BU Research Blog

29 July 2016

Fieldwork preparation in Nepal

international, PG research Edwin van Teijlingen

If you have a number of research projects running in the same location it pays to combine some of the preparation. Thus as part of five different studies and one PhD project, I’m currently in Kathmandu. The projects are (1) the THET-funded intervention in Nawalparasi; (2) the CEL-funded qualitative research led by Dr. Catherine Angell on CPD (Continuous Professional Development); (3) the FHSS-funded project on transgender which is led by Dr. Pramod Regmi; (4) the FHSS-funded project with Pourakhi which supports Nepali women returning home after having been abroad as migrant workers; and (5) the Green Tara Trust funded project on improving maternal health care in Dhading and Nawalparasi, and the FHSS PhD project is that of Mrs. Preeti Mahato. Two of the project and the PhD topcic are closely related as all three cover maternity care in one for or another in Nawalparasi. The planning meetings we are having in Nepal involve planning training sessions and workshops, resource allocation and research preparation.

Fortunately, it is not all work. Today I enjoyed Kheer (Achar and Chana) for lunch in the Green Tara flat in Kathmandu a lovely rice pudding with slightly sour green vegetables and chick peas (see photo). The actual meal is traditionally health tomorrow but as this is the weekend the staff brought it one day forward so that I could join in too.

Finally, I like to thank colleagues who gave me mobile phones and a camera. One of the mobile phones is already in use by one of the Nepali charity workers in Kathmandu. I bought a new battery and memory card for camera in the UK and it is working fine, the photo with this blog has been taken with the donated camera!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (writing from Nepal).

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health Research

21 July 2016

IFOMPT 2016

conferences, PG research jbranney

I was delighted to present this month at a large international conference, IFOMPT 2016, in Glasgow. The International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists (IFOMPT) is an international body composed of many national groups specialising in post-graduate musculoskeletal physiotherapy. This is the first time the IFOMPT Conference, which is held every four years, has been hosted in the UK since 1988. This conference presented an ideal opportunity to promote the reputation of BU, the new Orthopaedic Research Institute, and AECC (where the research was undertaken).
I gave a poster presentation on work related to my PhD research into the mechanism of spinal manipulation in the treatment of neck pain. I was really pleased that there was a good bit of interest in the poster and I made useful contacts in Japan, China, USA – and Bournemouth! I was able to tempt some people I admire to my poster by posting the picture below on Twitter and sending to the Twitterati I knew were at the conference – social media works (I was not begging for attention, honest).

Come and see my poster!

The other cool bit of technology I used for the first time at this conference was the conference app – no conference abstract booklet to have to carry around in a tacky conference bag for a couple of days.

Is a paper copy of conference proceedings now a thing of the past?

The app had everything – the full itinerary, abstracts (including those of the 190 posters), and there were biographies and contact details for all the speakers and most of the delegates too. Networking can be exhausting and intimidating – this enabled me to contact people directly whom I wanted to discuss my research with and contributed to an excellent conference experience.
If you’d like to know more about the conference, or my research into the mechanism of spinal manipulation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. (You can get a copy of my poster by clicking here).

Dr Jonny Branney
Faculty of Health and Social Sciences
jbranney@bournemouth.ac.uk

18 July 2016

SmartAbility gets the Green Light at Silverstone Circuit

PG research, Public engagement, Research themes

From the 26^th – 28^th May, my supervisor (Dr Huseyin Dogan) and I attended the 2016 Mobility Roadshow at Silverstone (Northamptonshire), where Bournemouth University had a stand thanks to QR funding, as a part of my PhD research. The roadshow is the UK’s original hands-on consumer event that has been showcasing mobility innovation for over 30 years. The roadshow is an annual event that takes place at different venues around the country and this year it was at the Silverstone circuit. The university’s stand was located in the Information Village and was a good opportunity to validate our research in the assistive technology domain with a user community of people with disability as well as manufacturers.

The purpose of the validation was to present the SmartAbility Framework, which considers how technology can support people with disability and addresses the concept of not having a ‘single technology solution to suit all disabilities’. It consists of seven elements; Disabilities, Impairments, Range of Movements, Movement Characteristics, Interaction Mediums, Technologies and Tasks, interlinking aspects of Human Computer Interaction. The roadshow was the first opportunity to validate the framework as it had been developed based on state of the art literature reviews and results from conducted feasibility trials and user experimentations. The validation was performed using a paper-based version of the framework and involved the participants/manufacturers completing the first four elements, to describe how their disabilities affect their Range of Movement. The knowledge contained within the framework was then used to provide recommendations of suitable Interaction Mediums and Technologies that could potentially improve their quality of life. Each participant completed a questionnaire to provide their views on the framework. In addition to the validation, we demonstrated Smartglasses (a Recon Jet), to assess the usability for people with disability.

Over the 3 days of the roadshow, we had 36 participants that all provided positive feedback, therefore, proving the usefulness of the framework. Improvements were also suggested from some of the participants which will be used to enhance the framework. The technology recommendations were helpful as a number of the participants were not aware of some of the technologies. Not all participants were able to use the Smartglasses due to impaired vision or finger dexterity. However, the participants who were able to interact enjoyed the experience as it was new to them.

The roadshow exhibits a range of products for people with disability as well as adapted cars and wheelchair accessible vehicles. As the roadshow was at Silverstone, visitors had the opportunity to test drive a range of vehicles around 2 laps of the short National circuit. This was an opportunity not to be missed and when I wasn’t manning our stand, I test drove a range of vehicles including a Ford EcoSport and BMW 2-series. Unfortunately, there was a 40 mph speed limit imposed on the circuit (for safety reasons), but one of the instructors allowed me to do 50 mph on the Hanger straight and follow the racing line on the corners! I chose to have the final test drive slot on the last day and was able to do 5 laps as the instructor didn’t want to clear up in the pits!

Overall, attending the Mobility Roadshow was an enjoyable experience and provided valuable results and knowledge for the final stage of my PhD, which I am aiming to complete in November. The future research activities will involve validation with domain experts from computing and healthcare and designing for the SmartAbility Framework to be exploited as a smartphone application. There is also the small task of writing up my thesis…

14 July 2016

BUDI presents at the iNav international conference in Bad Gastein (Austria)

international, PG research, Public engagement mobrien

Dr Jan Wiener, Dr Ramona Grzeschik and Mary O’Malley represented Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) at the 1^st Interdisciplinary Navigation Symposium (iNav) in Bad Gastein from 26-30^th June 2016. The iNav is a meeting that aims to bring together a diverse group of scientists from backgrounds such as (cognitive) neuroscience, animal behaviour and ethology, theoretical neurobiology and robotics to shed some light into the neural systems involved in spatial cognition and navigation.

Mary presented a poster showcasing her PhD research with the topic “How do we get there? The effects of cognitive ageing on map reading abilities.” – a study using ‘you-are-here maps’ and a virtual care environment to investigate orientation experiences of older people with memory difficulties.

Ramona presented a poster with preliminary results of her study on “Effects of Aging on Landmark Recognition” that investigates what features of landmarks are helpful for older people to memorize a route. Jan gave a talk about “The effects of typical and atypical ageing on orientation and navigation behaviour” where he presented two studies about the effects of ageing on different route learning strategies.

Jan additionally co-hosted a discussion on how compatible virtual reality navigation is with real-life navigation

13 July 2016

The Graduate School visits Liverpool

PG research ccutler

On the 4th and 5th of July, three members of the Graduate School attended the annual UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) Conference in Liverpool. Dr Julia Taylor presented a co-authored paper on the ‘Development of a New Model for Doctoral Supervisory Training at Bournemouth University’. The Conference attracted delegates from more than 75 Higher Education Institutes from across the UK. The presentation was delivered in the prestigious Council Chamber of Liverpool Town Hall and generated an interesting discussion around BU’s innovative approach to supervisory training and how other higher education institutes can implement similar methods.

12 July 2016

Brexit and the implications for Open Access

BRIAN, open access, PG research, Publishing jharris

Whilst it’s relatively early to predict what Brexit will mean for Open Access in the UK, JISC recently released a blog post outlining the main issues that will arise from the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

The blog post raises issues around the future of EU OA policy and also funding.

At the present time, it appears the main effect of Brexit will be to create greater reliance on Green OA (usually accepted, peer-reviewed versions of outputs) rather than gold paid open access owing to fluctuating financial markets and uncertainty surrounding future European funding.

Library and Learning Support have recently created a OA support video, looking at the benefits of OA and how you can make your research OA through engaging with BRIAN and BURO.

Please contact the BURO team with any queries you may have and we will be happy to help.

Don’t forget our guide Open Access and Depositing your research

9 July 2016

FoL debate highlighted on USA website

Festival of Learning, international, PG research, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Last week’s Festival of Learning debate on the motion: “Advising pregnant women to avoid drinking alcohol during pregnancy is symptom of the Nanny State and another step towards the medicalisation of childbirth” has just been hightlighted in the USA. Our work featured on Jeffery Nicholas’ thoughts on social reality, a site established by Prof. Jeff Nicholas (click here!). Prof. Nicholas is a philospher based at Providence College with an interest in midwifery in society.

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences’ Liz Norton and Edwin van Teijlingen affiliated with the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) argued in favour of the motion. Donna Wixted, Joint Bournemouth University (BU)-Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, doctoral student and Greta Westwood of Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust & the University of Southampton argued strongly against the motion. The exciting debate was chaired by Prof. Vanora Hundley from the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.

9 July 2016

Presentation PhD student Jib Acharya in Liverpool

international, open access, PG research, Publishing, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

Mr. Jib Acharya (FHSS) gave an interesting presentation yesterday about the qualitative research findings of his PhD at Liverpool John Moores University. Jib’s PhD research focused on the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of poor women in Nepal about healthy eating and the study also identifies major food barriers.

His mixed-methods approach combines a quantitative questionnaire survey with qualitative research. Jib’s research project is supervised by Dr. Jane Murphy, Dr. Martin Hind and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. Some of the preliminary findings of this FHSS thesis have already been published in two scientific journals [1-2].

References:

Acharya, J., van Teijlingen, E., Murphy, J., Hind, M. (2015) Assessment of knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards healthy diet among mothers in Kaski, Nepal, Participation 17(16): 61-72.
Acharya, J., van Teijlingen, E., Murphy, J., Hind, M. (2015) Study of nutritional problems in preschool aged children in Kaski District in Nepal, Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Healthcare 1(2): 97-118. http://dspace.chitkara.edu.in/jspui/bitstream/1/560/1/12007_JMRH_Acharya.

7 July 2016

How do you like your eggs?

PG research, Public engagement ccutler

We’ve acknowledged by now that you can boil an egg in 3 minutes (taste preferences dependent obviously), but the question on Tuesday 28 June 2016 was whether 6 current PGR students could successfully present their research in 3 minutes each. As part of the Festival of Learning, the Graduate School’s 3 Minute Presentation (3MP) event put PGRs to the test as they battled the bell, which warned them when they had 30 seconds of time remaining and stopped them at 3 minutes. Jay Nugent, Prof. & Personal Development Officer, introduced the event and each speaker and carefully monitored the timings. With strict rules, the 3MP event allowed each PGR to display one static slide to accompany their presentation, and on the night we were treated to a game of Pac Man (considering morality and video games) and a discussion on birthing balls (regarding early labour), as well as 4 other presentations.

The event was very well attended by students, staff and members of the public, who listened attentively and asked challenging questions after each presentation, engaging in interesting and lively debate about current research taking place at BU and its real-world implications.

6 July 2016

New CMMPH paper by PhD student Sheetal Sharma

international, open access, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Today saw the publication in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth of the paper ‘Dirty and 40 days in the wilderness: Eliciting childbirth and postnatal cultural practices and beliefs in Nepal’ with as lead author FHSS PhD student Sheetal Sharma [1]. This paper argues that pregnancy and childbirth are very much socio-cultural events that carry varying meanings across different societies and cultures. These are often translated into social expectations of what a particular society expects women to do (or not to do) during pregnancy, birth and/or the postnatal period. The study explored beliefs around childbirth in Nepal, a low-income country with a largely Hindu population. The paper then sets these findings in the context of the wider global literature around issues such as periods where women are viewed as polluted (or dirty even) after childbirth.

Sheetal is doing very well with her PhD publications as a few weeks ago her major quantitative findings paper was published in PLOS One [2]. Both papers are published in Open Access journals and therefore easily available to researchers, health promotors, health care providers and health policy-makers in low-income countries. Sheetal evaluated a research project funded by the London-based charity Green Tara Trust. Her PhD is supervised by Dr. Catherine Angell, Prof. Vanora Hundley and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen all nbased in CMMPH with external supervision from BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada (liverpool John Moores University).

References:

Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Angell, C., Simkhada, P. (2016) Dirty and 40 days in the wilderness: Eliciting childbirth and postnatal cultural practices and beliefs in Nepal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 16: 147 https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-016-0938-4
Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Belizán, J.M., Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., Sicuri, E. (2016) Measuring What Works: An impact evaluation of women’s groups on maternal health uptake in rural Nepal, PLOS One 11(5): e0155144 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0155144

6 July 2016

BU research: making a difference

PG research, Public engagement ccutler

On the rainy morning of Saturday 25 June 2016 the Graduate School team, armed with posters, pens and lots of cupcakes, set up a stand at the Festival of Learning. We displayed photographs from the latest PG Conference and Shaqaieq Dost, a current PGR student, was on hand to discuss her research and what it’s like to be a PGR with interested members of the public.

Dr Julia Taylor, Graduate School Academic Manager, talked to several people who had always been interested in PhD study but didn’t know how it would fit in with jobs, family commitments and other such barriers. Suzy Kempinski and Louise Bryant, Research Administrators, chatted to current UG and PGT students who were looking at taking the next step in their academic journey into MRes/ PhD study, and about the support that is available within the faculties for PGR students.

The cupcakes proved very popular, and we were left with reassurances from several younger members of the crowd that they would be back in 20 years to embark on their PhD at BU!

5 July 2016

New paper FHSS Dr. Sarah Collard

PG research, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Collard on her latest paper ‘The psychosocial impact of exercising with epilepsy: A narrative analysis’ in Epilepsy & Behavior. The paper offers valuable insight into the psychosocial benefits of and barriers to exercising with epilepsy and draw attention to the individual differences in how a person with epilepsy copes with uncontrolled seizures and their impact on his/her exercise routine. This knowledge can lead to future research in exploring how a person with epilepsy can overcome these barriers to exercise and encourage more people with epilepsy to enjoy the benefits of exercise.

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

4 July 2016

Painting a picture of retirement at the Festival of Learning

Festival of Learning, PG research, Public engagement sashraf

What image comes to mind when you think about your pension and retirement? Our session at the Festival of Learning, painting a picture of retirement, sought to answer this very question.

The session builds on current research funded by the Academy of Marketing into how people from South Asian view their pension savings as a money source; what informed their perceptions; and how they intend to use this money. This research used a ‘talk and draw’ approach whereby interviewees were asked to draw a picture to represent their pension/retirement and then to talk through what the images represent to them.

At the Festival of learning event attendees were also asked to draw their own picture of their pension and retirement. As a group we discussed the images that emerged and then compared and contrasted them to the images collected and themes that emerged from our earlier research.

The findings from our research will be presented at the Academy of Marketing Conference at Newcastle Business School next week. In the meantime we would like to thank all those who attended our session and shared their personal images of their pension and retirement on the day.

If you would like to know more about this research please contact Julie Robson or Samreen Ashraf.

4 July 2016

New HSS PhD paper!

BRIAN, PG research, Publishing, student research aharding

HSS PhD student Andrew Harding and fellow authors Jonathan Parker, Sarah Hean and Ann Hemingway have recently had a paper accepted for publication in Social Policy & Society, the sister publication to the Journal of Social Policy and run by the Social Policy Association.

A critical yet under-researched area, the paper presents a comprehensive literature review that critiques current research on the outcome/impact of information and advice on welfare. A realist evaluation approach is then proposed as being capable to address critical weaknesses in existing research.

Among other areas that are covered, the paper provides an overview of the importance of information and advice in the context of the marketisation of UK welfare provision and a new ‘efficacy framework’ is developed which can be used to assess the scope of research.

A final draft post-refereeing version of the paper will be uploaded to BRIAN in due course.

30 June 2016

Research and Impact in Active Ageing Symposia (University of Cumbria) – A URA Experience

conferences, PG research, student research jgavin

Louise Burgess, Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA)

When first applying to become an URA, I was unsure about what to expect. Initially, I thought my summer would be spent holding a clipboard and collecting endless lists of data for someone else to analyse. In reality, the role has been much more exciting than I could have imagined, even prompting me to investigate future careers within research. The research I am assisting with aims to examine the most effective acute recovery routine for individuals who have undergone hip arthroplasty, a reconstructive procedure which involves the replacement of the femoral head and acetabulum with an artificial prosthesis. I felt immediately welcomed by James Gavin (Lead Researcher) and the Orthopaedic Research Institute (ORI) team: Tom Wainwright, (Deputy Head), Tikki Immins (Research Fellow) Shay Bahadori (Medical Device Engineer), in my URA role.

Since starting 2 weeks ago, I have been involved in:

Designing and implementing a testing protocol
Recruitment through designing posters and contacting volunteers
Advancing skills technical: electromyography (EMG), isometric strength testing, clinical recovery exercises
Developing my subject knowledge and understanding
Training on the PrimusRS Multimodal Dynamometer
Developing data collection spreadsheets
Data collection: anthropometric, handgrip strength, walk speed, muscle activity and isometric strength.
Data analysis (using Biometrics Datalog EMG software)
Conference presentation:Research and Impact in Active Ageing Symposia (University of Cumbria)

Attending the Research and Impact in Active Ageing Symposia (University of Cumbria) proved to be a valuable experience for me as both a student, and as a researcher. The morning began with a talk from Prof Tim Donovan, who covered the role of vision and eye movement in motor control. This was followed by Prof Giuseppe de Vito (University College Dublin), focussing on how old muscle responds to training and nutritional interventions. Finally, Prof Andrea Macaluso (University of Rome Foro Italico) discussed his work on physical activity levels and physiological factors underlying mobility in ageing.

The morning was followed by a poster presentation session, where I presented the findings of my dissertation project. My dissertation entitled, ‘The Incidence of Injuries and the Epidemiology of Osteoarthritis in Retired, Amateur, Rugby Union Males’ was a project I thoroughly enjoyed and despite being incredibly nervous, I really liked sharing it with others. I presented my work to other students, academics, researchers, and members of the NHS. The feedback I received during the question and answer session after my presentation was positive, with ideas how the research could be expanded in the future. Having the opportunity to take part within the symposia increased my confidence within my own research, improved my presentation skills and developed my knowledge of research in active ageing. I even won the prize for best poster presentation, a £100 Human Kinetics book voucher!

I’m not even half way through my time as a URA, but I would still highly recommend other students to apply for similar positions at Bournemouth University.

For more information on ORI please visit:

bournemouth.ac.uk/ori
Twitter: @BU_Orthopaedic

Or to get involved with the current research please email me on:

Lburgess@bournemouth.ac.uk

30 June 2016

The Graduate School @ ARMA

PG research ccutler

Every year the Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) Conference welcomes research professionals from all over the country to share the latest knowledge, experience and best practice around professional research support. This year the Graduate School attended the ARMA conference hosted in my home city of Birmingham. It was great that our paper entitled ‘A New Model of Training for Doctoral Supervisors at Bournemouth University’ was accepted to be presented at the conference (which attracted over 300 delegates) as it gave us a great opportunity to showcase some of the innovative work being done by the Graduate School. The paper, which highlighted our commitment to the ongoing enhancement of postgraduate supervisory training, was extremely well received and stimulated interesting discussion around the topic. Since the conference, Dr Julia Taylor (Graduate School Academic Manager) has been asked to join the ARMA PGR Special Interest Group as well as provide additional presentations on this topic at future ARMA events. We look forward to our next conference at the UKCGE where we will also be presenting a conference paper.

29 June 2016

New paper on Birthing Centres in Nepal

international, open access, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Preeti Mahato in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) on the publication of a paper based on her Ph.D. research. Her paper ‘Birthing centres in Nepal: Recent developments, obstacles and opportunities’ can be found in the June 2016 edition of the Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM) [1]. All articles in JAM are Open Access to ensure midwives and researchers in the poorest parts of Asia can freely access the scientific articles in the journal.

This literature review was appraised the relevant literature on birthing centres in Nepal, South Asia, and other similar settings. Preeti and her co-authors concluded that birthing centres in Nepal have the potential to improve both (a) the institutional delivery rate; and (b) the proportion of births that benefit from the presence of a skilled birth attendant (SBA). However, accessibility, socio-demographic characteristics, and cultural factors act as barriers to pregnant women attending birthing centres and hospital facilities.

Preeti’s Ph.D. is supervised by Dr. Catherine Angell and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in CMMPH and Prof. Padam Simkhada at Liverpool John Moores University. Padam is also Visiting Faculty at the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS).

Reference:

Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Angell, C. (2016) Birthing centres in Nepal: Recent developments, obstacles and opportunities, Journal of Asian Midwives 3(1): 17-30.

24 June 2016

Best paper award!

international, open access, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Best Paper for 2015 Award in the international journal Heart. A paper published by Bournemouth University PhD student, Edward Carlton, and his supervisors, Prof. Ahmed Khattab (FHSS) and Prof. Kim Greaves from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia in collaboration with world-renowned hospitals: John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford; Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital in Australia; and Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand has been announced as the Winner of the “Heart Best Paper 2015 Award” [1]. This award is in recognition of the high quality and clinical impact of the paper. The winner for this award were chosen by the Editorial Team from the top 10 papers in each of the following three categories: downloads, citations and Altmetrics Score.

Dr. Edward Carlton has just finished his PhD at BU and he is now working as an Emergency Medicine Consultant in Bristol.

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

Carlton EW, Cullen L, Than M, Gamble J, Khattab A, Greaves K. A novel diagnostic protocol to identify patients suitable for discharge after a single high-sensitivity troponin. Heart. 2015 Jul;101(13):1041-6. doi: 10.1136/heartjnl-2014-307288. Epub 2015 Feb 17.

Category / PG research

IFOMPT 2016

SmartAbility gets the Green Light at Silverstone Circuit

BUDI presents at the iNav international conference in Bad Gastein (Austria)

The Graduate School visits Liverpool

Brexit and the implications for Open Access

How do you like your eggs?

BU research: making a difference

New paper FHSS Dr. Sarah Collard

Painting a picture of retirement at the Festival of Learning

Research and Impact in Active Ageing Symposia (University of Cumbria) – A URA Experience

The Graduate School @ ARMA

New paper on Birthing Centres in Nepal

Best paper award!

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