VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
An incomplete understanding: Clarifying some causes and consequences of the 'poor comprehender' profile

The research presented in this thesis had two overarching aims; the first, to supplement our knowledge concerning the aetiological underpinnings of poor comprehension, and the second, to investigate the impact of being a poor comprehender on behavioural and educational outcomes in the school context. A combination of standardised test batteries, novel experimental paradigms, and questionnaire measures were used to obtain data that addressed hypotheses connected to these two aims. Poor comprehenders were found to have working memory deficits, as well as more specific deficits in suppressing irrelevant information from working memory. However, these deficits were largely confined to the verbal domain, giving credence to the theory that their poor performance on working memory and suppression tasks may be driven by underlying language difficulties. Poor comprehenders did show some evidence of broader executive deficits in both the verbal and non-verbal domains, raising the possibility that there might be subgroups of poor comprehenders with distinct aetiological profiles. In terms of behavioural and educational outcomes, poor comprehenders’ deficits were found to impact selectively on these areas, producing a distinct pattern of behavioural and educational impairments. These findings highlighted the need for early identification of, and effective intervention for, poor comprehenders.

Keywords: language
poor comprehenders
reading comprehension
working memory
Advisor: Nation, K
Cognitive and behavioural processes in health anxiety

In this thesis a cognitive-behavioural model of health anxiety is used to investigate the psychological effects of bone densitometry, a health test which can provide an indication of future risk for osteoporosis. The cognitive-behavioural model of health anxiety proposes that people will experience relatively high levels of anxiety about their health if they have a tendency to make particularly negative interpretations of bodily variations and information which may be relevant to health. It was therefore predicted that people who have a pre-existing tendency to worry about their health would react more negatively to the results of bone density measurement. Consistent with this prediction, after a low bone density ("high risk") result, women who reported high levels of pre-existing health anxiety gave higher ratings of anxiety about osteoporosis and perceived likelihood of developing osteoporosis in the near future than women with low levels of preexisting health anxiety. (The two groups did not differ significantly in these ratings before the scan). Differences in the reactions of women with high and low levels of pre-existing health anxiety were still apparent 14 months after the scan. Women receiving a low bone density ("high risk") result showed a "minimization" of the seriousness of low bone density; when individual differences were investigated, it was found that women with very high levels of pre-existing health anxiety did not show minimization. Furthermore, after a "low risk" result, women with high levels of health anxiety were only temporarily reassured. It thus appears that the new measure of health anxiety which was used in this thesis may be useful in helping to identify people who are vulnerable to experiencing distress after health screening. More specific pre-scan measures of beliefs about osteoporosis (derived from the cognitive-behavioural model) also predicted reactions to bone density screening. For example, pre-scan beliefs about the seriousness or burden of low bone density / osteoporosis were stronger predictors of anxiety about osteoporosis three months after the scan than the actual scan result. Factors such as the type of interpretation the woman makes of her scan result, and whether the woman is having her first or second scan, were also found to influence psychological reactions.
What is the difference between a moral realist and a moral anti-realist?

This paper addresses the question of how to distinguish moral realism from moral anti-realism. An influential view, prevalent primarily due to the work of Michael Dummett, appeals to semantic features of realism such as truth, bivalence, and surface form. However, minimalist accounts enable an anti-realist to appropriate any such semantic feature. The semantic characterisation is thus unable to distinguish adequately between moral realists and moral anti-realists. This is the problem of Creeping Minimalism. An alternative characterisation of the debate is proposed, making use of the distinctively metaphysical criteria of ontological inclusion/exclusion. Semantic minimalism is not an issue here, and the possibility of minimalism about ontology is shown to be incompatible with both realism and anti-realism, thus preventing the recurrence of Creeping Minimalism.

Keywords: realism
creeping minimalism
Michael Dummett
anti-realism
Advisor: Parsons, J
Rational macroeconomic learning in linear expectational models: an analysis of the convergence properties of macroeconomic models under partial information rational expectations and Bayesian learning

The partial information rational expectations solution to a general linear multivariate expectational macro-model is found when agents are uncertain about the true values of the model's parameters. Necessary and sufficient conditions for convergence to the full information rational expectations solutions are given, and the core of an algorithm for the Bayesian updating of beliefs is provided. In the course of this a new class of full information rational expectations equilibria is described and some of its desirable properties proven.

Keywords: JEL:E00
feasible rational expectations equilibria
indeterminacy
sunspots
partial information
generalized Schur decomposition
Bayesian learning
JEL:C11
JEL:C60
rational expectations
Advisor: Vines, D
Ellison, M
A study of the variation in some structural features and some wood properties of Pinus caribaea

Wood density and fibre morphology of Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis Barrett and Golfari from Fiji were studied in relation to pulp properties.
Densitometry and anatomical measurement were examined using billets taken from a sub-sample of 20 12-13 year old trees, chosen as representative of the density range observed in a first sample of 120 trees. Pulping properties were examined at the Tropical Products Institute, London.
Considerable differences between trees were found in all characteristics examined and all characteristics showed fairly marked tree to tree variation in development patterns in a radial direction though differences along the stem were small. Between ring differences for ring width, density, cell wall thickness and cell wall percentage were considerable but cell lumen width and cell diameter were fairly constant between rings.
Tree morphological characteristics cannot be used for estimation of whole tree values for any of the features studied. Whole tree values for wood characteristics can be accurately predicted from samples taken at 5% height level.
Characteristic patterns of wood density distribution classes and tracheid cross sectional dimension classes were found, resembling chi-squared, binomial and bimodal curves.
Wood properties could be used to predict pulp yield percentage and tear factor accurately by simple regression, less precise estimates could be obtained in this way, for burst factor and breaking length, which were best indicated by cell wall thickness.
The best indicators of variation in pulp total yield percentage were chemical properties. Density was the best indicator of tear factor whilst cell wall thickness was the most important factor in explaining burst factor and breaking length. Growth rate showed negative correlation with wood density; trees of lower density produce paper of a strength generally at least equal to that obtained with higher density trees, though tear factor was lower. Thus the selection of trees for fast growth rate is suggested as the most profitable course. The most desirable selection criteria are listed.
Automatic validation and optimisation of biological models

Simulating the human heart is a challenging problem, with simulations being very time consuming, to the extent that some can take days to compute even on high performance computing resources. There is considerable interest in computational optimisation techniques, with a view to making whole-heart simulations tractable. Reliability of heart model simulations is also of great concern, particularly considering clinical applications. Simulation software should be easily testable and maintainable, which is often not the case with extensively hand-optimised software. It is thus crucial to automate and verify any optimisations. CellML is an XML language designed for describing biological cell models from a mathematical modeller’s perspective, and is being developed at the University of Auckland. It gives us an abstract format for such models, and from a computer science perspective looks like a domain specific programming language. We are investigating the gains available from exploiting this viewpoint. We describe various static checks for CellML models, notably checking the dimensional consistency of mathematics, and investigate the possibilities of provably correct optimisations. In particular, we demonstrate that partial evaluation is a promising technique for this purpose, and that it combines well with a lookup table technique, commonly used in cardiac modelling, which we have automated. We have developed a formal operational semantics for CellML, which enables us to mathematically prove the partial evaluation of CellML correct, in that optimisation of models will not change the results of simulations. The use of lookup tables involves an approximation, thus introduces some error; we have analysed this using a posteriori techniques and shown how it may be managed. While the techniques could be applied more widely to biological models in general, this work focuses on cardiac models as an application area. We present experimental results demonstrating the effectiveness of our optimisations on a representative sample of cardiac cell models, in a variety of settings.

Keywords: partial evaluation
a posteriori
correctness
CellML
units
cardiac
error analysis
reliability
computational optimisation
lookup tables
Advisor: McKeever, S
Gavaghan, D
Whiteley, J
Culture and dissociation of sensibility in the writings of John Henry Newman and Matthew Arnold, with particular attention to Carlyle and his so-called condition-of-England question

The study explores the hypothesis that the High Victorian ideal of Culture, and Carlyle's response to his own Condition-of-England question, represent efforts to combat, in roughly opposite ways, what T.S. Eliot termed dissociation of sensibility.' It offers an explanation of the persistent impulse towards holistic views of society in the face of technological and social forces moving ever more decisively in the opposite direction.
Chapter One defends the intelligibility and consistency of 'dissociation' in relation to influential criticisms by F.W.Bateson and Frank Kermode. The apparent anomalies these critics point to are explained by examining the source of the concept in Eliot's study of F.H.Bradley, and suggesting the relation of 'dissociation' to arguments of Jack Goody and lan Watt concerning the interaction between oral and literate culture.
Chapter Two outlines some of the dimensions of 'dissociation' in the nineteenth century: its relation to romantic notions concerning the vision of the child, to various theoretical expositions of the relation between thought and feeling, and to accounts of the personal experience of 'dissociation' given by Darwin and J.S. Mill.
Chapter Three examines what some of his contemporaries felt to be Carlyle's impractical response to the Condition-of-England, showing it to be essentially an extrapolation of his own experience of the romantic revolution as described in Sartor Resartus and adumbrated in the early essays. Carlyle's tussle with anomy and heroic emergence into the 'Everlasting YEA' are discussed as a revulsion from literate consciousness.
Chapter Four suggests how Newman's idea of harmonious intellectual cultivation depends on the individual maintaining a proper balance between 'implicit' and 'explicit' thought. Newman's account of the relation between these modes in the Grammar of Assent is related to the educational system he expounds in his educational writings.
Chapter Five shows how Arnold's emphasis on intellectual consciousness constantly threatens to destabilise his theory of Culture and turn it into a merely subjective ideal. The chapter ends by suggesting how the philosophy of F.H. Bradley tends to heal the breach between consciousness and experience, providing a basis for Eliot's own understanding of the unified sensibility.
The Conclusion affirms the value of 'dissociation' as a means of illuminating the holistic impulse, which might otherwise be conceptually unassailable.
Palladium-catalysed cascade cyclisation of alkynyl silanes and studies towards rubriflordilactone A

In this work, a new methodology for the synthesis of a number of silylated bicyclic dienes has been reported. These bicyclic dienes allowed access to a variety of enones and phenols in 2 further steps.
The stabilities and reactivities of different dialkylisopropoxy silanes have been evaluated,revealing relative instability of the dimethylisopropoxy silyl group towards chromatography. When using the analogous diethylisopropoxy silyl group instead, the products showed greater stability towards chromatography, however a higher temperature was necessary to oxidise the more sterically hindered silyl group to the desired hydroxyl moiety.
A powerful cascade cyclisation for the synthesis of the CDE-core of rubriflordilactone A was then demonstrated and was successfully used for the synthesis of two systems, 284 and 333.
The phenolic oxygen has been successfully installed by oxidation of a dialkylisopropoxy silane. The synthesis of these ring systems provides a solid foundation for the completion of the total synthesis of rubriflordilactone A.
Finally the synthesis of suitable diynes 405 for the synthesis of the acyclic precursor of the cyclisation has been achieved. The stabilities of theses silanes towards a range of reaction have been demonstrated.

Keywords: catalysis
synthesis
palladium
natural product
Advisor: Anderson, E
Giving Ignatian Exercises at ecclesial frontiers

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, presuppose Roman Catholicism, but are today made by many who are not Catholics. Moreover, even Roman Catholics who make Ignatian Exercises often are not spontaneously inclined to obey Roman ecclesiastical authority. Neither avoiding the ecclesial dimension nor an authoritarian ‘follow the rules!’ provides spiritual directors with adequate orientation when working with issues at Church frontiers. This dissertation in pastoral theology seeks to navigate a middle position by moving beyond the individualism and the a-historical assumptions of the existing relevant literature.
The dissertation remains close to the Ignatian primary sources, in the awareness that the Ignatian tradition needs to be constantly updated and that the contemporary ecclesial frontiers are not fully foreseen in the canonical texts. The main hypothesis is that a notion is needed of a ‘pilgrim Church’ in space and time, with Christians who are related to one another in a deep and fundamental sense. The minor hypothesis is that the individual needs to be open towards and prepared to learn from the Roman Catholic Church, in order to understand and to be profoundly moved by these exercises, but not necessarily to become a Roman Catholic.
Having presented and discussed various approaches in the writings of twentieth-century and recent thinkers, this thesis puts forward its own ecclesiological position informed by Charles Taylor, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Karl Rahner. The aim is to take Ignatian studies forward by combining relational anthropology, hermeneutics and a sacramental understanding of the Church, and to apply this synthesis to the practice of giving Ignatian Exercises. The final chapter discusses a selection of cases in the light of my ecclesiological position. The synthesis and application claim originality.

Keywords: Raymund Schwager
Spiritual Discernment
Church as Sacrament
Spiritual Exercises
Charles Taylor
Santiago Madrigal
Karl Rahner
Ecumenical
Spiritual Direction
Hugo Rahner
Church Authority
Ecclesial Frontiers
Prophetic Voice of the Poor
Hierarchical Church
Ignatius of Loyola
Jesuits
Philip Endean
Relational Anthropology
Jon Sobrino
Hans-Georg Gadamer
Advisor: Endean, P
Mathematical and computational modelling of ultrasound elasticity imaging

In this thesis a parameter recovery method for use in ultrasound elasticity imaging is developed. Elasticity imaging is a method for using a series of ultrasound images (and the displacement field between them) to estimate the spatial variation of the stiffness of the tissue being imaged. Currently iterative methods are used to do this: a model of tissue mechanics is assumed and a large number of simulations using varying parameters are compared to the actual displacement field. The aim of this work is to develop a solution method that works back from the known displacement field to determine the tissue properties, reducing the number of simulations that must be performed to one.<.p>
The parameter recovery method is based on the formulation and direct solution of the 2-d linear elasticity inverse problem using finite element methods. The inverse problem is analyzed mathematically and the existence and uniqueness of solutions is described for varying numbers of displacement fields and appropriate boundary conditions. It is shown to be hyperbolic (and so difficult to solve numerically) and then reformulated as a minimization problem with hyperbolic Euler-Lagrange equations.
A finite element solution of the minimization problem is developed and implemented. The results of the finite element implementation are shown to work well in recovering the parameters used in numerical simulations of the linear elasticity forward problem so long as these are continuous. The method is shown to be robust in dealing with small errors in displacement estimation and larger errors in the boundary values of the parameters. The method is also tested on displacement fields calculated from series of real ultrasound images.
The validity of modelling the ultrasound elasticity imaging process as a 2-d problem is discussed. The assumption of plane strain is shown not to be valid and methods for extending the parameter recovery method to 3 dimensions once 3-d ultrasound becomes more widely used are described (but not implemented).

Advisor: Gavaghan, D
Noble, A
Chapman, J
The synthesis and biology of iminosugars and their precursors

Iminosugars are carbohydrate mimics, where the endocyclic ring oxygen has been replaced by nitrogen. This substitution affords these compounds their inhibitory activity towards sugar-processing enzymes (glycosidases) and, as a consequence, their chemotherapeutic potential in the treatment of a broad range of diseases. Several iminosugars are currently in clinical trials or have entered the market as approved drugs. This has consequently led to increasing levels of research into their synthesis and application, both in terms of the development of efficient methodology to access naturally occurring examples, and also to elaborate novel scaffolds. The presence of multiple chiral centres within iminosugars provides a considerable challenge in accessing these targets by asymmetric means, whereas carbohydrates pose a more attractive chiral pool. As such the majority of literature methods have employed this latter method.
The focus of the thesis is on the elaboration of robust methodologies to access both naturally occurring and novel iminosugars, and their precursors, from readily available carbohydrate starting materials.
Chapter 1 presents an introduction to iminosugars, including an overview of glycosidase inhibition by this class of sugar-mimic, their historical medical usage and the basis for their potential employment in treating diabetes, lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) and cancer. This chapter also gives a general review of the methods employed in the literature for the assembly of iminosugar scaffolds.
Chapter 2 is concerned with the synthesis of iminosugars from the carbohydrate glucuronolactone. This versatile chiron has previously allowed for access to many homochiral targets, and in this thesis is used to access DGJNAc on a gram-scale. This iminosugar has been shown to be a potent α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase inhibitor and is potentially extremely valuable in the treatment of late-stage cancer. Both enantiomers of glucuronolactone are also utilised in the divergent synthesis of every stereoisomer of two classes of five-membered iminosugars; the pyrrolidines (including DMDP), and the proline amides. These compounds demonstrate remarkable biological activity against a panel of glycosidases and hexosaminidases, allowing for the analysis of the structure-activity relationship between these compounds and the target enzymes.
Chapter 3 describes the development of a novel, one-pot methodology - a tandem Strecker reaction and iminocyclisation - for the assembly of trihydroxy piperidine α-iminonitriles from a range of unbranched and branched pentose monosaccharides. These piperidine α-iminonitriles are precursors to pipecolic acids which may also be potentially valuable targets in the treatment of cancer.

Keywords: Iminosugars
Glycosidase Inhibition
Organic Chemistry
Carbohydrates
Advisor: Fleet, G