VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Inclusive education and educational diversity: a study of Brunei Government schools

Inclusive education is increasingly being accepted worldwide as the most appropriate means for the education of all children, including those with disabilities. The principle of inclusive education is based on the philosophy that mainstream educational provision should include all children and respond to individual needs. This, however, has profound implications for educators, education planners, and crucially teachers, as they are expected to be able to respond to increasingly diverse classrooms and schools. This research will examine how the Brunei Education system is attempting to respond to pupil diversity in terms of learning needs, by examining the views of policy makers, head teachers and teachers.
This study focuses on the factors which have influenced the development of inclusion in Brunei, the different conceptualisations of needs, the practices which have been adopted and the views of those who are involved in shaping the Brunei education system’s attempt to respond to diverse learning needs in the mainstream education system. Data were generated through interviews, questionnaires, observations and analysis of official policies and documents. The research involved 14 Brunei Government Primary Education schools. The findings of the study indicated that responding to the needs of all children in the mainstream school is a complex challenge. There are several factors which have constrained the development of inclusion in Brunei, some of which are related to how the Brunei education system is structured and the constraints which operate at different levels within the education system. The findings suggest that inclusive education in Brunei is regarded as the integration of children with special educational needs into the mainstream education system and there is little consideration of how to respond to individual needs. There remains a high level of confusion and concern amongst stakeholders in the Ministry in this move to make the Brunei education system more inclusive.

Keywords: Language &amp; Terminology
inclusive education
special education
Brunei
Advisor: Lunt, I
The poisson process in quantum stochastic calculus

Given a compensated Poisson process (Xt)t≥0
based on (Ω,F,P)
, the Wiener-Poisson isomorphism W:F+(L2(R+))→L2(Ω,F,P)
is constructed. We restrict the isomorphism to F+(L2[0,1])
and prove some novel properties of the Poisson exponentials E(f):=W(e(f))
. A new proof of the result Λt+At+A
†
t
=W−1
^
Xt
W
is also given. The analogous results for F+(L2(R+))
are briefly mentioned. The concept of a compensated Poisson process over R+
is generalised to any measure space (M,M,μ)
as an isometry I:L2(M,M,μ)→L2(Ω,F,P)
satisfying certain properties. For such a generalised Poisson process we recall the construction of the generalised Wiener-Poisson isomorphism, WI:F+(L2(M))→L2(Ω,F,P)
, using Charlier polynomials. Two alternative constructions of WI
are also provided, the first using exponential vectors and then deducing the connection with Charlier polynomials, and the second using the theory of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces. Given any measure space (M,M,μ)
, we construct a canonical generalised Poisson process I:L2(M,M,μ)→L2(Δ,B,P)
, where Δ
is the maximal ideal space, with B
the completion of its Borel σ
-field with respect to P
, of a C∗
-algebra A⊆B(F+(L2(M)))
. The Gelfand transform A→B(L2(Δ))
is unitarily implemented by the Wiener-Poisson isomorphism WI:F+(L2(M))→L2(Δ)
. This construction only uses operator algebra theory and makes no a priori use of Poisson measures. A new Fock space proof of the quantum Ito formula for (Λt+At+A
†
t
)0≤t≤1
is given. If (F t)0≤t≤1
is a real, bounded, predictable process with respect to a compensated Poisson process (Xt)0≤t≤1
, we show that if Mt=∫
t
0
FsdXs
, then on Elb:=linsp{e(f):f∈L
2
lb
[0,1]}
, W−1
^
Mt
W=∫
t
0
W−1
^
Fs
W(dΛs+dAs+dA
†
s
),
and that (W−1
^
Mt
W)0≤t≤1
is an essentially self-adjoint quantum semimartingale. We prove, using the classical Ito formula, that if (Jt)0≤t≤1
is a regular self-adjoint quantum semimartingale, then (W
^
Mt
W−1+Jt)0≤t≤1
is an essentially self-adjoint quantum semimartingale satisfying the quantum Duhamel formula, and hence the quantum Ito formula. The equivalent result for the sum of a Brownian and Poisson martingale, provided that the sum is essentially self-adjoint with core Elb
, is also proved.
Characterization of endoplasmic reticulum targeting liposomes as drug delivery vesicles

Due to rapid viral and drug resistance mutations, there is a great need for broad-spectrum antiviral therapies that target the host rather than viral processes. This research builds upon previous studies developing α-glucosidase inhibitors known as iminosugars as broad-spectrum antiviral drugs. Initially pH-sensitive liposomes were designed and developed as drug delivery vehicles to enhance cellular internalization for α-glucosidase inhibitors for HIV-1 antiviral treatment. Recent studies by Pollock et al. have shown that polyunsaturated endoplasmic reticulum targeting liposomes known as PERLs, traffic to the ER and are antiviral as a stand-alone therapy against hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV. In addition, α-glucosidase inhibitors formulated and delivered by 'ER-targeting' liposomes have shown potential in recent preclinical studies in vitro and are candidates for future clinical trials as antiviral treatments.
There are two main purposes of this research. Firstly, it aims to develop crucial quantitative analytical methods that detect the α-glucosidase inhibitor drugs when formulated in 'ER-targeting' liposomes. The analytical methods will help elucidate how the chemical properties of small molecules, such as hydrophobicity or polarity, affect the encapsulation efficiency into 'ER-targeting' liposomes, which will help select appropriate formulation processes and dosing regimes for potential future clinical trials. Secondly, this research intends to dissect the possible cellular internalization and trafficking pathways that the 'ER-targeting' liposomes, such as PERLs, utilize to get to the ER in vitro. A large screening assay was conducted to determine what influence each type of phospholipid has on the cellular entry and intracellular movement of 'ER-targeting' liposomes. Several key observations were drawn from this research that will hopefully further the knowledge of 'ER-targeting' liposomes' capability to deliver iminosugars and the pathways involved with the cellular internalization and trafficking of the liposomes in vitro.

Keywords: liposomes
hepatitis C virus
biochemistry
iminosugars
glycobiology
antivirals
Advisor: Zitzmann, N
Cognitive function in multiple sclerosis and its modulation by cholinergic drugs

In order to assess cognitive function in multiple sclerosis (MS) and the effect of cholinergic modulation, experiments were conducted using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the brain activation during cognitive tasks.
A study comparing the processing of verbal working memory with an N-back task found that patients showed smaller increase in activation than healthy controls with greater task difficulty, suggesting a reduced functional reserve. Controls and patients showed differences of correlations between brain regions activated. Interactions between prefrontal regions may provide an adaptive mechanism that could limit clinical expression of the disease distinct from recruitment of novel processing regions.
The effect of Rivastigmine on the cognitive processing in MS patients was tested in a longitudinal study, involving serial fMRI scans. Changes in the brain activation patterns were demonstrated with drug administration, without any changes in behavioural measures. Rivastigmine may act to increase the functioning of the normal neural network reducing the need for previously recruited compensatory mechanisms in MS patients.
A study on healthy subjects examined the effect of cholinergic inhibition on cognitive processing and brain activation. Changes in functional activation due to Hyoscine during verbal working memory were found analogous to that in MS patients without any changes in behavioural measures. Processes that potentially impair brain cognitive function may recruit similar compensatory functional adaptive mechanisms.
Studies on rats and MS patients explored the effect of Rivastigmine on the relationship of the BOLD fMRI signal with the underlying neural activity. Rivastigmine may be influencing the cortical excitability after direct cortical stimulation but showed only a small effect on the BOLD signal under more physiological neural activity. The neural activity in response to visual stimulation is slightly increased with Rivastigmine in MS patients, a change not detected with functional imaging. These studies suggest that changes in BOLD signal do represent sufficiently large changes of underlying neural activity in the presence of Rivastigmine.
The relationship of damage in MS to measures of connectivity was studied using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Correlation was found between measures of connectivity and callosal size, a measure of fibre loss. The distribution of lesions was spatially correlated with changes in connectivity due to MS. Thus DTI could be utilized to explore the connectivity changes associated with MS, and the relationship with changes in functional activation.

Advisor: Matthews, P
Authenticity and the ethics of self-change

This dissertation focuses on the concept of authenticity and its implications for our projects of self-creation, particularly those involving the use of "enhancement technologies" (such as stimulant drugs, "mood brighteners", or brain stimulation). After an introduction to the concept of authenticity and the enhancement debate in the first part of the thesis, part 2 considers the main analyses of authenticity in the contemporary philosophical literature. It begins with those emphasizing self-creation, and shows that, despite their merits, such views cannot adequately deal with certain types of cases, which require a third option, “true self” accounts, emphasizing self-discovery. However, it is argued that in their existing versions, accounts of this third sort are also unsatisfactory.
Part 3 of the thesis proposes a new account of the "true self" sort, intended to improve upon existing ones. Common problematic assumptions about the concept of the true self are critiqued, after which a new analysis of that concept is presented, based on seven different conditions. Two specific definitions of authenticity, respectively emphasizing self-expression and the preservation of one's true self, are provided, and its relation to various associated notions, such as integrity or sincerity, are examined.
Finally, part 4 looks at the implications of the previous parts for the enhancement debate. In particular, it discusses the prospect of technologically enhancing our personality and mood dispositions. Do such interventions always threaten our authenticity, as some worry? A negative answer is provided to that question. Various potential pitfalls hinted at by the inauthenticity worry are discussed and acknowledged. It is, however, argued that such enhancements could still in principle be used in a fully authentic manner, and that they have the potential to bring about genuine improvements in our mood but also to our moral capacities and our affective rationality more generally.

Keywords: enhancement
normative ethics
authenticity
moral psychology
neuroethics
Advisor: Crisp, R
Kahane, G
Savulescu, J
Spectral dimension in graph models of causal quantum gravity

The phenomenon of scale dependent spectral dimension has attracted special interest in the quantum gravity community over the last eight years. It was first observed in computer simulations of the causal dynamical triangulation (CDT) approach to quantum gravity and refers to the reduction of the spectral dimension from 4 at classical scales to 2 at short distances. Thereafter several authors confirmed a similar result from different approaches to quantum gravity.
Despite the contribution from different approaches, no analytical model was proposed to explain the numerical results as the continuum limit of CDT. In this thesis we introduce graph ensembles as toy models of CDT and show that both the continuum limit and a scale dependent spectral dimension can be defined rigorously. First we focus on a simple graph ensemble, the random comb. It does not have any dynamics from the gravity point of view, but serves as an instructive toy model to introduce the characteristic scale of the graph, study the continuum limit and define the scale dependent spectral dimension.
Having defined the continuum limit, we study the reduction of the spectral dimension on more realistic toy models, the multigraph ensembles, which serve as a radial approximation of CDT. We focus on the (recurrent) multigraph approximation of the two-dimensional CDT whose ensemble measure is analytically controlled. The latter comes from the critical Galton-Watson process conditioned on non-extinction. Next we turn our attention to transient multigraph ensembles, corresponding to higher-dimensional CDT. Firstly we study their fractal properties and secondly calculate the scale dependent spectral dimension and compare it to computer simulations. We comment further on the relation between Horava-Lifshitz gravity, asymptotic safety, multifractional spacetimes and CDT-like models.

Keywords: random walks
random graphs
lattice quantum gravity
spectral dimension
quantum gravity
Advisor: Wheater, J
Global comparison of hedge fund regulations

The regulation of hedge funds has been at the centre of a global policy debate for much of the past decade. Several factors feature in this debate including the magnitude of current global investments in hedge funds and the potential of hedge funds to both generate wealth and destabilise financial markets.
The first part of the thesis describes the nature of hedge funds and locates the work in relation to four elements in existing theory including regulatory competition theory, the concept of differential mobility as identified by Musgrave, Kane’s concept of the regulatory dialectic between regulators and regulatees, and the concept of unique sets of trust and confidence factors that individual jurisdictions convey to the market. It also identifies a series of questions that de-limit the scope of the present work. These include whether there is evidence that regulatory competition occurs in the context of the provision of domicile for hedge funds, what are the factors which account for the current global distribution of hedge fund domicile, what latitude for regulatory competition is available to jurisdictions competing to provide the domicile for hedge funds, how is such latitude shaped by factors intrinsic and extrinsic to the competing jurisdictions, and why do the more powerful onshore jurisdictions competing to provide the domicile for hedge funds not shut down their smaller and weaker competitors?
The second part of the thesis examines the regulatory environment for hedge funds in three so-called offshore jurisdictions, specifically the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands, as well as two onshore jurisdictions, specifically the United Kingdom and the United States.
The final section presents a series of conclusions and their implications for both regulatory competition theory and policy.

Keywords: offshore
british overseas territories
economic history
cayman islands
hedge funds
onshore
regulatory competition
financial regulation
Advisor: Wood, P
Weatherill, S
From hōnto jin to bensheng ren

This thesis represents a new attempt to use numerous volumes of mostly unpublished diaries, viewed as private forms of ego documents, as the main source for examining identity-centered issues. Using the private diaries of two Taiwanese intellectuals, Chen Wangcheng and Wu Xinrong, I have examined how Taiwanese national consciousness emerged and was reconstructed under the Japanese and Chinese Nationalist rule between 1920 and 1955. The examined cases suggest that a sense of Taiwanese national consciousness was created in the 1920s via an empirical construction, on the one hand, through the working of the politico-social networks, and via an abstract construction through the spread of print-capitalism on the other. Nevertheless, between 1937 and 1945, this multi-dimensional Taiwanese national consciousness was primarily reconstructed by the war development and mobilization, which were also reinforced by war propaganda, such as the discourse of the (greater) East Asian new order, rather than by the Kōminka cultural and religious policies. In other words, the sense of cohesion between the Taiwanese and Japanese was intensified, mainly because they shared a common fate in the cumulative process of warfare. In general, the islanders maintained a double identity as 'Taiwanese/Japanese', with the former being visibly tilted towards the latter during the war.
In the early postwar period, the reconstructed Taiwanese national consciousness underwent a further reconstruction caused by the regime change from Japan to China in 1945 and the 2.28 Incident in 1947. The Taiwanese experienced a new imagination of Chinese national consciousness during the regime change, which was later challenged by the misrule of the Nationalist Chinese government and led to the emergence of the bensheng ren (native Taiwanese) consciousness. In nature, the increasing ethnic confrontation between the bensheng ren and waisheng ren (mainlanders), which centered around the conception of 'modernity vs. nationality', mainly resulted from their opposing 'Japanese experiences' and finally led to the outbreak of the 2.28 Incident, which in reverse provided a political focus to materialize the bensheng ren (vs. waisheng ren) identity from outside. In addition, the emerging international Cold War environment enabled the creation of a de facto independent state based on Taiwan-size governance, which internationally had an evident impact on shaping and reshaping the bensheng ren identity.

Advisor: Faure, D
Interpretive provisions in  human rights legislation: a comparative analysis

This thesis considers interpretive provisions in human rights legislation in the United Kingdom (UK), New Zealand and two Australian jurisdictions: the Australian Capital Territory and the State of Victoria. It deals with the relationship between certain common law interpretive principles which protect human rights and the rules under the interpretive provisions. It also considers what effect the interpretive provisions have on the overall approach to statutory interpretation, particularly in terms of their impact on the roles of intention and purpose. One of the themes of the thesis is that it is possible to identify a common methodology for the application of the various interpretive provisions. This is facilitated by an emphasis on the concept of purpose, which is flexible and capable of being identified and applied at higher levels of abstraction than the concept of intention as commonly applied by the courts. Despite this common methodology, the results of attempts at legislative rights-consistent interpretation in the relevant jurisdictions differ. We shall see that the UK courts have taken a broader interpretive approach than have their New Zealand and Australian counterparts. This will be explained by reference to the respective contexts of the human rights legislation in each jurisdiction, particularly in terms of legislative history. It will be argued that the purpose of the UK legislation to provide remedies in domestic courts for breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights provides the basis for the UK courts’ approach. The absence of this factor is the primary point of distinction between the UK on the one hand, and New Zealand and Australia on the other, though other issues will be explored. Finally, while as a matter of the interpretation of the UK legislation, and especially of the relevant interpretive provision, the approach of the UK courts is defensible, the significant risk to the principle of legal certainty which it poses will be highlighted.

Keywords: statutory interpretation
human rights
Advisor: Vogenauer, S
Analysis of the functions and products of the yeast retrotransposon Ty

There are 30-35 copies of the retrotransposon Ty in the haploid genome of most laboratory strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Ty elements are 5.9 kb long, have LTRs of 340 bp and produce a genomic RNA that is 5.7 kb in length, through which it transposes. They contain two ORFs; the TYA gene of the class I element Tyl-15 is 1,319 nucleotides long whilst its TYB gene, which possesses the consensus sequences of retroviral acid proteases, reverse transcriptases and integrases, is 3,984 nucleotides long. TYB overlaps TYA by 38 nucleotides at its 5' end and is expressed as a TYA;TYB fusion protein.
In an attempt to asign some in vivo functions to the Ty encoded proteins, the whole transcriptional unit of Tyl-15 was overexpressed in yeast. Electron micrographs of the overexpressing cells revealed an abundance of cytoplasmic, ~60 nm virus-like particles (Ty-VLPs). These contain the 5.7 kb Ty RNA and have an associated reverse transcriptase activity. Their major protein is p2 (48 kD), which is a proteolytic derivative of the primary translation product of TYA, pi (50 kD), a protein that is also assembled into particles.
A truncated pi, encoded by a TYA gene shortened by 60 codons at its 3' end, still aggregates into particles. Furthermore, the addition of α2-IFN (20 kD) onto its carboxy terminus, to produce a pl-IFN fusion protein of ~68 kD, does not interfere with its particle forming properties. The hybrid VLPs are easy to purify and elicit an antibody response in rabbits to the Ty and IFN epitopes.
A series of fragments spanning Tyl-15 were inserted into the packaging analysis vector, pMA924. The association of the resulting PGK-Ty-IFN hybrid RNAs with Ty-VLPs, in the presence of abundant Ty encoded proteins, was analysed by Northern blotting and used to assess the packaging capabilities of Ty RNA. Unexpectedly, RNA sequences that, direct specific packaging are produced from regions throughout Tyl-15. The signals corresponding to TYA are probably located within two regions of the genomic RNA, 5' to nucleotide 236 and 3' to nucleotide 737; those corresponding to TYB are in at least two, currently undefined, areas.
The TYB gene of the class II element Tyl-17 overlaps TYA by 44 nucleotides. The fusion of α2-IFN cDNA fragments into all three reading phases of TYB followed by a Western blot analysis demonstrated that, like the TYB gene of Tyl-15, it too is expressed as a TYA:TYB fusion protein.

Advisor: Kingsman, A
Kingsman, S
Alan