5,819 research outputs found
Mending Canada's Employment Insurance Quilt: The Case for Restoring Equity
No full textUnder the current Employment Insurance (EI) system, long-lasting EI benefits are more easily accessed in regions with high unemployment rates than in regions with low unemployment rates where workers face tighter restrictions to access short-lived benefits. This complicated screening procedure, intended to better support the various circumstances facing unemployed workers across the country, creates a number of undesirable consequences: the most glaring being pockets of high, chronic unemployment. The goals and intentions of the EI regime should be simplified to better address the needs of Canada’s unemployed workers.Social Policy, Canada, employment insurance (EI), EI reforms
Jüri Okas’ ‘specific objects’: diverging discourses in Estonian Art in the 1970s.
No full textPreviously in the University eprints HAIRST pilot service at http://eprints.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/00000367/Article 3 of 6 in issue devoted to the visual culture of the Scandinavian and Baltic region.This article will look at the early works of Estonian architect and artist Jüri Okas and will try to work between diverging languages and interpretations, reading works by Okas against the background of Anglo-american conceptualism and minimalism of the same period. The first part of the paper will analyse a print by Jüri Okas that paraphrases works by the American artist Donald Judd and will try to show how Okas’ concept of minimalism differed from the Western one and the reasons behind it. The second part of the paper will focus on a conceptual book by Jüri Okas, consisting of a series of photographs of everyday and banal architectural objects, and compare it to Rober Venturi’s book on Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. Finally, a comparison will be made with works of Robert Smithson in the context of concepts of waste, excess and the remainders of industrial civilisationPostprin
The correlation of employees involvement (EI) and turnover
No full textPlan BThe purpose of this research project is to study the relationship between applying employee involvement and the retention of employees. The interest is driven primarily from the view that employee involvement (EI) has a positive effect on organizational performance. It is believed that a change of any element in organizational culture can have a significant impact on staff including less absenteeism, less turnover, better decision-making and better problem solving among others. Thus, the above scenario supports the idea of determining if there is a correlation between the applications of certain organizational changes, specifically, employee involvement (EI) and employee turnover. Moreover, this research is important because data revealing the relationship between employee involvement and turnover was found. The methodology applied in this study (review of literature and data collection) resulted in the identification of relevant literature that was finally listed in 12 cases. The variety of employee involvement forms was listed as follows: Formal Participative Decision Making (case 1), Quality Circles (case 2), Qualityof Work Life (case 3), Gainsharing (case 4), Job Redesign or Job Enrichment (case 5), Self-Directed Work Teams (case 6), Employee Ownership (case 7), Representative Participation (case 8), and Managing by Objectives (case 9), in addition to the combination of some of them (case 10, 11, and 12). As results, some forms of employee involvement are directly related with turnover (cases 2, 6, 9, 10, 11, and 12), and others are indirectly related (cases 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8). In addition, there was not enough specific data to determine the magnitude of the relationship between employee involvement and turnover. Consequently, the results helped gauge the effectiveness of cultural changes geared toward increasing staff retention based on what is revealed
Center Manifold Theory for the Motions of Camphor Boats with Delta Function
No full textVarious collective motions of camphor boats have been studied. Camphor boats are self-driven particles that interact with each other through the change of surface tension on water surface by camphor molecules. Consequently, even in a one-dimensional circuit, a congested state or jamming can be observed (Suematsu et al. in Phys Rev E 81:056210, 2010). In this phenomenon, the unidirectional motion of each particle is considered a traveling wave, and the concentration of camphor molecules forms a pulse shape. Hence, each pair of particles interacts with each other like a pulse-pulse interaction. Thus, we expect that the center manifold theories proposed in Ei (J Dyn Differ Equ 14:85-137, 2002) and Ei et al. (Physica D 165:176-198 2002) are applicable for the analysis of the collective motion of camphor boats. However, spatial discontinuity in our model, in particular the existence of Dirac delta functions in a linearized operator, does not fulfill the requirement in the reduction process because the authors developed their theories in L2-framework and for smooth nonlinearity in Ei (2002) and Ei et al. (2002). In this article, we extend the results obtained in Ei (2002) and Ei et al. (2002) and establish a new center manifold approach in (H1)*-framework. Finally, we succeed to rigorously reduce a mathematical model (Nagayama et al. in Physica D: Nonlinear Phenom 194:151-165, 2004) coupled with a Newtonian equation and a reaction-diffusion equation including delta functions to an ordinary differential system that represents the motions of camphor boats
Control-theoretic methods for biological networks
No full textFeedback is both a pillar of control theory and a pervasive principle of nature. For this reason, control-theoretic methods are powerful to analyse the dynamic behaviour of biological systems and mathematically explain their properties, as well as to engineer biological systems so that they perform a specific task by design. This paper illustrates the relevance of control-theoretic methods for biological systems. The first part gives an overview of biological control and of the versatile ways in which cells use feedback. By employing control-theoretic methods, the complexity of interlaced feedback loops in the cell can be revealed and explained, and layered feedback loops can be designed in the cell to induce the desired behaviours, such as oscillations, multi-stability and activity regulation. The second part is mainly devoted to modelling uncertainty in biology and understanding the robustness of biological phenomena due to their inherent structure. Important control-theoretic tools used in systems biology are surveyed. The third part is focused on tools for model discrimination in systems biology. A deeper understanding of molecular pathways and feedback loops, as well as qualitative information on biological networks, can be achieved by studying the “dynamic response phenotypes” that appear in temporal responses. Several applications to the analysis of biological systems are showcased.Accepted Author ManuscriptTeam Tamas Keviczk
Kajian Metode Perhitungan Metrik Function-Point dan Penerapannya pada Dua Perangkat Lunak yang Dipilih
No full textFunction Point (FP) adalah metoda pengukuran sekaligus satuan ukuran sebuah perangkat lunak (PL). FP mengukur PL dengan cara mengkuantifikasi fungsionallitas PL yang disediakan untuk user berdasar pada disain lojik. Metrik FP dihitung dari 5 komponen, yakni jumlah input pemakai (extenal input - EI), jumlah output kepada pemakai (external output - EO), jumlah inquiry pemakai (external inquiry – EQ), jumlah file internal yang digunakan (internal logical file – ILF), dan jumlah antarmuka eksternal (external file – EIF). Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mempelajari secara seksama cara menghitung FP. PL yang menjadi objek penghitungan dipilih 2 perangkat lunak yang telah ada yakni Expert System Pembimbing Akademik (ESPA) dan Sistem Negosiasi Lelang pada Industri Kelapa Sawit (SNLINKS). Berkas teknis yang tersedia dari dua perangkat lunak ini adalah source code dan running application. Pengukuran FP akan dilakukan dari sudut pandang aplikasi, yakni mengukur aplikasi yang sudah jadi. Dari hasil observasi didapatkan bahwa FP untuk PL ESPA = 82 dan FP untuk PL SNLINKS = 85,36. Perbedaan ukuran FP keduanya tidak terlalu besar sehingga dapat disimpulkan bahwa usaha yang diberikan untuk membangun kedua PL tersebut relatif sama.Kajian Metode Perhitungan Metrik Function-Point dan Penerapannya pada Dua Perangkat Lunak yang Dipili
Dvibalsių ei~ie distribucija lietuvių kalboje
No full textStraipsnyje bandoma išspręsti seną ir sunkią baltistikos problemą - išaiškinti dvibalsių ei ir ie distribucijos sąlygas baltų kalbose. Autorius, remdamasis lietuvių kalbos medžiaga, atlieka jos vidinę rekonstrukciją (veiksmažodinių ir vardažodinių duomenų pagrindu) ir prieina išvadą, kad prokalbės dvibalsis *ei išlieka nepakitęs tik tam tikromis sąlygomis ir tam tikrose žodžio pozicijose, būtent dominaciniuose (baltų-slavų prasme) ir antriniuose dominaciniuose skiemenyse prieš dominacinius skiemenis. Vadovaujantis tonologine paradigminių akcentinių sistemų kilmės hipoteze, tokiuose skiemenyse prokalbėje rekonstruojamas aukštas resp. kylantis tonas. Skiemenyse su kitais tonais (ir kitose pozicijose) vyksta monoftongizacija *ei >*ē >ie. Reikšminiai žodžiai: Dvibalsių monoftongizacija; Lietuvių kalbaThe article attempts to solve an old and complicated problem in the field of Baltic studies, i.e. the distribution conditions of diphthongs ei and ie. Based on the Lithuanian language material, the author performs its internal reconstruction (on the basis of the data on verbs and terms)
Does Leadership Still Not Need Emotional Intelligence? : Continuing “The Great EI Debate”
No full textThe study of emotional intelligence (EI) in the field of leadership, and in the organizational sciences in general, has often been characterized by controversy and criticism. But the study of EI has nonetheless persisted by developing new measures and models to address these concerns. In a prior letter exchange by Antonakis, Ashkanasy, and Dasborough (2009), two author teams debated the role of EI in the leadership literature, but also set an agenda for research and reconciliation for the future. The present exchange revisits these arguments using evidence accumulated over the past decade. Specifically, the authors debate not only the evidence for the predictive power of EI for workplace outcomes, but also the validity of EI as a construct, the measurement of EI, and the appropriateness of analytical tests for establishing the value of EI. Although the author teams agree on the value of the study of emotions and the need for rigorous research in this area, they nonetheless propose alternative agendas and priorities for the future. Further, they conclude that the issues identified in this exchange are not unique to the study of EI; but should also serve to inform the study of other personality factors and leadership more broadly
Amalgamation of Cyclic Bit Operation in SD-EI Image Encryption Method: An Advanced Version of SD-EI Method: SD-EI Ver-2
No full textIn this paper, the author presents an advanced version of image encryption technique, which is itself an upgraded version of SD-EI image encryption method. In this new method, SD-EI Ver-2, there are more bit wise manipulations compared to original SD-EI method. The proposed method consist of three stages: 1) First, a number is generated from the password and each pixel of the image is converted to its equivalent eight binary number, and in that eight bit number, the number of bits, which are equal to the length of the number generated from the password, are rotated and reversed; 2) In second stage, extended hill cipher technique is applied by using involutory matrix, which is generated by same password used in second stage of encryption to make it more secure; 3) In last stage, we perform modified Cyclic Bit manipulation. First, the pixel values are again converted to their 8 bit binary format. Then 8 consecutive pixels are chosen and a 8X8 matrix is formed out of these 8 bit 8 pixels. After that, matrix cyclic operation is performed randomized number of times, which is again dependent on the password provided for encryption. After the generation of new 8 bit value of pixels, they are again converted to their decimal format and the new value is written in place of the old pixel value. SD-EI Ver-2 has been tested on different image files and the results were very satisfactory
- …
