BU Research Blog

Social Media ‘on the go’: Examining the impact of age

Our next instalment of the ‘Photo of the Week’ series features a joint project between Dr Elvira Bolat and Harry Cutler-Smith, an postgraduate student from the Faculty of Management. The image is looking at social media ‘on the go’: examining the impact of age. The series is a weekly instalment which features an image taken by our fantastic BU staff and students. The photos give a glimpse into some of the fascinating work our researchers have been doing across BU and the wider community.

Dr Bolat’s research is looking at the generational gap on the adoption and use of social media.

Existing research on social media adoption has identified two generational groups, generation Y (aged 18-25) and generation X (aged 35-60).  However, there are no existing studies that have investigated the generational gap in the adoption and use of social media ‘on the go’. The team conducted a mixed study comprising of focus group discussion and a survey. The team found that generation X uses mobile social media just as much generation as Y. This has implications on advertising strategies and tactics businesses use on social media. Brands that target generation X should not neglect social media in their marketing and need to consider targeted timely content.

Businesses using social media need to have a planned approach to content development and assume that social media and mobile social media (e.g. Snapchat) is only for younger audience.

If you’d like find out more about the research or the photo itself then please contact Dr Bolat or Harry.

This photo was originally an entry to the 2017 Research Photography Competition. If you have any other questions about the Photo of the Week series or the competition please email research@bournemouth.ac.uk

The Compound Eye of Calliphora Vomitoria (a bluebottle fly)

Our next instalment of the ‘Photo of the Week’ series features Christopher Dwen’s image of the compound eye of calliphora vomitoria (a bluebottle fly). The series is a weekly instalment which features an image taken by our fantastic BU staff and students. The photos give a glimpse into some of the fascinating work our researchers have been doing across BU and the wider community.

Christopher’s research looks at the blood feeding activity of calliphora vomitoria (bluebottle flies) at crime scenes. This activity can often be confounding.

Experiments were conducted to investigate the blood feeding activity and blood artefact patterns created by the flies following a blood meal. The trials were undertaken in a staged environment where over 500 flies were exposed to 500ml of horse blood in a sealed gazebo for a period of 72 hours.

The resulting patterns, a total of 539,507 fly blood artefacts, were then compared to recreated bloodstain patterns commonly encountered during instances of violent assault. These comparisons focused on overall pattern shape, total stain numbers, stain density per cm² and the zone where they were deposited. Informal observations and recordings were also made of individual stain colour and stain alignment, but were not measured.

If you’d like find out more about the research or the photo itself then please contact Christopher.

This photo was originally an entry to the 2017 Research Photography Competition. If you have any other questions about the Photo of the Week series or the competition please email research@bournemouth.ac.uk

Dr Paul Hartley, Senior Lecturer in Functional Genetics, Faculty of Science & Technology

Honey Bee Heart

The first instalment of the returning ‘Photo of the Week’ series features Dr Paul Hartley’s image of a Honey Bee Heart. The series is a weekly instalment, which features an image taken by our fantastic BU staff and students. The photos give a glimpse into some of the fascinating work our researchers have been doing across BU and the wider community.

In this image we can see the pericardial muscles and oenocytes of a honey bee heart- these are stained red and green.  The oenocytes act as toxin-treatment and excretion plants, to help maintain clean blood – much as our livers and kidneys do. The pericardial muscles hold the heart in place so that it can contract properly. Research has shown that human and insect cardiovascular systems share similar genetics. Dr Hartley’s research is based on a simple premise- if something causes disease in one organism, it probably causes disease and can be studied in the other. Dr Hartley took this picture using a Leica SP8 confocal microscope.

If you’d like to find out more about the research or the photo itself then please contact Dr Hartley.

This photo was orginially an entry to the 2017 Research Photography Competition. If you have any other questions about the Photo of the Week series or the competition please email research@bournemouth.ac.uk