Which skills protect graduates against a slack labour market?

This paper explores the relationship between graduates’ skill levels and the risk of overeducationand unemployment in 17 European countries. We distinguish between field-specific and generalskills and between two labour market segments, the occupational domain of a particular field ofstudy and the labour market segment which requires general skills. In line with the predictions ofthe crowding out hypothesis, we find that the level of protection afforded by field-specificskills against the risk of overeducation increases with the degree of excess labour supply in theoccupational domain of the graduate’s field of study. Conversely, general skills offer moreprotection against the risk of overeducation when excess labour supply in the labour marketsegment which requires general skills is higher. Field-specific skills also protect graduatesagainst the risk of unemployment, whereas graduates’ level of general skills appears to beunrelated to the risk of becoming unemployed.labour market entry;

The influence of temperature on viscoelastic friction properties

Viscoelastic friction strongly depends on temperature, which determines the material stiffness and, therefore, given a constant load, the volume that is deformed and dissipates energy. We compare the results obtained by a numerical approach introduced by Carbone and Putignano (2013) [1] with measurements that separate viscoelastic losses from Coulomb contribution. This is done for a range of temperatures. We show that viscoelastic friction curves for different temperatures can be arranged into a single master curve using a frequency shift coefficient, which can be found from the characterization of the viscoelastic material response. This shows that it is possible to accurately (a) use dynamic material analysis data to extrapolate viscoelastic friction measurements to values outside the tested range, and (b) use a tribometer to obtain fundamental viscoelastic material properties

Propellant variability assessment

Efforts to determine whether rocket propellant density and modulus can be reliably measured using non-destructive ultrasonic techniques are reported. The objective was not achieved, primarily due to the approach taken

Coordinate-space solution of the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov equations within spherical symmetry. The program HFBRAD (v1.0)

We describe the first version (v1.00) of the code HFBRAD which solves the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock or Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov equations in the coordinate representation within the spherical symmetry. A realistic representation of the quasiparticle wave functions on the space lattice allows for performing calculations up to the particle drip lines. Zero-range density-dependent interactions are used in the pairing channel. The pairing energy is calculated by either using a cut-off energy in the quasiparticle spectrum or the regularization scheme proposed by A. Bulgac and Y. Yu.Comment: 39 pages, 9 figure

Under the hood: How an authentic online course was designed, delivered and evaluated

A key challenge for university professionals is to identify how to construct more interactive, engaging and student-centred environments that promote 21st century skills and encourage selfdirected learning. Existing research suggests the use of real-life tasks supported by new technologies, together with access to the vast array of open educational resources on the Internet, have the potential to improve the quality of online learning. This paper describes how an authentic online professional development course for higher education practitioners was designed and implemented using a learning management system (LMS) and an open companion website. It also briefly discusses how the initial iteration was evaluated and identifies recommendations for improving future iterations of the cours