The United Nations’ 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were initiated to collectively combat pertinent social, economic and environmental issues faced at a global level. One of the major set backs to these goals has been said to be the widespread apathetic attitude at a grassroots level, towards this initiative. Thus it is imperative to understand the lack of interest and attention shown towards the goals, such that we can, as a global community, actively work in achieving them.

China has been chosen to study as it is the world’s most populous state with a population of over 1.357 billion , would contain varying social attitudes. Moreover, China currently faces many issues that the SDGs hope to tackle such as gender imbalance, income inequality, environmental degradation and corruption.

The investigation will be carried out from the 12th of July to the 28th of August 2016 through a series of interviews and surveys in 5 of the largest and most populated cities in Mainland China: Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The interviews and questionnaires will determine if people are aware of the SDGs, if they actively take part in achieving them, and if not, why they are not in support of the cause, or able to take action.

The criteria that will be employed to measure the level of awareness and social activism will be:

1. Whether the respondent is aware of how many goals there are.
2. Whether the respondent is able to name the goals and demonstrate a sound understanding of what each of them entails.
3. How often and how intensely the respondent takes action as they define it.

This study is important in understanding the indifferent attitudes towards current global issues and finding a solution for it.

Discerning the methods by which transitional justice confronts war crimes or human rights violations allows for thought provoking insights into the effects of destabilized states on its indigenous communities. As a result, understanding this unique yet important field allows for broadening perspectives on similar prominent issues such as the current Syrian state. Thus, this investigation focuses on the consequences of transitional justice mechanisms being implemented by foreign institutions in states that have undergone destabilization through two case studies: East Timor and Iraq. Hence, the research question examined is: 'How significant is the implementation of transitional justice mechanisms from foreign institutions in exacerbating state instability?'The hypothesis is that transitional justice mechanisms implemented by foreign institutions exacerbates state instability when foreign involvement does not co-operate with local state institutions and fails to meet the indigenous population's collective needs. A range of secondary sources are utilized, the most vital being Leebaw's 'Irreconcilable Goals of Transitional Justice' alongside Harmer and Frith's as well as Eric Stover's insights on East Timor and Iraq respectively. Thus, the literature and research analysed inform expectations and research design for empirical analysis. Hence, the conclusion reached is that in Iraq's case, the USA's implementation of transitional justice instigated further destabilization whilst East Timor proves the latter half of the hypothesis with the United Nations positively benefiting the state through said co-operation. Therefore, analysis gained from this study would yield theoretical understanding on improving transitional justice methods through comparing and contrasting situations where transitional justice succeeds and fails respectively.

Humanitarian and foreign aid is seen as greatly beneficial to the nations receiving it. However, the reality of foreign aid is far from perfect, with issues such as the lack of proper management and accountability, increased opportunities for corruption and aid dependency levelled against it, which must be explored further. The research necessary to determine the effects of foreign aid involved online journal sources, databases and academic writings. A book titled Dead Aid written by Dambisa Moyo also provided a well-researched critique of foreign aid. News articles were also used in the research process, as they provided information on examples of the corruption attributed to foreign aid such as the “Cashgate” scandal in Malawi. There is a vast body of academic work exploring the effects that foreign aid has had on developing nations. Statistics spanning centuries provide researchers in the field with a lot of data which can be used for factual comparisons and conclusions on the topic.However, the critique of foreign aid has remained mostly in the academic community, with little mention of it in mainstream media sources and parliamentary debates. This is concerning due to the relevance of the topic in modern times. Since there is a common belief that foreign aid is the best way to provide assistance to the developing world involves billions of dollars exchanging hands each year, it is vital to explore the actual effects it has had on developing nations and to bring these effects to light, especially to the public on forms of media outlets.

The Cold War in Africa is a history of violence, political instability and ideological conflict fuelled by superpower intervention, yet it has received very little international attention, and is largely untouched in the study of the American-Soviet rivalry.

It was only as the Cold War tensions thawed from 1985 onwards that the politics of African states began to be popularized by western media outlets. From iconic charity events such as the 1985 ‘Live Aid’ concert to combat famine in Ethiopia, a surge of global aid and interest in the continent rapidly developed. In the study of the Cold War, this sudden western charity culture has resulted in an apparent correlation between the ending of the Cold War and the eruptive rise of political instability in African states. Yet if we move away from this westernised perspective, it becomes clear that this political destabilisation had been prevalent from the 1960’s onwards and very much as a result of superpower interference. Despite being severely unrepresented both in western media and academic writings, superpower politics had a hugely significant and detrimental impact on African development.

This paper aims to promote the importance of the study of the Cold War in Africa through a case study orientated methodology. I argue that the Cold War promoted authoritarianism and economic decline through assessing Somalia, Ethiopia, Zaire and Nigeria. My argument is structured via the case study work of African Cold War specialists and orthodox and revisionists in order to place the African conflict into a wider Cold War perspective.

As war persists in Syria and the Middle East, record numbers of people flee conflict zones to seek security in new countries. Governments need an effective method to integrate the high influx of migrants into society, whilst maintaining a level of social solidarity during the process. Social solidarity is a measure of the positive relations between the host population and new immigrant members. Countries with low social solidarity often have high racial division, and conflict would be expected.

This study reviews two common methods of integration; multiculturalism, which celebrates diversity, and assimilation that promotes a homogenous national identity. Their disadvantages and advantages will be discussed. This study compares the differing integration methods of France and Britain as case studies, whose similar histories, political and economic regions allow for effective comparison. Indicators of a country’s level of social solidarity and integration will be discussed.

The multicultural method is hypothesised to cause the host population to become more susceptible to racial politicisation and anti-immigration messages; an indicator of this would be increased support for ring-wing national groups with anti-immigration sentiment. Whereas the assimilation method, perceived to be less considerate to the migrant citizens, would be expected to have a higher level of disenfranchisement from new citizens. The opinions of migrant groups are harder to ascertain, especially in countries that promote integration via assimilation, because they have lower levels of visibility and are not as highly represented. A potential indication of disenfranchisement that will be discussed is the number of nationals radicalised by groups such as ISIS. The presentation proposes that neither integration method effectively considers both new and host nationals equally.

With massive migrant movements and increased population density, investigating the effects that integration methods have on social solidarity, and therefore national security, is more important than ever.

Resilience evaluation and enhancement has become a vital issue concerning the effectiveness of a current supply chain. This research paper proposes a multi-tier supplier selection policy for resilience enhancement as well as a customer-service-level(CSL) oriented resilience measurement approach using on-time delivery rate as the indicator. A simple case study involving main supplier failure disturbance is designed and simulated with LECAS agent-based modelling tool to compare the efficacy of supply chains with various policy configuration. Results demonstrate that supply chain which adopts the proposed policy is more resilient than normal supply chain during an upstream disruption, with a reduction in recoverability index by a factor of 10. It also shows a significant decline in both maximum CSL loss and recovery time.

International markets have always been more segmented than intra-national markets and this leads to welfare losses where consumers in different locations pay different prices for the same good. Purchasing power parity (PPP) sets a benchmark for measuring the degree of market integration. PPP suggests that the exchange rate between two countries’ currencies should equal to the ratio of the countries’ price levels. Testing PPP can be seen as testing whether one could buy the same basket of goods in any country for the same value when prices are expressed in a common currency. This paper investigates whether the violation of PPP exists between the US and China and the effect of geographical characteristics on the price dispersion using a three-dimensional panel data of CPIs (Consumer Price Index) on 11 categories of goods, over 179 months, across 20 cities in the US and China. The evidence shows that PPP does not hold between China and the US from January 2001 to November 2015 and the deviation increases during this period. The paper then focus on the border effect which is an indicator for welfare losses where consumers in different locations pay different prices for the same good. The author finds that the border effect is highly significant in explaining the price dispersion for all goods but distance effect is only significant for some tradeable goods. Reducing the border effect through cutting down the amount of trade policy being used could be a way to improve welfare. The study could extend to see how trade policies have an effect on the border effect.

Corannulene, is a polarised hydrocarbon that has a bowl-like geometry and molecular formula of C20H10, has been under the limelight of the research community for its exciting behaviours in electrical performance, luminescence empowerment and its host-guest interaction with macromolecules. In light of that, we are inspired to employ corannulene as a key building block to synthesise novel functional macromolecules that could unleash the full potential of corannulene for specific applications. For instance, we attempted to extend the conjugation system of corannulene in view of maximising its electrical properties. Several corannulene-thiophene conjugated oligomers (degree of polymerization, n = 1 - 4) have therefore been systematically synthesised for this aspiration. These oligomers revealed a red shift in their wavelength of maximum absorbance, λmax, as n increases, signifying a reduction in the band gap as well as an improvement in their electrical conductivity. Hence, we hypothesised that the conjugated polymer of corannulene could possess electrical conductivity down to the molecular scale and can perform competently in molecular electronics. Additionally, other groundworks include the investigation of intramolecular charge transfer phenomenon of corannulene with the electron-donating aromatic substituent, and the synthesising of corannulene dendrimer for host-guest complexation have simultaneously been explored. The motivations of these researches and their latest development will be presented.

In the 21st century, the cult of the amateur has become increasingly more apparent across a range of cultural forms. From the Great British Bake Off (searching for the nation's best amateur baker), to Britain's Got Talent, to the recent Royal Shakespeare Company's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream which employed several amateur theatre troupes as the rude mechanicals, the prominence of the amateur in relation to the professional is ever increasing. This project explores the motivations behind peoples' involvement in amateur theatre and asks what participation in amateur theatre means on an individual and community level. Here, I use primary research in the form of interviews, repertoire analysis, archival material, company histories and audience surveys, focusing on a small number of companies in the rural North Shropshire region. In examining these primary sources in relation to the primary themes of heritage, craft and community, the findings will be used to explore the role of amateur theatre past and present in this locality. The study is being conducted as part of the University's Undergraduate Research Scholarship Scheme and has been formulated to contribute to an on-going AHRC-funded research project into amateur theatre (see http://amateurdramaresearch.com/).

TEBASAKI is chicken wings in Japanese cuisine which is fried and tasted spicy in sweet-hot sauce. It is local specialty food of Nagoya prefecture, Japan. It is popular food in Japan, but also famous as one of foods which is difficult to eat because of bones and sauce. Because of the difficulty, some people avoid to struggle to eat and to make their hands sticky, refrain from eating it. This survey is done to improve inconvenience in people’s diet and to make their diet comfortable and happy. The ways of research are doing questionnaire and observation. The questionnaire asks people situations that they eat TEBASAKI, when they do not eat it, and how to eat it. Also, the observation is for catching sight of features when people eat TEBASAKI and analyzing it.

Bayesian inference is a normative way of updating probabilities when new evidence is taken into account. Such evaluation is essential in decision making in critical fields such as court justice and medical testing, but people struggle to use the normative approach.

The majority of research carried out in the past twenty years has focused primarily on finding solutions that would facilitate the understanding of Bayesian inference and improve performance in this type of reasoning. On the other hand, research on the barriers that disrupt this thinking process has been less systematic.

Therefore, through a questionnaire distributed to University of Leeds students and staff, this study will use an experimental design to investigate three issues that may affect evaluation:

1. The domain of the problem. Medical diagnosis is typically used, which may cause emotional responses. Therefore other fields will be included.
2. The prior probability of the event. Typical events used, like having cancer, are rare and imply low prior probabilities. The study tests whether higher prior probabilities may impact final evaluations.
3. Mathematics anxiety. Anxiety about calculation may affect the ability to process information.

Eventually, mathematics anxiety, possibly linked to the respondent’s numeracy level, and logical thinking seem to be essential towards the ability to perform Bayesian Inference normatively. These findings may therefore develop a new area of research which could help to better focus support for decision makers in order to improve their understanding of probabilistic data and the prevention of judgement mistakes caused by an erroneous interpretation of evidence.

In 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger disaster happened and seven astronauts was lost. Although it is known that the direct cause of it is a failure of O-ring, the damage was made by the unethical engineer and manager launched the space shuttle forcibly. Namely the cause was an error of human judgement, this is a human error. We judge various things every day and often takes a mistake. If such a mistake occur the development of space engineering or nuclear engineering, severe accident like challenger disaster can be. It is not infrequent this kind of disaster, in fact, the cause of JCO criticality accident and closing down the millennium bridge was a human error. To prevent from such an accident, Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) exist. In this presentation, firstly, I show HRA that analysis human error. Secondly while paying attention that human often judge under the circumstances containing uncertainty, I describe the fuzzy logic that shows an ambiguity that is made by human judgments and individual subjectivity. Finally, I consider associating the fuzzy logic with analyzing human error and do human reliability analysis the actual accident in the field of engineering.