Constructing fashionable dress and identity in Bhutan

Whilst working as Head of Fashion in LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore (2007-2010) I was approached by Singapore International Foundation (SIF) to act as a Specialist Volunteer Overseas to co-develop a tailoring curriculum for the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources in Bhutan in an international development project funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2008-2009. In this chapter I present a critical reflection on our curriculum and broadly situate the role of international development projects focused on textiles and dress within discourses of globalisation. I examine how the interaction with non-governmental and inter-governmental agencies may combine with ideas about dress and identity within the recipient country. I wish to personify the processes through which these ‘hybrid’ identities are constructed, both physically and metaphorically, through ideas about fashionable dress present in garments and online discussions about them to challenge simplistic essentialist thinking about the ways in which ‘fashion’ is adopted by a ‘non-western’ culture

Associations between environmental exposures and asthma control and exacerbations in young children : a systematic review

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Is pesticide exposure a cause of obstructive airways disease?

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Short-stay urgent hospital admissions of children with convulsions:A mixed methods exploratory study to inform out of hospital care pathways

Objective To inform interventions focused on safely reducing urgent paediatric short stay admissions (SSAs) for convulsions. Methods Routinely acquired administrative data from hospital admissions in Scotland between 2015- 2017 investigated characteristics of unscheduled SSAs (an urgent admission where admission and discharge occur on the same day) for a diagnosis of febrile and/or afebrile convulsions. Semi-structured interviews to explore perspectives of health professionals (n = 19) making referral or admission decisions about convulsions were undertaken. Interpretation of mixed methods findings was complemented by interviews with four parents with experience of unscheduled SSAs of children with convulsion. Results Most SSAs for convulsions present initially at hospital emergency departments (ED). In a subset of 10,588 (11%) of all cause SSAs with linked general practice data available, 72 (37%) children with a convulsion contacted both the GP and ED pre-admission. Within 30 days of discharge, 10% (n = 141) of children admitted with afebrile convulsions had been readmitted to hospital with a further convulsion. Interview data suggest that panic and anxiety, through fear that the situation is life threatening, was a primary factor driving hospital attendance and admission. Lengthy waits to speak to appropriate professionals exacerbate parental anxiety and can trigger direct attendance at ED, whereas some children with complex needs had direct access to convulsion professionals. Conclusions SSAs for convulsions are different to SSAs for other conditions and our findings could inform new efficient convulsion-specific pre and post hospital pathways designed to improve family experiences and reduce admissions and readmissions.</p

Regional variations in short stay urgent paediatric hospital admissions : a sequential mixed-methods approach exploring differences through data linkage and qualitative interviews

Acknowledgments We are grateful to Nobel Yuen and Michelle Chan for their help in calculating distance to hospital and to all the parents and NHS staff who participated Funding This work was supported by Chief Scientific Officer grant number HIPS 18-09Peer reviewedPublisher PD

North Korea: Economic Leverage and Policy Analysis

This report examines the economic side of U.S. leverage with North Korea and reviews U.S. policy and legislation. The security side of U.S.-DPRK relations is addressed in other CRS reports

North Korea: Economic Leverage and Policy Analysis

This report discusses the current political and economic state of North Korea, especially in regards to cooperative international efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program and its trading relationships with China and Russia, especially