Understanding the gender and ethnicity attainment gap in UK higher education

In recent years the success rates of different groups of students in higher education (HE), have come under considerable scrutiny, with gender and ethnicity identified as key attributes predicting differential achievement of ‘good degrees’. A review of previous studies highlights the need for research which looks beyond ‘the deficit model’ to explain the attainment gap. This research used a mixed-methods approach to explore the academic and social experiences of students, as well as lecturers’ views on student achievement, in one UK University. Findings suggest that there are significant differences in motivation and confidence speaking English for different ethnic groups in this study, and a divergence in attendance and study time by gender – both of which may go some way to helping understand the gaps in attainment. In addition, male and BME students tended to over-estimate their likelihood of achieving a good degree outcome, compared to other groups

Evaluation and development of satellite inferences of convective storm intensity using combined case study analysis and thunderstorm model simulations

Major research accomplishments which were achieved during the first year of the grant are summarized. The research concentrated in the following areas: (1) an examination of observational requirements for predicting convective storm development and intensity as suggested by recent numerical experiments; (2) interpretation of recent 3D numerical experiments with regard to the relationship between overshooting tops and surface wind gusts; (3) the development of software for emulating satellite-inferred cloud properties using 3D cloud model predicted data; and (4) the development of a conceptual/semi-quantitative model of eastward propagating, mesoscale convective complexes forming to the lee of the Rocky Mountains

Sea breeze: Induced mesoscale systems and severe weather

Sea-breeze-deep convective interactions over the Florida peninsula were investigated using a cloud/mesoscale numerical model. The objective was to gain a better understanding of sea-breeze and deep convective interactions over the Florida peninsula using a high resolution convectively explicit model and to use these results to evaluate convective parameterization schemes. A 3-D numerical investigation of Florida convection was completed. The Kuo and Fritsch-Chappell parameterization schemes are summarized and evaluated

Studies of satellite support to weather modification in the western US region

The applications of meteorological satellite data to both summer and winter weather modification programs are addressed. Appraisals of the capability of satellites to assess seedability, to provide real-time operational support, and to assist in the post-experiment analysis of a seeding experiment led to the incorporation of satellite observing systems as a major component in the Bureau of Reclamations weather modification activities. Satellite observations are an integral part of the South Park Area cumulus experiment (SPACE) which aims to formulate a quantitative hypothesis for enhancing precipitation from orographically induced summertime mesoscale convective systems (orogenic mesoscale systems). Progress is reported in using satellite observations to assist in classifying the important mesoscale systems, and in defining their frequency and coverage, and potential area of effect. Satellite studies of severe storms are also covered

Reversing performance in the UK National Health Service: from targets to teams

The UK’s 2010 and 2013 public inquiries into the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal estimated that between 400 and 1,200 people died unnecessarily in just a four-year period. The inquiries, carried out by Robert Francis QC, identified a range of performance management problems within the National Health Service (NHS) stemming from a widespread preoccupation with nationally set targets, emphasizing an organizing principle of reducing costs rather than delivering quality patient care. The inquiries conclude that there had been a systemic failure at Mid Staffs; including a culture of bullying and secrecy regarding patient care, a focus on achieving externally set targets and budgeting, and low staff morale. This was explained, in part, by the performance culture in place where frontline staff worked within an “endemic culture of bullying” (Francis, 2010: Vol 1. B.38), forced to prioritize targets over patient welfare for fear of victimization and job loss which incentivized short cuts and “unacceptable standards of performance” (Francis, 2013: 111). Virtually no organization emerges from the inquiries with credit except the local campaign set up by the relatives of the victims. The reports provide few concrete recommendations to improve performance despite an emphasis within the Francis report on the urgent need for the NHS to reform its performance management. Although we offer no magic solutions to the structural problems across the organization, our proposal is that an important aspect of reform should be a reorientation away from targets and top-down management toward a model of inter-disciplinary and inter-organizational team working

Following Francis: reversing performance in the NHS from targets to teams

Between 400 and 1200 people died unnecessarily in just four years at the Mid Staffordshire National Health Service Foundation Trust in the UK. Two inquiries carried out by Robert Francis QC, the second one producing a report of 1700 pages with 290 recommendations, have proposed a range of changes to the regulatory framework and legal duties placed on hospitals throughout England. It proposes better warning signals, greater accountability of senior managers and NHS staff facing possible criminal prosecution for non-reporting of clinical error. The report also identifies that the model of performance management dominant in the NHS compounded the already delicate balance between available resources and quality of care such that, “quality wasn’t the organising principle of the NHS, it wasn’t the thing that was driving us during that period”(David Nicholson, NHS Chief Executive. Evidence 28th September 2011, Francis Report).Virtually no organisation emerges from the inquiry with credit except the local campaigns set up by the relatives of the victims.The NHS is now facing a major culture change in relation to performance management if it is to improve outcomes for patients

Going nuclear: gene family evolution and vertebrate phylogeny reconciled

Gene duplications have been common throughout vertebrate evolution, introducing paralogy and so complicating phylogenctic inference from nuclear genes. Reconciled trees are one method capable of dealing with paralogy, using the relationship between a gene phylogeny and the phylogeny of the organisms containing those genes to identify gene duplication events. This allows us to infer phylogenies from gene families containing both orthologous and paralogous copies. Vertebrate phylogeny is well understood from morphological and palaeontological data, but studies using mitochondrial sequence data have failed to reproduce this classical view. Reconciled tree analysis of a database of 118 vertebrate gene families supports a largely classical vertebrate phylogeny

Chern-Simons theory and three-dimensional surfaces

There are two natural Chern-Simons theories associated with the embedding of a three-dimensional surface in Euclidean space; one is constructed using the induced metric connection -- it involves only the intrinsic geometry, the other is extrinsic and uses the connection associated with the gauging of normal rotations. As such, the two theories appear to describe very different aspects of the surface geometry. Remarkably, at a classical level, they are equivalent. In particular, it will be shown that their stress tensors differ only by a null contribution. Their Euler-Lagrange equations provide identical constraints on the normal curvature. A new identity for the Cotton tensor is associated with the triviality of the Chern-Simons theory for embedded hypersurfaces implied by this equivalence. The corresponding null surface stress capturing this information will be constructed explicitly.Comment: 10 pages, unnecessary details removed, typos fixed, references adde

Sub-milliarcsec-scale structure of the gravitational lens B1600+434

In the gravitational lens system B1600+434 the brighter image, A, is known to show rapid variability which is not detected in the weaker image, B (Koopmans & de Bruyn 2000). Since correlated variability is one of the fundamental properties of gravitational lensing, it has been proposed that image A is microlensed by stars in the halo of the lensing galaxy (Koopmans & de Bruyn 2000). We present VLBA observations of B1600+434 at 15 GHz with a resolution of 0.5 milliarcsec to determine the source structure at high spatial resolution. The surface brightness of the images are significantly different, with image A being more compact. This is in apparent contradiction with the required property of gravitational lensing that surface brightness be preserved. Our results suggest that both the lensed images may show two-sided elongation at this resolution, a morphology which does not necessarily favour superluminal motion. Instead these data may suggest that image B is scatter-broadened at the lens so that its size is larger than that of A, and hence scintillates less than image A.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted in AA Letter