University space planning and space-type profiles

Universities planning the provision of space for their teaching requirements need to do so in a fashion that reduces capital and maintenance costs whilst still providing a high-quality level of service. Space plans should aim to provide sufficient capacity without incurring excessive costs due to over-capacity. A simple measure used to estimate over-provision is utilisation. Essentially, the utilisation is the fraction of seats that are used in practice, or the ratio of demand to supply. However, studies usually find that utilisation is low, often only 20–40%, and this is suggestive of significant over-capacity. Our previous work has provided methods to improve such space planning. They identify a critical level of utilisation as the highest level that can be achieved whilst still reliably satisfying the demand for places to allocate teaching events. In this paper, we extend this body of work to incorporate the notions of event-types and space-types. Teaching events have multiple ‘event-types’, such as lecture, tutorial, workshop, etc., and there are generally corresponding space-types. Matching the type of an event to a room of a corresponding space-type is generally desirable. However, realistically, allocation happens in a mixed space-type environment where teaching events of a given type are allocated to rooms of another space-type; e.g., tutorials will borrow lecture theatres or workshop rooms. We propose a model and methodology to quantify the effects of space-type mixing and establish methods to search for better space-type profiles; where the term “space-type profile” refers to the relative numbers of each type of space. We give evidence that these methods have the potential to improve utilisation levels. Hence, the contribution of this paper is twofold. Firstly, we present informative studies of the effects of space-type mixing on utilisation, and critical utilisations. Secondly, we present straightforward though novel methods to determine better space-type profiles, and give an example in which the resulting profiles are indeed significantly improved. <br/

Fire safety protection motivation and preparedness in Irish apartments: a post-Grenfell analysis

This study used an extended version of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to identify the variables that influence fire safety preparedness in apartment buildings. PMT was extended to include an individual’s perceived responsibility for fire safety within their building. A survey of 455 respondents living in apartments in Dublin, Ireland, was undertaken to ascertain the level of fire safety awareness and preparedness among residents. Data analysis included correlations, ordinary least squares regressions and probit analysis. The findings reveal a worrying lack of preparedness and that fire safety preparedness motivation is complex, sometimes producing counterintuitive results. For example, a high level of worry about a fire increased the probability that a respondent tested their smoke detector(s) by 27.4 pp, yet was associated with a 33.3 pp reduction in the probability that a respondent acted in line with the building evacuation policy. The factors which influenced preparedness motivation also varied depending on the specific safety measure. For instance, assuming a personal responsibility for fire safety in the building was positively associated with perceived preparedness and having an extinguisher or fire blanket. Conversely, no relationship was observed between personal responsibility for fire safety and the presence of household fire plans, appropriate fire alarm response behaviour, or smoke detector testing. The critical contribution of this study is the identification of factors that act as barriers to, or facilitators of, fire safety in residential apartments. Understanding what drives fire safety can be used to enhance the effectiveness of preparedness messaging to inform public fire safety campaigns

An online learning selection hyper-heuristic for educational timetabling

Examination and course timetabling are computationally difficult real-world resource allocation problems. In 2007, an International Timetabling Competition (ITC) consisting of three classes: (i) examination timetabling, (ii) post enrollment-based, and (iii) curriculum-based course timetabling was organised. One of the competing algorithms, referred to as CPSolver, successfully achieved the first place in two out of these three tracks. This study investigates the performance of various multi-stage selection hyper-heuristics sequencing low-level heuristics/operators extending the CPSolver framework which executes hill climbing and two well-known local search metaheuristics in stages. The proposed selection hyper-heuristic is a multi-stage approach making use of a matrix which maintains transitional probabilities between each low-level heuristic to select the next heuristic in the sequence. A second matrix tracks the probabilities of ending the sequence on a given low-level heuristic. The best configuration for the selection hyper-heuristic is explored tailoring the heuristic selection process for the given timetabling problem class. The empirical results on the ITC 2007 problem instances show that the proposed selection hyper-heuristics can reduce the number of soft constraint violations, producing improved solutions over CPSolver as well as some other previously proposed solvers, particularly, in examination and curriculum-based course timetabling

The Evolutionary Fates of a Large Segmental Duplication in Mouse

Gene duplication and loss are major sources of genetic polymorphism in populations, and are important forces shaping the evolution of genome content and organization. We have reconstructed the origin and history of a 127-kbp segmental duplication, R2d, in the house mouse (Mus musculus). R2d contains a single protein-coding gene, Cwc22. De novo assembly of both the ancestral (R2d1) and the derived (R2d2) copies reveals that they have been subject to nonallelic gene conversion events spanning tens of kilobases. R2d2 is also a hotspot for structural variation: its diploid copy number ranges from zero in the mouse reference genome to >80 in wild mice sampled from around the globe. Hemizygosity for high copy-number alleles of R2d2 is associated in cis with meiotic drive; suppression of meiotic crossovers; and copy-number instability, with a mutation rate in excess of 1 per 100 transmissions in some laboratory populations. Our results provide a striking example of allelic diversity generated by duplication and demonstrate the value of de novo assembly in a phylogenetic context for understanding the mutational processes affecting duplicate genes

Facilitating implementation of research evidence (FIRE): A randomised controlled trial and process evaluation of two models of facilitation informed by the promoting action on research implementation in health services (PARIHS) framework

Background: The PARIHS framework proposes that successful implementation of research evidence results from the complex interplay between the evidence to be implemented, the context of implementation and the facilitation processes employed. Facilitation is defined as a role (the facilitator) and a process (facilitation strategies/methods). Empirical evidence comparing different facilitation approaches is limited; this paper reports a trial of two different types of facilitation represented in the PARIHS framework. Methods: A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial with embedded process evaluation was undertaken in 24 long-term nursing care settings in four European countries. In each country, sites were randomly allocated to standard dissemination of urinary incontinence guideline recommendations and one of two types of external-internal facilitation, labelled Type A and B. Type A facilitation was a less resource intensive approach, underpinned by improvement methodology; Type B was a more intensive, emancipatory model of facilitation, informed by critical social science. The primary outcome was percentage documented compliance with guideline recommendations. Process evaluation was framed by realist methodology and involved quantitative and qualitative data collection from multiple sources. Findings: Quantitative data were obtained from reviews of 2313 records. Qualitative data included over 332 hours of observations of care; 39 hours observation of facilitation activity; 471 staff interviews; 174 resident interviews; 120 next of kin/carer interviews; and 125 stakeholder interviews. There were no significant differences in the primary outcome between study arms and all study arms improved over time. Process data revealed three core mechanisms that influenced the trajectory of the facilitation intervention: alignment of the facilitation approach to the needs and expectations of the internal facilitator and colleagues; engagement of internal facilitators and staff in attitude and action; and learning over time. Data from external facilitators demonstrated that the facilitation interventions did not work as planned, issues were cumulative and maintenance of fidelity was problematic. Implications for D&I Research: Evaluating an intervention - in this case facilitation - that is fluid and dynamic within the methodology of a randomised controlled trial is complex and challenging. For future studies, we suggest a theoretical approach to fidelity, with a focus on mechanisms, as opposed to dose and intensity of the intervention