VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The possible self: an exposition and analysis of metaphysical themes in Kierkegaard’s theological anthropology

This thesis proposes that Søren Kierkegaard's thought—in particular, his theological anthropology—is undergirded by an inchoate metaphysics of modality. It focuses on the concept of possibility (Danish: Mulighed), arguing that possibility is a primary ingredient of the Kierkegaardian self and serves as a kind of 'engine' for the development of the individual before God. Accordingly, viewing Kierkegaard's works through the lens of possibility is a fruitful way to gain new insights into his beliefs, and clarifies what he sought to express in his authorship.
Kierkegaard, I argue, formulates a multilayered account of possibility that, while not abandoning metaphysics, re-frames possibility existentially, in terms of what the self may actually become, not only in and for itself but also in relation to God. One's selfhood and one's relation to God both require an ontology of possibility. His existential concerns arise from this metaphysical footing. This thesis then considers how possibility is integral to human selfhood. Genuine selfhood is an openness towards God’s eternal possibility, rather than the self’s attempting to create its own eternal possibilities via some other means of actualization.
If the human person, by faith, becomes 'grounded in the absolute', then that person is becoming a self precisely because God is actualizing her possibilities. God is for Kierkegaard the source of all possibility. Theologically, Kierkegaard’s conception of possibility presents us with ideas that may be fruitful in further discussion of God’s attributes and the ways in which God is understood to relate to the created world. Anthropology, ontology, and theology are thus inextricably linked.

Advisor: Rasmussen, J
Towards the synthesis of the ABC fragment of Pectenotoxin-4

This thesis details the optimisation and development to the synthesis of the ABC fragment of pectenotoxin-4, a 26-membered macrolide marine natural product bearing 19 stereogenic centres, three tetrahydrofuran rings, one spiroketal and one bicyclic ketal.
Introduction
This section briefly discusses the isolation, structure elucidation, and biological activity of penctenotoxins, along with a review of previous synthetic efforts on the pectenotoxin family, especially the ABC fragment. It also summarises our group’s work in pursuing the total synthesis of this compound.
Results and Discussion
This section details synthetic efforts to improve the overall yield of the ABC fragment. In particular, it contains the optimisation of a low yield Carreira alkynylation reaction and a revised protecting group strategy to allow orthogonal deprotection on the ABC fragment for further elaborations. The revised route for the ABC fragment of pectenotoxin-4 contains 21 longest linear steps (27 steps in total) from D-mannitol with an overall yield of 2.1% (on average 83% per step).

Advisor: Donohoe, T
Reducing the risk of failure in interdependent national infrastructure network systems

Infrastructure network systems support society and the economy by facilitating the distribution of essential services across broad spatial extents, at a range of scales. The complex and interdependent nature of these systems provides the conditions for which localised failures can dramatically cascade, resulting in disruptions that are widespread and very often unforeseen. This systemic vulnerability has been highlighted multiple times over the previous decades in infrastructures systems from around the world. In the future, the hazards to which infrastructure systems are exposed are set to grow with increasing extreme event risks caused by climate change. The aim of this thesis is to develop methodology and analysis for understanding and reducing the risk of failure of national interdependent infrastructure network systems.
This study introduces multi-scale, system-of-systems based methodology and applied analysis that provides important new insights into interdependent infrastructure network risk and adaptation. Adopting a complex network based approach; real-world asset data is integrated from the energy, transport, water, waste and digital communications sectors to represent the physical interconnectivity that exists within and between interdependent infrastructure systems. Given the often limited scope of real-world datasets, an algorithm is presented that is used to synthesise missing network data, providing continuous network representations that preserve the most salient spatial and topological properties of real multi-level infrastructure systems.
Using the resultant network representations, the criticality of individual assets is calculated by summing the direct and indirect customer disruptions that can occur in the event of failure. This is achieved by disrupting sets of functional service flow pathways that transcend sectorial and operational boundaries, providing long-range connectivity between service originating source nodes and customer allocated sink nodes. Kernel density estimation is used to integrate discrete asset criticality values into a continuous surface from which statistically significant infrastructure geographical criticality hotspots are identified. Finally, a business case is presented for investment in infrastructure adaptation, where adaptation costs are compared to the reduction in expected damages that arise from interdependency related failures over an assets lifetime.
By representing physical and geographic interdependence at a range of scales, this analysis provides new evidence to inform the targeting of investments to reduce risks and enhance system resilience. It is concluded that the research presented within this thesis provides new theoretical insights and practical techniques for a range of academic, industrial and governmental infrastructure stakeholders, from the UK and beyond.

Advisor: Hall, J
Topics in quantum measurement of many-body systems

In quantum physics, measurement exhibits fundamentally different behaviour to the classical case, having direct effect on the observed system. As a result, the very act of observation in quantum systems plays a non-trivial role, and can be used as a method of controlling the dynamics of the system. With the rise of quantum technologies, understanding and exploiting these phenomena offers a great boon. Here, we investigate a selection of the possibilities offered by quantum measurement for characterising and manipulating many-body systems, with particular focus on ultracold atomic gases.
We first study how microscopic quantum structures can be used to indirectly probe larger systems. After deriving a general result, we consider the specific case of impurity atoms immersed in a quantum gas, and demonstrate that this enables density-related properties of the gas to be inferred from measurements of solely the impurity internal state. Following this, we explore how the backaction from measurement can be used for control of quantum systems. Utilising the quantum Zeno effect that results from persistent measurement of a quantum state, we show how fully-quantum many-body light-matter interactions enable the engineering of atomic states and dynamics through measurement of the light, leading to an abundance of interesting phenomena, including genuinely multipartite entangled states, long-range correlated tunnelling, and the quantum simulation of long-range and correlated interactions. The resulting structure imparted by the light on the matter can also be used to detect and measure atomic entanglement. Finally, we generalise quantum Zeno dynamics to the regime where the measurement timestep is finite, and demonstrate that the resulting system evolution can exhibit correlated processes.

Keywords: Probe
Dynamics
Zeno
Quantum
State Engineering
Many-Body
Light
Optical Lattice
Cavity
Entanglement
Atom
Measurement
Information
Ultracold
Physics
Simulation
Advisor: Vedral, V
Work, time and rhythm: Investigating contemporary ‘time squeeze’

In contemporary capitalist economies such as the UK, it is commonly held that an increasing number of people and households experience anxiety over time and symptoms of 'time squeeze'. Existing accounts of the character and causes of this phenomenon are rather one-dimensional and lacking in nuance, however. In part, this is because they typically lack any substantial theoretical engagement with the concept of time itself. Accordingly, this research aims to provide a more complex and contextual account of experiences of working time (both paid and unpaid), and to investigate how and why experiences of time squeeze vary between individuals and social groups. This is achieved by calling upon an enriched understanding of time, and employing an instrumental case study built around a set of 50 semi-structured interviews with employees working in Oxford University's central IT department and four of its constituent colleges. The empirical findings reveal that the (quantitative) extent and (qualitative) nature of participants' temporal anxieties vary with occupation, social class, gender, age and family status, as well as the importance of institutional and local context. Furthermore, they demonstrate that contemporary time squeeze is generated by a variety of causal mechanisms relating to the duration, tempo and timing of both paid employment and unpaid reproductive work, and their intersections with the personal, natural, social, institutional and technological rhythms that variously constitute everyday life.

Advisor: Schwanen, T
McDowell, L
Discrete approximations in stochastic rough path theory

We consider two discrete schemes for studying and approximating stochastic differential equations (SDEs) using the theory of rough paths.
The first part of the thesis introduces a canonical method for transforming a discrete sequential data set into an associated rough path made up of lead-lag increments. In particular, by sampling a d-dimensional continuous signal X : [0; 1] → &Ropf;d at a set of times D = &lcub;ti&rcub;, we construct a piecewise linear, axis-directed process XD : [0, 1] → &Ropf;2d comprised of a past and future component. We call such an object the Hoff process associated with the discrete data &lcub;Xt&rcub;ti∈D. The Hoff process can be lifted to its natural rough path enhancement and we consider the question of convergence as the sampling frequency increases. In the specific case where X is a semimartingale we prove that the Itô integral can be recovered from a sequence of random ODEs driven by the components of XD. This is in contrast to the usual Stratonovich integral limit suggested by the classical Wong-Zakai theorem [119]. Such random ODEs have a natural interpretation in the context of mathematical finance.
The second part of the thesis introduces a new pathwise approximation scheme for SDEs driven by multidimensional Brownian motion. The work of Cameron, Clarke and Dickinson [17, 37] shows that N-step schemes cannot have a strong approximation error better than O(N-1/2) unless higher iterated integrals of Brownian motion are used. On the other hand, our N-step scheme does not require Lévy area increments and if the vector fields of the SDE possess Stein-Lipschitz regularity of order γ > 2, we prove that the approximation error is O(N-1+ε+2/γ ) for all ε > 0 in the Wasserstein metric from optimal transport theory. By using techniques from rough path theory we avoid imposing any non-degenerate Hörmander or ellipticity conditions on the vector fields of the SDE, which is in contrast to previous pathwise schemes of Alfonsi, Davie, Malliavin et al in [1, 2, 32, 33, 34]. Our scheme is based on the log-ODE method with the Lévy area increments replaced by a quadratic polynomial of Gaussian random variables with the same covariance structure. The coupling construction is an extension of [33, 35] concerning a multidimensional variant of the Komlós-Major-Tusnády theorem and Wasserstein estimates for polynomial perturbations of Gaussian measures. These latter results require no rough path theory and may be of independent interest to probabilists.

Advisor: Hambly, B
Lyons, T
Pioneers and progress: white Rhodesian nation-building c.1964-1979

The thesis explores the white Rhodesian nationalist project led by the Rhodesian Front (RF) government in the UDI-period of 1965 to 1979. It seeks to examine the character and content of RF nation-building, arguing that it is important to consider the context of wider global and regional trends of nationalism at the time. Thus, it places the white Rhodesia within wider ‘British World’ studies of settler societies within the British Empire, but also compares it to other African nationalist movements in the 1960s and 1970s. It studies white Rhodesian nationalism on its own terms as a sincere, albeit unrealistic, alternative to majority-rule independence, and considers how the RF adapted over the period in its continuing attempts to justify minority-rule in an era of global decolonisation.
Two thematic sections examine the RF’s nation-building project in systematic detail. The first section, on symbolism, considers Rhodesia’s processes of ‘symbolic decolonisation’. This involved white Rhodesians creating new national symbols not associated with Britain or the British Empire. Processes by which new national symbols were chosen are used as a lens to explore white Rhodesian debates about their ‘new’ nation after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) was taken in 1965. They reveal the ambiguities and complexities at the heart of the RF’s nation-building project; a project that was frequently exclusionary and hotly contested at every opportunity. The second section explores how history was used to help create and defend the nation, adding to studies of the use of history in nationalist projects. It considers a range of non-professional sites of history-making, demonstrating the complicated relationships between these different sites and the state’s wider nationalist agenda. It also explores how history was invoked to justify and defend minority-rule independence both before and after UDI.

Keywords: Settler Colonialism
Decolonisation
Symbolism
Rhodesia
Nationalism
Advisor: Alexander, J
The fourth ordeal: a history of the society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, 1973-2013

This thesis is an internal organisational history of the Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt between 1973 and 2013. Based on memoires of Brotherhood leaders, as well as oral history interviews conducted in 2012 and 2013 with different rank-and-file members and dissidents, the thesis situates the life trajectories and personal experiences of these individuals within a larger national and international context. The purpose is to provide a historical account that is able to explain the reasons for the Brotherhood's cataclysmic failure of the summer of 2013.
In accounting for the fall, my key argument centres on the internal rivalry between two political factions representing different "schools of thought", or visions, about the kind of organisation the Brotherhood was supposed to be. Representatives of the respective coalitions competed against each other over hegemony and organisational resources, basing their claims on contrasting intellectual traditions, political cultures and organisational values that had co-existed, sometimes uncomfortably, within the ranks of the Society since the times of Hasan al-Banna. The adherents of the "Qutbist" school of thought put forward the idea of a closed, pyramid-shaped and exclusive organisation, while those closer to 'Omar al-Tilmisani's model aspired to a reformed Society that was open to outsiders, and where internal progression was based on meritocracy, transparency and some form of democracy. I argue that it is through the holistic analysis of the complex dynamics between internal organisational politics, the use of ideology, and the personal experiences of key organisational members, that we are best able to grasp the Brotherhood's failed experience in governance in 2013.

Keywords: Political Islam
Khairat al-Shatir
Organizational Behaviour
Organizational Ethnography
Organizational Anthropology
Egyptian Army
Decision Making
Muslim Brotherhood
Organization Studies
Egyptian History
Egypt
Social Movement Theory
Mohammed Morsi
Advisor: Armbrust, W
McDougall, J
Internet use and health: a mixed methods analysis using spatial microsimulation and interviews

Internet use is considered a lever for empowering patients, levelling inequalities and reducing healthcare expenditure. However, with digital inclusion, health provision quality and health system efficiency high on the UK and EU policy agendas, we need to better understand the relationship between Internet use and health outcomes to assess potential benefits and adverse effects.
This research addresses the question of how Internet use influences individuals’ health service use and their perceived health in the context of England. Focusing on health information-seeking, it analyses variations across different kinds of users, mechanisms between Internet use and both health outcomes, and the role of individual and contextual factors in this relationship.
To answer this question, this research uses a mixed methods approach. Quantitative data from the Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS), the English census and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) was connected through spatial microsimulation based on output areas. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured, face-to-face interviews, primarily with former OxIS participants from output areas in the quantitative strand. The quantitative data was revisited based on emerging interview themes.
The results indicate that Internet use influences perceived health and health service use via various mechanisms based on the Internet’s content, mediation and connection affordances. However, the boundaries between users and non-users are blurry and outcomes vary for different types of individuals, classified here as learners, pragmatists, sceptics, worriers, delegators and adigitals. Age, education, socioeconomic status, long-term health conditions, and geographic context influence Internet use and health outcomes separately, while the social context shapes their relationship too.
These findings advance the theoretical understanding of Internet-based health outcomes, and provide practical implications for health professionals and policymakers with insights down to the local level. Moreover, this research demonstrates how novel insights for public wellbeing can be derived from qualitatively enriched secondary data in privacy-preserving and cost-effective ways.

Keywords: health
spatial microsimulation
mixed methods
health service use
digital divide
health information-seeking
perceived health
internet use
e-health
Advisor: Powell, J
Eynon, R
The socio-ecological functions of fossoriality in a group-living carnivore, the European badger (Meles meles)

This thesis examines the role played by den use in socio-ecology, especially in leveraging group formation (i.e., the Fossorial Benefits Hypothesis; FBH), using badgers as a model species. In particular, I benefit from recent technological developments, facilitating detailed measurements of activity, energetic expenditure, ranging behaviour, and underground localisation, enabling the examination of hitherto intractable facets of badger socio-ecology, allowing a comprehensive investigation.
Group-living is theorised to evolve when the benefits of living with conspecifics outweigh the costs. While pack hunting, and allo-parenting play a specific role in fostering communal living, I demonstrate in Part I that continued cohabitation at natal dens can often acts as a precursive mechanism initiating cohabitation, that can persists into adulthood among small, omnivorous/insectivorous, den-using carnivores. In this context, I then consider the implications of delayed dispersal and reproductive suppression. This provides an evolutionary basis linking fossoriality and group-living in the Carnivora, where sociality is, in part, explained by burrow-dwelling.
Part II establishes that the energetic benefits of using fossorial dens as refugia from adverse weather provide a functional basis for persistent co-occupation of a common den by conspecifics. Badgers use setts strategically, with reference to their body-condition and their imperative to forage, to reduce energy expenditure and optimise their capacity for achieving minimal food security. This section also considers how badgers may compensate for ongoing rapid climate change.
Part III demonstrates that cohabitation at dens does not infer group collaboration or social structure; individuals may still act independently. Nevertheless, burrow use patterns were coordinated between badger group members, evidencing that dens act as social foci.
Collectively these lines of evidence support the FBH as a playing a causal role promoting spatial group formation and a complementary role driving persistent benefits of group-living in suitable resource-scapes; resulting in 'spatial' though not necessarily 'social' -groups.

Keywords: Magneto-Inductive tracking
Climate change
Burrowing
Resource Dispersion Hypothesis
Advisor: Macdonald, D
Newman, C
Genome-wide analyses reveal new insights into MLL fusion protein recruitment mechanisms

Leukaemias arising from rearrangements of the MLL1 gene are responsible for the majority of infant leukaemias as well as a proportion of childhood and adult leukaemias. The aggressive nature and resistance to therapy of these leukaemias has made them the focus of many therapeutic studies. Targeted therapies for MLL-rearranged (MLL-r) leukaemias are starting to enter clinical trials in an attempt to improve on outcomes from more standard treatments such as chemotherapy.
MLL fusion proteins (MLL-FPs) are recruited to gene targets where they cause aberrant upregulation of gene expression, leading to leukaemia development. Therefore, targeting the recruitment of MLL-FPs to gene targets presents one possibility for a therapeutic strategy. Before this can be achieved a thorough understanding of MLL-FP recruitment is required.
Data presented in this thesis tests some of the current models of MLL-FP recruitment on a genome-wide level. This study shows that the Menin/LEDGF complex is a good candidate for global MLL-FP recruitment to gene targets. However, data here shows that MLL-FPs can also recruit Menin, suggesting that models up to this point have been incomplete with regards to the Menin-MLL-FP interaction. It is shown here that the PAF elongation complex is unable to recruit MLL-FPs unlike previously thought. Investigation into genes marked by broad, or “spreading”, domains of MLL-FP recruitment shows that these genes have increased expression and correlate with poor survival outcomes in MLL-r leukaemia patients. Analysis of the mechanism behind MLL-FP spreading recruitment implicates the Menin/LEDGF and super elongation complex as important for this process.

Advisor: Milne, T