Category / Research themes

The Faculty of Science and Technology’s Second Annual PGR Conference 2016

conferences, Fusion, PG research

scitech2016

On the 18th of May the Faculty of Science and Technology held its Second Annual PGR Conference. This is a chance for the academic and postgraduate community to showcase the research that is being undertaken in the six departments within the Faculty. A total of 45 students presented their work over the course of the day, with 29 posters and 16 oral presentations.

The SciTech PGR Representatives: Hayley Roberts, Adam Roberts, Sarah Hodge and Paul Evans, would like to thank all who made the SciTech PGR conference such a success. Both Professor Christine Maggs and Professor Matt Bentley commented on how interesting it was to hear about the high quality research that PGRs in SciTech are conducting. We would like to thank both of them for their support.  We were also honoured to have Vice Chancellor, Professor John Vinney who came to open the event and listened to the first session. The day wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Naomi Bailey, Louise Pearson and Natalie Andrade, the chairs, the presenters, the judges and everyone else that helped with the organisation.

Six prizes were awarded to students who demonstrated particularly high standards:

Best poster

Winner:

Jawwad Latif (Design and Engineering)

Experimental Analysis and Modelling of Multi-layer Coating in Large Vehicles

 

Runner-up:

Catherine Collop (Life and Environmental Sciences)

An individual based model of Poole Harbour – is disturbance from human activities limiting wintering bird numbers?

 

Best 15 minute presentation

Winner:

Sarah Jeffery (Psychology)

Self-Compassion & Healthier Lifestyles: A Self-Compassion Based Intervention to Support Health-Promoting Behaviours in Emerging Adults

 

Runner-up:

Oxala Garcia Rodriguez (Life and Environmental Sciences)

Comparative phylogeography of modern humans and other organisms

Best 20 minute presentation

Winner:

Adam Roberts (Design and Engineering)

The potential of using the water hammer effect in small-scale tidal power applications

 

Runner-up:

Monica Knul (Life and Environmental Sciences)

Re-assessing the quality of published radiocarbon dates of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic in Europe

Congratulations!

scitech

 

 

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 15th June 2016

Helping Hands croppedToday is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, a day set aside by the United Nations for governments and civil society worldwide to acknowledge the problem of abuse against some of the oldest and most vulnerable groups across the world.

Despite the Toronto Declaration on the Global Prevention of Elder Abuse (2002) which called for a multi-sector and multi-disciplinary approach to tackle the issue, elder abuse continues to be a global problem affecting the health and impacting on the human rights of millions of older people around the world.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) elder abuse is a subject which is often underestimated and ignored by societies globally. As older populat
ions grow globally, elder abuse is an issue that all societies and governments need to acknowledge and tackle in a proactive way. In 2015 there were 901 million people on earth aged 60 or over; and this is projected to rise to 1.4 billion in 2030 (United Nations [UN] 2015). Due to this rapidly ageing global population elder abuse is predicted to increase. Although it is difficult to measure the scale of the problem due to its often hidden nature, it is estimated that around 1 in 10 older people experience abuse every month.

What is it?
Elder abuse can take various forms such as physical, psychological or emotional, sexual and financial abuse. It can also be the result of intentional or unintention
al neglect, and can occur in institutional settings as well as in the home environment. However, in many parts of the world it is an issue which is often hidden from view and seldom recognised, the voices of victims silenced by ageism and indifference. It results from the wider marginalization, disrespect, and exploitation that older people experience in many societies, and ultimately results in de-humanised care and an absence of human rights for older people.

What can we do?
Globally we need to acknowledge elder abuse as a priority. We need to tackle some of the underlying socio-cultural factors which deny older people status and human rights including inherent ageism and the depiction of older people as frail, weak and dependent. This includes developing awareness of how changing socio-demographic patterns contribute to the shifting context of care and support available to older people in society. For example, global and national economic policies may result in funds to provide health and social care to older citizens not being considered a priority, and the creation of a globally mobile workforce resulting in the erosion of bonds between generations of a family where traditionally younger family members would care for older relatives.

We also need to act on demographic changes, celebrate that many of us are living longer, but acknowledge health and life expectancy inequalities across the UK and globally (Wilkinson and Pickett, 2010, Office of National Statistics, 2016) and work to address these. International interest in using well-being as a measure of social progress (http://www.neweconomics.org/issues/entry/well-being) alters perspectives, making us consider that factors which negatively impact on individual well-being, including the abuse of vulnerable members of society, indicate systemic problems which need systemic solutions such as the introduction of the ‘well-being principle’ to social policy.

The well-being principle underpins the Care Act (2014) and seeks to ensure social care support and services in England and Wales, increase well-being, enabling personal dignity and the exercise of choice and control. This represents human rights, person-centred approach which is strengths rather than deficit based. Its relevance reaches beyond social care and by adopting this stance in our interpersonal as well as professional relationships we can start to address some of the negative stereotypes which are linked to old age and ageing, and which can contribute to de-humanised approaches to care.

Elder abuse should be a topic that we all feel we have a stake in, and as such is in all our interests to tackle.

Dr Lee-Ann Fenge and Sally Lee

References

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015) World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision. Available from https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/publications/files/key_findings_wpp_2015.pdf [Accessed 13/06/16]

Wilkinson, D. and Pickett, 2010. The Spirit Level. London: Penguin.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies

New publication Carol Bond & Osman Ahmed

international, Publishing, writing

Bond+AhmedThe week saw the publication of a new book by Elsevier (June 9th) Health Through Social Media which contains a chapter by FHSS staff Drs Carol Bond and Osman Ahmed called ‘Patient Empowerment Through Social Media’.    Carol and Osman have a wide-ranging experience in researching and publishing about e-health, m-health and social media.  They co-authored this topical chapter with a colleague in Australia.

Congratulations!chp Bond Ahmed

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

 

 

BU-Nepal link highlighted

international, Publishing, writing

Talbot Himalayans 2016This week BU’s work in Nepal was highlighted in several ways.  Most publicly on the wonderful new mural at Talbot Campus.  Secondly, BU currently displays some of the entries of images to the past two years of its research photo competition.  The photos show the creativity of BU’s academics and students as well as the fascinating range of research taking place at the university.  One of these pictures was taken by FHSS Visiting Faculty Dr. Bibha Simkhada during fieldwork in Dhading, Nepal.  The selected photos are on display in the Atrium Art Gallery until the 13th of June.  Helicopter Dhading

Last, but not least, another FHSS Visiting Faculty, Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust midwife Jillian Ireland published a blog on her involvement in the THET-funded project in Nepal.  She reflects on her time as UK volunteer in Nepal.  Jilly wrote: ” Three volunteers Andrea Lawrie, David Havelock and I are keen to share what we experienced in a paper sometime soon and today I will condense some of my own reflections. I wrote ‘letters’ (via email) to my Head of Midwifery, Sandra Chitty and to Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at Bournemouth University Dr. Jen Leamon while I was away, using different styles of expression to ‘get at’ my reflections from more than one angle. It helped me to separate out elements of the whole experience.”

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Could Bournemouth be a ‘Green Capital of Europe’?

Business Engagement, Festival of Learning

Our Festival of Learning event (27th June), in partnership with colleagues from Bournemouth Borough Council, will consider this question and explore a vision for developing green talent, sustainable business, and a sustainable city – a virtuous circle!

We shall showcase the leadership role of BU, in relation to sustainable development (education, research, community) and particularly our work to achieve EcoCampus Platinum. We shall also feature the MSc Green Economy – a course which is producing exceptional post-grads who are engaging with amazing projects.

Chris Shephard, Head of Economic Development & Sustainability at Bournemouth Borough Council will provide an update on activities, including the Compact of Mayors, the Earth Charter and work to take sustainability forward. We are already doing a lot locally (the Sustainable Food Partnership and Sustainable Fish City, for example) but are we doing enough of the right things? How do we capture and promote endeavours?

Dr Simon Cripps will talk about natural capital in the context of development planning, both of infrastructure and building, but also of development and growth projects.

Edmund Taylor, Environmental Barrister and Chair of the Sustainable Business Leadership Group (SBLG) will introduce the thinking that led to the formation of the group (we owe thanks to Lee Green), and suggest ways that others might engage. Synergies arise when business leaders work together to share practice and innovation; the group has already catalysed networking and learning.

Following formal presentations, breakout sessions will consider how we build capacity, develop leadership for sustainable development and make a step-change in valuing and contributing to natural capital.  Could we, for example report on natural capital in our Annual Reports? A valuable outcome from the event would be to have a clearer understanding of how we develop a greener economy and work towards branding ourselves as a Sustainable City – gaining the award ‘Green Capital of Europe’ at some point in the future, would be something to be proud of!

Places are free.

To book a place please register at:

https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/festival-of-learning/events/building-a-sustainable-city-how-can-business-leadership-create-a-greener-bournemouth/

Environmental design specialist Terri Preece visits BUDI!

PG research

Terri Preece Wayfinding Lab resized

In May 2016 environmental design specialist, Terri Preece, from Richard Fleming’s group at the University of Wollongong, Australia, came to visit BUDI and the Wayfinding Lab, following on from a conversation made with PhD Student Mary O’Malley during her Poster session at the ADI 2016 conference. Terri, who consults care-homes and hospitals on how they can be more user friendly for people with dementia was particularly interested in the work BUDI does surrounding designing environments to support orientation, including our eye-tracking (see picture below). PhD student Chris Hilton showed Terri a demo of his virtual reality eye-tracking study which looks at what aspects of the environment people attend to when learning routes, whilst  Mary O’Malley showed Terri her study which investigates how older adults interpret “you-are-here” maps.

Report by Mary O’Malley, PhD Student

BUDI presents at “Sensing the Place” event in London

PG research

Mary persensing sessing (1)

As part of GreenSky Thinking Week, PhD student Mary O’Malley was invited to talk as part of the ARCC “Sensing the place – experiences & wayfinding in a changing climate event, held by BuroHappold in London on 27th April 2016. Mary presented a short talk, about the different navigation representations we make when learning new environments and discussed how these are affected by ageing and Alzheimer’s disease. She then went on to talk about her PhD research which looks at creating environments that support successful orientation The event was mainly made of architects and urban designers which resulted in great discussions on how psychological theory can apply to practice!Mary sensing (2) resized

Report by Mary O’Malley

 

sensing-place-download

Human Milk Banking in the UK

PG research, student research

UKAMBBreast feeding is the gold standard for feeding babies. This might not be surprising for most of you, although the rates of exclusive breast feeding in the UK are low. But have you ever heard of human milk banking? The UK Association for Milk Banking (UKAMB) does an incredible job in providing safe and screened donor breast milk all over the country through 16 donor milk banks, mostly to preterm babies whose mothers cannot provide sufficient breast milk. Feeding human donor milk instead of formula milk is for example associated with a lower risk for the severe gut infection necrotising enterocolitis.

Breast milk and donor milk also contain omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are essential for brain and visual development in early infancy. However, research based at BU has identified that the current intake levels of preterm infants are too low to match the in utero accretion rates. Therefore, the aim of my PhD project at BU is to investigate approaches to increase the intake of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in preterm babies to improve their outcomes. One aspect I will be looking at is the intake from donor milk. Therefore, I was invited by the UK Association for Milk Banking to give a short presentation about my research at their annual training day in June.

I am looking forward to meeting donor milk bank staff and other researchers in the field of human milk banking at this day. I will post more details after the event. If you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to contact me at inessel@bournemouth.ac.uk

If you would like to find out more about human milk banking in the UK or want to become a milk donor visit UKAMB’s website at http://www.ukamb.org/.

Isabell

Announcement BU Humanisation Conference 2016

Research Integritiy

BU Humanisation Conference     21st June 2016

Venue: Room EB708, Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, BH8 8EB

 

Please find the Programme for the Humanisation conference on the 21st June 2016 attached.

Please feel free to pass the information on to others internal and external to the university (academic and practice) who you feel may be interested

The conference is being run at no cost and so you need to make your own arrangements for lunch.  Let Dr. Caroline Ellis-Hill  ( cehill@bournemouth.ac.uk ) know by the 15th June if you wish to attend .

If you only want to attend for part of the day, please state which part of the day you’d like to attend.

 

9.30 Registration  
10.00 Dr Caroline Ellis-Hill Welcome
10.10 Anne Quinney Humanisation of the BU Generic Student Assessment Criteria.
10.30 Dr Sean Beer Perceptions of the authenticity of food: a study of residents in Dorset (UK)
10.50 Prof Ann Hemingway Innovative routes to Wellbeing: Equine Assisted interventions
11.10 Coffee  
11.30 Jane Fry Sharing human concerns: utilising an embodied interpretative approach to convey findings from a descriptive phenomenological study
11.50 Dr Carole Pound Humanising care: translating theory into practice in stroke care
12.10 Rutherford and Dr. Emer Forde The Rutherford Introspective Photography: Promoting self-reflection and wellbeing of GP trainees through photography.
12.30 Free time   Please see information about local venues for lunch
2.00 Dr Vanessa Heaslip How phenomenology enables insight into the Human lives of Gypsy Roma Travellers’
2.20 Mevalyn Cross Experiencing the Humanisation Framework together
2.40 Dr Jan Mosja Chaplaincy at the bedside. Learning from Buddhist chaplains and their contributions to the humanisation of health care.
3.00 Sally Lee Humanising and the Care Act well-being principle
3.20 Dr Mary Grant and Dr Catherine Lamont Robinson HeART of Stroke: feasibility study of an Art & Health intervention following a stroke
3.40 Thanks, Tea and Close  

 

Eating and Drinking Well: Supporting People Living with Dementia – BUDI Research Seminar

You are cordially invited to a BUDI research seminar which is open to all students and staff.

Please feel free to bring your lunch.

 

“Eating and Drinking Well: Supporting People Living with Dementia”

 By Dr Jane Murphy and Joanne Holmes

 Tuesday 14 June 2016

13.00 – 13.50pm

EB203, Executive Business Centre

 Dr Jane Murphy with co-investigator Joanne Holmes will present their findings from research, funded by The Burdett Trust for Nursing to understand how to improve nutrition for people living with dementia in care homes. Ensuring appropriate food and nutrition is a vital part in delivering dignity in care for people with dementia. Eating and drinking becomes increasingly difficult as a result of the disease that puts people at increased risk of severe malnutrition (under nutrition) and weight loss. Worryingly there have been no standardised ways to maintain adequate nutrition in people with dementia as the challenges of meeting appropriate nutrition and hydration continue to be reported.

Using a blend of qualitative and quantitative research methods, the research has:

  • Identified best practice for delivering excellence in nutrition and dignity in dementia care. Working with local care-homes, it has gathered information on nutrition-related care from everyone involved in the care of the person with dementia.
  • Established high quality education and learning. The research has informed the development of a high quality learning to equip front-line nurses and care home staff with the skills needed to improve the delivery of nutrition for people living with dementia in the community achieved through evidence-based learning in nutrition and empowered leadership.

Working in partnership with stakeholders, including care homes, charities, informal carers, Partners in Care and the Borough of Poole Council the work has  provided new insights into the issue, as well as excellent examples of best practice.

After the initial research was carried out, the team worked together with local partners to create training film and workbook, which have formed the central part of the dissemination process.

The toolkits have been widely disseminated via conferences, events, the project website, blogs and through their partner organisations, which is leading to their ideas being implemented in care homes across the country. The application and impact of the resources are currently been evaluated and how they influence training programmes across the country, as well as on local and national policy.

We hope you can join us.

Memories of Nursing

In 2009, Professor Francis Biley in HSS launched a project to capture the voices and stories of a little heard group, those of elderly, retired nurses. A group of interested academics started to carry out interviews in 2009-10, mainly taking place at the Retired Nurses National Home (RNNH) in Bournemouth.

When Fran sadly passed away, the project faltered for a while until Professor Gail Thomas supported Eileen Richardson, then a trustee at the RNNH and previously a staff member in HSS, to bid for funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. In 2015 the project received £10,000 of HLF support; interviews were started once again (some conducted by volunteers, some by Sarah Keeley and Professor Elizabeth Rosser from HSS), transcriptions took place, an exhibition was hosted at the Bournemouth Library in January 2016 and now a website has been developed to share the project widely.

The website has considerable contextual information about the project, the RNNH (a very special home) including historic documents and a video made in the 1990s, oral history research, the history of nursing and midwifery, details of nurse education in the past in Dorset and Salisbury area and, importantly, audio clips from the participants themselves presented under key themes (more will be added as the final interviews are analysed).  There are also links to many other useful sites.

We hope that you will take advantage of this interesting resource to learn more about the lives of nurses, many who practised in World War Two and who were nursing when the NHS was introduced. The accounts are fascinating and this approach to sharing the outcomes of research is innovative and will helpfully ensure these stories are shared widely.

For more details, please visit memoriesofnursing.uk.

Professor Gail Thomas

New paper BU PhD student Sheetal Sharma

open access, PG research, Publishing, writing

Plos ONE Sheetal 2016Congratulations to FHSS PhD student Sheetal Sharma on her latest paper [1].  The paper ‘Measuring What Works: An impact evaluation of women’s groups on maternal health uptake in rural Nepal’ appeared this week in the journal PLOS One.  Sheetal’s innovative mixed-methods approach was applied to a long-running maternity intervention in rural Nepal.  The paper concludes that community-based health promotion in Sheetal’s study had a greater affect on the uptake of antenatal care and less so on delivery care. Other factors not easily resolved through health promotion interventions may influence these outcomes, such as costs or geographical constraints. The evaluation has implications for policy and practice in public health, especially maternal health promotion.

Reference:

  1. Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Belizán, J.M., Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., Sicuri, E. (2016) Measuring What Works: An impact evaluation of women’s groups on maternal health uptake in rural Nepal, PLOS One 11(5): e0155144 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0155144