VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
A conception of equality of opportunity

This thesis defends a conception of equality of opportunity. It comes in two parts. The first part elaborates the conception. It begins by clarifying the concept of equality of opportunity, showing it to be made up of four basic elements: a distributive pattern, a set of subjects, an opportunity obstacle and a distributive object. The conception I build from these elements explains the value of the distributive pattern, equality, in terms of a concern for fairness, takes persons as its subject and takes well-being as its object. The conception presented is partial, rather than comprehensive, in that it does not include a detailed account of an opportunity obstacle. The conception of equality of opportunity that I present can also be characterised as a luck egalitarian principle. My aim in elaborating the conception is to show that it has intuitive appeal; it constitutes a pro tanto moral principle.
The second part of the thesis examines the implications of luck egalitarianism in two contexts. It begins by examining the context of gifts, arguing that although luck egalitarianism is highly restrictive with respect to the freedom to give this only confirms that it is a merely pro tanto moral principle. It continues by examining the context of markets, arguing that luck egalitarianism makes intuitively correct judgments in several specified cases. My aim in applying luck egalitarianism is to show that its implications do not give us reason to reject its initial intuitive appeal. I examine luck egalitarianism generally, rather then the partial conception I elaborate, to allow for the possibility that my earlier arguments are wrong in some respect. Overall, I hope the arguments presented provide reasons to accept the conception presented as morally valuable.

Keywords: luck
fairness
equality
Advisor: Swift, A
Health and sociability

This thesis considers the subject of resorts in nineteenth-century Russia, focussing, in particular, on the three resorts of Lipetsk, Kavkazskie Mineral'nye Vody and Yalta. It considers their historical development and the role that they played in Russian culture as a whole. It shows how resorts were, at once, important phenomena in themselves and also provoked contemporaries to contemplate broader social, political and philosophical issues. It considers how the image of the resort was constructed and disseminated in contemporary texts, including guidebooks, travelogues, newspaper articles, novels and poems. It examines how the state maintained an interest in the empire's resorts from an early date, and how, for the population as a whole, resorts were an important barometer of national success and failure. It explores, in detail, resorts' role as centres for medical treatment and palliative care, as well as their role as leisure towns, and shows how these two functions interacted and conflicted. It scrutinizes the various forms that resort leisure took in the nineteenth century, trying to understand how moral pressures and recreational desires interrelated. The thesis also investigates, in detail, the social and class background of visitors to Russian resorts. It shows how resorts' clientele changed over time, and particularly in the period after the Great Reforms, and suggests that, by the end of the nineteenth century, many visitors can be described as middle-class. Throughout, this thesis insists on a European context for Russian resorts, showing how, not only in their genesis, but also in their continuing development and in the meanings that were attributed to them, Russian resorts had much in common with their European counterparts.

Advisor: Kelly, C
Moving beyond boundaries: an exploration into the relationship between politics and dance

This thesis looks into the relationship between dance and politics. It argues that dance is both a method of intervening in other symbolic languages and a system of inscription that is intertwined in that moment of intervention. Dance as a political language has a subversive potential; it can challenge verbal political statements.
In the thesis I work with and against Jacques Rancière’s interpretation of politics as re-distribution of the sensible and with Aletta Norval’s reading of Rancière’s conception of democracy as egalitarian inscription which I expand and read as egalitarian embodied inscription. I show that Rancière’s focus on politics as rupture disables the recognition inscription as continuity. I show that dance enables a reading of politics as both rupture and continuity, an intervention that leaves traces that endure after it ends. Through a genealogy of the concept of the Dionysian I show that philosophers and dance practitioners alike have read dance as both subversive and affirmative, an intervention and a system of inscription that acts independently of spoken discourse. I show that Isadora Duncan created the first political moment in modern dance as a re-distribution of the sensible; at the same time although she created egalitarian embodied inscription she did not leave a codified system of movement, and did not contradict her politics in spoken language. I show that Martha Graham created the second moment of re-distribution of the sensible in which she created a codified movement language that subverted politics in spoken words. Finally, I revisit Rancière’s work and bind his discussion of human rights with the problematic of the tension between rupture and continuity. I re-read both these arguments with my interpretation of dance as political and argue that it yields a reading of dance as enabling the creation of human rights claims. Dance is both subversive and affirmative.

Keywords: dance; politics; political theory
Advisor: Freeden, M
Role and regulation of MITF in melanocytes and melanoma

One key to understanding how cells integrate and how they respond to diverse stimuli in order to direct a transcriptional response is knowing how a transcription factor may be directed to an appropriate subset of its target genes. One mechanism with which this may be achieved is by modulation of the transcription factor’s post-translational modification status. The microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) is the master regulator of the melanocyte lineage, and it is also a lineage addiction gene in melanoma. Low or high levels of MITF expression induce a reversible cell cycle arrest. Invasive behaviour is characteristic of low MITF expression; differentiation a product of high MITF activity; and moderate levels of MITF expression promote proliferation. A major, unaddressed problem is how DNA binding by MITF may be differentially directed such that it regulates either a proliferation-associated or a differentiation-associated gene expression programme appropriate to the cellular microenvironment. This thesis explores the function and regulation of the signalling pathways controlling novel post-translational modifications of MITF. One such modification, in the DNA binding domain of MITF, defines a key switch that controls MITF’s DNA binding affinity and specificity. Moreover, a novel set of MITF target genes are revealed that extend its control beyond pigmentation and cell cycle regulation to implicate MITF as an overall regulator of cell behaviour in the melanocyte lineage.

Keywords: melanoma
DNA
MITF
Advisor: Goding, C
Four essays on the urban labour market in India

This thesis explores labour market processes in urban India. Investigating large and persistent differentials in urban unemployment rates across the Indian states, we find that regions with higher wage push or better amenities have higher unemployment rates, controlling for labour force composition. The differentials are maintained by rural-urban migration rather than by barriers to inter-state migration. Our investigation of wage determination yields evidence of imperfect competition in the labour market which is not simply 'institutional'. Indian firms pay efficiency wages which induce sufficient productivity gains to pay for themselves. After identifying the long and short run structural processes in the labour market, we consider recent aggregate trends in India's factory sector. There was negative employment growth in the 1980s even as output growth touched record levels. Our analysis suggests that this had less to do with wage growth, as proposed by the World Bank, and more to do with increasing work intensity, encouraged by wage incentives, improved infrastructure and increased competition. Considerable slack was inherited from the past, evidence of which flows from the wage and production function estimates. We find that increased labour utilization raises capacity utilization. This is important because Indian industry has chronically carried large excess capacity. A breakthrough in total factor productivity growth accompanied declining employment in the 1980s and has been interpreted as the reward of deregulation in this decade. Existing studies mismeasure productivity growth by neglecting labour utilization (hours) and assuming perfectly competitive product markets. We produce new estimates at the aggregate and industry levels. A natural ceiling to hours worked moderates bad news on the employment front and good news on the productivity front. Our analyses are expected to contribute to the evaluation of current and controversial policy changes in India.
Genome scale metabolic models of plant tissues

The aim of this thesis was to explore the use of genome-scale metabolic models to predict metabolic fluxes in plant tissues. Results from this thesis showed that the application of constraint-based modelling, namely flux balance analysis, to an Arabidopsis genome-scale metabolic model gave accurate predictions of metabolic fluxes in heterotrophic cell culture and in photosynthetic leaves. Two major factors important for the accuracy of model predictions were highlighted from the study: 1) the inclusion of energetic costs for transports and cellular maintenance in terms of ATP and NADPH; 2) consideration of the interactions between light and dark metabolism in modelling photosynthetic leaves.
This study began with the construction of a well-curated and compartmented genome-scale metabolic model of Arabidopsis. Using the model, cellular maintenance costs in a heterotrophic cell culture under control and two stress conditions were estimated in terms of ATP and reductant usage. The results suggested that the cells were not stressed under hyperosmotic conditions. Comparisons between model predictions and experimentally estimated flux maps showed that the inclusion of transport and maintenance costs was important for obtaining accurate model flux predictions.
To model leaf metabolism over a day-night cycle, a diel modelling framework was developed which took into account the interactions between light and dark metabolism. Numerous known features of metabolism in a C3 leaf were predicted such as the nocturnal accumulation of citrate utilised for diurnal glutamate and glutamine synthesis and the operation of an incomplete TCA cycle during the day. Using the Arabidopsis genome-scale metabolic model and the diel modelling framework, the operation of the CAM cycle was predicted as a direct consequence of blocking the CO2 exchange with the external air during the day to simulate closure of the stomata. Comparisons between model predictions of C3 and various subtypes of CAM leaves suggested that photon and nitrogen use efficiencies are unlikely to be the driving forces for the evolution of CAM plants under the current atmospheric CO2 concentration.
Finally, the model was utilised to predict the changes in metabolic fluxes, in particular fluxes through various routes of alternative electron flow, in a C3 leaf with varying light intensity, nitrogen availability and at different stages of leaf development. From the model flux predictions, it was shown that constraint-based modelling can be utilised to elucidate the distinct metabolic roles of enzymes in different subcellular compartments and the tissue-specific use of distinct forms of enzymes with different coenzyme specificities.

Keywords: maintenance costs
genome scale metabolic model
arabidopsis
diel metabolism
Advisor: Sweetlove, L
Ratcliffe, G
Poolman, M
Children's use of analogy in reading and spelling

This thesis examines the role of analogy in the development of reading and spelling. Analogy is defined as using the spelling-sound pattern of one word (e.g. 'beak') to read or spell a word which shares a common orthographic sequence (e.g. 'bean' or 'peak').
Experiment 1 shows that 6-7 year old children can use analogies when required to select the correct spellings of words which are read to them. Experiment 2 shows that children aged 5-7 years can also use analogies to read new words aloud. Experiment 3 shows that analogy is used in the same way by children at three different reading levels (non-readers, 6 years and 7 years). Experiment 4 shows that 5-7 year old children can also use analogies to spell new words. It is concluded that the use of analogy does not develop, as it is available from the very beginning of learning to read and spell.
Experiments 5, 6 and 7 examine the effect of varying spelling-sound consistency on analogies. Children taught pairs of words consistent in spelling and sound (e.g. 'peak-leak') make more analogies in reading than children taught pairs of words consistent in spelling but inconsistent in sound (e.g. 'peak-steak'). This difference does not occur in spelling. It is concluded that spelling-sound consistency only affects children's use of analogies in reading.
Experiment 8 shows that children also use analogies to read new words which they encounter in reading prose. This shows that analogy is not restricted to single word reading. Experiment 9 compares analogies between words written in the same case and in mixed case. It shows that analogy relies on orthographic rather than visual information.
These results suggest that children should be taught to use analogies to read and spell new words. The broader educational implications of analogy are also discussed.
Note. This thesis contains approximately 91,000 words.

Advisor: Bryant, P
The strategic management of intellectual property: patent value and acquisitions

In this dissertation I explore the role and importance of patent strategy for appropriating returns from innovation. In particular, I examine the mechanisms through which firms increase appropriability from patenting by employing complementary resources and capabilities and gauge their contribution to firm performance. To this end, I perform three empirical studies. In the first study, I focus on measuring patent value and demonstrate that the importance of firm resources and capabilities is much higher than previously thought. I interpret these results as providing strong support for the view that the design of patent strategy is crucial for profiting from innovation.
In the second study, I look into a sample of technology acquisitions and examine under what circumstances firms profit from combining previously separate patent rights. I demonstrate that the merging of overlapping patent portfolios give rise to inimitable synergies, albeit only in complex technology industries. In addition, I find that firms are more likely to acquire targets with patents when their patent productivity is low, when they have a technologically diverse patent portfolio in complex technology industries and when they face an increased threat of being involved in patent suits.
In the third study, I explore the role of patent strategies in the non-technological domain. I demonstrate that recent regulatory changes enabling the patenting of business methods can help patentees capture value from business model and management innovations. Moreover, I find that patenting experience and access to complementary assets are both crucial elements of a patenting strategy aimed at increasing appropriability.
Taken together, these studies contribute towards bringing studies of patenting and the resource-based view of the firm closer together, to mutual advantage. This results in a better understanding of the effectiveness of patents at the firm-level and in a clearer operationalization of concepts of resources and resource interdependence.

Keywords: Intellectual Property
Technology acquisitions
Patent Value
Advisor: Sako, M
The piezocone in lightly over consolidated clay

A laboratory experimental programme was carried out to investigate the behaviour of the piezocone in lightly over consolidated clay. The clay samples were prepared from reconstituted kaolin. The powdered form of this clay was mixed with water to form a slurry at a moisture content of approximately 120% under vacuum. The clay slurry was consolidated and then allowed to swell in chambers which were well instrumented. Penetration tests were carried out with two sizes of piezocones. The smaller piezocone had a cross sectional area of 1cm² with pore pressure measurement at the cone shoulder. The larger piezocone with a cross sectional area of 5cm² had pore pressure measurements at four locations. In addition to penetration testing, further information on the strength and consolidation characteristics of the test chamber samples was obtained form shear vane, restricted flow consolidation, flow pump permeability and consolidated undrained triaxial tests. The horizontal effective stress and the vertical stress ratio were found to influence the generated excess pore pressure at all four different locations on the piezocone shaft and the net tip resistance. This led to the establishment of direct correlations for the tip resistance factor Q with the coefficient for lateral earth pressure at rest Ko and the vertical effective stress ratio (OCR). Direct correlations for the excess pore pressure ratio at all four measuring positions with Ko and OCR were also established. Several methods of estimating over consolidation ratio were examined. One of the factors examined was Bq which was found to correlate poorly with OCR before tending asymptotically to a value of approximately 0.4. Other examples of factors which showed promising results as estimators of OCR were Bmi, the excess pore pressure ratio, and Q, the tip resistance factor. The excess pore pressures well behind the cone shoulder, which are partly generated by the shear stress in the area, showed promising correlations with the undrained shear strength. However, because correlations with pore pressure on the piezocone are dependent upon the position of the filter element, the particular results from this series may only be used for piezocones whose filter elements are at equivalent positions. The undrained strength ratio was also correlated with the tip resistance factor Q and the result was very promising for future interpretation of piezocone data.

Keywords: cone penetrometer
clay
Advisor: Sills, G
A study of the γ-rays from the self-conjugate nuclei ⁶⁴Ge and ⁴⁸Cr using n-γ coincidence techniques

A neutron multiplicity detector system has been developed to study weak pure neutron evaporation channels from heavy-ion reactions. Such a system allows us to study nuclei far away from the line of β-stability - in particular, self-conjugate nuclei where the shell-effects for protons and neutrons are in phase and their combined effects may drive the nucleus towards superdeformation. The system consists of a neutron wall — 4 large quadrant neutron detectors and a small central detector with 4 large volume Ge(Li) γ-ray detectors positioned as close as possible to the target. Neutron-gamma coincidences were recorded and neutron multiplicity events could be extracted from the data. Rejection of gamma-ray events in the neutron detectors was achieved by time-of-flight and pulse shape discrimination methods. A surface barrier detector at 0° allowed a further rejection of charged particle events especially events which feature neutrons as well.
The system was tested with the reaction 27 Al(24Mg, 2npγ) 48Cr at 62 MeV and a 1347 keV γ-ray transition was discovered. This has been shown to be the γ-decay of a new 8408 keV level in 48Cr.
Gamma-rays from 64Ge, a nucleus predicted to have a superdeformed ground state shape, were investigated using the reaction 12C(54Fe, 2nγ)64Ge at 150 MeV beam energy. The first excited state was found to be 901.6±0.5 keV and the systematics of the region suggest a spin and parity of 2+. With this energy for the first 2+ state, the prediction of superdeformation can be ruled out. Nevertheless, this is the heaviest N=Z nucleus to be studied by in-beam γ-ray spectroscopy and this observation of pure neutron evaporation from a very neutron deficient compound nucleus is potentially important for observing heavier exotic self-conjugate systems.

Advisor: Sinclair, D
Explaining right and wrong

When an act is right or wrong, there may be an explanation why. Different moral theories recognize different moral facts and offer different explanations of them, but they offer no account of moral explanation itself. What, then, is its nature? This thesis seeks a systematic account of moral explanation within a framework of moral realism. In Chapter 1, I develop a pluralist theory of explanation. I argue that there is a prima facie distinctive normative mode of explanation that is essential to moral theory. In Chapter 2, I characterize normative explanation through its formal properties. I then draw on John Mackie’s claim that moral explanations are queer to develop a powerful form of moral scepticism. In Chapters 3–4, I reject attempts to reduce normative explanation to logical necessity, metaphysical necessity, or conceptual (analytic) necessity. The failure of these accounts is taken to reinforce Mackie’s scepticism. In Chapter 5, I defend a partial analysis of normative explanation in terms of irreducible normative laws. I argue that irreducible normative laws offer a realist, though non-naturalist, answer to Mackie’s scepticism. The existence of irreducible normative laws then is defended as offering the best realist explanation of why rightness and wrongness supervene on descriptive properties. In Appendix A, I discuss the claim the normative explanation has an essential connection to the motivation of virtuous agents. I defend this claim from certain difficulties posed by Jonathan Dancy’s recent work.

Keywords: explanation
Rightmaking
Mackie
right-making
laws
motivation
reasons
virtue
queerness
Advisor: Bykvist, K