VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Myth ascendant: issues of culture, media, and identity in the celebrity career of Glenn Gould

This thesis applies a sociological framework to the North American celebrity career of Canadian pianist and broadcaster Glenn Gould (1932-1982) to account for Gould’s iconic status as an artist in modern musical culture. Despite the persistent cultural fascination with Gould, as evidenced in the seemingly endless supply of biographies, films, novels, and fan texts which narrate and celebrate his life and work, modern Gould scholarship has consistently neglected issues relating to his artistic reception. This thesis proposes that the modern Gould phenomenon is productively analysed in terms of the contexts of its historical production in North America, where it first originated. Focusing on the circumstances of Gould’s career during his lifetime, it identifies three areas of overlapping conceptual interest that provide the basis for an explanatory account of his modern mythology: i) Gould's relationship to the culture of his time, particularly in Canada; ii) Gould’s relationship to the mass media; iii) Gould's relationship to his own artistic identity. This approach is refined through the application of Stuart Hall’s 'Circuit of Culture' model, which yields an understanding of Gould's celebrity in terms of the processes of its representation, production, regulation, and consumption. Against this theoretical backdrop, and consistent with the premise of my thesis, I ask some key questions: what was Gould's relationship to Canadian cultural nationalism and, specifically, a nationalist discourse of public broadcasting? How did media institutions brand his image, and for what commercial purposes? How did Gould mobilise understandings of his genius and Canadian identity through his artistic discourse and experimental media self-representations as a 'Northerner' and a technologist? Based on this analysis, the thesis concludes that Gould continues to fascinate because of the unique ideological work performed by his cultural identities, and because of the highly mediated nature of his celebrity. The ubiquity of his image on video-sharing websites and social media platforms is a vindication of his radical belief in the validity of a musical career pursued primarily through the electronic media.

Keywords: Canadian Nationalism
Ideology
CBC
Columbia Records, Columbia Masterworks
Artistic Promotion, Marketing, Branding
Genius and Authenticity
Identity and Self-Identity
North
Cultural Reception
Cultural Production, Representation, Regulation, Consumption
Narrative, Discourse, Archetype, Rhetoric
Technology
Marshall McLuhan
Media and Mediation
Cultural Musicology
Canadian Broadcasting
Fame and Celebrity
Mythology and Iconicity
Circuit of Culture
Glenn Gould
Sociology
Advisor: Aspden, S
Clarke, E
Serine hydrolase activity and roles for monoacylglycerol lipase in innate immunity and intestinal inflammation

Detection of evolutionarily conserved pathogen motifs by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), particularly on dendritic cells (DCs), is crucial for adequate immune responses. Defects in DC function are known to be associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is the system through which exocannabinoids such as Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol signal. Regarding inflammation, cannabinoids generally exert anti-inflammatory effects, including on experimental colitis. However, most work has been performed in animal models and less is known about the function of this system in human immune cells, particularly DCs. Monoacylglycerol lipase (MGLL) is the key enzyme for hydrolysis of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol, and a member of the serine hydrolase enzyme superfamily. This thesis defines the activity of serine hydrolase enzymes for the first time in human DCs upon stimulation by NOD2/TLR2 ligands using activity-based protein profiling (ABPP). MGLL is shown to be ubiquitously upregulated upon stimulation of DCs and in monocyte-derived macrophages. Through pharmacological inhibition studies, MGLL is demonstrated to regulate cellular and secreted lipids, not limited to endocannabinoids. However, overall DC function is independent of this enzyme suggesting that the effects of lipid modulation may be on bystander cells. Challenging the current literature, MGLL inhibition with a novel inhibitor worsens murine Citrobacter rodentium colitis. Finally, ABPP demonstrates a rich serine hydrolome in colonic tissue from human IBD with many enzymes previously undefined in this disease. Gene expression of ECS components suggests the enzymes ABHD12 and DAGLα/β may be potential markers of field change in IBD.

Keywords: Dendritic cells
Cannabinoid
Crohn's disease
Ulcerative colitis
Cannabis
Advisor: Simmons, A
Greaves, D
The sixth and earlier seventh centuries: preconditions of the rise of the emporia

This thesis assesses the sixth-/early seventh-century socio-economic roots of the eighth-century transmarine system connecting England and the Continent through major coastal trading sites (emporia).
Part 1 discusses socio-economic developments in the coastal areas of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and the Pas-de-Calais, through a close investigation of fifth- to early seventh-century archaeological evidence. The inclusion of later written sources has been fundamental to recognise that the two shores of the Channel were connected in a more complex network than previously assumed, beyond the major emporia.
These areas are then considered comparatively: after challenging substantivist approaches that assume an overwhelming importance of gift-exchange in sixth-century England, Part 2 stresses the role of transmarine traffic and exploitation of natural resources in the socio-economic development of coastal areas. The examination of sixth-century written sources has also proved rewarding to reconsider the sixth-century political relationships between Franks and Anglo-Saxons. The role of kings, churches and laymen in the later transmarine network (seventh/eighth centuries) is then discussed by including the Thames Valley, the estuaries of the rivers Seine and Loire, and the Rhine Delta, examined through the written sources.
One crucial question is the role of political actors in the development of a cross-Channel system of exchange. In this regard, scholars have mainly focused on the period when this system was already in place, pointing to a pivotal role of kings and political institutions for its establishment, or to the later appropriation by elites of a coastal area already integrated in the maritime network, but detached from political power. This thesis argues that a close link existed between elites and coastal areas before the emporia; thus, although kings were not the driving stimulus for the establishment of trading sites, the transmarine traffic fostered the socio-economic development of the coastal communities.

Keywords: Trade
Early Medieval
Anglo-Saxons
Emporia
Merovingians
Post-Roman Economy
Advisor: Wickham, C
Hamerow, H
Interannual North Atlantic Sea surface height dynamics and associated predictability

A signicant degree of uncertainty is associated with interannual sea surface height (SSH) forecasts. This thesis investigates the physical origins of this uncertainty, by examining the contributions of atmospherically modulated and ocean intrinsic processes to interannual SSH dynamics and its associated interannual predictability. The analysis is based on several numerical simulations at eddy-permitting resolution, ranging in complexity from barotropic and baroclinic models, with idealised geometries and forcings, to a state-of-the-art coupled climate model. Using the output of these various simulations, I diagnosed the relevant dynamical responses of sea level variability and statistically estimated the associated predictability timescales. The three main results can be summarized as follows. (1) New insights into the mechanisms by which eddy-fluxes of momentum and buoyancy, in mid-latitude jet regions, act to modulate interannual intrinsic ocean variability. This includes the identication of interannual equatoward migrations of anomalous baroclinic eddy-driven jets arising due to a meridional asymmetry in the Eady growth rate. (2) In idealised models, the components of SSH variability associated with the intrinsic dynamical mechanisms related to eddy momentum fluxes only display predictability on sub-annual timescales. However, the aforementioned buoyancy-driven mechanism introduces multi-year predictability. (3) In the coupled climate model, the dynamical response to external forcing, modulated by modes of atmospheric variability, is shown to be predictable on interannual timescales (1-2 years) and contributes to predictable SSH signals along the US east coast and in the vicinity of the Gulf Stream. This demonstrates that the chaotic variability introduced by mesoscale eddies does not completely obscure signals of interannual SSH predictability. These results highlight the importance of ocean-atmosphere interactions in interannual SSH forecasts, and demonstrate the relevance of mesoscale eddies in modulating interannual variability in mid-latitude ocean jets.

Advisor: Zanna, L
Wilson, C
Palmer, M
Using structural fragments to design antibody binding sites

Antibodies are an essential part of the immune system. They are able to attain high specificity and affinity to almost any antigen, and through their modularity make a robust framework for protein engineering. As a result, development of therapeutic antibodies has grown rapidly and they now account for the majority of revenue in the sales of new bio-therapeutics.
The established design methods are heavily based on experimental simulation of the antibody maturation process outside of the human organism, and make little use of rational computational design methods. In this thesis we analysed the applicability and issues surrounding an existing modelling paradigm and developed a novel approach towards de novo antibody design.
The majority of the affinity and specificity of antibodies is modulated by a set of six binding loops called the Complementarity Determining Region (CDR). We analysed the proportion of antibody CDRs that can be modelled in a set of 15 million antibody sequences. Out of all the CDRs H3 is the only one where we observed a large number of sequences that can not be modelled accurately. We then further explored why CDR H3 is so hard to model and found that the reason is not method dependent, but is a result of a lack of suitable structures. The H3 CDR shows unique structural characteristics at full loop, four residue and single residue levels of granularity.
On the topic of de-novo antibody design we developed SAbDesigner, an automated computational pipeline for designing antibodies by mimicking the binding interface of a receptor of the target protein on the CDR. SAbDesigner automatically identifies important loops for binding on the receptor and then identifies an antibody framework that is able to accommodate it through loop grafting. The designs are then computationally validated, further refined using both point mutations, and optimisations of other CDRs. Through this pipeline we proposed a set of 15 novel antibodies that target Interleukin-5, an important therapeutic target, and also performed an applicability study across other major important therapeutic targets.

Advisor: Deane, C
Long-lived spin coherence in radical pair compass magnetoreception

The ability of night migratory birds to utilise the Earth’s magnetic field as a directional cue is thought to arise from a light-activated radical pair reaction in the birds’ eye. The field of magnetoreception encompasses a broad range of research areas, from behavioural experiments to theoretical studies. Unfortunately, the computational challenge presented by modelling the multinuclear organic radicals thought to be involved in the sensing mechanism severely hampers the interpretation of experimental results in the framework of the radical pair hypothesis. This thesis presents novel algorithms for more efficient simulation of multinuclear radical pairs as well as a discussion of the insights available from calculations using these new computational tools.
I first present improved algorithms for simulating radical pair reactions in a static external magnetic field. With these more efficient algorithms, I am then able to explore in more detail the behaviour of different radical pair systems, and discuss their potential relevance to magnetoreception in Chapter 4. In particular, I examine whether a highly accurate “compass needle” could arise from a radical pair sensor.
One of the most significant behavioural observations in the field of magnetoreception is the finding that exceedingly weak time-dependent magnetic fields can disrupt magnetic orientation in birds. The added complexity of a time-dependent interaction means that simulating the experimental conditions is a considerable challenge. In Chapter 3 I present a calculation method based on a reformulation of Floquet theory which remains the only viable algorithm for modelling multinuclear radical pairs in an oscillatory magnetic field. In Chapter 5 I discuss the effect of these weak time-dependent fields on different candidate radical pairs, and examine the compatibility of the observed behavioural results with the radical pair hypothesis.
Finally in Chapter 6 I present a new Information theory-based analytical tool which allows me to assess the accuracy of a radical pair compass without having to make assumptions about the signalling cascade. I consider how a radical pair compass would operate under low light conditions, and how the impact of the limited number of available photons could inform my computational analysis from previous chapters and in future work.

Advisor: Hore, P
Manolopoulos, D
Neural circuitry underlying contrast gain control in auditory cortex

While sensory environments can vary dramatically in their statistics, neurons have a limited dynamic range with which they can encode sensory information. In sensory cortex, this problem is in part resolved by the systematic adjustment of neural gain in accordance with the contrast of sensory input. This computation can produce contrast invariant representations in cortex that are also more resilient to static background noise. In visual cortex shunting inhibition by parvalbumin (PV) expressing interneurons and contrast-dependent membrane potential variance have been shown to contribute to contrast gain control (CGC), but whether these mechanisms underlie CGC in auditory cortex (AC) is currently unknown. I aimed to investigate the contributions of these mechanisms to CGC in mouse AC, as optogenetic methods for the circuit level interrogation of the nervous system are well established in that species. First, I characterised CGC in the anaesthetised mouse by performing large scale extracellular recordings across all layers of A1. I found that CGC is present in units recorded in all layers of mouse AC and is marginally stronger in deep layers, implicating intracortical mechanisms in the generation of this CGC. In order to investigate whether PV interneuron activity is capable of modulating the gain of sensory responses, I performed extracellular recordings of sensory evoked multi-unit responses in AC while I manipulated the activity of the PV interneurons optogenetically using Channelrhodospsin (ChR2) or Archaerhodopsin (Arch). PV interneuron activation with ChR2 did not alter spectrotemporal tuning of neuronal responses in AC but reduced both their gain and baseline activity. PV interneuron suppression with Arch left receptive field structure similarly unchanged. The strongest effect of PV suppression was an increase in the gain of sensory evoked responses. Thus, PV interneuron activity does appear capable of modulating the gain of AC auditory responses. However, I found that the activity of PV interneurons did not increase systematically with increasing stimulus contrast, indicating that these neurons may not implement CGC. Finally, I performed whole cell recordings from AC neurons in anaesthetised mice in order to assess the contribution of shunting inhibition and membrane potential variance to CGC. I found that CGC exists at the level of the membrane potential responses in AC, but neither input conductance nor membrane potential variance appeared to contribute to this. This canonical computation therefore appears to be implemented by non-canonical mechanisms in different cortical areas.

Advisor: Willmore, B
Schnupp, J
King, A
Anthologists and the literary market: a comparative study of al-Thaʿālibī’s Yatīmat al-dahr and ʿAwfī’s Lubāb al-albāb

This thesis offers the first detailed study of publishing culture in the medieval eastern Islamic world by examining how two influential anthologists active in Central Asia mediated between authors and their audiences. It analyses the contents of al-Thaʿālibī’s (d. 429/1037-8) Yatīmat al-dahr, a biographical anthology of Arabic poetry and prose concerned with the literature of the 4th/10th and the early 5th/11th centuries, comparing them with the material found in ʿAwfī’s (d. 640/1242 or before) Lubāb al-albāb, a biographical anthology of Persian poetry focused on verse produced between the late 3rd/9th and the early 7th/13th centuries. Yatīmat al-dahr and Lubāb al-albāb are approached as ventures which aimed to render the high culture of Arabic and Persian literature accessible to readers by presenting hitherto unpublished texts in a pedagogical fashion. The thesis contributes to a current wave of research that is concerned with the history of the book in the Islamic world, but it moves the focus of such scholarship onto literary texts and their manipulation. Its principal findings can be summarised as follows:
Firstly, it revises the prevalent idea that literary culture was entirely dependent on patronage, by demonstrating how market demand influenced the kinds of writing produced in the different regions of the Arabic- and Persian-speaking worlds. Patronage emerges as a force that was intertwined with the book trade, which had already begun to define conceptions of authorship.
Secondly, it shows that anthologies are more than collections of exemplary texts, by uncovering how al-Thaʿālibī and ʿAwfī pursue the study of society, literary history and literary theory. The anthologists did not simply reproduce extracts, but edited them in accordance with their broader intellectual projects.
Lastly, it reconstructs the cosmopolitan literary culture which existed in Khurasan and Transoxiana between the 4th/10th and 7th/13th centuries, showing that many authors worked in bilingual Arabic-Persian environments, moved between Arabic and Persian spheres, and read books in both languages.
The thesis is accompanied by an index of circa eight thousand poems catalogued by genre, and by an appendix which lists the material that the anthologists drew from their sources.

Keywords: Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā b. Ṭāhir b.  ʿUthmān Bukhārī Ḥanafī ʿAwfī d.1242 or before
literary circulation
Abū Manṣūr ʿAbd al-Malik al-Thaʿālibī d.429/1037-8
scribal publication
'curation'
history of the book
anthologies
translation
literary criticism
Advisor: Bray, J
Brookshaw, D
Rare hadronic decays of charged B mesons at LHCb

This thesis documents two searches for rare hadronic decays of B+ mesons with the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Both are performed using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 fb−1, collected at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV during 2011–2016.
The first is a search for B+ → Ds+K+K− decays. A significant signal is observed for the first time and the branching fraction is determined to be B(B+ → Ds+K+K−) = (7.1 ± 0.5 ± 0.6 ± 0.7) × 10−6, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third due to the uncertainty on the branching fraction of the normalisation mode B+ → Ds+D0.
The second search is performed for the rare pure annihilation decay B+ → Ds+φ. No significant signal is observed and a limit of B(B+ → Ds+φ) &LT; 4.9 × 10−7 is set on the branching fraction at 95% confidence level.

Keywords: Physics
Particle Physics
Flavour Physics
LHCb
Advisor: John, M
Collodial quantum dot solar cells

This thesis presents three specific strategies to enhance colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells’ performances, including band alignment engineering, quantum dot passivation, and smart device architecture design.
Firstly, by inserting a PbS CQD layer with a relatively smaller band gap as the hole transport layer (HTL), the carrier extraction of the solar cells is much improved, so as the efficiency. The improvement is due to a better interfacial band alignment between the HTLs and the absorber layer, proved by Kelvin probe and cyclic voltammetry results. Small band gap PbS CQDs have deeper Fermi levels because of the easy oxidation. Coupled with a p-type inducing ligand, 1,2-ethanedithiol (EDT), a better valence band alignment is achieved to extract the holes more efficiently.
Secondly, alcohol-dissolvable CsI is used as the ligands to passivate QDs’ surface with the aim of reducing dangling bonds and defects on the surface. Compared to the commonly used ligand, tetrabutylammonium iodide (TBAI), CsI resulted in better passivation, which was proved by the full ligand exchange, a narrow photoluminescence peak, fewer oxide defects, and the existence of Cs-S bond. A high efficiency of 10% is achieved, which is attributed to that fewer defects and better passivation lead to larger depletion region pushing its optimal thickness and current output higher, as well as the efficiency.
Thirdly, a microgroove-structured flexible PbS CQD micro-module solar cell is reported for the first time with a record Voc of 9.2 V. This device was fabricated by automatic dip coating methods, and it avoids the complex recombination layers required in monolithic tandem devices. By e-beam depositing two electrodes on the two walls of the V-shape grooves, devices were connected in series in less than 100 μm width. By using three-dimensional characterisations, the reasons for low efficiency were explained.

Advisor: Watt, A
Hyperbolic problems in fluids and relativity

In this thesis, we present a collection of newly obtained results concerning the existence of vanishing viscosity solutions to the one-dimensional compressible Euler equations of gas dynamics, with and without geometric structure. We demonstrate the existence of such vanishing viscosity solutions, which we show to be entropy solutions, to the transonic nozzle problem and spherically symmetric Euler equations in Chapter 4, in both cases under the simple and natural assumption of relative finite-energy.
In Chapter 5, we show that the viscous solutions of the one-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations converge, as the viscosity tends to zero, to an entropy solution of the Euler equations, again under the assumption of relative finite-energy. In so doing, we develop a compactness framework for the solutions and approximate solutions to the Euler equations under the assumption of a physical pressure law.
Finally, in Chapter 6, we consider the Euler equations in special relativity, and show the existence of bounded entropy solutions to these equations. In the process, we also construct fundamental solutions to the entropy equations and develop a compactness framework for the solutions and approximate solutions to the relativistic Euler equations.

Keywords: Transonic nozzle
Spherical symmetry
Compensated Compactness
Euler equations
Entropy solutions
Vanishing viscosity limit
Finite energy method
Advisor: Chen, G