University space planning and space-type profiles

Universities planning the provision of space for their teaching requirements need to do so in a fashion that reduces capital and maintenance costs whilst still providing a high-quality level of service. Space plans should aim to provide sufficient capacity without incurring excessive costs due to over-capacity. A simple measure used to estimate over-provision is utilisation. Essentially, the utilisation is the fraction of seats that are used in practice, or the ratio of demand to supply. However, studies usually find that utilisation is low, often only 20–40%, and this is suggestive of significant over-capacity. Our previous work has provided methods to improve such space planning. They identify a critical level of utilisation as the highest level that can be achieved whilst still reliably satisfying the demand for places to allocate teaching events. In this paper, we extend this body of work to incorporate the notions of event-types and space-types. Teaching events have multiple ‘event-types’, such as lecture, tutorial, workshop, etc., and there are generally corresponding space-types. Matching the type of an event to a room of a corresponding space-type is generally desirable. However, realistically, allocation happens in a mixed space-type environment where teaching events of a given type are allocated to rooms of another space-type; e.g., tutorials will borrow lecture theatres or workshop rooms. We propose a model and methodology to quantify the effects of space-type mixing and establish methods to search for better space-type profiles; where the term “space-type profile” refers to the relative numbers of each type of space. We give evidence that these methods have the potential to improve utilisation levels. Hence, the contribution of this paper is twofold. Firstly, we present informative studies of the effects of space-type mixing on utilisation, and critical utilisations. Secondly, we present straightforward though novel methods to determine better space-type profiles, and give an example in which the resulting profiles are indeed significantly improved. <br/

Fire safety protection motivation and preparedness in Irish apartments: a post-Grenfell analysis

This study used an extended version of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to identify the variables that influence fire safety preparedness in apartment buildings. PMT was extended to include an individual’s perceived responsibility for fire safety within their building. A survey of 455 respondents living in apartments in Dublin, Ireland, was undertaken to ascertain the level of fire safety awareness and preparedness among residents. Data analysis included correlations, ordinary least squares regressions and probit analysis. The findings reveal a worrying lack of preparedness and that fire safety preparedness motivation is complex, sometimes producing counterintuitive results. For example, a high level of worry about a fire increased the probability that a respondent tested their smoke detector(s) by 27.4 pp, yet was associated with a 33.3 pp reduction in the probability that a respondent acted in line with the building evacuation policy. The factors which influenced preparedness motivation also varied depending on the specific safety measure. For instance, assuming a personal responsibility for fire safety in the building was positively associated with perceived preparedness and having an extinguisher or fire blanket. Conversely, no relationship was observed between personal responsibility for fire safety and the presence of household fire plans, appropriate fire alarm response behaviour, or smoke detector testing. The critical contribution of this study is the identification of factors that act as barriers to, or facilitators of, fire safety in residential apartments. Understanding what drives fire safety can be used to enhance the effectiveness of preparedness messaging to inform public fire safety campaigns

An online learning selection hyper-heuristic for educational timetabling

Examination and course timetabling are computationally difficult real-world resource allocation problems. In 2007, an International Timetabling Competition (ITC) consisting of three classes: (i) examination timetabling, (ii) post enrollment-based, and (iii) curriculum-based course timetabling was organised. One of the competing algorithms, referred to as CPSolver, successfully achieved the first place in two out of these three tracks. This study investigates the performance of various multi-stage selection hyper-heuristics sequencing low-level heuristics/operators extending the CPSolver framework which executes hill climbing and two well-known local search metaheuristics in stages. The proposed selection hyper-heuristic is a multi-stage approach making use of a matrix which maintains transitional probabilities between each low-level heuristic to select the next heuristic in the sequence. A second matrix tracks the probabilities of ending the sequence on a given low-level heuristic. The best configuration for the selection hyper-heuristic is explored tailoring the heuristic selection process for the given timetabling problem class. The empirical results on the ITC 2007 problem instances show that the proposed selection hyper-heuristics can reduce the number of soft constraint violations, producing improved solutions over CPSolver as well as some other previously proposed solvers, particularly, in examination and curriculum-based course timetabling

The Evolutionary Fates of a Large Segmental Duplication in Mouse

Gene duplication and loss are major sources of genetic polymorphism in populations, and are important forces shaping the evolution of genome content and organization. We have reconstructed the origin and history of a 127-kbp segmental duplication, R2d, in the house mouse (Mus musculus). R2d contains a single protein-coding gene, Cwc22. De novo assembly of both the ancestral (R2d1) and the derived (R2d2) copies reveals that they have been subject to nonallelic gene conversion events spanning tens of kilobases. R2d2 is also a hotspot for structural variation: its diploid copy number ranges from zero in the mouse reference genome to >80 in wild mice sampled from around the globe. Hemizygosity for high copy-number alleles of R2d2 is associated in cis with meiotic drive; suppression of meiotic crossovers; and copy-number instability, with a mutation rate in excess of 1 per 100 transmissions in some laboratory populations. Our results provide a striking example of allelic diversity generated by duplication and demonstrate the value of de novo assembly in a phylogenetic context for understanding the mutational processes affecting duplicate genes

Protocol for a mixed-methods study to develop and feasibility test a digital system for the capture of Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) in patients receiving Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies (The PRO-CAR-T Study)

Introduction: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies are novel, potentially curative therapies for haematological malignancies. CAR T-cell therapies are associated with severe toxicities, meaning patients require monitoring during acute and postacute treatment phases. Electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs), self-reports of health status provided via online questionnaires, can complement clinician observation with potential to improve patient outcomes. This study will develop and evaluate feasibility of a new ePRO system for CAR-T patients in routine care. Methods and analysis: Multiphase, mixed-methods study involving multiple stakeholder groups (patients, family members, carers, clinicians, academics/researchers and policy-makers). The intervention development phase comprises a Delphi study to select PRO measures for the digital system, a codesign workshop and consensus meetings to establish thresholds for notifications to the clinical team if a patient reports severe symptoms or side effects. Usability testing will evaluate how users interact with the digital system and, lastly, we will evaluate ePRO system feasibility with 30 CAR-T patients (adults aged 18+ years) when used in addition to usual care. Feasibility study participants will use the ePRO system to submit self-reports of symptoms, treatment tolerability and quality of life at specific time points. The CAR-T clinical team will respond to system notifications triggered by patients’ submitted responses with actions in line with standard clinical practice. Feasibility measures will be collected at prespecified time points following CAR T-cell infusion. A qualitative substudy involving patients and clinical team members will explore acceptability of the ePRO system. Ethics and dissemination: Favourable ethical opinion was granted by the Health and Social Care Research Ethics Committee B(HSC REC B) (ref: 23/NI/0104) on 28 September 2023. Findings will be submitted for publication in high-quality, peer-reviewed journals. Summaries of results, codeveloped with the Blood and Transplant Research Unit Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement group, will be disseminated to all interested groups. Trial registration number: ISCTRN11232653