Impact is crippling higher education. But it is still part of the solution

Now a fixture of the higher education landscape, the "impact agenda" is partly fuelled by a cost-benefit framework that encourages universities to focus on demonstrating the economic value of their interventions. As a consequence, a clear pattern emerges with the government as the main beneficiary of impact, not wider society. Tina Basi and Mona Sloane argue that REF 2021 offers the opportunity to frame a discussion on the purpose of universities that is less focused on economics and more focused on people and public engagement, returning closer to the Humboldtian model of higher education

Changes

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. Spring\u27 s arrival. Birdsongs wake me at sunrise. Dusk creeps in a bit later each day. Newness surrounds me. The freshness of life is a sharp contrast to your painful absence from my world. The summer is not far from reach, but you are. Bitterly, I wonder why I can\u27t see you once more, why I can\u27t go back..

The Quintessential College Student

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. It is a beautiful autumn day. Colored leaves are falling as a young woman crosses the residential quad on her campus. She\u27s a first semester freshman and is on her way to the mailroom, praying to Heaven that there is a letter waiting for her. She hasn\u27t received any mail at all yet

Performance Modelling for Mobile Cellular Network Using Queueing System

Mobile networking technology has been in existence for more than twenty years, but only in the past decade has it become commercially popular. With computers however increasingly portable and networks more accessible, users are coming demanding to the same network services from mobile network as they have been accustomed to obtaining from stationary wireline networks. Mobile communication can be defined as any communications network in which at least one of the constituent entities (users, switches, or a combination of both) change location, relative one to another. One of the most important problems in the design of a cellular system is deciding on the optimal configuration of it. The designers must evaluate the possible con figurations of the system components and their characteristics in order to develop a system with greater efficiency. The parameters useful to measure different parts performance of the system are: voice quality, frequency spectrum efficiency and grade of service (GOS). The grade of service (GOS) gives a form to measure a system's performance, and with it the proportion of non-served calls can be known. GOS in cellular systems is effected not only by the systems traffic but also by cochannel interference (outage). In this thesis, the analytical study of the grade of service (GOS) degradation in presence of outage for the mobile communication with queueing system is wanted. Two analytical models are proposed, the first model is with fixed outage rate, while the second model is the traffic dependent outage, where the outage is often dependent on the number of channels in use. Thus, the number of channels in outage can be considered as an indicator of the traffic load variations in the system. The performance parameters considered for the study from the above models are queue length, waiting time and probability of delay. The analytical results can show the benefit for considering the queueing in the cellular network, and can be used by designers in choosing appropriate design parameters to meet requirements

Adults miscoded and misdiagnosed as having pneumonia: results from the British Thoracic Society pneumonia audit

A key objective of the British Thoracic Society national community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) audit was to determine the clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalised adults given a primary discharge code of pneumonia but who did not fulfil accepted diagnostic criteria for pneumonia. Adults miscoded as having pneumonia (n=1251) were older compared with adults with CAP (n=6660) (median 80 vs 78 years, p<0.001) and had more comorbid disease, significantly fewer respiratory symptoms (fever, cough, dyspnoea, pleuritic pain), more constitutional symptoms (general deterioration, falls) and significantly lower 30-day inpatient mortality (14.3% vs 17.0%, adjusted OR 0.75, p=0.003)

Policymaking and Paid Family Leave: Revitalizing the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) applies to all public agencies, public schools, private elementary schools, and companies with 50 or more employees. It is designed to help employees balance their work and family responsibilities by allowing them to take unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons. Employees are eligible for leave if they have worked for their employer at least 12 months, at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months, and work at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles. However, the FMLA has proven to be ineffective in meeting the needs of employees. This study examined 2012 U.S. Department of Labor FMLA surveys published by Abt Associates. The public-use file was examined to determine employee eligibility, employee awareness of the program, and leave-taking patterns. Following, this paper discussed the theoretical framework of public-policy intersectionality, social movement theory, and political mediation to discuss best practices in passing enhanced FMLA legislation. The study found that an ideal combination of political conditions, Democratic Party control of both houses, and advocacy paired with unions would further policy adoption of an updated FMLA policy

Optimisation of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe urg1 expression system

The ability to study protein function in vivo often relies on systems that regulate the presence and absence of the protein of interest. Two limitations for previously described transcriptional control systems that are used to regulate protein expression in fission yeast are: the time taken for inducing conditions to initiate transcription and the ability to achieve very low basal transcription in the "OFF-state". In previous work, we described a Cre recombination-mediated system that allows the rapid and efficient regulation of any gene of interest by the urg1 promoter, which has a dynamic range of approximately 75-fold and which is induced within 30-60 minutes of uracil addition. In this report we describe easy-to-use and versatile modules that can be exploited to significantly tune down P urg1 "OFF-levels" while maintaining an equivalent dynamic range. We also provide plasmids and tools for combining P urg1 transcriptional control with the auxin degron tag to help maintain a null-like phenotype. We demonstrate the utility of this system by improved regulation of HO-dependent site-specific DSB formation, by the regulation Rtf1-dependent replication fork arrest and by controlling Rhp18(Rad18)-dependent post replication repair