portsmouth impact
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Sample of the impacts the University of Portsmouth has had on the world through its research.TRANSCRIPT
www.port.ac.uk/research
PortsmouthImpactIn this edition of Portsmouth Impact:
Asset managemnt in the Premier LeagueEngagement and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilitiesGalaxy Zoo - classifying galaxiesGreat Britain historical geographical information systemLong term environmental impact of nuclear accidentsMeasuring water quality with the Chemcatcher passive samplerOral history across generationsShould pregnant women consume peanuts during pregnancy?
Dr Sarah Gilmore Human Resources and Marketing Management Portsmouth Business School [email protected]
Underpinning Research An extended ethnographic case study (2003-2007) funded by the University of Portsmouth and Bolton Wanderers
Football Club was undertaken. This research sought to explain how an organization could use seismic changes in its
wider external environment to transform its performance without the need for radical internal restructuring or coercive
forms of leadership.
We researched developing a model that explained heightened performance and offered a template for other such
organizations that could not instigate performance improvements by reliance upon consistent injections of substantial
funds. A cluster of papers developed the model further and it was applied at another Premier League club that reached
the final of the Europa Cup.
Asset management in the Premier League: Peak
performance on low outlay s.
Future Directions
To capture the practical learning from those who have adopted the template to provide an updated text that rest on the
initial academic research, now extensively developed in the field
Impact of Research
Asset Maximization has an international reach with many sports
organisations adopting the template. These organisation include, The
New South Wales Rugby Union, The Australian Turf Club, Burnley FC,
The Football League Trust, Atlanta Spirit , Philadelphia Union; integrating
our work into their overarching strategic intent and direction.
The financial impact of using the template is not directly measurable due
to issues of multi-colinearity. Although the financial impact of the
template cannot be directly measured, organisations reported that
benefits of implementation run into many millions of pounds in addition
to bringing sustained performance improvement.
The results enabled the club to reach, stay in the higher echelons of the
Premier League and secure several seasons within the Europa Cup with
far less fiscal resources than that deployed by their competitors.
The Issue Traditionally organisations looking to grow have sought to restructure and invest funds in order to
enter new markets and increase their successful commercial activities. Nowhere is this more true
than football clubs trying to progress their standing in their respective leagues.
There is a substantial need for an effective business model that allows organisations to adapt to
their wider external environment with the need for large amounts of cash to be invested.
“ I have become a disciple – always
adopting an Asset Maximisation
approach wherever I go.” Fraser Neill
Executive GM Commercial & Sales
Australian Turf Club
Professor Vasu Reddy School of Psychology Faculty of Science [email protected]
Underpinning Research
Sue Buckley, was the first in the world to explore evidence from a young child with DS whose father had taught her to
read from the age of 3 years. Research supported by the Down’s Syndrome Association and the Joseph Rowntree Fund
showed not only that children with DS could read, but were also grasping the meaning of the words they read and using
words learned on flashcards in every day speech.
Further work examined the implications for mainstreaming and showed that children with DS who were in mainstream
schools achieved higher levels on vocabulary, grammar and digit span compared with a matched group in special
schools. Findings showing the reading progress of the children with Down Syndrome (in mainstream schools) did not
differ significantly from that of their reading matched ‘typical’ peers even after two years, were persuasive and succeeded in opening doors to the mainstreaming of some children with DS.
Engagement and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities:
Children with Down Syndrome achieve more in school
Future Directions
Research on literacy and inclusion is continuing. Future research plans include studies of
reading language intervention in primary schools, testing and development of a computer
based memory training programme for children with DS and a longitudinal study of the links
between oral motor control and speech and language development.
Impact of Research
The results of these pioneering studies have had a major impact not only on
subsequent understanding of processes of reading, but, more importantly, have worked
to trigger major changes in educational mainstreaming policy:
• Mainstreaming is now standard practice in England -75% in 2009 compared to 3% in
1984.
• Training programmes for Promoting Evidence-Based Practice in Education with Down
Syndrome are delivered to professionals and educators world-wide
The Issue Until the 1980s and 90s there was little to no consideration of the positive potential of
people with intellectual disabilities. Children (for instance, with Down Syndrome), were
considered unable to access literacy skills so typical schooling experiences were therefore
closed to them.
This exclusive focus on the negative was at odds with official government policies aimed at
inclusion. The Department of Psychology at Portsmouth carried out research into the
reading skills of children with Down Syndrome (DS).
Dr Karen Masters & Professor Bob Nichol Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation Faculty of Technology [email protected]
Underpinning Research The Institute of Cosmology and Gravitational Studies members have been involved in Galaxy Zoo since the very
beginning (at the time Bob Nichol, Steven Bamford and Daniel Thomas at ICG were involved in creating the Galaxy Zoo
project), and in recent years ICG researchers have been leading the research output from the classifications provided.
Using the data ICG researchers have studied rare “red spirals”, and have discovered that bars (linear structures which
affect the motions of stars in a galaxy) are more common and longer in redder spirals. This has been part of a shift in
the field of extragalactic astronomy away from a view that major mergers are the main process for galaxy evolution, to
considering that slow and/or internal evolution may have more of an effect on galaxies.
Galaxy Zoo: Public help astronomers classify galaxies
Future Directions
Galaxy Zoo is classifying more distant galaxies imaged by the Hubble Space
Telescope, and there are plans to move to different wavelengths and incorporate
future imaging data into the site
There now exists an array of “zoos”, spanning many disciplines, under the banner of
the “Zooniverse” hosted and led by Oxford University. The methodology has also
inspired the “Citizen Science Alliance” which recently had a call for proposals for
science projects, which would benefit from citizen scientist involvement.
Galaxy Zoo remains the most popular of the Zooniverse projects.
Impact of Research
To date, the Galaxy Zoo forum has over half a million postings
from 440,000 members on over 18,000 topics.
Galaxy Zoo has emphatically demonstrated the power of citizen
science, which is now being used in new ways, (for example
DIYgenomics recruits volunteers to use a mobile phone
application to look for variations in the MTHFR gene and their
link to vitamin-B deficiency). The results of the research will be
essential for new treatments and drugs, showing the potential
economic impact of this science and public engagement.
The Issue There are millions of galaxies in our universe, and they come in two main types (spiral
galaxies like the one we live in, or elliptical galaxies). We want to understand how these
types of galaxies relate to each other, in an attempt to answer the question; how do
galaxies form?
Modern Astronomical databases contain far too many galaxies for individual research
teams to classify. To provide visual classifications of over a million galaxies, we need a
larger research team: the public. We called the project “Galaxy Zoo”. Credit STScI
Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Dr Humphrey Southall and Paula Aucott Department of Geography Faculty of Science [email protected] / [email protected] http://www.port.ac.uk/research/gbhgis
The Issue Understanding the implications of change across British demographic, social and economic history is complicated by
frequently changing administrative boundaries. Our project sought to minimise this by using Geographical Information
Systems to help create a digital model of the changes over time.
Great Britain Historical Geographical Information System:
Making the past matter
Underpinning Research
Developed at the University of Portsmouth, Great Britain Historical (GBHGIS) is a
digital resource combining cartographic, statistical and textual content, assembled at
a cost of around £2.5 million. GBHGIS is unique in its diversity of content,
combination of geospatial and semantic technologies and its ability to support diverse
applications. Further research has included:
•The HALCyon project, a major component of the UK Research Councils’ New
Dynamics of Aging programme. Our research demonstrated the large impact of
childhood environments on health in old age.
•We have researched historical changes to our landscape in work funded by the
Environment Agency, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and The
Frederick Soddy Trust
•Place names are poorly handled in traditional GIS, we have developed innovative
data models to incorporate the name authorities identified by the National Council on
Archives into the GBHGIS.
•GBHGIS also supports the popular web site A Vision of Britain through Time, funded
by JISC and the UK National Lottery
Impact of Research
We operate across a range of diverse issues linked via a single core data resource. We deal not just with history, but with
the extended present, giving geographical perspectives to the past. Academics, local government bodies and amateur
historians all benefit from our data and how we present it, whether they access it through our popular open-access
website A Vision of Britain though Time, via controlled academic portals at UK Borders at EDINA and the UK Data
Archive, or through individually arranged collaborations. Data behind the site has been licensed to Health Protection
Agency, Ancestral Atlas Ltd, Pinpoint Chancel Ltd and Chancel Liability Services Ltd. In addition we have been able to
provide consultancy to bodies such as DEFRA, Environment Agencies and Natural England.
Future Directions
•Funding applications to develop the results of the HALCyon research are being discussed.
•Work with the historical land use will be continued and extended back in time.
•We are developing a map portal linking digital map collections from different institutions which
will be technologically innovative, but will also simplify searching for the user as an extension
to our place-names work.
•A Vision of Britain through Time will receive more content and improved facilities.
Great Britain Historical GIS Project, University of Portsmouth
Great Britain Historical GIS
Project, University of Portsmouth
Underpinning Research Research has helped to quantify the rates of transfer of radioactive contamination through the
ecosystem and its implications for human and ecosystem health. In a series of collaborative
projects the team have developed models to predict the impact on the food-chain of
radiocaesium contamination.
Further research has found little evidence of long-term consequences for ecosystems in the
area surrounding the reactor. A recent study could find no evidence of radiation effects on
populations of aquatic insects at Chernobyl, even in the most contaminated lakes. Professor
Jim Smith and colleagues have been studying the environmental impact of radioactive contamination in relation to the long term impact of the Chernobyl accident.
From Chernobyl to Fukushima: Long term environmental
impact of nuclear power plant accidents
Future Direction
Further research will focus on the consequences of the recent Fukushima accident.
We are currently developing a model that will reconstruct the radiation doses
received in the early phase after the accident. This will help to predict future dose
rates that the population may be exposed to. Reconstructing models of radiation
exposure is key to evaluating health impacts of nuclear accidents and will play a
significant role in future responses and treatments.
Impact of Research
Our improved understanding of the environmental fate and transfers of radionuclides in aquatic ecosystems has played a
key role in the development and assessment of measures to remediate lakes, rivers and reservoirs contaminated by
nuclear incidents. The evaluation of countermeasures to protect drinking water and aquatic foodstuffs following nuclear
incidents was used as a basis for aquatic countermeasures included in the European Commission EURANOS radioactive
countermeasures database.
Following the Fukushima incident, Professor Smith was part of a team of experts briefing national and international
news media which made a significant impact on people’s understanding of environmental radiation in general, and the
Fukushima accident in particular. Such work is crucial to informing current debates on nuclear new build and waste
disposal in the UK and worldwide. He also opened a debate on the long term consequences of the accident with a
keynote opinion piece in Nature titled “A long shadow over Fukushima”.
The Issue The 1986 Chernobyl accident has been described as the worst industrial accident in
human history, directly or indirectly affecting the lives of millions of people both in the
former Soviet Union and in Western Europe. No significant data currently exists to
measure the impact of such accidents , inform appropriate responses and formulate
practical control methodologies.
Professor Jim Smith School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science [email protected]
Photo adapted by Simon Wright from the original with the kind permission
of Valery Kashparov of the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology
Prof. Graham A. Mills, Prof. Richard Greenwood & Janine Brümmer School s of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences and Biological Science Faculty of Science [email protected]
Underpinning Research European funding enabled the development of a passive sampler through a
collaborative programme. A passive sampling device is left in-situ and
accumulates dissolved contaminants over periods of days or months. Samplers
are then analysed in the laboratory and the uptake of a pollutant over a unit of time,
the time-weighted average (TWA), is calculated. The team developed
Chemcatcher ®, a low-cost, passive sampling device, to cover most monitoring
applications that are required in the aquatic environment.
The researchers obtained additional funding from the European Union and
undertook extensive field trials using the device. They investigated how the
sampler could be used within a legislative framework such as the European’s
Union Water Framework Directive (2000) and Marine Strategy Framework
Directive (2008). As a consequence of this work passive sampling is now
recognised as a valid complementary technique that can be used alongside spot sampling for monitoring water quality within a regulatory framework.
Measuring water quality with the Chemcatcher® passive
sampler: Bettering our understanding of water quality
Future Directions
Researchers are investigating other environmental applications for the Chemcatcher ®. Collaboration with Japanese
groups is underway to develop Chemcatcher ® for monitoring radioactive chemicals such as uranium and radio-caesium,
and a Rivers Trust in the South West of the UK to develop samplers for the measurement of acid herbicides.
Impact of Research
The Chemcatcher® sampler is now being used throughout the world by academic and
governmental researchers and commercial end users (e.g. water companies, environment
agencies, consultancy organisations) to measure TWA concentrations of polar and non-
polar organic and heavy metal pollutants in a range of different water bodies (e.g. drinking,
surface and ground waters). It is also used in semi-quantitative mode for investigative
monitoring, for example detection of point sources of pollution in a sewer system or in a
river catchment.
The Issue Regulatory practice for monitoring water quality was, and still is, based on the collection
of infrequent (4 to 12 times per year) samples of water in bottles with subsequent
instrumental analysis in the laboratory. These spot samples only reflect the composition
at the moment of sampling. We decided to investigate alternative approaches to
monitoring the chemical quality of water that could provide more representative data at
a realistic cost.
Dr Natalya Vince and Professor Martin Evans School of Languages and Area Studies Faculty of Humanities [email protected]
Underpinning Research This project aimed to investigate a little-explored aspect of the shared history of Algeria and Senegal: the participation of
Senegalese soldiers in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962).
Postgraduate students and young scholars in both African countries have been trained and equipped to carry out this oral
history project amongst the older generation, with a particular focus on interviews in rural areas. This research is
producing an oral archive accessible to all via internet, students and scholars are also analysing some of the key themes
that emerge from veterans’ accounts.
We are currently developing a trilingual (French, English, Arabic) oral history handbook to be published in 2012. This
online, free resource will assist students and scholars who have difficulty accessing primary and secondary material for financial or linguistic reasons, there is relatively little oral history material published in French and even less in Arabic.
Oral History Across Generations: a transnational and
transgenerational oral history programme .
Future Directions
Discussions have begun with the head of the National Archives in Algeria
concerning the provision of training for researchers seeking to create a national
oral history archive. This would be a ground-breaking step forward towards
creating the resources to write more objective history in a state which has
previously relied on a glorified version of the past to ensure its political legitimacy.
Impact of Research
• Oral history methodology, appropriate to African contexts is beginning to be
integrated into higher education undergraduate and postgraduate programmes
• Creation of the first trilingual online resource on oral history
• Development of South-South institutional links as well as North-South
All of these developments are of benefit to researchers, lecturers, students and the
research culture more broadly in Europe and Africa.
The Issue This project , funded by a three-year British Academy UK-Africa Academic Partnership,
engages with two underexplored areas in African history. Firstly, although African societies
are often associated with orality as a means of transmitting the past, there has been very
little methodological reflection on conducting oral history in Africa. Secondly, both colonial
and post-independence African history has tended to be seen through the prism of
relationships with the former colonial power, marginalising pan-African contexts and
reinforcing a colonial ‘cordon sanitaire’ between North and Sub-Saharan Africa. This is
reflected in the lack of common research culture between North African and Sub-Saharan
African institutions.
Carina Venter School of Health Sciences & Social Work Faculty of Science [email protected]
Underpinning Research A population based cohort study (funded by Food Standards Agency) investigated peanut allergy in three cohorts of children
aged three to four years to see whether peanut allergy prevalence has changed between children born in 1989, 1993/1994 and
2001. This allowed us to establish whether the governmental advice had changed the prevalence of peanut allergies. We were
also able to examine any association between peanut consumption during pregnancy and a subsequent peanut allergy in the
child. The findings of the study highlighted:
• Intake of peanuts during pregnancy, lactation and early life does not effect peanut allergy at one and three years of age.
• Food allergies may not necessarily be increasing; there may be pockets in the world where some food allergies are increasing
and others may be stabilising or decreasing.
• In the UK prevalence of peanut allergies has not increased in children born between 1996 – 1997 and children born in 2001.
Should pregnant women consume peanuts during
pregnancy? Research changes government guidelines
Future Directions Future research will focus on the impact of maternal diet during pregnancy and the onset of other
allergic conditions, in particular eczema. In addition we plan to further look at the prevalence of
food allergies in later childhood an how that relates to the maternal diet and diet in early
childhood.
Impact of Research
This research has improved our understanding of food allergy and in particular risk factors associated with peanut allergy.
Based on this research the government has now withdrawn its advice; pregnant women no longer need to avoid food containing
nuts during pregnancy and breast feeding.
The World Allergy Organisation Guidelines on Cow’s Milk Allergy and the US Guidelines on Food Allergy have all issued new
guidelines on food allergy in children, highlighting the findings of our research and the need for appropriate training of health
professionals.
The Issue In 1998 the UK government issued advice that pregnant or breast-feeding women with
a family history of allergy should avoid eating peanuts during pregnancy and lactation.
This advice was mainly based on a study which was subject to a number of biases. The
advice was aimed at mothers with a family history of allergy, however we identified that
this was misunderstood by both mothers and the health professionals leading to a
blanket avoidance of peanuts, particularly first time mothers, regardless of family history
of allergy.
In the light of this, high quality research was needed to address whether there was
robust evidence to suggest there is a causal link between allergen consumption by
women during pregnancy and onset of food allergy in children. Additionally, the
prevalence of peanut allergies needed to be investigated to improve our understanding
of the scale of problem and whether governmental advice has changed the prevalence.
www.port.ac.uk/research
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