VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The contribution of new radiocarbon dating pre-treatment techniques to understanding the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Iberia

In the last ten years it has become apparent that the radiocarbon dating method can significantly underestimate the age of samples > 25 ka BP because routine pre-treatment protocols may not remove sufficient contaminants. In response, new pre-treatment protocols have been proposed, and two in particular, ultrafiltration of bone collagen and ABOx-SC of charcoal, show promise. This thesis has tested whether these methods effectively remove contaminants without adding carbon in the laboratory. Subsequently it used them, alongside careful selection of humanly modified material and Bayesian statistical analysis, to test the radiocarbon-based chronology of the Iberian Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition.
Both protocols were found to effectively remove environmental contaminants, but add small amounts of laboratory-derived carbon. Using known age standards, a correction has been calculated for the ultrafiltration protocol to counter the effect of the laboratory-derived carbon. A similar correction could not be made for the ABOx-SC protocol due to uncertainties in the age of the standards and underlying chemical processes. However, the effect of such contamination did not have a significant effect on the chronologies developed for the sites examined in this thesis.
96 new radiocarbon dates have been obtained from the Iberian Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. A further 50 dates recovered from the literature and are regarded as reliable. The most alarming finding of this thesis is that routine pre-treatment protocols may cause dates to be underestimated by more than 10 ka 14C years. The implication of offsets of this magnitude in Iberia is significant: whereas a prolonged survival of Neanderthals south of the Ebro valley has been observed in the published dataset, this study could not replicate such ages. Preservation did not allow the arrival of anatomically modern humans to be dated in the south. However, using typological arguments and the chronology constructed for the north of the Peninsula, it is unlikely that they were present in this region before 38,080 – 36,680 cal BP (95% probability). This implies a temporal gap of at least 4,490 – 12,740 cal years, although it is unclear whether this is due to taphonomic factors or is a real period of abandonment. This pattern contrasts to northern areas of the Peninsula where the Aurignacian appears at 42,330 – 40,980 cal BP, shortly postdating the start of the Châtelperronian and end of the Mousterian.
It is hoped that the chronology produced will warn against the use of radiocarbon dates produced using poor pre-treatment protocols and has laid the foundations from which a more accurate and more precise chronology can be built in the future.

Keywords: Paleolithic
Archaeology
Neanderthal
Aurignacian
Mousterian
Palaeolithic
Radiocarbon
Advisor: Higham, T
The influence of invariant natural killer T cells on myeloid-derived suppressor cell generation and function

The absence of invariant Natural Killer T cells (iNKT cells) in mice infected with Influenza A virus (flu) has previously been shown to augment the expansion of Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), a bone marrow derived population that powerfully suppress the development of viral and tumor immune responses. Moreover, iNKT cell adoptive transfer into flu-infected mice has been shown to abolish the expansion and flu-induced suppressive activity of the MDSCs in a CD1d- and CD40-dependent manner. However, the mechanisms by which this relatively small subset of T cells influence myelopoiesis and MDSC differentiation remain largely unknown.
In this manuscript we firstly better define the MDSCs found in flu-infection as IL-10-secreting neutrophils that can suppress T cell proliferation. We then go further to show that the flu-induced ability to suppress T cells is acquired as early as the level of the Granulocyte-Macrophage Progenitors (GMPs) in the bone marrow and that iNKT cells can not only abrogate the suppressive activity of the IL-10-secreting neutrophils in the periphery but also that of the GMPs by a direct CD1d-dependent GCSF-mediated crosstalk.
MDSC expansion has previously been shown to be associated with the expression of the myeloid-related protein S100A9, and the mechanism of action of granulocytic-MDSCs shown to be ARG1-dependent. We built upon both these findings to show that iNKT cells influence the expansion and function of the MDSCs in part by regulating S100A9 and ARG1 expression. Following this we then showed for the first time that the acute phase protein Serum Amyloid A (SAA), shown to increase during flu-infection, has a dual reciprocal role: having the ability to up-regulate S100A9 and ARG1 in myeloid cells and differentiate IL-10-secreting suppressive neutrophils, while simultaneously facilitating the ability of the MDSCs to crosstalk with iNKT cells in a CD1d-dependent GCSF-mediated manner to abrogate the SAA-induced suppressive activity.
All together the data highlights the complexity of the immune response and the role iNKT cells play in influencing the differentiation of MDSCs during demand-driven myelopoiesis. More importantly however, it further affirms that research into harnessing the immunomodulatory capacity of iNKT cells remains an exciting prospect in bolstering future vaccination strategies and should continue to be pursued.

Keywords: iNKT
Myeloid-derived Suppressor Cells
Advisor: Cerundolo, V
Andrew of St. Victor, a twelfth century hebraist

The aim of this study is to examine the biblical commentaries of Andrew of St. Victor, abbot of Wigmore (d.1175), and to pay particular attention to his Jewish sources.
Andrew wrote commentaries on most of the books of the Old Testament. His work can be divided into three groups: commentaries on the historical books, written before 1147; interpretations of the prophetical books, written shortly after c.1134; and his exposition of the Song of Songs, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, written before 1161 or 1163. Ever since Miss Smalley's articles in the Rech.Théol.anc.méd. of 1938 and 1939 and her book, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, the importance of Andrew as a commentator has been recognized, but the fact that his works exist in manuscript form only, apart from his commentaries on Ecclesiastes and Jonah, has prevented his writings from becoming more widely known. For this reason I originally intended to prepare an edition of a commentary on one of the Pentateuchal books. However, as it became clear that an edition would lose much of its value without an examination of the sources Andrew used, I decided to concentrate on the latter. The large number of his commentaries made it necessary, all the same, to select one or two for special study. The interpretations of Exodus and Isaiah were chosen, first because they were written during different periods of Andrew's life, thus making it possible to follow any changes in his exegetical method; and secondly because the different contents of these books present their commentators with different problems.
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Axiomatic studies of truth

In contemporary formal theory of truth, model-theoretic and non-classical approaches have been dominant. I rather pursue the so-called classical axiomatic approaches toward truth and my dissertation begins by arguing for the classical axiomatic approach and against the others. The classical axiomatic approach inevitably leads to abandonment of the nave conception of truth and revision of the basic principles of truth derived from that nave conception such as the full T-schema. In the absence of the general guiding principles based on that nave conception, we need to conduct tedious but down-to-earth eld works' of various theories of truth by examining and comparing them from various points of view in searching for satisfactory theories of truth. As such attempt, I raise two new criteria for comparison of truth theories, make a proof-theoretic study of them in connection to the foundation of mathematics.

Keywords: logic
Proof theory
philosophy of language
Theory of truth
Advisor: Halbach, V
Williamson, T
Organic Brønsted acid-catalysed enantioselective N-acyliminium cyclisation cascades

This thesis concerns the development of the first BINOL phosphoric acid (BPA) catalysed enantioselective N-acyliminium cyclisation reactions and their incorporation into domino sequences that allow for the construction of architecturally complex enantioenriched polycycles in a single step from easily accessible starting materials. More specifically, this thesis deals with the discovery of a BPA-catalysed enantioselective N-acyliminium cyclisation cascade of enol lactones and tryptamines. Its extension to a doubly catalysed process involving gold(I) to cycloisomerise alkynoic acids and a BPA to effect the enantioselective N-acyliminium cyclisation is presented. In addition, the exploitation of this method in highly diastereo- and enantioselective N-acyliminium cyclisations of oxoacids and tryptamines and in a site isolated base-catalysed Michael addition / acid-catalysed N-acyliminium cyclisation cascade is described. A study on the proposed mechanism and model for the origin of enantioselectivity is discussed, based on experimental data and a computational study. As a separate part of our programme, the development of a new class of stronger Brønsted acids, chiral benzenesulphonic acids, is described. The optimisation of the synthetic routes as well as the synthesis of a library of acids is presented and their assessment in precedented reactions is discussed.

Keywords: organocatalysis
Bronsted
enantioselective
cascade
acid
phosphoric
binol
indole
asymmetric
N-acyliminium
cyclisation
Advisor: Dixon, D
Stochastic agent-based modelling for reality

This D.Phil. thesis develops a new agent-based simulation model to improve the results of analysis, which solely uses discrete choice modelling, as well as to analyse the effects of a road user charging scheme for the Upper Derwent Valley in the Peak District National Park. The advantages of discrete choice analysis are well known. However, results with these conventional conventional approaches, which conduct analysis solely with discrete choice models, can be biased if interaction and learning effects are significant. The Minority Game, in which agents try to choose the option of the minority side, is an appropriate tool to deal with these problems. The situation in the Upper Derwent Valley can be explained with economic game theories and the Minority Game. The two approaches mutually help to analyse the situation in the Upper Derwent Valley leading to the development of a stochastic Minority Game. The stochastic Minority Game was tested with an online game (questionnaire), which was played 3,886 times by response in all around the world. The practical part of this thesis examines the components of the stochastic Minority Game with the data collected around the Upper Derwent Valley. The main data was collected using a stated preference survey. Overall, 700 questionnaires were distributed and 323 of them were returned (i.e. a return rate of 46.1 %). In the practical part, the agent-based model has four sub modules: 1) Multinomial mixed logit model for mode choice, 2) Binary logit model for parking location choice, 3) Markov queue model for parking network, and 4) the Minority Game for parking congestion and learning. This simulation model produces comprehensive outputs including mode choices, congestion levels, and user utilities. The results show that the road user charging scheme reduces car demand in the Upper Derwent Valley and ensures a reduction in congestion at the parking areas. The model also shows that an exemption will increase the utilities of elderly visitors without substantially sacrificing those of younger visitors. In conclusion, the simulation model demonstrated that oversimplification in conventional approaches solely using discrete choice models gave significant biases when real world problems were analysed.

Keywords: discrete choice
agent-based model
National Park
Advisor: Preston, J
Advanced optoelectronic characterisation of solar cells

Optoelectronic characterisation techniques are assessed in their application to three solar cell systems.
Charge injection barriers are found in PbS/ZnO colloidal quantum dot solar cells through the use of temperature dependent current-voltage and capacitance-voltage measurements. The injection barriers are shown to complicate the Mott-Schottky capacitance analysis which determines built-in bias and doping density. A model that incorporates depletion capacitance and a constant capacitance arising from the injection barriers is given to explain the Mott-Schottky plots. The junction mechanism at the PbS/ZnO interface is found to transition from excitonic to p-n behaviour based on the amount of UV photodoping the cell has received. External quantum efficiency analysis at different photodoping times reveals a growing charge collection region within the material, demonstrating the shift to p-n behaviour. This is further supported by the observance of depletion capacitance behaviour after, but not before, UV photodoping.
Defects within GaAs cells containing InAs quantum dots are found to enhance the sub-bandgap performance of the cell using external quantum efficiency analysis. This is verified by illuminated current-voltage analysis using a 1000 nm high pass optical filter to block photons of larger energy than the bandgap. Using capacitance-voltage analysis, high temperature rapid thermal annealing is shown to induce defects in dilute nitride cells, which explains the drop in open circuit voltage compared to lower temperature annealed cells.
The doping level of polymer solar cells exposed to air is found to increase with continued exposure using Mott-Schottky capacitance analysis. Current-voltage measurements show the formation of an Al2O3 barrier layer at the polymer/aluminium interface. The usefulness of capacitance-voltage measurements to probe the polymer/fullerene interface is investigated in thermally evaporated thiophene/C60 cells.

Keywords: impedance spectroscopy
polymer solar cells
quantum dot solar cells
solar cells
Advisor: Watt, A
Assender, H
Human-carnivore conflict in Tanzania: modelling the spatial distribution of lions (Panthera leo), leopards (Panthera pardus) and spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta), and their attacks upon livestock, in Tanzania’s Ruaha landscape

Tanzania’s Ruaha landscape is an international priority area for large carnivore conservation, harbouring roughly 10% of the world’s lions, and important populations of leopards and spotted hyaenas. However, these large carnivore populations are threatened by intense retaliatory killing due to human-carnivore conflict on village land around Ruaha National Park (RNP), mostly as a result of livestock predation by lions, leopards and spotted hyaenas. Moreover, a current lack of ecological data on the distribution of these carnivores hinders the development of effective strategies for conservation and targeted conflict mitigation in this landscape. This study aimed to identify the most significant ecogeographical variables (EGVs) influencing the distribution of lions, leopards and spotted hyaenas across the Ruaha landscape, and to map areas of conservation importance for these species. In addition, the study assessed the influence of EGVs on livestock predation risk by these carnivores in the village land around RNP, and generated a predictive map of predation risk. The relative importance of livestock husbandry practices and EGVs in terms of influencing predation risk within enclosures was also investigated. Proximity to rivers was the most important variable influencing the distribution of large carnivores in Ruaha, and contributed to predation risk of grazing livestock. The traditional livestock husbandry adopted in bomas appeared insufficient to alleviate the inherent risk of predation by large carnivores. The study produced the first detailed maps of lion, leopard and spotted hyaena distribution in the critically important Ruaha landscape, and identified likely livestock depredation hotspots. These results will target conflict mitigation approaches around Ruaha, by identifying particularly high-risk areas for livestock enclosures and grazing stock. Improving husbandry in these areas could help reduce livestock depredation and retaliatory carnivore killing, therefore reducing one of the most significant conservation threats in this critically important landscape.

Keywords: human-carnivore conflict
Support vector machines
ENFA
modelling
Maxent
Large carnivores
Advisor: Macdonald, D
Dickman, A
The Anacreontea in England to 1683

The thesis is based on a first-line catalogue of versions of the Greek Anacreontea in Latin, French and Italian from 1469 to 1605 (55 poets) and in England from 1518 to 1683 (59 poets). Texts are given of the principal versions of the six most popular Anacreontic poems: these are the two recusationes (Poems 1 and 16 in Stephanus), "The Beggar Cupid" (Poem 3), a drinking song (19), "Cupid and the Bee" (40), and the cicada-poem (43). After a review of modern critical theory of the quality, dating and authorship of the Anacreontea, it is shown how the poems became famous as the work of Anacreon in France in the 1550s, through the efforts of Estienne, Dorat and Ronsard: one unpublished poem may have been known earlier by Joannes Secundus. All the versions of the six poems listed above are compared in detail: particular attention is paid to the sources and tone of the English translations. Some account is given of all other English poets and dramatists of the period who made use of the Anacreontea. Included are imitations by Watson, Barnes, and other Elizabethan sonneteers: scholarly versions by A. W. and Thomas Stanley: and the "paraphrastic" translations of Cowley, Willis and Wood. There are detailed discussions of Spenser's "Anacreontics" in Amoretti, of Holyday's play Technogamia, of Lovelace's "The Grasse-hopper", and of emblems by Whitney and Ayres: also included are versions by Berkenhead, Brome, Cotton, Drayton, Thomas Forde, Greene, Greville, Herrick, Richard James, Jonson, Kendall, Leech, Lodge, Oldham, Randolph, Rochester, Shakespeare, Sherburne, Shirley, Sidney, Soowthern, Spelman, Suckling, Thomas Tomkis and Mary Wroth. The conclusion summarises contemporary translation theory, and delineates three main phases of translation in England. There is a special discussion of poems entitled "Anacreontics", and a list of seventeenth-century musical settings.
The centrality of the state in the governing of higher education in South Korea: A critical discourse analysis

This thesis takes the critical incident of the suicide of a part-time lecturer in South Korea in 2010 and the subsequent policy response as paradigmatic of the problems of governing higher education. In terms of theoretical resources, it draws on state theories, especially a cultural approach to the state, in order to understand the multiple relations and the interplay of different layers of governing practices in the governing of higher education in South Korea. This thesis argues that mainstream theories of the state are often culturally 'blind' and that the specificities of the Korean state need to be understood with reference to its particular culture, history and context. The thesis also draws on literature on higher education governance, from which three governing principles are identified as topics for investigation, along with a process-oriented approach to professionalism. The research question emerging from this is 'how does the centrality of the Korean state play out in the governing of higher education in South Korea?' Methodologically, the enquiry is shaped by critical discourse analysis (CDA). This approach explores the ways in which higher education governing discourses are related to other social elements. By analysing policy texts and institutional characteristics, the first phase of the enquiry explores how the governing discourses have been indigenised, constructing particular state-academy relations in South Korea. The second phase scrutinises the case of part-time lecturer policy in order to illuminate the distinctive governing dynamics, by which the centrality of the Korean state is assumed to be practised.

Keywords: higher education governance
Advisor: Ozga, J
Oancea, A
Molecular dissection of ionotropic glutamate receptor delta-family interactions with trans-synaptic proteins

Correct functioning of the brain relies upon the precise connectivity between the billions of neurons that make up this crucial organ. Aberrations in the formation of these elaborate neural networks lead to neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. A synapse-spanning molecular triad, involving members of the Neurexin, Cbln and ionotropic glutamate receptor delta families of proteins, is crucial for the accurate formation and proper function of synapses in the cerebellum. This trans-synaptic complex has been implicated in the molecular mechanisms behind motor control and motor learning, and furthermore individual members have been linked to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia.
The major findings presented in this thesis include: crystal structures of the amino-terminal domains (ATD) of the two members of the ionotropic glutamate receptor delta (iGluR-Delta) family, functional characterisation of the effects of disrupting the ATD interface in one member of the iGluR-Delta family, a crystal structure of the C1q domain of Cbln1, biophysical analysis of the molecular interactions within the Neurexin-Cbln1-GluD2 trans-synaptic complex, as well as evidence for the domain arrangement of the ecto-domain of the iGluR-Delta proteins. Together, these data enhance our knowledge of the molecular details of this macro-molecular complex and provide evidence to support models for the mechanisms of their involvement in synapse formation and function, thereby making a contribution to the vast and medically relevant field of molecular neurobiology.

Keywords: membrane proteins
trans-synaptic protein complexes
X-ray crystallography
Advisor: Aricescu, R