A hybrid metaheuristic approach to the university course timetabling problem

This paper describes the development of a novel metaheuristic that combines an electromagnetic-like mechanism (EM) and the great deluge algorithm (GD) for the University course timetabling problem. This well-known timetabling problem assigns lectures to specific numbers of timeslots and rooms maximizing the overall quality of the timetable while taking various constraints into account. EM is a population-based stochastic global optimization algorithm that is based on the theory of physics, simulating attraction and repulsion of sample points in moving toward optimality. GD is a local search procedure that allows worse solutions to be accepted based on some given upper boundary or ‘level’. In this paper, the dynamic force calculated from the attraction-repulsion mechanism is used as a decreasing rate to update the ‘level’ within the search process. The proposed method has been applied to a range of benchmark university course timetabling test problems from the literature. Moreover, the viability of the method has been tested by comparing its results with other reported results from the literature, demonstrating that the method is able to produce improved solutions to those currently published. We believe this is due to the combination of both approaches and the ability of the resultant algorithm to converge all solutions at every search process.

Telephone survey evaluation of the educational impact of a distance learning course

The educational impact of a distance learning (DL) course entitled ''Health Screening for Health Promotion, was investigated using a telephone questionnaire survey. An introduction to the DL course was distributed to all community pharmacists in England (16,400); the main body of the course, on which pharmacists were examined, was distributed free of charge to all pharmacists who requested it (1,485). Pharmacists participating in the survey (868) were organized by random selection into groups and stratified according to age, sex and postcode. A matched control group was randomly drawn from those pharmacists who had not participated in the course. The DL course improved pharmacists' knowledge about health screening/health promotion issues (e.g., mean score of 66 percent achieved by a group who had completed the course; 51 percent achieved by the control group; P<0.001). Factors influencing score achieved included sex and year of registration. Males performed better than females (P<0.008) while performance decreased with number of years on the register (P<0.001).

Opening the Frontier: The Gubbio-Perugia Frontier in the Course of History.

The frontier between Gubbio (ancient Umbria) and Perugia (ancient Etruria), in the northeast part of the modern region of Umbria, was founded in the late sixth century BC. The frontier endured in different forms, most notably in the late antique and medieval periods, as well as fleetingly in 1944, and is fossilized today in the local government boundaries. Archaeological, documentary and
philological evidence are brought together to investigate different scales of time that vary from millennia to single days in the representation of a frontier that captured a watershed of geological origins. The foundation of the frontier appears to have been a product of the active agency of the Etruscans, who projected new settlements across the Tiber in the course of the sixth century BC,
protected at the outer limit of their territory by the naturally defended farmstead of Col di Marzo. The immediate environs of the ancient abbey of Montelabate have been studied intensively by targeted, systematic and geophysical survey in conjunction with excavation, work that is still in progress. An overview of the development of the frontier is presented here, employing the data currently available.

Embedded C programming: a practical course introducing programmable microprocessors

This paper presents a new laboratory-based module for embedded systems teaching, which addresses the current lack of consideration for the link between hardware development, software implementation, course content and student evaluation in a laboratory environment. The course introduces second year undergraduate students to the interface between hardware and software and the programming of embedded devices; in this case, the PIC (originally peripheral interface controller, later rebranded programmable intelligent computer) microcontroller. A hardware development board designed for use in the laboratories of this module is presented. Through hands on laboratory experience, students are encouraged to engage with practical problem-solving exercises and develop programming skills across a broad range of scenarios.

A Life Course Perspective on Urban–Rural Migration: the Importance of the Local Context

The relationship between migration and age has long been established, and most recently, there have been calls for the inclusion of a life course perspective to migration research. In this paper, we explore Northern Ireland’s internal migration patterns, and in particular, we test for the importance of urban to rural migration at different stages of the life course. Data from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study are used for the first time to analyse urban–rural migration patterns. The resulting modelling demonstrates unique aspects of urban to rural migration within Northern Ireland, which up until now have gone largely
unreported. Results from logistic regression modelling suggest that there is an age selectivity to urban– rural mobility but not necessarily at the life course stages predicted from a review of the life course migration literature. Individuals in younger age groups (at the household and family formation stages of the life course) are most likely to make an urban to rural move in Northern Ireland, with a decline in the likelihood of this move type with age. Possible explanations are offered linked to Northern Ireland’s settlement hierarchy, rural planning policy, and family farming traditions. The findings challenge researchers to pay due attention to how migration processes may play out differently in varying geographical, social, and planning contexts and emphasise the importance of structural factors to explain migration patterns.

Single course of antenatal steroids did not alter cortisol in preterm infants up to 18 months

To determine whether a single course of antenatal dexamethasone alters resting cortisol at 3, 8 and 18 months corrected age in preterm infants.

Primary cysts of the iris pigment epithelium. Clinical features and natural course in 234 patients

Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics, natural course, and complications of a large group of patients with primary iris pigment epithelium (IPE) cysts. Design: Observational case series. Participants: Two hundred thirty-four patients with primary IPE cysts participated. Results: Primary IPE cysts were classified as central in 6 patients (3%), midzonal in 50 patients (21%), peripheral in 170 patients (73%), and dislodged in 8 patients (3%). Central (pupillary) IPE cysts were found only in males, peripheral IPE cysts were found most often in females (69%), and no gender predilection was detected for midzonal and dislodged IPE cysts. Central and peripheral IPE cysts occurred in young patients (mean age, 20 and 33 years, respectively), whereas midzonal and dislodged IPE cysts were seen in slightly older patients (mean age, 52 and 45 years, respectively). Central IPE cysts were visible when the pupil was not dilated and appeared most often as a round or collapsed brown lesion arising from the pupillary margin, most commonly superonasally. Midzonal IPE cysts were brown and fusiform, best visualized after pupillary dilation. Peripheral IPE cysts produced a characteristic bulging in the iris stroma near the iris root, but they were directly visible in only 78% of cases. After wide dilation and patient and slit-lamp positioning, they appeared as a round clear lesion behind the iris, most often in the inferotemporal quadrant. Finally, dislodged IPE cysts appeared as a brown oval lesion, free floating in the anterior chamber (12%) or in the vitreous (12%), or fixed in the anterior chamber angle (75%). One hundred twenty-four patients (53%) were followed for a mean of 35 months (range, 3 months-19 years). In these patients, complications associated with IPE cysts included lens subluxation in one case (1%), iritis in one case (1%), focal cataract in two cases (2%), glaucoma in two cases (2%), and corneal touch in five cases (4%). Conclusion: Primary IPE cysts have characteristic clinical features that serve to differentiate them from intraocular malignancies. Most cysts have a benign clinical course, and treatment is rarely necessary.