Tracing outsideness: young women's institutional journeys and the geographies of closed space

Understanding confinement and its complex workings between individuals and society has been the stated aim of carceral geography and wider studies on detention. This project contributes ethnographic insights from multiple sites of incarceration, working with an under-researched group within confined populations. Focussing on young female detainees in Scotland, this project seeks to understand their experiences of different types of ‘closed’ space. Secure care, prison and closed psychiatric facilities all impact on the complex geographies of these young women’s lives. The fluid but always situated relations of control and care provide the backdrop for their journeys in/out and beyond institutional spaces. Understanding institutional journeys with reference to age and gender allows an insight into the highly mobile, often precarious, and unfamiliar lives of these young women who live on the margins. This thesis employs a mixed-method qualitative approach and explores what Goffman calls the ‘tissue and fabric’ of detention as a complex multi-institutional practice. In order to be able to understand the young women’s gendered, emotional and often repetitive experiences of confinement, analysis of the constitution of ‘closed space’ represents a first step for inquiry. The underlying nature of inner regimes, rules and discipline in closed spaces, provide the background on which confinement is lived, perceived and processed. The second part of the analysis is the exploration of individual experiences ‘on the inside’, ranging from young women’s views on entering a closed institution, the ways in which they adapt or resist the regime, and how they cope with embodied aspects of detention. The third and final step considers the wider context of incarceration by recovering the young women’s journeys through different types of institutional spaces and beyond. The exploration of these journeys challenges and re-develops understandings of mobility and inertia by engaging the relative power of carceral archipelagos and the figure of femina sacra. This project sits comfortably within the field of carceral geography while also pushing at its boundaries. On a conceptual level, a re-engagement with Goffman’s micro-analysis challenges current carceral-geographic theory development. Perhaps more importantly, this project pushes for an engagement with different institutions under the umbrella of carceral geography, thus creating new dialogues on issues like ‘care’ and ‘control’. Finally, an engagement with young women addresses an under-represented population within carceral geography in ways that raise distinctly problematic concerns for academic research and penal policy. Overall, this project aims to show the value of fine grained micro-level research in institutional geographies for extending thinking and understanding about society’s responses to a group of people who live on the margins of social and legal norms.

An investigation of the possible health-promoting modes of action of regular- and super- doses of phytase in the broiler chicken

The overall objective of this thesis was to study the effects of regular and high (super-) doses of phytase in the gut of broilers, with the aim of documenting the mechanism of their action leading to improvements in animal health. Phytase is often supplemented to commercial broiler diets to facilitate the hydrolysis of plant phytate and release of phosphorus for utilisation. Although not the original intention of its addition, phytase supplementation leads to improvements in growth performance parameters and enhanced nutrient utilisation. Further benefits have also been observed following the addition of super-doses of phytase which are not explained by an increase in phosphorus release, and thus have been termed ‘extra-phosphoric effects’. Using diets formulated to be adequate or marginally deficient in available phosphorus (aP; forming the negative control, NC), phytase was supplemented at 1,500 and 3,000 FTU/kg phytase in the first study (both super-doses) and the partitioning of nutrients within the body was investigated. It appeared that there were some metabolic changes between 1,500 and 3,000 FTU/kg, switching between protein and fat accretion, potentially as a consequence of nutrient availability, although these changes were not reflected by changes in growth performance parameters. However, the loss of the NC treatment without phytase on day 12 limits the comparison of the phytase within the NC treatment, but does allow for comparison of each dose at adequate or low dietary aP levels. As expected, a greater degree of phytate hydrolysis was achieved with 3,000 than with 1,500 FTU/kg phytase, but changes in carcass accretion characteristics were greater with 1,500 than 3,000 FTU/kg. Using these findings and the observation that there were no further changes in the parameters measured by increasing phytase from 1,500 to 3,000 FTU/kg (aside from phytate hydrolysis), 1,500 FTU/kg phytase was selected as the super-dose to be used in subsequent studies. The next study considered the influence of regular (500 FTU/kg) and super doses (1,500 FTU/kg) of phytase from within the gut. Overall, it was observed that changes were occurring to the gut environment, which ultimately would influence the absorptive capacity and conditions for further phytate hydrolysis. Dietary treatment influenced gut conditions such as pH, intestinal morphology and bacterial populations which can subsequently influence nutrient utilisation and potential for growth. The subsequent study was designed to investigate the effects within the gut in more detail. The release of nutrients from phytate hydrolysis and their bioavailability within the digesta can influence conditions within intestine, facilitating enhanced absorption. One of the parameters investigated was the expression of genes involved in the transport of nutrients in the intestine. Overall, there were few significant dietary treatment influences on gene expression in the intestine, however there was a dose-dependent response of phytase on the expression of the jejunual divalent mineral transporter. This indicates a change in divalent mineral bioavailability in the intestine, with correlations with inositol phosphate esters (IPs) being identified. This is likely explained by the IPs produced by phytase hydrolysis and accumulating in the digesta, differing between regular and high doses of phytase. It became apparent that interactions between the products of phytate hydrolysis (IP3, IP4) and minerals in the digesta had the potential to influence the gut environment and subsequent nutrient bioavailability and overall phytase action. The final study was designed to increase the content of the IPs, and investigate the influence of phytase under these conditions. As the complete hydrolysis of phytate to myo-inositol has been reported to be beneficial due to its proposed insulin mimetic effects, myo-inositol was also supplemented to one of the diets to see if any further benefits would be observed when supplemented alongside super-doses of phytase. Neither increased concentrations of the higher IP esters (IP6, IP5 and IP4) nor myo-inositol (myo-) had any effect on broiler growth performance, however there were still apparent beneficial influences of phytase supplementation. The results suggest considerable and important interactions between minerals and IP esters within the digesta, which ultimately have the potential to influence gut conditions and thus nutrient utilisation and growth performance. Reduced concentrations of blood glucose in the high IP ester diet with additional phytase supplementation suggest some insulin-like effects of myo- production. Additionally, the lack of effect of myo- supplementation on blood glucose and insulin concentrations suggests a difference between the structure of phytase-produced myo- and supplemented myo-. Although there were no improvements in growth performance by increasing phytase from 500 to 1,500 FTU/kg, there were changes occurring at the level of the gut and expression of genes in the intestine, influencing nutrient utilisation and the partitioning of nutrients within the body. There are many factors to be considered when supplementing phytase, with dietary nutrient content and nutrient release and IP production during phytate hydrolysis having an influence on phytase action, nutrient absorption and conditions within the gut. Super-doses of phytase may be beneficial for maintaining optimal gut conditions, clearing IP esters from the digesta, reducing their potential to form complexes with minerals and other nutrients, ultimately influencing the efficiency of production.