Search

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of the Degree for Doctor of Clinical Psychology at the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. It comprises clinical work and research involved conducted throughout the duration of the course. Volume I of the thesis is presented in the form of three papers examining potential risk markers of early psychosis; impaired neuropsychological performance and dermatoglyphic anomalies. The first of the three papers is an empirical study that examines the neuropsychological performance in a group of participants, considered to be at ultra-high risk of psychosis, and compares it with that demonstrated by a control group. This paper is prepared for submission to the British Journal of Psychiatry. The second paper is a systematic literature review which examines the literature on dermatoglyphic anomalies associated with schizophrenia. This paper is prepared for submission to the British Journal of Psychiatry. The third paper is an executive summary that has been used to disseminate the main findings of this research to participants and health care professionals. The appendices contain correspondence regarding instructions for authors, ethical approval, assessment instructions, information sheets and consent forms. Volume II of the thesis contains five clinical practice reports that were submitted throughout the course. These reflect the training performed and the clinical work conducted. Clinical practice report one, models on adult placement: 'Formulating the case of a 55-year old woman with obsessive compulsive disorder: Psychodynamic and cognitive perspectives'. Clinical practice report two, small-scale service evaluation on child placement: 'Evaluating User Satisfaction of a Mental Health Drop In Service '. Clinical practice report three, case study on older adult placement: 'A cognitive-behaviouralformulation and intervention for a 67 year old woman with agoraphobia' and clinical practice report four, single-case experimental design on learning disabilities placement: 'A cognitive-behavioural intervention for a 49 year old gentleman with anger-related difficulties ', Clinical practice report five, the abstract for an oral presentation of a case study on specialist forensic placement: 'Cognitive formulation of a 20-year old Sikh male, charged with affray'. All names and identifying details in these reports have been changed to ensure confidentiality.

A cellulolytic microbial community consisting of eight fungi and two bacteria was isolated from soil using a continuous flow enrichment technique. Each member of the community was grown in axenic culture and their levels of cellulase activity and rates of cellulose hydrolysis were determined. The strongly cellulolytic organisms were Aspergillus fumigatus and Penicillium simplicissimum. Results suggested that the other community members used the intermediates of cellulose hydrolysis produced by the primary cellulose degraders. The major B-glucosidase producing organisms were three Fusarium strains. Mixed and axenic culture studies indicated that there was no apparent synergism between members of the community during the degradation of either cellulose (Sigiucell type 20).hay or straw. Synergism was also lacking when the fungi were grown under different cultural conditions. The community degraded cellulose at a slower rate than did P. simplicissimum alone, and a lag in cellulase activity was evident. With 1ignocellulose, the community showed similar degradation rates to those of A. fumigatus and P. simplicissimum, although its levels of enzyme activity, with the exception of B-glucosidase, were lower. Culture conditions were found to have a strong influence on cellulase activity. With A. fumigatus, P. simplicissimum and the community grown in an unbuffered medium, increasing the cellulose concentration resulted in a decrease in cellulase activity, although endoglucanase and B-glucosidase levels were unaffected. Increasing the cellulose concentration in cultures grown in a buffered medium resulted in a dramatic increase in B-glucosidase activity. These levels were increased further by increasing the buffer molarity. Increasing the cellulose concentration in the buffered medium also resulted in an increase in the cellulase activity of P. simplicissimum and the community. Increased levels of B-glucosidase were produced by P.simplicissimum grown in a buffered medium with cellobiose as the carbon source. Studies of B-glucosidase location indicated that P. simplicissimum produced predominantly cel 1-associated enzyme activity which was not released into the growth medium until the latter stages of growth.

This study involved investigations into the neural processing of auditory information by the Australian field cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus in relation to the identification of its conspecific songs. T. oceanicus males produce three song types related to three different behavioural strategies. Although each of the three songs have very similar frequency spectra their temporal patterns are very different and highly complex, particularly the courtship song. Song type recognition therefore is likely to be based on neurones capable of producing an accurately coded response to the song patterns. Using extracellular and intracellular recording techniques, neurophysiological and neuroanatomical investigations were carried out in order to Identify auditory interneurones in the pro-thoracic ganglion capable of coding for the temporal patterns of the songs. Two examples of the ascending class of neurones were identified and shown to respond to the conspecific song patterns: ANC, which coded the temporal pattern of the calling song and ANA, which produced a correlated response to the temporal pattern of the courtship song. Further investigations showed that as a result of the frequency content, syllable rate and intensity of the song, it was the Integration of excitatory and particularly inhibitory Inputs that allowed ANA to code for the courtship song. To identify other neurones involved in this pathway the origin of the inhibitory input was investigated. The local bilateral omega neurone, ONI, was thought to mediate the inhibition. Current manipulation experiments which involved simultaneous extracellular and intracellular recordings from ANA and ONI respectively were carried out. However, these experiments showed no evidence for the existence of effective synapses between these two cells. A second type of omega neurone was identified, ON2. Although this neurone was shown to be non-spiking its response was correlated with the temporal patterns of the songs. Preliminary investigations were carried out on examples of descending and through neurones.