News: October 2015

Large, violent animal packs impacted the ecosystems of the Pleistocene, team of scientists reports

Dr Matt Hayward , Senior Lecturer in Conservation in the College of Natural Sciences at Bangor University was part of a team that has identified the critical role that large predators play in controlling herbivores in ecosystems.

Publication date: 27 October 2015

The African lion: what faster decline of apex predator means for ecosystems

This article by Matt Hayward , Senior Lecturer in Conservation in the College of Natural Sciences , was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article . There is nothing as awe-inspiring as watching the brutal power of a lion capturing its prey. At close range, their throaty roars thump through your body, raising a cold sweat triggered by the fear of what these animals are capable of doing now, and what they once did to our ancestors. They are the most majestic animals left on our planet, and yet we are currently faced with the very real possibility that they will be functionally extinct within our lifetime.

Publication date: 27 October 2015

Corrugated solar building material reveals potential

Research by Noel Bristow (PhD in electronic engineering ) and Dr Jeff Kettle of Bangor University’s School of Electronic Engineering published in The Royal Society of Chemistry (Energy & Environmental Science, DOI:10.1039/C5EE02162F ) suggests that applying organic photovoltaics (OPVs) onto three dimensional substrates (as opposed to flat), can provide substantial improvements to their efficiency and usefulness.

Publication date: 26 October 2015

Think twice about who you chose as leader: narcissists are initially appealing but don’t deliver in the long term

From events such as the Rugby World Cup to party politics, coaches, captains and party leaders are in the spotlight. Leadership is an important aspect of everyday life as well, and we all choose leaders or at least, work with leaders. For example, we know who is “boss” in the workplace, who is “captain” at Sunday footie, and who at home is “in charge”.

Publication date: 21 October 2015

Study shows the economic impact of Welsh universities is powering the economy in all parts of the nation

A newly updated study by higher education experts shows that universities in Wales are playing a crucial role in powering the Welsh economy. Welsh universities, together with the expenditure of off-campus spending by students and visitors, generated £4.6 billion of output in Wales. The higher education sector is shown to be one of Wales’ most valuable industries, creating tens of thousands of jobs and stimulating other economic activity in local communities, as well as the wider Welsh economy.

Publication date: 20 October 2015

New Research Aims to Revolutionise Pollen Forecasting

A team of researchers are developing a new generation of pollen monitoring which they hope will lead to improved forecasts for thousands of the UK population suffering from summer allergies.

Publication date: 20 October 2015

Professor Peter Huxley presents social inclusion research findings to Hong Kong mental health service providers

Peter Huxley, Professor of Mental Health Research, in the Centre for Mental Health and Society has shared the findings of his ESRC-funded project at a workshop in Hong Kong.

Publication date: 20 October 2015

Professor Peter Huxley appointed to Health and Care Research Cymru board

Peter Huxley, Professor of Mental Health Research, in the Centre for Mental Health and Society, has been appointed as a board member for Health and Care Research Cymru. Professor Huxley will represent the Senior Research Leader group, bringing with him to the role many years’ experience and expertise in the field of social care and mental health.

Publication date: 20 October 2015

Recognition of teaching

Dr Anouschka Foltz and Dr Eirini Sanoudaki became Fellows of the Higher Education Academy through the Aberystwyth-Bangor Scheme for Recognising CPD in Teaching and Supporting Learning.

Publication date: 19 October 2015

Eisteddfod success for Linguistics staff members

Three of our staff members won first prizes in choirs in the National Eisteddfod competition of Wales in August.

Publication date: 19 October 2015

Psychological principles could explain major healthcare failings

A paper in the BMJ’s Journal of Medical Ethics breaks new ground by using psychological approaches and insights to review major health crises within the NHS. Despite several complex and high profile inquiries into major healthcare failings in the NHS, mistakes reoccur and failings in patient safety continue. While inquiries describe what went wrong in each case, questions of how and why such failures happened remain unanswered. In the research paper, Dr Michelle Rydon-Grange who has just qualified as a Clinical Psychologist at the School of Psychology , applies psychological theory to find new understandings of the causes that lead to catastrophic failures in healthcare settings.

Publication date: 15 October 2015

Chemistry in-vacuo: Suck it and See

Publication date: 15 October 2015

International Year of Light Celebration Lecture

Publication date: 15 October 2015

Aber-Bangor Change Management Toolkit

A project to bring the questions of people and performance together with lean methodologies has been developed by the Aber-Bangor Strategic Alliance with funding from the Innovation and Transformation Fund .

Publication date: 13 October 2015

£1.8m funding for large-scale online resource of contemporary Welsh language

As a leading authority on Welsh language technologies, Bangor University will be participating in a multi-institution project to develop the first mass corpus to capture and inform the past, present and future use of the Welsh language.

Publication date: 13 October 2015

Using Welsh within the community

As part of an evaluation of the Welsh Government’s Welsh Language Strategy, Dr Rhian Hodges and Dr Cynog Prys, of Bangor University’s School of Social Sciences conducted a research study into the opportunities to use Welsh in six communities in Wales. The Welsh Language was found to be in a fragile state within the communities studied: Cardigan, Aberystwyth, Bangor, Llanrwst, Porthmadog and Ammanford. Despite this, evidence of the use of Welsh was found in the communities, along with a desire to have more varied opportunities to use Welsh within daily life (i.e while shopping or receiving Public Services).

Publication date: 9 October 2015

Three Bangor research projects among top 20 contributing towards development

No fewer than three research projects at Bangor University have been selected from nearing 7,000 submissions to be included among the top 20 most impressive examples of UK research contributing to development .

Publication date: 9 October 2015

Bangor academic leads Dutch knowledge exchange visit to Liverpool

Dr Koen Bartels, Lecturer in Management Studies, recently led a knowledge exchange visit by representatives of City District Amsterdam-West to Liverpool.

Publication date: 8 October 2015

Health and Medical Research Showcase

Bangor University and the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) held their first open Joint Research Showcase recently. The event showcased current research interests across the two organisations and sought to create opportunity for greater research collaboration in the region. Over 110 delegates were registered for the conference and 50 research abstracts were submitted for the event which included a poster conference.

Publication date: 7 October 2015

Cricket Talent Testing

As part of the continued work between IPEP and the ECB A number of IPEP members (Chelsey Dempsey, Leonie Webster, Caoimhe Martin) recently assisted Ben Jones (IPEP ECB-funded PhD student) with the England Development Programme' talent testing at the national cricket performance centre, Loughborough.

Publication date: 5 October 2015

Research Presentations at ECB

At the beginning of October Ben Jones is presenting his PhD proposal at the ECB's biannual academy directors conference at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.

Publication date: 5 October 2015

Understanding what makes cricketers super-elite

In this research project funded by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Prof Lew Hardy and Dr Gavin Lawrence, along with PhD student Ben Jones are conducting a detailed examination of the biographical development of cricketers who differ in their expertise levels; 'super-elite' and elite players. Specifically, they will be examining the extent that which practice and training histories, along with demographic factors influence the pathway to the top.

Publication date: 5 October 2015

Shubha Sreenivas bagged the prize for the best poster at the Mental Health Research in North Wales Conference

Shubha Sreenivas bagged the prize for the best poster at the Mental Health Research in North Wales Conference, 29th Sep 2015, at Technium OpTIC Centre, St Asaph.

Publication date: 1 October 2015