VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The (mis)alignment of ESG perspectives in the investment chain

As evidenced by the rapid increase of United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) signatories, the integration of environmental, social and governance indicators (ESG) in investment decisions has become a popular topic. However, despite its popularity, there is no consensus among practitioners on what this actually means and how it should be tackled. The obvious lack of standardization is reflected by divergent ESG rating procedures, incomparable company sustainability reports and the widely differing strategies by asset managers and asset owners. This is a substantial hurdle as it can cause misalignment of perspectives within the investment chain, which keeps ESG from being pushed up the agenda. There appear to be substantial struggles on the road to ESG integration and several questions arise; are the perspectives on ESG integration aligned between companies, asset managers and asset owners? Where do possible obstacles on the road to responsible investment reside, what are they and how can they be overcome?
My main findings are four-fold. First, I find ESG reporting fatigue among companies due to the sheer number of ESG ratings and rankings. Companies should not let this overwhelm them and be clear that they only respond to a handful. Investors should only use it as a starting point and ensure that it does not become a substitute for a real conversation with their portfolio companies about ESG. This interest is necessary for top management to sign off on sustainability initiatives. Second, I find that asset owners are not as convinced of the business case of ESG as asset managers and companies are. This is often reflected in the way they select, monitor and review their asset managers. Third, the lack of in-depth ESG due diligence by asset owners likely lets asset managers get away with decoupling statements from actions. More specifically, it appears that ESG and finance are often still separated. Lastly, companies are more reactive than proactive when it comes to ESG efforts. The main driver for them to embark on their ESG journey is the consumer. We can therefore play a significant role in creating a more sustainable world, either as the beneficiary or the consumer.

Advisor: Clark, G
Mayer, C
Mercenaries, missionaries and misfits: Competition in the ‘aid marketplace’ in Afghanistan.

Both practitioners and academics have recently begun referring to humanitarian agencies operating within an active ‘aid marketplace’ in which limited funding pits actors against each other in pursuance of their own projects and wider aims. This thesis seeks to explore how the pressures of a competitive environment impact on the motivations and actions of aid actors at an individual and organizational level. Based on the common saying that aid workers are ‘mercenaries, missionaries and misfits’, I construct a typology of pressures (interest-based, altruistic, and bureaucratic), which, it is argued, can be used to explain and understand much of this competitive and collaborative behaviour. A particular focus of the thesis is the impact of these various influences on the process and politics of information transfer and discourse creation regarding the process of needs assessment, monitoring and evaluation. I explore all of these issues through the medium of a case study of UNHCR’s interventions in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2015, and seek to provide a detailed history of the agency’s activities, politics and challenges during this period. In particular I am interested in the motivations driving the agency’s actions; the strategies it has employed to achieve its aims; the calculated narratives that it has crafted to justify its interventions and attract greater support; and the very different ways in which it has approached the needs of different categories of displaced people.

Keywords: Refugees
Aid Marketplace
Afghanistan
Reintegration
Humanitarian Aid
UNHCR
International Development
Returnees
Advisor: Chatty, D
Pathophysiology and treatment of myelodysplasia with del(5q)

The myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) with deletion of chromosome 5q [del(5q)] is a distinct subtype of MDS characterised by refractory hypoplastic anaemia and the del(5q) as the sole karyotypic abnormality. There is a clinical need for novel treatments for MDS with del(5q). A more complete understanding of the pathophysiology of del(5q) MDS would likely impact on development of new therapies and improve patients outcome. The aim of this D.Phil. project was to investigate various aspects of the pathophysiology of MDS with del(5q) and potential therapeutic approaches for this MDS subtype. Mutations of the CSNK1A1 gene, which maps to the commonly deleted region on chromosome 5q, were found to be rare events in a large cohort of del(5q) MDS patients. Moreover, del(5q) MDS patients with CSNK1A1 mutation showed significant up-regulation of genes involved in the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. These data support the notion that CSNK1A1 is an important gene in the pathogenesis of MDS with del(5q). The mechanism of L-leucine-mediated enhancement of erythropoiesis in the MDS with del(5q) was also investigated. L-leucine was found to increase proliferation and differentiation of cultured erythroblasts from MDS del(5q) patients through the activation of the mTOR pathway and increased translation of mTOR-regulated 5'Terminal Oligo Pyrimidine tract (TOP) mRNAs. Lastly, in a proof-of–principle study, the CRISPR/Cas9 system was used to correct a TP53 mutation in the chronic myeloid leukaemia cell line K562. Correction of the TP53 mutation by homology-directed repair (HDR) was obtained but corrected K562 cells also harboured additional genetic changes in the TP53 locus. This study provided new insights into the pathogenesis of MDS with del(5q), and into the mode of action of the translation enhancer L-leucine in this disorder.

Advisor: Boultwood, J
Pellagatti, A
Ecology and conservation of Persian leopard Panthera pardus saxicolor in northeastern Iran

The Persian leopard is the largest cat in west Asia, and is considered to be endangered – poaching and habitat degradation are thought to be responsible. The rugged mountains and high altitudes it favours present considerable challenges for scientists, and it is consequently one of the least known subspecies. I have addressed this through exploring the subspecies’ fundamental ecology across three national parks in northeastern Iran. I used satellite telemetry, camera trapping, genetic analysis and questionnaire surveys. The perceived role of leopards in livestock depredation was negligible compared to that of wolves. This was associated with relative tolerance of leopards compared with wolves; but the economic loss associated with predator damage did appear to influence peoples’ attitudes. I also estimated a mean home range of 103.4 ± SE 51.8 km2 for resident males which is larger than what has been observed in other studies on Asian leopard. Five out of six of leopards spent 17.9% of their time outside the national park, among human communities. The kill rate was quantified as 3.7 ± SE 0.5 medium-sized prey/month per leopard, which is higher than reported by previous studies. Surprisingly, considering the subspecies’ reported low density based on previous studies, I found relatively high population densities, varying between 4.01 ± SE 1.98 and 8.02 ± SE 2.67 individuals/100 km2. The number of adult leopards detected in Tandoureh (30 individuals) was larger than identified during comparable surveys at any other site globally. Persian leopards exhibited moderately high genetic diversity at six microsatellites (AN = 7.45, HO = 0.69, HE =0.75) and low haplotype diversity (Hd = 0.198) across three closely related haplotypes in NADH-5 gene. There was a weak evidence of spatial population partitioning. My research findings highlight the key role of mountainous ecosystems as refugia in supporting a high density of apex predators. Although land sharing is an inevitable solution for coexistence across Asian crowded montane landscapes, sparing mountains with improved law enforcement is encouraged for large cat conservation in Asian mountains. Finally, my thesis raises new hope for leopard viability as well as highlights the potential capacity of the Kopet Dag Ecoregion as a significant conservation unit for leopards.

Advisor: Macdonald, D
Johnson, P
Hunter, L
Self-assembly in mechanical systems

Inspired by biological membrane shaping in the cell through means of curvature-inducing proteins, we investigate the interplay between membrane curvature and the distribution and movement of shape-inducing objects which are free to move as a consequence of the underlying shape. We initially study the self-assembly of a filament, taken as a proxy for the cross-section of a biomembrane, which is primarily driven by the chemical kinetics of attaching proteins and find that, under certain mechanical stiffness regimes of the attaching proteins, pattern formation occurs. Regions of high and low protein concentration form before spatially uniform filament shapes are obtained by means of protein adhesion and movement governed by diffusion and local curvature-seeking. However, noting that the curvature-mediated protein movement on membranes has been biologically observed to be long-range, we next study the self-assembly of embedded inclusions on a membrane as a result of the underlying geometry. We first derive an interaction law for the shape-mediated interaction of inclusions which break symmetry and find that there is a finite equilibrium distance to which the inclusions will aggregate. We derive corresponding equations of motion which describe this curvature-mediated aggregation mechanism and, using this framework, we investigate some of the properties of these self-assembled configurations, including their energy, stability, and their collective elastic behavior. Lastly, we consider the interaction energies of embedded inclusions on a periodic domain and determine that this mechanism may explain computational results of how proteins form rings to promote tubulation on cylindrical membranes.

Keywords: Membrane remodelling
Nonlinear continua
Self-assembly
Advisor: Goriely, A
Synthesis and post-polymerisation modification of degradable polymers based on polycarbonates/polyesters prepared using ring-opening copolymerisation

This thesis describes the synthesis of degradable materials based on functional aliphatic polycarbonates/polyesters synthesised via ring-opening copolymerisation (ROCOP) and post-polymerisation modifications.
Chapter 3 details the synthesis of cationic poly(ester-b-carbonate-b-ester) via ringopening copolymerisation of CO2 and vinyl-cyclohexene oxide (v-CHO), ringopening polymerisation (ROP) of rac-lactide, and subsequent post-polymerisation modifications of this material through a radical thiol-ene reaction and a quaternisation reaction. These cationic polymers show high surface zeta-potential (> 40 mV) and display effective antibacterial properties with killing efficiencies of > 99.9% against Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli.
Chapter 4 describes the synthesis of amphiphilic block poly(phosphoester-b-carbonate-b-phosphoester)s using ROCOP of CO2 and v-CHO and ROP of ethyl ethylene phosphate (EP). These amphiphilic block polymers self-assemble into either micelles or vesicles, depending on the hydrophobic/hydrophilic block ratio. The potential use of the vesicles in drug delivery is also described, and initial results detailing the enzymatic degradation of these vesicles are presented. In addition, the hydroboration-oxidation is investigated as a new post-polymerisation modification method to functionalise an alkene-containing polycarbonate, poly(vinylcyclohexene carbonate) (VPC). The hydroxyl functionalised polycarbonate shows improved hydrophilicity and cell adhesion, compared to the unfunctionalised precursor. The side chain hydroxyl groups are then tested for making graft poly(carbonate-g-phosphoester).
Chapter 5 further investigates the use of the hydroboration-oxidation reaction in functionalising poly(cyclohexadiene carbonate) (CPC) and poly(vinylcyclohexenemaleate) (V,MPE). A selective post-polymerisation modification is also demonstrated on a blend of CPC and VPC or V,MPE featuring both terminal and internal alkene groups using the hydroboration-oxidation method, where the terminal alkene groups are functionalised exclusively. Lastly, an orthogonal post-polymerisation approach is carried out on the unreacted internal alkene groups of hydroxyl-containing V,MPE via thiol-ene reactions to install other functional groups such as carboxyl, amine and methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol).

Keywords: post-polymerisation modification
Advisor: Williams, C
Music and childhood in French culture, 1880-1914

Literary scholars have discussed extensively how ideas about childhood were an important imaginative resource in Romantic and modernist thought. Much research in the humanities has considered how art and literature have reflected and influenced the attitudes towards childhood that have been prevalent at particular times and in particular places. This thesis examines the ways in which music composed and performed in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century France seems to have played a significant role in exhibiting, and perhaps in shaping, contemporaneous understandings of childhood.
My study examines four distinct but closely related strands of French culture, in which the idea of childhood was a formative element in the creation, performance and reception of music. The subjects of the four main chapters are: the contrasting but mutually illuminating representations of childhood in two operas – Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande – which had their first Paris performances in quick succession at the Opéra-Comique; the collections of pièces enfantines produced for the piano sheet-music market, a market which was sensitive to the prevailing social and political ideals of the Third Republic; a controversial ballet staging of Fauré’s Dolly in 1913, which embodied a perception of the ‘childlike’ as a corporeal quality; and the relation of Debussy’s La Boîte à joujoux and two songs by Ravel to artistic and philosophical discourses about the image of the toy. Collectively, these chapters consider music’s contribution to several important understandings of childhood in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century culture. These include the use of the idea of childhood to give shape to the notion of human interiority, and to stand for an ideal mode of perception which the adult might reclaim through art.

Advisor: Grimley, D
Protein based molecular probes by unnatural amino acid incorporation

The "tag & modify" strategy for protein modification relies upon the genetic incorporation of an uncommon or unnatural amino acid into a protein backbone, followed by a chemo-selective modification to yield differentially modified proteins. This thesis describes the creation of a protein-based glycoconjugate tool for interrogating biological function.
In Chapter 2, the unnatural amino acid, azidohomoalanine was genetically incorporated into a library of distance defined Np276 proteins via a selective pressure incorporation. Methods to prevent the common post translational modification N-terminal gluconylation were identified, including preliminary work on a small molecule intervention. The proteins were subsequently characterised with respect to other members of the (limited) family of pentapeptide repeat protein and the key biophysical parameters (TM, stability) with relate to it being a multivalent scaffold were investigated.
In Chapter 3, An initial investigation into obtaining a selective amine modification initially via N-hydroxysuccinimide esters, led to the discovery (and characterisation) of a clear selectivity for N-terminal proline Isothiocyanate modification. The dual modification of proteins via the N-term Pro & the ubiquitous (glyco) copper(I)-catalysed azide alkyne cycloaddition was subsequently used to generate homogenously dual modified Np276 scaffolds.
In Chapter 4, these proteins were then used in a FACS assay against a murine sialoadhesin - chinese hamster ovary cell line, the results showing promise for the further development of multivalent glycated probes of function.

Advisor: Davis, B
The arithmetic geometry of mirror symmetry and the conifold transition

The central theme of this thesis is the application of mirror symmetry to the study of the arithmetic geometry of Calabi-Yau threefolds. It formulates a conjecture about the properties of the limit mixed Hodge structure at the large complex structure limit of an arbitrary mirror threefold, which is supported by a two-parameter example of a self-mirror Calabi-Yau threefold. It further studies the connections between this conjecture with Voevodsky's mixed motives. This thesis also studies the connections between the conifold transition and Beilinson's conjecture on the values of the L-functions at integral points. It carefully studies the arithmetic geometry of the conifold in the mirror family of the quintic Calabi-Yau threefold and its L-function, which is shown to provide a very interesting example to Beilinson's conjecture.

Keywords: L-function
Mirror symmetry
limit mixed Hodge structure
large complex structure limit
Calabi-Yau threefold
mixed motives
conifold
Advisor: Candelas, P
Policing human rights: law, politics and practice in Northern Ireland

Human rights are a defining feature of how the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has been 'imagined and made' in its post-conflict society. This thesis marks the first attempt to make sense of how human rights are articulated, interpreted and applied by those intimately involved in Northern Irish policing. Based on extensive access to the PSNI, I marshal qualitative data collected from interviews with over one hundred police officers from various departments. I tour four sites of local policing to expose and examine the vernaculars and practices of human rights that lurk within each. The story I tell over the course of eight chapters is one of a police service trying to sustain human rights as a central narrative to explain its daily work and build its organisational identity in a divided society, to varying degrees of success. I argue that human rights are, in fact, a malleable, contested and conditional concept to 'imagine and make' a police service and regulate the decision-making of its officers; perhaps much more so than police reformers in Northern Ireland had realised or the PSNI wish to acknowledge.
In the first half of the thesis, I identify and deconstruct how the PSNI's chief officers and local political parties seek to express and mobilise competing visions, values and agendas through human rights narratives. I then pay close attention to how human rights are interpreted and translated by junior officers performing two forms of routine policing in N.Ireland: the 'dirty work' of the Tactical Support Group and the 'community work' of Neighbourhood Policing Teams. I ask to what extent officers have internalised human rights as way of making sense of their daily work. In the second half of the thesis, I explore police officers as an important, but poorly understood, class of human rights practitioner. To better grasp how officers interpret and apply human rights standards, I closely analyse two sites of policing where distinct schemes of human rights-based regulation exist: public order policing and police custody. This thesis contributes to understandings of the concept of human rights, its interactions with law and politics and the condition of policing in contemporary Northern Ireland.

Keywords: Transitional Justice
Northern Ireland
Policing
Human Rights
Advisor: Bradford, B
The making and breaking of SAS-6: structural insights and inhibitor search for n-terminal domain dimerisation

SAS-6 is the structural core of the forming centriole - a cylindrical protein complex, which is an essential component of the centrosome. Oligomerisation of SAS-6 is crucial for successful centriole duplication and is achieved through two dimerisation domains in the SAS-6 protein; a long C-terminal coiled-coil domain and a globular N-terminal dimerisation domain. As core components of the centrosome, centrioles help facilitate various cellular functions. They are involved in the anchoring of flagella and cilia to the membrane and in coordinating the spindle apparatus during chromosome segregation. A deeper insight into the molecular mechanisms at play in the centriole duplication process would have implications on our understanding of fundamental cell division processes and a number of related diseases.
Here the involvement of an unstudied loop region in the C. elegans SAS-6 N-terminal domain dimerisation is described. Combining structural biology, biophysical and computational techniques, the molecular interactions of this loop were explored, contributing to the oligomerisation of SAS-6 at the N-terminal dimer interface. Furthermore, the screening and testing of small molecule inhibitors of the SAS-6 N-terminal domain dimerisation is described, targeting a hydrophobic pocket in the domain. Two candidate compounds are presented as a result of the screens and next steps towards structure based compound design are suggested, based on computational analysis. The search for inhibitory compounds includes a set-up of an in-house virtual screening pipeline, as well as in vitro screening efforts and a new crystallographic structure of the H. sapiens SAS-6 N-terminal domain. By investigating the making and breaking of the SAS-6 N-terminal domain dimerisation, light is shed on so far neglected details of this essential protein-protein interaction and advancements towards a SAS-6 oligomerisation inhibitor described, which could ultimately be used for new approaches in cell cycle research and might open up new avenues for medical research by binding a disease relevant target.

Keywords: Centriole
SAS-6
Inhibitor Screening
STIL
Protein Dimerisation
Advisor: Vakonakis, I
Biggin, P