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The Sonochemistry Centre at Coventry University is one of a group of organisations working on a project to develop a new technology for producing antimicrobial textiles. This technology involves the use of an ultrasonic process (sonochemical) to generate and impregnate fabrics with antibacterial metal oxide nanoparticles. The expectation is that these textiles can be produced at an affordable price for routine use in hospitals as uniforms, curtains, hospital bed sheets and linen. The aim of this PhD project was to assess the antibacterial activity of fabrics impregnated with ZnO and CuO NPs against a variety of Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. The testing was principally carried out according to the absorption method from ISO 20743:2007. Research was also extended to compare different methods of assessing antibacterial activity of textile fabrics. These included disc diffusion tests and shake flask tests in saline or nutrient broth. Overall the results from absorption tests demonstrated that both the ZnO and CuO impregnated fabrics showed very good levels of antibacterial activity (A>2) against the test bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). During the optimisation of lab scale process to the pilot scale, two different types of CuO fabrics were produced to test and compare the antibacterial activity. One type of fabrics were impregnated with pre-made CuO nanoparticles by a ‘throwing the stones’ technology termed TTS and the other with sonochemically formed nanoparticles (in-situ), same as the lab process. The results indicated that the fabrics impregnated with sonochemically formed NPs displayed better antibacterial activity than the pre-made NPs. Leaching of the antibacterial agents in to saline was investigated using a shake flask method. CuO and ZnO coated fabrics prepared at laboratory scale were tested against Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii and Escherichia coli. It was found that leachates prepared by shaking the fabrics in saline for 3 hours showed no antibacterial activity for CuO fabrics. However, leachates from ZnO fabrics showed an excellent activity after 24 ± 3 hours against all three bacterial species. Flow cytometry (FC) was investigated as an alternative to standard agar plate count (PC) methods for the determination of viable cell numbers. There was a general agreement between the results from agar plate counts and flow cytometry except that post incubation counts were greater with FC. The higher numbers of viable cells detected with FC may have been due to the presence of viable but not culturable cells (VBNC). Viable cells were observed by fluorescence microscopy in post incubation samples in which no viable cells were detected on nutrient agar plates. Cytotoxicity studies were conducted on ZnO and CuO fabrics from the pilot scale (both in-situ and TTS) against human dermal fibroblast cells (HDF) and human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) using a MTT assay to determine cell viability. The results showed that ZnO and CuO are not toxic to HDF cells. However, cytotoxicity was seen in HepG2 cells with cell viability decreasing by > 14% for all the fabrics after 24 hours.

The 2.5 million men and women of the Indian Army who served during the Second World War are not widely known about, either in Europe or in South Asia, the anguish of Partition overlaying their memory in India and Pakistan, and the new reality of post-war Austerity Britain taking precedence over remembering colonial contributions. Among those 2.5 million, the 4,227 men of Force K6 were unique in that they spent most of their war in Britain – the heart of Empire – 630 of them having been present at Dunkirk, a British lieu de mémoire on the French coast. This thesis aims to recover their little-known story and analyse how and why they have been forgotten. The study aims to show that they are not remembered due to what Aleida Assmann has called ‘selective forgetting’ – what stays in the collective memory of a nation is what fits within their framework of culture and history. These soldiers fitted neither in the UK nor Pakistan, and so they have slipped away from official and popular memory, despite the efforts of family members and some local historians. Through several different frames of memory the story of these men and their odyssey will be presented and analysed. As this is social and cultural history, the men themselves are in the foreground, with case studies that show individual soldiers and their families, and reflect diverse aspects of their experience. Their multiple identities then and now will be analysed, and the transnational encounter which is at the core of their story will be presented, showing that the normal rules of ‘race relations’ in Britain were suspended for the duration of the war. With an eye on the dangers of instrumentalising or abusing their memory, the thesis will show how they are currently remembered, and that they could be better remembered.

Epilepsy in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) present unique challenges, as the burden is high and the majority of sufferers are not receiving even basic epilepsy care. This work aimed to determine the prevalence, incidence, treatment gap, determinants of access to care and potential risk factors for epilepsy in three Nigerian rural districts of Afikpo, Ijebu-Jesa and Gwandu. A population-based door-to-door screening was undertaken to identify people with epilepsy. This was preceded by a validation study of a screening questionnaire translated into three Nigerian languages. Of the 42,427 persons (six years and above) screened, 254 persons were confirmed to have active epilepsy. The overall age-standardised prevalence was 9.8/1,000 (95% CI: 8.6, 11.1). The prevalence varied between sites; 17.7 (95% CI: 14.2, 20.6) in Gwandu, 4.8 (95% CI: 3.4, 6.6) in Afikpo and 3.3 (95% CI: 2.0, 5.1) in Ijebu Jesa. The overall estimated 1-year age-standardized retrospective incidence was 101.3/100,000 (95% CI: 57.9, 167.6), higher in Gwandu compared to Afikpo and Ijebu-Jesa. The overall peak age-specific prevalence was 10-14 years, while the median age of seizure onset was 6 (IQR: 4-10) years. Epilepsy was of focal onset in 45.2% of the subjects. The treatment gap was 94.4% (95% CI: 90.9, 96.9). Cultural beliefs and stigma are the most important factors associated with the failure to seek medical care. Febrile seizures, poor perinatal care, family history, measles and meningitis are the main contributory factors associated with epilepsy in children and adults, while head injury and consanguinity were peculiar to adults. Physicians interviewed reported significant deficits in manpower, training, available facilities and antiseizure medications. In conclusion, this study hopes to contribute to the understanding and eradication of epilepsy in Nigeria. The varied estimates and potential risk factors observed require larger prospective cohort studies. Strengthening the primary health care and community education would improve the current treatment gap.