Category / Research themes

CMMPH student wins prestigious Iolanthe Midwifery Trust award

PG research, student research

Congratulations to Dominique Mylod, clinical doctoral student in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health , Faculty of Health and Social Sciences.

Dominique was awarded a Midwives Award from the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust for her research into early labour, which explores whether using a birth ball at home in early labour improves birth outcomes. She is supervised by Professor Vanora Hundley, Dr Sue Way, and Dr Carol Clark.

The picture shows Dominique receiving her award from Baroness Julia Cumberlege CBE, Patron of the Trust.

 

Perceptually-Motivated Rendering – Frame Rate Vs. Resolution

We would like to invite you to the first of a new series of research seminars of the Creative Technology Research Centre featuring external speakers.

 

Speaker: Dr Kurt Debattista

Dr Debattista is an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick specialising in Visualisation Research. His research interests include Interacting rendering, High-fidelity graphics, Perceptually-based rendering, High Dynamic Range Imaging, Parallel Computing, and Serious Games.

https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/people/profile/?wmgid=518

 

Title: Perceptually-Motivated Rendering – Frame Rate Vs. Resolution

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

 

Date: Wednesday 18th October 2017

 

Room: Lawrence LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract: High-fidelity graphics permit the visualisation of complex scenarios for applications such as simulation, engineering, archaeology, entertainment etc. Unfortunately, high-fidelity graphics can be computationally expensive and therefore scenarios cannot always be rendered to their highest fidelity. However, the human visual system (HVS) is not infallible and if well understood could be used to develop and implement rendering systems that best exploit its characteristics resulting in perceptually better graphics. Maximising performance for rendered content requires making compromises on quality parameters depending on the computational resources available. Yet, it is currently unclear which parameters best maximise perceived quality. In this talk this is illustrated by recent work attempting to harness the relationship between frame rate and resolution on perceived quality to obtain more cost-effective virtual experiences.

 

We hope to see you there.

Innovation in health and life sciences round 3- DEADLINE 6/12/17

Knowledge Transfer

InnovateUK have announced the opening of the Innovation in health and life sciences, round 3.  All projects must be led by a business and have the involvement of at least one SME on the project.  Research organisations may participate in applications as collaborators. All submissions must demonstrate plans for significant innovation in at least one of the priority areas:

  • increasing agricultural productivity
  • improving food quality and sustainability
  • advanced therapies (cell and gene therapies)
  • precision medicine
  • medicines discovery
  • preclinical technologies
  • advanced biosciences

Applications will also need to address at least one of the competition themes.  Applications for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships are also welcome.  Total project costs should be between £50k and £2m and last from six months to three years.

For information on Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, please contact Rachel Clarke (clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk).  For discussing how to developing a research collaboration with industry, please contact Ehren Milner (emilner@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

 

 

 

BU Sociology article in The Conversation

international, open access, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing

Congratulations to Dr. Hyun-Joo Lim Senior Lecturer in Sociology at BU who has just written an interesting piece on human rights issues faced by North Korean female defectors in China in The Conversation. You can access this article by clicking here!

 

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Centre for Qualitative Research ‘In Conversation” this Wed 1 pm Fenge & Jones

PG research

Not to be missed!

This Wednesday at 1 pm in RLH 201

Lee-Ann Fenge and Kip Jones converse about a focus group that became an innovative journal article, and now about to become a short ‘script in hand’ performance by YOU the audience!

“I’m her partner. Let me in!”

All BU staff and students welcome! 

See you there!

See all of the ‘In Conversation’ CQR Seminars listed here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADRC attend the Fifth Annual Wessex Clinical Research Network Ageing Research Meeting

Jane Murphy from the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC)  was invited to join the ‘Fifth Annual Wessex Clinical Research Network Ageing Research Meeting’ on 13th September 2017  at Royal Bournemouth Hospital.  There were a wide range of interesting and insightful presentations  by clinicians of mostly NIHR funded research in ageing including frailty, dementia and neurodegenerative disorders and stroke. The Specialty National Lead for Ageing, and Lead for Ageing and Dementia Theme NIHR CLAHRC Professor Helen Roberts chaired the morning session  followed by Dr Divya Tiwari,  Clinical Research Network (CRN) Wessex Ageing Specialty Lead who chaired the afternoon session.

Martine Cross, The Research Delivery Manager for  Ageing at the  Wessex CRN presented a key update on projects and plans.  Please note that Martine will be coming to BU and for academics with an interest in ageing research and considering applying to NIHR, it would present an ideal opportunity to meet Martine and know more about  the Wessex CRN and discuss your plans.

For expressions of interest to join the meeting, please email  Michelle O’Brien, ADRC  administrator (adrc@bournemouth.ac.uk) and  we will send further details.

 

 

Conference on the impact of complications and errors in surgery held at BU

conferences, Fusion, REF Subjects, Research Ethics

Things can go wrong in surgery, and dealing with the consequences of complications and errors is part and parcel of a surgeon’s life. Last week a conference was held at BU’s Executive Business Centre which explored the impact that adverse events have on surgeons and examined how these effects can be ameliorated. Eminent presenters from across the UK shared insights from their surgical careers and personal experiences, presented the latest research in the area, and considered how better support and training could be provided for surgeons.

The conference was organised by the Bournemouth Adverse Events Research Team, a joint research venture between psychologists at BU and surgeons at Royal Bournemouth Hospital, who are currently researching the impact of complications and errors which inevitably arise during surgery on surgeons.  Professor Siné McDougall, one of the research team, said: “Today is about trying to think about what we can do to support surgeons. When things do go wrong, the focus is rightly on patients and their family. However, surgeons are also dealing with their own feelings, particularly if they have made a mistake which they deeply regret.”

It was clear that the conference had touched on a key issue for surgeons.  This was summed up by the keynote speaker, Professor Sir Miles Irving, Emeritus Professor of Surgery at Manchester University, who said “The proceedings were excellent and clearly demonstrated that you have latched on to a problem which has the potential to become even more significant if not addressed.”  The Bournemouth Adverse Events Team is looking forward to continuing research in this area which will address this issue.

EU Info Day: ‘Health, demographic change and well-being’, Brussels 8/12/17

Fusion Investment Fund, Info Days, innovation, Research themes

There will be an EU Societal Challenge 1 Health & Wellbeing Info day on 8 December 2017, in Brussels. As you can see form the outline below, there are opportunities for BU across all four faculties within this part of the Work Programme for 2018-2020, due to be released in October.

 

With the principle of better health for all at its core, Horizon 2020’s Societal Challenge 1 (Health, demographic change and well-being) focuses on personalised health and care, infectious diseases and improving global health, innovative and sustainable health systems, decoding the role of the environment (including climate change) for health and well-being, digital transformation and cybersecurity in health and care. Horizon 2020′ Societal Challenge 1 Work Programme 2018-2020 will be expected to offer calls for proposals with an overall budget of about €2 billion.

Draft programme and registrations are to follow at the end of September.

Related to the Health Open Info Day, the Directorate-General for Research & Innovation supports the following two events which will be organised on 7 December 2017, also in Brussels

Partnering Event – organised by the EU-funded project Health-NCP-Net 2.0 – the event aims at helping you find the right project partners for the upcoming 2018 health calls. Registration opens on 8/10/17.

Satellite event on Innovation Procurement in health care – Limited to 80 participants – First come, first served basis, with booking already open.

Booking links and further information are on the main Info Day page.

Please let Emily Cieciura, RKEO Research Facilitator: EU & International, know if you plan to attend.

ADRC presented latest results at two conferences in Germany

Jan Wiener, Ramona Grzeschik and Chris Hilton represented the Ageing & Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) at the 40th European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP) 27–31 August 2017 in Berlin and the 20th Conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP) 3-6 September 2017 in Potsdam.

The ECVP is an annual meeting that brings together researchers from Psychology, Neurosciences, Optics, Computational Sciences and more. Besides vision, other modalities are represented as well as their interaction (multisensory perception). The conference of the ESCoP is being held once every two years. The society’s mission is “the furtherance of scientific enquiry within the field of Cognitive Psychology and related subjects, particularly with respect to collaboration and exchange of information between researchers in different European countries”.

Ramona represented the ADRC at both conferences with her ESRC-funded project on Dementia-friendly environments. In particular, she presented a poster with the latest results of her wayfinding experiment where she investigated the route learning abilities and eye movements of young and old participants.

At the ESCoP conference, Jan gave a talk on “What can eye-tracking tell us about the cognitive mechanisms underlying successful navigation?” where he introduced a couple of experiments that investigated eye movements during route and place learning in Virtual Environments.

Chris presented his results at the ESCoP as well. His poster titled “An exploration into the effects of ageing on general control of attention during route learning in a complex environment.” escribed his experiment using a natural looking virtual environment called “Virtual Tübingen”. He investigated attentional engagement during a route learning task in young and old participants.

Methodspace highlights BU Academics’ Innovative Approach to Reporting Focus Group Data

PG research

‘I’m Her Partner, Let Me In!’ Bringing the Narrative to Academic Papers

Lee-Ann Fenge and Kip Jones

A blog recently requested by the editor of Sage Publications’ Methodspace highlights an article representing focus group data in a new way. In a recent report, two BU Academics, Lee-Ann Fenge and Kip Jones (FHSS), took an inventive approach in writing up their findings in the online journal, Creative Approaches to Research. The Sage editor said, “I thought your paper brought up some good methodology issues”.

The authors believe that as narrative researchers and storytellers we should be promoting narrative in the content and styles of our publications. We can no longer afford to ignore the great advances that have been made in representation of qualitative data in recent history. As narrative researchers, we are natural storytellers and need to keep this in focus when reporting studies, particularly in publications. In this way, as researchers, we move to the background, and the research participants are foregrounded.

The article “I’m her partner, let me in!” in Methodspace can be read here.

Congratulations to Dr. Jane Fry & colleagues

international, open access, Publishing, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, writing

Congratulations to Jane Fry, Janet Scammell and Sue Barker  in the Faculty of Health & Social Science on the publication of their latest paper ‘ Drowning in Muddied Waters or Swimming Downstream?: A Critical Analysis of Literature Reviewing in a Phenomenological Study through an Exploration of the Lifeworld, Reflexivity and Role of the Researcher’.

This innivative paper proceeds from examining the debate regarding the question of whether a systematic literature review should be undertaken within a qualitative research study to focusing specifically on the role of a literature review in a phenomenological study. Along with pointing to the pertinence of orienting to, articulating and delineating the phenomenon within a review of the literature, the paper presents an appropriate approach for this purpose. How a review of the existing literature should locate the focal phenomenon within a given context is illustrated by excerpts from the literature review within a descriptive phenomenological study. This article was recently published in the Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology.  Click here for freely available copy online.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

European angst over Tourists: Do Codes of Conduct Help?

After recent media exposure about overcrowding at tourist destinations and local-tourist conflict, destination authorities have sought to introduce codes of conduct across European tourist destinations. From Hvar in Croatia,  towns near Amsterdam, and Venice, there is a belief that the tourism system, like the financial system, is not working for everyone. Local residents are starting to feel like they’re receiving less than they’re giving. Therefore, authorities have stepped in with codes, with the aim to assign rules to make tourists more sensitive to local residents and protect natural, cultural, historical and other resources.

Tourists planning to go to the beach

Venice Code of Conduct

Michael O’Regan, PhD from the Department of Events & Leisure, is exploring whether these codes work, and whether the introduction of these measures really protect tourism resources. Taking a critical approach, Michael argues that such codes work at different levels, from marketing strategies, as local politicians and businesses gain reputational capital by scapegoating tourists to their role in smarter governance models. Read more on the Conversation UK.

Link: http://theconversation.com/tourist-codes-of-conduct-are-a-bad-idea-heres-why-82676

My enriching experience as a research assistant on a whiplash prognosis project

Research themes, student research

“My enriching experience as a research assistant on the Whiplash Prognosis Project 2017”

-Renuka Balasundaram

Department of Psychology

Bournemouth University

With my master’s dissertation due in a month’s time, I decided to take up another research assistantship, given my profound interest in research. This project which was led by supervisors Dr. Jonny Branney and Dr. Ellen Seiss was mainly aimed at conducting a literature review to gather evidence relating to the prognostic factors following acute whiplash injury in adults. After getting well acquainted with my supervisors during the first meeting, I got thoroughly briefed on the aims and objectives of the project and a detailed plan on how to go about it. During the entire course of the project, there was good communication, interaction and flexibility where I was given the autonomy and freedom to come up with innovative ideas to work around the project. With regular weekly face to face meetings and briefings on the progress of the project from my side, we successfully completed the project and tabulated necessary evidence on the research area.

The interesting aspect of the project to me was categorising the prognostic factors according to the biopsychosocial model since I got to apply the learnings of psychological principles and theories to diverse fields. This facilitated improved learning on a range of topics like role of organisational factors of physical and mental health, public health system and compensation, subjectivity of pain threshold and clinical statistics to name a few. I am glad to have been a part of this preliminary research which is ultimately aimed at filling the gap in literature concerning evidence on prognostic factors immediately following acute whiplash, and eventually developing effective interventions and treatment plans in the future.

This research project has personally given me insights into doing a thorough evaluation of evidence based on different statistical models, and also conducting independent literature review on a specific research area. I strongly feel that theoretical knowledge in research methodologies and statistics can be put into effective use only when taken part in research projects. This gives the practical experience of working alongside supervisors or a research team, meeting deadlines and promotes collaborative work in a multi-disciplinary team. Overall, my experience as a student research assistant has given me a clear vision into research in a real world and practical setting, enhanced my ability to critically evaluate and sum up evidence, improved my scientific writing skills and has ultimately driven me to pursue my future goal of becoming a PhD laureate.