Team Foundation and Outsourcing Preparedness

This thesis describes CDR International\u27s first board sponsored and senior executive approved and organized effort to leverage the labor arbitrage and service and performance opportunities existing in the global marketplace. I describe the initial phases of the formation of the outsourcing team, the challenges and political obstacles overcome and the decision making phase of this important organizational project. I argue that key factors for success of this initiative included a solid foundation of research, best practices, lessons-learned from comparable organizations, and most important, the formation of standard tools and methods for identifying and evaluating opportune functions for consideration. The development of these toolsets and methodologies has and continues to directly impact the decision making process. In correlation with the development and implementation of these standards and methods, and consistent with almost any organizational role, the importance of leveraging the organizational dynamics across the association was also vital. Accordingly, factors to success emanated from proper expectation setting, solid written and verbal communication skills, political and business savvy, and thoughtful and constructive organizational alliances. Although useful across a wide range of organizational roles, the mere importance and sensitivity of the outsourcing charter and its implications to bottom-line savings, top-line growth and the net effect to our career-minded employees, heighten the significance of those aforementioned traits

A capacitor-less low drop-out voltage regulator with fast transient response

Power management has had an ever increasing role in the present electronic industry. Battery powered and handheld applications require power management techniques to extend the life of the battery and consequently the operation life of the device. Most systems incorporate several voltage regulators which supply various subsystems and provide isolation among such subsystems. Low dropout (LDO) voltage regulators are generally used to supply low voltage, low noise analog circuitry. Each LDO regulator demands a large external capacitor, in the range of a few microfarads, to perform. These external capacitors occupy valuable board space, increase the IC pin count, and prohibit system-on-chip (SoC) solutions. The presented research provides a solution to the present bulky external capacitor LDO voltage regulators with a capacitor-less LDO architecture. The large external capacitor was completely removed and replaced with a reasonable 100pF internal output capacitor, allowing for greater power system integration for SoC applications. A new compensation scheme is presented that provides both a fast transient response and full range ac stability from a 0mA to 50mA load current. A 50mA, 2.8V, capacitor-less LDO voltage regulator was fabricated in a TSMC 0.35um CMOS technology, consuming only 65uA of ground current with a dropout voltage of 200mV. Experimental results show that the proposed capacitor-less LDO voltage regulator exceeds the current published works in both transient response and ac stability. The architecture is also less sensitive to process variation and loading conditions. Thus, the presented capacitor-less LDO voltage regulator is suitable for SoC solutions

A Conversation on Uncertainty in Managerial and Organizational Cognition

This book on uncertainty is the beginning of a series titled “N ew Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition”. We asked Frances Milliken and Ge rard P. Hodgkinson, two well-known scholars who have made important contributions to ou r understanding of uncertainty to help introduce the effort. The brief bios found at the end o f this volume cannot do justice to the broad range of their contributions, but our conversation gi ves a flavor of the kind of insights they have brought to managerial and organizational cognition (M OC). The editors thank them for helping launch the series with a decisive exploration of what d efining uncertainty involves, how that might be done, why it is important, and how the task is ch anging. We were interested to discover that all five of us a re currently involved in research that considers the nature and impact of uncertainty, and we hope that readers similarly find that pa ying attention to uncertainty contributes to their current pro jects. Working together, we can further expand understanding of organizational settings and effective action for both researche rs and practitioners

Athletics & Recreation Master Plan Sub‐Committee Final Report

In 2000 the Athletics & Recreation Department at UMass Boston Implemented a five year strategic plan that would more realistically align sports sponsorship with available financial and facility resources. We reduced the number of sports sponsored from 20 to 14 maintaining 7 sports for women and 7 sports for men. The only sports maintained without a facility were Men’s baseball and Cross Country Track. We eliminated football, swimming and indoor & outdoor track and field for men and women. Since 2005 The Athletics & Recreation Department has been focused on University wide transition and planning efforts. In that period we have experienced three changes in the Chancellors office, two changes in Athletics Director Position and our operation has moved from a university department to a university division. We have engaged in university‐wide strategic planning and master planning while redefining the role of athletics within the campus community. This four year process of transition & planning has been at the same time taxing and invigorating while allowing the Division of Athletics & Recreation, Special Programs & Projects to emerge as a university service entity supportive of the primary mission of the university. The division has engaged in areas of the university heretofore out of its purview. It has established internal and external partnerships that are transformative and beneficial to the entire community. This report focuses on facilities that will allow for the established partnerships to flourish, that will uphold the new standards for high quality facilities that have been implemented over the last four years on our campus and most importantly this report addresses in a comprehensive way a vision for athletics & recreation at UMass Boston that will put us in the fore front of those institutions that offer athletics & recreation for the purpose of the health and both physical and mental wellness of students, faculty and staff. It does begin with a pride of place

Dissecting the illegal ivory trade: an analysis of ivory seizures data

Reliable evidence of trends in the illegal ivory trade is important for informing decision making for elephants but it is difficult to obtain due to the covert nature of the trade. The Elephant Trade Information System, a global database of reported seizures of illegal ivory, holds the only extensive information on illicit trade available. However inherent biases in seizure data make it difficult to infer trends; countries differ in their ability to make and report seizures and these differences cannot be directly measured. We developed a new modelling framework to provide quantitative evidence on trends in the illegal ivory trade from seizures data. The framework used Bayesian hierarchical latent variable models to reduce bias in seizures data by identifying proxy variables that describe the variability in seizure and reporting rates between countries and over time. Models produced bias-adjusted smoothed estimates of relative trends in illegal ivory activity for raw and worked ivory in three weight classes. Activity is represented by two indicators describing the number of illegal ivory transactions--Transactions Index--and the total weight of illegal ivory transactions--Weights Index--at global, regional or national levels. Globally, activity was found to be rapidly increasing and at its highest level for 16 years, more than doubling from 2007 to 2011 and tripling from 1998 to 2011. Over 70% of the Transactions Index is from shipments of worked ivory weighing less than 10 kg and the rapid increase since 2007 is mainly due to increased consumption in China. Over 70% of the Weights Index is from shipments of raw ivory weighing at least 100 kg mainly moving from Central and East Africa to Southeast and East Asia. The results tie together recent findings on trends in poaching rates, declining populations and consumption and provide detailed evidence to inform international decision making on elephants

Anger problems and posttraumatic stress disorder in male and female National Guard and Reserve Service members

Anger is a common problem among veterans and has been associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study aimed to improve understanding of how anger and PTSD co-occur by examining gender differences and differences by whether the triggering traumatic event is deployment-related vs. civilian-related in current service members. A representative cohort of Reserve and National Guard service personnel (n = 1293) were interviewed to assess for deployment- or civilian-related traumas, PTSD, and anger. The prevalence of self-reported anger problems was estimated among male (n = 1036) and female (n = 257) service members. Log Poisson regression models with robust standard errors were used to estimate the associations of problems with anger with PTSD and PTSD symptom severity for men and women. Self-reported anger problems were common among male (53.0%) and female (51.3%) service members. Adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) showed associations between anger and PTSD connected to both civilian- and deployment-related traumas (PR were 1.77 (95% CI 1.52–2.05) and 1.85 (95% CI 1.62–2.12), respectively). PTSD symptom severity was also associated with anger. This study was cross-sectional and so a causal relationship between PTSD and anger cannot be established. Problems with anger are common among male and female current Guard and Reserve members. These findings suggest that anger treatment should be made available to current service members and that clinicians should assess anger problems irrespective of gender. Future research should examine the effectiveness of anger treatment protocols by gender

Rethinking energy, climate and security: a critical analysis of energy security in the US

Understanding the complicated relationship between energy, climate and security is vital both to the study of international relations and to ensure the continued survival of a world increasingly threatened by environmental change. Climate change is largely caused by burning fossil fuels for energy, but while discussions on the climate consider the role of energy, energy security debates largely overlook climate concerns. This article traces the separation between energy and climate through an analysis of US energy security discourse and policy. It shows that energy security is continually constructed as national security, which enables very particular policy choices and prioritises it above climate concerns. Thus, in many cases, policies undertaken in the name of energy security contribute directly to climate insecurity. The article argues that the failure to consider securing the climate as inherently linked to energy security is not just problematic, but, given global warming, potentially harmful. Consequently, any approach to dealing with climate change has to begin by rethinking energy security and security more broadly, as national (energy) security politics no longer provides security in any meaningful sense

Ontogeny-Driven rDNA Rearrangement, Methylation, and Transcription, and Paternal Influence

Gene rearrangement occurs during development in some cell types and this genome dynamics is modulated by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, including growth stimulants and nutrients. This raises a possibility that such structural change in the genome and its subsequent epigenetic modifications may also take place during mammalian ontogeny, a process undergoing finely orchestrated cell division and differentiation. We tested this hypothesis by comparing single nucleotide polymorphism-defined haplotype frequencies and DNA methylation of the rDNA multicopy gene between two mouse ontogenic stages and among three adult tissues of individual mice. Possible influences to the genetic and epigenetic dynamics by paternal exposures were also examined for Cr(III) and acid saline extrinsic factors. Variables derived from litters, individuals, and duplicate assays in large mouse populations were examined using linear mixed-effects model. We report here that active rDNA rearrangement, represented by changes of haplotype frequencies, arises during ontogenic progression from day 8 embryos to 6-week adult mice as well as in different tissue lineages and is modifiable by paternal exposures. The rDNA methylation levels were also altered in concordance with this ontogenic progression and were associated with rDNA haplotypes. Sperm showed highest level of methylation, followed by lungs and livers, and preferentially selected haplotypes that are positively associated with methylation. Livers, maintaining lower levels of rDNA methylation compared with lungs, expressed more rRNA transcript. In vitro transcription demonstrated haplotype-dependent rRNA expression. Thus, the genome is also dynamic during mammalian ontogeny and its rearrangement may trigger epigenetic changes and subsequent transcriptional controls, that are further influenced by paternal exposures