Category / Research themes

The International Early Labour Research Group

Early labour Group

Photo (L to R): Dr Helen Cheyne (University of Stirling), Dr Mechthild Gross (Hannover Medical School), Dr Mary-Ann Davey (La Trobe University), Professor Patti Janssen (University of British Columbia), Professor Helen Spiby (University of Nottingham), and Professor Vanora Hundley (Bournemouth University). Not shown Gillian Hanley (University of British Columbia).

Researchers from across the globe met in Stirling last week to discuss early labour research and to plan an international collaborative study. The meeting was the result of a successful Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) planning grant to bring together researchers from Canada, Australia, Germany, England and Scotland. We have met on a number of occasions in the last couple of years, but usually at a conference when time is limited, so it was a real luxury to have two full days to discuss early labour care and to plan a possible intervention for women in the latent phase of labour. Although we have all conducted studies in this area, developing a complex intervention for use in five countries raises many novel challenges. Discussion focused on the varying models of care and current guidelines – the NICE and KCND guidelines used in the UK were much appreciated by our international colleagues. We left the meeting invigorated, but also aware that there is much to do. The first step will be a special issue of Midwifery later this year dedicated to early labour and guest edited by two of the team.

Proposed Copyright Hub to Streamline Copyright Licensing

Publishing, Research Integritiy

Recommendations for the establishment of a Digital Copyright Exchange, contained in a final report into its feasibility, have just been published following a Department of Business, Innovation and Skills funded study undertaken by Richard Hooper, click here.

Given the amount of digital material available and likely to be created in the future, it is essential to streamline the process of copyright licensing. Having easier mechanisms to obtain the appropriate copyright licences will benefit rights holders and potential licensees.

The report recommends the creation of a not-for-profit industry-led, industry-funded Copyright Hub, and the establishment of a steering group to drive forward and oversee the design and implementation of the Hub.

The Copyright Hub will have five main purposes, to:

  • act as a signpost and be a navigation mechanism to the complex world of copyright
  • be the place to go for copyright education
  • be the place where any copyright owner can choose to register works, the associated rights to those works, permitted uses and licences granted
  • be the place for potential licensees to go for easy to use, transparent, low transaction cost copyright licensing
  • be one of the authoritative places where prospective users of orphan works can go to demonstrate they have done proper, reasonable and due diligence searches for the owners of those works before they digitise them

The Government’s response to these proposals is awaited.

Creative Industries Convergence in a digital landscape – TSB Challenge

Funding opportunities, Research themes

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is investing up to £1.8m in feasibility projects that address the converged nature of the digital landscape. The programme will be delivered in three parts during 2012. Projects are sought which focus on convergence in hyper-local media models, content origination tools, and analytical feedback and metrics tools.

The TSB has identified convergence as a priority in its strategy for the creative industries (seewww.innovateuk.org under Publications). This competition is a first step in the TSB’s active commitment to explore the impact that convergence is having on emerging and innovative businesses. The feasibility studies supported under this three-part programme may also develop into submissions to a follow-on competition planned for 2013.

 

Challenge 2 focuses on projects that will lead to true cross-platform origination of content, the collaborative generation of ideas, and new business models for content based on cross-media formats and consumption.

Challenge 2 opens on 16 July 2012 and the deadline for applications is noon 22 August 2012. Successful challenge 2 projects must begin no later than 1 November 2012.

 

The competition is open to small and micro companies. Projects must be led by a business working either singly or collaboratively. Academics can apply but only as a partner in a consortium. Projects can attract up to 75% public funding. The total grant for each project will not exceed £56,250 and the total project size will not

exceed £75,000. Projects should last up to 12 months.

 

More information, click here

To apply for this competition you must first register. You can do this by going to the web page for this competition at www.innovateuk.org under Competitions. When you register you will get access to all the supporting

information you need to read before you apply, including the Guidance for Applicants and the application form.

Competitions helpline:

0300 321 4357

Email: support@innovateuk.org

Health, Wellbeing and Ageing: BUs Research Themes as Communities of Practice

At the most recent meeting of the Health, Wellbeing and Ageing Research, we discussed how the Ageing Strand of this theme might be developed along the principles of a community of practice (Wenger et al., 2002, 2006). Here is a summary for wider scrutiny, comment, critique and eventually consensus on how we can together move this strand forward.
The Philosophy
A community of practice (COP) is a “a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Wenger, 2006). Our passion is Health and Wellbeing- a salutogenic rather than pathogenic approach to health, social care and related fields. For many of us, it is the application of this to the Ageing Process and managing older age that holds our particular interest and area of expertise. The central philosophy of a COP is that members learn with and from each other. The rationale is two fold: firstly learning is linked with member wellbeing (specifically cognitive wellbeing): secondly, learning and wellbeing jointly facilitate productivity. In other words, our activities and outcomes/outputs will and do flow from communities of this type. (Wenger et al, 2002)
Key to the development of a COP such as this one is the “practice” element. Through interacting regularly (at times virtually, at times face to face) we are building relationships and learning better ways of working together (Wenger et al., 2002, 2006). Community members engage in joint activities, helping and learning from each other, sharing information and building relationships. By practicing in this way we are developing what Wenger refers to as a shared repertoire of resources (e.g. a common definition of wellbeing; an understanding of regional, national and global policy on Ageing Well) experiences (appropriate and friendly funding sources), stories, tools (e.g., research methodologies, review techniques), ways of addressing recurring problems (e.g. dealing with ethics, dealing with rejection, holding interviews with people with impaired hearing or mobility issues)—in short a shared practice.

The community can be moved forward practically by following the seven principles of developing a community of practice (Wenger et al., 2002). I concentrate on four here.
1. UP THE EVOLUTION
The development of Health, Wellbeing and Ageing should be an evolutionary process. Members differ widely in interests. Sociologists and engineers rub shoulders. Those interested in clinical trials and phenomenology share the same building! But our differences are not important. What is important is that we share an interest/expertise in Health, Wellbeing and/or older people. Rather than impose our own preconceived structures as to what projects or subgroups should be developed, projects themes are allowed to arise organically and the community’s agenda develops as members engage and disengage. For this to continue, it is essential that members know about each other’s interests and take time to interact and share these. Up to date STAFF profiles and BURO lists managed by our friend BRIAN are key to this as are student staff seminars and conferences. But as with any evolutionary process, it takes time to develop and small steps in the right direction are expected and accepted.
2. OPENING DIALOGUE
Through opening dialogue with those within the university and with external colleagues we are together developing a shared competence in a domain that distinguishes us from, but guides our rules of collaboration with, the range of other networks within the field (e.g. AgeUK, Help and Care, Poole and Bournemouth Borough Council, Research Councils). Creating an open dialogue between members and between members and those outside of the groups is central.. Our social media group pages AGEING at BU is a step in developing these insider and outsider discussions. http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/106969319443779/. Twitter and much more should follow.. Technical stewards (Wenger,2010) are required to lead the community in maintaining the community through these Web 2.0 technologies, keeping us actively engaging and building internal and external relationships required to maximize our learning. These sites can serve dual purposes and promote our activity but evidence shows that if self promotion overrules the central learning objective of these sites (Terras, 2012), our e -profile withers and die. A balance is essential

3. DIFFERENT LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION
Community members can engage in the theme at three different levels of participation: as the core convening group, as active participating members or on the periphery watching developments. All levels are acceptable and learning about health, wellbeing and its application to Ageing can occur in any of the three. We strive however to introduce mechanisms whereby movement between core, active and peripheral participation can occur. Active participation should be encouraged but not forced, “building benches on the sidelines” for members to sit and watch until they are confident to move to the centre and take more active roles within the group (Wenger et al., 2002). An ethos of mentoring is fostered not necessarily on a one to one basis, but as a group philosophy where active and core members are cogent of the need for inclusivity and for offering opportunity to peripheral members should they wish to engage.
4. THE COMMUNITY MUST HAVE VALUE FOR ITS MEMBERS
Engagement is also encouraged by making explicit the value of community membership. From personal experience, being part of a community has offered us all opportunities we would not have accessed if we had not been members. The social capital generated has lead to individuals making connections to networks to which some members had links but others not (connections to external networks come from whom we know not necessarily what we know). We have been able to draw on the skills of others, (for example, the researchers amongst us have gained insight into curriculum development, faculty development and health care policy). The network has enabled us to submit bids that are cross school and cross institutional which we hope is reflected in their quality arising from this cross fertilisation of ideas and disciplines. Most importantly, we have connected to like-minded individuals and reduced our research isolation.
Food for thought. I would welcome thoughts on whether this fits with colleagues’ vision for the Health, Wellbeing and Ageing theme. I acknowledge the input of already successful COPs into these thoughts specifically IN-2-theory and GRIN members as well as good thoughts and discussion on this topic from the HSC Health and Wellbeing Community leadership.

Sarah Hean

REFERENCES
Terras, M. (2012) The verdict: is blogging or tweeting about research papers worth it? Available at: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/04/19/blog-tweeting-papers-worth-it/
Wenger, E., White, N.and Smith, J.D., (2010) Digital Habitats , Portland: CPSquare
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & W.M. Snyder. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice A Guide to Managing. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Wenger, Etienne. (2006). Communities of Practice: a brief introduction, 1-6. Retrieved from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/communities_of_practice_intro.htm

UK Environment White Paper update

The following link provides a useful update on the UK Government’s Environment White Paper, including a summary of current activities relating to its implementation. This includes a number of initatives relating both to the green economy and biodiversity conservation.

Link: http://sd.defra.gov.uk/2012/07/natural-environment-white-paper-one-year-on/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gov%2Fsdscene+%28SD+Scene%29

UK government’s new publication on the green economy

This might be a useful source for those wishing to learn more about the UK Government’s plans for the green economy

‘Enabling the Transition to a Green Economy: government and business working together’ is a new publication which sets out what the transition to a green economy means for businesses.

It is the government’s response to requests from the private sector for greater clarity on what government means by a “green economy”, the policies being put in place to achieve this and how they come together.

Link: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1096705244&type=ONEOFFPAGE&furlname=greeneconomy&furlparam=greeneconomy&ref=&domain=www.businesslink.gov.uk

 

Virtual conference and film making: two of the projects being looked at within the Leisure and Recreation Theme

Further to a meeting of colleagues interested in the Leisure and Recreation Theme in May an agenda for collaboration is gradually developing around a series of ideas.  These include: 

  • Organizing 2 academic/professional conferences,
  • Bidding for an ESRC Seminar series,
  • Exploring policy areas relating to healthy leisure, developing a Healthy Leisure, Healthy Living Research Group (and possibly others),
  • Running an internal seminar series next academic year
  • Developing events for the festival of learning
  • Holding an Internal Research conference looking specifically at Leisure and Recreation, highlighting work across university.
  • Creating a virtual poster conference for students and staff
  • Organizing a joint Workshop with the Centre for Qualitative Research featuring Robert Mugerauer, from the University of Washington.
  • Developing a short film project that will equip colleagues with the skills to produce short films to help disseminate research to students and the broader public. 

For more information on these and other ideas, to include yourself in the e-mail circulation list or to suggest ideas of your own please contact Sean Beer (sbeer@bournemouth.ac.uk)

New Articles in PloS Biology on sustainability science

New Articles in PloS Biology on sustainability science

Enjoy the reading,

Elena

The Limits to Sustainability Science: Ecological Constraints or Endless Innovation?
Georgina M. Mace

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001343

 

The Macroecology of Sustainability
Joseph R. Burger, Craig D. Allen, James H. Brown, William R. Burnside, Ana D. Davidson, Trevor S. Fristoe, Marcus J. Hamilton, Norman Mercado-Silva, Jeffrey C. Nekola, Jordan G. Okie, Wenyun Zuo

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001345

 

The Shifting Boundaries of Sustainability Science: Are We Doomed Yet?
John H. Matthews, Frederick Boltz

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001344

 

Visit and STRC seminar not to miss next Tuesday: Image and Signal Processing Group of University of Valencia (26th June at 15h 30’ in PG16)

REF Subjects

Dear Colleagues,
I would like to draw your attention to the visit of two members and a postdoc researcher of the Image and Signal Processing Group of University of Valencia, Spain.
This group is very influential in several areas like for instance Image Processing (in Geosciences, Medical Brain Imaging, etc.) and Kernel Machines; and they will be in Talbot Campus just for one day.
They will deliver a couple of short talks and after that they will stay for an hour for discussing ideas or future plans with anybody interested in BU.
The special seminar will take place next Tuesday, the 26th of June in PG 16 Lecture Theatre at 15:30 h (Ground floor, Poole House)
After that, you are very welcome to join us in an informal Discussion Panel from 16h 30’ to 17h 15’ approx.
I would like to encourage DEC PhD researchers, senior research fellows and staff to attend; particularly those who work or what to get into image/signal processing and kernel machines because they are leading experts in these areas. Kindly check out, for instance,
http://www.uv.es/gcamps
http://www.uv.es/jmalo/
The agenda of the visit is the following:
• 15h 30’. Short intro by Dr. Malo (Associate Prof): “Research at the Image and Signal Processing Group”. Jesús Malo. A brief overview of our research interests and lines.
• 15h 40’. Short talk by Dr Laparra (Postdoc): “Gaussianization Framework for Signal Processing”
Abstract: We generalize a class of projection pursuit methods to transform arbitrary multidimensional data into multivariate normal data, thus attaining statistical independence of its components. The proposed analysis enables a number of novel ways to solve practical problems in high-dimensional scenarios, such as those encountered in image processing, speech recognition, array processing, or bioinformatics. Our framework extends Independent and Principal Components Analyses-based methods, which are typically not applicable to data generated from nonlinear, non-independent or non-Gaussian sources. The performance is successfully illustrated in a number of multidimensional data processing problems such as image synthesis, classification, saliency analysis, and de-noising.
• 16h. Short talk by Dr. Camps (Associate Prof): “Extended Kernel Methods”.
Abstract: I will talk about our love story with kernel methods for the last 10 years. Kernel methods constitute a simple way of translating linear algorithms into nonlinear ones. I will revise several interesting developments for 1) time series analysis, regression and function approximation; 2) classification problems; 3) nonlinear feature extraction; and 4) dependence estimation. The introduced methods extend previous standard algorithms to deal with non-stationary environments and structured domains, and the presence of non-Gaussian noise. Additionally, I’ll briefly talk about a way to learn the kernel function directly from the data via clustering or graphs. Examples in signal and image processing will guide this overview.
• 16h 25’. Discussion Panel.
Please, feel free to show up or leave any time during this event on your convenience. I hope you consider this program attractive and that you find a slot to come in.
Best Wishes, Emili

Feedback on FP7 EU bid – lessons learned from feedback

Awarded & submitted bids

Philip Alford (School of Tourism) and Mark Dover (Applied Sciences) put a consortium together and submitted an application to the EU FP7 program. The project title was Cloud Information Retrieval and Re-Use System and the bid was for nearly €4 million. The following summarises the project:

Tourism indirectly generates more than 10% of the European Union’s GDP and Tourism sector comprises SMEs employing less than 50 people Their respective diversity and fragmentation means that individual SMEs, and their often localised associations, lack the resources to generate and define sophisticated, sustainable marketing tools enabling the competitive campaigns required to maintain position and growth. The recent expansions in social networking and advances in Cloud Computing technologies and infrastructure now present an opportunity to develop sophisticated, dynamic, promotion and marketing tools for use by any SME, in any context – without any requirement for end-user knowledge of the configuration of the service delivery. CIRRUS is thus designed to develop such a universally functional framework, employing a suite of tools, supporting a simplistic dashboard interface, to enable sophisticated, dynamic, marketing input and provision of services at the individual, non expert, level across the many different sectors of the European tourism industry. CIRRUS will

1. Develop a novel, simplistic, non-expert dashboard interface to cloud content and usage enabling incorporation into web and marketing media.

2. Build a support framework behind the dashboard for tourism SMEs which embraces the new marketing paradigm of online customer-to-customer marketing and which is based on international best practice.

3. Conduct 4 Validation Case Studies from 3 European Countries, and different tourism perspectives (accommodation, attractions and events), illustrating enhanced business performance through CIRRUS use.

4. Build and adapt, through these case studies, the application and facilitate its deployment in the targeted countries.

5. Position the application for deployment, with input from both SMEs and SME-AGs, in member states beyond those immediately involved in the partnership.

We were unsuccessful with the application but got some useful feedback from the EU. In summary we needed to:

  • More fully describe the limitations of the current state of the art technology in tourism
  • Make the interdependencies of the work packages clearer
  • More adequately demonstrate the partners’ expertise in key areas
  • Improve the dissemination activities which are described but are not particularly targeted
  • Provide more detail on the exploitation plans of the SME partners

 

World Symposium on Sustainable Development at Universities (WSSD-U-2012) – post conference reflections

Last week I attended the World Symposium on Sustainable Development at Universities (WSSD-U-2012) which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 5-6 June 2012, as an official ‘parallel’ event to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as Rio+20.  I was chairing the second day’s plenary sessions and presenting two papers (one on Leadership for SD in HE and a co-authored paper, The impact of University policies for sustainable development on students: a comparison of students from two institutions, one in the UK and one in Portugal . Both papers have been accepted for publication.

 

Further details on the event can be seen at:

http://www.haw-hamburg.de/en/ftz-als/veranstaltungen/world-symposium-on-sustainable-development-at-universities-wssd-u-2012.html

 

A summary of the event and its follow-up activities is available:

 

http://www.haw-hamburg.de/en/ftz-als/veranstaltungen/world-symposium-on-sustainable-development-at-universities-wssd-u-2012/program-wssd01.html

 

  Over 120 participants representing universities from 26 countries -from all geographical regions attended the conference which was organised by the Research and Transfer Centre “Applications of Life Sciences” of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and London Metropolitan University.

 

Reflections

 

The conference was great and a good networking opportunity from which further work will follow.

 

 Disappointed that you are not participating at Rio+ 20? – don’t be.

 

When the dates were put back (something to do with Heads of State availability and the Jubilee), I was a little disappointed that our event became more ‘antipasti’ than ‘contorno’ but I am now really glad to have been there early.  It will be chaotic! 

 

Having returned to Rio (after living there 25 years ago) I can say these things:  the hotel prices are ridiculous at any time of year and they are planning a huge uplift for Rio+20 – the hotel experience (and quality) is also more inconsistent than any city I have ever visited.  Attendees will be overcharged, are more likely to get ripped off in all that they do (still very much part of the culture to exploit ‘estrangeiros’) and will certainly find Rio challenging. There are still hotels which look legit but are actually ‘sex motels;’ some areas are still not safe.

 

Until yesterday I thought the Summit would take place in Centro and then read that it is at Riocentro.  Many attendees will not realise just how far out that is from Centro and Copacabana. If you were to take a bus, it is a gruelling 45 min trip to Barra de Tijuca. But then I guess this will not be an issue for Heads of State, or anyone whose budget extends to private transport!

 

25 years ago crime was very visible (everyone drove through red lights at night) – it has now been reduced by stronger policing. There was a visible police/military presence on exercise for Rio+20 while I was there; naval vessels were patrolling the beaches. Fortunately they were doing a helicopter patrol, just as some Chinese visitors were attacked with knives on the beach (in daylight). They managed to stop the attackers and return stolen goods.  Rio is much safer than it was but you still need caution. A driver commented to me, Summit ‘attendees offer rich-pickings’.

 

The strangest observation for me is that the people generally seemed less happy (than when I lived there), despite a huge increase in the middle classes and more disposable income – guess there is something in the Happiness research which intimates a link. The favellas are as big as ever and you can now do ‘favella tourism’ which also seems strange. I guess it’s not very different to when people used to pay to see the ‘bearded lady’.

 

Returning to the Summit, it is going to be more about review than commitment to exciting actions. Some are already calling it ‘Rio minus 10’. I would not hold out big hopes that much will change.

 

 

 

Talk on Software Platforms for Evolving Predictive Systems, wednesday 13th June 14:00, Lawrence Lecture Theatre

REF Subjects, Research themes

Our next external speaker of the STRC seminar series will be Mr . Tobiasz Dworak. The talk will take place on Wednesday, 13th of June in Lawrence Lecture Theatre at 14:00 h
Tobiasz is a highly experience Project Manager and Software Developer in the International Company Research & Engineering Center (REC-global)
I think that those of you involved in software design and development would like to hear this Seminar.
The title of the talk is: “Current state of INFER platform software. (Hands on demo)”
“I will be presenting current state of the INFER (Computational Intelligence Platform for Evolving and Robust Predictive Systems) software with emphasis on new model of predictive elements. Additionally I’ll draft further of INFER core and present live demo of the software. Open discussion will take part after the presentation. I’d like to hear wishes from all potential users of INFER”.
Best Wishes, Emili

Join the Ageing at BU Facebook group

The Health, Wellbeing and Ageing Research Theme invite BU staff and students interested in Wellbeing and Ageing to consider joining the AGEING AT BU facebook group. The aim of the group is to share our own work, events and reading on research, education, practice and policy that relates to older people, ageing and wellbeing. We would encourage our practice partners outside of BU to join also.

You can join the group on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/106969319443779/

Introduction to Adaptive Learning from Streaming Data by Dr Zliobaite, Wednesday 30th of May:

Research themes

Kindly announce that our next speaker of the STRC seminar series will be Dr Indrė Žliobaitė. The talk will take place next Wednesday, 30th of May in Lawrence Lecture Theatre at 16:00 h (please click for a map)

Indrė (Lecturer in BU as most of us know) will present novel angles of her work in a highly didactic fashion. She will talk about an exciting topic, strategies for predicting streaming data. This is particularly attractive for instance for those of us involved in projects in real-time industrial settings.

Please feel free to show up if you like it regardless you background!

The talk title is:

“Introduction to Adaptive Learning from Streaming Data”

Short description:

Changing data over time presents one of the major challenges in predictive modelling applications, for example automated movie recommendation, bankruptcy prediction, spam categorization, food sales prediction and many more. In such situations predictive models need to have mechanisms to update or retrain themselves using recent data, otherwise they will quickly lose accuracy. This talk will give an introductory overview of settings and algorithms for adaptive predictive modelling.

Best Wishes, Emili

Emerald Literati Network : 2012 Awards for Excellence

Publishing, Research themes

Image of Dr Heather Hartwell

Bournemouth University’s Associate Professor Dr Heather Hartwell has been chosen as an Outstanding Reviewer at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012. Each year Emerald names and rewards the Outstanding Reviewers who contribute to the success of the journals.  Each journal’s Editor has nominated the Reviewer they believe has been that title’s most Outstanding Reviewer.

The most Outstanding Reviewers are chosen following consultation amongst the journal’s Editors, who are eminent academics or managers. Dr Hartwell was selected for the very impressive and significant contribution she made as a Reviewer to the British Food Journal throughout 2011.