Building on a small body of research that conceptualises unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people (UASC) as "active survivors" despite their vulnerability, this study aimed to: 1) investigate processes by which UASC develop and maintain resilience within the specific context of a rural county; and 2) develop understanding of the context-dependent nature of resilience, in terms of interactions between UASC coping styles and environmental variables. A narrative approach was adopted to explore UASC experience and meaning making. Three male UASCs aged 17-19 years participated in narrative interviews and completed The Resiliency Scales self-report questionnaires. Transcripts were subject to detailed thematic and structural narrative analysis. Five coping strategies were identified in UASC narratives: appreciating the positive; cultural distancing; suppression of reflection; externalising locus of control; and seeking personal agency (which itself included negotiation, non-compliance, being proactive, perseverance and having ambition). Key environmental influences were: school and relationships (which itself included social support and key adults). Two key findings were the interactions between agency and relationships, and between suppression and coherence. Recruitment and sample issues in research with 'hard to reach' groups are highlighted. Implications for professional practice with UASC based on an increased understanding of dynamics of resilience are discussed.

This study reviews the evidence for commonalities in the behavioural presentation and functioning of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and attachment difficulties. A comparative analysis was conducted to evaluate current practice, assess the scale of misdiagnosis, and identify areas of differential presentation. Teacher-ratings of the frequency of behaviours were collected for two groups of primary school children matched for age, sex and school: one with recent diagnoses of ASD (n = 12) and a control group without diagnoses (n = 12). Three children with ASD diagnoses had higher ratings for attachment difficulties than ASD, at a level approaching significance. However, within-group analysis showed no significant difference between the median ASD and attachment difficulties ratings in the group with ASD diagnoses. A between-group comparison revealed significantly more behaviour suggestive of attachment difficulties in the ASD. Finally, the measure, based on ‘The Coventry Grid’ (Moran, 2010), was found to have acceptable reliability and good face and content validity. However, while the literature suggested good construct validity, analysis of dimensionality raised questions about how we construe the aetiology and mechanisms that constitute the phenomenology that informs the diagnosis of ASD and attachment difficulties. Implications for the ASD diagnostic process are discussed.

Research, policy and media discourses highlight risk of negative physical and non-physical outcomes for overweight/obese children compared with their non-overweight/obese peers. The study’s aim was to explore whether psychosocial correlates were being considered and informing policy and practice with regard to the ‘National Healthy Schools Programme’ (NHSP) within a cluster of schools, and with their community and strategic partners. Stakeholders’ perspectives including those of pupils were sought to illuminate whether, as a result of the NHSP, the potential risk of unintended harm was recognised and addressed. The research was conceptualized as an exploratory case study that primarily entailed the use of qualitative research methods for data collection and analysis. The findings of the study highlighted dominant socio-cultural practices that reinforce the ‘thin ideal’ and some of the risk potentiation and compensatory factors that could impact on outcomes for children. The dominance of the ‘physical’ themes of the NHSP reflected weakness in the operational delivery of a multidimensional rather than a fully integrated ‘holistic’ model of health and well-being. Recommendations for future research and practice include the future positioning of educational psychology practice and promoting meaningful consultation processes that ensure children’s perspectives are heard and listened to.

Creative arts education is integral to the diverse, extramural, formally taught and non-accredited landscapes of Adult Education. Traditionally popular with adults in later life, it is correlated with improvements in subjective well-being (Hughes and Adriaanse, 2017), health (Humphrey et al., 2011) and social inclusion (Feinstein et al., 2008). However, UK government support for arts curricula is in decline (Hughes et al., 2016), despite the rising demographics for older age groups (Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2018). Funding for remaining programmes is increasingly rationalised through perceived improvements to well-being (Hughes et al., 2016) and the attainment of objective and functional learning outcomes (Schuller, 2017). This thesis explores the relationships of three women in later life with creative arts education. The interpretive bricolage methodology draws together their experiences and considers the impacts of rationalising education exclusively through objective criteria. The research material is analysed using writing-as-inquiry and emergent interpretations are refined in iterative dialogues between researcher and participants. Thus, meaning is made in a 'continuing realignment of life events and life possibilities' (Rolling, 2010, p.157). The analysis is (re)presented as a series of evocative narratives, interwoven with the reflexive and autoethnographic positioning of the researcher. This process seeks to 'fracture the boundaries that normally separate social science from literature' (Ellis and Bochner, 2000, p.744). The research highlights the participants' perceptions of motivational factors, barriers and constraints and explores aspects of personal meaning-making, spirituality and transformation. It also illustrates the importance of 'place' in fostering collaborative learning and curiosity and questions fixed notions of well-being. The latter is reconceptualised as 'well-becoming' to acknowledge its fluid and transient qualities. The women's experiences are set against a prevailing culture of accountability and lie beyond the immediate gaze of policymakers. Therefore, the research assists in promoting more sustainable and context-appropriate practice by exploring some of the otherwise 'unseen' landscapes of Adult Education in later life.

This research gathered student perceptions of the aims of their senior school education in an independent school. The data was collected using Q-methodology. Participants completed the same Q-sort twice. The Q-sorts were factor analysed resulting in three factors for Q-sort 1 expressing students' own perceptions; these were titled: Future personal success, Enjoyment and care, and Empowerment. Four factors were retained from Q-sort 2, where students completed the same Q-sort from a hypothetical teacher's point of view; these were titled: Social cohesion and enjoyment, Academic importance, Fulfilling potential, and Personal development and wider societal benefits. Literature around the aims of education, the statements for the Q-set and the resulting factors were analysed using Schwartz's model of basic human values and pan-cultural baseline of value priorities as an analytical lens. This showed that although the aims of education align with Schwartz's findings of societal values, the participants in this study expressed differing value priorities to those in Schwartz's pan-cultural baseline. Through this lens, it was found that student perceptions of the aims of their education in this independent school focus mainly on the value of self-determination, in line with Schwartz's findings in societies. Differing from Schwartz's findings in societies, however, is the high prevalence of self-enhancement and hedonism values in the students' perceptions of the aims of their education. Also differing majorly from Schwartz's findings is the low prevalence of benevolence and universalism in the students' perceptions of the aims of their education. The study concludes that further research into the values of independently educated students would provide further valuable insights, and that schools should consider carefully the values that may be enhanced or demoted through certain educational activities.

Les sulfonamides sont parmi les antibiotiques les plus couramment utilisés en élevage. Ils peuvent en effet, si leur utilisation n’est pas conduite de manière raisonnable, être une source de nombreux risques pour la santé publique. Au Liban, il n’existe pas à l’heure actuelle de règlementation fixant les limites de résidus des sulfonamides dans les tissus d'origine animale. En outre, aucune investigation sur la présence des résidus des sulfonamides sous leurs formes actives ou métabolisée dans les denrées animales n’a été menée. L'analyse d'une matrice complexe telle que la viande a nécessité la mise en œuvre d’une préparation d'échantillon rigoureuse afin obtenir une analyse reproductible, et suffisamment sensible pour atteindre les limites de détection requises. Cette thèse décrit le développement de deux méthodes analytiques pour la détermination de sulfonamides et de leurs métabolites à l’état de traces dans les tissus d’origine animale (bœuf, volaille, porc…). Elles sont basées sur une étape d'extraction utilisant la méthode QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) suivie d'une analyse par HPLC couplée à un analyseur triple quadripôle MS/MS ou LTQ-Orbitrap Velos. Les performances analytiques de ces méthodes ont été évaluées et comparées. Les méthodes d’analyse ont été validées suivant les recommandations de la décision de l’UE (2002/657/EC) et lors d’une étude de validation inter-laboratoires organisée par FAPAS (Food Analysis Performance Assessment Scheme). Au vu des performances obtenues, une étude de contrôle a été réalisée sur les résidus des sulfonamides et de leurs métabolites dans plus de 300 échantillons de différents tissus d’origine animale dérivant de poulets de chair, bœufs, brebis et porcs collectés dans différentes régions d’élevage libanaises / Sulfonamides are amongst the most commonly used veterinary antibiotics. The uncontrolled exposure to sulfonamides upon consumption of meat products can be harmful to human health. In Lebanon, there are no current regulations that specify the safe levels of sulfonamides in animal products. In addition, no studies describing the presence of sulfonamides residues in their active or metabolized form in animal tissues exist. The analysis of residues at trace levels in complex matrices such as meat required the implementation of a rigorous sample preparation and analytical protocol that yields reproducible results at very low concentration levels. This thesis describes the development of two analytical methods for the determination of sulfonamides and their metabolites in animal tissues (e.g. poultry, sheep, pork) at trace levels. They are both based on an extraction step using QuEChERS extraction (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) followed by HPLC. In terms of mass analysers the use of LTQ-Orbitrap Velos and triple quadrupole MS/MS was optimized and the figures of merit were compared. The analytical methods were validated according to the EU decision (2002/657 / EC) criteria and by the participation in an inter-laboratory validation study organized by FAPAS (Food Analysis Performance Assessment Scheme). The methods were applied to carry out a monitoring study to detect and quantify residues of sulfonamides and their metabolites in more than 300 different samples of animal tissues derived from poultry, beef, sheep and pork collected from different regions of Lebanon..

School refusal, school phobia, school anxiety and emotionally based school non-attendance are all interchangeable terms used to describe children who experience high levels of distress and anxiety that prevents them from going to school. Emotionally Based School Non Attendance (EBSNA) in young people is a complex and multifactorial condition which can be a symptom of an underlying mental health disorder (McShane & Rey, 2001). This study explored the experiences of parents of young people aged 13-15 years old who present with EBSNA, who no longer attend mainstream school and who attend an alternative educational provision. Interviews were conducted with five parents and transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), leading to four superordinate themes: ‘It turns your life upside down’; Power and the battle to be heard; Loss and fear and Retrospective clarity. These themes captured the far-reaching effects on parents which impacted on relationships within the family, their own mental health and poor relationships between home and school. Parents shared their concern for their child’s future and described the need to understand the origins of their child’s condition. Implications for Educational Psychologists (EPs) and other professional agencies suggest that it is important to increase our understanding and awareness of the parental experience and consider ways of improving the quality of parental and professional relationships.

This is a multiple case study which investigates interaction around teachers’ corrective feedback on learners’ oral errors in three elementary English classrooms in Taiwan through classroom observations, teacher interviews, and learner interviews. In response to the problematic issues in existing corrective feedback research, this study has carried out an inductive microanalysis of the classroom data. The results indicate that current literature does not account for the complexity of the interaction around corrective feedback which is evidenced in the classroom data of this study. The findings of this study show a series of moves such as scaffolding, the use of nonverbal corrective feedback strategies, the use of objects as corrective feedback techniques, the use of clusters of corrective feedback strategies, deliberate language play by the learners, socialisation between the teacher and the learners as well as among learners as part of corrective feedback episodes. The findings of this study also reveal that corrective feedback can occur but takes a special shape in form-oriented classrooms. The features observed in the data of this study reflect a need to research into corrective feedback in elementary EFL classrooms as well as classrooms where the instruction focus of teachers is on linguistic forms.

Human Rights Education (HRE) for Palestinian refugees in Gaza Strip is integrated in a context where history, culture and collective memory are priorities in the local discourses of right-hood and justice. Palestinian learners are citizens of a non-recognized imagined community, existing through the processes of collective remembering, and the local discourses on rights. This study examines UNRWA’s special HRE curriculum for Palestinian refugees in Gaza Strip. I analyse UNRWA’s HRE policy and a sample of secondary level textbooks. This results in forming my original contribution to the field of human rights and HRE in a context of conflict. That is giving voice to a “collective” counter-hegemonic response to UNRWA’s model of HRE, which marginalizes the local discourse of right-hood. Collective, not in the sense of generalization, but in recognition of Palestinians’ legal and political status, which is a major obstacle for human rights and HRE in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For this, I use qualitative document analysis and a dialectical-relational approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine the materials in relation to the wider geo-political and socio-cultural context. The research outcomes reveal that UNRWA promotes a discourse of Human Rights, Conflict Resolution and Tolerance (HRCRT) through a model of HRE which promotes a standardized culture of human rights. The study suggests that, at the level of conflict resolution, UNRWA’s discourse of HRCRT overlooks vital political and legal issues that hinder HRE in Gaza Strip. The curriculum is highly de-politicized and knowledge-based that it prescribes a de-contextualized curriculum, which represents the world as it “ought to be” rather than what “it is”. Therefore, the study argues that the way forward for HRE resides in directly addressing the complex components of the conflict and acknowledging the importance of the local discourses and collective memory for HRE for Palestinians.

O sequenciamento genético do DNA humano permitiu maior compreensão da funcionalidade dos seres vivos e principalmente a causa de muitas doenças. Entretanto, os estudos em genética têm se limitado a resolverem os problemas da ciência, e atualmente, a solução para o avanço nessa área tem se atribuído à proteômica. Dessa forma, a pesquisa em química analítica intensificou-se na busca de estratégias melhores para a caracterização de proteomas, em três aspectos principais: preparo de amostra, desenvolvimento da instrumentação analítica e bioinformática. Verifica-se a possibilidade da aplicação de muitas técnicas, atualmente, destaca-se a análise de peptídeos (proteômica shotgun) por cromatografia líquida multidimensional acoplada à espectrometria de massas sequencial (LC/LC-MS/MS), devido à possibilidade de automatização, minimização dos problemas e resultados satisfatórios na análise de amostras biológicas complexas. Portanto, neste trabalho desenvolveu-se um método LC/LC-MS/MS (modalidade on-line column switching) o qual se constitui de coluna trocadora catiônica (homemade), trap de aprisionamento e limpeza, coluna capilar hidrofóbica e separação e detecção por espectrometria de massas sequencial automatizada. Com a proposta de uma instrumentação analítica aperfeiçoada, realizamos a confecção de um trap com partículas de elevada retenção dos peptídeos, o que permite ótima recuperação de amostra. Por se tratar de uma técnica de elevada complexidade instrumental, devido a difícil compatibilidade entre as dimensões cromatográficas, possíveis perda de analito no processo e elevado tempo de análise, propomos uma nova abordagem de otimização, por meio de estudos quimiométricos. Assim, neste trabalho, foram avaliados doze parâmetros instrumentais e destes houve uma simplificação de apenas dois fatores, responsáveis por 95% da resposta ótima do método. Este fato permitiu valores da cobertura da proteína de BSA (82,54%), número de peptídeos (65) e score (2134,05) superiores aos reportados na literatura, os quais apresentam tempos de análise maiores. Este estudo fornece informações do comportamento químico dos peptídeos em relação ao método proposto, por meio de uma superfície de resposta e equação matemática que pode contribuir para a aplicação em diferentes proteomas. / The genetic sequence of human DNA has helped the comprehension of life and principally the cause of various diseases. However, genetic studies have limited to resolve science problems and currently solutions to advance in this field have been attributed to proteomics. Thus, the analytical chemistry has intensified on the search for a better strategy to proteomic characterization in three principal aspects: sample preparation, development of analytical instrumentation, and bioinformatics. Proteomics involves the application of many techniques, currently; the peptide analyses (shotgun proteomics) by multidimensional liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC/LC-MS/MS) is the state of the art. The main reasons are because it allows full system automation, less problems in repeatability, and adequate results in analysis of highly complex biological samples. Therefore, this dissertation developed the method LC/LC-MS/MS (modality on-line column switching), this has a cation exchange column (homemade), trap column to clean, hydrophobic capillary column and separation and detection by tandem mass spectrometry. We have proposed an improved analytical instrumentation, with a homemade trap that particles have high retention of peptide, which permit great recuperation of samples. Because it is an instrumental technique difficult, such as, obtain compatibility between the chromatography dimensions, can lose samples in the process and long time analysis, we have proposed a new optimization approach with chemometric analysis of data. On that, were evaluated twelve instrumental parameters and there was a simplification only two factors, these were responsible for 95% of greater response of method. As a result, the coverage of BSA protein was 82,54%, number of peptides 65 and score of 2134,05 values of high significance if compare from that there are in literature that presented greater time analysis. This work describes information about chemistry of peptides to method proposed through a surface of response and math equation that can contribute to different proteomes.