Birmingham City University Open Access Repository
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Reaching Beyond Rapid: A collaboration between ILL and Digitised Services at Birmingham City University
No full textThis poster showcases how Birmingham City University’s Inter-Library Loans and Digitised Services teams redesigned their RapidILL digitisation workflow to deliver clearer, accessible, screen-reader-friendly documents. The ILL team manages request checking and item retrieval, while Digitised Services complete precision scanning and OCR using the BookEye 5 Archive scanner and ABBYY FineReader. The collaboration has strengthened workflow reliability, improved accessibility, and enhanced BCU’s global reach through RapidILL. The poster highlights the shared process, quality improvements, and the impact of cross-team working
Modeling the Factors Affecting the Career Planning Process of Sports Science Faculty Student-Athletes in Türkiye: Principal Component Analysis Approach
No full textCareer planning has a complex structure that begins during childhood. Therefore, many internal and external factors can affect career planning. This study aimed to model the potential factors affecting the career planning of sports science faculty students using principal component analysis (PCA). In this study, the opinions of 273 university students from three departments regarding the career planning process were assessed using a scale comprising five sub-dimensions (career awareness, faith in career, accuracy of selection, professional awareness, and education proficiency). Potential factors affecting the career planning process (sex, faculty department, grade level, employment status, and coaching certificate) were determined, and 2730 data points were obtained. While the data were modeled using PCA, data preprocessing, standardization, and suitability tests were performed. The KMO test was used to assess sample adequacy. Components with eigenvalues ≥1 that explained at least 60% of the variance were interpreted. Those with factor loadings >0.7 were retained. Thirteen PCA models were created in this study. Career awareness had a positive effect on students with a coaching certificate (λ = 0.50), men (λ = 0.53), and sports management students (λ = 0.50). It had a negative impact on those who were not certified (λ = -0.51), unemployed (λ = -0.53), in the first three grade levels (λ = -0.51 to -0.54), and coaching education students (λ = -0.53). Additionally, professional awareness negatively affected the physical education department (λ = -0.51) and employed students (λ = 0.49). This study can provide valuable insights for educational institutions and policymakers by deepening understanding of the factors affecting career planning in the sports science
How corporate mindfulness leads to organizational agility? Exploring the roles of employee knowledge sharing and resilience
No full textPurpose
Drawing on Broaden and Build (B&B) theory, this study develops and tests a theoretical model to investigate how corporate mindfulness fosters organizational agility. The proposed model further examines the mediating role of knowledge sharing in the above relationship and the moderating role of employee resilience in the relationship between employee knowledge sharing and organizational agility.
Design/methodology/approach
The study sample consisted of 268 employees working in Pakistani service organizations. The SPSS Process macro was used to test the study hypotheses.
Findings
Corporate mindfulness was found to significantly positively impact organizational agility. Knowledge sharing partially mediated this relationship. However, the interaction effect of employee resilience in the knowledge sharing and organizational agility relationship was insignificant.
Research limitations/implications
Our study contributes to understanding one of the underlying mechanisms through which corporate mindfulness influences organizational agility. We discuss the study’s implications for theory and practice, limitations and directions for future research.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical evidence on the workplace mindfulness and organizational agility relationship. Moreover, this study presents a holistic view of mindfulness by considering its Eastern origins and Western adaptations and offers a unique angle of the Islamic perspective on mindfulness in the global south country. It acknowledges the critique of corporate mindfulness and emphasizes the balanced approach that can lead to positive organizational outcomes such as organizational agility
Decolonising secondary Maths initial teacher education in England
No full textIn England, a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention is negatively affecting the teaching of Maths. This is particularly damaging for children from working class, global majority and low-income households – qualifications in Maths being important in the employment market and for some Degree-level subjects. The current shortage is framed by a proliferation of school-based Initial Teacher Education (ITE) pathways outside of Higher Education (HE) and a recent Market Review of HE-based ITE that signalled the introduction of a centrally prescribed ITE curriculum. This article draws on research into a mature HE-based secondary Maths Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme in a ‘superdiverse’ city in the West Midlands of England to offer insights into an alternative partnership approach. Through analysis of data from focus groups and semi-structured interviews, the paper utilises theories of decoloniality and critical pedagogy to argue that current policymaking, rooted in coloniality, underpins the current crisis. Key findings show how HE-based ITE, in partnership with schools and informed by a critical pedagogical approach and an interest in the public good, has infrastructural advantages over school-based programmes. In this case, partnership as an organic, networked collective significantly benefits students and the local communities they come from
Unattended Baggage: Monitoring in Public Stations
No full textAny unattended baggage in public stations is believed to be considered as a threat to citizens. Fortunately, identification of such objects is one of computer vision problem which can be solved by AI and ML algorithm. Therefore, the need for accuracy and real-time application to increase safety in public places such as airports, train stations is mandatory. The chapter explores an automated framework of unattended baggage detection for video surveillance, and the stages of developing an algorithm. The various methods of performing data processing and feature selection are highlighted in this literature review
Assessing the Adoption and Feasibility of Green Wall Systems in Construction Projects in Nigeria
No full textThis study aims to evaluate the level of awareness and practical adoption of green wall systems in the Nigerian construction industry. It seeks to examine the current state of green wall implementation and recommend strategies to enhance their integration into construction practices among Nigerian construction professionals. A thorough review of the existing literature was conducted to identify different types of green wall systems. Insights from this review informed the design of a structured questionnaire, which was distributed to construction professionals based in Lagos State. The data collected were analyzed using statistical tests. The study reveals that while there is generally high awareness of green wall systems among Nigerian construction professionals, the practical use remains low, with just 8 out of the 18 systems being actively implemented, eclipsing the mean value of 3.0. The findings underscore the need for targeted education, industry incentives, and increased advocacy to encourage the use of green wall systems in the Nigerian construction sector. The results have significant implications for the Nigerian construction industry. The limited awareness and adoption of green wall systems highlight the need for strategic actions from policymakers, industry leaders and educational institutions. Promoting the use of green walls could drive more sustainable building practices, improve environmental outcomes and support the broader goals of decarbonization and circularity in construction. This research adds to the body of knowledge on sustainable construction by offering a detailed evaluation of green wall awareness and adoption within the Nigerian context. While green wall systems have been studied globally, this research provides a regional perspective, which in this case focuses on Lagos State. The study’s recognition of the gap between awareness and implementation highlights an important area for future research and industry development
Managing Diabetes One Step at a Time in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries: The Promise of Wearable Devices
No full textThe global burden of diabetes mellitus disproportionately affects low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where limited healthcare infrastructure hampers timely and effective disease management. Wearable technologies, such as continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), insulin pumps, and fitness trackers, offer a transformative opportunity to bridge care gaps by enabling real-time monitoring, personalized feedback, and improved glycemic control. Evidence shows how wearables enhance patient engagement, support clinical decision-making, and reduce complications. However, significant barriers such as cost, digital illiteracy, poor system integration, and data privacy concerns impede widespread adoption in LMICs. Case studies from Ghana, China, and Ethiopia illustrate these devices' potential and challenges in resource-limited settings. Policy interventions, such as public-private partnerships, subsidies, simplified interfaces, and digital literacy programs, are essential to overcome these obstacles. Furthermore, integrating wearable data into national health systems and leveraging artificial intelligence can improve individualized care and long-term outcomes. As mobile phone use increases in LMICs, coupling wearables with mHealth platforms could further empower self-management. With targeted investments and regulatory support, wearable technologies can be pivotal in advancing equitable, proactive, and data-driven diabetes care across underserved populations
Development of a Method for Determining Password Formation Rules Using Neural Networks
No full textAccording to the latest Verizon DBIR report, credential abuse, including password reuse and human factors in password creation, remains the leading attack vector. It was revealed that most users change their passwords only when they forget them, and 35% of respondents find mandatory password rotation policies inconvenient. These findings highlight the importance of combining technical solutions with user-focused education to strengthen password security. In this research, the “human factor in the creation of usernames and passwords” is considered a vulnerability, as identifying the patterns or rules used by users in password generation can significantly reduce the number of possible combinations that attackers need to try in order to gain access to personal data. The proposed method based on an LSTM model operates at a character level, detecting recurrent structures and generating generalized masks that reflect the most common components in password creation. Open datasets of 31,000 compromised passwords from real-world leaks were used to train the model and it achieved over 90% test accuracy without signs of overfitting. A new method of evaluating the individual password creation habits of users and automatically fetching context-rich keywords from a user’s public web and social media footprint via a keyword-extraction algorithm is developed, and this approach is incorporated into a web application that allows clients to locally fine-tune an LSTM model locally, run it through ONNX, and carry out all inference on-device, ensuring complete data confidentiality and adherence to privacy regulations
Integrating AI-Driven Analytics for Enhanced ESG Mapping: Aligning Local and Global Perspectives
No full textSustainability remains a central global challenge, requiring a nuanced un- derstanding of how global policy frameworks align with localised priorities. However, analysing diverse data sources for sustainability assessment re- mains a key challenge, as globally issued formally structured reports often lack localised granularity, while unstructured local data lacks structure and standardisation. Existing approaches fail to systematically integrate these heterogeneous sources, limiting their effectiveness in identifying actionable sustainability insights.
This study presents an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven framework that leverages Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to integrate struc- tured and unstructured sustainability data. We applied Latent Dirichlet Al- location (LDA), BERTopic, Generative AI (GenAI), and FinBERT-based co- sine similarity to extract macroeconomic trends from formal reports—Executive Summary of IMF’s Global Stability Reports—while identifying localised sus- tainability strategies from Greenstone’s UK-based newsletters on sustainable practice. GenAI outperformed topic models in producing more coherent, di- verse, and contextually relevant topics.
To further enhance GenAI’s performance, we applied MIPROv2—a Bayesian optimisation-based prompt tuning method—which improved topic distinc- tiveness across data sources.
Our key contribution lies in aligning global and territorial sustainabil- ity discourses through AI-enhanced topic modelling. The findings demon- strate an integrated methodology that connects global policy directives with region- and industry-specific insights. This approach uncovers underexplored opportunities in the social and governance dimensions of ESG, enabling data- driven and adaptable strategies. By synthesising insights across multiple data sources, this research enables policymakers, financial institutions, and indus- try leaders to bridge sustainability knowledge gaps, align local priorities with global objectives, and drive innovative, targeted solutions