BU Research Blog

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Joseph McMullen (PhD, FMC) with this poster entitled: Particulate matter: Regulating an invisible killer.

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Research indicates that exposure to atmospheric pollutants diminishes immune responses and increases viral penetration and replication. Specifically, particulate matter – microscopic solids and liquids suspended in air – represents an unseen and unregulated threat to global human life and welfare. There is no evidence of a safe level of exposure, and particulate matter is linked to respiratory, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neurological, and paediatric developmental issues. In spite of this, domestic ambient particulate concentrations are unregulated. This work utilises particulate sampling in order to suggest the creation of a proactive regulatory framework informed by science and integrating post-hoc monitoring. Punitive action is suggested for non-compliance with the proposed legal obligations in addition to punitive measures beyond financial penalties.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Nurudeen Adesina (PhD, FHSS) with this poster entitled: Effectiveness and Usability of Digital Tools to Support Dietary Self-management of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review.

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A systematic search of Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane library and Web of Science using key search terms identified 1476 papers reporting research studies, of which 16 met specified inclusion criteria. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the ErasmusAGE Quality Score or the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool version 2018. Meta-analysis was not conducted due to the presence of substantial heterogeneity of data across the included studies. Our findings show that adoption of digital tools to support lifestyle improvement relating to healthy diet, health behaviour and adherence to therapy in women with GDM is a usable intervention. However, there was a lack of evidence concerning the effectiveness of the tools to support dietary management of GDM. Our systematic review suggests consideration for ethnic specific dietary advice and evidence-based framework in the development of effective digital tool for dietary management of GDM.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Kazeem Balogun (PhD, FST) with this poster entitled: Overview of blackblaze HDD analysis for predictive maintenance.

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With recent studies showing viability of machine learning (ML) among other tools as a better approach in performing Hard Disk Drive (HDD) analysis and enable fault detection models, the adoption of ML in the field of predictive maintenance (PM) becomes more complex. The complexity is not farfetched to the increase in sensor deployment, large volumes of generated data, variances in attributes or parameters and differences in characteristics of data sets. We provide an overview of HDD analysis using Backblaze as a case study and literature review of different ML approaches to HDD analysis for PM. We observed reasonable amount of studies in this direction, but the application of ML towards HDD analysis for PM needs more focus to improve model accuracy and stimulate further work in this area. We shall conclude this study by proposing our ground-breaking state-of-the art HDD analysis and model enhancement.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Maureen Kehinde (PhD, BUBS) with this poster entitled: A qualitative inquiry investigation of policy-practice decoupling factors of Environmental sustainability in universities: a case study of North-East Scottish universities.

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This research presents the findings from an investigation of decouplings between policy and practice of environmental sustainability in North East Scottish universities. Embedding environmental sustainability on university campus and into institutional culture requires universities to walk their talks, ensuring that there is strong alignment between policy claims and actual practice. However, the realities of institutional progress suggests that for some universities there continues to be practice discrepancies in the operation of environmental sustainability on campus. This research adopts Institutional theory as underpinning lens and qualitative inquiry multi-case study methodology to address the question what are the factors which further the occurrence of Policy-practice decoupling of environmental sustainability in universities? The research found that bounded rationality, fragmentation of the internal and external environment, outsourcing and centralisation are factors which further the disconnect between policy and practice of environmental sustainability in North East Scottish universities.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Taalia Nadeem (PhD, BUBS) with this poster entitled: Understanding the social representation of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs): how public and stakeholder views empower or constrain pathways to adoption.

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UAVs now support various purposes including within healthcare logistics. There are benefits of using UAVs, but their capabilities are challenged by the public. A solid understanding of public acceptance of UAVs is important to develop appropriate regulatory strategies therefore, the following research questions arise: What is the influence of mass media on UAV perception? What attributes and perceived risks of UAVs influence adoption? How do personal attributes affect views of UAVs? A mixed method approach is proposed including a phase of qualitative research to understand concerns and identify segments according to attitudes, behaviours, or values. This will be followed by a large-scale questionnaire.  Studies demonstrate that mainstream media is the main source of information about UAVs, but due to lack of knowledge, the public is unable to make a more informed opinion, and this calls for a deeper understanding of people’s knowledge of UAVs.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Zhiqi Li (PhD, FMC) with this poster entitled: Deep learning for scene flow estimation: methods and applications.

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Scene flow estimation aims at obtaining structure information and 3D motion of dynamic scenes. It has long been an interest of research in computer vision and 3D computer graphics. It is a fundamental task for various applications like autonomous driving. Compared to previous methods utilizing image representations, many recent researches build upon the power of deep analysis on point clouds and focus on point clouds representation to conduct 3D flow estimation. In this survey, we comprehensively review the pioneering literature in scene flow estimation based on point clouds, delve in detail into their learning paradigms and present insightful comparison between the state-of-the-art methods using deep learning for scene flow estimation. Furthermore, we introduce various higher-level scene understanding tasks (object tracking, motion segmentation, etc.) which could benefit from the latest progress on scene flow estimation. The paper concludes with an overview of foreseeable research trends for scene flow estimation.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Shell Smith (PhD, FHSS) with this poster entitled: Does motorcyclists’ identification, perception, and knowledge towards risk change regarding their motorcycling qualifications and experience?

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Motorcyclists are one of the most vulnerable road user groups in the U.K. with an average of 6 deaths and 94 serious injuries per week. A common collision scenario is a road user driving across the path of a motorcyclist. Consequently, the research questions ask where motorcyclists and car drivers are directing their visual attention and hazard perception and whether there are differences between advanced motorcyclists and advanced car drivers vs standard trained motorcyclists and car drivers. Prior research specifically targeted at motorcycle collision prevention is limited, with only 15 studies using eye-tracking methodology. To target gaps in the literature; this is a mixed methods study using qualitative interviews, questionnaires, and eye-tracking. Initial findings indicate that motorcyclists and car drivers demonstrate different visual attention patterns. Thus, it is possible to change driving and motorcycle test training to teach how to direct visual attention and cognition to hazards.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Rosie Harper (PhD, FHSS) with this poster entitled: Nudging: a theoretical concept for a very practical approach to pelvic floor muscle training.

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A third of women suffer from stress incontinence which affects their physical, mental and social wellbeing. Pelvic floor exercises are the gold standard treatment, but women’s adherence to these exercises is poor. It is suggested behaviour change techniques, including nudge theory, could be used to improve adherence. The research will explore the role of nudge theory in causing predictable changes in behaviour in antenatal women, gain insight into antenatal women’s experience of digital nudges and allow a better understanding of the influence of digital nudges on pelvic floor muscle training adherence. The first phase involves a literature review to explore the effect of digital nudges on exercise adherence in antenatal women. Phase two of the study involves qualitative data collection and analysis to explore women’s experience of digital nudges. The third phase of the study will be a feasibility study which includes a pilot of the intervention – digital nudges.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Sitsada Sartamorn (PhD, BUBS) with this poster entitled: Hybrid social media marketing; How metaverse and other cutting-edge technologies impact on consumer experiences by reducing borders between real and virtual space in Thai organic food market.

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The pandemic of COVID-19 has affected us in a world-changing way, a world where people cannot unite. However, this obstacle is now diminishing, thanks to the concept of globalisation and advanced technology development. This study aims to explore the impact of the “metaverse” and other cutting-edge innovative technologies on the marketing space of the future and consider how these advanced technologies should be integrated into the design of marketing strategies and propose a way forward. This study focuses on the organic food market in Thailand and explores how technology can integrate the boundaries between the real and the virtual, increase consumer experience and enhance the effectiveness of marketing strategies based on advanced technology. This study will use a qualitative research method to strategically design hybrid social media marketing.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Samantha Everard (MRes, FHSS) with this poster entitled: How do people with multiple disabilities experience, engage with and participate in self-employment support.

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“Seeing every individual for their ability, especially those with hidden impairments, makes good business sense” (Kirby, 2014a), but when a person with multiple disabilities decides to experience, engage with and participate in self-employment support, there is currently a lack of clarity and guidance to meet the individual needs of disabled people wanting to engage in self-employment.  An internet search will bring up numerous results with websites and organisations offering generalised support, but there is very limited information offering a person-centric service. This research aims to identify gaps within the general self-employment support model and work towards a more cohesive level of accessible information, advice, guidance and resources. My research is focussed on gathering qualitative data through one-to-one interviews using Photovoice as this allows the participants with multiple disabilities to openly engage with the topic and tell stories about their experiences in their own individual ways.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Omowonuola Okunnu (PhD, FMC) with this poster entitled: A comparative study of the interconnectedness of religion and politics in Northern and Southern Nigeria: The role of literacy level.

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Although research on the determinants of political outcomes has been a subject of debate for many decades and perhaps centuries, findings are often awash with nuances and not on par with realities at the regional level. There are more questions arising from dynamics in the societies, related to political campaigning and social movements at the regional level. Consequently, the aim of this project is to examine the independent and mediating effects of religion and literacy levels on voters’ decision and electoral outcomes at regional levels amongst female voters in Nigeria. A mixed-method approach is adopted to ameliorate any contradictions between qualitative and quantitative findings. Early findings of this research suggest a battery of issues ranging from divergence in perceptions of religious issues; poor attitude to political outcomes; a weak awareness of political issues; and an underdeveloped attention is paid to gender imbalances in politics.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Rabeea Maqsood (PhD, FHSS) with this poster entitled: The association between Combat Related Traumatic Injury and Heart Rate Variability in the UK Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans- a quantitative secondary data analysis of the ADVANCE study.

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CRTI’s impact on HRV and its link to Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk have not been examined. This study aims to explore: the association between CRTI and HRV, and HRV’s potential to predict CVD risk. This study employs a baseline cross-sectional analysis of the ArmeD SerVices TrAuma and RehabilitatioN OutComE (ADVANCE) longitudinal cohort study, consisting of 579 adult male UK combat-veterans (UK-Afghanistan War 2003-14) with CRTI; frequency-matched to 565 uninjured men by age, service, rank, regiment, deployment period and role-in-theatre. Measures include single-lead ECG based HRV (RMSSD, SDNN, LF, HF, LF/HF-5-min ECG recordings), arterial stiffness (augmentation index, pulse wave velocity), injury-severity (NISS scores), and metabolic syndrome. Kubios software and SPSS will be used for HRV data-analysis and descriptive tests, respectively. CRTI’s influence on HRV and its relationship to CVD risk will be examined using T-tests and correlation. The findings may contribute to intervention development for veteran’s rehabilitation programme and trauma care.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Penny Wells (PhD, FMC) with this poster entitled: How people relate to environmental disaster in contemporary literature; an ecocritical approach.

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Taking six contemporary eco-novels containing scenarios of environmental disaster, this study examines how each is portrayed. The question of whether the disasters are natural or man-made is examined using Garrard’s six philosophical positions of ecocriticism, and further discourse analysis from ecological and scientific perspectives. The extent to which the characters engage with their natural environment in terms of their cultural capital (Bourdieu) will also be looked at. As well as exploring the political rhetoric of each book, from the various stakeholders’ perspectives, the study also incorporates a separate sociological research element which sets out to explore other ways in which authors may or may not express their concerns about our shared environment.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Jordan King (MRes, FST) with this poster entitled: Exploring nostalgic experiences in video games.

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Video game players may experience emotional demands, such as nostalgia, when thinking of a memorable game which can increase levels of well-being and social connectedness (Wulf, Bowman, Velez & Breuer, 2020). Yet previous literature has asked participants to think about a nostalgic game, the current study aims to have participants play a memorable video game to see what may make a video game nostalgic, explore how is nostalgia experienced before and after playing a nostalgic video game and, explore whether nostalgia is a positive experience which relates to well-being. Using a mixed method approach, quantitative data will explore levels of nostalgia before and after playing a nostalgic video game, and levels of well-being. Qualitative data will be collected to explore what may make a video game nostalgic which will be analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. This contributes to existing literature on video game nostalgia by having participants play video games.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Megan Jadzinski (PhD, FHSS) with this poster entitled: How are Fitness to Practise processes applied in the Higher Education Institutions, in relation to Health and Care Profession Council or Nursing and Midwifery Council healthcare courses?

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Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are required to manage concerns raised regarding pre-registration healthcare students. All HEIs are required to have a Fitness to Practice (FTP) policy to manage concerns. Due to limited guidance from regulatory bodies, variations occur. The aim of this research is to understand how the FTP processes are applied. A qualitative methodology will be utilised. Two stages will occur. Firstly, a review of FTP documentation from multiple universities. Secondly, online interviews with HEI staff who manage the process within their organisation. Following a systematic review, limited evidence was found with recommendations that further exploration is required. Limited research has been conducted on the FTP process within HEIs in England. Multiple gaps, including, a need for a more consistent and fair approach has been identified. The output from this research could impact the way in which FTP cases are managed.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Mirte Korpershoek (PhD, FST) with this poster entitled: Rock art as an environmental archive.

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Rock art occurs worldwide, across societies and time-periods. Traditionally, rock art studies examine the intention behind the images: the symbolism and shamanistic ritual interpretations. In my research, I am investigating whether rock art depictions are useful to understanding the palaeoenvironmental context of the people who created the art. I will compare the images -focusing on depictions of humans, animals and activities/tools- to published archaeological assemblages, to establish to what extent rock art accurately depicts the way of living and environments of the artists. I will also compare themes in rock art from various locations to see whether there are any similarities and what this could mean. Machine learning will be applied to these themes to identify the most common figurative motifs per region. Here I will present the first results from South America: I discuss the prevalence of human and wild animal depictions from this region.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Iram Bibi (PhD, FST) with this poster entitled: Reliability, validity, and feasibility of a generic quality of life scale for use directly with community dwelling older people with dementia.

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Currently, measures of quality of life (QoL) used with people with dementia (PWD) are mainly health-related. Health is not an actual attribute of but a means to attain QoL. The ICECAP-O scale measures attributes of QoL. In this study, ICECAP-O was tested with community dwelling PWD for face validity (N = 5), feasibility to administer, internal, and test-retest reliability (N = 54). The ICECAP-O was found to have good face validity and feasibility to administer. It also had acceptable test-retest reliability (r = .68, p<.01, n = 54; r = .56, p<.01, n = 54; for ICECAP-O raw and tariff scores respectively) and moderate to good levels of Cronbach alpha (.68 for raw score of 1st administration and .70 for the raw and tariff scores of 2nd administration) (Cicchetti, 1994). Therefore, ICECAP-O appears to be a useful measure for future research to directly assess actual attributes of community-dwelling PWD’s QoL.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.

The 13th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Doctoral College.

Jack Wieland (PhD, FST) with this poster entitled: Investigating the Role of Microsatellite Instability in Reproduction. 

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Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after 1 year without the use of birth control methods. Previous research has revealed that genetic analysis to date is strongly associated with different nucleotide pathogenic variants within different DNA repair systems. However, there is little understanding in how microsatellite instability and the role of the immune system contributing to infertility. The workflow presented shows how this conclusion was drawn using a self-designed MySQl database utilising the research published to date. The next step from this is to undertake laboratory and computational bioinformatic analysis to demonstrate how microsatellite instability contributes to infertility. Other future directions of this research may explore how other genomic abnormalities contribute to infertility that may have not been reported in research to date.

You can view the full poster exhibition and pre-recorded presentations on the conference webpage.

If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact the Doctoral College dedicated admissions team.