#Ibelong: Towards a sense of belonging in an inclusive learning environment

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 68-79
Author(s):  
Liz Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Programme Theory ◽  
Online Delivery ◽  
Theory Evaluation ◽  
Inclusive Learning

#Ibelong is an Erasmus+ project delivering a suite of evidence-informed interventions to improve the belonging and success of students who are first-generation entrants, from ethnic minorities or have a ‘migrant background’. The activities operate at course or programme level and involve working with both staff and students. This article provides a rationale for the #Ibelong programme of activities by drawing on relevant research and describing the three interconnected interventions: Dialogue Days, Team Teacher Reflection and Community Mentoring. The interventions were evaluated using Programme Theory evaluation tools: theory of change and logic chains. The descriptions highlight activities that have worked well, how delivery has been adapted from in-person to online delivery, and evidence of short-term benefits and medium-term outcomes. The article concludes by reflecting on how this suite of interventions could be used by other courses, universities and sectors, to improve the belonging and success of diverse students and staff.

scholarly journals Using logic chain and theory of change tools to evaluate widening participation: Learning from the What works? Student Retention & Success programme

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-82
Author(s):  
Liz Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Student Retention ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Institutional Commitment ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
Programme Theory ◽  
Theory Evaluation ◽  
What Works ◽  
Non Traditional Students ◽  
Evidence Of Impact ◽  
Made In

There has been national and institutional commitment to widening participation (WP) for over 20 years in England, and during this time considerable investment has been made in WP. The field of WP is, however, still characterised by a lack of evidence of impact, and institutions are under pressure to provide better evidence moving forward. Practitioners working across the student lifecycle find evaluation challenging. This paper focuses on the approach used to evaluate a programme of work intended to improve the success of non-traditional students in higher education (HE), drawing on logic chains and a theory of change model (programme theory evaluation tools). It considers the benefits and limitations of this approach and discusses how it was applied in practice. It provides examples of indicators and evidence and considers ways in which the model can be improved and applied to other contexts.

Is money the creation of the state or the market? (On the “modern monetary theory” as described in the textbook by W. Mitchell, L. R. Wray and M. Watts “Macroeconomics”)

2020 ◽  
pp. 121-134
Author(s):  
S. A. Andryushin
Keyword(s):  
Public Debt ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
Term Effect ◽  
Scientific Concept ◽  
Monetary Theory ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Stimulation Of

In 2019, a textbook “Macroeconomics” was published in London, on the pages of which the authors presented a new monetary doctrine — Modern Monetary Theory, MMT, — an unorthodox concept based on the postulates of Post-Keynesianism, New Institutionalism, and the theory of Marxism. The attitude to this scientific concept in the scientific community is ambiguous. A smaller part of scientists actively support this doctrine, which is directly related to state monetary and fiscal stimulation of full employment, public debt servicing and economic growth. Others, the majority of economists, on the contrary, strongly criticize MMT, arguing that the new theory hides simple left-wing populism, designed for a temporary and short-term effect. This article considers the origins and the main provisions of MMT, its discussions with the mainstream, criticism of the basic tenets of MMT, and also assesses possible prospects for the development of MMT in the medium term.

scholarly journals Persistent short-term imprisonment: Belonging as a lens to understand its shifting meanings over the life course

Incarceration ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 263266632198901
Author(s):  
Marguerite Schinkel ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Criminal Punishment ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Looking Back

This article takes a life-course perspective to the meaning of persistent short-term imprisonment and introduces the significance of ‘penal careers’. Examining a total of 62 interviews with men and women in Scotland with long careers of (progression through) criminal punishment, it uses to the concept of belonging as a lens to interpret their experiences. While some participants already felt early on in their career that they belonged in prison because of their shared characteristics with other prisoners, the repetition of imprisonment meant that they increasingly felt displaced from life outside and saw life in prison as ‘easier’ and ‘safer’. Nevertheless, looking back on their many sentences, they felt their cumulative meaning was ‘a waste of life’. The article concludes by considering steps towards tackling the conditions that create this sense of belonging in a place of punishment.

scholarly journals Long-Term Data Traffic Forecasting for Network Dimensioning in LTE with Short Time Series

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1151
Author(s):  
Carolina Gijón ◽  
Matías Toril ◽  
Salvador Luna-Ramírez ◽  
María Luisa Marí-Altozano ◽  
José María Ruiz-Avilés
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Time Series Analysis ◽  
Data Traffic ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Traffic Forecasting ◽  
Series Analysis ◽  
Radio Planning

Network dimensioning is a critical task in current mobile networks, as any failure in this process leads to degraded user experience or unnecessary upgrades of network resources. For this purpose, radio planning tools often predict monthly busy-hour data traffic to detect capacity bottlenecks in advance. Supervised Learning (SL) arises as a promising solution to improve predictions obtained with legacy approaches. Previous works have shown that deep learning outperforms classical time series analysis when predicting data traffic in cellular networks in the short term (seconds/minutes) and medium term (hours/days) from long historical data series. However, long-term forecasting (several months horizon) performed in radio planning tools relies on short and noisy time series, thus requiring a separate analysis. In this work, we present the first study comparing SL and time series analysis approaches to predict monthly busy-hour data traffic on a cell basis in a live LTE network. To this end, an extensive dataset is collected, comprising data traffic per cell for a whole country during 30 months. The considered methods include Random Forest, different Neural Networks, Support Vector Regression, Seasonal Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average and Additive Holt–Winters. Results show that SL models outperform time series approaches, while reducing data storage capacity requirements. More importantly, unlike in short-term and medium-term traffic forecasting, non-deep SL approaches are competitive with deep learning while being more computationally efficient.

scholarly journals Multidimensional assessment of women after severe maternal morbidity: the COMMAG cohort study

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. e041138
Author(s):  
Elton C Ferreira ◽  
Maria Laura Costa ◽  
Rodolfo C Pacagnella ◽  
Carla Silveira ◽  
Carla B Andreucci ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Sexual Function ◽  
Screening Test ◽  
Maternal Morbidity ◽  
Severe Maternal Morbidity ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Multidimensional Assessment ◽  
Index Pregnancy ◽  
Sf 36

ObjectivesTo perform a multidimensional assessment of women who experienced severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and its short-term and medium-term impact on the lives and health of women and their children.DesignA retrospective cohort study.SettingA tertiary maternity hospital from the southeast region of Brazil.ParticipantsThe exposed population was selected from intensive care unit admissions if presenting any diagnostic criteria for SMM. Controls were randomly selected among women without SMM admitted to the same maternity and same time of childbirth.Primary and secondary outcome variablesValidated tools were applied, addressing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and quality of life (SF-36) by phone, and then general and reproductive health, functioning (WHO Disability Assessment Schedule), sexual function (Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI)), substance abuse (Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test 2.0) and growth/development (Denver Developmental Screening Test) of children born in the index pregnancy in a face-to-face interview.ResultsAll instruments were applied to 638 women (315 had SMM; 323 were controls, with the assessment of 264 and 307 children, respectively). SF-36 score was significantly lower in the SMM group, while PTSD score was similar between groups. Women who had SMM became more frequently sterile, had more abnormal clinical conditions after the index pregnancy and a higher score for altered functioning, while proportions of FSFI score or any drug use were similar between groups. Furthermore, children from the SMM group were more likely to have weight (threefold) and height (1.5 fold) for age deficits and also impaired development (1.5-fold).ConclusionSMM impairs some aspects of the lives of women and their children. The focus should be directed towards monitoring these women and their children after birth, ensuring accessibility to health services and reducing short-term and medium-term repercussions on physical, reproductive and psychosocial health.

scholarly journals Short-term and medium-term health effects of 9/11

The Lancet ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 378 (9794) ◽  
pp. 925-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon E Perlman ◽  
Stephen Friedman ◽  
Sandro Galea ◽  
Hemanth P Nair ◽  
Monika Erős-Sarnyai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Effects ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Short Term

Sampling estuarine copepods at different scales and resolutions: a study in Rio de la Plata

2018 ◽  
Vol 99 (5) ◽  
pp. 1059-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sourav Paul ◽  
Danilo Calliari
Keyword(s):  
Sampling Effort ◽  
Rio De La Plata ◽  
Population Densities ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Río De La Plata ◽  
La Plata ◽  
Resource Limitations ◽  
Paracalanus Parvus

AbstractIn the Rio de la Plata salinity, temperature, chlorophyll a (chl a), and densities (ind. m−3) of the copepods Acartia tonsa and Paracalanus parvus were measured from January to November in 2003 by following a nested weekly and monthly design. Such sampling yielded two separate datasets: (i) Yearly Dataset (YD) which consists of data of one sampling effort per month for 11 consecutive months, and (ii) Seasonal Weekly Datasets (SWD) which consists of data of one sampling effort per week of any four consecutive weeks within each season. YD was assumed as a medium-term low-resolution (MTLR) dataset, and SWD as a short-term high-resolution (STHR) dataset. The hypothesis was, the SWD would always capture (shorter scales generally captures more noise in data) more detail variability of copepod populations (quantified through the regression relationships between temporal changes of salinity, temperature, chl a and copepod densities) than the YD. Analysis of both YD and SWD found that A. tonsa density was neither affected by seasonal cycles, nor temporal variability of salinity, temperature and chl a. Thus, compared to STHR sampling, MTLR sampling did not yield any further information of the variability of population densities of the perennial copepod A. tonsa. Analysis of SWD found that during summer and autumn the population densities of P. parvus had a significant positive relationship to salinity but their density was limited by higher chl a concentration; analysis of YD could not yield such detailed ecological information. That hints the effectiveness of STHR sampling over MTLR sampling in capturing details of the variability of population densities of a seasonal copepod species. Considering the institutional resource limitations (e.g. lack of long-term funding, manpower and infrastructure) and the present hypothesis under consideration, the authors suggest that a STHR sampling may provide useful complementary information to interpret results of longer-term natural changes occurring in estuaries.

scholarly journals Experiences of first-generation scholars at a highly selective UK university

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Caitlin Hindle ◽  
Vikki Boliver ◽  
Ann Maclarnon ◽  
Cheryl McEwan ◽  
Bob Simpson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Academic Progress ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Academic Preparedness ◽  
University Culture ◽  
Elite University ◽  
The Uk

Targets set by the UK Office for Students require highly academically selective UK universities to enrol a greater percentage of students identified as least likely to participate in higher education. Such students are typically at a disadvantage in terms of levels of academic preparedness and economic, cultural and social capital. Drawing on eighteen interviews with first-generation students at Durham University, we identify five sites of pressure: developing a sense of belonging within the terms of an elite university culture, engagement in student social activities, financial worries, concerns about academic progress, and self-transformation. Based on these insights, we argue that support for first-generation scholars will require that universities recognise and redress elitist cultures that discourage applications from prospective first-generation scholars and prevent those who do enrol from having the best educational and all-round experience.

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