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Paramedics became nationally registered in 2018 in Australia. Prior to this, there was no central regulation of the profession with reliance on organisational regulation through employers. As paramedics expanded their scope, role and range of employers, especially outside statutory agencies, there was increasing need to engage in professional regulation. Regulation is more than a legal and bureaucratic framework. The purpose of the paper states that the way paramedics interact with their new regulatory environment impacts and is influenced by the professionalisation of the discipline. Regulation also redefines their positionality within the profession.

Two mixed-method surveys were undertaken. A pre-registration survey occurred in the month prior to regulation commencing (N = 419) followed by the second survey 31 months later (N = 407). This paper reports the analysis of qualitative data from the post-registration survey and provides comparison to the pre-registration survey which has been previously reported. Analysis was undertaken using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA).

Themes from the pre-registration survey continued however became more nuanced. Participants broadly supported registration and saw it as empowering to the profession. Some supported registration but were disappointed by its outcome, others rejected registration and saw it as divisive and oppressive.

Paramedics are beginning to come to terms with increasing professionalisation, of which regulation is one component. Changes can be seen in professional identity and engagement with professional practice; however, this is nascent and is deserving of additional research to track the profession as it continues to evolve.

This study examined subjective numeracy and its relationship with accounting judgements on probability issues.

A subjective numeracy scale (SNS) questionnaire was distributed to 231 accounting students to measure self-evaluated numeracy. Modified Bayesian reasoning tasks were applied in an accounting-related probability estimation, manipulating presentation formats.

The study revealed a positive relationship between self-evaluated numeracy and performance in accounting probability estimation. The findings suggest that switching the format of probability expressions from percentages to frequencies can improve the performance of participants with low self-evaluated numeracy.

Adding objective numeracy measurements could enhance results. Future numeracy research could add objective numeracy items and assess whether this influences participants' self-perceived numeracy. Based on this sample population of accounting students, the findings may not apply to large populations of accounting-information users.

Investors' ability to exercise sound judgement depends on the accuracy of their probability estimations. Manipulating the format of probability expressions can improve probability estimation performance in investors with low self-evaluated numeracy.

This study identified a significant performance gap among participants in performing accounting probability estimations: those with high self-evaluated numeracy performed better than those with low self-evaluated numeracy. The authors also explored a method other than additional training to improve participants' performance on probability estimation tasks and discovered that frequency formats enhanced the performance of participants with low self-evaluated numeracy.

Since 2018, Australian paramedics have been regulated under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS) for health practitioners. Established professions have been regulated in Australia for some time, so there is limited knowledge of their entry to regulation. However, as paramedicine has not been previously centrally regulated, this provides a unique case study to explore the transition to regulated practice.

Australian paramedics undertook two surveys: pre- and post-introduction of registration. The first survey was in the month leading up to the commencement of registration (N = 419), and the second survey took place 31 months after registration (N = 407). This paper presents the results of statistical analyses of the post-registration survey including comparisons to the pre-registration survey.

Although support for regulation has increased over time, there remains strong dissent consistent with 2018 levels. After 31 months of regulation, respondents reported increasing knowledge of the scheme and greater ease of navigation. The impacts of regulation are more nuanced and less polarised than in the first survey. Identity is again canvassed, and results suggest a shift from employment status and qualifications as key elements of identity to a community of practice and registration.

Paramedics' experiences and understanding of the rationale for registration are developing. Further support is needed to assist with the emerging professional identity and behaviours. Regulation is one of many occupational factors influencing professional identity and professionalism. Exploring the experience of regulation potentially assists regulators in better supporting practitioners and helps better understand professional evolution.

This research explored the storytelling (collection, curation and use) in the Cabrach, a remote Scottish glen. This study aims to capture the methodological process of storytelling and curation of heritage knowledge through the lens of the Cabrach's whisky distilling history, a central part of the area's cultural heritage, tangible and intangible. This research was conceptualised as “telling the story of telling the story of the Cabrach”. It was concerned with how the history, heritage, historiography and testimony associated with the parish could be harvested, made sense of and subsequently used.

The study was epistemological in nature and the research was concerned with how heritage knowledge is gathered, curated and understood. It was built around the collection of knowledge through expert testimony from Colin Mackenzie and Alan Winchester, who have extensively researched aspects of life in the Cabrach. This was done using a series of theme-based but free-flowing conversational workshop involving participants and research team. Issues of trust and authority in the research team were crucial. Data were recorded, transcribed and coded. A conceptual model for heritage storytelling in the Cabrach was developed together with a transferable version for other contexts.

The research was conceived around identifying the stories of the Cabrach and grouping them into cohesive narrative themes focused on the most important aspect of the glen's history (the development of malt whisky distilling). The research showed how all crucial narratives associated with the Cabrach were interconnected with that malt whisky story. It was concerned with identifying broad thematic narratives rather than the specific detailed stories themselves, but also from a methodological perspective how stories around those themes could be collected, curated and used. It presents the outcome of “expert testimony” oral history conversations and presents a conceptual model for the curation of heritage knowledge.

This paper reports on research which focuses on the confluence of those issues of heritage-led regeneration, intangible cultural heritage, as well as how stories of and from, about and for, a distinctive community in North-East Scotland can be collected, curated and displayed. It presents methodological conceptualisations as well as focused areas of results which can be used to create a strong and inclusive narrative to encapsulate the durable sense of place and support the revival of an economically viable and sustainable community.

This conceptual model offers a framework with universal elements (Place, People, Perception) alongside a strong core narrative of storytelling. That core element may vary but the outer elements remain the same, with people and place being omnipresent and the need to build an emotional or visceral connection with visitors being crucial, beyond “telling stories” which might be regarded as parochial or narrowly focused. The model informs how communities and heritage organisations tell their stories in an authentic and proportionate manner. This can help shape and explain cultures and identities and support visitors' understanding of, and connection with, places they visit and experience.

The originality lies in two principal areas, the exploration of the narratives of a singularly distinctive community – the Cabrach – which plays a disproportionately significant role in the development of malt whisky distilling in Scotland; and also in terms of the methodological approach to the collection and curation of heritage storytelling, drawing not on first-hand accounts as in conventional oral history approaches but through the expert testimony of two historical and ethnographic researchers. The value is demonstrating the creation of a conceptual model which can be transferred to other contexts.

The globalisation of supply chains has contributed to modern slavery by degrading labour standards and work practices. The inherent difficulties involved in monitoring extremely fragmented production processes also render workers in and from developing countries vulnerable to labour exploitation. This research adopts a benchmark methodology that will help examine the inherent modern slavery challenges.

This study examines how the benchmark model, including governance, risk assessment, purchasing practice, recruitment and remedy of victims, addresses supply chain modern slavery challenges. The proposed hypotheses are tested based on the reoccurring issues of modern slavery in global supply chains.

Estimations suggest that modern slavery is a growing and increasingly prominent international problem, indicating that it is the second largest and fastest growing criminal enterprise worldwide except for narcotics trafficking. These social issues in global supply chains have drawn attention to the importance of verifying, monitoring and mapping supply chains, especially in lengthy and complex supply chains. However, the advent of digital technologies and benchmarking methodologies has become one of the existing key performance indicators (KPIs) for measuring the effectiveness of modern slavery initiatives in supply chains.

This review provides an understanding of the current situation of global supply chains concerning the growing social issue of modern slavery. However, this includes various individual specialities relating to global supply chains, modern slavery, socially sustainable supply chain management (SCM), logistic social responsibility, corporate social responsibility and digitalisation. Furthermore, the review provided important implications for researchers examining the activities on benchmarking the effectiveness of the existing initiatives to prevent modern slavery in the supply chains.

Question answering (QA) answers the questions asked by people in the form of natural language. In the QA, due to the subjectivity of users, the questions they query have different expressions, which increases the difficulty of text retrieval. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore new query rewriting method for QA that integrates multiple related questions (RQs) to form an optimal question. Moreover, it is important to generate a new dataset of the original query (OQ) with multiple RQs.

This study collects a new dataset SQuAD_extend by crawling the QA community and uses word-graph to model the collected OQs. Next, Beam search finds the best path to get the best question. To deeply represent the features of the question, pretrained model BERT is used to model sentences.

The experimental results show three outstanding findings. (1) The quality of the answers is better after adding the RQs of the OQs. (2) The word-graph that is used to model the problem and choose the optimal path is conducive to finding the best question. (3) Finally, BERT can deeply characterize the semantics of the exact problem.

The proposed method can use word-graph to construct multiple questions and select the optimal path for rewriting the question, and the quality of answers is better than the baseline. In practice, the research results can help guide users to clarify their query intentions and finally achieve the best answer.

This study examines how consumers' self-construal moderates consumers' buying behavior in situations requiring consumers to buy larger-than-expected clothing sizes. The authors explore the potential effectiveness of two distinct communication strategies – emotional versus informational ad appeals – to mitigate the negative effects of sizing discrepancies.

A total of three experiments were conducted to examine the proposed framework. Studies 1 and 2 investigate whether self-construal moderates the relationship between sizing discrepancy and purchasing intentions. Study 3 examines the effectiveness of communication strategies in reducing the detrimental effects of sizing discrepancy.

When encountering sizing discrepancies, the authors find that consumers with an interdependent self-construal have lower purchase intentions than those with an independent self-construal. The authors demonstrate that an emotional communication strategy is more effective for consumers with an interdependent self-construal, whereas an informational communication strategy is more effective for consumers with an independent self-construal.

With the lack of a universal sizing system, consumers often struggle to find clothes that fit as expected. However, extant research has not explored cross-cultural differences in how consumers respond to sizing discrepancies and how managers can reduce any potential negative effects.