4254 research outputs found
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Data Analytics Research-informed Teaching in a Digital Technologies Curriculum
In the business environment, the goal of data analytics can be characterized as improving decision making and its links to big data and other data-driven technologies. In UK higher education, degree apprenticeships are business-led and government-supported nationally recognized qualifications, where delivery is tailored to partner employer requirements. This paper focuses on the development of the data analytics specialism of the BSc Digital and Technology Solutions degree apprenticeship at the University of Winchester Business School informed by current research and practice. A data-driven analytical framework is first proposed to provide an overarching methodology for extracting knowledge and insights from (big) data. It covers key components of the analytics lifecycle from data management, data preprocessing, and integration through data modeling and business intelligence to insight management. Software tools related to collecting, cleansing, processing, analyzing, and visualizing data have been systematically discussed to provide the technological dimension. The methodology is then applied to the development of the specialist modules in data analytics, which represent the core thematic structure of the degree apprenticeship pathway. The culmination of the paper is an evaluation of the educational innovation of this digital technologies curriculum, highlighting teaching, learning, and assessment from the perspective of data-analytic thinking.</p
Women's Everyday Lives in War and Peace in the South Caucasus
This edited volume explores the everyday struggles and challenges of women living in the South Caucasus. The primary aim of the collection is to shift the pre-occupation with geopolitical analysis in the region and to share new empirical research on women and social change. The contributors discuss a broad range of topics, each relating to women’s everyday challenges during periods (past and present) of turbulent transformation and conflict, thus helping make sense of these transformations as well as adding new empirical insights to larger questions on life in the South Caucasus. Part I begins the discussion of women and social change in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan by examining the contradictions between traditional gender roles and emancipation and how they continue to dictate women’s lives. Part II focuses on women’s experiences of war and conflict in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Nagorny Karabakh, as well as displacement from Abkhazia and Azerbaijan. Part III examines the challenges faced by sexual minorities in Georgia and feminist activism in Azerbaijan.Women's Everyday Lives in War and Peace in the South Caucasus will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including sociology, politics, gender studies and history
Authority, Space and Gender in the Anglo-Norman Worlds, c. 900-c. 1200
Medieval manors have long been the subject of academic study, though the ways in which these houses reflected and shaped - and were shaped by - their occupants to express social authority have not yet been fully explored. This book undertakes a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary examination of them, aiming to provide a fuller account of how concepts of space and domestic place were understood, represented, and used by their occupants in England and Normandy from c. 900 to c. 1200, and how this illuminates aspects of gender and authority in the period. Blending approaches from archaeology and history, it uses evidence from Anglo-Saxon wills, standing and excavated manorial sites in England and Normandy, and a variety of written texts from vitae to history to poetry, in order to delve into, deconstruct and reconstruct gendered notions of authority in the period. This book ultimately challenges ideas of gendered objects and places through the medieval construction of authoritative personae, and the use and representation of medieval manors, focusing on the household as a place and space of performance in the age of the Norman Conquest
'Wissenschaft und Theologie' oder 'Wissenschaft in der Theologie'?:Neue Wege der Begegnung von Theologie und Naturwissenschaften
This article surveys some recent changes and developments in the field of science and theology. Older accounts like that of Ian Barbour, which mapped the field in terms of different kinds of relationship between ‘science’ and ‘religion’ (or ‘theology’), have been criticized in recent years for giving an over-simplified and misleading impression of the complex and varied encounters between particular scientific and theological discourses. In place of Barbour’s schema, I propose a more nuanced way of thinking about how particular theological enquiries might engage with relevant scientific disciplines. One important debate in science and theology, concerning divine action in the natural world, is used to illustrate the proposed approach. The use of this example reveals how new paths have opened up in recent years in this particular debate, in addition to new possibilities for understanding the field as a whole
Science in Theology:Encounters between Science and the Christian Tradition
If we wish to understand ourselves and the world in relation to God, what contribution to our understanding should we expect from a Christian tradition with its roots in the Bible, and what should we expect from the natural sciences?Neil Messer sets out five types of answer to that question. The responses range from the view that the Christian tradition has nothing to contribute, through various forms of dialogue, to the claim that science is irrelevant to theological understanding. This classification scheme is illustrated and tested by extended explorations of three topics in the science and theology field: how to think about God’s action in the world, how to make theological sense of the suffering and destruction involved in the evolution of life, and how theology should respond to the scientific study of religion. The classification offers a way to understand and evaluate these debates, and the discussion of specific examples demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of each type of approach.The book concludes with suggestions for how readers might use this scheme to guide their own work on science and theology. For students and researchers in science and theology, this book offers three things: a tool for understanding specific debates in science and theology, critical surveys of some of the most important debates in the field, and a concise guide to ways of setting up encounters of theology with science.<br/
The nocturnal activity of a commonly housed rodent: How African pygmy dormice (Graphiurus murinus) respond to an enriched environment
Exotic rodents are becoming increasingly popular in industry; however, there is limited empirical evidence to guide husbandry practices. African pygmy dormice (Graphiurus murinus) are typical in this respect. This research aimed to determine the effect of environmental enrichment on the behavior (including stereotypical scratching at the glass walls of the enclosure) and space use of a group of eight African pygmy dormice at Sparsholt College Hampshire, UK. An apple-wood climbing grid and three raised (at various heights above the substrate) woven-wicker nest boxes were provided. Instantaneous scan sampling was used to record 150 hours of nocturnal behavior (19:00–07:00 daily) over five experimental phases (phase 1 baseline; phase 2 climbing grid provided; phase 3 lower nest box provided; phase 4 middle nest box provided; phase 5 higher nest box provided). Space use was determined using the modified Spread of Participation Index. Nest box use was recorded continually. The provision of the climbing grid significantly increased the groups' time spent eating, digging, gnawing, and climbing and significantly decreased stereotypic scratching at glass. It also significantly changed the use of all enclosure zones, with mice utilizing the highest zones as soon as they were accessible. The addition of raised nesting opportunity saw the highest zones of the enclosure become those preferentially used. It also totally diminished stereotypic scratching at glass. The highest nest box was preferentially used and use of terrestrial nest boxes (those placed directly on top of the substrate) reduced significantly when raised alternatives were provided. This study suggests those working with African pygmy dormice should provide an enriched enclosure via “arboreal” opportunity to increase active behaviors and reduce stereotypy
What Makes the Monkey Dance:The Life and Music of Chuck Prophet and Green on Red
A study of the life and music of Californian musician and former member of Paisley Underground band Green on Red. The book examines Prophet's career and puts it in the context of changes in the music industry from the 1980s to the present day
Multireligious Cooperation and the Integration of Muslim Migrants in Sweden
In recent years, as the number of migrants arriving in Europe has grown, faith-based organizations have become intimately involved in assisting migrants’ short- and long-term integration. This article describes an innovative cooperative project between minority (mosque) and majority (church) religious institutions designed to enhance integration between Muslim migrants and their predominantly Christian host community. Using survey and interview data, this study finds that participants reported enhanced feelings of welcoming, larger networks of friends and acquaintances, and more engagement in activities after participating in the project
Forum: Pauline Stafford's Queens, Concubines and Dowagers Thirty Five Years On
Co-edited a 'Forum' special on Pauline Stafford's landmark work 'Queens, Concubines and Dowagers: The King's Wife in the Early Middle Ages' on the 35th anniversary of its publication