VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Effective partitioning of RDF data for distributed query answering

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.

Keywords: RDF
Partitioning
Distributed Query Evaluation
Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
Louvain Community Detection
Linked Data
Advisor: Boris, M
Reconfigurable origami structures

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.

Keywords: reconfigurable mechanism
rigid origami
kirigami structure
cutting
linkage analysis
degrees of freedom
kinematics
Advisor: You, Z
Ecological impacts of cancer chemotherapy on hematopoietic and immune dynamics

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.

Keywords: chemotherapy
mathematical modeling
hematopoiesis
Advisor: Anderson, A
Maini, P
Bonsall, M
Hidden in plain sight: a study of the appellate tribunal for electricity in India's energy transition and legal imagination

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.

Keywords: Electricity
Renewable Energy
India
Climate Change
Tribunals
Legal Reasoning
Legal Imagination
Energy Transition
Advisor: Fisher, L
Bulk and surface properties of electrolytes at eutectic compositions

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.

Keywords: electrolytes
surface force balance
underscreening
deep eutectic solvents
differential scanning calorimetry
Advisor: Perkin, S
Citizen wellbeing in hybrid regimes

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.

Keywords: autocracy
Pacific
democracy
hybrid regimes
international development
Advisor: Gledhill, J
Harding, R
Implicit statistical learning of patterns in orthography to phonology mappings in Chinese EFL learners

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.

Keywords: orthography to phonology
Chinese EFL learners
spelling and pronunciation
implicit and statistical learning
Advisor: Wonnacott, E
Enantioselective remote functionalisation of cyclic amines by engineered P450BM3 variants

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.

Keywords: Molecular docking
C–H functionalisation
P450BM3
Enzyme engineering
Iterative docking-guided mutagenesis
Cyclic amines
MD-simulation
Advisor: Wong, L
Conceptions of place in Old English poetry

Previous studies of place and space in Anglo-Saxon literature and culture have tended to focus on the engagement with these phenomena as a means of understanding the world and of imposing order on it. The analysis offered here scrutinises instead the literary representation and function of place in the vernacular poetic tradition, as well as its symbolic significance. In its examination of conceptions of place in Old English poetry, this thesis contends that place is fundamentally fleeting and symbolic of the transience of all earthly things.
The present study first assesses the role of the hall as the chief location for aristocratic human society, especially as manifested in the hall of Heorot. The attributes of this structure are closely linked to the features of homosocial life in the comitatus. However, the hall and life in the comitatus are, like the city and society depicted in The Ruin, revealed to be fleeting. Whilst this is an inescapable reality for human society, the transitory experience of place is also common to individuals exiled from human company, as exemplified in a number of more overtly elegiac poems. Yet this characteristic aspect of place is not always necessarily a negative thing, since, in certain verse saints’ lives, places initially inhabited by demons and heathens are converted into Christian sites. Additionally, these locations take on particular salvific and narrative significations, demonstrating further the varied literary significance of place. Finally, the analysis examines the diverse manifestations of place in Beowulf. The dwelling of Grendel’s mother inverts the familiar place of the hall, unsettling notions of human social space; the dragon’s barrow evokes architectural features of Britain’s Roman past to convey the passage of time; and despite memorialising the poem’s hero, Beowulf’s own burial mound stands as a monument to impermanence. Ultimately, in contrast to the eternal place of Heaven, earthly places are shown to be emblematic of the transience of all earthly things.

Keywords: Beowulf
poetics
space
hagiography
place
elegy
poetry
Old English
Advisor: Larrington, C
Negotiating English language teacher identity—an autoethnography

Identity construction is an integral part of learning how to teach. As a former British colony, Hong Kong provides a unique educational and research context where East meets West. This study examines my identity construction as an English language teacher (ELT) in Hong Kong and the United States using an autoethnographic approach, which serves as an attempt to answer recent calls in the field of applied linguistics for more innovative and authentic research. Reflexive journals and essays written for my postgraduate courses were used to reconstruct my life stories and identify the critical events pertinent to my professional identity formation as an ELT and meaningful lived experiences as a transnational woman. To analyse the important events that contributed to the construction of my professional identity, critical event analysis was used in tandem with salient literature pertaining to teacher identity development and teacher education. Based on my lived experiences as a transnational woman educator, I provide some suggestions regarding teacher identity construction for school administrators, researchers, and teacher educators to consider when implementing ways to recruit, support, and retain English language teachers.

Keywords: Hong Kong
native speakerism
transnationalism
English teachers
autoethnography
Maintenance of L2 English through informal language learning in Québécois young adults

French-English bilingualism is common in the primarily francophone Canadian province of Quebec, though residents here receive no more second language education than more monolingual populations elsewhere in the country. Past work exploring attitudes toward English among the Québécois has alluded to the fact that their bilingualism might develop through engagement with English media, though no existing literature explores this relationship. The present study sought to measure English proficiency and media use, with the hypothesis that both frequency and depth of engagement with media would predict English vocabulary scores. The Vocabulary Size Test was used to measure English proficiency, and a questionnaire was developed to capture media use. 23 participants, who were recruited through social media, completed the test and questionnaire online. A series of multiple linear regressions revealed no relationship between vocabulary score and frequency of engagement with media. Depth of engagement was found to have a negative relationship with vocabulary in the cases of music listening and of overall media use. These results do not support the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between engagement with media and English proficiency. Future research could replicate the present study using a larger sample size or different measures or could explore how media might indirectly affect the learning of English in Quebec.
Sugar in the British Atlantic World 1650-1720

This DPhil thesis, Sugar in the British Atlantic World 1650-1720, seeks to analyse the effect and extent of the sugar trade in the seventeenth century. By 1700, sugar was one of the most important commodities in Europe. It was the driving force behind the trafficking of hundreds of thousands of people, huge accumulation of capital, the growth of international trade, and a number of important subsidiary industries. The development of the institution of chattel slavery and its influence on the history of capitalism has been the subject of many scholarly investigations, however there has been comparatively little work done on the consumption on sugar itself. The thesis, therefore, examines trade in sugar across the Atlantic Ocean and tracks the ways in which the good was consumed.
The intellectual contribution of the thesis comes from its discussion of extensive archival material which identifies the extent of early sugar consumption and which traces how the good transformed from luxury to everyday comestible. Building on from this, the work also seeks to understand the repercussions of such consumption for the Atlantic economy. It demonstrates the key role played by sugar in the rapidly changing economic systems and culture. Tracking consumption of sugar in the British Atlantic world tells us more about the state of the sugar trade as a whole, and the global economic system which it helped to forge. The research gives insight into the development of international trading networks, the commercialisation of the British Atlantic economy and, underneath it all, the reliance of the metropolitan environment on exploitation in the colonies.

Keywords: Sugar
Slavery
Consumption
Advisor: Humphries, J
Paugh, K