The economics of child well-being

This paper presents an integrated economic approach that organizes and interprets the evidence on child development. It also discusses the indicators of child well-being that are used in international comparisons. Recent evidence on child development is summarized, and policies to promote child well-being are discussed. The chapter concludes with some open questions and suggestions for future research

Toolbox for reconstructing quantum theory from rules on information acquisition

We develop an operational approach for reconstructing the quantum theory of qubit systems from elementary rules on information acquisition. The focus lies on an observer O interrogating a system S with binary questions and S's state is taken as O's `catalogue of knowledge' about S. The mathematical tools of the framework are simple and we attempt to highlight all underlying assumptions. Four rules are imposed, asserting (1) a limit on the amount of information available to O; (2) the mere existence of complementary information; (3) O's total amount of information to be preserved in-between interrogations; and, (4) O's `catalogue of knowledge' to change continuously in time in-between interrogations and every consistent such evolution to be possible. This approach permits a constructive derivation of quantum theory, elucidating how the ensuing independence, complementarity and compatibility structure of O's questions matches that of projective measurements in quantum theory, how entanglement and monogamy of entanglement, non-locality and, more generally, how the correlation structure of arbitrarily many qubits and rebits arises. The rules yield a reversible time evolution and a quadratic measure, quantifying O's information about S. Finally, it is shown that the four rules admit two solutions for the simplest case of a single elementary system: the Bloch ball and disc as state spaces for a qubit and rebit, respectively, together with their symmetries as time evolution groups. The reconstruction for arbitrarily many qubits is completed in a companion paper (arXiv:1511.01130) where an additional rule eliminates the rebit case. This approach is inspired by (but does not rely on) the relational interpretation and yields a novel formulation of quantum theory in terms of questions.Comment: 78 pages, many figures, graphs and references. Version accepted for publication in Quantum (completed missing part in the proof of reversibility of time evolution, combined previous sections 6 and 7 to a rewritten section 6, added clarifications and minor corrections throughout -- overall improved presentation, but results unaffected by revision

Finding co-solvers on Twitter, with a little help from Linked Data

In this paper we propose a method for suggesting potential collaborators for solving innovation challenges online, based on their competence, similarity of interests and social proximity with the user. We rely on Linked Data to derive a measure of semantic relatedness that we use to enrich both user profiles and innovation problems with additional relevant topics, thereby improving the performance of co-solver recommendation. We evaluate this approach against state of the art methods for query enrichment based on the distribution of topics in user profiles, and demonstrate its usefulness in recommending collaborators that are both complementary in competence and compatible with the user. Our experiments are grounded using data from the social networking service Twitter.com

Man vs machine – Detecting deception in online reviews

This study focused on three main research objectives: analyzing the methods used to identify deceptive online consumer reviews, evaluating insights provided by multi-method automated approaches based on individual and aggregated review data, and formulating a review interpretation framework for identifying deception. The theoretical framework is based on two critical deception-related models, information manipulation theory and self-presentation theory. The findings confirm the interchangeable characteristics of the various automated text analysis methods in drawing insights about review characteristics and underline their significant complementary aspects. An integrative multi-method model that approaches the data at the individual and aggregate level provides more complex insights regarding the quantity and quality of review information, sentiment, cues about its relevance and contextual information, perceptual aspects, and cognitive material

Supporting Sensemaking of Complex Objects with Visualizations: Visibility and Complementarity of Interactions

Making sense of complex objects is difficult, and typically requires the use of external representations to support cognitive demands while reasoning about the objects. Visualizations are one type of external representation that can be used to support sensemaking activities. In this paper, we investigate the role of two design strategies in making the interactive features of visualizations more supportive of users’ exploratory needs when trying to make sense of complex objects. These two strategies are visibility and complementarity of interactions. We employ a theoretical framework concerned with human–information interaction and complex cognitive activities to inform, contextualize, and interpret the effects of the design strategies. The two strategies are incorporated in the design of Polyvise, a visualization tool that supports making sense of complex four-dimensional geometric objects. A mixed-methods study was conducted to evaluate the design strategies and the overall usability of Polyvise. We report the findings of the study, discuss some implications for the design of visualization tools that support sensemaking of complex objects, and propose five design guidelines. We anticipate that our results are transferrable to other contexts, and that these two design strategies can be used broadly in visualization tools intended to support activities with complex objects and information spaces

An assessment of the impact of the FP7 ERA-NET scheme on organisations and research systems

The NETWATCH online platform collects and presents information to support the analysis of transnational research programme cooperation. Its content centres on the participants and activities of ERA-NETs and ERA-NET Plus. Building on these data, this report sets out an assessment of the impact of the FP7 ERA-NET scheme on stakeholder organisations and on the research systems in which they operate. In July 2012, the European Commission's ERA Communication gave renewed impetus to the realisation of ERA, targeting its completion in 2014. Transnational coordination of research at the programming level was identified as playing a prominent role in this, with ERA-NETs being a key instrument. These developments highlight the need to understand better the impact of the ERA-NET scheme. NETWATCH has accumulated substantial information on transnational research programme collaboration, which provides a solid basis for this impact assessment, together with complementary data from various secondary sources and additional data collection by JRC-IPTS. The issues addressed by the current report are threefold: -The direct impact of the ERA-NET scheme on the collaborative dimensions of national research programming practices, reflecting the extent to which the scheme is meeting its core objectives ; -The impact of the scheme on the behaviour of participating organisations and; -The overall impact on the national and European research landscape, particularly the nature and level of transnational collaborative behaviour.JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growt

Managing for Learning and Impact

Over the past three years, the King Baudouin Foundation has developed a more systematic approach for the evaluation of its projects, which FSG helped codify in the KBF Project Management Guide: 'Managing for Learning and Impact'. There is a growing interest of foundations in Europe to evaluate the intended impact of their projects and programs. Foundations invest in an impact-driven philanthropy and therefore develop specific strategies, activities and tools