PUCK: A Novel Regulator of Arabidopsis Secondary Growth

Secondary growth is thickening of the plant stem, hypocotyl and root, providing structural support and increased nutrient transport to the growing plant. The main driver of secondary growth is the vascular cambium, a bifacial stem cell population which gives rise to xylem and phloem via organised cell division and differentiation. The TRACHEARY ELEMENT DIFFERENTIATION INHIBITORY FACTOR (TDIF) peptide ligand diffuses into the cambium and signals to the PHLOEM INTERCALATED WITH XYLEM (PXY) receptor-like kinase to promote cell division, vascular organisation and repress xylem identity. However, several aspects of TDIF and PXY biosynthesis, turnover and signalling are not fully understood, in part because all the factors involved have not yet been identified. CLE41 (CLAVATA3/EMBRYO SURROUNDING REGION 41) is the precursor of TDIF. 35S::CLE41 lines, characterised by ectopic cambium, were used in a mutagenesis screen to identify novel TDIF-PXY signalling components. This screen identified PUCK, which contains WD40 repeat domains functioning in protein-protein interactions, as a suppressor of 35S::CLE41. Here, GUS transcriptional reporter analysis revealed that PUCK is expressed in the phloem and xylem parenchyma. Histochemical staining identified how puck affects the differentiated vascular tissue. pxy puck mutants showed a significantly increased xylem width, but no increase in xylem vessels, suggesting PUCK does not regulate xylem differentiation. pxy puck mutants showed a significantly decreased phloem width compared to wild type, but a significantly wider phloem than pxy single mutants. This suggests that PUCK may repress phloem differentiation within the TDIF-PXY pathway. It is hypothesised that PUCK may be a scaffold protein involved in influencing phloem production. Lignified xylem vessels make up woody tissue, therefore, understanding secondary growth could allow manipulation of wood formation to increase forest productivity. Secondary growth also provides stability to plant stems and the phloem allows reallocation of resources, manipulation of which could be useful for increasing climate resilience

The Impact of Real Estate Prices on China's Financial System Risk

This thesis examines the impact mechanism of real estate price fluctuations on China's financial system risk based on the current situation of China's real estate capital market. Against the backdrop of the policy that "housing is for living in, not for speculation," as China's macroeconomic growth gradually decelerates, the supply and demand dynamics in the real estate market have shifted from supply shortages to overall balance or even oversupply in certain regions, making the issue of real estate price bubbles increasingly prominent. At the theoretical level, this thesis analyzes the relationship between real estate price fluctuations and systemic risk, identifying the transmission channels through which real estate price fluctuations trigger systemic risk. It finds that in the primary real estate capital market, system risk is mainly transmitted through the collateral channel, liquidity channel, and capitalization channel, while in the secondary real estate capital market, transmission occurs primarily through asset securitization. Moreover, under China’s institutional conditions, episodes of rising real estate prices are often accompanied by oversupply of new housing, excessive credit expansion into real estate related activities, and speculative purchases, which together magnify the build-up of vulnerabilities. Conversely, when real estate prices decline, these accumulated exposures may trigger loss propagation across the real estate market, the financial system, and multiple sectors of the macroeconomy. In terms of empirical analysis, this study focuses on the impact of real estate price fluctuations on system risk through the real estate enterprise channel. Based on data from China's listed real estate enterprises, the study analyzes the effects of real estate price fluctuations on corporate solvency, financing capacity, and default probability. The research finds that real estate price fluctuations have a significant asymmetric impact on corporate financing capacity, with the negative impact of declining real estate prices on financing capacity being significantly stronger than the positive impact of rising prices. The empirical results indicate that system risk exists in China's current real estate capital market, primarily transmitted through the real estate enterprise channel. A substantial decline in real estate prices would cause real estate enterprises to face liquidity risk, which would then be transmitted to the banking sector and adversely affect the stock market. Specifically: real estate price fluctuations generate liquidity risk for real estate enterprises, and while the impact on long-term solvency is relatively small, it significantly weakens enterprises' short-term solvency; real estate price fluctuations expose banks to liquidity risk through the real estate enterprise channel; an increase in real estate prices followed by a sharp decline creates negative shocks to the stock market. This thesis provides theoretical foundations and policy recommendations for preventing system risk in China's financial market and promoting stable and healthy development of the real estate market. The research suggests constructing a system risk prevention system from multiple perspectives including real estate enterprises, banks, capital markets, and livelihood security, with particular focus on enterprise liquidity risk management, bank credit risk control, and market information transparency enhancement

From Basic Psychological Needs to Intergroup Solidarity: Integrating Self-Determination and Social Identity Perspectives on the Mobilization of Potential Allies

This thesis investigates the motivations for solidarity-based actions, proposing and testing a need-based model rooted in Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Sampling lay audiences as potential allies to examine their proclivity towards solidarity with another group as a function of general basic needs, this thesis examines both potential allies' (self-focused) needs and their perceptions of the disadvantaged group's (other-focused) needs at individual and group levels. The actions studied are categorized as normative (e.g., donations, volunteering) and non-normative (e.g., blocking highways, spraying graffiti). In all studies, basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness) were modelled as a composite construct due to high intercorrelations, while testing the effects of need satisfaction and frustration separately. Chapter 1 utilized two cross-sectional studies (N = 1232) involving contexts of incidental injustice, such as English citizens’ solidarity with Ukrainian refugees and students’ solidarity with striking university staff, to establish and refine the initial model. Key findings indicated that group need satisfaction (both self- and other-focused) was associated with intentions for normative solidarity (β =.09 to .24, p <.05), while group need frustration (both self- and other-focused) was linked to intentions for non-normative solidarity actions (β =.12 to .40, p<.05). Chapter 2 extended this framework by adopting a preregistered two-wave longitudinal design (N1= 589, N2= 273) to examine solidarity within a context of structural disadvantages (White British peoples’ solidarity with Black British people), aiming to capture the dynamic and evolving nature of need-based psychological processes over time. While the cross-sectional findings on need satisfaction were replicated, they largely disappeared over time. In contrast, need frustration remained a significant predictor. For White British participants, inconsistent with what SDT theorizing suggested, their ingroup need frustration at T1 positively predicted normative solidarity intentions at T2 (β=.21, p= .002) while their individual-level need satisfaction at T1negatively predicted non-normative solidarity intentions at T2 (β= -.09, p= .013). Though the effect of self-focused needs were consistent predictors of solidarity across models, the effect of outgroup need frustration on normative solidarity intentions was non-significant, though it trended in the expected direction (β=.17, p=.094). The results also hinted at potential feedback loops between self-focused needs and solidarity intentions suggesting that engagement in solidarity might lead to the internalization of the disadvantaged group’s cause and subsequently alleviate advantaged groups’ own need frustrations. Chapter 3 employed a preregistered between-subject experimental design (N=410) to test the causal impact of manipulating ingroup versus outgroup need frustration via mock news articles on solidarity intentions in the same context of racial inequality as Chapter 2. When participants found the mock news realistic, the expected effects of need frustration were successfully induced (β= -.91 & .66, for ingroup and outgroup respectively, p<.001), and in turn, outgroup frustration increased solidarity intentions while ingroup frustration reduced them (β=.34 and -.30 respectively, p< .01). Unexpectedly, these effects were reversed when participants judged the news as unrealistic, suggesting that low credibility may trigger reactance and defensiveness among advantaged group members. Taken together, this thesis highlights how basic psychological needs and the specific context (e.g., incidental versus structural inequality or the status of potential allies) determine the motivational pathways toward engagement in social change, providing crucial empirical basis for a broader discussion on the motivational landscape and the emergence and sustainability of solidarity.

Concrete-Jungle: Reading Nature in Representations of New York City

Concrete-Jungle: Reading Nature in Representations of New York City explores evolving conceptions of nature in representations of New York City and its "concrete jungle" mythology. It employs a geocritical approach which privileges the spatial, rather than temporal, organisation of an archive which spans from circa 1800 to 2025 in recognition that NYC, as both presentation and re-presentation, is a hyperobject (massively distributed in time and space). Excavating transhistorical signs from this archive yields novel readings of literature which productively complicate conventions of genre, discipline, and periodisation. My first chapter performs an exegesis of the ‘concrete-jungle’, with a focus on Stephen Crane’s George’s Mother (1896) and Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987); my second chapter explores the category of ‘weed’ as outlaw, excrescence, and revolutionary in the writings of Andrew Jackson Downing, Henry James, and Edith Wharton; my third chapter tracks a tiger through the five boroughs since 1613, with a focus on Jonathan Lethem’s Chronic City (2009); and my final chapter employs systems theory to read climate management in representations of NYC from 1890 to 2020, with a focus on Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 (2017). This project reveals the methods through which representation naturalises urban development and socioeconomic organisation to thereby posit literature as a medium through which we might rethink and resist this process. At the same time, it argues that we might reevaluate our relationship with nature (whatever it means) even from the ruby-red steps of Manhattan’s Times Square

Investing in the Dead: A novel model for evaluating social value of mortuary practices in the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic transition of the Southern Levant

The mortuary remains from the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Southern Levant have been the focus of considerable academic interest among archaeologists for nearly a century. The burials – and particularly those burials decorated with beads – have been used as evidence for uncovering the origins of the Neolithic Package; sedentism, incipient religious practices, agriculture, and social stratification. The often-restrictive focus on the social status of the deceased, however, fails to consider the nuanced roles that mortuary behaviours may play within a social context. This project aims to reassess the mortuary remains of the Southern Levantine Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic transition by considering the changing social investment in mortuary practices within these periods. To complete these aims, this project begins by presenting an updated assemblage as the current synthesis of published mortuary remains from the Epipalaeolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A of the Southern Levant. Using traditional analytical methods, this assemblage is re-evaluated to assess long-standing conclusions about this mortuary record. This project then utilises a novel method – the Performative Currency Model – to uncover the relative social value of diverse mortuary practices and identify trends in social investment in the mortuary realm of these communities. The results presented in this thesis demonstrate a change in the relationship between the living and the dead, towards a more domestic, intimate, and personal connection with the dead through time. This shift is evidenced by increasing Performative Currency investment in physical interaction with, and domestic localisation of, the dead. In the broader context, this trend mirrors an increasingly close and domestic world amongst the living, suggesting an overarching shift in worldview in the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic transition

Design and Characterisation of Calibration Systems for Small-Sized Telescope Cameras in the Cherenkov Telescope Array.

The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) represents the next generation in very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy, promising an order-of-magnitude improvement in sensitivity over existing instruments. With a diverse array of telescopes, including the Small-Sized Telescopes (SSTs) optimized for the highest energies, CTAO will open new windows on the gamma-ray sky in the 20 GeV–300 TeV regime and beyond. A critical component enabling this scientific performance is the stability and reliability of the telescope cameras, which rely on fast photo sensors. For example - Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) in SST Camera. Since SiPM characteristics can drift due to temperature variations, aging, or operational conditions, a robust calibration system is essential to ensure data quality and long-term stability. This thesis presents the design, testing, and integration of the calibration system developed for the SST camera (SSTCAM). Beginning with a review of calibration strategies employed in current-generation gamma ray telescopes, the work identifies the performance requirements imposed by CTAO and adapts them for the SSTCAM. The development process is described across successive design iterations, including hardware prototypes and firmware implementations. Extensive performance studies of the calibration device are reported, covering dynamic range, operating condition dependencies, and beam profile characterization. Results demonstrate compliance with CTAO specifications while also revealing areas for improvement. Building on these findings, the thesis explores the transition from a single-channel device to a multi-channel calibration unit capable of supporting diverse activities such as flat-fielding, pixel linearity monitoring, and single photo-electron calibration. The final design integrates lessons learned from earlier versions and outlines a pathway toward full incorporation within the SSTCAM. In parallel, simulation studies are conducted to assess the feasibility of applying the calibration procedures in practice, offering guidance for future system integration. By providing a dedicated, flexible, and high-performance calibration solution, this work contributes a key technological element to the success of the CTAO’s SST program

A Situated Just War Theory: Time, People and Space

Just War Theory remains a central framework for assessing and guiding the morality of war. Its language and principles have become widely used, extending beyond academic circles to politicians, international law and ordinary citizens. However, its application to contemporary conflicts reveals several types of shortcomings that undermine its normative force: in some areas, JWT is over‑reliant on unexamined assumptions, while in others it under‑specifies significant concepts and fails to provide adequate normative justification, and in certain areas it exhibits both these tendencies simultaneously. This thesis identifies these three central shortcomings as: 1) a temporal deficit, concerning when wars begin and end; 2) the demoi problem, involving who constitutes ‘the people’ on whose behalf war is waged and how this shapes claims to just cause and legitimate authority; and 3) the under-conceptualisation of territory, which neglects how territorial attachments come about and are invoked in justifications for waging war. Rather than abandoning JWT, the thesis supplements contemporary JWT by moving it away from a restricted ethics of war and towards insights from political theory and international relations that can better address the realities of contemporary war. This move reconnects JWT with wider literature by engaging with rival conceptions of peace and violence, communitarian thought and the political theory of territory. Many of these accounts are reviewed and found wanting in important respects, particularly in their treatment of the normative and practical dimensions of war. By supplementing JWT in this way, the thesis works to correct limitations within JWT as well as within political theory itself, insofar as both have marginalised or neglected key aspects of war and political violence. Ultimately, I revise and integrate Danielle Lupton and Valerie Morkevičius’s peace–vim–war continuum, communitarian theories of collectives and their value and Margaret Moore’s theory of territorial rights. This supplementation allows for an informed ethical engagement with the wars in Yemen and Ukraine, showing how a situated just war theory can retain its moral clarity, thus reinforcing its use. The thesis argues that the continued relevance of JWT depends on its capacity to address the inherent complexity and political entanglements that constitute the experience of war. Moral reflection on conflict must resist the temptation of neat binaries and universal certainties, instead cultivating a mode of judgement that is attuned to the realities of war

Augustine’s Preaching for a Pilgrim Church

In this study I examine Augustine’s sermons on pilgrimage as they illustrate his conception of the Christian life as a journey through this life on to the next. In chapter 1, I argue that these sermons were intended to move souls spiritually forward along that journey to and in Christ. Each sermon is best conceived as a signpost pointing the way forward, and forming the identity, practices, and perspectives of Augustine’s listeners as pilgrims journeying to their final and ultimate home. In Chapter 2 I sketch an ecclesiological reflection on the pilgrim people evident in Augustine’s sermons. In Chapter 3 I introduce prayer as a pilgrim practice that nourishes and sustains pilgrims on their journey. In Chapter 4 I consider joy as a pilgrim posture that both urges pilgrims forward to their final end in Christ, while also strengthening them on the path to Christ that is Christ. Finally, in the conclusion I discuss the contemporary significance of Augustine’s preaching through selective engagement with contemporary scholarship to illuminate Augustine’s distinctive theological contributions and their relevance to current discourse

Hybridity, hierarchy, and couleur rabelaisienne: the afterlives of François Rabelais on the late nineteenth-century Parisian lyric stage (1855-1895)

This thesis examines the late nineteenth-century lyric afterlife of the sixteenth-century writer François Rabelais by examining the four musico-theatrical ‘adaptations’ of his works that appeared on the lyric stages of Paris between 1855 and 1895. These are: Théodore Labarre and Henri Trianon’s Pantagruel (1855); Hervé, Clairville, and Octave Gastineau’s Panurge (1879); Louis Ganne, Oscar Méténier, and Jean-Louis Dubut de Laforest’s Rabelais (1892); and Robert Planquette, Henri Meilhac, and Albert de Saint-Albin’s Panurge (1895). On the basis of this material, the thesis addresses wider questions about the nature of the reception and reproduction of cultural artefacts. It interrogates the relationship between Rabelais’s texts and biography, their late nineteenth-century lyric afterlives, the period’s lyric culture (particularly its genre hierarchies), and ideas about the writer’s life and works that were in currency during that time. As well as using Rabelais’s reception in the nineteenth century as a tool with which to unravel some of the panoply of potential interpretations of his texts, this thesis demonstrates that in nineteenth-century imaginaries both Rabelais’s life and works were considered stylistic, registral, and social hybrids. This heterogeneity is the basis for what I term couleur rabelaisienne: in other words, a mode of historical representation that intersects literary and historical aesthetic discourses closely associated with Rabelais’s works and biography, particularly their supposed stylistic and social hybridity. Alongside its study of Rabelais’s lyric posterity, this thesis makes a case for an approach to the phenomenon we now call ‘adaptation’ that remains sensitive to details of its theorisation through history. By offering more flexible frameworks through which to deconstruct, reshape, and subvert the hierarchies implied in terms like ‘source’ and ‘adaptation’, I seek to open new avenues for understanding the myriads of ways in which cultural artefacts interrelate

Gendered Spirituality within Female Monastic Space in Britain, c. 800-1300

This study seeks to explore the monastic spirituality of women in England from the early to high medieval periods, approximately 800-1300 CE, through the analysis of their material culture, primarily their books, bodies, and buildings – evidence of their existence and participation within monasticism. The foundation of this project is understanding how gender functioned within medieval female monasticism as such to influence and inform feminine spirituality. Constructing medieval ideas of gender within a monastic setting is crucial and it is not possible to do this without using the ideas of post-modern gender theorists. Yet it is a fine line to walk, analysing materials without imposing the modern on the medieval. The strategy is to acknowledge and understand the ‘mess’. Early within Gender Trouble, Butler states: ‘Gender is not always constituted coherently or consistently in different historical contexts.’ This is especially true in the medieval context, where culturally accepted meanings of gender identities are often contradictory, even as simple binaries abound. By establishing relevant discourse on medieval conceptions of gender and sex – and also understanding how certain gender-based ideologies continued to inform the study of the period – fragments of female participation in the material culture of their own spirituality becomes visible