VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Collecting worlds: biocultural comparison and the HMS Beagle voyage, 1831-1836

This research brings together literary, visual, and artefactual collections associated with the HMS Beagle's second voyage (1831-1836) to explore how nature and culture from the Global South were collected, transported, and interpreted in Europe. Merging anthropology and natural history, I perform literary, art historical, and archaeological analyses to investigate the collecting of Indigenous people and nature, biocultural comparisons and the naturalisation of culture, visualities of the colonial gaze, methods for documenting and extracting nature, and the possessing of natural worlds. Dispersed across different repositories, colonial-era collections are often interpreted respective to a certain discipline or genre of material. Viewing Beagle materials collectively - as multi-media biocultural compositions - this thesis traces the connections between art, science, and culture under empire. Manuscripts, art, tools, and ethnographic objects are viewed in tandem, interpreted across disciplines and situated within the context of the long nineteenth century. Positing that the Beagle voyage occurred during a key transitional moment in British imperial history, this thesis finds that the expedition’s ethnographic and scientific work built upon collecting and exhibitionary practices associated with Europe’s early natural history institutions, herbariums, gardens, and zoos. Further, contemporaneous with the abolition of slavery and the burgeoning of natural resource commodification under industrialisation, the expedition collected materials and recorded observations that prompted a new approach towards understanding the world’s diversity of life. Extracted as resources and knowledge, biological and cultural material from colonial voyages of ‘discovery’ were displayed in anthropological museums and world’s fairs together for the benefit of the metropole. To replicate ephemeral fieldwork conditions for metropolitan viewers, representations typified non-Western peoples and environments as embodiments of ‘nature’ susceptible to extinction. In conclusion, I reflect on the legacy of nineteenth-century collecting in contemporary museum practice, asking how museums might address colonial histories of violence in attempting to possess, preserve, and recreate biocultural worlds.

Keywords: archives
collecting
museums
expedition
nineteenth century
HMS Beagle
empire
extraction
biocultural
comparison
Advisor: Hicks, D
Reproductive rights in India: the search for a 'new' constitutional home

Reproductive rights remain deeply contested. Their scope, the duties they impose on the State, their response to conflicting interests, and in some cases their very protection within constitutions are being fiercely debated globally. In India, reproductive rights are not enumerated constitutionally. The Thesis seeks to construct the appropriate constitutional home for reproductive rights in India, to both anchor these rights within the Constitution and define their contours.
In Part I, the Thesis delineates what makes the constitutional home ‘appropriate’. It argues that reproductive rights aim to guarantee ‘real and effective’ reproductive decision-making. Reproductive decision-making ought to be valued because it is undergirded by two sets of interests, those represented by the individual and the social dimensions. The two dimensions are independent yet interrelated. The appropriate constitutional home for reproductive rights must, then, protect both interests and capture their interrelationship.
In Part II, the Thesis examines the existing constitutional home for reproductive rights in India: Article 21, the right to life and personal liberty. The Thesis then adds a second pillar to the home: Article 15, the right to non-discrimination. The Thesis interprets both provisions constitutionally and doctrinally. In turn, it assesses the provisions, so understood, against the normative framing in Part I, to arrive at a key conclusion. Articles 21 and 15, in their roles within the constitutional home, independently protect (or possess the potential to protect) the interests represented by the individual and the social dimensions respectively.
In Part III, the Thesis moves beyond treating the provisions in isolation to viewing them in synthesis. The Thesis illustrates the contributions of the synthesis, in constitutionally grounding reproductive rights, through the use of two examples: abortion and preventable maternal mortality and morbidity. The Thesis shows how the synthesis captures the interrelationship between the individual and social dimensions, to strengthen the constitutional protection granted to reproductive rights, at each stage of analysis: identifying the rights violation, conducting the limitations analysis, interpreting the law, and scoping positive duties on the State. The Thesis, thus, proposes a ‘new’ constitutional home for reproductive rights in India: the synthesis between Article 21 and Article 15.

Keywords: discrimination
reproductive rights
reproductive justice
India
privacy
maternal health
synthesis
abortion
Viennese keyboard music in the reign of Karl VI (1712-40) : Gottlieb Muffat and his contemporaries

The object of this thesis is to draw attention to the work of Gottlieb Muffat, most of which is still unpublished and unknown. Although it has received some scholarly attention during the past 100 years, studies of his music are patchy and often based on an excusably incomplete knowledge of the sources. The publication of 2 definitive article on Muffat in MGG has opened up possibilities for further study rather than closing the subject. There is still room for a general survey of the kind included in this thesis. The methods used here expand the work of previous authors by adopting a more critical attitude to the sources, by examining 211 aspects of Muffat's music rather than concentrating on his suites, and by setting his music in a wider context.
A large amount of Baroque keyboard music has been examined in preparation for this thesis, in order to place Muffat's work in a general framework rather than viewing it in isolation. As a basis for comparison with his contemporaries and predecessors, an account is given of the various influential factors in his musical background, and a list has been compiled to show the kind of keyboard music which was circulating among Viennese composers at the time. There is also a more comprehensive and up-to-date list of sources for the keyboard music of Muffat himself, and of his Viennese colleagues, than has hitherto been available. Although much of the material in these lists is not newly-discovered, they draw together the existing information and add some new details. Problematic aspects of the sources are discussed, and while a conclusive solution is rarely possible, some suggestions are put forward to clarify the situation. Certain re-attributions and approximate datings are made.
Continued in thesis ...

Keywords: 18th century
Viennese keyboard music
Keyboard instrument music
Karl VI
Keyboard music
Gottlieb Muffat
Vienna
Austria
eighteenth century
Advisor: Sternfeld, FW
Understanding the role of microglia in the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the third commonest neurodegenerative disorder, is primarily characterised by progressive motor neuron loss with additional involvement of non-neuronal cells. In particular, microglia, the resident macrophages of the central nervous system parenchyma, have been implicated in ALS pathophysiology. The commonest genetic variant associated with ALS is a hexanucleotide repeat expansion (HRE) in the chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9ORF72) gene, resulting in C9ORF72 haploinsufficiency and RNA foci and dipeptide repeat formation. Mimicking C9ORF72 haploinsufficiency through C9orf72 knock-out in mice led to a pro-inflammatory microglial state, but whether this phenotype is replicated in human C9ORF72-ALS microglia and if they contribute to motor neuron death in C9ORF72-ALS is currently unknown. In this thesis, first, a novel co-culture model of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived microglia and motor neurons was devised and demonstrated to be compatible with the identity and function of both cell types. Hereafter, iPSC-derived microglia were generated from three different C9ORF72-ALS patients, which showed C9ORF72 haploinsufficiency and expressed the dipeptide repeat proteins Poly(GA)/(GP), confirming the presence of hallmarks of the C9ORF72 HRE in C9ORF72-ALS iPSC microglia. RNA sequencing demonstrated a dysregulated transcriptome in C9ORF72-ALS iPSC microglia, particularly after lipopolysaccharides (LPS) priming, with pathway enrichment associated with immune cell activation, cytokines, lysosomes, and the extracellular matrix. C9ORF72-ALS iPSC microglia showed phago-lysosomal impairment and a pro-inflammatory profile with increased expression of nuclear factor kappa B (NFkB) and pro-inflammatory cyto-/chemokines, notably, IL1B and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9). In iPSC microglia-iPSC motor neuron co-culture experiments, LPS-primed, but not unstimulated, C9ORF72-ALS iPSC microglia induced apoptosis in co-cultured wildtype motor neurons, which was ameliorated by concomitant application of an MMP9 inhibitor, suggesting MMP9 directly contributes to microglial neurotoxicity. Finally, increased microglial release of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) was identified as a biomarker for MMP9-dependent microglial dysregulation in co-culture. In summary, these results demonstrate widespread dysregulation of C9ORF72- ALS iPSC microglia, suggesting a key role for microglia in C9ORF72-ALS pathophysiology.

Advisor: Gray, E
Turner, M
Talbot, K
Basement geology, tectono-stratigraphic and diagenetic evolution of the presalt succession in the Northern Campos Basin, Brazil

The Campos Basin (SE Brazil) hosts significant hydrocarbon accumulations in reservoirs above and below a layer of evaporites. The rift to post-rift lacustrine carbonates that constitutes the Pre-Salt reservoirs have been the object of several studies focused on the depositional and diagenetic characteristics of these Barremian to Aptian carbonates. Nevertheless, the basement geology, tectono-stratigraphic evolution and geochronologic constraints for the hydrothermal diagenesis are yet to be established. This thesis presents a novel integrated geological study of the entire presalt sequence utilizing 2D and 3D seismic surveys and sidewall cores from a hydrocarbon accumulation in the northern Campos Basin. The basement is constituted by anisotropic, high-grade supracrustal rocks in the East and relatively isotropic granitic rocks in the West. Lithologies, structural style and age suggest a correlation with the onshore Cabo Frio Tectonic Domain. The overall rift evolution probably started during the Berriasian with a peak of rift-related faulting from the Hauterivian to Barremian, followed by a rift transition and post-rift stages (Barremian to Aptian). The pre-existing metamorphic fabric was selectively reactivated whenever its orientation was favourable. Petrography and geochemistry show diagenetic phases composed predominantly of quartz, calcite and dolomite to ankerite series, and secondarily pyrite, Sr-barite and svanbergite. Additional studies of stable isotopes, fluid inclusion microthermometry and LA-ICP-MS U-Pb geochronology in the diagenetic minerals provide evidence for three tectono-diagenetic events that occurred under distinct diagenetic settings during the Barremian to Aptian, the Albo-Cenomanian and the Campanian to Maastrichtian stages. The diagenetic conditions were initially hydrothermal and progressively attained geothermal equilibrium under deep-burial conditions towards the Late Cretaceous. These diagenetic episodes were not necessarily coeval with magmatic events were are always coeval with basin-scale tectonic events described previously using balanced cross-sections in the post salt section.

Keywords: pre-salt reservoirs
petrography
rift basin
tectono-stratigraphy
Campos Basin
Brazil
faults
diagenesis
seismic interpretation
Educated expectations: graduate mothers and their work in the long 1950s

This thesis opens up original perspectives on middle-class women’s lives in post-war Britain by bringing together and interrelating their experiences of different types of work. By developing an analysis informed by the history of emotions, the scholarship of feminist economics and the ethics of care, it illuminates the ways in which work – paid or unpaid, caring, domestic or voluntary – impacts self-fulfilment and contributes to the sense of self. It addresses together different aspects of educated women’s lives, which have tended to be addressed separately in historical scholarship. It is based on the data set contained in the papers of the social scientist Dr Viola Klein. Using over nine hundred completed questionnaires from a 1963 social survey and accompanying notes and letters, contextualised by published social surveys, statistics, correspondence and oral history, it examines how graduate women conceptualised the ways in which they combined domestic responsibilities with an intellectual life. The nuancing of middle-class women’s approach to work is made possible through the finely textured detail of responses to Klein’s survey. Many women were motivated to work by a desire for intellectual fulfilment and a role beyond that of wife and mother. This thesis demonstrates that many middle-class mothers could gain a sense of agency by arranging their lives so that they were able to achieve intellectual fulfilment alongside family life. Although there were undoubtedly compromises and frustrations, the process of reflection and negotiation could be creative. Teaching was a popular form of work for women graduates in post-war Britain, and there were increasing opportunities for those who had studied medicine or dentistry at university to practice within the new National Health Service. The widening of these professional fields raised fundamental questions about the interrelationships between paid and unpaid caring, domestic and voluntary work, motherhood and marriage.

Keywords: Women
History
Work
Advisor: Todd, S
Garnett, E
Theories of self-regulation

Self-regulation is becoming more and more prevalent in the UK, yet there has been very little theoretical examination of the issues involved. This thesis aims to fill that gap. The main intuition examined is that self-regulation will be a feasible form of regulation only if there exists some state, attainable via some form of regulation, which raises both industry profits and total social welfare, relative to the latssez faire.
Modelling self-regulation thus involves finding situations in which the laissez faire is not welfare-optimal; in which sellers can improve upon their profits, relative to those at the laissez fafre; and in which this profit-improvement happens also to raise total social welfare. Such situations may exist when there is asymmetric information between sellers and consumers and/or externalities.
Chapter 3 examines quality choice under hidden irreversible action, It is shown that any comparison between the welfare under self-regulation and that under laissez faire will turn on the relative signs and values of (a) the net between-seller externality; (b) the difference in quality valuations between marginal and infra-marginal consumers; and (c) the effect of quality choice on total output. Under certain circumstances, however, self-regulation will certainly be the welfare-superior.
Chapter 4 examines quality choice under moral hazard. Self-regulation is shown to be feasible. It is also compared with external regulation: If qualities are observable (with a lag) but not verifiable, an SRO may have an advantage over an external regulator in that an SRO can condition its regulation on quality. Self-regulation in fact becomes more likely to be welfare-superior to external regulation (a) as fraud becomes more important relative to cheating on quality; (b) as sellers become more homogeneous in terms of capital; and (c) as the observation lag becomes greater.
Chapter 5 considers the factors that might influence the optimal number of SROs in an industry.

Keywords: Deregulation
self-regulation
Trade regulation
Social responsibility
Nanotribology of ionic liquid-solvent mixtures

Ionic liquids (ILs) have gained notoriety within the field of liquid matter, specifically as a lubricant. Fascination with ILs as lubricants is due to their physio-chemical stability and strong interactions with solid surfaces, marking an improvement over industrial lubricants. IL lubricants can therefore operate in high-pressure regimes without compromising the integrity of the surfaces.
While studies have demonstrated that pure ILs are excellent lubricants, using large amounts is costly and unfeasible for industry. A route around this problem is to use trace amounts of IL as an additive to make an industrially efficient lubricant.
This thesis explores the interfacial structure and frictional response across a range of IL-solvent mixtures to explore their performance as lubricant additives. Using the surface forces balance (SFB), the structural and frictional forces at the nanoscale can be simultaneously measured while the applied load is controlled. Macroscale friction behaviour is also studied using a ball-on-disc tribometer.
Both nanoscale and macroscale measurements across a range of ILs, mixed with either a polar solvent or a model base oil, showed that friction is influenced by the liquid film structure. Using the SFB, we were able to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the friction, as we could probe the simultaneous confined structure. Varying the composition of these mixtures revealed that while macroscale performance could be improved with trace additions of ILs, the nanoscale behaviour was not as reliable.
The SFB measurements of oil-soluble ILs showed a lack of layering and ineffective lubrication when compared to the base oil, while the water-soluble IL showed reliable and superlubric performance across both length scales, with the nanoscale studies showing that a switch in the structural forces was reflected in the frictional forces. These results indicate that while ILs can become lubricant additives, a wide-scale systematic study over multiple length scales and surfaces is required.

Advisor: Perkin, S
Cognitive approaches to non-invasive brain stimulation in the treatment of depression

This thesis investigated two cognitive approaches for improving the application of non-invasive brain stimulation in the treatment of depression. The goal of the first project was to test whether combining transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with a reinforcement learning task can reduce negative biases in depression. Recent research suggests that negative biases might arise from overestimating the informativeness of negative vs. positive information which might lead to increased learning from negative information. Two samples were recruited to test whether bifrontal tDCS applied during reinforcement learning increases reward vs. punishment learning in healthy participants and individuals with low mood. For the experimental paradigm, we used the Information Bias Learning Task which manipulates the relative informativeness of reward and punishments. As hypothesised, real compared to sham tDCS selectively increased reward learning in healthy individuals. To investigate whether this effect might be helpful to normalise reinforcement learning in depression, we compared performance between individuals with low mood and healthy participants. We found that individuals with low mood adjusted their punishment learning rate less, and their reward learning rate more to changes in informativeness than healthy individuals. Bifrontal tDCS normalised learning rate adjustment in individuals with low mood, which might be beneficial in depression treatment. The reported findings were only observed in response to bifrontal tDCS applied during (as opposed to before) task performance. This suggests the hypothesis that tDCS combined with reinforcement learning might have larger antidepressant effects than tDCS alone, which can be tested in future clinical trials. The second project was motivated by the idea of investigating different cognitive phenotypes of depression to guide treatment selection for individual patients. Previous research indicates that the relative severity of anxiety vs. anhedonia might differentiate between phenotypes that differ in the TMS target region they best respond to. We therefore recruited participants with varying symptom levels on an online platform to test which parameters extracted from five cognitive tasks differentially relate to symptoms of anxiety and anhedonia. The cognitive process which seemed to best differentiate between anxiety and anhedonia was punishment learning with volatile and stable associations. Future clinical trials are needed to test whether these cognitive task parameters have any clinical value, for example for selecting the optimal TMS target region.

Keywords: Negative bias
Phenotyping
Reinforcement learning
Non-invasive brain stimulation
Depression
Advisor: O'Shea, J
Browning, M
Teaching acting to singers: harnessing historical techniques to empower modern performers

This thesis examines how seventeenth- and eighteenth-century acting techniques could be used in conjunction with twentieth- and twenty-first-century theory and praxis to create modern acting tools for the dramatic training of classical singers. Classical singing curricula tend to focus overwhelmingly on the vocal element of performance, with acting and movement classes ordinarily comprising only a fraction of the overall tuition. This thesis argues that techniques deriving from historical acting are by their nature especially suitable for the training of singers and can be effective and beneficial even when taught within a short timeframe. The historical precepts underpinning this work’s theoretical foundations are drawn from a large corpus of treatises published across Europe between 1528 and 1832, and from a contextual investigation of the London stage in the first half of the eighteenth century. Historical insights are then brought into conversation with modern theatrical practices and studies in pedagogy, drama and psychology to produce blueprints for new techniques, which are subsequently refined through application in teaching settings. Chapter 1 outlines the theoretical basis of historical acting: classical beauty, the art of rhetoric and naturalness. Chapter 2 explores more technical aspects of the craft, proposing a classification system of gesture relevant to opera. Chapter 3 expands the enquiry into the practice and training of eighteenth-century performers and begins the methodological discussion for the new teaching method. Finally, Chapter 4 examines key stages in the development of the new teaching method and outlines the main exercises comprising it. The new teaching method aims to equip singers with a compendium of innovative and specialised tools for aiding their preparation and performance in the visual domain (movement and gesture). While the resulting skills are especially fitting for pre-1900 operatic repertoire, they can be used to perform repertoire from any period. The broad applicability of this method and its targeted development for the conservatoire curriculum could significantly improve the acting training provision for classical singers.

Keywords: pedagogy
Handel
acting
singers
gesture
opera
baroque
Advisor: Burden, M