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The place and presence of everyday and unworn dress in museums has been largely overlooked in museological and historical accounts of museums and collections. Instead, the focus has been upon the study of elite, spectacular and worn clothing. Similarly, little academic attention has been paid to small-scale, local government operated social history museums, with the bulk of research being conducted into elite national and metropolitan museums or the spectacle of living history museums. This thesis addresses these omissions through a biographical investigation into a single collection of everyday and unworn clothing held by a small and local social history museum: Walsall Museum’s Hodson Shop Collection. Discovered in 1983, the collection consists of around 5,000 items of mass produced unsold shop stock, mainly women’s clothing, from between 1920 and the 1960s. It comprises of the stock of the Hodson General and Fancy Drapers, a small clothing shop located in the lock-making town of Willenhall, West Midlands. Sisters, Edith and Flora Hodson operated the shop between 1920 and around 1971 in the front room of their family home. This thesis provides both a detailed biographical account of the Hodson Shop Collection and a timely account of Walsall Museum’s struggle for survival in an age of increasing austerity. It focuses upon the passage of a large quantity of everyday shop stock items from the world of retail to the museum. Firstly, it demonstrates how the collection has been subject to a range of complex and interconnected external and organisational influences, through an account of its journey to Walsall Museum and its life within the museum, 1983-2016. A number of binary oppositions and hierarchies are explored to show how shifting ideas of value have influenced the survival and visibility of the collection and museum. Secondly, it shows how the statuses of everyday and mass produced items are altered by accession to a museum, challenging the assumption that biographical approaches are most suitable for dealing with ‘spectacular’ aspects of material culture. The story of the Hodson Shop Collection challenges the perception of the museum as a safe and static environment.

A series of novel semiconducting co-polymers based on known, fused aromatic monomers (dibenzosilole, dithienosilole and dithienopyrrole) were synthesized for use in organic field effect transistor (OFET) devices. The fused monomers were copolymerized with triarylamine and thienothiophene units to give a series of six donor polymers. Their electronic energy levels were probed by UV-Vis and photoelectron spectroscopy, and predictions regarding their performance were drawn from this information. Two polymers were tested in OFETs and conclusions were made concerning the relationship between structure and performance. Four donor-acceptor type polymers were synthesized using dithienopyrrole as the electron rich unit. This monomer was copolymerized with benzothiadiazole, difluorobenzothiadiazole, thienopyrrolodione and 1,1’-bithienopyrrolodione. These low band gap polymers were tested as the donor polymer in polymer:fullerene BHJ devices. A novel monomer with long branched alkyl substituents, based on the extended fused-ring system indacenodithiophene (IDT), was synthesized. The nitrogen analogue of this monomer (NIDT) was of interest as its performance could be compared to the carbon and silicon versions of IDT. A route to NIDT was devised and then it was polymerized with four electron poor monomers. The energy levels were estimated by UV-Vis and photoelectron spectroscopy, followed by testing of the materials in OFET and OPV devices. Those with the lowest lying HOMO levels performed best in OPVs. Another series of NIDT containing polymers were synthesized, designed specifically for use in OFET devices. The aim was to produce polymers with highly planar backbones which would form ordered domains and enhance hole transport. An NIDT monomer was synthesized with linear hexadecyl substituents in order to improve π-stacking. The linear NIDT monomer was then copolymerized with thiophene, thienothiophene, thienopyrrolodione and diketopyrrolopyrrole. It was found that the diketopyrrolopyrrole containing polymer, performed best in OFETs and the molecular weight played a large role in how a polymer performed.

This creative thesis consists of two historical fiction short stories and a critical essay discussing the merits and challenges of writing historical fiction. The essay ties together the main themes of the short stories, both set in the early 1900s American west, and discusses how an author’s choice in character, plot, and setting may interact with a historical perspective to capture something that transcends time. As the critical component of the thesis, the essay also explores the techniques of well-known fiction writers who use history in their storytelling, drawing together time and place in ways unique to the genre. The two short stories included with the thesis intend to illustrate some of these techniques and demonstrate growth and competency in the form.

Risky choice can be defined as choice for a larger, uncertain reinforcer over a smaller, certain reinforcer when choosing the smaller alternative maximizes reinforcement. Risky choice is studied using various procedures in the animal laboratory; one such procedure is called probability discounting. There are many variables that contribute to risky decision-making, including biological and pharmacological determinants. The present study assessed both of these variables by evaluating dose-response effects of d-amphetamine on risky choice of Lewis (LEW) and Fischer 344 (F344) rats. The probability-discounting procedure included discrete-trials choices between one food pellet delivered 100% of the time and three food pellets delivered following one of varying probabilities. The probability of three food pellets being delivered decreased systematically across blocks within each session. At baseline, risky choice did not differ between LEW and F344. However, choice for LEW became significantly less risky throughout extended training while choice for F344 remained relatively stable over time. d-Amphetamine significantly increased risky choice for both rat strains at low-to-moderate doses (0.1 and 0.3 mg/kg), although it did so at a lower dose for F344 (0.1 and 0.3 mg/kg) than LEW (0.3 mg/kg only), suggesting greater behavioral sensitivity to effects of d-amphetamine for F344. High doses of d-amphetamine (1.0 and 1.8 mg/kg) produced overall disruptions in choice for both strains, indicated by reductions in choice for the larger, uncertain alternative when the probability of delivery was relatively high and increases when the probability was relatively low. Results from the current study stand in contrast to previous reports investigating impulsive choice (i.e., choice involving temporal delays rather than uncertainty) of LEW and F344. Thus, the present work underscores the importance of considering risky and impulsive choice as two separate, but related, behavioral processes.

Financial stress and obligations have been identified as the number one reason students leave college. In an effort to address this, colleges and universities have begun to reevaluate their role and responsibility as it pertains to financial education. This has led some institutions to create student money management centers. These centers serve as a resource for students to receive financial counseling and education. This research explores how administrators within college money management centers perceive and meet the needs of college students on issues of personal finance. Charmaz’ Constructivist Grounded Theory (2006) approach to qualitative research was utilized as the theoretical framework for this study. Interviews with 12 administrators of various student money management centers across the United States served as the primary data point for this study, of which three themes emerged, including (1) defining the various approaches to financial education (2) creating meaningful, impactful and intentional financial education, and (3) the application of knowledge. These themes highlight the various challenges institutions must overcome while attempting to meet the need of providing effective financial education for college students today. Findings indicated whether institutions opt to create a standalone center or expand the services and offerings of an existing program, financial literacy must become an institutional priority. In addition, implications for educational leaders are provided along with recommendations for further research.

Impulsive choice is defined as choice for a smaller, more immediate reinforcer relative to a larger, delayed reinforcer, and is commonly studied using delay-discounting procedures. There are many variables that contribute to impulsive choice, including biological and environmental determinants. The present study examined both of these variables by evaluating effects of housing condition (single versus paired) on impulsive choice in Lewis (LEW) and Fischer 344 (F344) rats, at baseline and following acute nicotine administration. A within-session procedure was used in which choice was between one food pellet delivered immediately and three food pellets delivered after a delay. The delay to three food pellets was increased systematically across blocks within a session and indifference points were calculated. Paired housing significantly reduced impulsive choice for both rat strains relative to single housing (archival data). In addition, when singly housed, choice was more impulsive for LEW rats relative to F344 rats at baseline. When pair housed, this strain difference was attenuated. Following acute nicotine administration, impulsive choice was significantly reduced at 0.3 mg/kg for singly housed LEW rats and 1.0 mg/kg for singly housed F344 rats. However, when pair housed, 0.3 and 1.0 mg/kg both reduced impulsive choice regardless of rat strain. Thus, previously reported effects of environmental enrichment (i.e., reduced impulsive choice) seem to be, as least in part, due to social housing. It also appears as though effects of nicotine on impulsive choice are baseline-dependent and paired housing may make impulsive choice in F344 rats more sensitive to effects of nicotine.

Preterm birth is a persistent and expensive global health problem accounting for almost 8% of all live births in the UK. There are some effective interventions available however, due to the heterogeneous nature of the condition; it is still difficult to tailor the correct management for each woman. A major obstacle to the development of effective treatment strategies is a limited understanding of the molecular events preceding preterm labour. Using SCOPE, a prospectively acquired global cohort, this MD investigated the three areas of clinical risk factors, biomarker discovery using proteomic technology and directed candidate cytokine analysis. Clinical risk factor algorithms have been developed with the most clinically relevant group, those delivering less than 34 weeks, exhibiting the best predictive performance. The algorithm has an area under the ROC curve of 0.74, negative predictive value of 99%, with a positive predictive value of 33%. This is likely to be indicative of the best performance achievable using clinical data to predict preterm birth in a healthy nulliparous population. A proteomic discovery study was performed comparing term and preterm birth. The proteins that were discovered appeared to be mainly plasma proteins related to systemic inflammation and therefore were not specific enough as predictors of spontaneous preterm birth. As there is strong evidence to support a role for cytokines in the initiation of inflammation/infection-induced preterm labour, a panel of 27 were assessed as predictive markers for preterm birth. Of these, five cytokines (IL-4, IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-17α and MIP-1α) appeared to be the most sensitive with a predictive accuracy of 71.25%. The data from this thesis have provided further understanding into preterm birth and provides a pathway for future investigation into the prediction and prevention of spontaneous preterm birth.