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(Wolverhampton Intellectual Repository and E-Theses)
WIRE is an open access repository for the research publications and other outputs from postgraduate students and staff at the University of Wolverhampton.
Wolverhampton staff: to deposit your publication to WIRE, go to: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/lib/research/wire/
Use the search box above or the browse function on the left to discover publications from the research community at the University of Wolverhampton.
University students and staff can also search WIRE using LibrarySearch
For further information or help, contact the Scholarly Communications Team at wire@wlv.ac.uk
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Perspectives on the Ph.D. processThe paper presents an overview of the Ph.D process. This includes a review of the role and responsibilities of both the Ph.D. supervisor and researcher. The supervisor should be a guide, ‘critical friend,’ advisor and source of encouragement and knowledge to the researcher. Often flexibility and patience are helpful personal attributes. The attributes of the Ph.D. researcher should include interest in their chosen topic, commitment and dedication. The important roles of participating in an active research community, proof-reading of draft thesis text and a ‘mock viva’ are discussed.
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Soil quality and policyUrban soils are very diverse and found in gardens, parks, cemeteries, allotments, grass verges, playing fields, and sometimes derelict and commercial land. Commercial land may include disposal sites, demolition and building sites, waste and derelict land, rubbish tips, spoil heaps, canal and railway land, collieries, docklands, power-station land, shipbuilding land, scrap yards, dried-out industrial lagoons, sewage works, and land associated with mining, smelting, and manufacture. Of the main threats to soil sustainability (soil erosion; decreasing soil organic matter (SOM) content; loss of biodiversity; contamination; sealing; compaction; salinisation; and floods and landslides), sealing, and contamination are the greatest threats to soils in urban areas. In this chapter, we concentrate on the sources of pollution (contamination) of urban soils, the consequences for urban dwellers of polluted soils, and how policies developed or proposed to reduce soil pollution impact urban soils. Urban areas were once the main locations of industry. Formerly, little or no attempt was made to limit hazardous emissions from that industry, and so many urban soils became contaminated with a range of pollutants. Domestic heating systems using coal, oil, or wood; waste treatment facilities; and road traffic have also contaminated urban soils. Subsequently, due to a combination of the migration of industry away from urban centres and limiting of emissions by legislation, the major source of some pollutants in urban areas may no longer be direct emissions from industry etc., but remobilization of pollutants in contaminated soils. The diversity, fragmentation, and complexity of urban soils may lead to contamination by numerous pollutants and also considerable variation in the degree of contamination.
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A feasibility study for the reporting of cervical large loop excisions of the transformation zone (LLETZ) biopsies by consultant biomedical scientists in the UKObjective – A previous pilot study had shown that there was potential to extend the roles of advanced biomedical scientist practitioner (ABMSPs) now referred to as Consultant Biomedical Scientists (BMS) to report the histology of large loop excision biopsies of the cervical transformation zone (LLETZ) within the NHS Cervical Screening Programme (NHSCSP). Methods - 157 consecutive LLETZ specimens reported by four experienced Gynae-specialist Consultant Histopathologists at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, were also reported by six Consultant BMS, and compared against the final issued report. Neoplastic abnormalities were reported to NHSCSP standards as well as the Bethesda system. Completeness of excision and histological features associated with the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection were also assessed. The reporting of HPV is part of the proforma for reporting cervical samples, it does not affect the patient management but allows for correlation with the cervical cytology report and hence was included as part of the study. Results - There was overall good inter-observer agreement for both the three tier and two tier system of grading squamous lesions plus good agreement for glandular and invasive carcinomas identified by the Consultant BMS. There was variable inter-observer agreement for the completeness of the excision of the margins and the presence of HPV. Conclusions - This report provides evidence that suitably experienced Consultant BMS can be ‘fast-tracked’ through an approved training programme of selected specimens to meet the needs of the Histopathology service that is facing a chronic shortage of Histopathologists in a timely manner and provide a cost-effective solution.
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Caregiver wellbeing and the role of resilience in seeking support when caring for an individual with dementiaBackground & aims: To provide appropriate and suitable support to caregivers of people with dementia, it is important to explore the risk and protective factors related to their psychological wellbeing. The aim of this thesis, is firstly, to highlight lived experiences of dementia caregiver’s; secondly, to explore the role of psychological resilience in their ability to adapt and maintain their role; and finally, to identify and examine their perspectives of current support services in meeting their needs. Method: A sequential explanatory mixed method design was used. In Phase I participants completed a postal survey (n=45), including demographic information, a healthrelated quality of life measure and a psychological resilience scale. Results were used to inform and direct Phase II, in which semi-structured interviews were conducted (n=11), transcribed and analysed using thematic analyses. Results: The quantitative findings indicated that participants with higher mental health outcomes and high psychological resilience were more likely to access support services. Physical wellbeing had a greater association with factors related to providing care. Seven main themes were identified in the qualitative analysis, the majority relating strongly to a high degree of restricted opportunities and encroaching responsibilities. The findings indicate that caregivers are required to be flexible and adapt to their individual circumstances, within an ever-evolving situation. Implications: The results of this study suggest that identifying those with low levels of psychological resilience and wellbeing may be useful in identifying those in greater need of support. Recommendations for potential service developments are discussed, as well as the implications for Counselling Psychology practice.
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A framework for smart traffic management using heterogeneous data sourcesTraffic congestion constitutes a social, economic and environmental issue to modern cities as it can negatively impact travel times, fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Traffic forecasting and incident detection systems are fundamental areas of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) that have been widely researched in the last decade. These systems provide real time information about traffic congestion and other unexpected incidents that can support traffic management agencies to activate strategies and notify users accordingly. However, existing techniques suffer from high false alarm rate and incorrect traffic measurements. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in integrating different types of data sources to achieve higher precision in traffic forecasting and incident detection techniques. In fact, a considerable amount of literature has grown around the influence of integrating data from heterogeneous data sources into existing traffic management systems. This thesis presents a Smart Traffic Management framework for future cities. The proposed framework fusions different data sources and technologies to improve traffic prediction and incident detection systems. It is composed of two components: social media and simulator component. The social media component consists of a text classification algorithm to identify traffic related tweets. These traffic messages are then geolocated using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. Finally, with the purpose of further analysing user emotions within the tweet, stress and relaxation strength detection is performed. The proposed text classification algorithm outperformed similar studies in the literature and demonstrated to be more accurate than other machine learning algorithms in the same dataset. Results from the stress and relaxation analysis detected a significant amount of stress in 40% of the tweets, while the other portion did not show any emotions associated with them. This information can potentially be used for policy making in transportation, to understand the users’ perception of the transportation network. The simulator component proposes an optimisation procedure for determining missing roundabouts and urban roads flow distribution using constrained optimisation. Existing imputation methodologies have been developed on straight section of highways and their applicability for more complex networks have not been validated. This task presented a solution for the unavailability of roadway sensors in specific parts of the network and was able to successfully predict the missing values with very low percentage error. The proposed imputation methodology can serve as an aid for existing traffic forecasting and incident detection methodologies, as well as for the development of more realistic simulation networks.