VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Effects of pedagogical translanguaging on grammar learning for Chinese Primary School students in early foreign language learning

This intervention study investigates effects of pedagogical translanguaging on grammar development among 145 sixth-grade Chinese primary school students who are at the early stages of learning English as a foreign language (EFL). In a pre-post design, the participants were randomly allocated to a Translanguaging group, an English-only group, and a Control group to learn the target “there be” structure by watching the same video. The Translanguaging group and the English-only group later practiced the target sentence structure in a “spot-the-difference” activity within the same amount of time. The three groups were evaluated based on a translation test and a grammaticality judgement test presented aurally. Observation of the practice activity and focus group interviews with the Translanguaging and English-only group were also conducted. Results show significant gains for all three groups from pre-tests to post-tests, but no significant difference between the gains of the three groups. However, as reflected in the practice activity and the interviews, the Translanguaging group practiced the target sentences more and with higher accuracy and expressed more positive attitudes towards the learning. These findings demonstrate that pedagogical translanguaging at least does not harm grammar learning. It allows learners to have more opportunities to practice, which suggests that it might be effective in boosting learning over a longer intervention.

Keywords: grammar development
Chinese EFL learners
pedagogical translanguaging
Advisor: Wonnacott, E
Micro-photoluminescence studies of CsPbBr3 based
nanostructures

This thesis summarises the photoluminescence results I have taken on the three different nanostructures of CsPbBr3 perovskite. Due to their microscopic dimensions, interesting physics phenomena under the fields of optical science and quantum mechanics have emerged. With the aid of a confocal micro-photoluminescence setup, detailed sub µm-level features can be retrieved directly for analysis. Although the three topics root from separate branches of specific physics fields, they all demonstrate how this system can be exploited as a general tool for examining the time-integrated and dynamical behaviours. Therefore, the thesis helps build the necessary knowledge for adaptation into different scenarios and external modification for a more specialised measurement. On the other side, much of the content has been devoted into systematic explanation of the relevant concepts in a self-contained fashion. These include the discussion on lasing phenomenon, Gaussian modes and triplet state. These recap or exposure to the different fields will be sufficient for the reader to understand the rest of the content.
The results are selected from the three papers I have written. The first topic is on confined Gaussian modes in CsPbBr3 microcavities. These cavities are naturally formed by the even smaller building blocks of quantum dots. The emission observed depends upon the collective behaviour of the zero-dimensional objects. The second topic is relevant to triplet state and resonant pumping of the CsPbBr3 nanocrystals. Doubly degenerate states associated to the tetragonal phase of the crystal have been presented. A resonantly optimised lasing effect then builds on this triplet signal and shows great potential for device applications. The third topic is about passivated CsPbBr3 nano/micro-rods with Pb(OH)2 cladding. A temperature-tolerant emission and bright stimulated emission from defect sites have been demonstrated.
All the three topics have illustrated the potential towards modern optoelectronic applications and the underlying physics can provide further inspiration from a slightly twisted angle for the future structure design.
In the appendix, a guide to the mapping software is introduced. This is a handy tool for analysing the complicated map data, which can be a crucial part of the PL study. The software provides control over the map position and wavelength, as well as a diffusion analyser. It also incorporates a zooming function such that local intensity rescaling is possible.

Keywords: nanotechnology
micro-photoluminescence
perovskite
semiconductors
quantum dots
quantum optics
optoelectronics
Heidin und Mörin. Zur Materialität, Visualität und Medialität höfischer Texte im Spätmittelalter

This thesis “Heidin and Mörin. On the materiality, visuality, and mediality of courtly texts in the late Middle Ages in Germany” studies the media history of two medieval German texts, Heidin and Mörin, taking as its starting point two courtly commissions; the manuscripts Heidelberg University Library, cpg. 353 and Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek cod. 2946.
The study analyses how the materiality, visuality, and mediality of book objects catered to specific audiences and how the relation between object and audience was instrumentalised to market printed editions of formerly exclusive courtly texts to new audiences. To do so, this thesis uses an interdisciplinary methodology, drawing on approaches from visual culture and material culture studies as well as media studies.
The two manuscripts are a result of courtly manuscript production, however, the context of their production differed. The dedication of the Mörin to Mechthild von der Pfalz is evidence of her widespread patronage of other literary works, whereas Heidin was likely commissioned directly by Margarethe von Savoyen. The works demonstrate the range of courtly manuscripts produced at the end of the Middle Ages, and the involvement and impact noble women had on the literary landscape. The patronesses were connected through dynastic allegiances and bibliophile interests, and manuscripts such as the Heidelberg copy of the Heidin and the Viennese copy of the Mörin were embedded in the social network of the time.
While Heidin was never put into print, the production and concept of the manuscript was heavily influenced by the new medium, resulting in a distinct style of illustrations. Mörin, on the other hand, was comparatively successful with five printed editions, as publishers utilised the particularities of the new medium to market the text to an urban readership. Analysing the different editions of Mörin revealed how publishers and printers marketed their products, anticipating and creating new audiences. The trademark use of woodcuts provided the foundation of image strategy which revealed the intended and anticipated readership. Comparison of the editions has shown that even with a relocation of print production to urban areas, it was only with later editions that the urban market developed.

Keywords: media history
female patronage
materiality
mediality
visual culture
manuscript
medieval history
manuscript production
late middle ages
manuscript culture
visuality
book culture
material culture
history of the book
Advisor: Laehnemann, H
When the Leopard meets Gatsby. Inheritance, inequality, and social mobility in liberal and fascist Italy

This dissertation studies the evolution of income and wealth inequality, the intergenerational transmission of economic status, as well as the intellectual and political history of inequality, in the decades between Italy’s unification and World War II, with a particular focus on the Fascist period. In its different chapters, it presents and critically assess new sources for investigating the wealth and incomes of Italians in this period, mostly of fiscal nature. Building on these sources, it documents the estimation of new national series of inheritance flows, wealth-to-income ratio, wealth composition, top wealth shares, top income shares, within-labour and overall income inequality, gender and skill gaps, intergenerational mobility, as well as regional and provincial figures for a number of these indicators. These indicators are contextualised in the socio-economic developments of the period, and especially, the economic and fiscal policies enacted in the Fascist period. At the same time, the dissertation offers the first historical reconstruction of a crucial episode in the history of inequality in interwar Italy, that is, the abolition of inheritance tax, abruptly announced by Mussolini’s government few months after the March on Rome, within a broader discussion of the economic thought on inheritance, the transmission of status, and more broadly, social mobility, by Italian economists and statisticians between the end of the 19th century and the 1950s. While enriching our understanding of distributive trends in Italy, the results highlight the regressive nature of the Fascist regime: during this period, both income inequality and intergenerational transmission of status increased, reverting a long-run declining trend.

Advisor: A'Hearn, B
Development of novel electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction

This thesis explores the activities of novel electrocatalytic systems for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) from both the material and methodology aspects. Furthermore, a library of exsitu and in-situ spectroscopic, imaging, and electrochemical techniques are employed to elucidate the working mechanism behind each of the electrocatalytic system studied in this thesis.
Replacing the expensive and scarce platinum-based catalysts and minimizing the overall energy inputs remain the principal challenges for the HER, especially considering green hydrogen production for electrolyser applications in practice. To that end, a series of alternative metal groups are screened for the HER and it is found that Ag possesses comparable activities as Pt at high overpotentials. The activities are correlated to the surface energies of the metals that ultimately affect the hydrogen adsorption strengths as suggested by first principal calculations. As a result, the morphologies of Ag nanoparticles, dictated by the combinations of exposed facets (and hence different surface energies) of the metals, are investigated. Electrochemical testing reveals that Ag nanocubes can outperform commercial Pt at -2.5 V and it is suggested computationally that the weaker hydrogen adsorption strengths on the Ag surface can lead to a change of the rate-determining step from Volmer to Tafel step.
In an attempt to lower the overpotentials required by the Ag nanoparticles, solar energy is exploited as an additional energy source to drive the reactions. Using a sonochemical approach, the Ag nanoparticles are combined with Au, with excellent plasmonic absorptions of solar radiation, to form bimetallic core-shell nanomaterials. The 3D frameworks and elemental distributions are reconstructed via atom probe tomography to reveal an atomic-layered shell with precisely controlled Ag to Au ratio. STEM-EELS, XAS, and DDA simulations suggest the hot electrons excited by LSPR are transferred from Au to the higher energy excited states of Ag for proton reduction under visible light, which gives a significant enhancement in current densities when compared with the light-off conditions.
The second part of the thesis identifies polar metal oxides as electrocatalyst supports to promote the HER activities. An electrochemical activated magnesium hydroxide material, which is generated from the polar MgO (111) faceted nanocrystals, is found to exhibit exceptional HER activities due to its high proton affinity. A combination of in-situ synchrotron XRD technique and ex-situ TEM, SAED and XPS analysis is employed to study the activation process, and it is found that the Ru-MgO (111) interface is electrochemically and topotactically hydrolysed to Ru-Mg(OH)2 (001) under acidic medium. The extensive hydroxyl layers stemmed from the topotactic transitions of the polar magnesium oxide phases provide Grotthuss-like channeled pathways for protons to hop across. This allows efficient diffusion of protons on the surface and makes available active sites for proton reduction to take place.

Advisor: Tsang, E
Borderlands and fatherlands: 'Foreign' soldiery in the Holy Roman Empire 1576-1618

This thesis analyses the use and abuse of ‘foreign’ soldiers in the political rhetoric of the Lower-Rhine-Westphalian Circle between 1576 and 1618, exploring what the categorisations applied to such men can tell us about warfare and identity in the Holy Roman Empire and beyond. It argues that the Imperial approach was characterised by nuance, flexibility, and constructive ambiguity, which allowed the region to avoid being drawn deeper into conflicts to which there was no military solution. A key reason for its success was that – despite a profusion of patriotic language denouncing foreign threats – when it came to translating rhetoric into political practice, troops were judged primarily by their profession rather than their origins. As a result, the region’s engagement with soldiers featured more continuity than either radical reform or destabilising decline.
These points are demonstrated using analysis aimed at three different levels of the Reich’s constitutional order; the Empire as a whole, local territorial principalities, and – crucially – the regional Imperial Circles which connected the other two. In Part I, the Lower-Rhine-Westphalian Kreis is examined as a forum for discussion, as a military employer in its own right, and as a borderland area alongside the neighbouring Burgundian Circle. In Part II, three representative case-studies drawn from individual Circle Estates highlight in greater depth the ways in which local authorities and commentators learned to adapt successfully to the presence of outside forces. Finally, Part III describes how Lower-Rhine-Westphalia’s experiences played out within the formal and informal networks which bound together the entire Reich.

Keywords: Lower-Rhine-Westphalia
Jülich-Cleves-Berg
Nassau-Dillenburg
Imperial Circles
Free City of Cologne
Advisor: Wilson, P
A study of Chinese Adults’ motivation to learn a third or more languages

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.

Keywords: scale validation
L3+ motivation
gender difference
Ocean biogeochemical optimisation in Earth System Models

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.

Keywords: Parameter optimisation
Ocean biogeochemical modelling
Advisor: Khatiwala, S
Cartis, C
Martin, A
Yool, A
Jones, C
The politics of resistance in modern Iran: a century of defiance

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.

Keywords: Islam
Islamic Republic of Iran
Iranian studies
West Asia
Iranian history
Middle East
resistance
Iran
Advisor: Herzig, E
The diminishing role of fiduciary law in discretionary portfolio management under English law

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.

Keywords: discretionary portfolio management
Financial Ombudsman Service
fiduciary duty
unauthorised profits
FCA
conflicts of interest
Financial Conduct Authority
Advisor: Getzler, J