VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Level up! A design-based investigation of a prototype digital game for children who are low-attaining in mathematics

In the UK, as many as 20% of children in primary schools are more than two years behind their peers in mathematics. Research-based intervention for such disadvantaged children has been shown to be effective but not always sufficient, such that alternative approaches might sometimes be necessary. One alternative might involve digital games.
This study used a design-based research approach to investigate a prototype digital game, that implements principles of an effective numeracy intervention and draws on insights from learning theory and the cognitive sciences, designed for children in primary schools who are low-attaining in mathematics. It comprised three cycles of design, intervention, analysis and reflection.
The first research cycle involved the initial design of a prototype digital game, which was researched in one school. The second research cycle involved a second iteration of the game, designed in response to the feedback of teachers and children, which was researched in three schools. The third research cycle involved the design of a final iteration of the game, which to achieve theoretical saturation was researched online with twenty-four schools.
The study has shown that a game that implements principles of an effective numeracy intervention and that draws on insights from learning theory and the cognitive sciences can be designed and can be useful in schools for children who are low attaining in mathematics. However, for it to be taken up by schools, the game has to be perceived by teachers to have achieved a quality threshold. In any case, such a game is of limited use in and of itself. Where the prototype game has been shown to be most useful is when it serves as a fulcrum for social interaction and educationally productive discussion between the children and teaching staff: when it becomes an artefact that both supports individual learning and stimulates, scaffolds and mediates dialogue-based collaborative learning.

Keywords: education
design-based research
mathematics intervention
games-based learning
Advisor: Eynon, R
"Non est misericordia vera nisi sit ordinata" : pastoral theology and the practice of English justice, c. 1100 – c. 1250

This thesis examines the relationship, in theory and in practice, between the concepts of justice (iustitia) and mercy (misericordia) in English courts between c. 1100 and c. 1250. During this period English judges (in courts of both common and canon law) were faced with a serious dilemma. The emergence of systematic law had fundamentally altered the pastoral foundations of the act of judgement. On the one hand, judges were incorporated into a system of law in which justice was expected to be routine and regular. They were bound by procedure, and ‘justice’ was considered to lie in the return of due punishment for injury. On the other, this notion of strict justice coexisted with an alternative way of conceiving of judicial responsibilities, which emphasised that justice was incomplete unless it incorporated within it the principle of mercy. This tradition argued that, both for the benefit of the offender and the judge’s own soul, it was safer and more virtuous to mitigate the punishments prescribed by law. English judges were caught in a dilemma, and were, in effect, obliged to choose between two fundamentally opposed ideas of justice, and two starkly contrasting approaches to sentencing.
This thesis argues that such a choice was a problem which concerned the schools of theology as much as it did the courts of law. It examines the attempts of theologians and lawyers to resolve the dilemma and provide practical counsel to judges. Scripture, classical philosophy and patristic texts were the key sources in a discussion of how judicial discretion should be exercised in choosing between punitive and merciful courses of action. Rather than conceiving of justice as a purely procedural exercise, English law, and English judges, appreciated that the act of giving judgement was a complex pastoral challenge.

Keywords: Law
Twelfth-Century
Theology
Intellectual History
Advisor: Kempshall, M
Caledonian tectonics from stratigraphy and isotope geochemistry of lower palaeozoic successions

The Southern Uplands of Scotland is interpreted as a Lower Palaeozoic accretionary complex which formed on the northern margin of the Iapetus Ocean. Seven conglomerates which contain detritus derived from the north-west, from sources on the Laurentian continental margin, were studied. Granite clasts in five of the conglomerates have distinct petrographic and geochemical characteristics which indicate that separate source areas supplied detritus to the Southern Uplands at different times.
The Llandeilo Corsewall Point and Caradoc Glen Afton conglomerates, which occur in Tracts 1 and 2 of the Northern Belt, contain granite clasts that yield similar Rb-Sr whole-rock isochron ages (c. 1,200 Ma, 600-660 Ma and c. 475 Ma) and similar Sm-Nd model ages. This suggests that the clasts in the two conglomerates were derived from related sources. Some of the granite clasts in the early Ashgill Shinnel Formation conglomerate, which occurs in Tract 3 of the Northern Belt, resemble those in the Corsewall Point conglomerate, but most are petrographically and geochemically distinct, and yield younger Sm-Nd model ages. The lower Llandovery Pinstane Hill conglomerate occurs in Tract 4 of the Central Belt, and contains granitic detritus which yields a Rb-Sr whole-rock isochron age of 458 ± 26 Ma and has similar characteristics to the clasts in the Shinnel Formation conglomerate.
The granite clasts in the Corsewall Point and Glen Afton conglomerates are of a different age to the granite intrusions of northern Scotland, and are unlikely to have been derived from this region. Conglomerates in the Midland Valley contain granite clasts with different petrographic and isotopic characteristics to those supplied to the Southern Uplands during the Llandeilo and Caradoc. However, north-west Newfoundland has a similar igneous history to that recorded by the Southern Uplands clasts, which could be derived from this region. The clasts supplied to the Shinnel Formation and Pinstane Hill conglomerates during the Ashgill and Llandovery have more in common with the granitic detritus in the Midland Valley. Thus, the Southern Uplands form a distinct Caledonian terrane which was south-east of Newfoundland in the Llandeilo, and was affected by sinistral strike-slip displacements during and after accretion.

Advisor: McKerrow, W
Taylor, P
Possessing the city: urban space and property relations in Delhi, 1911-47

This dissertation pursues three overarching themes. The first of these is empirical: to illuminate the actual functioning of the property market in Delhi. After reconstructing the pattern of depression and boom from 1920-40, I argue that these cycles shaped the nature of participation in the market. During the depression of the 1920s many indigenous financial firms came to rely on property rentals and sales. Alongside these, a nascent sector concentrating primarily in real estate came into existence. Compared to planned state intervention, most of Delhi’s urban fabric was created by private construction.
Analysis of the state’s relationship to the property market is the second aim of the work. The colonial state both embraced and was constrained by the commodification of land. Though it was the largest landowner in the city, it did not leverage this position. Rather than construction, the state was happier to act on the market indirectly. One means of indirect action concerned forms representations of urban land as commodity. Leases, advertisements and other documents were crucial for its circulation. The strength of the state in the property market derived from its role as enforcer and repository of representations of commodified space.
A third aim is to study the forms of struggle engendered by urban property. Struggles over commodification of urban land, when they took collective forms, did not necessarily splinter along class lines. In fact, subsidised housing emerged out of caste, class and nationalist struggles. Conversely, the commodification of land was at issue in struggles that were not ostensibly about property. For instance, this dissertation tracks its salience for understanding communal conflicts over urban shrines.
Taken together, the three themes constitute a picture of the city in which forms of capital accumulation – particularly those relating to space – cannot be ignored.

Keywords: Urban History
Delhi (India)
property relations
land
Advisor: Gooptu, N
Functional variation in the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) pathway in humans

By undertaking a number of different experimental approaches at the genetic, cellular/ molecular and integrative physiology levels, I investigated functional variation in the Hypoxia-Inducible Factor (HIF) transcription pathway in humans. My studies focused on Tibetan natives.
Tibetan highlanders are adapted to life in a hypoxic environment and exhibit distinct physiological traits at high altitude. Recent studies identified positive selection at two genetic loci, EPAS1 (HIF2α) and EGLN1 (PHD2), in Tibetan highlanders and demonstrated an association of EGLN1/EPAS1 genotype with haemoglobin concentration. Both are genes of the HIF pathway, which coordinates an organism’s response to hypoxia. Patients living at sea level with genetic diseases of the HIF pathway have characteristic phenotypes at both the integrative physiology and cellular levels. I investigated whether Tibetans living at sea level also possess distinct phenotypic characteristics, and whether these may be related to underlying variation within the HIF pathway.
I compared Tibetans living at sea level with Han Chinese, their most closely-related major ethnic group, and found that Tibetans possess a significantly different integrative physiology phenotype. Tibetans had a lower haemoglobin concentration and haematocrit, a higher pulmonary ventilation relative to metabolism, and blunted pulmonary vascular responses to both acute (minutes) and sustained (8 hours) hypoxia. Regarding genotype- phenotype relationships within the Tibetans, I found a significant correlation between both EPAS1 and EGLN1 genotype and the induction of erythropoietin by systemic hypoxia. At an intermediate cellular level, the relative expression and the hypoxic induction of HIF- regulated genes were significantly lower in peripheral blood lymphocytes from Tibetans compared with Han Chinese. I also investigated whether the genetic variation in EPAS1 selected for in Tibetans may be functional at the molecular level by affecting transcription of EPAS1 in cells and whether certain coding variants in EGLN1 found in Tibetans affect protein (PHD2) activity in cells and in vitro.
A small supplementary study was undertaken in patients with idiopathic erythrocytosis, who have elevated or inappropriately normal erythropoietin levels, to investigate if they have genetic alterations in the HIF system.

Keywords: evolution
hypoxia
Tibetan
cardiorespiratory physiology
hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)
Advisor: Robbins, PA
Ratcliffe, PJ
Zirconium oxidation on the atomic scale

This work was produced as part of a multidisciplinary study of the corrosion of zirconium alloys undertaken by a consortium of universities working in the MUZIC program; Oxford, Manchester and The Open University. The objective of the project as a whole was to further the understanding of the mechanisms of the breakaway oxidation process and to characterise these corrosion processes within a number of fuel rod cladding materials. This thesis describes laser 3D atom probe characterisation of the nano-scale chemical redistribution of oxygen and other solutes that occurs at the metal-oxide interface during corrosion, and a large body of technique development that was required to achieve this goal.
The development of the metal-oxide interface of ZIRLO, a Zr-Nb-Sn-Fe-O alloy, is followed by generating 3D atomic scale reconstructions at four different stages of corrosion. The formation of a sub-oxide ZrO layer is seen during pre-transition oxide development. The ZrO interfacial layer is consumed by the rapid formation of oxide after the breakaway transition. After transition the chemistry of the interface is similar to the early pre-transition case, although an oxygen-saturated layer of metal adjacent to the interface formed during corrosion remains. The ZrO interfacial layer (Zr-ZrO-ZrO₂) and the region of oxygen-saturated material ahead of the metal-oxide interface alter the distribution of minor alloying additions such as niobium and iron. The ZrO layer increases the acceptance of niobium into the oxide, which is otherwise seen to be rejected at the Zr-ZrO2 interface along with iron. Niobium is seen to precipitate out of solution as nano-scale particles near the interface after around 100 days of corrosion. This is not seen in the bulk metal matrix of the corroded material due to the absence of other factors driving the process: the stress at the interface and a very high oxygen concentration in the metal ahead of the interface. The nano-scale niobium particles are found to be of a meta-stable composition. Iron is seen to redistribute in the corroded material and can be correlated with the local oxygen concentration. Similarities are seen in the behaviour of solutes within pre-transition ZIRLO and Zircaloy-4 (Zr-Sn-Fe-O). In both cases no redistribution of tin is seen at the metal-oxide interface. A Zr-Nb-Ti alloy with very poor corrosion resistance was also analysed in this way, and the similarities and differences with chemically-similar ZIRLO are discussed. The segregation of solutes to grain boundaries and solute clustering within the matrix are also examined before and after corrosion.

Keywords: Zircaloy
zirconium
ZIRLO
zirconium oxidation
3DAP
LEAP
atom probe
zirconium oxide
Advisor: Smith, G
The evolution and development of unfair dismissal law in Britain and Australia

This work explores the evolutionary dynamic exhibited by the trajectory of unfair dismissal law in Britain and Australia. A different comparative evolutionary dynamic is observed in the phase leading up to the enactment of a statutory unfair dismissal scheme and in the period subsequent to enactment. It is argued that the shared common law origin of the legal systems of Britain and Australia masks significant divergence in their respective labour law traditions. Whilst collective laissez-faire in Britain, and conciliation and arbitration in Australia both sought to secure industrial peace, these divergent traditions operated in a manner particular to their jurisdiction in constraining the evolution of a statutory unfair dismissal law. It was only when these traditions underwent severe economic, social and political challenges that they faced a crisis of legitimacy and new ideas for labour law were canvassed. Although occurring over twenty years apart, the breakdown of Britain’s and Australia’s labour law traditions saw the juridification of domestic labour law, with a central reform being the inception of a statutory right protecting against unfair dismissal. Despite emerging from divergent legal traditions and according to different timeframes, the trajectory of unfair dismissal law subsequent to its enactment was to converge upon a common theme of peeling back the statutory superstructure in favour of localised and alternative dispute resolution. Although these developments are diachronistic across the two jurisdictions, this evolutionary dynamic of divergence giving way to convergence is revealing of a high degree of path dependency as between the unfair dismissal laws of Britain and Australia.

Keywords: industrial relations
labour law
Advisor: Freedland, M
Polarised neutron diffraction measurements of PrBa2Cu3O6+x and the Bayesian statistical analysis of such data

The physics of the series PryY1-yBa2Cu3O6&plus;x, and ability of Pr to suppress superconductivity, has been a subject of frequent discussions in the literature for more than a decade. This thesis describes a polarised neutron diffraction (PND) experiment performed on PrBa2Cu3O6.24 designed to find out something about the electron structure. This experiment pushed the limits of what can be done using the PND technique. The problem is one of a limited number of measured Fourier components that need to be inverted to form a real space image. To accomplish this inversion the maximum entropy technique has been employed. In some cases, the maximum entropy technique has the ability to increase the resolution of ‘inverted’ data immensely, but this ability is found to depend critically on the choice of constants used in the method. To investigate this a Bayesian robustness analysis of the maximum entropy method is carried out, resulting in an improvement of the maximum entropy technique for analysing PND data. Some results for nickel in the literature have been re-analysed and a comparison is made with different maximum entropy algorithms.
Equipped with an improved data analysis technique and carefully measured PND data for PrBa2Cu3O6.24 a number of new interesting features are observed, putting constraints on existing theoretical models of PryY1-yBa2Cu3O6&plus;x and leaving room for more questions to be answered.

Keywords: High-Temperature Superconductivity
Polarised neutron diffraction
Bayesian statistics
Advisor: Boothroyd, AT
Buck, B
Controlling selectivity in the rhodium-catalysed intermolecular hydroacylation reaction

This thesis explores the area of the intermolecular hydroacylation reaction, catalysed by rhodium diphosphine complexes. A range of latent low-coordinate rhodium diphosphine complexes have been synthesised, and their catalytic activity for the hydroacylation reaction has been investigated. In particular, emphasis has been placed on understanding how subtle changes in diphosphine steric properties affect, and can be used to control, selectivity of this catalysis.
Chapter 2 presents investigations into rhodium complexes incorporating the potentially hemilabile P-O-P ligands: POP’, XANTphos and Xphos. The resulting complexes have been fully characterised and their activity for the catalytic intermolecular hydroacylation of aldehyde I (HCOC₂H₄SMe) and alkene II (H₂C=CHCO₂Me) established and compared to the DPEphos system. Further reactivity of Xphos for aromatic aldehyde V (HCOC₆H₄SMe) and alkene II, and aldehyde V and alkyne XI [HC≡CC₆H₃(CF₃)₂] has also been explored, and compared with the catalytic activity of {Rh(PPh₃)₂}⁺.
Focus moved from potentially hemilabile ligands to chelating diphosphine ligands of the type PPh₂(CH₂)nPPh₂ (where n = 2-5), and then on to ortho-substituted bulky analogues of the type P(₀-C₆H₅R)₂(CH₂)₂P(₀-C₆H₅R)₂ (where R = Me and ⁱPr) complexed to rhodium. Chapter 3 outlines the complexes synthesised, and their activity for the catalytic intermolecular hydroacylation of aldehyde I and alkene II, aromatic aldehyde V and alkene II or aldehyde V and alkyne XI. Possible explanations for the observed switch in selectivity from alkene to aldehyde hydroacylation, and linear alkyne to branched alkyne hydroacylation, have been explored and are detailed.
The final chapter concerns the structure of an interesting catalytic intermediate: the branched alkenyl species for the {Rh(DPEphos)}+ catalysed hydroacylation of aldehyde V and alkyne XI. Investigations into the kinetic and catalytic behaviour of this system were carried out, and a reaction scheme has been proposed which correlates well with kinetic modelling undertaken by Prof. Guy Lloyd-Jones of the University of Bristol.

Keywords: organometallic
catalysis
chemistry
hydroacylation
inorganic
rhodium
phosphine
Advisor: Weller, A
Egerton Ryerson and educational policy borrowing: aspects of the development of Ontario's system of public instruction, 1844 - 1876

Literature within the field of Comparative Education often cautions against the transfer of foreign policies from one context to another. Despite this warning, Ontario’s public education system is said to have been based on an eclectic mix of foreign examples: teacher training institutes replicating Prussian Seminaries, school financing and the role of the chief superintendent and board of education as in the states of Massachusetts and New York, and using the Irish curriculum. This study conceptualises the manner in which these foreign elements became part of the 1846 school law and the reaction of stakeholders in and outside of government. The period covered by this study, 1844 – 1876, corresponds to Egerton Ryerson’s time as Chief Superintendent of education in Ontario.
Extensive archival research of incoming and outgoing correspondence from the department of education, district council meeting minutes, newspapers, and local superintendent, inspector and trustee reports revealed contrasting opinions. On the one hand, sources indicated favourable results: increased pupil attendance, number of facilities and money raised to fund schools. There is also evidence that many foreign educationalists not only requested resources from Ontario’s board but aspired to emulate features of the province’s reformed education system in their own nations. This study’s finding of a reverse cross-national attraction’ is a new contribution to Canadian historical studies.
However, many resented features of the school bill. Critics called the superintendent and board’s method of organisation ‘Prussian despotism’ in Canadian schools; others argued the injustice of property tax to fund free schools and the cost burden of importing Irish textbooks. An original conceptual framework has been produced to review the manner in which Ryerson defended the new bill and the internalisation of these foreign policies and practices. This framework may serve as an analytical device for those engaged in researching educational policy borrowing.

Keywords: Educational Policy Borrowing
Canadian Historical Studies
Comparative Education
History of Education
Advisor: Phillips, D
Penelope

Mythological figures play a number of roles in literature: they may, of course, appear in person as developed characters, but they may also contribute more indirectly, as part of the substratum from which rhetorical argument or literary characterisation are constructed, or as a background against which other literary strategies (for example, the rewriting of epic or the appropriation of Greek culture by the Romans) can be marked out. This thesis sets out to examine the way in which the figure of Penelope emerges from unknown origins, acquires portrayal in almost canonical form in Homer's Odyssey, and then takes part in the subsequent interplay of Homeric and other literary allusions throughout later Classical literature (with chapters focusing particularly on fifth-century Greek tragedy, Hellenistic poetry, and Augustan poetry). In particular, it focuses on the manner in which, despite the potential complexities of the character and the possible variants in her story, she became quintessentially a stereotypical figure. In addition to considering examples where Penelope is evoked by name, a case is also made for the thesis that allusion, or intertextual reference, could also evoke Penelope for an ancient audience. A central point of discussion is what perception of Penelope would be called to mind by intertextual reference. The importance of approaching relationships between ancient texts in intertextual terms rather terms of strict "allusion" is thus demonstrated. The formation of the simplified picture is considered in the light of folk-tale motifs, rhetorical simplification of myth, and favoured story patterns. The appendices include a summary of the myth of Penelope with all attested variants, and a comprehensive list of explicit references to her in classical literature.