Category / Leisure, Recreation & Tourism

Today’s slides from ROMEO project

BU research, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized

 

Thank you very much for all of you who attended today’s presentation of the joint project between the University of Aberdeen, Bournemouth University and the University of Stirling.  For those who missed the session or who asked for a copy of the slides after the session, please find these included in the BU Research Blog.

ROMEO Edwin June 2014

The project was funded by National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme (09/127/01).  Therefore, I must point out that “views and opinions expressed therein (and here) are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the HTA programme, NIHR, NHS or the Department of Health.”

 

As with all HTA reports the final report and a ten-page summary are both freely available online, see:

www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/118180/FullReport-hta18350.pdf

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health.

R

Obesity prevention in men, findings from a recent HTA Report

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

Media coverage HTA Report June 2014

HSC Open Seminar

 

“Obesity Prevention in Men” with Professor Edwin van Teijlingen

Wednesday 2nd July 2014

 

13.00 – 13.50pm

 

Bournemouth House, B126

 

 

On July 2nd Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen will present findings from a HTA report published this month.  Researchers from the University of Aberdeen, Bournemouth University and the University of Stirling examined the evidence for managing obesity in men and investigated how to engage men with obesity services. The evidence came from trials, interviews with men, reports of studies from the UK, and economic studies.

 

The research found that men are more likely than women to benefit if physical activity is part of a weight-loss programme.   Also eating less produces more weight loss than physical activity on its own.  However, the type of reducing diet did not appear to affect long-term weight loss.

 

Prof. van Teijlingen will highlight some of the key messages for Public Health policy and practice.  For example, that although fewer men than women joined weight-loss programmes, once recruited they were less likely to drop out than women.   The perception of having a health problem, the impact of weight loss on health problems, and the desire to improve personal appearance without looking too thin were motivators for weight loss amongst men.

This work has been funded as part of the ROMEO project (Review Of Men and Obesity) by the National Institute for Health Research, Health Technology Assessment Programme (NIHR HTA Project 09/127/01).

The full report can be downloaded here: http://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/118180/FullReport-hta18350.pdf

–xx–

We hope you can make it and we look forward to seeing you there.

Beckie Freeman

Academic Community Administrator| Health & Wellbeing Community

01202 962184 | rfreeman@bournemouth.ac.uk

Changing diet and exercise, offering men-only groups, and humour may be the recipe for tackling male obesity

BU research, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized

Fewer men join weight loss programmes but are more likely than women to stick with them, according to analysis of international obesity studies by researchers from the Universities of Aberdeen, Bournemouth and Stirling.

Men also prefer the use of simple ‘business-like’ language, welcome humour used sensitively, and benefit from the moral support of other men in strategies to tackle obesity. The researchers suggest that obese men might be helped better if weight loss programmes were specifically designed for men.

Researchers from the Universities of Aberdeen, Bournemouth and Stirling analysed evidence from around the world, gathered from weight loss trials and studies that have also taken men’s views. The team particularly investigated what would make services more appealing for men.

From their systematic review (see: http://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/118180/FullReport-hta18350.pdf ) of the evidence on obesity management published by the NHS National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme, researchers also found:

 

  • Cutting calories together with exercise and following advice on changing behaviour are the best way for obese men to shed pounds. This can also help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and can help improve erectile dysfunction for some men.
  • Obese men who eat less lose more weight than those who take more exercise but don’t eat less.
  • In the long term, one calorie-reducing diet has not yet been found to better than another for weight loss for men.
  • Middle-aged men are motivated to lose weight once they perceive they have a health problem they want to tackle.
  • A desire to improve personal appearance without looking too thin is also a motivator for weight loss in men.
  • Men are likely to prefer weight-loss programmes delivered by the NHS rather than those run commercially.
  • Group-based weight management programmes run only for men provide moral support.
  • Obesity interventions in sports clubs, such as football clubs, have been very effective, with low dropout rates and very positive responses from men.

 

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Chief investigator Professor Alison Avenell, based at the University of Aberdeen, said: “More men than women are overweight or obese in the UK, but men are less likely to see their weight as a problem and engage with weight-loss services, even though obesity increases the risk of many serious illnesses such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis. This could be because dieting and weight-loss programmes are perceived as being feminine activities.”

“We looked at the outcomes of obesity management trials and interventions as well as interviews with men in order to find out more about how to design services and inform health policy. While more research is needed into the effectiveness of new approaches to engage men with weight-loss, our findings suggest that men should be offered the opportunity to attend weight loss programmes that are different to programmes which are mainly attended by women.”

 

Dr Flora Douglas, from the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, said: “Men prefer more factual information on how to lose weight and more emphasis on physical activity in weight loss programmes. Interventions delivered in social settings were preferred to those delivered in health-care settings.   Group-based programmes showed benefits by facilitating support for men with similar health problems, and some individual tailoring of advice helped men.  Programmes which were situated in a sporting venue, where participants had a strong sense of affiliation, showed low drop-out rates and high satisfaction.”

University of Stirling Professor Pat Hoddinott said: “Men are much less likely to enrol in commercial weight loss schemes. Some men preferred weight loss programmes delivered in an NHS context. The difference between weight loss for men from NHS and commercial programmes is presently unclear”.

 

Professor Edwin van Teijlingen from Bournemouth University added: “This research project has benefited throughout from the input and insights offered by the Men’s Health Forum in Ireland, the Men’s Health Forum Scotland and the Men’s Health Forum England and Wales.”

This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Health Technology Assessment Programme (NIHR HTA Project 09/127/01; Systematic reviews of and integrated report on the quantitative, qualitative and economic evidence base for the management of obesity in men http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/projects/hta/0912701).  The views and opinions expressed therein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Health.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Ferndown & Uddens Business Improvement District collaborates with a multi-disciplinary team from BU

BU research, Uncategorized

The Business Improvement District (BID) yesterday hosted their first breakfast meeting on business continuity and information assurance.

Staff from the Business School, The Disaster Management Centre and the Cyber Security Unit presented a knowledgeable insight to identify collective responsibilities of businesses within the district, giving examples where one business problem may affect other enterprises across the estate. The Dorset Fire & Rescue Service and Dorset Police further supported BU’s representations concerning crisis management; business resilience; disaster recovery and cybercrime. In addition, A&T Insurance Group provided a comprehensive study on insuring business resilience.

BUCSU introduced the availability of TSB Innovation Vouchers to meet the recently published ‘Cyber Essentials’ issued by the Information Commissioners Office.

Erasmus+ partner universities e-workshops

BU research

 3rd Sustainable e-Tourism Research and Applications

Virtual Workshop

25 June 2014
Participating Erasmus Mundus partner Universities:

Bournemouth University (UK), University Lyon2,
Staffordshire University (UK), Universite Joseph Fourier Grenoble 1
and Universita degli Studi del Sannio (Italy)

Aims & Subjects

Workshop Aims

The workshop is organized under the Erasmus-Mundus Action 2 “Sustainable e-tourism program”.

This third edition of the workshop aims to promote knowledge exchanges, discussion, and dialogue on innovative management issues in e-tourism, effective and more efficient approaches to the Sustainable e-Tourism programs our partner universities.

The workshop series mainly involves PhD students of the program. The first and second edition of the workshop took place at June 2012 and May 2013.

Master, PhD as well as Post-Doc members of the program were involved.

The overall objectives of these workshops under the Erasmus Mundus Action 2, Sustainable e-tourism are:

To enhance the capacity for international cooperation between universities in Asia and universities in EU countries by facilitating mobility of people, transfer of know-how and best practices by training the researchers and academic staff of the next generation.

To develop new co-operative teaching and research links in the tourism sector and to enhance knowledge and skills of teaching staff, students and researchers in promoting a sustainable e-Tourism philosophy.

To transfer the technology and knowledge in the following fields: business and strategy in the tourism industry, knowledge management, advanced ICT, cross-cultural analysis among the research patterns.

To set up innovative management policies based on the use of ICT, which enhance sustainable development in the tourism sector in Europe and Asia and help to create and spear knowledge in both directions.

Workshop topics

Knowledge management and related topics for e-tourism   –  Mobile technology for e-tourism   –   The reputation and trust model in social network  –   Product lifecycle management  –  Product data management and Eco-product lifecycle management   –   Multi agent system for dynamic web service composition   -Customer relation management for e-tourism -e-Commerce   –   e-Business for e-tourism   –   e-Learning and human capital for e-tourism   –  Sustainable Management for e-tourism   –  Sustainable Supply chain   –  Tourism Destination Images   –  Tourist behaviour and e-tourism marketing   –   Semantic Web/Web services/ontology   –   Information retrieval / Service recommendation   –
Web search personalization / customization   –   User profile management / context management   –   Social networks / collaborative filtering   –  User privacy protection – Natural language processing – Classification / clustering algorithms – Location based services –  Robotics and Applications

Workshop Committee:

General Co-Chair:

Xi YU, University of Lyon 2, France

Program Co-Chair:

Fei YUAN , Staffordshire University, UK
Lei MU, Universite Joseph Fourier Grenoble 1
Trung Hien NGUYEN International School Vietnam National University, Italy
Vivek Chacko, Bournemouth University, UK
Xi YU , University of Lyon 2, France

Scientific Committee:

Prof.Abdelaziz Bouras, University of Lyon 2, France
Prof.Hongnian Yu, Bournemouth University, UK
Prof. Lbath Ahmed, Universite Joseph Fourier Grenoble 1, France
Prof. Yacine Ouzrout, University of Lyon 2, France
Prof. Matteo Mario Savino ,Universita degli Studi del Sannio, BIOGEM, Italy
Prof. Paul Jean-Jacques, Royal University of Law and Economics ,Cambodia
MA. Do Thu Huong,International School – Vietnam National University,Vietnam
Dr. Garidkhuu Ariuntuul,Health Sciences University of Mongolia, Mongolia
Dr. Nouansavanh Khamlusa,National University of Laos, Laos
Mr Ou Yusong, Chengdu University, China
Dr.Nopasit Chackpitak, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Dr. Aurélie Charles, University of Lyon 2, France
Dr. Néjib Moalla, University of Lyon 2, France
Dr. Antoine Nongaillard, University of Lyon 2, France
Dr. Vincent Renner, University of Lyon 2, France
Dr. Aicha Sekhari, University of Lyon 2, France
Dr. Wided Batat, University of Lyon 2, France

Contacts at BU: Prof. Hongnian Yu and Vivek Chacko

New tourism texts by Professor Stephen Page

BU research, Research news

Fourth editions have been published of two popular textbooks by Professor Stephen Page from BU’s School of Tourism.

Tourism: A Modern Synthesis

 

This is a leading international full colour publication used as an introductory course text with a significant web learning resource supporting student learning.  It is co-written with Dr Joanne Connell from Exeter Business School. The new edition provides many new perspectives on the fast changing nature of global tourism.

 

 

The Geography of Tourism and Recreation: Environment, Place and Space

This written with Professor Michael Hall at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and published by Routledge.  First published in 1999, this soon became established as the leading text used by Geographers (and many non-Geographers) as a scholarly introduction to the nature of tourism and recreation as a spatial phenomenon including its impacts in different environments.  A key feature of the book is its almost encyclopaedic coverage of the literature, acting both as a reference source and roadmap to the way geography has embraced the study of tourism, leisure and recreation over the last 100 years.

 

This new edition has been very well received and positively reviewed:

“They just keep getting better and better. This new edition of The Geography of Tourism and Recreation is an outstanding example of contemporary and cutting-edge thinking in the dynamic subfield of tourism geographies. It exemplifies a heterogeneous approach to understanding the spatial implications of tourism, the industry and its functions in diverse settings and ecosystems, and its impacts on human and natural environments. For an innovative examination of current trends in tourism, this book is essential reading for anyone who studies, teaches, or practices the business, art and science of tourism.”

Professor Timothy J Dallen, School of Community Resources and Development, Arizona State University, USA.

“In the often nebulous and many-sided world of tourism geographies, where space and place are simultaneously attraction and constraint, product and site, destination and experience, there are no more knowledgeable, versatile or sure footed guides than C.Michael Hall and Stephen Page. They have led a generation of students and researchers and in this fourth edition they continue the intellectual journey into the emerging social, economic and political realities of the 21st century.”

Professor G.J.Ashworth, Department of Planning, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, Netherlands.

Puerto Rico welcomes a new BUDI

BU research, Uncategorized


Every year the prestigious Alzheimer’s Disease International conference welcomes practitioners, academics, people living with dementia, medical professionals and clinicians from all over the world to share their latest knowledge, experience and research about dementia careThis year I was lucky enough to attend and represent BUDI at the 29th International Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International Dementia: Working Together for a Global Solution, hosted in San Juan on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico.

Three abstracts were accepted to be orally presented, so this was a great opportunity to showcase some of BUDI’s innovative research projects to world leading dementia specialists. The three presented projects were the Technology Club (Dementia Care and Technology), Tales of the Sea (Empowering people with dementia) and (Dont) Mention Dementia (Voices of people with dementia and their families).

All three presentations were well received and stimulated discussion and many questions. The feedback I received after my presentations and during the conference was that BUDI’s projects were seen as innovative, creative and great examples of how to engage people with dementia in research and how people with dementia should be at the core of all research.

Above and beyond presenting, I had the opportunity to catch up with Peter, an Australian colleague (who I have been working on the international GRIID research project with for around two years and have never met!) Peter presented the GRIID project (Gateway to Rural International Initiatives in Dementia) at this conference. After his presentation we were able to meet and come up with some really innovative ideas to take the GRIID project to the next level.

To top off a very successful conference, I won a huge kangaroo courtesy of the Australian Alzheimer’s Association. He was unfortunately a bit too big to fit into my case so he to travelled home with another colleague…I wonder if I will ever get him back as he was very cute!

Since returning home I have started to get in touch with some of the many contacts I made at this conference and look forward to potential international collaborations. This conference highlights all the good work currently being undertaken but also emphasises the amount of work we still need to do. I invite you to check out the below clip of Richard Taylor PhD, who presented numerous times at the conference. Richard is extremely funny and has a great approach and attitude to life. It is very thought provoking as he shares his thoughts about living with dementia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHQfc3KJ9qE.

Clare Cutler, BUDI Project Manager

Fusion – Establishment of research collaboration, student and staff exchanges with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

 My application to the Fusion Investment Fund (FIF) has been successful.  The funds will be used to establish research collaboration, student and staff exchanges with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa. I will be travelling to the UKZN during Easter this month for an exploratory visit. While at UKZN, I will present a paper to the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance. This will be followed by a series of meetings with students and staff. On my return, I will apply to Bournemouth University to put in place the three relationships.

 A successful establishment of the three aforesaid relationships will have many enormous benefits to the students and staff of BU and UKZN. For example, students should benefit culturally in terms of spending sometime in South Africa and UK respectively due to differences in the two countries’ cultures. In addition to cultural awareness, the staff exchange will benefit the staff involved through observing how lecturers in a different country deliver lectures. Apart from co-authoring academic journal articles, research collaboration between BU and UKZN staff should be beneficial where the research call (e.g. Horizon 2020) requires that researchers from Europe collaborate with a partner from South Africa.

 At an institution level, the relationships should help BU in two main ways. Firstly, student exchange should increase awareness of BU in Africa which may translate into increase in percentage of African students enrolled at BU. Increasing the percentage of students from Africa is important for BU because currently less than 4% of our students are from Africa compared to 8% UK universities average. Secondly, the increase in student population from Africa will also help BU achieve the strategic plan objective of increasing overseas students’ recruitment by 15% by 2015.

 UKNZ is the third largest university in South Africa and a very good university and also shares great similarities in university teaching, research and enterprise activities with those of the Business School, School of Tourism, Design, Engineering and Computing, School of Health and Social Care. Further information about the university can be found on: http://www.ukzn.ac.za/.

 Dr Ven Tauringana, Associate Professor of Accounting – The Business School

Highly Commended Paper by Lorraine Brown, John Edwards & Heather Hartwell.

BU research, Delicious links, Featured academics, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized

Congratulations to BU academics Dr. Lorraine Brown, Prof. John Edwards and Prof. Heather Hartwell.  Their recent paper “Eating and emotion: focusing on the lunchtime meal” published in the British Food Journal has been selected by the journal’s Editorial Team as a Highly Commended Paper of 2013.

“Eating and emotion: focusing on the lunchtime meal” was chosen as a Highly Commended Paper winner as it is one of the most impressive pieces of work the British Food Journal has seen throughout 2013.

The three winners will be presented with a certificate by the journal!  The authors are all based in the School of Tourism whilst Prof. Hartwell also has appointment in the School of Health & Social Care.

Details of the paper are listed at the following web site: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0007-070X&volume=115&issue=2&articleid=17077382&show=html

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, School of Health & Social Care

Website & BRIAN Training Sessions

BU research, Guidance, Research news, Research themes, Training

Screen shot of new website

Due to popular demand we are hosting  training sessions for the new research webpages together with BRIAN training.

These sessions are open to all BU academic staff, post graduate research students and those supporting researchers in their communications activity.

During the session you will learn the following:

Research Webpages

  • Why BU has new research webpages
  • How you can upload content to the website
  • How the site can be used most effectively to maximise exposure of BU research.

BRIAN

  • What is BRIAN and why is it important
  • How to set up and maintain your BRIAN profile
  • How to ensure your details are correct
  • How to request a photo is uploaded
  • How BRIAN links to your external staff profile

To book on one of the following sessions please use the links below…

Thursday 27th March 2pm in P421 Poole House, Talbot Campus

Thursday 17th April 2pm in P421 Poole House, Talbot Campus

We hope to follow these with a session at the Lansdowne Campus (room pending). If you would be interested in a Lansdowne session or you have any queries, please  email Shelly Maskell on smaskell@bournemouth.ac.uk

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

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

 

Funding Success Stories: Sport Academic Group Strengthens Dutch-German-British Collaboration

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, EU, Funding opportunities, Fusion, PG research, Publishing

Dr Tim Breitbarth (Sport Academic Group) has been successful with his recent bid for Fusion/EU funding for teaching exchange visits to partner institutions in Groningen, The Netherlands, and Cologne.

At German Sport University Cologne Tim – who is also Programme Leader MSc Sport Management and Coordinator Internationalisation Sport at BU – will teach at their high-profile Masters in Sport Management over four days. The Masters attracts about 200 applications per year from within and outside Germany, but only 30 students are allowed into the course. The visit to Sport’s Erasmus partner institution Hanzehogeschool Groningen will include tutoring of international groups of students who participate in a multi-day management game.

Besides teaching commitments, the trips will help to move along joint research and publication projects with his European colleagues, such as editing the Special Issue on sport and social responsibility of Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society. In addition, they have been cooperating on conference and workshop organization and will once again co-lead a track at this year’s European Association for Sport Management conference.

Also, Tim and his BU colleagues were successful in securing internal funding for the first time in order to take the Sport Management and Sport Management Golf final year cohorts to a four-day intense international student management game in Cologne in late March, which he co-organises.

Hence, collaboration with, arguably, the world’s largest and renown sport university, has been in full swing with also two BU students on study exchange in Germany in semester 2 and PhD student Emma Mosley receiving training at their specialised Institute for Sport Psychology thanks to a Santander award.

Tourism, Alcohol and Public Health – tensions and opportunities

BU research, Fusion

Philip Long and Andy Adams of the School of Tourism are collaborating with Ann Hemingway and Will Haydock of the School of Health and Social Care in a Fusion CCP project that aims to explore issues associated with alcohol consumption, public health and tourism. The project will examine the views of producers and distributors of alcohol products in Bournemouth, Dorset and the New Forest on visitor markets and their regulation. The research team will also explore public health, tourism, planning and local political perspectives on the relationships between policy and practice concerning alcohol and tourism (the visitor and ‘night-time’ economy) in the region.

This project will address research, policy and media discourses on public health concerns about excessive consumption of alcohol among visitors to coastal resorts such as Bournemouth. Although much of this focuses on public order issues relating to young drinkers, captured in the phrase ‘binge’ drinking, there is increasing anxiety surrounding older drinkers.  Nationally, 2012 saw the publication of The Government’s Alcohol Strategy, which noted the importance of ‘chronic diseases’ related to alcohol amongst those aged 25 and over, and promised a review of consumption guidelines that would include specific work on those aged over 65. 

Alongside this there is a research, policy and media focus on more positive connotations of alcohol, such as real ale, rural and urban ‘gastro pubs’, micro-breweries and festivals that are packaged and promoted as tourist attractions in areas such as the New Forest and Dorset. The importance of the real ale industry in the revitalisation of tradition and social, cultural and regional identities is increasingly acknowledged. In addition, given that social capital is understood to affect people’s long-term health, it may be that the social networks involved in real ale appreciation and tourism actually help to foster psychological health and wellbeing.

The key objective of the project is to establish how researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and the wider community can contribute to reconciling these apparently conflicting perspectives.

The research team is developing a mixed-method approach focusing on the consumption, production and distribution and, regulation dimensions of the relationships between alcohol, public health and tourism. We are now working to identify and secure participants in the research and would welcome comments and suggestions from colleagues across the University.

Website training sessions

BU research, Training

Screen shot of new website

I just wanted to remind colleagues that we are hosting training sessions for the new research webpages on Friday 7 February and Friday 14 February.

These 90 minute sessions are open to all BU academic staff, post graduate research students and those supporting researchers in their communications activity.

During the session you will learn the following:

  • Why BU has new research webpages
  • How you can upload content to the website
  • How the site can be used most effectively to maximise exposure of BU research.

Sessions are informal and if they fall over lunchtime, do feel free to bring a sandwich!

To book on one of the following sessions please use the links below…

Friday 7 February 2014 12:00-13:30 – S103 Studland House, Lansdowne Campus

Friday 14 February 2014 10:00-11:30 – P131 Poole House, Talbot Campus

Friday 14 February 2014 14:30-16:00 – P131 Poole House, Talbot Campus

If you have any questions about the website or training sessions, please email the research website team.

 

Scanning Brains, Bones, and Artefacts: Magnetic Resonance Imaging at Poole Hospital

BU research

For the past two years I have made very slow progress in attempting to convince Poole Hospital to open access to their MRI scanners for research purposes.  Whilst I had originally responded to an email from them it seems there were not at all ready to deal with my requests. More recently there has been some positive movement on the issue.  I am hoping that this technology might interest you.  Poole Hospital has three scanners of two field strengths: two at 1.5T and one at 3T, the latter being the standard for neuroimaging, but the former being of use for high-resolution structural scans of people and objects.  The applications for this type of technology are many; in psychological research it is used most commonly to get brain scans of patients or to measure brain activity as people perform tasks, but has been used effectively as an analytical tool in Archeology and Sports Science; you will know better than I how this technology has been used in your fields.  I am trying to gauge the level of interest in this technology at BU so as to make a better case  to BU and to the hospital.  Please contact me on bparris@bournemouth.ac.uk if there is utility in the use of this technology in your research or teaching or if there could be in the future.

New research web pages and removal of old pages

Research news, Training

On Monday 27 January the Digital Communications Team will integrate the new research web pages into the main BU site.

This will include a link from the homepage and from the School pages. (School copy has been developed with the Deans and DDRs to introduce the new site, provide an overview of the School’s research and outline the research themes the School is involved in).

The Digital Communications Team will also start removing the old research pages on Monday. This will include removing the research centre pages, which have either been moved to the new site, elsewhere, or identified as no longer required.

In addition to notification from Professor Matthew Bennett and the Schools, the research website team have tried to speak to all staff in person to ensure required content is moved across and outdated content is removed. This has been a massive exercise and apologies if we have missed anyone. If you do have any concerns regarding your pages, please email the website team as soon as possible. All old content will be moved onto an internal BU server, where it will be kept for a period of six months before being finally deleted.

Screenshot of the new research website

Feedback from researchers already using the new site is that it is very flexible, quick and easy to use and allows easy integration of a variety of different media content types.

If you would like to find out more about using the new site or joining us for a training session, please read my blog post from earlier in the week.