Exploring the Development of Identity and Community Amongst Disabled Youth on Instagram

This study explores the ways in which disabled young people use Instagram as a platform for developing their identity and building community, both online and off. Based on the social models of disability, particularly the affirmation model as proposed by Swain & French (2000), and the principles of photovoice and other social media-based methodologies, the study explored the publicly accessible Instagram accounts of eight participants ranging in age from 19-24, with each account providing 21 photos and associated captions for analysis. From the collection of observational notes, four themes were developed and examined, noting their connections to the concepts of identity and community: social media trends; disability, chronic illness and mental health; friends, family, and the greater community; and positivity, gratitude and giving back. The study demonstrates the uniqueness of Instagram as a tool for self-expression and the importance of studying disability in relation to current internet practices. The study concludes with possible directions for further research to fill the existing gap within this area of literature

Customer Age as a Predictor of Contact Volume

A two stage modeling approach for modeling customer age as a predictor of contact volume was conducted using a real-world data set of approximately 2,000,000 contacts from a company call center. Two models were constructed in the first stage, one a straightforward regression and the other a series of regressions. One was selected as better performing and scaled up to predict calls received from calls answered. The second stage of the modeling included a day of the week covariate and performed the best of the models created. This model uses age bins as model effects, of which the youngest age bin had the largest effect. The model predicts the volume of calls received by the company

A Tale of Two Arcs: Petrogenesis of Ultramafic Xenoliths Sampling the Upper Mantle Wedge Beneath the West Bismarck Island Arc

Peridotite xenoliths transported to the surface in basaltic magma from the upper mantle wedge beneath the West Bismarck island arc, Papua New Guinea, present a rare opportunity to assess the nature of the mantle wedge in an active intra-oceanic island arc. This thesis reports comprehensive new geochemical and isotopic data for harzburgites, pyroxenites and dunites, from the island of Ritter, in order to understand how partial melting and hydrous metasomatism generate chemically, isotopically and physically distinct mantle. The highly depleted major and moderately incompatible trace element composition of residual phases and the radiogenic strontium isotope composition of texturally well-equilibrated harzburgites are best explained by hydrous partial melting and metasomatism associated with a previous period of subduction. Harzburgites that record textural evidence for melt-rock reaction, meanwhile, have elevated equilibration temperatures, oxidised spinel compositions, elevated olivine water contents and strontium isotope compositions identical to regionally erupted basalts. These features reflect interaction between ambient mantle and primary hydrous, oxidised basaltic melts in the upper mantle wedge. Modelling of trace element diffusion profiles in olivine constrains this event to approximately one year before exhumation. The low water contents of both coarse-grained olivine and orthopyroxene are consistent with equilibrium in chemically depleted upper mantle. The absence of hydrated silicon vacancies in olivine despite overall increases in water content during melt-rock reaction indicates that the mantle wedge may not change significantly in mechanical strength during hydrous melting and metasomatism. Chemical and radiogenic signatures of subduction are thus more likely to survive convective homogenisation. The whole-rock budget of highly siderophile elements (HSE) is contained within heterogeneously distributed trace sulphides and inferred alloy phases, and is controlled by both partial melting and metasomatism. An absence of any correlation of Sr isotopes with either HSE or Os isotopes indicates these elements may be immobile in slab-derived fluids. Elevated concentrations of Pt and Pd in pyroxenite are mirrored by depletions in dunite, demonstrating that melt-rock reaction is instead responsible for enrichments in these elements in arc mantle. A correlation between whole-rock 187Os/188Os and phosphorous in olivine offers clues to ancient processes unrelated to active subduction, not recorded by any other chemical or isotopic system

Investigation of factors controlling cutaneous circulation in flaps

The aim of this research was to investigate the blood supply to the lower abdomen. This is a commonly used donor site for autologous reconstruction following breast cancer and the flap of tissue used is based on the deep inferior epigastric circulation (DIEP flap) or the superficial inferior epigastric circulation (SIEA flap). A pilot study investigated the feasibility of assessing the vascular territory of multiple blood vessels in the lower abdomen, and also observed the timing of changes in skin blood supply after free flap transfer. Further studies included sampling using microdialysis catheters, from different areas of the flap, around the theoretical time of opening of choke vessels between angiosomes. Manipulation of skin blood flow was initially investigated using capillary malformations as a model, observing current clinical use of EMLA and AMETOP topical anaesthetic pre-laser treatment

Dependency formation interacts with case: Evidence from Korean double nominative constructions

The subject-object asymmetry in relative clauses, where structures containing subject dependencies are typically easier to process than those with object dependencies, has been previously attributed to both grammatical function (subject > object) as well as morphological case (e.g., nom > acc). We investigate processing of Double Nominative Constructions (“DNCs”) in Korean, where the object exceptionally has nominative case like the subject (i.e., nom-nom).  This enables isolation of grammatical function and case as possible factors driving the so-called “subject advantage.” We find that dependency formation is more costly in DNCs as compared with nom-acc structures, especially for object relative clauses. We tie this effect to distinctness in morphological case of the subject and object, suggesting that the less morphosyntactically distinct the subject and object are, the more difficult it is to process DNCs in dependencies

Mainstreaming the Alternative? The marketing of fair trade coffee and its implications for Sustainable Development

This essay investigates the sustainability of a specific product, CafeDirect's Medium Roast coffee through an investigation of the global challenges the product is associated with. To start, the essay examines the significance of coffee and how it came to be an important cultural product and its commodity chain. Next, the fair trade movement is discussed and related to the market to consider what implications mainstreaming poses for the sustainable development movement more broadly