On the commutativity of discrete memoryless channels in cascade

The conditions are discussed under which two square discrete memoryless channels (DMCs) in cascade commute. Two different types of channel commutativity are considered: matrix commutativity, in which changing the order of two cascaded channels results in an identical overall channel, and capacity commutativity, in which the order of two cascaded channels results in an overall channel with the same capacity as the original cascade. A theorem is presented giving necessary and sufficient conditions for a pair of square DMCs to be matrix commutative and note its implications for a number of example channel cascades. Finally, it is shown that all pairs of r-ary symmetric channels are matrix commutative, regardless of their crossover probabilities.     

Evidence for Informed Preservation Planning and Advocacy: A Synoptic View

ABSTRACT

We argue the need to demonstrate the value of preservation services to institutions, the public and funders, because it matters conceptually and needs to be supported and validated. To address this imperative, improved and focused data capture and its use by collection managers is advocated as the necessary first step towards the development of an evidence-based culture for preservation services and synoptic decision-making, where evidence enables us to optimise the outcome of planning. To do so, we need tools that enable us to evaluate diverse preservation scenarios. We demonstrate the potential of emerging cross-disciplinary tools and protocols developed in the recent years such as attitude surveys, computational modelling and demographic modelling. These offer evidence that informs prospective preservation planning and, importantly, provides a credible evidence base for advocacy. These possibilities are discussed within the wider context of well-established preservation planning protocols that have shaped collection management for three decades, broadly characterised as retrospective.     

Kinderbetreuungspolitik in Deutschland

Childcare Policy in Germany: Scope for Demand side Subsidies German day care policy is a perfect example of the provision of social services in a neocorporatist fashion. Day care centers are primarily financed from the local community budget. From this budget, the community runs public day care centers or subsidies Non-Profit Organizations which provide day care for children. In established negotiations on the community level, representatives of the NPOs and the public providers decide on the supply of slots in day care centers. In this paper, we argue that this particular mode of financing and monitoring children’s day care has contributed to a rather conservative childcare policy in Germany. Being dependent on the very restricted local budget, communities are confined to conduct a daycare policy, which solely offers a minimum provision of public day care. We suggest a radical reform of German day care policy. Instead of the subsiding public institutions and NPOs, we suggest to support the use of day care by demand side subsides. In this context, we describe some features of a child care voucher model in Germany.     

When to say when: Using big data to support mobile communications

As a result of the current mobile phenomenon, many libraries have rushed to provide mobile-compatible services in order to remain relevant in today's quickly evolving information services market. Beginning in 2010, the Laverne and Dorothy Brown Library at the University of St. Francis (USF) launched a data tracking initiative via Google Analytics to determine the extent that mobile-specific library resources were being utilized by students for access to library materials and services. Data analysis has shown that weighing an emphasis toward future development of mobile library resources should be balanced against development costs under a pragmatic anticipation of the longevity and sustainability of any mobile resource.     

Aesthetic encounters and learning in the museum

Abstract

This article discusses how museum settings can provide opportunities for sensory and aesthetic encounters and learning. It draws on research into museum education programmes that included examinations of curatorial construction and display, observations of teaching and open-ended interviews with museum educators. The examples selected here focus on themes of display and learning to illustrate how aesthetic experiences can emerge as incidental adjuncts to learning in other fields. They also acknowledge how museums draw on aesthetic judgements to categorise or present objects and employ aesthetic artefacts and practices as representative devices of cultural engagement, especially in learning themes in the humanities. The studies show how museums can offer opportunities and skills, and cultivate dispositions to the examination of challenging ideas about aesthetic status, sensibility, interpretation or value. Examples of purposefully constructed sites for aesthetic learning show how museum educators have rethought ways of facilitating affective sensory experiences, and raising questions of aesthetic status, response and the social and cultural functions of the arts. The studies discussed here suggest that museums can provide dedicated opportunities to cultivate independent aesthetic thinking and debate about aesthetic ideas as lifelong skills and pleasures.