Category / BU research

Live Migration of Virtual Machines to the Cloud and its associated issues

BU research, PG research

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

 

Speaker: Ibrahim Mansour

 

Title:   Live Migration of Virtual Machines to the Cloud and its associated issues

 

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 6th January 2016

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract: Cloud computing provides users the ability to access shared, online computing resources. However, providers often offer their own proprietary applications, interfaces, APIs and infrastructures, resulting in a heterogeneous cloud environment. This heterogeneous environment makes it difficult for users to change cloud service providers; exploring capabilities to support the automated migration from one provider to another is an active, open research area. Many standards bodies (IEEE, NIST, DMTF and SNIA), industry (middleware) and academia have been pursuing approaches to reduce the impact of vendor lock-in by investigating the cloud migration problem at the level of the VM. However, the migration downtime, decoupling VM from underlying systems and security of live channels remain open issues. This talk focuses on analysing recently proposed live, cloud migration approaches for VMs at the infrastructure level in the cloud architecture.   The talk will highlight issues with flexibility, performance, and security of the approaches, including additional loads to the CPU and disk I/O drivers of the physical machine where the VM initially resides. Finally, the talk will introduce how a new approach, LibZam (Libya Zamzem) will be developed. LibZam is a tangible system that will work towards addressing the identified limitations.

 

We hope to see you there.

 

Congratulations to Dr. Caroline Ellis-Hill

BU research, Featured academics, Research news, Uncategorized

NIHRDr. Caroline Ellis-Hill  has just been accepted as a qualitative methodologist on the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) panel for Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR).  Caroline from the Centre for Qualitative Research (CQR) in FHSS is the second BU academic to join a NIHR panel this year.  Earlier this year Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen was invited to be a member of the NIHR’s HTA Clinical Evaluation & Trials Board ( http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/programmes/hta/our-people ).

Congratulations!

Professors Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Get your cultural fix at the IRW

BU research, Research communication

InterdisResWeek2The Interdisciplinary Research Week (IRW) has a number of cultural highlights for everyone’s tastes.  Free popcorn will be available at the films as well as refreshments.  The events include:

Tuesday 26 January 2016             

Written and Directed by Professor Erik Knudsen

Raven on the Jetty

PG16, Talbot Campus, 16:00-18:00

In the midst of separation, one boy’s silent longing has the power to change everything.

On his ninth birthday, Thomas travels with his mother to visit his estranged father who, since an acrimonious divorce, has abandoned urban living in favour of an isolated rural life in the English Lake District. The bitter separation of his parents is not something Thomas understands, nor does he understand his own dysfunctional behaviour as a silent cry for help. As a digital native city boy, Thomas’s encounter with the natural world, and his gradual understanding of the pivotal connection he provides for his, ultimately, lonely parents, leads to realisation and discovery. There are things his parents don’t know about each other that only he can reveal. Perhaps he has the power and the means to change everything. (Fiction: 88 minutes. 2014).

Following the film there will be a Q & A session with the Director.

Thursday 28 January 2016            

Lizzie Sykes

Are You There?

Coyne Lecture Theatre, Talbot Campus, 16:00-18:00

In 2014, Lizzie Sykes was awarded an Arts Council-funded residency at Mottisfont, a National Trust property and gardens in Hampshire. Mottisfont is a place where artists have met and worked for hundreds of years.

Are You There? is a film made from inside the Mottisfont residence. It is performed by Louise Tanoto, and is a response to how it feels to be alone in the house and to be inescapably linked to it in a private and intimate way; free from expected codes of physical behaviour that such a formal space normally represents.

Following the film there will be a chance for a Q&A session

Friday 29 January 2016                            

Emerge music group performance

Allesbrook Theatre, Talbot Campus, 17.30 – 18.30

BU’s Emerge Research Centre has a research music performing group, a creative space where each person develops their own instruments and music based on personal research into sound as well as gesture and technology as part of their creative practice.

The experimental music and sound-art event features a soundtrack of electronic atmospheres, noisescapes, pulses and rhythms, tones and drones. It will include an exploration of hardware-hacked devices, simple electronic instruments, data networks and basic sensors to augment and inform laptop improvisations, immersive fixed-media soundscapes and live visuals.

Performers include:
Anna Troisi, http://www.annatroisi.org/
Antonino Chiaramonte, http://www.antoninochiaramonte.eu/
Rob Canning, http://rob.kiben.net/
Bill Thompson, www.billthompson.org
Ambrose Seddon, http://www.ambroseseddon.com/
Tom Davis, http://www.tdavis.co.uk/

Visuals by Kavi, https://vimeo.com/user324972

Click on the event titles above to book your tickets.

Open Access publishing discussion at EU

BU research, EU, open access, Publishing, Research news

EU Open Access 2015The European Commission held a workshop in October about alternatives to Green and Gold Open Access publishing.  The presentations held at this workshop are freely available online, click here.  Discussions included questions such as: how might these alternatives work, how they have evolved, whether they work well, and what challenges they don’t manage to tackle. This report synthesises the presentations and discussions from the workshop.   For more details see: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/report-workshop-alternative-open-access-publishing-models

Open-Access-logo

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Join the debate at the IRW

BU research, Research communication

InterdisResWeek2The Interdisciplinary Research Week 2016 will host three lively debates.  These include:

Tuesday 26 January 2016             

Professor Barry Richards and Dr Sascha-Dominik Bachmann

BU’s Big Issues: Threats in a changing world

EB708, Executive Business Centre, 18:30 – 19:30

Global security is rapidly becoming one of the biggest challenges facing our society. From the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine, to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, to continuing unrest in the Middle East, security issues are rarely out of the news. Join some of BU’s leading academics in this area to discover how their work is changing the debate and shaping thinking around the future of global security.

Wednesday 27 January 2016      

Professor Adrian Newton, Professor Chris Shiel, Associate Professor Jane Murphy, Dr Juliet Wiseman and Dr Dawn Birch

BU’s Big Issues: Protecting the environment: humans vs nature

EB708, Executive Business Centre, 18:30 – 19:30

Protecting the environment and living more sustainable is a laudable aim, and one that many of us support, but how easy is it to change human behaviours and what does it cost?  Join us to hear how research being led by BU’s academics is making a difference to our local area, through developing an understanding of how local environments are changing in response to human activities, and how we can all live more sustainably by changing the way we source our food.

Thursday 28 January 2016            

Dr Andrew Callaway, Dr Bryce Dyer and Shelley Broomfield

BU’s Big Issues: The use of technology in sports: giving athletes an Olympic advantage

KG03, Talbot Campus, 14:00 – 15:00

With the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics fast approaching, all eyes will soon be turning to the world’s elite athletes and their astonishing sporting achievements. Sporting technology forms a key part of their preparation and can help to make significant improvements in performance.  Join us to hear from three of BU’s sports researchers – and competitive athletes in their own right – to learn more about the ways technology can improve athletic performance for both elite athletes and people taking part in sports for fun.

Click on the links above to book your place at the debate.

Interdisciplinary Research Week 2016 Programme of Events

BU research, Research communication

InterdisResWeek2The second Interdisciplinary Research Week (IRW) is being held from 25th to 29th January 2016.  Join us at one or more of these free events to celebrate the breadth and excellence of Bournemouth University’s research, across it’s many disciplines.

This five day event includes a programme of lectures, art based events, film, discussions and healthy debate all designed to stimulate new ideas and examine important societal issues from across the globe.

Events also include funder visits from the Wellcome Trust who will be talking about their most recent collaborative project ‘Hubbub’ and why working across various disciplines, sectors and organisations is important to them as funders; and the British Academy who will share emerging findings from a project they are carrying out on interdisciplinary research.  They are looking at how the whole higher education and research systems supports such research in terms of publishing, research funding, academic careers, teaching and beyond.

The IRW events are open to everyone (only one event is for BU academics and researchers only).  Do check out the whole programme of events to see what might interest you and publicise the week to your friends and family.

CsJCC book launch

BU research

On Wednesday 9 December, the Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community held a book launch to celebrate the work of colleagues who have published monographs or edited collections over recent months.  In total we had around 9 books to browse and discuss and it was great to hear of further book projects in development.  Books on display included Gothic in Comics and Graphic Novels by Julia Round, British Spy Fiction and the End of Empire by Sam Goodman,  The Play of Political Culture, Emotion and Identity by Candida Yates and Narrative: the Basics, by Bronwen Thomas. Edited volumes included Shaun Kimber’s, Snuff: Real Death and Screen Media and Nael Jebril’s Political Journalism in Comparative Perspective. Soon to be published is Chris Pullen’s Straight Girls and Queer Guys, his ninth book so far!
IMG_0576

Pictured below are Candida Yates, Sam Goodman and Peri Bradley talking about their books.

 

 

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Peri Bradley’s book on Food, Media and Contemporary Culture features contributions from several colleagues in the Faculty of Media and Communication, while Media, Margins and Popular Culture edited by Einar Thorsen, Jenny Alexander, Heather Savigny and Dan Jackson is a collaboration between CsJCC and the Centre for Politics and Media in the Faculty.

Colleagues attending the event were keen to start reading the volumes on display. All books will soon be available from the library.

 

 

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HSS Writing Week 4th-8th January – How can Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit support you?

BU research, writing

bucru identity

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!

What will Marty McFly need in 25 years? 

BU Challenges, BU research, Funding opportunities, Research themes, Research Training, Training

Or, to put it another way, how do we realise the transformational impact of digital technologies on aspects of community life, cultural experiences, future society and the economy’?

On 26th and 27th January 2016,  RKEO will be hosting a sandpit workshop to facilitate exploration of this topic to:

  • Raise awareness –  interdisciplinary approaches are an integral element of research successclock
  • Provide a space to explore ideas
  • Provide a mechanism for continual peer review
  • Support proposal development
  • Stimulate research proposals in promising areas of research for the University

The Research Sandpit process comprises:

  • Defining the scope of the issue
  • Sharing understanding of the problem domain, and the expertise brought by the participants to the sandpit
  • Taking part in break-out sessions focused on the problem domain, using creative and innovative thinking techniques
  • Capturing the outputs in the form of a research project

To take part in this exciting opportunity, BU academic staff should complete the Sandpit Application Form and return this to Dianne Goodman by Tuesday 5th January. Places are strictly limited.

By applying, you agree to attend for the full duration of the event – full day 26th January and half day 27th January.

This event is part of BU’s Interdisciplinary Research Week.

Latest co-creation paper hot off the press! Study investigated the mechanism of spinal manipulation.

BU research, open access, PG research, Publishing, Research themes

Does cervical lordosis change after spinal manipulation for non-specific neck pain? A prospective cohort study

C-spine QF image for Chiro and Man Therapies

The mechanism for spinal manipulation in the treatment of pain is unknown. One mechanism proposed in the literature is that neck pain might be alleviated by changing or ‘correcting’ the alignment of the cervical spine (normal is considered to be a lordosis or lordotic curve – curving in towards the body). We decided to put this idea to the test in an undergraduate student project at AECC. Mike Shilton, a third year chiropractic student at the time, measured the angle of the cervical spine on x-ray images taken of patients and healthy volunteers that I had recruited for my PhD research. In that research, briefly, patients received spinal manipulation over 4 weeks, while healthy volunteers did not. Both groups had motion x-rays taken at baseline and 4-week follow-up. By using the first static image of each motion sequence we were able to investigate whether the cervical spine alignment or lordosis changed in the patient group, and whether such changes were greater than that in the healthy group not receiving treatment.

For the statistical analysis Mike was assisted by another student, Bas Penning de Vries. After the study it was proposed to the two students, by me and Professor Alan Breen, that they have a go at writing up the study for publication, with our assistance of course. Happily, they decided to do so. It might have been at times a painful process for them (most worthwhile things seem to be!), but they persevered and now it is published in a peer-reviewed open access journal! A great achievement for them, a publication already as they begin their clinical careers.

This co-created paper was a valuable exercise for the two undergraduate students, getting to learn about the research process, statistical analysis, publication and dissemination. An obvious benefit of co-creation to academics is that the workload of a project is spread throughout a larger team, albeit the students require support -but the time invested in that support should pay off. For instance, Mike and Bas  brought a fresh perspective to the team, posing well considered questions and suggestions that could be taken on board to improve the robustness of my own work and lines of argument. And of course, we now have a publication that would have taken much longer to get to press had I not had their assistance in writing it. In other words, with co-creation, everyone stands to gain.

Dr Jonny Branney

Find out how to submit your Festival of Learning 2016 Proposal

BU research, Festival of Learning, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, R & KE Operations, Research news

The Festival of Learning enters its fourth year in 2016 and will be running from Saturday 25 – Wednesday 29 June. It’s a fantastic public engagement opportunity for BU to showcase the great research coming out of the university. The call for proposals is now open and the process for submitting an application is simple:

  1. Think of an idea for an event that demonstrates your research – will it be innovating and interesting to members of the public? Watch our video from 2015 for some inspiration.
  2. Decide if you want your event to be a bookable event that people can sign up for or whether you’d like a run a stall or drop in activity instead (i.e. an activity based on passing traffic rather than pre-bookings)
  3. Consider who you want to be your target audience (adults, families, businesses etc.)
  4. Consider whether your event meets the Festivals objectives, what you plan to do during the event, how it will appeal to your intended audience and what your attendees will get out of attending the event.
  5. Complete the Festival of Learning event application before January 31st 2016: see here (We are unable to accept late proposals due to the tight turn around between the call closing and review by the panel.)

If you would like to discuss an idea in more detail, please call/ email Naomi Kay (Public Engagement Officer) 61342/ nkay@bouremouth.ac.uk or click here for more detailed information about submitting a proposal.

Report on the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) Age 17 Survey: Consultative Conference

BU research, Funding opportunities, Research communication, Research Training

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.