I recently attended the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS7) Age 17 Survey: Consultative one day conference held at UCL’s Institute of Education in London. Cohort studies are extremely valuable because data is collected over time working with the same sample of people. Longitudinal studies permit to describe the natural history of the same population and can identify risk factors for example, for optimal health, educational attainment chances and/or employment opportunities. Professor Emla Fitzsimons is the Principal Investigator of MCS,m strategically invited leaders of the ‘Activities and Daily Life’, ‘Cognitive Development’, and the ‘Socio-Emotional Development’ to harness conference delegates’ view on what are the important and key issues that society should know when examining 17 year old adolescents’ lives. The leaders provided an overview of their current strategies for capturing participants’ unique style of life. Then through a series of workshops the pros and cons of these were discussed and summarised. I don’t envy their jobs! To study the individual characteristics and the associated environmental factors in such a large sample is a huge undertaking. The attendees were from very varied inter- and multi-disciplinary backgrounds working at a wide range of organisations, including government agencies. The common objective was to create a dataset that can inform many governmental policies on a variety of topics. The process of decision making over every aspects of the 7th sweep of the MCS is extremely complex. The key aspect of longitudinal studies is comparability. Although, each sweep is unique because of the cohort is ageing, there has to be a trend of using the same methodology overtime. Studies like the MCS are facing constant funding crises because they are very expensive to run. There is an ongoing revision of time taken to collect data, finding proxy to gold standard measures and considering cutting expensive data collection methods like, FMRI scans, use of accelerometers to assess physical activity patterns and conducting physical tests. Despite all of these difficulties, data from such studies are invaluable. For example, in the 7th sweep they want to omit interviewing parents about their child’s mental health. I argued to include this data at this sweep, as most adolescents in the study are still living at home and others (like family members) are the ones most likely to identify early signs of mental health problems. Early detection is vital, especially when 1 in 10 adolescents known to develop at least one serious depressive episode in the UK by the time they are 18. Check out the MCS website if you are interested. You can also access all speakers’ slides by following the link (http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/Conference.aspx?itemid=4285&itemTitle=MCS+Consultative+Conference&sitesectionid=28&sitesectiontitle=Events). Data from the previous 6 sweeps are available for researchers to interrogate.
Category / Research themes
FMC Research Seminar: Adapting to dominant news narratives: tax ‘fairness’ as a Trojan horse for anti-austerity politics: Wednesday, 9 December, 3-4pm, Room W240
FMC Cross-Departmental Seminar Series 2015-16
Time: Wednesday, 9th December, 3-4 pm
Venue: The Screening Room W240, Weymouth House, Talbot Campus.
Adapting to dominant news narratives: tax ‘fairness’ as a Trojan horse for anti-austerity politics
Over the past five years the issue of tax avoidance has broken through into mainstream news media and public debate, after many years in which the campaigning efforts of NGOs, trade unions and a few investigative journalists were met largely with indifference. Protest group UK Uncut have been widely credited with increasing public engagement in the issue. News routines are less reliant on official and elite sources than in the past, and protesters less universally delegitimised in dominant news discourse, but the political claims of social movements still tend to be neglected or reduced to vague or naive opposition. UK Uncut were conscious of the common pitfalls and attempted to fit their own framing of the issue into existing news frames. In presenting a practical alternative to cuts, they hoped to substantiate an argument against the broadly accepted ‘necessity’ of public spending cuts, smuggling an oppositional claim inside a familiar narrative.
Their framing of the issue in terms of compromised political interests and ‘fairness to taxpayers’ fitted with dominant news narratives and was widely adopted by other sources, including the Public Accounts Committee, and by journalists, but generally in terms of individual and organisational wrongdoing and self-interest rather as a systemic critique. This did little to challenge or disrupt the overarching dominant narrative of fiscal crisis, necessary cuts, and even of fair tax as low tax. However, the playful performativity of the protests themselves – although part of an activist repertoire, risking distancing themselves from the mainstream – were successful in achieving some limited press coverage of the cuts that they claimed could be prevented by corporations paying their ‘fair share’, but those arguments were not picked up by other voices.
This paper analyses the extent to which this ‘adaptation’ approach to news framing (Rucht 2013) or intervention in dominant narratives (Hirschkop 1998) was successful in advancing political claims and objectives, and whether this case supports the contention that strategically performative and rhetorical interventions in the public sphere can compensate for marginality and lack of discursive power.
Jen Birks is an Assistant Professor in the department of Culture, Film and Media at the University of Nottingham, where she teaches political communication and public cultures. She is the author of News and Civil Society (Ashgate 2014).
All are welcome!!
About the series
This new seminar series showcases current research across different disciplines and approaches within the Faculty of Media and Communication at BU. The research seminars include invited speakers in the fields of journalism, politics, narrative studies, media, communication and marketing studies. The aim is to celebrate the diversity of research across departments in the faculty and also generate dialogue and discussion between those areas of research.
Contributions include speakers on behalf of
The Centre for Politics and Media Research
The Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community
Narrative Research Group
Journalism Research Group
Advances in Media Management Research Group
Emerging Consumer Cultures Research Group
Public Relations Research Group
CEMP awarded EU COST Action Grant
CEMP’s Marketa Zezulkova has been awarded a COST “Short-Term Scientific Mission” grant to conduct field media literacy research with 4-7 year old disadvantaged children in the Czech Republic and to establish a Child Research and Impact Group (CRAIG) with Charles University, Prague. Together with a ‘Mapping Media Literacy in the Czech Republic’ grant Marketa was also awarded recently, this new project further establishes CEMP’s partnership with CU, following the Media Education Summit in Prague last year.
ESRC funded project: “Dementia Friendly Architecture – Reducing Spatial Disorientation in Dementia Care”
New ESRC-funded project in Psychology and BUDI
This week saw the start of a two year ESRC-funded project entitled “Dementia Friendly Architecture: Reducing Spatial Disorientation in Dementia Care Homes”. The project, which has been awarded to Dr Jan Wiener (Psychology/BUDI), aims to develop design guidelines for dementia-friendly architecture that minimise spatial disorientation, one of the earliest signs of dementia.
Post-Doctoral researcher Dr Ramona Grzeschik, who started on the first of December, and Chris Hilton (PhD student) will test how different aspects of build environments affect orientation and navigation abilities in people with dementia. In order to do so, they will use cutting-edge virtual environments and eye-tracking technology (https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/wayfinding/) which allows for systematic manipulations of environmental properties.
This international multidisciplinary project brings together researchers from cognitive psychology, dementia research and architecture. It is a collaboration between Bournemouth University’s Wayfinding Lab, BUDI (Bournemouth University Dementia Institute), Northumbria University (Prof Ruth Dalton, Co-I), UWS (Prof Anthea Innes, Co-I) and the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (Prof Wolbers, Prof Nestor, both project-partners).
Dr. Fiona Kelly invited guest speaker at Cecily Saunders Institute, King’s College London
On 25th November, Dr Fiona Kelly attended the Cecily Saunders Institute at King’s College London as an invited guest speaker to present research on determining what aspects of the design of care environments might be important for people with dementia nearing the end of life. The key messages of her presentation were the importance of firstly assuming the ability of people with dementia to engage with the senses, whether through touch, sound, smell, sight or taste and then to provide the means of engaging with whatever sense was appropriate or possible. The presentation was followed by a panel discussion with the audience in which the practical application of design principles within hospital settings was debated. The consensus was that even small changes can make a big difference. Following the presentation and discussion, the panel made a commitment to include consideration of dementia design principles in staff education within the Institute.
Fleming, R., Kelly, F. and Stillfried, G. (2015) ‘I want to feel at home’: establishing what aspects of environmental design are important to people with dementia nearing the end of life, BMC Palliative Care. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-684X/14/26
Dr. Dinusha Mendis disseminates Government-funded research on the IP implications of 3D Printing at invited talks in UK and EU (Part II)
In April 2015, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) published three reports reflecting a legal and empirical study into the intellectual property (IP) implications of 3D printing. The project – commissioned by the UKIPO – was awarded to Bournemouth University and was led by Dr. Dinusha Mendis.
Together with Dr. Mendis, the research team consisted of Dr. Davide Secchi (Southern University, Denmark; previously Bournemouth University at the time of conducting the research) and Dr. Phil Reeves (Econolyst Ltd – now Stratasys Strategic Consulting Ltd).
All three reports can be found here and further information about the project, including research findings and recommendations for the UK Government, Industry and Intermediaries can be found here.
Since the publication of the reports, Dr. Dinusha Mendis, Co-Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) has been invited to deliver a number of talks in UK and Abroad, thereby reflecting the impact of the research.
This blog-post, highlights the invited talks in EU. For the dissemination of research in UK, please see here.
34th ECTA Conference, Hamburg, Germany
On 12 June 2015, Dr. Mendis was invited to present the research at the European Communities Trade Mark Association 34th Annual Conference in Hamburg. The Conference took place from 10-13 June 2015 and Dr. Mendis spoke on the copyright implications of 3D printing based on the findings from the UKIPO project.
Dr. Mendis spoke on the topic as part of a Panel exploring the challenges to copyright law, which also included Professor Ian Hargreaves, Professor of Digital Economy, Cardiff University UK and author of the Hargreaves Review 2011.
For further information, please see here.
MAPPING Project, First General Assembly, Hannover, Germany
From 22-23 September 2015, the First General Assembly of the FP7-funded MAPPING Project was held in Hannover, Germany at the Hannover Congress Centrum.
MAPPING – Managing Alternatives for Privacy, Property and Internet Governance brought together stakeholders from three key areas including Internet Governance, Privacy and Intellectual Property.
Dr. Mendis was invited to speak in the Intellectual Property Panel titled ‘The EU IP Reform: Unlocking Culture, Stimulating Progress’. As part of the talk, Dr. Mendis was invited to speak on the UKIPO 3D Printing project.
Further information about the event can be found here.
OHIM Enforcement Conference, Alicante Spain
In November (18-20 November 2015) Dr. Mendis was invited by the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) in Alicante Spain. The 3-day event organised by OHIM, Europol and Eurojust explored issues on tackling enforcement in relation to the infringement of copyright and design law.
The event was attended by policy makers, law makers, customs and border protection officials, investigators, criminal analysts and industry experts amongst others.
Dr. Mendis presented at this conference together with with Dr. Davide Secchi (co-author of Study 1 of the UKIPO Project) and member of the research team which carried out the Commissioned work for the UKIPO.
Dr. Mendis and Dr. Secchi presented the research carried out particularly for Study 1 of the UKIPO project, but also took the opportunity to speak on next steps and future projects – in taking forward the UKIPO Project.
In this regard, Dr. Mendis spoke briefly about the work being carried out for the newly funded project considering a legal and empirical case study on 3D printing, 3D scanning and mass customisation of ancient and modern jewellery.
For more information about the new project, please see here. For further information about OHIM’s event, please see here.
FORUM Institut Management GmbH, 3D Printing and IP, Munich, Germany
On 1 December 2015, FORUM Institüt fur Management GmbH hosted an international conference exploring 3D Printing and IP Rights. The conference brochure including further details and speakers can be found here.
Dr. Mendis was invited to speak on the UKIPO Project with a particular focus on the implications for IP as a result of 3D online platforms as well as its impact on the industrial sector.
The presenters were drawn from industry, professional practice and academia thereby providing for a vibrant discussion.
Dr. Dinusha Mendis disseminates Government-funded research on the IP implications of 3D Printing at invited talks in UK and EU (Part I)
In April 2015, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) published three reports reflecting a legal and empirical study into the intellectual property (IP) implications of 3D printing. The project – commissioned by the UKIPO – was awarded to Bournemouth University and was led by Dr. Dinusha Mendis.
Together with Dr. Mendis, the research team consisted of Dr. Davide Secchi (Southern University, Denmark; previously Bournemouth University at the time of conducting the research) and Dr. Phil Reeves (Econolyst Ltd – now Stratasys Strategic Consulting Ltd).
All three reports can be found here and further information about the project, including research findings and recommendations for the UK Government, Industry and Intermediaries can be found here.
Since the publication of the reports, Dr. Dinusha Mendis, Co-Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) has been invited to deliver a number of invited talks in UK and Abroad, thereby reflecting the impact of the research.
This blog-post highlights the invited talks in UK. For dissemination of research in the EU, please see here.
Plymouth Law School, One Day Workshop on CSR
On 28 August 2015, Plymouth Law School held a one-day workshop, titled, ‘Valuing Knowledge, Creativity and Innovation: Relating Corporate Social Responsibility to Copyright Law’.
The workshop considered the prospect of practising Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in relation to copyright, where similar ideas of corporate social awareness have already applied to other areas of intellectual property protection.
Dr. Mendis explored the issue from the angle of emerging technologies and gave a presentation titled ‘Printing the Future: Is there a Need for Regulation? The Copyright Implications of 3D Printing’.
Other invited speakers on the day included, amongst others, Professor Charlotte Waelde, Professor of Intellectual Property, Exeter University and Dr. Abbe Brown, Reader and Deputy Head of the Law School, University of Aberdeen.
Please see here for further information.
EPIP Conference 2015, CREATe, University of Glasgow
From 2-3rd September 2015, CREATe, the RCUK Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy at the University of Glasgow hosted the 10th Annual Conference of European Policy for Intellectual Property (EPIP). The event explored intellectual property from an economic, legal and political perspective considering its impact in the creative economy with a focus on copyright, data and the changing economics of the digital world.
Dr. Mendis presented and led a panel titled ‘A Legal and Empirical Study into the Intellectual Property Implications of 3D Printing – Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations’. The panel consisted of the research team, which carried out the research for the UKIPO Project, with a Panel member from the UKIPO outlining the next steps in relation to policy in the area of 3D printing and IP Law.
Together with Dr. Mendis, other Panel members included Dr. Davide Secchi (University of Southern Denmark), Ms. Sophie Jones (for Dr. Phil Reeves) (Stratasys Strategic Consulting) and Ms. Pippa Hall of the UK Intellectual Property Office.
Further information this event can be found here and further information about the conference including presentations from both days can be found here.
IPAN Event, London
On 11 November 2015, the Intellectual Property Awareness Network (IPAN) hosted an evening event, which explored 3D printing from an industry perspective as well as from a legal (IP) perspective. IPAN is a non-profit organisation working to improve understanding of patents, trademarks, designs, copyright and other IP rights and their value to society.
IPAN is chaired by CIPPM Associate Director, Professor Ruth Soetendorp.
Dr. Mendis was invited to deliver a talk highlighting the research findings, conclusions and recommendations of the UKIPO Project and its implications for IPAN’s membership. Dr. Mendis spoke alongside Mr. Paul Gately, EMEA Manager of 3D Systems.
3D Printing Panel and Poster Presentation at University of Liverpool
On 11 December 2015, Dr. Mendis will form part of a panel exploring the topic of 3D printing and its implications for IP law, from a broader perspective at the University of Liverpool.
Winner announced – “Entrepreneur of the year award”
Last Thursday the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) had a different audience to entertain as over 700 guests from the local business community flocked to attend the annual Dorset Business Awards hosted by the Dorset Chamber of Commerce (DCCI).
Bournemouth University once again sponsored the “Entrepreneur of the Year’’ Award with the shortlisted finalists and BU staff members Jayne Codling (RKEO) and Linda Ladle (Careers and Employability) in attendance. This award attracts one of the highest number of entries out of the eleven categories with the judging process starting much earlier in the year . Mark Painter, Centre for Entrepreneurship Manager, who led BU’s panel of judges commented, “Competition gets tougher and tougher each year with a diverse range of applications from businesses across the region”. The finalists this year represented the digital, engineering and marine sectors.
This award category showcases entrepreneurs who have realised their vision through innovation and excellent management skills. All finalists needed to have demonstrated outstanding achievement, innovative business concept, growth and good management skills. CEO Phil Whitehurst, from Poole-based marine electronic brand Actisense was the overall winner, impressing the judges with his record of sustained growth and his continued passion and ambitions for further innovation. (Actisense also picked up the Dorset Export Award.)
Adam Greenwood founded IA Digital now Greenwood Campbell with Ian Campbell in 2009 and Calvin Samways who founded Sea-NC Engineering in 2005 were the other finalists shortlisted in this award.
Ex-BU student Georgina Hurcombe MD from Bournemouth based production company LoveLove Films also had reason to celebrate having won the “Business Engagement With Education Award”.
Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme launched
The Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) has recently been launched. Bournemouth University is a participating member.
The scheme, announced at WSD-U-2014, is led by Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). IUSDRP is not yet another network but conceptualised as a systematic programme to pursue and publish research on sustainability. It meets a perceived need for a university-based set-up, focusing on research projects, scientific publications and PhD training on matters related to sustainable development.
It has a special focus on developing countries, whose participation in such networks is very limited. Members of IUSDRP have already collaborated in various papers published in indexed journals, and are actively seeking further cooperation via externally-funded projects and joint PhD training. Further details can be seen at: http://iusdrp.mmu.ac.uk/
A new paper has just been published by: Chris Shiel, Walter Leal Filho Arminda Paco, Luciana Brandli (2016). Evaluating the Engagement of Universities in Capacity Building for Sustainable Development in Local Communities. Evaluation and Program Planning, 54 (2016) pp. 123-134.
You can download the article and other articles here:
http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1S6JtY2iclgdU
The paper reflects on the potential of universities to play a role in enabling communities to develop more sustainable ways of living and working, thereby addressing the paucity of studies that consider the evaluation of the work performed by universities in building capacity for sustainable development in local contexts. In order to achieve success in such initiatives, elements of programme planning and evaluation on the one hand, and capacity building on the other, are required. The assessment in this paper is based on evidence relating to community engagement activities obtained from a sample of universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal and Brazil. The extent to which capacity building in terms of sustainable development forms part of these initiatives is considered in depth, together with the different forms that this might take, as well as an evaluation of some of the benefits for local communities. The paper concludes by reinforcing that universities have a critical role to play in community development and that this role has to prioritise the sustainability agenda.
If you are interested in gaining further details about the network, please contact cshiel@bournemouth.ac.uk
Bull run – archive research and lectures in Pamplona
Pamplona in the Spanish province of Navarra is renowned for the annual Running of the Bulls, popularised by Ernest Hemingway, and as being on the path of the Camino de Santiago. It is also home to the Universidad de Navarra whose Faculty of Communication has two strong links to BU.
Associate Professor John Oliver of the Faculty of Media & Communication (FMC) is one of the leaders of the European Media Management Association (EMMA) which is very active in Pamplona and includes the university’s President. Professor Tom Watson of FMC collaborates with public relations historian Dr Natalia Rodriguez-Salcedo, a regular participant in the International History of Public Relations Conference held each year at BU.
From November 23-27, Professor Watson visited the Pamplona university and spent time in its excellent archive researching the development of public relations education policies by European professional bodies from the 1950s to 1980.
“Dr Rodriguez-Salcedo has catalogued the records of pioneer Spanish practitioner, Joaquin Maestre Mora, who was very active in the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) from the 1960s to 1980s,” he said. ‘This links with BU’s own IPRA archive. My Spanish colleague investigated IPRA archive in 2014 and identified gaps in our files that could be filled from the Maestre archive.”
The investigations of both archives have led to journal articles and conference presentations by the two researchers, with another paper to come in 2016. “As archives are digitised, access to this basic material of communication history research will become easier but there is still nothing like leafing through paper files and finding the unexpected,” said Professor Watson.
While at the Universidad de Navarra, he gave guest lectures to UG and PG students on management of corporate communication, crisis management and the measurement and evaluation of public relations. Professor Watson also discussed current developments in research assessment with staff in the Faculty of Communication.
Professor Tom Watson addressing the CorpComClub at Universidad de Navarra
HSS Writing Week 4th-8th January – How can Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit support you?
The Faculty of Health and Social Sciences is holding a Writing Week between 4th-8th January 2016 aimed at supporting staff to find time in their busy academic diaries to prioritise writing grant applications and papers for publication.
The Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit offers methodological and statistical collaboration for all healthcare researchers in the area. It supports researchers in improving the quality, quantity and efficiency of research across Bournemouth University and local National Health Service (NHS) Trusts. It incorporates the Dorset office of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service who offer free methodological support to researchers who are developing research ideas in the field of health and social care.
BUCRU will be supporting Writing Week in HSS by holding two drop-in sessions on Tuesday 5th January and Thursday 7th January 12-2pm in R508 Royal London House. We would also like to extend the invitation across the other Faculties for anyone who feels we may be able to support them. For those unable to attend the drop-in sessions, we would be delighted to arrange an alternative appointment.
Please see further information here, contact our adminstrator Louise Ward on 01202 961939 / bucru@bournemouth.ac.uk or visit our website. We look forward to seeing you!
Midwifery: A Revolutionary Practice?
This title was suggested by one of our collaborators Jeffery L Nicholas. Jeff is a scholar at Providence College in the USA who came to visit Bournemouth University recently. It is a great title, especially since many think about midwifery in terms of its long tradition. Some refer to midwifery as the ‘second oldest profession’. This blog post highlights some of the thinking generated through cross-national inter-disciplinary research.
Jeff (philosopher) and Edwin (medical sociologist) have been discussing the kind of political challenges midwives face today: struggles around the health of the mother and child, over costs (especially the underfunding of the NHS) and providers, and over the rights of women and families to choose. We both believe strongly that these struggles are inter-connected, and Jeff thinks a new approach is worthy of investigating for possible theoretical and practical aid in these struggles.
Specifically, Jeff looks at midwifery as a particular kind of practice with revolutionary potential. This question emerges from the work of Alasdair MacIntyre (1929—). MacIntyre condemns the bureaucratic society in which people become manipulators and manipulated. He also rejects large-scale, nation-state politics by which citizens might wrest control of their lives from those in charge. Rather, he focuses on the every day activities that comprise most of our lives. These activities—practices—come with their own ends that participants attempt to achieve, and they help teach individuals the virtues they need to act as agents in their lives, to participate in their communities, and to flourish. A strong community based around practices is one in which all can pursue the good life together, even if threatened by the state.
Having these discussions made us think about the substantive question, such as “Do some of the NHS free-standing midwife-led units, or some of the UK’s independent midwifery practices or The Farm Midwifery Center in Tennessee comprise such communities?” and “How can we best study this phenomenon?” Taking the discussion one of two steps further we brainstormed questions such as “How can midwifery education help an individual develop the virtues to live a flourishing life?” and “How does the student midwife learn to reason in her every day work?”
We hope these questions interest others, and that, together, we might pursue avenues of research to help us understand midwifery in the wider society, to support midwives and communities of midwives, to support human beings in their every day lives, and to birth a better world.
Prof. Jeffery L. Nicholas (Providence College)
&
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
BUDMC Professor Speaks on Entrepreneurial Resilience at Prestigious IBM Client Forum in London
On 26th November 2015, BUDMC’s Professor of Crisis and Disaster Management, Lee Miles, gave a keynote presentation at a prestigious client forum examining ‘Cyber Resiliency – Protecting Your Business in an “Always On” World’, organised by IBM Resiliency Services and held at the IBM Client Centre at IBM UK’s headquarters in London.
Lee spoke on the subject of ‘Understanding Entrepreneurial Resilience and its Contribution to an ‘Always On’ World’. He discussed the need for senior business managers to value the entrepreneurial and innovative talents of staff in order to maximise the effectiveness of their resilience planning and processes in cyber security. Lee introduced the twin expectations of being ‘resilient about “always on”’ and ‘always on resilience’; two paradigms that successful resilience managers need to balance strategically and innovatively if they are to meet the challenges of handling future crises and disasters that have major implications for the business world.
IBM Client Forums bring together senior resilience, emergency and business continuity managers from some of the UK’s leading, and most prestigious, FTSE-indexed commercial and business interests. The forums provide key platforms for discussing the most contemporary issues in resilience. Lee joined a high profile list of speakers that included senior representation from the UK’s Cabinet Office, the Business Continuity Institute (BCI), Barclays Bank as well as experts from IBM’s own Resiliency Services Division.
Lee also participated in a major and lively panel discussion, debating the most cutting-edge issues in cyber resilience.
Lee’s invitation and participation represent further evidence of the BUDMC’s continuing profile in all aspects of disaster management. The substantial strategic cooperation that is developing between BUDMC and the University’s Cyber Security Unit (SCU) continues to attract external recognition. Considerable interest was also generated among members of the IBM Client Forum in the forthcoming BUDMC short course in ‘Entrepreneurial Resilience in Crisis and Disaster Management’ to be offered (in association with the BU Centre for Entrepreneurship) for the first time in May 2016.
Lee Miles Giving Keynote at IBM on ‘Entrepreneurial Resilience’
IBM Client Forum Panel in Action
BU roadmap development workshop on digital healthcare technology
Participants show casing Prof Tamas Hickish’s slide on a future Digital Healthcare Institute
Twenty three academics and two colleagues from an SME came together in a work shop organised by Professor Hongnian Yu, Professor Tamas Hickish and Dr Carol Clark. The aim of the workshop was for colleagues to share their knowledge, expertise and experiences in the field of Digital technology.
Digital technology is transforming healthcare and there is a need for interdisciplinary teams at both local, national and international levels to collaborate in order to realise potential. At Bournemouth University leadership in digital healthcare technology is diluted by multiple groupings and departments associated with this strength. Therefore the aims of the workshop were to create a roadmap of research to integrate BU expertise and capacity. The aim was to capture envisioned future research requirements and act as a foundation for future research proposal development. Additionally, the workshop was to establish connections between the participating researchers and scope possible future research collaborations.
Thank you to Jason and Jayne for their help in getting this off the ground.
If anyone is interested in collaborating please contact:
Prof Hongnian Yu yuh@bournemouth.ac.uk; Prof Janet Dickinson jdickinson@bournemouth.ac.uk Dr Shuang Cang scang@bournemouth.ac.uk Dr Carol Clark cclark@bournemouth.ac.uk
What do we know about back pain? The Society for Back Pain Research AGM Bournemouth 2015
I was delighted to attend and represent BU at The Society for Back Pain Research (SBPR) Annual General Meeting 5-6 November 2015 which was conveniently held in Bournemouth, at Anglo-European College of Chiropractic, a partner college of BU. SBPR was formed in 1971 to promote the study of all clinical and scientific aspects of spinal pain, including the neck (my area of interest), and to encourage research into its causes, treatment and prevention. There are now over 200 members of the Society, from a wide range of disciplines including all sorts of healthcare professionals and scientists. Suffice to say if there is anything about back pain this audience does not know it is probably not worth knowing! Having said that, attending this meeting reminded me just how much about back pain is still unknown…
Biological Factors in Non-Specific Back Pain
The title of this year’s meeting was ‘Biological Factors in Non-Specific Back Pain’ to place an emphasis on the ‘biological’. It has been over 25 years since the biopsychosocial model was applied to back pain but lately research has tended to be more concerned with psychosocial aspects, such as fear-avoidance behaviour or depression; research into physical findings to diagnose back pain has sadly not been very fruitful. [An important point was made by Professor Maurits van Tulder, that research has actually been largely focused on psychological factors, to the expense of social factors]. While psychosocial factors do seem to be important in influencing patients’ recovery, they don’t get us much closer to a diagnosis, to finding out what is producing and driving the patient’s pain.
However, one of the presentations at SBPR hinted at where the research focus as regards imaging (and MRI specifically) could perhaps go. One of Associate Professor Mark Hancock’s suggestions was that we need studies that focus on changes on MRI, in response to treatment (or no treatment). But how do we best measure such changes? Which treatments and for whom? Could findings on MRI in a person without back pain predict back pain in the future?
Want to know more? For a longer version of this blog, click here.
Many thanks to the Professional Practice Development community, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, for making my attendance possible.
Type 2 diabetes study in Nepal
Knowing, or better, being able to estimate the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Nepal can help recognise risk factors and plan for the necessary health services. Unlike many high-incme countries such as the UK or the Netherlands, many low-income countries like Nepal don’t have a health system that can generate data to establish the prevalence and incidence of a range of diseases. Therefore, to estimate the disease prevalence of any major disease, in this particular case Type 2 diabetes, we need to collate data from as many as possible small and medium-scale studies of a good enough quality. Hence our systematic review identified and collated studies describing the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Nepal [1].
We summarised their findings, and to explored selected factors that may influence prevalence estimates. This is, to our knowledge, the first study to systematically evaluate the literature of prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Nepal. Results showed that type 2 diabetes is a burden in Nepal, suggesting this is a possible public health area which needs more preventive interventions as well as efforts to control the disease. The paper is a collaboration between researchers based in Nepal, Denmark, Australia and the UK.
The paper is Open Access so freely available any where in the world.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Reference:
- Gyawali, B., Neupane, D., Sharma, R., Mishra, S.R., van Teijlingen, E., Kallestrup, P. (2015) Prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Nepal: a systematic review and meta-analysis from 2000 to 2014, Global Health Action 8: 29088 globalhealthaction.net/index.php/gha/article/view/29088/pdf_189
Horizon 2020 – Secure Societies
Horizon 2020 Secure Societies – protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens
The webcast for the Horizon 2020 Secure Societies Event held in London on 3rd November 2015 is now available online. You might also find it useful to join Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Network – Defence and Security to keep up to date with events, such as the International Cyber Security Forum meeting on 25 & 26 January 2016 in Lille, as well as funding opportunities in this area.
Calls announced in the Horizon 2020 Secure Societies Work Programme 2016-2017 are now being opened. Follow the links to main call page or the specific call, where this is already open. The date given is the funder’s closing date and time (Brussels):
CALL: DIGITAL SECURITY FOCUS AREA
DS-01-2016:Assurance and Certification for Trustworthy and Secure ICT systems, services and components OPEN 12 April 2016 17:00:00
DS-02-2016:Cyber Security for SMEs, local public administration and Individuals 25 August 2016 17:00:00
DS-03-2016:Increasing digital security of health related data on a systemic level OPEN 16 February 2016 17:00:00
DS-04-2016:Economics of Cybersecurity 25 August 2016 17:00:00
DS-05-2016:EU Cooperation and International Dialogues in Cybersecurity and Privacy Research and Innovation 25 August 2016 17:00:00
DS-06-2017:Cryptography 25 April 2017 17:00:00
DS-07-2017:Addressing Advanced Cyber Security Threats and Threat Actors 24 August 2017 17:00:00
DS-08-2017:Privacy, Data Protection, Digital Identities 24 August 2017 17:00:00
SEC-01-DRS-2016:Integrated tools for response planning and scenario building 25 August 2016 17:00:00
SEC-02-DRS-2016:Situational awareness systems to support civil protection preparation and operational decision making 25 August 2016 17:00:00
SEC-03-DRS-2016:Validation of biological toxins measurements after an incident: Development of tools and procedures for quality control 25 August 2016 17:00:00
SEC-04-DRS-2017:Broadband communication systems 24 August 2017 17:00:00
SEC-05-DRS-2016-2017:Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) cluster 24 August 2017 17:00:00
SEC-06-FCT-2016:Developing a comprehensive approach to violent radicalization in the EU from early understanding to improving protection 25 August 2016 17:00:00
SEC-07-FCT-2016-2017:Human Factor for the Prevention, Investigation, and Mitigation of criminal and terrorist acts 25 August 2016 17:00:00
SEC-08-FCT-2016:Forensics techniques on: a) trace qualification, and b) broadened use of DNA 25 August 2016 17:00:00
SEC-09-FCT-2017:Toolkits integrating tools and techniques for forensic laboratories 24 August 2017 17:00:00
SEC-10-FCT-2017: Integration of detection capabilities and data fusion with utility providers’ networks 24 August 2017 17:00:00
SEC-11-FCT-2016:Detection techniques on explosives: Countering an explosive threat, across the timeline of a plot 25 August 2016 17:00:00
SEC-12-FCT-2016-2017:Technologies for prevention, investigation, and mitigation in the context of fight against crime and terrorism 25 August 2016 17:00:00
SEC-13–BES–2017:Next generation of information systems to support EU external policies 24 August 2017 17:00:00
SEC-14-BES–2016:Towards reducing the cost of technologies in land border security applications 25 August 2016 17:00:00
SEC-15-BES–2017:Risk-based screening at border crossing 24 August 2017 17:00:00
SEC-16-BES–2017:Through-foliage detection, including in the outermost regions of the EU 24 August 2017 17:00:00
SEC-17-BES-2017:Architectures and organizations, big data and data analytics for customs risk management of the international goods supply chain trade movements 24 August 2017 17:00:00
SEC-18-BES–2017:Acceptance of “no gate crossing point solutions” 24 August 2017 17:00:00
SEC-19-BES-2016:Data fusion for maritime security applications 25 August 2016 17:00:00
SEC-20-BES-2016:Border Security: autonomous systems and control systems 25 August 2016 17:00:00
SEC-21–GM-2016-2017:Pan European Networks of practitioners and other actors in the field of security 25 August 2016 17:00:00
CALL: CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION
CIP-01-2016-2017:Prevention, detection, response and mitigation of the combination of physical and cyber threats to the critical infrastructure of Europe 25 August 2016 17:00:00
If you are interested in applying for any of these calls, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO, Research Facilitator: EU & International for further assistance.
Robust Semi-supervised Nonnegative Matrix Factorization
We would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre.
Speaker: Jing Wang
Title: Robust Semi-supervised Nonnegative Matrix Factorization
Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM
Date: Wednesday 2nd December 2015
Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus
Abstract: Clustering aims to organize a collection of data items into clusters, such that items within a cluster are more “similar” to each other than to those in the other clusters, which has been used in many fields, including machine learning, pattern recognition, image analysis, information retrieval, and bioinformatics. Clustering is usually performed when no information is available concerning the membership of data items to predefined classes. For this reason, it is traditionally seen as part of unsupervised learning. However, in reality, it is often the case that some data information (e.g. labels) is available and could be used to bias the clustering for producing considerable improvements in learning accuracy. Also, data have some new challenges, such as high- dimensionality, sparsity, containing noises and outliers, etc. This motivates us to develop new technology to deal with this kind of complex data. To address all these issues, we propose semi-supervised nonnegative matrix factorization approaches. Experiments carried on well-known data sets demonstrate the effectiveness.
We hope to see you there.
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