A replicated study of communication networks, job retention and labour turnover in two British hotels

Human communication is examined from several standpoints and an 'Exchange' perspective is preferred because its of greater explanatory power in reconciling Communication and Organisational theory, when the latter is concetualised as Open Systems theory. This synthesis provides a rationale for analysing exchanges between the members of organsiations involved in both Prescribed networks, comprising information, goods and decision transactions; and Emergent networks which also include Friendship transactions. An inductive methodology is used to analyse networks of perceived and received communication links so that dyadic, clique and system measures of Connectedness can be calculated. Replicated communication surveys and labour turnover analyses are described for two hotels, after the various jobs undertaken were grouped under six Job Classifications, according to the individual roles in internal and external communication networks, so that network analysis could be completed at progressively more complex levels of generality and the relationships between Connectedness and Labour Turnover, and the analysis of the hotels under a 'Grid/Group' taxonomy, could be investigated. Five main hypotheses are tested which postulate that Connectedness is related posively to length of employment, higher job status, and negatively to labour turnover. Subject to the mediating influence of age, pay, and length of full-time education and company training, strong correlations occurred between the Connectedness of isolated, lower-status individuals and Labour Turnover. Members of the higher-status Job Classifications were more common in the longer-employed dominant cliques at the Coastal hotel, where the 'Grid/ Group' characteristics of 'Insulated Subordination' were reinforced by kinship ties and friendship links established away from work or in previous employment. The characteristics of 'Collaborative and Competitive Alliances' predominated at the London hotel, where most higher-status members were excluded from dominant cliques which typically consisted of supervisors and long-serving members of the three main ethnic minority groups

Precision teaching and fluency: the effects of charting and goal-setting on skaters’ performance

This research involved three successive studies where precision teaching methods were used to increase roller skaters performance rates of basic skating skills. The first study compared precision teaching methods both with and without the use of charting in a group design, and compared both within-subject and betweensubject differences for 12 skaters. Results showed that charting did not increase performance rates over that seen when charting was not used. The second study was a group design which compared two different types of goals, or performance aims, on skaters‟ performance. No difference was found between the two groups of 5 skaters when one group used a fixed, difficult goal and a second used a flexible, easier goal. In the final study, a single-subject design was used and 8 skaters completed a control condition where no goals were set before a goal was introduced for 4 skaters. It was found that an immediate increase in performance rates occurred following the introduction of the goal. Overall these three studies showed that skaters improved their performance rates over sessions, even in the absence of charting and/or goals, demonstrating that precision teaching can be applied to the sport of roller skating

Extinction-induced variability in human behavior

Participants earned points by pressing a computer space bar (Experiment 1) or forming rectangles on the screen with the mouse (Experiment 2) under differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedules, followed by extinction. Variability in interresponse time (the contingent dimension) increased during extinction, as for Morgan and Lee (1996); variability in diagonal length (the noncontingent dimension, Experiment 2) did not. In Experiment 3, points were contingent on rectangle size. Rectangle size and interresponse-time (the noncontingent dimension) variability increased in extinction. There was greater variability in the contingent dimension during extinction for participants with the more varied history of reinforcement in Experiment 2 but not in Experiment 3. Overall, variability in the contingent dimension increased in extinction, but the degree of increase was affected by reinforcement history

Ion-Molecule Reactions in Unsaturated Hydrocarbons: Allene, Propyne, Diacetylene, and Vinylacetylene

Ion-molecule reactions in allene, propyne, diacetylene, and vinylacetylene (1-buten-3-yne) have been studied at near-thermal energies by the technique of ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. Rate coefficients and branching ratios are reported for the reactions of C_3H^+_n (n = 1-4) with allene and propyne and for the reactions of C_4H^+_n (n = 0-5) with diacetylene and vinylacetylene. Branching ratios are also given for the reactions of C_4H^+_n, C_5H_n, and C_6H^+_n with propyne and for reactions of C_6H^+_n with diacetylene and vinylacetylene. More than 90% of the reactive channels lead to product ions having a larger carbon skeleton than the reactant ion. Evidence for ions with the same m/e ratio having differing reactivities was obtained for C_3H^+_3, C_6H^+_7, and C_7H^+_7. Ion reaction sequences in allene and propyne were followed at higher pressures (l0^(-4) torr) to investigate secondary, tertiary, and higher order processes

Bed-load effects on hydrodynamics of rough-bed open-channel flows

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Constraining the Environment of CH+ Formation with CH3+ Observations

The formation of CH+ in the interstellar medium has long been an outstanding problem in chemical models. In order to probe the physical conditions of the ISM in which CH+ forms, we propose the use of CH3+ observations. The pathway to forming CH3+ begins with CH+, and a steady state analysis of CH3+ and the reaction intermediary CH2+ results in a relationship between the CH+ and CH3+ abundances. This relationship depends on the molecular hydrogen fraction, f_H2, and gas temperature, T, so observations of CH+ and CH3+ can be used to infer the properties of the gas in which both species reside. We present observations of both molecules along the diffuse cloud sight line toward Cyg OB2 No. 12. Using our computed column densities and upper limits, we put constraints on the f_H2 vs. T parameter space in which CH+ and CH3+ form. We find that average, static, diffuse molecular cloud conditions (i.e. f_H2>0.2, T~60 K) are excluded by our analysis. However, current theory suggests that non-equilibrium effects drive the reaction C+ + H_2 --> CH+ + H, endothermic by 4640 K. If we consider a higher effective temperature due to collisions between neutrals and accelerated ions, the CH3+ partition function predicts that the overall population will be spread out into several excited rotational levels. As a result, observations of more CH3+ transitions with higher signal-to-noise ratios are necessary to place any constraints on models where magnetic acceleration of ions drives the formation of CH+.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

Solar feature tracking in both spatial and temporal domains

A new method for automated coronal loop tracking, in both spatial and temporal domains, is presented. The reliability of this technique was tested with TRACE 171A observations. The application of this technique to a flare-induced kink-mode oscillation, revealed a 3500 km spatial periodicity which occur along the loop edge. We establish a reduction in oscillatory power, for these spatial periodicities, of 45% over a 322 s interval. We relate the reduction in oscillatory power to the physical damping of these loop-top oscillations

A standardised sampling protocol for robust assessment of reach-scale fish community diversity in wadeable New Zealand streams

The New Zealand fish fauna contains species that are affected not only by river system connectivity, but also by catchment and local-scale changes in landcover, water quality and habitat quality. Consequently, native fish have potential as multi-scale bioindicators of human pressure on stream ecosystems, yet no standardised, repeatable and scientifically defensible methods currently exist for effectively quantifying their abundance or diversity in New Zealand stream reaches. Here we report on the testing of a back-pack electrofishing method, modified from that used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, on a wide variety of wadeable stream reaches throughout New Zealand. Seventy-three first- to third-order stream reaches were fished with a single pass over 150-345 m length. Time taken to sample a reach using single-pass electrofishing ranged from 1-8 h. Species accumulation curves indicated that, irrespective of location, continuous sampling of 150 stream metres is required to accurately describe reach-scale fish species richness using this approach. Additional species detection beyond 150 m was rare (<10%) with a single additional species detected at only two out of the 17 reaches sampled beyond this distance. A positive relationship was also evident between species detection and area fished, although stream length rather than area appeared to be the better predictor. The method tested provides a standardised and repeatable approach for regional and/or national reporting on the state of New Zealand's freshwater fish communities and trends in richness and abundance over time

Enhanced Deep Transfer Learning Model based on Spatial-Temporal driven Scalograms for Precise Decoding of Motor Intent in Stroke Survivors

Motor function loss greatly impacts post-stroke survivors while performing activities of daily living. In the recent years, intelligent rehabilitation robotics have been proposed to enable the patients recover their lost limb functions. Besides, a large proportion of these robots function in passive mode that only allow users to navigate trajectories that rarely align with their limb movement intent, thus precluding full functional recovery. A potential solution would be to explore utilizing an efficient Transfer Learning based Convolutional Neural Network (TL-CNN) to decode multiple classes of post-stroke patients’ motion intentions towards realizing dexterously active robotic training during rehabilitation. In this regard, we propose and examined for the first time, the use of Spatial-Temporal Descriptor based Continuous Wavelet Transform (STD-CWT) as input to TL-CNN to optimally decode limb movement intent patterns of stroke patients to provide adequate input for active motor training in rehabilitation robots. Importantly, we examined the proposed (STD-CWT) method on three distinct wavelets including the Morse, Amor, and Bump, and compared their decoding outcomes with those of the commonly adopted CWT technique under similar experimental conditions. Our method was validated using electromyogram signals of five stroke survivors who performed up to twenty-two distinct limb motions. The obtained results showed that the proposed technique recorded a significantly higher decoding (p<0.05) and converges faster compared to the commonly adopted method. The proposed method equally recorded obvious class separability for individual movement classes across the stroke patients. Findings from this study suggest that the STD-CWT Scalograms would provide potential inputs for robust decoding of motor intent that may facilitate intuitively active motor training in stroke rehabilitation robots. © 20XX IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works