1,721 research outputs found
Management Jobs in the Insurance Industry: Organizational Deskilling and Rising Pay Inequality
The attention of both the research community and the popular press has begun to shift from a traditional focus on production jobs and toward management positions in part because of a perception that a fundamental change is underway in the management ranks. Unlike the temporary layoffs of production workers that were historically driven by business cycles, the changes in management job security seem to be permanent and, in large measure, driven by development inside the firm. The most important of these forces appear to be changes in the structure of management and in the organization of work processes. The authors use a unique set of data to examine the structure of management jobs among a sample of companies and observe how those jobs have changed over time. They examine changes in the skill requirements of jobs by functional area and by level in the organization, changes in the "shape" of the organization chart - the distribution of employees across management job titles - and changes in compensation for these jobs. The data were obtained from Hay Associates, and it included the internal organization of management jobs for 11 life insurance companies. The authors see a sharp expansion in the proportion of line workers, absolute declines in the number of top management positions, and only modest growth in the number of middle managers and supervisors. As a result the organization chart has changed dramatically in these companies, becoming considerably flatter. The "span of control" has increased for every level of the organization and especially for first level management. If the widening of the supervisory span of control resulted from taking decision making and responsibility from supervisors and pushing it down to line workers, it does not seem to have increased the average skill requirements of the exempt line workers. Skill requirements for the other levels rose over the period, especially for top management positions. Overall, the average level of skill in the sample fell substantially between 1986 and 1992 (even though skills rose in two of the four levels) because of a sharp shift in the distribution of employment away from management and toward line positions. The authors suggest that the best description of these patterns is that they represent upskilling of individual jobs and deskilling of organizations. Regarding compensation, none of the levels experienced increases in skill that were statically significant, but top managers received a large (28 percent) increase in pay, middle managers received a modest (10 percent) increase, and the lower two levels received virtually no increases. One conclusion is that earnings inequality is increasing substantially inside these firms in a manner that is not attributable to any increase in skill, and the dividing line for that growth in inequality is no longer exempt/nonexempt but supervisor/manager. A possible explanation for the rising inequality in compensation is that it helps offset change in the probability of promotion. The fact that the span of control is increasing and organizational chart flattening means that the probability of the average worker being promoted is declining. The decline in the probability of promotion might reduce the incentives to work hard. Increases in the compensation of top jobs increase the return to securing a promotion and may offset some of the effect produced by the decline in the probability of promotion. Another explanation is that top mangers are in "better positions to legislate their own pay increases." If true, this sample may actually underrepresent the true extent of income inequality because it consists of companies using an external consultant to help set compensation where internal consistency is an important characteristic of the pay system. These results suggest that "management" as a career will remain attractive, albeit less certain in terms of promotion prospects. Shifts to team-based approaches and the elimination of functional designations would suggest a greater need for generalists than specialists. As technology such as expert systems reduces the need for large units of "experts," the manger's skill will be in recognizing when an expert needs to be called. Leadership skills and the ability to adapt to a changing environment are two qualities that will be sought in the future. Fortunately, these skills will also be useful to team members who are not selected for promotion to mangers. Increasing income inequality may lead to distrust within the organization, though this may be offset by the technical tracks that allow highly skilled non-managers to earn equivalent levels of pay. The fact that insurance companies are relatively unique in facing no major industry-specific shocks from the outside environment suggests that these results should translate well to organizations in other industries.
Study of Apollo water impact. Volume 8 - Unsymmetric shells of revolution analysis Final report
Numerical analysis of static, and dynamic shell response to water impact load
Composite Fermion Wavefunctions Derived by Conformal Field Theory
The Jain theory of hierarchical Hall states is reconsidered in the light of
recent analyses that have found exact relations between projected Jain
wavefunctions and conformal field theory correlators. We show that the
underlying conformal theory is precisely given by the W-infinity minimal models
introduced earlier. This theory involves a reduction of the multicomponent
Abelian theory that is similar to the projection to the lowest Landau level in
the Jain approach. The projection yields quasihole excitations obeying
non-Abelian fractional statistics. The analysis closely parallels the bosonic
conformal theory description of the Pfaffian and Read-Rezayi states.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Chiral persistent currents and magnetic susceptibilities in the parafermion quantum Hall states in the second Landau level with Aharonov-Bohm flux
Using the effective conformal field theory for the quantum Hall edge states
we propose a compact and convenient scheme for the computation of the periods,
amplitudes and temperature behavior of the chiral persistent currents and the
magnetic susceptibilities in the mesoscopic disk version of the Z_k parafermion
quantum Hall states in the second Landau level. Our numerical calculations show
that the persistent currents are periodic in the Aharonov-Bohm flux with period
exactly one flux quantum and have a diamagnetic nature. In the high-temperature
regime their amplitudes decay exponentially with increasing the temperature and
the corresponding exponents are universal characteristics of non-Fermi liquids.
Our theoretical results for these exponents are in perfect agreement with those
extracted from the numerical data and demonstrate that there is in general a
non-trivial contribution coming from the neutral sector. We emphasize the
crucial role of the non-holomorphic factors, first proposed by Cappelli and
Zemba in the context of the conformal field theory partition functions for the
quantum Hall states, which ensure the invariance of the annulus partition
function under the Laughlin spectral flow.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX4, 7 figures (eps
Landau-Ginzburg Description of Boundary Critical Phenomena in Two Dimensions
The Virasoro minimal models with boundary are described in the
Landau-Ginzburg theory by introducing a boundary potential, function of the
boundary field value. The ground state field configurations become non-trivial
and are found to obey the soliton equations. The conformal invariant boundary
conditions are characterized by the reparametrization-invariant data of the
boundary potential, that are the number and degeneracies of the stationary
points. The boundary renormalization group flows are obtained by varying the
boundary potential while keeping the bulk critical: they satisfy new selection
rules and correspond to real deformations of the Arnold simple singularities of
A_k type. The description of conformal boundary conditions in terms of boundary
potential and associated ground state solitons is extended to the N=2
supersymmetric case, finding agreement with the analysis of A-type boundaries
by Hori, Iqbal and Vafa.Comment: 42 pages, 13 figure
Partition Functions of Non-Abelian Quantum Hall States
Partition functions of edge excitations are obtained for non-Abelian Hall
states in the second Landau level, such as the anti-Read-Rezayi state, the
Bonderson-Slingerland hierarchy and the Wen non-Abelian fluid, as well as for
the non-Abelian spin-singlet state. The derivation is straightforward and
unique starting from the non-Abelian conformal field theory data and solving
the modular invariance conditions. The partition functions provide a complete
account of the excitation spectrum and are used to describe experiments of
Coulomb blockade and thermopower.Comment: 42 pages, 3 figures; published version; minor corrections to sect.
4.
Sistema para estudos de estratégias de controle aplicadas em câmaras frias
The process of cold storage chambers contributes largely to the quality and longevity of stored products. In recent years, it has been intensified the study of control strategies in order to decrease the temperature change inside the storage chamber and to reduce the electric power consumption. This study has developed a system for data acquisition and process control, in LabVIEW language, to be applied in the cooling system of a refrigerating chamber of 30m³. The use of instrumentation and the application developed fostered the development of scientific experiments, which aimed to study the dynamic behavior of the refrigeration system, compare the performance of control strategies and the heat engine, even due to the controlled temperature, or to the electricity consumption. This system tested the strategies for on-off control, PID and fuzzy. Regarding power consumption, the fuzzy controller showed the best result, saving 10% when compared with other tested strategies.O processo de armazenamento refrigerado em câmaras contribui, em grande parte, para a qualidade e a longevidade dos produtos. Nos últimos anos, têm-se intensificado os estudos de estratégias de controle com a finalidade de diminuir a variação da temperatura dentro da câmara de armazenamento e de reduzir o consumo de energia elétrica. Neste trabalho, foi desenvolvido um sistema para aquisição de dados e controle do processo, em linguagem LabVIEW, para ser aplicado no sistema de refrigeração de uma câmara frigorífica de 30m³. A utilização da instrumentação e do aplicativo desenvolvido possibilitou a realização de experimentos científicos, com o objetivo de estudar o comportamento dinâmico do sistema de refrigeração, comparar o desempenho das estratégias de controle da máquina térmica, tanto em função da temperatura controlada, quanto ao consumo de energia elétrica. Neste sistema, foram testadas as estratégias de controle liga-desliga, PID e fuzzy. Em relação ao consumo de energia elétrica, o controlador fuzzy obteve o melhor resultado, economizando 10% em relação às outras estratégias testadas.86887
Elliptic Wess-Zumino-Witten Model from Elliptic Chern-Simons Theory
This letter continues the program aimed at analysis of the scalar product of
states in the Chern-Simons theory. It treats the elliptic case with group
SU(2). The formal scalar product is expressed as a multiple finite dimensional
integral which, if convergent for every state, provides the space of states
with a Hilbert space structure. The convergence is checked for states with a
single Wilson line where the integral expressions encode the Bethe-Ansatz
solutions of the Lame equation. In relation to the Wess-Zumino-Witten conformal
field theory, the scalar product renders unitary the
Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov-Bernard connection and gives a pairing between conformal
blocks used to obtain the genus one correlation functions.Comment: 18 pages, late
Fuzzy control applied to an electrical power generation system mounted on tractors for driving of agricultural implements
CAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIORThe demand of the agricultural sector for more operationally efficient machines and implements motivated the development of alternatives for driving of this equipment. Aiming an electrical supply to apply in agricultural implements, this study proposes a system that uses the tractor power take off to activate a synchronous generator, using a fuzzy logic controller designed to regulate the generated voltage level. Different control architectures were tested and evaluated by simulations. In the initial stage were evaluated fuzzy PI, fuzzy PD and fuzzy PID controllers of multiple inputs and single output (MISO) and the error of the generated voltage as state variable. Subsequently, it was evaluated a fuzzy PI controller of single input and multiple outputs (SIMO) with a modified rule base for the system. In the final stage, the angular drive speed was included as state variable of the controller. The behavior of each architecture was analyzed by means of performance indexes. The results show that among the tested controllers, the modified fuzzy PI SIMO presented the best performance values while maintaining the operating variables within the established limits.The demand of the agricultural sector for more operationally efficient machines and implements motivated the development of alternatives for driving of this equipment. Aiming an electrical supply to apply in agricultural implements, this study proposes a365846857CAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIORCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIORsem informaçã
Persistent edge currents for paired quantum hall states
We study the behavior of the persistent edge current for paired quantum Hall
states on the cylinder. We show that the currents are periodic with the unit
flux . At low temperatures, they exhibit anomalous oscillations in
their flux dependence.The shape of the functions converges to the sawtooth
function periodic with .Comment: RevTex 8 pages. one figure. to appear in Phys.Rev.
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