The role of occupational standards in workplace religious literacy

This paper explores the UK National Occupational Standards to identify the breadth of occupations for which it has been determined that workers need some degree of religious literacy. A total of 465 standards documents which mention religion and beliefs relating to a diverse range of occupations were retrieved, of which 13 had a primary focus on religion and beliefs. Approximately 60 percent of these standards noted the need for knowledge about religion and beliefs, though only a quarter of these specified actual performance criteria. With some exceptions, most of the standards were vague as to what is meant by religion and its proxies, with very few attempts to define their terms. A lack of specificity renders the inclusion of references to religion largely tokenistic rather than reflecting a measure of religious literacy which could be practically operationalised

Are the Profession’s Education Standards Promoting the Religious Literacy Required for Twenty-First Century Social Work Practice?

This article analyses regulations and standards that frame social work education and practice across a set of English-speaking countries including the UK, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA, as well as the Global Standards for the Education and Training of the Social Work Profession. All documents were keyword searched and also read in their entirety. Religion and belief appear briefly and incoherently and are often deprioritised, unless particularly problematic. There is a common elision of religion, belief and spirituality, often expressed in the designation ‘religion/spirituality’. References to religion and belief, and their inclusion and removal, are recognisably subject to debates between policymakers who frame the guidelines. This makes them issues of agency which might themselves benefit from analysis. Religion and belief may frequently be addressed by the use of overarching frameworks such as ‘anti-oppressive’ or ‘anti-discriminatory’ practice. Yet, such proxies may prove merely apologetic and result in standards that aim only to establish what is the minimum required. It is hard to argue that religious literacy has been a priority in the English-speaking social work countries, though new law and emerging best practice may make it so

The Adoption and Usages of Technology in SMEs: The Case of Making Tax Digital

Technology is a rapidly developing concept and its development is second to none while technology and the Internet is more available than ever. Its uses range from personal use, up to and including large corporate organisations. However, this study will be closely looking into Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and their perception of technology. With SMEs taking up the largest portion of all businesses in the UK, they are the majority target audience to study. This research will into the adoption and usage of technologies by SMEs and more specifically we will explore the case of Making Tax Digital (MTD). This includes a review of the academic literature surrounding SMEs and the use of technology. We will be discussing the research methods used within this study and the research results gathered from our primary respondents. This study uses both secondary and primary research in an effort to develop further understanding of SMEs and their close relation to technology. The study investigates the future of Making Tax Digital and the affect it will have on SMEs while it summarises how businesses must adapt MTD and face the new system's requirements

Are codes of ethics promoting religious literacy for social work practice?

As codes of ethics play at least a symbolic, if not educational, role in highlighting and informing professional priorities, 16 codes of ethics for social work practice were examined for references to religion and belief and analysed against the four domains of Dinham’s religious literacy framework. Although religion and belief are mentioned in all but two of the documents, approximately half the surveyed codes only mention religion and belief in respect of either knowledge or skills. Some recognise the need for social workers to be aware of their own biases, but very few recognise the need to explain what is meant by religion and belief, despite these terms being in flux. While codes of ethics can contribute to the development of religious literacy among social workers, this requires social workers who already have some religious literacy to actively participate when codes of ethics are being revised

The need for laboratory work to aid in the understanding of exoplanetary atmospheres

Advancements in our understanding of exoplanetary atmospheres, from massive gas giants down to rocky worlds, depend on the constructive challenges between observations and models. We are now on a clear trajectory for improvements in exoplanet observations that will revolutionize our ability to characterize the atmospheric structure, composition, and circulation of these worlds. These improvements stem from significant investments in new missions and facilities, such as JWST and the several planned ground-based extremely large telescopes. However, while exoplanet science currently has a wide range of sophisticated models that can be applied to the tide of forthcoming observations, the trajectory for preparing these models for the upcoming observational challenges is unclear. Thus, our ability to maximize the insights gained from the next generation of observatories is not certain. In many cases, uncertainties in a path towards model advancement stems from insufficiencies in the laboratory data that serve as critical inputs to atmospheric physical and chemical tools. We outline a number of areas where laboratory or ab initio investigations could fill critical gaps in our ability to model exoplanet atmospheric opacities, clouds, and chemistry. Specifically highlighted are needs for: (1) molecular opacity linelists with parameters for a diversity of broadening gases, (2) extended databases for collision-induced absorption and dimer opacities, (3) high spectral resolution opacity data for relevant molecular species, (4) laboratory studies of haze and condensate formation and optical properties, (5) significantly expanded databases of chemical reaction rates, and (6) measurements of gas photo-absorption cross sections at high temperatures. We hope that by meeting these needs, we can make the next two decades of exoplanet science as productive and insightful as the previous two decades.Publisher PD

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Earth Observation Technologies: Low-End-Market Disruptive Innovation

After decades of traditional space businesses, the space paradigm is changing. New approaches to more efficient missions in terms of costs, design, and manufacturing processes are fostered. For instance, placing big constellations of micro- and nano-satellites in Low Earth Orbit and Very Low Earth Orbit (LEO and VLEO) enables the space community to obtain a huge amount of data in near real-time with an unprecedented temporal resolution. Beyond technology innovations, other drivers promote innovation in the space sector like the increasing demand for Earth Observation (EO) data by the commercial sector. Perez et al. stated that the EO industry is the second market in terms of operative satellites (661 units), micro- and nano-satellites being the higher share of them (61%). Technological and market drivers encourage the emergence of new start-ups in the space environment like Skybox, OneWeb, Telesat, Planet, and OpenCosmos, among others, with novel business models that change the accessibility, affordability, ownership, and commercialization of space products and services. This chapter shows some results of the H2020 DISCOVERER (DISruptive teChnOlogies for VERy low Earth oRbit platforms) Project and focuses on understanding how micro- and nano-satellites have been disrupting the EO market in front of traditional platforms