VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The (im)possibility of feminist critique in authoritarianism: Revisiting Western knowledge-transfer in Russia and Serbia
Keywords: Discourse Analysis
Transnational feminism
Othering
Knowledge-transfer
Russia
Post-communist Europe
Serbia
Authoritarianism
Interpretivism
Anti-gender backlash

This thesis proposes a critique of the critique of transnational feminism in post-communist Europe. The critique of transnational feminism asserts that the process is, in essence, a unilateral knowledge-transfer, and as such functions as one among many exercises of Othering the West has employed vis-à-vis its Semi-Other since the fall of communism. Using case studies of Russia and Serbia, this research challenges this argument from three angles.
First, it shows that it is ahistorical. Transnational feminist encounters occurred in the communist period, and were characterised by Soviet Russian and Yugoslav feminists’ independence and assertiveness. Second, by applying the critical theory framework to over sixty interviews with feminists in Russia and Serbia that were conducted by the author, an empirical examination demonstrates that a critique of knowledge-transfer is marginal in both cases. This acts as a springboard for the third and central claim.
Based on a computer-aided, post-Marxist discourse analysis of the interviews, the thesis argues that feminists’ priorities undergo a fundamental shift under authoritarianism. In settings where authoritarian regimes propagate an anti-Western discourse, that relies on anti-gender discourse in attempts at Othering back, the subversion of this hegemonic discourse becomes the priority for feminists on the ground. From this perspective, the argument proposed by critical theory – that transnational feminism is a form of Western domination expressed through knowledge-transfer – resonates with the authoritarian discourse. This is why critique of knowledge-transfer is not only marginal, but rejected in an effort not to become complicit in the authoritarian discourse. As a result, Russian and Serbian feminists focus on formulating alternative signifiers for knowledge-transfer in order to subvert the authoritarian regime. First, they endorse knowledge-transfer but attach positive meanings of agency and empowerment to it. Second, they reframe it as an exchange between equals. Finally, they reject the dichotomous boundaries of West/East associated with it.
Crisis and convergence: how the combination of a weak economy and mainstream party ideological depolarisation fuels anti-system party success
Keywords: Elections and Public Opinion
Economic Voting
Comparative Politics
Radical Political Parties

When do radical parties gain support?
Previous studies cite the importance of economic hardship and mainstream party ideological convergence. Responding to earlier inconsistent findings regarding these two factors, I provide evidence for an interactive approach to understanding the growth of ‘anti-system parties’. These radical outsiders are most likely to succeed when mainstream parties are simultaneously presiding over an ailing economy and failing to provide the diversity of political opinion necessary for the electorate to meaningfully challenge the policies associated with this malaise, through which dissatisfaction with the status quo could otherwise be channelled. The mainstream party establishment is most vulnerable when it is no longer supplying valued outputs or inputs to the political process.
This thesis presents four empirical studies designed to test this ‘crisis and convergence’ model. First, drawing on data from over 350 elections in 22 advanced Western democracies across an extended time period, I demonstrate that the anti-system vote is greatest during times of negative economic growth and widespread mainstream party ideological depolarisation. Second, using a combined individual-level dataset of over 70 national election surveys, I show that personal perceptions of mainstream party convergence are themselves more closely related to anti-system voting when the macroeconomy is sickly. Mainstream party homogeneity radicalises the economic vote and strengthens anti-system challengers. The final two studies corroborate these findings by explicitly testing the crucial underlying assumption that individuals’ perceptions of the uniqueness of mainstream parties are not mere products of partisan rationalisation. Evidence from a multiyear panel dataset in Britain and an original survey experiment conducted in Germany suggests that perceptions of mainstream party similarities are as, if not more, likely to cause a reduction in one’s strength of feeling towards mainstream parties than be caused by this dealignment.
This thesis concludes with a thorough summary of these results, as well as a discussion of potential caveats and grounds for future research. The ‘crisis and convergence’ model is judged to be worthy of consideration in future conversations about the factors that have led to our current political climate of volatile voters and stuttering centrist parties.
Widening access to higher education in Brazil: A document analysis of assessment policy, purpose and practice
Keywords: MEA 2020
MEA

To what extent did the changes in purposes of the Brazilian National Upper-Secondary Exam (ENEM) in 2009 affect the social equality gap and widened the access to higher education? Policy making can be a process where social inequalities are maintained, produced or tackled, affecting or being affected by a large-scale and high-stakes assessment as is the case of the ENEM. From 1998 to 2015, the assessment underwent major reformulations with the explicit intent to widen the access to higher education, especially to the socially underprivileged. With that context in mind, I perform a policy cycle analysis of the ENEM purposes in relation to its practical uses when connected to other related policies. My theoretical framework was informed by a literature review on assessment purposes, as discussed by Pellegrino, Chudowsky, and Glaser (2001) and Newton (2007); specific literature on equality of opportunities in the access to education, with a focus on the Maximally Maintained Inequality hypothesis (Raftery & Hout, 1993) and on the Effectively Maintained Inequality conjecture (Lucas, 2001); and Ball’s Policy Cycle (Ball, 1994; Bowe, Ball, & Gold, 1992). The data collected consisted of policy, legislation, technical, report, institutional and academic texts, searched in specialised databases. My results uncover patterns that indicate that the uses proposed to the ENEM, in connection with a broader network of educational and social reforms, can indeed tackle the inequality of opportunities in the access to higher education. This could add to the international literature on the subject not only for the focus on the ENEM, which presents a rare case in the international assessment literature; but also as a counter-example to the reasonably consensual Maximally Maintained Inequality; and by providing a more comprehensive understanding of assessment not only as a policy in isolation of context, but as part of a larger policy framework.
Empty garden : A liminoid journey to nowhere in somewhere
Keywords: Victor Turner
liminoid experience
Shan Sui
liminal space
peach garden
Ui-won

This thesis offers interconnected reflections on the liminal space called a garden—the boundary space between nature and the man-made—and the liminoid experience found there. It explores various sensory experiences a person might have while walking through an East Asian garden and its possible equivalent, a contemporary art installation.
In terms of the form of my thesis, I chose the scroll, and scrolling, to present various forms of writing that can reflect the complex experience of an East Asian garden, in the hope that in wandering through my writings a complex and disconnected liminal and liminoid experience might unfold. The term ‘liminoid’ is defined by anthropologist Victor Turner as having characteristics of the liminal experience, but as optional, temporary and not inevitably involving the resolution of a personal crisis. If liminal is ritual, liminoid is leisure.
The Chinese landscape painting style Shan Sui is not a depiction of nature with one vanishing point, but a conceptual idea involving multiple, shifting perspectives. It seeks to capture the essence of nature and to draw out an ideal world. Similarly, the garden in East Asia is not conceived as a re-creation of nature, but as a combination of symbols pursuing a thoroughly ideological world. The fifteenth-century Korean painting, which appears at the beginning of my scroll, implies this kind of ideal through a space designated as a ‘peach garden’. The conceptual pursuit of an ideal space of nature resulted in the extreme aesthetic garden practice called Ui-won, an imaginary garden made in eighteenth-century Korea.
These precedents have allowed me to rethink the meaning of creating a ‘garden’ in relation to certain forms of contemporary practice. Lois Weinberger understands artificially transferred plants as immigrants who have been separated from their homes. He suggests that ‘letting go’ rather than cultivation makes the best garden. Tomoko Takahashi’s installations allow the viewer to reflect on sensory experience within an urban ‘landscape’ of excessive technological growth.
By reflecting on the liminal and liminoid experience of the garden, I attempt to articulate the conceptual disorientation felt in stone garden spaces and their contemporary urban equivalents. This thesis, comprising of both writing and installation works, explores the experience of liminal space informed by particular ideals evident in Shan Sui and Ui-won and manifest in East Asian gardens and in some works of contemporary art.
Application of barium zirconate ceramics to the synthesis of ammonia
Keywords: Barium zirconate
Electrochemical ammonia synthesis
Haber-Bosch synthesis
Ammonia synthesis
Solid state proton conductors

This thesis describes investigations into the synthesis of ammonia using the ceramic proton conductor, barium zirconate. Described are the results of the fabrication and testing of barium zirconate cells for the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia, and investigations on the use of proton conducting ceramics as supports in heterogeneous catalysis. While ammonia synthesis is perhaps the most studied and optimised chemical reaction, new challenges are facing the century old Haber-Bosch process in the 21st century. As part of the need to move towards a carbon-free economy, new catalysts, and processes for the synthesis of ammonia are currently being developed.
Electrochemical ammonia synthesis is a promising avenue of research, attracting much interest in recent years. However, the goal of selectively and efficiently reducing the highly stable dinitrogen bond is not easy to realise. Previous literature investigations of this process in high temperature proton conducting cells have focussed on optimisation of electrolytes, leaving electrode catalysts relatively unexplored. This thesis aims to investigate how modification of electrode catalysts may alter rates of electrochemical ammonia synthesis. It is found that modification of the anode and cathode materials can dramatically alter the rates of electrochemical processes, but that the elucidation of electrochemical ammonia is more complex.
Barium zirconate was explored as support material for ruthenium catalysts. Due to the ability of the barium zirconate lattice to trap and store protons, it was proposed this could influence the ammonia synthesis reaction over ruthenium particles. A systematic study of how barium zirconate materials may promote ammonia synthesis was undertaken.
It was found that use of doped barium zirconate supports can provide a significant promotion effect for the synthesis of ammonia over ruthenium nanocatalysts. This promoting effect which, can be quantified using kinetic parameters, is ascribed to differences in the proton conductivities of the ceramic materials. The mechanism of this promotion is explored using neutron diffraction and in-situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques.
Japanese involvement in Central Asia in the early post-Cold War era (1991-1997): A Review from the Perspective of Neo-Classical Realism
Keywords: EBRD
Japan
Neo-Classical Realism
Central Asia
China
ODA

This dissertation examines the Japanese foreign policy towards Central Asia (CA) from 1991 to 1997. Through the theoretical lens of neo-classical realism, this research analyses the Japanese attempt in the period to transfer economic power into influence, both political and economic, in CA. In their shaping of foreign policy, the politicians are interpreted as decision-makers, who act on the perceived the change of national power in the international arena. The bureaucrats are understood as policy-makers, who compose and implement policies according to the politicians’ guidance. The big businesses were targeted by the policy, especially Official Development Aids (ODA) policy, to be mobilised in order to amplify Japanese influence in the region. Taking the above three actors as leads, this research reveals the problems faced by Japan in the 1990s that affected the effectiveness of the foreign policy. The accuracy of the perceived power change, the stability of domestic politics, and national power supporting direct foreign investment abroad are the keys needed for a rising nation to achieve the transition from wealth to power. By studying the Japanese precedents in CA, this research may also provide some reference to the rising nation with an increasing presence in the region, namely China.
Influence of age on knee replacement selection and outcomes
Keywords: partial knee replacement
osteoarthritis
knee replacement
age
knee arthroplasty
unicompartmental knee replacement
selection

Knee replacement is a very successful procedure and implantation rates continue to increase. Due to the success of the intervention the indications have been stretched to include patients historically considered too young and too old. Accusations of designer centre bias are used by some to explain discrepancies between national register outcome data and cohort data. This thesis examines the influence of age on selection and outcome for different types of knee replacement and attempts to untangle designer centre bias.
The first section of this thesis examines the influence of age on selection of patients for partial and total knee replacement using a combination of designer and non-designer centres. In patients sufficiently symptomatic to be offered replacement, about half of patients are eligible for partial replacement, with younger patients more likely to be eligible for medial replacement whilst older patients are more eligible for total replacement. The eligibility for partial replacement is far higher than current national usage in all age groups.
Outcomes following partial replacement were examined in designer and non-designer centres and found to be excellent in all age groups and did not vary significantly with age, or between centres. In particular revision rates for those under 55 years of age were found to be lower than that seen for total replacement. A finding strongly contrasting with national registers.
Finally, comparisons were undertaken for outcomes between partial and total replacement of the knee. In a matched comparison, partial replacement had better function and similar implant survival to total. Lifetime revision risk was determined using novel methodology, and was found to be similar in older age groups, but lower in younger age groups (<60 years) with partial replacement.
This thesis has not examined the use of partial replacement in early arthritis, and comparisons with total replacement may be confounded by indication. Possible explanations for the discrepant findings to registers include the use of partial replacement as a ‘pre-total replacement’ in young patients. Further work should examine morbidity and mortality benefits against revision risk in older patients alone (as opposed to all age groups combined).
In conclusion, this thesis rejects ‘designer’ bias, and supports the use of partial replacement in the severely arthritic knee in all age groups, provided appropriate indications are followed, and surgeons have appropriate expertise.
Investigating the role of cytokines in clonal hematopoiesis
Keywords: cytokines
clonal hematopoiesis
acute myeloid leukemia

Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is a hematologic disorder in which individual hematopoietic stem cells acquire a mutation which allows them to clonally expand (Genovese et al., 2014; Jaiswal et al. 2014). CHIP is known to occur disproportionately in older adults. While CHIP itself usually remains clinically benign, it has been shown that CHIP may serve as a precursor for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a hematologic cancer which, like clonal hematopoiesis, increases in risk and mortality with age (Deschler and Lübbert, 2006). However, it is not fully known what drives CHIP mutant clones to expand, nor what causes CHIP to develop into advanced hematologic malignancies such as AML. To date, a great deal of research has focused on understanding how cell intrinsic factors, like the gene carrying the CHIP mutation and further mutations acquired during AML development, may provide insight into CHIP development and progression. However, investigating cell extrinsic factors, such as cytokine signaling, in the context of CHIP may provide additional important clues into how CHIP mutants are able to gain the clonal advantage and ultimately develop into AML. In this thesis, I undertook a large-scale panel analyzing how expression of 25 cytokines may be dysregulated in the peripheral blood of CHIP patients. I identified 5 cytokines, TNFα, IL-8, CCL7, IFNγ and FGF-basic, which had significantly dysregulated expression between CHIP patients and controls. Although these results were not significant after Bonferroni multiple testing correction, they warrant further investigation into how they may impact HSC mutant clone expansion. Additionally, I analyzed RNA-Seq data to determine how these and a few other cytokines and their receptors are differentially expressed amongst blood progenitors, both in healthy patients and AML patients. Findings from the CHIP cytokine panel and my analysis of the RNA-Seq data suggest that inflammatory signaling may play a key role in both driving HSC mutant clone expansion in CHIP and promoting the eventual development of AML.
Debt subordination in corporate liquidation
Keywords: Turnover trust
Divestiture
Contract
insolvency set-off
Debt subordination
Financial law
Pari passu
Liquidation

This work examines the validity and effectiveness of certain subordination techniques of unsecured debt in corporate liquidation under English law. In practice, the validity and effectiveness of debt subordination is only relevant when either the debtor or the subordinated creditor is, or is threatening to become, insolvent. The focus in the work is on contractual and turnover subordination.
It is proposed that the general picture of debt subordination becomes clearer when we examine it from the point of view of, first, the debtor’s liquidation, second the junior creditor’s liquidation and third when they are both in liquidation. The material questions dealt with go to the very fundamentals of insolvency law, ie the role of pari passu distribution, ascertainment of which assets constitute the insolvency estate and whether it is possible to deviate from these rules contractually.
In order to answer the question whether debt subordination is effective in corporate liquidation under English law, the thesis addresses the following sub-themes: (i) whether subordination may fail being a preference, transaction at an undervalue or otherwise voidable; (ii) whether subordination may be defeated as a result of the insolvency set-off provision; and (iii) the effectiveness of the trust arrangement used in connection with turnover subordinations. These issues are evaluated through so-called complete, springing and subsequent subordinations.
The thesis proposes that the often-difficult questions concerning debt subordination in corporate liquidation can be resolved through a systematic, concise evaluation of the basic principles of the insolvency law in each liquidation respectively and that careful contractual drafting can considerably reduce the risks often associated with debt subordinations.
Wavefront shaping for stimulated emission depletion microscopy
Keywords: STED
STED-FCS
FCS
microscopy

Super-resolution microscopy has significantly expanded the scope of application of biological microscopes by allowing the resolution of features smaller than the diffraction limit. Several super-resolution microscopy techniques exist, among which stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy has become a tool of choice for many biological applications, particularly in living specimens. STED has also proven useful as a tool for biophysics, thanks to its capability to be combined with fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). Unfortunately, the excellent resolution of STED microscopes comes at the cost of an increased experimental complexity, which limits the scope of potential applications. This is particularly true in deep, three-dimensional specimens, where optical aberrations and undepleted background significantly reduce measurement quality. In this thesis, we developed methods based on wavefront shaping to overcome these issues, for STED imaging and STED-FCS. We used for this an adaptive STED microscope equipped with a spatial light modulator for wavefront shaping, for which we first developed a bespoke calibration protocol. We particularly optimised the performance of z-STED, a STED confinement mode that increases the axial resolution and was so far scarcely used due to its sensitivity to optical aberrations. Using this newly calibrated z-STED microscope, we investigated the dynamics and structure of the plasma membrane of living cells. To image deeper in aberrating specimens, we developed a novel aberration correction method, based on a novel image quality metric developed in our lab. This method was then adapted to establish a new aberration correction method for STED-FCS, which we could use to increase the performance of z-STED-FCS in solution as well as in cells. Finding suboptimal performance of z-STED-FCS even after aberration correction, we investigated the origins of background noise in STED-FCS in 3D and found that it could be minimised by means of coherent-hybrid STED created with a bivortex phase mask.