The role of special events in personalising higher education in business

Personalisation of education is high on the political agenda within the United Kingdom (UK), having entered the educational policy debate at the turn of the millennium through the inception of the Children’s Plan (DfES, 2004). The principles of this early vision being to give, "every single child the chance to be the best they can be, whatever their talent or background" (Miliband, 2006). However, to date, there remains a lack of insight into how personalisation is interpreted and practiced within a higher education setting (Becket and Brookes, 2012), resulting in a definitional fuzziness (Hartley, 2008) and multiple manifestations of the application of personalisation. Existing knowledge of how higher education in business is personalised is particularly sparse. Notably the role that initiatives such as alumni mentoring and special events can play in the personalisation of business students' education. Within Nottingham Business School, personalisation covers a broad remit from the use of diagnostics in understanding learning styles to many targeted skills and employability events to help our students explore and reach their full potential. This research draws upon current practice within the Personalisation project of Nottingham Business School, with the aim of proposing an effective model of what personalisation of undergraduate international business curriculum might look like "on the ground" from an academic and student perspective. The research also assesses the potential of several specific initiatives, such as, an alumni language mentoring scheme and bespoke special events, upon building the aspirations of students and helping them to reach their potential

Observation of the Faraday effect via beam deflection in a longitudinal magnetic field

We report the observation of the magnetic field induced circular differential deflection of light at the interface of a Faraday medium. The difference in the angles of refraction or reflection between the two circular polarization components is a function of the magnetic field strength and the Verdet constant. The reported phenomena permit the observation of the Faraday effect not via polarization rotation in transmission, but via changes in the propagation direction in refraction or in reflection. An unpolarized light beam is predicted to split into its two circular polarization components. The light deflection arises within a few wavelengths at the interface and is therefore independent of pathlength

Soft-decision minimum-distance sequential decoding algorithm for convolutional codes

The maximum-likelihood decoding of convolutional codes has generally been considered impractical for other than relatively short constraint length codes, because of the exponential growth in complexity with increasing constraint length. The soft-decision minimum-distance decoding algorithm proposed in the paper approaches the performance of a maximum-likelihood decoder, and uses a sequential decoding approach to avoid an exponential growth in complexity. The algorithm also utilises the distance and structural properties of convolutional codes to considerably reduce the amount of searching needed to find the minimum soft-decision distance paths when a back-up search is required. This is done in two main ways. First, a small set of paths called permissible paths are utilised to search the whole of the subtree for the better path, instead of using all the paths within a given subtree. Secondly, the decoder identifies which subset of permissible paths should be utilised in a given search and which may be ignored. In this way many unnecessary path searches are completely eliminated. Because the decoding effort required by the algorithm is low, and the decoding processes are simple, the algorithm opens the possibility of building high-speed long constraint length convolutional decoders whose performance approaches that of the optimum maximum-likelihood decoder. The paper describes the algorithm and its theoretical basis, and gives examples of its operation. Also, results obtained from practical implementations of the algorithm using a high-speed microcomputer are presented

Towards a Formal Verification Methodology for Collective Robotic Systems

We introduce a UML-based notation for graphically modeling systems’ security aspects in a simple and intuitive way and a model-driven process that transforms graphical specifications of access control policies in XACML. These XACML policies are then translated in FACPL, a policy language with a formal semantics, and the resulting policies are evaluated by means of a Java-based software tool

Structural behaviour of copper chloride catalysts during the chlorination of CO to phosgene

The interaction of CO with an attapulgite-supported Cu(II)Cl2 catalyst has been examined in a micro-reactor arrangement. CO exposure to the dried, as-received catalyst at elevated temperatures leads to the formation of CO2 as the only identifiable product. However, phosgene production can be induced by a catalyst pre-treatment where the supported Cu(II)Cl2 sample is exposed to a diluted stream of chlorine. Subsequent CO exposure at ~ 370°C then leads to phosgene production. In order to investigate the origins of this atypical set of reaction characteristics, a series of x-ray absorption experiments were performed that were supplemented by DFT calculations. XANES measurements establish that at the elevated temperatures connected with phosgene formation, the catalyst is comprised of Cu+ and a small amount of Cu2+. Moreover, the data show that unique to the chlorine pre-treated sample, CO exposure at elevated temperature results in a short-lived oxidation of the copper. On the basis of calculated CO adsorption energies, DFT calculations indicate that a mixed Cu+/Cu2+ catalyst is required to support CO chemisorption

Role Of International Research Experiences In The Development Of Women Of Color In Chemistry

As undergraduate students cultivate their scientific knowledge and abilities, several high-impact educational practices such as undergraduate research and global experiences have proven exponentially beneficial for their development and success. Current literature on underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities has focused primarily on the impact of undergraduate research on this subpopulation. However, fewer studies have explored the impact of global research experiences and women of color in international research experiences. Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Social Cognitive Career Theory, Intersectionality, and Community Cultural Wealth, this present study explored the impact of international undergraduate research experiences on women of color from groups underrepresented in chemistry. We found that, after participating in international research, women of color from historically underrepresented groups (1) were aware of the realities of being a woman and a minority in STEM, (2) had utilized a wealth of cultural capital to navigate the international research experience, (3) had recognized the value of the international research experience on their personal growth, and (4) had recognized the benefits of their international research experience on postundergraduate pursuits. The findings suggest that international research experiences contribute substantially to the holistic development of women of color in scientific disciplines such as chemistry

On embodied memetic evolution and the emergence of behavioural traditions in Robots

This paper describes ideas and initial experiments in embodied imitation using e-puck robots, developed as part of a project whose aim is to demonstrate the emergence of artificial culture in collective robot systems. Imitated behaviours (memes) will undergo variation because of the noise and heterogeneities of the robots and their sensors. Robots can select which memes to enact, and-because we have a multi-robot collective-memes are able to undergo multiple cycles of imitation, with inherited characteristics. We thus have the three evolutionary operators: variation, selection and inheritance, and-as we describe in this paper-experimental trials show that we are able to demonstrate embodied movement-meme evolution. © 2011 Springer-Verlag