3,033 research outputs found
An Analysis of the Military Retirement System: How Does Retirement Return Influence Retention?
The cost of the current Department of Defense (DoD) defined-benefit retirement plan has long been a source of consternation within Congress and the DoD (Freedberg, 1999:35). Billed as being too costly in the private sector, many firms have elected to switch from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, most often a 401K retirement plan (Chassen, 1990:18). This thesis attempts to capture the effect of the current military retirement plan on rates of retention. The goal of this study is to be used as a tool should the Department of Defense decide to move from a defined-benefit plan to a defined-contribution plan. Previous studies (e.g., Asch et al., 1998) have explored different methods in comparing various retirement systems, largely based on organizations meeting their retention and performance goals. The model introduced in this study will test the extent to which the rate of return associated with the current military retirement system influences the organization’s retention goals while simultaneously helping the individual meet his or her long-term financial security goals
Theory of the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Transport Bifurcations
The development and time evolution of a transport barrier in a magnetically
confined plasma with non-monotonic, nonlinear dependence of the anomalous flux
on mean gradients is analyzed. Upon consideration of both the spatial
inhomogeneity and the gradient nonlinearity of the transport coefficient, we
find that the transition develops as a bifurcation front with radially
propagating discontinuity in local gradient. The spatial location of the
transport barrier as a function of input flux is calculated. The analysis
indicates that for powers slightly above threshold, the barrier location
where is the local transition
power threshold and is the neoclassical diffusivity . This result
suggests a simple explanation of the high disruptivity observed in reversed
shear plasmas. The basic conclusions of this theory are insensitive to the
details of the local transport model.Comment: 21 page Tex file, 10 postscript file
Evaluation of the Environmental Impact of Milk Quotas
The aim of this study is to examine the environmental impacts of the different systems for allocation and transfer of milk quota under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in individual Member States of the European Union (EU). In particular, it seeks to identify the ways in which differences in the implementation of milk quota regimes can impact on various sectoral and farm management trends and the environmental implications of these
Non-continuous and variable rate processes: Optimisation for energy use
The need to develop new and improved ways of reducing energy use and increasing energy intensity in industrial processes is currently a major issue in New Zealand. Little attention has been given to optimisation of non-continuous processes in the past, due to their complexity, yet they remain an essential and often energy intensive component of many industrial sites. Novel models based on pinch analysis that aid in minimising utility usage have been constructed here through the adaptation of proven continuous techniques. The knowledge has been integrated into a user friendly software package, and allows the optimisation of processes under variable operating rates and batch conditions. An example problem demonstrates the improvements in energy use that can be gained when using these techniques to analyse non-continuous data. A comparison with results achieved using a pseudo-continuous method show that the method described can provide simultaneous reductions in capital and operating costs
The post-test analysis of ablative materials Final report, 11 Jul. 1967 - 15 May 1968
Ablative materials examination before and after test firin
High-Resolution In-Vivo Analysis of Normal Brain Response to Cranial Irradiation
Radiation therapy (RT) is a widely accepted treatment strategy for many central nervous system (CNS) pathologies. However, despite recognized therapeutic success, significant negative consequences are associated with cranial irradiation (CR), which manifests months to years post-RT. The pathophysiology and molecular alterations that culminate in the long-term detrimental effects of CR are poorly understood, though it is thought that endothelial injury plays a pivotal role in triggering cranial injury. We therefore explored the contribution of bone marrow derived cells (BMDCs) in their capacity to repair and contribute to neo-vascularization following CR. Using high-resolution in vivo optical imaging we have studied, at single-cell resolution, the spatio-temporal response of BMDCs in normal brain following CR. We demonstrate that BMDCs are recruited specifically to the site of CR, in a radiation dose and temporal-spatial manner. We establish that BMDCs do not form endothelial cells but rather they differentiate predominantly into inflammatory cells and microglia. Most notably we provide evidence that more than 50% of the microglia in the irradiated region of the brain are not resident microglia but recruited from the bone marrow following CR. These results have invaluable therapeutic implications as BMDCs may be a primary therapeutic target to block acute and long-term inflammatory response following CR. Identifying the critical steps involved in the sustained recruitment and differentiation of BMDCs into microglia at the site of CR can provide new insights into the mechanisms of injury following CR offering potential therapeutic strategies to counteract the long-term adverse effects of CR
Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction in Sri Lanka: What Methodology?
Research methodology is the procedural framework within which the research is conducted. This includes the overall
approach to a problem that could be put into practice in a research process, from the theoretical underpinning to the
collection and analysis of data. Choice of methodology depends on the primary drivers: topic to be researched and the
specific research questions. Hence, methodological perspectives of managing stakeholder expectations of PDHR context
are composed of research philosophies, research strategy, research design, and research techniques. This research belonged
to social constructivism or interpretivism within a philosophical continuum. The nature of the study was more toward
subjectivism where human behavior favored voluntary stance. Ontological, methodological, epistemological, and axiological
positioning carried the characteristics of idealism, ideographic, anti-positivism, and value laden, respectively. Data collection
comprises two phases, preliminary and secondary. Exploratory interviews with construction experts in the United Kingdom
and Sri Lanka were carried out to refine the interview questions and identify the case studies. Case study interviews during
the secondary phase took place in Sri Lanka. Data collected at the preliminary stage were used to assess the attributes of
power, legitimacy/proximity, and urgency of stakeholders to the project using Stakeholder Circle™ software. Moreover,
the data collected at secondary phase via case studies will be analyzed with NVivo 8. This article aims to discuss these
methodological underpinnings in detail applied in a post-disaster housing reconstruction context in Sri Lanka
Putting Public Safety First: 13 Strategies for Successful Supervision and Reentry
Outlines organizational- and case management-level strategies to reduce recidivism through risk reduction and behavior change, such as by aligning resources with risk factors. Describes each practice's benefits, evidence base, and examples from the field
Partial-wave analysis of data
We present a partial-wave analysis of the polarization data for the reaction
, based solely on the recent measurements at
IUCF for this channel. The fit leads to a per degree of freedom of
1.7. Methods for an improved analysis are discussed. We compare the extracted
values to those from a meson exchange model.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure
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