BRIAN will be upgrading to a new version next week, so will be inaccessible to users on Monday 30th April and Tuesday 1st May. The main improvement for this upgrade is the introduction of a new Assessment module to enable more efficient REF preparation. However, we hope to also introduce more user friendly reporting over the next few months.
FINAL CFP: Nexus of Migration and Tourism: Creating Social Sustainability Symposium
20-21 September, Vietnam National University, Hanoi
Deadline for Abstracts: 15 March 2018
For more information: https://tourism-migration.co.uk/
We are delighted to announce that, with quality submissions, we will potentially organise two special issues with two sponsoring journals: ‘Tourism Geographies’ http://www.tgjournal.com/ & ‘e-Review of Tourism Research’ https://ertr.tamu.edu/
Keynote Speakers:
Prof Michael Hitchcock, Goldsmiths, University of London
Prof Adele Ladkin, Bournemouth University, UK
Prof Alan Lew, Northern Arizona University, USA
Prof Sabine Marschall, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Prof Noel Salazar, KU Leuven, Belgium
Despite rapid tourism economic development, and research into labour and employment such as economics and employment issues, research hasn’t caught up to the rapidly changing issues, such as tourism linked migration and social and cultural aspects of sustainability. Thus, we invite you to discuss, reflect and develop upon issues pertaining to sustainability and the nexus of migration and tourism. We are particularly interested in the complexities of trends, issues, challenges and opportunities around migration linked tourism, which remains a relatively minor part in academic research. While large numbers of migrant workers move to ‘new’ tourist destinations such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and Dubai for employment, issues pertaining to social sustainability (e.g., well-being, quality of life, integration, the distribution of power and resources, employment, education, the provision of basic infrastructure and services, freedom, justice, access to influential decision-making) have yet to be fully developed within tourism research.
We invite contributions from a variety of disciplines including anthropology, cultural/human geography, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, economics, border studies, leisure studies, tourism studies and hospitality/event management. We invite you to submit papers on topics that include (but are not limited to):
– (Re)definitions of social sustainability
– Equitable access and the sustainability of the community
– Creating socially sustainable communities
– Migrant quality of life/ community well-being in tourist destinations
– Migrant tourism workers’ integration & inclusion
– Migration and tourist community formation
– Conflicts between/intersection of tourists, local residents and migrant workers
– Tourism (im)mobilities, ethics, morals and (in)justice
– Tourism mobilities and border crossings
– Human security, transnationalization and citizenship
– Social networks, borders and the allure of tourist destinations
– Gender and mobility in tourism
– Intersectionality, gender and race
– Roles of religion in tourism migration and mobilities
– Religious and spiritual mobilities and tourism
– Migrant leisure spaces, constraints and opportunities
– Academic mobilities / Mobilities in education
– Social sustainability in ASEAN tourism development
– Social sustainability and future directions
– Destinations resilience
– Effect of Brexit and Trump on tourism and migration
Submission Deadlines: 500 words abstract due 15 March 2018
Confirmation of acceptance: 1 April 2018
Please see this web link for more information: https://tourism-migration.co.uk/
If you have any questions or like to be on a mailing list, please email Jaeyeon Choe (jchoe@bournemouth.ac.uk).
We are very pleased to annouce CFP: Nexus of Migration and Tourism: Creating Social Sustainability Symposium on 20-21 September at Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Deadline for Abstracts: 15 March 2018
For more information: https://tourism-migration.co.uk.
Keynote Speakers:
Prof Michael Hitchcock, Goldsmiths, University of London
Prof Adele Ladkin, Bournemouth University, UK
Prof Alan Lew, Northern Arizona University, USA
Prof Noel Salazar, KU Leuven, Belgium
Book Launch:
‘Tourism and Memories of Home: Migrants, Displaced People, Exiles and Diasporic Communities’ by Dr. Sabine Marschall, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
We are also delighted to announce that, with quality submissions, we will potentially organise two special issues with two sponsoring journals: ‘Tourism Geographies’ http://www.tgjournal.com/ & ‘e-Review of Tourism Research’ https://ertr.tamu.edu/
Looking forward to receiving your abstract by 15 March!
Bournemouth University leads the Kosovo-strand of a major four-year AHRC ‘Global Challenges’ project titled ‘Changing the Story‘. This project aims at supporting the building of inclusive civil societies (CSOs) with, and for, young people in five post-conflict countries. It asks how the arts, heritage, and human rights education can support youth-centred approaches to civil society building in Cambodia, Colombia, Kosovo, Rwanda and South Africa. The Kosovo strand benefits from an established track record of collaboration with University of Prishtina (Co-I) and Stacion: Centre for Contemporary Arts in Prishtina as well as several arts-based civil society organisations in the country. The BU-led strand focuses on formal and informal civic education through the arts in Kosovo, to be explored locally by a Postgraduate Research Assistant, attached to University of Prishtina, through a critical review and proof of concept exercise during the first year. In support, BU is contributing a fully-funded PhD scholarship under the title ‘Imagining New Futures: Engaging Young People Through Participatory Arts in Post-Conflict Kosovo‘, which is currently being advertised.
International collaborative activities commenced last week in collaboration with an internationally-acclaimed CSO partner in Dorset, devoted to developing global youth citizenship through culture and the arts. The award-winning Complete Freedom of Truth project (TCFT), with which BU collaborated already previously, kindly offered a one-week residency to Albert Heta, Director of Stacion: Centre for Contemporary Arts in Prishtina. This residency brought together a group of artists, workshop leaders and young people from across the UK between February 12 and 16 in Bridport. Albert’s visit from Kosovo was funded by the AHRC and facilitated by BU’s new Research Centre ‘Seldom Heard-Voices: Marginalisation and Society Integration’ of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS). Together with Albert, some of the Centre’s members also participates in the events organised by TCFT, exchanged experiences and discussed best practice of working with young people of various background through the arts towards social justice. TCFT has a long history of working with young people, internationally, starting in post-conflict Srebrenica in 2008. Based on our observations during one week in Dorset, including of the issues selected as important by the young UK-participants during this period, we are currently reflecting on the extent to, and ways in, which arts-based interventions with a given set of young people in one specific socio-cultural context and its underpinning conceptualisations (such as of empowerment or vulnerability of, and pressures on, young people) can or cannot be transferred to another, such as that in which young people in Kosovo negotiate their aspirations.
Open access is about making the products of research freely accessible to all. It allows research to be disseminated quickly and widely, the research process to operate more efficiently, and increased use and understanding of research by business, government, charities and the wider public.
There are two complementary mechanisms for achieving open access to research.
The first mechanism is for authors to publish in open-access journals that do not receive income through reader subscriptions.
The second is for authors to deposit their refereed journal article in an open electronic archive.
These two mechanisms are often called the ‘gold’ and ‘green’ routes to open access:
Gold – This means publishing in a way that allows immediate access to everyone electronically and free of charge. Publishers can recoup their costs through a number of mechanisms, including through payments from authors called article processing charges (APCs), or through advertising, donations or other subsidies.
Green – This means depositing the final peer-reviewed research output in an electronic archive called a repository. Repositories can be run by the researcher’s institution, but shared or subject repositories are also commonly used. Access to the research output can be granted either immediately or after an agreed embargo period.
To encourage all academic communities to consider open access publishing, Authors Alliance has produced a comprehensive ‘Understanding Open Access‘ guide which addresses common open access related questions and concerns and provides real-life strategies and tools that authors can use to work with publishers, institutions, and funders to make their works more widely accessible to all.
Just before the start of Bournemouth University’s Global Festival of Learning India (12-16 February) the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences published Michelle Vickery’s paper ‘Female infanticide in India and its relevance to Nepal’ [1]. This article developed out of Michelle’s undergraduate Sociology thesis which she completed as part of her undergraduate degree in 2016. The Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences is an Open Access journal which means its content is freely available to any reader with internet access across the globe.
Over the last few years Bournemouth University academic have published papers on a range of topics related to India, for example on Media Studies [2-3], English literature [4] , Sociology [5], Public Health [6] , and environmental science and conservation [7-9].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
Vickery, M., van Teijlingen, E., (2017) Female infanticide in India and its relevance to Nepal.Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (JMMIHS) 3(1): 79-85.
Sudbury, S. (2016) Locating a “third voice”: participatory filmmaking and the everyday in rural India. Journal of Media Practice, 17 (2-3): 213-231.
Goodman, S. (2018) ‘Ain’t it a Ripping Night’: Alcoholism and the Legacies of Empire in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. English Studies, (forthcoming).
Sahay, G., Devkota, B., van Teijlingen, E.R. (2016) Rebel Health Services in South Asia: Comparing Maoist-led Conflicts in India & Nepal, Sociological Bulletin 65(1):19-39.
Sathian, B. , De, A. ,van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. , Banerjee, I. , Roy, B. , Supram, H. , Devkota, S. , E, R. (2015). Time Trend of the Suicide Incidence in India: a Statistical Modelling. American Journal of Public Health Research, 3(5A), 80-87. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajphr/3/5A/17/index.html
Bower, S. D., Danylchuk, A. J., Raghavan, R., Danylchuk, S. C., Pinder, A. C., Alter, A. M., Cooke, S. J. (2017) Involving recreational fisheries stakeholders in development of research and conservation priorities for mahseer (Tor spp.) of India through collaborative workshops. Fisheries Research, 186, 665-671.
Bower S.D., Danylchuk A.J., Raghavan R., Clark-Danylchuck S.E., Pinder A.C., Cooke S.J. (2016) Rapid assessment of the physiological impacts caused by catch-and-release angling on blue-finned mahseer (Tor sp.) of the Cauvery River, India. Fisheries Management and EcologyDOI: 10.1111/fme.12135
Pinder, A.C., Raghavan, R., Britton, J.R. (2015) Efficacy of angler catch data as a population and conservation monitoring tool for the flagship Mahseer fishes (Tor spp.) of Southern India. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, DOI: 10.1002/aqc.2543
Lizzie Gadd warns against jumping on ‘bad metrics’ bandwagons without really engaging with the more complex responsible metrics agenda beneath.
An undoubted legacy of the Metric Tide report has been an increased focus on the responsible use of metrics and along with this a notion of ‘bad metrics’. Indeed, the report itself even recommended awarding an annual ‘Bad Metrics Prize’. This has never been awarded as far as I’m aware, but nominations are still open on their web pages. There has been a lot of focus on responsible metrics recently. The Forum for Responsible Metrics have done a survey of UK institutions and is reporting the findings on 8 February in London. DORA has upped its game and appointed a champion to promote their work and they seem to be regularly retweeting messages that remind us all of their take on what it means to do metrics responsibly. There are also frequent twitter conversations about the impact of metrics in the up-coming REF. In all of this I see an increasing amount of ‘bad metrics’ bandwagon-hopping. The anti-Journal Impact Factor (JIF) wagon is now full and its big sister, the “metrics are ruining science” wagon, is taking on supporters at a heady pace.
It looks to me like we have moved from a state of ignorance about metrics, to a little knowledge. Which, I hear, is a dangerous thing.
It’s not a bad thing, this increased awareness of responsible metrics; all these conversations. I’m responsible metrics’ biggest supporter and a regular slide in my slide-deck shouts ‘metrics can kill people!’. So why am I writing a blog post that claims that there is no such thing as a bad metric? Surely these things can kill people? Well, yes, but guns can also kill people, they just can’t do so unless they’re in the hands of a human. Similarly, metrics aren’t bad in and of themselves, it’s what we do with them that can make them dangerous.
Adequacy of the indicator for the object that it measures
Sensitivity to the intrinsic inertia of the object being measured
Homogeneity of the dimensions of the indicator.
So, you might have an indicator such as ‘shoe size’, where folks with feet of a certain length get assigned a certain shoe size indicator. No problem there – it’s adequate (length of foot consistently maps on to shoe size); it’s sensitive to the thing it measures (foot grows, shoe size increases accordingly), and it’s homogenous (one characteristic – length, leads to one indicator – shoe size). However, in research evaluation we struggle on all of these counts. Because the thing we really want to measure, this elusive, multi-faceted “research quality” thing, doesn’t have any adequate, sensitive and homogeneous indicators. We need to measure the immeasurable. So we end up making false assumptions about the meanings of our indicators, and then make bad decisions based on those false assumptions. In all of this, it is not the metric that’s at fault, it’s us.
In my view, the JIF is the biggest scapegoat of the Responsible Metrics agenda. The JIF is just the average number of cites per paper for a journal over two years. That’s it. A simple calculation. And as an indicator of the communication effectiveness of a journal for collection development purposes (the reason it was introduced) it served us well. It’s just been misused as an indicator of the quality of individual academics and individual papers. It wasn’t designed for that. This is misuse of a metric, not a bad metric. (Although recent work has suggested that it’s not that bad an indicator for the latter anyway, but that’s not my purpose here). If the JIF is a bad metric, so is Elsevier’s CiteScore which is based on EXACTLY the same principle but uses a three-year time window not two, a slightly different set of document types and journals, and makes itself freely available.
If we’re not careful, I fear that in a hugely ironic turn, DORA and the Leiden Manifesto might themselves become bad (misused) metrics: an unreliable indicator of a commitment to the responsible use of metrics that may or may not be there in practice.
I understand why DORA trumpets the misuse of JIFs; it is rife and there are less imperfect tools for the job. But there are also other metrics that DORA doesn’t get in a flap about – like the individual h-index – which are subject to the same amount of misuse, but are actually more damaging. The individual h-index disadvantages certain demographics more than others (women, early-career researchers, anyone with non-standard career lengths); at least the JIF mis-serves everyone equally. And whilst we’re at it peer review can be an equally inadequate research evaluation tool (which, ironically, metrics have proven). So if we’re to be really fair we should be campaigning for responsible peer review with as much vigour as our calls for responsible metrics.
Bumper stickers by Paul van der Werf (CC-BY)
It looks to me like we have moved from a state of ignorance about metrics, to a little knowledge. Which, I hear, is a dangerous thing. A little knowledge can lead to a bumper sticker culture ( “I HEART DORA” anyone? “Ban the JIF”?) which could move us away from, rather than towards, the responsible use of metrics. These concepts are easy to grasp hold of, but they mask a far more complex and challenging set of research evaluation problems that lie beneath. The responsible use of metrics is about more than the avoidance of certain indicators, or signing DORA, or even developing your own bespoke Responsible Metrics policy (as I’ve said before this is certainly easier said than done).
The responsible use of metrics requires responsible scientometricians. People who understand that there is really no such thing as a bad metric, but it is very possible to misuse them. People with a deeper level of understanding about what we are trying to measure, what the systemic effects of this might be, what indicators are available, what their limitations are, where they are appropriate, how they can best triangulate them with peer review. We have good guidance on this in the form of the Leiden Manifesto, the Metric Tide and DORA. However, these are the starting points of often painful responsible metric journeys, not easy-ride bandwagons to be jumped on. If we’re not careful, I fear that in a hugely ironic turn, DORA and the Leiden Manifesto might themselves become bad (misused) metrics: an unreliable indicator of a commitment to the responsible use of metrics that may or may not be there in practice.
Let’s get off the ‘metric-shaming’ bandwagons, deepen our understanding and press on with the hard work of responsible research evaluation.
Elizabeth Gadd is the Research Policy Manager (Publications) at Loughborough University. She has a background in Libraries and Scholarly Communication research. She is the co-founder of the Lis-Bibliometrics Forum and is the ARMA Metrics Special Interest Group Champion
Emerald has today, 26th September 2017, removed the embargo period on all Green open access. Author accepted manuscripts (AAMs or postprints) of journal articles held in open access repositories such as BURO will now be available on publication. This applies not only from today, but also to any Emerald publications currently under embargo in repositories. Emerald Group Publishing
Over the Summer of 2017, project manager Katie Thompson has been working to redesign and improve the Wessex Portal to include a global conservation theme. The site has been enhanced to target a global audience, still focussing on key themes such as public engagement but also to include a global conservation section.
This new project was one of the outcomes of a recent visit to Kenya and South Africa by WP manager Katie Thompson, who developed collaboration with a school and charity organisation. These international trips focused on wildlife research and environmental education. Katie Thompson liaised with students and teachers, and is working to initiate an environmental club, with participation from the school. Children from the schools will be able to showcase their work online via the WP website and social media pages. This will be shown in the updated WP ‘Conservation Forum’ section of the website with public input (http://www.wessexportal.co.uk/conservation/).
An upcoming visit to South Africa next month will aim to build on these relationships, and expand upon organisations to collaborate with and expand outreach to international countries.
If you would like more information, then please do not hesitate to contact either Katie Thompson thompsonk@bournemouth.ac.uk or Genoveva Esteban gesteban@bournemouth.ac.uk (Principal Investigator) Join our website, and follow us on FB and twitter for regular updates.
Last week (11-15 September 2017) saw the successful delivery of the NERC-funded Advanced Training Course Freshwater Taxonomy and Field Identification Skills, awarded to Professor Genoveva F. Esteban (SciTech, Department of Life and Environmental Sciences) in collaboration with the Freshwater Biological Association (https://www.fba.org.uk/fba). The course is free for PhD students and early-career researchers. With a strong emphasis on training excellence and practical hands-on experience this short course offers expert tuition in freshwater fieldwork, taxonomy, and freshwater science. The course provided in-depth training on the well-established use of macro-invertebrates as the core component of freshwater bio-assessment and also included specific training in field and laboratory methods for investigating and identifying microscopic organisms like diatoms, meiofauna and protists. The participants’ feedback was outstanding; Davina Hill from the University of Cumbria tweeted “Thanks for a fascinating and inspiring course in Freshwater Taxonomy. Recommended!”
The course will also be delivered in 2018 (dates to be confirmed). Please contact Genoveva F. Esteban gesteban@bournemouth.ac.uk for further information. Photograph courtesy of Hai Luu.
Scopus have enhanced their article-level metrics through the integration of Plum X Metrics and to support this are hosting a webinar titled ‘How PlumX Metrics on Scopus help tell the story of your research’ on 10th August at 5pm.
Kun Qian is a PhD candidate in the National Centre for Computer Animation, Faculty of Media and Communication. He has been working on computer graphics, game, vfx and virtual reality technologies for more than 10 years. He will deliver a talk on his research of surgery simulation at 7pm, 25th July at K103, as part of the BCS Animation and Game Development SG event. The detail can be found at http://www.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/58181 . It is free for all the attendees, everybody is welcome. Please register at the link above, because we will bring some refreshment based on the number of registrations.
Abstract: With the development of computer graphic and haptic devices, training surgeons with virtual reality technology has proven to be very effective in surgery simulation. Due to the various unsolved technical issues, the laparoscopic surgery simulation has not been widely used. Such issues include modelling of complex anatomy structure, large soft tissue deformation, frequent surgical tools interactions, and the rendering of complex material under the illumination. A successful laparoscopic surgery simulator should integrate all these required components in a balanced and efficient manner to achieve both visual/haptic quality and a satisfactory refreshing rate. In this talk, we propose an efficient framework integrating a set of specially tailored and designed techniques, ranging from deformation simulation, collision detection, soft tissue dissection and rendering. This framework can be used as a low level engine for surgery simulation by integrating and optimizing modern creative technologies.
On the tenth anniversary of the international Open Access journal PLOS ONE we received an email to inform us that one of our articles was among the top ten per cent of most cited articles in this journal. The email referred to our paper ‘Factors influencing adherence to antiretroviral treatment in Nepal: A mixed-methods study’ [1]. Not bad considering that PLOS ONE has published over 4,300 articles since its inception.
Thanks to the QR funding from the Faculty of Media and Communication, I recently had the privilege to attend the Computer Graphics International 2017 in Yokohama, Japan. CGI is a prestigious conference in the graphics world for many years and attracts interest from people all over the world. We have one paper presented on the conference, as a full paper, it will be published in the Visual Computer Journal by Springer-Verlag.
We have hosted the CGI2012 at Bournemouth. CGI2017 is held at Keio University, Yokohama chaired by Prof. Issei Fujishiro and Prof. Xiaoyang Mao. The first day (27th June) events are majorly tutorials and workshops. The shining part is the keynote by Prof. Marina Gavrilova from University of Calgary, discussing how to use machine learning for social data analysis through image and video processing, especially multiple modal biometric data acquisition, feature matching, fusion and recognition. One interesting application is gender prediction using image aesthetics.
The second day’s keynote is “reconstructing reality: from physical world to virtual environments” by Prof. Ming Lin from University of North Carolina. She firstly gave an introduction on the history of VR and AR, then talked about her work on human tissue material property estimation from real surgery videos, virtual dressing, crowd and traffic pattern learning from videos of real world, finally the sound and haptic rendering in VR environment. Daniel Thalmann (chair of the conference) held the panel discussion on the future of machine learning in graphics. There were lots of other paper presentations on the second day covering many topics including image, texture, modelling, rendering, deformation and visualization.
The third day’s keynote is “Studies on Humanlike robots” by Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro. He showed the latest state-of-the-art robot in Japan, the mimic version of himself. Obviously lots of small human robots have been used in some restaurants to entertain guest during food ordering. My student Tao Jiang presented his paper in the morning session.
I chaired a session on the fourth day on papers working on image & example based modelling. There are also some posters presented during the conference.
This is a very good opportunity to network with top experts in the world. I had good chat with many people such as Prof. Henry Fuchs (Guru in the VR world), Prof. Ming Lin, Prof. Marina Gavrilova, Prof. Kwan-Liu Ma (leading expert in the visualization, chaired the top visualization conferences in the world), Prof. Shimin Hu (Tsinghua University), Prof. Enhu Wu (Chinese Academy of Science), and also some other experts from Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, USA and China etc. There is also a discussion with a professor from German about collaboration on 3D living environment reconstruction from old photos for dementia patient/old people. This is a very exciting and intensive experience for four full days, sharing different ideas, building links and research collaborations.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic debilitating and progressive condition that affects the fatty tissue sheath surrounding nerves. Loss of the myelin sheath is largely responsible for uncoordinated movements because the nerves cannot transmit signals smoothly across the complex neural circuitry. A common symptom of MS is excessive yawning together with fatigue.
Research study
Following recent completion of a study at the Osborne Centre, West Parley, we found that people with MS had higher cortisol levels when yawning compared with healthy participants.
Previous research at Bournemouth University
This research follows several years of research by the author at Bournemouth University with the first report on the “yawning envelope”, identifying the electrical trace during yawning (Refs. 1-2), and the first report on the association between yawning and cortisol levels following provoked yawning (Refs. 3-6).
Yawning “envelope”
“Contagious” yawning is seen in animals as well humans; it may involve empathy to perceived social cues in humans.
A series of 3 Q and A events with talks about findings was held at the MS Society local branch which facilitated an interesting and lively debate among participants, researchers and staff at the Centre.
Further research planned
We believe that threshold levels of cortisol trigger the yawn response which lowers brain temperature, particularly important in MS where brain temperatures can be elevated considerably following fatigue. A funding bid is in preparation to examine early detection of MS using these findings.
About the author
Simon B N Thompson is Associate Professor, Bournemouth University; and Visiting Professor, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France. He has presented to His Excellency Bernard Emié, the French Ambassador at the French Embassy, signalling formation of the Anglo-French International Scientific Council for Research into Multiple Sclerosis.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all volunteers; Alister Coleman and Nicola Williams for assisting in data collection and analysis; Rod Slip, Group Co-ordinator and Kay Bundy, Fundraising Co-ordinator of the MS Society Osborne Centre for providing free facilities.
References
1. Thompson, S.B.N., 2013. How to catch a yawn: initial observations of a randomised controlled trial. WMC Neurology, 4(8), doi: 10.9754/journal.wmc.2013.004371.
2. Thompson, S.B.N., Frankham, C., & Bishop, P., 2014. The art of capturing a yawn using the science of nerve impulses and cortisol levels in a randomized controlled trial. Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis as a potential predictor of neurological impairment. International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 7(3), 529-543.
3. Thompson, S.B.N., 2011. Born to yawn? Cortisol linked to yawning: a new hypothesis. Medical Hypotheses, 77, 861-862.
4. Thompson, S.B.N., & Bishop, P., 2012. Born to yawn? Understanding yawning as a warning of the rise in cortisol levels: randomized trial. Interactive Journal of Medical Research, 1(2), e4, 1-9, doi: 10.2196/ijmr.2241.
5. Thompson, S. B. N., Daly, S., Le Blanche, A., Adibi, M., Belkhiria, C., Driss, T., de Marco, G., 2016. fMRI randomized study of mental and motor task performance and cortisol levels to potentiate cortisol as a new diagnostic biomarker. Journal of Neurology & Neuroscience, 7(2); 92: 1-8.
6. Thompson, S.B.N., 2017. Hypothesis to explain yawning, cortisol rise, brain cooling and motor cortex involvement of involuntary arm movement in neurologically impaired patients. Journal of Neurology & Neuroscience, 8(1); 167: 1-5.
MS is a chronic debilitating and progressive condition that affects the fatty tissue sheath surrounding nerves. Incomplete innervation due to loss of the myelin sheath is largely responsible for uncoordinated movements. Brain temperature fluctuations are also often seen in people with MS together with fatigue when carrying out mentally or physically demanding tasks. These are commonly associated with excessive yawning yet the cause of fatigue in MS is not well understood.
A recently completed study asked participants to produce saliva into a small tube so that their cortisol levels could be analysed. They were also asked to look at presentations that provoked a yawning response. Results revealed that all of the participants had elevated cortisol levels after yawning and that there was a marked difference in cortisol levels between the healthy participants and those with MS.
Yawning: Pynq Thompson aged 28 days
Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis (Ref.1) proposes threshold levels of cortisol trigger the yawn response which lowers brain temperature. Correlation between brain temperature and cortisol is to be further examined together with comparison between UK and Norwegian participants with MS since the incidence of MS is greater in Scandinavian countries (and Canada and Scotland) possibly due to vitamin D and K reduction with reduced sunlight.
Previous studies have examined electromyograph (EMG) activity during yawning and manipulation of conditions to provoke yawning (Refs. 2,3). Brain regions and cortisol activity has been identified in MS in an international study (Ref. 4); and a new understanding proposed of communication between the motor cortex and brain-stem (Ref.5).
Yawning EMG “envelope” of activity
We have recently completed a trial in Bournemouth that recruited over 80 healthy participants and over 30 people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
A funding bid is being prepared to examine the feasibility of producing the early detection of MS and cortisol-insufficiency syndromes using observed yawning frequency and cortisol levels.
Simon B N Thompson is Associate Professor, Bournemouth University; Visiting Professor, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France. Member of International Scientific Council for Research into Multiple Sclerosis following presentation to French Ambassador, His Excellency Bernard Emié, French Embassy.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all volunteers; Alister Coleman and Nicola Williams for assisting in data collection and analysis; Rod Slip, Group Co-ordinator and Kay Bundy, Fundraising Co-ordinator of the MS Society Osborne Centre for providing free facilities.
Note
The author would welcome interest in collaborating in writing bids for funding international work.
References
1. Thompson, S.B.N., 2011. Born to yawn? Cortisol linked to yawning: a new hypothesis. Medical Hypotheses, 77, 861-862.
2. Thompson, S.B.N., & Bishop, P., 2012. Born to yawn? Understanding yawning as a warning of the rise in cortisol levels: randomized trial. Interactive Journal of Medical Research, 1(2), e4, 1-9, doi: 10.2196/ijmr.2241.
3. Thompson, S.B.N., Frankham, C., & Bishop, P., 2014. The art of capturing a yawn using the science of nerve impulses and cortisol levels in a randomized controlled trial. Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis as a potential predictor of neurological impairment. International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 7(3), 529-543.
4. Thompson, S. B. N., Daly, S., Le Blanche, A., Adibi, M., Belkhiria, C., Driss, T., de Marco, G., 2016. fMRI randomized study of mental and motor task performance and cortisol levels to potentiate cortisol as a new diagnostic biomarker. Journal of Neurology & Neuroscience, 7(2); 92: 1-8.
5. Thompson, S.B.N., 2017. Hypothesis to explain yawning, cortisol rise, brain cooling and motor cortex involvement of involuntary arm movement in neurologically impaired patients. Journal of Neurology & Neuroscience, 8(1); 167: 1-5.
BU academic presented at ‘Belonging in a post-Brexit-vote Britain: researching race, ethnicity and migration in a changing landscape’ conference at the University of Sheffield (co-organised by the British Sociological Association and the Migration Research Group)
I presented an on-going project, Migrant and Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being at ‘Belonging in a post-Brexit-vote Britain: researching race, ethnicity and migration in a changing landscape’ conference at the University of Sheffield in May. A report of the conference can be found here: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/socstudies/scsnews/bsa-migration-conference-1.701133
[Dr. Jaeyeon Choe, Senior Academic presenting at Sheffield]
The ‘Migrant and Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being’ presentation got much interest from the audience, who were primarily sociologists. Discussions flowed around “how” leisure spaces and practices can help migrants integrate into communities and enhance their well-being, and how migrants define social inclusion, integration and well-being differently from scholarly (often middle class and ‘white’) definitions. Other discussions surrounded how some cultures have segregated and have ‘invisible’ leisure spaces whilst others prefer generic space to gather.
Prof. Louise Ryan in Sociology at University of Sheffield emphasised that we need to develop comparative lenses and more holistic and international perspectives from different scales. We need to talk across fields and disciplines to move forward to understand migrants’ lives, well-being and integration. “The impact of the referendum, means that researchers on intra-EU migration, those working on refugee studies and on ‘race’ and ethnic studies, need to come together to share insights and collaborate to develop new analytical frameworks to understanding the evolving implications of Brexit.”
The tourism and leisure field has much to offer and contribute in the exploration of migrant lives and their integration in the UK. Existing research suggests that leisure spaces provide migrants with opportunities for developing, expressing and negotiating their personal, social and cultural preferences safely whilst gaining recognition and a sense of belonging. This is especially important as they may confront issues relating to belongingness, societal membership, social status, self-perception and cultural confusion. Leisure can be instrumental to (re)establishing connections and networks with locals as well as other migrants and refugees, and provide spaces for problem solving. Leisure opportunities and spaces support the development of cultural capital to allow migrants to feel safe enough to contemplate building a productive life. Thus, leisure spaces can play an important role in integration. The role of leisure in integration also reflects the receiving community feeling unthreatened by migration.
I also participated in an Early Career Researcher Mentoring session with Prof. Louise Ryan during the conference. I found the session very useful as I received advice on research, publishing and networking in the migration studies field and beyond. Prof. Ryan also shared helpful insights and advice on career development strategies in the UK, especially for migrant young female researchers with similar profiles to me. This was an unusual programme during an academic conference that can be widely utilised by other conference and workshop organizers. I found the session extremely helpful in aiding my understanding of the academic culture in the UK and how to adapt to it as a young researcher from a migrant background.
Another interesting feature of the conference was a photographer as a keynote speaker. Jeremy Abrahams (theatre & portrait photographer) shared powerful visual work of the impact of Brexit entitled, ‘Remain/Leave’.
A keynote by Dr. Jon Fox at University of Bristol emphasised ‘Everyday Racism’ and how it has increased after the EU Referendum. He discussed pathological integration: East Europeans, racism & becoming British.
Finally, fellow conference delegates took photos of my presentation and posted them with useful comments/questions on the conference twitter page. After I mentioned a Bourenmouth University migrant well-being project twitter account, 10 immediately followed us, and had led to interesting and useful connections with fellow researchers with similar interests. 🙂 It was not only productive in getting feedback and comments on our on-going research project, but also great to meet migrant studies researchers to network.
For more information about our migrant and refugee leisure spaces and community
well-being project, please follow the Facebook Group: ‘Migrant Leisure Spaces’, Twitter: @migrantspaces and the project web page: https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/project/migrant-refugee-leisure-wellbeing/
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