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This synoptic commentary explores the challenge of economic sustainability for web-indigenous journalism in the long tail. The work's most general claim is that drawing attention to workable revenues is illuminating because without money, news media can't make journalism. My work offers a unique panorama, spanning a pivotal decade of emergent economic practice, of sites in multiple environments at the edge of media systems, often operating in commercially weak niches: start-ups globally, hyperlocals in Europe, and those in politically pressured environments or in exile. Drawing from this internationally rich set of empirical data, the contribution to new knowledge is to define, detail and categorise diversified revenues. Such a springboard allows investigation into the evolving nexus of economic practice and advances the understanding of economic sustainability. A set longterm revenue model is fictitious, and many are still fragile. A small degree of revenue diversification is effective, but alone does not result in sustainability. Advertising dominates and deviation to other income is done through experimentation. Unlike corporate legacy and mainstream media, my work details how web indigenes carve out sustainability through a process of niche adaptation, resulting in heterogeneous revenue models. The synoptic commentary defends the pragmatist approach as a compelling lens through which to explore practice-led research, adding methodological renewal through multiple ways of coming to know. I have contributed by knitting together different practices, frameworks and theories at multiple levels of scale and inquiry, to uncover new knowledge in the media management landscape. These findings provide fresh insights to scholars and practitioners seeking a route-map for sustainable journalism in the long tail.

Background: The heel is a particularly high-risk and problematic area for pressure ulcers (PU) to develop. The effectiveness of devices and the factors that lead to their use for the prevention of heel PUs is poorly understood. Aims: 1. To assess the effectiveness of devices used for the prevention of heel PUs. 2. Explore what factors influence the implementation, and how heel-specific devices are used (or not used) in secondary care. Methods: To address aim 1: Systematic review of the evidence of effectiveness for devices in the prevention of heel PU. Aim 2: Realist evaluation, including Phase 1 - theory elicitation through stakeholder interviews with Tissue Viability Nurse Specialists (TVNS) from across the UK and Phase 2 - testing theories using ethnography in three orthopaedic wards in the North of England. Results: Systematic review: identified 29 trials with fifteen comparisons and eight meta-analyses conducted. Offloading devices were found to be effective in the prevention of ≥Category 1 and ≥Category 2 heel PUs when compared to standard care, but this is based on low to moderate quality evidence and intervention compliance was found to be an issue. Realist evaluation Phase 1: Interviews with eight TVNS elicited thirteen candidate theories into three program theories, regarding the proactive and reactive use of offloading devices, along with patient factors that influenced their use. Phase 2: Ethnography found that heel-specific devices are used in practice. Leadership, protocols, identification of high-risk patient groups, and access to devices influenced staff knowledge but did not necessarily increase device use. Conclusion: Exploring the perceptions and realities of how offloading and heel-specific devices are used in practice can not only influence their use, but also inform how future device trials are designed and conducted to improve protocol compliance and reduce withdrawals and attritions.

Gaming is an interactive medium that has much in common with education. Both games and good classroom practice are learning environments, with overall objectives, scaffolded progression, checks along the way, and regular, purposeful feedback. Games also provide a space to practice complex skills such as collaboration, or managing a system. These skills are rarely directly assessed in compulsory education because they are difficult to evidence efficiently. Games are fun learning environments for many children, and they could provide a means to resolve this problem. However, the structure of gaming data is not aligned to many assessment analysis methods. Gaming data is conditionally dependent, there are continuous variables as well as categorical and dichotomous responses, there is often more than one possible proxy for ability, and there are very large amounts of data missing. Aspects that assessors traditionally force to be constants, such as the number of attempts or the response time, become variables in games, and it is important to know their limitations and worth as variables. This interdisciplinary study looks at these problems in scoring performance in games. It uses a quantitative methodology, with a case study secondary data set from MangaHigh. MangaHigh is a website with a range of dynamic maths games for primary and secondary aged learners, and over a million children were using the site at the time of data extraction. Using a sample data set, chosen by criterion sampling, the impact of missing data, response times and additional attempts was explored through insights and methods from Item Response Theory (IRT) and other quantitative analysis techniques. Demographic data also helped to contextualize the findings and inform decision-making. In the analysis, choice of game mechanics were found to have an impact on the extent and nature of missing data, which was found to have a complex relationship with the target variable, ability. The choice of measure, such as mean, recency-weighted mean, high score or most recent score was found to be central to determining the grade. Several issues when the child competed against a human or bot competitor or collaborator were identified. Response time functioned as a context variable to define valid attempts, helping to identify non-targeted behaviours such as browsing, conceding or wandering off. As gamers have suggested, response time appeared to also function as a proxy for ability, but there does not seem to be a linear relationship between ability and time. Instead, 'speed' seems to be the proxy, and this was found to be a function of the response time, the child, the game and also the band score and game mechanics. Outside of an optimal range, short response times could act as a confounding variable. There was evidence that some stability of performance may also act a proxy of ability. Finally, adding a familiarity weighting when a child comes back for a second attempt proved problematic, but a novelty weighting for early attempts can work. Having said that, although games became easier with each subsequent attempt, evidence from the first attempt playing appears unreliable, and the data has features that are characteristic of guessing behaviour. Although a large number of problems were identified, this analysis also found some clear ways forward to adjust the assessment and games design, and the collection of data to make scores from games more meaningful and reduce bias in the scoring process. On the basis of this study, there are many design choices that could improve or deteriorate the quality of data gathered in gaming environments.

Nurse academics have a key role in supporting the Clinical Practice Environment (CPE) where student nurses undertake 50% of their course. Much of the previous literature regarding nurse academics contributions to the CPE has appeared to be quite negative and they have appeared stuck in a no-man's-land between the HEI and the CPE. Alongside this, the literature indicates that nurse academic identities are complex, fluid and situational. Nurse academic identities appear to have been shaped by a culture of subservience learnt from practice and reinforced by wider society. Appreciative Inquiry was used to explore new perspectives framed in being 'possibility centred' rather than 'problem centred' to elicit new understandings. The aim of the study was to develop practice guidance through exploring the identities of nurse academics and their contribution to the CPE. Primary data was collected from nurse academics (N=10) and nurses in practice (N=6) using a range of data collection methods, which included individual semi-structured interviews, focus groups and theme board technique. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. Findings indicated that nurse academic identities are derived from CPE engagement, where positive relationships with practice and the ability to draw on their clinical expertise 'anchor' nurse academics identities. Nurse academics primarily identified themselves as nurses and were comfortable with that. Nurse academics and nurses in practice identify positively where nurse academic role and practice contributions are harmonised. Nurse academics independence from the CPE was perceived as positive in terms giving advice and guidance to students and nurses in practice. Nurses in practice see education as an intrinsic element of being a nurse and therefore feel affiliated to the HEI and built positive relationships with nurse academics. Nurse academics had positive identities within the Higher Education Institution (HEI) and CPE, viewing themselves as 'complex hybrids'. Findings also indicated contested areas, which included logistical constraints, competing demands and 'Queen Mother' visits to practice (lacking purpose), impacted on nurse academics contribution to the CPE. There was a level of dissonance from nurse academics regarding how 'practice' was defined, which influenced perceived contributions to the CPE. This research presents a differing perspective on nurse academic identities, which shows that they are established in the HEI setting and can make meaningful contributions to the CPE using their academic repertoire. Recommendations include that senior managers in HEI's and the CPE should work more closely to retain the highly prized intersection with the CPE. Nurse academics themselves need to confidently assert opportunities to utilise their clinical, educational and research skills explicitly through career planning and should support clinical areas that draw on their expertise.

The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is the largest fish in the world, and while whale sharks are popular, charismatic megafauna supporting a major tourist industry, the global whale shark population has decreased by >50% in the past decade. Whale sharks are now listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Effective conservation of whale sharks depends on accurate and reliable information describing their trophic and spatial ecology. Whale sharks are found in predictable aggregations in certain coastal and island areas in the tropics and subtropics, presumably for feeding. 'Whale shark season' typically lasts for a short period at each site, and is often associated with an ephemeral food source, with individual sharks present for varying lengths of time. Conservation assessment of whale sharks through their entire range is difficult due to limited knowledge of their behaviour following dispersal from these coastal aggregation sites, as well as the poor understanding of their movements and geographical connectivity on a timeframe that is relevant to management. Whale sharks are relatively rare, oceanic, pelagic animals. The difficulty of observing the behaviour of mobile animals at sea, particularly in the open ocean, has encouraged the use of indirect biochemical methods to infer aspects of trophic and spatial ecology. Stable isotope analysis of consumer tissues provides a useful tool to investigate the retrospective movement and trophic ecology of mobile animals, and fatty acid analysis provides further information on diet. In this thesis I use stable isotope and fatty acid markers coupled with direct data on residency and movement of known individual whale sharks, derived through photo-identification to examine the trophic and spatial ecology of three male-dominated whale shark aggregations in the Western Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf. I have assembled samples from 186 individuals, representing an estimated 7 to 55% of all individuals in their respective aggregations. Comparing the isotopic composition of whale shark tissues with known isotopic latitudinal gradients in diet, paired with long-term photo-identification data, I demonstrate limited latitudinal movement of individual sharks between important whale shark feeding aggregations in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Qatar. The relatively large isotopic dataset allows the first realistic assessment of isotopic niche breadth in whale shark feeding aggregations. Based on these results, I argue that eastern African and Arabian whale sharks should be treated as separate management units until their functional connectivity is shown to be significant. For the Tanzanian sharks, I have applied both stable isotope analysis and fatty acid analysis to this comparatively resident aggregation over a multi-year timescale. Stable isotope analysis indicates that the sharks forage primarily within the local food web. Fatty acid results show epipelagic feeding, and population-level responses to seasonal environmental changes. However, highly distinctive lipid class compositions within the local food web also suggest preferential routing of lipids in whale shark tissues. Preferential routing of essential fatty acids may be an unrecognised source of variance in elasmobranch dietary ecology, particularly filter feeding elasmobranchs, which urgently requires further study. Lastly I have used stable isotope analysis and dietary mixing models to investigate the coastal and offshore habitat use of an unseasonal whale shark aggregation in Mozambique. Here, isotope results suggest that whale sharks are feeding primarily on epipelagic zooplankton, and the sharks' presence is tied to ocean-scale dynamics, with possible dietary contributions from epipelagic and deep-water sources. Mixing models imply the existence of an un-sampled dietary item, potentially from offshore, oligotrophic waters and / or dietary routing in whale sharks. Obtaining information on mobile marine animals is challenging. I also discuss the uses and limitations of stable isotope analysis techniques applied to whale sharks over varying spatial and temporal scales. I have shown that stable isotope analysis when used in conjunction with other methods can prove a valuable tool to shed light on their trophic and spatial ecology, but that interpretation of biochemical data is challenging particularly in the absence of experimental studies validating physiological and biochemical assumptions.

This thesis focuses on the issue of regional authenticity in Barry Hannah's contemporary southern fiction (1970-2010), in the context of some recent concerns about the validity of regional studies in a postregional moment, and about the efficacy of the authenticity paradigm itself. By examining those Hannah narratives that best encourage some rethinking of conceptual understandings of the post- South and postsouthern literature, this thesis reveals the significant contribution that Hannah's fiction can make to critical apprehensions of the region as an evolving field of enquiry. The metafictional dimension of Hannah's writing is testimony to its unique value, because the putative sense of "southernness" his stories appear to dramatize is complicated by an intense self-reflexivity about the ways in which a sense of place has never been foundational or essential but has always been constructed and performed. Deploying sustained close analyses of the best of Hannah's fiction (the kind of attention it has conspicuously lacked), this thesis argues that the region is constantly (re-)emerging in a process of myth-making, dialogue and performance, rather than having suffered some simple historical shift from southern to postsouthern. Understanding Hannah's fiction in the ways presented is to offer the possibility of some revision in thinking, about whether the concepts "South" and "southern" have survived both the deconstructive and postregional turns of the late twentieth century, and the transnational turn into the "new" southern studies from the early twenty-first century onward. The Hannah texts included here are identified exclusively for their value in reconceptualising those issues in recent southern studies where an impasse is imagined between regional ("southern") and global ("postmodern"), to suggest it is wholly conceivable to "have it both ways."

Obesity is associated with dysfunction of adipose tissue due to oxidative stress and inflammation, leading to insulin resistance. Thiosulfate sulfurtransferase (Tst) was previously identified as an adipose-expressed anti-diabetic gene that protects against diet-induced metabolic impairment when upregulated in adipose tissue of mice. TST is a mitochondrial enzyme involved in the metabolism of cyanide, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and endogenous hydrogen sulfide (H2S). This thesis tested the hypothesis that TST maintains metabolic health in the face of dietary obesity. To do this, I investigated the adipose-tissue phenotypes and metabolic consequences of Tst gene deletion (Tst–/– mice) and of adipose tissue-specific overexpression of human TST (Ad-hTST mice) after exposure to high fat diet (HFD). After 20 weeks of HFD, Tst–/– mice exhibited impaired glucose tolerance despite unchanged adipose tissue inflammatory cell infiltration, protein carbonylation and unfolded protein response activation. However, levels of mRNA encoding mitochondrial antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase 2 and peroxiredoxin 3 were lower in Tst–/– mice on HFD. Unexpectedly, chow-fed Tst-/- mice had lower body weight and fat mass than wild-type controls highlighting a potential effect of Tst on fat accumulation with age. A new mouse model with high expression of human TST genetically targeted to adipose tissue (Ad-hTST) was developed using the LoxP / Cre recombinase expression system, with a parent line expressing Cre under the control of the adiponectin promoter to confer adipose specificity. The Ad-hTST mice were found to gain a similar amount of weight and fat mass to control mice when exposed to 6 weeks of HFD. However, Ad-hTST mice had impaired glucose tolerance with no change in inflammatory cell infiltration, mRNA levels of antioxidant enzymes or unfolded protein response genes. Thus, unexpectedly, overexpression of human TST in adipose tissue of mice results in a detrimental metabolic phenotype. In vivo and in vitro experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that TST protects against ROS accumulation. Paraquat was tested as an inducer of oxidative stress in vivo in wild-type, Tst-/- and Tst+/- mice. At the doses used (25mg/kg and under), mice became unwell and lost weight, with no increase in markers of oxidative stress in adipose or lung. The production of mitochondrial ROS in response to exogenous hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) exposure was increased in primary adipocytes from Tst-/- mice in vitro. However, primary hepatocytes showed reduced mitochondrial ROS production in response to H2O2 exposure. ROS production in hepatocytes was unaffected by pre-incubation with a H2S donor, an inhibitor of H2S-producing enzyme CSE or N-acetyl-cysteine, an antioxidant. TST may therefore influence mitochondrial ROS production differently in cell types such as adipocytes and hepatocytes. Disposal of exogenous H2O2 was unchanged in primary adipocytes from Tst-/- and Ad-hTST mice, and this was not affected by pre-incubation with sodium thiosulfate, a TST substrate. Metabolic changes in response to HFD may be influenced by alteration in TST expression, however the current data suggest it is unlikely to occur through the prevention of excessive local ROS accumulation in adipose tissue. Mice lacking the Tst gene globally and mice with adipose-specific overexpression of the human TST gene have a similarly impaired metabolic response to HFD. The phenotype of adipose-specific human TST-overexpressing mice does not recapitulate the protective metabolic phenotype produced by overexpression of the endogenous mouse Tst gene. In conclusion, TST may influence adipose tissue due to its role in the oxidation of H2S, however, by the current means, it does not appear to substantially impact the response of this tissue to oxidative stress.

Background: There is an association between schizophrenia and violence, although the specific drivers for this link remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the relationships between childhood adversity, conduct disorder, substance misuse and violence among men with schizophrenia. It has been suggested that there may be different pathways to violence in schizophrenia, one primarily linked with pre-morbid conduct disorder, so patients were specifically grouped on the basis of pre-morbid conduct disorder. Methods: Ninety-three male participants were recruited for the study, fifty-four with schizophrenia and thirty-nine healthy controls. Participants underwent a range of clinical assessments, including symptoms of conduct disorder, exposure to childhood adversities and history of substance use disorders. Adult propensity to violence was measured using the Gunn Robertson Violence Scale. Those participants who consented also had a structural magnetic resonance imaging scan. Results: The Gunn Robertson Violence Scale has good validity in this population. Conduct disorder was associated with an increased propensity to violence. Exposure to domestic violence during childhood and the cumulative number of childhood adversities were both associated with adult propensity to violence and attenuation of the association with cumulative adversities suggested that conduct disorder may be a mediator of the relationship. Patients with pre-morbid conduct disorder began using alcohol and cannabis earlier and more frequently, and had higher rates of lifetime substance use disorders which were associated with an increased propensity to violence. An increase in grey matter volume in the caudate was correlated with an increased lifetime propensity to violence. Conclusions: Conduct disorder, substance use disorders, childhood adversity, schizophrenia and violence are all associated with each other. Hence there is a complex interplay of factors, with their origin in childhood, which increase the risk of violent behaviour in schizophrenia.

This thesis considered the kinematic factors associated with elite pistol shooting performance. The first three studies examined performance in the newly introduced modern pentathlon combined event. Study 1 demonstrated that shooting performances differed significantly between the combined event and the original precision shooting format. Pistol shooters achieved significantly higher scores, and significantly smaller pistol and centre of pressure movements, than modern pentathletes in the precision event (p < .05). No significant differences were evident between the groups for combined event shooting (p > .05), highlighting that the most successful precision shooters were not guaranteed success in the combined event. Studies 2 and 3 examined how shooting performance changed within and between each shooting series. Aiming time did not change significantly within any series (p > .05), and so participants experienced a similar degree of pistol and centre of pressure movement for each shot, and achieved similar scores. No significant differences were evident in shooting performances between each shooting series (p > .05), despite the additional 1 km run phases. Thus, each running phase appeared to have little impact on shooting performance. Individual analysis used in each study highlighted the extent of individual variation in shooting performances, and demonstrated that group analysis is not sufficient to reflect the performances of individual participants. The final two studies examined elite precision shooting performances. Study 4 provided a descriptive analysis of torso, shoulder, wrist and pistol movement during the final second before the shot. Participants produced variable movement patterns for the upper limb, reflecting the principle of abundancy, in order to control the motion of the pistol. The exact patterns varied between participants, further supporting the importance of using individual analysis to examine pistol shooting performance. Study 5 examined the effects of stance position on shooting performance. Changing stance position produced significant differences in the scores achieved by each participant (p < .05). The most effective mediolateral and anterior-posterior stance widths, and the mechanisms behind the changes in performance, varied between participants. Thus, it was recommended that pistol shooters should examine stance position in greater detail when attempting to enhance performance.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, inflammatory disorder, whereby synovial inflammation ultimately results in joint destruction. Although the joints are the main target tissues affected, RA is also associated with a number of co-morbidities - such as cardiovascular disease. A key cell type involved in the perpetuation of disease pathogenesis is the macrophage, but the mechanisms underlying inflammatory gene expression in these cells are not fully understood. One fascinating and rather novel area of research that could provide insights into the activation of macrophages in RA comprises the biology of microRNA. These small, non-coding RNA molecules are implicated in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Here, we show that the expression of one particular microRNA, miR-34a, is increased in synovial fluid CD14+ cells compared to matched peripheral blood cells from RA patients. We have demonstrated that miR-34a expression is increased in synovial tissues from RA patients compared to osteoarthritis comparators, and that a proportion of these miR-34a positive cells are CD68+ macrophages. Of particular interest, miR-34a was also up-regulated in peripheral blood CD14+ cells isolated from multiple drug-resistant RA patients compared to healthy controls. Using over and under-expression methodologies we were able to demonstrate that miR-34a over-expression reduces toll like receptor-induced cytokine production by macrophages, while miR-34a inhibition enhances cytokine production. The altered cytokine activities included TNFα and IL-6 that are both critically linked to disease pathogenesis, therefore we propose that miR-34a over-expression in RA macrophages represents a failed attempt to attenuate on-going inflammation. To further explore the mechanism of miR-34a action, a microarray was performed to investigate transcripts that were regulated in response to miR-34a over-expression in monocytes. This study uncovered several pathways, including interferon, metallothionein and chemokine pathways, wherein many members were down-regulated upon miR-34a over-expression. Future work will therefore aim to dissect the role of these pathways, and their relevance to miR-34a regulated macrophage and dendritic cell biology, and thus to the chronicity of synovitis.

Shelf seas are highly productive regions of the world's ocean. Contributing 16 - 30 % to global ocean carbon fixation while representing a mere 7 % of the area, their importance in the carbon cycle is disproportionate to their size. This high productivity has econonimical significance, supporting over 90 % of global fishery yields (Pauly et al., 2002). Shelf seas are also physically dynamic regions. On an annual cycle, the water column in shelf seas is fully mixed in winter and thermally stratified in summer in deeper regions, with enhanced mixing along the shelf-edge. In addition, shelf seas act as a buffer between the land and coastal seas, and the open ocean. However, the processes that transform nutrients within the shelf sea are poorly understood. More so, the role of physical processes in both transporting nutrients, as well as their interaction with the biological processes that govern nutrient concentrations and partitioning are currently unresolved. Here, nutrient dynamics, with a specific focus on phosphorus, were assessed within the Celtic Sea, part of the northwest European shelf. The distribution and partitioning of phosphorus between the particulate (PPhos) and dissolved organic (DOP) and inorganic (DIP) phases was determined over various temporal and spatial scales. The concentration of labile DOP (phosphomonoesters, PME) and its rate of turnover were determined using enzyme rate assays. The microbes involved in PME hydrolysis were identified using enzyme labelled fluorescence techniques. The influence of physical processes, including spring-neap tidal cycle, mixing over topography and storm enhanced mixing on the vertical distribution of phosphorus in the water column were also assessed. DOP accumulated in the surface layer of the thermally stratified shelf waters and at the shelf edge. DOP production was enhanced at the shelf edge and during storm events due to enhanced mixing and fluxes of phosphate, which were rapidly shunted into the DOP pool through enhanced primary production. However, during mixing there was a counteracting downward flux of DOP exported to the bottom waters. Profiles of PME concentrations revealed a relatively labile component to bottom layer DOP, which had turnover times in the order of days. Comparison of observations in the Celtic Sea and Porcupine Bank region demonstrated that the accumulation of DOP on the shelf and at the shelf edge relative to the adjacent slope and oceanic regions is a persistent feature of the western European continental margin. Through a number of shelf-edge exchange processes, including wind mixing on short time scales, tidal mixing on fortnightly timescales and seasonal winter mixing, the Celtic Sea was identified as a potential source of DOP to the North Atlantic, where production is thought to be phosphorus limited (Mather et al., 2008).

Background: The 22q11.2 deletion (22qDS) is a microdeletion syndrome which commonly leads to an uneven profile of learning difficulties (LD), with superior verbal compared to nonverbal intellectual and memory functions in children and adolescents. However, in adult samples these differences reduce. There are two accounts of the reduction in the verbal-nonverbal discrepancy with age. The dominant hypothesis is that normative measures of verbal intelligence decline and so approximate nonverbal intelligence. The other is that normative nonverbal intelligence increases while verbal intelligence remains stable. Few studies have investigated this longitudinally and none with a UK sample. Aim: The aim was to examine longitudinally the pattern of developmental cognitive changes in verbal and nonverbal intellectual and memory functions. Method: Twenty-four participants with 22qDS, who were previously cognitively assessed between 2004- 2008 were re-examined in 2011. Intellectual, memory and executive functions were assessed. Results: Verbal and nonverbal intellectual functions were in the below average range and verbal was significantly superior to nonverbal intelligence at initial assessment. This discrepancy disappeared at follow-up as expected. Contrary to the dominant hypothesis, no cognitive scores declined with age. Nonverbal intellectual functioning improved to approximate the original level of verbal functioning, which remained stable. There were no verbal-nonverbal discrepancies in memory, but there were unexpected gender effects. Conclusion: This is the first longitudinal study to show increasing nonverbal and stable verbal functioning with age in a UK 22qDS sample. Factors which could potentially account for this unexpected pattern are considered along with bias, confounding and other methodological issues. The potential clinical and educational implications of the findings are discussed. Further studies with large samples are required to examine in more detail the main findings.

The main aim of this thesis was to examine internal representation in the context of nurse education using two main output variables - namely imagery and identity. The initial basic argument for the thesis was that procedures to facilitate the acquisition of psychomotor skills that have been developed in sports science could fruitfully be applied to the development of skills in other areas, such as nurse education. Study one approached this through the use of an imagery training programme - PETTIER (Holmes & Collins, 2001) on an undergraduate nursing curriculum. PETTIER served as the independent variable with the dependent variable - performance - being measured through Obje&tive Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs). Unexpected results revealed no significant differences between the control and experimental groups, with the control group actually performing better overall. Given this, the explicit choice was made to pursue investigation into the other plausible factors affecting behaviour, in order to explicate and underpin the results obtained. Study two investigated students' perceptions of and preparation for the OSCEs using a skills training questionnaire. Results revealed common concerns, specifically related to skills practice. Furthermore these concerned the amount of practice time provided; the practice environment; and the amount of support and training during teaching. In light of these findings, study three pursued a contrasting and comparative investigation from the professionals' perspective on the curriculum. This specifically examined perceptions of the assessment structure and expectations within the curriculum; the content of the curriculum; levels of support and provision for training; and the application of theory and practice. This aimed to identify any coherent or conflicting views between the students' receiving the curriculum and the staff delivering the curriculum. Results revealed coherency in the professional view that theory and practice were equally as important for nurse education. However, students commonly perceived practice as the most important aspect. Also, some students often struggled to apply theory to practice and vice versa. In light of this it became apparent that students may in fact identify differently with the content of the curriculum. Therefore, appraisal of the content may have different significance for students and affect behaviour differently both internally and/or externally. Study four investigated this using Identity Structure Analysis (ISA)/lpseus (Weinreich & Saunderson, 2003).This explored how students applied themselves to the various aspects of nursing in the contexts of healthcare and broader affiliations, and how these fitted into students' broader sense of identity. It also looked at typologies within nursing and whether identity fitted into three distinct categories depending on construals. Study five followed this up using two individual case studies. The purpose of this was to encapsulate meaning behind individual construals and typologies and explicate the findings of ISA/lpseus and the implications for nurse education. Results found that construals are grounded in experiences which can affect development, behaviour and identity towards nursing and the broader affiliations in individuals' lives. In conclusion identity in nursing should be investigated further in order to provide stronger evidence in regards to typologies and how these may be influencing students' behaviour and development in nurse education. Such research could have important implications for the future of nurse education and be a positive step towards future curriculum revisions.

Organisational citizenship behaviour has been an active field of research for over three decades with research typically focusing on helpful and sportsmanlike behaviours or, conversely, examining destructive or criminal acts. Between these two is the frequently ignored civic virtue which includes questioning, making suggestions and challenging organisational norms. Civic virtue is the least researched, least performed, and the least popular organisational behaviour with it often being deemed an act of deviancy. Yet importantly, in terms of the transforming public service agenda, it is also the organisational behaviour that links most closely with organisational improvement. In pursuing this under-researched field, interpretivism provides a salient philosophical framework for the operationalisation of the thesis which utilises an in-depth qualitative approach to explore the lived realities of public servants, and seeks to advance the limited knowledge of civic virtue, set against the backdrop of public service citizenship. Using the lens of symbolic interactionism the thesis contributes an incremental advance in research method; specifically projective image elicitation, by using the metaphorical power of contextualised cartoon images to explore individuals’ perception of the workplace and their The thesis proposes a contribution to theory in recommending that public service citizenship promotes a predilection to bifurcate behaviours demonstrated by others and self into the act and underpinning values. Within public services this interpretative process gives precedence to the underpinning values; and promotes an environment where disdained behaviours are pardoned if the underpinning values are deemed honourable. This concept is termed value governance. Drawing on value governance, a model emerged which indicates that public servants predominately enact civic virtue when they perceive their values are seriously contested; otherwise their collectivist tendencies are dominant The discovery of value governance is significant in informing the conception of a dialogic public service citizenship; a citizenship which has its foundation in publicness but which is also able to face the challenges of civicness.

The animal remains from British later prehistory have frequently been treated as generally only able to inform us about economy, and occasionally about symbolic behaviour. On the other hand, the use and division of landscape has been largely discussed in terms of social organisation. There has been a failure to appreciate that there is a reflexive relationship between pastoral farming and the utilisation and inhabiting of landscapes. The nature and needs of livestock and detailed consideration of husbandry methods have informed identification of the types of archaeological data we can use to discuss husbandry practices. This thesis integrates faunal, field and environmental data to achieve a holistic understanding. Husbandry practices and animal consumption and deposition identified from analysis of over 130,000 fragments of animal bone from Cadbury Castle, Somerset, and sites in its environs, have been considered in the light of successive arrangements of fields in the area. The relationship between changes in landscape organisation and in animal exploitation has been established and can also be detected across the south west. The fields of the earlier Bronze Age apparently relate to continuation of extensive husbandry regimes, whilst fixing the activity within the landscape. Small scale arable farming was integrated during the Middle Bronze Age. Subsequently there was a return to extensive grazing and mobility. An approach dominated by sheep farming began in the Early Iron Age. This gained ascendency in the Middle Iron Age, with new, small, fields that are indicative of a highly integrated arable and pastoral system and which were both intensive, localised, and reflect the technical, social and ideological complexity surrounding animals. This thesis has found that the form of landscape division and organisation was intimately bound up with the practicalities of livestock management. It has identified a variety of features and arrangements that can assist in understanding livestock management elsewhere in Britain and beyond. At different times and places this involved different social and technological choice, but was founded in the needs of managed animals. This study has shown the benefits of integrating archaeological, faunal and landscape data, together with a strong understanding of the practicalities of animal husbandry. This approach not only enables better understanding of arable and pastoral systems, it allows us to better recognise and understand the social and ideological choices expressed in the farming landscape.

This work presents a method for generating synthetic spectra of Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGS) using AGN, HII region and supernovae source functions. The AGN element represents the far-infrared contribution to the ULIRG spectrum from an energetic central engine. It is modelled using a quasar source embedded in an axi-symmetric dusty torus. The radiative transfer of flux (RT) is then simulated and the AGN emergent spectral energy distributions (SEDs) generated. The HII region solution is then developed. A stellar evolutionary synthesis code is used to generate instantaneous burst (ISB) source functions which decay in time. The evolution of the gas and dust density in a spherically-symmetric, dense GMC, under the influence of a time-dependent ionizing source flux, is derived. Having irradiated the dust distribution with the source cluster SED, the RT is calculated and the HII region SEDs obtained. The impact of supernovae energy on a GMC already ionized by stellar flux is then considered. Using the standard pressure-driven expansion model of e.g., Weaver et al. (1977) the radial evolution of a superbubble expanding under the influence of a continuous super novae energy function is derived. The superbubble is modelled in both an adiabatic rapid expansion phase and in an isothermal momentum-conserving phase. As the superbubble expands, upstream gas is swept into a thin shell trapped on its surface and the gas density enhancement is modelled using simple shock physics. Having generated expressions for the evolution of the shell gas temperature, it is linked to the dust density via a temperature dependent condensation factor. Finally expressions are developed to quantify the evolution of the optical depth along a line of sight. It is found that the star formation efficiency (SFE) has a profound effect on the radial evolution of the optical depth distributions in GMCs generating marked differences in behaviour between and high and low SFEs. Low SFE models have shells below the dust condensation temperature at the GMC boundary R2w and the extinction, having initially been in decline, recovers to more substantial values in a dust reformation scenario. These systems tend to be optically thick for most of their evolution. Those models classified high SFE have supershell temperatures in excess of the dust condensation temperature at R2w and the extinction distribution drops precipitously and reaches very low values (< 1) at R2w- It then remains low for some time before a small recovery in extinction occurs as the shell dust condenses out. These systems tend to be optically thin for most of their life-times. It is the more powerful supernovae source functions included in the modelled space which generate the high SFE extinction behaviour and vice versa. Having derived the dust density distributions they are irradiated by the appropriate central source cluster SED and the RT simulated to generate the emergent SEDs. These are similarly categorised as low and high SFE. The low SFE model SEDs appear to be representative of systems where the dust acts as an enshrouding bolometer and most it not all UV and optical radiation is reprocessed and re-emitted into the infrared. Conversely, the high SFE model SEDs are optically revealed and exhibit substantial, only mildly attenuated source flux at short wavelengths for the majority of their evolution. The emergent AGN and starburst (ISB HII region and supernovae) SEDs are then combined in pairs to form a ULIRG SED Library. These SEDs are matched to the published data for a sample of six nearby (redshift z < 1) ULIRGS. No model ULIRG SED is found to have a better than 40% probability of belonging to the same population distribution as the published data. This is found to be most likely the result of using an ISB source function. The starburst SED library is therefore extended to approximate constant star formation (CSFRA) using a time decay parameterization and the ULIRGs refitted. In each case a model ULIRG SED was found to match the observations with a better than 5% probability of non-random fit, which suggests that a constant rather than ISB star formation mode is perhaps more appropriate in ULIRGs. Using the CSFRA component of the best-fitting model ULIRG SED, estimates are made for the star formation rate, starburst age and the implied merger and interaction state for each ULIRG. In all case these quantities agree favourably with the literature. Each ULIRG was fitted with a CSFRA SED element originating in the high SFE group of models. This was found to be a direct result of fitting the upper limits to the short wavelength (A < 3m) flux data points, as it is the high SFE SEDs that are optically revealed.

Experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN) is an inflammatory demyelinating peripheral neuropathy that serves as an animal model for the human disease Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). Conduction deficits and aberrant electrical behaviour in neurons can contribute to the production of neurological signs or symptoms in both EAN and GBS, and changes in the expression or function of voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) may be involved in this neuronal dysfunction. The work described in this thesis is aimed at studying peripheral sensory neurons in both normal rats, and rats with EAN, using electrophysiological methods designed to reveal changes in VGSC function. Initial work characterised the effects of three VGSC blocking agents on conduction along sensory axons from naive animals using an in vitro grease-gap recording technique. This technique was then used to study the pharmacology of two of these agents on sensory nerve conduction in nerves taken from animals with EAN. In addition, a detailed study of voltage-gated sodium currents in sensory neurons in EAN was performed using the whole-cell voltage clamp technique. Primary cultures of lumbar DRG neurons were used, and cells were divided into two groups, those expressing purely tetrodotoxin-sensitive (TTXS) currents and those expressing mixed sodium currents from which tetrodotoxin-resistant (TTXR) currents could be isolated using tetrodotoxin (TTX). Activation and inactivation characteristics of the three populations of currents were compared between EAN and naive groups. The final part of the study focused on the effects of pre-activated macrophages on sodium currents in EAN. The same three types of sodium currents were examined by voltage clamp in DRG neurons from animals with EAN following a 20-28 hour co-culture with the macrophages, and compared with those in neurons cultured without macrophages.

In this thesis, the role of lipid rafts and BACE ectodomain shedding in regulating the β-cleavage of APP have been examined. The activation of protein kinase C (PKC) was shown to increase the shedding of BACE and decrease the release of sAPPβ from SH-SY5Y cells over-expressing human BACE (SH-BACE). These PKC-mediated effects may be orchestrated through lipid rafts, since the activation of PKC was shown in this thesis to decrease the association of BACE with rafts. Together, these data show that a decrease in raft-associated BACE following PKC activation is associated with a decrease in APP β-cleavage, suggesting an important role for these membrane domains in APP processing. In addition, the ubiquitous intracellular calcium mediator, calmodulin, was shown to interact with BACE and to increase BACE shedding and decrease sAPPβ release, as with PKC activation. The majority of the previous work linking lipid rafts and APP processing has been carried out using non-neuronal or transformed neuronal cells. As an alternative and more physiologically relevant approach, synaptosomes have been used in this thesis to study the potential role of these domains in APP β-cleavage. APP, BACE and presenilin 1 (PS1) were all detected in the lipid rafts from purified synaptosomes. Notably, the mature form of BACE was found exclusively within the rafts from these neuronal structures, whereas the immature form was predominantly non-raft localised. Therefore, the presence of the mature species in the rafts supports a role for these membrane domains in the β-cleavage of APP. Strategies which target the reduction of cholesterol and hence the removal of BACE from lipid rafts may prove beneficial with regard to the development and/or progression of AD.