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An investigation into the acute effects of treatments created and developed from either date fruit or date seeds on the mood and cognitive performance of healthy young volunteers
Full text linkPh. D. ThesisThe first aim of this thesis was to assess and compare the effects of an acute dose of
two varieties of mature unripe freeze-dried date fruit (Barhi and Khassab) on cognitive
performance, mood, and blood glucose concentration. An acute randomised, doubleblind, placebo-controlled, crossover study with a week washout period between visits
was conducted on thirty-five healthy young participants (18–35 years). Cognitive
function was assessed using computerised tests for attention, working and episodic
memory before and 45, 90 and 135 minutes after treatment. Participants consumed
the equivalent of 115 g of fresh weight fruit, which differed in the total phenolics
content. The vehicle was yoghurt (150 g per portion), and the placebo was yoghurt
with added sugars matching the treatments for sugars. There were no significant
differences in cognitive responses for the individual task outcomes (p = 00625), nor
for the cognitive indices outcomes (p = 0.0017 after Bonferroni correction).
Roasted date seed drink is a popular beverage in Arab countries, so the second aim of
this thesis was to assess the acute effect of a “coffee-like beverage” made from
commercial date seeds on mood and cognitive function. It was postulated that some
potential benefits may be related to the content of phenolic compounds in the date
seeds which were characterised using HPLC. A randomised, double-blind, placebocontrolled, crossover study was conducted on fifty-two healthy young participants.
Cognitive function was assessed as in the first trial, that is, before and 45 and 90
minutes after treatment. The experimental date beverage was tested against a
positive control “regular coffee” and a placebo. The trial was designed to have 85%
power to detect an effect size of half the published effect of regular coffee.
The vehicle was hot water (280 ml per cup), with the date beverage obtained from 45
g of roasted ground date seeds, the regular coffee from 6 g of roasted ground coffee,
and the placebo was hot water with brown food colour matched to the treatments.
There were no significant differences in cognitive effects among the three treatments,
indicating not only that the date beverage did not affect cognitive function, but that the
published effect of coffee also may not be consistently reproducibl
Bindings, boundaries and cuts: relating agency and ontology in photobook encounters
Full text linkPhD ThesisThe artwork and commodity known as a “photobook” is gaining visibility as an object of creative
practice and cultural economy. It has generally been studied within photographic histories. This
thesis builds alternative ontologies of the photobook as an experiential, social artefact using a
unique methodological assemblage that responds to the object’s hybrid nature.
The enquiry posits that encounters with photobooks are “material-discursive configurations” of
matter, materiality, meaning and context, in which the photobook-object is actualised in relation
to its surroundings and the reader’s sensations and interpretations. The study foregrounds
situated moments of “encounter” between humans and photobooks, which are simultaneously
texts, images, actants and phenomena, to question what roles photobooks perform in different
circumstances – what they do. The research identifies photobook agencies including: affecting
aesthetic art experiences, mediating social and economic relations, and pushing back against
established epistemic regimes.
The study of this messy, boundary object employs counter-hegemonic techniques such as
autoethnography alongside ethnographic data to uncover relational insight into photobook
encounters, analysed through a combined lens of Actor-Network Theory, New Materialism and
Phenomenology. The iterative methodology reveals the research process’ own agency, advancing
the thesis’ argument that more-than-human entities co-produce diverse knowledges. This original
theoretical position produces a multi-faceted analysis of an under-researched artistic medium,
form and genre, which is novel for studies of photographic history and culture, as well as
interdisciplinary object studies.
Through exploring the complexities of a seemingly quotidian book-shaped thing in wide-ranging
personal and institutional encounters, the study fosters a profound, felt awareness of
relationalities between humans and non-humans. This alternative approach shows how
encounters with art objects present new, pluralistic ways of knowing that disrupt habitual
schematic modes of cutting or limiting our experiences of phenomena and things, with
meaningful consequences for rethinking our modes of acting, consuming, feeling and being in
the world.Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnershi
Variation, change, and grammaticalisation in Tyneside teen talk : a sociolinguistic study of intensification and emphasis
Full text linkPhD ThesisThis project examines features of teenagers’ spoken discourse in Tyneside (North East of England), using
data from the Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English (DECTE) (Corrigan et al. 2012a) and new
sociolinguistic interviews with younger speakers (aged 12-18).
The study provides novel insights into two areas: (i) intensifiers, with a particular focus on preadjectival boosters (really, so, very, proper, dead, as well as other, less frequent variants); and (ii) emphasisers,
including epistemic stance adverbs (actually, really, definitely, and obviously), style stance adverbs (literally,
genuinely, honestly), intensifiers in non-pre-adjectival positions (really, proper, absolutely, completely, and totally),
and other emphatic devices (clause-final like and right dislocation). The analysis of boosters uses
quantitative methods and multivariate analysis, whereas emphasisers are studied qualitatively in terms of
their frequency, position, and functions.
The project addresses the following research questions:
1. What is novel in the Tyneside teenagers’ use of intensifiers and emphasisers in comparison
with speakers analysed in previous studies and other locales?
2. What evidence, if any, is there of synchronic age-grading patterns during the period of
adolescence —as defined in this project— or for diachronic language change with respect to
previous studies in the same region?
3. What can the patterns in Tyneside teen talk tell us about the grammaticalisation patterns of
intensifiers and emphasisers in the region?
4. What can the study of the spoken discourse of Tyneside teenagers reveal about teenage
language in general?
Results generally concur with what has been found in teenage cohorts in London and studies of
Scottish, American, and Canadian English varieties: really and so are the favourite boosters, really is also the
most common emphasiser, and other emphasisers like definitely, obviously, and literally are gaining in frequency
thanks to their new delexicalised discourse-pragmatic functions. Features that index local identity, such as
proper, canny, clause-final like, and right dislocation, are rarer, as found in studies of dialect levelling, and only
frequently used by male speakers, as attested in previous work on northern Englishes.
Findings suggest both age-grading and diachronic change. The range of boosting and emphatic
resources is wider in the older cohort, with younger speakers having an almost exclusive predilection for
really. On the other hand, change in Tyneside English is attested by the decline of very, dead, and clause-final
like, and the rise of really, so, proper, definitely, obviously, and literally. The features on the rise also evidence
advanced grammaticalisation. Girls generally lead in these changes. The teenagers’ use of boosters and
emphasisers suggests a conversational style that is highly expressive and cooperative. Also, the particular
patterns of their discourse can be seen not only to reflect but also to drive processes of language change
and grammaticalisation. These findings should help emphasise the uniqueness and value of teen talk more
generally, which can be used to challenge aspects of linguistic discrimination aimed at this particular social
group amongst wider publics
Board Diversity and Women Directors’ Attributes: New Insights from Bank Risk, Stability and Stock Market Valuations with Evidence from Alternative Banking Models
Full text linkPhD ThesisThis thesis investigates board diversity and its association with bank stability and market
value, employing a unique sample drawn from countries operating dual banking systems
(Islamic and conventional). Three studies are presented that examine comprehensive diversity
indicators previously untested in the literature. Study 1 presents an assessment of measures of
board diversity (gender, education, nationality) in relation to three bank measures of stability
for listed and unlisted banks. Studies 2 and 3 focus on listed banks and board gender diversity,
alongside unique attributes for women directors reflecting monitoring, independence, and
leadership, considered together with financial expertise, nationality, and education in relation
to stock market valuation (Study 2) and five measures of bank risk (Study 3). The findings
from Study 1 provide strong evidence that banks with women directors and directors with
doctorates exhibit high bank stability. In contrast, foreign directors are significantly
negatively associated with bank stability. The effects of directors’ gender, nationality, and
education on bank stability differ by bank type. Study 2 provides strong evidence that having
women directors on the board is positively associated with bank value for conventional banks,
but not for Islamic banks, as are independent women directors, those with a high level of
education, and those holding accounting/finance qualifications. Women chairpersons have no
significant association, but foreign women directors and those who graduated from foreign
universities are negatively associated with bank value. Study 3 shows that the presence of
women directors and independent women directors is negatively associated with bank risk.
However, there is significant evidence that women directors with postgraduate degrees and
those with accounting and finance qualifications significantly reduce bank risk in
conventional banks, although this relationship only holds for market risk within Islamic
banks. The findings offer valuable new insights and important policy implications for
international banking research, investors, and regulators
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impression Management: The American Arabian Oil Company (Aramco), 1932–1974
Full text linkPh. D. ThesisThe principal aim of this thesis is to contribute towards the understanding of the
corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy of the Arabian-American Oil Company (Aramco)
in Saudi Arabia. Multinational corporations present a positive image of their economic and
social activities to investors and society in order to justify their exploitation of natural resources.
Given the importance of CSR activities in the twentieth century, this study examines the role
played by CSR programmes in Aramco’s strategy to strengthen its position in the Kingdom.
These programmes have contributed to economic and social development, but were also a
mechanism used by the company to maintain control of Saudi oil assets.
Using Aramco as a case study, contrasts are drawn between the public pronouncements
of its management concerning CSR activities and actual events as documented in the literature,
official papers and archive records. Furthermore, forty-two management statements in the
company reports are analysed to identify and categorise any impression management
techniques identified.
The findings show that these activities did not stem from a philanthropic rationale but
were necessary to enable Aramco to create the infrastructure to find, extract and control oil
assets. As a consequence of these activities, racism and discrimination were part of the
company’s system of hierarchical control. However, Aramco adopted assertive strategies to
present a positive image of itself as a socially responsible company that was contributing to the
economic and social development of Saudi Arabia. The adoption of a longitudinal, historical
analysis of the interrelationship between CSR activities and impression management strategies
provides a rich understanding of how companies seek to present images of themselves in
changing economic and political environments.
By drawing on evidence from major archive documents, the research contributes
theoretical, methodological and data insights. The study extends our theoretical understanding
of CSR activities in a historical context. Historians of business and entrepreneurship could
provide insights into the development of CSR and how it has been strategically utilised by
companies. In terms of methodological contribution, the study presents a novel theoretical lens
to investigate the motivations for CSR in the twentieth century using the impression
management strategy framework. Third, in terms of data contribution, the unique analysis of
42 historical reports from 1938 to 1974 is conducted with the computer-aided content analysis
program DICTION 7.0.Tabuk Universit
The discursive mythological construction of the Muslim Brotherhood and their foes: The case of the Arabic and English news articles of Al-Jazeera
Full text linkIPhD ThesisDrawing on Kelsey’s discourse-mythological approach (2015c) to critical discourse studies, the
project at hand aims to examine the extent to which the discursive construction of mythology
appears to impact the online portrayals of the Muslim Brotherhood Party and their opponents
between the Arabic and English websites of Al-Jazeera. In conducting this research, a corpus
of straight news reports and opinion articles covering the period between the ousting of
President Muḥammad Mursī (Mohammed Morsi) on 3rd July 2013, until the end of 2014, was
collected, downsized, and analysed. The analysis included the usage of two supplementary
approaches, one of which is thematic analysis, and the other is a manual analysis technique that
was, specifically, improvised for the purpose of the study. Al-Jazeera Arabic (AJA) is argued
to have always been broadcasting to the support and sympathy of Islamist parties, including the
MB (Sakr, 1999; Cherribi, 2006; Dabbous-Sensenig, 2006; Al-Najjar, 2009, p. 3; Al-Qassemi,
2012; Kessler, 2012; Mellor and Rinnawi, 2016; Seib, 2016; Obaid, 2020). Following the
transfer of power in 2013, the majority of AJA journalists are said to have viewed the MB as
victims and that it is “the moral duty” of Al-Jazeera to stand up for them (Mellor and Rinnawi,
2016, p. 276).
It has been the long argument of critical discourse analysts that different news outlets construct
different social realities (Fowler, 1991; Trew, 1991). Putting the MB into the equation, the study
seeks to understand whether or not such an argument still holds true between the two sites of
the same news provider, Al-Jazeera. More importantly, the study pays specific attention to the
practice of mythological storytelling, the extent to which it impacts the narratives on both sites
in a similar and different manner. Although the Arabic and English articles across the two sites
seem to agree on defending MB and attacking their opponents, each site, however, appears to
construct the choice of mythical narratives in line with the social and cultural values of the
target audience, resonating more with their collective psyche. Moreover, Al-Jazeera appears to
be more inclined towards attacking the anti-MB social actors than defending the MB.
Interestingly, such a case appears to be more evident in Arabic data as opposed to the English
ones, and even more so with opinion articles than it is the case with straight news stories.
Indeed, approaching the study of news through the lens of mythology, storytelling, and
narratives has been witnessing a mounting interest by scholars over the past three decades (Bird
and Dardenne, 2009; Wahl-Jorgensen and Schmidt, 2020). Nonetheless, its application seems
to have been mostly restricted to the analysis of monolingual news discourse. Moreover, Arabic
languages, among others, still did not receive enough attention (if anything at all). Therefore,
this examination is hoped to provide some insights as to the potential implication of
mythological analysis in the context of bilingual news discourse, which includes Arabic, among
other languages. Moreover, the application of mythological analysis in news may help in
gaining more insights as to the manipulative nature of mythological storytelling and how it is
used aesthetically in news discourse, the likes of which Al-Jazeera is known for stirring and
mobilising emotions.
Keywords: Critical discourse analysis; mythology; archetypes; narratives; storytelling; media
discourse; online news; media representation; identity construction; cross-linguistic CDA;
religious discourse; aesthetics; journalism; Islamism; politic
Incoherent effects in single-electron quantum optics
No full textPh. D. Thesis.Dynamic quantum dots as sources of single electrons open up new avenues to
explore fundamental issues of solid-state physics. These types of single electron
source allow for injection of electrons at energies high above the Fermi level. These
high energies increase the spatial separation between bulk and injected electrons,
reducing electron-electron interactions which are the dominant source of decoherence
for cold electrons. Unfortunately, although these high energies reduce one source of
decoherence, they introduce the potential for others to become dominant.
In this thesis, we investigate two of these sources of decoherence on electrons
which reduce their ability to act quantum mechanically, and explore the conditions
required to mitigate these effects. First we investigate the effect of phase averaging,
which is caused by the uncertainty in the injection energy of an electron. We calculate the phase contributions from beamsplitters, path lengths and the AharonovBohm phase, as well as the energy dependence of the transmission and reflection
coefficients of the beamsplitters. We find that optimum conditions such that visibility can be maximised are obtained not at zero path length difference as in optics,
but with an offset in the length of the interferometer arms. At the higher energies
in hot-electron quantum optics, longitudinal-optical (LO)-phonon emission becomes
the dominant source of decoherence. In this thesis we derive a complete quantum
master equation to describe the rate of emission of LO-phonons and the behaviour
of electrons undergoing this emission.
The findings in this thesis are vital to the successful implementation of quantum optics-like experiments with hot electrons. These results can be used as input
into both experimental architectures and dynamical simulations, and combined with
previous results provide a complete quantum picture of the incoherent effects in hot
electron quantum-optic
Regulation of ribosome biogenesis in health and disease
Full text linkPhD ThesisRibosome biogenesis is one of the most energy consuming and regulated cellular
processes. Due to the fundamental importance of ribosomes in cellular biology, it is
unsurprising that defects in their biogenesis are linked to a range of human disorders,
termed ribosomopathies. This project aimed to investigate different mechanisms
through which ribosome production is regulated in relation to health and disease.
When ribosome biogenesis is defective, the 5S RNP, a large subunit (LSU) assembly
intermediate, accumulates, activating the tumour suppressor p53 through inhibition of
its regulator. Unexpectedly, small subunit (SSU) production defects also activate p53
through the 5S RNP. In this study, SSU production defects were found to activate p53
early and in the absence of changes in mature SSU levels, contrary to previous
research. SSU production defects result in impaired export of the pre-LSU and reduced
levels of the late, cytoplasmic pre-5.8S ribosomal RNA. This implies that defective SSU
production activates p53 through stalling the late stages of LSU maturation.
Ribosomal proteins are produced in excess and are protected from aggregation by
chaperones. RPL3 and its dedicated chaperone GRWD1 were both shown to be
required to produce the LSU and SSU and were both shown to bind a novel inhibitor
of ribosome biogenesis, C8ORF33. The GRWD1 binding site of RPL3 is required for
this interaction and is required for ribosome production. These proteins had different
but diverging roles during ribosome production and may be involved in regulatory
mechanisms.
The chaperone binding site of RPL3 is highly conserved between humans and yeast
except for serine residues in humans that have been reported as phosphorylation sites.
Phosphorylation offers a mechanism through which protein functions can be modified
to diversify cellular responses. However, such modifications do not impact GRWD1
binding but are linked to minor changes in pre-ribosomal RNA processing.MR
Advanced informatics for event detection and temporal localization
Full text linkPhD ThesisThe primary objective of a Sound Event Detection (SED) system is to detect the prescene
of an acoustic event (i.e., audio tagging) and to return the onset and offset of the identified acoustic event within an audio clip (i.e., temporal localization). Such a system
can be promising in wildlife and biodiversity monitoring, surveillance, and smart-home
applications.
However, developing a system to be adept at both subtasks is not a trivial task. It can
be hindered by the need for a large amount of strongly labeled data, where the event tags
and the corresponding onsets and offsets are known with certainty. This is a limiting factor
as strongly labeled data is challenging to collect and is prone to annotation errors due to
the ambiguity in the perception of onsets and offsets.
In this thesis, we propose to address the lack of strongly labeled data by using pseudo
strongly labeled data, where the event tags are known with certainty while the corresponding onsets and offsets are estimated. While Nonnegative Matrix Factorization can be
used directly for SED but with limited accuracy, we show that it can be a useful tool
for pseudo labeling. We further show that pseudo strongly labeled data estimated using
our proposed methods can improve the accuracy of a SED system developed using deep
learning approaches.
Subsequent work then focused on improving a SED system as a whole rather than a
single subtask. This leads to the proposal of a novel student-teacher training framework
that incorporates a noise-robust loss function, a new cyclic training scheme, an improved
depthwise separable convolution, a triple instance-level temporal pooling approach, and an
improved Transformer encoding layer. Together with synthetic strongly labeled data and a
large corpus of unlabeled data, we show that a SED system developed using our proposed
method is capable of producing state-of-the-art performance
Investigation of the functions of sumo in conserved biological processes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Full text linkPhD ThesisThe small ubiquitin-like modifier (sumo) is a conserved post-translational modification found
throughout eukaryotes. Over the last 25 years a large range of studies have investigated the
role of sumoylation, identifying hundreds of substrates and linking sumo to a diverse range
of key cellular processes, including stress responses, the response to DNA damage and cell
cycle progression. Although sumoylation has also been shown to be essential in a number of
eukaryotes, including the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the fundamental role(s) of
sumoylation remains unclear. Sumo dysregulation is associated with a number of human
diseases, including cancer, hence it is important to understand and characterise the role(s) of
sumo pathways within these diseases. In an attempt to identify the important functions of
sumoylation, a recent SGA screen carried out in our lab used a S. cerevisiae strain with
reduced sumo (Smt3) function to identify a number of suppressor proteins which were able
to suppress the growth defects of this smt3 mutant. Excitingly, several novel cytoskeletalrelated suppressors proteins were identified which rescued the smt3 growth phenotype,
including subunits of the CCT chaperonin complex, b-tubulin and branched F-actin. Hence,
the aim of this thesis was to further characterise the phenotypes associated with the smt3
mutant and to investigate the relationship of other proteins in the sumo
conjugation/deconjugation pathways, the role of polysumoylation and the effect of different
S. cerevisiae strain backgrounds within stress responses including exposure to cold
temperature, responses to oxidative stress and cell cycle progression. In addition, another
aspect of this study was to investigate the relationship of the smt3 mutant with the novel
suppressor proteins including subunits of the CCT complex, b-tubulin and F-actin.
Excitingly, this study has revealed novel and strain specific roles for sumoylation and
polysumoylation within S. cerevisiae stress responses, cell cycle progression and chromosome
dynamics, including a novel, strain specific role for sumoylation during S phase. In addition,
data in this study also revealed that enzymes within the sumo conjugation and deconjugation
pathways respond differently when presented with different stresses. Interestingly, our
studies of the relationships between smt3 and the novel cytoskeletal suppressor proteins
iv
revealed that although these suppressors partially suppress the smt3 growth defects, the
smt3 strain also suppresses several phenotypes associated with the cytoskeletal suppressors.
Furthermore, our data suggests that b-tubulin is a substrate of sumoylation in S. cerevisiae
cells. Thus, these results are consistent with a model in which sumoylation is functionally
linked to the cytoskeleton by the interaction of sumo with microtubules and F-actin. Given
that dysregulation of sumo, the CCT complex, F-actin and microtubules are common in many
human diseases, this study provides novel insights into the relationship between the
mutations in these complexes, potentially identifying new routes for the development of
therapeutic treatments for human diseases.BBSR