VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Ordinary goodness for ordinary people: an essay on the Kantian system

Kant does not explicitly present an account of what one might call ordinary goodness for ordinary people, or the sense of moral worth one has in mind when one judges someone to be a “good person”: somewhat worryingly, when he does discuss the moral worth of people in Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, he seems to stray very far from terms which can apply to ordinary people in their everyday lives. Indeed, there is a plausible line of reasoning that owing to, first, Kant’s thoroughgoing determinism and, second, his complete rejection of compatibilist conceptions of freedom, Kant cannot take ordinary people to be free and, as a result, morally responsible—a fortiori, he cannot have an account of ordinary goodness for ordinary people. I find that, ultimately, Kant can reject such reasoning through what I call his doctrine of Transcendental Compatibilism, which consists of three claims: (i) due to Transcendental Idealism, Kant’s determinism is compatible with a certain libertarian-style freedomcalled transcendental freedom; (ii) transcendental freedomis precisely that kind of freedom required for moral responsibility according to Kant’s moral theory, and; (iii) ordinary human beings actually are, under normal circumstances, transcendentally free and, as such, are morally responsible despite living in a deterministic world. By understanding this doctrine, one can derive an account of phenomenal moral worth—i.e., ordinary goodness for ordinary people—from Kant’s comments on noumenal moral worth. Therefore, in Chapter I, I explore Kant’s determinism and, through examining his resolution to the Third Antinomy of the first Critique, establish (i) above; in Chapter II, I examine the core of Kant’s moral theory, establish (ii) and (iii) above, and respond to three potent objections; finally, in Chapter III, I elucidate Kant’s account of noumenal moral worth so to derive a positive characterization of phenomenal moral worth—i.e., a Kantian account of ordinary goodness for ordinary people—therefrom.

Keywords: Determinism
Transcendental Compatibilism
Kant
Moral worth
Free will
Advisor: Walker, RCS
Determination of prognostic factors in early rectal cancer and the implications for rectal preservation surgery

Local excision of early rectal cancer has benefits to patients, with reduced morbidity compared to radical surgery, but carries a higher risk of local recurrence. A detailed analysis of contemporary outcomes after local excision by TEM is presented. Currently, a coarse estimate of the recurrence risk is made on routine histopathological features and patients are advised regarding the options for subsequent management: radical surgery is the current standard if high risk; adjuvant radiotherapy is used in some places to reduce risk but is unproven; or close surveillance. Better, more accurate, and individualised means of predicting recurrence risk are sought to aid this decision process in this clearly defined group. Potential prognostic factors addressed in this work are sentinel lymph node biopsy (Chapter 3), more detailed histopathological analysis including routine mutation panel testing (Chapter 4), and digital pathology assessment and gene expression (Chapter 5). Areas of promise are perineural invasion, absence of common mutations, artificial intelligence-based assessment of the ratio of desmoplastic to inflamed stroma, and expression levels of certain genes, particularly those involved in the immune response. A search is also made for potential indicators of responsiveness to radiation which would help guide the decision to use this modality and spare patients with unresponsive tumours from potentially harmful exposure; this may also be of benefit to those with more advanced cancers considering neoadjuvant treatment, and some consideration is given to this group. Some of the early cancers display transition from adenoma, and differential molecular features that may cast light on this process are sought (Chapter 6). Finally, an assessment of functional outcomes after various rectal-preserving pathways is also made (Chapter7). More accurate and clinically practical recurrence prediction can be made now using readily accessible information, and further work on some of the gene signatures identified could improve this still further.

Keywords: Organ preservation
Rectal cancer
Prognostic factors
Advisor: Leedham, S
Cunningham, C
The right to speak a brand: rethinking the interaction between trade marks and freedom of expression in the age of expressive branding

Trade marks no longer serve solely a source-identifying function, but rather have evolved to perform a plethora of functions. These range from signalling information about quality or reputation to conveying complex and varied meanings that can be relied upon by different individuals for expressive purposes. Because marks can be used expressively, courts and scholars are devoting increased attention to elucidating the relationship between marks and speech. An analysis of European and US case law reveals that the conceptual frameworks employed to date have a tendency to oversimplify their relationship. This is due, at least in part, to the widespread misconception that the interaction between marks and speech operates unidirectionally, in the sense that the protection afforded under freedom of expression advances solely the interests of one type of mark user. In infringement litigation involving use of recoded (i.e. modified) marks for expressive purposes (usually for parody or commentary), invocation of free speech is understood to advance only the expressive interests of recoders. By contrast, in litigation dealing with the validity of refusals to register marks or of measures encroaching on trade mark use, freedom of expression is conceived of as advancing solely the interest of trade mark applicants or owners, respectively. This view, however, fails to take into consideration the expressive richness involved in the use of trade marks –an expressive richness that allows individuals other than recoders and applicants/owners to make expressive use of marks to pursue their preferred identity projects. By factoring in all the expressive interests involved in trade mark use, this thesis advances a reconceptualization of the interaction between marks and speech that has the potential to bring more nuance and clarity to the adjudication exercise. Perhaps more importantly, it ensures adequate enforcement of human rights guarantees in interaction cases. In combination, these improvements can lead to better balanced, fairer outcomes, as well as increased consistency.

Keywords: comparative law
intellectual property law and human rights
intellectual property
freedom of expression
law
US law
branding
human rights
EU law
trade mark
Advisor: Dinwoodie, G
Spectroscopic characterisation of the effects of plasma geometry on the angular distribution of X-Ray emission in HED plasmas

Understanding the plasma conditions inside hohlraums in Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) experiments is important to achieve ignition. However, obtaining actual measurements of those conditions is a complicated task. X-ray spectroscopy techniques offer a promising approach to these measurements, given the amount of information contained in the plasma spectra. Extracting this information from the data requires reliable spectral models that are experimentally benchmarked.
This thesis presents an analysis of the effects of the plasma geometry on its spectra, and their potential capabilities for spectroscopic diagnosis. By doing a detailed mathematical treatment of several geometries, it is shown that a cylindrical plasma is optimal to study these effects. The cylindrical geometry is therefore further studied with focus put on the emission from the He−α complex and how the line ratios are modified by the geometry. The potential use of these ratios as a measurement of the ion density of the plasma is described.
The ‘OpticalDepth’ experiments at OMEGA are then detailed. In these experiments, plasma cylinders in the High Energy Density (HED) regime were generated and characterised using time-resolved X-ray imaging and X-ray spectroscopy. The experimental results are compared with predictions from a 2-dimensional radiative transfer computational model, showing that the simulations reproduce the experimental results to a much better degree than models which do not include the plasma geometry.
The agreement found between experiment and simulations makes it possible to use cylindrical tracers in ICF experiments to obtain information about the plasma density from the geometry-modified line ratios. This is shown by analysing data from the Dot Spectroscopy campaign at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Direct comparison of the tracers’ spectra from these experiments with the predictions from the computational model developed in this work yields time-resolved measurements of the ion density of the plasma, without the need for additional diagnostics.

Keywords: fusion
Helium
Inertial confinement fusion
plasma
geometry
spectroscopy
Advisor: Wark, JS
Rose, SJ
Civic networks and countering violent extremism in US and UK cities

Countering violent extremism (CVE) policies are an outgrowth of central government counter-terrorism efforts that aim to curb public support for terrorism and pre-emptively deter individuals from committing violence. The literature has heavily criticized CVE programs, yet central governments continue to expand them, tasking local governments and police with engaging predominately Muslim minority communities and establishing intervention efforts for individuals considered to be “at-risk” of becoming involved in terrorism.
Despite the same top-down pressures and widespread public opposition to these policies, local governments and city-level communities diverge in their approaches to counter-extremism programs, ranging from active collaboration around these agendas to evasion. The existing scholarship lacks a theory to explain this puzzling sub-national variation. I argue that the structure of local Muslim civil society networks, in particular, the pre-existing relationships between Muslim civil society leaders, state actors, and other co-religionists, shape how local actors navigate steep trade-offs associated with these programs and ultimately respond to CVE agendas. Muslim civil society leaders, in particular, act as the causal mechanism that translates network structures into local policy outcomes, determining both whether bureaucrats decide to invest in counter-extremism policies and how communities take part in the long term.
I test this theory in six cities over time, looking in-depth at CVE policy outcomes in four UK cities and two US cities, employing a mixed-methods approach that combines 139 interviews with local stakeholders and within-case social network analysis. The dissertation contributes to the literature on city governance and counter-terrorism, highlighting how sub-national community networks shape security policy outcomes, even amidst heavy top-down pressures and evolving terrorist threats.

Keywords: counter-terrorism
counter-extremism
urban politics
Advisor: Gingrich, J
Investigating molecular mechanisms underlying Marfan syndrome, based on fibrillin-1 secretion and assembly

Fibrillin-1 is a major glycoprotein component of 10-12 nm microfibrils, consisting predominantly of calcium binding epidermal factor-like (cbEGF) and TGFß binding protein like (TB) domains. Mutations within the gene encoding fibrillin-1 cause Marfan Syndrome (MFS), an autosomal dominant disease of the connective tissue, characterized by a wide range of severity, with neonatal MFS (nMFS) lying at the most severe end of the spectrum. nMFS substitutions are clustered into domains TB3-cbEGF18, the ‘neonatal’ region of fibrillin-1. Thus far, the molecular pathology of MFS does not explain the severity associated with a dysfunctional neonatal region, especially since ‘classical’ MFS (cMFS) substitutions are also found in these domains.
This study aims to investigate the molecular and cellular factors that might contribute to disease severity in MFS. A set of cMFS and nMFS substitutions were investigated for their effect on the secretion of full-length GFP-Fbn expressed transiently in HEK293T cells, and of recombinant fragment NPro-TB3-cbEGF19 expressed stably in MSU1.1 fibroblasts and transiently in HEK293T cells. A microfibril assembly assay then tested the ability of the full-length GFP-Fbn variants to incorporate into FS2 assembled microfibrils.
Secretion results from the different systems were consistent, showing no effect of most of the cMFS and nMFS substitutions on the trafficking of fibrillin-1, with the exception of two cysteine variants that showed partial intracellular retention. Opposing secretion results of the same substitutions in different recombinant constructs provided insight into the role of domain TB3 in the folding of adjacent cbEGF domains. Microfibril assembly results distinguished, for the first time, the behavior of cMFS and nMFS variants. cMFS variants clearly assembled into FS2 microfibrils, suggesting that a dominant-negative effect involving mutant incorporation could contribute to the molecular pathology of MFS. nMFS variants, in contrast, did not incorporate into microfibrils, despite having the N- and C-termini implicated in early fibrillin multimerization, indicating that they may form non-productive complexes that are precluded from further assembly steps. These results indicate that phenotypic severity is correlated with the extent of microfibril assembly perturbation and suggest an important role for domains TB3-cbEGF19 in the lateral association of fibrillin-1 monomers during microfibril assembly.

Keywords: Neonatal Marfan Syndrome (nMFS)
Fibrillin-1
The Neonatal Region
Marfan Syndrome
Microfibrils
Advisor: Handford, P
Jensen, S
Novel electrocatalysts for ammonia synthesis and hydrogen evolution

This thesis explores the activity of single atom metal catalysts on graphene-like support (SACs) and metal nitrides for the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). Furthermore, extensive analysis of HER activity and in-situ characterisation are carried out to derive a structure-activity relationship of SACs in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER).
To that end, a library of single atom transition metals on nitrogen-doped graphene (M-NGs) with comparable compositions is synthesised by a carbon backbone method. Their HER activity is assessed showing Ru-NG and Co-NG to be highly active. The data is correlated with the φ factor, a computationally suggested descriptor for electron density on the metal site constituting the first experimental substantiation of this design principle. Additionally it is found that HER activity on cobalt-containing SACs can be further tuned by changing the coordination environment of the metal via the inclusion of oxygen into the first coordination shell. In in-situ XANES and IR spectroelectrochemical thiocyanate poisoning experiments three distinct active sites are observed and it is suggested that distortion from the square planar Co-N4 environment caused by axial oxygen ligands leads to decreased HER activity.
In the second part of this thesis Co3Mo3N was identified as a potential electrocatalyst for the direct reduction of N2 to N3- in molten chloride eutectics. Based on experimental evidence and previous literature reports, a Mars van Krevelen-type mechanism is suggested for the reaction in which Li+ ions facilitate the activation of dinitrogen, as well as enable participation of the lattice nitrogen of Co3Mo3N.

Keywords: hydrogen evolution reaction
Advisor: Tsang, E
Finitude, alterity, and the novel: Nabokov, Gadda, Beckett

Finitude has become a controversial word in French thought since Meillassoux’s Après la finitude (2006). Beyond finitude’s literal meaning (‘boundedness’) and its philosophical connotations, we can speak of the finitude of a literary form: the novel. Narrative manifests the desire to conclude, rushing inexorably toward its end, yet also demonstrates the desire to prolong itself, showcase infinite discourses, and exert what Barthes calls literature’s ‘mathetic’ power (‘l’écriture fait du savoir une fête’). I equate the first drive with narrative’s ontological dimension, and the second with its epistemological dimension. My premise is that these twin drives vie more acutely in the novel than in any other literary form, since it is the novel which most consciously follows the trajectory and timeflow of a life, as well as the mind’s accumulation of knowledge over that life. This thesis considers finitude in and of seven mid-twentieth century novels across the œuvres of Vladimir Nabokov, Carlo Emilio Gadda, and Samuel Beckett, three authors whose struggle with the finite novelistic form becomes their novels in a peculiarly self-conscious way. I seek to illuminate interrelationships between finitude, alterity, and the novel by drawing on philosophical concepts of finitude from Heidegger, Levinas, Blanchot, MerleauPonty, Derrida, Bakhtin, Nancy, and Meillassoux. Each of my five chapters examines at least one major feature of textual finitude against a corresponding figure of human finitude: from chapters on Gadda’s La cognizione del dolore, Beckett’s Trilogy, Nabokov’s Sebastian Knight and Pnin, to Gadda’s Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, and finally back to Beckett’s Trilogy. In this chiasmic return, I contemplate Nabokov’s unworking of textual reality, Gadda’s writing-toward-irresolution and constrained creative process, and Beckett’s decomposing tendencies and attempt of ‘unthinkable’ analepses and prolepses across the Trilogy. Ultimately, the thesis asks whether the novel, in its pretensions to ‘be’ and ‘know’ where we are not (‘que nous soyons ou pas’, in Meillassoux’s words), becomes something other to itself through its selfreflexive grappling with finitude.

Advisor: Maclachlan, I
Stellardi, G
Practical Bayesian optimisation for hyperparameter tuning

Advances in machine learning have had, and continue to have, a profound effect on scientific research and industrial activities. We are able to uncover insights contained within large troves of data and develop models to solve problems that seemed infeasible until recently. Before we can train a model, we have to define high-level properties, also known as the model’s hyperparameters. Examples include the architecture of a neural network, the class and parameters of a stochastic optimisation algorithm, the number of trees in a random forest or the kernel in a Gaussian process. One of the key challenges in developing good machine learning models is choosing good values for these hyperparameters.
Evaluating the quality of a set of hyperparameters is usually computationally costly, as it requires us to first train a model specified by the hyperparameters before we can evaluate a score. The computational costs of scoring a configuration means that we want to perform this hyperparameter search with as few trials as possible. Bayesian optimisation (BO) is a general-purpose efficient global optimisation technique that has proven to be remarkably effective for many expensive optimisation tasks, including hyperparameter tuning. This thesis brings together multiple contributions aimed at making BO more practically applicable, focussing on uncertain-input measurements as well as model hyperparameter tuning.
The case of data with input noise is relevant when we are modelling (or finding extremal values of) a quantity defined on a spatial grid. We undertake a comparative study evaluating existing uncertain-input GP methods, and develop a novel approach based on the unscented transform that outperforms existing uncertain-input methods.
We then address the question of parallelising BO to make optimal use of available computing resources. We develop a novel class of methods for asynchronous parallel BO, and demonstrate empirically the benefits of our approach, as well as more generally showing the advantages of asynchronous over synchronous BO.
Finally, we propose a new framework for dealing with a mixture of categorical and continuous hyperparameters. With few exceptions, model hyperparameters consist of both categorical and continuous variables, but BO approaches have mainly focussed on continuous search spaces. We present a novel framework that combines multi-armed bandits with continuous BO methods and leverages each of their strengths to achieve state-of-the-art performance on real-world optimisation tasks.

Keywords: Gaussian process
machine learning
global optimisation
hyperparameter optimisation
Bayesian optimisation
artificial intelligence
Advisor: Roberts, S
Osborne, M
A generic subject: The interplay of morphosyntax and the human conceptual system

How can we account for our extensive knowledge about the world, given that we individually experience very little of it? This thesis considers the mechanisms involved in the acquisition of generic statements. One approach to explain this feat, in light of our limited direct experience of instances of kinds, suggests that language gives us the tools to go beyond our environment. This thesis argues that variation in the morphosyntactic make-up of a generic subject can affect our understanding of how properties are linked to a kind. One significant challenge for the acquisition of generic subjects is the lack of an overt marker, which means that no generic subject unambiguously encodes genericity. Still, generic subjects can easily be interpreted generically in novel concept acquisition tasks instead of being assigned episodic reference. Experimental research has addressed this puzzle from developmental perspectives Gelman et al. (2010); Prasada (2000); Cimpian et al. (2011) and quantificational ones (e.g. the covert generic operator gen, Carlson, 1989; Krifka et al., 1995). The findings are novel as this thesis pays special attention to previously less investigated singular generic subjects. It considers number and definiteness and their links to the human conceptual system as the main variables of the make-up of generic subjects. Comparing the morphosyntactic differences of bare plural, indefinite singular, and definite singular subjects experimentally shows that they each raise expectations of tight category-property links, modulated by other available cues. To better understand the developmental trajectory of generic subjects, this thesis compares adult and child participants’ responses to learning about novel kinds. This includes indefinite and definite singular subjects, for which children receive comparatively little input and which are normally deemed highly ambiguous between generic and episodic interpretations. This thesis concludes that our conceptualisation of novel kinds is dependent on morphosyntactic cues, but crucially, this is further modulated by additional information, such as pre-existing world knowledge, phonological or visual cues.

Keywords: acquisition
psycholinguistics
kind reference
genericity
morphosyntax
Advisor: Husband, EM