Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

This project will develop novel techniques to uncover network structures in complex large scale data sets. Our emphasis lies on learning from extreme events rather than average events, where our work will extend and leverage recent advances at the interface of graphical modelling, extreme value theory and approximate linear algebra. To tackle estimation of complex network structures in the large-scale setting, we will investigate sparsity inducing mechanisms that are alternatives to the graphical lasso.

This project aims to explore student experiences of the transition between secondary and university learning environments, with a focus on academic literacies (to include linguistic development). I use Lea and Street's (2010) working definition of academic literacies as being 'concerned with meaning making, identity, power, and authority (p. 369), as well as being associated with 'subjects and disciplines', and 'broader institutional disciplines and genres'(p. 368). The research for this project will include interviews and questionnaires conducted with students, teachers, and lecturers at secondary and university educational institutions, such as sixth form colleges, further education institutions, and universities. Further, I will explore sources used by these individuals, including textbooks, past papers, and guidance posted on the WJEC and Welsh Government websites. Through my exploration of these data, I aim to identify how reading and writing skills in humanities and social sciences subjects are taught and assessed at secondary level, compared with higher education. Additionally, I will apply this data so that I can explore ways of addressing any challenges faced by students as they transition to undergraduate literacies. I aim to obtain a diverse range of data to consider the effect that a student's personal circumstances (for example, socio-economic status, age) have on their experiences of linguistic transition to university-level literacies. The interviews will provide an insight into students' experiences of this transition, while the textual data will reveal the extent to which there are linguistic differences in the way reading and writing knowledge and skills are packaged, constructed and assessed in secondary and university learning environments. The transition from secondary education to university can be challenging. Increasingly, students, particularly those from backgrounds traditionally under-represented in higher education, find the shift from a more controlled learning environment to independent study difficult (Thompson et al. 2021). Students report feeling unprepared for the expectations of proactive engagement and responsibility, and for unfamiliar writing styles, assessment types, and grading standards (Thompson et al. 2021). Further, students from a pre-university bilingual educational experience may face the additional challenge of transitioning to monolingual institutions. Alongside a decline in students' reading attainment (Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 National Report for Wales), there is also a lack of understanding and awareness from secondary education institutions and universities for the linguistic differences in writing and knowledge. There appears to be a mismatch between learners' pre-university academic literacies and the expectations of universities (Baker 2018), and it is not clear, at present, how universities can best support the transition to a university learning environment. Framing my research within this context will illuminate students' pre-university knowledge and skills, offering an insight into the kind of support process universities might want to implement to bridge the gap. The methodological approach I plan to undertake in this project will ensure a multifaceted, in-depth understanding of the expectations and practices of writing which students are expected to fulfil both at secondary education institutions and universities in Wales. By looking at disciplines including English Language, English Literature, Psychology, and Sociology, my project has the capacity to improve the level of support students receive as they are expected to adapt and build on their existing academic writing skills to meet the demands of their courses. Further, my engagement with current guidance comes at a time of 'large scale reforms for improvement' (Miles 2023, para. 6). Thus, the project has the potential to influence Welsh Government legislation regarding secondary and university education.

Immortality refers to the concept of living forever or having an endless lifespan. The idea of immortality has fascinated human beings for centuries. In this project, we aim to investigate the molecular mechanisms responsible for T. dohrnii's biological immortality. Turritopsis dohrnii, also known as the 'immortal jellyfish,' is a species of jellyfish that can revert to its juvenile form after reaching sexual maturity, potentially enabling it to live forever. This unique ability is due to trans-differentiation, a process where fully differentiated cells in the adult jellyfish convert into undifferentiated stem cells, allowing the jellyfish to regenerate its cells and tissues and effectively reverse the ageing process. While the molecular mechanism of T. dohrnii's trans-differentiation is not well understood, recent genomic analysis has revealed extensive changes in gene expression profiles and duplications of genes essential for DNA repair during rejuvenation. However, no single gene granting T. dohrnii immortality has been identified, suggesting that a more complex molecular program is required for rejuvenation.?Mammalian somatic cells can also be forced to lose their cellular differentiation state and get induced into a pluripotent state. Whilst the reprogramming is initiated by the expression of a few regulatory factors, an extensive global reprogramming of epigenetic and transcriptional profiles is necessary for cells to dedifferentiate. This involves significant changes in DNA methylation and histone modification profiles, which adjust the cell's transcriptional profile and thus drive cellular dedifferentiation.?Functionally, the trans-differentiation of Turritopsis cells during rejuvenation resembles the reprogramming of mammalian cells to pluripotency, suggesting that the 'immortal jellyfish' genome also needs to undergo global changes to reset its epigenetic state. However, as the epigenetic mechanisms in Turritopsis are unexplored, it is not clear which specific epigenetic marks play a role in rejuvenation nor which epigenetic mechanisms are responsible for driving this process. We also do not know if epigenetic changes can drive the process, or are they simply a consequence of it? Finally, it is unclear whether the rejuvenation ability of Turritopsis could be mediated solely by epigenetic mechanisms.?Our first goal is to understand the epigenetic system of this unique jellyfish.?For this, we will investigate the genomic distribution of key epigenetic marks and examine their correlation with transcriptional activity to pinpoint the fundamental principles of Turritopsis' epigenetic regulation. For this, we will use state-of-the-art epigenomic and transcriptomic methods to investigate DNA methylation profiles and identify genomic locations where methylation is actively removed. We will study histone modification patterns?to understand their crosstalk with DNA modifications and effects exerted on gene regulation. Once we understand the fundamental principles of the Turritopsis epigenetic system, we will identify the epigenetic programme responsible for driving rejuvenation.For this,together with our partners at Aquarium de Paris,we will initiate Turritopsis rejuvenation and gather jellyfish at consecutive stages of trans-differentiation and study the epigenetic and transcriptional changes driving rejuvenation.Overall,in this project, we will reveal the epigenetic and transcriptional profiles and identify the key epigenetic factors involved in the process.This work will provide a fundamental understanding of the epigenetic system and its transcriptional regulation in Turritopsis dohrnii that will set the stage to guide future research to elucidate the causative roles and molecular mechanisms of rejuvenation. The results obtained in this study will also illuminate the evolution and adaptability of the epigenetic machinery and provide a reference epigenome for future studies.

Lymph nodes are a common site for the spread of cancer. The student will learn state-of-the-art techniques in Data Science involving Deep Learning to detect cancer automatically in lymph-node histology images. This will alleviate the workload of trained histologists in the UK, who struggle to keep up with demand. It will lead to earlier detection and lives saved. Training across two GW4 universities will be immersed in strongly multidisciplinary environments.