Open Research Exeter - University of Exeter
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Queen Victoria's Library: The Place of Reading and Writing in Victoria's Political Education, Self-Improvement and Self-Curation
No full textThe record of Queen Victoria’s reading is certainly one of the most thorough and
remarkable of any nineteenth-century individual; due to her position as monarch,
her meticulous documentation, and the length of her life. Despite this, and the
fact that she is one of the most written-about historical women, this thesis is the
first comprehensive study focused on her reading. This thesis argues that
Victoria’s reading was one of the most notable and constant features of her life,
and that it both reflected and shaped the events surrounding it. It was an active
pursuit that underpinned and produced her political opinions, supported her in her
grief, and was a tool she expertly wielded in her self-curation. By centring reading
in the study of Queen Victoria, examining both what she read and how she read,
this thesis elucidates its role in her agency, relationships, self-improvement,
interaction with the world through literature, the dynamics of her literary tastes,
and her own relationship to Britain’s ever-developing literary culture. Through an
analysis of previously unused material, such as Victoria’s annotated books and
her childhood reading journal, as well as a thorough interpretation as her diaries
and letters, this thesis makes an original contribution to scholarly understandings
of both Queen Victoria and the practices of women readers in the nineteenth
century. The more studied aspects of Victoria’s life, her almost mythological
childhood and her ubiquitous periods of mourning, are scrutinised and
reinterpreted through an exploration of her reading, highlighting her often
overlooked agency and the exceptional nature of her intellectual self-fashioning.
This thesis presents an unexplored perspective of Queen Victoria, who was in
many ways – but not in every way – a remarkable reader</p
Pole position: social influences on discounting behaviour in wild grey squirrels
No full textExtensive laboratory studies have shown that animals strongly devalue rewards with associated costs, such as time or effort. Arguably, however, these laboratory discounting tasks have limited ecological validity, whereas in natural decision-making scenarios, it may sometimes be adaptive for animals to wait or expend more effort for a substantially better outcome. In our experiment, we used a discounting task where wild grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) in their natural habitat chose between climbing a short distance to receive a less preferred food or a longer distance to receive a
preferred food. We found that the squirrels exhibited relatively shallow discounting, devaluing their preferred food only slightly with increasing distance, unlike the steep declines seen in laboratory-tested animals. We also observed social effects where less dominant squirrels showed steeper devaluation of the preferred food, potentially due to an increased risk of losing the reward as distance increased. Separately, we found that
squirrels were more likely to climb a longer distance in the presence of conspecifics, perhaps choosing the more time-consuming and effortful option to avoid increased competition for the easier, more immediate reward. Our study shows that understanding animals’ decision-making behaviour requires more ecologically valid approaches, including considering the social context in which choices are made.</p
Analogue celebrity: Digital refusal among the rich and famous
No full textWhat role does the rejection of digital culture play in contemporary formations and practices of celebrity? This chapter introduces the concept of the ‘analogue celebrity’ to describe a broad range of famous figures who engage in practices of digital disconnection. These practices can range in intensity, from those who reportedly refuse to use email or mobile phones to those who take the occasional hiatus from social media. Through an analysis of two case studies, the first exploring Keanu Reeves’ and Renée Zellweger’s widely reported non-usage of social media, and the second analysing the regular breaks that Ed Sheeran has taken from social media throughout his career, we introduce two different positions that some analogue celebrities adopt: the ‘digital refuser’ and the ‘digital detoxer’. Amidst a wider cultural backlash against big tech, celebrities who have previously been active on social media are increasingly closing or temporarily disabling their accounts. We argue that the refusal of social media can add significant value to a celebrity’s brand in our current cultural moment of digital disillusionment, providing celebrities with opportunities to align their images with ever-shifting constructions of authenticity, and to further consolidate their fame within the attention economy.</p
Creative pedagogies across the curriculum
No full textThis chapter situates itself within the changing climate for teaching for creativity in England, where the pilot scheme, Creativity Collaboratives has been evidencing practice-based developments in creative pedagogies since 2021. It considers the Penryn Creativity Collaborative (PCC), one of eight pilots within the national scheme, placing it in the context of an update to Cremin and Chappell’s (2019) seminal literature review. The review methodology followed the original study protocols, generating 14 new papers for further analysis. Six of the original seven features were identified. The significance of the manifestation of the features and their occurrence patterns are discussed. The creative pedagogies are then articulated in action within PCC. The chapter offers significant new insights into creative pedagogies particularly in relation to risk-taking, assessment, dialogue, metacognition and skills, showing that internationally progress continues to be made in rigorously articulating and practicing creative pedagogies as an important element of current formal schooling.</p
GlucoseGo: a simple tool to predict hypoglycaemia during exercise in type 1 diabetes
No full textAims/hypothesisThis study aimed to develop an accessible tool, derived using machine learning, to predict hypoglycaemia risk at the start of exercise and to provide clear, rapid risk assessment to support safer participation in exercise.MethodsData from four diverse studies were combined, encompassing 16,430 exercise sessions from 834 participants aged 12–80 years using various insulin delivery methods. The XGBoost algorithm was used to develop two models: a comprehensive model and a simplified model for predicting hypoglycaemia during exercise.ResultsThe comprehensive model (406 variables) achieved a mean ROC AUC of 0.89. The simplified model, using only starting glucose, exercise duration and glucose trend arrows, achieved a comparable ROC AUC of 0.87. The simplified model performed consistently across exercise types and insulin delivery methods. In collaboration with individuals with type 1 diabetes, this model was translated into GlucoseGo, a user-friendly traffic-light heatmap displaying hypoglycaemia risk based on the three variables.Conclusions/interpretationThe GlucoseGo heatmap provides a practical, accessible tool for predicting hypoglycaemia risk immediately before exercise. It may empower individuals with type 1 diabetes to exercise more safely, reduce hypoglycaemic episodes, and increase engagement in physical activity.</p
Global variation in the ratio of sapwood to leaf area explained by optimality principles
No full textThe sapwood area supporting a given leaf area (Huber value, vH) reflects the coupling between carbon uptake and water transport and loss at a whole-plant level. Geographic variation in vH presumably reflects plant strategic adaptations, but the lack of a general explanation for such variation hinders its representation in vegetation models and assessment of its impact on the global carbon and water cycles.Here we develop a simple hydraulic trait model to predict optimal vH by matching stem water supply and leaf water loss, and test its performance against two extensive plant hydraulic datasets.We show that our eco-evolutionary optimality-based model explains nearly 60% of global vH variation in response to light, vapour pressure deficit, temperature and sapwood conductivity. Enhanced hydraulic efficiency with warmer temperatures reduces the sapwood area required to support a given leaf area, whereas high irradiance (supporting increased photosynthetic capacity) and drier air increase it.This study thus provides a route to modelling variation in functional traits through the coordination of carbon uptake and water transport processes.</p
Evidencing the Circular Economy's Value Creation Potential in Material-Intensive Capital Projects: Identifying, Initiating, and Implementing System-Wide Circular Innovation Orchestration Across Asset Lifecycles
No full textPublic infrastructure assets, delivered via material-intensive capital projects, face growing pressure to meet net-zero targets while managing costs. Regulatory demands for 2050 net-zero prompt a rethink of value creation, as emissions persist beyond project completion and often conflict with budgets.
This doctoral research proposes an alternative value creation framework in three phases. It begins with developing a Material-Focused Circular-Economy Innovation (MFCI) Framework that integrates circular economy principles into the value chain of capital project delivery. Next, it evaluates the framework's potential for value creation using hybrid material flow modelling and hotspot analysis over 100 years, based on data from England’s flood risk management projects, including 296 projects for portfolio analysis and three case studies for project-level analysis. Finally, it uses qualitative methods with paradox theory to explore tensions and barriers in the Collaborative Public–Private Supply Chain Network (CPPSCN) for orchestrating the framework.
The MFCI Framework identifies sixteen feasible CE strategies that improve resource productivity and long-term value throughout the asset lifecycle. Findings reveal that uniform project-level carbon budgets are sub-optimal, masking high-impact materials and assets at the portfolio level. Project-level findings show the MFCI approach has significant potential: in a “Circular Now” scenario, material inflows decrease by 32–43%, carbon by 20–45%, costs by 10–28%, and the Benefit–Cost Ratio (BCR) increases by 2-10%. In a “Circular Future” scenario, reductions are 35–66% in materials, 40–65% in carbon, 25–53% in costs, and BCR rises 15–31%.
The qualitative analysis shows that orchestrating the MFCI framework depends on integrating innovation and decision-making across material, project, and asset levels. The Source–Pathway–Receptor (SPR) analogy provides a rationale for holistic integration, with material productivity offering a performance lens for coupling material-project-asset-level interdependencies. Combining all findings, a material-focused CPPSCN design is proposed to navigate the tensions of orchestrating the MFCI framework.
The thesis contributes theoretically by integrating paradox theory and circular economy into a unified orchestration framework, methodologically by combining quantitative and qualitative evidence across multiple levels, and practically by demonstrating the value-creation potential of the MFCI framework and management responses to addressing the orchestration tensions.</p
Misplaced Methodologies: The Legal Hermeneutics of Muḥammad b. al Ḥasan al-Shaybānῑ (d.189/804)
No full textAs a student of Islamic law, one quickly comes to the realisation that much of the historiography of early Islamic law reads like a love letter to Muḥammad b. al-Idrῑs al-Shāfiʿῑ (d.204/820). Such renditions remain as an ode to the ‘master architect,’ the ‘deus ex machina’ who emerged victorious at the end of a centuries long battle, bringing ‘an unbridled law down to the knees of revelation.’ But what exactly was this “unbridled law?”
The pre-Shāfian legal culture has largely been considered rudimentary according to
the dominant narrative in the field. The story goes on to state that though substantive law (furūʿ) may have matured to a large degree, the systemisation and conceptualisation of a coherent law was yet to come, and it was only made possible first by al-Shāfiʿῑ’s intervention, and second by the development of a new discipline in the form of uṣūl al-fiqh.
This study seeks to re-examine the legal contributions of this period, and asks whether they were as rudimentary, unsystematic and incoherent as has been suggested. Were there other equally sound, legal hermeneutical paradigms in this
period of Islamic law before, or alongside, al-Shāfiʿῑ’s intervention? If so, who articulated them and what were the distinctive features of these other paradigms? Could they be deemed coherent if the condition of their conformance to al-Shāfiʿῑ and classical legal theory is removed? This thesis offers answers to these questions through an investigation of the legal thought of another prime figure of the formative period, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānῑ (d.189/804).
Al-Shaybānῑ is a commonly cited figure in the history of early Islamic law, given credit for being an early systematiser, developing a mature body of furūʿ and engaging technically and rigorously with questions of law. Using his polemical work, al-Ḥujjah ʿalā ahl al-madῑnah, directed against the Medinans of his time, this thesis reconstructs al-Shaybānῑ’s legal hermeneutics. Consequently, a conscious legal
methodology is ascribed to him that has a clear outline of legal sources and how they interact, pointing to his legal epistemological and hermeneutical commitments, and notions of the nature of divine law directed to a human domain. Thus this study seeks to reduce the emphasis placed on the Shāfian lens, which has dominated the
study of early Islamic law, in order to allow other aspects of the vista to enter the frame, and other figures to stand alongside him.</p
Bitcoin Protocol Analysis: Game Theory and Protocol Integrity
No full textThis thesis develops a unified mathematical framework for analysing the economic
dynamics of proof-of-work mining in scalable digital cash systems. The central contribution
is the construction of an unbounded-horizon stochastic game that embeds the
full mechanical structure of proof-of-work—hashing, block construction, fee formation,
difficulty retargeting, propagation conditions, and validation constraints—into
a coherent optimisation environment in which miners act strategically across time.
The model shows that miner behaviour, protocol-consistent action, concentration
patterns, and the observed cyclicality of hash rate and difficulty arise endogenously
from the interaction between dynamic incentives and protocol mechanics rather than
from static or heuristic assumptions.
The analysis establishes a formal link between block-production probabilities,
state-dependent revenue surfaces, variable and structural costs, and transition dynamics
driven by fee density and lagged difficulty adjustment. The resulting value
functions generate state-contingent policy rules that produce the characteristic sawtooth
patterns seen in empirical hash-rate data, demonstrating that these cycles are
equilibrium objects rather than irregularities. The framework identifies the conditions
under which protocol-compliant behaviour is a best response over unbounded horizons
and explains how scale economies in transaction validation, template management,
and propagation yield the endogenous emergence of large mining entities.
The thesis integrates formal modelling, comparative statics, and simulation to
show how miner incentives evolve as systems transition to fee-dominated environments
and high transaction throughput. The framework provides a rigorous basis for
evaluating protocol-level design choices, their impact on long-run incentives, and the
equilibrium stability of scalable proof-of-work systems.</p