Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding The Impact On The Wellbeing Of Students With Specific Learning Difficulties Through Teaching Interventions, Dylan K Williams

Plymouth Institute of Education Theses

The study set out to explore whether teaching methods can improve the wellbeing of students with SpLDs. This study addresses a gap in the literature, identifying wellbeing differences between different types of educational environment and SEN provisions. It explores whether there are benefits from inclusive education to student wellbeing, considering constructs of wellbeing relevant to the impact of SpLDs, synthesising pedagogic, psychotherapeutic and developmental perspectives. 74 student participants were recruited through the SEN departments of 4 UK schools - each with differing approaches to SEN support. Student participants completed two psychometric wellbeing questionnaires. They also engaged in photographic exercise, capturing …

Comparing Interventions And Beliefs About Autism And Links To Interpersonal Relatedness In Two Cities, In Turkey And England, Mahmut Serkan Yazici

Plymouth Institute of Education Theses

This thesis explores similarities and differences between interventions and beliefs about autism in Turkey and England. It is known that Turkish culture is interdependent and English culture is independent. It is also known that differences in interpersonal relatedness affect views about social behaviour, life goals and social priorities. This thesis, therefore, also explores whether interpersonal relatedness influences interventions and belief about autism in both countries. This research is based on case studies of special and mainstream schools in two cities, one in Turkey and one in England. The study used mixed research methods including questionnaires, interviews and observations. Participants included …

The Impact Of Arts Education Programmes On Anti-Racist School Practice In The South West Of England, Heather Knight

Plymouth Institute of Education Theses

In predominantly White schools, a common belief exists that anti-racist education is unnecessary, despite a rise in the number of people who admit to being racially prejudiced. A colour-blind approach, which silences issues of race, tends to dominate in schools, while, fear of ‘getting it wrong’ prevents meaningful dialogue. My thesis addresses the question, in what ways do arts programmes support anti-racist education in predominantly White areas? This includes two threads. Firstly, I take a critical race theory approach, drawing on Whiteness studies, to explore White teachers' and school students’ assumptions about racism and education. Secondly, using a critical pedagogy …

The Sorption Fate Of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients In Soils Receiving High Wastewater Inputs And Implications For Risk Assessments, Katherine Edith Lees

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences Theses

Population growth, increasing affluence, and greater access to medicines have led to an increase in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) entering sewerage networks. Wastewater in lower and lower middle-income countries use that use wastewater for irrigation may use untreated or poorly treated wastewater resulting in the potential for greater concentrations of APIs to enter soils in this way. Wastewater re-used for irrigation is currently not included in environmental risk assessments for APIs in soils. The addition of wastewater to soils changes the organic content and can increase the pH of soils, which will have an impact on the fate of any …

Air Quality Management Review: Systematic Literature Review And Case Study Of Local Air Quality Management In The United Kingdom (Uk), Amanda Shenton

School of Nursing and Midwifery Theses

Advancements in the scientific understanding in the associated health implications of air pollution, coupled with raised public awareness and media coverage has brought this ever evolving public and environmental health issue into the forefront of society’s agenda, within the UK. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact the current Local Air Quality Management framework has had at reducing air pollution. The research project was designed in two phases: The initial structured literature search and review appraised the current body of knowledge in this area, developed an understanding of the known successes and shortfalls of Local Air Quality …

Organic Nitrogen Uptake By Marine Algae: Consequences For Marine Ecosystem Functioning And Biodiversity, Monica Raccagni

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences Theses

Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) represents a major pool of fixed, reactive nitrogen in marine systems. It is now recognized that this pool can support primary production and the ability of some algal species to exploit DON compounds as sources of Nitrogen (N) may indicate that specific DON components can exert selective pressure on the composition of the phytoplankton community. In this study the ability of monocultures of ecologically-relevant algal species from the English Channel (Emiliania huxleyi, Micromonas pusilla, Alexandrium minutum and Chaetoceros peruvianus) to grow with DON as the only N source was examined using different artificial media. Among the …

Foundations In Wisconsin: A Directory (37th Ed. 2018), Mary C. Frenn, John Francis Brick, Clare Casey, Jeremy Cluth, Kathryn Hendrickson, Madeline Murphy, Sareene Proodian

Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory

The 2018 edition of Foundations in Wisconsin is the 37th edition of the print directory and the 18th year of the online version. The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was drawn from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. Additional information was obtained from surveys, foundation websites, and annual reports.

First World Problems, Developing World Impacts: An Assessment Of The Adequacy Of The Law On Shipbreaking, Shannen Trout

The Plymouth Law and Criminal Justice Review

Shipbreaking, or recycling, is a potentially destructive practice reflecting many dimensions to the modern sustainable development debate. It engages a suite of legal issues and has prompted discussion between professionals concerned with the environment, the economy and workplace ethics. This article seeks, first, to identify the breadth of issues that arise within the shipbreaking industry; and then proceeds to discuss the legal frameworks that regulate the trade, their effectiveness or otherwise; and concludes that the overall efforts to impose legislative or other regulatory systems, internationally and domestically, are far from what is needed in order to reform shipbreaking into a …

Practitioner To Academic: A Reflective And Personal Account, Luke Fisher

The Plymouth Law and Criminal Justice Review

No abstract provided.

Identifying Factors That Influence The Use Of Dark Web Cryptomarkets: Qualitative Interviews With Cryptomarket Users, Michael Felstead

The Plymouth Law and Criminal Justice Review

Dark Web cryptomarkets represent a phenomenon in modern criminality and their study is of key importance to contemporary criminology. This study aims to identify factors that influence the use of cryptomarkets and to gain further insight into the opinions and experiences of their users. The aims of the study were achieved by identifying multiple cryptomarket users through snowball sampling and conducting a series of semi structured interviews. Users described quality, anonymity and harm reduction as major influencing factors of their cryptomarket use. Participants displayed the qualities of a rational consumer orientation and explained that their use of cryptomarkets was linked …

Carbon And Nitrogen Isoscapes In West Antarctica Reflect Oceanographic Transitions, Emily K. Brault, Paul L. Koch, Kelton W. Mcmahon, Kyle H. Broach, Aaron P. Rosenfield, Wilson Sauthoff, Valerie J. Loeb, Kevin R. Arrigo, Walker O. Smith Jr.

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Antarctic marine ecosystems are spatially and temporally dynamic. Regional climate change is significantly altering the patterns and magnitudes of this dynamism with cascading impacts on biogeochemistry, productivity, and food web architecture. Isoscapes (or isotopic maps) provide a valuable analytical framework to characterize ecosystem processes and address questions about trophic dynamics, animal movement, and elemental cycling. Applications of stable isotope methods to Antarctic ecosystems are currently limited by a paucity of information on geospatial isotope characteristics within the Southern Ocean. In response, we have created the first empirically derived zooplankton isoscapes for West Antarctica based on analysis of bulk nitrogen and …

Mortality In A Cohort Of Remote-Living Aboriginal Australians And Associated Factors, Zoe Hyde, Kate Smith, Leon Flicker, David Atkinson, Osvaldo P. Almeida, Nicola T. Lautenschlager, Anna Dwyer, Dina Logiudice

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

Objectives: We aimed to describe mortality in a cohort of remote-living Aboriginal Australians using electronic record linkage.

Methods: Between 2004 and 2006, 363 Aboriginal people living in remote Western Australia (WA) completed a questionnaire assessing medical history and behavioural risk factors. We obtained mortality records for the cohort from the WA Data Linkage System and compared them to data for the general population. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to identify predictors of mortality over a 9-year follow-up period.

Results: The leading causes of mortality were diabetes, renal failure, and ischaemic heart disease. Diabetes and renal failure accounted for 28% …

Comparison Of Neuroprotective Efficacy Of Poly-Arginine R18 And R18d (D-Enantiomer) Peptides Following Permanent Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion In The Wistar Rat And In Vitro Toxicity Studies, Diego Melani, Megan C. Bakeberg, Jane L. Cross, Vince W. Clark, Ryan S. Anderton, David J. Blacker, Neville W. Knuckey, Bruno P. Meloni

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

We have previously demonstrated that arginine-rich and poly-arginine peptides possess potent neuroprotective properties, with poly-arginine peptide R18 identified as being highly effective at reducing infarct volume following middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in the Sprague Dawley rat. Since peptides synthesised using D-isoform amino acids have greater stability than L-isoform peptides due to increased resistance to proteolytic degradation, they represent potentially more effective peptide therapeutics. Therefore we compared the neuroprotective efficacy of R18 and its D-enantiomer R18D following permanent MCAO in the Wistar rat. Furthermore, as increased peptide stability may also increase peptide toxicity, we examined the effects of R18 and …

Perinatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy And Neuroprotective Peptide Therapies: A Case For Cationic Arginine-Rich Peptides (Carps), Adam B. Edwards, Ryan S. Anderton, Neville W. Knuckey, Bruno P. Meloni

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

Perinatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in neonates, with survivors suffering significant neurological sequelae including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders. While hypothermia is used clinically to reduce neurological injury following HIE, it is only used for term infants (>36 weeks gestation) in tertiary hospitals and improves outcomes in only 30% of patients. For these reasons, a more effective and easily administrable pharmacological therapeutic agent, that can be used in combination with hypothermia or alone when hypothermia cannot be applied, is urgently needed to treat pre-term (_36 weeks gestation) and …

The Decline Of Free Speech On The Postmodern Campus: The Troubling Evolution Of The Heckler's Veto, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

The Twenty-First Century has presented new challenges to the traditional ways that free speech in America has been encouraged and protected. While the right to express one’s opinions has become increasingly problematic in society at large, it is particularly imperiled in the very places that pride themselves as being open marketplaces of ideas – on college and university campuses.
Today we’re faced with numerous campus speech codes that substantially limit First-Amendment rights. They are ubiquitous and often cavalierly invoked. For civil libertarians the good news is that not one of the few such codes that have been tested in court …

The Perpetual “Invasion”: Past As Prologue In Constitutional Immigration Law, Matthew Lindsay

All Faculty Scholarship

Donald Trump ascended to the presidency largely on the promise to protect the American people—their physical and financial security, their culture and language, even the integrity of their electoral system—against an invading foreign menace. Only extraordinary defensive measures, including “extreme vetting” of would-be immigrants, a ban on Muslims entering the United States, and a 2,000-mile-long wall along the nation’s southern border could repel the encroaching hordes. If candidate Trump’s scapegoating of unauthorized migrants and refugees was disarmingly effective, it was also eerily familiar to those of us who study the history of immigration law and policy. Indeed, the trope of …

The Role Of Cellular Prion Protein In The Development Of Schwannomas And Other Merlin-Deficient Tumours, Lucy Provenzano

Peninsula Medical School Theses

Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) is an inherited, multiple tumour disease caused by loss of the tumour suppressor protein, Merlin. There are several tumours associated with NF2 including; ependymomas, meningiomas and schwannomas. Merlin loss can also occur sporadically in all of these tumours and is associated with upregulation of various growth factor receptors and their relevant signalling pathways. At present the only treatment options for NF2 are surgery or radiosurgery, both of which incur serious morbidity and are unable to prevent recurrence of tumours. Either new drug treatments, or re-profiling of other drugs already commercially available, are urgently needed to improve …

Antibacterial Nanoparticle - Decorated Carbon Nanotube - Reinforced Calcium Phosphate Composites As Bone Implants, Kiruthika Natesan

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Hydroxyapatite (HA) is a biologically active ceramic used in surgery to replace bone. While HA promotes bone growth, it suffers from weak mechanical properties and does not possess any antibacterial property. Multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), as one of the strongest and stiffest materials, have the potential to strengthen and toughen HA, thus expanding the range of clinical uses for the material. Furthermore, Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) can be decorated to sidewalls of the MWCNTs which could be released over a period of time to prevent infection following surgery. This work sought to develop and characterise Ag NPs- MWCNTs – …

Regulation Of Macrophage Subsets In Homeostatic And Inflammatory Mucosal Environments, Khalid Alshaghdali

Other Faculty of Health Theses

The interaction between epithelial cells and macrophages is integral to mucosal immune fate: determining the decision between tolerance and immune activation/inflammation. Endotoxin tolerisation (ET) is a circumstance where cells go through a hypo-responsive state, unable to respond to further endotoxin-LPS challenge. Mucosal macrophages (MΦs) have a dual functionality that determines tolerance to commensal organisms or immune response to entropathogens such as E. coli. In the case of mucosal inflammatory pathologies, such as Crohn’s disease, this state of tolerance is broken, resulting in destruction of gut mucosal tissue where the macrophage phenotype has been altered from a regulatory M2-like subset phenotype …

Commonalities And Differences In Visual And Auditory Multistability, Mihaela Taranu

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Perceptual bi/multi-stability—the phenomenon in which perceptual awareness switches between alternative interpretations of a stimulus—can be elicited by a large range of stimuli. The phenomenon is explored in vision, audition, touch, and even olfaction. The degree to which perceptual switching across visual and auditory bi/multi-stable paradigms depends on common or separate mechanisms remains unanswered. This main question was addressed in the current work by using four ambiguous tasks that give rise to bi/multi-stability and which are thought to involve rivalry at different levels of cognitive processing: auditory streaming and ambiguous-structure-from-motion (low- level tasks), and verbal transformations and ambiguous figures (high-level tasks). …

The Timing And Composition Of Gestational Weight Gain And The Impact On Neonatal Anthropometry, Kathy Redfern

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Background: Numerous maternal factors, such as body mass index (BMI), gestational weight gain (GWG), diet and physical activity (PA) have been shown to impact infant birth weight. In the UK, antenatal care tends to be based on pre-pregnancy BMI and women are not weighed routinely during pregnancy nor are there guidelines for GWG. However, it is widely acknowledged that maternal obesity and GWG in excess of the American Institute of Medicine guidelines are associated with increased risk of foetal macrosomia and recent studies have suggested a role of the timing and composition of GWG beyond that of BMI. The purpose …

An Investigation Into The Validation Of Pedometers To Detect Foreleg Steps In Horses (Equus Caballus) At Walk And Trot, Elizabeth Jane Francis

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Background: Current research, surrounding motor laterality at a population level in horses, indicates that in order to stand with the left forelimb in advance of the other, it is achieved by taking a greater amount of steps with the left foreleg than the right foreleg (McGreevy & Thomson 2006; McGreevy et al. 2007); suggesting that pedometers could effectively estimate asymmetry of forelimb locomotion in grazing horses. This novel method of detecting forelimb preference also reduces the likelihood of operator influence and provides an inexpensive objective measure of vertical movement which has the advantage of scoring large sample sizes, avoids single-day …

Computational Modelling Of Human Aesthetic Preferences In The Visual Domain: A Brain-Inspired Approach, François Lemarchand

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Following the rise of neuroaesthetics as a research domain, computational aesthetics has also known a regain in popularity over the past decade with many works using novel computer vision and machine learning techniques to evaluate the aesthetic value of visual information. This thesis presents a new approach where low-level features inspired from the human visual system are extracted from images to train a machine learning-based system to classify visual information depending on its aesthetics, regardless of the type of visual media. Extensive tests are developed to highlight strengths and weaknesses of such low-level features while establishing good practices in the …

A Continued Musical And Personal Dialogue With The Waves Of Epilepsy., Alan Douglas Miles

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

A Continued Musical and Personal Dialogue with the Waves of Epilepsy. In the early hours of the morning several years ago I awoke with paramedics leaning over me. In a state of confusion, my first conscious decision was to enter my music production studio while they attempted to lead me to the ambulance. Music was important to me even in a disorientated post-ictal state (an altered state of consciousness following a seizure). Two weeks later I awoke with paramedics standing over me again. I had started to experience multiple seizures. During the previous weeks, I also experienced numerous incidents of …

‘University Must Be Saved’ Genealogy As A Knowledge Approach., Patrizia Moschella

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

The research offers an elaboration of genealogy as an approach to knowledge from Friedrich Nietzsche's original work on method (1887) processed by Michel Foucault (1971). It provides an interdisciplinary version that integrates theoretical and analytical contributions from the philosophy of knowledge, from exact and social sciences to artistic research. This work also takes into account those who have most explicitly enhanced the potentialities of geneaalogy such as Gilles Deleuze (1962) and, more recently, Carlo Sini (2007) and Giorgio Agamben (2010), but also embraces the reflections of researchers, from the past or present, whom I dare associate with the genealogy approach …

Turbo Film As Artistic Apparatus And As Manifesto For The Uncertain Future Of Moving Images, Paololuca Barbieri Marchi

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

The following research is a practice-based Ph.D. in filmmaking that proposes to define an unclassified film genre and its specific artistic practice. This practice, at the intersection of experimental films, art-cinema and Youtube user- generated videos, I refer to as “Turbo Films.” Beginning with a critical perspective on video art and experimental film history, as it relates to today’s public approach towards the production of moving images, the concept of “Turbo Films” is proposed as an opportunity to understand new trajectories in the production of image-culture, and as holistic modus operandi for the current cross-media environment. Turbo Films have been …

A Framework For The Consideration Of Narrative In Creative Arts Practice, Paul Green

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

This research project is aimed at creative practitioners in art and design who choose to engage in postgraduate research and who recognise narrative to be an important aspect of their work. While the goal of narratology has been explicitly declared as an interest in understanding narrative in all its forms, this project responded to a perceived absence of art and design centred perspectives in the general literature on narrative. A general attitude has developed throughout the course of the twentieth century resulting in a view that narrative has become a dead issue for contemporary practitioners. Findings from the investigations conducted …

An Investigation Of Computer Vision Syndrome With Smart Devices, Muhammad Afzam Shah Bin Abdul Rahim

School of Health Professions Theses

The overarching theme of the thesis was to investigate the association between smart device use and computer vision syndrome. The initial study designed and developed the Open Field Tear film Analyser (OFTA) enabling a continuous, real-time assessment of the tear film and blink characteristics during smart device use. The monocular OFTA prototype was validated and showed good intra- and inter-observer repeatability relative to the Oculus Keratograph 5M and Bausch and Lomb one position keratometer. Subsequently, tear osmolarity following engagement with reading and gaming tasks on smart device and paper platforms was investigated. Discrete measures of osmolarity pre- and post-engagement with …

Developing An Artificial Colour-Sound Association For Musical Composition, Richard Abbott

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Some great composers - Messiaen, Scriabin, Liszt in exemplum - have been found to have an internal colour world that responds to music and characterises the way they experience and express music. Many of these artists, it could be strongly argued, had the neurological trait synaesthesia. The author, a non-synaesthete, creates a logical correspondence between colour and sound and uses it to explore the tonality of aesthetic colour combinations in nature and modern life. He argues that if the colour-sound practitioner is consistent in their colour-sound association, they can benefit in harmonic discoveries as the synaesthete does. It was found …

The Development And Application Of Computational Multi-Agent Models For Investigating The Cultural Transmission And Cultural Evolution Of Humpback Whale Song, Michael Mcloughlin

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Three different multi-agent models are presented in this thesis, each with a different goal. The first model investigates the possible role migratory routes may have on song evolution and revolution. The second model investigates what social networks could theoretically facilitate song sharing in a population of whales. The third model implements a formal grammar algorithm in order to investigate how the hierarchal structure of the song may affect song evolution. Finally, the thesis attempts to reconnect the models with their origins and discusses how these models could potentially be adapted for composing music. Through the development of these different models, …