VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Human capital formation and the American dust bowl

I use variation in childhood exposure to the Dust Bowl, an environmental shock to health and income, as a natural experiment to explain variation in adult human capital. I also examine a variety of mechanisms by which the Dust Bowl influenced later-life wellbeing, and investigate the scope for recovery from this early-life shock.
I find that exposure to the Dust Bowl in childhood has statistically significant and economically meaningful adverse impacts on later-life outcomes, for instance, increasing disability and reducing fertility and college completion. These results hold even after accounting for the possibly confounding effects of the Great Depression, migration, and selective fertility or mortality.
The effects I find are more severe for those born in agricultural states, suggesting that the Dust Bowl was most damaging via the destruction of agricultural livelihoods. This collapse of farm incomes, however, had the positive effect of increasing high school completion amongst the exposed, likely by reducing the demand for child farm labor where such labor was not essential to production, and thus decreasing the opportunity costs of secondary schooling; in this outcome, unlike in college completion, family income and student ability were irrelevant.
Many of the worst adverse effects are found amongst those exposed prenatally and in early childhood, suggesting that congenital complications in capability development, together with low parental incomes in utero and thereafter, may be to blame for such later-life disadvantage. Together, these findings imply that the Dust Bowl acted largely "indirectly," as an economic shock that in turn affected in utero and early-life conditions, rather than "directly," through personal exposure (e.g. dust inhalation) in childhood.
Lastly, results - particularly those on New Deal expenditure - imply both that remediation from early-life disaster is possible under the right circumstances, and that post-shock investment may have compensated for rather than reinforced damage to child endowments. The findings in this study are consistent with a multi-stage model of human capability formation, in which investments in one period respond to endowments in a previous one, and may either reinforce or compensate for these endowments.

Keywords: Dust Bowl
Economic history
Human capital formation
Wellbeing
Early-life health
1930s
Fetal origins
U.S. History
Advisor: Humphries, K
Unconventional superconductivity in strontium ruthenate

In this thesis, a weak coupling formalism is developed to study superconductivity in spin-orbit coupled, multi-orbital systems. This formalism is then applied to Sr2RuO4, one of the few candidates for odd-parity superconductivity. We show that spin-orbit coupling and multi-band effects are crucial to understand the physics of this material. Depending on the interaction parameters, the order parameter can either be chiral or helical. In both cases, the gap is highly anisotropic, and has accidental deep minima along certain directions, in accordance with experiments. Focusing then on the chiral case, we show that the total Chern number is -7 instead of the usually assumed +1. This leads to drastically different predictions for the thermal and charge Hall conductances. In particular, we show that the absence of measurable charge edge currents is not incompatible with a chiral state. Finally, we study the evolution of superconductivity in Sr2RuO4 under 〈100〉 uniaxial strain. We find a good agreement with experiments for our prediction of Tc as a function of strain. Furthermore, we find that (1) the absence of a measurable cusp of Tc at zero strain is not incompatible with a chiral state and that (2) there could be a transition to an even-parity state at larger strain close to a Van Hove singularity. We propose Hc,2/Tc2 c as a measurable quantity to identify this transition.

Advisor: Simon, S
"An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop"? The politics of work amongst Freetown's youth

Youth unemployment has been presented as a security risk to countries emerging from civil war. These assessments often rely on the assumption of a direct relationship between labour market exclusion and political violence. This thesis challenges this assumption, not by denying that the connection exists, but by suggesting that we need a better understanding of how the two are related. Through qualitative research with young people engaged precariously on the margins of the informal economy in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, the thesis explores how labour market experiences influence different patterns of political mobilisation. It puts forward that violence is not inherent to unemployment, but that the impact of joblessness on mobilisation is mediated by social factors and the specific nature of the post-war political economy. For Freetown's youth, labour market exclusion has implications for social status, identities, norms and the nature of social relations. This in turn shapes their political subjectivities and claims on the state; it structures the opportunities and constraints to their collective action; and influences their trajectories towards political violence. These processes reflect a fraught articulation between tactics employed expediently to respond to structural circumstances and longer-term aspirations. Individual attempts to survive adverse economic and political terrains coexist with work-based political claims placed on the state and aspirations of social and political inclusion, even if the two are often at odds and the former undermine the latter.

Advisor: Bano, M
Mustapha, R
Penalties reworked

An ‘agreed damages clause’ is a contractual provision whereby the parties agree on the damages one party must pay if that party breaches a term. A valid agreed damages clause, known as a ‘liquidated damages clause’, is enforceable. An invalid agreed damages clause, known as a ‘penalty clause’, is not. The ‘penalty rule’ is the legal doctrine that discriminates between the two types of clauses.
This thesis adopts a rights-based, interpretive and formalist methodology to examine the penalty rule as it has evolved, and exists today, in Anglo-Australian commercial law. The investigation proceeds in three parts. First, this thesis restates the law. It derives a principled account of the rule from the leading cases. Second, the thesis justifies the law as restated. It reveals a theory that rationally explains the penalty rule, providing good or legitimate reasons why the rule is as it is. Finally, this thesis refines the restated law in the light of its theoretical justification. It takes interpretive steps to improve the penalty rule, casting the rule in the best possible light.
This thesis concludes that a penalty clause is best understood as requiring one party, upon a default, to incur a detriment that is manifestly excessive in light of the clause’s legitimate function. The refined penalty rule invalidates a penalty clause by rendering it partially unenforceable. Also, this thesis illustrates that the rule encapsulates a principle of preventing consensual civil punishment, and that corrective justice norms justify that principle. As such, the penalty rule ultimately instantiates corrective justice. Further, this thesis demonstrates that a classificatory, correctivist theory scores extremely well on several criteria for evaluating private law theories. Such a rights-based theory is highly transparent, powerfully coherent, and practically beneficial. It also displays a tight fit with the current law.
In short, this thesis concludes that, viewed in the best possible light, the penalty rule is certain, elegant and (correctively) just.

Keywords: Agreed damages
Corrective justice
Taxonomy
Contract
Rights theory
Penalties
Liquidated damages
Remedies
Advisor: Burrows, A
The impact of innate immune cells on immunopathology in dengue

Dengue virus (DENV) is an arthropod-borne virus and has become a worldwide problem with steadily rising annual infection rates. Patients present with a range of symptoms from mild fever to, in some cases, life-threatening hemorrhagic fever and shock syndrome. The most severe cases require emergency hospital care and currently, there is no effective drug treatment or vaccine for dengue. As severe symptoms appear post-peak viremia, immuno-pathology is thought to be the cause and a potential trigger of this is differential activation of the immune response upon recognition of DENV. This could be due to a combination of factors including varying receptors, signalling pathways and immune regulation mechanisms. In order to understand DENV infection better, it is imperative to study the mechanisms of activation and control of immune responses triggered by the virus.
Very early events in viral infection (after 10 min stimulation) were studied aiming to identify proteins involved in differential activation of immune responses. Phosphorylated proteins were isolated from cells post-stimulation and analysed by mass spectrometry. More than 200 proteins were differentially regulated by phosphorylation in response to DENV stimulation as compared to Mock, Influenza A virus and LPS stimulation.
The effect of two specific proteins, namely Calpain-2 and Importin-5, identified to be differentially phosphorylated was investigated further. Calpain-2 was seen to be vital in the efficient production of progeny virions and the transcription of Mx1, an anti-viral interferon stimulated gene. Importin-5 is known to transport DENV NS5 into the nucleus during infection and was seen to co-precipitate with many host proteins.
In summary, it is imperative that novel treatments and vaccines are developed for dengue as it is one of the world’s most prevalent arthropod-borne viruses. It was discovered here that many proteins undergo phosphorylation/de-phosphorylation in response to DENV stimulation to a differing degree than other stimuli. Calpain-2 plays a vital role DENV infection, potentially influencing the potency of immune response. Importin-5 associates with various host proteins during DENV infection, potentially altering their function or the function of Importin-5 itself. Research into targeted inhibition of Calpain-2 function or Importin-5 interaction with DENV NS5 could lead to a successful anti-viral treatment for DENV infection.

Keywords: Immunopathology
Importin-5
Calpain-2
Dengue
Advisor: Luhn, K
Kessler, B
Telamonian Ajax: a study of his reception in archaic and classical Greece

This thesis is a systematic study of the representations of Telamonian Ajax in archaic and classical Greece. Its aim is to trace, examine, and understand how and why the constitutive elements of his myth evolved in the way they did in the long chain of its receptions. Particular attention is paid to the historical, socio-cultural and performative contexts of the literary works and visual representations I analyse as well as to the audience for which these were produced. The study is divided into three parts, each of which reflects a different reality in which Ajax has been received (different with respect to time, place, or literary genre). Artistic representations of the hero, as well as his religious dimension and political valence, are consistently taken into account throughout the thesis.
The first part – Ajax from Salamis – focuses on epic poetry, and thus investigates the Panhellenic significance of the hero (rather than his reception in a particular place). It treats the entire corpus of early Greek hexameter poetry that has come down to us in written form as the reception of a common oral tradition which each poem has adapted for its own purpose. I establish that in the larger tradition of the Trojan War, Ajax was a hero characterised by his gift of invulnerability. Because of this power, he is the figure who protects his companions – dead or alive – par excellence. However, this ability probably also led him to become over-confident, and, accordingly, to reject Athena's support on the battlefield. Hence, the goddess's hostility towards him, which she demonstrated by making him lose the reward of ἀριστεῖα (Achilles' arms). His defeat made Ajax so angry that he became mad and committed suicide. I also show how this traditional Ajax has been adapted to fit into the Iliad's own aesthetics.
The second part – Ajax in Aegina – concentrates on the reception of Ajax in the victory odes of Pindar and Bacchylides for Aeginetan patrons. I argue that in the first part of the fifth century, Ajax becomes a figure imbued with a strong political dimension (especially with regard to the relationship between Athens and Aegina). Accordingly, I show how the presence of Ajax in Pindar's and Bacchylides' poems is often politically charged, and significant within the historical context. I discuss the influence this had on his representation.
Finally, the third part moves to Athens, as I consider Ajax's reception during three distinct periods: the sixth century, the first half of the fifth century, and finally the rest of the classical period. I equally insist on the political dimension of the figure. I demonstrate that his figure undergoes a shift of paradigm in the early fifth century, which deeply affects his representation.
By following in the footsteps of Ajax, this study prompts a series of reflections and comments on each of the works in which the hero features as well as on the relationship of these works to the historical context in which they were produced.

Keywords: Ajax
Advisor: Budelmann, F
‘Extracting the essence’: Bcud len in the Tibetan literary tradition

The Tibetan practice of bcud len, or ‘extracting the essence’, has been for long a neglected aspect of Tibetan medical and spiritual knowledge with scattered evidence and little certainty regarding its origins or the extent of its effective presence, either in the past or at currently. In this study, seventy-three texts have been identified and tabulated. Of these, sixty-seven have been summarised and commented on, and five of these, each representative of one type of the practice, have been translated in full. All but a handful of these texts have not been translated previously.
The research findings suggest that, whatever its influences from Indian, Chinese or other medical cultures, bcud len soon evolved into a distinctively Tibetan method of life enhancement, with teachings that emphasise both spiritual and medical aims and the use of indigenous Tibetan remedies, accompanied in some cases by particular rituals. The content of the texts indicates that the term bcud len can be applied legitimately to practices involving ritually empowered pills and elixirs which are ingested, respiratory and yogic exercises, dietary restrictions and rituals involving mantra recitation, visualisation and yab yum union with a consort, in that all these are considered to be means of obtaining 'the essence'.
The teachings offer extensive material for those interested in the evolution and contemporary practice of Tibetan medicine, especially its botanical aspects, and for historians of ritual. In particular, the texts provide ample evidence of the lineage tradition in Tibetan religious culture, citing examples of transmissions through gter ma, whereby teachings are preserved in secret to be recovered at a future date by a gter ton or treasure revealer.
The final section contains conversations with Tibetan doctors, lamas and contemporary practitioners of bcud len in Asia and the West that complement recent ethnographic studies in the field testifying to the continuing vitality of the tradition.

Keywords: Tibet
gter ma
buddhism
bcud len
Medicine
Advisor: Ramble, C
Roesler, U
Structural studies of class A and D plexins

Semaphorin signalling via the plexin receptors, important in the nervous, cardiovascular, immune and skeletal systems, requires cytoplasmic domain dimerisation but its extracellular regulation and activation mechanisms remain unclear. In the thesis I conducted structural characterisation for two particular classes of verterbrate plexins, PlxnAs and PlxnD1.
Here I present crystal structures of PlxnA1, PlxnA2 and PlxnA4 full ectodomains. The first nine domains of PlxnAs forma 230 Å long ring-like stalk fromwhich the tenth C-terminal domain points away. In agreement, negative stain electron microscopy of the PlxnA1 ectodomain reveals a predominant ring-like conformation and a minor twisted-open conformation of the stalk. All PlxnA crystal structures also make intermolecular "head-to-stalk" (domain 1 to domain 4-5) interactions, which are confirmed by structure-guided biophysical assays and live cell fluorescence microscopy. Functional assays performed in COS-7 cell and dentate gyrus growth cones revealed an autoinhibitory mechanism for PlxnAs based on this head-to-stalk interface. My results reveal a two-fold role for the PlxnA ectodomains: imposing a presignalling autoinhibitory separation of the PlxnA membrane proximal domains via a head-to-stalk, intermolecular interaction and supporting PlxnA cytoplasmic domain dimerisation post semaphorin-binding.
For PlxnD1, I present high-resolution crystal structures of its semaphorinbinding segment (domains 1-2) as well as an initial structural model of its complete ectodomain (domains 1-10). The sema (domain 1) of PlxnD1 has the classic fold of a plexin sema domain as well as distinct insertions potentially important for its ligand-binding specificity. The PlxnD1 ectodomain adopts a closed-ring conformation in its crystal structure, in which the tail (domain 9) interacts with the sema domain head. In-solution experiments suggest structural variability and potential weak oligomerization for the PlxnD1 ectodomain. These new structures shed light on the unique and previously uncharacterised structural basis for PlxnD1 signalling.

Advisor: Jones, E
Elucidating the role of non-muscle myosin II in Caenorhabditis elegans stem-like seam cell divisions

Caenorhabiditis elegans seam cells (SC) are multipotent neuroectodermal cells that undergo both symmetrical and asymmetrical divisions throughout larval development, thus providing a valuable model system to gain mechanistic insights into the regulation of asymmetric divisions and the switch between the symmetric and asymmetric modes of division. Reiterative SC asymmetric division typically produces a differentiative anterior daughter that moves out of the seam line and joins the hyp7 syncytium and a proliferative posterior daughter that retains seam fate and carries on dividing. Non-muscle myosin II (NMY II) has emerged as a key regulator in the asymmetric divisions of the C. elegans zygote, the C. elegans Q neuroblast, and the Drosophila neuroblast systems. In addition to being an essential player in cytokinesis, nmy-2's roles in cell adhesion and migration processes further underline its potential as a regulator of seam cell asymmetric divisions.
In this thesis work, I investigated the role of NMY-2 in C. elegans seam cell divisions. I found that nmy-2 is expressed in the seam and its protein localization is dynamic during SC divisions. Post-embryonic nmy-2 knockdown using a combination of temperature sensitive mutants and RNA interference robustly reduces terminal SC number. This reduction is due to progressive SC loss after each asymmetric division as a consequence of aberrant cell fate determination. I identified three classes of cell fate transformation phenotypes following nmy-2 knockdown, and sought to dissect the cell molecular basis of these phenotypes using a dual-color fate reporter strain. Although prevalent in nmy-2 knockdown, cytokinesis defects are not the only cause of SC losses. nmy-2 also does not appear to regulate SC divisions by affecting spindle positioning. In summary, nmy-2 function is crucial to ensure the proper division and fate specification in post-embryonic SC development.

Keywords: cell fate patterning
asymmetric cell divisions
stem cell
myosin
Advisor: Woollard, A
Mapping the pro-inflammatory epitope of tenascin-C

Endogenous molecules, including extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, have been shown to induce inflammation via toll-like receptor (TLR) activation in order to drive an immune response to tissue damage. Tenascin-C, an ECM glycoprotein transiently induced in injury and persistently expressed during chronic inflammatory diseases, stimulates cytokine synthesis via activation of TLR4 by its C-terminus fibrinogen-like globe (FBG-C) domain. However, the specific epitope of FBG-C that activates TLR4 is not known. Unlike tenascin-C, other tenascin family members (tenascin-R, -W and -X) are constitutively expressed in healthy adult tissues but also contain a highly homologous FBG domain. I have used comparative analysis of the tenascin family FBG domains to elucidate the molecular mechanism by which FBG-C activates TLR4. The ability of each tenascin FBG domain to activate NF-κB in ThP1 cells and cytokine synthesis in primary human macrophages was assessed. Direct binding to TLR4 was evaluated in vitro using a solid phase binding assay. Peptide mapping and site-directed mutagenesis were used to elucidate specific residues within the FBG domain involved in TLR4 binding and activation. Molecular modelling and docking simulations were performed to analyse the structural basis of the FBG-TLR4 interaction. I've shown for the first time that, in addition to tenascin-C, other tenascin family members (-R and -W) can induce a TLR4 mediated inflammatory response, whereas tenascin-X cannot. The active FBG domains bound directly to TLR4, in the absence of any co-receptor, with low nM affinity. The pro-inflammatory epitope of the FBG domain of tenascins lies in loop 5 in the P-subdomain, where positively charged amino acids are necessary for the activation of TLR4, whilst two other regions in loops 7 and 10 assist in mediating high affinity binding to this receptor. Introducing these sites into FBG-X enabled this domain to bind to TLR4 and to induce an inflammatory response. Together these data revealed how endogenous molecules can induce an immune response and may help in the design of specific inhibitors of TLR stimuli that contain FBG domains.

Advisor: Midwood, K