VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Producing animation: work, creativity, and aspirations in the Japanese animation industry

This thesis examines shifting relations of labour, creativity, and political economy in the context of commercial animation production in contemporary Tokyo. Based on 12 months of fieldwork in the Japanese animation industry (2009-2010), the ethnography of the thesis is centred on young animation makers whose lives are fraught with persistent job insecurity and socio-economic precariousness. Contrary to celebratory narratives of the global success of anime, found in both Japanese media discourses and the literature of Japanese studies, these professional young workers live on the socio-economic fringe of mainstream Japanese society. Despite such instability, labour discourses in the animation industry are notable for their highly aspirational quality, which appears to be based on global liberal discourses of self-realisation through the pursuit of dreams in the labour market.
Commercial animation production in the Japanese industry entails a complex division of labour in which animation makers are, at the root, divided between managers and creators. This management-creative relation structures the primary context of commercial production. Thematically, the thesis engages mainly with three research literatures in anthropology: the anthropology of creativity, the anthropology of work, and Japanese ethnography. The analytical locus is built on the perspective of young entry-level managers, with whom I worked during fieldwork and who were on the lowest strata of the workplace hierarchy.
Through the detailed ethnography of animation production – one of Japan’s premier creative industries – the thesis examines creative processes of animation making within the terms of work and labour. In so doing, it engages critically with the social and economic structures of commercial animation production, and explores the lived dimension of labour on the production floor. Methodologically, this means combining the perspectives of political economy and phenomenology by situating the micro-processes of animation making firmly in the industry’s social and economic relations of production. I pay particular attention to the ways in which shifting social and cultural discourses of labour in Japan intersect with global liberal ideologies, such as creativity and self-realisation, in the context of commercial animation production. The major focus of the thesis is therefore to explicate what it is that makes these young animation makers, despite adverse conditions of labour, retain their aspirations to pursue the profession of animation making.

Keywords: anime
creativity
youth
animation
labour
Japan
Advisor: Daniels, I
How can magnetoencephalography and magnetic resonance imaging improve our understanding of genetic susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease?

The Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele is the best-established genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) while the ε2 allele confers a reduced risk compared with the most common ε3 allele. Neuroimaging studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have shown that APOE genotype affects brain structure and function. The aims of the research presented in this DPhil thesis were twofold: 1) to investigate the effect of APOE genotype on brain function in healthy adults using magnetoencephalography (MEG), which is a direct measure of neuronal activity and 2) to explore interactions between the AD risk factors APOE ε4 allele, age and female gender and their effects on brain structure and function using resting-state functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging. MEG revealed similar neuronal activity at rest for APOE ε2 and ε4 carriers, i.e. those with opposite AD risk, indicating a more general effect on the functional architecture of the brain that is not directly linked to AD risk. However, differences between APOE ε2 and ε4 carriers became apparent when reactivity to stimuli was explored using the excellent temporal resolution of MEG. APOE ε4 carriers showed faster sensory pro- cessing and APOE genotype effects were found for functional networks associated with attention. In the second part of this project, female APOE ε4 carriers showed overall significantly reduced functional connectivity between the hippocampus and precuneus and a significant age-related decrease in connectivity of these regions. Increased vulnerability of this connection might be one reason for increased AD risk and interventions targeting hippocampal connectivity might be especially effective in at-risk populations. The research presented in this DPhil thesis showed a complex pattern of APOE genotype effects on brain structure and function. While global APOE genotype effects on functional and structural connectivity do not follow patterns of AD risk, more specific measures of connectivity and task-related brain function could be of use in the development of preclinical markers for AD development.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease
biomarkers
neuroimaging
Advisor: Mackay, C
Ebmeier, K
Effect of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Act on infant malnutrition: a mixed methods study in Rajasthan, India

Background
Malnutrition is a major risk factor of infant mortality in India. Policies targeting poverty and food insecurity may reduce infant malnutrition. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a wage-for employment policy of the Indian Government, targets deprivation and food insecurity in rural households. MGNREGA could prevent infant malnutrition by improving household food security or increase the risk of malnutrition by reducing the time devoted to infant care if mothers are employed. This study analyzed the effect and the pathways of effect of households’ and mothers’ participation in MGNREGA on infant malnutrition.
Methods
A community based mixed methods study using cross-sectional survey and focus group discussions (FGDs) was conducted in Dungarpur district of Rajasthan, India. Cross-sectional study included 528 households with 1,056 participants who were infants 1 to <12 months and their mothers/caregivers. Selected households were divided into MGNREGA-households and non-MGNREGA-households based on participation in MGNREGA between August-2010 and September-2011. Anthropometri indicators of infant malnutrition–underweight, stunting, and wasting (WHO criteria) were the outcomes. Eleven FGDs with 62 mothers were conducted.
Results
Of 528 households, 281 participated in MGNREGA (53%). Mothers were employed in 51 (18%) households. Prevalence of wasting was 39%, stunting 24%, and underweight 50%. Households participating in MGNREGA were less likely to have wasted infants (OR 0•57, 95% CI 0•37–0•89; p=0•014) and underweight infants (OR 0•48, 95% CI 0•30–0•76; p=0•002) than non-participating households. Stunting did not differ significantly between groups. Although MGNREGA reduced starvation, it did not confer food security to the participating households because of lower than standard wages and delayed payments. Results from path analysis did not support an effect through household food security and infant feeding, but suggested a pathway of effect through birth-weight. Mothers’ employment had no significant effect on the outcomes in the cross-sectional study, but the qualitative study indicated that it could compromise infant feeding and care.
Conclusion
Participation in MGNREGA was associated with reduced infant malnutrition possibly mediated indirectly via improved birth-weight rather than improved infant feeding. Providing child care facilities at worksites could mitigate the negative effects of mother’s participation in MGNREGA. Further, improving mothers’ knowledge of appropriate feeding practices in conjunction with providing employment (to address deprivation and food insecurity) is key in the efforts to reduce infant malnutrition.

Keywords: infant nutrition
malnutrition
employment
policy
social determinants
Advisor: Webster, P
Proochista, A
Genes in space: selection, association and variation in spatially structured populations

Spatial structure in a population creates distinctive patterns in genetic data. There are two reasons to model this process. First, since the genetic structure of a population is induced by its historical spatial structure, it can be used to make inference about history and demography. Second, these models provide corrections to other analyses that are confounded by spatial structure. Since is it is now common to collect genome-wide data on many thousands of samples, a major challenge is to develop fast, scalable, approximate algorithms that can analyse these datasets. A practical approach is to focus on subsets of the data that are most informative, for example rare variants.
First we look at the problem of estimating selection coefficients in spatially structured populations. We demonstrate this approach using classical datasets of moth colour morph frequencies, and then use it in a model incorporating both ancient and modern DNA to estimate the selective advantage of one of the best known examples of local adaptation in humans, lactase persistence in Europeans.
Next, we turn to the problem of association studies in spatially structured populations. We demonstrate that rare variants are more confounded by non-genetic risk than common variants. Excess confounding is a consequence of the fact that rare variants are highly in- formative about recent ancestry and therefore, in a spatially explicit model, about location.
Finally, we use this insight into rare variants to develop methods for inference about population history using rare variant and haplotype sharing as simple summary statistics. These approaches are extremely fast and can be applied to genome-wide data on thousands of samples, yet they provide an accurate description of the history of a population, both identifying recent ancestry and estimating migration rates between subpopulations.

Keywords: Popultaion genetics
Statistical genetics
Advisor: McVean, G
Lindgren, C
The landscape of recombination in African Americans: leveraging human population variation to investigate homologous recombination

Homologous recombination is a highly regulated and complex biological process required for sexual reproduction in humans and many other species. The mechanisms of initiation and control of this process, however, are only partially understood. The aim of this work is to tease apart and utilize the differences in recombination localization between human populations to understand the underlying biological processes.

Keywords: recombination
Advisor: Myers, S
Synthesis, anion binding studies and applications of mono- and bimetallic lanthanide complexes

This work describes the preparation and study of lanthanide complexes derived from heptadentate DO3A and DO3AM ligands. The work described encompasses a range of synthetic studies using conventional Click chemistry, novel gold catalysed couplings to prepare mono- and bi- metallic complexes and synthesis of DO3AM derivatives. These complexes have been used in a variety of studies to explore proton and anion binding events, and to develop catalysts for fluorination in protic solvents.
Chapter one describes the fundamental properties of the lanthanides with a focus on their luminescent behaviour, as well as a brief review of possible applications for lanthanide ions and complexes.
Chapter two explores the use of click reactions, firstly with propargylDO3A and 2- azidopyridne to explore any pH dependant behaviour of the complexes. The corresponding d-f hybrids of these complexes were also explored to investigate how the addition of a d block metal can affect the behaviour of d-f hybrids compared to the parent complex. This chapter also explores the novel synthesis of a strained dibenzocyclooctyne lanthanide complex, that has potential for efficient formation of bioconjugates using in vivo bio-orthogonal click reactions.
Chapter three describes the development of a novel synthetic method that uses lanthanide complexes in novel three component gold catalysed couplings to form new lanthanide architectures, and study their binding affinity for anions. We also describe how this methodology can be extended to form bimetallic lanthanide complexes. These bimetallic systems form ternary complexes with aryl dicarboxylates, in which guest binding can be used to modulate the intramolecular energy transfer mechanisms giving rise to a ratiometric red/green response.
Chapter four defines the synthesis of rigid, chiral heptadentate DO3AM derivatives bearing aspartate derived pendant arms, and explores their fluoride binding by NMR and luminescence, revealing that binding of axial fluoride is less favourable than fluoride binding in the plane of the carbonyl donors. The use of these complexes as catalysts is also investigated for the fluorination of α-halocarboxylic acids.
Chapter five summarises the work done throughout the thesis, highlighting some overarching conclusions, as well as describing areas for further study.
Chapter six provides experimental procedures and characterisation data for the compounds studied.

Advisor: Faulkner, S
Privacy-preserving targeted advertising for mobile devices

With the continued proliferation of mobile devices, the collection of information associated with such devices and their users --- such as location, installed applications and cookies associated with built-in browsers --- has become increasingly straightforward. By analysing such information, organisations are often able to deliver more relevant and better focused advertisements. Although such Targeted Mobile Advertising (TMA) offers great benefits to advertisers, it gives rise to a number of concerns, with privacy-related concerns being prominent amongst them. It follows that there is a need for an advertisement-selection mechanism that can support the existing TMA business model in a manner that takes into account consumers' privacy concerns.
The research described in this dissertation explores the delicate balance between the goals of the advertisers and the consumers: advertisers pursue profits by applying TMA, which violates consumers' privacy; consumers hope to benefit from useful mobile advertisements without compromising their personal information. The conflicts of interests between consumers and advertisers in the context of targeted mobile advertising brings us to our research question: Is it possible to develop a privacy-preserving TMA framework that enables mobile users to take advantage of useful advertising services without their privacy being compromised, and without impacting significantly advertising effectiveness?
In order to answer this question, this dissertation presents four main contributions. First, we report upon the result of a qualitative study to discuss the balance that needs to be struck between privacy and utility in this emerging area. Second, a number of formal models are developed to reason about privacy, as well as to reason about the relationship between privacy and utility in the context of TMA. Third, a novel ad-selection architecture, PPTMA (Privacy-Preserving Targeted Mobile Advertising), is presented and evaluated. Finally, a privacy-preserving advertisement-selection mechanism, AdSelector, is introduced. The mechanism is novel in its combination of a user subscription mechanism, a two-stage ad-selection process, and the application of a trustworthy billing system.

Keywords: Mobile Devices
Advertising
Pirvacy
Advisor: Simpson, A
Interfacial electrochemical kinetics

The first two chapters in this thesis introduce the fundamental knowledge underpinning electrochemistry and numerical simulation. The rest of the thesis comprises three parts: investigation of charge transfer at the electrode-electrolyte interface; a kinetic study of electrocatalytic reactions at micro- and nano-electrodes; and the evaluation of electrochemical detection of single enzymes.
In the first part the inner-sphere electron transfer is discussed under different situations where the breakage or formation of the chemical bond, the reorganization of the solvent and the influence of the electrical double layer are taken into consideration. Two important half-cell reactions in the field of fuel cells, the hydrogen oxidation reaction and the oxygen reduction reaction, are taken as examples and discussed in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.
The second part focuses primarily on the influence of the electrode size and geometry on electrocatalytic reactions. The kinetics reflecting both the mass transport of the reacting species and the electrocatalytic reaction are investigated. The application of simulation enables the measurement of the kinetic parameters and the determination of rate-determining factors in different experimental situations. The hydrogen oxidation reaction on nanoparticles is investigated in Chapter 5. Homogeneous and heterogeneous EC’ (E: electrochemical step; C’: catalytic step) reactions are discussed in Chapter 6, respectively.
In the last section, the possible detection of single enzymes via the nano-impact electrochemical technique is explored in Chapter 7. The kinetics of the electrode system containing a freely-diffusing enzyme and a microelectrode is investigated and the experimental conditions required for the measurement of enzyme activity predicted.

Advisor: Compton, R
Synthesis and development of light-activated molecular probes

Judicious addition of photolabile caging groups (PCGs) to protect biologically im- portant molecules, has enabled the development of many powerful chemical tools for the study of biological processes. These tools have the potential to be activated in a cellular setting by irradiation with light of appropriate wavelengths, restoring functionality, with excellent spatial and temporal control.
This D. Phil. dissertation highlights two biologically relevant examples where PCGs can be applied: (i) 4,5-dimethoxynitrobenzyl (DMNB) caged derivatives of GSH and ESG, were synthesised and uncaging of the DMNB group at 350 nm to reveal the free α-carboxylic acid of the glycine residue was demonstrated. These molecules have the potential to probe the binding mode within the KefC KTN binding domain, a ligand-gated K+ efflux system, critical for bacterial response to electrophilic assault. The molecules are currently with collaborators awaiting further evaluation.
(ii) The wavelength-dependent application of PCGs toward the study of protein post- translational modifications (PTMs) was developed. PTMs modulate protein function and have a ubiquitous role in a diverse range of cellular functions.
A wavelength selective sequential pair of PCGs was developed and demonstrated in a tripeptide, using the diethylamino coumarin (DEACM), which was cleaved at 420 nm, and the DMNB caging group, which was subsequently cleaved at 350 nm.
A chromatically orthogonal pair of PCGs, with possible applications in both organic synthesis and biological systems, incorporating the BODIPY-based and DEACM caging groups, which could be cleaved at 530 nm and 420 nm, respectively, was also developed.
Photolysis was conducted on a tripeptide and hexapeptide and an in vitro application was demonstrated where when caged, the peptide was not susceptible to peptidolysis when incubated with enzymes. Following irradiation at 420 nm, the DEACM group was uncaged and the peptide underwent peptidolysis in the presence of Endoproteinase AspN, whereas following irradiation at 530 nm to uncage the BODIPY group, the peptide underwent peptidolysis in the presence of Endoproteinase LysC. These results not only provide conclusive evidence of the ability of this pair of caging groups to act in a wavelength orthogonal sense but also demonstrates the potential applicability of the pair to biochemical studies.
This pair of PCGs represents the first example of an orthogonal pair of caging groups where both PCGs could be cleaved, at wavelengths longer than 400 nm, in a sequence independent manner.

Keywords: caging
photolabile
amino acid
caged
photolysis
peptide
Advisor: Brown, T
Conway, S
Organisation of, and ligand-independent signalling by the TCR, with a special emphasis on the pre-TCR

Understanding how immune signalling is initiated and regulated spatiotemporally is likely to be helped by investigations of receptor stoichiometry. The pre-TCR expressed by thymocytes shares similarities in structure and signalling components with the mature TCR but, in contrast to the TCR, it has no known ligands. This thesis has therefore analysed the stoichiometry of the pre-TCR using mutagenesis- and imaging-based approaches, and explored how ligand-independent signalling might be initiated by both the TCR and pre-TCR. The mutational analysis, which required considerable optimisation because the pre-TCR is very weakly expressed in transfected cells, suggested that only one contiguous surface on pre-Tα needs to be buried in the pre-TCR complex in order for it to reach the cell surface. This comprised the surface buried at the interface with the constant region of TCRβ and therefore was incompatible with previous suggestions that the pre-TCR assembles into a ‘head-to-tail’ dimer. Unexpectedly, super-resolution imaging experiments combined with cluster analysis, and the method of single-molecule cross-colour coincidence detection were suggestive that, rather than dimers, the pre-TCR forms higher-order oligomers in transfected cells and possibly also in thymocytes. Similar analyses showed that the organisation of the TCR was heterogeneous, depending on the level of expression of the receptor. Overall, technical limitations that emerged in the course of the study highlighted some of the difficulties in studying native receptor stoichiometry on resting cells generally. The final part of the thesis investigated ligand-independent signalling by the TCR, using a novel assay based on the binding of a superagonistic antibody to a non-signalling form of the receptor CD28. Using CRISPR/Cas-mediated gene editing, it was shown that ligand-independent signalling by the mature TCR and pre-TCR was dependent on Lck and Zap70, indicating that it is reliant on the triggering of conventional signalling pathways. Ways in which the pre-TCR might initiate signalling, that could be tolerant of complexes exhibiting a range of stabilities, are also discussed.

Advisor: Davis, S