Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
On the tenth anniversary of the international Open Access journal PLOS ONE we received an email to inform us that one of our articles was among the top ten per cent of most cited articles in this journal. The email referred to our paper ‘Factors influencing adherence to antiretroviral treatment in Nepal: A mixed-methods study’ [1]. Not bad considering that PLOS ONE has published over 4,300 articles since its inception.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
What is MS?
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic debilitating and progressive condition that affects the fatty tissue sheath surrounding nerves. Loss of the myelin sheath is largely responsible for uncoordinated movements because the nerves cannot transmit signals smoothly across the complex neural circuitry. A common symptom of MS is excessive yawning together with fatigue.
Research study
Following recent completion of a study at the Osborne Centre, West Parley, we found that people with MS had higher cortisol levels when yawning compared with healthy participants.
Previous research at Bournemouth University
This research follows several years of research by the author at Bournemouth University with the first report on the “yawning envelope”, identifying the electrical trace during yawning (Refs. 1-2), and the first report on the association between yawning and cortisol levels following provoked yawning (Refs. 3-6).
Yawning “envelope”
“Contagious” yawning is seen in animals as well humans; it may involve empathy to perceived social cues in humans.
Yawning: (clockwise) Fox, Pig, Human, Hippopotamus
A series of 3 Q and A events with talks about findings was held at the MS Society local branch which facilitated an interesting and lively debate among participants, researchers and staff at the Centre.
Further research planned
We believe that threshold levels of cortisol trigger the yawn response which lowers brain temperature, particularly important in MS where brain temperatures can be elevated considerably following fatigue. A funding bid is in preparation to examine early detection of MS using these findings.
About the author
Simon B N Thompson is Associate Professor, Bournemouth University; and Visiting Professor, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France. He has presented to His Excellency Bernard Emié, the French Ambassador at the French Embassy, signalling formation of the Anglo-French International Scientific Council for Research into Multiple Sclerosis.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to all volunteers; Alister Coleman and Nicola Williams for assisting in data collection and analysis; Rod Slip, Group Co-ordinator and Kay Bundy, Fundraising Co-ordinator of the MS Society Osborne Centre for providing free facilities.
References
1. Thompson, S.B.N., 2013. How to catch a yawn: initial observations of a randomised controlled trial. WMC Neurology, 4(8), doi: 10.9754/journal.wmc.2013.004371.
2. Thompson, S.B.N., Frankham, C., & Bishop, P., 2014. The art of capturing a yawn using the science of nerve impulses and cortisol levels in a randomized controlled trial. Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis as a potential predictor of neurological impairment. International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 7(3), 529-543.
3. Thompson, S.B.N., 2011. Born to yawn? Cortisol linked to yawning: a new hypothesis. Medical Hypotheses, 77, 861-862.
4. Thompson, S.B.N., & Bishop, P., 2012. Born to yawn? Understanding yawning as a warning of the rise in cortisol levels: randomized trial. Interactive Journal of Medical Research, 1(2), e4, 1-9, doi: 10.2196/ijmr.2241.
5. Thompson, S. B. N., Daly, S., Le Blanche, A., Adibi, M., Belkhiria, C., Driss, T., de Marco, G., 2016. fMRI randomized study of mental and motor task performance and cortisol levels to potentiate cortisol as a new diagnostic biomarker. Journal of Neurology & Neuroscience, 7(2); 92: 1-8.
6. Thompson, S.B.N., 2017. Hypothesis to explain yawning, cortisol rise, brain cooling and motor cortex involvement of involuntary arm movement in neurologically impaired patients. Journal of Neurology & Neuroscience, 8(1); 167: 1-5.
The American Journal of Men’s Health published our latest paper on obesity prevention in men. The paper ‘Clinical Effectiveness of Weight Loss and Weight Maintenance Interventions for Men: A Systematic Review of Men-Only Randomized Controlled Trials (The ROMEO Project)’ originates from a collaboration between BU and various universities in Scotland, led by the University of Aberdeen [1].
This systematic review paper found that reducing diets produced better weight loss than physical activity alone. The most effective interventions combined reducing diets, exercise, and behaviour change techniques . Group interventions produced favourable weight loss results. The paper reports that once engaged, men remained committed to a weight loss intervention.
The paper concludes that weight loss for men is best achieved and maintained with the combination of a reducing diet, increased physical activity, and behaviour change techniques. Strategies to increase engagement of men with weight loss services to improve the reach of interventions are needed. This paper is the thirteenth paper from a large NIHR grant [2-13].
The American Journal of Men’s Health is an open access, peer-reviewed resource for cutting-edge information regarding men’s health and illness. It is, however worth noting that although our paper is formally published in July 2017 it has been online for two years! The journal’s website states clearly that the article was first published online on June 30, 2015 BUT the issue in which it appears is published is July 1, 2017!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Reference:
This week the Oxford Encyclopaedia published our contribution on religious organisations and health promotion [1]. The paper in question ‘Faith Communities and the Potential for Health Promotion’ is co-authored by scholars based in England, Scotland and Canada. This new publication is part of a growing number of publications at Bournemouth University on the contribution of faith communities to public health.
Faith communities often have multiple resources, existing networks and an infrastructure that can be applied to health promotion programmes for their own membership or as an outreach to the wider community. Health programmes in a faith community in high-income countries may include targeted initiatives, ranging from walking groups or weight checks, health events, or health assessments, to diabetes self-management. These activities can be organised by charities and NHS organisation and held at local churches, synagogues or mosques which is referred to as faith-placed health promotion. If the health promotion is part of the ministry of the religious organisation it is referred to as faith-based health promotion.
On top of this encyclopaedia entry, the Open Access journal African Health Sciences [Impact Factor 0.66] accepted our paper in the same field a few weeks ago. This paper ‘Influence of faith-based organisations on HIV prevention strategies in Africa: a systematic review’ formed part of the first author’s M.Sc. in Public Health [2]. Our previous papers reported on a study of faith-based and faith-placed health promotion in and around Dundee [3-4].
Professor Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Prenatal Health
References
Today the African Health Sciences informed us that the paper we submitted last year based on Marilyn Ochillo’s excellent MSc dissertation has been accepted for publication. [1] The paper “Influence of faith-based organisations on HIV prevention strategies in Africa: a systematic review” will appear online soon. Marilyn’s MSc work was supervised by Dr. Martin Hind and Professor Edwin van Teijlingen.
African Health Sciences is an open access, free online, internationally refereed journal publishing original articles on research, clinical practice, public health, policy, planning, implementation and evaluation, in the health and related sciences relevant to Africa and the tropics.
Reference:
Yesterday and today we offered sessions on academic writing and publishing at two different higher education institutions in Kathmandu. Yesterday we run a session for staff and postgraduate students at Tribhuvan University, in the Department of Health, Physical & Population Education. Staff in the Department of Health, Physical & Population Education are our Nepali key collaborators in a THET-funded project aiming to improve mental health training in community-based maternity care providers in the south of Nepal.
Today’s workshop was held at Manmahon Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS). BU’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences has been running joint research projects with MMIHS for the past three or four years. The sessions are jointly run with BU’s Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada, who is based at Liverpool John Moores University. These workshops are capacity-building among academics and students in Nepal.
Our sessions are based on our experience in academic writing as well as that of acting as peer reviewers and journal editors. Our sessions are also linked to some of the papers we have published ourselves on the process of academic writing. [1-8] Most of these publications on publishing are in Open Access journals. Hence papers are freely available anybody in Nepal, and elsewhere in the world, of course.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Bournemouth University has been working on a small research project with Pourakhi, a voluntary organisation which helps female migrant workers returning to Nepal, for over a year. Pourakhi advocates for the rights of women migrant workers. Last week they invited me to present a workshop session on Academic 
Writing & Publishing, this morning I run such workshop. The content of the workshop is based on years of experience of running similar workshops at Bournemouth University, many Higher Education colleges across Nepal and a COST-funded workshop in Malta a few years ago. The eight people (staff and volunteers) who attended the workshop were generally inquisitive and keen to get their work into print. Most of the paper we have written about aspects of academic writing and the publishing process have been published in Open Access journals. [1-8] 
Therefore, we can easily give workshop attendees copies and/or give them the links to the online version on the web.
Prof Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
Yesterday saw the publication of the paper ‘Antenatal care trial interventions: a systematic scoping review and taxonomy development of care models’, which is the first paper this year for the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) [1]. The paper is based on a cross-UK collaboration led by Dr. Andrew Symon from the University of Dundee which is published in the Open Access journal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth. This is the second paper from this collaboration, the first one ‘Midwifery-led antenatal care models: Mapping a systematic review to an evidence-based quality framework to identify key components & characteristics of care ‘ was published last year [2].
The latest BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth paper is a first step in establishing a taxonomy of antenatal care models. The article concludes that interventions can be defined and described in many ways. The intended antenatal care population group proved the simplest and most clinically relevant way of distinguishing trials which might otherwise be categorised together. Since our review excluded non-trial interventions, the taxonomy does not represent antenatal care provision worldwide. It offers a stable and reproducible approach to describing the purpose and content of models of antenatal care which have been tested in a trial. perhaps key is that the paper highlights a lack of reported detail of trial interventions and usual care processes.
Our paper provides a baseline for future work to examine and test the salient characteristics of the most effective models, and could also help decision-makers and service planners in planning implementation.
Moreover we look forward to conducting more research as part of this exciting collaboration in midwifery and maternity care.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen & Prof. Vanora Hundley
CMMPH
References:
Congratulations to Dr. Pramod Regmi in FHSS on the publication of the editorial ‘Need and Scope of Global Partnership on Public Health Research’ published this week. [1] As a global partnership, it is our intention to make a tangible impact upon major public health challenges, whilst strengthening the participating institutions in a sustainable manner. Our collaboration came to a consensus on a number of priority research areas, based on our strengths and collective experience and on our knowledge of the key global issues for the next decades (Table 1). The paper is led by BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada and co-authored by another BU Visiting Faculty Dr. Bibha Simkhada. The editorial is in an Open Access journal hence freely available to any researcher or practitioner (or policy maker) with internet-access in our collaborating countries.
Table 1 : Key areas of research focus of the consortium
Reference:
In conjunction with the International Open Access Week, an interview was conducted with Professor Les Back from the department of Sociology in Goldsmiths, University of London.
See the interview below –
Join us for an Open Access celebration at Bournemouth University. See the website below for more detail:
Our THET (Tropical Health & Education Trust) funded project which trains community health worker such as Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) on mental health issues related to pregnancy was presented at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) conference today by FHSS Visiting Faculty Jillian Ireland (photo). Jillian is also a community midwife at Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Mental health is poorly covered in the training of health care providers in Nepal. This all the more worrying as it is also culturally a difficult sensitive topic to discuss. This makes it difficult for front-line health workers, especially generalists or non-mental health specialists, to start a discussion about mental health issues with pregnant women, new mothers and their wider families.
Our THET partnership includes the Department of Health, Physical & Population Education at Nepal’s oldest and largest university Tribhuvan University’s (TU), Bournemouth University and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). This project is funded under the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS). HPS funds to carry out training and capacity-building projects in low-income countries, such as Nepal. HPS itself is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and managed by THET (Tropical Health and Education Trust).
The partnership working has resulted in several publications on mental health and maternity care in Nepal. [1-3]
References:
FHSS PhD student Preeti Mahato in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) has been awarded a funded place on the COST Action Training School BEYOND BIRTH COHORTS: from study design to data management. This training school will run from 23-15 November in Spain.
COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a unique platform where European researchers can jointly develop their ideas and initiatives across all scientific disciplines through trans-European networking of nationally funded research. Preeti pal has been awarded the sum of 500 euro to cover the cost of attending the Training School and travel and accommodation costs. Preeti’s PhD project is on maternity care provision in Nepal. Preeti’s research focuses on the quality and equity of service available at birthing centres. In Nepal, birthing centres act as first contact point for the women seeking maternity services especially the basic obstetric care. She is supervised by Dr. Catherine Angell, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada (based at Liverpool John Moores University).
Preeti has already published the first PhD paper ‘Birthing centres in Nepal: Recent developments, obstacles and opportunities’ in the Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM) [1], whilst another was published in the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology [2]. Furthermore, a more general health and development paper was published this year in Health Prospect [3].
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
For this year’s 9th International Open Access Week, OpenAIRE has scheduled a full week of webinars on various exciting Open Science topics. During the week of October 24-30, join them at lunchtime (12.00 CEST) each day for key insights into the ethics and implementation of Open Science, especially as they relate to the EC’s Horizon2020 programme and OpenAIRE’s mission to foster the social and technical links that enable Open Science in Europe and beyond.
To participate in any (or all) of these webinars, please register here: https://goo.gl/HIcpJT
Today saw the latest publication on our BU-led THET in Nepal. The paper ‘Needs assessment of mental health training for Auxiliary Nurse Midwives: a cross-sectional survey’ was published the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences [1]. This paper reports on a quantitative survey with nearly all Auxiliary Nurse Midwives in Nawalparasi District in the southern part of Nepal. The findings illustrate the lack of training on mental health issues related to pregnancy and childbirth in this group of health workers. Thus the paper’s conclusions stress the need for dedicated training in this field.
This is the third publication linked to our mental health and maternity care project. In Nepal mental health is generally a difficult to topic to discuss. THET, a London-based organisation, funded Bournemouth University, and Liverpool John Moores University in the UK and Tribhuvan University in Nepal to train maternity workers on issues around mental health. This latest paper and the previous two papers are all Open Access publications. The previous two papers raised the issue of women and suicide [2] and outlined the THET project in detail [3].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
Congratulations to Dr. Catherine Angell (FHSS) who just had her paper ‘Continual Professional Development (CPD): an opportunity to improve the Quality of Nursing Care in Nepal’ accepted in Health Prospect. The paper is co-authored with BU Visiting Faculty Dr. Bibha Simkhada and Prof. Padam Simkhada both based at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), Dr. Rose Khatri and Dr. Sean Macka
y (also at LJMU), Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery and Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), and our colleagues in Dr. Sujan Marahatta and Associate Professor Chandra Kala Sharma. Ms. Chandra Kala Sharma is also the president of the Nepal Nursing Association (left in photo). Health Prospect is an Open Access journal, hence freely available to anybody in Nepal (and elsewhere in the world).
This paper is first of several based on a study aiming to improve CPD in Nepal and it is partly funded by LJMU and partly funded by BU’s Centre for Excellence in Learning (CEL). The CEL-funded part of the project centres on focus group research with representatives of the Ministry of Health & Population, the Ministry of Education, the Nepal Nursing Association and the Nursing Council, and Higher Education providers of Nurse Education (both form Government-run universities and private colleges). The focus group schedule will include starter questions to initiate discussions around the kind of CPD nurses in Nepal need, its format, preferred models, the required quality and quantity, and ways of checking up (quality control). In addition we will be asking a subgroup of nurses registered in Nepal about midwifery skills as midwifery is not recognised as a separate profession from nursing in Nepal. Hence there will be three focus groups specifically about midwifery CPD: one at MIDSON (the Midwifery Organisation of Nepal), one with nurses providing maternity care in private hospitals and one with nurses doing this in government hospitals.
The research is a natural FUSION project in the field of nursing & midwifery as it links Research in the field of Education to help improve Practice in Nepal.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Reference:
on behalf of Richard Wallis, Faculty of Media & Communication, Bournemouth University.
There’s something reminiscent of the zombie in the UK’s policy for education about media. To the surprise of many, media literacy is enshrined in law (Communications Act 2003), and Ofcom has a statutory responsibility to ‘promote’ it. But media literacy as imagined by the policy makers who put it into statute, is long dead. The stalking corpse that is occasionally identified as such, is likely to be one of a rag-bag of policy priorities that have, from time to time, inhabited and reanimated the cadaver.
This is the conclusion that David Buckingham (Loughborough University) and I have come to after an extensive examination of media literacy policy in the UK since the end of the last century. Having previously described its policy’s journey into legislation, this new article explores what has happened since, looking particularly at how Ofcom came to define it, and ultimately, how the elasticity of this term came to be its undoing. We argue that over time, media literacy has been progressively reduced in scope, and in the process, its broader educative purpose has become marginalized. Today, if not altogether dead, the policy is governed by entirely different priorities to those imagined at its birth – the gloomy fate of the undead.
Richard Wallis & David Buckingham (2016): Media literacy: the UK’s undead cultural policy, International Journal of Cultural Policy, DOI: 10.1080/10286632.2016.1229314.
Article available at :http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/24724/
Congratulations to FHSS’s Dr. Pramod Regmi on the publication of his latest paper in the SAARC Journal of Tuberculosis, Lung Diseases and HIV/AIDS under the title ‘Knowing is not enough: Migrant workers’ spouses vulnerability to HIV’ [1]. The paper was specifically highlighted in the editorial of the journal’s latest edition.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Reference
Research Data Management is a hot topic, especially when applying for grants. We all have our own strategies for managing our data as a product of research. Sometimes data management is in the form of a box or filing cabinet in a locked office, an external hard drive, purchased cloud storage or a hard drive. Whilst this approach is comfortable and familiar, it’s unlikely to comply with funder requirements neither currently nor in the future.
The Library has a created a guide that will help with navigating the diverse requirements of grant funding councils, writing data management plans and all its intricacies. The guide, ‘Research Data Management’ is available here .
We welcome your feedback about this resource, please contact rdm@bournemouth.ac.uk.
There is also a very informative youtube video Data Sharing and Management posted by NYU Health Sciences Library.
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Horizon Europe News – December 2023