Abstracts for 2012

» Steph Archer

Evaluating the experience of Enhanced Recovery Programmes for gynaecological cancer patients

Background
Enhanced recovery programmes (ERPs) are transforming NHS cancer care pathways through using evidence based interventions as a model of care to accelerate patient recovery following surgery. ERPs aim to improve patient experience, clinical outcomes and multi disciplinary team working. One key aspect of ERP is pre-operative preparation and the impact this has on post-operative experiences. However, to date there has been no evaluation of the patient's experience of such programmes.

Aims
To explore how patients experience the ERP focussing on the patient journey.

Methods
A qualitative evaluation of the ERP for patients with gynaecological cancer. The evaluation was approved by Derby Hospitals NHS Trust as part of the internal audit of current treatment. Thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with women between the ages of 53 - 80 years. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. A thematic analysis was conducted using QSR NVivo 8.0.

Results
The data revealed a number of salient themes relating to the experience of ERP including: Pre-surgery expectation management in relation to pain, mobility and anticipated activity levels; Post-operative mobility and readiness for discharge. Additionally relationships with staff and emotional support were identified as important aspects of the journey.

Conclusion
Patient satisfaction with the ERP was generally very positive. Pre-operative information giving was identified as an important mediator of post-operative expectations in relation to mobility and exercise engagement resulting in increased activity levels and perceived readiness for discharge. Enhanced relationships and communication also appeared to exceed patient's initial expectations of post-operative and post discharge care.

» Michael Batashvili

The Electrophysiological constructs of maths anxiety.

Previous research has looked at specific areas in the brain for the single location of certain mathematical processing. However, as mathematical processing is a part of memory, it cannot be specific to one location within the brain. Nevertheless, we may be able to work out differences in brain activity between those who have maths anxiety and those who do not and later provide interventions and coping strategies for those that suffer with the disorder. Another aspect to maths difficulties research is that it focuses on actual arithmetic or mathematics rather than its origin. It may be possible that it could stem from number anxiety resulting in all mathematical scenarios thereafter labelled with a 'fear factor'.

This research looks to explore the neurophysiological aspects of maths anxiety, using electroencephalography (EEG) methods to investigate delay and activity differences between those who suffer from maths anxiety and those who have low maths anxiety.

» Peter Breheny

The terrorist - My first research meeting with an IRA volunteer.

In June 2011 as part of my PhD research I attended a Sinn Féin Conference in London to mark the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Hunger Strike in which Bobby Sands and nine other IRA volunteers died. The purpose of my visit to the conference was to make face to face contact with a man called Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane a man of mythical status in republican circles. McFarlane had been the Provisional IRA Officer Commanding in the Maze Prison during the 1981 Hunger Strike.

Before joining the Provisional IRA McFarlane had trained for the Roman Catholic priesthood. As an IRA volunteer, he had 'allegedly' machine-gunned women and children on the Shankill Road after being connected with a gun and bomb attack on a loyalist bar in which three men and two women were killed and 60 injured. As a consequence he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 1983 he led Britain's biggest mass prison escape when 38 republican prisoners escaped from the Maze. Later that same year he 'allegedly' kidnapped Associated British Foods executive Don Tidy demanding a ransom of IR£5 million. Eventually tracked down by the Gardaí McFarlane and his three associates escaped, but not before leaving a trainee garda and an Irish Army soldier dead. In 1986 he was recaptured after three years on the run in the Netherlands and in 1997 released on parole from the Maze Prison. As a result of the Good Friday Peace Agreement signed in 1998 McFarlane and others gave up the armed struggle to follow the path of peace. Are they honourable men or double-dealing gangsters.

» Laura Ceresatto

The affective cognitive neuroscience of addiction.

Current theories in addiction research propose associative learning as a subconscious process connecting environmental neutral stimuli with substance effects. With experience this process is automated, neutral stimuli become sufficient to elicit craving, and the ability to inhibit behaviours is impaired.

The project develops a theoretical framework explaining the interaction between two cognitive mechanisms, filling gaps in the literature regarding the manner in which motivation and attention interact and how they influence subconscious information processing, which have been left unaddressed particularly in relation to brain activity.

It will make valuable contributions to current understanding of addiction by assessing substance users' impulsive reactions to substance-related stimuli and how attention is optimized. It will also develop and investigate the reliability of a novel task design pertinent to substance use. Finally, it will use electrophysiological measurements examining the cortical activity of substance users when exposed to affectively significant stimuli.

» Kevin Yet Fong Cheung

What is an author? Forgetting Foucault and asking the Academy.

Authorial identity has been used as a psychological construct for improving academic writing and reducing unintentional plagiarism in students. The term refers to a writer's sense of oneself as an author, but literary theorists have long proclaimed that the concept of the author is dead or dying within modern writing. This talk will present the findings of qualitative interview research conducted with faculty members at Universities in the UK. Detailed thematic analysis suggests that they understand the author to be an important role within academia and that the influence of authors is not in decline as predicted by Barthes & Foucault.

» Lesley Crane

"Trust me, I'm an expert": how knowledge practitioners construct expert identities.

Knowledge Management (KM) is a global organizational phenomenon, marked by polarized opinion, definitional issues and questionable benefits. This study investigates how KM practitioners construct identities as expert in an online discussion forum. KM studies tend to feature case studies, but can be criticized for lack of scientific rigour. This study adopts a discourse analytic approach, grounded in social constructionism, holding that knowledge is constructed as action in linguistic social interaction. Superficially, the contributors construct their contributions as "calling cards" dealt non-interactionally with others. A deeper analysis reveals that contributors' construction of self-as-expert is wholly dependent on rhetorical interaction with others, and I introduce a new device - the insufficiency note - as a key device deployed by participants. A stark contrast is drawn between the literature and practice of KM. This is the first discourse analysis study in the domain of KM.

» Ann J Bridge Davies

Art Drawn from the Invisible.

In normal circumstances an artist's sketch of a six year old could be said to be reasonably common. However, what if the child died eight years before a portrait was drawn by an artist who was a stranger to the child, the child's family, and the portrait was not drawn from a photograph?

From my investigations into paranormally produced spirit art I have found that these unusual drawings and paintings have been in existence since the mid nineteenth century, firstly in America and then in Britain, and are flourishing in Spiritualist churches now.

The example I will present is that of a portrait of a deceased girl sketched at a public demonstration of mediumship which was evidenced later by a photograph. The artist had never met the deceased or family members and gave accurate verbal information while drawing the portrait.

» Jane Flynn

Sense and sentimentality: A critical study of the influence of myth in portrayals of the soldier and horse during World War One.

The working relationship between a soldier and his horse was based upon mutual trust and respect. It was nurtured by the British Army, because it made the combination a far more effective tool in warfare. This was in no way sentimental, but born out of a drive for economy, pragmatism and, above all, military success.

However, the soldier-horse relationship also inhabits a space between myth and reality. During World War One, the soldier's care for his horse was used to portray his selflessness, stoicism and kindness amidst the inhumanity of war. He was, in effect a modern knight; his horse becoming a medium through which death and the realities of war could more safely be portrayed.

Today, the 'war horse' lives on, but under threat of 'disneyfication'. The myth must be addressed if this, once crucial, partnership is not to be stripped of its original complexity.

» Tapiwa Gande

Servant Leadership - Management Mastery. An exploration of the paradoxes through the cultural lenses of chartered accountants in two Southern African countries.

Leadership and management have been compared and contrasted in theory, practice and research. While there are different and divergent views of exactly what each entails including reasonable agreement that they are complementary, at the subsidiary theoretical level there seems to be an imbalance between the extensive research and theory on servant-leadership with an equal treatment of the principles, implications and possible application of 'management-mastery' as a comparable concept and possible theoretical framework.

The paper will account for the main cultural aspects of servant-leadership and 'management-mastery' in practice and attempt to ensure that generalizations that come up are transferable into the different cultural settings in which servant-leadership and 'management-mastery' could be taught, practiced and researched, albeit through the 'cultural' lenses of accountants.

The paper will argue by principally employing the Hegel dialectic system of thinking. This commences by presenting a thesis, countered by an opposing antithesis and finally argues for a probable synthesis emanating from research and practice. The methodology proposed is an online survey employing expert-validated and pre-piloted questionnaires of British-qualified accountants in three countries.

» Hayley Hurst

A comparison of wildlife conservation publications aimed at adults and children.

In life, images are an important media for getting across a point of view to hidden audiences, and this is especially true with the sensitive subject of wildlife conservation. Wildlife magazines use pictures on their front covers to draw their audience in. It has been shown that in adult publications there is a tendency to use images of attractive species, regardless of their conservation status or locality. However, there is a perception that children with their inquisitive natures might be attracted to different images. The aim of this project is to evaluate the difference between images that are aimed at adults to those aimed at children, by analysis of publications from wildlife/conservation organizations producing magazines for both adults and children.

» C. U. Ikedi (M. I Okoroh, D. Angela)

Techniques and impact of thermal retrofit as an energy efficiency strategy for commercial/office building integrated photovoltaics.

Statistics have shown that commercial/office buildings alone, account for 20% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in UK, and with the UK's existing building stock being replaced at a rate of 1-1.5% per annum, occupants of existing offices are required to respond to issues pertaining to climate change. One major response has been the introduction of sustainable energy technologies (SET), particularly building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) into such buildings. According to recent research, "sustainable Commercial buildings perform better than conventional commercial buildings in terms of wellbeing of the occupants". Part of the strategies for implementing an energy efficient BIPV installation in applied buildings is by carrying out a thermal refurbishment of appropriate parts of the building, prior to the BIPV. This paper presents the technique used and the resultant impact of a pre - BIPV thermal retrofit project in an educational/commercial building (University of Derby) in UK. Parametric evaluations carried out, assesses the energy and economic impact of the retrofit on the building.

» Atiya Kamal

Development of the children's compensatory health belief scale.

This present study aimed to develop a reliable scale measuring children's compensatory health beliefs (CHBs) which are beliefs that the negative effects of an unhealthy behaviour can be compensated for by engaging in a healthy behaviour.

An item generation pool was developed using qualitative data exploring children's CHBs. A 39 item scale measuring children's CHBs was administered to children aged 7-11 years (N=384) in order to assess the scale's internal consistency. Three items were removed due to face validity and seven items were removed due to low Cronbach's coefficient alphas. The internal consistency reliability of the 29 item children's CHB scale is 0.85. This included three sub-scales measuring CHBs relating to activity, diet and routine.

The children's CHB scale is useful in identifying children with high maladaptive compensatory reasoning as these children are at risk of indulging in unhealthy behaviours, increasing their risk of obesity. This can enable preventative measures to be put in place which may contribute to reducing the rising rates of obesity.

» Lauren Kelly

Attentional bias for threat faces in trait anxious children. (Poster)

Theories in cognitive psychology suggest that the development and maintenance of anxiety are associated with enhanced processing of threat-related information. However, findings relating to studies in child populations are inconsistent. Furthermore, the majority of such research has focused on spatial biases of attention. Consequently, the aim here was to investigate the effects of anxiety on temporal biases of 'emotional' attention in children. A between-subjects design was employed to examine the effects of high vs. low levels of anxiety on a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task examining the attentional blink. Forty-two children, aged eight to eleven, were preselected for levels of trait anxiety to participate in the RSVP task. On each trial, two target pictures (a neutral face and either a happy or an angry face) appeared in a stream of consecutively presented distracters (pictures of scrambled faces). Participants were required to report which face(s) they had seen. A mixed analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction between anxiety and trial type, such that high trait anxious children demonstrated an attentional bias for threat faces, whereas low trait anxious children demonstrated a bias for emotional (i.e., angry and happy) faces per se. Consistent with adult literature, these findings demonstrate that non-clinical anxiety is associated with greater processing of threat-related stimuli. This suggests that attentional biases are potentially an important factor in understanding vulnerability, maintenance and treatment factors implicated in childhood anxiety. Consequently, attention retraining used to successfully attenuate such biases in anxious adults could benefit anxious children.

» Gihwan Kim

The impact of e-marketing(SNS) on consumer behaviour: Cultural differences and Internet Technology. (Poster)

The project creates a model that explains the links between e-marketing and consumer behaviour within the fast-food franchise market in Korea. Cloud computing delivers infrastructure, platform, and software as services, which are made available as subscription-based services in a pay-as-you-go model to consumers (Curry et al, 2008:2; Buyya et al, 2009:1). These technologies provide users more feature rich environments, make it easier for users to generate and share Web content, and increase online social connectivity. The popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook is a clear indication of the perceived value of these technologies (Curry et al, 2008:2). Internet and e-marketing have changed the franchise marketing strategy and this differs worldwide.It isdependent on levels of performance in information technology and the increasingly sophisticated consumer response (Mattila 2000; Furrer et al., 2000; Prahalad and Venkatram, 2004; Laroche et al., 2005;Wilson et al., 2007; Rui& Ken, 2008).Simultaneously this research explores cultural differences in developing the exploratory model using a grounded theory approach through unstructured interviews with franchisees. This cross cultural model is pilot tested within the UK fast-food franchise industry.

» Rupert Knight

The emerging professional: an investigation into teacher education students' developing conceptions of the relationship between theory and practice before, during and after a PGCE programme.

On professional programmes such as the PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education), learning takes place in two key settings: the university and the workplace (in this case the school placement). Previous research has suggested that integrating learning about teaching from both theory and practice can be complex and challenging in these circumstances. In particular, what is less well understood is the nature and importance of the preconceptions about this process of learning to teach that students arrive with at the start of a programme. This presentation reports on the first stage of a longitudinal case study aiming to discover and track the conceptions of the role of theory and practice in learning to teach held by students before, during and after the PGCE. Findings on the initial preconceptions of the case group will be discussed and the ongoing methodology for charting the development of these views over time will be explained.

» Kirsten McEwan

Attention to compassionate cues: A Compassion-based attentional training game.

Introduction: Individuals with mood disorders show attentional biases for threatening information (e.g. angry faces) and diminished attentional biases for positive information (e.g. smiling faces). Researchers have begun to explore the effectiveness of using attentional training for treating mood disorders. The aims of this research were to develop a compassion training task to re-train attentional biases and improve well-being.

Method: Participants (N=103) engaged in a compassion training task over 10 days and completed self-report, physiological (cortisol) and attentional bias measures at pre, post and follow-up to training.

Results: The study revealed that compassion training was associated with improvements in various indicators of well-being and reductions in self-criticism.

Conclusion: The compassion training task modified attentional biases and enhanced various indicators of well-being and may therefore be of potential therapeutic value to individuals with mood disorders.

» Amir Modjtahedi

Critical Success Factors for the successful implementation of Service Improvement Initiatives: Exploring the impact of Lean Six Sigma (LSS), European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and Emotional Value (EMVAL) factors on UK Financial service sectors. (Poster)

This paper investigates the impact of the Lean Six Sigma (LSS), Emotional Value (EMVAL) and European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Critical Success Factors (CSF) on the achievement and sustainability of Service Improvement Initiatives (SII) within UK financial service sectors. A structured questionnaire was implemented based on the main Critical Success Factors of the LSS, EMVAL and EFQM models. The questionnaires were distributed and tested using survey methods on a population sample of 300 respondents engaged with SII.

The results indicate that all three scales are equally important for the sustainability and success of SII. The results also demonstrate the extent of the attention that was given by this sector in the implementation of each scale. This research discusses the gaps between theory and practice for each scale and also between the scales.

This research has implications to the service sectors and in particular those organisations that are familiar with SII such as EFQM model.

» Godwin E. Oboh

A review of the editorial stance of the media on the 2007 Nigerian elections.

One of the major factors responsible for the political instability in some African countries is the problem of the electoral misconduct that occurs during election in the region. The 2007 Nigerian elections were particularly worrisome, following the electoral misconduct that occurred in the elections. The Nigerian Judiciary later cancelled some of the results of the elections earlier approved by the electoral commission because they were rigged. This paper reviewed the stance of the media on the elections. As the Fourth Estate of the Realm, the press was supposed to hold the government accountable for the conduct of the elections. The editors of the Nigerian newspapers were interviewed on the variables that influenced the media reports on the elections. The findings revealed that the government and media proprietors influenced the stance of the media on the elections. These issues were discussed, using the Social Responsibility Media Theory as the theoretical basis for the paper.

» Gwangtim Timothy Poyi

Modelling and simulation of a quad-rotor helicopter.

Primarily enabled by advancements in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Automatic Control, Robotics, Communications and Sensor Technologies, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are expected to become a major part of the Aviation Industry over the next few decades. The first step in control development is an adequate dynamic system modelling, which should involve a faithful mathematical representation of the mechanical system.

Quad-rotor helicopters are an emerging rotorcraft concept for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms. The vehicle consists of four rotors in total, with two pairs of counter-rotating, fixed-pitch blades located at the four corners of the aircraft. Due to special capabilities, the use of autonomous quad-rotor vehicles has been envisaged for a variety of applications both as individual vehicle and in multiple vehicle teams, including surveillance, search and rescue and mobile sensor networks.

This paper will present a detailed dynamic analytical model of the quad-rotor helicopter using the linear Taylor series approximation method. The developed analytical model will be simulated using MatLab/Simulink software. The dynamic behaviour of the quad-rotor will be assessed due to various external inputs, such as excitations and wind. The model can further be calibrated and linearized for use on any quad-rotor helicopter.

» Sue Reed

Situated learning and the experience of place. (Poster)

In an ecology of situated learning we may recognise those who participate in our lives and in whose lives we participate reciprocally. Knowledge may develop out of encounters through the relationality of the individual and materiality of the world that occurs in particular places, through which space as a feeling knowledge, an essential essence may happen, rather than mediated cultural meanings. In situated learning each person may have different threads; one which an individual may knowingly follow through life, a thread which may be unknown to others until an individual may choose to share it, or one which has not yet been discovered. How would you describe the threads of your life's learning? Learning through experience may enable the learner to contribute to a community of practitioners and towards the development of a learning ecology (Lave and Wenger 1991, Biesta 2006, Crouch and Matless 1996, Crouch 2010). Post graduate research, Susan Margaret Reed (Knitting 2011) artist, learner and community practitioner, born Macclesfield 1953.

» Ian Michael Shropshire

Stability of Herceptin: A case study in shelf-life extension of biologic pharmaceuticals. (Poster)

Breast cancer is now the most common form of cancer in the UK. Herceptin used to treat HER2 positive (Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2) breast cancer is a humanized monoclonal antibody and belongs to a new family of drugs known as biologics. Unlike conventional drugs biologics have more complex structures which may alter either during production or in post-formulation solution. Changes can lead to ineffectiveness or adverse patient reaction. Herceptin solution is validated for only 48 hours and therefore any unused drug must be discarded. Any developments leading to an increased shelf life will result in reduced cost.

Biophysical (including size exclusion chromatography and Infra-red spectroscopy) and biological (proliferation assay) techniques have been used to characterise the ageing drug. These results will be presented to demonstrate shelf life extension of Herceptin and the general behaviour of this class of drug molecule.

» Dzintra Stalmeisters

An investigation the relationship between Early Maladaptive Schemas and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. (Poster)

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling life changing illness. Although schemas have been associated with ME/CFS, research into this relationship does not appear evident. Aim: to investigate the prevalence and impact of Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS) as described by Young et al. (2003) for people with ME/CFS.

The quantitative study: 40 people with ME/CFS and 40 people from a non-clinical population completed Young's Schema Questionnaire (YSQ-S3). Conclusion: Given the prevalence of the schemas URS and Self-Sacrifice it might be beneficial to assess for these schemas with a view to working with them therapeutically. Conclusions from the qualitative study present the core category 'obscuring' as part of a vicious cycle that can result in a depletion of energy levels and increased fatigue. This has therapeutic implications.

» Frauke Uhlenbruch

The Bible - by Gene Roddenberry.

In J.L. Borges' short story "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote", a contemporary philosopher writes a word-for-word reproduction of Don Quixote. By placing the exact same words into a vastly different historic and linguistic context, the re-written Quixote - according to Borges' satiric statements -becomes "almost infinitely richer". This paper proposes a deliberately anachronistic reading of a biblical passage as if it were created by Gene Roddenberry to explore anachronistic reading as a tool to better access ancient texts today. What if a biblical story were a Star Trek episode? In Numbers 13, a biblical "away team" encounters foreign peoples, unusual objects and the utterly Other in newly explored territory. Star Trek, utopian literary theory and science fiction theory will be used to shed light on what exploration-and-conquest narratives of the Bible can "mean" today, and possibly what they may have "meant" in the past.