Category / PG research

This part of the blog features news and information for postgraduate research students and supervisors

PG Researcher Development Workshops available in May

PG research

WHAT’S ON in May 2014 – revised

 

  • Finding Information and Using Researcher Tools – 19 May
  • Managing your Citations using Endnote and Endnote Web – 21 May
  • Interviewing in Semi-Structured Interviews – 21 May
  • The Art of Facilitation – 28 May
  • An Introduction to Public Engagement – 29 May – new addition

The advanced workshop on Public Engagement (7th May 2014) has been postponed and will be rearranged at a later date.

Full details and sign up lists are available via myBU (Graduate School PGR Community).

Don’t forget that if you have both staff and student email accounts, you’ll need to log on with your student username and password.  Please check your student email account for email reminders for PGR workshops.

 

Additional PGR workshops added to the PG Researcher Programme for June

PG research

Additional PGR workshops have been organised for June:

The Importance of Publishing

Outline: Publishing is an integral part of a researcher’s professional life and this workshop aims to guide you through the process of writing and publishing research papers in journals and conference proceedings.

  • Date: 18 June 2014
  • Time: 09:30 – 12:45
  • Venue: P403 – Poole House
  • Facilitators: see below
  • 09:30 – 10:15  – Introduction to the Importance of Publishing and how it will impact on your future – Professor John Fletcher, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation)
  • 10:15 – 11:30 – How to get a paper published – Dr Feng Tian
  • 11:45 – 12:45 – Meet the Editor(s) – Dr Anne Quinney

Introduction to ‘Observation as social science research method’

Outline:  Observation is a key research methods in academic disciplines such as Anthropology, Sociology, Education, Development Studies, Psychology and Management Studies, to name but a few. This introduction of observation outlines the two methods of observation: participant and non-participant. With participant observation, the researcher becomes a part of the social group being studied in order to get a true understanding of the participants. On the other end of the spectrum, non-participant observation involves a researcher taking a step back and ‘passively’ watching the participants in action.

The session will also address the so-called Hawthorne Effect as well as questions such as: ‘How do you present yourself as the observing researcher?’ and ‘What are the main ethical considerations for someone undertaking observational research?”

  • Date: 25 June 2014
  • Time: 14:00 – 16:00
  • Venue: S217 – Studland House – Lansdowne Campus
  • Facilitator: Prof Edwin van Teijlingen

To sign up, please visit myBU – Graduate School PGR Community and remember to log on with your student username and password

Getting to grips with Creative Commons Licensing

BU research, PG research, Publishing

What is it?

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools.

“The free, easy-to-use copyright licenses provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work — on conditions of your choice. CC licenses let you easily change your copyright terms from the default of ‘all rights reserved’ to ‘some rights reserved’.

Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright. They work alongside copyright and enable you to modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs.

Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that CC does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses and for what purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.

If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.” (Creative Commons 2014)

Why do we need it?

New ways of publishing on the internet require different licensing arrangements, so that work can be freely shared and reconfigured to advance research. Creative Commons allows this flexibility.

  • Creators can retain their copyright and allow specified re-use depending on the licence chosen.
  • Users can see immediately what they are allowed to do with a work without the time-consuming need to contact the author for permission.

 

How does this work?

Source: http://foter.com/blog/files/2012/11/Foter.com_infographic_CC.jpg

How do I use it in my own work?

Where the RCUK OA block grant is used to pay Article Processing Charges for a paper, the paper must be made Open Access immediately at the time of on-line publication, using the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. Find out more in the RCUK OA Policy.

For all other material: Use the Creative Commons tool to choose your licence.

How do I use it with other people’s work?

When you come across work that uses Creative Commons you will see the distinctive Creative Commons logo (as below) and there will be a link to the licence under which it has been released. This tells you exactly what you are allowed to do with it.

Finding Creative Commons works

The Creative Commons website has a search engine that searches the Web for Creative Commons works, and Google (under its Advanced Search facility) has an option to search for materials that use Creative Commons.  Select usage rights and from drop down menu:  free to share or modify, even commercially.

PGR Workshop – Developing Professional Researcher Networks

PG research

There are places still available on this workshop……..

Developing Professional Researcher Networks – Facilitated by Margaret Collins

The aim of this workshop is to give PhD students skills to conduct effective professional networking conversations and to use networking as a tool for developing their professional networks. Networking is recognised by established researchers and Academics as an essential tool for career development and professional advancement.  In contrast, research reveals that many Early Career Researchers feel very uncertain about networking, in respect to both the practical “how to do it” issues and the underlying, often values-based questions “Why it is important ?” and “Should I be doing this?”.

We will address various aspects of networking and develop the appropriate physical and mental skills necessary to improve our skill set in confident networking techniques.

Progress will be made through discussions and group exercises to develop essential skills, build confidence and overcome anxiety or blocks to performance.

As a result of this workshop participants will:

  • Increase their understanding of the professional importance of networking
  • Improve their ability to communicate confidently in networking conversations
  • Understand the importance of body language in effective communication
  • Have tools to deal with stress or anxiety related to networking
  • Have strategies to develop collaborations or increase visibility

WHEN: Tuesday 29 April 2014 : WHERE: K103 – Kimmeridge House, Talbot Campus

Registration is via myBU – Graduate School PGR Community – Please remember that you will need to log on with your student username and password.

Does spinal manipulation change cervical inter-vertebral motion? – BritSpine 2014 conference presentation by Jonathan Branney

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, PG research

Jonny, an HSC PhD student based at AECC has recently returned from the University of Warwick where he gave an oral presentation of his PhD findings, at the BritSpine conference. This was an opportunity to present his research on spinal manipulation and neck pain to eminent clinicians and researchers, and field questions from none less than the President of the British Association of Spinal Surgeons and the Chair of the United Kingdom Spine Societies Board – sigh of relief when they appeared to be happy with his answers!

This is the first time Jonny has presented his findings to a spine-research expert audience and this resulted in invaluable feedback that will inform not only future presentations, but his thesis too. It was only through the award of a Santander Mobility Award that Jonny was able to attend this prestigious conference – many thanks to the Graduate School and Santander Universities for making this attendance possible.

Jonny’s thesis is entitled, “An observational study of changes in cervical inter-vertebral motion and the relationship with patient-reported outcomes in patients undergoing spinal manipulative therapy for neck pain”. He is supervised by Professors Alan Breen and Jenni Bolton, (AECC) and Dr Sarah Hean at BU, and the thesis is due for completion in the summer.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in whether spinal manipulation changes inter-vertebral motion, you might like to check out the conference abstract which was published in the European Spine Journal 23(Suppl 1): S128.

 

Congratulations to Dr. Joyce Miller (PhD by Publication)

BU research, Featured academics, PG research, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized

Congratulations to HSC postgraduate student Joyce Miller who has just completed her PhD by Publication.  Joyce Miller is a chiropractic practitioner and lecturer with over 25 years private practice experience. She is Associate Professor at Anglo-European Chiropractic College in Bournemouth.  Her thesis Effects of Musculoskeletal Dysfunction in Excessive Crying Syndromes of Infancy presents research spanning more than a decade.  Joyce studied the relevance of chiropractic manual therapy to excessive crying in infancy through a unique series of eight clinical academic papers.

 

The eight separate studies used a range of different research methods:

  1. a demographic survey of paediatric patients attending a chiropractic clinic;
  2. a record study to determine the prevalence of side effects or adverse events;
  3. a cohort study to substantiate sub-groups of excessively crying infants;
  4. a prospective observational study to develop a predictive model using likelihood ratios to forecast the presence of infant colic in a clinical population;
  5. validation of a one-page instrument to assess clinical outcomes against the gold standard crying diary;
  6. a randomised comparison trial of two types of chiropractic manual therapy for infant colic;
  7. a randomised controlled single blind trial to determine efficacy of blinding as well as chiropractic manual therapy in management of infant colic;
  8. a case-control study to investigate  long-term effects of chiropractic manual therapy into toddlerhood.

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

HSC

Low-Power High-Quality Interactive Digital Media: The Challenges

BU research, Featured academics, PG research

Dear all,

We would like to invite you to an additional guest talk for the Creative Technology Research Centre that will be delivered by Professor Edmond C. Prakash from the University of Bedfordshire.

Title: Low-Power High-Quality Interactive Digital Media: The Challenges

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Thursday 3rd April 2014

Room: P302 (Poole House, Talbot Campus)

Abstract: Traditional GPUs have super graphics performance and have been extremely utilised for media rich applications. However, they are not suitable for low-power mobile devices. Digital media research and development are at the crossroads. This talk looks at some of the key challenges faced in Embedded GPUs for next generation media rich applications (interactive 3D graphics and games) on low-power mobile devices. Graphics programmers, 3D modellers, animators and game developers will benefit from this talk.

Biography:  Edmond is a Professor in Computer Games Technology and the Director for the Institute for Research in Applicable Computing at the University of Bedfordshire. He is the founding editor of the International Journal of Computer Games Technology.  Edmond has worked at top institutions across the globe including MIT, UIUC, BNU, NTU, MMU, PUJ and IISc. Edmond’s research interests are in volume graphics, real-time visualisation, game based learning and game engines.

We hope to see you there,

Dr. David John

PG Researcher Development Workshops

PG research

WHAT’S ON in April 2014

  • Research Philosophy – 1 April 2014
  • Statistics: Sample Size Estimation – 2 April 2014
  • An Introduction to Public Engagement – 2 April 2014
  • Statistics: Time Series Analysis – 7 April 2014
  • Statistics: Principal Component Analysis – 10  April 2014

Full details and sign up lists are available via myBU (Graduate School PGR Community).

Don’t forget that if you have both staff and student email accounts, you’ll need to log on with your student username and regularly check your student email account for email reminders.

 

Sustainable Design Research Centre New Experimental Resources for Research & Education

BU research, Fusion, PG research

Sustainable Design Research Centre

Faculty of Science & Technology

Newly Added and Commissioned Experimental Resources for Research & Education

The following new equipment have been recently added to the lab resources for both research & education. Two PhD research projects in Renewable Technology (Heat Transfer and Thermodynamic Expansion) and one Research Assistant within SDRC are fully funded by industrial partner FES Ltd [Dr Zulfiqar Khan, PI]. This research informs education within the Design & Engineering Framework, MEng Programme, through Level I Thermo-fluids & Heat Transfer (20 Credit) unit led by Dr Zulfiqar Khan.

These equipment are significant addition for enhancing students’ experience and providing a vehicle for realising BU Fusion initiative.

PIPE FRICTION APPARATUS

The experimentation stand can be used to investigate pipe frictional losses with laminar and turbulent flows. The pipe section is a brass pipe with an internal diameter of 3 mm. The distance between the pressure measuring fittings and thus the length of the experimental pipe section is 400 mm.

The pressure losses for laminar flow are measured using a water manometer. The static pressure difference is displayed. A head tank is available to create a laminar flow and ensures a constant water inlet pressure in the pipe section at a constant water level.

For turbulent flow, the pressure difference is measured using a dial manometer. The head tank is not used to create a turbulent flow. The water is fed directly into the pipe section from the water supply via a bypass. The flow is adjusted using shut-off valves at the beginning and end of the pipe. The water supply is provided either by the Basic Hydraulics Module or from the mains supply in the laboratory.

BERNOULLI’S PRINCIPLE DEMONSTRATOR

The equipment is used to investigate Bernoulli’s law. The measurement object is a Venturi nozzle with six pressure measurement points. The six static pressures are displayed on a board with six water pressure gauges. The overall pressure can also be measured at various locations in the Venturi nozzle and indicated on a second water pressure gauge. Measurement is by way of a probe which can be moved axially with respect to the Venturi nozzle. The probe is sealed by way of a compression gland. Water is supplied either from the Fluid Mechanics Basic Module or from the laboratory mains.

The equipment enables a closed water circuit to be constructed.

Possible experiments:

  1. Demonstration of Bernoulli’s law
  2. Pressure measurements along Venturi nozzle
  3. Determination of flow rate factor K

[The above information are provided by GUNT Publication-no.: 917.000 01 A 150 12 (A) Experiment instructions HM 150.01 Pipe Friction Apparatus & Experiment Instructions HM 150.07 Bernoulli’s Principle Demonstrator].

If you have interest in Renewable Technology research & education and would like to find more about the activities within the Sustainable Design Research Centre, then please contact.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan (Associate Professor)

Director SDRC

Dash7 for remote patient monitoring via mobile phone

BU research, PG research, Research news

We would like to invite you to the next research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre that will be delivered by Andrew Yearp.

TitleDash7 for remote patient monitoring via mobile phone

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 26th March 2014

Room: P302 (Poole House, Talbot Campus)

Abstract: Wireless Remote patient monitoring systems provide an improved environment for hospital patients while expanding the range physiological information available to medical personnel. With these developments patients are now free from wires, but are still contained within the range of the wireless monitoring system. This seminar explores the application of Dash7 and mobile phone technologies in patient monitoring, particularly in hospital wards. The functionality of a prototype system which has been developed so far will be demonstrated during this seminar.

We hope to see you there,

 Dr. David John

2014 sees a surge in engagement with eBU

BU research, PG research, Publishing, Research news

Through immediate internal publication and open peer review, eBU is ideally placed to support the developmental needs of authors at any career stage, and I’m pleased to say that, so far, the 2014 issue has seen a levels of engagement from across the career spectrum. eBU has had two working paper submissions so far in 2014 (and there are plenty more in the archived 2013 issue!).

Firstly, under the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing theme, Sheetal Sharma (HSC) and colleagues submitted a paper titled Eliciting Nepali women’s views on childbirth and the newborn. A full text file of this paper has been openly reviewed and can be viewed here – http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/17.  I understand Sheetal has just submitted this paper to an external journal, so best of luck and we await with great excitement to hear the outcome!

Secondly, under the Education, Learning and Practice theme, Jonathan Williams (again HSC) has submitted a paper titled Is student knowledge of anatomy affected by a Problem-Based Learning approach? A full text file of this paper can be read here – http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/24.

eBU was also delighted to be able to support outputs from the 2014 PGR conference, and a number of PGRs have decided to use eBU to showcase their work. Why not take a look at the following abstracts and posters:

Business, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth

Alice Bonasio – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Customer Engagement Through Crowd-Funding and Social Media: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/21

Lifelong Health and Wellbeing

Ben Hicks – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Using commercial computer game technology to benefit men with dementia residing in rural areas of Dorset: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/19

Sheetal Sharma – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Pregnant and ‘dirty’ for 40 days: A qualitative study of childbirth practice, beliefs and myths in Nepal: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/20

Jonny Branney – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Is spinal manipulation associated with changes in cervical inter-vertebral motion?: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/23

Research Methods and Practice

Jenny Roddis – PGR Conf 2014 Poster: Experience of interviewing: face-to-face vs. telephone: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/22

Technology & Design

Manuel Salvador – PGR Conf 2014 Poster: Automating Data Pre-processing for Online and Dynamic Processes in the Chemical Industry: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/18

Sustainable Design Research Centre – Faculty of Science & Technology Research Seminar

BU research, Fusion, PG research

Date: 02/04/2014

Time: 12:00 – 12:30

Venue: PG 22

Title: Renewable energy goes global – what is wrong with the wind turbines?

 Abstract:

As a fast growing renewable energy source, wind turbines have undergone significant development over the past thirty years providing a suitable portion of renewable energy in many countries. However, the world’s demand for wind energy supply will continue to increase in the next five to ten years. To increase the production efficiency, wind turbine manufacturers have been focusing on the increase of output power from individual turbines. Larger and heavier gearboxes are being put up ‘in the air’ (on the top of high towers), which has unfortunately been accompanied by an escalation of tribological issues related to wear and lubrication in the drivetrain systems. The unsatisfactory performance and reliability of wind turbines are threatening the sustainability of wind energy globally. Wind turbine failure, white structure flaking (WSF), has been found to limit the lives of a large number of wind turbine gearboxes from the design life of over 20 years to as short as 6 months to 2 years and the premature failure has a huge impact on the reliability of wind turbines and the cost of wind energy due to its frequent occurrences and high cost involved (at £300k per gearbox replacement). This talk presents the research on WSF at University of Southampton.

Brief bio:

Dr Ling Wang is a lecturer in condition monitoring of tribological systems at the national Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton (nCATS), Engineering Sciences Academic Unit, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment since 2007. She has published over 80 peer reviewed papers and conducted collaborative research projects with a wide range of industrial partners including Rolls-Royce plc. GE Aviation, Vestas Wind Systems, Shell Global Solutions, Afton Chemical Corporation, BP and Agusta Westland.

These seminars are organised by the University Sustainable Design Research Centre in the Faculty of Science & Technology to provide a platform for disseminating latest research activities and results. These seminars are good opportunity of networking for both BU staff and students.

If you would like further information on research activities in corrosion, corrosion simulation and corrosion monitoring please visit SDRC webpage. For any specific inquiries please contact

Dr Zulfiqar Khan (Associate Professor)

Director Sustainable Design Research Centre

eBU news, updates and success story!

BU research, PG research, Publishing, Research news, Research themes

eBU news: updates and achievements

It’s been a while since I posted about eBU. Since my last post there has been some exciting updates and progress to report. There are some new faces to welcome, a reminder to encourage students to submit, news that eBU is supporting outputs from the PGR conference and will support outputs from an exciting new conference, and…  (drum roll…) a paper originally submitted to eBU has been published in an external journal!

Welcome aboard!

Heather Savigny has joined me as a co-editor. I have met with Heather a few times now, and it is obvious that she is passionate about developing writing and scholarly skills. On this basis, Heather is a perfect addition to the team. We have both met with the new PVC Prof John Fletcher, and I’m glad to say that, like his predecessor, he is very supportive of eBU. Shelly Maskell from R&KEO has also come aboard and will provide vital support in helping develop eBU.

Encourage students to submit

One immediate challenge for eBU is not appeal to students. eBU launched a bit too late last year to appeal to students who would have made important submissions at the end of last academic year (dissertations etc), but hopefully we will be well placed to appeal to them this year! So I urge all academic staff to encourage students who produce good quality to a) encourage them to spend a little bit more time and format their work into a publishable output and b) offer some support to this end.

PGR conference

eBU is well placed to help early career researchers and students make that leap into the ‘publish or perish’ world of academia. On this basis, it is a tool that PGRs should take advantage of. We are actively encouraging people who presented their work at the PGR conference to submit their work to eBU. We have received a good number of abstracts and posters already, and eBU will be a great platform to showcase this work BU wide. Outputs associated with the PGR conference to have deadlines, and these are:

  • Please submit posters before Friday 14th March.
  • Please submit abstracts before Friday 14th March.
  • Please submit conference papers before 12th April

I would encourage those who made an oral presentations to write it up as a conference paper. There is guidance for PGRs on myBU and on the Graduate School website, but do feel free to get in touch with any questions. We don’t generally set deadlines, so please remember that you can submit any other papers you might have in the pipeline (e.g. review papers) at any time, and we will guarantee a quick internal and open peer review.

Future scope

Congratulations to Luciana Esteves from ApSci, who has been successful in winning some Fusion funding to kick-start an annual undergraduate research conference at BU – SURE@BU. This is something to look out for in the future, but it is worth stating now that eBU will play a key role in the publication of conference abstracts, posters, conference papers etc.

Success!!!

I’m glad to report that one of the submissions to eBU has been published by an external journal, and I believe others will shortly follow suit. The successful paper in question is a paper that I wrote with colleagues. However, it is a useful little case study to illustrate how and why eBU works.

Myself and colleagues in HSC and outside (University of Exeter, University of Plymouth and Westbourne Medical Centre) submitted a grant application in the second half of last year. In most grant applications you have opportunity to summarise the key literature, and this one was no different. Unfortunately whilst the grant application was unsuccessful, I took a senior colleagues advice and spent a little bit of time turning the application into a paper. After a few weeks I submitted it to eBU (the phrase ‘put your money where your mouth is’ comes to mind!). As I had a bit of a vested interest it was processed by editorial colleagues and reviews were uploaded after a few weeks. It really helped having two sets of informed but fresh eyes scrutinise the paper, and changes were made on the basis of these reviews. The paper was submitted to a journal and accepted with suggestions for minor changes.

When I wrote this article I was a Research Assistant here and, like many early career researchers, I had aspirations of becoming published in peer reviewed journals. One of my trepidations was getting that first publication. I’m now a PhD student here, and I’m sure the floodgates will open (along with another colleague have since have had another accepted!) as I now have many ideas for potential papers and now – thanks to eBU – I have no fear of the unknown!

Andy Harding

Doctoral Researcher and eBU co-editor

 

Workshop on Streaming Analytics Thursday 13th March 10:30.

BU research, EU, Fusion, PG research, Research news, Uncategorized

As part of a collaboration between BU and several other EU based universities and intitutions we will be hosting SAAT 2014 a workshop on the emerging area of streaming analytics. The workshop is open to all for the first day (the second day is taken up with management meetings). The focus of this workshop is on the technical aspects of how to provide streaming analytics.

Scalability and responsiveness of algorithms and architectures for large scale data streams are fundamental to harvesting the power of data generated in real-time networks. The workshop seeks to bring together industry and academic partners to explore specifically the requirements of data processing, the real-world target applications and develop from there the techniques required. The scope thus includes applications, scaling algorithms, streaming platforms, integration of streaming and batch algorithms, graph partitioning together with machine learning for streaming, concept drift and dynamic data analysis. Additional topics such as security issues and tool and platform development are of interest.

Aims:
The key aims in this workshop are several fold. Primarily we seek to identify the key issues associated real world streams of data, including key target applications. Integrated  solutions, combining appropriate topics from the scope which target likely directions in this field is the end goal. Specifically, the aim of the workshop is to facilitate interaction as a crucible for consortium building in advance of Horizon 2020 (call 1.A.1.1 from the 2014-15 draft work programme.).

Organisers: Dr. Hamid Bouchachia(DEC) , Dr. Damien Fay (DEC)

PGR Development Fund – March Deadline

PG research

The PGR Development Fund closes at the end of this month, so if you are planning to attend a conference or research development activity over the coming months, don’t forget to submit an application for financial support to the Graduate School by 31st March.

Awards are available of up to £1,000 and will cover direct costs, such as – travel, subsistence, training or development costs.

Don’t forget you will need to seek the support of your Supervisory Team and Deputy Dean for Research, so please factor this in when submitting your application.  Completed applications should be emailed to gsfunding@bournemouth.ac.uk by 5 pm – 31st March 2014.

Full details can be found on myBU – Graduate School PGR Community – remember you’ll need to log on with your student username and password.