Omron Healthcare is one of the leading healthcare products providers in Australia. Their wide range of products for home use includes blood pressure monitors, thermometers, nebulizers, body composition monitors, pedometers and pulse massagers. Apart from this, they also provide healthcare products for professionals that include portable ECG monitor, non-invasive vascular screening device, and professional blood pressure monitors.

They offer a wide range of products to suit differing needs and keep innovating new technology and solutions in the heart healthcare field. Visit their website to explore their complete range of products.

Address: 626 Lorimer Street, Port Melbourne,  Victoria, Australia

Telephone No. (+61) 1800-807-464

Sai Build Tech is critical to locate experts that are aware of the particular climate issues Chennai poses when looking for sump waterproofing contractors in Chennai. The water quality and structural integrity of subterranean sump pumps may be impacted by seepage and water damage caused by the intense rains and high humidity in Chennai. Reputable contractors give long-lasting solutions with premium materials like epoxy sealants, polymer coatings, and cementitious waterproofing.

Hiring experienced sump waterproofing contractors in Chennai ensures that your sump remains leak-proof and protected from potential damage. These specialists conduct thorough inspections, identify vulnerabilities, and recommend appropriate treatments, safeguarding your water storage systems from issues like leaks, cracks, and contamination. By choosing contractors with expertise in sump waterproofing, you can ensure long-term protection against water seepage, preserving the structural integrity of your property and the quality of your stored water.

Black and white photography has a timeless appeal. This style has been cherished by photographers for generations because it strips away color, allowing the raw beauty of shapes, contrasts, and emotions to take centre stage. Capturing stunning black and white photos requires more than just removing color from an image. It requires a thoughtful approach to composition, lighting, and detail to achieve striking results. Whether you’re a business photographer aiming for impactful corporate shots or a marriage videographer in Ontario, CA looking to add elegance to wedding visuals, black and white photography can enhance the depth and emotion of your work. Here’s a guide on how to master the art of black and white photography.

Understanding the Appeal of Black and White Photography

Black and white photography is often chosen for its simplicity and sophistication. By removing color, photographers can focus on elements like contrast, texture, and form, which can make an image feel more powerful and meaningful. This style is also great for highlighting emotions, as the absence of color can bring more attention to facial expressions, body language, and other subtle details.

1. Emphasis on Emotions: Without color to distract, black and white photos naturally draw attention to the emotions in the image. This makes them ideal for portraits, where capturing genuine expressions is essential.

2. Highlighting Texture and Detail: Black and white photography is perfect for accentuating textures and fine details. Whether it's the texture of skin, the fabric of clothing, or the lines on a face, this style brings out details that might otherwise go unnoticed.

3. Timeless Aesthetic: Black and white images have a classic, timeless feel that never goes out of style. For photos that need to stand the test of time, such as wedding portraits or historic buildings, black and white is an excellent choice.

Choosing the Right Subject for Black and White Photography

Not every subject translates well into black and white, so choosing the right one is key to creating a successful image. Black and white photography is ideal for scenes with high contrast, interesting textures, and powerful expressions. Some of the best subjects include:

• Portraits: Close-up shots of people, especially portraits, work exceptionally well in black and white. The lack of color highlights facial features and expressions, allowing the viewer to focus solely on the subject’s emotions.

• Architectural Photography: Black and white is excellent for showcasing architecture, as it emphasises shapes, lines, and textures. Without color, buildings can appear even more grand and dramatic.

• Nature and Landscape Photography: Although color is often integral to nature photography, certain landscapes work beautifully in black and white. Trees, mountains, and water, when stripped of color, can evoke a serene and mystical atmosphere.

• Business Photography: For corporate images, black and white adds sophistication and professionalism. It is particularly effective in boardroom shots, office interiors, or portraits of executives, creating a polished, elegant feel.

Playing with Lighting and Contrast

Lighting is crucial in black and white photography. Since color is removed, the way light and shadow interact within the frame becomes even more important. Strong contrasts, where bright highlights meet dark shadows, can make black and white images appear more dynamic and intense.

1. Experiment with Natural Light

Natural light can create soft shadows and highlights, which work well for black and white photography. The morning and evening, often referred to as “golden hours,” provide gentle, warm lighting that can make portraits and landscapes appear more dramatic in black and white.

2. Use Artificial Light for Dramatic Effects

Artificial lighting can also be a powerful tool. Studio lighting setups, like a single spotlight, create sharp contrasts that make subjects appear striking and bold. Marriage videographers in Ontario, CA often use this technique to add a sophisticated feel to wedding scenes, accentuating the couple’s expressions and creating an elegant, cinematic effect.

3. Look for Shadows and Patterns

In black and white photography, shadows and patterns take on a new level of importance. The play of light and dark can create beautiful patterns and shapes that might be overlooked in color photography. Observing how shadows fall on your subject and experimenting with different angles can add depth to your images.

Composition Techniques for Powerful Black and White Photos

Composition is essential to create impactful black and white photos. Since the absence of color places more focus on form and structure, understanding composition techniques is crucial.

1. Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a classic composition technique where the frame is divided into nine equal parts. Positioning the main subject along one of these lines or at the intersections creates a balanced, visually pleasing image. This technique works particularly well in black and white photography, where the viewer’s focus is drawn to the subject naturally.

2. Leading Lines

Leading lines are lines that guide the viewer’s eye through the image toward the main subject. Roads, rivers, staircases, or even the arrangement of objects can serve as leading lines, adding a sense of depth and structure to black and white images. This approach is highly effective for landscape and architectural photography.

3. Symmetry and Patterns

Symmetry and patterns add a unique touch to black and white photos. Finding naturally occurring patterns, like rows of trees or repeated architectural elements, can create harmony within the image. Symmetrical compositions, where both halves of the image mirror each other, work beautifully in black and white.

4. Negative Space

Negative space, or the empty areas around your subject, can enhance black and white photos by isolating the main element and drawing more attention to it. This technique works especially well in portrait photography, where the background doesn’t distract from the subject.

Mastering Editing Techniques for Black and White Photography

While capturing the photo is essential, editing plays a significant role in enhancing black and white images. Adjustments to contrast, brightness, and highlights can bring out textures and details that make the image stand out.

1. Adjusting Contrast for Depth

Increasing contrast can make black and white images appear more dynamic, emphasising the difference between light and dark areas. This is especially effective in business portraits, where strong contrast can add depth and dimension to the subject’s features.

2. Emphasizing Texture and Clarity

Sharpening textures helps reveal details like the texture of clothing, hair, or even a building’s surface. Enhancing clarity without overdoing it adds a professional touch to the image, particularly in business photography, where clarity is crucial for creating a polished look.

3. Adding Vignettes for Focus

A subtle vignette, which darkens the edges of the frame, can direct the viewer’s attention toward the center of the image. This is often used in portraits to draw focus to the subject’s face. However, it should be applied gently to avoid an unnatural look.

4. Balancing Highlights and Shadows

Fine-tuning highlights and shadows can help bring out specific areas within the image. For example, bringing down the highlights can reveal more detail in bright areas, while lifting the shadows can add depth to darker sections, creating a balanced and visually pleasing effect.

Tips for Experimenting with Black and White Photography

Black and white photography is a versatile style that allows for creative exploration. Here are some additional tips for creating unique images:

• Shoot in RAW Format: Shooting in RAW format allows for greater control during the editing process, enabling you to adjust tones, contrast, and textures with precision.

• Convert to Black and White During Editing: While some cameras offer black and white modes, capturing the image in color and converting it in post-processing allows you to adjust each color’s shade individually. This adds control over how light and dark areas appear, enhancing the final result.

• Experiment with Grain: Adding a slight grain to your photos can give them a vintage or film-like quality. This effect is often used in wedding and business photography to create a more artistic, timeless appearance.

• Look for Simplicity: Simple compositions often work best for black and white photos. Focusing on one main subject, whether it’s a person, building, or landscape, can make the image feel powerful and elegant.

Conclusion

Black and white photography allows photographers to focus on the essential elements of a scene, from lighting and contrast to texture and form. It’s a style that emphasises the emotion, beauty, and depth within each frame. Whether you’re capturing a wedding or creating a professional business portrait, black and white can transform ordinary scenes into something extraordinary.

NAEEM STUDIOS understands the artistry required to create memorable black and white photos, offering expertise in both business photography and wedding videography. By combining technical skills with a deep understanding of composition and lighting, black and white photography becomes a timeless way to capture the world in shades of light and dark, leaving a lasting impression that color sometimes cannot achieve.

This presentation discusses some of the strategies and challenges associated with amplifying all voices in an international program evaluation involving a multi-national team. 

USAID funded a 5-year accelerated basic education program in targeted Somali state aimed at supporting Somalia's efforts to increase educational access for out of school children and youth. A multi-national team, led by Purdue's Evaluation and Learning Research Center in collaboration with the Resilient Africa Network and the Somali Research and Development Institute examined the outcomes of this program, specifically pertaining to : (1) student access, retention, safety,  and learning outcomes; (2) effects of student, family, community, and program differences on learning outcomes of diverse learners; and (3) lessons learned that can inform education.

Abstract Private sector engagement (PSE) is increasingly acknowledged in both literature and practice as a necessary mechanism to sustainably address development challenges. Despite increased practitioner and academic interest in these partnerships, there have been negligible attempts to systematically investigate cross-sector partnerships to distill best practices from the multiple environments in which they are employed. This manuscript presents a robust review of the social science and business literatures on cross-sector partnerships, yielding an interdisciplinary, evidence-based framework detailing archetypes of three prominent partnership characteristics of purpose, context, and relationship enablers. This work integrates a wide range of best practices and values pertinent to businesses and society, enabling researchers, practitioners, and partnership managers to characterize and evaluate partnerships systematically. The introduced framework also enables partners to situate and evaluate their partnership activities to optimize outcomes for each partner and impact on the challenge at hand.

Abstract

Cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) are important for tackling development challenges across public, private, and non-profit sectors. Despite their growing prevalence as partnership models of choice for grand challenge efforts, there is little evidencebased understanding about the dominant features of these engagements. This makes it difficult to develop CSP engagement models that are useful across development problems and settings. We posit that CSPs are intrinsically cross-disciplinary endeavors and require collaboration models that enable interdisciplinary problem orientation and solution casting. To facilitate sense-making in partnership efforts, a CSP engagement model must therefore integrate perspectives on partnership from major disciplines and practitioner experiences. Using automated content analysis of peerreviewed publications and manual content analysis of practitioner interviews, we explored the robustness and relevance of partnership capacity theory (PCT), an interdisciplinary CSP engagement model, as an evidence-based approach to CSP with best-practice grounding. We found PCT comprehensively characterizes collaborative CSP dynamics and offers a foundational view of CSP best practices.

Cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) are important for tackling development challenges across public, private, and non-profit sectors. Despite their growing prevalence as partnership models of choice for grand challenge efforts, there is little evidence-based understanding about the dominant features of these engagements. This makes it difficult to develop CSP engagement models that are useful across development problems and settings. We posit that CSPs are intrinsically cross-disciplinary endeavors and require collaboration models that enable interdisciplinary problem orientation and solution casting. To facilitate sense-making in partnership efforts, a CSP engagement model must therefore integrate perspectives on partnership from major disciplines and practitioner experiences. Using automated content analysis of peer-reviewed publications and manual content analysis of practitioner interviews, we explored the robustness and relevance of partnership capacity theory (PCT), an interdisciplinary CSP engagement model, as an evidence-based approach to CSP with best-practice grounding. We found PCT comprehensively characterizes collaborative CSP dynamics and offers a foundational view of CSP best practices.

Private sector engagement (PSE) is increasingly acknowledged in both literature and practice as a necessary mechanism to sustainably address development challenges. Despite increased practitioner and academic interest in these partnerships, there have been negligible attempts to systematically investigate cross-sector partnerships to distill best practices from the multiple environments in which they are employed. This manuscript presents a robust review of the social science and business literatures on cross-sector partnerships, yielding an interdisciplinary, evidence-based framework detailing archetypes of three prominent partnership characteristics of purpose, context, and relationship enablers. This work integrates a wide range of best practices and values pertinent to businesses and society, enabling researchers, practitioners, and partnership managers to characterize and evaluate partnerships systematically. The introduced framework also enables partners to situate and evaluate their partnership activities to optimize outcomes for each partner and impact on the challenge at hand.

Unlocking Collective Expertise: Strengthening Program Evaluations through Collaboration

Hi, my name is Damilola Seyi-Oderinde. A little over a year ago, I joined the ELRC as a Research Associate. Before this time, I worked as a Professional Counselor and Lecturer. However, I quickly learned that my previous skillset was insufficient for facilitating a collaborative program evaluation. I am sharing this blog post as an additional resource to gain deeper insight into our process of using a collaborative evaluation approach to enhance my evaluation capacity and that of our clients.

STEM program evaluations often struggle to produce insights that drive practical decision-making. The root of this issue lies in evaluations conducted without the early involvement of key stakeholders, which leads to recommendations that go unused and reports that gather dust. A collaborative evaluation approach is essential to address this, emphasizing collective expertise and shared ownership throughout the evaluation process. As program evaluators, you understand that program success hinges on a robust evaluation framework that fosters continuous learning and adaptation. However, you may often face the challenge of being perceived as an outsider, which can create tension and undermine the effectiveness of the evaluation. This is where collaborative evaluation makes a significant difference. Actively involving stakeholders fosters a deeper understanding of the program’s context and elevates diverse perspectives, ensuring that evaluations are more inclusive and meaningful.

Facilitating program evaluation can be challenging due to technical complexity, rapidly evolving fields, and interdisciplinary demands. In our case, our key challenge was non-existent or very little program evaluation knowledge. These obstacles necessitated an evaluation approach that could adapt to practical needs while providing our client with capacity-building opportunities.

How did we do it?

Four-Phase Collaborative Evaluation Model to enhance clients' capacity

To meet these challenges, we implemented a Four-Phase Collaborative Evaluation Model designed to be structured yet adaptable. The phases are as follows:

1. Program Definition and Documentation
In this initial phase, we engage key personnel and leadership to establish a shared understanding of the program’s goals. Reviewing relevant documents and creating a Theory of Change provided a strong foundation for subsequent planning.

Key Ingredients:

i. Establishing mutual trust

- Communication & transparency

- Relationship building

ii. Learning Posture

- Active listening

- Flexibility & Responsiveness

2. Evaluation Planning
Here, we refine evaluation questions and success indicators, aligning them with stakeholder expectations. The focus is on building capacity and ensuring sustainability. This phase emphasizes real-time adjustments to address changing needs, fostering a collaborative problem-solving environment.

Key Ingredients:

i. Mutual understanding of objectives

- Alignment of expectations

- Prioritizing Outcomes

ii. Flexibility to adapt and respond to partners’ needs

• Collaborative problem-solving
•  Real-time Adjustment

iii. Capacity building

- Knowledge transfer

- Sustainability focus

3. Data Gathering and Analysis
This phase involves collecting data from stakeholders and analyzing it to uncover initial insights. We prioritize shared ownership by incorporating stakeholders into the feedback process, which helps build consensus and supports continuous program improvement.

Key Ingredients:

i. Shared ownership and Decision-making

• Equal Stakeholder participation
• Consensus building

ii. Iterative feedback

• Continuous improvement
• Feedback Loops

iii. Contextual sensitivity

• Sensitivity to social context
• Tailored Approaches

4. Learning and Adaptation
In the final phase, we had a meeting to present findings and facilitate knowledge exchange. The emphasis is on mutual learning and planning adaptations based on evaluation insights, with flexibility built for ongoing adjustments.

Key Ingredients:

i. Reflexivity

• Self-awareness
• Positionality

ii. Mutual Learning

• Knowledge exchange
• Shared reflection

iii. Facilitator Neutrality

- Objective guidance

- Clear Documentation & Follow-up

Reflections and Key Takeaways of an Emerging Evaluator

Throughout this journey, it became evident to me that

1. Enhancing your ability to balance expert knowledge with stakeholder input is crucial for an effective evaluation.

2. Co-developing evaluation plans empowers stakeholders and leads to outcomes that are more relevant and actionable.

3. The use of dynamic feedback loops greatly enhances the evaluation process by turning data collection into actionable insights that drive meaningful change.

4. Dynamic feedback loops facilitated data collection and analysis, providing more actionable insights.

The Power of Collaboration

Collaborative evaluation unlocks the full potential of collective expertise, resulting in stronger programs that are better equipped to adapt and evolve. By embracing collaboration at every stage, we can foster impactful, sustainable improvements that go beyond traditional evaluation practices.

Crafting compelling stories that communicate the objectives, methods, results, and recommendations of an evaluation in a way that is easy to understand and memorable is a crucial aspect of evaluation reporting. It often involves the use of real-life examples, anecdotes, and visuals to make the evaluation more relatable and impactful. Traditional research/evaluation approaches often fall short in capturing the complexities, nuances, and intricacies of programs. Complex programs with multiple components often present complex evaluation challenges.

This was the case with the Indiana STEM Teacher Residency project, which aimed to recruit and train culturally competent and highly qualified teachers in STEM subject matters for the diverse context of the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) district.

However, our team had to adopt a nimble and flexible approach to evaluate the project due to numerous unanticipated challenges such as the pandemic, low participant recruitment rate, personnel turnover, and the complexity of the context itself. Guided by Crane et al (2018) principles of pragmatism, we utilized theoretical flexibility, methodological comprehensiveness, and operational practicality. Theoretical flexibility enabled us to utilize formative, summative, and developmental techniques, facilitating the use of participatory methodologies that allowed us to account for not only the process and impact measures but also the contextual factors. Methodological comprehensiveness involved the use of multiple methods in both the quantitative and qualitative realms, allowing us to examine different facets and levels of program implementation and beyond meta-narratives, making every voice count. Operational practicality facilitated our ability to communicate real-time and actionable feedback to stakeholders, make considerations for real-life limitations and constraints, and manage the complexity of the project.

In summary, our evaluation effort blended diverse methodologies, arrived at a comprehensive understanding of program intricacies, and effectively communicated findings. It also aided in managing complexity, adapting to unforeseen challenges, and offering real-time feedback, turning obstacles into opportunities. This approach served as the linchpin that enabled us to weave our methodologies and enhance our narrative's relevance and value to stakeholders and the broader educational community.

Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT) is a faculty development program that aims to educate instructors about research-based teaching practices that enhance their ability to create student-centered learning environments.

Moreover, IMPACT is based on the understanding that instructor knowledge, implicit beliefs, and motivation for teaching and learning shape course design, implementation, and impact on student learning and success.

Instructors who are supported through peer communities and evidence-based resources will develop motivation to transform their instructions through student-centered practices to achieve equity in student learning and success. 

To acces the ELRC's new logic model (2021) and theory of change as described above, please view the logic model in this post. 

For IMPACT annual reports from 2013 to 2023, please click this link.

Data quality and data assurance are essential components of all evaluation and research projects.  When working as a single evaluator or part of a unified team, ensuring common understanding of evaluation goals and approaches and fidelity in data collection methodologies can be simple.  However, these activities require greater thought and intentionality as teams get larger and more dispersed.  This poster presents findings and lessons learned from a large, multi-disciplinary, multi-national evaluation in Somalia.  The project included in-country partners and employed data collection enumerators from local study communities.  Language barriers combined with security challenges precluded visits by the US team to aid in enumerator training, observe data collection, or otherwise participate in in-country activities.  Thus, we needed to develop and enact strategies and tools that would minimize risks associated with miscommunication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.