As part of his inaugural lecture, Professor Robert Middleton, Head of BUORI, will share his research into developing virtual reality training for surgeons, which allows them to practice in the space in front of them – or even in space!
After the lecture, you’ll have the chance to see some of the state-of-the-art training equipment being used by BUORI and even try your hand at virtual surgery.
Professor Middleton joined Bournemouth University in 2015, while continuing to practise as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and working as the Director of Trauma at Poole Hospital. His extensive clinical experience helps to inform his research and the direction of Bournemouth University’s Orthopaedic Research Institute (BUORI).
Bournemouth University’s inaugural lecture series aims to celebrate new professorial appointments and the depth and breadth of research produced by the university. For further information on the inaugural lecture series, please visit www.bournemouth.ac.uk/public-lecture-series
Creating high performance sportspeople is something like alchemy, and comes with the same baggage of half-thoughts, assumptions and quasi-quackery. But the research has moved on, and we can put to bed three powerful myths about building the ultimate athlete.
The first of these myths is linked to the idea that “practice makes perfect”. This message has been passed down through generations as a fact and there is now much popular wisdom and misinformation, derived from a belief in a simplified number: 10,000 hours. But can it really be that easy? There is no question sportspeople must practice a lot to get to the top. But how much is enough? And can we all be world class with sufficient practice?
The 10,000 hours “rule” came out of work by a psychologist at Florida State University, Anders Ericsson. Popularised in books such as Bounce by Matthew Syed, and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, it has led to the belief that if you put in this amount of deliberate and focused practice you can reach elite levels of performance.
But rather than needing 10,000 hours, there is now evidence that as few as 4,400 hours of deliberate practice may be sufficient to claim a gold medal in hockey, 4,500 hours to reach a top-tier European national football side, and just 4,000 hours to reach the highest levels in basketball and netball. Good news, then, for those with busy lives but a hankering for Olympic success.
Ericsson himself has emphasised that he did not intend a “rule” to be drawn from his research. He does though for the most part believe that practice is more important than genetics but would no doubt agree that to make it as a rower or basketball player, way above average height and limb length are a clear advantage.
And there is also intriguing evidence that genetics may more generally influence one’s suitability for endurance versus power events. Genetics may underpin key performance factors such as explosive strength, speed of movement, running speed, reaction time, flexibility and balance.
Therefore, although we can’t predict the world’s best athletes based on genetics, combinations of gene variants are likely to act in concert to influence the sport in which athletes are most likely to successfully compete. It is at that point that practice comes into play.
Developing a theme
The second myth is that you must be in a sport’s development programme from an early age to make it. Here I’d offer a cautionary tale to parents who feel pressured to drag their offspring all over the country to attend development squads, fearing this is the only route to the top.
The sporting landscape is littered with those who have relocated in pursuit of success never to fulfil their early promise, while at the same time halting opportunities for the development of other key attributes necessary for performance and life.
Although most world class sportspeople have been involved in athlete support programmes at some stage, the evidence suggests a very non-linear path to the top. There is frequent selection and de-selection from squads, rather than linear progression within athlete support programmes. But here’s the conundrum: while most talent identification systems use current junior performance as the main criterion for selection to a development programme, junior success does not reliably predict long-term senior success.
Longitudinal studies with large samples of athletes across numerous sports have shown that the younger the first recruitment to a support programme, the younger the exit from the programme, and the higher the level of senior success, the later the age of first recruitment on to programmes.
In other words, the world’s best performers are recruited to support programmes significantly later than their less able counterparts. It’s important to stress then that early athlete support programmes are not the sole route to the development of talent. And furthermore, the world’s best sportspeople tend not to have progressed exclusively within one sport, but have practised multiple sports during childhood and adolescence.
In fact, the probability of attaining the highest level in sport is likely enhanced by the coupling of a large volume of intensive, organised specific training in the main sport with appreciable amounts of organised training and competitions in other sports.
Role models
The third myth is the concept of the happy, successful, champion that we should admire. The world’s best athletes are extraordinary, and we rightly marvel at their prowess and bask in their glory. Holding them up as role models to create a sporting and physical activity legacy is laudable.
But with 307 golds available at Rio 2016 for a world population of 7.4 billion, Olympic champions are, by definition, abnormal. In fact, there is now growing recognition that the intense resilience, determination, and will to win of the world’s best performers can be driven by something altogether different from happiness. The cartoon strip Dilbert facetiously observed: “I would think that a willingness to practice the same thing for 10,000 hours is a mental disorder.” At the very least, it takes a certain mindset to cope and flourish in the harsh world of elite sport.
In fact, there is emerging evidence that this deep-seated need to win at all costs may be driven by early developmental adversity and obstacles, which leave an indelible mark on the sportsperson. Thus, although this level of determination and commitment is something we might rightly be in awe of, to think we could or should emulate it is unrealistic, unnecessary, and potentially damaging.
The route to the top in sport isn’t as simple as accrued hours or neat pathways. It likely entails many ups and downs both within and outside sport. We should beware a tendency to over-simplify past success, and in doing so, leave the door open to a renewed appreciation for the myriad ways in which elite level can be reached.
The Department of Creative Technology, SciTech, is organizing 11th international conference on E-learning and Games (Edutainment), 26th ~ 28th June, 2017, at EBC, BU. Accepted papers will be published in book form in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. Authors of selected best papers will be invited to submit extended versions to be considered for publication in one of 4 journals. The conference covers broad topics, including education, online learning, game, animation, computer graphics, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), etc. More details here: http://www.edutainment2017.org.
Full paper submission deadline: 19th March 2017
Short paper (4 pages) submission deadline: 9th Apr 2017
In conjunction with the conference is also the 3rd Workshop for EU IRSES project on Next Generation Computer Animation Techniques, organized by NCCA. More details here: http://www.edutainment2017.org/workshops.
Do you want to run a public engagement activity at Glastonbury Festival this year? We have the opportunity to form part of the Science Tent at Glastonbury’s Green Futures Field – this is a great experience for researchers of all career stages to showcase their research to an engaged and well-informed public audience.
Activities should be interactive with some hands-on elements, and have aspects that will appeal to children, the general festival audience and to experts. If you’d like to be involved, you’ll need to be able to commit to being on-site for at least 5 days, from Wednesday 21st June to Sunday 25th June, and be happy camping for this time, whatever the weather!
If you are interested in this fantastic opportunity, please send an expression of interest by email to Genna West, providing an activity title, and a brief description of your research area and proposed activity by Friday 17th March.
Please note that there is a small amount of funding that can be used to develop your activity. All expenses will be covered and there is plenty of time in the evenings to explore the excitement of Glastonbury festival.
Pint of Science is hosting a series of events taking place across UK from the 15th-17th May in local pubs around Bournemouth. The Pint of Science festival aims to deliver interesting and relevant talks on the latest science research in an accessible format to the public – all in the comfort of pub!
We’re currently looking for speakers with Technology based research who would be interested in joining ‘Tech me out’ nights to deliver a talk on one of the 3 evenings – 15th ,16th , or 17th – The talks will be taking place in Chaplin’s in Boscombe.
We are also looking for health related speakers to take part in ‘Our body’ nights, also taking place over the 15th, 16th and 17th but this time in the Goat and Tricycle pub in the Triangle, Bournemouth
This is a great public engagement opportunity with an interesting crowd, enabling the opportunity for open discussion and questions with the wider public.
It’s British Science Week 2017 and to celebrate we’re sharing some of our science research stories, to highlight some of the fantastic research taking place here at BU. Today we’re looking at how BU researchers are working to develop reliable and renewable energy sources.
As the world’s population continues to grow, so does our consumption of natural resources. Many of these resources are non-renewable, so research into renewable sources of energy is vital. Research led by BU’s Professor Zulfiqar Khan is tackling this issue through reducing corrosion, improving heat transfer and fluid dynamics, and using nano coatings to enhance surface effiencies in renewable energy systems.
The European Union’s (EU’s) Renewable EnergyDirective states that the EU should be producing 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020; a challenging target for any country. Professor Khan’s research is a direct response to this initiative and to the challenge of finding sustainable and renewable ways of meeting our future energy needs. His research is supported by a team of PhD students, many of whom are fully or part funded by industry and international HEI partners.
One of his major areas of focus is developing solar thermal technology, solar energy is available abundantly due to its nature. “Currently, we are very reliant on Solar Photovoltaic for our solar panels, but we do not have a large supply of the materials used, so using it won’t be sustainable over a long period,” explains Prof Khan. “I am developing means of using readily available and sustainable materials to be applied in flat plate solar thermal systems through a combination of thermofluids with nano additives and efficient thermal storage, which will help meet our future energy needs. I am also looking at ways to move away from standalone panels to integrating them within standard building practices.”
Professor Khan explains the different components in the system: “There are four parts to this system. One part focuses upon generating heat for colder climates, while within warmer climates it focuses on generating electricity. The third part of the project looks at thermo-fluids, with the aim of improving the efficiency of fluids within the solar energy system. The final part will be the integration of heat storage and recovery system from waste.”
At the moment Professor Khan and his team of PhD students and Post Docs are testing the system for generating electricity in warmer climates. Funding from industry has allowed Professor Khan and his team to set up labs in Poole, which include a scale model of the solar thermal system – an invaluable tool for testing. The first two phases of heat generation in cold climates and generating electricity in warmer climates have been successfully commissioned. The third and fourth phase of optimisation of thermo-fluids and heat storage are in progress.
The very nature of the programme and its complexity means that an interdisciplinary approach is vital. Professor Khan’s research combines materials sciences (nano coatings), mechanical engineering (heat transfer and thermodynamics), and electrochemistry (corrosion). “It is the combination of several subjects and disciplines which guarantees the delivery of objectives of this very challenging and exciting programme, which will put BU in particular and the UK in general on the international map as a leader in developing clean energy technologies,” says Professor Khan. “This is why we shouldn’t shy away from other disciplines as it can bring huge benefits and opportunities to research which will give it originality, significance and reach.”
The research and its interdisciplinary nature has the potential to make a significant difference to society as it presents a solution to one of the biggest challenges now facing us – how to meet our current and future energy needs. “I think we can learn to do without many things, but without energy, life as we know it would not be the same,” says Professor Khan. “With our current levels of consumption and the non-renewable sources we are using, our energy sources won’t last forever. If we look to the future, our energy reserves used at our current rates will last us perhaps another 50 – 60 years for oil and gas, and coal another 100 years. What are we going to do when that runs out?”
You can find more of Professor Khan’s publications on his staff profile.
The team would like to thank UK and International industry as well as HEI partners for providing funding andresources to enable their research to take place.
Bournemouth University students, Georgia Robertson and Jordan Ezra, will be presenting their research in Westminster as part of the annual ‘Posters in Parliament’ event. Around 40 undergraduates from universities all over the UK will be presenting their research to politicians, policy makers and fellow students.
As a country, we face a number of big challenges – energy provision, health and wellbeing, as well as issues such as sustainability – all of which research can help solve. Posters in Parliament is designed celebrate the research of some of the UK’s undergraduates, as well as highlighting the achievements of the next generation of researchers, some of whom may well go on to tackle some of our biggest challenges.
Georgia Robertson, an Events & Leisure Marketing student, will be presenting her research into business-to-business marketing, which she began while on her placement year.
“Over the years, email marketing has developed a negative stigma, perhaps because of an increase in unsolicited contact in an attempt to generate businesses leads. These are known as lead generation emails. This stigma has led to a dramatic drop in engagement in business-to-business email marketing campaigns, which means it’s important for those involved in the campaigns to know how to optimise their success,” explains Georgia.
“I analysed data from over 500 lead generation email campaigns from my placement to see which variables influenced the success of those campaigns. These included the subject line, email content and the links in the email. By exploring these variables, I was able to identify the factors that led to success in email marketing campaigns, which I hope will be useful to businesses trying convert email contacts into customers.”
Jordan Ezra is a Digital Media Design student. For his final year dissertation, he chose to explore the gradual dissolution of human rights by different world governments and intelligence agencies.
“I’m interested in current world events and particularly how the erosion of human rights has been justified by events of the last 20 years. My research has shown that it’s becoming more difficult to tell the truth – an interesting conclusion, given the rise of ‘fake news’ stories,” says Jordan.
“By analysing events of the last 20 years, I found that legislation across the world is limiting our human rights through increased surveillance and co-operation with corporations, among other issues. My analysis showed that the justification for this dissolution is related to events such as September 11 Twin Towers attacks and subsequent war on terror. There’s an increasingly blurred line between privacy and security, which is beginning to spark debates around the need for more transparent democracies.”
Georgia and Jordan will be presenting their research in Parliament on 14 March. Posters in Parliament is part of the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR), which Bournemouth University will be hosting in April. If you’d like to attend and support some of the BU students presenting their research at BCUR, please register on Eventbrite here.
“We all know that being a researcher can be very satisfying, but it often comes at a price of high levels of stress and anxiety. It could be the pressure of deadlines, writers block or dealing with fixed term contracts, or perhaps the anxiety of not knowing where your next steps will take you. Research can also be isolating and hard on your self-confidence and motivation. Good mental health and well-being can help researchers deal with the stresses of life in academia and make the most of the opportunities around them whatever their future may hold.
Join us for a Google Hangout to learn more about looking after your own mental health and well-being and hear from researchers share their experiences of balancing life and research”.
In the past week I have had two publications accepted which are both linked to my research areas of social media and healthcare.
The first was the main study from my PhD which has taken 4 years to get published after being rejected by three journals! This is in the Journal of Athletic Training and summarises a feasibility study of a Facebook concussion intervention called “iCon” or interactive concussion management.
The second is in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) in their new “infographic” section and was modified from our previous BJSM editorial (Ahmed OH, Weiler R, Schneiders AG, McCrory P, Sullivan SJ. Top tips for social media use in sports and exercise medicine: doing the right thing in the digital age. Br J Sports Med 2015;49:909-910). BJSM are trying to push the publication of infographics such as this as an adjunct to traditional research papers.
Both of these publications are timely as on Thursday I am due to present at the International Olympic Committee ~World Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport in Monaco (http://www.ioc-preventionconference.org/?page_id=1188). I will be leaning heavily on both of these papers in our symposium when I discuss the use of social media to deliver healthcare interventions in sports and exercise medicine.
References:
Ahmed OH, Schneiders AG, McCrory PR, Sullivan SJ. Sport Concussion Management Using Facebook: A Feasibility Study of an Innovative Adjunct ‘‘iCon’’. Journal of Athletic Training 2017;52(2):(in press-awaiting page numbers).
Ahmed OH, Weiler R, Schneiders AG, McCrory PR, Sullivan SJ. Infographic: Top Social Media Tips for Sports and Exercise Medicine Practitioners. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2017;(in press).
Further to the earlier blog-post concerning the internal competition for NERC standard grants (July 2017 deadline), please be reminded that the closing date is this Friday 17th March. Further details can be found here, but to summarise, the process is as follows:
Internal call launched 20 February 2017
Internal call deadline 17 March 2017. Academic submits one page expression of interest on research to be carried out, stating aims, objectives, potential impact, and any collaboration – to Lisa Gale-Andrews, RKEO
From 20th March, peer review takes place by DDRPP, BU academics with NERC experience, and external peer reviewers
Applicants will be informed of the decision regarding which application is to be taken forward after 27th March 2017. The successful applicant will then work with RKEO to develop, refine and draft their application before peer review in May and submission in July 2017.
The NIHR Fellowship Event will provide information about NIHR’s Fellowship schemes, and offer some hints and tips for a successful application. We are pleased to welcome the following speakers:
Professor Jane Sandall – Professor of Social Science & Women’s Health King’s College London, and NIHR Academic Training Advocate (Midwifery Lead)
Dr Dawn Biram – NIHR Trainees Coordinating Centre
NIHR Fellows – Bournemouth University
Date: Thursday 25th May 2017
Time: 14:00-16:00
Venue: Executive Business Centre, Lansdowne Campus
The session is open to all academics, researchers and clinicians who have an interest in applying for NIHR Fellowships.
About the NIHR Fellowship Programme: The NIHR is the UK’s major funder of applied health research. All of the research it funds works towards improving the health and wealth of the nation. The NIHR develops and supports the people who conduct and contribute to health research and equally supports the training of the next generation of health researchers. NIHR training programmes provide a unique opportunity for all professionals to improve the health of patients in their care through research. Training and career development awards from the NIHR range from undergraduate level through to opportunities for established investigators and research leaders. They are open to a wide range of professions and designed to suit different working arrangements and career pathways.
Budget: There was very little about HE in the budget this time, as expected, apart from the announcement of the outcomes of the consultations on PG doctoral loans and part-time maintenance loans (see below). The announcement of a £300m fund for brightest and best research talent, including for 1,000 new PhD places and fellowships focused on STEM subjects has been widely welcomed across the sector. There were lots of announcements about technical education
T-levels will be introduced, with 15 clear routes into employment
There will be an increase of over 50 per cent in number of hours training for 16-19 technical students including a high quality three month work placement, this will result in a £500m a year investment in 16-19 year olds
Maintenance loans for those who undertake higher level technical qualifications at the new institutes for technology and national colleges
Up to £40m investment in pilots to test the effectiveness of different approaches to lifelong learning
Up to £40m investment in pilots to test the effectiveness of different approaches to lifelong learning
The new doctoral loan will provide a contribution of up to £25,000 to the costs of study rather than covering the full fees and living costs of a student. It will be paid directly to the student rather than to the student’s institution.
The proposal to cap the number of people who could receive loans at each institution was not supported and so this has been dropped – it will be available to all eligible students for all eligible programmes – including all Level 8 programmes, up to 8 years long. Students receiving other government funding, such as through the NHS or a Research Council grant, will not be eligible.
Repayment arrangements will be the same as for the existing masters loan.
Part-time students will be eligible for maintenance loans from the academic year 2018/19
Students undertaking distance learning courses and Level 4 and 5 HE qualifications are likely to be eligible from academic year 2019/20 (this is subject to the passing of the HE and Research Bill – it will only happen when the Office for Students has been established and has put in place the new regulatory framework for providers)
The new loan arrangements will be reviewed after five years
Loan amounts each year will be based on the intensity of study. We had some concerns about this because it may make it harder for students to stretch the funding over the whole course
Maintenance loans for students undertaking distance learning courses will come in later as the Government needs to ensure a robust system of controls is in place
Part-time maintenance loans will be means tested
Repayment terms will mirror the process for part-time fee loans and the full-time undergraduate student finance system
Non-continuation: HESA have issued a summary of the 2015/16 non-continuation rates. OFFA have responded to the indicators expressing disappointment at the higher non-continuation rates for young students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and earmarking this for attention in the Fair Access Agreements due for submission in April.
Higher Education and Research Bill and the TEF: the House of Lords have used the third reading of the TEF to make a number of amendments to the HE and Research Bill against the government. The Vice-Chancellor has blogged on the BU Research blog about what this means for the TEF. It is not at all clear what will happen next – if the amendments are not reversed, then TEF will go back to the drawing board in terms of what the OfS would do with it– but that would not affect the HEFCE- run year 2 process that has already started. Other amendments include one that requires universities to ensure that students are registered to vote as part of student registration. The debates in the Lords on the bill continue next week – more amendments are to come including more on migration and loans (including Sharia compliant finance), cheating, Prevent and UKRI.
New DLHE: HESA have responded to the enormous consultation on the DLHE last summer (over 130 questions) with a second one, which sets out their proposals for the new version of DLHE and asks for responses by 7th April – this one is much shorter (only 6 questions plus a space for more comments). We’ll be preparing an institutional response. Data will not be available until 2020.
DLHE will be centralised. The survey will be delivered both online and through telephone interviews, in order to achieve an overall response rate of at least 70% per provider
Survey at 15 months – replacing the 6 month and the longitudinal one (that was not used in league tables or the TEF)
It will also ask about previous and planned activity (to get away from problems associated with a “snapshot”
Linked to HMRC data on earnings and self-employment and other HESA study information including placements (from 19/20)
New question on entrepreneurship and three new ‘graduate voice’ measures of outcomes from the perspective of the respondent. These will measure the extent to which the graduate’s current activity reflects on three distinct areas of development:
Utilisation of what has been learned
Orientation toward their future goals
A sense of meaningfulness or importance.
Optional question banks including research student experiences, subjective wellbeing, Net promoter score, graduate choice, impact of HE. HE providers will be able to add their own questions to the end of the survey.
Brexit
Caroline Lucas MP asked a question in Parliament this week: Whether it is his policy to seek for the UK to remain a member of the Bologna Process after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU; and whether he plans that UK university degrees will be considered compatible with degrees in EU member states under the Bologna Process following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. [66647]
Jo Johnson MP replied “The Bologna Process, which created the European Higher Education Area in 2010, is an intergovernmental agreement among 28 countries in the European region. It is not an EU body and therefore UK membership will not be affected by the UK’s departure from the EU.”
*** The closing date for this opportunity has been extended. The previous deadline of 10 March has been extended to 17 March 2017. All other call details remain unchanged. This grant supports the production of genetically modified mouse lines that advance knowledge of human disease or are of widespread use in biomedical science. ***
This enables UK researchers to meet researchers from from Thai institutions and explore opportunities for research collaboration in Bangkok between 17 May and 19 May 2017. The grant covers costs for the UK attendees.
The scoping group will develop the science case for a potential strategic research programme on enhancing resilience of UK peatlands. NERC will cover all reasonable travel and subsistence costs associated with attending the scoping group meeting.
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, GB
This supports internationally leading programmes of research, centred around innovative healthcare technologies, to tackle the challenges faced by developing countries. The total budget is worth £7.5 million, and six to eight projects will be funded.
This aims to improve the impact from NERC science within national resilience policy making, and enable the Civil Contingencies Secretariat to be a better user of science and better able to showcase the value of science in policy. The fellowship is paid at 80 per cent full economic costs, and will be for a two-year period initially, with a possibility of extension.
This aims to foster collaborations between the insurance and reinsurance industry and academia to accelerate the uptake and impact of environmental science. The fellowship is paid at 80 per cent full economic cost, and financial support includes but is not limited to travel and subsistence, and events such as workshops, seminars, open days or user training.
This supports the development of critical and innovative approaches to ongoing and emerging methodological debates across a range of approaches, both qualitative and quantitative, including mixed and comparative methods, as these relate to philosophical, theoretical, ethical, political and practice issues. £3,500 is available and covers costs of room and equipment hire, hospitality, consumables and travel for speakers.
These enable research organisations to collaborate with business, policy bodies and other actors that contribute to the economic development specific to their location, in order to deliver significant regional impact from NERC environmental science. The total budget is worth between £2.5 million and £4m over a period of four years.
This promotes collaboration between the research community and the end users of research. Each studentship is worth up to £84,392 over maximum 4 years.
*** This opportunity will be available soon. The next call is expected to open shortly. The following information is subject to change. This supports research on infectious diseases of relevance to Thailand and the Thai population. Projects are tenable for three years. ***
*** This opportunity will be available soon. The next call is expected to open shortly. The following information is subject to change. This supports research on non-communicable diseases of relevance to Thailand and the Thai population. Projects are tenable for three years. ***
These support clinical researchers wishing to pursue research into the pathogenesis and treatment of motor neurone disease. Funding provides support for five years.
*** This opportunity will be available soon. The next call is expected to open in January 2018. The following information is subject to change. This professorship enables a fellow to undertake six to eight visits to training programmes to deliver lectures, and undertake appropriate workshops or small group teaching, with the aim to foster high quality breast imaging throughout the UK. The professorship is worth up to £10,000 over one year. ***
For more funding opportunities that are most relevant to you, you can set up your own personalised alerts on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in RKEO or view the recent blog post here.
If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on Research Professional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.
Location EB708, Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth University
Overview
This workshop will highlight the importance of patient and public involvement (PPI) throughout the research cycle, using an orthopaedic example.
As part of the Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in Research seminar series
It’s British Science Week 2017 and to celebrate we’re sharing some of our science research stories, to highlight some of the fantastic research taking place here at BU. Today we’re looking at the Orthopeadic Research Institute (ORI).
Living well in older age is increasingly becoming a concern for our society. A key priority for our health services is to enable people to stay healthy and independent for as long as possible. BU’s newly established Orthopaedic Research Institute (ORI) is addressing this need by carrying out research to improve orthopaedic practices and patient care, thus supporting people to improve their activity levels and mobility as they age. Orthopaedics will become a critical issue as our population ages, as longer and more active lives will increase the risk that joints will wear out and replacements or treatments will be needed.
Deputy Head of ORI Associate Professor Tom Wainwright explains: “Knee and hip problems are going to become more prevalent, so we’re going to need better solutions to manage that; whether it’s better surgical procedures or better nonsurgical interventions. We have some very effective treatments in orthopaedics, but they’re not 100% effective, so part of our role is to work out how to make them better – improve them, through developing better surgical techniques, testing new medical techonology or developing better rehabilitation processes.”
Between them, Associate Professor Wainwright and Head of ORI Professor Rob Middleton have a wealth of clinical and research expertise. Professor Rob Middleton is a practising orthopaedic surgeon, specialising in hip replacement, while Associate Professor Wainwright is a physiotherapist and clinical researcher. They carried out research alongside their clinical practice before joining BU and have a national and international reputation for their work to date.
One of their biggest successes so far is speeding up the recovery process after hip and knee surgery, which has led to their work being cited in best practice health guidelines around the world. This approach, called Enhanced Recovery after Surgery, seeks to minimise the impact of surgery and accelerate recovery by employing strategies throughout the patient pathway, to improve outcomes and reduce the need for medical interventions. Their research into this area was a first in the UK for orthopaedics and demonstrated its value to patient care, as well as showing an improvement in patient and staff satisfaction and leading to significant cost savings to hospitals.
A more recent example of their work is a programme developed with local partners in Dorset called CHAIN – Cycling Against Hip Pain – which is designed to help people to live well with conditions such as osteoarthritis and to improve their mobility. The programme provides a combination of education and static cycling sessions,designed to improve mobility and increase people’s confidence in managing their conditions. The results have been excellent, with patients reporting improvements in walking, finding daily living tasks easier and most importantly, decreases in pain. Even the least likely candidates have seen improvements, demonstrating the value of education and exercise in improving patient care and in helping to reduce or delay the need for further medical interventions.
“As well as developing interventions to help patients recover from surgery and manage their conditions. We also work with a number of global orthopaedic companies to test and run clinical trials
on the latest orthopaedic technology,” says Associate Professor Wainwright. “We work with companies such as ZimmerBiomet, Lima Corporate, and Firstkind Ltd to ensure that their technology is delivering the best possible outcomes for patients.”
One example of their work with ZimmerBiomet was to explore ways to improve the technology used in hip replacements. The hip joint is a ball and socket joint and one of the risks of hip replacement is dislocation; where the new ball comes out of the socket. ORI’s research has shown that a larger ball reduces the risk of dislocation, and does not adversely affect the rate of wear.
“We currently have five trials underway within local hospitals and more to come,” explains Associate Professor Wainwright. “These trials are looking at different ways that we can improve the medical technology used in orthopaedics and means that not only are we contributing to improving future care, but we’re also bringing the latest technology to Dorset and improving care in the local area. As Dorset has a very high proportion of orthopaedic surgeries, there is potentially a very large group of people we can benefit.”
“We take a very interdisciplinary approach to our research. Establishing ourselves within BU is a real advantage for us, because we can draw on the expertise of colleagues in other areas of research, including other health professionals, psychologists, technologists and engineers,” explains Associate Professor Wainwright, “Ultimately, our driving force is that we wantto ensure that everyone gets the best possible treatment for their condition – it’s just the right thing to do.”
A new Ageing & Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) has launched at Bournemouth University (BU), bringing together cross-Faculty expertise in the areas of dementia and ageing. At a time when our population is living longer, often with long-term medical conditions including dementia, the centre’s research is likely to have a significant impact on theory, education and professional practice.
The aim of ADRC is to use the team’s collective expertise to develop person-centred research which will improve the lives of people with dementia and their families. Their research falls under three broad categories – developing ageing & dementia friendly environments, nutrition & wellbeing and activity & social inclusion. Each topic builds on a wealth of research knowledge and projects already taking place at BU.
The ADRC will be led by Professor Jane Murphy and Professor Jan Wiener, supported by staff and students from the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences and the Faculty of Science & Technology.
For more information about their work see the centre’s web page or email Michelle O’Brien if you’re interested in finding out more about a particular project.
The team are currently working on the following funded research projects:
Dementia-friendly architecture: Reducing spatial disorientation in dementia care homes. A two year funded project conducting innovative research using virtual reality technology and eye tracking to simulate unfamiliar care home environments. Knowledge gained as a result of the project will help to create dementia-friendly architectural guidelines for use in the design of care homes for people with Alzheimer’s Disease. The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Staff involved: Professor Jan Wiener and Dr Ramona Grzeschik.
Eating and drinking well: Supporting people living with dementia. Understanding how nutrition, exercise and other lifestyle factors impact upon quality of life, wellbeing and the progression of dementia to inform new innovative approaches for prevention and management of dementia including new educational models and assistive technology. Funded by the Burdett Trust. Staff involved: Professor Jane Murphy and Joanne Holmes.
TAi ChI for people with demenTia (TACIT trial). A three year funded project to conduct a phase II randomised controlled trial to test the benefit of Tai Chi for people living with dementia living in the community. Funded by the National Institute for Research (NIHR) as a Career Development Fellowship. Staff involved: Dr Samuel Nyman.
Using serious games to support the quality of life of people with dementia. A European funded project in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Valencia, Alzheimer’s Greece, Alzheimer’s Slovenia and Alzheimer’s Romania and Instituto de Biomecanica de Valencia (IBV), exploring the use of gaming activities for people with dementia and their care partners. Funded by ERASMUS+. Staff involved: Dr Ben Hicks, Professor Jan Wiener and Professor Wen Tang.
Using graffiti to explore identity in people with dementia. Exploring the use of graffiti to explore identity in people with dementia and their care partners. Funded by British Psychological Society (BPS). Staff involved: Dr Shanti Shanker and Dr Ben Hicks.
Dementia Education And Training through Simulation2 programme (DEALTS2). National delivery of Higher Education England (HEE) Tier 2 training programme across all 13 Health Education England (HEE) regions of UK. Funded by HEE. Staff involved: Professor Jane Murphy, Dr Michele Board and Dr Michelle Heward.
Congratulations to Dr. Mastoureh (Masi) Fathi, FHSS Lecturer in Sociology, who has been appointed to the editorial board of Sociological Research Online. Sociological Research Online is a peer-reviewed online sociology journal looking at current social issues, and it is in its twenty-second year.
Title: Developing a novel self-optimising femtocell network for indoor communication with mobile devices
Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM
Date: Wednesday 15th March 2017
Room: PG11, Poole House, Talbot Campus
Abstract:
The need for a fast and reliable wireless communication system has increased with the development of social and business activities around the world. A promising cost and energy efficient way of meeting the future traffic demands is the idea of very dense deployment of low cost, low power and self-organizing small base stations i.e. Femtocells. Self-configuring, self-optimizing and self-healing base stations have the potential to significantly increase the capacity of mobile cellular networks in the future 5G while reducing their energy consumption. The aim of this research is to consider the integration of Femtocells as Self Optimising Networks for the future communication network. An extensive and thorough research has been carried out to investigate what drawbacks of the existing communication 4G network are and whether Femtocells as a Self-Optimising network can improve the current network. In order to evaluate the algorithms for self-optimising Femtocells that have been proposed by other authors in the existing literature an evaluation criteria has been developed, and a simulating environment has been constructed. The evaluation is performed by measuring the effect that changing parameters has on the output of the environment. From the results of the evaluation a new algorithm to enhance the self-optimisation of the network will be designed and developed in a simulating environment.
We hope to see you there.
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Message from Vitae:
Further to the earlier 
May’s Research Café – Showcasing tomorrow’s researchers
Bridging the Digital Divide: How Older Adults Navigate a Digital Society
ADRC launches new DEALTS2 train-the-trainer video series
Insight Dementia educational resource: now available!
Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme pre-Published
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
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