ASFA: Back from the Edge and Moving towards a New Horizon

Since its establishment in 1971, ASFA has steadily grown its partnerships and database, paying increasing attention to developing countries’ needs. However, its technologies and partnership model have failed to keep pace with modern developments. In order to address this, the FAO ASFA Secretariat has decided to implement a new Business Model by 2023, and will work with its stakeholders, including the Impact and Strategies Working Group and Strategic Advisory Group, to ensure ASFA remains a valued information product. The new business model will ensure ASFA meets FAO strategic objectives and wider goals of increasing access and dissemination of aquatic sciences and fisheries information. Several analyses have been performed by the ASFA Secretariat and others, which have informed ASFA’s direction. Work has already progressed on a number of areas that will be discussed in this presentation, specifically: ASFA technologies (new input software; online controlled vocabulary); ASFA collaborations (partnering with FAO departments and projects as well as external collaborations); and ASFA partnership model (a new Publishing Agreement with increased access for institutions in developing countries). However, a number of areas of work are to be determined, one of them being the MOU between FAO and IAMSLIC. Updating the MOU could lead to better collaboration between IAMSLIC and ASFA, in line with FAO goals, especially in the area of digital preservation

The Future of Aquatic Commons: Recommendations Based on an Evaluation of Business Models and Stakeholder Consultation

Aquatic Commons is a digital repository established by the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) in 2007 to provide a solution for member institutions that didn’t have an institutional repository. It is directed by the Aquatic Commons Board, and submissions are reviewed by an editorial team. Originally hosted by the Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA), the repository was moved to the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) in 2011 when FCLA faced major budgetary issues. Aquatic Commons has grown to more than 20,000 publications from over 90 institutions in all areas of the aquatic sciences, including freshwater, fisheries, and oceanography, yet support for the repository has not kept pace with developmental needs. To ensure a sustainable future, the Aquatic Commons Board determined it was necessary to conduct an evaluation and created the Aquatic Commons Evaluation (ACE) team. The team identified and compared four potential business models: 1a) maintain Aquatic Commons as a separate repository but upgrade the EPrints software; 1b) maintain Aquatic Commons as a separate repository but migrate to DSpace software; 2) migrate content to the existing IODE OceanDocs repository but retain Aquatic Commons identity by having a separate DSpace community; and 3) partner with IODE and possibly the Aquatic Science and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) to create an entirely new repository with content merged from Aquatic Commons and OceanDocs. The team consulted with potential partners (e.g. ASFA and IODE) and ran a survey to elicit feedback from members, depositors, and other stakeholders about the models, addressing issues of thematic scope, branding, software, technical requirements, workflows, and training. At the 2019 conference, the team presented a recommendation based on the evaluation in order to initiate a roadmap for the Aquatic Commons

Is Twenty-two Months Beyond the Best Interest of the Child? ASFA\u27s Guidelines for the Termination of Parental Rights

This Note first discusses the legal precedents, child development theories, and policies regarding reasonable efforts and parental termination that led to the enactment of ASFA. Next, it examines Illinois\u27s and New York\u27s different responses to ASFA. It also introduces the debate over congregate care as an alternative for those children who may never be returned to a parent\u27s care, but whom are unlikely to be adopted. Lastly, it argues that the New York system is more workable than the Illinois system given the complexities of the foster care system. This Note concludes by arguing the federal government\u27s rigid time frame for parental termination is overly simplistic because it makes it difficult for decision makers to account for various individual circumstances

International sources of fisheries information to enhance fish production, poverty alleviation and food security in Nigeria and developing Nigerian Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Database

The paper viewed the decline in information provision in Nigeria to poor library development, which could be attributed to poor funding. The consequence is that current journal and books are not available in nigerian fisheries libraries. Information which can be regarded as the first factor of production on which other factors like land, labour and capital depend, can only be provided at the right time when libraries are better founded. For now if there must be increase in fish production, poverty alleviation and food security in Nigeria, our fisheries scientists and policy makers will have to rely on international sources of information using the advantage of internet connectivity. Some of such sources discussed in this paper are ASFA, AGORA, FAO DOAJ, FISHBASE, IAMSLIC, INASP, INASP-PERI, INASP-AJOL, ODINAFRICA, SIFAR, WAS, and ABASFR. However, reliance on international sources must not be at the total neglect of harnessing nigerian fisheries information. For the Nigerian Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Database being developed by NIFFR to attain an international status like those enumerated above, scientists and publishers are requested to take the pain of depositing copies of their publications with NIFFR for inclusion in the Databas

The Child-Welfare System and the Limits of Determinacy

Robert Mnookin’s article, Child-Custody Adjudication: Judicial Functions in the Face of Indeterminacy, is a classic. His insights into the substance and process of family law have influenced scholars for nearly four decades. This essay, written for a symposium marking the upcoming anniversary of the article, demonstrates that Congress adopted many of Mnookin’s proposals to introduce greater determinacy into the child welfare system. And yet the problems he described nearly forty years ago sound all too familiar today. After engaging in a detailed analysis of the reforms, I argue that with the evidence on determinacy now in hand, it is time to reflect on the possibilities and limits of the child welfare system. Reforms to the legal standards have done little to address the larger problems that underlie child abuse and neglect, particularly poverty, social isolation, substance abuse, and parental stress. Family preservation efforts are woefully underfunded and come too late. And time limits on reunification help move children to permanency but at a substantial cost to families of origin. The child welfare system needs a fundamental reorientation toward prevention. Broad-based “family support” programs offer a promising model; it is here that we should place our real efforts. And for those children who are removed from their homes — there will always be some — the child welfare system should develop more realistic goals for children and families

Analisis Sentimen Masyarakat Terhadap Konten Bahasa Isyarat Pada Media Sosial Tiktok Menggunakan RNN dan BERT

This research aims to explore public sentiment towards sign language content on Tiktok social media using a deep learning approach with RNN(LSTM) and BERT models. Data is collected, processed, and labeled to form a dataset used in analysis. The sentiment classification results from the RNN(LSTM) model show an accuracy level of 0.90%, indicating the effectiveness of the model in distinguishing sentiment between the two classes. Meanwhile, the BERT model achieved an accuracy level of 0.80%, showing the model's ability to classify sentiment from the data provided. Combining RNN and BERT models shows increased performance in classifying sentiment, that the combined approach can improve the model's understanding of complex content. In addition, the combination of the BERT model with RNN has also proven effective in overcoming the complexity of sentiment analysis in the context of sign language on social media. Continuous evaluation and validity of the model involving experts in sign language is recommended to ensure the sustainability and validity of the developed model. It is hoped that this research will make an important contribution to understanding the influence of social media on society's views of sign language and hearing disabilities in general, as well as strengthening efforts towards a more inclusive society

Comparing human and automatic thesaurus mapping approaches in the agricultural domain

Knowledge organization systems (KOS), like thesauri and other controlled vocabularies, are used to provide subject access to information systems across the web. Due to the heterogeneity of these systems, mapping between vocabularies becomes crucial for retrieving relevant information. However, mapping thesauri is a laborious task, and thus big efforts are being made to automate the mapping process. This paper examines two mapping approaches involving the agricultural thesaurus AGROVOC, one machine-created and one human created. We are addressing the basic question "What are the pros and cons of human and automatic mapping and how can they complement each other?" By pointing out the difficulties in specific cases or groups of cases and grouping the sample into simple and difficult types of mappings, we show the limitations of current automatic methods and come up with some basic recommendations on what approach to use when.Comment: 10 pages, Int'l Conf. on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications 200