VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Visions of order and apocalypse: text and image in thirteenth-century Vercelli

This thesis presents seven large thirteenth-century single and multiple piece roll manuscripts (the Rotoli figurati) held at the Archivio Capitolare of the cathedral of S. Eusebio in Vercelli. In the process of presenting these documents, and arguments for their dating and provenance in the city of Vercelli, I contend that they should be examined as a group because of their distinctive shared qualities, particularly their unusual format, and their communication of complex forms of knowledge through ordered systems of image and text. Understood broadly, the thematic content of most of these manuscripts relates to the ordered representation of knowledge and the shape of salvific history including the (imminent) Apocalypse. Further motifs emerge which concern the role of the Church within this ordered universe. In two of the manuscripts, Rotoli figurati 4 and 7, these themes converge in the thought and works of monastic exegete Joachim of Fiore (d. 1202). The diagram of Rotoli figurati 4 (Ecclesia) is known from one other version, but with significant differences relating to its incorporation of Joachim’s thought. Rotoli figurati 7 contains five new testimonies of Joachim’s work, including two diagrammatic figures. I argue that the layout of texts in this manuscript represents an early and accurate visual transmission of Joachim’s works.
To critically engage with their function, these documents are historicized in an examination of the active religious and intellectual centres in Vercelli, 1150‒1300, a city marked by its political significance to both papacy and empire. Furthermore, I expand the significance of the Rotoli figurati by contextualising them within known complex visualisations of knowledge in medieval visual culture. While some of the Rotoli figurati can be compared to other sources, others demonstrate an innovative use of the diagrammatic mode. Considered together, their shared motifs directly reflect their use and function in the cathedral chapter of S. Eusebio, with its dynamic intellectual community and strong links to the papacy. In this thesis I argue for the significance of complex images as a means of communicating innovative theological thought and papal ideology in the period 1185‒1307, reflected in the distinctive composition of the Rotoli figurati.

Advisor: Rosser, G
Kauffmann, M
Large fluid-driven deformations of porous annuli: solutions via Chebyshev spectral collocation

The radially outward flow of fluid into a porous medium occurs in many practical problems, from transport across vascular walls to the pressurisation of boreholes. As the driving pressure becomes non-negligible relative to the stiffness of the solid structure, the poromechanical coupling between the fluid and the solid has an increasingly strong impact on the flow. For very large pressures or very soft materials, as is the case for hydraulic fracturing and arterial flows, this coupling can lead to large elastic deformations or plastic flow and hence to strong deviations from a classical, linear poroelastic response. In this thesis, we investigate large deformation poroelasticity and poroelasto-plasticity via the use of a simple axisymmetric model problem. We use the relative simplicity of this model problem to conduct the first systematic analysis of the effects of driving method, geometry and numerous facets of nonlinearity on the resulting flow and deformation. We consider two different permeability laws (constant vs. Kozeny-Carman), two stress-strain relationships (Hencky vs. linear), and two constitutive solid behaviours (elasticity vs. elasto-plasticity). We solve these models analytically when possible and using Chebyshev spectral collocation in general. Large deformations are inherently nonlinear, and these nonlinear effects manifest themselves within the kinematics, permeability, and elastic or plastic stress-strain relations. By isolating each of these effects, we assess the impact of different model simplifications for a wide range of parameter values. In addition to the physical insight they provide, our results and numerical codes could prove useful for benchmarking general numerical- simulation tools.

Advisor: MacMinn, C
Abstractions and independence

Efficient state space exploration of a concurrent program is a fundamental problem in algorithmic verification because of the known state explosion problem. In the past decades, dynamic partial order reductions and Petri net unfoldings have been two promising approaches to address the state explosion problem. However, these techniques typically focus on the combinatorial explosion caused by the potential linearizations of partial orders and do not generally address multiple sources of explosion.
In this dissertation we present a multi-faceted approach to the state explosion problem in automated safety verification of concurrent programs. Our approach is based on two main ideas.
The first idea is that there is a formal connection between the notion of independence of concurrent actions and the fundamental notion of event as an atomic unit in the representation of the state space of a concurrent program. Using this idea we developed state-of-the-art exploration algorithms based on event structures which can achieve super-optimal explorations of the state space.
The second idea is to combine event structures with data abstractions to further mitigate the state explosion. We show that in this setting, the independence relation exploited in previous approaches is a particular instance of a larger class of independence relations. Our main contribution is an unfolding algorithm that uses a new notion of independence to avoid redundant transformer application, thread-local fixed points to reduce the size of the unfolding, and a novel cutoff criterion based on subsumption to guarantee termination of the analysis. Our experiments show that the abstract unfolding produces an order of magnitude fewer false alarms than a mature abstract interpreter, while being several orders of magnitude faster than solver-based tools that have the same precision.

Advisor: Kroening, D
Ong, L
Arctic science in circulation at the Royal Geographical Society c.1880–1914

Much historical scholarship has examined the events which took place as various explorers ventured into the Northernmost areas of the earth’s surface. Such analysis has sought to understand the multiple and overlapping motivations that lay behind these Arctic expeditionary practices. Importantly, studies have also shown that explorers were key actors in the production of geographical knowledge pertaining to this geographical region and it has also been demonstrated that this knowledge was to have a powerful influence over how the North was envisaged within the Western popular imagination. While the role of individual explorers in these processes has been well documented, a growing body of scholarship has turned its attention toward understanding the wider cultures in which these explorers were situated. In particular, the precise role that was played by various geographical institutions in the formation of these important Arctic discourses has begun to be investigated. This project, conducted as part of an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award between the University of Oxford and the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), has therefore contributed to and expanded these insightful literatures. Contributing to emerging debates that have considered the geographies bound up in the circulation of scientific knowledge, the thesis draws from the extensive archival collections held at the RGS-IBG to study the ways in which geographical knowledge about the Arctic regions was produced, circulated and mediated by this hugely influential institution. Studying the Society’s close connections to three Arctic explorers – Fridtjof Nansen, Ejnar Mikkelsen and Robert Peary – it is shown that the RGS was instrumental in shaping both scientific and lay discourses about the Arctic at the turn of the twentieth century. The thesis also explores the limits to this knowledge circulation by examining the ways in which perspectives from indigenous peoples of the Arctic were marginalised within the historical records of these expeditions. Although ‘indigenous intermediaries’ assisted explorers in a number of ways during their time in the field, the thesis demonstrates that prevailing imaginaries of the Polar regions have meant that these contributions have continued to remain only ‘partially visible’ within the subsequent historical narrative.

Keywords: Arctic
Circulation
Knowledge
Exploration
Geography
Royal Geographical Society
Advisor: Powell, R
Greenhough, B
Souch, C
Imaging angiogenesis in brain metastasis

Brain metastasis is responsible for a large proportion of the mortality of cancer, and there are currently no effective treatments. The effect of treatments, particularly anti-angiogenic therapeutics, is difficult to ascertain using current imaging methods. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to develop methods for imaging angiogenesis using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a mouse model of brain metastasis.
Arterial spin labelling (ASL) is an MRI technique that measures cerebral blood flow (CBF) non-invasively and quantitatively. The work described in this thesis optimised and validated multiphase pseudo-continuous ASL (MP pCASL) for use in mice. This sequence was then used to measure and identify areas of reduced CBF in mouse models of brain metastasis and glioma.
Integrin αvβ3 is a marker of angiogenesis expressed on tumour blood vessels, including in brain metastasis. The second major aim of the work described in this thesis was to image angiogenic blood vessels in brain metastasis in vivo using microparticles of iron oxide (MPIO) conjugated to an integrin αvβ3 targeting peptide (RGD-MPIO). The targeted MPIO showed some specific binding in vivo, but were unsuccessful at visualising angiogenesis in vivo owing to pre-existing hypointense voxels in the tumour, and non-specific uptake of the MPIO.
It was found that pre-existing hypointense voxels were caused by endogenous iron-laden macrophages resident in the tumour, and that non-specific contrast was a result of macrophage uptake of MPIO. It was also shown that non-specific macrophage uptake was reduced with antibody-targeted MPIO compared to peptide-targeted MPIO.
In conclusion, whilst the use of MP pCASL was successful for imaging angiogenesis in brain metastasis, the use of RGD-MPIO was precluded owing, in large part, to non-specific uptake of peptide targeted MPIO.

Keywords: angiogenesis
brain metastasis
MPIO
arterial spin labelling
MRI
Advisor: Sibson, N
Increasing the usability of graph databases by learning SPARQL queries and RDF data

Semantic Web technologies and other open standards have the potential of allowing current open datasets and knowledge bases to become more interlinked and interoperable, providing interfaces for end-users to access data via powerful high-level query languages such as SPARQL. As a consequence, it becomes ever more important for these data to be efficiently and easily searchable by non-expert audiences. The challenge of increasing the usability of these database systems, therefore, becomes central. In this thesis, we approach the problem of increasing the usability of querying graph data, in the form of RDF knowledge bases, from different perspectives. We study the learning — more specifically, the reverse engineering — of SPARQL queries, including its theoretical and practical aspects. Along the way we find that a key limitation of these approaches is the completeness of the data, and therefore turn to learning — in this case, knowledge base completion — of RDF data.
Specifically, we begin by studying the definability problem for first-order logic, providing exact complexity bounds. We next provide a theoretical study of reverse engineering in the SPARQL context, formalising variants of the reverse engineering problem and giving bounds on their complexity. We develop algorithms for reverse engineering and perform experimental analyses, showing that they scale well. Additionally, we implement and present a proof-of-concept user application which demonstrates how reverse engineering is capable of guiding users who are unfamiliar with both the dataset and with SPARQL to desired queries and result sets based on a query by example paradigm. Finally, to address the issue of the completeness of data, we propose a scalable and ontology-aware graph embedding model which allows for fact inference in RDF datasets, providing a data learning approach that is complementary to query learning.

Keywords: Databases
SPARQL
Querying
Data
Advisor: Benedikt, M
The remittance debate reconsidered: interrogating transnational transfers between Ghanaian migrants in the United Kingdom and their relatives in Ghana

While remittances have received renewed attention in development studies, researchers and policymakers have focused mainly on financial transfers from the ‘global North’ to the ‘global South’. They have largely neglected remittances going in the opposite direction, especially from relatives to migrants, as well as non-financial or in-kind remittances. To bridge this gap, this thesis examines transfers (financial as well as in-kind) in both directions between migrants and their relatives, using as a case study, Ghanaian migrants living in the United Kingdom (UK) and their relatives in Ghana. The findings are based on 70 interviews with Ghanaian migrants in the UK and 51 interviews with their relatives in Ghana (matched sampling methodology) over the course of 13 months.
The study challenges common assertions about the nature of transnational material transfers between African migrants in Europe and their relatives back home. In particular, it refutes the assumption that relatives in origin areas passively receive remittances. Based on migrants’ access to resources, their migration motivations and the period of migration, this thesis identifies four types of transnational material transfers between Ghanaians in the UK and their relatives. The first type is the ‘typical’ migration story: the Ghanaian from a relatively poor background who achieves upward social mobility in the UK and is therefore able to send significant amounts of remittances to their relatives in Ghana. The second type consists of Ghanaians who, because of their precarious economic and legal position in the UK, experience significant difficulties in sending remittances home to poor relatives who need assistance. In the third type, relatively well-off Ghanaians in the UK do not send or receive remittances from Ghana because they nor their wealthy relatives need remittances. The fourth type concerns Ghanaians in the UK who do not remit but instead receive remittances from their relatives in Ghana. These migrants are also from wealthy families but have experienced downward social mobility upon migration, hence their need for assistance.
This study also finds that remittances tend to decrease with the duration of Ghanaian migrants’ settlement and improvement in the welfare of their relatives back home. Contrary to the remittance decay hypothesis, however, where decrease in amount and frequency of remittances over time is linked to assimilation, the transnational connection between Ghanaians in the UK and their relatives grows stronger as remittances decline because social tensions associated with remittances reduce. Together, these findings provide a solid foundation for more research on transnational transfers between migrants in the ‘global North’ and their relatives in the ‘global South’.

Advisor: De Haas, H
Bakewell, O
Music, spectacle, and society in ancient Rome, 168 BC - AD 68

This thesis explores the cultural history of music in ancient Rome from the mid-second century BC to the death of the Emperor Nero in AD 68. The discussion centres on the role of music in public and private spectacle. Rather than examining the topic in isolation, the thesis seeks to pinpoint the intersections between musical performance and cultural debates about morality, luxury, education, and philhellenism, as a way of situating music within a broader historical context.
The thesis is structured chronologically. Chapter I examines Polybius’ narration of the theatrical games staged by the triumphator L. Anicius Gallus in 167 BC. Anicius’ subversive treatment of Greek musical models is interpreted as a deliberately comical gesture, playing to the theme of military conquest. The second half of the chapter analyses the episode in the light of Greek and Roman debates about musical entertainment in this period. Chapter II focuses on the late Republic. I argue that late Republican writers used music as a way of framing the political conflict between optimates and populares, associating ‘good’ music with the aristocratic mos maiorum and ‘bad’ music with a disruptive kind of popular entertainment. Chapter III, on the Augustan period, discusses the assimilation of the princeps and Apollo Citharoedus. The Augustan monuments to the lyre-playing god are examined in relation to the Palatine programme, the ‘propaganda’ campaign against Mark Antony and Cleopatra, and the ideology of the ‘Golden Age’. The fourth and final chapter is devoted to Nero, the notorious musician-emperor. Challenging the perception of Nero as a narcissistic tyrant, I suggest that the charismatic princeps used his performances on the stage as a political platform, uniting audiences through a shared love of music.

Keywords: Rome
Music
Spectacle
Society
Advisor: Purcell, N
Integrated care in practice: a case study of health and social care for adults considered to be at high risk of hospital admission

Integrated care is pursued globally as a strategy to manage health and social care resources more effectively. It offers the promise of meeting increasingly complex needs, particularly those of aging populations, in a person-centred, co-ordinated way that addresses fragmentation and improves quality.
However, policy to integrate health and social care in England has led to programmes which have had disappointing effects on reducing hospital admissions and costs. My concern with the real-world problem of how to integrate care to reduce hospital admissions and improve quality whilst working as an NHS commissioner led to this study of integrated care in practice.
The resulting thesis offers an interpretive account of the practice of integrated care across three Clinical Commissioning Groups. I present an ethnographic case study based on fieldwork undertaken 2014- 2016. My empirical work connected policy analysis with participant observation of 20 people with multiple, long term conditions considered to be at high risk of hospital admission and aspects of the organisational context.
My main findings in relation to health policy and planning processes were that dominant discourses of integrated care (as a solution to a range of problems) are incorporated into institutional agendas and processes of power. NHS planning processes shape the context for a case of integrated care and prioritise the creation of bounded (but changing) planning units over historical and democratic configurations of places.
I found that integrated care was not foregrounded in patients’ experiences, rather it was a peripheral activity to their concerns to manage their daily routines, which required work to piece together networks of care and resources. I conceptualise integrated care as a lens through which the multiple emergent practices that comprise health care interactions with patients are viewed. Such a lens prioritises strategies to reduce hospital admissions, and marginalises aspects of integrated patient care.
My analysis of this case makes an original contribution to understanding the tensions between policy aspirations for integrated care and the sometimes disappointing outcomes for patients by considering how integrated care programmes have little effect on external social structures, with a resulting reproduction of existing outcomes, such as hospital admissions, and continued separation of health and social care, rather than desired changes.

Keywords: Integrated care
Ethnography
Case study
Health policy
Advisor: Greenhalgh, T
Shaw, S
Circadian characterisation of the transcription factor Zfhx3 utilising a conditional mutagenesis approach

Previous work revealed an important role for the transcription factor ZFHX3 in circadian biology. A dominant missense mutation in the gene (Zfhx3Sci) results in a short circadian period in constant conditions and altered sleep homeostasis. However, constitutive knock-outs of this gene are embryonic lethal, limiting experimental characterisation options. In this thesis, the role of Zfhx3 in circadian rhythm regulation throughout the lifespan of the mouse is examined using conditional mutagenesis to produce Zfhx3 null animals.
Inducible deletion of Zfhx3 in adult mice was achieved using a ubiquitously expressed inducible Cre line. These mice displayed significant circadian disruption, namely an acute shortening of circadian period and/or loss of rhythmicity in constant conditions. Following on from this, using SCN-enriched Cre lines driven by Six3 and Foxd1, Zfhx3 was deleted specifically in developing SCN. These animals showed a variety of sleep and circadian phenotypes when assessed. Homozygous mutants of the Six3-Cre line cross displayed a dramatic circadian phenotype; complete behavioural arrhythmia in all lighting conditions and an inability to entrain to a light-dark cycle. Histological examination revealed that the SCN in these mutants fails to mature, as evidenced by loss of expression of key circadian neuropeptides in this region.
This work provides evidence for the sustained importance of Zfhx3 in circadian pacemaker function and highlights the use of conditional mutagenesis as an invaluable tool for the study circadian transcription factors. The data presented also suggests that Zfhx3 is crucial for development of the SCN in mice.

Advisor: Nolan, P
Oliver, P
Banks, G
The nature of interim constitutions: a comparative analysis

This thesis concerns interim or deliberately temporary constitutional texts. I argue that interim constitutions are a new form of constitutional text, with unique possibilities and pitfalls. I explore the argument that interim constitutions represent an attempt to forge a more legitimate constitutional structure, through a two-stage drafting procedure, heightened judicial oversight, an increased role for international law and institutions, a mutual interdependence with transitional justice mechanisms, and greater popular involvement. I contend that interim constitutions are a coherent but diverse group, united by the distinct consequences of the adoption of a temporary constitution. The thesis draws upon case study interim constitutions as adopted in Poland, Hungary, Albania, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Sudan, Thailand, and Nepal. On the basis of a comparative analysis of these case studies, it is argued that the two-staged drafting process embodied by interim constitutions can allow for greater constitutional legitimacy, sophistication, flexibility, and effective peace-building. A number of potential difficulties associated with interim constitutions are also discussed, including cases where interim constitutions are not succeeded by final constitutions, and lapse into permanence. In the context of the increasing popularity of interim constitutional texts, this thesis is the first major comparative study across a wide range of interim texts, and represents an attempt to understand the myriad legal and theoretical issues involved.

Advisor: Galligan, D