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Background: Adults with type 2 diabetes, and those at high risk of developing it (prediabetes) typically have poorer cardiometabolic health profiles and are at higher risk of impaired physical function, placing them at greater risk of developing co-morbidities, increased hospital use, multiple medication use, and premature death than their counterparts without diabetes. Furthermore, evidence suggests that aside from the increased risk of cumulating poor cardiometabolic health markers, impaired physical function increases risk of mortality in people with type 2 diabetes. Fostering adaptations to physical activity and sedentary behaviour may elicit a plethora of benefits on physical function and cardiometabolic health in people with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes including reduced cardiovascular disease risk, better mobility and walking speed, heightened musculoskeletal function, and improved overall functional capacity. However, research investigating the benefits of adapting physical activity and sedentary behaviour habits to improve physical function has typically been limited to older adults. Aims: 1: To investigate the association between activPAL-measured step cadence and physical function in older adults. 2: To explore associations between change in step cadence and change in markers of cardiometabolic health in people with prediabetes. 3: To assess a personalised home-based intervention to encourage adults with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes to reduce sitting time with the aim of improving cardiometabolic health and physical function. Methods 1: Post-hoc analysis was conducted in a cohort of 104 healthy older adults (age = 72 ± 5; 46% female). Generalised Linear Models were used to assess the associations between step cadence variables and performance in the sit-to-stand-60 test, stratified by ethnicity. 2: Post-hoc analysis was conducted in a cohort of 794 adults with a history of prediabetes (age = 60 ± 9 years, 49% female). Generalised Estimating Equations were used to assess the associations between change in step cadence variables and change in cardiometabolic health outcomes over four years, additionally stratified by ethnicity. 3: Nineteen adults with type 2 diabetes (age = 61  7, 47% female) completed a personalised intervention designed to use targeted physical activity and breaks in sedentary behaviour to improve glucose control and physical function. Healthy volunteers (age = 52  9, 64% female), free from type 2 diabetes were recruited for baseline case-control comparison. Key findings: 1: Higher step cadence is associated with greater physical function in healthy older adults, with greater associations seen in White Europeans compared to South Asians. 2: Increase in step cadence over four years is associated with modest improvement in several markers of cardiometabolic health in people with prediabetes, with associations differing across White European and South Asian ethnicities. 3: A personalised intervention may reduce sitting time and improve physical function in people with type 2 diabetes over the short term. However, the intervention was not successful in improving glucose profiles. Conclusions: The overall findings of this research help to bridge the gap in knowledge around the relationships between step cadence, sedentary behaviour, physical function, and cardiometabolic health in those with and without impaired glucose regulation. The research also offers some insight into potential ethnic differences in these relationships. Future large-scale randomised controlled trials are needed to establish the effectiveness and economic viability of a programme to increase step cadence and reduce sedentary behaviour in people with, and at high risk of developing, type 2 diabetes.

This thesis explores processes of co-operative institution building in rural development in central India, with specific regard to farmer producer companies (FPCs), a form of 'new generation' co-operative-company hybrid, as well as the organic cotton supply chains in which they operate. There is a dearth of literature on FPCs of an ethnographic or sociological basis, which explores, in the words of co-operative scholars Attwood and Baviskar, the "deeper processes (the informal organisation of conflicts and alliances)" (Attwood and Baviskar, 1987, p. A-57). Prevailing approaches in literature and policy draw on economistic conceptions of co-operation based in new institutional economics and management-oriented literature. In such approaches, the role of FPCs is primarily to reduce 'transaction costs' and achieve 'market access' for smallholder famers, with panacea-esque narratives of their role in providing the 'solution' to the 'problems' of co-operative societies. Through analysis of thirteen months of fieldwork, largely in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh (MP), I present an ethnography of my role as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) volunteer working with FPCs, as well as through qualitative research with FPC farmer members and leaders, development workers and individuals from companies working in organic cotton supply chains. Building on approaches which explore the differential representation (and transformation) of institutional norms, vis-à-vis (social) power relations (Mosse, 2005, 2006; Cleaver, 2012; Baviskar 2004), I examine FPCs within a wider 'web' of institutional and social relations. I explore the manner in which dominant approaches to co-operation (and the primacy of 'design' (Shah, 2006)), are both reproduced and contested by fieldwork participants in the work of 'translating' (Latour, 1996), co-operative action. I consider such processes vis-à-vis the work of 'building FPCs', organisational hierarchies, the 'politics' of FPCs, social (caste, Adivasi) relations, and, in efforts to build forms of 'partnership' and co-operation across supply or 'value' chains.

When their needs change, UK homeowners tend to adjust their housing by making house moves or building alterations. In the UK's low liquidity housing market however, people on the edges of homeownership lack both choice and the funds to trade-up, whilst in higher density areas, alterations are hard or impossible to make. In an age of longevity, precarity and episodic changes in housing needs, these factors mean some households experience inappropriate housing for longer. To meet this urgent but largely unacknowledged need for real choice over time, this practice-based thesis develops a transdisciplinary framework for improving adjustability during use. Taking a capabilities approach, I consider two housing models, each claiming to provide solutions for people whose needs are not met by the mainstream market. Drawing on stakeholder interviews, I ask, (1) What characteristics provide owners with longer-term adjustability? (2) What industry changes are needed to make adjustable housing attractive to developers? and, (3) How knowledge from the fields of architecture, economics and real estate might be combined to describe and implement 'adjustable housing'? My findings suggest that adjustability is not only about space (normally the primary consideration of architects), but is also a function of tenure and shared housing environment. These may be thought of as three dimensions of adjustability : adjustable dwellings, through which the housing density can vary over time; adjustable tenure, that gives residents an equity stake that can go down as well as up; and adjustable infrastructure, so that people have shared amenities and circulation that they can meet in, and meet about. This idea of living together separately, is less radical than cohousing but also - as I show - less costly, risky and exclusive to deliver, I identify six ways that regulation, planning and design could become more scenarios-led, and conclude that the architectural and real estate industries need to work more closely if they are to change the structure of housing demand in the UK.

This study is an investigation into the political and religious leadership thought and practice of William 'Paa Willie' Ofori-Atta (1910-1988), which has by and large been overlooked in studies of pre and post independent Ghana, Previous accounts of Ghana's political discourse before the current fourth republic of Ghana have been incomplete since they mainly focus on the contributions of Kwame Nkrumah, Joseph Boakye Danquah and Kofi Abrefa Busia. Other political voices have not undergone proper investigation. Furthermore, since William Ofori Atta never became Prime Minister or President of Ghana, he might be perceived by some as being one of history's losers in Ghanaian politics. Nevertheless, a critical analysis of OforiAtta's political and religious leadership journey will reveal that not only does he play a significant role in five decades of Ghanaian political history but that he left an important legacy for politics and religion in Ghana. This investigation draws on a range of primary sources from archival research and field research interviews and seeks to provide a fresh and a more scholarly account of Ofori Atta's political and religious thought and practice. Biography as history methodology is used to unearth the themes which encapsulate Ofori Atta's leadership thought and practice. The main research question is: in what ways do the political and religious leadership thought and practice of William Ofori Atta substantiate the assertion that he was an ethical leader in the Ghanaian public square? The thesis of this research is that a critical examination of the political and religious leadership thought and practice of William Ofori Atta provides the evidence to demonstrate the claim that he was an ethical leader in the Ghanaian public square whose ethical leadership was undergirded by the ethical values of freedom, liberty, justice, unity, integrity, and righteousness. Chapter one focuses on the leadership formation of William Ofori Atta and finds that he was shaped by his family heritage, educational background, professional development, political seasons, and the Christian faith with regard to his formation into a political and religious leader. Chapter two concentrates on his leadership policy principle of political democracy as national independence and multiparty governance and discovers that the ethical value at the core of his political democracy leadership principle was that of freedom. Chapter three deliberates his leadership policy principle of human rights as rule of law and civil/ political liberties and uncovers that the ethical value at the centre of his human rights leadership principle was that of liberty. Chapter four examines his leadership policy principle of socio- economic development as educational empowerment and economic progress and discerns that the ethical value at the nucleus of his socio-economic development leadership principle was that of justice. The first part of chapter five considers his leadership policy principle of social reconciliation as national conciliation and international dialogue and determines that the ethical value underlying his social reconciliation leadership principle was that of unity. The second part of chapter five assesses his leadership policy principle of personal transparency as personal honesty and personal accountability and reveals that the ethical value at the foundation of his personal transparency leadership principle was that of integrity. Chapter six explores his religious leadership principle of evangelical Christian salvation as evangelical Christian conversion and spirituality and discloses that the ethical value at the heart of his evangelical Christian salvation leadership principle was that of righteousness. Chapter seven reflects on his leadership principle of evangelical Christian mission as evangelical Christian beliefs and ministry and recounts that the ethical value vital to his evangelical Christian mission leadership principle was that of righteousness. The conclusion assesses the legacy of Ofori Atta as a political and religious leader in Ghana whose public leadership was marked by ethical leadership in the public square.

Grocery expenditure is responsible for around 10% of total household spend in the UK, making the grocery retail market worth over £200bn a year in 2021. The size of this market and the nature of retailing competition makes it important for retailers to make the right decisions. One such decision is the location of their stores for which there have been a number of changes in the location, format and channel of consumer interaction along with the methods that have been employed to determine new store location. In recent years it has been suggested that the spatial interaction model is the most appropriate method for estimating new store revenue and hence location. However, previous attempts to explore the performance of the spatial interaction model in grocery retailing have been limited by access to loyalty card data. In this thesis we show that these models are unable to account for the heterogeneity in store conditions and consumer behaviour to model total store revenue. Notably, we find that at the regional scale the size of the errors are such that these models are unlikely to be used consistently in practice for estimating store revenue or locating new stores. Furthermore, that the performance achieved in previous applications are unlikely to be consistently replicated. Thus our results demonstrate that the spatial interaction model in its current form is no longer appropriate for modelling grocery store revenue. It is anticipated that these results may become a starting point for the development and application of alternative forms of models and methods for predicting grocery retailing store revenue. Notably, such new methods must be able to account for recent changes in consumer behaviour such as convenience store shopping, multi-purpose trips and the growing influence of e-commerce, alongside changes in retailers interaction strategies.

Solutions to the time-independent Schrödinger equation for molecular systems allow chemical properties to be studied without the direct need for the material. However, the dimension of this problem grows exponentially with the size of the quantum system under consideration making conventional treatment intractable. Quantum computers can efficiently represent and evolve quantum states. Their use offers a possible way to perform simulations on molecules previously impossible to model. However, given the constraints of current quantum computers even studying small systems is limited by the number of qubits, circuit depth and runtime of a chosen quantum algorithm. The work in this thesis is to explore and provide new tools to make chemical simulation more practical on near-term devices. First, the unitary partitioning measurement reduction strategy is explored. This reduces the runtime of the variational quantum eigensolver algorithm (VQE). We then apply this reduction technique to the contextual subspace method, which approximates a problem by introducing artificial symmetries based on the solution of noncontextual version of the problem that reduces the number of qubits required for simulation. We provide a modification to the original algorithm that makes an exponentially scaling part of the technique quadratic. Finally, we develop the projection-based embedding (PBE) technique to allow chemical systems to be studied using state-of-the-art classical methods in conjuncture with quantum computing protocols in a multiscale hierarchy. This allows molecular problems much larger than conventionally studied on quantum hardware to be approached.

Breathlessness is a common and important symptom, resulting from the interaction between multiple physical, psychological and social factors, and causes substantial negative impacts to health-related quality of life. Interest has grown in therapeutic potential of holistic participatory arts-in-health activities using singing and dance for people with breathlessness, within the broader context of social prescribing. A small body of research has indicated such interventions might be effective, however properly conducted studies investigating impact, and mechanisms of impact, are lacking. Additionally, advances in digital health have expanded remote healthcare delivery, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, creating novel opportunities and challenges. This thesis aims to assess the impact, potential mechanisms, and possible future approaches, of digitally delivered holistic arts-in-health interventions for people with breathlessness. I present six results chapters addressing current research gaps. First, an observational study comparing the physiological demands of Singing for Lung Health (SLH) with treadmill walking, to investigate potential mechanisms of impact. Second, I present data from the first group of a planned larger randomised controlled trial (RCT) investigating the impact of face-to-face SLH. This group transferred to online SLH halfway through the intervention due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but viewed as a convenience pilot study, the findings provide valuable insights into digital adaptation of complex interventions. Third, a digitally delivered, remotely assessed, RCT comparing online SLH to usual care in COPD. Fourth, a digitally delivered and assessed RCT comparing the English National Opera's Breathe programme to usual care in people with Long COVID and breathlessness. The fifth and sixth results chapters are qualitative studies investigating the experience of dance group participants for people with breathlessness in England and Uganda. Together these studies suggest that digitally delivered participatory arts interventions for people with breathlessness can improve aspects of health-related quality of life, and other symptoms including breathlessness.

Background: The associations between occupational status, spatial concentration and health have been extensively researched. However, changes in patterns of employment suggest that established measures might not be wholly representative of modern socioeconomic conditions. The study examined if the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE) derived from the neighbourhood concentration of occupational classifications in the UK census described geographical changes in self rated health (SRH). A comparison was made with the commonly used Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) to determine the relative utility of the ICE and its contribution to modelling health inequalities in comparison to the IMD. Research questions: A systematic review examined the association between SRH, occupational status and use of the ICE in public health research. Quantitative analysis assessed associations between the concentration of advantage, disadvantage and SRH in the North West England region of the UK, including geographic correlations between SRH, IMD and ICE in 2001 and 2011 census data. The research questions were: what is the utility of using ICE metrics derived from employment relations compared to more traditional measures of deprivation represented by the IMD, for explaining relative spatial inequalities in SRH? Are employment relations as operationalised by occupational status better at explaining variations in SRH than more traditional measures of social deprivation? Methods: Data on SRH, IMD, occupational status (NS-SeC) age and ethnicity in the North West England region of the UK was extracted at the Lower Super Output Level (LSOA) level from the UK national census datasets for 2001 and 2011. The association with SRH was examined for IMD and a novel ICE derived from census returns enumerating the occupational categories of the National Statistics Socioeconomic Classifications (NS-SeC). Bivariate analysis determined the relationship between ICE, IMD and SRH and to test for any significant relationship that varied geographically. Hot spot analysis identified statistically significant spatial clusters of high and low values. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) provided a local model by fitting a regression equation between dependent and independent variables in each neighbourhood of the region. Results: Analysis of 2001 and 2011 census data found better SRH in more rural areas of the North West region such as Cumbria and Cheshire. Poorer SRH was found mainly in East Lancashire, between Liverpool and Greater Manchester, and in coastal communities in Cumbria and the Fylde coast. Concentrations of working-class occupations were associated with poorer SRH and concentrations of higher-status occupations were associated with better SRH. The ICE derived from the NS-SeC made a greater contribution to the variance explained by a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model than the IMD. Average age and age groups best predicted SRH for the 2001 census, while the ICE combined with age and ethnicity was the best predictors for SRH in 2011. Discussion: ICE measures derived from NS-SeC data demonstrated that the ICE is a useful adjunct to conventional measures of material deprivation, as it may capture neighbourhood conditions not represented by the IMD. Incorporating extremes of socioeconomic status allowed the examination of neighbourhood inequalities that do not rely on a single disadvantaged group. The ICE improves on the IMD in that occupational classifications represent qualities of employment not captured by absolute measures of deprivation. There is potential for the ICE to be used with other measure and geographies.

In this thesis, I present three essays on the problem of measuring political ideology. Having initially set out to understand how globalisation, demographic changes, and new ideological divides contributed to the ongoing political era we find ourselves in, I quickly encountered measurement problems which could not be avoided. I therefore address various measurement issues, with a particular emphasis on survey measurement, while attempting to address this wider backdrop. I begin first by broadly defining ideology, discussing measurement theory, then discussing how this theory applies to ideology. I outline past approaches, then summarise the three essays that make up this thesis. In the first essay, I directly address the problem of measuring the ideology of voters through survey research. This task can be difficult, and researchers often rely on 'off the shelf' datasets. Many of these datasets contain unbalanced Likert scales, which risk acquiescence bias. This paper proposes a strategy for dealing with this issue. I first demonstrate using two comparable datasets from the UK how unbalanced scales produce distorted distributions and can affect regression results. Then, building on past research that utilises factor analysis to eliminate the influence of acquiescence bias, I demonstrate how researchers can utilise a person intercept confirmatory factor analysis model to obtain factor scores corrected for acquiescence in the case of fully unbalanced scales. I conclude with practical recommendations for researchers and survey designers moving forward. In the second essay, I address age, period, and cohort effects as possible long-term drivers of both change and stability in political ideology in the electorate. However, the question as to the extent that the explanations these effects offer is consistent across countries has not been addressed. I therefore perform a comparative APC analysis of left-right political ideology. I run two side-by-side APC analyses of left-right positions, constraining effects to be common across countries in one and nesting them within country in the other. I pay special attention to the issue of how measures of ideology can be meaningfully compared, and develop a measure of relative ideology. I find evidence for ageing effects and life-cycle effects. Moreover, I find that while the constraint of common cohort effects is not a strong one, the constrain of common period effects is over-strong. Future research should focus first on better understanding this contrasting result, and second on developing absolute measures to better understand patterns of change and continuity in left-right ideological positions in the public. In the final essay, I address the problem that social democratic parties have been confronted with vis a vis the rise of second dimension issues. These issues often see social democratic parties facing a choice between competing portions of their own electorate. A particularly prominent second dimension issue is that of the EU: should social democratic parties take pro or anti-EU positions? I look at the case of the UK as an instructive example of this debate. In the build-up and aftermath of the 2019 UK General Election, a debate emerged regarding the optimal Brexit position for the Labour Party. This debate was ultimately without satisfactory conclusion as we do not observe counterfactual versions of reality - we witness only one version of events. I therefore estimate a narrow counterfactual, simulating how the Labour Party's vote share and seat count would have changed as its position on Brexit changes. I call this counterfactual narrow because I only consider the effect of these position changes on vote choice and turnout; and not any broader consequences. I run two simulations to compare the implications of pure proximity and proximity-categorisation models of vote choice. I generate seat predictions from the simulation results by using Uniform National Swing and Uniform Regional Swing. This allows me to assess the specific distributional claims made by those advocating for a more pro-Leave position for the Labour Party. I conclude this thesis by highlighting the contributions of these three essays not only as standalone papers, but as a cohesive whole. I take a recent example of research in the Financial Times (FT) that attempts the kind of measurement I perform across the three papers, but which falls short in terms of measurement inference. I show how each paper speaks to a different aspect of the FT article, and could have influenced it in a better direction. I conclude by arguing that measurement inference is ultimately a good thing for political science, as it will lead to more secure results and richer substantive interpretation.

The data from ground-based gravitational-wave interferometers has been used for direct astrophysical observations of transient signals for almost a decade. With this data, over 90 compact binary systems have been observed and studied via their gravitational-wave emission. These observations have, and continue to, provide new solutions to astrophysical questions. Gravitational waves can provide information about astrophysical systems that has previously been inaccessible through electromagnetic observations. The aim of this thesis is to outline some of the dangers of making incorrect assumptions about observed signals in gravitational-wave interferometer data. In Chapter 1 I provide a summary of gravitational-wave interferometer data; from the basic design of the interferometers, through the form of the data, and some methods can be used to manipulate the data for analysis. I then describe the types of signals that can be observed in this data, how these signals are studied, and what further analysis can be performed on the results of these studies. In Chapter 2 I calculate the probability that transient gravitational-wave signals will overlap with each other in the data. In the chapters that follow I outline the potential problems that time-overlapping transients will cause for the signal detection and analysis methods currently implemented by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration. Chapter 3 shows how the presence of a second, time-overlapping, binary black hole signal can cause inaccuracies in the estimation of the parameters of the other binary black hole system. I show how this problem manifests in the estimated parameter distributions for different relative parameters between two compact binary signals. In Chapters 4 and 5 I consider whether it is possible to detect these cases of time-overlapping transients with current methods, determining what cases will be missed without modifications to current algorithms. I also discuss possible modifications to these algorithms, and a separate bespoke method, designed to identify which detected signals contain time-overlapping transient signals. Chapter 6 presents an analysis of the data of a gravitational-wave interferometer for the purposes of a search for scalar dark matter signals. In this work, we produced extremely precise estimations of the noise floor of the interferometer. We used this to identify and reject possible candidate signals from scalar dark matter. Finally, in Chapter 7, I provide a summary of the key findings in each of the chapters of this thesis. This chapter includes recommendations of extensions and adaptations to the described investigations to expand and improve upon this work.

The term aposematism or "warning colouration" (as first characterised by Alfred Russel Wallace in 1877) describes the process by which defended organisms (animals or plants) advertise their unprofitability to potential predators to gain selective advantage. The first part of the thesis explores the relationship between evolutionarily stable levels of signalling and defence within the context of a game-theoretical, prey-predator setup in which the prey population consists of a single type. While it is implicitly assumed that the prey population is large enough to be considered effectively infinite the evolution of prey traits is also explored for intermediate-sized populations within the context of genetic algorithm approach. In the later chapters considerable effort is devoted to extending the mentioned predator-prey description to systems in which the prey population consists of two types, including a model and a mimic. This modification leads us naturally into the celebrated adaptive mechanism named after Henry Walter Bates, Batesian mimicry. In Batesian mimicry complexes individuals from a palatable (mimic) species resemble individuals from an unpalatable (model) species to gain protection against predators. While there is ample empirical evidence to suggest that individuals from one species may gain selective advantage by resembling individuals from another, the mathematical modelling of Batesian mimicry is rather limited. We predict that models and mimics can co-exist along a continuum of solutions (representing the conspicuousness, noxiousness, and average mimicto-model proportion) that are both ecologically and locally evolutionarily stable. We establish a number of novel results that confirm both common sense intuition and a considerable body of related works.

The last two decades have seen the autofiction novel become a cultural hegemon in North American and European literature. While many scholars have argued that the form's popularity is purely the result of an aesthetic turn away from postmodernism towards new experiments with sincerity and the 'real', I instead argue that this aesthetic turn has economic determinants. Since the 1970s, the middle-classes of North America and Europe have seen their living standards eroded and have increasingly faced the same insecurities of temporary work and renting as the working-class. Autofiction is frequently used by authors such as Dave Eggers, Megan Boyle, Heike Geissler and Lauren Oyler to narrate their experiences of downward mobility. I argue that the inclusion of the onomastic author-protagonist as a volatile blend of real and fictional, textual and extratextual, stable and unstable expresses the cultural and economic volatilities that have attended the gradual erosion of the North American and European middle-class and the bourgeois values that undergird it. Autofiction captures in a range of formally inventive ways both the personal experience and impersonal economic structures associated with downward mobility. Scholars have argued that in the nineteenth century realism gave downwardly mobile writers a form in which the world came to seem more stable and solid. Today, I argue, this aesthetic role has largely fallen to autofiction. Its central focus being the inner world of the self rather than the outer world of tangible things, autofiction expresses a class that tends to understand downward mobility less overtly through the disappearance of a solid world of commodities and property but instead through the oscillations of "human capital", an ideological dominant during the neoliberal period. The promise of stability is found in the literary construction of an authentic image of selfhood, in ways that often register the social phenomenon of "self-branding". These rich portrayals of the author's self-image often substitute for sensuous descriptions of the outer world. Unlike literary forms such as naturalism that in many instances demonstrated the bourgeoisie's mastery over reality by mapping the world of objects in luscious detail, autofiction tends to withdraw from sensuous experience. To varying degrees, the fictional worlds that feature in this thesis are sparse, even minimalist, and certainly do not open out into the thick descriptions of reality readers have come to associate with bourgeois realism. This absence, I argue, displays a terminal point in the fortunes of the middle-class, whereby the tangible world of property can no longer be relied on to offer stability. Most writers of autofiction came of age when the aspirational promises of the bourgeois 'good life' were ubiquitous in popular culture, even as the economic prospects of the middle-class had entered decline, leaving a cleavage between expectations and lived reality. As this thesis shows, disappointment, regret and disorientation are among the most persistent affective experiences of the downwardly mobile. Autofiction's undecidable facticity, its tendency to drift between the real and the imaginary, lends itself to narratives that are very often about reality not turning out as expected. Contemporary autofiction is often a fiction of economic trauma, insecurity and immobility.

The dekadas of national art (dekady natsional'nogo iskusstva) were national arts festivals instituted under Stalin in 1936, intended to display the art of the Soviet republics in Moscow. They became an important symbol of High Stalinism, seeking to foster the transnational exchange between European art music and traditional folk music of the Soviet republics, predominantly through the genre of opera. After a hiatus during the war, the dekadas were reinstated in 1951 and eventually cancelled in 1960. Despite the enormous role the dekadas and music of the Soviet republics played in Soviet culture and musical life more broadly, no large-scale study has yet emerged about them in any language. This study blends cultural and reception history (supported by substantial archival research carried out in Moscow) with musical commentary of dekada works. This is bound together into a broader examination of music and power and its relationship between centre and periphery. Chapters 1-5 cover the period 1936-1941, exploring how the dekadas emerged as a cultural symbol of high Stalinism in the pre-war era. Therein I pay special attention to the works of Russian composers who composed works for the Soviet republics: Yevgeny Brusilovsky, Vladimir Vlasov, Vladimir Fere, Aram Khachaturian, Markian Frolov, and Sergey Balasanyan. Chapter 6 examines the post-war dekada revival, and its troubled existence in the post-Stalin era. Ultimately, this thesis considers how transnational musical exchange balanced the tension between the imperialist ambitions of the Soviet project with its self-confessed anticolonial policies, specifically under late Stalinism and its aftermath.

Hypotheses stipulating that adverse exothermic reduction-oxidation (redox) reactions between aluminium-alloy sheets, used as facings for aluminium composite material (ACM) rainscreen panels, and water vapour (2Al + 3H₂O → Al₂O₃ + 3H₂), contribute to the severity and rate of fire spread during high-rise façade fire events, including the fatal Grenfell Tower incident on 14 June 2017 in London, United Kingdom (U.K.), have circulated amongst both industry and academia in the recent years since the disaster. With a lack of direct research and quantitative evidence available to either conclusively support or refute these claims, an ad-hoc investigation was undertaken providing insight into the significance of such reactions, and the likelihood of occurrence, in the context of a façade fire scenario comprising ACMs. Two common ACM panel variants (a polyolefin blend-based core product, PE, and a fire-retardant version, FR) were characterised, analysed to derive material-specific kinetics, and subjected to a series of bench-scale fire performance testing, involving the use of a cone calorimeter with an in-situ application of liquid-mist and water droplet sprays. Formulated inverse stoichiometric analyses of the experimental smoke yields, with respect to O₂ consumption measurements, were used to identify anomalies in fuel composition following H₂O application, given that H2 combustion does not produce CO₂, in contrast to hydrocarbon fuel (CxHy) content within combustible ACM core products. This was achieved using controlled mist spray experimentation, specifically designed for the relevant research objectives. Contemporary numerical modeling techniques adopting computational fluid dynamics were also applied, providing additional insight through a constructed inverse modeling framework, and innovative coupled pyrolysis-combustion simulations, with two-way verification-validation of experimental-simulation data. From the work undertaken, the evidence compiled indicates insufficient quantities of H2 are produced by Al-H₂O reactions at the conditions attained by ACMs during façade fire events. Consequently, the findings strongly oppose hypotheses of Al-H₂O reactivity contributing to the combustion of ACM façade components and reaffirms the use of water as an appropriate extinguishing agent on aluminium-based façade components; No significant risk to fire spread or severity is anticipated through aluminium-water reactivity. ACM samples with ~30 wt. % polymer content (FR) demonstrated an average 73% reduction in pHRR, and 65% reduction in THR, in comparison to samples containing ~70 wt. % polymer (PE). ACM cladding panels with a low polymer content (≤10 wt. %) that achieve EN A2-s1,d0 classification are considered safe for use in high-rise façade assemblies.

Introduction: Childhood cancer affects nearly 2,000 children in the UK each year and encompasses a range of pathologies. The incidence of childhood cancer is rising, and the peak age of onset occurs between 0 - 4 years old. Despite more children being diagnosed with cancer year after year, advances in diagnostics and therapeutics mean five-year survivorship is over 80% and rising. This means that approximately 1 in 500 young adults in the UK today is a survivor of childhood cancer. Rising incidence coupled with increasing survivorship means there is a growing population of childhood cancer survivors with unmet health needs secondary to the unwanted off-target effects of cancer treatment. One such treatment modality is chemotherapy, particularly cisplatin, which is used in a range of childhood and adult cancers. One known impact of cisplatin treatment in boys is reduced fertility, as it damages the spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) niche within the testis. This niche is essential for future fertility as these SSCs will differentiate into sperm following the onset of puberty. In post-pubertal males, this can be somewhat mitigated by the use of sperm cryopreservation for future fertility treatment. However, in pre-pubertal males, there are currently no viable fertility preservation options. As such, there is a need to reduce the impact of cisplatin-mediated damage within the testis. One unexplored area is how cisplatin alters intercellular communication in the testis: specifically, how it impacts the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and what the impact of these EVs have on other cell populations in the testis and how this may impact fertility. EVs are small lipid-bound structures released by all cells within the body and are a method of cell-to-cell communication. They mediate their effects on recipient cells through the delivery of cargoes and interaction with cell surface receptor ligands. The cargoes of EVs are numerous and include RNA, DNA, lipids, proteins, metabolites, and organelles. Cargo loading within EVs is a dynamic process and is influenced by the state of the parent cell with cargoes capable of being loaded at a greater magnitude than identified free within the cell of origin, suggestive of a highly regulated process. Little is known about the release of EVs within the testis, and what is known is focused on the adult testis. I hypothesise that cisplatin alters EVs in the testis, and these EVs negatively impact the remaining SSCs and their supporting somatic Sertoli cells. Methods: Human SSCs and Sertoli cells are challenging to culture. Mouse cell lines were used as surrogates including GC1-spg cells (mouse type B spermatogonia) and TM4 cells (mouse pre-pubertal Sertoli). Cells were cultured in EV-depleted cell culture media and treated with cisplatin at a range of doses. The EVs released by these cells were then isolated from cell culture media using size exclusion chromatography. EV characterisation from GC1-spg and TM4 cells was undertaken, comparing those released by cisplatin-treated cells and controls. Change in EV number was quantified using nanoparticle tracking analysis and impact on treatment-naïve recipient cells was assessed using in vivo cell imaging and detection of cleaved caspase-3 to identify apoptotic cells. EV uptake and movement within target cells were examined using super-resolution microscopy. Individual EVs were assessed for common EV surface markers CD9, CD63 and CD81 using dSTORM imaging and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) while bulk assessment of EVs for another common EV marker, TSG-101, was undertaken using Western blotting. Assessment of EV release and impact of cisplatin-induced EVs on tissues were assessed using human fetal testis tissues as they represent a surrogate model for human pre-pubertal testis. Tissues were obtained from fetuses between 13 and 18 weeks gestation and cultured using a hanging drop culture system established in our laboratory previously. Incubation of cisplatin-derived and control EVs were undertaken for eight days and immunofluorescence was undertaken to quantify Sertoli cell number and the number of apoptotic cells. EV release from human fetal testis tissues in response to cisplatin treatment was also undertaken, and the number of EVs released from these tissues was characterised. Analysis of the protein cargoes of TM4 EVs was undertaken using mass spectrometry to compare EVs released by cells treated with cisplatin and control EVs. A focused assessment of pathways involved in apoptosis and reproduction was undertaken. Results: EV size assessed using NTA fell within the 50-250 nm range expected to be classified as small EVs and confirmed using TEM EV imaging for both GC1 and TM4 cells. dSTORM imaging of single EVs for CD9, CD63 and CD81 demonstrated EVs shared some of these markers, but not all EVs were positive for these tetraspanins. Bulk assessment of EVs for TSG-101 identified both GC1 and TM4 EVs expressed this marker. Mouse Type-B spermatogonia (GC1) and Sertoli (TM4) cells treated with cisplatin release approximately twice as many EVs as control cells, (GC1, 7.2x108 / mL vs 16.4x108 / mL, p=0.0002; TM4, 2.8x108 / mL vs 6.5x108 / mL, p=0.0001). EVs released by cisplatin-treated cells were taken up at a higher rate by treatment-naïve cells, compared to control EVs, when assessed using the IncucyteZOOM system, with GC1 cisplatin-derived EVs being taken up 5.2 x compared to control EVs, p=0.007, and TM4 cisplatin-derived EVs being taken up 4.9 x compared to control EVs, p=0.006. However, this difference was not observed when using a different methodology to quantify individual EVs within cells. Once internalised, tracking individual EV movements within the cell demonstrated peri-nuclear localisation in both TM4 and GC1 cells. We identified EVs released by cisplatin-treated TM4 cells induced a higher rate (2.4 x increase) of apoptosis in treatment-naïve TM4 cells as compared to control EVs, p=0.007. Increasing the concentration of cisplatin-derived TM4 EVs did not lead to a dose-response effect but did continue to show a significant increase in apoptotic cells. When cisplatin-derived EVs from TM4 cells were incubated with treatment-naïve GC1 cells, they resulted in lower rates of apoptosis vs control EVs (0.6x the rate of apoptosis, p Human fetal testis tissues treated with cisplatin did release EVs. However, there was no significant difference in the number of EVs released between cisplatin-treated and control tissue. TM4 cisplatin-derived EVs, which induced apoptosis in treatment naïve TM4 cells, were incubated with human fetal testis tissues. However, immunofluorescence did not reveal any significant increase in apoptosis or reduction in Sertoli cell number compared to tissues incubated with control EVs.

Dementia is often associated with word-finding difficulties impacting on everyday life. Previous research on constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT) for word-finding difficulties in people with Primary Progressive Aphasia, a language-based dementia, has reported positive outcomes. No existing research uses CIAT-based therapy with people with other forms of dementia such as Alzheimer's disease. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of CIAT-based therapy in improving communication for people with dementia and whether this generalised to more successful everyday communication. A quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods approach was adopted, with the original described study protocol being significantly revised due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The revised study protocol consisted of two main phases. In Phase 1, two participants with Alzheimer's disease and their communication partners were recruited. Following face-to-face cognitive and communication assessment, participants completed CIAT-based therapy using 60 chosen picture items in 9 face-to-face therapy sessions with the researcher, with additional home practice encouraged. Due to restrictions relating to the coronavirus pandemic, post-therapy communication assessments were redesigned and completed by video-call. In Phase 2, one participant with Posterior Cortical Atrophy and their communication partner were assessed using video-call, and completed self-directed CIAT-based therapy at home. This was supported by one training session, and a written guide developed with the support of a focus group. This study's main contribution was being the first to evaluate CIAT-based therapy for people with Alzheimer's disease. Analysis suggests naming performance did not improve following completion of CIAT-based therapy, although there is some evidence of maintenance of treated nouns for one participant. The discussion considers the findings in the context of existing research. It highlights the limitations of research on impairment-based approaches such as CIAT-based therapy for word-finding difficulties and considers how meaningful language assessment might take place in the context of wider cognitive decline.

This thesis investigates the differences - or gaps - between the developed events industry in the UK and the emerging events industry in Poland by conducting an innovative and rare cross-cultural qualitative autoethnographic methodology incorporating 24 in-depth interviews with senior and director-level event organisers at landmark venues in both the UK and Poland. The interviews are supported with the researcher's observations and immersion in the field in both London and Warsaw for 10 years, respectively. The research objective was to identify factors which shape an events industry as it develops so that conclusions could be drawn to help narrow the disparate behaviours and practices of organisers in the one global marketplace for international events. The findings have impacts upon locations where events management is an emerging industry and international clients and foreign consumers are exposed to gaps in areas of standards, quality, service, and risk at wherever an event takes place around the globe. The conclusions of this study show it is necessary for an events industry to shape a socio-professional community of practice to facilitate opportunities for organisers to learn their behaviours and practices through formal education, networking, knowledge sharing, and engaging with professional associations for training and accreditation. In emerging locations without a developed socio-professional construct because the events industry is in the process of forming its shape, it is necessary to evolve a culture whereby organisers recognise the need to create their own self-learning environment by observing other organisers and other events - particularly at international level, such as learning from their international clients and foreign consumers. A further unexpected finding is the need for an international professional association for organisers involved with providing international events, to facilitate organisers in emerging locations with acculturation learning from already developed industries and from the behaviours and practices of foreign organisers.

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) in Africa ~500- 50 kyr is recognised as a key time-period associated with important developments in hominin evolution, including the appearance of earliest genetic markers for Homo sapiens. Despite advances, our knowledge of the behaviour of hominins during this period is limited, especially for the early MSA (EMSA) pre-160ka. This study presents new data on animal bones recovered at the Bundu Farm site, in the upper Karoo region of the Northern Cape, South Africa, dated to circa ~300ka and found in association with EMSA type lithic facies, burning and hearth-like features. Previous analysis of the Bundu fauna compared the site to a G/wi hunter-gatherer 'biltong' processing locale, implying primary access to animal carcasses and socially complex hunting behaviour, circa 400-300 ka. An interpretation at odds with other interpretations of the EMSA data that suggest limited hunting and social complexity, and which would therefore have significant implications for MSA archaeology. To test the biltong hypothesis my study presents new data on the fracture characteristics of non-fresh animal bone broken by hammerstone and new environmental data for the site from an analysis of ostrich eggshell isotopes. Experimental and environmental data are used to provide a new interpretation of the Bundu fauna and my conclusion is that the data while not supporting the biltong model, does indicate evidence of delayed communal food consumption, use of fire and the transformation of foodstuffs into meals presaging and echoing social and ecological adaptations seen in the later MSA and LSA. The data also highlights a greater role for carnivores in the accumulation of the faunal assemblage and expedient hominin foraging similar to the preceding ESA and brings attention to the ecological relationships between hominins and carnivores in a Pleistocene Karoo environment that was markedly different from that of today. The study therefore rejects the biltong hypothesis for Bundu Farm as both inconsistent with likely EMSA social structures and ecology and instead proposes the site as evidence for novel behaviour indicative of a transition from ESA to MSA lifeways. The Bundu Farm site reflecting a rare archaeological occurrence where the shift in the behavioural trajectory that led to our species is observed.

The central aim of Economic and Social Rights (ESR) is to address the essential needs of people. ESR are vital to ensure that people are protected from deprivation and poverty. Therefore, this thesis designs a cooperation model, both at the domestic and international levels, as a means for States to realise the ESR of their citizens. It locates and develops this model in the context of Nigeria. To do this, the thesis provides an understanding of the role of law and legal institutions in enhancing the practical realisation of ESR, through three major lines of inquiry. First, the thesis investigates the debate in Nigeria on whether ESR are justiciable and takes a position that they are. Contrary to popular views, ESR are not absolutely non-justiciable in Nigeria. There is a plethora of domestic and international laws which provide a normative grounding for the justiciability of ESR in Nigeria. The thesis finds that, despite these existing normative frameworks around ESR, the rights are still far from being realised in Nigeria. One of the reasons for this is the Nigerian courts' adoption of traditional adversarial method of adjudication and the failure by political branches to draw on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) normative architecture on international cooperation and assistance. Second, the thesis argues that the traditional models of adjudication of ESR that seek to command and control the government sometimes impede, rather than enhance ESR realisation. Thus, this thesis argues for a more cooperative institutional relationship between courts and political branches to tap into the strengths of each institution, to enhance ESR realisation. Such a cooperative judicial approach towards ESR cases would enhance the practical impact of the rights. This thesis argues that receiving the cooperation and collaboration of the political branches would make the enforcement of judicial decisions more forceful, as the branches would receive the decisions as an outcome of an institutional dialogue and collaboration, rather than as imposed decisions. Third, the thesis argues for an effective deployment of international cooperation and assistance to herald a de facto realisation of ESR. The realisation of ESR can be resource intensive and without international cooperation and assistance, the realisation will always be outside the reach of Nigeria. This thesis explores the role of a legal duty of cooperation, within the international human rights law regime, between developed and developing countries to protect ESR in Nigeria. Therefore, the thesis argues for a better commitment, on the part of developed countries and international institutions such as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), to international cooperation. This commitment to cooperation should not come in the form of some charity, but as a legally binding obligation on developed countries in favour of developing countries. Drawing on several normative instruments such as the ICESCR, the thesis adopts a Third World Approach to International Law (TWAIL) to argue that, under the international human rights law regime, the developed countries have a duty to help the developing countries in meeting the ESR needs of the developing countries' citizens, in terms of provision of economic, financial, and technical cooperation and assistance as well as deployment of influence in international institutions' decision-making processes.

Since the initial detection of gravitational waves in 2015, a slow and steady stream of events has been recorded. The next step is to detect more and weaker sources, probing deeper into the universe. In order to do so, our interferometers must be pushed to even greater extremes, to suppress the noise that would otherwise obscure such faint signals. Quantum noise is perhaps the most fundamental source of noise in a laser interferometer. Arising from the inherent uncertainty in the amplitude and phase of any light source, it limits the sensitivity of all current and proposed future interferometers, especially at higher signal frequencies. The second generation detectors currently in use, such as Advanced LIGO and Virgo, are operating around the standard quantum limit---the maximum sensitivity that can be reached by employing classical techniques. For future upgrades and new detectors, advanced quantum techniques must be employed to further increase sensitivity. Advanced LIGO has already demonstrated its ability to surpass the standard quantum limit over a small range of frequencies by making use of squeezed states of light, and future improvements will increase the magnitude and frequency range of this sensitivity enhancement. In this thesis, I will detail my work on these quantum techniques, aimed particularly at the upcoming third generation of gravitational wave detectors. This covers a wide variety of topics: different arrangements of filter cavities for improved squeezing, an alternate detection scheme that reduces both quantum and more technical noises, a mechanism that operates via complex optomechanical interactions, and more. In each of these subjects, my role has largely been to perform validation of new ideas and techniques, and to investigate the effects of varying detector parameters on the proposed scheme. To this end, I have made extensive use of a numerical frequency domain interferometer simulation tool known as finesse. Widely used throughout the interferometer community, finesse allows the fast and accurate modelling of optical layouts. Certain advanced techniques, however, were beyond finesse's capabilities when I started my work. This thesis therefore also describes my contributions towards a full rewrite of this tool, called finesse 3. I performed a complete reimplementation of the quantum noise calculations in finesse 3, and added features necessary to model new and exciting ideas. I will explain the mathematics that finesse 3 uses to simulate interferometers, before finally giving a broader overview of its design, usage, and the great potential it has to allow investigation of ever more complex techniques for the foreseeable future.

In the early 1920s the Society of Antiquaries took the decision to excavate the Roman shore fort at Richborough after noticing significant crop marks inside the walls. That initial finding led to 16 years of excavations from 1922-1938 over a large area of what was an island during the Roman period. The aim of this thesis is to return to the finds and features discovered during those excavations to better understand the site with nearly 100 years of hindsight and new archaeological techniques and perspectives. Since the excavations, the Richborough collection has remained largely untouched apart from a few specific object studies. The site is of great significance to our understanding of the Roman period, but the current level of knowledge remains largely in the early 20th century. By returning to the excavation archive I have provided a new interpretation and chronology for the site using published and unpublished data, with significant insights regarding the 1st and 3rd - 5th centuries and how Richborough relates to other sites in Britain and beyond. I have also undertaken a detailed finds study, initially focusing on the military objects and tools but this has evolved into a reinterpretation of the site. As well as this, there is now a detailed finds catalogue of nearly 9000 objects, which is included in the appendices. Finally, this thesis provides case studies on several topics: comparable sites; recycling at Richborough; an object study (belt fittings) which sets 4th century Richborough in its wider context; and a significant collection of objects from one feature (Pit 20), which demonstrate the potential for different types of study. These case studies have contributed to our knowledge of site use during the 1st and 3rd - 4th centuries, the disconnection with Continental Europe in the 4th century in terms of objects and recycling and how Richborough relates to the other sites known as Shore Forts. The results of this thesis show that the initial publication of the Richborough collection was very much a product of its time, much detail was missed and our current reading of the evidence when compared with evidence from other Romano-British sites makes us rethink both the beginning and the end of Richborough.

Background The vastus medialis (VM) and vastus lateralis (VL) form part of the quadriceps femoris group in the anterior thigh. A balance between these two muscles is key to maintaining normal tracking of the patella in the trochlear groove during flexion and extension of the knee joint, and an imbalance between them is thought to be implicated in the aetiology of patellofemoral pain (PFP). Patellofemoral pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal presenting conditions among young, athletic individuals, and particularly affecting females. First line treatment usually involves physiotherapy, either to strengthen the VM or to stretch the VL. However, there is a lack of evidential data in the literature regarding the effect of these interventions on the architecture of these muscles. Aims This thesis, drawing upon a selection of previously published work of the author, aims to review, integrate, and critically appraise these published works. The body of work presented in this thesis is organised under the following themes: 1. Describe the detailed anatomy of the gastrocnemius and VM by a series of dissection studies and clarify the existence of the proposed subdivisions of the VM: the vastus medialis longus (VML) and the vastus medialis oblique (VMO). 2. Explore the potential of using ultrasound (US) to visualise muscle architecture, first on the gastrocnemius then the VM; validate the method for measuring the VMO fibre angle. 3. Obtain normative values for the pennation angle and insertion level of the VMO in a cohort of young, asymptomatic individuals, and further investigate the dichotomy between active and sedentary individuals. 6 4. Investigate the effect of physiotherapy on the architecture of the VMO, and how this effect was influenced by the following factors: different exercise techniques, electro-muscular stimulation, and cessation of the physiotherapy. 5. Investigate the effect of stretching exercises and myofascial release on the pennation angle of the VL and VMO. Methods Dissection studies were carried out on cadaveric specimens donated for anatomical education and research under the Human Tissue Act (2004). For the ultrasound investigations, young, asymptomatic volunteers were recruited, given an initial ultrasound (US) scan, then scanned again following a physiotherapy programme. Ethical approval was obtained from the host institution, and all volunteers gave informed consent. Results The research publications presented here describe the detailed anatomy of the gastrocnemius, VML and VMO, and present normative values for the pennation angle and level of insertion of the VMO in young, asymptomatic individuals. Ultrasound is shown to be a reliable tool for investigating the architecture of the VL and VM in vivo, and for monitoring the effects of physiotherapy interventions on these muscles. Furthermore, suitable subjects for such interventions can be identified in clinic by an ultrasound scan. Conclusions Gastrocnemius: there was a significant mean difference of 1.74 (±1.43) cm between the medial and lateral bellies in a sample of 84 cadaveric lower limbs. Vastus medialis and lateralis: physiotherapy interventions to strengthen the VMO, or to stretch the VL, have a measurable effect on the architecture of the muscles, which can be detected using ultrasound. Ultrasound is a safe, non-invasive, inexpensive imaging modality, and has the potential to provide a powerful tool in the clinic to measure initial VL and VM muscle fibre 7 angle in PFP cases, identify suitable patients for this type of treatment, and monitor their progress.

Background: The role of community pharmacists (CPs) in public health has expanded in recent decades. However, the public seem unaware of what is available, and often access health services from other providers, such as their General Practitioner (GP). In addition, advances in technology have meant that the public are choosing to access health advice online themselves instead of visiting a healthcare professional (HCP). The term 'eHealth' has been coined to describe the use of technology in healthcare. The aim of this research was to develop a community pharmacy public health service that incorporated an eHealth tool, and to determine the feasibility of delivering such a service in community pharmacies in England. Method: A literature review was carried out looking at CP use of eHealth tools to improve public health globally. Following this, the perceptions of CPs and the public, in Greater London, on the role of the CP in public health and the use of eHealth tools for public health purposes was examined, in one survey study and in one mixed method study. To investigate the digital literacy skills of the community pharmacy workforce, a further survey study was carried out. Finally, a feasibility study was conducted using weight loss as the health topic and a private Facebook group (PFG) as the eHealth intervention tool. The service used the NHS 12-week weight loss plan as its basic structure. In addition to the support from the PFG, participants attended once monthly (in-person or online) meetings with a researcher, who recorded their anthropometric measurements. Outside of the monthly meetings, participants accessed support from a CP moderator (thesis author), and group members, on the PFG, where posts were shared that addressed weight loss topics. All studies were granted ethical approval from the university ethics committee. Data were analysed in SPSS and Microsoft Excel. Results: The literature review highlighted that whilst CPs have used some eHealth tools for public health purposes, these are limited, with the most popular tool being the telephone. The public view CPs as third choice for health advice, behind their GP and searching for information online. They do, however, trust CPs and would use an eHealth tool if it was created and maintained by them. CPs themselves believed that they had an important role in public health, however, barriers such as lack of remuneration, lack of interest from the public, and disjointed commissioning decisions limited this role. CPs would, however, be prepared to deliver a health service with an eHealth element if they received the appropriate training to do so. While most staff deemed themselves to have high digital literacy, this did not translate in practice, therefore, training is needed. The findings indicated that weight management was a topic for which an eHealth support tool may prove useful. Thus, the community pharmacy weight management service (CPWMS) with PFG was created. A significant proportion (70.7%, N=29/41, p=0.0004) of participants lost more than 5% of their body weight by the end of the study indicating its success. This proportion is higher than what is documented in the literature for similar services delivered face-to-face. Not only did participants lose weight, but they also increased their knowledge of nutrition and physical activity (PA) guidelines. This new knowledge translated into new behaviours with participants increasing their PA habits and choosing healthier food and drink options. The role of the CP in the CPWMS with PFG was highly valued by participants, Conclusion: The results indicate that the profession has a unique opportunity to improve public health using eHealth for service delivery, however, the digital literacy skills of the community pharmacy workforce need to be enhanced.

Yndiamides are a uniquely capable class of doubly heteroatom-substituted alkynes which provide access to many diverse nitrogen-rich structures. This thesis describes the development of new ring-forming reactions of yndiamides. In the course of this work three project areas have been explored: 1. A cycloisomerisation transformation to form fused pyrroles, using either gold-catalysis or by heating in the absence of a catalyst (Chapter 2). 2. Two rhodium-catalysed [2+2+2] cyclotrimerisation reactions which form 1,2-diaminobenzene derivatives (Chapter 3). Mechanistic studies on this reaction were also carried out using computational methods (Chapter 4). 3. Catalytic methods to synthesise diaminopyridine and diaminopyridone derivatives from yndiamides. (Chapter 5).

The BazerBow was forged from mimetic design principles to engage the audience, often overlooked in digital musical instrument design. This thesis represents a line of enquiry to develop a set of mimetic design principles through a process of music practice and research. These principles pull from five prongs of a cycle of development: mimetic theories (Cox, 2016; Maes et al., 2014; Malloch and Trevarthen, 2009; Szalavitz and Perry, 2010), digital musical instrument design, mimetic design, prototyping of BazerBows and an examination of the prototypes. Mimetic theories were amalgamated with existing digital musical instrument design research to yield initial mimetic design principles. BazerBow prototypes were produced using these principles and then explored and tested to evaluate and improve the efficacy of the mimetic design. The test phase consisted of five performance sessions that included unique real-time response sliders, questionnaires, and post-performance discussions. The data analysis, including a novel Average Distribution Method, showed that the BazerBow prototype was imbued with mimetic potential eliciting a more significant mimetic response from the audience than a commercially available keyboard. The outcome of this thesis is a collection of mimetic design principles that offer a formative toolkit in guiding instrument design towards carefully considering audience response. In addition, the novel real-time slider method and ADM analysis could be easily adapted for use in other research contexts. Significantly, there has been no previous application of mimetic theories to DMI design or creation of design principles based on mimetic theory, so this constitutes new knowledge, contributing to existing digital musical instrument design. These mimetic design principles will be continually improved and tested in the future through this iterative process, imbuing new and exciting instruments with mimetic potential.

Turbulent processes play a key role in ocean mixing. However, lack of spatial and temporal data collection limits our understanding of these processes, especially in the deep ocean away from boundaries. In this thesis we investigate the suitability of using the Thorpe scale method on high resolution temperature data from buoyancy driven gliders and vertical microstructure profilers to improve provision of estimates of turbulent kinetic dissipation rates. Using three datasets a robust methodology was developed to estimate dissipation rates from Thorpe length scales using both a vertical microstructure profiler and Seagliders. Three distinct regions were investigated; open ocean over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge using a vertical microstructure profiler, open ocean in the Subtropical North Atlantic away from boundaries using a Seaglider, and the flank of a submarine ridge in the Faroe-Shetland channel using a Seaglider. All regions showed dissipations ((O)10−11 to (O)10−6 W kg−1 ) and diffusivities ((O)10−6 to (O)10−4 m−2 s −1 ) within expected global ranges, although the latter two showed up to an order of magnitude difference to other studies from the same region. Over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Thorpe scale matched the structure and tidal cycle provided by shear data from the same platform. In contrast, in the Faroe-Shetland channel the method performed poorer, not showing the elevated values of dissipation expected in an internal tide generating region. Additionally, Thorpe scaling showed elevated levels of diapycnal mixing in the Subtropical North Atlantic associated with Thermohaline staircases even though this is non-mechanical process. The benefits, drawbacks and relevance of Thorpe scaling high resolution temperature are discussed and compared with other finescale parametrisations, leading to suggestions as to where the method is most applicable within the oceans for further study.

The aim of this thesis was to link secondary care data from a UK national audit of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) care with primary care data from a database of UK electronic health records (EHRs) to explore how variations in patient pathways through healthcare across England affect hospital admissions for acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD). This aim was achieved through 6 objectives: (i) a systematic review of the literature on validation of AECOPD definitions in EHRs; (ii) determination of predictors of referral to pulmonary rehabilitation from general practice; (iii) a comparison of the quality of COPD primary care in each UK country, as currently only Wales is assessed; (iv) determination of whether the COPD Best Practice Tariff (BPT) pay-for-performance scheme improves patient outcomes; (v) assessment of the utility of NEWS2 as a severity score measure in AECOPD admissions; (vi) linkage of secondary care audit data with primary care EHR data to explore how management of patients with COPD affects AECOPD hospital admissions. A summary of the key results is as follows. Firstly, although few studies have validated AECOPD definitions, a validated AECOPD definition was found in a systematic search of the literature that could be used in subsequent objectives. Secondly. while generally appropriate patients appear to be prioritised for PR referral, women were less likely to be considered for referral than men. Thirdly, England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland had substantially lower proportions of patients with confirmed airways obstruction and referrals to pulmonary rehabilitation than Wales. This suggests that completing primary care audits solely in Wales is leading to improvements in, at least, the recording of care that are not happening in the rest of the UK. Fourthly, the combination of interventions financially incentivised by the COPT BPT were not associated with an improvement in 30-day mortality or readmission. One component of the BPT, specialist review, was associated with 31% lower odds of inpatient mortality. Fifthly, NEWS2 was a poor predictor of length of hospital stay, requirement for NIV, and inpatient mortality, with AUC values of 0.7 or less for each outcome. Sixth and finally, 80% of patients admitted for AECOPD had contact with their GP in the 2 weeks prior to admission, suggesting that these admissions could not have been avoided. 86% of admissions were clinically appropriate. Contact with primary care did not appear to affect admission appropriateness. Receipt of a discharge care bundle was associated with receipt of best practice care, however this association appeared to derive from already having received those items of care in secondary care. Power was limited in the final analyses making it difficult to draw firm conclusions, however COPD discharge care bundles do not appear to be leading to improvements in key patient outcomes.

The fashion stylist, an occupation primarily based on that of the magazine fashion editor, achieved recognition as a distinct freelance role in Britain in the 1980s. The acknowledgment of styling coincided with the ascendancy of 'style press' publications and with a heightened awareness of the currency of stylistic difference in postmodern culture. This research project centres on the adoption of the job title 'stylist' by those performing particular tasks in the production of fashion image; the study triangulates a critical evaluation of literature, both in fashion studies and related fields, with an etymology of key terms and with analysis of data drawn from editorial content and oral history accounts. An etymology of the word 'stylist', both as an occupational title and in other contexts, defines the various historical uses of the term and the range of practices and responsibilities with which it is associated. The evolution of related terms is also explored, focusing on the prominent use of 'style' in the contexts of subcultural and postmodern debate. The study discusses the factors, both within London in the 1980s and in the broader field of postmodern culture, that contributed to the emergence of the role and its status in the field of fashion image-making. Data drawn from oral history interviews with stylists and their peers describe the social context and creative scene of London at that time. Analysis of editorial content, comprising a range of British fashion and style publications from 1980 to 1985, compares the crediting of editorial and freelance personnel within each magazine and examines evidence of styling in fashion photography. The specific nature of the stylist's role is identified in relation to that of other creative occupations, locating discussion of fashion styling within existing theoretical debates. Oral history accounts provide further identification of the stylist's working processes, their interaction with other creative roles and the perception of their status within the production network.

The alteration of flow regimes through abstraction and impoundment represents a major threat to aquatic species and ecosystems. Dam and weir removal have become attractive restoration measures for mitigating flow regime alteration, habitat fragmentation and other ecological impacts. Yet, large heterogeneity between study sites, a lack of historical data and complex underlying processes, mean predicting the hydromorphological response remains challenging. In this work, the novel application of Physically Based Spatially Distributed catchment modelling, Geomorphic Modelling and Level Pool Routing combined with extensive fieldwork is used to predict the hydromorphological consequences of weir removal at Ennerdale Water; a Special Area of Conservation in the Upper Ehen catchment, where impoundment and abstraction date back to the 1800s. The area is home to the last remaining stronghold of endangered freshwater pearl mussels in England and Wales and is subject to unique natural and managed conditions. Using historic flow regime data, a national-scale assessment of freshwater pearl mussel rivers is conducted. It shows that healthier mussel populations inhabit rivers with less extreme fluctuations between low and high flows and catchments with lower magnitude high flow events. Healthy populations, however, are found in both regulated and unregulated rivers. Abstraction has reduced mean flows in the Upper Ehen by 10% from 1995-2019. Without impounding infrastructure and flow regulation, minimum flows are predicted to fall by around 65% with no change to Q95 values. In the event of weir removal, mean lake levels are predicted to fall by 0.95m, resulting in a 5% reduction in the surface area of Ennerdale Water. The novel application of water-borne ground penetrating radar has shown evidence of historic lake outlets and previous lateral channel movement at the head of Ennerdale Water. Lakebed analysis identified small pockets of fine sediment, totalling an estimated 825 m3 , directly upstream of the weir. Chemical analysis identified no high levels of contamination. Following weir removal, sediment transport rates were predicted to vary between 0.25 m3 and 309m3 per year, averaging around 30 m3 /year. Transport was highly correlated with extreme high flows. Correctly managed weir removal represents an opportunity for United Utilities to align the interests of regulators, customers and wider stakeholders. The hydrological and geomorphic results presented, provide critical and unique evidence for achieving this outcome. Furthermore, this study presents a novel and thorough methodology for investigating weir and dam removal that can be applied to other sites requiring ecological restoration.

Numerically calculating the full primordial bispectrum predicted by a model of inflation and comparing it to what we see in the CMB sky is very computationally intensive, necessitating layers of approximations and limiting the models which can be constrained. The inherent separability of the tree level in-in formalism provides a means by which to obviate some of these difficulties. To exploit this property, one can expand in separable basis functions. The practicality of this method is then determined by the descriptive power of the basis chosen, i.e. by the range of scenarios for which that basis provides a convergent representation of the bispectrum. The central difficulty encountered in obtaining fast convergence is the effect of dominant non-physical k-configurations. A secondary difficulty encountered is accurately including the early-time contributions to the higher-order coefficients (which are necessary to capture feature effects, such as resonance non-Gaussianity). In this thesis we develop this separable, template-free approach into a practical and efficient numerical methodology which can be applied to a much wider and more complicated range of bispectrum phenomenology than previous analyses. This is an important step forward towards observational pipelines which can fully exploit the information contained in the primordial bispectrum to directly confront specific models of inflation. We use our implementation of this pipeline to obtain a constraint on DBI inflation, and validate our implementation by comparing this constraint to an equivalent one obtained by the Planck collaboration.

Intrafusal fibres are a specialised population in skeletal muscle, found within the muscle spindle. These fibres have a mechano-sensory capacity, they detect and mediate static and dynamic muscle stretch and monitor muscle position, forming a key contribution to proprioception. Impairment of proprioception and associated dysfunction of the muscle spindle is linked with multiple neuromuscular diseases, aging and nerve injuries. To date, there is a paucity of publications focussed on de novo generation and characterisation of intrafusal muscle fibres in vitro and current skeletal muscle models lack integration of the afferent functions of the muscle spindle. It was hypothesised that de novo intrafusal myotubes could be generated and characterised from differentiated C2C12 myoblasts, utilising addition of recombinant Neuregulin 1, an essential molecule for intrafusal fibre development. Intrafusal bag myotubes have a distinctive fusiform shape and were characterised using novel morphological parameters, immunofluorescent microscopy and western blot analysis, directed against an extensive list of putative intrafusal specific markers, as identified in vivo. Nrg-1 supplementation resulted in a 5-fold increase in intrafusal bag myotubes, increased expression of the intrafusal specific transcription factor, Egr3 and significantly altered the expression of myosin heavy chains. Nrg-1 also upregulated proliferation of C2C12s, resulting in increased nuclei per image field of view. Following this, siRNA was employed to knockdown Nrg-1 mediated Egr3 expression and Mitomycin-c was applied to mitigate Nrg-1 mediated proliferation. Results indicate generation of intrafusal bag like morphologies occurs independently of Nrg-1 initiated Egr3 expression and proliferation in vitro. Key assays from the 2D work were replicated in a biomimetic 3D collagen system. Bag fibre morphology and myonuclei clustering were detected and myotubes displayed evidence of increased maturity, however, the expression patterns for intrafusal specific markers mimicked the 2D results. Force outputs following electrical field stimulation of 3D constructs were not indicative of an intrafusal fibre phenotype, casting doubt over the suitability of a monocellular C2C12 model for intrafusal fibres. This research provides the most in-depth characterisation and the first tissue engineering approach toward generating de novo intrafusal skeletal muscle. Future iterations of this model will provide platforms for developmental or disease state studies, pre-clinical screening, or clinical applications, which will likely provide novel therapeutic strategies to enhance patient care.

Accidental bleeding during a surgical procedure complicates and interrupts the workflow of the surgeon and can even lead to the operation being aborted. It can be caused by abnormal vascular anatomy that the surgeon is not expecting and unaware of as they are unable to localise from the surgical video feed alone. Image guidance can assist in localisation intraoperatively, however, requires additional equipment that adds cost to the operation. Video motion magnification has been proposed to aid vessel visualation in surgical video without the need for additional equipment beyond the visible light cameras used in endoscopes and surgical microscopes. This technique exaggerates and makes perceivable subtle variations in the video feed that are not normally perceivable to the surgeon. However, other motions in the video are also detected and can cause video distortion, making video motion magnification unsuitable for surgical guidance. The work in this thesis aims to address these shortcomings by excluding motion unrelated to the cardiovascular system from being exaggerated and enables motion magnification to become a viable image guidance option for detecting unseen vasculature. A higher order of motion temporal filter is proposed to negate the visible motion caused by respiration from the video motion magnification algorithm, whilst still remaining active on other present physiological motions. Tool motion is accounted for by creating a periodic filter prior to the insertion of surgical instruments into the scene. This filter acts as a comparative threshold and reduces the motion magnification effect where the tool motion is present. Both filters are demonstrated to work theoretically on synthetic motion profiles, as well as on a variety of surgical videos, where the Structural Similarity Image Matrix index is used to validate the filters' performance. Spatio-temporal cross-sections of the videos also show an increase in usability. Finally, real-time system considerations are investigated with regard to temporal filter selection and suitability. Filter group delay, causal dependency, overall image quality and algorithmic complexity are considered a metrics for selecting the most suitable filter for a real-time usage case. Videos generated and used in this thesis are available from https://tinyurl.com/MotionMagForSurgicalVideo.

Soup kitchens, the charitable provision of food, principally soup (often accompanied by bread), became widespread in late-eighteenth century Britain. They were not a British invention. Soup is an ancient means of relieving hunger, but the circumstances during the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath helped form a new type of institution which has been exported worldwide as a panacea for the pangs of hunger fostered by urbanisation and industrialisation. This thesis traces the development of this novel institution and its material culture in England. It examines the changing nature of charity and the relationship between the poor and the better off in five counties, Northumberland, Kent, Staffordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, within a national context. As historical archaeology, this research is inevitably cross-disciplinary, drawing on a wide range of evidence. Archival sources for soup kitchens are sparse, but nineteenth-century local newspapers provide a rich albeit fragmentary record with which to create the background for interpreting the material culture, architecture and landscapes of charity. Objects, structures, landscapes and patterns of behaviour shaped the performance of charity, which is interpreted through architectural and spatial analysis and the lived-experience of the participants. This study takes the existing research on institutions in new directions and challenges our concepts of what archaeological sites are. By bringing both material evidence and innovative methodologies to the study of poverty and charity, the thesis contributes to the understanding of the makeshift economy that the poor used to survive. Soup kitchens were widespread during the long nineteenth century, feeding between 10 and 30% of the population during wintertime. Later, soup kitchens fell from grace, particularly in industrial areas and were blamed for creating the problems they sought to alleviate. In less industrial areas soup remained in the repertoire of acceptable charity. England had developed very different regional cultures of charity.

Measure-valued and coalescent processes have a long and rich history in the field of population genetics. Through duality, these processes are intimately linked and the study of one often leads to insights in the other. In this thesis we investigate the small-time behaviour of backwards-in-time genealogical processes to establish a diffusion limit at t = 0. Forwards in time we consider linear combinations of an i.i.d. collection of Fleming-Viot processes, describing LLN and CLT style limits. In order to establish convergence in the second chapter, we require tightness. The duality of these processes and results from our first chapter are essential in proving this and much of the second chapter.

Background and purpose: Current automated planning methods do not allow for the intuitive exploration of clinical trade-offs during calibration. This work introduces a novel automated planning solution, which aimed to address this problem through incorporating Pareto navigation techniques into the calibration process. The efficacy of this new solution was evaluated for prostate cancer patients with and without elective nodal irradiation. Materials and methods: The developed automated planning methodology was as follows. For each tumour site a set of planning goals is defined. Utilising Pareto navigation techniques an operator calibrates the solution through intuitively exploring different treatment options: selecting the optimum balancing of competing planning goals for the given site. Once calibrated, fully automated plan generation is possible, with specific algorithms implemented to ensure trade-off balancing of new patients is consistent with that during calibration. Using the proposed methodology the system was calibrated for prostate and seminal vesicle (PSV), and prostate and pelvic node (PPN) treatments. For 40 randomly selected patients (20 PSV and 20 PPN) automatically generated plans (VMATAuto) were compared against plans created by expert dosimetrists under clinical conditions (VMATClinical) and no time pressures (VMATIdeal). Plans were compared through quantitative comparison of dosimetric parameters and blind review by an oncologist. Results: Upon blind review 39/40 and 33/40 VMATAuto plans were considered preferable or equal to VMATClinical and VMATIdeal respectively, with all deemed clinically acceptable. Dosimetrically, VMATAuto, VMATClinical and VMATIdeal were similar, with observed differences generally of low clinical significance. Compared to VMATClinical, VMATAuto reduced hands-on planning time by 94% and 79% for PSV and PPN respectively. Total planning time was significantly reduced from 22.2 mins to 14.0 mins for PSV, with no significant reduction observed for PPN. Conclusions: An automated planning methodology with a Pareto navigation based calibration has been developed, enabling the complex balancing of competing trade-offs to be intuitively incorporated into automated protocols. It was successfully applied to two sites of differing complexity and robustly generated high quality plans in an efficient manner.

The focus of this thematic thesis was to conduct an examination into the autistic differences to underlying sensorimotor planning, integration, and execution processes. The distinct protocols in the current programme of work: imitation in upper-limb motor control (chapter two), upper-limb single and two-segment manual aiming (chapter three) and stepping behaviour in obstacle crossing (chapter four), provide independent, yet related, examinations of underlying autistic sensorimotor behaviour compared to typically developing controls. Chapter two revealed that autistic participants successfully imitated atypical biological motion kinematics when the imitation environment was structured to facilitate trial-by-trial processing, and interference in the inter-trial delay over time influenced consolidatory offline sensorimotor processes related to planning. Chapter three revealed that autistic adolescents show significant alterations to sensorimotor planning processes during single and two-segment manual aiming. Chapter four revealed significant sensorimotor integration differences during obstacle crossing in autistic participants who require substantial or very substantial support. Across all experimental chapters in the current thesis, there also appeared to be significant autistic variability increases across several key dependant variables, implicating altered sensorimotor feedforward planning processes. Additionally, there also appears to be evidence of intact sensorimotor feedback processes whereby autistic participants utilise the online integration of sensory information to compensate for earlier variabilities. This thesis will seek to synthesise, summarise, and appraise key findings between experimental chapters, relative to current literature, with both theoretical and wider implications for the motor control and autistic communities discussed and future directions identified.

Over the last two decades, the English state has sought to establish increasing levels of control over pedagogy in Reception and Year One. As a result, the transition between these year groups is dominated by a readying for school discourse. This discourse is established and enforced through policy technologies - relating to curriculum, assessment and accountability measures - that work to steer teachers towards the outcomes desired by the state. Understanding how policy technologies operated and influenced pedagogies of the transition from Reception to Year One was a central focus of this thesis which explored and compared two different settings; one where policy technologies were enforced and another where they were not. These settings were in the state- and independent-sector respectively. Taking a broad view of pedagogy - as both performance and discourse - a conceptual framework, based on activity theory, was developed. The framework was able to identify how the socio-cultural-political factors unique to each setting mediated micro-level classroom processes which, in turn, shaped how pedagogies of the transition from Reception to Year One were experienced by children and parents. Using a qualitative, collective case study, the research followed seven children in each setting over a period of ten months as they transitioned from Reception to Year One. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with children, parents, teachers and headteachers in each case and were triangulated against observations, documentation and online interviews. The findings indicate how socio-cultural-political factors exert significant influence on pedagogy. In the state-sector case, the pedagogies enacted in Reception and Year One were heavily conditioned by government policy whereas in the independent-sector case, they reflected teacher beliefs, the children's needs and parental expectations. The contrasting approaches in each case had important implications for how children and parents were able to navigate the transition between Reception and Year One.

This work is focused on the development of Visual Speech recognition systems within sparse data domains. The use of Visual Speech recognition as this basis for a Liveness Verification system is discussed. This thesis also explores the adaptation of models trained within one domain to be used with data from another (e.g. adaptation from RGB to IR).

Dynamic processes generating time series are a phenomenon occurring in many events and systems worth studying. This thesis explores how different algorithms can learn from time series in order to analyze and predict systems ranging from simple linear time series generating processes to more complex systems. In order to achieve this we develop a framework based on two core ideas: How to frame problems across different domains in a unifying state-space framework, and what kind of generalisable parametric and non-parametric model architectures can be applied to tackle these problems. We introduce a novel methodology combining models from computational physics as well as econometrics and epidemiology to show how multiple problems can be cast in a dynamical systems perspective and be studied by the inter-disciplinary models we introduce. We thus provide a generalisable framework for inference in multiple domains and furthermore show how the proposed parametric models are extendable using purely data-driven approaches.

This thesis posits that in the post World War 2 era, a nexus of relationships has given rise to a transnational group of five states that form a Deutschian security community. This Anglospheric security community of the US, UK, Australia and NZ, is examined by utilising Adler and Barnett's security community model. The model is adapted to give greater weight to the role of memes/culture. It finds that it is culture factors (meme-complexes) related to political values and social behaviour that inform the nature, and modus operandi of this Anglospheric security community. The Brexit debate on the UK's future is found to have illuminated these issues by exposing aspects the contradictions between the competing meme-complexes of the wider Anglospheric community and the EU. The Anglospheric security community's durability and progress is found to be directly related to notions of legitimacy. This conclusion is informed by revisiting Deutsch's original writings on the difference between naturally developing communities and the dangers of policy-elites creating political constructs that run counter to cultural considerations. A values-based meme-complex found to provides not just a common identity but to inform the nature of the Anglospheric security community from which it accrues legitimacy. It is further posited that the Adler and Barnett model's standard categorisations of pluralistic security community types do not adequately describe certain features of the Anglospheric security community. The research in this thesis has uncovered new institutions and fora and established that members do assist one another in conflict and confirms it to be a tightly-coupled version. However, the Anglospheric security community displays an actorship not implicit in Adler and Barnett's categorisation. This thesis offers the terms 'synergic' and 'hemiplegic' to describe functional and dysfunctional communities. The Anglospheric security community is held to be synergic since it exhibits actorship on defence and security matters externally. In contrast the European Union is held up to be hemiplegic due to endemic problems to function cohesively on external defence issues.

This thesis concerns deep learning approaches for anomaly detection in images. Anomaly detection addresses how to find any kind of pattern that differs from the regularities found in normal data and is receiving increasingly more attention in deep learning research. This is due in part to its wide set of potential applications ranging from automated CCTV surveillance to quality control across a range of industries. We introduce three original methods for anomaly detection applicable to two specific deployment scenarios. In the first, we detect anomalous activity in potentially crowded scenes through imagery captured via CCTV or other video recording devices. In the second, we segment defects in textures and demonstrate use cases representative of automated quality inspection on industrial production lines. In the context of detecting anomalous activity in scenes, we take an existing state-of-the-art method and introduce several enhancements including the use of a region proposal network for region extraction and a more information-preserving feature preprocessing strategy. This results in a simpler method that is significantly faster and suitable for real-time application. In addition, the increased efficiency facilitates building higher-dimensional models capable of improved anomaly detection performance, which we demonstrate on the pedestrian-based UCSD Ped2 dataset. In the context of texture defect detection, we introduce a method based on the idea of texture restoration that surpasses all state-of-the-art methods on the texture classes of the challenging MVTecAD dataset. In the same context, we additionally introduce a method that utilises transformer networks for future pixel and feature prediction. This novel method is able to perform competitive anomaly detection on most of the challenging MVTecAD dataset texture classes and illustrates both the promise and limitations of state-of-the-art deep learning transformers for the task of texture anomaly detection.