“On the twelfth day of Christmas ….” the editor of the Journal of Health Research Ms Sunanta Wongchalee informed us that our paper ‘Silicone use in Nepali transgender women: The hazards of beauty’ has been accepted for publication [1]. That is nice belated Christmas present to receive on January 6th and a good start of the New Year. The paper is written by FHSS’s Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen with Sanjeev Raj Neupane in Nepal. This is the second paper from this unique study on transgender women in Nepal, the first one was published last year in BMJ Open[2].
References:
Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E.,, Neupane, S. (2020) Silicone use in Nepali transgender women: The hazards of beauty, Journal of Health Research (accepted)
Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E., Neupane, S., Marahatta, S. (2019) Hormone use among Nepali transgender women: a qualitative study, BMJ Open 9: e030464. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030464.
For nearly a decade BU researchers have published widely about the hazards and risk of Nepali migrant workers in Asia and the Middle East [1-9]. Despite the fact that most migrant workers end up in semi-skilled and unskilled jobs in their host countries, only a minority report poor working environments. For example, in Pratik Adhikary’s PhD study in FHSS only just over a fifth of migrant workers reported that their work environment in the Middle East or Malaysia was poor or very poor [4]. This relatively high level of satisfaction appears to seems contradict reports in local media on the risks associated with Nepali migrants working abroad, especially focusing on the football world cup in Qatar[7], official reports that many hundreds of bodies of dead Nepali migrants return home every year [10], and the fact that many of these Nepali migrant workers end up doing the jobs the local populations finds too dirty, dangerous and demeaning (colloquially referred to as 3D-jobs). Why do so many who travel abroad take to do risky, dirty and otherwise undesirable jobs, but still assess their working environment as not too bad?
More theoretical papers on the drivers of migration have referred to many interconnected factors and links [11-12]. Local drivers in Nepal include poverty, lack of employment opportunities, having a history of work-related migration, a growing culture of migration (i.e. it becomes more or less an expectation) and many more. One local element that is perhaps too easily ignored is that many Nepali migrant workers would have ended up in dirty, dangerous and demeaning jobs at home too. And the risk, on for example building sites in Nepal might be even greater than that in Qatar or elsewhere in the Middle East as some of the photos below illustrate. These photos of an accident involving an external building lift were taken today on a building site in Kathmandu.
References:
Adhikary P., Keen S., van Teijlingen E. (2011) Health Issues among Nepalese migrant workers in Middle East. Health Science Journal 5: 169-75. www.hsj.gr/volume5/issue3/532.pdf
Adhikary, P, Sheppard, Z., Keen, S., van Teijlingen, E. (2017) Risky work: accidents among Nepalese migrant workers in Malaysia, Qatar & Saudi Arabia, Health Prospect 16(2): 3-10.
Adhikary P, Sheppard, Z., Keen S., van Teijlingen E. (2018) Health and well-being of Nepalese migrant workers abroad, International Journal of Migration, Health & Social Care 14(1): 96-105. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-12-2015-0052
Aryal, N., Regmi, P.R., Faller, E.M., van Teijlingen, E., Khoon, C.C., Pereira, A., Simkhada, P. (2019) Sudden cardiac death and kidney health related problems among Nepali migrant workers in Malaysia. Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, 9 (3), 788-791. https://doi.org/10.3126/nje.v9i3.25805
Adhikary P, van Teijlingen E., Keen S. (2019) Workplace accidents among Nepali male workers in the Middle East and Malaysia: A qualitative study, Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health 21(5): 1115–1122. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10903-018-0801-y
Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E., Mahato, P., Aryal, N., Jadhav, N., Simkhada, P., Syed Zahiruddin, Q., Gaidhane, A., (2019) The health of Nepali migrants in India: A qualitative study of lifestyles and risks, Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health16(19), 3655; doi:10.3390/ijerph16193655.
Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of Nepal. (2018) Labour migration for employment: a status report for Nepal: 2015/2016 – 2016/2017. In. Kathmandu, Nepal: Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Van Hear, N., Bakewell, O., Long. K.(2018)Push-pull plus: reconsidering the drivers of migration,Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies,44:6,927-944,DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2017.1384135
Applied Health and Care research is essential in our region if we are to improve the care and operation of our health and care systems.
Professor Alison Richardson, Director of the NIHR Wessex Applied Research Collaboration (ARC), will be talking about the newly formed ARC Wessex, which is working across the region with its partner organisations to bring the best research into practice.
ARC Wessex aims to address the immediate issues facing the health and social care system. The research programme focuses on four areas:
Ageing & Dementia.
Healthy Communities.
Long Term Conditions
Workforce and Health Systems.
There are a number of initial projects underway – for further information see our website.
Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise. The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.
Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to Research Professional. These can be downloaded here.
Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.
User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using Research Professional.
Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.
In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of Research Professional. To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional
Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on Research Professional. They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with Research Professional. The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat. Each session will cover:
Self registration and logging in
Building searches
Setting personalised alerts
Saving and bookmarking items
Subscribing to news alerts
Configuring your personal profile
Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fourth Tuesday of each month. You can register here for your preferred date:
These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.
Have you noticed the pink box on the BU Research Blog homepage?
By clicking on this box, on the left of the Research Blog home page just under the text ‘Funding Opportunities‘, you access a Research Professional real-time search of the calls announced by the Major UK Funders. Use this feature to stay up to date with funding calls. Please note that you will have to be on campus or connecting to your desktop via our VPN to fully access this service.
The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology published its final edition of 2019 today, on the final day of the year. This issue included an editorial co-authored by BU academics and BU Visiting Faculty. The editorial ‘Vaping and e-cigarettes: A public health warning or a health promotion tool?’ [1] addresses the topical public health question of what to make of vaping. On the one hand, vaping is generally regarded as less harmful than smoking tobacco, but on the other hand, it can be a gateway drug to cigarettes and the process of vaping a range of chemicals it in itself not harmless.
The paper has been written by two academics based in CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health), Dr. Preeti Mahato and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and FHSS Visiting Faulty members Prof. Padam Simkhada (based at the University of Huddersfield) and Dr. Brijesh Sathian (based at Trauma Surgery,in Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar) in collaboration with e-cigarette user Mr. Cameron van Teijlingen (based in Dorset) and Dr. Mohammad Asim (based at Trauma Surgery,in Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar). The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is Open Access and therefore freely accessible across the globe.
Reference:
van Teijlingen, E., Mahato, P., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, C., Asim, M., & Sathian, B. (2019). Vaping and e-cigarettes: A public health warning or a health promotion tool? Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, 9(4), 792-794. https://doi.org/10.3126/nje.v9i4.26960
UK Election Analysis 2019: Media, Voters and the Campaign, edited by Daniel Jackson, Einar Thorsen, Darren Lilleker and Nathalie Weidhase.
Featuring 85 contributions from over 100 leading academics and emerging scholars, this free publication captures the immediate thoughts, reflections and early research insights on the 2019 UK General Election from the cutting edge of media and politics research.
Published just 10 days after the election, these contributions are short and accessible. Authors provide authoritative analysis of the campaign, including research findings or new theoretical insights; to bring readers original ways of understanding the election and its consequences. Contributions also bring a rich range of disciplinary influences, from political science to cultural studies, journalism studies to geography.
The publication is available as a free downloadable PDF, as a website and as a paperback report.
Thanks to all of our contributors and production staff who helped make the quick turnaround possible. We hope it makes for a vibrant and engaging read!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Truth, Lies and Civic Culture
1. Delusions of democracy Natalie Fenton 2. What’s the election communication system like now? Jay Blumler 3. The rules of the campaign found wanting Alan Renwick 4. Sorry, not sorry: hubris, hate and the politics of shame Karen Ross 5. The “coarsening” of campaigns Dan Stevens, Susan Banducci, Laszlo Horvath and André Krouwel 6. Online hate and the “nasty” election Helen Margetts and Bertie Vidgen 7. GE2019 was not a Brexit election: trust and credibility, anti-politics and populism Matt Flinders 8. The online public shaming of political candidates in the 2019 General Election Mark Wheeler 9. Strategic lying: the new game in town Ivor Gaber 10. Fact-checkers’ attempts to check rhetorical slogans and misinformation Jen Birks 11. The election where British fourth estate journalism moved closer to extinction Aeron Davis 12. Rethinking impartiality in an age of political disinformation Stephen Cushion 13. Fake news, emotions, and social media Karin Wahl Jorgensen 14. Unleashing optimism in an age of anxiety Candida Yates
Voters, Polls and Results
15. Boris’s missing women Jessica Smith 16. An expected surprise? An evaluation of polls and seat forecasts during the campaign. Matt Wall and Jack Tudor 17. Unprecedented interest or more of the same? Turnout in the 2019 election Ron Johnston and Charles Pattie 18. Cartographic perspectives of the 2019 General Election Benjamin Hennig 19. Tactical voting advice sites Chris Hanretty 20. Another election, another disappointment: Young people vote left and are left behind at GE2019 James Sloam and Matt Henn 21. Divided we fall: Was Nigel Farage the kingmaker of the Johnson victory? Pippa Norris
The Nations
22. A renewed electoral pitch for independence in Wales Siim Trumm 23. “It’s the constitution, eejit”: Scotland and the agenda wars Michael Higgins 24. Gender takes to the shade in Scotland Fiona McKay 25. The election in Northern Ireland: A route back to Stormont? Jonathan Tonge 26. ‘Remain alliance’ win the BBC Northern Ireland Leaders’ debate (online at least) Paul Reilly
Parties and the Campaign
27. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something EU Russell Foster 28. ‘Weak and wobbly’ to ‘get Brexit done’: 2019 and Conservative campaigns Anthony Ridge-Newman 29. Conservative victories in Labour heartlands in the 2019 General Election Peter Reeves 30. Corbyn and Johnson’s strategic narratives on the campaign trail Pawel Surowiec, Victoria Copeland and Nathan Olsen 31. More Blimp, less Gandhi: the Corbyn problem Darren Lilleker 32. The Media and the Manifestos: why 2019 wasn’t 2017 redux for the Labour party Mike Berry 33. Down a slippery rope… is Britain joining the global trends towards right-wing populism? Mona Moufahim 34. The Brexit Party’s impact – if any Pete Dorey 35. Farage: Losing the battle to win the war Pippa Norris 36. Party election broadcasts … Actually? Vincent Campbell 37. GE 2019: lessons for political branding Jenny Lloyd 38. The postmodern election Barry Richards
Policy and Strategy
39. The uses and abuses of the left-right distinction in the campaign Jonathan Dean 40. Entitlement and incoherence: Centrist ‘bollocks’ Matthew Johnson 41. Brexit doesn’t mean Brexit, but the pursuit of power Thom Brooks 42. What ever happened to euroscepticism? Simon Usherwood 43. Immigration in the 2019 General Election Campaign Kerry Moore 44. Immigration in party manifestos. Threat or resource? Elena-Alina Dolea 45. Foreign policy in the 2019 election Victoria Honeyman 46. Post-Brexit ‘Global Britain’ as the theatre of the New Cold War Roman Gerodimos 47. The Rorschach Election: How the US narrates UK politics Victor Pickard 48. If everyone has a mandate…surely nobody has a mandate? Mark Shephard 49. The climate election that wasn’t David McQueen 50. Is this a climate election (yet)? Jenny Alexander 51. Movement-led electoral communication: Extinction Rebellion action and party policy in the media Abi Rhodes
The Digital Campaign
52. Digital campaign regulation: more urgent than ever? Kate Dommett and Sam Power 53. Did the Conservatives embrace social media in 2019? Richard Fletcher 54. #GE2019 – Labour owns the Tories on Instagram, the latest digital battlefield Matt Walsh 55. Spot the difference: how Nicola Sturgeon and Jo Swinson self-represented on Twitter Sally Osei-Appiah 56. “Go back to your student politics”? Momentum, the digital campaign, and what comes next James Dennis and Susana Sampaiao Dias 57. Taking the Tube Alec Charles 58. The politics of deletion in social media campaigns Marco Bastos 59. “Behind the curtain of the targeting machine” – Political parties A/B testing in action Tristan Hotham 60. Against opacity, outrage & deception in digital political campaigning Vian Bakir and Andrew McStay 61. The explosion of the public sphere Martin Moore and Gordon Ramsay 62. Big chickens, dumbfakes, squirrel killers: was 2019 the election where ‘shitposing’ went mainstream? Rosalynd Southern
News and Journalism
63. Time to fix our TV debates Nick Anstead 64. What was all that about, then? The media agenda in the 2019 General Election David Deacon et al 65. Pluralism or partisanship? Calibrating punditry on BBC2’s Politics Live James Morrison 66. Hero and villain: the media’s role in identity management Jagon Chichon 67. Traditional majoritarian conceptions of UK politics pose a dilemma for the media in elections Louise Thompson 68. #GE2019: A tale of two elections? Aljosha Karim Schapals 69. Boxing clever: negotiating gender in campaign coverage during the 2019 General Election Emily Harmer 70. Press distortion of public opinion polling: what can, or should, be done? Steve Barnett 71. The final verdict: patterns of press partisanship Dominic Wring and David Deacon 72. The class war election Des Freedman 73. An uncertain future for alternative online media? Declan McDowell-Naylor and Richard Thomas
Personality politics and Pop Culture
74. Tune in, turn away, drop out: Emotionality and the decision not to stand Beth Johnson and Katy Parry 75. Last fan standing: Jeremy Corbyn supporters in the 2019 General Election Cornel Sandvoss 76. Linguistic style in the Johnson vs Corbyn televised debates of the 2019 General Election campaign Sylvia Shaw 77. Order! Order! The Speaker, celebrity politics and ritual performance Marcel Broersma 78. What is Boris Johnson? John Street 79. Creating Boris: Nigel Farage and the 2019 election Neil Ewen 80. Boris the clown – the effective performance of incompetence Lone Sorensen 81. Political humour and the problem of taking Boris seriously Andrew Glencross 82. Joking: uses and abuses of humour in the election campaign Sophie Quirk, Tom Sharkey and Ed Wilson 83. The problem with satirising the election Allaina Kilby 84. Sounding Off: music and musicians’ interventions in the 2019 election campaign Adam Behr 85. Stormzy, status, and the serious business of social media spats Ellen Watts
Martine Hardwick, Lecturer in Law and PhD Candidate in the Department of Humanities and Law, has published a timely commentary in the Bournemouth University Law Review looking ahead to a change in the law on 31 December 2019. On this date, opposite sex couples will finally be able to register their civil partnerships – which until now has been reserved for same sex couples.
However, this change in the law raises important questions for cohabiting couples. Despite longing for more protection and fairness from the law, co-habiting couples will not be presented with the opportunity as heterosexual couples to celebrate on New Year’s Eve. Instead, they will still be bound by the strict rules of formation and dissolution which mirror those of marriage.
Questioning whether the UK has missed an opportunity to provide more rights for cohabiting couples and highlighting a solution drawn from France in the form of Pacte Civil de Solidarité (PACS), Martine argues that learning lessons from the French legal system has to be the way forward in giving cohabitants protection while respecting their autonomy.
Both Dr Susan Dewhurst and Prof Jane Murphy from BU’s Ageing and Dementia Research Centre were invited to speak at the 27th Managing Osteoporosis conference 2019 on 9-10th December 2019 at RBCH alongside a number of high profile speakers from across the UK. There were over 200 delegates from across the South including consultants, nurses and other Allied Health Professionals. Susan spoke about ‘Exercise for Fall Prevention: What Works?’, whilst Jane updated delegates on ‘Diet, Nutrition and Ageing’.
The talks garnered a lot of interest with new insights for bone health and managing osteoporosis and opportunities for collaboration.
Historians down the ages have examined the ebb and flow of populations in ancient societies. But most of these examinations have tended to focus on male dominated events – the wars, the politics and the money. But there is another side to the past that struggles to be heard over the clashing of swords. It is this unreported history that our new research focuses on.
My colleagues and I at Bournemouth University and the University of Warsaw used advanced chemical techniques to study breastfeeding in some of the world’s early cities in ancient parts of Syria and Lebanon. We analysed small pieces of bone from infants, children and mothers interred in ancient Bronze Age cemeteries between 2800 and 1200 BC by using a technique known as stable isotopes analysis. From this we built computer models that estimated the age of weaning (the introduction of complementary foods to a breastfeeding child’s diet) and complete weaning (stopping breastfeeding entirely) in these populations.
Our research found that women seem to have exclusively breastfed their children until about the age of six months and completely stopped around the age of two and a half – earlier than was common elsewhere at this point in history. These earlier weaning times may have helped boost the population of these cities, which became flourishing centres of civilisation.
The sites we excavated were urban centres on the Mediterranean coast, and between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what was called Mesopotamia. Children’s bones found by archaeologists are often more fragile than those of adults, as they are smaller and not completely mineralised (their bones have less inorganic material such as calcium than those of adults). This means they often get damaged or are lost through decomposition.
However, enough children were excavated at these cemeteries for chemical analysis and confident statistical modelling. That’s partially due to the ancient Near Eastern practice of burying infants and children in jars, which partially protected the bones from the burial environment.
A Middle Bronze Age infant from the Lebanese site of Sidon buried in a large jar. Claude Doumet-Serhal, CC BY-NC-ND
Our ancient sites were metropolitan hubs and probably had wide-ranging contact from people all over the ancient world. Within these cities, women seem to have exclusively breastfed their children until about the age of six months, which fits with the World Health Organization’s recommendations for healthy infant feeding.
While other foods seem to have been introduced after six months, complete weaning stopped around the age of two-and-a-half. And these times seem to fit with written records from that part of the world. For example, there are some Babylonian contracts dating to as early as 1000 BC between parents and a wet nurse (a woman who would breastfeed the baby as if it were her own). According to these contracts, the wet nurse would breastfeed the baby for a proscribed amount of time, often around two to three years, and be repaid in barley, oil, wool and sometimes silver.
Later religious texts also provide clues. Some books in the Bible (Maccabees and Chronicles) note breastfeeding lasting for three years, and later sources from the first millennium AD such as the Quran and the Babylonian Talmud estimate this period as two years.
Relic from Mesopotamia (2000-1500 BCE) at The Sulaimaniya Museum, Iraq, shows a woman breastfeeding her child. Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, CC BY
Breastfeeding on average for two and a half years might seem like a long time in most modern cultures but it’s shorter than in many ancient societies as revealed by archaeological studies from all over the world also using stable isotopes analysis to estimate infant feeding practices. These found that the global average length of time until initial weaning in in pre-industrial societies would have been one year (as opposed to six months in our ancient cities). And complete weaning occurred at around the age of three.
Breastfeeding and populations
The timing and nature of weaning and complete weaning have long-lasting health impacts through infancy and even into adulthood. But beyond their impact on the health of individuals, breastfeeding and infant feeding strategies also affect population structures.
Breastfeeding for longer tends to mean women have gaps between pregnancies, and this has been considered a major factor in controlling fertility in hunter-gatherer groups where breastfeeding up to and beyond the age of five was the norm. In contrast, earlier weaning is associated with early farming communities with higher population growth.
This means the shorter breastfeeding times shown by our findings may have helped boost the population of the cities of ancient Syria and Lebanon. It could have been the result of having access to cereal crops such as wheat and barley and dairy products such as yogurt, which could easily be fed to children as weaning supplements. Agriculture was introduced earlier in this part of the world than elsewhere and coincided with the emergence of urban civilisations and the establishment of wide reaching international networks.
Sidon, for example, grew into one of the Mediterranean’s great port cities, connecting the Phoenicians as a commercial power. And our research suggests the strategies they used for childrearing may have had a hand in their achievements. So breastfeeding and weaning in ancient Lebanon and Syria didn’t make it into the big historical texts. But our study shows that these seemingly modern issues had big impact on society.
You can see all the Organisational Development and Research Knowledge Development Framework (RKEDF) events in one place on the handy calendar of events.
Please note that all sessions are now targeted, so look closely at the event page to check that the event is suitable for you. In addition, most RKEDF events now require the approval of your Head of Department (or other nominated approver). Please follow the instructions given on the event page and the template email for you to initiate the booking request.
An exciting opportunity to attend a workshop, please see below for further details –
‘A team from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) are working on a project looking at how we recruit research study participants from commercial High Street health care providers (e.g. Boots, SpecSavers etc), or organisations that support health in some way (e.g. gyms, slimming clubs etc).
The project is titled Community-Based Research and we are looking to answer two specific questions:
How can people with known health issues being seen only ‘on the high street’ access research?
How can people with known health risk factors, who are pre-disease diagnosis, access research?
These two groups could miss out on research opportunities currently because they don’t come into the standard health system until they are either considered to be too severe for High Street treatment (in the case of group 1) or they already have a health problem (in the case of group 2). We are looking to develop a process by which we can actively recruit participants at scale for trials before they need to access the health service, thus enabling better recruitment of milder disease and pre-disease phenotypes. We are aware that research is happening in these two groups and would like to pull together researchers who have this experience in order to learn from their successes and challenges.
To support this ETI we are running a workshop on January 31st, 10.30-3.30, at The Wesley Euston Hotel & Conference Venue, London, which will bring together the research community to discuss:
a) Examples of how we currently recruit from these settings, identifying successes and challenges
b) Based on these, identifying the key elements of a recruitment strategy that the Clinical Research Network could use
The Noël Turner Science Festival is a 2-day celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM), aiming to spark curiosity and raise understanding and awareness of the practical applications of STEM for primary and secondary students on the Isle of Wight.
The festival takes place on the 6 & 7 February from 10am-2pm at Cowes Enterprise College on the Isle of Wight.
Secondary school students (year 7 & 10) will be attending on the 6 February.
Primary School students (year 5) will be attending on the 7 February.
Opportunities available for Science Communicators to run 2 or 3 workshops across one or both days of the festival:
45 mins – 1 hour long
30 – 100 students
Timings across the day: 10:00 – 11:00, 11:30 – 12:30, 13:00 – 14:00
Engineering is a key industry on the island so workshops could involve developing some of these skills. E.g. an invention/engineering type workshop – working together to solve a problem students can relate to.
Workshops could also involve: something practical relating to your research, demonstrating how science is useful outside school – such as forensics, climate change sports science, medicines and health.
Rooms are available for smaller workshops and larger spaces for theatre style workshops/shows
FameLab is the only international science communication competition, designed to find, train and mentor scientists and engineers to share their enthusiasm for research with the public. FameLab was started in 2005 by Cheltenham Science Festival. Since the partnership with the British Council in 2007 over 10000 scientists and engineers from 31 countries have participated, with winners coming together for the International FameLab Final at Cheltenham Science Festival each June.
Participants receive training in science communication before presenting their research in an engaging way to a live audience. Presentations must not exceed 3 minutes, must not involve PowerPoint slides, and any props used must be carried on by the participant themselves. Participants are judged on Content, Clarity and Charisma, and the best go through to the next round.
FameLab UK winners receive a weekend masterclass with a professional science communicator, an all-expenses paid trip to Cheltenham Science Festival, the opportunity to take part in the FameLab UK Final and possibly the FameLab International Final at Cheltenham Science Festival, and up to £2000 prize money.
Are you interested in…
Improving your communication skills
Talking about your research with a live audience
Joining a global network of science communicators
An all-expenses paid trip to Cheltenham Science Festival
“FameLab has been a great chance to meet inspiring people who are doing and communicating wonderful research around the world. Learning from each other, encouraging each other and building networks that will last into the future has been a brilliant experience, and one that I’ve been very lucky to be a part of.”
Tim Gordon, FameLab International Winner 2019
For more information or for help with the application process, please contact Adam Morris – Engagement Officer
Since the changing of the year seems to be the time for lists, top ten lists, etc., I decided to compile mine about being creative whist producing cutting‐edge research. Not for the faint‐hearted! Here goes:
1. Be curious. Be a detective. Be ready to be surprised by answers you never expected. It should, in the end, be a good story that you can tell.
2. Insure that the method fits the question(s). This can often take some time. Be willing to investigate until you find the right method. This will save you a lot of grief later.
3. Explore methods. Combine them, expand them, reinvented them, but be prepared to then follow them.
4. If your research question is about people, find a way to really involve them in the process, not just answer some stupid questions.
5. Don’t panic if you method produces a lot of data. Swim in it. It’s fun and it is here that the surprises bubble up. Whatever you do, try to avoid reducing the amount of data by ‘categorizing’ it. (I detest little boxes.)
6. Think hard and long about how you want to share the results of your efforts. Text is only one of many possibilities. Really try to get your personal interests out of the way in this process and let the data lead you in selecting a format or art form.
7. Research is about discovery; Dissemination is about putting your findings into action. Ideally, we can be creative at both.
8. About half of your effort (and time) should be on producing the research, the other half on creating the outputs.
9. Creative outputs produce unexpected outcomes. Be willing to experiment, ‘go it alone’. ‘Doing’ and ‘making’ produce additional findings. Use them, they are rich and you’ve earned them.
10. Be willing to make 100 versions, then one more (Sister Corita Kent). It’s that last one that you will use.
Note: Remember, oh ye serious social scientists, that in Big Science, some of the greatest discoveries were made through mistakes and acknowledging the unexpected. Therefore:
Rule 11: Be curious about the history of your craft. Soak up as much as you can. It will both inspire and lead you.
This article by Kip Jones originally appeared on his
Congratulations to Dr. Pramod Regmi and Dr. Nirmal Aryal, both in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS), who co-authored of our latest health and migration paper which was accepted this week. This paper called “Nepali migrant workers and the need for pre-departure training on mental health: a qualitative study” will appear in the Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health[1]. This is the sixth paper published this year by this FHSS team of researchers on migration and health research about Nepal and the twelfth paper in total on the topic [2-12].
This important health and migration research in Nepal and about Nepali migrant workers is also the foundation of a Bournemouth University REF 2021 Impact Case Study.
Reference:
Regmi, P., Aryal, N., van Teijlingen, E., Adhikary, P. Nepali migrant workers and the need for pre-departure training on mental health: a qualitative study, Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health (accepted).
Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E., Mahato, P., Aryal, N., Jadhav, N., Simkhada, P., Syed Zahiruddin, Q., Gaidhane, A., (2019) The health of Nepali migrants in India: A qualitative study of lifestyles and risks, Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health16(19), 3655; doi:10.3390/ijerph16193655.
Dhungana, R.R., Aryal, N, Adhikary, P., KC, R., Regmi, P.R., Devkota, B., Sharma, G.N., Wickramage, K., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2019) Psychological morbidity in Nepali cross-border migrants in India: A community-based cross-sectional, BMC Public Health 19:1534 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-7881-z
Aryal, N., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Mahato, P. (2019) Adolescents left behind by migrant workers: a call for community-based mental health interventions in Nepal. WHO South East Asia Journal of Public Health 8(1): 38-41.
Adhikary P, van Teijlingen E., Keen S. (2019) Workplace accidents among Nepali male workers in the Middle East and Malaysia: A qualitative study, Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health 21(5): 1115–1122. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10903-018-0801-y
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 & Malaysia, BMC International Health & Human Rights 18(4): 1-7. http://rdcu.be/E3Ro
Adhikary P, Sheppard, Z., Keen S., van Teijlingen E. (2018) Health and well-being of Nepalese migrant workers abroad, International Journal of Migration, Health & Social Care 14(1): 96-105. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-12-2015-0052
Adhikary, P, Sheppard, Z., Keen, S., van Teijlingen, E. (2017) Risky work: accidents among Nepalese migrant workers in Malaysia, Qatar & Saudi Arabia, Health Prospect 16(2): 3-10.
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.
Adhikary, P., Simkhada, P.P., van Teijlingen E., Raja, AE. (2008) Health & Lifestyle of Nepalese Migrants in the UK BMC International Health & Human Rights8(6). Web address: www.biomedcentral.com/1472-698X/8/6
Sapkota, T., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2014) Nepalese health workers’ migration to United Kingdom: A qualitative study. Health Science Journal8(1):57-74.
This is the second time in a week that I have the pleasure of announcing a paper by our PhD student Orlanda Harvey. This PhD-based paper ‘Support for non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids users: A qualitative exploration of their needs’ has been accepted by the scientific journal Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy (published by Taylor & Francis) [1]. Orlanda’s PhD is a mixed-methods study of social workers working with people using un-prescribe /recreational Anabolic Androgenic Steroid (AAS) in several high-income countries including the UK.
With her success in publishing Orlanda is a good ambassador for Bournemouth University’s PhD Integrated Thesis format. Such Integrated Thesis allows PhD candidates to incorporate material that has been published or submitted for publication to an academic peer-reviewed journal. Apart from the inclusion of such materials, the Integrated Thesis must conform to the same regulations as the traditional PhD thesis. Including Orlanda’s previously published review on AAS [3] she is well underway to putting together a well-balanced Integrated Thesis supported by her Faculty of Health & Social Sciences supervisors: Dr. Margarete Parrish, Dr. Steven Trenoweth and Prof Edwin van Teijlingen.
Of course, last week Orlanda already featured in the December of HED Matters as Early Career Researcher (ECR) with an article on ‘ECR Spotlight: From Social Work to Studying Steroids’ [2]. See also my BU Research Blog of four days ago (click here!).
Congratulations!
Prof . Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Reference:
Harvey, O., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E., Trenoweth, S. Support for non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids users: A qualitative exploration of their needs, Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy (accepted). Doi 10.1080/09687637.2019.1705763
We will have a seminar session with the guest lecturer, Professor Nariaki Ikematsu (Consultant, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology; NICT). This session is the third ‘spin-out’ event from DEEP TRANSFORMATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZATIONS (6-7 December 2019). This research seminar is conducted as a Skype video conference.
Professor Ikematsu will present a contemporary topic of blockchain impact in the Asian countries, Thailand and Vietnam. He will talk about some cases including the business practices of ‘PIZZA 4P’S Makes the World Smile for Peace through “Edutainment”’ referring to the key factors ‘local consumption’ and ‘innovative supply chain management’. https://www.earthackers.com/pizza-4ps-makes-the-world-smile-for-peace-through-edutainment/ (Accessed 12 December 2019).
This seminar is held in line with the suggestions from a Key Note Speech made by Professor Sangeeta Khorana at the conference, DEEP TRANSFORMATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZATIONS on the 6th December in Tunis.
This session will provide unique topics in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as ‘Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure’ and ’Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals’.
This session also aligns with BU2025 strategic investment areas (SIAs), Simulation & Visualisation and Assistive Technology.
The BU ECRs, PhD researchers, and MSc students are welcome to this session.
The session will be facilitated by Dr Hiroko Oe and an ECR, Ediz Akchay. Mr. Gideon Adu-Gyamfi (MSc International Management) will also contribute as a discussant.
*For more details, please email to hoe@brounemouth.ac.uk
The ‘photo of the week’ is a weekly series featuring photographs taken by BU academics and students for our Research Photography Competition which took place earlier this year.
These provide a snapshot into some of the incredible research taking place across the BU community.
‘This image of the lunar halo inspired me to explore this natural phenomenon. I accidentally saw a halo around the moon and took this photo in the night winter forest. A halo is an optical phenomenon, a glowing ring around a light source. There are many types of halos and they are caused mainly by ice crystals in Cirrus clouds at an altitude of 5-10 km in the upper troposphere. The type of halo depends on the shape and location of the crystals. Light reflected and refracted by ice crystals often decomposes into a spectrum, making the halo look like a rainbow. The most vivid and full-colour are pargelia and anti-aircraft arc, less bright-tangent small and large halo.’
‘Now I am engaged in research and a variety of this natural phenomenon, I have a large collection of photos of different types of halo around the world, and thanks to this, people learn about this fascinating phenomenon.’
If you have any questions about the Photo of the Week series or the Research Photography Competition please email research@bournemouth.ac.uk
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