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This paper describes the development of a digital role play game (RPG) designed to help construction apprentices to better communicate with their supervisors about issues with the potential to impact on their physical and psychological health and safety.

A participatory approach was adopted to utilise the knowledge and insights of the target users to inform the digital RPG development. Apprentices and supervisors were interviewed to identify characteristics of effective supervisor-apprentice communication, which became the RPG’s learning objectives. The scenarios constructed in the RPG were drawn from lived experiences shared by the apprentices in the interviews. During the development process, consultations were conducted with an advisory committee comprising of apprentices and supervisors to improve the realism of the RPG scenarios.

Three scenarios were developed for the RPG. In each scenario, players are asked to make decisions at various interaction points about how the characters should respond to the unfolding and challenging situations. Scripts were developed for the game, which were acted out and motion captured to animate digital MetaHuman characters embedded in a virtual construction site. Two example situations are introduced in this paper to illustrate the development process.

To our knowledge, the RPG introduced is one of the first applications of digital game-based training in the construction industry. The adoption of a participatory design approach ensures that the game content relates to real-world experiences. The digital RPG is highly interactive and engaging in nature and presents a novel approach to developing “soft” skills in construction.

In this paper, based on the density functional theory (DFT) and finite element method (FEM), the elastic, buckling and vibrational behaviors of the monolayer bismuthene are studied.

The computed elastic properties based on DFT are used to develop a finite element (FE) model for the monolayer bismuthene in which the Bi-Bi bonds are simulated by beam elements. Furthermore, mass elements are used to model the Bi atoms. The developed FE model is used to compute Young's modulus of monolayer bismuthene. The model is then used to evaluate the buckling force and fundamental natural frequency of the monolayer bismuthene with different geometrical parameters.

Comparing the results of the FEM and DFT, it is shown that the proposed model can predict Young's modulus of the monolayer bismuthene with an acceptable accuracy. It is also shown that the influence of the vertical side length on the fundamental natural frequency of the monolayer bismuthene is not significant. However, vibrational characteristics of the bismuthene are significantly affected by the horizontal side length.

DFT and FEM are used to study the elastic, vibrational and buckling properties of the monolayer bismuthene. The developed model can be used to predict Young's modulus of the monolayer bismuthene accurately. Effect of the vertical side length on the fundamental natural frequency is negligible. However, vibrational characteristics are significantly affected by the horizontal side length.

Certain elements of Hayek’s work are prominent precursors to the modern field of complex adaptive systems, including his ideas on spontaneous order, his focus on market processes, his contrast between designing and gardening, and his own framing of complex systems. Conceptually, he was well ahead of his time, prescient in his formulation of novel ways to think about economies and societies. Technically, the fact that he did not mathematically formalize most of the notions he developed makes his insights hard to incorporate unambiguously into models. However, because so much of his work is divorced from the simplistic models proffered by early mathematical economics, it stands as fertile ground for complex systems researchers today. I suggest that Austrian economists can create a progressive research program by building models of these Hayekian ideas, and thereby gain traction within the economics profession. Instead of mathematical models the suite of techniques and tools known as agent-based computing seems particularly well-suited to addressing traditional Austrian topics like money, business cycles, coordination, market processes, and so on, while staying faithful to the methodological individualism and bottom-up perspective that underpin the entire school of thought.

One of the most frequently occurring classes of production system can be represented by a series of productive facilities arranged so that work flows sequentially between them. These systems can be largely defined by the output characteristics of the individual productive elements of the system and the nature of the flow between them. In reality, perhaps the most straightforward series production system is where the output rate of each productive facility is not deterministic but can be described by a unimodal distribution of some sort and the flow between each facility is not mechanically paced in any way. On a macro level such a system could represent a series of major productive units feeding into each other, where overall capacity issues would be predominant. On the micro level the system describes an unpaced manual assembly line.

A LETTER from the President of the Library Association (Mr. Berwick Sayers) has been received which we have pleasure in giving prominently.

This chapter develops a set of two-step identification methods for social interactions models with unknown networks, and discusses how the proposed methods are connected to the identification methods for models with known networks. The first step uses linear regression to identify the reduced forms. The second step decomposes the reduced forms to identify the primitive parameters. The proposed methods use panel data to identify networks. Two cases are considered: the sample exogenous vectors span Rn (long panels), and the sample exogenous vectors span a proper subspace of Rⁿ (short panels). For the short panel case, in order to solve the sample covariance matrices’ non-invertibility problem, this chapter proposes to represent the sample vectors with respect to a basis of a lower-dimensional space so that we have fewer regression coefficients in the first step. This allows us to identify some reduced form submatrices, which provide equations for identifying the primitive parameters.

Intellectual disabilities (ID) may complicate the experience of bereavement and loss, in those with communicative impairments compounded by complex healthcare needs and sensori-motor limitations. Whilst theorists have argued that the cognitive difficulties of people with profound ID impede mourning reactions, none have attempted to make sense of the responses they do exhibit. The current paper discusses this.

A select review considers the neurobiology underlying attachment bonds, complications in attachment formation and affect regulation in people with ID, and separation responses of people with profound ID.

The current paper demonstrates that by recognising the affective nature of separation distress, an understanding beyond a cognitive conceptualisation is possible.

It is worth questioning whether people with profound ID are incapable of any meaningful form of person permanence. A critical review could deal with this comparatively by drawing on research of person and object permanence in typically developing children.

Of specific interest, the bio-behavioural regulators of relationships may help us to appreciate the importance of routine physical health and social care for emotional wellbeing in this group.

It is argued that by appreciating the basic emotional and regulatory functions of relationships, we can achieve a greater insight into the loss experiences of people with profound ID that will offer therapeutic direction.

This chapter discusses how Nancy Fraser’s theory of two-dimensional participatory justice may be employed in research concerned with inequalities within higher education. The main concepts of Fraser’s theory are discussed and evaluated in the light of the critical attention they have attracted. Following that, I demonstrate the empirical application of Fraser’s ideas through discussion of extracts of data from a recent small-scale investigation undertaken within a UK-based higher education institution. Finally, I conclude by discussing the strengths of Fraser’s concepts with some indications for future research.