Unpacking the foundational dimensions of work integration social enterprise: the development of an assessment tool

Purpose The aim of this exploratory, mixed methods study was to develop and test a tool that identifies foundational dimensions of work integration social enterprises (WISEs) for use in empirical studies and enterprise self-assessment. Construction of the initial prototype was based upon a review of the literature and prior qualitative research by the authors. Design/methodology/approach A 20-item question pool with a four-point response scale was constructed to explore WISE business and employment practices and strategies for worker growth and development. Three sequential field tests were conducted with the prototype – the first with 5 Canadian WISEs, the second with 14 WISEs in the UK and the third with 6 Canadian WISEs involved in an outcome study in the mental health sector. Each field test included completion of the questionnaire by persons with managerial responsibility within the WISE and evaluative feedback captured through questions on the applicability and interpretability of the items. Findings Testing of the prototype instrument revealed the inherent diversity in the field and the difficulty in creating questions that both embrace that diversity and produce unidimensional variables definable along a spectrum. A number of challenges with question structure were identified and have been modified throughout the iterative testing process. Research limitations/implications This study identified central domains for inclusion in a multi-dimensional WISE assessment tool. Further testing will help further refine scaling and establish psychometric properties. Originality/value This measure will provide a descriptive profile of WISEs across sectors and identify WISE core dimensions for research and organizational development. </jats:sec

Experimental quantum verification in the presence of temporally correlated noise

Growth in the complexity and capabilities of quantum information hardware mandates access to practical techniques for performance verification that function under realistic laboratory conditions. Here we experimentally characterise the impact of common temporally correlated noise processes on both randomised benchmarking (RB) and gate-set tomography (GST). We study these using an analytic toolkit based on a formalism mapping noise to errors for arbitrary sequences of unitary operations. This analysis highlights the role of sequence structure in enhancing or suppressing the sensitivity of quantum verification protocols to either slowly or rapidly varying noise, which we treat in the limiting cases of quasi-DC miscalibration and white noise power spectra. We perform experiments with a single trapped $^{171}$Yb$^{+}$ ion as a qubit and inject engineered noise ($\propto \sigma^z$) to probe protocol performance. Experiments on RB validate predictions that the distribution of measured fidelities over sequences is described by a gamma distribution varying between approximately Gaussian for rapidly varying noise, and a broad, highly skewed distribution for the slowly varying case. Similarly we find a strong gate set dependence of GST in the presence of correlated errors, leading to significant deviations between estimated and calculated diamond distances in the presence of correlated $\sigma^z$ errors. Numerical simulations demonstrate that expansion of the gate set to include negative rotations can suppress these discrepancies and increase reported diamond distances by orders of magnitude for the same error processes. Similar effects do not occur for correlated $\sigma^x$ or $\sigma^y$ errors or rapidly varying noise processes, highlighting the critical interplay of selected gate set and the gauge optimisation process on the meaning of the reported diamond norm in correlated noise environments.Comment: Expanded and updated analysis of GST, including detailed examination of the role of gauge optimization in GST. Full GST data sets and supplementary information available on request from the authors. Related results available from http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~mbiercuk/Publications.htm

Effects of parental provisioning and attendance on growth and survival of red-throated Loon pre-fledglings: A potential mechanism linking marine regime shifts to population change

Since the 19701s, several piscivorous birds and marine mammals in Alaska have declined numerically, coincident with oceanic regime-shifts and associated prey community changes. Red-throated Loons have similarly declined and this study supports the hypothesis that impoverished prey conditions are a potential mechanism that could reduce productivity by altering chick growth and survival. During 2002-2003, moderate-to-low energy fishes dominated the prey community. This potentially constrained parental ability to meet brood attendance and energy requirements. Two-chick broods were not fed at higher rates than single-chick broods and all two-chick broods were reduced, apparently from starvation of the younger sibling. Energy consumption also influenced first-hatched chick survival during week one, when both provisioning effort and attendance requirements were high. For chicks surviving this early period, sex influenced growth variation more than energy consumption. Overall, survival and growth performance measures were poorer than published findings, suggesting poor foraging conditions were a mechanism limiting productivity

Effect of Structural Carbohydrates Upon Seasonal Digestibility of Tallgrass Prairie Vegetation

Animal Scienc

Experimental cross-correlation Nitrogen Q-branch CARS Thermometry in a Spark Ignition Engine

A purely experimental technique was employed to derive temperatures from nitrogen Q-branch Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) spectra, obtained in a high pressure, high temperature environment (spark ignition Otto engine). This was in order to obviate any errors arising from deficiencies in the spectral scaling laws which are commonly used to represent nitrogen Q-branch CARS spectra at high pressure. The spectra obtained in the engine were compared with spectra obtained in a calibrated high pressure, high temperature cell, using direct cross-correlation in place of the minimisation of sums of squares of residuals. The technique is demonstrated through the measurement of air temperature as a function of crankshaft angle inside the cylinder of a motored single-cylinder Ricardo E6 research engine, followed by the measurement of fuel-air mixture temperatures obtained during the compression stroke in a knocking Ricardo E6 engine. A standard CARS program (SANDIA’s CARSFIT) was employed to calibrate the altered non-resonant background contribution to the CARS spectra that was caused by the alteration to the mole fraction of nitrogen in the unburned fuel-air mixture. The compression temperature profiles were extrapolated in order to predict the auto-ignition temperatures

Effect of deoxycholic acid on the performance of liquid electrolyte dye-sensitized solar cells using a perylene monoimide derivative

The effect of coadsorption with deoxycholic acid (DCA) on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cell based on perylene monoimide derivative (PCA) as sensitizer and liquid electrolyte had been investigated. The current-voltage characteristics under illumination and incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE) spectra of the DSSCs showed that the coadsorption of DCA with the PCA dye results in a significant improvement in short circuit photocurrent and slight increase in the open circuit photovoltage, which lead to an overall power conversion efficiency. The enhancement of short circuit current was attributed to the increased electron injection efficiency from the excited state of PCA into the conduction band of TiO2 and charge collection efficiency. The current-voltage characteristics in dark indicates a positive shift in the conduction which also supports the enhancement in the photocurrent. The coadsorption with DCA suppressed charge recombination as indicated from the electrochemical impedance spectra and thus improved the open circuit photovoltage

Pomeron physics: an update

Key issues in pomeron physics include whether the hard and soft pomerons are distinct objects, and whether the hard pomeron is already present in amplitudes at $Q^2=0$. It is urgent to learn how to combine perturbative and nonperturbative concepts, and to construct a sound theory of perturbative evolution at small $x$. Other questions are whether screening corrections are small, and gap survival probabilities large. Finally, do diffractive processes present a good way to discover the Higgs?Comment: 12 pages, 23 figures embedded with epsf Summary talk at Diffraction2000, Calabria, September 200

Pauvreté et accès à l'eau dans la vallée du Sénégal

Water poverty in the Senegal Valley Considering the flood-recession agriculture, the hydraulic history of the valley of the Senegal River is ancient, but knows a deep mutation since the introduction of the irrigation. Can one speak of water poverty, whereas two dams now control the water flow of the Senegal River and ensure a permanent abundance in water ? The answer to this questioning is proposed through the link between poverty, access to funding, access to land, and involvement in resource management.L'histoire hydraulique de la vallée du fleuve Sénégal est ancienne et remonte à la culture de décrue. Mais elle connaît une profonde mutation depuis l'introduction de l'irrigation. Peut-on parler de « pauvreté hydraulique », alors que deux barrages régulent à présent le régime du fleuve Sénégal et assurent une permanence de l'abondance en eau ? La réponse à cette question est proposée sous l'angle de l'articulation entre la pauvreté, l'accès au financement, l'accès au foncier, la participation à la gestion de la ressource