VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Spatially motivated dialogue for a pedestrian robot

In the field of robotics, there has recently been tremendous progress in the development of autonomous robots that offer various services to their users. Most of the systems developed so far, however, are restricted to indoor scenarios, non-urban outdoor environments, or road usage with cars. There is a serious lack of capabilities of mobile robots to navigate safely in highly populated outdoor environments. This ability, however, is a key competence for a series of robotic applications. We consider the task of developing a spatially motivated dialogue system that can operate on a robotic platform, where the purpose of such a robot is to aid pedestrians in urban environments to provide information about surrounding objects and services, and guide users to desired destinations.
In this thesis, we make a number of contributions to the fields of spatial language interpretation/generation and discourse modelling. This includes the development of a dialogue framework called HURDLE which builds on the strengths of existing systems, accompanied by a specific implementation for spatially oriented dialogue including disambiguating amongst objects and locations in the environment, and a natural language parser which combines an extension of Synchronous Context Free Grammars with a Part-of-Speech tagger. Our research also presents a number of probabilistic models for spatial prepositions such as ∈ontof′andbetween' that make significant advances in effectively utilising geometric environment data, encompassing visibility considerations and being reusable for both indoor and outdoor environments. We also present a number of algorithms in which these models can be utilised, most significantly a novel and highly effective algorithm that can generate natural language descriptions of objects that disambiguates on their location. All these components, while modular, operate in tandem and interact with a variety of external components (such as path planning) on the robot platform.

Keywords: spatial cognition
semantics
computational linguistics
Advisor: Pulman, S
Characterization of CAP5.5 and CAP5.5V, atypical calpains in Trypanosoma brucei

Calpains are a group of calcium-dependent cysteine proteases with roles ranging from cytoskeletal remodelling to signal transduction. In Trypanosoma brucei, the causal agent of African sleeping sickness, an unusually large number of calpain- like proteins exist, whose functions remain unknown. Recently, the procyclic form- specific cytoskeleton associated protein 5.5 (CAP5.5) and its bloodstream-specific paralogous variant, CAP5.5V were discovered to be essential for the proper morphogenesis of the parasite. However, precise functional roles of these proteins remain unknown. In this MSc thesis, I employed a two-pronged approach combining cell biology studies of CAP5.5 and CAP5.5V in T. brucei with in vitro assays of recombinant calpains expressed in Escherichia coli to further characterize CAP5.5 and CAP5.5V. To resolve whether the function of CAP5.5 and CAP5.5V is dependent upon proteolytic activity, I expressed and purified recombinant CAP5.5V’s catalytic domain. I demonstrated that this domain did not have any detectable autolytic activity or activity against universal protease substrates such as casein. Ectopic expression of CAP5.5::YFP::Ty in procyclic trypanosomes led to nuclear mis-positioning among other morphological defects. Additionally, I demonstrated a cell cycle dependency on incorporation of CAP5.5::YFP::Ty into the cytoskeleton and corroborate previous data that suggest that CAP5.5 is built in from the dynamic, posterior end of the cell. Investigation of the molecular determinants in CAP5.5’s sequence such as motifs or domains suggested that CAP5.5’s domain IV may be the domain mediating association with the sub-pellicular cytoskeleton.

Keywords: calpains
Trypanosoma brucei
trypanosomiasis
Advisor: Gull, K
Biophysical studies of cytokine receptor interactions

The IL-6 family of cytokines includes IL-6, ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), oncostatin M (OSM), cardiotrophin-1, and IL-11. Functioning in a pleiotropic and redundant manner, these cytokines play an important role in the regulation of complex cellular processes such as gene activation, proliferation and differentiation, by signalling through homo- or heterodimers of gp130.
This thesis describes the characterization of the interactions between the cytokine oncostatin M (OSM) and the cytokine-binding homology region (CHR) of its receptor gp130. Three forms of OSM were expressed, the native form and two truncated forms. Both mutations were obtained by C-terminal truncation. The first, OSM185, has an 11 amino residue deletion and the second, OSM187, has a 9-residue deletion. A variety of biophysical techniques were applied to investigate the complex.
Analytical ultra-centrifugation (AUC), surface Plasma Resonance (SPR) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) studies indicated that the purified proteins were stable in monomeric form and can form a 1:1 complex with affinity in the 0.1 μM range. One of the C-terminal truncated forms, the 187 residues version, showed higher stability than the native OSM (196 residues), but still demonstrated similar binding properties to the gp130-CHR.
A 15N and 13C double-labelled OSM187 sample was produced for NMR studies. Due to the size of these two proteins, OSM187 (21.5 kDa) and gp130-CHR (25.2 kDa), the NMR studies of the complex are challenging. Applying the TROSY technique, data were obtained from the labelled OSM187 when it is in complex with gp130-CHR. The data could be compared with the free form OSM187 and several shifted peaks were detected. The binding site mapping work has just begun. The characterized binding properties and methods established for sample preparation provide a solid starting point for later studies.
The thesis also contains an exploratory study of interactions between interleukin-2 (IL-2) and the IL-2 receptor β chain.

Advisor: Staunton, D
A structural investigation of some compounds showing charge-transfer properties

Summary. The technique of X-ray diffraction has been used to investigate compounds which show charge-transfer properties in the solid state. It is shown how the results of structure determination can, under favourable conditions, give information about charge-transfer processes.
Two sets of compounds have been studied, both of which contain metal-chloride bonds. The first is a series of mixed-valence cobalt hexammine chlorocuprates in which the average oxidation state of the copper can take any value between 1 and 2. The structure of the single-valence (copper (I)) compound, [Co(NH3)6]4Cu5Cl17 was solved and data was also collected for a compound with Cu(I)/total Cu ~ 0.25. This was shown to have a structure to the single-valence copper (I) and copper (II) compounds and probable arrangements for the Cu(I) and Cu(II) ions are presented. It is shown that linear Cu-Cl-Cu bridges are almost certainly present and that these can account for the charge-transfer spectrum. A new chlorocuprate anion, [Cu5Cl
16]11- was discovered, which has 23(T) symmetry.[See thesis for continuation of summary].

Keywords: Charge-transfer
Paraquat
metallohalide anions
X-ray crystallography
Advisor: Prout, K
Buying better governance: the political economy of budget reforms in aid-dependent countries, 1997-2007

The quality of governance and institutions is increasingly seen as a fundamental factor in shaping the development prospects of poor countries. As a consequence, donor agencies have increasingly allocated resources to providing technical assistance for improving governance standards in such countries, with mixed results. This thesis investigates the domestic and external factors affecting the outcomes of reforms aimed at improving the quality of government budget institutions across a sample of 16 aid-dependent countries. It provides a new definition of the quality of budget institutions, and develops an analytical framework that identifies the key factors at play in the political economy of budget reforms. The analysis starts with a medium-N ‘pattern finding’ approach, based on a new dataset tracking changes in the quality of budget institutions over the period 2001 to 2007. This is followed by a small-N ‘process tracing’ approach, with in-depth case studies of Mozambique and Burkina Faso (with additional evidence from Tanzania), looking at both overall reform trajectories and four specific budget reform areas. The results show that among domestic factors, economic and political stability are preconditions for successful budget reforms. A minimum degree of government leadership and commitment to reforms is also a very important factor shaping budget reform outcomes, alongside the centralisation of budget institutions. Surprisingly, among external factors, the level of technical assistance and the use of so-called programme aid modalities were less important than the overall fragmentation of aid flows and the ways in which technical assistance is delivered in influencing budget reform outcomes. Donors’ hopes of ‘buying’ better budget governance, therefore, are more likely to be enhanced not by additional resources, but by better behaviour. Moreover, such strategy is likely to work only in countries with enough capacity and interest in reforms.

Keywords: governance
political economy
budget reforms
foreign aid
Advisor: Woods, N
Adam, C
Investigation into sub-cellular CD4 distribution in human embryonic stem cell derived macrophages and its role in HIV-1 infection

Human macrophages are one of the main targets for HIV-1 infection, despite their moderately low surface expression levels of the main HIV-1 receptor, CD4. The site of HIV-1 fusion can occur at the surface or following uptake through an endosomal pathway and it might be anticipated that the site would affect the progress of HIV-1 through the cell to the nucleus. Previous pharmacological studies provide one line of evidence for an endosomal entry route which is dependent on Detergent Resistant Membranes (DRMs). However, these findings need confirmation using a genetic approach, as small molecules may have multiple non-specific effects. For this study, a novel genetic approach was developed to manipulate sub-cellular CD4 distribution and investigate whether it determines the HIV-1 entry pathway in macrophages. This was achieved by transducing human embryonic stem cells (hESC) with lentiviral vectors and differentiating these cells into homogeneous genetically modified macrophages. This cellular system by-passes the challenges posed by the refractoriness to direct genetic manipulation of heterogeneous primary macrophages. Firstly, as proof of principle, a short hairpin RNA targeting CD4 was expressed in hESC-macrophages, resulting in knockdown of CD4 and, as anticipated, strong inhibition of HIV-1 infection. Secondly, expression of LCK in hESC-macrophages effectively tethered CD4 at the cell surface, and sequestered HIV-1 into an unproductive pathway, presumably through surface fusion, rather than progressing successfully to the nucleus. Thirdly, endogenous CD4 was substituted with CD4 mutants designed to be excluded from DRMs, which resulted in reduced successful HIV-1 entry versus substituted control CD4. The results support the model in which the productive entry pathway of HIV-1 in macrophages occurs via fusion after a raft-dependent endocytic uptake pathway, and requires CD4 localization to lipid rafts.

Keywords: macrophages
HIV-1
CD4
stem cells
Advisor: James, W
Cowley, S
Cyrano de Bergerac: battling with narrative burlesque

This thesis considers the burlesque literary forms in the work of the seventeenth-century writer, Cyrano de Bergerac. It challenges current scholarship by looking beyond libertinism to consider the importance of Cyrano's comic writing practices. While it does not deny the philosophical and scientific focus of Cyrano's oeuvre, it suggests that the burlesque is a defining characteristic. By taking into account the literary context in which Cyrano was writing – notably the querelle des Lettres and the rise of the histoire comique – as well as looking at other comic writers that could have influenced Cyrano, and through close textual readings, this thesis reveals that burlesque forms are often used in excess in Cyrano's work – forms compete against forms – producing destructive effects; burlesque forms can, in effect, be self-defeating. This project then asks whether it is possible to consider Cyrano a comic writer at all. It does demonstrate, however, that, in ridiculing everyone and everything, Cyrano too makes a mockery of the very idea of a dissimulative text. In questioning the literary gesture that Cyrano makes through his battling burlesque forms, this thesis suggests that libertinism can appear to be one of many playful masks the author assumes in his work. Is Cyrano a burlesque libertine? If so, this thesis raises the wider question of whether there are other imposters within the ranks.

Keywords: histoire comique
burlesque
seventeenth-century
libertinage
French literature
roman
querelle des lettres
novel
libertine
Advisor: Viala, A
The liability of internet intermediaries

Internet intermediaries facilitate a wide range of conduct using services supplied over the layered architecture of modern communications networks. Members of this class include search engines, social networks, internet service providers, website operators, hosts, and payment gateways, which together exert a critical and growing influence upon national and global economies, governments and cultures. This research examines who should face legal responsibility when wrongdoers utilise these services tortiously to cause harm to others. It has three parts.
Part 1 seeks to understand the nature of an intermediary and how its liability differs from the liability of primary defendants. It classifies intermediaries according to a new layered, functional taxonomy and argues that many instances of secondary liability in English private law reflect shared features and underlying policies, including optimal loss-avoidance and derivative liability premised on an assumption of responsibility.
Part 2 analyses intermediaries’ monetary liability for secondary wrongdoing in two areas of English law: defamation and copyright. It traces the historical evolution of these doctrines at successive junctures in communications technology, before identifying and defending limits on that liability which derive from three main sources: (i) in-built limits contained in definitions of secondary wrongdoing; (ii) European safe harbours and general limits on remedies; and (iii) statutory defences and exceptions.
Part 3 examines intermediaries’ non-monetary liability, in particular their obligations to disclose information about alleged primary wrongdoers and to cease facilitating wrongdoing where it is necessary and proportionate to do so. It proposes a new suite of non-facilitation remedies designed to restrict access to tortious internet materials, remove such materials from search engines, and reduce the profitability of wrongdoing. It concludes with several recommendations to improve the effectiveness and proportionality of remedies by reference to considerations of architecture, anonymity, efficient procedures, and fundamental rights.

Keywords: internet
anonymity
TRIPS Agreement
intermediaries
remedies
European law
English law
social networks
defamation
European Union law
internet law
internet service providers
private law
search engines
copyright
Advisor: Bagshaw, R
The versatile chemistry of azidoalkyl enol ethers and their equivalents

This thesis describes the synthesis and intramolecular cycloaddition products of azides tethered to olefins bearing a heteroatom in an attempt to access a proposed triazolium intermediate 77.
Chapter 1 covers the synthesis and reactivity of simple di- and trisubstituted azidoalkyl enol ethers. These substrates were found to provide isolable 1,2,3-triazoline products, but displayed a propensity to aromatise to 1,2,3-triazoles upon ionisation. Difficulties in synthesising fully-substituted azidoalkyl enol ethers have precluded a detailed study in this project, though a bias towards α-alkoxy imine formation was suggested.
Chapter 2 covers the chemistry of azidoalkyl vinyl bromides. Simple vinyl bromide substrates were found to yield 1-azadienes upon thermolysis, presumably via the dehydrobromination of an α-bromo imine intermediate in situ.
In Chapter 3, a brief diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) campaign was undertaken to demonstrate the potent reactivity of 1-azadiene substrates. 1-Azadienes were found to be versatile intermediates, and a small DOS library was built by exploiting several key reactivity modes.
In Chapter 4, two miscellaneous routes towards the desired triazolium intermediate are discussed, and finally an Appendix chapter deals with an attempted total synthesis of salinosporamide C.

Keywords: organic chemistry
Advisor: Robertson, J
Permutations of Rajput identity in the West Himalayas, c. 1790-1840

The sustained interaction of local elites and British administrators in the West Himalayas over the decades that surrounded the early colonial encounter (c. 1790-1840) saw the emergence of a distinctly new understanding of communal identity among the leaders of the region. This eventful period saw the mountain ('Pahari') kingdoms transform from fragmented, autonomous polities on the fringes of the Indian subcontinent to subjects of indigenous (Nepali, Sikh) and, ultimately, foreign (British) empires, and dramatically altered the ways Pahari leaders chose to remember and represent themselves. Using a wide array of sources from different locales in the hills (e.g., oral epics, archival records and local histories), this thesis traces the Pahari elite's transition from a nebulous group of lineage-based leaders to a cohesive unitary milieu modelled after contemporary interpretations of Hindu kingship. This nascent ideal of kingship is shown to have fed into concurrent understandings of Rajput society in the West Himalayas and ultimately to have sustained the alliance between indigenous rulers and British administrators.

Advisor: Washbrook, D
Enhancing the efficacy of viral vector blood-stage malaria vaccines

Replication-deficient adenovirus (Ad) and modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) vectors expressing single Plasmodium falciparum antigens can induce potent T cell and antibody responses and have entered clinical testing using a heterologous prime-boost immunisation approach (Ad_MVA). This thesis describes a number of pre-clinical approaches aimed at enhancing the efficacy of these viral vectored vaccines targeting the blood-stage of malaria. First, the development of a highly efficacious malaria vaccine is likely to require a multi-antigen and/or multi-stage subunit vaccine. The utility of an Ad_MVA immunisation regime combining vaccines expressing the 42kDa C-terminus of the blood- stage antigen merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP142) and the pre-erythrocytic antigen circumsporozoite protein (CSP) in the P. yoelii mouse model was investigated. It was found that vaccine co- administration leads to maintained antibody responses and efficacy against blood-stage infection, but reduced secondary CD8+ T cell responses and efficacy against liver-stage infection. CD8+ T cell interference can be minimised by co-administering the MVA vaccines at separate sites, resulting in enhanced liver-stage efficacy. The mechanisms of CD8+ T cell interference were explored. Second, Ad_MVA regimes expressing blood-stage antigens that can protect against P. chabaudi and P. yoelii blood-stage infection were tested against P. berghei, but did not confer protection. Similarly, IgG from rabbits immunised against P. falciparum MSP1 (PfMSP1) could not protect mice from a chimeric P. berghei parasite expressing PfMSP1. Third, two molecular adjuvants, the C4bp α-chain oligomerisation domain (IMX108/313) and the Fc fragment of murine IgG2a, were tested for their ability to enhance immunogenicity of recombinant adenoviruses when fused at the C-terminus of a blood-stage antigen. IMX108/313 was found to adjuvant T cell responses of small (< 80kDa) antigens and this was associated with antigen oligomerisation. However, the Fc fragment did not adjuvant responses. Finally, it was found that using a strong early promoter to drive antigen expression enhances the immunogenicity of single administration MVA vaccines, but that this did not enhance post-boost immunogenicity in an Ad_MVA regime.

Keywords: Malaria
CD8
IL-2
CD4
Plasmodium berghei
TNFa
MVA
Plasmodium yoelii
mice
IFNg
adenovirus
Advisor: Hill, A
Draper, S
Geology of the northeast Sacramento mountains, California

A multidisciplinary investigation into the timing, distribution, and intensity of tectonothermal events has resulted in an understanding of the tectonic evolution of the northeast Sacramento Mountains, in particular, and of the northern Sacramento Mountains in general. The application of geologic, structural, geochemical, and thermochronologic techniques has provided the relative and absolute timing of crustal and tectonic processes, leading to the development of a petrogenetic model for the evolution of the Sacramento Mountains metamorphic core complex.
The metamorphic core complex was uplifted and cooled during Miocene detachment faulting (-23- 12 Ma). The Eagle Wash Intrusive Complex, a calc-alkalic granodioritic intrusion, was emplaced during detachment faulting at -20 Ma, at -3 kb and ~680°C. The EWIC records rapid cooling and uplift following emplacement, at rates of >100°C/Ma and 1.5-3 km/Ma, respectively. The EWIC was below ~100°C (the closure temperature of fission tracks in apatite) by 15 Ma.
The structural and thermal history for the syntectonic intrusive suite is best explained via an evolving simple shear zone. The EWIC was intruded into, or proximal to, a mylonitic shear zone. The SW dip of the myonitic foliation in the EWIC could represent a primary feature of the shear zone, or the capture of a relatively older feature by a younger detachment fault splay. The later interpretation is consistent with the thermochronologic data, which suggests that faulting continued in the east after its termination in the west.
Using the thermochonologic data to develop a thermal profile of the crust, the angle of faulting was calculated to be <30°C. The slip-rate associated with the detachement fault, though poorly constrained, was determined to be -4 mm/yr. This value is about half that determined from other core complexes and suggests that extension was slower here than elsewhere in the region.