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

Probing the effects of steric bulk on the solution-phase behaviour and redox chemistry of cobalt-diimine complexes

Cobalt-diimine complexes are important structural and redox-active elements in supramolecular assemblies. However, functionalisation of the diimine ligand adjacent to the N-donor atoms can affect dramatically the types of Co-diimine complexes that can form and their redox activity. Herein, we compare the solution phase and redox chemistry of Co(II) complexes with 1,10-phenanthroline, 5,5′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine and 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline (neocuproine). In acetonitrile solutions containing Co(NO3)2 and neocuproine, the dominant species is the mono-diimine complex [Co(neocuproine)(NO3)(CH3CN)2]+. This complex cannot be oxidised, either electrochemically nor with iodine. We rationalise this behaviour by considering the steric constraints placed upon the metal centre by the bulky methyl substituents on the neocuproine ligand. Furthermore, from solutions of [Co(neocuproine)(NO3)(CH3CN)2]+, crystals of formula [Co(neocuproine)2(NO3)]+·[Co(neocuproine)(NO3)3]− can be obtained. We believe that this work will guide the development of Co-diimine supramolecular assemblies by highlighting the extent to which substituents close to the N-donor atoms affect which species form in solution, and their likely redox activity

Joint angle affects volitional and magnetically-evoked neuromuscular performance differentially

This study examined the volitional and magnetically-evoked neuromuscular performance of the quadriceps femoris at functional knee joint angles adjacent to full extension. Indices of volitional and magnetically-evoked neuromuscular performance (N= 15 healthy males; 23.5 ± 2.9 years; 71.5 ± 5.4 kg; 176.5 ± 5.5 cm) were obtained at 25°; 35° and 45° of knee flexion. Results showed that volitional and magnetically-evoked peak force (PFV; PTFE, respectively) and electromechanical delay (EMDV; EMDE, respectively) were enhanced by increased knee flexion. However, greater relative improvements in volitional compared to evoked indices of neuromuscular performance were observed with increasing flexion from 25° to 45° (e.g. EMDV; EMDE: 36% vs. 11% improvement, respectively; F[2,14] = 6.8; p < 0.05). There were no significant correlations between EMDV and EMDE or PFV and PTFE, respectively at analogous joint positions. These findings suggest that the extent of the relative differential between volitional and evoked neuromuscular performance capabilities is joint angle-specific and not correlated with performance capabilities at adjacent angles, but tends to be smaller with increased flexion. As such, effective prediction of volitional from evoked performance capabilities at both analogous and adjacent knee joint positions would lack robustness

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

An Underpinning of School Inequities: Asthma Absences and Lost Revenue in California Schools.

BACKGROUND:Asthma is epidemic in many locations in the United States. Asthma exacerbations pose serious health and education risks for students through school absences, school dropout, and introduction to the juvenile justice system. Accurate school district-level asthma data, currently in short supply, would enable early interventions that focus on specific geographic areas and racial and ethnic subgroups that have higher asthma prevalence. METHODS:To support the development of better local level data systems, we used two California student databases, as well as state education and financial databases, to develop two models to estimate school absences and to extrapolate their economic impact in lost school revenue. RESULTS:Analysis demonstrated subpopulations that are appropriate for early intervention: African American elementary school boys have 9.4 average absences per year, higher than other primary racial and ethnic groups. Students who miss ≥3 school days due to asthma account for $26 million of lost revenue. CONCLUSIONS:Accurate local level asthma data can identify subpopulations of students for whom environmental and treatment programs can be employed to reduce asthma absences and other related outcomes, and to reduce currently lost school revenues. Such programs also may diminish other asthma-related school inequities

CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC ALLIANCES IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY

This paper focuses on strategic fuzzy alliances (SFAs) and the role of trust in business-to-business relationships. First, a theoretical model of governance choice involving strategic alliances is developed, integrating the Shapiro, Sheppard, and Cheraskin (1992) taxonomy of trust into a neoinstitutional framework. Second, this model, based on transaction theory, is then used to generate necessary and sufficient conditions for trust-based agreements. The third component of this paper is an empirical model, which tests the above theory. Finally, managerial implications from the results are discussed.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

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