6,798 research outputs found
Conflicting Views on Fair Siting Processes: Evidence from Austria and the U.S.
The authors maintain that, by granting legitimacy to different notions of fairness and building on common values such as responsibility, it is possible to design siting procedures that promote social cohesion, trust and a sense of fair play
Online Safety Nets: How Perceived Isolation Motivates Network Closure.
The feeling of being alone ā and drive to vanquish that feeling ā represents a common interest among theorists in communication, psychology, and sociology. Despite extensive literatures on isolation, exclusion, rejection, and loneliness, less is known about how these feelings reverberate through personal networks. Concurrently, the ascent of mobile and social technologies has generated a range of communicative possibilities that complicate our understanding of how people respond to moments of social isolation. Indeed, evolving network theories suggest that these media affordances have the potential to steer communication toward certain people and away from others. In this dissertation, I attempt to interlace this dual theoretical backdrop, integrating classic theories on the experience of social isolation with recent theories on the social implications of online affordances. I argue that perceived isolation is likely to drive people toward network closure, or what Kadushin (2012) refers to as ānetwork safetyā. I also argue that this thrust is more likely to occur in online networks that are defined by availability and awareness, such as Facebook. In order to substantiate these claims, this dissertation encompasses studies measuring online network outcomes in combination with three different versions of perceived isolation: induced exclusion (Study 1), exclusion reactivity (Study 2), and rejection sensitivity (Study 3). Altogether, the combined results indicate that feelings of isolation can shift social attention and preference toward trusted ties and core circles. Over time, these patterns suggest that people who experience more frequent and intense feelings of isolation may choose to fortify close relationships and closed communities, rather than embrace weak ties and open networks. To conclude, I contextualize the findings within other models of perceived isolation, and propose an extra component for the observed network dynamics. Expanding on this phenomenon, I theorize how certain cognitive states may operate as network switches, changing personal network motivations in a dynamic manner. With the emergence of increased availability and awareness, individuals have increased capacity to choose, and thus shift, their personal network patterns during daily life. Consequently, I call for new research on the cognitive mechanisms that underlie social network motivations, perceptions, and choices.PhDCommunication StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133276/1/joebayer_1.pd
The Effects of Financial Education in the Workplace: Evidence from a Survey of Employers
We examine the effects of education on financial decision-making skills by identifying an interesting source of variation in pertinent training. During the 1990s, an increasing number of individuals were exposed to programs of financial education provided by their employers. If, as some have argued, low saving frequently results from a failure to appreciate economic vulnerabilities, then education of this form could prove to have a powerful effect on rates of behavior. The current paper undertakes an analysis of these programs using a previously unexploited survey of employers. We find that both participation in and contributions to voluntary savings plans are significantly higher when employers offer retirement seminars. The effect is typically much stronger for non-highly compensated employees than for highly compensated employees. The frequency of seminars emerges as a particularly important correlate of behavior. We are unable to detect any effects of written materials, such as newsletters and summary plan descriptions, regardless of frequency. We also present evidence on other determinants of plan activity.
Division, adjoints, and dualities of bilinear maps
The distributive property can be studied through bilinear maps and various
morphisms between these maps. The adjoint-morphisms between bilinear maps
establish a complete abelian category with projectives and admits a duality.
Thus the adjoint category is not a module category but nevertheless it is
suitably familiar. The universal properties have geometric perspectives. For
example, products are orthogonal sums. The bilinear division maps are the
simple bimaps with respect to nondegenerate adjoint-morphisms. That formalizes
the understanding that the atoms of linear geometries are algebraic objects
with no zero-divisors. Adjoint-isomorphism coincides with principal isotopism;
hence, nonassociative division rings can be studied within this framework.
This also corrects an error in an earlier pre-print; see Remark 2.11
Engineering stochasticity in gene expression
Stochastic fluctuations (noise) in gene expression can cause members of otherwise genetically identical populations to display drastically different phenotypes. An understanding of the sources of noise and the strategies cells employ to function reliably despite noise is proving to be increasingly important in describing the behavior of natural organisms and will be essential for the engineering of synthetic biological systems. Here we describe the design of synthetic constructs, termed ribosome competing RNAs (rcRNAs), as a means to rationally perturb noise in cellular gene expression. We find that noise in gene expression increases in a manner proportional to the ability of an rcRNA to compete for the cellular ribosome pool. We then demonstrate that operons significantly buffer noise between coexpressed genes in a natural cellular background and can even reduce the level of rcRNA enhanced noise. These results demonstrate that synthetic genetic constructs can significantly affect the noise profile of a living cell and, importantly, that operons are a facile genetic strategy for buffering against noise
Exciton spin dynamics and photoluminescence polarization of CdSe/CdS dot-in-rod nanocrystals in high magnetic fields
The exciton spin dynamics and polarization properties of the related emission
are investigated in colloidal CdSe/CdS dot-in-rod (DiR) and spherical
core/shell nanocrystal (NC) ensembles by magneto-optical photoluminescence (PL)
spectroscopy in magnetic fields up to 15 T. It is shown that the degree of
circular polarization (DCP) of the exciton emission induced by the magnetic
field is affected by the NC geometry as well as the exciton fine structure and
can provide information on nanorod orientation. A theory to describe the
circular and linear polarization properties of the NC emission in magnetic
field is developed. It takes into account phonon mediated coupling between the
exciton fine structure states as well as the dielectric enhancement effect
resulting from the anisotropic shell of DiR NCs. This theoretical approach is
used to model the experimental results and allows us to explain most of the
measured features. The spin dynamics of the dark excitons is investigated in
magnetic fields by time-resolved photoluminescence. The results highlight the
importance of confined acoustic phonons in the spin relaxation of dark
excitons. The bare core surface as well as the core/shell interface give rise
to an efficient spin relaxation channel, while the surface of core/shell NCs
seems to play only a minor role.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figure
Electronic ground states of Fe and Co as determined by x-ray absorption and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy
The electronic ground state of the Co diatomic molecular cation
has been assigned experimentally by x-ray absorption and x-ray magnetic
circular dichroism spectroscopy in a cryogenic ion trap. Three candidates,
, , and , for the electronic ground state of Fe
have been identified. These states carry sizable orbital angular momenta that
disagree with theoretical predictions from multireference configuration
interaction and density functional theory. Our results show that the ground
states of neutral and cationic diatomic molecules of transition elements
cannot generally be assumed to be connected by a one-electron process
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