More Academic Research from Palestine

Last few weeks we heard the stories of 4 academic researchers in the country, but what else is happening in Universities in the West Bank?

Hello, my good human. I am Lefteris and in this newsletter, I try to give a platform to academics who don’t get as many chances to showcase their work as I believe they should. I try to understand their lives, their work and what affects their everyday routine. If that sounds like something you'd be interested feel free to subscribe.

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The process of interviewing, researching and writing the story of the 4 Palestinian researchers was one of the most enriching and rewarding in my life. Not only did I learn more about math, chemistry, and medicine, but I also immersed myself in stories and sought to comprehend the life of a researcher in these academic disciplines, especially in a country like Palestine.

When I stopped the weekly newsletters, I mentioned that I wanted to delve deeper into each subject and share more comprehensive and educational stories about the lives of researchers residing in countries with fewer opportunities to showcase their work. I am happier with the result and I hope that these stories continue to be heard.

In preparation for this article, I tried to contact more than 20 researchers who have published articles since the beginning of 2024. Some of them didn’t reply, and some of them politely declined but as I wrote in the initial article, I was surprised by the volume of articles being published by universities in the West Bank.

While I don’t know the story of all the people doing research in the West Bank, I wanted to spend this time looking at some of the articles that were published in the last few months there. The West Bank and Gaza

The West Bank and Gaza together had 14 universities, an open university for distance learning, 18 university colleges and 20 community colleges. I use the word "had" because all universities in Gaza have been damaged by the Israeli army during the war. For the sake of this “exercise” I will only look at the Universities we mentioned in the previous articles. Specifically, Birzeit University, the Arab American University and the An-Najah National University.

I visited the Research Gate profiles of the institutions in which you can see the last 20 papers published by researchers working there. An-Najah National University seems to have had the highest output of research since the 20 last papers all came out in May. The Arab American University has papers going back to April while Birzeit University has published 20 papers since February. I won’t go through 60 papers for this article but I wanted to mention some that caught my eye.

There are a lot of papers that deal with health and as Duha mentioned during her interview, they’re doing comparison studies since they can’t do randomized controlled trials. This “Assessment of depression symptoms among cancer patients: a cross-sectional study from a developing country” paper found that 17% of patients have severe depression and that the levels of depression were also associated with education level, economic status, smoking and age.

One paper that caught my eye though was the “Slow Photonic Effect Inducing Improved H2 Generation inPhotonic Films with Chiral Nematic Structure” paper just because I was trying to imagine how the first author of the paper Masa Johar probably had to travel back and forth to do some of the characterization of her materials.

The paper discusses how incorporating special structures called photonic crystals can improve the absorption of light by materials. The researchers discovered a new method to make these materials reflect specific colours of light without changing how the light interacts with them. By adjusting the colour of light that these materials can reflect, the researchers were able to access a region where light slows down significantly, known as the slow photon effect. This effect directly impacts how well these materials can harvest light energy. The study found that focusing the slow photon effect at the blue end of the light spectrum greatly improved the generation of hydrogen gas (H2).

I, of course, don’t know the exact details of how the research went, but after the discussion, I had with Bayan where she could do some of her experimental work at her home University in the West Bank, and then for the characterization and the finish of her work she had to go to Europe, I assume that something similar had to have happened in this case. This project is an example of how Universities can work towards developing solutions for local problems like energy generation.

When I look at the papers published by researchers at the Arab American University there are a couple that catch my eye. First this “Alarm fatigue and perceived stress among critical care nurses in the intensive care units: Palestinian perspectives” study. Nurses in intensive care units (ICUs) are constantly bombarded with alarms from patient monitors. Many of these alarms are not important, and this can lead to nurses ignoring important alarms. This is called alarm fatigue and it can be dangerous for patients. The study investigates how big of a problem this is for nurses in Palestine. The researchers surveyed 251 nurses working in ICUs of the West Bank. The results showed that nurses experience alarm fatigue at high rates (62.6%) and also high rates of stress (69.5%). The biggest factors affecting alarm fatigue were the level of perceived stress, the number of patients a nurse is responsible for (nurse-to-patient ratio), gender, and experience. The biggest factors affecting perceived stress were the type of work shift and the hospital unit the nurse works in.

It’s not very surprising to me that many studies are coming out of hospitals in the West Bank. As I understand it, people there understand that there is a need for better and more focused service for the people in need. And of course, studies are focusing on specific conditions like this Tight Filum Terminale paper but I find it very interesting that I find papers looking into the physical and mental health of the nursing staff as well. “The association between psychological reactions, resilience, and work engagement among Palestinian critical care nurses in West Bank” was very interesting to me, at least as the abstract I had access to.

This study looked at nurses working in intensive care units (ICUs) in Palestine. The researchers wanted to see if there was a connection between how stressed, anxious, and depressed the nurses felt, and how engaged they were in their jobs.

Lots of nurses reported feeling stressed, anxious, and depressed. Many also said they weren't very engaged in their jobs. The study showed that the more stressed, anxious, and depressed the nurses felt, the less engaged they were in their jobs. On the other hand, nurses who felt more resilient (able to handle stress) and were female tended to be more engaged in their jobs.

The researchers recommend that hospitals and people who make healthcare policies should create programs to help nurses be more resilient and less stressed, anxious, and depressed. This could help nurses feel more engaged in their jobs and take better care of patients.

Photo taken from The Researchist Facebook page

Off to Birzeit University near Ramallah now where once again we find a diverse number of topics in their research output. Mathematics, business and medicine are the topics that are available at the moment of writing. Again, we can see how the research topics are affected by what’s happening in the region right now and how the researchers in the universities are trying to look into the future. An example of how the war is affecting the research output is this self-explanatory “Civilian mortality and damage to medical facilities in Gaza” study which ends by recommending that investigative and accountability mechanisms should be considered to address the roles of complicit parties in the war.

But furthermore, academic staff from different Universities in the West Bank have contributed to a chapter of the book “Artificial Intelligence and Economic Sustainability in the Era of Industrial Revolution 5.0” to discuss entrepreneurial efforts in the West Bank. The chapter is called “Realities and Possibilities of Palestinian Entrepreneurial Ventures: A Comprehensive Study on Youth Entrepreneurship in the State of Palestine” and it looks at the challenges and opportunities young people in Palestine face when they try to start their own businesses. The research acknowledges that political conflict and military occupation are major challenges for young Palestinian entrepreneurs. These ongoing conflicts have marginalized many areas of Palestine, making it harder to operate a business. Beyond these significant roadblocks, the paper suggests there may be other challenges that Palestinian entrepreneurs face but they’re not mentioned in the abstract.

Another research paper that shows that local universities are working towards improving the lives of local communities is the “Assessing Two Sanitary Landfills in the West Bank of Palestine: Current Situation and Future Obstacles” study. This research looked at how trash is buried in two big landfills in the West Bank. They found problems like missing equipment to handle gas and liquids from the landfill, which can pollute the air, and water and make people sick. The landfills are getting full faster because more trash is being produced. The researchers say new landfills or bigger sections of existing ones are needed, along with better equipment to protect the environment and people's health.

All of the papers I mentioned above are just a small sample of the work happening in the universities in Palestine. To me, it shows that despite all the hardships, there is a large majority of people in the country who want to create and improve the living conditions for their community. I believe their efforts should have the spotlight and be supported as much as possible.

For my part, I will try my best to give these people a platform to talk about how they’re trying to make the world a better place. I learn a lot just by talking with people like Ali, Duha and Bayan. And while I’m looking forward to the next story I’m going to write, I will always keep one eye on Palestine and I will try to keep my (virtual) door open to any researcher that needs help or wants to share their story.

This is a project of passion. And because of all the things mentioned above I want to and I’m going to continue researching, learning and writing. If you like what you read and would like to read more consider getting a paid subscription either here on Substack or my Patreon page. I am not putting any of my stories behind a paywall (it would defeat the purpose of sharing these stories), but I do try and share some stuff and plans earlier with people who are paid subscribers. And of course, if you can’t subscribe that’s absolutely ok. Maybe you could share this story around though? That would be very much appreciated [=