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Speaking of power: politicisation, hierarchy, and language ideologies in post-23J Spain
Full text linkThis thesis explains the increasing politicisation of Spain’s minoritised languages during and after the 2023 general elections, and what this reveals about language ideologies and hierarchies. Bringing state and regional materials into one framework, it analyses party manifestos (2023, 2024), Spanish parliamentary debates (2023, 2025), and briefly discusses the bid for EU recognition of co-official languages (2023-2025). It asks how languages and speakers are discursively constructed in these texts, and how these discourses reproduce or disrupt hierarchy. Using the Discourse-Historical Approach within Critical Discourse Analysis, the study links textual strategies to socio-historical context. Findings show that the explicit positioning of language in party politics reorders or cements the asymmetries codified in Article 3 of the 1978 Spanish Constitution. Hierarchy persists where Castilian functions as the unmarked common medium and recognition of other languages remains largely symbolic. It is challenged where co-official languages are normalised as civic infrastructure, backed by enforceable obligations, budgets, and routine institutional use. The thesis models hierarchy across state, regional, and EU institutional scales, showing why recognition without material responsibility fails to shift practice
Using a precision public health approach to inform the prevention and management of obesity
No full textAbstract not currently available
Understanding the formation, function and inhibition of multinucleated giant cells in giant cell arteritis
No full textGiant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common form of vasculitis in patients over 50 which can lead to irreversible blindness and strokes if not properly treated. GCA is characterised by immune mediated destruction of the medial layer of small blood vessels followed by aberrant repair leading to intimal hyperplasia and narrowing of the vessel. Multinucleated giant cells (MGCs) are a hallmark of disease pathology. Despite these cells being observed close to sites of both media destruction and intimal hyperplasia, their role and formation in GCA pathogenesis have not yet been fully explored. Furthermore, reliable models to investigate the early stages of GCA pathogenesis, particularly the migration of circulating monocyte precursors and the generation of MGCs, remain scarce. Accordingly, this thesis seeks to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the development and functional roles of MGCs and their precursors.
To address this gap in knowledge, this thesis employed spatial transcriptomics to characterise macrophages and MGCs within distinct vascular layers and to elucidate the mechanisms underlying their development and functional roles. The results showed that macrophages in the intima of GCA vessels were transcriptionally similar to MGCs. Furthermore, cell deconvolution analysis of MGCs showed that these cells were transcriptionally akin to an undifferentiated macrophage suggesting they could be both pro- and anti-inflammatory in nature.
Furthermore, it was important to understand the mechanisms involved in MGC formation. This thesis showed that GCA like MGCs could be generated by stimulating monocytes with GM-CSF+IFNg. This culture produced both Langhans, and foreign body giant cells as observed in GCA tissue. These cultured cells produced markers observed in the tissue such as MMP9 and CTSD.
Differences in MGC formation by cultured monocytes from healthy controls and GCA patients suggested that there are differences in circulating monocyte precursors of MGCs. Flow cytometric analysis, RNA sequencing and epigenetic profile analysis of these monocytes revealed that GCA monocytes express high CCR5 and GM-CSF receptor on their surface. Analysis also showed differences in H3K427me3 and H3K4me3 profiles in GCA monocytes compared to healthy controls.
Lastly, as CCR5 was shown to be highly expressed on GCA monocytes, it was assessed in the context of MGC formation. CCR5 and its ligands CCL3, and 5 could be observed in GCA tissue localized to and surrounding MGCs. CCR5 modulation by small molecules and monoclonal antibodies (such as maraviroc and Leronlimab respectively) were added to the previously described culture. This inhibition led to a large reduction in the number of MGCs observed in culture suggesting a role for this chemokine receptor in the formation of MGCs.
In summary, this thesis established a role of MGCs in GCA pathogenesis. It presented the first in vitro model of GCA MGC formation from enriched monocytes, enabling investigation of their initiation and modulation. It also identified differences in protein expression and epigenetic modifications between healthy and GCA monocytes and implicates the chemokine receptor CCR5 in MGC formation, highlighting CCR5 modulators such as Maraviroc and Leronlimab as potential therapies. Future work should explore GCA monocyte co-culture systems and develop 3D models to extend these findings
An exploration of metachronous colorectal lesion predictors from a bowel screening population
Full text linkThe rising incidence and mortality rates of colorectal cancer (CRC) continue to impact patients and burden healthcare systems worldwide. Multiple factors contribute to increasing CRC risk and, while modifiable ones such as improving diet, and smoking cessation are within an individual’s control, non-modifiable factors such as age and a genetic propensity for CRC remain major causes of the disease. This led to many countries adopting national screening programs to promote the early detection and prevention of CRC. Many modalities can be used for screening, but several countries (including the United Kingdom (UK)) begin with a quantitative faecal immunochemical test (qFIT) and, should a positive result be found, a colonoscopy is recommended. Not only do screening colonoscopies detect CRC but also find pre-malignant polyps from which most CRC is derived. These are removed opportunistically as a mode of prevention; however the presence of polyps is associated with ongoing future risk of polyps and CRC, leading to the need for surveillance. In 2020, the British Society for Gastroenterology published updated guidelines (BSG2020 Guidelines) for the surveillance of patients who underwent a screening colonoscopy. They define a “high-risk” patient as one whose colonoscopy revealed two or more polyps where at least one was advanced, a serrated polyp larger than 1cm or with dysplasia, an adenoma larger than 1cm or with high-grade dysplasia, or five or more polyps. According to BSG2020 Guidelines, “high-risk” patients are recommended to undergo a second colonoscopy for surveillance of metachronous polyps or CRC within three years of the screening colonoscopy. However, with only 20-50% of “high-risk” patients developing metachronous polyps, coupled with the endoscopy services backlog in the UK, these risk stratification guidelines are not sufficient. This thesis aimed to identify a suitable tool to improve the current BSG2020 Guidelines for risk stratification within a bowel screening population. Initially, Fusobacterium nucleatum, was investigated with relation to the detection of metachronous polyps or CRC, through detection by a novel technique, TempO-Seq™. Numerous evidence of the involvement of F. nucleatum in CRC is available, implicating it in supporting tumorigenesis and metastasis. F. nucleatum+ patients revealed an immune-oriented whole tissue transcriptomic profile, however, spatial transcriptomics revealed a poor adaptive immune response in those patients. Similarly, there was no association between lymphocytic markers (CD3+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, and CD8+ T cells) and the detection of metachronous polyps or CRC in patients with a known F. nucleatum status, although the stimulation of patient-derived organoids with inflammatory cytokines led to an increase in cell viability. Ultimately, F. nucleatum in this cohort was not associated with the detection of metachronous polyps or CRC. However, mutational analysis of adenomas from these patients revealed mutations in multiple Wnt pathway-associated genes. At the protein level, E-Cadherin and β-Catenin were not associated with the detection of metachronous polyps or CRC. However, the high expression stemness marker and Wnt regulator SOX9 in the cytoplasm was associated with the detection of metachronous polyps or CRC. Patients with high SOX9 protein expression demonstrated a proliferative transcriptomic profile, with multiple anti-microbial pathways being positively enriched. Finally, the addition of SOX9 protein expression to current BSG2020 Guidelines significantly improved risk stratification. This research provides a basis for the use of additional stratification methods to improve the rate of prediction of metachronous polyps or CRC, using simple well-established methods like immunohistochemistry
Investigating NF-κB signalling and its regulator Bcl3 in colorectal cancer
No full textAbstract not currently available
Three chapters on corporate financial decisions
No full textCorporate decision-making is shaped by the interplay of internal managerial dynamics and external forces, such as globalization and climate risks. This study examines three critical dimensions of this complex environment, integrating behavioral and neoclassical perspectives to provide a comprehensive understanding of corporate policies.
First, it explores how CEOs influence corporate cash management, focusing on the transferability of cash management styles during CEO transitions. Using a dynamic partial adjustment model, the findings reveal that high-cash-style CEOs tend to increase excess cash levels in new firms, while low-cash-style CEOs adapt to existing policies. These insights highlight the conditional persistence of managerial traits and their impact on firm outcomes.
Second, the study investigates the role of global connectedness in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A). By leveraging the DHL Global Connectedness Index, it demonstrates that trade breadth and information flows drive international deal activity. However, the findings also caution against potential downsides, as highly connected environments may encourage lower-quality acquisitions.
Finally, it assesses the effects of climate risks, specifically extreme heat exposure, on M&A dynamics. Firms with higher heat exposure face reduced acquisition likelihood, diminished bargaining power, and long-term underperformance, underscoring the importance of integrating climate risks into corporate finance frameworks.
This research contributes to the understanding of managerial influence, globalization, and climate finance, offering practical insights for corporate leaders, investors, and policymakers navigating today’s interconnected and climate-conscious world
Performance generalization and offline excitability are tied to task structure awareness
No full textAbstract not currently available
Low resource, model-based fault tolerant system for the control of planetary exploration rovers
No full textAbstract not currently available
An exploration of joint likelihood spatio-temporal point process models in the study of animal movement and habitat selection
No full textIndustrial development and increased resource demand as a result of human population growth are drastically altering the environment, disrupting the balance of ecosystems relied upon for key services and increasing instances of human-wildlife conflict, risks of zoonotic infection, and instability of food source populations. Models of animal movement, space-use, and habitat selection provide insight which can be used to safeguard against these risks, by informing the conservation and management of wild and domesticated species.
Historically, different approaches to habitat selection modelling have been developed independently in relation to different systems and data structures. Recently, demonstrations of the equivalence of point process methods to various approaches used in the analysis of species distribution and movement data has posited spatial and spatio-temporal point processes as a unifying framework for habitat selection modelling. The history of point process literature has been largely theoretical, due to a lack of available computationally efficient methods for fitting these models to large and complex datasets. However, this has changed with the recent development of the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) method for inference and its associated software packages R-INLA and R-inlabru. Data integration has also become a topic of current research interest in species distribution and movement ecology, promoting the emergence of joint likelihood models as a key framework for ongoing development in this area. Consequently, there is a demand in the ecological literature for demonstrations of the applications of joint likelihood spatio-temporal point process models to large and complex ecological datasets. This forms the underlying motivation for this thesis, which provides an exploration of the use of these methods in modelling animal movement, space use, and habitat selection, with applications in different
areas of ecology.
The work included in this thesis is presented in the form of three case studies, which each demonstrate a different methodological framework and ecological application for joint likelihood spatio-temporal point process modelling of habitat selection data. Chapter 2 demonstrates a marked point process approach to modelling the spread of a reintroduced population of Eurasian crane (Grus grus). Chapter 3 compares between habitat selection models at different organisational scales to analyse cattle (Bos taurus) tracking data, with applications in livestock management. Chapter 4 introduces the novel implementation of a joint likelihood framework for integrating survey and telemetry data in R-inlabru and demonstrates the advantages of this approach using simulated data. Finally, the approach developed in Chapter 4 is applied to real data in Chapter 5, in which it is used to understand habitat selection in a semi-domesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) population in an area of land-use conflict.
Overall, this thesis provides an exploration of different approaches and applications for joint-likelihood spatio-temporal point process modelling of animal movement, space-use, and habitat selection. This includes novel methodological contributions, such as extensions to the unique integration scheme used in the GF-iSSA movement model; and the implementation of the first individual-level continuous-time habitat selection model in R-inlabru. Key themes of accounting for availability; the impacts of spatial, temporal, and organisational scale on inference; and the balance between model complexity, interpretability, and computational efficiency are investigated throughout. Main results provide insights into the relationship between model complexity and performance; and the relevance of the spatial scales of heterogeneity in covariate structure, and of representations of availability, on habitat selection inference
“You don’t know their story”: examining Canada’s housing and homelessness challenges and evaluating its National Housing Strategy
Full text linkThis thesis examines housing and homelessness challenges in Canada and evaluates the country’s National Housing Strategy (NHS). It does so through a qualitative lens that foregrounds the lived experiences of individuals. With a commitment to social justice, this research was designed to provide an evidence base to inform policy.
Housing has relatively recently risen to the top of the political agenda in Canada, as a result of worsening affordability challenges and increasing rates of homelessness. There is considerable evidence and consensus amongst academics that these housing challenges have increased in conjunction with the federal government’s exodus from housing policy and subsequent devolution of housing responsibility to provinces and then municipalities from the late eighties to the mid-nineties (Gaetz, 2010). Within this context, in 2017, the Liberal government launched the NHS, a 10-year suite of programmes with the top-line objectives to reduce chronic homelessness, remove families from housing need, and increase affordable housing supply.
At its launch, the NHS was framed as a transformative re-entry of the federal government into housing policy, filling a decades-long gap. Despite the Strategy’s commitments and an influx of financial resource for housing, evaluations conducted to date have cast considerable doubt on the efficacy of the NHS and its ability to achieve its objectives.
The existing NHS evaluation literature has broadly adopted a macro-level, quantitative approach. Policy failure examinations often rely on the objectives asserted within policies themselves to determine success or failure. This approach is the basis for much of the existing NHS evaluation landscape, which broadly, though not exclusively, measures the Strategy’s progress against its targets. Crucially, existing evaluations do not necessarily challenge these targets’ suitability or appropriateness to tackle the nation’s housing and homelessness concerns.
This thesis was developed to address these gaps. It provides a qualitative evaluation of the NHS that centres the voices of lived experience experts, critically examines the ideological underpinnings that have shaped the Strategy and its aims, and explores the barriers and challenges within Canada’s housing and homelessness systems from lived experience perspectives. It adopts a two-part, qualitative methodology. First, it applies the “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) framework (Bacchi, 2012) to a discourse analysis of government-issued press releases to identify the problem framing of homelessness and housing precarity as constructed by the owners of the NHS, the federal government. Second, it draws on a series of 27 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with individuals experiencing housing need and homelessness and frontline sector staff in Hamilton, Ontario, outlining their experiences to clarify the barriers and challenges being faced.
Using these findings, this thesis compares and contrasts the federal government’s problem framing against the barriers and challenges as defined by lived experience experts. This framework has been influenced by the Multiple Streams Approach (Kingdon, 2014), which asserts that creating policy change centres on one’s ability to compel and direct problem definition in order to match one’s desired policy solutions.
Drawing on the discourse analysis of federal government press releases, the research finds that Canada’s housing and homelessness challenges are framed as two distinct, parallel rather than inter-linked issues. Federal discourse constructs housing as a national, solvable crisis rooted in structural deficits, while homelessness is positioned as an individualised and ambiguous phenomenon, for which the policy solutions are not yet known. These divergent framings, and the NHS design, are underpinned by ideological commitments to discrete interventions into a market-based housing system and a limited recognition of structural drivers for homelessness, shaping policy responses that are narrowly focused and insufficient.
In contrast, in-depth interviews with individuals who have lived experiences of housing precarity and homelessness in Hamilton, Ontario, reveal worsening conditions across both the housing sector and related service systems. Drawing from systems thinking (Gibb and Marsh, 2019) and conceptualising the city as a ‘system of systems’, this thesis outlines the experiences highlighted by participants, who cited interlocking challenges across housing, healthcare, social assistance, and tenant protection that contribute to and sustain homelessness.
This approach highlights the complexity of these interlocking systems and their contribution to rates and experiences of homelessness and housing need. Based on these perspectives, this thesis introduces a two-part typology of homelessness experiences in Hamilton: one driven purely by economic hardship and the other compounded by non-financial challenges such as mental health, trauma, or systemic barriers. Crucially, the research notes that financially driven homelessness, if left unaddressed, can quickly become more complex due to the trauma and instability associated with housing loss.
These findings suggest a fundamental misalignment between federal policy narratives and NHS design and lived experience. This thesis challenges dominant narratives and problem framings within Canadian housing policy discourse, showing how such framings influence, and arguably hinder, the design and efficacy of policy interventions under the NHS. These findings suggest the need to reframe and reform Canada’s approach to housing and homelessness through integrated structural interventions, such as increased social assistance rates, expanded development of non-market, geared-to-income housing, and improved coordination between housing, healthcare, and social services.
This thesis makes three key contributions. First, it centres lived experience perspectives in evaluating the NHS, addressing a persistent gap in the Canadian policy literature. Second, it highlights the disconnect between political framing and the realities of housing insecurity and homelessness in Canada, offering evidence for more responsive, inclusive, and effective approaches to housing and homelessness. Third, it offers a conceptual framework for policy evaluation that incorporates ideological critique and interrogates how housing and homelessness are problematised, rather than simply measuring outcomes against stated goals.
This research finds that Canada’s housing and related systems create conditions in which housing precarity and homelessness will continue to be a reality for many. Ultimately, this thesis argues that meaningful policy reform will require not just increased investment, but also a fundamental rethinking of how Canada’s housing and homelessness challenges are defined and reshaping its solutions. Addressing the interconnected challenges that drive these experiences will require a coordinated ‘Team Canada’ approach that brings together multiple policy portfolios and government jurisdictions to deliver integrated system-wide change
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