Thesis and Research Data Repository Leeds Beckett University
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The Illusion of Freedom in an Unfree Society
No full textFreedom is a concept boldly proclaimed on a regular basis in contemporary society, a transitive concept but that which is often presented as fixed, proclaimed across society from politicians and policy makers, to corporations and business correspondents, to the average individual. The citation of this freedom is fundamental to the economic structure and political ideologies which increasingly dominate our post‐industrial society. This critical reflection examines whether we have personal freedom, or in fact have been sold the illusion of it.</p
Unpacking the Supermarket
No full textBased upon the authors own experiences, this critical reflection will examine the functioning of a supermarket, with an emphasis on globalisation, consumerism and ethical obligations.</p
A Reflection on Tradition and Globalisation
No full textFootball in the UK is huge, as an institution and as a tradition especially among the working masses of Britain. It clings to tradition by a thread however: the rivalries, the Saturday and boxing day fixtures, but it has followed suit with the rapid changes of modernity. This critical reflections examines traditions such as football as a microcosm of society as it shares the same hierarchical system and has been impacted through the effects of globalisation.</p
Isolation and Segregation: Cam-era
No full textThe idea of prison seems so unfamiliar to many in society. Most people will never visit or experience living in one or meet anyone that has been incarcerated, but does this mean our ‘free’ experience is all that different? This critical reflection will draw parallels between prison and free society through themes such as isolation and segregation, consumerism, autonomy over identity and Jeremy Bentham’s idea of ‘panopticon’ surveillance.</p
The Technological Era: Time, Space and Communication
No full textWithin this critical reflection there will be an investigation into the aspects of time, space and communication in conjunction with the development of the Industrial Revolution and information technology. This reflection will examine the notion of time within society whilst gaining an understanding into the accessibility of communication through space but also the desire of a prompt and rapid aspect of time in our modern age.</p
Negotiating the Binge/Purge Risk
No full textThis critical reflection will explore topics I have encountered during my studies of social futures in relation to eating disorders, specifically bulimia. Bulimia, also known as ‘binge purge’, is a disorder which was recognized in 1980, and is a disorder which predominantly affects young females, though some men are affected too. This disorder on an individual basis is arguably due to the pressures of media, the increased emphasis on the individual, excess of choice in consumerism and rising pressure on young people, particularly women – all of which lead to higher amounts of self‐surveillance. The following will argue that bulimia is not only something which individuals in Westernised societies are at risk of, but that it is a suitable analogy for modern society as a whole.</p
Preface
No full textThis compendium of papers, now in its third year of publication, is now established as an important part of the way in which students are demonstrating engagement, understanding and reflection on contemporary and future areas within Sociology. The understanding of key concepts and their application to many ‘real world’ contexts within these papers demonstrates a maturity of thought in posing and responding to problematical issues.</p
Exploring the Strategic Interdependence of Innovation Capabilities: A perspective of the Canadian Manufacturing Sector
No full textInnovation and strategy are central issues for businesses operating in an ever increasingly competitive market place. For many firms the pursuit of a sustained competitive advantage through strategy is the focus of senior leadership. A key driver of this focus is the firms’ capability to innovate. This research demonstrates that the pursuit of a sustained competitive advantage, firm performance and long-term growth can be achieved through strategies focused on innovation capabilities (IC) development.
The author cites literature which argues there are two, three or four innovation capabilities strategies based on Schumpeter (1934). However, the author argues, that there are five distinct innovation capability strategies that are interdependent, based on resource interdependencies and are essential to an overall firm strategy.The research employs an extensive literature review, leader interviews and quantitative analysis of data collected from an industry survey to highlight the significant factors influencing a firms IC.
The findings of this research provide empirical support for five distinct Innovation Capabilities strategies, as well as supporting interdependence between the five strategies. Additionally, support was found for three outcomes tested. For Business the implication is that interdependencies between distinct innovation capabilities resources and strategies can either support or adversely affect outcome performance where interdependencies between resources and strategies is not fully understood. From a theoretical perspective, this study tests the combination and application of Resource-based View and Social Interdependence theories and proposes a less classical perspective of RBV as well as a combination of RBV with SI theory in extending IC research of the firm.</p
Effect of carbohydrate dose on liver and muscle glycogen metabolism during exercise
No full textCarbohydrate (CHO) ingestion during prolonged exercise is common practice amongst athletes and improves endurance performance. Glycogen is a limited energy resource during prolonged exercise and as such sparing glycogen has been proposed as a mechanism behind the ergogenic effect of CHO. However, evidence to support such an effect is equivocal and it appears that the dose of CHO may play an important role in this regard. The aim of this thesis was to investigate a dose response to prolonged exercise CHO ingestion on exogenous CHO, liver and muscle glycogen utilisation and exercise performance.
Two multiple condition studies were conducted consisting of either a 2 or 3 hour continuous period of fixed workload cycling followed by a 30 minute time trial. During the fixed workload period, a placebo solution or various CHO solutions were ingested which had been artificially labelled with a 13Carbon (13C) stable mass isotope tracer. By analysing the appearance of the 13C tracer in expired air and plasma glucose, rates of exogenous CHO, plasma glucose and liver and muscle glycogen were calculated. Study 1 investigated 4 CHO doses (60 to 112.5 g.h-1) using both single and multiple transportable CHO designed to saturate and over saturate the intestinal transport proteins SGLT1 and GLUT5 during 2 hours of continuous cycling at 77% V̇ O2max. Study 2 examined a smaller dose range (80 to 100 g.h-1) in order to provide evidence to the effectiveness of a 90 g.h-1 dose during 3 hours of continuous cycling at 60% VO2max. ̇
In Study 1 the ingestion of multiple transportable CHO at 90 g.h-1 improved performance by 9-15% and spared muscle glycogen relative to the ingestion of glucose only. Fat oxidation was spared relative to placebo ingestion with CHO. It was also seen that increasing CHO dose with ingestion of both single CHO and multiple transportable CHO at rates exceeding intestinal saturation did not further increase exogenous CHO oxidation, and had potentially negative consequences on time trial performance and endogenous substrate (fat and glycogen) oxidation. Study 2 showed that multiple transportable CHO ingestion at 90 g.h-1 produced a small reduction (17.8%) in muscle glycogen oxidation rate and an improvement (3.6 - 7.1%) in mean power output in the time trial, relative to 80 and 100 g.h-1 .
This thesis provides novel evidence that with the right dose of CHO ingestion during prolonged exercise, muscle glycogen was spared, which coincided with improved subsequent time trial performance. Further, the effect of ‘over-dosing’ exogenous CHO intake was potentially detrimental to endogenous substrate oxidation and time trial performance.</p
Changing Family Roles: Coping Mechanism of Family Carers in Home Based Care in Zambia
No full textHome based care is one important health care strategy to provide health care services to chronically ill individuals in households away from health facilities. In the advent of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, there are an increased number of individuals affected and infected. The chronicity of the disease has exerted different form of pressure on those who may find themselves caring for the infected.
This interpretive phenomelogical study was conducted in Zambia. The study explored and described how family carers reconstructed their lived care life experiences as they dealt with them, how they coped or didn‟t cope with care demands. Data was generated, transcribed and translated over a period of 10 months through 16 in-depth interviews with family carers, and 10 focus group discussions (3 with Key Informants and 7 with family carers). Data was analysed using thematic analysis and NVIVO software was used to create models. The study adapted the salutogenic model and symbolic interactionism to describe the lived experiences of family carers in HBC situations.
The study findings show that family members especially women and/or girls were key in the provision of care in households. However, there may be situations where men also became involved in care work. Family carers constructed their care lives based on the confirmed identity of being caregivers whose desire to provide care was mostly based on meaningfulness attached to the relationship with the patient, and derived satisfaction from their input to the health of their patient. There were strong interlinkages between comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness (the Generalised Resistance Resources components of the salutogenic model) and emotional closeness in the care situations.
In the construction of their lived care experiences, one common coping factor was Godly devotions with strong relationship with spirituality and religion which was linked to the three aspects of the GRR. Other coping factors such as “training”, „love for the patient‟, “piece work” and “patient is a relative” were mostly linked to comprehensibility. Caregivers strived to find knowledge and skills to deal with any challenging care situation, and most caregivers lacked these attributes.
However, their perceived identity as a caregiver generated and strengthened their desire to do something for the patient. In addition, self-identity as caregivers and the sense of filial piety encouraged the motivation to go on despite difficulties faced. Caregivers constructed their care lives based on the meaning the care input meant for the patient, and to those they were ii confirming their identity to as caregivers. Hence meaningfulness was one key component that was observed to be high amongst all as this resource provided them with the desire to go on caring, there were weakness found in comprehensibility and manageability. There were weaknesses felt in comprehensibility as a resource to facilitate cognitive elements of care. Caregivers felt that care work was ordered but not predictable as situations and conditions related to the patient and households were dynamic. They did not have easy access to resources to support their work. Those who devised any coping mechanisms did so within the boundaries of “suffering” with care work. Their care life was viewed as difficult and subjected them to different situations in the health of the patients which they could not provide. Family carers found coping with care giving not easy to attain.
Family carers made cognisant of the care environment, which did not make available supportive structures to enhance coping with care work. As result of the breakdown of family structures especially the extended families from HIV/AIDS, most family carers experienced an environment that was not conducive to provision of care for chronically ill patients.
The findings challenge the implementation of HBC as a strategy to help chronically ill PLWHA as health care service at the household. The study suggests that the country‟s recognition of HBC strategy through different policy pronouncement will require concerted efforts to ensure that those providing care in households are provided with effective and efficient support mechanisms to improve care of patients.</p