VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Conservatives and the politics of art, 1950-88

This thesis offers a new policy history of the National Endowment for the Arts, the federal agency responsible for providing grants to artists and arts organisations in the United States. It focuses in particular on the development of conservative perspectives on federal arts funding from the 1950s to the 1980s, and hence, illuminates the broader evolution of conservative political power, especially its limits.
The most familiar narrative holds that the Endowment found itself caught up in the Culture Wars of the late 1980s when Christian right groups objected to certain federal grants, particularly to Andres Serrano's Piss Christ and Robert Mapplethorpe's Self-Portrait with Whip. This thesis, however, uncovers the older origins of conservative opposition to state support for the arts, analyses conservative conceptions of art, and illuminates the limited federal role the right sought to secure in the arts in the post-war period. Numerous studies have analysed the meanings and origins of the Culture Wars, but until now, scholars had not examined conservative approaches to federal arts politics in a historical sense. Historians have generally been too interested in explaining change to the detriment of examining continuity, but this approach under-emphasises the long-term tensions that underlie seemingly sudden political eruptions.
This work also offers a deep account of the conservative movement and the arts world, an area that has so far been almost completely ignored by scholars, even though a focus on marginalised players is essential to understanding the limits of conservatism. In a general sense then, this thesis evaluates the range and diversity of the conservative movement and illuminates the overall odyssey of the right in modern America. In so doing, it provides a new insight into the ways we periodise political history and also invites a broader view of how we understand politics itself.
Three essays in applied econometrics

This thesis presents three essays in the field of applied econometrics. In the first essay, we use the establishment-level Annual Respondents Database (ARD) data and the sector-level Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Industrial Trends Survey data to identify the key determinants of U.K. manufacturing investment. We first examine the trends in the ARD microdata aggregates, the relative price of investment goods data, and the CBI survey data. Subsequently, we estimate a baseline dynamic error correction investment model which separates out short-run and long-run investment dynamics. When we introduce additional variables derived from the CBI survey data to the baseline model, the estimation results show that survey variables pertaining to financing constraints and demand uncertainty have negative effects on investment, while the survey variable related to the volume of total new orders has a positive effect on investment.
In the second essay, we develop forecasting models for aggregate U.K. manufacturing investment. After assessing the CBI's forecasting record over the recent financial crisis, we conclude that CBI forecasters were slow in realizing the severe negative effect of the credit crisis on manufacturing investment. Subsequently, we develop our own baseline error-correction forecasting model, which conditions only on lagged explanatory variables, and apply the general-to-specific modeling approach to simplify the model. However, the selected baseline specification has poor out-of-sample forecast properties over the crisis period. When we include additional CBI survey variables in the baseline model, there is an improvement in the out-ofsample forecast performance in most cases. Survey measures of business optimism and expected future demand are found to be particularly useful in this context.
Finally, in the third essay, we employ a Threshold Vector Autoregression (TVAR) model to examine the potentially nonlinear impact of fiscal stimulus on output under tight and loose credit supply conditions in the U.S.. In our main specification, we choose the excess bond premium as the threshold variable to identify periods of tight credit and loose credit. The empirical results suggest that government spending increases are more effective at stimulating output than tax cuts, especially when credit conditions are loose.

Advisor: Bond, S
Bowdler, C
Tailored carbon-based nanomaterials for biological energy electrocatalysis

Hydrogenases are energy relevant bio-electrocatalysts. Their study and applications require immobilisation on carbon scaffolds and benefit from carbon materials design. The present thesis first compares eleven carbon materials for the adsorption of hydrogenase-1 from E. coli. All of them accommodate the enzyme in an electroactive configuration. A high surface area and/or abundance of 'edge' carbon planes are identified as important features to improve studies and applications of hydrogenases. The nanomaterials screened facilitate the coupling of infrared spectroscopy and electrochemistry for study of adsorbed species. This is demonstrated for the first time with a flavin mononucleotide molecule and the hydrogenase and opens the way to unprecedented investigation of (bio)electrocatalysts.
In situ growth of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) inside quartz columns by aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) is investigated. Control over the column filling and the thickness of the MWCNT forest profile along the column is achieved. The flow rate of carrier gas is identified as a key parameter for this control. The final structures obtained are columns with their inner walls covered with a porous, interconnected and conductive carbon network. Through H2-driven biocatalysis, the conversion of acetophenone to 1-phenylethanol is achieved in a flow reactor configuration. The MWCNT columns are shown to be successful and simple, yet versatile, platforms for flow (bio/electro)catalysis.
Finally, large quantities of hetero-MWCNTs are obtained by an original combination of AACVD and chemical vapour deposition. The MWCNTs are extensively characterised and display continuous junctions between nitrogen-doped and un-doped sections along a single MWCNT. The controlled change of chemical properties but also graphitic structure obtained is exploited for the first time to perform spontaneous and selective (1) oxidation reactions and (2) immobilisation of platinum particles on different parts of a single MWCNT. This new approach could be relevant for localised immobilisation of enzymes along a nanomaterial.
This thesis achieves three different degree of carbon nanomaterials design to develop scaffolds suitable for bio-electrocatalyst immobilisation in targeted applications.

Keywords: Electrocatalysis
Biocatalysis
Carbon nanomaterials
Carbon nanotube columns
Hetero carbon nanotubes
Flow catalysis
Advisor: Grobert, N
Vincent, K
Oxidation of soot with modified silver catalysts

As the demand for motor vehicles has soared dramatically with the emergence of rapidly developing countries, the need for regulating vehicle emissions and pollutants is increasingly more important. With the newest regulations for diesel particulate emissions soon to be enforced, there is a great need to catalytically convert soot particles from the exhaust into relatively less polluting carbon dioxide.
Here a supported silver catalyst is reported for the soot oxidation reaction. The silver catalyst is protected and supported using various capping agents and metal oxides, and modified using various synthetic methods. The catalysts are then tested with soot using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) at a reaction temperature up to 700oC.
In order for a better design and modification of the silver catalyst, an improved understanding of the interaction between silver nanoclusters and the metal oxide support must be established.
XPS and UV/VIS spectroscopy are amongst the techniques used to probe the metal/metal oxide interaction. It is shown that the surface plasmon resonance of silver can be perturbed by the metal oxide support, modifying its band structure. It is also extremely important for the catalyst to be thermally stable up to 600°C for it to be employable in an exhaust system. In-situ XRD can be used to investigate the thermal stability of both the silver and metal oxide species in an oxidising environment. The phase changes, if any, of either species under heating can also provide a better understanding of the metal/metal oxide interaction and ultimately the soot combustion mechanism.
It has been demonstrated that different catalyst surfaces can have different catalytic performances. By altering the morphology of the support, preferential growth of one surface can be achieved, thereby modifying the catalytic performance for soot combustion.

Keywords: Soot Combustion
Meta;-Support Interaction
Morphology Modification
Size Effect
Heterogeneous Catalyst
Advisor: Tsang, E
The evaluation of flexible flat feet in children aged eight to fifteen years old

Paediatric flexible flat feet (PFF) are a very common presentation, but considerable debate continues about its aetiology, diagnosis and management. In this thesis a cohort of children with PFF (n=48) and neutral feet (NF)(n=47) have been investigated to test the theory that flat foot posture is related to the presence of symptoms and biomechanical dysfunction. Aetiological and clinical factors that may result in functional impairments have also been investigated. The ultimate aim of this thesis was to better define treatment indications for PFF. Firstly the question of what defines PFF was addressed and appropriate categorical and continuous measures of foot posture were proposed. Subsequently the clinical importance of foot posture was contextualized by demonstrating that children with PFF had significant impairment of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) compared to NF children. Investigation into the aetiology of PFF demonstrated that an absent anterior articulation of the subtalar joint, increased lower limb flexibility and knee valgus were factors associated with this condition. Inabilities to perform a single heel raise and to attain plantigrade were found to be sensitive tests to identify children with more symptomatic PFF. Differences in navicular motion of PFF compared to NF children were noted, hinting at midfoot dysfunction, and formal gait analysis demonstrated a number of deviations in gait parameters associated with a flat foot posture. Of these, walking speed and increased forefoot supination were related to impaired HRQOL. There was also evidence of potential instability in the PFF children, and foot ankle joint moments in this group were suggestive of impaired transition of the foot from a supple compliant structure to a rigid lever during stance. Whilst children with PFF were more likely to have proximal joint symptoms, kinematic and kinetic analysis did not identify the mechanism by which this could occur. The findings of this thesis have been utilized to define an evidence-based algorithm for the treatment of PFF.

Advisor: Theologis, T
Zavatsky, A
The political economy of NPOs promoting  "active ageing" programs for the elderly in Taiwan

From the 1990s, welfare state and civil society in Taiwan were confronted with challenges and opportunities brought by population ageing. The author chooses NPOs with "Active Ageing" programs for the elderly, a group thriving as a consequence of Taiwan's unique transitional democratization and privatization under Neoliberalism, as a case to systematically investigate the governance structure. Four core NPOs of various scales and capacities are sampled while their stakeholders are also interviewed. Findings reveal that after the pension reform made possible by social movement and electoral politics, these institutionalized social forces secure their position in the welfare delivery system. However, problems remain unresolved because of structural inertia while NPOs operate under the changing field frame and conflicting institutional logics between the welfare state and civil society. Though partially impeded, NPOs develop an East-Asian way of solution with various counterplots. Contrasting rationales of networking explain NPOs' diverse achievements while quasi-subordination and structural loop consolidate respective constituency. Four patterns of perceived relational social capital relate to NPOs' networking practices and institutional settings. The connection among institutions, networking configurations, and relations further crystalizes the tripartite governance structure composed of the institutional, technical, and social environment. Legitimation of means functions mainly within the institutional environment while legitimation of ends through technical and social environment also justifies NPOs' social appropriateness. Various types of legitimacy are conferred to NPOs at different development stages while both formal and informal norms guide NPOs' behavior in the two-dimensional governing kinetics. Through this case study, the author also demonstrates how a meso-level approach of organizational study, integrating Sociological Institutionalism and Organizational Social Capital Theory, possibly sheds lights on the different areas of Sociology, especially those of social movement, NPOs, and ageing society.

Keywords: Non-Profit Organizations
Taiwan
Active Ageing
Political Economy
Advisor: Kariya, T
Beyond number sense: Contributions of domain-general processes to the development of numeracy in early childhood

A large proportion of recent research on the development of numerical cognition has focused on the foundational role of approximate number sense, yet number sense alone cannot fully explain how young children acquire numeracy skills. This thesis aims to investigate how other domain-specific processes and domain-general cognitive processes relate to numeracy in early childhood and whether they play a role in learning about mathematics. The experiments presented in Chapter 2 explored how domain-general processes relate to young children’s attention to discrete number in non-symbolic representations through a correlational approach. Results supported the role for inhibitory control in selecting numerosity as the relevant stimulus dimension. In order to investigate causal relationships in emerging maths performance, Chapter 3 reports a cognitive training study aimed at contrasting transfer effects of domain-general and domain-specific training in pre- schoolers. Findings suggested caution in interpreting published transfer effects without the highest level of control. The latter chapters targeted learning mechanisms by tackling a specific process in mathematical cognition: acquiring the meaning of numerical symbols. Specifically, the experiments presented in Chapter 4 employed an artificial learning paradigm to test factors influencing adults' and children’s formation of novel symbolic numerical representations. Congruency between discrete and continuous non-symbolic quantity influenced novel representations and numerical order information facilitated learning, especially in children. In order to explore symbolic representations of real numbers, Chapter 5 focuses on associations between different representational formats of real numbers in young children and how this relates to both domain-specific and domain-general factors. Children had stronger mappings between symbols and precise non-symbolic representations for numbers smaller than four, than between larger numbers and approximate non-symbolic representations. Taken together, results from the experiments presented in this thesis highlight the need to incorporate factors beyond number sense in theories of numeracy development.

Keywords: cognitive development
executive functions
numerical cognition
preschool
Advisor: Scerif, G
The Visio Baronti in its early medieval context

The focus of this thesis is the Visio Baronti (VB), an account of a seventh-century monk's journey to the other world. This text serves as a metaphoric fulcrum to support a more extensive study of early medieval conceptions of the other world and the historical context in which visionary accounts were produced. Chapter 1 contains an introduction to ideas of the other world, a survey of types of visionary experiences, their uses, imitations and historiographical responses to them. Chapter 2 focuses on medieval and modern responses to visions. This chapter includes a survey of the terminology for dreams and visions found in theoretical writings, compares dream theory with otherworld visions and identifies medieval methods of determining the validity of a visionary experience. Chapter 3 investigates the manuscript tradition of the VB, in order to illuminate medieval receptions and treatments of this text. Because the text appears unusual for the seventh century, chapter 4 provides an analysis of the grounds for dating the VB to the seventh century, while chapter 5 treats the VB in its seventh-century monastic context and assesses what influences shaped this text. Chapter 6 compares Barontus's vision with ninth-century visions and other Carolingian writings to consider Carolingian interest in the VB in light of their contributions to the genre. Chapter 7 examines the artistic response to this text through an examination of the illustrations which accompany the text in the ninth-century St Petersburg manuscript. A brief conclusion to this study follows.

Keywords: medieval literature
future life
visions
visio baronti
Advisor: Mayr-Harting, H
National security, risk, and accountability

This thesis explores issues of procedural fairness across the major statutory counterterrorism powers which require the Closed Material Procedure (CMP) in judicial review. It also considers the Justice and Security Act 2013 which applies to civil proceedings of any nature engaging national security concerns on a discretionary basis. The analysis construes procedural fairness broadly by considering its application both in the curial context and inside the relevant administrative organisations. It argues that procedural fairness in the CMP should be understood as part of the routine risk-management responsibilities of administration and administrative law, as opposed to an initiative which is 'exceptional' by virtue of its national security subject matter. Procedural fairness in the CMP could be invigorated by taking seriously the presence of risk and risk assessment in the application of the statutory powers by the executive and in the operation of the CMP itself. This thesis also argues that the extension of the CMP to damages actions under the Justice and Security Act 2013 raises greater normative problems than actions in the existing province of the CMP. This is because such claims, whilst not the sole province of the Act, concern executive accountability for tortious actions, as opposed to judicial review of executive riskmanagement of terrorism. The analysis concludes with two critical recommendations for improving procedural fairness in law and administration in the relevant subject matters; but ultimately recognises that these are but a first step in a broader project which requires the development of an interdisciplinary substantive theory of necessary secrecy.

Keywords: closed material procedure
judicial review
public law
counterterrorism
administrative law
national security
procedural fairness
Advisor: Craig, P
Cross-citation in death penalty cases and the internationalisation of human rights

This thesis examines why courts in the United States of America (US), India and South Africa refer to foreign law in death penalty cases. To gain an understanding of what drives the apex courts of the US, India and South Africa to cite foreign law when considering domestic death penalty issues, this thesis proposes a three-part matrix to both assess the relevant case law and to analyse the academic literature on cross-citation. Firstly, it will be demonstrated that judges in national courts cross-cite comparative law out of a primary interest in constitutional interpretation. Cross-citation is used in this manner to assist judges in their domestic interpretative tasks. Secondly, it will be illustrated how courts that engage in the citation of foreign law also seek guidance from other jurisdictions as to the content of shared values, such as what type of punishment does not fundamentally and unlawfully violate the right to human dignity. Finally, this thesis assesses to what degree courts from the three selected jurisdictions are additionally referencing or applying a customary international law norm when citing foreign sources. The argument is made that the domestic courts under examination engage with comparative law in the context of a broader transnational normative project, taking the international human rights framework that developed after the Second World War as a key reference point. In doing so, this thesis argues that these courts are at times recognising and developing emerging customary norms, and at other times giving effect to and enforcing applicable international human rights law.

Advisor: Lazarus, L
As Micronarrativas em Portugal: de Almada Negreiros a Ana Hatherly

Literary works and other manifestations that demonstrate, disseminate or stimulate the practice of extremely brief narrative texts have increasingly been gaining ground in the 21st-century. This phenomenon, which varies in intensity depending on the country – seemingly more substantial in the American continent and more timid in European countries –, has ramifications more or less on a global scale. Naturally, there has been, over the last few decades, a greater awareness of the dissemination of this type of productions, thanks to the visibility that new information technology, above all the Internet, has afforded. This tendency, however, just like any other human activity, is bound to have antecedents. To analyse its roots may help us to understand its relevance today. The research carried out here has as its object of study extremely brief narrative texts produced in Portugal. It focuses on a period of time which, it will be argued, is of utmost importance for the presence of micro-narratives in the Portuguese literary landscape: the period situated between the dawn of modernism at the beginning of the 1910s and the post-revolutionary moment when Ana Hatherly publishes the third volume of her overarching project entitled Tisanas, in 1980.

Keywords: Microcontos
Micronarrativas portugal
Micronarrativas
Flash fiction Portugal
Short short fiction
Advisor: Alonso, C
Investigating the role of hepcidin and iron homeostasis in mycobacterial infection

Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) is one of the world's most prevalent infectious diseases. The quest for an effective vaccine and an immune correlate of protection are on going. Previous literature reports links between the iron status of the host and disease severity, but the underlying mechanisms are not clear. Here, a murine model of M.tb infection was used to determine the effect of M.tb infection on the expression of hepcidin and other genes involved in the regulation of iron homeostasis. Female BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice were infected with M.tb Erdman via aerosol. Change in expression of iron-responsive genes was measured by liver qRT- PCR. Bacterial burden was determined in organ homogenates. The effect of iron deficiency on disease outcome was also investigated, where mice fed an iron-deficient or control diet were infected with M.tb. To determine whether hepcidin has a role in disease outcome, Hamp1-/- mice were also infected with M.tb. In the time course experiments, changes in hepcidin kinetics post-M.tb infection were observed, which were likely regulated by BMP/SMAD and not IL-6/JAK-STAT signalling. In the iron- restricted diet experiments, iron deficiency did not reproducibly affect bacterial burden. Moreover, deletion of Hamp1 did not affect outcome of in vivo M.tb infection. The data in this thesis indicate that iron homeostasis is altered during M.tb infection, but that altering host iron homeostasis by inducing iron deficiency or deleting the hepcidin gene does not compromise the host’s ability to control infection.

Advisor: McShane, H