Happiness and age in European adults: The moderating role of gross domestic product per capita.

Studies of happiness levels across the life span have found support for two rival hypotheses. The positivity effect states that as people get older, they increasingly attend to positive information, which implies that happiness remains stable or increases with age, whereas the U-shaped hypothesis posits a curvilinear shape resulting from a dip during midlife. Both have been presented as potentially universal hypotheses that relate to cognitive and/or biological causes. The current study examined the happiness-age relationship across 29 European nations (N = 46,301) to explore whether it is moderated by national wealth, as indexed by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. It was found that eudaimonic and hedonic happiness remained relatively stable across the life span only in the most affluent nations; in poorer nations, there was either a fluctuating or steady age-associated decline. These findings challenge the cultural universality of the happiness-age relationship and suggest that models of how age relates to happiness should include the socioeconomic level of analysis

Targeted Employee Retention: Performance-Based and Job-Related Differences in Reported Reasons for Staying

A content model of 12 retention factors is developed in the context of previous theory and research. Coding of open-ended responses from 24,829 employees in the leisure and hospitality industry lends support to the identified framework and reveals that job satisfaction, extrinsic rewards, constituent attachments, organizational commitment, and organizational prestige were the most frequently mentioned reasons for staying. Advancement opportunities and organizational prestige were more common reasons for staying among high performers and non-hourly workers, and extrinsic rewards was more common among low performers and hourly employees, providing support for ease/desirability of movement and psychological contract rationales. The findings highlight the importance of differentiating human resource management practices when the goal is to retain those employees valued most by the organization

Multiblock mesh refinement by adding mesh singularities

Several templates for 2D and 3D structured mesh refinement are presented. The templates have the property that the minimum number of irregular points or edges (mesh singularities) are added. For a given set of external division numbers a variety of interior meshes can be generated. The positions of the internal vertices in the template are calculated explicitly using an extended transfinite mapping scheme, which has previously been shown to be equivalent to iterative iso-parametric smoothing. Since calculating these vertex positions requires the solution of only a very small number of linear equations, the optimum mesh in the interior of the template can be evaluated very cheaply before the block structured mesh is generated

Aerodynamic Shape Optimization Using Feature based CAD Systems and Adjoint Methods

This paper presents a CAD-based optimization framework using adjoint functions for aerodynamic design. In this work, the SU2 code is used to obtain high-fidelity flow solutions and surface sensitivities using adjoint methods. This work proposes methodologies to exploit CAD models created using standard commercial modelling software like CATIA V5 in the optimization workflow. A formulation to obtain geometric sensitivities is introduced, enabling the calculation of gradients with respect to these CAD variables. The performance and robustness of the optimization framework is assessed using a range of inviscid and viscous problems. The results show the CAD parameterisation can be efficiently used in obtaining reliable optimums, while operating directly on feature based CAD systems

The Sound of Silence? : a comparative study of the barriers to communication skills development in accounting and engineering students

Employers often consider graduates to be unprepared for employment and lacking in vocational skills. A common demand from them is that the curriculum should include ‘communication skills’, as specific skills in their own right and also because of the central role that such skills can play in developing other desirable attributes. Current thinking in communication has indicated a split between communication apprehension and communication development. There are indications that techniques designed to develop communication skills will not resolve communication apprehension and that, if an individual has a high level of communication apprehension, these techniques will not result in improved communication performance. This paper compares and contrasts the levels and profiles of communication apprehension exhibited by accounting and engineering students. The implications of the findings are then discussed and the need for further research in the area of vocational choice is identified

Optimizing parameterized CAD geometries using sensitivities based on adjoint functions

An approach is presented for determining which parameters defining the features in a CAD model need to be modified, and by what amount, to optimize component performance. It uses sensitivities computed for the parameters to determine the change required in each to optimize the component. Parametric sensitivity is computed by combining a measure of boundary movement due to a parameter perturbation, known as design velocity, and an adjoint sensitivity map over the boundary. The sensitivity map results from an adjoint analysis and approximates the change in objective function (performance) due to a movement of the boundary. Gradient based optimization is used based on the parametric sensitivities.This presented method is significantly less computationally expensive than alternative approaches, and has the advantage that optimization is based on the parameters defining the CAD model, allowing it to be integrated into design workflows. The efficiency of the approach allows all of the parameters in the CAD model to be used as optimization variables, potentially offering better optimization. The work is immune to many of the issues hampering existing approaches

Pisatin and limitation of pea leaf spots

Imperial Users onl

Parametric design velocity computation for CAD-based design optimization using adjoint methods

This paper presents an efficient optimization process, where the parameters defining the features in a feature-based CAD model are used as design variables. The process exploits adjoint methods for the computation of gradients, and as such the computational cost is essentially independent of the number of design variables, making it ideal for optimization in large design spaces. The novelty of this paper lies in linking the adjoint surface sensitivity information with geometric sensitivity values, referred to as design velocities, computed for CAD models created in commercial CAD systems (e.g. CATIA V5 or Siemens NX)

Longitudinal Growth of VEX Robotic Competitions in Utah and the Rocky Mountain Region

The Utah State University VEX Robotics Team (USUVRT) is in its fifth year of promoting the VEX Robotics Competition in the Utah and Rocky Mountain Region. The Robotics Education and Competition Foundation (RECF) annually hosts the VEX World Championships to identify and award the best middle school, high school, and college robotics teams. The USUVRT has partnered with the Rocky Mountain NASA Space Grant Consortium to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities via VEX Robotics to middle and high school students in the Utah and Rocky Mountain Region. This paper discusses the outreach methods qualifying system used by the USUVRT over the past five years

The organisational and human resource challenges facing primary care trusts : protocol of a multiple case study

BACKGROUND: The study is designed to assess the organisational and human resource challenges faced by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). Its objectives are to: specify the organisational and human resources challenges faced by PCTs in fulfilling the roles envisaged in government and local policy; examine how PCTs are addressing these challenges, in particular, to describe the organisational forms they have adopted, and the OD/HR strategies and initiatives they have planned or in place; assess how effective these structures, strategies and initiatives have been in enabling the PCTs to meet the organisational and human resources challenges they face; identify the factors, both internal to the PCT and in the wider health community, which have contributed to the success or failure of different structures, strategies and initiatives. METHODS: The study will be undertaken in three stages. In Stage 1 the key literature on public sector and NHS organisational development and human resources management will be reviewed, and discussions will be held with key researchers and policy makers working in this area. Stage 2 will focus on detailed case studies in six PCTs designed to examine the organisational and human resources challenges they face. Data will be collected using semi-structured interviews, group discussion, site visits, observation of key meetings and examination of local documentation. The findings from the case study PCTs will be cross checked with a Reference Group of up to 20 other PCG/Ts, and key officers working in organisational development or primary care at local, regional and national level. In Stage 3 analysis of findings from the preparatory work, the case studies and the feedback from the Reference Group will be used to identify practical lessons for PCTs, key messages for policy makers, and contributions to further theoretical development