VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Stranded assets and environment-related risk
Keywords: stranded assets

This thesis represents the first comprehensive attempt at providing conceptual and scholarly coherence to the topic of stranded assets and the environment. Over the last five years the topic has risen up the agenda and has become of significant interest to scholars and practitioners alike, as it has influenced a number of pressing issues facing investors, companies, policymakers, regulators, and civil society in relation to global environmental change.
The thesis reveals how the topic developed and emerged, notably through a unique first-person account based on autoethnography and close dialogue. Four self- contained papers demonstrate the wide applicability of stranded assets, and further existing, relatively well-developed literatures (namely carbon budgets and stranded costs) and also two much less developed literatures (namely the calibration of climate policy to minimise stranded assets and policy mechanisms to quickly and efficiently strand assets).
Though a significant amount has been written on stranded assets over a short period, there remain significant gaps in the literature. The thesis identifies substantial research opportunities, particularly to better connect our understanding of physical and societal environment-related risks; to improve our knowledge of perception and behaviour in relation to the creation and management of stranded assets; to expand the scope of work into new sectors and geographies; and to place stranded assets in an appropriate historical perspective.
Stranded assets is, if anything, a geographical concept. The thesis makes the case for economic geography as the disciplinary home for stranded assets. The sub-discipline can both contribute to the development of stranded assets as a scholarly endeavour and itself benefit from interacting with a topic that intersects with some of the most pressing contemporary issues related to environmental sustainability.
A study on the effect of grain boundary elements on polycrystalline superalloys
Keywords: superalloys
grain boundaries

Polycrystalline nickel-based superalloys substantially derive their mechanical properties from the strength of their grain boundaries. Carbon and boron are the main grain boundary strengthening elements and they play a critical role on the performance of superalloys. However, how these grain boundary elements enhance the mechanical properties of polycrystalline superalloys is not well understood. This thesis presents information about the impact of carbon and boron additions on the mechanical properties of two superalloys suitable for land-based gas turbine applications. New findings with high scientific and industrial relevance that will improve our understanding about the grain boundary elements during the design of new superalloys are presented. High-resolution characterisation methods were used to study the effect of boron on the grain boundary character of a new polycrystalline superalloy. Boron was found to alter substantially the grain boundary character by controlling phase precipitation. Different boron contents were also studied and correlated with the mechanical properties; creep performance was found to vary with boron content. In addition, in-situ studies at elevated temperatures were used to rationalise the effect of boron on improving the mechanical properties of superalloys. The main deformation mechanisms taking place were identified and presented. Finally, the effect of carbides on crack initiation and propagation under complex stress and temperature cycles was studied in detail for a conventional cast superalloy. Carbides were found to have a detrimental effect by serving as crack initiation sites on superalloys for power generation applications. In overall, the findings suggest that boron rather than carbon is the crucial grain boundary strengthener for superalloys used in industrial gas turbines.
Effective Professional Learning: An inquiry into the impact of 'collaborative' training interventions on the professional development of teachers in their second year of teaching
Keywords: MLT2016
MLT

Retention of beginning teachers is an ongoing priority in education. In my Research and Development project, I investigated which learning resources beginning teachers most valued in their second year of teaching in order to learn more about how best to support and retain them.
Significant empirical evidence suggested that teacher collaboration could have a positive impact on practice and I therefore decided to introduce a new, collaborative element to an existing programme for teachers in their second year at my school. My research questions were:
1. What is the impact of using 'collaborative' training interventions on professional learning in the second year of teaching?
2. What do second year teachers' view as the most effective learning resources in their second year of teaching?
Five teachers peer-observed each other twice during the year; and offered feedback. Following observations, teachers took part in a semi-structured interview reflecting on their experiences of collaboration. Qualitative methods were chosen in order to collect rich and personalised data.
Findings confirmed that teachers responded positively to collaborative training interventions but not to peer-observations in and of themselves. Findings also supported empirical evidence of the highly individualised nature of support needed for each individual practitioner. Further, a complex interaction of factors impacted significantly on what teachers perceived to be meaningful and useful training.
Implications for future training were found to need to take into account diagnostic, collaborative, reflective and affective elements in order to satisfy the needs of a diverse teacher cohort.
Tetramates as antibacterial and anticancer core scaffolds
Keywords: antibacterial

This thesis is concerned with the synthesis of small molecules that mimic tetramate- and pyrrolidinone-containing natural products, and the evaluation of their antibacterial and anticancer properties.
Chapter 1 exposes the need for new antibiotics due to the emergence of resistance to current drugs, and it discusses the value of the natural product inspired approach for drug discovery. It also gives an overview of the structure, synthesis and biological properties of the natural products pramanicin and oxazolomycin, both of which contain a pyrrolidinone core.
Chapter 2 describes an efficient synthetic route which allowed the preparation of a library of acyltetramates via Grignard addition to a Weinreb amide. This route was also used to prepare mimics of the acyl chain of pramanicin, comprising dienones and epoxy-enones of different lengths, and of the left-hand segment of oxazolomycin.
In Chapter 3, reduction of the tetramate core of different closely-related systems was performed, and it was found that the diastereochemical outcome could be controlled by appropriate choice of substituents in the bicyclic system. Preparation of reduced acyltetramates was only successful via hydrogenation of the Weinreb amide and subsequent Grignard substitution.
Chapter 4 describes the introduction of β-lactones to pyrrolidinones. Conditions for the selective formation of either spiro- or fused-β-lactones were found, which relied on the activation of the precursor β-hydroxyacid, accessed via N,O-acetal deprotection and ester saponification of the bicyclic systems. Further functionalisation of these analogues to mimic oxazolomycin was thwarted by the instability of some of the intermediates.
Finally, the biological properties of the analogues are discussed in Chapter 5. The antibacterial activity against Gram-negative E. coli and Gram-positive S. aureus was examined using the holeplate method, which showed that the aliphatic lipophilic tetramates were the most potent inhibitors, with selective Gram-positive activity. An anticancer high-content screen was also designed, but only weak activities of the synthesised compounds were observed against four cancer cell lines.
Citizenship undermined: messages received through the social assistance system in contemporary Hungary
Keywords: citizenship
popular participation
welfare state

Very few narratives go as unchallenged about the transition of Central and Eastern European countries from state socialism to market democracies as the following: before the transitions people in these countries had strong social rights but were lacking any civic and political rights, and while the transformations provided the people with firm civil and political citizenship, they lost out on social rights. In my dissertation I argue that this is an oversimplifying and highly distorted narrative that is blind to the deep inequalities in these societies. My research focused on one particular means of reproducing these inequalities, namely welfare institutions, and explored what recipients of social assistance provision learned about their citizenship in the post-transition Hungarian welfare complex. This analysis not only demonstrated an inextricable interrelationship between civil, political and social citizenship, but also allowed for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms through which apparent political inequalities were reproduced in practice. By the innovative method of institutional ethnography I constructed a mosaic of the various component elements of the institutional system of social assistance provision in contemporary Hungary and investigated the influence that each had on recipients’ civil and political citizenship. This study indicated a marked discrepancy between recipients' ideal and their lived experiences of citizenship, and found that certain characteristics of the system of social assistance provision played a crucial part in reproducing this discrepancy. The high level of discretion in the system, recipients' lack of information, the treatment they underwent in the welfare office, as well as the lack of institutional guarantees that could ensure that they enjoyed equal and fair treatment in all the welfare offices in the country proved to be the most important characteristics of social assistance provision that had direct or indirect effects on recipients' democratic subjectivity.
Hydrodynamics of micro-swimmers in complex fluids and environments
Keywords: Upstream swimming
Medical physics
Microfluidics
Stokes flow
Infection
Theory
Soft matter
Vortices
Liquid films
Drug delivery
Hydrodynamics
Interfaces
Biological fluctuations
Self-propulsion
Cell motility
Ecology
Computational fluid dynamics
Out of equilibrium
Stokeslet
Rheology
Active particle
Nutrient uptake
Micro-organisms
Microrobotics
Biological physics
Statistical physics
Confinement
Bacteria
Sperm cells
Viscoelasticity
PIV
Pathogen
Nonlinear dynamics
Brownian motion
Biofilms
Complex fluids
Active fluids
Shear thinning
Lattice-Boltzmann simulations
Chlamydomonas

Both biological micro-organisms and synthetic micro-robots propel through viscous liquids to achieve their goal, be it to invade new territories or to deliver drugs to infected regions. Considerable attention is devoted to learning how to prevent or encourage these processes, and understanding the interactions between micro-swimmers and their complex environments is an essential part of this. In vivo conditions provide a challenge to model, although novel experimental, computational and theoretical techniques have provided clear insights into the continuous interplay between the effects of strong confinement, hydrodynamic interactions, and local activity that drives living systems out of equilibrium.
To analyse the underlying mechanisms of micro-swimmer processes, we develop a hydrodynamic framework based on the fundamental solutions of the Stokes equations to compute swimmer-generated flow fields. These flows affect the motion of swimmers via reflections in surfaces, mix and enhance the uptake of nutrients, and enable cells to sense one another's presence.
Hence, we study the accumulation of microbes on surfaces, which could be relevant for the initial stages of biofilm formation, and compute the strength required for externally imposed flows to detach them. Moreover, we evaluate the ability to swim upstream and uncover that viscoelasticity can provide a natural sorting mechanism for sperm cells. Other ecological effects are considered, including the transport of nutrients by micro-flows, the interaction with water-air interfaces, and the impact of thermal noise and biological fluctuations.
To verify our results, we compare our theory to extensive simulations using a `Raspberry' swimmer model in combination with the Lattice-Boltzmann fluid solver algorithm. This allows us to determine previously unknown model parameters and hence make suggestions to improve micro-organism treatment and micro-robot design.
Do the candidates matter? A theory of agency in American presidential nominations
Keywords: presidential nomination
American election
structure
agency

This thesis develops a candidate-centred conception of American presidential nominations. Candidates' choices in nomination politics remain under-theorised. The literature on nominations has tended either to downplay the role of candidates' independent influence or to suggest that the impact of their choices is too idiosyncratic to theorize about. I reject both of these positions; and instead develop the basic elements of a theory in which candidates are the principal agents of change in nomination contests. I argue that candidates make distinct identity, tactical, and management choices, and I show that this simple frame can be used to connect aspirants’ varying goals to their choices and actions.
In my theory, candidates' prospects remain relatively stable unless a shift occurs in their competitive setting in response to an unexpected event – for instance, a surprising election result. These shifts, or critical junctures, define a candidate's path to his party’s presidential nomination. I argue that the rival candidates' choices dominate the development of these critical junctures and, therefore, that candidates' choices are crucial to nomination outcomes. Structural factors, the actions of non-candidates and the effects of exogenous events, account for a minority of critical junctures.
In the empirical chapters of this study, I examine the Democratic and Republican nomination contests in selected years before the McGovern-Fraser reforms (1912, 1924, 1932) and in post-reform cases (1972, 1976, 1980) to demonstrate the pervasive influence of candidates' choices in contrasting institutional settings. These cases confirm my basic claim about the centrality of candidates' choices and also suggest significant ways in which candidates’ choices have changed between 1912 and 1980.
Invisible spaces: variegated geographies of waste in China
Keywords: Waste
Global production networks
Capitalism
Invisibility
Informal economy
China
Labour
Urbanisation

With millions of people involved in collecting and treating recyclable products, waste recycling provides a critical entry point to an investigation of the spaces and dynamics of the Chinese economy. Based on sixteen months of in-depth ethnographic research, this thesis, 'Invisible spaces: variegated geographies of waste in China', describes and analyses waste and its boundaries, as well as the actors that deal with it at different scales within the country. The work examines how waste circulates, how it is regulated, and how it is represented in China. It presents stories of the people and places that configure the waste industry, and situates its analysis at the intersection of three different strands of literature: i) variegated capitalism; ii) informal economy; and iii) geographies of waste. The research contends that the 'afterlives' of goods are a productive prism which can be used to understand the variegated mode of capitalism in contemporary China and thus investigates the following question: to what extent do the different cultural, social, political, economic, and material dimensions of waste reveal the heterogeneous characteristics of Chinese capitalism?
Central to my analysis is the concept of invisibility. I conceive invisibility as a socio- political process that brings about an uneven access to resources and labour for subaltern groups, as well as a relational concept encompassing the three complementary and dialectical dimensions of absolute, relative, and relational space. Invisibility is not only a metaphor to define the agency of informal workers, but also an allegory to describe the marginalisation of their activities and spaces. It is an asset and a curse, a condition and a strategy. These multiple dimensions make invisibility a productive device bringing to light the geographies of different accumulation regimes and everyday practices, as well as a potent tool to analyse the alternative representations of waste, value, labour, and development at play in contemporary China. With this in mind, the thesis engages with a number of important debates in geography. In particular, the five empirical chapters engage with literature on global production networks, labour geography, primitive accumulation, geographies of waste, and urban political ecology. While drawing these literatures into conversation with the variegated capitalism framework, the work suggests that the invisibility of waste activities is a powerful tool to analyse the nature and the mechanisms of the variegated modes of production in contemporary China.
The social organisation of the Penan
Keywords: Penan
people
southeast
Bornean
social
Asian
organisation
Borneo

This thesis is based in fieldwork carried out in Borneo from May 1951 to May 1952. It describes something of the history and mode of life of the Penan, a nomadic people numbering about 2650, of whom a third have settled and now live in a fashion similar to that of other more familiar Bornean peoples.
The nomadic Penan, with whom I am mainly concerned, live in the primary rain forests that densely cover the uplands and the rocky ridges of the interior. They wander in small groups of from thirty to forty individuals on the average, the extreme of which are separated on the map by about 140 miles of some of the worst country in southeast Asia. It is a harsh land and an exacting one; a land continually drenched with torrential rains throughout the year, folded into great ranges and broken hills and swamps, cut by fast muddy rivers and rocky streams. there is little in it to please a European who lives close enough to it to see it for what it is.
The quality of a report depends much on the way the ethnographer sets about his work, and the reception given to what he presents as facts about a strange people depends to some extent on the reader's imaginative realisation (however far short this may fall) of what it costs the observer to obtain them. 'A man must judge his labours by the obstacles he has overcome and the hardships he has endured, and by these standards I am not ashamed of the results.'
From introduction; continued in thesis
Topics in population ethics
Keywords: Population ethics
Spectrum arguments
Time-relative interests
Moral vagueness
Veil of ignorance

This thesis consists of several independent papers in population ethics. I begin in Chapter 1 by critiquing some well-known 'impossibility theorems', which purport to show there can be no intuitively satisfactory population axiology. I identify axiological vagueness as a promising way to escape or at least mitigate the effects of these theorems. In particular, in Chapter 2, I argue that certain of the impossibility theorems have little more dialectical force than sorites arguments do. From these negative arguments I move to positive ones. In Chapter 3, I justify the use of a 'veil of ignorance', starting from three more basic normative principles. This leads to positive arguments for various kinds of utilitarianism - the best such arguments I know. But in general the implications of the veil depend on how one answers what I call 'the risky existential question': what is the value to an individual of a chance of non-existence? I chart out the main options, and raise some puzzles for non-comparativism, the view that life is incomparable to non-existence. Finally, in Chapter 4, I consider the consequences for population ethics of the idea that what is normatively relevant is not personal identity, but a degreed relation of psychological connectedness. In particular, I pursue a strategy based in population ethics for understanding the controversial 'time-relative interests' account of the badness of death.
Building linguistic confidence: A critical study of teachers' Target Language use in the MFL classroom and its implications for students' willingness to communicate
Keywords: MLT
MLT2016
Target Language
Modern Foreign Languages

This investigation aims to delineate the ways in which the teacher's use of the target language (TL) influences the learner’s willingness to communicate (WTC) in a foreign language. The nature and extent of the teacher's TL use is a highly contested issue within the field of language pedagogy, and is thus deserving of sustained enquiry. While numerous studies claim that increased exposure to the second language (L2) equates to greater progress in language acquisition (Chambers, 2013; Carroll, 1975; Boulima,1999), others advocate the inclusion of the first language (L1) in effective teaching and learning (Macaro, 1997; Levine, 2003; Christie, 2013). Moving beyond the parameters of these projects, this study sets out to discover the effects of the teacher's TL on students’ own L2 production.
Building on both TL and WTC literature, this small-scale project involved the design and implementation of three TL models with two Year 7 French classes. Students completed a questionnaire before and after a six-week intervention in which the teacher spoke only in the TL. Based on students' feedback and researcher reflections, the second cycle involved a 'home and away' model in which the teacher spoke more TL in certain lessons, allowing a distinct comparison for teacher and students alike. The final cycle placed a greater emphasis on the students’ WTC TL use, with the implementation of four strategies designed to build students’ linguistic confidence. Three other language teachers then trialled the final model with their Year 7 classes to provide richer and fuller data about its usefulness. Interviews with colleagues, journals kept by the students, video recordings and surveys were all employed to examine the discernable parallels between the teacher's L2 use and the students' willingness to produce new language. Results indicated that students' WTC is far more dependent on the tasks they are given and the strategies deployed to increase their TL production, than on their teacher's use of the TL.