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In recent years, questions about the purpose of higher education (HE) have come to the fore as HE tuition fees have escalated both in the UK and internationally. The extent to which universities provide students with opportunities for developing skills needed not only for future employment but participation in civic life has become an important contemporary issue. Drawing on interviews with 29 graduates from three distinct types of UK higher education institutions (HEIs) ('elite,' 'old' and 'new'), the paper explores the extent to which the pedagogical experiences provided by these different institutions offer students the sorts of experiences and skills needed for later civic participation. Our analyses suggest that the pedagogical arrangements in these institutions are highly differentiated and provide varying opportunities for developing civic skills. Whilst this potentially has significant implications for the cultivation of students' civic skills and participation in civil society, we argue that civic participation is not so much determined by pedagogic or disciplinary cultures but is located on the intersection of ranging personal and social circumstances and pedagogic experiences.

Accurate gas absorption models at millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths are required to make best use of observations from instruments on board the next generation of EUMETSAT polar-orbiting weather satellites, including the Ice Cloud Imager (ICI), which measures at frequencies up to 664 GHz. In this study, airborne observations of clear-sky scenes between 89 and 664 GHz are used to perform radiative closure calculations for both upward- and downward-looking viewing directions in order to evaluate two state-of-the-art absorption models, both of which are integrated into the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator (ARTS). Differences of 20 K are seen in some individual comparisons, with the largest discrepancies occurring where the brightness temperature is highly sensitive to the atmospheric water vapour profile. However, these differences are within the expected uncertainty due to the observed water vapour variability, highlighting the importance of understanding the spatial and temporal distribution of water vapour when performing such comparisons. The errors can be significantly reduced by averaging across multiple flights, which reduces the impact of uncertainties in individual atmospheric profiles. For upward-looking views, which have the greatest sensitivity to the absorption model, the mean differences between observed and simulated brightness temperatures are generally close to, or within, the estimated spectroscopic uncertainty. For downward-looking views, which more closely match the satellite viewing geometry, the mean differences were generally less than 1.5 K, with the exception of window channels at 89 and 157 GHz, which are significantly influenced by surface properties. These results suggest that both of the absorption models considered are sufficiently accurate for use with ICI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable attention has been paid to the economic benefits of participating in higher education, particularly the 'economic premium' of graduates compared to non-graduates. Although the civic contribution of graduates has been widely acknowledged and discussed, there has been a dearth of empirical analysis that investigates this contribution. Furthermore, the massification of higher education in the UK, US, and many other countries, has had profound impacts on the higher education experience. But little is known about how changes to the form and function of mass higher education have impacted on the civic contribution of university graduates. This research attempts to address this by focussing specifically on associational membership of university graduates during their early adulthood. By calculating the 'civic premium' of UK graduates compared to their non-graduate peers over time we are able explore the relationship between associational membership and higher education participation following the massification of UK higher education.

In recent years, questions about the purpose of higher education (HE) have come to the fore as HE tuition fees have escalated both in the UK and internationally. The extent to which universities provide students with opportunities for developing skills needed not only for future employment but participation in civic life has become an important contemporary issue. Drawing on interviews with 29 graduates from three distinct types of UK higher education institutions (HEIs) ('elite,' 'old' and 'new'), the paper explores the extent to which the pedagogical experiences provided by these different institutions offer students the sorts of experiences and skills needed for later civic participation. Our analyses suggest that the pedagogical arrangements in these institutions are highly differentiated and provide varying opportunities for developing civic skills. Whilst this potentially has significant implications for the cultivation of students' civic skills and participation in civil society, we argue that civic participation is not so much determined by pedagogic or disciplinary cultures but is located on the intersection of ranging personal and social circumstances and pedagogic experiences., Author(s): Ceryn Evans [sup.1] , Gareth Rees [sup.2] , Chris Taylor [sup.2] , Stuart Fox [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.4827.9, 0000 0001 0658 8800, School of Education, Swansea University, , [...]

Atmospheric radiative transfer models are extensively used in Earth observation to simulate radiative processes occurring in the atmosphere and to provide both upwelling and downwelling synthetic brightness temperatures for ground-based, airborne, and satellite radiometric sensors. For a meaningful comparison between simulated and observed radiances, it is crucial to characterize the uncertainty in such models. The purpose of this work is to quantify the uncertainty in radiative transfer models due to uncertainty in the associated spectroscopic parameters and to compute simulated brightness temperature uncertainties for millimeter- and submillimeter-wave channels of downward-looking satellite radiometric sensors (MicroWave Imager, MWI; Ice Cloud Imager, ICI; MicroWave Sounder, MWS; and Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder, ATMS) as well as upward-looking airborne radiometers (International Submillimetre Airborne Radiometer, ISMAR, and Microwave Airborne Radiometer Scanning System, MARSS). The approach adopted here is firstly to study the sensitivity of brightness temperature calculations to each spectroscopic parameter separately, then to identify the dominant parameters and investigate their uncertainty covariance, and finally to compute the total brightness temperature uncertainty due to the full uncertainty covariance matrix for the identified set of relevant spectroscopic parameters. The approach is applied to a recent version of the Millimeter-wave Propagation Model, taking into account water vapor, oxygen, and ozone spectroscopic parameters, though the approach is general and can be applied to any radiative transfer code. A set of 135 spectroscopic parameters were identified as dominant for the uncertainty in simulated brightness temperatures (26 for water vapor, 109 for oxygen, none for ozone). The uncertainty in simulated brightness temperatures is computed for six climatology conditions (ranging from sub-Arctic winter to tropical) and all instrument channels. Uncertainty is found to be up to few kelvins [ K ] in the millimeter-wave range, whereas it is considerably lower in the submillimeter-wave range (less than 1K). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first closure study involving passive microwave and submillimetre measurements of ice clouds with the consideration of oriented particles is presented, using a unique combination of polarised observations from the ISMAR spectral-like radiometer, two radars with frequencies of 35 and 95 GHz , and a variety of in situ instruments. Of particular interest to this study are the large V–H polarised brightness temperature differences measured from ISMAR above a thick frontal ice cloud. Previous studies combining radar and passive submillimetre measurements have not considered polarisation differences. Moreover, they have assumed particle habits a priori. We aim to test whether the large V–H measurements can be simulated successfully by using an atmospheric model consistent with in situ microphysics. An atmospheric model is constructed using information from the in situ measurements, such as the ice water content, the particle size distribution, and the mass and shape of particles, as well as background information obtained from dropsonde profiles. Columnar and dendritic aggregate particle models are generated specifically for this case, and their scattering properties are calculated using the independent monomer approximation under the assumption of horizontal orientation. The scattering properties are used to perform polarised radiative transfer simulations using ARTS to test whether we can successfully simulate the measured large V–H differences. Radar measurements are used to extrapolate the 1-D microphysical profile to derive a time series of particle size distributions which are used to simulate ISMAR brightness temperatures. These simulations are compared to the observations. It is found that particle models that are consistent with in situ microphysics observations are capable of reproducing the brightness temperature depression and polarisation signature measured from ISMAR at the dual-polarised channel of 243 GHz. However, it was required that a proportion of the particles were changed in order to increase the V–H polarised brightness temperature differences. Thus, we incorporated millimetre-sized dendritic crystals, as these particles were observed in the probe imagery. At the second dual-polarised channel of 664 GHz , the brightness temperature depressions were generally simulated at the correct locations; however, the simulated V–H was too large. This work shows that multi-frequency polarisation information could be used to infer realistic particle shapes, orientations, and representations of the split between single crystals and aggregates within the cloud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric radiative transfer models are extensively used in Earth observation to simulate radiative processes occurring in the atmosphere and to provide both upwelling and downwelling synthetic brightness temperatures for ground-based, airborne, and satellite radiometric sensors. For a meaningful comparison between simulated and observed radiances, it is crucial to characterise the uncertainty of such models. The purpose of this work is to quantify the uncertainty in radiative transfer models due to uncertainty in the associated spectroscopic parameters, and to compute simulated brightness temperature uncertainties for millimeter- and submillimeter-wave channels of downward-looking satellite radiometric sensors (MWI, ICI, MWS and ATMS) as well as upward looking airborne radiometers (ISMAR and MARSS). The approach adopted here is firstly to study the sensitivity of brightness temperature calculations to each spectroscopic parameter separately, then to identify the dominant parameters and investigate their uncertainty covariance, and finally to compute the total brightness temperature uncertainty due to the full uncertainty covariance matrix for the identified set of relevant spectroscopic parameters. The approach is applied to a recent version of the Millimiter-Wave propagation model, taking into account water vapor, oxygen, and ozone spectroscopic parameters, though it is general and can be applied to any radiative transfer code. A set of 135 spectroscopic parameters were identified as dominant for the uncertainty of simulated brightness temperatures (26 for water vapor, 109 for oxygen, none for ozone). The uncertainty of simulated brightness temperatures is computed for six climatology conditions (ranging from sub-Arctic winter to Tropical) and all instrument channels. Uncertainty is found to be up to few kelvin [K] in the millimeter-wave range, whereas it is considerably lower in the submillimeter-wave range (less than 1 K). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A serious challenge facing Western democracies is the falling propensity of successive cohorts of citizens to vote. Over the last 50 years, newly eligible voters – particularly from poorer backgrounds – have become less likely to vote in their first elections, and more likely to develop habits of non‐voting. This trend has prompted greater interest in policies with the potential to increase first‐time voter turnout, such as lowering the voting age or compulsory political education. Despite a growing academic interest in volunteering as a means of youth political expression or route to civic revival, however, the promotion of youth volunteering has not been seriously considered as a potential tool to help address generational turnout decline. An extensive literature argues that volunteering can increase first‐time voter turnout, but it is hindered by the limited use of panel data and failure to account for confounding and selection effects. It has not, moreover, considered the potential for the effects of childhood volunteering to be conditional on prior political socialisation, particularly the influence of parents, which is necessary to assess its potential to reduce turnout gaps reflecting socio‐economic status. This study uses the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study and structural equation modelling to overcome these limitations and examine the impact of childhood volunteering on the turnout of newly eligible voters. It shows that for most young volunteers there is no significant benefit, but for the children of politically disengaged parents, volunteering does have a significant, positive effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improved modelling of snow emissivity is needed to improve the assimilation of surface-sensitive atmospheric sounding observations from satellites in polar regions for numerical weather prediction (NWP). This paper evaluates emissivity simulated with the Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer (SMRT) model using observations of Arctic tundra snow at frequencies between 89 and 243 GHz. Measurements of snow correlation length, density and layer thickness were used as input to SMRT, and an optimisation routine was used to assess the impact of each parameter on simulations of emissivity when compared to a set of Lambertian emissivity spectra, retrieved from observations of tundra snow from three flights of the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) aircraft. Probability distributions returned by the optimisation routine demonstrate parameter uncertainties and the sensitivity of simulations to the different snow parameters. Results showed that SMRT was capable of reproducing a range of observed emissivities between 89 and 243 GHz. Varying correlation length alone allowed SMRT to capture much of the variability in the emissivity spectra; however, MAE (MAPE) decreased from 0.018 (3.0 %) to 0.0078 (1.2 %) overall when the thickness of the snow layers was also varied. When all three parameters were varied, simulations were similarly sensitive to both correlation length and density, although the influence of density was most evident when comparing spectra from snowpacks with and without surface snow. Simulations were most sensitive to surface snow and wind slab parameters, while sensitivity to depth hoar depended on the thickness and scattering strength of the layers above, demonstrating the importance of representing all three parameters for multi-layer snowpacks when modelling emissivity spectra. This work demonstrates the ability of SMRT to simulate snow emissivity at these frequencies and is a key step in the progress towards modelling emissivity for data assimilation in NWP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improved modelling of snow emissivity is needed to improve the assimilation of surface-sensitive atmospheric sounding observations from satellites in polar regions for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP). This paper evaluates emissivity simulated with the Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer (SMRT) model using observations of Arctic tundra snow, at frequencies between 89 and 243 GHz. Measurements of snow correlation length, density and layer thickness were used as input to SMRT, and an optimization routine was used to assess the impact of each parameter on simulations of emissivity when compared to a set of Lambertian emissivity spectra, retrieved from observations of tundra snow from three flights of the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) aircraft. Probability distributions returned by the optimization routine demonstrate parameter uncertainties and the sensitivity of simulations to the different snow parameters. Results showed that SMRT was capable of reproducing a range of observed emissivities between 89 and 243 GHz. Varying correlation length alone allowed SMRT to capture much of the variability in the emissivity spectra, however, overall RMSE (and MAE) decreased from 0.029 (0.018) to 0.013 (0.0078) when the thickness of the snow layers was also varied. When all three parameters were varied simulations were similarly sensitive to both correlation length and density, although the influence of density was most evident when comparing spectra from snowpacks with and without surface snow. Simulations were most sensitive to surface snow and wind slab parameters, while sensitivity to depth hoar depended on the thickness and scattering strength of layers above, demonstrating the importance of representing all three parameters for multi-layer snowpacks when modelling emissivity spectra. This work demonstrates the ability of SMRT to simulate snow emissivity at these frequencies, and is a key step in progress towards modelling emissivity for data assimilation in NWP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate simulations of snow emission in surface-sensitive microwave channels are needed to separate snow from atmospheric information essential for numerical weather prediction. Measurements from a field campaign in Trail Valley Creek, Inuvik, Canada during March 2018 were used to evaluate the Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer (SMRT) Model at 89 GHz and, for the first time, frequencies between 118 and 243 GHz. In situ data from 29 snow pits, including snow specific surface area, were used to calculate exponential correlation lengths to represent the snow microstructure and to initialize snowpacks for simulation with SMRT. Measured variability in snowpack properties was used to estimate uncertainty in the simulations. SMRT was coupled with the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator to account for the directionally-dependent emission and attenuation of radiation by the atmosphere. This is a major developmental step needed for top-of-atmosphere simulations of microwave brightness temperature at atmosphere-sensitive frequencies with SMRT. Nadir simulated brightness temperatures at 89, 118, 157, 183 and 243 GHz were compared with airborne measurements and with ground-based measurements at 89 GHz. Inclusion of an anisotropic atmosphere in SMRT had the greatest impact on brightness temperature simulations at 183 GHz and the least at 89 GHz. Simulations compared well with observations, with a root mean squared error of 14 K, although snowpit measurements did not capture the observed variability fully as simulations and airborne observations formed statistically different distributions. Topographical differences in simulated brightness temperature between sloped, valley and plateau areas diminished with increasing frequency as the penetration depth within the snow decreased and less emission from the underlying ground contributed to the airborne observations. Observed brightness temperature differences between flights were attributed to the deposition of a thin layer of very low density snow. This illustrates the need to account for both temporal and spatial variability in surface snow microstructure at these frequencies. Sensitivity to snow properties and the ability to reflect changes in observed brightness temperature across the frequency range for different landscapes, as demonstrated by SMRT, is a necessary condition for inclusion of atmospheric measurements at surface-sensitive frequencies in numerical weather prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]