VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Uncertainty, investment and capital accumulation: a structural econometric approach

This thesis contributes to the empirical literature about how uncertainty affects firm-level investment behavior and capital accumulation using a structural econometric approach. Chapter 2 surveys the literature and highlights that there are two key channels through which uncertainty may affect investment decisions. One reflects the non-linearity of operating profits in stochastic demand or productivity parameters, summarized as the Hartman-Abel-Caballero (HAC) effect. Another reflects frictions in capital adjustment, summarized by different forms of capital adjustment costs: partial irreversibility, a fixed cost of undertaking any investment and quadratic adjustment costs. Chapter 3 presents simulation evidence about the effects of uncertainty on investment dynamics and capital accumulation through different forms of adjustment costs. Using the Method of Simulated Moments, Chapters 4 and 5 estimate fully parametric structural investment models, for panels of Brazilian and UK manufacturing firms, respectively. Chapter 4 investigates the effects of reducing capital adjustment costs. Counterfactual simulations indicate that investment would be much more responsive to new information about profitability if firms in Brazil faced a lower level of adjustment costs. A lower level of adjustment costs would also induce firms to operate with substantially higher capital stocks. Both these effects are mainly due to the importance of the estimated quadratic adjustment costs. Chapter 5 then investigates the effects of changing the level of uncertainty. The estimated investment models predict a small effect of uncertainty on investment dynamics in the short-run, and a negative and potentially large effect of uncertainty on capital accumulation in the long-run. The long-run effect of uncertainty operates through the negative effect of quadratic adjustment costs in the baseline model, or through a richer combination of effects in an extended model that allows discount rates to vary with the level of uncertainty.

Keywords: investment
structural estimation
uncertainty
Advisor: Bond, S
DNA damage responses to loss of telomere integrity

Linear genomes end in characteristic structures consisting of repetitive DNA and proteins: the telomeres. These play two critical roles: on one hand they avoid the of loss of genetic information due to the incomplete replication of the chromosome ends and on the other, they provide capping structures for chromosome termini, differentiating them from double strand breaks. Telomeres contain specialized proteins (the shelterin complex), as well as proteins present elsewhere on the chromosomes (chromatin remodelling, DNA damage repair and response factors). Interestingly, several DNA damage factors are required for proper telomere maintenance, drawing a thin line between telomere protection and their recognition as broken DNA ends.
Loss of telomere integrity has severe consequences for the cell, namely it can induce replicative senescence and cellular aging, or it can contribute to tumorigenesis. How telomeres are capped and how they are perceived by the cell when they become dysfunctional is essential for our understanding of the contribution of loss of telomere integrity to aging and disease. In order to unravel new factors involved in telomere maintenance, siRNA screens were performed. The optimization process has confirmed both telomeric foci and telomere dysfunction-induced foci (TIFs) as suitable readouts and the screens performed generated a list of potential candidate genes involved in telomere biology. Although some of the candidate genes tested in this work failed the validation process, other genes deserve further analysis.
In addition this work also studied the role of several DNA damage factors at uncapped telomeres. Furthermore, BRCA1, CtIP and EXO1 were found to be critical for the formation of end-to-end fusions generated after TRF2 inactivation. The requirement of this proteins in this process, suggests that not only that not only the classical non-homologous end joining (C-NHEJ) pathway is active at TRF2-depelted telomeres, but emphasises the multiplicity of mechanisms that act to repair dysfunctional telomeres.

Keywords: CtIP
DNA damage response
BRCA1
Telomere integrity
EXO1
Advisor: Tarsounas, M
Choosing to run: a history of gender and athletics in Kenya, c. 1940s - 1980s

Choosing to Run: A History of Athletics and Gender in Kenya, c. 1940s – 1980s explores the history of gender and athletics in Kenya, with focus on the Rift Valley Province, from the onset of late colonial rule in the 1940s through the professionalisation of the sport during the last decades of the twentieth century.
The first two empirical chapters provide a history of athletics during the colonial period. The first highlights the continuity of ideas about sport and masculinity that were developed in nineteenth century Britain and were subsequently perpetuated by the men in charge of colonial sport in Kenya. The next chapter considers how pre-colonial divisions of labour and power within Rift Valley communities informed local peoples' cultures of running. The absence of women’s running was not only the result of sexism translated from the British metropole to its Kenyan colony but also of pre-existing divisions of responsibilities of indigenous Kenyan men and women into separate, gendered domains.
The second half of the thesis considers the impact of social change within women’s athletics internationally and of marriage, childbirth and education locally on female runners in the Rift Valley during the post-colonial period. Most women abandoned athletics once they reached maturity. Those who sought to do otherwise, as the final chapter argues, found that they could only do so by replicating the prototype of masculine runners that had already been established. Later, after the professionalisation of running allowed women to become wealthy, female patrons took this a step further by providing resources to those in their community in need, setting themselves up as 'Big (Wo)men'. This thesis uses athletics to reveal how gender relations and gender norms have evolved and the benefits and challenges that the sport has brought both to individual Kenyan women and their communities.

Keywords: economic history
athletics
Kenya
gender
Africa
social history
sport
running
Advisor: Cheeseman, N
Deutsch, J
Analyses of functional sequence in mammalian and avian genomes

The first draft sequence of the human genome was published over a decade ago, yet interpreting the functional importance of nucleotides in genomes is still an ongoing challenge. I took a comparative genomic approach to identify functional sequence using signatures of natural selection in DNA sequences. Mutations that are purged or propagated by selection mark sequences of significance for biological fitness. I developed and refined methods for estimating the quantity of sequence constrained with respect to insertions and deletions (indels) between two genome sequences, a quantity I termed αselIndel. This sequence is evolving more slowly than surrounding neutral sequence due to the purging of deleterious indel variants, and thus this sequence is likely to be functional. I estimated αselIndel between diverse mammalian and avian species pairs, and found a strong negative correlation between αselIndel and the divergence between the species’ genome sequences. This implies that functional sequence turns over rapidly as it is lost and gained over time. I quantified the variable levels of sequence constraint, and rates of sequence turnover, for different types of human biochemically annotated element. Furthermore, I found that similar rates of functional turnover have occurred across mammalian and avian evolution. Finally, I identified positively selected amino acid residues that may be important for Darwin’s finch beak development, and found evidence of adaptively evolving reproductive proteins in the ancestral songbird lineage. Collectively these results demonstrate the wide-spread nature of lineage-specific functional sequence with implications for understanding species traits and the use of model organisms to inform human biology.

Keywords: bioinformatics
genomics
turnover
evolution
indel
Advisor: Ponting, C
Modelling embankment breaching due to overflow

Correct modelling of embankment breach formation is essential for an accurate assessment of the associated flood risk. Modelling breach formation due to overflow requires a thorough understanding of the geotechnical processes in unsaturated soils as well as erosion processes under supercritical flow conditions. This thesis describes 1D slope stability analysis performed for unsaturated soils whose moisture content changes with time. The analysis performed shows that sediment-laden gravity flows play an important role in the erosion behaviour of embankments. The thesis also describes a practical, fast breach model based on a simplified description of the physical processes that can be used in modelling and decision support frameworks for flooding. To predict the breach hydrograph, the rapid model distinguishes between breach formation due to headcut erosion and surface erosion in the case of failure due to overflow. The model also predicts the breach hydrograph in the case of failure due to piping. The assumptions with respect to breach flow modelling are reviewed, and result in a new set of breadth-integrated Navier-Stokes equations, that account for wall shear stresses and a variable breadth geometry. The vertical 2D flow field described by the equations can be used to calculate accurately the stresses on the embankment during the early stages of breach formation. Pressure-correction methods are given for solving the 2D Navier-Stokes equations for a variable breadth, and good agreement is found when validating the flow model against analytical solutions.

Keywords: erosion
embankments
Navier-Stokes
breach
unsaturated soil
fluid dynamics
Advisor: Martin, C
Borthwick, A
Morris, M
Polyvinyl alcohol surface modification

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a polymer used in numerous applications, principally those in which its high water solubility is a desirable asset. However there are also areas where PVA is limited by its inherent solubility (for example some specific environments in the biomedical field). This work has sought to overcome such limits by manipulating the surface of PVA in order to propose various means by which the surface solvent resistance might be increased while maintaining the bulk properties of the polymer. Both chemical and physical modifications have been tried and in each case progress has been made towards insolubilizing a single surface of the polymer when in film form.
Grafting various species onto the surface of PVA was successfully performed. It is believed that such species bonded to the PVA via attachment to the hydroxyl groups (though this has not been proven conclusively). The data contained herein has led to the conclusion that the primary factor in reducing solubility this way is the removal of the hydroxyl groups, and not the attachment of specifically highly hydrophobic molecules.
Introducing permanent cross-links into the surface region has been attempted via various routes. The data recorded shows promise however the system is far from optimised. The biggest challenge remaining is to optimise the depth of material cross-linked. Some steps have been made towards understanding and controlling this parameter though there is much scope for further investigation. The methods used have built on those used for bulk cross-linking and as such are new for the case of surface specific treatment.
An interesting phenomenon in some semi-crystalline polymers reported in recent years is that of surface specific crystallization. This effect has been successfully induced and observed in PVA to produce what is believed to be a highly crystalline surface layer, and crystalline regions of PVA are generally accepted to be more water resistant than amorphous ones.
In summary, in this work several surface-specific treatments for PVA have been trialled, providing options for post-film forming modification to reduce the surface water sensitivity whilst retaining the bulk properties of the polymer.

Keywords: surface modification
pva
polyvinyl alcohol
pvoh
Advisor: Assender, H
The Roman festival of the Lupercalia : history, myth, ritual and its Indo-European heritage

The Roman festival of the Lupercalia is one of the most discussed issues in the field of pre-Christian Roman religion. Hardly a year goes by without an article on the subject appearing in a major Classics journal. But the festival presents a range of issues that individual articles cannot address. This thesis is an attempt to present a modern analysis of the phenomenon of the Lupercalia as a whole, including literary, archaeological and historical evidence on the subject.
The first section presents the ancient sources on the Lupercalia, and is divided into five chapters, each analysing a particular aspect of the festival: fertility, purification, the importance of the wolf and the foundation myth, the mythology of Arcadian origins, and Caesar's involvement with the Lupercalia of 44 BC. The second section places the Lupercalia in a wider context, discussing the festival's topography and the course of the running Luperci, its relationship to other lustration rituals, and its position in the Roman calendar, ending with an appraisal of the changes it underwent in late Antiquity. The third section employs methods from linguistics, anthropology and comparative religion to show that the Lupercalia involved a ritual of initiation, which was also reflected in the Roman foundation myth. The central chapter of this section discusses the methodology used in comparative Indo-European mythology, and offers a case study that parallels the god of the festival (Faunus) with Rudra of Vedic Hinduism. The last chapter considers other parallels with Indian religion, especially the relationship between flamen and brahmin. The thesis challenges a number of established theories on the subject and offers new evidence to show that the festival has Indo-European origins, but also that it played an important role throughout Roman history.

Keywords: Roman mythology
comparative mythology
rituals of initiation
Caesar
comparative religion
Vedic religion
Republican Roman religion
Lupercalia
Advisor: Heyworth, S
Flood, G
The metalworking industry in Iran in the early Islamic period

Although there are a few general surveys of early Islamic metalwork, and numerous detailed studies of particular objects or object groups, no comprehensive study of the metalworking industry in Iran in early Islamic times has yet been written. This thesis aims to provide that study first by assembling as much as possible of the basic information on metalworking in Iran from the Islamic conquests to the mid 13th century and then by using it to draw some general conclusions about the range and history of Iran's metalworking industries at this time.
The primary sources used are the references to metals and metalworking in early Islamic literature and the surviving objects. For technical information and for select vocabularies of the relevant Arabic and Persian terminologies the technical treatises of al-Hamdānī, al-Birūnī, Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī, and Abū'l-Qāsim al-Kāshānī have been particularly exploited. For the names and functions of particular objects or object groups a range of Arabic non-technical works has been searched. For the gazetteers and general discussions of metal sources Arabic and Persian geographical works have been utilised.
The objects catalogued and discussed here include all the published pieces known to the author, together with unpublished objects in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ashmolean Museum (including Sirāf excavation material, the Musée du Louvre in Paris (including Susa excavation material, the Museum für Islamische Kunst Berlin-Dahlem, the StaatlicheMuseum in East Berlin, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, the Philadelphia University Museum (including the Rayy excavation material, the Walters Art Gallery, the Freer Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (including the Nīshāpūr excavation material, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. All objects have been arranged in groups on the basis of metal, function, and form, and catalogued accordingly, and an overall dating and provenancing for each group has been established through reference to their decoration, including inscriptions where relevant, and archaeological data. Additional use has been made of analyses undertaken by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Musee du Louvre, and the Ashmolean Museum, plus a limited number of other published analyses: all these are included in a single Table.
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A study of the crystallographic, magnetic and electronic properties of selected ZrM2-H systems

Dissolution of hydrogen into intermetallic compounds characteristically occurs at interstitial sites, causing little alteration to the base metal substructure but often bringing about substantial electronic and magnetic changes to the material. These hydrogen-induced alterations in the intermetallic hydrides are of interest both on a fundamental research level and in terms of technological applications; however, there exists no general theory as to how and why these alterations arise. The objective of this research is to elucidate to general effect of hydrogen on intermetallic compounds through the study of crystallographic, magnetic and electronic properties. An investigation has been carried out on the properties of three intermetallic compound - hydrogen systems of general formula ZrM₂, where M = V, Cr, Mn. All three compounds reversibly absorbed hydrogen with no change in crystal symmetry: powder diffraction studies showed that hydrogen was accommodated in interstitial sites of the existing metal sublattice via lattice expansion. The measurement of the magnetic properties of these systems was combined with the determination of conductivity and dielectric properties in order to describe the electronic e¤ects of hydrogen absorption. Despite the lack of signicant structural alteration in these systems, electron transfer between the metal sublattice and hydrogen may occur, as manifested in the appearance/disappearance of magnetic phenomena and the increase/decrease of electrical conductivity. Whilst the hydrogen addition in ZrM₂-H occurs simply via an expansion of the crystal structure, hydrogen does not act purely as null dilutant - there exist subtle electronic changes connected with the hydriding process as well.

Keywords: magnetism
metal-insulator transition
metal hydride
Advisor: Edwards, P
Chinese-British commercial conflicts in Shanghai and the collapse of the merchant-control system in late Qing China, 1860-1906

During the 1860s, Chinese merchants reestablished their commercial organizations which are recorded as Guilds (hanghui) in the sources compiled under the guidance of the Qing local government officials. From the decade until the end of the 1880s, English sources emphasized the solidarity of the commercial organizations of Chinese merchants and their superiority to the British mercantile community in the commercial conflicts in which they were engaged.
However, from the 1890s, English sources ceased to complain the strength of the commercial organizations of Chinese merchants, and, at the same time, Chinese sources emphasized the existence of a crisis in which Chinese merchants were losing their solidarity. Moreover, the Qing local government officials endeavoured to maintain their control over the commercial organizations of Chinese merchants, an attempt which led to the birth of Chinese chambers of commerce in the early twentieth century.
Former studies, which dealt with the superiority of the Chinese merchants' organizations to the British mercantile firms in the 1860s and the 1870s, or the birth of the Chinese bourgeoisie and the activities of their commercial organizations in the early twentieth century, have not been able to reveal what happened in the commercial organizations of the Chinese merchants during the late nineteenth century. The solidarity of the Chinese merchant organizations was maintained by the rule that no one could claim the privilege of doing business without paying the Lijin tax imposed upon it, and the collapse of their solidarity began with when some Chinese compradors and merchants found it possible to do their business without keeping this rule by means of cooperating British mercantile firms, who enjoyed key privi- leges under the Treaties as regards non-payment of the Lijin tax and investment on the basis of limited liability.
By intensively analyzing three commercial conflicts between prominent Chinese merchant organizations and British mercantile firms that took place in Shanghai between the end of the 1870s and the end of the 1880s, this study reveals how, and under what conditions some Chinese compradors and merchants could do their business without observing the afore-mentioned rule governing the Chinese merchants' organizations, what happened when British mercantile people became aware what their compradors or cooperative Chinese merchants had doing behind their back, and how these developments contributed to the end of the old-style merchant class, and the beginning of a bourgeoisie. By bringing these facts to the surface for analysis, this study shows a little known aspect of the Chinese society and tries on the basis to re-evaluate an aspect of concept of "China's response to the Western impact."