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The role of European Union regional policy: lessons from a Greek Region
No full textThe Regional policy explores the causes of different levels of development between regions. The purpose of this Dissertation is to explore the effectiveness of European regional policy.The contribution of this study is showing the overtime progress of the assumptions of convergence of regional inequalities between EU regions. We investigate, using spatial econometrics and the method of Geographical Weighted Regression, whether there is convergence between regions and EU countries.- Firstly, it will be presented whether a particular spatial entity affects and is affected by neighbouring values.- Secondly, another contribution is the interpenetration of spatial inequalities and their correlation with the prevailing economic conditions.- Thirdly, the last contribution is the modeling of variables and the examination if similar values are affected by the geographical distance or prevailing economic conditions.The empirical part of this dissertation uses spatial statistics and spatial econometrics.Regional inequalities are measured in Greece and the countries of the European Union using four indicators.Two models of spatial econometrics that were used. In the first method, distance is measured by geographical criteria while in the second method, distance is measured by an economic factor (employment index). The results show differences between the two methods. This research responds to the following research questions:- Is it possible to reduce regional inequalities? - Is there any convergence between EU regions? - Are policies leading to convergence of regions? It should be noted, however, that a balance between regions cannot be achieved because any economic change in a region's production process and because of their interdependence will start a cumulative upward or downward movement for the remaining regions.Finally, the results of the empirical analysis show that the objectives of convergence between the regions have not been achieved
Smart analysis of learners performance using learning analytics for improving academic progression: A case study model
No full textIn the current Covid-19 pandemic era, Learning Management Systems (LMS) are commonly used in e-learning for various learning activities in Higher Education. Learning Analytics (LA) is an emerging area of LMS, which plays a vital role in tracking and storing learners’ activities in the online environment in Higher Education. LA treats the collections of students’ digital footprints and evaluates this data to improve teaching and learning quality. LA measures the analysis and reports learners’ data and their activities to predict decisions on every tier of the education system. This promising area, which both teachers and students can use during this pandemic outbreak, converges LA, Artificial Intelligence, and Human-Centred Design in data visualization techniques, semantic and educational data mining techniques, feature data extraction, etc. Different learning activities of learners for each course are analysed with the help of LA plug-ins. The progression of learners can be monitored and predicted with the help of this intelligent analysis, which aids in improving the academic progress of each learner in a secured manner. The Object-Oriented Programming course and Data Communication Network are used to implement our case studies and to collect the analysis reports. Two plug-ins, local and log store plug-ins, are added to the sample course, and reports are observed. This research collected and monitored the data of the activities each students are involved in. This analysis provides the distribution of access to contents from which the number 16 of active students and students’ activities can be inferred. This analysis provides insight into how many assignment submissions and quiz submissions were on time. The hits distribution is also provided in the analytical chart. Our findings show that teaching methods can be improved based on these inferences as it reflects the students’ learning preferences, especially during this Covid-19 era.Furthermore, each student’s academic progression can be marked and planned in the departmen
Analysing teacher education policy: comparative and historical approaches
No full textIn the past decade, as we have seen in the previous two chapters, teacher education has assumed greater significance in global education policy (OECD, 2011a, 2011b; Asia Society, 2013; World Bank, 2013). Strategies to improve education outcomes have increasingly focused on improving teachers’ learning, leading to national reviews of teacher education. A repertoire of global reforms has sought to increase control over teachers’ work and performance while simultaneously emphasising teachers’ knowledge and discretion (Tatto, 2007). International organisations and global policy entrepreneurs have promoted a degree of convergence around certain core themes: The quality of entrants; practicum enhancement; the imperative of career-long teacher learning; school leadership; the use of evidence, including research, to inform improvement.e academy within the wider teacher education continuum from initial teacher education, through induction to continuing professional developmen
Decoupled voltage sensitivity analysis for cluster-oriented smart grid operations
No full textThe power systems of today use “smart grids” to improve grid operations and energy efficiency. State-of-the-art technologies and advanced control mechanisms have meant the renewable energy sources (RESs) can now be increasingly integrated into power grids. The grid integration of the RESs makes power generation more sustainable but concurrently causes bidirectional energy flow. This can lead to imbalances between phases. Instability during grid operations is consequently concerned, such as overcurrent in power lines and over/under bus voltages. In the power systems, distribution grids are especially affected, since they were not originally designed to handle power generation. The traditional grid operation, which is a centralised architecture, is therefore impractical for smart grids. Accordingly, an active distribution network is required.In this thesis, an impedance network model and a method for decoupled voltage sensitivity analysis are proposed. Their key contribution to the academic community in the field of smart grids is to enable distributed steady-state analysis based on a clustering power systems approach (CPSA), resulting in decentralised active operations in distributed areas of the smart grids. The voltage sensitivity analysis proposed in this thesis examines the response of voltage magnitude and angle in relation to bus current in sequence systems, active power, and reactive power. The results from the analysis therefore indicate that there are impacts between buses in term of the voltage magnitudes, which can be further used for power management and voltage regulation.The proposed analysis method is derived from a mathematical description of complex bus voltage, based on the proposed impedance model. It requires only measurement data gathered from the phasor measurement unit, without the information from grid topology. The required measurement data consist of bus voltages, bus currents, and the line currents of the connecting line between the distributed areas. As the foundation of the proposed method, first, the impedance model for each distributed area is determined from the measurement data. Only bus impedances between buses of concern are produced in this step. The impedance model is further used together with the measured voltage of the concerned bus in the sensitivity analysis. The proposed analysis method is devised to deal with both balanced and unbalanced grid conditions.The accuracy of the proposed analysis method was verified by simulations in three case studies. The results from the first two case studies demonstrated the accurate voltage sensitivity analysis in all selected grid cases under the balanced and unbalanced grid conditions, including the case of the measurement errors up to the maximum of 1% total vector error. Use of the outcome from voltage sensitivity analysis for regulating voltage profile was then examined in the third case study. Once verification was achieved, the proposed analysis method enabled decoupled voltage sensitivity analysis by using only the measurement data. This makes the proposed method suitable for further use in smart grids.Further research is recommended, which should give consideration to possible additional measurement errors, dynamic characteristics of the power grid, and the implementation of the proposed method
Big Data HE communities: could Twitter support UK universities amid the COVID-19 transition?
No full textThis chapter intends to explore the use of the Twitter social media platform as a microblog to share COVID-19 prescribed knowledge through observing the Twitter accounts of the five most student-populated UK universities. The chapter provides valuable practical insight to UK universities practitioners, students, and concerned stakeholders on the use of Twitter microblogs to share or retrieve knowledge required to cope with the current COVID-19 transition. The chapter sheds light on the unique characteristics of knowledge shared by UK universities through Twitter in relation to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter also highlights the unconventional use of Twitter by UK universities to share COVID-19 prescribed knowledge with their stakeholders
Six Teacher education in Scotland: consensus politics and ‘the Scottish policy style
No full textIn this chapter Moira Hulme and Aileen Kennedy talk about the ‘myth’ of Scottish education and about the widely acknowledged consensual nature of the education policy community. This has created a much more harmonious approach to teacher education policy than in some other parts of the UK. They trace the recent history of teacher education including in particular the ‘universitisation’ of provision as the colleges of education were each merged with universities. The General Teaching Council for Scotland has played a very significant role in teacher education policy since its formation in 1966 and this has included a key role in the development of a suite of professional standards as well as in processes of accreditation
Using a living educational theory to combine the educational influences of ICT and STEAM in the classroom
No full textStudy of Emergent Strategy Implementation during Global Pandemic
No full textThe aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of "Strategy" within businesses in the retail sector. It is undoubtedly a main factor that all businesses consist of a supply chain and for the efficient operation of that business it must be managed proactively to be successful. The advent of Covid-19 worldwide has affected all types of businesses that of the retail sector. Its' influx has created the need for a more radical approach to strategizing and the analysis of the whole procurement process. This paper descriptively will be focusing on three key components to the process being strategizing, employees and logistics. Because of Covid-19, businesses are now fast tracking their business practices in line with that of the "Internet of Things (IOT)" for ultimate survival of the business and its longevity. It is a thought of the author that, "With the correct business mindset, everything you do should be with the intention for it to ethically lead to the pronounce accumulation of profit". To achieve this one must focus on the mission of the business and its vision thus activating the strategic elements to compensate
Remarkable lives - Laura Scranage in conversation with Robert Hurst
No full textPurpose The purpose of this paper is to share Laura Scranage's story. Design/methodology/approach Laura wrote a short piece detailing her journey and was then interviewed by Robert. Findings Laura spoke about the difficulties she has faced in life and how her experiences with horses have been deeply therapeutic. Research limitations/implications Recovery narratives such as this give us an overview of only a single person's experiences. However, they allow the person with lived experience to explore their story in depth. Practical implications Laura advocates for more research into how horses can be used in therapeutic interventions. Social implications There is so much to learn from a story such as Laura's, for those who have had similar experiences and for those who work in mental health services. Originality/value This is the first time that Laura has chosen to share her unique story
Applications of Deep Learning in Healthcare: A Systematic Analysis
No full textDeep learning (DL) is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) that deals with the recognition of patterns. It learns from the input provided to it to predict an output according to the features it evaluates. With the extensive increase in unstructured data in the past few years, the ability to train machines to predict outcomes became much more difficult but the development of artificial neural networks (ANNs) and DL techniques changed that. One of the biggest advancements made with DL is in the field of healthcare. The objective of this research is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the vast applications of DL techniques used in the healthcare system, specifically in the domains of drug discovery, medical imaging, and electronic health records (EHRs). Due to the past epidemics and the current situation of the ongoing pandemic disease, i.e., COVID-19, the application of AI, ML, and DL in this field has become even more critical. Such work has become even more significant, and these techniques can help make timely predictions to combat the situation. The result showed a lot of research is ongoing to continuously tackle the limitations and improve upon the advantages. Many important advancements have been made in the field and will continue to grow and make our quality of life more efficient, cost-effective, and effortless