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PGR Virtual Poster Exhibition | Megan Jadzinski

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Megan Jadzinski (PhD, FHSS) with this poster entitled: How are Fitness to Practise processes applied in the Higher Education Institutions, in relation to Health and Care Profession Council or Nursing and Midwifery Council healthcare courses?

Click the poster below to enlarge.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are required to manage concerns raised regarding pre-registration healthcare students. All HEIs are required to have a Fitness to Practice (FTP) policy to manage concerns. Due to limited guidance from regulatory bodies, variations occur. The aim of this research is to understand how the FTP processes are applied. A qualitative methodology will be utilised. Two stages will occur. Firstly, a review of FTP documentation from multiple universities. Secondly, online interviews with HEI staff who manage the process within their organisation. Following a systematic review, limited evidence was found with recommendations that further exploration is required. Limited research has been conducted on the FTP process within HEIs in England. Multiple gaps, including, a need for a more consistent and fair approach has been identified. The output from this research could impact the way in which FTP cases are managed.


You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

PGR Virtual Poster Exhibition | Mirte Korpershoek

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Mirte Korpershoek (PhD, FST) with this poster entitled: Rock art as an environmental archive.

Click the poster below to enlarge.

Rock art occurs worldwide, across societies and time-periods. Traditionally, rock art studies examine the intention behind the images: the symbolism and shamanistic ritual interpretations. In my research, I am investigating whether rock art depictions are useful to understanding the palaeoenvironmental context of the people who created the art. I will compare the images -focusing on depictions of humans, animals and activities/tools- to published archaeological assemblages, to establish to what extent rock art accurately depicts the way of living and environments of the artists. I will also compare themes in rock art from various locations to see whether there are any similarities and what this could mean. Machine learning will be applied to these themes to identify the most common figurative motifs per region. Here I will present the first results from South America: I discuss the prevalence of human and wild animal depictions from this region.


You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

PGR Virtual Poster Exhibition | Iram Bibi

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Iram Bibi (PhD, FST) with this poster entitled: Reliability, validity, and feasibility of a generic quality of life scale for use directly with community dwelling older people with dementia.

Click the poster below to enlarge.

Currently, measures of quality of life (QoL) used with people with dementia (PWD) are mainly health-related. Health is not an actual attribute of but a means to attain QoL. The ICECAP-O scale measures attributes of QoL. In this study, ICECAP-O was tested with community dwelling PWD for face validity (N = 5), feasibility to administer, internal, and test-retest reliability (N = 54). The ICECAP-O was found to have good face validity and feasibility to administer. It also had acceptable test-retest reliability (r = .68, p<.01, n = 54; r = .56, p<.01, n = 54; for ICECAP-O raw and tariff scores respectively) and moderate to good levels of Cronbach alpha (.68 for raw score of 1st administration and .70 for the raw and tariff scores of 2nd administration) (Cicchetti, 1994). Therefore, ICECAP-O appears to be a useful measure for future research to directly assess actual attributes of community-dwelling PWD’s QoL.


You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

PGR Virtual Poster Exhibition | Jack Wieland

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Jack Wieland (PhD, FST) with this poster entitled: Investigating the Role of Microsatellite Instability in Reproduction. 

Click the poster below to enlarge and you can listen to the accompanying audio.

Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after 1 year without the use of birth control methods. Previous research has revealed that genetic analysis to date is strongly associated with different nucleotide pathogenic variants within different DNA repair systems. However, there is little understanding in how microsatellite instability and the role of the immune system contributing to infertility. The workflow presented shows how this conclusion was drawn using a self-designed MySQl database utilising the research published to date. The next step from this is to undertake laboratory and computational bioinformatic analysis to demonstrate how microsatellite instability contributes to infertility. Other future directions of this research may explore how other genomic abnormalities contribute to infertility that may have not been reported in research to date.


You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

PGR Virtual Poster Exhibition | Hayden Scott-Pratt and Sigrid Osborne

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Hayden Scott-Pratt (PhD, FST) and Sigrid Osborne (MRes, FST) with this poster entitled: Unlikely allies: Combining archaeobotanical and metallurgical material in archaeological research. An example from the Iron Age settlement at Hengistbury Head.

Click the poster below to enlarge.

How can an investigation of plant material inclusions in metallurgical waste inform on the use of furnaces in the Iron Age at Hengistbury Head? This poster presents a novel approach to studying ancient metal production practices.  It focuses on a case study of material excavated from the Iron Age settlement at Hengistbury Head, Dorset. It shows how using the field of botany can support interpretations on a prehistoric metal production process. On investigating the metallurgical slag recovered at Hengistbury Head an unusual macroscopic inclusion deemed to be plant material was discovered. A sample of the slag with the plant inclusion was investigated looking for phytoliths, microscopic plant remains. Investigating smelting parameters and furnace construction in antiquity is fraught with difficulty. Previously the packing of a furnace with organic matter has been inferred from occasional plant imprints. The phytolith analysis proved that the slag contained microscopic and macroscopic plant remains. This is new evidence and alters the interpretation of how Iron Age furnaces on Hengistbury Head may have been constructed.


You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

PGR Virtual Poster Exhibition | Elie Charabieh

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Elie Charabieh (PhD, FST) with this poster entitled: Recidivism risk factors in Lebanese prisoners.

Click the poster below to enlarge.

Given the high cost of reoffending (e.g., direct cost of imprisonment, cost of crime victimisation, exacerbating overcrowding in prisons) this novel research aims to answer the following:  What are the risk/protective factors for recidivism in prisoners in Lebanon? To answer this research question, I use a mix of quantitative (dataset of over 45,000 individuals released from Lebanese prisons between 2013-2018) and qualitative research (in-depth video-recorded interviews with 10-15 notorious prisoners). As seen in Western studies, preliminary findings suggest that males, younger age (18-29), being divorced, not completing any schooling, having been previously imprisoned, having 3 or more criminal cases, and being charged with a drug/theft related crime, significantly increase the reimprisonment risk. Notable differences in reimprisonment rates were also found across nationalities and crime types. Knowledge of these factors will help the Lebanese government target high-risk offenders and improve their chances of leading crime-free lives upon their release.


You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

PGR Virtual Poster Exhibition | Liz Bailey

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Liz Bailey (PhD, FMC) with this poster entitled: Is history repeating itself?

Click the poster below to enlarge.

Parallels can be drawn between the power of the publisher over the author in the 1700s and the power of the internet over the author today. By drawing comparisons between the Stationer’s Company of 1556 and the tech giant Facebook, it becomes apparent how similar the situation is today. Through review of the natural evolution of the destruction of the publishing monopolies of the 1700’s and the current fight back at tech giants like Facebook, it becomes apparent how history demonstrates that power is never perpetual, monopolies are constantly built up and destroyed. This is the natural law of things.


You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

PGR Virtual Poster Exhibition | Faisal Alsubaie

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Faisal Alsubaie (PhD, BUBS) with this poster entitled: The effect of cultural tightness-looseness on tourism destination choice for Western Europeans: Evidence from Saudi Arabia.

Click the poster below to enlarge.

This study addresses the question “How do the changes in cultural tightness–looseness (CTL) influence the perceptions of Western European tourists and their willingness to visit Saudi Arabia (SA)”? To answer this research question, the study adopts a research design of two phases sequential mixed method; (1) first phase employs a quantitative survey to measurement the tourists’ perceptions of the recent changes in cultural tightness (i.e., the strength of cultural norms and tolerance for deviant behaviour) and their impacts on their intention to visit SA. (2) the second phase employs a qualitative semi-structured interviews to get an in-depth explanation of the findings of the first phase of the study. This study contributes to the literature by developing a framework using CTL theory to investigate the effects of CTL on tourism destination choice in a Saudi context which has not been examined before.


You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

PGR Virtual Poster Exhibition | Ceyda Kiyak

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Ceyda Kiyak (MRes, FST) with this poster entitled: Minimising online gambling related harm through persuasive technologies.

Click the poster below to enlarge.

How effective are the various types of interactions in breaking through disassociation of at-risk and social gamblers?  After identifying whether the participant is at-risk or social gambler with The Problem Gambling Severity Index on an online survey, fifty participants will be invited to the lab experiment. Participants will be given two tablet devices: on the first device they will play the gambling session with virtual money for 20 min; on the second device, participants will be randomised to five different interactions (experimental groups: cognitive tasks, interactive dialogue, infographic; control groups: neutral interaction, no interaction). Participants will then complete Jacob’s Disassociation Questionnaire, acceptability, and demographic questionnaire. The results of this research may enable prevention and intervention strategies in problem gambling. Moreover, it will allow gambling industry and policymakers to better develop responsible gambling applications and may even lead a policy change.


You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact our dedicated admissions team.

PGR Virtual Poster Exhibition | Daniel Dimanov

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Daniel Dimanov (PhD, FST) with this poster entitled: MONCAE: Multi-Objective Neuroevolution of Convolutional Autoencoders.

Click the poster below to enlarge.

With this poster, we present a novel neuroevolutionary method to identify the architecture and hyperparameters of convolutional autoencoders, which has been published in an ICLR workshop. Remarkably, we used a hypervolume indicator employing neuroevolution for in the context of neural architecture search for autoencoders, for the first time to the best of our knowledge. We rely on novel decoding of the architecture to automatically reconstruct the decoder from the encoding. We tested our approach with MNIST, Fashion-MNIST and CIFAR10 to verify the performance of the approach. Results show that images were compressed by a factor of more than 10, while still retaining enough information to achieve image classification for the majority of the tasks. Thus, this new approach can be used to speed up the AutoML pipeline for image compression and much more.


You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

PGR Virtual Poster Exhibition | Abier Hamidi

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Abier Hamidi (PhD, FHSS) with this poster entitled: HIV epidemic in Libya: Identifying gaps.

Click the poster below to enlarge.

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) became a public issue in Libya after the infection of 400 children in El-Fatih Hospital in 1988. Due to the civil war, social and religious barriers, HIV prevalence is hard to establish, but it is generally believed to be increasing.  This review (a) assesses the size and scope of the available literature on the HIV epidemic in Libya; and, (b) identifies the nature and extent of research conducted to date. A comprehensive search was performed using PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Academic Search Ultimate, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar.  Primary research studies and official reports that are exclusively on Libya published during 1988 -2021 were considered.  In total 25 studies were included. The literature suggests there is an increase in HIV infection rates in Libya.  Culturally sensitive research will assist in reducing HIV stigma and decreasing infection rates.


You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

Launching Next Week – Doctoral College PGR Virtual Research Exhibition

 

Over the next fortnight, as part of the Doctoral College Annual PGR Conference and BU Research Week, we will be showcasing a wide range of postgraduate research taking place at BU in the form of a virtual research exhibition.

Each day across the two week period, starting on Monday, you will be able to view research posters and pre-recorded presentations from our postgraduate researchers across all Faculties.

You can also register to attend the live online Annual PGR Conference, taking place on Wednesday 1 December, and you can now view the full conference brochure and programme. Come along and support BU’s postgraduate research community. All welcome!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Natalie (Research Skills & Development Officer)

Register to attend the Annual Postgraduate Research Conference  – Wednesday 1 December.

Register to attend the Annual Postgraduate Research Conference  – all welcome!

Come along to support our postgraduate research community at the Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, Wednesday 1 December 2021, 09:30 – 17:30. Oral presentations will be hosted on Zoom.

You are also invited to FG06 during the day to network, and for PGRs we will be offering the opportunity to get a free professional headshot during the lunch break.

There will be a virtual poster exhibition on the BU website and across the blogs during the week of the conference with further pre-recorded presentations available to view at your leisure.

The full brochure, with all presenters and presentation types, will be circulated shortly. In the meantime, please see the live presentation conference programme for the day below.

It would be great to see many of you there. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch: pgconference@bournemouth.ac.uk. 


Natalie Stewart (Research Skills & Development Officer), Doctoral College.

PGR Supervisory Lunchbites | Supporting International PGRs

Hosted by the Doctoral College, these one hour online lunch bite sessions supplement the regular New and Established Supervisory Development Sessions and are aimed at all academic staff who are new to, or experienced at, supervising research degree students and are interested in expanding their knowledge of a specific aspect or process in research degree supervision.

Each session will be led by a senior academic who will introduce the topic, and staff will benefit from discussions aimed at sharing best practice from across BU. Bookings are arranged by Organisational Development.

This session is focused on expanding individuals’ knowledge on the challenges of and best practice for supervising overseas PGRs. This discussion will be led by Dr Hanaa Osman, BUBS.

Staff attending this session will: 

  • have gained additional knowledge of the challenges of supervising overseas PGRs
  • have gained additional knowledge of the best practice for supervising overseas PGRs

Further details on the session as well as information on future lunchbite sessions can also be found on the staff intranet.

Date: Tuesday 30 November 2021

Time: 12:00 – 13:00

To book a place on this session please complete the booking form.

Further details and future sessions can also be found on the Supervisory Development Lunchbite Sessions staff intranet page.

PGR Supervisory Lunchbites | Supporting your PGR through their Probationary Review

Hosted by the Doctoral College, these one hour online lunch bite sessions supplement the regular New and Established Supervisory Development Sessions and are aimed at all academic staff who are new to, or experienced at, supervising research degree students and are interested in expanding their knowledge of a specific aspect or process in research degree supervision.

Each session will be led by a senior academic who will introduce the topic, and staff will benefit from discussions aimed at sharing best practice from across BU. Bookings are arranged by Organisational Development.

This session is focused on expanding individuals’ knowledge on the probationary review process and responsibilities involved in supervising and reviewing a probationary review. This discussion will be led by Dr Vanessa Heaslip, FHSS.

Staff attending this session will: 

  • have gained additional knowledge of the purpose of the Probationary Review
  • have gained additional knowledge of the role of the supervisor in the process
  • have gained additional knowledge of the role of the reviewer in the process
  • be aware of the relevant sections of the Code of Practice for Research Degrees

Further details on the session as well as information on future lunchbite sessions can also be found on the staff intranet.

Date: Tuesday 23 November 2021

Time: 12:00 – 13:00

To book a place on this session please complete the booking form.

Further details and future sessions can also be found on the Supervisory Development Lunchbite Sessions staff intranet page.

Register to attend (FREE) – The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference

Register to attend the Annual Postgraduate Research Conference  – all welcome!

Come along to support our postgraduate research community at the Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, Wednesday 1 December 2021, 09:30 – 17:30. Oral presentations will be hosted on Zoom.

You are also invited to come along to FG06 during the day to network, and for PGRs we will be offering the opportunity to get a free professional headshot during the lunch break.

There will be a virtual poster exhibition on the BU website and across the blogs during the week of the conference with further pre-recorded presentations available to view at your leisure.

The full brochure, with all presenters and presentation types, will be circulated in the next few weeks. In the meantime, please see the conference programme for the day below.

It would be great to see many of you there. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch: pgconference@bournemouth.ac.uk. 


Natalie Stewart (Research Skills & Development Officer), Doctoral College.

Congratulations to Recipients of the ‘Doctoral College Outstanding Contribution Award’!

The Doctoral College team have been delighted with the nominations that have come in for our recently launched ‘Doctoral College Outstanding Contribution Awards’. We wish to extend our congratulations to all recipients who have recently received their award certificate.

Since launching in October 2021 we have presented 34 awards! 

Here are some of the heartfelt nominations we have received so far:

“She is always ready to lend a listening ear and a helping hand. I think that I am really blessed to have her as a supervisor and she needs to be recognised for her hard work.”

“She is dedicated to the PGR community, playing central role in maintaining a sense of cohort identity with the Faculty.”

“For his unwavering support for PGRs progress, community and sense of belonging. Ensuring connectedness throughout Covid times and helping students transition back to face-to-face contact.”

“He is undoubtedly an outstanding person to work with, to learn from, and to rely upon in time of need.”

“She was our PGR Rep during the pandemic and worked so hard to pass concerns of the PGR community to administrators or the DDRPP to find a solution. She arranged coffee mornings and lunchtime-seminars for the PGRs to get together in an academic and social environment.”


Why not take five minutes and nominate a PGR, academic or professional staff member for a Doctoral College Outstanding Contribution Award and say thanks and give recognition for their hard work?

These awards recognise the outstanding contributions to postgraduate research at BU by any PGR, academic or professional staff member. They can be nominated throughout the year by any member of the postgraduate research community to anyone that they feel is exceptional, has exceeded expectations, and has had a positive impact on the postgraduate research at BU.

Eligibility

You can nominate anyone involved in postgraduate research at Bournemouth University to receive an award certificate. There are no award criteria, as long as the submission falls within the guidelines, whoever you’ve selected will receive a Doctoral College Outstanding Contribution Award!

How to nominate

We’ve made it really easy for you to nominate someone for a Doctoral College Outstanding Contribution Award – it’s just a short online nomination form!

Postgraduate Researchers and Supervisors | Monthly Update for Researcher Development

Postgraduate researchers and supervisors, hopefully you have seen your monthly update for researcher development e-newsletter sent earlier this week. If you have missed it, please check your junk email or you can view it within the Researcher Development Programme on Brightspace.

The start of the month is a great time to reflect on your upcoming postgraduate researcher development needs and explore what is being delivered this month as part of the Doctoral College Researcher Development Programme and what is available via your Faculty or Department. Remember some sessions only run once per year, so don’t miss out.

Please also subscribe to your Brightspace announcement notifications for updates when they are posted.

If you have any questions about the Researcher Development Programme, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Natalie (Research Skills & Development Officer)
pgrskillsdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk