Infant habituation and novelty responses in The Gambia and the UK at 5 to 18 months (Conference Presentation)

Author(s):  
Anna Blasi Ribera ◽  
Clare Elwell
Keyword(s):  
2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun-Gyoung Hur ◽  
Patricia Gorak-Stolinska ◽  
Maeve K Lalor ◽  
Hazzie Mvula ◽  
Sian Floyd ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Benedetta Gualeni ◽  
Louise Hughes ◽  
Isabelle Stauber ◽  
Louise Ackers ◽  
Angela Gorman ◽  
...  

Background: It is estimated that 225 million women worldwide have an unmet need for family planning, and more than half live in low- and middle-income countries. Increasing the choice of contraceptive methods available can reduce this unmet need. Microneedle drug delivery systems represent a new technology for minimally invasive self-administration of contraceptives. We explored stakeholders’ views on different aspects of a proposed microneedle-based hormonal contraceptive delivery system. The feedback was used to iteratively develop this delivery system. Methods: Focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews were conducted with potential stakeholders (women and trans males of childbearing age, their partners, and health professionals and organisations that provide family planning advice and contraception services) in Uganda, The Gambia, Malawi, and the UK, exploring concept acceptability and gathering feedback on different aspects of design and usability of the proposed delivery system. Results: Participants viewed the concept of a new, microneedle-based contraceptive favourably. In Uganda, participants were presented with 7 different prototype applicators and identified desirable features of a preferred delivery device; their input reducing the number of prototypes that were subsequently evaluated by stakeholders in The Gambia and the UK. Participants in these countries helped to identify and/or confirm the most desirable characteristics of the applicator, resulting in design consolidation into a refined concept applicator. The final, optimised applicator prototype was validated during user research in Malawi. This human-centred design approach was also used to iteratively develop an information leaflet for the device. During these user studies, other preferred aspects of a contraceptive delivery system were also evaluated, such as anatomical site of application, duration of action, and return to fertility. Conclusions: A new microneedle-based contraceptive delivery system was iteratively developed using a human-centred design approach and was favourably received by potential stakeholders. The product is now being refined for testing in pre-clinical studies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Kea

This article examines transnational kinship relations between Gambian parents in the UK and their children and carers in The Gambia, with a focus on the production, exchange and reception of photographs. Many Gambian migrant parents in the UK take their children to The Gambia to be cared for by extended family members. Mirroring the mobility of Gambian migrants and their children as they travel between the UK and The Gambia, photographs document changing family structures and relations. It is argued that domestic photography provides an insight into the representational politics, values and aesthetics of Gambian transatlantic kinship relations. Further, the concept of the moral economy supports a hermeneutics of Gambian family photographic practice and develops our understanding of the visual economy of transnational kinship relations in a number of ways: it draws attention to the way in which the value attributed to a photograph is rooted in shared moral and cultural codes of care within transnational relations of inequality and power; it helps us to interpret Gambians’ responses to and treatment of family photographs; and it highlights the importance attributed to portrait photography and the staging, setting and aesthetics of photographic content within a Gambian imaginary.


2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES FAIRHEAD ◽  
MELISSA LEACH ◽  
MARY SMALL

This paper considers how parents engage with a large, internationally supported childhood pneumococcal vaccine trial in The Gambia. Current analysis and professional reflection on public engagement is strongly shaped by the imperatives of public health and research institutions, and is thus couched in terms of acceptance and refusal, and ‘informed consent’. In contrast Gambian parents’ perspectives on the trial are couched in conceptual and experiential terms that are linked to their wider dilemmas of raising infants amidst the hazards of globally connected village life. Ethnographic research reveals how for most parents, longer-term experiences of the organization managing the research (the UK Medical Research Council Laboratories in The Gambia) as a health-providing institution override their reflection on trial-specific aims. A decision to participate in the trial involves a perceived balance of benefit and danger – in the extreme, of free medical treatment, versus one’s child being drained of blood for sale to Europe. Social relations (especially gender relations) shape this calculus and study participation. This case suggests how the idea of ‘public engagement with science’ in a globalized context might be recast, with implications for debates in biomedical ethics, and the sustainability of public participation in medical research.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-40
Author(s):  
Imogen Kretzschmar ◽  
Ousman Nyan ◽  
Ann Marie Mendy ◽  
Bamba Janneh

The Republic of The Gambia, on the west coast of Africa, is a narrow enclave into Senegal (which surrounds the nation on three sides), with a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, enclosing the mouth of the River Gambia. The smallest country on mainland Africa, The Gambia covers 11 295 km2 and has a population of 1705 000. There are five major ethnic groups: Mandinka, Fula, Wolof, Jola and Sarahuleh. Muslims represent 95% of the population. English is the official language but a miscellany of minor languages are also spoken (Serere, Aku, Mandjago, etc.). The Gambia has a history steeped in trade, with records of Arab traders dating back to the ninth century, its river serving as an artery into the continent, reaching as far as Mauritania. Indeed, as many as 3 million slaves were sold from the region during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Gambia gained independence from the UK in 1965 and joined the Commonwealth of Nations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 1137-1146 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. S. Jones ◽  
S. Assar ◽  
D. Vanderschueren ◽  
R. Bouillon ◽  
A. Prentice ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Benedetta Gualeni ◽  
Louise Hughes ◽  
Isabelle Stauber ◽  
Louise Ackers ◽  
Angela Gorman ◽  
...  

Background: It is estimated that 225 million women worldwide have an unmet need for family planning, and more than half live in low- and middle-income countries. Increasing the choice of contraceptive methods available can reduce this unmet need. Microneedle drug delivery systems represent a new technology for minimally invasive self-administration of contraceptives. We explored stakeholders’ views on different aspects of a proposed microneedle-based hormonal contraceptive delivery system. The feedback was used to iteratively develop this delivery system. Methods: Focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews were conducted with potential stakeholders (women and trans males of childbearing age, their partners, and health professionals and organisations that provide family planning advice and contraception services) in Uganda, The Gambia, Malawi, and the UK, exploring concept acceptability and gathering feedback on different aspects of design and usability of the proposed delivery system. Results: Participants viewed the concept of a new, microneedle-based contraceptive favourably. In Uganda, participants were presented with 7 different prototype applicators and identified desirable features of a preferred delivery device; their input reducing the number of prototypes that were subsequently evaluated by stakeholders in The Gambia and the UK. Participants in these countries helped to identify and/or confirm the most desirable characteristics of the applicator, resulting in design consolidation into a refined concept applicator. The final, optimised applicator prototype was validated during user research in Malawi. This human-centred design approach was also used to iteratively develop an information leaflet for the device. During these user studies, other preferred aspects of a contraceptive delivery system were also evaluated, such as anatomical site of application, duration of action, and return to fertility. Conclusions: A new microneedle-based contraceptive delivery system was iteratively developed using a human-centred design approach and was favourably received by potential stakeholders. The product is now being refined for testing in pre-clinical studies.


2010 ◽  
Vol 121 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 217-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Schoenmakers ◽  
F. Ginty ◽  
L.M.A. Jarjou ◽  
S. Nigdikar ◽  
J. Bennett ◽  
...  

1999 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. CANE ◽  
M. WEBER ◽  
M. SANNEH ◽  
R. DACKOUR ◽  
C. R. PRINGLE ◽  
...  

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in The Gambia occurs seasonally in association with the rainy season. This study examined the genetic variability of RSV isolates from four consecutive epidemics from 1993–6. Each epidemic was made up of a number of variants which were replaced in subsequent epidemics. Analysis of attachment (G) protein gene sequences showed that isolates were closely related to those observed in the rest of the world. However, many isolates from 1993 and 1994 were unlike other isolates observed in the developed world during this period and were more similar to isolates from 1984 in Europe. In addition, the most commonly observed genotype in the UK in the 1990s was not detected in The Gambia during this period.


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