A new approach for the construction of a Wasserstein diffusion

We propose in this paper a construction of a diffusion process on the Wasserstein space P\_2(R) of probability measures with a second-order moment. This process was introduced in several papers by Konarovskyi (see e.g. "A system of coalescing heavy diffusion particles on the real line", 2017) and consists of the limit when N tends to infinity of a system of N coalescing and mass-carrying particles. It has properties analogous to those of a standard Euclidean Brownian motion, in a sense that we will precise in this paper. We also compare it to the Wasserstein diffusion on P\_2(R) constructed by von Renesse and Sturm (see Entropic measure and Wasserstein diffusion). We obtain that process by the construction of a system of particles having short-range interactions and by letting the range of interactions tend to zero. This construction can be seen as an approximation of the singular process of Konarovskyi by a sequence of smoother processes

Online fundraising in the human services

This paper examines emerging possibilities for use of the Internet in human service fundraising. Human service managers must compete for limited funds with their counterparts in educational, religious, health, and other nonprofit organizations. There is enormous potential for raising funds over the Internet; yet, this approach to resource development may not be appropriate or effective in some instances for certain human service agencies. The selection of fundraising approach must be consistent with the organizational context in which it is used. This paper provides examples of cases where use of the Internet may prove to be an effective method for human service fundraising. It also examines cases where use of the Internet may not be a good match for the organizational context, whether in terms of ethics or dollars raise

The Unequal Incidence of Non-Standard Employment across Occupational Groups: An Empirical Analysis of Post-Industrial Labour Markets in Germany and Europe

The paper addresses an often neglected question in labour market research: to which extent do outcomes aggregated on the national level disguise occupational diversity in employment conditions? In particular, how and why do occupational groups differ with regard to the incidence of non-standard employment? To explore these questions, the paper derives a detailed occupational scheme from the literature, capturing the variety of labour market outcomes within countries. In a second step, the scheme is theoretically linked to the topic of non-standard work. It is argued that different degrees of skill specificity across occupational groups produce diverging incentives for flexible and long-term employment, respectively. This leads to the expectation of (some) service-sector occupations showing stronger tendencies towards non-standard employment than those in the industrial sector. Based on European and German micro data, the categorisation is used to decompose various labour market indicators. The results clearly demonstrate the unequal incidence of non-standard employment along the lines of the suggested categorisation. Moreover, the longitudinal perspective suggests that traditionally functioning occupational groups will be crowded out by more destandardised ones.temporary employment, low-pay, labour market dualisation, occupational groups, post-industrial labour markets, Germany

Electrification in winter storms and the analysis of thunderstorm overflight data

We have been focusing our study of electrification in winter storms on the lightning initiation process, making inferences about the magnitude of the electric fields from the initial pulses associated with breakdown, i.e., with the formation of the initial streamers. The essence of the most significant finding is as follows: (1) initial breakdown radiation pulses from stepped leaders prior to the first return stroke are very large, reaching values of 20-30 Volts/meter, comparable to return stroke radiation; and (2) the duration of the stepped leader, from the initial detectable radiation pulse to the return stroke onset, is very-short-ranging from a minimum 1.5 ms to a maximum of 4.5 ms. This past summer (June-August of 1991) we participated in the CAPE program at the Kennedy Space Center in order to acquire data on stepped leaders in summer storms with the same equipment used to get the winter storm data. We discovered that the vigorous leaders seen in winter so frequently were present in summer storms, although not as large in amplitude and certainly not as frequent