Military expenditure economic growth nexus in Jordan: an application of ARDL bound test analysis in the presence of breaks

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a nation that has persisted through turbulent times. The country’s leaders have long attempted to balance the allocation of resources between a strong military and a developing economy in their quest for stability, peace and prosperity. This paper examines the relationship between Jordan’s military expenditure and economic growth during the period 1970-2015 to shed further light.  Using cointegration techniques allowing for structural breaks based on Gregory and Hansen (1996), and the ARDL methodology this paper tests the short and long-run equilibrium relationship between military expenditure and economic growth in Jordan. Furthermore, with the error correction model (ECM) and CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests, we examine the stability of the above relationship. The results show that there is a positive, long-run and short run relationship between military expenditure and economic growth in Jordan during the period under study. This finding has important policy implication to the Jordanian state as it justifies that the transfer of resources to the military has not negatively impacted economic growth

Utilising information foraging theory for user interaction with image query auto-completion

Query Auto-completion (QAC) is a prominently used feature in search engines, where user interaction with such explicit feature is facilitated by the possible automatic suggestion of queries based on a prefix typed by the user. Existing QAC models have pursued a little on user interaction and cannot capture a user’s information need (IN) context. In this work, we devise a new task of QAC applied on an image for estimating patch (one of the key components of Information Foraging Theory) probabilities for query suggestion. Our work supports query completion by extending a user query prefix (one or two characters) to a complete query utilising a foraging-based probabilistic patch selection model. We present iBERT, to fine-tune the BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) model, which leverages combined textual-image queries for a solution to image QAC by computing probabilities of a large set of image patches. The reflected patch probabilities are used for selection while being agnostic to changing information need or contextual mechanisms. Experimental results show that query auto-completion using both natural language queries and images is more effective than using only language-level queries. Also, our fine-tuned iBERT model allows to efficiently rank patches in the image

The punitive transition in youth justice: reconstructing the child as offender

The transition from ‘child’ to ‘offender’ status can be fasttracked when offending is formally recognised through formal disposal, with children treated increasing punitively as they progress through the Youth Justice System. The status and ‘offenderising’ transitions of children who offend is socio-historically contingent, not only on their behaviour, but on political, socio-economic, societal, systemic and demography. We support this perspective through a periodised re-examination of four socio-historical trajectories in the construction of the ‘youth offender’: conflict, ambivalence and bifurcation (1908-1979); depenalising diversion and back to justice (1980-1992), fast-tracking the child to offender transition (1993-2007) and tentative depenalisation (2008 to present)

Emotional demands, compassion and mental health in social workers

Background: Compassion, described as the act of providing care based on empathy, dignity and respect, is intrinsic to effective health and social care.  Although delivering compassionate care has wide-ranging benefits for service users, more insight is needed into its effects on health and social care professionals. The emotional demands of ‘helping’ work can engender compassion fatigue that may impair wellbeing, whereas compassion satisfaction and feelings of compassion towards the self could be protective.  Aims: To examine the effects (direct and indirect) of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and self-compassion on mental health in a cohort of social workers. Methods: We used validated scales to measure emotional demands, compassion satisfaction and fatigue, and self-compassion and the General Health Questionnaire-12 to assess mental health. We tested the main and moderating effects of emotional demands and the three facets of compassion using hierarchical regression analysis. Results: The study sample comprised 306 social workers (79% female). Participants who reported higher levels of compassion satisfaction and self-compassion tended to report better mental health, whereas compassion fatigue was a significant risk factor for wellbeing. The models explained 44% - 53% of the variance in mental health symptoms.  We found some evidence that compassion satisfaction and self-compassion buffer the negative effects of emotional demand on mental health, contributing 2% and 3% respectively to the incremental variance. Conclusions:  Our findings suggest that evidence-based interventions are needed to reduce compassion fatigue and enhance compassion satisfaction and self-compassion in social care work. We consider ways to accomplish this using targeted interventions.

Pushing back against push-backs: a right of entry for asylum seekers unlawfully prevented from reaching Italian territory

A decision of a civil court in Rome has reaffirmed the illegality of ‘push-back’ operations under both Italian and international law. In a noteworthy and innovative development, the court further held that, in light of the fact that the claimants had been wrongfully prevented from reaching Italian territory, they had a subjective right as a matter of Italian constitutional law to be admitted to Italy so as to be able to make an application for international protection. The decision has potentially far-reaching implications for future cases before the Italian courts in the field of migration, and may also pave the way for similar findings at the international level

A pilot study to detect balance impairment in older adults using an instrumented one-leg stance test

The aim of this study was to investigate whether parameters from an instrumented one-leg stance on a force plate test could provide relevant information related to fall risk in older people. Twenty-five community dwelling older people and 25 young subjects performed a one-leg stance while standing on a force plate, with parameters related to transferring weight onto one leg and postural sway in singe-leg stance evaluated. Older participants were classified as being at risk of falling if their performance did not meet one of the previously-established cut-offs for the Five Times Sit-To-Stand and Timed-Up-and-Go tests. Eleven older participants were classified as having a risk of falls. The only significant difference between groups during the weight transfer phase was in the mediolateral displacement, with the fall risk group having less sway than the other groups, signifying a more precautionary approach. With respect to postural sway, both the younger subjects and the no fall risk group stabilised sufficiently to decrease their sway compared to initial values after four and six seconds, respectively. In contrast, the fall risk group was unable to stabilise during the one-leg stance, and continued to sway throughout the 10-sec recording period. These findings suggest that the normal one-leg stance test might not be suitable to detect fall risk. In contrast, an instrumented version of the test could provide valuable additional information that could identify risk of falling in older people

Enhancing mathematics through dance: an investigation into the possibility of raising attainment in primary geometry through the use of dance as a teaching tool

Masters' in Teaching Dance research dissertation

A systematic review of the factors – enablers and barriers – affecting e-learning in health sciences education

Background: Recently, much attention has been given to e-learning in higher education as it provides better access to learning resources online, utilising technology – regardless of learners’ geographical locations and timescale – to enhance learning. It has now become part of the mainstream in education in the health sciences, including medical, dental, public health, nursing, and other allied health professionals. Despite growing evidence claiming that e-learning is as effective as traditional means of learning, there is very limited evidence available about what works, and when and how e-learning enhances teaching and learning. This systematic review aimed to identify and synthesise the factors – enablers and barriers – affecting e-learning in health sciences education (el-HSE) that have been reported in the medical literature. Methods: A systemic review of articles published on e-learning in health sciences education (el-HSE) was performed in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Allied & Complementary Medicine, DH-DATA, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Global Health, from 1980 through 2019, using ‘Textword’ and ‘Thesaurus’ search terms. All original articles fulfilling the following criteria were included: (1) e-learning was implemented in health sciences education, and (2) the investigation of the factors – enablers and barriers – about el-HSE related to learning performance or outcomes. Following the PRISMA guidelines, both relevant published and unpublished papers were searched. Data were extracted and quality appraised using QualSyst tools, and synthesised performing thematic analysis. Results: Out of 985 records identified, a total of 162 citations were screened, of which 57 were found to be of relevance to this study. The primary evidence base comprises 24 papers, with two broad categories identified, enablers and barriers, under eight separate themes: facilitate learning; learning in practice; systematic approach to learning; integration of e-learning into curricula; poor motivation and expectation; resource-intensive; not suitable for all disciplines or contents, and lack of IT skills. Conclusions: This study has identified the factors which impact on e-learning: interaction and collaboration between learners and facilitators; considering learners’ motivation and expectations; utilising user-friendly technology; and putting learners at the centre of pedagogy. There is significant scope for better understanding of the issues related to enablers and facilitators associated with e-learning, and developing appropriate policies and initiatives to establish when, how and where they fit best, creating a broader framework for making e-learning effective