Le vieillissement est associé à des changements de la composition corporelle, tels que l’augmentation de la masse grasse et la diminution de la masse musculaire. La sarcopénie, qui fait référence à la perte de masse musculaire avec le vieillissement, peut augmenter les risques de chute, d'incapacité physique et a été associé à un risque accru de mortalité. L’entrainement en résistance est considéré comme la stratégie la plus efficace pour lutter contre la sarcopénie, mais les résultats semblent dépendre de l’apport en acides aminés essentiels, qui proviennent principalement de sources animales. Dans notre laboratoire, une étude d’intervention de 16 semaines a permis de démontrer que l’entrainement musculaire permettait un gain de masse et force musculaire chez des hommes âgés sarcopéniques et cela avec ou sans supplémentation riche en protéines d’origine animale (lait de vache). Néanmoins, cette même étude a aussi révélé que la combinaison de l’entrainement musculaire et de la supplémentation riche en protéines est nécessaire pour induire une perte de masse grasse. Afin de comprendre ces résultats, nous avons alors décidé d’étudier l’impact aigu de ce type de stratégie sur l’oxydation des substrats et la mobilisation des graisses afin de tenter d’identifier les mécanismes à l’origine de la perte de masse grasse. Pour ce faire, 9 hommes âgés entre 60 et 75 ans et actifs ont été recrutés et ont terminé l’étude. Chaque participant a été invité à réaliser 3 conditions expérimentales de manière aléatoire: 1) Entrainement en résistance + Lait de vache (ER+LV), 2) Entrainement en résistance + Lait de riz (condition sans protéines; ER+LR), 3) Entrainement en résistance + Eau (condition témoin; ER+EAU). Pendant les 3 heures qui suivaient la fin de chaque intervention, nous mesurions la dépense énergétique, l’oxydation des substrats (calorimétrie indirecte), la mobilisation des graisses (concentrations plasmatiques de glycérol et d’acides gras libres) et le métabolisme glucidique (concentration plasmatique de glucose et insuline). Nos principaux résultats montrent que l’oxydation des lipides (%) est similaire entre les conditions ER+LR et ER+LV bien que plus faible que celle observée dans la condition ER+EAU durant les 2 premières heures. Concernant la mobilisation des graisses, les concentrations de glycérol ne montrent aucune différence au cours des 3 heures. Néanmoins, les niveaux sanguins d’acides gras libres ont augmenté de manière plus importante dans la condition ER+EAU suite à la fin de la séance d’entrainement. Enfin, suite à la condition ER+LV, nous avons observé une réponse du métabolisme glucidique similaire à ER+EAU. Bien qu’il soit possible que l’effet chronique diffère de l’effet aigu, la similitude des résultats entre les conditions ER+LR et ER+LV nous pousse à croire que la perte de masse grasse plus élevée qui a été observée suite à 16 semaines d’entrainement musculaire combiné à une supplémentation en protéines d’origine animale n’est pas expliquée par une plus grande mobilisation des graisses, ni une plus grande oxydation des substrats. Cependant, l’utilisation de méthodes indirectes (acides gras libres et glycérol) pour estimer la mobilisation des graisses pourrait aussi expliquer l’absence de différence entre ces conditions expérimentales.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain and explain the effectiveness of Roma political activism in contesting state oppression in Macedonia and Serbia. More specifically, this thesis seeks to investigate the divergent treatment of Roma communities in the respective states by analyzing the role of state institutions, civil society, political parties and international organizations. The thesis seeks to provide a multi-level analysis of Roma mobilization in Macedonia and Serbia by addressing the domestic and international factors that influence Roma political activism, and relies on two main theoretical concepts within the social movement literature: the Political Opportunity Structure (POS) model and 'transnational advocacy networks.' The POS model is a comprehensive framework to assess if Roma political activism has been effective in Macedonia and Serbia. This study uses the following components to describe the domestic factors that may facilitate or constrain Romani activism in the respective states: state repression and/or facilitation, institutional access, influential domestic and international allies. This thesis attempts to provide a detailed analysis of movement dynamics by taking into account the inter-relationship between actors and contesting groups. The limitations of the domestic opportunity structure regarding Roma advocacy in Macedonia and Serbia are outlined by describing the political context concerning minority inclusion, institutional mechanisms, and NGO/political party activities. As domestic opportunity structures are 'closed,' Roma activists and NGOs seek international allies to influence and change domestic policy on Roma inclusion. This study, while recognizing the importance of other international initiatives, specifically focuses on various institutions of the European Union as the main international actor influencing Roma inclusion policies in Eastern Europe. The thesis outlines the main EU initiatives on Roma inclusion to provide an overview of the opportunities and challenges in the international arena. Furthermore, it analyzes the interaction between international and civil society organizations assessing the effectiveness of the 'transnational advocacy networks.' Finally, the thesis provides a comparative analysis of Roma political activism in Macedonia and Serbia, indicating coordinated action has not been successful.

Contemporary labour immigration into the UK has been underpinned by two structural positions: the uneven development within the capitalist system and an intensification of competition driving towards flexibility and precarity. Immigrant workers are overwhelmingly concentrated in secondary sectors of the labour market with low pay, long working hours and poor health and safety and closely associated with non-standard work and informal economy where unions are often not available. How these immigrant workers in highly exploitative industries respond to work-related exploitations poses a great challenge to traditional trade unionism. While community unionism has received increasing attention from researchers and practitioners, an institution-centric approach is dominated in the scholarship which tends to overemphasize the role of institutional entity, such as trade unions and NGOs, in shaping collective agency and consider it as the centrality to immigrant workers activism. In contrast to such union-centred research, this study adopts a social movement perspective to explore whether and how community organizing approach can empower immigrant workers and enhance union organizing when globalization compromises its validity. By conducting the multi-method (interviews, surveys, participant observations and videos) ethnographic studies in an immigrant domestic worker self-help group-Justice for Domestic Workers in London over a year and a post EU-enlargement Polish association and local Polish neighbourhood in South Somerset over five months, the research shows that gendered and cultural space rather than traditional industrial entities could offer a political context in which immigrant workers start recognising structural class exploitations and develop an agency and activism for changes. This suggests that the collective mobilizations of immigrant workers in informal and individualised sectors may require creative leaps of sociological imagination in nurturing such communities of coping, wherever they may be occurring - in social clubs, cafés or churches. Community, however, is not a naturally harmonious and unified group setting. The internal divisions and competitions within immigrant communities pose limits to how far ethnic cohesion can serve as a basis for collective mobilization of immigrant workers. The research points to the potential tensions between immigrant community organizations and trade unions to compete for membership and social influence in the coalition building. There is a risk that the institutional goals of immigrant community organizations, in terms of securing funding and expanding its organizational influence, may take precedence over substantive goals of support provision. The research also suggests that academics and practitioners need to rethink the criteria that define the success of worker organising. To win union recognition and achieve collective bargaining agreements in the workplace is a rare case in community organizing of immigrant workers. A distinction should be made between capacity-building from the perspective of workers and organizations involved in community organizing of immigrant workers. There might be a contradiction between organizational developments and grassroots empowerment. Instead of merely focusing on political outcomes as the existing research indicates, more attention should paid to outcomes in social and cultural arenas and how gains in one arena facilitate or hinder gains in another.

The idea that the internet enables disparate individuals to link together easily has focused attention on characterising collective action under these circumstances. My research looks instead at a situation which mixes the disparate and those united by various forms of shared identity, and material grievance. The case I focus on involves overlapping groups of benefits claimants: disabled people, carers and older people. These groups are under-represented online and their political activity in a digital environment has rarely been researched. The context of my research is a consultation over social care, which provoked a campaign of opposition and the posting online of nearly 3,000 comments on the green paper’s executive summary. This constitutes collective action because it was undertaken for a collective purpose: to defend disability benefits from a perceived threat. In order to take the focus I want, I develop a conceptual framework that includes all three drivers of collective action that feature in social psychology models - efficacy, injustice and identity. Much comparable research considers just one or two of these drivers. My analytical approach is primarily inductive but I employ a mixed-methods design, including digital tracing, inductive thematic coding and basic statistical analysis. The data is drawn from the campaign and the comments. I find that most of the comments exhibit a shared sense of injustice. They also frequently include expressions of collective identity made with reference to various groups, rather than to one overarching group. Personal narratives often accompany these collective expressions. The campaign messages spread horizontally among varied, but mostly pre-existing, forums, social networking sites and blogs. The mobilisation also had a vertical element due to the involvement of private company acting, in a hybrid manner, as a campaigning organisation. My research contributes to knowledge by showing that when online action includes people who are motivated by collective identity, traditional and more contemporary collective action processes do not simply co-exist: there is a dynamic interplay between them. It also demonstrates the value of focusing on lower-level networks. This shows that the role of the drivers can vary among the groups of actors involved and, where the drivers combine, they have a reinforcing tendency.

Student Number : 0216607K - MSc research report - School of Physiotherapy - Faculty of Health Sciences / Thoracic mobilisation is a popular modality employed by physiotherapists as part of the management of neck pain, despite the lack of evidence as to its benefits. A randomised control trial was conducted to compare manual physiotherapy to the cervical and thoracic regions and manual therapy to the cervical spine alone for the treatment of neck pain. The Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used to assess anxiety change due to the intervention. The Memorial Pain Assessment Card (MPAC) was used to assess pain change through the intervention. A treatment effects questionnaire (TAQ) was constructed to assess other effects of the treatment protocols. Results showed no difference between the groups for anxiety reduction, although within the groups there was a highly significant reduction in anxiety (p<0.0001). Pain reduction was marginally significantly reduced in the experimental group in comparison to the control group (p=0.08) although the CI was very broad. Within group tests for the MPAC showed a highly significant reduction in pain from either intervention (p<0.0001).

This thesis examines the role of British localities in the production of military force during the 1920s and 1930s. I argue that, during an era so disenfranchising for the armed forces in national politics and culture, the 'Local' provided a haven for servicemen and military units. Rather than theorising mobilisation as a set of state centred economic or technocratic proscriptions, this research takes the social and cultural renewal of military units as a starting point. Drawing on a range of historical and anthropological methodologies, I have set out to uncover what were - to borrow Foucault's phrase - 'regimes of truth': multiple ideological currents and social contexts that legitimised service identities during this period. Local spaces are not only useful arenas for dissecting these operations; local people and identities were crucial formative elements in these processes. Two case studies have provided the ground for this investigation: Newcastle and Glasgow. The thesis dissects the body of the British military machine at these entry points, viewing the configuration of military and naval power at ground level and the emergence of manpower from the collision between state directives and local society. It also examines the communities (soldiers, veterans) that arose through this. Focus moves from military to urban spaces, revealing the characters (pressmen, politicians) and practices (sociability, ritual, performance) that legitimised these communities. Much of this cultural work evoked the memory of the Great War and here the thesis intervenes in academic debates surrounding Commemoration after 1918. The final chapter unites these perspectives in a chronological elaboration of the period 1935-1939, detailing the ground level effort for national and civil defence. As well as enlivening our understanding of 20th century mobilisation, this research explores the depths of British local and national identities and the intricate ways in which the armed forces were framed within both.

This is a study of the identities and political mobilisation of the Lebanese Shiʿa throughout the modern history of Lebanon. Currently, the dominant paradigms for such studies focus on the question of sectarianism in Lebanon and the corresponding Shiʿi political movements, Amal and Hizbullah. This thesis presents an alternative approach. It argues that secular identities have also been an important component of the Shiʿi community’s political mobilisation. This is explored through an analysis of the relationship between the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) and the communist Shiʿa. Drawing on interviews with senior LCP officials, current and former Shiʿi communists, party documents and additional interview evidence from the documentary film, We Were Communists, this thesis examines the origins, evolution and transformation of the relationship between the LCP and the Shiʿa after Lebanese independence in 1943, until the end of the Lebanese Civil War in 1990. Utilising the concepts of identity and political mobilisation, this thesis develops a hybridised approach to the study of political identity that combines primordial with constructionist readings of identity. This acknowledges the presence of a repertoire of multiple and varied identities among any individual or group, and their potential for mobilisation. Rather than assuming the domineering influence of primordial sentiments, such as sectarian identity, the hybridised approach requires an analysis of the conditions under which a particular identity becomes the basis for political mobilisation. In the aftermath of Lebanese independence in 1943, the Shiʿi community’s political mobilisation was characterised by a politics of resistance. This was a product of the legacy of the Shiʿi community’s experience of the French Mandate (1920-1943), as well as the newly reformulated confessional political system that was established by the National Pact (1943). The net effect of these processes was the marginalisation of the Shiʿa. The LCP, as a prominent anti-system opposition movement in Lebanon at this time, became the Shiʿi community’s main vehicle for the mobilisation and development of their resistance identity. During the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) the relationship between communism and the Shiʿa transformed as the LCP went into decline and new Shiʿi political actors emerged. The mantle of the Shiʿi community’s resistance identity became subject to the tensions between communism and communalism within the community. In the end, the Shiʿi community’s resistance identity was adopted and repackaged by Hizbullah, under whose auspices it remains today. The Shiʿi-communist relationship constitutes the Shiʿi community’s first engagement with formal, party-based and ideologically driven political mobilisation in Lebanon. The impact and legacy of the LCP’s influence on the Shiʿa in these terms encompasses not just the communist Shiʿa, but every other political actor in the community. Concern over the growing influence of communism led directly to the political mobilisation of the previously quietist Shiʿi religious clerics. This outcome is represented by the arrival of Imam Musa al-Sadr to Lebanon in 1959 and his stated goal of combatting the influence of communism among the Shiʿa. This thesis is an important addendum to the current understanding of the origins of Shiʿi political mobilisation, which erroneously place Musa al-Sadr at the beginning of that process. This study’s emphasis on alternative, non-sectarian forms of political identity is also a reminder of the Shiʿi community’s political diversity at a time when critical voices, resentful of Hizbullah’s and Amal’s monopoly, are currently emerging from within the ShiʿI community.

As plântulas de jatobá apresentam grandes quantidades de reserva de carbono, na forma de polissacarídeos constituintes de parede, presentes em seus cotilédones. Estas reservas são inicialmente utilizadas para expansão dos eófilos. Após esta fase, as plântulas passam a dispor de duas fontes de carbono, sendo elas, as reservas (que ainda não se esgotaram totalmente) e a autotrófica (compreendida pela fotossíntese) (Santos e Buckeridge, 2004). O acompanhamento em condições constantes de diversas variáveis nos permitiu concluir que a maioria dos parâmetros envolvidos com a fotossíntese são controlados circadianamente. Este controle apresenta, ao menos, dois sistemas oscilatórios independentes, que atuam, quando sob um ciclo ambiental, em conjunto. O controle da degradação das reservas é mais incerto, apesar de apresentarmos fortes evidências que apontam para a existência de um controle temporal endógeno. Conseguimos identificar, em alguns casos, uma influência forte do ambiente agindo diretamente sobra a expressão de algumas variáveis, como a concentração de clorofila. Por fim, desenhamos um quadro geral do controle temporal envolvido na questão fonte dreno (durante a fase de estabelecimento desta espécie), no qual, pudemos integrar os dados de todas as variáveis aferidas, definindo os principais mecanismos de controle envolvidos / Jatobá seedlings have large amounts of carbon reserves in the form of wall constituent polysaccharides, present in their cotyledons. These reserves are initially used in the expansion of the eophylls. After this stage, the seedlings have two sources of carbon, the reserves (which are not fully degraded yet) and autotrophic (understood as photosynthesis) (Santos and Buckeridge, 2004). The constant conditions allowed us to conclude that most of the parameters involved in the photosynthesis process are circadian controlled. This control mechanism has at least two independent oscillatory systems, which are coupled when under the influence of an environmental cycle. The nature of the temporal control of the reserves degradation is yet unclear. Although, evidences are that it\'s being controlled by an endogenous component. We were able to identify, in some cases, a strong influence of the environment, acting directly on the expression of some variables (such as chlorophyll concentration). Finally, we draw a general picture of the temporal control mechanism involved in the source-sink balance (during the establishment phase of this species), in which we were able to integrate all our data and therefore, identify some important control mechanisms involved

As plântulas de jatobá apresentam grandes quantidades de reserva de carbono, na forma de polissacarídeos constituintes de parede, presentes em seus cotilédones. Estas reservas são inicialmente utilizadas para expansão dos eófilos. Após esta fase, as plântulas passam a dispor de duas fontes de carbono, sendo elas, as reservas (que ainda não se esgotaram totalmente) e a autotrófica (compreendida pela fotossíntese) (Santos e Buckeridge, 2004). O acompanhamento em condições constantes de diversas variáveis nos permitiu concluir que a maioria dos parâmetros envolvidos com a fotossíntese são controlados circadianamente. Este controle apresenta, ao menos, dois sistemas oscilatórios independentes, que atuam, quando sob um ciclo ambiental, em conjunto. O controle da degradação das reservas é mais incerto, apesar de apresentarmos fortes evidências que apontam para a existência de um controle temporal endógeno. Conseguimos identificar, em alguns casos, uma influência forte do ambiente agindo diretamente sobra a expressão de algumas variáveis, como a concentração de clorofila. Por fim, desenhamos um quadro geral do controle temporal envolvido na questão fonte dreno (durante a fase de estabelecimento desta espécie), no qual, pudemos integrar os dados de todas as variáveis aferidas, definindo os principais mecanismos de controle envolvidos / Jatobá seedlings have large amounts of carbon reserves in the form of wall constituent polysaccharides, present in their cotyledons. These reserves are initially used in the expansion of the eophylls. After this stage, the seedlings have two sources of carbon, the reserves (which are not fully degraded yet) and autotrophic (understood as photosynthesis) (Santos and Buckeridge, 2004). The constant conditions allowed us to conclude that most of the parameters involved in the photosynthesis process are circadian controlled. This control mechanism has at least two independent oscillatory systems, which are coupled when under the influence of an environmental cycle. The nature of the temporal control of the reserves degradation is yet unclear. Although, evidences are that it\'s being controlled by an endogenous component. We were able to identify, in some cases, a strong influence of the environment, acting directly on the expression of some variables (such as chlorophyll concentration). Finally, we draw a general picture of the temporal control mechanism involved in the source-sink balance (during the establishment phase of this species), in which we were able to integrate all our data and therefore, identify some important control mechanisms involved

I examine five international investment cases that embrace the neoliberal vision. This economic model provides a new, contested space between the construction of hegemonic globalisations from above and the contestation of these globalisations from below. The first objective is to describe this space. Each ends the same way: the exit of an unwanted foreign investor after intense social mobilisation. The second objective is to show that counter-hegemonic victories are difficult to achieve: the regime relegates the voice of the subaltern to an inconsequential role, limits public interest state projects that may interfere with investor rights, and often includes a compensatory promise to foreign investors irrespective of the host state’s fiscal capacity. The third objective is to demonstrate the ambivalent role of the state in promoting such neoliberal projects, which necessitate that it adopt a more active role in either policing investment or policing society.