VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Byron's doubts: a critical study of Byron's poetry, 1807-24

This thesis offers a literary and critical reading of Byron’s poetry, and a study of his doubts about whether he should have written poetry at all. Despite the energy and variousness of his career as a poet, Byron was often openly irreverent about his art, claiming to have ‘no great esteem for poetical persons’. It is the claim of this thesis that behind that habit of disparagement lay more serious unresolved uncertainties about the value and purpose of poetry. Although Byron’s scepticism is readily acknowledged, extraordinarily little attention has been paid to the quality of his doubt and how it might have affected his creative practice. Yet as this study shows, his doubts were vitally related to his artistry as a poet.
While we might usually think of doubt as a negative or critical force, likely to perplex or erode creativity, this thesis argues that it profoundly shaped Byron’s creative intelligence and had significant implications for his formal and stylistic choices. My introductory chapter introduces the perspectives of poets and critics who have felt that Byron ‘wanted faith’ in poetry. The chapters that follow aim to trace the most significant creative consequences of that want of conviction. Chapter 1 introduces Byron’s doubting temper and examines his early preference for self-reflexive literary forms, including literary satire, that might give expression to his early inclination to be in two minds about literature. Byron’s revisions and self-revisions are the subject of Chapter 2, which considers the compositional development of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage in light of the creatively resourceful scepticism involved in literary revision; it argues that his doubts were vitally related to the restless experimentation that defined his career as a poet. Chapter 3 turns to Beppo, Don Juan, and the activity of entertaining doubt in light verse, offering a close stylistic analysis of Byron’s comic rhymes to show how his distrust of more serious forms of art was profitably realised as a matter of style.
Over the course of his career, Byron’s scepticism of the ordinary preoccupations of poetry led him into a creative effort to expand what the medium could do. These experiments are the subject of Chapter 4. In the later cantos of the poem, Byron cultivated a style that was in some ways consciously unliterary, reflecting his openness to the influence of discursive and ambivalently literary forms including the essay. Chapter 5 turns to the English cantos of Don Juan, which Byron claimed to have scribbled in improvisatory style. It describes a poetry that makes an art of not being poetical—and raises questions about its relation to prose. Together these chapters are designed to show that Byron’s irresolved doubts had a profound and affirmative influence on his art.

Advisor: Stafford, F
Inertial learning and haptics for legged robot state estimation in visually challenging environments

Legged robots have enormous potential to automate dangerous or dirty jobs because they are capable of traversing a wide range of difficult terrains such as up stairs or through mud. However, a significant challenge preventing widespread deployment of legged robots is a lack of robust state estimation, particularly in visually challenging conditions such as darkness or smoke.
In this thesis, I address these challenges by exploiting proprioceptive sensing from inertial, kinematic and haptic sensors to provide more accurate state estimation when visual sensors fail. Four different methods are presented, including the use of haptic localisation, terrain semantic localisation, learned inertial odometry, and deep learning to infer the evolution of IMU biases.
The first approach exploits haptics as a source of proprioceptive localisation by comparing geometric information to a prior map. The second method expands on this concept by fusing both semantic and geometric information, allowing for accurate localisation on diverse terrain.
Next, I combine new techniques in inertial learning with classical IMU integration and legged robot kinematics to provide more robust state estimation. This is further developed to use only IMU data, for an application entirely different from robotics: 3D reconstruction of bone with a handheld ultrasound scanner. Finally, I present the novel idea of using deep learning to infer the evolution of IMU biases, improving state estimation in exteroceptive systems where vision fails.
Legged robots have the potential to benefit society by automating dangerous, dull, or dirty jobs and by assisting first responders in emergency situations. However, there remain many unsolved challenges to the real-world deployment of legged robots, including accurate state estimation in vision-denied environments. The work presented in this thesis takes a step towards solving these challenges and enabling the deployment of legged robots in a variety of applications.

Keywords: legged robots
inertial navigation systems
state estimation
Advisor: Fallon, M
Camurri, M
Probabilistic snapshot GNSS for low-cost wildlife tracking

Snapshot GNSS is more energy-efficient than conventional localisation methods based on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), like the GPS. This is beneficial for long deployments on battery such as in wildlife tracking. However, only a few snapshot GNSS systems that could be used for wildlife tracking have been presented and all have disadvantages. Most significantly, they are closed-source and either not available or expensive. A reason is that they typically require GNSS signals to be captured with good resolution, which demands complex receiver hardware capable of capturing multi-bit data at sampling rates of 16 MHz and more. By contrast, this thesis presents fast algorithms that reliably estimate locations from twelve-millisecond signals that are sampled at just 4 MHz and quantised with only a single bit. This allows to build a snapshot receiver at an unmatched low cost of less than $30 and with particularly low power consumption, outperforming existing systems and enabling low-budget and long-term field work. The system can acquire two positions per hour for a year on a tiny 40 mAh battery. On a challenging public dataset with thousands of snapshots from real-world scenarios, median accuracy is 11 m, comparable to more complex and expensive solutions with higher energy consumption. Additionally, the system has been deployed for several wildlife tracking studies, including on sea turtles, where brief signal acquisition times are crucial to obtain location fixes during surfacing events lasting only 1–2 s. For the first time, (i) snapshot GNSS receiver hardware and (ii) an accompanying cloud-based processing platform are open-source. This allowed several third parties to independently replicate the system. In total, several hundred receivers have been built and millions of locations estimated for those. As three additional contributions, this thesis presents (i) the first evaluation of snapshot GNSS for wildlife tracking across a variety of species and habitats, (ii) the first snapshot GNSS system with cloud-offloading via a low-power narrow-band cellular connection, and (iii) a demonstration of the potential of smoothing for snapshot GNSS. A final contribution are factor graph optimisation algorithms to (i) smooth snapshot GNSS data and (ii) tightly fuse raw GNSS data with inertial measurements and, optionally, lidar observations for precise and smooth localisation. In several environments with little sky visibility, such as a forest, the accuracy of the fused location estimates in the global Earth frame is still 1–2 m, while the estimated trajectories are discontinuity-free and smooth. This requires a professional-grade (non-snapshot) GNSS receiver, but, unlike traditional differential GNSS, no connection to a base station.

Advisor: Rogers, A
Fallon, M
To what extent are formative assessment strategies used in schools contributing to student learning? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To determine the effects of formative assessment interventions and strategies aimed at optimising the learning outcomes in children and adolescents.
Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Data sources: After searching PsycInfo, ERIC, Education Research Complete, A+ Education and Scopus electronic university databases, there were 3689 potentially eligible studies published between January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2022.
Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: This study includes randomised controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies, and controlled trials that assessed the effect of a formative assessment-based strategy or intervention against learning outcomes in students attending either primary or secondary years of schooling (i.e., aged 5–18 years).
Results: Thirty-eight (38) studies with over 16,000 participants and 43 calculated effect sizes were included in the final analysis. The sample size adjusted mean effect across all the learning and development outcomes was of a small to medium magnitude (Hedges’ g=0.31), 95% confidence interval [CI] (0.29 to 0.39). After applying the Duval and Tweedie (2000) Trim and Fill Method to account for publication bias, the average effect size was adjusted to g=0.16. Effect sizes also varied significantly based on whether they targeted cognitive, psychomotor, or affective learning outcomes. Only a small proportion (less than 10%) of formative assessment interventions examined in this systematic review indicated a detrimental impact on student learning and development.
Conclusion: Formative assessment interventions consistently have a positive effect on student learning in both primary and secondary school settings across psychomotor, affective, and cognitive learning domains. However, the reported effect of formative assessment interventions in previous meta-analytic studies appears to have been inflated by the inclusion of studies that suffer from weaker study designs. Furthermore, the scope of studies included in this systematic review and meta-analysis showed even studies with stronger study designs were plagued with poor methodological quality and substantial publication bias. Moreover, the evidence reported is limited by consistency in intervention dosage, study design, and data collection instruments.

Keywords: publication bias
holistic learning
heterogeneity
Advisor: Cadwallader, S
Pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance investigation of molecular magnetic systems

Porphyrins, consisting of four pyrroles connected by methine bridges, can accommodate different types of metal ions or groups in the centre, because the four nitrogen atoms in the molecule function as outstanding ligands. In this thesis, a vanadyl group is incorporated in the centre in order to investigate the electron spin–spin interactions and coherence properties, because the vanadyl group in the nuclear spin-free carbon−sulfide ligands has been found to have a long coherence time. Graphenoids, composed of annulated benzene rings, have the same basic unit of graphene. Because of the delocalisation of electrons in π-conjugation structure, graphenoids have many interesting electronic properties, and therefore have obtained attention from researchers in different fields. Through introducing different defects and side groups in the structures and adjusting the size and shape of the molecules, it is possible to tune the magnetic and coherence properties of graphenoids.
In this thesis, we use electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy to investigate the magnetic and coherence properties of an ensemble of isolated paramagnetic molecules. Vanadyl porphyrin dimers with different spacers are discussed, and we especially focus on the electron spin–spin interactions in these molecules. We use strongly and weakly coupled representations to describe the spin systems of triply linked dimers and all other dimers, respectively, because of different strengths of isotropic exchange coupling, compared with both the hyperfine coupling and the electron Zeeman anisotropy. The noncoincidence effects of different interaction tensors play an important role in the CW-EPR spectra and need to be considered in simulations. We also investigated the coherence properties dependence on different exchange coupling strengths and attached side groups. Furthermore, we discuss the temperature dependence of the coherence properties and structural effects on the magnetic properties by studying two types of graphenoids with two different defects, including two neighbouring five- and seven-membered rings and two disjoint five-membered rings.

Keywords: molecular magnetic system
EPR
quantum information processing
Advisor: Bogani, L
Slota, M
Modelling the dynamic flight behaviour of birds in different frames of reference

In this thesis I consider two aspects – energetics and guidance – of two dynamic flight behaviours performed by birds – dynamic soaring and prey pursuit. Uniting the thesis is the collection and modelling of bird trajectory data in different frames of reference to make inferences on dynamic flight behaviour. In particular, I collect data in a camera-fixed reference frame to model the dynamic soaring flight trajectories of Manx shearwater in an aerodynamic reference frame, whereas I model the attack trajectories of Harris’ hawks in both an inertial and a background frame of reference using data collected in an Earth-fixed frame of reference. The output of my investigation into the energetics of dynamic soaring is the first empirical demonstration of dynamic soaring outside the albatrosses, the formulation of a new metric for identifying and quantifying dynamic soaring, and the demonstration that the large-scale distribution of the Manx shearwater is affected by their dynamic soaring behaviour. The output of my investigation into the guidance of prey pursuit is the finding that Harris’ hawk attack trajectories are well modelled by the proportional navigation (PN) guidance law commonly used by homing missiles. However, I also show that a guidance law that can be mechanised using only visual information – rather than the inertial and visual information required by PN – also successfully fits attack trajectory data. Finally, I propose a method for analysing eye-in-head movements during dynamic flight in birds, and I find that Harris’ hawks limit eye-in-head movement during terminal pursuit, a necessary condition to implement PN guidance. In being reflective about the reference frames in which I model bird behaviour and, in cases, by modelling the same data in different reference frames, I expose the utility of the reference frame concept in analysing biological systems.

Keywords: shearwater
reference frame
guidance
animal-borne camera
flight
soaring
motion capture
biomechanics
energetics
bird-of-prey
hawk
GPS
albatross
pursuit
animal behaviour
dynamic soaring
Advisor: Taylor, G
Understanding and improving disability training for health workers in sub-Saharan Africa

The World Health Organization estimates that 16% of the world’s population is disabled. Health worker training in many countries has been described as limited, ineffective, and unsystematic with regard to disability. This insufficiency is likely to be detrimental to the quality of health care that disabled people receive across health systems globally and understanding the training and other mechanisms that help health workers to improve their care for disabled patients could improve health outcomes.
To date, there has been limited research on disability training to health workers in sub-Saharan Africa. Pilot programmes in countries like Ghana have shown promise, but there remain substantial gaps in the literature. This aim of this thesis is to understand how to improve health worker training in sub-Saharan Africa by exploring the current state of health worker training on disability in sub-Saharan Africa and makes recommendations to improve it. The thesis explores these topics through i) a systematic literature review to characterise existing health worker training on disability globally; ii) a document analysis of disability laws and policies in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa; iii) secondary analysis of regional data to understand how disabled people use health services; and iv) qualitative interviews to explore health workers’ perspectives of training on disability in Ghana.
The systematic review found that there are numerous individual interventions to train health workers about disability, but these are usually one-off trainings, with limited evaluation, follow-up, or consistency across settings. Similarly, the document analysis showed some laws and policies required training, but did not provide further details (i.e., curriculum, budget, timing, etc.) necessary for implementation. Furthermore, secondary analysis showed that there were no substantial differences in where disabled people seek care, which emphasized the importance of training every health worker. Finally, the qualitative data demonstrated that training interventions were acceptable and effective in changing the attitudes and behaviour of health workers. However, these interviews, together with the other results of the thesis, show that health worker training must be more robust in its frequency, formality, and follow-up to ensure health workers are all trained to improve health equity for disabled people.

Keywords: sub-Saharan Africa
disability
health worker training
Advisor: Ziebland, S
McFadden, E
Ryan, S
Differential DNA hydroxy/methylation analyses for improving prognostic accuracy in localised PDAC and a better understanding of PDAC progression

Despite immense efforts, the prognosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remained very poor. The main reasons include the lack of early-stage symptoms and effective screening programmes, leading to delayed clinical presentations, with only 15-20% of patients being diagnosed with localised resectable tumours. However, ~40% of these patients develop distant recurrence within 12 months, suggesting that while clinically identified as localised, a subset of the patients likely had micro-metastatic lesions and neoadjuvant chemotherapies might have been the better option. There are strong demands for improving prognostic accuracy and this project aims to distinguish PDAC patients with metastasis-prone tumours from those with truly localised resectable tumours via DNA methylation (5mC) and hydroxymethylation (5hmC) signatures.
Starting with raw 5hmC & 5mC data, pairwise differential analyses were performed to identify significantly differentially hydroxy/methylated CpGs - D(h)MPs and significantly differentially hydroxy/methylated regions - D(h)MRs. ChAMP detected 3 DhMPs being significantly hypo-hydroxymethylated in patients with distant recurrence, whereas 21 DhMRs were significantly differentially hydroxymethylated. Similarly, 35459 DMPs and 551 DMRs were detected. Scorings were performed for subsequent unsupervised hierarchical clustering analyses to check how well the identified signatures distinguish between the two groups. The results showed that 5(h)mC profiles indeed have the power to separate patients into their prognostic groups. To gain a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms, functional enrichment analysis was performed for the top signatures. As validation, RT qPCR of selected genes in classical & squamous PDAC cell lines were performed; in which 6 of the candidate genes have a profound transcription pattern, suggesting an overlap between our hydroxy/methylomic-driven stratification and the transcriptomic-driven classical/squamous stratification.
In conclusion, this preliminary study showed that 5(h)mC signatures have the potential to improve prognostic accuracy. Most importantly, this approach can be adapted for other scientific questions, bringing new opportunities to combat PDAC and different diseases.

Keywords: patient stratification
PDAC
cancer research
differential DNA hydroxymethylation analyses
differential DNA methylation analyses
Advisor: O'Neill, E
Investigations in Calabi-Yau modularity and mirror symmetry

This thesis lays out a number of different projects, linked by the common thread of Calabi-Yau manifolds.
We produce tables of instanton numbers for various multiparameter Calabi-Yau manifolds. Studying those tables reveals, in some cases, a Coxeter group of symmetries that act on sets of instanton numbers. Instanton numbers are constant over the orbits of group actions on the curve classes, and these groups can be infinite.
We investigate to what extent this symmetry can be used to constrain the holomorphic ambiguity that arises in higher genus topological string free energy computations. In the example we study, at genus 2, combining this Coxeter constraint with the set of vanishing numbers fixes the holomorphic ambiguity.
A new class of solutions is provided to the supersymmetric flux vacuum equations, which have been conjectured elsewhere to give weight-two modular manifolds. Another search, complementary to those that have already been carried out, is made for rank-two attractors in the AESZ list. Two novel examples are found, both of which belong to moduli spaces with two points of maximal unipotent monodromy each. For one of these operators, the additional MUM point corresponds to another derived equivalent geometry. For the other operator, we compute nonintegral values of the triple intersection number and genus 0 instanton numbers, and so a geometric interpretation is lacking for the second MUM point.
We provide several instances of summation identities that express a ratio of critical L-values as an infinite sum, whose terms contain the Gromov-Witten invariants of a Calabi-Yau manifold Y . In one example there is no manifold Y, only an operator, but a set of invariants can nonetheless be computed for this and a summation identity is found. The L-functions are associated to a modular manifold X which is mirror to Y . These sums can be divergent, but Pade resummation cures this.
In addition to these results, we briefly review informing aspects of Calabi-Yau geometry, black holes in 4d N = 2 supergravity, flux compactifications, topological string theory, and number theory.

Advisor: Candelas, P
de la Ossa, X
Finitely presented infinite simple groups

This thesis is mainly concerned with the development of a procedure to construct finitely presented infinite simple groups.
The finitely presented groups, Gn,i, constructed by G.Higman [5) are extended by certain subgroups, H, of the inverse limit of wreath products, Sn-1(wr sn-1)w. It is shown that if H is defined by a finite set of expansion rules (see Chapter 2) then the group n,1,H> is finitely presented if H is finitely presented. The commutator subgroup, n,1,H>, is shown to be a simple group and it is proved that an integer m and a set of expansion rules defining H can be chosen such that is a finitely presented infinite simple group.
Let GL(n,𝕫) be the general linear group of nxn dimensional matrices over the integers. The finitely presented simple group, m,1,𝕫n.GL(n,𝕫)1, is constructed, where 𝕫n is the free Abelian group of finite rank, n. So GL(n,𝕫) can be embedded in a finitely presented simple group, for all n.
Let Xp be the ring of rationals whose denominators are divisible only by primes belonging to the finite set P. If A is a countable Abelian group whose torsion factor group is a subgroup of a finitely generated torsion free Xp-module, then it is shown that A can be embedded in a finitely presented simple group.
It is also noted, at the end of the discussion of linear groups, that if there exists a finitely presented linear group, over the integers, with unsolvable conjugacy or orbit problem, then a finitely presented infinite simple group with unsolvable conjugacy problem can be constructed.

Advisor: Higman, G