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Describes a complex, high capacity, high speed digital data recording and playback system using four embedded processors running a mixture of LynxOS and task‐specific assembler kernels. The system enables multi‐channel asynchronous data to be recorded and reproduced with no loss of temporal fidelity.

This paper considers the value of using computer models to store, manage and illustrate records of historic buildings. The paper is based upon the research and development work carried out by a team at the University of the West of England (UWE) in building such a model. It considers some of the problems that were encountered and reflects upon the skills and resources necessary for its construction. Multiple media are now available for data acquisition and entry. More overt and explicit classification and codification of facts is necessary using computers. The chosen media and descriptors will enhance or limit the later use of such data. Few heritage organisations have achieved maturity in their use of computer‐based information systems. Such use necessarily starts with acquisition of an archive of data but ought to proceed to being able to answer locational questions such as “where” and “when” and ultimately to the support of strategic analysis and “what‐if” speculation. It is argued that both media and descriptors have to be chosen appropriately to support these longer term applications. This paper explores some options, discusses criteria for selection, and considers how organisations will need to collect, assemble and use data in order to construct such models.

Clinical data capture and transfer are becoming more important as hospital practices change. Medical record pro‐formas are widely used but their efficacy in acute settings is unclear. This paper aims to assess whether pro‐forma and aide‐memoire recording aids influence data collection in acute medical and surgical admission records completed by junior doctors.

During October 2007 to January 2008, 150 medical and 150 surgical admission records were randomly selected. Each was analysed using Royal College of Physicians guidelines. Surgical record deficiencies were highlighted in an aide‐memoire printed on all A4 admission sheets. One year later, the exercise was repeated for 199 admissions.

Initial assessment demonstrated similar data capture rates, 77.4 per cent and 75.9 per cent for medicine and surgery respectively (Z=‐0.74, p=0.458). Following the aide‐memoire's introduction, surgical information recording improved relatively, 70.5 per cent and 73.9 per cent respectively (Z=2.01, p=0.045). One from 11 aide‐memoire categories was associated with improvement following clinical training. There was an overall fall in admission record quality during 2008‐9 vs 2007‐8.

The study compared performance among two groups of doctors working simultaneously in separate wards, representing four months' activity.

Hospital managers and clinicians should be mindful that innovations successful in elective clinical practice might not be transferable to an acute setting.

This audit shows that in an acute setting, over one‐quarter of clinical admission data were not captured and devices aimed at improving data capture had no demonstrable effect. The authors suggest that in current hospital practice, focussed clinical training is more likely to improve patient admission records than employing recording aids.

Perhaps you have a large database you would like to distribute, or you may want to archive materials in a computer‐read‐able form that will last for 70 to 100 years. These goals are now within practical and affordable grasp, using personal computer‐based CD recording systems.

Purpose – Statistics about the level of crime continue to attract public and political attention but are often presented in conflicting ways. In England and Wales, police-recorded crimes are no longer considered “national statistics” and, instead, the crime survey of England and Wales (CSEW) is used. However, it is not clear why partial population data (e.g., police-recorded crime) are considered less reliable or valid for measuring temporal crime trends in society than inferential statistical estimation models that are based on samples such as CSEW. This is particularly the case for approximating rare events like high-harm violence and specific harmful modus operandi (e.g., knife crime and firearms). In this chapter, the authors cross-reference victim survey and police-recorded data to determine similarities and contradictions in trends.

Methods – Using police data and CSEW estimates, the authors contrast variance and logarithmic trend lines since 1981 across a range of data categories and then triangulate the results with assault records from hospital consultations.

Findings – Change in crime rates in recent years is neither as unique nor extreme as promulgated in media coverage of crime. Moreover, analyses show conflicting narratives with a host of plausible but inconclusive depictions of the “actual” amount of crime committed in the society. The authors also conclude that neither source of data can serve as the benchmark of the other. Thus, both data systems suffer from major methodological perils, and the estimated crime means in CSEW, inferred from samples, are not necessarily more valid or accurate than police-recorded data (particularly for low-frequency and high-harm crimes). On the other hand police-recorded data are susceptible to variations in recording practices. As such, the authors propose a number of areas for further research, and a revised taxonomy of crime classifications to assist with future public interpretations of crime statistics.

Originality – There is much public and academic discourse about different sources of crime measurement yet infrequent analysis of the precise similarities and differences between the methods. This chapter offers a new perspective on long-term trends and highlights an issue of much contemporaneous concern: rising violent crime.

SOME ten years ago, the regulatory authorities in the United States prepared legislation enforcing the carriage of flight data recorders on commercial passenger‐carrying aircraft above 12,500 lb. all‐up weight. Since that time other countries have introduced similar regulations. The intention of the original requirements was to record parameters describing the aircraft flight path; as an example the current U.S. regulations call for four parameters to be recorded with with respect to time i.e. airspeed, altitude, vertical acceleration and heading. The present British regulations also require pitch, and the French specify marker beacon flyover.

This paper explores the historical roots of accounting for biodiversity and extinction accounting by analysing the 18th-century Naturalist's Journals of Gilbert White and interpreting them as biodiversity accounts produced by an interested party. The authors aim to contribute to the accounting history literature by extending the form of accounting studied to include nature diaries as well as by exploring historical ecological accounts, as well as contributing to the burgeoning literature on accounting for biodiversity and extinction accounting.

The authors’ method involves analysing the content of Gilbert White's Naturalist's Journals by producing an 18th-century biodiversity account of species of flora and fauna and then interpretively drawing out themes from the Journals. The authors then provide a Whitean extinction account by comparing current species' status with White's biodiversity account from 250 years ago.

This paper uses Gilbert White's Naturalist's Journals as a basis for comparing biodiversity and natural capital 250 years ago with current species' status according to extinction threat and conservation status. Further the paper shows how early nature diary recording represents early (and probably the only) forms of accounting for biodiversity and extinction. The authors also highlight themes within White's accounts including social emancipation, problematisation, aesthetic elements and an example of an early audit of biodiversity accounting.

There are limitations to analysing Gilbert White's Naturalist's Journals given that the only available source is an edited version. The authors therefore interpret their data as accounts which are indicative of biodiversity and species abundance rather than an exactly accurate account.

From the authors’ analysis and reflections, the authors suggest that contemporary biodiversity accounting needs to incorporate a combination of narrative, data accounting and pictorial/aesthetic representation if it is to provide a rich and accurate report of biodiversity and nature. The authors also suggest that extinction accounting should draw on historical data in order to demonstrate change in natural capital over time.

Social implications include the understanding gleaned from the authors’ analysis of the role of Gilbert White as a nature diarist in society and the contribution made over time by his Journals and other writings to the development of nature accounting and recording, as well as to one’s understanding and knowledge of species of flora and fauna.

To the authors’ knowledge this is the first attempt to analyse and interpret nature diaries as accounts of biodiversity and extinction.

Purpose — In this chapter, we will review several alternative methods of collecting data from mobile phones for human mobility analysis. We propose considering cellular network location data as a useful complementary source for human mobility research and provide case studies to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

Methodology/approach — We briefly describe cellular phone network architecture and the location data it can provide, and discuss two types of data collection: active and passive localization. Active localization is something like a personal travel diary. It provides a tool for recording positioning data on a survey sample over a long period of time. Passive localization, on the other hand, is based on phone network data that are automatically recorded for technical or billing purposes. It offers the advantage of access to very large user populations for mobility flow analysis of a broad area.

Findings — We review several alternative methods of collecting data from mobile phone for human mobility analysis to show that cellular network data, although limited in terms of location precision and recording frequency, offer two major advantages for studying human mobility. First, very large user samples – covering broad geographical areas – can be followed over a long period of time. Second, this type of data allows researchers to choose a specific data collection methodology (active or passive), depending on the objectives of their study. The big mobile phone localization datasets have provided a new impulse for the interdisciplinary research in human mobility.

Originality/value of chapter — We propose considering cellular network location data as a useful complementary source for transportation research and provide case studies to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of each proposed method. Mobile phones have become a kind of “personal sensor” offering an ever-increasing amount of location data on mobile phone users over long time periods. These data can thus provide a framework for a comprehensive and longitudinal study of temporal dynamics, and can be used to capture ephemeral events and fluctuations in day-to-day mobility behavior offering powerful tools to transportation research, urban planning, or even real-time city monitoring.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the practical use of video cameras during a study with young children.

This paper investigates the use of video cameras in a research study of young children’s utilisation of semiotic tools to communicate during play interactions in a Francophone preschool classroom in British Columbia. It examines the practical in-the-moment decision making of the researcher to support children’s accommodation of the video camera in their play space and ensure rich data were recorded.

Children accommodated the video cameras in four distinct ways. These included: curiosity and investigation of the video cameras; engagement in the video recording process with the researcher; incorporation of the video cameras into their play; and disregard of it.

The findings suggest that video recordings can be an effective method of data collection with young children and provide rich sources of data of the children and their learning through play when the researcher is flexible and responsive and supports children’s accommodation of it.

Recent advances in recording technology have resulted in the increased use of video recordings as a resource for gathering empirical data in qualitative research. Whilst the ethical considerations related to the use of video recordings as data for analysis in research with young children have been the subject of some discussion (Flewitt, 2005), the practical experience of using video cameras has received less attention.

Using the example of audiovisual materials, this paper aims to illustrate how records-related and archival legislation lags behind advances in technology. As more audiovisual materials are created on the cloud, questions arise about the applicability of national laws over the control, ownership, and custody of data and records.

This paper analyses court cases relating to audiovisual materials in the cloud and archival legislation from three Commonwealth countries: Canada, Australia, and Singapore – representing North America, the Pacific, and Asia respectively.

Current records-related and archival legislation does not effectively address the creation, processing, and preservation of records and data in a cloud environment. The paper identifies several records-related risks linked to the cloud – risks related to the ownership and custody of data, legal risks due to transborder data flow, and risks due to differing interpretations on the act of copying and ownership of audiovisual materials.

The paper identifies the need for records professionals to pay greater attention to the implications of the emerging cloud environment. There is a need for further research on how the concept of extraterritoriality and transborder laws can be applied to develop model laws for the management and preservation of records in the cloud.

The paper identifies record-related risks linked to the cloud by analyzing court cases and archival legislation. The paper examines maritime law to find useful principles that the archival field could draw on to mitigate some of these risks.