A four channel He-3 cooled balloon-borne bolometer radiometer

A four channel He-3 cooled balloon-borne bolometer radiometer was constructed. The principal goal of the instrument is to measure the anisotropy of the 3 K cosmic background radiation on angular scales of 4 to 180 deg. The goal is to improve the sensitivity of the measurements to Delta T/T is less than .00001. A secondary goal is to survey the galactic thermal dust emission in the submillimeter range

A question of value(s): Political connectedness and executive compensation in public sector organizations

While the de-politicization of public sector management was a core objective of past reform initiatives, more recent debates urge the state to act as a strong principal when it comes to public sector unity and policy coherence - and consequently make a case for reinvigorating links between the political and managerial sphere. Using data from Austrian public sector organizations, we test and confirm the causal relationship of political connectedness of board members and executive compensation. Differentiating between value-based and interest-based in-groups, we suggest that only value-based political connectedness has the potential to restore patronage as a control instrument and governance tool. Self-interested and reward-driven patronage, on the other hand, indicated by a strong association of political connectedness and executive pay, refers to the type of politicization that previous public sector reforms promised to abolish

Primordial Gravitational Waves and Cosmology

The observation of primordial gravitational waves could provide a new and unique window on the earliest moments in the history of the universe, and on possible new physics at energies many orders of magnitude beyond those accessible at particle accelerators. Such waves might be detectable soon in current or planned satellite experiments that will probe for characteristic imprints in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), or later with direct space-based interferometers. A positive detection could provide definitive evidence for Inflation in the early universe, and would constrain new physics from the Grand Unification scale to the Planck scale.Comment: 12 pages. 4 figure

Review of The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Book Revie

Collaborative auto/biography : notes on an interview with Margaret McCord on The calling of Katie Makanya : a memoir of South Africa

The Calling of Katie Makanya: A Memoir of South Africa belongs to that curious genre of collaborative autobiography in which a writing author (Margaret McCord) publishes a written account of an oral narrator's (Katie Makanya's) life story.Not

Trading in Structured Products: Investor Behavior and Pricing Policies

In my work I focus on structured products offering numerous risk-return variations on a broad landscape of underlying assets. I answer the question whether investors put structured products to good use and whether issuers provide a fair and transparent environment

Killing the sacred cow: Radical organisational change as seen through the eyes of change agents

Within the family of changes that take place in organisations, incremental change is better known than its wilder sibling, radical change. While there is an extensive literature concerning the nature and implementation of incremental change, radical change is primarily treated theoretically and conceptually, lacking in an empirical foundation and the perspectives of experienced change agents. This omission is especially evident with respect to the population of interim managers, who tend to play critical roles as change agents and as knowledge bearers. The study that forms the basis of this thesis was designed to address this gap in extant knowledge. The broad aim of the research was to explore change agents’ perceptions, beliefs, and experiences regarding the nature of radical organisational change, when it is necessary, how it should be implemented, and how its outcomes may be evaluated. To fulfil this aim, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 experienced change agents: a sample of ten interim managers experienced in leading radical organisational change, five consultants who specialise in organisational change and five line managers who were experienced in its implementation. The research generated 176 diverse insights concerning radical organisational change, both within and across the three samples. While the interim managers offered strong pragmatic convictions, straight “from the gut”, the consultants offered a more intellectual and theory-laden approach to the interpretation of radical change, with the line managers situated somewhere between these two worlds. These insights were condensed into a set of key findings and contributions to knowledge, providing an enhanced understanding of radical organisational change that is informed by the perspectives of experienced change agents. The study’s findings also comprise informed contributions to practice, including a conceptual framework that summarises the leadership challenges that are inherent to radical organisational change