The wider benefits of education and training : a comparative longitudinal study

"This report presents findings from a comparative longitudinal study of the changing relationship between education, training and various measures of employability and well-being. The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which education and/or work-related training confer employmentrelated benefits over and above the now well-established positive effects these have on earnings and employment. In so doing, it examines the concept of ‘employability’ and considers how this might be extended to incorporate some notion of well-being. The study investigates the links between education, training, employment, earnings and well-being and reveals the changing situation experienced by young adults over the past decade" -- page 1

Racial Ideology and Discourse in the NBA: Ron Artest and the Construction of Black Bodies by White America

This paper examines white spectatorship of the black athlete's body through an analysis of NBA basketball player Ron Artest's 2004 suspension. In examining the discourse surrounding the event, there emerges a covert ideology of simultaneous idealization and denigration of black athletes. While most in the sports world would claim to be colour-blind when evaluating talent or watching a game, the discourse surrounding Artest and the NBA in general seems to suggest that the invisible lens of white superiority shapes the perceptions of sports fans when viewing a predominantly black sport such as professional basketball

The Use of Phase Measuring (Interferometric) Sonars: Choosing Appropriate Data Processing Methodologies

Phase measuring bathymetric sonars (often mislabelled ‘interferometers') are a popular tool for wide swath shallow water hydrography. Factors which affect the data quality from the newest generation of such systems are presented along with the data processing methodologies required to achieve high quality bathymetric maps meeting current survey standards. A brief look at a more formal statistical approach is taken in order to show that these processing methods (and the assumptions made) have a sound background. Data and charts from a widely used commercial system are included which illustrate the practical application of this theory.Los sonares batimétricos que miden las fases (a menudo designados errôneamente ‘interferômetros’) son instrumentos populares para la hidrografîa de bandas en aguas someras. Se presentan los factores que afectan a la calidad de datos procedentes de la ultima generaciôn de dichos sistemas, junto con las metodologtas utilizadas para el procesado de datos, requeridas para realizar cartas batimétricas de alta calidad que cumplan las normas hidrogrâficas actuates. Se estudia brevemente un enfoque estadîstico mas formai para mostrar que estos métodos de procesado (y las suposiciones efectuadas) tienen unos antecedentes sôlidos. Se incluyen datos y cartas de un sistema comercial ampliamente utilizado, que ilustra la aplicaciôn pràctica de esta teorta.Les sonars bathymétriques de mesurage de phase (souvent appelés de manière abusive « interféromètres ») constituent un outil très apprécié pour l ’hydrographie à l ’aide de systèmes à balayage latéral en eaux peu profondes. Les facteurs qui affectent la qualité des données issues de la plus récente génération de systèmes, sont présentés en même temps que les méthodes de traitement des données requises pour parvenir à des cartes bathymétriques de haute qualité qui répondent aux normes hydrographiques actuelles. Un bref aperçu d'une approche statistique plus formelle est donné afin de montrer que ces méthodes de traitement (et les hypothèses faites) reposent sur un contexte solide. Les données et les cartes d ’un système commercial largement utilisé sont incluses, ce qui permet d'illustrer l’application pratique de cette théorie

Apprenticeships : employer incentives

This report focuses on the role and potential that employer incentives could play in supporting and stimulating uptake of apprenticeships, particularly as part of the economic recovery from the recession which is likely to affect the country following the Covid 19 crisis. Comparisons with past recessions The length of past recessions has ranged between one and two years, with GDP regaining its pre-recession levels in three to four years. The length and depth of the Covid-19 recession is unclear at this point in time but the initial evidence suggests an extraordinarily deep fall in output over the short-term with likely implications for employment and the provision of apprenticeships. The evidence over the recent past indicates that the number of apprentices has been increasing in Scotland (by 8% over the past five years). This has seen an increase in the share of disabled people, those from BAME backgrounds, and older people participating in apprenticeships. It has also seen increases in occupational areas such as construction, sport, health and social care, food and drink, and automotive; as well as higher level apprenticeships (Level 3 and above). There is the danger that these gains made over the recent past might be undone if any Covid-19 associated recession proves to be deep and protracted. It might well be that the number of apprentices in administration and related; construction and related; creative and cultural; hospitality and tourism; personal services; retail and customer service; and transport and logistics that are most at risk. Together these accounted for 54% of all apprenticeship starts in 2018/19, and four are key/growth sectors. Potentially at risk is the future skills supply to key occupations and sectors and alongside that the opportunities apprenticeships provide to those who occupy a more disadvantaged position in the labour market. Apprenticeship responses to the economic cycle Apprenticeships tend to be pro-cyclical and are therefore affected by recessions more so than other types of skills provision. That said, evidence from a number of countries shows that apprenticeships grew in the period after the 2008 financial crisis. In part this was because of measures Governments introduced to bolster apprenticeships through public subsidies and other mechanisms to help apprentices who had been made redundant to complete their apprenticeships. But it needs to be borne in mind that the depth of the recession currently forecast may be much deeper than that following the financial crisis in 2008. Some countries, such as the Netherlands, have always recognised that apprenticeships are susceptible to economic downturns. To manage the vagaries of the economic cycles an alternative was available to learners which contained a substantial work experience element but which was mainly delivered by vocational schools. In this way, when there were not a sufficient number of employers willing to provide apprenticeships, places could be provided in vocational schools. Both the school based workplace learning and the apprenticeship path in the Netherlands are equally well regard by learners and employers. Countries have focused on increasing the benefits and reducing the costs of apprenticeships to make them more attractive to employers. In Switzerland, the emphasis has been on increasing the productive content of apprentices (through increasing their ability to undertake more productive work), whilst in England employers have been given primary influence over the content and structure of apprenticeships. Current apprenticeship responses to Covid-19 Initial evidence suggests that public authorities have responded to the Covid-19 crisis by providing wage subsidies to employers to take on apprentices and/or providing flexibility in completing apprenticeships. The German, Dutch and Danish Governments have provided wage and other subsidies to employers to keep apprentices employed. Other countries (such as England) have introduced flexibilities so that furloughed, or key sector staff have longer to complete their apprenticeships. A number of EU countries have promoted the use of ICTs so that training and assessment can be undertaken online. Effective practice in employer focused apprenticeship support Most EU-28 countries provide financial support for apprenticeships via training grants, tax incentives and levies. These are mostly national and long standing programmes operating for all employers, although some are targeted at certain sectors and sizes of organisation. A review of the international evidence suggests that Government funding of employer investment in apprenticeships produce modest but positive returns, but impacts vary due to the differences in apprenticeship programmes, and the nature and size of financial inducements. In addition, effects vary between sectors and firm sizes. Apprenticeship incentives on their own have limited impact, involve trade offs (e.g. cost of administration versus deadweight) and work better on increasing apprenticeship take-up amongst existing employers rather than new ones. To be effective, incentives need to increase financial and non-financial benefits and/or reduce financial and non-financial costs. They need to be flexible because employers vary in their characteristics, cost and benefit calculation, and intent. Smaller employers tend to require higher levels of support. These facets require an understanding of employers’ needs as well as the structure and dynamics of local labour markets. Employer incentives work best when they are simple, straightforward, and are aligned with and complement existing systems and structures. Effective communication is important, especially to employers less likely to engage with apprenticeships. A number of incentives are sectorally targeted because this can facilitate employer engagement and input into design and delivery, as well as tailoring support. In addition, a number of other national and subregional economic development and skills strategies are sectorally focused, which new incentives can be aligned with. Programmes need to be monitored to identify that the incentive’s aims and objectives are being met as well as identifying and measuring any unintended consequences such as deadweight, substitution and displacement. A key success factor is employer buy-in through involving employers in design and delivery. This helps to ensure a fit with employers’ needs, and makes communication and engagement more effective

UK Mean Sea Level Change from Analysis of Tide Gauge Records

Abstract This thesis is mainly concerned with changes in mean sea level as measured at coastal tide gauge sites around the coast of Great Britain, and addresses the question of whether a secular change in rate of rise of sea level can be discerned over the measurement period. This is an important question for the coastal and low-lying areas of not only the UK, but globally, with the IPCC estimating that 11% of the worlds population currently live in low elevation coastal zones, with sea level rise projected to impact available land area, coastal infrastructure, ecosystems and the viability of some island nations. The two main thrusts of this present work are concerned with 1) Extending the temporal extent of currently available tide gauge records using data archaeology, ideally to the point where long term climate related trends emerge. This is important as currently many of the records are only a few decades long, and analysis of trends can give inconsistent results in relation to ongoing climate change. The small number of records which stretch back into the 19th Century do appear to show a long term increase in rate of sea level rise. 2) investigating optimal methods of identifying and accounting for any non-climate related variability in the records, again allowing any underlying trends to be more easily discerned, and importantly, shortening the period over which a climate related signal might be detected. The results are conclusive. Long term sea level rise and acceleration are confirmed around the entire UK coastline. For sites where recent decadal scale sea level falls have been reported, these are shown to be due to a combination of datum control errors and insufficient record length. Datum shifts due primarily to instrumentation changes are shown to be a significant error source in many of the UK tide gauge records. Many of these shifts have not been differentiated from assumed inter-site variability due to other causes until now. Accounting for these shifts with recorded calibration data and knowledge of physical changes at the tide gauge allows these errors to be systematically reduced, to the point that inter-site variability and differences in global isostatic adjustment adjusted sea level rise are much smaller and records appear visually similar. A further result is that the similarity of tide gauge records from nearby locations along the same coastline coupled with low uncertainties in land based survey levelling over short distances allows the monthly or annual mean sea level time series from these locations to be combined into a single representative record with quantifiable uncertainties. Furthermore, the variation between records further apart is found to be mainly due to localised meteorological effects. We confirm that these effects are well described by a tide and surge model, and this allows this variability to be accounted for. This leaves a residual signal where the variability is shown to be largely common mode, and therefore likely to be a far field ocean related effect. The finding that remaining inter-site variability is small allows averaging of the tide gauge records to obtain a single representative UK sea level index. This methodology eases the extension of localised tide gauge records using even short sections of historical tide gauge data. A comprehensive data archaeology exercise was then carried out to recover as much of this data as possible, much of which was previously unpublished, and assimilate this data first into localised records and then into a single UK wide record stretching back over more than two centuries. Clear acceleration is evident, with upward changes in gradient around the end of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Over most of the 19th Century the rise in sea level appears to be close to zero, rising to an average of just over 2mm/yr during the 20th Century, and rising again to an average of 3.4 mm/yr in the 21st Century so far. The acceleration over the entire period is around 0.01 mm/yr2 which is consistent with observed century scale sea level change when averaged globally. These data processing methods can be applied to other coastlines around the world where observations from tide gauges have been recorded

Improving Navy MPTE Studies with Model-Driven Big Data

The goal of this research was to improve upon the ability of OPNAV N1 analysts to quickly and efficiently obtain experiment-based information from their computational models. The enhanced information will enable N1’s analysts to better support Navy leadership in resource and policy decisions that shape the future Navy and help it retain and develop its most talented Sailors. This project built on previous collaborations with N1 using data farming to enhance the information gleaned from their Navy talent management models, such as the Officer Strategic Analysis Model (OSAM) model, the Production Resource Optimization (PRO) model, and the Navy Total Force Strength Model (NTFSM). During this research period, (1) Ensign William Desousa (2015) investigated the behavior of economic inputs in NTFSM; (2) Lieutenant Peter Bazalaki (2016) used the new data farming capabilities we developed in OSAM to investigate Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) inventory across a breadth of possibilities; and (3) Lieutenant Allison Hogarth (2016) built, tested, and demonstrated a user interface in Excel that enables users of the PRO model to automatically execute a sophisticated design of experiments—the tool that enables this new capability is known as Production Resource Optimization Model With Experimental Design (PROMWED). In addition to working with the student-officers, the faculty supporting this project performed an empirical study of statistical software packages that may provide better understanding of the high-dimensional behavior of manpower models in the future (Erickson, Ankenman, & Sanchez 2016).Naval Research ProgramPrepared for Topic Sponsor: OPNAV N1; Research POC Name: Mr. Ian AndersoNPS-N16-N154-

Evidence for ACTN3 as a genetic modifier of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is characterized by muscle degeneration and progressive weakness. There is considerable inter-patient variability in disease onset and progression, which can confound the results of clinical trials. Here we show that a common null polymorphism (R577X) in ACTN3 results in significantly reduced muscle strength and a longer 10\u2009m walk test time in young, ambulant patients with DMD; both of which are primary outcome measures in clinical trials. We have developed a double knockout mouse model, which also shows reduced muscle strength, but is protected from stretch-induced eccentric damage with age. This suggests that \u3b1-actinin-3 deficiency reduces muscle performance at baseline, but ameliorates the progression of dystrophic pathology. Mechanistically, we show that \u3b1-actinin-3 deficiency triggers an increase in oxidative muscle metabolism through activation of calcineurin, which likely confers the protective effect. Our studies suggest that ACTN3 R577X genotype is a modifier of clinical phenotype in DMD patients