Dr Data – the answer to cancer. And other things……

The Farr Institute’s latest news includes their participation in the Edinburgh Fringe with Dr Data: The Answer to Cancer, produced in cooperation with the Cancer Innovation Challenge and the Beltane Network, and part of the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas, a well-established series of research-related performances.  The latest news release also covers cyber security, collaborations between Scottish Government the NHS and the Data Lab, and also a call for submissions to the e-journal “The International Journal of Population Data Science”.

 

UK Data Service – visualising data

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new interactive data visualisation feature on UKDS.Stat, the data dissemination platform for international data at the UK Data Service. We have added a ‘Featured data’ section to the UKDS Stat homepage where we will highlight significant/topical news or events and showcase relevant international data. To launch this feature we have chosen to highlight #WorldPopulationDay which takes place on 11 July each year. The theme for this year is Family Planning: Empowering People, Developing Nations which has the aim of raising awareness that access to safe, voluntary family planning is a human right, is central to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and is a key factor in reducing poverty.

The scatterplot displayed includes two data series from the World Bank World Development Indicator dataset (April 2017 edition) – ‘Birth rate (per 1000 people) vs GDP per capita, PPP, 2015’. A link to the data visualisation can be tweeted and a link to the correct citation information is displayed. In addition, the scatterplot data can be viewed within a UKDS.Stat table and any update to the underlying dataset will be immediately reflected in the interactive data visualisation. The scatterplot is generated by extracting data via the UKDS.Stat Application Programming Interface (API) using the SDMX-JSON web service, which is then fed into an appropriate visualisation tool; it is the result of work carried out by the international data team looking at how people can use the UKDS.Stat API to access data and generate a variety of interactive visualisations. Presenting data in a visual context can help people to understand the significance of the data. As well as highlighting the data we host on UKDS.Stat, we are keen to help others to build their own visualisations using our data. We have added some information describing how to create both static data visualisations within UKDS.Stat and also how to generate interactive data visualisations from API queries and from CSV formatted data. We would love to see any data visualisations you develop, so please do let us know and remember to #citethedata.

 

 

Call For Participants – Rethinking Food: The Creativity of Entrepreneurship Workshop, 3-6 October 2017

Rethinking food: The creativity of entrepreneurship

Food, from production through consumption to waste is a complex system at the centre of human life and culture. Food therefore is an important new area for entrepreneurial activity and design has a key role to play in its development working with business and academia. How can researchers in design and business from the UK and Turkey work together to promote entrepreneurialism and sustainability?

This workshop will provide an important opportunity to share learning from and build on the successful 4 year Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Design in Action project. Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University, led on the food theme resulting in several new startups.

Under the Researcher Links scheme offered within the Newton Fund, the British Council and TUBITAK will be holding a four-day workshop on design entrepreneurship in Istanbul, on 3-6 October 2017.

Based on a concept developed by Gray’s Early Career Researcher, Dr Nil Gulari the workshop is being coordinated by Professor Emeritus Anne Douglas (Robert Gordon University) and Professor Alpay Er (Ozyegin University) and will have contributions from other leading researchers including Professor Ozlem Er (Istanbul Technical University), Chris Fremantle (Robert Gordon University), Dr Nil Gulari  (Robert Gordon University) and Dr Isıl Oygur Ilhan (Ozyegin University). All travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the Newton Researcher Links programme.

Gulari’s Phd (2014) focused on Design Support Programmes in UK including Gray’s Centre for Design Innovation (c4di), Design in Action and her current research investigates design-led entrepreneurship and innovation in Estonia, Turkey, and France. Leaders of these programmes, including Professor Ozlem Er, came together during the Scottish Design Summit in 2015 in Edinburgh to exchange current thinking and plan future collaborations.

We are now inviting Early Career Researchers in the fields of design, business or food related science (completed their PhD within the last 10 years or equivalent research experience) from the UK and Turkey to apply to attend this workshop.

The application form, with more details on the initiative, is attached here: Newton Fund call information and application form and should be sent to n.gulari@rgu.ac.uk before the deadline of 27 of July.

Applicants should address the questions via email to n.gulari@rgu.ac.uk. Selected applicants will be informed by 2^nd of August 2017.

Key Information:

Workshop Title: Rethinking food: The creativity of entrepreneurship

UK coordinator: Professor Anne Douglas, Robert Gordon University

Partner Country coordinator: Professor Alpay Er, Ozyegin University.

Discipline: Creative fields, Business and Food sciences

Dates and venue: 3-6 October 2017, Istanbul

OpenAIR@RGU – monthly update (no.6 – June 2017)

Welcome to the sixth monthly update on OpenAIR@RGU – RGU’s open access institutional repository. Please direct any queries to the team at publications@rgu.ac.uk.

Content

The repository currently contains 2,223 records. Some examples of recent additions to the repository include the following outputs:

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2386 = PEDERSEN, S. 2017. The Scottish suffragettes and the press. London: Palgrave Macmillan [online], chapter 1. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53834-5

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2387 = MIDDLEMISS, S. 2017. Whistle-blowing and the equality dimension of victimisation in the workplace. International journal of discrimination and the law [online], 17(2), pages 137-156. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/1358229117712586

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2388 = BREMNER, P.A.M. 2017. From fourth year to the outside world: are we making our fashion graduates ‘work ready’ – are their skills transferable into the workplace? Presented at the 3rd International enhancement in higher education conference: inspiring excellence, transforming the student experience, 6-8 June 2017, Glasgow, UK.

Each School currently has the following number of records on OpenAIR (research data is in a separate diagram):

Downloads

This month, there have been a total of 6,360 downloads from OpenAIR. The most downloaded items include:

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1015 = YOUNG, W., HWANG, K., MCDONALD, S. and OATES, C.J. 2010. Sustainable consumption: green consumer behaviour when purchasing products. Sustainable Development [online], 18(1), pages 20-31. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sd.394 (369 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/207 = AVNY, G. and ANDERSON, A.R. 2008. Organisational culture, national culture and performance in international joint ventures based in Israel. International Journal of Business and Globalisation [online], 2(2), pages 133-145. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1504/IJBG.2008.016622 (125 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/198 = TOURISH, D. and HARGIE, O. 2004. Communication audits: building world class communication systems. In OLIVER, S. (ed.) Handbook of Corporate Communication and Public Relations: Pure and Applied. London: Routledge, pages 131-144. (121 downloads)

The most downloaded theses this month include:

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/358 = VISWANATHAN, A. 2005. Using Orthogonal Arrays to Train Artificial Neural Networks. Robert Gordon University, MPhil thesis. (404 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/809 = SSENDI, L.B. 2013. Entrepreneurship Activities in Rural Tanzania: Understanding Women’s Micro Business. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis. (153 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/792 = ROBERTSON, D.M. 2012. Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning in New Graduate Occupational Therapists: a Phenomenological Study. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis. (89 downloads)

The above data were correct at the time of writing (22.06.2017).

OpenAIR@RGU – monthly update (no.5 – May 2017)

Welcome to the fifth monthly update on OpenAIR@RGU – RGU’s open access institutional repository. Please direct any queries to the team at publications@rgu.ac.uk.

Content

The repository currently contains 2,168 records. Some examples of recent additions to the repository include the following outputs:

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2336 = YUAN, B., XU, C., ZHANG, D., ZHANG, R., SU, H., GUAN, P., NIE, J., FERNANDEZ, C. 2017. Electrografting of amino-TEMPO on graphene oxide and electrochemically reduced graphene oxide for electrocatalytic applications. Electrochemistry Communications [online], In Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elecom.2017.05.016

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2335 = ALSAAD, D., ALOBAIDLY, S., ABDULROUF, P., THOMAS, B., AHMED, A., ALHAIL, M. 2017. Misoprostol for miscarriage management in a woman with previous five cesarean deliveries: a case report and literature review. Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management [online], 13, pages 625-627. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2147/TCRM.S132294

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2338 = SMITH, L. 2014. Historiography of South African social work: challenging dominant discourses. Social work/Maatskaplike Werk [online], 50(3), pages 305-331. Available from: https://doi.org/10.15270/50-3-402

Each School currently has the following number of records on OpenAIR (research data is in a separate diagram):

Downloads

This month, there have been a total of 6,817 downloads from OpenAIR. The most downloaded items include:

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1015 = YOUNG, W., HWANG, K., MCDONALD, S. and OATES, C.J. 2010. Sustainable consumption: green consumer behaviour when purchasing products. Sustainable Development [online], 18(1), pages 20-31. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sd.394 (413 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/198 = TOURISH, D. and HARGIE, O. 2004. Communication audits: building world class communication systems. In OLIVER, S. (ed.) Handbook of Corporate Communication and Public Relations: Pure and Applied. London: Routledge, pages 131-144. (128 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1302 = ROYLE, J. and LAING, A.F. 2014. The digital marketing skills gap: developing a digital marketer model for the communication industries. International Journal of Information Management [online], 34(2), pages 65-73. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2013.11.008 (89 downloads)

The most downloaded theses this month include:

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/358 = VISWANATHAN, A. 2005. Using Orthogonal Arrays to Train Artificial Neural Networks. Robert Gordon University, MPhil thesis. (445 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/809 = SSENDI, L.B. 2013. Entrepreneurship Activities in Rural Tanzania: Understanding Women’s Micro Business. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis. (170 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/792 = ROBERTSON, D.M. 2012. Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning in New Graduate Occupational Therapists: a Phenomenological Study. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis. (94 downloads)

The above data was correct at the time of writing (30.05.2017).

Funding Award: KTP with Petrofac

Dr Nastascha Mueller-Hirth (School of Applied Social Science) has been awarded a KTP with Petrofac in Aberdeen. The aim is to form an in-depth qualitative understanding of multinational workforce cultural issues, thereby developing innovative management practice and embed understanding, including training and a toolkit to drive industry leading performance, increasing productivity, reputation, and profitability.

The partnership will identify effective ways to improve communication, training, reporting, risk perception and reward systems. Then, combining the findings of field research we will generate a model and way of working that can utilise an international workforce to work successfully and safely together, with higher productivity, reduced production costs, improved quality and a stronger reputation. The model will be incorporated into a supervisor toolkit and training course.

Natascha is supported by Carolyn McNicholas, Senior Marketing Lecturer in Communication, Marketing and Media and Dr Andrew Davis, Marketing Lecturer.

 

 

OpenAIR@RGU – monthly update (no.4 – April 2017)

Welcome to the fourth monthly update on OpenAIR@RGU – RGU’s open access institutional repository. Please direct any queries to the team at publications@rgu.ac.uk.

Content

The repository currently contains 2,097 records. Some examples of recent additions to the repository include the following outputs:

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2286 = SMITH, L.H. 2017. “Blaming-the-poor”: strengths and development discourses which obfuscate neo-liberal and individualist ideologies. International Social Work [online], 60(2), pages 336-350. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/0020872815594218
• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2287 = BUCHAN, B., KAY, G., MATTHEWS, K.H. and CAIRNS, D. 2012. Suppository formulations as a potential treatment for nephropathic cystinosis. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences [online], 101(10), pages 3729-2738. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/jps.23246
• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2288 = PEDERSEN, S. 1998. Where, when, why: academic authorship in the UK. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 29(3), pages 154-166.

Each School currently has the following number of records on OpenAIR (research data is in a separate diagram):

Downloads

This month, there have been a total of 7,908 downloads from OpenAIR. The most downloaded items include:

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1015 = YOUNG, W., HWANG, K., MCDONALD, S. and OATES, C.J. 2010. Sustainable consumption: green consumer behaviour when purchasing products. Sustainable Development [online], 18(1), pages 20-31. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sd.394 (468 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/198 = TOURISH, D. and HARGIE, O. 2004. Communication audits: building world class communication systems. In OLIVER, S. (ed.) Handbook of Corporate Communication and Public Relations: Pure and Applied. London: Routledge, pages 131-144. (200 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1302 = ROYLE, J. and LAING, A.F. 2014. The digital marketing skills gap: developing a digital marketer model for the communication industries. International Journal of Information Management [online], 34(2), pages 65-73. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2013.11.008 (109 downloads)

The most downloaded theses this month include:

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/358 = VISWANATHAN, A. 2005. Using Orthogonal Arrays to Train Artificial Neural Networks. Robert Gordon University, MPhil thesis. (498 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/809 = SSENDI, L.B. 2013. Entrepreneurship Activities in Rural Tanzania: Understanding Women’s Micro Business. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis. (158 downloads)

• http://hdl.handle.net/10059/792 = ROBERTSON, D.M. 2012. Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning in New Graduate Occupational Therapists: a Phenomenological Study. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis. (76 downloads)

The above data was correct at the time of writing (27.04.2017).

Search and Browse Longitudinal studies

A new search engine has been developed by Cohort & Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resources (CLOSER) to enable researchers to explore, search and browse  the rich data collected from eight leading UK longitudinal studies.  This will provide opportunities to learn about structuring longitudinal studies and their potential for new research.

CLOSER Discovery allows users to search by keyword or browse by topic, helping researchers locate the variables that best suit their research interests. A search on CLOSER Discovery will show users:

• The original question on which the variables are based
• Where the questions appeared in the survey, including complete routing
• The source of derived variables
• An overview of each variable, including valid and invalid cases, maximum, minimum and mean values
• Similarities and relationships of variables and data across the different studies
• How to access the data from each study

You can access CLOSER Discovery here and find out more information about the search engine, including an introductory webinar, on the CLOSER website.

Shaping Data Standards for Future Cities – 19 May, Glasgow

The Urban Big Data Centre has announced that they are collaborating with BSI on the next free SASNet event on ‘Shaping Data Standards for Future Cities’.

Future cities face many challenges as urban populations increase. Physical resources – such as energy and water – along with healthcare, traffic, public transport and other logistics need careful management in order to meet the needs of citizens, maintain economic growth and ensure sustainability. The effective use of data and new technology solutions are providing new tools and opportunities that can help overcome these challenges.

Standards support the widespread adoption of common approaches to the implementation of products and services in future cities. A range of standards are required to help the smart city meet its potential and to help address issues at different levels, from the decision-making at the city level to the interoperability of particular devices. This event aims to bring together local authorities, researchers and innovators to identify the challenges facing cities, discuss potential solutions to common problems and look at the role and future of smart city standards.

This free event will take place on 19 May 2017 in the Still Room at the IET Glasgow: Teacher Building – a landmark venue in the heart of Glasgow city centre.

The programme details and timings are still to be confirmed – Each session will be approximately 60 minutes in length including a Q&A. There are no specific pre-requisites for attending but the event is likely to be of most interest to standards professionals and urban planners from the academic, consultancy and public sectors. Registration for this free event is available via Eventbrite and is necessary due to limited space and for catering arrangements.

 

 

Hashtags, memes, and trolls: social media as a campaigning battleground for Indyref2.

Check out the LSE Politics and Policy blog where Graeme Baxter, Simon Burnett, Iain MacLeod, Sarah Pedersen and Elizabeth Tait reflect on some of the characteristics of the social media activities of the 2014 campaign, and consider how these may change the second time round.