Search

While it is undeniable that nature connection and ecotherapeutic interventions can have positive effects in terms of wellbeing and promoting environmental awareness and pro-environmental action, they are limited if the social and economic inequalities within which they take place, are not highlighted and especially placed in the context of the planetary emergency. Ecofeminism strives to highlight the inequitable and harmful forces that impact social and environmental relationships through the critical lens of patriarchal capitalism. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews with 23 people living in Northern Ireland together with a critical review of relevant psychological, political and political economy literature, this thesis argues that environmental activism and self-care are forms of labour that are fundamental for keeping people and the planet healthy in an era marked by environmental devastation and climate collapse. In this era - which some have called the Capitalocene - health is not guaranteed and wealth and privilege strongly influence the relationships people have with the natural world, particularly in capitalist countries that prioritise economic growth as a marker of success. While Nature Connection and Ecotherapy practices appear to be becoming increasingly popular, there is a gap in the existing academic literature that analyses them from explicitly political perspectives that consider the influence of intersectional injustices (class, race, gender), and the wider socio-economic and socio-ecological contexts of ecocidal capitalism. Capitalism and the Capitalocene are terms used to describe the forces that exist where production, profit, consumerism and capital accumulation dominate politics, culture and the media, and also the everyday lives and choices that most people make. What we do for a living and how our lives are organised will impact how we structure our schedule and what we spend our free time doing and how much we enjoy our lives. Nature experiences, wellness activities and ecotherapeutic practices can serve as locations where people heal, find a sense of flow and pleasure and maintain balance in their lives or they can be perceived as spaces that represent freedom or an escape from the pressures of everyday, modern living. In this study the findings draw attention to how gender, age and income impact how individuals use nature experiences for mental health purposes and how they find fulfillment and contentment in their day to day lives. This work argues that to stay well in this era we must reframe and reconsider how we understand self-care and activism and how they are both important for maintaining wellbeing and staying healthy during the climate crisis. To live a good life where there is balance and harmony in a time of increasing ecological and climate breakdown requires new ways of existing and thinking about health, joy, pleasure, love, life and connection. For nature connection and environmental behaviours to be most beneficial to more people in the Capitalocene, the economic, ideological and governance structures and practices that create and maintain socio and economic inequalities, compel individuals to seek formal employment, and cause 'actually existing unsustainability', must be identified, addressed and transformed. We also need to consider and prioritise practices that bring happiness, pleasure and contentment into our daily lives and relationships.

Peer support has become increasingly common within the mental health field, with literature demonstrating that this can be beneficial to both those receiving peer support, as well as to those providing it, often termed Peer Support Workers (PSWs). The first chapter of this thesis is a systematic review synthesising the qualitative evidence exploring PSWs' experiences and perceptions of their non-peer colleagues. Thematic Synthesis was used to synthesise the findings of the nineteen included studies. Five themes were identified: 'Adverse Experiences', 'Feeling Valued, Welcomed and Supported', 'Providing a Unique Perspective', 'Influence of Systemic Factors' and 'Easier Over Time'. The review highlighted the mixed experiences that PSWs have with their colleagues and highlighted the need for further research in this area. Clinical implications for services employing PSWs were provided. The second chapter of this thesis reports on an empirical study exploring how PSWs manage their wellbeing at work. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve PSWs, with Thematic Analysis used to analyse the data. Four superordinate themes were identified, each containing a number of sub-ordinate themes: 'A Double Edged Sword', 'Structure, like any other profession', 'Culture' and 'Self-Care'. Clinical implications and suggestions for further research were discussed.

Current demographics within the United Kingdom present a challenging picture, with older people forming a considerable proportion of the population. In particular, older people are spending a longer period outside paid work at a point in the life course constructed as retirement. Increasingly, some older adults are returning to learning as a means of remaining socially connected, keeping active and purely for pleasure. Research which seeks to understand the relevance and importance of learning in later life remains quite disparate and, in addition, there is a lack of longitudinal or biographical research which seeks to explore this phenomenon. The research reported in this thesis aims to offer new insights into later-life learning by exploring how retired older people narrate their experiences of learning, and through consideration of the interrelationship this experience to life course capital.

The placenta provides a protective barrier for the developing foetus during gestation. Physiological barriers including the placenta, liver, kidney, intestine and blood-brain barrier are known to express ATP-Binding cassette transporters (ABC transporters) and metabolising enzymes. These specialised proteins have the ability to transport or metabolise xenobiotics. There is evidence to suggest that ABC transporters and metabolising enzymes are located at the interface between the maternal and foetal blood supplies (a cell layer referred to as the syncytiotrophoblast) and therefore may help protect the foetus from harmful xenobiotics. During new compound development prenatal developmental toxicity testing forms an important part of safety assessment. In order to predict potential toxicity of a new chemical entity to humans, rodent and non-rodent species are currently used. This thesis investigates the rat and human placental barrier properties in order to help facilitate our knowledge of species differences and contribute to our understanding of the limitations of these surrogate models. The approaches taken include: genomic analyses using microarray data to compare the overall expression of ABC transporters and metabolising enzymes throughout gestation in both species, immunohistochemical techniques to localise transporters and metabolising enzymes in the rat placenta, and in vitro functionality assays of selected transporters performed in rat and human placental cell line models. The main findings have shown a similar mRNA expression level of ABCG2/BCRP (breast cancer resistance protein) throughout gestation in the rat and human, however different mRNA expression levels of other transporters (slco4a1/oatp4a1 in particular) and metabolising enzymes were also highlighted. Immunohistochemistry localised selected transporters to the syncytiotrophoblast region of the rat placenta (the interface of maternal and foetal circulations). Functional in vitro assays were successfully utilised in rat and human placental cell lines which showed functional ABCB1/P-gp in both species. Overall, these findings provide a genomic characterisation of the rat and human protective placental barrier properties and show transporter functionality in in vitro cell-based assays which will prove useful in prenatal and developmental toxicity tests. Alternatives to using animals have been explored by using functional in vitro assays which could potentially be implored during the new compound discovery phase. This could help to make animal testing more selective for given compounds and ensures the new chemical entity is being tested in the model closest resembling the human.

The effects of ozone pollution on the perennial grass species Anthoxanthum odoratum L. were investigated in terms of ozone sensitivity to contrasting ozone pollution scenarios and intraspecific variation in relation to population genetic diversity. Four populations from North Wales, UK, were exposed to three ozone exposure profiles representing acute exposure and simulated current and future scenarios for both rural and upland areas. Population genetic diversity and differentiation were estimated for the nuclear genome using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) and microsatellite loci developed in this study using a streptavidin-biotin enrichment technique. Genetic variation within the chloroplast genome was assessed using Polymerase Chain Reaction - Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and chloroplast microsatellite loci. A. odoratum was sensitive to ozone exposure in terms of premature senescence exhibiting a relatively fast response under all ozone profiles investigated. Exposure to chronic rural and upland ozone profiles demonstrated that elevated background concentrations may result in a similar or greater senescence response to increased ambient peak episodes. The development of premature senescence was only accompanied by significant reductions in above ground biomass under acute exposure. However, a trend for greater reduction in root biomass was also observed indicating a shift in resource allocation. The maintenance of shoot growth observed under chronic exposure may have also resulted from a reduction in resource allocation to root growth. Intraspecific variation in response was observed with the four populations differing in response to elevated ozone dependant on the assessment criteria applied and the timing of exposure in relation to the growing season and phenological stage. AFLP and microsatellite markers revealed high levels of intrapopulation genetic diversity with low levels of population genetic differentiation maintained by high levels of pollen-mediated gene flow. Chloroplast markers also revealed high levels of intrapopulation genetic diversity although population differentiation was substantially greater indicating greater restrictions to seed-mediated gene flow between populations.

In this thesis, three aspects of parasite life history were investigated: the trade-off between asexual growth and reproduction, the virulence of infections and the sex ratio of transmission stages. All three, and the frequency of mixed infections in a population itself, are fundamentally linked to the transmission and pathology of malaria, the reduction of which is the aim of all current control programmes. An experimental system of the rodent malaria Plasmodium chabaudi in mice allows controlled mixed-infections of distinct clones to be initiated and was used to test theoretical predictions. Genetic and immunological techniques were used to monitor the parasite population throughout the life cycle. One of the main findings from the experimental system was also tested in field populations of the human malaria P. falciparum. Compared to single-clone infections, mixed-clone infections of P. chabaudi showed increased transmission rates, higher virulence and in some experiments less female-biased gametocyte sex ratios. These results are in line with theoretical expectations, but in several cases the underlying mechanism responsible was not entirely consistent with that assumed by theory. The relative transmission rates of two clones in a mixed infection were not predicted by their relative starting inocula or their relative asexual parasite abundances four days before transmission was measured. The minority clone in a mixed-clone infection inoculum transmitted at least as well, and often far better, than it did as a single-clone control. Asexual parasite population sizes were often poor predictors of transmission and virulence. However, the data show common patterns across experiments which help to elucidate patterns of interactions between parasite genotypes and the host. The results are consistent with a strong strain-specific component to host immunity, with a suggestion that immune responses to mixed-genotype infections may be more costly for the host than those directed against single-genotype infections. The relevance of all experimental results to the control of human malaria parasites is discussed.