VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
An emerging labour market player: the evolving role of employment agencies in Japan and China

Keywords: China
Japan
institutionalism
employment agencies
labour markets
compressed development

This thesis is a comparative study of labour market institutions and actors in Japan and China. It focuses particularly on an increasingly influential, yet little-studied labour market actor: for-profit employment agencies. Fieldwork conducted in both countries reveals the development and influence of employment agencies. By combining the views of historical institutionalism, actor-centred institutionalism, and compressed development, this thesis traces the co-evolution of employment policies, employment practices, and employment agencies. Key findings are the following:

(1) Overall, Japanese and Chinese employment agencies followed surprisingly a similar timing and pattern of evolution, although changes have been more drastic and uneven in China than in Japan.
(2) The motivation to promote flexible employment was more aligned among labour market actors in China than in Japan, which accelerated labour market change.
(3) Employment agencies have been most active in providing ‘non-regular’ workers in ‘external’ labour markets, but in the past decade, they have become involved in core corporate strategies (i.e. ‘internal’ labour markets), more significantly in China than in Japan.
(4) The growing policy influence of employment agencies is shown by their constant re-interpretation and evasion of regulations, which has prompted various reactive policy changes in both countries.

Comparison of such co-evolution and influence in the two countries will reveal historical, geopolitical, and socioeconomic contexts that contribute to the change and continuity of labour market institutions and actors, and identify factors that contribute to unequal labour market outcomes and precarious employment.
Dharmakīrti versus Akalaṅka on the nature, object, and structure of perception
Keywords: Akalaṅka
history of philosophy
Jainism
Jain philosophy
Dharmakīrti
perception
Buddhism
Buddhist philosophy
Indian philosophy

This thesis reconstructs and analyses the philosophical debate between the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti (between mid-6th and mid-7th century CE) and the Jaina philosopher Akalaṅka (c. 8th century CE) regarding the nature, object, and structure of perception (pratyakṣa) qua source of knowledge (pramāṇa). Through a comparative study of Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika and Pramāṇaviniścaya alongside Akalaṅka’s Laghīyastraya and Nyāyaviniścaya, this thesis shows that there are three main points of contention between Dharmakīrti’s theory of perception and Akalaṅka’s theory of perception: (1) Is perception non-conceptual (Dharmakīrti) or conceptual (Akalaṅka) in nature? (2) Does perception apprehend forms (ākāra) internal to awareness (Dharmakīrti) or mind-independent external objects (Akalaṅka)? and (3) Is perception structured non-dualistically (Dharmakīrti) or dualistically (Akalaṅka)? While chapters 1 and 2 introduce Dharmakīrti’s theory of perception and Akalaṅka’s theory of perception respectively, each of the subsequent chapters (chapters 3, 4, 5) examines a particular point of contention by (a) explaining the philosophical issue at stake, (b) reconstructing and analysing the arguments advanced by both sides for their respective positions, and (c) reflecting on the significance of the debate. Through philologically accurate reading of the primary texts, philosophically charitable analysis of the individual arguments, and judicious engagement with classical commentaries, this thesis argues that the Buddhist and the Jaina theories of perception under discussion are philosophically interesting because both of them are characterised by a distinctive combination of philosophical commitments not found in the theories of perception defended by other classical Indian philosophical schools (darśana). While Dharmakīrti defends the unique triad of perceptual non-conceptualism, epistemic idealism, and non-dualism with a hitherto unseen philosophical rigour, Akalaṅka carves an equally novel path for himself through his defence of a thoroughgoing perceptual conceptualism and a defiant common-sense realism. By bringing to light this sophisticated Buddhist-Jaina philosophical debate, this thesis may contribute to the following areas of study: (1) The reception of Dharmakīrti’s philosophy by Jaina philosophers, (2) The philosophical polemics of marginalised Jaina philosophers such as Akalaṅka, and (3) The history of Indian philosophy understood as an integral part of the global history of philosophy.
Alkaline-earth catalysts for biorenewable polymer synthesis
Keywords: lactide
bimetallic
phenoxy-imine
polymerisation
polylactide
alkaline-earth
catalysis

Plastics have become essential to 21st century human life; it is therefore unrealistic to reduce the usage of such single-life polymers enough to offset their hazardous environmental impacts. This has prompted research into the development of greener, non fossil-fuel based alternatives. Polylactide (PLA) is one such material; it is a biorenewable, biocompatible, aliphatic polyester that is most efficiently produced via the ring-opening polymerisation (ROP) of lactide (LA). The use of alkaline-earth metals, particularly the heavier congeners, in catalysts for this process has been understudied even though they offer advantages like high activity, low toxicity, low cost and lack of colour. The aims of this Thesis were therefore: (i) to prepare new alkaline-earth-based bimetallic, bis(phenoxy-imine) systems, (ii) to test their performance as initiators in LA ROP and (iii) to evaluate the benefits of bimetallic complexes/cooperativity for this type of polymerisation.
The Thesis begins by offering a brief introduction to lactide as a biorenewable monomer in ring-opening polymerisation. The general ROP mechanisms are presented alongside a discussion of polymer characterisation techniques. An overview of previously reported catalysts for the ring-opening polymerisation of lactide is also described.
A series of alkaline-earth complexes based on the “NOON” motif (H2DippL; 2,7-(HC=NDipp)-1,8-OH-C10H4) were synthesised and fully characterised. These compounds were applied towards the ROP of L-, D-, rac- and meso-LA; a variety of polymerisation conditions (temperature, monomer stereochemistry and initiator concentration) were studied to determine the kinetics, mechanism and overall rate equation of the polymerisation. It was found that all of the prepared initiators were active however, they either suffered from low activity (kobs = 0.0046–0.091 h–1 (Mg)) or poor polymerisation control (1.23
Related alkaline-earth “NON” (HR,DippL; 1-OH-2,6-(HC=NDipp)-4-R-C6H2 where R = H, Me, tBu) systems were then prepared and fully characterised in attempts to improve polymerisation control and activity. The homo vs. heteroleptic nature of these complexes was found to differ between metals as a result of varying steric shielding and bonding lability. In most cases, these monometallic species showed improved polymerisation activity (kp = 966 vs. 3.19 M–1 h–1 (Mg)) and control over their “NOON” counterparts. A variety of techniques were used to characterise the resultant polymers in order to deduce tacticity (Pr = 0.48-0.67), molecular weights and chain end groups.
The “NON” framework was then explored, via several synthetic routes, for the formation of cationic, bimetallic alkaline-earth complexes. The generation of protonated proligands which could then be utilised for the insertion of multiple metals (Zn/Ca) by protonolysis was found to be a promising protocol.
The Yamabe problem on non-compact manifolds of negative curvature type
Keywords: Yamabe problem

We study existence and uniqueness results for the Yamabe problem on non-compact manifolds of negative curvature type. Our first existence and uniqueness result concerns those such manifolds which are asymptotically locally hyperbolic. In this context, our result requires only a partial C2 decay of the metric, namely the full decay of the metric in C1 and the decay of the scalar curvature. In particular, no decay of the Ricci curvature is assumed. In our second result we establish that a local volume ratio condition, when combined with negativity of the scalar curvature at infinity, is sufficient for existence of a solution.
The topology and geometry of causality
Keywords: causality
quantum theory
nonlocality
sheaf theory

Quantum theory is manifestly in tension with the classical notion of causality. How do we recover causal reasoning in the quantum regime? In this dissertation, we propose a framework where such causal idiosyncrasies are identified as obstructions to the existence of global sections for presheaves of causal data. We do so by extending the Abramsky- Brandenburger framework for non-locality and contextuality [6] to situations where measurement contexts are allowed to be signalling. This results in a theory-independent phenomenology of causality, which can be used to reason about causal structure in any theory exhibiting contextuality.
In the first part of this dissertation, we study the specific phenomenology of coherent control of quantum channels, giving rigorous operational meaning to the superposition of causal order. We pursue a bottom-up approach—alternative to the process matrix formalism—by investigating how indefiniteness of causality emerges from specific characteristics of operational theories. This provides the recipe for building processes with indefinite causality, which are then causally analysed using tools described in the second part of the thesis.
The second, more substantial part of this dissertation is devoted to building the sheaf- theoretic framework unifying non-locality, contextuality and indefinite causality. We provide a combinatorial description of the operational assumptions underlying definite and indefinite causal order, and characterise the emergent topologies of classical contexts. We explain how to associate causal data to such topologies and detail the relationship between the covers for a topological space and varying degrees of classicality. We develop a complementary geometric understanding of the space of empirical models for this presheaf, and show how it can be used to perform theory-independent causal analysis of empirical data. We conclude by providing novel examples of such causal analysis, showcasing the existence of the phenomenon of contextual causality. Importantly, our examples demonstrate that such phenomenon can be witnessed in quantum theory, as long as coherently control of causal order is allowed for quantum processes.
Between the caves and the sea: the Late Glacial occupation of the English East Midlands
Keywords: Federmesser
Late Upper Palaeolithic
British Palaeolithic
Bølling
Creswellian
lithic analysis
British Archaeology
late glacial period
human re-occupation patterns
Late Glacial Interstadial
Early Mesolithic
River Trent
Allerød

This thesis investigates the degree of intensity of Late Glacial human occupation of open landscapes in the English East Midlands, including evidence for chronological and regional patterns in the timing of human re-occupation and presence during the Late Glacial Interstadial (GI-1e-a; c. 14,700 to 12,900 BP; Rasmussen et al. 2014:Table 1). The regional focus is on the open, low-lying landscapes situated between known Late Upper Palaeolithic cave sites in central England and the present-day North Sea coast. Emphasis is placed on the identification of preferential site location patterns in riverine and lacustrine environments, as investigated through two site datasets comprising data from legacy site archives, Historic Environment Records, and the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Further attention has been directed towards lithic typological and technological attribute analyses of three open-air site assemblages (Farndon Fields, Nottinghamshire, Seamer Carr K, North Yorkshire, and Risby Warren, North Lincolnshire).
This thesis presents evidence that the current understanding of Late Upper Palaeolithic uplands site distribution only affords a partial view of the intensity and degree of human presence during the Late Glacial Interstadial. Based on significant new discoveries of diagnostic surface finds, lithic scatters, and open-air locales of high archaeological potential this picture is gradually beginning to change. The findings of this thesis strongly indicate that the open, lowland landscapes in the extended East Midlands research area were occupied by Late Glacial human groups to a far greater degree of intensity than posited by existing estimates and interpretations. In documenting how low-lying riverine and lacustrine environments out in the open landscapes represented particularly attractive focal points for human occupation during the Late Glacial Interstadial, my observations and results clearly provide essential evidence to better contextualise the existing information concerning human occupation of upland areas and cave sites.
An examination of the nature and significance of the comprehensive ways of thinking exemplified by some recent contributions to American constitutional thought
Keywords: Political science
representative government
Democracy
Political sociology
United States
United States Constitution
Politics
representation
American constitutional thought

American Constitutional scholarship is at present unsure of its aims and purposes; this unsureness makes a re-assessment of our ways of thinking about what the Constitution is and means appropriate. Three thinkers much respected in the Constitutional community, John Marshall Harlan III, Ronald Dworkin, and Robert Cover, provide examples of what the best or ideal way of thinking about American Constitutional politics might be. The differences among the comprehensive ways of thinking practiced by these three men are reflected in the forms of their reasoning, in their treatments of metaphorical and distinctive language, in their views of what interpretation is, in their responses to the problem of civic education, and, most generally, in their opinions of what good reasoning is and what the place of reason in the American regime is. Harlan's comprehensive way of thinking, a way which stresses the superiority of a form of reasoning guided by Constitutional purposes to two other forms of reasoning, "mechanical" interpretation and “unguided speculation," has a good claim to be the Constitutional way of thinking but nonetheless may perhaps be inappropriate to contemporary Constitutional politics and scholarship. The difficulty of deciding whether Harlan's or Dworkin's or Cover's way of thinking best comprehends the experience of the Warren Court may be partly responsible for the contemporary unrest in American Constitutional scholarship.
Faithful but flexible: Intervention fidelity in clinical trials of complex interventions in healthcare
Keywords: treatment effects
evidence-based medicine
surgery
meta-epidemiological
Intervention fidelity
treatment effect estimates
bias
treatment fidelity or treatment adherence
Clinical trials
randomised clinical trials
compliance
rehabilitation
complex interventions
Adherence

The focus of clinical trials is typically interventions’ efficacy, or whether they attain their desired outcomes. Comparatively less attention is focused on understanding how or why interventions succeed, or fail to attain, those outcomes. This may be particularly important in trials of complex interventions such as surgery or physiotherapy, which are multifaceted and often tailored to individual participants, providers, or settings, increasing the potential for variations in intervention delivery and effects.
The correspondence between the intervention that was planned and what was actually delivered in a trial is the intervention’s fidelity. Several benefits for high levels of intervention fidelity have been proposed. However, whether or how much fidelity influences clinical trials’ treatment effect estimates had not previously been determined. A lack of a uniform definition for fidelity and its key components may also hinder intervention delivery in clinical trials and the translation of evidence-based interventions to clinical practice.
The principle aim of this thesis was to investigate the effects of intervention fidelity on the results, interpretation, and appropriateness to change practice of clinical trials of complex interventions. Through systematic review, “Best-fit” framework synthesis, reliability study, meta-epidemiological study, and fidelity assessment in an on-going pragmatic randomised controlled trial (RCT), it addressed several important knowledge gaps for intervention fidelity in complex intervention clinical trials. It estimated the prevalence of fidelity monitoring and reporting in complex intervention RCTs. It contributed an empirically-based intervention fidelity framework and a reliable, internally consistent fidelity assessment checklist tailored to the unique needs of researchers who seek to assess clinical trials in rehabilitation. It also estimated empirically, for the first time, the magnitude and direction of bias in treatment effect estimates arising from poor intervention fidelity in rehabilitation RCTs. Fidelity assessment in the ACL-SNNAP trial also provided new insights into the feasibility, applicability, and impact of monitoring intervention fidelity and participant adherence in complex intervention pragmatic trials.
The findings of this thesis showed that intervention fidelity is important, not just on a theoretical, but also on an empirical level. This thesis provides new and important information for the conduct and interpretation of clinical trials in rehabilitation and other complex interventions in healthcare.
The role of cooperation in bacterial ecology and evolution
Keywords: comparative genomics
horizontal gene transfer
microbial ecology and evolution
becterial cooperation

Bacteria can perform a range of cooperative behaviours, yet the significance of these cooperative behaviours in bacterial ecology and evolution is a burgeoning research area. In this thesis, I use a comparative genomics approach to elucidate the impact of cooperation on bacterial ecological and evolutionary processes. Specifically, I: (i) probe the effects of cooperation on the evolution of bacterial niche breadth; (ii) investigate the relationship between horizontal gene transfer and bacterial cooperation, with a specific emphasis on the interplay between gene connectivity and sociality in determining gene transfer potential. Additionally, I expand the scope by examining how ecological determinants and genomic characteristics shape the evolution of bacterial growth rates. In summary, this thesis offers novel perspectives on bacterial ecology and evolution through the lens of bacterial cooperation.
Investigating the role of human microglia in tau pathogenesis
Keywords: iPSC-microglia
tau
prion-like tau transmission

In neurodegenerative diseases collectively known as tauopathies, the microtubule-associated tau protein aggregates into insoluble deposits. Tau deposits propagate along synaptically- connected brain regions in a prion-like manner, correlating with disease progression and severity. Genetic studies have recently implicated perturbations in phagolysosomal clearance by microglia, the major brain-resident phagocytes, as a key candidate mechanism driving tau pathology. However, functional studies elucidating the precise mechanisms in a relevant model of human microglia are missing.
In this thesis, I have developed an efficient protocol for purification and in vitro aggregation of endotoxin-free, human recombinant tau. I then used an authentic, in vitro model of human microglia - induced pluripotent stem cell-derived (iPSC)-macrophages and microglia - to characterise microglial responses to tau at functional level, including tau uptake, degradation, and secretion, as well as prion-like behaviour of the microglia-processed tau. I have identified Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor-Related Protein-1 (LRP1) as major receptor mediating tau entry to microglia. I further found that the internalised soluble tau is readily degraded by microglia but intracellular clearance of aggregated tau is concentration- and incubation-length dependent, and inversely associated with microglial tau release. Tau fibrils processed by microglia retain seeding competency, thus supporting the putative role for microglia in tau prion-like spreading.
In addition, I present a novel finding that Leucine-Rich Repeat Kinase 2 (LRRK2), a candidate genetic determinant in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) tauopathies, influences microglial cargo clearance pathways and tau-specific processing. Specifically, my results show that the PD- and PSP-associated G2019S LRRK2 mutation enhances iPSC-macrophage baseline proteolytic activity, tau uptake, clearance, and possibly prion-like activity of the non-cleared tau species accumulating within the cells.
Collectively, this thesis supports the putative role of microglia in tau pathogenesis and provides further reasoning for investigating microglia-enriched tauopathy risk variants as potential druggable targets.
The archive, time and the body in refugee writing in Arabic and English
Keywords: archive
Ghassan Kanafani
postcolonial literatures
time and temporality
refugee body
refugee studies
Salim Barakat
Claire Bayley
literatures of the South
decolonial theory
production of knowledge
Rampaging Geese
refugee literature
The Container
comparative literature
refugee writing
By the Sea
Men in the Sun
counter-archive
Abdulrazak Gurnah
containment
refugee reading
body and embodiment

This thesis contributes to the ‘new field in literary studies’ (Potter and Stonebridge 2014:1) denominated ‘Refugee Writing.’ Inter alia, this burgeoning field critiques the typology of suffering which has often marred writings about refugees (Farrier 2011), whilst also acknowledging the challenges of perceiving such literatures as a means of eliciting a ‘literary humanitarian’ impulse amongst its readers (Rickel 2018:97). Through centralising the agency of refugees, as responders to their own lives and those of others, and through exploring complex configurations of ‘refugee-refugee relationality’ (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2015), I argue that the selected texts push against the assumption that the main form of tension (and thus of resolution) is framed around refugee-citizen relations. By centralising refugees’ own archival practices, their roles as time-makers, and refugees’ potential to engender ‘a different writing of embodiment’ (Ahmed 1998:64), I posit that the texts under study – Ghassan Kanafani’s Rijāl fī al Shams (Men in the Sun) (1962), Salim Barakat’s Hiyāj al-Iwazz (Rampaging Geese) (2010), Abdulrazak Gurnah’s By the Sea ([2001] 2002) and Claire Bayley’s The Container (2007) – destabilise traditional frames of reference which position the citizen as the quintessential observer of and responder to displacement. In particular, by identifying and examining the processes of writing and reading that emerge within the selected texts, I seek to advance a shift in contemporary literary studies by positing the significance of complementing an analysis of ‘refugee writing’ with the concomitant process of ‘refugee reading.’ In addition to intervening in discourses concerning refugees, refugee literature and refugee studies, my thesis equally offers a wider contribution to key debates concerning the politics of knowledge production; intimate archiving processes contra traditional historiographies and archives; and the agency of minoritized individuals and communities in contexts of structural inequality and violence.