Shropshire Deer Parks c.1500 - c.1914 Recreation, Status and Husbandry

This study sets out to explore the spatial development, changing use and survival of the post-medieval deer park in Shropshire. In so doing, it is hoped to add to and complement a body of research that has been assembled for other parts of the country, in the belief that individual regional studies can throw light on the wider national picture. Previous research has largely neglected the post-medieval period; this thesis aims to fill that gap. Following the Norman Conquest, Shropshire was a semi-autonomous region governed by barons appointed by the king, and subsequently by the Council of the Marches. This study examines regional differences - physical, political, social and economic - but also highlights the impact of selected national events on local circumstances, and those points at which local circumstances achieved national significance. At the centre of the discussion lies the survival of the deer park, and the extent to which it was dependent on outside events or local conditions. The remit of the thesis covers the period c.1500 - c.1900. However, the opening chapter concerns the Middle Ages, providing the context essential to an understanding of the proliferation of deer parks following the Norman Conquest, which reached a peak in the thirteenth century. It serves to introduce topics that are pursued throughout subsequent chapters: the changing nature of hunting, the status conferred by the ownership of a deer park, the appearance of a non-aristocratic professional landowner, and a developing aesthetic awareness of the deer park through the centuries that led to spatial changes in its appreciation and location. Maps, supported by documentary evidence, are used as a tool in tracing the statistics of deer park survival and numbers are recorded and analysed, in order to compare trends that are local with those that are national

Ranking the Risks: The 10 Pathogen-Food Combinations With the Greatest Burden on Public Health

Examines food-borne pathogens with the highest disease burdens and the top ten foods most commonly contaminated by them, such as salmonella in poultry, toxoplasma in pork, and listeria in deli meats. Makes policy recommendations for improving prevention

Identifying the Most Significant Microbiological Foodborne Hazards to Public Health: A New Risk Ranking Model

In order to help facilitate a risk-based food safety system, we developed the Foodborne Illness Risk Ranking Model (FIRRM), a decisionmaking tool that quantifies and compares the relative burden to society of 28 foodborne pathogens. FIRRM estimates the annual number of cases, hospitalizations, and fatalities caused by each foodborne pathogen, subsequently estimates the economic costs and QALY losses of these illnesses, and, lastly, attributes these pathogen-specific illnesses and costs to categories of food vehicles, based on outbreak data and expert judgment. The model ranks pathogen-food combinations according to five measures of societal burden. FIRRM incorporates probabilistic uncertainty within a Monte Carlo simulation framework and produces confidence intervals and statistics for all outputs. Gaps in data, most importantly in regards to food attribution and the statistical uncertainty of incidence estimates, currently limit the utility of the model. Once we address these and other problems, however, FIRRM will be a robust and useful decisionmaking tool.foodborne illness, risk ranking, pathogens, health valuation, QALYs, cost of illness, uncertainty, modeling, Monte Carlo

Mesur y galw am addysg ol-16 trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg ymhlith disgyblion Blwyddyn 11 sydd yn astudio'r Gymraeg fel iaith gyntaf mewn tair ysgol uwchradd yng Ngheredigion.

Gosodir yr ymchwil o fewn cyd-destun agenda ieithyddol cenedlaethol Llywodraeth Cynulliad Cymru (LlCC) i greu cynnydd o 5% yn nifer y siaradwyr Cymraeg erbyn 2011, fel yr amlinellir mewn dogfennau megis Iaith Pawb: Cynllun Gweithredu Cenedlaethol ar gyfer Cymru Ddwyieithog (LlCC, 2003). I gyd-redeg â‟r twf hwnnw yn ogystal, bwriedir sicrhau cynnydd yn y ddarpariaeth ac yn y galw am addysg Gymraeg/ddwyieithog, megis yr adroddir yn y ddogfen ymgyngoriadol Strategaeth Addysg Cyfrwng-Cymraeg (LlCC,2009). Fel modd i sicrhau dilyniant i‟r ddarpariaeth statudol trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg, mae gan y sector addysg uwch hefyd swyddogaeth allweddol. Gosodwyd yn Iaith Pawb (LlCC, 2003), felly, nod o sicrhau cynnydd o 7% yn nifer y myfyrwyr sydd yn dilyn cyrsiau naill ai yn llawn neu‟n rhannol trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg yn y sector hwnnw. Erbyn hyn sefydlwyd y Ganolfan Addysg Uwch Cyfrwng-Cymraeg i hyrwyddo‟r datblygiad gyda‟i hadain farchnata, MANTAIS, yn chwarae rhan bwysigi godi ymwybyddiaeth ymhlith darpar-fyfyrwyr o‟r cyfleoedd sydd ar gael. Serch hynny, er awydd Llywodraeth Cynulliad Cymru i gynyddu‟r ddarpariaeth gyfrwng-Cymraeg ar draws y sectorau, gan gynnwys y sector Addysg Bellach ac Addysg Uwch, ni ellir sicrhau llwyddiant i‟r agenda ieithyddol ar raddfa genedlaethol oni bai y gellir sicrhau cynnydd yn y galw yn ogystal. Bwriad yr ymchwil oedd asesu lefel y galw hwnnw ymhlith disgyblion oedd ar fin gorffen cyfnod o addysg statudol trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg mewn ysgolion4 uwchradd. Cyfyngwyd yr ymchwil i ddisgyblion ym Mlwyddyn 11 mewn tair ysgol uwchradd o fewn un awdurdod addysg lleol yng Nghymru gyda‟r bwriad o weld i ba raddau roedd agenda ieithyddol cenedlaethol LlCC yn dylanwadu ar eu dewis o gyfrwng addysg neu hyfforddiant ar gyfer y dyfodol

Community Walking in People with Parkinson's Disease

People with Parkinson's disease often have walking difficulty, and this is likely to be exacerbated while walking in places in the community, where people are likely to face greater and more varied challenges. This study aims to understand the facilitators and the barriers to walking in the community perceived by people with Parkinson's disease. This qualitative study involved 5 focus groups (n = 34) of people with Parkinson's disease and their partners residing in metropolitan and rural regions in Queensland, Australia. Results found that people with PD reported to use internal personal strategies as facilitators to community walking, but identified primarily external factors, particularly the environmental factors as barriers. The adoption of strategies or the use of facilitators allows people with Parkinson's disease to cope so that participants often did not report disability

Field Validation of Multi-Species Laboratory Test Systems for Estuarine Benthic Communities

The aim of this project was to evaluate the validity of using multi-species laboratory systems to assess the response of eatuarine benthic communities to an introduced stress. Over a 5- year period experiments in Apalachicola Bay, Florida, and the York River, Virginia, sought to (1) develop criteria for microcosm tests for evaluating the capacity of microcosms to model natural communities in the presence and absence of a pollution-induced stress, and (2) assess the validity of extrapolating test results from one location to another. Procedures for constructing, maintaining and sampling microcosms were tested and refined over the study period. A large number of laboratory and field tests were conducted synoptically over this period, including experiments in which microcosms and field sites were dosed with toxicants (mixed hydrocarbons in some and pentachlorophenol in others). We have investigated various methodologies for analysing and interpreting data derived from microcosm tests