Surveying the Sickbeds: Initial Steps towards Modelling All-Ireland Hospital Accessibility

There has been increasing interest in recent years by both civil servants and academics in both Irish jurisdictions in modelling economic and social structures across the whole island, with health services one of the key areas explored 1 . There has been some limited cross-border movement in the utilisation of health care, and a recently published preliminary study by Jamison and Butler (2007) 2 examined the existing configuration of acute hospital ser vices, identifying considerable potential for cr oss-bor der collaboration in these services, particularly in the border region

Surveying the Sickbeds: Initial Steps towards Modelling All-Ireland Hospital Accessibility

There has been increasing interest in recent years by both civil servants and academics in both Irish jurisdictions in modelling economic and social structures across the whole island, with health services one of the key areas explored 1 . There has been some limited cross-border movement in the utilisation of health care, and a recently published preliminary study by Jamison and Butler (2007) 2 examined the existing configuration of acute hospital ser vices, identifying considerable potential for cr oss-bor der collaboration in these services, particularly in the border region

A Study of community college funding

Community Colleges are an important segment of the postsecondary education system in the United States. As a direct result of growing financial constraints, couples with increased demands for access, sources of institutional funding has gained increased importance This research seeks to understand the relationships between governance structure and funding. A 50-state study using secondary data was used to examine variations in funding support for community colleges across the fifty states. The research found a significant relationship between funding levels of operating dollars per full-time equivalent and the existence of a local governing board. This analysis illustrated that having a local governing board is necessary to achieving funding sufficiency

Authoring your own creative, electronic book for mathematics: the MC-squared project

The EU-funded ‘MC-squared’ project is working with a number of European communities to develop digital, interactive, creative, mathematics ‘textbooks’ that the project calls ‘cBooks’. The cBooks are authored in a Digital Mathematics Environment in which participants can construct books with various interactive ‘widgets’. This paper provides an outline of the MC-squared project illustrating an interactive storyboard of the Digital Mathematics Environment architecture. This includes examples of how authoring by cBook designers of interactive ‘widgets’ is possible. The workshop that relates to this paper is augmented, of course, by suitable ‘hands-on’ materials aimed at two possible cBooks: one focusing on aspects of geometric and spatial thinking using building blocks, the other on aspects of number and fractions

Designing a Mediation Vocabulary for Authoring Learning Analytics

This paper provides a knowledge representation process for authoring of learning experiences that capture feedback designed in the context of learning environments. The paper reports on a year long study with designers who are creating mathematical teaching and learning resources as part of an EU project (M C Squared). In this paper we examine the knowledge representation process we used in design and creation of a mediation vocabulary. The model to be designed has to provide different layers of ‘knowledge integration’ and thus offers insights into the importance of knowledge mediation in the emergence of new learning environments and experiences. Hence, authoring of designs and feedback through use of ontologies to form part of the annotating of the learning activities. The annotations form part of the context to be used as part of the learning analytics

Agent Communication Semantics for Open Environments: Issues and Challenges

Explicit communication semantics are often considered essential for rich interaction between heterogeneous automated systems. While extensive work on semantic models has been carried out, much of this work remains to be tested in real open environments. This paper briefly describes some of the issues and challenges to be considered when combining existing semantic frameworks for effective agent communication. In particular, we describe issues related to the development of the Agentcities Network which is a large-scale open test bed for agent systems that aims to enable on-line experimentation with semantic frameworks for agent communication. The presentation is kept discursive in nature: characterizing different aspects of communication, outlining research challenges, commenting on possible strategies and describing the current status of activities in the Agentcities Network

INSPIRE: Fourth Industrial Revolution Teaching in the Classroom

The INSPIRE pilot project provides core evidence on key interventions and CPD needs to enable a 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution) curriculum within secondary education. Across the UK, there is currently no systematic pedagogical design or evaluation to support interdisciplinary teaching and learning to include 4IR skills and knowledge. There is also no clear national strategy for schools and FE colleges to follow in how to embed 4IR, including Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Internet of Things tools, skills and understanding into their teaching. Such a lack of an evidence-based research study impacts our young students in particular and education system in general, and further discriminates against disadvantaged and digitally excluded groups. We applied a design-based research methodology framework and worked with two London based schools to co-design and deliver a series of workshops to 13-14-year-old students introducing them to 4IR skills through engaging practical activities. Within the pilot study we engaged with both co-designers and students to capture opinion, understanding, learning and enjoyment before, during and after the workshops. The significance of this paper is twofold; to identify lessons learnt in developing 4IR skills and knowledge within the curriculum and to share the insights of the adults and young learners throughout the project

Wunderkammers: Powerful Metaphors for ‘Tangible’ Experiential Knowledge Building

The paper identifies the need to support powerful metaphors that capture innovations of new emerging human computer interaction (HCI) technologies and innovative question and answering (Q&A) systems in the context of spatial learning and inquiry-based learning in education. Aim/goals of the research: Explore the potential of ‘Wunderkammer’ (curiosity cabinet) as a powerful metaphor to design new types of learning experiences catering for an ecology of artefacts (real or virtual objects) to provide a holistic context for educators to share and extend learning in action. Conclusions: We provide insight into the emergence of smart interactive objects with different types of sensors that can potentially support everyday life and the increasing access to new visual experiences through augment reality and virtual reality, for new types of tangible knowledge building that can be personalised and shared. This reshaping of human centred design and creating new experiences through tangible creations that externalize in real time and through new materials, the creative power of the ‘imaginations of movement’ provides new user experience design thinking through the concept of powerful metaphors, to provide core design requirements where the blending of worlds is common place

Does Vitamin D play a role in the management of Covid-19 in Brazil?

The study discusses the possible role of adequate vitamin D status in plasma or serum for preventing acute respiratory infections during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our arguments respond to an article, published in Italy, that describes the high prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in older Italian women and raises the possible preventive and therapeutic role of optimal vitamin D levels. Based on literature review, we highlight the findings regarding the protective role of vitamin D for infectious diseases of the respiratory system. However, randomized controlled trials are currently lacking. Adequate vitamin D status is obtained from sun exposure and foods rich in vitamin D. Studies in Brazil have shown that hypovitaminosis D is quite common in spite of high insolation. Authors recommend ecological, epidemiological and randomized controlled trials studies to verify this hypothesis