BSc Audiology Library Sessions, 2010

Induction and information skills sessions for first year undergraduate audiologists.

BSc Acoustics Library Induction, 2010

This lecture was given to new first year BSc Acoustic students in October 2010. It is an introduction to library resources including finding items from reading lists and online searching for journal articles.

Diseño del balance scorecard en la dirección de investigaciones de la Facultad de Administración de la Universidad del Rosario

El avance de la tecnología y los sistemas de información ha permitido cambiar y facilitar el desarrollo de actividades cotidianas, familiares y sobre el como operan las organizaciones actuales. En la actualidad los sistemas de información son una necesidad porque permiten hacer mejoras, en los procesos operativos, proporcionan información para la toma de decisiones y puede facilitar el logro de ventajas competitivas en el mundo competitivo global. La siguiente es una investigación en donde se intenta realizar una adaptación del modelo de Balance Scorecard, el cual es únicamente para empresas, en un área en particular, como lo es la Dirección de Investigaciones de la Facultad de Administración de la Universidad del Rosario. El desarrollo de este modelo es una prueba base para una propuesta de mejoramiento para el desarrollo de un sistema de información para que de soporte a la Dirección de Investigaciones. El documento se encuentra estructurado de la siguiente forma: En el primer capítulo hace referencia la perdurabilidad empresarial enfocado a la Dirección de Investigaciones; Segundo capitulo un análisis de la Dirección de Investigaciones de la Facultad de Administración y el tercer capítulo es el diseño del Balance Scorecard al objeto de estudio.

Direcção Hoteleira em Equipa com o USALI e o BSC – para uma gestão mais eficaz e eficiente

Num ambiente muito competitivo, incerto, muito complexo, a passagem do líder único para a direcção em equipa de competências complementares é considerada uma evolução que muito contribui para a inovação, motivação, bom clima organizacional e melhoria da eficácia e eficiência. O objectivo desta investigação é averiguar se há ou não relação entre o modelo da co-liderança e a melhoria da eficácia e da eficiência, nas empresas da hotelaria portuguesa. Para isso, utilizámos 1723 inquéritos, mais entrevistas, análise estatística (da satisfação dos clientes e da performance económico-financeira) e análise de casos de co-liderança. Os resultados da pesquisa confirmam que quanto mais vincado é o modelo de co-direcção, melhor a eficácia e a eficiência. As variáveis co-liderança e GOP estão ambas fortemente correlacionadas entre si e com outros importantes indicadores de eficácia operacional como Clima Organizacional, Motivação Laboral e Satisfação dos Clientes.

The development of a phonetically balanced word recognition test in the Ilocano language

Three different phonetically-balanced 50-word recognition lists were constructed in the Ilocano language. Factors that were considered in the construction of these lists were: phonetic balance, syllable structure, and commonness of words.

Modelo para la Gestión Integrada de Empresa de Transporte Aéreo. Caso AeroGal

El modelo elaborado a través de una investigación sobre gestión integral constituye un referencial valido para las empresas, contribuye con información que pueden fortalecer la productividad e incrementar la rentabilidad siempre que tenga un adecuado control y seguimiento del modelo. Con los antecedentes descritos se hace necesario establecer un modelo de control de cumplimiento de la estrategia y visión de la gestión de la empresa que evite redundancias y promueva la alineación hacia el mismo objetivo, por lo que se ha considerado necesario implementar un Balanced SoreCard para el control y tratamiento de la gestión, confortado además con la Economía del Conocimiento el cual describe las barreras organizacionales para el éxito del modelo. El BSC se justifica aún más al conocer que hoy en día las empresas tienen la necesidad de integrar sus sistemas de gestión mediante la alineación de la estrategia con la operación empresarial. Sin embargo una de las características de los sistemas actuales es el cumplimiento exclusivo de la norma, por lo tanto los esfuerzos se orientan en forma aislada, situación que corrige la implementación del Cuadro de Mando Integral.

A regime-dependent balanced control variable based on potential vorticity

In this paper it is argued that rotational wind is not the best choice of leading control variable for variational data assimilation, and an alternative is suggested and tested. A rotational wind parameter is used in most global variational assimilation systems as a pragmatic way of approximately representing the balanced component of the assimilation increments. In effect, rotational wind is treated as a proxy for potential vorticity, but one that it is potentially not a good choice in flow regimes characterised by small Burger number. This paper reports on an alternative set of control variables which are based around potential vorticity. This gives rise to a new formulation of the background error covariances for the Met Office's variational assimilation system, which leads to flow dependency. It uses similar balance relationships to traditional schemes, but recognises the existence of unbalanced rotational wind which is used with a new anti-balance relationship. The new scheme is described and its performance is evaluated and compared to a traditional scheme using a sample of diagnostics.

Inertia-Gravity Waves Emitted from Balanced Flow: Observations, Properties, and Consequences

This paper describes laboratory observations of inertia–gravity waves emitted from balanced fluid flow. In a rotating two-layer annulus experiment, the wavelength of the inertia–gravity waves is very close to the deformation radius. Their amplitude varies linearly with Rossby number in the range 0.05–0.14, at constant Burger number (or rotational Froude number). This linear scaling challenges the notion, suggested by several dynamical theories, that inertia–gravity waves generated by balanced motion will be exponentially small. It is estimated that the balanced flow leaks roughly 1% of its energy each rotation period into the inertia–gravity waves at the peak of their generation. The findings of this study imply an inevitable emission of inertia–gravity waves at Rossby numbers similar to those of the large-scale atmospheric and oceanic flow. Extrapolation of the results suggests that inertia–gravity waves might make a significant contribution to the energy budgets of the atmosphere and ocean. In particular, emission of inertia–gravity waves from mesoscale eddies may be an important source of energy for deep interior mixing in the ocean.

Precision of quasi-optical null-balanced bridge techniques for transmission and reflection coefficient measurements

The precision of quasioptical null-balanced bridge instruments for transmission and reflection coefficient measurements at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths is analyzed. A Jones matrix analysis is used to describe the amount of power reaching the detector as a function of grid angle orientation, sample transmittance/reflectance and phase delay. An analysis is performed of the errors involved in determining the complex transmission and reflection coefficient after taking into account the quantization error in the grid angle and micrometer readings, the transmission or reflection coefficient of the sample, the noise equivalent power of the detector, the source power and the post-detection bandwidth. For a system fitted with a rotating grid with resolution of 0.017 rad and a micrometer quantization error of 1 μm, a 1 mW source, and a detector with a noise equivalent power 5×10−9 W Hz−1/2, the maximum errors at an amplitude transmission or reflection coefficient of 0.5 are below ±0.025.

Four-dimensional data assimilation and balanced dynamics

The problem of spurious excitation of gravity waves in the context of four-dimensional data assimilation is investigated using a simple model of balanced dynamics. The model admits a chaotic vortical mode coupled to a comparatively fast gravity wave mode, and can be initialized such that the model evolves on a so-called slow manifold, where the fast motion is suppressed. Identical twin assimilation experiments are performed, comparing the extended and ensemble Kalman filters (EKF and EnKF, respectively). The EKF uses a tangent linear model (TLM) to estimate the evolution of forecast error statistics in time, whereas the EnKF uses the statistics of an ensemble of nonlinear model integrations. Specifically, the case is examined where the true state is balanced, but observation errors project onto all degrees of freedom, including the fast modes. It is shown that the EKF and EnKF will assimilate observations in a balanced way only if certain assumptions hold, and that, outside of ideal cases (i.e., with very frequent observations), dynamical balance can easily be lost in the assimilation. For the EKF, the repeated adjustment of the covariances by the assimilation of observations can easily unbalance the TLM, and destroy the assumptions on which balanced assimilation rests. It is shown that an important factor is the choice of initial forecast error covariance matrix. A balance-constrained EKF is described and compared to the standard EKF, and shown to offer significant improvement for observation frequencies where balance in the standard EKF is lost. The EnKF is advantageous in that balance in the error covariances relies only on a balanced forecast ensemble, and that the analysis step is an ensemble-mean operation. Numerical experiments show that the EnKF may be preferable to the EKF in terms of balance, though its validity is limited by ensemble size. It is also found that overobserving can lead to a more unbalanced forecast ensemble and thus to an unbalanced analysis.

Free gravity waves and balanced dynamics

It is shown how a renormalization technique, which is a variant of classical Krylov–Bogolyubov–Mitropol’skii averaging, can be used to obtain slow evolution equations for the vortical and inertia–gravity wave components of the dynamics in a rotating flow. The evolution equations for each component are obtained to second order in the Rossby number, and the nature of the coupling between the two is analyzed carefully. It is also shown how classical balance models such as quasigeostrophic dynamics and its second-order extension appear naturally as a special case of this renormalized system, thereby providing a rigorous basis for the slaving approach where only the fast variables are expanded. It is well known that these balance models correspond to a hypothetical slow manifold of the parent system; the method herein allows the determination of the dynamics in the neighborhood of such solutions. As a concrete illustration, a simple weak-wave model is used, although the method readily applies to more complex rotating fluid models such as the shallow-water, Boussinesq, primitive, and 3D Euler equations.

Lateral boundary contributions to wave-activity invariants and nonlinear stability theorems for balanced dynamics

The slow advective-timescale dynamics of the atmosphere and oceans is referred to as balanced dynamics. An extensive body of theory for disturbances to basic flows exists for the quasi-geostrophic (QG) model of balanced dynamics, based on wave-activity invariants and nonlinear stability theorems associated with exact symmetry-based conservation laws. In attempting to extend this theory to the semi-geostrophic (SG) model of balanced dynamics, Kushner & Shepherd discovered lateral boundary contributions to the SG wave-activity invariants which are not present in the QG theory, and which affect the stability theorems. However, because of technical difficulties associated with the SG model, the analysis of Kushner & Shepherd was not fully nonlinear. This paper examines the issue of lateral boundary contributions to wave-activity invariants for balanced dynamics in the context of Salmon's nearly geostrophic model of rotating shallow-water flow. Salmon's model has certain similarities with the SG model, but also has important differences that allow the present analysis to be carried to finite amplitude. In the process, the way in which constraints produce boundary contributions to wave-activity invariants, and additional conditions in the associated stability theorems, is clarified. It is shown that Salmon's model possesses two kinds of stability theorems: an analogue of Ripa's small-amplitude stability theorem for shallow-water flow, and a finite-amplitude analogue of Kushner & Shepherd's SG stability theorem in which the ‘subsonic’ condition of Ripa's theorem is replaced by a condition that the flow be cyclonic along lateral boundaries. As with the SG theorem, this last condition has a simple physical interpretation involving the coastal Kelvin waves that exist in both models. Salmon's model has recently emerged as an important prototype for constrained Hamiltonian balanced models. The extent to which the present analysis applies to this general class of models is discussed.