VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Communities, innovation, and critical mass: understanding the impact of digitization on scholarship in the humanities through the case of Tibetan and Himalayan studies

The dominant discourse surrounding academic research libraries today is one of change and scholarship in the humanities has seen a similar revolution in practice. Yet, most of the documented changes in either have been ascribed to the availability of online journal materials. Despite the accessibility of millions of rare, digitized primary resources freely available on the web, little has been done to understand the impact of these materials on either the practice of scholarship or on libraries. The research described in this proposal is an investigation into digitization projects involving rare and closely guarded materials and the effects of these projects on humanities scholarship. This thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative measures to:
Assess the impact of digitized primary resources on the work of humanities scholars;
To construct a model based on the findings that explains current use of digitized primary sources; and
To discuss the implications of these findings for academic research libraries.
The research questions are answered through a detailed analysis of the role of digitization in the field of Tibetan and Himalayan studies. The author presents detailed evidence of how digitization is changing the inputs, practice, and outputs of scholarship in this field, as well as the characteristics of digitization that have led to these changes. Importantly, these findings separate out the success of individual projects from the success of digitization across the field as a whole. Support for community and innovation as well as the presence of critical mass across the field are stressed as the three most significant factors.
Finally, the implications of these findings are assessed within a newly proposed model of academic libraries. This “scholar-centric” model is intended to provide both a theoretical framework for the research findings as well as a normative provocation for structuring future research and discussions about the role of academic libraries and their presence online.

Keywords: Tibetan and Himalayan Studies
Humanities
Internet
libraries
Advisor: Dutton, W
Group 2 ring-opening polymerisation catalysts

This Thesis describes the synthesis and characterisation of new Group 2 tetrahydroborate, alkoxide and organohydroborate complexes and their uses as catalysts for the living ROP and immortal ring-opening polymerisation (iROP) of ε- caprolactone and rac-lactide.
Chapter One introduces cyclic esters and possible mechanistic pathways leading to polyesters by ROP. Living and immortal ROP, including their kinetic characteristics are discussed. An overview of ROP from an industrial perspective is also given.
Chapter Two describes the synthesis and characterisation of a new series of Group 2 tetrahydroborate complexes supported by a 3-methyl, 5-tert-butyl tris(pyrazolyl)hydroborate ligand. Their activities towards the ROP of ε-caprolactone are presented. Detailed mechanistic studies using spectroscopic techniques are discussed and a new mechanism is proposed.
Chapter Three describes the ROP of rac-lactide using the Group 2 tetrahydroborate complexes introduced in Chapter Two, including their mechanistic studies.
Chapter Four introduces the new immortal ROP using trialkyl borate and organoborane derivatives as chain-transfer agents (CTAs). The immortal ROP of ε- caprolactone and rac-lactide using Group 2 initiators with trialkyl borates/organoboranes as CTAs from either in situ generation or external addition is discussed. Possible immortal ROP pathways using this new class of CTAs are illustrated.
Chapter Five details the synthesis and characterisation of a new series of Group 2 organohydroborate complexes. The ε-caprolactone and rac-lactide ROP activity shown by the complexes presented is discussed and compared with those obtained from the corresponding tetrahydroborate analogues.
Chapter Six contains experimental details and characterising data for the new complexes reported in this Thesis.
CD Appendix contains .CIF files for all the new crystallographically-characterised complexes.

Keywords: Group 2 catalysts
ring-opening polymerisation
Advisor: Mountford, P
The construction of the pre-Hispanic past of Colombia

This study examines the construction of the pre-Hispanic past of Colombia from the 1820's to the 1940s. It describes and analyses the reception, dissemination and appropriation of knowledge about ancient Colombian societies. It analyses the works by Colombian and foreign antiquarians, savants and archaeologists and the formation of Colombian pre-Hispanic collections in the Museo Nacional in Bogotá and in three major European Museums : the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin, the British Museum in London and the Musée d'Etnographie du Trocadero in Paris. The study shows the ways Colombian archaeological objects were viewed in the course of this history. At its outset, during the Colonial period, Colombian pre-Hispanic objects were first seen as "Idols of the devil"; in Europe, they were initially considered as curiosities and as works or art. During the nineteenth century, archaeological objects began to be valued and interpreted by Colombian and foreign scholars and antiquarians as antiquities and also as art objects. How Colombia was presented and represented in the National Museum in Bogotá and in international exhibitions during the second half of the nineteenth century is described and analysed, and how pre-Hispanic artefacts came to form part of a representation of Colombia nationally and internationally. The final chapters deal with the first four decades of the twentieth century, when the pre-Hispanic period received a new degree of recognition in Colombia with the enactment of official measures for the protection of antiquities, the building of archaeological collections in the National Museum in Bogotá and in research done by foreign and Colombian archaeologists, which began to define archaeological areas scientifically. The final chapter examines the background for the establishment of the Colombian scientific tradition in archaeology during the 1930's with the creation of the Servicio Arqueológico Nacional, the Institute Etnológico Nacional and two archaeological museums, the Museo Arqueológico Nacional and the Museo del Oro.

Advisor: Deas, M
A technological study of selected osseous artifacts from the Upper Palaeolithic of Britain and Belgium

This thesis records the study of over one thousand selected, bone, antler and ivory artifacts from the Upper Palaeolithic in Britain and Belgium, with particular reference to manufacture. The methods used include the experimental manufacture and use of certain bone and antler artifacts, and the recording of the traces produced. This information is used as a reference collection with which to compare the archaeological material. Both the experimental and the archaeological implements are examined either with the aid of a handlens, or at a variety of magnifications using an optical microscope and a scanning electron microscope. Upper Palaeolithic bone tool types as a whole are considered for comparative purposes, as are some ethnographic artifacts.
The artifacts studied here are ordered into twenty-six different tool types, each of which is discussed in turn; this includes a description of the raw materials used, of the identifiable traces of manufacture and their interpretation, and of the identifiable traces of use, and their interpretation. The regional and chronological distribution of the specimens is also considered, as is any variation in each type, for example in size or in the raw materials used. Some regional and chronological patterning is found, but in the absence of reliable contextual information, its interpretation is often speculative. It is concluded that a large scale programme of radiocarbon accelerator dating of actual artifacts is required to solve this problem.
Diversity and competitive interactions in experimentally evolved bacterial populations

Laboratory bacterial populations provide ideal opportunities to experimentally test theories in ecology and evolutionary biology. I used a model laboratory microbial system, Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25, to address an array of questions on the origin, maintenance, and functional role of biodiversity, and the evolution of biotic interactions. My thesis reports experiments with the following conclusions. (1) The extent of diversification in P. fluorescens populations is not affected by the presence of an interspecific competitor P. putida, although the early stage of the diversification in one environment (spatially homogeneous environment) could be speeded up by the competitor. (2) Niche and neutral mechanisms simultaneously contribute to the maintenance of phenotypic diversity in P. fluorescens populations; but the operation of niche processes does not lead to a positive effect of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning. (3) The competitive interactions among bacterial phenotypes are generally transitive, and competitive hierarchies inferred from pair-wise competition are fairly consistent to those from multi-species competition. (4) The niche complementarity and selection effects evaluated by random assembly biodiversity experiments can be used to predict the functional consequences of particular non-random species extinction scenarios. (5) P. fluorescens does not show an evolutionary trade-off in using several carbon substrates (glucose, galactose and trehalose), and evolution in environments containing these resources results in imperfect generalists; migration among populations may speed up fitness evolution of some generalists. (6) Biofilm formation at the air-broth interface by wrinkly spreader phenotypes in P. fluorescens is a cooperative behaviour which is costly to individuals but benefits the group; this behaviour could be exploited by smooth morph phenotypes. The cooperators and cheats in this system show reciprocal antagonistic coevolution in resistance and cheating performance.

Keywords: experimental evolution
Biodiversity
competition
Advisor: Godfray, H
Buckling, A
Ellis, R
Theoretical and experimental investigations of isotope shift

This thesis is concerned with the measurement and interpretation of isotope shifts. The first part describes an experimental determination of isotope shifts in the 4s2 1S - 4s5s1 So transition of neutral calcium. This measurement was performed using the method of Doppler-free two-photon absorption spectroscopy in an atomic beam of the natural mixture of calcium isotopes. The laser was stabilized and scanned by means of an external, pressure-swept etalon, and its scan was calibrated by recording the transmission fringes of the laser through a confocal etalon, 2m in length. This calibration etalon was stabilized with reference to an I2-stabilized Helium- Neon laser. The isotope shifts of all the stable isotopes of calcium were measured; the results are believed to be free from systematic error and so the standard deviations are derived from the scatter of the results.
A Isotope Shift δvA-44/MHz
40 -1169.99(28)
42 -563.66(7)
43 -263.67(6)
46 534.34(70)
48 1023.50(7)
These results are compared with other accurate measurements of isotope shifts in calcium by laser spectroscopy, by means of the King plot. All the measurements are consistent except for the only odd isotope 43Ca, which, in this transition, unlike those in the other experiments, is free from hyperfine structure. The best values of the isotope shifts are thus determined by a least squares procedure. The mass and field shifts are separated using the values of δ2
> determined from muonic isotope shifts, and this leads to more accurate values of δ2>.
The second part of the thesis concerns the interpretation of anomalous isotope shifts in samarium. Pairs of spectral lines had been found for which the shifts of even-even isotopes did not lie on a straight line on a King plot. These deviations are interpreted as evidence for the insufficiency of first-order perturbation theory for the treatment of isotope shifts in a number of levels of the samarium spectrum. By comparing shifts in transitions connecting these levels with shifts in transitions connecting levels for which first-order perturbation theory appears to be a good approximation, values of off-diagonal matrix elements are found. These are not required to be unreasonably large to explain the observed deviations.

Advisor: Woodgate, G
Control and manipulation of cold atoms in optical tweezers

The ability to address and manipulate individual information carriers in a deterministic, coherent, and scalable manner is a central theme in quantum information processing. Neutral atoms trapped by laser light are amongst the most promising candidates for storing and processing information in a quantum computer or simulator, so a scalable and flexible scheme for their control and manipulation is paramount.
This thesis demonstrates a fast and versatile method to address and dynamically control the position (the motional degrees of freedom) of neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezers. The tweezers are generated by using the direct image of a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) which can control and shape a large number of optical dipole-force traps. Trapped atoms adapt to any change in the potential landscape, such that one can re-arrange and randomly access individual sites within atom-trap arrays. A diffraction limited imaging system is used to map the intensity distribution of the SLM onto a cloud of cold atoms captured and cooled using a Magneto Optical Surface Trap (MOST).

Keywords: Quantum Optics
Quantum Information Processing
Advisor: Kuhn, A
From German to Yiddish: adaptation strategies in the Kuhbukh and the Siben weisen mainster bichel

In light of often derogatory and unqualified assessments of Yiddish literature adapted from German narrative models, this thesis will propose a different approach to viewing these adaptations. Building on methodologies and frameworks of analyses developed in contemporary medieval scholarship, this thesis pushes for a re-assessment of this literature and suggests a flexible model of adaptation that views adaptation as a creative interaction between two texts.
In response to unsatisfactory approaches to judaizing strategies found in Yiddish texts adapted from German literature, this thesis also suggests a different approach. Judaizing processes can either be part of overall processes of adaptation aimed at coding the text as Jewish within an overarching framework of renewed cultural specificity; or, they can function as translation principles by achieving equivalence with the original model.
To illustrate both ends of this scale of adaptation, this thesis centres on two early modern Yiddish texts: the Kuhbukh (Verona, 1595) and the Siben weisen mainster bichel (Basel, 1602). The four chapters at the core of this thesis develop and apply extensive frameworks of literary analyses which enable us to rigorously assess the differing levels of adaptations (translation and Wiedererzählen) of both texts.
This thesis pushes for a future reassessment of other popular Yiddish narratives adapted from German models. This could ideally be achieved by a positioning of each individual Yiddish text based on German narratives on the proposed scale of adaptation. This should be backed by verifiable methodologies and analyses devoid of unjustifiably dismissive opinions. This would consequently move scholarship towards structured, methodological analyses of early Yiddish secular literature.

Keywords: Seven Sages of Rome
Book of Cows
Siben weisen mainster bichel
Kuhbukh
adaptation
Early modern
Advisor: Suerbaum, A
The use of online collaboration tools for employee volunteering: a case study of IBM’s CSC programme

This research study intends to find out about the use of online collaboration tools in supporting knowledge workers for the practice of employee volunteering. Online collaboration tools refer to the web-based technologies such as popular Web 2.0 tools like blogs or wikis and traditional online tools such as instant messenger, discussion forums, online chats and e-mail used by several individuals with the aim of achieving a common goal.
The employee volunteering program- called Corporate Service Corps (CSC) - is an employee volunteering program in which the IBM employees tackle the economic and societal issues of the less developed countries they have been sent to while getting involved in project-based learning activities. This study provides an insight into how online engagement enabled the continuation of non-formal workplace learning practices such as volunteering and opened up possibilities for new ways to contribute to the learning process of employees. When it comes to online communities there is a mixture of entanglements, partnerships, negotiations and resistances between these tools and human actors. This research study explores how online communities are created by employee volunteers and also provides an understanding of non-formal learning practices within such fluid settings; important issues for organizations interested in non-formal learning practices of their employees are also raised.
Today’s workplace settings are in constant need of recurrent learning processes interwoven with daily tasks on digital spaces. However, these digital spaces are not devoid of any issues and hence suggest the need for employees to be conscious of the emerging issues. The results from the case study are analysed by using participatory design methods in order to contribute to the understanding of the use of technology as both a single and collective experience.
This research identified the specific benefits of online collaboration tools, and explored how their usage has been appropriated by employee volunteers for their practice of volunteering and how they influenced the process of their meaning-making. By doing so, it raised an awareness of the digital tools that provide collections of traits through which individuals can get involved in non-formal learning practices by having digital interactions with others.

Keywords: online collaboration
e-learning
IBM
Advisor: James, S
Cobo, J
Plotinus

The Prolegomena begin by pointing out the present lack of detailed, critical work on Plotinus., Then, after a resumé of the events of Plotinus' life, the problem of the date of composition of V 1, and its title, are discussed. Space is devoted to discussion of the purpose of the treatise, which, despite its title, is protreptic, to lead the soul to the Intelligible World and beyond by reminding it of its high status. The methodology of the Commentary is outlined, and a list of passages is given in which textual readings have been proposed which differ from those in the text of Henry and Schwyzer. The Prolegomena conclude with a detailed analysis of the contents of the treatise, included in order to show that the treatise is not a mere random collection of thoughts.
There follows a translation which aims not so much to be stylish - for Plotinus was no stylist - but to give an accurate idea of what Plotinus actually wrote.
The bulk of the thesis is taken up with the Commentary. The Commentary is exegetical, discussing difficulties in the treatise line by line. Since by the time Plotinus wrote his philosophical ideas were already formulated, it contains as many cross-references as possible to other treatises in the Plotinian corpus. Each chapter begins with a short introduction, and,in the body of the work, textual difficulties and the readings of previous editors, as well as difficulties of philosophical interpretation, are fully discussed. The translations of Ficino, Bréhier, Harder, Cilento and MacKenna are taken into account. Among the longer notes might be mentioned the note on 3,8 on the meaning of logos, that on the relationship between the reasoning and the undescending soul (on 3,13) 9 and the treatment of the difficult passages 6,17-19 and 7,11-17.
The thesis concludes with a full bibliography.
Strategy as the intentional structuration of practice: the translation of formal strategies into strategies-in-practice

Acknowledging the difficulties of achieving effective strategic management in practice, this thesis investigates how formal strategies quite often succeed in conditioning organisational actions even in firms such as professional service firms, which may lack effective measures for coercing action and which often depend on distributed decision-making. The fundamental question posed in this investigation is: what are the social processes that make strategies work?
This thesis addresses that question by contributing to our understanding of strategy realisation as a continuing process of translating formal strategies into ‘strategies-in-practice’, i.e. the situated performance of strategies through choices, actions, and practices pertaining to the selection and accomplishment of concrete assignments. The thesis investigates this translation process in three small professional service firms, in which the responsibility for enacting the strategies lies with autonomous practitioners, making centralised strategy realisation difficult.
Searching for integration rather than further fragmentation of different strands of strategy research, the thesis make use of Porterian activity systems theory, Giddens’ structuration theory, Wittgensteinian theory of rule-following, Searlean theory of intentionality, and the strategy-as-practice approach, in order to understand the translation process as the intentional structuration of practice.
The thesis reports two main contributions, the first addressing a gap in strategy re-search, the second contradicting prevailing theories. The first contribution is an outline of a theory of strategy translation: how formal strategies are translated into strategies-in-practice, coping with insoluble strategic dilemmas, and achieving maintenance of strategic position and strategies-in-practice under pressure for unwanted change. Good strategies-in-practice are as much about managing dilemmas as about eliminating them.
Second, in contrast to prevailing strategic positioning theory and generic strategies, this study documents the potential benefits of straddling strategically distinct services within a single activity system, in terms of: learning opportunities; work variation; better opportunities for attracting, developing, and retaining talented people; the possibilities of capitalising on client relationships; and the dynamics of routinisation of once-novel services.

Keywords: business enterprises
strategy-as-practice
decision making
management case studies
knowledge management
Advisor: Whittington, R