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UK music before and after Covid-19
Get PDFThis article analyses the statistical reporting of UK Music, the umbrella organisation that provides a collective voice for British music industry trade bodies. It documents changes in methodology from the organisation’s earliest reports, which provide financial data for each industry sector and use the prosperity of the business as a platform from which to lobby, to the reports for the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, which turn away sectoral information to argue that the industry is an ecosystem and music is beneficial for national well-being. In the process, UK Music submerges evidence that record companies and music publishers fared well during the pandemic while music creators and live music industry workers suffered greatly. As well as uncovering this information, this article considers why it has been neglected. It has enabled UK Music to lobby for actions that work across the industry and sidestep arguments that music creators should receive a greater share of remuneration. It has also helped to keep UK Music intact
Influence of maturation and determinants of repeated sprint ability in youth basketball players
Get PDFThe main aims of the current study were 1) to determine the main predictors of general and specific repeated-sprint ability (RSA) tests, 2) to analyze the relationships between RSA tests and independent measures of physical performance, 3) to examine whether between-age differences exist, and 4) to assess if maturation affects those mentioned above in young basketball players. Thirty-five young (U-14 to U-16), highly trained basketball players performed a linear sprint test (5, 10, and 25-m), an incremental running test, and two repeated-sprint tests (general [RSG]: 6 x 25-m; specific [RSS]: 6 x 5+5 m with a 45º change of direction and 20 s of passive recovery in both tests). Anthropometric variables were measured and used to calculate age at peak height velocity (APHV), which was used to determine maturation. The main determinants of RSA tests were aerobic performance and linear sprinting for RSS (R2= 0.84) and adding the percentage of body fat for RSG (R2= 0.94). Almost perfect relationships (r = 0.93 to 0.99) were found between all RSA variables (i.e., the best [RSGb and RSSb] and mean time [RSGm and RSSm]). As age increased, performance in RSA were evident, as shown by improved best and mean scores. When APHV was controlled for, no significant differences were apparent in the comparison from U-14 and U-16 in 25-m, RSGb, and RSGm. In contrast, significant differences (p < 0.05) still were evident with APHV controlled between U-14 and U-16 in 5-m, 10-m, RSSb, and RSSm. In conclusion, maturation positively affects linear sprinting and linear RSA performance, while specific (multidirectional) RSA seems to be related to other factors
Legal change and the role of the scholar: scratching beneath the surface of comparative taxonomies
Get PDFBoth the classical theory of legal families and its more modern articulations place East European jurisdictions in the same box because they give precedence to their common socialist experience. Not only they serve as distorting mirrors propelling stereotypes, but also they close off promising avenues of comparative research because of the politically tainted pre-understanding(s) of legal systems which they impose. This article argues that legal change is frequently facilitated by small groups of individuals who are often scholars. By paying closer attention to their role and incentives as well as the networks to which they belonged, we may see traditional categories realign and gain a more in-depth understanding of the patterns of legal change—namely, the intricate ways in which law evolves—and uncover little-known but important relationships between legal systems which comparative taxonomies either ignore or fail to explain. The article illustrates its argument by zooming in onto the role of three scholars—Lyuben Dikov, Filippo Vassalli, and Karl Llewellyn—who may hold the key to explaining interesting, but unexpected similarities between Bulgarian, Italian, and US law
“A place for learning that feels like home”: Meeting diverse students learning needs to promote business sustainability in HE
No full textAn ability to enable students to feel at home in their learning environment, is intrinsic to educational sustainability. This topic is recognised as being one of the most critical change schemes that challenges learning institutions such as those in the realms of Higher Education (HE), not least universities.
Consequently, it is hardly surprising to learn that there is growing interest in the need to explore issues relating to Sustainability Development in education from the students` perspective. Furthermore, as Jickling (2000), warned, sustainable development is a concept that “critics have argued is an inappropriate focal point for developing curriculum”. This is because it is regarded as being “too normative, ambiguous, and ineffective at solving the complex problems” (Jickling, 2000) that future generations of students are likely to face (Jickling, 2000), particularly from an emotional perspective.
Notwithstanding, this is an area of research recognised as being one that is under-developed. Furthermore, research evidence suggests that within the paradigm of HE, there is a tendency to focus less on affective outcomes such as students’ values, and more on cognitive skills namely, knowledge and understanding. These are research gaps that this paper aims to address, courtesy of the study that reflects its focus.
Nonetheless, an ongoing increase in diversity among cohorts of students in recent times, highlights the need to gain a better understanding of what would encourage students of difference, to want to stay in their chosen learning environment.
The findings of a questionnaire survey initially conducted from 2017 to 2018, which captures the responses of 4,238 national and international undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral Higher Education students, provides some answers to what might be regarded as a pertinent question.
The aim of this study was to identify diverse university students preferred learning and teaching approaches and methods, what they regarded as learning effectively, what they believed motivates them to want to learn and, what they perceived as the barriers to their learning.
The findings of this qualitative and quantitative study, revealed that respect recognised as a culturally situated, core commonly shared value for all, was ranked in the top three most significant factors in enabling diverse university students to feel at home in their learning environment, which also nurtured a sense of belonging.
The students who participated in this study confirmed that being taught by someone who respects them was their preferred teaching and learning approach. They also said learning effectively was subject to their teachers treating them with respect, which they said would also motivate them to want to learn.
Respect or lack thereof primarily from the participants teachers, was ranked by the students in this study, as being one of the key barriers to their ability to learn effectively in the classroom.
The researcher was able to draw on these findings to promote greater awareness and understanding of cultural meanings of respect among diverse university students. They also helped to identify how these meanings manifest in behaviours in the classroom to inform teaching practices.
These findings were also used to develop the range of inclusive interventions created by the researcher. These were piloted among lecturers to enable universities to know how to make students feel that they belong, and in so doing, promote sustainability in education.
This is an ongoing study consequently additional data will be utilised to add to future sustainability development discourses and diversity debates
Facilitating narratives of cultural identity in the classroom
No full textThis chapter discusses findings from the SHARMED (Shared Memories and Dialogue) project. The project final report, MOOC and Train the Trainer guidelines can be accessed via (https://www.sharmed.eu/uk-international/project/).
SHARMED was a project to implement pedagogical innovation funded by the Erasmus+ Programme, designed and delivered by the University of Suffolk (United Kingdom, UK), the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) and Universität Jena (Germany) between 2016 and 2018. SHARMED aims were: 1) promoting new experiences of education, with specific consideration for respect of promotion of intercultural dialogue; 2) fostering equity in participants’ contributions to classroom interaction; 3) enhancement of new experiences of education in European schools and settings, responding to the need to innovate traditional ways of dealing with different perspectives, which is particularly felt in some contexts (Farini, 2019). The SHARMED project was based on the use of workshops to facilitate children aged 8-13 years in producing and sharing narratives related to personal memories in 48 classes across Germany, Italy and the UK.
Children were invited to bring photographs related to their memories and shared narratives of those memories. Facilitation was introduced to open up spaces that promote children’s authorship of narratives
Country-of-origin effect
No full textThe Country-of-origin effect (COE) proposes that MNCs from a particular country tend to exhibit profile similarities that are distinct from those of MNCs emanating from another country. This is due to differences in home country factors. COE as a concept is analysed
A new perceptron based neural-network algorithm to enhance the scheduling performance of safety-critical WSNs of increased dependability
Get PDFWireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are embedded systems consisting of multiple distributed Sensor Nodes and usually one or more Base Stations (BSs), placed within an area of interest, to monitor and detect given behaviours and changes. Nowadays, WSNs are widely used in Safety-Critical systems where their dependability requirements are determined by the correct operations of the three primary properties: Connectivity, Coverage, and Lifetime of the network. These properties have been mostly addressed independently of each other due to the complexity of addressing them simultaneously within a networked environment. This paper proposes a Perceptron-based Artificial Neural Network (ANN) analyser to analyse the performance of the Scheduling algorithms (e.g., where nodes alternate between awake (ON) and sleep (OFF) states) in WSNs using a MATLAB simulation environment. This approach uses a neural network to learn, train, and test the performance of such algorithms, to better the overall dependability of the network. The simulation results show possible ways to improve the lifetime of nodes using a more dynamic connectivity /coverage strategy. In particular, nodes that switched ON more than four times were identified and classified. This has the benefit of improving network lifetime and hence its service availability and reliability attributes (dependability) by balancing the workload or the sleep-schedule of those nodes, the network’s lifetime increases by avoiding unnecessarily depleting nodes’ energy
Generalized Firefly Algorithm for optimal transmit beamforming
Get PDFThis paper proposes a generalized Firefly Algorithm (FA) to solve an optimization framework having objective function and constraints as multivariate functions of independent optimization variables. Four representative examples of how the proposed generalized FA can be adopted to solve downlink beamforming problems are shown for a classic transmit beamforming, cognitive beamforming, reconfigurable-intelligent-surfaces-aided (RIS-aided) transmit beamforming, and RIS-aided wireless power transfer (WPT). Complexity analyzes indicate that in large-antenna regimes the proposed FA approaches require less computational complexity than their corresponding interior point methods (IPMs) do, yet demand a higher complexity than the iterative and the successive convex approximation (SCA) approaches do. Simulation results reveal that the proposed FA attains the same global optimal solution as that of the IPM for an optimization problem in cognitive beamforming. On the other hand, the proposed FA approaches outperform the iterative, IPM and SCA in terms of obtaining better solution for optimization problems, respectively, for a classic transmit beamforming, RIS-aided transmit beamforming and RIS-aided WPT
The duality of employee perspectives and organisational requirements: a diagnostic framework for the international HR leader
Get PDFWhy do we love to hate Human Resources (HR)? The evolution of the HR function and the required focus and capabilities of HR practitioners remain topical despite decades of research and discourse. Traversing the duality of employee perspectives and organisational requirements upon HR, this research explores this concept with resulting recommendations and a diagnostic framework for the HR Leader.
The overall purpose is to contribute to the Human Resources knowledge and practice of HR professionals. The research aims to explore the role of HR Leaders and practitioners in facilitating transformations alongside providing targeted and timely support to the employees experiencing the transformation. Situated within a one-off organisational transformation for a large multi-national company located across Asia Pacific and the Middle East, it offers the distinctive triad of simultaneous perspectives from myself as the Researcher: - as an employee, the HR Leader, and the inside-researcher.
The research adopted a phenomenological, qualitative methodology, achieved in three phases. Phase 1 was the bespoke design of a pilot Masterclass, delivered face-to-face with 15 senior business leaders, which evolved into a series of virtual Masterclasses for 104 international employees. Phase 2 comprised focus group discussions with 40 employees and employee representatives in two countries. Phase 3 incorporated semi-structured interviews with ten senior leaders who had attended the Masterclass and externally with five peer-level international HR Leaders and one HR scholar. The collected data from the 175 participants was thematically analysed, resulting in seven identified themes with accompanying recommendations for the HR Leader.
A resulting diagnostic framework is presented that enables HR Leaders to traverse the duality of people and organisation requirements. Supporting evidence of the framework application within an international healthcare organisation during COVID-19 is detailed, demonstrating this research's broad and distinct contribution towards HR knowledge and practice
Chapter 30: Which are the main characteristics determining sentence severity? An empirical exploration of shoplifting offences using spike-and-slab models
Get PDFIn order to identify the case characteristics considered by judges in their sentencing deliberations, researchers have relied heavily on regression modelling techniques. In most instances, the sample of sentences available is many times larger than the number of case characteristics recorded,
providing enough degrees of freedom to estimate the effect of these case characteristics adequately. However, when the number of case characteristics recorded is too large, or the samples are too small, regression models can overfit the data. Here, we demonstrate how, in such settings, Bayesian model averaging can be used to select the most consequential case characteristics in a principled and reliable way. The potential of this approach is illustrated using a sample of 2116 sentences imposed in the magistrates’ courts in England and Wales on shoplifters. For this small sample, we reliably estimated twenty case characteristics (out of 34 available) predicting custody decisions. This highlights the high
degree of discretion afforded to sentencers in England and Wales. We also found that offender-related factors (such as the offender’s previous convictions, and caring responsibilities), appeared to be far more important than characteristics defining the offence (e.g., value of goods stolen or lasting effect of offence on victim). This questions the widely held belief that sentencing in England and Wales is based around the principle of proportionality