Towards a framework for university-wide postgraduate programmes in sustainability

The role of Higher Education Institutions in addressing social, environmental, and economic challenges and opportunities in today's world is immense, complex, and vital (GUNI, 2008). Traditionally responses to sustainable development (SD) have been concentrated within specific subjects, however there has been a gradual penetration of sustainability issues into a wide spectrum of disciplines (HEA, February 2009. The definition and priorities of SD are complex and multi-layered and the challenges presented, being inherently holistic, require equal responses from all disciplines. This requires the development of a framework for University-wide, cross disciplinary teaching. The University of Strathclyde has been ranked first in the Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Observatory Report 2008. Building on this success, work is underway to develop a university-wide, interdisciplinary Strathclyde Masters programme in Sustainability (SMS, aimed at articulating a framework for integrating flagship postgraduate courses & classes, sustainability literacy & skills training workshops. This paper summarises the theories of sustainability and its inherent interdisciplinary nature by examining current thinking in ESD. This has highlighted the need to review the current curriculum, identifying current interdisciplinary provision aligned with ESD, and implement a multistakeholder consultation process. The paper describes how these theories might be put into practice, detailing the conclusions drawn from the initial consultation process involving external organisations, students, academic staff and the university's professional services. In addition, a model 'Sustainability Map' is presented offering an overview of postgraduate provision of ESD within the institution as a whole, alongside details of the courses offered and contributing departments. The outcome of the multistakeholder consultation process, in conjunction with the 'Sustainability Map', will help inform future consultation focusing on structural refinement and the academic content of the interdisciplinary programme

Development of a sport specific anthropometric calibration model to estimate whole body density of professional football players

There are currently no calibration models that allow whole body density in professional footballers to be estimated. As such, there is a need to develop practical calibration models in order to make sound body composition judgements. The aim of this thesis is threefold. Firstly, to examine the measurement reliability of a range of anthropometric measures, residual lung volume, air displacement plethysmography and hydrostatic weighing. Secondly, to establish reliability and precision of body composition measures used within existing calibration models which estimate whole body density from the criterion of hydrostatic weighing. Thirdly, to develop and cross-validate new calibration models for professional footballers. Further details are given in the full abstract above

Differentially Private Empirical Risk Minimization

Privacy-preserving machine learning algorithms are crucial for the increasingly common setting in which personal data, such as medical or financial records, are analyzed. We provide general techniques to produce privacy-preserving approximations of classifiers learned via (regularized) empirical risk minimization (ERM). These algorithms are private under the $\epsilon$-differential privacy definition due to Dwork et al. (2006). First we apply the output perturbation ideas of Dwork et al. (2006), to ERM classification. Then we propose a new method, objective perturbation, for privacy-preserving machine learning algorithm design. This method entails perturbing the objective function before optimizing over classifiers. If the loss and regularizer satisfy certain convexity and differentiability criteria, we prove theoretical results showing that our algorithms preserve privacy, and provide generalization bounds for linear and nonlinear kernels. We further present a privacy-preserving technique for tuning the parameters in general machine learning algorithms, thereby providing end-to-end privacy guarantees for the training process. We apply these results to produce privacy-preserving analogues of regularized logistic regression and support vector machines. We obtain encouraging results from evaluating their performance on real demographic and benchmark data sets. Our results show that both theoretically and empirically, objective perturbation is superior to the previous state-of-the-art, output perturbation, in managing the inherent tradeoff between privacy and learning performance.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures, accepted to the Journal of Machine Learning Researc

Pneumatic capillary gun for ballistic delivery of microparticles

A pneumatic gun for ballistic delivery of microparticles to soft targets is proposed and demonstrated. The particles are accelerated by a high speed flow of Helium in a capillary tube. Vacuum suction applied to a concentric, larger diameter tube is used to divert substantially all of the flow of Helium from the gun nozzle, thereby preventing the gas from hitting and damaging the target. Speed of ejection of micron-sized gold particles from the gun nozzle, and their depth of penetration into agarose gels are reported.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Repeated exercise stress impairs volitional but not magnetically evoked electromechanical delay of the knee flexors

The effects of serial episodes of fatigue and recovery on volitional and magnetically evoked neuromuscular performance of the knee flexors were assessed in twenty female soccer players during: (i) an intervention comprising 4x35s maximal static exercise; (ii) a control condition. Volitional peak force (PFV) was impaired progressively (-16 % vs. baseline: 235.3±54.7 to 198.1±38.5 N) by the fatiguing exercise and recovered to within -97 % of baseline values following six-minutes of rest. Evoked peak twitch force (PTFE) was diminished subsequent to the fourth episode of exercise (23.3 %: 21.4±13.8 vs. 16.4±14.6 N) and remained impaired at this level throughout the recovery. Impairment of volitional electromechanical delay performance (EMDV) following the first episode of exercise (25.5 % :55.3±11.9 vs. 69.5±24.5 ms) contrasted with concurrent improvement (10.0 %: 24.5±4.7 vs. 22.1±5.0 ms) in evoked electromechanical delay (EMDE) (p <0.05) and this increased disparity between EMDE and EMDV remained during subsequent periods of intervention and recovery. The fatiguing exercise provoked substantial impairments to volitional strength and EMDV that showed differential patterns of recovery. However, improved EMDE performance might identify a dormant capability for optimal muscle responses during acute stressful exercise and an improved capacity to maintain dynamic joint stabilty during critical episodes of loading

Modelling red squirrel population viability under a range of landscape scenarios in a fragmented woodland ecosystem on the Solway Plain, Cumbria, UK.

To assess the viability of the red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris in fragmented woodlands on the Solway Plain we used a combination of Vortex population viability analysis and BEETLE (Biological and Environmental Evaluation Tools for Landscape Ecology). Habitat fragmentation and the expansion of the North American grey squirrel S. carolinensis have had a detrimental effect upon red squirrel populations in the UK; assessing the viability of the remaining populations can guide in conservation management decisions. The initial field work showed red squirrels to use 5 of the 23 woodland fragments on the Solway Plain at a density of 0.65 squirrels ha-1, with a minimum dynamic area of 91 ha of red squirrel woodland habitat being identified using Vortex. Red squirrels may use more than one woodland fragment in its home range as long as fragments are connected functionally with the land cover between fragments producing a low cost for the squirrel. The functional connectivity of these woodland fragments was modeled within BEETLE to create habitat networks. Vortex was then used to identify which habitat networks would hold a viable population. Two areas were identified which could, if the correct landscape management is prescribed, potentially hold viable populations of red squirrels on the Solway Plain. This combination of behavioral, demographic and landscape modeling allows scenario building and has application across a wide range of conservation area design problems

Cost-effectiveness analysis in R using a multi-state modelling survival analysis framework: a tutorial

This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide to performing cost-effectiveness analysis using a multi-state modelling approach. Alongside the tutorial we provide easy-to-use functions in the statistics package R. We argue this multi-state modelling approach using a package such as R has advantages over approaches where models are built in a spreadsheet package. In particular, using a syntax-based approach means there is a written record of what was done and the calculations are transparent. Reproducing the analysis is straightforward as the syntax just needs to be run again. The approach can be thought of as an alternative way to build a Markov decision analytic model, which also has the option to use a state-arrival extended approach if the Markov property does not hold. In the state-arrival extended multi-state model a covariate that represents patients’ history is included allowing the Markov property to be tested. We illustrate the building of multi-state survival models, making predictions from the models and assessing fits. We then proceed to perform a cost-effectiveness analysis including deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Finally, we show how to create two common methods of visualising the results, namely cost-effectiveness planes and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves. The analysis is implemented entirely within R. It is based on adaptions to functions in the existing R package mstate, to accommodate parametric multi-state modelling which facilitates extrapolation of survival curves

Isolated Voices: Perspectives of Teachers, School Nurses, and Administrators Regarding Implementation of Sexual Health Education Policy.

BackgroundComprehensive sexual health education (SHE) reduces risky sexual behavior and increases protective behavior in adolescents. It is important to understand how professionals responsible for implementing SHE policy interpret state and local policy and what influences their commitment to formal SHE policy implementation.MethodsThis descriptive study explored content and delivery of SHE policy in a rural, southwestern state with high levels of poverty, unintended adolescent pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections. The social ecological model (SEM) was used to better understand levels of influence on the implementation of SHE policy.ResultsWe conducted telephone surveys with 38 teachers, 63 nurses, and 21 administrators in public secondary schools. There was substantial local variability in the scope and content of SHE curricula. Respondents identified significant barriers to the delivery of SHE content and minimal evaluation of whether educational objectives were met. Based on participant responses, community and organizational SEM levels had the greatest influence on SHE policy implementation, although examples of all SEM levels were identified.ConclusionsGiven perceived challenges regarding subject matter, successful SHE implementation at the local level requires committed stakeholders working in concert at the school and community levels, backed by strong policy commitment at the state level

Supply chain challenges for sustainability: the case of waste textiles as raw materials

Purpose: This paper addresses the growing problem of textile waste in the rapidly developing cities of subSaharan Africa and examines, from a supply chain perspective, the potential for waste textile materials to be transformed into the raw materials for new consumer products. Research Approach: The paper reflects on the outcomes of a field trip to Dar es Salaam in which stakeholders in a hypothesised textile waste supply chain were interviewed and waste textile materials were analysed in order to determine their content and appropriateness for reuse. Findings from the field study have been compared with current literature on logistics and market creation, waste generation, management and recycling in sub-Saharan Africa. Findings and Originality: The findings show that a rudimentary system has been in place for many years to collect and recycle textiles in Dar es Salaam. However, at the same time as textile waste is projected to increase in the city, collection rates are falling. The chief reasons for the falling rates are failures in the ‘modernised mixture’ approach to waste collection employed by Dar es Salaam City Council and market failure for the collected materials. Alternative combinations of ‘modernised mixtures’, incorporating community-based organisations, are likely to increase textile yields from unplanned urban areas but previous high-profile failures in such systems within Dar es Salaam mean there is caution on both sides in entering into such a relationship. The more pressing problem is to identify appropriate end markets for the textile materials, since in a country where recycling is entirely market-driven, failure to do so will undermine any attempt to improve the collection system. Whilst many studies have considered general recycling practices in sub-Saharan Africa, there are few investigations into textile waste. Furthermore, those existing studies do not consider the importance of understanding fibre composition of the materials in order to determine the most appropriate end markets. Research Impact: The research contributes to the growing body of knowledge on ‘bottom of the pyramid’ approaches to sustainable futures. Practical Impact: The work presented considers supply chain problems and offers approaches to tackling the increasing waste management issues of Dar es Salaam and proposes a mechanism for doing so which has the potential to provide income for the poorest sectors of the urban society