Yesterday the Life by the River Team welcomed over 130 guests to their Festival of Learning Event at the Kingfisher Barn next to the River Stour near Throop. The event was development by Holly Crossen-White and Angela Turner-Wilson from the Public Health Cluster in partnership with Tom Clarke from the RSPB and staff from Bournemouth Borough Council Parks. The aim of the event was to encourage the public to consider the health and wellbeing benefits that can be gained by spending time enjoying the natural environment. Of those who completed an evaluation form 63 % of visitors had never been to this stretch of the River Stour before and all said they planned to return. The Team received lots of positive feedback about the event with visitors saying ‘there was a brilliant atmosphere’ , ‘really relaxing’ and ‘lots of fun for everyone’.
Category / Research themes
Best paper award!
Best Paper for 2015 Award in the international journal Heart. A paper published by Bournemouth University PhD student, Edward Carlton, and his supervisors, Prof. Ahmed Khattab (FHSS) and Prof. Kim Greaves from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia in collaboration with world-renowned hospitals: John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford; Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital in Australia; and Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand has been announced as the Winner of the “Heart Best Paper 2015 Award” [1]. This award is in recognition of the high quality and clinical impact of the paper. The winner for this award were chosen by the Editorial Team from the top 10 papers in each of the following three categories: downloads, citations and Altmetrics Score.
Dr. Edward Carlton has just finished his PhD at BU and he is now working as an Emergency Medicine Consultant in Bristol.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Reference:
Carlton EW, Cullen L, Than M, Gamble J, Khattab A, Greaves K. A novel diagnostic protocol to identify patients suitable for discharge after a single high-sensitivity troponin. Heart. 2015 Jul;101(13):1041-6. doi: 10.1136/heartjnl-2014-307288. Epub 2015 Feb 17.
The Sun IS going to shine……
….so why not spend this Sunday enjoying
Life by the River
Members of the Public Health Cluster have been working in partnership with Tom Clarke from the RSPB over the last two years to to promote to the public the many health and wellbeing benefits there are from spending time outside enjoying the natural environment. The Team has also been working with Bournemouth Borough Council, Parks staff and supporting the development of a project based on a stretch of the River Stour. Heritage Lottery funding had enabled the creation of the Kingfisher Barn, a new visitor’s centre alongside the River Stour, near Throop. To showcase the work the project team Holly and Angela (BU), Tom (RSPB) and Bournemouth Parks staff have developed a Festival of Learning Event at the Kingfisher Barn with lots of outdoor activities for visitors of all ages. There will be an opportunity to discover how previous generations have lived their life by the river and there will be some lovely family photos showing how life was that have been generously provided by local families who have also shared their memories and helped Holly bring together the exhibition. There will be some messy things to do too so maybe pack some wellies if you would like to help create a cobb structure with Heidi a local artist who has been working with the Team. The event is this Sunday – 26th June at the Kingfisher Barn between 11am and 3pm. 
Eating and drinking well: Supporting people living with dementia – impact at national events
Dr Jane Murphy and Joanne Holmes have continued their impact work of their project ‘Eating and drinking well: Supporting people living with dementia’ at a number of national events recently. They spoke alongside other leading dementia experts at Dementia 2020 in Manchester, the Alzheimer’s Show at Olympia in London and the AGE UK /LSE/NHS England interactive workshops on dignity and nutrition for older people in hospital Age UK/NHS England in London and Leeds. For more information: click here
Taken together with other work, it has resulted in a significant amount of interest from the health and social care sectors leading to the successful dissemination and evaluation of the training material developed through the research. Quote from a registered care home manager who completed the training:
” …we have now revolutionised our meal times and this has proven to be of great success, in the few short weeks of implementing this we have observed and recorded an increase in weight with the majority of our residents and a more sociable and interactive feel that surrounds our mealtimes.”
For more details please visit our website here
Please click here to The Alzheimer’s Show
The various forms of terrorist violence
Sadly, the topic of the third BU ‘Dialogue in the Social Sciences’ now has added urgency. To be held at 5.15 on Wednesday 22 June, in the EBC, the title of this public event is ‘Radicalisation: what is it and what threat does it pose?’ Professor Matthew Feldman of Teesside University is an expert on the Far Right; he will be joined by Emma el-Badawy of the University of Exeter and Dr Usama Hasan of the counter-radicalisation organisation the Quilliam Foundation, both experts on violent Islamism. Professor Barry Richards will be in the chair.
To register for a free ticket: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dialogues-in-the-contemporary-social-sciences-22-june-tickets-25949415400
FoL debate pregnancy & alcohol
We are preparing a lively debate on the motion: “Advising pregnant women to avoid drinking alcohol during pregnancy is symptom of the Nanny State and another step towards the medicalisation of childbirth”. The venue for this event is the Executive Business School on 89, Holdenhurst Road. Members of the public, staff and students are invited to come along on Tuesday 28th June 13.30-14.30!
The UK Government state there is no known safe level for drinking alcohol in pregnancy. Therefore, it recently changed the official recommendation to pregnant women avoid drinking any alcohol as a precaution. In doing so the UK follows countries like Canada, where a similar recommendation has been in place for over a decade. At the same time one can ask whether such approach undermines a woman’s right to make an informed choice regarding the health of her unborn child. Some would argue that is represents yet another step towards the medicalisation of childbirth.
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences’ staff Liz Norton and Edwin van Teijlingen affiliated with the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health and will argue in favour of the motion. Donna Wixted, Joint Bournemouth University (BU)-Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, doctoral student and Greta Westwood of Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust & the University of Southampton will argue against the motion.
The audience will be asked to vote for or against the motion, both before and after the debate, to see if the debate has helped anybody in making up their mind. Our debate will be chaired by Prof. Vanora Hundley from the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. In previous Festival of Learning events she has been involved in various debates around childbirth, such as The media is responsible for creating fear in childbirth and the year before that on Caesarean Section on demand under the title Intervention in childbirth: What’s wrong with letting women choose?
The debate is part of BU’s annual Festival of Learning which this year for the first time has satellite events in China and Malaysia.
If you are interested to come along please book your free ticket here! The Executive Business School is easy to find on 89, Holdenhurst Road near Bournemouth Railway Station.
Donna Wixted, Liz Norton, Greta Westwood, Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen
New collaborative Nepal paper
Today BU staff and post-graduate students published our latest diabetes paper. In the International Journal of Food, Nutrition and Public Health (IJFNPH) publish by the World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD) you’ll find ‘Diabetes prevention and management in South Asia: a call for action‘.
The lead BU author is Dr. Pramod Regmi. he is joint by Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) PhD student Ms. Folashade Alloh as well as Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen of the Centre for Midwfiery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH). Further national and international co-authors are: Dr. Om Kurmi based at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford; Dr. Nirmal Aryal, from the Department of Medicine, University of Otago, New Zealand; Dr.Puspa Raj Pant based at the Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, University of the West of England; and Amrit Banstola based in the Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, also at the University of the West of England.
The paper can be found here! Please note, you need to be a WASD member to login and download this paper. Once you are logged in you will see a ‘Download’ button in the box above. If you do not have a login, you can register to join WASD free of charge.
The Faculty of Science and Technology’s Second Annual PGR Conference 2016
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!
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 15th June 2016
Today 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
The 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!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
FHSS PhD student awarded Civil Society Scholar Award (CSSA) by the Open Society Foundations
We like to congratulate Ms. Preeti Mahato, Ph.D. student in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinal Health (CMMPH) in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, has been awarded a Civil Society Scholar Award by the Open Society Foundations for US$ 8,000. The Civil Society Scholar Award offers support for international research activities, such as fieldwork, research visits, or research collaboration at institutions abroad. Preeti has been awarded her scholarship for her Ph.D. fieldwork in Nepal. Her Ph.D. project is a mixed-methods study of birthing centres in Nawalparasi, in southern Nepal. In Nepal, birthing centres act as first contact point for pregnant women seeking maternity services especially basic obstetric care.
Preeti is supervised by Dr. Catherine Angell and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, both based in CMMPH and BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada, who is based at Liverpool John Moores University. This is the third piece of really good news this year for Preeti as last month she gave birth to a lovely baby girl and earlier this year the first article from her Ph.D. research was accepted for publication in the Asian Journal for Midwives.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Academic from the Department of Events & Leisure examines PhD in Spain
Dr. Miguel Moital, from the Department of Events & Leisure, has recently examined a PhD at the University of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain. Dr. Adriana Fumi Chim Miki defended her thesis “The development of a Coopetition model: an application to the tourism sector in Brazil” which was supervised by Professor Rosa Canino. The examining panel consisted of Miguel and other four Spanish academics: Professor Ricardo Mogollon (Extremadura University), Professsor Santiago Melian Gonzalez (University of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria), Professor Victor Robaina (University of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria) and Professor Vanesa Estevez (Laguna University). Due to Dr. Moital’s presence (pictured third from the left), the student secured an ‘International mention’ in addition to the PhD degree.
BU-Nepal link highlighted
This 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. 
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
BU hosts public meeting on ‘radicalisation’
The third BU ‘Dialogue in the Social Sciences’ will be held at 5.15 on Wednesday 22 June, in the EBC. This series of public meetings is bringing together social scientists and experts from outside academia to discuss social issues of pressing concern. Previous events have discussed the future of HE, and crime and the media. The title of this one is ‘Radicalisation: what is it and what threat does it pose?’ As with previous events in this series, there is an impressive panel. Professor Matthew Feldman of Teesside University is an expert on the Far Right; he will be joined by Emma el-Badawy of the University of Exeter and Dr Usama Hasan of the counter-radicalisation organisation the Quilliam Foundation, both experts on violent jihadism. Professor Barry Richards will be in the chair.
The ‘Dialogues’ series is organised by Profs Ann Brooks (FHSS), Candida Yates and Barry Richards (FMC).
To register for a free ticket: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dialogues-in-the-contemporary-social-sciences-22-june-tickets-25949415400
Could Bournemouth be a ‘Green Capital of Europe’?
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:
Environmental design specialist Terri Preece visits BUDI!
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
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!
Report by Mary O’Malley
Human Milk Banking in the UK
Breast 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
BU staff can login below:
Other services
Recent posts
BU research Funding opportunities EU
- Making “ugly” attractive: Can the way in which imperfect fruit & vegetables are presented reduce “ugly” food waste?
ESRC SWDTP – Applications open for PhD Studentships for September 2026
New paper by CMWH PhD student
Further CMWH contributions to 2026 ICM congress- Early labour research accepted for ICM 2026 congress
New PhD publication on Nepal’s migrant workers
ECR Funding Open Call: Research Culture & Community Grant – Apply Now
Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 Published
Horizon Europe 2025 Work Programme pre-Published
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025 Call
ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar- European Migration Research and Impact – Invitation to a Roundtable Discussion
- MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025
Update on UKRO services
European research project exploring use of ‘virtual twins’ to better manage metabolic associated fatty liver disease
Research Information Network
- Physical Sciences Case studies: information use and discovery
- Information handling in collaborative research: an exploration of five case studies
- Information literacy monitoring and evaluation
- Data centres: their use, value and impact
- Heading for the open road: costs and benefits of transitions in scholarly communications