VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Perugian nobility c. 1200-1430

Besides seeking to outline social changes over two centuries in a medium-sized Italian town very different from the greater centres of Northern and Central Italy, this study aims chiefly at defining the concept of nobility as it appeared at Perugia, tracing changes in its meaning and investigating its relationship to knighthood, so important a feature in the definition of nobility in areas of Northern Europe, and to the Italian anti-magnate legislation.
Attention has thus been directed towards the changing patterns in social vocabulary of honour and distinction as well as to a prosopographical analysis of those families who, by 1333, were classified as noble in the Perugian magnate lists. Their overwhelmingly rural base has been noted. The ancient territorial aristocracy continued both independent and strong, although newer families had emerged c.1200 upon old lay and ecclesiastical lands.
Perugian political history has been re-evaluated; special consideration has been given to the actual powers of the popolo during the period of its apparent predominance, c.1260-1400, to the complex interaction between town and countryside, to the persistence of private jurisdictions and to the degree to which the rural nobility was attracted to urban life. Finally, from 1370, the gradual assimilation of members of the mercantile classes to the ranks of the nobility has been traced, together with the formation of an urban oligarchy. In this way, both noble and civic consciousness in Perugia at the close of the Middle Ages were considerably modified.

Keywords: Italy
Perugian
nobility
Perugia
Catalyst development for the ring-opening copolymerisation of epoxides and anhydrides

This thesis describes the development of a range of catalysts for polyester synthesis via the ring-opening copolymerisation (ROCOP) of epoxides and anhydrides.
Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the ROCOP of epoxides and anhydrides, with a particular focus on catalyst development and mechanism. It also introduces the concept of switchable catalysis and describes its application to the synthesis of block polyesters.
Chapter 2 details the synthesis and characterisation of a series of monometallic M(III) complexes (M = Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co). Their application as catalysts for the ROCOP of cyclohexene oxide (CHO) and phthalic anhydride (PA), and the ROP of decalactone (DL), is explored. The complexes featuring Al(III) and Co(III) are found to be the most active catalysts for these polymerisations.
Chapter 3 details the application of the Al(III) and Co(III) complexes synthesised in Chapter 2 to the one-pot switchable catalysis reaction of CHO, PA and DL. Triblock copolymers with molar masses up to 57 kg mol-1 are synthesised. The catalytic activity of these complexes is shown to be significantly higher than previously used commercial salen catalyst systems.
Chapter 4 details the synthesis and characterisation of a series of heterodinuclear Al(III)/M(I) (M(I) = Group 1 metal) complexes. All are shown to be excellent catalysts for the ROCOP of CHO and PA, with the Al(III)/K(I) and Al(III)/Rb(I) congeners being the most active. Subsequent kinetic investigations, combined with DFT calculations, result in the proposal of a mechanism where the epoxide is bound and activated by the Al(III) centre and the M(I) ion binds the carboxylate chain end. The scope of the catalysis is established for a wide range of epoxides with anhydrides and CO2.
Chapter 5 details the development of an Al(III)/K(I) complex bearing organometallic coligands. It is demonstrated that use of this complex, in conjunction with bifunctional protic chain transfer agents, can yield monodisperse high molar mass polyesters via the ROCOP of vinyl-cyclohexene oxide (vCHO) and PA. The mechanical and thermal properties of the polyesters are investigated to establish the impact of increasing polymer molar mass.
Chapter 6 outlines the key developments of this thesis and suggests future avenues for research that build on the work described.
Chapter 7 provides experimental details for Chapters 2 – 5.
An Appendix is provided that contains supplementary figures and data that support the discussion throughout Chapter 2 – 5.

Advisor: Williams, CK
Doubt, dogmatism, and the Dunamis antithetikē: sextus empiricus on sceptical inquiry

Sextus Empiricus’ account of Pyrrhonian Scepticism has been judged harshly in the history of philosophy. Since the verdict of Hume 1748 (12.128), Pyrrhonism has often been thought to be neither a worthwhile way of inquiring, nor a worthwhile way of life. This verdict is, I think, mistaken. My goal in this thesis is therefore to show that Sextus’ vision of Sceptical inquiry is more serious, sophisticated, and fruitful than it may seem, and thus can be the basis for a worthwhile life. I seek to show this in three stages.
In Section I, I discuss the interpretive problem of the scope of Scepticism, arguing for Barnes 1982’s reading: the scope will vary for each individual Sceptic’s exercise of her dunamis antithetikē. However, I raise a challenge for Barnes’ therapeutic reading, on the basis of Sextus’ insistence that the Sceptic is a zētētikos (PH I.7), and ‘keeps inquiring’ (PH I.1-3).
In Section II, I develop the concept of the dunamis antithetikē and assess its implications. First, I argue for a wide-scope interpretation of the dunamis antithetikē. Second, I examine the relationship of inquiry and therapy in Sextus, arguing that Sextus’ inquiry pursues tranquillity insofar as this is achievable through methods which he judges rational: rationality is Sextus’ epistemic telos, and Sextan ataraxia is reason-involving.
In Section III, I elaborate this into a vision of two stages in the Sceptic’s life as an inquirer, in which she explores two candidates for meeting the specifications of rational inquiry. In the first stage, she pursues the ideal of ‘critical rationality’: the exercise of the Modes, which is constitutive of the dunamis antithetikē, reveals to the Sceptic the impossibility of achieving this ideal. In the second stage, she pursues the ‘second-best’ ideal of ‘intuitive rationality’: this ‘post-Sceptical’ inquiry is founded on forms of reasoning which Sextus judges to be basic and unassailable, and involves the rationally governed redirection of our impressions (phantasiai).
Essays in comparative political economy: bureaucracy and participation in policymaking

This DPhil project addresses three distinct, yet interrelated, questions with respect to the nature of contemporary digital capitalism and participatory governance. Closely following standard comparative political economy research practices, I test several established theories about bureaucratic influence and participatory benefits on contemporary policymaking cases across capitalist democracies (Paper 1 and Paper 2). I also develop a somewhat more original theoretical proposition on the strategic use of participatory tools in the last paper (Paper 3). The primary goal of this doctoral project is to theoretically explain and empirically validate the overlooked – yet consequential – role of bureaucracy and participation in contemporary policymaking. Through my findings from the three papers, I emphasize that bureaucratic structures and participatory governance can often act as significant catalysing forces, which delimit some policy paths, while nurturing others.

Keywords: Regulatory politics
comparative political economy
participatory development
Advisor: David, R
Tales of instability and decay: an integrable perspective

This thesis presents theoretical groundwork for the investigation of particular phenomena of instability and decay in out-of-equilibrium many body systems. By employing mathematical methods of integrability, we succeed in gaining new insights into problems not traditionally associated with an integrable realm.
The family of homogeneous sine-Gordon models provides a rare example of an integrable quantum field theory where both stable and unstable excitations are present in the spectrum. We studied the effect of unstable particles in different out-of-equilibrium settings and have shown that their presence is associated with specific signatures in many quantities of physical interest. Adopting the generalized hydrodynamic approach, we investigated the non-equilibrium dynamics following a quench and observed hallmarks of the creation and decay of unstable particles. Furthermore, we explored in considerable detail their quantitative and qualitative dependence on the parameters of the problem.
Decay processes due to environmental interactions are an experimentally relevant problem, yet the theory of open systems is substantially less developed than for their closed counterparts. We concentrate on Markovian open quantum systems described by a Lindblad time evolution equation and design a framework for analytic investigation of Lindblad dynamics via establishing a connection with integrability. We identify a number of Lindblad equations that can be mapped onto non-Hermitian interacting Yang-Baxter integrable models. The key ingredient of the proposed map is the structural similarity between the operators considered. We present examples of mappings between integrable Hamiltonians and Lindblad generators and underline several models of physical interest which can be investigated within this framework. By employing Bethe ansatz techniques, we study the dynamics of some of these models.

Keywords: Bethe Ansatz
generalized hydrodynamics
quantum spin chains
integrability
integrable quantum field theory
open quantum systems
Yang-Baxter equation
Lindblad master equations
unstable particles
out-of-equilibrium dynamics
Advisor: Essler, F
Our faults and our stars: some topics in comparative seismology

Seismology is one of the few geophysical probes which allows us to peer beneath the surface of a planet, moon, or star and map its structures and properties at a variety of scales and resolutions. This makes it a technique of enormous scientific power. Its application, however, suffers from problems of mathematical ill-posedness and poor conditioning. To alleviate some of these difficulties, we turn to computational seismic modelling.
Seismic modelling is not without its own challenges, of cost and complexity, which have limited its applications. In this thesis, material will be presented which advances the frontiers of seismic modelling, especially in the domain of coupled solid-fluid media. Application of these improvements offers the opportunity to better understand the seismic behaviour, and hence the interior structures, of the worlds in question.
In this thesis, we will cover advances in the seismic modelling of the Earth’s oceans, Mars’ atmosphere, the Sun, and other stars. The first five data chapters will cover the generation and analysis of synthetic data from the Earth, Mars (three times) and the Sun respectively. We will examine the influence that the oceans and their bathymetry have on surface wave propagation, followed by a presentation of results from the Oxford Seismology team’s participation in the blind test for the NASA InSight mission to Mars. Next, we will present modelling which was used to inform InSight’s attempts to detect the arrival of the Perseverance Rover in February 2021, followed by the results from this unique experiment.
The penultimate chapter covers the extension of similar techniques to modelling seismic wave propagation in the Sun, and finally we will explore whether aster- oseismic techniques may be used to study the internal configuration of the λ Boötis class of stars.

Advisor: Nissen-Meyer, T
Podsiadlowski, P
Political championship: understanding African state effectiveness and Sino-African infrastructure development


Why do Chinese-funded and -constructed projects that are similar in nature develop starkly different trajectories in different African states? This question sheds light on the varying state effectiveness in Sub-Saharan Africa. Diverging from existing structural explanations that stress the external agency and institutional argument that emphasizes bureaucratic capacity, I propose a political championship theory to explain variances in African states’ effectiveness to deliver functional infrastructure and policies. I argue that perceived threats from electoral competition generate strong political commitment from the state’s leadership, i.e. a political champion. When a political champion has high authority, their intervention in project implementation generates motivations for bureaucrats and tempers resistance, leading to higher project functionality. To empirically examine the political championship theory and two competing theories: the external agency and the bureaucratic capacity arguments, I trace the process of three Chinese-funded and -constructed railway projects: the Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya, the Addis-Djibouti Railway in Ethiopia, and the Caminho de Ferro de Benguela in Angola. I rely on 250 interviews conducted during 40 weeks of field research from 2017-2019 in Kenya, Ethiopia, Angola, and China. This research contributes to the theoretical debate on state effectiveness by emphasizing individual agency within structural and institutional constraints, a previously understudied area in state effectiveness. This research also challenges the conventional belief and shows that short-term electoral institutions can be as effective as long-term centralized ones in generating leadership commitment to developmental projects or policies. The thorough documentation of three Chinese-sponsored projects in Africa also fills the research gap of Chinese infrastructure projects in developing countries in general—despite its practical significance, limited empirical research studies have explored this subject due to the hard-to-access nature of Chinese actors and projects.

Keywords: Belt and Road Initiative
Sino-African relations
African politics
Infrastructure
Pope Innocent I : the Church of Rome in the early fifth century

The framework of this study is formed by Innocent's letters. These, though presenting few personal traits and no biographical details, are yet sufficiently varied to enable the student to gauge from them the relationship of the church of Rome to the rest of Christendom and to assess Innocent's handling of the various crises with which he was confronted.
His first letter was addressed to Anysius of Thessalonica. The ties between Anysius and Rome were unusually close, since he had demonstrated in the past, as he was to do again under Innocent, that he was willing to look to Rome for guidance on all major matters. This willingness on Anysius' part led Innocent to develop the concept of the papal vicariate which he was able to impose, more or less successfully, on Rufus, Anysius' successor. It is a development which was to prove fruitful for Innocent's successors in other areas of the West.
In conformity with his policy of encouraging the Western churches to look upon Rome as the source of discipline and doctrine, Innocent was anxious to encourage the habit of consultation of Rome in cases of doubt or disagreement. He therefore replied fully to such enquiries and requested that his replies be given the widest circulation. His letters to Victricius of Rouen, to Exsuperius of Toulouse, to the Macedonian and Dacian bishops and to Decentius of Gubbio are thus most instructive as to current Roman practice in liturgy and church order. They are also found in a very large number of canon collections, which suggests that Innocent's aim was successful.
Continued in thesis ...

Keywords: Early church
Church history
Pope
5th century
Papacy
Innocent I
Fifth century
Church of Rome
Primitive church
Catholic Church
Advisor: Frend, WHC
Neural mechanisms of perceptual decision-making in the fruit fly

A mobile organism is faced with the challenge of having to decide, moment by moment, its next course of action. Despite extensive efforts in mapping decision-making circuits across many species, the current understanding of neural mechanisms underlying the decision process remains scarce. Fruit flies can perform an odour discrimination task with difficulty-dependent reaction times and choice accuracies, in a framework well-described by a process of evidence accumulation to bound. A subset of third-order olfactory neurons, the αβ core Kenyon cells (αβc KCs), appears to act as a temporal integrator of sensory information, encoding the amount of summed evidence in their subthreshold voltage. However, explicit demonstration of a causal role of these neurons is lacking.
Combining molecular cloning, patch-clamp electrophysiology, closed-loop optogenetics, and drift-diffusion modelling, I establish a causal relationship between the neural activity in αβc KCs and the fly’s olfactory decision-making. First, I discover that a short motif from AMPA receptors can target the optogenetic activator to the somatodendritic compartment of the cell, enabling the optical injection of small dendritic currents. I also modify the genetic construct of the optogenetic inhibitor such that its expression is restricted to the decision-relevant neurons. Second, the functionality of these tools is characterised by whole-cell recordings of αβc KCs. Third, I bidirectionally manipulate the activity of these neurons during the perceptual task to test for behavioural consequences in speed and accuracy. I find that photostimulation quickens reaction times as a function of odour contrast and light intensity. This is mainly explained by a reduction of the bound height in drift-diffusion models, consistent with the representation of the integrated amount, rather than the momentary level, of evidence in αβc KCs. This work sheds light on the mechanisms by which decision-making is implemented in a biological substrate.

Keywords: drosophila melanogaster
neuroscience
decision-making
neural circuit
optogenetics
Advisor: Miesenböck, G
Exploring social metacognition

This thesis explores two questions: does the way individuals seek advice produce echo chamber-like networks; and is the well-established phenomenon of egocentric discounting explicable as a rational process? Both parts are presented within a framework of advice as information transfer; the implications for wider interpretations of advice are discussed in the conclusion. Both parts are investigated with a mixture of computational simulations and behavioural experiments.
For the first question, behavioural experiments implementing a Judge-Advisor System with a perceptual decision-making task and a date estimation task are used to characterise people’s propensity to use agreement as a signal of advice quality in the absence of feedback. These experiments provide moderate evidence suggesting that people do do this, and that experience of agreement in the absence of feedback increases their trust in advisors. Agent-based computational simulations take the results of the behavioural experiments and simulate their effects on trust ratings between agents. The simulations indicate that including the kind of heterogeneity seen in the participants in the behavioural experiments slows down the formation of echo chambers and limits the extent of polarisation.
In the second part, I argue that egocentric discounting deviates from a normative model of advice-taking because it is a rational response to concerns that always accompany advice: that the advice might be deliberately misleading, lazily researched, or misunderstood. Evolutionary computational simulations of advice-taking illustrate that when any of these circumstances might be true, egocentric discounting emerges as an adaptive response. Behavioural experiments using a date estimation task within a Judge-Advisor System test whether people respond adaptively to alterations in the circumstances explored in the evolutionary simulations. These experiments show that people respond flexibly to changes in the probability that their advisor will attempt to mislead them. Experiments attempting to explore people’s ability to flexibly respond to acquiring information about an advisor’s confidence calibration were inconclusive.
A web-book version of this thesis is available at https://mjaquiery.github.io/oxforddown/. Its RMarkdown source code is available at https://github.com/mjaquiery/oxforddown.

Keywords: rmarkdown
metacognition
echo chamber
judgement
open data
agent-based model
advisor choice
egocentric discounting
advice
decision-making
social influence
Advisor: Yeung, H
Unbiased molecular definition of epithelial barrier formation and defects driving inflammatory bowel disease

The intestinal epithelial barrier is one of the body’s largest mucosal surfaces. The cells involved reflect the numerous functions the epithelium must perform. The barrier requires time critical co-ordination with other intestinal cell compartments in utero for normal development. In maturity, dysregulation of the barrier or cross-talk can lead to disease such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Despite the importance of the intestinal epithelium in development and health, characterisation of the origins of dysregulation are lacking. Questions also remain about the full spectrum of epithelial cell diversity and its mutualistic relationship with other intestinal compartments.
This project characterises the development of the epithelial and mesenchymal cross talk in utero, in health and in IBD at high resolution using single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNAseq). Studying intestinal epithelial diversity in health and disease, isolating epithelial cells from IBD and controls and mapping over 11,000 cells from health and UC inflammation, mapped cell diversity through the maturation of epithelium. This identified a hitherto unappreciated BEST4/OTOP2 cell that sensed pH and was dysregulated in inflammation and cancer.
Furthermore, a second project mapped human intestinal development from 8-22 post conceptual weeks. This charted 101 cell types across developmental time and through spatial transcriptomics (ST) could map these to tissue revealing origins of diverse cellular compartments along with fibroblast and intestinal stem cells across space and time. These results provide a platform that maps the human intestinal epithelium and previously unappreciated resolution and from which the normal developmental cues can be established and allow identification of the drivers of dysregulation in IBD.

Keywords: intestinal development
intestinal disease
gene expression
congenital disease
single-cell RNA-sequencing
inflammatory bowel disease
intestinal crypt
stem cells
spatial transcriptomics
human development
mesenchymal cells
Advisor: Simmons, A
Johnson, P