHYSICS
SINGLE-MOLECULE
KINETICS
CONFORMATIONAL DYNAMICS
Advisor: Kapandis, A
Cornish Methodism, revivalism, and popular belief, c. 1780-1870

In this regional study of Methodist development and societal influence throughout the period of industrialisation, recent trends in Methodist historiography at a national level are combined with the research and source material accumulated at a local level, to provide a detailed analysis of Methodist growth in Cornwall between the years 1780 and 1870. The thesis is divided loosely into three sections. In the first, four chapters outline the essential background to interpretative analysis by considering, in turn, recent historiographical developments in Methodist studies; social change in Cornwall during industrialisation; the performance of the Anglican Church in the county as represented in the Visitation Returns for 1779, (as well as historical and structural reasons for its 'failure'); and Methodist growth as expressed through available statistical indices, especially the date of formation of Methodist societies, and the 1851 Ecclesiastical Census. In the second section, one long chapter is devoted to an in-depth, county-wide analysis of Methodist growth, which considers the impact of external factors, particularly socio-economic, and internal circumstances, such as the degree of maturity of pastoral and administrative machinery, and the level of Connexional or lay control over chapel and circuit affairs, on the form and function of Methodism in nine distinct socioeconomic regions within the county. In the third section, four chapters concentrate on West Cornwall, where Methodism was strongest, in order to examine the roots of, and reasons for, the distinctively indigenous form of Methodism which developed there. On the one hand, the pastoral and administrative difficulties in exerting adequate Connexional control are considered; while on the other, an interpretation of the 'folk' functionality of revivals and of Methodism as a 'popular religion' is offered.
Essays on multivariate volatility and dependence models for financial time series

This thesis investigates the modelling and forecasting of multivariate volatility and dependence in financial time series. The first paper proposes a new model for forecasting changes in the term structure (TS) of interest rates. Using the level, slope and curvature factors of the dynamic Nelson-Siegel model, we build a time-varying copula model for the factor dynamics allowing for departure from the normality assumption typically adopted in TS models. To induce relative immunity to structural breaks, we model and forecast the factor changes and not the factor levels. Using US Treasury yields for the period 1986:3-2010:12, our in-sample analysis indicates model stability and we show statistically significant gains due to allowing for a time-varying dependence structure which permits joint extreme factor movements. Our out-of-sample analysis indicates the model's superior ability to forecast the conditional mean in terms of root mean square error reductions and directional forecast accuracy. The forecast gains are stronger during the recent financial crisis. We also conduct out-of-sample model evaluation based on conditional density forecasts.
The second paper introduces a new class of multivariate volatility models that utilizes high-frequency data. We discuss the models' dynamics and highlight their differences from multivariate GARCH models. We also discuss their covariance targeting specification and provide closed-form formulas for multi-step forecasts. Estimation and inference strategies are outlined. Empirical results suggest that the HEAVY model outperforms the multivariate GARCH model out-of-sample, with the gains being particularly significant at short forecast horizons. Forecast gains are obtained for both forecast variances and correlations.
The third paper introduces a new class of multivariate volatility models which is easy to estimate using covariance targeting. The key idea is to rotate the returns and then fit them using a BEKK model for the conditional covariance with the identity matrix as the covariance target. The extension to DCC type models is given, enriching this class. We focus primarily on diagonal BEKK and DCC models, and a related parameterisation which imposes common persistence on all elements of the conditional covariance matrix. Inference for these models is computationally attractive, and the asymptotics is standard. The techniques are illustrated using recent data on the S&P; 500 ETF and some DJIA stocks, including comparisons to the related orthogonal GARCH models.

Keywords: Multivariate volatility; HEAVY; GARCH; orthogonal GARCH; DCC; realized covariance; dynamic Nelson-Siegel model; copula; covariance targeting; common persistence; directional forecasting; predictive likelihood; Wishart distribution.
Advisor: Shephard, N
Sheppard, K
Conceivability and metaphysical possibility

David Chalmers maintains that certain kinds of conceivability are reliable guides to metaphysical possibility. In this essay, I argue that Chalmers is wrong about the relationship between conceivability and metaphysical possibility. I begin by explaining the notion of metaphysical possibility and by distinguishing it from those of other kinds of so-called possibility (including epistemic, logical, conceptual, physical, and natural possibility). I then explain Chalmers’s view on the relationship between conceivability and metaphysical possibility—a view that he calls modal rationalism. Next, I examine his positive case for his view, and I argue that it is unpersuasive. In particular, I argue, his attempt to show that modal rationalism is a priori is clearly a failure: given a proper understanding of the notion of metaphysical possibility, the balance of reasons overwhelming favors the hypothesis that modal rationalism is not a priori, and we are entitled to assume that it is not a priori unless compelling reasons to think otherwise are revealed. Finally, I produce two arguments that show that because modal rationalism is not a priori, it is false. I conclude that since there is every reason to think that modal rationalism is not a priori and no plausible reason to think that it is a priori, and since the falsity of modal rationalism follows from its not being a priori, there is every reason to think that modal rationalism is false.

Keywords: conceivability
metaphysical possibility
Chalmers
modal rationalism
possibility
Advisor: Williamson, T
Hawthorne, J
The impact of frequency, consistency, and semantics on reading aloud: an artificial orthography learning paradigm

Five experiments explored how we learn to read and recognise words with typical and atypical spelling-sound mappings and to generalize to novel words. In Experiment 1, adults learned to read pseudowords with typical or atypical pronunciations. There was some evidence that prior exposure to word meanings enhanced orthographic learning. However, interpretation was clouded by stimulus control problems that plague research using natural alphabets. In Experiment 2, an artificial orthography paradigm was developed to overcome these problems. Adults learned to read novel words written in novel symbols. Post-training, they could generalize, indicating extraction of individual symbol sounds. The frequency and predictability of symbol-sound mappings influenced learning and generalization, mirroring natural language findings. Experiment 3 found extended training to improve item recognition and generalization. In Experiment 4, pre-exposure to item sounds plus an object referent vs. item sounds provided equivalent benefit for orthographic learning. By the end of training, this was limited to items with low frequency unpredictable symbol-sound mappings. In Experiment 5, pre-exposure to novel definitions enhanced orthographic learning more than pre-exposure to item sounds, but by the end of training, both conditions were again equally beneficial.

Keywords: lexical phonology
semantics
statistical learning
artificial orthography
reading
Advisor: Nation, K
Plunkett, K
Interrogating provincial politics: the Leftist Movement in Punjab, c. 1914-1950

This thesis examines the development of the Leftist movement in British Punjab and the insights it provides into the political spaces it inhabited and the actors it engaged with. Broadly speaking, this is an attempt at uncovering lesser fragments that offer the possibility of complicating our understanding of Punjabi and South Asian History. In doing so, I seek to uncover a socio-political arena which played host to a multiplicity of contested identities, notions of sovereignty, and political objectives. I thus seek to explore this complex and fluid arena through the study of a variety of movements and intellectual strands, all of which can collectively be labelled as the ‘Left.’ I begin by situating the Punjabi Left within the wider global arena and then shift to examining it within the province itself. I then explore the Left’s acrimonious relationship with the Colonial State as well as its tortured engagements with ‘nationalist’ and ‘communitarian’ movements. Taken together, this thesis, aside from enhancing our understanding of the ‘Left’ itself, also contributes to regional studies in general and questions historiographical demarcations and the categories that are normatively employed in standard political histories.

Keywords: Leftist Movement
Colonial India
Advisor: Brown, J
Meaningfulness and its links with experience, language and emotion

In this thesis I am concerned with the possibility of meaningfulness of life: I examine sceptical problems which threaten the possibility of meaningfulness and then outline the basis of an account of meaningfulness.
In part I I look at sceptical problems concerning the relationship between experience and reality. I argue that global scepticism about the external world can be ruled out. I then offer an inclusivist account of reality according to which the relationship between experience and reality is taken to be a relationship of part to whole and a corresponding 'containment' account of objectivity, enabling a number of problems concerning objectivity to be resolved and scepticism about the objectivity of meaningfulness and value to be refuted.
In part III introduce language into the picture, considering the relationship between language and experience and also that between language and reality. In particular I look at sceptical problems concerning the relationship between our conceptual world and reality.
In part III I argue that there is a need for emotional experience as a basis for meaningfulness of life, that without some deep or emotional experiences, whether personal, religious, aesthetic, epiphanic, or just wonder at the nature of the world, someone's life will have no real grounding; whatever they do will be instrumental - there will be nothing done for its own sake. This leads into the discussion of sceptical problems about the reliability of the emotions and the subconscious.
In part IV I deal with questions specific to meaningfulness including the idea of absurdity, the relationship between life's seeming meaningful and its being meaningful, and the links between meaningfulness and happiness, goodness, understanding, unity and destiny. I argue that the meaningfulness of life is an objective matter and that the possibility of living a meaningful life requires the possibility of there being a right way of life.
Performing the self: identity-formation in the travel accounts of nineteenth-century British women in Italy

From the adventures of Odysseus to those of the male Grand Tourist, travel has often been regarded as an important rite of masculine self-fashioning. However, as this thesis argues, travel and travel writing also provided a valuable opportunity for women's self-fashioning: journeys offered women a means of altering themselves, enabling them to assume a novel identity abroad and in text, whether it be a subversive or idealised version of themselves. Drawing upon Judith Butler's and Sidonie Smith's theories of performativity, this thesis investigates Victorian women travel writers' impulse to self-fashioning, and argues for travel writing as a performative act of identity-formation. Drawing on Butler's notion of subversive repetition, this thesis also demonstrates the ways in which the instability of women authors' narrative identities gives them a potential for agency, enabling authors to unsettle prescribed gender boundaries and challenge cultural constructions of femininity.
In particular, I examine the constructed textual travel identities of the following nineteenth-century British women: Anna Jameson, Susan Horner, Emily Lowe, and Frances Minto Elliot. I highlight the discursive strategies that these four authors use in order to create certain images of themselves for their readers in their travelogues about Italy, all published (or, in the case of Horner, written) between the years 1826 and 1881. Jameson, Horner, Lowe, and Elliot also reconfigure traditional notions of travel and gender in their travelogues to articulate and perform definitions of selves that are not necessarily exemplary – at least not at first glance. I examine the ways in which these nineteenth-century authors adopt apparently undesirable selfhoods ('ill', 'intellectual', 'unprotected', and 'idle') and turn supposed weaknesses into strengths.
This thesis also analyses the significance of Italy for the travel narrators and their self-representation in relation to the peninsula. Italy signalled a meaningful difference from Britain, and these authors represent it as a positive space for healing, intellectual growth, pleasure, fulfilment, and self-determination. The constructed identities of these four authors result in 'travel performances' that aim to persuade readers of the narrators' aptitude for travel and of their especially meaningful attachment to, experience of, and understanding of Italy. This thesis does not only provide a space for voices which have until now been little recognised in contemporary scholarship. It also sheds light on an important form of Victorian women’s writing that was a valuable route towards cultural and intellectual authority and self-empowerment, as well as a means of personal and professional self-fashioning.

Keywords: British Women Travel Writers
Identity-formation
Performativity
Nineteenth Century
Italy
Travel Writing
Advisor: Evangelista, S
Portfolio of compositions (Canti Sacri, Cantico, …ed erra l’armonia…, Pneuma) and dissertation (An exploration of the connections between music theory and cognition in composition)

This study is an exploration of the integration in composition of theoretical and psychoacoustic properties of pitch and duration; its aims are essentially practical in showing how cognitive research can inform composition, but it also addresses more broadly the value and role cognition can have in the current musical compositional climate.
Various contexts for this exploration are discussed: the mediating role analysis has within theory and composition; constraints imposed by aesthetic positions and music theory/pedagogy templates; the role of cognitive psychology in connecting music templates and listening experiences; and the ultimately mythopoetic (Cook, 1992) rather than scientific nature of any such theory/psychology integration.
Using Huovinen’s “pitch constellation” approach and Lerdahl’s theory of tonal pitch space, a hierarchical pitch-space is set up for the string piece ed erra l’armonia, developing from pc set 5-22 a non-standard octatonic scale (pc set 8-27) as the basic pitch collection of the piece. Similarly, using the works of Fraisse, Hasty and London, a hierarchical rhythm-space is set up for the orchestral piece Pneuma developing, from the indifference interval in duration, the temporal and metric envelops and the duple and triple subdivisions of the tactus, a three layered metrical structure as the generative rhythmic template of the piece. This is contextualised against the problematic notion of metre in modern art-music. General characteristic of both spaces are discussed: redundancy according to information theory, hierarchy in relation to cognitive opaqueness, salience and association; and elaborational and permutational processes.
It is argued that composition needs to bridge, in practice, the gap between music theory and psychology of music, looking beyond their often absolutist positions; that cognitive constrains in music should be seen as opportunities to work compositionally along the mind’s cognitive grains in order to maximise structural and expressive communication; and that at a time of a ‘deregulated’ musical language it is necessary to re-develop cognitive heuristics to secure the connection between compositional choices and listening experiences. Three principles are given as guidelines for the alignment of theoretical and cognitive issues in composition. It is proposed that cognitive analysis should be developed as an independent discipline as well as a compositional tool, and that the connections style/cognition should be looked at more closely to gain a more unified perspective on diverse (and divisive) stylistic musical camps.

Keywords: music cognition
hierarchy
composition
rhythm space
music theory
music analysis
pitch space
Advisor: Saxton, R
Clarke, E