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Margery Wace and BBC Empire Talks, 1936–1943
No full textIn 1936, six years after joining the BBC as a Talks Assistant, Margery Wace was moved to a new department, Empire Talks, with the job of expanding and professionalising the output. As ‘Empire Talks Organiser’, she quickly impressed with her understanding of the role, her bold scheduling and her ability to get the best out of speakers. The outbreak of the Second World War saw Empire Talks gain heightened significance and Wace was at the forefront of managing an ever-expanding schedule and an ever-growing staff, overseeing hundreds of hours of broadcasting each week. Not one to push herself forward, she worked herself to exhaustion and it was only when, in early 1941, she almost died that BBC executives realised her full-worth, creating her Empire Talks Director. Wace’s death in January 1944, shortly after the birth of her second child, may have contributed to her almost total absence from histories of the Empire Service
Enhancing Corporate Sustainability through Total Quality Management: Evidence From Ethiopian Private hospitals
Get PDFThis study, drawing on a resource—based view and information processing theory as a foundation, aims to examine the influence of total quality management on corporate sustainability directly and through the mediating role of business process integration, knowledge sharing, and the moderating role of innovative culture. Data was collected from 286 managers and supervisors of selected private hospitals in Ethiopia using a structured questionnaire and convenience sampling. Data analysis is conducted using SmartPLS4. The result of this study demonstrate that total quality management significantly influences corporate sustainability, both directly and through the mediating role of knowledge sharing and business process integration. Moreover, this study found that innovative culture has a moderating role in the relationship between total quality management and corporate sustainability. However, innovative culture is not moderating the relationship between knowledge sharing and corporate sustainability. This study focuses only on private hospitals in Ethiopia and data is collected from managers and supervisors using convenience sampling technique. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized and may not be extended to public hospitals. Further research should test the model in different socio-economic and cultural settings, as well as in public hospitals. The findings of this research have practical implications for managers and policymakers in the private healthcare sector during decision-making and strategic planning
Microplastic Deposits Prediction on Urban Sandy Beaches: Integrating Remote Sensing, GNSS Positioning, µ-Raman Spectroscopy, and Machine Learning Models
Get PDFThis study focuses on the deposition of microplastics (MPs) on urban beaches along the central São Paulo coastline, utilizing advanced methodologies such as remote sensing, GNSS altimetric surveys, µ-Raman spectroscopy, and machine learning (ML) models. MP concentrations ranged from 6 to 35 MPs/m2, with the highest densities observed near the Port of Santos, attributed to industrial and port activities. The predominant MP types identified were foams (48.7%), fragments (27.7%), and pellets (23.2%), while fibers were rare (0.4%). Beach slope and orientation were found to facilitate the concentration of MP deposition, particularly for foams and pellets. The study’s ML models showed high predictive accuracy, with Random Forest and Gradient Boosting performing exceptionally well for specific MP categories (pellet, fragment, fiber, foam, and film). Polymer characterization revealed the prevalence of polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene, reflecting sources such as disposable packaging and industrial raw materials. The findings emphasize the need for improved waste management and targeted urban beach cleanups, which currently fail to address smaller MPs effectively. This research highlights the critical role of combining in situ data with predictive models to understand MP dynamics in coastal environments. It provides actionable insights for mitigation strategies and contributes to global efforts aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 14, aimed at conserving marine ecosystems and reducing pollution
Children's palliative care and public health: position statement.
Get PDFA public health approach to palliative care has been developed in adult palliative care over several years. Despite the concepts of health and wellbeing, and palliation, dying and death appearing at first to be contradictory, a cogent argument has been made to understand palliative care in the context of promoting public health. However, the application to children's palliative care has not been articulated in depth. The need for and development of children's palliative care is well documented globally, with the public health model, and more recently the WHO conceptual model for palliative care development being key to ongoing development and progress in service delivery. Engaging communities to influence care provision is essential and important to ensure provision of appropriate and sustainable care. Positioning children's palliative care within the public health perspective transforms care and service provision and centres around the child, their childhood and their carers, as part of the community and the wider population. Access to healthcare is vital, of course, but so is access to childhoods which guarantee children's human rights and access to being a child living a childhood, whether that childhood is long, short or leads to an adulthood. Uncovering differing perspectives on the intersection of public health and children's palliative care that varied between global regions, led to the development of eight statements. Our collaboration between colleagues in seven countries in different regions has allowed us to set out the context of the children's palliative public health approach. This reflects a balancing of medical/nursing professionalised care and partnerships, co production and participation of communities. The public health approach to children's palliative care is radical, it is transformational, and means changing how we do things in order to improve the lives of children with palliative care needs and their families around the world
Temporal collisions: On the use of narrative conventions from genre fiction for location-based cultural heritage games
Get PDFFor decades, digital technologies have been used to offer engaging experiences in cultural heritage sites, and these experiences have shown useful as a means to convey the histories associated with the sites. While some experiences are information-driven (e.g., tour guides), others are story-driven and therefore need a narrative justification for why the past and the present collide and in which way. This paper explores how narrative conventions from genre fiction – specifically, ghost stories, science fiction, historical fiction and fantasy – can frame narrative content in cultural heritage sites. We discuss these specific literary genres and their use in locative games to achieve the temporal collisions necessary for framing story-driven locative cultural heritage experiences. We identify the nature of the main temporal connections used by the different genres (including issues of narrative control) and offered a tentative mapping of the temporal connections onto an actual cultural heritage site
Assessing the success of a horizon scanning approach in predicting invasive non-native species
No full textDespite increasing awareness of invasive non-native species (INNS) and enhanced biosecurity controls in many countries, INNS are still arriving and establishing in new destinations, remaining a globally acknowledged threat to native biodiversity. Preventing the introduction of INNS, as opposed to managing them once they have arrived, is recognised as the most effective approach to their management. Horizon scanning represents one of the key tools to identify high-risk INNS that are yet to arrive within a region and has been applied in many contexts around the world, but to date there have been no studies that systematically assess the effectiveness of this approach. Here, we revisit the horizon scan for Great Britain conducted in 2013 that assessed the likelihood of high-risk INNS arriving within the next ten years, establishing and having an impact on biodiversity and ecosystems. We assess the success of this exercise in predicting arrival of these species within the subsequent ten years. Ninety-two species were shortlisted in the 2013 horizon scan. Overall, 31 of the 92 species identified in the 2013 horizon scan have arrived by 2023. We found that 12 of the top 20 species had arrived within ten years. In predicting arrival, there was a significant effect of arrival previously within Great Britain, and the number of countries in Western Europe and Baltic countries in which an INNS was found prior to 2013. We conclude that horizon scanning provides a rapid, affordable, and successful mechanism to predict the arrival of high-risk INNS. We highlight the importance of citizen science, including biological recording, and of local expertise for detecting and documenting arrival of INNS and discuss knowledge gaps that could help inform and improve future horizon scanning. In addition, we also recommend regularly repeating horizon scanning exercises to support biosecurity and awareness raising for INNS
Factors Associated With Successful Parathyroid Adenoma Localisation in Sestamibi Study—Can Change in Serum Calcium Be a Useful Indicator?
Get PDFObjective: Primary hyperparathyroidism can be cured by the successful removal of the culpable parathyroid adenoma. Successful localisation allows the specialist surgeon to perform safer and more cost-effective focused excisions rather than exploratory surgery. This study aims to identify possible factors that predict successful adenoma localisation using technetium99m–sestamibi. Design, Patients and Measurements: Retrospective analysis of 159 patients undergoing parathyroid localisation with technetium99m–sestamibi SPECT/CT. Patients were classified as successful or unsuccessful localisation when compared to the surgical site of a proven adenoma following successful parathyroidectomy. Preoperative and postoperative serum parathyroid hormone (PTH), calcium and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and pathological size of the parathyroid adenoma were recorded. Results: Larger specimen volume, weight and higher preoperative PTHs were strongly associated with successful localisation. The percentage change in serum calcium (calculated as the difference between pre- and post-op calcium) was also strongly associated with successful localisation. Higher preoperative serum calcium (> 2.85 mmol/L) was also associated with successful localisation although with a reduced statistical significance. Seventy percent of patients in our cohort underwent parathyroidectomy with a serum calcium < 2.85 mmol/L, of which 92% had pathologically confirmed adenomas and 67% had successful localisation with sestamibi. Conclusion: The serum PTH and change in serum calcium were most strongly associated with successful localisation. The degree of hypercalcaemia was also associated with successful localisation but without as strong an association when compared to the change in calcium. Several factors influence the degree of hypercalcaemia in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism including parathyroid adenoma size, 25-hydroxyvitamin D status and the individual’s baseline calcium set point. Historic information (if available) on the patient’s individual baseline set point prior to developing primary hyperparathyroidism, and subsequent elevation when primary hyperparathyroidism has developed, could aid decision-making for clinicians when deciding on parathyroidectomy
Structural breaks in global stock markets: Are they caused by pandemics, protests or other factors?
Get PDFThe study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global events on the global stock market, focusing on 16 countries of the world using quarterly data ranging from 1919Q1 to 2020Q2. While selected sample countries in Europe have at least ten break dates under the period of investigation, the US, Canada and Australia, have only twelve break dates. Asia and the other bloc of countries report ten and twelve break dates respectively. One most prominent cause of structural changes in stock markets (with the exclusion of Germany) appears to be from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), which had inverse effects on major markets around the world. The most prominent source of structural breaks in the Asian markets appears to be from the 2008–2009 GFC. In addition, we found evidence of structural breaks in several stock markets in the world, resulting from the 2009–2010 Global Pandemic
Can ChatGPT Be Addictive? A Call to Examine the Shift from Support to Dependence in AI Conversational Large Language Models
Get PDFThe rapid rise of ChatGPT has introduced a transformative tool that enhances productivity, communication, and task automation across industries. However, concerns are emerging regarding the addictive potential of AI large language models. This paper explores how ChatGPT fosters dependency through key features such as personalised responses, emotional validation, and continuous engagement. By offering instant gratification and adaptive dialogue, ChatGPT may blur the line between AI and human interaction, creating pseudosocial bonds that can replace genuine human relationships. Additionally, its ability to streamline decision-making and boost productivity may lead to over-reliance, reducing users' critical thinking skills and contributing to compulsive usage patterns. These behavioural tendencies align with known features of addiction, such as increased tolerance and conflict with daily life priorities. This viewpoint paper highlights the need for further research into the psychological and social impacts of prolonged interaction with AI tools like ChatGPT
Curbing environmental degradation in Oceanic-Asia: does innovation matter?
Get PDFThis study investigates how innovation moderates the relationship between energy use and environmental degradation across 45 Oceanic-Asian countries from 1990 to 2018. Anchored in the energy-led degradation hypothesis and using carbon dioxide emissions as a proxy for environmental harm, we apply a battery of econometric techniques, including bootstrap OLS, to unbalanced panel data. Results consistently show that renewable energy significantly reduces emissions, while nonrenewable energy increases them. Innovation independently lowers emissions and interacts asymmetrically with energy types: it weakens the beneficial impact of renewables and mitigates the harmful effects of nonrenewables. These findings suggest that innovation plays a dual role—dampening both the positive and negative environmental effects of energy consumption. By attenuating carbon emissions, innovation emerges as a critical determinant of environmental quality and a strategic lever for advancing green development. The study fills a key gap in the literature and offers new insight into the energy–environment–innovation nexus