Digital curation and the cloud

Digital curation involves a wide range of activities, many of which could benefit from cloud deployment to a greater or lesser extent. These range from infrequent, resource-intensive tasks which benefit from the ability to rapidly provision resources to day-to-day collaborative activities which can be facilitated by networked cloud services. Associated benefits are offset by risks such as loss of data or service level, legal and governance incompatibilities and transfer bottlenecks. There is considerable variability across both risks and benefits according to the service and deployment models being adopted and the context in which activities are performed. Some risks, such as legal liabilities, are mitigated by the use of alternative, e.g., private cloud models, but this is typically at the expense of benefits such as resource elasticity and economies of scale. Infrastructure as a Service model may provide a basis on which more specialised software services may be provided. There is considerable work to be done in helping institutions understand the cloud and its associated costs, risks and benefits, and how these compare to their current working methods, in order that the most beneficial uses of cloud technologies may be identified. Specific proposals, echoing recent work coordinated by EPSRC and JISC are the development of advisory, costing and brokering services to facilitate appropriate cloud deployments, the exploration of opportunities for certifying or accrediting cloud preservation providers, and the targeted publicity of outputs from pilot studies to the full range of stakeholders within the curation lifecycle, including data creators and owners, repositories, institutional IT support professionals and senior manager

Bringing self assessment home: repository profiling and key lines of enquiry within DRAMBORA

Digital repositories are a manifestation of complex organizational, financial, legal, technological, procedural, and political interrelationships. Accompanying each of these are innate uncertainties, exacerbated by the relative immaturity of understanding prevalent within the digital preservation domain. Recent efforts have sought to identify core characteristics that must be demonstrable by successful digital repositories, expressed in the form of check-list documents, intended to support the processes of repository accreditation and certification. In isolation though, the available guidelines lack practical applicability; confusion over evidential requirements and difficulties associated with the diversity that exists among repositories (in terms of mandate, available resources, supported content and legal context) are particularly problematic. A gap exists between the available criteria and the ways and extent to which conformity can be demonstrated. The Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment (DRAMBORA) is a methodology for undertaking repository self assessment, developed jointly by the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and DigitalPreservationEurope (DPE). DRAMBORA requires repositories to expose their organization, policies and infrastructures to rigorous scrutiny through a series of highly structured exercises, enabling them to build a comprehensive registry of their most pertinent risks, arranged into a structure that facilitates effective management. It draws on experiences accumulated throughout 18 evaluative pilot assessments undertaken in an internationally diverse selection of repositories, digital libraries and data centres (including institutions and services such as the UK National Digital Archive of Datasets, the National Archives of Scotland, Gallica at the National Library of France and the CERN Document Server). Other organizations, such as the British Library, have been using sections of DRAMBORA within their own risk assessment procedures. Despite the attractive benefits of a bottom up approach, there are implicit challenges posed by neglecting a more objective perspective. Following a sustained period of pilot audits undertaken by DPE, DCC and the DELOS Digital Preservation Cluster aimed at evaluating DRAMBORA, it was stated that had respective project members not been present to facilitate each assessment, and contribute their objective, external perspectives, the results may have been less useful. Consequently, DRAMBORA has developed in a number of ways, to enable knowledge transfer from the responses of comparable repositories, and incorporate more opportunities for structured question sets, or key lines of enquiry, that provoke more comprehensive awareness of the applicability of particular threats and opportunities

Sovereignty this Century - Maori and the Common Law Constitution

This paper is an attempt to give a panorama of constitutional life in New Zealand this century as viewed through a particularly important window, the status of the aboriginal Maori people of these islands. Questions of Maori rights and their position in the constitutional order have become burning issues in this final quarter century and represent an immense challenge for the next. This exploration is particularly appropriate as we celebrate a century of law teaching in this capital city at a University which has produced many if not most of this country's distinguished and influential public lawyers. In many respects, the history we are about to review is also a history of common law constitutionalism in this country as well to a lesser extent as similar Anglophonic jurisdictions. We are looking not just at how that part of the common law we call "public law" has dealt with a particular ethnic group. Through this aboriginal window we are looking at the changing logic and reach of public law through the past century and at the nature and character of the common law itself

Variable mixer propulsion cycle

A design technique, method and apparatus are delineated for controlling the bypass gas stream pressure and varying the bypass ratio of a mixed flow gas turbine engine in order to achieve improved performance. The disclosed embodiments each include a mixing device for combining the core and bypass gas streams. The variable area mixing device permits the static pressures of the core and bypass streams to be balanced prior to mixing at widely varying bypass stream pressure levels. The mixed flow gas turbine engine therefore operates efficiently over a wide range of bypass ratios and the dynamic pressure of the bypass stream is maintained at a level which will keep the engine inlet airflow matched to an optimum design level throughout a wide range of engine thrust settings

The evolution of local administration in English elementary education during the period 1833 – 1930 with special consideration of the problems of finance, administrative areas and inspection

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Modelling of Diesel fuel properties through its surrogates using Perturbed-Chain, Statistical Associating Fluid Theory

The Perturbed-Chain, Statistical Associating Fluid Theory equation of state is utilised to model the effect of pressure and temperature on the density, volatility and viscosity of four Diesel surrogates; these calculated properties are then compared to the properties of several Diesel fuels. Perturbed-Chain, Statistical Associating Fluid Theory calculations are performed using different sources for the pure component parameters. One source utilises literature values obtained from fitting vapour pressure and saturated liquid density data or from correlations based on these parameters. The second source utilises a group contribution method based on the chemical structure of each compound. Both modelling methods deliver similar estimations for surrogate density and volatility that are in close agreement with experimental results obtained at ambient pressure. Surrogate viscosity is calculated using the entropy scaling model with a new mixing rule for calculating mixture model parameters. The closest match of the surrogates to Diesel fuel properties provides mean deviations of 1.7% in density, 2.9% in volatility and 8.3% in viscosity. The Perturbed-Chain, Statistical Associating Fluid Theory results are compared to calculations using the Peng–Robinson equation of state; the greater performance of the Perturbed-Chain, Statistical Associating Fluid Theory approach for calculating fluid properties is demonstrated. Finally, an eight-component surrogate, with properties at high pressure and temperature predicted with the group contribution Perturbed-Chain, Statistical Associating Fluid Theory method, yields the best match for Diesel properties with a combined mean absolute deviation of 7.1% from experimental data found in the literature for conditions up to 373°K and 500 MPa. These results demonstrate the predictive capability of a state-of-the-art equation of state for Diesel fuels at extreme engine operating conditions

Sir John Salmond and the Moral Agency of the State

New Zealand scholars have yet to develop a "tradition" of writing legal history outside the historiographically problematic field of Treaty claims. This essay uses Sir John Salmond as emblematic of the methodological features that such a tradition might carry. Any self-congratulatory and Whiggish vision of a good-hearted people incapable of anything other than a fundamentally decent past – itself a fiction punctured by the Treaty claims processes – should be discarded. Instead the New Zealand constitutional and legal system should be seen as a site of ongoing struggle, reflection and constant engagement amongst a series of actors whose thought – so much as that was articulated – is to be regarded as important as their action. A non-corrupt legal system is not the outcome of a complacent so much as vigilant past. Sir John Salmond's concern with the moral agency of the State not only placed him inside the mainstream of early twentieth century political thought, its "Idealist" thread in particular. It also underpinned his intendancy of the Crown Law Office, as Dr Hickford's subsequent (and important) essay demonstrates

The Advent of Sound in Motion Pictures

This study traced the developments which led to the advent of sound in motion pictures. The hypothesis that the advent of sound in motion pictures was the result of many technical developments made between 1894 and 1930 was supported by this work. Following a historical methodology the research focused on four questions: 1) How did motion pictures evolve? 2) How did sound become involved with the presentation of motion pictures? 3) What were the technological developments that led to the advent of sound? 4) What were the events that led to the acceptance of the advent of sound? This study found that the idea of motion pictures has roots in the past. The Chinese Shadow Ball was used as a form of entertainment from 6000-1500 B.C. Leonardo da Vinci described the camera obscura in 1500 A.O. In 1646, Anthanasius Kirchner devised the magic lantern which was developed from da Vinci\u27s ideas. Many inventors modified the magic lantern and photography, developed in the mid 1800s, was applied toward creating the illusion of motion. The first actual motion picture machines were peep-show devices such as Thomas Edison\u27s Kinetoscope. Sound was a part of motion pictures from the beginning. Even ancient magic lantern shows had musical accompanient. Thomas Edison added his phonograph to the Kinetoscope to provide synchronized accompaniment for his peep-show machines. During the first three decades of the twentieth century many inventors experimented with two main methods of sound accompaniment: the sound on disc and the sound on film. Inventors met two main technological problems, synchronization and amplication. When film projectors were improved large audiences could view the pictures, then amplication problems had to be solved. Lee DeForest solved the sound problem by applying the audion tube to his Phonofilm system in 1923. With the right combination of showmanship and public relations the idea of sound films was sold to the public and to the film industry. By 1926 the public was getting accustomed to the medium of sound as a form of entertainment because of the phonograph and the radio. Warner Brothers invested in Vitaphone, a sound on disc system. Their first film, Don Juan became a box office hit. The real turning point in the advent of sound in motion pictures came when Warner Brothers presented their second sound film, The Jazz Singer. The showmanship and magnetism of the star, Al Jolson, excited audiences everywhere. Now the film industry was convinced that there was an audience demand for sound films. All of the major film producers jumped on the bandwagon and ordered sound equipment. Almost overnight Hollywood changed. Many musical films soon followed and by 1930 the silent film era had passed. Sound films were here to stay

Constitutional Voices

This article discusses the epistemic and historiographical properties of Anglo-settler constitutionalism in contemporary New Zealand. It draws in particular on the writing of James Tully and Judith Binney to illuminate how our constitutional framework and national mindset need not be monoform and narrowly focused, as the Anglo-settler state has tended to suggest. Instead, the Crown has been required to take account of other forces, especially Maori demands. This is leading to an emergent "constitutionalism", founded on a willingness to listen to the range of "constitutional voices". The author concludes that if the emergent constitutionalism in New Zealand/Aotearoa – its law and its history – becomes one of dialogue and compromise founded upon a willingness to listen to these constitutional voices and predicated also upon a realisation of the sheer difficulty of living together on these small islands, then the politics of mana can be no bad thing