The perception of clinical breathlessness is a complex experience, modulated by physical and psychological factors. Distinguishable types of breathlessness arising from different peripheral mechanisms have been delineated, experimental models of these specific types have been developed and advances have been made in multidimensional assessments. However, current knowledge about cerebral mechanisms of breathlessness is lacking. Functional brain imaging studies have identified involvement of certain cortical structures but interpretations of these data are limited by various assumptions. Aim:The primary purpose of this thesis was to interrogate the validity of the conclusions drawn by recent brain imaging studies and to draw further inferences about cerebral mechanisms of dyspnoea from neurological patients undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) for relief of other symptoms. Focusing on experimentally induced ‘air hunger’ (the most unpleasant form of clinical breathlessness) two primary working hypotheses wer…
This doctoral thesis investigates the use of immersive technology for workplace training with the purpose of improving competence building and providing a framework for future development. Although rooted in computer science, it reaches out to other disciplines, including technology-enhanced learning, pedagogy, and statistical psychology, in order to inform and evaluate the development of an immersive training system. Built around a core of software engineering principles and practices, this research's theoretical landscape includes Affordance Theory and Social Systems Theory. It takes structure from models of technology acceptance (UTAUT2) and Anderson and Krathwohl's taxonomy of cognitive processes, using these to shed light on the attitudes and expectations that surround the use of this technology. An `experience capture system' is described, which allows an expert to compose sequences of augmented instructions while carrying out the activity. As well as a head-mounted display, the system also used body-…
Societal attitudes towards bisexuality have often been argued to be overwhelmingly associated with denial, erasure, and stigmatisation. Bisexual people are considered to be disadvantaged amongst other sexual minorities due to various complexities, such as its disruption to heteronormative ways of thinking in addition to harmful stereotypes that have come to be attributed to it over time. General bisexuality research up to this point in time have tended to focus on generalised bisexuality or have included bisexuality under the guise of LGB or LGBTQ+ etc. acronyms but without much focus on it as a separate entity. Moreover, media coverage of bisexuality sports athletes has also been found to be limited in comparison to other LGBTQ+ groups such as lesbian women and gay men in sport. This study takes the stance of a textual media analysis through which the narratives presented about bisexual people in sport were analysed and cross-examined with existing literature, in addition to theoretical lenses such as the…
Founded in 1851 as the ‘Wesleyan Normal Institute’, Westminster College was a Methodist teacher training college which relocated to Harcourt Hill on the edge of Oxford in 1959. By this time, the Methodist Education Committee had been attempting to relocate the College for thirty years, and had considered a number of locations as potentially suitable, including sites linked to the University Colleges of Hull and Leicester. From 1930, Westminster College operated a four-year training scheme: three years of undergraduate study at a University of London college, and one year of teacher training at the College itself. Teacher training evolved considerably during the early twentieth century, shifting from a vocational training programme certified solely by the Board of Education towards primarily being the responsibility of universities. Colleges like Westminster, therefore, saw their place in education change greatly during this time, further impeded by two world wars and other changes in society. Completed under …
Survivors of critical illness frequently experience long-term physical impairment, decreased health-related quality of life and low rates of return to employment. There has been limited investigation of the underlying problems impacting physical function of patients post-Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission. Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions may be complex in presentation, with ICU survivors potentially at greater risk of their development. The MSK health state of ICU survivors and the relationship to physical function and wider participation remains largely unknown. The objectives of this research are to: 1. Determine the current evidence reporting MSK outcomes following discharge from hospital after critical illness. 2. Determine the MSK health state of ICU survivors six months following admission to ICU and assess its relationship with health-related quality of life, employment, anxiety and depression, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. 3. Identify prognostic factors for MSK health state follo…
Cigarette smoking (CS) is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. Despite increasing knowledge regarding the health threats of CS, its global use remains a problem, even among pregnant women, with 8.1% of pregnant women smoking. In addition to maternal health, prenatal CS has been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ADHD and ASD, which include deficits in language skills. However, there is little research on CS specific effects on language skills. Nicotine, the addictive component of tobacco, exerts its cognitive effects by binding to the neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine choline receptors (nAChRs), among which the subtypes α7 and α4β2, have been linked to cognitive functions such as working memory (WM). Moreover, recent work linked a rare variant in Resistant to inhibitors of cholinesterase 3 (RIC3; NM_024557.4:c.262G>A, NP_078833.3:p.G88R) to a unique ability to speak backwards, a language skill with hypothesised association with exceptional WM capacity. Could RIC3 variants be a potential lin…
Important security constellations within the state, suggest that at the local level the state is no longer a referent object of security but rather one stakeholder among many. My thesis challenges the assumption of a fixed hierarchy between stakeholders in the security landscape at the local level. By exploring interorganisational collaboration in the security context I illustrate that this is feasible, in a way that allows a new way of seeing non-state actors as the whole, and the state as a component part. I have used an interdisciplinary approach to open up a new viewpoint and appropriately conceptualise security at the local level. The context within which security collaborations exist at the local level are often underexplored, and my insights contribute to the Security debate, and the Interorganisational Collaboration (IOC) debate. My research philosophy reflects a constructivist ontology and an interpretivist epistemology, which focuses on understanding how people perceive the world. I used a qualitati…
This study examines the University-Industry-Government (UIG) collaboration as a potential driver for innovation in Nigeria. While Nelson and Rosenberg (1993), Freeman and Soete (1997) and Lundvall (1998) acknowledge the roles of innovation in economic development, Wallin et al. (2014) and Ankrah and Omar (2015) note that University-Industry-Government interactions are central to stimulating regional and national economic growth. However, most of these studies focus on developed countries, unlike developing economies like Nigeria, whose institutions are weak occasioned with limited resources (Lehrer, Nell and Gärber, 2009; Datta and Souleh, 2018). This study, therefore, draws on the various theories of innovations such as National Systems of Innovation (NIS), National Innovative Capacity (NIC) and Triple Helix Model (THM) to examine the trilateral interaction in Nigeria based on three parameters, including channels of interaction, developmental stages of the Triple Helix and inhibiting factors. The study is ba…
Evoking Belonging was developed as a 100% practice-based doctoral research enquiry in the field of contemporary Social Sculpture and Connective Practice. Through the research practice, I have formulated the Evoking Belonging approach comprising the Ubuntu Practices. These are informed by my Evoke theory of inclusive and equitable participatory enquiry. The practice emphasises the significance of experiential knowledge (lived experience), enlivenment and performance. Experiential knowledge is understood as an intangible heritage, a means of knowing, which enlivens our cultural practices. Performance in the Evoking Belonging Ubuntu Practices occurs as participants and researcher come together as co-researchers to new forms of knowing. This results in a sense of enlivenment, achieved through enquiry into memories, cultural practices, mythology, symbol and philosophy. Enlivenment is experienced as an inner awakening to new ways of seeing. In this enquiry, I work with narratives of migration to illuminate possibil…
Medical practice is replete with emotive images and processes in everyday small interactions as well asissues of life and death. Practitioners can be moved in aesthetic ways. The capacity for, and attention to, personal lived aesthetic experience is easily suppressed in clinical practice where the objective evidence base has primacy. Aesthetic experience has been linked with values in different contemporary fields and could thus be important in healthcare. In this research, ‘aesthetic’ refers to sensory perception and the imaginative dimension. ‘Aesthetic experience’ relates to the latter including emotions, the tacit, haptic, pre-reflective and the embodied. To articulate this rich internal complexity, an arts and practice-based approach was employed that was inspired by connective practices from the field of Social Sculpture. The research aims were to explore and describe the nature of a type of aesthetic experience relevant to the everyday work of health care practitioners; to develop and de…