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CUBAN IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES: WHAT DETERMINES THEIR EARNINGS DISTRIBUTION?
Get PDFIn this paper the conditional earnings distribution of Cuban immigrants in the U.S. using OLS and Quantile Regression is analyzed. The data used in the study come from the 2011 American Community Survey (ACS) in the U.S. provided by IPUMS (2011). The results show that increments in earnings associated with different socioeconomic characteristics such as: sex, marital status, ethnicity, proficiency in English and education vary across the whole earnings distribution
'Politics and Pomegranates: Art, Iconography and Counsel in Rubens's Anglo-Spanish Diplomacy of 1629-30'
No full textThe change of production systemsthroeugh consultancy involved projects: a multiple case study in Chinese SMEs
Get PDFProduction systems, such as Lean Production System (LPS), have been developed to improve organisational performance. In their application to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), resource constraints mean that business assistance from external agencies, such as management consultants, is often required. Building on organisational learning research associated with knowledge flow across boundaries, this study aims to explore the practical issues associated with consultancy-involved LPS implementation in Chinese SMEs and the possible approaches to deal with them. A multiple case study is conducted focusing on four real-life, consultancy-involved, lean projects in Chinese SMEs. Four key problems that arise from consultancy-involved change of production systems are identified and four relevant approaches to handle these problems are also addressed. The case study implies that to better embed new production systems, such as LPS into SMEs, both consultants and SME clients need to adopt a more proactive approach when engaging with each other
The devil in the corner: A mixed-methods study of metaphor use by those with spinal cord injury-specific neuropathic pain
Get PDFObjectives. Metaphorical expressions of persistent pain play an influential role in the modulation of pain. This may be particularly distressing for those with physical disabilities such as spinal cord injury (SCI). Neuropathic pain (NP) after SCI is often described using metaphorical expressions such as burning and electricity. This study explored the use of
metaphors by those with NP after SCI.
Design. A qualitative, semi-structured interview design was employed.
Methods. Data were analysed using Content Analysis (CA) and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore prevalence of metaphor use, and its meaning. Sixteen individuals aged between 23 and 82 years, with chronic NP (persisting for three months or longer), arising from SCI were interviewed in their homes, or on hospital wards (M = 10, F = 6). Interviews lasted between 40 and 120 minutes.
Results. The results capture a range of metaphorical expressions embedded in participants’ accounts. Three themes emerged; (1) Pain as a Personal Attack; (2) The Desire to be Understood; and (3) Conveying Distress Without Adequate Terminology. CA revealed that younger age, female gender, and outpatient status were associated with increased metaphor use.
Conclusions. This study highlights the power of metaphor in eliciting understanding of NP after SCI from others, whilst demonstrating the challenge of communicating NP. Cognitive treatment that incorporates image-based techniques with acceptance and mindfulness-based therapies may encourage adaptive responses to, and interpretation of, pain. This may subsequently reduce pain-related distress and catastrophising
Do Organisations have a Mission for Mapping Processes?
Get PDFPurpose - This research sets out to identify and explore the reasons why organisations decide to use process mapping software (PMS) facilities in support of Business Process Management (BPM); to determine the objectives set by senior management for its introduction, and understand extent to which the benefits are achieved by organisations from its implementation.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses an exploratory research design and investigates the elements of organisations’ objectives, implementation and evaluation of using PMS. The research data was collected through semi-structured telephone interviews with business managers responsible for the implementation of PMS in their organisation. The respondent organisations were selected from a range of industry sectors all of whom were using the same BPM software.
Findings - The results of the research show that organisations do set objectives for using PMS, relevant to a wide range of business, operational and strategic objectives, dependant on the needs of the organisation. Additionally, the results show that some organisations gain further advantages post-implementation, based on their experience of using the PMS. As for the explicit evaluation of their investment, organisations attempt this to a very limited extent; but they do recognise a broad a range of ‘softer’ benefits achieved from its adoption.
Research limitations/implications – This exploratory research has been conducted on a small range of organisations, all using the same software, therefore the results cannot be clearly generalizable. Whilst the research suggests organisations are making effective decisions regarding the use of PMS, further research on the methods of evaluation could be developed to support better decision-making in the future.
Practical implications – the practical implications of this research are for decision-makers in organisations recognising and understanding the potential (strategic / operational) benefits that could be achieved by implementing a software system for BPM.
Originality/value - Whilst the use of process maps, and mapping of organisation’s operations is widespread the benefits achieved by organisations is only partially understood. Knowledge of the strategic impact of BPM is limited, as Trkman (2010) states “this may derive from the inherent complexity of the field”. This research attempts to explore the context of organisations using such software, and point towards further approaches to its investigation.
Keywords - BPM; Process Mapping; Process Mapping Systems; Business Strategy; Business Objectives.
Paper type – Research paper
Ref: Trkman, P. (2010). The critical success factors of business process management. International Journal of Information Management, 30, pp.125-13
Rights and Reparations: An Assessment of the UNDRIP's Contribution to American Indian Land Claims
No full textAn Enhanced Web Document Search Engine using a Semantic Network
Get PDFWith the rapid advancement of ICT technology, the World Wide Web (referred to as the Web) has become the
biggest information repository whose volume keeps growing on a daily basis. The challenge is how to find the most wanted information from the Web with a minimum effort. This paper presents a novel ontology-based framework for searching the related web pages to a given term within a few given specific websites. With this framework, a web crawler first learns the content of web pages within the given websites, then the topic modeller finds the relations between web pages and topics via keywords found on the web pages using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) technique. After that, the ontology builder establishes an ontology which is a semantic network of web pages based on the topic model. Finally, a reasoner can find the related web pages to a given term by making use of the ontology. The framework and related modelling techniques have been verified using a few test websites and the results convince its superiority over the existing web search tools
AFRICAN ‘SOCIAL ORDERING’ GRUNDNORMS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN AFRICAN LEX PETROLEA?
Get PDFThis article interrogates the constitutional relevance of African social ordering rules in petroleum governance in Sub-Saharan African petroleum producing states. At the apex of the hierarchized African legal system is the national constitution which contains the basic norm or grundnorm derived from Western received law. Yet some African scholars have described African social ordering norms as grundnorms. This goes contrary to the conventional positivist position that “a legal system cannot be founded on two conflicting grundnorms.” This article will consider whether African social ordering norms have attained the level of a grundnorm as expounded in Kelsen’s pure theory. Utilising the Ekeh’s “two publics” model, it investigates how the basic norm for African social ordering grundnorms is presupposed.
The article considers whether there is a conflict between the domanial system of state ownership as approved by African national constitutions and indigenous African social ordering norms premised on communitarianism. The article presents for analysis the recent study undertaken by African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA). This study considers whether it is possible to standardise the rules of petroleum contractual governance in Africa. This has led to some discussion on whether the standardisation of these rules could lead to the development of an African Lex Petrolea. This article explores the role that African social ordering norms can play in the development of a continent-wide Lex Petrolea
Women, Law and Culture - Conformity, Contradiction and Conflict
Get PDFFor Jocelynne A. Scutt, women and women’s role are influenced and acted upon by culture and law combined. Laws are frequently based on and in culture, and culture is impacted by law. In Women, Law & Culture she has brought together scholars from different countries, with different ethnic/race and cultural backgrounds, to explore this reality. Their contributions illustrate the impact of law and culture on women from varying ethnic/race and cultural backgrounds living in different countries, ranging from popular culture – television and film, to the role of religion, and to women grappling with the legal system in work settings, as litigants, and as activists seeking to change law and culture to enhance women’s rights and redress discrimination and oppression. Part I ‘Identity & Representation’ takes as its template women’s struggle over time to be recognised as human – ‘equal’ to men, and entitled to an equal voice – in law and culture. Part II ‘Space & Place’ looks at women in different spaces, different places, in different cultures and countries, where in every country, every culture, men take more space in more places. Part III ‘Bodily and Psychic Integrity’ recounts the continuing impact of violence at home, on the streets, in private, in public against women globally, and the role played by law and culture in promoting or at least condoning the downgrading of women’s lives and safety, where men dominate in cultural, social, political and legal settings. Scutt emphasises that this ‘global’ perspective is essential to illustrate that ‘culture’ and ‘ethnicity/race’ are not confined to ‘other’: women in the world, whatever country, whatever culture and race/ethnicity, are impacted by the overwhelming control exercised at all levels by those who have the power to determine the content of culture and the language and application of law
A Single Acquisition Channel Receiver for GPS L1CA and L2C Signals Based on Orthogonal Signal Processing
No full textThe GPS L1CA and L2C signals are transmitted from the same GPS Satellite Vehicles constellation. It is desirable, especially in commercial GNSS receivers, to have both of these signals acquired by a single receiver so to assure better signal acquisition and improved reliability at wider operating areas. To achieve this in an efficient process, we propose to integrate the GPS L1CA and L2CM signals orthogonally and acquire them in a single processing channel. After removing the Doppler frequency, our receiver first adds the quadrature components of the L2CM signal and the L1CA signal. This new signal is then shifted by 90o. This is then added to the remaining components of these two signals; thus resulting in an orthogonal form of the combined signals. Secondly, the FFT of this orthogonal signal is then mixed with the complex conjugate of the FFT of a locally generated replica of the CA code combined with a 90o-shifted replica of the CM code. Finally, the output signal is then converted back to the time domain to acquire the signal’s peak. The complexity of our dual-signal receiver implementation is half of that used in dual acquisition methods. Furthermore, MATLAB Simulation results show that our acquisition method compares favorably with other approaches in terms of detection of low sensitivity signals and false alarm probability