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BBC School Radio teaching methods: relevance to HE teaching in a hybrid environment
No full textMike Howarth gathers together his tutoring experience and research at the School of Education, Middlesex University London 2006-2023. Three papers reflect themes on the value of BBC School Radio teaching methods relevant to HE teaching in a hybrid environment. He refers to developments during Covid 2019-2023 and in a career in education. The three themes are: BBC School Radio Producers interviews - how we worked. School Radio Creative Teaching Methods - 12 practical applications in HE teaching. Clean English for Academic Writing - core skills in both spoken and written English help make engaging teaching and creative resources.
Please explore the summary for the content and scope of the three papers. Interested parties are welcome to contact the author at [email protected]
The LIDAR Harp - the development and evaluation of a new MIDI controller
No full textThis paper describes the development and evaluation of a MIDI controller inspired by the Theremin and Harp. It consists of twelve LIDAR sensors in a row that trigger MIDI note messages dependent on the key chosen. The height of the hand above the sensor allows for expression in the form of velocity (volume) information or any Continuous Controller (CC) parameter that the user might choose. The design process was largely inspired by a prototyping approach and followed a number of iterations. The controller was evaluated using the System Usability Scale, comparing the device with a version of the device with the height control removed as well as a Korg Kaossilator. 24 subjects evaluated it with 50% of these being musicians. It performed well against the Kaossilator in terms of usability, however opinion was divided between the two modes of play on the controller. This could be due to using one dimension of control (No CC control with height of hand) which allows for polyphonic playing, whereas with two dimensions the controller acts monophonically. Immediate future work includes using a faster microcontroller to reduce latency. Additional areas to be explored include optimisation of musical expression from a user perspective, by facilitating the adjustment of the maximum range of the sensors, inversion of the height control and exploring features such as pitch bend, that would also allow the use of accidental notes in the scales
Exploring the role of source, content, and audience factors in shaping sharing behaviour among social media influencers’ followers in Saudi Arabia
No full textThe rise of social media influencers over the past decade has garnered interest from scholars and marketers, paving the way for what is widely known as influencer marketing. Recent evidence indicates that engagement between influencers and their followers plays a major role in the success of influencer marketing. While scholars and practitioners are interested in enhancing followers’ engagement with influencers, the mechanism driving this engagement remains a promising area for research. Specifically, the exploration of engagement, particularly in the form of sharing, remains an underexplored area in the current body of literature. Therefore, this study aims to develop a model that investigates the underlying mechanism of followers’ sharing behaviour towards influencers’ posts, with a specific focus on the unique context of Saudi Arabia.
With the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework as a backbone and supported by the Communication Persuasion Matrix (CPM), an integrated model was developed to explore the specific factors related to the source, content, and audience influencing followers’ sharing behaviour. Specifically, the impact of source popularity and authenticity, content creativity and quality, as well as audience collectivist values and self-efficacy are studied. It is argued that parasocial relationships between influencers and their followers act as a mediator between these factors and sharing behaviour. Additionally, the potential moderating role of verification behaviour – the follower’s tendency to seek validation for what an influencer says – on the relationship between parasocial relationships and sharing behaviour was investigated.
An exploratory sequential mixed-methods design was employed, consisting of two stages of data collection and analysis that integrated qualitative and quantitative methods. In the first stage, twenty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with followers of SMIs to identify audience factors that might influence their engagement with SMIs. In the second stage, 507 valid survey responses were collected through a questionnaire and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).
The findings of this study elucidate the mechanism underlying the development of sharing behaviour. Specifically, the results suggest that only factors related to the content of SMIs can directly contribute to increased sharing behaviour. However, when followers develop a parasocial relationship with their favourite influencer, all factors related to the source, content, and audience exhibit significant indirect effects, leading to increased shared behaviour, except for self-efficacy. Additionally, verification behaviour was found to negatively moderate the relationship between parasocial relationships and sharing behaviour. These research outcomes yield several theoretical and practical implications
The influence of playing styles and team proficiencies on play call predictability in the NFL
No full textNational football League (NFL) teams are unusual in team invasion sports as they are an aggregation of sub-teams (offence and defence), hence research conducted on American football should reflect this fundamental difference. However, research has typically quantified technical behaviours related to offensive play. Current understanding is insufficient with respect to offensive and defensive patterns in play given that defensive performance has not been satisfactorily considered. Accordingly, this thesis developed a novel analysis of elite American football stemming from the identification of playing styles. A systematic review of literature revealed that unsupervised dimensionality reduction techniques were predominantly used in team invasion sports (84.21%). Therefore, principal component analysis (PCA) conducted on 5 seasons (2018-2022) of NFL event data, identified 8 distinct styles of play which accounted for exclusively offensive (n = 5) and defensive (n = 3) areas of performance. Subsequent cluster analysis of playing style efficacies demonstrated that teams could be classified into 2-3 proficiency clusters, to varying group membership distributions. Furthermore, multiple linear regression showed that 6 playing style proficiencies were significant predictors of regular season success. Conditional inference tree (CREE) models established the relative importance of 4 playing style proficiencies (passing efficacy, scrambling, rushing and deep passing) in predicting the likelihood of teams executing a pass, run or scramble play. Enhanced by playing styles efficacy among several situational variables, this machine learning approach, to develop a model of playing style efficacy, as a function of team quality, improved the applicability, and most notably, the accuracy, of decision trees as an analytical tool for use in the NFL by approximately 3.35-5.2% respectively for models including and excluding scrambling eventualities
Eat the fruit earlier: Sakis (Pithecia chrysocephala) show enhanced temporal fruit resource access compared with squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) in an urban forest fragment in Brazil
Get PDFFruit availability experienced by different primate species is likely to vary due to species‐specific fruit use, even within the same habitat and timeframe. Pitheciines, primates of the subfamily Pitheciinae, particularly favor the seeds of unripe fruits. Researchers consider this dietary characteristic an adaptation to increase access to fruit resources. However, the relative advantages of pitheciines over sympatric non‐pitheciine non‐seed‐eating primates regarding species‐specific fruit availability is not well studied. In a 26‐ha forest within the city of Manaus, Amazonian Brazil, we assessed the wild‐food feeding behavior of free‐ranging groups of golden‐faced sakis (Pithecia chrysocephala) and sympatric common squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus). We hypothesized that sakis would have greater and more consistent access to wild fruit due to (1) a wider variety of fruit species in their diet, and (2) longer consumption periods per fruit species. We recorded the plant species, part (pulp or seed), and developmental stage (ripe or unripe) of wild fruit consumed by both species. We also conducted monthly fruit censuses of 1000 trees and vines to estimate overall wild fruit abundance. As an indicator of fruit availability, we calculated the proportion of available fruiting trees and vines for each primate species separately based on their observed diet. Throughout the year, the proportion of available trees and vines was significantly higher and more temporally stable for sakis than for squirrel monkeys. This was because sakis used shared fruit species longer than squirrel monkeys by consuming both ripe and unripe fruit. Although sakis had a broader fruit repertoire than squirrel monkeys, it did not contribute to the higher fruit availability. Thus, the fruit feeding system of sakis identifies aspects of a niche that is less restricted in the timing of fruit consumption, which led to a relative advantage in fruit availability
Should you use GARCH models for forecasting volatility? A comparison to GRU neural networks
Get PDFThe GARCH model is the most used technique for forecasting conditional volatility. However, the nearly integrated behaviour of the conditional variance originates from structural changes which are not accounted for by standard GARCH models. We compare the forecasting performance of the GARCH model to three regime switching models: namely, the Markov Switching GARCH, the Hidden Markov Model, and the Gated Recurrent Unit neural network. We define the number of optimal states by means of three methods: piecewise linear regression, Baum–Welch algorithm and Markov Chain Monte Carlo. Since forecasting volatility models face the bias-variance trade-off, we compare their out-of-sample forecasting performance via a walk-forward methodology. Moreover, we provide a robustness check for the results by applying k-fold cross-validation to the original time series. The Gated Recurrent Unit network is the best suited for volatility forecasting, while the Hidden Markov Model is the best at discerning the market regimes
Intersectional discrimination and EU law: time to revisit Parris
Get PDFIn this article it is argued that the CJEU judgment in Parris needs to be revisited to recognise that intersectional discrimination is covered by the EU anti-discrimination Directives. There are several reasons for this. First, a prohibition of intersectional discrimination is now laid down in an EU anti-discrimination Directive (Directive 2023/970/EC); second, this would fit in with developments in the EU Commission, Council and Parliament; third Parris turns on its own facts; fourth a purposive or capacious interpretation of these Directives already allows for such discrimination to be included in the Directives; fifth, the shift in CJEU case law towards a intra-group comparison for discrimination can make comparisons in intersectional discrimination cases easier. It is argued that without acknowledging that intersectional discrimination is covered by the EU anti-discrimination Directives, victims of such discrimination, like Mr Parris and others, like headscarf wearing women, might be left without a remedy when they suffer discrimination on a combination of grounds
Playing games with diagrams: truth diagrams and game semantics
Get PDFIn this paper we discuss the connection between truth diagrams and game semantics. Truth diagrams offer a diagrammatic way to represent truth in propositional logic. Game semantics, on the other hand, offers a strategic and game theoretical way to establish the truth value of a given formula. By establishing a relation between the two, we offer another diagrammatic reasoning for game semantics, beyond game trees; and characterise various operations on truth diagrams game theoretically
The right to freedom of thought: an interdisciplinary analysis of the UN special rapporteur’s report on freedom of thought
Get PDFIn 2021, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief presented his ‘Report on Freedom of Thought’ to the United Nations General Assembly. This was the first substantive consideration of the right to freedom of thought at the level of the United Nations since the right was recognised in 1948. This paper provides interdisciplinary reflections on this report to support the ongoing discussion on the appropriate content and scope of this fundamental human right. We begin by addressing potential reasons for the historical neglect of this right, namely that the right has been viewed as more symbolic than practical and that relevant interests are already protected by other rights. Next, given there is no consensus on what the right to freedom of thought protects, or how it protects, we consider the potential attributes of the right. We then turn to a consideration of potential violations of the right to freedom of thought, turning to its application to the field of mental health. Finally, we consider the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations, discussing how some of these may be realised through human rights-centered regulation in the form of the European Union’s new Digital Services Act. In this context, we also briefly consider relevant aspects of the EU Commission’s proposal for an AI Act. We conclude by outlining what we see to be the pressing challenges facing the development of this right
Factors influencing burglary and home security measures in England and Wales
Get PDFObjectives: This exploratory study aims to investigate the relationship between characteristics of the survey respondents, reported fear of burglary and installed home security measures.
Methods: This is a secondary analysis research on data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales 2017/18. The data was analysed using suitable statistical methods: regression modelling and factor analysis.
Results: The main findings showed that the socioeconomic status of respondents and the status of the area they live in are the strongest predictors of installation of deterrence home security measures. The findings further revealed that those of lower socioeconomic status are more afraid of burglary and more likely to have deterrence but not entry prevention home security installed. However, the direct impact of fear of burglary on deterrence home security measures indicated a decrease on the likelihood of this type of home security measure being installed. This suggests that affordability of home security measures plays an important role.
Conclusion: Participants from lower socioeconomic status are more afraid of becoming victims of burglary and invest in cheaper home security measures to protect their homes, while wealthier participants do not feel the need to protect their homes since they are more likely to live in low crime areas