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How AI could transform the advertising pitch game
No full textThe quality between competing decks is potentially going to become negligible, making the human connection with the client the only difference, says Middlesex University Dubai's Stephen King
Die Entwicklung eines sozial-kognitiven Lernmodells zur Verbesserung der Schlüsselkompetenzen von Auszubildenden in der Kraftfahrzeugtechnik in Wien
Get PDFThe automotive technician profession, known as "KFZ-TechnikerIn" in Vienna, garners significant interest among the city's youth. In 2022, over 400 young individuals embarked on dual apprenticeship training, encompassing both company training and part-time vocational schooling. However, a concerning trend is observed wherein approximately 30% of apprentices fail to pass the final apprenticeship examination (LAP) in automotive technology in Vienna. The repercussions of failing the LAP are profound, including delayed salary increments and psychological impacts, particularly in the realm of self-efficacy perceptions.
This doctoral thesis aims to dissect the underlying causes of this high failure rate. It introduces a novel social-cognitive loop model, grounded in Vygotsky's social-cognitive learning theory. The research methodology employs a dual approach: a quantitative survey of 149 students assessing their current status, acquisition, and enhancement of four pivotal motor vehicle skills, alongside a qualitative exploration through guided interviews with ten vocational school teachers specializing in automotive technology in Vienna. The students' self-reported data are succinctly presented and subjected to both bivariate and multivariate analyses to test hypotheses derived from research literature. The teachers' interview transcripts are processed using computer-assisted qualitative content analysis.
The findings from these empirical studies are triangulated, synthesizing insights from both quantitative and qualitative data. The thesis culminates in proposing design recommendations targeting four key areas: Firstly, addressing reading and writing literacy deficiencies in compulsory education; secondly, disbanding groups of demotivated students; thirdly, enhancing teacher awareness of social-cognitive learning dynamics, with emphasis on the influential role of practice teachers; and fourthly, improving the training quality within companies, aligned with apprenticeship contract stipulations. Additionally, it suggests that preventing the exploitation of apprentices as low-cost labor could positively influence their performance in the LAP
A tamper-resistant broadcasting scheme for secure communication in internet of autonomous vehicles
No full textAs increasingly prevalent technologies in autonomous driving, 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of autonomous vehicle (IoAV) technology is recognized as a technique that is capable of disruptively changing the way people travel and greatly improving the travel experience. In the IoAV scenarios, information dissemination is inseparable from the interaction between autonomous vehicles and smart infrastructure. However, existing efforts rarely focus on the secrecy, authenticity of interactive data and flexible one-to-many communication between autonomous vehicles. In this paper, we propose a tamper-resistant broadcasting (TRBS) scheme for secure communication, which handles the inefficiencies and insecurity of existing identity-based broadcast signcryption solutions. Not only can our TRBS protect communication data from being illegally accessed, forged, or tampered with by malicious vehicles, but it can also enable efficient and flexible secure information dissemination between autonomous vehicles. We also exhibit strict security proofs and experimental evaluations to demonstrate our TRBS is secure and efficient for real-world applications
Erfolgsfaktoren für das Business Continuity Management bei fortschreitender Digitalisierung – Eine empirische Studie am Beispiel behördenerfahrener IT-Dienstleister in Deutschland
Get PDFThis dissertation explores the situation of Business Continuity Management in Germany and in the public sector in particular. A review of the literature and studies shows that the situation in Germany is lagging behind when compared internationally. This applies not only to Business Continuity Management but also to digitalisation. This thesis focuses on the identification of success factors and recommendations for action based on qualitatively analysed empirical information and their comparison with theoretical knowledge. Digitalisation should and must continue to develop rapidly in Germany and the question arises as to whether we are becoming too dependent on IT systems. Military attacks, cyber attacks, major fires and natural disasters can put large parts of the IT infrastructure out of action for extended periods at any time. Will security authorities such as the police, fire brigades and armed forces remain capable of acting in a digital world in the future? This is the task of Business Continuity Management, which is explored here. Interviews were conducted with IT service providers and consultants who currently provide IT services for Germany and will continue to do so in the future. Using the expert interview method, it was possible to obtain the background, identify correlations and achieve an objective view of the situation. The qualitative analysis of the interviews made it possible to understand motivations and discern logical recommendations. The BSI 200-4 standard published by the German Federal Office for Information Security in 2023, the ISO 22301 standard and the European NIS-2 guideline form a theoretical framework for the implementation of which success factors were developed. Forecasts were analysed to identify the greatest challenges to effectively establishing Business Continuity Management in the future. Recommendations in the areas of personnel, procedures and information on technological aspects were identified. The public sector faces the major challenge of not losing control of its processes as digitalisation continues. The results of this work offer transparency on the current situation and a promising approach in order to avoid failures of the past
The self in pain
Get PDFChronic pain can be highly distressing, disabling and complex. The experience of living with chronic pain often leads to a fundamental struggle with one’s sense of self and identity. In this article, we briefly review the wide range of conceptualisations of self in pain research. We then introduce a contextual behavioural conceptualisation of self, a more recent approach to self, and discuss its application and relevant evidence in chronic pain. We recommend that it is time to organize and integrate perspectives on self in relation to chronic pain so that research can proceed with less potential confusion or contradiction, and the contextual behaviour science approach can potentially provide a basis for this
COVID-19 and mental health in the UK: depression, anxiety and insomnia and their associations with persistent physical symptoms and risk and vulnerability factors
Get PDFObjectives
Mental health problems and persistent COVID-19 symptoms were prevalent in the context of COVID-19. However, despite the long-observed association between physical symptoms and mental health problems, such association has not been adequately examined in the context of COVID-19. Our understanding of wider patterns of risk and vulnerability factors for mental health also remains limited. This study investigated the associations between general mental health, and persistent physical symptoms, and additional risk and vulnerability factors in the context of COVID-19.
Methods
Two hundred fourteen adults, living in the UK, recruited via social media, completed the online survey and were included in the analyses. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations of persistent physical symptoms and risk and vulnerability factors with measures of general mental health including depressive symptoms, anxiety and insomnia.
Results
78.5% of the participants reported between 1 and 26 persistent symptoms, and about 28%–92% of them associated these symptoms with COVID-19 infection. Persistent physical symptoms were uniquely associated with all measures of mental health, β = .19–.32. Mental health history and worries were the most prominent risk factors, |β| = .12–.43.
Conclusions
People who experience more persistent physical symptoms post-COVID-19 have poorer mental health. It may be important to consider and discuss the recovery from COVID-19 beyond a negative COVID-19 test. Multidisciplinary interventions that address the complex impact of COVID-19 for people with long COVID are needed
Changing representations of student achievement: the need for innovation
Get PDFTranscripts and testamurs serve to confirm the award of a degree but offer limited information on what a student can actually do. This conceptual paper considers the problem of how graduate achievements are represented by universities in typically reductive and limited ways that do not enable student achievements and distinctiveness to be communicated to future employers, communities and students themselves. It argues that refinements to existing methods for the design and development of assessment are needed to encompass both university validated and contextualised credentials along with student-constructed portrayals of achievement and personas. Significant change is needed to assessment design, data capture and storage and the ways in which learning outcomes are tracked across a program and over time. Innovations in assessment representation should strengthen employer trust in the value of degrees, student trust in assessment processes and scaffold student agency in curating their employability narratives
Evidence based practice and social work: Developing critically engaged research minded practitioners through enhancing research methods teaching
No full textEvidence based practice (EBP) has become increasingly prominent in social work practice in Global North countries in recent decades. In the UK, as in other countries, this move has created an opportunity for ever more profiteering in the provision of social work interventions, evaluation and measurement of performance, although still largely funded by public money.
Lacking an agreed definition, EBP manifests in different ways in individual countries, often depending on what current governments deem to be most efficient, cost effective and publicly acceptable. ‘What works’ in social work practice becomes less about the needs of those who enter services and more about creating the narrative conducive to neoliberal practice (and profiteering) in public services.
Primarily teaching research methods our module has evolved to meet what we view as the changing needs of future social work practitioners, from understanding the basics of research design and data analysis to more sophisticated skills of critiquing ‘evidence’ as presented by private organisations and the ability to question standardised outcomes focused intervention.
This chapter outlines findings from two strands of internal research at our institution with social work students, including annual surveys on attitudes to research and qualitative exploration of how evidence is presented and acted on in placement. We reflect on the growing need to ensure our students are capable of understanding and resisting, and ultimately offering alternatives to, metricised social work practice when working with complex, vulnerable families and individuals and how we are addressing these needs in the classroom
Nest/ing: an emergent (un)methodology for becoming otherwise
Get PDFA dense, pungent, brown-green, intricately woven, itchy-silky, moss-strewn, twig-ridden ball brought us together. Since then, nest(ing) has become a shared methodology - nest/ing has offered a praxis of getting to know each other, getting to know nests (better) and it has become a capacious writing methodology. Taking nest(ing) seriously has drawn into sharp focus the perils of human exceptionalism. Nesting has gifted opportunities to wallow in porous boundaries and to luxuriate in modes of liminal reading/writing/experimenting, informed by a feminist politics to imagine the world differently (Despret, 2016). It is through lively storytelling, involving passing patterns back and forth that this piece, this assemblage of words (and memories, sensations and more) has nested into being - robust yet fragile, unruly yet hospitable, unknowable yet knowing.
Storying the everyday is nesting.
Nest/ing has become an emergent (un)methodology for becoming otherwise; something of an affective ecology that felts together guilt, awkwardness, vulnerability and inseparability. Nest/ing has taken us to places we could not have anticipated in advance and it has persisted in keeping our curiosity provoked as we dwell upon and amongst ordinary affects (Stewart, 2007) as they are encountered through minor gestures (Manning, 2016)
Practices and perceptions of strength and conditioning in female golf: a survey study of touring professionals
Get PDFThe aim of the study was to provide an understanding of current practices and perceptions of strength and conditioning (S&C) training in female touring professionals. A cross-sectional, explorative survey was undertaken and contained 30 questions separated into four sections: i) general participant information, ii) S&C practices, iii) Likert scale questions on S&C for golf performance, and iv) knowledge and awareness of S&C. A total of 102 players completed the survey with a combination of multiple-choice questions (MCQs), open-ended questions, and Likert Scale style questions utilised throughout. Results showed that ≥ 94% of players believed that strength and power in both the lower and upper body, in addition to flexibility, were the most important physical characteristics to complement golf shot metrics (e.g., clubhead speed [CHS], ball speed, carry distance, etc.). However, 26% of players conducted S&C training only in the off-season, with 21% suggesting that they had a fear of injury from S&C training. When considering the barriers to undertaking S&C training, the most common reasons included time constraints (20%) and players wanting to prioritise golf practice (15%). Finally, 58% of players believed that training in the weight room should replicate the golf swing. Although it is positive to see that the main physical characteristics for golf are well-understood by professional players, it is also evident that further education and knowledge translation is required relating to the application of S&C training for performance enhancement and injury risk mitigation purposes