Course Redesign: Integrating Human Centered Design Thinking to Reimagine Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning in the collegiate classroom is a collaborative exercise. Instructors and learners benefit from integrative learning strategies modeling real-world problem solving. Implementing the tenets of design thinking boosts student engagement to extract idea generation and introduce students to process ideation, brainstorming, and group problem solving. This session presents an experimental classroom instruction prototype to redesign class research project expectations utilizing human centered design principles

Ion temperature gradient instability at sub-Larmor radius scales with non-zero ballooning angle

Linear gyro-kinetic stability calculations predict unstable toroidal Ion Temperature Gradient modes with normalised poloidal wave vectors well above one ($k_\theta \rho_i > 1$) for standard parameters and with adiabatic electrons. These modes have a maximum amplitude at a poloidal angle $\theta$ that is shifted away from the low field side ($\theta \ne 0$). The physical mechanism is clarified through the use of a fluid model. It is shown that the shift of the mode away from the low field side ($\theta \ne 0$) reduces the effective drift frequency, and allows for the instability to develop. Numerical tests using the gyro-kinetic model confirm this physical mechanism. It is furthermore shown that modes with $\theta \ne 0$ can be important also for $k_\theta \rho_i < 1$ close to the threshold of the ITG. In fact, modes with $\theta \ne 0$ can exist for normalised temperature gradient lengths below the threshold of the ITG obtained for $\theta = 0$

Improve Employee Engagement Through the Application of Systems Thinking to Develop Team Chemistry

Research suggests that high employee engagement has a strong positive impact on organizational performance. When employees work in teams and actively contribute to organizational purpose, employee engagement improves and performance outcomes benefit. To realize an employee’s potential in a team, managers must craft deliberate work relationships. The focus on the whole, or systems thinking, allows managers to capitalize on and appreciate differences in work behaviors. This study examines team chemistry, in which Deloitte’s preferred work styles known as Pioneers, Drivers, Integrators, and Guardians, are examined for ideal fit to increase organizational performance. Addressing the organization’s system, and the team’s ideal structure, drives higher rates of employee engagement. This study includes an examination of two different work teams inside one organization. The study compares performance outcomes from one team applying a systems-thinking approach, versus a team void of these considerations. This research adds to the body of work that investigates effective employee engagement strategies for improved organizational performance

The Effects of Mortality, Subsistence, and Ecology on Human Adult Height and Implications for Homo Evolution

The increase in body size observed with the appearance and evolution of Homo is most often attributed to thermoregulatory and locomotor adaptations to environment; increased reliance on animal protein and fat; or increased behavioral flexibility, provisioning, and cooperation leading to decreased mortality rates and slow life histories. It is not easy to test these hypotheses in the fossil record. Therefore, understanding selective pressures shaping height variability in living humans might help to construct models for the interpretation of body size variation in the hominins. Among human populations, average male height varies extensively (145 cm–183 cm); a similar range of variation is found in Homo erectus (including African and Georgian samples). Previous research shows that height in human populations covaries with life history traits and variations in mortality rates and that different environments affect adult height through adaptations related to thermoregulation and nutrition. We investigate the interactions between life history traits, mortality rates, environmental setting, and subsistence for 89 small-scale societies. We show that mortality rates are the primary factor shaping adult height variation and that people in savanna are consistently taller than people in forests. We focus on relevant results for interpreting the evolution of Homo body size variability

Stature, Mortality, and Life History among Indigenous Populations of the Andaman Islands, 1871-1986

Despite considerable interest in the evolution of small body size, there is little evidence for changes in body size within small‐bodied human populations. This study combines anthropometric data from a number of studies of the body size of Andaman Islanders from 1871 to 1986. The colonial history of the Andaman Islands is characterized by high rates of mortality among the indigenous populations. However, long‐term conflicts between tribal groups of the Andaman Islands and British and Indian settlers led to some groups being relatively isolated and sheltered from infectious disease and the high rates of mortality that affected other groups. When temporal trends in stature are compared in this context, there is evidence for a reduction in stature among the Great Andamanese who had close contact with the British during the period of highest mortality. Adult stature among the Onge appears to have increased as government involvement diminished following Indian independence. The Jarawa, who had lower rates of mortality throughout the past century, have significantly higher stature than the other groups. These results are interpreted in the context of life‐history theory, adaptation, and plasticity. They provide the first long‐term diachronic evidence for a relationship between mortality and stature among small‐bodied humans

Reproductive Market Values Explain Post-reproductive Lifespans in Men

Post-reproductive lifespans (PRLSs) of men vary across traditional societies. We argue that if sexual selection operates on male age-dependent resource availability (or 'reproductive market values') the result is variation in male late-life reproduction across subsistence systems. This perspective highlights the uniqueness of PRLS in both women and men

The origins of human cumulative culture: from the foraging niche to collective intelligence

Various studies have investigated cognitive mechanisms underlying culture in humans and other great apes. However, the adaptive reasons for the evolution of uniquely sophisticated cumulative culture in our species remain unclear. We propose that the cultural capabilities of humans are the evolutionary result of a stepwise transition from the ape-like lifestyle of earlier hominins to the foraging niche still observed in extant hunter–gatherers. Recent ethnographic, archaeological and genetic studies have provided compelling evidence that the components of the foraging niche (social egalitarianism, sexual and social division of labour, extensive co-residence and cooperation with unrelated individuals, multilocality, fluid sociality and high between-camp mobility) engendered a unique multilevel social structure where the cognitive mechanisms underlying cultural evolution (high-fidelity transmission, innovation, teaching, recombination, ratcheting) evolved as adaptations. Therefore, multilevel sociality underlies a ‘social ratchet’ or irreversible task specialization splitting the burden of cultural knowledge across individuals, which may explain why human collective intelligence is uniquely able to produce sophisticated cumulative culture. The foraging niche perspective may explain why a complex gene-culture dual inheritance system evolved uniquely in humans and interprets the cultural, morphological and genetic origins of Homo sapiens as a process of recombination of innovations appearing in differentiated but interconnected populations. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines’

Reshaping traditional marketing mix to include social media participation: evidence from Italian firms

Purpose - Due to the emergent use of social media for marketing purposes, and the limited number of studies focusing on the use of social media by firms, the purpose of this paper is to explore the inclusion of social networks in the traditional marketing mix models. Methodology- A sample of 20 small and large Italian liquor producers was used and their Facebook profiles were content analyzed. Findings - Results provide evidence about the emerging shift from the use of social media for communication purposes through static advertising (characterized by pictures and slogans), to its use as an interactive channel that can influence consumers’ purchasing behaviour through multimedia tools (i.e. games and interactive applications able to solicit users’ interest), by emphasizing the extent to which a higher level of participation by a firm involves a higher level of consumer interaction. Findings also suggest that the firm’s participation should be considered as a new element of the traditional marketing mix model and as an additional tool for efficient market sizing and sensing. Originality/Value - The study offers findings on actual usage of Facebook as part of marketing mix strategies based on large and small enterprises operating in the Food and Beverage sector, where a dearth of studies is observed. The study enhances and advances the social media and marketing literatures