The value and challenges of public sector information

The aim of this paper is to explore the concept of public sector information (PSI), what it is, its history and evolution, what constitutes its corpus of documents and the issues and challenges it presents to society, its institutions and to those who use and manage it. The paper, by examining the literatures of the law, political science, civil society, economics and information and library science explores the inherent tensions of access to and use of PSIpragmatism vs. idealism; openness vs. secrecy; commerce vs. altruism; property vs. commons; public good vs. private good. It focusses on open government data (OGD)a subset of what is popularly referred to as `big dataits background and development since much of the current debate of its use concerns its commercial value for both the private sector and the public sector itself. In particular it looks at the information itself which, driven by technologies of networks, data mining and visualisation gives value in industrial and economic terms, and in its ability to enable new ideas and knowledge

Reforms to counter a culture of secrecy: Open government in Australia

© 2018 Elsevier Inc. Governments for most of recorded history have surrounded their information and decision-making with a culture of secrecy. By the latter half of the 20th century western liberal democracies, driven by right-to-know movements, slowly moved away from secrecy towards more openness of government through public access to its information. Australia, with a series of reforms beginning in the late 1970s, declared in 2010 that government information was a national resource, and public access was the default position. This paper, by providing a history of the Australian Commonwealth legislative and regulatory reforms, their impetus and interpretations, explores the ebb and flow of openness and the intended and sometimes unintended, consequences for traditional government secrecy. Using the complete freedom of information datasets made available by these reforms, the paper presents an insight into government attitudes to openness by providing access to its information. These datasets also enable research into government and bureaucratic actions to pushback against these reforms for pragmatic or ideological reasons. The paper concludes that although there continues to be worrying vestiges of secrecy, on balance, Australia has achieved much in countering a culture of secrecy and the delivering more openness of government

The degradation of alzak by short wavelength ultraviolet radiation

The changes in reflectance of thermal aluminum coating samples exposed to different irradiating utraviolet wavelengths are discussed. It is shown that the coating is damaged faster and further by 180 to 210 in radiation than by Lyman alpha radiation. On an equivalent incident energy basis, Lyman alpha does less damage than 180 to 210 nm radiation. Above 300 nm no degradation is observed for long exposures and below 300 nm increasing degradation with decreasing wavelength is found. It is concluded that Lyman alpha radiation need not be included in laboratory testing of this thermal coating for spacecraft structures

Discovery Of Ethanol-Responsive Small Rnas In Zymomonas Mobilis

Zymomonas mobilis is a bacterium that can produce ethanol by fermentation. Due to its unique metabolism and efficient ethanol production, Z. mobilis has attracted special interest for biofuel energy applications; an important area of study is the regulation of those specific metabolic pathways. Small RNAs (sRNAs) have been studied as molecules that function as transcriptional regulators in response to cellular stresses. While sRNAs have been discovered in various organisms by computational prediction and experimental approaches, their discovery in Z. mobilis has not yet been reported. In this study, we have applied transcriptome analysis and computational predictions to facilitate identification and validation of 15 novel sRNAs in Z. mobilis. We furthermore characterized their expression in the context of high and low levels of intracellular ethanol. Here, we report that 3 of the sRNAs (Zms2, Zms4, and Zms6) are differentially expressed under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, when low and high ethanol productions are observed, respectively. Importantly, when we tested the effect of ethanol stress on the expression of sRNAs in Z. mobilis, Zms2, Zms6, and Zms18 showed differential expression under 5% ethanol stress conditions. These data suggest that in this organism regulatory RNAs can be associated with metabolic functions involved in ethanol stress responses.NSF CBET-1254754Welch Foundation F-1756Cellular and Molecular BiologyChemical Engineerin

Serious Play, Serious Problems: issues with eBook applications

This paper is an investigation into the accessibility of emerging interactive, multi-touch narratives, which are designed and developed to be used on Apples iPad device. Universal access to technology culturally, physically, mentally and socially is vital to the ethical and moral sustainability of society. The importance of this is particularly vital to the development of a childs development of basic literacy, numeracy and reading skills, as technology becomes a predominant mode in their lives. Narratives designed and developed for the iPad device offer a multimodal, interactive environment of text, image, sound, animation and touch; yet they render the accessibility tools and functions, embedded within the iPad for users with disabilities, useless. Whilst some narratives counter this in a variety of ways in their design, there are still major areas where the concept of universal access for all is neglected, leaving a significant portion of users in the dar

Information literacy and regimes of truth: continuity and disruption

Introduction. This study sought to understand how academic librarians perceived the information literacy programmes that they provided, what this might mean for democratic practices in a society and how this work was linked to a regime of truth. Method. Eighteen librarians who provide information literacy programmes and services in university libraries in Sydney, Australia, participated in semi-structured interviews. Analysis. Through a thematic analysis using a priori and open coding, the factors the librarians consider important in their work were identified, including changes to the ways they implement information literacy programmes and services, and how these linked to regimes of truth. Results. There was a strong emphasis on the authority of information and the development of critical thinking, although in some universities, the responsibility for information literacy programmes is devolving to study skills support staff. Some librarians stressed the importance of ensuring that academics understood the government policy changes in the valuing of scholarly output. Conclusions. Although all librarians noted changes in the university and in their work, their focus on the authority of information and the ways it is established suggest that, while changes to the regime of truth may be apparent, a regime of post-truth is not yet emerging

Predictors of Quality of Life Among an International Sample of Mothers of Children 12 and Under With Corpus Callosum Disorders

Previous research supports application of the Double ABCX model of family adaptation of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and other pervasive developmental disorders. This is the first study to consider processes of adaptation among parents of children with agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC). Using a quantitative cross-sectional design, an international sample of 266 mothers of children, aged 12 or under, with ACC completed an online survey. Parental reports of stress, resources, coping, and sense of coherence were evaluated as predictors of four subdimensions of parental quality of life for 178 mothers. In general, findings support the Double ABCX model as a viable approach to understanding processes that are related to quality of life among this group of mothers