Aim Explore the experiences, barriers and facilitators for Polish migrants to the UK with alcohol use disorder and/or alcohol-related liver disease in accessing care and support. Background Since the pandemic, more people are dying from alcohol-related liver disease. Often, deaths are in working-aged people. Gaps in research and a lack of granularity in NHS ethnicity data means there is limited understanding of the extent of health inequalities within and between some migrant groups with alcohol use disorder and/or alcohol-related liver disease. Studies suggest there may be barriers for people who have migrated to the UK in accessing healthcare. Some individuals may prefer to use other health systems/networks e.g., healthcare in their home country, to overcome these barriers. Additionally, stigma, a well-known issue for people with alcohol use disorder, and migrant status may further impact healthcare access. Polish is the most common non-UK nationality (696,000 individuals), equivalent to approximately 1% of the population. Methods 1. Review existing data to understand the barriers and facilitators Polish migrants to the UK face when accessing healthcare. 2. Interview Polish migrants with alcohol use disorder and/or alcohol-related liver disease to understand their experiences of accessing care in the UK and to understand their support networks. 3. Interview local service providers (e.g., doctors, commissioners) working with Polish migrants with alcohol use disorder and/or alcohol-related liver disease to understand their detailed perspective. 4. Survey professionals across the UK, working in the fields of alcohol and liver disease, to understand their perspectives of providing care to this population.

This project aims to determine the role aging ocean crust has played in setting seawater chemistry and buffering atmospheric CO2 over Earth's history. This will be accomplished by combining geochemistry and geochronology to evaluate the nature, timing, and duration of hydrothermal inputs from the mid-ocean ridge flanks to the oceans. Investigating ridge flank exchange requires scientific ocean drilling through thick sediments into the oceanic crust, which has predominantly recovered either young or very old crust. The student will work on the very first samples of middle-aged ocean crust, cored on the Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge flank in 2022 by the International Ocean Discovery Program. Knowledge of when ridge flank exchanges occur is critical to understanding past seawater chemistry because the long-term rearrangement of Earth's tectonic plates has varied the age-area distribution of the seafloor.

Abhishek will explore the potential of recently developed, UV-guiding hollow core fibres (HCFs) for application in Raman-based gas sensing. HCFs are a specialty optical fibre where light is guided with low loss in a gas-filled core surrounded by a carefully designed microstructured cladding. Confining a gas sample within the core of a HCF enables an unprecedented gas-light interaction length. By exploiting this, we can overcome the conventional sensitivity barrier to using Raman-based gas sensing. This project builds on our previous work but also moves in a new direction to determine the potential of this approach at UV wavelengths; this should lead to enhanced sensitivity plus the opportunity to investigate Resonant Raman effects. Abhishek's role will be primarily experimental but he will also collaborate with colleagues working in HCF design and fabrication. Plus, he will spend ~3 months over the project duration with IS-Instruments (ISI), a UK-based SME who are keen to further develop this technology and to explore new approaches in this area. Key tasks will include: Design UV-based HCF-based Raman gas sensing set-up. Consider portability and robust design, which could include novel integration of the HCF to improve repeatability and reduce device footprint; Instrument build and testing [at ORC]; specifically limit of detection with non-resonant and resonant Raman schemes; instrument response time; investigation of possible interaction of confined gases with silica glass surfaces inside the HCF; extension to novel chemical reaction monitoring in-situ; Working with ISI to explore and overcome challenges of instrument development based on this scheme.

TBC by supervisor

Whilst marine structures vary in scale from metres to hundreds of metres, they're all subject to complex fluid structure interactions. As the materials from which they're built become more scrutinised at the earliest of design stages for their environmental impact, the lack of understanding of sustainable materials' performance in dynamically loaded structures becomes an obstruction to their uptake. This research will explore the new opportunities of active control of morphing structures made possible by composite components working in conjunction with active control elements created using additive manufacturing techniques. More subtle tailoring of shape to local flow conditions has many maritime applications: notably tidal turbine blades, propellers, hydrofoils and rudders. It will form part of the Prosperity Partnership Intelligent structures for low noise environments between UoS and Baesystems, University of Nottingham and Lloyds Register