VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Successful breastfeeding? Investigating mothers' experiences of infant feeding policies in the United Kingdom

This research investigates how women in the UK experience and navigate infant feeding policies which frame specific infant feeding practices as ‘optimal’ for maternal health and infant health and development. At the centre of the research are policies focussed on practices of exclusive breastfeeding for six months followed by the introduction of complementary foods alongside continued breastfeeding. Execution of these practices is termed ‘successful breastfeeding’ in health education. The thesis examines these policies as a contemporary example of biopolitical governance, aiming to advance understanding of how the attempted regulation of health behaviours such as infant feeding plays out in the daily lives of its subjects. This provides insights into the divergence between policy and practice as well as the potentially adverse effects of infant feeding policy. Ethnographic research was conducted in a community network of breastfeeding support services in Oxford, UK, over a period of twelve months, foregrounding the lived reality of mothers as the subjects of infant feeding governance. The findings indicate that mothers are held responsible for achieving successful breastfeeding according to ‘optimal’ practices, with limited acknowledgement in policy of the multiple factors – both within and beyond a mother’s control – that might prevent them from achieving this standard. Conflicts were identified in what constitutes ‘optimal’ infant feeding, and in how breastfeeding ‘success’ is and can be achieved. Mothers navigate these divergent and often conflicting ontologies of success through pragmatic strategies that enable them to negotiate the discrepant demands of early motherhood. These findings contribute to research that highlights the complexities involved in infant feeding decisions and practices, as well as to research that calls for a more ‘mother-centred’ approach to the promotion of breastfeeding.

Keywords: Ethnography
Breastfeeding
Motherhood
Public Health Policy
Public Health
Biopolitics
Infant Feeding
Advisor: Alvergne, A
Ulijaszek, S
Interlocked host structures for anion recognition and lanthanide complexation

This thesis describes the utilisation of interlocked host structures for anion recognition and lanthanide complexation. Halogen bonding is used as an intermolecular interaction when designing the interlocked anion hosts.
Chapter 1 introduces the field of supramolecular host guest chemistry, in particular anion recognition, followed by mechanically interlocked host molecules for guest recognition.
Chapter 2 describes halogen bonding interlocked structures for anion recognition using bifunctional bis iodotriazole motifs. The synthesis and anion binding properties of a cationic Re(I) complexed halogen bonding rotaxane is reported, and furthermore acid regulated switching of metal cation and anion guest binding in halogen bonding [2]rotaxanes is demonstrated.
Chapter 3 investigates the preparation of halogen bonding cryptand hosts which contain multiple iodotriazole groups for anion recognition. A naphthalene containing cryptand host capable of the selective recognition of spherical halide guest species is demonstrated, and attempts to construct halogen bonding cryptand based interlocked anion hosts are reported.
Chapter 4 details the preparation of novel interlocked rotaxane hosts for lanthanide complexation. The stability and photo physical properties of the resulting lanthanide complexes are investigated.
Chapter 5 summarises the conclusions of this thesis.
Chapter 6 describes the experimental procedures used in this work, and details the characterisation of novel compounds presented in Chapters 2 4.

Advisor: Beer, P
String-net models in condensed matter systems

We study a class of three dimensional exactly solvable models of topological matter first put forward by Walker and Wang. While these are not models of interacting bosons or fermions, they may well capture the topological behaviour of some strongly correlated systems.
In this work we give a full pedagogical treatment of a special simple case of these models, which we call the 3D semion model: We calculate its ground state degeneracies for a variety of boundary conditions, and classify its low-lying excitations. While point defects in the bulk are confined in pairs connected by energetic strings, the surface excitations are more interesting: the model has deconfined point defects pinned to the boundary of the lattice, and these exhibit semionic braiding statistics. The surface physics is reminiscent of a υ=1/2 bosonic fractional quantum Hall effect in its topological limit. Our special example of the 3D semion model captures much of the behaviour of more general `confined Walker-Wang models'. We contrast the 3D semion model with the closely related 3D version of the toric code (a lattice gauge theory) which has deconfined point excitations in the bulk. We discuss how more general Walker-Wang models can have a combination of fermionic or bosonic deconfined excitations in the bulk, and excitations which are deconfined on the surface but confined in the bulk.
Having classified the spectra and surface properties of a number of these models, we construct a topological field theory which describes a subset of them exactly. Moreover, we argue that some Walker-Wang models capture the low-energy long-wavelength behaviour of certain gapped phases of axion electrodynamics which, in turn, are believed to be germane to certain condensed matter systems with strong spin-orbit coupling.

Advisor: Simon, S
Anaesthesia and cognition

Anaesthesia is an essential component of many clinical and scientific procedures. It is well-established that anaesthesia has short-term effects on cognition but an increasing body of work suggests that anaesthesia may have longer-term effects on learning and memory, beyond the point at which the drugs are eliminated from the body.
Experiments were conducted, in adult rats, to better understand the behavioural phenotype of anaesthetic-induced cognitive impairment. A two-hour exposure to isoflurane/nitrous oxide anaesthesia in the absence of surgery was sufficient to impair win-shift spatial memory on the radial arm maze, despite intact spontaneous spatial novelty preference, a candidate psychological process for radial maze performance. Impairment in attentional processing might also affect spatial memory. The same anaesthetic regime, but not an injectable anaesthetic combination of propofol/fentanyl, impaired some aspects of attention, as assessed with the 5-choice serial-reaction-time task and the sustained attention task (SAT). However, in contrast to the spatial memory impairment, the magnitude of attentional impairment was not increased following successive anaesthetic exposures.
A similar pattern of spatial memory impairment dependent on the number of anaesthetic episodes was seen in rats exposed to isoflurane during development and tested in adulthood. Developmental exposure to a similar anaesthetic, sevoflurane, did not impair attention in adulthood as assessed with the SAT and the intradimensional/extradimensional shift task.
With the aim of better understanding the neuronal mechanisms underlying the spatial memory impairment, laser confocal microscopy was used to examine the dendritic ultrastructure of hippocampal neurons from rats exposed to isoflurane/nitrous oxide during adulthood. Results did not provide compelling evidence for changes in dendritic ultrastructure.
These results highlight that anaesthesia is not benign and is a critical variable that should be considered when designing animal behavioural neuroscience experiments. In addition they contribute to a larger literature regarding the potential long-term effects of anaesthesia on human health.

Keywords: isoflurane
spatial memory
sevoflurane
anaesthesia
attention
propofol
neurotoxicity
fentanyl
Advisor: Baxter, M
Bannerman, D
Financial centres in global financial networks: a quantitative analysis of investment banking deals

This thesis is structured around two primary objectives. First, to contribute to the literature on the world city network and the emerging literature on global financial networks by developing and empirically testing a new methodological approach for modelling urban networks that would aid the development of empirical research in these related streams of literature. Second, to provide empirical evidence showing the effects of positioning within global financial networks on individual financial services firms as well as financial centres. To achieve these objectives, this thesis first develops a novel modelling approach for empirical analysis of urban networks, which draws on the concept of underwriting syndicate as the primary building block of global financial networks. It also considers the consequences of the network boundary specification problem in the context of studying urban networks and compares the modelling approach it develops to the Interlocking World City Network Model (Taylor, 2001) and Alderson and Beckfield (2004) ownership ties approach. The empirical analysis that follows relies on data on investment banking deals sourced from Dealogic databases. The dataset built for the purposes of this thesis spans the 1993 – 2016 period and covers more than 1 million capital market transactions worldwide.
To achieve the second objective of this thesis, I have built spatial econometric and dynamic panel data models to uncover the effects of positioning within GFNs on individual financial services firms and financial centres. The results of this thesis indicate that inter-cluster network ties that connect financial services firms located in different financial centres are particularly valuable and they benefit both the performance of individual firms and lead to higher resilience of financial centres to demand shocks. In contrast, localised network connections are not found to be statistically significant in either context. Given the interdisciplinary nature of this thesis, its methodological developments and empirical findings, it contributes to several related groups of literature, including the research on the world city network, global financial networks, underwriting syndicates and social network analysis. The implications of this thesis for public policy and corporate strategy relate primarily to the role of network connectivity in financial sector and the distinct role of syndication networks. I specifically relate this to contemporary issues including BREXIT, which as I discuss may have a material impact on the financial sector in the United Kingdom and beyond.

Keywords: World city network
Underwriting syndicates
Financial centres
Global financial networks
Investment banking
Advisor: Wójcik, D
From Brady to Murphy: gun control polarization in the decades since the 103rd congress

Over the course of twelve Congressional sessions and twenty plus years since the passage of landmark gun control legislation (the Brady Bill and the Assault weapons ban) during the 103rd Congress, (1993-1994) polarization on the gun control issue between the Democratic and Republican parties has increased significantly. Applying mixed qualitative methods, this case study aims to explain the shift from moderate levels during the 103rd to near complete partisan polarization on the issue by the 115th Congress (2017-2018). It will demonstrate that this shift was the culmination of the dissolution of opposition groups (consisting of members who crossed the party line in their gun issue voting) within each party, with each party following its own unique polarization trajectory, as disparate factors influenced their respective shifts. For the Republican party, who united on the issue over a decade before the Democratic party, the key variables impacting the fading of party support for gun control were the decline in salience of crime as a priority political issue in the early 2000s and the transition from the general to the primary electorate as the more salient voting bloc in regard to gun control. For the Democratic party, the key variables impacting the fading of party opposition to gun control were a loss of Southern and rural seats, coupled with gun control being re established as an electorally valuable issue for the party nationally in the years after the Sandy Hook shooting in late 2012. The thesis will contest the prevailing narrative that changes in party voting patterns must occur through replacement by demonstrating evidence of conversion- as numerous members of both parties shifted positions on gun control to vote the party line as electoral pressures and incentives influencing opposition group member voting changed. Furthermore, the thesis’s findings bolster the utility of ‘partisan asymmetry’ as a lens through which to approach the study of partisan polarization in Congress.

Keywords: gun control
polarization
Congress
parties
Advisor: Martin, P
Lo sguardo dialogico: il viaggio migratorio in Italia nel cinema contemporaneo italiano e romeno

This thesis constitutes the first in-depth critical comparative study of the journey of migration to Italy in contemporary Italian and Romanian cinema. The purpose of this research is to investigate the way in which the character of the Romanian migrant is represented in his encounter with Italy, on his physical, temporary, or imaginary journey between memory and desire.
Over the past twenty years, Italian cinema of migration and Romanian Noul Val have emerged as vital components of European cinematic identity, portraying stories of diasporic migration. Recent scholarship (Andrea Corrado and Igor Mariottini, Dominique Nasta, Doru Pop, Mihai Fulger), has analysed Italian cinema of migration and the Noul Val movement in terms of their aesthetic principles and trends. However, critical attention has so far overlooked the way in which both cinemas are concerned with the representation of marginalized identities on a journey to Italy.
To address this critical gap, this thesis identifies a cinematic paradigm employed by filmmakers from both Romania and Italy, to represent difficult transnational journeys and migratory resettlement. This paradigm, which the thesis calls ‘dialogical gaze’, refers to the cinematic juxtaposition of diverse cultural identities revealing similarities and differences between Italian and Romanian migration cinema.
This thesis adopts a Bakhtinian dialogical framework, suggesting the presence of intertextuality in the selected Italian and Romanian films. Thus, the ‘dialogical gaze’ governs the selection of scenes in the film analysis section of each chapter, allowing to examine key moments of interaction between Romania and Italy. This study establishes that the proposed dialogical paradigm can act as a model to create opportunities for cultural interdiscursivity and social empathy in the wider cinema environment.
Following a brief outline of the interactions between Italian and Romanian cinema and an introduction to the historical trends of Romanian migration after the fall of the communist regime, this thesis includes four film analysis chapters and a conclusion. Using the ‘Journey to Italy’ as its principle of organization, the study thematically arranges the films it analyses, breaking them down into four chapters: The Journey Through Memory (Chapter 3), The Journey Through Imagination (Chapter 4), The Journey Through Conflict (Chapter 5) and The Journey of Return (Chapter 6).

Advisor: Bonsaver, G
Determinants of corporate tax behaviour and co-operative compliance: a comparative study of the UK and Colombia

This thesis seeks to analyse the impact that operating in jurisdictions with different socio-economic and legal contexts can have on taxpayer regulation. This is done by comparing large corporate taxpayers in the UK and in Colombia using empirical qualitative methods to examine the alignment between factors at different levels that can influence corporate tax behaviour, and the premises of the co-operative compliance. The main conclusion is that the factors present in Colombia are contrary to introducing this type of regulation. This is because critically-negative perceptions of the administration -particularly of its trustworthiness- corporate tax governance weaknesses, tax-risk prone social norms, and contextual factors like a high perception of corruption create an environment adverse to this model’s philosophy, which is highly dependent on interparty trust and taxpayer risk aversion and compliance-mindedness. Results from the UK show that co-operative compliance can contribute to improve taxpayer governance, strengthen risk-averse and/or compliance-minded taxation norms, and encourage perceptions of the administration that are favourable for voluntary compliance. However, the evidence also shows that operational difficulties can quickly erode taxpayer trust in the administration and on the value of collaboration, and jeopardise the progress made. This is the case with administrative business understanding, responsiveness, and providing of legal certainty while maintaining the model’s legitimacy and answering demands for fair and responsible outcomes. Accordingly, this thesis proposes policy measures designed to facilitate the conditions necessary for establishing co-operative compliance in contexts like Colombia’s, where shifting from adversarial, non-responsive regulation towards collaborative, responsive regulation could assist in improving voluntary compliance. Additionally, the author recommends policies for enhancing co-operative compliance’s sustainability in jurisdictions like the UK, where the model is developed, but the progress it has achieved needs to be protected against the trust and compliance-eroding effects arising from the regulator’s difficulties in satisfying taxpayer expectations.

Keywords: tax behaviour
taxation
comparative research
United Kingdom
cooperative compliance
tax compliance
Colombia
corporate tax
empirical research
Advisor: Freedman, J
When politicians collude with firms: the impact of elite networks on inequality

This thesis examines the effect of elite networks on inequality. Elite networks are informal social networks between politicians in power and top executives of politically connected firms where personal ties and long-term interactions build trust and loyalty between involved actors. Both groups draw benefits from these interactions. Politicians stay in power and may extract bribes and other favours, while firms are rewarded with exclusive government contracts, favourable regulation, and direct subsidies. Top corporate executives that are successful in acquiring these rents, as a consequence of their elite network interactions, are rewarded by their firms with higher salaries. This consequentially widens the dispersion of earnings between the top 1% of income earners (most of which are corporate executives) and everyone else. The contribution of this thesis to the political economy literature is twofold: (1) it examines, on an individual level, the consequences elite network interactions have on its members; increasing re-election chances for politicians and securing rents for firms, and (2) it examines the consequences elite networks impose on society, notably on increasing income inequality. It presents a thus far unrecognized factor that may help explain the rise of income inequality in the US and the UK. The thesis is organized into three stand-alone papers. The first two papers show the benefits of collusion for politicians and firms, while the third one links the impact of elite networks on inequality. The first paper shows that politicians which distribute fraudulent procurement contracts increase their chances of re-election. The second paper shows that politically connected financial firms were favoured in the TARP allocation process during the US financial crisis. The third paper shows that politically connected senior executives have significantly higher earnings than non-connected ones.

Keywords: inequality
Elite networks
firms
politicians
Advisor: Ansell, B
The genomic epidemiology of typhoidal and invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella in sub-Saharan Africa

Invasive salmonellosis is one of the most common community-acquired bloodstream infections among children and immunocompromised adults in sub-Saharan Africa. Clean water, improved sanitation and hygiene, which are essential for disease prevention and control, remain limited in most resource constrained countries. Typhoid fever and invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella (iNTS) disease have historically been managed by antimicrobial therapy. Ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (co-trimoxazole) served as the first choice of drugs for many years, but antimicrobial resistance (AMR)/multi-drug resistance (MDR) in these pathogens have emerged and spread inter-/intra-continentally. In this thesis, I conducted genomic, phylogenetic, and epidemiological analyses of invasive salmonellosis in Africa. My analysis supported existing hypotheses regarding the association between iNTS disease and plasmodium falciparum malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Regarding the MDR typhoid fever, I found geographically distinct MDR S. Typhi lineages circulating in West (genotype 3.1.1) and East (genotype 4.3.1) Africa with high MDR incidence rates (>100/100,000 person-years observation) among children under 15 years old, particularly in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Kenya. iNTS disease was predominantly caused by S. Typhimurium ST313 and S. Enteritidis ST11, which circulate across the African continent and were largely MDR. High MDR incidences (>100/100,000 PYO) of iNTS disease was found in children less than five years old across multiple countries; namely Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Guinea Bissau. Reduced susceptibility to fluoroquinolones was found in both S. Typhi (genotype 4.3.1 in East Africa; Kenya/Uganda) and iNTS (S. Enteritidis ST11 and S. Typhimurium ST313 in West Africa; Ghana). Third generation cephalosporin resistant S. Typhimurium ST313 was found in Kenya; a novel resistance-virulence IncI1 plasmid associated with S. Enteritidis ST11 isolates was also identified in Ghana, Senegal and Burkina Faso. Further, I conducted genomic analyses of NTS organisms isolated from stool samples of individuals living in selected communities in sub-Saharan Africa (Guinea-Bissau/Senegal). These data revealed a highly diverse collection of NTS serovars/sequence types, evidence of household transmission events, and found an S. Enteritidis ST11 isolate carrying IncF virulence plasmid in Senegal. These studies demonstrate the importance of continued disease surveillance combined with genomics to better understand the epidemiological landscape of invasive salmonellosis in Africa.

Advisor: Baker, S