Autonomous Cars, Electric and Hybrid Cars, and Ridesharing: Perceptions vs. Reality

Autonomous Cars, Electric and Hybrid Cars, and Ridesharing are all important new technologies in today\u27s society that can have potentially large impacts on the environment in the future. This study was conducted to determine the differences in perceptions of Gettysburg College students regarding Autonomous Cars, Electric and Hybrid Cars, and Ridesharing and the reality of these topics in the real world. This paper also compares the perceptions of Environmental Studies majors/minors to the perceptions of other majors at Gettysburg College. The primary research was conducted by analyzing questions that were a part of a survey consisting of 16 questions which was administered to Gettysburg College students via Facebook class group pages and the Environmental Studies majors email alias. The study group consisted of 110 students with 31 of them being Environmental Studies majors/minors and 79 of them being non-Environmental Studies majors/minors. It was determined that there were no statistically significant differences between the Environmental Studies majors/minors and students that are other majors/minors at Gettysburg College. From our survey, we found that there is a distinct gap in knowledge on the current and future impacts on the environment from Autonomous Cars, Electric and Hybrid Cars, and Ridesharing. The questions that ask which power method produces more greenhouse gas emissions as well as the questions about the miles per gallon of participants’ personal vehicles were the most accurately answered. Overall, Gettysburg College students regardless of major or minor were found to have mostly inaccurate perceptions on the topics of Autonomous Cars, Electric and Hybrid Cars, and Ridesharing

Voluntary Turnover and Job Performance: Curvilinearity and the Moderating Influences of Salary Growth, Promotions, and Labor Demand

In this study we investigated the relation between job performance and voluntary employee turnover for 5,143 exempt employees in a single firm in the petroleum industry. As hypothesized, we found support for Jackofsky\u27s (1984) curvilinear hypothesis as turnover was higher for low and high performers than it was for average performers. Three potential moderators of this curvilinearity were examined in an attempt to explain conflicting results in the performance turnover literature and contradictory predictions from turnover models. As predicted, pay growth, promotions, and labor demand each differentially influenced the turnover patterns of low, average, and high performers. Most notably, paying high performers according to their performance predicted substantial decrements in turnover. A utility analysis indicated that the benefits of paying high performers according to their performance more than offset the costs and that such an approach was a superior strategy when compared to a more egalitarian pay growth policy

Voluntary Turnover and Job Performance: Curvilinearity and the Moderating Influences of Salary Growth and Promotions

[Excerpt] The relationship between job performance and voluntary employee turnover was investigated for 5,143 exempt employees in a single firm. As hypothesized, support was found for E. F Jackofsky\u27s (1984) curvilinear hypothesis, as turnover was higher for low and high performers than it was for average performers. Two potential moderators of the curvilinearity were examined in an attempt to explain conflicting results in the performance-turnover literature. As predicted, low salary growth and high promotions each produced a more pronounced curvilinear performance-turnover relationship. Most notably, salary growth effects on turnover were greatest for high performers, with high salary growth predicting rather low turnover for these employees, whereas low salary growth predicted extremely high turnover. Additionally, once salary growth was controlled, promotions positively predicted turnover; with poor performer turnover most strongly affected

Is It Worth It To Win The Talent War? Evaluating the Utility of Performance-Based Pay

While the business press suggests that “winning the talent war,” the attraction and retention of key talent, is increasingly pivotal to organization success, executives often report that their organizations do not fare well on this dimension. We demonstrate how, through integrating turnover and compensation research, the Boudreau and Berger (1985) staffing utility framework can be used by industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists and other human resource (HR) professionals to address this issue. Employing a step-by-step process that combines organization-specific information about pay and performance with research on the pay-turnover linkage, we estimate the effects of incentive pay on employee separation patterns at various performance levels. We then use the utility framework to evaluate the financial consequences of incentive pay as an employee retention vehicle. The demonstration illustrates the limitations of standard accounting and behavioral cost-based approaches and the importance of considering both the costs and benefits associated with pay-for-performance plans. Our results suggest that traditional accounting or behavioral cost-based approaches, used alone, would have supported rejecting a potentially lucrative pay-for-performance investment. Additionally, our approach should enable HR professionals to use research findings and their own data to estimate the retention patterns and subsequent financial consequences of their existing, and potential, company-specific performance-based pay policies

Diode laser array

A diode laser array comprises a substrate of a semiconductor material having first and second opposed surfaces. On the first surface is a plurality of spaced gain sections and a separate distributed Bragg reflector passive waveguide at each end of each gain section and optically connecting the gain sections. Each gain section includes a cavity therein wherein charge carriers are generated and recombine to generate light which is confined in the cavity. Also, the cavity, which is preferably a quantum well cavity, provides both a high differential gain and potentially large depth of loss modulation. Each waveguide has a wavelength which is preferably formed by an extension of the cavity of the gain sections and a grating. The grating has a period which provides a selective feedback of light into the gain sections to supporting lasing, which allows some of the light to be emitted from the waveguide normal to the surface of the substrate and which allows optical coupling of the gain sections. Also, the grating period provides an operating wavelength which is on the short wavelength side of the gain period of the gain sections required for laser oscillation. An RF pulse is applied so as to maximize the magnitude of the loss modulation and the differential gain in the gain sections. The array is operated by applying a DC bias to all the gain sections at a level just below the threshold of the gain sections to only one of the gain sections which raises the bias in all of the gain sections to a level that causes all of the gain sections to oscillate. Thus, a small bias can turn the array on and off

Paper 4: Instabilities in downslope propagating gravity currents

In this paper, the stability of a gravity current propagating down an inclined channel is explored. The gravity current is generated through a partial lock release. A local analysis of the flow about the lock is conducted using classical methodologies in two-layer shallow water theory, which is here developed to allow for drag and an angled channel. A global analysis of the flow is done by exploring the long-time forced steady state, using non-linear simulations solving the full three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations. A steady state is forced through the inclusion of a so-called mask function. For sufficiently large slope angles, wave-like instabilities are observed on the density interface (pycnocline) of the generated gravity current. Spectral Proper-Orthogonal Decomposition of the time-series data provides evidence that instability arises via the interaction of two asymmetric vorticity waves, occurring on either side of a critical layer, akin to a spatially evolving Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. The work in this paper is exploratory in nature and motivates further investigation

The Value of Balanced Growth for Transportation: Executive Summary

This project evaluates the benefit that programs like the Ohio Balanced Growth Program could bring to transportation agencies in Ohio

Efficacy of various chemical disinfectants on biofilms formed in spacecraft potable water system components

As the provision of potable water is critical for successful habitation of the International Space Station (ISS), life support systems were installed in December 2008 to recycle both humidity from the atmosphere and urine to conserve available water in the Station. In-flight pre-consumption testing from the dispensing needle at the Potable Water Dispenser (PWD) indicated that bacterial concentrations exceeded the current ISS specifications of 50 colony-forming units (CFU) ml-1. Subsequent investigations revealed that a corrugated stainless steel flex hose upstream of the dispensing needle in the PWD was filled with nonsterile water and left at room temperature for more than 1 month before launch. To simulate biofilm formation that was suspected in the flight system, sterile flex hoses were seeded with a consortium of bacterial isolates previously recovered from other ISS water systems, including Ralstonia pickettii, Burkholderia multivorans, Caulobacter vibrioides, and Cupriavidus pauculus. After incubation for 5 days, the hoses were challenged with various chemical disinfectants including hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), colloidal silver, and buffered pH solutions to determine the ability of the disinfectants to decrease and maintain bacterial concentrations below ISS specifications. The disinfection efficacy over time was measured by collecting daily heterotrophic plate counts after exposure to the disinfectants. A single flush with either 6% H2O2 solution or a mixture of 3% H2O2 and 400 ppb colloidal silver effectively reduced the bacterial concentrations to \u3c1 CFU ml-1 for a period of up to 3 months