Category / REF Subjects

Using participatory asset mapping and PhotoVoice in Nepalese alcohol study

BU research, Featured academics, international, open access, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

This week we received an email from the editorial office of  Perspectives in Public Health with congratulations on the acceptance of your paper ‘Participatory asset mapping and photovoice interviews to scope cultural and community resources to reduce alcohol harm in Chitwan, Nepal’ [1].  The lead researcher on this public health alcohol research project in Nepal is Dr. Ranjita Dhital, Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Health Studies in the Arts and Sciences Department at UCL (University College London).

The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) like Nepal, morbidity and mortality risks are greater per litre of pure alcohol consumed than in higher-income countries. This is largely due to poverty, poor nutrition, adverse living conditions, and poor access to care. These inequities are made worse by the dearth of understanding of the most appropriate and cost-effective approaches to reduce alcohol-related harm in LMICs.  Our study aims to stimulate new thinking on how cultural and community assets could be integrated to co-designed alcohol interventions for future evaluation in LMICs, through scoping the breadth of cultural and community assets in relation to alcohol use and to exploring attitudes towards alcohol and people experiences with it.

The journal Perspectives in Public Health is published by SAGE and the paper will be Open Access when it appears online.  My previous alcohol studies have focused on students [2], Nepalese migrants living in the UK [3], and Public Health measures to reduced alcohol misuse in Scotland [4].

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

 

Reference:

 

  1. Dhital, R., Yoeli, H., Adhikari, A., Luitel, N.P., Nadkarni, A., van Teijlingen, E., Sin, J. (2023) Participatory asset mapping and photovoice interviews to scope cultural and community resources to reduce alcohol harm in Chitwan, Nepal, Perspectives in Public Health (accepted).  DOI: 10.1177/17579139231180744).
  2. Engs, R.C, van Teijlingen E (1997) Correlates of alcohol, tobacco & marijuana use among Scottish post-secondary helping profession students, Journal of Alcohol Studies, 58:435-44.
  3. van Teijlingen E, Simkhada, P., Adhikary, P. (2009) Alcohol use among the Nepalese in the UK BMJ Rapid Response: bmj.com/cgi/eletters/339/oct20_1/b4028#223451
  4. Ludbrook A, Godfrey C, Wyness L, Parrott S, Haw S, Napper M, van Teijlingen E. (2002) Effective & Cost-Effective Measures to Reduce Alcohol Misuse in Scotland: Lit Review, ISBN: 0755932803 www.alcoholinformation.isdscotland.org/alcohol_misuse/files/MeasureReduce_Full.pdf

 

Talk by Prof. Kira Nobre, this Thursday the 25th at 13.00h (Inspire Lecture Theatre, Fusion)

BU research, BU2025, Featured academics, Research Centres

We would like to please draw your attention to a seminar organized by the Department of Psychology this Thursday 25th from 13.00 to 14.00 at the Inspire Lecture Theatre (Fusion Building).

 The guest speaker is Dr Kia Nobre (Oxford University), invited by Dr Ben Parris.

Kia Nobre is a distinguished figure in cognitive neuroscience, renowned for her groundbreaking research contributions. She leads the Brain & Cognition Lab at the University of Oxford. Current research in her group investigates how the brain prioritises and selects information from sensory input and from memories, to build our psychological experience and guide human behaviour. In addition, they examine how these mechanisms develop over the lifespan and how they are disrupted in psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

Her research combines behavioural methods with brain imaging and brain stimulation. During her prolific career, Prof. Nobre contributed to discovering brain areas specialised for word recognition and face processing, describing the functional neuroanatomy of the brain network for controlling spatial attention and characterizing the relationship between attention and memory.

Kia Nobre is one of the most recognised cognitive neuroscientists worldwide, you are all warmly invited to attend her talk.

Kind regards,

Ellen and Emili on behalf of all of us

BU Workshop on Health Systems in Nepal

BU research, COVID-19, Featured academics, open access, policy, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

You are invited to a two-hour ‘Workshop on Health Systems in Nepal’ at Bournemouth University (BU) on Thursday 25th May in the Bournemouth Gateway Building (BGB room 315) starting at 14.00, aiming to finish at 16.00.  We have the pleasure of welcoming three academic visitors from Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Kathmandu who are at BU on an Erasmus+ exchange.

‘Prof. Sujan Marahatta, Dr. Sujata Sapkota and Dr. Sujan Gautam from MMIHS are part of an international project examining the consequences for the health system of Nepal’s move to a federal government structure.  This project, launched in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, is led by the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with BU, the University of Huddersfield, PHASE Nepal and MMIHS.  This nearly four-year project is UK-funded by the MRC (Medical Research Council), the Wellcome Trust and DFID (now called Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office [FCDO]) under the Health Systems Research Initiative.

The project has resulted in several publications, all in Open Access journals.  The first of three papers introduced the research project ‘The impact of federalisation on Nepal’s health system: a longitudinal analysis’ [1], the second focused on COVID-19 when examining the effects of changing Nepal’s constitution towards a federal republic on its health system [2], and the third one highlighted  Public Health approaches around the ongoing federalisation of the state of Nepal and the associated decentralisation processes in its health system [3].

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (formerly CMMPH)

 

References:

  1. Sapkota, S., Panday, S., Wasti, S.P., Lee, A., Balen, J., van Teijlingen, E., Rushton, S., Subedi, M., Gautam, S., Karki, J., Adhikary, P., Marahatta, S., Simkhada, P. for the Nepal Federal Health System Team (2022) Health System Strengthening: The Role of Public Health in Federal Nepal, Journal of Nepal Public Health Association 7 (1): 36-42.
  2. Rushton, S., Pandey, S., van Teijlingen, E., Subedi, M., Balen, J., Karki, J., Simkhada, P. on behalf of the Nepal Federal Health System Team (2021) An Investigation into the Impact of Decentralization on the Health System of Nepal. Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, 7(1): 3–14. https://doi.org/10.3126/jmmihs.v7i1.43146
  3. Adhikary, P., Balen, J., Gautam, S., Ghimire S., Karki J.K., Lee A.C., Marahatta S.B., Pandey S., Pohl G., Ruston S., Sapkota S., Simkhada P.P., Subedi M., van Teijlingen E.R., on behalf of the NFHS Team (2020) The COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal: Emerging evidence on the effectiveness of action by, and cooperation between, different levels of government in a federal system. Journal of Karnali Academy of Health Sciences 3(3)

Knowledge Exchange BU Workshop Supporting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Dorset

BU research, BU2025, Impact, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, Research Centres, Uncategorized

On May 19, BU researchers in the Centre for Comparative Politics and Media Research | Bournemouth University, Alina Dolea, Tabitha Baker and Dawid Pekalski, are organizing an interactive knowledge exchange workshop with local stakeholders to facilitate sharing of experiences and best practices in supporting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Dorset.

Academics researching issues of displacement and forced migration across BU will be joined by representatives from Dorset Council, BCP Council, Citizen advice, Public Health Dorset, International Care Network, British Red Cross, Migrant Help UK, Dorset Race Equality Council, as well as other local groups and stakeholders.

One objective of the workshop is to understand the dimensions of displacement and migration in the BCP and Dorset area, mapping the programs run, but also the issues faced by the councils and the different organisations in their work with refugees, asylum seekers and other migrant communities. Another objective is to understand, also from the beneficiaries’ perspective, their needs, gaps and current issues they are facing. Together we aim to get to know more about each other’s work, discuss and reflect on the national and local policies, programs, networks of support and integration that are in place.

Our overall goal for the day is to identify areas of collaborations so that we as academics and researchers can help and actively contribute to the current infrastructure of support and integration. The collaboration can range from volunteering and exploring placement opportunities for our students, co-creating projects, and organizing joint events, to delivering applied workshops and trainings, as well as providing research insights to inform policy making.

More details about the workshop are available here: Supporting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Dorset Tickets, Fri 19 May 2023 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

Neural Networks 2022 Best Paper Award

BU research, BU2025, Publishing

2022 Best Paper Award

Dr Hari Mohan Pandey is a recipient of the 2022 Best Paper Award (visit: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/neural-networks/awards/announcement-of-the-neural-networks-2022-best-paper-award):

“Cross-modality paired-images generation and augmentation for RGB-infrared person re-identification”

This paper is published in Neural Networks, volume 128, pp. 294-304, August 2020. The paper can be accessed at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2020.05.008

The Neural Networks Best Paper Award recognizes a single outstanding paper published in Neural Networks annually.

BU PhD student receives OpenBright grant

BU research, Postgraduate Research, Research news, Women's Academic Network

I am thrilled to announce that I have been awarded a grant from OpenBright to take part in a short summer course on “Data Science: Network Science” at Utrecht University, located in the Netherlands. OpenBright award grants to support women in computing to develop their research projects.
As a PhD student, I am currently working on a research project titled “Smart Transportation Networks for Smart Cities,” under the supervision of Dr. Wei Koong Chai. The research is match-funded by Bournemouth Christchurch Poole (BCP) Council.   Through the course, I am excited to further enhance my knowledge and skills in network science, which is crucial to my research work.
I am thankful for the support and recognition from OpenBright, which provides me with the opportunity to learn from some of the most renowned researchers and scholars in this field. This grant not only benefits me but also fosters the advancement of women in computing, promoting gender equity and diversity in science.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my supervisor Dr. Wei Koong Chai, for his invaluable guidance and support throughout my PhD journey.
Author: Assemgul Kozhabek, 3rd year PhD student, SciTech, Computing and Informatics department

BU hosting British Society of Criminology’s Hate Crime Network’s annual conference in June

conferences, Events, hate crime, policy, Uncategorized

Dr. Jane Healy, Principal Academic in BU’s Department of Social Science and Social Work is organising a national conference on behalf of the British Society of Criminology’s Hate Crime Network. The conference ‘TRANSforming the Narrative: Challenging Transphobic Hate Crime’ will be held on June 22.  The conference is free, and its aims and mission statement, as well as booking information, can be found on the link: click here!
The British Society of Criminology’s Hate Crime Network’s annual conference will take place at Bournemouth University in 2023. This will be an opportunity to consider the extent of transphobic hate crimes, the experiences of victims, and the responses by criminal justice and voluntary agencies. The conference is free to attend though registration in mandatory!