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Alongside the social and economic reform of the 1980s, special education and inclusive education have been developing rapidly over the last three decades in China. Despite increasing research on the positive relationship between parental involvement and children’s educational achievement, only a limited number of studies have begun to focus on how Chinese parents get involved in inclusive education in China. The aim of this research was to explore how a small group of Chinese hearing parents support their deaf children to be ready for and educated at mainstream schools in Beijing, China. A qualitative research design combining constructivist grounded theory and autoethnography was applied to this study. Following the guidelines of Charmaz’s grounded theory, intensive interviews were conducted with 10 Chinese hearing parents of deaf children in Beijing, China. All hearing parents were interviewed twice, resulting in 18 total interviews plus back-up interviews. Additionally, my own story of being a deaf person growing up and attending regular schools in Beijing, provided autoethnographic reflections on the data and codes. The analysis of interview data has explored and developed a conceptual theory of parental involvement including three key categories: the effects of parental involvement, parental involvement strategies, and the barriers to parental involvement. Also, these findings showed that Chinese hearing parents’ ‘tried and tested’ strategies for supporting their deaf child to be ready for and educated at mainstream schools and actively removing the barriers to their involvement. In conclusion, the findings of this research discussed that these parents’ attitudes towards deafness and inclusive education could influence their strategies in deaf diagnosis, early intervention, school settings and coaching their deaf child. And these findings suggested that this theoretical model of parental involvement could influence a deaf child’s development in self-concept and deaf identity, contributing to the theories and practices of parental involvement and inclusive education for deaf children in China.

UK Government calls for more effective ways of communicating and engaging with the community to devolve power and enable local improvements in the concept of the 'Big Society'. Devolved power is often gained through local community organisations. These organisations are being tasked to manage community assets calling for a new breed of skilled community participants. They are under tremendous pressure and this additional stress may have a detrimental impact on individuals’ wellbeing. Community organisations often struggle to attract capable community participants as they compete with the well-known giants of the voluntary sector, who have significant marketing budgets. They need to develop their use of ICT to compete, attract and sustain community participants. When the public consider community participation there are a series of local social interactions that take place, culminating in a tipping point, when they decide to participate. This process is complex with varying sources of information linking into decision making. Coupled with the needs of community organisations necessitates careful management to ensure the wellbeing of both. The aim of this research was to develop a wellbeing themed framework for effective community participation, applying both complexity and design perspectives. This has repeatedly been highlighted as an area of need and yet still no real answer has been found to offer the public a process that supports the development of wellbeing whilst creating tipping points for community participation. The research started with a literature review followed by open interviews of experiences and a separate analysis of spiritual reflections to develop and clarify themes for the wellbeing semi-structured interviews. The interview process involved reflection, Mindsight and Mindfulness of each themed area to rate where participants felt they were at that point in time, where they wanted to be and what actions they could have taken to get there and when. An international evaluation was completed to add qualitative and quantitative information to the research, validate the process and understand beneficial language. This was followed up with refinements from the literature. The evidence demonstrated the effectiveness of the wellbeing process with designed tipping points for community participation. The community sector can exploit this research for their benefit, offering well-fitting roles for career development of young people, unemployed, retired or ill health recovery. The contribution to knowledge acquired is the development of a sustainable, effective, efficient and time saving wellbeing framework and process for online communication mediation for wellbeing in a community participation context.

For the prescription of insole/orthoses a vast range of materials are available to clinicians and with the limited scientific evidence available on their effectiveness material choice is often based on the clinician’s personal experience. Similarly therapeutic footwear play a major role in the prevention and treatment of diabetic ulcers and recommendations on suitable insole materials and construction are needed. The aim of the work undertaken in this thesis was to extend the current knowledge in the area of orthoses and prescription footwear in order to aid clinicians in patient treatment. Chapter 2 examined literature to date into materials used in footwear orthoses, concluding that at present recommendations for appropriate materials for different patient requirements are not possible. Chapter 3 examined the prescription procedures involved in the provision of foot orthoses by clinicians with an emphasis on material choice and highlighted the diversity in opinion among clinicians with regards to the available materials. Chapter 4 examined the characteristics of orthosis materials and how they affect gait providing information for a clinician to draw an evidence-based orthosis prescription centred on material properties. Two systematic reviews (Chapters 5 and 6) provide a concise review of research to date in the area of diabetic footwear, highlighting the dearth of information in the area, the limitations of the reviewed studies and providing recommendations for future research. The repeatability of a new pressure measurement system was examined in Chapter 7 with favourable results for the new system when compared to an established pressure measurement system. This research has contributed to clinical practice through the provision of valuable information on the performance of footwear materials and has led to the development of recommendations for future research in the area of prescription footwear.

In organisation studies there has been an increasing interest in ‘identity work' – that is, the processes through which people's identities become constructed. The role that others play, along with the self, in identity work has, with varying degrees of emphasis, been a recurrent theme both in the contemporary literature and in its classical antecedents. Extant research leaves scope for further investigation of how others are present within identity working processes and this thesis is primarily concerned with the elaboration and understanding of the centrality of others to the working of identities. An interest in this area stemmed from my professional occupation and its context in a performing arts organisation. My observation of the constructions of the identities of my colleagues and myself was forming prior to my engagement in a formal research role. I adopted an interpretivist perspective, an ethnographic and autoethnographic method and an abductive analytical approach. The data collection was achieved through: field note collection; autoethnographic reflection; semi structured and interactive interviewing; and a reflexive diary. The thesis seeks to augment the identity work literature by applying and elaborating previously under-used theories, in particular, reflexive imagination in Cooley's ‘Looking Glass Self' (1902/1983) and ‘social ghosts' (Gergen, 2001). These ideas are synthesised to produce an understanding of the significance of others to identity working and the processes through which they impact on identity construction. A detailed explication of the qualities of social ghosts and the ways in which actors use them in interaction (identity work moves) leads to more profound understandings of how people work identities in relation to others. This reveals that identity emerges in an interactive process that is other-multiple, tentative and reactive, and which is underpinned by imagining the self in relation to others.

This thesis takes as its point of departure Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s conceptualization of art. Art for them is the expression of A Life in the living. A Life is the ontological and genetic condition of that which we are and ordinarily experience, it is the vital and material transcendental plane of immanence which characterizes Deleuze and Guattari’s ontology. Their conceptualization of art, however, sits uncomfortably with contemporary art in rejecting conceptual and photographic practices, and in its radical rejection of human experience. The aim of this thesis is to expand their conceptualization of art whilst remaining close to what is argued to be its core or essence: a commitment to A Life. This thesis explores three paradigms of commitment to A Life that move beyond the paradigm of A Life in the living. These paradigms are developed through the application of concepts developed by Deleuze and Guattari to contemporary mediums and artworks, with the aim of broadening the relevance of their philosophy for contemporary artistic practices. Deleuze and Guattari’s aesthetics is analyzed and expanded through an engagement with works by Francis Bacon, Thomas Struth, Pierre Huyghe, Francis Alÿs and Peter Doig. By finding a commonality between these artists in their commitment to A Life, this thesis hopes to develop a conceptualization of art which allows us to understand how contemporary art practices engage with A Life, the infinite inside which we live and which lives inside us.

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Investment in transport infrastructure can be highly sensitive to uncertainty. The scale and lead time of strategic transport programmes are such that they require continuing policy support and accurate forecasting. Delay, cost escalation and abandonment of projects often result if these conditions are not present. In Part One the physical characteristics of infrastructure are identified as a major constraint on planning processes. The extent to which strategies and techniques acknowledge these constraints is examined. A simple simulation model is developed to evaluate the effects on system development of variations in the scale and lead time of investments. In Part Two, two case studies of strategic infrastructure investment are analysed. The absence of a policy consensus for airport location was an important factor in the delayed resolution of the Third London Airport issue. In London itself, the traffic and environmental effects of major highway investment ultimately resulted in the abandonment of plans to construct urban motorways. In both cases, the infrastructure implications of alternative strategies are reviewed with reference to the problems of uncertainty. In conclusion, the scale of infrastructure investment is considered the most important of the constraints on the processes of transport planning. Adequate appraisal of such constraints may best be achieved by evaluation more closely aligned to policy objectives.

Bowel cancer is major global public health problem. In the United Kingdom, it is the third most common cancer in men and women and second major cause of cancer deaths. It has been suggested that the risk of bowel cancer deaths can be reduced by 16% through regular bowel screening. However, screening uptake remains low. This research explored factors influencing participation in the NHS bowel cancer screening programme, specifically ‘the faecal occult blood test (FOBt)’ in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, (NEYH) regions. Drawing on grounded theory, (GT) a qualitative research approach enabled the development of an understanding of participants’ experience of the FOBt and the processes involved in the choices they made. Twenty-six research participants were recruited through the bowel cancer screening hub in accordance with ethical approval. Data collection was by semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. Analysis was done using grounded theory techniques of constant comparative method and theoretical sampling aided by Nvivo and mind genius software. Awareness of the FOBt prior to screening invitation was found to be low. Knowledge of bowel cancer seemed to come mostly from past personal experience and family history. Decisions to participate in the FOBt were largely influenced by three main themes: Social contexts such as demographic, cognition and cultural issues; Knowledge and awareness; and Practicalities associated with obtaining samples for FOBt. Knowledge and awareness seemed to be a key influence in participation and pivotal to social contexts and practicalities. Screening was viewed positively by all participants particularly in relation to health protection. Within the social contexts and practicality issues, there are facilitators and potential barriers. The interactions of social and practical contexts tend to dissuade people from participating in the FOBt. However, knowledge and awareness seem to mediate the two in such a way as to encourage people to participate. A tentative explanatory model called “awareness-led behaviour model” was developed and appears to have commonalities with the health belief model typically used to explain health behaviours. This study is one of the few studies to investigate factors affecting uptake of the NHSBCSP in the NEYH. The results obtained in this study are likely to have high policy and practice importance as they represent user-focused perspectives. Recommendations and implications for further research, policy, practice and education are offered in the concluding chapter.

Although it is known that DNA topo IIβ is required for the regulation of transcription during neural development and differentiation, it is not clear whether the enzyme is required during differentiation of human monocytes into macrophages and/or the subsequent transcription of cytokine genes. To test this, a robust model of differentiation of monocyte-like cells into macrophage-like cells using U937 and HL-60 cells treated with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) and Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was validated. Differentiation was determined by morphological and growth characteristics and CD11b surface antigen expression as determined by flow cytometry. qRT-PCR was also used to measure mRNA transcript levels of key genes known to be up-regulated during monocyte differentiation and the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines produced by differentiated cells were measured using ELISA. siRNA topo IIβknockdown did not hinder monocyte-like cells from undergoing differentiation, however experiments revealed a correlation between topo IIβknockdown and secreted TNFα, with the latter decreasing when topo IIβwas reduced. This pattern was also noted when measuring IL-1βsecretion. Similar results were seen using a Murine transgenic fibroblast cell line lacking topo IIβ, which when stimulated with LPS secreted significantly lower levels of IL-6 compared to the wild type cells. Thus topo IIβexpression is necessary for secretion of normal levels of the cytokines, TNFα, IL-1βand IL-6 in response to LPS at certain time points. In addition in the macrophage-like state of the two cell lines, the relative levels of the βisoform (mRNA and protein) were shown to be significantly increased compared to α, further outlining the importance of topo IIβin the differentiated state. Chromatin immuno-precipitation followed by qPCR showed however that topo IIβwas not associated at three defined proximal promoter regions of either the TNFαand IL-1βgenes, although further studies are required to rule out a direct association of topo IIβwith these and other regions of the genes. Down regulation of topo IIβprotein using the inhibitor ICRF-193 did not hinder monocyte-like cells from undergoing differentiation either. However, contrary to the knockdown results, a 6 h pre-treatment with 1 nM ICRF-193 increased TNFαlevels in these cells, both at the mRNA and the protein level, along with a slight increase in secreted TNFα. NF-κB, EGR2, TLR4 and TLR2 transcript levels were also increased under these conditions. Thus further studies are required to determine if these increases are due to additional cellular effects of the drug or whether topo IIβmay play an inhibitory effect on transcription. Thus it is clear that topo IIβplays an important role in expression of cytokines and understanding the exact nature of this requires further research that may yield potential new avenues for treatment of disease.