Cognitive Framing and Its Theoretical Implications for Tuition Fee Policies in England

This working paper seeks to contribute to the study of university access in England by analyzing the predominant theoretical conceptual frameworks – human capital and habitus – and then suggesting a supplementary avenue of inquiry. It does so by exploring an additional approach to theorizing the recent drop-off in university applications in England: cognitive framing, which focuses on how new information is presented to and interpreted by an individual. The predominant conceptual models emphasize the explanatory power of the characteristics of a given student or the policy that they encounter; in contrast, framing draws attention to their engagement. In other words, it claims that substantively identical policies can differ in their impact according to variations in how people are informed about them. Consequently, its application could augment the explanations offered by the established conceptual models in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of application disparities in England

Might Progress Assessments Hinder Equitable Progress? Evidence from England

Prior research has highlighted the importance of educational achievement throughout school in predicting subsequent progression to higher education in England. However, progress assessments may not only demonstrate students’ prior academic achievement but also influence their future achievement. I compare students who have received different grades on one such assessment, despite performing almost identically, to see whether grade labels influence their progress to post-compulsory education. Further, I investigate whether any impact differs according to socio-economic status. Results indicate that grade labels received in eighth grade influence students’ performance in school-leaving exams and enrollment in post-compulsory schooling. For lower socio-economic students, this impact is higher than for other students and extends to university enrollment

Martin Munro. Writing on the Fault Line: Haitian Literature and the Earthquake of 2010. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2014.

Review of Martin Munro. Writing on the Fault Line: Haitian Literature and the Earthquake of 2010. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2014

Lawyer Advertising: Permissibility of Indicating the Nature of Legal Practice in Advertisements

Canon 27 of the ABA Canons of Professional Ethics, adopted by the American Bar Association in 1908, provided that it was unprofessional for lawyers to advertise or solicit professional employment. This prohibition made sense in a time when most lawyers were general practitioners and communities were small, so that a lawyer\u27s reputation was well known. However, the increasing size and complexity of both society and the law have made it necessary for lawyers to select certain areas of law in which to practices in order to develop the expertise necessary to deal with today\u27s complex legal issues. A corresponding need has developed to inform the public about the detail and variety of legal services that are available

An Alphabetical Index of Revolutionary Pensioners Living in Maine

An Alphabetical Index of Revolutionary Pensioners Living in Maine by Charles Alcott Flagg (1870-1920) Limited Edition of 200 Copies. Reprinted from Sprague\u27s Journal of Maine History, Dover, Maine 1920.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/me_collection/1038/thumbnail.jp

Higher Education Policy in England: Three Empirical Studies of Influences on Enrollment Behavior.

This thesis consists of three stand-alone papers, each of which assesses a policy incentive that might alter the socio-economic gap in university enrollment in England; these incentives are encouragement, grade labels, and money, respectively. The rationale for examining these influences comes from a diverse range of theoretical backgrounds. In contrast, the analytical procedure used in each paper comes from the same empirical tradition, namely the Neyman-Rubin causal model, which quantifies the impact of a given incentive by determining counterfactual scenarios to estimate the difference in outcomes stemming from either the absence or the presence of a given incentive. As a set, these chapters demonstrate the multi-faceted nature of inequalities in access to higher education. By working from varied theoretical traditions, I provide evidence for a range of conceptualizations of behavior and influencing factors. My emphasis on socio-economic class disparities should not mask the fact that there are numerous sources of disadvantage that are likely to act in mutually dependent and re-enforcing ways. Yet, even when focusing on a single element of inequality, my findings demonstrate that many factors play a role in shaping disparities.PhDHigher EducationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113517/1/bmalcott_1.pd

Nanoscale Electrical and Coarse-grained Molecular Dynamics Studies of Influenza Hemagglutinin-mediated Membrane Fusion Pores

Fusion of viral and host membranes is a key step during infection by membrane-enclosed viruses. The fusion pore plays a critical role, and must dilate to release the viral genome. Prior studies of fusion mediated by influenza A hemagglutinin (HA) revealed ~2-5 nm pores that flickered before dilating to >10 nm. The mechanisms involved are unknown. Here we studied HA-mediated fusion pore dynamics using a novel single-pore assay (supported by a novel, robust, single-cell optical assay for fusion between HA-expressing cells and nanodiscs), combined with computational simulations accessing extraordinarily long (ms) timescales. We measured pores between HA-expressing fibroblasts and bilayer nanodiscs. From pore currents we infer pore size with millisecond time resolution. Unlike previous in vitro studies, the use of nanodiscs limited the membrane contact areas and maximum pore sizes, better mimicking the initial phases of virus-endosome fusion. In wild-type (WT) HA-mediated fusion pores, pores flickered about a mean pore size ~1.7 nm. In contrast, fusion pores formed by GPI-anchored HA nucleated at less than half the WT rate; results were consistent with earlier findings that showed that while GPI-HA pores stabilize at larger initial conductances than WT, they were not able to enlarge beyond their initial size. We developed radically coarse-grained, explicit lipid molecular dynamics simulations of the fusion pore reconstituted with post-fusion, trans HA hairpins. With WT HA, fusion pores were small, similar to experiment. Over time hairpins gradually converted from trans to cis. With lipid-anchored HA, the trans → cis transition was much accelerated. Once most hairpins had converted to cis, because apposing membranes were released, the fusion pore was able to dilate to sizes close to protein-free. Additionally, in crowded simulations with HA densities approximating those found in HA clusters, we found that HA aggregation, promoted by TMD-TMD interactions, delayed fusion pore dilation by inhibiting the trans → cis transition. Our results suggest that pore dilation requires the trans → cis transition. We hypothesize that this transition is accelerated in GPI-HA by the more mobile lipid anchor, and may explain the larger observed nascent fusion pores