A Lens Comparison of Vocational Education and Training in the Beauty Sectors in Taiwan and the UK

A number of studies have highlighted the importance of effective interaction between vocational education and industry in nurturing professionals. A common strategy is to build a partnership between industry and education to ensure that graduates meet the requirements of industry, in preparation for employment. Using a lens comparison approach, which provides the capability to draw on ethnographic experiences, this paper explores and compares the relationship between industry and vocational education in the beauty sectors of Taiwan and the UK. The overall method included observation, informal interviews and documentation analysis. Significant differences were found not only in culture and levels of vocational education structure, but also in the unified standard and levels of skill formation, which are key points in preparing graduates’ confidence and competence. In Taiwan, the lack of a body with responsibility for regulations, the overlapping levels in qualifications and ineffective communication between education and industry have led to beauty graduates lacking confidence in their ability, adversely impacting on their aspirations. Whereas, in the UK, based on a unified structure, the learners’ educational and working experiences are recognised by both education and industry. Findings from this study will be beneficial for curriculum design and individual career development in this field and may also form a broader concept for use in other fields

A Strategy for the Vocational Education and Training Structure of the Beauty Profession in Taiwan, with Lens Comparative Analysis of the UK

The aim of this study is to review Taiwan’s training structure through a lens comparative study on the UK’s training approach for beauty professionals. Due to the distinctive differences between Taiwan and the UK, the methodological approach was designed differently for each in order to meet the aim and objectives. Apart from document analysis used for both countries, auto-ethnography was conducted in the UK; while in Taiwan observations and expert interviews were employed to identify the fundamental causes of the mismatch between education and industry. A strategy was proposed, based on the strong points identified from the UK, to improve the current structure of Taiwan. Three key features are identified from the UK that could be considered to alleviate Taiwan’s fundamental problems. They are respectively: National Occupational Standards, a Professional Body and a Quality Assurance process. Three key features are new to Taiwan, so that their implementation requires time and collaborative effort from the Taiwanese government, vocational education and industry. These features were embedded in three proposed models. Three models were proposed as a holistic structure to include all relevant stakeholders. The three models are the Service, Work Placement and Nurturing models. The impact of this study on Taiwan training structure will be substantial because it is the first step to bring all relevant stakeholders to communicate and interact through setting an agreed standard and through the treatment service framework provided by the Service Model. Secondly, the Work Placement Model provides a structure for assessment in workplaces to ensure that learning takes place in the workplace and to create an opportunity of knowledge sharing, allowing the theory to meet the practice. Thirdly, an overall Nurturing model of the training for beauty professionals is developed, with a professional body to provide a platform for all stakeholders, including government. Ultimately, everyone involved in the profession would be benefited and more importantly, the broad concepts and models might be of use to other domains

A hyperconnected manufacturing collaboration system using the semantic web and Hadoop ecosystem system

With the explosive growth of digital data communications in synergistic operating networks and cloud computing service, hyperconnected manufacturing collaboration systems face the challenges of extracting, processing, and analyzing data from multiple distributed web sources. Although semantic web technologies provide the solution to web data interoperability by storing the semantic web standard in relational databases for processing and analyzing of web-accessible heterogeneous digital data, web data storage and retrieval via the predefined schema of relational / SQL databases has become increasingly inefficient with the advent of big data. In response to this problem, the Hadoop Ecosystem System is being adopted to reduce the complexity of moving data to and from the big data cloud platform. This paper proposes a novel approach in a set of the Hadoop tools for information integration and interoperability across hyperconnected manufacturing collaboration systems. In the Hadoop approach, data is “Extracted” from the web sources, “Loaded” into a set of the NoSQL Hadoop Database (HBase) tables, and then “Transformed” and integrated into the desired format model with Hive's schema-on-read. A case study was conducted to illustrate that the Hadoop Extract-Load-Transform (ELT) approach for the syntax and semantics web data integration could be adopted across the global smartphone value chain

PERCEPTION OF AMPLITUDE ONSET SIGNALS IN CHINESE CHILDREN WITH READING DIFFICULTIES AND SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENTS

J Spec Educ Rehab 2017; 18(1-2):109-125

AGE-BSA down-regulates endothelial connexin43 gap junctions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Advanced glycation end products generated in the circulation of diabetic patients were reported to affect the function of vascular wall. We examined the effects of advanced glycation end products-bovine serum albumin (AGE-BSA) on endothelial connexin43 (Cx43) expression and gap-junction communication.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In human aortic endothelial cells (HAEC) treated with a series concentrations of AGE-BSA (0-500 μg/ml) for 24 and 48 hours, Cx43 transcript and Cx43 protein were reduced in a dose dependent manner. In addition, gap-junction communication was reduced. To clarify the mechanisms underlying the down-regulation, MAPKs pathways in HAEC were examined. Both a MEK1 inhibitor (PD98059) and a p38 MAPK inhibitor (SB203580) significantly reversed the reductions of Cx43 mRNA and protein induced by AGE-BSA. Consistently, phosphorylation of ERK and p38 MAPK was enhanced in response to exposure to AGE-BSA. However, all reversions of down-regulated Cx43 by inhibitors did not restore the functional gap-junction communication.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>AGE-BSA down-regulated Cx43 expression in HAEC, mainly through reduced Cx43 transcription, and the process involved activation of ERK and p38 MAPK.</p

Endovascular Thrombectomy for Distal Occlusion Using a Semi-Deployed Stentriever: Report of 2 Cases and Technical Note

Distal intracranial occlusions can sometimes cause significant neurological deficits. Endovascular thrombectomy in these vessels may improve outcome but carry a higher risk of haemorrhagic complications due to the small calibre and tortuosity of the target vessel. We report two cases of isolated M2/3 artery occlusion causing dense hemiplegia that was successfully treated with stent retrieval thrombectomy. A “semi-deployment technique” of a 3 mm stentriever was employed at the M2/3 bifurcation of the middle cerebral artery. Partial stent unsheathing allowed adequate clot engagement while avoiding excessive tension by the stent metal struts along the tortuous course of a distal vessel. Complete revascularization was achieved after first-pass of the stent retriever without complication, resulting in good clinical outcome in both cases. The described semi-deployment technique reduces the radial and tractional force exerted by the stentreiver on small branches, and may reduce the risk of vessel laceration or dissection in distal vessel thrombectomy

Rapid intensification of Typhoon Hato (2017) over shallow water

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Pun, I., Chan, J. C. L., Lin, I., Chan, K. T. E., Price, J. F., Ko, D. S., Lien, C., Wu, Y., & Huang, H. Rapid intensification of Typhoon Hato (2017) over shallow water. Sustainability, 11(13), (2019): 3709, doi:10.3390/su11133709.On 23 August, 2017, Typhoon Hato rapidly intensified by 10 kt within 3 h just prior to landfall in the city of Macau along the South China coast. Hato’s surface winds in excess of 50 m s−1 devastated the city, causing unprecedented damage and social impact. This study reveals that anomalously warm ocean conditions in the nearshore shallow water (depth < 30 m) likely played a key role in Hato’s fast intensification. In particular, cooling of the sea surface temperature (SST) generated by Hato at the critical landfall point was estimated to be only 0.1–0.5 °C. The results from both a simple ocean mixing scheme and full dynamical ocean model indicate that SST cooling was minimized in the shallow coastal waters due to a lack of cool water at depth. Given the nearly invariant SST in the coastal waters, we estimate a large amount of heat flux, i.e., 1.9k W m−2, during the landfall period. Experiments indicate that in the absence of shallow bathymetry, and thus, if nominal cool water had been available for vertical mixing, the SST cooling would have been enhanced from 0.1 °C to 1.4 °C, and sea to air heat flux reduced by about a quarter. Numerical simulations with an atmospheric model suggest that the intensity of Hato was very sensitive to air-sea heat flux in the coastal region, indicating the critical importance of coastal ocean hydrography.The work of I.-F.P. is supported by Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology Grant MOST 107-2111-M-008-001-MY3. The work of J.C.L.C. is supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Grant E-CityU101/16. The work of I.-I.L. is supported by Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 106-2111-M-002-011-MY3, MOST 108-2111-M-002-014-MY2). The work of K.T.F.C. is jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41775097), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Macau Science and Technology Development Joint Fund (NSFC-FDCT), China and Macau (41861164027)