Professor Manoj Sharma | The Multi-theory Model (MTM) of Health Behavior Change: Understanding the Determinants of Breast Cancer Screening

Professor Manoj Sharma | The Multi-theory Model (MTM) of Health Behavior Change: Understanding the Determinants of Breast Cancer Screening

The multi-theory model (MTM) of health behavior change provides a theoretical framework for understanding and promoting health behaviors. Professor Manoj Sharma from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the originator of this model, has applied this model to breast cancer and undertaking mammography screening in women from groups underserved in current healthcare. His findings have important theoretical and practical implications.

Overcoming Challenges and Defining Successful Strategies: Setting up a Vital Biorepository in Sub-Saharan Africa

Overcoming Challenges and Defining Successful Strategies: Setting up a Vital Biorepository in Sub-Saharan Africa

The UK-based Pregnancy Care Integrating Translational Science, Everywhere (PRECISE) Network has set up biorepositories across sub-Saharan Africa to investigate the causes of placental pregnancy complications and enhance research capacity. The project encountered several challenges relating to facilities, staffing, training, cultural barriers, procurement, shipping and sample storage which impacted project timings and budget. However, with appropriate training and infrastructure development, the researchers have shown that is possible to facilitate high-quality sample collection in this region. This important achievement provides vital encouragement in support of establishing further biorepositories in less affluent regions.

Dr Clara Pelfrey – Dr Linda Scholl | Charting How Research Leads from Discoveries to Improved Health

Dr Clara Pelfrey – Dr Linda Scholl | Charting How Research Leads from Discoveries to Improved Health

Interventions designed to improve health, including targeted drugs and medical devices, typically undergo a complex and lengthy process of development. In a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cornell University, the National Institutes of Health and Case Western Reserve University in the USA, experts Dr Clara Pelfrey, Dr Linda Scholl and colleagues have designed a case study protocol to improve understanding of this process.

Dr Jozelin María Soto-Alarcón – Dr Diana Xóchitl González-Gómez | The Use of Communal Land by Rural Women in Mexico

Dr Jozelin María Soto-Alarcón – Dr Diana Xóchitl González-Gómez | The Use of Communal Land by Rural Women in Mexico

The inability to access land is a major cause of poverty in agricultural societies. Women, who are less likely to own, rent, buy or inherit land, are particularly affected and access to communal land may provide a vital lifeline. Dr Jozelin María Soto-Alarcón and Dr Diana Xóchitl González-Gómez set out to investigate the use of communal land in a rural community in Mexico, investigating the strategies used by a collective of women to achieve access to this critical resource.

Caitlin Calio – Ann Higgins-D’Alessandro | Understanding the Experiences of Typically Developing Siblings of People with Autism

Caitlin Calio – Ann Higgins-D’Alessandro | Understanding the Experiences of Typically Developing Siblings of People with Autism

While research into the experiences of people with autism and their families is flourishing, there remains relatively little research on the experiences of typically developing siblings, particularly those on the brink of adulthood. Ms Caitlin Calio, Masters of Teaching, and Professor Ann Higgins-D’Alessandro at Fordham University in the USA, are dedicated to overcoming this important knowledge gap to help inform both theory and the development of appropriate practical support.

Professor Zygmunt Pizlo | How Fundamentals in Physics Can Explain Perception and Cognition

Professor Zygmunt Pizlo | How Fundamentals in Physics Can Explain Perception and Cognition

Professor Zygmunt Pizlo at the University of California-Irvine has advanced degrees in both engineering and psychology. He is drawing on his extensive experience in these often disparate fields to explore how fundamentals in physics can explain how we see the world around us. His novel work extrapolating from the importance of symmetry in physics and the natural world opens up exciting possibilities for psychology and cognitive science.