The thesis concerns an examination of victim engagement with the police investigation of domestic abuse. Notwithstanding the huge efforts being made in tackling the problem by police forces across the UK, national inspections still find that the services provided to victims are “not good enough” (HMIC, 2014, p.6). Subsequently, the thesis argues that in order to build an approach around empowering victims of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), there first needs to be further research into victim engagement with the police investigation (Birdsall et al., 2016; Hoyle & Sanders, 2000). Using the rationale, the research examined 540 cases of IPV to determine which factors were significantly associated with victim engagement. It controlled for suspect charging, cross validated the results with qualitative case file information and brought together the findings through an analysis of their co-occurrence. The process resulted in distinct themes and an overall model of victim engagement. The thesis concludes that the current risk assessment used routinely by the police to identify victim vulnerability does not take into account victim engagement. The thesis therefore proposes that the factors, themes and model of victim engagement developed throughout the thesis, as well as other means of assessing victim engagement, would need to precede the DASH risk assessment to provide a more effective evaluation of victim vulnerability. Doing so would allow the police to critically communicate and provide suitable support that is applicable to all victims of IPV. Crucially, the early indication of victim withdrawal would allow the police to identify some of the most vulnerable victims of abuse who would otherwise disengage from professional support and place themselves at greater risk of harm, injury and abuse.

To inform an emerging cartographic criminology, this thesis considers cartographic and geographic literatures that are not often present in criminological research. It offers both an historical overview of the way crime has traditionally been mapped within criminological discourse; and a critical review of contemporary crime mapping as an empirical criminological practice. It argues that contemporary "geographies of crime" are too often constructed in very abstract and dehumanising ways. As a result, they obfuscate and thus hamper our true understanding of the spatial dimension of crime. Cartographic criminology reconciles the relevant literatures in several vast disciplines (cartography, geography, criminology, and sociology) to address the growing use of crime and crime control maps. Focus is placed on dozens of different types of maps as case studies in this thesis to assist in developing a critical understanding of the many roles maps play, along with their consequences. By exploring these literatures and emphasising imagination in the mapping of deviance, crime, and control, cartographic criminology (re)imagines ways maps inform and shape our criminological knowledge. Cartographic criminology undertakes conventional criminology’s failure to critique its employment of crime maps and the consequences of their publications. This thesis values the multitudes and significance of maps and assembles interdisciplinary knowledge to strengthen its mission. This thesis establishes a fundamental appreciation of cartography by offering a brief review of cartography and identifying the insights that this field offers as a framework for situating crime maps. Additionally, it offers an overview of criminology’s engagement with maps and demonstrates the discipline’s failure to engage with the maps that are so often used. Various branches of geography (social, political, and cultural) inform the remaining chapters which focus on maps depicting a variety of criminal and deviant activity, the acquisition of the maps, and the general consequences of their use.

Forged documents are comnonly encountered in the investigation of crime. Forensic document examiners need to be able to employ techniques that are non-destructive, reliable and admissible in court. In this work, techniques currently in use for ink analysis, including FLE, TLC, UV - Vis, IR-ATR and Raman spectroscopy, have been reviewed and, where possible optimised in order to evaluate the level of discrimination possible between different ballpoint and gel pen inks. To date, information comparing such a wide range of techniques to relatively large sample sets has not been published. Particularly, lacking is analysis of ballpoint pen inks from the UK, ballpoint pen ink colours other than black and blue and any analysis of gel pen inks. The results vary widely depending on the combination of ink colour and type, paper and the technique being used. FLE achieved the best discrimination for blue gel pen inks giving a DP of 0.92. TLC is most effective for black and red ballpoint pen inks, giving a DP of 0.89 for both. The highest DP for UV - Vis, 0.86, is achieved for black gel pen inks and for IR-ATR it is red gel pen inks that are most effectively discriminated between, with DPs of 0.88 and 0.87. The Raman spectroscopy analysis used a greater number of combinations of papers, and experimental parameters, i.e. different excitation wavelengths and 'standard' Raman spectroscopy or SERRS with silver or gold colloid, therefore, it is not possible to select a single type and colour of ink to which the technique is best suited. The pairs of inks discriminated by the five techniques are not mutually exclusive. In real casework it is unlikely that all the instrumentation would be available and there will be financial constraints on how many techniques can be carried out. Therefore, using the data obtained here, protocols have been suggested in order to predict the technique or combination of techniques that is most likely to achieve discrimination of two different inks for each pen ink type and colour. Raman spectroscopy or SERRS are required for 23 out of the 28 recommended protocols suggesting that they would be valuable tools for document examination laboratories. However, for Raman spectroscopy, although it is a non-destructive method of analysis, when the SER.RS enhancement technique is used, which is effectively non-destructive, some problems with reproducibility were found. Causes of the irreproducibility have been put forward, such as inhomogeneity of the ink and the paper substrate and ink and paper interactions, but no single cause has been identified. Despite this, if care is taken with analysis and interpretation, SERRS results can be useful.

Heat shock protein 70 (HSPA/HSP70) gene expression is induced by a wide range of cellular stress conditions. This study investigated HSPA/HSP70 expression in human cell lines exposed to hypoxic conditions, in cancerous and non-cancerous brain tissue specimens from 18 patients (gliomas and normal conditions), and in post mortem rat brain samples exposed to heat shock. Three human glioma cell lines were chosen for this study, each representing various types of glioma: (astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma and glioblastoma), with a normal human astrocyte cell line used as a control. In addition, 18 clinical brain tissue samples were also examined. HSPA RNA transcripts and proteins were examined in these samples using qRT-PCR, immunofluorescence and flow cytometry techniques. The average HSPA mRNA copy numbers detected in glioblastoma tissue were 1.8 and 8.8 fold higher respectively than in lower grade glioma and control tissues, which is suggestive of a grade related transcription profile. Similar patterns of grade related expression were also observed in corresponding cell lines. The percentage of cells showing positive for HSPA protein in normal cell lines increased from 0 to 33% immediately after exposure to hypoxia, and gradually declined to 11% 24 h after treatment. However, the effects of hypoxia were marginal in glioma cells, due to the already elevated levels of HSPA. Although hypoxia induced HSPA expression in normal cells, it did not achieve the same level of induction in cancer cells, suggesting that there are other factors which contribute to the induction of HSPA. These results suggest that HSPA is induced in cancer cells, not only by hypoxia, but also by other factors. In addition, this study indicated for the first time that HSPA expression in glioma cells may possibly be grade related, and thus may have value as a prognostic marker. However a greater sample size is needed to validate such findings. This study showed that HSPA is expressed at low levels in normal brain tissue, but was more highly expressed in brain tissue subjected to mild heat shock. The levels of HSPA transcripts in heat shocked post mortem brain tissue showed a marked increase in HSPA expression. GAPDH was used as a control gene for these studies, and exhibited a consistent level of expression in normal and tumourous cell lines and tissue samples under normal and hypoxic conditions, and also in post mortem tissues exposed to heat shock. For Homo sapiens GAPDH, the average transcript numbers for normal and tumourous cell lines and brain tissue samples were approximately 145,000 copies per sample. For Rattus norvegicus GAPDH, levels were higher than for human samples, at an average of 268,300 copies per sample. The consistency of these results confirms that GAPDH was a suitable candidate gene for the purpose of this study. Early in the post-mortem period, HSPA is expressed more highly in tissues subjected to single and multiple heat shocks compared to controls. However, later post-mortem intervals of between 3 - 24 h demonstrated inconsistent and irregular results, with no predictive or reproducible patterns. Therefore, although there is demonstrable de novo expression of HSPA in post mortem brain tissue in response to heat shock, it is difficult to predict the full parameters of this induction, probably as a result of other forms of cellular stress affecting these tissues under our experimental methodology. These initial studies indicate that the use of HSPA with the methodologies employed here are not suitable as an accurate indicator of post-mortem interval.

Determining the veracity of a rape allegation in the absence of incontrovertible evidence is highly problematic and complicated by vagaries of surrounding issues. The purpose of the present study was to utilise a unique, multi-faceted approach with a representative US complete dataset (n=351) to identify the most prominent, distinguishing characteristics between genuine and false allegations. There are reasons to suggest that false allegations will be distinguishable from genuine rapes. The reasons include psychological dynamics such as a false allegers’ (not a survivor of rape) reliance on rape myths for their fictitious account. In contrast, genuine reports of rape tend to encompass more specific behavioural details. 17% of the present population were objectively determined to be fabricated. Published results have indicated genuine rapes having a higher quantity and quality of reported actions. Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) was used to identify and categorise co-occurring behaviours, finding thematic consistency in genuine rapes. In contrast, false allegations revealed an erratic structure indicative of the fabricated stories’ reliance on rape myths. Thematic structures are consistent with published findings which lends support to the grouping procedure utilised for this thesis. Additionally, a mean number of 6.6 behaviours in false allegations compared to the 9.3 behaviours controlled by the offender in genuine cases were observed. Partial Order Scalogram Analysis with base coordinates (POSAC) allows for using a combination of the most reliably distinguishing characteristics across cases. A developed model provided a unique method of exploring the qualitative and quantitative variations across cases. The eight most distinguishing behaviours were used to calculate a Behavioural Profile Score (BPS) for each incident and supported published results. As another potential means of assessing plausibility, analysis showed that genuine reports of rape contained greater detail as measured by the number of specific behaviours described. Although this thesis has various limitations, the results of three very distinctly different procedures all indicate distinguishable characteristics between genuine and false allegations. Additionally, it demonstrates the significance of myths in shaping actions and provides indications to why so many cases are indeterminate.

Police crime information systems contain modus operandi (MO) fields which provide brief text descriptions of the circumstances surrounding crime events and the actions taken by offenders to commit them. This Thesis aims to assess the feasibility of undertaking systematic analysis of these descriptions for high volume crimes. In particular, it seeks to ask the following three questions: 1) Are police recorded MO data a potential source of actionable intelligence to inform crime prevention? 2) Can techniques drawn from computer-aided text analysis be used to identify meaningful patterns in MO data for high volume crimes? 3) Do conceptual frameworks add value to the analysis and interpretation of patterns in MOs? The study focuses on a sample of theft from the person and robbery of personal property offences (n~30,000). Although existing studies have utilised similar data, they have tended to focus on crime detection and have been beset with problems of data quality. To explore these aims, it was first necessary to conduct a thorough review of MO fields to identify the challenges they present for analysis. Problems identified include various types of error but a more prominent challenge is the inherent flexibility found within natural language, i.e. human language as opposed to languages that are artificially constructed. Based on the data review, it was possible to select, and develop, appropriate techniques of computer-aided content analysis to process the data ready for further statistical investigation. In particular, a cluster analysis successfully identified and classified groups of offences based on similarities in their MO fields. The findings from the analysis were interpreted using two conceptual frameworks, the conjunction of criminal opportunity and crime scripts, both of which are informed by situational crime theories. The thesis identified that the benefits of these frameworks were twofold. As methods of analysis the frameworks ensure that the interpretation of results is systematic. As theoretical frameworks they provide an explicit link between patterns in the data, findings from previous literature, theories of crime causation and methods of prevention. Importantly, using the two frameworks together helps to build an improved understanding of offender's ability both to cope with and to exploit crime situations. The thesis successfully demonstrates that MO fields contain a potential source of intelligence relevant to both practical crime prevention and research, and that it is possible to extract this information using innovative computer-aided textual analysis techniques. The research undertaken served as a pathfinding exercise developing what amounts to a replicable technique applicable to datasets from other localities and other crime types. However, the analysis process is neither fully objective nor automated. The thesis concluded that criminological frameworks are a pre-requisite to the interpretation of this intelligence although the research questioned the strict categories and hierarchies imposed by the frameworks which do not entirely reflect the flexibilities of real-life crime commission.

Polymer decomposition is the key to understanding fire behaviour. It is a complex process involving heat transfer, breakdown of the polymer chain, volatile fuel formation and gasification occurring as a moving interface through the polymer bulk. Two techniques, chemical analysis using STA-FTIR, and pyrolysis modelling have been combined as a tool to better understand these processes. This work covers the experimental investigation of polymer decomposition using the STA-FTIR technique. Several polymers including polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polypropylene (PP) and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) alone, and as potential fire retardant composites have been studied in different conditions to optimise the methodology and analysis of results. Polyacrylonitrile was used to optimise the experimental technique. Polypropylene, containing nanoclay and ammonium phosphate, was decomposed and the composition of the decomposition products analysed in order to investigate the fire retardant effects of the additives on the thermal decomposition. Ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer containing nanoclay and/or either aluminium hydroxide or magnesium hydroxide was decomposed, with vapour phase FTIR analysis showing a change in the initial decomposition pathway with a shift from acetic acid evolution, to acetone production. In parallel, this experimental data has been used to perform early attempts towards validation of numerical models developed by the use of a 1-dimensional pyrolysis computational tool called ThermaKin. As ThermaKin is relatively new and still not widely used for fire modelling, a detailed description of its capabilities has been provided. A detailed study of heat transfer of cardboard, leading to thermal decomposition, accompanied by pyrolysis and char formation has been described. Several microscale kinetics models have been proposed with different levels of complexity. Not only do the numerical approximations reflect the experimental results of single compounds, describing the material’s behaviour (expressed in terms of mass loss) when exposed to external heat, but also predictive models of fire retardant mixtures have been developed for different atmospheres and heating rates. In addition, the powerful combination of pyrolysis modelling and chemical analysis by STA-FTIR has provided new insights into the decomposition and burning behaviour of both PP protected with nanoclay and ammonium phosphate, but also the industrially important cable sheathing materials based on EVA. The novelty of this work stems from the first use of the pyrolysis models to study fire retardant behaviour; the first reported combination of STA-FTIR with ThermaKin pyrolysis model, and a deep understanding of the pre-ignition behaviour of cardboard.

The ability to adapt to changing environments is essential for survival. Bacteria have developed sophisticated means by which they sense and respond to stresses imposed by changes in the environment. Escherichia coli (E. coli) have served as a model organism for studies in molecular genetics and physiology since the 1960s. I have undertaken this study and address three outstanding questions. Firstly, the involvement of morphogene bolA and RNA polymerase sigma factor (rpoS) in biofilm formation. Secondly, the effect on respiratory activity of E. coli in presence and absence of these two genes and thirdly, the adherence pattern and formation of biofilm by E. coli on stainless steel, polypropylene and silicon surfaces under various stress-induced conditions. Bacterial biofilms are structural assemblages of microbial cells that encase themselves in a protective self produced matrix and irreversibly attach to surface. Their intense resistance to antibiotic and various environmental stresses has implicated them as playing a possible role in the pathogenesis of many chronic diseases. Although, the role of rpoS and bolA genes in long term stationary phase growth conditions and their response to it is now well-known, their objective presence and importance in short term response to different environmental cues which may lead to biofilm formation remains unknown. The rpoS gene encodes a stationary phase specific sigma factor of RNA polymerase and is a key regulator of E. coli stationary phase responses. It has been experiential under laboratory conditions that gene expression is induced by stressful environmental conditions and certain metabolic intermediates. Various stress environments were employed both in planktonic and biofilm phases to examine the sudden response of rpoS against different environmental conditions. However, it was observed that sudden rpoS response varies from stress to stress conditions. The gene bolA has been shown to trigger the formation of round cells when over expressed in stationary phase. From this research, it is concluded that bolA is not only confined to stationary phase, it also involves in biofilm formation under stress environments and essential for normal cell morphology. It also plays a major role in respiration and attachment of E. coli under diverse environmental stress surroundings. The main objective of this study was to understand the impact of heat, cold, acid and hydrogen peroxide on E. coli K-12 MG1655 and its stress response in presence and absence of rpoS and bolA genes. E. coli cells were exposed to sub-lethal levels of each stress for 15 minutes in both planktonic and biofilm phases and post-stress response i.e. gene expression level was evaluated. A real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay, using the Applied Biosystems 7500™ real-time cycler, was developed for the purpose of this investigation of rpoS and bolA genes transcription. The assay was used specifically to quantify rpoS and bolA mRNA levels; however the method can readily be applied to the study of other E. coli genes. The method was uniquely applied to the investigation of these two genes throughout the growth cycle of E. coli in planktonic and biofilm phase in LB broth, in order to ascertain the patterns of expression for these genes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for direct examining the cell attachment and biofilm formation on various surfaces under different stress conditions. In summary, this thesis embodies research investigating the role of rpoS and bolA genes in E. coli K-12 MG1655 biofilm formation and provides further evidence, that bacterial biofilms play a major role in resistance to various environmental cues.

Undifferentiated cancer stem cells (CSCs) with their unique potential of self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation fuel tumour growth and relapse. Efficacy of glioma therapy can be considerably improved if the target is focused towards successful identification and elimination of CSCs. The aim of this research lies in defining specific and selective marker(s) to isolate glioma stem cells, to explore the differentiation state of brain tumour cells and to determine the protein profile changes that assist tumour cells to sustain stem cell-like characteristics. The three stem cell-related protein (CD133, Oct4-A and BMP3) expressions were investigated in control, hypoxic and serum-deprived U87-MG cells in order to shed light on the influence the micro-environment has in generating stem cells. Hypoxia offered a rapid state of undifferentiation as compared to serum deprivation by expressing a basal level of CD133 protein, a designated stem cell marker. Subsequent measurements of chemosensitivity and cell cycle analysis under undifferentiation conditions added to the cytotoxic potential of Taxol and showed an enhanced sensitivity of serum-deprived cells towards chemotherapeutic drugs. Moreover, proteomic analysis produced a wide dataset, depicting the changes that occur at the proteomic level in the differentiated and undifferentiated U87-MG cells. With ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA), human protein research database (HPRD) and the literature review, several proteins were proposed to be tested as potential biomarkers. They included Uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG), Phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1), Heterogeneous nuclear riboprotein K (HNRNPK) and moesin that can be used as differentiated markers for glioma cells. Vimentin, Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4e (EIF4e), Casein kinase II alpha 1 (CSNK2A1) should be further investigated to study their precise role in gliomagenesis. Laminin binding protein associated with Integrin α6β1 and BMP2 should also be explored as a potential biomarker for isolation of glioma stem cells. This novel study envelops diverse aspects related to CSCs such as biomarkers, stem cell niche, chemoresistance, cell cycle and proteomics and also suggests the existence of two sub-types of CSCs within glioma population. It can be concluded that the finding thus obtained may be a step in the right direction in helping treat brain tumours.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major health problem currently affecting over 225 million people worldwide. It is often described as a major metabolic disorder, which can result in numerous long-term complications including retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy and cardiomyopathy. DM is due to a deficiency of insulin or insulin resistance. Of the 225 million diabetic patients, around 5-10% suffer from type 1 DM (T1DM) and the remaining 90-95% suffer from type 2 diabetes (T2DM). T1DM is due to insulin deficiency whereas T2DM is due to either a reduction in insulin secretion or insulin resistance. Patients with both T1DM and T2DM normally require insulin and hypoglycaemic drugs, respectively. Changes in life style habits, regular exercise and healthy diets can also help to control blood glucose in T2DM patients. Mediators that can help to increase the health of pancreatic islets to synthesize and secrete insulin will be of tremendous benefit to diabetic patients. This study investigated the beneficial effects of incretins, substances such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and its synthetic agonist, exenatide on the diabetic rat pancreas compared to healthy, agematched controls. These incretins exert their beneficial effects by repairing the pancreatic islets. Thus, increasing pancreatic beta (β) cell mass and in turn it will help to synthesize and secrete insulin into the circulation. The rationale of this study was to find out how these two incretins can improve insulin secretion both in vivo and in vitro employing the rat model of T1DM following injection with streptozotocin (STZ). The project employed six groups of rats, with three groups serving as age-matched, healthy controls and the other three groups rendered diabetic. One set of rats from each group was untreated while the rats from the other four groups were given either GLP-1(50 nmol/kg body weight) or exenatide (1 μg/kg body weight) over 10 weeks. The project measured body weight, levels of blood glucose and insulin. The plasma levels of liver and kidney markers were also determined. The in vitro study measured insulin secretion from pancreatic fragments, the distribution of insulin- and glucagon-positive cells in pancreatic islets, granules, co-localization of different peptides in the islets, biochemical, and molecular biological changes, which may occur in the pancreas during the experimental period. For the in vivo study, the results have shown mild gain in body weight and no change in blood glucose levels in both treated and untreated age-matched normal control rats. Furthermore, the results show a significant reduction in blood glucose levels in diabetic rats treated with either GLP-1 or exenatide, but the beneficial effect was more pronounced following GLP-1 treatment. The results also show no changes in glucose handling between normal treated or normal untreated rats following blood glucose tolerance test (GTT). However, in diabetic rats, the results show that the GTT reveals a better glucose tolerance in these diabetic animals treated with either GLP-1 or exenatide but the effect was more significant with GLP-1 compared with untreated diabetic rats. The present study shows that diabetic rats secreted significantly less insulin in the blood than normal healthy rats and a significant increase in serum insulin was detected in both normal and diabetic rats treated with either GLP-1 or exenatide compared to untreated controls. The results also show significant reductions in the liver enzymes, aspartate transferase and alanine transferase in the diabetic rats. A similar beneficial effect on kidney function was obtained owing to a small reduction in blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine and serum uric acids in both normal and diabetic rats treated with either GLP-1 or exenatide. In the lipid profile study, the results show a mild reduction in serum cholesterol and a marked reduction in serum triglyceride in both normal and diabetic rats treated with either GLP-1 or exenatide. The results from the in vitro study show that either GLP-1 or exenatide can evoke marked dose-dependent release (secretion) of insulin from pancreatic tissue fragments of normal and diabetic rats, indicating that there is a clear role for either GLP-1 or exenatide in inducing insulin secretion. In this study, an attempt was also made to investigate both the number and distribution of endocrine cells in the control and diabetic rat pancreas using immnohistochemistry. The results show a significant increase in the number of cells containing either insulin or GLP-1 in both normal and diabetic treated rats. However, in the case of exenatide, catalase and glutathione reductase-positive cells were only significantly increased in diabetic rats, but the increase was not significant in normal rats treated with either GLP- 1 or exenatide. These results show that the significant increase in number of catalase and glutathione-positive cells in diabetic rats treated with either GLP-1 or exenatide reveal the beneficial antioxidant effect of both GLP-1 and exenatide in treatment of oxidative stress, which usually occurs in DM. On the other hand, there was a significant decrease in glucagon-positive cells in both normal and diabetic rats treated with either GLP-1 or exenatide. The immunohistochemical and immunofluorescent studies also revealed that insulinpositive cells were distributed both in the central and peripheral portions of the islets of Langerhans in normal pancreas. In contrast, glucagon-positive cells were located in the peripheral part of the islets of Langerhans. After the onset of diabetes, the number of insulin-positive cells was reduced significantly. In contrast, the number of glucagonpositive cells increased significantly with abnormal pattern of distribution compared to normal pancreas. The pattern of distribution of both GLP-1 and exenatide has indicated co-localization not only with insulin, but also with glucagon. Furthermore, catalase and glutathione reductase-positive cells were distributed homogenously all over the islet of Langerhans with no specific co-localization with specific type of endocrine cell. In the gene expression study, the results show significant increases in the levels of mRNA of pancreatic duodenal hoeobox-1, heat shock protein-70, glutathione peroxidase, insulin receptor and glucagon like peptide-1 receptor in both normal and diabetic rats treated with either GLP-1 or exenatide. However, the increase was not significant in mRNA gene expression of either insulin receptor or glucagon like peptide-1 receptor in normal rats treated with GLP-1. On the other hand, the gene expression results show that glucagon mRNA level was significantly decreased in both normal and diabetic rats treated with either GLP-1 or exenatide. In conclusion, the results of this study have clearly demonstrated that both GLP-1 and exenatide have marked beneficial effects on pancreatic islet cells, especially β- and α- cells, which produce insulin and glucagon, respectively. The two incretins seem to repair the diabetic pancreas, which in turn secretes more insulin and less glucagon.