Spartan Foreign Policy in the Third Century BC See

Spartan foreign policy in the third century BC is a neglected topic of Spartan history. This work explores this issue and argues for Spartan proactive participation in the interstate interactions of the third century BC. In doing so, it explains the reasons which drove Sparta to interact with other states and the extent of such interaction. It demonstrates that decision-making power was distributed between particular Spartan individuals and institutions, and that the changing distribution of ...

Scarpato, Andrea

Circulating DNA for the in vivo detection and monitoring of lung cancer See

Lung cancer is the most lethal cancer globally, in part because it is often diagnosed at an incurable stage. Furthermore, limited options exist for effective patient treatment stratification within the disease. Circulating cell free (cf) DNA provides an accessible non-invasive source of patient tumour DNA, potentially useful for the detection of early stage lesions, or for identifying biomarkers predictive of response to treatment in more advanced disease. The molecular chaperone Heat S...

Rakhit, Callum Paul

Drawings for and after Sculpture in Sixteenth-Century Italy See

This thesis examines sixteenth-century Italian drawings that either record or prepare sculpture. It rejects the popular notion that sculptors’ drawings are stylistically distinct from those of painters and argues that graphic style cannot be used to predict the profession of an unidentified draughtsman. This erroneous notion oversimplifies both the range of techniques and divergent graphic personalities of individual sculptor-draughtsmen. Though other commentators have rejected this idea...

Hicks, Ian

Investigating the role of DNA methylation in abdominal aortic aneurysms See

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a complex disease characterised by the irreversible dilation of the abdominal aorta. Little is known about its epigenetic basis, and DNA methylation is the most extensively studied epigenetic mechanism. Global methylation was assessed in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) DNA from 185 people using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), identifying global hypermethylation in those with a large AAA, and a linear association with increasing AAA dia...

Toghill, Bradley James

Shared and distinct genetic determinants between idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and other pulmonary traits See

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a rare lung disease characterised by the deposit of scar tissue on the lung epithelium, reduced lung function and poor prognosis (median survival 3 years). Despite environmental and genetic factors being reported as associated with IPF, the pathogenesis of IPF is unclear and few effective treatment options are available. If the genetic basis of IPF were shared with another trait then this may aid understanding of the disease and guide research into ...

Allen, Richard James

The ‘right to the city’ in the post-welfare metropolis. Community building, autonomous infrastructures and urban commons in Rome’s self-organised housing squats. See

In the city of Rome, the housing crisis has reached emergency proportions as part of an interrelated and ongoing crisis of social reproduction intrinsic to the process of neoliberal restructuring in the prolonged aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. Part of this crisis are the estimated that 10,000 people are currently living inside more than 100 previously empty buildings, of both private and public ownership, that have been occupied and self-renovated by the squatters as an autonomou...

Grazioli, Margherita

The Role of Digital Media in the Everyday Lives of International Students See

My research uses a systematic empirical case study at the University of Leicester to investigate international students’ digital practices before, during and in leaving United Kingdom Higher Education (UKHE) relative to personal, social, academic and professional lives. Rich empirical data centres on students’ voices of experience and by charting their everyday digital practices. I explore the differentiated experiences, emotions and identities of international study and students’ lives. Mixe...

Booth, James Donald

Veiled Pearls: Women in Saudi Arabia in Contemporary Fiction See

In comparison to other Arab/Muslim women, Saudi women are underexamined and/or often misrepresented. This thesis resists Saudi women’s obscurity and sheds light on their struggle to overcome domination and achieve emancipation. It analyses Hilary Mantel’s Eight Months on Ghazzah Street (1988), Rajaa Alsanea’s Girls of Riyadh (2008), Zoe Ferraris’s trilogy, Finding Nouf (2009), City of Veils (2011), and Kingdom of Strangers (2012), and Alys Einion’s Inshallah (2014). The thesis examines t...

Al-Harby, Nesreen Abdullah

Dialogic Development Process (DDP) - an action research study into complex community change in an international school See

The already complex nature of international schools has been magnified by the multiple external influences of rapid globalisation, the agenda of the Global Education Reform Movement and the increasing commercialisation and corporatism within the sector. As a result traditionally planned change processes have become difficult to sustain. Typically, the success of these planned change processes depends upon the personality and skills of the school leader in attempting to control or reduce the i...

Singer, Jeremy David

Infrared Laser Spectroscopy of Molecules in Helium Nanodroplets See

This project is centred upon the probing of the structures of molecular clusters in helium nanodroplets (HeDs) via infrared laser spectroscopy. Absorption of IR radiation by clusters inside HeDs causes helium to evaporate from the droplet, resulting in a lower ionisation cross section for the droplet and a consequent depletion of ion signals due to the absorbing clusters in mass spectra. This mass selectivity was used to assist with the assignment of specific IR bands to specific sizes of clu...

Sulaiman, Media Ismael

An Exploration of the Learning Experiences of Low- Attainers in Primary Mathematics in Sri Lanka See

The curriculum for primary mathematics in Sri Lankan schools was revised recently with the aim of introducing constructivist approaches to the teaching and learning process. When initiating these changes, only minimal attention was given to the learning experiences of young pupils, especially for the low-attainers in primary mathematics. Recent studies also have shown that low attainment is still a major problem in Sri Lankan primary schools. Thus, this study aims to fulfill the major require...

Ekanayake, Prabhath Chandana Sri

Ruin probability via several numerical methods See

In this thesis, ruin probabilities of insurance companies are studied. Ruin proba- bility in finite time is considered because it is more realistic compared with infinite time ruin probabilities. However, infinite time methods are also mentioned in order to compare them with the finite time methods. The thesis will initially provide some information about ruin probability of a risk process in finite and infinite time, and then the Markov chain and quantum mechan- ics approaches will be ...

Tamturk, Muhsin

SCNS: a graphical tool for reconstructing executable regulatory networks from single-cell genomic data See

BACKGROUND: Reconstruction of executable mechanistic models from single-cell gene expression data represents a powerful approach to understanding developmental and disease processes. New ambitious efforts like the Human Cell Atlas will soon lead to an explosion of data with potential for uncovering and understanding the regulatory networks which underlie the behaviour of all human cells. In order to take advantage of this data, however, there is a need for general-purpose, user-friendly and e...

Woodhouse, Steven; Piterman, Nir; Wintersteiger, Christoph M.; Göttgens, Berthold; Fisher, Jasmin

Risk Factors for Prognosis in Patients With Severely Decreased GFR See

Introduction: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <30 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (corresponding to CKD stage G4+) comprise a minority of the overall CKD population but have the highest risk for adverse outcomes. Many CKD G4+ patients are older with multiple comorbidities, which may distort associations between risk factors and clinical outcomes. Methods: We undertook a meta-analysis of risk factors for kidney failure treated with kidney replaceme...

Evans, Marie; Grams, Morgan E.; Sang, Yingying; Astor, Brad C.; Blankestijn, Pete J.... et al.

Modelling the effect of gravity on inert-gas washout outputs See

Multiple-breath washout (MBW) is a pulmonary function test (PFT) that is used to infer lung function through measurement of ventilation heterogeneity (VH). However, the body position that a test is taken in may also influence VH, due to the "Slinky" effect of gravity on the lungs. In healthy subjects this has minimal effect, but in unhealthy groups, PFT outputs have been seen to change drastically with body position. In this study, we used a combined computational and clinical approach to bet...

Foy, Brody H.; Gonem, Sherif; Brightling, Christopher; Siddiqui, Salman; Kay, David

Electrochemical Detection of Plasma Immunoglobulin as a Biomarker for Alzheimer's Disease See

The clinical diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) represent a challenge to clinicians due to the variability of clinical symptomatology as well as the unavailability of reliable diagnostic tests. In this study, the development of a novel electrochemical assay and its potential to detect peripheral blood biomarkers to diagnose AD using plasma immunoglobulins is investigated. The immunosensor employs a gold electrode as the immobilizing substrate, albumin depleted plasma immunogl...

Garyfallou, Goulielmos-Zois; Ketebu, Orlando; Şahin, Samet; Mukaetova-Ladinska, Elizabeth B.; Catt, Michael... et al.

Time to address the knowledge gaps for late preterm birth See

Late preterm babies, born between 34+0 and 36+6 weeks of gestation, account for around 6-7% of all births and for three quarters of all preterm births. It is perhaps surprising therefore that for years, such a large population of babies, has been regarded with a degree of disinterest by clinicians. However, the large majority appear well at birth, spend only a short time in hospital compared with their very preterm counterparts, and for the most part do not cause anxiety for neonatologist...

Boyle, Elaine

Ethical agency contracts as a basis for co-operative management and leadership See

The paper argues for the concept of an ethical agency contract as a basis for leadership and management engagement and development in the co-operative context. The paper agrees with Sigismundo B. Neto (2012) that agency problems are complex given the governance structures of co-operatives. Neto does acknowledge the possibility of an ‘ethical agency’ and the paper develops this idea as a possible solution to the mounting record of commercial failure, demutualization and general inertia found i...

Davis, Peter

The local in the global: regions, employment systems and multinationals See

This article examines how the international competition to attract and retain foreign direct investment shapes the governance of business and employment systems. Through an examination of global production networks and the changing role of the state in economic governance, it highlights the sub‐national regional space as an important level of institutional adaptation. Specifically, it explores how regions organise themselves to compete for inward investment, and the potential role of industri...

Almond, Phil; Gonzalez, Maria C.; Lavelle, Jonathan; Murray, Gregor