Anthropologists are increasingly called upon to assess trauma to the skeleton and contextualising the nature of this trauma. Blast injury is a type of trauma which is increasingly seen in a variety of contexts, such as terrorism, human rights violations, combat and accidents. The purpose of this study was to examine blast injury in the human skeleton and apply robust multivariate statistical methods, alongside morphological methods, to identify blast trauma based on the distribution of injury in the skeleton. The objectives of the study were to identify patterns in a sample of cases from mass graves in Bosnia and to determine differences between the blast injury cases and gunshot wound cases which can identify indicators of blast injury for future use. This was done using Pearson‘s χ2, cluster analysis and multiple correspondence analysis. Secondly, the identified indicators were applied to two methods of binary logistic regression model to test prediction of the presence or absence of blast injury in the sample, as well as assessing the results of the two methods. Lastly, the results of these analyses were subsequently compared with clinical literature to identify similarities and differences which can aid anthropologists in determining presence of blast injury in large assemblages. This also served to address the specific argument that the injuries seen in the Bosnia sample are combat related, as claimed in court proceedings in ongoing cases at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. It was found that cluster analysis was not useful for the sample examined in the research, however multiple correspondence analysis permitted graphical differentiation between the blast injury and gunshot cases, identifying variables which contributed to the variance and could be used as indicators of blast injury. Binary logistic regression was employed to test the significant contribution of these variables to a model predicting the presence of blast injury in a sample. It was found that presence of trauma to the right shoulder girdle, left forearm, vertebrae, right pelvis and left femur could indicate the presence of blast injury in an assemblage, with correct average classification in 74.86% of cases. The prevalence of trauma in the Bosnia sample was compared with examples from terrorist incidents and combat situations to identify similarities and differences between these and found that there significant differences in the prevalence of trauma in the Bosnia sample. This highlights that this sample does not resemble any combat patterns of injury, answering the question posed in ICTY court proceedings. This work contributes new knowledge to anthropology on the identification and differentiation of blast injury in assemblages as well as demonstrating the use of multivariate statistical methods for trauma analysis. These results can be applied to anthropological investigation of historical contexts as well the modern investigations which will require knowledge of blast injury currently and in the future.

Mammalian scavenging, disarticulating, scattering and removal of human remains can alter and obscure both soft tissue and skeletal remains which are essential to making interpretations and identifications during forensic investigations. The effects of scavenging vary between regions, environments, scavenger species, and crime scene scenarios due to a variety of factors. Nonetheless, there is a gap in the knowledge of scavenger species found within Northwestern Europe. The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and Eurasian badger (Meles meles) are the largest wild mammalian scavenger species inhabiting peri-urban and rural environments within Northwestern Europe. These mammalian scavengers have dentitions and bite forces capable of heavily modifying and widely transporting human remains yet there are currently no species-typical and region-specific studies of these scavengers and their impacts on forensic investigations and physical searches for human remains. Forensic scientists, investigators and police search officers have been forced to rely on anecdotal evidence and scavenging studies focused on scavengers not found in this region. Scavenging studies have previously concentrated on scavenger species found in North America and Africa, such as coyote (Canis latrans), wolf (Canis lupus), hyena (Crocuta crocuta), lion (Panthera leo) and leopard (Panthera pardus), which have differing species-typical scavenging behaviour and patterns in comparison to foxes and badgers. Likewise, knowledge of the characteristics of the effects on bone surfaces of fox and badger scavenging is lacking, more so for the latter scavenger. The overall aim of this thesis is to aid forensic investigations by filling the gaps in the knowledge and identification of red fox and Eurasian badger species-typical scavenging behaviour and patterns. Avian scavenging can also modify soft tissue and skeletal remains. The buzzard (Buteo buteo) and carrion crow (Corvus corone) are the most common avian scavengers within this region. The scavenging behaviours of these avians modified soft tissue and affected mammalian scavengers’ scavenging behavours. A survey of police search officers within the U. K. indicated that the scavenging of surface deposited human remains within this region is common and that scavenging affects the recovery rates of remains. Despite the impact of scavenging on the recovery of scavenged remains, there is a lack of knowledge and literature available to forensic scientists, investigators, and police search officers to aid in the identification of scavenger species and scavenger species-typical scavenging behaviour and patterns. Thus these forensic professionals have been relying primarily on anecdotal evidence to identify scavengers or have not made efforts to identify scavengers. Experiments, conducted in southern England, using deposited deer (Cervus nippon; Capreolus capreolus) and the observation of captive scavengers found that within a woodland environment common scavengers include wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus), grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), carrion crow, buzzard, Eurasian badger, and red fox. Scavenging activities by all scavenger species observed at remains were affected in various ways by seasonality, trophic resources, territoriality, insect activity, carcass size and condition, and decomposition. Of those scavengers, the red fox was the most frequent scavenger of surface deposited remains. The species-typical scavenging behaviour and pattern, as well as bite mark dimensions, of the red fox proved to differ to that of badgers and other canids, such as domestic dogs (Canis familiaris), coyotes and wolves. The benefits of the knowledge of scavenger species-typical scavenging behaviour and pattern to forensic investigations and physical searches were assessed by applying the results gained from the experiments within this research to current forensic investigations and search exercises performed with police search officers. The application of information on species-typical scavenging behaviour and patterns was found to improve police search officers’ search and recovery efforts of scavenged remains.

Secondary tropical forests are increasingly recognized for their role conserving biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and this role is especially important for seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF), one of the most threatened tropical forested ecosystems. The conservation value of secondary forest is increased by its capacity to maintain ecosystem properties and provide services to humans; which has been hypothesized to have positive links to the species and functional diversity of ecosystems. However very little information is available on the occurrence of this relationship in secondary forests. This dissertation makes an important contribution to the ecological knowledge of secondary SDTF and describes changes in plant species and functional diversity by using a stratified design considering different successional stages along an environmental gradient in a region of the Caribbean coast of Colombia and a multi-trait approach to study functional diversity at three scales: species, communities and landscape. The analysis of the variation in functional traits of SDTF trees at the species level allowed me to support the hypothesis of coordination between leaves and stem traits. Three dimensions of correlated variation were identified: the first related to leaf and stem economy, the second to leaf thickness and organization and the third to the trade-offs between leaf size, stem density and bark thickness. Secondary forests showed high species turnover during succession and increasing diversity from early to late forests. Species composition similarity was higher among late successional forest than early and intermediate stage forests, showing that environmental characteristics are influencing successional trajectories. Frequency distributions of species in the three successional stages showed evidence of functional trait similarity among species and underlined the importance of changes in species abundances determining functional composition during succession. A shift in abundance from individuals with traits that favour survival after disturbance to individuals with denser stems and a more conservative resource use profile was observed from early to late stages of succession. Functional composition was also strongly influenced by environmental variables, especially leaf traits, and a shift of traits from acquisitive to conservative type species was observed with increasing nutrient content and flooding, proxies of water availability. Assessment of ecosystem services was conducted using two independent approaches: semistructured interviews and field data. A high richness of useful woody plants was recorded and the provision of services was related to a high variability in functional traits among species. The provision of the ecosystem services determined by the presence and abundance of useful species showed significant differences between stages. The relationships observed between ecosystem sevices and functional and species diversity indices were not consistent. In contrast species richess showed significant negative relationships at the plot level with most of the ecosystem services assessed, showing a trade-off among the conservation of species richness and the maintenance of service provision. Overall, this research provides novel insights into the dynamic relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem function and ecosystem services in this globally important, but under-researched forest type.

Violent behaviour can be seen all over the world and across time; it is also intrinsically linked to culture. As such, the analysis of skeletal material presents excellent physical evidence of violent occurrences within communities. The current thesis looks to understand the possible presence of fracture patterns and interpersonal violence in London during the 18th and 19th centuries by analysing the fracture patterns observed on six skeletal collections from the geographical area and characterised by various social and economic contexts. The contextualisation of each burial ground proved to be imperative to the research. The statistical results revealed that grouping collections together based on their socioeconomic status does not describe nor explain the fracture patterns seen in the collections considering that some did not emulate the characterisation implemented upon them by the media or City officials at the time. It also was found that the patrilineal society and the subsequent sexual division of labour had a profound effect on the results especially when comparing the prevalence of fractures between men and women. Therefore, this thesis provides a comprehensive overview of fracture patterns and the presence of interpersonal violence in regards to the different lifestyles and socioeconomic contexts found in London during the 18th and 19th centuries and how such behaviour affected the individuals’ daily lives.

At 2009 rates of disposal, there are only 8 years of remaining landfill capacity at permitted sites in England and Wales. Industry – encouraged by financial penalties from the Government – faces the challenges of cleaner and more sustainable production whilst trying to remain competitive in the market place. This thesis presents development of several theoretical propositions: a ‘fit thinking’ design framework, the ‘All Seeing Eye of Business’ (All-SEB) and the ‘waste alchemist’ industrial role. The ALL-SEB is a model to understand the impact and potential uses of manufacturing waste. The insights provided by the All-SEB model, resulted in a general waste elimination framework developed to serve as a guiding strategy for waste elimination. The main objective of this study was to investigate a major hypothesis derived from the All-SEB: unavoidable waste could be transmuted into profitable co-products as a measure to divert waste from landfill. The ATM (analyse, transform and market) methodology was developed as a way to help companies transmute waste into ‘co-products’. A tool for idea generation (the wheel of waste) was developed to be used in the Analysis phase of the ATM methodology. Case study research was undertaken in order to test the ATM methodology and the way in which unavoidable waste could be transmuted into a profitable co-product in a real world manufacturing setting. The case study results revealed the generative mechanisms that enable waste transmutation into profitable co-products; based on these findings a refined ATM methodology for waste transmutation was proposed. The implementation of the theoretical propositions in industrial settings shed light into strategic aspects of resource efficiency: from waste prevention through ‘fit thinking’, to manufacturing process innovation all the way to a better company integration into the industrial ecosystem. Companies looking to achieve zero waste to landfill status would benefit from using the refined ATM methodology. It was found that the ATM methodology and the wheel of waste are useful to several other actors in the industrial ecosystem: waste management companies looking to transform themselves into ‘resource and energy providers’, to external consultants and to third party companies dubbed ‘waste alchemists’ that could offer waste transmutation services to manufacturers.

The following thesis used chemometric software to examine data generated from differential analysis of complex mixtures. Three different chemometric projects were investigated along with the comparison of two different chemometric software packages. 1. Liquid chromatography linked with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to analyse gelatin from different species of animals. Using Agilent Technologies MPP chemometric software to analyse the data it was possible to find peptide fragments that were specific to each species of gelatin. Identification of these peptides was very difficult due to the destructive nature of gelatin manufacture. The method developed in this thesis allowed identification of 21 unknown gelatin samples with 100% accuracy. 2. Whiskey samples that had been matured in either American or Spanish oak barrels, and sampled over 22 years were analysed by LC-MS, the data was analysed with Agilent’s MPP chemometric software and the differences between the two wood types evaluated. Out of the compounds discovered to differentiate the whiskey from the different wood types two were identified as Gallic and Ellagic acid. These two compounds could be used to determine the wood type, a particular year of whiskey, or years of maturation for a whiskey matured in a particular wood type. The data generated for Whiskey maturity was also analysed using Waters Progenesis software and a comparison of the discovered compounds drawn. This highlighted an issue with incorrect assignment of neutral masses by MPP software. The data extraction method used by Progenesis was also found to be much less labour intensive than data extraction with MPP. 3. MPP was used to compare LC-MS data generated from the blood plasma of people suffering with multiple sclerosis with an age and gender matched control group. This was an un-targeted approach which led to the discovery of two compounds, Sphingosine and Dihydrosphingosine that were found to be lower in the blood of people suffering from multiple sclerosis. These compounds were searched in a larger sample set and found to follow the same trend of being lower in the disease group. It may be possible to use the concentration of these compounds in the blood as a marker of the disease.

CD40 is a member of the TNF receptor (TNFR) superfamily and its expression by a variety of cell types including tumour cells has suggested a possible role for CD40 in epithelial homeostasis and potentially in the pathogenesis of cancer. CD40 ligation by membrane-presented CD40L (mCD40L), but not soluble agonists, causes extensive apoptosis in malignant epithelial cells, including bladder and colorectal cancer cells, while sparing their normal counterparts. However, the role of CD40 in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is relatively unknown and the effect of CD40 ligation in RCC cells has not been studied previously. This thesis aimed to investigate the effect of CD40 ligation in RCC cells, compare this to their normal counterparts (HRPT cells), and identify the mechanisms of CD40-mediated effects. The experimental work described in this thesis involved optimisation of assays for the detection of cell death (based on loss of plasma membrane integrity, DNA fragmentation and caspase activation) and for the detection of pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion. Immunoblotting techniques were adapted for a co-culture system to deliver mCD40L for detection of key intracellular CD40 signalling-associated mediators. Optimisation was also carried out for functional experiments using pharmacological inhibitors of intracellular mediators and caspases and for the detection of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Expression of CD40 by RCC cells was detected in RCC lines and in their normal counterparts HRPT cells and treatment with IFN-ɣ up-regulated CD40 expression in RCC cells. Cytotoxicity assays showed for the first time that mCD40L induced massive apoptosis in human RCC cells which further increased in the presence of IFN-ɣ, whereas it caused no cytotoxic effect in their normal counterparts (HRPT cells). By contrast, the G28-5 mAb did not cause death in RCC cells, and combination of IFN-ɣ with cross-linked G28-5 antibody did not render the G28-5 antibody significantly pro-apoptotic. Moreover, induction of cell death by mCD40L was accompanied by caspase-3/7 activation and DNA fragmentation in RCC cells, while mCD40L did not induce detectable DNA fragmentation in normal HRPT cells indicating that mCD40L triggered “apoptotic” cell death in RCC cells and in a tumour cell-specific fashion. ELISA assays showed that mCD40L induced marked secretion of IL-8 and IL-6 in RCC cells, which was stronger than that triggered by soluble agonist. More importantly, mCD40L induced GM-CSF secretion in RCC cells, but soluble agonist caused little GM-CSF release. In normal HRPT cells mCD40L caused secretion of IL-8 and IL-6 and a more pronounced secretion of GM-CSF, when it was compared to agonistic G28-5 mAb, confirming that CD40 on HRPT cells was functional despite being non-apoptotic. mCD40L triggered rapid induction of TRAFs 1, 2, 3 and 6 as early as 1.5h post CD40 ligation in RCC cells. By contrast, despite up-regulation of TRAF1 at 6h post CD40 ligation, in normal HRPT cells mCD40L down-regulated TRAF2 expression and caused no induction in TRAF3 expression. In addition, CD40-mCD40L interactions in RCC cells triggered MKK4/7 activation and downstream phosphorylation of both JNK and p38. Functional inhibition experiments demonstrated that JNK and p38 phosphorylation was essential in CD40-mediated apoptosis in RCC cells, and suggested that activation of p38 may be dependent on JNK activity. By contrast, inhibition of MEK1/2 and NF-кB did not alter CD40-mediated apoptosis in RCC cells, whilst inhibition of AP-1 caused moderate (not complete) reduction in apoptosis. This study demonstrated that induction of Bak and Bax occurred by 6h post CD40 ligation in RCC cells. Inhibition of caspase-9 significantly attenuated CD40-mediated apoptosis in RCC cells, while caspase-8 and 10 inhibition caused non-significant effects whilst no induction of death ligands was detectable, suggesting that CD40-induced apoptosis in RCC cells occurs via a direct, intrinsic apoptotic pathway. mCD40L triggered ROS production in RCC cells within 1h post CD40 ligation and ROS production were critical in the induction of death, as apoptosis was inhibited by the antioxidant NAC. Moreover, mCD40L triggered phosphorylation of the NOX subunit p40phox and the NOX inhibitor DPI attenuated apoptosis suggesting that a ROS-dependent NOX-triggered pathway may occur in RCC cells. By contrast, non-apoptotic CD40 agonist (G28-5 mAb) did not induce ROS production in RCC cells. Equally importantly, mCD40L caused rapid ASK-1 phosphorylation and down-regulated Trx-1 expression in all RCC lines. Collectively, this study has for the first time reported that mCD40L induced extensive apoptosis in RCC cells while sparing their normal cell counterparts. However, agonistic anti-CD40 antibody G28-5 did not cause cell death in RCC cells. Although additional functional experiments would be necessary to fully elucidate the functional mechanisms of apoptosis, it appears that CD40-mediated killing in RCC cells occurs via a TRAF3-p40phox-ASK-1-MKK4/7-p38/JNK pathway leading to caspase-9 and effector caspase-3/7 activation and intrinsic apoptosis. Importantly, whilst increasing ROS levels in RCC cells, mCD40L actively down-regulated Trx-1 expression. These findings have provided novel observations on the role of CD40 in regulating human RCC cell fate, and have also reinforced the importance of the quality of CD40 signal in determining functional outcome. Equally importantly, the findings have also assisted in the formulation of novel therapeutic avenues that may exploit CD40 for anticancer therapy and specifically for renal cell carcinoma.

This research project focused on a range of gel forming polysaccharides, including sodium alginate pectin and gellan gum. All of these materials have ability to form a gel responding to different stimuli, such as pH and crosslinking ions. Their capability to undergo sol-gel transition in presence of mono or divalent cations can often occur in seconds making it particularly difficult to measure the gelation in real time. Therefore, the aim of the work presented in this thesis was to design a new technique that allows commercially available rheological equipment to monitor the gelation progress of these materials. The first part of study involved the design a new method to measure the gelation of alginate and pectin in situ on exposure to an external source of calcium ions. Direct mixing of alginate or low methoxy pectin with divalent cations such as Ca2+ generally produces heterogeneous gels that form almost instantaneously. Therefore, it is particularly difficult to measure the rheological properties of this gelation event due to the rapid gelation kinetics. In this study the gelation progress was measured on exposure to three different concentrations of CaCl2 and gel dissolution time was measured by removing the crosslinking Ca2+ from freshly formed alginate and pectin gels by exposure to calcium chelators. The modification of the rheometer to facilitate these measurements used a petri dish attached to the lower plate of the rheometer, into which a piece of filter paper submerged with calcium chloride solutions (50, 100 and 200 mM) was placed. On top of the filter paper dialysis membrane (MWCO 14000) was placed as a barrier to prevent the filter paper imbibing polysaccharide samples. Samples of alginate and pectin 4% w/w were loaded on to the membrane and small deformation oscillatory measurements of elastic modulus (G′) and viscous modulus (Gʺ) were taken in the linear viscoelastic region, to monitor the gelation as a function of time. Once the gelation was complete the filter paper was removed and replaced with filter paper immersed with calcium chelating agents (500 mM of EDTA and sodium citrate (Na citrate)) to degrade the gel in situ. The results demonstrated that this technique was suitable for analysing the external gelation of alginate and pectin with a sharp increase in G′ in the first three minutes which then plateaued over the remainder of the test. It was also shown that gel stiffness reduced to a greater extent on exposure to EDTA compared with Na citrate. This method is not only suitable for measuring rapid gelation kinetics on exposure to cross-linkers, but has potential applications in modelling the in situ gelation behaviour in simulated physiological environments. The second part of the study investigated using the method developed for the alginate and pectin gelation for the in situ gelation of gellan gum under simulated physiological conditions using different types of simulated body fluids, simulated wound fluid (SWF), artificial saliva (AS), artificial lacrimal fluid (LF) and artificial gastric fluid (GF), measuring the gelation of gellan gum solutions (0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1% w/w) in response to ionic crosslinking and acidic pH. The results showed that gellan made the stiffest gels with GF, followed by LF and SWF (which were of similar stiffness to each other) and the weakest gel was formed with AS. The results indicate that this method is not only of use to measure rapid gelation kinetics on external exposure to cross-linkers but could find application in designing bioresponsive delivery systems in the food, pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. The final section of this thesis focused on the design and proof of concept of a new device that was 3D printed using Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene polymers (ABS), termed a rheo-dissolution cell. This was investigated to overcome the limitations of the petri dish method used in the initial studies. The cell was designed to contain a reservoir capable of holding crosslinking solutions and dissolution media allow with sampling ports to be able evaluate rheology measurements of in situ gel forming systems while simultaneously measuring release of molecules loaded into the gel. On the top of the reservoir a retractable stainless steel mesh was used as the lower plate of the rheometer which allowed the polysaccharide samples to be in contact with the fluid in the reservoir during the gelation and gel dissolution. Proof of concept was determined using 1% w/w alginate solution loaded with 50 mg of methylene blue. Rheological measurements were performed with CaCl2 in the rheo-dissolution reservoir to initiate gelation. Once the gels were formed gel dissolution was initiated by replacing the CaCl2 with calcium chelating agents EDTA and Na citrate. During both of these processes samples from the reservoir were removed and analysed for methylene blue release. The results showed the device was capable of allowing the formation strong gels on exposure to CaCl2 and gel dissolution when the formed gels were exposed to the calcium chelators. It was also found that mesh opening size was an important factor in the final gel strength and subsequent gel dissolution time. The strongest gels were formed when the mesh had a large opening area and the chelating of calcium was faster with EDTA than Na citrate. Methylene blue was detected in the reservoir during both gelation and gel dissolution with gel strength appearing to be an important factor on the quantity released gels increased. This study indicated that the rheo-dissolution cell has the potential to be used as a model system for measuring rheological changes and release rate of loaded drugs in gel forming formulations simultaneously by a simple modification of a commercially available rheometer.

New drug entities (NDE) are constantly being developed with most of them intended for oral administration. For this reason, there is a need to estimate their absorption in order to save time and money that would be lost if the drug enters the clinical stage and is then found to exhibit poor absorption. For many years, the use of animals was the most abundant method for studying pharmacokinetics to predict parameters such as intestinal absorption. However, these methods are time consuming, and expensive as well as being ethically unfavourable. As a result, developing other methods to evaluate a drug’s pharmacokinetics is crucial. The aim of this work was to develop in vitro methods for estimation of human intestinal absorption (%HIA) to replace the use of the aforementioned, less favourable methods involving the use of animals. Among the developed methods in this thesis is a unique type of chromatography known as micellar liquid chromatography (MLC) using biosurfactants such as bile salts as a mobile phase. Furthermore, studies investigated the effect of a change in the stationary phase in addition to investigating the effect of the change in temperature on the elution of the analysed compounds. It was found that R2PRED for the developed MLC methods was in the range of 43.3 % - 91.12 %. Another developed method was a spectrophotometric method based on the use of the solubilising effects of bile salts, as well as their binding to compounds. Therefore, two spectrophotometric methods were developed, a solubilisation method and a double reciprocal method, and used in the prediction of %HIA. It was found that the solubilisation method had a better predictability for %HIA than that of the double reciprocal method where R2PRED was found to be 82.32 % and 61.90 % respectively. Finally, a permeation method was developed using the ability of NaDC to form a hydrogel under specific conditions and applying the investigated drugs in an infinite dose to the prepared hydrogels. This facilitated the determination of permeability coefficients (Kp) that were then used in the prediction of %HIA using the obtained model. The two developed permeation methods were found to have close values of R2PRED for % HIA where R2PRED of the permeation method using flow through cells was found to be 79.8 % while that of the permeation method using Franz cells was found to be 79.67 %. In summary, this work reports several unique models for the in vitro prediction of human intestinal absorption, potentially removing the need for animal testing to predict %HIA.

Bioethanol can be considered as one of the best replacements for petrol because of its positive impact on environment and many other advantages. Currently, bioethanol accounts for around 2% of the global road fuels and this is projected to increase to around 10% within the next few decades. Bioethanol is a very high water consuming product, with an average global water footprint of 2855 L H2O/L ethanol. A growing worldwide demand for bioethanol has raised concerns over the use of freshwater resources. This PhD project aimed to establish a marine fermentation strategy for bioethanol production where seawater replaced freshwater for the preparation of fermentation media in conjunction with use of marine yeast as a biological catalyst, and potentially utilising a marine biomass (i.e. seaweed) as a carbon source substrate. Yeasts that are present in marine environments have evolved to survive hostile environments. Therefore, yeast isolated from marine environments could have potentially interesting characteristics for industrial applications. Current methods for marine yeast isolation suffer several limitations as they usually encourage the growth of filamentous fungi and produce low number of yeast isolates. A new method was developed in this study, which included: a 3-cycle enrichment step followed by an isolation step and a confirmation step. By applying this method on 14 marine samples (collected in the UK, Egypt and the USA), a large number of marine yeast isolates was obtained without any bacterial or filamentous fungal contamination. Amongst these isolates, 116 marine yeast isolates were evaluated for their capacity for utilising monomeric fermentable sugars (glucose, xylose, mannitol and galactose) using a seawaterbased media, this assessment of sugar utilisation was performed in a phenotypic microarray assay. Following determination of sugar utilisation, 21 isolates that representing the best sugar utilisers were further characterised using YT-plates (BioLog) and identified by DNA sequencing using ITS and D1/D2 primers. The identified isolates belonged to 8 species: Saccharomyces cerevisiae (5 strains), Candida tropicalis (4 strains), Candida viswanathii (4 strains), Wickerhamomyces anomalus (3 strains), Candida glabrata (2 strain), Pichia kudriavzevii (1 strain), Issatchenkia orientalis (1 strain) and Candida albicans (1 strain). Out of the 21 identified yeasts, 9 strains representing different species were screened for ethanol production using YPD media containing 6% (w/v) glucose and prepared by freshwater (ROW) and seawater (SW). Results revealed that 3 marine S. cerevisiae strains (S65, S71, and S118) had the best fermentation rates when using SW media. These yeasts were therefore taken forwarded for investigation into their growth performance under high concentrations of glucose and seawater salts (the components of synthetic seawater). Results determined that these marine strains were significantly more tolerant when compared with a reference terrestrial S. cerevisiae strain. Fermentation experiments using YPD media containing 6% glucose were prepared using synthetic seawater (SSW), 2x SSW and different sodium chloride (NaCl) concentrations (3, 6 and 9%) and results confirmed that the marine strain S65 was a highly halotolerant and osmotolerant yeast with high fermentative capacity. In a batch fermentation using 15 L bioreactors, strain S65 produced 73 g/L ethanol from 165 g/L of glucose within 20 h of fermentation, with ethanol productivity of approximately 4 g/L/h. In a batch fermentation, using sugarcane molasses (about 14% sugar) prepared in SW, strain S65 produced 52.23 g/L of ethanol after 48 h. According to literature, determination of sugars in samples which contain chloride salts was inaccurate when applying an existing HPLC method because chloride ions and sugars (especially glucose and sucrose) elute at a similar retention time. In this study seawater - which contains high concentration of NaCl (about 2.8%) - was used for preparing the fermentation media and therefore, developing a new method for sugar determination was necessary. Subsequently, an accurate and reliable HPLC method for the simultaneous quantification of chloride salts, sugars, organic acids and alcohols was developed. The method was validated for the accurate quantification of NaCl and successfully applied on fermentation samples as well as variety of food samples from retail market. The results obtained in this study highlighted the potential for using marine yeasts and the suitability of seawater-based media for the production of bioethanol. They also provide a new strategy for increasing the efficiency of bioethanol production at the industrial level with positive impact on food and freshwater scarcity issues.