Tusnady's inequality revisited

Tusnady's inequality is the key ingredient in the KMT/Hungarian coupling of the empirical distribution function with a Brownian bridge. We present an elementary proof of a result that sharpens the Tusnady inequality, modulo constants. Our method uses the beta integral representation of Binomial tails, simple Taylor expansion and some novel bounds for the ratios of normal tail probabilities.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053604000000733 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Directing the Teaching and Learning Research Programme: or ‘trying to fly a glider made of jelly’

TLRP’s generic phase (1999-2009) is believed to have been the largest ever UK investment in educational research. This paper describes the critique from which TLRP emerged, its strategic positioning and the roles of successive directors and their teams in its development. The paper offers an early stock take of TLRP’s achievements from the perspective of the last Programme Director. The efficacy of the form of the Programme, once likened to ‘a glider made of jelly’, is discussed

Knowledge transformation and impact : aspirations and experiences from TLRP

This paper reviews the intentions and strategies adopted by the UK’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) in its attempts to maximise the impact of its research portfolio. The Programme’s early commitment to user engagement and to an ‘interactive, iterative, constructive, distributed and transformative’ impact strategy is described. The specific outputs and initiatives of the Programme are analysed in relation to three issues - the transformation of findings beyond abstract academic forms; the authentic engagement of users; and the exploitation of ideas which are culturally and politically current. From TLRP experience, it is argued that such work requires significant resources, technology, imagination, expertise and time. The paper concludes with a call for substantial, long-term investment in an appropriate infrastructure to maximise the impact of research in education

Better by design: Business preferences for environmental regulatory reform

We present the preferences for environmental regulatory reform expressed by 30 UK businesses and industry bodies from 5 sectors. While five strongly preferred voluntary regulation, seven expressed doubts about its effectiveness, and 18 expressed no general preference between instrument types. Voluntary approaches were valued for flexibility and lower burdens, but direct regulation offered stability and a level playing field. Respondents sought regulatory frameworks that: are coherent; balance clarity, prescription and flexibility; are enabled by positive regulatory relationships; administratively efficient; targeted according to risk magnitude and character; evidence-based and that deliver long-term market stability for regulatees. Anticipated differences in performance between types of instrument can be undermined by poor implementation. Results underline the need for policy makers and regulators to tailor an effective mix of instruments for a given sector, and to overcome analytical, institutional and political barriers to greater coherence, to better coordinate existing instruments and tackle new environmental challenges as they emerge