Category / student research

BU research into breast milk quality-Participants needed

 

We are looking for breast feeding mums to donate 5 mL of breast milk for a research study conducted at BU.

When mother’s own milk is not sufficient or appropriate, preterm babies can be fed with donor milk from a human milk bank. However, the processes used in milk banking might increase the risk of fat degradation in the milk. Currently, nothing is known about fat degradation products in donor milk. With this study, we aim to quantify fat degradation products in donor milk, and we are currently looking for some term breast milk to compare our results to.

If you are breastfeeding and would like to take part in the study, please get in touch!

Please feel free to share the information with any breastfeeding mum you know!

If you want to know more about milk banking in the UK, read my earlier blog post here.

Many thanks, Isabell

inessel@bournemouth.ac.uk

01202965009

Research photography competition

The deadline for the research photography competition is this Wednesday (January 31st.)

Be sure to submit your photos, with a 100-200 word blurb to research@bournemouth.ac.uk to be involved in the event. We have already had some really good submissions and would love for as many more people as possible to get involved! It is a really good opportunity to showcase your research in a more creative way!

This years rules, theme, and terms and conditions can all be found on the website here: https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/research-photograph-competition/

We look forward to the competition!

Extended deadline for the Research Photography Competition!

The Research Photography Competition deadline is fast approaching! We have had some really good submissions so far and want to encourage more of you to get involved.

This year’s theme is PLACE and so could include any of the following:

  • The place your research was carried out
  • The place that inspired you to carry out your research
  • A place that may be affected, or may benefit, from your research study
  • Your own interpretation of ‘place.’

We want to see you get creative! Send in your photo with a 100-200 word description to research@bournemouth.ac.uk by the 31st January 2019 to be a part of this year’s competition!

All terms and conditions can be found on the website here: https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/research-photograph-competition/

Final publication of 2018

Congratulations to Orlanda Harvey on the publication of her paper ‘Shades of Grey’: The Ethics of Social Work Practice in Relation to Un-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroid Use. Orlanda Harvey is a PhD student in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences with a research interest in image and performance enhancing drug (IPED) use.  Her paper will be published in Practice: Social Work in Action.  

This paper highlights ethical dilemmas that social workers face when assessing risk in relation to those using substances. It explores how legislation and societal factors can impact not just on people’s choices and decisions but also on their ‘vulnerability’ and access to services. Vulnerability, a contested term, is linked, in this paper, to assessment of risk. There are ethical issues that arise when assessing risk with people who use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS) from both service user and professional perspectives. These ethical issues concern a person’s right to choose whilst making potentially harmful decisions. The paper argues that using substances such as AAS in and of itself does not suffice to make a person vulnerable but this does not mean that people using AAS are not in need of support. It suggests that there may be some groups of people who are more at risk to starting AAS use and that social workers should be aware of these. It also recommends the need for further qualitative research to understand the reasons for starting use and support to help people stop using AAS.

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Health Research Authority releases eLearning for student researchers

The HRA have improved the information provided on their website for student researchers and those who support them, in planning to conduct research within the NHS.

The organisation has provided three bite size eLearning modules with a focus on the following topics:

  • Sponsors’ and supervisors’ role in educational research
  • Applying for HRA and HCRW (Health and Care Research Wales) Approval
  • Setting up research sites in England and Wales.

You can see the update here, and access the modules here.

Remember that support is on offer at BU if you are thinking of introducing your research ideas into the NHS – email the Research Ethics mailbox, and take a look at the Clinical Governance blog.

Two papers rejected the day after submission in same week

This week we had this enviable record of two academic papers on health topics being rejected the day after submission.  The first paper was submitted on Monday to Issues in Mental Health Nursing.  Our paper reported the Content Analysis of a review of the nursing curricula on mental health and maternity care issues in Nepal. The journal editor emailed us the next day to inform us that the topic was interesting, but not relevant enough to the journal’s readers.

The second paper submitted by a different configuration of staff was submitted last Friday to the Journal of Youth & Adolescence.  The second paper reported a qualitative study on students views on abortion in the south of England.  This journal’s rapid reply came the next day (yesterday) stating that:

Unfortunately, the editors have completed an internal review of your study and have deemed your manuscript inappropriate for our journal. Although your manuscript has important strengths, the journal has moved away from supporting qualitative work (unless it would be part of a journal special issue). Please rest assured that our decision has nothing to do with the quality of your study or findings.

On both occasion we had discussed potential journals and we thought we had targeted appropriate journals for the respective manuscripts.  Moreover, in both manuscripts we managed to cite at least one paper published in the journal to which we had submitted it.  The general message to my colleagues is that it does not matter how many papers you have written and submitted, you will: (1) occasionally opt for the wrong journal; (2) continue to face regular rejection by journal editors; and (3) have an opportunity to submit to another journal.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

Research photography competition 2019

Can you tell a story of your research through photography?

That’s the challenge we set academics and research students at Bournemouth University.  Photography is a great way to capture and share a different side of your research with other staff, students and members of the public.  The last few years have seen our staff and students submitting a wide range of images summing up their research (last year’s entries can be seen below).

Want to enter 2019’s competition?

Whether you’re in the early stages of your research or it has come to the end, we are inviting all academics and student researchers from across the university to showcase your research through an image relating to this year’s competition theme – Place.  This could include:

  • An image relating to the place your research was carried out,
  • Places that might be impacted by or benefit from your research,
  • The place that inspired your research
  • Your own interpretation of the theme

Whatever your idea is, we want you to get involved and get creative!

Here’s what you have to do:

Step 1: Take your photo.

Each image will need to be 300pi (pixels per inch) with physical dimensions equivalent to an A3 size piece of paper (297 x 420 mm or 11.7 x 16.5 in).  Images smaller than this tend not to have a high print quality.

Step 2: Submit the photo!

You may enter only one photo per person. Once you have the perfect image, all you have to do is submit it by emailing the Research account (research@bournemouth.ac.uk) before the deadline, along with a 100 – 200 word description of your research behind the image.

The submission deadline is 9 January 2019 at 5pm. Late entries will not be accepted.

Staff, students and the general public will then be able to vote for their favourite image. The competition winners will be presented with a prize by Professor John Fletcher in the Atrium Art Gallery, in March 2019. All photographs will be presented in the Atrium Art Gallery for two weeks in March so you’ll get a chance to see all the entries.

Please read through the Terms & Conditions before entering.

This activity is recognised under the Global Talent Programme and allows participating students to gain credit towards their Global Talent Award.

BU PhD student PROSPERO publication

Congratulations to BU PhD student Dimitrios Vlachos who had his PROSPERO protocol published [1].   Dimitrios working on a project promoting the Mediterranean-style diet in childbearing age, he is supervised across faculties by Dr. Fotini Tsofliou and Prof. Katherine Appleton.

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

 

Reference:

  1. Tsofliou, F., Appleton, K., Vlachos, D. (2018) Barriers and facilitators to following a Mediterranean style diet in adults: a systematic review of observational and qualitative studies. PROSPERO 2018 CRD42018116515

 

 

 

Creative Technology Narrative Research Show Case

We would like to invite you to the next research seminar of the Centre for Games and Music Technology Research.

Title: Creative Technology Narrative Research Show Case


Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 21 November 2018

Room: F112 (Fusion Building)

Abstract: The department of creative technology has an increasing number of student led research projects in the domain of interactive narrative. For this seminar we presents 3 short presentations from doctoral students in this area who are soon to present their work at international conferences:

Farbod Shakouri – Connected Tangible Objects for Augmented Reality Narratives
Introduction to exploring effective augmented space for interactive narratives, using connected tangible devices for real-time feedback.

Weilai Xu – Generating Stylistic Dialogues for Narratives
A discussion on presenting an approach for stylistic narrative dialogue generation and our dialogue modelling progress.

Daniel Green – Discoverable Narrative & Authoring Tools
A discussion on representing discoverable/observable narrative in games, authoring tools accessibility, our authoring system’s progress, and an upcoming experiment.
 
We hope to see you there

Congratulations to Denyse King

Congratulations to Denyse King, who is currently attending the Future Technologies Conference, FTC 2018; Vancouver, BC; Canada (15-16 November).  Her conference paper ‘NoObesity apps – From approach to finished app’ has been published in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing [1].  Denyse is part of the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMHP) where she is a Lecturer (Academic) in Midwifery based at BU’s campus in Portsmouth ,

Obesity is still a growing public health problem in the UK and many healthcare workers find it challenging to have a discussion with service users about this sensitive topic. They also feel they are not competent to provide the relevant heath advice and are seeking easily accessible, evidence-based, mobile health learning (mHealth). mHealth applications (apps) such as the Professional NoObesity and Family NoObesity (due for release late 2018), have been designed to: support families with making sustainable positive behaviour changes to their health and well-being, ease pressure on practitioners’ overweight and obesity care related workloads, as well as to support the education of professionals, students and service users. This paper describes the process of designing the apps from the inception of the idea, through the stages of research, app builds and testing. The processes of collaborative working to design and develop the apps to meet the needs of both service users and health professionals will also be reflected upon. Childhood obesity is an complex problem and whilst it is recognised that the NoObesity apps cannot singlehandedly resolve this health crisis, it is proposed that they can support families to identify and reduce the barriers that prevent them from living healthier, happier lives. 

Reference:

King D., Rahman E., Potter A., van Teijlingen E. (2019) NoObesity Apps – From Approach to Finished App. In: Arai K., Bhatia R., Kapoor S. (eds) Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2018. FTC 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 881. Springer, Cham, pp. 1145-1157.

New staff-student events management paper in the highest impact factor sport management journal

Congratulations to Dr. Miguel Moital, Principal Academic in the Department of Events & Leisure, who has just published a co-created paper in Sport Management Review, an Elsevier journal which boasts an impact factor of 3.5 and an acceptance rate of 17%. The paper is co-authored with two BA (Hons) Events Management graduates – Amy Bain and Harriet Thomas – who did their dissertation on prestigious sports events.

The paper explores the range of cognitive, affective, and behavioural outcomes of consuming prestigious sports event experiences. Amy and Harriet underpinned their dissertations on the Prestige Motivation Model, a model Miguel co-developed in 2009. Miguel covers the model in his Consumer Experience & Behaviour unit (Level 5) and in their dissertation both students went on to apply the model to sports events. Amy and Harriet did a very similar study with a difference: Amy focused on a variety of prestigious sports events, while Harriet focused on VIP sport event experiences. The two studies were combined to produce the now published paper. The full paper can be found here.

 

Commenting on the experience Amy said

“I’m delighted that my research has been published. I went to a great deal of effort to ensure that the subject of my dissertation was not only interesting and current, but a true and accurate reflection of the impact of prestige as a motivation to attend events. For me personally the most exciting part about the process was seeing the paper evolve in a way that it clearly demonstrates the potential of prestige to generate important outcomes for the attendee and the event organiser.”

Harriet was also delighted to have co-authored the paper:

“I’m so proud to see the research I conducted for my dissertation now included within the Sports Management Review journal- it’s something I never expected! I was really interested in the previous work carried out by Miguel on Prestige Motivation in Tourism and this acted as a starting point when deciding on my dissertation topic. The process was certainly a challenging one, and I had to edit, re-word and revisit my work many times throughout, so persistence was definitely key! The project soon started to come together and it’s so rewarding now to see I’ve contributed to an article within a top academic journal.”

Miguel said:

I am thrilled to see this paper published in a high quality journal, which gives credit to the quality of the work carried out by Amy and Harriet. I have covered prestige motivation in my consumer experience & behaviour unit since 2009, but the research on which this paper is based has greatly enhanced the content of the lecture, fulfilling an important gap in the module while at the same time inspiring other students to carry out further research on the topic. I am a strong believer in students-as-researchers and this paper in a top sport management journal is a great way of celebrating my 10th journal article co-created with BU undergraduate and post graduate students.

 

This paper is part of a long tradition within the Department of Events & Leisure involving the co-creation of papers based on student dissertations. In the past five years students and staff of the Department have published co-created papers in Event Management (Cognizant), the International Journal of Event & Festival Management (Emerald), the Journal of Fashion Marketing & Management (Emerald), Young Consumers (Emerald), and the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Insights (Emerald). These publications are a testimonial of the high quality research carried out by events and leisure graduates.

FHSS student awarded Chiropractor of the Year 2018-19

Congratulations to Amy Miller!   At the British Chiropractic Council’s annual conference 13-14th October, Bournemouth University PhD student Amy Miller was awarded the British Chiropractic Association’s award of ‘Chiropractor of the Year 2018-19’ for her contributions to research and engagement. 

Amy is based in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences  (FHSS).  Her PhD is investigating an inter-professional student-led breastfeeding clinic for student learning, and breastfeeding outcomes and experiences.  Amy is supervised by Associate Professor Sue Way, Senior Lecturer in Midwifery Dr. Alison Taylor and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen all based in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH). The British Chiropractic Association’s award for Chiropractor of the Year recognises individuals who have made a significant contribution to the profession.

 

 

Journal of Asian Midwives

As co-editor of the Journal of Asian Midwives I receive occasional updates from the Aga Khan University (AKU) library in Pakistan on the number of downloads of articles published in the journal.   The journal is fully Open Access and does not charge a submission or processing fees!  All articles in the Journal of Asian Midwives are stored online in the AKU Institutional Repository.  The latest update with data until end of September 2018 informed us that there had been: 18,462 downloads, from 167 countries/regions, across 56 articles.  Nearly 20,000 downloads is not bad for a fairly new journal, which only published its inaugural issue online in 2014.

What is interesting is that the detailed download figures show that Bournemouth University is the highest ranking university of all the downloading organisations.  Listed as fifth on the download list, Bournemouth is behind two commercial organisations, the Pakistan library network and Bangladesh-based Icddr-B.  The latter is one of the largest NGO (Non-Governmental Organisations in the world based on staff numbers.  Of course it helps that Bournemouth academic staff and PhD students have published five scientific articles in the past four editions of the journal [1-5].

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)

References:

  1. Ireland, J., van Teijlingen, E., Kemp, J. (2015) Twinning in Nepal: the Royal College of Midwives UK and the Midwifery Society of Nepal working in partnership, Journal of Asian Midwives 2 (1): 26-33.
  2. Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Angell, C. (2016) Birthing centres in Nepal: Recent developments, obstacles and opportunities, Journal of Asian Midwives 3(1): 18-30.
  3. Baral, YR., Lyons, K., van Teijlingen, ER., Skinner, J., (2016) The uptake of skilled birth attendants’ services in rural Nepal: A qualitative study, Journal of Asian Midwives 3(3): 7-25.
  4. Sharma, S., Simkhada, P., Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E., Stephens J, Silwal, R.C., Angell, C. (2017) Evaluation a Community Maternal Health Programme: Lessons Learnt. Journal of Asian Midwives. 4(1): 3–20.
  5. Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Angell, C. (2017) Determinants of quality of care & access to Basic Emergency Obstetric & Neonatal Care facilities & midwife-led facilities in low & middle-income countries: A Systematic Review, Journal of Asian Midwives 4(2):25-51.