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Understanding apocrine metaplasia of the breast: a closer look at a complex phenomenon
Get PDFThis editorial provides a comprehensive exploration of apocrine metaplasia in the breast, delving into its clinical implications, diagnostic challenges, and potential causes. While generally benign, apocrine metaplasia poses difficulties in accurate diagnosis due to its resemblance to more serious conditions. The editorial emphasizes the importance of distinguishing apocrine metaplasia through advanced imaging and molecular studies and discusses ongoing research into its hormonal and genetic underpinnings. With a focus on patient management and surveillance, the editorial underscores the need for continued research to refine diagnostic techniques and develop personalized treatment strategies
Building a society of purposeful achievers: integrating industry awards into curriculum design as a strategy towards social citizenship
No full textA Litmus Test for Democratic Politics in Europe: Parliaments, Brexit and the Future of the European Union, Julien Navarro (London: Routledge, 2022) [Book review]
No full textA study of the partnership of prayer and the armour of God in William Gurnall’s ‘The Christian in Compleat Armour'
No full textThis thesis aims to demonstrate that William Gurnall (1616-1679) posits an essential connection between the armour of God and prayer in spiritual warfare against the assaults of Satan. Gurnall contends that prayer facilitates a hopeful and strengthening connection with God, while the armour enables an outward manifestation of that connection to the world, providing a framework for prayer, particularly during a period of disunity and fracture in the church and country. This thesis will examine that partnership in detail.
The study will commence with a brief overview of William Gurnall's life and potential motivations for writing, followed by an analysis of current research of prayer and spiritual warfare in the Early Modern Period and of his perception of spiritual conflict. The focus of the thesis will then be on Gurnall's understanding of prayer and the armour of God. Gurnall attributes great significance to the essential partnership between the armour and prayer, and the thesis will then examine the symbiotic relationship between the two, and the interconnection of the individual components of the armour. The thesis will conclude with an examination of the role of prayer in each element of the armour. The thesis will elucidate Gurnall's emphasis on the connection between prayer and the armour in spiritual warfare
Are English SMEs disadvantaged in accessing Green Finance? A study of UK (bank and non-bank) debt finance provision
No full textThis study focuses on how to finance the green transition of established SMEs in England. Prior demand- side research demonstrated that surveyed SME access to debt finance for this transition is uneven across the UK and that smaller, less resourced SMEs in more remote locations from banking centres may be most disadvantaged. The analysis draws on 21 in-depth qualitative interviews with the supply-side stakeholders and providers of bank and alternative non-bank debt finance across the English regions, with a focus on the urban London and more rural South-West regions. Our interviews covered the English debt financing ecosystem, including financial trade associations, high street and specialist green/sustainable banks and non-bank alternative debt finance providers, finance brokers and business support providers such as local authorities.
Our main findings are that a two-tier SME financing approach has evolved in England, whereby larger, better resourced SMEs are more able to access traditional high street bank debt finance and supporting government green grants and subsidies. This results in a lower tier, vast majority of SMEs, that are smaller and less well- resourced that lack sufficient internal investment funds, information, support and access to the external finance (debt or grant) required to assist their green transition. We find that more green transition active lower tier SMEs seek alternative non-bank debt finance, either directly or through brokers. Brokers offer an important relationship manager role but are uneven in their performance and unregulated. Furthermore, the combination of limited and poorly targeted grant funding and landlord-tenant property restrictions hold back green transition
Borderline personality disorder and its impact on public health: population health and healthcare models from work-based learning and practice
No full textIntroduction: Despite extensive research on borderline personality disorder (BPD) and its implications for public health, a cohesive theoretical framework integrating behavioural and general health models to amalgamate data from various fields re-mains absent. I propose that practitioner-researchers with direct engagement in their respective settings and target populations should formulate theories based on their experiential knowledge acquired through practice. This approach would transform everyday research outcomes into actionable healthcare strategies, enhancing lives through research endeavours. Understanding practice-based research is most effectively achieved through self-reflection and the analysis of critical incidents within work-based learning. Although BPD is the primary focus of the context statement, the theories, conclusions, and frameworks presented also apply to other mental health conditions. Additionally, where relevant, these insights can extend to clinical conditions beyond mental health, broadening their applicability.
Methods: I employed grounded theory alongside the meta-synthesis of my published works on BPD, work-based learning, Eraut’s Tacit Knowledge, and Kolb’s Reflective Learning theories, as well as ethnographic-naturalistic research methodologies to generate middle-range theories, overarching concepts, and recommendations for future research that can ultimately inform public health strategies. A review of eleven of my writings on BPD enabled the construction of a conceptual and practical model concerning health and population health behaviours, emphasising practical implications.
Results: My theoretical constructs and reflective practice about BPD, bolstered by direct work experience and serendipitous learning opportunities, led me to conclude that early disruptions in attachment (between a child and their parents), instances of child abuse, and exposure to violence may precipitate health and social vulnerabilities in adulthood. Traumatic bonding experiences during early childhood and adolescence can have a detrimental impact on resilience and health behaviours in the face of social, emotional, and biological challenges. The interconnectedness be-tween population and individual health significantly influences regional and global human and logistical healthcare resources.
Conclusions: The limited generalizability of my findings, derived from work-based research, constrains my methodological approach. Nevertheless, this framework can motivate practitioners to leverage their tacit knowledge and experiential learning, thereby becoming change agents capable of disseminating their findings through practical theories and strategies. Professors Elda Nikolou-Walker and Liang Liu at Middlesex University provided invaluable insights that deepened my understanding of global health challenges and facilitated my professional development through the context statement
Coming home to self: a first person action research inquiry
No full textAfter 25 years of professional practice in leadership and change management, I came to doctoral inquiry in 2017. I realised early on that I had been living in a taken-for-granted positivist world with neoliberal expectations of utilisation and normative compliance. It became clear that challenges of being a female in professional life were far greater than I had imagined.
My drive-into-inquiry came from discovering factors distancing me from myself and others. I’ve found intersectional influences of gender, neoliberalism and neurodiversity, leading to disappearance and suppression of private sphere embodied, emotional and relational aspects of myself. I aspire to counter these dynamics, to reconnect, care and enable personally, relationally and professionally, as ethical care of the self resistance, as a form of learning and development practice. To come home to self personally, as political action.
However, inquiring in personally protected and camouflaged spaces, with undiagnosed neurodiversity, has triggered distress, over many inquiry years, impacting voice, sensemaking and progress.
Therefore, my emergent inquiry approach has expanded to enable self-care as well as action research self knowing and enablement. My first person inquiry, with others, is grounded in a phenomenological based extended epistemology approach, with experiential, embodied, relational and presentational forms as walking, photography and poetry sometimes shared online, journalling, yoga and narrative. Retrospectively I consider I have built on neurodiverse sensory, pattern and sensemaking orientations.
Practice impacts have included shifting from top-down organisational change practice to educational leadership, research and teaching, drawing on relational and care ethics, with greater voice, agency and self-acceptance. Future opportunities include research and writing about enabling extended epistemology and care in learning and change practice, and inquiring further into lifeworlds of fellow neurodiverse practitioners
Music with strings: a musicological analysis of Barry Gray’s music for Thunderbirds 1964-1966
Get PDFWhile there is a huge volume of extant work on TV and film music, the music of Barry Gray (1908-84) and his work with Gerry Anderson over several decades remains under documented.
This thesis is, to my knowledge, the first in depth academic study of the work of Barry Gray. My research explores his orchestral music for the Thunderbirds TV series during the years 1964-1966. I have chosen his music for Thunderbirds as the apogee of his work, for the following reasons. It is the most popular and enduring of the Supermarionation series, was double the length of other series (one hour as opposed to 30 minutes in length) and has been revived on television several times over the decades to continued acclaim. His theme for Thunderbirds is in the top 10 TV themes listed by ITV.
In my thesis I discuss Gray’s musical idiolect and analyse what makes his music distinctive and readily identifiable. Factors in this comprise his characterful themes, the use of extended harmonies and modal content, distinctive instrumentation, a facility for working in differing musical genres, the extensive narrative use of leitmotifs with multiple variations, that resulted in a large sound using relatively small instrumental forces.
My studies of the original scores have revealed his use of modular composition techniques to provide musical ‘building blocks’ that were subject to extensive tape editing techniques that were unrivaled at the time in music for television. By illuminating these factors, I argue for significant difference being displayed in his music.
I have chosen three scores from Thunderbirds as case studies: The Opening and Closing Titles, the score for the first episode ‘Trapped in the Sky’, and the library music session
‘The Links in the Chain’, which all reveal different working methods. Studying the original MS scores from the Barry Gray Archive, together with access to the original session recordings has enabled me to use both the ‘sounds and scores’ in my analysis. I use thematic and harmonic methods of analysis to reveal Gray’s ‘musical signatures’ that mark his music as unmistakably his creative voice.
I also contextualise the background to Thunderbirds with social themes and contexts in the 1960s, TV and SF music in the 1960s, the field of electronic music and Gray’s place within that field, aspects of musical creativity, and the development of contemporary arranging and orchestration practice
Investigating the factors affecting electronic customer relationship management readiness: the case of banks
Get PDFThis study contributes to the extant literature by empirically investigating the influence of factors on electronic Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) readiness in banks. This research leverages primary data from 377 samples to identify the eCRM readiness factors. The data in this study were collected from three private and two state banks based in Tehran, Iran's capital city. Analysing the stakeholder perspectives of both state and private banks provided rich data for understanding the factors affecting eCRM readiness in Iran as a developing country. A key finding of this study is that strategy, culture, and technology, with their associated factors, are critical dimensions for eCRM readiness. These factors can be used to assess banks' readiness for eCRM adoption before any implementation to prevent common eCRM failure in any organisation, including banks
Variations in strength-speed-power performance across the season: do true changes occur in elite rugby players?
Get PDFThis study aimed to determine, through the use of a highly sensitive statistical tool, whether real changes in performance were present; and compare the rates of meaningful variations in strength, speed, and power parameters at different time-points during the competitive season in national team rugby players. Thirty-two players were assessed 5 times across the season using the following tests: squat jump and countermovement jump tests; 30-m sprint velocity; and one-repetition maximum (1RM) in the half-squat and bench-press exercises. A repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted to test for differences between successive time-points. Individual coefficients of variation values were used to set target scores for post-measurements and examine whether changes in performance parameters were greater than the natural test variance, thus providing an indication of whether “true changes” occurred. No significant changes were detected in the vertical jump height, 1RM measures, and sprint velocity and momentum throughout the 11-month period (P > 0.05). True changes occurred much more frequently for strength-power measures than for sprint velocity and momentum. Elite rugby union players did not exhibit significant variations in neuromuscular performance across the competitive period, when a group-based analysis was conducted. However, at the individual level, “true changes” in strength-power- (but not in speed-) related qualities were consistently observed over the competitive season