VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Teachers’ implementation of translanguaging in EFL classrooms: a systematic review
Keywords: English language teaching
systematic review
English as a foreign language
translanguaging

The theory of translanguaging has been widely discussed in the field of applied linguistics both as a model to describe bilingualism and as a pedagogy. It seems promising to implement pedagogical translanguaging in various types of lessons and contexts, but little is known about the impact of pedagogical translanguaging in English language teaching (ELT) classrooms on English language proficiency among learners who learn English as a foreign language (EFL).
This systematic review aimed to provide a synthesis of the approaches that have been assessed for effectiveness in EFL classrooms and the effects of these approaches on substantive outcomes. A systematic process of searching and selecting the literature found 10 empirical studies eligible for synthesis. Data were extracted and the risk of bias of the included studies was assessed. Data were synthesised using narrative synthesis.
Results showed that pedagogical translanguaging was more frequently used to teach EFL reading and writing than vocabulary, grammar, speaking and listening. Five studies favoured the translanguaging group but four of them were rated as having high risk of bias. The rest of the studies, which involved two high-quality studies, either found no statistically significant difference between translanguaging and English-only groups or favoured the translanguaging group in only a small number of measures. The included studies showed that pedagogical translanguaging was potentially helpful in teaching some features of English grammar and writing, but the persistence of these effects was largely unexplored. Altogether, there were insufficient well-designed and wellconducted studies in EFL contexts to support the claim that pedagogical translanguaging is beneficial.
Teachers are advised to reflect on their current ELT pedagogies and are encouraged to try new approaches, including pedagogical translanguaging. However, teachers should be aware that the effects of pedagogical translanguaging on English language proficiency have been inconclusive. Researchers and teacher educators need to help teachers understand the theory of pedagogical translanguaging and interpret the findings of empirical studies.
Public policies for reducing violence, with particular reference to youth violence in Colombia
Keywords: Youth violence
Public policies
Colombia

Violence and especially violence perpetrated by youth is a political concern in many countries. However, little is known about which policies are effective to reduce it. This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis on the subject with particular reference to violence and youth violence in Colombia. Chapter one offers an overview of the relationship between politics, public policies and youth violence; chapter two provides an international account on violence and youth violence and on the effectiveness of some of the most significant public policies in place; chapter three analyses violence in Colombia, its main explanations and how youth participate in violent crime; finally, chapter four examines the most relevant public policies to reduce violence associated with youth in Colombia, both at the national and local level. The thesis challenges some of the traditional perceptions on youth violence, examines the most important public policies on the subject and suggests some criteria for interventions to reduce youth violence. It concludes that violence committed by youth worldwide is relatively low and there is no basis for asserting that youth violence has increased. It also highlights that there is insufficient knowledge on the effectiveness of most public policies in place to reduce youth violence, though much has been learned on the subject.
Exploring linguistic relativity: the effect of the French grammatical gender system on bilingual adults’ perception of objects

Keywords: Linguistic Relativity
Psycholinguistics
French Language
Experiment
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Quantitative
Bilingualism and Cognition
Second Language Acquisition
Grammatical Gender System
Bilingualism
Language and Perception

A growing body of literature on linguistic relativity (the hypothesis that language influences thoughts) has been focusing on whether there is an effect of the grammatical gender system on perception (Bassetti & Nicoladis, 2016; Lambelet, 2016; Samuel et al., 2019). Evidence suggests that there is an effect of the gender system on perception of both monolinguals and bilinguals (Bassetti & Nicoladis, 2016). However, the findings are potentially limited due to certain methodological limitations (Samuel et al., 2019), for example, the lack of L2 proficiency testing (Bassetti, 2007). Thus, attempting to apply a more rigorous methodology, this study aims to assess the potential effect of the French grammatical gender system on French speakers’ and learners’ perceptions of object gender. The study involved 140 participants, divided into four groups (N = 35 per group): English monolinguals, French monolinguals, English-French (English-dominant) bilinguals, and French-English (French-dominant) bilinguals. An online experiment was distributed to participants, including a background information questionnaire, English and French vocabulary tests, and a voice distribution task. Quantitative data were analysed using multi-level modelling. Follow-up open-ended question data were coded and analysed using chi-squared tests. The results supported linguistic relativity: The French grammatical gender system affected the perception of French monolinguals and English- dominant bilinguals. The effect of French on French-dominant bilinguals was not reduced by the acquisition of English and seemed to be independent of L2 proficiency. Additional findings included the potential tendency of French to introduce gender biases (stereotypical association between objects and gender, resulting from the grammatical gender system). The present study adds supporting evidence to the relativity debate by attempting to apply rigour by utilising a pilot study, a robust sample size, pertinent control items, L2 proficiency testing, and advanced data analysis tools. Pedagogically, findings highlight the need to emphasise the discrepancies between students’ potential preconceived perceptions and the rules of the L2 grammar when teaching an L2 with a different grammatical gender system to L1. The study also shed new light on whether gendered languages draw out potential gender stereotypes among bilinguals.
How do they really feel? An investigation into attitudes towards bilingual education in California
Keywords: Bilingualism
Proposition 227
Bilingual Education
Language Attitudes
ELL
Proposition 58
California

Although California is home to many bilingual education programs, legislation in the state has not always been supportive of effective bilingual education. Proposition 227, which passed in 1998, eliminated most bilingual education programs, but was effectively repealed in 2016 with the passing of Proposition 58. Although this change in legislation may indicate that underlying attitudes towards bilingual education have become more positive, research suggests that may not be the case. To investigate Californian attitudes towards bilingual education, the present study evaluated overall attitudes; the impact of demographic variables such as age, multilingual status, and experience of an ESL/Bilingual program; and how attitudes towards bilingual education may be related. Involving a questionnaire with both close-ended attitudinal items and open-ended free response questions, a mixed methods approach was used. This involved statistical analysis of attitudinal items and content analysis of free response questions from 132 Californians over the age of 18. The results of the study suggest that attitudes towards bilingual education in California are generally positive but that both age and multilingual status influenced how individuals felt about some aspects of bilingual education. Additionally, various attitudes towards bilingualism were found to have predictive relationships, indicating that many individuals have conflicting opinions about the goals and effects of bilingual education. Findings of the present study suggest a need to continue to evaluate bilingual education attitudes in California to educate the public to make informed decisions when they vote for future legislation.
Greybox automatic exploit generation for heap overflows in language interpreters
Keywords: program synthesis
memory allocator
exploit
exploit generation
vulnerability

This dissertation addresses the problem of automatic exploit generation for heap based buffer overflows in language interpreters. Language interpreters are ubiquitous within modern software, embedded in everything from web browsers, to anti-virus engines, to cloud computing platforms, and, within interpreters, heap-based buffer overflows are a common source of vulnerability. Automatic exploit generation for such vulnerabilities is a largely open problem.
In the past decade, greybox methods that combine large scale input generation with feedback from instrumentation have proven themselves to be the most successful approach to detecting many types of software vulnerabilities. Despite this, prior to the start of my research they had not been a significant component of exploit generation systems. Greybox approaches are attractive as they tend to scale far better than whitebox approaches when applied to large software. However, end-to-end exploit generation is too complex and multi-faceted a task to approach with a single greybox solution. During my research I have analysed the exploit generation problem for heap-based overflows in language interpreters in order to break it down into a set of logical sub-problems that can be addressed with separate greybox solutions. In this dissertation I present these sub-problems, greybox algorithms for each, and demonstrate how the solutions for the sub-problems can be combined to generate an exploit. The most significant of the sub-problems that I address is the heap layout problem, for which I provide a detailed analysis, two different greybox solutions, and methods for integrating solutions to this problem into both manual and automatic exploit generation.
The presented algorithms form the first approach to automatic exploit generation for heap overflows in interpreters. They also provide the first approach to exploit generation in any class of program that integrates a solution for automatic heap layout manipulation. At the core of the approach is a novel method for discovering exploit primitives—inputs to the target program that result in a sensitive operation, such as a function call or a memory write, using attacker-injected data. To produce an exploit primitive from a heap overflow vulnerability, one has to discover a target data structure to corrupt, ensure an instance of that data structure is adjacent to the source of the overflow on the heap, and ensure that the post-overflow corrupted data is used in a manner desired by the attacker. I present solutions to address these three tasks in an automatic, greybox, and modular manner.
Kuwait and the Palestinian national struggle, 1956–1974
Keywords: Palestinian National Struggle
Kuwait Diplomatic History
Kuwait Foreign Policy
Kuwaiti-Palestinian Relations

This thesis seeks to explore, analyze and interpret Kuwait’s unique role in supporting the Palestinian national struggle in relation to the country’s foreign policy drivers. It posits Kuwait’s existential threat from Iraq and its geographic remoteness from the frontlines of the Arab–Israeli conflict as key geopolitical factors that shaped Kuwait’s policies toward the Palestinian cause. It also examines internal dynamics—namely the concentration of a large cadre of Palestinian professionals and a pan-Arab oriented population—that contributed to steering the country’s particular engagement and attitude in support of the Palestinian national struggle.
Spatial and molecular characterisation of the cellular niches interacting with intra-embryonic haemato-endothelial progenitors
Keywords: endothelial cells
developmental haematopoiesis
cell signalling
haematopoietic stem cells
developmental biology

Haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are self-renewing cells sustaining production of the adult blood system throughout life. The entire pool of HSCs is produced during embryonic development, from a specialised arterial endothelium primarily in the dorsal aorta (DA). There is increasing evidence that blood fate is specified during mesoderm patterning, at a restricted anterior-posterior (A/P) embryonic position, before emergence of the first HSCs. Although essential when aiming to produce HSCs in vitro from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), and for a complete understanding of HSC production, little is known about the signalling pathways and molecular mechanisms instructing a blood cell identity in mesodermal haemato-endothelial progenitors (HEPs). I have studied the microenvironment supporting some of the earliest haematopoietic specification mechanisms in 2 different ways. First, as intra-embryonic HEPs and intermediate mesoderm (IM)- derived mesonephric duct share restricted A/P co-ordinates, I differentiated human PSCs in culture conditions known to support the development of the mesonephric duct and permissive for endothelial differentiation. I report production of KDR+ endothelial progenitors in PAX8+ IM niches and their differentiation towards CD144+DLL4+ arterial endothelium. Testing four haemogenic induction regimes did not reproducibly impart a haematopoietic fate, suggesting our culture conditions were not optimum for initiation or maintenance of a blood cell fate. Secondly, I studied HEPs in their native environment in mouse embryos. After establishing a quantitative, multiplexed single molecule RNA FISH method, I described the complex cellular environment of distinctly located HEPs in the E8.0 mouse embryonic posterior region, including those forming the future DA. To explore how these spatially distinct neighbourhoods might govern blood cell fate acquisition, I generated scRNA-seq data from the same embryonic region and performed cell communication analyses. I identified many classes of signalling critical for HSC emergence, suggesting these signals could function earlier than previously described, and define thrombospondin-CD47 and Cgrp-Calcrl as novel signals for functional validation.
Policy gradient methods for linear quadratic problems
Keywords: optimal execution
bargaining
linear quadratic regulator
reinforcement learning
linear quadratic game
policy gradient methods

The linear quadratic framework is widely studied in the literature on stochastic control and game theory due to its simple structure, the existence of tractable solutions, and its applicability to various real-world problems. In this thesis we provide results on the theoretical convergence of policy gradient methods, which are the basis of many reinforcement learning algorithms, in both single-agent and multi-agent linear quadratic problems.
In the single-agent setting, we show the global convergence of such methods to the optimal solution in the case of known and unknown parameters. In the case of known parameters, the policy gradients can be calculated explicitly; while when the model parameters are unknown, we estimate the gradients from samples using a derivative-free method. We illustrate the performance of policy gradient methods in an optimal liquidation problem and show results for the case where we assume a model for the underlying dynamics and where we apply the method to the data directly.
In the multi-agent linear quadratic game, we show that the policy gradient method enjoys global convergence to the Nash equilibrium provided that there is a certain amount of noise in the system. We give a condition, essentially a lower bound on the covariance of the noise in terms of the model parameters, in order to guarantee convergence. The noise can either come from the underlying dynamics, or carefully designed explorations from the agents. We illustrate our results with numerical experiments to show that even in situations where the policy gradient method may not converge in the deterministic setting, the addition of noise leads to convergence.
The work in the thesis is motivated by bargaining and we conclude the thesis by constructing LQG models for bargaining. We consider the case where model parameters are known to the players while they do not have access to the true state, and where parameters are unknown and players learn the optimal strategy through repeated negotiations. We illustrate performance with numerical experiments.
Mafia expansion to new territories: the 'Ndrangheta in Germany

Keywords: migration
organized crime
mafia

This thesis seeks to explore why and how mafias expand to new territories, and under which conditions they engage in governing activities, such as protection or control of markets, as opposed to trading activities, such as drug trafficking and money laundering. It also tries to understand under which conditions mafias fail to expand across territories. To do so, it tests hypotheses derived from the theory against three case studies documenting the presence of the Calabrian mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, in Germany. The analysis is based on a wide range of hard-to-reach sources, some of which have never been analysed before. This includes judicial data, intelligence reports, archival documents, open-source data, and interviews. Three main findings emerge. First, while migration waves have not pushed mafiosi to migrate, the presence of diaspora communities create structural opportunities for mafiosi to govern, as mafiosi operate at comparatively lower costs within communities of their own compatriots, taking advantage of tightly knit networks of kinship and ethnicity. Second, the presence of policing blind-spots in the new territory enables both governing and trading activities by mafiosi, as they gradually adapt to local conditions following a learning process based on past experience. Thereby, mafiosi remain under the radar of the police and integrate into local communities. Third, moderate levels of trust in the new territory further facilitate mafia entrenchment, ultimately resulting in dynamics of converging interests typical of traditional mafia territories. More generally, the analysis shows that mafia expansion into new territories is not the result of a conscious decision to expand nor a mechanical product of structural conditions but entails a strategic dimension both from the perspective of the criminal group and the state.
Erōs and logos: psychic intercourse and reproduction in Plato’s Phaedrus
Keywords: erotic love
Plato
philosophy
eros
logos
the Phaedrus

What is the relation between ἔρως and λόγος in the Phaedrus? I explore the metaphor of psychic reproduction—often discussed in reference to other dialogues, such as the Symposium and Theaetetus—in the Phaedrus, extending it to include psychic intercourse and show how erotic love propels the lover toward, and induces recollection of, Beauty itself. This recollection of Beauty allows the lover to beget veridical philosophical discourse. In the erotic process, the lover first meets the beloved and, overcome by a memory of true Beauty that he cannot comprehend, experiences both wonder and ἀπορία. After courting the beloved and thereby repeatedly recollecting, the beloved becomes intimate with and comes to understand the abstract realm. Finally, having achieved a complete vision of the abstract realm, the lover develops a capacity for philosophic discourse and is able to beget speeches that track Truth itself. Ἔρως, therefore, is the necessary precursor to philosophic discourse because it both provides the propulsive desire that draws one toward the beautiful beloved and facilitates recollection of true Beauty, which, in turn, brings to light the innate knowledge possessed by the lover. Erotic recollection is, I argue, distincitve as a form of recollection because it does not require an intentional and systematic search for knowledge but comes all at once when the lover is “struck” by the beauty of the beloved (254b). The analysis brings into focus Plato’s take on the value of erotic desire in the philosophical life as both the driving force toward, and the visionary insight of, Beauty itself. Finally, I argue that Plato is advancing the view that direct acquaintance or intimacy with truth is the necessary foundation to a philosopher’s discursive understanding.
An analysis of the comprehensibility and attitudes towards non-standard L1 English accents for Chinese L2 English speakers
Keywords: Learning
Attitudes
TESOL
Accent
Non-standard
Comprehensibility
ESL
EFL

The present study aimed to explore levels of comprehensibility of non-standard, native English accents for non-native English speakers, and their attitudes towards such. It also sought to interrogate whether there was desire for non-standard, native English accents to be incorporated into the English language teaching classroom. This issue is particularly relevant given that in the context of global English language teaching, students are mainly exposed to the Received Pronunciation standard. Furthermore, a review of the literature demonstrated that language attitudes towards non-standard accents are complex and multi-faceted, particularly on behalf of non-native speakers. To that end, a mixed-methods approach was used within the study, including a Verbal Guise Test (VGT) administered to 32 Chinese L2 English speakers in higher education across England, as well as several semi-structured follow-up interviews. Both Friedman’s ANOVA and Spearman’s Rho tests were used to investigate the quantitative inquiry, and the qualitative data was explored using a thematic analysis. While the results were consistent with the multi-dimensional nature of such language attitudes, the review of the literature indicates a significant gap surrounding attitudes of non-native speakers towards such. On the one hand, within the current study, participants were keen to express a desire to be exposed to different language varieties within the English language classroom. On the other hand, the previous lack of exposure to such varieties may have led to a lack of comprehensibility of such accents, which in turn has likely led to subsequent negative attitudes towards such. These findings demonstrate a need for English language classrooms to more accurately reflect the English-speaking world learners will communicate in, and for accent variation to be embraced earlier on in English language curricula. These developments will help both to improve communication between native and non-native speakers, as well as ameliorate some of the perpetuated negative attitudes towards non-standard variation around the globe.