The Good Flow: How Happiness Emerges from the Skillful Enactment of Morality

In this paper, I will argue that 'being good' positively correlates to 'being happy.' First, I will clarify how I’ll be using the word ‘morality’ and the phrase ‘being good’. Second, I will claim that moral goodness is developed and exercised as a kind of practical skill. This will allow me to propose that ‘being good’ – like other complex and engaging skills – entails the elicitation of a kind of flow experience. Third, I will propose that ‘being good’ involves achieving what I'll call ‘vertical coherency’ within one’s life and that this provides sustained engagement (‘flow’) and meaning while exercising moral goodness. Lastly, I will show why the kind of happiness that we truly want for ourselves and those we care about emerges from a moral engagement – a ‘good flow’ – of the sort described

The limits of mean-field heterozygosity estimates under spatial extension in simulated plant populations

Computational models of evolutionary processes are increasingly required to incorporate multiple and diverse sources of data. A popular feature to include in population genetics models is spatial extension, which reflects more accurately natural populations than does a mean field approach. However, such models necessarily violate the mean field assumptions of classical population genetics, as do natural populations in the real world. Recently, it has been questioned whether classical approaches are truly applicable to the real world. Individual based models (IBM) are a powerful and versatile approach to achieve integration in models. In this study an IBM was used to examine how populations of plants deviate from classical expectations under spatial extension. Populations of plants that used three different mating strategies were placed in a range of arena sizes giving crowded to sparse occupation densities. Using a measure of population density, the pollen communication distance (Pcd), the deviation exhibited by outbreeding populations differed from classical mean field expectations by less than 5% when Pcd was less than 1, and over this threshold value the deviation significantly increased. Populations with an intermediate mating strategy did not have such a threshold and deviated directly with increasing isolation between individuals. Populations with a selfing strategy were influenced more by the mating strategy than by increased isolation. In all cases pollen dispersal was more influential than seed dispersal. The IBM model showed that mean field calculations can be reasonably applied to natural outbreeding plant populations that occur at a density in which individuals are less than the average pollen dispersal distance from their neighbors

Reputation Management: Corporate Image and Communication

Reputation was, is, and always will be of immense importance to organisations, whether commercial, governmental or not-for-profit. To reach their goals, stay competitive and prosper, good reputation paves the organisational path to acceptance and approval by stakeholders. Even organisations operating in difficult ethical environments - perhaps self-created - need to sustain a positive reputation where possible. Argenti & Druckenmiller argue that, “organisations increasingly recognize the importance of corporate reputation to achieve business goals and stay competitive” (Argenti & Druckenmiller 2004, p.368). While there are many recent examples of organisations whose leadership and business practice behaviours have destroyed their reputation, such as Enron, Arthur Andersen, Tyco and WorldCom, the positive case for reputation is that it has fostered continued expansion of old stagers like Johnson & Johnson and Philips and innovators such as Cisco Systems, who top recent rankings of the most respected organisations in the US and Europe. What is evident is that reputation does not occur by chance. It relates to leadership, management, and organisational operations, the quality of products and services, and - crucially - relationships with stakeholders. It is also connected to communication activities and feedback mechanisms. This chapter will consider the definitions and nature of reputation and its management, best practice and evaluation. It will also discuss the boundaries between branding, image and reputation

The Troika process: Economic models and macroeconomic policy in the USA

In the executive branch of the U.S. Federal government, a group known as the Troika -- comprised of senior officials of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, the Department of the Treasury, and the Office of Management and Budget -- plays an important role in developing the economic agenda for each Administration. The Troika develops the economic assumptions underlying the Administration’s budget proposals including an assessment of current economic conditions and forecasts for key economic indicators. It meets regularly to address a variety of policy issues, to evaluate and modify the Administration’s forecasts, and to monitor the current stance of fiscal and monetary policies relative to the economy’s position in the business cycle. This paper provides an overview of the Troika process and the role of empirical models in the development of the fiscal policies and macroeconomic forecasts of the U.S. government.macroeconomic forecasting; econometric models; government policy

Harnessing Technology Schools Survey 2007

The report contains detailed analyses of the bulk of the data from the HTSS in 2007 to supplement the main report