Teaching the YouTube generation: exploring the benefits of an interactive teaching approach in sustainable product design

This paper presents findings from a doctoral study, which investigated effective methods for teaching social sustainability within product design courses in British and Irish universities. Specifically exploring, how to foster a holistic understanding of the social aspects of sustainable product design amongst undergraduate and postgraduate students, through design thinking. Perceived relevance is considered as a fundamental aspect in enabling students to engage deeply with sustainability [1]. Authors [2;3;4] note that 'Net Generation' learners have specific learning preferences that can be targeted in order to improve the students learning experience. Through the careful design of materials which build upon the students tendency towards visual learning and seeking increase relevance and motivation, by offering opportunities for collaborative learning and learning through discovery. Three 'Rethinking Design' workshops were designed and developed as part of a doctoral study to introduce students to the wider social aspects of sustainability and these were conducted in five universities in Britain and Ireland. The workshops featured visually rich audio visual introductions followed by collaborative group based mind mapping activities, which were successful in fostering deep learning by facilitating learning through discovery, critical reflection, peer learning and creativity leading to an exploration of design thinking solutions

An audio-visual approach to teaching the social aspects of sustainable product design

This paper considers the impact of audio-visual resources in enabling students to develop an understanding of the social aspects of sustainable product design. Building on literature concerning the learning preferences of ‘Net Generation’ learners, three audio-visual workshops were developed to introduce students to the wider social aspects of sustainability and encourage students to reflect upon the impact of their practice. The workshops were delivered in five universities in Britain and Ireland among undergraduate and postgraduate students. They were designed to encourage students to reflect upon carefully designed audio-visual materia ls in a group-based environment, seeking to foster the preferences of Net Generation learners through collaborative learning and learning through discovery. It also sought to address the perceived weaknesses of this generation of learners by encouraging critical reflection. The workshops proved to be popular with students and were successful in enabling them to grasp the complexity of the social aspects of sustainable design in a short span of time, as well as in encouraging personal responses and creative problem solving through an exploration of design thinking solutions

The consortium: an innovative approach to employability

Employability is increasing in both importance and visibility in Higher Education due to its inclusion as a key metric in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), in which the Destination of Leavers of Higher Education (DLHE) returns consist of 2 of the 6 core TEF metrics. Furthermore increasing levels of student fees and subsequently student debt has placed a greater emphasis on value for money in Higher Education, which itself casts a light on employment and graduate salaries. This paper explores a trial undertaken within an undergraduate Product Design sandwich course in the UK. On a sandwich course, students would typically be expected to secure an industrial placement with the assistance from the Universities employability team for the 3rd year of a 4-year degree. Whilst dedicated employability support is given to students to obtain a placement, some students can struggle despite their academic achievement to obtaining a placement. This is due to a lack of confidence and an inability to perform effectively in an interview context, and is especially acute in the context of growing student numbers and therefore greater competition. With such students in mind, an innovative collaboration was launched between three separate agencies to trial 'The Consortium' an in-house student run consultancy. 'The Consortium' was trialled with 3 cohorts of students over a 3 year period to give able students who struggled to obtain industrial placements an opportunity to gain experience of working for external clients and running their own business. The university provided space, business advice, oversight and networks, which the students were encouraged to use to bring in live design projects, which they would undertake as a group of 3-5 designers during their sandwich year

Ambulatory Care Skills: Do Residents Feel Prepared?

Abstract: Objective: To determine resident comfort and skill in performing ambulatory care skills. Methods: Descriptive survey of common ambulatory care skills administered to internal medicine faculty and residents at one academic medical center. Respondents were asked to rate their ability to perform 12 physical exam skills and 6 procedures, and their comfort in performing 7 types of counseling, and obtaining 6 types of patient history (4 point Likert scale for each). Self-rated ability or comfort was compared by gender, status (year of residency, faculty), and future predicted frequency of use of the skill. Results: Residents reported high ability levels for physical exam skills common to both the ambulatory and hospital setting. Fewer felt able to perform musculoskeletal, neurologic or eye exams easily alone. Procedures generally received low ability ratings. Similarly, residents’ comfort in performing common outpatient counseling was also low. More residents reported feeling very comfortable in obtaining history from patients. We found little variation by gender, year of training, or predicted frequency of use. Conclusion: Self-reported ability and comfort for many common ambulatory care skills is low. Further evaluation of this finding in other training programs is warranted

Global reference frame: Intercomparison of results (SLR, VLBI and GPS)

The terrestrial reference frame (TRF) is realized by a set of positions and velocities derived from a combination of the three space geodetic techniques, SLR, VLBI and GPS. The standard International TRF is constructed by the International Earth Rotation Service in such a way that it is stable with time and the addition of new data. An adopted model for overall plate motion, NUVEL-1 NNR, defines the conceptual reference frame in which all the plates are moving. In addition to the measurements made between reference points within the space geodetic instruments, it is essential to have accurate, documented eccentricity measurements from the instrument reference points to ground monuments. Proper local surveys between the set of ground monuments at a site are also critical for the use of the space geodetic results. Eccentricities and local surveys are, in fact, the most common and vexing sources of error in the use of the TRF for such activities as collocation and intercomparison

A Sub-Nanosecond Gate Bias-Switching Circuit for GaN RF Power Amplifiers

In this letter, we present a design of a fast gate-switching power amplifier (GSPA) aimed at reducing its power consumption. This GSPA features a dedicated fast gate-switching circuit that commutates the gallium nitride (GaN) transistor between a nominal gate bias voltage (GSPA ON) and a strong negative voltage (GSPA OFF), thereby generating two discrete output power levels in an RF-pulsewidth modulation (PWM) fashion. A fast gate-switching circuit, including a commercial digital voltage isolator, is designed to switch between two gate bias voltages. The gate stability resistor and transmission line (TL) are carefully placed and designed to reduce the GSPA parasitic bias line and enable fast switching. Measured results provided a rise and fall time of 750 and 950 ps, respectively, and achieved RF pulsewidths as narrow as 5.88 ns, thus corresponding to a 170-MHz bandwidth

Do as I do, not just as I tell you: taking students on a research journey

This paper explores four key case studies involving 2nd and final year BSc Product Design students in academic research projects, engaging with the public, industrial clients, and the public sector on live externally funded research projects. Undergraduate students are often taught how to undertake research or required to engage in meaningful primary research on their own projects. However, the opportunity for students to engage on real live projects working alongside academics is explored in this paper alongside the benefits and pitfalls of engaging in such projects as active design researchers. The case studies range from 2018 to the present day and concern two Road Safety projects and a Circular Economy study. Students were led through a research process as apprentices collecting and analysing their own research alongside academics, receiving guidance and support from a range of qualitative research techniques including interviews, observations and focus groups. A key benefit of conducting research collaboratively is that students gain a genuine appreciation and understanding of the rigour required in research. The inclusion of undergraduate students also demystifies the research process for the students and has benefits for the academics and external agencies involved

The dark flow induced small scale kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect

Recently Kashlinsky et al. 2008, 2010 reported a discovery of a $\sim 10^3$ km/$s$ bulk flow of the universe out to $z\simeq 0.3$, through the dark flow induced CMB dipole in directions of clusters. We point out that, if this dark flow exists, it will also induce observable CMB temperature fluctuations at multipole $\ell\sim 10^3$, through modulation of the inhomogeneous electron distribution on the uniform dark flow. The induced small scale kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) effect will reach \sim 1\muk^2 at multipole 10^3\la \ell\la 10^4, only a factor of $\sim 2$ smaller than the conventional kinetic SZ effect. Furthermore, it will be correlated with the large scale structure (LSS) and its correlation with 2MASS galaxy distribution reaches $0.3 \mu$K at $\ell=10^3$, under a directional dependent optimal weighting scheme. We estimate that, WMAP plus 2MASS should already be able to detect this dark flow induced small scale kinetic SZ effect with $\sim 6\sigma$ confidence. Deeper galaxy surveys such as SDSS can further improve the measurement. Planck plus existing galaxy surveys can reach \ga 14\sigma detection. Existing CMB-LSS cross correlation measurements shall be reanalyzed to test the existence of the dark flow and, if it exists, shall be used to eliminate possible bias on the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect measurement through the CMB-LSS cross correlation.Comment: Minor revisions. 5 pages, 3 figures. MNRAS letters in pres

Conformational and thermodynamic hallmarks of DNA operator site specificity in the copper sensitive operon repressor from Streptomyces lividans

Metal ion homeostasis in bacteria relies on metalloregulatory proteins to upregulate metal resistance genes and enable the organism to preclude metal toxicity. The copper sensitive operon repressor (CsoR) family is widely distributed in bacteria and controls the expression of copper efflux systems. CsoR operator sites consist of G-tract containing pseudopalindromes of which the mechanism of operator binding is poorly understood. Here, we use a structurally characterized CsoR from Streptomyces lividans (CsoRSl) together with three specific operator targets to reveal the salient features pertaining to the mechanism of DNA binding. We reveal that CsoRSl binds to its operator site through a 2-fold axis of symmetry centred on a conserved 5′-TAC/GTA-3′ inverted repeat. Operator recognition is stringently dependent not only on electropositive residues but also on a conserved polar glutamine residue. Thermodynamic and circular dichroic signatures of the CsoRSl-DNA interaction suggest selectivity towards the A-DNA-like topology of the G-tracts at the operator site. Such properties are enhanced on protein binding thus enabling the symmetrical binding of two CsoRSl tetramers. Finally, differential binding modes may exist in operator sites having more than one 5′-TAC/GTA-3′ inverted repeat with implications in vivo for a mechanism of modular control. © 2013 The Author(s)