Back to the Future: A Century of Compensation

What were the hot compensation issues and practices over the past century? Does history offer any lessons that may inform our compensation decisions in the future? To answer these questions, we reviewed newspapers and business publications from the past 100 years. To highlight changes in compensation systems during that time, we selected four topics to examine in detail in this paper: compensation\u27s role in the changing nature of the deal; the evolution of pay-for-performance; the emergence of benefits; and the bellwethers of compensation systems. Four lessons for the future are drawn. These include: End the search for the one right compensation strategy; Understand what in the context matters; Continue pragmatic experimentation, and Support continuous learning about compensation. Readers are invited to delve into the history of compensation to discover what they take away for the future

Safer recruitment? protecting children, improving practice in residential child care

In the wake of a number of high-profile cases of the abuse of children and young people in residential child care, there have been repeated calls for the improvement of recruitment and selection of residential child care staff. This paper describes the findings from a survey, undertaken in 2005, of operational and human resource managers who have responsibility for the recruitment and selection of residential child care staff in the voluntary and statutory sectors in Scotland. This research was commissioned by the Scottish Executive to identify which elements of safer recruitment procedures had been implemented following the countrywide launch of a Toolkit for Safer Recruitment Practice in 2001. Research findings show that although local authorities were more likely than voluntary organisations to have gone some way toward implementing safer recruitment procedures, the recruitment process lacked rigour and commitment to safer procedures in some organisations. The article discusses the current barriers to the introduction of safer recruitment methods and proposes some possible solutions for the future

From Archive to Evidence: Historians and Natural Resource Litigation

Within the field of natural resource law are several specific areas that are well suited for the historian’s skillset and knowledge. The deployment of the historian’s tool box when conducting research in the legal world, however, can result in deliverables which vary significantly from those found in the academy, as they range widely in both size and scope and do not always use the full range of a historian’s skills. New technological platforms provide consulting historians with creative opportunities to disseminate valuable information and sources and enhance important scholarly debates

The Cinderella Experience Exploring the Psychological Consequences of Temporary Aspirational Brand Access

Individuals are motivated to consume brands that allow them to express their self-concept and signal a unique identity to others. However, consumers may not always be able to purchase these brands. Aspirational brands are currently unaffordable “dream brands” that an individual desires to purchase at some point in the future after reaching a higher status or income level. Through aspirational access, an emerging form of access-based consumption, consumers can now temporarily experience their ideal lifestyle for a membership fee. Researchers have begun to explore access-based consumption as an alternative to traditional ownership since consumers are increasingly choosing to access products and benefit from the use, rather than buying and owning them. Most research focuses on utilitarian access-based consumption, such as car sharing. Yet more consumers are using access-based services to facilitate an idealized lifestyle. In the past, these consumers would have to wait to acquire aspirational brands after saving up to purchase, but aspirational access now provides the benefits of these brands in the present allowing aspirational access-based consumers to forego the patience and work of saving long-term for the brand. Four studies are conducted to holistically explore the psychological consequences of aspirational access. Specifically, the following research questions are addressed by employing a multi-method approach in a series of four studies —What do owners of aspirational brands think about aspirational access-based services? How does aspirational access participation influence an accessor’s self- and brand-related perceptions? How can the outcomes of aspirational access be enhanced for accessors through brand curation? Can accessors temporarily using aspirational brands obtain the same level as self- and brand-related outcomes as owners? By exploring these questions, this research aims to understand the nature of aspirational brand consumption and the psychological consequences of accessing versus owning aspirational brands

A Narrative Review of the Literature to Assess the State of Screening Instruments for Psychological/Psychosocial Distress in Oncology Settings

AbstractPsychosocial distress is reported as being quite prevalent, yet no standardized tool has been universally accepted to screen for distress. Many tools have been created and validated for use to detect various components of distress, such as anxiety, depression, coping, and others. The objective of this narrative literature review was to assess the state of screening for psychological/psychosocial distress in oncology and in the broader context of adult patient populations with medical diagnoses, compare the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Distress Thermometer Tool with two other common tools currently in use, and to elaborate on themes that were discovered in reviewing the literature. Literature reviews were performed to explore the state of psychosocial distress screening implementation within oncology, assess for psychometric tools that are being utilized in adult patient populations in other disciplines and to select two common tools to compare with the Distress Thermometer. A total of four literature searches were completed for this integrative review. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Patient Health Questionnaire were found to be common in the literature, and were selected for comparison. The three screening tools were found to be as effective in screening for distress, specifically anxiety and depression, though the Distress Thermometer was found to be inadequate to diagnose psychiatric disorders when present. Themes within the literature included: psychosocial factors bear influence on outcomes and should be assessed, lack of standardization in screening practices is evident, short tools, like those evaluated in this review, are best utilized as an initial assessment to guide referral, and that short assessments are well-tolerated by patients and effective for detecting distress

Final Design Report of the Design of A Climate Controlled Sleeping Chamber for Infants and Toddlers

A climate controlled sleeping chamber, or air crib, for infants and toddlers is an alternative sleeping medium to the conventional crib. It is a chamber that is ventilated with air that is temperature and humidity controlled to provide an optimum sleeping environment for young children, ages 0 to 2 years. Its purpose is to enhance the psychological and physiological development of young children. Because it is easier to heat a small chamber than larger living quarters, the air crib also has economic advantages. The design o climate controlled sleeping chamber must meet some minimum requirements. The system must provide an environment in which a young child between the ages of 0 and 2 years may sleep. This environment must be temperature and humidity controlled to a maximum of 95 degrees Fahrenheit and 50% relative humidity, respectively. It must fit into a 6 foot by 8 foot room and must be large enough to contain the child comfortably. It must also maintain a comfortable environment without undo draft or noise. The unit must be able to regulate the temperature and humidity over an extended period of time to within +5% with little or no maintenance. It should be run by household power and all water supplies may be self-contained. The system cannot have a retail value much greater than that of a standard crib. Finally, the system must meet all safety standards set for infant sleeping furniture and residential safety codes in heating, ventilation, electrical wiring, and child safety

Hillsborough and other police scandals: why we need to focus on ‘cop culture’

Lord Stevens and Jennifer Brown were respectively chair and deputy chair of the Independent Commission into Policing. Here, they comment on the role played by police culture in the Hillsborough disaster and in other failed investigations, offering some thoughts on how to rebuild trust and confidence after such tragedies

Modelling Recursive Calls with UML State Diagrams

One of the principal uses of UML is the modelling of synchronous object-oriented software systems, in which the behaviour of each of several classes is modelled using a state diagram. UML permits a transition of the state diagram to show both the event which causes the transition (typically, the fact that the object receives a message) and the object’s reaction (typically, the fact that the object sends a message). UML’s semantics for state diagrams is “run to completion”. We show that this can lead to anomalous behaviour, and in particular that it is not possible to model recursive calls, in which an object receives a second message whilst still in the process of reacting to the first. Drawing on both ongoing work by the UML2.0 submitters and recent theoretical work [1,6], we propose a solution to this problem using state diagrams in two complementary ways

After Math - Foamology and Flight Rationale

The Space Shuttle was developed by NASA to be a largely reusable launch system which could provide frequent access to low earth orbit. Like all previous launch systems, safe reentry for the crew and payload required the use of a thermal protection system (TPS). Unlike previous spacecraft though, the Shuttle's TPS was exposed from launch, making it sensitive to debris which could be generated by the vehicle on ascent. The most likely and potentially destructive source of debris was considered to be ice, which could build-up anywhere on the External Tank (ET) where there was exposed metal. Ice could form during ground operations after the cryogenic propellants had been loaded and then be knocked loose on ascent. In order to prevent both ice build-up and boil-off of the propellants, the entire ET and all protuberances (orbiter attach points, pressurization lines, propellant feed lines, etc.) were covered with a spray on foam insulation (SOFI) type TPS. Unfortunately the foam was also susceptible to liberation during ascent, and posed a debris risk of its own. During the early years of the Shuttle Program engineers spent a good deal of effort characterizing the amount of foam that was shed

Tethered Space Satellite-1 (TSS-1): Wound About a Bolt

In the early 1990's US and Italian scientists collaborated to study the electrodynamics on a long tether between two satellites as it moved through the electrically charged portion of Earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere. Potential uses for the electrical current induced in the long wire include power and thrust generation for a satellite, momentum exchange, artificial gravity, deployment of sensors or antennas, and gravity-gradient stabilization. The Tethered Space Satellite (TSS) was a first-of-its-kind experiment with long tethers in space. It consisted of a satellite with science experiments attached to a 12.5 mile long, very thin (0.10 inch diameter) copper wire assembly wound around a spool in the deployer reel mechanism. The whole mechanism sits on a pallet that is installed into the Shuttle bay. At an altitude of 160 nautical miles above earth, the satellite would be deplodeployed from the Shuttle bay by raising it on a boom facing away from Earth. Once cleared of the bay, the deployer mechanism would slowly feed out the 12-plus miles of tether. Scientific data would be collected throughout the operation, after which the satellite would be reeled back in. A receiver spool to catch the 12.5 mile tether as it was being unwound by the deployer reel mechanism was set up to do the system-level test of deployer real mechanism prior to installing the loaded pallet into the Shuttle bay. The system level tests were required before the pallet could be installed into the Space Shuttle cargo bay. A few months before flight, the system level tests, including unreeling and reeling the tether, were completed at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and the TSS payload was installed onto the Spacelab pallet. Some of this testing equipment was then shipped back to the contractor, Martin Marietta. Integration with the Shuttle began. Systems-level load analyses, which cannot be run until all information about each payload is finalized, was run in parallel with the physical integration of the hardware into the Shuttle payload bay. An analysis, called Coupled loads analysis, incorporates any updates to the model due to system level tests of all the different payloads, and any changes that were found during integration. Engineering analysis examines the worst case scenarios for the loads the hardware will see. The two times during the mission where the dynamic loads are the worst were 1) the first 10-second portion of Shuttle lift off, and 2) a 2-second time during landing when the landing gears hit the ground. The coupled loads analysis using the final verification loads showed that a single bolt attaching the deployer reel mechanism to the support structure had a "negative margin" - which is an indication that it might fail - during touch down. Hardware certification rules do not allow for hardware to fly with negative margins. A structural failure of one payload could have serious or catastrophic consequences to other payloads, or may significantly damage the Orbiter. The issue had to be resolved before the flight