GATS and the Education Service Industry : The Politics of Scale and Global Reterritorialization

One consequence of the hype around globalization and education and debates on global political actors such as the World Bank, IMF and WTO-is that there has not been sufficient attention paid by education theorists to the development of a rigorous set of analytic categories that might enable us to make sense of the profound changes which now characterize education in the new millennium. 1 This is not a problema confined to education. Writing in the New Left Review, Fredric Jameson observes that debates on globalization have tended to be shaped by "…ideological appropriations- discussions not of the process itself, but of its effects, good or bad: judgements, in other words, totalizing in nature; while functional descriptions tend to isolate particular elements without relating them to each other." In this paper we start from the position that little or nothing can be explained in terms of the causal powers of globalization; rather we shall be suggesting that globalization is the outcome of processes that involve real actors-economic and political-with real interests. Following Martin Shaw, we also take the view that globalization does not undermine the state but includes the transformation of state forms; "…it is both predicated on and produces such transformations."3 Examining how these processes of transformation work, however, requires systematic investigation into the organization and strategies of particular actors whose horizons or effects might be described as global

A Platform Independent Architecture for Virtual Characters and Avatars.

Poster abstrac

Social cognition in intellectually disabled male criminal offenders: a deficit in affect perception?

Purpose: Although intellectual disability (ID) and criminal offending have long been associated, the nature of this link is obfuscated by reliance on weak, historical means of assessing ID and fractionating social cognitive skills. This paper addresses current and future research in social perception, social inference and social problem-solving in ID violent offenders. Methodology: Literature is reviewed on comorbidity of criminal offending and ID, and on social problem-solving impairment and offending. In an exploratory case-control series comprising six violent offenders with ID and five similarly able controls, emotion recognition and social inference are assessed by the Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT) and social problem-solving ability and style by an adapted Social Problem-Solving Inventory (SPSI-R). Findings: Violent offenders recognised all emotions except ‘anxious’, which they tended to misidentify as ‘surprise’. While offenders could interpret and integrate wider contextual cues, absent such cues offenders were less able to use paralinguistic cues (e.g. emotional tone) to infer speakers' feelings. Offenders in this sample exceeded controls' social problem-solving scores. Value: ID offenders, like neurotypical offenders, display specific deficits in emotion recognition- particularly fear recognition. Concurrently, enhanced social problem solving (at least as measured by the SPSI-R) in offenders is a novel preliminary finding which requires follow-up in a larger sample. Findings are discussed within the social processing framework, highlighting the need for tighter service-user baseline measures and further research into the causes of ID offending

eDrama: Facilitating online role-play using emotionally expressive avatars.

Introduction: This paper describes the results of a user study of a multi-user role-playing environment ‘edrama’, which enables groups of people to converse online, in scenario driven virtual environments. Hi8us’ edrama system is a 2D graphical environment in which users are represented by static cartoon like avatars. An application has been developed to enable the integration of the existing edrama tool with several new software components to support avatars with emotionally expressive behaviours, rendered in a 3D environment. In this paper we describe a user trial that demonstrates that the changes made improve the quality of social interaction and users' sense of presence

E-Drama: Facilitating Online Role-play using an AI Actor and Emotionally Expressive Characters.

This paper describes a multi-user role-playing environment, e-drama, which enables groups of people to converse online, in scenario driven virtual environments. The starting point of this research – edrama – is a 2D graphical environment in which users are represented by static cartoon figures. An application has been developed to enable integration of the existing edrama tool with several new components to support avatars with emotionally expressive behaviours, rendered in a 3D environment. The functionality includes the extraction of affect from open-ended improvisational text. The results of the affective analysis are then used to: (a) control an automated improvisational AI actor – EMMA (emotion, metaphor and affect) that operates a bit-part character in the improvisation; (b) drive the animations of avatars using the Demeanour framework in the user interface so that they react bodily in ways that are consistent with the affect that they are expressing. Finally, we describe user trials that demonstrate that the changes made improve the quality of social interaction and users’ sense of presence. Moreover, our system has the potential to evolve normal classroom education for young people with or without learning disabilities by providing 24/7 efficient personalised social skill, language and career training via role-play and offering automatic monitoring

Primary care services co-located with Emergency Departments across a UK region: early views on their development

Background Co-location of primary care services with Emergency Departments (ED) is one initiative aiming to reduce the burden on EDs of patients attending with non-urgent problems. However, the extent to which these services are operating within or alongside EDs is not currently known. This study aimed to create a typology of co-located primary care services in operation across Yorkshire and Humber (Y&H) as well as identify early barriers and facilitators to their implementation and sustainability. Methods A self-report survey was sent to the lead consultant or other key contact at 17 EDs in the Y&H region to establish the extent and configuration of co-located primary care services. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with urgent and unscheduled care stakeholders across five hospital sites to explore the barriers and facilitators to the formation and sustainability of these services. Results Thirteen EDs completed the survey and interviews were carried out with four ED consultants, one ED nurse and three general practitioners (GPs). Three distinct models were identified: ‘Primary Care Services Embedded within the ED’ (seven sites), ‘Co-located Urgent Care Centre’ (two sites) and ‘GP out-of-hours’ (nine sites). Qualitative data were analysed using framework analysis. Four interview themes emerged (justification for the service, level of integration, referral processes and sustainability) highlighting some of the challenges in implementing these co-located primary care services. Conclusion Creating a service within or alongside the ED in which GPs can use their distinct skills and therefore add value to the existing skill mix of ED staff is an important consideration when setting up these systems. Effective triage arrangements should also be established to ensure appropriate patients are referred to GPs. Further research is required to identify the full range of models nationally and to carry out a rigorous assessment of their impact