VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Exploring cross-cultural management-labour relations: a case study of Chinese-invested garment enterprise in Myanmar

As Chinese enterprises expand into other Asian countries, a relatively new form of cross-cultural management-labour relations is emerging in the context of Chinese expatriate managers and Asian employees. Because China and its neighbouring Asian countries are tentatively believed to be similar in terms of cultural orientations developed by scholars such as Hofstede, research on this form of management-labour relations remains underdeveloped. Examining such, this research adds a significant perspective by using legal culture as an approach to investigate the pre-learnt social constructs, culturally influenced forces, and mismatches in expectations which may contribute to tensions, while refraining from seeing culture as a monolith. This study is based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted at a Chinese-invested garment factory in Myanmar, which includes participant observation of factory operations, semi-structured interviews with factory members, and document analysis. Using ethnographic methods, this study identifies important contextual variables and concepts that are explored and linked to relevant scholarship.
This study challenges the belief that Chinese and Burmese people share many ‘similarities’ in terms of cultural orientation. Examining the interaction between Chinese expatriate managers and Burmese workers, it argues there are subtle yet important differences in their contextually contingent perceptions, visions, and expectations — how good leadership and governance should work, how hierarchical distinctions and leader-follower distance should be maintained, and what principles of reciprocity, fairness, and work ethic should be upheld. The cross-cultural workplace is analysed through the intersection of multi-layered individual perceptions and broader sociocultural aspects associated with traditions and historical influences. This study further examines the functions of Burmese supervisors and Chinese-Burmese interpreters, revealing their role in bridging cultural barriers, their internal tensions of engaging in established local interaction with role-based identities, and their decisions to place organisational objectives and collective interest of the factory before cohesion of relationships. It suggests their roles are constrained by the dynamics of organisational power and the social controls set by management.

Keywords: Legal culture
Ethnography
Factory
Interpreters
Industrial relations
Middle managers
China
Foreign direct investment
Myanmar
Cross-cultural
Chinese investment
Advisor: Kurkchiyan, M
Late glacial geography of the Channel river network. Southeastern England and its central position in the British peninsula and ties with Northwestern Europe

The subject of this thesis is the Channel River and the initial recolonization of the British peninsula during the Late Glacial, 15 to 12,900 years ago. This period marks the opening of this barren landscape to the first establishment of fauna, vegetation and humans following the Last Glacial Maximum. The Late Glacial is a period punctuated by multiple abrupt climatic fluctuations and environmental transitions. The little-known submerged Channel River, which was the most extensive landscape feature in this region, is here considered as a major pivotal point for human dynamics in southeastern England.
Shifting from cave assemblages located hundreds of kilometres to the west and north of the study region, and focussing on nearly a century of Late Glacial archaeological research, a renewed emphasis is placed on open air-sites in Southeast England building on research commencing in the 1980’s, and along the northern tributaries to the Channel River. The thesis combines three themes for the first time in this region: the lithic (stone tool) assemblages, the fluvial record, and prehistoric mobility.
An innovative re-assessment of the lithic assemblages at local, national and Northern European scale is developed as a comparative framework for southern Britain. A compilation of multiple fluvial datasets characterising the Channel River and the regimes of its tributaries is applied to the archaeology record for the first time. By combining these two fields, new mobility and occupation models for the settlement of Southeast England are proposed. A strong connexion with the Channel River and its exceptional resources is highlighted. Cross-Channel links are examined, as is the Channel Estuary, actively flooding this resource rich region with rising sea levels, and rarely integrated in the discussion of Late Glacial archaeology for the region.
This holistic approach to the Late Glacial landscape provides a refreshed framework to assess the lithic assemblages as spatial markers of human activity within a dynamic, evolving landscape. Structured on rare high-resolution sites, multiple scales and resolutions are applied for a broader landscape discussion. This distinguishes the relevance of induvial finds, scatters, and museum archives too often relegated to the back of the archaeological discussion. The outcome is identifying patterns and strategic locations, and developing a framework for future heritage awareness and model building.

Keywords: mobility
geoarchaeology
late glacial
lithics analysis
palaeoenvironment
palaeolithic
Channel river
ethnoarchaeology
fluvial geomorphology
archaeology
palaeogeography
technocomplex
ArcGIS
Advisor: Barton, N
Roberts, A
Discovery and development of novel enantioselective C(sp3)-H functionalisations

This thesis describes studies towards new enantioselective C–H activation reactions. In chapter 2 the investigation towards a novel enantioselective cobalt-catalysed C(sp3)–H alkenylation, directed by thioamides, with but-2-ynoates is described. In this method prochiral thioamides undergo asymmetric C(sp3)–H functionalisation with but-2-ynoates in presence of a [Cp*Co(MeCN)3][SbF6]2 complex and chiral carboxylic acid, which allows the formation of chiral thioamides. The method provides alkenylated products as single regioisomers in excellent yields (up to 85%) and high enantiomeric ratios (up to 91:9 er, or up to >99:1 er after single recrystallisation). The protocol is operationally very simple with mild reaction conditions, which is not very common for C–H functionalisations, because the activation of naturally inactive C–H bonds often requires high reaction temperatures. The applicability of this methodology can be found in diverse downstream derivatisations of products, delivering a broad range of enantiopure pharmaceutically and agrochemically relevant scaffolds, such as various substituted heterocycles. Mechanistic investigations and state-of-the-art DFT calculations carried out in collaboration with Ken Yamazaki, Prof Trevor A. Hamlin and Prof F. Matthias Bickelhaupt revealed that the pivotal C–H activation step is rate- and enantiodetermining step. DFT calculations explain the reaction mechanism, and stereochemical outcome of the products, as well as the unusual regioselectivity of the alkenylation reaction.
After successfully developing a novel thioamide-directed cobalt-catalysed enantioselective C(sp3)–H alkenylation reaction, in chapter 3 we investigated intramolecular variant of this new reaction. Taking into consideration the specific interactions between a Cp*CoIII complex, thioamides and but-2-ynoates, with suitable substrates the formation of cyclic products should be straightforward, and this project would be a viable follow-up of our completed study.

Keywords: catalysis
asymmetric
synthesis
chemistry
alkenylation
NMR
but-2-ynoate
thioamide
method
novel reaction
C-H functionalisation
organic
enantioselective
C(sp3)-H functionalisation
cobalt
methodology
HPLC
C-H activation
research
Advisor: Dixon, D
Symbolic techniques for parameterised verification

Parameterised systems are infinite-state systems comprising a parameterised number of components. The problem of verifying parameterised systems is both important practically and challenging theoretically: it is important because a wide range of real-world computer systems are parameterised in nature, and it is challenging because most relevant properties of parameterised systems are undecidable in general.
In this thesis, we study automated verification approaches using automata-based symbolic model checking (a.k.a. regular model checking) as a generic formalism for parameterised systems. Although this formalism is Turing powerful (i.e. it can simulate the computation of Turing machines), the nice closure and algorithmic properties of finite automata still allow us to design effective heuristics for practical applications. Our main proposal for regular model checking is to use first-order theories over regular relations to reason about correctness properties, and use regular language inference as a means of proof generation. We further develop powerful reduction and abstraction techniques to reduce difficult verification problems to simpler tasks for several classes of parameterised systems. These techniques include reductions from liveness properties to safety properties for regular systems, reductions from infinite data domains to finite alphabets for array systems, and reductions from quantitative reasoning to qualitative reasoning for probabilistic systems. All these reductions are performed in a uniform logical way based on decidable first-order theories.
We have implemented and evaluated our automated approaches against a nontrivial collection of examples covering concurrent systems, distributed algorithms, and cryptographic protocols. The promising experimental results confirm our hypothesis that regular languages and relations provide effective heuristics for parameterised systems verification.

Keywords: automated synthesis
regular model checking
symbolic model checking
parameterized verification
automated reasoning
Advisor: Ong, L
Lin, A
Transnational knowledge transfer in the Enlightenment (c.1750-1790): the case of József Fogarasi Pap

The present thesis offers the first comprehensive study of the intellectual career of Transylvanian philosopher József Fogarasi Pap (1744-1784), analysing the context, influences, and reception of the metaphysical essays submitted by him to Enlightenment prize contests in the Dutch Republic and in Berlin. A contextual intellectual biography, this thesis combines a transnational methodology with a textual analysis of the essays, and highlights the importance of the prize essay qua genre in the institutionalisation and democratisation of eighteenth-century knowledge networks. Fogarasi Pap’s remarkable success in philosophical competitions serves as a case study for underscoring three arguments. Firstly, religious discourse did not belong to a separate religious Enlightenment, but was a consistent feature of early modern philosophy. Secondly, Fogarasi Pap’s eclectic negotiation of various ideas and influences was a common method employed by thinkers to answer prize competitions’ questions, representing an Enlightenment philosophical and literary genre. Lastly, the philosophical endeavours of Fogarasi Pap and his competitors must be understood in the context of an institutional framework of philosophical production, namely the societies and academies that sponsored the competitions.
The first two chapters of the thesis follow the transnational knowledge networks of which Fogarasi Pap was a part: the Transylvanian Protestant peregrinatio academica, and the prize contests proliferating in eighteenth-century Europe. The following three chapters focus on four different essays submitted to three contests: the University of Leiden’s Legatum Stolpianum, the Haarlem-based Teylers First Society contest, and the Berlin Academy’s Speculative Class. Each chapter analyses the institutional context, Fogarasi Pap’s entries, and those of other competitors, in order to recover the intellectual microcosm of the everyday, mid-level, now unduly-forgotten practitioners of Enlightenment philosophy. Finally, in terms of thematic analysis, the thesis covers the broad spectrum of topics that represented the interests of eighteenth-century mainstream philosophy, from moral aesthetics, to the uniqueness of God, providence, and force of matter.

Keywords: Dutch Republic
Transylvania
Berlin Academy
Prize contests
18th Century Intellectual Life
Enlightenment
Prize essay genre
Academies and societies
Advisor: Lifschitz, A
Women's relationships in classical Attika

This thesis offers a new assessment of the relationships of fifth- and fourth-century Attic women, of citizen and metic status. Chapter 1 demonstrates women’s capacity to build and use relationships through and against the vicissitudes of their lives, particularly their transitions between marriages and households. Chapter 2 argues for women’s ability to shape formal and informal kinship structures in response to their own affective relationships. Chapter 3 suggests that women could use their relationships with enslaved people, particularly enslaved women, either to confirm or challenge their other roles and relationships within the household. Chapter 4 shows how income-generating work expanded women’s social networks, gave them opportunities publicly to present themselves in terms and contexts independent of their family relationships, and enabled them to redefine their roles within their families. Chapter 5 shows how women formed, used, and defined their friendships, considering in particular the role of the neighbourhood and of religion as contexts within which women could shape their social landscapes.
The thesis weighs up different approaches to writing women’s history. Chapter 1 argues for the value of reconstructive biography. Later chapters focus on re-reading narratives about men to draw out the experiences of women, without attempting complete biographies, and on understanding epigraphic testimonies that women were involved in authoring as instances of women’s self-writing—not autobiographies but women’s brief portraits of themselves and others.
The thesis argues that women’s formal and circumstantial relationships did not necessarily commit them to fixed roles or social behaviours but provided a framework within which they could develop and shape their affective relationships and negotiate their own roles. It demonstrates the potential breadth of women’s networks, affiliations, and relationships; how they were formed and changed across the course of women’s lives, and how they cross-cut other groupings and divisions in Attic society. It argues that women were more able to shape their lives and relationships than has previously been thought, and therefore played a more dynamic role in the social history of classical Attika.

Keywords: classical Athens
women's relationships
social history
women's history
ancient Greece
athenian women
attic women
women
Advisor: Crawley Quinn, J
Morgan, T
Thomas, R
Decoding the role of the RNA binding activity of p53

p53 is a key tumour suppressor, mutated in over half of cancers. p53’s ability to form extensive protein interactions, along with its function as a sequence-specific transcription factor, are well documented due to their roles in canonical p53 tumour suppressor functions. Still lacking is clarity regarding p53’s ribonucleic acid (RNA) binding activity. Previously reported, predominantly acellular and in vitro results provide little in regards to the physiological relevance, biological function and underlying mechanisms of p53-RNA interactions. Here I demonstrate p53 binds polyadenylated RNA in living cells using RNA interactome capture. Further investigation of p53-RNA interactions using conventional immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody-based approaches proves problematic. I therefore generated an inducible cell line expressing green fluorescent protein conjugated p53 (GFP-p53), enabling highly specific purification of GFP-p53. Utilising CLIP-seq, I identified a defined subset of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) bound by p53, representing a translational programme distinct from p53's transcriptional targets. Additionally, RNase coupled proteomic analysis reveals the importance of RNA in p53's protein interaction network, including the DNA damage response. This work provides evidence of a p53 post-transcriptional regulatory layer, which warrants further investigation.

Keywords: RNA binding proteins
p53
cancer
Advisor: Bond, G
Castello Palomares, A
A multi-proxy reconstruction of Late Cretaceous climate

The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66.0 Ma) was a greenhouse world with high atmospheric CO2, which fluctuated on long and short timescales, that can provide insights into how Earth’s climate system operates under different CO2 levels to today. This thesis applies a multi-proxy approach to reconstructing palaeoclimate through the collapse of the Late Cretaceous greenhouse, at tectonic to sub-orbital timescales, with the goal of disentangling CO2 from other climatic drivers. This thesis demonstrates that, although atmospheric CO2 was a dominant driver, local sea-surface temperature, sedimentation patterns, and water chemistry were influenced by changing circulation and orbital forcing on a range of timescales.
New multi-proxy sea-surface temperature data confirms previous studies by demonstrating anomalous warmth in the Late Cretaceous southern high latitudes but different proxies show different temporal trends, attributed to seasonal biases. Changing strength of seasonality may reflect the onset of deep-water formation in the South Atlantic during the Campanian, delivering warm, tropical waters to the south Atlantic.
A hierarchy of orbital cycles from precession to 2.4 Myr eccentricity has been identified in a Campanian hemipelagic sequence from the Mississippi Embayment, USA. The early Campanian record shows a strong influence of precession; however, in the late Campanian, the record is dominated by signals of obliquity. This change is attributed to a decreasing global temperature and CO2, affecting the sensitivity of the region to different orbital cycles.
The Plenus Cold Event was a brief period of cooling and re-oxygenation during Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (Cenomanian–Turonian boundary time) attributed to high rates of organic-carbon burial and silicate weathering drawing down CO2 and thus global temperatures. A global data compilation shows significant inconsistencies in the timing and sequence of climatic changes at different sites, suggesting a strong local overprint on temperature and redox changes in local water-masses.

Advisor: Robinson, S
Jenkyns, H
In-group bias in human cooperation: insights from the contrade of Siena, Italy

Cooperation in humans shows an in-group bias, with individuals more likely to benefit members of their own in-group than members of other out-groups. This thesis explores the effects of inter-group competition, group relationship, and shared identity on in-group bias, by conducting field experiments among communities in a historic Italian city, namely the contrade of Siena.
In Chapter 1, I review the literature on the evolution of cooperation and in-group bias. I then describe how field experiments that employ economic games can help elucidate in-group bias in the real world, before outlining how I conducted field experiments with the contrade. I describe the contrade in greater detail in Chapter 2, using research from my fieldwork among these communities to demonstrate the importance of group relationship in the Sienese context.
In experiment 1 (Chapter 3), I compare in-group and out-group cooperation during a period characterised by low competition vs. high competition. There is no evidence for an effect of competition. However, there is a significant effect of group relationship, with more cooperation among neutral out-groups compared to rival out-groups. In experiment 2 (Chapter 4), I analyse third-party punishment decisions and participants’ interpretations of the experiment, to assess whether cooperation within and between contrade is supported by social norms. There is limited support for third-party punishment sustaining norms governing either in-group or out-group behaviour. In experiment 3 (Chapter 5), I explore the effect of shared identity on in-group bias, by seeing if a “common enemy” encourages out-group cooperation. The common enemy neither increases the perceptions of shared identity nor decreases in-group bias.
I conclude with a meta-analysis in Chapter 6, which reveals an overall strong in-group bias among the contrade. The bias is influenced by the relationship between the groups, but is unaffected by the level of competition and attempts to induce a shared identity. This thesis shows that symbolic group identities in the real world have a significant impact on social behaviour.

Keywords: Siena
group relations
Italy
third-party punishment
economic game
field experiment
competition
in-group bias
cooperation
common enemy
Advisor: Fortunato, L
On the motivic Galois theory of some families of Feynman integrals

Feynman integrals are the building blocks of scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory, and are therefore central to comparing theory with experiment in high-energy physics. Following the work of Brown, we can canonically associate a family of motivic periods to any convergent Feynman integral viewed as a function of the kinematic variables. Moreover, the action of the motivic Galois group is conjectured to be closed on the space of motivic periods arising from Feynman integrals, factoring through a subquotient referred to as the cosmic Galois group. Brown's "small graphs principle" implies that it is possible to deduce strong constraints on Feynman integrals to all loop orders from results on graphs with a small number of edges. This serves as motivation for explicitly computing this group action, or, dually, the coaction of the Hopf algebra of functions on the motivic Galois group.
In this thesis, we find an explicit formula for the coaction on the 'motivic lifts' of Feynman integrals associated to one-loop Feynman graphs, as well as the two-loop sunrise graph, which is known to evaluate, in the equal-mass case, to a value of the elliptic dilogarithm. We also study the coaction in some cases when the underlying geometry degenerates. It is conjectured in the physics literature that dimensional regularization is compatible with the motivic Galois coaction. We show that computations in twisted cohomology reflect the expected effect of expanding the space of motivic Feynman integrals by introducing the 'motivic lifts' of dimensionally regularized Feynman integrals.
We find a new class of single-valued periods associated to the functions on the de Rham realization of the motivic Galois group arising in the coaction on the elliptic dilogarithm, which generalize Brown's non-holomorphic modular forms with two weights. Finally, we apply the theory of the relative completion of the torsor of paths on a modular curve, due to Hain and Brown to find a new proof that the sunrise Feyman integral can be expressed in terms of integrals of modular forms.

Keywords: Modular forms
Motivic Galois group
Feynman integrals
Advisor: Brown, F