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This study assesses the scope of the Crosslinguistic Influence (CLI) hypothesis’ predictions with regard to early bilingual acquisition. To this end, we analyze longitudinal corpus data from four bilinguals attesting the acquisition of subjecthood (null versus overt; preverbal versus postverbal) and the pragmatic adequacy of early null and overt subjects in a null-subject language (i.e., Spanish) in combination with a language differing in its pro-drop parameter setting (i.e., English). Our results indicate that CLI barely affects the development of subjects in the null-subject language at the initial stages, namely at the outset of null and overt subjects, and in turn support the Separate Development Hypothesis. Our bilingual cohort patterns with their Spanish-acquiring monolingual peer in that both groups display comparable proportions of null subjects as well as acquisitional trajectories of null and overt subjects at the early stages of acquisition. Much like monolinguals, bilinguals begin to produce preverbal and postverbal subjects concurrently. The bilingual children and the monolingual child of this study actually produce extremely high rates of pragmatically appropriate covert and overt subjects, which are for the most part target-like from the start, thus pointing to the absence of CLI effects. In light of monolingual and bilingual data, the paper also revisits the hotly debated issue of the ‘no overt subject’ stage of Grinstead (1998, et seq.), its existence in child Spanish being questionable.

The research question was 'What is the role of design in the process of sustainable development'. The study focused on Welsh producers making woven or knitted fabric, clothing or household textiles from wool or natural fibres. Wales was the location of the study, the Welsh government having a legal duty to pursue sustainable development. The research methodology was qualitative, following a social constructionist epistemology and a grounded approach to theory building. A case study approach was chosen. The 13 cases ranged from factory producers to individual manufacturers. Multiple methods were used to collect data while data was analysed using methods from situational analysis. Findings showed that both design and sustainable development can be conceptualised in differing ways; design as undertaken by professional designers, identified as 'big D Design' but also by producers with no design training, 'small d design'; both types of design can contribute to the sustainability of the business. Sustainable development can be seen as a model in which 'Three Pillars', economic, environmental and social are considered; however in this study a re-conceptualisation of it as a 'vision' was used. These conceptualisations show that the relationship between design and sustainable development is variable and not fixed. The producers contribute to sustainable development by their continuation in business, they have low environmental impacts and fulfil social remits. The textile producers can be classified into three groups with regard to design and sustainable development: those who are highly sustainable using 'big D Design' as a strategic tool; those who are sustainable using 'small d design'; and those who have used 'big D Design' but who have gone out of business. Thus design, both 'big D and small d', may contribute to the process of sustainable development but this contribution is also dependent on other factors beyond the producer's control.

This thesis investigates changes in the oscillatory dynamics in key areas of the pain matrix during different modalities of pain. Gamma oscillations were seen in the primary somatosensory cortex in response to somatic electrical stimulation at painful and non-painful intensities. The strength of the gamma oscillations was found to relate to the intensity of the stimulus. Gamma oscillations were not seen during distal oesophageal electrical stimulation or the cold pressor test. Gamma oscillations were not seen in all participants during somatic electrical stimulation, however clear evoked responses from SI were seen in everyone. During a train of electrical pulses to the median nerve and the digit, a decrease in the frequency of the gamma oscillations was seen across the duration of the train. During a train of electrical stimuli to the median nerve and the digit, gamma oscillations were seen at ~20-100ms following stimulus onset and at frequencies between 30-100Hz. This gamma response was found to have a strong evoked component. Following a single electrical pulse to the digit, gamma oscillations were seen at 100-250ms and between 60-95Hz and were not temporally coincident with the main components of the evoked response. These results suggest that gamma oscillations may have an important role in encoding different aspects of sensory stimuli within their characteristics such as strength and frequency. These findings help to elucidate how somatic stimuli are processed within the cortex which in turn may be used to understand abnormal cases of somatosensory processing.

In a series of experiments, we tested category-specific activation in normal parti¬cipants using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Our experiments explored the temporal processing of objects, as MEG characterises neural activity on the order of milliseconds. Our experiments explored object-processing, including assessing the time-course of ob¬ject naming, early differences in processing living compared with nonliving objects and processing objects at the basic compared with the domain level, and late differences in processing living compared with nonliving objects and processing objects at the basic compared with the domain level. In addition to studies using normal participants, we also utilised MEG to explore category-specific processing in a patient with a deficit for living objects. Our findings support the cascade model of object naming (Humphreys et al., 1988). In addition, our findings using normal participants demonstrate early, category-specific perceptual differences. These findings are corroborated by our patient study. In our assessment of the time-course of category-specific effects as well as a separate analysis designed to measure semantic differences between living and nonliving objects, we found support for the sensory/motor model of object naming (Martin, 1998), in addition to support for the cascade model of object naming. Thus, object processing in normal participants appears to be served by a distributed network in the brain, and there are both perceptual and semantic differences between living and nonliving objects. A separate study assessing the influence of the level at which you are asked to identify an object on processing in the brain found evidence supporting the convergence zone hypothesis (Damasio, 1989). Taken together, these findings indicate the utility of MEG in exploring the time-course of object processing, isolating early perceptual and later semantic effects within the brain.

This study examines the invention, innovation, introduction and use of a new drug therapy for coronary heart disease and hypertensio~; beta-blockade. The relationships between drug introductions and changes in medical perceptions of disease are analysed, and the development and effects of our perception of heart disease through drug treatments and diagnostic technology is described. The first section looks at the evolution of hypertension from its origin as a kidney disorder, Bright's disease, to the introduction and use of effective drugs for,its treatment. It is shown that this has been greatly influenced by the introduction of new medical teChnologies. A medical controversy over its nature is shown both to be strongly influenced by the use of new drugs, and to influence their subsequent use. The second section reviews the literature analysing drug innovation, and examines the innovation of the beta-blocking drugs, making extensive use of participant accounts. The way in which the develcpment of receptor theory, the theoretical basis of the innovation,was influenced by the innovation and use of drugs is discussed, then the innovation at ICI, the introduction into clinical use, and the production of similar drugs by other manufacturers are described. A study of the effects of these drugs is then undertaken, concentrating on therapeutic costs and benefits, and changes in medical perceptions of disease. The third section analyses the effects of other drugs on heart disease, looking at changes in mortality statistics and in medical opinions. The study concludes that linking work on drug innovation with that on drug effects is fruitful, that new drugs and diagnostic technology have greatly influenced medical perceptions of the nature and extent of heart disease, and that in hypertension, the improvement in drug treatment will soon result in much of the popUlation being defined as in need of it life-long

Burns can represent devastating injuries surgically, psychologically and socially. A multidisciplinary team approach to patient management is requisite to successful patient management. Burns education is currently under-represented in national undergraduate surgical curricula with a resultant graduating workforce with sub-optimal burns management knowledge. There is therefore a drive to improve burns education nationally. In order to develop burns teams to perform with skill and efficiency, it is important to develop and advance their technical and non-technical skills. Simulation has proven to be a powerful modality to augment surgical training. Recreating authentic clinical challenges is crucial in optimising simulation-based team training. The majority of such team-based simulation takes place in dedicated simulation facilities or centres which are static and can be costly. This thesis presents eight peer-reviewed publications that chronologically represent a thematic series of publications in simulation and surgical education with an ultimate focus on burns education. The theoretical framework explores simulation strategies in light of educational theory, culminating in the development of "The Burns Suite" (TBS); a novel modality to advance the delivery of interprofessional burns education. TBS represents a low-cost, high-fidelity, portable, immersive simulation environment. It facilitates the delivery of an interprofessional realistic burn resuscitation scenario based on "advanced trauma and life support" (ALTS) and "emergency management of severe burns" (EMSB) principles. Scenarios were refined utilising expert opinion through cognitive task analyses. Participants considered TBS experience authentic due to its high psychological and social fidelity. This thesis contributes to burns surgical education by providing a better understanding of educational theory underpinning successful simulation and facilitating its interprofessional delivery via TBS. This approach can facilitate the design of future simulation scenarios that provide unique educational experiences where team members can learn with and from other specialties and professions in a safe, controlled environment. Addressing economic and practical limitations of current immersive surgical simulation is important. The low-cost approach of TBS has major implications for surgical education as a whole, particularly given increasing financial austerity. This thesis proposes that alternative, complex, and challenging scenarios and/or procedures can be recreated within TBS, providing a diverse educational immersive simulation experience that can be extrapolated into other surgical specialities and interprofessional arenas.

<p>Sometimes relatives have taken me on one side and told me they cannot bear it any more:"Isn't there something you can do to end it all?"More often requests for euthanasia have come from those who are ill. I remember visiting a man with lung cancer. He asked his wife to leave the room. As she closed the door he leaned over and grabbed my arm. "I want to die", he said. "Please can you give me something." He felt a burden on his wife and wanted euthanasia for himself .</p><p>Often in their duty, physicians are faced with euthanasia requests of this kind. Death is the inevitable fate of all humans but how we die is an issue of great concern for many of us. Fear of pain, loss of control and being a burden to our loved ones are common issues surrounding dying and death of patients. This has led to varying circumstances of patients’ death, and of a significant remark, the involvement of physicians in bringing about these deaths through an act of euthanasia. Euthanasia involves the intentional killing of a patient by the direct intervention of a physician (or another party) ostensibly for the good of the patient, and the most common form that this comes is through lethal injection. The ethics of euthanasia and of a physicians’ involvement have been a contentious issue from the beginnings of medicine. This for the most part is as a result that the ethical code of physicians has long been based in part on the Hippocratic Oath, which requires physicians to “do no harm”. Thus, the focus of this work will be to look into the role of the physician in ending a patient’s life through the act of euthanasia. Although necessary but not a central point of this work to merely develop arguments for and against the justification of euthanasia and a physician’s involvement in the act, but to critically view the role played by physicians in ending the life of patients through euthanasia in contrast with their medical obligation. The issue of euthanasia raises ethical questions for physicians. Is it morally right or wrong for a physician to end the life of his or her patient? And this therefore will be the focus of this work.</p>

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