On the buses: a mixed-method evaluation of the impact of free bus travel for young people on the public health

Background In September 2005 London introduced a policy granting young people aged  60 years. An increase in assaults largely preceded the scheme. Qualitative data suggested that the scheme increased opportunities for independent travel, social inclusion, and a sense of belonging and that it ‘normalised’ bus travel. The monetised benefits of the scheme substantially outweighed the costs, providing what the Department for Transport (DfT) considers ‘high’ value for money. Conclusion The free bus travel scheme for young people appears to have encouraged their greater use of bus transport for short trips without significant impact on their overall active travel. There was qualitative evidence for benefits on social determinants of health, such as normalisation of bus travel, greater social inclusion and opportunities for independent travel. In the context of a good bus service, universal free bus travel for young people appears to be a cost-effective contributor to social inclusion and, potentially, to increasing sustainable transport in the long term. Further research is needed on the effects of both active and other travel modes on the determinants of health; the factors that influence maintenance of travel mode change; travel as ‘social practice’; the impact of driving license changes on injury rates for young adults and the value of a statistical life for young people

A Robust Face Recognition Algorithm for Real-World Applications

The proposed face recognition algorithm utilizes representation of local facial regions with the DCT. The local representation provides robustness against appearance variations in local regions caused by partial face occlusion or facial expression, whereas utilizing the frequency information provides robustness against changes in illumination. The algorithm also bypasses the facial feature localization step and formulates face alignment as an optimization problem in the classification stage

The Meta-leadership inventory: developing a valid and reliable instrument for international school leaders

International school leaders must be prepared to steer their schools through ongoing crises and changes, regardless of the factors creating the crises and the need for swift change. To achieve the best possible outcomes from these dynamic situations, international school leaders must strategically deploy skills and abilities delineated by the Meta-leadership framework developed by Marcus et al.(2015). This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable instrument that measures the Meta-leadership competencies of international school leaders: the Meta-leadership Inventory for International School Leaders (MLI-ISL). This instrument development study involved a three-phase design. An initial set of items based on a theoretical blueprint derived from the scholarly literature was validated by a panel of subject matter experts followed with a reliability analysis to establish internal consistency of the inventory with a sample of 212 international school leaders. Utilizing Kalkbrenner’s (2021) MEASURE approach, Phase 1 resulted in the development of over 100 total items divided into three dimensions and 11 subdimensions. Phase 2 established content validation of 79 items by a second panel of experts with expertise in Meta-leadership, international school leadership, and survey design. Phase 3 reliability analysis procedures resulted in the MLI-ISL having excellent overall reliability (a = .95) and good reliability for the three main dimensions: The Person of The Meta-Leader (a = .87); The Situation (a = .85); and Connectivity (a = .89). Four subdimensions met the .70 reliability level with the eight remaining subdimensions just below acceptable levels. Analysis of variance showed that geographic region of the respondents significantly impacted the three main dimensions’ scores. The study outcome provides strong evidence that the MLI-ISL is a valid and reliable instrument measuring Meta-leadership competencies of international school leaders. These leaders exhibit high intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, enabling them to strategically lead others through dynamic and complex events within their organizations. The behaviors and actions of international school leaders are influenced by the cultural context of the geographic location of the leader\u27s school. Recommendations for future research include refining the MLI-ISL’s length, revising demographic items, improving the reliability of the subdimensions, and expanding the instrument’s target population