VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Dream books in ancient Egypt: the evolution of a genre from the New Kingdom to the Roman period. With the edition of an unpublished demotic dream book

This thesis is a study of dream books from ancient Egypt, that is, manuals used for the practice of oneiromancy (the branch of divination dealing with the interpretation of dreams). Ancient Egyptian dream books are attested from approximately the XIII century BC (during the New Kingdom’s XIX dynasty) through to the III century AD, during the Roman rule of Egypt. They are found in several languages (Egyptian and Greek) and scripts (in the case of Egyptian, both hieratic and demotic), with the vast majority of those surviving being written in demotic Egyptian. Many of these primary sources still remain unpublished. This thesis offers a complete panoramic of this corpus, inclusive of both published and unpublished material, highlighting and proving the diachronic evolution of the oneirocritic genre that connects all these texts over a period of approximately a millennium and a half.
Chapter I offers a detailed introduction to the thesis’ topic, contents, and structure.
Chapter II discusses the earliest known dream books, written in hieratic. Chapter III focuses on the largest section of the corpus, that of the demotic dream books, which span from the IV century BC to the III century AD. Chapter IV discusses the only known specimen of a Greek dream book that is extant from ancient Egypt, dating to the III century AD. Chapter V discusses a group of texts of doubtful identification (ca. IV century BC–III century AD), which may be dream books. Most of them certainly belong to divinatory manuals, but the identification of their precise genre remains uncertain. Chapter VI deals with a number of texts (ca. II century BC–III century AD) that have erroneously been identified in previous scholarship as dream books. Chapter VII contains the analysis of an unpublished demotic dream book from the II–III century AD, which survives in multiple copies. Finally, chapter VIII contains an overview of the main traits and of the evolution of the oneirocritic genre in ancient Egypt, as well as an outline of plans for future research concerning this corpus.
A second volume containing a full text edition of the unpublished dream book discussed in chapter VII accompanies the thesis. A third volume contains unpublished images of several of the manuscripts discussed in the first and second volumes.

Advisor: Smith, M
Heights via anabelian geometry and local Bloch-Kato Selmer sets

We study the problem of describing local components of height functions on abelian varieties over characteristic 0 local fields as functions on spaces of torsors under various realisations of a 2-step unipotent motivic fundamental group naturally associated to the defining line bundle. To this end, we present three main theorems giving such a description in terms of the Ql and Qp-pro-unipotent etale realisations when the base field is p-adic, and in terms of the R-pro-unipotent Betti–de Rham realisation when the base field is archimedean.
In the course of proving the p-adic instance of these theorems, we develop a new technique for studying local non-abelian Bloch–Kato Selmer sets, working with certain explicit cosimplicial group models for these sets and using methods from homotopical algebra. Among other uses, these models enable us to construct a non-abelian generalisation of the Bloch–Kato exponential sequence under minimal conditions.
On the geometric side, we also prove a number of foundational results on local constancy or analyticity of various non-abelian Kummer maps for pro-unipotent etale or Betti–de Rham fundamental groups of arbitrary smooth varieties.
Effect of β2-adrenergic receptor agonists on neurotransmission  and neuromuscular junction structure  in congenital myasthenic syndromes

Background: β2-adrenergic agonists have been reported to be beneficial in patients with congenital myasthenic syndromes, in particular in those subtypes where postsynaptic structure is impaired. Although the β2-adrenergic receptor is well known for its muscle actions, its working mechanism at the neuromuscular junction is not understood.
Aims: It was hypothesized that β2-adrenergic agonists improve neurotransmission by ameliorating postsynaptic structure in congenital myasthenic syndromes.
Methods : The effect of β2-adrenergic agonists was studied on neuromuscular function and structure in mouse models of acetylcholine receptor (AChR) deficiency and DOK7 myasthenic syndrome, using electrophysiological and morphological techniques.
Results: β2-adrenergic agonists reduced muscle fatigability in the mouse model of AChR deficiency, and they temporarily halted failure to grow in the DOK7 myasthenic mouse model. β2-adrenergic agonists enhanced neurotransmission by counteracting the detrimental effect on postsynaptic neuromuscular junction structure either caused by the use of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors or by the DOK7 mutation. They promoted the formation of postsynaptic junctional folds.
Conclusion: β2-adrenergic agonists have a direct effect at the neuromuscular junction, via stabilising postsynaptic structure.

Advisor: Beeson, D
Webster, R
The religious world in late Ming China as seen through the 勵修一鑬 Lixiu yijian: how was Christianity integrated into the local society of Fujian?

Past studies on expeditions by missionaries to Ming China have mainly focused on the doctrinal transmission of Christianity and examined how Chinese elite received and interpreted the Christian ideas. However, the aim of this paper is to shift the focus to the local sphere in order to explore how Christianity was “done” on the local level. In this respect, this study takes two arguments as a point of entry – both pioneering but very different in perspective. On the one hand, the French sinologist Jacques Gernet proposed a theory of “cultural incommunicability”, in that differences in philosophical framework and cultural history prevented local Chinese people from grasping the essence of the doctrine. As a consequence, Christianity “failed” to be transmitted to China.1 On the other hand, Erik Zürcher has asserted that Christianity integrated into the local community by becoming accommodated by both missionaries and local people, and localised to the pre-existing religious and social world. Following Zürcher’s argument, scholars such as Nicolas Standaert, Adrian Dudink, Eugenio Menegon, and Henrietta Harrison have produced important scholarship examining the different dimensions of local Christianity from Ming China onwards. In this paper, I will follow Zürcher’s argument of localisation and further discuss how Christianity integrated and transformed into a local religious practice, through looking at stories in the Lixiu yijian 勵修一鑬. In dealing with the notion of “religion”, I will be using Barend J. ter Haar and Adam Chau’s conception of religion as something that people “do” and “practise”. Chau has proposed “to look at the Chinese religious landscape through the lenses of ‘modalities of doing religion’ and ‘ritual polytropy’.” In brief, he argues that religions in China should not be studied as coherent conceptual aggregates, such as “Buddhism” or “Daoism”. Rather, we should look at how people “do” religion on the ground. Chau observes that China was characterised by ritual-based and polytrophic religiosity—people made use of different coexisting and competing ritual providers and liturgical programmes in order to acquire efficacious ritual services.2 In his studies on the Non- Action Sect, ter Haar argues that the sect initially emerged from a group reflection on the practices. Nevertheless, through closer analysis, he demonstrates that for people of the sect, the reading and reciting of the scriptures was the core religious activity. The religious experience was achieved not through a mere reflection on the texts, but, as the title of his book Practicing Scriptures suggests, through practice of the scriptures.
[introduction continues in thesis]

Keywords: Lixiu yijian
Giulio Aleni
Toward a “two-war legion”: renegotiating First World War memory in the British and American legions, 1938-1946

This thesis explores the renegotiation of First World War memory in response to the Second in a comparative study of two ex-servicemen’s organisations, the British and American Legions. Through a close reading of two organisational periodicals – the British Legion Journal and the American Legion Magazine – published from 1938 through 1946, this study examines how conceptualisations of duty and service, comradeship, and the social contract that were anchored in the First World War shifted as the Second unfolded. It extends existing scholarship by deconstructing the Second World War into its constituent events and charting First World War narrative shifts according to these developments in real time. In addition to highlighting the peculiarities of each national context, the project’s unprecedented use of the British and American Legions as comparative case studies illuminates common factors affecting the evolution of memory transnationally, specifically aging, generational shifts, and sub-national identities. According to these factors, certain narratives of the Great War came to be privileged over others, shaping the longer-term evolution of memory discourses for veterans who identified with that conflict. In both groups, discussions used the First World War as the definitive reference point for understanding the Second, framing the earlier conflict as a “learning experience”. The extent to which each country was seen to have learned from these “lessons” influenced the perceived significance and meaning of the Great War. The study sheds light upon the differing level of importance afforded to the First World War in British and American historical memory, arguing that the specific ways in which the conflict was used to understand its successor inflected and ultimately altered the war’s memory in both the British and American Legions.

Keywords: First World War
American Legion
British Legion
Memory
Ex-servicemen
United States
Britain
Veterans
Second World War
Advisor: Gregory, A
Davies, G
Regulation of the deubiquitinase CYLD in innate immune signalling

Innate immune receptors are vital for protection against invading pathogens and the downstream signalling events of these are controlled by ubiquitination. Classically, ubiquitin was described to serve as a degradative signal. However, of the eight possible types of ubiquitin linkages, most have been assigned non-degradative roles and instead serve scaffolding functions for recruitment and activation of proteins. M1- and K63- chains are two such linkages and have crucial roles in mediating immune signalling events, with the balance between their deposition onto receptor components, and removal, determining the magnitude and duration of the signalling.
Linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex (LUBAC) is the only E3 known to generate M1-chains and is essential for productive signalling. It is regulated by its two associated deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs), CYLD and OTULIN, which associate with the catalytic subunit, HOIP. However, the mechanism through which CYLD interacts with LUBAC is unclear. As such, this study aimed to characterise how CYLD is specifically recruited to the LUBAC complex and subsequently determine the factors that are mediating its activation.
In this thesis, I describe the identification of SPATA2 as a factor linking CYLD with LUBAC, thereby facilitating regulation of innate immune signalling by CYLD. In the second part of the thesis I investigate the regulation of CYLD’s catalytic activity by phosphorylation. My studies reveal a novel phosphorylation site (S568) on CYLD which regulates CYLD activity and its ability to restrict innate immune signalling.
In summary, this study identified a novel binding partner of CYLD and characterised the phosphorylation-mediated activation of its DUB activity. This provides an explanation as to how CYLD is recruited to signalling complexes in a LUBACdependent manner, as well as novel mechanistic insight into how innate immune signalling events may be fine-tuned by regulation of CYLD.

Advisor: Gyrd-Hansen, M
Christianson, J
Using practice theory to research energy and environmental governance for small and medium-sized enterprises

If the transition to a low carbon economy is to be successful, inclusive and sustainable, then small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must not be neglected. However, they are extremely heterogenous and it is difficult to make generalisations about their motivations, consumption patterns or everyday practices, or to create effective policies and governance processes.
This social scientific research uses qualitative methods to investigate how and why energy is consumed by organisations, and the role of governance practices in shaping demand. The central research question is:
• How can practice theory be used to improve the effectiveness of UK SME energy and environmental governance?
Five empirical papers answer this question by applying practice theory in various settings:
• Paper 1 focuses on the practice of home and its affective dimensions. Themes of comfort, control and flexibility are revealed, each influencing how energy is consumed and conserved.
• Paper 2 combines practice theory with the concept of sensemaking to show how energy management is intertwined with organisational culture and knowledge construction processes in three SMEs.
• Paper 3 shows that low carbon SME advisors are critical middle actors, but could be more effective if ‘softer’ skills were deployed alongside technical expertise.
• Paper 4 combines practice theory with the multi-level governance framework to investigate policy implementation as a practice-bundle, spanning spatial and temporal settings.
•Paper 5 asks whether practice theory could follow behavioural economics in gaining influence within government. Findings indicate a need and appetite for practice-theoretical insights amongst government social researchers.
This research demonstrates how practice theory can help to improve the effectiveness of governance practices. However to gain greater influence, researchers need to be philosophically liberal, experimental in their use of theory and methods, and pro-actively develop relationships with governance actors at local and national levels.

Keywords: climate change
SMEs
environment
environmental governance
energy
Advisor: Fawcett, T
Darby, S
Sleep disturbances in posttraumatic stress disorder

Sleep disturbances are common in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and often persist following PTSD treatment (e.g., Zayfert & Deviva, 2004). However, it is unclear why sleep disturbances are residual, and there are also concerns that poor sleep may interfere with PTSD treatment. Furthermore, it has not been directly investigated whether factors known to maintain insomnia may also contribute to sleep disturbances in PTSD. This thesis presents five studies, designed to investigate five key research questions: 1) Does Cognitive Therapy for PTSD improve sleep disturbances? 2) Do sleep disturbances interfere with the efficacy of psychotherapy for PTSD? 3) How might sleep improvements occur with PTSD therapy? 4) Do factors known to perpetuate insomnia also contribute to sleep problems in PTSD? 5) What may account for persistent sleep problems after otherwise effective PTSD therapy? Study 1 showed that sleep improved more with trauma-focused compared to non-trauma-focused psychotherapy. Updating and reprocessing the trauma memory promoted sleep duration improvements, and sleep improvements were associated with improvements in nightmares and hyperarousal. Pre-treatment sleep did not predict PTSD treatment outcome. Insomnia was residual for over a third of patients after treatment. Study 2 found that sleep improved with CT-PTSD in routine clinical care, but remained residual for nearly half of patients. Further, the results showed that modification of trauma appraisals and reduction in the flashback-quality of intrusions predicted improvements in sleep duration during CT-PTSD. Study 3 presented the development of a new scale to measure pre-sleep cognitive activity in PTSD. Pre-sleep cognitive activity was associated with disturbed sleep in PTSD. The PTSD group reported pre-sleep cognitions with content similar to those with insomnia, but also cognitions that are specific to PTSD. Study 4 showed that pre-sleep cognitive activity mediated the relationship between PTSD symptoms and disturbed sleep. People with PTSD had higher physiological arousal, and more pre-sleep cognitive activity, which was associated with worse subjective sleep. Finally, Study 5, showed that subjective and objective sleep was improved with CT-PTSD, but sleep problems remained residual for half of patients. Residual sleep problems were associated with sub-clinical PTSD and depression symptoms, pre-sleep cognitive activity and physiological arousal. In sum, theses studies showed that sleep improves but remains a residual problem after PTSD therapy. Processing and updating trauma memories, modifying trauma appraisals and reducing re-experiencing symptoms may promote sleep improvements in PTSD therapy. Pre-sleep cognitive activity contributed to disturbed sleep in PTSD, and was associated with residual sleep problems. The results have implications for understanding sleep problems in PTSD and after PTSD treatment, and may have clinical relevance for the treatment of sleep problems in PTSD therapy.

Advisor: Ehlers, A
Clark, D
Imaging biomarkers for oligometastatic colorectal cancer

Oligometastatic colorectal cancer represents an intermediate disease state potentially treatable with curative intent. Novel treatment strategies are expanding the opportunity to offer local treatment for limited metastatic disease. It is therefore increasingly important to define patients likely to benefit from these targeted treatments. Diagnostic imaging is central to patient management, to establish the burden and distribution of metastatic disease. This thesis explores the potential value of novel imaging biomarkers in patients with colorectal liver metastases (CRLM). In a prospective study, perfusion CT (pCT) and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) were performed prior to resection, and a retrospective series of patients with resected CRLM was collated. Resected metastases were analysed for relevant morphological features and IHC expression. Novel and conventional imaging variables were derived based on CT, MRI, pCT, DCE-MRI and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG-PET), and their associations with histopathological features, immunohistochemical expression and patient outcomes analysed. A novel subregion analysis based on DCE-MRI data was developed to classify tumour subregions, using a histological reference standard. The results presented in this thesis confirm that the number and distribution of hepatic metastases are prognostic markers for patients with resected CRLM, and that higher SUVmean of liver metastases, and higher SUVmax of the background liver, are potential prognostic biomarkers. Histopathological assessment of resected CRLM highlighted that there is significant between and within patient variability of clinically relevant histopathological features and IHC expression, which would support the potential utility of imaging biomarkers to characterise multi- site disease. Analysis of functional imaging data demonstrated positive correlations between imaging variables and clinically relevant markers of tumour vascularity and metabolism, while subregion analysis of DCE-MRI data produced good spatial correlation with viable and non-viable tumour based on histopathology, with significant differences in derived phamacokinetic parameters between subregions.

Advisor: Gleeson, F
Sharma, R
Harris, A
The organisation and delivery of clubfoot treatment services in Malawi: an ethnographic study

Background
Clubfoot is a congenital condition in which one or both feet are twisted inwards and if left untreated or ‘neglected’, can have a profound impact on the wellbeing of children and their families. Clubfoot can be treated through staged manipulation of the limb and treatment is delivered by Beit CURE Hospital in Malawi which coordinates 29 outreach clinics. However, implementing these services is complex; a high proportion do not present; and adherence to treatment is low. This study had three aims: 1) identify factors that impact on the implementation of services and develop a theoretical framework to inform findings; 2) understand the impact of accessing services on carers of children with clubfoot; and 3) explore the experiences of those who had not fully accessed treatment.
Methods
Ethnographic data collection comprised three elements. Element 1: Observation sessions were conducted at three clinics (totalling 90 hours) and interviews conducted with staff at an additional nine sites and members of the CURE management team. Key informants helped place findings within the wider health context (n = 58). Element 2: Fieldwork was conducted at three sites and involved single, dyad or triad interviews and focus groups with those currently accessing treatment, those who had been discharged and clubfoot counsellors (n = 57). Element 3: In-depth case studies were conducted with those that had not fully accessed treatment (n = 4).
Results
Factors impacting on service implementation were interpreted using an implementation science theory known as extended Normalization Process Theory. Factors identified included cooperation, commitment to delivery, workability and strategies to facilitate delivery over time. An additional construct identified concerned work done to facilitate patient access. How families and the community responded on finding out the child’s feet were different varied. Whilst some mothers received love and support from others, it could also be a source of conflict and division. Families were overwhelmingly satisfied with treatment although challenges were identified. Those that had been discharged described joy and were happy to be relieved of the financial burden of treatment. Factors that influenced treatment-seeking for those who had not fully accessed treatment included the anticipated outcomes of living with clubfoot, availability of social support networks, healthcare experiences and a lack of referral pathways for treatment. Challenges took place in a web of competing concerns such as poverty.
Conclusions
The study provides insights to help organisations in Malawi deliver more effective patient care. Future research should explore processes of identification and referral of children with neglected clubfoot.

Keywords: Clubfoot
Sub-Saharan Africa
Medical sociology
Qualitative
Malawi
Health service delivery
Ethnography
Advisor: Gooberman-Hill, R
Lavy, C