Finite-element modeling of liquid-crystal hydrodynamics with a variable degree of order

A finite-element model of liquid-crystal hydrodynamics based on the Qian and Sheng formulation has been developed. This formulation is a generalization of the Ericksen-Leslie theory to include variations in the order parameter, allowing for a proper description of disclinations. The present implementation is well suited to treat properly the various length scales necessary to model large regions yet resolve the rapid variations in the order parameter in proximity to disclinations

Modeling of weak anisotropic anchoring of nematic liquid crystals in the Landau-de Gennes theory

The anisotropic anchoring effect of a treated solid surface on a nematic liquid crystal is described in the Landau-de Gennes theory using a power expansion on the tensor-order parameter and two mutually orthogonal unit vectors. The expression has three degrees of freedom, allowing for independent assignment of polar and azimuthal anchoring strengths and a preferred value of the surface-order parameter. It is shown that in the limit for a uniaxial constant-order parameter, the expression simplifies to the anisotropic generalization of the Rapini-Papoular anchoring energy density proposed by Zhao et al. Experimentally measurable values with a physical meaning in the Oseen-Frank theory can be scaled and assigned to the scalar coefficients of the tensor-order-parameter expansion. Results of numerical experiments comparing the anchoring according to the study of Zhao et al. in the Oseen-Frank theory and the power expansion in the Landau-de Gennes theory are presented and shown to agree well

A Study of Attitudes, Competencies, and Understandings Achieved Through the Medium of Electronic Music in Selected Upper Elementary and Junior High School Classrooms

Problem: The purpose of this study was to test a basic ungraded program of study in electronic music suitable for use in grades five through eight. Procedure: The research population consisted of 339 students drawn from two elementary schools and one junior high school in the Grand Forks, North Dakota, Public Schools. These students were grouped into seven pairs of experimental and control groups. For one semester the experimental groups received music instruction using an electronic music-based curriculum while the control groups received more general, traditional music instruction. Measurements were made with a battery of four pre/post-tests to determine any possible significant differences in attitude toward music, competencies in electronic music, and musical concept development that existed between the experimental and control groups. The statistical techniques utilized for this study were analysis of covariance and analysis of variance by regression Analysis of variance was included to identify any effects that could be attributed to the covariate. The .05 level of confidence was established a priori for determining the significance of the analyses. Findings: 1. There were no significant differences between the control and experimental groups in attitude toward music. 2. In a majority of the groups tested, the experimental groups showed a significantly better mastery of competencies in electronic music than did the control groups. 3. Exposure to and involvement with electronic music contributed to a higher level of conceptual development for a majority of the experimental groups (for the portion of the musical concepts measured by the fourth test) than for the control groups. 4. Students\u27 opinions of electronic music and their reactions to its inclusion in music class are much more positive in seventh and eighth grades than in fifth and sixth grades. There was a wide range of likes and dislikes; most students were able to tell quite specifically why they either liked or disliked electronic music. However, the comments seem to indicate that most students had not yet reached the point of being able to identify with the aesthetic aspects of electronic music. Recommendations: 1. Some electronic music should be introduced at each grade level with the main emphasis occurring at the seventh and eighth grades. Becoming familiar with terms and techniques appears to be one of the greatest obstacles for students. A gradual acquisition of necessary knowledge and skills could be much more easily developed if electronic music were started in the lower grades. 2. The development of musical concepts (through exposure to and involvement with electronic music) that are applicable to many kinds of music has not been conclusively established by this study. Further study should be undertaken to identify these concepts. The need for a reliable test instrument is crucial. 3. Electronic music\u27s many sound capabilities lend themselves to unlimited development of the creative capacity. Additional studies should be made to uncover the potential of electronic music in relation to research findings in other phases of creativity. 4. Electronic music study should last for a period of time that will enable students to master the mechanical aspects well enough for the aesthetic aspects of the music to become the central focus of the learning experience. 5. An electronic music-based class should be considered, on an elective basis, as an alternative to the traditional general music class in grades seven and eight. An additional study could be made to determine the differences between the electronic music-based class and the traditional general music class when self-selection (choice between electronic or traditional class) is made available to students

Mimic-Women: Twentieth-Century American Women On The Edges Of Exploration

Women have been involved in exploration as adventurers, discoverers, mountaineers, and botanists for centuries. Yet, women have largely been unrecognized as explorers. This project shows that women in exploration have had to practice physical and rhetorical strategies to overcome historical and traditional gender biases in exploration and its related fields. Expanding on Homi Bhabha’s explanation of colonial mimicry, I argue that twentieth-century American women explorers practiced a form of gender-based mimicry to make their presence in exploration possible. At times, they mimicked their male explorer-counterparts such as when they inhabited the imperial gaze. At other times, they employed gendered rhetorical strategies, such as the use of self-effacement. Taken together, these strategies allowed women of the time to work in the male-dominated field of exploration while carving out a place in the field for the women who followed

From the Two Faces of Unionism to the Facebook Society: Union Voice in a 21st Century Context, Manpower Human Resources Lab Discussion Paper No. 6

Union membership has declined precipitously in the US over the past 40 years. Can anything be done to stem this decline? This paper argues that union voice is an attribute (among others) of union membership that is experiential in nature and that unlike the costs of unionisation, can be discerned only after joining a union. This makes the act of ‘selling’ unionism to workers (and to some extent firms as well) rather difficult. Supportive social trends and social customs are required in order to make union membership’s many hard-to-observe benefits easier to discern. Most membership based institutions face the same dilemma. However, recent social networking organizations such as Facebook and other on-line communities have been rather successful in attracting millions of members in a relatively short period of time. The question of whether the union movement can appropriate some of these lessons is discussed with reference to historical and contemporary examples

Is it Good to Talk? Information Disclosure and Organisational Performance in the UK Incorporating evidence submitted on the DTI discussion paper 'High Performance Workplaces - Informing and Consulting Employees'

The disclosure of information by management to employees varies significantly between workplaces. The effects of this variance on organizational performance are analysed using WERS98 data. The results show that the impact of information disclosure on organisational performance is more complex than is often assumed in the literature. Overall, there is a significant impact, both direct and indirect, and this varies depending on the level of employee organisational commitment, the type of information disclosed, and the performance outcome involved. On the whole, the positive effects are less in union settings and in situations where unions are strong.

The effect of surface temperature and Reynolds number on the leeward heat-transfer for a shuttle orbiter

The effect of windward surface temperature on the heat transfer to the leeward surface of the shuttle orbiter was investigated. Heat-transfer distributions, surface-pressure distributions, and schlieren photographs were obtained for an 0.01-scale model of the 37-0 shuttle orbiter at angles-of-attack of 30 deg and of 40 deg. Similar data were obtained for a fuselage-only configuration at angles-of-attack of 30 deg and of 90 deg. Data were obtained for various Mach numbers, Reynolds numbers, and surface temperatures

Deep imaging of Eridanus II and its lone star cluster

We present deep imaging of the most distant dwarf discovered by the Dark Energy Survey, Eridanus II (Eri II). Our Magellan/Megacam stellar photometry reaches $\sim$$3$ mag deeper than previous work, and allows us to confirm the presence of a stellar cluster whose position is consistent with Eri II's center. This makes Eri II, at $M_V=-7.1$, the least luminous galaxy known to host a (possibly central) cluster. The cluster is partially resolved, and at $M_V=-3.5$ it accounts for $\sim$$4\%$ of Eri II's luminosity. We derive updated structural parameters for Eri II, which has a half-light radius of $\sim$$280$ pc and is elongated ($\epsilon$$\sim$$0.48$), at a measured distance of $D$$\sim$$370$ kpc. The color-magnitude diagram displays a blue, extended horizontal branch, as well as a less populated red horizontal branch. A central concentration of stars brighter than the old main sequence turnoff hints at a possible intermediate-age ($\sim$$3$ Gyr) population; alternatively, these sources could be blue straggler stars. A deep Green Bank Telescope observation of Eri II reveals no associated atomic gas.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; ApJL accepte

Employee voice and human resource management: an empirical analysis using British data

The definition of formal employee voice employed in this paper is a variant of the definition developed by Hirschman (1970) in his seminal monograph and later elaborated and appropriated to unions in the labour market by Freeman and Medoff (1984). What we refer to as formal voice is any institutionalised form of two-way communication between management and employees. This is not the same as information sharing or other types of one-way consultation. Meaningful two-way dialogue, as that found typically in union collective bargained voice, is what formal employee voice refers to. As we endeavour to show in this paper, these forms of two-way communication typically extend beyond union voice to non-union forms of representation and direct forms of two-way dialogue, such as problem-solving groups and the statutory systems of works council voice developed as part of deeper European Union (EU) integration. Broader definitions of voice can also be invoked for the labour market as a whole or even for society more generally. In this context see recent work by Adrian Wilkinson and his colleagues (Dundon et al., 2004) and also John Budd’s Employment with a Human Face (2004). Some may take our definition of voice above and simply state that a formal voice system is 'the way workers communicate with management'. For us that would not be a poor workable definition. But how does that play out when we talk about Human Resource Management (HRM) techniques and their role in either abetting or inhibiting voice at work? HRM is not a voice system. Instead we assert that it has a different purpose altogether but may employ voice alongside in order to achieve the end goal of improving worker performance. This assertion flies against most received wisdom and evidence from the US, where union voice (the only real form permitted by the Wagner Act) often sits uncomfortably with HR. In England, up to now, the only thorough evidence by Wood and Machin (2005) suggested no correlation between voice (union) and HRM adoption. In this paper, however, we offer a new explanation for these findings above and in the process contribute some important new findings of our own. The principal source of formal employee voice has typically been provided by trade unions. However, in Britain, where our empirical analysis resides, unions have not been the sole, or even main, conduit for worker-management voice relations for more than three decades. Since the 1960s, firms in Britain have been combining traditional collective bargaining over wages and working conditions with independent non-union channels of two-way communication. Practically, this means things like having a non-union employee-employer committee to handle health-safety issues, promotion criteria or disability concerns. In my own university, a traditional collective bargaining process has neatly resided alongside a plethora of non-union administration and staff committees that discuss nearly every aspect of day-to-day work life and even strategic university planning goals. How these varying types and intensity of voice systems at work can (and do) sit alongside certain managerial innovations for the improvement of employee productivity, is the subject matter of our paper