VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Stars, magnetism, bulls and heroes: Thomas Ades's metaphors and his music

This thesis centres on an examination of the music and commentary of Thomas Adès. Though academics and journalists alike have noted the importance of Adès’s programmatic descriptions, there is little work that considers his music alongside his commentary. Reinforcing this split is the notion that Adès is not merely reticent but also deliberately misleading: Service (2012) notes the way in which Adès wittily plays with his questions in interview whilst Fox (2004) suspects the composer of being knowingly naïve when outlining his approach to Brahms and the Piano Quintet. Venn (2006) has investigated the relationship between the discourse stemming from Asyla's title and the music, concluding that 'the notion of asylum inspires the musical processes only in an abstract manner, if at all'. However, examining the music alongside his commentary can uncover valuable insights into his music and enrich our experience of the work.
I shall explore the two of his works, Polaris (2010) and Living Toys (1993) and their programmatic discourse in order to demonstrate how it can be understood as part of the work. Thomas Adès, builds up elaborate conceptual metaphors which I shall explore through Facounnier and Turner's theory of Conceptual Blending. It is my position that, rather than understanding programmatic discourse as an explanation or translation of Adès’s music, it is more fruitful to view it as an extension of the compositional process, and an active part of the work. The final part of this paper relates the issues found in the thesis to my own composition portfolio.
The portfolio of compositions comprises three pieces: Round Trips: Three Pieces for Oboe and Cello; Foreboding, for chamber ensemble; and A Reflection Di(still)ed for string quartet. Though these pieces are distinct, they collectively seek to explore ways of integrating programmatic discourse into the work. This is especially true of the largest piece Round Trips which comprises three movements which develop two conflicting strands of conceptual metaphors.

Keywords: Gilles Faconnier
Mark Turner
Conceptual Metaphor
Analysis
Polaris
Erno Lendvai
George Lakoff
Living Toys
Programme notes
Advisor: Saxton, R
Structual and biochemical characterisation of the endoplasmic reticulum alpha-glucosidases

ER alpha-glucosidases I and II are glycosyl hydrolases that play a key role in eukaryotic glycoprotein folding quality control. Removal of two glucose residues from the N-glycan attached to a protein allows association with calnexin or calreticulin which enable folding through associated accessory proteins. Many enveloped viruses utilise the calnexin cycle for the correct folding of their surface glycoproteins. Inhibition of the ER alpha-glucosidases causes misfolding of these viral glycoproteins and reduction of virion secretion and/or infectivity. Thus, inhibition of these glucosidases is a potential broad-spectrum antiviral strategy with clinical relevance. Inhibition by certain iminosugars, a class of glycomimetics, has given rise to a clinical candidate against dengue virus.
To date there are no high-resolution structures available for either of the mammalian ER alpha-glucosidases. Presented in this thesis is the work toward the structural and biochemical characterisation of both alpha-glucosidases. Large-scale production of both murine glucosidases is described along with biochemical characterisation against a number of substrates.
Glucosidase I is a challenging target for biochemical and structural studies. Described is the purification and confirmation of enzymatic activity. Biophysical techniques show that it is well folded and able to bind to iminosugars. Preliminary attempts at crystallisation have resulted in poorly diffracting crystals to 5 Å. This work enables future optimisation toward an atomic resolution structure of glucosidase I.
Glucosidase II plays a complex role in the kinetics of glycoprotein processing in the calnexin cycle. Production of the heterodimeric enzyme has enabled a detailed biochemical characterisation with a range of substrates and inhibitors. Structural characterisation of a large fragment of glucosidase II has enabled new insights into the details of heterodimerisation, substrate specificity, and the basis of iminosugar inhibition. This information can guide future development of more selective inhibitors.

Keywords: Hydrolase
Glycobiology
Enzymology
Structural Biology
Advisor: Zitzmann, N
Volcanic history and magmatic evolution of Mocho-Choshuenco Volcano, Southern Chile

Active volcanoes pose a significant natural hazard. In order to evaluate the hazard it is important to reconstruct the history of such volcanoes to understand the frequency, style of eruption and the areas typically affected by the explosive eruptions.
This thesis focuses on deciphering the volcanic and magmatic record for one of the most productive volcanoes in southern Chile, Volcán Mocho-Choshuenco. Work presented in the thesis establishes a detailed record of the explosive activity during the last 18 kyrs, constructed using field observations and geochemical analyses of the eruption deposits. Using a multi-technique approach Mocho-Choshuenco is shown to be one of the most explosive, frequently active and hence hazardous volcanoes in Chile.
This high-resolution eruptive record provides new constraints on the underlying causes of spatial and temporal variability in arc volcanism. Temporally, the record gives new understanding into the response of arc volcanoes to deglaciation; clear temporal variation in eruption flux, eruption size and magma composition are observed. This time-varying behaviour is hypothesised to reflect changes in the crustal plumbing system, and magma storage timescales in response to removal of an ice-load. It demonstrates that deglaciation can drive changes in eruption behaviour at arc volcanoes; however the response is more complex and subtle than settings where decompression melting dominates.
Spatially, Mocho-Choshuenco has a high number and density of scoria cones that have erupted relatively primitive magmas but nonetheless with a wide range of magma compositions. For some of the 'classical' slab and mantle geochemical tracers the erupted magmas span the complete range seen in this part of the arc. The tight temporal and spatial constraints provided by the analysed samples, coupled with recent advances in numerical modelling of magma transport through subduction zones, enable new hypotheses for interpreting the signatures of mafic arc magmas to be defined.

Keywords: Volcano
Mocho-Choshuenco
Arc volcano
SVZ
Geology
Glacial
Geochemistry
Chile
Earth Sciences
Advisor: Pyle, D
Mather, T
Naranjo, J
A study of CP violation in B∓→Dh∓ (h=K,π) with the modes D→K∓π±π0, D→π+π−π0 and D→K+K−π0

One of the objectives of the LHCb experiment at CERN is a precision determination of the angle γ from the CKM Unitarity Triangle, a CP-violating parameter of the Standard Model. Sensitivity to γ can be obtained by exploiting the interference effects in B∓→Dh∓ (h=K,π) decays, which can lead to measurable charge asymmetries.
This thesis presents an analysis of the decays B∓→DK∓ and B∓→Dπ∓ where the D meson is reconstructed in the three-body final states of K∓ π± π0, π+π−π0 and K+K−π0. The analysis is performed using 3.0 fb−1 of pp collision data collected by LHCb in 2011 and 2012. It represents the first time that these particular decay modes are studied at the LHCb experiment.
Several CP observables are measured using a simultaneous fit to the invariant B∓ mass distributions of the decay channels of interest. A first observation is obtained of the decays B∓→[π∓K±π0]Dπ∓ and B∓→[K+K−π0]Dπ∓ at 5.3σ and greater than 10σ significance levels, respectively. In addition, first evidence of the decay B∓→[K+K−π0]DK∓ is obtained at a significance of 4.5σ. The results are interpreted in the context of γ and related parameters.

Keywords: CP violation
LHC
CERN
B physics
LHCb
Advisor: Wilkinson, G
Companionable forms: Writers, readers, sociability, and the circulation of literature in manuscript and print in the romantic period

Following recent critical work on writers' representations of sociability in Romantic literature, this thesis examines in detail the textual strategies (such as allusion, acts of address, and the use of 'coterie' symbols or references) which writers used to seek to establish a friendly or sympathetic relationship with a particular reader or readers, or to create and define a sense of community identity between readers.
The thesis focuses on specific relationships between pairs and groups of writers (who form one another’s first readers), and examines 'sociable' genres like letters, manuscript albums, occasional poetry, and periodical essays in a diverse series of author case-studies (Anna Barbauld, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lamb, John Keats and Leigh Hunt). Such genres, the thesis argues, show how manuscript and print culture could frequently overlap and intersect, meaning that writers confronted the demands of two co-existing audiences—one private and familiar, the other public and unknown—in the same work.
Rather than arguing that writers used manuscript culture practices and produced 'coterie' works purely to avoid confronting their anxieties about publishing in the commercial sphere of print culture, the thesis suggests that in producing such 'coterie' works writers engaged with and reflected contemporary philosophical and political concerns about the relationship between the individual and wider communities. In these works, writers engaged with the legacy of eighteenth-century philosophical ideas about the role (and limitations) of the sympathetic imagination in maintaining social communities, and with interpretative theories about the best kind of reader.
Furthermore, the thesis argues that reading literary texts in the specific, material context in which they are 'published' to particular readers, either in print, manuscript, or letters, is vital to understanding writer/reader relationships in the Romantic period. This approach reveals how within each publication space, individual texts could be placed (either by their writers, by editors, or by other readers) in meaningful relationships with other texts, absorbing or appropriating them into new interpretative contexts.

Advisor: Perry, S
Joint criminal enterprise in English and German law

This thesis explores the English doctrine of joint criminal enterprise by way of a comparative study. Joint enterprise allows for the conviction of an accomplice (S) of an offence (crime B) committed by his associate-in-crime (P) on the basis of S's foresight of its commission by P as a possible incident to their joint criminal venture (crime A).
While it is generally accepted that this common law principle needs reforming, successive governments have declined to take on the task. Against this backdrop, this thesis explores whether the contentious features of joint enterprise liability might be reformed by way of common law development. To this end, the thesis examines the doctrine’s constituent elements, its function, underlying rationale and place within the structure of primary and secondary liability. Particular emphasis is put on the specific problems associated with the application of joint enterprise liability in the context of murder. Looking at the functional equivalents of joint enterprise in German law, the thesis challenges the orthodox view that joint enterprise is a head of liability available to the prosecution alongside co-perpetration and aiding and abetting. Indeed, it argues that an inculpatory function of the principle is difficult to justify and suggests that, both historically and as a matter of principle, it is better seen as an exculpatory device aimed at delineating the scope of co-perpetration and aiding and abetting. The thesis concludes that the current law does not serve this function very well, as its mens rea threshold (some form of recklessness, when proof of intention is needed to convict the principal offender) sets the hurdle for conviction of secondary parties indefensibly low. Informed by ideas taken from German law – especially an extended concept of intention known as dolus eventualis – the thesis's principal contention is that English law would do better defining joint enterprise liability in terms of foresight plus endorsement. Indeed, the thesis aims to show that English law was very close to such a conception, and that the common law took a wrong turn in Powell. It concludes that it is still open to the Supreme Court to adopt an endorsement-focussed approach to joint enterprise liability, thereby alleviating concerns that the law in this area is too harsh and over-inclusive, and bringing it closer to the threshold of liability for principal offenders which requires proof of intention. Such an approach would also make the law of complicity more principled and coherent.

Keywords: Accessory Liability
Participation in Crime
Joint Enterprise
Application of next-generation sequencing to analysis of the genetic basis of complex traits in plants, with particular focus on nickel hyperaccumulation in the Alyssum serpyllifolium species complex

Reliable, high-throughput and low-cost next-generation sequencing technologies have invigorated genetic research into non-model organisms over the last decade. In this work, RNA-Seq was employed to obtain the first-ever transcriptomes of two groups of closely related plant taxa possessing distinctive complex physiological traits, namely metal hyperaccumulation and C4 photosynthesis.
Metal hyperaccumulator plants possess an extraordinary ability to take up trace elements from the soil and accumulate them to high concentrations in their shoots, probably to serve as a type of elemental defence against natural enemies. Taxonomically, the most common form of metal hyperaccumulation, nickel hyperaccumulation, is encountered on nickel-rich ultramafic (serpentine) soils, and is found with the highest frequency (ca. 51 species) in the genus Alyssum (family Brassicaceae). Here, the genetic basis and evolutionary history of nickel tolerance and hyperaccumulation was investigated in the Alyssum serpyllifolium Desf. species complex, which contains both serpentine and non-serpentine populations of unresolved phylogenetic relationships on the Iberian Peninsula. Genome scans for outlier loci and differential expression analyses identified a number of candidate hyperaccumulator genes common to two serpentine populations found in Portugal and Spain, but the majority of adaptive variation was of local origin. Phylogenetic and population-genetic inferences based on neutral and putatively adaptive loci suggested that the key genes for the nickel hyperaccumulation trait evolved once and spread across serpentine populations early in the history of this species, with no genetic isolation but continued recent gene flow between serpentine and non-serpentine populations.
To test the power of next-generation sequencing for analysing the genetic basis of a separate complex trait, a cross-species comparison was performed using RNA-Seq of two congeneric tropical species, the C4 plant Alternanthera pungens Kunth and the C3 plant Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.) Griseb. f. angustifolia Suess. (family Amaranthaceae). These species were cultivated at two different temperatures and showed significant differences in levels of overall gene expression plasticity and isoform switching in certain photosynthesis genes, which it is proposed may explain the observed difference in the ability of these two species to acclimate to low and high growth temperatures.

Keywords: nickel hyperaccumulators
Evolution
hyperaccumulation
Alyssum
Advisor: Smith, J
Filatov, D
Rhineland revisited: subsidiarity and the historical origins of coordination – comparing Germany with the Netherlands and France (800-1914)

What explains the historical emergence of coordinated economic institutions for human capital formation and welfare provision? Surveying roughly one millennium of political and economic development in Germany, the Netherlands and France up until 1914, this thesis argues that da-ting back to the Middle Ages, the earliest forerunners of modern economic coordination could develop only in institutional complementarity with a specific form of political decentralisation, connected via their jointly enabling effect on collective action. This mutually re-enforcing com-plementarity gave rise to societies organised around the principle of subsidiarity, in which an often structurally unclear distribution of decision-making powers prompts political and eco-nomic actors to coordinate across different hierarchical levels. The comparison of eventually federal Germany with the ultimately unitary Netherlands – both of which developed significant patterns of economic coordination – demonstrates that political decentralisation under subsidi-arity does not simply equal the modern (American) reference model of clear-cut, rights-based federalism. Meanwhile the experience of strongly centralised France highlights that without this decentralisation, institutions of economic coordination hardly develop. Collective action is diffi-cult to harness if subsidiarity is absent because on the central state level, and unlike in economi-cally more homogenous local contexts, economic interests often remain too diverse to coordi-nate. The historical result has been the emergence of decentralised-coordinated political econo-mies under subsidiarity in Germany and the Netherlands, and of a centralised, non-coordinated system in France. A better understanding of these institutional complementarities can help us historically inform recent scholarly debates on the emergence of modern political-economic organisation in the 19th century and on current governance problems in the Eurozone. The thesis seeks to contribute to the historical study of comparative political economy by highlighting how particular complementary institutions of political and economic governance have co-developed over time. It is argued that this understudied aspect of institutional development is crucial for understanding processes of continuity and change in advanced capitalism.

Advisor: Soskice, D
Saunders, A
Spurious Victorians: imitation and the nineteenth-century novel

In A Critique of Modern Textual Criticism, Jerome J. McGann writes, '[A]n author’s work possesses autonomy only when it remains an unheard melody'. For the published and successful writer in the nineteenth century, such autonomy was often unattainable. Publications such as The Pickwick Papers inspired an array of opportunistic successors, including stage plays, unauthorized sequels, jest books, song books, and shilling and penny imitations. Despite the proliferation, this strain of writing is rarely studied. This thesis recovers ephemeral, scurrilous texts, often anonymous or pseudonymous, and reads them in the context of their canonical sources. Retrieving bibliographical environments, it demonstrates how plagiaristic, parodic, and willfully unoriginal works impacted on the careers of three novelists: Charles Dickens, Edward Bulwer Lytton, and George Eliot.
The thesis argues that formal distinctions among modes of Victorian writing—criticism, parody, and plagiarism—often blur. Further, it argues that our understanding of a particular novelist's work must be broadened to include sequels, spinoffs, and imitations: to know a particular author means to know the spurious and oftentimes bad (morally or aesthetically) works that the author inspired. The Spurious Victorians of the title form something of countercanon to the 'major' writers of the period. Thomas Peckett Prest, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, and Joseph Liggins, among many others, informed and influenced the literary history that has in turn denied them admission.
William Makepeace Thackeray wrote, 'If only men of genius were to write, Lord help us! how many books would there be?' Of course, Victorian print culture found room for the genius and the subgenius, Boz as well as Bos. 'Spurious Victorians' recovers works that have been lost from view in order to better understand the process by which an individual authorial voice emerged amid an echo chamber of competing, imitative voices.

Advisor: Douglas-Fairhurst, R
Novel embolic particles for cancer therapy

The aim of this thesis was to develop novel embolic particles for cancer therapy using a combination of nano and microparticles. The particles have been designed and synthesised to have a polystyrene core, be radiopaque, act as a radiosensitiser and have a high capacity for loading of chemotherapy drugs.
The polystyrene core has been designed so it effectively blocks the tumour vasculature thereby limiting oxygen and nutrient delivery to the tumour thus causing tumour necrosis. The core of the polystyrene particle incorporates tantalum oxide nanoparticles to provide X-ray contrast to the embolic microparticles.
The surface of the polystyrene particle has been coated with rare earth doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles which produce reactive oxygen species upon X-ray activation. This allows the embolic particle to act as a radiosensitising agent and has been shown to reduce cell proliferation in the presence of X-rays.
The surface of the polystyrene particles has also been coated with mesoporous SiO2 nanoparticles which allow for the high loading capacity of chemotherapeutic drugs. This permits chemotherapy to be delivered directly to the tumour location, thereby reducing the toxic side effects of systemic treatment. As a proof of concept, the chemoembolization particles have been loaded with a novel fungal derived chemotherapeutic Ophiobolin A and the controlled release has been demonstrated. The OphA chemoembolization particles reduced cell viability by approximately 70% compared to the blank chemoembolization particles.
The mechanism of cell death of OphA on eight cancer cell lines and one control cell line has also been studied and its effect on cellular organelles elucidated. OphA shows great promise as a novel chemotherapeutic which could be taken forward to animal trials.

Keywords: Nanotechnology
Tantalum
Titania
Silica
Embolization
Ophiobolin A
Advisor: Townley, H
Dobson, P
Computational modelling of hand-centred visual representations in the primate brain

Neurons have been found in various areas of the primate brain that respond to the location of objects with respect to the hand. In this thesis we present a number of self-organising theories of how these hand-centred visual receptive fields could develop during visually guided learning in unsupervised neural network models. Experimental chapters 3 and 4 show the development of hand-centred representations under two different learning hypotheses Continuous Transformation learning and Trace learning, using a neural network model of the primate visual system, VisNet. In Chapter 5 the trace learning hypothesis is advanced by gradually increasing the realism in the visual training conditions. Results are shown using realistic visual scenes consisting of multiple targets presented at the same time around the hand. In Chapter 6 this learning hypothesis was further explored using natural eye and head movements recorded from human participants. This required a new time accurate differential formulation of the VisNet model to faithfully represent the temporal dynamics of the recorded gaze changes. These results provide an important step in showing how localised, hand-centred receptive fields could emerge under more ecologically realistic training conditions. In Chapter 7 we present a new self-organising model of how hand-centred representations may develop using a proprioceptive signal representing the position of the hand. In these simulations we first develop a body-centred representation of the location of the visual targets by trace learning. I then showed how these body-centred representations of the visual targets can be combined with a proprioceptive representation of the location of the hand in order to develop hand-centred representations. This thesis concludes with a discussion of the main findings and some suggestions for future work.

Keywords: Reference frames
VisNet
Hand-centred
Neural networks
Advisor: Stringer, S
Minini, L