The Digital Revolution and Higher Education

Presents survey findings about the views of college presidents and the public on the value of, prevalence of, and experience with online learning, as well as the role of the Internet and related technologies in education and prospects for future growth

Soil P Status and Nitrogen Fixation on Organic Dairy Farms in Ontario and Nova Scotia

Legumes are a key source of nitrogen (N) in organic production systems. However, there is evidence that reduced inputs may be leading to deficient soil phosphorus (P) on some organic dairy farms (Roberts et. al. 2008). This may affect crop performance and N fixation in forage legumes. This study aims to gauge the relationship between soil P dynamics in organic dairy systems and legume biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). The study has two main sub-projects: 1. A field survey of soil-test P and legume forage productivity and N fixation on dairy farms in Ontario and Nova Scotia, Canada. 2. Growth chamber and greenhouse studies examining: a) The role of P nutrition in legume growth and N fixation, and b) The P-supplying power of composts, struvite, and a rock P source. Field data was commenced in the 2008 season, and was completed in 2009. Growth chamber and greenhouse studies were conducted in 2009. Analyses of 2009 samples are not complete at the report date

Changing medical student attitudes to patient safety: A multicentre study

Background: Although patient safety is becoming widely taught in medical schools, its effect has been less rigorously evaluated. We describe a multicentre study to evaluate student changes in patient safety attitudes using a standardized instrument, the Attitudes to Patient Safety Questionnaire3 (APSQ3). Methods: A patient safety training package designed for medical students was delivered in the first year and second year in four Australian medical schools. It comprises eight face-to-face modules, each of two hours. Seminars start with an interactive introduction using questions, video and role play, followed by small group break-outs to discuss a relevant case study. Groups are led by medical school tutors with no prior training in patient safety. Students and tutors then reassemble to give feedback and reinforce key concepts. Knowledge and attitudes to patient safety were measured using the APSQ3, delivered prior to safety teaching, at the end of the first and second years and 12 months after teaching ceased. Results: A significant improvement in attitude over time was demonstrated for four of nine key items measured by the APSQ3: value of patient safety teaching; danger of long working hours, value of team work and the contribution patients can make in reducing error. Informal feedback from students was very positive. Conclusion: We showed persistent, positive learning from a patient safety education intervention 12 months after teaching finished. Building on the introduction of patient safety teaching into medical schools, pathways for motivated students such as appropriate electives, option terms and team-based research projects would be of value

How loudly should an entrepreneur communicate their sustainability claim to investors in order to successfully receive funding?

Today, the impact a business activity has on the larger society is experiencing a growing amount of importance. Stronger environmental expectations from different stakeholders such as gov-ernments, consumers and employees result from the increasing ecological issues our world is currently facing. As a reaction to this, companies and big cooperations change their strategies, putting a greater focus on CSR or adding environmental innovations. At the same time, we can observe a new breed of social entrepreneurs emerging in the market, creating commercial for-profit organizations integrating the sustainability aspect into the center of their business models as they see it as a business opportunity. To date, research on the communication of startups sustainability claim in front of different stakeholders has remained scarce. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how this new breed of entrepreneurs communicate their sustainability claim to investors in order to successfully attract funding. The focus is on whether the startup needs to change the strength of it, and therefore communicates a different value proposition to their investors compared to their customers. An inductive multiple case study of five startups who are part of the Climate-KIC platform was performed. The analysis revealed that how strong a startup decides to communicate its sustainability claim to investors always depends on what investor type they are approaching. Whilst always telling the “truth”, with knowing who they are communicating to, startups constantly adjust their pitch deck ac-cordingly, putting a weaker or stronger focus on it. The study enhances valuable insights and guidelines for startups who integrate a sustainability aspect into their business model in order better approach investors and therefore to successfully attract funding.Hoje em dia, o impacto que uma actividade empresarial exerce sobre a sociedade está a ganhar cada vez maior importância. Expectativas ambientais dos diferentes stakeholders, tais como governos, consumidores e funcionários, são o resultado de pressões ecológicas que o planeta actualmente enfrenta. Como resposta, empresas e grandes organizações estão a mudar as suas estratégias, pondo um foco maior em CSR ou investindo em inovações ambientais. Ao mesmo tempo, pode-se observar uma nova geração de empreendedores com preocupações sociais, os quais criam organizações comerciais com fins lucrativos que integram o aspecto da sustentabi-lidade no centro do seu modelo de negócio, considerada também uma oportunidade de negócio. Até à data, os estudos sobre a comunicação da sustentabilidade das startups perante diferentes stakeholders são escassos. Com isto, este estudo tem como objetivo investigar como é que esta nova geração de empreen-dedores comunica as suas práticas de sustentabilidade a investidores, para obter o financia-mento necessário para o sucesso. O foco principal está em saber se a startup precisa de ajustar a sua mensagem quando comunica a proposta de valor, tornado a diferente de investidores e consumidores. Foi realizado um estudo de casos múltiplos indutivo, com cinco startups perten-centes ao programa Climate-KIC. A análise demonstrou que a intensidade com que uma startup comunica as suas práticas de sustentabilidade aos seus investidores depende do tipo de investi-dor que pretende atingir. Apesar de dizerem sempre a “verdade”, quando sabem com quem estão a comunicar, as startups acabam por ajustar o seu discurso. O estudo realizado visa obter insights e orientações valiosas para startups que tenham em conta no seu modelo de negócio o aspecto da sustentabilidade, com o intuito de melhorar a abordagem feita aos investidores e, com isso, obter financiamentos de sucesso

Understanding the information needs of users of public information about higher education

Report to HEFCE by Oakleigh Consulting and Staffordshire University. "This study's aims were to carry out research into understanding the needs of intended users (primarily prospective students but with some focus on their advisors and employers) of public information on higher education (HE). The work focussed on England, but also took into account Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland where relevant." - Page 1

Dimensionality of social networks using motifs and eigenvalues

We consider the dimensionality of social networks, and develop experiments aimed at predicting that dimension. We find that a social network model with nodes and links sampled from an $m$-dimensional metric space with power-law distributed influence regions best fits samples from real-world networks when $m$ scales logarithmically with the number of nodes of the network. This supports a logarithmic dimension hypothesis, and we provide evidence with two different social networks, Facebook and LinkedIn. Further, we employ two different methods for confirming the hypothesis: the first uses the distribution of motif counts, and the second exploits the eigenvalue distribution.Comment: 26 page