VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Can phenomenology determine the content of thought?

This thesis is about consciousness and representation. More specifically, the big picture issue in the background throughout is the relationship between consciousness (or "phenomenology") and representation (or "intentionality") in the life of the mind. Phenomenology and intentionality are inarguably the two central topics in philosophy of mind of the last half-century. The question of phenomenology is, "how can there be something it feels like, from a subjective viewpoint, for a physical being to experience the world?" The question of intentionality is, "how can something physical, such as a brain state, be about, or represent, some other thing out in the world?"
Not too long ago, the majority opinion was that these two questions addressed two essentially independent domains. However, in recent years the views of many philosophers have swung dramatically in the opposite direction. An important theme of analytic philosophy of mind in the last decade or two has been the exploration of the groundbreaking idea that these two domains might be fundamentally linked in previously unrecognized ways. Perhaps phenomenal properties are reducible to certain kinds of intentional properties. Perhaps the mind's non-derivative intentionality is grounded in phenomenology. Perhaps we should think of phenomenology and intentionality as "intertwined, all the way down to the ground" (Chalmers 2004, 32).
This thesis addresses one crucial question within this larger framework: whether, and how, thoughts are phenomenally conscious. Thoughts are an important test case for theories about the relationship between phenomenology and intentionality, because they have long been considered paradigmatic intentional states, in contrast to perceptual and sensory experiences, which are paradigmatic phenomenal states. While there is something it is like, from the inside, for an individual to undergo a perceptual experience such as an olfactory experience of roasted coffee beans, by contrast entertaining a thought might seem to lack such a distinctive qualitative "feel". The thought is clearly intentional: it involves carrying informational content about objects and properties in the world. But is there also something it is like for a subject to experience thinking itself? To answer this question in the affirmative is to accept the existence of a phenomenology of thought, so-called "cognitive phenomenology" (CP).
The literature on this topic so far has focused primarily on the question of whether CP exists. Here I will focus on the subtly different, and largely neglected, question of whether a kind of CP exists that is able to determine thought's intentional content. Many proponents of CP seem to be motivated by the hope that it can, since they believe that in the case of other conscious states, the phenomenology accounts for the intentionality. However, in what follows I argue that this ambitious project is doomed to fail, because CP is not suited to determine the intentional content of thought.

Keywords: Consciousness
Intentionality
Phenomenology
Philosophy of Mind
Cognition
Thought
Advisor: Child, W
Bayne, T
Harmonising metalworking fluid formulations with end-of-life biological treatment

Metalworking fluids (MWFs) are coolants and lubricants, which are widely employed in metal cutting works. They are designed to be a long lasting product. Manufacturers have designed MWFs with lack of awareness of end-of-life disposal by including biocides, which make biological treatment challenging. Here, Syntilo 9913 was used as a case study to develop a cradle-to-grave product that was biologically stable in use but amenable to sustainable hybrid biological treatment at end-of-life. The product was reverse engineered employing factorial design approach based on a priori knowledge of the product components. From the combinatorial work, it was observed that chemical interactions can results in synergistic and antagonistic effects in terms of the toxicity and biodegradability. One of the major components of most MWFs are amines such as Triethanolamine (TEA). TEA does not biodeteriorate in single compound screening, but in combination with many other components TEA was found to cause "softening" of MWF formulations. Octylamine was found to be best for "bio-hardening" but it was not economically sustainable. Hence, the modified biocide-free synthetic MWF, Syntilo 1601, was reformulated with TEA, isononanoic acid, neodecnoic acid, Cobratec TT50S, and pluronic 17R40, which were resistant to biological treatment. Although, no change in the overall oxidation state of the MWF, metabolic activity did occur as breakdown products were observed. This suggested that both raw materials and metabolic breakdown products were recalcitrant. Thus, immobilisation agents were applied to aid further biodegradation by removing toxic bottleneck compounds. It was found that hybrid nano-iron and kaffir lime leaf performed similarly in removing chemical oxygen demand and ammonium from the system. Work in this Thesis demonstrated that the combined use of biological treatment and immobilisation agents effectively overcome the limitations of biological treatment alone by removing bottleneck compounds, which allowed greater COD reduction. This laboratory scale is a proof of principle, which needs to be tested at full scale.

Keywords: sustainable design
metalworking fluid
toxicity immobilisation
reverse engineering
biodegradation
Advisor: Thompson, I
Living under "quiet insecurity": Religion and popular culture in post-genocide Rwanda

This thesis explores religion and popular culture in post-genocide Rwanda. In particular, I examine the rise of the new Pentecostal churches – the abarokore ("the saved ones") – and the reconstruction of the "modern" music industry after the genocide. I argue that contemporary social life in Rwanda is defined by "quiet insecurity" and "temporal dissonance". I employ these concepts to take seriously how young people in Rwanda create alternative pasts, presents, and futures for themselves within an authoritarian political context. While the government attempts to control the historical narrative and impose a particular developmentalist "vision" of the future onto its citizens, young people articulate and perform their hopes, fears, dreams, and anxieties within the realms of religion and popular culture, creating "unofficial" narratives that both converge with and contest those of the state. Against the prevailing academic consensus of Kigali as silent, I instead reposition the capital as a site of creativity wherein noisy debates take place about Rwandan identity and culture. I examine the new abarokore churches as important affective spaces that allow for healing and the keeping of secrets. Yet the fact that these same churches tend to be mono-ethnic suggests the limits of the born-again project. Conversely, the community imagined within popular culture, particularly through hip hop songs, is more inclusive, with identity forged through the mutual experience of pain and suffering. I pay particular attention to gender, and consider how patriarchal tendencies in the new churches and popular culture undermine the country's "progressive" gender policies. By examining Pentecostal services, conversion testimonies, song lyrics, the Kinyarwanda-language entertainment media, and discourses of musical corruption, I explore how young people respond to a context of quiet insecurity through quiet agency – they actively seek to transform and resolve their life circumstances, however modest or temporary their transformations or resolutions prove to be..

Keywords: popular culture
youth
religion
Rwanda
Advisor: Pratten, D
Structural studies of various β-aluminas

This thesis describes results obtained using high resolution electron microscopy, acoustic microscopy and chemical analysis to study the structure and properties of the superionic β-aluminas.
The acoustic microscopy and chemical analysis results relate solely to sodium β- and β" -alumina, which are used as the solid state electrolyte in the sodium/sulphur cell.
The high resolution electron microscopy results cover sodium β- and β"-alumina as well as a number of ion-exchanged β"-aluminas.
The β-alumina structure consists of spinel-like blocks separated by the so-called conduction planes. The conduction planes have a low density, and contain all the mobile cations. Lattice images of sodium β- and β"-alumina, silver β-alumina, ammonium/hydronium β"-alumina, gadolinium β" -alumina and divalent and trivalent europium β" -alumina are presented and discussed.
A hitherto unreported long-period structure in sodium β-alumina is shown, as is superlattice ordering in the divalent and trivalent β"-aluminas.
Defects in these materials are also discussed. The most common damage mode in the β" -aluminas, due to electron beam irradiation, is the loss of the mobile-ion containing planes, and the subsequent collapse and shear of the structure to form broad defect spinel blocks. It is shown that collapse vectors determined for sodium β"-alumina can also be applied to ammonium/hydronium β"-alumina. Two further damage modes observed in this β"-alumina are also discussed. A damage mode has been observed in sodium B-alumina and silver β-alumina which involves the extrusion of material to the crystal surface. Electron diffraction patterns from the extruded material have been indexed.
The acoustic microscope has been used to examine bulk sodium β/β"-alumina electrolyte tube specimens. Images of rectangular features present in the tubes (approximately 40um in length) are presented and the possible nature of the features is discussed.

Advisor: Humphreys, C
Multi-layered factors influencing the firm's internationalisation strategy: institutions, micro environment, and firm-level capabilities

This thesis investigates the factors influencing the internationalization of firms through a multi-layered analysis grounded in international business. It addresses the following questions. First, in what ways does the institutional environment facilitate or hinder the growth of start-ups? And in what ways does institutional diversity across countries affect internationalizing firms? Second, in light of the variety of internationalization patterns, what modifications are necessary to the theories of internationalization? Third, how do rapidly internationalizing firms explore and exploit capabilities? And in what ways does capability development differ between firms that realize early, rapid internationalization and those firms that do not?
Answering the first set of questions involves recasting the comparative institutional analysis of national political economies. This thesis demonstrates that: 1) when national institutions are in transition, business entrepreneurs can bring about institutional change, or else act to avoid or adapt specific institutions for their own use; and 2) international institutional diversity seems to be less influential in determining the expansion pattern of rapidly internationalizing firms. Next, to address the second question, this thesis examines the factors influencing the speed of internationalization. The proposed models point to a larger role of entrepreneurs’ perception and the relevance of the resources factor, and better accommodate a wider variety of internationalization paths. In order to answer the third set of questions, this thesis investigates the early stage development of firm-level capabilities among internationalizing firms. The result points to: 1) the faster transformation of individual capabilities to firm-level routines; 2) a wider variety of routines for exploring external capabilities; and 3) a higher ability to exploit ordinary routines, among more rapidly internationalizing firms. Finally, this thesis discusses how each of the three levels of analysis relates to the other levels. The overall analysis demonstrates the value of multi-layered approach in investigating the firm’s internationalization.

Keywords: International New Ventures
Internationalisation
institutions
Strategy
Born Global
capabilities
Advisor: Sako, M
Diffraction and scattering of high frequency waves

This thesis examines certain aspects of diffraction and scattering of high frequency waves, utilising and extending upon the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD). The first problem considered is that of scattering of electromagnetic plane waves by a perfectly conducting thin body, of aspect ratio O(k^1/2), where k is the dimensionless wavenumber. The edges of such a body have a radius of curvature which is comparable to the wavelength of the incident field, which lies inbetween the sharp and blunt cases traditionally treated by the GTD. The local problem of scattering by such an edge is that of a parabolic cylinder with the appropriate radius of curvature at the edge. The far field of the integral solution to this problem is examined using the method of steepest descents, extending the recent work of Tew [44]; in particular the behaviour of the field in the vicinity of the shadow boundaries is determined. These are fatter than those in the sharp or blunt cases, with a novel transition function. The second problem considered is that of scattering by thin shells of dielectric material. Under the assumption that the refractive index of the dielectric is large, approximate transition conditions for a layer of half a wavelength in thickness are formulated which account for the effects of curvature of the layer. Using these transition conditions the directivity of the fields scattered by a tightly curved tip region is determined, provided certain conditions are met by the tip curvature. In addition, creeping ray and whispering gallery modes outside such a curved layer are examined in the context of the GTD, and their initiation at a point of tangential incidence upon the layer is studied. The final problem considered concerns the scattering matrix of a closed convex body. A straightforward and explicit discussion of scattering theory is presented. Then the approximations of the GTD are used to find the first two terms in the asymptotic behaviour of the scattering phase, and the connection between the external scattering problem and the internal eigenvalue problem is discussed.
The three methyls: the function and therapeutic potential of histone H3K36 trimethylation

DNA is wrapped around proteins called histones, whose modification regulates numerous cellular processes. Therefore it is not surprising that mutations in the genes that modify the histones are frequently associated with human cancer. For example, mutations in SETD2, encoding the sole enzyme that catalyses histone H3 lysine 36 trimethylation (H3K36me3), occur frequently in multiple cancer types. This identifies H3K36me3 loss as an important event in cancer development, and also as a potential therapeutic target.
This thesis investigates the following questions: (1) how does the loss of H3K36me3 contribute to cancer development; and (2) what therapy can be used to kill cancers that have already lost H3K36me3.
To answer the first question, this thesis shows that H3K36me3 facilitates the accurate repair of DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) by homologous recombination (HR). H3K36me3 promotes HR by recruiting CtIP to the site of DSBs to carry out resection, allowing the binding of HR proteins (such as RPA and RAD51) to the damage sites. Thus it is proposed that error-free HR repair within H3K36me3-decorated transcriptionally active genomic regions suppresses genetic mutations which could promote tumourigenesis.
To answer the second question, this thesis reveals a clinically relevant synthetic lethal interaction between H3K36me3 loss and WEE1 inhibition. WEE1 inhibition selectively kills H3K36me3-deficient cells by inhibiting DNA replication, and subsequent fork stalling results in MUS81 endonuclease-dependent DNA damage and cell death. The mechanism is found to be synergistic depletion of RRM2 (ribonucleotide reductase small subunit), the enzyme that generates deoxyribonucleotides (dNTPs). This work reveals two pathways that regulate RRM2: one involves transcriptional activation of RRM2 by H3K36me3, and the other involves RRM2 degradation regulated by Cyclin-Dependent Kinase, CDK1 (which is controlled by WEE1, CHK1 and ATR). Based on this mechanism, the synthetic lethal interaction is expanded, from between two genes, to between two pathways. Supported by in vivo experiments, the study suggests that patients with cancers that have lost H3K36me3 could benefit from treatment with the inhibitors of WEE1, CHK1 or ATR.

Keywords: homologous recombination
cancer
DNA damage
WEE1 inhibitor
SETD2
DNA replication
personalised cancer therapy
ATR inhibitor
CHK1 inhibitor
synthetic lethality
histone modification
epigenetics
H3K36me3
Advisor: Humphrey, T
Helleday, T
The neural control of convergence eye movements and accomodation

Vergence eye movements and ocular accommodation were measured in three monkeys (Macacca mulatta) trained to track a haploscopically presented target which appeared to move in depth. The dynamic performance of both vergence and accommodation were found to be much better during binocular viewing than during monocular viewing. Responses during binocular viewing in which blur stimuli were removed (AOL viewing) were comparable to those in normal binocular viewing. It was concluded that disparity stimuli were more effective in the dynamic control of accommodation than blur cues.
In two of the three monkeys extracellular recordings were made from cells in a midbrain region dorsal and dorso-lateral to the oculomotor nucleus, which modulated their firing rate when the awake animals tracked target motion in depth, but not during side-to-side target motion. The amplitude of this modulation was similar during monocular viewing, normal binocular viewing, and AOL viewing, demonstrating a relationship to the motor output of accommodation or vergence, rather than any relationship to the blur or disparity stimuli. When presented with conflicting accommodation and vergence stimuli the accommodation and vergence responses, which are normally tightly coupled, were partially dissociated. Comparing unit activity during this task with that during normal binocular viewing, it was possible to show that nineteen cells were related to the vergence response alone, and eight cells were related to the accommodation response alone. For cells related to the vergence response alone, the phase advance of the cells' activity over the vergence response was much larger than that of motoneurones recorded by others, suggesting that these cells may project (directly or indirectly) to motoneurones with time constants longer than the mean.
Extracellular microstimulation in the same midbrain area of one monkey evoked accommodation and vergence responses, confirming the motor nature of the cells recorded in this region. Stimulation over a wide area of the occipito-temporal cortex failed to evoke accommodation or vergence responses, calling into question the assertion of Jampel (1960) that this area of the macaque cortex contains a centre for co-ordinating accommodation, vergence, and pupil constriction.

Advisor: Judge, S
Reconstructing collective action in the neoliberal era: the emergence and political impact of social movements in Chile since 1990   

This dissertation investigates the emergence and impact of social movements in Chile since the reinstatement of democracy in 1990. Seeking to make an important contribution to the understanding of the reconstruction of collective action in post-transition Chile, I focus on two cases which have been particularly successful in questioning the benefits of market-friendly policies introduced by the military regime (1973-1989) and continued to a great extent by the Concertación governments (1990-2010). The first case is the 2006 Pingüino movement, named after the secondary school students’ penguin-like black and white school uniforms, which forced a substantial discussion on the education system’s segregating effects and its neoliberal underpinnings. The second case is the 2007 Contratista movement, composed of subcontracted workers of CODELCO – Chile’s main state-owned copper-extracting company. The Contratistas repoliticised a long-dormant debate on labour issues and revitalised a trade union movement which had been in decline in previous decades.
I draw on the Contentious Politics approach, which stresses social movements’ interaction with the institutional terrain, and explain the emergence of the Pingüinos and Contratistas as the result of three distinct but intertwined processes: the opening up of the structure of political opportunities involved in the rise of President Bachelet; the deeply felt discontent with the education and labour reforms introduced by the military regime and kept largely intact by the Concertación governments; and the movements’ adoption of non-hierarchical organisational forms as a way of reconstructing collective action ‘from below’. In terms of political impact, I show that both the students and the contract workers were successful in introducing issues onto the public agenda that were not there before the emergence of the movements. The extent to which this was translated into bills that reflected the concerns of the movements, however, depended on their capacity to continue to exert pressure on the government and to forge political alliances. In this way, I argue that the impact of the movements was indirect and followed a two-stage process through which first the Pingüinos and Contratistas influenced aspects of their external environment, namely, public opinion and political alliances, and then the latter influenced policy.
Overall, my research shows the links between processes at the micro-level (the development of organisational resources and grievance interpretation) and their subsequent impact at the macro-level (agenda-setting and policy impact) – a development that has undoubtedly acquired greater relevance and analytical urgency since the wide range of protests that have taken place around the world since 2011.

Keywords: labour policy
education policy
social movements
Concertacion
neoliberalism
democracy
Chile
Advisor: Sánchez-Ancochea, D