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Centrosome amplification (CA), whereby cells have more than the normal number of centrosomes, is a common feature amongst aggressive cancers with a poor prognosis. CA drives oncogenic phenotypes such as increased invasiveness (via both cell-autonomous and non-cell-autonomous mechanisms) and chromosomal instability. In addition, CA can initiate tumourigenesis in flies and mice, and can drive advanced tumourigenic traits early on that promote disease progression. We hypothesise that reversal of CA may reverse CA-driven oncogenic phenotypes and therefore might be a new way to target aggressive cancers with a poor prognosis. This thesis presents the use of three patient-matched uveal melanoma (UM) cell lines as a new model to study CA that has developed in a patient setting. Mel270 cells were derived from a primary tumour and have negligible CA. OMM2.3 and OMM2.5 cells were derived from distinct liver metastases from the same patient and have high levels of CA. Primary UM can be well managed, however ~50% patients develop metastatic disease, for which there is no curative treatment and 1 year survival rates are ~50%, so there is a need to develop new therapies to target metastatic UM. Using RNA-Seq, genes that were differentially expressed in metastasis versus primary derived cells were selected for an siRNA screen to identify genes with a role in CA. Knockdown of either Aurora A or HSP90B1 induced a consistent reduction of CA in OMM2.3 cells. It is believed that Aurora A and HSP090B1 have independent effects on CA, as depleting either Aurora A or HSP90B1 using siRNAs did not affect the RNA or protein levels of the other. A new assay combining live imaging of migrating cells and immunofluorescence was developed and used, which we call FUCCI-CLIF (Fluorescent Ubiquitination based Cell Cycle Indicator - Correlative Live imaging and Immunofluorescence). FUCCI-CLIF provides insight into cell migration, cell cycle and CA status. Knockdown of Aurora A or HSP90B1 reduced migration as calculated by mean straight line speed. Further investigation indicated this was a non-cell-autonomous effect on cell migration. Ultimately, the work presented suggests that depleting or inhibiting proteins required for CA in a cancer specific setting reverses CA and concomitantly reduces oncogenic properties of aggressive metastatic UM cells, and is therefore a much needed new potential therapeutic approach against metastatic UM.

Data physicalization, defined as physical artifacts that encode data in their 3D form, is an emerging field within Human-Computer Interaction. As the field continues to evolve, there remain conceptual and empirical challenges to overcome, including the comprehension of people's perceptions and interactions with the tangible aspect of physicalizations. Hence, more research is needed to foster advancement in the field and ensure that physicalizations reliably and effectively communicate information. Previous research often uses either a device-centric approach, emphasizing technology and interaction techniques, or a domain-centric approach, leading to custom-designed artifacts for specific applications with limited generalizability. In contrast, this thesis aims to obtain a deeper understanding of the ramifications of physicality and contextual factors on people's interactions with physicalization design, independent of implementation. The thesis commences with a meta-review to understand state-of-the-art physicalizations in relation to their surrounding audience and context. The first study investigates the perception of abstract bar chart physicalizations, revealing that people's perception of physical information is directly influenced by user orientation. The second study explores people's strategies for reconfiguring bar chart physicalizations, showing that they generally employ two approaches: proximity and atomic orientation changes. These findings inform the design of a bespoke toolkit utilized in the third study to examine the construction and labeling of physicalizations. This final study illustrates how data labeling plays a crucial role in the creation process, final visualization design, and across orientations. The contributions of this thesis include a conceptual framework to describe physicalizations in relation to their context, a novel methodology to investigate the influence of physicality on people's interactions with physicalizations across orientations, and empirical findings on people's perception, reconfiguration, and labeling of physicalizations. The ultimate aim is to guide future research toward designing context-sensitive physicalizations that either minimize or leverage the influence of orientation on people's interactions with physicalizations.

This study focuses on the relationship between nationalism and populism by analysing the political history of Korea. Populism studies have merely dealt with the cases in East Asia on those issues, as general literature remains a normative understanding of those issues and democracy, overlooking the tentative research cases in the region. The comparative studies of populism develop with a minimalist definition, emphasising the antagonism between the homogenous groups-'the elite' and 'the people'. However, this minimalist definition homogenised heterogeneous natures of 'the elite', 'the people', and their forms of confrontations in different regional and historical contexts. This study expands the cases for populism studies while clarifying the relationship between nationalism and populism. The historical experience of people in South Korea is an excellent example of analysing the interaction between the nation-state and society. This thesis contributes to introducing new dimensions, the temporality of political economy and the spatiality of political cleavage. With nation and state decoupled, the meanings of the people varied significantly across Korean political history, causing the populistic elements in the country. A strong and administrative-oriented state vis-à-vis society resulted in the absence of horizontal confrontation between the Left and Right, instead conceptualising social demands as national, strengthened by a vertical antagonism between society and the state. The rapid development of the national economy enforced this verticality. Korean history has been prevalent with the imagination of power relations between the state high above and the people or society below. Analysing political history in South Korea provides an opportunity to innovate the recent definition of populism regarding its global political activism of nationalism and democracy.

The objective of the present study is to improve pedestrian-level wind (PLW) comfort by developing design procedures for tall buildings in London. While tall buildings address London’s increasing urban population and rising land prices, they introduce several wind microclimatic challenges, accelerating PLWs causing PLW discomfort and safety concerns. Previous research that has focused primarily on perpendicular façades has limitations for assessing the aerodynamic performances of London’s tall buildings, which have various façade angles. Extant studies using urban packing densities (plan area ratio [PAR], frontal area ratio [FAR] and façade area ratio [FAR′]) have gaps when examining the impacts of urban forms on PLWs in cases where two different urban typologies have similar PAR, FAR and FAR′. To advance knowledge regarding the aerodynamic performance of various building geometries, the analytical and simulation work was undertaken, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as the main methodology. A sensitivity study and field measurements were carried out to verify and validate the accuracy of the CFD results. A comparative analysis was undertaken between the isolated building condition (pure aerodynamic condition without impacts from the surrounding buildings) and London’s typical urban conditions to examine the aerodynamic interactions between the tall building and the surrounding buildings. The results suggest that wind comfort assessments of tall buildings should be undertaken in an urban context, as significantly different results were obtained between the isolated and urban conditions. The building parameters – façade angle, corner condition and height – and the urban parameter – open area ratio [OAR] – should all be considered when assessing the effects of tall buildings on PLW comfort in urban environments. The design guidelines, based on the new knowledge discovered by the current study, provide recommendations concerning the urban-related and building geometry-related design requirements.

Bacterial infections, which have been susceptible to standard antibiotic regimes for decades, are now becoming resistant to all major antimicrobial treatments, undermining the efficacy of available antibiotics. Bacteria can naturally develop resistance over time as they are exposed to antibiotics. However, due to poor economic incentives and challenging regulatory requirements, antibiotic resistance is accelerated mainly by the overuse and misuse of these medications and a lack of new drug development by the pharmaceutical industry. This highlights the need for novel therapeutic approaches to tackle resistant bacterial infections. Herein, different therapeutic strategies targeting antibiotic-resistant bacteria were investigated. The therapeutic approach based on the use of membrane-disrupting agents to enhance the effectiveness of existing antibiotics for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections is suggested. Antibiotics such as rifampicin are known to have poor activity against Gram-negative bacteria owing to the outer membrane, which prevents their efficient uptake. To overcome this challenge, two series of compounds were designed and synthesised, referred to as Lipoguanidines and photoswitchable guanidines. Lipoguanidine compounds consist of a guanidine moiety, which gives selectivity toward bacterial membrane with its positive charge, and a 'lipo' component which can be intercalated and interact with the hydrophobic cytoplasmic membrane of bacteria. Lipoguanidine compounds showed a broad spectrum of excellent membrane permeabilising activity as they reduced the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration of antibiotics with no toxicity observed in Galleria mellonella assays. The structure of photoswitchable guanidines is based on lipoguanidine but also contains photoswitchable moiety that can change conformation upon light irradiation, enhancing their membrane-disrupting activity. Its ability to modulate the abacterial membrane via light irradiation was also observed. The use of light-activated CO-releasing molecules (PhotoCORMs) against multi-drug-resistant bacteria was proposed. CORMs have recently attracted interest in microbiology as it has been shown that CO can exert rapid bactericidal activity when it is delivered through CORMs. Two series of photoactivable PhotoCORMs were designed and synthesised, phenanthroline and flavonols-based PhotoCORMs. Phenanthroline-based PhotoCORMs were effective at low concentrations against multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae and A. baumannii when photoactivated with blue light. It has also been shown to inhibit the formation of biofilms. The antibacterial and biofilm inhibitory effects are plausibly due to the release of CO and the formation of phenanthroline photo by-products. Besides phenanthroline-based PhotoCORMs, organic molecule-based CORMs include flavonols and flavonoid metal complexes were also synthesised, and its biological activity were evaluated against bacteria. These novel therapeutic approaches demonstrate promising antibacterial activity to combat multidrug-resistant bacterial infection. These new approaches share the insight of sustainable use of antibiotics as they can extend the lifespan of current antibiotics by improving their efficient uptake via membrane-disrupting activity as well as the application of photopharmacology can avoid the emergence of antibiotic resistance via selective activation upon light irradiation.

Social power has long been associated with unethical behavior. This thesis sought to contribute to the understanding of how power corrupts by conducting experimental and correlational studies with a focus on ecological validity. The examination of individual differences was conducted in tandem with the natural acquisition of power. Likewise, the examination of situational influences was accompanied by the consideration of the common experiences of the powerful. Firstly, dominance, an individual difference intertwined with the desire for power, but a concept that is discrete from power, was associated with increased unethical behavior, such as cheating in die throws and puzzles, and breaking of Covid-19 containment rules (Chapter 2). The tendency of the powerful to engage in dishonesty was explained by the concentration of dominant individuals occupying the top of social hierarchies. The association between dominance and unethical behavior extended to engaging in questionable research practices (QRPs) among students and career academics (Chapter 3). This link emerged for aggressive conceptions of dominance, but less so for softer facets of dominance, such as leadership motivation. Evidence supporting the hypothesis that power amplifies dominant individuals' propensity to engage in dishonesty was not found (Chapters 2 & 4). Secondly, the unique effects of power were examined. Power did not boost dishonesty, in either morally ambiguous, or clear decisions (Chapter 5). Nevertheless, compared to the powerless, the powerful displayed more dishonest behavior in gain frames (to pursue a positive outcome), suggesting that the frequent exposure to gain frames for the powerful may explain why the powerful seem to engage in unethical behavior. In loss frames (to avoid a negative outcome), dishonesty was high regardless of power levels (Chapter 6). Lastly, meta-analyses revealed close connections between individualism (perceiving individuals as independent from the group), dominance, and dishonesty (Chapter 7). Overall, this thesis established that dominance predicts dishonesty. The influence of dominance was present controlling for numerous associated variables including social power, individualism, and was not easily amplified by situational or personal factors. Furthermore, power did not trigger unethical behavior. The association between power and unethical behavior in natural settings was explained by the over-representation of dominant individuals at the top.

In the past decade, South Korea has positioned itself as a global leader in Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and is actively engaged in the international policy process. In this context of state-led GCED, regional- and school-level initiatives to promote GCED have also emerged. One of such attempts is the GCED Policy School introduced by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE); both GCED Policy Schools and SMOE serve as the main sites of inquiry for this study. Qualitative studies on GCED have been thus far heavily dominated by Western-oriented perspectives and case studies and have often lacked a holistic and comprehensive approach for involving both policy makers and practitioners. In order to address this gap, this qualitative study analyzes documents and interviews collected from SMOE and seven GCED Policy Schools in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, through a constructivist interpretive paradigm. By engaging with multiple levels of stakeholders, this study aims to answer the following Research Questions: 1) Why did the SMOE introduce GCED as a key policy area? 2) How is GCED conceptualized in the policy? 3) How are global citizenship and GCED perceived and practiced by different practitioners at the school level (i.e., school leaders, teachers and students)? 4) What are the professional, material and external contexts that influence implementers' perceptions and practices? In addressing these questions, two theoretical heuristics are used for analysis and have led to key findings. First, the GCED conceptual framework presents four different approaches to GCED (i.e., neoliberal, tourist, humanitarian and critical); the findings suggest that the tourist and humanitarian models of GCED are more predominant than others in regional-level policy and in school practices of GCED. Second, this study also draws on Stephen Ball's policy cycle and demonstrates that the policy formation and the school-level implementation of GCED is neither linear nor straightforward but a consistent process of political compromises and recontextualization.

This research aims to study the psychological impact on survivors of severe state violence, focusing explicitly on the case of Jeju April 3rd, known as Jeju Sasam in Korean. Jeju Sasam occurred on Jeju Island, a volcanic island located south of the Korean peninsula. Jeju Sasam is one of the most prominent representations of state violence in modern Korean history, which has severely disturbed Jeju people's lives over an extended period. The authorities conducted atrocities such as torture, imprisonment, harassment, arson, forced migration and sexual violence against Jeju people under the justification of political ideology. The death toll due to the Sasam is conservatively estimated to be at least 25,000 people. Despite a large number of deaths, Jeju Sasam was not acknowledged nationally or globally. Further, there is relatively little research that addresses the long-term psychological impact on Jeju Sasam survivors. Therefore, the current study explored the impact of Jeju Sasam on survivors' psychological health by considering appraisal, culture and gender. An elderly sample of Jeju Sasam trauma survivors (Total N=50; female N=28, male N=22, aged 82 - 98 at the time of the interview) and currently living on Jeju Island completed semi-structured qualitative interviews. Thematic analysis was used to identify and analyse themes from survivors' narratives. As a result, seven themes emerged: 1. Cultural memory and ceremony, 2. Social and cultural interdependence, 3. Self-concept and traumatised self, 4. External attribution, 5. Physical and psychological trauma, 6. Emotional and psychological trauma symptoms, 7. Recovery and adjustment. This thesis developed a model for understanding the trauma resilience mechanism based on the seven themes. The model describes the interconnectivity of culture, self-appraisal, cognitive appraisal and social elements for the trauma resilience of Jeju Sasam survivors. This model for a trauma resilience mechanism can contribute to developing appropriate coping strategies for state violence survivors and ultimately promote their psychological wellbeing.

The increasing attention of poly(2-oxazoline)s both in biological and industrial applications has led to a plethora of research on this very interesting polymer class. The aim of this work is to synthesise poly(2-oxazoline) based graft copolymers by combination of cationic ring opening polymerisation (CROP) and reversible deactivation radical polymerisation (RDRP) via the grafting from approach. This was realised by utilising a hydroxyl functionalised 2-oxazoline monomer derived from ε-caprolactone. Firstly, the combination of CROP and Cu-mediated RDRP is explored to synthesise graft copolymers containing a poly(2-oxazoline) backbone with acrylate-based grafts that are soluble in oil. These graft copolymers are then tested for their friction modifying properties in oil for the ultimate purpose of being formulated into oil additive packages. Then, the combination of CROP and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerisation is shown by functionalising the hydroxyl group containing 2-oxazoline monomer with a chain transfer agent; the use of RAFT polymerisation on the grafts allowing for a metal free approach with a wider monomer scope. Finally, the synthesis of hydrophilic poly(2-oxazoline)s is discussed, whereby the hydroxyl functional group of the 2- oxazoline monomer is protected during CROP and subsequently deprotected to reveal a poly(2-oxazoline) chain with pendant hydroxyl groups. The hydrophilicity and thermoresponsive properties of the hydroxyl containing poly(2-oxazoline)s is discussed.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are specifically designated zones of restricted human activity, based on ecological, biological, or socioeconomic factors. Since the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in December 1982, states and international organisations have increasingly utilised the MPAs as a tool for environmental protection. A number of MPAs are now found in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of states and on the high seas; whereas previously, MPAs were rarely designated beyond the territorial sea. Both EEZs and high seas MPAs introduce restrictions on human activities such as fishing, shipping, scientific research, vessel discharges and waste dumping. This thesis examines the changing balance of the law of the sea, demonstrated through the development of MPAs and restrictive measures of the sort identified above. By delving into the law and politics of designation and management of MPA regimes, this thesis conducts a comparative analysis of MPA regimes. This thesis argues that the MPA regimes are the implementation of the environmental obligations under UNCLOS and states' active interpretation of international law to expand environmental interests. This expansion is observed in the law and practice of MPA regimes, on how the regimes circumvent or overcome their legal limitations and endeavour to induce state participation. This thesis concludes that the environmental interests shown through the MPA regimes are tipping the balance of interests in the law of the sea. This thesis is a doctrinal exploration of five MPA regimes. The five MPA regimes include two situated exclusively within the EEZs of states and three on the high seas. In the EEZ, the International Maritime Organization's Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas, and the Helsinki Commission's Baltic Sea MPAs are examined. On the high seas, the 1980 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resource MPAs, the International Seabed Authority's Areas of Particular Environmental Interests, and MPAs under the 1992 Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic are studied.

This thesis is concerned with the process of employability enhancement, specifically the growing trend in collaboration between universities and industry partners in real-world learning provision relevant to employment in the sport sector. UCAS has identified a rise in provision for sports related study in UK HE since 1990 owing to sport's increasing popularity as a career sector. Indeed, by 2018, the UK represented 25.2% of the European sport labour market. Meanwhile, a performative culture which has tied the concept of 'teaching excellence' to 'employability' has become a key driver for UK HEIs. However, sport has been classified as a 'niche graduate occupation' and this has implications for HE in relation to its role in facilitating the enhancement of employability and preparing undergraduate students for careers in the sport sector. Consequently, HEIs have been encouraged to rethink their approaches to embedding employability in the curriculum by collaborating with sports industry partners in the provision of real-world learning opportunities. Indeed, political discourse has positioned a culture of partnership at the forefront of HE practice, reinforcing the importance of a positive experience of collaboration for all. The review of literature noted a prevalence of studies which sought to identify and disseminate good practice in the development of real-world learning through collaboration. However, research into how collaborative practices cultivate learners capable of transferring knowledge to real-world scenarios is in its infancy. Specifically, the lack of investigation into what employability means to subjects in the context of their experiences of real-world learning has been noted. Focusing on a model of collaboration involving one post-1992 UK university and one industry partner in the sport development sector as an illustrative case for this thesis, this study aimed to understand the meaning of 'employability' in the context of real-world learning and explore how the experience of real-world learning influences perspectives on 'employability'. Taking an interpretative approach and drawing inspiration from the work of Heidegger, Dewey and Derrida, multiple lived truths were explored from the perspective of 117 students, two academic tutors and four industry practitioners involved in the programme. In a crystallised approach to analysis, deconstructive pragmatism was adopted alongside Activity Theory as a lens through which to witness the deconstruction of 'employability' in the context of real-world learning in HE. Findings highlighted a series of critical incidents in the stakeholder experience of real-world learning. It is argued that stakeholders' behavioural responses to such incidents are intertwined with their perception of the various aspects and functions of the real-world learning programme in which they are engaged and that these perceptions are simultaneously influenced by their beliefs about 'employability' in this context. Consequently, tension between stakeholders' idealised beliefs about 'employability' and the reality of the real-world learning experiences provided through a university-industry collaboration actually presented challenges in the creation of the employability culture that such a programme of real-world learning demands. I therefore offer a framework which provides a systematic way for educationalists to consider how the operations of a real-world learning programme may be manipulated to constrain or reify the occurrence of those critical incidents which will ultimately influence a stakeholder's perception of the real-world learning programme and their beliefs or conceptions of 'employability'.

Digital credit, a type of mobile loan service, has achieved remarkable success in Kenya. The advocates of digital credit argue that its unique characteristics are expected to give new opportunities to those who have been excluded from formal loan services due to their vulnerable socio-economic status. However, it has been questioned whether digital credit has had a positive impact on Kenyan households in terms of expanding financial inclusion. This thesis draws on insights from two different types of digital credit services, mobile banking loans (MBL) and Fin-Tech loans (FTL), which yield different results. Both digital credit services are indiscriminately provided to rural residents. Yet, the access to MBL is more influenced by the socio-economic characteristics of the borrowers than that of FTL. Female and low-income groups are less likely to use MBL, in contrast, the use of FTL is less affected by the variables of sex and the level of income, meaning that people who are female or of low-income could access FTL just as male and high-income classes could. However, it should be noted that easy access to loans is not always a good sign. FTL services could make the borrowers use excessive borrowing, leading to late-repayment or even default. In reality, it has been reported that a large number of digital credit borrowers in Kenya have been struggling with various problems, especially with high levels of default. Therefore, this thesis uses mixed methods combining OLS regression analysis and semi-structured interviews with digital credit borrowers in Nairobi's slum areas, exploring the main drivers of high default rates on digital credit. According to the quantitative results, the use of digital credit itself influences default more than other factors such as consumers' income level. It demonstrates that the use of digital credit itself has a greater effect on the likelihood of default than borrowers' characteristics. Also, the study qualitatively identifies the characteristics of digital credit, such as high interest rates, short repayment periods, and the inducement of over-borrowing, which have made it harder for borrowers to repay the loans. In addition to high default rates, this thesis sought to identify the consumer protection issues currently facing Kenyan borrowers. Through key informant interviews (KIIs) with officials of MBLs and semi-structured interviews with consumers of digital credit, I conclude that the Kenyan digital credit environment is rife with consumer protection risks. Customers have been harmed by the problems of digital credit products; the characteristics of digital credit, such as high interest rates, aggressive business practices that encourage consumers to borrow continuously, and the existence of unlicensed lenders, may increase risks. There are instances of improper debt collection by digital credit lenders following default. In addition, the interviews reveal that there are problems with transparency because of violations of data privacy and deceptive marketing. To address these concerns regarding consumer protection, the Central Bank of Kenya Amendment Bill 2021 was introduced in December 2021. This is significant as it is the first serious attempt to regulate the digital credit market. However, based on the findings of this study, it appears that the new bill has limitations when it comes to addressing various consumer protection risks which I identify through the interviews. Moreover, certain provisions of the bill may endanger both borrowers and lenders. In conclusion, this thesis empirically explores the impact of digital credit on Kenyan households from multiple perspectives by listening to various stakeholders, digital credit borrowers and lenders, and by constructing a picture of the entire digital credit business using a mixed methods approach, and thus contributes to filling the knowledge gap. The results disprove the myth of digital credit's benefits and demonstrate the need for improved regulation and additional research.

Background: Environmental exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs), one of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust, is widely recognised as a major global health risk - millions of people are estimated to be chronically exposed to arsenic worldwide. Yet, compared to arsenic-related cancer and skin lesions, research on arsenic-related cardiometabolic disease, particularly at lower exposure levels, has been limited. This PhD thesis aims to investigate the epidemiological relationship between chronic environmental arsenic exposure and several sub-types of cardiometabolic disease, with a primary focus on cardiovascular disease (CVD), specifically myocardial infarction (MI), as well as diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension. Data sources: Firstly, to explore the relationship between toenail arsenic (including arsenic metabolites and metabolism markers) with MI, the Bangladesh Risk of Acute Vascular Events (BRAVE) study, a case-control study of 1,532 MI cases and 1,334 controls, was used. Secondly, to explore the dose-response relationship between arsenic and several CVD endpoints, a systematic review and two-stage dose-response meta-analyses were performed on 35 studies. Thirdly, to assess the association of environmental arsenic exposure with two major CVD risk factors, diabetes mellitus and hypertension, a systematic review and two-stage dose-response meta-analyses were performed on 71 studies. Lastly, to explore whether genetic variation may be at least partially responsible for inter-individual variation in arsenic-related cardiometabolic disease susceptibility, a narrative systematic review on 14 unique candidate gene-environment (cGxE) studies reporting on 650 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 145 genes was used. Main results: In BRAVE, MI was positively associated with higher toenail monomethylated arsenic (MMA) in μg/g, higher MMA% and a higher primary methylation index (PMI) in both categorical and continuous logistic regression models, and negatively associated with higher iAs% and a higher secondary methylation index (SMI). No statistically significant associations were found for total arsenic (tAs), iAs and dimethyalated arsenic (DMA) in μg/g, nor for DMA%. Dose-response meta-analyses found consistent positive associations between water arsenic concentrations and coronary heart disease (CHD) [fatal, non-fatal, overall], non-fatal stroke, CVD (fatal, non-fatal, overall), hypertension, DM type 2, and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Analyses on low water arsenic concentrations showed positive associations below 10 μg/l for several of the cardiometabolic outcomes studied. From the total of 35 studies on CVD endpoints, and 71 studies on hypertension or DM, only 4 (low quality) studies reported statistically significant negative associations. In the narrative systematic review, 29 SNPs in 21 genes as well as 3 haplotypes (involved in e.g. arsenic metabolism, DNA damage repair, endothelial function, inflammation) were indicative of SNP-arsenic interactions associated with cardiometabolic outcomes. Conclusion: This PhD thesis presents further supports evidence that people exposed to chronic environmental arsenic pollution may be at greater risk for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2 and gestational diabetes. Evidence is most conclusive at moderate and high levels of arsenic exposure (i.e., water arsenic > 100 μg/l). However, results at lower arsenic levels suggest that a potential downward revision of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines (10 μg/l) may be beneficial for health protection. Whilst studies on individual arsenic species and arsenic metabolism markers are less consistent, results in this thesis suggest a potential role for arsenic metabolism in the development of CVD - potentially particularly at lower arsenic levels. Various SNPs and genes have been suggested to be involved in the susceptibility to cardiometabolic disease, however, these results should be approached with appropriate caution due to the lack of reproducible findings, and the cGxE nature of the included studies. Overall, further long-term prospective studies of individual person data that assess arsenic through different media and include speciation analyses, combined with experimental, mechanistic and genetic studies, are needed to improve understanding of the observed relationship between arsenic and cardiometabolic disease, and the ways in which arsenic may disrupt cell physiology and promote pathophysiology.

This PhD by Publication focuses on the representation of motherhood on 'quality' American television and how that is intrinsically linked to women's political and economic oppression in society. Although this study focuses on contemporary television series, it is grounded in a history of how motherhood has been theorized, its cultural positioning and how this informs the representations of maternity, motherhood and mothering in quality American television drama. Arguing that, in order to understand how patriarchy subjugates women, we need to expose the way patriarchal norms related to motherhood work as, while 'we know that difference exists, ... we don't understand it as constituted relationally',1 I propose that cultural attitudes expressed through televisual representations betray a deep-rooted misogyny that ties women to their reproductive potential thus impacting their positioning in society, their employment prospects and a lifetime's wage prospects. With so many meshes of ideological carriers at work, I conclude that it is urgent to bring them into consciousness and wield that knowledge politically.2 My work brings what is invisible into discourse, what is unconscious into consciousness and teaches us much about the ingrained attitudes of a neoliberal western patriarchal society, how it views motherhood and the impact that has on women in society more broadly. My original contribution to this field acknowledges 'quality' television's soap opera roots, and, by analysing series from a feminist perspective, shows that much can be revealed about the patriarchal unconscious, how it views its mothers and how women are inevitably linked to their reproductive potential.

Despite recent advances, there are still challenges in solving higher-order partial differential equations using the finite element method. This thesis focuses on finite element techniques for higher-order problems with applications to isogeometric analysis and statistical inference. In both areas, the efficient solution of higher-order partial differential equations is essential. The construction of isogeometric smooth spline basis functions is crucial for solving higher-order partial differential equations on meshes with arbitrary topologies. We introduce a simple blending approach that produces smooth blended B-splines, referred to as SB-splines, on unstructured quadrilateral and hexahedral meshes. We first define a set of mixed smoothness quadratic B-splines that are $C^0$ continuous in the unstructured regions of the mesh but are $C^1$ continuous everywhere else. Subsequently, the SB-splines are obtained by smoothly blending in the physical space the mixed smoothness B-splines with Bernstein basis functions of equal degree. One of the key novelties of our approach is that the required smooth weight functions are assembled from the available smooth B-splines in the geometric parametrisation. The SB-splines are globally smooth, non-negative, have no breakpoints within the elements, and reduce to conventional B-splines away from the unstructured regions of the mesh. Remarkably, the optimal convergence rates are numerically observed for the Poisson and biharmonic problems in one and two dimensions. The statistical finite element method coherently sythesises data and finite element models using Bayesian inference. However, the Gaussian process inference using covariance matrices is computationally expensive and memory-intensive. Consequently, the size of the finite element model is significantly limited. To this end, we introduce a sparse precision formulation by specifying the Gaussian process priors as Matérn random fields. Instead of kernel parametrisation, the Matérn random fields are parametrised as solutions of a higher-order stochastic partial differential equation. Finite element discretisation of the corresponding weak form results in sparse precision matrices. Specifically, the sparse precision matrices for arbitrary Matérn smoothness are obtained using recursive finite element computation and rational approximation. In addition to achieving improved scalability, we demonstrate the extension of the stochastic partial differential equation approach to non-Euclidean domains and the modelling of non-stationary and anisotropic Matérn random fields.

Motivated by spectral problems arising in gauge theory and gravity, we develop a rigorous proof of infinitely many bound states for a family of radial Laplacians that have Calogero characteristics at the origin and Coulombic ones at infinity. We first study the spectrum of the operator obtained by linearising the Yang-Mills-Higgs equations around a charge one monopole. We then study two Laplace operators on four-dimensional Riemannian manifolds, namely the Laplace operator on the Atiyah-Hitchin moduli space of centred charge two monopoles and the Laplace operator associated with the Taub-bolt family. We apply our theorem to each operator proving they have infinite discrete spectrums and numerically compute the eigenvalues. We compare results to appropriate analytic approximations for each case.

This study aims to explore kinship carers' stories about their everyday family practices of kinship caring and what enables and constrains displaying these practices to others. The research generates knowledge about how kinship carers make sense of and talk about their families and the tensions and challenges they encounter in 'doing' everyday kinship family. 'Kinship care' refers to families bringing up another relative's or friend's child, a practice often seen as an alternative service to non-related foster care. Previous research on kinship care tends to draw on positivist approaches and prioritises a risk and child-protectionist paradigm to compare children's experiences, assess carers' parenting skills, and evaluate children's safety and future life chances. This has contributed to a deficit discourse about kinship family living and kinship carers, in turn, creating a gap in understanding regarding the everyday experiences of alternative ways of family living. With increasingly more children referred to children's social care in Northeast England and the Kinship Care Parliamentary Taskforce (2020) calling for broader knowledge about kinship care families, it is timely to address this gap by challenging the deficit narrative. The study draws on feminist post-structural perspectives and uses narrative inquiry to explore kinship carers' everyday lived experiences. Data generation was based on research with twelve adults identifying as 'kinship carers' in arts-based participatory workshops. The kinship carers used a blend of story-generating tools, including songwriting, painting, poetry, photography, and oral storytelling. The storied data were thematically and narratively analysed, drawing on performativity and sociological family studies theories of family practices and family display. The findings highlight the importance of paying attention to emotionality within the carers' daily family tasks, the emotional work they regularly undertake, and how emotionality enabled and constrained displays and non-displays of family practices. This was evident in many areas, especially pre-kinship caring work, acts of family surveillance, acts of being watched by welfare services, and stories about happiness. The study concludes that arts-based participatory storytelling can open new ways of seeing and thinking about kinship-caring families. The study counters the deficit view of kinship families and draws attention to the emotional labour underpinning their displays of family. It has also revealed gaps in the current debates, particularly about the intensity and importance of the pre-kinship caring tasks, an area largely missing from kinship caring literature.

This study charts for the first time the complex, always evolving relationship between PEN International (PEN) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), including its precursor the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC), from 1921 to 1996, focusing on their joint translation policies. Over these 75 years, the three international organisations collaborated with each other to develop and implement literary translation programmes that would foster mutual understanding among peoples and nation-states, though the way they conceptualised 'world literature' diverged over time. Drawing on multiple archives and official publications, this study argues that their joint translation policies concretely shaped, and were shaped by, their official and informal partnerships as PEN championed the role of living writers, and UNESCO the role of literary books, in these programmes. Their collaboration during the 20th century succumbed to and resisted interventions from member states and the pressure of the international marketplace, yielding unexpected or mixed outcomes. Part 1 examines the interwar period when PEN and the ICIC, despite the brevity of their collaboration, set the terms for the prehistory of translation programmes, especially through their debates on national literary languages. Part 2 examines PEN and UNESCO's collaborative projects that prompted each other to engage with Eastern and Western literatures, shaping their post-war world literary visions. Part 3 turns to the most controversial period for PEN and UNESCO when the two, goaded by international politics, began to actively intervene in each other's policymaking while articulating their own independent understanding of world literature and literary rights. Investigating multiple institutional and individual crossings, this study overall reflects on the role of PEN and UNESCO as makers of world literature, tracing their tangled historical developments, fraught implementations of their translation programmes, and competing imperatives underlying their long-running collaboration.

The puzzle this thesis investigates is the narrative of China as an obstructor to climate change mitigation around 2009, especially at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15), and as a climate leader around the 2015 COP21, despite similar policy actions and diplomatic behaviour. To examine this puzzle, the thesis analyses leadership as a social role relationship between leaders (here China) and followers as well as co-leaders. Based on a role theoretical framework, it asks: "How did national role conceptions (NRCs) and socialisation affect China's leadership role in climate change from 2002 to 2018?" As a theoretical contribution, the thesis re-conceptualises leadership as a master role with six auxiliary roles, synthesised from international relations and role theory research. They include initiator, agenda-setter, mediator/broker, representative, visionary, and example. Combining it with but going beyond conventional leadership types, this approach allows to analyse both the function of a leader in a group and the various mechanisms of influence. Moreover, through utilising role theoretical concepts, it is possible to examine followers' agency as socialisers of a leader and the possibility of co-leadership, which addresses shortcomings in the existing leadership literature. To answer the research question, the thesis analyses if and how China's role performance in the auxiliary roles was influenced by other negotiation parties' expectations and socialisation efforts on the one hand, and its own understandings of its role and domestic contestation, on the other. The analysis finds that in this role location process, industrialised country parties were the main narrators of the narrative. For 2002 to 2012, it shows how their quickly increasing expectations before COP15 led to a mismatch with Chinese NRCs. Furthermore, domestic contestation of Chinese policymakers' NRCs until COP15 constrained performance of a more ambitious role. This resulted in negative perceptions of China's role performance as not in line with expected responsibility and capability - different from the majority of developing country parties. However, the nascent split of the G-77 into socialisers with lower and higher expectations led to further role conflicts for China. The thesis' finding of China's tactical use of role strain before COP15 also contributes to our knowledge about how emerging economies utilise the notion of limited material capabilities tactically to elude responsibilities while highlighting political willingness. Different to COP15, geopolitical context and China's emissions profile did not have a strong influence on perceptions of China's role at COP21. However, China's performance of the auxiliary roles was still marked by role conflicts, due to the deepening divergence among G-77 countries regarding their expectations for China. The analysis shows that rather than accepting a nominal co-leadership role with industrialised countries, China solved its role conflicts through providing leadership acts outside the UN framework, thereby acting on the NRCs of 'cooperator', 'responsible major country', and 'partner/supporter of developing countries'. Remarkably, the domestic narration of the 'leader' NRC evolved through both challengers' and advocates' inputs. Nevertheless, China's willingness to take a non-shared leadership role is questionable. Other NRCs such as 'cooperator' have had a considerably higher salience than 'leader' during both the Hu-Wen and Xi-Li administrations. As a contribution to knowledge, this research demonstrates that exercising the full leadership role-set is not necessary to be perceived as a climate leader, and alter expectations are as important for the recognition in the master and auxiliary roles as ego's own role conceptions. Furthermore, the case study shows that role conflicts between auxiliary roles are possible to be analysed empirically, which contributes to role theory's advancement on investigating role dissonance. Regarding domestic role contestation, the thesis illustrates another case of the existence of horizontal and vertical contestation in an authoritarian system, the constraining and enabling effects on foreign policy behaviour, and similar conflict solving mechanisms to democratic case studies. In China's case, a strengthened executive was able to curb contestation in policymaking circles; individuals' NRCs and their positions in the political elite matter; and public opinion combined with nationalism can define the boundaries of acceptable role behaviour.

The study addresses the production of urban heritage in South Korea by focusing on the historic cities of Jeonju and Gyeongju. Previous studies of South Korean heritage conservation have pointed out that development needs were frequently prioritised over conservation concerns. In a country characterised by rapid economic development and urbanisation this is not surprising however, the two case study cities have largely, successfully maintained their heritage resources, unlike the other cities in South Korea, based on the government-led conservation schemes. Using strong government initiatives, Gyeongju and Jeonju, through a process of heritage commodification, have gained popularity amongst domestic and international tourists, but they have also experienced negative impacts as both heritage sites and tourist attractions. This thesis examines the range of impacts and issues that infiltrate the everyday lives of local communities in the two historic centres, which has included de-population, social discontent, economic challenges and a loss in community vitality and sense of place, that plays amongst locals and tourists. To address these issues, I explore the discrepancy that exists among the key stakeholders in the case cities, particularly the national and city-based authorities, heritage professionals and the local communities. I investigate how the communities recognise their local heritage in the process of construction, reconstruction, and negotiation of 'place.' The authorised heritage and its firm narratives can be seen to marginalise communities, but I demonstrate that what remains important are the more intangible practices and traditions of non-authorised heritage. These aspects of heritage are more closely attached to peoples' everyday life and enhance the communities' connection to place. Though a substantive body of literature advocates community involvement in heritage production, my work in both of the case sites, demonstrates that there is still an evident asymmetry in power relations at work. By using grounded theory, semi-structured, in-depth interviews and observational work, I examine the dialogues of the heritage production and management processes and identify how notions of community voice and empowerment still manage to surface and negotiate these processes. The thesis synthesises implications and attempts to seek improved ways to employ community empowerment approaches to the heritage management building on the idea that heritage is a medium for progressive social and economic change.

Within my work, I have been interested in exploring, through detailed observation of, and collecting artifacts from, my surroundings, the effect that place and memory have on humans and their environment. I explore the various invisible stories impacted by specific places and events, and those things that exist but do not show themselves directly. Recently, using 'placeness'-which gets its meaning from recognition and experience-as a foundation, my interest has moved towards people and places separated from their pasts due to migration and movement, disconnection and destruction, and thus that do not have this sense of 'placeness'. While on my doctoral programme, I went beyond simply composing my work from photographs I had taken myself, to researching and collecting a variety of materials. This was my own way of reaching times and places unreachable to me, However, having worked with the medium of photography, I came to realise the limits and difficulties of working outside the current time and beyond places I could approach directly. I believe that my work is one way of telling a story, and is also a process of training myself to communicate with and learn about the world. I am interested in the concerns of contemporary society, as well as the connections I hold with the world, continually questioning what meaning my work has in the present, and what meaning it will come to hold as time passes. Within this process, the present report provided me the opportunity to theorise around the fundamental 'anxiety' I felt as a stranger living in a foreign country and to examine my experience from an objective point of view. I searched out information on theories surrounding all types of societal outsiders and marginal men, as well as boundary areas; I was able to reflect on their definitions, and understand that the anxiety I felt was not peculiar to me. The emotional anxiety of the foreigner, and the personal thoughts I could not express, and to which nobody would listen, went beyond a language-based problem to the structural level. The sociological theories and humanities-based definitions I researched for my Doctoral report gave me a more comprehensive understanding of these emotions.

The key question proposed by this study is: how do the language and motifs in the Son-Father logion (Matt. 11:25-27; Luke 10:21-22) relate to the Fourth Gospel's representation of the Son-Father relationship? This study aims to provide the answer by defining the Son-Father relational pattern. The pattern delineates the Son-Father relationship in the Son-Father logion as it corresponds to that of John. The core methodology of this study is the comparative analysis of the logion, which consists of two parts. First, by locating each logion of Matthew and Luke in their context and comparing the results with the Fourth Gospel. Second, by analysing the four motifs in the Son-Father logion (the Son, the Father, knowledge, revelation) with these motifs in other ancient literature. The key findings of this study are twofold: (1) if the Son-Father logion is viewed in terms of the Son-Father relational pattern, the tendency to emphasise divergence between the Synoptic tradition and Johannine tradition is lessened; and (2) if the Son-Father logion is demonstrated to be a point of commonality between John and the Synoptics, the greater comparability between John's Christology and Synoptics' Christology seems more plausible than the model of Christological development from Synoptics to John. Therefore, this study concludes that: (1) the Son-Father logion in Matthew/Luke and the Fourth Gospel itself are distinct from other parts of the Synoptic gospels and other primary texts because the Son-Father relational pattern only occurs in the logion and in John; and (2) all comparative analyses of the four motifs in the logion illustrate a close similarity with that of John, in contrast to the divergence in each concept between the primary texts and John. Thus, the affirmation of continuity between the Jesus traditions, when looking at the Son-Father relational pattern, is supported by this study.

Memory is a major outcome of a tourism trip that offers cognitive-affective-behavioural sources to be utilised in daily life. Specifically, consumers use their memories to revisit destinations, repeat similar experiences of a past trip and spread word-of-mouth, as well as enhance their daily well-being. To take advantage of consumer memories, tourism organisations and researchers have strived to understand what constitutes memorable experiences that are compelling enough to be remembered after a tourism trip occurred. Given the importance of consumer memories in tourism, this thesis aims to identify the role of memory derived from a tourism trip in articulating its consequences such as well-being and behaviour. To achieve the research aim, three research objectives are developed based on existing theories and literature. Correspondingly, three studies were conducted, each presented in a form of a journal manuscript in this thesis. To address each research objective, this thesis adopts deductive research approaches, which include scale development (Study 1), experiment research design (Study 2), and longitudinal research design (Study 3). More specifically, there were some limitations in defining tourism memory and measuring it based on existing memory scales. Therefore, Study 1 developed operational definitions of tourism memory and tourism memory characteristics scale and found the relationship between tourism memory and behavioural intentions. Second, relationships between tourism memory, mood, and behavioural intentions were not fully posited in tourism contexts. Study 2 addressed this research gap by identifying the mood-repairing role of tourism memory, and relationships between tourism memory valence, mood, and behavioural intentions. Lastly, longer-term relationships between tourism memory, rehearsal, and well-being were not sufficiently explored. Therefore, Study 3 identified the longer-term relationships between tourism memory, rehearsal, and well-being by investigating these relationships through three longitudinal analysis methods. The research findings made significant contributions to existing theories and literature by improving the knowledge of tourism memory and its related consequences such as rehearsal, well-being, and behavioural intentions. Moreover, practical implications were provided with recommendations for tourism product design, product advertisement, consumer communication, and the policy for public health.

With such a rich plethora of models to explain the mysteries of modern theoretical physics, the role of phenomenology is critical in ascertaining the viability of said models against experimental result. Furthermore, as the ambition and scope of these models grows, sophisticated data science techniques are more relevant than ever in handling such models. In this thesis, I present the work I have done in applying data techniques to extensions of supersymmetric models which remains one of the most attractive candidates for physics beyond the Standard Model. In particular, I present the results of my work developing and applying algorithmic frameworks for analysing high scale parameters of these models and linking phenomenological tools in order to analyse various experimental results of these models. In essence, the models presented display two different approaches to the fine-tuning problems in supersymmetry where in one we fix parameters to be natural, and in the second we allow for non-minimal-flavour-violation. In this manuscript, I first briefly introduce the Standard Model and its shortcomings as well as supersymmetric extensions to the Standard Model and some alternative approaches to beyond the Standard Model physics. I then show the results of a no-scale supergravity model where the universal scalar mass is zero. We have a particular focus on the recent muon g-2 experimental results as well as dark matter and the Higgs boson mass. These models naturally arise from string theory and are also inspired by Starobinsky inflation which places further phenomenological constraints on the model. We find that certain regions of parameter space can satisfy these constraints with requisite light sleptons close to the LHC excluded region. I also display the work I did in implementing a Markhov chain MonteCarlo scan of a supersymmetric grand unified theory of flavour. In this analysis, a huge number of phenomenological constraints were applied to examine the allowed flavour structure. The model naturally predicted large sleptonic mixing explaining their LHC evation and light winos and gluinos suggesting the good prospect for discovering these particles in up-coming collider runs. This thesis contains work based on two preprint publications with arXiv numbers arXiv:2111.10199, and arXiv:2111.10199.

In December 1997, Kazakhstan officially announced that the city of Akmola (later Astana, now Nur-Sultan) would be replacing Almaty as its capital city. This initiative to transfer the capital from the vibrant city of Almaty to the then small town of Astana created a shock in both urban systems, in turn laying an exceptional setting for comparative research on their creative development. Treating the capital city status as a variable, this paper monitors the adaptive processes that have taken place in the old and new capitals' creative ecosystems in the last 20 years. Highlighting the complex nature of these changes and developments, this thesis adopts a complexity theory (CT) analytical framework and explores the concept of the creative ecosystem as an alternative to the creative economy. This approach places particular attention on the context and conceptualises urban creative development as driven by the complex interdependence between four overlapping domains: policy, place, organisations and people. This research comprises a multiple case study, where each case is represented by one city - Almaty and Astana, the former and current capital, respectively. For each case, the complex interdependence between four units of analysis - policy, people, place, organisations - is explored. A mixed methods research design is adopted to effectively address each unit. Data for this research was gathered via extensive desk and archival research and 49 semi-structured interviews with creative professionals and policymakers in Almaty and Astana. This thesis explores how the creative ecosystems of Almaty and Astana have evolved in line with the evolutionary adaptive cycle model (Holling, 2001). This model is used to structure the analytical chapters of the thesis as well as to identify key CT concepts - namely, path dependence, resilience, self-organisation and emergence - that help explain the evolutionary dynamics of Almaty and Astana's creative ecosystems around the change of capital city. The thesis concludes by arguing for incorporating CT into the study of creative industries and their development. Finally, this thesis hopes to contribute to the empirical visibility of post-Soviet and (more importantly) Central Asian cities within creative industries research.

Due to ever-growing sustainability issues, more demanding exhaust emission regulations are imposed on internal combustion engines. There is growing introduction of full electrification but, as there are practical issues regarding the full electrification, internal combustion engines are proven to be still useful and often coupled with electric motors. It is, therefore, vital to establish detailed understandings of in-cylinder combustion processes so that the release of greenhouse gas and production of pollutant emissions can be reduced and minimised. Therefore, novel fuels, such as second-generation biofuels, are thoroughly studied to explore possible use as future fuels for hybrid gasoline direct injection powertrains which are derived from sustainable feedstock and provide efficient energy release. For this project, a novel optical engine was designed that facilitate easy access to the piston and rapid cleaning of the piston crown window. A state-of-the-art gasoline direct injection engine was selected for hybrid applications. The initial design of the optical engine was modified to resolve the slackness in the extended timing chains. As the optical engine adopted the Bowditch system and only number 1 cylinder operated, various auxiliary components were also designed and developed to accommodate optical systems and oil circulation, and consider the change in the crankshaft balancing and volume of the air intake. Furthermore, an external fuel supply system was designed to enable a use of different fuels, while minimising a risk of damaging or contaminating the conventional fuel supply lines, by allowing easy cleaning processes. To quantitatively compare the difference in both spray and combustion images between various fuels, MATLAB codes were developed to process the captured images from a high-speed camera. Seven fuels were tested namely gasoline, ethanol, acetic acid, anisole, guaiacol, 2-MF and 2-MTHF; one a reference fossil fuel, one a first-generation biofuel and five second-generation biofuels, respectively. Three different injection timings were applied to simulate stratified, quasi-homogeneous and homogeneous states at low and high injection pressures for combustion studies, with only the injection pressure varied for the constant injection timing at the stratified spray studies. In general, injection pressure did not have a significant effect on soot formation, with exception for anisole, with injection timing found to be the dominant factor. Ethanol showed a similar spray development pattern to that of gasoline but displayed narrower sprays around the injector tip and became wider towards the spark plug. Acetic acid showed an indistinctive spray pattern and all six sprays merged together to form a cloud of fuel. Anisole showed wider sprays than gasoline and ethanol, but exhibited a similar penetration rate. Guaiacol exhibited similar spray characteristics to that of acetic acid, in that it formed a fuel cloud rather than maintaining distinct fuel sprays. Both 2-MF and 2-MTHF showed wide sprays.

This thesis investigates the development of the lifetime earnings gap in the UK during the period 2010-2015, and the crucial role education plays as a potential mediator. Despite the steady decreases in the gender pay gap over the last two decades in the UK, the overall declining trend masks the extent of the earnings gap over the life course across cohorts. The current thesis highlights multiple challenges recent cohorts (born in 1980 onwards) face against the backdrop of the introduction of university tuition fees in 1998, and their improved educational achievements. The intensification of neoliberal reforms not only levied high costs on educational opportunities, but also exposed recent cohorts to intense competition in the labour market. As this combined with the UK's sustained liberal market-oriented family policy characterised by limited childcare support, younger generations were found to be relatively worse off. This thesis uses UKHLS earnings data to apply multilevel growth curve modelling with the accelerated cohort sequential design sample. The key enquiry to be addressed is whether education mediates the negative impact of having children on the long-term gender earnings gap. The study subsequently addresses women's occupational mobility, to examine the extent to which degree-holding women's moves to less-feminised occupations mediate the negative impact of occupational sex segregation on long-term earnings prospects. This innovative approach reveals the earnings trajectories that individuals experience over the life course and unmasks the extent of the long-term gender pay gap by age. The age effects are disentangled from potentially confounding cohort effects operating in earnings growth trajectories across the working age range in a systematic manner. First, overall lifetime earnings are predicted by age to estimate the gap between the two genders. Then, interaction terms including education, and gender, are utilised to capture the moderating effect of education on the development of lifetime earnings, in the presence of negative impact by parenthood and occupational sex segregation. The findings suggest that the unadjusted gender pay gap grew from just 1% at 20 years of age to 21% at 40, then to 25% for women in their 60s, sustaining significant gaps throughout working age. Parenthood had a negative impact on the development of a large gender earnings gap, but attaining a high-level of education was not enough to mitigate the parenthood penalties over the working life. Still, education is seen to hold potential for increasing earnings for women, through women's occupational mobility to less-feminised occupations. Evidence highlights the need for more supportive childcare support policies, and the need to address the institutional inertia that helps maintain sex segregation in the UK labour market.

Since the introduction of the smartphone and app stores, the mobile game has become a globally popular entertainment mobile application, and localization has been a key factor to facilitate the mobile game's global service. This thesis aims to describe the mobile game localization process by applying actor network theory and skopos theory as its theoretical framework. In order to achieve this goal, this study first suggests a definition of mobile game and mobile game localization that differ from existing research on video game localization. Then, it identifies both human and non-human actors in the mobile game localization process, namely publisher, project manager, translator, tester, player, translation brief, device, app stores, and technology. Based on ANT, this thesis maps the network of these actors and analyses the interactions between them. This thesis found that each stage of the localization process has its own key actor-network, and that their relationship influences the localization. This thesis also analyses the translation of the mobile game text and linguistic quality assurance (LQA) based on combining ANT and skopos theory. It is found that mobile game text has four skopos including playability, entertainment, marketing, and pivot language. The mobile game text is translated based on these skopos, and the actor-network also influences the translation. LQA has become essential in mobile game localization due to the characteristics of mobile games such as multi-media and small screen. The issues that are often found through LQA are length, homonyms, matching images, untranslated text, variables/tags/symbols, and cultural references. It concludes that the mobile game localization process is complex, with various actors and their network. The result can be useful in understanding mobile game localization from a sociological perspective. It will also encourage researchers to consider mobile game localization as a new research area in translation studies.

Many scholars and policymakers interested in national development argue that education has been the driving force behind the rapid and unprecedented economic growth of South Korea. In terms of quantitative and qualitative development which is presented in entrance rates and PISA and TIMSS rankings, South Korean education has had many tangible achievements. South Korea's education which has been on the path of growth and development for over 70 years, is now headed toward entering university. The education system and excessive education fever focus on university entrance. Today, at the end of high school education (nearly 100 per cent of teenagers complete high school courses), 7 out of 10 students choose to go to university as their following career path. This thesis aims to understand that choice and its implications by using the Capability Approach (CA) supplemented with a Self-determination Theory (SDT) to investigate students' motivation and agency. The rationale for using the CA lies in its ability to offer an alternative analysis in which to scrutinise in a detailed manner what agency means in the choice issue. It focuses on what each individual's valuable doings and beings in making meaningful choices from a range of options in their life. SDT, integrated alongside the CA, offers a measurement of an agency that reveals whether students' exercised agency is indeed autonomous. The CA and SDT that this thesis develops will be contextualised with qualitative data collected from 81 1styear university students in South Korea in 2019. The analyses will demonstrate how students are motivated to choose and how they determine themselves as autonomous agents in choice-making. By understanding students' choices in this way, holistic explanations of students' perceptions of choice can be made, potentially suggesting future practices and policies regarding students' agency issues in South Korea's education development.

This study analyses the determinants and returns of adult learning for immigrants in Germany. Adult learning allows individuals to maintain and improve their skills for greater productivity, adapt to changing workplaces, participate actively in increasingly diverse societies and enable their social mobility. Immigrants could benefit from such adult learning given their relative disadvantaged background in comparison to natives due to, on average, lower levels of education, higher rates of unemployment and higher rates of working in labour market segments with poorer working conditions. Based on the National Education Panel Study in Germany, a rich longitudinal and nationally representative data source, the study analyses the determinants through a probit regression and the returns through fixed effects as well as random effects regressions. The analysis has been guided by the theoretical background of Human Capital Theory, Signalling Theory, Discrimination Theory and in particular Labour Market Segmentation Theory. Overall, the findings from this study suggest that the access to and returns from adult learning participation differ significantly according to the type of adult learning considered. While labour market relevant non-formal education seems to be less accessible for 1st generation immigrants (headline finding 1), it also does not seem to lead to any wage nor job satisfaction returns. In contrast, access to formal education does not appear to be an issue and seems to be particularly beneficial in the short-term for wage returns (headline finding 2), but possibly less so in the long-term for job satisfaction returns (headline finding 3). Given Germany's highly segmented labour market and the critical mediating role it plays in 1st generation immigrants being able to access and benefit from adult learning participation, a wide range of policies should be considered that go beyond simply supporting participation in adult learning and include helping 1st generation immigrants to transition from disadvantaged to advantaged labour market segments. Only through such a holistic approach can policy makers support 1st generation immigrants' process to integrate fully in the labour market and flourish in a world undergoing change driven by megatrends and COVID-19.

This thesis consists of three essays on International Macroeconomics with labor market frictions. The first chapter addresses the international co-movement of employment by introducing labor market search frictions along with real wage rigidity into a two-country economy. I show that search and matching frictions in the labor market, combined with wage rigidity account for the positive cross-country correlation of employment as well as labor market activity within a country. With search and matching frictions in the labor market, higher productivity in the home country leads home and foreign employment to rise even at the initial period before productivity shocks spill over. When demand for foreign goods is predicted to rise, foreign firms have an incentive to hire workers in advance in response to the higher expected payoff to a job because hiring takes time and costs. The second chapter examines a Ramsey-type optimal monetary policy in an open economy with a two-country dynamic general equilibrium model where search and matching frictions exist in labor markets along with the limited participation in financial markets. Monetary policy affects the decision of firms in labor markets because firms finance their wage bills with loans from domestic financial intermediaries in advance. There are two main results associated with optimal monetary policy. The long-run optimal nominal interest rate is zero suggesting deflation because the terms of trade effect on consumption is weaker by search and matching frictions in the labor market. As a result of the Ramsey optimal monetary policy, dynamics of business cycles in both countries show similar patterns in response to productivity shocks and, in turn, higher cross-country correlations of real variables. In my third chapter, I explore how a country-specific productivity shock generates deviations of the LOP in an open economy by introducing search frictions in labor and goods markets. First, I express the LOP gap by the ratio of marginal utility of aggregate search efforts across countries. Then I show that the LOP gap is expressed in terms of relative aggregate consumption across countries by examining the relationship between the aggregate search efforts and the aggregate consumption. I find that a country-specific productivity shock generates deviations of LOP through the link between aggregate consumption and aggregate productivity. If a country-specific productivity shock occurs in the home country, then households in the home country exert more search efforts to consume more goods, which entails the difference of matching probabilities of firms between the domestic and the export markets. Since aggregate productivity and marginal costs of posting vacancies are the same across markets, difference in matching probabilities between markets let firms operating in each market offer different prices. Finally, I study responses of macroeconomic variables to a positive productivity shock in the home economy. I find the two-search model delivers consistent correlations with data, in terms of crosscountry correlations of output and consumption, and a negative correlation between the terms of trade and the relative output when taking into account productivity shocks along with preference shocks.

Mutational inactivation of the chromatin remodelling protein ATRX is a recurrent molecular alteration in several cancers such as glioblastoma (GBM), which are unresponsive to current treatment regimens. In this project, I sought to develop an effective therapeutic strategy for treating cancers that have ATRX mutations. To begin with, I screened for a potential selective killing compound that targets ATRX deficiency. Initially, I explored the possibility that ATRX mediates the DNA repair pathways that are committed to repair single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) lesions, in which case such ssDNA lesions would be particularly toxic to ATRX-deficient cells. I examined multiple clinical agents whose repair depends on either the base excision repair (BER) or the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway, which include topotecan and cisplatin. In parallel, an RNAi screening based on C. elegans fertility was separately conducted to identify the genetic disruptions that specifically targets the xnp-1/ATRX-mutant worms. Each identified RNAi hit was matched to a small molecule inhibitor, which was then examined in human cancer cell lines for selective killing effect. However, none of the tested compounds led to the selective killing of ATRX deficiency in a cell line-independent manner. Further, as the main theme of this project, I investigated the synthetic lethality of ATRX deficiency with the inhibition of WEE1 kinase, a cell cycle regulator. I tested a novel WEE1 inhibitor DB-0123, which can cross the blood-brain barrier, to validate the selective killing effect of an ATRX CRISPR deleted GBM cell line coupled to the isogenic parental cell line. Moreover, I explored the underlying mechanisms of the selective killing, and found that ATRX-deficient cells accumulate stalled replication forks in response to nucleotide shortage that is incurred upon WEE1 inhibition. This leads to DNA damage, DNA double-strand breaks, and to genome instability through the action of the MRE11 exonuclease, which I propose drives excessive nucleolytic degradation of the stalled forks. Subsequent studies revealed that susceptibility to WEE1 inhibition could be induced by hydroxyurea (HU) treatment, small molecule inhibition of PARP1, or G-quadruplex induction, through a functionally analogous mechanism to ATRX deficiency. Strikingly, the concomitant addition of HU at a low dose enhanced the killing selectivity of WEE1 inhibition towards ATRX deficiency, through amplification of replication fork stalling and premature mitotic entry of S phase cells. It is anticipated that this comprehensive approach into analysing the potential cell susceptibility features that can arise from the loss of ATRX function will provide a basis for future studies into the biological functions of ATRX. Moreover, the findings presented here support the small molecule inhibition of WEE1 as a potentially effective therapeutic approach for treating brain and other cancers with ATRX mutations. This study proposes an evidence-based mechanistic model for the WEE1-ATRX selective killing and offers important biochemical indications for devising WEE1 inhibition-based combination therapies against ATRX-mutant cancers.

Foreign film research presents a unique situation in which the researcher is placed in the role of a multimodal translator, finding themselves responsible for interpreting multifaceted mean-ings using their own semiotic repertoire (Kiaer and Kim, 2021a; 2021b). Some aspects of film-ic discourse are inevitably going to be untranslatable, resulting in the risk of inferences being naturalised and the analysis ultimately ineffective in its goals (Willemen, 2006., Higson, 2000). Although this is an issue that effects even closely situated languages and cultures (Venuti, 2009), it is severe between those with vast disparities, as between Korean and English (Kiaer, 2020; 2019; 2017). In foreign film studies, a lack of cultural and linguistic knowledge and the cross-cultural gap this presents is often identified as a short-coming (e.g., Matron, 2010., and Kaplan, 1993), and with much of textual film research being conducted in Europe, many textual frameworks are Eurocentric too (Kiaer, 2017., Bhabha, 1994). This means that not only are cross-cultural gaps not addressed by Western researchers, but that non-European films aren't being analysed in the context of their own culture and language to begin with. The aim of this thesis is to develop a logical framework for the textual analysis of South Korean film (K-film), that provides a means for Anglophone (Western) researchers to interpret K- filmic discourse within its own cultural and linguistic context. This will be achieved by imple-menting and developing Kiaer and Kim's (2021a) framework for identifying common forms of Korean socio-pragmatic expression, and their meaning potentials in K-films (a set of Korean 'socio-pragmatic primitives'), which often create this cross-cultural gap (Kiaer, 2017; 2019; 2020), within the framework of multimodal film discourse analysis 'Segmented Film Discourse Representation Structures' (SFDRS) (Wildfeuer, 2014); a combination which is proposed as a potentially significant advance in the analysis of K-films (Kim and Kiaer, 2021).

Ship manoeuvrability is closely related to the safety of ship operation in a real seaway; therefore, predicting a ship's manoeuvring performance is of great importance. However, an accurate prediction of ship manoeuvrability in a real seaway is one of the most challenging problems in ship hydrodynamics, attributed to the complexity of the flow arising from the hydrodynamic interactions between the hull, propeller, rudder, and external disturbances during manoeuvres. To date, theoretical methods have been widely used for the prediction of ship manoeuvring behaviours in real sea states. These approaches rely on assumptions from the potential flow theory. However, the reliability of the potential flow theory is limited due to the lack of physics associated with viscous and turbulent effects and the free surface resolution, which are significant for manoeuvring problems. Hence, such effects which are ignored in the potential flow theory should be incorporated in the numerical codes. In light of this, Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approaches are very attractive alternatives to the theoretical methods since they are capable of directly accounting for viscous effects in their calculations. Free-running Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are progressively gaining popularity for manoeuvring prediction since they are capable of incorporating viscous and turbulent effects being important on ship manoeuvring as well as do not use any consumables (as opposed to experiments). However, due to its brevity, there are no definite guidelines and recommendations regarding the numerical setup of the free-running CFD simulation in different environmental conditions such as waves, shallow waters, and currents. Given this, in this thesis, the general framework is proposed for the analysis of ship manoeuvrability, course-keeping control, and seakeeping using the unsteady RANS computation coupled with the equations of rigid body motion with full six degrees of freedom (6DOF), with a particular focus on the numerical modelling for a free-running CFD model. Ships are exposed to various environmental loads such as waves, wind, and currents during their operations at sea. Such external disturbances can lead to substantial changes in the behaviour of a ship during manoeuvring when compared to its inherent behaviour in calm water. Nevertheless, to date, the vast majority of studies in the field of ship manoeuvrability have been devoted to analysing the inherent manoeuvrability of a ship in calm water in conformity with the recommendation of ITTC. Their findings are not able to provide general observations on the relationship between external disturbances and manoeuvring behaviours. This thesis, therefore, aims to systematically carry out hydrodynamic analyses of a ship's manoeuvring performance in different environmental conditions (including deep unrestricted water, regular waves, irregular waves, shallow water, and ocean currents) in order to provide an in-depth understanding of a ship's manoeuvrability for navigational safety at sea. Firstly, a literature review of previous publications on all aspects of ship manoeuvrability is performed. The literature survey presents an overview of current standards and guidelines regarding the assessment of ship manoeuvrability, and then outlines a classification of the methods widely applied to manoeuvring problems. The research gaps detected during the literature review are also listed, which are addressed in detail in this PhD. thesis. Following this, free-running CFD models are developed for the prediction of the ship's manoeuvring performance by means of an unsteady RANS solver. These models are validated against the available experimental results from a free-running test. The numerical results are found to be in good agreement with available experimental data, which demonstrates that the numerical approach proposed in the present thesis is reliable in estimating ship manoeuvrability in various environmental conditions. Afterwards, a series of free-running CFD simulations are carried out to analyse the manoeuvrability of the ship characterised by a traditional single rudder / single propeller configuration in different environmental conditions. It is revealed that the environmental conditions applied in this thesis have a strong effect on the manoeuvring performance of the ship, including the hydrodynamic loads, kinematic parameters, turning indices, and trajectories through comparative analyses. Finally, the main results obtained from each chapter of this thesis are summarised and discussed, and recommendations for future work are made. It is highly believed that the general framework presented in this thesis could encourage academic researchers to participate in research on manoeuvring problems by performing free-running CFD simulations without much difficulty. It is also expected that the numerical results drawn from the hydrodynamic analyses in this thesis will provide navigators with a deeper insight into the ship manoeuvrability in real sea states as well as support them in proper decision-making for ship handling actions to avoid collision. In addition to this, the high-fidelity CFD model developed in this thesis can easily be combined with a path following algorithm for maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS), providing a valuable contribution to enhancing the safety of autonomous marine navigation.

Additive manufacturing (AM) processes produce components by adding material in a layer-by-layer fashion. This allows new types of geometries to be feasible, particularly lattice structures. Although lattices are possible to additively manufacture, the modelling capabilities and customisation is greatly limited by the current conventional AM process flow due to their complex topologies. Within the process flow, there are several stages that use mesh-based modelling posing a costly trade-off between computational memory limits and geometric accuracy. Meshless implicit-based modelling overcomes the bottlenecks arising from mesh-based issues. This approach is ideal for a sub-class of lattices called triply-periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) that are defined by a single implicit function. These lattices are gaining popularity in industries and the AM community due to their high surface-area-to-volume ratio, infinitely smooth, and non-self intersecting properties. These properties highlight the challenges presented by conventional mesh-based modelling, promoting a need for an alternative implicit-based modelling approach. The vision in this thesis is to expand design capabilities and customisation of AM lattice structures, specifically focussing on TPMS, without using mesh-based modelling. The approach taken in this thesis is to customise TPMS by altering the implicit functions to design specification and then directly slicing the manipulated functions as infill. As is, TPMS implicit functions define infinitely thin lattices that are not feasible to manufacture. The functions can be manipulated to create lattice structures, however, the resulting geometry from the manipulated functions was not intuitive. As such the first part of this research was to characterise the resulting geometric properties from manipulating the implicit functions. Once characterised, such that the TPMS can be customised to a certain geometric specification, this can be used in a direct slicing process flow to fabricate customised TPMS structures. The next step was to create an algorithm to generate toolpaths for an AM machine using manipulated TPMS functions. From this, printed TPMS structures could be related using experimental methods to link engineering properties to the geometric properties. This link enables designers to create lattices in a more purposeful way without the need to use CAD. Resulting from this research, this thesis presents the following novel research contributions. Firstly, a set of numerical methods were established to calculate the volume fraction, surface area, and minimum thickness of manipulated TPMS structures to a known accuracy tolerance. Next by using this set, empirical geometric relationships between the manipulated implicit functions and the geometric properties were established. Finally, a method was developed to AM TPMS structures with tunable geometric or mechanical properties without using mesh-based methods. The developments achieved in this thesis promote the use of implicit-based modelling and TPMS structures in AM.

Green infrastructure has grown among other 'nature-based urbanism' concepts which aim to tackle wide-ranging challenges with climate change at the centre of their agenda, while stimulating environmental and social benefits that can be provided by ecosystems. Divergent conceptualisations of green infrastructure by scholars and practitioners reveal confusion over its implementation, including the processes through which its functions are prioritised. A critical approach towards the production of urban natures stresses that green infrastructure does not intrinsically result in sustainable and just outcomes. Deconstructing narratives around the conceptualisation, planning and implementation of green infrastructure is thus necessary. The thesis adopts an interdisciplinary approach to examine the plural values articulated through the practice of linear park strategies in São Paulo in Brazil. It explores the way linear park projects have emerged in the city over the past decades for the restoration of river and streams' health, through integration into wider urban strategies involving the development of sanitation and housing plans, among others. Drawing from empirical evidence collected through a mixed methods approach, the research exposes conflicts of meanings, representations and identity among different actors affected by these projects. A focus on discursive constructions establishes a relation between the articulation of values by decision-makers and residents' perceptions. Contrasts are established between project (non-)performance, local experiences and everyday practices. An environmental justice and urban political ecology lens reveals how the (re)production of environmental injustices is underpinned by driving forces at global, city and neighbourhood levels. The conceptualisation of 'the edge' helps highlight dialectic relationships that produce conflicting dynamics between the human and non-human in urban areas qualified as 'informal'. Findings highlight why and how socio-environmental injustices emerging from green infrastructure in favelas paradoxically relate to the presence of infrastructure or its absence, thus highlighting the need to further democratise the practice of nature-based interventions.

Current international guidelines and the associated "chain of survival" emphasise the recognition of critically unwell patients in the community followed by an efficient response in the hope of preventing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, which occurs when the heart stops beating suddenly. This thesis investigates how Emergency Medical (ambulance) Services can improve their recognition and response to patients who are at imminent risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest to reduce mortality and improve outcomes. Four distinct studies were completed: a)Systematic mixed studies review; b)Retrospective observational study of Emergency Medical Services call triage and the outcome of patients at imminent risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest;c)Conversation analysis of the Emergency Medical Services call;d)Interviews with Emergency Operations Centre staff. This patient group is not well studied in the existing literature, with current research focusing on the recognition and response to individuals who have already suffered a cardiac arrest, even though people at imminent risk have a potentially better chance of survival. Emergency Medical Dispatcher management of the Emergency Medical Services call is critical in the identification of these high-risk patients. Data analysis showed that Emergency Medical Services respond less urgently to patients at imminent risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in comparison to patients already in cardiac arrest at the time of the call, with a negative impact on patient outcomes. The Emergency Medical Services interaction can be inefficient, leading to lost information. Emergency Medical Dispatchers require enhanced education and clinical support, and opportunities to monitor deteriorating patients. Members of the public would benefit from education regarding the structure and process of the Emergency Medical Services call. This thesis describes distinct areas where improvements can be made, and further research undertaken, in the recognition and response to patients in the community who are at imminent risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Background: Greater understanding of NQNs' perceptions of their pre-registration and transition experiences, and influences on their perceptions can inform pre-registration curricula and preceptorship programmes to support a positive transition to qualified practice. Aims: To explore how NQNs from one English Higher Education Institute (HEI) perceived practice readiness and professional identity, on entry to the workforce. Study Design: A qualitative exploratory research design. Methods: An inductive semi-structured interview approach with a purposive sample of 20 NQNs. Data was collected within the first four months of qualified practice. Data analysis was completed using a thematic approach. Results: Some NQNs continued to find transition to qualified practice difficult, with support being a key factor. Changes to personal habitus (Bourdieu, 1992) were affected by demographic and generational differences (HEE, 2015). Protection from the multifaceted workload of the qualified role led to anxiety and a lack of confidence in managing their responsibilities on qualification. Where workplace transition support was not available to NQNs, either through preceptorship programmes or more informal colleague support, NQNs could not align their habitus and expectations with the qualified role and were looking for alternative nursing employment. Conclusions: Greater focus is needed within the pre-registration curriculum to develop students' understanding of changing capital and habitus, with consideration of life experiences and generational needs. Structured opportunities to develop resilience and identify areas of challenge to habitus, will support students' preparation for qualified practice. HEIs should liaise with clinical colleagues around individual student needs with development plans spanning theoretical and practice elements of the programme. These plans should inform bespoke preceptorship programmes developed through liaison between the HEI and the employer. Greater recognition of CPD and support needs of staff in the workplace, and increased managerial oversight of preceptorship provision, can enhance effective support for the NQN during their transition.

Metal matrix composites (MMCs) are composed of matrix, the parent material, and reinforcements that provide enhanced properties to individual components. Out of various MMCs, SiC particle reinforced aluminium (SiCp/Al) composite has outstanding mechanical properties such as high strength-to-weight ratio, stiffness, excellent wear resistance, ease of production and good corrosion resistance, hence, defined as an aerospace-grade. However, the existence of hard particulate SiC particles leads to machinability issues with conventional machining (CM) techniques. Conventional turning (CT) of SiCp/Al composite is typically characterised by low cutting parameters, thus, low material removal rates during the machining process. A hybrid machining process known as ultrasonically assisted turning (UAT) was introduced in the past to machining metals or alloys, in which, high-power, high-frequency vibration is superimposed on the cutting tool during the conventional machining process. This renowned machining technique results in a decrease in average cutting forces with surface quality improvement for modern alloys. Another hybrid machining process known as laser-assisted turning (LAT) was also introduced to machining metals and alloys, which utilises localised thermal softening before the cutting tool resulting in cutting force reduction at the cutting zone. This technique results in an improved material removal rate (MRR) with less tool damage. In this work, a new machining paradigm, called hybrid-hybrid assisted turning (laser-ultrasonic assisted turning, LUAT) is introduced for the processing of three types (217XG, 225XF and 225XE) of SiCp/AA2124 composites. In this technique, UAT is combined with the laser-assisted technique to gain combined advantages for machining metal matrix composite. To experiment, suitable ultrasonic transducers were designed and analysed first through FE simulation followed by experimental analysis on manufactured prototypes. Then, a selected transducer and laser-optic system were installed on a compact commercial lathe. Before the machining experiment, mechanical and thermal properties of the workpieces were analysed, with studies on the mechanism and characterisation of SiCp/Al composite with ultrasonic vibration during loading and heat-affected zone (HAZ) analysis. Acoustic softening was observed in all SiCp/Al workpieces during the uniaxial compression test with the main vibration applied in the loading direction, thus, the cutting force reduction mechanism was verified. SEM, EDX, micro-hardness, and FE numerical studies were performed in the HAZ to get an insight into the size of HAZ and metallurgical behaviour during laser exposure. It is found that HAZ showed hardened oxide and intermetallic phases that will adversely affect the cutting forces after cooled down. Moreover, it is numerically verified that thermal conduction decreases drastically by particle inclusions, faster conduction towards the particles with an area more parallel to the applied heated surface. Furthermore, reduction of Si element was observed in HAZ and the melt pool, verifying the particle sedimentation, if melting is present. UAT of the studied composites was analysed experimentally and numerically to demonstrate its advantages in terms of cutting forces reduction over various cutting conditions with the carbide tool. However, the evident surface roughness improvement was only visible with composite with the least particle content (217XG). LUAT studies follow with optimisation process through numerous trials that showed approximately 40% cutting force reduction compared to CT using the carbide tool. Surface integrity and roughness improvement were also minimal due to the high tool wear rate in CT, especially in the radial direction. LUAT performed with the PCD tool showed improvement in both cutting forces and surface roughness, showing improvement by an increase of laser power, although cutting forces were higher than that for LAT. It is mainly because the higher impact of ultrasonic vibration neglected the hardened phase but only increased the temperature at the cutting zone. 2D homogenous elastoplastic thermomechanically coupled FE models for the orthogonal turning process were developed for CT and UAT, followed by a 3D homogeneous FE model for the oblique turning process. The temperature profile was observed with moving localised surface heat by power and distance from the laser spot and the tool to predict the temperature of the workpiece nearest to the cutting zone. It is found that due to high thermal conductivity, the heat is quickly dissipated, leaving hardened oxide and intermetallic phases before the cutting tool. The LUAT was predicted in the model at various temperatures of the workpiece in terms of cutting forces. Therefore, it is not always suitable to use developed hybrid-hybrid turning for machining SiCp/Al composite, however, if optimised, it is beneficial in terms of providing thermal softening, expansion of feed grooves, and minimising workpiece damage from particles since particle sedimentation and hardened phases inhibit particle rolling or scratching on the tool-workpiece interface. A preferred setup for the SiCp/AA2124 composite for the used cutting parameter (V_c=30 m/min, f=0.14 mm/rev and a_p=0.15 mm) is to paint the surface in black after surface roughening to enhance absorptivity up to at least 0.3 and use the laser spot size in between 0.3 to 0.7 mm. The preferred energy density for the three workpieces: 217XG (SiC: <0.3 µm, 17 vol%), 225XF (SiC: <0.7 µm, 25 vol%) and 225XE (SiC: < 3 µm, 25 vol%), is 7.5, 6.7 and 8.2 kW/mm2, respectively.

The proliferation of online reviews has accelerated research on opinion mining, where the ultimate goal is to glean information from reviews which help users make decisions more efficiently. While opinion mining has assumed several facets in the literature (e.g., sentiment analysis, aspect extraction, etc.), opinion summarization, or the task of automatically creating a textual summary of opinions found in multiple reviews, aims to help users access content and improves their decision making. This thesis focuses on different methods to generate opinion summaries given multiple reviews about a target entity (e.g., a product or service). The task is challenging due to the absence of large-scale datasets for supervised training, which is paramount to the recent success of neural-based systems. In this thesis, we propose several methods to synthesize these datasets, thereby making supervised training for opinion summarization feasible. Firstly, we introduce a two-step process that creates synthetic datasets for opinion summarization. Given a corpus of reviews, we first sample a review and pretend it is a (pseudo-)summary. Then, we procure a list of reviews to pair with the summary. We obtain these reviews by generating noisy versions of the summary. We propose a summarization model which learns to denoise the input reviews and generate the summary, motivated by how humans write opinion summaries by removing divergent opinions from reviews. Extensive evaluation shows that our model brings substantial improvements over unsupervised abstractive and extractive baselines. To further reflect the diversity of opinions in naturally-occurring reviews, we incorporate content planning during synthetic dataset creation. For each pseudo-summary sampled from the corpus, we automatically induce its content plan in the form of aspect and sentiment distributions. We then sample reviews from the corpus using Dirichlet distributions parameterized by the content plan, and controlling the variance accordingly. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms competitive models in generating opinion summaries that capture opinion consensus. In opinion summarization, the notion of salience in reviews largely depends on user interest, therefore a generic summary may not satisfy the needs of all users, limiting their ability to make decisions. Therefore, we extend opinion summarization to generating aspect-controllable summaries. Using a synthetic training dataset enriched with aspect controllers of different granularity, we fine-tune a pre-trained language model which allows the creation of generic and aspect-specific summaries by modifying aspect controllers during inference. Experiments show that our model achieves state of the art and is able to generate personalized summaries.

There is a clear sense that eschatology has been absent, lacking, and neglected in the present Korean church and that this absence was caused by the shihanbu eschatology that appeared in 1992. But I will argue during this dissertation that shihanbu eschatology does not fully explain the absence. Rather, complex historical events have caused eschatology to evolve in the Korean church from its source in Western theology (from American missionaries). That is, the situation in Korea has affected how people perceive the end in the light of current conditions. In this research, I contend that eschatological studies have to be more than theological; they need to consider the historical context, and the discussion of eschatology cannot be limited to millennialism; rather, it needs to consider any eschatology's interaction with the historical context. Furthermore, in Korea, eschatology has interacted with different historical settings and different theological thoughts, and this interaction has ultimately altered the way people have thought about eschatology. There are three objectives to this research. The first is to understand the eschatology of the Korean church after 1945, especially the Hapdong presbyterian denomination, in the light of history, which has affected Korean Christians' understanding of eschatology. The second is to examine the underlying theology, imported or domestic, which could have affected the understanding of eschatology and how the delay in the second coming of Christ has changed Korean churches' premillennial faith, which emphasized the imminent return of Christ, and caused them to neglect the concept of the coming of the kingdom in general today. The third is to assess how this neglect has affected the general life of the Korean church.

Education in South Korean (hereafter Korean) schools has changed in response to the emergence of a knowledge-oriented society and technology-intensive environment; more attention is now being given to how students learn and construct knowledge with each other within a social process incorporating digital technologies and tools. This study investigated how a knowledge-creation-oriented activity involving collaborative group work on the development of digital video clips (knowledge objects) played out in two Korean secondary schools. Group and teacher-student interaction were explored via a multi-level approach linking the micro-interactional level in the classroom with macro-level sociocultural and institutional factors.

This study focuses on the concept of labour market exclusion (LME) with multidimensional, relative, and dynamic features in order to embrace complex and multiple disadvantageous trajectories that Korean women experience in the labour market over their life course. By tracing individuals over two decades using the Korean Labour and Income Panel Study surveyed from 1998 to 2018, this study attempts to reveal different trajectories of LME on the domains of unstable employment, insecure pay, and a lack of employment benefits. The research entailed undertaking a sequence analysis to uncover different patterns of female labour market exclusion; an index construction to examine degrees of multiple forms of exclusion; and logistic regression analysis to explore factors associated with mothers' experience of exclusionary trajectories. The findings show that Korean women face multiple trajectories of labour market exclusion, including: recurrent spells of unemployment and/or non-standard employment, low-pay and no-pay cycles, and employment trajectories with a lack of maternity/parental leave, public pension, or employment insurance. In addition, it was confirmed that two or more forms of these trajectories occurred at the same time, and a significant number of Korean women were exposed to overlapping exclusion. Women who experienced the life events of marriage or childbirth were more likely to experience not only each trajectory of exclusion but also higher levels of exclusion. Furthermore, Korean mothers experienced exclusionary trajectories, leaving the labour market without taking maternity/parental leave or returning to work after a career break following childbirth. These trajectories were associated with the job characteristics of non-standard employment or the availability of leave before childbirth, and the trajectories increased the risk of low pay after childbirth. Based on these findings, this thesis suggested that policies to improve insecure work conditions, as well as the work-life balance across the life course for Korean women, should be expanded. Specifically, it is necessary to increase accessibility to employment insurance and maternity/parental leave for female workers during the childbearing period; and shorter working hours and flexible working need to be established so that women can achieve a work¬-family balance during child-rearing periods.