Yearly Archives: 2015

Healthwatch Kent Big Red Bus Tour

The independent voice for patients and social care users, Healthwatch Kent is bringing its high profile tour of the county to the University of Kent the on 8th June, parking its double decker Big Red Bus on the Piazza outside the Jarman Building for the morning. They are inviting everyone to jump on board and share their experiences of local health and social care services, good and bad.

The mobile campaign – which pit-stops in every Kent district between 8th – 14th June – aims to gather as many experiences of services as possible from all over the county.  Healthwatch Kent will use those experiences to help improve health and social care services for the future.

Visitors to the bus can learn about Healthwatch Kent’s current projects, such as a report into the issues faced by mental health carers, improving access to services on behalf of the Eastern European population of East Kent, and their free helpline and signposting service.

Chief Executive, Healthwatch Kent, Steve Inett says, “As a relatively young consumer organisation, this initiative is all about letting people know who we are and what we can do for them. For our health and social care services to improve we need to shout about our experiences – this is the only way those that deliver, and ultimately pay for, those services in Kent will know what needs to be kept and what needs to change.”

The Big Red Bus will be on site from 09.00 – 13.00 and welcomes testimonials concerning the entire spectrum of health and social care, from antenatal and paediatrics to A&E, mental health, residential and nursing homes and dementia care.

Anyone unable to attend in person can call the free Information and Signposting Service on 0808 801 0102 or email info@healthwatchkent.co.uk. Healthwatch Kent is also represented at Citizen Advice Bureaux countywide.

Free Journalism course through Kent Extra

Stop press!

There are still a few spaces on the Journalism course available.
Kent Extra is pleased to repeat the very popular Journalism course which ran last year.
This course offers you the chance to learn about print, radio, TV and online journalism.
The free five-day intensive course is run by the Centre for Journalism and takes place at the Medway Campus from 1-5 June. All Kent students are eligible to apply.
To find out more, go to www.kent.ac.uk/extra or email kentextra@kent.ac.uk

You can use the free shuttle bus to travel from Canterbury to Medway.

Tizard in Europe

Dr Rachel Forrester-Jones, Reader in Health, Community and Social Care and Dr David Oliver, Honorary Reader from the Tizard Centre presented a poster at the 14th World Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care in Copenhagen in May 2015. They presented the findings of a study undertaken at a residential home that specialises in the palliative care for people with learning disability and dementia. The evaluation had shown that the residents received good care and were able to be involved in day to day decisions in their lives. Rachel spoke of the meeting: ‘We were very pleased to be able to present our results at this prestigious meeting. There were over 2700 delegates from all over Europe and many other countries worldwide. It was an excellent opportunity to meet with others interested in palliative care and learning disability and we are both on the EAPC Taskforce looking at developing this’.

During the meeting there were elections for the Board of Directors of the EAPC and David was re-elected for a further four year term. ‘I was delighted to be able to remain on the Board and to continue to help in the development of palliative care across Europe. I have really enjoyed the past 4 years and the Association has been able to develop and plan ahead for the coming years’ said David. He presented three posters himself at the meeting, was involved in a further three poster presentations, chaired a session and led a ‘Meet the experts’.

Tamara Rathcke publishes on linguistic rhythm

Dr Tamara Rathcke from the Department of English Language & Linguistics has just published a research article in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, co-authored with Rachel H Smith from the University of Glasgow.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America is the leading source of theoretical and experimental research in the interdisciplinary study of sound. The journal was established when the Society formed in 1929, remaining in continuous publication.

The paper is titled ‘Speech Timing and Linguistic Rhythm: On the Acoustic Bases of Rhythm Typologies’.

The temporal properties of segments, syllables and rhythm were examined in two accents of British English, a ‘stress-timed’ variety from Leeds, and a ‘syllable-timed’ variety spoken by Panjabi-English bilingual speakers from Bradford. Rhythm metrics were calculated. A perception study confirmed that the speakers of the two varieties differed in their perceived rhythm. The results reveal that both typologies are informative in that, to a certain degree, they predict temporal patterns of the two varieties.

For further details of the article, and the full abstract, please see the page here: http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/137/5/10.1121/1.4919322

Mars: The Planet – how much do you know?

Rutherford Grass Roots Lecture:

Mars: The Planet – how much do you know?

On Wednesday 27 May at 6pm in Rutherford Lecture Theatre One, Rutherford College will be hosting a lecture being given by Professor Mark Burchell.

Space missions over the last 20 years have completely changed our knowledge of Mars. High resolution images taken from Mars orbit or from the various landers and rovers, provide a fascinating insight into Mars from its origin to the present day.

Professor Burchell (who is Professor of Space Science at the University of Kent and who provides the detailed lectures about Mars to the University’s undergraduate students), will provide an overview of what we know today about the “Red Planet”.

The lecture (organised in conjunction with the English Speaking Union) is free and open to all.

Kent EcoTrail Launch: Friday 29th May

Need a break? Longing to get outside and enjoy the sunshine? Embark on a journey of discovery around Kent Campus and win some great prizes!

Kent EcoTrail is an exciting environmental treasure-hunt which is launching on Canterbury Campus. Hidden around the campus are 33 eco-points revealing the area’s sustainability secrets, and your mission is to find them all.

Each eco-point reveals an environmental fact and a question about the location. GPS co-ordinates will be posted on the Kent EcoTrail website, as well as cryptic clues and hints to help you on your journey. All you need to do is pick up a TrailCard to log the eco-points you find, and set off on your adventure!

The Trail will be unveiled on Friday 29th May. There’s treasure in store for explorers who find all 33 eco-points on the day of the Launch, and the chance to win an i-pad mini.

Visit the Base Camp marquee outside Templeman Library to receive all the resources you need for your quest.

For more information:
E-mail Catherine at c.morris@kent.ac.uk ; greenimpact@kent.ac.uk
Visit https://www.kent.ac.uk/estates/sustainability/projects-and-events/index.html?tab=eco-trail
www.facebook.com/kentecotrail
@UniKentSustain, #ecotrail

Kent Law Campaign Team takes part in the London Legal Walk 2015

On Monday 18th May 2015 over 8000 walkers took to the streets of London to take part in the annual London Legal Walk organised by the London Legal Support Trust.

The 10km walk takes place around central London starting at Carey Street, passing the Royal Courts of Justice, heading up The Mall, through the Horse Guards Parade towards Hyde Park. The walk was attended by senior members of the legal profession, including the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls, the President of the Supreme Court, leaders of the Bar Council, the Law Society, as well as the Attorney General. Money raised through this event supports free legal advice charities in London and the South East.

Natalie Salunke, Emily Smith, Callum Borg, Daniel Shaw, Simone Kraemer, Hannah Bignell and Felicity Clifford joined the walk in aid of the Kent Law Campaign and so far have raised £625 (including Gift Aid and the University match) for the Campaign.

You can still support the team by donating online: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/KentLawCampaign2015.

The Templeman Library’s first art commission

The Templeman Library have commissioned an exciting, interdisciplinary projection installation, which will become one of the inaugural artworks, displayed in the new Templeman Library wing, from September.

The artwork will explore the potential of demonstrating a book actively growing and revealing its microflora, with the hope to reveal the ‘unseen’ to the library audience and make people aware of their own personal interactions with the objects they use. Library books are handled by thousands of people, all leaving their microflora mark. As time passes, books become centres of microbial data and data transfer.

The artist, Sarah Craske is an Honorary Research Fellow and Research Associate in the Centre for the History of the Sciences at the University of Kent.

Four books have been shortlisted, pictured here. Top left, Mundus Subterraneus 1665. Top right, Metamorphoses 1640. Bottom left, The Cyclopedia of Art and Sciences 1728. Bottom right, Emblems of Mortality [date unknown].

Sarah will choose which book will form the basis of the installation.

Students and staff will be invited to contribute to this piece of work through an event where they can volunteer anonymously a fingerprint on a bed of agar in a petri dish. Working with the School of Biosciences, these samples will be collected and cultivated to reveal the anonymous microflora collected, directly demonstrating the unseen world they contribute to. View the full story. http://bit.ly/1PtfCIB

Prof David Jackson – Career Celebration

Professor Emeritus David Jackson FInstP, FOSA, is meeting former and present academic staff members, research associates and PhD students many of whom are now leading research programmes in industry and at prestigious universities around the world.

The exciting two-day event takes place in Canterbury on the University of Kent campus on 21 and 22 May 2015 and includes talks about the history and current development of optical sensing (including the early days of optical fibre sensing, and other topics explored at Kent, such as coherence imaging methods and optical signal processing) and the legacy of the Kent Applied Optics Group.

The event is intended to be a celebration of Prof Jackson’s rich and lengthy career, which has included many world firsts. From 1965, David led research in Applied Optics at the University of Kent for four decades, making Kent an internationally recognised centre of excellence for fibre optic sensing, laser Doppler anemometry, laser light scattering and optical instrumentation.