Expert Elicitation for Reliable System Design

This paper reviews the role of expert judgement to support reliability assessments within the systems engineering design process. Generic design processes are described to give the context and a discussion is given about the nature of the reliability assessments required in the different systems engineering phases. It is argued that, as far as meeting reliability requirements is concerned, the whole design process is more akin to a statistical control process than to a straightforward statistical problem of assessing an unknown distribution. This leads to features of the expert judgement problem in the design context which are substantially different from those seen, for example, in risk assessment. In particular, the role of experts in problem structuring and in developing failure mitigation options is much more prominent, and there is a need to take into account the reliability potential for future mitigation measures downstream in the system life cycle. An overview is given of the stakeholders typically involved in large scale systems engineering design projects, and this is used to argue the need for methods that expose potential judgemental biases in order to generate analyses that can be said to provide rational consensus about uncertainties. Finally, a number of key points are developed with the aim of moving toward a framework that provides a holistic method for tracking reliability assessment through the design process.Comment: This paper commented in: [arXiv:0708.0285], [arXiv:0708.0287], [arXiv:0708.0288]. Rejoinder in [arXiv:0708.0293]. Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/088342306000000510 in the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Social pedagogy and its relevance for Scottish social welfare

• Social pedagogy is an academic and professional discipline, which seeks to effect individual and social change through broadly educational means.• It does not offer a discrete approach or set of tools for practice but is a way of thinking, under which a range of different approaches might be situated• Across Europe, some form of social pedagogy or social education provides the theoretical and disciplinary basis for direct work with people across the life course• There is growing interest in social pedagogy in the UK; while initial interest focused on residential child care, its principles are increasingly recognised as being relevant across health,social care and education settings• Social pedagogy has a particular resonance for Scottish social welfare, where it chimes with Kilbrandon’s conception of social education, but also offers a suggestive framework within which to locate current policies• Evaluations of social pedagogy projects suggest that social pedagogic ideas can boost practitioners’ confidence and give them a language through which to better describe what they d

Mindful reflexivity: Unpacking the process of transformative learning in mindfulness and discernment

Can spiritual practice encourage transformative learning? In this article, we unpack how spiritual practices from the Buddhist tradition—mindfulness—and the Quaker tradition—discernment—encourage the attainment of moral reflexivity and the capacity to transform self in individual and relational organizational contexts, respectively. We also show how moral reflexivity and self-transformation are mutually reinforcing and promote a transformational cycle of management learning. We propose that “mindful reflexivity”, a foundational model of spiritually informed moral reflexivity, can contribute to new ways of management learning through its context sensitivity and ethical orientation to foster the kinds of reflexivity needed for responsible management. Our article concludes with implications for management learning theory and practice, and we offer pathways for future research

Digital Preservation, Archival Science and Methodological Foundations for Digital Libraries

Digital libraries, whether commercial, public or personal, lie at the heart of the information society. Yet, research into their long‐term viability and the meaningful accessibility of their contents remains in its infancy. In general, as we have pointed out elsewhere, ‘after more than twenty years of research in digital curation and preservation the actual theories, methods and technologies that can either foster or ensure digital longevity remain startlingly limited.’ Research led by DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE) and the Digital Preservation Cluster of DELOS has allowed us to refine the key research challenges – theoretical, methodological and technological – that need attention by researchers in digital libraries during the coming five to ten years, if we are to ensure that the materials held in our emerging digital libraries are to remain sustainable, authentic, accessible and understandable over time. Building on this work and taking the theoretical framework of archival science as bedrock, this paper investigates digital preservation and its foundational role if digital libraries are to have long‐term viability at the centre of the global information society.

The Federal Rules of Civil Settlement

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were originally based upon a straightforward model of adjudication: Resolve the merits of cases at trial and use pretrial procedures to facilitate accurate trial outcomes. Though appealing in principle, this model has little relevance today. As is now well known, the endpoint around which the Federal Rules were structured — trial — virtually never occurs. Today, the vast majority of civil cases terminate in settlement. This Article is the first to argue that the current litigation process needs a new regime of civil procedure for the world of settlement This Article begins by providing a systemic analysis of why the Federal Rules inadequately prevent settlement outcomes from being distorted relative to the underlying merits — as defined by reference to substantive law — of a given dispute. It then explains how the Federal Rules can actually amplify these distortions. Indeed, notwithstanding the well-worn adage that settlement occurs in the “shadow of the law,” scholars have shown that non-merits factors exert significant influence on settlement outcomes. However, these insights have not been considered together and combined with a systemic focus on the ways in which the influence of these factors on settlement outcomes is actually a product of the basic structural features of the Federal Rules. This Article takes these next steps to explain that the “shadow of the law” that is cast on settlements is fading. Further, this Article discusses a new phenomenon in the current litigation environment — namely, that litigants’ increased reliance on prior settlements as “precedent” for future settlement decisions may move settlement even further out of the “shadow of the law” and into the “shadow of settlement” itself. This Article then traces these problems to three foundational assumptions underlying the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, all of which have become outmoded in a world of settlement. In rethinking these assumptions, it provides a new conceptual account that contextualizes previously isolated procedural reform proposals as challenges to these foundational assumptions. It also explains how these reform efforts ought to be refined and extended with a specific view toward systematically redesigning the basic model and operation of the Federal Rules for a world of settlement. Lastly, it sets forth new proposals that seek to reorient current rules expressly toward the goal of aligning settlement outcomes with the merits of underlying claims. What emerges is a new vision of procedure — one in which the application of pretrial procedural rules do not merely facilitate trial but are designed to provide litigants with guidance regarding the merits of claims and are used to align settlement outcomes more meaningfully with the dictates of the substantive law. In describing this vision, this Article lays the groundwork for the design of a new Federal Rules of Civil Settlement

Software Challenges For HL-LHC Data Analysis

The high energy physics community is discussing where investment is needed to prepare software for the HL-LHC and its unprecedented challenges. The ROOT project is one of the central software players in high energy physics since decades. From its experience and expectations, the ROOT team has distilled a comprehensive set of areas that should see research and development in the context of data analysis software, for making best use of HL-LHC's physics potential. This work shows what these areas could be, why the ROOT team believes investing in them is needed, which gains are expected, and where related work is ongoing. It can serve as an indication for future research proposals and cooperations

Privacy by Design: Taking Ctrl of Big Data

The concept of Privacy by Design is rooted in systems engineering. Yet, it is the legal framework of global privacy that gives new color to this concept as applied to Big Data. Increasingly, the long arm of the law is reaching into Big Data, but it is not simply by matter of regulatory enforcement or civil legal developments that Privacy by Design (PbD) is being thrust into the spotlight once more. Given that Big Data is considered miniscule in contrast to future data environments, PbD is simply the right thing to do. This paper aims to explore the origin of PbD, the current and future state of Big Data and regulatory enforcement, and the methodology of PbD applied to Big Data. As a cornerstone of organizational culture, PbD is a concept that allows organizations of any size to embrace the privacy interests of the data they collect, store, and use at the forefront of their approach

Privacy by Design: Taking Ctrl of Big Data

The concept of Privacy by Design is rooted in systems engineering. Yet, it is the legal framework of global privacy that gives new color to this concept as applied to Big Data. Increasingly, the long arm of the law is reaching into Big Data, but it is not simply by matter of regulatory enforcement or civil legal developments that Privacy by Design (PbD) is being thrust into the spotlight once more. Given that Big Data is considered miniscule in contrast to future data environments, PbD is simply the right thing to do. This paper aims to explore the origin of PbD, the current and future state of Big Data and regulatory enforcement, and the methodology of PbD applied to Big Data. As a cornerstone of organizational culture, PbD is a concept that allows organizations of any size to embrace the privacy interests of the data they collect, store, and use at the forefront of their approach

Virtual University And Globalisation

Globalization as an inevitable process in the twenty-first century in economic, political and cultural dimensions creates changes in education and higher education. Virtual universities have important role in globalization. It is clear that globalization in higher education can affect on other area same economic, culture and etc. Virtual university with special programs and use of information and communication technology (ICT) can show the impact of globalization on society, the economy, and the world system. At virtual universities there are international programs that extend globalization. Globalization requires the existence and development of an advanced information and communications infrastructure. And at virtual university that is new phenomenon in new age we can provide these infrastructures. Also, globalization requires a different education that enhances the ability of learners to access, assess, adopt, and apply knowledge, to think independently to exercise appropriate judgment and to collaborate with others to make sense of new situations. In this paper researcher want to show the impact of keys factors at virtual university on the globalization. Keywords: Virtual University, Globalization, Higher education