'Better Together' : Establishing an effective and sustainable (relational) peer coaching process for staff in the Higher Education Sector: an exploratory project

Project funded by the Leadership Foundation for Higher EducationThis report presents the findings from a small, qualitative project which aimed to explore strategies for establishing an effective and sustainable (relational) peer coaching process for staff working across the Higher Education Sector. The original aim was to explore the feasibility of establishing a sustainable peer coaching model in a HEI, and beyond that, an inter-institutional peer coaching network.Final Published versio

Improving interoperability by encouraging the sharing of interface specifications

3D CAD software is vital to record design information. The industry is oligopolistic and despite standards has all the elements associated with a lack of interoperability, namely proprietary software, network effects and lock-in. Interfaces are similar to standards and their indirect effect amplifies their impact and value and distorts the intended intellectual property protection. The distributed machine code is not readable and the restrictions on reverse engineering are tantamount to making the information a statutory trade secret. The regulation of interoperability is a balancing act between control by rightsholders and openness of interfaces. Identifying the ‘pivot’ point must take account of the software’s functional nature and data integrity. Existing proposals are evaluated and recommendations with least intervention that encourage market solutions are made. These involve a modest and doctrinally appropriate amendment to Article 6 of the Software Directive to legitimise the sharing of interface specifications obtained by decompilation and to encourage the use of a public register to improve dissemination

Software Interfaces - Stuck in the Middle: The Relationship Between the Law and Software Interfaces in Regulating and Encouraging INteroperability

Interoperability of software programs is associated with competition and innovation. This has resulted in exceptions to copyright protection for software interfaces and intervention by competition authorities. Despite this, the hidden and unreadable nature of machine code and the limitations of reverse engineering have given a much stronger protection than is normally associated with copyright. This article reviews the theoretical and empirical justifications for interoperability. Then, against the backdrop of the prevailing uncertainty pending the decision of the ECJ in the case of SAS Institute Inc v. World Programming Ltd, the author analyses the development of the law on the status of software interfaces in Europe and the USA. The effectiveness of compulsory disclosure of interoperability information under the “exceptional circumstances” test is considered but the shortcomings of this approach are identified. The possibility of relaxing the restriction on dissemination of interface information is proposed

Transient Mobilisation of Pipe-Wall Adhered Material in Drinking Water Distribution Systems

Discolouration, an aesthetic indicator of drinking water quality, affects approximately 6.7 million customers annually in the UK and is perceived to mask other water quality failures. Existing management techniques cannot explain all of these discolouration failures. Therefore, understanding the processes and forces that lead to discolouration is crucial. Material associated with discolouration is mobilised from the pipe wall when its adherence strength is exceeded by imposed hydraulic forces. Transient events generate significant dynamic forces, yet, there is currently little conclusive evidence exploring their influence on mobilisation of material. This study aims to determine, for the first time, if transient forces can mobilise of material adhered to the pipe-wall, which cannot be mobilised by steady state flows at the same initial or final conditions. An innovative, rigorous laboratory experiment was designed to test this aim. Replicated adhered material was created using magnetic particles inside the pipe and an electromagnet external to the pipe, so that controlled current through the electromagnet quantified adherence force experienced by the magnetic particles. Hydraulic steady state and transient tests, for a range of flow rate and pressure conditions, were conducted to determine the current at which mobilisation occurred. A key contribution of this research was the confirmation that valve closing and valve opening transients cause mobilisation of adhered material, where steady state cannot. This is substantial finding, particularly for valve closing transients as the steady state force reduces during the valve movement. Mobilisation must be due to the dynamic forces generated by the transient. An observationally driven analysis led to development of a function to capture the magnitude of the hydraulic force generated during transients. The one dimensional function was termed the ‘Peak Dynamic Force’ and begins to quantify transient induced forces that lead to mobilisation of pipe-wall adhered material. The work presented within this thesis is unique in that it consistently isolated transient forces and quantified their mobilisation ability. This dynamic ability has theoretical and practical implications, and could ultimately lead to the development of effective management strategies for improving drinking water quality

The Legal regulation of interoperability in an oligopolistic market.

3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) software is widely used in engineering industries to design products and manage their lifecycles. It is crucial to the economy as it records vital design information and knowhow on all engineered products in the developed and developing worlds. The industry is oligopolistic with few suppliers and while efforts have been made to standardise data transfer formats by the promulgation of standards there are formidable interoperability issues. Once users have purchased a particular brand of software they are essentially “locked in” and the industry has all the elements associated with a lack of interoperability, namely network effects, lock-in, and proprietary software and interfaces. Intellectual Property Rights in software are granted to incentivise innovation but cause a lack of interoperability. The ideas and principles which underlie software interfaces are not protected by copyright but there is no such exemption for patents. Interfaces are similar to standards and their indirect effect amplifies their impact and value and distorts the intended intellectual property protection. As the machine code which is distributed to users is not readable, reverse engineering is permitted to enable interoperability, subject to restrictions, including prohibiting the sharing of interface specifications, which is tantamount to making the information a statutory trade secret. Using legal doctrinal research of primary and secondary materials including case law, previous research alongside industry documents and interviews with experts in the industry, this thesis makes original and significant contributions to knowledge. Firstly, the research provides an assessment of the legal regulation of lock-in in an oligopolistic market and identifies the inability of competition law to provide a remedy. It had previously been assumed that competition law would provide a remedy of last resort to require disclosure of interface information. Secondly, considering the indirect function of control of interfaces the justification for patents in interface standards is critically evaluated. Thirdly, with reference to the normative framework of balancing control and openness of interfaces, the ability of the studied market to achieve an optimum balance is evaluated, taking account of the impact of market conditions including the lock-in of the users’ proprietary data, the software’s functional nature and the need for data integrity. Fourthly, with reference to this research and intellectual property law principles and practice existing proposals are critically evaluated including the reduction of the term of protection which will harm vertical interoperability of complementary software. The argument that the time and cost of reverse engineering has a purpose in protecting first comers is countered and it is proposed that reverse engineering of interfaces should be easy and effective. Recommendations are made to improve the dissemination of interface information to allow markets to move towards an optimum balance with minimum regulatory interference. The regulation of interoperability is a balancing act between control by rightsholders and openness of interfaces and this thesis builds on existing research to refine and expand the criteria that identifies the ‘pivot’. Recommendations with least intervention and encouraging efficient market solutions are made with an emphasis on improving reverse engineering’s effectiveness, particularly in the openness and dissemination of interface specifications

After the TEF and Consumer Law Based Interventions – Are Prospective HE Students Now Able to Make Informed Choices?

This article argues that recent government interventions in higher education – some based in consumer law and others in the form of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) have failed to put prospective students in a position to make informed choices about courses or universities. Consumer law-based interventions do not give students all the information they need, although they may help to improve the standard of information and to control marketing excess. The TEF, with its focus on outputs rather than inputs, similarly misses the mark. These failures are bad for students and, to the extent that higher education is a market which depends on students making informed choices, bad for higher education

Electrostatic potential on human leukocyte antigen: implications for putative mechanism of chronic beryllium disease.

The pathobiology of chronic beryllium disease (CBD) involves the major histocompatibility complex class II human leukocyte antigen (HLA). Although occupational exposure to beryllium is the cause of CBD, molecular epidemiologic studies suggest that specific (Italic)HLA-DPB1(/Italic) alleles may be genetic susceptibility factors. We have studied three-dimensional structural models of HLA-DP proteins encoded by these genes. The extracellular domains of HLA-DPA1*0103/B1*1701, *1901, *0201, and *0401, and HLA-DPA1*0201/B1*1701, *1901, *0201, and *0401 were modeled from the X-ray coordinates of an HLA-DR template. Using these models, the electrostatic potential at the molecular surface of each HLA-DP was calculated and compared. These comparisons identify specific characteristics in the vicinity of the antigen-binding pocket that distinguish the different HLA-DP allotypes. Differences in electrostatics originate from the shape, specific disposition, and variation in the negatively charged groups around the pocket. The more negative the pocket potential, the greater the odds of developing CBD estimated from reported epidemiologic studies. Adverse impact is caused by charged substitutions in positions 55, 56, 69, 84, and 85, namely, the exact same loci identified as genetic markers of CBD susceptibility as well as cobalt-lung hard metal disease. These findings suggest that certain substitutions may promote an involuntary cation-binding site within a putatively metal-free peptide-binding pocket and therefore change the innate specificity of antigen recognition

Stabilising urea nitrogen enhances flowering, nitrogen use efficiency, and growth habit for stress tolerance in ornamental plants

Purpose: Supplying plants with nitrogen in ammonium nitrate- or urea-based fertiliser is wasteful: much is degraded before acquisition, releasing environmental pollutants. Preventing urea degradation can reduce pollution and improve crop nitrogen use efficiency. We investigate benefits to ureic stabilisation, on flowering and stress tolerance, as organic nitrogen sources favourably alter biomass partitioning in this regard. Research Method: We test effects of adding chemically stabilised urea to soil, on the physical form and flowering of containerised, greenhouse-grown pelargonium, petunia, pansy and marigold, when transplanting seedlings to larger pots. Efficacies of stabilised urea, non-stabilised urea and industry standard fertiliser are compared under identical total nitrogen supply. The significance of treatment differences is calculated using a one-tailed t-test. Findings: Development is favourably altered by ureic stabilisation. Earliest changes measured are increased root lengths, leaf growth rates and chlorophyll concentrations. Plants then develop more shoots and 25-130% more flowers. Improvements arise partially through increased nitrogen longevity in soil, and partially through positive effects of urea itself on biomass partitioning between organs, and on plant physiology; giving rise to improved commercial attributes (more branches and flowers) and tolerance to stress (more root, less apical dominance, more chlorophyll). Research Limitations: Further research could measure leachate nitrogen content, and compare different methods of ureic stabilisation in more crops. Originality/Value: Urea stabilisation can increase fruit and flower yields, whilst reducing vulnerability to erratic climates, and fertiliser-derived pollution. We propose that urea’s effectiveness arises because plants have evolved strategies to proliferate whilst competing with micro-organisms for organic nitrogen

Diagnostic utility of abdominal ultrasound for detecting non-perforated gastroduodenal ulcers in dogs

BackgroundAbdominal ultrasound is frequently used to detect non-perforated gastroduodenal ulcers in dogs. Studies assessing the diagnostic utility of abdominal ultrasound for the detection of non-perforated gastroduodenal ulcers have yielded mixed results. No studies to date have investigated the effects of patient bodyweight, breed, sex, age, ulcer aetiology (neoplastic or inflammatory) or location on the diagnostic accuracy of abdominal ultrasound.MethodsRetrospective, multicentre study to evaluate the diagnostic utility of abdominal ultrasonography for the diagnosis of non-perforated gastroduodenal ulceration in dogs.ResultsSixty-one dogs met the inclusion criteria. Ulcers were detected during ultrasound examination in 18 of 61 dogs, yielding a sensitivity of 29.5% (95% confidence interval 18.8%-42.7%). Ulcers in the pyloric region were detected more frequently than those in the duodenum; however, location was not significantly associated with the ability of ultrasound to detect lesions (p = 0.41). No associations were identified between the ability of ultrasound to detect an ulcer and patient bodyweight (p = 0.45), breed (p = 0.98), sex (p = 0.90), age (p = 0.94), and neoplastic versus inflammatory nature of ulcerative lesions (p = 0.93).ConclusionThe diagnostic utility of ultrasound as the sole modality for the detection of non-perforated gastroduodenal mucosal ulceration is poor. The authors therefore recommend the use of additional modalities when ulcerative lesions are suspected