VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The role of sleep in early language acquisition

The relationship between sleep and language during infancy has not attracted a great deal of scrutiny despite its theoretical importance in the function of sleep and the practical implications to which resulting findings could contribute. With this in mind, the current thesis aims to investigate this question with a focus on word learning, generalisation of word meanings and vocabulary development. A cross-sectional design in 16 month old infants was used as one of the main approaches to test the potential effects of naps on word learning and generalisation. In both experiments, infants were randomly assigned to nap or wake conditions. After teaching two novel object-pairs to them, their initial performance was tested with an intermodal preferential looking task. An increase in target preference indicated the recognition of the auditory label—looking behaviour being monitored with an automatic eye-tracker. In the case of word learning, the same objects were shown in the test trials as in the training trials, whereas the test objects were different in colour in the generalisation experiment. In both experiments target preference increased only after a nap, while there was no change in the performance of the wake groups. These results indicate that daytime napping facilitates both the consolidation of novel words and the generalisation of novel word meanings in infancy. The relationship between sleep and vocabulary development was studied in a longitudinal questionnaire based design, in which vocabulary questionnaires and sleep diaries were employed, with a cohort of 246 children between the ages of 7 and 38 months being analysed. Sleep measures were used as predictors in a multi-level growth curve analysis of vocabulary development. The length of daytime naps was positively correlated with both expressive and receptive vocabulary growth, whereas the length of night-time sleep was negatively associated with rate of expressive vocabulary growth. To conclude, the results of the present thesis highlight the importance of daytime naps in early childhood.

Keywords: infants
eye tracking
generalisation
word learning
vocabulary
sleep
nap
toddlers
development
Advisor: Plunkett, K
Foster, R
The identification and characterisation of disease genes in craniosynostosis

Current challenges to the understanding and clinical management of craniosynostosis (premature fusion of the cranial sutures) include the interpretation of changes in known disease genes, the identification of novel disease genes and the identification of pathogenic regulatory mutations. This thesis aims to address these issues and by doing so improve diagnosis, surgical prognosis and support for affected families.
Expanding the repertoire of known disease mechanisms, pathogenicity of an apparently synonymous substitution in FGFR2 is demonstrated, associated with a mild Crouzon syndrome phenotype. Furthermore, a new severe phenotype associated with localised mutations in TWIST1 (usually associated with Saethre-Chotzen syndrome; SCS) is described.
In an attempt to better understand the underlying pathogenesis of SCS, six probands with a clinical diagnosis, but no TWIST1 mutations, underwent whole-genome sequencing. Two individuals were found to have mutations in TCF12, a dimerization partner of TWIST1, and one patient had compound heterozygous mutations in CDC45. The latter, however, was not initially prioritised as one of the mutations led to a silent substitution, and this individual also had a de novo variant in a gene that interacts with a known craniosynostosis pathway.
To further explore the contribution of regulatory mutations to the pathogenesis of SCS, targeted sequencing of a 2.4 Mb region around TWIST1, and 640 kb around TCF12, was undertaken on DNA from 160 coronal synostosis patients. As well as coding mutations that had been missed, intronic splicing mutations and putative TWIST1 promoter mutations were identified.
In summary, during the course of this work novel and sometimes unexpected pathogenic mechanisms of mutations both in previously known genes (FGFR2, TWIST1) and in newly defined genes (TCF12, CDC45) have been identified. The pathogenicity of apparently synonymous variants provides important lessons in the correct interpretation of patient sequence data, and the identification of novel disease genes expands the classification and range of pathophysiology in craniosynostosis.

Keywords: CDC45
whole genome sequencing
Saethre-Chotzen syndrome
TCF12
Advisor: Wilkie, AOM
Twigg, SRF
Defining wisdom : Ratnākaraśānti's Sāratamā

This thesis examines Ratnākaraśānti’s (ca. 970-1045 C.E.) explication of Prajñāpāramitā in his doxographical works and his Sāratamā. Based on extant Sanskrit and Tibetan primary sources, it argues that Ratnākaraśānti’s main teacher was Dharmakīrtiśrī (late 10th C.E.) and that Ratnākaraśānti’s Sāratamā sought to replace his teacher’s Yogācāra-Mādhyamika framework with a causal explanation of Prajñāpāramitā through redefining the term Prajñāpāramitā as the path to awakening, rather than its goal. By unpacking that causal explanation in light of his broader system, the thesis demonstrates the way that Ratnākaraśānti’s own version of Nirākāravādin-Yogācāra-Mādhyamika refutes cognitive images (ākāra) as unreal ultimately, but claims they are still perceived by buddhas out of compassion. This conclusion debunks the long-standing theory that Ratnākaraśānti was an Indian proponent of the controversial Tibetan gZhan-stong despite later gZhan-stong propon-ents’ attempts to claim him as their own.
There are two parts to the study. The first part introduces Ratnākaraśānti’s life, philosophy and doxography based upon evidence from a Tibetan colophon to his Mādhyamika commentary and the Tibetan hagiography of his student Adhīśa (a.k.a. Atiśa) and upon a comparative analysis of his doxographical works that are prerequisites for reading his Sāratamā. The second part consists of an annotated translation of the Sāratamā’s introductory section, contrasted with the prior standard interpretation by Haribhadra’s (9th century C.E.).
In the two appendices are included a Tibetan critical edition and a separate hybrid Sanskrit and Tibetan critical edition of the Sāratamā’s first parivarta based on the extant 11th and 13th century incomplete MSS and on the Tibetan translations in the sDe dge, Peking and sNarthang editions. The hybrid edition also includes my provisional critical edition of the root text—i.e. the first parivarta of the Āryāṣṭa-sāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra—and my own translation of two small sample sections of the Sāratamā, which are extant only in Tibetan, back into Sanskrit.

Keywords: doxography
work
Ratnākaraśānti's life
philosophy
Advisor: Sanderson, A
Wallace, V
Self-assembly and template-directed synthesis in multi-strand porphyrin arrays

This thesis describes the use of supramolecular chemistry in self-assembling systems based on pyridyl porphyrins and porphyrin nanorings. Pyridine substituted porphyrins are used as ligands to bind to Zn porphyrin nanorings in systems reminiscent of the light harvesting complexes in nature. The study of energy transfer in such complexes gives insight into the efficiency of the natural systems. This thesis also illustrates the scope of classical and Vernier templating as an alternative tool for the synthesis of linear porphyrin oligomers.
Chapter 1 gives a general overview of porphyrins and fully conjugated porphyrin oligomers, and then introduces supramolecular self-assemblies based upon pyridyl porphyrin ligand interactions. It also covers energy transfer processes in the selected synthetic porphyrin arrays, and includes a short review of template-directed synthesis of cyclic, linear and Vernier porphyrin oligomers.
Chapter 2 presents the syntheses and energy transfer studies of double- and triple-strand complexes based on porphyrin nanorings. The arrangement of the porphyrin units in the double-strand nanoring complex mimics the LH2 structure of purple bacteria in natural light harvesting systems. The presence of a second nanoring in the triple-strand structure should fix the conformation of the complex, enhancing the conjugation around the nanorings.
Chapter 3 introduces a synthetic antenna-nanoring system based on a series of conjugated porphyrin arrays. By varying the size of the acceptor nanoring, the effects of binding, local strain and energy transfer between antenna and nanoring are investigated. Binding of the antenna unit induces a local strain in the nanoring, and this strain is determined as a function of the size of the nanoring, providing information on the flexibility of the system. The rates of energy transfer in these systems were found to be surprisingly insensitive to the size of the nanoring.
Chapter 4 presents the classical template-directed synthesis of linear porphyrin oligomers. The stabilities and cooperativities of related ladder complexes are investigated. Two concepts of Vernier and Vernier-reciprocal templates for the synthesis of non-commensurate length oligomer products from two simple components are also introduced and investigated in detail. This study gives another approach for the supramolecular synthesis of nanoscale materials.

Advisor: Anderson, H
Turncoat poets of the English Revolution

Edmund Waller, William Davenant, Andrew Marvell, and Abraham Cowley were royalist poets who changed sides following the English Revolution, attracted to Cromwellian military power, and the reforming aims of the Independents. This thesis contributes to existing scholarship by showing that the poets engaged strongly with theories of allegiance, self-consciously returning to first principles—the natures of sovereignty and obligation—to develop a concept of allegiance that was contingent and transferrable.
Their crucial influence was Hobbes. Hobbes collapsed partisan perspectives into a general theory of sovereignty constituted by a de facto protective and coercive power; this was grounded on a psychological analysis of humans' restless appetite for power. The poets' approach to Hobbes was crucially mediated by Machiavelli, who provided a less abstract account of the relationship between individual agency and collective institutions, and whose concept of virtù offered a model for how restless ambition could be harnessed to political order.
An introductory chapter sketches out the intellectual background to this body of theory and reflects on the methods used to show how the poets dramatized it in their works. Chapter two considers the disintegration of Waller's courtly poetry under the pressure of civil war, and his resulting turn to rationalist theory. Chapters three and four focus on the immediate aftermath of the revolution, considering the synthesis of Hobbes' and Machiavelli's theories of military power ventured by Davenant, and the influence of Davenant's ideas on Marvell's Machiavellianism. Chapter five focuses on Cowley and his more religiously-inflected account of Hobbesian psychology and political obligations. Chapter six asks how the poets responded to the Restoration of Charles II, and in particular charts their influence on the younger poet John Dryden.
With their emphasis on materialist psychology, the turncoat poets abandoned allegory in favour of a mode of dramatization which observed the contingent circumstances in which allegiances could be generated, dissolved, and transferred. They possessed a political conservatism, but a conceptual radicalism which presented a serious challenge to Anglican and constitutionalist discourses of Stuart monarchy.

Keywords: Poetry
Marvell
Allegiance
Hobbes
Advisor: Norbrook, D
MacFaul, T
'They will attach themselves to the House of Jacob': A redactional study of the oracles concerning the nations in the Book of Isaiah 13-23

The present study argues that a series of programmatic additions were made to the oracles concerning the nations in Isa 13-23 during the late-exilic period by the same circle of writers who were responsible for Isa 40-55. These additions were made to create continuity between the ancient oracles against the nations from the Isaiah tradition and the future fate of the same nations as the late-exilic redactor(s) foresaw.
The additions portray a two-sided vision concerning the nations. One group of passages (14:1-2; 14:32b; 16:1-4a; 18:7) depicts a positive turn for certain nations while the other group of passages (14:26-27; 19:16-17; 23:8-9, 11) continues to pronounce doom against the remaining nations. This double-sided vision is set out first in Isa 14 surrounding the famous taunt against the fallen tyrant. 14:1-2, before the taunt, paints the broad picture of the future return of the exiles and the attachment of the gentiles to the people of Israel. After the taunt and other sayings of YHWH against his enemies, 14:26-27 extends the sphere of the underlying theme of 14:4b-25a, namely YHWH’s judgement against boastful and tyrannical power(s), to all nations and the whole earth. The two sides of this vision are then applied accordingly to the rest of the oracles concerning nations in chs 13-23. To the nations that have experienced similar disasters as the people of Israel, words of hope in line with 14:1-2 were given. To the nations that still possessed some prominence and reasons to be proud, words of doom in line with 14:26-27 were decreed. Only later in the post-exilic period, for whatever reason, be it changed international political climate or further spread of the Jewish diaspora, was the inclusive vision of 14:1-2 extended even to the nations that were not so favourably viewed by our late-exilic redactor (19:18-25; 23:15-18).

Advisor: Williamson, H
Role of cryptochromes in retinal responses to light

Cryptochromes 1 and 2 (CRY1-2) are key components of the negative limb of the mammalian circadian clock. Like in many peripheral tissues, Cry1 and Cry2 are expressed in the retina where they are thought to play a role in regulating retinal circadian physiology.
This thesis investigates the role of Cryptochromes in the mammalian retina. The localization and expression pattern of CRY1 and CRY2 in the mouse retina are described, showing that CRY1 is expressed throughout, whereas CRY2 expression is restricted to the outer retina.
Furthermore, circadian rhythms in retinal physiology, including the photopic electroretinogram (ERG) b-wave amplitude, contrast sensitivity and the pupillary light response (PLR) are found to be all attenuated or abolished in CRY1-deficient mice. By contrast, these physiological rhythms are unaffected in mice lacking CRY2, and only photopic ERG rhythms are affected. As such, both CRY1 and CRY2 play roles in regulating normal retinal circadian rhythms, though CRY1 plays a dominant role.
The role of melanopsin in retinal rhythms is also investigated. It is found that loss of melanopsin affects contrast sensitivity rhythms but not PLR rhythms. The work in this thesis suggests that the retinal circadian clock is composed of at least two independent networks of oscillators in the retina which regulate key aspects of retinal physiology.
Lastly, this thesis investigates whether the retinal clock has any downstream effects on the SCN master pacemaker. The experimental results presented here suggest that the retinal clock is capable of rhythmically gating light input to the SCN clock, acting as a zeitnehmer.

Keywords: Cry1
Cryptochrome
magnetoreceptor
zeitnehmer
retinal rhythms
magnetoreception
retinal clock
Cry2
Advisor: Peirson, S
Foster, R
Music, timbre, colour in fin-de-siècle Vienna: Zemlinsky, Schreker, Schoenberg

Timbre and orchestration are neglected parameters in analytical writing, partly because analysis traditionally privileges pitch organisation as the primary structural parameter in music, but also because timbre appears more resistant than pitch to theoretical abstraction and systematisation. Yet, in the music of early twentieth-century Viennese composers such as Schreker, Zemlinsky and Schoenberg, timbre often assumes a pre-eminent place in musical design and formal architecture. In such works, timbre often moves from what Robert Hopkins (1990) describes as a 'secondary parameter' to the forefront of a listener's consciousness. Conventional analytical approaches—including Schenkerian, Neo-Riemannian or pitch-class set theories—arguably have little to offer at such moments.
This thesis begins by examining the 'crisis of response' to timbre in fin-de-siècle Austro-Germanic circles and, in particular, to the increasingly complex timbral constructions of many Viennese composers, such as Franz Schreker and Arnold Schoenberg. The crisis of response appeared to stem from an inherited nineteenth-century view of orchestration as ornamental in function, as well as the lack of an appropriate analytical framework and meta-language with which to critique the growing importance of timbre as a musical parameter.
This thesis contributes to the discussion as to the how the area of timbral analysis might develop: firstly, by treating timbre as an 'emergent' property rather than an absolute analytical category (i.e., that timbre often results from a complex interaction of multiple musical parameters); secondly, by considering the effect of timbre's spatial properties within the auditory scene on subject-position through examination of contemporary and more recent theories on the convergence of the visual and auditory arts; and thirdly, through timbre's ability to function as an agent of immanent musical critique through disjunctive juxtapositions, or by historically-contextualized responses to codified orchestral tropes as found in Alexander Zemlinsky’s 'Der Zwerg'. Timbre certainly was not always the secondary parameter some fin-de-siècle critics suggested it was, or wanted it to be.
The joint purpose of this thesis is to offer historically-engaged analytical readings of neglected works from twentieth-century Vienna (alongside a few better-known works whose timbral construction had been left unanalyzed), and to reflect on the benefits of applying recent research to contemporary theories of timbre. These two aims are set in productive counterpoint rather than a straightforward synthesis, with the adoption of recent cognitive research and theories of subject-position feeding into analyses of historical work in order to try to mediate the gap between theory, text, and musical practice.

Keywords: Fin de Siècle
Advisor: Grimley, D
The world upside-down in sixteenth-century French literature and visual culture

To call something 'inverted' or 'topsy-turvy' in the sixteenth century is, above all, to label it as abnormal, unnatural and going against the natural order of things. The topos of the world upside-down brings to mind a world returned to its initial state of primeval chaos, in which everything is inside-out, topsy-turvy and out of bounds: fish live in trees, children rule over their parents, wives command their husband and rivers flow back to their source.
This thesis undertakes a detailed account of the development of the topos of the world upside-down in sixteenth-century French literature and visual culture. By examining different uses of this topos – comic, moralising and polemical – it relates the transformations of the topos to religious, social and political conflicts of the period. To explain the shift of this topos from comic and moralising device to satirical and polemical tool, this thesis argues that troubled times produce troubled texts.
In order to demonstrate this hypothesis, two kinds of evidence will be examined: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 present diachronic evidence of the 'polemicisation' of the topos of the world upside-down in literary genres of the period (adages, paradoxes and emblems) and within François Rabelais's body of work; Chapter 3 and 4 provide synchronic evidence of the polemical use of the topos of the world upside-down during the French religious wars in Huguenot and Catholic polemic and in depictions of socio-political turmoil.
Charting the variety of uses of the topos of the world upside-down throughout the sixteenth century, this thesis connects the world upside-down and its historical context; and contributes to the scholarship on religious polemic.

Keywords: Emblem Studies
Early Modern Eschatology
Francois Rabelais
Religious Polemics
French Wars of Religion
Paradox
Advisor: Cooper, R
Essays in applied microeconometrics

This thesis is a collection of three independent essays that applies microeconometrics techniques to empirically study topics in development and labour economics.
The first chapter uses evidence from a natural experiment in Bangladesh, where households were treated to different types of transfer, food grains and cash, at different periods in time, to test the effect of these transfers on household consumption behaviour. Using the fixed effect instrumental variable model, the estimation results show that though in-kind transfers did cause households to consume more grain than they would have chosen under equal-value cash transfers, the impact on calorie consumption and children health status is minimal. Households that received cash were able to reallocate their funds more effectively, and chose to spend their extra income on clothing and children’s non-food consumption, while at the same time spending no more on vices.
The second chapter investigates the dynamics of living standards in Thailand. Income and earnings processes are first modelled after the statistical Galton-Markov process before being extended to follow a more structural permanent earnings model. Empirical estimations of income and earnings persistence in Thailand employ both constructed pseudo-panel data from Thailand’s Labour Force Surveys and the Townsend Thai panel data. Galton-Markov estimates found conditional persistence to be low in Thailand. However, quantile regression estimates find that persistence is low at the bottom of the distribution but high at the top, indicating a divergence in earnings as time passes. A study of the covariance structure of earnings finds that total variation in the earnings process is predominantly driven by moderately persistent transitory components following the AR(1) process.
The third chapter attempts to empirically fit the power-law distribution and study the dynamics of inequality, especially at the upper end, of the income and consumption distribution in Thailand. We find that using the popular but incorrect method based on the linear regression approach will lead to researchers drawing a wrong conclusion. Regression estimates of the power-law exponent, α, provide strong evidence of power-law fit in Thailand. However, from the implementation of the superior Clauset et al. method, the evidence in support of the power-law fit is much weaker. Estimates of α for both income and consumption suggest that there is low inequality at the top in Thailand but further inspection finds that there is a high level of persistent between-group inequality between the top and bottom ends of the distribution. In addition, following Battistin et al. (2009), we find weak support for Gibrat’s law of proportional random growth as the income-generating process in Thailand.

Advisor: Crawford, I