VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Rethinking rural development, food and agriculture in Colombia: examination of competing narratives during the agrarian strikes and negotiations 2013-2016

There has been a resurgence of interest in the Agrarian question in the developing world, especially in Latin America. Colombia’s development trajectory cannot be fully understood without paying serious attention to the unresolved agrarian question. This thesis explores the negotiations that took place between the government and the agrarian movements in the aftermath of the 2013-2014 national strikes. For the first time in decades in Colombia, the national government agreed to negotiate with the representatives of the peasant, indigenous and African-Colombian peoples, the country’s poorest and most marginalised communities. In this context, the thesis addresses the following questions: (1) what are the alternative narratives of food provision that emerged in the agrarian strikes and negotiations in Colombia in the period 2013-2016? (2) To what extent have new coalitions of agrarian movements emerged around alternative narratives of food provision? (3) How are alternative narratives interfacing with dominant ones, and what are the potential outcomes for agrarian policy? In studying the emergence of two national agrarian movements, the thesis argues that the debates on food provisioning - who produces what and who consumes what, where and with what effects - have become central, and that the different actors involved in them - agrarian movements, the state, and the food industry - have different and often competing visions. Conceptually the thesis goes on to argue that the agrarian question, beyond its conventional formulation, could be reframed as a question of food. In addition to being a contribution to scholarship on the Agrarian question in Colombia, the thesis addresses key issues for sustainable rural development, agri-food systems and the future of the peace-agreement implementation.

Keywords: agrarian movements
social movements
agrarian strikes
agriculture
indigenous
African-Colombian
agrarian change
rural development
food sovereignty
Colombia
food
peasants
Advisor: Rival, L
The role of BMP signalling in multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma is an incurable, bone marrow-dwelling malignancy of terminally differentiated plasma cells. It disrupts bone homeostasis causing lytic lesions, skeletal damage and pain. Mechanisms underlying myeloma-induced bone destruction are poorly understood and current therapies do not restore lost bone mass. In this project, I performed transcriptomic profiling of isolated endosteal cell types from a murine myeloma model, which had not previously been described. I found bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signalling to be upregulated in mesenchymal progenitor cells of the bone lining niche in myeloma-bearing mice.
BMP signalling is not previously reported to be dysregulated in myeloma bone disease. Inhibition of BMP signalling in vivo using either a small molecule Type 1 BMP receptor antagonist (LDN193189) or a solubilized Alk3-Fc (Bmpr1a-Fc) receptor ligand trap prevented trabecular and cortical bone volume loss caused by myeloma, without altering tumour burden. These inhibitors directly reduced osteoclast formation and activity, increased osteoblast number and new bone formation, and suppressed bone marrow levels of sclerostin, a Wnt inhibitor implicated in mediating the failure of bone repair in myeloma sufferers. Conversely, specific blockade of BMP6 in myeloma-bearing mice decreased levels of the iron regulatory hormone hepcidin and improved iron availability and haemoglobin, but did not alter bone disease or tumour burden, indicating this myeloma-expressed BMP is not responsible for altered bone homeostasis. In summary this work describes a novel technique in the investigation of myeloma-niche interactions, shows its use in revealing a novel pathway involved in the pathogenesis of myeloma bone disease, and demonstrates that the therapeutic targeting of the BMP pathway has both anti-resorptive and anabolic benefits to bone metabolism, which could have a role alongside anti-tumour treatments.

Advisor: Drakesmith, H
Edwards, C
Demilitarization of politics and its impact on Turkey’s foreign policy, the AKP period (2002-2011)

The military has traditionally been one of the most influential institutions in Turkish political milieu. The officers not only had a major role in the foundation of the Republic but have also been presented as the guardians of Kemalism. While fulfilling such an important role, the army’s sphere of influence was not limited to the domestic realm. It expanded into the design and conceptualization of foreign policy. Yet since the rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power, a dramatic turn towards the reduction of military’s authority has taken place. This in turn has allowed the AKP to adopt a new approach during its first two terms in office, altering foreign policy outcomes. As one of the most significant changes in the history of modern Turkey, this transformation, defined as demilitarization of politics or political demilitarization in this study, has brought the country into a completely new configuration. This thesis focuses on the curtailment of military’s power and its impact on foreign policy, in particular. It shows that until political demilitarization, foreign policy decisions were made dependent on a set of priorities and prejudices carved during the foundation of the Republic. Its course was set, given the enduring setting it was based upon and was staunchly safeguarded by the military. This study demonstrates that after political demilitarization, civilian authorities kept criticizing priorities safeguarded by the old establishment and drafted a new approach bereft of their influence. However, Turkey’s fluctuating relations show that they failed to replace the traditional foreign policy tenets with robust new ones. A detailed analysis of Turkey’s changing relations with Israel and Greece, two countries with which relations were traditionally influenced by TSK preferences, along with a brief overview of oscillating relations with neighbours, presents how Turkey’s foreign policy remained in flux.

Advisor: Anastasakis, O
The nature and function of Vaiśeṣika Soteriology with particular reference to Candrānanda's Vṛtti

This thesis describes and examines, from a theological and comparative philosophical perspective, one of the most important topics in Indian philosophy: the nature and function of liberation; the topic is centred on Candrānanda’s Vṛtti (VSc), the oldest available Sanskrit commentary on the Vaiśeṣika system to date, a system which represents a quasi-empirical, proto-scientific philosophical school that engaged in making a synthesis between both ontology and metaphysics, religion and science. The method the Vaiśeṣika system employs is to offer a clear-cut picture of the world in six categories; by that it aims to offer a response to human liberation (niḥśreyasa), a major issue with ontological, existential, philosophical, and religious implications. As to its significance and originality, Vaiśeṣika has been hailed by scholars as an old and influential philosophical system, an influence comparable to Pāṇini’s grammar (Thakur, 1961). It has been regarded as beneficial for the study of other śāstras. Its worldview is holistic, pluralistic, proto-scientific, yet metaphysical, in that it acknowledges both the permanence and impermanence of matter and substance. This view lies at the interface of the discourse between religion and science. The current thesis is comparative philosophical, and has the advantage of rendering into English major portions of a fundamental text not fully translated before. It also looks at a major topic (niḥśreyasa), marginalised by Western scholars of Indology who accepted too easily Frauwallner’s sweeping remarks on Vaiśeṣika’s lack of original metaphysics and soteriology. During my research, I came across another major Vaiśeṣika commentary, not translated into English (Vādīndra’s Vyākhyā) which presents an accurate view of the Vaiśeṣika tenets. Since its publication (Darbhanga 1957), as well as that of VSc (Baroda 1961), our understanding of Vaiśeṣika has changed considerably, and for the benefit of Vaiśeṣika students, their translation into English is increasingly a must.

Advisor: Flood, G
Minkowski, C
Child maltreatment and antisocial behaviour in the United Kingdom: Changing risks over time

This thesis examines whether the risks associated with child maltreatment have changed over time in the UK; investigating changing risks at the societal and individual level. By adopting a unique socioecological approach, the thesis aims to determine whether: (a) the national incidence of child maltreatment has changed over the last 150 years, and (b) the impacts of child maltreatment on the risk of antisocial behaviour change across an individual’s life-course.
The following methods were used to address these research aims and overcome challenges in child maltreatment research: multiple measures of child maltreatment, pre-existing sources of historical epidemiological data, observational study designs, and analytical methods that are sensitive to repeated measures (e.g. time series analyses, latent growth curve analyses). Research included developing a novel data source on the incidence of child maltreatment over time (iCoverT data source), examining long-term trends in child maltreatment from 1858 to 2016, and analysing 50 years of longitudinal data from the 1958 British birth cohort study.
Results from examining societal risk over time showed that long-term trends in the incidence of child maltreatment have decreased since the 1850s. However, more recent trends have increased since 2000, especially for child protection registrations for emotional abuse and neglect. Results from examining risk across an individual’s life-course found that child maltreatment is associated with an increased risk of antisocial behaviour, with a persistent and stable association remaining up to 50 years old. Together, these findings demonstrate the long-lasting burden of child maltreatment at the societal and individual level.
This thesis makes an important contribution to the literature by highlighting the role of time and epidemiological research methods in better understanding child maltreatment, and helps identify future directions for reducing the burden of child maltreatment.

Keywords: latent growth curve modelling
1958 British birth cohort
child abuse
antisocial behaviour
child maltreatment
time series
Advisor: Bowes, L
Humphreys, D
Efficient analysis of microbial whole-genome sequence data using de Bruijn graphs

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a persistent and growing threat to global health. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) has the potential to dramatically improve our ability to detect, understand, and monitor AMR. However, microbial diversity and complexity means that the analysis and interpretation of their genomes is challenging. In this thesis, I explore applications of de Bruijn graphs (DBGs) to the analysis of these data.
First, I present a tool, Mykrobe predictor, that uses DBGs to rapidly identify species and AMR from WGS data. I show that it is accurate, flexible, and efficient.
Next, I explore an extension of Mykrobe predictor to long read sequencing of direct clinical samples of M. tuberculosis. In doing so, I show that one could reduce the turn-around time for susceptibility testing of an M. tuberculosis isolate from 2 weeks to 12 hours.
Finally, I explore the challenges of DNA search in very large collections (millions) of microbial data sets. In particular, I address the super-linear scaling of existing k-mer indexing tools and present a novel representation and implementation of a probabilistic coloured de Bruijn graph, “Coloured Bloom Graph" (CBG). I demonstrate its scalability by building a CBG of all publicly accessible microbial WGS data (almost half a million samples) and use it to run millisecond searches in these data.

Advisor: Iqbal, Z
McVean, G
"Según parecía por las Crónicas antiguas": Representing ruling queens in medieval Castilian historiography

This thesis explores narratives of ruling queenship in medieval Castilian histories, tracing the evolving treatment of female rulers through a broad range of Latin and vernacular texts from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries. The investigation focuses on diverse accounts of four queens who exercised royal authority in the kingdom of Castile in the High and Late Middle Ages: Urraca of León-Castile (regnant 1109-1126), Berenguela of Castile (regent 1214-1217 and co-regnant 1217-1246), María de Molina (regent 1295-1301 and 1306-1321), and Catalina de Lancaster (regent 1406-1418). In line with methods of historiographical analysis developed by Leonardo Funes, Georges Martin, and Aengus Ward, I combine close reading of the texts with consideration of the socio-political contexts of their production and reception. The first chapter examines narratives of Urraca’s sole rule across four different centuries, from the contemporary Historia compostellana to the Crónicas anónimas de Sahagún, for which I propose a recontextualization as a wholly late-fifteenth century text. The diversity of these accounts underscores the flexible treatment of ruling queenship by medieval historians. The second chapter, closely tied to the first, considers representations of Berenguela in the Latin chronicles produced around the court of Fernando III and the vernacular chronicles of the Alfonsine tradition. The analysis of multiple contemporary accounts gives insight into the creation of competing narratives, and reveals the subtle transformations wrought upon the ultimately dominant version. The third chapter evaluates the singular image of María de Molina which emerges from the Crónica de los reyes de Castilla and chronicles of the reigns of Fernando IV and Alfonso XI. The fourth chapter explores the fragmented narratives of Catalina de Lancaster’s regency which emerge from the vernacular, non-royalist histories of the reign of Juan II.

Keywords: María de Molina
Berenguela of Castile
Catherine of Lancaster
Urraca of León &amp; Castile
Advisor: Hazbun, G
Negotiated authoritarianism: older people's associations and social governance in contemporary China

This study seeks to explore the role of older people's associations (OPAs) in 'social governance' in rural China. Specifically, it examines the role OPAs play in mediating disputes and implementing contentious policy at the grassroots. Previous studies of OPAs' role in grassroots politics have provided 'top-down', state-directed accounts of their activities. Yet these approaches overemphasise the state's role in such processes and passivize the agency of societal actors. Building on Joel Migdal's State-in-Society approach, this study will provide a more dynamic prism through which to view this topic, arguing that just as the state affects society, the reverse is also true. Specifically, this study will seek to understand how OPAs respond to the kinds of authority and obligations that local states channel through them, and ask whether such interactions provide OPAs with an opportunity to negotiate with officials over the outcomes of state policy. This study hypothesises that reliance on OPAs for stability maintenance will provide elderly actors with leverage to negotiate with the state. This study is relevant for understanding authoritarian resilience at China's rural grassroots, and for addressing questions about stat-society relations in China, in particular whether the Party-state can continue to mobilise the social energy of local communities without weakening its grip on power. This study draws on over 23 months of fieldwork in Beijing, Fujian Yunnan, and Shaanxi between 2012 and 2016. It has engaged in long-term participant observation in 30 rural villages and has drawn on 176 structured interviews, 115 semi-structured interviews and 21 focus groups.

Advisor: Mitter, R
Back to the future? PSNR and state regulation of petroleum resources

This thesis is an exploration of the evolution of State regulation of upstream oil and gas activities, whether this evolution reflects the emergence of a change in the content of the permanent sovereignty over natural resources doctrine as a rule of customary international law and what the implications of that would be for international law. The study of the evolution of State regulation is carried out through case studies of State practice of twenty-five countries in three specific areas that are: government take, nationalizations, and local development, with regard to hydrocarbon upstream activities.
These changes in regulation are looked at from the point of view of the justifications that States have given for them, either domestically or in international fora. These justifications are then assessed under rules of international law that could affect the scope of the primary norms or secondary rules of State responsibility. As regards the former concepts such as legitimate expectations, energy security, equity, and conflicts of rules are analysed. As to the latter, circumstances precluding wrongfulness including state of necessity and force majeure are the key elements.
These case studies are then analysed and compared in the light of these concepts. The conclusion of the thesis is that there is evidence that State practice in relation to upstream hydrocarbon activities has evolved to the extent that the concept of permanent sovereignty over natural resources has evolved to include concerns such as the protection of local communities, but continues to include the long-standing concern with regard to energy security.

Keywords: indigenous peoples
sustainable development
petroleum
government take
hydrocarbons
environmental protection
regulation
customary international law
state responsibility
nationalisation
Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources
Advisor: Redgwell, C
From Aurobindo to Auroville: marrying the mystical and the empirical

This thesis examines a proposed narrative between text and practice, in the work of the modern Indian thinker Aurobindo Ghose and Auroville; an experimental township created under his influence. Aurobindo’s spiritual philosophy poses non-distinction between transcendent, infinite Spirit and the immanent, finite Matter of terrestrial existence, claiming that the realisation of the one need not entail the dismissal of the other. With a deep focus on Aurobindo’s philosophical magnum opus, The Life Divine, and a wide-ranging consideration of his vast disciplinary oeuvre, this thesis argues for a commonality of “method” in text, which might find translation and application outside the strictly textual.
This “universal realism” is not only elucidated in the variant foci of his broad textual oeuvre: comprising politics, psychology and poetics, but is also foreshadowed by the key experiences and spiritual realisations in his own life. My thesis attempts to understand the mileage of these ideals and resultant methodology, to argue for their usefulness both for an integral understanding of Aurobindo’s diverse corpus, and for an integral re-imagining of individual and communal development.
The thesis highlights the way in which the ideas of Aurobindo and his Parisian spiritual companion, Mirra Alfassa (or the “Mother”), find dialogue with modern, global ideas within Auroville. I argue that we might see their ideas at play; within the creation of new forms of institutional and architectural development; reconceived notions of global spirituality, as well as within the discourse that makes these intentions explicit. This dialogue utilises and redefines the problematic dichotomies highlighted in Aurobindo’s work: (nature/divine, individual/society, tradition/innovation, mind/body), to examine “futorologisms”: linguistic and cultural forms posed by the community such as “divine anarchy” and “embodied spirituality”, that inspire conceptual frameworks beyond a dualistic paradigm.
I consider the mileage of these literary and social texts as contemporary Utopian projects that might be reconceived in light of a wider zeitgeist, beyond themselves and potentially beyond the discipline of Religious Studies.

Advisor: Flood, G
Hausner, S
Polarised single photons from a cavity-enhanced atom-light interface in photonic quantum networks

For quantum computation the efficient preparation and connection of multiple qubits must be addressed. This includes linear optical quantum computation and quantum networks of stationary nodes interlinked by flying qubits. A quantum emitter coupled to a single mode of the electric field is a versatile tool, with the potential to provide the on-demand generation of single photons or a matter-light interface in a quantum network. This thesis presents the construction and characterisation of an \emph{a priori} deterministic single-photon source using single 87Rb atoms coupled to a high finesse optical cavity. These photons show a high degree of indistinguishability and long coherence times with a two-photon Hong-Ou-Mandel visibility of (70.8±4.6)% over the entire interaction time of 300ns long photons, further increasing to ≥97.8% by post-selecting only detection events within 23ns of each other. No degradation of performance is observed when interfering these pairs through a 4x4 multimode interferometer integrated onto a photonic chip with non-classical correlations measured between photon detections orders of magnitude further separated in time than the propagation time through the chip. The production scheme for polarised single photons is considered in detail. Cavity birefringence is found to alter the polarisation state of the emitted photons and a novel model to incorporate this effect is presented. Further deviations from a simple coupling model are observed in the modified hyperfine atomic structure in the intermediate strength magnetic fields required for polarised photon emission. The behaviour in this regime is modelled and shown to explain previously unresolved observations of the asymmetric production efficiencies of orthogonally polarised photons.

Advisor: Kuhn, A