VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
State paternalism and the neutrality-perfectionism debate

The purpose of this thesis is to compare the paternalistic implications of two opposing political theories: neutrality and perfectionism. Neutrality holds that the state must not appeal to conceptions of the good as the justification for its decisions. Perfectionism rejects this constraint.
Applied to paternalism, perfectionism makes it permissible for the state to appeal to a conception of the good when it acts paternalistically, that is, interferes with a person for his own good. Neutrality requires that paternalism must instead be guided by considerations that are in some sense neutral between various conceptions of the good. Perfectionism supports forcing people into worthwhile conceptions of the good. It provides motivation for a wider range of paternalistic policies than neutrality does. A number of perfectionist strategies for resisting this conclusion are examined.
The first is to appeal to the value of autonomy as a component of well-being. Paternalism, some perfectionists argue, undermines the value of living an autonomous life. I try to show how various arguments for the value of autonomy, even if accepted, fail to rule out a wide range of paternalistic policies. A second strategy is to appeal to the endorsement constraint. According to this, a person's well-being cannot be advanced by forcing her into activities that she does not endorse as valuable. I argue that the endorsement constraint is not plausible in its strong form, and that whilst a weaker form is plausible, it allows a wide range of paternalism. A number of other strategies, such as appealing to the value of activity, claiming that many worthwhile activities require people to approach them with the right intentions for those activities to be for their own good, and that paternalism undermines trust in the government are examined and criticised.
These difficulties do not mean that perfectionism should be rejected. But they do support setting aside conceptions of the good when the state acts paternalistically, whilst not necessarily ruling out perfectionism in non-paternalistic state action. This conclusion is strengthened in two ways. First, by taking Rawlsian contractualism as a method of elucidating neutrality, it is shown that neutrality supports a plausible principle of paternalism. Second, a number of recent attempts to set out necessary conditions for justified paternalism, such as that liberty must be balanced against wellbeing, that the consent of the patemalised is needed, and that the conduct must be nonvoluntary, are examined. The arguments for these conditions all suggest that neutrality is a necessary condition for justified paternalism.
The conclusion of the thesis is two-fold. A conclusion about the neutralityperfectionist debate is that neutrality is required for paternalistic state action whilst perfectionism may be acceptable in the non-paternalistic sphere. A conclusion about state paternalism is that it is justified only if guided by neutral considerations.

Advisor: Raz, J
Generation, regulation and function of morphology in Leishmania and Trypanosoma

Little is known about the generation of Leishmania morphology and the function of morphology in trypanosomatids, despite every species having characteristic cell shapes and undergoing changes in morphology between life cycle stages. To address this I analysed morphogenesis of the cell body and flagellum through the cell cycle of the Leishmania insect (promastigote) life cycle stage using a novel method for determining cell cycle stage from cell size and DNA content. This showed cell body morphology is generated by growth and then remodelling of cell shape around mitosis and cytokinesis. Mathematical modelling of flagellum growth indicated flagellum length continues to increase over multiple cell cycles and does not reach a defined length. I also observed little link between the cell cycle and flagellum length regulation during differentiation to the mammalian macrophage-inhabiting (amastigote) life cycle stage. Analysis of motility showed the diverse flagellar lengths of promastigote Leishmania cells bestow different swimming abilities, and the capacity of Leishmania promastigotes for highly directional swimming differs sharply from trypomastigote Trypanosoma brucei. This difference did not arise from altered flagellar beating therefore appeared to be linked to morphology. Together these indicate the mechanisms of cell body morphogenesis, flagellum length regulation, life cycle stage differentiation and the swimming abilities of the cells the morphogenetic processes generate differ significantly between Leishmania and T. brucei. These insights motivated the programming of automated micrograph analysis tools based on a new DNA staining method to support similar future morphometric analyses. This is the first comprehensive comparison of morphogenesis and function of morphology in a promastigote and a trypomastigote and, by considering these new insights in the context of existing molecular biology and the morphological diversity across many trypanosomatid species, give insight into basic Leishmania biology, the shared molecular mechanisms underlying morphogenesis and the potential functions of the diverse morphologies which are seen in different trypanosomatid species and life cycle stages.

Keywords: mitosis
leishmaniasis
motility
Leishmania
life cycle
flagellum
parasitology
Trypanosoma
trypanosomiasis
cell cycle
evolution
automated image analysis
morphology
selection pressure
trypanosome
Advisor: Gull, K
Gluenz, E
Early modern literary afterlives

My thesis explores the posthumous literary life in the early modern period by examining responses to ‘dead poets’ shortly after their deaths. Analysing responses to a series of literary figures, I chart a pre-history of literary biography. Overall, I argue for the gradual emergence of a linkage between an individual’s literary output and the personal life that predates the eighteenth century. Chapter 1 frames the critical investigation by contrasting examples of Lives written for authors living before and after my chosen period of specialisation. Both these Lives reflect changed attitudes towards the writing of poets’ lives as a result of wider discourses that the following chapters examine in more detail. Chapter 2 focuses on the events following the death of Robert Greene, an author often described as the first ‘professional’ English writer. The chapter suggests that Greene’s notoriety is for the most part a posthumous construct resulting from printed responses to his death. Chapter 3 is concerned with the problem of reconciling a poet’s life-narrative with the vita activa model and examines potential causes for the ‘gap’ between Sir Philip Sidney’s public life and his works, which continues to pose a challenge for biographers. Chapter 4 examines the evolution of Izaak Walton’s Life of Donne. The ‘life history’ of Walton’s Lives, particularly the Life of Donne, reflects an accidental discovery of a biographical technique that anticipates literary biography.
My method is mainly based on bibliographical research, comparing editions and making distinctions between them which have not been made before, while paying particular attention to paratextual materials, such as dedications, prefaces and title pages. By investigating assumptions about individual authors, and also authorship in general, I hope to shed some light on a promising new area of early modern scholarship and direct greater scrutiny towards the assumptions brought into literary biography.

Keywords: Sir Philip Sidney
Edmund Spenser
posthumous editions
literary biography
Robert Greene
biography
George Herbert
biographical reading
John Donne
Izaak Walton
Advisor: van Es, B
Lower Semicontinuity and Young Measures for Integral Functionals with Linear Growth

The first contribution of this thesis is a new proof of sequential weak* lower semicontinuity in BV(Ω;Rm)
for integral functionals of the form
F(u) :=∫Ωf(x,∇u)dx+∫Ωf∞(x,
dDsu
d|Dsu|
)d|Dsu|
+∫∂Ωf∞(x,u|∂Ω⊗nΩ)dHd−1,u∈BV(Ω;Rm),
where f:
¯
Ω
×Rm×d→R
is a quasiconvex Carath\'{e}odory integrand with linear growth at infinity, i.e.\ |f(x,A)|≤M(1+|A|)
for some M>0
, and f
is such that the recession function f∞(x,A):=limx′→x,t→∞t−1f(x′,tA)
exists and is (jointly) continuous. In contrast to the classical proofs by Ambrosio \& Dal Maso [\textit{J.\ Funct.\ Anal.} 109 (1992), 76--97] and Fonseca \& M\"{u}ller [\textit{Arch.\ Ration.\ Mech.\ Anal.} 123 (1993), 1--49], the one presented here does not use Alberti's Rank One Theorem [\textit{Proc.\ Roy.\ Soc.\ Edinburgh Sect.\ A} 123 (1993), 239--274], but combines the usual blow-up method with a rigidity result for gradients.
The second main result is the first general weak* lower semicontinuity theorem in the space BD(Ω)
of functions of bounded deformation for functionals of the form
F(u) :=∫Ωf(x,Eu)dx+∫Ωf∞(x,
dEsu
d|Esu|
)d|Esu|
+∫∂Ωf∞(x,u|∂Ω⊙nΩ)dHd−1,u∈BD(Ω),
where f
satisfies similar assumptions as before, in particular it is assumed symmetric-quasiconvex. The main novelty is that we allow for non-vanishing Cantor-parts in the symmetrized derivative Eu
. The proof hinges on a construction of good blow-ups, which in turn is based on local rigidity arguments for some differential inclusions involving symmetrized gradients and an iteration of the blow-up construction. This strategy allows us to establish the lower semicontinuity result without an Alberti-type theorem in BD(Ω)
, which is not available at present.
This dissertation also presents an improved functional-analytic framework for generalized Young measures (with linear growth) as introduced by DiPerna \& Majda [\textit{Comm. Math. Phys.} 108 (1987), 667--689]. Localization principles and Jensen-type inequalities for such Young measures form the technical backbone of the lower semicontinuity proofs.

Keywords: Alberti?s Rank One Theorem
Bounded variation
bounded deformation
BV
lower semicontinuity
BD
differential inclusion
Young measure
rigidity
Advisor: Kristensen, J
The children of Africa in the colonies

This thesis is a study of free people of colour during the era of emancipation in Barbados, with a particular focus on their relationships with and attitudes towards slaves. It examines the period between the 1816 slave rebellion and the 1854 cholera epidemic, encompassing the apprenticeship period of 1834-1838.
The thesis argues that differences of class, political ideology, gender and the specific nature of their relationships with slaves determined emancipation's impact on free people of colour. At the same time, the thesis illustrates that pre-emancipation free people of colour as a group remained economically and politically marginal after emancipation, much as they had been during slavery.
Reforms to the island's slave laws during the 1820s and early 1830s undermined the legal distinction between free people of colour and slaves. The abolitionism debate and increasing racial tension in the island led free non-whites to challenge openly the principle of racial subordination for the first time. After 1834, elite free people of colour forged a sense of "race consciousness", and adopted emancipation as the key to their battle against racial inequality, asserting themselves as the legitimate protectors of ex-slaves' interests.
However class differences and disagreements over emancipation policy led to political factionalism among people of colour. The absence of fundamental change in the distribution of land and wealth after emancipation left most pre-1834 free people of colour and ex-slaves with little hope of political enfranchisement or socio-economic betterment. By the early 1850s, many came to see emigration as the solution to their difficulties.
This thesis is the first study of pre-1834 free people of colour in post-emancipation Barbados, and one of few to examine both the periods of slavery and postemancipation. By focussing on the intricate relations between free people of colour and slaves/ex-slaves, this thesis shows how emancipation transformed many aspects of social relations in Barbados ― particularly with regard to race, class, labour and gender.

Advisor: Professor Alan Knight, C
Direct wavefront sensing in adaptive microscopy

Specimen-induced aberrations are frequently encountered in high resolution microscopy, particularly when high numerical aperture lenses are used to image deep into biological specimens. These aberrations distort the focal spot causing reduction in resolution, signal level and contrast. Aberrations arise due to refractive index variations in the specimen. Adaptive optics has been used in microscopes to correct for these effects and restore optimum imaging performance. An adaptive element, such as a deformable mirror, is used to compensate for aberrations by introducing equal but opposite phase distortions to that introduced by the specimen. Most adaptive optics systems in microscopy have employed indirect optimisation schemes that require several exposures of the specimen before the correction phase can be determined. This could lead to photo-toxicity and is sometimes unsuitable for real-time imaging. Direct wavefront sensing can significantly decrease the time required for aberration measurements by using dedicated sensors, but has limitations, particularly when backscattered light is used from thick specimens. While similar research has been undertaken in ophthalmology where the imaged retina is approximately two-dimensional, this report extends that work to three-dimensional specimens in microscopes. Aberration correction has already been demonstrated in single-pass systems for scattering specimens, but have employed either indirect wavefront sensing techniques or fluorescent beads as guide stars. The use of a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor for direct wavefront sensing using backscattered light in a dual-pass system is investigated here. Out-of-focus rejection using an axial selectivity pinhole is studied, along with the phase smoothing effect that is dependant on the pinhole size. The effectiveness of using asymmetric illumination and detection paths, and polarisation filtering in the retrieval of phase information are also demonstrated. It is shown that whilst direct quantitative measurements are not possible for scattering specimens, the measurements could be used in closed-loop adaptive optics systems to correct aberrations.

Keywords: Shack-Hartmann
specimen-induced aberration
backscattered light
Direct wavefront sensing
microscopy
Advisor: Booth, M
The later music of Elliott Carter

Any composer's writings form an important source for the critical study of his music: they must nevertheless be used with care, Carter's writings are considered as part of a tradition in American music. His musical development up to 1959 is briefly sketched, with particular reference to those elements which with hindsight can be seen to have been most significant in the evolution of a mature musical language - various experimental and non-western musical traditions, influences from other domains of art, and the philosophy of A. N. Vhitehead.
In order to avoid the spectre of 'merely technical analysis' of atonal music, we need an analytical approach which can describe the way in which the characteristic properties of a musical surface (principally pitch register and duration; secondarily dynamic and timbre) act to create larger structures in time. Pitch-class Set Theory is rejected as embodying an unacceptable level of abstraction, and failing to account for the dynamic, developmental aspects of musical structure, Instead, a more flexible and sensitive method is developed, drawing on an alternative analytical tradition for twentieth-century music. Precedents and justifications for this method are sought in contemporary accounts of structure in general, and parallels and distinctions are drawn between the hierarchic structures of tonal music, atonal music, and language, This context-sensitive analytical approach is then applied to three of Carter's most characteristic works: the String Quartet no.2 (1959); the Double Concerto for Harpsichord, Piano, and Two Chamber Orchestras (1961); and the Concerto for Orchestra (1969).
Mapping studies of the centromeric region of the human Y chromosome

Mapping studies of the centromeric region of the human Y chromosome
Construction of a map of a human centromeric region is very important in order to understand the organisation of this essential part of the chromosome. A YAC contig map has been assembled of the pericentric 10 Mb of the human Y chromosome, giving coverage of Yp from the large X-Y homologous region through to the alphoid satellite of the centromere, and from the alphoid DNA to the proximal unique sequences on Yq. The Yp map has one remaining gap between TSPY1 and the AMELY region, while two gaps separate the satellite region on Yq from the other two contigs.
After constructing the map, the known genes were localised to the region. One Yq gene, DFFRY, was discounted as a potential anti-Turner syndrome gene by analysis of rearranged Y chromosomes.
Detection of a block of duplicated sequence on Yp led to the confirmation of the existence of an inversion polymorphism, which was then found to be correlated with a major subclass of sex-reversed individuals, who have X-Y chromosomal breakpoints within the inverted region.
These results not only give a far more extensive and detailed map of this region than before, but also show that understanding the organisation of the region has important consequences for a number of genetic disorders.
Particle systems and stochastic PDEs on the half-line

The purpose of this thesis is to develop techniques for analysing interacting particle systems on the half-line. When the number of particles becomes large, stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) with Dirichlet boundary conditions will be the natural objects for describing the dynamics of the population's empirical measure.
As a source of motivation, we consider systems that arise naturally as models for the pricing of portfolio credit derivatives, although similar applications are found in mathematical neuroscience, stochastic filtering and mean-field games.
We will focus on a stochastic McKean--Vlasov system in which a collection of Brownian motions interact through a correlation which is a function of the proportion of particles that have been absorbed at level zero. We prove a law of large numbers where the limiting object is the unique solution to (the weak formulation of) the loss-dependent SPDE:
dVt(x) = 1/2 ∂xxVt(x)dt - p(Lt)∂xVt(x)dWt, Vt(0)=0,
where Lt = 1-&lmoust;∞t
Vt(x)dx, V is a density process on the half-line and W is a Brownian motion. The correlation function is assumed to be piecewise Lipschitz, which encompasses a natural class of credit models.
The first of our theoretical developments is to introduce the kernel smoothing method in the dual of the first Sobolev space, H-1, with the aim of proving uniqueness results for SPDEs. A benefit of this approach is that only first order moment estimates of solutions are required, and in the particle setting this translates into studying the particles at an individual level rather than as a correlated collection. The second idea is to extend Skorokhod's M1 topology to the space of processes that take values in the tempered distributions. The benefit we gain is that monotone functions have zero modulus of continuity under this topology, so the loss process, L, is easy to control.
As a final example, we consider the fluctuations in the convergence of a basic particle system with constant correlation. This gives rise to a central limit theorem, for which the limiting object is a solution to an SPDE with random transport and an additive idiosyncratic driver acting on the first derivative terms. Conditional on the systemic random variables, this driver is a space-time white noise with intensity controlled by the empirical measure of the underlying system. The SPDE has insufficient regularity for us to work in any Sobolev space higher than H-1, hence we have an example of where our extension to the kernel smoothing method is necessary.

Keywords: Particles system ; stochastic PDEs ; Skorokhod topologies
Advisor: Hambly, B
Uncertainty and firm investment

This thesis explores effects of uncertainty on firm investment that are described in estimates of firm level investment specifications which include proxies for uncertainty over expected future firm profitability. A panel data set of UK firms covering the period 1987-2000 is used to estimate firm level investment specifications. Within year volatility in stock returns - a common proxy for firm specific uncertainty in previous literature - is compared with covariance measures between stock returns and market returns representing un-diversifiable risk from the CAPM; and with alternative uncertainty proxies based on volatility in I/B/E/S securities analysts' forecasts of earnings per share. Within estimates of firm level investment specifications, the thesis investigates the sensitivity of coefficients on uncertainty terms to the choice of underlying investment specification: error correction model between the natural logarithms of capital and sales; or the Hayashi (1982) Q model of investment. Coefficients on stock return volatility measures of uncertainty terms are found to vary significantly between estimates of error correction and average q specifications. Differences between coefficients estimated on uncertainty terms across estimates of these two investment specifications are supported with simulated data. Uncertainty measures based on volatility in I/B/E/S securities analysts' forecasts of earnings per share are found to be much more informative of investment behaviour than within year stock return volatility in estimates of both error correction and average q specifications. Coefficients on I/B/E/S uncertainty proxies imply more consistent investment-uncertainty relationships across estimates of error correction and average q specifications for the UK panel data set.

Keywords: firm uncertainty
firm investment
Advisor: Bond, S
Teresa de Cartagena: a late medieval woman's theological approach to disability

This thesis studies, through a literary and theological analysis of her writings and an examination of her background, how a fifteenth century Spanish nun called Teresa de Cartagena dealt spiritually with disability. She was physically disabled, having become deaf as an adult but also having endured many illnesses. Her first book, Arboleda de los enfermos, was written to pass on to other sufferers the spiritual lessons she had learned from her own suffering; that suffering was good because it had saved her from sin and had brought her to God. Her second work, Admiraçión operum Dey, was written to answer those who had criticised her for the act of writing because of her gender, at that time a disability for any woman wishing to write or teach. She justified her writing as a special work of God, but did not claim mystical direct divine inspiration.
Teresa was a member of a prominent family of Jewish Christians (conversos). At the time she was writing, the second half of the fifteenth century, anti-converso prejudice and violence were growing in Spain. This culminated in the introduction of the Inquisition in order to deal with the so-called 'judaising conversos'. In these circumstances her conversa status was a distinct social disability, but there is no express mention of this in her writings. However, there are traces in her writings of converso concerns, and of a specifically converso theology.
Although there have been many studies of Teresa de Cartagena from the viewpoints of medieval Spanish literature, disability studies, feminist history and her use of rhetorical techniques, there has been no in depth study of her theology and spirituality. This thesis demonstrates that, although in general these were orthodox and unoriginal, they were unusual for a woman of her time and background.

Keywords: converso
deafness
history of Spanish Jews
authorship
gender
disability
medieval female spirituality
Advisor: Edwards, J