520,929 research outputs found
Getting Better by Design: Evaluation of a programme to support the voluntary sector in Scotland
Better by Design was developed in 2013 by the Big Lottery Fund Scotland in response to the complex and changing landscape for voluntary sector organisations delivering services on the ground with people or communities. It aimed to support a process of change, and prioritised organisations focusing on social care, employability, health and housing where intervening earlier or preventing needs emerging could make a real difference. The programme encouraged sustainability in the widest sense to enable organisations to meet the needs of their beneficiaries better now and in the future.The chance to learn in this way and the challenge to habitual ways of thinking and doing, have made a significant change to mindsets in a number of organisations and at times, brought a new quality of engagement in partnership settings. This report shows that design-led approaches do have a great deal to contribute in creating the new organisational cultures of collaboration and mutual learning necessary for public service reform
Lessons Learned from a Decade of Providing Interactive, On-Demand High Performance Computing to Scientists and Engineers
For decades, the use of HPC systems was limited to those in the physical
sciences who had mastered their domain in conjunction with a deep understanding
of HPC architectures and algorithms. During these same decades, consumer
computing device advances produced tablets and smartphones that allow millions
of children to interactively develop and share code projects across the globe.
As the HPC community faces the challenges associated with guiding researchers
from disciplines using high productivity interactive tools to effective use of
HPC systems, it seems appropriate to revisit the assumptions surrounding the
necessary skills required for access to large computational systems. For over a
decade, MIT Lincoln Laboratory has been supporting interactive, on-demand high
performance computing by seamlessly integrating familiar high productivity
tools to provide users with an increased number of design turns, rapid
prototyping capability, and faster time to insight. In this paper, we discuss
the lessons learned while supporting interactive, on-demand high performance
computing from the perspectives of the users and the team supporting the users
and the system. Building on these lessons, we present an overview of current
needs and the technical solutions we are building to lower the barrier to entry
for new users from the humanities, social, and biological sciences.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, First Workshop on Interactive High Performance
Computing (WIHPC) 2018 held in conjunction with ISC High Performance 2018 in
Frankfurt, German
Rural men getting through adversity: stories of resilience
The aim of this study was to identiy the factors that have helped rural men to move through adversity. A total of ten men from Queensland took part in the study. Participants shared their experiences through in-depth, unstructured interviews.
The participants shared a diverse range of difficulties in their lives, but on analysis it become apparent that there were similarities in how the participants overcame those difficult times. Two major themes identified in the study were: the individual and inner strength and support and strategies
Ethics in tax practice: A study of the effect of practitioner firm size
While much of the empirical accounting literature suggests that, if differences do exist, Big Four employees are more ethical than non-Big Four employees, this trend has not been evident in the recent media coverage of Big Four tax practitioners acting for multinationals accused of aggressive tax avoidance behaviour. However, there has been little exploration in the literature to date specifically of the relationship between firm size and ethics in tax practice. We aim here to address this gap, initially exploring tax practitioners’ perceptions of the impact of firm size on ethics in tax practice using interview data in order to identify the salient issues involved. We then proceed to assess quantitatively whether employer firm size has an impact on the ethical reasoning of tax practitioners, using a tax context-specific adaptation of a well-known and validated psychometric instrument, the Defining Issues Test
BCCT Learning Management: Islamic Education's Material in Early Childhood
This research is aimed to know the BBCT (Beyond Center and Circle Time) learning management on Early Childhood Islamic Education' Material in BCC (Bina Citra Cendekia) Ungaran Kindergarten and to know the supporting and unsupporting management factors of Early Childhood Islamic Education' Material in BCC Ungaran Kindergarten. This research belongs to qualitative research which focuses on the BBCT learning management of Early Childhood Islamic Education' Material in BCC Ungaran Kindergarten.The subject of this research is the principal and teachers. The method of collecting data is observation, interview, and documentation. And data analysis technique used in this research is inductive analysis method.The results of this research show that BBCT learning management on Early Childhood Islamic Education' Material in BCC Ungaran Kindergarten is good, because it based on the regulation from Permendiknas (Regulation from the Ministry of Education Affairs of Indonesia) No. 58 Year 2009 of standard contents and evaluation, include: planning, actuating, and learning evaluation. The supporting factors of the BCCT learning management are facilities, such as: buildings, classrooms, teachers' rooms, giving reward for the best achievement teachers (the funding comes from the institution); BCCT training for one week in Istiqlal, Jakarta. Then, unsupporting factors of BCCT learning management are the limited media of learning and the number of teachers, so that the learning process is still not maximal. Supporting games are limited too, so students do not have options to play with
AI for the Common Good?! Pitfalls, challenges, and Ethics Pen-Testing
Recently, many AI researchers and practitioners have embarked on research
visions that involve doing AI for "Good". This is part of a general drive
towards infusing AI research and practice with ethical thinking. One frequent
theme in current ethical guidelines is the requirement that AI be good for all,
or: contribute to the Common Good. But what is the Common Good, and is it
enough to want to be good? Via four lead questions, I will illustrate
challenges and pitfalls when determining, from an AI point of view, what the
Common Good is and how it can be enhanced by AI. The questions are: What is the
problem / What is a problem?, Who defines the problem?, What is the role of
knowledge?, and What are important side effects and dynamics? The illustration
will use an example from the domain of "AI for Social Good", more specifically
"Data Science for Social Good". Even if the importance of these questions may
be known at an abstract level, they do not get asked sufficiently in practice,
as shown by an exploratory study of 99 contributions to recent conferences in
the field. Turning these challenges and pitfalls into a positive
recommendation, as a conclusion I will draw on another characteristic of
computer-science thinking and practice to make these impediments visible and
attenuate them: "attacks" as a method for improving design. This results in the
proposal of ethics pen-testing as a method for helping AI designs to better
contribute to the Common Good.Comment: to appear in Paladyn. Journal of Behavioral Robotics; accepted on
27-10-201
The case for transforming the approach to waste, and growing a circular economy; a design perspective.
In recent years, there has been a growing discussion of resource efficiency, the ‘circular economy’ and the economic and environmental benefits of maximising the value of resources beyond the life of a product.
This Environmental Audit Committee inquiry was initiated to examine the case for transforming the approach to waste, and growing a 'circular economy'.
This is an evidence paper published online at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmenvaud/214/21411.htm
A full transcript of the inquiry is available at http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/environmental-audit-committee/growing-a-circular-economy/oral/9635.html
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