VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
State aid policy as a tool against harmful tax competition between EU Member States

The theme of this thesis is the relationship between harmful tax competition measures and prohibited fiscal State aid. The aim of this thesis is to present a targeted examination of the use of State aid rules against national tax measures, e.g. tax schemes and tax rulings, following the adoption of the EU Code of Conduct for Business Taxation in 1997.
The fiscal State aid decisions and judgments to be covered are divided in two parts. The first part includes certain Commission decisions and ECJ judgments of the (early) 2000s, which are labelled the “first wave”. The second part consists of all the recent Commission decisions and investigations into tax schemes and individual tax rulings, most notably the Apple, Fiat, Starbucks and Amazon investigations, which are labelled the “second wave”. The characteristics and common threads of each wave are set out, the similarities and differences between the two waves are dissected, and their nexus to the EU’s fight against harmful tax competition is explored. 
It is argued that an important factor connecting the two fiscal State aid waves is the link they share to the fight against harmful tax competition. It is also maintained that the first wave cases that were linked to this fight have substantially influenced State aid doctrine, and have also had the effect of rendering State aid rules a more effective tool against harmful tax competition by ‘weakening’ their major limitation, i.e. the selectivity requirement.
This trend could continue should the ECJ endorse the Commission’s novel and creative approach in the second wave of fiscal State aid decisions, especially as regards its expansive interpretation of Forum 187 and the advantage condition of Article 107 TFEU. It is, lastly, asserted that the Commission’s novel approach is not legally sound. 

Keywords: Article 107 TFEU
State aid
EU law
OECD
EU
tax law
Advisor: Weatherill, S
Unifying motion segmentation, estimation, and tracking for complex dynamic scenes

Visual navigation is an critical task in mobile robotics. To navigate through an area, a robot must understand where it is, what is around it, and how to get to its goal. Integral to each of these questions is the task of motion analysis. Estimating the egomotion of a sensor is a well-studied problem, but only recently have similar questions about the other dynamic objects in the scene been addressed. Understanding the static structure of an environment is crucial to navigating through it, but understanding the motions of other dynamic objects is crucial to doing so safely.
Previous work has developed techniques to estimate the motion of a moving camera in a largely static environment and to segment or track motions in a dynamic scene using known camera motions. It is more challenging to estimate the unknown motions of the camera and the dynamic scene simultaneously, and this thesis focuses on addressing this multimotion estimation problem (MEP).
The estimation of third-party dynamic motions is much more difficult than estimating the sensor egomotion. The static assumption that applies to the background of a scene has no analogue for these dynamic objects, whose observed motions comprise both their arbitrary real-world motions and the camera egomotion.
This thesis introduces Multimotion Visual Odometry (MVO), a novel multimotion estimation pipeline that incorporates motion segmentation and tracking techniques into the traditional visual odometry pipeline in order to estimate the full SE(3) trajectory of every motion in the scene, including the egomotion. MVO segments and estimates all motions simultaneously, treating them all equivalently until the segmentation converges, after which the egomotion can be determined and used to calculate all other motions in a geocentric frame.
Highly dynamic scenes also tend to exhibit significant occlusions, which make accurate motion estimation and object tracking even more challenging. A physically founded continuous motion prior introduced to the MVO pipeline to extrapolate temporarily ccluded motions and reacquire them when they become unoccluded. This motion closure procedure maintains trajectory consistency and allows the pipeline to estimate and track multiple SE (3) motions, even in the presence of occlusion.
The estimation accuracy of MVO is evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively using real-world data from stereo RGB and event cameras in several highly dynamic multimotion scenes. Much of this data was published in the Oxford Multimotion Dataset (OMD), which was designed to explore the MEP and serve as a scaffold for the development and evaluation of new multimotion estimation techniques.

Keywords: multimotion
motion estimation
motion segmentation
visual odometry
Advisor: Gammell, J
Newman, P
In search of citizens in Citizennagar: The politics of contingent citizenship among the survivors of 2002 Gujarat riots in India

This thesis attempts to look at the question of Muslim citizenship in the aftermath of Hindu-Muslim violence in India. With the advance march of Hindu nationalism in India, when media and academic studies increasingly identify Muslims as second-class citizens, very little work has been done to show what this second-class citizenship actually looks on the ground. In my work, I go beyond the legal understanding of formal citizenship, or membership of a nation and look at the quality of substantial citizenship, understood through lived experiences of Muslims in India. Though we have considerable literature on the causal effects of these riots, or the role of Hindu nationalism in such violence and scholarly work on the questions of justice and reconciliation for the Muslim survivors, we know very little about how these riots influence their experience and expectations of citizenship. There is also lack of work on the lives of women survivors of these riots, in my thesis whose path to recovery and quest for citizenship is different than Muslim men.
Drawing on sixteen months of fieldwork among the survivors of the 2002 Gujarat riots who live in the outskirts of the Ahmedabad city, I ask how the politics of contingent citizenship can be situated in the aftermath of Hindu-Muslim conflict in India. I explore the notion of contingent citizenship in my work through the situated analysis of the lives of Muslim survivors in the aftermath of 2002 violence. In this process, I find that the political subjectivity as a citizen is contingent upon negotiations with multiple actors, local specificities and position within fuzzy social dynamics. As working with conflict survivors require attention to complex ethical issues, I used novel methodological approaches such as activist anthropology. In this process, my thesis provides rooted analysis that challenges both the present and the past on the question of Muslim citizenship in India.

Keywords: Indian Muslims
IDPs in India
biopolitics
citizenship theory
gendered citizenship
Muslim youths
communal riots
Advisor: Sud, N
The Roman public baths of Central Italy during the Imperial period: an architectural study

This thesis considers the architecture and technology of the public, urban baths of Central Italy during the Imperial period (27 BC – AD 250), but excluding the well-preserved and better-known examples of Rome, Ostia and Pompeii, which have dominated the discourse on Italian baths for far too long. Using data from ca. 70 bath buildings, gathered together for the first time, the thesis tackles the design of baths and of bathing rooms, the selection and use of construction materials, the management of water within the baths, and the selection of technological devices for their heating. The question of the funding of baths is considered through the physical aspect of the epigraphy, and comparison with the bathing landscape of Rome, Ostia and Pompeii, the rest of Italy, and selected Roman provinces, is drawn. Finally, the thesis considers the role of the different actors in the building process—the builders, the baths specialists, the architects, the commissioners—and their respective influence in the architectural outcome.
The thesis reveals how economic considerations and local conditions underlaid almost every step of the construction, from the selection of construction materials for the structure and the heating systems, to the strategies of water management and use in the baths; at the same time, it shows how the standardisation of heating systems technology and the use of blueprints for individual rooms simplified the planning and construction processes. This streamlining of the construction of baths leads to arguing that a percentage of the municipal baths offered by benefactors were almost ‘run-of-the-mill’ benefactions. This picture does not preclude the existence of profit-driven technological creations, original architectural room shapes, and expression of some benefactor’s personal interest in the architectural outcome of their bath benefaction.

Keywords: Euergetism
Construction materials
Architectural design
Italy
Water management
Baths
Heating systems
Advisor: Potts, C
DeLaine, J
Endogenous fluctuations in game theory and macroeconomics

At all scales, economies undergo substantial fluctuations instead of changing smoothly over time. There exist two alternative views about these fluctuations. According to the first view, fluctuations are caused by exogenous noise. Absent noise, economies would return to stable stationary states. The second view argues instead that such stationary states are unstable, and economies endogenously fluctuate following limit cycles or chaotic attractors. Endogenous fluctuations would occur even without noise. It is not yet clear which of these two interpretations most closely describes economic reality, but it has fundamental intellectual and policy implications. This thesis presents theoretical arguments in favor of the second view, in both micro- and macro-economic systems.
In the first part, we study the smallest scale at which these two alternative views can be compared. This is a normal form game repeatedly played by two players who learn from their mistakes and form beliefs about their opponents' future play. Under the exogenous view, players would converge to a Nash equilibrium, and strategic fluctuations would only be caused by behavioral noise. The endogenous view argues instead that strategic dynamics may fail to converge to equilibrium. Here, we completely characterize convergence in games with two players and two actions per player under a learning rule known as Experience-Weighted Attraction. We also introduce a theory that we call "best-reply structure" to approximately characterize convergence in games with two players and an arbitrary number of actions. Our results show that non-convergence and so endogenous fluctuations are more common in games than what might be thought.
The second part of this thesis studies the largest scale of economic fluctuations, namely business cycles in macroeconomic systems. The two views propose different mechanisms to explain correlation, or comovement, of business cycles across economic sectors and across countries. The first view argues that comovement is caused by the propagation of shocks exogenous to the economy, such as political decisions and natural catastrophes. According to the second view, comovement is instead at least partially caused by the synchronization of non-linear dynamics that describe the business cycle. Here, we introduce a demand-driven model of endogenous business cycles in which synchronization occurs through input-output linkages. We develop a theory that mathematically illustrates the interplay between synchronizing non-linear dynamics, shock propagation and network structure. While exogenous business cycle models have difficulty to generate a level of comovement that is as high as in the data, synchronization of endogenous business cycles generates much stronger comovement, potentially solving long-standing puzzles in macroeconomics.

Keywords: Best reply structure
Learning
Game theory
Macroeconomics
Non-linear dynamics
Synchronization
Endogenous fluctuations
Networks
Business cycles
Advisor: Farmer, JD
Forming medieval dominicans: the reappropriation of Augustine’s rule in Humbert of Romans’ Expositio regulae beati Augustini

This thesis closely examines an understudied but widely-circulated medieval work known as the Expositio regulae beati Augustini (Commentary on the Rule of Augustine) composed by Humbert of Romans (c. 1200–77), the fifth Master of the Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans). More specifically, it considers the historical context and controversy that prompted Humbert to write the Expositio, its relationship to the internal and external challenges facing the friars, and the extent to which Humbert consciously reinterpreted Augustine’s Rule in order to shape the behaviour and institutional culture of the friars during a crucial stage in the consolidation of the Order’s self-understanding and collective identity.
While the Expositio has typically been interpreted as an apologia in defence of the Rule’s merits, its role as a tool of socialisation aimed at creating a corporate culture and inculcating a sense of distinctiveness has not yet been thoroughly explored. Building upon the work of other scholars, this thesis provides an extended examination of the Expositio, scrutinising the Expositio not only in light of its immediate context but also as part of the long reception history of Augustine’s Rule in the Middle Ages. Along with seeking to better understand Humbert’s goals in authoring the text, the contents of the Expositio are also examined with different questions than have typically been asked, probing their role in shaping the social behaviour, discipline, and self-policing of the friars. Finally, consideration is given to its historical impact, which appears to have been greatest long after Humbert’s death, during the ‘observant movement’ of the late-fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Evidence also suggests that the Expositio was widely read outside the Dominican Order during this period, shedding further light on the reception history of Augustine’s Rule.

Keywords: Humbert of Romans
middle ages
Dominican order
Dominican friars
mendicant orders
rule commentaries
Augustine of Hippo
medieval history
Advisor: Smith, L
The application of acoustic sensing technology to African lion (Panthera leo) ecology and conservation

Recent technological advances are revolutionizing the field of ecology and conservation by providing tools and techniques to overcome many of the challenges that have previously limited the understanding of particular animal species and their environments. Significant improvements in acoustic sensing tools have led to an increase in their use for the research and management of vocally active species, particularly those that are difficult to monitor visually and continuously. However, the application of acoustic monitoring methods is often limited by high equipment costs and poor knowledge of many species’ vocal behaviour. This is indeed the case for African lions (Panthera leo) which are well known for their characteristic roars, but for which an in-depth understanding of vocal behaviour has been difficult to acquire due to the complexities of directly observing and manually recording vocalizations. In this work, I investigate the use of animal-borne and static acoustic recording technology for improving the understanding of lion behaviour and explore its application as a monitoring tool for the species. I begin by testing a novel acoustic biologging approach for recording animal behaviour remotely and find it to be an effective technique for acquiring rich, long-term datasets on lion activities. Coupled with machine learning methods, I then apply this approach to investigate patterns of lion vocal behaviour and show that territorial males are more likely to roar under atmospheric conditions that favour long-distance sound transmission and also adjust their vocal behaviour depending on spatial attributes. Next, I present an affordable, custom-designed passive acoustic sensing tool capable of localizing animal call signals over long ranges (> 1 km) owing to a novel multi-microphone hardware design. Finally, I demonstrate the use of this tool for localizing lion roars and, combined with on-animal audio recordings, discover an individually unique call feature that enables vocal differentiation of individual lions which could facilitate collar-free tracking. Collectively, the findings presented in this thesis highlight the value of acoustic sensing for both understanding animal behaviour and monitoring individual movements over time and space.

Advisor: Loveridge, A
Macdonald, D
Markham, A
Functional characterisation of a novel heterozygous mutation in the transcriptional activation domain of the human FOXN1 gene

The competence of the human body to fight infections relies on lymphocytes, which differentiate in the thymus, a primary organ of the immune system. There, thymic epithelial cells (TECs) have a unique role to instruct developing T lymphocytes to discriminate self-proteins from foreign pathogens and react only against the latter. The development, function and maintenance of TECs are primarily dependent on the transcription factor FOXN1, which acts as a master regulator of the thymus organogenesis and maintenance. Its loss of function results in athymia followed by severe immunodeficiency and is the molecular cause of the “nude” phenotype in humans and mice. Despite its crucial role in thymic development, very little is known about the molecular mechanism of its function.
We have recently identified 3 individuals that presented, from as early as a few months of life, with significant lymphopenia, reduced frequency of naïve T cells, absent T cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) and a lack of radiographic signs of thymus tissue. Surprisingly, these individuals were otherwise clinically healthy. Each was heterozygous for a deletion in the genomic sequence encoding the C-terminus of FOXN1 thus causing a frameshift and consequently a premature stop at amino acid 550, leading to a significantly shortened protein (designated Δ550).
Using both in-vitro and in-vivo models that mimicked the heterozygous patients we explored how a co-expression of the wild-type and mutant FOXN1 proteins compromise thymus development and function. Using RNA-seq coupled with ChIPSeq we explored differences in gene expression regulated by the two proteins. We also employed mass-spectrometry proteomics analysis followed by CRISPR arrayed screening, to reveal, to our best of knowledge for the first time, the molecular interactome of FOXN1 and how the Δ550 mutation may interfere with the binding of these interaction partners. With advanced microscopy we showed that FOXN1 participates in the formation of nuclear bodies, essential for its activity as a transcriptional regulator. Finally, we studied the impact of the Δ550 mutation on TEC differentiation and function in a mouse model heterozygous for a mutation equivalent to that of human Δ550. Taken together our studies elucidate aspects of the molecular mechanism by which FOXN1 operates and provide a molecular understanding on how heterozygous FOXN1 mutations can lead to pathologies.

Keywords: thymus
T lymphocytes
Immunodeficiency
forkhead
FOXN1
Advisor: Holländer, G
Prime ideals of Iwasawa algebras over solvable groups

In this thesis, we will explore the non-commutative Iwasawa algebra OG of a uniform pro-p group G over the ring of integers O of a finite extension K of Qp. Our aim is to explore the prime ideal structure of OG, and our ultimate goal is to prove that all prime ideals have a standard form for which we have a complete classification. We will focus on the case where G is solvable, and we will divide the problem into two cases, prime ideals containing p and prime ideals not containing p.
In the former case, we may quotient out by p and study the mod-p Iwasawa algebra kG, where k is the residue field of K. For G nilpotent, the classification in this case was completed by Ardakov, using the theory of Mahler expansions of continuous automorphisms of G. In the first half of this thesis, we will recap this theory, and show how it can be generalised to complete the classification for prime ideals in kG for G an abelian-by-procyclic group.
In the latter case, we may tensor with K and study the rational Iwasawa algebra KG. The theory of Mahler expansions ultimately fails in this case, so we will instead explore methods involving p-adic representation theory. We focus on the case where G is nilpotent abelian-by-procyclic, and we will complete the classification for faithful primitive ideals of KG in this case for p > 2. Our main technique will be to study the representation theory of the completed enveloping algebra of the associated Lie algebra L of G, and to describe all primitive ideals of this algebra using a class of canonical representations.

Keywords: Rigid geometry
Valuation theory
Two-sided ideals
Iwasawa algebras
Compact p-adic Lie groups
Advisor: Ardakov, K
Facial detection of genetic disorders

An estimated 400,000 children are born every year with rare genetic disorders that significantly affect their quality of life. Early detection and intervention can significantly improve the quality of life of these children. Craniofacial characteristics contain highly useful information for clinical geneticists for diagnosis. This thesis investigates the use of computer vision to aid in the automatic detection of genetic disorders from ordinary facial photographs. This is a non-trivial task, in part due to patient privacy concerns and the scarcity of training data. In the following, we present several approaches to overcome these challenges.
First, we present a method for creating realistic-looking average faces for individuals sharing a syndrome. These averages remove identifiable features, but retain clinically relevant phenotype information and preserve facial asymmetry. This procedure is completely automated, removing the need to expose patient identities at any point during the process, and could be used to help facilitate facial diagnosis in clinical settings. We also investigate creating transitions between averages and exaggerated caricature faces to highlight phenotype differences between patient groups.
Second, we investigate the classification of eight genetic disorders with shallow and deep representations. We compare shape and appearance descriptors based on local and dense descriptors and report significant improvements upon previous work. Furthermore, we made use of transfer learning and part-based models to train convolutional networks for syndrome classification. Our results show that deep learning can be used in the context of classifying genetic disorders, and is superior to shallow descriptors, despite small training datasets.
Neural networks are prone to learning biases present in training datasets and basing their decisions on them. This is particularly relevant for training on small datasets, as is the case in the domain of genetic disorders. We introduce a bias removal algorithm that aims to overcome this challenge. We report three distinct contributions. First, to ensure that a network is blind to a known bias in the dataset, second, to improve classification performance when faced with an extreme bias, and third, to remove multiple spurious variations from the feature representation of a primary classification task.
Lastly, we introduce a novel image augmentation method for learning a deep face embedding, the “Interpolated Clinical Face Phenotype Space”, that aims to describe clinically relevant face variation. Our contributions are two-fold: 1) Interpolations between faces that share a class improve deep representation training from small datasets. 2) Between-class interpolations that model the space between classes improve the generalisation performance of the deep representation to unseen syndromes.

Keywords: face interpolation
transfer learning
average faces
bias removal
face embeddings
rare genetic disorders
Advisor: Zisserman, A
Nellaker, C