Organisational Legitimacy, Capacity and Capacity Development

The European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) has undertaken a study of capacity development, with a focus on organisational change and performance enhancement. Both individual organisations and networks of organisations have been studied with the aim of identifying important relationships among endogenous change factors (e.g. ownership, commitment and managerial style), key internal organisation variables (e.g. structures, procedures, staffing and management systems), performance and sustainability outcomes, and external environmental factors (e.g. policy frameworks, resource availability, politics, stakeholders, governance regimes, etc.).To date, the ECDPM study team has conducted 16 case studies (see Appendix). Among the findings that have emerged from several of the cases is the presence of an organisation's legitimacy as a factor contributing to successful capacity and performance. To delve in more detail into the concept of legitimacy, and to identify the implications for capacity building, ECDPM commissioned a working paper on the topic. This exploratory paper reviews the relevant literature and examines: differing definitions, types and sources of legitimacy; the links between legitimacy and organisational capacity, performance and sustainability; and management strategies for building and maintaining legitimacy. It discusses a selected set of the ECDPM cases in terms of the legitimacy concept

Preparing from the Perspective of Mary

I learn that preparation is the work of waiting well: rejoicing, choosing to see what He sees, bowing in obedience in the smaller moments, and being fully present. Posting about Advent surrender from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world. http://inallthings.org/preparing-from-the-perspective-of-mary

Dear Parents of College Freshmen

The transition to college is a dramatic change for most, and God is in all the details. Posting about ­­­­­­­­sending a child off to college from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world. http://inallthings.org/dear-parents-of-college-freshmen

Bacteriophages: Paving the Road for the Future of Medicine

Antibiotics will not be used forever by society due to antibiotic resistance. By the year 2050, it is predicted to have caused millions of casualties throughout the world. Thankfully, bacteriophages and phage therapy could be a potential solution to this problem

Bayesian methods in glaciology

Thesis (Ph.D) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017The problem of inferring the value of unobservable model parameters given a set of observations is ubiquitous in glaciology, as are large measurement errors. Bayes' theorem provides a unified framework for addressing such problems in a rigorous and robust way through Monte Carlo sampling of posterior distributions, which provides not only the optimal solution for a given inverse problem, but also the uncertainty. We apply these methods to three glaciological problems. First, we use Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling to infer the importance of different glacier hydrological processes from observations of terminus water flux and surface speed. We find that the opening of sub-glacial cavities due to sliding over asperities at the glacier bed is of a similar magnitude to the opening of channels due to turbulent melt during periods of large input flux, but also that the processes of turbulent melting is the greatest source of uncertainty in hydrological modelling. Storage of water in both englacial void spaces and exchange of water between the englacial and subglacial systems are both necessary to explain observations. We next use Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling to determine distributed glacier thickness from dense observations of surface velocity and mass balance coupled with sparse direct observations of thickness. These three variables are related through the principle of mass conservation. We develop a new framework for modelling observational uncertainty, then apply the method to three test cases. We find a strong relationship between measurement uncertainty, measurement spacing, and the resulting uncertainty in thickness estimates. We also find that in order to minimize uncertainty, measurement spacing should be 1-2 times the characteristic length scale of variations in subglacial topography. Finally, we apply the method of particle filtering to compute robust estimates of ice surface velocity and uncertainty from oblique time-lapse photos for the rapidly retreating Columbia Glacier. The resulting velocity fields, when averaged over suitable time scales, agree well with velocity measurements derived from satellites. At higher temporal resolution, our results suggest that seasonal evolution of the subglacial drainage system is responsible for observed changes in ice velocity at seasonal scales, and that this changing configuration produces varying degrees of glacier flow sensitivity to changes in external water input

Invitation

Jesus is the Door. He invites us to the green pasture beyond–to the Father who is good–to the place where you can rest and live well. Posting about Christ\u27s invitation to new life from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world. http://inallthings.org/the-invitation