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The lived experiences of young British female Muslims in a secondary school: Exploring faith membership, religious practices and identities
Get PDFWhile existing literature acknowledges the importance of religious and cultural identity in adolescence, there remains a gap in understanding how these processes unfold for Muslim students in mainstream secondary schools in the UK. This research explores the lived experiences of five young British female Muslims in Years 8 to 10 (ages 12-15) attending an all-girls mainstream secular secondary school, with a particular focus on their experiences of faith membership, religious practice, and identity development. To address this, the study employed semi-structured interviews and adopted an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach. All participants identified as Muslim females and were part of the same school community, offering insight into how religious identity is navigated within a secular educational environment.
Following the Larkin et al. (2021) model, the IPA methodology is grounded in a phenomenological epistemology and ontology, centring the participants’ subjective experiences. The analysis generated five Group Experiential Themes (GETs). The first, A General Shift in Muslim Family Dynamics, explores evolving generational perspectives on faith and identity. The second, Community Bonds, highlights the significance of peer and local networks in shaping religious belonging. The third, Relational Belonging and Identity Integration, examines how students reconcile their Muslim identity with broader school and societal expectations. The fourth, Individuality in a Conformist World, reflects the tension between personal expression and perceived cultural or institutional norms. Finally, Balancing Freedom and Responsibility captures the participants’ negotiation of autonomy within religious and familial frameworks.
This study explores how young British female Muslims navigate faith, belonging, and identity within secular school contexts. By amplifying their voices, it reveals faith as a source of resilience and underscores the need for inclusive educational environments that support intentional identity development and affirm complex, culturally rooted identities
Analysis of Primary Healthcare Providers for the Urban Poor in Bangladesh: Demand and Supply Side Perspectives
No full textThe urban primary healthcare (PHC) system in Bangladesh faces significant challenges in meeting the increased healthcare needs of the rapidly growing urban population. This thesis investigates how urban PHC in Bangladesh can be made more effective and responsive to the needs of the urban population, considering both demand and supply-side perspectives. From the demand side, population preferences were examined through a mixed-methods systematic review, a discrete choice experiment, and revealed preference analysis. From the supply side, key informant interviews with healthcare providers and policy-relevant personnel, and the technical efficiency of public and NGO PHC providers were conducted. The systematic review identified distance, costs, provider behaviour, and quality of care as the most frequently reported preference attributes. Six attributes of PHC providers were selected for conducting the DCE for both major and minor illnesses, including travel time, waiting time, recommendation, provider qualification, consultation fee, and medicine costs. DCE findings showed that for both minor and major illnesses, provider qualification was the highest priority. However, for minor illnesses, an MBBS provider was preferred over a senior doctor, and for major illnesses, it was the opposite. The revealed preference study indicated that facility proximity was the most preferred reason for selecting outpatient healthcare providers. Supply-side stakeholders highlighted challenges related to resource allocation, governance, and service delivery mechanisms, particularly the insufficient government-contracted facilities and the limited scope of services offered by existing facilities. Technical efficiency analysis of 423 subdistrict-level hospitals and 96 NGO PHC providers revealed significant potential for improving service output by 42% and 57%, respectively, through the effective use of existing resources. The thesis concludes that examining both demand and supply sides by studying technical efficiency and preferences will help policymakers identify the factors responsible for production inefficiency and make the care provision responsive to the preferences of the urban population
Charged quantum scalar expectation values on charged black holes
Get PDFIn this thesis we extend the current methods for calculating renormalized expectation values of observables for neutral quantum scalar fields on curved spacetimes to charged quantum scalar fields. We then use these methods to numerically calculate expectation values for massive and massless charged scalar fields on the Reissner-Nordstr¨om spacetime in a variety of quantum states. This includes calculations in both the presence and absence of charge superradiance. We also use our results for the massless field to discuss the backreaction of the charged quantum field on the electromagnetic field
Peer discussion in practice: experiences of pharmacy technicians in the participation of revalidation for registration
Get PDFAs the pharmacy technician role continues to evolve across pharmacy sectors in Great Britain, professional revalidation is a key mechanism for ensuring ongoing competence and reflective practice. One component of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) revalidation process, peer discussion, offers an opportunity for pharmacy technicians to engage in meaningful conversations about their practice. However, little is known about how this group experience peer discussion, what value they derive from it and what support they need to participate effectively. Understanding these experiences is essential to shaping future guidance and adopting a culture of reflective learning within the pharmacy workforce.
This study explores the experiences of pharmacy technicians participating in peer discussion as part of the GPhC revalidation process. It examines how they perceive its value, the strategies they use to identify suitable peers and the types of support considered beneficial for meaningful engagement. Guided by an interpretivist paradigm, the research employs a qualitative methodology comprising of an online survey, which gathered 325 responses, and one-to-one online interviews with nine participants from across Great Britain and the three key pharmacy sectors.
Following thematic analysis, three overarching themes were identified. The first, Fostering Meaningful Discussions, explored how natural interactions were translated into structured reflections, how outcomes were synergised and how engagement was navigated. The second, Strategic Peer Selection for Meaningful Discussion, encompassed intrinsic motivations and extrinsic influences shaping peer choice. The third, Navigating the Landscape of Peer Discussions, addressed procedural ambiguities, the evolving nature of peer discussions and the role-specific challenges.
Findings suggest that while peer discussions are widely valued, pharmacy technicians often encounter uncertainty around peer selection and procedural clarity. In response, the study recommends clearly defining the purpose of peer discussion as a tool for reflective practice and professional development alongside flexible implementation and tailored guidance to support confident, context-sensitive engagement
Characterisation of GaAsBi based heterojunction and MQW photodiodes
Get PDFThis dissertation focuses on incorporating dilute bismuth (Bi) into a GaAs substrate to enable avalanche photodiodes (APDs) operating in the near-infrared range while reducing excess noise at high gain.
GaAsBi epitaxial layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) incorporated small amounts of Bi, tuning the bandgap and enhancing spin–orbit splitting. XRD (with consistency checks against the optical response) determined Bi composition and layer thickness, while SIMS provided a qualitative and semi-quantitative indicator of dopant profiles, axial layer placement, and relative Bi incorporation trends.
By fabricating p–i–n and n–i–p heterojunction devices and multiple quantum well (MQW) structures, this work systematically investigated relationships among lattice strain, optical response, dark current, and avalanche gain–noise performance. Moderate Bi content effectively suppresses hole-initiated impact ionization at high reverse biases, reducing the β/α ratio and lowering the APD excess noise. Multi-period MQWs, maintaining controllable strain, achieve noise reduction similar to thick single GaAsBi layers while exhibiting stronger sensitivity around 1 µm.
Excessive Bi content or MQW period number leads to strain accumulation and defects, increasing dark current and highlighting the need for further optimization of epitaxial growth and strain compensation. The dissertation also explores potential applications and limitations, and proposes future directions including temperature-dependent characterization, strain management, advanced multi-region designs, and large-scale integration.
In summary, GaAsBi shows promise for high-gain, low-noise near-infrared detection, and with continued refinement of epitaxial processes and device architectures, could enable high-speed optical communications, lidar, and highly sensitive sensing systems
Improving the understanding and prediction of mixed convection under strong heating
No full textThe Apparent Reynolds Number (ARN) theory has been previously developed to explain the laminarisation of isothermal turbulent flows subjected to non-uniform body forces, and has since been extended to buoyancy-influenced heated flows, such as upward pipe flows of air and supercritical CO2. In these cases, the ARN framework has proven effective in characterizing turbulence suppression and the associated heat transfer deterioration.
This thesis extends the Apparent Reynolds Number (ARN) theory, originally developed to describe turbulence modulation under non-uniform body forces, to the prediction of heat transfer in mixed convection pipe flows. The work covers three flow conditions of increasing complexity: fully developed air flow, developing air flow, and supercritical CO2 flow. In the fully developed case, a reference flow based on the apparent Reynolds number is used to estimate eddy viscosity, enabling the model to accurately predict heat transfer deterioration caused by buoyancy, as validated against direct numerical simulation (DNS) data. For developing flows, where both buoyancy and inertial forces influence turbulence, it is observed that inertia can either suppress or enhance turbulence depending on flow conditions, similar to the effect of buoyancy. To capture this behavior, a pseudo-body force is introduced into the ARN framework, and two ARN-based models are accordingly developed based on the air-flow case presented in Chapter 4: the mixing-length model and the correlation model. Both models show strong agreement with DNS results. The same modelling strategy is then applied to upward supercritical CO2 flow, where strong property variations further complicate the flow behaviour. Despite these additional challenges, the ARN-based model remains effective in capturing both heat transfer deterioration and recovery. Overall, this research demonstrates that the ARN approach offers a unified, physically consistent, and computationally efficient framework for modeling mixed convection heat transfer across a wide range of flow conditions
What is the impact of Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder on Individuals and their Informal Helpers?
No full textFunctional magnetic nanoparticles for bioactive protein delivery under physiological temperature
Get PDFCurrent therapies for tissue damage, especially in bone repair, are limited by invasiveness and susceptibility to infection. The clinical problem of nonunions —fractures that fail to heal completely within the expected clinical timeframe 5–10% of annual fractures, underscores the need for less invasive and more targeted treatments. Successful bone regeneration relies on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiating into osteoblasts, a critical process driven by bioactive signalling molecules. To overcome the limitations of current pharmaceutical interventions and surgical grafts, which include high-dosage side effects and a lack of controlled release, this research aims to develop a drug delivery system.
This study investigates temperature sensitive polymer poly(-isopropylmethacrylamide) (PNIPMAM)-coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) as a thermo-responsive platform for the delivery of the osteo-inducive growth factors. pPrimary objective was to optimize the synthesis of PNIPMAM-coated SPIONs to ensure a reproducible and stable formulation. This was achieved by refining the coating process, resulting in a consistent polymer coating with confirming lower critical solution temperature (LCST) above physiological temperature. Biocompatibility assessments using the Y201 MSC line confirmed the coated nanoparticles are non-toxic at concentrations up to 1 mg/ml and do not interfere with osteogenic differentiation on their own, establishing a crucial baseline for subsequent bioactivity assays.
The system achieved high BMP2 encapsulation efficiency ~95% with bioactivity quantified via ALP activity in C2C12 cells. However, there was no release of BMP2 under the tested conditions. Conversely, delivering the thermally unstable Wnt3a was successful by incorporating glycerol as a thermos-stabilizing additive, which also lowered the polymer's LCST at physiologically relevant temperature. This optimized system conclusively demonstrated a temperature-triggered, bioactive Wnt3a release, particularly with apotransferrin as a competitor protein.
In conclusion, this work establishes PNIPMAM-coated SPIONs as a potential viable platform for encapsulating and enabling on-demand, localized delivery of osteogenic factors. The findings highlight the critical influence of protein-specific characteristics and the formulation’s biochemical environment on release efficiency, providing a strong foundation for future advancements in regenerative medicine
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