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Widening access and participation in higher education now celebrates decades of success in UK Higher Education (HE), particularly at undergraduate entry-level. Yet similar work at entry-level for postgraduate study is less explored, where due to the increased emphasis on Graduate Outcomes in UK HE, there is increasing demand and aspiration for postgraduate study from policy makers and students. This research note reports on a series of presentation workshops from the University of Winchester (UK), titled the 'Get into Masters' Study' initiative. These presentations were delivered in an access approach across Level 5 students to break down barriers to postgraduate study through explaining the practicalities, different options and finances relating to postgraduate study, so students are able to make an informed choice. This paper details the approach taken and topics covered to inform practice elsewhere, as students increasingly look towards postgraduate study to gain further experiences and enhance their career beyond their degree.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are valuable raw materials which are in great demand in modern high technology industries. Developing methods to produce/recover REEs from waste is significant to the national security of any developed country. This study was focused on investigating the use of supercritical CO2 (sCO2) to extract REEs from anthracite acid mine drainage (AMD). Four different mine drainage water source locations at Blaschak Coal Corp. in Pennsylvania, USA were selected for sample collection. An extraction process was developed and demonstrated for two of those water sources containing the highest concentration of REEs. A method involving metal ion coagulation, their dissolution from the sludge into a concentrated aqueous HNO3 solution, complexation with organic ligands and sCO2 extraction was developed to recover REEs from AMD. Specifically, sodium aluminate (NaAlO2) was used as the coagulant to concentrate REEs from the AMD into a solid precipitate. Consequently, over 99% of the REEs in AMD is concentrated in the remaining sludge. During the coagulation process, the effects of pH and NaAlO2 concentration on REE precipitation were investigated. Fuming nitric acid (HNO3) was used to digest the pre-concentrated sludge and tributyl phosphate (TBP) was used to form REE/TBP/HNO3, a non-polar complex with selected REEs, specifically, cerium (Ce), lanthanum (La) and neodymium (Nd). HNO3 concentration and organic/aqueous phase ratio were considered as the variables to improve complexation efficiency. Dynamic extraction experiments using sCO2 and REE/TBP/HNO3 solutions were then conducted at optimal conditions of 60 °C and 20 MPa. The overall REE extraction efficiencies are found to increase with the atomic number of the REE. As a result, the average overall REE extraction efficiencies of 41.8%, 40.1% and 58.2% for Ce, La and Nd, respectively, are obtained. The potential improvements in the overall extraction efficiency are also discussed.

The challenging problem of conducting fully Bayesian inference for the reaction rate constants governing stochastic kinetic models (SKMs) is considered. Given the challenges underlying this problem, the Markov jump process representation is routinely replaced by an approximation based on a suitable time discretisation of the system of interest. Improving the accuracy of these schemes amounts to using an ever finer discretisation level, which in the context of the inference problem, requires integrating over the uncertainty in the process at a predetermined number of intermediate times between observations. Pseudo-marginal Metropolis-Hastings schemes are increasingly used, since for a given discretisation level, the observed data likelihood can be unbiasedly estimated using a particle filter. When observations are particularly informative an auxiliary particle filter can be implemented, by employing an appropriate construct to push the state particles towards the observations in a sensible way. Recent work in state-space settings has shown how the pseudo-marginal approach can be made much more efficient by correlating the underlying pseudo-random numbers used to form the likelihood estimate at the current and proposed values of the unknown parameters. We extend this approach to the time-discretised SKM framework by correlating the innovations that drive the auxiliary particle filter. We find that the resulting approach offers substantial gains in efficiency over a standard implementation., Comment: 22 pages

The term ‘student engagement’ (and disengagement) in higher education was conceptualised in the 1980s as a way to understand and reduce student boredom, alienation, and dropping out (Finn and Zimmer, 2012 ). It has also been described to represent both the time and energy students invest in educationally purposeful activities and the effort institutions devote to using effective educational practices (Kuh and Hu, 2001 ). However, in the past 15 years ‘student engagement’ has become a term used to refer to practices, opportunities and extra-curricular activities, which students become involved in to improve the student educational experience (NUS, 2012 ; Healey, Flint, and Harrington, 2014 ). This development of practice has been heavily influenced by theory and practice around working with ‘students as partners’ and student engagement in regards to co-creating curricula, enhancing learning and the wider student experience (Neary and Winn, 2009 ; Wait and Bols, 2015 , Dunne, 2016 ). Notably, the term student engagement has already had impact through its adoption in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE, 2019 ). However this chapter gives an overview and focuses on practice where students have been active in student engagement educational development practices, projects or activities additionally or alongside the curriculum to contribute to HE educational development. This chapter will introduce many of the key areas of practice of student engagement in educational developments and will offer considerations for HE professionals embarking on new enhancements, research projects and initiatives.

In this paper we explore three major challenges for institutional student-staff partnership work. Firstly, we consider the example of partnership that arises from the ownership of a partnership scheme, comparing ownership by a central unit of the university, at local level by departments and shared ownership between the University and Students' Union. Secondly, we consider the importance of inclusivity in such schemes to prevent them exacerbating attainment gaps and undermining democratic processes. Thirdly, we consider the related issue of reward and recognition, considering the tensions created when working with paid ambassadors and student volunteers.

Mercury (Hg) is one of the major airborne emissions from coal combustion sources. Mercury emissions can be a serious pollution issue that is harmful to human health. Activated carbon (AC) is one of the most promising sorbents for Hg adsorption to date. Due to its high cost of chemical preparation, an affordable alternative activated carbon with a high Hg-capturing capacity would be beneficial to environmental security. This study focused on investigating the use of anthracite coal-based activated carbon (ACAC) prepared by a chemical activation method to remove elemental Hg from simulated flue gas. An activation process was developed by evaluating different carbonization temperatures, reagent/coal mass ratios and treating environments. The sample with the highest surface area was selected for synthesizing a bromide-impregnated ACAC. The ACAC sample prepared with KOH at a carbonization temperature of 800 °C, KOH/anthracite mass ratio of 1:1, and activated in an N2 environment yielded a surface area of 527.43 m2/g. Mercury adsorption experiments using synthesized ACAC in simulated flue gas were conducted at two different temperatures, 20° and 100 °C, with exposure times of 2.5 and 1 h, respectively. The kinetic adsorption capacity was found to increase with decreasing temperature. Specifically, at the Hg-laden gas temperature of 20 °C, with 2.5 h exposure time, the adsorbent can achieve the maximum adsorption capacity of 476.51 μ g/g. The bromide-impregnated ACAC was also investigated under two different temperatures of 20 °C and 100 °C and exposure of 5 h. The adsorption capacity of the bromide-impregnated ACAC was found to be higher at elevated temperatures.

This case study explores practice in four areas of student engagement activity which were developed in partnership between the University of Winchester and Winchester Student Union. The development, motivations, stakeholders, and challenges of activities built around the principles of representation, change, feedback, and research are discussed. Relationships between practices will be explored in the context of a proposal for how discrete practices can complement one another to create a community of partnership. The case study focuses on four key initiatives: Student Academic Representatives, Student Fellows Scheme, Student-Led Teaching Awards, and the Winchester Research Apprenticeship Programme. The four key initiatives are contextualised with a discussion of an ongoing project that seeks to provide greater coherence to student engagement through an institution-wide movement towards embedding partnership.

It has long been acknowledged that understandings of risk are influenced by external or ‘objective’ assessments, and by internal or ‘subjective’ value judgements. In-depth research has been undertaken on how lay people perceive climate change and related risks, whereas work on expert opinions is more limited. This paper reports on 22 ‘expert’ interpretations elicited through a mental models approach, and encapsulated in a ‘meta’-influence diagram, denoting three conceptualisations of danger in relation to climate change: (i) human influence upon the climate system; (ii) impacts upon natural and human communities; and (iii) threat to the status quo, especially in the form of mitigation measures and related costs. These conceptualisations raise questions about how experts bring to bear their knowledge, values and understanding of climatic and social systems in articulating such discourses. This paper also discusses the implications of such diverse perspectives on managing climate change.

The optimal postremission treatment for elderly patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is presently unknown, but recent studies report the feasibility of autologous stem cell transplantation in this population. To better understand the long-term outcome of autologous transplantation in AML patients ≥60 years of age, we evaluated high-dose chemoradiotherapy preparative conditioning followed by transplantation of peripheral blood progenitor cells procured after a single cycle of cytarabine-based consolidation chemotherapy as postremission therapy in 27 patients aged 60 to 71 years (median age, 65 years) with newly diagnosed AML in first complete remission (CR). The median follow-up from CR for all patients was 13.6 months (range, 6.0-123.1 months). The median follow-up from remission for surviving patients was 81 months (range, 41.4-123.1 months). Seven patients are alive in continuous CR, 19 died from relapse, and 1 died as a result of treatment-related infection. Leukemia-free survival and overall survival are 10.3 and 13.4 months, respectively. Actuarial leukemia-free and overall survival at 3 years are 25% ± 9% and 28% ± 9%, respectively. Our results demonstrate that autologous transplantation of peripheral blood progenitor cells is well tolerated and feasible for patients ≥60 years of age with AML in first CR. Future investigation should focus on a randomized study evaluating a larger group of elderly patients in first CR comparing autologous stem cell transplantation with conventional cytarabine-based consolidation chemotherapy to identify the optimal postremission therapy.

This paper provides an introduction to the two-year programme REACT (Realising Engagement through Active Culture Transformation), funded by HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) from July 2015 to July 2017. REACT has at its core three institutional student-engagement initiatives and these are described in order to give a background context to the joint foci of the programme: ‘student engagement’ and ‘hard-to-reach’ students, both of which terms are considered as complex and problematic. The paper lays out the aims and ambitions of REACT, considers the many challenges of interpreting them in practice and highlights how this multi-streamed programme has developed across three core Universities, in collaboration of twelve further Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from across England. It also describes the three core strands of the programme: the ‘Collaborative Development Programme’, the’ REACT Research Project’, and ‘Dissemination’, each of which was of importance to planning and heavily influenced programme outcomes.

As outlined in the funding application to the Higher Education Funding Council for Engagement (HEFCE), the REACT programme was designed to “support the expansion of context-appropriate interventions to at least ten further universities through consultancy, workshops, mentoring of Student Unions and academic staff in other institutions, and working with students and student engagement practitioners to spread the interventions” (REACT, 2015). This aligned with other aims of the bid, including that REACT would: disseminate best practice in relation to the challenge of engaging those outside the usual ambit of Student Engagement (SE) activities; build communities of practice based on strong evidence; and provide consultancy support and proven approaches amongst at least ten UK universities. This paper highlights how the ‘REACT Collaborative Development Programme’ was designed to facilitate these aims, to build momentum and spread practice beyond the core of Winchester, Exeter and London Metropolitan universities. All aspects of the programme are outlined, from the initial ‘Expression of Interest’ to the collaborative process of putting together this issue of JEIPC as a final output of REACT.

The REACT programme was designed to make a significant impact on student engagement and the student experience in the Higher Education (HE) sector in England and Wales over a two-year period, from July 2015 to July 2017. The focus, in particular, was on the engagement of so-called ‘hard to reach’ students, and the programme included: investigation into the term ‘hard to reach’ and a consideration of which students are characterised in this way; a formal research project looking at links between student engagement, retention and attainment; and a development programme as a collaboration between fifteen UK universities. Outcomes from each of these were disseminated at a final conference at the University of Winchester in May 2017, where practice and findings from the programme as a whole were shared. The programme also included the creation of a website of case studies and tools for use by the sector. The programme was funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and was formally evaluated by an external team from GuildHE.

The film The Day After Tomorrow depicts the abrupt and catastrophic transformation of the Earth’s climate into a new ice age, playing upon the uncertainty surrounding a possible North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (Gulf Stream) shutdown. This paper investigates the impact of the film on people’s perception of climate change through a survey of filmgoers in the UK. Analysis focuses on four issues: the likelihood of extreme impacts; concern over climate change versus other global problems; motivation to take action; and responsibility for the problem of climate change. It finds that seeing the film, at least in the short term, changed people’s attitudes; viewers were significantly more concerned about climate change, and about other environmental risks. However, while the film increased anxiety about environmental risks, viewers experienced difficulty in distinguishing science fact from dramatized science fiction. Their belief in the likelihood of extreme events as a result of climate change was actually reduced. Following the film, many viewers expressed strong motivation to act on climate change. However, although the film may have sensitized viewers and motivated them to act, the public do not have information on what action they can take to mitigate climate change.

This article analyses the outputs of an institutional approach to student engagement that created sixty staff-student partnership opportunities aiming to enhance the learning experience. The Student Fellows Scheme awarded bursaries to students in return for co-leading a project in the broad area of educational development. The projects could be evaluations, research projects or interventions. This paper describes a systematic review of the final outputs of the Student Fellow projects and depicts the extent of staff-student partnerships and the impact of the scheme, demonstrating that the majority of projects are programme-focused, with students as the main beneficiaries. Whilst a key motivation of this review was to analyse the extent of staff-student partnerships, the lack of reference to partnership in many reports illustrated the limitations of the methodology. This review has facilitated a reorganisation of the scheme and developed a structure for continuing analysis of it into the future.

Acute asphyxia results in AVP hypersecretion in fetal sheep. Since acidosis, hypoxia, and hypercapnea occur simultaneously with asphyxia, it is unclear which is primarily responsible for AVP release. We have shown that hypoxia has no effect until aortic PO2 (PaO2) is 8μU/ml, 30.2μU/ml. We conclude that: 1) acidosis, like hypoxemia alone, does not result in marked fetal AVP release; 2) whereas AVP release is related linearly to pHa, there appears to be a threshold value for PaO2; and 3) acidosis and hypoxia appear synergistic for AVP release, but the role of PaCO2 is unknown. *p