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The impact of combinations of dietary fibres on digestive tolerance
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A Europe built on compromise. Reconsidering ordoliberal influence on economic policy coordination in the EEC, 1957-1974
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Information control and Communist Party legitimacy in China
Get PDFControl of information is key to the survival of authoritarian regimes. Censorship and propaganda play a particularly important role in maintaining and enhancing regime legitimacy. The Chinese Communist Party has developed a large and sophisticated information control operation in its efforts to manufacture the consent of Chinese citizens, but censorship and propaganda are much more selective and sophisticated than they were under Chairman Mao. This thesis analyses what content the CCP controlled during the first six years of Xi Jinping’s presidency (2013-2018), how it controlled this information and particularly the way that censorship and propaganda were used together, and what types of legitimacy these information control efforts focused on. It involves a content analysis of censorship instructions sent to media organisations, and social media posts by People’s Daily, the Party’s main propaganda mouthpiece, together with additional qualitative analysis of the content of these instructions and posts. While King et al (2013) argued that censorship was focused on content involving collective action, this thesis shows that the CCP uses censorship and propaganda to target a much wider range of political content. It proposes a new typology of the censorship and propaganda system and argues that it is important to consider how the CCP uses a mix of censorship and propaganda to get an accurate picture of what information is controlled. This thesis then uses the information about the political content the CCP controls and the way they use censorship and propaganda to control that information to improve our understanding of how the CCP sought to enhance its legitimacy. It shows that information control targeted at the public focused on ideology based on nationalism and moral values, while manipulating and limiting discussion of challenging performance issues and the Party itself. This creates an anaesthetised information environment which encourages people to feel patriotic and positive, but where politics is as unpolitical as possible
Saudization: a sensemaking perspective through change and crisis
No full textAbstract not currently available
Historicising Documents (1929-1931): a Parisian avant-garde journal and the visual culture of interwar France
Get PDFThe avant-garde journal Documents (Paris, 1929-1931) was an interdisciplinary endeavour, involving ethnographers, archaeologists, art collectors, and art historians. Among the regular contributors were a number of former adherents to André Breton’s Surrealist group. In the role of secrétaire général was Georges Bataille, a notoriously slippery character in the avant-garde scene. The resulting magazine was sprawling, subversively mixing the mainstream and the marginal. In art historical discourse, following Rosalind Krauss’ formative interpretation of the journal, Documents’ criticality tends to be identified in deconstructionist terms: as a text that enacts a radical displacement of meaning by sabotaging the very processes of meaning-production. The radical heterogeneity championed across its pages is thus decontextualised, abstracted to a purely linguistic domain far removed from the materiality of lived experience. Seeking to instead establish a historicised understanding of the journal’s critical work and to explore how it positioned itself as an avant-garde text by critically negotiating, in image and text, various ideologically charged themes in discourse, this thesis re-inserts Documents into the visual culture of interwar France and re-interprets it through the pragmatist semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce – a theory that locates the process of semiosis in the social use of signs.
Focussing on the journal’s critical treatment of three areas where French fragilities were felt to be particularly prominent in the interwar period – the perceived feeble health and strength of the nation (Chapter 1), America’s increasing dominance and the influx of Hollywood films (Chapter 2), as well as the seemingly fragile built space of Paris (Chapter 3) – this thesis resituates various signs mobilised in Documents within their socio-cultural contexts, excavates the currency they carried in culture through extensive examination of primary materials e.g., contemporary press, advertisements, political debate, official campaigns, etc. Subsequently, it will be argued that the journal actively intervened into infected debates only to disruptively redeploy the anguished signs and motifs they encompassed to dissident ends. Indeed, once reinterpreted through a different theoretical and methodological framework, once recontextualised and rehistoricised, a critical strategy very different from that identified in the prevailing deconstructionist identification emerges. This is one that did not work to sabotage meaning-production but to subversively participate in such cultural processes. This is a strategy whose criticality stemmed not from an unveiling of the undecidability of signs or a reduction of meaning but, on the contrary, from radical re-dissemination of the heightened meaning those signs carried in culture. Diffusing motifs that troubled topical Third Republican anxieties – tuberculosis microbes, monstruous children, Hollywood talkies, and American skyscrapers; defunct sewage systems, slaughterhouses, statuary programmes, and Parisian slums - Documents, however, not only prodded and pressurised French wounds. It enacted a critical recalibration of reality too. The transgressive heterogeneity promoted by the journal, a critical philosophy developed by Bataille during the Documents-years, operated not on the level of language but on the level of experience, within the fabric of life. Signs, wrapped up in and charged by their use in anguished discourses, were strategically re-circulated to expose a counter-portrayal of humanity, decidedly deglorified and incongruously heterogenous
Multimorbidity in the Context Of Socioeconomic Deprivation: A mixed methods exploration of how Individual and Community factors interact to influence patient capacity to manage Multimorbidity (MOSAIC)
Get PDFBackground: Despite significant investment in research and resource, health inequalities persist and in some cases are worsening. Multimorbidity (presence of two or more long-term conditions in an individual) is more prevalent in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation, where it begins at an earlier age. Burden of Treatment Theory (BOTT) states that where the work of managing chronic conditions (treatment burden) outweighs the capacity to carry out that work, poorer outcomes persist. Preliminary research has explored treatment burden in the context of multimorbidity, but capacity remains under-researched. Given that factors known to reduce capacity cluster in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation, understanding capacity, and how to support and enhance it, has the potential to inform the design of services that may narrow existing health inequalities. This thesis aims to explore, and begin to quantify, the influence of key capacity impacting factors on the ability to self-manage multimorbidity in the context of socio-economic deprivation and to understand how individual and community level factors interact to influence health self-management decisions.
Methods: A multi-methods approach that employed three work packages. 1) A systematic review of existing multimorbidity interventions which employed two methods of data analysis: a meta-ethnography of participant experience and a framework analysis underpinned by BOTT. 2) A quantitative analysis of cohort data exploring the association between individual and community capacity factors, treatment burden and mortality and hospital admissions in people living with multimorbidity 3) A qualitative exploration of the experience of living with multimorbidity in one community experiencing high socioeconomic deprivation. An ethnographically informed approach was taken including 25 in-depth interviews, one focus group, 142 hours of participant observation in four community groups and two participatory workshops. An initial broad thematic descriptive analysis was followed by an analytical synthesis of the themes, exploring how they related to each other and the existing BOTT constructs.
Main Findings: 1) Current multimorbidity interventions focus primarily on practitioner experience or on narrow aspects of participant experiences of interventions. They rarely consider the experience of those who did not benefit. Person-centred care, an objective for several interventions, was often practitioner defined. While interventions could initially shift care to be more person-centred, organisational factors meant this was often not sustained and reverted to usual care. Interventions benefit from a clear evidence-based structure and practitioner training and supervision increase the likelihood of implementation as intended. In addition, interventions that had flexible components, or were able to include flexibility in application, appear to be more effective in engagement. BOTT constructs and social context were not routinely considered by current interventions, and none considered the impact of the work of the intervention for patients with multimorbidity. 2) BOTT constructs can provide a framework to explore capacity variables at the population level. Capacity measures vary over time; not adjusting for this in the analysis could potentially over-estimate or miss associations. As well as expected associations between known individual factors such as literacy, housing tenancy or disability, there was a potential association between mortality and the extent to which people feel they have control over their health, although the exact relationship is unclear (e.g. for the statement “I have little control over what happens to me”: Agree strongly reference group 1; compared to agree 0.51 (0.27,0.98); Disagree 0.47 (0.25,0.90); Disagree strongly 0.57 (0.28,1.14)). In addition, compared to never walking in the dark (reference group 1) there was a protective association with mortality for those who tried to avoid (0.70 (0.57,0.87)), felt uncomfortable (0.66 (0.52,0.84)) or who had no worries (0.63 (0.53,0.76)). This association was also seen for hospital admissions for those who felt uncomfortable (0.61 (0.45,0.83) or who had no worries (0.71 (0.55,0.91)). 3) Qualitative findings demonstrated that BOTT constructs were useful in understanding individual capacity to manage multimorbidity in the context of high socioeconomic deprivation. However, additional components, such as the role of biography (maintaining personal identity) and grounding activities do not fully align with current BOTT constructs. In addition, participants described shared community experiences of “being known” in the community, the experience of stigma , antisocial behaviour, a rundown physical environment, and none of the systems working for them. These experiences influenced how participants accessed healthcare, and their self-management decisions and capabilities. This was summarised as a new construct “community capacity”: the unconscious internalisation of wider shared community experiences. In the context of high socioeconomic deprivation community capacity shaped, and sometimes constrained, individual capacity. Finally, the ethos of community groups (authentic, safe space, peer support, challenge) and high-quality person-centred care were particularly enabling, in part because of their ability to ameliorate the influence of community capacity.
Conclusions: Both individual and community factors have a critical impact on the capacity to manage multimorbidity, and some of these capacity factors are associated with mortality and hospital admissions. BOTT constructs can be used to measure associations between capacity factors at the population level, and this could be built on to create a validated measure of capacity. Health services, and future interventions, should prioritise supporting and optimising person-centred care, work with communities to ensure services are authentic safe spaces and consider utilising peer support for people living with multimorbidity in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation. As community capacity shapes individual capacity, applying BOTT in the context of high socioeconomic deprivation without consideration of wider contextual, community factors, risks perpetuating and widening existing health inequalities. However, an extended BOTT incorporating community capacity, biography and being grounded could be utilised in a high socioeconomic deprivation context to help design health services and interventions for people living with multimorbidity. Such services have the potential to improve outcomes and narrow health inequalities in this setting
Efficiency and characterisation comparison between various compositions of conventionally sintered PZT ceramics for piezoelectric energy harvesting
Get PDFAmongst the available kinetic energy harvesting methods, piezoelectric devices have gained popularity due to their prolonged service life, as well as their reduced maintenance, weight and size. Lead zirconate titanate, also known as PZT, is one of the most common piezoelectric ceramics used worldwide. When left undoped, changing the proportions of TiO2 and ZrO2 in the material will result in different proximities to the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), which is thought to be where the best piezoelectric properties are exhibited. Additionally, the purity of the parent oxides used in the preparation of PZT has been found to have a direct effect not only on its properties but also on its fabrication cost.
To identify the effects of varying these properties, this dissertation presents and discusses the work done to compare the efficiency and characteristics of ten different compositions of PZT disks sintered through a two-stage conventional ceramic method. The disks were fabricated using two grades of purity for the parent oxides, and three different chemical compositions. Six of the sets were made using the same grade of purity for the main PZT disk and the lead zirconate (PZ) atmosphere that was used to compensate the PbO loss that occurs near ~888°C. The other four were sintered using the opposite grade of purity for the PZ atmosphere. Three of these were for the high-purity compositions and one for the samples made with the lowest concentration of TiO2 and lower-grade starting powders.
The ten sets were physically characterised using their densities, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Energy Dispersion Analysis (EDS). The samples were processed to achieve smooth parallel surfaces and functionally characterised after applying silver electrodes on their faces. The disks were poled along their thickness using 4kV/mm for 15min at ~100°C, prior to measuring their piezoelectric constants, electromechanical coupling factor, mechanical quality factor and acoustic impedance. The lower purity (LP) PZT samples registered higher densities and seemingly behaved as hard ceramics, resisting polarization and exhibiting lower permittivities and Curie points.
Although the highest piezoelectric coefficients (d33 > 310pC/N) were measured from the higher purity (HP) PZT samples, the highest coupling factors (kp > 54%) were obtained from compositions that were made with the LP chemicals or used LP PZ disks, suggesting that the presence of the LP components had a positive effect in the energy conversion.
After coupling the samples as energy harvesters, controlled impact tests were done at two different frequencies for approximately 12s each to obtain their I-V curves. The highest average output power density was achieved by the samples with the highest TiO2 made with LP PZT and PZ (43.7μW/cm3 at ~6 hits/s and ~28.4μW/cm3 at 14 hits/s). This further supports the positive effects the LP chemicals can have, not only offering similar properties as the HP counterparts but also implicating major cost reductions when fabricated in bulk for large-scale commercial use, whilst their higher densities anticipate a better response to the expected conditions associated with their use
The determinants and the real effect of credit line: evidence from Europe
Get PDFThis PhD thesis comprises four chapters that collectively investigate firms’ credit line utilisation and liquidity risk management in the context of the COVID-19 shock. Each chapter addresses distinct aspects of this topic, providing valuable insights into the behaviour of European firms and the implications for firm value generation.
Chapter 1 starts with an overview of what credit line is and what we know about it from the COVID-19 shock in the European context.
Chapter 2 focuses on firms’ liquidity risk management during the unprecedented COVID-19 shock. While existing literature extensively covers credit line usage in normal circumstances, this study explores firms’ responses to an exogenous shock unrelated to their fundamentals. By building upon previous research on weather shocks, the chapter demonstrates that the COVID-19 shock led to panic borrowing by financially unconstrained European firms. Drawing down credit lines became a means to mitigate the sharp decline in expected cash flow. The analysis reveals significant heterogeneity in borrowing behaviour across countries and industries, highlighting the importance of f irm exposure to the shock. Moreover, the chapter highlights the policy implications of banks supplying credit insurance during periods of heightened aggregate risk.
Chapter 3 investigates the purposes of credit line utilisation by European firms during the COVID-19 shock. With a focus on the European market, the chapter fills the gap in the literature by examining the factors that drive firms to access credit lines. The empirical analysis reveals that low-quality and non-investment-grade firms were more likely to draw down credit lines to mitigate cash flow shortfalls caused by the pandemic. Additionally, the study investigates whether firms used credit lines for precautionary savings or funding investment. The findings indicate that credit line drawdowns were driven by firms’ precautionary motives rather than investment funding. The chapter also explores the sensitivity of credit lines to firm size, demonstrating that mediumsized firms were more affected by cash flow shortfalls and drew down credit lines to a greater extent. Moreover, the unique nature of the COVID-19 crisis is established by comparing it with the European Crisis, where little evidence supports the precautionary purpose.
In Chapter 4, the thesis presents a comprehensive model that examines the optimal capital structure, investment decisions, and implications of credit line utilisation for wealth generation. The model highlights the significance of balancing the benefits and costs of credit line usage. It considers factors such as borrowing costs, cash holdings, line commitments, and covenant restrictions in shaping firms’ liquidity management strategies. Through a combination of theoretical analysis and empirical estimation using firm-level data, the chapter provides insights into the association between risky assets, productivity, and revolving credit facility utilisation. The findings demonstrate that credit lines play a crucial role in enhancing firm value through aggressive investment and flexible liquidity management. However, the excessive use of credit lines can lead to diminished firm worth. The analysis further shows the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on corporate productivity and explores the effects of labour factors during the pandemic-induced lockdown.
In conclusion, this PhD thesis contributes to the understanding of firms’ credit line utilisation and liquidity risk management, particularly in the context of the COVID19 shock. The chapters shed light on the behaviour of European firms, the factors driving their demand for credit lines, and the implications for firm value generation. The findings have important policy implications, emphasising the role of banks in supplying credit insurance during periods of heightened aggregate risk. Overall, this thesis enhances our knowledge of firms’ responses to shocks and their strategies for managing liquidity risk, providing valuable insights for both academia and practitioners in the field of finance
An experimental investigation into smart radio environments
Get PDFThe potential for dynamically manipulating the wireless channel introduces a revolutionary concept in wireless communication systems known as the smart radio environment (SRE). Recent works have suggested that SREs hold the promise of delivering unprecedented performance benefits to wireless networks. However, a notable gap exists as the overwhelming majority of published works on this subject lack a robust data-driven approach. This investigation into SREs sets out to bridge the chasm between theory and reality. Novel reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) prototypes have been developed, whose electromagnetic properties have been designed to efficiently reshape the wireless propagation environment to our advantage. Two extensive field measurement campaigns have been undertaken. A series of measurements obtained within RISaided wireless communication setups throughout an indoor environment reveal that substantial increases in channel gain are possible through strategic placement and configuration of these smart reflectors. Furthermore, frequency domain measurements obtained throughout an existing multi-antenna urban macrocell reveal the potential for contemporary networks to benefit from the SRE concept. The benefits RISs can bring to multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) outdoor networks are revealed, alongside potentially detrimental impacts in the form of a reduced effective rank and increased interference. This works sheds a light on a number of practical issues, from design and implementation, to real-world deployment of RISs
Ethics and the encounter with the other in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth narratives
Get PDFMy thesis is a study of the ethics formed by the encounter between the self and the Other in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (LotR). Through the prism of Emmanuel Levinas’ ethical philosophy, my thesis explores the construction of ethical relationships, perspectives, and responses by the characters of these texts when they are placed face-to-face with different embodiments of Otherness.
I contend that, historically, the analysis of ethics in Tolkien's Middle-earth narratives has failed to occupy a central position within Tolkien scholarship, being overlooked or subordinated to research concerns such as the biographical or religious content of the author’s work, interpretations of his authorial intent, as well as the influence of Tolkien’s academic and philological interests on his literary production. More recently, endeavours to understand the ethical dimension of Tolkien’s narratives include studies by Jane Chance, Deidre Dawson, Robert Eaglestone, and Joseph Tadie, who detect an affinity with ethical considerations advanced by philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. My thesis is the next step in the Tolkien-Levinas approximation, for it is a meeting point between Levinas’ philosophical reflections on ethics as arising from the encounter with the Other, and the characters who inhabit The Hobbit and LotR. Crucial to my argument are the different configurations of Otherness in Tolkien’s texts – as racialised, feminine, queer, and evil – and how encountering the Other is interlaced with themes essential to Tolkien’s literary production, such as heroism, the phenomenology of evil, death, and the intertwinement between fate and free will. I argue that the encounter with the Other in Tolkien’s Middle-earth narratives is responsible for the surfacing of ethical questions that catalyse the narratives’ actions and transformative processes within the characters.
My thesis is divided into two parts. Part One serves as an introduction to the positioning of this thesis within Tolkien scholarship and the method it follows. Chapter One reviews the history and current state of Tolkien studies in relation to the study of ethics in Tolkien’s Middle-earth narratives. Chapter Two details the methodological approach of this thesis, which I name “companionship”. This chapter expands on the notion of ethics underlining my thesis and describes the influence of philosophical ethics in literary studies prior to examining different portrayals of alterity in Tolkien’s worldbuilding project, namely the feminine, the swarthy, and the orc. Chapter Two closes with an appraisal of the potential connections between Tolkien’s fiction and Levinas’ philosophical discourse as well as the establishment of the core tenets of Levinas’ philosophy that accompany my study of primary sources.
The analysis of The Hobbit and LotR is the main focus of Part Two of my thesis. These chapters combine a close reading of primary sources, informed by relevant Tolkien scholarship, with a range of theoretical lenses and concepts, such as estrangement, the uncanny, and the abject. Underpinning my interpretation of Tolkien’s narratives is Levinas’ reflections on ethics, self, and Other. Chapter Three is dedicated to Bilbo Baggins’ narrative journey and the ethical perspectives he encounters during his experiences outside of the Shire, which transform his sense of self, his sense of service to and his ethical relationship with the Other. Chapter Four inaugurates this thesis’ study of LotR. This chapter focuses on hobbits as the queer Other, the constitution of Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, and Gollum, and the ethical relationships that ensue amongst them. Finishing this section is the study of Lobelia Sackville-Baggins’ narrative arc as a development in the approach to the Other. Chapter Five elaborates on the phenomenology of evil in LotR as the negation of the self to engage in an ethical relationship with the Other, which then may lead to its impossibility. Evil as essence or choice, the effects of the Ring(s) of Power, and the Other as an embodiment of evil – wraiths, orcs, and Shelob – are addressed in this section. The final chapter of my thesis explores the linkages between ideas of heroism and serving the Other in LotR. I begin with a comparison of Frodo and Aragorn in order to illustrate how their narrative trajectories, in their similarities and differences, exemplify heroism as a form of service to the Other. Next, I analyse the constellation formed by Merry, Pippin, Éowyn, and Faramir to argue that their path of serving the Other is through a disobedience marked by the need to acknowledge their distinct selfhoods. Closing my thesis is a coda that explores the idea of surrendering to and renouncing desire as possession, and its implications for the relationship between the self and the Other as experienced Saruman, Sauron, Galadriel, and Frodo. These reflections gesture towards the interpretative affordances of Tolkien’s Middleearth narratives and the applicability of the encounter with the Other for Tolkien scholarship
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