Unsafe abortion as a birth control method: maternal mortality risks among unmarried Cambodian migrant women on the Thai-Cambodia border

Reproductive health research and policies in Cambodia focus on safe motherhood programs particularly for married women, ignoring comprehensive fertility regulation programs for unmarried migrant women of reproductive age. Maternal mortality risks arising due to unsafe abortion methods practiced by unmarried Cambodian women, across the Thai-Cambodia border, can be considered as a public health emergency. Since Thailand has restrictive abortion laws, Cambodian migrant women who have irregular migration status in Thailand experimented with unsafe abortion methods that allowed them to terminate their pregnancies surreptitiously. Unmarried migrant women choose abortion as a preferred birth control method seeking repeat “unsafe” abortions instead of preventing conception. Drawing on the data collected through surveys, in-depth interviews, and document analysis in Chup Commune (pseudonym), Phnom Penh, and Bangkok, the authors describe the public health dimensions of maternal mortality risks faced by unmarried Cambodian migrant women due to various unsafe abortion methods employed as birth control methods.

Thai emergency nurses’ management of patients with severe traumatic brain injury: comparison of knowledge and clinical management with best available evidence

Background:
In Thailand, the rate of TBI-related hospitalisation is increasing, however, little is known about the evidence-based management of severe TBI in the developing world. The aim of this study was to explore Thai emergency nurses’ management of patients with severe TBI.

Methods:
An exploratory descriptive mixed method design was used to conduct this two stage study: survey methods were used to examine emergency nurses’ knowledge regarding management of patients with severe TBI (Stage 1) and observational methods were used to examine emergency nurses’ clinical management of patients with severe TBI (Stage 2). The study setting was the emergency department (ED) at a regional hospital in Southern Thailand.

Results:
34 nurses participated in Stage 1 (response rate 91.9%) and the number of correct responses ranged from 33.3% to 95.2%. In Stage 2, a total of 160 points of measurement were observed in 20 patients with severe TBI over 40 h. In this study there were five major areas identified for the improvement of care of patients with severe TBI: (i) end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2) monitoring and targets; (ii) use of analgesia and sedation; (iii) patient positioning; (iv) frequency of nursing assessment; and (v) dose of Mannitol diuretic.

Conclusions:
There is variation in Thai nurses’ knowledge and care practices for patients with severe TBI. To increase consistency of evidence-based TBI care in the Thai context, a knowledge translation intervention that is ecologically valid, appropriate to the Thai healthcare context and acceptable to the multidisciplinary care team is needed.

Blood, sweat, and tears documenting Thai citizenship

Thailand (Siam) has transformed ancient methods of keepint track of subjects, and adopted modern legislative principles using documentary evidence to discriminate between citizens and outsiders. In the process, it has shaped a complex hierarchical structure with differentiated layers of citizenship, where some groups exist beyond any legal space. At the same time, Thailand has evolved from a society where subjects paid tribute to sovereigns, into democratic polity where entitlement is determined through identity documentation.

Estimating wetland values: A comparison of benefit transfer and choice experiment values

The main purpose of thesis is to estimate the value of the ecosystem services of the Bung Khong Long through two techniques. The per hectare value estimated by economic valuation method is US$ 976 per annum. MRA-benefit transfer approach produces values of between US$ 396 and US$ 1,369 per annum.

Thai cyber-actors : evidence of an Islamophobic effect

The long-standing Patani Muslim separatist resistance of Southern Thailand is not one that is well known, and its contemporaneous spill over onto the Internet even less so. The more radical Patani online propaganda is in fact symptomatic of the relocation of the struggle within the sphere of influence of global jihadism, distancing itself from the ethno-nationalism characteristic of a previous generation of fighters. New media propaganda, in particular Jihad 2.0, has opened a new sphere of influence to the Patani neojihadist movement, allowing the militants to expand their propaganda campaign to a wider audience, while reaching out to a younger Melayu public. While Jihad 2.0 has presented the resistance movement with new ways to diffuse its message, in a more innovative and appealing manner, it also has enabled it to engage with its audiences more interactively. Because the message is no longer linear, anyone can contribute to the dialectics of the struggle, which in fine results in the alteration and reshaping of its ideological discourse in unprecedented directions. Arguably the ‘glocalisation’ of Islamophobia within Thai culture has resulted in the alteration of the Thai cultural stereotype of the Muslim khaek ‘Other’, transforming the khaek into an evil violent Muslim, both in real and virtual worlds. This further leads to discriminatory attitudes and behaviours towards Muslims, which causes the hardening of the views of the online Patani community of support towards the Thais and possibly its radicalisation.

‘Neojihadism’ and YouTube : Patani militant propaganda dissemination and radicalization

This article examines the use of YouTube by the new generation of Patani 2. Muslim militants in their dissemination of propaganda and radical identity formation. These fighters have now brought their neojihadist war to the ‘Virtual’. Videos of Patani shuhada and Buddhist beheadings are regularly posted on YouTube, with the aim of legitimizing their ‘defensive jihad’. While most of the efforts in countering virtual terrorist radicalization have focused on jihadist websites, forums and blogs, very little attention has been paid to the relationship between the ‘YouTube effect’ and neojihadist violence. This article offers an analysis of the use of YouTube by the Patani Muslim insurgency in order to extract the ideological themes which enable us to understand the process of glocal neojihadist radicalization in southern Thailand.

Modelling SME credit risk : a Thai empirical evidence

This paper develops and tests a model to predict small and medium enterprise (SME) financial distress based on empirical evidence from Thailand. A sample comprising 198 financial statements of non-financially distressed and 68 statements of financially distressed SMEs were used. A parametric t-test was conducted to establish differences between financial characteristics of the two groups of SMEs.

Results show statistically significant differences (t values significant at .001) between the two groups of SMEs in the financial ratios used for the study. Discriminant analysis was then conducted to develop a model for predicting the likelihood of an SME experiencing financial distress.

The model hits an accuracy level of 97%, which compares favourably with the probability of accurate classification by chance (i.e., 65% after adjusting for the unequal sample sizes of the two groups of SMEs). A test of the model with a new sample shows the validity of the model beyond the original sample, confirming that Thai SME financial distress is amenable to prediction to a statistically significant extent. The model is expected to serve SME managers and creditors in assessing financial health of SMEs before making important decisions. The results are also expected to inform policymakers in formulating economic policies concerning SMEs.

Challenges for undergraduate speech pathology students undertaking cross-cultural clinical placements

Background: Two Australian undergraduate speech pathology students completed a series of clinical placements working with people with complex communication needs in cross-cultural contexts. Aims: To describe the challenges that the students faced and how best to prepare future students for such experiences. Methods & Procedures: The students completed the placements in Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, India and South Africa. They used personal journaling to record their experiences. The students used the journals as the basis for reflective discussion when considering the challenges they experienced in applying their knowledge and skills. Outcomes & Results: The challenges were (1) to prepare adequately ahead of the placements; (2) to select appropriate models of service delivery; (3) to use existing service approaches, resources and infrastructure appropriately; (4) to access professional support; (5) to define their professional role; (6) to manage variable shared language proficiency; (7) to adapt personally; and (8) to work using an undergraduate level of knowledge, skills and experience. Conclusions: The students encountered challenges related to their clinical preparation and their capacity to adapt in both a professional and personal sense. Future students preparing to undertake such placements need to attain at least minimum clinical competencies before placements. They will be helped if they have some clinical experience in working with people with complex communication needs in cross-cultural contexts, information about the cultures they will visit, and if they set professional and personal learning goals for each clinical placement. This preparation will aid students in maximizing their learning experience.

Initial emergency nursing management of patients with severe traumatic brain injury : development of an evidence-based care bundle for the Thai emergency department context.

Thai emergency nurses play a vital role in caring for patients with severe TBI, and are an important part of the healthcare team throughout the resuscitation phase. They are also responsible for continuous physiological monitoring, and detecting deterioration associated with increased intracranial pressure and preventing secondary brain injury. However, there is known variation in Thai nurses' knowledge and care practices for patients with severe TBI. In addition, there are no specific evidence-based practice guidelines available for emergency nursing management of patients with severe TBI.

Do schools promote social inclusion? The experiences of intercountry adoptees in Australia

Intercountry adoption programs have brought children from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds to live as Australians, including 30 children from Rangsit Children’s Home who arrived in South Australia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As part of a project which explored the life experiences of 12 adults who had arrived as children aged between 4 and 9 from Rangsit, this paper explores the role of schools in facilitating their inclusion into life in Australia. The school experience was often critical in learning English and was pre-requisite for acceptance in the school yard but also a place in which most of these Thai-born intercountry adoptees experienced racism. More than half of the participants did not complete secondary school but all had employment. However, many of these jobs were low-paying and this precluded them from participating in opportunities to return to Thailand to learn more about their Thai origins or participating as adoptive parents in intercountry adoption programs. Hence, while schools can play an important role in facilitating social inclusion, the school system alone may be unable to address the multiple dimensions of exclusion experienced by intercountry adoptees.

The influence of protective and risk factors in individual, peer and school domains on Thai adolescents' alcohol and illicit drug use: a survey

This study investigates risk and protective factors for substance abuse in a sample of 1778 students attending technical colleges in Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima provinces of Thailand using a self-report questionnaire modified from the Communities That Care youth survey. Low school commitment was strongly associated with illicit drug use, with adjusted odds ratios ranging from 2.84 (glue sniffing) to 10.06 (ecstasy). Having friends using drugs, and friends with delinquent behaviors increased the risk of using alcohol and illegal drugs, with adjusted odds ratios of 6.84 and 6.72 respectively for marijuana use. For protective factors, approximately 40-60% of students with high levels of moral belief, participation in religious activities, and social skills were less likely to use alcohol. It is concluded that peer influence is a significant contributor to Thai adolescents' participation in substance abuse and that engaging in religiosity may assist adolescents to internalize negative aspects of harmful drugs into positive perceptions and encourage them to avoid alcohol and illegal drugs.

Does oil price volatility matter for Asian emerging economies?

This article investigates the impact of oil price volatility on six major emerging economies in Asia using time-series cross-section and time-series econometric techniques. To assess the robustness of the findings, we further implement such heterogeneous panel data estimation methods as Mean Group (MG), Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) and Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimators to allow for cross-sectional dependence. The empirical results reveal that oil price volatility has a detrimental effect on these emerging economies. In the short run, oil price volatility influenced output growth in China and affected both GDP growth and inflation in India. In the Philippines, oil price volatility impacted on inflation, but in Indonesia, it impacted on both GDP growth and inflation before and after the Asian financial crisis. In Malaysia, oil price volatility impacted on GDP growth, although there is notably little feedback from the opposite side. For Thailand, oil price volatility influenced output growth prior to the Asian financial crisis, but the impact disappeared after the crisis. It appears that oil subsidization by the Thai Government via introduction of the oil fund played a significant role in improving the economic performance by lessening the adverse effects of oil price volatility on macroeconomic indicators.

The maintenance of Central Thai cultural identity through hybrid music genres

Thailand has experienced rapid industrialisation, modernisation and cultural changesince the mid-nineteenth century. Many Western cultural forms have been adopted intoThai life, including Western popular music. An external view of these processes andtheir results might suggest that Thailand has become quite ‘Western’. However, closeranalysis reveals that elements of foreign cultures have long been adopted and adaptedinto Thai culture, and used as social capital to build an image of modernity andcosmopolitan sophistication.One of the adaptations made has been the fusion of Western genres with Thaiones, to form new hybrid styles of music. One hybrid genre that has developed largelyover the past half century is Dontri Thai Prayuk (‘modernised Thai music’), whichfuses aspects of Western pop with elements of Central Thai classical music. As thispaper demonstrates, clear patterns emerge in the way Thai musicians have maintainedmarkers of Thai identity and fused them with Western elements that signifymodernisation.Motivations behind this deliberate fusion of Thai and Western elements areexplained by the theories of ‘musical accommodation’ and ‘acts of identity’ – thatmusicians will converge with or diverge from other music-cultures in order to gainapproval or assert a separate identity, in ways that deliberately change the underlyingrules of the source musics to form a new identity. Analysis of Dontri Thai Prayukfusion music shows that it has changed the underlying rules of Thai classical andWestern popular music to display a music-cultural identity that is Thai, yet modern.