Social Context and the Pathways to Happiness

Quantitative studies of human happiness often assume that the determinants of happiness are universal across time and place, reflecting inherent psychological needs. This dissertation challenges this assumption, exploring the idea that the determinants of happiness vary across social contexts. Chapter one tests the hypothesis that relationship between religiosity and happiness depends upon economic conditions; chapter two examines the impact of unemployment on happiness across four countries; chapter three explores the impact of private sector employment on happiness against the backdrop of the Chinese market reforms. Taken together, the findings suggest that researchers seeking to better understand the determinants of happiness should account for the moderating effects of social conditions

Revisiting Class-Based Affirmative Action in Government Contracting

The Article highlights the existing class-based alternatives to affirmative action in government contracting based on races in the U.S. in 2011. It discusses the theory of class-based affirmative action, state-by-state anti-affirmative action movement and the history of affirmative action. It explores three programs aimed to encourage the development of job in disadvantaged areas by government contracting and show the ways on how each program is structured

The Third Space: The Meeting of Jew and Christian in the Act of Remembering, Restoring, and Reconciling - A Case Study of the Matzevah Foundation

Problem Due to long-standing religious, racial, and cultural tensions, a complex and challenging relationship exists between Jews and Christians. The resulting breach isolates and separates these two faith groups from each other. Consequently, they struggle to interact and engage in meaningful dialogue, which could repair the breach and lead to forgiveness and reconciliation. Dialogue bridges the gap between Jew and Christian allowing them to meet in the third space—the liminal space of the Jewish cemetery in Poland. Jews and Christians may deal with the evil of the past through what researchers term as loving acts. Method This study was conducted as a qualitative case study of the work of The Matzevah Foundation (TMF) in its efforts to bring Jew and Christian together in the space of the Polish-Jewish cemetery to work cooperatively to care for and restore cemeteries. The study employed a purposeful sampling method that selected specific people, who have had contact with TMF and its work. Sources of data for the study were derived from individual and corporate interviews, observations, documents, artifacts, and personal reflective journals. Through inquiry of the interaction of Jews and Christians in the liminal space of the Polish-Jewish cemetery, the study sought to understand how acts of loving-kindness influence attitudes and create mutual bridges of understanding as the underpinning for dialogue. The investigation asked two primary questions. First, how have Jews and Christians responded to the work of TMF? Second, in what ways did Jews and Christians learn how to dialogue within their interaction in the work of TMF? Results It was discovered that Jews and Christians reacted to the work of TMF in five ways: developing relationships, engaging in loving acts, remembering, restoring, and reconciling. These reactions produced the footing for dialogue. The data revealed a framework for dialogue that emerged from Jewish and Christian interaction, which consisted of seven components: addressing proselytism, developing common ground, gaining understanding, building a sense of community, speaking about matters of faith, confronting the present past, and overcoming differences among them. Conclusions The study discovered a potential model for Jewish and Christian dialogue and contributed a greater understanding of the experience of dialogue. Instead of meeting and talking, the distinctive difference of dialogue as encountered in this study is the creation of a nexus within the liminality of a cemetery in which Jews and Christians may mutually interact and cooperate in the restoration of Jewish cemeteries in Poland

Leading in the Third Space

For nearly two millennia, Jews and Christians have struggled to interact with each other and engage in meaningful dialogue. The tragedy of the Shoah only deepened and enlarged the chasm that exists between these two faith groups. How can this fracture be healed, and reconciliation or even dialogue emerge? This article explores the work of The Matzevah Foundation in its efforts to create a nexus within the liminality of a Jewish cemetery in which Jews and Christians may mutually interact and cooperate as they care for and restore Jewish cemeteries in Poland. By examining acts of loving-kindness, Jews’ and Christians’ attitudes are influenced, creating mutual bridges of understanding. This study suggests a framework and a potential model for Jewish and Christian dialogue and highlights critical aspects of the experience of dialogue

On Similarities between Inference in Game Theory and Machine Learning

In this paper, we elucidate the equivalence between inference in game theory and machine learning. Our aim in so doing is to establish an equivalent vocabulary between the two domains so as to facilitate developments at the intersection of both fields, and as proof of the usefulness of this approach, we use recent developments in each field to make useful improvements to the other. More specifically, we consider the analogies between smooth best responses in fictitious play and Bayesian inference methods. Initially, we use these insights to develop and demonstrate an improved algorithm for learning in games based on probabilistic moderation. That is, by integrating over the distribution of opponent strategies (a Bayesian approach within machine learning) rather than taking a simple empirical average (the approach used in standard fictitious play) we derive a novel moderated fictitious play algorithm and show that it is more likely than standard fictitious play to converge to a payoff-dominant but risk-dominated Nash equilibrium in a simple coordination game. Furthermore we consider the converse case, and show how insights from game theory can be used to derive two improved mean field variational learning algorithms. We first show that the standard update rule of mean field variational learning is analogous to a Cournot adjustment within game theory. By analogy with fictitious play, we then suggest an improved update rule, and show that this results in fictitious variational play, an improved mean field variational learning algorithm that exhibits better convergence in highly or strongly connected graphical models. Second, we use a recent advance in fictitious play, namely dynamic fictitious play, to derive a derivative action variational learning algorithm, that exhibits superior convergence properties on a canonical machine learning problem (clustering a mixture distribution)

Consolidated bibliography of military and civilian studies in personnel retention and job turnover

Working Paper Serieshttp://archive.org/details/consolidatedbibl35reecNAN

Dr. Robert D. Reece interview (1) conducted on October 31, 1984 about the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University

This is the first in a series of interviews with Dr. Robert D. Reece, founding Chairman of the Department of Medicine in Society in the Wright State School of Medicine. In this first interview, Dr. Reece discusses the early development of the department and how it impacts the medical student. In the first part of the interview Dr. Reece discusses his education and background prior to coming to Wright State University. He also recalls the discussions leading to the establishment of the Department of Medicine in Society within the School of Medicine. Dr. Reece then examines the development of the department, focusing on his priorities of curriculum and staff development. In the second part of the interview Dr. Reece discusses the curriculum of the department and how the department impacts the medical student. Elements of the curriculum discussed in detail are: the core courses of the department; the department\u27s selectives; and department participation in correlation sessions and grand rounds