Belma Skender

Postdoctoral Fellow - Department of Community Medicine and Global Health

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Email belma.skender@medisin.uio.no

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Visiting address Kirkeveien 166 Fredrik Holsts hus 0450 Oslo

Postal address Postboks 1130 Blindern 0318 Oslo

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Academic interests

Infectious Diseases (Biology & History)
Public & Global Health
Medical History of Pandemics, Crises & Policies
Antimicrobial Resistance
Health & Environment
Non-communicable Diseases (Biology & Technology)
Nutrition & Exercise (Biochemistry & Physiology)
Science and Technology Studies

About

My current research interests revolve around antibiotic research, development, and production. Specifically, I am interested in decoding the social context of antibiotic production, the historically situated notion of 'dry pipeline,' and understanding the challenges faced by the need for constant innovation, development, business adapting, and interpretation of those in the context of the time. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the major public health issues, and my interdisciplinary approach to the issues around the topic combines biomedical sciences, science and technology studies, and medical history.

I am a scholar trained in the natural sciences, focusing on biochemistry and physiology. I also had an opportunity to attend the Faculty of Arts, where I was particularly interested in the theory and history of film and audiovisual culture and psychology.

My broad interests stem from my curiosity and critical thinking about knowledge production and by what means it could be used, especially when interpreted through different lenses of sciences. Despite the challenge of constantly shifting the working environment, methods, and theoretical basis, I have managed to contribute to research outputs in three different fields, reflecting my broad interests and ambition to reeducate myself in other disciplines.

Background

Belma did her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Biochemistry at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. She completed her PhD in the field of Animal Physiology at the same university. However, she performed her research work at the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. During that time, she also successfully completed her fellowship at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Later, Belma spent three years at Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Trondheim, Norway. During her stay in Trondheim, she also briefly joined the Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. After that, she moved to the Czech Republic, where she coordinated several research projects at the International Clinical Research Center at St. Anne's University Hospital. Finally, moving back to Norway, she participated in research projects at the Institute of Transport Economics/Norwegian Center for Transport Research in Oslo.

Courses Taught

Courses in International Community Health (Master program)
Courses at the Medical Faculty (Module 1, 3 and 8)
Supervising students in International Community Health (Master program)

Tags: Medical History, Historical anthropology, History and Philosophy of Science, Science and technology studies, Infectious diseases

Norevik, Cecilie Skarstad; Huuha, Aleksi Matias; Røsbjørgen, Ragnhild; Bergersen, Linda Hildegard; Jacobsen, Kamilla & Miguel dos Santos, Rodrigo [Show all 13 contributors for this article] (2023). Exercised blood plasma promotes hippocampal neurogenesis in the Alzheimer's disease rat brain. Journal of Sport and Health Science. ISSN 2095-2546. doi: 10.1016/j.jshs.2023.07.003. Full text in Research Archive
Kobro-Flatmoen, Asgeir; Battistin, Claudia; Raveendran Nair, Rajeevkumar; Bjorkli, Christiana; Skender, Belma & Kentros, Clifford George [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2023). Lowering levels of reelin in entorhinal cortex layer II-neurons results in lowered levels of intracellular amyloid-β. Brain Communications. ISSN 2632-1297. 5(2). doi: 10.1093/braincomms/fcad115. Full text in Research Archive
Kobro-Flatmoen, Asgeir; Battistin, Claudia; Raveendran Nair, Rajeevkumar; Bjorkli, Christiana; Skender, Belma & Kentros, Clifford [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2022). Lowering levels of reelin in entorhinal cortex layer II-neurons results in lowered levels of intracellular amyloid-β. bioRxiv. ISSN 2692-8205. doi: 10.1101/2022.01.28.478143.
Pokorny, Petr; Skender, Belma; Bjørnskau, Torkel & Hagenzieker, Marjan Paula (2021). Video observation of encounters between the automated shuttles and other traffic participants along an approach to right-hand priority T-intersection. European Transport Research Review. ISSN 1867-0717. 13, p. 1–13. doi: 10.1186/s12544-021-00518-x. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Introduction Increasing numbers of deployment projects of automated shuttles have been taking place worldwide. Safety is one of the main concerns for their successful implementation. Therefore, it is vital to gain the knowledge about interactions between these shuttles and other traffic participants. Method Given the lack of behavioural observational studies under regular traffic conditions, the presented study applies external video recordings to explore encounters between the shuttles approaching a T-intersection and other traffic participants. The encounters of interest included a vulnerable road user in the bicycle lane, a pedestrian on the zebra crossing and a road user overtaking the shuttle. The shuttles were identified from the video by RUBA software. We analysed the encounters using T-Analyst software together with the manual observation of traffic participants' behaviour. Results From 220 h of video, 318 unique manoeuvres of the shuttle were observed and 83 encounters with other traffic participants were identified and explored. Several types of risks and behavioural patterns were identified, such as road users misusing the defensive style of the shuttles or cyclists in the bicycle lane not being sure about the shuttle’s intention. Frequent hard stops of the shuttles might be dangerous for the passengers inside and can increase the risk of rear end accidents. Conclusions The findings provide a valuable insight into the interactions between automated shuttles and other traffic participants under regular traffic conditions on one location in Oslo, Norway. The study showed that introducing automated shuttles into regular traffic can lead to the emergence of new types of interactions between the shuttles and other traffic participants.

View all works in Cristin

Skender, Belma (2024). Can innovation be a symptom of crisis? Antibiotics in the era of a pipeline running dry.
Skender, Belma & Martinenghi, Laura Daniela (2023). Crisis in Shaping the Future: The antibiotic pipeline in Bayer .
Skender, Belma & Martinenghi, Laura (2023). Peering into the ‘Dry Pipeline’ of antibiotics: Annual reports’ storytelling.
Skender, Belma (2022). How did the Antibiotic Pipeline Run Dry? Looking into pharmaceutical companies.
Pokorny, Petr; Skender, Belma; Bjørnskau, Torkel & Johnsson, Espen (2021). Automated shuttle performance at signalized intersections – Video analyses of three intersections in Rådhusgata in Oslo center. Transportøkonomisk institutt. ISSN 978-82-480-2352-4. Show summary
Automated shuttles are being tested frequently worldwide. Most such pilots take place in more-less controlled environment or in areas with simple traffic conditions. This report provides a unique evaluation of the performance of the shuttles in more complex urban environment. The operation of the shuttles at three signalised intersections in Oslo centre has been investigated using external video observations under real traffic conditions. The findings provide valuable knowledge regarding shuttles’ reactions to the traffic signals and to other road users. Such knowledge can be utilized in other pilots with automated vehicles.
Pokorny, Petr; Skender, Belma; Bjørnskau, Torkel & Johnsson, Espen (2021). Performance of automated shuttles at signalised intersections. Transportøkonomisk institutt.
Bjørnskau, Torkel; Johansson, Ole Jørgen; Pokorny, Petr & Skender, Belma (2020). Publikums reaksjoner på selvgående driftsmaskin i Kongsberg. Transportøkonomisk institutt. ISSN 9788248023197. Show summary
I Statens vegvesens FoU-program BEVEGELSE prøves det ut ulike tiltak for å forbedre drift og vedlikehold av vegnettet. Ett slikt tiltak er en selvgående driftsmaskin som rengjør vegdekket. På Kongsberg ble en slik driftsmaskin testet i gågata i september 2020. Videoregistreringer viser at maskinen stanset om det var trafikanter, parkerte varebiler eller andre objekter i veien for den. Den reagerte i liten grad eller ikke i det hele tatt på objekter eller personer på siden eller bak. Maskinen fant stort sett tilbake til sin vanlige rute etter at objektene var passert. Vi observerte ingen farlige situasjoner. Feltintervjuer viser at publikum oppfatter at maskinen er trygg, og de er stort sett positive til at automatiske driftsmaskiner testes og tas i bruk. Testen i gågata i Kongsberg tyder på at slike selvgående driftsmaskiner vil kunne operere uten store problemer i slike områder.