28 research outputs found
The Third NASA Goddard Conference on Mass Storage Systems and Technologies
Get PDFThis report contains copies of nearly all of the technical papers and viewgraphs presented at the Goddard Conference on Mass Storage Systems and Technologies held in October 1993. The conference served as an informational exchange forum for topics primarily relating to the ingestion and management of massive amounts of data and the attendant problems involved. Discussion topics include the necessary use of computers in the solution of today's infinitely complex problems, the need for greatly increased storage densities in both optical and magnetic recording media, currently popular storage media and magnetic media storage risk factors, data archiving standards including a talk on the current status of the IEEE Storage Systems Reference Model (RM). Additional topics addressed System performance, data storage system concepts, communications technologies, data distribution systems, data compression, and error detection and correction
Language Fluency Project: An Investigation Into the Training and Development of Socialised Language With Adolescents With a Mental Handicap
Get PDFSince the publication of the Warnock Report (1978) on children's special educational needs, special schooling has taken a new direction. Some authorities have even gone as far as to abolish their special schools, while others have implemented greater integration between special and ordinary schools. In almost all instances a greater challenge has been given to children hitherto labelled as handicapped, either physically or mentally, or both. They are now expected to cope in a greater variety of educational settings. Such demands highlight the need for more action research in the social and communication skills of persons of all ages with a mental handicap. The Language Fluency Project, hereafter referred to as LFP, was set up to investigate the development and training of socialised language in adolescents with a mental handicap, their linguistic behaviour in a conversation situation, and the development of verbal and social facility
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An Investigation Into The Use Of Partnerships In National Social Marketing Campaigns In England
Get PDFNational government programmes to tackle behavioural issues impacting on public health in England have adopted a social marketing approach and the resultant campaigns have increasingly contained a partnerships element. However, there is a lack of academic literature regarding partnerships in social marketing particularly the contribution of partnerships to national behaviour change campaigns.
This research investigates the use of partnerships in national social marketing campaigns to generate a greater understanding of how partnerships are defined, why partnerships are used, how partnerships are created and maintained over time, and what the outcomes of partnerships are. Understanding these aspects of partnerships provides knowledge about their contribution to social marketing.
This research uses a case-study methodology within Public Health England, triangulating data from: (i) participant observation; (ii) analysis of documents; and (iii) semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of the entire data set suggests the approach to partnerships in national social marketing campaigns has evolved.
The reason why partnerships are used in national social marketing campaigns has changed from being simply a promotional tactic to support the communication of campaign messages to becoming a strategic component of the overall macro-level social marketing approach. The development process for partnerships has changed to reflect this approach to social marketing with a small number of long-term strategic partnerships being created and maintained. The outcomes of partnerships relate to both the campaigns and the individual partnerships themselves.
This study contributes to knowledge and practice by proposing and defining a new way of thinking about partnerships in national social marketing campaigns. Partnerships can be viewed holistically as a strategic concept in social marketing that supports the objective of behaviour change. As a concept, partnerships can play a strategic role in the long-term development and delivery of solutions to tackle complex social problems at a national level
The dynamics of public sector reform : implementation of the position classification system in Bhutan
Get PDFIn recent decades the intensity with which governments have initiated public sector reforms increased tremendously. Amidst such a flurry of reforms, Bhutan's government implemented the Position Classification System (PCS) reforms in 2006. The PCS represented a major tranche of public sector reforms that included human resource management and performance management components. The implementation of the PCS, which was based on international "best practices", met with sharp criticism in Bhutan. This thesis, using the implementation of the PCS in Bhutan as a case study, examines the dynamics of public sector reforms and discusses the convergences and divergences in the public sector reform trajectory. In doing so, three key aspects of the "dynamics" of public sector reform are analysed in this thesis. The first aspect is the debate over "revolutionary" or "evolutionary" nature of the reform. Through the concept of paradigms in public administration, this thesis identifies an ideal type typology of public administration, and distinguishes the components of the PCS as normal policy making (evolutionary reform) and paradigm-shift policy (revolutionary reform). On the basis of the ideal type typology, the thesis demonstrates that Bhutan's public administration is hybrid with combinations of characteristics of the various paradigms and models of public administration. The second aspect of the dynamics of public sector reforms is the effect of the scope and timing on the evaluation of the reforms. Based on the data gathered from in-depth interviews and an opinion survey of the Bhutanese civil servants in 2011, the thesis evaluates the various dimensions of the PCS. The third aspect of the dynamics of public sector reform is the drivers of the reform and their forms of interaction. In examining the main drivers of the PCS, the thesis explores topical topics on public sector reforms such as policy transfer, ideas and symbolism, stakeholder participation, and change management. One of the main findings of the thesis is the interaction between the reforms and the context and culture of the administrative system that these reforms are applied in. Using Geert Hofstede's Value Survey Module to generate original values for the culture of Bhutan, the thesis demonstrates the importance of context and culture in the implementation of public sector reforms. The thesis provides one of the first comprehensive historical analyses of public sector reforms in Bhutan, a country that is relatively understudied. The thesis is also one of the few empirical studies that maps the ideal types based on the paradigms of public administration to a country's administrative system. To suit Bhutan's monarchical political context, the ideal type typology includes the patronage system as one of the models. Another significant contribution of the thesis is that it is one of the few empirical studies, which evaluate policy by using a revisionist approach that combines the rationalist and the argumentative traditions. Finally, the thesis serves as a basis for the next set of public sector reforms to be implemented in Bhutan's civil service through a set of policy recommendations based on the experience of the PCS
