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Spintronics presents an opportunity for the next generation of low-power electronics, overcoming the scaling and power issues faced by existing CMOS technologies. The non-local spin valve offers a relatively simple, versatile means to study spin transport in various materials (including metals, superconductors, semiconductors and 2D materials), owing primarily to its ability to isolate spin transport-related effects. Yet, many questions remain unanswered, namely identifying and characterising the spin-relaxation mechanisms present in such devices, and understanding the origin of spurious effects. This thesis aims to address these issues through systematic studies in all-metallic non-local spin valves across a selection of material pairings, temperatures and magnetic fields.

Hydrogels are a unique species of soft matter biomaterial. Generically defined as any hydrophilic polymer network capable of absorbing large volumes of water, their composition and characteristics can be extremely varied. With such an all-encompassing definition, hydrogels represent potentially the most tuneable and adaptable scaffold for biomaterial development in current research, with a myriad of possible applications in both laboratory and clinical settings, ranging from advanced wound dressings to 3-dimensional cell culture models. The majority of hydrogels to date have been built from non-biological polymer lattices, but over the last 15 years research has shifted towards building hydrogels out of natively folded and dynamically active proteins. Central to the rational design of these materials will be a detailed understanding of the relationship between microscale network topologies and macroscale mechanics. The aim of this thesis is to characterize the relationship between the network crosslinking density and macroscale mechanics of a hydrogel system built from immunoglobulin domain 27 pentamers. Firstly a facile method is described whereby the number of crosslink sites per monomer network building block can be precisely tuned, and proteins subsequently expressed in a high-yield manner. This was then followed by the development of two assays to measure the unfolded protein fraction post-gelation and the crosslinking efficiency of each hydrogel species. The macroscale mechanics of each hydrogel species was then characterized rheologically. By correlating these microscale measurements with the macroscale mechanics the mechanism of translation between length scales is discussed. I propose that it is possible to rationally tune the mechanics of folded protein hydrogels by the use of precisely situated crosslink sites in the monomer building block. Furthermore I hypothesise that this tuneability is a result of different crosslink geometries causing changes in the network formation regime of the hydrogel. This leads to differences in network topologies and in turn hydrogel mechanics.

A Medicinal Dictionary was written by Dr Robert James (1703-1776) and published by Thomas Osborne (1704?-1767) in London in three folio volumes between 1743 and 1745. The circumstances that resulted in James and his school friend, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), writing important dictionaries within ten years of each other in London are examined. The background of James in the Midlands and his training in Oxford and possibly in Leiden are explored. Samuel Johnson's move to London has been well documented but the reasons for James's move in mid-career are less obvious. The introduction of James to Osborne was a key event leading to the invitation to compile A Medicinal Dictionary. This large dictionary was produced on time, albeit with a change of plan extending the publication to three volumes. I have highlighted its innovative features and considered the resources needed for writing and printing such a major work. The dictionary and James's other writings are judged as having made significant contributions to the Enlightenment and to a medical enlightenment. The dictionary and James's better known fever powders are presented as evidence of the medical marketplace in London. The legacy of the dictionary is an in-depth record of medicine at that time. Supplementary data for this thesis can be found on the University of Birmingham eData repository at: https://doi.org/10.25500/edata.bham.00000634.

Superabsorbent polymer hydrogel networks are found in everyday life, such as in nappies and spill kits. This research would focus on the development of a highly absorbent, catalytically active polymer system, for the encapsulation and degradation of organic materials and chemical warfare agents (CWAs) such as VX and sulfur mustard (HD). The superabsorbent nature of a series of styrene based polyelectrolyte networks, crosslinked with divinylbenzene, were examined. The electrolytic nature of the networks was established through the introduction of a quaternary ammonium ionic monomer at increasing mol% weighting. The resulting net-poly(styrene-co-4-vinylbenzyl trihexylammonium chloride-co-divinylbenzene) systems were studied for their ability to absorb common solvents. The swelling performance was then correlated with various physical properties including dielectric and solubility parameters. The predicted swelling degrees of additional solvents were calculated and showed good similarity to experimental results. The swelling behaviour of CWAs in this system was examined and a suitable simulant for HD and VX was determined from these results. In an attempt to increase the swelling of the CWAs, alternative low polarity monomers were screened using predictions from solubility parameter data. Alternative anions to the chloride were also screened in an attempt to increase the swelling performance in the electrolytic polymers. A poly(styrene-co-vinylbenzyl chloride-co-divinylbenzene) lightly crosslinked poly high internal phase emulsion (pHIPE) was also developed. The record breaking absorption capacities of a variety of CWAs, including sulfur mustard (HD) (Q = 40) and V-series (VM, VX, i-Bu-VX, n-Bu-VX) of nerve agents (Q ≥ 45) and a simulant, methyl benzoate (Q = 55) were observed in this polymer. The polymer showed fast swelling, (< 5 min to total absorption) and the ability to swell both from a monolithic state and from a compressed state. The polymer was then produced on increased scale (10 kg). The absorbent pHIPEs were further adapted to include a catalytically active MOF inside the pores at 25 wt%, in addition to internal buffer as part of the polymer matrix. This combination of changes led to a polymer sorbent which was able to swell and degrade a VX simulant (methyl paraoxon) and VX in situ without the need for external buffering. Modification of the styrene based pHIPE to include increasing amounts of myrcene was also investigated briefly as an approach to creating an elastomeric oil/CWA absorption capability, using a greener feedstock. To facilitate this, an alternative crosslinking monomer was synthesised and found to be an effective linker unit.

Atmospheric pressure plasmas have been applied to a multitude of liquid-based applications such as wound healing, combustion, surface cleaning and small-scale chemical processing. For most of the applications, a plasma jet placed above the liquid is favoured, that is typically supplied with argon or helium. For large-scale processes such as wastewater or biomass pretreatment, localised plasma jets become uneconomical and inefficient. In the work presented in this thesis, a novel microbubbleenhanced DBD plasma reactor is presented which allows efficient transfer of highly reactive species from the plasma to a liquid medium. This novel design allows the discharge to be formed in the immediate vicinity of the gas-liquid interface enabling effective mass transfer of short-lived species. The reactor was characterised in the first instance to evaluate and optimize its performance by varying all the input parameters. These studies include understanding the effect of the bubble size, input gas composition and input power supply. The reactive species generated in the gas phase were measured using absorption spectroscopy, and the liquid phase concentrations of the reactive species were measured using a variety of chemical probes. By modelling the reactor, a more in-depth analysis was carried out by tracking the short-lived species over a high time resolution. This led to improvements in efficiency by selecting the optimum operating conditions depending on the plasma chemistry required. As one of the key reactive species is ozone, being able to quantify this concentration in the liquid phase with both precision and accuracy is essential. This led to the development of a selective chemical probe and measurements made with this new probe were compared against existing measurement techniques. The reactor was then applied to several applications including pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, pretreatment of anaerobic digester feed and treatment of final wastewater effluent. Treatment of lignocellulosic biomass is often required to break apart the structure to ease the conversion of biomass feedstock to a fuel, usually facilitated by enzymes or bacteria. By treating a suspension of biomass within the reactor, the reactive species transferred to the solution attack the structure increasing the yield of either biogas or ethanol depending on the process applied. Limitations of this approach to pretreatment were identified and future improvements were suggested. When treating a solution contaminated with E. coli, the oxidative species were found to be highly effective in inactivation of the bacteria. The presence of organic matter such as humic acid can significantly reduce the inactivation rate as they consumed the reactive species with competing reactions.

This thesis is the first full-length study of the English clergyman and historian William Cave (1637-1713). As one of a number of Restoration divines invested in exploring the lives and writings of the early Christians, Cave has nonetheless won only meagre interest from early-modernists in the past decade. Among his contemporaries and well into the nineteenth century Cave’s vernacular biographies of the Apostles and Church Fathers were widely read, but it was with the two volumes of his Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria (1688 and 1698), his life’s work, that he made his most important and lasting contribution to scholarship. The first aim of the thesis is therefore to build on a recent quickening of research into the innovative early-modern genre of historia literaria by exploring how, why, and with what help, in the context of late seventeenth-century European intellectual culture, Cave decided to write a work of literary history. To do so it makes extensive use of the handwritten drafts, annotations, notebooks, and letters that he left behind, giving a comprehensive account of his reading and scholarly practices from his student-days in 1650s Cambridge and then as a young clergyman in the 1660s to his final, unsuccessful attempts to publish a revised edition of his book at the end of his life. Cave’s motives, it finds, were multiple, complex, and sometimes conflicting: they developed in response to the immediate practical concerns of the post-Restoration Church of England even as they reflected some of the deeper-lying tensions of late humanist scholarship. The second reason for writing a thesis about Cave is that it makes it possible to reconsider an influential historiographical narrative about the origins of the ‘modern’ disciplinary category of literature. Since the 1970s the consensus among scholars has been that the nineteenth-century definition of literature as imaginative fictions in verse and prose – in other words literature as it is now taught in schools and universities – more or less completely replaced the early-modern notion of literature, literae, as learned books of all kinds. This view is challenged in the final section of this thesis, which traces the influence of Cave’s work on some of the canonical authors of the English literary tradition, including Johnson and Coleridge. Coleridge’s example, in particular, helps us to see why Cave and scholars like him were excluded lastingly from genealogies of English studies in the twentieth century, despite having given the discipline many of its characteristic concerns and aversions.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second largest cause of cancer deaths in the UK, with approximately 16,000 per year. Over 41,000 people are diagnosed annually, and 43% of those will die within ten years of diagnosis. The treatment of CRC patients relies on pathological examination of the disease to identify visual features that predict growth and spread, and response to chemoradiotherapy. These prognostic features are identified manually, and are subject to inter and intra-scorer variability. This variability stems from the subjectivity in interpreting large images which can have very varied appearances, as well as the time consuming and laborious methodology of visually inspecting cancer cells. The work in this thesis presents a systematic approach to developing a solution to address this problem for one such prognostic indicator, the Tumour:Stroma Ratio (TSR). The steps taken are presented sequentially through the chapters, in order of the work carried out. These specifically involve the acquisition and assessment of a dataset of 2.4 million expert-classified images of CRC, and multiple iterations of algorithm development, to automate the process of generating TSRs for patient cases. The algorithm improvements are made using conclusions from observer studies, conducted on a psychophysics experiment platform developed as part of this work, and further work is undertaken to identify issues of image quality that affect automated solutions. The developed algorithm is then applied to a clinical trial dataset with survival data, meaning that the algorithm is validated against two separate pathologist-scored, clinical trial datasets, as well as being able to test its suitability for generating independent prognostic markers.