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The New Labour government’s (1997-2010) policy of personalised learning was announced as an idea ‘exciting’ the profession and promising ‘radical implications’ for the shape of education in England. The policy attracted much debate and criticism and its enactment is a site worthy of research. This study makes a contribution to knowledge through researching the rarely heard stories of young people in this policy enactment. It makes a further contribution to policy scholarship through the interplay of the data from school practices and moral philosophy drawn from Alasdair MacIntyre.Qualitative interviews and focus group activities were conducted with young people in three different secondary schools in order to understand their stories of personalised learning some two years into New Labour’s third term of government. To understand more of the context for the stories of the young people, some strategic actors in policy dissemination were interviewed, as were the headteachers of the three schools.Personalised learning promised to engage the voice of the learner in learning practices. The research finds a young peoples’ story that is consistently one of a mute and invisible identity within the schools. An argument is presented that the purposes of schools ought to be judged on standards of excellence definitive of, and extended by, a concept of virtues. A distinction is made between effectiveness in producing exam results and a richer sense of excellence in education practice. It is argued that virtues that define standards of excellence at the institutional level of practice can enrich and prefigure wider concepts of justice than are contained in policy. Young peoples’ stories in this research indicate that, contrary to policy ideals, they often perceived unfairness and arbitrariness in their school experiences. Personalised learning needs to be set within the narrative of the personalisation of public services: a reforming rubric, employing the motif of the citizen-consumer as a proposition about social justice and modernisation. New Labour’s ideology and models of governance are explored and related to the testimony of headteachers to understand more about the young peoples’ perceptions. Literatures are drawn upon to place personalisation in a historical context, linking it to moral orders of contemporary social imaginaries. New Labour made a case for personalised learning as furthering the cause of social justice and is thus a policy in need of ethical examination. Following MacIntyre, it is argued that modernity has left few moral resources by which to evaluate the personal, but the experiences of young people suggested that a richer moral agency is glimpsed within their stories of schooling. The social practice at the level of schools is thus critical but requires policy to enable ethical spaces for schools to re-invigorate their purposes. I argue that in the light of some critical fault lines, such as neoliberalism and a reconfiguration of tiers of local governance, personalisation as a ‘modernising’ policy proposition could do little to extend the goods of schooling beyond some narrow conceptions of effectiveness.

Historically nitric oxide (NO) was viewed as playing a purely paracrine role in the vasculature, acting within the vicinity of its release. Today an endocrine role of NO metabolites is widely accepted, although the species accounting for the vascular regulatory function still remains in contention. The original aim of this thesis was to analyse the two main NO metabolite hypotheses (i.e., SNO-Hb and nitrite hypotheses) to provide a more comprehensive understanding of their potential significance in the human circulation. Initially this involved developing methods capable of measuring baseline levels of NO metabolites in human blood. During this work a major confounding factor was identified influencing the measurement of NO attached to red blood cells/haemoglobin. A means was developed to overcome this via the modification an assay reagent, which was used along with several other methods to analyse NO metabolites in human blood. Ultimately however, levels of SNO-Hb at baseline were on the border of methodological sensitivity, although haemoglobin-bound NO was distinguishable. Consequently my work focused on the potential of nitrite versus haemoglobin-bound NO per se to act as endocrine NO metabolites in the human vasculature. Nitrite metabolism in human whole blood was analysed whilst the vasodilatory properties of nitrite were investigated in relation to the relaxation response observed from native red blood cells under hypoxic conditions. Finally for the first time ever NO metabolites were measured across the coronary and pulmonary vascular beds in the human circulation to address their potential to regulate vascular tone at baseline and under conditions of increased oxygen demand.

This thesis is a survey of the construction of modernism. It traces the usage of the term from 1907 to 1983. The aim throughout has been to identify the evolving application of this word in order to account for its subsequent acceptance as the principal means of discussing the literary movement that appeared in the early part of the twentieth century. Particular attention has been given to the debates concerning 'modernity', 'the modern' and 'modernism', at the point that these key concepts were entering the intellectual and artistic arena. These debates have been primarily located in the little magazines of this period, with emphasis placed on the years 1914-1948. These publications were responsible for the establishment of many of the major literary figures of the twentieth century before their work was recognised by a wider audience and achieved pubic acclaim and academic endorsement. These magazines played a crucial role in the discussion of ideas necessary to the formation of the modern movement, and therefore provide a store of important exchanges in the creation of modernism. Many of the now familiar opinions regarding modernism were first formulated in this period of experimentation. This study explores these issues in relation to the wide range of social and intellectual factors that were part of the emergence of modern society in the early part of the twentieth century. There is focus on the relationship between the avant-garde and the com m unity at large, highlighting the particular problems encountered by the modern poet in establishing contact with a 'knowable' totality of experience shared with an audience, an audience becoming increasingly specialised and fragmented. The investigation concludes by giving emphasis to the way that the construction of modernism has been informed by the parallel debate in the Christian Church concerning the encroachm ent of modern scientific discoveries. The survey comes to the conclusion that 'm odernism ' represents a diverse, eosmopolitan and hybrid set of literary practices that record the fragmentation of the social environment whilst seeking a vision beyond the subjective.

Using a case-study methodology, this thesis enquires into the development of value-added from policy to classroom practice in a comprehensive school in the North of England. The study is unique in that it examines the work of teachers in relation to policy with a special focus on the extent to which value-added measures can be used to inform an understanding of what is going on at classroom level. It not only links quantitative and qualitative research paradigms, but does so at a level that has received relatively little attention and at a dramatic juncture in the history of teachers' professional lives. A literature survey shows that although originally conceived as a research tool, value-added was subsequently 'adopted' by secondary schools principally in response to government-imposed 'league tables'. A national value-added scheme has yet to be developed but, in a shift of policy, the government now promotes the use of value-added measures in the new Threshold Assessments of teachers. Value-added data for core subjects for seven years have been analysed at class level. Pupils in 'top' sets on average obtain positive residuals whilst in 'bottom' sets they are mostly negative. It is shown that this is partly a statistical artefact and therefore not a true reflection of teacher effectiveness. However, when teachers are interviewed they frequently reveal positive attitudes towards upper sets and the opposite with the lower ones. When value-added scores are considered alongside teacher interview data there are cases where residuals might be indicative of teacher performance but there are no universal patterns. Although there are some indications that pedagogical practice and teachers' backgrounds are linked with the performance of classes, it is concluded that the use of value-added data in the Threshold Assessment of teachers is flawed. Suggestions are made for further research including the use of value-added measures at classroom level.

The glycosylation features of CSF oligoclonal IgG, and possible changes in N-glycans of CSF IgG in multiple sclerosis (MS) were studied. After isoelectric focusing (IEF) of CSF, bands were detected using biotinylated lectins and avidin-horseradish peroxidase. Concanavalin A (Con A) binding showed that mannose exists throughout the pH range of oligoclonal IgG. Sambucus nigra antigen (SNA) bound acidic and neutral oligoclonal IgG only, suggesting that alkaline oligoclonal IgG is deficient in sialic acid. Deglycosylation of CSF IgG using peptide-N-glycosidase F suggested that the range of isoelectric points of oligoclonal IgG bands is not due to carbohydrate differences alone. Lectin immunoassays, whereby protein A purified IgG was captured by anti-IgG coated tubes and probed using a range of biotinylated lectins, were used to compare 13 CSF samples from MS patients with 14 control samples. With Con A binding, a significantly higher mean and larger variance was found for the MS group (t-test: P < 0.05). Con A binding correlated with CSF [IgG]/[total protein]% (r=0.390; P=0.0443). Using HPLC to separate oligosaccharides released from IgG by hydrazinolysis and labelled with 2-aminobenzamide, glycans were determined in 7 CSF samples with oligoclonal IgG, and 6 CSF samples without. The ratio of the peak for biantennary fucosylated agalactosyl glycans to total monogalactosylated glycan peaks was lower for the oligoclonal IgG samples (t-test: P=0.0141). The overall results suggested that glycosylation changes occur in CSF IgG in MS, and that oligoclonal IgG contains less sialic acid but more galactose than polyclonal IgG.