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Introduction. In 2020 the NSPCC reported that an estimated 51,510 children in the UK are known to be at risk of abuse. Bruises are the most common injuries to be seen in cases of suspected physical child abuse. It is recognised that up to a third of children who are fatally abused have been seen by a health professional within the previous three weeks where the significance of subtle injuries such as bruising has been missed. Aims. The aim of this study was to investigate the quality of forensic evidence collected by paediatricians at the child protection medical examination relating to bruises and to investigate the effectiveness of imaging methods of bruises. Methods. Firstly, a questionnaire was sent to members of the Royal College of Paediatricians to determine if reporting guidelines of bruise characteristics were believed to be being followed. Secondly, an analysis of paediatricians' child medical examination reports at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board performed to determine the level of reporting in this cohort. An improved protocol for bruise reporting with association training was introduced and another analysis of reports was performed to see if this improved reporting standards. Finally, bruises imaging was carried out via standard photography (SP), infra-red (IR), ultraviolent (UV), high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS), and cross polarised (XP) imaging order to find the best method comparatively. Results. Reporting of characteristics of bruises is not 100% in all required categories from the survey of Royal College and the analysis of reports by working paediatricians in Cardiff suggests that it might be much worse in reality. The new proforma and appropriate training did lead to improvement in reporting standards in all categories (P < 0.001), certainly in the short-term. Complex relationships were also seen between the rank, size and shape of bruises as a function of perpetrator, location, implement, age, and gender that were often highly significant statistically (i.e., P < 0.001). IV, UV, and HFUS imaging did not improve effectiveness compared to SP, although XP imaging provided improved bruise definition. Conclusion. The reporting of bruises by paediatricians in the UK is clearly far from perfect, although results for the new proforma and training were encouraging. However, more work is needed to establish if improvements in bruise recording persist in the longer term. Results found here suggest that more work needs also to be carried out to improve methods of bruise imaging, although initial results for XP imaging were encouraging.

The utilisation of biogas as an energy source or as a feed stock for the chemical industry would help to lower the present wasteful and environmentally unfriendly venting of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. One obstacle to this becoming a reality include finding a catalyst that is active towards carbon dioxide reforming of methane as well as resistance to carbon deposition and sulphur poisoning. As a potential alternative to supported nickel catalysts, a nickel doped perovskite has been produced via a hydrothermal synthesis method for reforming biogas. The selected perovskite, SrZrO3, was doped with 4 mol % nickel into the structure and shown to be phase pure by XRD. This material was rigorously tested catalytically using a range of biogas conditions. 4 mol% Ni doped SrZrO3 was shown to be resistant to carbon deposition under high temperature, methane rich biogas reforming conditions with no observable trend between the amount of carbon formed and the time on stream. This catalyst showed high activity and selective towards the formation of the desired products, an equimolar mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. As naturally derived biogas is not a pure mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, studies into the effect that two of the other important components of biogas, water and sulphur containing compounds, were carried out. The perovskite material was seen to be stable towards continued dry reforming of methane irrespective of the inclusion of water, and at elevated reaction temperatures was able to convert the water into the required products of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The effect of hydrogen sulphide was studied and the perovskite material was seen to be susceptible to sulphur poisoning. However the extent and the recovery from this type of deactivation was an improvement on that seen by Ni/YSZ and 5% ceria doped Ni/YSZ.

International cooperation on export controls for technology is based on three assumptions, that it is possible: to know against whom controls should be directed; to control the international transfer of technology; and to define the items to be controlled. These assumptions paint a very hierarchical framing of one of the central problems in export controls: dual-use technology. This hierarchical framing has been in continual contention with a competitive framing that views the problem as the marketability of technology. This thesis analyses historical and contemporary debates between these two framings of the problem of dual-use technology, focusing on the multilateral Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies. Using a framework of concepts from Science & Technology Studies and the theory of sociocultural viability, I analyse the Arrangement as a classification system, where political, economic, and social debates are codified in the lists of controlled items, which then structure future debates. How a technology is (not) defined, I argue, depends as much on the particular set of social relations in which the technology is enacted as on any tangible aspects the technology may have. The hierarchical framing is currently hegemonic within Wassenaar, and I show how actors that express this framing use several strategies in resolving anomalies that arise concerning the classification of dual-use technology. These strategies have had mixed success, and I show how they have adequately resolved some cases (e.g. quantum cryptography), while other areas have proved much more difficult (e.g. focal plane arrays and computers). With the development of controls on intangible technology transfers, a third, egalitarian framing is arising, and I argue that initial steps have already been taken to incorporate this framing with the discourse on dual-use technology. However, the rise of this framing also calls into question the fundamental assumption of export controls that technology is excludable, and therefore definable.