Building digital skills in the Further Education Sector

This paper highlights the importance of supporting FE teachers to help them improve the teaching and learning of digital skills, given the increasing demand for digital skills across the UK workforce. Digital skills are increasingly being considered as a crucial complement to essential English and maths skills. This applies to all learners, not just those in technical education. The traditional view of literacy as the ability to read and write has expanded to encompass understanding digital tools and information for the whole workforce. However, a high proportion of adults in the UK lack the digital skills to engage fully as citizens, and England and Northern Ireland is below the OECD average for digital skills related to work. Blended learning methods to upskill teachers and assist them to update their teaching approach could enable the UK to improve its relative position internationally. The sector is increasing the use of learning technology to update teaching methods through funded projects, but the work remains uncoordinated and inefficient. It will be important for teachers to use technology for scalable models, shared innovations and collaborative learning among professionals if they are to keep pace with innovation in teaching in an affordable and sustainable way. Models for change are: • Scaling up learners’ use of digital methods across the curriculum More elements of vocational courses could benefit from technology-enhanced learning activities and formative assessments, using automated and peer-reviewed methods. Digital methods would enable the sector to complement the future move to local autonomy with sector-wide collaborative provision of online courses that could be sourced centrally and tutored locally, thereby offering a wider range of provision at the local level. • Employer-provider collaboration projects on workplace digital skills There are proven models in the sector for building collaborative partnerships between employers and training providers. The new national colleges could greatly extend their value if they were to follow these models of utilising digital resources for learning and use online learning to offer central expertise plus local tutoring to other regions. • Teacher support via peer collaboration to accelerate innovation If the expectations of teachers explicitly include digital education skills for teaching both specific and generic digital skills, peer collaboration would help teachers to meet the accelerated innovation requirements being demanded of them. • Strategic leadership in the sector for rapid digital progress Open online courses show that it is feasible to develop the critical mass of engaged and collaborative teaching innovators who will sustain the FE teaching workforce. Such a learning community could adapt to changes in demand and the continual innovation in learning technology. Such courses could also be offered to support leaders and governors in a strategic approach to optimise digital technologies for teaching and learning. The main policy consideration is to invest in the use of digital learning innovations by teaching professionals to develop, test, peer review, publish and share their effective practices. This will build a self-sustaining learning system at the heart of the future development of the sector. Actions in support of this are to: • Enable pedagogic innovation; • Develop digital skills across the curriculum; • Update assessment methods to more digital forms; • Support teachers in keeping their digital skills capability updated; • Support leaders and governors in developing digital innovation; • Develop a policy for digital skills in the teaching and graduate workforce

Learning, Innovation and ‘tacit pedagogy’ in workplace practice: a comparison of two high-performing organisations in different sectors

This thesis reports on a study which uses a comparative analysis of two ‘high-performing’ organisations in different occupational sectors to identify aspects of workplace culture, work processes, and strategic orientations which are associated with innovation. The study investigates (1) the informal features of organisational culture, work processes and strategic orientation that support innovation; (2) how these features practically interrelate with the formal structures, policies and procedures of these organisations; and (3) how learning, innovation and practice are interrelated conceptually and practically. Interviews and focus groups with teams of practitioners within each organisation (n=24) were analysed to develop a conceptual understanding of the links between practice, learning and innovation which builds on and extends previous research on organisational development, capacity-building, work process design and culture. Its findings provide evidence supporting earlier studies suggesting that (1) ‘expansive’ rather than ‘restrictive’ organisations (Fuller and Unwin 2004) are more likely to be innovative; (2) cultures, work processes and arrangements providing productive conditions and opportunities for employee learning, and particularly for informal learning within and between teams, will also provide productive conditions for innovation; (3) the behaviours, activities and cultures within and across teams, including relationships and team-working practices that produce effective learning by team members, also support innovation; (4) aiming to embed ‘innovativeness’ widely across organisations, rather than treating innovation only as a matter for specialists, is likely to be effective in supporting innovation in contexts of rapid change; and finally (5) organisational orientation towards particular kinds of partnership working and mutuality, together with corporate commitment to expansive notions of ‘public value’ are associated with innovation. The study proposes refinements to the way the interplay between learning, innovation and practice is conceptualised, and introduces the concepts of ‘tacit pedagogy’ and ‘entanglement.

Design Principles for Special Purpose, Embodied, Conversational Intelligence with Environmental Sensors (SPECIES) Agents

As information systems increase their ability to gather and analyze data from the natural environment and as computational power increases, the next generation of human-computer interfaces will be able to facilitate more lifelike and natural interactions with humans. This can be accomplished by using sensors to non-invasively gather information from the user, using artificial intelligence to interpret this information to perceive users’ emotional and cognitive states, and using customized interfaces and responses based on embodied-conversational-agent (avatar) technology to respond to the user. We refer to this novel and unique class of intelligent agents as Special Purpose Embodied Conversational Intelligence with Environmental Sensors (SPECIES) agents. In this paper, we build on interpersonal communication theory to specify four essential design principles of all SPECIES agents. We also share findings of initial research that demonstrates how SPECIES agents can be deployed to augment human tasks. Results of this paper organize future research efforts in collectively studying and creating more robust, influential, and intelligent SPECIES agents

Foreign Exchange Rate and Economic Growth: The Case of Hong Kong

The relationship between the exchange rate and the real GDP of Hong Kong in the long period from 1955 to 2015 is investigated using a structural VAR model. The mutual effect of the two variables is studied in three periods: The results indicate that there is no obvious relationship between the exchange rate and real GDP before Hong Kong’s economy booming. However, a significant positive correlation is found in the sample of 1975–1998, which is associated with the output increases. The direction between the exchange rate and real GDP becomes negative after 1998. In addition, based on Granger causality test, we found the exchange rate could Granger causes GDP after 1975, but there is no Granger causality connection between the two variables before 1975

Overfishing Drives Over One-Third of All Sharks and Rays Toward a Global Extinction Crisis

The scale and drivers of marine biodiversity loss are being revealed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment process. We present the first global reassessment of 1,199 species in Class Chondrichthyes-sharks, rays, and chimeras. The first global assessment (in 2014) concluded that one-quarter (24%) of species were threatened. Now, 391 (32.6%) species are threatened with extinction. When this percentage of threat is applied to Data Deficient species, more than one-third (37.5%) of chondrichthyans are estimated to be threatened, with much of this change resulting from new information. Three species are Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct), representing possibly the first global marine fish extinctions due to overfishing. Consequently, the chondrichthyan extinction rate is potentially 25 extinctions per million species years, comparable to that of terrestrial vertebrates. Overfishing is the universal threat affecting all 391 threatened species and is the sole threat for 67.3% of species and interacts with three other threats for the remaining third: loss and degradation of habitat (31.2% of threatened species), climate change (10.2%), and pollution (6.9%). Species are disproportionately threatened in tropical and subtropical coastal waters. Science-based limits on fishing, effective marine protected areas, and approaches that reduce or eliminate fishing mortality are urgently needed to minimize mortality of threatened species and ensure sustainable catch and trade of others. Immediate action is essential to prevent further extinctions and protect the potential for food security and ecosystem functions provided by this iconic lineage of predators

Statistical Detection of Atypical Aircraft Flights

A computational method and software to implement the method have been developed to sift through vast quantities of digital flight data to alert human analysts to aircraft flights that are statistically atypical in ways that signify that safety may be adversely affected. On a typical day, there are tens of thousands of flights in the United States and several times that number throughout the world. Depending on the specific aircraft design, the volume of data collected by sensors and flight recorders can range from a few dozen to several thousand parameters per second during a flight. Whereas these data have long been utilized in investigating crashes, the present method is oriented toward helping to prevent crashes by enabling routine monitoring of flight operations to identify portions of flights that may be of interest with respect to safety issues

Post-mortem volatiles of vertebrate tissue

Volatile emission during vertebrate decay is a complex process that is understood incompletely. It depends on many factors. The main factor is the metabolism of the microbial species present inside and on the vertebrate. In this review, we combine the results from studies on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) detected during this decay process and those on the biochemical formation of VOCs in order to improve our understanding of the decay process. Micro-organisms are the main producers of VOCs, which are by- or end-products of microbial metabolism. Many microbes are already present inside and on a vertebrate, and these can initiate microbial decay. In addition, micro-organisms from the environment colonize the cadaver. The composition of microbial communities is complex, and communities of different species interact with each other in succession. In comparison to the complexity of the decay process, the resulting volatile pattern does show some consistency. Therefore, the possibility of an existence of a time-dependent core volatile pattern, which could be used for applications in areas such as forensics or food science, is discussed. Possible microbial interactions that might alter the process of decay are highlighted

The burden of injury in Central, Eastern, and Western European sub-region : a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 Study

Background Injury remains a major concern to public health in the European region. Previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study showed wide variation in injury death and disability adjusted life year (DALY) rates across Europe, indicating injury inequality gaps between sub-regions and countries. The objectives of this study were to: 1) compare GBD 2019 estimates on injury mortality and DALYs across European sub-regions and countries by cause-of-injury category and sex; 2) examine changes in injury DALY rates over a 20 year-period by cause-of-injury category, sub-region and country; and 3) assess inequalities in injury mortality and DALY rates across the countries. Methods We performed a secondary database descriptive study using the GBD 2019 results on injuries in 44 European countries from 2000 to 2019. Inequality in DALY rates between these countries was assessed by calculating the DALY rate ratio between the highest-ranking country and lowest-ranking country in each year. Results In 2019, in Eastern Europe 80 [95% uncertainty interval (UI): 71 to 89] people per 100,000 died from injuries; twice as high compared to Central Europe (38 injury deaths per 100,000; 95% UI 34 to 42) and three times as high compared to Western Europe (27 injury deaths per 100,000; 95%UI 25 to 28). The injury DALY rates showed less pronounced differences between Eastern (5129 DALYs per 100,000; 95% UI: 4547 to 5864), Central (2940 DALYs per 100,000; 95% UI: 2452 to 3546) and Western Europe (1782 DALYs per 100,000; 95% UI: 1523 to 2115). Injury DALY rate was lowest in Italy (1489 DALYs per 100,000) and highest in Ukraine (5553 DALYs per 100,000). The difference in injury DALY rates by country was larger for males compared to females. The DALY rate ratio was highest in 2005, with DALY rate in the lowest-ranking country (Russian Federation) 6.0 times higher compared to the highest-ranking country (Malta). After 2005, the DALY rate ratio between the lowest- and the highest-ranking country gradually decreased to 3.7 in 2019. Conclusions Injury mortality and DALY rates were highest in Eastern Europe and lowest in Western Europe, although differences in injury DALY rates declined rapidly, particularly in the past decade. The injury DALY rate ratio of highest- and lowest-ranking country declined from 2005 onwards, indicating declining inequalities in injuries between European countries.Peer reviewe