The importance of psychological well-being in organisational settings: moving beyond the pleasure principle

In contrast to the emphasis on affective states as components of Subjective Well-Being (SWB), the Psychological Well-Being (PWB) approach considers the role of personal resources, such as mastery and efficacy beliefs, a sense of autonomy, positive relatedness with others, and self acceptance. This study of 679 high-school teachers was based on the Organisational Health Research Framework and compared the contribution of PWB, personality and organisational climate to the prediction of SWB and organisational well-being. PWB was identified as a significant predictor of SWB even after controlling for demographic characteristics, organisational climate and personality variables with 46% of the variance in PA and 47% of the variance in NA explained. In addition, PWB contributed uniquely to the prediction of school morale and school distress with the overall set of predictors accounting for 69% of the variance in school morale and 66% of the variance in school distress. Individual interventions which promote PWB components would appear to be a most important avenue by which to improve employee SWB, while organisational interventions that focus on improving the organisational climate should have greater impact on organisational well-bein

What Is Optimal Financial Regulation?

The financial system is regulated to achieve a wide variety of purposes. However, the objective that distinguishes financial regulation from other kinds is that of safeguarding the economy against systemic risk. Concerns regarding systemic risk focus largely on banks, which traditionally have been considered to have a special role in the economy. The safety nets that have been rigged to protect banks from systemic risk have succeeded in preventing banking panics, but at the cost of distorting incentives for risk taking. Regulators have a variety of options to correct this distortion, but none can be relied upon to produce an optimal solution. Technological and conceptual advances may be ameliorating the problem, nonetheless. Banks are becoming less special. The US is leading the way, but the trends are apparent in other industrial countries as well. The challenge facing regulators is to facilitate these advances and hasten the end of the special status of banks. Once banks have lost their special status, financial safety nets may be dismantled thus ending the distortions they create. Ultimately, regulation for prudential purposes may be completely unnecessary. The optimal regulation for safety and soundness purposes may be no regulation at all.

The Role of the Financial Sector in Economic Performance

What distinguished financial institutions from other firms is the relatively small share of real assets on their balance sheets. Thus, the direct impact of financial institutions on the real economy is relatively minor. The indirect impact of financial markets and institutions on economic performance is extraordinarily important. The financial sector mobilizes savings and allocates credit across space and time. It provides not only payment services, but also enables firms and households to cope with economic uncertainties by hedging, pooling, sharing and pricing risks. An efficient financial sector reduces the cost and risk of producing and trading goods and services and thus makes an important contribution to raising the standard of living. The authors begin their analysis by considering how an economy would perform without a financial sector and then proceed to introduce a simplified financial sector with direct financial transactions between savers and investors. Financial intermediaries are introduced which transform the direct obligations of investors into indirect obligations of financial intermediaries which have attributes that savers prefer. This approach emphasizes how the financial sector can improve both the quantity and quality of real investment and thereby increase income per capita. The authors then consider the role of government in supporting an efficient financial sector. However, the authors show that not all government intervention is beneficial. They demonstrate the potentially detrimental effects of regulation on both the financial structure and the real economy. They also emphasize the competitive forces that influence the ultimate impact of regulations. Technological trends in telecommunications and computation seem likely to increase the ease with which users and providers of financial services can circumvent burdensome regulations, according to the authors. This has led to calls for reduction in the overall restrictions on financial firms, as well as for international harmonization of regulations regarding safety and soundness, insider trading and taxation. The authors examine how to quantify the gains to the economy from improving the efficiency of the financial sector and the potential social gains and costs which may result from the formation of financial conglomerates. The authors then consider pressures for international harmonization of financial regulation, contrasting institutional regulation with functional regulation. The authors conclude that efficient financial markets require an infrastructure of laws, conventions and regulation. Most of all, an efficient financial system requires confidence. Confidence encourages investors to allocate their savings through financial markets and institutions rather than to buy non-productive assets as a store of value. The authors suggest that such confidence can be fostered by appropriate regulation of institutions and markets to ensure users of financial services that they will receive fair treatment. According to the authors, the challenge is to foster a static and dynamically efficient financial system while maintaining sufficient regulatory oversight to promote confidence in the safety and soundness of the financial system.

Formation of Chimneys in Mushy Layers: Experiment and Simulation

In this fluid dyanmics video, we show experimental images and simulations of chimney formation in mushy layers. A directional solidification apparatus was used to freeze 25 wt % aqueous ammonium chloride solutions at controlled rates in a narrow Hele-Shaw cell (1mm gap). The convective motion is imaged with schlieren. We demonstrate the ability to numerically simulate mushy layer growth for direct comparison with experiments

Exploring adaptation & self-adaptation in autonomic computing systems

This panel paper sets out to discuss what self-adaptation means, and to explore the extent to which current autonomic systems exhibit truly self-adaptive behaviour. Many of the currently cited examples are clearly adaptive, but debate remains as to what extent they are simply following prescribed adaptation rules within preset bounds, and to what extent they have the ability to truly learn new behaviour. Is there a standard test that can be applied to differentiate? Is adaptive behaviour sufficient anyway? Other autonomic computing issues are also discussed

Spray automated balancing of rotors: Methods and materials

The work described consists of two parts. In the first part, a survey is performed to assess the state of the art in rotor balancing technology as it applies to Army gas turbine engines and associated power transmission hardware. The second part evaluates thermal spray processes for balancing weight addition in an automated balancing procedure. The industry survey reveals that: (1) computerized balancing equipment is valuable to reduce errors, improve balance quality, and provide documentation; (2) slow-speed balancing is used exclusively, with no forseeable need for production high-speed balancing; (3) automated procedures are desired; and (4) thermal spray balancing is viewed with cautious optimism whereas laser balancing is viewed with concern for flight propulsion hardware. The FARE method (Fuel/Air Repetitive Explosion) was selected for experimental evaluation of bond strength and fatigue strength. Material combinations tested were tungsten carbide on stainless steel (17-4), Inconel 718 on Inconel 718, and Triballoy 800 on Inconel 718. Bond strengths were entirely adequate for use in balancing. Material combinations have been identified for use in hot and cold sections of an engine, with fatigue strengths equivalent to those for hand-ground materials

Multiscale probability mapping: groups, clusters and an algorithmic search for filaments in SDSS

We have developed a multiscale structure identification algorithm for the detection of overdensities in galaxy data that identifies structures having radii within a user-defined range. Our "multiscale probability mapping" technique combines density estimation with a shape statistic to identify local peaks in the density field. This technique takes advantage of a user-defined range of scale sizes, which are used in constructing a coarse-grained map of the underlying fine-grained galaxy distribution, from which overdense structures are then identified. In this study we have compiled a catalogue of groups and clusters at 0.025 < z < 0.24 based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Data Release 7, quantifying their significance and comparing with other catalogues. Most measured velocity dispersions for these structures lie between 50 and 400 km/s. A clear trend of increasing velocity dispersion with radius from 0.2 to 1 Mpc/h is detected, confirming the lack of a sharp division between groups and clusters. A method for quantifying elongation is also developed to measure the elongation of group and cluster environments. By using our group and cluster catalogue as a coarse-grained representation of the galaxy distribution for structure sizes of <~ 1 Mpc/h, we identify 53 filaments (from an algorithmically-derived set of 100 candidates) as elongated unions of groups and clusters at 0.025 < z < 0.13. These filaments have morphologies that are consistent with previous samples studied.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures and 6 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Data products, three-dimensional visualisations and further information about MSPM can be found at http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/sifa/Main/MSPM/ . v2 contains two additional references. v3 has a slightly altered title and updated reference