Unseen and unheard? Women managers and organizational learning

This paper aims to use (in)visibility as a lens to understand the lived experience of six women managers in the headquarters of a large multinational organization in the UK to identify how “gender” is expressed in the context of organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach: The researchers take a phenomenological approach via qualitative data collection with a purposeful sample – the six female managers in a group of 24. Data were collected through quarterly semi-structured interviews over 12 months with the themes – knowledge, interaction and gender. Findings: Organizations seek to build advantage to gain and retain competitive leadership. Their resilience in a changing task environment depends on their ability to recognize, gain and use knowledge likely to deliver these capabilities. Here, gender was a barrier to effective organizational learning with women’s knowledge and experience often unseen and unheard. Research limitations/implications: This is a piece of research limited to exploration of gender as other, but ethnicity, age, social class, disability and sexual preference, alone or in combination, may be equally subject to invisibility in knowledge terms; further research would be needed to test this however. Practical implications: Practical applications relate to the need for organizations to examine and address their operations for exclusion based on perceived “otherness”. Gendered organizations cause problems for their female members, but they also exclude the experience and knowledge of key individuals as seen here, where gender impacted on effective knowledge sharing and cocreation of knowledge. Social implications: The study offers further evidence of gendered organizations and their impacts on organizational effectiveness, but it also offers insights into the continues social acceptance of a masculinized normative model for socio-economic practice. Originality/value: This exploration of gender and organizational learning offers new insights to help explain the way in which organizational learning occurs – or fails to occur – with visibility/invisibility of one group shaped by gendered attitudes and processes. It shows that organizational learning is not gender neutral (as it appears in mainstream organizational learning research) and calls for researchers to include this as a factor in future research

Experimental Investigation on the Wave Rotor Constant Volume Combustor

A wave rotor constant volume combustor was designed and built as a collaborative work of Rolls-Royce, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), and Purdue University. The experiment was designed to operate at rotational speeds of up to 4,200 rpm with air mass flow rates of approximately 18 lbm per second. Initial tests were conducted at 2,100 rpm with ethylene as fuel. The rig was operated with different fuel injection schemes to investigate operational characteristics of the combustor. Successful combustion and pressure gain were achieved over a range of operating conditions

Epidemiology of febrile diseases in the emergency department of a Caribbean Island: The Curaçao experience

Objective: The aetiology of febrile diseases in tropical countries often remains poorly characterized. We aim to describe the aetiology and outcome of febrile illnesses at the Emergency Department (ED) in Curaçao. Methods: From April 2008 - April 2009, all adult febrile patients (T > 38.5 oC) at the ED of the St Elisabeth Hospital, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, were included. Clinical data were recorded, routine laboratory measurements and blood cultures were taken. Final diagnoses were made at discharge by an independent physician and in retrospect by the main investigator. Results: Four hundred and three patients were included: 223 patients (55.6%) were hospitalized, 32 patients (7.9%) died and 18 patients (4.5%) were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. In 129 febrile patients (32.0%), infection was proven; 84.4% of patients had bacterial (29.0% urinary tract infection, 23.2% pneumonia infection), 5.6% viral and 10.0% parasitic or fungal infections. Twenty-one patients (5.2%) were discharged with a non-infectious diagnosis and 172 patients (42.7%) without a clear diagnosis. Conclusion: A high mortality rate of 7.9% was observed. We found a high prevalence of bacterial infections, with pneumonia and urinary tract infections as the most common causes of fever. One in 20 patients did not have an infectious disease

The Briar Fairy

The realm of Christian fantasy is not a form that is often used to deliver the gospel and other important lessons in The Bible. In my thesis, I will write and illustrate a retelling of the public domain stories, Briar Rose and Sleeping Beauty. My retelling will serve as a tribute to these stories but will present them in a new way and be told from a Christian and biblical point of view. My goal is to present the story of God’s armor, an important lesson for children, through this fairy tale in a fun, fantastic, and fulfilling way. The book will be 28 pages long, printed physically, and will tell the classic story in a new way to accompany the lesson of God’s armor. I want to teach through this familiar story the importance of valuing others and working hard to do what is right. At the end of the book, I will include the verses describing God’s armor that will be paralleled in the book. The intention of this is to spark conversation between parent and child when this book is being read, creating an intimate and real conversation about Christ with children between the ages of six to twelve

COIL and sustainability education in the Arctic region: developing the COIL@UArctic network.

COIL or Collaborative Online International Learning is a sustained educational approach where groups or individual students from one institution collaborate with groups or individual students from another institution, in a different country and/or culture, on sustained and assessed projects or assignments, developed collaboratively by tutors from each partner institution. The collaborative work takes place online, using freely available and commonly used communication technology. COIL projects can involve any topic, subject or discipline and are ofter inter-disciplinary in nature. The challenge of biodiversity loss is one example of how COIL pedagogy can be applied to address real world problems. This type of experiential learning promotes intercultural competence, as well as the attitudes and reflective behavioral skills that are vital for a globalized society and economy. The COIL@UArctic thematic network is designed to promote unique educational opportunities and higher academic collaboration, and the focus on biodiversity education has potential to provide knowledge for better lives and environments for all UArctic and non-UArctic partners. The founding partners will present their work developing this new resource and explore through round table discussion how it can be used to strengthen sustainability education and greater collaboration between colleges and universities within and beyond the Arctic region

Female Electoral Success in State Legislative Races: A Case Study Review of Gender Influence on Incumbency, Fundraising, Recruitment, and Policy

Since the beginning of recorded history, female representation in elective office has been drastically lower than that of the U.S. population. Over the years, there have been many records set for women in office, including the 28% of the 118th Congress represented by women. Considering both chambers of Congress, the House and the Senate, women account for 153 of the 540 seats of the body. This number marks a record high, demonstrating commitment and strength in numbers by women in politics. While 28% female is still a small number in comparison to the amount of women accounted for in the United States population, this jump in percentage reflects a 59% increase in the number of women in office from the I 12th Congress one decade ago (Leppert and Desilver, 2023). It is no secret that the female population is more heavily represented in state legislatures; however, they only occupy 30.5% of state legislative seats in the United States (CA WP, 2022). This is not just a nationwide phenomenon, as women across the globe have worked hard to break glass ceilings and claim their seat at the table in the political arena. One may ask themselves what the world would look like if we had elected more women since the beginning of our nation\u27s founding. This thought challenges us to consider what our laws, policies, and governmental structure may have become if we had more equal representation. Although we do not have all of these answers, there is work to be done to better understand how our nation can achieve a more representative democracy. To fully understand the development of a woman\u27s role in politics, it is often best to understand where it all began. For years, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a women\u27s rights leader, was tired of watching women be denied a seat at the table. In 1866, Stanton stood firm alongside her mission and is recognized as the first woman to run for the United State House of Representatives, despite her grueling loss for the New York seat. Her courage started a movement, and six years later Victoria Woodhull ran for President of the United States. As you can infer, Woodhull was unsuccessful in her attempt, but her courage once again spoke volumes for the female community. In 1884. Belva Lockwood was the first woman admitted to the practice of law. Because of the dedication and bravery of these women and many others, women like me are able to research and write about their stories. While all of these stories are incredibly important, pioneering the way for women today, we still have a good bit of work to do. This past March, I met with State Senator Karen Lewi\u27s Young. She told me that she was the first woman elected to represent her region of Maryland, and she was incredibly proud of this feat. In the middle of our conversation, she looked at me and said, Young lady, it\u27s about time that women reach equal representation, and I am proud to be a part of it.\u27\u27 I was immediately inspired and reminded of the brevity of this topic. As mentioned before, there are historically more women serving in state level legislatures than other levels of public service. I have always believed that change often starts small, in this case locally, and causes a ripple effect. Due to this fact, my study focuses on women making a bid for state-level office, and seeks to understand the factors that help them win their seat. When speaking in terms of an election, there are several factors that play a part. We can analyze these factors to create a more holistic look at female electoral success, and achieve our goal of becoming closer to pinpointing the most influential factor in getting women elected. After a job with a local mayor in Northeast Arkansas, I knew then that I wanted to dedicate a piece of my career to public service. Throughout my study, I intend to focus on female electoral success with emphasis on the incumbency advantage, fundraising efforts, recruitment methods, partisan effect, and policy influence

Hunted

Izzy Mannella’s debut short story, Hunted, tells the suspenseful story of a teenage girl and three young acquaintances searching for and hunting shapeshifters who have possessed the local population, including the protagonist’s grandmother, before time expires on the creatures’ hosts.https://spiral.lynn.edu/lib_creativewritingcontest/1003/thumbnail.jp

A Literature Analysis of Microgrid Optimization Studies

Senior civil engineering student, Izzy Medeiros, is presenting her honors thesis in the form of a literature analysis. Her research involved investigating existing microgrid studies and where there are current gaps in the knowledge. About 40 publications written within the last 20 years were analyzed for their research goals, optimization objectives, and microgrid design, pointing to where this research is currently lacking. Most real studies were conducted in Asia, as Southeast Asia has island communities that need the reliability of a renewable microgrid during extreme weather events. Photovoltaic panels in combination with wind turbines comprise the most common configuration of renewable energy sources reviewed in this study while lead-acid batteries were the most common type of battery storage. Publications were categorized into environmental, economic, and technical objective functions by meeting metrics within these categories

The MacWilliams Identity for Krawtchouk Association Schemes

The MacWilliams Identity is a well established theorem relating the weight enumerator of a code to the weight enumerator of its dual. The ability to use a known weight enumerator to generate the weight enumerator of another through a simple transform proved highly effective and efficient. An equivalent relation was also developed by Delsarte which linked the eigenvalues of any association scheme to the eigenvalues of it's dual association scheme but this was less practical to use in reality. A functional transform was developed for some specific association schemes including those based on the rank metric, the skew rank metric and Hermitian matrices. In this paper those results are unified into a single consistent theory applied to these "Krawtchouk association schemes" using a $b$-algebra. The derivatives formed using the $b$-algebra have also been applied to derive the moments of the weight distribution for any code within these association schemes.Comment: 48 page

COIL@UArctic: inclusive approaches to educational network development.

COIL@UArctic is a new University of the Arctic thematic network designed to promote and facilitate collaborative online international learning and biodiversity education. COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) is a sustained educational approach where groups or individual students from one institution collaborate with groups or individual students from another institution, in a different country and/or culture, on sustained and assessed projects or assignments, developed collaboratively by tutors from each partner institution. The learning takes place online using freely available and commonly used communication technology. This type of cost-effective, experiential learning promotes intercultural competence, as well as the attitudes and reflective behavioural skills vital for a globalised economy. Students who undertake COIL projects use real-world scenarios to learn how to research global issues, set objectives, coordinate time zones and schedules, complete tasks, and navigate communication, language, and organisational challenges within and between international teams. The COIL@UArctic network is designed to promote unique educational opportunities and higher academic collaboration, enabling more people to harness and contribute to the growing body of knowledge, expertise, networks, and pedagogical advantages COIL offers students and faculty in the post-pandemic, technologically blended educational context. The network's focus on biodiversity education has the potential to provide knowledge for better lives and environments for all UArctic and non-UArctic members. Since October 2023, alongside faculty partners from Eastern Finland, Maine USA, Iceland, Canada, and Scotland; an Indigenous consultant from Alaska has been involved in the design of the thematic network to promote inclusivity in the development process and final deliverables which include an extensive set of web-based resources and training. Students from partner countries were also consulted about their views on COIL pedagogy and the COIL@UArctic network through an online focus group helping to inform the network development. This paper will share the key outcomes and reflections from the experience of seeking to adopt an inclusive approach to the development of a new international educational network