Communicating learning: evaluating the learning experience of distance learning students

Drawing upon research into students’ perceptions of their learning experience as distance learners, this paper explores what works well and what doesn’t. How to more effectively support the learning process through better directive and interactive communication emerges as a key theme

Barriers and Contradictions in the Resettlement of Single Homeless People

Research in one local authority area suggests that a number of social policy difficulties and contradictions need to be resolved if single homeless people are to be resettled effectively. In particular, there are competing pressures on social housing providers, who are expected to meet the needs of socially excluded individuals while also creating sustainable communities and operating in a cost efficient manner. The government needs to clarify that meeting housing need is a priority for social landlords, and provide adequate funding for long-term support, if single homeless people are to find appropriate permanent accommodation

Consumer Access to Justice: The Role of the ADR Directive and the Member States

This article takes it to be vital to decide whether the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Directive provides a version of access to justice that is suitably sensitive to the consumer market. The Directive is deficient in this regard, at least to the extent that it does not make ADR processes mandatory or binding for businesses. Nevertheless, if Member States choose mandatory and binding processes, this may be compatible with the fundamental right to judicial protection, if emphasis is placed on efficiency benefits. If they choose voluntary processes/non-binding decisions, success will depend partly on incentives, sanctions, and monitoring at EU and Member State levels

Comparison Between Standard HABIT and HABIT-VR: Hand-Arm Function and Patient Acceptability Differences​

https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/surp2022/1002/thumbnail.jp

Healthy Lifestyle in the Primordial Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Among Young Women

AbstractBackgroundOverall mortality rates from coronary heart disease (CHD) in the United States have declined in recent decades, but the rate has plateaued among younger women. The potential for further reductions in mortality rates among young women through changes in lifestyle is unknown.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to estimate the proportion of CHD cases and clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among young women that might be attributable to poor adherence to a healthy lifestyle.MethodsA prospective analysis was conducted among 88,940 women ages 27 to 44 years at baseline in the Nurses’ Health Study II who were followed from 1991 to 2011. Lifestyle factors were updated repeatedly by questionnaire. A healthy lifestyle was defined as not smoking, a normal body mass index, physical activity ≥ 2.5 h/week, television viewing ≤ 7 h/week, diet in the top 40% of the Alternative Healthy Eating Index–2010, and 0.1 to 14.9 g/day of alcohol. To estimate the proportion of CHD and clinical CVD risk factors (diabetes, hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia) that could be attributed to poor adherence to a healthy lifestyle, we calculated the population-attributable risk percent.ResultsDuring 20 years of follow-up, we documented 456 incident CHD cases. In multivariable-adjusted models, nonsmoking, a healthy body mass index, exercise, and a healthy diet were independently and significantly associated with lower CHD risk. Compared with women with no healthy lifestyle factors, the hazard ratio for CHD for women with 6 lifestyle factors was 0.08 (95% confidence interval: 0.03 to 0.22). Approximately 73% (95% confidence interval: 39% to 89%) of CHD cases were attributable to poor adherence to a healthy lifestyle. Similarly, 46% (95% confidence interval: 43% to 49%) of clinical CVD risk factor cases were attributable to a poor lifestyle.ConclusionsPrimordial prevention through maintenance of a healthy lifestyle among young women may substantially lower the burden of CVD

Partition Functions of Non-Abelian Quantum Hall States

Partition functions of edge excitations are obtained for non-Abelian Hall states in the second Landau level, such as the anti-Read-Rezayi state, the Bonderson-Slingerland hierarchy and the Wen non-Abelian fluid, as well as for the non-Abelian spin-singlet state. The derivation is straightforward and unique starting from the non-Abelian conformal field theory data and solving the modular invariance conditions. The partition functions provide a complete account of the excitation spectrum and are used to describe experiments of Coulomb blockade and thermopower.Comment: 42 pages, 3 figures; published version; minor corrections to sect. 4.

The evolution of the Milky Way's thin disc radial metallicity gradient with K2 asteroseismic ages

The radial metallicity distribution of the Milky Way's disc is an important observational constraint for models of the formation and evolution of our Galaxy. It informs our understanding of the chemical enrichment of the Galactic disc and the dynamical processes therein, particularly radial migration. We investigate how the metallicity changes with guiding radius in the thin disc using a sample of red-giant stars with robust astrometric, spectroscopic and asteroseismic parameters. Our sample contains $668$ stars with guiding radii $4$ kpc < $R_\mathrm{g}$ < $11$ kpc and asteroseismic ages covering the whole history of the thin disc with precision $\approx 25\%$. We use MCMC analysis to measure the gradient and its intrinsic spread in bins of age and construct a hierarchical Bayesian model to investigate the evolution of these parameters independently of the bins. We find a smooth evolution of the gradient from $\approx -0.07$ dex/kpc in the youngest stars to $\approx -0.04$ dex/kpc in stars older than $10$ Gyr, with no break at intermediate ages. Our results are consistent with those based on asteroseismic ages from CoRoT, with that found in Cepheid variables for stars younger than $1$ Gyr, and with open clusters for stars younger than $6$ Gyr. For older stars we find a significantly lower metallicity in our sample than in the clusters, suggesting a survival bias favouring more metal-rich clusters. We also find that the chemical evolution model of Chiappini (2009) is too metal-poor in the early stages of disc formation. Our results provide strong new constraints for the growth and enrichment of the thin disc and radial migration, which will facilitate new tests of model conditions and physics.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Composite Fermion Wavefunctions Derived by Conformal Field Theory

The Jain theory of hierarchical Hall states is reconsidered in the light of recent analyses that have found exact relations between projected Jain wavefunctions and conformal field theory correlators. We show that the underlying conformal theory is precisely given by the W-infinity minimal models introduced earlier. This theory involves a reduction of the multicomponent Abelian theory that is similar to the projection to the lowest Landau level in the Jain approach. The projection yields quasihole excitations obeying non-Abelian fractional statistics. The analysis closely parallels the bosonic conformal theory description of the Pfaffian and Read-Rezayi states.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Investigating Gaia EDR3 parallax systematics using asteroseismology of Cool Giant Stars observed by Kepler, K2, and TESS I. Asteroseismic distances to 12,500 red-giant stars

Gaia EDR3 has provided unprecedented data that generate a lot of interest in the astrophysical community, despite the fact that systematics affect the reported parallaxes at the level of ~ 10 muas. Independent distance measurements are available from asteroseismology of red-giant stars with measurable parallaxes, whose magnitude and colour ranges more closely reflect those of other stars of interest. In this paper, we determine distances to nearly 12,500 red-giant branch and red clump stars observed by Kepler, K2, and TESS. This is done via a grid-based modelling method, where global asteroseismic observables, constraints on the photospheric chemical composition, and on the unreddened photometry are used as observational inputs. This large catalogue of asteroseismic distances allows us to provide a first comparison with Gaia EDR3 parallaxes. Offset values estimated with asteroseismology show no clear trend with ecliptic latitude or magnitude, and the trend whereby they increase (in absolute terms) as we move towards redder colours is dominated by the brightest stars. The correction model proposed by Lindegren et al. (2021) is not suitable for all the fields considered in this study. We find a good agreement between asteroseismic results and model predictions of the red clump magnitude. We discuss possible trends with the Gaia scan law statistics, and show that two magnitude regimes exist where either asteroseismology or Gaia provides the best precision in parallax.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in A&