In 2007 it was announced by Cycling England that Chester was to become a Cycling Demonstration Town (Cycling England, 2010). Rather than the typical English local authority spend on cycling promotion, this meant that Chester would receive a sum of money similar to seemingly pro-cycling cities, such as Amsterdam (DfT, 2008). However there is yet to be an official evaluation of the second round of Cycling Demonstration Towns. This thesis is designed to demonstrate the context of delivering parties in one specific case-study, the Cycling Demonstration Towns Project ‘Cycle Chester’. Fifteen semi-structured interviews explored the views and experiences of various different concerned actors, both inside and outside the core delivery group. The concepts of figurational sociology have been employed to help understand the findings. The principal finding was that the complex figuration in which deliverers were situated meant that the project encountered several unintended outcomes. In addition to this, two key areas were found to have the potential to further complicate the delivery process. Firstly the way in which potential towns and cities were encouraged to apply for funding was found to have large impacts on the project at a later stage. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the differing goals of the many groups and individuals who were eventually involved with the project meant that interventions were often ‘watered-down’.

The government places a great deal of importance on authorities being effective community leaders it has been enshrined in legislation since 2000 (LGA 2000 and RRAA 2000) and yet community leadership is still a relatively new term. There are key challenges effecting local government over the next ten years and every penny of public sector funding is required to be accounted for. “Now more than ever taxpayers need to see that each pound of their money is working as hard as they did to earn it in the first place and is meeting their needs” John Denham, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. It is critical that members, the authority, partners and the community are clear on the responsibilities of local members acting as community leaders, the key skills and working practices required to carry out the role and that structures and systems effectively support it. The study will assess the level of understanding of community leadership in Liverpool City Council, and examine the key skills knowledge and working practices of those viewed as effective Community leaders together with what changes have been made which have had a positive impact upon the role. It will also consider what needs to change further in light of the developing role for members and to effectively respond to legislation.

A qualitative study is presented revisiting the work of Reeves and Mintz (2001) in exploring the experiences of counsellors working with suicidal clients and extending the focus to the issue of locus of responsibility. Following a review of the literature, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with six experienced counsellors currently or recently working with suicidal clients. These were recorded, transcribed and the material analysed using the constant comparative method (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994) to yield twelve categories representing participants experience. Themes emerging included: the impact of training, experience and organisational context, issues of client autonomy and professional responsibility, contrasting thoughts and feelings of counsellors when clients disclose suicidal feelings, ways counsellors seek to work with suicidal clients whilst dealing with their own feelings and finally, the locus of responsibility for the suicidal client and young clients especially. These are placed in context of the literature and limitations; implications for practice and further research are discussed.

Objective: It is well established that exercise training improves walking distance in patients with intermittent claudication. However the physiological mechanisms responsible for explaining these increases are not fully understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the physiological mechanisms and to provide a rationale as to why patients with intermittent claudication improve pain free and maximum walking distances following a programme of unsupervised exercise. Methods: 10 claudicants with a mean age of 70 years (± 9.84) were studied. Pain free walking distance (PFWD), maximum walking distance (MWD), heart rate (HR), microalbuminuria, ankle brachial pressure index (ABPI), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), C>2 uptake and lactate were measured. Patients performed a graded treadmill protocol at baseline and following six weeks of an unsupervised exercise programme. The exercise programme consisted of patients performing 1 hour of walking per day above and beyond their normal daily activities. Patients were monitored by the use of an exercise diary, pedometer and a weekly phone call. Results: MWD improved by 5% although this difference was not found to be significant. Positive differences were also observed in ABPI (5.5%) and resting lactate levels (10%), once again these differences were not found to be significant. No differences were observed between heart rate, RER and C>2 uptake. A significant difference was observed in PFWD (p = 0.02), Microalbuminuria levels at rest (p = 0.03) and post exercise (p = 0.01), lactate levels at rest (p = 0.0005) and 6 minutes (p = 0.001) post a graded treadmill protocol. Conclusions: Exercise training improves walking distances in claudicants and reduces post exercise lactate levels. Exercise has a significant effect on two of the physiological variables measured (Microalbuminuria and post exercise lactate) and a positive effect on ABPI and resting lactate although no significant difference was found. This could possibly be due to a number of limitations in this study including small sample size (n = 10), the exercise programme was too short and also unsupervised. It is still unclear how exercise improves walking distances in claudicants and further research is required to investigate this.

Osteoporosis is a disease that affects over three million people in the UK (NHS, 2016), and is categorized by a reduced bone mass leading to decreased bone strength and increased fragility. Clinical features of osteoporotic fractures include increased morbidity (physical impairment, reduced quality of life, pain), greater risk of new fractures and increased mortality (Geusens, 2008). During the lifetime of a typical human, bones are their strongest whilst a person is in their early-mid 20’s. As one ages bone loss begins to occur around the age of 35. One important causal factor leading to osteoporosis is lack of weight-bearing physical activity, which might impact the elderly human population at sites such as the femoral neck resulting in fragility fractures. Around 70,000-75,000 hip fractures occur in the UK each year, additionally every year an increase in incident rates has been observed partly due to an aging population (NHS, 2016). The relationship between a decreased mechanical load and resulting in reduced bone mass is well established. The structural and cellular consequences of mechanical underloading within a temporal animal model are yet to be fully explored. The objective of the current study was to determine the temporal structural changes occurring due to the influence of mechanical under-loading (experienced at day 0/baseline, week 4 and week 16) within an ovine skeletal model. Additionally, this experimental system provided insight into the cellular activity (in terms of bone remodeling) associated with a reduced mechanical loading environment. Within this model by week 16 of mechanical under-loading, an increase in cortical porosity (4%, p=0.017) within the dorsal region and reduced cortical thickness (19.7%, p=0.025) across all combined regions (as well as a regional decrease of 15% and 23% within the medial and ventral regions respectively) was observed. These changes indicating a reduction in bone mass were accompanied by increased cortical remodeling medially (58%;p=0.028) as evidenced by an increase in the proportion (%) of canals undergoing bone formation within that anatomical region. These data demonstrate a reduction in bone mass and increased bone remodeling associated with reduced mechanical load within this skeletal site. Additionally, the data presented here of decreased mechanical load appear to support the observed bone loss and elevated remodeling occurring within the osteoporotic human femoral neck. This investigation,therefore, validates the underloaded ovine calcaneus as a suitable experimental model to investigate the possible pathological events associated with disuse osteoporosis.

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the extent social networking has on branding within Chester’s night life clubs. The concept of using social network ‘Facebook’ to develop a brand is relatively modern; therefore there is little previously bounded literature within this area. Therefore the approach taken during this process will aim to build a theory that answers such questions. The literature that will be analyzed will be centered on generalized marketing terms around the areas of building a brand image, creating word of mouth and developing a brand community. Under the bracket of such headings, many differing academic theories and models can be considered. The research will evaluate and consider existing research concerning many differing aspects of branding. Such as creating brand awareness, re-forcing the brands image, creating brand associations, building brand perception, developing a corporate image, communication messages. The base knowledge gathered from such data will give the project a good base from which to move from. The information hear will then be used to develop relevant questions ready for the qualitative data to be gathered in the form of the interviews and the student-led focus group. This approach will although for the results to be compared and contrasted against and viable conclusions to be drawn.

A high percentage of individuals will experience a trauma in their life time. A clinical psychologist’s work is often to provide intervention for those experiencing high levels of distress following a trauma. However, understanding of psychologists’ own experiences of trauma and trauma disclosure within the profession are unknown. This dissertation focuses on gaining deeper understanding of trauma-related experiences, and how clinical psychologists make sense of trauma within the profession. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). This study found that trauma of psychologists was rarely spoken about and complex interactions between anticipated, internalised and perceived stigma were evident. Anticipated stigma presented as the most dominant in influencing disclosure of trauma by clinical psychologists. This research recommends psychologists consider their own levels of openness about their personal trauma and experiences of trauma related disclosure. Psychologists need the understanding and support that psychologists offer to their clients, removing stigma and promoting openness in the profession is a vital step to supporting psychologists who have experienced trauma, with the profession as a whole learning from each others’ experiences.

The purpose of the study was to identify whether there was a relative quality effect for key performance indicators (KPI) in goalball. The study was completed from a performance analysis perspective and analysis was completed on two major international goalball tournaments (Paralympics 2012, European A 2013) and three IBSA qualifying events (Hungary 2013, Venice 2014, Malmo 2014). A regression-based analysis described by O’Donoghue & Cullinane (2011) was used to identify whether there was a relative quality (RQ) effect between KPI in goalball. Results showed that there was a low correlation between RQ and KPI in goalball. Although weak positive correlation was observed, a repeated measures anova showed trends for shots to pockets (F=3.280, p=0.053) and speed of shot (F=4.048, p<0.05), with a weak negative correlation for smooth shots (F=5.598, p<0.05). Thus, suggesting that teams of higher RQ score more goals, through faster more accurate shots. The regression was used to present a case study from one match between Russia and GB (RQ of +1.12, -1.12 respectively). The team with higher RQ performed well in desirable aspects of performance, exceeding the performance of 81.30% for speed of shot, 94.36% shots to pockets and 70.63% bounce shots of performances with that RQ. Despite the low correlation between RQ effect and KPI in goalball the regression-based analysis was shown to have an applied application, although caution would be expressed due to the variation experienced in the upper and lower estimates of the prediction equation.

Protein intakes above the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for adult males have been suggested to be essential in accreting lean body mass, particularly in active individuals. Though, what is the maximum protein requirement of strength athletes in order to maximise their performance. A systematic review was conducted on all primary literature to establish the maximum protein requirements of strength athletes. A comprehensive search strategy involving searches of six electronic databases and ‘grey’ literature were conducted. The search was restricted to studies published after 1986 to the present day. All primary research literature that presented the effect of total dietary protein intake on lean body mass was included. Studies that met the inclusion criteria were assessed for methodological quality using the Downs and Black checklist. 4 studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria, although only 3 studies met the quality assessment criteria; two randomised trials and one non-randomised trial. Statistically non-significant trends (p>0.05) deriving from muscle mass measurements, determined that the maximum protein requirement for strength athletes to be a moderate quantity of 1.4g/kg Bw/day. Similar results were shown in all three studies. There is a sparsity of evidence and an inconsistency in the methodological designs between trials, regarding what the maximum protein requirement of strength athletes to be. Yet, it is likely to be a moderate protein intake, rather than a high protein intake.

The following study is an ethnographic approach to changing behaviour towards physical activity with a recently retired family member by using a physical activity intervention. The overall aim of this study was to attempt to create some sort of behaviour change using the Prochaska & DiClemente (1983) Transtheoretical Model (TTM) as a framework. There is a wide range of previous research on the subject of interventions and how best to apply them and the differing environments (Stubbs & Lavin, 2002; Michie & Abraham, 2004; Ransdell, Taylor, Oakland, Schmidt, Moyer-Mileur & Schultz, 2003). There is a long process involved before commencing with an intervention, involving interviews, questionnaires, planning and evaluating. Additionally, the study assessed my Father’s psychological measures, as opposed to focusing on physiological measures. The exercise undertaken each week was calculated using the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ) calculation to assess whether there was an increase/decrease from baseline week to post-intervention. Despite the focus of the study analysing any change in behaviour, the use of the GLTEQ calculation enables for a greater understanding of how much exercise was being completed each week, in comparison to the baseline, my Father’s weight was also recorded, prior to the intervention commencing, post-intervention and after the completion of the whole study. The results found that there was a short term increase in physical activity from the baseline week compared to the weeks of independent activity. Furthermore, my father appeared to have extra positive feelings towards exercise before an activity after the intervention than beforehand.