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Domestic violence has a wide ranging impact upon children. This study explores teacher narratives of domestic violence, the day to day impact of exposure to domestic violence on children and their families and implications for Educational Psychologists when working to support children and families exposed to domestic violence. A three session narrative approach, consisting of group interviews and reflective logs was used to gather teacher narratives. The outcomes from this thesis suggest teachers have a limited understanding of the emotional trauma which can result from domestic violence. Meeting the needs of children exposed to domestic violence thus presents a significant challenge to class teachers. To provide effective support for children exposed to domestic violence teachers require a greater depth of knowledge, and perhaps understanding, in relation to domestic violence as emotional trauma.

The popularity of franchising as a growth strategy and the opportunities presented by the internet to reach dispersed markets have resulted in these phenomena being widely researched. However, there appears to be little investigation into e-comrnerce within the context of franchising or into the effect of the internet on franchises. Thus, this study is an attempt to bridge the gap between research and practice by investigating the use of the internet by franchising firms. In light of the vacuities in the literature, the research problem addressed by this thesis is: How does the internet affect franchising firms and what are the implications for franchises engaging in e-commerce? Given the paucity of research investigating the imbrications of franchising and e-commerce this study adopted a three-stage methodological design, combining quantitative and qualitative research, in an exploratory study aimed at building theory in a range of issues pertinent to this organisational quandary. In particular, this research endeavours to determine the degree of embracement of internet technology by franchisors; to elucidate franchisors' motivations for e-cornmerce; to explore the role of franchisees in the internet strategy; to evaluate the benefits of the internet for franchises; to assess the challenges encountered with internet technology; to determine the impact of the internet on the franchise relationship; and to examine the factors influencing franchises' internet strategy. The mam conclusions derived from this research are that while franchises are enjoying idiosyncratic benefits of internet technology, a lack of strategic integration with their offline activities is limiting their potential to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. Fundamentally, this study highlights the importance of a collaborative strategy by franchisors and franchisees to emerging technologies in ensuring the internet strengthens rather than threatens the franchise relationship. Thus, this study has implications for both academia and the franchise industry.

Trichuriasis, caused by the whipworm T. trichiura, is endemic in tropical and subtropical areas, affecting approximately one fifth of the world's population. Child anthelminthic treatment programmes are being implemented in countries with endemic disease but repeated treatments are costly, may prevent the development of acquired immunity and can lead to the development of drug resistant parasites. Thus, the development of a vaccine which would lead to the acquisition of immunity at an earlier age and reduce community faecal egg output would be beneficial. Development of subunit vaccines requires the identification of protective antigens and their formulation in a suitable adjuvant. T. muris is an antigenically similar laboratory model for T. trichiura. Subcutaneous (s.c.) vaccination with adult excretory-secretory (ES) proteins protects susceptible mouse strains from T. muris. Larval stages may contain novel antigens which when incorporated in a vaccine induce worm expulsion earlier in infection. This study finds no difference in the cellular and humoral immune response to T. muris adult and L3 ES but identifies high molecular weight proteins in both adult and L3 ES as potential vaccine candidates. Recombinant IL-13 failed to restore protection to a nonprotective vaccine dose of ES, but further work is required prior to ruling out IL-13 as a potential Th2 polarising adjuvant. This is the first study to describe the cellular and humoral components of the protective immune response following s.c. vaccination against T. muris. Protection of susceptible mice involved the development of a Th2 response and down-regulation of IL-12 while IFN-γ levels remained high. Goblet cell hyperplasia and macrophage influx were induced by vaccination. Epithelial turnover did not appear to be increased by vaccination, suggesting that there are differences in the mechanisms of expulsion between 'natural resistance' and 'vaccinated resistance'. Genes involved in serum IgG1 production were highly expressed in the peripheral lymph node cells (PLNC) following s.c. vaccination with ES/FIA. This, combined with the high levels of serum IgGl and mucosal IgGl and IgA in the colon of mice protected by the ES/FIA vaccine suggests that antibody is involved in vaccination-induced worm expulsion. This is further supported by the fact that anti-CCR10 treatment of PLNC prior to adoptive transfer to SCID mice reduces lymphocyte recruitment to the colonic mucosa and delays worm expulsion. This is the first study on the role of CCL11 in eosinophil recruitment to the small and large intestine during gastrointestinal helminth infection. A peripheral eosinophilia was seen in wild type BALB/c mice and CCL11 deficient mice infected with T spiralis but not with T muris. Gastrointestinal eosinophilia was markedly reduced but not ablated in CCL11 deficient mice - and negligible in CCL11 IL-5 deficient mice - infected with either nematode. The residual eosinophilia and up-regulation of CCL24 mRNA in the gastrointestinal tract of CCL11 deficient mice infected with either nematode, together with the presence of an eosinophilactive factor in T. spiralis and T. muris products, suggest that CCL11 is the salient but not the sole eosinophil chemoattractant of biological significance during gastrointestinal helminth infection.

This dissertation examines the mortuary practices of the Iron Age I-III Levantine Phoenicians to document and analyze material expressions of social identity. The history of the Levantine Phoenicians has long been told from the perspective of their neighbors – via the texts of the Hebrew Bible, Greek and Roman authors, and inscriptions from Western Phoenician and Punic “colonies.” While extensive excavation is not possible in the most significant Phoenician cities (e.g. Byblos, Sidon, Tyre), a significant number of Iron Age burials found outside settlement boundaries have been explored or excavated since the 1850s. This project catalogs all burials known from the Phoenician “homeland” (coastal southern Syria, Lebanon, and northern Israel), offering a substantive contribution to a social history of these Phoenicians in the earliest periods of their cultural distinctiveness. The study begins with a reassessment of inscriptions relating to Phoenician mortuary practice thought to date to the Iron I-II (Chapter II) and Iron III/Persian – Hellenistic (Chapter III) periods. The literary sources for Phoenician mortuary practice are then addressed, namely the Biblical (Chapter IV) and classical texts(Chapter V). This textual corpus is finally supplemented with a discussion of the burial database and mortuary landscapes of the Iron I-III period Levantine homeland (Chapter VI). All of this material is incorporated into a discussion of the treatment of the dead as a stage for Phoenician meaning-making in the Iron I-III periods (Chapter VII). Previous scholarship on Phoenicians has emphasized their city-based political allegiances on the one hand, and relatively uniform material culture on the other. But an examination of the Phoenician mortuary record indicates no expected regional distinctions in material culture reflective of a city-based model of Phoenician identity. Instead, a significant degree of variation is evident in individual cemeteries, indicating that most Iron I-III period Phoenicians wished to signal not political allegiance or ethnic identity, but other aspects of their social identities in death. On the other hand, innovative Iron III practices shared by individuals across this territory willing to expend extensive resources on burial may point to the creation of a new “elite” identity or affiliation under Achaemenid influence.