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Why is Balance critical in Game Design?

BU research, Featured academics

We would like to invite you to a guest talk on Games research.McCallum

Title: Why is Balance critical in Game Design?

Speaker: Simon McCallum (Gjøvik University College, Norway)

Date: Friday 22nd July 2016
Time: 1:00PM-2:00PM
Room: Inspire LT, Fusion Building, Talbot Campus

Brief: In this presentation Simon will discuss the role of choice in games and how for meaningful choice to exist the options need to have carefully curated balance.  Options that are too similar become meaningless, as does a single clearly better option.  Creating interesting incomparables is part of the art of game design.  We will also discuss other aspects of balance related to game resources, starting positions, unit power etc.

We hope to see you there.

Hat-trick of new diabetes papers

BU research, Featured academics, international, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

Diabetes editorial BarnardCongratulations to Katharine Barnard and Janet James in FHSS and their colleagues in the USA and Sweden on their latest publication on the ‘Impact of Chronic Sleep Disturbance for People Living with T1 Diabetes’ [1].  Recently Dr. Barnard also co-authored an editorial in the international journal Diabetes under the title ‘Psychosocial Aspects and Diabetes Technology – Head to Head or Hand in Hand?’ [2].  Finally, the third recent paper by Dr. Barnard and colleagues from across the UK was published in Diabetes Care, the journal of the American Diabetes Association [3].Barnard Diabetes 2016

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

 

 

References

  1. Barnard, K., James, J., et al. Impact of Chronic Sleep Disturbance for People Living With T1 Diabetes J Diabetes Sci Technol 2016; 10: 762-767.
  2. Barnard K.D., Weissberg-Benchell, J., Psychosocial Aspects and Diabetes Technology – Head to Head or Hand in Hand? Diabetes 2016; 12(1): 35-36. DOI: http://doi.org/10.17925/EE.2016.12.01.35
  3. Barnard K.D, Holt, R.I. et al. ,Could the Discrepancy in Perceived Emotional Care Received and Provided Be a Barrier to Active Diabetes Self-management? Insights From the Second Diabetes Attitudes, Wishes and Needs (DAWN2) Study. Diabetes Care 2016; 39(2): e20-e21.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/dc15-0674

 

Seminar by Prof Sue Denham in Cogntive and Computational Neuroscience. Today the 5th of May at 15h, Lawrence Lecture Theatre.

BU research, Events, Featured academics, international

Sue Denham, PhD in Physics holds a Professorship in Cognitive Neuroscience at the department of Psychology in Plymouth University and is director of the Cognition Institute https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/institutes/cognition

Prof Denham has published a series of influential studies in the area of auditory cognition both from empirical and neurocomputational modelling angles. In addition, she has applied these insights in the development of computationally efficient implementations for practical technological applications, and in the creation of novel devices. Sue has been funded multiple times from BBSRC, EPSRC, Leverhulme, Welcome Trust and ERC among other funding agencies; and has been coordinator of three FP7 European projects. Currently she is the coordinator of the EU FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN-IDP 604764; €4.1m) “CogNovo: Cognitive Innovation” (2013-2017).

The title of her exciting talk is: “What can perceptual multistability tell us about perception?”, in Lawrence Lecture Theatre today, the 5th of May, 15h, in the context of the Psychology Department Seminars organized by Dr Sebastien Miellet, Head of the Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center.

Abstract: “The phenomenon of perceptual multistability, i.e. qualitative changes in perception in response to an unchanging stimulus, has been known for many years, originally in the form of binocular rivalry. More recently, perceptual switching has also been observed in other visual tasks (e.g. form from motion, visual plaids, Necker cube) and modalities, notably in the two auditory paradigms of auditory streaming and verbal transformations, both of which give rise to multistable states. Perceptual multistability poses many interesting questions for theories and models of sensory perception, and provides ways to explore the neural correlates of differences in (conscious) perceptual awareness without confounds caused by differences in stimulation or individual. In this talk I will discuss the somewhat surprising similarities between visual and auditory perceptual switching data, illustrated through Levelt’s four propositions. These suggest a common modelling strategy which in turn leads to new ideas of what constitutes an auditory object”.

We are all looking forward to her talk which is interesting for many of us at BU since Sue has worked in areas ranging from cognition to neural computation.

Seminar, Prof Edwin van Teijlingen, ‘Maternal Mortality in Nepal’, Wed 20th April, Royal London House, R303, 13:00-13:50.

BU Challenges, BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, conferences, EU, Events, Featured academics, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, international, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, REF Subjects, Research assessment, Research communication, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, Research news, Research themes, Uncategorized

Maternal Mortality in Nepal
Abstract: The session links various social and political factors that affect maternal mortality. Women dying in pregnancy and childbirth is very much a problem of and in low-income countries. This talk focuses on Nepal, one of the poorer countries of the world, to highlight a range of maternal health issues and wider influencing factors including globalisation and the influence of global organisations such as the World Health Organisation.

For further information regarding the Social Science seminar series, get in touch with Dr Mastoureh Fathi (mfathi@boutnemouth.ac.uk).

Pritchard & Harding paper cited in top journal, but there’s a ‘but…’

Featured academics, Publishing, Research communication, Research Integritiy, Research news, Research Training, writing

cloudAs an ECR I am delighted to see that a research paper that Prof. Pritchard and myself wrote in 2014 has been cited in one of the most well regarded journals in the field.

Our paper on the occupational backgrounds of Non-executive directors at NHS acute trusts, published in the Journal for the Royal Society of Medicine Open, was also the subject of an article in the now defunct Independent  newspaper and a post on this blog in May 2014.

Last year, in 2015, it was cited by a paper published in the Journal for Health Services Research and Policy. I won’t name which edition or paper because there is a ‘but…’, and it concerns the carelessness of the authors who cited our work.

There is a ‘but…’ because the authors got my name wrong – both in the in text citation and in the bibliography. The good news is that it still links on citation tracking systems (such as the function on Google Scholar) as a paper that I co-wrote. Yet as an ECR, who is trying to make his way in the ‘publish or perish’ world of academia, I can’t help but feel a bit frustrated. Here’s my name in a top journal, but it’s incorrect.

So I took action, I emailed the editors. To their credit I got a response within minutes, with an apology for the carelessness of the authors and that contact with the publisher had been initiated to see if it could be corrected. Yet, due to the inflexibility of doi, apparently this is unlikely.

This then got me thinking about my first publication. I have to admit I did not check the final galley proof thoroughly enough. Indeed, when it was published, it became apparent that I had not corrected some basic incorrect spelling of names in the bibliography. In other words, some very respected authors’ names were wrong! I can happily report that this was corrected, and no offence caused (I hope!).

But the lesson here – check final galley proofs. If you cite an article, I think the very least you can do, out of respect for colleagues, is to get the authors name right. I have made this mistake, and so have authors who have cited me, so it would scream hypocrisy if I was too mad! But it does show that it might be a relatively common problem, so again – check final galley proofs!

However, once the relative pain bypassed, one our papers has still been cited in a top journal – and that is very satisfying indeed.

 

Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering (WICGE) Network

Events, Featured academics, international, Women's Academic Network

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Panel discussion, launch of the WICGE network on 8 Mar 2016 (Sydney, Australia). From left to right: Professor Robin Davidson-Arnott (University of Guelph, Canada), Dr Luciana S. Esteves (Bournemouth University, UK), Dr Shari Gallop (Macquarie University, Australia) and Professor Julie Cairney (School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Sydney).

I am very proud of being one of the founding members of the Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering (WICGE) network, officially launched on 8 March 2016 during the 14th International Coastal Symposium in Sydney, Australia. The idea to create WICGE was led by Dr Shari Gallop (Macquarie University, Australia) and Dr Ana Vila-Concejo (University of Sydney), who was also the first women to chair the International Coastal Symposium (the largest conference focused on coastal science). To join WICGE or just to find out more, please click here.

The event was attended by about 70 conference attendees (male and female as you can see in the photo) and it created an opportunity for the keynote (Prof Julie Cairney), the members of the discussion panel (named in the photo caption)  and attendees to shared their experiences. It was interesting to learn that members of the panel, including myself, expressed that they were not aware of gender inequalities and/or discrimination in their work environment at first. The reasons for this late realisation were varied, including a common feeling of ‘I thought I was the problem‘ or the simple acceptance that certain attitude towards woman was just ‘as always is‘. As Shari Gallop indicates in this blog about the WICGE launch, another contributing factor may be the fact that, in the academic environment, the imbalance greatly increases towards the more senior positions and is not as evident at early career stages.

Another common theme in the discussion was that we (men and women) are guilty of unconscious bias, a prejudice deep-rooted in long-established social behaviours, which are now increasingly questioned, but changing incredibly slowly.  Most people (and therefore our society) are stubbornly averse to change. Where and when change is required, it does not come easy; it takes huge effort and time to get the message across. Even when we understand the need for change, it may take a while until we are able to embed in our lives new ways of doing (or being). It becomes evident then the importance played by continuing and widening the open debate about diversity, equality and fairness to raise awareness and educating us all, especially about the little things we can do to make the big changes we need. And this is why we need WAN, WICGE , the Aurora Programme, Athena Swan and the growing number of initiatives aiming to promote equal opportunities and a fairer working environment for all of us.

Luciana S. Esteves, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Life & Environmental Sciences

NETNEP 6th International Nurse Education Conference, Brisbane

Featured academics, international, student research, Women's Academic Network

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Four academics, Dr Susan Way, Dr Vanessa Heaslip, Ashley Spriggs and Dr Dawn Morley, from FHSS are presenting papers at the Nurse Education Today / Nurse Education in Practice Conference this week, 3rd – 6th April, in Brisbane. The conference is recognised as a leading nurse education event where cutting edge research and innovation ideas from across the world are disseminated. This year the conference has been expanded for the first time to include Midwifery Education.

The title of Dr Susan Way’s presentation is, ‘Leading with a SMiLE: Exploring a student-led clinic, practice education model for educational impact and service improvement’. The Student Midwives integrated Learning Environment (SMiLE) offers an alternative, reliable and collaborative student-led clinic practice education model for equipping midwives of the future with the knowledge, skills and competencies they will need to provide safe and effective postnatal care, to mothers, babies and their families. Early service evaluation of the clinic suggests that students found it benefitted their learning, built their confidence and gave them opportunities to develop their postnatal skills. Peer learning and teamworking relationships were also improved.

Dr Vanessa Heaslip and Ashley Spriggs present their collaborative study entitled “humanising the interview process”; an evaluation of service user/carers contribution to value based recruitment in a pre-registration adult nursing programme. The mixed-method evaluation analysed the perspectives of differing stakeholders (Candidates, SU/Carers, Academics and Practice Partners) regarding the role SU/Carer engagement in Adult Nursing Pre-registration interviews. Early findings from candidates have highlighted they value the involvement of SU/Carers in the interview process, SU/Carers add a “human dimension” ensuring a focus on the heart of nursing and its value base rather than the role of nursing and associated nursing tasks.

Dr Dawn Morley’s presentation focuses on the ‘ebb and flow model of mentoring students in practice’. Twenty one first year student nurses interviewed were insightful as to how their practice learning experience could be improved on their first placement.

The findings of her research highlighted the importance of consistently working with an expert who could encapsulate the “whole” of professional practice but who could also question and coach students through their learning experiences. The research suggested that this was best achieved through an “ebb and flow” model of mentorship where student and mentor were constantly negotiating short term learning goals and opportunities together that accommodated the challenge of workforce demands. By working and learning in this organic manner students were party to the professional decision making and observation of qualified nurses and were educated to a critical decision making level from the earliest opportunity in their clinical practice.

Professor Steve Tees, Executive Dean of the Faculty was also at the Conference in his capacity as one of the Editors of Nurse Education Today journal.

BU BMC paper followed up by BMC Series Blog

BU research, Featured academics, international, open access, Publishing, Research communication, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

media childbirthOur latest paper in the international journal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth published late last month was highlighted yesterday in a BMC Series Blog.[1]  The blog post reminds us that the media plays an important role in providing the general public with information about a range of issues, including pregnancy and childbirth. The visual media, such as television, can provide planned information (education), for example in documentaries, advertising and the news.  Our paper “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media’ looked into how the representation of childbirth in the mass media affects childbirth in society as there is evidence to suggest that it can have a negative effect.  BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth is an Open Access journal therefore the paper is freely available for anybody across the globe with an internet connection, for access click here.

interdisciplinary-1Our paper is great example of interdisciplinary research, as celebrated at the forthcoming Interdisciplinary Research Sector Day on June 21st (see here).  The authors of our paper combine expertise in media studies, midwifery, sociology and health services research.   Moreover, it involved collaborations across universities (Bournemouth and Stirling) and within BU across faculties, namely the Faculty of Media & Communcation and the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.

 

Ann Luce, Marilyn Cash, Vanora Hundley, Helen Cheyne, Edwin van Teijlingen & Catherine Angell

 

Reference:

  1. Luce, A., Cash, M., Hundley, V., Cheyne, H., van Teijlingen, E., Angell, C., (2016) “Is it realistic?” the portrayal of pregnancy and childbirth in the media BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 16: 40 http://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-016-0827-x

 

‘Voices of the Secret State’: Seminar presentation by Dr Hyun Joo Lim, 16th March, Studeland House, Room S206, 13:00-13:50

Awarded & submitted bids, BRIAN, BU Challenges, BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, Coffee Morning, conferences, EU, Events, Featured, Featured academics, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Grants Academy, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, Publishing, R & KE Operations, Research assessment, Research communication, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, Research news, Research themes, Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network

All staff and students welcome. Please feel free to bring your lunch.

 

Voices of the Secret State: Human Rights Activism among North Korean

Defectors in the UK

 

Abstract: My paper aims to highlight the lived experiences and identity formation of North Korean defectors settled in the UK who are involved in human rights activism. Whilst violations of human rights in North Korea are well documented, human rights activism by its defectors is less well known. Since 2004, approximately 600 North Koreans have settled in the UK. Free NK, a human rights organisation born out of this settlement, has been active in illuminating the reality of North Korea whilst also working towards subverting the regime by informing its fellow remainders about the outside world through the distribution of newspapers. This paper is drawn from ongoing research on North Korean defectors living in the UK. The data is collected using life history interviews to capture their lived experiences and to identify a range of factors which have influenced their involvement in the activism whilst also seeking to find better ways of improving the wellbeing and quality of life for those activists. The presentation will focus on the in-depth story of a North Korean defector who has founded Free NK. Themes that will be addressed in this story include the reason why he has fled North Korea; the processes of getting to the UK; challenges he has faced in his human rights activism.
Dr Hyun-Joo Lim is a lecturer in Sociology and the programme leader for BA Sociology and Social Policy at BU. She is originally from South Korea and has been engaged in various research projects that explore issues around migration, ‘race’/ethnicity, gender and identity. Her previous research examined East Asian mothers in Britain.

For more information about Social Science seminar series please get in touch with Dr Mastoureh Fathi (mfathi@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

Cloud and Weather Simulation for Computer Graphics

Featured academics, PG research, Research news

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

Speaker: Leigh McLoughlinresults_cumulo_2

Title: Cloud and Weather Simulation for Computer Graphics

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 2nd March 2016

Room: P302, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

In this talk I will discuss my work on cloud simulation for computer graphics. This work was designed to provide a means of simulating clouds and weather features, such as rain, using desktop graphics hardware. This involves elements of meteorology, numerical weather simulation and computational fluid dynamics, taken from the sciences and adapted to meet the more artistic requirements of computer graphics in which an element of control is required and the laws of physics may be wilfully disobeyed. The result is a lightweight physically-inspired cloud simulation scheme, capable of emulating the dynamic properties of cloud formation and weather effects.

We hope to see you there.