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Session 9A-9C 15:30-17:00 // day one

9A - Migrants, Refugees and Development University of Warwick, IIE MSA, and University of Leeds

Football at all levels has an incredibly wide appeal and following across the world (Long and Robinson, 2006; Stone, 2013; 2018), which leads many to argue that football, perhaps more so than other sports, has a significant scope as a tool for positive change (FARE, 2018). This research explores the utility of grassroots football for the integration of female refugees and asylum seekers to contribute to the current gender-blind spot in existing literature on refugees and football. It broadens the approach of existing literature from a focus on social inclusion, to looking more holistically at integration, building on a framework developed by Ager and Strang (2004). Using a combination of research from existing literature, newspaper articles, reports and qualitative interviews, it explores current levels of participation among asylum-seeking women, perceived barriers to their participation and finally suggests some recommendations to help improve the accessibility of football for these women. Overall it seeks to demonstrate that football could be a successful tool for integration on the condition that various structural adjustments are made in order to facilitate the agency of football to achieve these outcomes.

The sheer mention of Globalization always generates heated controversy and debate as three things: compressed world, borderless world and interconnected world are brought to the minds of many. In its simplest form globalization involves the rapid increase in business, social and cultural interactions between people across the traditional boarders that define countries, leading to greater similarity and uniformity in life style. The question that arises from all this is "What is the impact of globalization on developing countries?�, in particular, the lives of those who dwell in these third world countries. This paper presents the different paradigms of globalization and critically analyses the impact on aspects of livelihoods in the global south focusing on social and economic behavioural changes. The study which shall be qualitatively administered will query the way globalization is changing lives in the developing countries. Specific case studies will be drawn from countries that are seemingly experiencing booming economic growth and social stability and those that are being negatively affected by the phenomenon. The study assumes and stems from the position that whilst globalization is not a new phenomenon, and is one that is unstoppable, governments of developing countries and the people have the obligation to exercise caution and selectiveness in managing globalization. This is because of the impact that it has on the enlargement of people's freedoms and opportunities politically, economically, socially, and environmentally as the world is becoming more vulnerable to climate change.

The factors leading migrants to either settle permanently in their current home or return to their country of origin are extremely understudied by economists (particularly in the UK) resulting in a blind spot for policy makers. This research aims to use economic techniques to examine the relative importance of income, gender, ethnicity, human capital and mobility restrictions on the permanency of migration. This would have important implications for both immigration policy and policies promoting social integration, as well as the wider narrative around migration. This is only heightened by the UK’s departure from the EU which will lead to a radical change of the immigration rules for EU citizens.

Two data sources, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the Understanding Society survey (UKHLS), which includes extra data for immigrants, will be used to create a holistic picture of migration to the UK. Based on cohort analysis used by Dustman and Weiss (2007), the former will provide insights into the length of stay for each group of migrants arriving between 2002 to 2016, and how this varies between gender and country of origin, especially between EU and non-EU migrants. This will then be complemented by an econometric analysis of the stated migration intentions of foreign-born individuals surveyed in wave 7 of the UKHLS between 2015-2016, controlling for the characteristics mentioned above.

In 2004, 2007 and 2011, eleven Central Eastern European country have joined the European Union. Joining the EU and its common market required these countries to deregulate their airline market and allow free competition between any airline from the EU. The paper investigates the effect of this market liberalisation by quantitative analysis. More precisely the paper uses a difference in differences method, comparing the increase in the number of passengers from Western European countries to these New Member States and to countries that did not join the European Union. The dataset is extracted from Eurostat and uses passenger numbers between countries (instead of airports) and thus eliminates the often recurring problem of low cost carriers using secondary airports.

Joining the EU also lead to increased demand in the sector, so in order to find the true supply side effects, the paper attempts to control for this. The main controls are economic growth and immigrants in the Western European countries from the New Member States.

The results show a statistically significant increase in the number of passengers even after controlling for the economic growth and increased number of immigrants from the New Member States. The result of this paper is in line with previous studies on this topic that looked at the effect of deregulation on other airline markets and strengthens the rationale for future market liberalisations.

9B - Scientific Applications for Health University of Warwick, University of Leeds, and Baruch College, City University of New York

Clostridium difficile is a bacterium found in the intestines, which can cause colitis and diarrhoea, specifically antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. Patients can then become dehydrated and in more severe cases develop pseudomembranous colitis, which puts them at risk of a distended colon and subsequently bowel perforations.

Infant and elderly patients are particularly vulnerable, especially those within nursing homes. Currently there is no single test for the diagnosis of Clostridium difficile and both a clinical manifestation and a positive laboratory test, which can take at least two days, are required. The standard protocol for treatment includes quarantine and antibiotics. This carries the risk of the bacteria developing antibiotic resistance. Therefore, there is a need for rapid detection of Clostridium difficile and continuous monitoring of at-risk patients to detect the infection as soon as possible.

Within the identified at-risk populations, it is common for patients to be unable to communicate their symptoms, which is one of the reasons Clostridium difficile is not diagnosed earlier.

My research aims to implement a novel diagnostic system, embedded within a nappy or an adult incontinence pad, which will allow immediate analysis of urine and stool. This will simultaneously remove the need for the patient to communicate their symptoms and allow a clinician to continuously monitor the levels of Clostridium difficile to aid in earlier detection of infection. To achieve that, I have used low-cost electronics, combined with custom biosensors.

The outcome of my research will be used in developing a prototype for a proof-of-concept study.

When combined with cholesterol in the liver, bilirubin forms bile which is an enzyme used in the breakdown of fatty acids during digestion. The continuous use of bile in the body is instrumental for proper digestion and absorption of fatty acids. Therefore, bilirubin abundance and deficiency can cause serious health related problems such as Infant and Adult Jaundice, Gilbert Syndrome and other liver related diseases. In order to develop a new marker to test bilirubin fluctuations, we changed the structure of bilirubin to notice a difference in the fluorescence of a bilirubin-inducible fluorescent protein, Chlopsid. Chlopsid was discovered and identified from Kaupichthys hyoproroides. To further understand how the binding of bilirubin promotes fluorescence in Chlopsid, varying structural derivatives of bilirubin were synthesized to interact with the protein. Preliminary results illustrated dimethyl esters of bilirubin did not show any change in fluorescence compared to bilirubin and investigations with the diethyl ester of bilirubin are underway. Additional bilirubin analogs will be synthesized to determine their structural implications on the fluorescence of Chlopsid and possibly when combined with Chlopsid be used as a marker of liver complications in human clinical samples.

Cancer is the result of uncontrolled cell growth, leading to tumors. Many current anti-cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation are toxic to healthy cells, resulting in side effects like hair loss and extreme nausea. By specifically delivering the drugs to the cancer cells, these side effects would be greatly reduced and improve treatments for cancer patients and increase wellbeing. Previous studies have shown that the selectivity of organoiridium anticancer complexes towards cancer cells increases when using using polymer conjugates as a delivery mechanism, whilst the toxicity of the drug remains the same, providing the same therapeutic effect with less harm to healthy cells.

This project focuses on the design of peptide polymers which form tubular-structured nanoparticles that can be used to deliver anti-cancer drugs to specific diseased cancer cells. Initial work will be on the synthesis of nanotubes by Reversible Addition−Fragmentation Chain Transfer

Polymerization (RAFT), and characterization by a number of spectroscopic methods and chromatographic techniques. Once they have been formed, in vitro biological studies will be conducted to assess the properties and interactions of the nanotubes, focusing on the toxicity in the presence of cancer and healthy cells.

Our project is that of comparative reflection between death as conceived by various philosophies through time and the possibilities that current technological advances offer us for thinking about changing attitudes towards death. Even if not attainable yet, overcoming mortality is at the very least conceivable, and seems to drive a lot of technological research in the scientific community, as part of a broader move for human advancement. Yet, principal traditions of philosophy are built on self-betterment through changing our attitude towards what is conceived as the ultimate human condition - our own mortality. Our goal in the project is to provide a thorough reflective analysis of how technological advances in life extension and the all too human drives behind it advance our understanding of what it means to be human, and how prone such understanding might be to change in light of both our ever-increasing faith and reliance on technology as a solution to the 'death problem'.

9C - Education and Student Experiences University of Warwick, University of Leeds, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Research confirms that dyslexia plays a significant role in students learning experience throughout their time in post-secondary education; suggesting that students struggle academically and adopt coping strategies to manage their difficulties. Academically, dyslexia is often categorised either medically or socially. Consequently, further research should be considered on dyslexic students' experiences in seminar settings, because there is limited literature in this field. As such, this study examines the seminar experiences of dyslexic students at the University of Leeds (UoL), specifically, the impact this has had on them academically and in a wider context. Additionally, staff perspectives on dyslexia have been explored to assess whether there is any relationship between staff understandings and student experiences. The design involved mixed methods; a survey (49 participants) and semi-structured interviews (7 participants) to capture dyslexia students' lived experiences. Moreover, 10 survey responses and 1 interview with staff from disability services and UoL, has provided an insight into teaching practices and awareness. From the latter, it is clear that staff receive generic inclusive teaching practice. The findings suggest that although experiences of dyslexic students are subjective, academic staff require further training on teaching dyslexic students to improve experiences. This research calls for further research on academic staff at UoL to move towards a better understanding of dyslexia and ensuring that dyslexic students experiences in seminars are more positive and manageable.

In relation to the recent “refuge crisis”, which this paper adopts as an alternative term to the mediatised “refugee crisis”, this paper analyses how the perception of a crisis has shaped civic engagement in Dutch-speaking secondary schools in Brussels and how they have incorporated the topic into their curriculum. A comparison between a public and a private Catholic school to analyse how a school’s identity influences the inclusion of civic engagement in the curriculum was made. Based on qualitative interviews, this paper aims to provide an overview of the schools’ projects and thereby provide a primary understanding of how secondary schools respond to societal changes. More specifically, the perception of a ‘crisis’ has caused schools to accentuate the importance of civic engagement in favour of good citizenship. Three levels of civic engagement were identified based on an extensive literature review and the interviews. Firstly, schools could explicitly encourage civic engagement in the curriculum. Secondly, they could influence it implicitly by encouraging volunteering or thirdly by hosting refugee students. Beyond mapping civic engagement within secondary schools, the purpose of this study was to encourage respondents to be self-reflexive about their teaching methods. Their experiences could then inspire other schools on how to put civic engagement into practice, while considering difficulties such as educational neutrality. To conclude, the research revealed that within a multi-cultural school environment, the diverse student population diminishes the role of religion in civic education and is believed to enhance the integration of refugee students.

UK medical students from Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds have been reported to underperform academically compared with their white counterparts. This persistent difference in attainment between ethnic groups poses a huge problem for the medical profession. Although, the attainment gap has been widely documented, the causes are unclear. This study aimed to explore medical students' experiences of undergraduate training in the context of academic underperformance of medical students from BME backgrounds. This was a qualitative study of 24 graduate-entry medical students. Eligible participants were volunteer and snowball sampled. Participants were assigned to one of four focus groups and data were gathered using a semi-structured interview schedule. Thematic analysis was applied to the data. BME students in this study reported that their sense of self and relationships with peers impeded their learning and performance throughout their undergraduate medical training. Although identified as contributors to learning and performance, relationships with peers often hindered progress and many felt these relationships impacted their student experience. Many students reported feelings of isolation, reduced self-confidence and low self-esteem that hindered their learning and performance. Although it is not clear from this small study of one institution whether these findings would be replicated in other institutions, they nevertheless highlight important issues to be considered by the institution concerned and other institutions. These findings suggest that future interventions should include improving peer relationships and implementing institutional changes to diversify student populations. Guidance on tackling racism and adequate training in anti-racism for students is likely to be key.

The purpose of this project was to analyze the impact of location (East and West Turkey) on university students' entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial motivation, to observe if these attributes influenced them in executing entrepreneurial activity. In order to shed light on this, the first three objectives of the study were based on giving insights into entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial opportunity and socio-cultural attributes received by students. The intention of looking into these three aspects was to observe how the location of study helped shape students' entrepreneurial motives and intentions based on the differences in resources, external factors and university education. The last objective of the study aimed to investigate the relationship between the entrepreneurial intentions and motivations of Turkish students in particular as this study aims to broaden Turkish entrepreneurship.