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The Great Glen Fault (GGF) of Northern Scotland is a long-studied yet enigmatic fault structure. BGS interest in the movement history of the GGF, as part of a new UK-wide strategic initiative, has been stimulated by the Coire Glas project – a hydro-pumped storage scheme with the capability to double the current electricity storage capacity of Great Britain. This major civil engineering project will involve tunnelling through tectonised rocks associated with the GGF. Here, we outline a workflow for the characterisation of fault rocks using a fault gouge sample taken from the GGF close to the Coire Glas site. Our preliminary results show that the microstructure of the studied sample reflects a complex history of fracturing and related mineralization associated with movement on the GGF. We note that computerized tomography (CT) has proved a useful tool in confirming minimal disruption of the fault gouge material during sample preparation.

This thesis gives insight into the interplay of cultural memory, its political instrumentalization and emergent consequences by exploring remembrance and cultural memories of the ethnonational conflict in the case study of Cyprus. Therefore, this study highlights the multifaceted characteristics of cultural memory and how the past can be instrumentalized in political and everyday scenes. This study uncovers a reality-representation divide by employing the cultural memory lens. This is important since understanding the ‘constructive’ dimensions and how we perceive them relates to how we imagine the future. In the case study of Cyprus, the future of the island has the potential to hold fundamentally different futures depending on the cultural memories of the communities, some tending to divide while others to unify the different cultural memory groups. As seen in the case of Cyprus, cultural memory and narratives are the consequences of some political choices and essential variables that need to be worked on for a better future.

This thesis aims to answer if antitrust is capable of regulating digital platform monopolies in the United States. The Microsoft antitrust case of 1998-2001 is used as a case study to provide lessons for antitrust regulators today. Four primary sources from the Department of Justice are manually coded and analyzed, namely the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, Final Judgment, and the Competitive Impact Statement. These documents were accompanied by secondary sources to account for lacking relevant information. The important lessons from the case study are that (1) prices form an inconclusive criterion for analyzing consumer welfare in the modern age, (2) trials need to move quickly, else remedies will not have the desired effect in the rapidly changing technology sector and (3) remedies need to be concrete and oriented on prevention versus punishment. Based on these findings, accompanied by prominent literature on regulating digital platform companies, the thesis concludes that antitrust is currently not capable of regulating digital platform monopolies in the United States. The thesis argues that antitrust has not managed to keep up with the rapid innovations of technology and therefore requires a substantial update in order to conform to the demands of regulation in the 21st century.

BACKGROUND: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) and surgery is a widely used treatment for locally advanced resectable oesophageal cancer, with 20-50 per cent of patients having a pathological complete response (pCR). Disease, however, still recurs in 20-30 per cent of these patients. The aim of this study was to assess the pattern of recurrence in patients with a pCR after nCRT and surgery. METHODS: All patients with a pCR after nCRT and surgery included in the phase II and III CROSS (ChemoRadiotherapy for Oesophageal followed by Surgery Study) trials (April 2001 to December 2008) and after the CROSS trials (September 2009 to October 2017) were identified. The site of recurrence was compared with the applied radiation and surgical fields. Outcomes were median time to recurrence, and overall and progression-free survival. RESULTS: A total of 141 patients with a median follow-up of 100 (i.q.r. 64-134) months were included. Some 29 of 141 patients (20,6 per cent) developed recurrence. Of these, four had isolated locoregional recurrence, 15 had distant recurrence only, and ten had both locoregional and distant recurrence. Among the 14 patients with locoregional recurrences, five had recurrence within the radiation field, seven outside the radiation field, and two at the border. Median time to recurrence was 24 (10-62) months. The 5-year overall survival rate was 74 per cent and the recurrence-free survival rate was 70 per cent. CONCLUSION: Despite good overall survival, recurrence still occurred in 21 per cent of patients. Most recurrences were distant, outside the radiation and surgical fields.

Background: Retrospective assessment of pre-injury health-related quality of life (HRQL) is frequently used to measure change from pre- to post-injury HRQL. However, retrospective measurement may be confounded by recall bias. It is assumed that presence of recall bias is influenced by several factors, such as the measurement scale or the instrument that is used, the measurement schedule, and the presence of a substantial health event during the follow up period. This study empirically tests these assumptions by comparing pre-injury EQ-5D summary scores, EQ-5D profiles and visual analogue scale (EQ-VAS) scores of trauma patients, as recorded 1 week and 12 months post-injury, respectively. Methods: A sample of 5371 adult trauma patients who attended the Emergency Department (ED) followed by hospital admission, received postal questionnaires 1 week (T1) and 12 months (T2) post-injury. The questionnaires contained items on pre-injury health, in terms of EQ-5D3L and EQ-VAS. Results: One thousand one hundred sixty-six completed data pairs with T1 and T2 pre-injury data were available. Mean pre-injury EQ-5D summary scores were 0.906 (T1) and 0.905 (T2), respectively, with moderate intertemporal agreement (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) T1T2 = 0.595). In absolute terms, 442 (37.9%) respondents reported a different pre-injury EQ-5D profile at T2 compared to T1. The least stable EQ-5D dimension was pain/ discomfort (20.2% reported a change). Mean T2 pre-injury EQ-VAS score was significantly higher than mean T1 pre-injury EQ-VAS score (T2 84.6 versus T1 83.3). Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated that lower educational level, comorbid disease and having PTSD symptoms were independent predictors of change of pre-injury EQ-5D profile. Conclusions: Despite one third of respondents reported a different pre-injury health level, if asked for on two interview occasions separated by 1 year, on the group level this difference was nil (EQ-5D summary score) to s