Automated Valuation Models: an international perspective

This paper describes two research projects: the first carried out during Q2 2007 for the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (Downie & Robson, 2007). The second is a questionnaire survey of RICS Residential Faculty members, carried out Q2 2008, as part of an ongoing study funded by the RICS Education Trust and the RICS Residential Faculty, investigating how AVMs can integrate with valuation services to meet the needs of borrowers, lenders and RICS members. Both projects were undertaken by the School of the Built Environment at Northumbria University. The former predates the credit crunch and the latter coincided with it. The paper will first outline the main findings of the CML report, then those of the valuer questionnaire and finally draw conclusions about issues for consideration by professional and industry bodies

Integrating automated valuation models (AVMs) with valuation services to meet the needs of UK borrowers, lenders and valuers

Lenders traditionally instruct a valuer to conduct a property valuation to support property secured loan decisions. However AVM use for UK residential loan valuations has recently grown rapidly (CML, 2007) raising questions about how the UK valuers’ professional body, the RICS, should respond. The paper reports research funded by the RICS Education Trust and Residential Professional Group, commencing with interviews and a survey examining valuers’ changing roles in residential loan valuation in the UK, including the use of AVMs. Subsequent interviews with lenders and AVM companies explored choices between different valuation and survey levels, including AVMs, and development of AVM tools designed to support valuers. The paper analyses possible approaches to advice, guidance and regulation of AVM use by the UK professional body, drawing on the survey, interviews and a review of other countries’ professional body responses to AVMs. It is the first systematic study of valuers’ current and likely future involvement with automated valuation and their perceptions of it

Young men's negotiation of hetero-masculinity within the contemporary UK

This thesis draws on feminist theory and critical men and masculinities scholarship to consider young men’s negotiations of hetero-masculinity in the contemporary UK. It utilises qualitative data from focus groups and one-to-one interviews with twenty-five predominantly white, heterosexually identified men between the ages of 18 and 24, exploring how young men understand and experience hetero-masculinity on subjective and relational levels. It examines how young men understand and experience gender and sexual norms, and to what extent, and in what ways, young men disrupt and challenge these. The thesis contextualises contemporary shifts of gender and sexuality in relation to wider gender equality and power, through analysis of, gender politics, (hetero)masculine subjectivities, sex and sexuality, which inform the empirical chapters of this thesis. With a focus on power and gender (in)equality, the thesis critically explores how contemporary transformations of masculinity, whilst superficially appearing to signify social change, may, on closer inspection, reveal how power and inequality are reworked and reframed in current times (Bridges and Pascoe, 2014). The thesis also seeks to address the absence of theoretical and empirical research on postfeminism (Gill, 2007; McRobbie, 2009; O’Neill, 2018) within the field of critical men and masculinities. The thesis points to a wealth of diverse and often conflicting understandings of gender and sexuality. Whilst gender equality was often favoured, binarised and essentialist understandings of gender endured, ultimately limiting the possibilities of social change as men and women were viewed as inherently different based on biological ‘fact’. Where feminism was supported, this was often confined to second-wave projects as more recent feminist politics, which emphasise gender fluidity and the diversification of gender identities, conflicting with essentialist understandings. Notions of ‘natural’ sex difference also paradoxically coalesced with significant reflexivity of gender and sexual norms and how these come to delineate gender and sexual performances and practices, though participants were often reticent to acknowledge that they were affected by these discourses. Moreover, some interviewees discursively distanced from normative masculinity, whilst simultaneously maintaining investments in traditional masculine identities. Participants articulated choreographing their gendered performances so as to signify ‘correct’ masculinity. This was closely related to affirming their heterosexuality and avoiding adopting traditionally feminine styles, which were seen to potentially signify same-sex desire. Gender and sexuality were, therefore, regularly conflated as gendered expressions were seen to indicate sexual preference. Despite a desire to transcend gender boundaries amongst many of the young men, gender policing and homophobia remained a prevalent feature in their lives as gender and sexuality were regarded heavily regulated spheres

Tell Khaiber: An administrative centre of the Sealand period

Excavations at Tell Khaiber in southern Iraq by the Ur Region Archaeological Project have revealed a substantial building (hereafter the Public Building) dating to the mid-second millennium b.c. The results are significant for the light they shed on Babylonian provincial administration, particularly of food production, for revealing a previously unknown type of fortified monumental building, and for producing a dated archive, in context, of the little-understood Sealand Dynasty. The project also represents a return of British field archaeology to long-neglected Babylonia, in collaboration with Iraq's State Board for Antiquities and Heritage. Comments on the historical background and physical location of Tell Khaiber are followed by discussion of the form and function of the Public Building. Preliminary analysis of the associated archive provides insights into the social milieu of the time. Aspects of the material culture, including pottery, are also discussed

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 42, No. 3

• Assimilation and Acculturation in a Pennsylvania-German Landscape: The Nisley Family and its Architecture in the Lower Swatara Creek Basin • Charles-Alexandre Lesueur of Paris, Philadelphia, and New Harmony, Indiana • Religious-Geographical History of the Hutterian Brethren in Europe and Russia, 1523-1879https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/1137/thumbnail.jp

Family Meal Frequency, Diet, and Family Functioning:A Systematic Review With Meta-analyses

ObjectiveTo examine the direction and magnitude of the relation between family meal frequency and dietary and family functioning outcomes in children (aged 2–18 years).DesignSystematic literature review with meta-analysis.MethodsIndependent electronic searches, 1 for each outcome of interest, were conducted across 5 databases: PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO. Studies were included if they were peer-reviewed and published in English in the US through December 2018.Main Outcome MeasuresDiet and family functioning.ResultsDietary outcomes showed some evidence of a positive association between family meal frequency and fruits, vegetables, fruits and vegetables, sugar-sweetened beverages, and the Healthy Eating Index. There was less clear evidence of this relation in snacks, fast food, and desserts. A positive association was found between family meal frequency or dinner family meal frequency and family functioning outcomes. All studies included had cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs.Conclusions and ImplicationsThere is some evidence to show a positive relation between family meal frequency and dietary outcomes. There is stronger evidence for the relation with family functioning outcomes. Most articles included in the systematic reviews were excluded from meta-analysis owing to inadequate data and high methodological diversity across exposure and outcome variables

New Directions for Academic Video Game Collections: Strategies for Acquiring, Supporting, and Managing Online Materials

Article discussing new directions for academic video game collections and strategies for acquiring, supporting, and managing online materials

ANÁLISE DE MODELOS DE COMPETÊNCIA EM INFORMAÇÃO NA EDUCAÇÃO PROFISSIONAL

 Estudo sobre competência informacional na Educação Profissional.A informação possui o status de insumo básico da sociedade contemporânea, requerendo assim de seus indivíduos competências para acessar, avaliar e usar as fontes de informações disponíveis. A educação para a Competência em Informação precisa estar presente em todos os níveis educacionais, inclusive na Educação Profissional, modalidade que tem como objetivo a formação de trabalhadores. A pesquisa objetiva analisar e comparar os modelos de Competência em Informação na Educação Profissional desenvolvidos por Spudeit (2015) e Santos (2017). Conceitua Competência em Informação e discute a Educação Profissional no Brasil. Trata de uma pesquisa exploratória e comparativa de abordagem qualitativa, que analisa os Modelos “Programa de Competência em Informação voltado para o ensino profissional” de Spudeit (2015) e “Quadro Conceitual de Inter-relação entre as ‘Sete Faces da Coinfo’ e os ‘Padrões e Indicadores de Coinfo’ com adaptações às características e princípios da EPT”, de acordo com duas categorias: contexto e tipo de unidade de educação profissional e padrões e indicadores. Conclui que os trabalhos de Spudeit (2015) e Santos (2017) demonstram a preocupação da Biblioteconomia e da Ciência da Informação em compreendera complexidade da Educação Profissional e oferecerem subsídios teórico-metodológicos e conceituais para a inclusão da Competência em Informação na formação de futuros trabalhadores.Palavras-chave: Competência em informação. Educação profissional. Modelos de competência em informação.AbstractInformation became the basic input of our contemporary society, requiring of its individuals the need to acquire competencies to access, evaluate and use information and the information sources available. The education for information literacy must be present in all educational levels, including vocational educational, which has as objective the education of future workers. This research has as objective to analyse and to compare the models of information literacy in vocational education developed by Spudeit (2015) and Santos (2017). Present the concepts of Information Literacy and debates the Vocational Education in Brazil. This is also an exploratory and comparative research with qualitative approach, which analyses the models “Program of Information Literacy focused on vocational education” of Spudeit (2015) and “Conceptual Framework of Interrelation between the “Seven Faces of InfoLit” and the “Standards and Indicator of InfoLit” with adaptations to the characteristics and principles of Vocational Education”, according to two categories: context and kind of vocational education unity and standards and indicators. Concludes that the works of Spudeit (2015) and Santos (2017) demonstrate the preoccupation of Library and Information Science on understand the complexity of Vocational Educational and offering methodological, theoretical and conceptual subsidies to include information Literacy in the education of future workers.Keywords: Information literacy. Vocational education. Models of information literacy