The Epistemology and Ethics of Media Markets in the Age of Information

The paper will seek to demonstrate that information as communication has a dual inherent normative structure that commits its disseminators, especially the media, offline and online, to epistemological and ethical principles that are universally mandatory. With regard to the dissemination of information by the media, its business intelligence constituted by its commercial interests as a media market must always be congruent with moral intelligence on the basis of the epistemological and ethical universal principles that the dual normative structure of information gives rise and to which the media itself is committed. When the media?s business intelligence comes into conflict with moral intelligence, the latter must always take precedent over the former. Moreover, the communication of information to the public by the media, offline and online, even if conceived merely as another market commodity, commits the media to ethical conduct regardless of any other commercial interests that may come into conflict with the media?s ethical commitments to the public

Applied and conceptual approaches to evidence-based practice in research and academic libraries

Evidence-based practice is an approach to professional practice that involves a structured process of collecting, interpreting and applying valid and reliable research and evidence to support decision-making and continuous service improvement in professional practice. This paper reports on emerging initiatives in evidence-based practice at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Library, a regional multi-campus university in Australia. It demonstrates how evidence-based practice forms part of our organisational strategy to engage with our community and society. The case study describes a new model of embedding evidence-based practice through a role explicitly dedicated to developing the library’s evidence base. While other libraries may have a person responsible for assessment, performance metrics or data analysis, the Coordinator (Evidence-Based Practice) has a broader mandate – to work with library staff to develop tools, skills and expertise in evidence-based practice. The paper will describe why this role was created and how the Coordinator is working to engage with library staff to understand their business and the evidence needed to support service improvement for the Library. By doing this, USQ Library is building the capacity to demonstrate value to stakeholders, gain a deeper understanding of clients’ needs and experiences, promote robust decision-making and improve service delivery. The paper also outlines an initiative led by the Coordinator (Evidence-Based Practice) to develop a conceptual model of evidence-based practice within academic libraries at the organisational, rather than individual level. Current models of evidence-based library and information practice apply predominantly to individuals. Informed by relevant literature and 16 semi-structured interviews with library professionals from Australian and New Zealand university libraries, three themes emerged to describe how evidence-based practice might be experienced at the organisational level. The lived experience at USQ Library and our research investigations suggest that being evidence-based provides benefits to an academic library’s culture, practice and impact

Understanding EBLIP at an organizational level: an initial maturity model

Objective - Existing research around evidence based practice in the LIS (library and information science) professional context over the past two decades has captured the experience of individual practitioners, rather than the organization as a whole. Current models of evidence based library and information practice (EBLIP) relate to, and apply predominantly to, individuals or specific scenarios. Yet despite a growing demand from institutional and library leaders for evidence to demonstrate why investments in libraries should continue, little is known about how an organization can enhance its maturity in evidence based practice. This paper addresses this gap by seeking to understand what an evidence based university library looks like and answering the questions: how does a university library leader know the library’s service and practice is evidence based? How can a university library measure and progress its maturity in evidence based practice? Methods - Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with library professionals employed at Australian and New Zealand university libraries. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis techniques. The interviews, combined with a literature review and environmental scan of evidence based practices in university libraries, informed the development of a draft capability maturity model as a framework for developing evidence based practice in university libraries. Results - The model identifies and describes characteristics at five different levels of evidence based practice maturity from least mature (Ad hoc/Sporadic) to most mature (Transforming). Three dimensions of experience help to define the characteristics at each level of maturity and provide a framework to understand how a university library might develop its organizational capacity in evidence based library and information practice. Conclusion - Library leaders and practitioners will benefit from the model as they seek to identify and build upon their evidence based practice maturity, enabling more robust decision-making, a deeper understanding of their clients and demonstration of value and impact to their stakeholders

Modelling of selection and mating decisions in tree breeding programs

Hardwood trees from the temperate forests of southern Australia are an important source of timber for high quality paper. Two species in particular, Eucalyptus globulus and Eucalyptus nitens are well suited to this purpose and are now widely grown in commercial plantations. These plantations have been established by professional tree breeders using seedlings derived originally from broadly based collection of seed in natural forests. To increase productivity it is desirable to select trees that grow quickly and give high yields of top quality timber. Nevertheless it is important to maintain genetic diversity in the breeding population and thereby retain a robust capacity to adapt to changing environmental factors. In this article we formulate a number of related mathematical models for the selection and mating processes and discuss the consequences of these models. We recommend a relatively simple scheme which can be implemented on an IBM compatible PC using standard algorithms

Viscous flow calculations for the AGARD standard configuration airfoils with experimental comparisons

Recent experience in calculating unsteady transonic flow by means of viscous-inviscid interactions with the XTRAN2L computer code is examined. The boundary layer method for attached flows is based upon the work of Rizzetta. The nonisentropic corrections of Fuglsang and Williams are also incorporated along with the viscous interaction for some cases and initial results are presented. For unsteady flows, the inverse boundary layer equations developed by Vatsa and Carter are used in a quasi-steady manner and preliminary results are presented

Variable stream control engine concept for advanced supersonic aircraft: Features and benefits

The Variable Stream Control Engine is studied for advanced supersonic cruise aircraft. Significant environmental and performance improvements relative to first generation supersonic turbojet engines are cited. Two separate flow streams, each with independent burner and nozzle systems are incorporated within the engine. By unique control of the exhaust temperatures and velocities in two coannular streams, significant reduction in jet noise is obtained

A study of partial coherence for identifying interior noise sources and paths on general aviation aircraft

The partial coherence analysis method for noise source/path determination is summarized and the application to a two input, single output system with coherence between the inputs is illustrated. The augmentation of the calculations on a digital computer interfaced with a two channel, real time analyzer is also discussed. The results indicate possible sources of error in the computations and suggest procedures for avoiding these errors

Galaxy 2-Point Covariance Matrix Estimation for Next Generation Surveys

We perform a detailed analysis of the covariance matrix of the spherically averaged galaxy power spectrum and present a new, practical method for estimating this within an arbitrary survey without the need for running mock galaxy simulations that cover the full survey volume. The method uses theoretical arguments to modify the covariance matrix measured from a set of small-volume cubic galaxy simulations, which are computationally cheap to produce compared to larger simulations and match the measured small-scale galaxy clustering more accurately than is possible using theoretical modelling. We include prescriptions to analytically account for the window function of the survey, which convolves the measured covariance matrix in a non-trivial way. We also present a new method to include the effects of supersample covariance and modes outside the small simulation volume which requires no additional simulations and still allows us to scale the covariance matrix. As validation, we compare the covariance matrix estimated using our new method to that from a brute force calculation using 500 simulations originally created for analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Main Galaxy Sample (SDSS-MGS). We find excellent agreement on all scales of interest for large scale structure analysis, including those dominated by the effects of the survey window, and on scales where theoretical models of the clustering normally break-down, but the new method produces a covariance matrix with significantly better signal-to-noise. Although only formally correct in real-space, we also discuss how our method can be extended to incorporate the effects of Redshift Space Distortions.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Added new references to introduction and slightly updated text accordingl

Efficient self-consistent viscous-inviscid solutions for unsteady transonic flow

An improved method is presented for coupling a boundary layer code with an unsteady inviscid transonic computer code in a quasi-steady fashion. At each fixed time step, the boundary layer and inviscid equations are successively solved until the process converges. An explicit coupling of the equations is described which greatly accelerates the convergence process. Computer times for converged viscous-inviscid solutions are about 1.8 times the comparable inviscid values. Comparison of the results obtained with experimental data on three airfoils are presented. These comparisons demonstrate that the explicitly coupled viscous-inviscid solutions can provide efficient predictions of pressure distributions and lift for unsteady two-dimensional transonic flow