Reflections on Designing and Delivering an Online Distance Learning Programme in the Mathematical Sciences

In 2013, the University of Glasgow set out a Blended and Online Learning Development scheme focussing on fully online distance learning programmes and blended programmes. In 2017 the School of Mathematics and Statistics within the University of Glasgow developed part-time, online distance learning programmes (PG Diploma/PG Certificate/MSc) in Data Analytics. The programmes have used considerable innovation in terms of course content, assessment, course management and delivery, and in student support. In this case study, we will reflect our experiences of developing and delivering online distance learning programmes and provide future recommendations considering the recent expansion of remote learning across higher educational institutes globally

Public responses to the growth of unemployment in the United Kingdom, with particular reference to action at the local scale

The development of local economic initiatives is a fast growing area of activity and systematic evaluative research is required to assess the effects and possibilities of action at this scale. A dominant theme of major public sector regeneration policy during the late 1970s and early 1980s has been that by incurring heavy investment in providing serviced sites and premises for small enterprise in depressed local economies the collapse of large scale manufacturing employment in these areas can be replaced by a dynamic small firm sector with a strong potential for employment growth. However, the results of research into the local employment impact of firms occupying new public sector premises in the Clydeside conurbation suggests that policies of this sort have only a modest impact on the emergence of genuinely new firms and jobs, will be unable to compensate for the scale of job loss, and are particularly ineffective as measures to reduce local unemployment rates and provide jobs for the long term unemployed. Other evaluative work on the employment impact of economic self-help and community initiatives - an area which has received fewer resources and political commitment than the promotion of traditional small firms - suggests that unconventional forms of economic activity potentially offer more effective ways of generating work and incomes for marginal groups in the labour market living in deprived communities if resources and support more suited to their requirements were forthcoming. Although the potential of locally based action is inevitably limited in that many of the problems faced have their roots in the fluctuations of national and international economies, the prospect of developing more effective approaches to economic and social regeneration at the local scale would be enhanced by a more favourable economic, political and policy climate geared to widening the scope for initiatives relevant to people and communities excluded from work and the benefits of many contemporary policies. The social security system, manpower policy and economic strategies in general could become more supportive and facilitative of wealth generating activity outside full time employment and the formal economy, attitudes to public expenditure could be rethought to allow resources to be used in new ways to create enterprise and employment in depressed localities, and the institutions of higher education could develop a valuable role in evaluating new policies and providing the trained manpower necessary to staff agencies working at the local level in new and challenging ways. Those operating at an urban scale could develop more effective policy responses if they were able to use the current disparate range of economic and employment programmes more flexibly and develop integrated economic strategies by co-ordinating the resources available for local action. These could be used in part to stimulate new and unconventional forms of productive activity which combine both economic and social benefits and which are tailored specifically with the unemployed and depressed communities in mind. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

Ketamine inhibits synaptic transmission and nicotinic acetylcholine receptor-mediated responses in rat intracardiac ganglia <i>in situ</i>

The intravenous anaesthetic ketamine, has been demonstrated to inhibit nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR)-mediated currents in dissociated rat intracardiac ganglion (ICG) neurons (Weber et al., 2005). This effect would be predicted to depress synaptic transmission in the ICG and would account for the inhibitory action of ketamine on vagal transmission to the heart (Inoue and König, 1988). This investigation was designed to examine the activity of ketamine on (i) postsynaptic responses to vagal nerve stimulation, (ii) the membrane potential, and (iii) membrane current responses evoked by exogenous application of ACh and nicotine in ICG neurons in situ. Intracellular recordings were made using sharp intracellular microelectrodes in a whole mount ICG preparation. Preganglionic nerve stimulation and recordings in current- and voltage-clamp modes were used to assess the action of ketamine on ganglionic transmission and nAChR-mediated responses. Ketamine attenuated the postsynaptic responses evoked by nerve stimulation. This reduction was significant at clinically relevant concentrations at high frequencies. The excitatory membrane potential and current responses to focal application of ACh and nicotine were inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner by ketamine. In contrast, ketamine had no effect on either the directly-evoked action potential or excitatory responses evoked by focal application of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Taken together, ketamine inhibits synaptic transmission and nicotine- and ACh-evoked currents in adult rat ICG. Ketamine inhibition of synaptic transmission and nAChR-mediated responses in the ICG contributes significantly to its attenuation of the bradycardia observed in response to vagal stimulation in the mammalian heart

Supporting Control Room Operators in Highly Automated Future Power Networks

Operating power systems is an extremely challenging task, not least because power systems have become highly interconnected, as well as the range of network issues that can occur. It is therefore a necessity to develop decision support systems and visualisation that can effectively support the human operators for decision-making in the complex and dynamic environment of future highly automated power system. This paper aims to investigate the decision support functions associated with frequency deviation events for the proposed Web of Cells concept

Predictive capabilities of linearised models for converter-interfaced battery storage in LV networks

[Abstract unavailable

The Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei: The Effect of Host-Galaxy Starlight on Luminosity Measurements

We have obtained high resolution images of the central regions of 14 reverberation-mapped active galactic nuclei (AGN) using the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys High Resolution Camera to account for host-galaxy starlight contamination of measured AGN luminosities. We measure the host-galaxy starlight contribution to the continuum luminosity at 5100 A through the typical ground-based slit position and geometry used in the reverberation-mapping campaigns. We find that removing the starlight contribution results in a significant correction to the luminosity of each AGN, both for lower luminosity sources, as expected, but also for the higher luminosity sources such as the PG quasars. After accounting for the host galaxy starlight, we revisit the well-known broad-line region radius--luminosity relationship for nearby AGN. We find the power-law slope of the relationship for the H beta line to be 0.518 +/- 0.039, shallower than previously reported and consistent with the slope of 0.5 expected from the naive theoretical assumption that all AGN have, on average, the same ionizing spectrum and the same ionization parameter and gas density in the H beta line-emitting region.Comment: 27 pages, 5 tables, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ; full resolution figures available at http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~bentz/astroph0602412.htm