The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) through the Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework (RKEDF) has a number of workshops in the coming months to assist you in developing and enhancing the impact that you can make with your research, with particular reference to the REF.
Please follow the links above to find out more and to book. You will then receive a meeting request giving the room location. Many of these events have input from external presenters; please ensure that you are in the room and ready to commence at the given start time.
Virtual environments (VEs) grant the ability to experience real-world scenarios, such as driving, in a virtual, safe, and reproducible context. However, to achieve their full potential, the fidelity of the VEs must provide confidence that it replicates the perception of the real-world experience. The computational cost of simulating real-world visuals accurately means that compromises to the fidelity of the visuals must be made. This talk presents a subjective evaluation of driving in a VE at different quality settings. Participants (n = 44) were driven around in the real world and in a purposely built representative VE and the fidelity of the graphics and overall experience at low-, medium-, and high-visual settings were analysed. Low quality corresponds to the illumination in many current traditional simulators, medium to a higher quality using accurate shadows and reflections, and high to the quality experienced in modern movies and simulations that require hours of computation. Results demonstrate that graphics quality affects the perceived fidelity of the visuals and the overall experience. When judging the overall experience, participants could tell the difference between the lower quality graphics and the rest but did not significantly discriminate between the medium and higher graphical settings. This indicates that future driving simulators should improve the quality, but once the equivalent of the presented medium quality is reached, they may not need to do so significantly.
This weekend Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Kathmandu, Nepal signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Bournemouth University (BU). The ceremonial signing took place on the final day (24th Feb.) of the International Conference on Quality Education in Federal Nepal. Prof. Stephen Tee, who also spoke at the conference, represented our university.
The UoA formalises a long-standing collaboration between the two institutions. MMIHS and BU academics have jointly applied for research grants, conducted collaborative research and published together. Several BU staff [1-3] and students [4] in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences have published in the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, an Open Access journal. Moreover, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health has been a Visiting Professor at MMIHS for nearly a decade and has given several guest lectures over the years to staff and students at MMIHS.
Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P, Kurmi, O, Pant, P. (2017) What can we learn from the Nepal Health Facility Survey 2015? Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences 3(1): 1-5.
van Teijlingen, E., Marahatta, S.B., Simkhada, P., McIver, M., Sharma, J.P. (2017) Developing an international higher education partnerships between high & low-income countries: two case studies Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, 3(1): 94-100.
Vickery, M. van Teijlingen, E., (2017) Female infanticide in India and its relevance to Nepal Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (JMMIHS) 3(1): 79-85.
In the days before social media – and, presumably, media training – Gerald Ratner’s description of some of the products sold in his chain of jewellers as “total crap” became a byword for the corporate gaffe. Recently the chief executive of publisher Hachette Livre, Arnaud Nourry, seems to have suffered his own “Ratner moment” when he described ebooks in an interview with an Indian news site as a “stupid product”.
The interview, which was intended to address the future of digital publishing and specific issues facing the Indian publishing market, was widely misquoted and Nourry’s comments taken out of context. But there is no denying the fact that the publisher criticises his own industry (“We’re not doing very well”) and attacks ebooks for lacking creativity, not enhancing the reading experience in any way and not offering readers a “real” digital experience.
Some commenters on social media welcomed Nourry’s comments for their honesty. They highlight his seeming support for the idea that publishers should be championing writers and artists working to exploit the creative potential of digital formats to provide readers with experiences that may be challenging and disruptive, but also exhilarating and boundary pushing.
But many of the 1,000-plus commenters reacting to coverage of the story on The Guardian’s website spoke out against “fiddling for the sake of it” – claiming they were not interested in enhanced features or “gamified dancing baloney” borrowed from other media. They also listed the many practical enhancements that ebooks and ereaders do offer. The obvious one is the ability to instantly download books in remote locations where there are no bricks and mortar bookstores. But there are other less obvious enhancements, including being able to instantly access dictionary and encyclopedia entries (at least if you have wifi access) and the option to have the book read to you if you have visual impairments.
Elsewhere, Australian researcher Tully Barnett has shown how users of Kindle ereaders adapt features such as Highlights and Public Notes for social networking, demonstrating that even if ebooks are not that intrinsically innovative or creative, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they can’t be made so by imaginative users.
Nourry clearly isn’t averse to the provocative soundbite – in the same interview he went on to say: “I’m not a good swallower” when asked about mergers and conglomeration in the publishing industry. On the other hand, he also seems very aware of the special place of books and reading in “culture, education, democracy” – so his use of the word “stupid” in this context is particularly inflammatory and insensitive.
Dear reader
My research on digital reading has taught me that debating books vs ereaders is always likely to arouse strong passions and emotions. Merely mentioning the word Kindle has led in some instances to my being shouted at – and readers of “dead tree” books are rightly protective and passionate about the sensory and aesthetic qualities of physical books that the digital version possibly can’t compete with.
Mother and daughter Barbara and Jenni Creswell enjoyed Anne of Green Gables in both print and ebook format. Ray Gibson, Author provided
But, equally, my research has shown that enhancements in terms of accessibility and mobility offer a lifeline to readers who might not be able to indulge their passion for reading without the digital.
In my latest project, academics from Bournemouth and Brighton universities, in collaboration with Digitales (a participatory media company), worked with readers to produce digital stories based on their reading lives and histories. A recurring theme, especially among older participants, was the scarcity of books in their homes and the fact that literacy and education couldn’t be taken for granted. Our stories also demonstrated how intimately reading is connected with self-worth and helps transform lives disrupted by physical and mental health issues – making comments about any reading as “stupid” particularly damaging and offensive.
I would like to know if Nourry would still call ebooks stupid products after watching Mary Bish’s story: My Life in Books from our project. A lifelong reader who grew up in a home in industrial South Wales with few books, Mary calls her iPad her “best friend” and reflects how before the digital age her reading life would have been cut short by macular degeneration.
As well as demonstrating that fairly basic digital tools can be used to create powerful stories, our project showed that the digital also makes us appreciate anew those features of the physical book we may take for granted, the touch, smell and feel of paper and the special place that a book handed down from generation to generation has in the context of family life.
Yesterday (Monday 26th February) we disseminated the preliminary findings of our study on ‘Health vulnerabilities of cross border migrants from Nepal.’ The study was funded by IOM (International Organisation for Migration) in Kathmandu. The main findings were outlined one of the researchers from Green Tara Nepal.
The study was conducted in Nepal by Nepali researchers Drs. Pratik Adhikary, Nirmal Aryal and Raja Ram Dhungana, with methodological support from Prof. Padam Simkhada (Liverpool John Moores University) and BU’s Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. The mixed-methods study included a cross-sectional study of 752 Nepali migrant workers who had returned from working in India as well as focus groups and interviews with a sub-sample of returnees and interviews with two key informants. The research team also highlighted some key issues raised in two recent migration and health papers co-authored by some of the contributors to the dissemination event [1-2].
The project has strong link with Bournemouth University, Prof. Simkhada is Visiting Professor in BU’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS), Dr. Pratik Adhikary is a BU Ph.D. graduate and Dr. Nirmal Aryal has just been appointed in FHSS as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in preparation for REF 2021.
References:
Simkhada, P.P., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Aryal, N. (2017) Identifying the gaps in Nepalese migrant workers’ health and well-being: A review of the literature, Journal of Travel Medicine24 (4): 1-9.
Simkhada, P.P., van Teijlingen, E.R., Gurung, M., Wasti, S. (2018) A survey of health problems of Nepalese female migrants workers in the Middle-East and Malaysia, BMC International Health & Human Rights 18(4): 1-7. http://rdcu.be/E3Ro
This morning we disseminated the findings of an evidence synthesis on ‘Effectiveness of community engagement and participation approaches in low and middle income countries’ in the Himalayan Hotel in Kathmandu. The study was designed to identify, analyse and summarise the findings of existing systematic reviews that have examined the effectiveness of community engagement/participation approaches in improving health, service delivery and sustainability outcomes. Therefore the overarching research question was: “How effective are community engagement/participation approaches for delivering better health outcomes, improving service delivery and sustaining benefits?”
Systematic Review of Reviews included 31 systematic reviews which examined community engagement/participation approaches in improving health (maternal and child health, infectious or communicable diseases, ‘other’ disease areas), service delivery and sustainability outcomes. There was wide variation in the aims and objectives, and methods of analysis across the included systematic reviews. In part this reflected a lack of a standard definition or terminology in how community engagement and participation approaches were described or characterised. The overall strength of the systematic review-level evidence has been categorised as of limited or moderate, however many systematic reviews reported consistent findings.
Community engagement and participation approaches continue to be viewed as important, particularly in LMICs. The general trend in the evidence identified suggests that community engagement and participation approaches have played a role in successful intervention delivery across health system domains and areas of health. However the extent to which community ownership and empowerment is achieved greatly impacts on the sustainability of these approaches and our evidence draws out some key factors for consideration in the delivery of successful community engagement and participation.
The study was led by Prof. Padam Simkhada from Liverpool John Moores University with support from staff based at the University of Liverpool, Bournemouth University and Green Tara Nepal. The study was commissioned and funded by the Research and Evidence Division in the Department for International Development. The forthcoming report has been funded by UK aid from the UK Government.
A strategic commentary on the interconnected areas of corporate strategy and employee performance are discussed in the latest issue of Strategic HR Review. The paper provides a longitudinal analysis of how two firms adapted, reconfigured and transformed their businesses to meet the demands of an operating environment characterized by inexorable changes in digital technologies. It presents data and conclusions on how the management of “human resources” had delivered different employee productivity outcomes over the long term.
50 FREE downloads are available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-10-2017-0069
The future of YouTube is focus of a new co-created paper by Dr John Oliver (FMC) and Emma Parrett, Strategic Partnerships Director at OMD UK. Published in the US based journal, Business Horizons, the paper presents theoretical and empirical findings on how Scenario Planning was used to enable media executives to strategize and prepare YouTube for multiple futures, with multiple strategies.
The paper combines imaginative and systematic thinking in a way that provides a unique insight into future media environments and how YouTube could compete in each scenario.
Dr Oliver commented that “this co-created paper illustrates the benefits of academics working with industry professionals to create knowledge and impact with multiple stakeholders”.
The full article can accessed from: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Wbaj1lnoC6sq
“Facebook! WhatsApp!” – shouts one of the Eritrean teenagers. “No, Viber!” – contradicts his friend. The promt for this, was the question: what is your favourite app? I’m in a centre in the north of the Netherlands which accommodates 20 unaccompanied minor refugees. I’m here because we’re conducting an EU-funded Marie Curie project on how these displaced children (aged 14-18) use digital technology and (social) media.
I’m running the focus group in the mentors’ office, while in the kitchen some other boys are listening to Eritrean music. From one of the rooms, I can also hear Arabic music playing. Wherever I went during the two weeks field work in the Netherlands, music was the one constant. Most of the time YouTube was on auto play, and I watched some of the videos together with the teenagers.
“What is it about?” – I would ask. The girls would start laughing: “Ah it’s too complicated.” “Is it about love?” – I continued. “Yes!”- they’d reply and laugh even harder.
In the two weeks spent in the Netherlands, I interviewed 16 unaccompanied refugee children. In that time, I was lucky enough to be invited into their homes. Upon entering I was regularly offered tea, or in one house, a traditional Eritrean cake called Himbasha. Despite their struggles and constant waiting for their families to arrive from a different country, these teenagers were trying their best to live a fairly normal life.
I was also humbled by the work of their mentors. The mentors are employed by a Dutch non-governmental organisation, and have a very important role: to help young refugees adapt to their new country, help them understand the way Dutch society functions and to support them in their everyday life. From applying for a new bus card for the teenagers to asking them about school work, the mentors are basically a new family to them. Some of the mentors I’ve met, have themselves arrived as refugees to the Netherlands. Needless to say, their work is equally demanding and fulfilling.
The final aim of this project is to understand unaccompanied minor refugees’ lived media experiences in order to create media literacy educational materials for them. I hope that our work will be as beneficial as the work I’ve seen done by these mentors.
photo credits: Nidos, RedDishKitchen
I’m very grateful to the non-governmental organisations Nidos and Vitree for their support during this field work.
Bournemouth University leads the Kosovo-strand of a major four-year AHRC ‘Global Challenges’ project titled ‘Changing the Story‘. This project aims at supporting the building of inclusive civil societies (CSOs) with, and for, young people in five post-conflict countries. It asks how the arts, heritage, and human rights education can support youth-centred approaches to civil society building in Cambodia, Colombia, Kosovo, Rwanda and South Africa. The Kosovo strand benefits from an established track record of collaboration with University of Prishtina (Co-I) and Stacion: Centre for Contemporary Arts in Prishtina as well as several arts-based civil society organisations in the country. The BU-led strand focuses on formal and informal civic education through the arts in Kosovo, to be explored locally by a Postgraduate Research Assistant, attached to University of Prishtina, through a critical review and proof of concept exercise during the first year. In support, BU is contributing a fully-funded PhD scholarship under the title ‘Imagining New Futures: Engaging Young People Through Participatory Arts in Post-Conflict Kosovo‘, which is currently being advertised.
International collaborative activities commenced last week in collaboration with an internationally-acclaimed CSO partner in Dorset, devoted to developing global youth citizenship through culture and the arts. The award-winning Complete Freedom of Truth project (TCFT), with which BU collaborated already previously, kindly offered a one-week residency to Albert Heta, Director of Stacion: Centre for Contemporary Arts in Prishtina. This residency brought together a group of artists, workshop leaders and young people from across the UK between February 12 and 16 in Bridport. Albert’s visit from Kosovo was funded by the AHRC and facilitated by BU’s new Research Centre ‘Seldom Heard-Voices: Marginalisation and Society Integration’ of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS). Together with Albert, some of the Centre’s members also participates in the events organised by TCFT, exchanged experiences and discussed best practice of working with young people of various background through the arts towards social justice. TCFT has a long history of working with young people, internationally, starting in post-conflict Srebrenica in 2008. Based on our observations during one week in Dorset, including of the issues selected as important by the young UK-participants during this period, we are currently reflecting on the extent to, and ways in, which arts-based interventions with a given set of young people in one specific socio-cultural context and its underpinning conceptualisations (such as of empowerment or vulnerability of, and pressures on, young people) can or cannot be transferred to another, such as that in which young people in Kosovo negotiate their aspirations.
Just before the start of Bournemouth University’s Global Festival of Learning India (12-16 February) the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences published Michelle Vickery’s paper ‘Female infanticide in India and its relevance to Nepal’ [1]. This article developed out of Michelle’s undergraduate Sociology thesis which she completed as part of her undergraduate degree in 2016. The Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences is an Open Access journal which means its content is freely available to any reader with internet access across the globe.
Over the last few years Bournemouth University academic have published papers on a range of topics related to India, for example on Media Studies [2-3], English literature [4] , Sociology [5], Public Health [6] , and environmental science and conservation [7-9].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
Vickery, M., van Teijlingen, E., (2017) Female infanticide in India and its relevance to Nepal.Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (JMMIHS) 3(1): 79-85.
Sudbury, S. (2016) Locating a “third voice”: participatory filmmaking and the everyday in rural India. Journal of Media Practice, 17 (2-3): 213-231.
Goodman, S. (2018) ‘Ain’t it a Ripping Night’: Alcoholism and the Legacies of Empire in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. English Studies, (forthcoming).
Sahay, G., Devkota, B., van Teijlingen, E.R. (2016) Rebel Health Services in South Asia: Comparing Maoist-led Conflicts in India & Nepal, Sociological Bulletin 65(1):19-39.
Sathian, B. , De, A. ,van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. , Banerjee, I. , Roy, B. , Supram, H. , Devkota, S. , E, R. (2015). Time Trend of the Suicide Incidence in India: a Statistical Modelling. American Journal of Public Health Research, 3(5A), 80-87. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajphr/3/5A/17/index.html
Bower, S. D., Danylchuk, A. J., Raghavan, R., Danylchuk, S. C., Pinder, A. C., Alter, A. M., Cooke, S. J. (2017) Involving recreational fisheries stakeholders in development of research and conservation priorities for mahseer (Tor spp.) of India through collaborative workshops. Fisheries Research, 186, 665-671.
Bower S.D., Danylchuk A.J., Raghavan R., Clark-Danylchuck S.E., Pinder A.C., Cooke S.J. (2016) Rapid assessment of the physiological impacts caused by catch-and-release angling on blue-finned mahseer (Tor sp.) of the Cauvery River, India. Fisheries Management and EcologyDOI: 10.1111/fme.12135
Pinder, A.C., Raghavan, R., Britton, J.R. (2015) Efficacy of angler catch data as a population and conservation monitoring tool for the flagship Mahseer fishes (Tor spp.) of Southern India. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, DOI: 10.1002/aqc.2543
Last week the Journal of Manmoham Memorial Institute of Health Sciences based in Nepal published as its editorial ‘What can we learn from the Nepal Health Facility Survey 2015. [1] The Nepal Health Facility Survey 2015 is a first of its kind. It is a much needed start to help analyse and improve the workings of the country’s health system. This is very important and timely as one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is to reduce premature mortality by one-third from non-communicable diseases. Success in this effort will depend on the concerted efforts on health facilities (for both health promotion, prevention and management) for an early and optimal care. The editorial also raises some of the ethical and methodological issues associated with the first ever Nepal Health Facility Survey 2015. The lead author of the editorial is Dr. Pramod Regmi and our co-authors include Prof. Padam Simkhada (Visiting Faculty in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences). The Journal of Manmoham Memorial Institute of Health Sciences is an Open Access journal hence freely available to scholars and politicians and health managers across the globe, including those based in low-income countries such as Nepal.
Reference:
Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P, Kurmi, O, Pant, P. (2017) What can we learn from the Nepal Health Facility Survey 2015? Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (JMMIHS) 3(1): 1-5
BU Visiting Prof. Padam Simkhada and BU’s Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen published a blog post about Nepal’s significant progress in improving the health of women and a striking reduction on maternal mortality. The paper highlights that despite difficult terrain, conflict and political turmoil, Nepal was one of the few countries that managed to achieve Millennium Development Goal 5 on maternal health in 2015.
BU PhD student Mrs Preeti Mahato published her latest scientific paper ‘Determinants of quality of care and access to Basic Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care facilities and midwife-led facilities in low and middle-income countries: A Systematic Review’ in the Journal of Asian Midwives [1]. This paper is co-authored by Dr. Catherine Angell and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, who are both based in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) and Prof. Padam Simkhada, BU Visiting Professor and based at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). Journal of Asian Midwives is a free Open Access journal, freely available for anybody across the globe to read online.
The authors highlight that maternal mortality is a major challenge to health systems in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) where almost 99% of maternal deaths occurred in 2015. Primary-care facilities providing Basic Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (BEmONC) facilities, and facilities that are midwife-led are appropriate for normal birth in LMICs and have been proposed as the best approach to reduce maternal deaths. However, the poor quality of maternal services that leads to decreased utilisation of these facilities is among the major causes of maternal deaths worldwide. This systematic review studied factors affecting the quality of care in BEmONC and midwife-led facilities in LMICs.
Thematic analysis on included studies revealed various factors affecting quality of care including facility-level determinants and other determinants influencing access to care. Facility-level determinants included these barriers: lack of equipment and drugs at the facility, lack of trained staff, poor attitudes and behaviour of service providers, and poor communication with women. Facility-level positive determinants were: satisfaction with services, emotional support during delivery and trust in health providers. The access-to-care determinants were: socio-economic factors, physical access to the facility, maintaining privacy and confidentiality, and cultural values. The authors include that improving quality of care of birthing facilities requires addressing both facility level and non-facility level determinants in order to increase utilization of the services available at the BEmONC and midwife-led facilities in LMICs.
This is the fifth paper co-authored by CMMPH’s current most published PhD student. The evaluation of birth centres in rural Nepal by Preeti Mahato under joint supervision Dr. Angell and Prof. Simkhada (LJMU) and Prof. van Teijlingen.
References:
Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Angell, C. (2017) Determinants of quality of care & access to Basic Emergency Obstetric & Neonatal Care facilities & midwife-led facilities in low & middle-income countries: A Systematic Review, Journal of Asian Midwives 4(2):25-51.
Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Sheppard, Z., Silwal, R.C. (2017) Factors related to choice of place of birth in a district in Nepal. Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare 13: 91-96.
Mahato, P.K., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Angell, C., Sathian, B. (2015) Birthing centre infrastructure in Nepal post 2015 earthquake. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 5(4): 518-519. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/14260/11579
Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., Sharma, S., Mahato, P. (2016) Sustainable Development Goals: relevance to maternal & child health in Nepal. Health Prospect 15(1):9-10. www.healthprospect.org/archives/15/1/3.pdf
Prof. Stephen Tee, Professor of Nurse Education & National Teaching Fellow, has been invited to give a key note speech at an International Conference on CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF QUALITY EDUCATION IN NEPAL IN FEDERALISM ERA in Kathmandu, the capital in Nepal.
This International Conference is organised by the Higher Institutions & Secondary Schools’ Association Nepal (HISSAN) in collaboration with 13 international universities including Bournemouth University. Members of the Conference Advisor Committee includes BU professors Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen. Prof. Tee will be speaking about ‘What can Nepal learn from latest UK technology-enhanced teaching?’ He is in great position to speak about learning technology due to his dual role at BU as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences as well as Interim Executive Dean of the Faculty of Management, moreover with his role as Assistant Editor of Nurse Education Today.
The USA shutdown, following the current budget impasse, has started to affect many federal services across the country, but the effect can also be felt abroad. I just noted on the PubMed webpages the above warning: “Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted.” This delay in funding in the most up-to-date health research database will not have a major effect today (Sunday 21 Jan.) as it will have on hundreds of thousands of federal staff facing unpaid leave and many more people facing interruptions in the provision of basic service across the USA. It is however a sign of globalisation, with internal political disputes in the USA affecting people across the globe, including health researchers at Bournemouth University.
Pourakhi, meaning self-reliant in Nepali, was established in 2003 to advocate for the rights of women who returned to Nepal after having worked abroad. The current Chair Manju Gurung is co-author on our paper.
Since 2003, Pourakhi has established a number of programmes around pre-employment, pre-departure, employment and post arrival support. In 2009, it opened a Shelter Facility to provide a safe space for women who returned to Nepal and were not able to rejoin their family and community. Pourakhi recognized that many women who returned from abroad had been victimized abroad and needed to seek relief from the government. In order to provide assistance to these women, In addition, Pourakhi established programmes to empower women after they return to Nepal from foreign employment. More specifically, Pourakhi established a financial literacy programme to educate women and an in business skills.
Pourakhi has been instrumental in ensuring that the voices of migrant women workers are heard and reflected in national policy and law. Additionally, it has successfully lobbied the government to ratify a number of international laws needed to protect the rights of female migrant workers.
Although Pourakhi began as an organisation by and on behalf of women, it has recognized that all migrant workers have the right to safe migration. Therefore, Pourakhi now assists both woman and men in all stages of the migration process.
The other two Nepali-speaking co-authors are Prof. Padam Simkhada from Liverpool john Moores University, who is also Visiting Professor in Bournemouth University’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences and Dr. Sharada Prasad Wasti who is working for the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University, Washington, DC in the USA.
Congratulations to FHSS Prof. Vanora Hundley and her co-authors from across the globe who published ‘Progression of the first stage of spontaneous labour: A prospective cohort study in two sub-Saharan African countries’ in the journal PLOS Medicine [1].
The authors highlight that since the early 2000s researchers using new statistical methods to have informed changes in recommended labour practices in some settings, they have also generated a lot of controversy. As a result of persistent questions as to whether racial characteristics influence labour progression patterns, recent studies have been conducted among different populations, but not yet in any African population. The authors conclude that
As labour may not naturally accelerate in some women until a cervical dilatation of 5 cm is reached, labour practices to address perceived slow labour progression should not be routinely applied by clinicians until this threshold is achieved, provided the vital signs and other observations of the mother and baby are normal.
In the absence of any problems other than a slower than expected cervical dilatation rate (i.e., 1 cm/hour) during labour, it is in the interest of the woman that expectant, supportive, and woman-centred labour care is continued.
The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) through the Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework (RKEDF) has a number of workshops in the coming months to assist you in developing and enhancing the impact that you can make with your research, with particular reference to the REF.
– I would ask. The girls would start laughing: “Ah it’s too complicated.” “Is it about love?” – I continued. “Yes!”- they’d reply and laugh even harder.
Apply now to take part in the 2025 ESRC Festival of Social Science
Photo exhibition happening now at Talbot Campus – Ageing in a digital world
A compassionate approach to Simulation: new national blog post published
The Future of Surface Protection: Nanocomposite Coatings Explained
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
Horizon Europe info days 2025
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease