On 26th September the branch of the RCM in Southampton held a study day dedicated to considering human rights concerns in maternity care. It was attended by over 50 practitioners from across the region. Topics covered included a workshop by the human rights in maternity charity, Birthrights, and speakers from Barnados and Stop the Traffik. These latter presenters provided thought provoking, and somewhat harrowing, evidence for the need for awareness of sexual exploitation in young people, and trafficking of humans in our areas of practice. In addition Dr Jenny Hall (pictured right) from CEL and Jillian Ireland, visiting researcher in CMMPH, discussed the human rights of women with disability, based on current research partially funded by Birthrights, undertaken with colleagues Professor Vanora Hundley and Dr Bethan Collins from Liverpool University.
It was an intense event that demonstrated the importance of discussing and researching these aspects of current midwifery care.
Category / conferences
Association for Psychosocial Studies Biennial Conference
Association for Psychosocial Studies Biennial Conference
Bournemouth University, 5th-7th April 2018
‘Psychosocial Reflections on a Half Century of Cultural Revolution:
The 50th anniversary of seasons of love and protest’
Now with new Open Stream on “ New Directions in Psychosocial Studies”
Join us to reflect on revolutionary relationships and politics which challenged authority then and which influence us now. The cultural forces and the political movements of 1967 and 1968 aimed to change the world, and did so. Where are we now? Recent developments of some populist and protest politics could be seen as a continuation of the revolutionary movements in the 1960s. Hedonic themes that recall the summer of love suffuse contemporary life, and self-reflection and emotional literacy have also become prominent values, along with more positive attitudes towards human diversity and the international community. We invite you to offer psychosocial analyses of the development and legacy today of the ‘revolutions’ in sex, personal life and politics. This could be via explorations of contemporary issues in politics, culture and artistic expression, or through historical studies. All proposals for papers must indicate how they address both psychological and social dimensions of their topic.
Due to popular demand, we have added a new open stream, for those who wish to submit proposals for papers, panels or visual art presentations on
“Current and New Directions in Psychosocial Studies”
Further details: http://aps2018.bournemouth.ac.uk/call-for-papers/
Send your abstract of 250-300 words to APS2018@bournemouth.ac.uk
Final deadline: 1st December 2017. Confirmation of acceptance: 1st Jan
(existing submissions, notified by 1st. November).
We welcome contributions from academics and practitioners from different fields and disciplines and very much look forward to seeing you there!
Research by BU undergraduate students has been recognised at the major conferences and at global research competition
Two major conferences held in Los Angeles in the middle of summer were attended by a small group from the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) of the Faculty of Media and Communication. The group included Dr Valery Adzhiev and two students Quentin Corker-Marin (the course Computer Visualisation and Animation – CVA, Level 6) and Phil Gifford (the course Software Development in Animation, Games and Effects – SDAGE, Level 6).
The students were there to present two posters at SIGGRAPH 2017 conference: “Space-Time Cubification of Artistic Shapes” by Quentin Corker-Marin (co-authors and supervisors Dr Valery Adzhiev and Prof Alexander Pasko) and “Interactive Parameterised Heterogeneous 3D Modelling with Signed Distance Fields” by Teemu Lindborg and Philip Gifford (co-author and supervisor Dr Oleg Fryazinov). Another paper “Cubification and Animation of Artistic Shapes” by Q. Corker-Marin, V. Adzhiev and A. Pasko was presented at the ACM SIGGRAPH / Eurographics Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA 2017) that took place at UCLA just before SIGGRAPH.
These were very different conferences. ACM SIGGRAPH / Eurographics Symposium on Computer Animation Symposium is a rather small-scale event (about 120 attenders) which has a reputation of a leading venue for R&D in Computer Animation. SIGGRAPH 2017 is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary event showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. As usual, that was a huge endeavour with 20+ thousands attenders from 88 countries (including a real giraffe named Tiny who made two appearances as part of an animal drawing workshop), over 600 papers, courses, lectures, panels, installations, artworks, Animation Festival, VR theatre, Exhibition, etc. (all that selected from nearly 2,000 submissions from all around the world) and giving a platform to more than 1,800 speakers and contributors.
The official purpose of the SIGGRAPH Posters is “presenting novel research, art, and ideas to the global computer graphics community based on recently completed work or tentative new approaches” (official video). Note that is not “a student event” – quite a few established academics submit their work to it because it provides a lot of exposure (in particular, in terms of an immediate contact of the authors with attenders, and a lot of real experts are among them), although it has long been especially popular with PhD students who could test their ideas there. UG students’ submissions are accepted not often at all. All the submissions (many hundreds of them from all over the world) have been peer-reviewed and eventually 87 posters were accepted and published in the ACM Digital Library. The “cubist” poster had also been selected (as one of only ten) for presentation in the official “SIGGRAPH 2017 – Posters Preview” video that had been widely shown before and during the event.
The students have also participated in the prestigious ACM Student Research Competition (SRC) sponsored by Microsoft. The result was a significant success: first, both posters were selected by “a panel of distinguished judges” (chaired by Deborah Fowler, Professor in the Visual Effects department, at Savannah College of Art and Design, US) as semi-finalists (just seven in UG category); then during the Posters sessions the judges talked to each of those semi-finalists (Phil and Quentin in our case) who had to answer their questions. Three UG students (Quentin among them) were invited into the SRC Final that was scheduled as a regular conference event to make a proper (conference-style) presentation in front of the Jury and the audience. Quentin was awarded with the second place (got the medal and the prize money) which can only be considered as an outstanding achievement.
A detailed report by Dr Valery Adzhiev can be downloaded from here. It includes author’s reflections on a much debated topic of involvement of UG students into research with a detailed description of how the project “Cubist Dynamic Sculpting” had been conducted and what was the specifics of cooperation of established researchers specialised in Computer Science with the student with mainly artistic background. The text also includes a detailed diary written by Quentin Corker-Marin with his impressions about the trip to Los Angeles.
By Dr Valery Adzhiev, Principal Academic, NCCA, FMC
FMC Placement Development Advisor Vianna Renaud presents at the RAISE17 Conference in Manchester
Last week Faculty Placement Development Advisor Vianna Renaud presented at the RAISE17 Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University. 
With over 235 delegates representing institutions throughout the UK and Ireland, this conference was focused on student engagement with the theme, “Perspectives on student engagement; looking forward..thinking back.” This was the perfect event to share best practice and information regarding the latest trends in the sector.
Presenting on the campus wide Placement PAL pilot project last year, it was a wonderful opportunity to share with colleagues from a variety of institutions. I found the conference to be of great benefit as there was an open and collaborative atmosphere in the room. The delegates were clearly passionate about this subject area with the same desire to share and learn with colleagues.
RAISE is a network of academics, practitioners, advisors and student representatives drawn from the Higher Education Sector who are working and/or interested in researching and promoting student engagement. For further information, conference programme and proceedings:
Conference on the impact of complications and errors in surgery held at BU
Things can go wrong in surgery, and dealing with the consequences of complications and errors is part and parcel of a surgeon’s life. Last week a conference was held at BU’s Executive Business Centre which explored the impact that adverse events have on surgeons and examined how these effects can be ameliorated. Eminent presenters from across the UK shared insights from their surgical careers and personal experiences, presented the latest research in the area, and considered how better support and training could be provided for surgeons.
The conference was organised by the Bournemouth Adverse Events Research Team, a joint research venture between psychologists at BU and surgeons at Royal Bournemouth Hospital, who are currently researching the impact of complications and errors which inevitably arise during surgery on surgeons. Professor Siné McDougall, one of the research team, said: “Today is about trying to think about what we can do to support surgeons. When things do go wrong, the focus is rightly on patients and their family. However, surgeons are also dealing with their own feelings, particularly if they have made a mistake which they deeply regret.”
It was clear that the conference had touched on a key issue for surgeons. This was summed up by the keynote speaker, Professor Sir Miles Irving, Emeritus Professor of Surgery at Manchester University, who said “The proceedings were excellent and clearly demonstrated that you have latched on to a problem which has the potential to become even more significant if not addressed.” The Bournemouth Adverse Events Team is looking forward to continuing research in this area which will address this issue.
How did an archaeologist become a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Management?
My name is Shannon Birch-Chapman and I am currently a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Management at Bournemouth University, working on a QR funded project titled Trust Repair in the Service Sector.
Our team is investigating how organisations can repair trust following trust erosion, focussing on three highly publicised cases: 1) the treatment of staff at the main Sports Direct Warehouse in Derbyshire; 2) the Alton Towers rollercoaster crash that caused two women to have leg amputations; and 3) the mis-selling of PPI by banks. These are diverse case studies with different causes and severities of trust erosion and as such, our team consists of people with diverse backgrounds: two in finance (Dr Julie Robson and Samreen Ashraf), two in leisure and hospitality (Dr Caroline Jackson and Dr Elvira Borat), two in retail (Prof Juliet Memery and Dr Jason Sit) and me: an archaeologist!
Figure 1. Excavating on the Bournemouth University Durotriges Project in 2013.
“How did an archaeologist become a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Management?” I hear you ask. Well, as any archaeology graduate knows, finding steady employment in archaeology following your degree (or in my case, an undergraduate degree, an honours degree, a masters and a PhD!) is almost impossible. The great thing about studying archaeology is that we learn a wide range of transferrable skills and are particularly good at sifting through large volumes of quantitative and qualitative evidence, and synthesising this to make informed conclusions. We are essentially the detectives of the past and, as such, make meticulous researchers.
Figure 2. Surveying the architectural remains at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Ba’ja in Jordan in 2015.
In this project, I have put my previous skills to good use, conducting literature searches; compiling and writing background information for our case studies, conference presentations and journal articles; devising the conceptual framework and hypotheses for our project, and linking these to the current theories; analysing data; and writing and presenting results.
I have also developed several new qualitative research skills, particularly relating to the gathering of data through consumer focus groups, stakeholder interviews and questionnaires. As someone who had never done qualitative research of this kind, it was an interesting process working out how to devise the right questions to ask. I hadn’t ever given much thought to how much effort goes into constructing these and analysing the outputs.
One of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of the research to date has been learning how to use NVivo: a program for analysing qualitative data. Our team attended a two day workshop with Ben Meehan from QDA Training, which was tailored for our project. It was then my job to ‘code’ and analyse the data from the consumer focus groups and some of the stakeholder interviews. I used a combination of template and thematic approaches, whereby participant responses were ‘coded’ into pre-existing and emerging themes. The themes related to definitions of trust, the cause and severity of trust erosion, specific trust repair strategies and the success of these for trust repair. Running queries on the coded data, we were able to determine the trust repair strategies that were most successful for each of our three case studies.
The project started around February this year and we have already had the opportunity to present our research at the 3rd International Colloquium on Design, Brand and Marketing (ICDBM) in April and at Bournemouth University’s Festival of Learning in July. We are presenting at the 3rd International Colloquium on Corporate Branding, Identity, Image and Reputation (COBIIR): Current and Future Trends, Developments and Challenges in September and have two journal articles in preparation. We are hoping that our results will guide best practice in industry and the team will be looking to work more directly with practitioners in the next stage of the research.
Figure 3. Presenting at the ICDBM conference in 2017 (left to right: Shannon Birch-Chapman, Caroline Jackson, Julie Robson and Samreen Ashraf).
As for me, I am nearing the end of my contract at Bournemouth University. Being a research assistant here has enabled me to apply and develop even stronger research skills beyond my discipline that I am sure will help me in my search for future employment. I wonder what interesting things I will be researching next…
To follow Trust Repair project, tweet at @TrustRepairBU
Conference papers
Bolat, E., Robson, J., Ashraf, S., Birch-Chapman, S., Sit, J., Memery, J. and Jackson, C., 2017. Corporate brand rehab: Diagnosing trust repair mechanisms in the service sectors. Paper to be presented at the 3rd International Colloquium on Corporate Branding, Identity, Image and Reputation (COBIIR): Current and Future Trends, Developments and Challenges. 7th-8th September 2017.
Robson, J., Memery, J., Jackson, C., Sit, J., Bolat, E., Ashraf, S., Birch-Chapman, S., 2017. Trust Me: I’m no longer a damaged brand. Paper presented at the 3rd International Colloquium on Design, Brand and Marketing (ICDBM), Bournemouth University, 5th Apr 2017.
REF & TEF: the connections – 11th October 2017
The outcomes of this year’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and the direction for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) as set out in the 2017 consultation response are likely to have significant implications for the higher education sector. The links between research and teaching are likely to become ever more important, but set against the context of increasing emphasis on student experience, how should the sector respond and where should it focus?
REF & TEF: the connections will be hosted at Bournemouth University and will bring together some of the leading experts in higher education in both research and teaching policy. During the morning, attendees will have the opportunity hear from experts from across the higher education sector, as they share their insights into the importance of the links between teaching and research. The afternoon will feature a number of case studies with speakers from universities with a particularly good record of linking research and teaching.
Speakers confirmed to date include Kim Hackett, REF Manager and Head of Research Assessment, HEFCE and John Vinney Bournemouth University, William Locke University College London, Professor Sally Brown Higher Education Academy.
For more information or to book on visit: https://reftef.eventbrite.co.uk
What happens when things go wrong in medicine?
1-day BU conference/workshop examining what happens when things go wrong in surgery, 8th September 2017
Every day we make mistakes; we pick up the wrong set of keys from the kitchen drawer, pick up the wrong identical suitcase from the airport carousel, or, in the case of the Oscars, a near identical envelope is given to Warren Beatty who then announces the wrong Best Film winner.
What happens when things go wrong in surgery where the consequences can be much more serious? While attention, quite rightly, focuses on patient need when things go wrong, the aim of this event is to examine how medical professionals can be better supported and trained to cope with these adverse events.
Eminent speakers from around the UK will present the latest research in the area, share insights from their surgical careers and personal experiences and will consider:-
Impact – The personal impact when complications and errors arise in surgery
Resilience – Dealing with stress and maintaining wellbeing
Restoration – what can be done when things go wrong?
While the focus is on surgeons, it is clear that those in other medical professions (e.g. nurses, midwives, GPs) face similar issues in the workplace. Anyone with an interest in the topic is welcome to attend (attendance is free for BU staff). For further details and to register for the conference please visit www.surgeonwellbeing.co.uk or contact Professor Siné McDougall (smcdougall@bournemouth.ac.uk; ext. 61722).
BU’s PhD student Juan Camilo Avendaño Diaz and Dr. Xun He presented their research at the 7th Joint Action Meeting.
On July 22-26, Dr. Xun He and Juan Camilo Avendaño Diaz (PhD student) attended the 7th bi-annual Joint Action Meeting (JAM), held at Queen Mary University of London. This meeting brought together researchers from many different fields (psychologists, philosophers, physicists, musicians, engineers and neuroscientists, just to name a few), interested in studying people’s ability to act together (they had a full day covering human-robot interaction as well!).
Dr. Xun He gave a talk titled “A dual-EEG study of the shared attention effect in dyads: Sensory processing or top-down control?”, examining the information processing in the brain when people co-attend to the same spatial locations. Juan Camilo presented the poster “Visual attention in dyads: The role of group membership”, suggesting that co-attending with members of the same vs. different social group could have distinct effects on visual attention.
Attending JAM 2017 was a great opportunity to meet some key figures in the field, and to hear and discuss about the research that is been performed worldwide, including the research carried out at BU.
If you would like to learn more about our research, please do not hesitate to contact me at javendanodiaz@bournemouth.ac.uk
Helping surgeons when things go wrong
1-day BU conference examining the effect of adverse events on surgeons, 8th September 2017
A group of BU researchers are working in partnership with Royal Bournemouth Hospital to carry out research examining the consequences of complications and errors on surgeons’ lives. On September 8th 2017 we are holding a one day conference to highlight the effects of dealing with adverse events. We have been fortunate in attracting eminent speakers from around the UK to contribute to the conference which will be held at the Executive Business School on the Lansdowne Campus.
Speakers include:-
- Sir Miles Irving (Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Manchester University)
- Dr Clare Gerada (Medical Director, NHS Practitioner Health Programme)
- Professor Debbie Cohen (Director, Centre for Physician Health, Cardiff University)
- Dr Mike Peters (Medical Director, BMA Doctors for Doctors Unit)
- Dr Suzanne Shale (Medical ethicist advising national bodies following healthcare harm)
Speakers will present the latest research in the area, share insights from their surgical careers and personal experiences, and consider how better support and training can be provided for surgeons.
If you are interested in attending (attendance is free for BU staff) or would like to know more please visit www.surgeonwellbeing.co.uk or contact Professor Siné McDougall (smcdougall@bournemouth.ac.uk; ext. 61722).
Xiaosong Yang attends the Computer Graphics International 2017 in Yokohama, Japan
Thanks to the QR funding from the Faculty of Media and Communication, I recently had the privilege to attend the Computer Graphics International 2017 in Yokohama, Japan. CGI is a prestigious conference in the graphics world for many years and attracts interest from people all over the world. We have one paper presented on the conference, as a full paper, it will be published in the Visual Computer Journal by Springer-Verlag.
We have hosted the CGI2012 at Bournemouth. CGI2017 is held at Keio University, Yokohama chaired by Prof. Issei Fujishiro and Prof. Xiaoyang Mao. The first day (27th June) events are majorly tutorials and workshops. The shining part is the keynote by Prof. Marina Gavrilova from University of Calgary, discussing how to use machine learning for social data analysis through image and video processing, especially multiple modal biometric data acquisition, feature matching, fusion and recognition. One interesting application is gender prediction using image aesthetics.
The second day’s keynote is “reconstructing reality: from physical world to virtual environments” by Prof. Ming Lin from University of North Carolina. She firstly gave an introduction on the history of VR and AR, then talked about her work on human tissue material property estimation from real surgery videos, virtual dressing, crowd and traffic pattern learning from videos of real world, finally the sound and haptic rendering in VR environment. Daniel Thalmann (chair of the conference) held the panel discussion on the future of machine learning in graphics. There were lots of other paper presentations on the second day covering many topics including image, texture, modelling, rendering, deformation and visualization.
The third day’s keynote is “Studies on Humanlike robots” by Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro. He showed the latest state-of-the-art robot in Japan, the mimic version of himself. Obviously lots of small human robots have been used in some restaurants to entertain guest during food ordering. My student Tao Jiang presented his paper in the morning session.
I chaired a session on the fourth day on papers working on image & example based modelling. There are also some posters presented during the conference.
This is a very good opportunity to network with top experts in the world. I had good chat with many people such as Prof. Henry Fuchs (Guru in the VR world), Prof. Ming Lin, Prof. Marina Gavrilova, Prof. Kwan-Liu Ma (leading expert in the visualization, chaired the top visualization conferences in the world), Prof. Shimin Hu (Tsinghua University), Prof. Enhu Wu (Chinese Academy of Science), and also some other experts from Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, USA and China etc. There is also a discussion with a professor from German about collaboration on 3D living environment reconstruction from old photos for dementia patient/old people. This is a very exciting and intensive experience for four full days, sharing different ideas, building links and research collaborations.
Why Yawning is Important in Studying Multiple Sclerosis by Dr Simon Thompson
What is MS?
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic debilitating and progressive condition that affects the fatty tissue sheath surrounding nerves. Loss of the myelin sheath is largely responsible for uncoordinated movements because the nerves cannot transmit signals smoothly across the complex neural circuitry. A common symptom of MS is excessive yawning together with fatigue.
Research study
Following recent completion of a study at the Osborne Centre, West Parley, we found that people with MS had higher cortisol levels when yawning compared with healthy participants.
Previous research at Bournemouth University
This research follows several years of research by the author at Bournemouth University with the first report on the “yawning envelope”, identifying the electrical trace during yawning (Refs. 1-2), and the first report on the association between yawning and cortisol levels following provoked yawning (Refs. 3-6).
Yawning “envelope”
“Contagious” yawning is seen in animals as well humans; it may involve empathy to perceived social cues in humans.
Yawning: (clockwise) Fox, Pig, Human, Hippopotamus
A series of 3 Q and A events with talks about findings was held at the MS Society local branch which facilitated an interesting and lively debate among participants, researchers and staff at the Centre.
Further research planned
We believe that threshold levels of cortisol trigger the yawn response which lowers brain temperature, particularly important in MS where brain temperatures can be elevated considerably following fatigue. A funding bid is in preparation to examine early detection of MS using these findings.
About the author
Simon B N Thompson is Associate Professor, Bournemouth University; and Visiting Professor, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France. He has presented to His Excellency Bernard Emié, the French Ambassador at the French Embassy, signalling formation of the Anglo-French International Scientific Council for Research into Multiple Sclerosis.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all volunteers; Alister Coleman and Nicola Williams for assisting in data collection and analysis; Rod Slip, Group Co-ordinator and Kay Bundy, Fundraising Co-ordinator of the MS Society Osborne Centre for providing free facilities.
References
1. Thompson, S.B.N., 2013. How to catch a yawn: initial observations of a randomised controlled trial. WMC Neurology, 4(8), doi: 10.9754/journal.wmc.2013.004371.
2. Thompson, S.B.N., Frankham, C., & Bishop, P., 2014. The art of capturing a yawn using the science of nerve impulses and cortisol levels in a randomized controlled trial. Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis as a potential predictor of neurological impairment. International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 7(3), 529-543.
3. Thompson, S.B.N., 2011. Born to yawn? Cortisol linked to yawning: a new hypothesis. Medical Hypotheses, 77, 861-862.
4. Thompson, S.B.N., & Bishop, P., 2012. Born to yawn? Understanding yawning as a warning of the rise in cortisol levels: randomized trial. Interactive Journal of Medical Research, 1(2), e4, 1-9, doi: 10.2196/ijmr.2241.
5. Thompson, S. B. N., Daly, S., Le Blanche, A., Adibi, M., Belkhiria, C., Driss, T., de Marco, G., 2016. fMRI randomized study of mental and motor task performance and cortisol levels to potentiate cortisol as a new diagnostic biomarker. Journal of Neurology & Neuroscience, 7(2); 92: 1-8.
6. Thompson, S.B.N., 2017. Hypothesis to explain yawning, cortisol rise, brain cooling and motor cortex involvement of involuntary arm movement in neurologically impaired patients. Journal of Neurology & Neuroscience, 8(1); 167: 1-5.
Performance of Gemmeleg at NIME 2017, Copenhagen
Rehearsal in the Black Diamond
Gemmeleg is a composition by Laura Reid cellist/composer for the performance system The Feral Cello developed by Dr Tom Davis.
This piece was performed at the prestigious Black Diamond concert venue in Copenhagen as part of the international conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, NIME.
The Feral Cello is a performance system developed by Tom Davis that incorporates machine listening and actuated feedback to alter the response of an acoustic cello in real time during a performance. A description of the performance system was also presented as a poster at the conference.
Previous performances have been at NoiseFloor 2017, Staffordshire University.
The Black Diamond Venue
ADRC at Quality Matters Conference, Poole Lighthouse, 29th June 2017
Joanne Holmes from the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre ( ADRC) was invited to present a workshop entitled ‘The Mealtime Experience – what is the impact on an individual’s health and wellbeing?’ at the Partners in Care Quality Matters Conference at Poole Lighthouse. Those attending the workshop represented a range of social care providers and commissioners from across the region. During the workshop participants engaged in lively discussion about the barriers and enablers to good nutritional care for those receiving social care in both the residential setting and home care. Various activities were undertaken including tasting and smelling foods to highlight these barriers. Suggestions were made on how to improve the meal time experience informed by research on nutrition and dementia care, funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing ( PI Prof Jane Murphy and Co-PI Joanne Holmes) and Joanne’s own PhD studies: An exploration of the factors that affect the extensive meal experience for cognitively active elderly living in residential care.
Both Joanne and Jane were on hand to answer any questions about good nutritional care for the older person throughout the conference and represent the A
DRC at this key regional showcase event.
‘Working Across Boundaries’: National MUPI Match Event
Are you interested in getting involved in a museum and university partnership? Do you want to meet and develop potential collaborators in museums, or other institutions and organisations across the UK? Then why not look at signing up for the final Museum-University Partnership Initiative (MUPI) Match Event in London.
There are many benefits to museums and universities working together, from improving audience understanding to developing more effective collections knowledge or interpretation; from inspiring museum audiences with cutting edge research to developing new exhibits and exhibitions; the opportunities are endless.
However, finding a partner and having the resources to explore how you might work together can be challenging. This final MUPI match event draws upon a tried and tested methodology to bring people together to develop new partnerships. Each session involves museum staff, volunteers, and academics working together to find mutually beneficial ideas that they would like to develop together.
This event focuses specifically on some of the most popular themes from our regional Matches that explore the idea of ‘Working Across Boundaries’ in different ways:
- Using new technologies in cultural heritage settings e.g. mapping, 3D modelling, big data, innovative ways to animate and rethink collections
- Engaging new audiences – from student placements to non-traditional specialist audiences
- Migration, politics, activism
Details:
The Cinema Museum, London
26 July 2017, 11am-4.30pm
Registration link: https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/national-mupi-sandpit-working-across-boundaries-london-26-july-2017
Open to: postgraduate students, postdoctoral and established researchers from any discipline; all museums which are Accredited, Provisionally Accredited, or Working Towards Accreditation; across England.
Funding:
MUPI Match events provide an opportunity for teams formed at the event to bid for funding (of between £500-£1500) from the MUPI Match fund. A pot of £6000 is available for this event. This ‘thinking funding’ will enable people to do desk research; have conversations; travel and attend site visits/meetings; test ideas; and work together to plan their potential project. This thinking funding provides a critical part of the process, helping people to work out if and how to work together and refine their ideas. Teams will be supported to develop their partnership, and find effective ways to fund their project in the future.
How to get involved:
If you work or volunteer in an ACE Accredited museum, or if you are an academic who is keen to develop new partnerships with museums then a MUPI Match event is just what you are looking for! The event is focused on bringing together museums and academics from across England; it is free to participate in; and interactive. Bring your ideas, your energy, and your expertise and prepare to be challenged and inspired. Who knows this could be the beginning of something very special!
MUPI Match events are delivered through the Museum University Partnership Initiative, funded by Arts Council England’s Museum Resilience Fund and developed in partnership with the Share Academy project and Paddy McNulty Associates.
Multiple Sclerosis Research in Bournemouth – Dr Simon B N Thompson
MS is a chronic debilitating and progressive condition that affects the fatty tissue sheath surrounding nerves. Incomplete innervation due to loss of the myelin sheath is largely responsible for uncoordinated movements. Brain temperature fluctuations are also often seen in people with MS together with fatigue when carrying out mentally or physically demanding tasks. These are commonly associated with excessive yawning yet the cause of fatigue in MS is not well understood.
A recently completed study asked participants to produce saliva into a small tube so that their cortisol levels could be analysed. They were also asked to look at presentations that provoked a yawning response. Results revealed that all of the participants had elevated cortisol levels after yawning and that there was a marked difference in cortisol levels between the healthy participants and those with MS.
Yawning: Pynq Thompson aged 28 days
Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis (Ref.1) proposes threshold levels of cortisol trigger the yawn response which lowers brain temperature. Correlation between brain temperature and cortisol is to be further examined together with comparison between UK and Norwegian participants with MS since the incidence of MS is greater in Scandinavian countries (and Canada and Scotland) possibly due to vitamin D and K reduction with reduced sunlight.
Previous studies have examined electromyograph (EMG) activity during yawning and manipulation of conditions to provoke yawning (Refs. 2,3). Brain regions and cortisol activity has been identified in MS in an international study (Ref. 4); and a new understanding proposed of communication between the motor cortex and brain-stem (Ref.5).
Yawning EMG “envelope” of activity
A funding bid is being prepared to examine the feasibility of producing the early detection of MS and cortisol-insufficiency syndromes using observed yawning frequency and cortisol levels.
Simon B N Thompson is Associate Professor, Bournemouth University; Visiting Professor, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France. Member of International Scientific Council for Research into Multiple Sclerosis following presentation to French Ambassador, His Excellency Bernard Emié, French Embassy.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all volunteers; Alister Coleman and Nicola Williams for assisting in data collection and analysis; Rod Slip, Group Co-ordinator and Kay Bundy, Fundraising Co-ordinator of the MS Society Osborne Centre for providing free facilities.
Note
The author would welcome interest in collaborating in writing bids for funding international work.
References
1. Thompson, S.B.N., 2011. Born to yawn? Cortisol linked to yawning: a new hypothesis. Medical Hypotheses, 77, 861-862.
2. Thompson, S.B.N., & Bishop, P., 2012. Born to yawn? Understanding yawning as a warning of the rise in cortisol levels: randomized trial. Interactive Journal of Medical Research, 1(2), e4, 1-9, doi: 10.2196/ijmr.2241.
3. Thompson, S.B.N., Frankham, C., & Bishop, P., 2014. The art of capturing a yawn using the science of nerve impulses and cortisol levels in a randomized controlled trial. Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis as a potential predictor of neurological impairment. International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 7(3), 529-543.
4. Thompson, S. B. N., Daly, S., Le Blanche, A., Adibi, M., Belkhiria, C., Driss, T., de Marco, G., 2016. fMRI randomized study of mental and motor task performance and cortisol levels to potentiate cortisol as a new diagnostic biomarker. Journal of Neurology & Neuroscience, 7(2); 92: 1-8.
5. Thompson, S.B.N., 2017. Hypothesis to explain yawning, cortisol rise, brain cooling and motor cortex involvement of involuntary arm movement in neurologically impaired patients. Journal of Neurology & Neuroscience, 8(1); 167: 1-5.
“Is it 2 breastfeeds and then a bottle, or is it one breastfeed and a bottle? Not sure”?
Last week Senior Midwifery lecturer Dr Luisa Cescutti-Butler, member of CMMPH, had the opportunity to attend and present at the prestigious international 3 day conference organised by MAINN @ UCLAN. Nutrition and Nurture in Infancy and Childhood: Bio-Cultural Perspectives. It took place in the beautiful surrounds of Grange-Over-Sands in Cumbria. It was attended by speakers and researchers from India, Australia, Sweden, South Africa, USA, Canada as well as the UK and therefore an ideal networking opportunity. The title of Luisa’s presentation was “Is it 2 breastfeeds and then a bottle, or is it one breastfeed and a bottle? Not sure”?, based on her PhD study, supervised by Professor Ann Hemingway, Dr. Jaqui Hewitt-Taylor. The paper reported on women’s experiences of feeding their late preterm baby/babies (LPBs), born between 340/7 and 36 6/7 weeks gestation, especially pertinent as the rates for these births is rising. A feminist approach to the study had been utilised using in depth two phase qualitative interviews.
Luisa says of the conference: ‘ I got to meet researchers that I have used widely within my PhD such as Renee Flacking from Sweden who has undertaken research around preterm babies, Virginia Schmied internationally renowned midwifery professor and Professor Paula Meier who has extensively researched late preterm babies and breastfeeding. She came and listened to my presentation and enjoyed it. Thought my findings were very interesting but was a little dismayed that practice had not moved forward. It was also a good opportunity to meet up with twitter buddies such as Laura Godfrey-Isaacs @godfrey_issacs, who took the photos!’
Luisa may be contacted further about her study but the findings indicate that women caring for LPBs frequently encountered contradictory advice regarding infant feeding and often felt their own experiences, intuition and instincts were devalued. The research concludes that the practice of feeding of LPBs should be revisited in partnership with women, so their experiences and perspectives can be utilised to develop satisfying nurturing relationships whilst also meeting nutritional requirements and that breastfeeding is a feminist, human rights issue. The full abstract is published in the conference proceedings.
Belonging in a post-Brexit-vote Britain (British Sociological Association) conference
BU academic presented at ‘Belonging in a post-Brexit-vote Britain: researching race, ethnicity and migration in a changing landscape’ conference at the University of Sheffield (co-organised by the British Sociological Association and the Migration Research Group)
I presented an on-going project, Migrant and Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being at ‘Belonging in a post-Brexit-vote Britain: researching race, ethnicity and migration in a changing landscape’ conference at the University of Sheffield in May. A report of the conference can be found here: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/socstudies/scsnews/bsa-migration-conference-1.701133
[Dr. Jaeyeon Choe, Senior Academic presenting at Sheffield]
The ‘Migrant and Refugee Leisure Spaces and Community Well-being’ presentation got much interest from the audience, who were primarily sociologists. Discussions flowed around “how” leisure spaces and practices can help migrants integrate into communities and enhance their well-being, and how migrants define social inclusion, integration and well-being differently from scholarly (often middle class and ‘white’) definitions. Other discussions surrounded how some cultures have segregated and have ‘invisible’ leisure spaces whilst others prefer generic space to gather.
Prof. Louise Ryan in Sociology at University of Sheffield emphasised that we need to develop comparative lenses and more holistic and international perspectives from different scales. We need to talk across fields and disciplines to move forward to understand migrants’ lives, well-being and integration.
“The impact of the referendum, means that researchers on intra-EU migration, those working on refugee studies and on ‘race’ and ethnic studies, need to come together to share insights and collaborate to develop new analytical frameworks to understanding the evolving implications of Brexit.”
The tourism and leisure field has much to offer and contribute in the exploration of migrant lives and their integration in the UK. Existing research suggests that leisure spaces provide migrants with opportunities for developing, expressing and negotiating their personal, social and cultural preferences safely whilst gaining recognition and a sense of belonging. This is especially important as they may confront issues relating to belongingness, societal membership, social status, self-perception and cultural confusion. Leisure can be instrumental to (re)establishing connections and networks with locals as well as other migrants and refugees, and provide spaces for problem solving. Leisure opportunities and spaces support the development of cultural capital to allow migrants to feel safe enough to contemplate building a productive life. Thus, leisure spaces can play an important role in integration. The role of leisure in integration also reflects the receiving community feeling unthreatened by migration.
I also participated in an Early Career Researcher Mentoring session with Prof. Louise Ryan during the conference. I found the session very useful as I received advice on research, publishing and networking in the migration studies field and beyond. Prof. Ryan also shared helpful insights and advice on career development strategies in the UK, especially for migrant young female researchers with similar profiles to me. This was an unusual programme during an academic conference that can be widely utilised by other conference and workshop organizers. I found the session extremely helpful in aiding my understanding of the academic culture in the UK and how to adapt to it as a young researcher from a migrant background.
https://www.britsoc.co.uk/about/latest-news/2017/may/mentoring-caf%C3%A9-it-isnt-just-chatting-over-coffee/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=may_news&utm_content=louise_ryan
Another interesting feature of the conference was a photographer as a keynote speaker. Jeremy Abrahams (theatre & portrait photographer) shared powerful visual work of the impact of Brexit entitled, ‘Remain/Leave’.
A keynote by Dr. Jon Fox at University of Bristol emphasised ‘Everyday Racism’ and how it has increased after the EU Referendum. He discussed pathological integration: East Europeans, racism & becoming British.
Finally, fellow conference delegates took photos of my presentation and posted them with useful comments/questions on the conference twitter page. After I mentioned a Bourenmouth University migrant well-being project twitter account, 10 immediately followed us, and had led to interesting and useful connections with fellow researchers with similar interests. 🙂 It was not only productive in getting feedback and comments on our on-going research project, but also great to meet migrant studies researchers to network.
For more information about our migrant and refugee leisure spaces and community
well-being project, please follow the Facebook Group: ‘Migrant Leisure Spaces’, Twitter: @migrantspaces and the project web page: https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/project/migrant-refugee-leisure-wellbeing/
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