Who's Feeding the Kids Online? Digital food marketing to children in Ireland: Advertisers’ tactics, children’s exposure and parents’ awareness

Obesity in children and young people is a global health challenge. The widespread marketing of unhealthy foods (food and non-alcoholic drinks high in fat, sugar and salt, or HFSS) plays a causal role in unhealthy eating and obesity. Food and eating is typically presented as an issue of ‘choice’. However, this disregards the fact that current obesogenic environments use many tactics to promote unhealthy foods, interfering with people’s ability to make good choices. This study examined: 1. Content appealing to children and young people on websites of top food and drink retail brands in Ireland 2. Marketing techniques on Facebook: Pages of food brands that have the highest reach among young teens, the first such study of which we are aware 3. Parents’ awareness of digital food marketing to their children in an online, two-stage survey with digital marketing examples and open-ended response options

Accretion characteristics in intermediate polars

This thesis concerns the class of interacting binaries known as intermediate polars (IPs). These are semi-detached magnetic cataclysmic variable systems in which a red dwarf secondary transfers material via Roche lobe overflow onto a white dwarf (WD). The magnetic field of the white dwarf (~ 106 to 107Gauss) plays an important part in determining the type of accretion flow from the secondary. In chapter 1 I discuss binary systems in general, moving on to a more in depth look at Intermediate polars (IPs), their geometry and characteristics, ending with a brief look at all known IPs to date. In the first part of the thesis I present an analysis of the X-ray lightcurves in 16 IPs in order to examine the possible cause of the orbital modulation. I show that X-ray orbital modulation is widespread amongst IPs, but not ubiquitous. The orbital modulation is most likely due to photoelectric absorption in material at the edge of the accretion disk. Assuming a random distribution of inclination angles, the fact that such a modulation is seen in seven systems out of sixteen studied (plus two eclipsing systems) implies that modulations are visible at inclination angles in excess of 60°. It is also apparent that these modulations can appear and disappear on timescales of ~years or months in an individual system, which may be evidence for precessing, tilted accretion disks. In the second half of the thesis I use a particle hydro dynamical code known as HyDisc, to investigate the accretion flows in IPs, as a function of parameter space for two dipole models. One where we assume that the density and size scale of the blobs being accreted are constant which we refer to as the n6 model, and the other where the size scale and density of the accreted blobs are not constant refered to as the n3 model. I show that the accretion flow can take the form of an accretion disk, accretion stream, propeller accretion and ring accretion for the n3 model and stream and disk accretion in the n6 model, depending on the magnetic field strength, orbital period and spin period of the system. violate some of the assumptions of Doppler tomography, such as motion parallel to the orbital plane due to the accretion curtains and that accretion flow is constant throughout the orbital period, making the analysis more complex and the interpretations of observational tomograms flawed as they are based on false assumptions. We have therefore generated simulated tomograms from the simulated accretion flows so we can compare them with real tomograms from observed data and begin to interpret them better. In this way we can discover the nature of the accretion flows in real systems. We show that some of the tomogram features that are produced are in good agreement with those of published observations, but there are also a number of new features which arise corresponding to each of the accretion mechanisms of disks, streams, propellers, weak propellers and ring systems

Shell-shock in First World War Britain: an intellectual and medical history, c.1860-c.1920

PhDHistorians have identified shell-shock, a contemporary umbrella term for the range of nervous and mental afflictions suffered by soldiers in the First World War, as a key episode in the transition to modern psychological approaches to mental disorder in Britain. This thesis argues that wartime theories of shell-shock display considerable continuity with central tenets of pre-war psychological medicine. An approach to the history of shell-shock which emphasises continuity opens new perspectives on the significance of the episode for British psychiatry and society in the early twentieth century. This thesis shows that theories of shell-shock were formulated within an evolutionary framework of understanding, and breaks down the conventional historiographical division between `organic' and `psychological' explanations of the war neuroses. It argues that in the debates on shell-shock, doctors explored questions about the constituents of human identity which had been given fresh urgency by the Darwinian revolution. They attempted to understand the relative roles of mind and body in the causation of mental disorder, but also invoked other conceptual pairings: the relations between animal and human behaviour, the balance of emotion and will in ideal conduct, the influence of heredity and environment in shaping action, and the interaction of individual and social psychologies. Wartime psychological medicine thus drew on and extended existing debates within and outside medicine, including those on the traumatic neuroses, crowd psychology and democracy, and the relative rights and responsibilities of citizen and state. The thesis argues that the importance of shell-shock therefore extended beyond its putative effect on British psychology. Theories of the war neuroses were a microcosm of debates on the nature of modernity, its nebulous effects on the individual, and its consequences for society

THE INFLUENCE OF SURFACTANTS ON THE SORPTION OF PHENANTHRENE IN NATURAL WATERS

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widely recognised as harmful, persistent organic pollutants, whilst surfactants are more easily degraded but their ubiquitous use both domestically and industrially ensures their presence in natural waters. Owing to both their hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties, surfactants are capable of both adsolubilisation and solubilisation of co-contaminants, hence, their presence in natural waters is considered extremely significant. The purpose of this research was to determine how surfactants and PAHs influence each other in estuaries where both are co-disposed. This study is the first to employ environmentally realistic concentrations of surfactants and to use natural particles in order to determine how changes in surfactant behaviour impinge on the sorption of a representative PAH to sediment. The experimental method employed involved tracing the solubility and sorption of a '''C-labelled PAH (phenanthrene) in the presence of representative surfactants from the three main groups, i.e., anionic, nonionic and cationic. Initially the four compounds were examined in isolation at two temperatures (8°C and 20°C), salinities and particle concentrations. The next stage involved incorporating each surfactant with phenanthrene in the same experiment and repeating the range of variables. Solubility and adsorption of phenanthrene in the presence of Triton X-100, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) or hexadecyltrimethylammonium iodide (HDTMA) proved to be highly complex. The adsorption, expressed as a Freundlich coefficient, KF was generally nonlinear and varied according to surfactant type, salinity, temperature, and contact sequence. The overriding influence, however, was sediment particulate matter (SPM) concentration. On some occasions the surfactants in isolation displayed unusual particle concentration effects (PCE), such as an increase of surfactant in the aqueous phase as the SPM concentration increased. Despite this, they all generally exaggerate the more typical PCE displayed by phenanthrene, where the particle-water partition coefficient is reduced as particle concentration increases. This effect is then modified by temperature and contact sequence, which has important environmental implications with regard to removal or release of compounds stored within sediments. However, overall, at environmentally relevant concentrations, the surfactants appear to enhance sorption, rather than solubility, with HDTMA the most effective surfactant at removing phenanthrene from the aqueous phase.BMT Marine Information Systems Limited Southampton and AstraZeneca Brixha

Supporting students undertaking the Specialist Practitioner Qualification in District Nursing

The ever-evolving role of the Specialist Practitioner Qualified District Nurse (SPQDN) presents an increasing number of challenges for Practice Teachers and mentors in preparing SPQDN students for the elevated level clinical and transformational leadership necessary to ensure high-quality patient care. The daily challenges of clinical practice within the community nursing setting in addition to undertaking educational interventions in the clinical arena demand that a structured approach to supervision and mentorship is crucial. Employing learning plans to assess individual students learning needs, prepare plans for educational developments and interventions and evaluate a student's progress can be a helpful tool in aiding the learning journey for both the SPQDN student and Practice Teacher or mentor. This article examines how and why a structured learning plan may be used in supporting learning and competency in achieving the necessary level of practice to meet the requirements of the SPQDN

Research Through, With and As Storying

Research Through, With and As Storying explores how Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars can engage with storying as a tool that disassembles conventions of research. The authors explore the concept of storying across different cultures, times and places, and discuss principles of storying and storying research, considering Indigenous, feminist and critical theory standpoints. Through the book, Phillips and Bunda provide an invitation to locate storying as a valuable ontological, epistemological and methodological contribution to the academy across disciplines, arguing that storying research gives voice to the marginalised in the academy. Providing rich and interesting coverage of the approaches to the field of storying research from Aboriginal and white Australian perspectives, this text seeks to enable a profound understanding of the significance of stories and storying. This book will prove valuable for scholars, students and practitioners who seek to develop alternate and creative contributions to the production of knowledge

The impact of three evidence-based programmes delivered in public systems in Birmingham, UK

The Birmingham Brighter Futures strategy was informed by epidemiological data on child well-being and evidence on “what works,” and included the implementation and evaluation of three evidence-based programmes in regular children’s services systems, as well as an integrated prospective cost-effectiveness analysis (reported elsewhere). A randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the Incredible Years BASIC parenting programme involved 161 children aged three and four at risk of a social-emotional or behavioural disorder. An RCT of the universal PATHS social-emotional learning curriculum involved children aged four–six years in 56 primary schools. An RCT of the Level 4 Group Triple-P parenting programme involved parents of 146 children aged four–nine years with potential social-emotional or behavioural disorders. All three studies used validated standardised measures. Both parenting programme trials used parentcompleted measures of child and parenting behaviour. The school-based trial used teacher reports of children’s behaviour, emotions, and social competence. Incredible Years yielded reductions in negative parenting behaviours among parents, reductions in child behaviour problems, and improvements in children’s relationships. In the PATHS trial, modest improvements in emotional health and behavioural development after one year disappeared by the end of year two. There were no effects for Triple-P. Much can be learned from the strengths and limitations of the Birmingham experience

Research Through, With and As Storying

Research Through, With and As Storying explores how Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars can engage with storying as a tool that disassembles conventions of research. The authors explore the concept of storying across different cultures, times and places, and discuss principles of storying and storying research, considering Indigenous, feminist and critical theory standpoints. Through the book, Phillips and Bunda provide an invitation to locate storying as a valuable ontological, epistemological and methodological contribution to the academy across disciplines, arguing that storying research gives voice to the marginalised in the academy. Providing rich and interesting coverage of the approaches to the field of storying research from Aboriginal and white Australian perspectives, this text seeks to enable a profound understanding of the significance of stories and storying. This book will prove valuable for scholars, students and practitioners who seek to develop alternate and creative contributions to the production of knowledge