Do Open/Collaborative Work Environments Increase, Decrease or Tend To Keep Employee Satisfaction Neutral?

Open working environments have become increasingly popular in recent history; it is estimated that about 70% of office spaces in the United States have open floor plans. Open work environments come in a range of configurations but tend to feature a “lack of interior walls, tend to be larger and contain greater numbers of workers, with individual workstations arranged within the office in groups”. The rise in these arrangements has led to an increased body of literature seeking to understand how working in these environments impacts workers, whether in terms of employment satisfaction or job motivation. Employers believe that these new arrangements can help to foster collaboration as well as provide practical cost savings. In addition to these benefits, a growing body of research suggests that there are a number of negative consequences for employees stemming from open work environments. These include issues related to privacy and distractions in the workplace. The literature on open workplaces is decidedly mixed, showing that these environments have both benefits and drawbacks depending on the specific dimensions evaluated. Effectively managing some of the negative effects of these working environments will be important to ensuring that firms are able to maximize the benefits from open work environments

Disability Employment in the Hospitality Industry: Human Resources Considerations

[Excerpt] The characteristics of the hospitality industry are extremely dynamic and differ from other industries. In the United States and many other parts of the world, the predominant industry is transitioning from manufacturing to service. The hospitality industry is growing—the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the hospitality industry to add 17% in wage and salary employment, compared to the 14% for all other industries combined. The nature of the hospitality industry makes it very labor intensive. Additionally, the hospitality industry has extremely high employee turnover rates. While the annual turnover rate for all industry sectors was 39.6% the leisure and hospitality sectors averaged 74.6%

An EEG study on emotional intelligence and advertising message effectiveness

Some electroencephalography (EEG) studies have investigated emotional intelligence (EI), but none have examined the relationships between EI and commercial advertising messages and related consumer behaviors. This study combines brain (EEG) techniques with an EI psychometric to explore the brain responses associated with a range of advertisements. A group of 45 participants (23females, 22males) had their EEG recorded while watching a series of advertisements selected from various marketing categories such as community interests, celebrities, food/drink, and social issues. Participants were also categorized as high or low in emotional intelligence (n = 34). The EEG data analysis was centered on rating decision-making in order to measure brain responses associated with advertising information processing for both groups. The findings suggest that participants with high and low emotional intelligence (EI) were attentive to different types of advertising messages. The two EI groups demonstrated preferences for “people” or “object,” related advertising information. This suggests that differences in consumer perception and emotions may suggest why certain advertising material or marketing strategies are effective or not

A Modern Union for the Modern Economy

Membership in traditional unions has steeply declined over the past two decades. As the White House and Congress are now completely Republican controlled, there promises to be no reversal of this trend in the near future. In the face of this rejection of traditional bargaining efforts, several attempts have been made to create alternative “quasi-union” or “alt-labor” relationships between workers and employers. These arrangements represent a creative approach by workers to have their voices heard in a collective manner, though still falling far short of the traditional protections afforded by employment and labor law statutes. This Article critiques one such high-profile, quasi-union effort in the technology sector—the Uber Guild. While the Guild does not provide any of the traditional bargaining protections found in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), it offers Uber drivers some input over the terms and conditions under which they work. Falling somewhere between employment-at-will and unionization protected under the NLRA, the Uber Guild is a creative attempt to help both workers and the company to better understand how they can improve the working relationship. This Article navigates the Uber Guild and other nontraditional efforts that promise a collective voice for workers in the face of a precipitous decline in union membership. This Article further explores how workers in the technology sector face unique challenges under workplace laws. We argue that these workers are particularly well situated to benefit from a nontraditional union model and explain what that model should look like. While a traditional union protected by the NLRA is the optimal bargaining arrangement, we must consider the enormous challenges workers in the technology sector face in obtaining these protections

Helicopter Airborne Laser Positioning System (HALPS)

The theory of operation, configuration, laboratory, and ground test results obtained with a helicopter airborne laser positioning system developed by Princeton University is presented. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, flight data could not be completed for presentation at this time. The system measures the relative position between two aircraft in three dimensions using two orthogonal fan-shaped laser beams sweeping across an array of four detectors. Specifically, the system calculates the relative range, elevation, and azimuth between an observation aircraft and a test helicopter with a high degree of accuracy. The detector array provides a wide field of view in the presence of solar interference due to compound parabolic concentrators and spectral filtering of the detector pulses. The detected pulses and their associated time delays are processed by the electronics and are sent as position errors to the helicopter pilot who repositions the aircraft as part of the closed loop system. Accuracies obtained in the laboratory at a range of 80 ft in the absence of sunlight were + or - 1 deg in elevation; +0.5 to -1.5 deg in azimuth; +0.5 to -1.0 ft in range; while elevation varied from 0 to +28 deg and the azimuth varied from 0 to + or - 45 deg. Accuracies in sunlight were approximately 40 deg (+ or - 20 deg) in direct sunlight

Integrating business and personal income taxes

An examination of the problems surrounding the current corporate tax system, including a detailed look at several reform proposals from the Treasury Department.Corporations - Taxation ; Income tax

Blood Pressure Measurement Validation Off the Cuff? Comment on A New Cuffless Device for Measuring Blood Pressure: A Real-Life Validation Study .

Contains fulltext : 199952.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Cuff-Less Methods for Blood Pressure Telemonitoring.

Blood pressure telemonitoring (BPT) is a telemedicine strategy that uses a patient\u27s self-measured blood pressure (BP) and transmits this information to healthcare providers, typically over the internet. BPT has been shown to improve BP control compared to usual care without remote monitoring. Traditionally, a cuff-based monitor with data communication capabilities has been used for BPT; however, cuff-based measurements are inconvenient and cause discomfort, which has prevented the widespread use of cuff-based monitors for BPT. The development of new technologies which allow for remote BP monitoring without the use of a cuff may aid in more extensive adoption of BPT. This would enhance patient autonomy while providing physicians with a more complete picture of their patient\u27s BP profile, potentially leading to improved BP control and better long-term clinical outcomes. This mini-review article aims to: (1) describe the fundamentals of current techniques in cuff-less BP measurement; (2) present examples of commercially available cuff-less technologies for BPT; (3) outline challenges with current methodologies; and (4) describe potential future directions in cuff-less BPT development