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This paper reports a study of the use and value of MSc in Information Studies/Information Management dissertations produced during the seven years, 1988–89 to 1994–95, at the Department of Information Studies in the University of Sheffield. Responses to a questionnaire that was sent to students, supervisors and external collaborating organisations showed that they all used the dissertations in various ways, as did other Departmental staff and students. Some dissertations lead to publications in the open literature, and a citation analysis showed that these publications are successful in bringing dissertation results to a wider readership.

VoiceStream was a strong brand within the digital wireless communications industry at the time CEO Robert Dodson led the company. It had a loyal following of customers and a strong reputation for value. Despite pushback from senior management, CEO Robert Dotson made the decision to undergo a rebranding strategy during a period of declining revenue and growth. As VoiceStream transitioned to T-Mobile, it had initial success, but faced the challenge of how to position the brand long term.

This case study was written with the historical background of a well-known company and traces key decisions made during the company’s rebranding transition. This case comes complete with insights from then current CEO, Robert Dotson.

This case is suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses in marketing, management or strategy, where students are studying brand management. Additionally, this case will be valuable for courses that include advanced branding strategies such as rebranding. This case could also be used for discussion in positioning and advertising techniques. This case includes, via in-depth interviews, critical strategic insights from CEO Robert Dotson. The case illustrates some of the major opportunities and threats associated with the VoiceStream/T-Mobile rebranding strategy.

This chapter explores the role of postmodern intertextuality in Neil Jordan’s 2012 vampire film Byzantium. This intertextuality serves to place the film in dialogue with earlier vampire fiction, in particular the 1970s cycle of British and European erotic vampire films such as Daughters of Darkness and The Vampire Lovers from Hammer Films. Byzantium recalls these earlier texts structurally and thematically, both through direct reference and more oblique allusions.

While Fredric Jameson characterizes postmodern intertextuality as mere nostalgia and the imitation of ‘dead styles’, feminist postmodern theorists such as Linda Hutcheon contend argue for the political potential of postmodernism. This chapter proposes that the postmodern intertextuality of Byzantium is a critical intertextuality, and that the foregrounding of storytelling, writing, and rewriting in the film draws attention to the ways in which the intertextuality of Byzantium is not merely a return to past forms but also a reworking of them.

Taking up the work of Linda Hutcheon and Catherine Constable, this chapter demonstrates the ways in which Byzantium critically reworks aspects of earlier vampire fiction in order to critique and expand the representation of the female vampire and through this explore issues relating to female subjectivity and community.

The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of nine district characteristics on student achievement, explored the conditions that mediated the effects of such characteristics and contributed to understandings about the role school-level leaders play in district efforts to improve achievement.

Data for the study were provided by the responses of 2,324 school and district leaders in 45 school districts to two surveys. Student achievement evidence was provided by multi-grade provincial measures of math and language achievement. The analysis of these data included calculation of descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and regression mediation analysis.

Seven of nine district characteristics contributed significantly to student achievement and three conditions served as especially powerful mediators of such district effects. The same three conditions, as well as others, acted as significant mediators of school-level leader effects on achievement, as well.

District characteristics tested in the study provide a powerful framework for guiding the district improvement work of senior educational leaders. The organizational improvement efforts of both district and school leaders would be substantially enhanced by a better understanding of how to diagnose and improve the status of those conditions acting as significant mediators of the effects of both district and school leadership on student achievement.

This is one of a very few large-scale quantitative studies examining the extent to which characteristics frequently identified by district effectiveness research explain variation in student learning. It is also one of the very few studies identifying classroom, school and family variables that mediate district effects on such learning. The study also adds to a growing body of evidence about variables which mediate school leaders’ effects on such learning.

As stated in the United Nations Global Assessment Report 2022 Concept Note, decision-makers everywhere need data and statistics that are accurate, timely, sufficiently disaggregated, relevant, accessible and easy to use. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate scalable and replicable methods to advance and integrate the use of earth observation (EO), specifically ongoing efforts within the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Work Programme and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Work Plan, to support risk-informed decision-making, based on documented national and subnational needs and requirements.

Promotion of open data sharing and geospatial technology solutions at national and subnational scales encourages the accelerated implementation of successful EO applications. These solutions may also be linked to specific Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) 2015–2030 Global Targets that provide trusted answers to risk-oriented decision frameworks, as well as critical synergies between the Sendai Framework and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This paper provides examples of these efforts in the form of platforms and knowledge hubs that leverage latest developments in analysis ready data and support evidence-based DRR measures.

The climate crisis is forcing countries to face unprecedented frequency and severity of disasters. At the same time, there are growing demands to respond to policy at the national and international level. EOs offer insights and intelligence for evidence-based policy development and decision-making to support key aspects of the Sendai Framework. The GEO DRR Working Group and CEOS Working Group Disasters are ideally placed to help national government agencies, particularly national Sendai focal points to learn more about EOs and understand their role in supporting DRR.

The unique perspective of EOs provide unrealized value to decision-makers addressing DRR. This paper highlights tangible methods and practices that leverage free and open source EO insights that can benefit all DRR practitioners.

The purposes of this paper are to explain how the need arose for trade unions to develop accounting systems to monitor learning outcomes and to illuminate how trade unions rose to that challenge.

A semi‐structured interview study of the full‐time educational officers of a number of the UK trade unions produced transcripts that were analysed using template analysis and were supplemented by collection of documentary evidence from the trade unions and interviews and documents from related organizations.

Trade unions are starting to compile extensive information about the learning opportunities that they are facilitating.

Information produced by the trade union's accounting systems highlights the value of the government's investment in the union learning fund (ULF).

This is the only study to address the systems of monitoring developed by trade unions in response to the receipt of funds from the ULF in the UK.

The researchers developed a model of mentoring student teachers, known as Shared Mentoring in Learning Environments (SMILE), to provide opportunities for classroom teachers to build shared understanding with university field supervisors. The purpose of this paper is to compare teaching efficacy of those student teachers who matriculated through the SMILE approach with mentoring student teachers who matriculated through a traditional approach to mentoring and identifying aspects of SMILE that may have contributed to the development of teacher efficacy.

A total of 29 student teachers participated in the SMILE model of supporting student teaching, and 29 student teachers (comparison group) were provided with a traditional support structure. At the start and end of their one-year post-baccalaureate credential program, all student teachers completed a teaching efficacy questionnaire. During the last month of the teacher-credential program, all student teachers were interviewed in focus groups regarding the quality of their student-teaching mentoring. In addition, the researchers asked classroom teachers in the SMILE cohort to complete a questionnaire, identifying specific strengths and weaknesses of the SMILE model of mentoring student teachers.

Student teachers in the SMILE cohort improved their teaching efficacy in comparison with student teachers in a traditional model of support. SMILE student teachers appreciated critical feedback, while the comparison group participants focused on whether feedback was positive or negative. In addition, SMILE student teachers attributed their development of instructional skills to the mentoring process from classroom teachers and university supervisors, while comparison group participants attributed their development as teachers mainly to their classroom teachers who modeled effective instructional strategies. SMILE classroom teachers made reference to how particular aspects of the model (e.g. sequencing and lesson study) contributed to both student- and mentor-teacher development.

The SMILE approach to mentoring student teachers facilitated collaboration between university field supervisors and classroom teachers in joint mentoring of future teachers into their profession, a rare occurrence in teacher education programs. Joint mentoring led to improved teaching efficacy among student teachers.

Nine councils in the Innovation Forum for high‐performing local authorities voluntarily set a target of reducing hospital bed days for people aged 75+ by 20% over the three years to 2006/07. This kind of objective was new for the NHS, as much as for local government. It was motivated by a concern among the councils that hospital admission exposed residents to risks to their independence and well‐being which should be avoided wherever possible. They wished to demonstrate the value of the local authority community leadership or, as it has since become known, ‘place making’ role. Their success in meeting this target supports the new NHS White Paper's proposed transfer of functions and responsibilities from PCTs to councils. It suggests that councils can successfully adopt, in appropriate circumstances, the lead responsibility for ensuring strategic co‐ordination of place‐based commissioning in health and well‐being.