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Previous research suggests that computer assisted instruction can provide pedagogically sound instruction when learners utilize software with procedural fidelity. This study sought to extend previous research findings that the Reading Relevant and Culturally Engaging Stories (RACES) computer software program would improve the reading achievement of second graders with risk for reading failure. Reading RACES is designed to deliver a repeated reading intervention using culturally relevant literature. This study had duel purposes, which were to: (a) evaluate the effectiveness of RR on the oral reading fluency (ORF) and reading comprehension of the participants, and (b) determine to what degree students could effectively use the intervention monitoring solely by the librarian. Six second graders and the school librarian participated in this study. A multiple baseline probe across participants design within a theoretical framework of cultural relevance was employed to determine the effects of Reading RACES on ORF and comprehension. This study also used a descriptive analysis of the librarian’s ability to monitor student participants during the intervention. Procedural integrity was measured for the librarian and second graders. Results indicate a functional relationship between Reading RACES and student participants gains in ORF and comprehension. All students who participated in the study demonstrated gains in both generalization and maintenance probes. Procedural integrity data also revealed that participants (i.e., students and the librarian) were able to use and monitor the program with procedural integrity to the maximum extent enabled by the technology. These finding extend the research base for Reading RACES. Limitations, and directions for future research are also discussed.

Team GB is an international powerhouse in Olympic sports and has become 'much admired around the world for sporting success and the system that exists beneath it' (Grey-Thompson, 2017, p. 4). However, big budgets are levelling the playing field in the Global Sporting Arms Race (cf. De Bosscher, Bingham, Shibli, Van Bottenburg, & Knop, 2008). Instead, De Bosscher et al. (2015) explain that nations should focus on talent development and identification to stay competitive. In contrast, recent inquiries into elite sports in the United Kingdom has unearthed examples of destructive cultures (Grey-Thompson, 2017; Phelps, Kelly, Lancaster, Mehrzad, & Panter, 2017). Rees et al. (2016) indicate that a significant re-think of some of the components of current support programmes and environments is a priority to address cultural issues and improve on talent development. A critical area could be the importance of the environment, including cultural features (e.g. Henriksen, 2010; Martindale, Collins, & Abraham, 2007). Rees et at. (2016) argue that it is vital to provide an evidence-based understanding of identification and development to maintain the success of the prolific sports system. The purpose of this thesis was to examine and develop a talent development programme in the United Kingdom. This thesis followed a qualitative research design integrating Grounded Theory and Action Research into a novel method of doing change processes. The main study in this thesis was a 16-month longitudinal study. The research included one reconnaissance phase (e.g. to understand the context and identify change strategies). It also included four double-cycles of implementing change and reviewing the strategies. The primary data collection strategies were ethnography and ten focus groups. The focus groups were carried out with athletes, coaches, parents, and the national governing body (NGB). Analysis of documents and twenty-six individual interviews with stakeholders supplemented these. Eighteen of these individual interviews were with participants from other governing sports organisations (n=6; GSOs) and NGBs (n=3). The findings in the reconnaissance phase suggested that NGB-1 had a history of conflict. The conflict had alienated the community in the sport from the NGB. The influence of this was that many stakeholders disengaged from NGB-1 and set up volunteer-based talent and elite initiatives. NGB-1 explained that most important aim for change was a change of the prevailing culture. NGB-1 formulated five strategies to do so: (1) internal team development, (2) a talent development programme, (3) coach development, (4) selection policies, and (5) GBR development centres. The following four double-cycles aimed to conceptualise how the change of culture happened and what regulated this process. Three features regulated the process: (i) power relations, (ii) structural conditions, and (iii) coupling. First, power relations were divided into two sub-processes of systemic (e.g. hierarchy, official titles, policies, regulation) and informational (e.g. reward, coercive, referent) power. The influence of the power relations was that a destructive culture emerged when NGB-1 tried to implement the change strategies. Coaches and athletes engaged in antagonistic behaviours (e.g. manipulation, coercion, open critique) towards the NGB. Denial of responsibility and social weighting neutralised the stigma of perpetuating antagonism. These findings suggested ignoring and denying antagonism could lead to a destructive culture. Yet, the support towards NGB-1 increased during double-cycles three and four because NGB-1 managed to mobilise stakeholders within the sport through reward and coercive power. Second, structural conditions included how conditions outside the organisation and inside the organisation influenced the change of culture. The findings suggested that political will had isolated Olympic sports from societal changes prior to the study. However, macrocultural changes to social standards and the power of athletes suggested that the organisational culture was increasingly deficient and required radical changes. This influenced NGB-1 through systemic power. GSO used targets and coercive offers (i.e. an offer the recipient is compelled to follow) to direct the direction of change in the NGB. The data suggested that NGB-1 experienced being torn between efforts to comply with targets and antagonistic behaviours within the sports community. Third, coupling denotes how changes in one organisation call for changes in another. GSOs used their systemic power to dictate appropriate avenues for change. Athletes used their reinforced position by speaking out about aspects that challenged the welfare of athletes and others working in Olympic sports. Last, the process in this thesis produced two working models for doing a change of culture in Olympic sports in the United Kingdom. These are grounded in the findings that suggested that the change of culture was fundamental change to the processes of negotiating the change. The findings also suggested the three features above (i.e. power relations, structural conditions, and coupling) influenced changing the process. The findings might have implications for NGBs and GSOs in the United Kingdom because they provided empirical evidence for the relationship between cultural factors and developing talent development programmes. NGBs could use the working models to guide a change of culture and consider how cultural factors might influence the development of talent programmes. Using these working models could help plan and prepare NGBs for the influence of power relations within their sports community. In addition, organisational practitioners in GSOs can use the findings in this thesis to inform how they interact with other GSOs and NGBs. GSO might consider how their systemic power could influence severe conflict with-in an NGB's sports community if they seek to direct changes.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide, and its prevalence is higher among older adults. Moreover, two different temporal variations in CVD risk exist: (i) seasonal: in Europe the CVD mortality risk is higher in winter, when outdoor temperatures are lower; (ii) diurnal: CVD deaths occur more frequently in the morning. However, biological pathways of both seasonal and diurnal variations in CVD mortality have not been fully understood. In part, this may be due to lack of understanding of variations of underlying CVD risk factors in older adults, especially inflammatory markers and physical activity. Investigating physical activity variations is of special interest, as new findings could also potentially shape the development of physical activity guidelines for older people. The aims of this thesis are twofold: (i) to investigate seasonal variations in CVD risk factors and mortality, by using outdoor temperature as the main exposure variable and seasonal factor of interest; ii) to investigate time of day variations of CVD risk factors. To achieve these objectives, data from the British Regional Heart Study of older adults were used. Seasonal variation findings: lower outdoor temperatures were especially associated with higher blood pressure, higher LDL-Cholesterol, higher IL-6, lower physical activity levels, and with increased CVD and respiratory mortality. In conclusion, better protection against low temperatures, as well as staying active during cold weather, could help in reducing the CVD risk in older adults. Diurnal variation findings: some CVD risk factors levels, especially blood pressure, LDL-Cholesterol and IL-6, increased linearly over the course of the daytime (in between 08:00-19:00 hours). Future studies aiming to understand the causal pathways of the diurnal variation in CVD events could focus especially on these markers' variations. Also, physical activity levels peaked in the morning, and initiatives encouraging more active behaviours in the afternoon/evening are needed.

Natural ventilation offers an efficient strategy for concurrently disposing of waste heat and improving indoor air quality within the built environment. Most previous studies of naturally-ventilated buildings assume a one- chamber geometry. Here, we relax this assumption and examine by way of theory and experiments the flows that may develop within a multi-chamber domain. A complex internal stratification of buoyancy is typically observed, the details of which depend upon the relative sizes of the adjacent chambers and the size/vertical location of the internal/external openings. In contrast to simple geometries, this stratification is not necessarily eroded by the mechanical action associated with buoyant convection from an isolated internal thermal source. Consequently, the properties of the eventual steady state cannot be determined without investigating the system's transient evolution. Hybrid buildings combine passive summer-time cooling by natural ventilation with active winter-time heating by conventional HVAC systems. A further objective is to explore the inherent challenges associated with this dual design, with particular reference to the hysteretic behavior that may occur when forcing comes from two or more sources, for example internal heat gains and an external wind shear. This thesis also presents a separate investigation of intrusive gravity currents or intrusions, which are associated with density-driven flow along a sharp interface. Theoretical descriptions often stress the similarity between intrusive gravity currents and those that propagate along a solid boundary. Though helpful in certain special cases, this association is inappropriate whenever the intrusion density differs from the depth-weighted mean density of the upper and lower layers, when interfacial waves must be excited. We present herein a more detailed analysis that properly accounts for this upstream influence using two- layer shallow water theory. Model results show good agreement with analogue experimental and numerical data. Finally, we consider intrusions where the initial depth of intermediate density fluid is strictly less than the channel depth such that momentum and energy may be exchanged between the forward- and backward-propagating disturbances. When the upstream interface remains approximately flat, the intrusion speed is accurately predicted using a globally-conservative model

A dual career in sport is the challenge of combining a sporting career with education or work. An increasing population of athletes are choosing to further their academic careers by combining elite level sport with university education. University student-athletes may, however, be susceptible to experiencing a number of stressors (e.g., managing sport and academic timetables and personal sacrifices). This thesis extended knowledge on dual careers through the examination of athletes’ and stakeholders’ perceptions of the whole university experience, including the transition into, experiences during, and the transition out of university. A qualitative research design was employed throughout the thesis and data were collected through focus groups, longitudinal semi-structured interviews, and one-off semi structured interviews with participants from a range of UK universities. Data were analysed thematically and narratively. Additionally, autoethnographic data from the author (a former elite student-athlete) supplemented participant data. Part A explored athletes’ and stakeholders’ perceptions of the transition into university for student-athletes. Results found that student-athletes form expectations before they move into university (e.g., perceived living challenges), but often experienced different demands following the transition (e.g., increased sporting commitments following entry to university sport). These results suggest that pre-transition support may not be targeting the correct areas. Part B examined the experiences during university for student-athletes. Results found that student-athletes have diverse and challenging experiences at university, leading to the creation of five different narratives (e.g., injury narrative). Overall results highlight the importance of integrating university and external stakeholder support, and the development of more effective practitioner-athlete relationships. Finally, part C explored athletes’ and stakeholders’ perspectives of the transition out of university for student-athletes. Results found that student-athletes took five different pathways when they left university (postgraduate education, full-time sport, vocation sport dual career, triple career, and discontinuation from sport). Student-athletes experienced challenges with the renegotiation of their identity when they left university, and a loss of core support services led them to perceive that they had difficulty reaching their elite senior potential after university. Overall results of the current thesis have implications for how stakeholders educate and prepare student-athletes for transitions, and how stakeholders within the student-athletes’ circle interact whilst they are at university. Alongside an adapted theoretical framework that represents UK experiences, recommendations for improved university dual career provision in the UK are made, including the need to address why athletes are entering university, reasons why universities are supporting athletes, and the need to address the post-university gap in support systems. These recommendations challenge and extend current policy guidelines.

Background: Therapist and dose effects may be important in falls prevention exercise service delivery because the evidence for falls prevention exercise has a very specific prescription, therefore, maximising therapist skills, minimising 'therapist drift' and encouraging compliance could enhance patient outcomes. Methods: The aims of this research were to study (a) the effect of the therapist (delivering the exercise programme), and (b) the effect of exercise dose, on falls outcomes within a group exercise intervention. The primary objective was to establish any difference in the number of falls for subjects participating in the intervention and the secondary objective was to establish any difference in falls risk factors (balance and lower limb power) for these subjects, according to their therapist and separately, their dose. Multilevel modelling, which is designed for clustered data, was used to investigate the magnitude of therapist and dose effects, and to explore whether specific therapist characteristics were individually associated with the falls outcomes. Results and Conclusion: Unconditional multilevel models showed some variance between patients grouped by therapists of up to 6% of the overall variance in falls outcomes. These effect sizes are small, but in a standardised exercise intervention, especially within the research setting, they would not be expected to be large due to quality assurance procedures reducing variability between therapists. The therapist characteristics investigated, however, did not explain this therapist-level variance, and it may be that the characteristics studied did not include those that make a difference to falls outcomes. Another explanation for the unconvincing evidence of therapists effects is that the main trial (within which my study was nested) was not set up to investigate therapist effects and therefore was not powered for this. The dose effect analysis showed that the dose of the exercise intervention was not an independent predictor of falls rate nor falls risk factors. It is possible that the dose investigation was affected by the high numbers of non-fallers within the recruited population. The use of our protocol and documents for the quality assurance of the intervention within research was effective at standardisation and ensuring fidelity, and this approach could be used as part of falls prevention exercise service delivery to reduce 'therapist drift'.

Obesity and poor quality diet are major interrelated risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality, which are well established in middle-aged populations. However, there is controversy on the effects of obesity on CVD and mortality in the elderly. Since body composition changes with age (visceral fat increases and muscle mass decreases) it may be important to also account for muscle mass in the elderly. However, few studies have examined the combined effects of adiposity and sarcopenia (low muscle mass) on CVD risk and mortality in the elderly. There is also a paucity of data on the associations between dietary patterns and CVD risk and mortality in older age. This thesis uses the British Regional Heart Study, a population based prospective cohort of men, to investigate the impact of body composition (obesity and sarcopenia) and dietary patterns on the risk of cardiovascular endpoints and all-cause mortality in older age (60-79 years). The main findings are that sarcopenic men (defined using mid-arm muscle circumference) and obese men (defined using waist circumference) had a significantly increased risk of CVD mortality and all-cause mortality. Men with both sarcopenia and obesity showed the highest all-cause mortality risk, and also an increased CVD mortality risk although non-significant. Adherence to an a priori defined dietary pattern (the Elderly Dietary Index, a modified Mediterranean-style diet) was associated with a lower risk of CVD mortality and all-cause mortality. Adherence to a 'high fat/low fibre' diet, identified by principal component analysis, was associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality but not CVD mortality. Adherence to a 'high sugar' diet was associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) events and CVD events. Body composition and dietary patterns are therefore important risk factors for CVD and all-cause mortality which persist in older age.

This thesis examines the understanding of the Middle Ages among the UK public and the impact that popular big-budget films which depict the period have on that understanding. Three films released between 2000 and 2009 are chosen for detailed study, their selection being determined by success at the UK box office as a measure of popularity: Lord of the Rings, Return of the King (Jackson, 2003), Kingdom of Heaven (Scott, 2005) and Beowulf (Zemeckis, 2007). Ten focus group interviews were conducted with nineteen participants, all between eighteen and twenty-six years of age, none of whom had studied the Middle Ages at GCSE level (age 14-16) or higher. In these groups, participants discussed their knowledge of the Middle Ages, were shown a film, and then discussed what they had seen. Participants were asked open-ended interview questions to encourage them to respond in their own terms and define what was important to them. As a result, topics ranged widely. In preliminary discussions, participants discussed how they understood the period, their academic, experiential and pop-culture sources of knowledge, their definitions of the similar terms ‘medieval’ and ‘Middle Ages’ and also their ideas about medieval culture, religion, warfare and crusade. After the films, participants discussed what they had seen usually in the context of what they already knew, sometimes constructing false memories of what they had seen which fit with their previous knowledge. Often they used the language of historical veracity to criticise the film for other related reasons (like poor filmmaking or inappropriate accents). They found support for many of their historical misconceptions in the films, but, rather than accepting all they saw as historical truth, they engaged in a complex critical discourse with what they were shown. The findings of this thesis have implications for medieval (and medievalism) studies, public history, and for the delivery of history in primary, secondary and higher education.

This study weighs up the influence of Ḥadīth, "Traditions of Prophet Muḥammad‟, on the architecture of the major congregational mosques which were built from the rise of Islam in 1/622 to the end of the Umayyad period in 132/750. The thesis is divided into eight chapters. The first is an introduction which deals with: the reasons behind underestimating the role of Ḥadīth in shaping mosque architecture, the main questions of the study, and the approaches and methodologies applied to deal with these questions. The second chapter discusses the historiographical problems of Ḥadīth and early Arabo-Islamic sources. The third examines the nature and functions of the sizable hypaethral building which was erected by the Prophet and which we believe was a mosque and not simply an abode for the Prophet and his family. The fourth chapter deals with the history and form of this structure, which represents, by definition, an embodiment of Ḥadīth regarding mosques. The fifth chapter, however, asks whether there was an "orthodox‟ form of mosque according to Ḥadīth. It also tries to explore the features of such a form. The sixth and seventh chapters investigate whether and how Ḥadīth influenced the architectural evolution of the mosques which were built under the Rightly-guided Caliphs and those built by the Umayyads, respectively. Chapter eight is an epilogue that summarizes the findings of the study.