Access courses as a site of engagement: a research project

This research project was funded by the Greater Manchester Strategic Alliance and Aimhigher Research Network North West. A database of Access students was held at the University of Salford that included students from 1998-2006. The names of the students were gathered by the Access Unit from their Enrichment Programme over the period. Ethical approval for the research was sought from the IRIS Director and advice on the Data Protection Act sought from the manager responsible within the university. The database contained information on name, age, address, telephone contact, gender, ethnicity, college and Access course attended. There were approximately 6000 entries on the database. “Access to higher education courses offer a route into higher education (HE) for those who do not have the educational qualifications which are usually required for entry. These courses provide the underpinning knowledge and skills needed for university-level study, and lead to the award of the Access to HE qualification, which is of an equivalent standard to Level 3 qualifications, such as A levels.” UCAS website. Individuals can study a range of courses in different subject areas such as health, science or humanities. Access courses can be studied over one year as a full time course or over two-three years as a part time course. The starting point for the study is the view that to enrol on an Access to HE course means that a major decision or turning point in an adult’s life has taken place and that the individual wants to change direction. This change of direction is important and suggests that individuals may have missed an opportunity earlier in their lives or do not wish to continue in the same employment situation or in the case of many women who are carers their circumstances have changed. The engagement in learning is an agentic act on the part of the individual that may be prompted by others in the immediate family or friends. However, a necessary aspect of this engagement is the provision of Access courses as a means to enter higher education or change employment

Evaluation of ignition mechanisms in selected spacecraft materials Final report, 1 Mar. - 30 Jun. 1967

Evaluation of ignition mechanisms for spacecraft materials in simulated spacecraft cabin atmosphere

A mission synthesis algorithm for editing variable amplitude fatigue signals

This paper presents a wavelet-based fatigue data editing algorithm, known as Wavelet Bump Extraction (WBE), to summarise long record of fatigue loadings. The key point of this algorithm is to produce a shorter time history (mission signal) that retains the majority of the original fatigue damage whilst preserving cycle sequence information. In WBE, features or bumps are identified in characteristic frequency bands using the Daubechies’ wavelet transform. Comparison of the fatigue life between the original and mission signals was performed to validate the algorithm. The fatigue life was predicted using a variable amplitude fatigue damage model and the results showed a good correlation between the damage caused by the original and mission signals. Finally, the findings suggest that WBE is a suitable approach for producing a shortened mission signal for accelerated fatigue testing

A mission synthesis algorithm for fatigue damage analysis

This paper presents a signal processing based algorithm, the Mildly Nonstationary Mission Synthesis (MNMS), which produces a short mission signal from long records of experimental data. The algorithm uses the Discrete Fourier Transform, Orthogonal Wavelet Transform and bump reinsertion procedures. In order to observe the algorithm effectiveness a fatigue damage case study was performed for a vehicle lower suspension arm using signals containing tensile and compressive preloading. The mission synthesis results were compared to the original road data in terms of both the global signal statistics and the fatigue damage variation as a function of compression ratio. Three bump reinsertion methods were used and evaluated. The methods differed in the manner in which bumps (shock events) from different wavelet groups (frequency bands) were synchronised during the reinsertion process. One method, based on time synchronised section reinsertion, produced the best results in terms of mission signal kurtosis, crest factor, root-mean-square level and power spectral density. For improved algorithm performance, bump selection was identified as the main control parameter requiring optimisation

Going from microscopic to macroscopic on nonuniform growing domains

Throughout development, chemical cues are employed to guide the functional specification of underlying tissues while the spatiotemporal distributions of such chemicals can be influenced by the growth of the tissue itself. These chemicals, termed morphogens, are often modeled using partial differential equations (PDEs). The connection between discrete stochastic and deterministic continuum models of particle migration on growing domains was elucidated by Baker, Yates, and Erban [ Bull. Math. Biol. 72 719 (2010)] in which the migration of individual particles was modeled as an on-lattice position-jump process. We build on this work by incorporating a more physically reasonable description of domain growth. Instead of allowing underlying lattice elements to instantaneously double in size and divide, we allow incremental element growth and splitting upon reaching a predefined threshold size. Such a description of domain growth necessitates a nonuniform partition of the domain. We first demonstrate that an individual-based stochastic model for particle diffusion on such a nonuniform domain partition is equivalent to a PDE model of the same phenomenon on a nongrowing domain, providing the transition rates (which we derive) are chosen correctly and we partition the domain in the correct manner. We extend this analysis to the case where the domain is allowed to change in size, altering the transition rates as necessary. Through application of the master equation formalism we derive a PDE for particle density on this growing domain and corroborate our findings with numerical simulations

On some aspects of the noise propagation from supersonic aircraft

The noise problem associated with an aircraft flying at supersonic speeds is shown to depend primarily on the shock wave pattern formed by the aircraft. The noise intensity received by a ground observer from a supersonic aircraft flying at high as well as low altitudes, is shown to be high although it is of a transient nature. Continues