Research Presentations

Breast cancer treatment introduces changes to the size, shape, position and tissue properties of the breast. Breast biomechanics research is well-established in healthy women and athletes to understand breast movement and inform bra design. Studies have traditionally excluded women with a history of breast surgery, therefore the impact of breast cancer treatment on breast support requirements is not known. Participants attended the Bra Testing Unit at the University of Portsmouth post-operatively, with an additional optional pre-operative visit. The study visit consisted of a bra fitting, 3D surface imaging, breast motion analysis during treadmill walking and completion of study questionnaires. 18 participants were included in this analysis. 16 underwent breast conserving surgery and 2 mastectomy with autologous reconstruction. 72% (13/18) reported a difference in their everyday breast support needs after breast cancer surgery. Breast biomechanics methodologies are feasible in women undergoing active breast cancer treatment. Patient-reported data indicates post-operative breast asymmetry affects breast support needs and bra choice. Further work to characterise the impact of breast cancer treatment on breast volume and movement has the potential to improve post-treatment bra design and thereby enhance quality-of-life and comfort in survivorship.

This study applies four benchmark machine learning models alongside three first-time applications to an existing case study. It aims to predict target types in terrorist attacks, identify key influencing features, and develop an interpretable ML framework for analysing terrorist incidents. Using data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) from the period 1970 to 2017, the study evaluates model performance to guide decision-making for emergency responders and policymakers. To ensure transparency, the study integrates explainable AI (XAI) techniques; PFI and SHAP for global explainability, and ANCHORS and Force plots for local interpretability. Among the models, LightGBM, a first-time application in this case study, achieved high accuracy (0.88) and an impressive ROC-AUC score (0.95). Meanwhile, the benchmark DT (Decision Tree) provided comparable results with faster training times, highlighting its computational efficiency. Both models excelled in global explainability, with PFI and SHAP identifying targsubtype1(police buildings, military barracks, and embassies/consulates), as a critical predictor. For local interpretability, ANCHORS produced concise, understandable rules, while Force plots offered detailed insights into feature contributions. LightGBM and DT complemented each other by providing a nuanced understanding of perpetrators, the timing of incidents (year, month, and day), the number of fatalities, and the affected region. This research enhances interpretability and trust in ML-driven counterterrorism analysis, enabling more informed and actionable decision-making in critical scenarios.

Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the UK Parliament are particularly noted, and indeed notorious, for their adversarial and aggressive verbal battles between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. However, PMQs also have an acknowledged underlying purpose: holding Prime Ministers to account for their and their governments’ actions. Focusing on the PMQ sessions between Starmer and Johnson in the last year of Johnson’s premiership, I explored the use of impoliteness in PMQs and the effects of its mediatisation in both mainstream and social media, and considered the impact of PMQ impoliteness on its different audiences and on the achievement of the various PMQ purposes. Impoliteness usage was found to differ according to the topic being debated. Particularly notable was Johnson’s very restricted use of impoliteness when responding to questions relating to integrity, and potential reasons for this surprising behaviour were explored. Given the extensive media coverage of “Partygate” and other issues raised in PMQs prior to Johnson’s resignation, I considered the potential effect of PMQ impoliteness in influencing political outcomes, concluding that, overall, the media-attracting PMQ pantomime helps rather than hinders the scrutiny of government and Prime Ministerial actions.

‘Behind the Reviews: The Realities of Progress Reviewers in Degree Apprenticeships’ explores the lived experiences of practitioners who conduct degree apprenticeship progress reviews within Higher Education Institutions. Regular progress reviews are just one of the compliance funding requirements of the Education and Skills Funding Agency. Universities have created various positions to conduct these reviews, resulting in a plethora of job titles and varied expectations by stakeholders about what is included, all compounded by the challenges, tensions and juxtaposition associated with funding regimes and quality inspections. This presentation shares findings from an interpretative phenomenological analysis following 17 semi-structured interviews of colleagues conducting degree apprenticeship progress reviews. It begins with an introduction to degree apprenticeships and the rationale for the study, followed by a brief outline of the methodology. Key findings are discussed that suggest colleagues in this role would benefit from strong identity formation and increased job value congruence. Interpretation of the data also strongly suggests that progress reviewers experience an uncomfortable juxtaposition between the compliance and coaching aspects of their role. Recommendations are then offered to support the formation of a strong professional identity utilising a Community of Practice Model to incorporate individual, relational and collective identities.

The Jack Snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus) is an elusive and cryptically camouflaged wading bird. Previous studies estimate the UK overwintering population is between 100,000 – 110,000 (Musgrove et al., 2013; Balmer et al., 2013; Woodward et al., 2020), however, this number is expected to be of ‘very low reliability’ due to the species’ secretive behaviour and limited survey coverage (Balmer et al., 2013). Our current knowledge of the Jack Snipe is minimal and is one of our least understood bird species. Typically, the Jack Snipe roosts on marshy grassland and wetlands during the day; at night, they forage on agricultural stubble fields (Pederson, 1995). Our study aims to discover where local populations of Jack Snipe forage and roost; their site fidelity rates; key migration routes, and assess habitat characteristics to understand what influences their presence and abundance rates. This project has been given special permission from the British Trust for Ornithology to attach small GPS tags to these birds using pioneering technology. Here, we present the current results regarding collected tagging data and subsequential steps to create a nationwide citizen science project to identify new Jack Snipe locations to perform a newly devised habitat assessment. 

This research investigates the creative methodologies and contextual efficacy of a single composer based in Portsmouth, UK, whose work engages with experimentation to explore socio-political, cultural, and historical heritage, as well as the inclusion of personal experience. A part of the project's output incorporates environmental sound recordings, which are further developed into contemporary works of sonic art and music. URBN Sound further examines the ways in which non-musical stimuli, such as design, aesthetics, and other spatial experiences could be used for generating relevant musical material. The culmination of this is a body of musical compositions ranging in post-war-contemporary styles, as well as an exegesis contextualising the practice. The presentation will recap the decided methodologies, postmodern techniques, and musical direction the project has chosen to go in and forecast the next year's academic and creative output.

This paper explores the trajectory of democratic Taiwan in British foreign policy in the first twenty-five years following Taiwan's first presidential election in 1996. Employing an interpretivist, poststructuralist lens this paper poses Taiwan as a crucial site of discursive contest in global politics, where on account of increasing belligerent Chinese territorial claims to Taiwan, the autonomous democracy has become a perpetual 'flashpoint' in world politics. This paper underscores how perceptions of Taiwan have shifted in British foreign policy debates, and the extent to which such shifts indicate broader changes in Britain's foreign policy towards China, and how Britain may respond to an escalation in the Taiwan Strait. Moreover, this paper explores the increasing importance of Parliament in British foreign policy making after the Iraq War and foregrounds the growing importance of discourse, identity and meaning-making, not material capabilities, in the practice of foreign policy construction in an increasingly fractured global order.

The world is facing a triple planetary crisis—climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution—driven by linear, capitalist  economic systems. Plastics have become a defining symbol of this crisis, with over 400 million tonnes of plastic waste generated annually, much of it ending up in marginalised communities and vulnerable ecosystems. The circular economy (CE) has been proposed as an alternative model where resources and products are used efficiently and waste is minimised or prevented. However, dominant narratives around circularity are largely shaped by institutions and actors from the Global Minority, grounded in “legitimate” knowledge systems that often ignore historical injustices, marginalise knowledge systems  from the Global Majority, and overlook place-based understandings of circularity and justice. This presentation shares findings from the first two phases of my research, a literature review and a series of semi-structured interviews, examining how plastic pollution impacts marginalised communities and how traditional knowledge systems provide rich, context-specific understandings of circularity that remain overlooked in mainstream discourse. The next phase of this work will take a decolonial approach, conducting multi-site case studies with Indigenous communities in Kenya. It will centre community voices in co-creating culturally grounded, socially just, and locally appropriate circular solutions to plastic pollution.

The purpose of this research is to contribute to existing knowledge on how major MNCs in the Nigeria's Crude -oil producing Niger-delta region can effectively make oil production in the region more profitable and wellbeing goals more sustainable through Stakeholders involvement, particularly their Host communities. This research assessed past Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) used by MNCs to engage Host communities in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, how effective it has been and the setbacks. The study further demonstrates that looking beyond the philanthropy structure of CSR; a more inclusive and sustainable framework of giving back called  Community engagement would drive development goals and promote the business of peace in the region. The role of various Stakeholders is also studied.