Family planning amongst the Akha & Khmu : "what type of services is necessary?" : Khua District, Lao PDR : a dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Masters of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The Lao PDR, a landlocked country, of 236 800 sq kms, with a population of 5,091,100, is situated between Thailand and Cambodia to the south, Vietnam to the east. China to the north, and Myanmar to the west. Lao is a geographically diverse country, which stretches along the Annamite chain to the Mekong River valley. There are 48 ethnic groups in the Lao PDR. The majority of which make up the Lao Loum (lowland Lao). Lao is one of the few remaining communist countries in the world today. Following the people's revolution in 1975 the Lao PDR was formed by the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party, which currently remains the only political party in existence in the Lao PDR. Today the Party remains strong with a centralised government, though through a series of political reforms during the 1980s such as the introduction of the New Economic Mechanism the country has opened up to more international trade and investment. Entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is now being considered following a submission made in 2000. The reproductive health of women in the Lao PDR is one of the top ten priorities of the Ministry of Health's Primary Health Care Policy. To assist with the implementation of the policy a National Family planning Program was established in 1991. While initial implementation of the program focussed on more densely populated areas in the more accessible provincial capitals along the Mekong River, women in remote rural communities are also being targeted. While the policy is to be commended for its aims, the implementation of activities to achieve its aims can at times be hindered by a lack of funding, poor infrastructure and communication and a lack of human resources. [FROM INTRODUCTION

Primary goals, information-giving and men\u27s understanding: A qualitative study of Australian and UK doctors\u27 varied communication about PSA screening

Objectives: (1) To characterise variation in general practitioners’ (GPs’) accounts of communicating with men about prostate cancer screening using the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, (2) to characterise GPs’ reasons for communicating as they do and (3) to explain why and under what conditions GP communication approaches vary. Study design and setting: A grounded theory study. We interviewed 69 GPs consulting in primary care practices in Australia (n=40) and the UK (n=29). Results: GPs explained their communication practices in relation to their primary goals. In Australia, three different communication goals were reported: to encourage asymptomatic men to either have a PSA test, or not test, or alternatively, to support men to make their own decision. As well as having different primary goals, GPs aimed to provide different information (from comprehensive to strongly filtered) and to support men to develop different kinds of understanding, from population-level to ‘gist’ understanding. Taking into account these three dimensions (goals, information, understanding) and building on Entwistle et al’s Consider an Offer framework, we derived four overarching approaches to communication: Be screened, Do not be screened, Analyse and choose, and As you wish. We also describe ways in which situational and relational factors influenced GPs’ preferred communication approach. Conclusion: GPs’ reported approach to communicating about prostate cancer screening varies according to three dimensions—their primary goal, information provision preference and understanding sought—and in response to specific practice situations. If GP communication about PSA screening is to become more standardized in Australia, it is likely that each of these dimensions will require attention in policy and practice support interventions

A protocol for co-creating research project lay summaries with stakeholders:Guideline development for Canada's AGE-WELL Network

Background: Funding bodies increasingly require researchers to write lay summaries to communicate projects’ real-world relevance to the public in an accessible way. However, research proposals and findings are generally not easily readable or understandable by non-specialist readers. Many researchers find writing lay summaries difficult because they typically write for fellow subject specialists or academics rather than the general public or a non-specialist audience. The primary objective of our project is to develop guidelines for researchers in Canada’s AGE-WELL Network of Centres of Excellence, and ultimately various other disciplines, sectors, and institutions, to co-create lay summaries of research projects with stakeholders. To begin, we produced a protocol for co-creating a lay summary based on workshops we organized and facilitated for an AGE-WELL researcher. This paper presents the lay summary co-creation protocol that AGE-WELL researchers will be invited to use.Methods: Eligible participants in this project will be 24 AgeTech project researchers who are funded by the AGE-WELL network in its Core Research Program 2020. If they agree to participate in this project, we will invite them to use our protocol to co-produce a lay summary of their respective projects with stakeholders. The protocol comprises six steps: Investigate principles of writing a good lay summary, identify the target readership, identify stakeholders to collaborate with, recruit the identified stakeholders to work on a lay summary, prepare for workshop sessions, and execute the sessions. To help participants through the process, we will provide them with a guide to developing an accessible, readable research lay summary, help them make decisions, and host, and facilitate if needed, their lay summary co-creation workshops.Discussion: Public-facing research outputs, including lay summaries, are increasingly important knowledge translation strategies to promote the impact of research on real-world issues. To produce lay summaries that include information that will interest a non-specialist readership and that are written in accessible language, stakeholder engagement is key. Furthermore, both researchers and stakeholders benefit by participating in the co-creation process. We hope the protocol helps researchers collaborate with stakeholders effectively to co-produce lay summaries that meet the needs of both the public and project funders

General Practitioners’ Experiences of, and Responses to, Uncertainty in Prostate Cancer Screening : Insights from a Qualitative Study

Acknowledgments We thank the General Practitioners for their participation in this research. The project was funded by NHMRC grant 1023197. Stacy Carter is supported by NHMRC Career Development Fellowship 1032963. Funding: The project was funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council grant 1023197 (https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/). SMC and LR obtained funding and are CIs on the NHMRC funded project grant. SMC is supported by NHMRC Career Development Fellowship 1032963. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The challenges for new academics in adopting student-centred approaches to teaching

The current article provides a perspective on the day-to-day challenges that a group of new teachers experienced as they adopted more student-centred approaches to teaching. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted over two years with 11 new teachers from a range of higher education institutions and subject disciplines. The analysis used case studies, alongside a search for common themes, to provide fine-grained insights into the teachers' development. A main finding was that in using approaches that more actively involved the students, the teachers described challenges specific to their local contexts. In particular, the idiosyncrasy of the topic being taught was a key factor. The second finding was that regardless of the conception of teaching held, all teachers described challenges in translating this way of thinking into practice. Such data provides a useful resource for academic developers to open dialogue with new academics about the challenges they face in developing as teachers

Can consumers learn to ask three questions to improve shared decision making? A feasibility study of the ASK (AskShareKnow) Patient–Clinician Communication Model® intervention in a primary health-care setting

Funded by Informed Medical Decisions Foundation. Grant Number: #0175-1 National Health and Medical Research Council Public Health Training Fellowship. Grant Number: 568962Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Local density approximations from finite systems

The local density approximation (LDA) constructed through quantum Monte Carlo calculations of the homogeneous electron gas (HEG) is the most common approximation to the exchange-correlation functional in density functional theory. We introduce an alternative set of LDAs constructed from slablike systems of one, two, and three electrons that resemble the HEG within a finite region, and illustrate the concept in one dimension. Comparing with the exact densities and Kohn-Sham potentials for various test systems, we find that the LDAs give a good account of the self-interaction correction, but are less reliable when correlation is stronger or currents flow

Supporting the learning of deaf students in higher education: a case study at Sheffield Hallam University

This article is an examination of the issues surrounding support for the learning of deaf students in higher education (HE). There are an increasing number of deaf students attending HE institutes, and as such provision of support mechanisms for these students is not only necessary but essential. Deaf students are similar to their hearing peers, in that they will approach their learning and require differing levels of support dependant upon the individual. They will, however, require a different kind of support, which can be technical or human resource based. This article examines the issues that surround supporting deaf students in HE with use of a case study of provision at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), during the academic year 1994-95. It is evident that by considering the needs of deaf students and making changes to our teaching practices that all students can benefit