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This study employs life course theory to palaeopathological evidence of morbidity from skeletons, and in doing so, endeavours to uncover new insights about the lives of medieval children in England. This research explores life course theory, through a biohistorical approach, to non-adult bioarchaeological evidence. Through the implementation of a holistic research approach, this study aims to address an important gap in our knowledge of childhood in the past, as well as demonstrate the value of engaging with – and integrating approaches from – multiple disciplines. This research examines the prevalence of skeletal disease in non-adults (in this study ≤25-years-old) in England between AD 1200 and 1700. Data for 3,466 non-adults from 146 later medieval sites and an additional 753 non-adults from 41 Tudor sites were collated from published and unpublished skeletal reports and analysed for evidence of skeletal changes reflective of disease. It was observed that, adopting a life course perspective was vital for understanding the lived experience of childhood in the past. It was noted that evidence of morbidity during childhood (≤11-years-old) was low, potentially indicating a period of effective child care. At around12-16-years of age the transition into youthhood occurred and this was accompanied by a change in morbidity patterns. It was also noted that patterns of morbidity in the life course changed according to different scales of analysis – such as regional, temporal, social status, urbanism. There was also potentially a difference in morbidity and burial evidence between later medieval and Tudor childhood. Evidence of violent trauma suggests that youths might have participated in warfare activities from the age of 14-17-years-old. Finally, the approach of composite life course analysis revealed that progressive tuberculosis was likely to have been a significant childhood experience, during which children were cared for by their familial units.

Aerosol particles are prevalent in the atmosphere and impact the Earth's energy balance through scattering and absorption of incoming and outgoing radiation. Such particles represent one of the largest uncertainties when trying to characterise the anthropogenic causes in the Earth's changing radiation balance. This thesis describes the development of laboratory based techniques for measuring aerosol optical and microphysical properties that are atmospherically relevant. A single particle trapping technique that uses a Bessel-beam propagating counter to a' gas flow (Bessel-beam/gas-flow) is presented. The changing radius of the trapping particle is determined from the collected elastically scattered light. The fluctuating position of a particle trapped along the Bessel beam length is shown to be directly related to the particle radiation pressure efficiency and thus to its radius and refractive index counter to what is expected from , liquid phase optical chromatography measurements. It is shown that ensemble aerosol particle fractionation using a Bessel-beam/gas-flow instrument is not possible. An aerosol ensemble cavity ring down spectrometer (AE-CRDS) was used to determine the refractive index of hygroscopic sodium nitrate aerosols at different relative humidities, A comparison is made between the refractive index retrieved using AE-CRDS and the refractive index retrieved using a single particle, optical tweezers instrument. The accuracy of the optical tweezers refractive index measurement is found to be significantly higher due to the poorly defined size distribution of the aerosol ensemble in the cavity ring down technique. The development of the single particle cavity ring down spectroscopy (SP-CRDS) technique for highly accurate measurements of aerosol extinction efficiencies is presented. The SP-CRDS instrument uses a Bessel-beam/gas-flow optical trap to control the position of a particle within a cavity ring down spectrometer. A new method of accurately obtaining the real part of the refractive index using this technique is described. Measured extinction efficiencies are compared to Mie simulated extinction efficiencies to obtain the refractive index of single component aerosol particles to an accuracy of better than ± 0.1%.

The Palaeoproterozoic evolution of the central Outer Hebrides can be explained by modern plate-tectonic processes and is consistent with the products of a Wilson cycle. Local continental crust comprising c. 2.8 Ga tonalitic orthogneiss underwent extension and rifting leading to the deposition of clastic sediments derived from a late Archaean source, and was followed by the emplacement of c. 2 Ga mafic dykes. The latter are probably not directly equivalent to the Scourie dykes of the Scottish mainland. Rupturing and the formation of an ocean basin followed, and this was subsequently subducted around 1.9 Ga leading to the development of a volcanic arc, which now forms much, but not all of the South Harris Complex. This arc was founded on continental crust formed in part by the c. 2.5 Ga South Harris anorthosite. During subsequent collision events the late Archaean tonalitic gneisses and enclosed dykes were sutured back together trapping arc and probable ophiolitic material in the process. The latter is concentrated in a major imbricate zone lying immediately NE of the arc rocks, and formed by the Langavat Belt. In addition to probable ophiolitic material, this zone includes Archaean-derived metasediments, and slivers of Archaean basement gneiss. This represents the most probable location of the major suture zone associated with the reassembly of the Archaean gneisses. Suturing was followed by the initiation of kilometre-scale post-collisional shear zones. One of these, the Langavat Shear Zone was initiated prior to -1740 Ma, and exploits the Langavat Belt imbricate zone. The evolution of the Lewisian Complex of the Outer Hebrides is closely comparable to the Nagssugtoqidian orogen of southern Greenland, with which it is correlated. In fact, the geology of the Outer Hebrides bears a closer affinity with the Nagssugtoqidian belt than it does to the Lewisian rocks of the Scottish mainland.