VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The effects of a multi-lingual approach: an exploratory study with Year 9
Keywords: MLT
MLT 2021

In the context of an increasingly multilingual and diverse society, there has been a move within European language education and research to adopt a more multilingual and holistic approach to modern languages, where languages are not taught in isolation, but where students are encouraged to compare and contrast their languages and make use of their ‘whole language repertoire’ from both school and home. Much of the work on this so far has either been theoretical, or projects in quite different contexts to the UK secondary MFL classroom, with a lack of evaluation of the effects of such projects on attitudes towards learning languages and students’ knowledge about language and ability to see connections between languages. My project therefore developed a multilingual approach for a UK context, that would work within the everyday MFL classroom. The activity of translation was chosen as the most appropriate way to get students to compare multiple languages. My school has already adopted this kind of approach for Year 7, so I wanted to see if something could be developed for Year 9, who are in many ways at a pivotal point in their language-learning career, as they go on to select which language(s) they will study for GCSE. With this in mind, the project aimed to see if adopting a multilingual approach in translation would have a positive impact on student attitudes and motivation, as well as their cross-linguistic awareness (XLA) and language-learning skills. The results from the quantitative data revealed that although the project did not have a measurable impact on students’ XLA or their already positive attitudes towards MFL, it did appear to have an impact on their ability to spot patterns in a new language. Results from the qualitative interview and observation data also showed the beginnings of an impact on students’ XLA, and the project will be subsequently expanded across the whole of Years 8 and 9 to further explore the potential impacts of this multilingual approach.
Investigating student's and teachers' experiences of the implementation of the flipped classroom model in year 9 physics
Keywords: MLT
MLT 2021

This dissertation describes a two-half term study studying the impact of flipped learning approach on students’ engagement. This study aims to investigate whether and how this pedagogical method can influence the engagement and attainment of Year 9 IGCSE Physics students in an independent boys’ school. The literature review shows evidence the flipped learning can have mixed results on students, and this study aimed to assess the extent to which this teaching method can be successful for students of all abilities. The study used control and an experimental group and conducted two research cycles. The students’ engagement were measured using the MSES questionnaire (Wang et al. 2016) and via qualitative interviews with selected students.

The main MSES findings revealed that the flipped learning has a negative impact on the student’s engagement, but there is significant uncertainty in the results. However, there are positive elements to be considered, such as the promotion of collaboration and peer teaching. Teacher interview outcomes suggested a growing discrepancy between high and low achieving students when flipped learning is implemented. At the same time, the physics department faced some challenges to implement the method efficiently, particularly during online learning. The Physics assessment results following the first research cycle showed no significant differences between the control and the intervention group. This evidence will inform my department the upcoming year in order to draw a new strategy for the correct implementation of flipped learning through collaboration and sharing of successful practice in classrooms.
In what ways does verbal teacher praise and feedback influence students' self-concept and self-efficacy beliefs and their mathematics classroom learning?
Keywords: MLT 2021
MLT

Low self-beliefs hinder students’ learning (Bong & Skaalvik, 2003) and consequently their life chances (Teach First, 2018). Education is a determining factor of a student’s future quality of life, and one of the most important subjects in the national curriculum is mathematics (Department of Education, 2021). This present study focuses on the self-beliefs of self-concept and self-efficacy within the mathematics classroom, as both constructs act either to encourage or limit learning (Bong & Skaalvik, 2003). The study explores the influence of increased verbal praise and feedback (VPF) on students’ mathematics self-beliefs and whether this influenced their classroom learning, in particular regarding task participation, response to failure, perseverance, and help-seeking. VPF is praise coupled with feedback implemented in a sincere, concise, and task-centred way to help students understand their successes and how to improve in future. A seven-week intervention took place across two lower attaining Year 10 mathematics classes, where teachers increased their use of VPF, aiming to raise student self-beliefs and classroom learning. Data were obtained though questionnaires from all student participants and interviews with eight student participants. The questionnaire data were numerically analysed through descriptive statistics while interview data were thematically coded. The study found that increased VPF positively influenced students’ self-concept and self-efficacy, with self-efficacy displaying the greatest shift and thus indicating greater malleability than self-concept. Mathematics classroom learning was particularly influenced within the themes of response to failure and perseverance, both demonstrating the greatest positive shifts. Thus, increased VPF helped raise students’ self-beliefs which positively influenced their mathematics learning. Consequently teachers could consider implementing VPF within their everyday practice to help support students’ self-beliefs and mathematics learning.
Informal learning between primary and secondary science teachers in an all-through school
Keywords: MLT 2021
MLT

In this assignment, I propose that all-through schools, where primary and secondary education is provided in the same setting, offer a unique opportunity to develop teachers’ pedagogy through cross-phase collaboration between staff. The last decade has witnessed a tenfold increase in the number of all-through schools in the UK, but educational research focussed upon these establishments is virtually non-existent. I attempt to address this shortcoming by investigating the conditions required to increase informal learning through collaboration between primary teachers and secondary science teachers in the school I work in. Informal learning through collaboration is regarded to be highly influential in developing teachers’ efficacy, motivation, and job satisfaction. However, attempts to contrive collaboration amongst teachers can sometimes encounter resistance and be detrimental to learning. Following careful examination of the micropolitics which exist within my school and teachers’ beliefs surrounding collaboration, I recommend five factors which are fundamental to consider when implementing and sustaining these collaborative relationships.
Effects of chronic hyperglycaemia on pancreatic β-cell metabolism and insulin biosynthesis
Keywords: Metabolism
Insulin biosynthesis
Pancreatic beta-cell
Hyperglycaemia

Chronic hyperglycaemia severely impairs the coupling between pancreatic β-cell glucose metabolism and insulin secretion that forms an essential part of blood glucose homeostasis. This thesis focuses on two effects of hyperglycaemia-induced alterations in β-cell metabolism: a decline in insulin biosynthesis and accumulation of glycogen.
Chronic hyperglycaemia results in large reductions in insulin mRNA levels and insulin content. In this thesis, I show that the severity of the decline in insulin biosynthesis depends on the level and duration of hyperglycaemia, both in intact islets and in β-cell lines. I then explore the metabolic signals that cause this loss, using the rat β-cell line INS-1 832/13. Downregulation of insulin gene expression was prevented by glucokinase inhibition and induced by GAPDH inhibition, indicating that accumulation of glycolytic intermediates downstream of glucokinase and upstream of GAPDH was responsible. Further experiments using a non-metabolisable glucose analogue suggested that glucose-6-phosphate is the most critical of these metabolites.
Chronic hyperglycaemia also results in the formation of large glycogen deposits. Since β-cells do not normally store glycogen, the causes and consequences of β-cell glycogen accumulation are incompletely understood and contested. In this thesis, I explore how changes in glucose metabolism and the AMPK/mTOR signalling axis relate to increased glycogen storage during hyperglycaemia. Glycogen accumulation was prevented by inhibition of the gluconeogenic enzyme fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase and by inhibition of mTORC1 signalling through S6K1 but was increased by AMPK activation. Glycogen accumulation appears to be driven both by direct effects of glucose-6-phosphate and indirect effects of the accumulation of glycolytic intermediates, including activation of mTORC1. Further work is needed to determine whether glycogen affects β-cell function, such as by interfering with metabolism-secretion coupling or impairing autophagy.
These studies help to clarify the mechanisms by which diabetes/chronic hyperglycaemia inhibits the principal function of pancreatic β-cells, the production of insulin.
Carbon nanotube thin film electrodes and optical spectroscopy of graphene nanoribbons and FAPbI3 single crystals
Keywords: transparent electrode
emissive brightening
graphene nanoribbon
carbon nanotube
FAPbI3
electron-phonon coupling
perovskite solar cell
transparent conductive film
defocused Raman spectroscopy

Carbon nanomaterials are a promising class of materials for optoelectronics with low environmental impact. However, dark states limit their photoluminescence (PL) efficiency and thus applicability. In this thesis, hitherto-unrecognised twilight states in graphene nanoribbons are identified, where inter-valley mixing produced by periodic edge modulation and strong electron-phonon coupling are key mechanisms that make conventionally-dark states at least four times brighter, resulting in a 7.7% PL quantum yield. Strong vibron-electron coupling is revealed by the high spectral definition, with the bandgap modulated by coupling to the radial breathing-like mode. Unexpectedly, the predominant phonon modes affect absorption and emission differently, due to the simultaneous presence of Herzberg-Teller and Franck-Condon couplings. The achievement of efficient light emission from carbon nanostructures, both in solutions and thin films, opens the path to their integration into electro-optical circuits, and to the optical investigation and manipulation of topological states in graphenoids. Further, a detailed study of carbon nanotube-ethylene-vinyl acetate (CNT-EVA) transparent conductive films (TCFs) and the connection between processing and optoelectronic film properties is presented, leading to a 100-fold improvement of the electrical conductivity at the same transmittance. The dispersion technique and polymer removal steps are established as crucial steps for improving TCF performance. Changing the composition of the EVA copolymer allows tuning the mechanical and chemical resilience of CNT-EVA films and the films perform well in flexible applications. CNT-EVA films are chemically p-doped with halogenated metals and low-cost dopants identified. The improved CNT-EVA films perform well in transparent touch-sensitive devices and as transport layer in pervoskite photovoltaic (PV) devices, highlighting the potential of hybrid transport layers and opening a pathway for the large-scale application of low-cost CNT-EVA conductive films. Finding ways to stabilise perovskites under ambient conditions is the main challenge to overcome before they can be applied on a large scale. Substantial stability improvement is demonstrated for the pervoskite formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3) in single crystals by the addition of methylenediammonium dichloride (MDACl2). This is quantified by Raman spectroscopy which is established as a powerful tool for the characterisation of FAPbI3 by devising the defocused Raman spectroscopy method. The MDACl2 additive reduced the trap density and increased the excited carrier lifetime significantly, whereas the band gap at room temperature appears unaffected by the addition of MDACl2.
Papers in population ethics
Keywords: population ethics
population axiology
future generations

This thesis consists of a series of papers in population ethics: a subfield of normative ethics concerned with the distinctive issues that arise in cases where our actions can affect the identities or number of people of who ever exist. Each paper can be read independently of the others. In Chapter 1, I present a dilemma for Archimedean views in population axiology: roughly, those views on which adding enough good lives to a population can make that population better than any other. In Chapter 2, I extend Gustaf Arrhenius’s famous impossibility theorems in population axiology into the domain of choices under risk. My risky impossibility theorems dispense with the assumption that welfare levels are finitely fine-grained, and so tell against lexical views in population axiology. In Chapter 3, I present objections to critical-level and critical-range views in population axiology. I then sketch out what I call the ‘Imprecise Exchange Rates View’ and argue that it is an attractive alternative. In Chapter 4, I address critical-level and critical-range views again. This time, I note that they are vulnerable to objections from biographical identity: identity between lives. I suggest that these objections give us reason to reject critical-level and critical-range views and embrace the Total View. In Chapter 5, I argue that objections of the same form – objections from personal identity – tell against person-affecting views in population ethics. In Chapter 6, I draw out some counterintuitive implications of two recent complaints-based theories of the procreation asymmetry.
Landscape archaeology and aerial photography in the Central Ionian Islands
Keywords: geospatial big data
aerial archaeology
Greek archaeology
Ionian Islands
GIS
landscape archaeology

This thesis presents a contribution to the study of settlement patterns on a regional scale in the Central Ionian archipelago, focussing on the input of remote sensing. For the first time, information from historical aerial photography is exploited and the potential of remote sensing for the study of the region explored. Chapter 2 focusses on the interpretation of small scale features, which constitute the vast majority of the data retrieved from the interpretation of aerial imagery, providing possible interpretations in the absence of ground truthing. Chapters 3 and 4 focus instead on large scale interventions, often invisible on the ground. Both the investigation of the extension of the Early Hellenistic polis of Krane on Kephallonia (chapter 3), and the study of the extent of the centuriation associated to the Roman foundation of Nikopolis in Epirus (chapter 4) benefitted from the contribution of remote sensing, and in particular of archival material. These large scale developments are analysed in the framework of regional settlement patterns. Chapters 3 and 4 also explore the potential of aerial photography to redress the imbalance in the archaeological record of the region, which still reflects past attention to the search for Homeric topoi, resulting in a relative abundance of data of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, showing the strategic importance of remote sensing for the study of the Classical and post-Classical landscape, given its tendency to display more superficial layers.
Finally, conclusions are drawn on the importance of aerial imagery for the study of the landscape archaeology of the region and possible future research developments are presented. The conclusions deal also with another case study, originally planned to be included in this thesis, whose completion was made impossible by the Covid 19 pandemic. Analysis of aerial photographic coverage for the area of Fiskardo revealed a number of interesting features on the northern peninsula. A small-scale survey of the peninsula was foreseen for the summer of 2020, to map in detail any structure visible on the ground, while picking up artefacts according to a survey grid.
Compositional frameworks for supermaps and causality
Keywords: higher-order
causality
locality
composition
process

Quantum supermaps are transformations of quantum processes, and have found many applications in quantum foundations and quantum information theory in the past two decades, particularly in the study of causality. Whilst the concept of a supermap is a simple and intuitive one, the current state-of-the-art formalisations of supermaps cannot be applied to arbitrary Hilbert spaces or Operational Probabilistic Theories (OPTs). We review the standard approaches to defining supermaps in quantum theory, wherever possible highlighting the background compositional principles at play using diagrammatic languages and referring to their algebraic formalisation in the field of category theory. The core argument of this thesis is that a more principled and general approach to defining quantum supermaps exists, using a definition of locally-applicable transformation, which can be applied to any symmetric monoidal category. As a consequence this approach can be applied to all quantum processes on general quantum degrees of freedom and to all transformations in OPTs. We identify key compositional features for entire theories of supermaps and show that the supermaps of those theories are always operationally described by locally-applicable transformations. Two tests for a good construction of supermaps on symmetric monoidal categories are identified, recovery of standard physicists definitions for quantum supermaps when applied to categories of standard quantum processes, and existence of key compositional features. By the end of the thesis we find a way to strengthen locally-applicable transformations to construct the theory of polyslots, which passes both tests. Applications of this new general framework for the study of quantum causality and quantum information theory are identified as future potential research directions.
Real-world and genetic evidence for the management of opioid epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic: population-based studies
Keywords: real-world evidence
COVID-19
opioid
population health
observational study

Background: The widespread use of opioids and the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 represent two pressing public health crises that require evidence-based decision-making. This thesis comprises six interconnected studies aimed at translating large, routinely-collected and Biobank data into reliable evidence to inform the management of the ongoing opioid epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Four data sources were studied: primary care records from SIDIAP (Spain), US claims, and the UK Biobank. Exposures included opioids, ibuprofen, COVID-19 vaccines, human leucocyte antigen (HLA) genes, and SARS-CoV-2 infections. Cohort studies were used as the primary design, complemented by statistical techniques including regression, propensity scores, survival analyses, and negative and positive control outcomes, as well as Mendelian randomization. Study outcomes were adverse drug events, COVID-19 susceptibility and severity, and related complications.
Results: Incident opioid use increased in Catalonia from 2007 to 2019, with Tramadol being the most frequently used opioid in 2019. Compared to codeine, tramadol was associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular events, and fractures. No differential risk of COVID-19 was observed among users of ibuprofen versus other analgesics. When compared to two doses of ChAdOx1, vaccination with BNT162b2 was associated with lower risks of COVID-19 infection and hospitalization, respectively, during the study period when the Delta variant was dominant. Six independent HLA alleles significantly affected antibody response to COVID-19 vaccines, and the aggregated genetic score had a strong, collective, and causal influence on breakthrough COVID-19. COVID-19 infection was associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) within 30 days, with highest risk in unvaccinated individuals. People with older age, male sex, obesity, and inherited thrombophilia were also at a higher VTE risk post-COVID-19.
Conclusion: The integration of real-world and linked biobank data can be effectively leveraged using advanced analytical tools to generate timely and actionable evidence to tackle global health crises like the ongoing opioids epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic.
Investigating the dynamic process of expressing breastmilk for very preterm infants and the influence of a relaxation intervention, with the aim of improving clinical recommendations
Keywords: breastmilk
NICU
lactation
milk expression
neonatal intensive care unit
pumping
mother's own milk
relaxation therapy
infant
human milk
very premature
very preterm
neonate
relaxation

Background: Very preterm infants (born at less than 32 weeks of pregnancy) have higher morbidity and mortality than more mature infants. Even small increases in mother’s own milk quantity are associated with medium and long-term impacts on morbidity. Due to the infant’s oral immaturity, the mother must extract milk from the breasts (expressing), which is very challenging. Clinical recommendations to express 8-10 times per day are demanding and adherence is low. Relaxation has been identified as a promising intervention for lactation outcomes.
Aim: To investigate determinants of the quantity of breastmilk expressed by mothers of very preterm infants, focusing on relaxation interventions and expressing pattern.
Methods:
1) Systematic review and meta-analysis of relaxation interventions and milk yield.
2) A multi-centre, randomised, controlled trial. Mothers giving birth between 23+0 and 31+6 weeks of pregnancy were recruited. The intervention was a 12-minute guided relaxation recording. The primary outcome was the highest 24-hour milk quantity recorded at day 4, 14 or 21 after birth.
3) Exploratory analysis of expressing pattern and lactation outcomes.
Findings:
1) The systematic review included 1982 participants in 18 studies with heterogeneous relaxation interventions. There was moderate certainty evidence that relaxation increased breastmilk quantity by a moderate amount.
2) The randomised trial recruited the target 132 participants. Mean gestational age at birth was 27.8 weeks (SD 2.4). Adjusted mean difference in the primary outcome was 73.9g (95% CI –61.7 to 209.5). The majority of participants liked the intervention and found it relaxing. There were trends within the trial (sub-group analysis) and between trials (meta-regression) suggesting lower effect of relaxation on milk quantity with lower gestation at birth.
3) Less than a quarter of participants expressed eight or more times per day. Expressing frequency was positively associated with 24-hour milk yield (94.4g adjusted increase per session at three weeks after birth, 95% CI 62.7 to 126.2). Expressing eight or more times per day was associated with higher milk yield than expressing less than six times per day, but not compared to 6-7 times per day.
Conclusions: A weak recommendation can be made to offer relaxation interventions after very preterm birth. Many people value relaxation in this setting and there may be a small increase in milk quantity, which could be clinically important. Evidence for the recommendation to express 8-10 times per day is relatively weak, and this is difficult to achieve. These results can help improve individualised counselling for families.