VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Classical texts, quotations and allusions in Christian literature of the first two centuries

The genesis of this study was the iambic trimeter quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians. It rapidly expanded to cover classical quotations and allusions in early Christian literature to the end of the 2nd century CE, employing a linear approach. The first part (NT and Apostolic Fathers) re-examines de novo the perceived quotations and allusions, arguing that they have been too frequently seen through the lens of 5th and 4th century BCE literature, that has been mostly studied in schools and universities, and which may not always reflect the social and educational circumstances of the first Christians.
The following parts explores the classical material and quotations in the Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, the apologists and Clement of Alexandria which have too often been overlooked in favour of their philosophical background. From a tentative start in Justin – the first to name classical authors – to Clement, who quoted prolifically, the study analyses the increasing confidence in classical quotation. Though the writers may have had different assessments of the material they quote, there is an assurance that this can play a part in Christian discourse, reflecting a greater awareness of the paideia enkyklios and involvement of those with a literary “elite” background.
In the case of Clement – with some 1,700 quotations - it was not feasible to examine them in detail; instead, the study examines Clement in the context of contemporary miscellanists, such as Aulus Gellius and Athenaeus, and explores the use of hypothetical florilegia in the 2nd century context, arguing that the writers were their own florilegists, and their effective use of texts in quotations implies a knowledge of the original sources. (Philology plays an important part in this study.) It leads to the conclusion that this more confident use of classical literature reflects a growth in the Christian community of those more appreciative of this heritage.

Keywords: the apologists
Clement of Alexandria
the apostolic fathers
2nd century miscellanists
importance of LXX in early Christian centuries
Justin Martyr
use of quotations in classical writers
an examination of the perceived classical texts and allusions in the New Testament -especially Pauline literature
Advisor: Edwards, M
High-precision scattering amplitudes for LHC phenomenology

In this work, we consider scattering amplitudes relevant for high-precision Large Hadron Collider (LHC) phenomenology. They provide the most fundamental representation of the quantum probability amplitude for the scattering of elementary particles. As such, they are a necessary ingredient of theoretical predictions for hadronic differential cross section distributions for any process. Our predictions rely on the Quantum Field Theory of the Standard Model (SM) of Elementary Particles. Any confirmed deviation found between theoretical predictions and experimental measurements would yield the discovery of New Physics.
We analyse the general structure of amplitudes, and we review state-of-the-art methods for computing them. We discuss advantages and shortcomings of these methods, and we point out the bottlenecks in modern amplitude computations. As a practical illustration, we present frontier applications relevant for multi-loop multi-scale processes.
We compute the helicity amplitudes for diphoton production in gluon fusion and photon+jet production in proton scattering in three-loop massless Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). We have adopted a new projector-based prescription to compute helicity amplitudes in the 't Hooft-Veltman scheme. We also rederived the minimal set of independent Feynman integrals for this problem using the differential equations method, and we confirmed their intricate analytic properties. By employing modern methods for integral reduction, we provide the final results in a compact form, which is appropriate for efficient numerical evaluation.
Beyond QCD, we have computed the two-loop mixed QCD-electroweak amplitudes for Z+jet production in proton scattering in light-quark-initiated channels, without closed fermion loops. This process provides important insight into the high-precision studies of the SM, as well as into Dark Matter searches at the LHC. We have employed a numerical approach based on high-precision evaluation of Feynman integrals with the modern Auxiliary Mass Flow method. The obtained numerical results in all relevant partonic channels are evaluated on a two-dimensional grid appropriate for further phenomenological applications.

Keywords: multiloop integrals
LHC phenomenology
scattering amplitudes
high-energy physics
Advisor: Caola, F
Teachers' beliefs and classroom rules in early childhood education in India

The study explores early childhood education (ECE) teachers’ beliefs about the classroom rules (CR) as one of the regular practices in pre-schools in India. The study aims to highlight the (local) teachers’ own belief underneath the practice of the classroom rules. What do they mean when they say rules? Why do they feel a need to have these classroom rules? The study incorporates qualitative research methods. The thesis builds on participants' recorded interviews (in Hindi language) for which the vignettes are used as a tool for the research. The interviews were rigorously transcribed in local language with word-word translation in english. The data is analysed using NVivo. The themes emerged have informed the study i.e. teacher’s beliefs about the classroom and its relevance to child development. The findings mention rules as moral educational values like making distinction between right and wrong, not stealing for building character. Rules are also about hygiene like, cutting nails, combing hair, cleaning bag, wearing neat uniform etc. Overall, the teachers presented heterogeneous beliefs about practiced classroom rules which were constructed and implemented by themselves.

Keywords: teacher beliefs
cultural context
early childhood
classroom rules
Advisor: Nag, S
Essays on microenterprise growth and financial inclusion

This thesis consists of three essays on microenterprise growth and financial inclusion. I focus on two key channels to achieve financial inclusion: (i) encouraging digital technology adoption and (ii) easing frictions in financial markets.
Chapter 1 investigates the extent to which learning barriers limit the adoption of productive digital technologies by firms. I leverage a novel digital technology that overcomes financial management issues that arise due to informality and randomly vary the extent to which learning costs are subsidized. Amongst a sample of microenterprises in India I find that temporarily subsidizing learning costs leads to significant increases in adoption. Firms significantly improve business management (through better financial and marketing practices), and in the process learn about the true profitability of their firm, which dampens adoption. Using a dynamic structural model I highlight the need for a multi-dimensional approach to sustain adoption.
Chapters 2 and 3 focus on easing financial frictions to increase firm productivity. In Chapter 2 my co-authors and I study whether other financial market frictions — in particular, lack of access to a safe place to save — might limit the benefits of credit. Working with Kenyan farmers, we cross-randomize access to a simple savings product with a harvest-time loan. We find increased farm investment and household consumption amongst those who were offered a savings product in addition to a loan offer. In Chapter 3 my co-authors and I study whether a big push microequity contract can generate firm-level and household-level gains while also recovering the initial investment amount for future investments. Working with women-led microenterprises in India we randomize access to performance contingent microequity contracts and document high demand for this novel financial product and sustained improvements in business performance.

Keywords: women-led firms
financial inclusion
savings
India
digitalization
Kenya
dynamic
microenterprise
technology adoption
credit
Advisor: Quinn, S
Genetic lineage tracing in clonal haematopoiesis and myeloproliferative neoplasms

Clonal haematopoiesis (CH) is a common age-related condition in which somatic mutations accumulate in haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), leading to the clonal expansion of mutated cells. This process has been causatively linked with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and related complications, while it has also been associated with an increased risk of development of myeloid neoplasms, including myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). This DPhil thesis aimed to investigate the pathogenesis of CH and MPNs utilising genetic lineage tracing. I initially focused on the study of granulocytes (as the most abundant type of myeloid cells) against germline DNA through a twin study in a pair of monozygotic twins who presented with adult-onset CALR mutant MPN. I aimed to investigate the origin of their premalignant clones and their subsequent molecular evolution. Lineage tracing of the MPN clone by whole genome sequencing revealed a common clonal origin of the MPN clone, which occurred in utero followed by twin-to-twin transplacental transmission and subsequent similar disease latency. In the next part of the project, I focused on the study of granulocytes against platelets as a surrogate of the megakaryocyte lineage. The aim of this part of my work was to assess whether platelet-biased CH exists in humans and determine its prevalence in normal individuals and myeloid neoplasms. Targeted detection of JAK2V617F and other mutations commonly involved in CH and MPN revealed the presence of platelet-biased/restricted CH, accounting for a significant proportion of the overall prevalence of CH. In conclusion, this DPhil thesis highlights the importance of genetic lineage tracing in CH and MPNs and provides insight into their molecular pathogenesis. It introduces a novel model of MPN pathogenesis, involving a prolonged disease latency between the acquisition of the premalignant MPN clone and the development of established disease, thus opening the potential for early diagnosis and preventive precision treatment strategies. It also describes for the first time presence of platelet-biased CH with direct clinical implications in the detection of CH and relevance within the wider context of diagnosis and monitoring of haematological disorders.

Keywords: genetic lineage tracing
platelet
twin study
myeloid neoplam
PLT-biased clonal haematopoiesis
molecular analysis
clonal haematopoiesis (CH)
myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN)
PLT-restricted clonal haematopoiesis
precision medicine
pathogenesis
megakaryocyte
triple-negative MPN
Advisor: Mead, A
Peniket, A
Confidential remote computing

Since their market launch in late 2015, trusted hardware enclaves have revolutionised the computing world with data-in-use protections. Their security features of confidentiality, integrity and attestation attract many application developers to move their valuable assets, such as cryptographic keys, password managers, private data, secret algorithms and mission-critical operations, into them. The potential security issues have not been well explored yet, and the quick integration movement into these widely available hardware technologies has created emerging problems. Today system and application designers utilise enclave-based protections for critical assets; however, the gap within the area of hardware-software co-design causes these applications to fail to benefit from strong hardware features. This research presents hands-on experiences, techniques and models on the correct utilisation of hardware enclaves in real-world systems.
We begin with designing a generic template for scalable many-party applications processing private data with mutually agreed public code. Many-party applications can vary from smart-grid systems to electronic voting infrastructures and block-chain smart contracts to internet-of-things deployments. Next, our research extensively examines private algorithms executing inside trusted hardware enclaves. We present practical use cases for protecting intellectual property, valuable algorithms and business or game logic besides private data. Our mechanisms allow querying private algorithms on rental services, querying private data with privacy filters such as differential privacy budgets, and integrity-protected computing power as a service. These experiences lead us to consolidate the disparate research into a unified Confidential Remote Computing (CRC) model. CRC consists of three main areas: the trusted hardware, the software development and the attestation domains. It resolves the ambiguity of trust in relevant fields and provides a systematic view of the field from past to future. Lastly, we examine the questions and misconceptions about malicious software profiting from security features offered by the hardware.
The more popular idea of confidential computing focuses on servers managed by major technology vendors and cloud infrastructures. In contrast, CRC focuses on practices in a more decentralised setting for end-users, system designers and developers.

Keywords: malware
confidential remote computing
software guard eXtensions
confidential computing
Intel SGX
trusted execution environment
private algorithms
CRC
secret code execution
TEE
Advisor: Martin, A
Computer-guided ureteroscopy and laser lithotripsy

Ureteroscopy with laser lithotripsy has evolved into a minimally invasive routine treatment for stones in the urinary tract. Automated segmentation can assist the urologists during the procedure and is also the primary step towards the estimation of stone size, one of the most important parameters to decide if the stone requires further fragmentation. Continuous irrigation is maintained during the procedure for optimal visualisation and to reduce the excess heat generated from the laser. The irrigation flow is increased when the visualisation is impaired by stone debris. However, this increases the intrarenal pressure which can potentially lead to several complications. This highlights the need for computer vision algorithms that can virtually flush out the debris whilst keeping the irrigation flow low. The ureteroscopy and laser lithotripsy datasets suffer from challenges such as small field of view, occlusions from stone debris, intra-operative bleeding, motion blur, specular highlights, dynamic background, varying illumination conditions, stone heterogeneity and artefacts from the turbid fluid. In addition, there is both inter-patient and intra-patient variability in terms of tissue appearance, illumination conditions, stone variability, and different viewpoints with respect to the camera. This makes it even more challenging to develop generalisable machine-learning models for ureteroscopy and laser lithotripsy. To this date, there are no comprehensive computer vision studies that explore or solve the real-world challenges of ureteroscopy and laser lithotripsy.
In this thesis, novel datasets have been acquired and annotated to facilitate the development of computer vision algorithms for ureteroscopy and laser lithotripsy. This thesis presents novel algorithms that leverage motion information between frames for improved segmentation of stone fragments and laser fibre. This thesis also presents frameworks for unsupervised domain adaptation and improved generalisation of segmentation models for various endoscopy datasets. Further, this thesis investigates turbidity mitigation in lithotripsy datasets for an improved understanding of the challenging problem and proposes a framework to effectively enhance image quality.
The original contributions are as follows: (1) Classical approach to stone segmentation in ureteroscopy and laser lithotripsy datasets. (2) Deep learning-based segmentation of stone and laser fibre in ureteroscopy and laser lithotripsy datasets. (3) Improving domain adaptation and generalisation of segmentation models using Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) in various endoscopy datasets. (4) Turbidity mitigation for improved visualisation in laser lithotripsy. (5) New synthetic, animal and clinical ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy datasets acquired and annotated to facilitate the development of computer vision algorithms.

Keywords: kidney stones
deep learning
laser lithotripsy
turbidity mitigation
ureteroscopy
segmentation
Advisor: Rittscher, J
Turney, B
Ali, S
The role of autophagy in DNA damage

Camptothecin (CPT) is a genotoxic agent widely used for the treatment of colorectal cancer. It acts by preventing the hydrolysis of the covalent bond between Topoisomerase-I (TOP1) and DNA. TOP1 is an enzyme that relieves the topological stress caused by the unwinding of the helix during replication. The prevention of its release from DNA creates TOP1 cleavage complexes (TOP1ccs): bulky adducts that block the progression of DNA polymerases. TOP1ccs are highly toxic for replicative cells and need to be repaired. Although the proteasome plays a role in the degradation of TOP1ccs, the studies describing this have been conducted with micromolar doses of CPT, unreachable in clinical settings. Nanomolar doses of CPT are considered as more clinically relevant. Therefore, the DNA damage they cause, and the repair pathways involved need to be investigated further. Recently, it has been shown that the TOP1ccs induced by nanomolar doses of CPT are partially processed by the complex consisting of the unfoldase p97, the protease SPRTN and TEX264. TEX264 is a transmembrane protein located at both the nuclear envelope and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Interestingly, TEX264 is a key player in selective autophagy of the ER. Autophagy is the recycling mechanism of the cell and is essential for general cellular homeostasis. Autophagy has a dichotomous role in cancer due to both its tumor-suppressor and tumor-promoting effects. In fact, the upregulation of autophagy for the survival of hypoxic or chemotherapeutically-targeted cancer cells is currently being studied. Consequently, we hypothesised a role for autophagy in the repair of nanomolar dose-induced TOP1ccs. Here, we show that micromolar doses of CPT elicit a different type of DNA damage compared to the more clinically-relevant nanomolar doses. Interestingly, isolation of proteins on nascent DNA (iPOND) has allowed us to observe the increased presence of numerous autophagy proteins at the replication fork. This technique allows to pulldown proteins in close proximity to the replication fork. Additionally, we study the autophagy-dependent clearance of proteotoxic aggregates formed upon nanomolar CPT treatment, proposing an explanation for the irrelevance of the proteasome in this context. Finally, the regulation of the autophagy receptor TEX264 is investigated with regards to a specific post-translational modification arising after CPT treatment. Taken together, these findings show that autophagy plays a key role in the repair of the DNA damage caused by clinically-relevant doses of CPT.

Keywords: TEX264
Topoisomerase I
Camptothecin
Autophagy
DNA Damage Repair
Advisor: Ramadan, K
D’Angiolella, V
Shifting religious borders and influence: the case of Morocco

This research critically examines Morocco’s strategies in shaping and projecting its national identity within the international sphere. At its core, Morocco’s identity is found to be plural and dynamic, influenced by both domestic diversity and evolving aspirations in the face of global interaction. Through strategic memberships in international organisations like the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF), Morocco leverages religious and linguistic markers to express cultural values and political aspirations. These markers not only act as ties binding nations but are also potent instruments in global diplomacy. Furthermore, the study delves into Morocco’s nation branding as a reflection of its strategic vision, combining cultural diversity with national unity under the “Morocco Brand.” Central to this branding effort is Morocco’s unique ‘model of Islam,’ which interweaves global perceptions with intrinsic values rooted in its identity, heritage, and culture. Through a focused lens on the Al Qaraouiyine Mosque and the city of Fes, this research underscores the symbolic significance these sites hold in Moroccan religious and cultural narratives. The interconnected relationships between the King, the Foundation, and the ‘Ulema, underpinned by principles like the Bay’a and notions of sacrality, further delineate Morocco’s distinct approach to Islam. In totality, this study elucidates the intricate web of strategies and symbolic assets Morocco employs to strengthen its image, identity, and influence on the global stage.

Advisor: Willis, M
A study of the behaviour of newts

Many ethologists have found the sexual behaviour of animals to be a fruitful field of study. This thesis reports an investigation of the sexual behaviour of the Newt, an animal that has hitherto received little attention from ethologists. “The study includes a number of species of the European genus Triturus (Urodela, Salamandridae).
The Introductory Chapter presents information concerning the biological background to newt sexual behaviour, including life-history, general behaviour and sensory capacities, together with an account of the observational and experimental procedures used in the study.
The sexual behaviour of the Smooth Newt, Triturus vulgaris, is described. The behaviour consists of a complex sequence of actions which lead to the transfer of a spermatophore from male to female. This sequence may be repeated a number of times in the course of a sexual encounter.
By a form of sequence analysis a number of correlations are established between male and female behaviours. For some behaviours, temporal correlations are established also. The hypothesis that these correlations are indicative of causal relationships is tested by a number of experiments in which the behaviour of the female is manipulated.
Much of the sexual behaviour sequence can be understood in terms of male responses to the female's general movements and, at certain points in the later part of the sequence, to specific stimuli provided by the female. Not all transitions between male behaviours can be explained in these terms; some parts of his behaviour are stereotyped patterns which are unaffected by the female's behaviour.
The sexual behaviour of T. vulgaris is compared with that of the Palmate Newt, T. helveticus and the Alpine Newt, T. alpestris, using data obtained during this study, and with that of the Crested Newt, T. cristatus, using the account given by J.B. Nelson (1959). Differences in the details and in the overall pattern of sexual behaviour in these species are discussed.
Some pilot experiments to investigate reproductive isolation between T. vulgaris and T. helveticus are described. These suggest an ethological isolating mechanism based on female selective responsiveness to the male's display.
Newt sexual behaviour is discussed as a functional system and is compared with the sexual behaviour of some other animals. Some factors _ that affect courtship success (i.e. successful spermatophore transfer) are discussed.
The evolution of sexual behaviour within the genus Triturus is discussed. Evolutionary aspects are considered also in relation to the sexual behaviour of other Urodeles.
Motivational aspects of sexual behaviour are discussed, with particular reference to the concepts of behavioural conflicts and thwarting. It is argued that the newt courtship sequence is better understood in terms of stimulus-response relationships than through the use of motivational models.

Keywords: newts
behaviour