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In fairy tales the material world is rich with wonder. The flowers, waterfalls, tables, keys and shapeshifting bodies all exist outside the accepted 'laws' of reality, capable of transforming, speaking and participating in an enlivened vision of existence that invites a sense of the wondrous. While Western dualistic philosophy has traditionally denigrated matter, bodies and nature for their supposed opposition to language, thought and culture, in the fairy tale, materiality, nature and nonhumanity are not fixed, inert and passive, but alive and full of possibility. Though materiality has always played an important and active role in folk and fairy tale, in much of the contemporary scholarship on the fairy tale genre, the focus has been on postmodernism in its attempts to highlight the constructedness of nature and matter as fictions. This thesis suggests that in the quest to undermine the concept of 'nature' as a fixed reality, the potential for the fairy tale to enable radical and positive reimaginings of nature/culture, matter/thought boundaries has been overlooked in critical discussion. In an echo of contemporary theory's move away from purely discursive understandings of existence, this thesis uses a new, vital materialist lens - with a Deleuzian emphasis - to examine the ways in which contemporary authors have used the fairy tale suspension of reality to depict nature and matter as fluid and active, and how these depictions can lead to radical re-conceptualisations of the boundaries between accepted dualities of nature/culture, mind/body, matter/language. This thesis argues that drawing from the fairy-tale traditions of anthropomorphism, metamorphosis and the vitality of material potential, the fairy-tale inspired fictions of Angela Carter, Graham Swift, Philip Pullman and A. S. Byatt offer alternate, fluid and processual depictions of life that deny the fixity of dualistic visions of matter and nature and refute the idea of materiality as mere discourse. By reading through the materialities of wood, water, metal and earth, this study considers how examining contemporary fairy tale using new materialist theory can highlight the fairy tale's capacity to dismantle dualistic thought and reimagine nature, matter and bodies as enlivened and full of wonder.

A long-term ambition of researchers is to develop readily available expert systems to support decision makers. There is great interest in combining web-based information and Machine Learning techniques, which are enjoying a renaissance attributed to the ready availability of computing resources, to answer real-world strategic questions. Given the contribution of industry to overall national economic health, one such question is what industry mix is necessary to support national strategy? The proposed conceptual graph model and accompanying framework, applied the strengths of machines and computational techniques to inform national industrial policy in a data-driven paradigm. This thesis makes three contributions: the development of a novel conceptual graph model and associated framework, both based on a multi-disciplinary literature review, and their subsequent demonstration using both simulated binary and real-world statistical data. The graph model, drawing from experience in the government defence sector, linked national intent to industry via intermediate nodes such as capability. The wider framework combined supervised Bayesian Belief Network Machine Learning with web-scraping via the graph model to infer national intent. Proof of concept was achieved through the use of both simulated and real-world data, confirming the ability of the chosen inference approach to learn the required relations. Ultimately the framework was able to identify industry variables which best explain observed capability for two real-world case studies although it failed to draw inferences across industries using real data. Further avenues of investigation were addressed, including the use of unstructured text as a data source and alternative Machine Learning methods to account for time-series data. The potential of the web as a data source is truly staggering. This thesis goes some way to bridging the gap between this vast store of information and its incorporation in an evidence-driven pipeline in support of strategic decision making.

As a consequence of interrogating pupil progress data, the primary school in this study identified apparent inequalities in the rates of progress in Reading and Mathematics made by male and female pupils in Key Stage Two cohorts. To address this school improvement issue, the Key Stage Two pupils and the staff who worked with them, were surveyed in order to establish a starting point for action. The surveys indicated that low-achieving female pupils in the school perceived themselves, and were perceived by staff as having low levels of self-esteem and confidence, which were impacting upon their ability to access the learning and impeding their educational progress. A search of the literature on barriers to learning and the range of approaches and initiatives which have been employed to address these, alongside a consultation process with female pupils though a focus group, resulted in identification of the need for the provision of an intervention which would address the issue. Outcomes from an internally–provided school intervention pilot programme resulted in the adoption of a participatory action-research model which allowed the pupils to contribute to the design, implementation and evaluation of a single-sex therapeutic intervention, facilitated by a drama practitioner. Through the use of drama and mask techniques the practitioner provided a safe, non-judgemental environment which enabled participants to feel accepted, to express their feelings, to lead activities, to take risks and to develop a wider friendship circle. The intervention was widely commended, with staff and parents/carers reporting a perceived increase in levels of confidence, expanded friendship circles and stronger peer relationships and improved active engagement in learning in the mixed-gender classroom environment. Qualitative data, in the form of individual video evaluations of the intervention indicated the learning which had resulted from participation, most strongly evidenced by the positive comments elicited from the participants both in terms of the techniques employed in the intervention and the outcomes achieved: “…At first you’re the one underneath the mask… Then the mask becomes you… The masks helped me feel more confident …When we did the mask it was like a confidence builder – made you speak your mind and gave you the words to express your feelings better – like if your excited or happy you had the words to say that…this project helped all our group…’cos we’ve learned to be more confident in ourselves and I just feel a lot better…”

Endochondral ossification, the process by which majority of the skeleton is formed, relies on the precise development of cartilaginous templates of the future bones that serve as scaffolds for deposition of bone matrix. Disruption of the fine balance coordinating chondrocyte differentiation within the cartilaginous templates and the transition from chondrogenesis to osteogenesis at the vascular front often results in a heterogeneous group of congenital anomalies, referred to as osteochondral dysplasias, which are characterised by dwarfism, skeletal malformations and, in some cases, prenatal death. Moreover, dysregulation of early skeletal development is directly linked to diseases of the adult skeleton such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Improved appreciation of skeletal development, therefore, will not only enhance our understanding of musculoskeletal diseases, but also augment the development of novel strategies for replacement/regeneration of skeletal tissues. The role of molecular chaperones and their co-chaperones in health and disease has attracted much attention in recent years. The co-chaperone, BCL-2-associated athanogene-1 (BAG-1), is a multifunctional protein, which by its ability to bind multiple partners, predominantly the heat shock chaperone proteins (HSC70/HSP70), can regulate gene transcription and signalling crucial for cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. In prenatal murine development, highest expression of Bag-1 mRNA is detected in cartilaginous tissues. Both isoforms of BAG-1 (50 kDa and 32 kDa) are expressed ubiquitously in long bones of adult mice by chondrocytes and osteoblast-lineage cells. BAG-1 protects mammalian chondrocytes against apoptosis and plays an important role in the regulation of expression of chondrogenic markers. Interestingly, expression of BAG-1 is increased in human osteoarthritic cartilage, most likely in response to the dysregulation of homeostasis in osteoarthritic chondrocytes. Comprehensive characterisation of the role of BAG-1 and the significance of its interaction with HSC70 in the regulation of skeletal development would, therefore, assist in improved understanding of the molecular regulation of skeletogenesis. The present study aimed to elucidate the role of Bag-1 in endochondral ossification, using Bag-1 null (Bag-1-/-) and Bag-1 heterozygous (Bag-1+/-) mice, in conjunction with ex vivo models of chondrocyte and osteoblast development. Micromass cultures of embryonic limb bud cells of Bag-1-/- mice were characterised by significantly high number of mineralised cartilage nodules and increased expression of genes crucial for chondrocyte hypertrophy, mineralisation and maintenance of hypertrophic chondrocyte morphology. Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) of skeletally mature Bag-1+/- female mice exhibited increased proliferation rate, decreased BMP-2-directed osteogenic differentiation and negligible apoptosis. Moreover, genes crucial for osteogenic differentiation, matrix biosynthesis, mineralisation and maintenance of the mature osteoblast phenotype were expressed at significantly lower levels in cultures of Bag-1+/- BMSCs supplemented with BMP-2, while the expression levels of genes with roles in inhibition of BMP-2-directed osteoblast differentiation were significantly upregulated. Since BAG-1, via its interaction with HSC70, can assist in the establishment of functional estrogen receptors (ERs) and modulate cellular responses to estrogen (E2), the significance of BAG-1-regulated modulation of ER function by HSC70 in E2- facilitated, BMP-directed osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs was investigated. Inhibition of the binding of BAG-1 to HSC70 by the small-molecule chemical inhibitor, Thioflavin-S, and a short peptide containing the 8 amino acid binding core of helix 2 of the BAG domain, resulted in significant downregulation of E2/ER-facilitated, BMP-directed osteogenic response of BMSCs of both wild-type and Bag-1+/- mice. Thus, the present study has demonstrated an important role for BAG-1 in skeletal development, specifically in the terminal differentiation of chondrocytes, mineralisation of the hypertrophic cartilage and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs. Furthermore, downregulation of E2/ER-facilitated, BMP-directed osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs due to disruption of binding between BAG-1 and HSC70 highlighted the significance of BAG-1-mediated protein-protein interactions in osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs.