Integrating research and teaching in higher education: Conceptual issues

Integrating new knowledge created through research with teaching has become an important area that needs prompt attention with the growing emphasis on student learning activities, quality assurance procedures and research funding mechanisms within the UK higher education system. The link between research and teaching is not automatic. Thus, it needs to be created in higher education departments in order to achieve a productive relationship and manage research activities of university staff with teaching duties. The research study, on which this paper is based on, aims to develop principles in relation to transferring research knowledge into teaching through a literature review and case studies. The paper reports conceptual issues related to such a transfer process based on the literature findings

Forensics in Industrial Control System: A Case Study

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are used worldwide in critical infrastructures. An ICS system can be a single embedded system working stand-alone for controlling a simple process or ICS can also be a very complex Distributed Control System (DCS) connected to Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system(s) in a nuclear power plant. Although ICS are widely used to-day, there are very little research on the forensic acquisition and analyze ICS artefacts. In this paper we present a case study of forensics in ICS where we de-scribe a method of safeguarding important volatile artefacts from an embedded industrial control system and several other source

An integrated life cycle costing database: a conceptual framework

Life cycle costing (LCC) is a management technique that has been available to the industry for some time, but despite this it continues to languish in obscurity. Some clients, most apparently from the public sector, are fostering the technique by commissioning studies based on the LCC appraisal techniques. However, the majority of building designs are still currently produced unsullied by thoughts of maintenance implications, life expectancy or energy consumption. Recent technological developments, particularly in Web, Virtual Reality (VR), and Object Oriented technologies and mathematical and computational modelling techniques will undoubtedly help in resolving some of the problems associated with life cycle costing techniques. This paper outlines a conceptual framework for an innovative system that facilitates the implementation of LCC in various design and occupancy stages. This system is being developed within an EPSRC-funded research project, undertaken through a joint collaboration between the Robert Gordon University and the University of Salford

Skill competency development strategies by a contractor

Construction skills are one of the vital aspects of construction work which is growing in importance due to skill gaps and skill shortages during different economic cycles. The aim of this study was to investigate competence development strategies by a traditional construction company within its own pool of skill resources and among its supply chain members. The study was carried out via literature review, empirical studies involving a focus study, analysis of documentary evidence supported by unstructured interviews and a report of skill development/supply chain conference. The study demonstrates how long-term skill development can be achieved through: (a) strategic capacity planning which allows high retention, continuous training, and balanced construction demand and contractor’s supply capacity over the long term; (b) updating and upgrading the knowledge base of the supply chain through conferences and training schemes; (c) strategic investment in the workforce through training, vocational and higher degrees; and (d) acquaintance with different sources of finance. This study will assist small traditional firms in building competencies in skill development and improvement. It will assist an international audience who may face similar issue with their construction firm

Epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity determines estrogen receptor positive breast cancer dormancy and epithelial reconversion drives recurrence

More than 70% of human breast cancers (BCs) are estrogen receptor α-positive (ER+). A clinical challenge of ER+ BC is that they can recur decades after initial treatments. Mechanisms governing latent disease remain elusive due to lack of adequate in vivo models. We compare intraductal xenografts of ER+ and triple-negative (TN) BC cells and demonstrate that disseminated TNBC cells proliferate similarly as TNBC cells at the primary site whereas disseminated ER+ BC cells proliferate slower, they decrease CDH1 and increase ZEB1,2 expressions, and exhibit characteristics of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity (EMP) and dormancy. Forced E-cadherin expression overcomes ER+ BC dormancy. Cytokine signalings are enriched in more active versus inactive disseminated tumour cells, suggesting microenvironmental triggers for awakening. We conclude that intraductal xenografts model ER + BC dormancy and reveal that EMP is essential for the generation of a dormant cell state and that targeting exit from EMP has therapeutic potential

Assortment optimisation under a general discrete choice model: A tight analysis of revenue-ordered assortments

The assortment problem in revenue management is the problem of deciding which subset of products to offer to consumers in order to maximise revenue. A simple and natural strategy is to select the best assortment out of all those that are constructed by fixing a threshold revenue $\pi$ and then choosing all products with revenue at least $\pi$. This is known as the revenue-ordered assortments strategy. In this paper we study the approximation guarantees provided by revenue-ordered assortments when customers are rational in the following sense: the probability of selecting a specific product from the set being offered cannot increase if the set is enlarged. This rationality assumption, known as regularity, is satisfied by almost all discrete choice models considered in the revenue management and choice theory literature, and in particular by random utility models. The bounds we obtain are tight and improve on recent results in that direction, such as for the Mixed Multinomial Logit model by Rusmevichientong et al. (2014). An appealing feature of our analysis is its simplicity, as it relies only on the regularity condition. We also draw a connection between assortment optimisation and two pricing problems called unit demand envy-free pricing and Stackelberg minimum spanning tree: These problems can be restated as assortment problems under discrete choice models satisfying the regularity condition, and moreover revenue-ordered assortments correspond then to the well-studied uniform pricing heuristic. When specialised to that setting, the general bounds we establish for revenue-ordered assortments match and unify the best known results on uniform pricing.Comment: Minor changes following referees' comment