Tag: UWE Bristol Research

UWE Bristol academic publishes research that attempts to increase donations to charity through lab-based experiments

Author Anna Jones | Posted on

Across two studies, the lead of the Psychological Sciences Research Group (PSRG); Dr Miles Thompson, explored the potential influence of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), mindfulness and education on a specific prosocial behaviour: donations to charity. The research, published in the Journal of Contextual Behavioural Science, focused on charities working in the area of global poverty and human rights. Specifically Amnesty International and Oxfam.

Across the lab-based studies, participants were compensated for taking part and asked at three time points if they would give any of their payment to the charities. They were asked:

  1. at the start of the study,
  2. after brief interventions based on either ACT, mindfulness, education or control conditions, and
  3. at the end of the study when they were given their payment for taking part.

Interestingly and unexpectedly, at all three time points, many participants either gave all of their compensation to the charities or kept it all for themselves, resulting in bi-modal data. The brief ACT and mindfulness interventions did not significantly move donation behaviour. Nor did self-report ACT questionnaires correlate significantly with participant donations.

However, the education condition, which provided information on global poverty, human rights and the history and work of both Amnesty International and Oxfam did see participants give more money to the charities. In short, the results highlighted the importance of education in increasing prosocial behaviour.

Speaking about the research Dr Thompson noted: “I’m a clinical psychologist by background and have seen the positive impact of ACT and mindfulness in many areas of clinical and health psychology. The field also aspires to have an impact in broader prosocial areas such global poverty and human rights.

In this study, the results were not supportive of ACT and mindfulness. But it was very interesting to see the positive results for education. Importantly, simply telling people about how the world is and how people and organisations are working to make it better had a positive influence on donating behaviour”.

The paper can be accessed via the journal website. If anyone struggles to access the full version of the research, please contact Miles Thompson for a copy.

Minimally invasive cardiac valve surgery using Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality

Author Anna Jones | Posted on

Written by Dr Muhammad Bilal

An ongoing collaboration between members of the UWE Bristol’s Big Data Enterprise and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (Big-DEAL) and the Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences (HAS) seeks to address the limitations of minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICVS) using artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR). MICVS, a surgical heart procedure which involves making small incisions in the right side of the chest to reach the heart through the ribs without cutting any bone is currently riddled with several challenges which restricts its uptake in cardiac centres across the UK. Some of these challenges have been linked to variations in normal as well as pathological anatomy which limits visualisation and exposure of key structures.

The project – AI for minimally invasive cardiac valve surgery (AI4MICVS) – stems from a joint funding between the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) and HAS, and engages surgeons from the Bristol Heart Institute (BHI) to identify potential application areas of these technologies from pre-operative planning to post-surgery care.

The first discovery workshop with Professor Massimo Caputo, a professor of congenital heart surgery at BHI, and Dr Hunaid Vohra, a substantive Cardiac Consultant at BHI was held at the Big-DEAL lab on Monday, 22 November 2021. Also present at the workshop was Dr Pawel Capik, the Director of Postgraduate Research, Faculty of Business and Law, the Principal Investigator and representative of the Big-DEAL lab; Dr Muhammad Bilal, the Co-Investigator, and representative of the Faculty of HAS; Dr Faatihah Niyi-Odumosu; and Mr Taofeek Akinosho; the lead AR developer for AI4MICVS.

The surgeons highlighted during the meeting that several unexpected challenges are prone to happen during surgery due to the differences in each patient’s physical and anatomical characteristics. Technologies such as AI and AR can enhance a surgeon’s ability to prevent the conversion of a keyhole heart valve operation to an open-heart surgery, thereby avoiding two sets of scars, and delay in recovery.

While speaking on the proposed AI4MICVS platform, Dr Bilal described it as a tool that facilitates patient education since medical terms used by surgeons to explain the surgical procedure are often difficult for the patient to understand. More importantly, AI4MICVS allows surgeons to access a digital representation of a patient and simulate the entire surgery procedure in advance.  The digital representation can either be a 3D model of the patient’s thoracic cavity displayed on a HoloLens or 3D printed models in more severe cases of frail adults and neonates.

As part of the workshop, the Big-DEAL team took the surgeons on a tour of UWE Bristol’s Centre for Print Research (CFPR) where state-of-the-art 3D prints were showcased. The CFPR team further emphasised the possibilities of printing 3D models that replicates the human organs and blood flow using synthetic materials.

Finally, Dr Hunaid, in his concluding remarks, highlighted that they were happy to be a part of the AI4MICVS project which will prospectively facilitate the adoption of MICVS for adults and babies.

Despite the technical challenges that the AI4MICVS project presents, the Big-DEAL team and members from faculty of HAS see this collaboration as a good point for initiating advances in digital health.

This research story was recently featured on our UWE Bristol news releases.

English Literature and the Climate Crisis: Teaching Climate Literature to Young Adults

Author katcorbett2 | Posted on

As society responds to the changing climate, English literature provides useful and critical insights into the challenges we face, as well as helping to build resilience and activism. At Cop26 in November 2021, the education secretary Nadhim Zahawi promised to “put climate change at the heart of education.” To turn this promise into a reality, then climate change should be taught across the curriculum, from the Humanities to STEM.

This event, designed and led by UWE English Literature staff Dr Ann Alston and Dr Sarah Robertson, is for key stage 3 English teachers. It will explore how English literature can be more fully utilised as a vital tool in generating climate change awareness and for coping with climate anxiety. At the event, Dr Ann Alston will deliver a talk on climate change in young adult fiction, and Dr Sarah Robertson will present on approaches to teaching climate literature. The talks will be followed by a roundtable discussion where participants can share their thoughts on teaching climate change through English, exploring the challenges and benefits of such an approach.

The event will take place on Saturday 26 March, from 11:00-14:00 on Frenchay Campus. For more information and/or to book a place, please email Sarah.Robertson@uwe.ac.uk

UWE Bristol academics win research funding to investigate the population level effects of artificial lighting on biodiversity

Author Anna Jones | Posted on

Academics at UWE Bristol have won a substantial bid from the National Environment Research Council (NERC) to investigate the population level effects of artificial lighting on biodiversity, using bats as models.

There is urgent need to understand how global environmental changes impact biodiversity. This project will address scientific and conservation challenges of global importance, pushing the scientific boundaries within global change research.

Dr Emma Stone, Senior Lecturer in Conservation Sciences, with Dr Paul Lintott from the UWE Bristol Bat Conservation Research Lab and the University of Exeter (Dr Razgour) aim to fill the gaps in their understanding of the population level impacts of artificial lighting, specifically, impacts on bat population fitness, breeding success, genetic connectivity between bat populations, and the potential for adaptation.

The ability of populations to respond to artificial lighting depends on the nature and speed of change in artificial lighting across the landscape and the ability of species to adapt to such changes. Species’ ability to adapt is a function of their physiological characteristics, how diverse the species are genetically, and their movement ability. Artificial lighting creates barriers to animal movement which can prevent populations from breeding and may have implications for population growth, ability to adapt and long-term survival.

Despite a better understanding of the impacts of artificial lights on animal behaviour, no studies have yet assessed responses at both the genomic, reproductive and physiological levels. The team will address this major gap in global change research through applying a novel interdisciplinary approach combining ecological, genomic, physiological and demographic tools to experimentally study the effect of artificial lighting on nocturnal wildlife, focusing on bats. They will focus on: the brown long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus), a light sensitive species that commonly roosts in buildings.

Dr Stone commented: “I am so pleased to get this project funded. It is the culmination of all my work on bats and lighting since I started my career. This is a very exciting project as it allows us to push the boundaries of research in this field to ask the next key questions that have eluded us until now, by assessing population level effects of lighting on bats. I am also super excited to work with my long term collaborator Dr Razgour at the University of Exeter, the combination of her expertise in genetics with my expertise in bats and artificial lighting creates a novel interdisciplinary approach to this field”.

We look forward to sharing more on this project as it develops.

Students experiment with high performance credit card sized computers

Author Anna Jones | Posted on

A recent student project, run by BEng Aerospace Engineering students James Harvey (Year 1) and George Johnson (Year 3), has looked to build a server initially consisting of 21 raspberry-pi credit-card-sized computers. The project was supervised by Dr Xiaodong Xu, Dr Matt O’Donnell and Dr Andre Jesus, and supported by the Engineering, Modelling and Simulation Group (EMSG)

The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch and Python.

To solve current global challenges complex simulations, that require many hours of computer processing time, are often needed – for example, predicting climate behaviour, simulating proteins, and optimising aero-structural performance. High-Performance computer clusters are typically used to reduce the processing time of these simulations from weeks to hours, but this is expensive and not readily accessible. Instead, by combining the computing power of several low-cost Raspberry Pi’s we can emulate the capabilities of much more expensive devices in a modular scalable manner.

The aim of this project was to build the server in a modular manner so that it has the capability of working with more raspberry-pi’s in the future for higher processing power and effectiveness. Skills such as 3D printing, programming and computer networking were required in this project. 

The computer cluster has now been built and hosted in the new Engineering Building in UWE Bristol. It features 3D printed prototype parts to hold each individual Raspberry Pi, a PC which was installed with Ubuntu Server 18.04 to network boot the Raspberry Pi clients. In the next step, the students will further boost the cluster’s computational power by doubling the number of Raspberry Pi’s to 42. A variety of simulation tasks will be run to support the final year students’ projects and research projects in UWE Bristol, by using Matlab, Python, OpenFOAM and ANSYS etc.

The Engineering, Modelling and Simulation Group (EMSG) aims to deliver high quality research, postgraduate training and consultancy services in engineering modelling and simulation. We are a multi-disciplinary research group providing a unified platform to bring academics, researchers and research students together. By combining the expertise of each individual, we are able to tackle sophisticated yet practically important engineering problems through individual efforts and teamwork.

Academic Spotlight: Danielle Sinnett

Author Anna Jones | Posted on

Danielle Sinnett is a Professor in Green Infrastructure (BNE) / Research Centre Director, Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments at UWE Bristol.

Dr Sinnett is an environmental scientist with expertise in green infrastructure and land regeneration. She is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments and a Professor in Sustainable Built Environments. Her research has focussed on green infrastructure primarily as a mechanism to regenerate brownfield and contaminated land, and its beneficial role in urban environments.

She has over 20 years’ research experience examining the establishment of green infrastructure and its benefits for urban populations and carried our research with funding from the Forestry Commission, EPSRC, NERC, Innovate UK and WHO.

Knowledge exchange is an important component of Professor Sinnett’s work and she was the lead academic on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT), funded by NERC and Innovate UK. This project developed a benchmark for the planning, design and delivery of green infrastructure: Building with Nature and embedded green infrastructure expertise into the wildlife trust. This was a 30 month project, running from Summer 2015 to early 2018. This work has resulted in a NERC Innovation Fund to examine the feasibility and market for a national benchmark. Danni was also commissioned to undertake a review for NERC in the translation of green infrastructure research into practice.

The KTP aimed to formalise GWT’s role in advising Local Authorities and the development sector on the impact of development on nature conservation. The project established a new benchmark for green infrastructure offering consistent technical information on key features, and a quality rating to incentivise and reward developers for high quality green infrastructure.

Danni is the module leader for Sustainability in the Built Environment (UBLMR4-15-M) and Urban Greening (UBLLA1-15-M) and teaches on a number of other modules.

View Danni’s LinkedIn Profile.

UWE Bristol Professor in Emergency Care Jonathan Benger awarded CBE

Author Anna Jones | Posted on

UWE Bristol Professor in Emergency Care Jonathan Benger has been awarded a CBE for services to the NHS.

Professor Benger, who is also a consultant at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW), and Chief Medical Officer for NHS Digital, was recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours list.

Graduating from University of Bristol Medical School in 1990, Jonathan initially trained as a surgeon, then in anaesthesia, intensive care and paediatrics, before specialising in emergency medicine.

He has previously led several reforms of emergency care as the National Clinical Director for Urgent and Emergency Care at NHS England.  He also leads the Emergency and Critical Care Research Theme in the Centre for Health and Clinical Research at UWE Bristol.

Jonathan has a lifelong interest in research and was appointed to a Professorial Chair at UWE Bristol in 2008 and leads a team of 15 people carrying out a wide range of emergency care research, particularly around the management of critically ill and injured patients, service delivery and workforce.  

Most recently, he has been leading on digital and data provision for the health and care system, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes NHS111 online, the NHS.UK website and the NHS app, all of which have been central to the pandemic response – 16 million people now use the NHS app.

Jonathan, who has worked at UHBW as a consultant in emergency medicine since 2003, said: “It’s a proud moment for me, however it’s also an opportunity to acknowledge the many excellent teams that I have had the opportunity of working with. My academic training, and the Emergency Care Research Programme based at UWE Bristol, have been central to informing and developing my work for the NHS both locally and nationally.

“Emergency care is a ‘team discipline’; it’s only possible to push things forward and improve care by working as part of a coordinated and effective multi-disciplinary team.

“I think it’s vital to remain clinically grounded, and I work in the Trust every week. It is so important that clinicians with a national leadership role also work on the front line to ensure we are clinically credible, and close to the practical delivery of patient care and the challenges that staff face every day. I am proud to work for UHBW.”

Professor Marc Griffiths, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, said: “Professor Benger’s appointment as CBE is testament to his hard work and collaboration shown over the last several years. Jonathan’s work within the field of Emergency Medicine and NHS Digital has ensured safer patient outcomes and his experience is invaluable across a range of our health and social care programmes and research themes. 

“I am incredibly proud of Jonathan’s achievements and is a real world example of collaboration across different disciplines and organisations.”

Applications open for Partnership PhD scheme

Author Anna Jones | Posted on

UWE Bristol has recently announced another application round of its successful Partnership PhD programme.

A Partnership PhD bridges the gap between external organisations and university. It enables an organisation to gain access to cutting-edge real-world research that can help transform it.

The Partnership establishes a relationship between an organisation and UWE Bristol, based on a specific project that is mutually beneficial.

Organisations have the opportunity to choose a relevant research area and gain access to cutting-edge research. The researcher will work extensively with the organisation to provide a tailored piece of research.

In turn, the researcher will gain an opportunity to pursue their research in a real-world setting, developing transferable and interdisciplinary skills whilst gaining cross-sector experience.

Over the past two years, the Graduate School, part of the Research, Business and Innovation team at UWE Bristol, has been developing the Partnership PhD scheme. Through it, UWE’s investment in Post Graduate Research has been matched by over £1.5m from 40+ partner organisations.

Application deadline 1 April 2022 for Partnership PhD’s starting in 1 October 2022.

Apply for a Partnership PhD.

Email uwebusiness@uwe.ac.uk to find out more.

Please find below full Partnership PhD guidance, costings, useful information and the flyer for businesses:

Partnership PhD Guidance Document Jan 2022Download
Partnership PhD costings Jan 2022Download
Partnerships PhD General Info Jan-2022Download
Partnership PhD Flyer 2022-1Download


See below for our slides for businesses:

Partnership PhDF slides2022Download

Email uwebusiness@uwe.ac.uk to find out more.

Continence care app developed by UWE Bristol academics wins national Nursing award

Author Anna Jones | Posted on

An app developed by a national team including UWE Bristol academics has recently won the Nursing Times Award for Continence Promotion and Care.

The free CONfidence app was developed by the Bladder and Bowel CONfidence Health Integration Team (BABCON HIT) as part of Bristol Health Partner’s Academic Health Science Centre.  Development included a national team of clinical experts and patient and public partners, supported by a local self-care app developer, Expert Self Care, to develop a unique app to enable people with bladder and bowel leakage (incontinence) to access self-help advice and information.

The BABCON HIT and app project is led by Dr. Nikki Cotterill, Professor in Continence Care at UWE. The CONfidence app was launched in June during World Continence Week and has just achieved over 1000 downloads. It has been termed a ‘gamechanger’ as it bridges the gap between the millions of people with symptoms who feel they are alone and nothing can be done, and the evidence-based guidance that can really make a difference.

The CONfidence App

The award winning app has already proven to be hugely successful and has been covered regionally, nationally and widespread on social media.

Nikki commented “We are thrilled with the reception of the app so far. Nationally, we’ve seen services adopting it into their service pathways as it aligns with the NHS Long Term plan to promote self-care. It’s also been included in the Orcha app library and is currently undergoing an NHS DTAC review. At its core though, the app can help people to take control of their life where bladder and bowel symptoms are taking the lead, avoiding the physical and mental health declines that can ensue.”

To learn more visit Bristol Health Partners.

UWE Bristol deliver successful suite of courses on Air Quality

Author Anna Jones | Posted on

For the last 10 years, the Air Quality Management Resource Centre (AQMRC) at UWE Bristol have delivered a suite of successful courses on the topic Air Quality.

This year, the team were given extra resource to develop online materials to provide a distance learning offer which has proved really successful.

The courses offered included:

Delivered with a mixture of self-learning and either online or face-to-face delivery, the courses provided attendees with an opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills in the area of Air Quality. The courses were attended primarily by local authorities, consultancies, government agencies and regulatory bodies, and students and are IAQM-accredited.

Accreditations and Partners:

On these courses, delegates cover the basics of air quality management, including what causes air pollution and its effects, before looking at monitoring and modelling techniques using ADMS-Roads. They also learn about role of planning in air quality and explore how air pollution can be tackled through technical and non-technical measures.

The courses align with the University’s commitment to sustainability.

Course lead and Associate Professor for Clean Air, Jo Barnes commented on the success of the courses:

“Our IAQM-accredited Air Quality CPD short courses, underpinned by our research and teaching, aim to provide a comprehensive overview to enable those with little or no knowledge on the subject, to those with years of experience, the tools and ability to apply their learning in their workplaces. The combination of extensive access to online materials provided in advance, the live presentation and interactivity of the practical sessions, really bring this subject to life and gives delegates the chance to also learn from each other.”

Course attendee Amelia Rivers, Environmental Health Officer commented:

“The learning I will apply back at work will be the importance of monitoring air quality when looking at planning applications and really think about the potential effects on air quality the proposed application can have.”

The next set of courses will run on campus from 16 – 20 May 2022.

Email Professional.FET@uwe.ac.uk to find out more