City University London

About: City University London is a education organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 5735 authors who have published 17285 publications receiving 453290 citations.

Choices of Degree or Degrees of Choice? Class, `Race' and the Higher Education Choice Process

Abstract: This paper draws on data from an on-going ESRC project on choice of higher education. It focuses primarily on the experiences of non-traditional applicants to higher education. Although these students are not typical of the entire university entry cohort, their narratives raise important issues in relation to race, class and higher education choice processes. These `success stories' reveal important causes for concern as well as reasons for celebration. In particular, their experiences of the choice process are qualitatively different from those of their more privileged middle-class counterparts, highlighting key class and racial differences and inequalities.

Perinatal and maternal outcomes by planned place of birth for healthy women with low risk pregnancies : the Birthplace in England national prospective cohort study

Abstract: Objective: To compare perinatal outcomes, maternal outcomes, and interventions in labour by planned place of birth at the start of care in labour for women with low risk pregnancies. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: England: all NHS trusts providing intrapartum care at home, all freestanding midwifery units, all alongside midwifery units (midwife led units on a hospital site with an obstetric unit), and a stratified random sample of obstetric units. Participants: 64 538 eligible women with a singleton, term (≥37 weeks gestation), and "booked" pregnancy who gave birth between April 2008 and April 2010. Planned caesarean sections and caesarean sections before the onset of labour and unplanned home births were excluded. Main outcome measure: A composite primary outcome of perinatal mortality and intrapartum related neonatal morbidities (stillbirth after start of care in labour, early neonatal death, neonatal encephalopathy, meconium aspiration syndrome, brachial plexus injury, fractured humerus, or fractured clavicle) was used to compare outcomes by planned place of birth at the start of care in labour (at home, freestanding midwifery units, alongside midwifery units, and obstetric units). Results: There were 250 primary outcome events and an overall weighted incidence of 4.3 per 1000 births (95% CI 3.3 to 5.5). Overall, there were no significant differences in the adjusted odds of the primary outcome for any of the non-obstetric unit settings compared with obstetric units. For nulliparous women, the odds of the primary outcome were higher for planned home births (adjusted odds ratio 1.75, 95% CI 1.07 to 2.86) but not for either midwifery unit setting. For multiparous women, there were no significant differences in the incidence of the primary outcome by planned place of birth. Interventions during labour were substantially lower in all non-obstetric unit settings. Transfers from non-obstetric unit settings were more frequent for nulliparous women (36% to 45%) than for multiparous women (9% to 13%). Conclusions: The results support a policy of offering healthy women with low risk pregnancies a choice of birth setting. Women planning birth in a midwifery unit and multiparous women planning birth at home experience fewer interventions than those planning birth in an obstetric unit with no impact on perinatal outcomes. For nulliparous women, planned home births also have fewer interventions but have poorer perinatal outcomes.

Screening, predicting, and computer experiments

Abstract: Many scientific phenomena are now investigated by complex computer models or codes. Given the input values, the code produces one or more outputs via a complex mathematical model. Often the code is expensive to run, and it may be necessary to build a computationally cheaper predictor to enable, for example, optimization of the inputs. If there are many input factors, an initial step in building a predictor is identifying (screening) the active factors. We model the output of the computer code as the realization of a stochastic process. This model has a number of advantages. First, it provides a statistical basis, via the likelihood, for a stepwise algorithm to determine the important factors. Second, it is very flexible, allowing nonlinear and interaction effects to emerge without explicitly modeling such effects. Third, the same data are used for screening and building the predictor, so expensive runs are efficiently used. We illustrate the methodology with two examples, both having 20 input variables. I...

Financial and legal constraints to firm growth: does size matter?

Abstract: Using a unique firm-level survey database covering 54 countries, we investigate the effect of financial, legal, and corruption problems on firms’ growth rates. Whether these factors constrain growth depends very much on firm size. It is consistently the smallest firms that are most constrained. Financial and institutional development weakens the constraining effects of financial, legal and corruption obstacles and it is again the small firms that stand to benefit the most. There is only a weak relation between firms’ perception of the quality of the courts in their country and firm growth. We also provide evidence that the corruption of bank officials constrains firm growth.