VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
CSR innovation: a comparative study of India and the UK

This thesis contributes to the field of research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and explores the underresearched phenomenon of CSR innovation. It sheds light on this phenomenon by comparing CSR innovation in two nations with differing degrees of economic development, namely the UK and India. An interpretive, multicase study approach was chosen to compare CSR initiatives of British and Indian retailers. Data were collected through interviews, archival research, and observation.
The research used sensemaking theory as a theoretical lens to examine how actors made sense of CSR innovation and communicated it to others. Data analysis was guided by a conceptual framework focussing on the triggers of sensemaking for CSR initiatives, formalisation as a key sensemaking process for CSR innovations, and the legitimation strategies employed by the case companies. The analysis shows that CSR leaders, close followers, and aspirants think differently about CSR; it also points to broader patterns of CSR innovation in the UK and India. CSR innovations were identified in both the British and Indian retail industries, contextual differences between the innovations in the two countries were observed, and the complex nature and role of these innovations were illustrated. CSR innovation was seen as involving complex constellations of continuity and newness. The British companies studied engaged in deliberate CSR leadership, actively tried to change CSR practises, and communicated these efforts externally. In contrast, the Indian companies mainly discussed CSR initiatives within the business, experimented with nonphilanthropic CSR, and tried to determine the role of CSR in the emerging Indian retail industry. The observed differences were traced back to country-specific regulatory and market environments and differences in field level conditions were highlighted. The study also examined the impact of environmental uncertainty on the management of CSR innovation and discussed strategies that the case companies use to deal with challenges related to CSR innovation.

Keywords: qualitative research
CSR
cross-cultural research
Advisor: Basu, K
Between East and West

As a subject of research, Vietnamese Francophone literature has remained relatively unexplored. There are only two major works, and a number of articles, on the subject. The two works, both theses which appeared in 1982, are Jack A. Yeager's The Vietnamese Novel in French, a general overview of the Vietnamese Francophone novel, and a thesis by Nguyen Hong Nhiem on the writer Pham Van Ky.
My purpose in this thesis is to focus on four primary themes which particularly distinguish the Vietnamese Francophone novel, and to analyse a number of novels in the light of these four themes. I will examine sixteen novels by twelve writers. The earliest is Bà-Dâm, published in 1930, and the latest Retour à la saison des pluies, published in 1990. The first theme is the influence of the Vietnamese classic, the Kim-Van-Kieu, on these modern novels. The second theme is the portrayal of women, the double colonization of women within a colonial and post-colonial context. I will contrast a woman writer, Ly Thu Ho, with a prominent male writer, Pham Van Ky. The third theme is the nature of interracial relationships, in particular between Vietnamese men and Frenchwomen. The last theme is alienation: alienation within the self and within one's environment.
The novels are the writers' individual response to the dilemma of being Vietnamese writing in French. In examining them, one must move beyond the concept of a conflict between East and West. The novels reveal the influence of both East and West. They are an amalgamation of Eastern and Western elements: philosophical, cultural, and literary. They express an interplay of both thoughts and words across cultures.
Use of Isaiah in the fourth gospel in comparison to the Synoptics and other places in the New Testament

Isaiah, along with Psalms and Zechariah, is one of the most quoted OT books in the Fourth Gospel (FG). There are thorough studies regarding the citations from Psalms and Zechariah in the FG. However, a monograph-length study on the use of Isaiah in that book is still lacking. The present research aims to fill this gap.
This study proposes not only to research into Isaianic citations in the FG (Is 40:3; Is 54:13; Is 53:1; Is 6:9-10), but also to complete a comparative study of their other occurrences in the NT. This is done by analysing eleven citations in total, of which nine are found in the FG and Synoptics, while the other two are found in Acts and in the Letter to the Romans (one citation in each).
This comparative study leads to the conclusion that the same citation, even with the same Vorlage, can be used with two different meanings in two different places in the NT. Indeed, even where similar meanings are to be inferred, the exact uses of the citations have some nuances. Moreover, the deviations in the form of the citations should not be understood simply as due to defective memory: they may be explained by “application of exegetical techniques and devices” (Menken) or they may not. It seems rather that the Fourth Evangelist crafted them well, according to his genuine theological aims/agenda. In fact, he is much freer in the composition of his citations than the Synoptics. In common with the Synoptics, however, he mentions Isaiah in order to gain prophetic authority for some difficult claims and not merely to indicate the source of the citation. Finally, it is observed that all of the Isaianic quotations in the FG have one pattern in common: where the OT writer refers to the God of Israel, the Fourth Evangelist refers to Jesus Christ.

Keywords: SYNOPTICS
NEW TESTAMENT
EARLY JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
OLD TESTAMENT CITATIONS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
OLD TESTAMENT
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
ISAIAH
Advisor: Salvesen, A
Applications of quantum coherence in condensed matter nanostructures

This thesis is concerned with studying the fascinating quantum properties of real-world nanostructures embedded in a noisy condensed matter environment. The interaction with light is used for controlling and manipulating the quantum state of the systems considered here. In some instances, laser pulses also provide a way of actively probing and controlling environmental interactions. The first two research chapters assess two different ways of performing all-optical spin qubit gates in self-assembled quantum dots. The principal conclusion is that an `adiabatic' control technique holds the promise of achieving a high fidelity when all primary sources of decoherence are taken into account. In the next chapter, it is shown that an optically driven quantum dot exciton interacting with the phonons of the surrounding lattice acts as a heat pump. Further, a model is developed which predicts the temperature-dependent damping of Rabi oscillations caused by bulk phonons, finding an excellent agreement with experimental data. A different system is studied in the following chapter: two electron spin qubits with no direct interaction, yet both exchange-coupled to an optically active mediator spin. The results of this study show that these general assumptions are sufficient for generating controlled electron spin entanglement over a wide range of parameters, even in the presence of noise. Finally, the Radical Pair model of the avian compass is investigated in the light of recent experimental results, leading to the surprising prediction that the electron spin coherence time in this molecular system seems to approach the millisecond timescale.

Keywords: radical pair model of avian compass
adiabatic quantum gates
phase gates
entanglement
quantum dots
phonons
Advisor: Lovett, B
Benjamin, S
X-ray reverberation in Active Galactic Nuclei

Narrow Line Type-1 Seyfert active galaxies can exhibit a high degree of variability in the X-ray regime. This thesis examines that variability in the context of reverberation models, in which a flare in activity has an extended, energy dependent, response. A novel method is developed for estimating the response function in different energy bands. This method is then applied to three AGN: Ark 564, 1H 0707{495, and NGC 4051. The striking evidence for reverberation revealed in Ark 564 leads to a more thorough examination of that object, combining spectral and temporal approaches to develop a plausible physical model for its behaviour. The preferred model is one in which the reverberation is due to scattering from hot Comptonizing material approximately 1500 light-seconds from the central source. This conclusion is reinforced by a simulation of the angular dependence of reflection by Comptonizing gas.

Keywords: active galaxies
x-rays
reverberation
Advisor: Miller, L
'Au milieu d'un tel et si piteux naufrage': the dynamics of shipwreck in Renaissance France

This thesis examines the interweaving metaphorical and material aspects of shipwreck in Renaissance French writing. In a period marked by proliferating transatlantic and other exploration on the one hand, and, on the other, by religious civil wars, the ship was freighted with new political and religious, as well as poetic, significance. This rich symbolism reaches its height in the moments where ships—both real and symbolic—are threatened with disaster. The thesis demonstrates that shipwreck does not function merely as an emblem or poetic motif, but as a part, or the whole, of significant modes of narrative. Shipwreck in this period is rarely, if ever, recounted as a purely aesthetic embellishment: the ethics of spectatorship and of co-operation are of constant concern. I argue that the possibility of ethical distance from shipwreck—imagined through the Lucretian suave mari magno commonplace—is constantly undermined, not least through a sustained focus on the corporeal. Examining the ways in which the ship and the body are made analogous in Renaissance shipwreck writing, I show how bodies are allegorised in nautical terms, and, conversely, how ships themselves become animalised and humanised. Secondly, in many of the texts in my corpus it is shown or anticipated that the description, narration and dramatisation of shipwreck has an impact not only on the bodies of its victims, but on those of spectators, listeners, and readers, too. This insistence on the physicality of shipwreck is also reflected in the dynamic of bricolage that, I argue, informs the production of shipwreck texts in the Renaissance. The dramatic potential of both the disaster and the processes of rebuilding is exploited throughout the century, culminating, as I show, in a shipwreck tragedy. By the late Renaissance, shipwreck is not only the end of a story; it forms, more often than not, its beginning.

Keywords: shipwreck
early modern
France
Advisor: Williams, W
The molecular basis for ER tubule formation

Integral membrane proteins of the DP1 and reticulon families are responsible for maintaining the high membrane curvature required for both smooth ER tubules and the edges of ER sheets. Mutations in these proteins lead to motor neurone diseases such as hereditary spastic paraplegia. Reticulon/DP1 proteins contain Reticulon Homology Domains (RHD) that have unusually long (≈30 aa) hydrophobic segments and are proposed to adopt intramembrane helical hairpins that stabilise membrane curvature. I have uncovered the secondary structure and dynamics of the DP1 protein Yop1p and identified a C-terminal conserved amphipathic helix that on its own interacts strongly with negatively charged membranes and is necessary for membrane tubule formation. Analyses of DP1 and reticulon family members indicate that most, if not all, contain C-terminal sequences capable of forming amphipathic helices. Together, these results indicate that amphipathic helices play a previously unrecognised role in RHD membrane curvature stabilisation. This work paves the way towards full structure determination of Yop1p by solution state NMR and marks the first high structural resolution study on an RHD protein.

Keywords: Endoplasmic reticulum
NMR
Yop1p
reticulon
membrane proteins
nuclear magnetic resonance
amphipathic helix
DP1
tubular ER
Advisor: Schnell, J
The segregated lambda-coalescent

We study a natural generalization of the Λ-coalescent to a spatial continuum. We introduce the process, which is known as the Segregated Λ-coalescent, via its connections to the (non-spatial) Λ-coalescent and the Spatial Λ-Fleming-Viot process.
The main new results contained in this thesis are as follows. The Segregated Λ-coalescent has a non-trivial construction which we present here in terms of stochastic flows. We describe the qualitative behaviour of the Segregated Λ-coalescent and compare it to the behaviour of the Λ-coalescent, showing in particular that the Segregated Λ-coalescent has an extra phase transition which is directly related to the introduction of space. We finish with some results concerning the rate at which the Segregated Λ-coalescent comes down from infinity.

Keywords: Coalescent
Probability
Population
Advisor: Hambly, B
Targeting efficiency and take-up of Oportunidades, a conditional cash transfer, in urban Mexico in 2008

Oportunidades is a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) that uses a proxy means-test targeting model to select eligible households for the programme. According to the Income and Expenditure Household Survey of 2008, approximately two in every three eligible rural households participate in Oportunidades, whereas only one in every three eligible urban households receives the Oportunidades cash transfer. This research explores the factors behind this lack of take-up, the costs of participation and the implications of targeting inefficiency on the programme’s impact on income poverty. It argues that a sample selection model is a pertinent tool of analysis as it informs on the distribution of cash transfers conditional on household eligibility. This conditional distribution is also used to understand the costs of participation as a latent variable. Eligible households are less likely to invest in human capital and neither the cash transfer nor the income forgone by children and teenagers are sufficient to overcome these costs of participation. By identifying a method to quantify behavioural change of households, I associate the costs of participation to the difficulties of inducing health-related behavioural change among recipients and eligible non-recipients. At an aggregate state level, targeting inefficiency is not fully explained by only looking at the budget constraints of the programme. In fact, targeting efficiency is positively associated to aggregate behavioural change and negatively associated to aggregate costs for participation at state level. Yet, targeting efficiency does not guarantee impact on income poverty and Oportunidades’ highest impact on income poverty also associated with the inclusion of non-eligible households in the programme. This research reconsiders the importance of the context in which CCTs are implemented and informs on the conflicting aims of CCTs: providing income poverty relief via cash transfers and incentivizing behavioural change by conditioning the cash transfer in health and education investment.

Keywords: health
social policy
education
human capital
income poverty
conditional cash transfers
children
Advisor: Walker, R
The syntax and prosody of interrogatives: evidence from varieties spoken in northern Italy

The vast majority of work on question formation examines interrogatives from the perspective of just one single component of grammar, usually the syntax or the prosody. The present dissertation offers a comprehensive account of question formation addressing both the syntax and the prosody of interrogatives and the interaction between these two components of grammar in signalling the question meaning of an utterance.
The present work examines question formation on the basis of four genealogically related and geographically closely located Romance varieties spoken in northern Italy: Gherdëina, Badiot, Fascian and Nònes. Given that these varieties differ only with respect to certain microparametric values whereas others remain constant, they constitute an ideal research area to study the interaction between the syntax and the prosody in question formation. The syntactic and prosodic analyses proposed are based on new empirical data. The syntactic analysis is couched within the cartographic approach and the prosodic analysis is based on Autosegmental-Metrical Phonology.
This dissertation is motivated by five main research goals:
to provide a detailed description of the syntactic variation found in interrogatives in the four varieties Gherdëina, Badiot, Fascian and Nònes based on data collected by the author;
to propose a unified syntactic analysis of the interrogatives;
to offer a prosodic analysis of statements and questions providing new data from varieties not studied up to now in the literature;
to establish the relation between the syntax and the prosody in question formation;
to determine how the syntax and the prosody interact in providing clues to interrogative force for the listener as well as the speaker.
The main conclusions are as follows: The syntactic structure and the intonational tune are autonomous in question formation. Three aspects matter for interrogative clause typing: (i) syntactic marking, (ii) prosodic marking and (iii) tune-text-alignment.

Keywords: Dolomitic Ladin
syntax
interrogation
prosody
interrogatives
Advisor: Lahiri, A
Hoge, K
Characterisation of nuclear sub-structures

When living cells are lysed in non-ionic detergents and 2M NaCl, structures are released that resemble nuclei, termed nucleoids. Nucleoids contain tenaciously attached DNA, RNA and protein. The nature of the interactions of these components is poorly understood.
It is known that the DNA is attached to these structures in a looped configuration, and newly synthesised DNA is found closely associated with the attachment sites. Therefore, the speculation that these attachment sites have a functional signification other than for structural purposes has been seriously considered.
To investigate these possibilities, the proteins were characterised for DNA binding activity, and the presence of any enzymatic activity. Some of the nucleoid proteins are derived from the cell surface, and specific phosphorylating and methylating activities were also detected. The significance of these findings remains to be determined. The study of the DNA-binding activity is hampered by the fact that these proteins are not readily solubilised away from the nucleic acids. However, DNA-binding proteins are present in nucleoids. No specificity for DNA sequences was demonstrable, using the protein blotting technique. In the course of these studies, a new technique was devised to enable sequence-binding proteins to be identified.
Examination of the DNA close to thl attachment sites shows it to be enriched in transcriptionally active genes, and in a given population of cells, some genes are closer to the attachment sites than others. This supports the idea that genes are specifically arranged within the nucleus of any cell, and that this position is of functional significance. Direct examination of the most closely adherent DNA to these structures did not reveal any one DNA sequence that may mediate attachment.

Advisor: Cook, P
Anaerobic treatment of a metalworking fluid and overcoming the toxic effects on the biodegradation process

Metalworking fluids (MWFs) are petroleum emulsions employed for metal machining processes as coolants and lubricants. To date, they have been irreplaceable in modern heavy and manufacturing industries, with annual usage exceeding two billion litres worldwide. However, the large amount of MWFs, the highly concentrated complex recalcitrant and toxic petroleum components contained in them continue to cause significant concern in terms of sustainable routes of end-of-life treatment and disposal. Compared with other treatment methods, the anaerobic treatment method has significant advantages, such as the low capital, operating and maintenance costs and energy recovery. This latter factor has the potential benefit of generating bio-energy from waste organic matter whilst aerobic route leads to CO2 emission. However, the bio-toxicity of MWFs is a huge challenge in terms of employing bio-treatment of waste MWFs. In this study, the anaerobic biodegradability of a typical MWF was investigated employing an activated sludge experimental system. Furthermore, the toxic effects of the MWF on the anaerobic ecosystem, particularly on methanogen species, were investigated using bio-molecular analytical methods and a biosensor. In order to overcome its toxicity, the indigenous anaerobic bacteria isolated from spent MWFs were employed in the treatment of the MWF since they were assumed to be acclimated to the conditions. The major findings include: (1) approximately 80% of the MWF (5,000mgCOD/L) was found to be anaerobically biodegradable, with around 35% of the biodegraded COD could be converted to methane; (2) the MWF appeared to be toxic to the anaerobic ecosystem, especially to methanogen species; and (3) however, treatment employing the anaerobic bacteria successfully reduced the toxicity of the MWF and enhanced the methane production in the process.

Keywords: Metalworking fluids-Microbial diversity-Anaerobic Degreadation
Advisor: Thompson, I
Myth and truth in some odes of Pindar

The main part of this thesis is a survey of Pindar's treatment, in his epinicians, of myths involving the mythological family of the Aiakids. I establish what may be known of Pindar's sources for these stories, and then compare his own accounts. I consider (together with some minor incidents) Aiakos' assist- ance in building the walls of Troy; Phokos' murder; Peleus' experience with Hippolyta and Akastos, and his marriage to Thetis; Telamon's participation in Herakles' expedition against Troy; Achilles' infancy, his combats against Telephos, Kyknos, Hektor and Memnon, and his own fate; Aias' birth and suicide; and finally the story of Neoptolemos' visit to Delphi (chapters 1-7). My major conclusion is that his versions of these myths are more firmly grounded in the mythological tradition than is widely believed: they are constantly allusive, and contain little innovation. What changes there are may be ascribed to a broad rationalizing tendency, rather than to sophisticated poetic purposes. Pindar seems to prefer lesser known, often locally preserved, strands of tradition, but is concerned to produce authoritative accounts of them. The defensive tone of N. 7 may be satisfactorily explained by his care to produce such an account from confused and undignified material; the poem does not contain an apology for a hostile treatment of Neo- ptolemos in Pae.6. In chapter 8, I confirm my conclusions by examining three difficult cases: the myths of P. 3, O.I, and the break-off from the first myth of 0. 9. These examples confirm that traditional material has intrinsic value in epinician, and suggest the conclusion that the explication of a paradeigmatic relation between myth and victory is not the only valid explan- ation of the function of myth in Pindar. Myth may also serve to provide a publicly acceptable warrant for the praise of the victor.