Category / Research themes

New taskforce launched to combat fraud across the UK

Dr Lee-Ann Fenge – Deputy Director NCPQSW
lfenge@bournemouth.ac.uk

The Home Office is setting up a new taskforce to combat financial fraud which will include banks, the police and government officials http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35536322

This is a response to the growing recognition that financial fraud is undermining business and the wider economy. There has been a growth in particular types of financial fraud in the last year including online banking fraud which rose by 48% in 2014. Another growth area for fraud has been the CEO or ‘bogus boss’ fraud, where staff are instructed to transfer money for a specific reason out of a company account, believing the instruction to come from a senior member of staff. Although the development of a national taskforce is positive and to be welcomed, the emphasis of this taskforce appears to be on financial fraud affecting business, and the risk is that the impact of financial scams which affect the general public might get overlooked.

Financial scams and in particular mass marketing fraud is a growing problem and can affect anyone. These types of financial scams are often targeted at older people and vulnerable groups, and the risk of becoming a victim of fraud can increase if the individual is lonely or socially isolated. The National Scams Team have identified that victims of scam mail have an average age of 74 and have typically lost more than £1,000 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34489206

Victims of mass marketing type fraud are often placed on so-called “suckers lists” and their details are then sold on to other fraudsters, increasing their risk of becoming a victim of fraud again. Those who become victims of mass marketing fraud often do not report it and therefore the true scale of the problem is unknown. However scam involvement can cause long lasting damage to an individual’s health and well-being.

Lee-ann blogsmaller

The NCPQSW is undertaking research with the National Scams Team into the problems posed by mass marketing fraud, and in particular ways of protecting those most at risk. The Care Act (2014) has recognised the risks posed by financial abuse/crime on individuals and places a statutory responsibility on local authorities to take a lead in safeguarding those at risk. This requires collaboration from key agencies involved in identifying and protecting victims of financial scams, including the police, trading standards, the financial sector, local authorities and health care.

We believe it is important that certain groups are recognised as being at increased risk of scam involvement, and those with dementia find it difficult to understand risk and apply caution to decision making due to their cognitive deficits and reduced financial capability. This makes people with dementia at increased risk of responding to scams. Therefore banks and other financial institutions should have a ‘duty to care’ for those with cognitive impairments who may make an ‘unwise decision’ a result of their cognitive state rather than simply an unwise decision.

If you want to find out more about the work of the NCPQSW please visit our website http://www.ncpqsw.com/

Publications

Olivier, S., Burls, T., Fenge, L., Brown, K. (2015) “Winning and losing”: vulnerability to mass marketing fraud, The Journal of Adult Protection, 17:6, 360 – 370.

Olivier, S., Burls, T., Fenge, L., Brown, K. (in press) Safeguarding Adults and Mass Marketing Fraud – perspectives from the Police, Trading Standards and the Voluntary Sector, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law.

Creative England – Interest free business loans now open for applications

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

creativeengland1_0

Creative England would  like to hear from creative digital companies who need anything from £50k – £200k in order to grow their business.

Eligible companies include those across content creation, games, tech and digital based in any of the English regions outside of Greater London. The interest-free loan is repaid over 3 years, and must be matched 50:50 with an alternative source of finance.

For more information please read the  FAQ’s and application guidelines.

You can also get in touch with kate.adam@creativeengland.co.uk for any further questions.

If you’re not sure if a Business Loan is quite right for the stage your company is at, then take a look at the  Equity Investment Programme, offering £40k – £100k of equity investment for digital SME’s.

Contact, Help, Advice and Information Network (CHAIN) Demonstration 23rd March 2016

CHAIN – Contact, Help, Advice and Information Network – is an online mutual support network for people working in health and social care. It gives people a simple and informal way of contacting each other to exchange ideas and share knowledge.

The online Directory can be used to identify and communicate with other members. You might wish to do this to draw from their experience, or to elicit an opinion on an issue or something you are doing. Or you might wish to find collaborators or liaise with fellow-travellers or people with specific skills or interests for a wide range of purposes. You can do this quickly and easily with CHAIN, and part of the advantage is that the people you find will usually be happy to help you if they can.

A representative from CHAIN will be visiting BU on 23rd March at 2:30pm in Wollstone Lecture Theatre, Bournemouth House (BG10) to demonstrate how to make the most of being part of the network. All staff are welcome to attend, and please pass the invitation on to your final year students who may be interested in learning more about what CHAIN has to offer.

Contact Lisa Gale-Andrews at lgaleandrews@bournemouth.ac.uk to book your place.

New paper by Dr Julie Robson in the Journal of Business Research

Research themes

JRobson1

Dr Julie Robson (based in FoM) has had her article ‘ Senior management perceptions of aspirational groups: A study of the UK general insurance market’ published in the Journal of Business Research. The paper, co-authored by Professor Hans van der Heijden at the University of Sussex, draws insight from consumer marketing on aspirational groups to explore the composition and structure of aspirational groups compared to strategic groups in a market setting. The findings contribute to knowledge on strategy formation by highlighting the important role aspirational groups play in understanding competitive market movements.

An Artistic Stippling Technique for Animated 3D Models

We would like to invite you to a visiting scholar research seminar by Dr. Dongwann Kang next Tuesday afternoon.

ArtisticStippling

Title:         An Artistic Stippling Technique for Animated 3D Models

Date:         Tuesday 9th February 2016

Time:         3-4PM

Location: P302

Biography

Dongwann Kang received his Ph.D. degree in Chung-Ang University, South Korea in 2013. He also received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from Chung-Ang University in 2006 and 2008. He was the research fellow in Chung-Ang University from Mar. 2013 to Jun. 2015. Now, he is a visiting researcher in the SciTech, Bournemouth University, UK. His research interests include artistic stylization, emotional computing, image manipulation and GPU processing.

Abstract

Stippling is the creation of a pattern simulating varying degrees of solidity or shading by using small dots. Such a pattern may occur in nature and these effects are frequently emulated by artists. ‘Hedcut’ is a stippling style for newspaper illustrations. Specifically, this technique, which combines stippling and line drawing, employs a directional stipple pattern similar to cross- hatching. Unlike traditional stippling methods that represent the tone of a subject by the density of the stipples, hedcut evenly distributes stipples with such a directional pattern and adjusts the size and tone of the stipples. In this presentation, I present a hedcut rendering method for animated 3D models that satisfies these characteristics. To maintain frame-to-frame coherency in animations, I introduce a texture mapping-based stippling method. I execute a quadrangulation that captures the geometric structure of the surface, and obtain directional stipples by mapping a two-directional patterned texture onto each quad mesh. For even distribution of texture-mapped stipples on screen space, I propose a texture generation and mapping method that adjusts the number of stipples on the texture depending on the viewpoint.

Optimal 3D surface reconstruction from few 2D images

staff profile pages

We would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre.

 

Speaker: Dr Simant Prakoonwit (Associate Professor Of Games Technology at BU)

Title: Optimal 3D surface reconstruction from few 2D images

 

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PMOptimal 3D surface reconstruction from few 2D images

Date: Wednesday 3rd February 2016

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

The talk will discuss a possible method to use a small number, e.g. 5, of conventional 2D images to reconstruct multiple 3D object surfaces. Each object’s edge contours in images are automatically identified. Sparse optimal 3D landmark points of each bone are automatically reconstructed by pairing the 2D images. The reconstructed landmark point distribution on a surface is approximately optimal covering main characteristics of the surface. A surface growing method or a statistical shape model, dense point distribution model can then be used to fit the reconstructed optimal landmarks vertices to reconstruct a full surface of each object separately.

 

 

We hope to see you there.

 

CEMP Research Awarded EPSRC Extension Grant

student research

EPSRC_logocemp-logo

CEMP Researcher Phil Wilkinson has been awarded a grant by the EPSRC to develop further impact of CEMP’s Digital Capabilities project with Samsung. The grant will fund digital engagement activities with community outreach practitioners, educators, and academics with a focus on ‘Digital Families’.  The seminars will also be live-streamed online through G-Hangouts.

Phil worked with Julian McDougall and Mark Readman on the CEMP / Samsung project and his broader ‘Researcher in Residence’ work at IPACA forms part of his doctoral research in BU’s Centre for Digital Entertainment.

 

 

New paper by Dr. Sarah Collard in Psychology of Sport & Exercise

Publishing, writing

Collard + Marlow 2016Dr. Sarah Collard (based in FHSS) had her article “It’s such a vicious cycle”: Narrative accounts of the sportsperson with epilepsy accepted in the scientific journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise. [1]  The paper, co-authored with Caroline Marlow, addresses the issues of the psychosocial barriers and benefits of exercising for the sportsperson/people with epilepsy (SWE). Her qualitative research presents the narratives of SWE over time and as a result, offers a deeper understanding of the psychosocial impact of exercising with epilepsy.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Reference:

Collard, S.S., Marlow, C. (2016) “It’s such a vicious cycle”: Narrative accounts of the sportsperson with epilepsy, Psychology of Sport and Exercise 24: 56-64.

  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029216300073

SPARCing up the heart in flies…

The heart of a fly. Two cells wide and capable of beatign 5 times per second. Genes controlling the hearts contractile function are conserved in humans.

The heart of a fly. Two cells wide and capable of beating five times per second, the fly heart is helping us unlock the secrets governing our own heart’s function.

Research funded by the British Heart Foundation and conducted both here and at the Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discover Institute near San Diego in California, is to be published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics.

The work identified a genetic pathway linking cardiac function with expression of a protein called SPARC (Secreted Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine). In humans, increases in SPARC accompany cardiac ageing, inflammatory disease, obesity and cancer. As a consequence SPARC is a potentially very important therapeutic target in a wide range of important clinical settings. Our work, which utilised the fly Drosophila, demonstrated that heart dysfunction (cardiomyopathy) could be cured by reducing SPARC gene expression. Establishing this link allows us to ascertain the mechanism by which SPARC contributes to cardiac function in humans. Whilst the human heart is significantly more complex than that of a fly, their early development and function are controlled by similar genetic pathways; evolution may have added to the human heart but it has not changed its fundamentals. Hence, we’re able to learn a lot about ourselves by studying this simple, yet very sophisticated, little insect.

Editorial by Dr. Way in top journal highlights midwifery education

Fusion, international, Publishing

Way editorial 2016The forthcoming editorial in Midwifery (Elsevier) by FHSS’s Dr Susan Way highlights the importance of midwifery education and its educators.[1]  This editorial makes reference to the recent series on midwifery in The Lancet.[2]  Of course, midwifery plays a vital role in improving the quality of care of women and infants globally. Dr. Way reminds us that consistent, high-quality midwifery care has a vital role to play in the reduction of maternal and newborn mortality. Outcomes are enhanced when care is led by midwives who are educated, licensed, regulated, integrated in the health system, and working in interdisciplinary teams, with ready access to specialised care when needed.

Midwifery one of the leading academic journals globally in the field of midwifery and maternity care.  Dr.Way is based in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health in FHSS at the Lansdowne Campus.

 

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

References:

  1. Way, S. (2015) Consistent, quality midwifery care: How midwifery education and the role of the midwife teacher are important contributions to the Lancet Series, Midwifery (online first) see: http://www.midwiferyjournal.com/article/S0266-6138(16)00021-8/abstract
  2. Renfrew, M.J., McFadden, A., Bastos, M.H. et al. (2014) Midwifery and quality care: findings from a new evidence-informed framework for maternal and newborn care. the Lancet. 384:1129–1145.

Systematic Review Masterclass – 15-16 February 2016

PG research

A reminder that this two-day Systematic Review Masterclass will be taking place at the Executive Business Centre, Holdenhurst Road on 15 & 16 February.

One way of collating and assessing the best possible evidence is through a method called ‘systematic reviewing’. Systematic reviewing is a specific research method whereby a structured, rigorous, and objective approach is used to provide a critical synthesis of the available evidence on a particular topic. This masterclass will examine the rationale for systematic reviews and take participants through the various elements of a systematic review: selecting (electronic) databases; literature searching; data extraction; data synthesis; interpretation and reporting.

Booking price and information: The fee of £200 for this masterclass includes two full days with the course facilitators, all refreshments and all class materials. Accomodation and travel costs are not included.

Book your place now at http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/masterclass-systematic-review-2016-tickets-18954206542 .  Places must be booked by 1 February 2016.

For further information please contact: Tel: 01202 962184 or email: epegrum@bournemouth.ac.uk

Presentation by PhD student Preeti Mahato Jan 27th.

international, PG research, student research

On Wednesday Jan. 27th CMMPH PhD student Preeti Mahato will present her PhD research ideas under the title “Addressing quality of care and equity of services available at birthing centres to improve maternal and neonatal health in western Nepal.”  Her presentation will be held at the Lansdowne Campus at 13.00 in room 301 in Royal London House.

IMG_6459Preeti’s research focuses on birthing centres in western Nepal; and quality and equity of service available at these facilities. In Nepal, birthing centres act as first contact point for the women seeking maternity services especially the basic obstetric care. The focus of this presentation will be to talk about the first review article Preeti Mahato wrote for the ‘Journal of Asian Midwives’ entitled “Birthing centres in Nepal: Recent development, obstacles and opportunities”. The article has been accepted for publication in June 2016 and focuses on introducing birthing centres, their current state of operation under the health system of Nepal, barriers they are facing and what could be done to improve their present state. The quality of care issue available at birthing centre is emphasised, since the number of these facilities are increasing however there is a growing trend to bypass and uptake services at hospitals. Despite barriers to utilisation of services at birthing centres, they can play an important role in increasing institutional delivery rate and proportion of births benefiting from a skilled birth attendant.IMG_6591

The second part of presentation will provide a brief summary on what Preeti has done since writing a review article, as she has worked on a systematic review on quality of basic obstetric care facilities in low and middle income countries.

Preeti Mahato has worked in the field of public health in Nepal for three years after completing her Master of Public Health. She has an interest in sexual and reproductive health, women’s health and maternal and child health. Working as a public health officer she was involved in maternal and neonatal health that developed her interest in pursuing a doctorate related to maternal and neonatal health. Part of her work in Nepal also included monitoring and supervision of birthing centres in rural areas of Nepal and that is how she became motivated to start a PhD at BU.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Research seminar by Fulgoni Professor Consumer Behaviour and Marketing – Please note change in venue

margaret hogg

Margaret Hogg, Fulgoni Professor of Consumer Behaviour and Marketing at Lancaster University, will be visiting the University on Wednesday, 10th February, to give a research seminar.  This will be held at 3pm in the Lawrence Lecture Theatre on the Talbot Campus.  Refreshments will be available after the seminar.

Professor Hogg is on the editorial board of the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Marketing Management and the Handbook of Marketing Theory and she is co-author of Consumer Research: A European Perspective (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard & Hogg, 2013).  Margaret’s research has a broad inter-disciplinary base  with a particular interest in family consumption and buying behaviour including consumer behaviour in single mothers, care leavers, and fatherhood.  Margaret’s talk is entitled ‘Becoming Respectable: Low income young women, consumption and the pursuit of socially appropriate mothering’.

 

 

New CMMPH international midwifery publication

international, Publishing, writing

Congratulations to Professor Vanora Hundley in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) on the publication of her latest international paper ‘How do midwives in Slovenia view their professional status?’ [1]. slovenia midwifery 2015

The paper explores Slovenian midwives’ views of their professional status, linkng this to the participants’ educational background. Most participants did not consider midwifery to be a profession in its ow right. Midwives with secondary education were more likely to consider practical skills to be important than theoretical midwifery knowledge. In general Slovenian midwives did not feel enabled to practise autonomously causing them several ethical dilemmas. All participants with midwifery secondary school education thought that obstetrics jeopardises midwifery scope of practice, but only half of the B.Sc. participants thought this. One-fifth of all participants estimated that midwifery is also threatened by nursing. The respondents reported feeling a lack of control over their professional activity and policy making; however the majority of midwives claimed that they were willing to take on more responsibility for independent practice. The authors conclude that Slovenian midwifery cannot be considered to be a profession yet. It faces several hindrances, due to its historical development.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Reference:

Mivšek, P., Pahor, M., Hlebec, V., Hundley, V. (2015) How do midwives in Slovenia view their professional status? Midwifery 31(12):1193-201