The societal culture dimension within the human resource practices of Taiwanese management in the UK

This thesis examines approaches to international human resource management by Taiwanese MNCs located in the UK. A range of international human resource management models are discussed, from the universalist paradigm originating in the US to more contextual models, particularly those emphasising the impact of culture. The key elements of Chinese culture and their application to management are reviewed Interview and questionnaire data is drawn from 32 Taiwanese companies operating in the UK in the manufacturing and financial services sectors, and is analysed using SPSS and NVivo packages. Key findings include that the cultural origin of Taiwanese managers remains crucial in the way they manage UK subsidiaries. The small size of the Taiwanese companies also influences their internationalisation and international human resource strategy. In addition, there is a sectoral difference in the different HR practices being adopted. Japanese MNCs have been the only non-western MNCs to have been studied in depth. Although the Japanese and Chinese have been said to share a similar culture, they are shown in this thesis to adopt different techniques to achieve their HRM goals. It is concluded that many goals similar to those of western models of HRM can be found in Taiwanese MNCs, but achieved through different HR practices, for example, group reward rather than individual reward for commitment. It is suggested that conventional HRM frameworks fail to readily explain companies of non-western origin and the thesis tries to develop an IHRM model suitable for Chinese MNCs. Following strong economic development in China, research on Taiwanese MNCs can contribute to future perspectives on Chinese internationalisation and management transfer

Radio Frequency Spectroscopy of Trapped Fermi Gases with Population Imbalance

Motivated by recent experiments, we address, in a fully self consistent fashion, the behavior and evolution of radio frequency (RF) spectra as temperature and polarization are varied in population imbalanced Fermi gases. We discuss a series of scenarios for the experimentally observed zero temperature pseudogap phase and show how present and future RF experiments may help in its elucidation. We conclude that the MIT experiments at the lowest $T$ may well reflect ground state properties, but take issue with their claim that the pairing gap survives up to temperatures of the order of the degeneracy temperature $T_F$ at unitarity.Comment: 4 page, 3 figures, submitted to PRA Rapi

Effects of manure application upon water quality of surface runoff from rainfall simulation tests

Manure contains nutrients for crop growth; however, overapplication, with time, can result in excess nutrients in soil, which can subsequently be lost in surface runoff. The general purpose of this research is to study the effect of liquid hog manure, applied as an agricultural fertilizer, on water chemistry of surface runoff from rainfall simulation tests. Specifically the research focuses on runoff water chemistry comparisons between lands receiving hog manure at different rates, via different injection methods, and upon different slope positions. To examine these objectives, soil nutrient supply rates (P, NH4-N, and NO3-N) of the 0 – 5 cm depth of soil adjacent to rainfall simulation positions, and runoff water chemistry (TP, OP, NH4-N, NO3-N, DOC, Cl- and coliforms) during rainfall simulation tests were collected before and after manure addition. Generally, manure application did increase soil NH4-N and NO3-N supply rates, and runoff NH4-N concentration. Soil P supply rate and runoff TP concentration were not affected by the manure addition; however, runoff OP concentration at one site (Perdue) increased significantly due to manure addition. The manure treatments applied in this study did not cause any significant increases in fecal or total coliform in runoff from rainfall simulation tests conducted 7 – 8 months after manure application. None of the water quality parameters exceeded the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. Manure injection method (regular versus low soil surface disturbance) had consistent effects on runoff chemistry, but application rate did not. The regular disturbance method had significantly higher concentrations of water quality parameters than the low disturbance method. The position of the test on the slope did not result in any consistent trends in runoff chemistry, whether before or after manure addition. Foot slope positions had higher soil NH4-N supply rates than upper slope positions, both before and after manure addition. Soil NH4-N, NO3-N, and P supply rates between landscape positions were not likely influenced by manure addition. Regression tests between soil nutrient supply rates and runoff chemistry indicate that soil NH4-N supply rates are a good index to predict runoff NH4-N concentration, but soil P did not predict runoff P