Student retention in further education : a problem of quality or of student finance?

"This paper is an updated version of one presented to the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference in September 1999" -- front cover

Bowling maidens over: 1931 and the beginnings of women's cricket in a Yorkshire town

This article focuses on the development of women's cricket in a West Yorkshire town - Brighouse - in the 1930s. It situates this subject within the context of the growth of women's cricket more generally, and goes on to explore the personality and uniqueness of women's cricket in the town. The article identifies key issues in the way that women's cricket was perceived at the time, particularly in the pages of the Brighouse & Elland Echo, the local newspaper. As such, it considers the novelty of the sport, the gender stereotyping that was an important aspect of newspaper coverage, the relationship between women's and men's cricket, and also the marketing of key fixture

Exploiting spontaneous transmissions for broadcasting and leader election in radio networks

We study two fundamental communication primitives: broadcasting and leader election in the classical model of multi-hop radio networks with unknown topology and without collision detection mechanisms. It has been known for almost 20 years that in undirected networks with n nodes and diameter D, randomized broadcasting requires Ω(D log n/D + log2 n) rounds, assuming that uninformed nodes are not allowed to communicate (until they are informed). Only very recently, Haeupler and Wajc (PODC'2016) showed that this bound can be improved for the model with spontaneous transmissions, providing an O(D log n log log n/log D + logO(1) n)-time broadcasting algorithm. In this article, we give a new and faster algorithm that completes broadcasting in O(D log n/log D + logO(1) n) time, succeeding with high probability. This yields the first optimal O(D)-time broadcasting algorithm whenever n is polynomial in D. Furthermore, our approach can be applied to design a new leader election algorithm that matches the performance of our broadcasting algorithm. Previously, all fast randomized leader election algorithms have used broadcasting as a subroutine and their complexity has been asymptotically strictly larger than the complexity of broadcasting. In particular, the fastest previously known randomized leader election algorithm of Ghaffari and Haeupler (SODA'2013) requires O(D log n/D min {log log n, log n/D} + logO(1) n)-time, succeeding with high probability. Our new algorithm again requires O(D log n/log D + logO(1) n) time, also succeeding with high probability

Lattice QCD meets experiment in hadron physics

We review recent results in lattice QCD from numerical simulations that allow for a much more realistic QCD vacuum than has been possible before. Comparison with experiment for a variety of hadronic quantities gives agreement to within statistical and systematic errors of 3%. We discuss the implications of this for future calculations in lattice QCD, particularly those which will provide input for B factory experiments.Comment: Review talk at HADRON2003, Aschaffenberg, Germany, September 200

On a three-dimensional lattice approach for modelling corrosion induced cracking and its influence on bond between reinforcement and concrete

The present work involves the discrete modelling of corrosion induced cracking and its influence on the bond between reinforcement and concrete. A lattice approach is used to describe the mechanical interaction of a corroding reinforcement bar, the surrounding concrete and the interface between steel reinforcement and concrete. The cross-section of the ribbed reinforcement bar is taken to be circular, assuming that the interaction of the ribs of the deformed reinforcement bar and the surrounding concrete is included in a cap-plasticity interface model. The expansion of the corrosion product is represented by an eigenstrain in the lattice elements forming the interface. The lattice modelling approach is applied to the analysis of corrosion induced cracking and its influence of the bond strength. The model capabilities are assessed by comparing results of analyses with those from unconfined pull-out tests reported in the literature. Future work will investigate the influence of the stiffness of interface elements and the effect of lateral confinement on corrosion induced cracking.Comment: Preprint of conference paper for Fracture Mechanics of Concrete and Concrete Structures, South Korea, 201