Social media can play a huge role in promoting your research, so if you want to learn more here’s a useful how-to guide on getting started with utilising twitter to promote your research to a wide audience.
The guide looks at how twitter can benefit you as a researcher, getting started and judging whether the effort is worth it.
The study, published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, suggests that communication within the theatre team can be impaired when music is playing. For instance, requests from a surgeon to a nurse for instruments or supplies were often repeated and there was qualitative evidence of frustration or tension within some of the teams
Sharon-Marie Weldon, (Senior Research Officer working in Surgery) a lead author on the study said: “Music can be helpful to staff working in operating theatres where there is often a lot of background noise, as well as other distractions – it can improve concentration. That said, we’d like to see a more considered approach, with much more discussion or negotiation over whether music is played, the type of music, and volume, within the operating teams.”
Scientists have discovered how earthworms can digest plant material, such as fallen leaves, that would defeat most other herbivores.
Earthworms are responsible for returning the carbon locked inside dead plant material back into the ground. They drag fallen leaves and other plant material down from the surface and eat them, enriching the soil, and they do this in spite of toxic chemicals produced by plants to deter herbivores.
The scientists, led by Dr Jake Bundy (Computational Systems Medicine) and Dr Manuel Liebeke, have identified molecules in the earthworm gut that counteract the plant’s natural defences and enable digestion. Their work is published today (4 August 2015) in Nature Communications and includes support from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the University of Oxford, and Cardiff University.
Each year, the World Economic Forum selects 40 extraordinary scientists under the age of 40 to participate alongside business and political leaders in the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in China. These scientists are selected from all regions of the world and from a wide range of disciplines to bring value to the Meeting by contributing their scientific perspective and delivering the most up-to-date trends from various fields of science.
Huge congratulations go to Jia Li and Kirill Veselkov who have both been selected to join the Young Scientist programme in China this year and will attend the Annual Meeting of the New Champions, taking place on 9-11 September in Dalian, People’s Republic of China.
Applications are invited for a PhD studentship funded by the Centre for Health Policy, commencing October 2015 for the project:
Incentives design and innovation in antibiotic research
More information can be found here.
Professor the Lord Ara Darzi has been appointed as Non-Executive Director of the new merger between Monitor and NHS TDA, now known as NHS Improvement.
Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt announced the merge in a recent King’s Fund speech. He has appointed NHS England’s Deputy Chair Ed Smith as new Chair of the body and Lord Darzi as Non-Executive Director. A Chief Executive is yet to be appointed.
Read full story here.
The European Society of Surgical Oncology is currently running a course on diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours.
The programme aims to give participants an overview on diagnosis and treatment of this condition to young and more senior surgeons who want to develop a specific knowledge on this topic. Adequate evidence-based information will be provided and few controversial topics will be discussed.
More information on the programme can be found here.
Dr James Flanagan – Senior Lecturer in the Division of Cancer has been involved in research looking into identifying a new biomarker in the blood that could help identify more women at a high risk of breast cancer.
In a prospective study, researchers from Imperial College London and the Human Genetics Foundation (HuGeF) in Torino, Italy, have concluded that DNA methylation levels in blood cells are associated with breast cancer risk, and could be used to identify women at high risk of developing the disease.
The Centre for Patient Safety and Service Quality celebrated the the success of the My Medication Passport with demand exceeding 100 000 people. The My Medication Passport is a small, easy-to-read, user-friendly booklet or app designed for patients to hold a record of their medication.
Experts gathered to discuss the benefits and the barriers to the sharing of NHS patient data.
Over 100 delegates gathered at the Royal Geographical Society last Thursday for the Centre for Health Policy’s Sowerby eHealth Symposium.
This year Surgery and Cancer have won 50% of the Faculty Scholarships at the Dean’s Master’s Scholarships. As a Department we have managed to get 5/10 scholarships (3 going to Biomedical Research MRes and 2 to Cancer Biology MRes).
Congratulations to Nigel Gooderham, Tim Ebbles, Olivier Pardo and Ernesto Yague.
Congratulations go to Mr Christopher Lattimer who for the second time has won 2nd Prize at the 16th Annual Meeting of the European Venous Forum, which took place from the 2nd-4th July 2015 in St. Petersburg, Russia, attracting over 800 delegates from all over the world.
The following presentation entitled: Increasing thigh compression pressure correlates with a reduction in the venous drainage index of air plethysmography. (CR Lattimer, S Doucet, E Kalodiki, M Azzam, V Ibegbuna, G Geroulakos) was from the Josef Pflug Vascular Laboratory, Ealing Hospital & Imperial College and was given at the event.
The photo depicts Mr Christopher Lattimer (right) receiving the award on behalf of his team from the Josef Pflug Vascular Laboratory, Imperial College (Stephen Doucet, Evi Kalodiki, Mustapha Azzam & George Geroulakos) who is shaking hands with the Chairman Professor Andrew Nicolaides (left) with the EVF President Professor Evgeny Shaydakov from St Petersburg in the centre.
This highly competitive award has provided a grant to the sum of £1,500 for Mr Lattimer to present his team’s work on venous drainage at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Venous Forum held in Orlando, Florida, Feb 23-26. This is acknowledged to be the most prestigious venous meeting globally.
It is anticipated that the venous drainage index (VDI) of air-plethysmography will provide a reliable measurement of venous outflow obstruction in patients evaluated for venous stenting. This may lead on to a screening test which can be used in a clinical setting to monitor the success of venous stents and prevent invasive diagnostic investigations in patients with suspected venous obstruction.
Last week the Postdoc Development Centre hosted the PDC Reps Award Dinner to celebrate the amazing achievements of the PDC Reps Network and to give the first PDC Reps Award, which was presented by the Provost, Prof James Stirling.
There was a huge interest across the College in the PDC Reps Award, with 49 individuals nominating their departmental Reps due to the significant contributions they have made to their department. In total this resulted in 15 Reps being put forward for consideration for the award.
All of the nominations were of a very high quality. Taking into account the number of nominations and the comments made on the form, 5 Reps were taken forward as finalists. Each of these individuals has excelled in their role as departmental Reps and there is evidence that there is a real cultural change within their department as a result of their work. In recognition of the extraordinary work that the finalists have done they each received a £50 John Lewis Voucher with the winner receiving £500 toward a conference or workshop of their choice.
We are proud to report that Kirsty Flower, our Postdoc Rep for the IRDB was nominated for this award. This was a huge achievement so congratulations go to Kirsty for the nomination as a recognition of all the work she has carried out in the Department, especially for her involvement with the Athena SWAN Academic Opportunities Committee.
Interesting article in the Guardian on the challenges of being a female surgeon:
One challenge of being a female surgeon is patients presuming I’m a secretary:
Congratulations to Liz Elvidge Head of the Postdoc Development Centre who this year won the Julia Higgins Medal, in recognition of her work with female postdocs and early career academics.
Liz has been sharing her extensive expert knowledge with the Department through her continued involvement in our Athena SWAN Academic Opportunities Committee. Working towards finding the best ways we can support the Departments postdoc community.
