A profit-related investment scheme for the indigenous estate

This paper assesses the state of commercial development and resource management on Indigenous land, particularly in remote Australia. Indigenous landowners control significant assets—over one million square kilometres of land—often with substantial resource rights and income earning potential. The levels of inactivity and missed opportunities on Indigenous land are of such magnitude as to represent a major risk for Indigenous landowning communities in terms of their future economic and social well-being, and also for the national interest in terms of ecological vulnerability and the social and political costs of Indigenous disadvantage. In this paper we explore the role of government as risk manager in such circumstances and outline the principles that must underpin any intervention program targeted to the commercial development of Indigenous land. Using the framework for profit-related loans recently developed by Chapman and Simes (2004) and elements of an existing venture capital support program, the Innovation Investment Fund Program, we outline a new investment scheme to assist development and natural resource management on the growing Indigenous estate. The proposed scheme can be conceptualised as a profit-related loan scheme or as a form of capped public investment. Our proposal addresses key elements of the market failure in the financing of development on Indigenous land and provides incentives for greater private sector investment. It ensures that commercial and social risks are shared equitably between government, private sector investors and Indigenous-owned corporations in order to avoid problems of adverse selection or moral hazard

Western Libraries Undergraduate Student User Persona (Erin Murphy)

Document contains a user persona for an undergraduate student at Western Washington University, and is intended to identify common use patterns, and general technological and library needs

Western Libraries Community Patron User Persona (Cheryl Corey)

Document contains a user persona for a community patron at Western Washington University, and is intended to identify common use patterns, and general technological and library needs

Western Libraries Student Services Professional User Persona (Laura Stemling)

Document contains a user persona for a student services professional at Western Washington University, and is intended to identify common use patterns, and general technological and library needs

Spurious NPI licensing and exhaustification

Under certain circumstances, speakers are subject to so-called spurious NPI licensing effects, whereby they perceive that NPIs without a c–commanding licensor are in fact licensed and grammatical. Previous studies have all involved the presence of a licensor in a position that linearly precedes, but does not c–command the NPI. In this paper, we show that spurious NPI licensing can occur in the outright absence of a licensor, in contexts that force an exhaustive parse. We reason that at least these instances of spurious NPI licensing might be reduced to the E XH operator pragmatically “rescuing” the NPI, in the sense of Giannakidou (1998, 2006)

Executive Summary: Western Libraries Beta Website Usability

This brief report provides an overview of the Fall Quarter 2016 usability sessions on the Western Libraries beta website. The purpose of this report is to inform Libraries and Learning Commons personnel of our next steps with the beta website. There were 36 participants over the course of five two hour sessions

Electronic data capture in a rural African setting: evaluating experiences with different systems in Malawi

Background As hardware for electronic data capture (EDC), such as smartphones or tablets, becomes cheaper and more widely available, the potential for using such hardware as data capture tools in routine healthcare and research is increasing. Objective We aim to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of four EDC systems being used simultaneously in rural Malawi: two for Android devices (CommCare and ODK Collect), one for PALM and Windows OS (Pendragon), and a custom-built application for Android (Mobile InterVA – MIVA). Design We report on the personal field and development experience of fieldworkers, project managers, and EDC system developers. Results Fieldworkers preferred using EDC to paper-based systems, although some struggled with the technology at first. Highlighted features include in-built skip patterns for all systems, and specifically the ‘case’ function that CommCare offers. MIVA as a standalone app required considerably more time and expertise than the other systems to create and could not be customised for our specific research needs; however, it facilitates standardised routine data collection. CommCare and ODK Collect both have user-friendly web-interfaces for form development and good technical support. CommCare requires Internet to build an application and download it to a device, whereas all steps can be done offline with ODK Collect, a desirable feature in low connectivity settings. Pendragon required more complex programming of logic, using a Microsoft Access application, and generally had less technical support. Start-up costs varied between systems, and all were considered more expensive than setting up a paper-based system; however running costs were generally low and therefore thought to be cost-effective over the course of our projects. Conclusions EDC offers many opportunities for efficient data collection, but brings some issues requiring consideration when designing a study; the decision of which hardware and software to use should be informed by the aim of data collection, budget, and local circumstances