Creative Women in Advertising Agencies: Why So Few “Babes in Boyland”?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore reasons why there are so few women in creative departments of advertising agencies and to discuss what impact that might have on the work environment of those creative departments and advertising messages they create. Design/methodology/approach – Provides a review of published research and plus opinions of professionals who cover the advertising industry or work in agency creative departments. Personal observations from the authors’ time working in the advertising industry are also included. Findings – Themes gleaned from the literature look at the gender gap, the creative department of advertising agencies as an “old-boys network,” reasons why women leave creative jobs, and why advertising targeting women as consumers is so bad. Practical implications – Women opt out of advertising agencies for any number of reasons – more than just having babies. Keeping women’s voices in creative departments would give a better balance to the messages agencies create. Originality/value – Changing creative departments to be more accommodating and flexible to women’s needs might not only make them better for women, but also better for men and for families. In addition, the messages from those creative departments may be more compelling to consumers

Reticent Resolve: The Poetry of Manuel A. Viray

Excerpt In spite of significant work in literary criticism, prose fiction, and poetry, Manuel A . Viray has a low profile in Philippine letters. If we are asked to name prominent Filipino poets, we are likely to think of Villa , Demetillo, and Angeles; we are unlikely to think of Viray. If we are to list notable prose writers, the list may be headed by Joaquin, Santos, and Linda Casper, not Viray. If we specify widely-known critics, perhaps Leonard Casper, Hosillos, and Bernad come immediately to mind; Viray probably will not. 1 Yet Viray has produced work worthy of comparison with these more visible writers

Self-Focusing Dynamics of Coupled Optical Beams

We theoretically and experimentally investigate the mutual collapse dynamics of two spatially separated optical beams in a Kerr medium. Depending on the initial power, beam separation, and the relative phase, we observe repulsion or attraction, which in the latter case reveals a sharp transition to a single collapsing beam. This transition to fusion of the beams is accompanied by an increase in the collapse distance, indicating the effect of the nonlinear coupling on the individual collapse dynamics. Our results shed light on the basic nonlinear interaction between self-focused beams and provide a mechanism to control the collapse dynamics of such beams.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Single Atom Dynamics in Chemical Reactions

Many heterogeneous chemical reactions involve gases catalyzed over solid surfaces at elevated temperatures and play a critical role in the production of energy, healthcare, pollution control, industrial products, and food. These catalytic reactions take place at the atomic level, with active structures forming under reaction conditions. A fundamental understanding of catalysis at the single atom resolution is therefore a major advance in a rational framework upon which future catalytic processes can be built. Visualization and analysis of gas-catalyst chemical reactions at the atomic level under controlled reaction conditions are key to understanding the catalyst structural evolution and atomic scale reaction mechanisms crucial to the performance and the development of improved catalysts and chemical processes. Increasingly, dynamic single atoms and atom clusters are believed to lead to enhanced catalyst performance, but despite considerable efforts, reaction mechanisms at the single atom level under reaction conditions of gas and temperature are not well understood. The development of the atomic lattice resolution environmental transmission electron microscope (ETEM) by the authors is widely used to visualize gas–solid catalyst reactions at this atomic level. It has recently been advanced to the environmental scanning TEM (ESTEM) with single atom resolution and full analytical capabilities. The ESTEM employs high-angle annular dark-field imaging where intensity is approximately proportional to the square of the atomic number (Z). In this Account, we highlight the ESTEM development also introduced by the authors for real time in situ studies to reliably discern metal atoms on lighter supports in gas and high temperature environments, evolving oxide/metal interfaces, and atomic level reaction mechanisms in heterogeneous catalysts more generally and informatively, with utilizing the wider body of literature. The highlights include platinum/carbon systems of interest in fuel cells to meet energy demands and reduce environmental pollution, in reduction/oxidation (redox) mechanisms of copper and nickel nanoparticles extensively employed in catalysis, electronics, and sensors, and in the activation of supported cobalt catalysts in Fischer–Tropsch (FT) synthesis to produce fuels. By following the dynamic reduction process at operating temperature, we investigate Pt atom migrations from irregular nanoparticles in a carbon supported platinum catalyst and the resulting faceting. We outline the factors that govern the mechanism involved, with the discovery of single atom interactions which indicate that a primary role of the nanoparticles is to act as reservoirs of low coordination atoms and clusters. This has important implications in supported nanoparticle catalysis and nanoparticle science. In copper and nickel systems, we track the oxidation front at the atomic level as it proceeds across a nanoparticle, by directly monitoring Z-contrast changes with time and temperature. Regeneration of deactivated catalysts is key to prolong catalyst life. We discuss and review analyses of dynamic redox cycles for the redispersion of nickel nanoparticles with single atom resolution. In the FT process, pretreatment of practical cobalt/silica catalysts reveals higher low-coordination Co0 active sites for CO adsorption. Collectively, the ESTEM findings generate structural insights into catalyst dynamics important in the development of efficient catalysts and processes

Algorithm to Diagnose Leaks or Blockages Downstream of the Secondary Air Injection Reaction (SAIR) Pressure Sensor

A control module and method for an exhaust system of an engine can include a secondary air intake (SAI) pressure module that monitors SAI pressure. An accumulation module can accumulate an SAI string length based on the monitored SAI pressure. A calculation module can determine an average SAI string length based on the accumulated SAI string length. A determination module can determine an operating characteristic of the vehicle exhaust based on the average SAI string length

Trending Fuel Design Parameters for Competitive Advantage

The primary competitive advantage of commercial nuclear power over other baseload generating sources has been and continues to be the stability of fuel expense. Fuel contributes about 30% of total nuclear production costs and we believe this percentage will rise moderately as non-fuel production costs continue their decline. This places some urgency on seeking and implementing improvements in fuel utilisation by both suppliers and consumers to keep nuclear power competitive. The nuclear operating company as a fuel consumer can evaluate trends over the past operating cycles in its search for improvement in fuel utilisation. Some fuel parameters that have received attention recently are contracting strategies, fuel reliability, and higher exposures for discharged fuel