Volunteers and the Economic Downturn

The recent economic crisis has subjected America's nonprofit organizations to considerable fiscal stress. To find out more about the response of nonprofits to the recent economic climate, the Corporation for National and Community Service partnered with the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Listening Post Project on a national survey of nonprofits and AmeriCorps sponsor organizations.The survey revealed that 80 percent of responding organizations experienced some level of fiscal stress between September 2008 through March 2009, when the downturn intensified, and that for close to 40 percent of them the stress was considered "severe" or "very severe." In response, nearly a quarter (23%) of nonprofits reported decreasing staff hours, a third reported eliminating staff positions, and 40 percent reported postponing the filling of new positions. At the same time, nearly three-fourths of the organizations reported they had maintained or increased the number of people their organizations served, and even among those reporting "severe" or "very severe" fiscal stress and resulting cutbacks in staff, 60 percent reported they had been able to maintain or increase the number of people their organizations served

Communiqué No. 16: Escalating Pension Benefit Costs -- Another Threat to Nonprofit Survival?

Provides findings from a national survey of nonprofits that examines the benefits of nonprofit retirement programs, explores the financial stress the plans are under, and describes the coping strategies developed by organizations

Religion as source of moral energy for Turkish enterpreneurs

This article was presented at the 33rd Annual ISBE Conference in Lindon, 2010Turkey has a distinctive status within the Muslim world. It is a Muslim country with a greater than 95% Muslim population, and yet it is the only Muslim country that has inscribed the principle of secularism (laiklik) into its constitution. From the very beginning of the Republic, Turkish society has experienced polarization between the ‘Islamists’ and the ‘secularists’. As in every major religion, the Islamic faith prescribes ethical/moral values which shape the way of life at both the level of the individual and society. Unsurprisingly, it is possible to see Islamic moral principles also filtering through to regulate business life

User's manual for the Langley boundary layer noise propagation program (MRS-BLP)

A computer program, McAninch-Rawls-Spence Boundary Layer Propagation (MRS-BLP), is described. This program models the refractive and scattering effects on acoustic pressure waves propagating through a boundary layer encompassing an aircraft's fuselage. The noise source is assumed known and generated by a propeller. The fuselage is represented by an infinitely long cylinder embedded in a longitudinal flow. By matching a numerical solution inside the boundary layer with an analytical solution outside the boundary layer, the program calculates the acoustic pressure at the surface of the cylinder given the incident field at the top of the boundary layer. The boundary layer flow velocity and sound speed profiles, as well as the boundary layer thickness may be specified by the user. A detailed description of the input parameters and how to execute the program is given. Example executions of MRS-BLP showing results are also included

Application of intersatellite links to domestic satellite systems

The results of a study on intersatellite link (ISL) applications for domestic satellite communications are presented. It was determined if any technical, economic, or performance benefits could be gained by introducing intersatellite links into a domestic satellite communication network. Several key systems issues of domestic ISL's are addressed. These include the effect of a skewed traffic distribution on the selection of ISL satellite orbit locations, tolerable satellite spacing, and crosslink traffic-handling requirements. An ISL technology assessment is made by performing a parametric link analysis for several microwave and optical implementations. The impact of the crosslink on the end-to-end link performance is investigated for both regenerative and nonregenerative ISL architectures. A comparison is made between single satellite systems operating at C-, and Ku-bands and the corresponding ISL systems in terms of ground segment cost, space segment cost, and net link performance. Results indicate that ISL's can effectively expand the CONUS orbital arc, with a 60 GHz ISL implementation being the most attractive

Complementary satellite sound broadcasting systems: A NASA assessment for the Voice of America

Satellite concepts are examined which offer potentially significant sound broadcast coverage of audio as a complement to VOA's existing and planned terrestrial sound broadcasting system. HF bands are emphasized but additional discussion is included for systems using higher frequencies. Low altitude satellites, shuttle altitude (275 km) and sun synchronous (about 1600 to 1800 km), would not be practical for international broadcasting since many satellites would be required for reliable and widespread coverage. Two concepts are discussed which would offer significant and practical broadcast coverage at HF. One, an 8-hr posigrade equatorial orbit, would offer about 1 hr of widespread, twice daily, coverage to three areas of the globe. The time of coverage is even greater when confined to densely populated areas only (2 to 3 hrs). Another orbit, the Apogee at Constant Time/Equatorial (ACE), provides the same coverage, but only once daily to each area. The latter orbit is highly elliptical, allowing insertion of a greater payload (more broadcast channels) with the existing launch capability. The ACE and 8-hr orbit concepts led to systems of about equal costs, with the ACE being slightly better

Four-dimensional topological Einstein-Maxwell gravity

The complete on-shell action of topological Einstein-Maxwell gravity in four-dimensions is presented. It is shown explicitly how this theory for SU(2) holonomy manifolds arises from four-dimensional Euclidean N=2 supergravity. The twisted local BRST symmetries and twisted local Lorentz symmetries are given and the action and stress tensor are shown to be BRST-exact. A set of BRST-invariant topological operators is given. The vector and antisymmetric tensor twisted supersymmetries and their algebra are also found.Comment: Published version. Expanded discussion of new results in the introduction and some clarifying remarks added in later sections. 22 pages, uses phyzz

Making it without losing it: Type A, achievement motivation, and scientific attainment revisited

In a study by Matthews et al. (1980), responses by academic psychologists to the Jenkins Activity Survey for Health Prediction, a measure of the Type A construct, were found to be significantly, positively correlated with two measures of attainment, citations by others to published work and number of publications. In the present study, JAS responses from the Matthews et al. sample were subjected to a factor analysis with oblique rotation and two new subscales were developed on the basis of this analysis. The first, Achievement Strivings (AS) was found to be significantly correlated with both the publication and citation measures. The second scale, Impatience and Irritability (I/I), was uncorrelated with the achievement criteria. Data from other samples indicate that I/I is related to a number of health symptoms. The results suggest that the current formulation of the Type A construct may contain two components, one associated with positive achievement and the other with poor health

Impatience versus achievement strivings in the Type A pattern: Differential effects on students' health and academic achievement

Psychometric analyses of college students' responses to the Jenkins Activity Survey, a self-report measure of the Type A behavior pattern, revealed the presence of two relatively independent factors. Based on these analyses, two scales, labeled Achievement Strivings (AS) and Impatience and Irritability (II), were developed. In two samples of male and female college students, scores on AS but not on II were found to be significantly correlated with grade point average. Responses to a health survey, on the other hand, indicated that frequency of physical complaints was significantly correlated with II but not with AS. These results suggest that there are two relatively independent factors in the Type A pattern that have differential effects on performance and health. Future research on the personality factors related to coronary heart disease and other disorders might more profitably focus on the syndrome reflected in the II scale than on the Type A pattern