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The Good and not the Bad or Ugly:Exploring how leaders themselves make sense of and explain authenticity in other leaders
No full textThe incumbent theoretical view of authentic leadership presents it as an intrinsic quality of certain leader types and is based on the premise that performance can be improved by developing more authentic leaders who will, in turn, create more authentic followers. This approach has surfaced several unanswered questions and conceptual challenges, leaving the theory open to heavy criticism. This paper presents the findings from two personal constructivist studies designed to inductively explore how leaders themselves make sense of authenticity in leadership and what constructs they associate with the linguistic label ‘authentic leader’ when applied to others. The research identifies that leaders perceive an authentic leader as someone who is both morally and relationally oriented, and who acts with the good of others in mind, which is in contrast to the existing use of the discursive terms ‘genuine’, ‘real’ and ‘true’ in current conceptualisations of authentic leadership. Working for a leader who is perceived as authentic was also found to be beneficial to followers’ own psychological experience of work and worthy of retention as a distinct leadership theory
Impact of missing precipitation values on hydrological model output – a case study from the Eddleston Water catchment, Scotland
Get PDFA hydrological model was applied to select the best infilling method of missing precipitation (1) and to assess the impact of the length of deleted and filled precipitation data (2). The model was calibrated and validated using the hourly observed discharges from two gauges located in the outlet of the catchment (62.34 km 2) and in the inner sub-catchment (2.05 km 2). Precipitation from four gauges was spatially interpolated over the overall catchment, while the sub-catchment used the precipitation from one gauge. Four scenarios of different lengths of deletion within three high-intensity events were established in the data of this gauge. Three infilling methods were applied and compared: substitution, linear regression and inverse distance weighting (IDW). Substitution showed the best results, followed by linear regression and IDW in both scales. Differences between methods were significant only in 8.3% and 19.4% of all cases (sub-catchment and catchment, respectively). The impact of length was assessed using the substitution only and by comparing differences in discharges and performance statistics caused by four scenarios. Higher differences in discharges were found on the catchment scale compared to the inner sub-catchment and were insignificant for all events and scenarios. The hypothesis that a longer length of deleted and filled data would lead to a greater error in discharges was wrong for 11.1% and 16.7% of all cases (sub-catchment and catchment, respectively). In several cases (33.4% sub-catchment, 27.1% catchment), the model produced better results using the time series with filled gaps compared to the configuration with observed data. </p
Physical Education from the Sidelines: Pre-service Teachers Opportunities to Teach in English Primary Schools
No full textAfter two decades of political interest in primary Physical Education (PE) and school sport, the London 2012 Games (and its promised legacy) ushered in a new wave of government investment. To date, the impact of this funding on new entrants to the profession is unknown. This paper draws upon findings from the first phase of a national study that gives insights into the opportunities of pre-service primary teachers (PSTs) to teach PE. A short online survey was administered to PSTs across England. Data were collected to identify how many lessons of PE were taught and who delivered the subject in schools. Nearly 50% of PSTs reported they had no opportunity to teach PE, largely due to curriculum outsourcing. We caution, that if a persistent pattern of outsourcing remains, this could continue the removal of PSTs from teaching PE and the exclusion of teachers from the subject altogether
Associations Between Carotid-Femoral and Heart-Femoral Pulse Wave Velocity in Older Adults: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study
Get PDFBackground: Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) is widely used in epidemiological studies to assess central arterial stiffness. However, despite being superior to traditional risk factors in predicting cardiovascular outcomes, cfPWV is not routinely used in clinical practice. cfPWV assessments require applanation of the carotid artery, which can be cumbersome, and individual-level factors, including carotid artery plaque, may confound the measurements. Heart-femoral PWV (hfPWV) may be a suitable alternative measure of central arterial stiffness. Objectives: The aim of this study was to estimate the strength of the agreement between hfPWV and cfPWV. Methods: We evaluated 4133 older-aged [75.2 (5.0) years] African–American and white adults in the community-based Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. cfPWV and hfPWV were measured using an automated cardiovascular screening device. Agreement between the two measurements was determined using Pearson's correlation coefficient (r), standard error of estimate (SEE) and Bland–Altman analysis. Results: There was a strong (r > 0.7) agreement between hfPWV and cfPWV (r = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.82–0.84). Although the mean cfPWV [11.5 m/s (SD: 3.0)] and hfPWV [11.5 m/s (SD: 2.3)] were comparable, the SEE was 1.7 m/s. Inspection of the Bland–Altman plot revealed greater variability and bias for higher PWV values, with higher PWV further away from the regression line. Discussion: Findings suggest good agreement between hfPWV and cfPWV. hfPWV is a simpler alternative to cfPWV that is less likely to be confounded by individual-level factors. Considering the greater variability for higher PWV values, further work is warranted to determine the importance of local artery mechanics to both measures
Can a Technology Teach Meditation? Experiencing the EEG Headband InteraXon Muse as a Meditation Guide
Get PDFMobile and wearable technology now offers new avenues for technology-supported meditation practice and learning. Through a qualitative-dominant convergent parallel design, this study explored new empirical findings on the human perception of such technology-guided meditation training. A purposive sample of six participants trialled the device in several sessions during three weeks. Post-use, they commend the device for prompting self-guided learning. They highlight the importance of personalisation and adaptivity in educational technology, befitting Western pedagogical thought. Though these are guiding principles in current technology development, as they are believed to improve learning efficiency, they also prove crucial to user satisfaction and continued use of these technologies of the self
The Democratic Republic of the Congo armed conflict 1998-2004: Assessing excess mortality based on factual and cournter-factual projection scenarios
No full textTo document the scale and scope of the 1998–2004 armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the current study combined four different data sources: the 1984 DRC Population Census, the 1995 and 2001 DRC Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys and the 2007 DRC Demographic and Health Survey, to reconstruct missing demographic estimates and assess the level of excess mortality associated with the conflict, going from 1998 to 2007. Findings from this study do not corroborate previous estimates on the same armed conflict and for the same period: these range from excess mortality of 5.4 million population according to Coghlan et al. (2009), to 0.2 million according to Lambert and Lohlé-Tart (2008).The cohort component projection method as used in this study is a cost-effective approach as it allows the analysis of a complex issue, that is excess mortality associated with an armed conflict, with relatively modest resources. This study highlights that the choice of baseline rates is a key factor in determining the level of excess mortality when data points are scarce. This study produced a range of plausible estimates of excess mortality between 1 and 1.9 million population rather than a single best estimate. The range of excess mortality produced in this study is narrower and less extreme when compared to previous studies on the same conflict. As a further contribution to the debate in this field, the current study advocates producing a range of plausible estimates rather than a single best estimate of excess mortality. This is justified by the uncertainties associated with the scarcity of the data, the statistical modelling and the overall analysis process
