VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Response of temperate forest birds to habitat change in central Chile

Despite the long time since the introduction and spread of pine plantations in southern hemisphere countries there has been no study of the suitability of this exotic and novel type of vegetation on the native avifauna. This thesis aims to add understanding of this habitat replacement and its effects on the forest bird community. This research included a series of studies to assess the quality of mature pine plantations for the forest avifauna in comparison to what is in native forests. The first two studies determine the effects on the forest bird community of the fragmentation and replacement of native forest in a gradient of substitution. The results showed a direct relationship between level of substitution and loss of functional diversity, and that fragmentation predicts the bird assemblage in pine stands. The next two studies used data from an intensive ringing season to assess differences in the condition of populations inhabiting each habitat. Birds, in general, were found in better condition in native fragments than in pine plantations. Moreover, a despotic distribution was determined for a migrant species and a gradient in habitat quality was found in relation to proximity to native forest. The next two studies used information from a nest-box survey set in a gradient of sites with substitution of native forest. The results showed that the type of forest cover and their proportion in the landscape may affect the breeding performance of some species. Finally, in the last study I evaluated the foraging niche of bird species in each habitat. Compared with native forest, niche breath reduced while the niche overlap increased in pine plantations for most species. The results suggest that pine plantations are poor quality habitat for the bird community and that the substitution of native forests increases selective pressure.

Keywords: birds
pine plantations
temperate
Southern hemisphere
Advisor: Gosler, A
Self-reported weight changes in 1st year university students in England: an analysis of social and physical environment

Background: Moving from secondary education to university is an important transitional moment during which students commonly experience a weight change (WC). This WC in first year university students (FYUS) is described as the Freshmen 15, in reference to claims that students gain 15lbs (6.8kg) over the academic year. Past research suggest the WC is closer to an average of 2kg and is due to physical inactivity, stress and poor diet. The socio-ecological model (SEM) offers a conceptual framework, reflecting many levels of influence to describe health behaviours in specific settings and is relevant to this context. My thesis sought to understand self-reported WC in FYUS in England adopting an SEM perspective.
Methods: I conducted a literature review to evaluate the strength and quality of observational evidence to support the hypothesis of the Freshmen 15. With data from 32 identified studies, I performed a meta-analysis on mean WC. I also performed sub-analyses stratified by sex, location, weight measuring method and by weight gainers. Based on the results and identified knowledge gaps, I then developed a national study on FYUS self-reported weight change in England through an online survey and collection of national statistics. I recruited FYUS from 28 universities, from a total of 101 universities. Students answered an online survey at three time points over the 2014-2015 academic year. They reported their weight, height and answered questions representing 29 constructs at the demographics, intrapersonal, interpersonal and environmental level, reflecting the SEM. I performed descriptive statistics and stepwise AIC regressions to examine WC trends and to explore which variables explain WC. Analyses were conducted on the full sample over the academic year, by term, sex and weight gaining status.
Results: The meta-analysis and literature review indicated that 60% of FYUS gained weight with an average gain of 3.38kg over 7-8 months. For my empirical study, I recruited 1,026 students, of which 215 were eligible and answered the survey at all three time points. The mean self-reported WC was +0.98kg, 50% gained weight at an average of 3.46kg while 25% lost weight at an average of 3.21kg. The best AIC model indicated that correlates from all layers of the SEM were useful in describing WC over the academic year, with an adjusted-R2 of 25.3%. Across all multivariate models, explanatory variables for self-reported WC included the undergraduate/postgraduate ratio of a university, being part of healthy universities network, perceived quantity of green space, unhealthy eating with friends and baseline weight.
Conclusion: The results indicate that 75% of FYUS experience WC at an average of +/- 3.2kg, equivalent to a Freshmen 7. The multivariate models support the use of an SEM approach in investigating first year university WC and in developing healthy environments. Universities should embrace their potential for health promotion as their social and physical environments influence WC.

Advisor: Townsend, N
Foster, C
Understanding the epidemiology of Bluetongue virus in South India using statistical models

Bluetongue is an economically important midge-borne disease affecting domestic and wild ruminants worldwide. The disease, caused by the bluetongue virus (BTV), is highly endemic in South India, occurring with varying severity every year since 1963, causing high morbidity and mortality, resulting in huge economic losses to subsistence farmers, impacting the GDP of the country and affecting food security. The bluetongue epidemiological system in South India is characterized by an unusually wide diversity of susceptible ruminant hosts, many potential Culicoides vector species and numerous pathogen serotypes and strains. These factors (intrinsic and extrinsic) contribute to disease impacts that vary widely over geographical space.
Chapter 2 deals with identification of remote sensed variables in discriminating between presence and absence of bluetongue outbreaks and development of a risk map using non-linear discriminant analysis (NLDA) approach.
Chapter 3 deals with understanding the role of extrinsic factors such as monsoon conditions in driving seasonality in BTV outbreaks over two decades in Andhra Pradesh, India using a Bayesian Poisson regression model framework, accounting for temporal autocorrelation.
In chapter 4, the mean annual numbers of outbreaks in each district in South Indian states were examined in relation to land-cover, host availability and climate predictors using a Bayesian generalised linear mixed model with Poisson errors and a conditional autoregressive error structure to account for spatial autocorrelation.
In chapter 5, the annual number of outbreaks in each district in South India was examined in relation to climate predictors (temperature and precipitation) at different lags using a Bayesian generalized linear mixed model with Poisson errors.
In chapter 6, a range of suitable predictors was considered for identifying their relationships with bluetongue outbreaks using Bayesian Network Modelling (BNM), and the important variables were used to develop a Bayesian geostatistical model accounting for spatial autocorrelation.
The analysis resulted in the development of spatial risk maps at district and village levels, district level yearly predictions and monthly state level predictions, which can contribute to the development of an early warning system for the disease in South India.

Advisor: Rogers, D
Purse, B
Modern representational thinking: the ontic, the a priori and the divinization of the human. A new approach to Heidegger’s Kehre

This thesis offers a new approach to Heidegger's Kehre. This turn in Heidegger's thinking has been understood in various ways including the view that there is no such turning. My analysis is framed within those who think that there is an early and a later Heidegger meaning by this that the former focuses the reawakening of the encounter with Being on Dasein and the latter on the history of Being. A well-known outcome of this last focus is Heidegger's critical view towards modern representations. I will show that an analysis of this critical view can offer a new understanding of Heidegger's turn. Heidegger draws up a distinction between intuitive representations and representations against experience, the latter of which corresponds to his understanding of modern representations. An analysis of this type of representations shows that in the mid-30s Heidegger realizes that thinking Being as the a priori carries a danger, which consists in the fact that Being can break with the ontic domain and become determined by pure reason alone. The danger lurking in the a priori reinforces the view that the withdrawal of Being precludes its aprioricity. This leads Heidegger to lose faith in his project of fundamental ontology as presented in Being and Time and compels him to rethink Being in ways that could avoid this danger, as his unorthodox interpretation of Kant's synthetic a priori shows. Commensurate with this, Heidegger becomes increasingly concerned about the ontic domain, as his introduction of the notion of metontology – a failed attempt to break clear with fundamental ontology – reveals. Insofar as the utmost expression of the danger lurking in the a priori is the determination (creation) of reality by representations – where reality has to be understood in its traditional sense –, Heidegger's break clear with fundamental ontology can be read as an attempt to avoid the divinization of the human.

Advisor: Mulhall, S
Pattison, G
Developing small molecule ligands for the study of bromodomain-histone interactions

Dynamic changes in DNA methylation, and post-translational modifications on histone proteins which DNA wraps around, form the basis of epigenetic transfer of information. The histone code refers to different combinations of epigenetic marks, each mediating transcription in a specific manner. Bromodomains are acetyl-lysine readers of the histone protein which interact selectively with acetylated lysine residues on histones. This protein-protein interaction alters gene expression levels, causing specific downstream effects. The human bromodomain family consists of 61 unique proteins, which are divided into eight subfamilies based on sequence similarity. Most research has been focused on the bromodomain and extra C-terminal (BET) family, which has yielded 14 compounds currently in clinical trials. However, only a few selective ligands and no compounds in clinical trials have been reported for other bromodomain families.
Herein is reported, an extensive structure activity relationship of a potent CREBBP bromodomain ligand. The focus was on the cation-π interaction between R1173 and the tetrahydroquinaxolinone, and a good correlation between the computationally calculated electrostatic surface potential and the CREBBP bromodomain binding affinity was observed. Attempts to increase the selectivity of the ligand over the BET bromodomain were unsuccessful. The stability of the dihydroquinaxolinone headgroup was optimised by ring size expansion, which maintained CREBBP affinity and binding mode – the latter of which was confirmed by X-Ray crystallography. The propyl linker was modified by introducing a gem-difluoro group, and due to the conformational effect of the gauche-gauche interaction, a 3-fold affinity increase was observed.
A second project in this dissertation reports the development of a small, modular photo affinity based probe based on a 3,5-dimethylisoxazole acetyl lysine mimic. This probe could be crosslinked to purified bromodomain proteins with up to 30% efficiency and subsequently modified via CuAAc chemistry to attach a fluorophore or biotin tag. The probe can crosslink to BRD4(1), CREBBP, WDR9(2) and the parasitic bromodomain TcBDF3.

Advisor: Conway, S
Literary metatranslation: understanding the multiple in post-communist Poland

This doctoral thesis introduces the notion of 'literary metatranslation', a self-reflexive literary strategy in which the translator (or a group of translators) exposes the process and act of translation by producing different parallel variants, placing them next to each other as legitimate versions of the original, and presenting them jointly as an artistic work. Pointing to its artistic and ethical relevance, I first identify the gesture of multiplying possible readings of an original text in the contemporary Anglophone context and then discuss it in much more detail in the Polish translation tradition. I argue that the ethical task of such multiplied translations can be compared to the one of metaliterature: alerting the reader to the creative transformation occurring in the process. I briefly discuss this idea with reference to multiplied translations of poetry in English (e.g. Weinberger, Paz 1989, Hofstadter 1997, Waldrop, 2000, Bergvall 2000, Cobb, Coleman 2003, Carson 2012). Then, in the three core chapters of the thesis, I focus on literary translation practice in the Polish post-1989 context and show how a multiplicity of interpretative angles could also be read in pluralist terms: as opening a forum for discussion about the original, introducing different viewpoints through translation, and undermining the authoritative legacy of the Communist literary order. At this juncture, I analyse three key examples against the background of socio-cultural phenomena, publishing practices, and translation debates of that time: Stanis ław Bara&nacute;czak's translation polemics and multiple translations of the early 90s; Robert Stiller's double/triple rendering of 'A Clockwork Orange' from 1999; and Andrzej Kopacki's quadruple Brecht from 2012. In discussing the ethical ideas underpinning these works, I demonstrate how literary metatranslations and their gesture of acknowledging more than one view and line of thinking could also undermine totalised discourses and put forward a more democratic agenda.

Advisor: Fellerer, J
Muon spin spectroscopy and high magnetic field studies of novel superconductors and magnetic materials

This thesis investigates a number of novel magnetic materials and high temperature superconductors using high-field magnetometry and muon spin spectroscopy (μSR). The main measurement techniques are briefly described and a study of the dimer material [Cu(pyrazine)(glycine)]ClO4 is presented to demonstrate the use of the proximity detector oscillator as a susceptometer in high magnetic fields.
μSR is a highly effective tool for probing magnetic order, spin freezing and spin dynamics. However, in some circumstances its performance may be impaired by the extent to which it perturbs the material under study. Using μSR, density functional theory and crystal field calculations, I identify an experimental situation in the family of candidate quantum spin ices Pr2B2O7 (B = Sn, Zr, and Hf), in which the measured response is dominated by a muon-induced distortion of the local structure. This issue is also addressed in a study of the spin dynamics in the canonical spin ice Ho2Ti2O7. Although computational work indicates a similar muon-induced effect in both Ho2Ti2O7 and Dy2Ti2O7, the μSR data is not dominated by this perturbation.
The remainder of this thesis is concerned with studying the superconducting properties of a number of Fe-based materials, including LiFeP which is found to have an enhanced superfluid stiffness in relation to its transition temperature. Also reported is the effect of structural disorder on the superconducting state in recently discovered Sr0.3(NH2)y(NH3)1-yFe2Se2. Pulsed magnetic field measurements are used to probe the temperature dependence of the upper critical field, giving a maximum value of μ0Hc2(0)≈33(2) T. I also investigate the effect of intercalating additional ammonia, via reversible adsorption and desorption in the related superconductor Lix[(NH2)y(NH3)1-y]zFe2Se2 (z = 1, 2). These reactions were carried out in situ on the muon beamline so that the superfluid stiffness could be measured using transverse-field μSR on a single sample.

Keywords: Superconductivity
Spin ice
Magnetism
Muon spin spectroscopy
High magnetic fields
Advisor: Blundell, S
Goddard, P
Social remembering and children’s historical consciousness

This study explores how young people's engagement with history outside of the classroom shapes the development of their historical consciousness. Drawing on public discourses around the First World War (WW1), I address the implications of this engagement for history teachers and young peoples' learning. Recognising the active and dynamic construction of memory and meaning by young people, I develop the concept of social remembering.
Building on socio-cultural perspectives, I examine the 'lived experience' of young people's memory work. Using WW1 as a context, and adopting an innovative mixed methods approach, the research was conducted over two stages. The first stage of the research used a quiz and survey to explore the extent and nature of young people's social remembering. In the second stage of the study I examined young people's memory work outside the classroom. I worked with several small groups of students to construct their own ethnographic accounts of societal and familial remembering and their emerging historical consciousness, fashioning these into ethnographic portraits.
The research highlights the role that social remembering plays in young people’s identities, including the ways in which they value and use history, attribute historical significance to events and orientate themselves in time. It shows how different forms of social remembering can both include or exclude young people and impact positively or negatively on young people's historical consciousness.
An understanding of social remembering outside the classroom can support history teachers in the development of pedagogies that build on students' meaning making associated with public events such as commemorations. I argue that teachers can use the intersections between social remembering and disciplinary history to engage and support students in their study of history.
Although the study originated within the context of history education, it has wider value, offering a ground breaking methodological approach to exploring young people’s understandings of the past and in contributing to the historiography of historical memory.

Keywords: social memory
young people
identity
history education
Historical consciousness
ethnographic portraits
First World War
Advisor: Mills, D
Burn, K
Beyond the standard cosmological paradigm with weak gravitational lensing

Next-generation cosmological surveys will demand an unprecedented understanding of the interplay between theoretical and observational aspects of weak gravitational lensing. This thesis presents a study of the parameter degeneracies and theoretical uncertainties which will affect weak lensing tests of cosmology beyond the standard paradigm. In particular, tests of alternative theories of gravity and of spatial curvature are considered.
First, by considering linear-order departures from the standard gravitational theory of general relativity, a novel expression is derived for the weak lensing convergence power spectrum under alternative theories of gravity. Using this expression, degeneracies between gravitational parameters in weak lensing observations are explored, first with a focus on scale-independent parameterisations of gravity, then considering new physical scales introduced by alternative theories. The degeneracy-breaking offered by the combination of weak lensing and redshift-space distortions is shown to be robust to the time-dependence of the functions parameterising modified gravity.
Next, the gravity-testing statistic EG is investigated, and a new theoretical expression for its observationally-motivated definition is presented. The theoretical uncertainty of EG is compared to forecast statistical errors, and found to be significant in the case of a more futuristic measurement. Predictions are then computed for EG under deviations from general relativity, and the ongoing utility of EG as a probe of gravity is discussed.
Finally, an investigation is made of the potential for measuring or constraining the spatial curvature using weak lensing and complementary observables. The predicted constraint on the spatial curvature is forecast for a suite of upcoming surveys, and the effect of including parameters which may be degenerate with the spatial curvature is explored. It is found that upcoming observations are likely to constrain spatial curvature at a 10-3 level, but not to reach the best-case constraint of &Tilde; 10-4.

Advisor: Ferreira, P
Miller, L
Dedicated carbon scaffolds for next generation hydrogenation chemistry and H2 evolution

This Thesis is primarily concerned with developing sustainable and cost-efficient methods for applications of hydrogen (H2-driven fine chemical synthesis) and production of hydrogen (hydrogen evolution reaction, HER). Using novel catalysts, immobilising these catalysts, and translating the conventional batch processes to flow processes are the key solutions used for both of these processes.
In the first part of this work enzymes are employed as catalysts in fine chemical synthesis. Enzymes are enantio-, regio- and stereoselective, can be used in mild reaction conditions, and can be easily produced in the laboratory. It is possible to electronically couple a hydrogenase to an NAD+ reductase enzyme via conductive carbon particles for NAD+ to NADH reduction. Thus, enzymes were immobilised on high surface area, porous and electronically conducting commercial carbon particles for H2-driven generation of NADH, an expensive cofactor required by many enzymes to work, in batch. The commercial carbon materials which are conventionally used for metal catalysed hydrogenation reactions were shown to be suitable supports for enzymes used in H2-driven biotransformations in batch. In this work, novel carbon nanotube columns (CNCs) were utilised as enzyme supports and flow devices for a range of H2-driven biotransformations including ketone reduction and reductive amination reactions. This is the first demonstration of H2-driven NADH recycling for selective biotransformations in flow.
The second part of this work focuses on HER catalysis. Here, novel WS2 assemblies were developed as alternatives to expensive and rare platinum catalysts. WS2 nanostructures were directly grown on multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) carpets and CNCs for the first time. Preliminary electrochemical studies showed that these assemblies are suitable to be used as HER catalysts, although they require a significant overpotential. This is a promising proof-of-concept demonstration of WS2-MWCNT assemblies being used in HER catalysis. A possible future extension of this work would involve using these assemblies in flow.

Keywords: Hydrogen evolution
flow chemistry
Reductive amination
flow hydrogenation
Ketone reduction
Catalyst support
carbon nanotube column
Biotransformations
Carbon nanotube
Metal dichalcogenide
Advisor: Grobert, N
Vincent, K
Dillon, F