A systems approach to decentralising power for organisational effectiveness

Bibliography: leaves 105-106.Organisational effectiveness has become more and more of a prerequisite in today's demanding and ever changing business environment. The democratisation of our country and mobilisation of unions whose demands includes the implementation of workplace forums has given rise to the need for business to re-evaluate the way management practices and decisions are being carried out. These demands have placed a significant strain on our company, Howden Air Industries, the company under review. The company has been through turbulent times during the past three years with downsizing, restructuring and retrenchments being the major focus of management's endeavours to reverse the losses which have been produced thus far. The situation however further declined due to a very autocratic approach by management and a lack of long-term strategies for implementing systems and controls to achieve the desired effect of increasing productivity for long term growth. Many attempts have been made to restructure the organisation without much success. Often key employees were lost due to retrenchments as the focus has always been on cutting costs by eliminating people. Needless to say the complexity of the situation and the demands placed on us by an ever changing business climate has resulted in a review of strategy. The report essentially proposes a scientific method of inquiry to handle complex situations, which is then used in an attempt to highlight the need for the decentralisation of power within complex organisations. It follows a systemic approach which regards each department as having an effect on each other as well as the larger environment. This concept which is discussed in more detail in this report together with an investigation of the organisation on its ability to overcome its problems seemed like a possible solution given the current situation in South Africa and in particular the introduction of workplace democracy

Racial Ideology and Black Students’ Leadership Experiences at a Historically White Institution

The purpose of the present study is to understand the relationship between racial ideology and leadership experiences of Black student leaders at a historically White institution (HWI). Using a phenomenological approach, the study seeks to delineate the experiences of Black students as it relates to their leadership and racial identity. Using the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI); (Sellers et al., 1997) and one-on-one semi-structured interviews, data was collected from Black undergraduate students at a midsized HWI who were classified as juniors or above and who participated in one or more student organizations or campus activities in a leadership capacity. Among the data collected was information about students’ racial ideology, racial centrality, and their experiences and perceptions about leadership at a midsized public HWI. Findings suggest that most students at the research site hold the Oppressed Minority racial ideology. Also, racial ideology plays a clear role in Black students’ perceptions of their leadership experiences, beliefs, and decisions. Black students whose ideology emphasized assimilation or humanism were more likely to deemphasize the impact of racial oppression, and choose leadership opportunities which enhance their professional development, respectively. Ideologies associated with a higher emphasis on Black identity and the Black experience were more likely to feel racially isolated as a student leader and to choose organizations which provided them with a stronger sense of community and belonging

Essays on Monetary Policy and Bitcoin Financial Economics

This dissertation includes three chapters. The first chapter investigates the impact of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet normalization using a Bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR) framework. I use counterfactual conditional forecasts to find that a reduction in asset holdings down to a level where the federal funds market is active again will reducereal GDP growth by an average of 0.18 percent per year and core inflation by a non-significant average of 0.07 percent per year under Quantitative Tightening, relative to a scenario where the Federal Reserve maintains a constant dollar amount of assets until 2024. The second chapter models monetary policy using Taylor’s rule for the nominal interest-rate target and examines the difference between the actual Federal Funds Rate and the Taylor Rule model of behavior for distinct structural changes. Both a simple factor ANOVA and regime switching methods find that there were “tight” or “loose” regimes in U.S. monetary policy over the period 1965 to 2008. However, after accounting for the change in inflation measurement from CPI to PCE and then core PCE after 2004, Alan Greenspan’s tenure from 2003 to 2006 is consistent with his earlier symmetric deviations from the Taylor Rule. The final chapter examines the volatility of Bitcoin exchange rates which have gained a great deal of attention since the creation of the currency. Standard measures of volatility reflect the dramatic change in the Bitcoin/US dollar exchange rate, from about $0.05 USD in 2010 to the neighborhood of$20,000 USD at the end of 2017, and down to around $5,000 USD in mid-2019. Characterizing the short-term and long-term volatility gives an impression of the volatility of Bitcoin compared to other assets, as well as implying the viability of Bitcoin as a medium of exchange and alternative asset

Opinion Editorial: Challenging Minds and Changing Lives: How Historically Black Colleges and Universities are Intentional about Educating the Whole Student

Challenging Minds and Changing Lives: How Historically Black Colleges and Universities are Intentional about Educating the Whole Studen

Pain Level Detection From Facial Image Captured by Smartphone

Accurate symptom of cancer patient in regular basis is highly concern to the medical service provider for clinical decision making such as adjustment of medication. Since patients have limitations to provide self-reported symptoms, we have investigated how mobile phone application can play the vital role to help the patients in this case. We have used facial images captured by smart phone to detect pain level accurately. In this pain detection process, existing algorithms and infrastructure are used for cancer patients to make cost low and user-friendly. The pain management solution is the first mobile-based study as far as we found today. The proposed algorithm has been used to classify faces, which is represented as a weighted combination of Eigenfaces. Here, angular distance, and support vector machines (SVMs) are used for the classification system. In this study, longitudinal data was collected for six months in Bangladesh. Again, cross-sectional pain images were collected from three different countries: Bangladesh, Nepal and the United States. In this study, we found that personalized model for pain assessment performs better for automatic pain assessment. We also got that the training set should contain varying levels of pain in each group: low, medium and high

Introduction de critères ergonomiques dans un système de génération automatique d’interfaces de supervision

The ecological interface design is composed of two steps, a work domain analysis and a transcription of the information of the work domain into ecological representation (Naikar, 2010). This kind of design showed his effectiveness for the supervision of complex system (Burns, 2008). Nevertheless, Vicente (2002) highlighted two issues, the long design time and the difficulties to translate with a formal way a work domain into ecological representation. Moreover, he doesn’t exist a formal tool of validation for a work domain. Several tools and works allow to be comfortable in the possibility to find some solution (Functional methodology (Liu et al, 2002), TMTA (Morineau, 2010) and Anaxagore (Bignon, 2012). We propose several answers at the issue: how formalize the design of an ecological interface in order to reduce the time and effort linked to the design? The first proposition is a tool of verification of model of work domain based on a simulation by TMTA. The second bring thanks to a second version of the Anaxagore flow, an integration of the works of Liu et al (2002) with the principle of the ecological library of ecological widget linked to a scheme of input of high level. Based on the work domain of a fresh water system in a ship, an ecological interface has been implemented and validated experimentally. This interface has been compared with a conventional interface also generated by Anaxagore. The results show that the ecological interface promotes a biggest numbers of coherent ways in the work domain. This kind of interface also promotes a better accuracy of the diagnostic for the operators using the ecological interface.La conception d’interface écologique se décompose en deux étapes, une analyse du domaine de travail et une retranscription des informations du domaine en des représentations écologiques (Naikar, 2010). Ce type de conception a montré son efficacité pour la supervision de système complexe (Burns, 2008). Cependant, Vicente (2002) a pointé deux lacunes le temps de conceptions très long et la difficulté à transcrire de manière formalisée un domaine de travail en des représentations écologiques. De même, il n’existe pas d’outil formel de validation de domaine de travail. Dans ce manuscrit, nous proposons plusieurs réponses à la question : comment formaliser la conception d’une interface écologique, afin de réduire le temps et les efforts liés à la conception ? La première proposition est un outil de vérification de modèle de domaine de travail basé sur la méthode TMTA (Morineau, 2010). La seconde apporte, au travers d’une deuxième version du flot Anaxagore (Bignon, 2012), une intégration des travaux de Liu et al (2002) avec le principe d’une bibliothèque de widgets écologiques associée à un schéma d’entrées de haut niveau. Sur la base du domaine de travail d’un système d’eau douce sanitaire à bord d’un navire, une interface écologique a été implémentée et validée expérimentalement. Cette interface a été comparée à une interface conventionnelle générée également par le flot Anaxagore. Les résultats montrent que les interfaces écologiques favorisent un plus grand nombre de parcours cohérents dans un domaine de travail. Elles favorisent également une meilleure précision du diagnostic pour les opérateurs utilisant les interfaces écologiques

An introduction to the mechanics of performance assessment using examples of calculations done for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant between 1990 and 1992. Revision

This document provides an overview of the processes used to access the performance of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The quantitative metrics used in the performance-assessment (PA) process are those put forward in the Environmental Protection Agency`s Environmental Standards for the Management and Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel, HIgh-LEvel and transuranic radioactive Wastes (40 CFR 191)

Introduction de critères ergonomiques dans un système de génération automatique d'interface de supervision

The ecological interface design is divided into two stages, an analysis of the domainwork and a transcript of the working area of ​​information ecological representations(Naikar, 2010). This design has proven effective in overseeing complex system (Burns,2008). However, Vicente (2002) pointed to two key gaps, long design time anddifficulty to transcribe formalized way of a working area in a set of representationsecological. Similarly, there is no formal validation tool working area. The literatureoffers no concrete solutions nevertheless tracks as the translation methodology of a fieldworking in graphic representations proposed by Liu et al (2002), the TMTA tool on a simulatedtask in a work area (Morineau, 2010), and the stream of semi-automated design Anaxagoras(Bignon, 2012), allow you to be confident about the ability to find solutions.In this manuscript, we propose several answers to the question: how to formalizedesign of an ecological interface, reducing the time and effort associated with the design? The firstproposal is a domain model verification tool working on the basis of a simulation TMTA.The second brings, through a second version of the flood Anaxagoras, integrating Liu workset al (2002) with the principle of ecological widget library associated with a high input schemalevel. Based on the work area of ​​a sanitary fresh water system on board a ship, an interfaceEco has been implemented and validated experimentally. This interface was compared with aConventional interface also generated by the flow Anaxagoras. The results show that the interfacesEcological promote a more consistent course in a field of work. Theyalso promote better diagnostic accuracy for operators using interfacesecological.La conception d’interface écologique se décompose en deux étapes, une analyse du domaine detravail et une retranscription des informations du domaine de travail en des représentations écologiques(Naikar, 2010). Ce type de conception a montré son efficacité pour la supervision de système complexe (Burns,2008). Cependant, Vicente (2002) a pointé deux lacunes principales, le temps de conception très long et ladifficulté à transcrire de manière formalisée un domaine de travail en un ensemble de représentationsécologiques. De même, il n’existe pas d’outil formel de validation de domaine de travail. La littérature nepropose pas de solutions concrètes néanmoins des pistes comme la méthodologie de traduction d’un domainede travail en représentations graphiques proposée par Liu et al (2002), l’outil TMTA sur la simulation d’unetâche dans un domaine de travail (Morineau, 2010), et le flot de conception semi-automatisé Anaxagore(Bignon, 2012), permettent d’être confiant sur la possibilité de trouver des solutions.Dans ce manuscrit, nous proposons plusieurs réponses à la question : comment formaliser laconception d’une interface écologique, afin de réduire le temps et les efforts liés à la conception ? La premièreproposition est un outil de vérification de modèle de domaine de travail sur la base d’une simulation par TMTA.La seconde apporte, au travers d’une deuxième version du flot Anaxagore, une intégration des travaux de Liuet al (2002) avec le principe d’une bibliothèque de widgets écologiques associée à un schéma d’entrées de hautniveau. Sur la base du domaine de travail d’un système d’eau douce sanitaire à bord d’un navire, une interfaceécologique a été implémentée et validée expérimentalement. Cette interface a été comparée avec uneinterface conventionnelle générée également par le flot Anaxagore. Les résultats montrent que les interfacesécologiques favorisent un plus grand nombre de parcours cohérents dans un domaine de travail. Ellesfavorisent également une meilleure précision du diagnostic pour les opérateurs utilisant les interfacesécologiques