Ageing sees a decline in appetite and food intake with associated deficiencies in both macronutrients and micronutrients. Reduced food intake will eventually lead to malnutrition. Different factors may contribute to malnutrition, including the physiological condition of a person, such as smell or taste dysfunction. Research has investigated methods that help to increase food consumption in the older population, with some studies demonstrating the impact of added herbs and spices on improving the liking and palatability of food. Spices with high polyphenol and antioxidant activity exhibit various health benefits, including regulating blood glucose levels. Moreover, monosodium glutamate (MSG) has been added to different foods, resulting in flavour enhancement and increased appetite. Hence, it can be hypothesised that sumac, containing glutamic acid, in addition to its high antioxidant and polyphenol content as a potential natural flavour enhancer, might also increase appetite among older adults. This PhD study…
The month in which they are born is consequential for some students as they progress through the educational system. Those born later in the academic year cycle, the summer months of May, June, July and August in England, are more likely to experience educational challenges due to their relative age within their year cohort. This study reports on a mixed methods research project, undertaken through a critical realist lens, in which I investigated quantitative patterns of enrolment in a large further education college and subsequently undertook qualitative research with a group of students, who were selected based on the earlier quantitative findings. Drawing on established international research evidence from the field of the relative age effect, this study challenges the unproblematic view that the effect of month of birth virtually disappears beyond the age of sixteen in England. Analysis of the findings shows that students born in the summer months disproportionately enrol onto further education courses in…
This dissertation will be exploring the arguments in favour of moral error theory, which is the metaethical theory that refers to moral statements as erroneous. Error theory relies on the idea that moral statements aim towards the truth, but as there are no moral properties that exist, so moral statements are systematically false. After defining moral error theory, I will then outline J.L Mackie’s account of error theory, including his two arguments against moral realism: the argument from relativity and the argument from queerness. In consideration of the arguments against Mackie’s error theory, I will explore three contemporary error theorists' ideas that have elaborated from Mackie’s arguments or have provided more compelling arguments in defence of error theory. The three error theorists that I will examine are Richard Joyce, Jonas Olson, and Bart Streumer. According to Joyce, Mackie’s queerness argument feels incomplete and provides a queerness argument, the argument from non-institutionality. …
Most international hotel companies have adopted initiatives to reduce their impacts on the environment. When seeking to deliver against these, most depend on a combination of resource reduction technologies and initiatives designed to change employee behaviours. For many, the latter is particularly challenging and thus there is a growing interest in pro-environmental behaviours. Thus, this has become an increasingly important topic for academics and practitioners in the hospitality sector. Over recent years, theoretical pro-environmental behaviour models have been tested in domestic, public and workplace settings, although in practice few of these have focused on hospitality workplaces. The limited focus on pro-environmental behaviour in hospitality workplace settings means that many areas of application of pro-environmental behaviour remain under-researched; in particular, the role of values (for example, personal environmental values in the personal sphere, and company environmental values in the corporate …
The belief that architecture plays a role in enhancing people’s physical and emotional wellbeing is now widely recognised. In the field of healthcare, the Maggie’s Centre has attracted attention since 1996 for its ability to increase psychological flexibility and engender therapeutic effects in people with cancer and their caregivers. Its unconventional architecture based on a concise and emotional architectural brief in synergy with its psychosocial support programme is what lies behind its success. With historical reference to the ancient Greek tradition of the therapeutic architecture of healing temples and to the model of organisation of the medieval Benedictine monastery, this research investigates what has a positive impact on users in the Maggie’s Centre. Within the academic world, this topic has so far only been investigated by scholars mainly in the social sciences; the results should encourage further architectural research to study and reconsider architecture as a form of care. Starting from an inv…
This thesis is a study of the eighteenth–century upholding trade in London, concentrating on the last half of the eighteenth century. From using eighteenth–century newspaper advertisements and news items, along with archives and manuscripts, it was possible to quantify key business aspects of upholders. The upholding trade evolved mostly from manufacturing and selling furniture and upholstery goods at the beginning of the eighteenth century into a trade that included funeral undertaking as a core business line by the third quarter of the eighteenth century. A distinct and quantifiable increase occurred in the number of upholders becoming sworn brokers and appraisers after 1760. At the same time, upholders were often associated with auctions, mostly as information providers rather than as actual auctioneers. Another change examined in this thesis is the wide use of private credit in the second-half of the eighteenth century, which increased spending on consumer goods, including those sold by upholders. There w…
Background Antibiotics are vital in treating infections and improving health conditions. However, overuse has led to the rapid development of antimicrobial resistance contributing to about 700,000 deaths globally per year. In United Kingdom primary healthcare settings, antibiotics for young children are prescribed in up to 50% of all consultations, often for viral infections for which antibiotics are ineffective. As mothers are usually the primary carers of their children, their attitudes and expectations to using antibiotics have a profound influence on their behaviour and the decisions they make on behalf of their children. Any reduction in antibiotic consumption in young children will decrease the risk of antibiotic resistance developing; this remains a significant and real threat to healthcare. The aim of this study is to understand maternal attitudes to antibiotic use in children. Method A mixed methods case study design was selected consisting of a quantitative and qualitative phase. In phase one, …
Children’s daily lives are filled with examples of intensive quantities (e.g. speed, cost). However, over 30 years of research shows that the intensive quantity concept is difficult for children to grasp. This thesis examines the factors that contribute to children’s difficulties with relational thinking about intensive quantities. To achieve this, a series of studies were conducted in which children’s performance on intensive quantity problems is compared with performance on comparable extensive quantity problems. The first study (N=228) provided a general examination of the performance of children aged 4-9 years on different intensive quantity problems (direct relations, inverse relations, proportional equivalence and sampling). Its main contribution was to establish the sequence in the development of different aspects of children’s relational thinking about intensive quantities. It also examined whether relational thinking success was sensitive to variations in problem presentation. Three types of problem …
Unilateral spatial neglect is one of the most striking consequences of right-sided brain damage and is characterised by the patient's failure to respond to stimuli on the side contralateral to the cerebral lesion. Visual neglect disrupts many aspects of daily living such as mobility, dressing and reading, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Previous attempts to explain the condition have resulted in a wide variety of terms and test procedures. An adequate theoretical account of neglect requires a data-base that represents the basic patterns of impaired and preserved performance within and between individuals. Despite considerable interest in neglect, no such large scale data-base currently exists. A consideration of the factors and difficulties that contribute to this situation are reviewed in Chapter 2. The present thesis describes the development, standardisation and validation of a test battery designed to identify a wide variety of neglect behaviours observed in clinical practice. The …
Background: Mental ill-health is a significant problem among young people, negatively affecting their quality of life with long-term consequences. A need exists for a broader range of interventions to address the determinants that affect mental health, early, when problems are emerging. Research suggests that the balance and nature of daily occupational choices can influence mental health in adults, but its influence on adolescent mental health has yet to be fully explored. Adolescence is a key period in developing occupational choice and learning how to balance daily occupations. To date there is a limited understanding of how adolescents choose and balance occupations, the relationship of occupational choices to mental health, and whether an intervention developed with young people can support individuals in their occupational choices to affect their mental health. Aim: This study aims to understand how young people use their time, their perception of this process in relation to their situational context …