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In this qualitative study, we aimed to investigate inpatient mental health nurses' experience of eating. Previous literature indicated that mental health nurses experienced high occupational stress. In light of national shortages of nurses, nurses reported that high workload led to the inability to stay hydrated, eat or use the toilet. Research suggested that nurses most commonly used eating as a stress-reduction method, tentatively concluding that stress-induced eating could exacerbate the obesity epidemic. Seven male inpatient mental health nurses participated in semi-structured interviews via telephone. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Three master themes emerged: "Part and parcel of the nature of the job", which included "The pressure of work", "Everything else fell by the wayside" and "Eating is not your priority"; "Try to sort of compensate", which included "Hunger can be frustrating", "Eating more than I should have" and "Hang on, what am I doing?"; and "So I am getting healthier. Just not healthy", which included, "You want to be healthy don't you?", "I have a window of opportunity to eat" and "I just have to find the balance". Employers need to encourage cultural change by providing a supportive environment to facilitate healthy eating amongst mental health nurses, including managerial supervision, incident debriefing and appropriate psychological interventions, which can include psychoeducational leaflets, workshops, group support and 1:1 CBT sessions.

This thesis aimed to investigate the role of minority stress (MS) and autistic community connectedness (ACC) on mental health (MH) and wellbeing in the autistic community. Multiple methods were used, across four studies. Study one consisted of a qualitative study using grounded theory tools to create a measure of ACC, as none existed. The findings indicated that ACC compromises of three sub-domains – belongingness, social, and political connectedness. Stigma and identity both informed the level of ACC experienced by participants. In study two, a measure of ACC was created and validated in a new sample of autistic individuals (N = 133) using confirmatory factor analysis to test factor-structure and for item purification. Results indicated factorial, convergent and discriminant validity, for a 10-item scale. Studies three and four consisted of a cross-sectional and longitudinal survey where 195 autistic and 181 non-autistic people completed questionnaires at baseline and 99 autistic participants completed measures nine months later at follow-up. Resilience resources, ACC, MH and wellbeing, and MS were measured both times. Study three showed that the differences in MH, wellbeing, and resilience resources between the autistic and non-autistic sample persisted beyond demographics and general stress. Higher MS predicted lower MH and wellbeing, while ACC moderated the relationship between MS and MH, ameliorating the effects of MS. The longitudinal study (study four) showed that higher MS scores at baseline were associated with worse MH and wellbeing nine-months later, while higher ACC was associated with better MH and wellbeing. The results suggest a model of ACC and MS whereby autistic people may experience differing levels of ACC depending on experiences of stigma and autistic identity. This ACC in turn moderates the impact of MS on MH.These findings and implications of the research are further integrated into autism, MS, MH, and community literature.

New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) were designed to be legal alternatives to existing established recreational drugs. They have fast become a very popular and up until 2016, NPS were legal, cheap and freely accessible via the internet and high street "head shops". The rapid expansion in the number of these drugs has reached epidemic proportions, whereby hundreds of NPS have been developed and sold within the last five-year period. As NPS are synthesized in clandestine laboratories there is little to no control in the manufacture, dosage and packaging of these drugs. The public health risks posed by these drugs are therefore far-reaching. Fatalities and severe adverse reactions associated with these compounds have become an ongoing challenge to healthcare services, primarily because these drugs have not previously been abused and therefore there is little pharmacological information available regarding NPS. There are a number of different biological receptors that are implicated in the effects of NPS and the mechanism of action for the majority of these drugs is still largely unknown. It is of great importance to try and establish an understanding of how various classes of NPS interact on a molecular level. In this thesis, structure-based and ligand-based in Silico methodologies were employed to gain a better understanding of how NPS may interact with monoamine transporters (MAT). Key findings included both molecular docking studies and a number of robust and predictive QSAR models for the dopamine and serotonin transporters provided insight into how promiscuity of NPS between the different MAT isoforms could arise. In addition, pharmacophore models were generated to identify chemical entities that were structurally dissimilar to known existing NPS that had the potential to interact with the cannabinoid 1 receptor (CB1) and hence were hypothesised could elicit similar biological responses to known potent synthetic cannabinoids. Thirteen of these compounds were identified and carried forward for in vitro and ex vivo analyses, where preliminary results have shown that two compounds activate the CB1 receptor. Further optimisation of these compounds could yield a novel SC scaffold that was previously unseen. Additionally, the compounds identified and the methodology employed in the generation of these new chemical scaffolds could be used to guide Early Warning Systems (EWS) and facilitate law enforcement with respect to emergent NPS.

The United Kingdom nuclear industry is currently experiencing challenges relating to the safe transfer and processing of legacy waste sludge due to its complex physical and chemical properties. The radioactive nature of the sludge makes conventional methods used to characterise its rheology costly. The use of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to measure the rheological properties of concentrated suspensions is considered. The device is small, portable, and can provide rheological data in-situ, allowing for significant cost reductions to be made. The QCM consists of a gold-coated piezoelectric quartz crystal oscillating in the MHz-range when an alternating current is supplied to it. When the QCM is immersed into a medium, a shift in the sensor oscillation frequency (ΔF) is observed, where the magnitude of the shift is proportional to the bulk properties of the medium and the nature of its contact to the resonator surface. In most cases an increased dampening due to a loss in vibrational energy is also observed, i.e. a shift in circuit resistance across the sensor (ΔR), or a broadening in the electrical conductance vs. frequency curve (ΔΓ). When the QCM sensor is submerged into concentrated sludge at fixed pH, ΔΓ or ΔR is proportional to the shear yield stress of the sludge measured using conventional vane viscometry. A stronger suspension network therefore increases both the QCM sensor dampening as well as the suspension bulk yield stress. For sludge composing of large surface area TiO2 (anatase) particles that are sensitive to pH changes, the QCM ΔF and ΔΓ or ΔR response correlated well with changes in the theoretical particle-sensor interaction strength using the Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey and Overbeek (DLVO) theory. No significant resonance shifts were observed at suspension pH values where the particle-sensor interaction is expected to be repulsive. The change in QCM response with particle-sensor interaction allows for the charge characteristics of suspension particles to be inferred. The QCM response when in concentrated suspensions can be explained via the 'point contact load' model based on these findings. Concentration tests using zinc oxide particles was performed at different resonance frequency overtones (5 - 55 MHz initial frequency). An overtone dependency that cannot be explained by the point contact model alone was observed. The QCM data was compared to viscoelastic models where the raw data fitted well with model predictions. The high frequency storage modulus of the sludge correlated well with conventional rheometry data. The QCM response when it is submerged into a concentrated sludge can therefore be described through a combination of the point contact load model and the viscoelastic model, where the relative contribution from each depends on the physical and chemical composition of the suspension particles and the nature of the experiment involved.

The subject of this thesis is the estimation of individual well yields, which is a fundamental part of a multi-well abstraction system design. A literature review of the subject shows that the current best practice for estimating individual well yields has several shortcomings and that further research on the topic is required for individual wells operating under gravity flow. The proposal by Sichardt (1927) for estimating the hydraulic gradient at entry into wells is reviewed and his suggestions are compared to the findings in the field. Pumping test data from eight individual abstraction wells, operating under gravity flow in aquifers having a range of permeability values, are presented. The permeability of the aquifer and the implied hydraulic entry gradient into the well were calculated from the data. The findings also show that Sichardt’s (1927) formula provides reasonable results for permeabilities in the range 1 x 10-5 up to 2.15 x 10-3m/s. For permeability values below 1 x 10-5 m/s Sichardt (1927) a reasonable estimation, but the results need to be used with caution.

Introduction: There is an increasing need for economic evaluation of public health interventions to ensure efficient allocation of resources. Outcomes of such interventions often consists of health and non-health and do not fit in the conventional economic evaluation of quality-adjusted life year (QALY) framework. A cost-benefit analysis (CBA) could be appropriate but has concerns of assigning monetary values to health outcomes. Questions remain on how to consider the broad outcomes of a public health intervention in an economic evaluation. Objective: This thesis aimed to develop an integrated approach for an economic evaluation of a public health intervention that combines the standard cost-utility analysis (CUA) for health outcomes with the stated preference discrete choice experiment (SPDCE) approach for non-health outcomes on a single monetary metric. Methods: A natural experiment of the Woods In and Around Towns (WIAT) study in Scotland was used for empirical analysis. Costs were assessed using a top-down approach based on resources used. A difference-in-differences (DiD) approach was used to establish the impact. A CUA valued the health outcomes in terms of QALYs while a previously developed conceptual model of the WIAT was used to identify the SPDCE attributes and levels for the non-health outcomes. The WIAT study questionnaire was mapped to the SPDCE which generated relative willingness to pay (WTP) values from a general Scottish population. The WTP estimates were applied to the changes or improvements in the attributes and levels resulting from the intervention. A net monetary benefit (NMB) framework was then used to combine the CUA with the SPDCE on the same monetary scale, effectively deriving a CBA. Results: The WIAT interventions were of low cost despite the base case DiD analysis showing a statistically insignificant effect for interventions. The incremental cost-effective ratios (ICERs) for the interventions revealed that they were cost-effective. The probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA) showed that the physical intervention was 73% likely to be cost-effective at WTP of £20,000 and £30,000. The combined physical and social interventions had 74% and 75% likelihood of being cost-effective at WTP of £20,00 and £30,000, respectively. There was a great deal of uncertainty around QALY results. Overall, the integrated approach revealed that the WIAT interventions were cost-beneficial in terms of both health and non-health outcomes. Conclusion: This thesis has proposed and demonstrated the integrated approach that combines the conventional QALY framework with the SPDCE on a single monetary scale, hence a broader economic evaluative space particularly suitable for an economic evaluation of a public health intervention.

This thesis investigates how the sub-structure of words can be accounted for in probabilistic models of language. Such models play an important role in natural language processing tasks such as translation or speech recognition, but often rely on the simplistic assumption that words are opaque symbols. This assumption does not fit morphologically complex language well, where words can have rich internal structure and sub-word elements are shared across distinct word forms. Our approach is to encode basic notions of morphology into the assumptions of three different types of language models, with the intention that leveraging shared sub-word structure can improve model performance and help overcome data sparsity that arises from morphological processes. In the context of n-gram language modelling, we formulate a new Bayesian model that relies on the decomposition of compound words to attain better smoothing, and we develop a new distributed language model that learns vector representations of morphemes and leverages them to link together morphologically related words. In both cases, we show that accounting for word sub-structure improves the models' intrinsic performance and provides benefits when applied to other tasks, including machine translation. We then shift the focus beyond the modelling of word sequences and consider models that automatically learn what the sub-word elements of a given language are, given an unannotated list of words. We formulate a novel model that can learn discontiguous morphemes in addition to the more conventional contiguous morphemes that most previous models are limited to. This approach is demonstrated on Semitic languages, and we find that modelling discontiguous sub-word structures leads to improvements in the task of segmenting words into their contiguous morphemes.

Background: Altered autonomic nervous system (ANS) function has been proposed as a mechanism in the development of central sensitisation (CS) and visceral pain hypersensitivity (VPH). The contribution of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and the factors that mediate differences in sensitisation to acid are unclear and their study will clarify risk factors for oesophageal pain hypersensitivity (OPH) in gastrooesophageal reflux disease. Aims: To investigate psychophysiological and pharmacological manipulation of PNS tone in the development of OPH, and to determine factors which predict the development of OPH to acid infusion in healthy volunteers in a validated model of acid induced OPH. Methods: Pain thresholds to electrical stimulation in the proximal oesophagus were determined before and after a 30-minute distal oesophageal infusion of 0.15 mol/L hydrochloric acid in subjects. Sympathetic (SNS) and PNS parameters were measured at baseline and continuously thereafter. Subjects underwent psychological profiling for anxiety, depression, attachment vulnerability and personality type. Using this model, five studies were undertaken: Study 1 a pilot study to trail modulation suitability for further study used. In Study 2, subjects who demonstrated secondary hyperalgesia in the proximal non-acid-exposed oesophagus performed deep or sham breathing. Study 3 subjects, who did not sensitise to acid, underwent a validated stress test to induce OPH. With Study 4, deep breathing with IV saline (placebo) or atropine (PNS antagonist) was used to evaluate deep breathing’s induced PNS tone in OPH reduction. Study 5, a genetic pilot study, exploring the role of the GCH-1 haplotype in VPH. Results: ANS control’s key role in CS was clarified. Deep breathing increased PNS tone and prevented acid-induced OPH in comparison to sham breathing and confirmed increased PNS tone’s reversal of OPH. Psychological factors of anxiety, alexithymia and attachment status influence ANS modulation of CS. Individuals’ predisposition to VPH due to psychogenetic profiles were clarified and their biopsychosocial role illustrated. Conclusions and Inferences: A mechanistic explanation for the analgesic effect of deep breathing is provided with potential therapeutic implications in the treatment of VPH syndromes. Further clinical study is warranted to develop cost-effective treatments for chronic VPH syndromes.

The following work develops a new and general theory of minimalism – one addressing both its transhistorical and interdisciplinary dimensions, and capable of accounting for existing minimalism of every epoch and in every medium, while suitably open to embrace minimalist work yet to be created. To offer such a theory it is necessary not only to revisit the histories of minimalist practice and criticism, but also to consider its radical philosophical ground and implications. Hence its principal thesis – that minimalism exemplifies the persistence and facticity of the Real – grapples at once with the ontological heart of minimalist theory, and its practical instantiation through canonical as well as rarely considered examples. Divided into three parts, the first part addresses minimalism as the manifestation of particular aesthetic properties in relation to critical and theoretical trends. Since it becomes apparent that no single descriptive or theoretical account adequately frames minimalism, the discussion turns to the possibility of discovering a philosophical ground equally radical to the minimalist objects it addresses. The Real – an indifferent field of forces from which contingent entities are subtracted from within an irreversible temporal passage – offers precisely this radical continuum. Minimalism, by exposing the continuity between radical poiesis and an essentially quantitative understanding of Being, clarifies the indifferent persistence of the Real in every existential situation. Penetrating to the heart of this proposition, parts two and three respectively address minimalism in terms of its quantitative logic of Being – every exemplary subtraction from which is instantiated a type of existential calculation – and its exemplary aesthetic manifestation in terms of an existential transumption – a constructive poietic displacement by which minimalism renders itself maximally intelligible in terms of its objecthood and persistence. The work concludes with a typology which reorients and confirms the substance of the preceding argumentation.

‘Richte mich, Gott' exemplifies Jaakko Mäntyjärvi's pluralistic compositional approach through an interlaced organization of tonal and non-tonal pitch content. The development of ideas in the text of Psalm 43 and the concluding doxology is depicted across both layers of pitch organization and governed by specific structural pitch collections: (0145) and (0257). Moreover, the organic transformation of these structural pitch collections' intervallic content emerges as a fundamental means of progression throughout the work, in turn influencing the intervallic content of surrounding tonal material. This process of transformation and its relationship to the text is revealed through tonal and pitch-class analysis; a flexible approach to segmentation; and an exploration of two-way and three-way symmetry, and the disruption thereof, in pitch space and pitch-class space. An understanding of the interrelationship between pitch material from the tonal and non-tonal layers of pitch organization can aid singers, conductors, and analysts in the efficacy of their study, preparation, and performance of the psalm. The accompanying appendix of targeted choral warm-ups in this document offers choirs a practical method for studying, internalizing, and performing the non-tonal pitch content in the work.

Cities around the world are becoming greener, with many striving to make their cities as green as possible. Christchurch was devastated by an Earthquake in 2011, which resulted in many fatalities. Though this impacted the city negatively, this sad event was used as an opportunity for the broken city to become a better one. The Christchurch City Council (CCC) ran an exercise called ‘Share an Idea’, which asked the public what they wanted the new city to look like. The main theme extrapolated by researchers was that people wanted the city to be greener. A draft plan was created by the CCC but was deemed not good enough and replaced by a new plan called the Blueprint Plan created by the government. Through the process of public consultation to the finalized plan and the implementation of the finalized plan, there were many changes made to the inclusion of nature into Central Christchurch’s urban regeneration. The aim of this research is to assess the role of nature in the urban regeneration of Christchurch, by evaluating the recovery process, and comparing the level of greenness the public wanted by looking at what they said in Share an Idea, and then seeing how that translated into the proposed plans, and then finally looking at what is being implemented.

Research in Flapping Wing - Micro Air Vehicles(FW-MAVs) has been growing in recent years. Work ranging from mechanical designs to adaptive control algorithms are being developed in pursuit of mimicking natural flight. FW-MAV technology can be applied in a variety of use cases such a military application and surveillance, studying natural ecological systems, and hobbyist commercialization. Recent work has produced small scale FW-MAVs that are capable of hovering and maneuvering. Researchers control maneuvering in various ways, some of which involve making small adjustments to the core wing motion patterns (wing gaits) which determine how the wings flap. Adaptive control algorithms can be implemented to dynamically change these wing motion patterns to allow one to use gait based modification controllers even after damage to a vehicle or its wings occur. This thesis will create and present a hardware research platform that enables hardware-in-the-loop experimentation with core wing gait adaptation methods.

In a magnetised, partially ionised plasma, such as the lower solar atmosphere, the co-existence of both charged and neutral particles and their interaction lead to effects that do not occur in fully ionised plasma. Multi-fluid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models of a plasma account for the degree of ionisation and the resulting effects more accurately than common single-fluid MHD models. A 2D two-fluid MHD code has been developed (writ-ten in C++) to study partially ionised plasma, based on the Kurganov-Tadmor scheme. The advantage of this scheme is that it is Riemann-solver free, which makes computation faster, and it exhibits a small, time step independent numerical viscosity, which makes the code stable and accurate for much smaller time steps than usual schemes allow for. The explicit Euler and fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme are implemented to integrate the solution in time. Furthermore, the implementation of a spatial domain decomposition scheme, which is based on Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard, allows for parallel computing. The code has been verified successfully and a number of tests were per-formed, such as the Sod-shock tube test and the Brio-Wu shock test. Moreover, the effect of ionisation and recombination on a magnetised, partially ionised plasma was investi-gated by studying a 1.5D slow-mode shock simulation and the 2D Orszag-Tang vortex simulation. The effect on the properties of both fluids, the ionised and the neutral fluid, are compared to simulations where collisions are the only coupling mechanism between the fluids. In the initialisation, the two simulations are fundamentally different; whereas the driver of the slow-mode shock formation is the discontinuity in the magnetic field, it is the velocity field that predominantly drives the vortex formation in the Orszag-Tang vortex simulation. However, for both, it was found that the movement of the ionised fluid decreases as well as the shock speeds when ionisation and recombination are included. The partial ionisation state of the plasma adds complexity to the numerical modelling of the solar atmosphere and so multi-fluid codes have long been ignored. Therefore, the code developed here provides a tool to unlock new investigations into the lower solar atmosphere and will allow new physics on the Sun to be explored.

The occurrence of glyphosate-resistant (GR) Palmer amaranth has prompted a shift in weed management strategies worldwide. Studies were conducted with the aim to (1) establish and compare the degree of tolerance of GR Palmer amaranth populations; (2) assess the efficacy of glufosinate, tembotrione, 2,4-D or dicamba, applied alone or tank-mixed, on Palmer amaranth with higher tolerance to glufosinate in the greenhouse and corn field, and (3) establish the mechanism involved in the tolerance of Palmer amaranth to glufosinate. Tembotrione, 2,4-D, dicamba, and glufosinate applied at 1x controlled 80 to 100%, 98 to 100%, 84 to 100%, and 94 to 100% Palmer amaranth, respectively. Differential response of Palmer amaranth populations to the test herbicides existed. The potential of selecting for resistance was highest in tembotrione, followed by dicamba. In the tank mixture test, all herbicides applied individually at 1x rate controlled Pra-C population 99 to 100% in the greenhouse and 91 to 100% in the field study. In corn, the control in Pra-C, Mis-C, and STF-C populations was 33 to 54% for tembotrione, 68 to 89% for 2,4-D, and 96 to 100% for glufosinate applied at their commercial rates. The study showed that half rates of 2,4-D and glufosinate can be applied, only in combination, without significantly compromising Palmer amaranth control. The majority of glufosinate + tembotrione and some glufosinate + dicamba mixtures were not compatible; glufosinate + 2,4-D mixtures were generally additive and in few cases, synergistic. The reduced efficacy from antagonism was overcome by mixing 1x rates of the herbicides. Pra-C (tolerant) had 2-folds higher tolerance than Lee-A (susceptible), with LD50 values of 344 and 141 g ha-1, respectively. The basal activity of the tolerant population was 20% higher than that of the susceptible. Tolerance to glufosinate is certainly due to higher baseline activity of GS in the tolerant plants, which would require more herbicide molecule to cause substantial inhibition.

Switched-Current (SI) is a design methodology by which discrete time, current mode, analog circuits can be implemented using standard digital CMOS processes, allowing the addition of analog signal processing circuits, analog to digital converters (ADCs), digital to analog converters (DACs) and other analog and mixed-signal circuits to otherwise digital only microchips without the need and expense of any extra fabrication steps. SI circuits operate by employing a secondary effect in CMOS circuits, a transistor's gate capacitance, to store charge and thus form a current memory cell. A current memory cell is one of the basic building blocks found in most SI circuits and is usually the distinguishing feature of the various approaches to SI circuit design. Delta Sigma Modulators (DSMs) are discrete time, mixed-signal circuits making them well suited to implementation using the SI methodology. These circuits can form the basis of either an ADC or DAC and thus provide a good example of the SI technique employing a particular current memory cell implementation. For this work, a First Order DSM-based ADC was designed and simulated to verify the feasibility of a variant of the S2I Switched-Current Memory Cell architecture, the S2Ia Switched-Current Memory Cell, in a low-voltage, digital, 0.5/j.m CMOS process. The A D C design was targeted towards voiceband (4kHz bandwidth) applications over which it achieved a 6-bit resolution and separately attained a greater than 80kHz bandwidth. Extension of the First Order DSM employed in this design to a Second Order DSM would increase the resolution to at least 8-bits without sacrificing bandwidth. Although potentially less accurate than the S2I Switched-Current Memory Cell, a S2Ia cell has the advantage of requiring only two clock signals to the S2I cell's four. Further, for cascades of S2Ia cells the number of clock signals remains two while a S2I cell cascade requires six separate clock signals. S2Ia-based circuits therefore require less complex clock generation circuitry and fewer clock lines.

Field surveys and biomonitoring network experiments were conducted in selected areas in South Africa to assess possible air pollution damage to vegetation. During field surveys, atmospheric fluoride was identified as an important pollutant that damaged vegetation in residential areas north of Cape Town. Gaseous air pollutants, including acid deposition and acidic mist, probably play a major role in the development of characteristic air pollution injury symptoms observed on pine trees in the Eastern Transvaal area. The impact of urban air pollution in the Cape Town area was evaluated by exposing bio-indicator plants in a network of eight biomonitoring network stations from June 1985 to May 1988. Sensitive Freesia and Gladiolus cultivars were used to biomonitor atmospheric fluoride, while a green bean cultivar was used as a biomonitor of atmospheric sulphur dioxide and ozone. At one location, bio-indicator plants were simultaneously exposed in a biomonitoring network station (plant cages), open-top chambers (filtered and unfiltered), as well as in open plots. The responses of plants grown under these different conditions were compared. During both the winter and summer seasons, ambient fluoride concentrations were estimated to be particularly high at the Loumar biomonitoring station (eastern side of Cape Town), as compared to that at the other biomonitoring stations. Elevated levels of atmospheric fluoride, as well as sulphur dioxide, appeared to prevail in the vicinity of industries located in the northern suburbs of Cape Town (Bothasig, Table View and Edgemead). Interveinal bleaching, which is characteristic of sulphur dioxide injury, was regularly observed on bean plants exposed at the Bothasig biomonitoring station and was usually determined to be significantly worse at this location than at the other biomonitoring stations. These results were confirmed by the evaluation of foliar sulphur content Ambient pollutant concentrations appeared to be effectively reduced inside filtered open-top chambers, as exemplified by higher biomass production and lower foliar fluoride and sulphur levels in the relevant bio-indicator species, compared to that of plants grown in the open plots. The methodology used during this research provided baseline data of the impact of air pollution on vegetation in South Africa which, in the absence of networks of sophisticated state of the art equipment, can be applied to aid in air pollution control strategies.

There are three branches to this thesis: chromospheric resonator, forward modelling, and magnetic reconnection at different atmospheric heights. The first branch investigates the behaviour of resonant waves in the chromosphere above sunspot umbrae. The steep temperature gradients at the solar photosphere and transition region allow waves to be partially transmitted and partially reflected creating the boundaries of a resonating cavity. These resonant waves can be used to explain the existence of three-minute oscillations frequently observed above sunspot umbrae. 1D numerical simulations have been performed of wave propagation along a magnetic field line perpendicular to the umbra to analyse the behaviour of this resonating cavity driven by continuous random noise. It was found that the gradient of the velocity spectra present in the corona is directly correlated with the size of the chromospheric cavity. This provides a potentially useful diagnostic for indirectly measuring chromospheric cavity size. The second branch uses line-of-sight integration to compare simulation data with observations. LOS integration has been performed on two cases: 1D resonances above sunspot umbrae, and a 3D simulation of a coronal kink instability. The LOS integration of resonant waves is an extension to the first branch of this thesis. The intensity was calculated using several coronal lines. It was found that the broadband of excited frequencies is correlated with chromospheric cavity size, providing a potentially useful diagnostic for chromospheric cavity size. For the kink-unstable loop, several Hinode/EIS lines were used to investigate the observational intensity and Doppler velocities. It was found that the intensity maps overestimate the loop width due to temporal and spatial degradation. Synthetic intensity maps were also generated using spectral lines from the DKIST/DL-NIRSP instrument. The final branch consists of a numerical investigation into the onset of 2D magnetic reconnection in the solar photosphere, chromosphere and corona. The initial state is an equilibrium Harris current sheet. A reconnection event is triggered by applying a velocity driver perpendicular to the magnetic field. This external velocity driver allows us to study the early behaviour of reconnection in a naturalistic manner. The heating manifests differently across the different atmospheric layers. The photospheric heating is guided by the slow-mode shocks. The chromospheric heating is confined to the reconnection region. The ambipolar diffusion in the chromospheric case alters the distribution of the current on the inflow region in line with theoretical models.