This research investigates the blame avoidance strategies employed by the Conservative Government during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores their influence on news media content during this period. It focuses on the dynamics between journalists and political actors shaping the newsmaking process, specifically in relation to the agenda setting of crises, policy outcomes and narratives of accountability. It engages with salient questions regarding the extent of media dependence on party-sponsored messaging and the susceptibility of journalism to methods such as spin, distraction and obscurantism. By investigating the recent history of Boris Johnson's premiership, during which pandemic management was the media's predominant policy focus, this study takes advantage of a unique period in British politics to further the understanding into crisis communications, the influence parties have over media agendas and the importance of structural media factors in determining party strategy. Through a content analysis of print publication and broadcast output spanning a two-year period, this research will produce statistical data showcasing the efficacy of different media strategies for blame management purposes. Measures such as the exporting of frames and the variability of issues' salience will be theorised as evidence of a strategy's success. Time-series analysis will examine flows between sources, in turn identifying influential arbiters of discursive power. In addition, interviews with party strategists, communications officers and journalists will complement content analysis to help provide a more nuanced understanding into how the 'blame game' works in practice. The hypotheses developed in conjunction with the coding scheme will draw upon existing research which finds factors such as press partisanship and incumbency to be strong determinants of media representation. Furthermore, in light of growing concerns that the Government has regularly employed divisive, populist techniques to evade accountability, this research aims to explore the role of certain methods - e.g. personal attacks, 'dead cat policies' - within the Government's wider PR arsenal. Whilst there are multiple studies which explain how populist communications can be an effective tool for insurgent parties in terms of agenda-setting and visibility-seeking, this project explores whether a broadly populist style is auspicious for a mainstream, governing party, and considers the impact it may have on the wider state of political news reporting. Lastly, it addresses questions concerning the media's ability to hold governments to account when confronted by public relations techniques, and will inform recommendations for the strengthening of regulatory frameworks and the improvement of newsroom practices.

Investment Casting (IC) is one of the oldest and most versatile methods of manufacturing near net shape metal parts. IC can deliver parts with intricate geometries, thin walls, superb surface finish, and high dimensional accuracy with an ability to manufacture most metallic materials used in different industries. However, the main shortcoming of IC method is its rather long development lead-time and high toolmaking cost. Specifically, in high-value manufacturing where fast development, low order quantities, short product life cycles, geometrical complexities, and customised designs are in highest demand, conventional investment casting method is prohibitively expensive and slow. However, additive manufacturing (AM) is set to change this shortcoming by reducing the production lead time and cost of sacrificial patterns used in IC. Patterns can be directly produced by AM techniques to entirely eliminate the need for the injection moulding tools and the injection process, which often comprise up to one-third of the product development cost and up to half of the development lead-time. These estimations are even higher for customised products such as biomedical implants. Among many AM methods, Vat Photopolymerization process in which a liquid photo-resin is selectively solidified under light illumination, is known for its low cost, excellent resolution and high scalability. Digital Light Processing (DLP) is one of the Vat Photopolymerisation techniques in which the whole cross-section of the part is light cured at once making the process faster compared to other techniques. This AM technique and its application in IC will be studied in this research. Research Gap Although material jetting and stereolithography printing methods have been long studied in IC applications, there is currently little academic literature and limited industrial reports on using DLP systems to produce cost effective, fast and accurate IC patterns. Thus, one needs to define a methodology to develop a set of processes and materials to enable a wide use of DLP method in the casting patterns production. However, the challenges are to develop a resin mix, print process and handling/assembling procedure to offer the following: 1) minimum shrinkage during printing and post printing processes; 2) minimum residual stress during printing process to avoid deformations after printing; 3) minimum ash-content after pattern burn-out process; 4) minimum thermal expansion during burn-out process to avoid cracking and breaking IC ceramic mould; 5) best print resolution, surface finish and geometrical printability; 6)best handling and storing conditions for AM-IC patterns and best method to embed a ceramic core into an AM-IC pattern when needed. Aims and objectives This research aims to design, verification, and validation of a DLP system and material to achieve the highest castability, dimensional and geometrical accuracy, and cost effectiveness for IC patterns. To achieve this aim, the following objectives are defined: - To develop a methodology to better study an understand burning AM-IC patterns and thermal and gas expansion during burn-out process. It may include physical and computer-aided finite element simulation methods. - To modifying the photocurable resin material and the DLP 3D-printing process to achieve the best dimensional accuracy and geometrical printability by reducing the shrinkage and residual stress during printing and post-printing, in order to minimise/control deformation of the part during print and post-print stages. - Enhancing pattern removal process capability by introducing additives to the resin, improving resign mix materials, and adjusting the pattern removal operations, in order to prevent damage to the ceramic mould. - Develop and validate a method to best store, handle and assemble AM-IC patterns and to fit the ceramic cores inside the patterns while maintaining its dimensional accuracy and functionality.

This project will develop an intervention to enhance the health-related lifestyle behaviours of remote workers. Since the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a rise in home workers in the UK. Between January and February 2023, 40% of the UK working population reported working from home at least once in the last seven days. While working remotely provides some benefits (e.g., better work-life balance, reduced commute time) it can result in unhealthy lifestyle behaviours. Unhealthy lifestyle behaviours associated with remote working include reduced physical activity, prolonged sitting, snacking more frequently. Work from our research group with UK remote workers has revealed that workers are less active and sit more when working from home versus working in an office, with 60% of participants reporting sitting for longer since working at home. These behaviours are linked to an increased risk of weight gain, long-term health conditions (e.g., diabetes, cancer), muscle pains (e.g., back pain, neck pain) and mental health and wellbeing disturbances. Since the pandemic, Macmillan are one of many organisations who have implemented a permanent remote working policy for their cancer support contact centre team. This desk-based team offer support regarding a cancer diagnosis over the phone. Since implementing home working, a wellbeing assessment at Macmillan revealed that a high percentage of employees reported not moving much during the working day, raising concerns over their current and longer-term physical and mental wellbeing. We will work with Macmillan to develop an intervention to increase movement and reduce sitting time within this essential, but highly sedentary and at-risk, workforce. The intervention will be developed in partnership with Macmillan employees and senior management, potential intervention components (based on the findings of this work) may include online educational and motivational resources, targeting the individual, organisational, and policy levels. Intervention development will be guided by psychological theories that help change behaviour. We will create a public engagement group, which will consist of key stakeholders (e.g., managers, HR staff, employees) to provide their opinions throughout the project to enhance likelihood of intervention acceptability and success. The project will consist of four stages: 1) The health-related lifestyle behaviours (e.g., physical activity, sitting time, dietary intake) of remote Macmillan workers will be monitored via tracking devices and questionnaires. These findings will help identify if there are certain times of the day or patterns in behaviour where support is particularly required. 2) Interviews with Macmillan contact centre staff will explore their experiences of remote working, the impact on physical and mental health and health-related lifestyle behaviours, challenges when working remotely, and ways to overcome these challenges. 3) Co-creation workshops will be conducted with employees, managers, and HR staff, during which scenarios will be presented based on the findings of stages 1 and 2 and solutions discussed. 4) An investigation into whether it is feasible to implement and evaluate the intervention developed in stage 3. Feasibility will be based on factors such as participant recruitment and whether people engage with the intervention and complete the proposed evaluation measures. We will assess whether the intervention shows the potential for promoting movement and reducing sitting in this workforce. If this is the case, we will conduct a future study to examine the effectiveness of our intervention within a larger group (including different organisations) of employees working from home.

Background With 3.35 million children aged 5-15 participating across England (The FA, 2015), football has facilitated holistic health benefits (Krustrup et al., 2010). However, a bullying culture within adolescent football is currently highly prevalent, contributing to substantial dropouts (Steinfeldt et al., 2012), with adolescent participation levels significantly decreasing across the UK from 2011-2019 (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, 2020). Negative behaviours associated with reduced participation are characterised chiefly by bullying and victimisation, yet they are commonly masked as 'banter' (Newman, 2019). The Football Association (FA) sought to address bullying issues by initiating their 2007 Respect Programme to ensure a 'safe, inclusive and fun environment' (The FA, 2007). Despite this action, NSPCC (2017) indicates that negative behaviours of teasing and bullying still occurs in community sport, which driven by teammates and coaches. Moreover, a large body of research has investigated these issues in elite youth football but limited research on community youth football (Taylor & Bruner, 2012). The concern for the presence of negative behaviour that discourages participation is indicative of a need for further research on young peoples' experience of community football for a safer sport. Aims and Objectives This research will impactfully address the dichotomies and gaps in bullying literature and mirrors my interests in positively influencing football culture. (Phase 1) qualitatively explores how young community footballers define bullying compared to banter and its relationship with dropping-out, (Phase 2) designing an intervention that targets nationwide bullying in youth community football and (Phase 3) qualitatively test the feasibility in community football. Methods The Medical Research Council's (MRC) guidance on formulating interventions underpins the research methods in this study by establishing empirical evidence, designing an intervention, and testing its feasibility (Moore et al., 2015). Phase 1 will be achieved by qualitatively exploring how players define bullying and banter in youth community football by utilising an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and semi-structured interviews. IPA methodology is a practical approach suitable for examining the individual and collective bullying and banter experiences (Smith & Shinebourne, 2012). Phase 2 will then be achieved by designing an intervention using iterative development cycles to reflexively analyse the intervention to positively impact emerging issues visible in the first phase (Moore et al., 2015). Phase 3 will then address the intervention's feasibility by conducting semi-structured interviews and focus groups with players, coaches and policymakers. Interviews and focus groups allow the researcher to evaluate an intervention's feasibility with in-depth individualised and collective views (Bowen et al., 2009). Analysis As the study will take an IPA methodology approach and a review of an intervention, a thematic analysis will be used to gage the retrospective recollection of the lived experience. This allows the researcher to interpret the data comprehensively and concisely while systematically following Vaismoradi, Jones, Turunen and Snelgrove's (2016) phases of initialisation, construction, rectification and finalisation.

Loughborough University's EPSRC DTP represents a major £3M investment in postgraduate research (PGR) training. It is a significant component of our research strategy for engineering and the physical sciences, supporting interdisciplinary research via our Research Strategy 'CALIBRE' including Research Beacons, Global Research Challenges, Ambition and Adventurous research areas, which complement our underpinning, discipline-based research strengths. It also provides a platform for building industry partnerships, and enhancing inter-institutional collaborations afforded by major research infrastructure investments, such as through Midlands Innovation and the Energy Research Accelerator, where Loughborough is a partner. The relevant institutional areas through which DTP-funded opportunities will be aligned are: - Research Excellence in our academic Schools which primarily include; Wolfson School of Manufacturing, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, School of Aeronautical, Automotive and Chemical Engineering, School of Science and Loughborough Design School - Research Beacons; Built Environment (B), High Value Manufacturing (HVM), Transport Technologies (TT) - Global Challenge areas; Energy (E), Health and Wellbeing (HW), Secure and Resilience Societies (SRS), Changing Environments and Infrastructure (CEI) - Leading research groups in areas such as: Advanced Materials, Built Environment, Control Engineering, Engineering Design, Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics, Information Systems, Manufacturing Technologies, Robotics and Autonomous Systems and Water Engineering. An allocation for fundamental and theoretical science will be ring fenced and will include studentships for Mathematics plus an allocation of a cluster of studentships through a competitive process to support 'Adventure' in research at Loughborough. These initiatives will secure support for important underpinning disciplines. Each of our 42-month DTP-supported studentships will receive an enhanced, cohort-based research training experience akin to that found within our Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs). These will be enhanced by training in transferable and research skills, a research training support grant and an integrated impact, outreach and public engagement component to support impact creation. Additional DTP-supported initiatives include; three 18-month Doctoral Prize Fellowships, to allow the most able students to undertake a period of self-directed post-doctoral research to establish their research career; up to 6 'Impact Fellowships' to enable students to exploit opportunities where their doctoral research offers considerable promise for future downstream application(s) and CASE Conversion awards where there is the prospect of further enhancing collaboration between academic and partner organisations. We fund up to 15 DTP vacation bursaries per year for undergraduate student placements, which helps to provide the brightest students the opportunity to contribute to and experience research. DTP funds will be allocated in two tranches in late 2017 with the PGR programmes starting in October 2018 and October 2019. A number of studentships open to non-EU candidates will be available to attract the best international doctoral candidates. Details of allocations, timetable for appointment, recruitment process and DTP training programme will be made available on the Loughborough Doctoral College website, alongside profiles of current students in receipt of DTP funding (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/doctoral-college/centres-partnerships/). DTP-funded studentships will be publicised on the Studentship vacancies web page (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/next-steps/research/studentships/), in addition to findaphd.com and jobs.ac.uk. For further information, please contact Dr Kathryn North, Head of Researcher Development (k.north@lboro.ac.uk).