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

Is there any room for the doctrine of fundamental rights of states in today's international law?

This article serves as a general substantive introduction to the special issue on the fundamental rights of states in international law. It introduces the concept in theoretical and doctrinal terms, and lays out the questions that will be addressed by the contributions to the special issue. These questions include: 1) What do attributes like ‘inherent’, ‘inalienable’ and ‘permanent’ mean with regard to state rights?; 2) Do they lead to identifying a unitary distinct category of fundamental rights of states?; 3) If so, what is their source and legal character?; 4) What are their legal implications, eg, when they come into conflict with other obligations of the right holder or with the actions of other states and international organisations?; and ultimately, 5) Is there still room in today’s international law for a doctrine of ‘fundamental’ rights of states? The article reviews the fundamental rights of states in positive law sources and in international legal scholarship, and identifies the reasons for a renaissance of attention for this doctrine

Buckling without bending: a new paradigm in morphogenesis

A curious feature of organ and organoid morphogenesis is that in certain cases, spatial oscillations in the thickness of the growing "film" are out-of-phase with the deformation of the slower-growing "substrate," while in other cases, the oscillations are in-phase. The former cannot be explained by elastic bilayer instability, and contradict the notion that there is a universal mechanism by which brains, intestines, teeth, and other organs develop surface wrinkles and folds. Inspired by the microstructure of the embryonic cerebellum, we develop a new model of 2d morphogenesis in which system-spanning elastic fibers endow the organ with a preferred radius, while a separate fiber network resides in the otherwise fluid-like film at the outer edge of the organ and resists thickness gradients thereof. The tendency of the film to uniformly thicken or thin is described via a "growth potential". Several features of cerebellum, +blebbistatin organoid, and retinal fovea morphogenesis, including out-of-phase behavior and a film thickness amplitude that is comparable to the radius amplitude, are readily explained by our simple analytical model, as may be an observed scale-invariance in the number of folds in the cerebellum. We also study a nonlinear variant of the model, propose further biological and bio-inspired applications, and address how our model is and is not unique to the developing nervous system.Comment: version accepted by Physical Review

Role of Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine Receptor Signaling in the Suppression of Punished Reward Seeking

Previous studies have shown that within the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain region associated with motivation and reinforcement learning, activity of neurons expressing the dopamine D2 receptor (D2R neurons) act as a “break” on risky behavior associated with negative outcomes. Moreover, when these neurons are stimulated, rats were found to become more risk averse. However, the impact of dopamine signaling through NAc D2R neurons in risk avoidance is still unclear. To further explore the role of NAc dopamine signaling in punished reward-seeking, we tested rats in a novel punished food-seeking paradigm in which subjects are trained to choose between a large (3 pellet) food reward immediately followed by brief mild foot shock, or to rather make unpunished responses for a smaller (1 pellet) “safe” reward option. Specifically, we completed a pharmacological study investigating the impact of the D2 agonist quinpirole, microinfused bilaterally directly into the NAc, on rats\u27 willingness to endure punishment to receive the large (punished) reward option. Given the established role for NAc D2R neurons in “risky” behavior, we hypothesized that injecting a D2 receptor agonist into the NAc would cause persistent reward seeking despite punishment. Preliminary results, however, show negligible effects of quinpirole on punishment sensitivity. While further testing is needed, these preliminary findings suggest NAc D2 receptor activation is not sufficient to induce punishment resistance, and perhaps instead activation of other NAc cell types such as D1-expressing neurons, or recruitment of other brain regions like the prefrontal cortex, may be involved in suppressing punished responding for food

The unique chemistry of Eastern Mediterranean water masses selects for distinct microbial communities by depth

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Cooling on the Front of an Air-cooled Engine Cylinder in a Conventional Engine Cowling

Measurements were made of the cooling on the fronts of model cylinders in a conventional cowling for cooling in both the ground and the cruising conditions. The mechanisms of front and rear cooling are essentially different. Cooling on the rear baffled part of the cylinders continually increases with increasing fin width. For the front of the cylinder, an optimum fin width was found to exist beyond which an increase in width reduced the heat transfer. The heat transfer coefficient on the front of the cylinders was larger on the side of the cylinder facing the propeller swirl than on the opposite side. This effect became more pronounced as the fin width was increased. These results are introductory to the study of front cooling and show the general effect of several test parameters

Experimental Investigation of the Robinson-Type Cup Anemometer

This report presents the results of wind tunnel tests on a Robinson-type anemometer. The investigation covered force measurements on individual cups, as well as static and dynamic torque measurements and calibrations on complete cup wheels. In the tests on individual cups 5 cup forms were used and in the measurements on complete cup wheels 4 cup wheels with 3 arm lengths for each cup wheel were tested. All the results are presented in graphical form