Creating Stronger Diversity Initiatives in Employment Settings

This article explores the common problems associated with ineffective diversity initiatives and what steps a firm can take to cultivate a successful plan. Diversity dilemmas in the workplace have long frustrated advocates who desire not only to see greater representation of minorities and women in firms, but also that those people are integrated across the firm and accepted as valued, productive members, of the firm’s culture. Knowing how an initiative fails to achieve diversity goals and learning from successful examples will enable firms to create a better work environment, capitalize on market opportunities, and enjoy many other benefits

Longitudinal Studies of Human Growth and Health: A Review of Recent Historical Research

This paper reviews recent literature using stature and weight as measures of human welfare with a particular interest in cliometric or historical research. We begin with an overview of anthropometric evidence of living standards and the new but fast-growing field of anthropometric history. This literature is always implicitly and often explicitly longitudinal in nature. We then discuss (i) systematic empirical research into the relationship between conditions in early life and later life health and mortality and (ii) historical evidence on the relationship between body mass, morbidity and mortality. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of historical sources and understandings to health economics and population health.Anthropometric history; Biological standard of living; Height; Obesity; Physical stature; Well-being

"Don't Sell Things, Sell Effects": Overseas Influences in New Zealand Department Stores, 1909-1956

In the years before World War II, New Zealand department stores became increasingly influenced by American ideas about salesmanship. This involved a shift away from British precepts about retailing, which discouraged initative by salespeople and emphasized service. Stores that adopted American ideas were trying to become more competitive and began to appeal to working-and middle class consumers. They imported the concept of "suggestion selling" and the idea of pushing complementary goods. New Zealand mercants modified American methods by relying on the use of manuals and bulletins to train salespeople and, unlike American stores, did not introduce commission payment schemes

The Impact of Self-Assessed Health on Labour Supply

Health has long been recognised as an influence on labour supply. To date there has been little New Zealand research on this topic. This paper uses census area unit level data from the 1996 Census to estimate the effects of changes in the prevalence of self-assessed disability and health problems on the labour force participation race. The best results were obtained from questions asking about the effect of health on ability to carry out common everyday activities, and having a long-term disability. Despite the use of aggregate data the goodness of fit of the models was low (approximately 0.50). Coefficients on non-health variables were robust to changes in the specification of the health variable. The elasticity of labour force participation rates with respect to ill health varied between -0.02 and 0.02. The use of grouped data is less than ideal, and the impact of different corrections for this data structure is explored. The weighted least squares methods used in this paper have been argued to be inefficient if group sizes vary widely, and this is an area for future research with the current dataset. Future research directions with New Zealand survey data are suggested

Physical stature and its interpretation in nineteenth century New Zealand

During the late nineteenth century the physical stature of New Zealandborn men stagnated, despite an apparently beneficial public health environment and growth in per-capita incomes. Stature varied by social class, with professionals and men in rural occupations substantially taller than their peers. There is not enough evidence to show that the indigenous Maori population differed in height from men of European descent.Physical stature; Height; Well-being; New Zealand Anthropometric history; Biological standard of living

Exploring the value of Scotland's environment

Protection of the environment can be regarded as representing a substantial cost to business. However, it is typically considered from the point of view of effect on company profitability, rather than its relative importance to human kind. This paper estimates the value of Scotland's natural environment by applying the methodology developed by Costanza et al (1997a and b) for estimation of the value of the earth's ecosystem services. Ecosystem services provide the vital functions to support life on Earth, such as flows of materials and energy. Since the study's publication, further research has sought to apply this global methodology to a regional and national level (for example Loomis et al, 2000, Farber and Griner, 2000 and Stevens et al, 2000). The value derived for Scotland provides a useful context for understanding the scale and importance of Scotland's natural habitats and it helps to reinforce the message that the environment is central to human welfare (Williams et al, 2003). The valuation of ecosystem services in monetary terms provokes theoretical, practical and philosophical arguments. This paper does not seek to revisit in depth these debates; rather the valuation should be taken as a starting point for setting the importance of Scotland's ecosystems in an interesting perspective. A recent edition of the journal Ecological Economics (Costanza and Farber, 2002) was devoted to considering some of these issues and providing many avenues for further exploration

Arvind

textThis report will summarize the process of developing, producing and finishing the short documentary film ARVIND. Shot on HD video in Austin, TX from May 2012 to March 2014, the film was produced as my Graduate Thesis Film in the Department of Radio-TV-Film at the University of Texas at Austin in partial fulfillment of my Master of Fine Arts in Film Production degree.Radio-Television-Fil

Enhancing Data Science Education throughout Indiana

Data science is the process of analyzing authentic real-world data sets to extract meaning, glean context, and seek insight into how to improve society. Data science promises new insights, helping transform information into knowledge that can drive science and industry (Berman et al., 2018). In recent years, employer demand for employees with the visualization, mathematical, and computational programming skill sets for this expanding niche has led to the introduction of new programs and coursework at both the K-12 and collegiate level. This research brief examines one such partnership in Indiana funded by the Lilly Endowment partnering Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW) and the Fort Wayne Community Schools

General Relativistic Three-Dimensional Multi-Group Neutrino Radiation-Hydrodynamics Simulations of Core-Collapse Supernovae

We report on a set of long-term general-relativistic three-dimensional (3D) multi-group (energy-dependent) neutrino-radiation hydrodynamics simulations of core-collapse supernovae. We employ a full 3D two-moment scheme with the local M1 closure, three neutrino species, and 12 energy groups per species. With this, we follow the post-core-bounce evolution of the core of a nonrotating $27$-$M_\odot$ progenitor in full unconstrained 3D and in octant symmetry for $\gtrsim$$380\,\mathrm{ms}$. We find the development of an asymmetric runaway explosion in our unconstrained simulation. We test the resolution dependence of our results and, in agreement with previous work, find that low resolution artificially aids explosion and leads to an earlier runaway expansion of the shock. At low resolution, the octant and full 3D dynamics are qualitatively very similar, but at high resolution, only the full 3D simulation exhibits the onset of explosion.Comment: Accepted to Ap

Impact of an improved neutrino energy estimate on outflows in neutron star merger simulations

Binary neutron star mergers are promising sources of gravitational waves for ground-based detectors such as Advanced LIGO. Neutron-rich material ejected by these mergers may also be the main source of r-process elements in the Universe, while radioactive decays in the ejecta can power bright electromagnetic post-merger signals. Neutrino-matter interactions play a critical role in the evolution of the composition of the ejected material, which significantly impacts the outcome of nucleosynthesis and the properties of the associated electromagnetic signal. In this work, we present a simulation of a binary neutron star merger using an improved method for estimating the average neutrino energies in our energy-integrated neutrino transport scheme. These energy estimates are obtained by evolving the neutrino number density in addition to the neutrino energy and flux densities. We show that significant changes are observed in the composition of the polar ejecta when comparing our new results with earlier simulations in which the neutrino spectrum was assumed to be the same everywhere in optically thin regions. In particular, we find that material ejected in the polar regions is less neutron rich than previously estimated. Our new estimates of the composition of the polar ejecta make it more likely that the color and timescale of the electromagnetic signal depend on the orientation of the binary with respect to an observer's line-of-sight. These results also indicate that important observable properties of neutron star mergers are sensitive to the neutrino energy spectrum, and may need to be studied through simulations including a more accurate, energy-dependent neutrino transport scheme.Comment: 19p, 17 figures, Accepted by Phys.Rev.