Workplace learning in the field of Information Technology:IT professionals’ views and beliefs

Abstract. The focus of this study is in the area of workplace learning. The changes ushered in by the recent technological and societal developments are disrupting the ways people look at and think about work and the workplaces. Furthermore, these changes demand that workers become adaptable lifelong learners. As a result, workplace learning has been an increasingly important area for research in several disciplines, including management, organisational development or adult learning. Learner’’ conceptions of and beliefs about learning have been explored within the formal education sector but not so extensively within the context of work, even though beliefs about learning are associated with chosen learning approaches and learning behaviour. Modern knowledge workers, such as people working in the IT industry, need to constantly learn, partly because of the rapid development of the technological solutions, and partly because of the changes affecting the way work is organized, being more collaborative and multidisciplinary. For these reasons, it is important to develop an understanding of how professionals in IT view learning and workplace learning and what factors influence their learning at work. For conducting this study, a phenomenographical approach was adopted. Data was collected at the end of 2018, through semi-structured individual interviews with ten experienced professionals who were working in the IT field in varying roles and positions at the time, such as software architect, agile coach, or CEO. Interviews were analysed using data-driven qualitative content analysis method to identify IT professionals’ views and beliefs of workplace learning. The results from the study show, that learning is mostly seen as continuous personal or professional development, as well as a process that leads to increased self-awareness. Learning is also acknowledged as a ubiquitous part of IT work, that is both an individual and a social process. Factors impacting the learning of IT professionals at work were found to equally represent individual and contextual variables. Based on the findings, it is recommended that learning or development professionals in work organisations consider those variables simultaneously in order to enable high quality learning at the workplace

New World of Gossamer Superconductivity

Since the discovery of the high-T$_{c}$ cuprate superconductor La$_{2-x}$BaCuO$_{4}$ in 1986 by Bednorz and M\"{u}ller, controversy regarding the nature or origin of this remarkable superconductivity has continued. However, d-wave superconductivity in the hole-doped cuprates, arising due to the anti-paramagnon exchange, was established around 1994. More recently we have shown that the mean field theory, like the BCS theory of superconductivity and Landau's Fermi liquid theory are adequate to describe the cuprates. The keys for this development are the facts that a)the pseudogap phase is d-wave density wave (dDW) and that the high-T$_{c}$ cuprate superconductivity is gossamer (i.e. it exists in the presence of dDW).Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Disaster assistance: determinants of countries around the world contributing towards disaster donations

Foreign responses after Hurricane Katrina and the Wenchuan and Haiti earthquakes varied. The cluster analysis in this paper shows that 35 countries were preferentially US-oriented, 47 Haiti-oriented, 33 China-oriented, 33 had no explicit orientation and 32 did not offer assistance. Further evidence about geographies of generosity or geopolitical orientation was found, with the North American countries more likely to assist US and the Asian countries - China. Haiti however did not have any particular appeal to North America. The 33 countries found to implement a pure humanitarian approach to disaster aid have higher per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and general government consumption expenditure, indicating that foreign assistance depends on the state of the economy and larger public sector. A country with a higher human development index (HDI) is also more likely to donate. Finally, the paper argues the need for a global information network (GIN) to assist in coordinating disaster activities and improve communication channels

Environmental impact of China: analysis based on the STIRPAT model

Assuming that energy consumption is the main source of emissions in China, this article considers the influence on the environment of the exhaust emissions producedin the process of consuming energy as China's environmental impact. It then analyzes the influence of population, urbanization level, GDP per capita, industrialization level and energy intensity on the environmental impact using the STIRPAT model with data from 1978 to 2006. The analysis shows that population had the largest influence onthe environmental impact, followed by urbanization level, industrialization level, GDP per capita and energy intensity. Hence China's Family Planning Policy, which restrains rapid population growth, has been a very effective way of reducing the country's environmental impact. However due to the difference in growth rates, GDP per capita had a higher effect on environmental impact, contributing 38% of its increase (while population's contribution was at 32%). Finally, the rapid decrease inenergy intensity (through optimizing industrial and energy structures, increasing theproportion of clean energy sources and improving energy efficiency) was the main cause of restraining the increase in China's environmental impact

Densidad básica de la madera de Acacia melanoxylon R. Br en relación con la altura de muestreo, el árbol y el sitio

The aim of the work was to assess basic wood density variations of Acacia melanoxylon R.Br according to sample tree height, tree, and site. Twenty trees were selected from four sites in Buenos Aires Province, Argentine. Wood density was determined over two disc samples at four tree height (base, breast height, 30% and 50% of total tree height). According to determined ages, some trees were divided into two groups according to age (26-32 years and 9-12 years) and data were analyzed with an analysis of variance according to mixed model where tree was the random effecTrees represent 74 % of total random variance. Within tree, axial tendency of wood density was to decrease from the base toward breast height and then its value was stable to the top. This was consistent across all sites and age groups. Forest resource growing at Los Tuelches site presented the highest basic wood density.El objetivo del presente trabajo fue analizar las variaciones en la densidad básica de la madera de Acacia melanoxylon R.Br, según las alturas de muestreo en el fuste, los árboles y el sitio. Se seleccionaron 20 árboles en cuatro sitios de muestreo en la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Se determinó la densidad de la madera sobre dos rodajas en cada una de cuatro alturas en el fuste (base, altura de pecho, 30% y 50% de la altura total). De acuerdo a la edad determinada, parte del material se reunió en dos grupos (26-32 años y 9-12 años) para los análisis de la varianza bajo modelos mixtos donde el árbol fue considerado como aleatorio. Asimismo, el árbol fue responsable del 74 % de la variación aleatoria total. Dentro del fuste se describió un descenso significativo de la densidad entre la base y la altura del pecho, región a partir de la cual la densidad mantuvo su valor hacia el extremo superior del fuste. Esta tendencia se manifestó en todos los sitios y agrupamientos por edades. El recurso implantado en la estación serrana Los Tuelches presentó las mayores densidades de la madera

Orbital quantization in the high magnetic field state of a charge-density-wave system

A superposition of the Pauli and orbital coupling of a high magnetic field to charge carriers in a charge-density-wave (CDW) system is proposed to give rise to transitions between subphases with quantized values of the CDW wavevector. By contrast to the purely orbital field-induced density-wave effects which require a strongly imperfect nesting of the Fermi surface, the new transitions can occur even if the Fermi surface is well nested at zero field. We suggest that such transitions are observed in the organic metal $\alpha$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$KHg(SCN)$_4$ under a strongly tilted magnetic field.Comment: 14 pages including 4 figure

Patient Safety Culture in Portuguese Primary

Introduction: According to the European Commission more than 37 million Primary Healthcare (PHC) users suffer Adverse Events (AE). When we talk about these unintentional and undesirable events, most of the time we are dealing with acts committed by competent and dedicated professionals, who often work in disorganized systems, and who are not very oriented towards patient safety and health care professional safety. The adoption of a safety culture is a proven useful tool to make AE less likely to occur and to minimize its consequences when these inevitably take place. Methods: The authors describe some pertinent issues that have made the evaluation of AE and Patient Safety Culture (PSC) in Portuguese PHC particularly challenging and describe the preliminary results of a project for the assessment of PSC using the Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture (MOSOPSC). This instrument has been translated, adapted and validated by the authors for the study population. Results: Studies about AE in PHC are scarce, but admittedly necessary. Despite the socio-economic instability experienced in Portugal, the preliminary results obtained by the authors promise a proactive PSC with dedicated health professionals, working as a team and recognizing the problem of adverse events in PHC of the Madeira Island. Discussion: The concepts and methodologies used in other studies cannot simply be applied to specific populations. On the Madeira Island (one autonomous region of Portugal), the issue of patient safety (PS) is difficult to approach but, nevertheless, with information and discussion it was possible to measure the PSC in PHC. Conclusion: After some adjustments, the MOSOPSC questionnaire, in addition to assessing safety culture, has helped to initiate the dialogue and discussion on the issue of PS among the various professionals. This approach has allowed these professionals to anticipate and prevent the occurrence of AE and, whenever such is not possible, notify, discuss, share and learn from those same events.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

What drives athletes toward dietary supplement use: Objective knowledge or self-perceived competence? Cross-sectional analysis of professional team-sport players from Southeastern Europe during the competitive season

BackgroundIssues related to knowledge of nutrition and dietary supplementation(DS) are understudied in professional athletes. This study aimed to examine the possible association between knowledge of nutrition and DS (KN&DS) and dietary supplement use (DSU) among professional athletes involved in team sports.MethodsThe sample comprised professional team-sport athletes (N=912, age: 22.113.37years, 356 females) involved in four Olympic sports: basketball (N=228), soccer (N=324), volleyball (N=154), and handball (N=206). The participants were tested by previously validated questionnaires to examine their self-perceived competence on nutrition and DS (S/KN&DS), their objectively evaluated (tested) KN&DS (O/KN&DS), sociodemographic and sport-specific variables (predictors), and DSU (criterion). Associations between the predictors and the criterion (No-DSU - Irregular-DSU - Regular-DSU) were determined by multinomial regression analysis for the total sample and separately for the studied sports.ResultsDSU was found to be less prevalent in older and more successful players. The O/KN&DS and S/KN&DS were positively correlated with DSU, but S/KN&DS was a stronger predictor of DSU than O/KN&DS. Sport-specific associations between predictors and criterion were identified, with stronger correlations in sports with a higher prevalence of DSU.Conclusions Due to the low correlations between O/KN&DS and S/KN&DS in the studied players, this study highlights the necessity for more frequent monitoring of biomarkers of nutritional status and its usage by coaches and practitioners to provide quantitative instruction

Environmental damage costs from airborne pollution in the major cities in China

This paper estimates the environment external costs due to air pollutants via the impacts pathway approach used for ExternE project in the major cities in China over the period 2003-2006. The estimation results show that the external costs were US$ 20.15 billion in 2006, representing 2.28% of gross domestic product (GDP). This means that China suffered a lot for the air pollutants with the development of the economy. In the composition of external costs, damages to human health are the effects that generate the major part of externalities associated with air pollutants in these cities. The trend of external costs representing GDP in the sum of major cities was declining from 2003 to 2006, though the group in risk and agricultural products was increasing. Based on these finding, effective environmental policies and plans for economic development in these cities should focus not only on the volume of pollutants emission of SO2 and PM10, but also take other impact factors into account

Technique efficiency and financial crises in China: Empirical study based on SFA of panel data

China’s recent remarkable economic development has also witnessed changes in technique efficiencies associated with factors, such as R&D investment, institutional factors, human capital accumulation and trade openness. Based on stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) panel data, this paper evaluates these changing technique efficiencies in 30 Chinese administrative regions over the period from 1996 to 2009. It also conducts a quantitative evaluation of the influence administrative expenditures have on technique efficiencies and analyses the impacts of financial crises on the technique efficiencies of the Chinese provinces. The results from this study show that China’s economy is typically investment-driven and is at a stage of increasing scale of development when governmental expenditures on education, health, public goods and R&D can improve the provincial technique efficiencies. This study also points out serious imbalance in China’s technique efficiencies with those in the eastern regions being much higher than for the central and western regions. Furthermore financial crises have impacts on the technique efficiencies, including the shockwaves sent by the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. The technique efficiencies have been further influenced significantly by the recent global financial crisis whose impact has been felt over a longer period of time. Optimising the structure of the government expenditure, improving its efficiencies and facilitating the development of the central and western regions are major tasks for increasing the provincial technique efficiencies in China