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The Scottish vitrified forts form a unique assemblage of archaeological monuments exhibiting the common feature of partly melted masonry generally found in the vicinity of a ruined wall. Although they have received considerable attention from scholars since their discovery in the late eighteenth century many questions relating to origins, purpose and chronology remain unanswered. This work represents the first coherent attempt to develop and apply direct dating to vitrified rocks _ using thermoluminescence (TL) techniques to establish the time elapsed since the last heating of the sample. The technique is based on equating the thermoluminescence acquired by minerals within vitrified rocks, during the period following vitrification, to the levels of natural ionising radiation within and around the samples. Study sites were selected on the basis of a mineralogical, analytical and dosimetric survey of material from museum collections, and sampled from secure contexts using a portable diamond coring tool. Radiation dose rates to the samples were determined using a combination of thermoluminescence and low level counting methods coupled to standard microdosimetric models for specific mineral phases. A promising new method of rapid beta dose rate measurement was developed during this work. Thermoluminescence measurements of separated mineral extracts were performed using computerised eqUipment to determine the total radiation dose experienced since firing. Particular attention was paid to the form of the radiation dose dependence of samples from different Sites, and to the stability and reproducibility of TL signals. Coherent thermoluminescence ages were obtained from the sites of Finavon,Craig Phadrig, Dun Lagaidh, Langwell, Knockfarrel and Tap 0 Noth, using feldspar fractions extracted from the samples, and indicate a long time span for the monuments stretching from the 2nd millenium Be to the first millenium AD. This evidence considerably extends the timespan attributable to the monuments and paves the way for further work to establish the relationship between the morphology and chronology of a wider range of sites.

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There is ample evidence to suggest that, in the context of dating relationships, female-perpetrated intimate abuse is as common as male-perpetrated intimate abuse (e.g., Archer, 2000). Despite awareness of this fact, female-perpetrated intimate abuse remains an understudied area. The current study adds to the available literature on female-perpetrated intimate abuse by examining Dutton’s (2007) theory of the Abusive Personality in a sample of 914 women who had been involved in dating relationships. This is the first study to examine all elements of the Abusive Personality in women simultaneously. Consistent with the Abusive Personality, recalled parental rejection, borderline personality organization (BPO), anger, and trauma symptoms all demonstrated moderate to strong relationships with women’s self-reported intimate psychological abuse perpetration. Fearful attachment style demonstrated a weak to moderate relationship with psychological abuse perpetration. With the exception of fearful attachment, all elements of the Abusive Personality demonstrated a relationship with women’s self-reported intimate violence perpetration. However, these relationships were comparatively weak. A potential model for explaining the interrelationships between the elements of the Abusive Personality was tested using structural equation modeling. This is the first study with either sex to examine all elements of the Abusive Personality simultaneously using structural equation modeling. Consistent with the proposed model, recalled parental rejection demonstrated a relationship with BPO, trauma symptoms, and fearful attachment. Also consistent with the model, trauma symptoms demonstrated a relationship with anger, and BPO demonstrated strong relationships with trauma symptoms, fearful attachment, and anger. Additionally, anger itself had a strong relationship with women’s self-reported perpetration of intimate psychological and physical abuse. Contrary to the proposed model, fearful attachment had a non-significant relationship with anger – when this relationship was examined using structural equation modeling. Based on findings from the current study, fearful attachment has a weaker relationship with college women’s perpetration of intimate abuse than it does with clinical samples’ perpetration of intimate abuse. Following a discussion of the results, limitations of the study are discussed in conjunction with possible future directions for this line of research.

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In 2004 the Ontario Ministry of Education created the Safe Schools Action Team (SSAT) to advise on the development of a comprehensive approach to bullying prevention. When four years later in 2008 the SSAT re-engaged in order to review the issues of gender-based violence, homophobia, sexual harassment, and inappropriate sexual behaviour, recommendations were made for addressing these issues (Ministry of Education, 2008). One of the most significant dimensions of the SSAT report was their statement that the most effective method to learn about healthy relationships is through school curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2008). Taking the SSAT recommendation that the most effective method for educating adolescents on healthy relationships is through curriculum, the current study seeks to describe, from the teacher’s perspective, experiences with and motivations for using curriculum advocating healthy relationships, specifically dating violence prevention programming. The purpose of this thesis is to examine four female Ontario Physical and Health Education teachers’ personal and professional experience with teen dating violence and their knowledge about and use of dating violence prevention curriculum that has been approved by the Ontario Ministry of Education. The participants related their experiences with dating violence within their school communities and discussed how they approached these issues within their own classroom. The results of this study indicate that dating violence continues to be a prevalent issue for Ontario secondary schools, and there is a need for continued research into how to teach dating violence prevention in meaningful ways. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2012-04-25 10:00:15.681

The potential for valid dating using feldspar minerals has recently been increasingly questioned with the recognition of a range of effects capable of giving rise to age shortfalls. The intention here was to investigate the more serious of these, and to simultaneously extend the surprisingly meagre body of knowledge on the luminescence of the feldspar minerals. A suite of feldspars representative of all major mineral species of the feldspar ternary system was assembled and mineralogically classified by XRD and SEM techniques. Characterization of some luminescence properties relevant to dating (radiation dose-sensitivities, emission spectra, thermal sensitization and bleaching by IR and green light) was conducted to enable comparison of these properties with the anomalous fading behaviour in each feldspar (IRSL and OSL intensities being subsequently measured as a function of storage duration at 10°C and 100°C). Examples of feldspars representative of each major compositional regime of the ternary system were found to fade, and similarly some were stable; no luminescence characteristics or storage duration at these temperatures permitted reliable separation of stable signals. A new method for analysis of localised transition-type anomalous fading was successfully tested on zircon; however the fading mechanism operant in feldspars was found to be tunnelling-type fading. Such fading cannot be circumvented by any feasible laboratory procedure and it was concluded that monitoring of samples for the presence of fading is essential: discovery of fading is a rejection criteria. The long-term trapping stability of the IRSL source traps was investigated by "conventional" kinetic means, and also by a combined optical and thermal approach in which the bleaching response curves of five selected feldspars were measured along with their low temperature (= 100-400 K) response. It was concluded that the IRSL signal originates from one trap type only in all feldspars, which possesses a constant ground state-to-excited state transition energy of 1.44 ± 0.01 eV. However, the excited state-to-conduction band energy varies depending on the major element composition of the feldspar. Lifetimes of microcline TL from glow curve temperatures > 300°C greatly exceed the minimum required for dating and this work and complementary experiments showed no physical basis for the existence of an age limit for coarse grain feldspars, other than dose saturation. Supplementary work supported the existence of an upper age limit of = 100 ka for fine grain materials.

The dendrochronological potential of wood from two crannogs was evaluated. Consisting predominantly of non-oak species with fewer than 50 year-rings, the assemblages required the development of new techniques and approaches. The problem of validating cross-matches between short ring sequences was resolved by a new methodology based on internal consistency. A group of internally consistent sequences contains no conflicting chronological relationships in the full set of its pairwise correlations. The SORT.STRING program, designed to identify sets of internally consistent groups in large data-sets, was tested on two 'known' data-sets. It successfully identified the correct chronological relationships in these data-sets. Applied to the assemblages from the crannogs, it identified small, mutually exclusive groups of sequences which could not be satisfactorily merged to form a site chronology. Reasons for this are explored and indications for future work identified. The dendrochronological potential of alder (Alnus glutinosa)was examined and a suitable methodology developed. Cross-correlation and chronology formation are possible but extreme ring-width values, i.e signature years, and compression of the outermost rings re identified as problematic features. Evidence for woodland management practices in the crannog assemblages was evaluated. A model for woodland management was formulated, on the basis of two samples of modern coppiced material. This distinguishes between adventitious and formal coppice. Application of the model to hurdles found on the Irish crannog indicates that they are the products of adventituous coppice.

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