A Project Based Approach to Statistics and Data Science

In an increasingly data-driven world, facility with statistics is more important than ever for our students. At institutions without a statistician, it often falls to the mathematics faculty to teach statistics courses. This paper presents a model that a mathematician asked to teach statistics can follow. This model entails connecting with faculty from numerous departments on campus to develop a list of topics, building a repository of real-world datasets from these faculty, and creating projects where students interface with these datasets to write lab reports aimed at consumers of statistics in other disciplines. The end result is students who are well prepared for interdisciplinary research, who are accustomed to coping with the idiosyncrasies of real data, and who have sharpened their technical writing and speaking skills

A Comparative Analysis of the Nativity Wealth Gap

This paper investigates the source of the gap in the relative wealth position of immigrant households residing in Australia, Germany and the United States. Our results indicate that in Germany and the United States wealth differentials are largely the result of disparity in the educational attainment and demographic composition of the native and immigrant populations, while income differentials are relatively unimportant in understanding the nativity wealth gap. In contrast, the relatively small wealth gap between Australian- and foreign-born households exists because immigrants to Australia do not translate their relative educational and demographic advantage into a wealth advantage. On balance, our results point to substantial cross-national disparity in the economic well-being of immigrant and native families, which is largely consistent with domestic labor markets and the selection policies used to shape the nature of the immigration flow.international migration, wealth accumulation

A Comparative Analysis of the Nativity Wealth Gap

This paper investigates the source of the gap in the relative wealth position of immigrant households residing in Australia, Germany and the United States. Our results indicate that in Germany and the United States wealth differentials are largely the result of disparity in the educational attainment and demographic composition of the native and immigrant populations, while income differentials are relatively unimportant in understanding the nativity wealth gap. In contrast, the relatively small wealth gap between Australian- and foreign- born households exists because immigrants to Australia do not translate their relative educational and demographic advantage into a wealth advantage. On balance, our results point to substantial cross-national disparity in the economic well-being of immigrant and native families, which is largely consistent with domestic labor markets and the selection policies used to shape the nature of the immigration flow.International migration, wealth accumulation

A Comparative Analysis of the Nativity Wealth Gap

This paper investigates the source of the gap in the relative wealth position of immigrant households residing in Australia, Germany and the United States. Our results indicate that in German and the United States wealth differentials are largely the result of disparity in the educational attainment and demographic composition of the native and immigrant populations, while income differentials are relatively unimportant in understanding the nativity wealth gap. In contrast, the relatively small wealth gap between Australian and foreign-born households, exists because immigrants to Australia do not translate their relative educational and demographic advantage into a wealth advantage. On balance, our results point to substantial cross-nationality disparity in the economic well-being of immigrant and native families, which is largely consistent with domestic labor markets and the selection policies used to shape the nature of immigration flow.International migration, wealth accumulation

Endoscopic Cubital Tunnel Recurrence Rates

Cubital tunnel syndrome is the second most common nerve entrapment in the upper extremity. There are no current publications concerning the recurrence rates after endoscopic cubital tunnel release. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the recurrence rate of endoscopic cubital tunnel release compared to published reports of recurrence following open cubital tunnel procedures. We reviewed 134 consecutive cases of endoscopic cubital tunnel release in 117 patients. There were 104 cases in 94 patients with greater than 3 months follow-up. The mean follow-up time was 736 days. They were grouped using Dellon’s classification. Two literature control groups were used from published reports of recurrence rate following open cubital tunnel release. A recurrence was identified if the patient was symptom-free following surgery but had symptoms reappear 3 months or more after surgery as defined in the literature. Of the 104 cases, 92.31% had more than a 4-month follow-up. One case (0.96%) met the criteria for recurrence at 4 months postprocedure. Data were then compared to the literature control groups used from published reports of recurrence rates following open cubital tunnel release. Pooled, the combined controls had 22 of 180 cases (12.22%) with recurrences. The percentage of procedure recurrence varied significantly with p value equal to 0.0004. It is recognized that there is a lack of common classification and comparative analysis of these studies, but they do classify preoperative grading and recurrence similarly. We are 95% confident that our true recurrence rate is between 0.02% and 5.24% and that endoscopic cubital tunnel release has a recurrence rate, which is not higher than open cubital tunnel release literature controls

Empowering Positive Partnerships: a review of the processes, benefits and challenges of a university and charity social and emotional learning partnership

‘Working in partnership to transform society through education’ is the inspirational mission statement of our Faculty of Education. But what can and does ‘working in partnership’ mean in practice? This paper outlines a partnership development story with a charity and a university Faculty. There is limited research surrounding academic partnerships with social enterprises, although no shortage of claims to be ‘working in partnership’. This is a research informed review of a social and emotional learning partnership between the charity Family Links and Canterbury Christ Church University which we suggest has had a profound and positive impact on individuals and organisations. We draw on theory based partnership evaluation frameworks and partnership review data, including filmed interviews with project participants, training evaluations and action research case studies to tell this story and discuss the processes, benefits and challenges of our partnership. The impact of key actors’ personal responses to participation and subsequent empowerment as agents of change is highlighted. The active nurturing of emotional leaders and agreeing and reviewing protocols at all levels are key review recommendations. The complexity of measuring improved wellbeing outcomes for learning communities as a desired goal is also highlighted

Biomechanical properties of bone in a mouse model of Rett syndrome

Rett syndrome (RTT) is an X-linked genetic disorder and a major cause of intellectual disability in girls. Mutations in the methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (<i>MECP2</i>) gene are the primary cause of the disorder. Despite the dominant neurological phenotypes, <i>MECP2</i> is expressed ubiquitously throughout the body and a number of peripheral phenotypes such as scoliosis, reduced bone mineral density and skeletal fractures are also common and important clinical features of the disorder. In order to explore whether MeCP2 protein deficiency results in altered structural and functional properties of bone and to test the potential reversibility of any defects, we have conducted a series of histological, imaging and biomechanical tests of bone in a functional knockout mouse model of RTT. Both hemizygous <i>Mecp2</i><sup>stop/y</sup> male mice in which <i>Mecp2</i> is silenced in all cells and female <i>Mecp2</i><sup>stop/+</sup> mice in which <i>Mecp2</i> is silenced in ~ 50% of cells as a consequence of random X-chromosome inactivation, revealed significant reductions in cortical bone stiffness, microhardness and tensile modulus. Microstructural analysis also revealed alterations in both cortical and cancellous femoral bone between wild-type and MeCP2-deficient mice. Furthermore, unsilencing of <i>Mecp2</i> in adult mice cre-mediated stop cassette deletion resulted in a restoration of biomechanical properties (stiffness, microhardness) towards wild-type levels. These results show that MeCP2-deficiency results in overt, but potentially reversible, alterations in the biomechanical integrity of bone and highlights the importance of targeting skeletal phenotypes in considering the development of pharmacological and gene-based therapies

Experimentally Constrained Molecular Relaxation: The Case of Glassy GeSe2

An ideal atomistic model of a disordered material should contradict no experiments,and should also be consistent with accurate force fields (either {\it ab initio}or empirical). We make significant progress toward jointly satisfying {\it both} of these criteria using a hybrid reverse Monte Carlo approach in conjunction with approximate first principles molecular dynamics. We illustrate the method by studying the complex binary glassy material g-GeSe$_2$. By constraining the model to agree with partial structure factors and {\it ab initio} simulation, we obtain a 647-atom model in close agreement with experiment, including the first sharp diffraction peak in the static structure factor. We compute the electronic state densities and compare to photoelectron spectroscopies. The approach is general and flexible.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Low dose CT-based spatial analysis (CTSA) to measure implant migration after ceramic hip resurfacing arthroplasty (HRA): a phantom study

Implant migration is a predictor of arthroplasty survivorship. It is crucial to monitor the migration of novel hip prostheses within premarket clinical investigations. RSA is the gold standard method, but requires calibrated radiographs using specialised equipment. A commercial computed tomography micromotion analysis solution is a promising alternative but is not yet available for use with monobloc ceramic implants. This study aimed to develop and validate a CT-based spatial analysis (CTSA) method for use with ceramic implants. A phantom study was undertaken to assess accuracy and precision. A ceramic hip resurfacing arthroplasty (HRA) and 20 tantalum beads were implanted into a synthetic hip model and mounted onto a 6-degree of freedom motion stage. The hip was repeatedly scanned with a low dose CT protocol, with imposed micromovements. Data were interrogated using a semiautomated technique. The effective radiation dose for each scan was estimated to be 0.25 mSv. For the head implant, precision ranged between 0.11 and 0.28 mm for translations and 0.34°-0.42° for rotations. For the cup implant, precision ranged between 0.08 and 0.11 mm and 0.19° and 0.42°. For the head, accuracy ranged between 0.04 and 0.18 mm for translations and 0.28°-0.46° for rotations. For the cup, accuracy ranged between 0.04 and 0.08 mm and 0.17° and 0.43°. This in vitro study demonstrates that low dose CTSA of a ceramic HRA is similar in accuracy to RSA. CT is ubiquitous, and this method may be an alternative to RSA to measure prosthesis migration