In this thesis, a number of aspects of neutrino oscillation physics are investigated, focusing on the design and phenomenology of next generation neutrino beam experiments. In working to optimise the sensitivity of the Hyper-Kamiokande experiment, new reconstruction software has been developed to meet the goal of fast, flexible reconstruction of particle positions, directions, energies and species. This is demonstrated for the TITUS intermediate detector, producing samples of neutrino interactions to constrain systematic uncertainties of oscillation analyses. Inclusion of these samples achieves a reduction of over 50% of systematic errors in measurements of 23 and and increases the parameter space for CP violation discovery after 10 years at 5 from 51% to 74%. A full analysis is presented of a potential neutron measurement at the E61 detector, including full simulations of all major backgrounds, a likelihood method of background removal, and a procedure for correcting for efficiency and backgrounds. Large, pure samples are produced, with the ability to accurately reproduce true distributions of neutron capture multiplicity, distance and angle relative to neutrino interactions, with true and reconstructed distributions agreeing within 2%. The sensitivities of Hyper-Kamiokande, including with a possible second tank in Korea, in combination with the DUNE experiment, have been thoroughly investigated. Several areas of strong synergy are identified, with the optimal combination of experiments possessing the ability to definitively resolve all remaining unknowns of 3-neutrino oscillations: determining both the octant of 23 and the mass-ordering in under 2 years and discovering CP violation at 5 for 50% of parameter space after 5 years. The highly predictive Littlest Seesaw flavour models of neutrino masses and mixing are tested against current oscillation data, finding no tension even at 1 . The ability of the next-generation experiments' oscillation measurements to probe these models is investigated, with all strands of the programme, including long baseline beam experiments and short and medium baseline reactor experiments, found to show high potential to exclude the models both individually and in combination.

No description available.

Background: Outdoor adventure can offer meaningful occupations that enhance health and wellbeing. Theory in relation to the meaning of outdoor adventure from an occupational science perspective, and the process by which people become engaged in occupation, is underdeveloped. Methodology: Phenomenological philosophy underpinned the methodology. Five elements are presented in this thesis, data were explored from: a systematic review and meta-synthesis of research exploring the meaning of outdoor adventure; focus groups exploring factors affecting sustained engagement in walking in a community context; adventure autobiographies as exemplars of engagement and outdoor culture; and interviews with participants who engaged in outdoor adventure. Concepts arising from the findings were thematically synthesised. Findings and discussion: The meaning of outdoor adventure was associated with a sense of connection to self, others, nature, the environment, time and place. Meaning was associated with engagement that was congruent with aspirations for identity, health and wellbeing, values, and beliefs. The meaning and process of engagement in outdoor adventure were influenced by the ability to establish confidence in relation to developing social networks, physical skills and the knowledge required to participate in chosen occupations. The process of engagement in outdoor adventure was influenced by convenience and the ability to accommodate participation alongside other work and family routines, in terms of time, location and priorities. The process of engagement in outdoor adventure was influenced by context. The findings also suggest a change in the meaning of engagement in outdoor adventure over time. Conclusion: The implications of the study are that these aspects of meaning and dynamic process could be considered within health promotion and occupational therapy practice to enhance initiating, sustaining and returning to occupational engagement in outdoor adventure. Further research would be beneficial in relation to evaluating the application of these concepts in occupational therapy practice.

This research study explores the experience and effects of long-term practice by six student practitioners of secular mindfulness, compassion and insight forming the Mindfulness-Based Living model incorporated into the MSc in Mindfulness Studies at the University of Aberdeen. A review of existing literature on the topic of mindfulness highlights that research is predominantly postpositivist and quantitative in approach, only recently incorporating limited qualitative studies, and is focused chiefly on mindfulness as a treatment for a range of mental and physical disorders. However, the nature of mindfulness particularly when practised in conjunction with compassion and insight suggests that it is a more intense, complex, nuanced and pervasive experience than is reflected in the literature. An exploration of Buddhist and Western phenomenology highlights important parallels with contemporary secular mindfulness studies indicating, firstly, the value of an in-depth qualitative study capable of surfacing potentially transformative effects of the practice of mindfulness and related disciplines, and, secondly, the potential relevance of mindfulness to the praxis of phenomenological research. Towards these aims, this study utilises an hermeneutic phenomenological approach incorporating mindfulness approaches in its execution. The study takes a dialogical approach, intentionally surfacing the inherent dynamic between researcher and participant. Interview data were collected from participants on multiple occasions over durations of between seven and twelve months and are presented as rich narrative texts organised around emergent themes. Analysis indicates the occurrence of intense, embodied, authentic transcendental experiences that pervade day-to-day life and extend beyond a remedial effect. Researcher data indicate the usefulness of mindfulness to the practice of phenomenological research, supporting embodied interview and phenomenological reduction. The study highlights findings useful to the design of secular programmes and to further research, notably the incorporation of compassion and insight approaches, the centrality of embodiment, and the effects of long term practice on social cohesion.

Background and objectives: Living with acute leukaemia can challenge patients’ physical, emotional and psychological well-being and functioning, but can be a greatly challenging experience for their families, too. Such a life-changing experience can potentially initiate or accelerate a meaning-making process that may be prolonged and demanding. Yet, there is a dearth of empirical evidence with regard to how adult patients with acute leukaemia or their family carers make sense of their illness-related experiences, and, as a consequence, clinicians still lack the knowledge necessary to tailor support to this specific population. Therefore, this qualitative study aimed to explore the processes, through which patients and family caregivers construct their meanings of acute leukaemia. Design and methods: An exploratory design was employed using serial, in-depth interviews, guided by Smith’s Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach. Ten adult (>18 years of age) patients with acute leukaemia and eight patient-nominated family caregivers were recruited during a 14-month period from two clinical NHS sites in Scotland. Two serial interviews were conducted with each participant, two to four weeks apart, within the first year of diagnosis or post-relapse. In total, thirty-six interviews were analysed. Results: Findings deriving from patient interviews indicated that acute leukaemia creates a state of imbalance to the person, which may initiate a search for a new equilibrium. Patients’ journeys towards making sense of their illness may involve three inter-changeable processes: decay, transformation and growth. As patients learned of their diagnosis and their treatment commenced, a sense of decay dominated their lives. ‘Feeling like being a prisoner’ and ‘living with an impaired self’ were two common emergent themes. Running in parallel, signs of transformation started to become more evident as time elapsed. Within the third making-sense process, that is to say growth, themes such as strengthened family bonds, and reprioritising values were among the most prominent. Carers’ accounts of their indirect cancer experience revealed that family members made sense of their acute leukaemia-related situation as a state of limbo that was conceptualised as a maze. After being thrust into limbo, the invisible nature of acute leukaemia created difficulties for carers to conceptualise it; however, they experienced its impact on their lives quite hastily. In order to navigate limbo, carers had to learn to steer through their social world and the unfamiliar hospital environment and eventually manage to transcend limbo by employing various coping strategies, by facilitating the cancer journey of their loved ones, and finally, by reconciling with the patient’s illness. Conclusions and future implications: Findings of this contextually and methodologically novel study highlight the complex nature of sense-making for both patients and family caregivers experiencing acute leukaemia. Additional research is warranted to further uncover the various ways in which meaning is initially constructed, negotiated, re-visited and reformed as patients and/or family carers go through the different phases of living with the illness. In any case, clinicians can rely on the findings of the present study in order to provide on-going support and guidance so that patients and carers visualise the ‘invisible’ acute leukaemia and make sense of their illness-related situation in ways that favour their short- and long-term psychosocial adjustment.

Abstract not available

This thesis explores a notion of “queer being” in relation to a difficult yet creative articulation of queer self-consciousness. The difficulty of attempting to “particularise” self-consciousness is challenged and dismantled by proposing ways in which putatively exclusive esoteric knowledges of being can be exposed and expanded. This is achieved by justifying singular (queer) experience as it coincides with the disparities between subjectivity and objectivity, experience and existence. I argue that two key perspectives (those of interstitiality and self-transformativity) provide a basis whereby we can “force” a radical articulation of queer being-ness into general and contemporary philosophical discourses of being. In doing so, a particularised theory of intersubjective being emerges as a way to identify the complicity of ethics and ontology. “Queerness” in this thesis is especially articulated as an eccentricity or poetics of being, experienced at the juncture of diverse knowledge spaces. These include not only the threshold and radical spaces of sexuality and gender, but also the perceived limits of theories of being which allow us to formulate understandings of self-consciousness. This is evidenced through a critical analysis of feminist, queer, transgender, phenomenological and existential texts and/or practices, paying special regard to “everyday, real-life” experience. By using a combination of the “logic of the interstice”, genealogical methods, hermeneutical analysis and a deconstructionist theoretical approach, the thesis seeks out, and insists upon, ways to articulate and determine the possibility of a queer sensibility as both a practice of self-transformativity and a more broadly applicable knowledge heuristic. The thesis demonstrates that by increasing an awareness of a particular kind of self-transformative queer being-ness – one that embraces a critical ethics of being – the rich insights of queer experiences and knowledges can act as a valuable resource for reviewing the horizons of the ontology of the subject. It also suggests that particularising the term “queer” in relation to a complex theory of “sensibility” provides new depths for understanding, and practical ways to make use of, a queer theory of being.

We know very little about the ecology of our designed world. Contrary to all appearances, design is not about making objects. It is rather about structuring the conditions for life. Design is our second nature, naturalising changes in our ways of living. Yet it also conceals dangers and diminishes our sensitivity to respond to them. The security offered by the televisual image � and the solace of design�s promise to remove all environmental risks � are fictions. Ecology of the Image is a critical exploration of idealism in design. Drawing on hermeneutic phenomenology, socio-cultural and design theory, it argues that design is not a value-free practice but structures epistemological attitudes into the world. Ideas are material elements of our environments. This thesis offers an explanation of how idealism circulates within the designed world, fashioning our minds, bodies and environments. The televisual is analysed as a normative phenomenon that inducts us into a way of seeing and understanding the world. Its vision of the affluent good life inspires and gives purpose to desire, and sustains what Manzini has called �product based well being�. The thesis argues that the televisual puts us out of touch with the consequences of its vision; it diminishes our capacity for forethought. This results in the generation of unacknowledged, yet self-endangering environmental feedback. Environmental problems force us to take account of design�s hidden rationales. Only at five minutes to midnight, for example, do we realise that the stock and supply of potable water is endangered. The problem is not so much this late recognition, but that design led us to believe in water�s abundance. This situation demands the development of an ecological understanding of our designed worlds that can inform future actions. The sign, particularly as it has been mobilised in cultural theory, plays a leading role in this design situation and the perceptions it supports. The sign is utilised for its ability to denaturalise appearances � to �read� design�s claims on the world. Finally, the thesis turns to the designer-in-training in the process of acquiring instrumental skills and worldviews. It proposes a research strategy that inscribes environmental consciousness into the design process � situating the designer in the midst of semiotic and material worlds. Through its observational methodology it outlines ways of first understanding, then of intervening and generating changes in our �ideal� world.

The purpose of this research was to explore the phenomenon of resilience as described by consumers of mental health services in Australia who have experienced mental illness. In keeping with Colaizzi's (1978) approach to inquiry, information in this study was gathered through in-depth, semi-structured individual interviews. Information analysis was undertaken using Colaizzi's (1978) seven-step approach, with the inclusion of two additional steps- making this study's analysis a nine step process. Emergent themes were explicated from the findings of this study as follows: Universality; Acceptance; Naming and knowing; Faith, hope and being the fool; Striking a balance; Having meaning and meaningful relationships; and 'Just doing it'. The emergent concept which encapsulated the themes was 'viewing life from the ridge with eyes wide open'. In respect of this concept, participants described resilience was achieved by choosing to walk through the darkness all the while knowing the risks and dangers ahead; Making a decision for life through the hardships. That is, following a moment of enlightenment through 'naming and knowing', participants said they were able to start making decisions and to process what was happening to them by having faith, hope, acceptance, and by 'just getting on with life'. It is suggested that resilient behaviours can be learned and interwoven with life experiences. In this context, there is the potential to guide therapeutic interventions in various clinical and educational settings.

The experience of 'being with difference' is becoming an increasingly important worldwide phenomenon. The transnational movements of people across the globe, as well as tensions arising from religious and political differences, are highlighting the urgent need for people to learn to recognize and negotiate their being with difference. In recent years the Australian media has reflected growing interest on issues concerning identity and national values. These issues are invariably translated into the educational system and then into the classroom. In this context there arises the tension between recognizing and responding to individual difference yet, on the other hand, a push for sameness under the rubric of social equality. Diversity as an objective phenomenon has received much attention in the educational literature however the experience of a teacher being with difference in the classroom and what a teacher experiences as 'being different' has been assumed and the meanings they make of their experiences largely ignored. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to reveal and interpret the lived experiences of teachers being with difference, as they construct the phenomenon, in the context of the primary classroom. Data sources predominantly included extended face-to-face multiple interviews with thirteen teachers from primary schools situated in Melbourne, Australia. Personal experiences, as well as perspectives derived from a range of literature, were also employed. The collated texts revealed six dominant themes: [1] Disrupted by difference [2] Stimulated by difference [3] Engineering for difference [4] Labelling for difference [5] Awakened by difference; and [6] Sensitized by difference. Each theme was explicated using a variety of textual approaches to better understand the structures of meanings. Essentially, the phenomenon, as revealed by the participating teachers, suggests that difference in the classroom is constructed through teachers' own cultural and experiential lenses and interpreted according ly. Two particular implications arising from the study are discussed. The first concerns teachers 'growing children to be like me' and the second, the magnetism of difference and its implication for children perceived as 'ordinary'. The implication of these findings suggests that 'being with difference' presents fundamental challenges for teachers who must not only accommodate novel experiences within their own teaching and personal lifeworlds and address those challenges within the procedural expectations of an educational system, but are also in a position to facilitate a literacy of being with difference.