The emergence of giving circles and their relationships with nonprofit organisations : a case study

This thesis explores the relationships that exist between a giving circle and the nonprofit organisations it supports. The case study focusses on a formal giving circle operating in Austin, Texas, United States and includes embedded case studies of nonprofit organisations that had received funding from the giving circle. Findings provide insights to nonprofit experiences with the giving circle phenomenon stimulating further conversation for fundraising practitioners in how they engage with not only giving circles but donors who may wish to be engaged at a different level, compared to the more traditional means adopted by nonprofit organisations.

The construction of social identity in new nuclear operators : a longitudinal study

Countless studies have stressed the importance of social identity, particularly its role in various organizational outcomes, yet questions remain as to how identities initially develop, shift and change based on the configuration of multiple, pluralistic relationships grounded in an organizational setting. The interactive model of social identity formation has been proposed recently to explain the internalization of shared norms and values – critical in identity formation – has not received empirical examination. We analyzed multiple sources of data from nine nuclear professionals over three years to understand the construction of social identity in new entrants entering an organization. Informed by our data analyses, we found support for the interactive model and that age and level of experience influenced whether they undertook an inductive or deductive route of the group norm and value internalization. This study represents an important contribution to the study of social identity and the process by which identities are formed, particularly under conditions of duress or significant organizational disruption.

An IEEE 802.11p empirical performance model for cooperative systems applications

IEEE 802.11p is the new standard for Inter-Vehicular Communications (IVC) using the 5.9 GHz frequency band, as part of the DSRC framework; it will enable applications based on Cooperative Systems. Simulation is widely used to estimate or verify the potential benefits of such cooperative applications, notably in terms of safety for the drivers. We have developed a performance model for 802.11p that can be used by simulations of cooperative applications (e.g. collision avoidance) without requiring intricate models of the whole IVC stack. Instead, it provide a a straightforward yet realistic modelisation of IVC performance. Our model uses data from extensive field trials to infer the correlation between speed, distance and performance metrics such as maximum range, latency and frame loss. Then, we improve this model to limit the number of profiles that have to be generated when there are more than a few couples of emitter-receptor in a given location. Our model generates realistic performance for rural or suburban environments among small groups of IVC-equipped vehicles and road side units.

Responses, relationships and responsibility : examining influences on organisational assets during crisis

This thesis explains how an organisation's relationships with its key stakeholders influence the public's view of its responsibility for a crisis event and how this subsequently influences the protective and reparative powers of its crisis response on its reputation and legitimacy. From the results, a continuum of the influencing effect of relationship history was developed which demonstrates the positive and negative frames through which stakeholders view an organisation in crisis and its response. Organisational age and the evaluative character of its relationships with key stakeholders were considered in the experimental design as descriptors of an organisation's relationship history. The findings provide guidance to crisis managers on effective crisis response selection.

Well-being, satisfaction and commitment : the substitutable nature of resources for maternity hospital nurses

Abstract Aims. To investigate the relationship between three types of organizational resources (job control, social support and organizational justice) and the impact of job demands on nurse’s well-being and attitudes towards their work. Background. The negative impact of work-related stress on nurse’s health and attitudes towards their work has been established. Increasingly, research is focusing on the role of organizational resources in reducing the impact of work related stress. Design. Cross-sectional survey. Method. Data collected in November 2008 from 226 Australian nurses and midwives were analysed using the full Job Strain Model with the addition of organizational justice variables. Multiple regression analyses explored the relationships among job control, job demands, three sources of social support and four types of organizational justice on well-being and work attitudes. Results. The overall regression models explained a significant amount of variance in well-being, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Significant main effects were evident for support variables and organizational justice variables on well-being and job satisfaction. Interactions between job control and supervisor support and between job demands and supervisor support were evident for job satisfaction. Conclusions. Supervisor support and organizational justice have significant relationships with nurses’ well-being and job satisfaction. More broadly, the findings suggest that, in the triple-matching approach from a work-stressor to a resource to a work outcome, personal, supervisory and organizational resources may be substitutable. These findings provide nurse management with empirical endorsement for the development and delivery of the organization’s resources for nursing staff.

Rating defence major project success : the role of personal attributes and stakeholder relationships

In this paper we develop and test a model of the associations between major project managers' personal attributes and project success in the context of the Australian Defence industry. In our model, emotional intelligence, cognitive flexibility and systemic thinking were hypothesised to relate to project success, mediated by internal and external stakeholder relationships. The model was tested in an online survey with 373 major project managers. Emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility were found to be related to the development, quality and effectiveness of major project managers' relationships with both internal and external stakeholders; and these in turn were associated with their ratings of project success. Systemic thinking, however, had no relationship with either stakeholder relationships or project success. Additional research is needed to examine the contribution of a wider range of personal attributes to stakeholder relationships and project success, and to assess whether this model is applicable in other industries and types of projects.

Spreading peak demand for urban rail transit through differential fare policy : a review of empirical evidence

More evenly spread demand for public transport throughout a day can reduce transit service provider‟s total asset and labour costs. A plausible peak spreading strategy is to increase peak fare and/or to reduce off-peak fare. This paper reviews relevant empirical studies for urban rail systems, as rail transit plays a key role in Australian urban passenger transport and experiences severe peak loading variability. The literature is categorised into four groups: a) passenger opinions on willingness to change time for travel, b) valuations of displacement time using stated preference technique, c) simulations of peak spreading based on trip scheduling models, and: d) real-world cases of peak spreading using differential fare. Policy prescription is advised to take into account impacts of traveller‟s time flexibility and joint effects of mode shifting and peak spreading. Although focusing on urban rail, arguments in this paper are relevant to public transport in general with values to researchers and practitioners.

Much ado about nothing? Tracing the progress of innovations borne on enterprise social network sites

Enterprise social networks are organizationally bounded online platforms for users to interact with another and maintain interpersonal relationships. The allure of these technologies is often seen in intra-organizational communication, collaboration and innovation. How these technologies actually support organizational innovation efforts remains unclear. A specific challenge is whether digital content on these platforms converts to actual innovation development efforts. In this study we set out to examine innovation-centric content flows on enterprise social networking platforms, and advance a conceptual model that seeks to explain which innovation conveyed in the digital content will traverse from the digital platform into regular processes. We describe important constructs of our model and offer strategies for the operationalization of the constructs. We conclude with an outlook to our ongoing empirical study that will explore and validate the key propositions of our model, and we sketch some potential implications for industry and academia.

Shrinkage empirical likelihood estimator in longitudinal analysis with time-dependent covariates-application to modeling the health of Filipino children

The method of generalized estimating equations (GEE) is a popular tool for analysing longitudinal (panel) data. Often, the covariates collected are time-dependent in nature, for example, age, relapse status, monthly income. When using GEE to analyse longitudinal data with time-dependent covariates, crucial assumptions about the covariates are necessary for valid inferences to be drawn. When those assumptions do not hold or cannot be verified, Pepe and Anderson (1994, Communications in Statistics, Simulations and Computation 23, 939–951) advocated using an independence working correlation assumption in the GEE model as a robust approach. However, using GEE with the independence correlation assumption may lead to significant efficiency loss (Fitzmaurice, 1995, Biometrics 51, 309–317). In this article, we propose a method that extracts additional information from the estimating equations that are excluded by the independence assumption. The method always includes the estimating equations under the independence assumption and the contribution from the remaining estimating equations is weighted according to the likelihood of each equation being a consistent estimating equation and the information it carries. We apply the method to a longitudinal study of the health of a group of Filipino children.

Frontier Techniques for Measuring and Estimating Airport Efficiency : An Empirical Review with Practical Guidelines for Analysis and Future Research

Airport efficiency is important because it has a direct impact on customer safety and satisfaction and therefore the financial performance and sustainability of airports, airlines, and affiliated service providers. This is especially so in a world characterized by an increasing volume of both domestic and international air travel, price and other forms of competition between rival airports, airport hubs and airlines, and rapid and sometimes unexpected changes in airline routes and carriers. It also reflects expansion in the number of airports handling regional, national, and international traffic and the growth of complementary airport facilities including industrial, commercial, and retail premises. This has fostered a steadily increasing volume of research aimed at modeling and providing best-practice measures and estimates of airport efficiency using mathematical and econometric frontiers. The purpose of this chapter is to review these various methods as they apply to airports throughout the world. Apart from discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches and their key findings, the paper also examines the steps faced by researchers as they move through the modeling process in defining airport inputs and outputs and the purported efficiency drivers. Accordingly, the chapter provides guidance to those conducting empirical research on airport efficiency and serves as an aid for aviation regulators and airport operators among others interpreting airport efficiency research outcomes.

Empirical facts : a rationale for expanding lawyers' methodological expertise

This article examines the importance of the social evidence base in relation to the development of the law. It argues that there is a need for those lawyers who play a part in law reform (legislators and those involved in the law reform process) and for those who play a part in formulating policy-based common law rules (judges and practitioners) to know more about how facts are established in the social sciences. It argues that lawyers need sufficient knowledge and skills in order to be able to critically assess the facts and evidence base when examining new legislation and also when preparing, arguing and determining the outcomes of legal disputes. For this reason the article argues that lawyers need enhanced training in empirical methodologies in order to function effectively in modern legal contexts.

Hyperelastic constitutive relationship for the strain-rate dependent behavior of shoulder and other joint cartilages

Non-linear finite deformations of articular cartilages under physiological loading conditions can be attributed to hyperelastic behavior. This paper contains experimental results of indentation tests in finite deformation and proposes an empirical based new generalized hyperelastic constitutive model to account for strain-rate dependency for humeral head cartilage tissues. The generalized model is based on existing hyperelastic constitutive relationships that are extensively used to represent biological tissues in biomechanical literature. The experimental results were obtained for three loading velocities, corresponding to low (1x10-3 s-1), moderate and high strain-rates (1x10-1 s-1), which represent physiological loading rates that are experienced in daily activities such as lifting, holding objects and sporting activities. Hyperelastic material parameters were identified by non linear curve fitting procedure. Analysis demonstrated that the material behavior of cartilage can be effectively decoupled into strain-rate independent(elastic) and dependent parts. Further, experiments conducted using different indenters indicated that the parameters obtained are significantly affected by the indenter size, potentially due to structural inhomogeneity of the tissue. The hyperelastic constitutive model developed in this paper opens a new avenue for the exploration of material properties of cartilage tissues.

Pleasures, perversities, and partnerships : the historical emergence of LGBT-police relationships

Relationships between LGBT people and police have been turbulent for some time now, and have been variously characterized as supportive (McGhee, 2004) and antagonistic (Radford, Betts, & Ostermeyer, 2006). These relationships were, and continue to be, influenced by a range of political, legal, cultural, and social factors. This chapter will examine historical and social science accounts of LGBT-police histories to chart the historical peaks and troughs in these relationships. The discussion demonstrates how, in Western contexts, we oscillate between historical moments of police criminalizing homosexual perversity and contemporary landscapes of partnership between police and LGBT people. However, the chapter challenges the notion that it is possible to trace this as a lineal progression from a painful past to a more productive present. Rather, it focuses on specific moments, marked by pain or pleasure or both, and how these moments emerge and re-emerge in ways that shaped LGBT-police landscapes in potted, uneven ways. The chapter concludes noting how, although certain ideas and police practices may shift towards more progressive notions of partnership policing, we cannot just take away the history that emerged out of mistrust and pain.

Nucleotide sequences of an Australian and a Canadian isolate of potato leafroll luteovirus and their relationships with two European isolates

The genomes of an Australian and a Canadian isolate of potato leafroll virus have been cloned and sequenced. The sequences of both isolates are similar (about 93%), but the Canadian isolate (PLRV-C) is more closely related (about 98% identity) to a Scottish (PLRV-S) and a Dutch isolate (PLRV-N) than to the Australian isolate (PLRV-A). The 5'-terminal 18 nucleotide residues of PLRV-C, PLRV-A, PLRV-N and beet western yellows virus have 17 residues in common. In contrast, PLRV-S shows no obvious similarity in this region. PLRV-A and PLRV-C genomic sequences have localized regions of marked diversity, in particular a 600 nucleotide residue sequence in the polymerase gene. These data provide a world-wide perspective on the molecular biology of PLRV strains and their comparison with other luteoviruses and related RNA plant viruses suggests that there are two major subgroups in the plant luteoviruses.

Development of empirical equations for irradiance profile of a standard parabolic trough collector using Monte Carlo ray tracing technique

Irradiance profile around the receiver tube (RT) of a parabolic trough collector (PTC) is a key effect of optical performance that affects the overall energy performance of the collector. Thermal performance evaluation of the RT relies on the appropriate determination of the irradiance profile. This article explains a technique in which empirical equations were developed to calculate the local irradiance as a function of angular location of the RT of a standard PTC using a vigorously verified Monte Carlo ray tracing model. A large range of test conditions including daily normal insolation, spectral selective coatings and glass envelop conditions were selected from the published data by Dudley et al. [1] for the job. The R2 values of the equations are excellent that vary in between 0.9857 and 0.9999. Therefore, these equations can be used confidently to produce realistic non-uniform boundary heat flux profile around the RT at normal incidence for conjugate heat transfer analyses of the collector. Required values in the equations are daily normal insolation, and the spectral selective properties of the collector components. Since the equations are polynomial functions, data processing software can be employed to calculate the flux profile very easily and quickly. The ultimate goal of this research is to make the concentrating solar power technology cost competitive with conventional energy technology facilitating its ongoing research.