VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
A study of Chinese Adults’ motivation to learn a third or more languages
Keywords: scale validation
L3+ motivation
gender difference

The level and nuances of motivation when learning third or more languages has not yet been widely researchd despite China having a large population of English language learners. This paper constitutes a quantitative study, involving a questionnaires designed to validate the scale of the third language (L3) motivation, and to compare the motivation of male and female adults (the first language (L1) is Chinese) when learning three or more languages. The data were collected and analysed using the R software online via a questionnaires (N = 398). Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and full structural equation modelling were undertaken to answer the research questions raised, as well as analyses of variance (ANOVA) with likelihood ratio tests, chi-squared different tests, Shapiro-Wilk test and Wilcoxon test with a bonferroni correction. The findings suggest that the scale of the second language (L2) motivational characteristics have been validated and can be applied to the L3 motivation. The results show there to be no obvious difference between the languages other than the English (LOTEs) motivation between Chinese males and Chinese females. The difference in motivation between studying a third language, and a fourth or more language, is not evident except in relation to the factors about the ideal L3 self. In light of the research findings, the methodological and pedagogical implications have been further put forward.
Ocean biogeochemical optimisation in Earth System Models
Keywords: Parameter optimisation
Ocean biogeochemical modelling

Global ocean biogeochemical models are important tools to understand the cycling of nutrients and carbon in the global ocean, and when embedded within Earth System Models allow us to investigate how the oceans interact in the past, present and future with the entire earth system. Biogeochemical parameters within such models can be systematically calibrated by minimising the misfit between modelled tracers and observations, yet due to their large computational expense this is rarely carried out. In this thesis, the aim is to first investigate efficient ways to tune global ocean biogeochemical parameters using optimisation algorithms, so to encourage more frequent objective model improvement. We then apply them to the global ocean biogeochemical model MEDUSA (Model of Ecosystem Dynamics, nutrient Utilisation, Sequestration and Acidification), the marine biogeochemical component of the U.K. Earth System Model (UKESM1) .
First, we carry out a parameter optimisation and sensitivity study on the global ocean biogeochemical model MOPS (Model of Oceanic Pelagic Stoichiometry). We investigate the performance of DFO-LS (Derivative-Free Optimisation using Least Squares), an optimisation algorithm which has been designed for computationally expensive models, and compare it to CMA-ES (Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy), another algorithm that was applied in a previous study in one of the first successful attempts at calibrating a global model. DFO-LS successfully calibrated MOPS in less than 1/30th of the computational expense required by CMA- ES, making it feasible to move on to calibrating more computationally expensive models.
We then investigate the influence on parameter optimisation of shortening the length of the ocean biogeochemical spin up, which is required for the model to reach an equilibrated state. If this can be reduced from over 3000 years during optimisation, then the whole process will become less computationally expensive. Unfortunately we show for MOPS the spin up could only be reduced by one third, to a minimum length of 2000 years, due to the influence of certain biogeochemical parameters on the deeper ocean, where timescales are longer.
Lastly, parameter sensitivity and optimisation studies are carried out on the more complex model MEDUSA. We provide an assessment of how different biogeochemical parameters influence global distributions of modelled oceanic variables, and find the most influential parameters to be those which control diatom and meso-zooplankton abundance, as these heavily influence the transport of organic matter to the deeper ocean. We also provide several optimised configurations of the model with a closer fit to observed nutrients and oxygen than the current default configuration, however with some unrealistic modelled primary production and plankton abundance.
The politics of resistance in modern Iran: a century of defiance
Keywords: Islam
Islamic Republic of Iran
Iranian studies
West Asia
Iranian history
Middle East
resistance
Iran

This thesis is a century-long intellectual history of a century of the main resistance discourse dominating Iranian politics today. Conceptualising resistance as a justice-oriented revisionist practice, this thesis starts with the fourth Majles in the 1920s and traces the emergence and evolution of this discourse up until today. I have chosen to name this particular discourse the ‘discourse of State Resistance’ in modern Iran, which emerged as discourse centred around neutralism and non-alignment in the intellectual discourses of Ayatollah Modarres. Following Modarres, this thesis traces the journey of this discourse as it develops through thought collectives within the Iranian opposition and is produced and reproduced across the idiosyncratic political landscape of the Iranian opposition. Having started as a neutralist discourse for survival amidst imperial rivalries in the 1920s, by the 1970s the discourse had become a revisionist discourse espousing a comprehensive and strict understanding of independence and non-alignment which goes beyond the traditional international relations and legal understandings of the concepts to include religious requirements as well as discourses of authenticity. As the revolutionary state was consolidated, we witness the transformation of the discourse into an establishment discourse which, following the end of the cold war and the rise and decline of Western hegemony, starts to increasingly espouse the Islamic Republic of Iran as a powerful actor, which is engaging in worldmaking as it seeks to forge a new more just world order. Specifically, while the opposition sought to survive and pursue abstract notions of justice, the establishment sought to restructure the world order by bringing an end to foreign military presence in the region, as well as reforming international organisations and regional alliances. Importantly, the establishment project was not limited to geopolitical restructuring, but also included challenging Western hegemony ideologically, both within Iran and beyond.
The diminishing role of fiduciary law in discretionary portfolio management under English law
Keywords: discretionary portfolio management
Financial Ombudsman Service
fiduciary duty
unauthorised profits
FCA
conflicts of interest
Financial Conduct Authority

The thesis reviews the diminishing role of fiduciary law in discretionary portfolio management. Protection for investors against manager misconduct is provided principally by the Financial Conduct Authority (the ‘FCA’) as regulator of the conduct of investment management; and the Financial Ombudsman Scheme (the ‘FOS’) as the provider of compensation for retail investors. The Courts have only a peripheral role, primarily as the ultimate appeal against the reasonableness of a FCA regulatory enforcement decision or a FOS decision.
This is the result of a process that began with the introduction of the regulation of financial services in 1988. Regulations that modify the common law fiduciary prohibitions are incorporated into contract terms that provide for a ‘reasonable’ standard for manager conduct that encompasses regulatory compliance. Conflicts of interest are permitted provided the manager identifies them, decides on management measures that are fair to the investors affected or only proceeds if a proposed solution has received their fully informed consent. Regulations also reduce the scope for a claim for unauthorised profits which are permitted provided there is no risk of loss to an investor and so permits profits that could not have accrued to the portfolio.
Market and technology developments have reduced the scope of the manager’s investment mandate and increased the potential for close and timely supervision of portfolio content. Discretion and thus fiduciary status nevertheless remain in all manager appointments, even if the modified conflicts regime bears little resemblance to the common law prohibitions. A breach of the regime by the manager will therefore still provide portfolio owner(s) with access to equitable remedies. These could provide some additional benefit to compensatory damages for breach of contract but only in such exceptional circumstances that this calls into question whether, in practice if not in theory, fiduciary duty plays any meaningful role.
Effective partitioning of RDF data for distributed query answering
Keywords: RDF
Partitioning
Distributed Query Evaluation
Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
Louvain Community Detection
Linked Data

The growing popularity of Resource Description Framework (RDF) as a mode for data exchange and integration has resulted in the increased growth of RDF datasets. Some large scale RDF datasets cannot be stored and processed efficiently on a single node. A common approach to processing large RDF datasets is to partition the data in a cluster of shared-nothing servers and use a distributed query evaluation algorithm. It is commonly assumed in the literature that the performance of query processing in such systems is limited mainly by network communication. In this thesis, we show that this assumption does not always hold and we argue that more important than minimizing network communication, we should prioritise even workload distribution among servers when partitioning. Moreover, we present a new RDF partitioning method based on Louvain community detection, which drastically reduces communication, but without a corresponding decrease in query running times. This is because strongly connected partitions can lead to workload imbalance among the servers. We present a further refinement of our technique that aims to strike a balance between reducing communication and spreading processing more evenly, and our empirical evaluation shows that such an approach can improve load balance and hence reduce both communication and query times.
Reconfigurable origami structures
Keywords: reconfigurable mechanism
rigid origami
kirigami structure
cutting
linkage analysis
degrees of freedom
kinematics

This dissertation focuses on the kinematics of origami mechanisms and converting single degree of freedom (DOF) patterns into reconfigurable structures with two DOFs./p>
The presented kirigami method assumes introducing slits along creases of rigidly-foldable zero-thickness patterns. Before cutting, they usually have one motion driven by a single DOF that leads to only one final form. It makes such shapes a good choice for easily-controlled deployable systems. However, the lack of alternative motions is unfavourable for multifunctional applications requiring reconfigurability. The presented cutting of origami hinges equals removing kinematic joints. Such modifications may bring extra DOFs allowing reconfigurability. The fundamental building blocks used to construct the reconfigurable patterns are two-DOF spatial 8R linkages resulting from two-crease-long slits./p>
First, the thesis assumes regular multiplication of such slits inside rigid origami version of Miura-ori. As a result, it produces rigid kirigami variants of the pattern that are reconfigurable. They can exhibit new motions paths and numerous alternative shapes and folded forms. During particular reconfigurations, the assembly even displays metamorphic and kinematotropic behaviour, which increases available shapes. However, the above is possible with multiple DOFs, whose number increases as the pattern gets large, making its control challenging. /p>
Therefore, in its second part, the thesis uses an alternative approach to multiplying the slits that includes a step-wise kinematic analysis to control the final DOF number. A target value of two DOFs is assumed, which provides a reasonable balance between reconfiguration choices and simple manipulation by only two inputs. As a result, a two-DOF rigid kirigami Miura-ori is obtained with an orderly symmetric slit layout. It retains the traditional in-plane folding and additionally can reconfigure into bent-like shapes with out-of-plane curvatures. Previously, such forms were impossible without deforming facets or redesigning the crease pattern./p>
Finally, the third part applies the identified slit arrangements to other one-DOF rigid origami, i.e. Eggbox, Anisotropic Miura, Arc-Miura and Arc patterns. Their reconfigurable two-DOF versions are found, and their models manufactured. Moreover, many intriguing research directions emerge throughout the project. Nevertheless, the identified kirigami structures already provide an exciting platform for novel reconfigurable applications in various fields.
Ecological impacts of cancer chemotherapy on hematopoietic and immune dynamics
Keywords: chemotherapy
mathematical modeling
hematopoiesis

Chemotherapy remains a cornerstone of cancer treatment even as the advent of targeted therapies and immunotherapies have sought to offer greater efficacy with fewer side effects. In spite of its age and traditional usage, chemotherapy continues to offer new insights when reconsidered as an ecological disturbance to the patient’s ecosystem. Not only does this view help predict divergent recoveries from chemotherapy, but an ecological lens suggests new ways of how chemotherapy can be integrated with immune dynamics, modern drugs, and treatment protocols. This work seeks to use mathematical modeling frameworks to better understand the ecological impacts of cancer chemotherapy in the context of patient hematopoietic and immune systems. For bone marrow transplantation, repopulation trajectories are evaluated in the light of clonal hematopoiesis in donor populations and host marrow conditions. This work is then extended to look at how the deletion of an immunomodulatory drug target may lead to niche and ecological changes. In addition, a modeling framework is built to explore the role that lymphodepleting chemotherapy may have on stimulating the immune system to mount an anti-tumor T cell response. Finally, a reinforcement learning approach is used to devise optimal chemotherapy treatment strategies to maximize synergy with the immune system.
Hidden in plain sight: a study of the appellate tribunal for electricity in India's energy transition and legal imagination
Keywords: Electricity
Renewable Energy
India
Climate Change
Tribunals
Legal Reasoning
Legal Imagination
Energy Transition

The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (‘APTEL’) is a statutory adjudicative institution tasked with responding to appeals against orders taken by the central and state electricity regulatory commissions in India. As such, it is uniquely positioned in the legal landscape of India’s ongoing transition to renewable energy to both stabilize legal, administrative and regulatory disruption caused by this process, and substantively develop the law. Despite its central and indispensable role in this energy transition, the APTEL remains hidden in plain sight.
The invisibility of this tribunal in legal scholarship is surprising, but also revealing of the need to expand our legal imagination as lawyers and law scholars in thinking about the role and contributions of law and tribunalised adjudication during transformative change. This includes the need for scholarly recognition of the simple fact that the law can develop in unexpected places and in unexpected ways.
The legal present is complex, and how this present is being reasoned and understood by the APTEL is not only developing an understanding of it but also crafting an understanding of the energy future desired of transition. To foster the legal imagination of tribunals like the APTEL, we need to develop a robust mental picture of the legal present, with all of its rich legal complexity. This means focusing away from lofty narratives and focusing onto the routine and everyday legal matters brought before legal institutions tasked with resolving them.
To that end, this thesis navigates a body of case law that has never been mapped before and tells the story of a tribunal that has been largely overlooked in legal scholarship. By bringing APTEL’s role, contributions, adjudicative competence, and complexity front and centre, this thesis offers a thicker legal picture of the tribunalised adjudication of energy transition in India and highlights the importance of taking APTEL’s legal work seriously.
Bulk and surface properties of electrolytes at eutectic compositions
Keywords: electrolytes
surface force balance
underscreening
deep eutectic solvents
differential scanning calorimetry

The ubiquity of electrolytes is exemplified by the variety of fields in which they are encountered including technology, biology, and geology. Our understanding of dilute electrolytes is well established by Debye-Hückel theory, but in concentrated systems where continuum theories fail, the behaviour is not yet fully understood.
Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are concentrated electrolytes commonly formed from eutectic mixtures of a quaternary ammonium salt and some molecular component. Recognised as an ionic liquid sub-category, they find use in synthesis, metal processing, and as lubricants. The immense range of potential components means ‘green’ DESs can be manufactured that are biodegradable, non-toxic, and inexpensive.
This thesis explores the interfacial structure and frictional response across electrolyte films. Using the surface force balance and white light interferometry, the film thickness can be controlled with sub-nanometre precision and the surface forces measured with sub-micronewton resolution. Bulk phase behaviour is also studied using differential scanning calorimetry.
Measurements across two DESs, choline chloride:ethylene glycol (ChCl:EG) and ChCl:glycerol, and the corresponding pure molecular fluids show time- and water-dependent interfacial structures. In ChCl:EG, a long-ranged exponentially decaying force is observed that decays faster with added water, suggesting an underscreening-like behaviour previously observed in ionic liquids. The frictional response across the DESs highlights the molecular fluid-controlled nature of the lubrication mechanism. Varying the composition of ChCl:EG reveals that optimal lubrication properties do not coincide with the eutectic composition. The bulk phase behaviour of ChCl:EG mixtures shows a drastically different eutectic point compared with the literature, emphasising the importance of distinguishing thermodynamic and kinetic thermal events.
Studies across concentrated aqueous monovalent nitrate solutions, and ionic liquids under different confinement geometries demonstrate the prevalence of underscreening. It is also shown that the proposed underscreening scaling exponent does not depend on the mean ion diameter definition, but the transition point to underscreening does.
Citizen wellbeing in hybrid regimes
Keywords: autocracy
Pacific
democracy
hybrid regimes
international development

The post-Cold War triumphalism regarding the spread of democracy has faded. Hybrid regimes (HRs), which combine democratic and autocratic institutions, are now the most common type of political arrangement in the developing world. Despite this, there is little agreement in the literature about how HRs should be defined, and a comprehensive typology of HR subtypes is yet to emerge. Concerningly, we also know very little about the socioeconomic consequences of political hybridity. These problems are interrelated: the lack of a shared lexicon has inhibited the execution of comparative analysis among HR subtypes, and the development of subtype-specific bodies of knowledge. Therefore, I put forward a new HR typology and use this to conduct mixed methods analysis into the effects of political hybridity on citizen wellbeing. This combines statistical analysis of the relationships between HR subtypes and four outcome areas (health, education, living standards, and gender equality) with qualitative case study research on Fiji and Solomon Islands. Key findings include that more competitive elections do not necessarily improve citizen wellbeing; that wellbeing is often highest in HRs where the executive is held accountable by other institutions; and that the effects of political regime type on wellbeing are conditioned by dynamic interactions between formal and informal institutions.
Implicit statistical learning of patterns in orthography to phonology mappings in Chinese EFL learners
Keywords: orthography to phonology
Chinese EFL learners
spelling and pronunciation
implicit and statistical learning

This study attempted to provide deeper insight into how adult EFL learners with a fundamentally different language system, that is, Mandarin Chinese, learn the English orthography-to-phonology patterns under brief incidental exposure. This quantitative research used pre- and post-test design to test the learning of the real English spelling patterns, i.e., the spelling and pronunciation patterns of letter , in the experimental and control conditions. With Mandarin Chinese as their native languages, it may be possible that Chinese EFL learners' L1 may affect their learning of English spelling and pronunciation patterns. Therefore, the researcher is also interested in examining whether learners with better Chinese and English phonemic awareness may perform and improve better in the mapping task. In this sense, the researcher explored the correlations between Chinese and English phonological systems and their performance in orthography-phonology mapping.
Enantioselective remote functionalisation of cyclic amines by engineered P450BM3 variants
Keywords: Molecular docking
C–H functionalisation
P450BM3
Enzyme engineering
Iterative docking-guided mutagenesis
Cyclic amines
MD-simulation

P450 enzymes activate C–H bonds via the insertion of an oxygen atom from atmospheric dioxygen under ambient conditions in water and accept a broad array of endogenous and exogenous organic substrates. P450BM3 (CYP102A1) has a unique structure, with the electron-transfer reductase domain fused to the haem monooxygenase domain. This makes P450BM3 catalytically self-sufficient and promotes high turnover rates. Functionalised cyclic amines are versatile intermediates in drug synthesis and important fragment molecules in drug discovery. Selective oxidation of unactivated ring aliphatic C–H bonds is an attractive route to cyclic amine derivatives; however, classical synthetic methods are limited in scope and lack enantioselectivity. The application of engineered P450 enzymes for selective functionalisation of cyclic amines is surprisingly under-explored.
Chapter 2 describes the substrate and enzyme engineering to access remote hydroxylation products of the medium-sized cyclic amines azepane and azocane. Variant library screening is deployed to identify key residues affecting product selectivity, substrate engineering is utilised to alter the selectivity patterns, and rational design is conducted to improve product selectivity. In Chapter 3, the iterative docking-guided mutagenesis (IDGM) approach is explored. Comparative analysis of the correct binding poses and unwanted poses leads to targeted mutation design to disfavour unwanted poses and increase both the activity and product selectivity of amine oxidation. In Chapter 4, the combined enzyme evolution strategies are used for more complex cyclic amines – the bicyclic, 7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane, and spirocyclic, 8-azaspiro[5.4]decane. These approaches led to scalable enantioselective oxidation of all but one of the unactivated C–H bonds in these important cores of drugs and fragment libraries.