VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Flow mediated dilatation over the natural history of abdominal aortic aneurysms

Abdominal aortic aneurysm, an abnormal dilatation of the descending aorta, disproportionately affects males and is often asymptomatic until rupture, posing major risk of mortality. The natural history varies greatly in individuals; some patients remain at subclinical aortic diameters for decades, others rapidly progress to sizes indicating surgical intervention. Surgical mortality is associated with age, so it is advantageous to predict growth of AAA. The biochemical implications of wall degradation may have systemic inflammatory effects which adversely affect the endothelium, which regulates vasomotor tone. Vasodilation is modulated by the release of nitric oxide and the measurement of flow mediated dilatation (FMD) is a widely used proxy for NO bioavailability. The goal of this study is to examine changes of FMD over time and its predictive value in AAA growth. We hypothesise that FMD correlates with future growth rate of AAAs in humans.
In FMD, ultrasonography is used to measure the diameter of an artery before and after it is subjected to shear stress through temporary limb ischaemia. No past study of AAA patients has examined serial measurements of FMD. The OxAAA study collects serial measurements on AAA patients under surveillance and undergoing surgery. FMD predicts future aneurysm growth of AAA patients and FMD deteriorates over time. Due to its non-invasive and cost effective nature, FMD is useful in predicting the growth of AAA, and has also been shown to predict cardiovascular events, serving a two-fold purpose. In clinical contexts, it may be used to foresee imminent need for AAA repair, allowing for pre-surgical lifestyle changes. FMD may also indicate future growth, allowing for less frequent surveillance and reducing costs.

Advisor: Handa, A
Lee, R
Going cyber: the dynamics of cyber proliferation and international security

For over a decade, we have heard alarming statements about the spread of cyber weapons from senior policymakers and experts. Yet, the dynamics of cyber proliferation are still understudied and under- theorized. This study offers a theoretical and empirical account of what causes the spread and restraint of cyber weapons and argues that the world is not at the brink of mass cyber proliferation. Whilst almost forty states are exploring and pursuing the development of cyber weapons, I indicate that only few have so far acquired a meaningful capability. This is due both to supply and demand factors. On the supply-side, most states have a latent capacity to develop relatively simple offensive cyber capabilities, but are unable to develop sophisticated cyber weapons. Moreover, the incentives for knowledge transfer and thus exporting offensive cyber capabilities between states are weak. On the demand-side, I show that national security considerations do not provide the best explanation of variance. Instead, domestic politics and prestige considerations are paramount. Moreover, and unlike nuclear proliferation, I argue that it is not the possession of cyber weapons but the intention of possession signalled through visible initiatives which matters. Ultimately, I note that cyber weapons can have strategic value – but only under certain conditions.

Keywords: cyber weapons
nuclear
strategic utility
Cyber Proliferation
Advisor: Kello, L
Unpacking the adaptive significance of the political spectrum: do liberal and conservative ideological differences reflect alternative strategies for obtaining reciprocity?

In the following thesis I examine the possible evolutionary significance of behavioural differences associated with liberal and conservative ideological orientations. In investigating the evolutionary significance of these two orientations I have two primary research questions. First, how do liberal and conservative oriented individuals differ in their responses to the same socio-environmental stimuli? Second, do differences in their responses to socio-environmental stimuli represent alternative behavioural strategies for social interaction, specifically adaptive strategies to maximize returns from social interactions? To answer these research questions I evaluate how trust and cooperation among liberal and conservative oriented individuals are affected by conditions of social change and inequality. Previous research finds that attitudes and behaviours consistent with the tolerance or intolerance of social change and inequality are strong predictors of ideological orientation across a liberal-conservative scale. Based on a synthesis of behavioural research I construct two theoretical frameworks to account for the adaptive utility associated with a sensitivity to social change and inequality; 1) The Group Reciprocity Hypothesis, and 2) The Social Risk Hypothesis. I test these frameworks using an experimental research design. I predict that, if liberal and conservative orientations are reflective of alternative adaptive strategies to maximize returns from social interaction, then the willingness of liberal and conservative individuals to participate in a social interaction should be differentially affected by conditions related to social change and inequality.

Keywords: Evolutionary Psychology
Experimental Research
Cooperation
Social Behaviour
Political Ideology
Advisor: Duch, R
Johnson, D
Vision-only localisation under extreme appearance change

Robust localisation is a key requirement for autonomous vehicles. However, in order to achieve widespread adoption of this technology, we also require this function to be performed using low-cost hardware. Cameras are appealing due to their information-rich image content and low cost; however, camera-based localisation is difficult because of the problem of appearance change. For example, in outdoor en- vironments the appearance of the world can change dramatically and unpredictably with variations in lighting, weather, season and scene structure. We require autonomous vehicles to be robust under these challenging environmental conditions.
This thesis presents Dub4, a vision-only localisation system for autonomous vehicles. The system is founded on the concept of experiences, where an "experience" is a visual memory which models the world under particular conditions. By allowing the system to build up and curate a map of these experiences, we are able to handle cyclic appearance change (lighting, weather and season) as well as adapt to slow structural change. We present a probabilistic framework for predicting which experiences are most likely to match successfully with the live image at run-time, conditioned on the robot's prior use of the map. In addition, we describe an unsupervised algorithm for detecting and modelling higher-level visual features in the environment for localisation. These features are trained on a per-experience basis and are robust to extreme changes in appearance, for example between rain and sun, or day and night.
The system is tested on over 1500km of data, from urban and off-road environments, through sun, rain, snow, harsh lighting, at different times of the day and night, and through all seasons. In addition to this extensive offline testing, Dub4 has served as the primary localisation source on a number of autonomous vehicles, including the Oxford University's RobotCar, the 2016 Shell Eco-Marathon, the LUTZ PathFinder Project in Milton Keynes, and the GATEway Project in Greenwich, London.

Keywords: long-term localisation
lighting
mobile robotics
weather
appearance change
Advisor: Newman, P
Automatic assignment of methyl resonances using experimental NMR data and graph theory

Selective isotope labeling of methyl groups allows for atomic-resolution insight into the structures and dynamics of high molecular mass proteins by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Widespread application of the methodology has been limited due to the challenges and costs associated with assigning 1H-13C resonances to particular amino acids within the protein. Here, I present a novel structure-based automatic assignment strategy, Methyl Assignment by Graph MAtching (MAGMA), which relates experimentally measured methyl-methyl connectivity (NOESY/DREAM) to inter-methyl distances extracted from a high-resolution protein structure. MAGMA features exact algorithms for graph-subgraph isomorphism and maximal common edge subgraph that can sample all theoretically possible methyl resonance assignments. MAGMA was applied to a benchmark of eight proteins for which high-resolution structures, NOESY or DREAM data, and methyl NMR assignments were available. On this benchmark, MAGMA provides a minimum of 31% and a maximum of 89% methyl residue assignments, with complete accuracy. On larger proteins in the benchmark MAGMA outperforms alternative automated methyl resonance assignment programs in both accuracy and coverage. I assessed the influence of different input structures on the accuracy of MAGMA assignments, and concluded that joining the assignments results from multiple structures guarantees accuracy in cases where the structural form in solution is unknown. Finally, I demonstrate the utility of MAGMA in two novel applications on molecular chaperones. In a ligand binding study involving the N-domain of human HSP90α, MAGMA confidently assigned 38% of the input methyl residues when the results were joined over two protein conformations. MAGMA's assignments were then combined with inter-molecular (ligand-methyl) NOEs and HADDOCK to generate models of the protein-ligand complex. The generated models, while featuring the correct ligand binding site, were of lower quality (0.5 - 2.5 Å higher ligand RMSD) when compared to models generated with previously published methyl assignments. Incorporating inter-molecular NOE restraints in the calculation enabled MAGMA to discriminate between certain ligand binding modes, and led to an increase in the number of confident assignments, demonstrating the potential for using such restraints in the future. Finally, a generic data collection protocol for MAGMA was established in a de novo assignment application on the 400 kDa archaeal small heat shock protein Hsp16.5. The protocol involves measurement of inter-methyl NOEs, determination of intra-residue NOEs between Leu-δ1/δ2 and Val-γ1/γ2 groups, and discrimination between Leu and Val resonances by preparation of an exclusively Val labelled protein sample. A high sparsity of inter-methyl NOE data obtained for this system led to predominantly ambiguous methyl resonance assignments, which can be used for guiding further experimental efforts.

Advisor: Baldwin, A
Robinson, C
The lost maps: two-photon investigations of the fine scale organization of auditory cortex

The spatial arrangement of neuronal responses in primary auditory cortex (A1) has so far been investigated by using microelectrode recording techniques or imaging of the intrinsic signal, which led to controversial results, at present still discussed.
On the other hand, two-photon calcium imaging allows us to investigate the cortical functions at an unprecedented level of spatial detail, and has recently offered new insight into the fine-scale organization of frequency responses in A1.
In this thesis, I used two-photon calcium imaging to compare, for the first time, the fine-scale cortical representation of sound frequency to that of two other sound features, crucial for survival and communication in all mammals: differences in intensity between the two ears (interaural level differences; ILDs), and frequency modulation (FM).
I found that most neurons in layers II-III of the mouse A1 were tuned to ILDs favouring the contralateral ear, but midline and ipsilateral tuning were present too. Binaural preferences were heterogeneously distributed in space, both on the fine scale (within &Tilde; 200 μm) and on the global one (up to &Tilde; 1 mm).
Moreover, A1 neurons were mostly tuned to slow FM sweeps within the range of those used in species-specific calls. Cells activated by similar rates tended to be spatially proximal, indicating a level of local organization similar to the one I found for frequency tuning, and higher than that of ILD responses.
Finally, I set the groundwork for two-photon studies of the A1 of the ferret, by presenting the first evidence of the microscopic organization of the tonotopic map in this species.
My results shed light on some long-held questions about the response properties of A1, and confirm two-photon imaging as a powerful tool for investigating the processing of sensory signals in the cortex of both small and large mammals.

Keywords: two photon imaging
cerebral cortex
Advisor: Walker, K
King, A
Nano- and micro-scale techniques for electrical transport measurements

This thesis outlines the development of two new techniques that exploit very small structures, on the micro- and nano-scale, to enable innovative electrical transport measurements on a variety of materials of current interest in condensed matter physics.
The first technique aims to apply the versatility of electron-beam lithography for micro-fabrication of patterned electronic circuitry to the problem of performing transport experiments on individual crystallites taken from a typical powder sample. We show that these small samples, tens of microns in size, are actually often very high quality single crystals and can be exploited for measurements of electrical transport in materials of which no larger crystals are available. By way of demonstration, we present the results of preliminary transport measurements on a crystallite of the layered oxide chalcogenide Sr2MnO2Cu1.5Se2. We report a phase transition in the resistivity at 213K which may correspond to the onset of previously reported short-range order in copper and vacancy sites in the Cu1.5Se2 planes.
The second technique is designed to investigate the topological protection of surface transport in 3-D topological insulators. We decorate the surfaces of single-crystal samples with two different species from a well-characterised family of single-molecule magnets. The two coatings have an electrostatically identical influence on the sample surface, but differ in that one species carries a spin and the other is spinless. The spinless molecule acts as a control, to allow us to cleanly determine the influence of the magnetic component of a scattering potential on transport in the surface. With this technique we investigate proposed topological Kondo insulator SmB6. We find that the surface state dominates low-temperature transport and demonstrate that the momentum relaxation is very sensitive to a spin degree of freedom in the scatterer, in keeping with expectations of a topological insulator.

Keywords: High magnetic fields
Electronic properties
Topological insulators
Advisor: Nam, M
Ardavan, A
Containing Eve’s daughters? The education, fashioning and socialisation of women within three elite households of the West Country c. 1525-1660.

This thesis focuses on the education of women in three elite West Country households, the Arundells of Lanherne, the Edgcumbes of Cotehele and Mount Edgcumbe and the Reynells of Forde, in particular Dorothy Arundell (1560-1613), Anne Edgcumbe Dowriche (1560-96) and Lucie Reynell (1577-1652). It also notes the experiences of women in previous generations, which influenced education provision for girls. As early modern English women did not access the formal educational institutions of the universities or the Inns of Court, this thesis encourages a broader definition of education, to include teaching and vocational training in informal settings. It turns primarily to the household, where women spent most of their lives, but avoids a narrow focus on negative aspects of patriarchal society, which would place emphasis on the containment of women and what they could not do. Instead, it takes a positive approach, using case studies to explore the women’s experiences and achievements. These achievements act as pointers towards the depth and breadth of theoretical knowledge and level of practical skills each woman required to accomplish them. It demonstrates that rather than contained, Anne, Dorothy and Lucie were self-contained and confident. This thesis concludes that local and family archives contain more evidence, linked to the educational experiences of women, than many imagine. It encourages local historians to conduct further research, on individual women, in their own regions, to provide further evidence to refute claims that elite women received little or no education in early modern England.

Advisor: Jackson, C
Sovereign skies: aviation and the Indian state 1939-53

This thesis traces the Indian state's engagement with aviation during the period of its transformation from British colony to Indian republic. It argues that the aeroplane played a critical role in securing and legitimating the Indian state during the first years of its independence. Further, the use of aircraftis revealing of the ways in which the new state conceptualised and projected its sovereignty. The thesis is divided into five chapters organised in broadly chronological order each of which is centred on one of five major themes; expansion, partition, escalation, integration and nationalisation. The first of these studies the complex consequences of the expansion of Indian aviation during the Second World War which transformed India’s anaemic aviation sector into one of Asia's leading aviation powerhouses portending the passing of colonial rule. Chapter two traces the effects of partition in 1947 on aviation as well as the critical role played by aircraft in refugee evacuation and the restoration of order. The third chapter investigates the ways in which civil and military aviation helped initiate, sustain and then escalate war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir later that year. The fourth chapter highlights the ways in which India’s semi-autonomous princely states invested in aviation in the hopes of legitimising their states through an appeal to modernity with differing results in the decade before their integration into independent India. The fifth and final chapter focuses on the emergence of the Republic of India in 1950, a fully sovereign state with a coherent national ideology capable of exerting its will on recalcitrant neighbours and confident enough in its socialist vision to nationalise its airline companies. Indian aviation this thesis will conclude was critical in shaping the outcomes of decolonisation and was in turn moulded in important ways by the Indian state.

Keywords: India
Technology
Decolonisation
Indian aviation
Indian Air Force
Sovereignty
Advisor: Khan, Y
Johnson, R
Contact and self-segregation in ethnically diverse schools: a multi-methodological approach

This thesis investigates 'self-segregation,' the voluntary separation and clustering of ethnic groups within a diverse environment that ostensibly provides opportunities for intergroup contact. While previous research has demonstrated self-segregation within such settings, using either self-reports, observations of behaviour, or social network analysis (SNA), such studies tend to be mono-methodological and cross-sectional. I review this literature in Chapter 1.
I then present three empirical chapters which provide both longitudinal data and comparisons between observations, surveys, and SNA: Chapter 2, with two observational studies of seating patterns in a diverse sixth form cafeteria (Studies 1 and 2), and a third observational study in a diverse secondary school (Study 3); Chapter 3, where I report an SNA study collected from the first-year students at the same secondary school (Study 4); and Chapter 4, where I report the results from a self-report survey in the sixth form college, where students indicate their cafeteria seating preferences (Study 5).
In Chapter 5, I discuss these findings, summarising 1) the strong self-segregation, and inclination towards self-segregation, found in all studies; 2) the comparisons between the two educational settings, where younger students were both more likely to be gender segregated, and to increase in ethnic integration over time; 3) the greater inclination of Asian British students than White British students to ethnically integrate; and 4) the need for further research triangulating multiple methods. From these conclusions, I suggest implications for targeted interventions, and argue the continued (and indeed, heightened) need for the contributions of social psychologists in public and policy discourse on ethnic integration.

Keywords: intergroup contact
ethnic diversity
behavioral observation
social network analysis
integration
micro-ecological observation
education and diversity
Advisor: Hewstone, M
Wölfer, R
A theory of dystopian liberalism

This dissertation aspires to revive the dystopian liberalism which identifies the avoidance of the worst as the fundamental aim of politics. The theory I present consists of three elements overall: The first element is what I call the Priority Claim, stating that the most important aim of social institutions should, morally speaking, be to avoid cruelty qua worst evil (Part I). The second element is the identification of the informal structure, the set of social norms within a population, as an important site to realize this ideal (Part II). The third element is the application of the principle that cruelty be avoided to the in-formal structure (Part III). This leads to an account of desirable social norms and in turn to a concrete answer to the question how individuals can in their everyday lives do their part to create a world that is overall less cruel and more humane.

Keywords: Liberalism of Fear
Shklar
Advisor: Caney, S
Legitimate priority-setting: refining accountability for reasonableness and its application within NICE

In this dissertation, I examine Daniels and Sabin’s theory for fair and legitimate procedures, accountability for reasonableness (AFR), and its relationship to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). AFR has been widely adopted as an exemplar model of procedural decision-making for healthcare limit-setting. Despite the prominence of AFR, few institutions have fully adopted it, so NICE, which claims AFR enhances its legitimacy, is an important example of how the theory translates into practice.
The dissertation addresses challenges to AFR as a theory. I first argue that the substantive constraints in AFR’s procedure are left too vague to answer criticisms of the theory. I refine the definition of relevant reasons, focusing on mutual justifiability and raise a novel problem about whether agreement on reasons to determine their relevance is based on normative objective standards or empirical agreement. I also make a new argument that the four conditions of AFR are not sufficient for legitimacy. I argue that we need a condition of fair consideration in order to ensure legitimacy in limit-setting procedures that follow AFR. Fair consideration requires decision makers to take relevant reasons seriously.
The latter part of the dissertation examines NICE’s adoption of AFR. As a public body NICE needs to demonstrate the legitimacy of its decisions, and it supports its claim to legitimacy with AFR as a framework of procedural justice. I argue that NICE meets the conditions of AFR, but it also supplements AFR with additional procedural principles, demonstrating that AFR is not specific enough and does not meet the needs of an actual priority-setting body. NICE strengthens its claims to legitimacy with its procedural principles, however it fails to implement fair consideration of reasons, so it misses out on an essential element for legitimacy, as I argue the revised account of AFR requires. NICE could further enhance its legitimacy with fair consideration. NICE’s application of AFR illustrates how problems in the theory translate into challenges for practice. I address some of these challenges to legitimacy with the additional requirement of fair consideration.

Advisor: Sheehan, M
Dunn, M