Artisans, Athletes, Entrepreneurs, and Other Skilled Exemplars of the Way

We introduce management and spirituality scholars to the “knack” passages from the c. 4th century B.C.E. text, the Zhuangzi. The knack passages are parables about low status figures, such as wheelwrights, furniture makers and cooks, whose actions offer insights into the spirituality of ordinary work and, we argue, of entrepreneurship. Such non-corporate settings are lesser-studied domains for spirituality. Ancient Chinese writings have been noticed by spirituality and management writers but we call for deeper scholarly textual attention. We seek also to model more attention to the renaissance in scholarship on classical China. More ambitiously, we hope to show that these passages are not only germane but worthy of careful consideration. Our efforts reflect the influence of Slingerland\u27s (2003) study of “effortless action” as a central soteriological goal in ancient China

Beliefs and ideologies linked with approval of corporal punishment: a content analysis of online comments

This study employs a novel strategy for identifying points of resistance to education efforts aimed at reducing rates of child physical abuse and use of corporal punishment (CP). We analyzed online comments (n¼581) generated in response to media coverage of a study linking CP with increased child aggression. Most comments (71%) reflected approval of hitting children for disciplinary purposes. Reasons for this approval were rooted in beliefs linking the use of CP with positive or neutral outcomes such as: ‘I was spanked and I am okay’, spanking improves child behavior, spanking is more effective than other forms of discipline and spanking is not abuse. However, also linked with approval were more macro-ideological beliefs about society such as: today’s generation is worse off than previous ones, outside interference with parenting is wrong, one cause leads to an outcome, justifications for hitting children rooted in religious doctrine, bad parents cannot control their children and children have too much power. Our results suggest a need to better translate and disseminate empirical findings regarding the negative effects of CP to the public in a way that is highly sensitive to parents’ needs to feel in control and effective when parenting.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/123060/1/2016 Taylor et al Health Educ Res.pdfDescription of 2016 Taylor et al Health Educ Res.pdf : main articl

The Liquid-Gas Phase Transitions in a Multicomponent Nuclear System with Coulomb and Surface Effects

The liquid-gas phase transition is studied in a multi-component nuclear system using a local Skyrme interaction with Coulomb and surface effects. Some features are qualitatively the same as the results of Muller and Serot which uses relativistic mean field without Coulomb and surface effects. Surface tension brings the coexistance binodal surface to lower pressure. The Coulomb interaction makes the binodal surface smaller and cause another pair of binodal points at low pressure and large proton fraction with less protons in liquid phase and more protons in gas phase.Comment: 20 pages including 7 postscript figure

Geometry, Scaling and Universality in the Mass Distributions in Heavy Ion Collisions

Various features of the mass yields in heavy ion collisions are studied. The mass yields are discussed in terms of iterative one dimensional discrete maps. These maps are shown to produce orbits for a monomer or for a nucleus which generate the mass yields and the distribution of cluster sizes. Simple Malthusian dynamics and non-linear Verhulst dynamics are used to illustrate the approach. Nuclear cobwebbing, attractors of the dynamics, and Lyapanov exponents are discussed for the mass distribution. The self-similar property of the Malthusian orbit offers a new variable for the study of scale invariance using power moments of the mass distribution. Correlation lengths, exponents and dimensions associated with scaling relations are developed. Fourier transforms of the mass distribution are used to obtain power spectra which are investigated for a $1/f^{\beta}$ behavior.Comment: 29 pages in REVTEX, 9 figures (available from the authors), RU-92-0

Seasonality with Trend and Cycle Interactions in Unobserved components Models

Summary. Unobserved components time series models decompose a time series into a trend, a season, a cycle, an irregular disturbance and possibly other components. These models have been successfully applied to many economic time series. The standard assumption of a linear model, which is often appropriate after a logarithmic transformation of the data, facilitates estimation, testing, forecasting and interpretation. However, in some settings the linear-additive framework may be too restrictive. We formulate a non-linear unobserved components time series model which allows interactions between the trend-cycle component and the seasonal component. The resulting model is cast into a non-linear state space form and estimated by the extended Kalman filter, adapted for models with diffuse initial conditions. We apply our model to UK travel data and US unemployment and production series, and show that it can capture increasing seasonal variation and cycle-dependent seasonal fluctuations. © 2009 Royal Statistical Society

Measuring asymmetric stochastic cycle components in U.S. macroeconomic time series

To gain insights in the current status of the economy, macroeconomic time series are often decomposed into trend, cycle and irregular components. This can be done by nonparametric band-pass filtering methods in the frequency domain or by model-based decompositions based on autoregressive moving average models or unobserved components time series models. In this paper we consider the latter and extend the model to allow for asymmetric cycles. In theoretical and empirical studies, the asymmetry of cyclical behavior is often discussed and considered for series such as unemployment and gross domestic product (GDP). The number of attempts to model asymmetric cycles is limited and it is regarded as intricate and nonstandard. In this paper we show that a limited modification of the standard cycle component leads to a flexible device for asymmetric cycles. The presence of asymmetry can be tested using classical likelihood based test statistics. The trend-cycle de! composition model is applied to three key U.S. macroeconomic time series. It is found that cyclical asymmetry is a prominent salient feature in the U.S. economy

Total productive maintenance implementation in the newspaper printing industry:an action research approach

The objective of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is to maximise plant and equipment effectiveness, to create a sense of ownership for operators, and promote continuous improvement through small group activities involving production, engineering and maintenance personnel. This paper describes and analyses a case study of TPM implementation at a newspaper printing house in Singapore. However, rather than adopting more conventional implementation methods such as employing consultants or through a project using external training, a unique approach was adopted based on Action Research using a spiral of cycles of planning, acting observing and reflecting. An Action Research team of company personnel was specially formed to undertake the necessary fieldwork. The team subsequently assisted with administering the resulting action plan. The main sources of maintenance and operational data were from interviews with shop floor workers, participative observation and reviews conducted with members of the team. Content analysis using appropriate statistical techniques was used to test the significance of changes in performance between the start and completion of the TPM programme. The paper identifies the characteristics associated with the Action Research method when used to implement TPM and discusses the applicability of the approach in related industries and processes

Dynamics of tilt-based browsing on mobile devices

A tilt-controlled photo browsing method for small mobile devices is presented. The implementation uses continuous inputs from an accelerometer, and a multimodal (visual, audio and vibrotactile) display coupled with the states of this model. The model is based on a simple physical model, with its characteristics shaped to enhance usability. We show how the dynamics of the physical model can be shaped to make the handling qualities of the mobile device fit the browsing task. We implemented the proposed algorithm on Samsung MITs PDA with tri-axis accelerometer and a vibrotactile motor. The experiment used seven novice users browsing from 100 photos. We compare a tilt-based interaction method with a button-based browser and an iPod wheel. We discuss the usability performance and contrast this with subjective experience from the users. The iPod wheel has significantly poorer performance than button pushing or tilt interaction, despite its commercial popularity