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Aim: To investigate how diversity within the African migrant population in Scotland affects their understandings of HIV and uptake of HIV testing and treatment, in order to improve HIV-related outcomes. Background: In the UK, Africans have the worst outcomes for HIV infection, primarily due to late diagnosis. Improvement requires better understanding of the barriers to healthcare engagement. This PhD study investigates how diversity among first generation African migrants in Scotland could affect engagement with general healthcare and HIV related interventions and services. Methods: I conducted qualitative research, involving participant observation at two sites (an African religious group and an asylum seeker/refugee drop-in centre) and interviews with African migrants attending these and three additional sites (two advocacy charities and a student association). Data were collected in two cities (Glasgow and Edinburgh) and two smaller towns (Paisley and Kirkcaldy). I interviewed 27 Africans, including economic migrants (n=8), students (n=9) and asylum seeker/refugees (n=10) and 14 representatives from organisations with high levels of African attendees (e.g., country associations, community organisations, advocacy groups, commercial establishments and religious based organisations). Thematic data analysis was carried out. Results: Diversity of the population and related issues of identity: Participants were highly diverse and reported considerable heterogeneity in the African diaspora in Scotland. The identity of “African” was bound with various negative stereotypes and appeals to this identity did not necessarily have relevance for participants. Nature of African affiliated organisations in Scotland: There were a wide range of organisations that advertised their remit as catering for the African diaspora. They varied in consistency and sustainability and contributed towards healthcare engagement to different degrees. Engagement with healthcare: There were multiple experiences and understandings of the healthcare system within the sample as a whole, and to an extent by migrant type. Whilst the majority reported successful and satisfactory service use, distinct barriers emerged. These included: understandings of rights and access to care based on African models of healthcare; the interplay of religious based understandings with ideas about access to healthcare; and assumptions and anxiety about the connections between visa status and health status. Knowledge of HIV and engagement with HIV related services: Participants had good knowledge about HIV, with some notable exceptions, but there was no patterning by migrant type. They had diverse views about risk of HIV infection, most of which did not align with the HIV epidemiology that identifies African migrants as an at risk group. Most of the sample did not think targeting African migrants for HIV interventions would be successful and were hostile to the proposal for various reasons, especially because they believed it would perpetuate stigma and prejudice towards the African diaspora. There were mixed experiences of HIV related services, and prompts to test for HIV had elicited a range of reactions, the majority negative. Conclusion: Diversity within the African diaspora in Scotland should be taken into account to improve the salience and relevance of future HIV interventions. Attitudes towards current HIV testing promotion suggest that a more cooperative approach could be taken with African communities to build on existing relationships of trust and understandings of HIV.

Phage display, a powerful polypeptide display technology, affords the rapid identification of peptides and proteins that interact with a target of interest The aims of the project were the phage display identification of peptides that interact with a druggable target in a brain disorder (glioblastoma multiforme) and the identification of peptides that serve as targeting vectors for brain delivery. Validation studies were undertaken to qualify the use of a cyclic 7-mer peptide phage library against targets including streptavidin and paracetamol chosen as examples of a large complex and small simple molecule, respectively. With the aim of identifying peptide phages that bind to the luminal surface of brain micro vasculature, a primary in-vitro porcine model of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) comprising primary brain capillary endothelial cells was established and characterised. An in-vivo phage display was undertaken in the rat with the aim of identifying peptide sequences that mediated translocation across the BBB into brain grey matter. A 7-mer cyclic peptide was identified with sequence AC-SYTSSTM-CGGGS that enhanced the uptake of phages into brain grey matter by 4-fold compared to control wild-type phages. This peptide may serve as a novel targeting vector for the delivery of a therapeutic cargo to the brain. Caveolin-1 was identified as a potential new therapeutic target in in-vitro models of grade IV astrocytomas (glioblastoma multiforme), with siRNA knockdown of caveolin-1 associated with reduced glioma cell proliferation and invasiveness. With the caveolin-1 scaffolding domain (aa 81-101 in the caveolin-1 protein) as a target, an in-vitro peptide phage selection was undertaken and identified a series of peptides that bind the scaffolding domain with high affinity. These peptides will serve as a template for the development of low molecular weight peptidomimetics that inhibit caveolin-1 function. In conclusion, the studies in this thesis have demonstrated the utility of phage display in experimental therapeutics of brain disorders.

Link Analysis (LA) is a visual data analysis technique originally developed for analysing crime related data. The technique enables the user to gain a better understanding of the connections between objects of interest in the problem domain by displaying the connections in a form of network diagram referred to as a link chart. A link chart is often altered during its lifetime, as part of the exploratory nature of the knowledge discovery process, to reflect new information, and to increase the level of comprehensibility. To provide the necessary flexibility for accessing and manipulating large volumes of data the data collected in an investigation is often stored in a database. Permitting link charts to be constructed from this data is of great value, as LA is not adequately supported by the database query systems currently available. This is because the record-based data models they often use are inappropriate for modelling connections between objects, the query languages they typically provide can only retrieve connections between objects if the way connections may be derived are specified in the query, and their data visualisation facilities generally do not allow the results of a number of queries to be integrated and edited. This thesis concerns the Exploratory Database View Constructor (EDVC), an experimental visual database interface for supporting LA. The results obtained from a user evaluation of EDVC indicate that the system may be used by individuals with no experience of interacting directly with a database management system (DBMS). This is a consequence of the style of interaction supported, which allows the data stored to be browsed without having to possess explicit knowledge of the database schema. Such knowledge is typically a prerequisite for using a database query language and can prevent productive use of such a language by an inexperienced DBMS user.

As architects we are fundamentally forced to make arguments within the physical realm. However since mid 1990’s the world has become more and more reliant upon the digital. Now in 2017 it is the way we voice public opinion, shop, visit with our friends and much more. This digital space has taken over, and while humanity would more than survive without this modern technology, it continues design our world around it. This architecture project glimpses into the future of how we as architects are continually dealing with this new infrastructural space. While many projects have played architecture as the victim, the intent of this project is not to look down and say “this will kill that.” Instead this project acknowledges current modes architectural technologies in this realm and pushes further to start a dialogue on how we as architects can and will be involved in this digital space.

The goal for the middle school is to create a place which first looks at the way in which we learn and then uses these findings in its design decisions in a way which will best maximize a students ability to learn not only in an educational sense, but physically and more importantly socially.

The intention of this thesis is to investigate the possible connection between violent media and problematic behavior in juveniles. The connection was tested using three hypotheses. The first hypothesis stated a link between violent films and problematic behavior. The second hypothesis involves the influence of parents on media consumption. The third hypothesis focused on the possible connection between Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) usage by parents and consumption of violent media by children. A survey completed by 39 respondents with children revealed no apparent link between violent media and problematic behavior, a relationship between parents’ media influence and children’s media consumption, and a decrease in violent media viewership by parents who use MPAA ratings. Future research may benefit from gathering information directly from children about their media consumption.