Structure

The course will run over  six days and is delivered as two three-day blocks over two weeks at the University. The course will run on 5, 6, 7 and 12, 13 and 14 of August 2013.

A revision session will be held on Thursday 5 September with the examination on Friday 6 September 2013. The course consists of EC1 (written two hour exam) and EC2, which is the practical element due 14 days after the exam date.

Who it’s for

The course is aimed at managers, supervisors and employees with responsibilities for managing environmental issues. The qualification focuses on environmental management systems and impact assessments.

For more information on the course please visit www.port.ac.uk/departments/services/humanresources/healthandsafety/nebosh/.

The staff course cost is £200, which includes the NEBOSH registration fees, course book, exam invigilators etc.

For more information or to enrol please contact hstraining@port.ac.uk. Please ensure you have management approval.

They have also identified how hashtags work and identified the four stages of a twitter event.

A hashtag is a word or a phrase prefixed with the symbol #. Phrases should not have any spaces between the words.

Twitter users add hashtags to their tweets, but many users do not label their tweets with the most relevant hashtags.

Dr Mohamed Gaber

“A hashtag is like a virtual filing system. Users who get their filing in order from the outset will improve their Twitter presence,” said Dr Mohamed Gaber, senior lecturer in the School of Computing, who led the study.

“Strong hashtags mean a user’s views are more likely to be read, as they will be easily searchable, and they will be more likely to be included in interesting debate and the exchange of knowledge.

“This could lead to them being considered an expert on a subject, building trust and improving their reputation.”

Twitter users can click on a word that is highlighted with a hashtag and they will be shown all tweets that have used that hashtag.

The top ten most popular hashtags are called ‘trends’ and are listed on the site’s front page.

This is particularly important in the event of breaking news, as users can search a hashtag to find up-to-the-minute information.

“If we take the recent London 2012 Olympics as an example, the main hashtag would be #olympics, a hashtag that is still active today. Someone may then add the hashtag #London2012 and additionally even #cycling or #parking or any number of other subjects.

“It is important that tweets are layered properly, and that companies establish a strong hashtag for their brand or event from the outset, or they could fall foul of bad filing, losing feedback and customer confidence.

“Hashtags have helped companies anticipate potential bad PR moments. During 2012 iTunes, GAP and MySpace all listened to social media and performed u-turns on new designs as a result of negative public opinion,” Dr Gaber said.

Using a technique called Transaction-based Rule Change Mining, Dr Gaber and his team looked at thousands of tweets relating to how occurrences are talked about on Twitter, from natural disasters such as the Japanese earthquake, to international events such as the London Olympics, and breaking news stories such as the Boston bombings.

The team have also identified the four stages of a Twitter event, from its outset to its conclusion.

The lifespan of a hashtag can be as short as a couple of hours, or can last for years in the case of some slow burning science stories such as news related to the Large Hadron Collider.

“Although there is no time scale to a Twitter event, there are four very clear stages. A hashtag will initially emerge, then it will be taken up by thousands of users, then it will be used to tweet unexpected information, and then eventually it will die.” said Dr Gaber.

The four stages are as follows.  Stage one is the ‘new’ hashtag. This phase describes the emergence of the hashtag, which at this point is solely used as a way of passing on information like a natural disaster, a death of a celebrity or the opening of an event.

Stage two is the ‘emerging’ hashtag. This phase determines whether a hashtag has longevity, and is the phase in which a large number of people on Twitter are spreading the news. This hashtag is still the same or very similar to the hashtag used in stage one.

Stage three, the ‘unexpected’ hashtag sees the emergence of unexpected tweets, taking the hashtag in different directions and being combined with different hashtags. Jokes, political platforms or complaints are all examples of this.

Stage four is the ‘death’ of the hashtag. The hashtag, and the conversation, is over. The information is no longer of interest to the Twitter audience, and the hashtag dies.

The team is now looking to apply their findings to case studies of recent events such as the death and funeral of Margaret Thatcher and the recent Boston manhunt.

Dr Gaber’s research will be presented on June 9 2013 at The 12th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing, Zakopane, Poland by Mariam Adedoyin-olowe, the PhD student at the University of Portsmouth, who works on this project. You can view the paper here http://eprints.port.ac.uk/11158/1/TRCM.pdf

The Mental Health Foundation’s annual campaign will this year focus on physical activity and exercise, highlighting the impact that they have on mental health and wellbeing.

Mental wellbeing is affected by many factors and it is important to feel positive about ourselves, be resilient in the face of adversity, connect with communities of which we are part of, exert control over our own life and feel that we have a real purpose and are valued by others.

The Let’s Get Physical booklet is available to download and is full of useful information.

If you would like further support with regards to a mental health issue, you can contact the Occupational Health Service in confidence on ext.3187 or email occupationalhealth@port.ac.uk.

Additional sources of help and information are also available:

www.mentalhealth.org.uk/

www.port.ac.uk/eaprightmanagement

www.mind.org.uk/

www.time-to-change.org.uk

SummerFest kicks off with the Headline Acts in May, followed by the Support Acts in June/July and the Virtual Acts in August. You can win Bestival tickets by attending three SummerFest events and entering their ticket into the draw.

To keep up-to-date with SummerFest, please like our SummerFest Facebook page.

• Headline Acts

Graduate Jobs Fair
Part-time and Seasonal Jobs Fair
Work Experience and Volunteering Fair
No Ideas Clinic

• Support Acts

One-to-one guidance with careers advisors
Get That Job
Interview Techniques
Presentation Skills
Networking
Tax Advice
Business Start Up Course
Enterprise Clinics
CV Advice
Application Workshop
Job Search Techniques

• Virtual Acts

Webinars
Blogs
Skype (one-to-one career advice)
Telephone interviews with careers advisors
E-guidance

Win Bestival tickets

You can win Bestival tickets by attending three SummerFest events between May and July and entering your ticket into the draw. During August you can win iTunes vouchers by taking part in virtual acts and entering your ticket into the draw. Full terms and conditions are available on the SummerFest Facebook page.

Open to:

SummerFest is open to all University of Portsmouth students and *graduates up to five years (including 2013 graduates).

For more details on all of the Acts above, visit www.port.ac.uk/careersandrecruitment/newsevents/news/newstitle.

SummerFest kicks off with the Headline Acts in May, followed by the Support Acts in June/July and the Virtual Acts in August. Students and graduates* can win Bestival tickets by attending three SummerFest events and entering their ticket into the draw.

To keep up-to-date with SummerFest, please encourage students to like our SummerFest Facebook page.

• Headline Acts

Graduate Jobs Fair
Part-time and Seasonal Jobs Fair
Work Experience and Volunteering Fair
No Ideas Clinic

• Support Acts

One-to-one guidance with careers advisors
Get That Job
Interview Techniques
Presentation Skills
Networking
Tax Advice
Business Start Up Course
Enterprise Clinics
CV Advice
Application Workshop
Job Search Techniques

• Virtual Acts

Webinars
Blogs
Skype (one-to-one career advice)
Telephone interviews with careers advisors
E-guidance

Open to:

SummerFest is open to all University of Portsmouth students and *graduates up to five years (including 2013 graduates).

For more details on all of the Acts above, visit www.port.ac.uk/careersandrecruitment/newsevents/news/newstitle or contact Purple Door on ext.3865.

Law student Francis Payne

The scholarship provides financial assistance to students wanting to study for the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC). It is the most prestigious award from The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, one of the four Inns of Court, and is only given to a few outstanding candidates nationally each year.

He will use the scholarship to pay most of the £16,000 fees for his Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), which he will study next year at the City Law School in London.

Francis said: “Being awarded the scholarship is fantastic. Not only will it help financially, but it has given me confidence in my ability to follow my chosen career, and could help me get a pupillage after my BPTC.”

Francis, 20, was awarded the scholarship after impressing an interview panel of judges made up of senior members of the legal profession.

Bernard Davis, senior lecturer in the School of Law, said: “Students from the School of Law have won scholarships previously, but the Queen Mother’s Scholarship is a real mark of distinction, highly sought after and keenly contested in a ferociously competitive environment.

“That Francis impressed some very senior lawyers in his interview is a testament to his quality.”

Francis will attend a scholarship dinner in June at Middle Temple, as the guest of a member of the Inn.

The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) Comprehensive HE Licence permits us to scan extracts from printed books, journals and magazines. Every year the University is required to compile a record of bibliographic and course-related details for every digital copy prepared and distributed under licence.

Every department that has scanned an extract from a printed book, journal or magazine for a course-based collection must complete a Digital Copy Record Form – Comprehensive Digital Licence.

Please read the instructions here before completing the form and include all digital material that was distributed from 1 June 2012 to 31 May 2013.

Fully completed forms should be returned by email to the CLA Licence Co-ordinator, david.sherren@port.ac.uk, no later than Monday 3 June 2013.

The Library will collate all the returns and submit a single form to the CLA before the 14 June deadline.

Staff are reminded that the permission to prepare and distribute digital copies via a course collection is restricted to ‘designated persons’ and that all such copies are deposited in a course repository within the University’s VLE. Full guidelines are provided on the CLA’s website (www.cla.co.uk/licences/licences_available/he/uuk).

Students from Year 2 Contemporary Fine Art, came up with the idea for ‘Albert Road Trail’ in order to bring contemporary art to a wider community audience. They wanted to exhibit their work in a community setting and forge links with local businesses.

Works on display range from painting and sculpture to photography and installation.

The event will run from Monday 13 May to Saturday 18 May 2013, with a celebration launch event on the evening of Wednesday 15 May.

An exhibition guide which includes a map of the trail will be available nearer the time. For updates, further information and enquiries follow @albertroadtrail on Twitter, like on Facebook or visit their blog.

We’ll be in the coffee shop in St Andrew’s Court from 11.00am to 1.00pm on Wednesdays 15 and 22 May, so feel free to come along to see us and have a coffee at the same time.

The aim of the research is to examine the travel and transport implications of university choice across the UK and Ireland. It will also consider whether the fact that tuition fees vary geographically influenced your choices.

The survey can be completed here: www.survey.bris.ac.uk/ulster/ucd_university_choice.