VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Cortical neurophysiology of ALS
Keywords: Neurodegeneration
Biomarker
Magnetoencephalography

The experiments described in this thesis aimed to investigate the neurophysiological consequences, at the cortical level, of the neurodegenerative condition, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A principle tenet of this study was that ALS is, first and foremost, a disorder of the cortical motor system, the precise pathological mechanisms of which remain incompletely understood. Furthermore, the degree to which neurodegeneration can be evidenced before the onset of symptoms is thus far uncertain, and the optimal means by which to measure therapeutic response has yet to be determined.
Chapter 1 introduces relevant key concepts in ALS and briefly summarises three studies completed in the early phases of pursuit for the above degree. These studies respectively considered presmyptomatic cellular ALS pathology, quantitation of disease progression and eyetracking assessment of cognitive dysfunction. Chapter 2 describes magnetoencephalography, the investigative technology utilised in the subsequent experimental chapter. In chapter 3, the effects of ALS on movement related modulation of neuronal oscillations are determined. An excessive peri-movement desynchronisation and delayed post-movement rebound was described. Functional connectivity between cortical regions at rest is appraised in chapter 4. ALS appeared to result in quite striking increases in functional connectivity, in keeping with the fMRI literature and in support of diminished intracortical inhibitory influences. The functional communication from the motor cortices is directly considered during active motor performance in chapter 5. ALS related reductions in beta-band coherence were noted in both corticospinal and inter- hemispheric communication.
In conclusion, the results demonstrated considerable support for proposed excitotoxic disease mechanisms and were in alignment with reported findings in other neurodegenerative diseases. Finally, a pilot study by which the neural mechanisms for cognitive impairment in ALS are explored via antisaccade performance is described. While underpowered, the experimental design showed promise for future application.
The visual arts in RE: an exploration into the visual arts as a vehicle for conceptual development in a modern Religious Education
Keywords: MLT
Religious Education
MLT2015

This research explores the use of the visual arts in a modern Religious Education (RE) as a vehicle for improving conceptual development, visual literacy and religious understanding in students via use of the epistemological and experiential approaches identified by Maria Harris (1988) as a critical theoretical context. The history and attitudes concerning use of the arts in RE and the arts as a pedagogy in their own right are explored and analysed alongside practical methods with which to facilitate and assess such use as part of a literature review. Further research was then conducted with 110 students (60 11- 12 year olds and 50 15-16 year olds) in order to identify what potential the arts have as a means to support student conceptual development in RE and to what extent students perceive such benefit.
In addition to a review of the current literature, this research was conducted by means of an inter-disciplinary collaboration between the RE and Arts department and an action research format. The perspectives of students are explored through the use of questionnaires and semi- structured interviews alongside collaborative assessment of student work throughout two action research cycles. Key themes highlighted by the literature were used to inform and analyse the data after each cycle and again at the end, leading to a clear identification of the potential the arts offer as a vehicle for conceptual development in RE and the implications regarding such a conclusion.
The findings show that the arts do offer excellent opportunities for conceptual development within RE and that a vast majority of students perceive such a benefit, provided a prior facilitation for visual literacy or contextual understanding is employed, as suggested by the literature. However, students also raise a concern regarding the epistemological value and relevance of the arts in a modern examination based culture, additionally reflecting what the literature highlights as a pervading 'two cultures' dichotomy, whereby influence of a scientifically based pedagogy undermines the value of the arts in education.
This research therefore demonstrates that the visual arts can be and are widely acknowledged to be of benefit as a vehicle for improving conceptual development, visual literacy and religious understanding in RE. However the issue of a conflicting pedagogical culture within modern education needs to be addressed in order to reconcile the use and value of the arts with that of a quantifiable, assessment driven pedagogy.
Trouble with the boys: equity concerns about working class boys' behaviour in secondary education
Keywords: MLT
MLT2016

Evidence has consistently highlighted equity concerns for the educational experiences and outcomes of working-class boys in England. This paper explores one facet of this complex issue: the disparity in the behaviour and approaches to learning exhibited by working-class boys relative to their peers.
A review of existing literature synthesizes scholarship from the fields of education, sociology and psychology, to critically analyse theoretical perspectives about the behaviour and approaches to learning exhibited by working-class boys during secondary education. Subsequently, an action-research project details the development and implementation of ameliorative strategies for a group of four boys at a challenging inner-city comprehensive through collaborations with research participants and professional colleagues.
The research suggests the need for practitioners to utilise more personalized approaches of behaviour management, grounded in understandings about individual students, empowering students to exercise agency and improve in-school behaviour. Furthermore, the findings highlight potential areas for future scholarship centred on integrating existing literature with sociological action-theories.
“I would like support from school when it comes to doing extra to get into one of the top universities" How do high achieving history students respond to University preparation classes?
Keywords: MLT
History
MLT2015

High-attaining students from non-selective state schools still apply to Oxford or Cambridge University in fewer numbers than their independent or grammar school peers. Comprehensive schools have been tasked with doing more to encourage and support students to make applications, but with very little guidance on what form this support should take. To explore this issue, this project focuses specifically on History. An analysis of the characteristics that elite universities expect of their History applicants makes it clear that teaching to meet the requirements of A-level History alone would fall short of developing these traits. This project proposes a solution: extra-curricular University Preparation Classes for high-attaining History students.
Adopting a qualitative approach to action research, I captured both student and teacher voice through questionnaires at key points of the programme, together with a teacher journal, student work and group interviews. The classes were found to have a positive impact on the development of the characteristics of high performance in History, as well as affecting the rationale of students' university intentions. This paper ends by calling for greater collaboration between teachers and for universities' Widening Participation programmes to focus further on subject teachers' capacity to implement change in schools as a means to address the applications gap.
'We have a constant will to publish': the publishers of Shakespeare's First Folio
Keywords: Publishing History
Early Modern Literature
Stationers
William Shakespeare
History of the Book
Cultural Bibliography

This thesis is a cultural history of the publishing businesses that financed Shakespeare’s First Folio. The thesis argues that by 1623 each of the four businesses that formed the Folio syndicate had developed an influential reputation in the book trade, and that these reputations were crucial to the cultural positioning of the Folio on publication. Taking its lead from a dynamic new field of study that has been called 'cultural bibliography', the thesis investigates the histories and publishing strategies of the business owned by the stationers William and Isaac Jaggard, who are usually thought of as the leading members of the Folio project, as well as those owned by William Aspley, John Smethwick, and Edward Blount. Through detailed analysis of the publishing strategies of each stationer, the thesis puts forward new theories about how these men influenced the reception of the Folio by transferring onto it their brands, and the expectations of their readerships. The business of each Folio stationer was like a stage with an audience assembled around it, waiting for the next production to emerge. This thesis identifies the publishing activities that attracted the audiences of the Jaggards, Blount, Smethwick, and Aspley, and ultimately suggests the Folio was granted significant legitimacy through the collaboration of these men. After an introductory chapter that locates the thesis in its scholarly field, the first chapter tells the history of syndicated book publishing in England, and reviews what we know of the pre-production process of the First Folio, taking a particular interest in how the publishing syndicate formed. The following chapters then form a series of case studies of the four publishing businesses, reviewing the apprenticeships and careers of each stationer before suggesting how those careers created a context of meaning for the Folio. These case studies focus on the authoritative reference publishing of the Jaggards, the religious publishing of William Aspley, the geographical location of John Smethwick's publishing business beside the Inns of Court, and the cultural achievements of Edward Blount. In conclusion the thesis explores the idea that it was the unique partnership of these businesses that consecrated the Folio as an emblem of literary taste.
Investigating the effects of inflammation on emotional processing
Keywords: Emotional processing
Inflammation
Neuroinflammation
Depression

Elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines are implicated in the pathogenesis of major depression. Human and animal studies have shown that pro-inflammatory cytokines can induce a behavioural repertoire of symptoms collectively referred to as 'sickness behaviours', which include cognitive and mood symptoms, social withdrawal and sleep disturbance. When likened to clinical depression, these symptoms appear to be strikingly similar. Moreover, subsets of depressed patients have raised inflammatory markers, 30-50% of patients receiving cytokine treatment in the form of interferon-α (IFN-α) therapy develop depressive symptoms, and significantly higher rates of depression are associated with chronic inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Converging evidence has led to the hypothesis that chronic, low-grade inflammation could lead to more persistent alterations in neuropsychological function that might be instrumental in the pathophysiology of depression. However, the mechanisms for this potential modulation of mood and cognitive function are unclear. The current thesis therefore aimed to enhance understanding of the neuropsychological underpinnings of the link between inflammation and depression.
Negative emotional processing biases are well-recognised in the aetiology of depression; however potential inflammation-induced alterations in emotional processing remain unexplored. Thus, a series of studies were conducted using human models of immune system activation to examine neuropsychological function. The first study demonstrated that IFN-α treatment in patients with hepatitis C produced negative biases in emotional categorisation, attentional vigilance and a specific effect of enhanced recognition of disgust. The subsequent study found a specific effect of false discrimination of disgusted faces in a healthy volunteer model of inflammatory challenge with typhoid vaccination, however further effects on emotional processing were limited. Typhoid vaccination was also shown to disrupt sleep continuity in ways that may be relevant to depression in the third study. Negative biases were not evident, however, in patients with RA. The final study found that neuropsychological effects of the atypical antidepressant tianeptine were similar to effects following IFN-α, which may be of interest considering tianeptine's purported serotonergic re-uptake enhancing properties and the effects of cytokines on serotonin metabolism. This thesis provides intriguing, yet preliminary, evidence that inflammatory pathways may modulate emotional processing – a mechanism which, if supported, may have future implications for improved identification and treatment of subgroups of depressed patients.
The term Huwiyya in Muhyi al-Din ibn ‘Arabi and ‘Abd al-Razzaq al-Qashani’s Sufi thought: analysis of ideas and methods
Keywords: Ibn 'Arabi
Huwiyya
Sufism
'Abd al-Razzaq al-Qashani
Qur'anic commentary

Huwiyya is a term that essentially denotes the non-manifest aspect of God, His essence. But in the works of Ibn 'Arab&imacr; and al-Q&amacr;sh&amacr;n&imacr;, this term has many different applications corresponding to the many different facets of God and the many different modalities of His interaction with the Cosmos. God is fundamentally non-manifest, unfathomable to a creation that is ontologically and epistemologically incapable of comprehending Him—upon this primary signification both Sufis agree. However, al-Q&amacr;sh&amacr;n&imacr; discreetly breaks ranks with his master when he emphasises God's connection to His creation more than His dissociation from it in the context of this term, and though this aspect is also present in Ibn 'Arab&imacr;'s usage of the term, in al-Q&amacr;sh&amacr;n&imacr; it is far more prominent. Moreoever, his scientific style and analytic approach stand in stark contrast to that of his predecessor. Both are the result of a pedagogical concern that supercedes commentative fidelity. However, though it is undeniable that al-Q&amacr;sh&amacr;n&imacr;'s style is far more didactic, it more than just that, it is the forging of a new worldview—one that is completely congruent with, but still subtly different from, that of Ibn 'Arab&imacr;. But in order to elucidate this, it is necessary to analyse relevant aspects of Ibn 'Arab&imacr;'s thought.
In attempting to excavate these and other nuances of difference, I have been influenced by the method of Toshihiko Izutsu in using a term, huwiyya, as a window in to the thought and cosmology of Ibn 'Arab&imacr; and al-Q&amacr;sh&amacr;n&imacr;. I have also been influenced by Ronald Nettler’s approach in Sufi Metaphysics and Qur'&amacr;nic Prophets, where Ibn 'Arabi's thought is rigorously pursued to expose underlying assumptions and arguments. I have used these approaches in my own way, and towards my own interpretative analysis which compares the works of Ibn 'Arab&imacr; and al-Q&amacr;sh&amacr;ni. Furthermore, I have supplemented this type of analysis, which is primary source based (and appears as such in the works of both Izutsu and Nettler) with secondary material to provide a broader context of the rationale behind the differences in style and content between the master and his disciple.
Numerical and experimental studies of coherent Smith-Purcell radiation
Keywords: Particle Physics
Particle Accelerators
Linear Accelerators

This thesis investigates the properties of coherent Smith-Purcell radiation (cSPr) at femtosecond-scale in the case of electrons bunches in the ultrarelativistic regimes. Of particular interest is the use of cSPR as a diagnostic tool to determine the longitudinal time profiles of such bunches, the study of azimuthal distribution of the radiated energy, and a contribution to the understanding of polarization properties. The study consists in a first theoretical part carried mostly in the context of the surface-current theory, supported with insights from particle-in-cell simulations. Then, as a step toward a better determination of time profile, the question of phase reconstruction is addressed through the design of a new algorithm proposed in this thesis and tested in known challenging cases. Experimental results are then presented, spanning shifts having taken place at the FACET facility at SLAC, Stanford, between 2013 and 2015.
Modelling species invasions in heterogeneous landscapes
Keywords: Landscape Heterogeneity
Integrodifference Equations
Biological Invasions

Biological invasions are devastating ecosystems and economies world-wide, while many native species' survival depends on their ability to track climate change. Characterising the spread of biological populations is therefore of utmost importance, and can be studied with spatially explicit, discrete-time integrodifference equations (IDEs), which reflect numerous species' processes of demography and dispersal. While spatial variation has often been ignored when implementing IDE models, real landscapes are rarely spatially uniform and environmental variation is crucial in determining biological spread.
To address this, we use novel methods to characterise population spread in heterogeneous landscapes. Asymptotic analysis is used for highly fragmented landscapes, where habitat patches are isolated and smaller than the dispersal scale, and in landscapes with low environmental variation, where the ecological parameters vary by no more than a small factor from their mean values. We find that the choice of dispersal kernel determines the effect of landscape structure on spreading speed, indicating that accurately fitting a kernel to data is important in accurately predicting speed. For the low-variation case, the spreading speeds in the heterogeneous and homogeneous landscapes differ by &straightepsilon;2, where &straightepsilon; governs the degree of variation, suggesting that in many cases, a simpler homogeneous model gives similar spread rates.
For irregular landscapes, analytical methods become intractable and numerical simulation is needed to predict spread. Accurate simulation requires high spatial resolution, which, using existing techniques, requires prohibitive amounts of computational resources (RAM, CPU etc). We overcome this by developing and implementing a novel algorithm that uses adaptive mesh refinement. The approximations and simulation algorithm produce accurate results, with the adaptive algorithm providing large improvements in efficiency without significant losses of accuracy compared to non-adaptive simulations. Hence, the adaptive algorithm enables faster simulation at previously unfeasible scales and resolutions, permitting novel areas of scientific research in species spread modelling.
English vocabulary learning through watching YouTube videos and reading blog posts
Keywords: informal learning
blog
YouTube
online language learning
online resources
incidental vocabulary acquisition
videoblog

Research on the Online Informal Learning of English has found that social media can facilitate language learning, mainly in the domain of vocabulary. It does so not only by providing the necessary language input, but also through the unique ways in which social media platforms encourage interaction between the user and the content as well as with other users. The present study investigated English vocabulary acquisition from engagement with two different types of social media: blog posts and video blogs. It also explored how learners make use of the unique opportunities for user-content and user-user interaction offered by these media. For this purpose, screen-captures of participants engaging with the blog posts and videoblogs were collected.
The results showed that incidental vocabulary learning occurred, in approximately equal amounts, from reading blog posts and watching video blogs. They also revealed that different types of vocabulary knowledge were gained from the two input modalities. Written input was found to promote greater gains in orthographic knowledge than videos. In turn, the videos promoted greater recognition and recall of the target words' meaning and recall of their grammatical function. The analysis of the screen-captures indicated that learners did not often make use of the unique features offered by the blog and video platforms. The findings are discussed in the wider context of user engagement with social media and virtual communities.
Probing GPCR-Gα interactions: a functional study by EM and SPR
Keywords: electron microscopy
surface plasmon resonance
G proteins
GPCRs
biosensors

The G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), neurotensin receptor type 1 (NTS1), is pharmacologically important and activated by the tridecapeptide hormone, neurotensin (NT), initiating a cascade of interactions through G proteins to effect cellular responses. The mechanisms by which these occur have only recently begun to be examined structurally, and standard assays involving downstream effectors or radioactive GTPγS G protein activation to describe GPCR-G protein interactions do not assay the interactions directly. Two methods have been used here to study the interaction of NTS1 with the signalling partners, Gαs and Gαi1. A novel DNA-nanotechnological approach for preparing samples for electron microscopy (EM) has been used to study NTS1 and Gαi1, both separately and complexed, on a functionalised 2D DNA lattice, providing the first direct evidence of this interaction. Single particle reconstruction methods were used to determine a structure of NTS1 at a resolution of ~15 Å, a structure of Gαi1 at ~ 15 Å, and the interaction of Gαi1 with NTS1 has been observed using EM.
A further nanotechnological approach, using the increasingly popular method of reconstitution of membrane proteins in nanodiscs, has been used to study NTS1-Gαs and NTS1-Gαi1 interactions, using EM and surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The ligand (NT) affinity of detergent-solubilised NTS1 and NTS1 reconstituted into nanodiscs was &Tilde;1 nM, and for the first time, the affinity of binding of Gαi1 and Gαs to NTS1 was directly measured and determined as 15 nM and 31 nM, respectively. These results will facilitate cryo-EM studies on GPCRs with interacting partners, using a tethering system that both activates the GPCR and maintains it in a concentrated form within a restricted, two-dimensional plane; and also will aid a wealth of mutational and lipid-dependent studies whereby the effect on coupling and GPCR-protein interactions of specific residues and lipid types can be directly measured. This thesis primarily demonstrates the development and effective application of a biophysical methodology for measuring the coupling kinetics of GPCRs to G proteins; as well as demonstrating that this coupling can be visually evidenced under EM using gold-labelled G proteins.