A re-interpretation of the late Bronze Age metalwork hoards of Essex and Kent

Recent works have offered an alternative to traditional archaeological classification, particularly in the field of ceramic studies. These use theories of human categorisation processes derived from other areas of research, in particular psychology and linguistics. The purpose of this thesis was - through reference to the advances made in studies of this kind - to re-interpret a body of metalwork evidence, in particular the 'founder's hoards' of the 'Carp's Tongue' Complex in Essex and Kent. These hoards include a wide range of artefact categories, often surviving in fragmentary condition, and have traditionally been interpreted as an inevitable by-product of the metalworking process. By examining the nature of the contents and the structure of these hoards, and by making a detailed appraisal of the manner in which each of the individual artefact categories included was treated prior to its inclusion in the hoard, it was possible to establish that there was indeed a strong association with the metalworking process. It also became apparent that regularised methods of destruction were employed upon the artefact categories included in these hoards, and that specific selection processes operated during the accumulation of the hoard contents, with certain artefact categories being favoured for inclusion. It therefore seemed likely that, instead of being a direct by-product of the metalworking process, these hoards were instead collections of metalwork which deliberately referenced the metalworking process, as well as other routine activities, such as the agricultural cycle. By considering these findings within a wider context, it was possible to see these hoards as functioning as material props in ceremonies which created metaphorical associations between activities often perceived by archaeologists as being secular in character with more metaphysical aspects of existence, such as the transformation of the body after death

Healthiness, through the material culture of the late iron age and roman large urban-type settlements of South-East Britain.

It has recently been recognised that concepts of health contain multiple dimensions. One area that has received little attention in archaeology is that of health and well-being, so this research seeks to contribute to this area of study. It does so by investigating healthiness in the late Iron Age and Romano-British periods. The literature review explores current thinking around this topic, and confirms that aspects of good health mattered to people in the past. The research explores small finds that are traditionally associated with personal use (mirrors, combs, glass unguent containers, bronze cosmetic grinders and other additional toilet items) from the main urban-type settlements of south-east Britain. The investigation included collecting data concerning the sites, contexts, dates, materials, types, forms, colours and decoration ofthese objects, and any associated archaeological remains found with these items. Given the social nature ofthis work, a contextual approach was central to the design. The research takes an interpretive interdisciplinary position that draws on theoretical models based on the self and other, the body and face, the senses and perception, as well as concepts from material cultural studies, such as agency. Patterns seen in the data-set coupled with theoretical frameworks, and understandings of late Iron Age and Roman life, are brought together, and offer a means of interpreting how and why some of these small finds contributed to practices ofmaintaining good health. These proposals include healthiness in personhood and domestic and public life, in religion and the control of healthiness

Clinical trial metadata:Defining and extracting metadata on the design, conduct, results and costs of 125 randomised clinical trials funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme

Background:  By 2011, the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme had published the results of over 100 trials with another 220 in progress. The aim of the project was to develop and pilot ‘metadata’ on clinical trials funded by the HTA programme.   Objectives: The aim of the project was to develop and pilot questions describing clinical trials funded by the HTA programme in terms of it meeting the needs of the NHS with scientifically robust studies. The objectives were to develop relevant classification systems and definitions for use in answering relevant questions and to assess their utility.   Data sources: Published monographs and internal HTA documents.   Review methods: A database was developed, ‘populated’ using retrospective data and used to answer questions under six prespecified themes. Questions were screened for feasibility in terms of data availability and/or ease of extraction. Answers were assessed by the authors in terms of completeness, success of the classification system used and resources required. Each question was scored to be retained, amended or dropped.    Results: One hundred and twenty-five randomised trials were included in the database from 109 monographs. Neither the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number nor the term ‘randomised trial’ in the title proved a reliable way of identifying randomised trials. Only limited data were available on how the trials aimed to meet the needs of the NHS. Most trials were shown to follow their protocols but updates were often necessary as hardly any trials recruited as planned. Details were often lacking on planned statistical analyses, but we did not have access to the relevant statistical plans. Almost all the trials reported on cost-effectiveness, often in terms of both the primary outcome and quality-adjusted life-years. The cost of trials was shown to depend on the number of centres and the duration of the trial. Of the 78 questions explored, 61 were well answered, 33 fully with 28 requiring amendment were the analysis updated. The other 17 could not be answered with readily available data.   Limitations: The study was limited by being confined to 125 randomised trials by one funder.   Conclusions: Metadata on randomised controlled trials can be expanded to include aspects of design, performance, results and costs. The HTA programme should continue and extend the work reported here

Exploring academic integrity and mental health during COVID-19: Rapid review

Purpose: The goal of this study was to understand the relationship between academic integrity and students’ mental health during the COVID-19 crisis. Methods: We employed a rapid review method to identify relevant data sources using our university library search tool, which offers access to 1026 individual databases. We searched for sources relating to the concepts of (a) COVID-19 crisis; (b) academic integrity; and (c) mental health. We delimited our search to sources published between 01 January and 15 May 2020. Results: Our search resulted in a preliminary data set of sources (N=60). Further screening resulted in a total nine (n=9) sources, which were reviewed in detail. Data showed an amplification of students’ anxiety and stress during the pandemic, especially for matters relating to academic integrity. E-proctoring of examinations emerged as point of particular concern, as there were early indications in the literature that such services have proliferated rapidly during the crisis, with little known about the possible impact of electronic remote proctoring on students’ well-being. Implications: Recommendations are made for further research to better understand the impact of e-proctoring of remote examinations on students’ mental health, as well as the connections between academic integrity and student well-being in general. (DIPF/Orig.

Architecture and Neuroscience; what can the EEG recording of brain activity reveal about a walk through everyday spaces?

New digital media and quantitative data have been increasingly used in an attempt to map, understand and analyse spaces. Each different medium with which we analyse and map spaces offers a different insight, and can potentially increase our tools and methods for mapping spaces and understanding human experience. The emergence of such technologies has the potential to influence the way in which we map, analyse and perceive spaces. Given this context, the project presented in this paper examines how neurophysiological data, recorded with the use of portable electroencephalography (EEG) devices, can help us understand how the brain responds to physical environments in different individuals. In this study we look into how a number of participants navigate in an urban environment; between specific identified buildings in the city. The brain activity of the participants is recorded with a portable EEG device whilst simultaneously video recording the route. Through this experiment we aim to observe and analyse the relationship between the physical environment and the participant’s type of brain activity. We attempt to correlate how key moments of their journey, such as moments of decision making, relate to recordings of specific brain waves. We map and analyse certain common patterns observed. We look into how the variation of the physical attributes of the built environment around them is related to the fluctuation of specific brain waves. This paper presents a specific project of an ongoing cross-disciplinary study between architecture and neuroscience, and the key findings of a specific experiment in an urban environment

Academic Integrity and Student Mental Well-Being: A Rapid Review

Despite concerns arising from academic integrity practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders about the relationship between academic integrity (or violations of academic integrity) and student mental well-being (or distress), there is a lack of literature synthesizing available evidence. Particularly, it is unclear about when student mental well-being may be of concern during procedures that concern breaches of academic integrity. Our rapid review identified and analysed scholarly sources (n = 46) to understand the relationship between academic integrity and mental well-being among postsecondary students. Five themes emerged: a) negativity bias; b) inconsistency of definitions; c) paradigmatic tensions; d) focus on external stressors; and e) focus on mental health prior to a critical incident. We propose several calls to action and implications for practice. There is a need to better understand the impact of an alleged or actual academic integrity violation on students’ mental well-being. Practitioners should integrate supports for students’ mental well-being in processes and procedures that uphold academic integrity

Does the professional and working context of United Kingdom clinicians predict if they use practices to support patients with long term conditions to self manage?

INTRODUCTION: Our study examines how the professional and employment context may influence clinicians' practice self management support for patients with long term conditions (LTC). MATERIAL AND METHODS: We surveyed clinicians working with patients with depression, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), chronic musculo skeletal pain and diabetes. RESULTS: Clinicians most frequently endorsed items on a scale concerned with patient centeredness, and less frequently endorsed items concerned with clinical and organizational self management support. The most important factors predicting these latter activities were the intensity of working experience with patients with LTC and attending professional training addressing the principles and practice of self management support. Practicing patient centeredness was endorsed by nearly all respondents, and so was not sensitive to variation on work variables. CONCLUSIONS: The interaction of training and intensity of work with patients with LTC seems to have the most powerful effect on undertaking clinical and organizational self management support practices. To facilitate clinicians' practice of self management support for patients with LTC it is very important to provide relevant professional training and to build specialized patient care teams with professionals having complimentary skills

Can nurses rise to the public health challenge? How a novel solution in nurse education can address this contemporary question.

This paper raises the problem of how improvements in health outcomes, a key component in many governments' strategies, can be achieved. The work highlights a novel undergraduate educational approach which offers solutions to public health challenges within nursing. Against the backdrop of one UK university institution it discusses approaches that can guide nursing students towards a deeper understanding and engagement within the principles of public health. It then proposes how nurses can use their learning to become leaders of health improvement

Ambiguity and Ambivalence in the Poetry of Samuel Johnson: His Relation to the Tradition of Neoclassical Imitation

All good poetry encourages the reader to peruse it more than once, for it holds the promise of new meanings and new emotional experiences every time it is read. The student 1s challenge is to identify what the writer does with the English language in order to create such meanings and experiences. Several approaches are helpful. They include analysis of all the lexical meanings the poet employs; of the impact some of his words receive because they absorb the accents in his metrical pattern, or because he has arranged them in a certain sequence; and of the manner in which the words affect each other, either in their grammatical relationships or through the interweaving of connotations--the sensations and memories they awaken within the readers minds. I follow all these avenues of approach to the heroic couplet works of Samuel Johnson, whose poetry did not draw attention until this century although he had been well known for his prose writings since his own time. The project has led not only to an understanding of the poetic techniques and attitudes current in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, but also to some appreciation of the classical Roman writers Johnson and his contemporaries admired and imitated, toa glimpse of the great traditions the English writers inherited.Englis

In vitro studies on T cell proliferation and Lymphokine factor production in the amphibian, Xenopus

The major aim of this Thesis has been to procure and begin to characterise T cell-derived cytokines in the clawed toad, Xenopus. Recent reports have suggested that Xenopus lymphocytes, stimulated in vitro with T cell mitogens, will generate factors that achieve the enhanced proliferation and growth of assay T lymphoblasts, but not unstimulated cells; these factors have been called 'T cell growth factors' and likened to mammalian interleukin-2. In this Thesis the nature of factors released in culture supernatants (SNs) by alloantigen- and mitogen-stimulation of Xenopus leucocytes is re-examined and it is shown that cells other than T lymphoblasts and even non-T cells are responsive to such T cell-derived ‘lymphokines’. Chapter 2 revealed that SNs collected from 48 hour cocultures of splenocytes from MHC (major histocompatibility complex)-disparate Xenopus were able to achieve enhanced proliferation not only of PHA-activated splenic- lymphoid -cells, but also of -unstimulated' splenocytes. Thymic 'blasts', but not 'unstimulated' thymocytes, were also responsive to these mixed leucocyte culture (MLC)-induced factors. In Chapter 3, to further investigate lymphokine production, splenocytes were stimulated with the T cell mitogens PHA (phytohaemagglutinin) and Con A (Concanavalin A) and the activity of the culture SNs then examined after mitogen removal. SNs taken at 24 hours achieved good proliferation of both 'unstimulated' splenocytes and splenic blasts. In Chapter 4, miniaturisation of the SN screening assay was successfully achieved, using only 1.5 x 10(^4) leucocytes in a 'hanging drop' culture, in order to minimise the amount of lymphokine required in an assay, and to allow experiments on few assay lymphocytes. It was shown that 'unstimulated' splenocytes from early- thyraectomised Xenopus responded by proliferation to active supernatants (ASNs) (MLC-, PHA- or Con A-generated), indicating that a cell type other than a T cell could be induced to proliferate in the presence of ASN. Thymectomy experiments also indicated that T cells were necessary for the generation of active supernatants in vitro. The identity of the thymus-independent cells responding to ASNs was further explored in Chapter 5. Using an anti-IgM monoclonal antibody, B cells from early- thymectomised Xenopus were separated from the rest of the splenocyte population by flow cytometry. Surface IgM(^+)cells (B cells) responded mildly to ASNs, whereas the sIgM- population (and unsorted cells) responded well to both the PHA-ASN and the MLC-ASN. Work carried out at the beginning of this Ph.D., that identified splenic antigen-presenting cells and (inconclusively) explored the role of these cells as stimulators in MLC responses in Xenopus, is reported in Chapter 6. The main conclusions to be drawn from this research are briefly discussed in Chapter 7 and suggestions for future work considered