8,273 research outputs found

    Interview with Wolfgang Knauss

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    An oral history in four sessions (September 2019ā€“January 2020) with Wolfgang Knauss, von KĆ”rmĆ”n Professor of Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics, Emeritus. Born in Germany in 1933, he speaks about his early life and experiences under the Nazi regime, his teenage years in Siegen and Heidelberg during the Allied occupation, and his move to Pasadena, California, in 1954 under the sponsorship of a local minister and his family. He enrolled in Caltech as an undergraduate in 1957, commencing a more than half-century affiliation with the Institute and GALCIT (today the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of Caltech). He recalls the roots of his interest in aeronautics, his PhD solid mechanics studies with his advisor, M. Williams, and the GALCIT environment in the late 1950s and 1960s at the dawn of the Space Age, including the impact of Sputnik and classes with NASA astronauts. He discusses his experimental and theoretical work on materials deformation, dynamic fracture, and crack propagation, including his solid-propellant fuels research for NASA and the US Army, wide-ranging programs with the US Navy, and his pioneering micromechanics investigations and work on the time-dependent fracture of polymers in the 1990s. He offers his perspective on GALCITā€™s academic culture, its solid mechanics and fluid mechanics programs, and its evolving administrative directions over the course of five decades, as well as its impact and reputation both within and beyond Caltech. He describes his work with Caltechā€™s undergraduate admissions committee and his scientific collaborations with numerous graduate students and postdocs and shares his recollections of GALCIT and other Caltech colleagues, including C. Babcock, D. Coles, R.P. Feynman, Y.C. Fung, G. Neugebauer, G. Housner, D. Hudson, H. Liepmann, A. Klein, G. Ravichandran, A. Rosakis, A. Roshko, and E. Sechler. Six appendices contributed by Dr. Knauss, offering further insight into his life and career, also form part of this oral history and are cross-referenced in the main text

    Towards a more just refuge regime: quotas, markets and a fair share

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    The international refugee regime is beset by two problems: Responsibility for refuge falls disproportionately on a few states and many owed refuge do not get it. In this work, I explore remedies to these problems. One is a quota distribution wherein states are distributed responsibilities via allotment. Another is a marketized quota system wherein states are free to buy and sell their allotments with others. I explore these in three parts. In Part 1, I develop the prime principles upon which a just regime is built and with which alternatives can be adjudicated. The first and most important principle ā€“ ā€˜Justice for Refugeesā€™ ā€“ stipulates that a just regime provides refuge for all who have a basic interest in it. The second principle ā€“ ā€˜Justice for Statesā€™ ā€“ stipulates that a just distribution of refuge responsibilities among states is one that is capacity considerate. In Part 2, I take up several vexing questions regarding the distribution of refuge responsibilities among states in a collective effort. First, what is a stateā€™s ā€˜fair shareā€™? The answer requires the determination of some logic ā€“ some metric ā€“ with which a distribution is determined. I argue that one popular method in the political theory literature ā€“ a GDP-based distribution ā€“ is normatively unsatisfactory. In its place, I posit several alternative metrics that are more attuned with the principles of justice but absent in the political theory literature: GDP adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity and the Human Development Index. I offer an exploration of both these. Second, are states required to ā€˜take up the slackā€™ left by defaulting peers? Here, I argue that duties of help remain intact in cases of partial compliance among states in the refuge regime, but that political concerns may require that such duties be applied with caution. I submit that a market instrument offers one practical solution to this problem, as well as other advantages. In Part 3, I take aim at marketization and grapple with its many pitfalls: That marketization is commodifying, that it is corrupting, and that it offers little advantage in providing quality protection for refugees. In addition to these, I apply a framework of moral markets developed by Debra Satz. I argue that a refuge market may satisfy Justice Among States, but that it is violative of the refugeesā€™ welfare interest in remaining free of degrading and discriminatory treatment

    TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF EFFORTFUL FUNDRAISING EXPERIENCES: USING INTERPRETATIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS IN FUNDRAISING RESEARCH

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    Physical-activity oriented community fundraising has experienced an exponential growth in popularity over the past 15 years. The aim of this study was to explore the value of effortful fundraising experiences, from the point of view of participants, and explore the impact that these experiences have on peopleā€™s lives. This study used an IPA approach to interview 23 individuals, recognising the role of participants as proxy (nonprofessional) fundraisers for charitable organisations, and the unique organisation donor dynamic that this creates. It also bought together relevant psychological theory related to physical activity fundraising experiences (through a narrative literature review) and used primary interview data to substantiate these. Effortful fundraising experiences are examined in detail to understand their significance to participants, and how such experiences influence their connection with a charity or cause. This was done with an idiographic focus at first, before examining convergences and divergences across the sample. This study found that effortful fundraising experiences can have a profound positive impact upon community fundraisers in both the short and the long term. Additionally, it found that these experiences can be opportunities for charitable organisations to create lasting meaningful relationships with participants, and foster mutually beneficial lifetime relationships with them. Further research is needed to test specific psychological theory in this context, including self-esteem theory, self determination theory, and the martyrdom effect (among others)

    The effects of institutions on emerging market firmsā€™ international assignment location decisions

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    We investigate international assignment (IA) location decisions of emerging market firms as determined by the institutional contexts of their home and host countries. Using an institutional perspective, assignment patterns of the entire firm population in Slovenia to either other emerging or developed host countries in Europe are analysed. The findings show that both institutional quality and distance influence expatriation flows in firms from a low quality institutional context. These firms expatriate more to markets with high quality institutions and choose host countries with higher rather than smaller institutional distance for their IAs. We refine institutional theory with respect to host and home country institutional determinants of expatriation decisions by taking into consideration the particular features of emerging markets and their firms ā€“ separately and compared to developed markets and their firms

    The Impact of a Play Intervention on the Social-Emotional Development of Preschool Children in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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    Practitioners working with children have emphasized that play is vital to childrenā€™s development, Links between childrenā€™s social-emotional development and play have been widely documented. However, rigorous research evidence of these links remains limited. This studyā€™s objectives were to measure the impact of play on childrenā€™s social-emotional development in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia; identify teachersā€™ viewpoints around the use of play intervention; and understand the childrenā€™s experience of play intervention. Fifty-nine children aged between five and six years, with mean age of 5.5 (SD 3.376) and eight teachers participated in the study. The study used a mixed-method strategy including questionnaires, interviews, and focus group discussions. Childrenā€™s social-emotional development was measured by using the Strengths and Difficulties Questioner (SDQ). A pre-/post-test counterbalanced design was used to measure the impact of the play intervention on childrenā€™s development. Teachersā€™ perspectives on play were obtained by interviewing eight teachers. Childrenā€™s views were gathered through focus group discussions. Repeated measures ANOVA was conducted to determine the differences in the SDQ score over three time points. Results showed that using unstructured loose parts play had positively impacted childrenā€™s social-emotional development. After participation in the play intervention, scores from the SDQ indicated that children demonstrated significantly less problematic emotional, conduct and peer relationship issues. They also scored significantly higher in their positive prosocial behaviour. These positive effects were sustained after six weeks of stopping the intervention. The play intervention did not however impact childrenā€™s hyperactivity level. The interviews analysis illustrates four main themes: concept and characteristics of play, play functions, developmental benefits of play, and play and practice. Regarding childrenā€™s discussion, affordance emerged as a main theme; this includes emotional, social, and functional affordances. Unstructured loose parts play intervention was demonstrated to have positive impacts on childrenā€™s social-emotional development. The studyā€™s findings support the view that play is a way to increase childrenā€™s development

    Examining the Impact of Personal Social Media Use at Work on Workplace Outcomes

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    A noticable shift is underway in todayā€™s multi-generational workforce. As younger employees propel digital workforce transformation and embrace technology adoption in the workplace, organisations need to show they are forward-thinking in their digital transformation strategies, and the emergent integration of social media in organisations is reshaping internal communication strategies, in a bid to improve corporate reputations and foster employee engagement. However, the impact of personal social media use on psychological and behavioural workplace outcomes is still debatebale with contrasting results in the literature identifying both positive and negative effects on workplace outcomes among organisational employees. This study seeks to examine this debate through the lens of social capital theory and study personal social media use at work using distinct variables of social use, cognitive use, and hedonic use. A quantitative analysis of data from 419 organisational employees in Jordan using SEM-PLS reveals that personal social media use at work is a double-edged sword as its impact differs by usage types. First, the social use of personal social media at work reduces job burnout, turnover intention, presenteeism, and absenteeism; it also increases job involvement and organisational citizen behaviour. Second, the cognitive use of personal social media at work increases job involvement, organisational citizen behaviour, employee adaptability, and decreases presenteeism and absenteeism; it also increases job burnout and turnover intention. Finally, the hedonic use of personal social media at work carries only negative effects by increasing job burnout and turnover intention. This study contributes to managerial understanding by showing the impact of different types of personal social media usage and recommends that organisations not limit employee access to personal social media within work time, but rather focus on raising awareness of the negative effects of excessive usage on employee well-being and encourage low to moderate use of personal social media at work and other personal and work-related online interaction associated with positive workplace outcomes. It also clarifies the need for further research in regions such as the Middle East with distinct cultural and socio-economic contexts

    Labour Markets in Professional Sports

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    Measuring performance and quantifying outcomes can prove a difficult task in empirical economics research. Because of this, economists have often turned to the setting of professional sports to overcome these data limitations. Sports and sports data presents a unique opportunity to study the behaviour of workers, firms and supervisors, since performance can be accurately measured and compared across agents. This thesis offers three chapters in the broad fields of labour and personnel economics, using data from professional sports to illustrate. In Chapter One, we consider the role of Head Coaches at football clubs, and whether teams can benefit from Head Coach turnover. This extends on previous work on this topic along several lines. Most notably, Head Coach turnover can either be voluntary or involuntary. In a principal-agent framework, these are theoretically two quite different events, with each producing different predictions about changes to team performance. We also use data from multiple leagues and can distinguish between a short run ā€œbumpā€ effect, and a longer run learning effect. Results show that teams can benefit from Head Coach turnover, particularly following a dismissal, though the result is sensitive to how we define our follow up period. In Chapter 2, we examine the ability of baseball pitchers to switch between different tasks, by considering how their pitching performance is affected by the additional demands of having to bat and run bases. Despite the prevalence of task switching in modern day work, there is a surprising lack of empirical evidence on its effects on productivity. Baseball is an ideal setting to consider this question empirically, making use of the two-league structure of Major League Baseball. In one league, pitchers are faced with a forced task switching rule of having to both pitch and bat, while in the other, pitchers can focus on their primary job; pitching. The structure of the game of baseball, consisting of innings and a batting order, also means we can cleanly identify cases of workers switching back and forth between tasks. Our results indicate that pitchers can actually benefit from batting, but at all costs should avoid excessive fatigue after running bases. Finally, in Chapter 3, we return to Coaches, this time in the National Football League. We examine the determinants of coaching changes at the levels of Head Coach and Coordinator. In particular, we pay close attention to the role of the leagueā€™s affirmative action policy, the Rooney Rule, on the likelihood of minority coaches being appointed to a Head Coaching role. Results suggest that the rule has been somewhat successful, since teams now appear to be hiring equally skilled black and white coaches, despite evidence that there had always been a supply of equally skilled black coaches
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