VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Antenatal depression and infant sleep: investigating the pathways to risk

Introduction: Maternal antenatal depression has been associated with an increased risk of offspring psychopathology and more recently with disturbed infant sleep; in particular, shorter sleep duration, more awakenings and sleep problems. The exact mechanisms through which risk may be transmitted remain unknown, as does the question of whether all infants are equally susceptible to the effects of antenatal depression. The primary objectives of this thesis were to examine: i) The role of two potential moderators on the association between antenatal depression and infant sleep: infant reactive temperament and the serotonin transporter polymorphism 5-HTTLPR ii) The association between antenatal depression and infant sleep using objective behavioural and physiological measures. iii) Infant sleep and temperament in a pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) following treatment of antenatal depression
Methods i) The role of infant reactivity and 5-HTTLPR as potential moderators was examined in two large longitudinal cohorts: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents And Children (ALSPAC) and the Generation R study, based in the UK and The Netherlands respectively (n=8,991 and n=2,441). ii) An Oxford based pilot longitudinal family study (n=16) iii) A pilot randomised controlled trial of women with antenatal depression who received Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or Care as Usual (n=25).
Results i) There was evidence that reactive temperament moderated the association between antenatal depression and infant sleep; boys seemed to be most affected exhibiting more awakenings, sleep problems and shorter sleep duration. 5-HTTLPR did not moderate this association. ii) Antenatal depression was associated with shorter infant sleep duration 5 months postpartum iii) Improvement in depression was associated with shorter infant sleep duration and easier temperament 2 months postpartum
Conclusion: This thesis suggests that not all infants are equally susceptible to environmental influences and this may prove important in targeting interventions. The role of genetic factors in conferring any susceptibility remains unclear. Actigraphy offering accurate representation of activity levels and timing during the day and night was a significant methodological advantage, but recruitment to a study incorporating these proved challenging. Finally, psychological interventions during pregnancy appear to have beneficial effects for child development.

Keywords: parent and child
sleep
perinatal
infant
depression
antenatal
perinatal mental health
Advisor: Ramchandani, P
Wulff, K
Limited political liberalisation in authoritarian regimes : critical journalists and the state in China

This dissertation examines the process of limited political liberalisation in China by analysing the coexistence between critical journalists and the party-state under the Hu-Wen leadership. In contrast to the scholarship on authoritarianism and Chinese politics, which tends to analyse the perspectives of societal actors and the state separately from one another, this study brings the two together, unveiling the intricacies of their interactions. In the past decade, critical journalists and the party-state maintained a partnership which can be best described by a jazz ensemble metaphor. The players—critical journalists and the party-state—share a common purpose: improving their performance or governance within the existing political system. They overcome the limitations on their collaboration with ad hoc creative adjustments made in response to one another. The party-state acts as a band leader, setting the key by establishing a framework within which creative manoeuvring can take place.
The study is based on unique access to politically sensitive material, including 120 in-depth interviews with critical journalists, media and crisis management experts, and government officials. It also includes multilayered textual analysis of the Chinese Communist Party journal, Qiushi, and investigative reports in two outspoken media outlets, Caijing and Nanfang Zhoumo. The data is employed to analyse the boundaries for limited political liberalisation of the media as well as how it manifests itself during major crisis events.
More broadly, the dissertation draws the attention of both China and authoritarianism scholars to the significant yet neglected feature of interactive improvisation as a force that can sustain coexistence between critical actors and authoritarian states. It shows that by engaging in actor-driven analysis and illuminating the process of their interactions, we can better grasp the dynamics of authoritarianism in China and beyond. A step is made towards applying the analytical framework distilled in the China case on other authoritarian regimes by including a limited comparison to media–state relations under Gorbachev and under Putin. It shows that the variables of collaboration and improvisation are useful in explaining the different outcomes of political liberalisation reform.

Keywords: media
authoritarianism
party-state
journalists
China
Advisor: Shue, V
Whitefield, S
Napoleon and British popular song, 1797-1822

Existing studies of popular culture and popular politics in the long eighteenth century over-favour either the ‘culture’ or the ‘politics’. This thesis contributes to debates on the making of both national and class identity in Britain via intensive analysis of popular song culture, in the context of the Napoleonic Wars. Portrayals of Napoleon himself are used to shape the thesis’ source material and the forms of discussion. It argues for the necessity of sympathetic, informed contextualisation of political issues within contemporary cultural processes: that an understanding of the composition/production and performance/ consumption of song is a prerequisite of determining songs’ relevance and reception. In so doing, it uncovers a nuanced array of attitudes towards both Napoleon and British patriotism, of unsuspected breadth, assertiveness, and idiosyncrasy.
The thesis is divided into two stages of argument. Part I consists of a close and contextualised reading of songs as literary and musical objects. Chapter One, after close historiographical engagement that moves to a focus on Colley’s Britons and revisionist arguments about British society, discusses those songs originating after Waterloo. Chapter Two considers songs from 1797-1805. Chapter Three considers songs from 1806-15.
Part II builds upon the themes and conclusions of Part I by situating these songs within a lived context. Chapter Four looks at the role of songwriters and printers; Chapter Five at singers; Chapter Six at audiences and reception. Chapter Seven elaborates the overall argument in a synoptic case study of Newcastle.
The conclusion is followed by an appendix, listing the songs most pertinent to the thesis, giving additional bibliographical information. A hard copy (USB) of recordings of a representative selection of these songs is also included. These appendices reinforce the thesis’ methodology: to consider songs, not as passive evidence of expression, but as active, dynamic objects.

Keywords: French Revolution
Napoleonic Wars
Napoleon I
ballads
loyalism
Britons
broadsides
Advisor: Philp, M
Gleadle, K
The language of prophetic eschatology in the Old Testament

The INTRODUCTION sets out the two major aims of the thesis. The first is to evolve a precise and economical terminology for describing the language of prophetic eschatology and to find objective criteria for description, the problem being how to decide whether such language is intended literally or otherwise. The second aim is to show that and how the prophets use nonliteral poetic imagery, not for comment or decoration, but in attempts to sway their audience, present condensed argument or assertion, and show contemporary situations in a new light. The main lines of approach in subsequent chapters are then sketched out.
[Continued in text ...]

Advisor: Caird, G
The city of London and British social democracy, c. 1959 – 1979

This thesis considers the position of the British financial sector in the economic strategy of social democracy during the 1960s and 1970s. In doing so it attempts to shed light on a broader question – what caused the collapse of the postwar social democratic project in Britain during the final quarter of the twentieth century? It contends that the social democratic project faced a variety of challenges to its principles, assumptions, and practices in the two decades prior to the election of Margaret Thatcher as a result of changes to the financial system. These challenges offered opportunities for the advance of social democracy beyond the norms established following the Second World War, but the capacity to pursue these was constrained in a number of ways. The emergence of institutional investment, and the breakdown of the postwar banking settlement, undermined the social democratic methods for managing and controlling credit and investment, yet also offered the opportunity to advance the State’s capacity to intervene in the economy. However the ability of the left to renew and rebuild the social democratic economic project along more advanced, interventionist lines was limited by new material constraints which made extensive reform of the financial system and the domestic economy extremely difficult. Structural changes to the international financial system following the breakdown of the Bretton Woods settlement, combined with the severe economic crisis of the 1970s, imposed new limits on the freedom of governments to engage in domestic-focused macroeconomic management. As the methods and techniques of social democratic economic strategy became less effective, the ideal of developing an advanced industrial economy through State coordination faded. In its place a new conception of the British economy was promoted which sought to revive its historic liberal and internationalist role in which the City of London was at its heart.

Keywords: city of London
Conservative Party
finance
postwar Britain
Labour Party
social democracy
neoliberalism
Advisor: Jackson, B
An electrochemical approach to selective oligosaccharide synthesis

This thesis describes investigations into the use of electrochemical oxidation as a method for the activation of glycosyl donors, and in particular the application of this technique to the selective activation of one electrochemically active glycoside over another.
The synthesis of twenty eight electrochemically active monosaccharide donors, including thio-, seleno- and O-glycosides with varying protecting group patterns and anomeric substituents is described, together with the synthesis of three electrochemically active monosaccharides with the potential to act as both glycosyl donors and glycosyl acceptors.
The electrochemical analysis of these monosaccharides is reported and gives a detailed insight into the effect of various factors on the oxidation potentials of the monosaccharide donors and allows some general conclusions to be drawn. In addition the analysis of six monosaccharides by cyclic voltammetry at scan rates of up to 25 000 Vs-1 allows their homogenous kinetics to be outrun and formal oxidation potentials obtained.
Investigations into selective electrochemical glycosylations are reported, and the applicability of the analytical electrochemical studies to synthetic electrochemical reactions is demonstrated. Selective glycosylations are possible with selenoglycoside donors and either thio- or O-glycoside acceptors to give disaccharides. However the selective activation of selenoglycosides over thioglycosides is shown to be complicated by some underlying pathway for indiscriminate activation of both donor and acceptor. In contrast the use of an O-glycoside donor experiences no such problems. More detailed work on the underlying problems experienced with the thioglycoside acceptor was conducted, and the results are reported here.
Investigations into electrochemical activation of the disaccharides are discussed, and the thioglycoside is shown to be easily activated to give a trisaccharide. At the time of writing this is believed to be the only electrochemically mediated trisaccharide synthesis reported in the literature. The O-glycoside however is shown to be inactive under the electrochemical oxidation conditions employed.
Utilization of exterior surface dimples for stream-wise force reduction for a circular cylinder in cross-flow

Applying dimples on spherical bluff bodies have been found to be a major technique to control the surface flow and reduce the stream-wise force. However, not much work has been done on dimple applications on cylindrical Objects .
This research project aims to investigate, firstly, whether the stream-wise force on a circular cylinder could be reduced by using dimples on its outer surface. Secondly, if it could, whether there is an optimum design that gives the biggest force reduction. Thirdly, what the roles of different approaches in this project might be?
In order to find answers to these questions, experimental and computational methods have been used. One smooth and three dimpled cylinders have been tested. It was found that applying dimples on the outer surface of a cylinder is very effective in reducing stream-wise force. Drag coefficient significantly reduced by 17% to 48% depending on different Reynolds numbers. However, the dimpled design did not seem to be the key factor of the reduction, and the level of drag reduction was found to be insensitive to different dimpled patterns.
Furthermore, it has also been found that CFD method would not be suitable as the research tool for this project because of its demanding requirement in computer power. Therefore, rig tests remained the primary method for this project. In addition, flow visualization technique was also used to show the wake region behind both the smooth and dimpled cylinders. It was clear that a smaller wake was associated with the dimpled case, which resulted in the pressure drag on the dimpled cylinder being smaller than for the smooth cylinder.

Keywords: stream-wise force reduction
surface dimples
circular cylinder
Advisor: Ainsworth, R
He, L
Radiometry of the atmosphere of Mars

This thesis is concerned with a project to apply the method of pressure modulation radiometry to measurements of the temperature and water vapour distributions in the atmosphere of Mars. The technique has already been used successfully to measure temperature (and occasionally composition) in the atmospheres of Earth and Venus. Two pressure modulators, containing carbon dioxide and water vapour respectively, are used in the Pressure Modulator Infrared Radiometer (PMIRR), on the payload of Mars Observer, scheduled for launch in September 1992. The composition of the Martian atmosphere is almost pure CO2, so the emission lines are unusually broad, so that the mean pressure in the CO2 modulator has to be much larger than for previous modulators, thus increasing the power consumption. The limited power available in a Martian spacecraft requires that the power consumption of the pressure modulator and drive be minimized. As a result a high­efficiency drive circuit was designed and developed. Water vapour is of major importance to the Martian environment and there are several outstanding questions about its behaviour. Measurements using the pressure modulator technique for terrestrial water vapour measurements have had limited success, raising questions about its suitability for condensible, affinitive molecules. A new model of the thermodynamics of pressure modulators was developed to predict their mechanical and spectroscopic behaviour, and spectroscopic measurements of the pressure modulator cell transmission, with high spectral and temporal resolution, using a tunable diode laser spectrometer (TDLS), were performed. The measured transmission agrees well with the predictions of the model, indicating that pressure modulation radiometry can be applied to measurements of water vapour, giving confidence in the successful study of Martian climatology by the PMIRR instrument.

Keywords: radiometry
Mars
infrared
pressure-modulator
water adsorption
thermodynamics
Advisor: Taylor, F
Probes for bacterial ion channels

Using three complementary approaches, this work sought to tackle the widespread problem of antibiotic resistance. To circumvent the resistance mechanisms developed by bacteria, it is necessary to establish drug candidates that act on novel therapeutic targets, such as the ion channels used by bacteria to modulate homeostasis. Examples include the potassium efflux channel, Kef, and the mechanosensitive channel of small conductance, MscS, which are not found in humans. How these targets function must be well understood before drug candidates can be developed, as such, their identification and investigation is often accompanied by the evolution of the analytical techniques used to study them.
Membrane protein mass spectrometry is one technique showing potential in the study of ion channels. However, spectra can be clouded by the detergents used to solubilise ion channels from their native membranes. Undertaken herein was the synthesis of some fluorescent glycolipid detergents, which it was hypothesised could be encouraged to dissociate from ion channels via laser-induced excitation within the gas phase of a mass spectrometer, thereby improving the clarity with which spectra can be obtained.
For Kef, an unconfirmed mechanism of action had previously been proposed. To explore the suggestion that sterically-demanding central residues are important for channel activation, solid phase peptide synthesis was used to isolate three tripeptide analogues of N-ethylsuccinimido glutathione, a known activator with a high affinity for Kef. A competition fluorescence assay suggested these tripeptides bound to Kef with an affinity lower than predicted, allowing the conclusion that a more detailed assessment of the steric bulk required for activation was necessary before a mechanism of action could be confirmed.
Lysophosphatidylcholine has been shown to activate MscS, although it is not known how. Affinity chromatography between MscS and lysophosphatidylcholine was proposed as a means by which specific binding interactions could be investigated. For this technique an amino-derivative of lysophosphatidylcholine was necessary and its challenging synthesis is also detailed herein.

Keywords: Membrane proteins
Synthetic organic chemistry
Polymers Amino acid and peptide chemistry
Mass spectrometry
NMR spectroscopy
Advisor: Conway, S
Experienced justice: gender, judging and appellate courts

The under-representation of women in the senior appellate judiciary in common law jurisdictions remains an enduring problem. Much has been written about the lack of women’s participation in the judiciary and what strategies, if any, should be undertaken in order to resolve this persistent problem. However, this thesis takes a step back to ask a broader question: what impact does gender diversity have upon judicial decision making in appellate courts? It seeks to answer this question by engaging feminist standpoint theory to assess the experiences of men and women judges from three common law jurisdictions: England, South Africa and Australia. Through a series of interviews conducted with members of the senior judiciary in these jurisdictions in 2012 and 2013, this thesis explores the extent that interviewees consider that gendered experiences impact upon their own judging, and judging within the dynamics of collegiate appellate courts. This thesis concludes that while it is not possible to pinpoint one particular ‘contribution’ or ‘impact’ that gendered experiences have upon judging, it is nonetheless generally considered by those interviewed to be an important part of the judicial decision making process in several subtle, yet important, ways. Because of the considerable role that diverse gendered experiences play in judicial decision making, appointments processes should be sensitised to the need for diversity of experience and alive to the danger of ostensibly neutral appointment criteria devaluing diverse experiences, particularly the experiences of women in the law.

Keywords: United Kingdom
South Africa
Australia
gender
judges
women
judiciary
Advisor: Fredman, S
Timing- and pattern-dependent long-term depression during mouse barrel cortex development

Long-term depression (LTD) plays an important role in the refinement of neocortical maps during early postnatal development. Synapse formation and refinement in the cortex during development rely on synaptic plasticity, the cellular mechanisms of which are poorly understood. The aim of this thesis was to investigate timing- and pattern-dependent LTD at excitatory synapses in the mouse barrel cortex during development.
This thesis first describes the developmental prole and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor GluN2 subtype-dependence of timing-dependent plasticity at layer 4-to-layer 2/3 synapses. A developmental dissociation of timing-dependent plasticity was observed where timing-dependent LTD (t-LTD) was found during early development (postnatal day, P6-8) but disappeared after P25. In contrast, timing-dependent LTP (t-LTP) only appeared in the second postnatal week of development (P11-15) and persisted in the adult cortex. This bidirectional plasticity also showed a GluN2 subtype-dependent dissociation. Whereas t-LTP was dependent on GluN2A subunit-containing NMDA receptors, t-LTD was dependent on GluN2C/D subunit-containing NMDA receptors.
This thesis also reports a novel anti-Hebbian form of NMDA receptor-dependent plasticity, in which presynaptic layer 4 neurons drive their presynaptic long-term self-depression without the involvement of postsynaptic action potentials or calcium. This mechanism suggests that, during development, presynaptic self-depression occurs when specific spike patterns (presynaptic burst-spike) in the presynaptic neuron are unsuccessful in driving postsynaptic activity.
Finally, this thesis addresses how t-LTD induction rules differ in vertical intra-columnar layer 4-to-layer 2/3 and horizontal cross-columnar layer 2/3-to-layer 2/3 synapses in the barrel cortex. Distinct GluN2 subunit expression in vertical and horizontal synapses regulated the time-window of t-LTD induction. It is also shown that different excitatory intra- and cross-columnar synapses onto the same postsynaptic layer 2/3 neurons can have different molecular requirements for the induction of t-LTD, and that they also interact to induce heterosynaptic associative LTD. These findings may have important implications for understanding the cellular mechanisms of experience-dependent plasticity and its relevance to the computational principles of cortical circuit operation.

Keywords: Plasticity
Synapse
NMDA receptors
Cortex
Electrophysiology
Advisor: Paulsen, O