http://hdl.handle.net/2262/76240 2017-11-01T15:47:41Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/81946 Pulmonary oxygen uptake and muscle deoxygenation responses during ramp incremental exercise and moderate- and heavy-intensity exercise subsequent to priming exercise in type 2 diabetes. GILDEA, NORITA Middle-aged and young individuals with uncomplicated type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) consistently demonstrate impairments in submaximal and maximal exercise performance, which are independent of obesity, and present in the absence of clinically apparent cardiovascular disease. Such limitations have the potential to contribute to the tenacious excess cardiovascular and all-cause mortality observed in T2DM. Whilst the precise pathophysiological mechanisms responsible for this exercise intolerance remain to be elucidated, with both central and peripheral factors likely implicated, the primary aim of this thesis was to further investigate those mechanisms with an emphasis on the contribution of peripheral factors. As such, cardiorespiratory and estimated microvascular responses were simultaneously investigated during graded ramp incremental cycle exercise and during submaximal cycling exercise at moderate- and heavy-intensities subsequent to a prior heavy-intensity “priming” exercise. Given that muscle oxygen supply may limit maximal exercise capacity in T2DM, Experiment 1, examined the influence of T2DM on the profile of muscle fractional oxygen (O2) extraction (estimated using deoxygenated haemoglobin and myoglobin [HHb+Mb]) during ramp incremental cycle exercise in 17 middle-aged individuals with T2DM (48 ± 7 yr; 31.9 ± 4.8 kg.m-2; 12 males/5 females) and 17 individuals without T2DM (ND/controls) (44 ± 8 yr; 30.8 ± 3.5 kg.m-2; 12 males/5 females). Maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) was significantly reduced in individuals with T2DM compared with controls (22.5 ± 3.7 vs. 28.6 ± 5.5 mL.kg.min-1), representing a reduction of 21% in peak exercise capacity. This impairment was accompanied by the demonstration of a steeper primary slope of the bi-linear regression of relative [HHb+Mb] (% [HHb+Mb]) as a function of relative power output (%PO) in individuals with T2DM (1.48 ± 0.46 vs. 1.14 ± 0.21), thus, indicative of a greater rate of fractional O2 extraction for a given increase in oxygen uptake (VO2). This suggests a reduced O2 delivery is a likely underlying cause of exercise intolerance during a maximum graded test in T2DM. The subsequent three experiments were designed to investigate the influence of heavy-intensity (50% delta) priming exercise on the VO2 and [HHb+Mb] kinetics responses during subsequent moderate-, heavy- and heavy-intensity work-to-work (initiated from an elevated baseline) exercise bouts in T2DM. Experiment 2 examined the influence of priming exercise and T2DM on the VO2 and [HHb+Mb] dynamic response during moderate-intensity (80% ventilatory threshold (VT)) cycle exercise. Twelve middle-aged individuals with T2DM (48 ± 8 yr; 32.1 ± 5.6 kg.m-2; 7 males/5 females) and 12 controls (44 ± 9 yr; 30.4 ± 4.1 kg.m-2; 7 males/5 females) were tested. Individuals with T2DM demonstrated an accelerated rate of adjustment of the primary phase of the VO2 kinetics (τV̇ O2p) response (43 ±41 vs. 34 ± 11 s), whilst Δ[HHb+Mb]kinetics remained unchanged (29 ± 6 vs.28 ± 6, s) in a subsequent bout of primed moderate-intensity (80%VT) cycling exercise. This was accompanied by the amelioration of an ‘overshoot’ relative to steady-state in the Δ[HHb+Mb]/ΔV̇ O2 ratio (1.18 ± 0.17 vs. 1.05 ± 0.15) in the primed on-transient exercise response, attributed to an enhanced matching of microvascular O2 delivery to utilisation consequent to priming exercise. Experiment 3 examined the influence of priming exercise on VO2 and Δ[HHb+Mb] kinetics during heavy-intensity cycle exercise in T2DM. Twelve middle-aged individuals with T2DM (46 ± 8 yr; 31.4 ± 4.8 kg.m-2; 8 males/4 females) and 12 controls (43 ± 10 yr; 30.6 ± 3.8 kg.m-2; 8 males/4 females) were tested. Priming exercise significantly accelerated the overall VO2 kinetics profile or mean response time (MRT) in the subsequently primed heavy-intensity exercise bout (75 ± 10 vs. 55 ± 14 s). This was facilitated via a significant acceleration of τV̇ O2p (37 ± 10 vs. 31 ± 9 s) combined with a substantial reduction (P=0.1) in the VO2 amplitude of the slow component (0.26 ± 0.15 vs. 0.15 ± 0.07 L.min-1). Given that this acceleration of the overall VO2 kinetics occurred in the presence of an unaffected dynamic Δ[HHb+Mb]response (33 ± 27 vs. 16 ± 6) is thus further supportive of a superior O2 delivery relative to utilisation associated with heavy-intensity priming exercise. Healthy individuals display a constrained VO2 kinetics response when constant-load exercise is initiated from an elevated baseline (work-to-work). Thus, when combined with the notion of an already constrained muscle O2 supply in T2DM, the inclusion of a priming exercise intervention with the work-to-work model should provide superior insight into potential mechanisms implicated in the impaired VO2 kinetics response consistently demonstrated in T2DM. Thus, in Experiment 4 the influence of priming exercise on pulmonary oxygen uptake and muscle deoxygenation kinetics during heavy-intensity, work-to-work (w-to-w) cycle exercise in T2DM was investigated. Seven middle-aged individuals with T2DM (46 ± 8 yr; 30 ± 6 kg.m2; 3 males/4 females) and 7 controls (41 ± 10 yr; 31 ± 5.0 kg.m-2; 3 males/4 females) were tested. The MRT of the VO2 kinetics during w-to-w cycling transitions was significantly accelerated subsequent to the prior bout of heavy-intensity priming exercise (72 ± 10 vs. 53 ± 19 s). This was a consequence of a significant reduction (~40%) in the amplitude of the VO2 slow component (0.13 ± 0.15 vs. 0.08 ± 0.10 L.min-1), a substantial reduction of ~22% in primary phase of the VO2 kinetics response (54 ± 14 vs. 42 ± 17 s), with a tendency for the overall dynamic responses of Δ[HHb+Mb] (MRT) to be accelerated (52 ± 32 vs. 37 ± 24 s; P<0.10). Thus, the speeding of the VO2 MRT following priming exercise was attributed to a combination of an increased O2 delivery and the potential enhancement of motor unit recruitment. Thus, the accumulated data in this thesis offer a further insight into potential contributory mechanisms for the evidenced exercise intolerance in individuals with T2DM. The demonstration of a greater reliance on O2 extraction for a given increase in power output (PO) suggests that a reduced O2 delivery is in fact an important fundamental cause of exercise intolerance during maximal graded efforts in T2DM. This is further corroborated by the demonstration of improvements in oxidative metabolism with a concomitant improvement in the matching of O2 delivery to utilisation at a microcirculatory level consequent to an acute bout of heavy-intensity priming exercise, prior to both moderate- and heavy-intensity exercise (with and without an elevated baseline). Collectively, these findings suggest that factors beyond the heart substantially contribute to the diminished exercise tolerance consistently evidenced in T2DM APPROVED 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/81945 Closed Spaces: Beckett and Confinement LITTLE, JAMES This thesis is the first sustained study of Samuel Beckett?s career-long engagement with confinement, examining both his use of institutions of coercive confinement as well as the function of the closed spaces of his later prose and drama. Focussing on twenty-two case studies from Beckett?s critical, poetic, dramatic and prose writing, including the seven prose works in which institutions of confinement feature as key locales, it combines a historicist approach to institutional and performance space with the methodologies of genetic criticism (which studies an author?s manuscripts to investigate the geneses of his/her works) and spatial theory. Close readings of Beckett?s texts form the basis for a re-evaluation of his development as a writer and director. The thesis opens by studying Beckett?s use of images of confinement in the articulation of key aesthetic problems, which leads into an analysis of the role that the asylum played in the development of his poetics. I then focus on the ?decomposition? of institutional space in Beckett?s postwar prose before turning to his work in the inherently spatial art forms of performance. Beckett?s ?decomposition? of closed space became a radical disintegration when his protagonists turned from saying ?I? to ?not I?; I analyse the relation between Beckett?s voices and closed spaces in both his prose and drama. Through a study of intertextual references in some of Beckett?s most confined settings, I show that, far from cutting down our interpretative options, his closed spaces are highly productive. My final chapter argues that the study of coercive confinement provided in this thesis can give us a new understanding of Beckett as a political writer. This thesis challenges the model of Beckett?s poetics as simply involving the ?vaguening? of topography while contesting the view that his work takes place in ?empty space?. As well as giving fresh insight into Beckett?s poetics and aesthetics, confinement provides a unique lens on important topics in his writing, such as the relation between subject and object and the politics of literary representation. Due to Beckett?s use of confinement when engaging with such topics as well as his practical manipulation of space in performance, this study of his closed spaces can allow for a reconsideration of the way Beckett worked, the way his work means as well as what his works mean. APPROVED 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/81924 Post-Cold War Experimental Theatre of China: Staging Globalisation and Its Resistance WEI, ZHEYU This thesis is a study of Chinese experimental theatre from the year 1990 to the year 2014, to examine the involvement of Chinese theatre in the process of globalisation – the increasingly intensified relationship between places that are far away from one another but that are connected by the movement of flows on a global scale and the consciousness of the world as a whole. The central argument of this thesis is that Chinese post-Cold War experimental theatre has been greatly influenced by the trend of globalisation. This dissertation discusses the work of a number of representative figures in the 'Little Theatre Movement' in mainland China since the 1980s, e.g. Lin Zhaohua, Meng Jinghui, Zhang Xian, etc., whose theatrical experiments have had a strong impact on the development of contemporary Chinese theatre, and inspired a younger generation of theatre practitioners. Through both close reading of literary and visual texts, and the inspection of secondary texts such as interviews and commentaries, an overview of performances mirroring the age-old Chinese culture's struggle under the unprecedented modernising and globalising pressure in the post-Cold War period will be provided. Case studies of experimental theatre performances are classified into three thematic dimensions which respectively signify the political, economic and social/cultural tension between China and globalisation. Each of the three approaches warrants its own chapter. Chapter One focuses on political theatre, in which the oppression of ideologies and clash of civilisations are explicitly portrayed. Chapter Two covers plays that concern changes in society resulting from the economic reform since 1990. In Chapter Three, plays concerning conflicts between Chinese and Western cultures are examined to explore how Chineseness is constructed in relation to the imagination of globalisation. In this research, analysis will touch upon two levels of the interaction between Chinese theatre and the process of globalisation. The first level is a close examination of the 'economic base' of Chinese experimental theatre, which since 1990 has undergone a major transformation from being government-supported to being market-supported or semi-market-supported. The second level is how the dramatists, aware of their new roles in the globalised theatre industry, actively engaged in rising consumerism to present their experiences and imagination on the contemporary Chinese stage. To evaluate and critique experimental theatre within the condition of globalisation, Gerard Delanty's idea of critical cosmopolitanism concerned with 'the identification of moments of self-transformation in contexts in which there is an expansion in reflexive capacities and ultimately in those situations in which something undergoes normative transformation from the encounter with the Other' will be a tool of assessment in this thesis. The self-reflexivity embedded in cosmopolitanism can build a neutral ground for ethical judgements. The analysis of Chinese experimental theatre yields a better understanding as to the development of Chinese theatre in the last twenty-five years or so. More importantly, the analysis illustrates theatre's opportunities to bring about dialogues, reforms, and reconciliations, and to pursue the ethics of openness and equity in globalisation – the ethics of cosmopolitanism. APPROVED 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2262/81922 An Exploration into the Psychology of Education: The Use of an Ecological Framework to Address Macro and Microsystemic Factors that Influence Individuals Working within Irish Education MCDONNELL, DEAN PATRICK This Ph.D. project is considered a two-part piece. The first aspect is methodological and theoretical, concerning the design of an ecological and context-driven grounded theory framework. The second aspect is a cross-sectional study based on the researchers? interpretation of having implemented and interacted with the methodological framework. This project first opens with a brief outline of the role psychology has played within education to explain the context and rationale of this research. Highlighting the core schools of thought and key theorists follows, explaining how these figures have influenced educational theory and practice. By critically reviewing the literature surrounding research frameworks and methodologies, a constructivist grounded theory variation is proposed. A randomised sample of Irish Whole School Evaluations (N=59), statistics from an Irish longitudinal dataset (Growing Up in Ireland) and Departmental Annual Statistics, were used to provide a core foundation for this research. During a process of interrater reliability and a social media evaluation, three core research dimensions were identified: (1) the importance of Interaction, (2) the Dynamics of Pedagogical Skill, and (3) the Need for Psychological Support. Encompassing both primary and post-primary school samples, this research involved a total of 758 individuals (educator, n=266; and student, n=489). Based on whether they had been teaching a class group at the time of this study, educators were categorised into ?Teaching? and ?Non-Teaching? samples. Several significant differences were found between the ?Teaching? and ?Non-Teaching? samples. Also, several differences were found at a primary and post-primary level. With many recommendations and suggestions being made for future research, this study identifies and proposes a tool for educators to self-reflect on their interactions with students and their instructional practices. APPROVED 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z