Over the last several years, new transportation service business platforms like Uber and Lyft have appeared in cities across the U.S. Since these new business models do not fit into existing regulatory and policy frameworks, and their entrance into markets is typically abrupt and sometimes illegal, these companies, which have come to be known as transportation network companies (TNCs), provoke city governance actors and the public to react in many different ways. Some cities take a free market approach, while others opt toward heavy handed regulation. In addition to policy action, there is a great deal of policy narrative swirling around these services and their place in existing mobility systems. There is wide variation in the dominant stories or narratives that emerge about TNCs when they suddenly enter a metropolitan market. Said narratives about these mobility providers also evolve as the companies continually operate in different cities. Some stories are thematically tied to specific interest groups and others seem to originate as a result of specific contextual nuances or incidents that occur. Sometimes stories originate in the context of local, state or national political backdrops and discourse. This dissertation argues that stories emerge in the context of urban regime characteristics. Using urban regime theory along with Mark Bevir and R.A.W. Rhodes decentered theory of governance, I will look at TNC operation in four U.S. cities: Indianapolis, IN, Austin, TX, Portland, OR, and Washington, DC. This dissertation explores the ways in which narratives emerge and change around TNCs, how those narratives are influenced by existing urban regime dynamics, and how they influence policy making. / PHD / Over the last several years, private sector mobility companies like Uber and Lyft have started operating in cities across the U.S. Despite the fact that these companies provide services that already exist with more traditional transportation providers (such as taxi cabs) and their business models are very rote and consistent across locations, city policy actors respond to them in many different ways. There is also wide variation in the sorts of stories or narratives that develop when these companies deploy and operate in different cities. Those stories sometimes reflect local political nuances and characteristics. Using urban regime theory along with Mark Bevir and R.A.W. Rhodes decentered theory of governance, I will use this research to explore the ways in which narratives emerge and change around TNCs in four cities: Indianapolis, IN, Austin, TX, Portland, OR, and Washington, DC. I will look at how those narratives are influenced by existing local nuances, coalitions and characteristics, and how they might influence policy making and responses in those places.

This research investigates whether Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Lyft, live up to their stated vision of reducing congestion by complementing transit and reducing car ownership in major cities. The objective of this research study is to answer the question: are TNCs are correlated to traffic congestion in the city of San Francisco? If found to be so, do they increase or decrease traffic congestion for the case of San Francisco? If and how TNC pickups and drop-offs impact traffic congestion within San Francisco? And finally, how does the magnitude of this measured command of TNCs on congestion compare to that caused by pre-existing conventional drivers of traffic and congestion change? Apart from answering these questions, it is also sought to establish a framework to be able to include TNCs, a seemingly fledgling mode of transportation but one that is demonstrably shaping and modifying extant transportation and mode choice trends, as part of the travel demand models estimated by any geographic jurisdiction. Traffic congestion has worsened noticeably in San Francisco and other major cities over the past few years. Part of this change could reasonably be explained by strong economic growth or other standard factors such as road and transit network changes. The sharp increase in travel times and congestion also corresponds to the emergence of TNCs, raising the question of whether the two trends may be related. Existing research has produced conflicting results and been hampered by a lack of data. Using data scraped from the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) of two TNCs, combined with observed travel time data, this research finds that contrary to their vision, TNCs are the biggest contributor to growing traffic congestion in San Francisco. Between 2010 and 2016, weekday vehicle hours of delay increased by 62%, compared to 22% in a counterfactual 2016 scenario without TNCs. The findings provide insight into expected changes in major cities as TNCs continue to grow, informing decisions about how to integrate TNCs into the existing transportation system. This research also decomposes the contributors to increased congestion in San Francisco between 2010 and 2016, considering contributions from five incremental effects: road and transit network changes, population growth, employment growth, TNC volumes, and the effect of TNC pick-ups and Drop-offs. It is so done through a series of controlled travel demand model runs, supplemented with observed TNC data. The results show that road and transit network changes over this period have only a small effect on congestion, population and employment growth are important contributors, and that TNCs are the biggest contributor to growing congestion over this period, contributing about half of the increase in vehicle hours of delay, and adding to worsening travel time reliability. This research contradicts several studies that suggest TNCs may reduce congestion and adds evidence in support of a recent empirical analysis showing that their net effect is to increase congestion. This research gives transportation planners a better understanding of the causes of growing congestion, allowing them to more effectively craft strategies to mitigate or adapt to it.

The study addresses the outward cross-border linking of the Swedish economy and its most important transnational corporations during the 20th century. It explores the aggregate level of Swedish industry, and most importantly, the firm level of a group of eight long-standing transnational corporations, which during the post-1945 period represented roughly half of Sweden’s foreign industrial activity in terms of employment, e.g., Alfa Laval, ASEA, Ericsson, Sandvik, SKF, AGA, Electrolux and Atlas Copco. Since most of these corporations existed already a century ago it was possible to explore their historical trajectories within the general process of globalization. Hence, the study contributes to the testing of the globalization thesis with a small, open, developed economy as the point of reference. Based on aggregate national data and data on levels of foreign activity of Swedish transnational corporations the study presents a phase model of globalization, identifying first an ‘initial phase’ of globalization from ca 1871 to 1929, second a ‘stagnation phase’ (1930-1949), then a third ‘expansion phase’ (1950-1979) and finally, a ‘highlight of globalization’ phase, beginning in 1980 and continuing into the 21st century. In order to gain deeper insights into the historical process of Sweden’s outward economic linking it then looked in more detail at the eight firms mentioned above. Employing a quantitative formal model of foreign corporate activity, the study focusses on changes in the relative magnitude of foreign employment and sales (‘intensity’) and on the geographical distribution of foreign subsidiaries (‘extensity’). The two former categories are combined into an ‘index of transnationality’, which serves as a principal analytical tool for uncovering long-term change. The study concludes that for Swedish industry and its largest transnational corporations the term globalization represents more of a historical, continuous long-term trend than an exclusively contemporary development. In fact, the only period in time when we see a general stagnation in the positive trends was 1930-1945. Moreover, the study found at least two periods of rapid outward linking on the part of some of the most important Swedish corporations, apart from the current one, that is, the decade and a half preceding World War I and the 1960s. Nevertheless, levels of relative magnitude of activity abroad and of geographical spread attained by Swedish industry and its transnational corporations during the last two decades, were in many respects unprecedented. Findings on the variations in the actual pace of globalization during the whole 20th century demonstrated firstly, that positive change in geographical spread of the group of long-standing transnational corporations proceeded at an increasing pace when calculated in absolute terms. For the 1960-1999 period, the existence of positive long-term trends in the magnitude of both foreign sales and foreign employment were discovered. Also, there was an acceleration of the pace at which foreign sales increased over time, when calculated in absolute terms.

The 1990s have seen an extraordinary growth industry in books and articles about globalization. However, far too much of this material has reinforced the message that globalization is an unstoppable force sweeping away national sovereignty and inevitably creating a brave new world of borderless and boundless consumerism. This essay in view of political economics to realize globalization influence, especially for ¡¥Labour Rights¡¦. Because of neo-liberalism¡¦s globalization is expanding the disparity between the rich and the poor. For International Labour Organization(ILO) describes:¡uglobalization increasing unemployment rate ,a growing proportion of structural unemployment ,a growth of new jobs which for an important part are non-standard jobs(such as contract labour)¡v.The impact of globalization on labour and Trade Unions, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) argued that Trade Unions have declined. Besides, labour class has divided from ¡¥peripheral employees¡¦ and ¡¥core employees¡¦. The former to represent unskilled workers , their wage lower and job easy to replace by foreign labour. Globalization creating a crowd of migrant workers, their labour rights needs to protect. Foreign workers to leave their own country to earn a living, they are new industrial reserve army. Because their jobs belong to¡u3D¡v(dirty,dangerous,difficult). They replace peripheral employees by lower wages and bad work conditions. ILO argued must to protect. Foreign workers, because they are minimum labour standards. From this essay viewpoint, Globalization to influence global labour rights. The state, International Organization(ILO,ICFTU),transnational corporation (TNCs) are leading roles. The state to play a decisive role, because the state can use policy and laws to protect labour rights¡F ILO to play a core role from protect labour rights issue, specially its International Labour Standard (ILS,1998)¡FTNCs to play a free-will role, likes anti-sweatshop movement and corporation social responsibility (CSR). From the whole viewpoint, this essay focuses on globalization and labour rights. This article to believe globalization change labour rights, because labour migration increasing. And in the new times, leading roles will hold new influence. Taiwan in this wave of globalization wills how to suit, especially foreign workers issue.

What does the global situation look like after the end of Cold War? To the scholars on the international politics, what they put focus on is the establishment of global order and the configuration of the international society. Compared with the situation during the Cold War era, the changes of political conflicts, development of technology and the nature of human culture have been getting intense and frequent in the past ten years. The main trend of international relationship is the move toward global integration, and that gradually replaces the notion of putting the nation on the center of issues. The importance of transnational units and un-military forces is getting more impressive and powerful. As a result, besides nations, many non-nation units gradually occupy the global stage. The words like non-governmental organizations, transnational corporations and transnational financial institution all become popular in the post- Cold War era as well. That the occurrence of these non-nations stands for the collapse of the boundary of nations has caused impact on the international system consisting of sovereign nations, and the result the impact might cause is the main issue of global change and globalization. What foreseeable is that nations aren¡¦t the sole unit of global politics anymore. The activities of international non-governmental organizations have gradually affected the foreign policy-making of these nations; the expansion of transnational corporations has also directly influenced the change of global economy. Meanwhile, with the move of capitals these transnational corporations need, the role played by the global financial institution deserves more attention. In this dissertation, the words, globalization and globalism, will be properly defined and reviewed. Then, on the basis of understanding the birth of sovereignty and nations, I will discuss the operational rules and the essential parts of nations. Finally, what impact the nations will face in the process of globalization will be analyzed

Выпускная квалификационная работа (магистерская диссертация) посвящена исследованию развитию транснациональных корпораций в современном этапе. Цель выпускной квалификационной работы – исследовать особенности развитие транснациональных корпораций в современном этапе. Объектом исследования выступают транснациональная компания Huawei. Предметом исследования в данной работе выступает факторы, влияющие на функционирование транснациональных корпораций. / Final qualifying work (master's thesis) is devoted to the study of the development of transnational corporations at the present stage. The purpose of the final qualifying work is to study the features of the development of transnational corporations in the modern stage. The object of the research is the transnational company Huawei. The subject of the study in this paper is the factors affecting the functioning of transnational corporations.

Advances in transportation and communication have resulted in the ease of migration of people across transnational borders and the internationalisation of business organisations. These events have brought about changing workforce demographics, intense global competition, and the quest for talents across the world. These trends have made workforce diversity inevitable for transnational companies (TNCs). TNCs operating in Nigeria face a peculiar problem as there are two layers of ethnic diversity created by the country’s enormous diversity. The task of managing the layers of diversity is complicated by the weak legal and institutional provisions for the management of diversity in public and private firms. Also, there is a general lack of awareness about diversity and inclusion (D&I) in Nigeria; hence, the field has received scant attention from academics and practitioners. This study explored the D&I policies and strategies adopted by selected subsidiaries of TNCs in Nigeria and describes ethnic minority employee perception of D&I policies and the effects these policies have on performance at the individual and team levels. To achieve these objectives, it aims to provide answers to two research questions: “What are the organisational policies and strategies that enhance diversity and the inclusion of ethnic minority employees in TNCs; and how do D&I policies and strategies impact the performance of individuals and groups within the organisation?” The study adopted the exploratory mixed-methods design to collect qualitative and quantitative data for analysis. The qualitative data included the primary and secondary sources; and involved semi-structured interviews with six senior managers in four subsidiaries of TNCs and documentary analysis. While the quantitative data involved a survey of 133 employees across the four participating companies. The reflexive thematic analysis method was used to analyse the qualitative data, leading to the generation of themes; while the quantitative data were analysed using the descriptive statistical technique. Findings reveal the presence of varying degrees of D&I initiatives among the participating organisations, ranging from well-articulated and established programmes in one company to medium range policies in two companies, and no initiatives in one company. Findings also suggest a high level of inclusion of ethnic minority employees at the group or team level and a low inclusion at the top management level. Also, participants generally report a positive perception of the relationship between workforce D&I and performance at both the individual and team level. Some of the variables used to indicate inclusion are access to information, participation in group activities, membership of informal networks, participation in decision-making and participation in meeting with supervisor and senior management. Similarly, some of the performance variables include creativity, innovation, timely completion of tasks and quality of work output. Finally, the findings from the study contributed to filling the gap in the literature as well as empirically highlighting the D&I policies operational in TNCs in Nigeria. The study recommends that diversity policy-makers pay attention to the additional layer of diversity while developing global policies for a more inclusive organisational environment. This study has provided valuable insights into the policies and practices as well as employee perception of diversity in light of the dearth of studies from the Nigerian context. Despite some inherent limitations, it serves as a starting point that could ignite the interest of other researchers and practitioners in the fields of diversity. / Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund)

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

<p dir="ltr">Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) have increased significantly over the last decade, changing the urban mobility dynamics by shifting people from other modes of transportation, potentially affecting safety. While TNC companies promised to enhance urban mobility with more convenient end-to-end services, they were found to contribute to externalities like traffic congestion and safety issues. A deeper analysis is required to test the promise of TNC services and their impacts on cities. This study investigated the safety implications of the surge of TNC services in New York City (NYC) from 2017 to 2019. Specifically, we analyzed the changes in traffic safety performances using surrogate safety measures (SSMs) from 2017 to 2019 based on large-scale GPS trajectories generated by TNC vehicles in NYC.</p><p dir="ltr">This research utilized the twenty-eight days of high-quality and large-scale GPS-based trajectories of Uber vehicles to determine the critical surrogate safety measures (SSMs). To determine the potential traffic conflict and safety from SSMs, this research determined the SSMs based on evasive actions. In addition, this research also utilized real-world historical crash events, traffic flow, road conditions, land use, and congestion index to explore the relationship between critical SSMs and accidents. Additionally, this research extends to assess the socioeconomic inequalities from the perspective of increased TNCs and accidents.</p><p dir="ltr">Our findings indicate a significant increase in critical SSM events such as harsh braking and jerking citywide. These increases are particularly pronounced during off-peak hours and in peripheral areas of Manhattan and transportation hubs. Moreover, we observed stronger correlations between SSMs of TNC vehicles and injury/motorist accidents, compared to those involving pedestrians and cyclists. Despite the evident deterioration in SSMs, we noticed that the overall number of accidents in NYC from 2017 to 2019 has remained relatively stable possibly due to the reduction of traffic speeds. As such, a clustering analysis was conducted to unfold the nuanced patterns of SSMs/accident changes. Also, we find the existence of inequality in the increase in accidents and critical SSMs, and Manhattan is higher in inequality, especially in upper Manhattan. Moreover, individuals disadvantaged from low socioeconomic status and those living in deprived areas are experiencing more inequality from accidents and critical SSMs due to increased TNCs and accidents. This research enriches the understanding of how TNC services impact urban traffic safety. The findings of this research may help to get a holistic understanding of the road safety situations due to increased TNCs and accidents and help the policymakers and authorities to make informed decisions to develop a transportation system prioritizing all road users. Additionally, the methodology employed can be adapted for broader traffic safety applications or real-time monitoring of traffic safety performances using anonymous GPS trajectory segments.</p>

A reprogramação nuclear de uma célula somática a um estado embrionário tem diversas aplicações, como pesquisas básicas na biologia do desenvolvimento, terapia celular, melhoramento genético em animais de produção e conservação de espécies. As principais técnicas utilizadas para a reprogramação nuclear são a transferência nuclear de células somáticas (TNCS) e a geração de células tronco pluripotente induzidas (iPS). Muitos trabalhos têm mostrado uma baixa eficiência no processo de reprogramação nuclear nas duas técnicas, além disso, modificações epigenéticas tem sido apontada como a principal barreira para uma reprogramação nuclear eficiente. Por esse motivo, medidas como a utilização de células menos diferenciadas e/ou alteração do perfil epigenético das células somáticas podem aumentar a eficiência destas técnicas. Por isso, o objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar a influência de marcas epigenéticas em células bovinas utilizadas na reprogramação nuclear mediada por TNCS ou superexpressão de genes relacionados a pluripotêcia (iPS). Para isso, utilizamos 3 abordagens. Primeiro, analisamos marcações epigenéticas relacionadas ao desenvolvimento embrionário e pluripotência (H3K9me2, H3K9me3, H3K9ac, 5mC e 5hmC) em diferentes tipos celulares, analisamos a expressão gênica de genes responsáveis por essas marcações em células de diferentes tecidos (ex. células tronco mesenquimais (MSC) e fibroblastos) e as utilizamos como doadoras de núcleo na TNCS. Na segunda e a terceira abordagem, utilizamos células com menores níveis de H3K9me2 para a geração de iPS e na TNCS, respectivamente. Além disso, por se mostrar eficiente na TNCS, analisamos o efeito da sincronização do ciclo celular por privação de soro fetal bovino (SFB) na geração de células iPS. Com o intuito de diminuir os níveis de H3K9me2, as células foram tratadas com UNC0638, um inibidor especifico das metiltransferases de histona G9a/GLP. Nossos resultados do primeiro experimento mostraram que as MSC podem ser utilizadas como doadoras de núcleo na TNCS, no entanto, mesmo com algumas diferenças na expressão gênica em relação aos fibroblastos, a produção de blastocistos não foi diferente entre as duas células. No segundo experimento, as células privadas de SFB geraram mais colônias que as células controle, enquanto que as células tratadas não apresentaram diferença. Por último, as células tratadas com o UNC0638 apresentaram um menor nível de metilação no DNA em zigotos em relação às células controle. Os resultados encontrados neste trabalho podem contribuir para o melhor entendimento dos mecanismos epigenéticos envolvidos na reprogramação nuclear de bovinos / Nuclear reprogramming of somatic cells to embryonic state has several aplications, such as basic research on developmental biology, cell therapy, genetic improvement in livestock animals and preservation of endangered species. The principal techniques utilized to achieve nuclear reprogramming are Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) and induced pluripotency. Several works has reported low efficiency rates of nuclear reprogramming when these techniques are used to reprogram somatic cells. Moreover, epigenetic modifications acquired during development act as epigenetic barrier to the complete reprogramming process. For this reason, strategies such as use of less differentiated cells and/or modification of epigenetic profile of somatic cells might increase the efficiency these techniques. The objective of this work was investigate the influence of epigenetic marks in bovine cells utilized on nuclear reprogramming experiments mediated by SCNT or induced pluripotency. To investigate it, we used three approaches. First, we analyzed the epigenetic marks related to the embryonic development and pluripotency (e.g H3K9me2, H3K9me3, H3K9ac, 5mC and 5hmC), gene expression of genes involved in these epigenetic marks in different tissues (i.e. mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and fibroblasts) and their use as nuclear donor cells on SCNT procedure. Regarding the second and the third approach, we utilized cells with reduced levels of H3K9me2 to generate iPS cells and cloned embryos, respectively. Furthermore, since serum starvation has been demonstrated increase SCNT developmental rates, we assessed the effect of cell cycle synchronization mediated by serum starvation on nuclear reprogramming using iPS cells. Aiming decrease the levels of H3K9me2, cells were treated with UNC0638, a chemical probe that works as a specific inhibitor of the histone methyltransferases G9a and its counterpartner GLP. Our results showed that MSC are suitable to be used as nuclear donors on SCNT procedures, however, in spite of differences on gene expression comparing with fibroblasts, the embryonic developmental rates were not improved. On the second experiment, cells privated of fetal calf serum produced more iPS cells colonies than control cells, whereas cells treated with UNC did not show differences when compared with untreated cells. Lastly, UNC treated donor cells treated produced cloned zygotes with lower levels of DNA methylation compared to zygotes derivated from untreated cells. The results presented here will contribute to the better understanding of the epigenetic mechanisms involved on bovine nuclear reprogramming