Improving student engagement through employability themed group work

In an ideal world, universities and their departments are able to reach out to employers for collaborative, employer-set, authentic assessment which align industry expectations with an assessment that tests the intended learning outcomes of a module. This is a large and ambitious undertaking for practical reasons. The author identified three practical challenges as: sourcing willing employers, relevance and level-setting, and scalability, i.e., use in modules with large numbers of students. As module leader, each of these challenges were addressed and solutions identified allowing the employability project to be embedded into a module with 150 participating students contributing 30% towards the overall module mark

Quantum spaces arising from weighted circle actions and their non-commutative geometry.

Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to investigate weighted actions of the circle group U(1) on known quantum spaces. By introducing suitable weights we are able to construct new unexplored quantum spaces which contain the known quantum spaces in the unweighted case. Once we are able to describe the algebraic structure of these new quantum spaces we investigate their quantum geometry. This thesis is split into two main parts with an outlook of open problems attached; the first consists of introductory material, motivation and an overview of quantum groups and their non-commutative geometry. The second part contains the results from research into quantum weighted projective spaces, in particular describes quantum weighted projective spaces, quantum weighted real projective spaces and quantum weighted Heegaard spaces; see [5], [6] and [7]. Finally, some open problems are discusscd, firstly the existence of a differential calculus over the quantum weighted projective spaces. Secondly, the description of higher dimensional quantum weighted projective spaces. One possible approach for interpreting these spaces on the C*-algebra level is by graph algebra theory; the ideas are discussed briefly in the appendices of this thesis. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

Quantum teardrops

Algebras of functions on quantum weighted projective spaces are introduced, and the structure of quantum weighted projective lines or quantum teardrops are described in detail. In particular the presentation of the coordinate algebra of the quantum teardrop in terms of generators and relations and classification of irreducible *-representations are derived. The algebras are then analysed from the point of view of Hopf-Galois theory or the theory of quantum principal bundles. Fredholm modules and associated traces are constructed. C*-algebras of continuous functions on quantum weighted projective lines are described and their K-groups computed.Comment: 18 page

Genome-wide analysis identifies a role for common copy number variants in specific language impairment

An exploratory genome-wide copy number variant (CNV) study was performed in 127 independent cases with specific language impairment (SLI), their first-degree relatives (385 individuals) and 269 population controls. Language-impaired cases showed an increased CNV burden in terms of the average number of events (11.28 vs 10.01, empirical P=0.003), the total length of CNVs (717 vs 513 Kb, empirical P=0.0001), the average CNV size (63.75 vs 51.6 Kb, empirical P=0.0005) and the number of genes spanned (14.29 vs 10.34, empirical P=0.0007) when compared with population controls, suggesting that CNVs may contribute to SLI risk. A similar trend was observed in first-degree relatives regardless of affection status. The increased burden found in our study was not driven by large or de novo events, which have been described as causative in other neurodevelopmental disorders. Nevertheless, de novo CNVs might be important on a case-by-case basis, as indicated by identification of events affecting relevant genes, such as ACTR2 and CSNK1A1, and small events within known micro-deletion/-duplication syndrome regions, such as chr8p23.1. Pathway analysis of the genes present within the CNVs of the independent cases identified significant overrepresentation of acetylcholine binding, cyclic-nucleotide phosphodiesterase activity and MHC proteins as compared with controls. Taken together, our data suggest that the majority of the risk conferred by CNVs in SLI is via common, inherited events within a ‘common disorder–common variant’ model. Therefore the risk conferred by CNVs will depend upon the combination of events inherited (both CNVs and SNPs), the genetic background of the individual and the environmental factors

Genome-wide association study of primary sclerosing cholangitis identifies new risk loci and quantifies the genetic relationship with inflammatory bowel disease.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a rare progressive disorder leading to bile duct destruction; ∼75% of patients have comorbid inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We undertook the largest genome-wide association study of PSC (4,796 cases and 19,955 population controls) and identified four new genome-wide significant loci. The most associated SNP at one locus affects splicing and expression of UBASH3A, with the protective allele (C) predicted to cause nonstop-mediated mRNA decay and lower expression of UBASH3A. Further analyses based on common variants suggested that the genome-wide genetic correlation (rG) between PSC and ulcerative colitis (UC) (rG = 0.29) was significantly greater than that between PSC and Crohn's disease (CD) (rG = 0.04) (P = 2.55 × 10-15). UC and CD were genetically more similar to each other (rG = 0.56) than either was to PSC (P < 1.0 × 10-15). Our study represents a substantial advance in understanding of the genetics of PSC

A blood atlas of COVID-19 defines hallmarks of disease severity and specificity.

Treatment of severe COVID-19 is currently limited by clinical heterogeneity and incomplete description of specific immune biomarkers. We present here a comprehensive multi-omic blood atlas for patients with varying COVID-19 severity in an integrated comparison with influenza and sepsis patients versus healthy volunteers. We identify immune signatures and correlates of host response. Hallmarks of disease severity involved cells, their inflammatory mediators and networks, including progenitor cells and specific myeloid and lymphocyte subsets, features of the immune repertoire, acute phase response, metabolism, and coagulation. Persisting immune activation involving AP-1/p38MAPK was a specific feature of COVID-19. The plasma proteome enabled sub-phenotyping into patient clusters, predictive of severity and outcome. Systems-based integrative analyses including tensor and matrix decomposition of all modalities revealed feature groupings linked with severity and specificity compared to influenza and sepsis. Our approach and blood atlas will support future drug development, clinical trial design, and personalized medicine approaches for COVID-19

Improving student engagement through employability themed group work

In an ideal world, universities and their departments are able to reach out to employers for collaborative, employer-set, authentic assessment which align industry expectations with an assessment that tests the intended learning outcomes of a module. This is a large and ambitious undertaking for practical reasons. The author identified three practical challenges as: sourcing willing employers, relevance and level-setting, and scalability, i.e., use in modules with large numbers of students. As module leader, each of these challenges were addressed and solutions identified allowing the employability project to be embedded into a module with 150 participating students contributing 30% towards the overall module mark.</jats:p