IODE Associate Information Units : A New Opportunity for Marine Information Managers to Participate at the Global Level

How can the marine information management community participate more actively within the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) Network? Although there are National Coordinators for Marine Information Management, there has been no other mechanism for IODE to communicate directly with other marine information professionals, and it has been a challenge for IODE to reach the broader marine information community. This changed in 2017 at the 24th session of the IOC Committee on IODE when the Committee approved the establishment of Associate Information Units (AIUs). Interested regional or national projects, programmes, institutions or organizations with information activities can apply to become an AIU, and if approved, benefit from the ability to influence the IODE Committee decisions on global marine data and information initiatives. A representative from the Joint IODE-IAMSLIC Group of Experts in Marine Information Management in a Transitional Capacity (GEMIM- in-T), which was tasked with designing and managing the application process, presented this new opportunity to conference attendees. She outlined the benefits, reviewed the Terms of Reference, described the application process, and shared progress-to-date. For anyone wishing to apply, the AIU application form is available at: http://www.iode.org/ai

Capacity Upper Bounds for Deletion-Type Channels

We develop a systematic approach, based on convex programming and real analysis, for obtaining upper bounds on the capacity of the binary deletion channel and, more generally, channels with i.i.d. insertions and deletions. Other than the classical deletion channel, we give a special attention to the Poisson-repeat channel introduced by Mitzenmacher and Drinea (IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 2006). Our framework can be applied to obtain capacity upper bounds for any repetition distribution (the deletion and Poisson-repeat channels corresponding to the special cases of Bernoulli and Poisson distributions). Our techniques essentially reduce the task of proving capacity upper bounds to maximizing a univariate, real-valued, and often concave function over a bounded interval. We show the following: 1. The capacity of the binary deletion channel with deletion probability $d$ is at most $(1-d)\log\varphi$ for $d\geq 1/2$, and, assuming the capacity function is convex, is at most $1-d\log(4/\varphi)$ for $d<1/2$, where $\varphi=(1+\sqrt{5})/2$ is the golden ratio. This is the first nontrivial capacity upper bound for any value of $d$ outside the limiting case $d\to 0$ that is fully explicit and proved without computer assistance. 2. We derive the first set of capacity upper bounds for the Poisson-repeat channel. 3. We derive several novel upper bounds on the capacity of the deletion channel. All upper bounds are maximums of efficiently computable, and concave, univariate real functions over a bounded domain. In turn, we upper bound these functions in terms of explicit elementary and standard special functions, whose maximums can be found even more efficiently (and sometimes, analytically, for example for $d=1/2$). Along the way, we develop several new techniques of potentially independent interest in information theory, probability, and mathematical analysis.Comment: Minor edits, In Proceedings of 50th Annual ACM SIGACT Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC), 201

Different paths to the modern state in Europe: the interaction between domestic political economy and interstate competition

Theoretical work on state formation and capacity has focused mostly on early modern Europe and on the experience of western European states during this period. While a number of European states monopolized domestic tax collection and achieved gains in state capacity during the early modern era, for others revenues stagnated or even declined, and these variations motivated alternative hypotheses for determinants of fiscal and state capacity. In this study we test the basic hypotheses in the existing literature making use of the large date set we have compiled for all of the leading states across the continent. We find strong empirical support for two prevailing threads in the literature, arguing respectively that interstate wars and changes in economic structure towards an urbanized economy had positive fiscal impact. Regarding the main point of contention in the theoretical literature, whether it was representative or authoritarian political regimes that facilitated the gains in fiscal capacity, we do not find conclusive evidence that one performed better than the other. Instead, the empirical evidence we have gathered lends supports to the hypothesis that when under pressure of war, the fiscal performance of representative regimes was better in the more urbanized-commercial economies and the fiscal performance of authoritarian regimes was better in rural-agrarian economie

The acceptability and feasibility of using the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) to inform practice in care homes

Background: The Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) measures social care related quality of life (SCRQoL) and can be used to measure outcomes and demonstrate impact across different social care settings. This exploratory study built on previous work by collecting new inter-rater reliability data on the mixed-methods version of the toolkit and exploring how it might be used to inform practice in four case study homes. Method: We worked with two care home providers to agree an in-depth study collecting SCRQoL data in four case-study homes. Data was collected about residents’ age, ethnicity, cognitive impairment, ability to perform activities of daily living and SCRQoL in the four homes. Feedback sessions with staff and managers were held in the homes two weeks after baseline and follow-up data collected three months later. Interviews with managers explored their views of the feedback and recorded any changes that had been made because of it. Results: Participant recruitment was challenging, despite working in partnership with the homes. Resident response rates ranged from 23 to 54 % with 58 residents from four care homes taking part in the research. 53 % lacked capacity to consent. Inter-rater reliability for the ASCOT ratings of SCRQoL were good at time one (IRR = 0.72) and excellent at time two (IRR = 0.76). During the study, residents’ ability to perform activities of daily living declined significantly (z = -2.67, p < .01), as did their expected needs in the absence of services (z = -2.41, p < .05). Despite these rapid declines in functionings, residents’ current SCRQoL declined slightly but not significantly (Z = -1.49, p = .14). Staff responded positively to the feedback given and managers reported implementing changes in practice because of it. Conclusion: This exploratory study faced many challenges in the recruitment of residents, many of whom were cognitively impaired. Nevertheless, without a mixed-methods approach many of the residents living in the care homes would have been excluded from the research altogether or had their views represented only by a representative or proxy. The value of the mixed-methods toolkit and its potential for use by providers is discussed

‘It Brings it all Back, all those Good Times; it Makes Me Go Close to Tears’. Creating Digital Personalised Stories with People who have Dementia

The purpose of these three case studies was to analyse and theoretically explain the contribution of digital multimedia personalisation to stimulate and share long-term memories of people who live with mild to moderate dementia. We investigated how the use of a freely available iPad app can, in a supporting context, facilitate the creation of personalised multimedia stories, including the participants’ audio recordings, texts and photos of items, places or people important to them. Three people who were recruited from a club for people living with dementia created personalised multimedia stories using their own photographs and/or pictures downloaded from the internet, with written captions and audio-recorded voiceovers. Our analysis focuses on the themes and symbols across the three final stories of the participants and the process of creating stories with the Our Story iPad app. The discussion concerns the theoretical value of multimedia and the practical value of story-making apps for people with dementia. We conclude that the multimedia features available with the Our Story app offer a unique opportunity for people living with dementia to store, access and generate memories, capture them in writing and audio; and the ability to continue adding to the original stories

Final Project Conference, Proceedings

BeyondScale: Developing the Organisational Capacity of Higher Education Institutions using the HEInnovate platform to facilitate peer learning and a pan-European community of practice - BeScale (2022). BeyondScale: European Forward Looking Cooperation Projects in the fields of Education and Training: Final Project Conference, Proceedings. https://www.beyondscale.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Conference_Proceedings.pdfMain topics of the BeyondScale final conference HEInnovate & Forward Looking Cooperation Projects: Mission & Objectives Labour market relevance of higher education – how do HEIs anticipate novel jobs and skill needs, create study programmes that are relevant to these labour market needs, and rethink how to communicate with learners about future careers and with employers about graduate skills Current needs and challenges to become innovative, more entrepreneurial from HEI’s view and also ministry perspective and national perspective BeyondScale: Project objectives and the journey we made How to manage the transformation of HEIs – is it up to the autonomy of the institutions or is it up to the guidance through the government?publishersversionpublishe

European Forward Looking Cooperation Projects in the fields of Education and Training - BeyondScale Activities, Tools and Results

BeyondScale: Developing the Organisational Capacity of Higher Education Institutions using the HEInnovate platform to facilitate peer learning and a pan-European community of practice - BeScale (2022). BeyondScale: European Forward Looking Cooperation Projects in the fields of Education and Training - BeyondScale Activities, Tools and Results. https://www.beyondscale.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/final-report_BeyondScale_updated.pdfThis report summarizes all activities of the BeyondScale project from November 2019 to April 2022. Deliverables are also available on www.beyondscale.eu and on www.digi‐buddy.eu One of the biggest challenges of the project was the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic in March 2021, which did not only require to change to online activities, but also made a rethinking necessary within the Higher Education Institutions…...publishersversionpublishe

Kick-off Report

BeyondScale: Developing the Organisational Capacity of Higher Education Institutions using the HEInnovate platform to facilitate peer learning and a pan-European community of practice - BeScale (2019). BeyondScale European Forward Looking Corporation Projects in the fields of Education and Training: Kick-off Report. https://www.beyondscale.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/BeyondScale_Kick-off-Report_20191204.pdfBeyondScale: Kick-off meeting (27-28 November 2019) Vienna, Austria (Bankgasse 1, room 224) Goals of the Kick-off meeting: - Get to know each other - Find buddies - Present and discuss the results of the pre-kick-off survey - Present plans for the accompanying research - Develop and agree on project aims, deliverables, etc. - Answering administrative questionspublishersversionpublishe

NOVA Information Management School

BeyondScale: Developing the Organisational Capacity of Higher Education Institutions using the HEInnovate platform to facilitate peer learning and a pan-European community of practice - BeScale (2022). Guidelines on Peer-Learning: NOVA Information Management School. https://www.beyondscale.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Guideline_NOVA_inbound_FINAL.pdfTake‐aways from peer‐learning experiences Peer‐learning is a way for partners to learn from each other effectively. At a time when the university resources are limited and demands upon the staff are increasing, it can be beneficial internal as well as external stakeholders of an HEI to learn from each other. For peer‐learning to take place it is important to know who the “peers or buddies” are. For peer‐learning to be achieved within the BeyondScale project a buddy system was created. The buddy system included internal HEI partners for the inbound projects, external for the outbound projects, and a system that involved project partners, associate partners as well as mentors. The internal partners were university management, heads of departments, heads of degree programs, experts in service units, and selected lecturers. On the other side external partners were public sector/policy‐oriented organisations along with enterprise support organizations/incubators/start‐ups, micro firms and relevant actors in the industry, The internal HEI partners in the activities – the project team, administrative, academic, and other staff as well as students ‐ benefited from the documentation of the activities of BeyondScale, the capacity building seminars and webinars organized at the higher education institutions. External stakeholders also benefited from the augmented capacity at the higher education institutions they collaborate with. While COVID‐19 made things more complicated, the design of the system allowed all partners to interact on multiple levels and with a variety of partners from the inside and the outside of their network. The result was the co‐design and the implementation of inbound and outbound activities.publishersversionpublishe