CIVIC LIFE: Evidence Base for the Triennial Review

This document forms part of the Equality and Human Rights Commission triennial review and covers equalities in civic life. It examines equality in political participation, freedom of language and freedom of worship. The primary aim is to map the various dimensions of equality and inequality in participation in civic and political life. We explore and review equalities, good relations and human rights in relation to civic life, and where possible we examine some of the driving forces behind the differences that we observe

Managing plagiarism in programming assignments with blended assessment and randomisation.

Plagiarism is a common concern for coursework in many situations, particularly where electronic solutions can be provided e.g. computer programs, and leads to unreliability of assessment. Written exams are often used to try to deal with this, and to increase reliability, but at the expense of validity. One solution, outlined in this paper, is to randomise the work that is set for students so that it is very unlikely that any two students will be working on exactly the same problem set. This also helps to address the issue of students trying to outsource their work by paying external people to complete their assignments for them. We examine the effectiveness of this approach and others (including blended assessment) by analysing the spread of similarity scores across four different introductory programming assignments to find the natural similarity i.e. the level of similarity that could reasonably occur without plagiarism. The results of the study indicate that divergent assessment (having more than one possible solution) as opposed to convergent assessment (only one solution) is the dominant factor in natural similarity. A key area for further work is to apply the analysis to a larger sample of programming assignments to better understand the impact of different features of the assignment design on natural similarity and hence the detection of plagiarism

Omnivorousness in sport: The importance of social capital and networks

There has been for some time a significant and growing body of research around the relationship between sport and social capital. Similarly, within sociology there has been a corpus of work that has acknowledged the emergence of the omnivore–univore relationship. Surprisingly, relatively few studies examining sport and social capital have taken the omnivore–univore framework as a basis for understanding the relationship between sport and social capital. This gap in the sociology of sport literature and knowledge is rectified by this study that takes not Putnam, Coleman or Bourdieu, but Lin’s social network approach to social capital. The implications of this article are that researchers investigating sport and social capital need to understand more about how social networks and places for sport work to create social capital and, in particular, influence participating in sporting activities. The results indicate that social networks both facilitate and constrain sports participation; whilst family and friendship networks are central in active lifestyles, those who are less active have limited networks

Experiments to Find or Exclude a Long-Lived, Light Gluino

Gluinos in the mass range ~1 1/2 - 3 1/2 GeV are absolutely excluded. Lighter gluinos are allowed, except for certain ranges of lifetime. Only small parts of the mass-lifetime parameter space are excluded for larger masses unless the lifetime is shorter than ~ 2 10^{-11} (m_{gluino}/ GeV) sec. Refined mass and lifetime estimates for R-hadrons are given, present direct and indirect experimental constraints are reviewed, and experiments to find or definitively exclude these possibilities are suggested.Comment: 27 pp, latex with 1 uufiled figure, RU-94-35. New version amplifies discussion of some points and corresponds to version for Phys. Rev.

Challenging Perceptions of Disability through Performance Poetry Methods: The "Seen but Seldom Heard" Project.

This paper considers performance poetry as a method to explore lived experiences of disability. We discuss how poetic inquiry used within a participatory arts-based research framework can enable young people to collectively question society’s attitudes and actions towards disability. Poetry will be considered as a means to develop a more accessible and effective arena in which young people with direct experience of disability can be empowered to develop new skills that enable them to tell their own stories. Discussion of how this can challenge audiences to critically reflect upon their own perceptions of disability will also be developed

Report of the Beyond the MSSM Subgroup for the Tevatron Run II SUSY/Higgs Workshop

There are many low-energy models of supersymmetry breaking parameters which are motivated by theoretical and experimental considerations. Here, we discuss some of the lesser-known theories of low-energy supersymmetry, and outline their phenomenological consequences. In some cases, these theories have more gauge symmetry or particle content than the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. In other cases, the parameters of the Lagrangian are unusual compared to commonly accepted norms (e.g., Wino LSP, heavy gluino LSP, light gluino, etc.). The phenomenology of supersymmetry varies greatly between the different models. Correspondingly, particular aspects of the detectors assume greater or lesser importance. Detection of supersymmetry and the determination of all parameters may well depend upon having the widest possible view of supersymmetry phenomenology.Comment: 78 pages, 49 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the Tevatron Run II SUSY/Higgs Workshop. Editor: J. F. Gunion; BTMSSM Convenors: M. Chertok, H. Dreiner, G. Landsberg, J. F. Gunion, J.D. Well

Correlates of Complete Childhood Vaccination in East African Countries.

Despite the benefits of childhood vaccinations, vaccination rates in low-income countries (LICs) vary widely. Increasing coverage of vaccines to 90% in the poorest countries over the next 10 years has been estimated to prevent 426 million cases of illness and avert nearly 6.4 million childhood deaths worldwide. Consequently, we sought to provide a comprehensive examination of contemporary vaccination patterns in East Africa and to identify common and country-specific barriers to complete childhood vaccination. Using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, we looked at the prevalence of complete vaccination for polio, measles, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) and DTwPHibHep (DTP) as recommended by the WHO among children ages 12 to 23 months. We conducted multivariable logistic regression within each country to estimate associations between complete vaccination status and health care access and sociodemographic variables using backwards stepwise regression. Vaccination varied significantly by country. In all countries, the majority of children received at least one dose of a WHO recommended vaccine; however, in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda less than 50% of children received a complete schedule of recommended vaccines. Being delivered in a public or private institution compared with being delivered at home was associated with increased odds of complete vaccination status. Sociodemographic covariates were not consistently associated with complete vaccination status across countries. Although no consistent set of predictors accounted for complete vaccination status, we observed differences based on region and the location of delivery. These differences point to the need to examine the historical, political, and economic context of each country in order to maximize vaccination coverage. Vaccination against these childhood diseases is a critical step towards reaching the Millennium Development Goal of reducing under-five mortality by two-thirds by 2015 and thus should be a global priority

Embedding enterprise focused education for sustainable development: lessons from undergraduate student experiences in product design

As the world begins to grapple with numerous sustainability challenges such as zero waste, de-materialisation, sustainable consumption, zero emissions and a fair society, product design students must be educated on these key sustainability concepts. In industry, product designers are embedding sustainable values and processes within their everyday design practice when developing new products and services. The Nottingham Trent University (NTU) Sustainability in Enterprise (SiE) project is working to support local businesses within the Greater Nottingham area to help improve their environmental performance across four key areas: People, Products, Processes and Premises. We present a case study whereby for the first time, first-year BSc Product Design students at NTU act as design consultants during a focussed "Sustainability Week" to support local enterprises. During Sustainability Week, teams of BSc Product Design students undertook a project alongside a Nottingham, UK, based chocolate shop and bakery by reviewing their existing product line and packaging solutions. Students selected an existing packaging solution and designed new solutions associated with less and alternative materials for their products. Students learnt through discovery, experience, experimentation, research, practical doing, and other forms of experiential learning. During sustainability week, qualitative data through observation was collected to analyse the development of the sustainability week. Data from students was gathered at the end of sustainability week to gain insight into their learning experience. We collected quantitative and qualitative data to assess the students' experience and the project through a survey questionnaire. A mixed-methods approach was used to analyse the data. The development of Sustainability Week has improved student knowledge on sustainable product development. Delivered sessions promoted knowledge acquisition, skills development, and improved attitudes towards global issues, i.e., Responsible Consumption & Production (SDG12). Having attended Sustainability Week, a large proportion of the student cohort suggested that this helped improve their understanding of sustainable concepts within product design. Students submitted a physical model and two presentation boards to communicate their proposed new solutions demonstrating through their project outputs and vocational taught sessions improved knowledge on life cycle assessment, methods of communicating sustainable product solutions through design sketching and a basic understanding of calculating a products carbon footprint. Also, students improved their basic knowledge of designing for longevity, sustainable design considerations and material selection using material databases. Based on the developed Sustainability Week, the success and positive feedback from students resulted in its integration into the BSc Product Design curriculum, with further improvements planned to enhance Sustainability Week in the future. The implementation of sustainability week in the BSc Product Design curriculum will shape new sustainability-conscious product designers and professionals who have insight into sustainable product development whilst being equipped with dedicated tools/learnings to enhance their professional expertise

Successes and challenges of supporting product design education for deaf and hard of hearing learners during a pandemic: a case study

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Higher Education has been considerable, none more so for practical/vocational subjects such as Product Design. However, consider being deaf/hard-of-hearing (D/HOH) whilst being forced to study predominantly online, with reduced practical in-person teaching opportunities, being socially distanced, and having to contend with face coverings limiting your ability to hear and lip read. The everyday challenges for D/HOH students in higher education is constantly demanding, but the global pandemic exacerbated this, presenting significant educational challenges. This paper presents a case study focused on the 2020/21 academic year whereby we examine the challenges and successes of supporting a product design student with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD) and permanent bilateral severe-profound hearing loss. The scope of this paper presents the learner arrangements for their product design education and highlights methods of managing the blended learning/teaching environment in combination with the use of British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters, electronic/handwritten notetakers and accompanying technologies. Numerous challenges were presented ranging from, managing rapidly developing online learning tools, adapting personal protective equipment to facilitate lip reading, managing multiple recording technologies to facilitate captioning/transcription, amongst others. The perspectives of the learner are presented, with reflections on how different session types, timetabling, delivery methods, etc., affected their day-to-day learning. Recommendations are made for improved collaboration with student support staff (i.e., BSL interpreters and electronic/handwritten note takers) and the need to implement digital technologies to facilitate the optimal blended learning and socially distanced teaching environment

Treatment of gastroparesis: a multidisciplinary clinical review

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75594/1/j.1365-2982.2006.00760.x.pd