VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Essays on labour markets in Russia and Eastern Europe

This thesis is concerned with various aspects of transitional labour reallocation either between different labour market states, or between less and more efficient enterprises, or between formal and informal sectors. The possibility of irregular employment opportunities receives special attention in this work. The substantive material is arranged in three independent essays.
The first, empirical study portrays the most important trends in labour reallocation in Russia, and presents analyses of two types. First, transition probabilities are studied, and some determinants of worker flows are identified using a multinomial logit modelling. Second, a survival analysis of the non-employed is conducted to reveal possible causes of growing stagnancy of unemployment and inactivity. The findings are contrasted with the stylised theory of labour reallocation in transition (Aghion and Blanchard, 1994). The directions in which theoretical modifications should be attempted in future research are suggested. The second and the third essays draw upon some of these suggestions and are aimed at making a contribution on the theoretical front.
The second essay puts forward a development of the seminal model of transition from planned to market economy by Aghion and Blanchard (1994). We introduce an informal sector to show that its presence can generate the dynamics qualitatively different from the types considered in the previous literature on the topic. It is argued that convergence to qualitatively different steady states can help explain varying transitional experiences of East European countries and the former Soviet Union republics. Attention is drawn to policy implications of the model, in particular to the creation of conditions favourable for the development of the new private sector as opposed to informal private initiative. Finally, the third essay takes the issue of coexistence of formal and informal sectors in transition further to see if such duality is possible in the long run, and to discuss the role of the government in creating preconditions for it. The study draws on the standard framework of Pissarides (2000) of search in the labour market. It demonstrates that a long-run equilibrium with both formal and informal economies is possible under very mild assumptions. It is also shown that labour market imperfections can create a situation when reduction in informality may be detrimental to economic welfare.
Although the foci of the essays differ, the issues raised therein are closely knit so that many threads can be drawn together. In the concluding chapter we discuss the main areas to which this thesis contributes, summarise the main findings, and make some suggestions for future research.

Advisor: Stevens, M
Life before birth: abortion and prenatal personhood in morality and law

This thesis is about the legal and moral status of abortion. It is primarily concerned with the metaphysical status of the foetus, with particular attention to the question whether the foetus is properly characterised as a person in the philosophical sense. The argument of the thesis proceeds in two parts. The first part surveys certain lines of argument to the effect that the question of prenatal personhood is immaterial to the moral and legal permissibility of abortion. Against these claims, it argues that the personhood status of the foetus is indeed central to the moral and legal appraisal of abortion practice.
The second part focuses on the metaphysical question in its own right. The thesis proposes a theoretical underpinning for the ‘gradualist’ view of human life before birth, according to which the human foetus is a fuller instantiation of a person the more biologically developed it is. It sets out to defend the kernel of the gradualist thesis against a cluster of criticisms, commonly advanced by those who endorse the belief that the personhood of human beings begins at conception. One notable challenge of this sort, which the thesis aims to address, asserts that any graduated account of personhood before birth is logically inconsistent with basic human equality. Finally, the thesis considers a few practical implications for the legal regulation of abortion stemming from the gradualist thesis, and the rule of law standards by which a regulatory framework must abide.

Keywords: personhood
abortion
Advisor: Green, L
New technologies for fluorescence image-guided surgery

To date, surgery is the most common and successful way to treat cancer. Tumour identification during surgery, however, can be challenging as it relies on the surgeon’s ability to differentiate healthy from diseased tissue, based on visual appearance and palpation. Additional contrast mechanisms are needed to further improve cancer detection during surgery.
In this work, I explore the possibility of improving surgical outcomes by using intra-operative fluorescence imaging technologies to identify otherwise invisible lesions. A theoretical model is developed to quantify and characterise the imaging performance of fluorescence image-guided surgery (FIGS) and to guide the development of imaging systems. This model shows excellent potential for performance characterisation of FIGS devices, particularly when small lesions are involved.
The design, development and testing of FIGS devices for open and keyhole surgery are described. These devices exploit near infrared (NIR) wavelengths to achieve a superior depth penetration while minimising tissue autofluorescence. Unlike existing systems, the devices described in this work use a single miniaturised camera to simultaneously detect bright-field and fluorescence from multiple dyes. Practical tests indicate nano-molar detection of clinically approved fluorescence dyes.
The proposed technology is tested in a clinical study for detecting the sentinel lymph node (SLN) in gynaecological cancers. Results using two non-specific NIR dyes show excellent SLN detection rate in real time during open surgery and laparoscopy. In addition, multi-spectral fluorescence allows independent visualisation of different lymphatic pathways, crucial for understanding the mechanisms of metastasis through the lymphatic system. The FIGS devices are also used to test novel tumour-specific markers in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro. Promising results are reported, suggesting that this imaging technology is suitable for fluorescence molecular imaging.
In conclusion, I report the development and applications of a novel multi-spectral FIGS technology that can effectively improve outcomes in surgical oncology.

Keywords: Surgery
Fluorescence
Optics
Imaging
Advisor: Vojnovic, B
Angiogenesis in endometriosis: the role of circulating angiogenic cells and the endometrium

Endometriosis is a common cause of subfertility and pelvic pain, affecting up to 10% of women of reproductive age. It is characterised by the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside the uterus. The development of the disease is still poorly understood and, currently, the diagnosis relies on visualisation of typical lesions during surgery. There is great interest in identifying biomarkers to assist in diagnosis and disease management.
Blood vessel development is known to be a crucial feature of endometriosis, but the mechanisms involved in angiogenesis are not well described for this disease. Most vessel development relies on the proliferation and migration of pre-existing endothelial cells. However, there may also be roles for cells derived from peripheral blood (circulating angiogenic cells) and surrounding stromal cells. In this thesis, the contribution of these different cell types to vessel development in endometriosis is assessed.
In chapter 2, a robust protocol was optimised to identify circulating angiogenic cells (CACs) with flow cytometry. The reliability of the protocol was verified, and the level of these cells was found not to fluctuate with the menstrual cycle in healthy women (P=0.279, F=1.359, 3 d.f.). In chapter 3, levels of CACs in women with and without endometriosis were found to be equivalent (0.0835% ± 0.0422 compared to 0.0724% ± 0.0414), demonstrating that they have no use as a disease biomarker.
In chapter 4, isolation and culture of endothelial cells from the endometrium was attempted. However, a pure culture of endometrial endothelial cells could not be obtained, which may be due to contamination by other cell types or cellular transdifferentiation.
Finally, in chapter 5, the contribution of endometrial stromal cells to vessel development was considered. Stromal cells were found not to differentiate towards an endothelial cell phenotype, but were able to participate in tube formation assays. However, the presence of endometriosis did not influence this behaviour.

Keywords: endothelial progenitor
circulating angiogenic cells
angiogenesis
endometrium
Endometriosis
Advisor: Becker, C
Kennedy, S
The influence of the 1968-1975 Congressional reforms on legislative policy-making

Congressional reform is the focus of my study. Congress (but primarily the House of Representatives) attempted to reform its workings from 1968 through 1975, so it might be more effective in developing comprehensive policies on national issues, and more independent of the executive branch. Reform raised expectations that the legislature would reassert its policy-making role, which had diminished during the preceding thirty years. My study examines the influence of these changes on the congressional decision-making process, including their impact on the important role played by external actors, interest groups and especially the President, who reacted to these changes. The study examines the process through an analysis of the development and passage of the most controversial provision, dealing with oil-price controls (Title IV), of Congress' major energy bill of 1975, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (H.R. 7014).
On 15 December 1975, Congress passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) which President Gerald R. Ford signed into law on 22 December. The EPCA (Public Law 94-163) extended oil-price controls until 1979. The oilpricing provision had significant national and international economic and political implications. Merely to trace the tortuous chronicle of oil-pricing policy would be informative. But this study will go further by using this account to analyze congressional decision-making in the period immediately following Congress' attempts at reform.
My study shows that although reforms eroded old norms and power centres, significantly altering some aspects of congressional decision-making (again primarily in the House), they did not create institutional mechanisms or distribute internal powers in such a way that Congress could independently initiate and develop comprehensive national policies. Congress remained more dependent on the President than many of its members understood. The final substance of the oil-pricing policy reflected the characteristic congressional decision-making process, which had become even more dispersed as it was democratized by reform. The committee system, without a strong executive or party control, divides issues in a way that limits decision-makers' options.
How incarcerated undergraduates use higher education to make sense of their lives

With over 1.5 million adults incarcerated each day in the United States, the development of successful criminal rehabilitation has now become imperative (Public Safety Performance Project, 2010). Higher education has emerged as a potential ‘solution’, with many undergraduate programmes for prisoners boasting lower rates of recidivism than any other rehabilitative programming available. This doctoral research is a mixed methods investigation of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, an undergraduate degree programme operating at a maximum-security correctional facility in the New York State. While most work in the field of prison education asks whether or not participation reduces recidivism, my research set out to discover how students engage with the processes of education – how they use the tools offered by membership in the social world of the prison college to reframe their understanding of their own experiences, what it means for their identities to be college students in the larger context of the prison, and how education changes their day-to-day lives and their plans for the future.
My understanding is informed primarily by student writing data, generated through the facilitation of autobiographical writing workshops with two groups of men from the programme. Over the course of two ten-week sessions, students in these workshops constructed narratives describing their experiences in education both before and during their prison terms. These narratives define education as experiences of learning – allowing for inclusion of those lessons taught by the family unit and/or “in the street” – rather than just those activities involving school. The workshop process allowed me to build and maintain a significant degree of participant trust, as well as to ask for more clarification and detail as necessary in order to build a rich and thorough understanding of their stories and experiences. This understanding was also supported by six months’ worth of ethnographic and participant observation data, and a quantitative profile of every student Hudson Link has served during its twelve years in operation.
Data analysis using a cultural-historical framework reveals that these students make sense of their lives using tools offered to them by the figured world of the prison college. Reinterpreting past experiences allows them to come to terms with their lives before prison. Identity reconstruction is achieved through guided authoring of personal change narratives, incorporation of education into the sense of self, and discoursal practices of academic English. These constructions of identity are used to reclaim the sense of agency that prison is designed to take away, which in turn influences student and graduate behaviour.

Keywords: prison education
higher education
sociocultural research
Advisor: Ellis, V
Bosworth, M
Electron microscopy studies of precipitation in nuclear reactor pressure vessel steels under neutron irradiation and thermally ageing

Maintaining the safe operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs) is crucial. This requires fully understanding the mechanism of long term irradiation and thermal ageing, as well as their effects, on components including the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). The research community is collecting data that will be required to support the case for extending the operation of western-type NPPs beyond that of 60 years. One of the current dilemmas faced by the long-term operation of RPVs is the formation of nanometre scale precipitates. These precipitates are known to cause embrittlement where it increases the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature of the RPV steels. The chemistry of these precipitates is strongly dependent on the chemistry of the RPV steels. In general, these precipitates can be categorised into two types, copper-rich precipitates (CRPs) and manganese-nickel (-enriched) precipitates (MNPs) [1, 2]. The concentration of copper in the precipitates depends on the bulk content of the steel [3]. The formation mechanism of the precipitates under neutron irradiation and thermal ageing, and their influence on material degradation at high neutron fluence (Φt), is still unclear.
To understand the long term precipitation under irradiation and thermal ageing, high nickel and copper containing RPV steels with a similar microstructure an chemical composition as those currently in service were subjected to either neutron irradiation (to high neutron fluences, Φt ≥ 5 x 1023 neutrons.m-2) or thermal ageing (for as long as ≈ 50,000 hours).
CRPs and MNPs were both detected. The co-precipitation of the CRPs and MNPs were observed in thermally aged steels. The development of crystal structures in the CRPs is believed to be dependent on the size of the precipitates and the ambient temperature. When the CRPs reached a critical size, they underwent the martensitic transformation from BCC→9R→3R→FCC or FCT. The CRPs preferentially nucleate heterogeneously at the dislocation lines. Chemical analysis suggests that most of the CRPs are iron free. Under thermal ageing, the MNPs were found to precipitate at the interface of the CRPs and the matrix. These MNPs are found to be iron free too. Larger MNPs were often found to be at CPRs that were associated with dislocation lines. Also, based on the volume fraction observed, it is possible to suggest that the kinetics of nucleation and growth of the MNPs are relatively slow compared to the CRPs. This is in good agreement with the simulations reported in Refs. [4, 5].
It is the first time the MNPs are directly imaged from neutron irradiation low copper steels using electron microscopy. These irradiation-induced MNPs are densely populated in the neutron irradiated samples. It was found that the irradiation-induced MNPs are more sensitive to electron beams. It was thought that this was due to a relatively large amount of point defects present in the irradiation-induced MNPs.

Keywords: Electron Microscopy
Radiation damage
Precipitation
Defects
Advisor: Grovenor, C
Lozano-Perez, S
Asymmetric synthesis of amino polyols

This thesis is concerned with the development of methodology for the asymmetric synthesis of a range of amino polyol containing compounds.
Chapter 1 highlights the abundance of the amino polyol motif in nature, the wide range of biological activities displayed by amino polyol containing compounds, and their occurrence in drug molecules. A variety of different methods for the synthesis of stereodefined amino polyols is then discussed.
Chapter 2 details a full investigation into the doubly diastereoselective conjugate addition reactions of the antipodes of lithium N-benzyl-N-(alpha-methylbenzyl)amide to enantiopurealpha,beta-unsaturated esters which contain a dioxolane unit. The “matched” conjugate addition reactions were further coupled with a highly diastereoselective in situ enolate oxidation using camphorsulfonyloxaziridine for the synthesis of keyalpha-hydroxy-beta-amino ester intermediates. Subsequent cyclisation and further elaboration allowed access to a range of amino polyol containing compounds including imino sugars, amino sugars, and amino acids.
Chapter 3 extends the investigation into the doubly diastereoselective lithium amide conjugate addition reaction to enantiopure alpha,beta-unsaturated esters which contain two dioxolane units. A full assessment into the conjugate addition of the antipodes of lithium N-benzyl-N-(alpha-methylbenzyl)amide to a series of D-pentose derived alpha,beta-unsaturated esters is reported. Subsequent elaboration of thebeta-amino ester products of these conjugate addition reactions resulted in the synthesis of (2'S,3'S,4'R)-dihydroxyhomoproline and (2'S,3'R,4'S)-dihydroxyhomoproline.
Chapter 4 describes the asymmetric syntheses of protected forms of APTO and AETD, the 2,4,5-trihydroxy substitutedbeta-amino acid residues found within the hexapeptide marine natural products microsclerodermins C, D and E. The optimised synthetic routes to APTO and AETD involved three key steps: a diastereoselective aminohydroxylation [via conjugate addition of lithium (R)-N-benzyl-N-(alpha-methylbenzyl)amide to an achiralalpha,beta-unsaturated ester followed by in situ enolate oxidation with camphorsulfonyloxaziridine], a diastereoselective dihydroxylation, and an olefination.
Chapter 5 contains full experimental procedures and characterisation data for all compounds synthesised in chapters 2, 3 and 4.

Keywords: dihydroxyproline
amino acid
lithium amide
doubly diastereoselective
amino sugar
microsclerodermin
imino sugar
conjugate addition
Advisor: Davies, S
The role of plasma and vascular tetrahydrobiopterin in vascular disease states

The endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) co-factor tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) has been shown to play a pivotal role in maintaining endothelial function in experimental vascular disease models. In BH4-deficient states, eNOS becomes enzymatically ‘uncoupled’, generating reactive oxygen species instead of nitric oxide, thus promoting endothelial dysfunction. In humans with coronary artery disease (CAD), higher vascular BH4 levels have been shown to be associated with improved endothelial function, and genetic variation in endogenous BH4 synthesis has implicated a causal role. Accordingly, BH4 has been proposed as a potential therapeutic target in vascular disease states. The work in this thesis aims to further elucidate the roles of exogenous and endogenous BH4 in humans.
In a randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial of oral BH4 therapy in patients with CAD, exogenous BH4 had no effect on endothelial function or vascular oxidative stress. Subsequent pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analysis revealed that oral BH4 significantly augmented BH4 levels in plasma and in venous tissue (but not in arterial tissue), but also increased levels of the oxidation product dihydrobiopterin (BH2), which lacks eNOS cofactor activity. Thus, there was a null effect on overall biopterin redox status.
To further understand the mechanics of exogenous BH4 oxidation, ex vivo studies of human blood and vascular tissue demonstrated that exogenous BH4 is very rapidly oxidised to BH2; co-administration with an antioxidant had only a modest effect on preventing BH4 oxidation in blood, with no beneficial effect on biopterin redox state in the vasculature.
Finally, using a “Mendelian randomisation” approach, I studied the effects of a haplotype of GCH1 (the gene encoding the rate limiting enzyme in BH4 synthesis) on endogenous BH4 bioavailability and vascular function in healthy individuals. In patients with CAD, this haplotype has been associated with decreased BH4 bioavailability and eNOS uncoupling, however in healthy individuals the haplotype exerted no significant effect, likely due to reduced inflammatory stimulation of GCH1.

Keywords: endothelium
nitric oxide
coronary artery disease
oxidative stress
Advisor: Channon, K
Economic inequality and social class

This thesis is about social class and economic inequality, using the Goldthorpe class schema. It tests theories claiming that social class is increasingly irrelevant to inequality and people's life-chances with data on incomes and material living standards from the British Household Panel Survey. It covers the period over which the survey ran, i.e. 1991-2008. During this time many prominent social theories dismissed class analyses while others sought to retain the class concept but dismissed its economic foundations, seeking to ground it in culture instead.
Economic inequality has not figured highly on the agenda of class analysts, at least not those working with the Goldthorpe class schema. There is a substantial body of work on mobility, voting behaviour, income poverty and material deprivation, but inequality in a broader sense has for the most part been neglected. This thesis is a step towards rectifying this situation. Thus it provides new information about within-career social mobility as well as income inequality within and between classes, on whether income mobility reduces class inequalities over time, and cast light on class inequalities in material living standards.
The findings suggest that class is far from irrelevant to economic inequality. Class differences in incomes are persistent, between class inequalities contribute more to inequality overall than within-class inequalities, and while income mobility does reduce class inequalities over time it is not to the extent that supports the hypothesis that class is irrelevant to people's economic fortunes.

Keywords: inequality
income
social class
Advisor: Mills, C