New Boundaries research magazine - November 2015 edition by University of Southampton

New Boundaries | Issue 21 | November 2015

Improving lives worldwide

Supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals The truth about Agincourt Mythbusting the famous battle Smarter machines Harnessing the power of devices Innovations in imaging The University’s μ-VIS centre

In this issue Welcome to New Boundaries, the University of Southampton’s research magazine. In this issue, you will discover how our researchers are addressing some of the most challenging issues facing society today, from sustainable development to shedding new light on the Battle of Agincourt 600 years after it took place.

At the UN summit in September, world leaders agreed on an ambitious set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to replace the Millennium Development Goals to track global development. See page four for a few of the areas in which our research is supporting these goals to improve lives worldwide. This year marks the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. On page 10, find out how our researchers are busting some of the myths around this famous conflict. Data and devices are becoming increasingly important to our lives. One page 14, discover how a project called ORCHID is harnessing the power of computers to improve our performance in areas as diverse as disaster response, energy efficiency and citizen science. The University of Southampton has a long-established relationship with Cancer Research UK. On page 16, find out how our pioneering research is playing its part in the global fight against breast cancer. The University’s μ-VIS centre is home to some of the most advanced x-ray computed tomography imaging equipment in the UK. On page 20, the centre’s director, Professor Ian Sinclair, talks about the innovative research it supports.

Please send us your feedback You can view past issues of New Boundaries online at www.southampton.ac.uk/research We are keen to receive any feedback you have about New Boundaries. If you have any comments or suggestions, please send them to newboundaries@southampton.ac.uk

1 Improving lives worldwide Supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Page 4

2 The truth about Agincourt Mythbusting the famous battle. Page 10

3 Smarter machines Harnessing the power of devices. Page 14

4 Innovations in imaging The University’s μ-VIS centre. Page 20

More highlights Beating breast cancer Towards better diagnosis and personalised treatments. Page 16

Boosting ‘big data’ for financial services Collaborating with the Chinese government and international business. Page 22

Future-proofing our oceans The benefits of a greater understanding and appreciation of our oceans. Page 26

Improving lives worldwide At the UN summit in September, world leaders agreed on an ambitious set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to replace the Millennium Development Goals to track global development. New Boundaries takes a look at how research across the University is supporting some of these key areas of global importance.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The nutrient-rich sediments deposited by rivers when they meet the sea make deltas some of the most fertile environments on the planet. Worldwide, they are home to around 500 million people, many of whom rely on subsistence farming.â&#x20AC;? Robert Nicholls, Professor of Coastal Engineering

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

Dr Stuart Clarke is studying the strains of pneuomococci, a major cause of pneumonia, carried in the noses and throats of people in the UK, Singapore and Malaysia

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

“Pneumonia is the world’s leading cause of death among children aged under five, despite the existence of life-saving vaccines.” Dr Stuart Clarke, Associate Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology Safeguarding coastal areas Adaptation to climate changes is high on the SDG agenda; Southampton research is helping coastal and delta communities, including those in some of the poorest parts of the world, to adapt to the effects of climate change and other environmental stresses. Playing a key role in several interdisciplinary, multi-agency projects, Southampton researchers are using dynamic computer modelling techniques to create powerful forecasting tools. The models will help governments and policy-makers to choose the most effective ways of managing coasts, including dealing with the impact of sea level rise and extreme weather events. Robert Nicholls, Professor of Coastal Engineering, explains: “The nutrient-rich sediments deposited by rivers when they meet the sea make deltas some of the most fertile environments on the planet. Worldwide, they are home to around 500 million people, many of whom rely on subsistence farming. However, these lowlying delta environments are particularly vulnerable to a number of factors, including rising global temperatures and sea levels, dam construction upstream and subsidence. Collectively, this puts communities and their livelihoods at risk.” One study that is assessing these risks is the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) Deltas project. Focusing on the densely populated Ganges-BrahmaputraMeghna delta in Bangladesh, it seeks to understand the link between human wellbeing and ecosystem services (the benefits people derive from ecosystems, such as soil formation, food production and clean water). It also aims to forecast how changes to ecosystem services could impact on people’s livelihoods in the future, with a focus on poor communities.

The four-year, £3.7m study is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development. It involves partner organisations in the UK, India and Bangladesh. Two other major projects at Southampton consider deltas, complementing ESPA Deltas. Belmont Forum DELTAS, funded by the Belmont Forum, aims to advance our scientific understanding of deltas as coupled socio-ecological systems. “The data we have collected and indicators we have developed under this project feed directly into the ongoing SDG debate,” says Dr Sylvia Szabo, a research fellow at the University. “In our recent article for the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, we explain in detail how the new SDG targets and proposed SDG indicator framework may benefit climate hot spots, such as tropical river deltas.” The DECCMA (DEltas, vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation) project is examining adaptation in deltas in Bangladesh, India and Ghana, with a strong focus on migration. This project is part of the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) programme, funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre and the UK’s Department for International Development. Protecting food security Food security is another priority area. Global food supplies are at risk due to the effects of a growing world population coupled with climate change. Our researchers are at the forefront of developments in soil science, using the University’s cutting-edge technologies in innovative ways to help tackle this challenge. Tiina Roose, Professor of Biological and Environmental Modelling and a member

of the University’s Institute for Life Sciences (IfLS), explains why a deeper understanding of soil and plant processes is becoming increasingly urgent. “Soil is fundamental to our food supply; 80 per cent of our food comes directly from plants, while meat supplies also rely on plantbased animal feed,” says Tiina. “Climate change is set to reduce crop yields by more than 25 per cent from 2050 and traditional fertilisers could run out during this century. However, it is estimated that we need to double food production by 2050 to feed a global population of nine billion.” Tiina’s interdisciplinary group at Southampton is combining advanced technologies in new ways to determine how crops can be grown more efficiently as resources become scarcer. The group, which includes engineers, mathematicians, biologists and computer scientists, is working on a number of projects examining different aspects of this interaction, using data obtained through chemical analysis and sophisticated imaging techniques to inform powerful mathematical models. Through modelling, different scenarios can be tested out to determine how plants can be modified or managed to produce the best possible crop yields. Current projects include a £1.4m initiative to explore how plants manipulate soils to extract more water and nutrients, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and a €2m award from the European Research Council. Reducing infectious diseases in young children “Pneumonia is the world’s leading cause of death among children aged under five, despite the existence of lifesaving vaccines,” says Dr Stuart Clarke, Associate Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology.

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

Stuart is working on a number of projects to understand the disease burden of pneumonia and the research funding associated with it. This is integral to the SDG agenda, in particular in its goal to ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.’ Currently based at the University of Southampton Malaysia Campus, Stuart is a researcher from Medicine and a member of the University’s IfLS.

of the disease and help to set global research investment priorities,” Stuart explains. Promoting wellbeing for older people

Currently 12 per cent of the global population is aged 60 or over; by 2050 this is predicted to rise to over 21 per cent, and three-quarters of these people will live in developing countries. Asghar Zaidi, Professor in International Social Policy, is conducting research to improve the wellbeing of older people and Stuart is studying the strains of pneumococci, promote independence in later life. a major cause of pneumonia, carried in Through his work, Asghar makes a strong the noses and throats of people in the UK, case that , with appropriate age-friendly Singapore and Malaysia. The research centres physical and social policy environments, on improving our understanding of how older people have the potential to contribute, the reduction of carriage of certain bacteria not only to their own wellbeing, but also to through vaccination affects the ecology of the help sustain a greater economic and social other bacteria in the respiratory tract, and prosperity for society as a whole. This belief whether resistant strains are evolving. is critical in linking ageing and development and refers to the two bold pledges made Through this research, Stuart’s team aims to in the SDG document that ‘no one will be influence national health policy in Malaysia. left behind’ and ‘we will endeavour to reach “The National Public Health Laboratory, the furthest behind first’. “We need to move part of the Ministry of Health, doesn’t know away from the paradigm of seeing older what the burden of pneumococcal disease people as dependent; instead we need to put is because the studies haven’t been done. more emphasis on their active and healthy So this carriage study will provide valuable ageing,” says Asghar, who is working with the information on which strains are circulating European Commission and World Health in the community,” says Stuart. “With Organisation on various projects to help funding from the UK’s Newton Fund, our governments put this thinking into practice. studies will look at the burden of infectious diseases in relation to urbanisation and climate change, to see how these threats are interlinked in Malaysia and what can be done to mitigate them.” With a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Stuart will also be studying how research funding is allocated relative to the global burden of disease. “We will quantify the contribution of research funds that these infections receive compared to research involving other pathogens that are important in human health. This will give policy makers a comprehensive picture of where there’s been a lack of funding relative to the impact

“Developing countries that have fewer resources; for example, those in Africa and parts of Asia, will face serious challenges as the population ages. They need to put programmes and policies in place as early as possible so that older people become net contributors to a sustainable development process,” he adds. Asghar and his collaborators have developed two indices to show the level to which older people experience secure, healthy and active lives. The Active Ageing Index, developed in collaboration with the European Commission and the United

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Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), gives a measure of how active and healthy older people are across European and other developed countries. Sweden currently ranks top, closely followed by Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK. Working with Help Age International, Asghar also developed the Global AgeWatch index, the first global index to give a comparative picture of wellbeing of older people. Incorporating 96 countries, the data from this index will help governments make informed decisions to prepare for future challenges. Switzerland is currently at the top, followed by Norway and Sweden, with the UK ranked 10th. Asghar adds: “The implementation of the SDG agenda will not be possible without good-quality age-disaggregated data made available by national statistical authorities, and the analysis and communication of the indicators by academic and civil society communities around the world.” Asghar was one of the few academics invited to give input at the UN Expert Group meeting to determine whether the indicators are inclusive of older people. In July this year, he addressed the meeting in New York, speaking about his experience in working on these two Indexes and their importance in developing the indicators framework in the implementation of SDGs. “We have contributed at the start of this process and throughout the next 15 years we will be continuing to support these goals through our multidisciplinary research across the University,” says Asghar. For more information about our groundbreaking research across the University, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/research

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We need to move away from the paradigm of seeing older people as dependent; instead we need to put more emphasis on their active and healthy ageing.â&#x20AC;? Asghar Zaidi, Professor in International Social Policy

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

The truth about Agincourt To mark the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, New Boundaries talks to some of our historians who are challenging the myths around this famous battle.

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

The Battle of Agincourt took place on 25 October 1415 in modern-day Azincourt in northern France. Henry V led his troops to an unexpected victory to defeat the French and make his claim to the throne of France. Much of what we remember about Agincourt comes from Shakespeare’s play, Henry V, but how much of this is based on fact? Anne Curry, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Southampton, is one of the world’s leading experts on the Battle of Agincourt. In her most recent research, published in her latest book, Great Battles Agincourt, Anne has traced the legacy of Agincourt from 1415 to 2015, using a wide range of sources, from newspapers and depictions of Agincourt in literature to films. To mark the 600th anniversary, the University also ran a two-week Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), led by Anne, which enabled participants to explore the myths and realities of the battle. “Agincourt typified the struggle of little England against the world and heroism, particularly of the common man. For example, Dickens wrote that we won because of the ‘good, stout archers’ who were fighting against the French aristocrats and it has become tied up in the national identity of Britishness,” says Anne. Shakespeare’s Henry V has been very powerful, she explains. “The image of the battle that people have in their minds is Shakespeare’s Agincourt, and this has affected our written culture ever since.” The battle of Agincourt was initially not well known, but wars with France brought it into the public consciousness, Anne explains; in the first and second world wars, speeches from the play were used to boost the troops’ morale. “We tend to get caught up in the Shakespearean idea of Henry as a warrior king and forget the fact that the battle happened on the back of a failed campaign; Henry was intercepted at Agincourt on the way home after a siege and was fortunately able to redeem this situation through victory in the battle,” says Anne.

Enduring myths The prestige around the name ‘Agincourt’ has led to its use in some unexpected places. “Families thought they would get credibility if they were linked to Agincourt, and this had led to many spurious claims about people’s ancestors being at the battle,” says Anne. This started in the late 16th century, when people started to incorporate the motto ‘Agincourt’ into their coats of arms. Through her research on sources such as muster rolls and financial records of the campaign, Anne has created a database of a large number of people who were involved in the campaign, which enables these claims to be verified. Agincourt also lends its name to towns in South Africa and Iowa in the US, beachside apartments in Australia, a ship and a racecourse, to name but a few. Other battles in history haven’t seen this attachment with the name, explains Anne, and this popularity is largely because of Shakespeare. “When the battle started being commemorated in newspapers from 1757, it was speeches from Shakespeare that they printed rather than anything from the period itself,” says Anne. The ‘V’ sign has been attributed to the battle of Agincourt: legend has it that the French threatened to cut off the English archers’ fingers, so in defiance they held them up in a ‘V’ sign. “This is a nice story but there is no record of this from the time of the battle so it is almost certainly a 20th century urban myth,” says Anne. It is wrongly thought that the bulk of Henry V’s army was Welsh. “From the muster rolls, we know the names of the 500 Welsh archers and the few men-at-arms who accompanied them. I suggest there were a total of 8,500 British men on the campaign, so the Welsh only made up a small proportion.” Dr Rémy Ambühl, a lecturer in medieval history, is examining around 100 contracts for the ransom of prisoners during Agincourt, which show that a wide spectrum of society, rather than just knights, were held for ransom after the battle. “This questions the idea of the famous massacre at the end of the battle: the massacre, if it took place,

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was not discriminatory; greater soldiers were not spared at the expense of the lower ranks,” he says. The army and the fleet It is widely claimed that the French army outnumbered the English by five to one, but Anne’s research questions this. “The French couldn’t have had the size of army that is claimed. This is just out of context for medieval history and if you look at the battle site, so many troops simply wouldn’t have fit into the space.” In her previous research, Anne has suggested that the English had 8,500 troops and the French had around 12,000. “This has been controversial because people are very attached to the notion that the French vastly outnumbered the English,” she adds. The fleet of ships that took Henry V’s soldiers across the English Channel has long been thought to number around 1,500 foreign vessels. Southampton historian Dr Craig Lambert’s research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, suggests there were far fewer – around 700 ships – and that they were mainly English ships. Craig examined issue rolls from the National Archives, which record money issued by the exchequer. From these records, he worked out that Henry was hiring ships at a rate of three shillings, four pence per tonne and that he hired around 250 foreign ships, as well as requisitioning around 400 vessels from English merchants. “It was previously thought that most of Henry’s fleet consisted of foreign ships, but we have shown that the larger proportion was actually English, says Craig, who has also confirmed a theory that Henry had around 50 ships to protect the transport fleet as it crossed the Channel. “This is a very exciting time to be studying Agincourt and to have shed light on some of the myths around the battle,” says Anne. “The University of Southampton has become a hub of research on Agincourt and there are many more secrets to uncover.” For more information, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/agincourt

“The image of the battle that people have in their minds is Shakespeare’s Agincourt, and this has affected our written culture ever since.” Anne Curry, Professor of Medieval History

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

Smarter machines There are more connected devices on the planet than people. New Boundaries finds out about a research project that is harnessing their collective power. “In a world with an increasing number of devices, a key challenge will be how to manage large volumes of information, some trustworthy and some untrustworthy, and how to bring it all together and make sense of it,” says Professor Nick Jennings, the UK’s only Regius professor in computer science. “We need machines to be smarter and help us process our data-rich environment. This is what we have set out to achieve through ORCHID” ORCHID is an ambitious five-year project to develop the science to enable humans and intelligent software ‘agents’ to work in collaboration as ‘human-agent collectives’ (HACs). Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, it is a collaboration between the universities of Southampton, Oxford and Nottingham, and industry partners such as BAE Systems,

Secure Meters UK and Rescue Global. The team includes experts from fields ranging from human and behavioural science to engineering, computing and mathematics.

in which first responders work with a response headquarters to rescue as many casualties as possible.

The team also developed the HAC-ER system, which combines crowd-sourcing with machine learning to extract situational In a disaster situation, rescue services need awareness information from members of to make critical decisions in an uncertain the public and trusted organisations, and and rapidly changing environment. The analyses its trustworthiness. HAC-ER has ORCHID team has developed systems that been validated by real-world emergency enable first responders and software agents to work effectively together to collect the best responders in a number of training exercises. possible information from the environment, ORCHID’s systems were put into practice such as CCTV feeds, images from unmanned during the earthquake in Nepal earlier this aerial vehicles and crowd-generated content year. “We were able to identify and fuse such as Twitter feeds. together sources of information, from members of the public and agencies, to figure The team has developed systems to help out the best places for Rescue Global to leave understand how humans and HACs can work together. For example, AtomicORCHID water for people stranded by the earthquake,” is a mixed-reality game the team developed Nick explains. Disaster response

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

Another system, Collabmap, is a platform for crowd-sourcing evacuation routes that has already been used in the Fawley area of Southampton. Supported by Hampshire County Council, Collabmap uses a crowd to identify and annotate a digital map with escape routes from individual buildings. Smart energy systems To improve efficiency of the electricity grid, the ORCHID team has developed ‘energy avatars’ that can continuously monitor, predict and make decisions about energy production and consumption. They have also developed Joulo, a home heating advice system that uses a low-cost temperature logger and algorithms to give households feedback on how they are using their current heating system. “Intelligent software agents can then learn the heating preferences of a household and provide comfortable and efficient heat control, as well as giving advice about the efficiency of appliances,” Nick explains. Joulo won the British Gas Connected Homes start-up competition in 2013 and Netherlands-based smart thermostat manufacturer Quby has acquired the associated spin-out. The team has also developed smart incentive

mechanisms that, taking into account drivers’ behaviour, can support 40 per cent more electric vehicles than is currently possible. Power of the crowd After the Fukushima disaster, citizen scientists used sensors and uploaded data on their smartphones to help track the spread of radioactive particles through the air. To correct for different levels of accuracy of these sensors, the ORCHID team developed the Japan Nuclear Crowd Map platform, which combines reports from thousands of sensors and uses machine learning algorithms to correct for biases and noise, and ignore readings from defective sensors. Closer to home, this type of technology has been used to track the endangered New Forest Cicada - the UK’s largest native insect. The team developed an app that enables visitors to the New Forest to capture and classify sounds in the forest to detect the presence of this elusive insect. Legacy of success ORCHID is an immensely successful project. Now approaching its end, so far it has resulted in 25 new academic collaborations, follow-on grants worth £15m and six patents. “I’m most

proud of the people we have trained, the people we have worked with and what we’ve learned,” says Nick. “We have trained 50 PhD students and postdocs: that is a large cohort of people that I hope will go into this research community and take the discipline forward.” Since the start of the project, ORCHID researchers have also generated over 200 publications, 40 of which are collaborations between the partners and half involving an international co-author, organised 25 major conferences and workshops and won over 20 prizes, awards and best papers. “As software and robots become smarter, and more embedded in our everyday lives, there is a societal debate to have about what this will mean,” says Nick. “I see ORCHID as showing what is possible, how machines can augment what people can do and changing that relationship, taking the initiative and taking responsibility for things - and I think how that will pan out will be very interesting.” For more information, visit www.orchid.ac.uk and www.southampton.ac.uk/nick-jennings

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

Beating breast cancer Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with an estimated one in eight women at risk of being diagnosed in their lifetime. In collaboration with Cancer Research UK, the University of Southampton is playing a major part in the global fight to eradicate this condition.

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

“We are looking at the DNA from younger breast cancer patients to find out whether clues in the BRCA genes could help predict their response to treatment and the risk of cancer coming back.” Diana Eccles, Professor of Cancer Genetics

The University has been at the forefront of cancer research for 40 years. Our longestablished relationship with Cancer Research UK (CRUK) supports facilities such as Southampton’s CRUK Centre of Excellence and CRUK Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre. Leading the UK in cancer immunology research, the University has recently launched a fundraising campaign to open a world-leading Centre for Cancer Immunology at Southampton General Hospital in 2017. Our aim is to foster high-quality cancer research, with an emphasis on translating mechanistic understanding in the laboratory into better diagnosis and personalised treatments for patients.

Younger women with breast cancer Research led by Southampton’s Professor Diana Eccles focuses on younger patients, who have a significantly reduced chance of survival. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK but, thanks to international research efforts, over 80 per cent of women are alive five years after diagnosis and at least two-thirds survive for 20 years or more. However, we know that women diagnosed under the age of 40 often have more aggressive cancers, with a significantly lower chance of survival, and some carry genetic factors predisposing them to the disease. Diana and her team are examining inherited high-risk genes for breast cancer, such as

BRCA1 and BRCA2, in this group, with a view to developing treatments for genetic breast cancer. “We are looking at the DNA from younger breast cancer patients to find out whether clues in the BRCA genes could help predict their response to treatment and the risk of cancer coming back,” says Diana. “There is some evidence that BRCA1 gene carriers may be more sensitive to certain types of chemotherapy. We want to empower women who carry this faulty gene to make informed decisions about their treatment options. Our research could also lead to targeted ways to treat young women with breast cancer and improve their chances of beating the disease.”

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The POSH study The Prospective Study of Outcomes in Sporadic versus Hereditary Breast Cancer (POSH), led by Diana, ties in with a number of ongoing national and international collaborative studies. More than 3,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 40 took part in the study. Only about five per cent of all breast cancers are diagnosed in women under 40 years of age, so over the eight years that patients joined the study, this makes up around a quarter of all women with breast cancer in this age group in the UK. Participants contributed a blood sample and tumour tissue for genetic research. The progress of study participants is followed annually. “We are looking at the prognosis for breast cancer patients with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations, at differences in patterns of recurrence and at whether cancers in these patients have a distinct tumour phenotype or host tissue response,” says Diana. “We have already found that women diagnosed with breast cancer with a family history of

the disease face a similar prognosis after treatment to other women with breast cancer. If the outlook for BRCA carrier patients is more optimistic than previously thought, preventive surgical options could be more confidently planned at the same time as breast cancer treatment.”

study is the conclusion that young women with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) should be offered BRCA gene testing, whether or not they have a family history of cancer. Diagnosed most often in women before the menopause, TNBC is difficult to treat because the tumours are missing the oestrogen, progesterone and HER-2 receptors that can Stopping cancer cell growth be targeted by the most common and most Surgeon Ramsey Cutress is working alongside effective forms of therapy. Diana in the study, and is also investigating Working with the Mayo Clinic Cancer Centre combinations of treatments to stop HER2 in America, Diana and her team found that positive breast cancer cells growing, almost 15 per cent of TNBC patients had including therapies that block internal harmful mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 signalling proteins as well as the action of genes. Even among very young women with growth factors. He explains, “We do not yet TNBC with no family history of the disease, fully understand how some breast cancers over 10 per cent of patients had a mutation. evade drugs designed to block their growth. National guidelines for genetic testing have We must therefore develop more effective changed as a result of this and other studies. treatments that target breast cancer in Breast cancers arising against a background multiple ways. The aim will be to improve of deficient DNA repair created by mutation treatments for breast cancer patients and in genes like the BRCA genes lead to highly reduce the risk of the disease returning after mutated cancers, which may be more visible therapy has ended.” to the immune system. This could lead to new Triple-negative breast cancer and better treatment options for patients with TNBC, particularly those with an Another important finding of the POSH

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

“If the outlook for BRCA carrier patients is more optimistic than previously thought, preventive surgical options could be more confidently planned at the same time as breast cancer treatment.” Diana Eccles, Professor of Cancer Genetics

underlying BRCA gene mutation. The immune environment is clearly important in helping determine treatment outcomes in women with TNBC in the POSH study. Diana’s current work is unravelling the immune environment in young women with TNBC who are carrying the BRCA1 gene, compared to young women who have TNBC but no underlying gene mutation. This work is topical and timely, with heightened international interest in harnessing the immune system to improve cancer treatments. “Southampton’s Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre, Clinical Trials Unit and the new Centre for Cancer Immunology, planned to open in 2017, are enabling us to accelerate the development of immunotherapy treatments and, ultimately, cures for cancers including breast cancer,” says Diana. PREDICTing cancer Diana’s research has also contributed to the increased accuracy of PREDICT, a widely used online computer programme developed by Cambridge academics that predicts the prognosis of breast cancer. Although

the Cambridge team studied thousands of UK women of all ages with breast cancer, inadequate data were available for younger women and the programme underestimated by 25 per cent the number of women under 40 who would die from the disease. “POSH data give more accurate estimates for younger women and will help the group in Cambridge develop the software further,” says Diana. “Our research emphasises the growing understanding that breast cancer in young women can behave differently. Making predictions using information from mainly older women may not always be accurate enough for younger patients or for doctors trying to make important decisions about treatment.” Genetic testing Funding from the CRUK Biomarkers Research Panel is enabling Diana and her team to complete the genetic profiling for breast cancer susceptibility genes across the whole cohort of patients in the POSH study. “We anticipate that the primary analysis comparing outcomes in gene carriers versus non-carriers will be available in 2016,” she says.

Breast cancer research at Southampton is part of a global effort to understand, prevent and treat the many different forms of the disease. The POSH study is an invaluable resource for the international research community, providing data on significant numbers of younger women with the rarer, inherited and more difficult to treat cancers. “Our project ties in with a number of national and international collaborative studies,” Diana explains. “DNA samples collected from our recruits are enabling researchers worldwide to explore the factors that influence the pathobiology and prognosis of breast cancer, ultimately to work towards prevention and cure.” For more information about the University’s groundbreaking cancer research and the state-of-the-art Centre for Cancer Immunology due to open in 2017, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/youreit

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

Innovations in imaging The University’s μ-VIS centre is home to some of the most advanced x-ray computed tomography imaging equipment in the UK. The centre’s Director, Professor Ian Sinclair, talks about the innovative research it supports.

Image courtesy of Sharif Ahmed

What is x-ray computed tomography?

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is a way of non-destructively seeing inside solid objects, down to sub-micrometre resolutions. It uses x-rays to take multiple pictures of a sample from different angles. The resulting data is then processed to create a detailed three-dimensional digital image.

What puts μ-VIS at the leading edge of CT?

Our facilities include the largest high-energy microCT system in a UK university, which can scan objects up to two metres in length at an exceptional resolution (in the order of mircometres). We complement this with smaller machines going to sub-micrometre resolution and we also have many years of experience of working with national synchrotron facilities such as Diamond

Light Source. This means we can provide a range of tools that researchers can use flexibly depending on the type of project they are working on. CT generates vast amounts of data, so alongside the imaging hardware we have fast, secure computing facilities. Our users are provided with comprehensive computing resources and support.

Why is CT such an important research tool?

One of the big advantages of CT is that, unlike many other microscopy methods, it is non-destructive, allowing researchers to preserve precious samples and/or produce time-resolved images of internal processes that would otherwise be disturbed by sectioning. As well as maintaining the integrity of materials or structures, this

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

means you can get a really detailed picture of whole systems. This can be useful in all sorts of applications, from tracing live plant roots over time (with several imaging world-firsts performed by μ-VIS in this area) to tracing the wires inside a mobile phone. Projects that demonstrate these benefits well include our scans of Roman burial urns to see and classify the coins inside without the need for painstaking cleaning, and tracing the toughening processes in an aerospace composite panel undergoing simulated impact.

What proportion of your work is with industry?

Our services are available to researchers within the University as well as external users from academia and industry. Around 30 per cent of our jobs are for commercial

users, although most of the University studies carried out here also involve industry collaboration, for example with Airbus, RollsRoyce and BAE Systems. Industry studies tend to fall into two broad areas: examining composite structures, such as carbon fibre and glass fibre composites, and seeing inside complex manufactured components to validate production processes.

those you might not associate with this sort of technology. For example, we have scanned an 18th-century recorder for a project in Music, providing information for contemporary instrument makers. We also worked with fashion and textile students from Winchester School of Art to image some Victorian underwear materials to examine the whalebone inside it.

Does the work of μ-VIS cross into other disciplines?

Around half of the academic work we carry out involves disciplines beyond mainstream engineering. It is an iterative process – we can contribute and develop our imaging, mathematical and computing expertise to others’ specialist requirements.

hat is the centre’s contribution to the W University’s research impact?

The projects we work on make a contribution in a wide range of fields, from improving aircraft safety to enhancing food security. We also support innovations in medicine and healthcare.

hat does the future hold W for μ-VIS?

We’re always looking at new ways to exploit the possibilities of CT. Something we’re investigating at the moment is a way to scan a whole inflated lung to capture the connectivity of airways and other biological systems at a resolution that has never been achieved before in such continuous, undisturbed samples. For more information, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/muvis

We support researchers and students from across the University’s faculties – including

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

Boosting ‘big data’ for financial services By 2020, the ‘big data’ economy is expected to reach $325bn in the USA, €206bn in Europe and $131bn in China. Southampton researchers are collaborating with the Chinese government and international business to develop a commercially viable big data platform to help companies manage their risk.

Shenzen City Skyline

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

The big data economy Growth in the internet and mobile app sectors is exponential, with billions of individuals using them for financial services. Big data associated with these users is one of the major challenges for online and mobilebased businesses. A Southampton research team has received funding from the Shenzen government in China and Audaque Ltd, one of the world’s most innovative data management companies, for their project to build a big data-supported financial services platform. The team comprises of Professor Johnnie Johnson, Professor Vanessa Sung and Dr Tiejun Ma of the Centre for Risk Research at the University’s Southampton Business School. Layering academic, technical and industrial expertise, the project aims to develop a sophisticated system that can process massive quantities of financial data from banks, securities institutions, small-loan companies, peer-to-peer (P2P) and people-to-business (P2B) internet finance companies, to support decisions made by financial institutions. Ambitious aims The challenge is to build a sophisticated data platform applicable internationally, which brings together data management and financial assessment of individuals’ risk in real time. The University’s longstanding partnership with top financial firms in London will help ensure its functionality. The team is very ambitious. “We want to be a one-stop shop. Ultimately, we aim to influence how financial authorities, movements and interview business firms form and manage risk-management policy. At the moment, assumptions and decisions are made in the context of a shifting financial situation and are often ad hoc. When something goes wrong – the 2007 crash, for example – the system is fragile and liable to collapse,” says Tiejun. The platform the team is proposing will significantly reduce risk and increase stability, improving social efficiency and people’s life experience without compromising business, economic and social sustainability and security, he explains. “In

particular, the accurate assessment of risk will enable damaging systemic risks, such as that posed by sub-prime lending which led to the financial crisis, to be avoided. Our platform will contribute to the resilience of the global economic system.”

“Ultimately, we aim to influence how financial authorities, movements and interview business firms form and manage risk-management policy.” Dr Tiejun Ma, Assistant Professor in Risk Analysis Assessment in real time “This is a truly international, collaborative project which brings significant opportunities for Southampton,” says Tiejun. “The University is uniquely placed to tackle the current problems with big data analysis – misinterpretation, modelling and speed – and to build a platform that enables the accurate financial assessment of individuals in real time.” The project builds on Southampton’s world-leading work on risk and decisionmaking in the Centre for Risk Research (CRR), comprising academics from risk management, finance, intelligent systems, web science, decision analysis and psychology. It will benefit from CRR’s unique big data platform for risk research and Southampton’s unrivalled computing resources, including one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. The internet of things Making good financial decisions online in real time while managing risk is a major challenge. In the past five years, the internet of things has had a huge impact on individual and organisational behaviour. A large pot of potential shoppers, investors and borrowers is available to internet businesses,

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

entrepreneurs and lenders, including data on their personal day-to-day financial behaviour – what they buy, how quickly they pay, etc. The task is to capture these quantities and varieties of information alongside ever-faster expectations for analysis. If these big data prove reliable and can be delivered in real time, the traditional, time-consuming ways of assessing risk, such as job history and salary checks, will become a thing of the past. When providing financial services, online and mobile-based firms are increasingly relying on information generated by clients’ online behaviour. The associated big data are proving a significant challenge. Competition is fierce, credit and loans must be agreed in seconds, and data have to be processed speedily to enable real-time decisions. The CRR project will facilitate this process through providing good-quality data and accurate risk-forecasting models. World-leading research CRR’s latest research collaboration with leading financial firms in the City of London has found mobile apps very predictive for risk-taking and decision-making behaviour. People using financial apps on mobiles appear to be better at managing risk and making financial decisions. Tiejun explains: “Mobile apps offer a convenient environment and less information overload than other digital technology. If you take these individuals using these apps as a group, data are more reliable and there is significantly less risk for the service provider. Furthermore, the mathematical models used by computers are not really compatible with the sophisticated, intuitive human brain. We therefore need to identify where the balance lies for human beings to make a decision and work towards making computers more like human beings in their perception and visualisation of risk.” A history of collaboration The researchers’ vision builds on an impressive range of previous CRR projects involving national and international finance industry partners, including London Capital Group (LCG), Star Financial Systems, WBX, FINSA, Lloyds, IBM and PwC. For

“The University is uniquely placed to tackle the current problems with big data analysis – misinterpretation, modelling and speed – and to build a platform that enables the accurate financial assessment of individuals in real time.” Dr Tiejun Ma, Assistant Professor in Risk Analysis example, a partnership with LCG developed real-time risk models to predict investors’ financial decision-making behaviour. Using the University’s supercomputers to analyse big data from multiple sources, the research has helped the Group optimise its risk management strategies in unpredictable and dynamic environments. It has also given LCG insight into the biased decisionmaking behaviour often exhibited by investors. This project was awarded a

certificate of excellence – the highest grade of ‘outstanding’ – by the Knowledge Transfer Partnership grading panel. In another project, ‘Modelling the wisdom of the crowd’, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and WBX, the Centre is developing innovative discrete choice models and real-time big data analysis. This will enable WBX to transform its data comprising details of several million trades into commercial knowledge and sources of future profit. Funded by TSB and Star Financial Systems, a further project has developed a simulation tool with intuitive, interactive real-time risk information, enabling risk managers to rapidly identify markets with significant profit opportunities and those that carry risk of loss and require a hedged response. This tool enables the industry partner’s clients to optimise their risk-management decisions. Global impact Support from the Shenzen city government and Audaque (one of the top three technology firms in big data quality management worldwide) is key to the project, and has the potential to unlock the value of the big data associated with the city’s 17 million people. “China has 20 per cent of the world’s population and the internet business is the

fastest moving part of its economy,” says Tiejun. “The project team has unrivalled academic expertise and a history of valuable collaborations with world-leading finance firms and industry. Developing an effective platform for this number of people would be a major breakthrough - disseminating our research impact in China, with the potential for extension worldwide.” For more information, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/risk

Key facts – The global volume of big data doubles in size every two years. By 2020, the data we create and copy annually will reach 44 zetabytes, or 44 trillion gigabytes – By 2020, the big data economy is expected to reach $325bn in the USA, €206bn in Europe and $131bn in China – For credit bureaus alone there are 800 billion records to be analysed for assessing credit risk. To meet high demand, mobile lending providers are aiming to make lending decisions in less than one minute

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

Future-proofing our oceans Following the publication of their major report, Global Marine Technology Trends 2030 (GMTT 2030), three leading maritime experts give their views on the importance of developing new technologies to conserve ocean spaces and develop the ships and naval vessels of the future.

Professor Ajit Shenoi with a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;greenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ship model

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

Professor Ajit Shenoi, Director of the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI) at the University of Southampton: conserving ocean spaces. Our understanding of the oceans is remarkably small, considering that they critically influence our climate and are major sources of food, energy and mineral resources, as well as serving as highways of global trade. The oceans also play an important role in the Earth’s climate. They transport heat from the tropics to the higher latitudes and absorb large amounts of anthropogenic carbon dioxide, which affects ocean life. Global warming will result in significant sea level rise in the future. As a result, many low-lying coastal areas around the world will be lost to the sea over the coming centuries. Wealthy, industrialised nations may be able to defend themselves from the encroaching waters for a time, with massive technological effort and expense, but affordable and practical solutions are needed for all. Human appetite for energy and mineral resources seems insatiable. As land-based resources become increasingly scarce, ocean-based resources are attracting greater interest. Already, more than a third of the world’s oil and gas extraction comes from offshore sources. Oceanic wind, wave, tidal, biological and thermal sources can all meet a proportion of our energy needs. With resource price increases, the appeal of ocean mining for ores and minerals is rising. In the GMTT 2030 report, we have identified eight transformational technologies that are likely to have the most significant impact on nurturing and preserving the planet’s ocean environments. These are: autonomous systems, big data, deep sea mining, materials, carbon capture and storage, marine biotechnologies, sensors and communication, and sustainable energy generation. Used in combination, these technologies will help the world address the effects of climate change, the higher expected frequency and severity of extreme weather, the further reduction of land-based resources and the increasing coastal populations.

Dr Fai Cheng, Head of Strategic Research and Technology Policy, Lloyd’s Register: commercial shipping. As the global economy continues to expand, the population is getting wealthier and wants a new range of goods available to them from around the world. These customers are demanding and technologically savvy, driving the suppliers to seek new approaches to shipping. Price is only one factor driving their behaviours; schedule reliability, intuitive self-service, environmental responsibility and ease of business are also important to them. The coming digital revolution will help shipping to meet these challenges.

Dr Iain Kennedy, Strategy Director, QinetiQ: naval technologies. Many naval vessels operating in 2030 are already being planned, procured and in some cases, are about to enter service. Navies are faced with the challenge of how to maintain the capabilities of these vessels while transitioning systems and concepts of operation to exploit and defend against both evolutionary and disruptive technologies.

We are experiencing an unprecedented acceleration in technology development and proliferation of disruptive technologies, driven by major consumer electronics research and development. This is likely The availability of the eight transformational to enable adversaries to threaten existing technologies we have identified: advanced military systems. Navies operating materials, big data analytics, robotics, successfully in 2030 will have understood sensors, communications, shipbuilding, this challenge and adopted forward-thinking smart ships for commercial shipping, will have a profound impact on ship system design technology strategies to contend with rapidly changing defence and security scenarios. and operation in the next 15 years. With faster technological advances, there will be a move towards delegating authority from the human operator to the machine to perform more of the tasks that are considered as dull, dirty and dangerous to achieve a higher level of safety and effectiveness. We envisage that ships in 2030, known as TechnoMax, will be smarter, data driven, greener, have flexible powering options and will be operated differently from the past.

We have examined how eight technology areas could develop and interact, potentially influencing the conduct of future naval operations. These are: advanced materials, advanced manufacturing, energy management, maritime autonomous systems, spectrum warfare, big data analytics, human computer interaction and human augmentation.

We expect that the interdependent roles of naval warfighting, humanitarian The shipping industry will need to reconsider operations and maritime security will undergo a significant transformation in its business model in the way a ship is the coming decades. This will be driven by designed, built and operated. These changes the development and application of these will affect education and training: ship new and emerging technologies, which in operations will be conducted partially or entirely onshore and will be remotely manned turn will be driven largely by the consumer markets. The eight selected technologies we by highly qualified personnel, as ships identified will, together, have a substantial become ever more smart and complex. and potentially disruptive effect on future New issues such as cyber security, port naval missions. operations and societal concerns about jobs and safety will arise and need to be addressed. For developers and users of technology, With an ageing population, rising wages the challenge is enormous and it raises and availability of affordable technologies, the questions: “Are we innovating fast TechnoMax ships will slowly and surely enough?” and “What might we do differently become part of the routine shipping scene to innovate faster?” because the rate of in 2030. technology change is only going to increase. For more information, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/smmi

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

In brief

New 3D printing technique Southampton researchers are investigating using 3D printing, or additive manufacturing techniques, in the fabrication of optical fibre. This could pave the way for more complex and effective structures, which could be applied in industries such as biotechnology, aerospace and telecommunications. Current techniques for producing optical fibre preforms – the piece of glass from which an optical fibre is drawn – give a consistent structure along the length of the preform but make it difficult to control the shape and composition of the fibre in 3D. This limits the flexibility that engineers can exercise in the design of fibres and in their capabilities. The new process, developed by Professor Jayanta Sahu and colleagues from Southampton’s Zepler Institute and Dr Shoufeng Yang from the Engineering and Environment, will allow engineers to manufacture preforms with more complex structures and different features along their lengths. As part of the project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the academics will be working with UK industry, including ES Technology, Fibercore and SG Controls. Jayanta explains, “We are very excited about the potential of this new technique. It should open up a route to manufacturing novel fibre structures in silica and other glasses for telecommunications, sensing, lab-in-a-fibre, metamaterial fibre, high-power lasers and many other applications.”

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

Internet program A molecule to treat obesity encouraging handwashing and diabetes reduces spread of cold and flu Southampton scientists have developed a A web-based program developed by Southampton academics encouraging more frequent handwashing in the home has been found to reduce the risk of catching and passing on cold and flu viruses. Users of the program, called PRIMIT, also reported fewer gastrointestinal infections, visits to the doctor and antibiotic prescriptions. Initial findings of the study, funded by the Medical Research Council, were published in The Lancet in August. PRIMIT is a simple, free, internet-delivered program for the general public. Four weekly interactive sessions explain the medical evidence, encourage simple techniques to avoid catching and passing on viruses, monitor handwashing behaviour and give individual feedback. Paul Little, Professor of Primary Care Research at the University and the project lead, says: “Most UK households have access to the internet and it’s increasingly used as a key source of health information. Our findings over three winters, 2011 to 2013, suggest that PRIMIT could reduce the risk of infection by around 14 per cent. During a pandemic, it could play an important role in reducing the spread of flu and the strain on the NHS – at very little cost to the health service.”

molecule that could potentially help treat type II diabetes and obesity. ‘Compound 14’ inhibits the function of ATIC, an enzyme involved in metabolism. This leads to the build-up of a molecule called ZMP, which activates the cell’s central energy sensor, AMPK, making cells think they have run out of energy. Cells then try to restore their energy levels by increasing glucose uptake and metabolism. In a study funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and Diabetes UK, the researchers found that activating AMPK with compound 14 promoted weight loss in obese mice. Professor of Chemical Biology Ali Tavassoli, who leads the team, explains: “Previous studies have shown that if you could selectively activate AMPK with a small molecule, it could help treat several diseases by acting as an exercise mimetic. Our molecule activates AMPK by altering cellular metabolism and has significant potential for use as a therapeutic agent.” The next step is to develop the molecule further and examine its long-term effects. Ali says, “If found to be safe, a drug could be developed that would help the large numbers of people with diabetes and obesity manage their condition.”

Ancient trade in gold between Britain and Ireland Evidence of an ancient trade route between Cornwall and Ireland has been uncovered by Southampton archaeologists. The research, in collaboration with the University of Bristol, suggests that people were trading gold between the two countries as far back as 2500BC. Laser ablation mass spectrometry, a technique to measure chemical composition, shows that 50 Bronze Age artefacts held at the National Museum of Ireland were made from imported gold, probably from Cornwall, despite rich gold deposits being found locally. “In Ireland, perhaps an ‘exotic’ origin was cherished as a key property of gold and was a key reason behind why it was imported,” lead author Dr Chris Standish explains. “Although today gold is intrinsically linked with economic wealth, is internationally exchangeable and underpins all the major economies, this has not always been the case. In some societies gold played a major role in belief systems rather than economic ones, and it is likely that this was the case in Ireland at this time. In contrast, a different significance may have been attributed to gold in southern Britain. Much less was circulating here, which implies that those who found it were preferentially trading it for other goods,” he adds.

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

In brief

A global leader in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) The Federal Aviation Authority has selected the University of Southampton as its only UK partner in running the USA’s new National Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (COE UAS). The Centre will initially focus on UAS detect and avoid technology, safety, control and communications, human factors, air traffic control compatibility, training and certification. With an international reputation for unmanned systems research and development, Southampton is a member of the international Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE). This coalition, comprising the top UAS universities worldwide and over 100 government and industry partners, aims to launch a new era of commercial unmanned aircraft research and development and their integration into US airspace. Professor Jim Scanlan, who leads the Southampton team, says: “Our involvement in the ASSURE team reflects our global reputation for unmanned systems research and development. We have the capabilities and resources to address the demands of this challenging technology and are thrilled to be joining this exciting international collaboration.”

New Boundaries | November 2015 | University of Southampton

Tackling Alzheimer’s through the immune system Funding worth nearly half a million pounds will enable academics at Southampton and drug discovery scientists at MRC Technology to target the immune system in the search for treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Dr Diego Gomez-Nicola and his team will build on their current findings that a protein in the brain called CSF1R could be the key to an effective new drug. The work is supported by the Dementia Consortium – a unique £3m drug discovery collaboration between Alzheimer’s Research UK, MRC Technology and the pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Lilly.

A pioneering web solution

Safe nurse staffing levels

BluPoint, a University spinout company, has been awarded half a million pounds by InnovateUK to launch a ‘pop-up’ local web technology. The award was made under the ICURe programme, piloted by the SETsquared Partnership.

A University of Southampton study will investigate how the provision of nurses in hospitals affects the care and safety of patients.

BluPoint’s low-energy, solar-powered networking system allows communities to share digital content on their mobile phones free of charge. Serving content at speeds faster than 4G, the technology doesn’t need a smartphone and can work without internet connectivity or a web browser.

Dr Mike Santer, BluPoint’s founder and director, explains: “Users can connect to a With MRC Technology experts, they hope to develop therapeutics to target the inflammatory BluPoint network using Wi-Fi, bluetooth and even FM radio. It is important that reaction in Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers we offer connectivity beyond Wi-Fi as, for now believe that Alzheimer’s disturbs the example, 70 per cent of the handsets in Kenya brain’s inflammatory response, which causes and South Africa are not smart phones. the damage associated with the disease. In This means anybody with a mobile device previous studies, the Southampton team can use BluPoint. It will be particularly found that blocking CSF1R could dampen the valuable in less developed countries inflammatory response and prevent neuronal without an internet infrastructure.” cell death and improve symptoms in other neurodegenerative diseases. The inspiration for the company came Diego explains: “Unfortunately, the compounds from Mike’s PhD at Southampton, which researched the mobile internet in currently available to block CSF1R have sub-Saharan Africa. “I was determined to unwanted effects and limited efficacy. This give people access to information that was investment will enable us to explore other, completely free at the point of use,” says Mike. more targeted approaches to block CSF1R, laying important groundwork before any new treatment can be tested in people.”

The funding will allow BluPoint to get up and running, and bridge the gap between the commercial idea and raising external funding to roll it out globally. “With potential applications in health, education, mining organisations to name just a few, the possibilities are endless,” says Mike.

The research will examine the relationship between nurse staffing levels, failure to observe patients’ vital signs and possible consequences – such as cardiac arrest calls, unanticipated admission to intensive care and death. Missed opportunities to observe and act upon the deterioration of a patient’s condition are thought to be important factors in preventable hospital deaths. “The potential for inadequate nursing care to do patients great harm has emerged as a factor in several recent reports into failings in NHS hospitals. These have often noted that staffing levels were an important issue associated with poor care and deaths which could have been avoided,” says project lead, Professor Peter Griffiths, Chair of Health Services Research at the University. “Our study will help give a clear picture of the relationship between staff numbers and negative patient outcomes, using data routinely collected on hospital wards, during thousands of nursing shifts.” The project is funded by the National Institute for Health Research: Health Services and Delivery Research (HS&DR) Programme and will involve working with Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and the universities of Portsmouth and York.

To find out more about our research and its impact on society, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/research

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