Mobile HCI’s (Human Computer Interaction) understanding of mobility can benefit from novel theoretical perspectives that have been largely underexploited. This thesis develops and applies a novel middle range theory for mobile interaction design called mobile interaction trajectories, demonstrating the theory’s use and value in practical design settings. Mobile interaction trajectories offer a new theoretical perspective for mobile interaction design, considering people’s everyday trajectories as a baseline for mediated communication, with foci on practices and experiences of changing states of connectedness, chronologies of mediated communication, and mobile communication routines. Following a research through design methodology, probing was used as a creative research method. Two probing experiments informed the theory’s development. A new Probe resource was designed and applied, called the Hankie Probe. It was used to collect instances of mobile interaction trajectories and informed a range of design workshops. The Hankie Probe is based on a fabric-based format and expresses everyday trajectories, and mobile communication practice and experience via stitched and drawn handmade space-time diaries. Research about design analysed the design processes with the completed Probes revealing the middle range theory’s value. The theory’s distinctive characteristics have shown to inform generative design processes. The trajectory-based perspective inspired design concepts for contextually adaptive services that enable new communication experiences and alter the chronology of social interaction. The thesis contributes to knowledge by underpinning generative design work with novel mobility theories via a new Probe format for mobile interaction design research. The following additional discoveries were made: There are three basic probing functions in generative design workshops; designer’s experiences and subjective interpretation augment insights about users and contexts in design workshops, the fabric-based handmade Probes influenced design work offering a captivating authentic format that requires subjective interpretation.

This thesis comprises three chapters; a literature review, an empirical paper, and a commentary and reflective review. The literature review critiques stress management interventions for staff working in adult intellectual disability services. There is recognition that working in intellectual disability services can be stressful for staff members. Stress management interventions tended to focus on reducing stress rather than on preventing it. Interventions were categorised as cognitive-behavioural approaches, acceptance and commitment approaches or collaborative approaches where staff members were involved in developing person-centred interventions. Considerations and implications for future stress management interventions are discussed. The empirical element of this thesis focused on investigating predictors of burnout in 86 staff working in intellectual disability services. The paper explored the role of emotional intelligence, exposure to violence and self-efficacy in burnout development. The findings from the empirical paper demonstrated that low self-efficacy and high exposure to violence predicts burnout as measured by the emotional exhaustion (EE) and depersonalisation (DP) components of the burnout measure. Self-efficacy was found to moderate the relationship between violence and burnout (EE and DP). Emotional intelligence was found to predict personal accomplishment (PA) which can protect against burnout development. Emotional intelligence was not found to moderate the relationship between exposure to violence and burnout. Lower levels of emotional intelligence did not predict EE or DP. The commentary and reflective review provides an account of the research process critiquing the decisions made throughout. This includes the process of the literature review searches and topic selection; the empirical paper design, variables, method, data collection and measures. Reflective discussion in this review includes consideration of the ethical issues, clinical and theoretical implications and personal reflexivity.

For many applications, including power generation, aerospace and the automobile industry, high temperature wear provides serious difficulties where two or more surfaces are able to move relative to one another. It is increasingly the case that with for example, aerospace applications, demands for ever more powerful and efficient engines that thus operate at higher temperatures, conventional lubrication is no longer sufficient to prevent direct contact between metallic surfaces and consequent accelerated wear. One phenomenon that has been observed to reduce metallic contact and thus high temperature wear and friction is the formation of what are termed ‘glazes’, essentially layers of compacted oxide wear debris that becomes sintered together to form a low friction wear resistant oxide surface. This thesis studies the nature of the wear encountered with four different combinations of Superalloys, slid together using a ‘block-on-cylinder’ configuration developed for accelerated simulation testing of car engine ‘valve-on-valve-seat’ wear. Predominantly, Nimonic 80A and Incoloy MA956 were used as sample materials and Stellite 6 and Incoloy 800HT were used as counterface materials.

Over recent decades there has been significant progress towards gender equality in the workplace and at home. Transformations in work and childcare domains have occurred for families in Western societies, including de-gendered parenting, in which childcare responsibilities are shared equally or assumed primarily by the father. Although these arrangements constitute a recent and rare phenomenon, this increase in proportion has been matched by an academic interest. Using quantitative data from traditional and role-reversed couples, this research aims to explore the social psychological mechanisms underlying non-normative behavioural choices, as well as the consequences for couples' relationship quality, well-being and life satisfaction. Traditional couples are those in which the mother bears primary responsibility for child care while the father is the main breadwinner. In non-traditional role-reversed couples the opposite occurs. A sample of 242 individual parents with children from birth to 12 years old, completed an extensive questionnaire. Involvement in work and childcare, social psychological variables, relationship and life satisfaction, perceptions of their division of responsibilities and socio-demographic characteristics were examined. Results show how social prescriptions and structural characteristics are limiting the intersection between the mother and the father role, and help us understand how both roles can be more similar than different. The findings also disclose how by being involved men are assisting women’s career and help make a distinction between traditional and role reversed women’s views of the appropriate parental role for men and women. Furthermore, the results contribute for a better understanding of how gender ideologies and non-essentialist perceptions differ between couples in different arrangements and how they relate to involvement in childcare and well-being, as well as the role of choice in well-being, life and marital satisfaction.

The purpose of the study was to see how you as a person perceive yourself in comparison to how others perceive you. For this particular study a comparison has been made between people living together and how they view themselves versus how their friends/spouses/partners/family members view them. The hypothesis was that there would be a difference between how the individual living with you perceives you and how you perceive yourself. Individuals tend to stretch the truth about themselves and they tend to see themselves in a more positive light than others might see them. The study was conducted by handing out questionnaires consisting of Big Five and Marlowe Crowne scale. There were totally 40 participants in the study, 24 women and 16 men. The results showed no correlation and no statistical significance in any of the analyses. This was due to few participants in the study.

Philosophers, psychologists, and authors have long pondered the question of whether others’ expectations or one’s own self-views are more important in determining behavior and personality. Researchers have designated these two processes behavioral confirmation and self-verification, respectively, and the interaction of these processes is often referred to as identity negotiation. Little research has examined the process of identity negotiation during adolescence, a period during which individuals are attempting to forge unique identities. Therefore, the primary purpose of the present studies was to examine the identity negotiation process during adolescence. In Study 1, I examined whether adolescents (11-15 years of age) solicit self-verifying feedback. Adolescents first completed a measure of self-perceptions and then selected whether to receive positive or negative feedback from an unknown peer in areas of perceived strength and weakness. Adolescents desired feedback congruent with their own self-views; those with higher self-esteem tended to request more positive feedback than those with lower self-esteem. Further, adolescents were more likely to seek negative feedback regarding a self-perceived weakness than a self-perceived strength. In Study 2, I examined the joint operation of behavioral confirmation and self-verification in dyadic interactions among unacquainted adolescents. One member of each dyad (the target) completed a measure of self-perception. The second member of each dyad (the perceiver) was provided with false information regarding the attractiveness of their partner. I compared whether targets’ self-views or perceivers’ expectations of them were stronger determinants of behavior. Self-verification strivings were evident in these interactions; targets’ self-views influenced the perceivers’ final evaluations of their partners. Support for behavioral confirmation was lacking in same-sex dyads and dyads composed of male perceivers and female targets. Appearance based expectations influenced target behavior in dyads composed of female perceivers and male targets. The current findings suggest that adolescents’ self-views are important determinants of behavior. Significant implications for adolescent mental health and peer selection are discussed. / text

The objectives of this study were two-fold: firstly to add to existing knowledge about the reaction of peracid with both iodide and sulfides in the presence of micelles (anionic and non-ionic) and α-cyclodextrin. The reaction between iodide and peracid had previously been studied only at 25°C in non-ionic, anionic micellar and alpha cyclodextrin; while the reaction of sulfides and peracid had only been investigated in the presence of α-cyclodextrin at one temperature. This study has investigated the previously undetermined effect of temperature on these reactions and how changes in temperature can affect the process of reactants binding to the micelle or cyclodextrin catalyst. The second objective was to obtain quantitative information about reactivity in ordered aqueous media such as micellar systems and cyclodextrins, and find out how these media can affect and control these reactions. This might have implications for fields such as cell biology, specifically for process occurring in living cells since both cyclodextrins and micelles might be considered simple models for protein and membranes in terms of their hydrophobicity. In addition, little information is known about bimolecular reactions involving two neutral reactants in non-ionic micelles where only the hydrophobic interaction is likely to influence the reaction due to the absence of charge-charge interaction. A kinetic and thermodynamic investigation of the reactions between peracids and different reductants i.e. iodide and series of aryl alkyl sulfides in presence non-ionic micelle and a- cyclodextrin is reported in this work. The kinetics were conducted by monitoring spectrophotometrically the increase or decrease in the absorbance due to formation of triioidide or disappearance of sulfides respectively, and absorbance versus time plots were fitted to nonlinear equation in order to obtain the observed pseudo first order rate constants. For reactions carried out in micellar systems the kinetic data were treated using the multiple micellar pseudophase model developed by Davies which considers the partition of reactants between water in the bulk aqueous phase and that in the micellar pseudophases. Important parameters in this model include the binding constant of reactants to Brij (non-ionic micelle) and kn. (reaction rate in micelle). For reactions in α-cyclodextrin, data was fitted to rate equations containing first and second order dependencies on cyclodextrin using non linear regression techniques. The work was carried out in the presence of 0.003 M nitric acid as reaction medium. The effect of inorganic electrolytes (sodium nitrate, sulfate, actetate, perchlorate and chloride) on the rate of oxidation of iodide in the absence and presence of non-ionic surfactant brij-35 was also studied. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the surfactants was determined using kinetic techniques and was found to be inversely proportional to the salt concentration and also to the temperature. The CMC was also found to decrease as the length of the hydrophobic part of the Brij surfactants was increased, possibly due to the decrease of interfacial energy on micellization, which generally increases in with increasing hydrophobic chain length. It was shown from analysis of the kinetic data that all non-ionic micelles in the (absence of salts) and a-CD studied in this work enhanced the rate of the iodide oxidation by MCPBA and that the rate showed saturation type kinetics. Sulfate ions were shown to accelerate the reaction further, whereas perchlorate caused an inhibition of the iodide oxidation (compared to the reaction only in nitric acid) in presence of Brij-35, but an increase in the presence of α-cyclodextrin. For the oxidation of sulfides by MCPBA in micelles and a-CD the observed rate increases to a maximum with increasing micelle or a-CD concentration and then subsequently declines. In the case of sulfide oxidation by the anionic peracid, peroxymonosulfate (PMS), there was only inhibition in the rate, due to separation of reactants. The effect of temperature on both rate and equilibrium processes for these systems was determined over the range 15 to 35°C. The results showed a linear decrease in the binding of metachloroperbenzoic (MCPBA) acid and aryl alkyl sulfides to both micelle and a-CD with increasing the temperature. The thermodynamic and activation parameters for the reactions were determined by using Van't Hoff and Eyring plots. Comparison of the micellar association constants of MCPBA and the apparent micellar association constant of the transition state for the reaction with iodide, suggested that orientational restriction imposed on the peracid by Brij-35 are similar to that in the transition state. For the same reactions carried out in α-cyclodextrin at different temperatures it was determined that the binding constant enthalpy and entropy of substrates, (peracid and iodide) are more negative than that obtained in the presence of brij-35 which indicates that stronger interactions are involved and more restriction imposed on the reactant in presence of a-CD compared to brij-35.A similar approach was employed for the reaction of series of aryl alkyl sulfides with peracids (PMS and MCPBA) in presence of Brij-35 and a-CD. The aryl alkyl sulfides can form both 1:1 and 2:1 host: guest complexes in cyclodextrin; the 2:1 inclusion complexes for some sulfides were larger than the 1:1 complexes, indicating cooperative binding, with the driving force for this possibly being a substrate induced dipole-dipole interaction between the two cyclodextrin molecules. Linear free energy studies indicate that the catalytic species is the bound peracid reacting with the unbound sulfides; sulfide binding results in steric inhibition of the reaction. The reaction of the non-binding PMS with sulfides results only in inhibition as cyclodextrin concentration is increased. The enthalpy and entropy for sulfide oxidation by peracids was calculated by means of a Van't Hoff plot. The reaction in a-CD associated with more negative entropy and enthalpy for the inclusion 2:1 while for 1:1 some substrates associated with positive entropy and small negative enthalpy while other show the usual behaviour observed for complex formation (negative values for both enthalpy and entropy).In all studied reactions (related reactions) there were good relationships between enthalpy and entropy (isokinetic relationships or enthalpy-entropy compensation). Whilst in some cases it is difficult to explain why enthalpy-entropy compensation might be observed, we have suggested that in the case of binding of sulfides to cyclodextrin these plots can act as probes into the orientation of the substrate within the cyclodextrin cavity. The nature of the catalytic mechanism for the reactions of peracids with sulfides and iodide in the presence of micelles and α-cyclodextrin was examined by comparing the transition state stabilisation parameters, KTsi, for the same reaction in the two catalytic systems. It was found that for three out of five sulfides the degree of transition state stabilisation was almost identical in both Brij-35 and α-cyclodextrin, perhaps suggesting the same catalytic mechanism in each system; this could be via either decreased stabilisation of the peracid ground state in the absence of a protic solvent and/or the prevention of significant charge development in the transition state as a result of an intramolecular proton transfer step involving the peracid that is facilitated by the absence of water. Other possibilities exist, such as general acid catalysis, though these would be more dependent on the nature of the catalytic system. There was a less clear relationship for iodide.

This thesis researches the interface between ebanks and their customers. An industry traditionally based upon personal contact, the rise of ebanking has changed this relationship such that transactions are now mainly conducted via website interfaces. The resultant loss of personal contact between bank and customer has removed many of the cues available to customers upon which judgments of service, reliability and trust were made. The question raised by this change is: what factors influence consumer choice when viewing bank websites? The arguments of this thesis are that user evaluation of websites and their willingness to use those websites is based not only on user centred factors such as motivation, experience and knowledge but also upon their appraisal of website structure and content.

Lignocellulose is the major component of the plant cell wall and is a sustainable source of inexpensive abundant biomass. Efficient degradation of the lignocellulosic polysaccharides, cellulose and hemicellulose, is required if the plant cell wall is to be used as a resource for renewable biofuels. Microorganisms have the ability to catalyse the degradation of such bio-material through a cascade of enzyme activities into fermentable sugars and therefore are considered to be a major resource of biocatalysts for the emerging biofuel industry. The stability of the component polysaccharides and the complexity of the plant cell wall are reflected in the diverse range of functions and substrate specificities of lignocellulosic degrading enzymes. Part of this work describes the identification of a novel GH8 endo-xylanase, OtXyn8A, from the soil bacterium, Opitutus terrae. GH8 is a family in which there is only a limited amount of data available on the xylanase substrate specificity in comparison to families GH10 and GH11 in which xylanases are well established. With this in mind, OtXyn8A is the only endo-xylanase characterised from GH8 that primarily releases xylobiose from its substrates. Synergy between O. terrae enzymes was partially investigated within this study with the identification of a gene cluster within the bacterial genome. Genes organised within this cluster encoded products required for the degradation of xylan substrates and so the associated enzymes were cloned, expressed and subsequently determined for activity. Combined activities of gene products from the cluster exhibited synergy in the hydrolysis of 4-O-methyl glucuronoxylan. While surveying the genome of O. terrae, the multiplication of genes encoding GH43 enzymes was also investigated. Genes encoding GH43 enzymes were cloned, expressed and investigated for catalytic activity. Three arabinofuranosidases from O. terrae and one from Lactobacillus brevis were characterised, including the characterisation of an exo-1,5-L-arabinofuranosidase. Furthermore, a β-xylosidase from O. terrae was characterised which exhibited dual functionality as it catalysed the release of arabinose in addition to xylose from arabino-xylooligosaccharides.

No description available.