Being WELL in the Neoliberal University: Conceptualising a Whole University Approach to Student Wellbeing and Experiences of Living and Learning at UK Universities in a Neoliberal Higher Education Context

Background Epidemiological trends demonstrating disproportionate, proliferating, and unequal student and staff mental health outcomes at UK universities have coincided with a marked neoliberalisation of higher education. With few exceptions however, these trends have been conceptualised in isolation, with epistemological predisposition towards isolated individual-level explanations and interventions for distress across student mental health research that are in inherent tension with the implementation of a whole university approach to wellbeing in policy and practice. To address these conceptual, methodological, and practice-based gaps across the field, this thesis seeks to address the primary research question: ‘how do students experience wellbeing and living and learning in a neoliberal higher educational context and what are the implications for the conceptualisation and operationalisation of a whole university approach?’ Design and Methods Grounded in pragmatist ontology, a multi-phase research design is applied containing five symbiotic studies. Study one synthesises biopsychosocial systems-based theories of wellbeing; cross-disciplinary neoliberal critique; and Foucaultian philosophy on subjectivity to conceptualise a multi-dimensional relationship between the neoliberal higher education system and student wellbeing. Study two conducts an integrative and interpretative narrative literature review to identify the social, academic, and financial determinants of student wellbeing within the context of the neoliberal higher education system. Study three utilises a cross-sectional survey with a national sample of 815 undergraduate and postgraduate students to identify the prevalence, variance, and associations of salient social, academic, and financial determinants of wellbeing with identifiable socio-material and socio-psychological neoliberal conditions. Study four performs ten student focus groups to explore student experiential narratives of wellbeing and living and learning in the neoliberal system, whilst eliciting recommendations for policy and practice. Study five uses expert interviews with nine relevant stakeholders to explore the influence of neoliberal socio-material and socio-psychological conditions on service delivery and elucidate recommendations for the conceptualisation and operationalisation of a whole university approach. Findings Taken together, the findings present preliminary evidence that identifiable neoliberal higher education principles and policies mediate student exposure, both socio-materially and socio-psychologically, to academic, social, and financial determinants which demonstrably, detrimentally, and differentially impact on subjective wellbeing. It is argued therefore that pragmatic conceptualisation and operationalisation of a whole university approach must be contextualised within the neoliberal higher education system. Implications for policy, practice, and research are presented

Acceptance and commitment therapy for public speaking anxiety: a case series study of effects on self-reported, implicit, imaginal, and in-vivo outcomes

Public speaking anxiety (PSA) is a common problem, and in some cases can lead to significant social and occupational difficulties. While exposure therapy combined with cognitive restructuring is currently the most effective treatment available, approximately 25% of individuals fail to respond. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a third-wave behavioural approach predicated on supposed different mechanisms of change, may have additional benefits to more traditional interventions, and may be more acceptable to those individuals with PSA who find exposure based therapy too difficult. A multiple single-case design was used to examine the effects of a self-help ACT intervention for PSA on self-reported, implicit, imaginal, and in-vivo outcomes, across six replications. All participants reported a reduction in speech anxiety, with evidence of reliable change in three cases. The four participants who reported an increase in willingness to approach a feared public speaking scenario, also completed an in-vivo voluntary speech task. Triangulation of quantitative (daily and weekly measures) and qualitative data (change-interview) indicate that mindfulness (self-as-context and present-moment awareness) may be a key mechanism of change in ACT for individuals with PSA. The findings offer support for ACT delivered in a self-help format to treat speech anxiety, however, further research is needed to generalise these findings and examine the long term effects

A Product Affinity Segmentation Framework

Product affinity segmentation discovers the linking between customers and products for cross-selling and promotion opportunities to increase sales and profits. However, there are some challenges with conventional approaches. The most straightforward approach is to use the product-level data for customer segmentation, but it results in less meaningful solutions. Moreover, customer segmentation becomes challenging on massive datasets due to computational complexity of traditional clustering methods. As an alternative, market basket analysis may suffer from association rules too general to be relevant for important segments. In this paper, we propose to partition customers and discover associated products simultaneously by detecting communities in the customer-product bipartite graph using the Louvain algorithm that has good interpretability in this context. Through the post-clustering analysis, we show that this framework generates statistically distinct clusters and identifies associated products relevant for each cluster. Our analysis provides greater insights into customer purchase behaviors, potentially helping personalization strategic planning (e.g. customized product recommendation) and profitability increase. And our case study of a large U.S. retailer provides useful management insights. Moreover, the graph application, based on almost 800,000 sales transactions, finished in 7.5 seconds on a standard PC, demonstrating its computational efficiency and better facilitating the requirements of big data

Correlation Studies of Pressure Fluctuations on the Ground Beneath a Turbulent Boundary Layer

Narrow-band pressure correlation measurements in the frequency range ,008 to 1 Hz(cps) were obtained from a cross spectral analysis between pairs of microphones placed on level ground beneath the wind stream. The measurements were made over a range of wind speeds from 2.1 to 7.2 meters per second and a range of hemispheric solar radiation conditions varying from 0 to 44 Langleys per hour. Plausibility arguments are presented which predict for the narrow-band longitudinal and lateral correlation coefficients: -0'~ Rw(£,0) = e cos(kg) and Rw(O~~) = e-S~ where~ and~ are the longitudinal and lateral separations, respectively, and 0', S, and k are determined by the experiment. Contrary to similarity considerations ct and k were found not to be strictly proportional, but rather 0' = 0.4lk 1 ' 28 , 0' and k being expressed in (meters)-1 , over a range 2 < (1/ot) < 500 meters. The relation between 2 .74 Q -1 ct and S was found to be: ~ = 1. 0' , 0' and ~ expressed in (meters) , over a range 3 < (1/~) < 500 meters. For an arbitrary angle with respect to wind direction evidence is presented which indicates that Rw(~,~) is very slightly larger than the product Rw(g,O)Rw(O,~). A small amount of data taken relating the convection velocity versus wavelength to anemometer readings indicates the possibility of predicting the wind profile from pressure fluctuations on the ground

Esther Trowbridge Catlin Correspondence

Entries include a handwritten letter on personal stationery and letters of correspondence from the Maine State Library

Linear and nonlinear interest rate sensitivity of Spanish banks

Interest rate risk is one of the major financial risks faced by banks due to the very nature of the banking business. The most common approach in the literature has been to estimate the impact of interest rate risk on banks using a simple linear regression model. However, the relationship between interest rate changes and bank stock returns does not need to be exclusively linear. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the interest rate exposure of the Spanish banking industry employing both parametric and non-parametric estimation methods. Its main contribution is to use, for the first time in the context of banks' interest rate risk, a nonparametric regression technique that avoids the assumption of a specific functional form. On the one hand, it is found that the Spanish banking sector exhibits a remarkable degree of interest rate exposure, although the impact of interest rate changes on bank, stock returns have significantly declined following the introduction of the euro. Further, a pattern of positive exposure emerges during the post-euro period. On the other hand, the results corresponding to the nonparametric model support the expansion of the conventional linear model in an attempt to gain a greater insight into the actual degree of exposure

Effect of historical changes in land use and climate on the water budget of an urbanizing watershed

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Water Resources Research 42 (2006): W03426, doi:10.1029/2005WR004131.We assessed the effects of historical (1931-1998) changes in both land-use and climate on the water budget of a rapidly urbanizing watershed, Ipswich River basin (IRB), in northeastern Massachusetts. Water diversions and extremely low flow during summer are major issues in the IRB. Our study centers on a detailed analysis of diversions and a combined empirical/modeling treatment of evapotranspiration (ET) response to changes in climate and land-use. A detailed accounting of diversions showed that net diversions increased due to increases in water withdrawals (primarily ground water pumping) and export of sewage. Net diversions constitute a major component of runoff (20% of streamflow). Using a combination of empirical analysis and physically based modeling we related an increase in precipitation (2.7 mm/yr) and changes in other climate variables to an increase in ET (1.7 mm/yr). Simulations with a physically based water-balance model showed that the increase in ET could be attributed entirely to a change in climate, while the effect of land-use change was negligible. The land-use change effect was different from ET and runoff trends commonly associated with urbanization. We generalized these and other findings to predict future streamflow using climate change scenarios. Our study could serve as a framework for studying suburban watersheds, being the first study of a suburban watershed that addresses long-term effects of changes in both land-use and climate, and accounts for diversions and other unique aspects of suburban hydrology.This research was partially supported by NSF grants (DEB-9726862, OCE-9726921 and OCE-0423565)

In photosynthesis, oxygen comes from water: from a 1787 book for women by Monsieur De Fourcroy

Abstract It is now well established that the source of oxygen in photosynthesis is water. The earliest suggestion previously known to us had come from René Bernard Wurmser (1930). Here, we highlight an earlier report by Monsieur De Fourcroy (1787), who had already discussed the broad outlines of such a hypothesis in a book on Chemistry written for women. We present here a free translation of a passage from this book, with the original text in French as an Appendix