VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Nikolai Yaponsky and the Russian Orthodox Mission to Japan during the Meiji Period: encounters and tensions between Russia, Japan and the West

This thesis offers a full account—the first in a Western language—of the activities of the Russian Orthodox missionary Nikolai Kasatkin in Japan in the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries. In my study of this important page in the history of Christian missionary work, I draw on extensive resources—both archival and published—that Kasatkin left behind. His diaries provide the most sincere and detailed account of his work and have recently been published in Russian and Japanese, while most other sources are held in various archives in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Tokyo. On the basis of these sources, I demonstrate that Kasatkin’s work can be divided into three distinct periods.
The transitions between these periods are not strict but are by and large determined by the broader historical context. It is, therefore, important to contextualise Kasatkin’s work within the tripod scheme of historical developments in Japan and Russia—which he knew well—and in the West, which he observed through interactions with other missionaries, correspondence, and newspaper reports. This thesis is structured in three main chapters that correspond to the three periods, with a fourth chapter that addresses the core issue of Nikolai’s approach to the status of the Church, which remained unchanged throughout his life. The thesis forms a unique contribution to the history of Orthodox missionary work and Christian missiology in general for a number of reasons. In addition to the fact that the described encounter between Nikolai and Japan is different from most studies in the field, Nikolai was no simplistic evangeliser; he was a remarkable person with a sharp gift for observation who entrusted his soul to his diaries and provided an honest account of his life and work and the historical, political, and social events around him.

Keywords: Orthodox Christianity in Japan
Russo-Japanese religious ties
St Nicholas of Japan
Nikolai Yaponsky
Advisor: Zachhuber, J
Kariya, T
Visualization of multivalent binding events using α-hemolysin

The work done in this thesis aims to visualize multivalent binding events of proteins and their ligands, more specifically lectins and sugar moieties. This visualization is done by single channel recording (SCR) via stochastic sensing. Herein, the binding is studied at a single molecular level. Two mannose moieties are covalently connected by linker molecules to an ion channel forming protein, forming bivalent mannopores. These bivalent mannopores are used in a SCR set-up, wherein different lectins are added to study their binding behaviour. The lectins differ in their valency, with monovalent, bivalent, trivalent and tetravalent lectins being used. For each of these lectins, a binding model was derived that shows the dynamic nature of a multivalent binding event. This work shows that lectin-sugar binding is much more dynamic than previous theories would suggest.

Keywords: lectin
multivalent binding
single channel recording
α-Hemolysin
Linking reinforcement learning and cognitive maps to understand how the brain represents abstract tasks 

The terms “reinforcement learning” (RL) and “cognitive maps” are both commonly rooted in early behaviourist psychology. However, in neuroscience, these two subfields have largely progressed in parallel. In this thesis, I use ideas and techniques from one subfield to address open questions in the other.
While the theory of RL has dramatically advanced our understanding of the brain’s learning algorithms, we still don’t know how RL tasks are represented. Here, I take inspiration from the well-studied representations of the cognitive map in spatial tasks to investigate how abstract non-spatial RL tasks are represented and how task knowledge might be generalised to novel situations. I present converging results suggesting that the same areas that encode the structure of spatial tasks also encode the structure of abstract RL tasks. In addition, I use ideas from spatial cognitive maps to suggest novel interpretations of heavily-studied RL neural signals. Further, taking inspiration from the discovery of inference mechanisms over the structure of spatial tasks, I suggest a study, for which I already have a task and a model, that could shed light on similar structural inference mechanisms in RL tasks.
While navigation and planning in physical space have been thoroughly studied, it is not clear how animals can navigate through cognitive maps with arbitrary topology. Here I investigate spatial cognitive maps through the lens of RL formalism, and use ideas from RL to suggest a flexible and efficient planning algorithm that can be used in both spatial environments and environments with arbitrary topology.
This thesis demonstrates the progress that can be made by bringing these two subfields together, and hopefully brings us one step closer to understanding the mechanisms underlying the human capacity for flexible behaviour.

Keywords: cognitive maps
reinforcement learning
decision making
Advisor: Behrens, T
From trash to treasure: the recycling of glass in Roman and Early Medieval period Britain

The main aim of this thesis is twofold; first to asses the ability of material studies to identify and quantify recycling in ancient glass, and then to compare the nature and extent of recycling of glass in the first to fourth centuries in Britain, Roman Britain, to the following Early Medieval period, fifth to eighth centuries.
The first section of this thesis, the backbone, is a compilation of published values of glass analysed from English sites, and a comparative database from Europe. This also includes the expansion of the English database with the fresh analysis of glass from the sites of Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, and Lyminge, Kent.
The next section is a theoretical discussion of recycling and particularly the re- cycling of ancient glass. This includes both the ramifications of different forms of recycling for artefacts, in terms of traditional archaeological concerns such as trade, deposition and object biography, but more importantly the material studies changes that one might expect to witness from such recycling.
This leads on to the chemistry of glass, and specifically how this can be used to demonstrate that recycling. Setting out and devising the material studies approaches to quantifying and qualifying ancient glass recycling, assessing which techniques are potentially of value. This synthesis and analysis includes both a large amount of legacy data, the database, as well as the small study of new glasses. In particular, the new glasses that will aim to increase the number of post-Roman glasses.
The final portion of the thesis uses the architecture of the previous sections to compare the patterns of recycling across time in Britain, specifically the geographical components. This demonstrates the relationship between geography and trade, and how this changes in England as Roman influence falls and a new power takes Britain.

Keywords: Recycling
Dorchester-on-Thames
Early Medieval
Glass
Archaeometry
Britain
Archaeology
Anglo-Saxon
Lyminge
Archaeological Science
England
Analysis
Roman
Advisor: Morrison, W
Pollard, M
Information-seeking in the rat

From a functional viewpoint, decision-makers should value information only when it can be used to alter future events. However, experiments show that animals (including humans) value information they cannot use, as if they were simply driven by reducing uncertainty per se. I explore this phenomenon experimentally and interpret it theoretically. In two of the chapters I use protocols in which information is unusable because it is given after choices, while in the other two subjects can choose whether to obtain information that can lead to better decisions. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that neither purely functional nor purely mechanistic interpretations are satisfactory, illustrating the importance of integration in the specific but broadly significant field of information-seeking behaviour.

Advisor: Kacelnik, A
Murphy, RAJ
Altered states: the politics of marijuana legalization in Latin America

My thesis investigates how and why drug policy liberalization has moved from purported impossibility to political reality in Latin America. Specifically, I ask why do we see far reaching marijuana legalization in Uruguay and Mexico, and no reform at all in Chile? To answer this question, I study the role that actors, ideas and institutions play in the reform process. Based on unparalleled access to key actors, my thesis combines process tracing and counterfactual analysis to build and assess my argument.
Without disregarding the importance of state support or societal opposition, my thesis argues that civil society reform proponents are the driving force behind recent cannabis liberalization episodes in Latin America. Organizational resources and capacities, as well as coalitions with other actors, shape reform proponents’ ability to influence decision making. Professionalized and institutionalized advocates are more successful than grassroots activists in strategically framing cannabis reform. Both messages and messengers condition whether would-be reformers are more or less persuasive in agenda setting, maintenance and counteracting agenda denial, which in turn determine the attention and approval reform demands achieve.
My thesis finds that differences in organizational capacities of reform proponents, their strategic framing and agenda manipulation explain the variation in marijuana legalization in Latin America. Uruguayan reform proponents capitalized on insider agenda setting by the government, whereas Mexican and Chilean reform proponents had to pro-actively engage in agenda setting. In Uruguay, a professional campaign adopted focus group-tested messages. In Mexico, elite societal actors adapted their legal challenge according to the target audience. In Chile, “grassroots” activists failed to offer a coherent framing of cannabis liberalization. Whereas Uruguayan and Mexican reform proponents were highly professional and pragmatic, Chilean reform proponents’ efforts were mostly amateurish and idealistic. In combination, these differences in demand shaped the supply of drug policy reform in Latin America.

Keywords: Comparative Politics
Drug Policy Reform
Cannabis
Counterfactual Analysis
Social Movements
Legalization
Legal Mobilisation
Morality Policy
Process Tracing
Chile
Politics of Policymaking
Marijuana
Uruguay
Mexico
Latin America
Advisor: González-Ocantos, E
Dependable partners? Assessing reliability in alliance politics

From the perspectives of both theory and practice, perceived reliability is often assumed to be integral to strategic considerations vis-a-vis the formation and management of alliances. It not only significantly shapes the credibility of alliance commitment, but also looms large in the context of extended and immediate deterrence between a state’s allies and adversaries. However, no systematic theorization of perceived reliability has been accomplished in the existing literature so far. To bridge this apparent gap, this D.Phil thesis is aimed at shedding light on a crucial question: How do states come to judge if their alliance partners are reliable? Specifically, it seeks to uncover the psychological mechanisms through which leaders assess each other’s re- liability. Drawing upon insights from three existing approaches regarding intention assessments, this thesis sets out to develop two competing theories of alliance reliability judgment: The Rational Choice Model (RCM) and the Affective Reasoning Model (ARM). Then, it comparatively tests the propositions derived from both models by examining the histories of three Asia-Pacific alliances during the Cold War: (1) The Sino-Soviet alliance from 1949 to 1969, (2) the US-ROC alliance from 1949 to 1975, and (3) the US-Japan alliance from 1945 to 1987. The findings of the thesis can potentially contribute to on-going scholarly discussions in the areas of threat perception, strategic deterrence and alliance theories. In terms of policy implications, this thesis is particularly relevant to intra-alliance communication and alliance management.

Keywords: Cold War
threat perception
reliability
Emotions
Asian security
alliance
Affect
Advisor: Hall, T
Goddesses in Ramessid Egypt: representations of gender and gendered agency in the divine sphere

The gendered representation of goddesses has received little explicit analysis within Egyptology. Studies of goddesses have tended to focus on materials associated with particular deities, and scholarly conversations surrounding gender have largely concerned the experiences of living people. However, the divine sphere is a very ‘real’ aspect of a culture’s social world; to only theorise gender processes among humans is to overlook an entire realm in which those processes might also be active. This thesis interrogates the gendered agency of goddesses in the Ramessid period, as materialised in their two-dimensional representations.
Analysis centres on the wall scenes of Theban and Memphite private tombs, and of three contemporaneous temple environments: the Small Temple of Abu Simbel, the temple of Seti I at Abydos, and the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. Supporting examples are drawn from votive stelae. These sources were selected for their potential to visualise structures of gendered agency and status, and the opportunity they provide to observe those processes across regions and ritual contexts. A typology was created of the roles fulfilled by goddesses in such compositions, which together with methods of statistical description revealed patterns of agency both within monuments and across data sets. These patterns were then explored through the use of case studies.
The depiction of goddesses’ gendered agency is shown to vary according to the ritual function and focus of a space, with regional artistic preferences also playing a role. While goddesses can be prominent in certain contexts, they are frequently allocated secondary positions in hierarchies of status; the organisation of compositions, even of entire decorative programmes, can serve to reconcile female prominence with male primacy. However, it is also shown that this secondary position allows goddesses the space to exercise unique modes of agency and exhibit their own forms of representation.

Keywords: visual anthropology
private tomb decoration
private stelae
built environment
small temple Abu Simbel
gender anthropology
textual studies
gender theory
gendered agency
agency
visual culture studies
ancient religion
spatial analysis
anthropology of art
Great Hypostyle Hall Karnak
memphite necropolis
temple decoration
gendered representation
Temple of Seti I Abydos
art history
iconography
two-dimensional representation
Theban Necropolis
Advisor: Chauvet, V
The conception and formation of families among non-heterosexual women (lalas) in urban China 

This study examines the ways in which Chinese non-heterosexual women, who identify themselves as lalas, make sense of and form their families in urban China. It sheds new light on the complex interplay between structure and agency in lalas’ experiences of family formation, including those of pursuing motherhood, in a context where same-sex relationships remain stigmatized. Based on in-depth interviews with 35 lala-identified women, this study reveals lalas’ pursuit of agency in redefining who can be related to whom in their family-building processes and shows how and under what circumstances their strategies for forming female-led families reinforce or subvert established norms of gender, sexuality, and family. The findings also demonstrate the ways in which traditional and new beliefs about family ties, concerns about the stability of family life, and worries about later life come into play in lalas’ decision-making processes regarding whether and how to have children. Furthermore, by exploring lalas’ experiences of cyberspace, including their participation in both online and offline activities initiated by lala-targeted social networking sites and social media, this study shows how lalas use cyberspace to explore new meanings of family and ways of developing family life and yet constantly need to navigate tensions between their online and offline lives.
This study makes a distinctive contribution to a more nuanced and context-sensitive understanding of ongoing changes in family life within and beyond China. The findings highlight the importance of attending to the diversity of practices and meanings along different paths to family formation, which are interwoven with individuals’ continued struggles to navigate the gendered, familial, material, and socio-political constraints in their local context. Studying lalas’ family-building in China provides an important window into interlocking systems of inequality confronting people whose family aspirations and practices are considered deviant from the norm, and consequently are devalued or silenced.

Keywords: sexuality
cyberspace
inequality
gender
motherhood
family
Advisor: Kan, MY
Keeping the peace in a late-medieval polity. Conflict and collaboration in Bologna in the age of Dante (13th-14th centuries)

My thesis investigates the dynamics which made it possible for the conflict-ridden polities of late communal-age Italy (c.1250-1350) to keep the peace and experience relative political stability, using Bologna and its surrounding countryside (contado) in c.1265-1307 as case study. The aim is to analyse the ways in which European and Mediterranean late-medieval polities could function in what was a period of unprecedented institutional and legal growth, but also one of deepening pluralism and rising inequality. By doing so, my thesis addresses a number of key debates linked to the study of this important historical period. These are the question of the relationship between the growth and development of polities and the control of ‘private’ violence; and the ways in which new administrative, legal, and judicial developments – but also the circulation of new intellectual ideas – affected the functioning of society and its internal power relations. As I argue, deeply divided late-medieval polities could actually achieve an internal balance which secured peaceful coexistence between enemy families and factions. During these periods, civic governments managed to carry out more or less coherent political programmes. This was not only the consequence of new advances in the fields of law , bureaucracy , and administration, but it was also – and mainly – possible thanks to formal and informal collaboration between different sections of society. In particular, I demonstrate the existence of a restricted network made of 161 elite urban families whose members appeared in a mediating capacity in thousands of disputes and in the most delicate conflicts. This system of peace-keeping also came at a cost, however, as it produced many side-effects and did not completely eradicate the problem of internecine divisions. The underlying argument is that the growth of public institutions around 1300 did not replace an older political system made of interpersonal relations but, rather, was built onto it.

Keywords: Medieval violence
Medieval Europe
Medieval Italy
Peace-keeping
Medieval
Medieval peace-making
Medieval law
Medieval justice
Italian communes
Advisor: Rosser, G
Skoda, H
Ulysses in cyberspace: examining the effectiveness of design patterns for digital self-control

Instant access to information, entertainment, and connection enabled by smartphones and computers provides innumerable benefits, but also unprecedented opportunity for distraction. However, while technology companies have devoted enormous resources to keeping users 'hooked' on digital systems, little is known about how designers can best support people in regaining control over their digital device use.
This thesis argues that the emerging research into design patterns for digital self-control, which attempts to address this challenge, will benefit from (i) drawing on established psychological research on self-control, and (ii) using the existing landscape of apps and browser extensions for digital self-control on online stores as a resource for understanding potential design patterns and implementations.
To substantiate these arguments, the thesis proceeds in four steps: First, we adapt a well-established dual systems framework to the context of digital device use, to help explain the psychological mechanisms that underlie self-control struggles. Second, we investigate digital self-control tools (n = 367) on the Chrome Web, Google Play, and Apple App stores, by analysing their design features, user numbers, ratings, and reviews. Third, we present a controlled study of interventions for Facebook, drawn from popular tools on the Chrome Web store. Fourth, distilling findings from the previous steps, we present a workshop format intended as a research tool for long-term investigation of user struggles and solution strategies, to better understand and respond to the pervasive challenge of digital self-control. Throughout the thesis, we adopt open science practices and make our materials, data, and analyses publicly available.
The thesis concludes by arguing that future research should focus on design patterns that enable users to sculpt their digital environments such that the amount of - and motivational pull from - the information they are exposed to remain within a range that allows them to exert effective self-control without being overwhelmed by distractions.

Keywords: attention
self-regulation
distraction
ICT non-use
self-control
digital wellbeing
Advisor: Shadbolt, N