Intervention E-mails and Retention: How E-mails Tailored to Personality Impact an Undergraduate Student\u27s Decision to Return to School or Not

Universities and colleges constantly face a costly problem: low student retention rates. One potential solution to low student retention is a personality-tailored e-mail intervention. The researcher tested this idea with a sample of 59 first-year students from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Participants took a personality assessment in order to measure their personality trait of sociability. Then participants were split into an experimental group and a control group based on a matched-sample paradigm that ensured sociability was not significantly different between the two groups. Participants in the experimental group received four different intervention e-mails throughout the course of the 2015 fall semester. The e-mails informed them about social events occurring on campus (i.e. football games, diversity events, and concerts) over the course of a two-week period. Four different academic outcomes were measured: GPA, course completion rates, course withdrawals, and fall-2015-to-spring-2016 retention rates. Additionally, Recognized Student Organization (RSO) membership was measured. The results demonstrated that sociability-tailored e-mail interventions have no association with course completion, course withdrawals, and retention. The results also demonstrated that sociability-tailored e-mail interventions have a negative association with GPA and RSO membership. Theoretical and practical implications for studying personality-tailored e-mail interventions and their effect on academic outcomes are discussed

The effect of flow circulation on the scattering of landing gear noise

An investigation into the scattering of landing gear noise sources by a lifting wing is presented. A two-dimensional test case is used in the investigation. The noise sources are represented by a monopole, which is located at the approximate position of a landing gear underneath a wing geometry. A linearized Euler equation solver is used to simulate the scattering of the monopole by the wing. The effect of a non-uniform flowfield due to circulation induced by a lifting wing is quantified as the difference in acoustic scattering over uniform and non-uniform base flows. The results show that increasing the angle of attack, or increasing the Mach number, leads to a small increase in the sound pressure level towards the ground. However, the observed increase is relatively small. A boundary element method solver is then used to investigate the same problem, and existing uniform and non-uniform flow boundary element formulations are evaluated to see which more accurately predicts the effect of flow. The results show that the uniform flow boundary element formulation is more accurate in predicting the effect of flow than the non-uniform flow approximation for this particular problem, and that the extra computational effort required for the non-uniform flow approximation does not yield a more accurate result

The perceived fairness of work-life balance policies: A UK case study of solo-living managers and professionals without children

The ability to reconcile work and private life is a matter relevant to all employees, though not all may seek “balance.” Research indicates that organisational work–life balance policies and flexible working arrangements often focus on the needs of working parents, with one potential outcome being “family‐friendly backlash,” or counterproductive work behaviour from those without caring responsibilities. This paper analyses data from 36 interviews with childless solo‐living managers and professionals, exploring perceptions of fairness in relation to these policies. In contrast to previous studies, despite recognising a strong family‐care orientation in employer provisions, perceptions of unfair treatment or injustice were not pronounced in most cases, and thus there was little evidence of backlash/counterproductive work behaviour. The paper uses and develops organisational justice theory to explain the findings, emphasising the importance of situating individual justice orientations within perceived organisational policy and wider regulatory contexts. It also emphasises the importance of evaluating fairness of work–life balance policies and flexible working arrangements in relation to other aspects of the employment relationship, notably opportunities for career development and progression

Aircraft noise installation effects

Airframe noise is currently of a comparable level to engine noise for an aircraft on approach with high-lift devices and landing gears deployed. The landing gears are a large contributor to the overall airframe noise in this situation. Main landing gears are typically installed beneath a lifting wing. The wing surfaces act as scattering surfaces for the noise generated by these landing gears, and the non-uniform flow around the wing affects both the propagation and strength of the noise. This thesis focuses on investigating the propagation and scattering of installed landing gear noise sources.Boundary element methods are capable of computing acoustic scattering by large and complex geometries, such as a complete aircraft geometry. However, due to their use of Green’s functions, flow effects can only be approximated. As a result, the refraction of acoustic waves due to a non-uniform flow is not accounted for. A uniform flow formulation based on a Lorentz-type transform is typically employed with boundary element methods. The effect of neglecting refraction on the propagation and scattering of landing gear noise sources is determined in this thesis. Investigations are conducted using computational aeroacoustic methods that solve the linearised Euler equations, which account for the refraction of acoustic waves due to non-uniform flow.Using computational aeroacoustic methods, the effect of non-uniform flow due to circulation on the acoustic scattering is quantified as the difference in acoustic scattering over uniform and non-uniform base flows. These investigations are conducted using both single frequency and broadband monopole sources, and both single-element and multi-element airfoils. Increasing the angle of attack, increasing the Mach number, and deploying flaps all increase the circulation around the airfoil. The effect of varying these parameters is investigated systematically. It is shown that for a source in the approximate position of a landing gear with flow conditions similar to that of an airliner on approach, the largest difference observed is at single frequencies for an airfoil configuration with a deployed flap. Otherwise, the differences are small, and in some cases so small that they can be considered negligible. It is shown that moving the source to a position above the airfoil and using a higher Mach number gives a larger difference, although this is not representative of a landing gear source.A new method is proposed to generate a broadband input signal for use with a computational aeroacoustic solver that gives a specified power spectral density at a given radial distance from a monopole source. A signal that is equal in power across a specified range of frequencies is generated using this method. The effect on the frequency content of the scattered noise from a broadband source installed beneath a lifting wing is investigated using this generated signal. It is shown for a single-element airfoil that the major contributor to the obtained power spectral density is the distance of the source from the airfoil. Varying the angle of attack and Mach number has only a small additional effect on the power spectral density. It is then shown that flap and slat deployment has a larger effect on the computed power spectral density due to the additional reflective surfaces.Existing boundary element method formulations that estimate uniform and nonuniform flow effects are evaluated for their suitability for landing gear noise scattering predictions. It is shown that the uniform flow formulation is more suitable due to a simplifying assumption made in the derivation of the non-uniform flow formulation. An existing realistic landing gear noise model is coupled with a three-dimensional acoustic boundary element method solver. The landing gear noise model applies scaling laws to directional databases for isolated landing gear components in order to estimate the total far-field noise. The implemented coupling methodology is used to compute the sound pressure level on a ground plane beneath a realistic scattering aircraft geometry. The geometrical effect of flap deployment is investigated using sources of constant strength for each configuration. It is shown that the effect of flap deployment is to increase the sound pressure level directly below and in the region immediately surrounding the aircraft. The effect of source strength reduction due to circulation around a lifting wing is then included in the predictions. This results in a large decrease in the predicted sound pressure level on the ground plane with flap deployment