This thesis describes and analyses diversity management and its best practices (with the focus on nationalities and cultures). The central question in this research is: 'what are the essential elements of diversity management to effectively manage diversity within organizations?' Via desk- and field research (interviews and questionnaires) information is obtained to answer this question and other sub questions of the thesis. Nowadays, organizations have to adapt themselves to a rapidly changing environment, both internal and external. Companies have to deal with a continuously evolving labor- and sales market, which is the result of various factors, including the changing demographic composition and globalization. Organizations cannot longer ignore diversity and should take it into account, to ensure that the company will not face any future problems related to recruiting, efficiency, innovation, growth, et cetera. Based on the conducted research, it became clear that implementing diversity management consists out of several stages, namely: 1. Establish diversity council and appoint diversity contact officer who together bear the main diversity responsibilities; 2. Previous diversity initiatives should be visualized; 3. Organizational data must be collected; 4. Diversity strategy and priority areas must be set up (inclusive organizational culture, management support and awareness & commitment); 5. Establish diversity policy (allowance of country-by-country deviations) and 6. Define diversity tools (recruitment, training, mentoring & coaching, career development, linkage diversity & performance, benefits/other factors and partnering with external bodies). During these different stages, it is important to communicate with all employees, since this will create support, awareness and commitment to diversity. After the process has been completed, it is important to monitor and evaluate the diversity vision, policy and tools. Main conclusions that can be drawn from the research are the following: 1. Diversity brings more advantages than disadvantages; 2. Management team diversity is of great importance; 3. Inclusive organizational culture is essential; 4. Diversity management must be integrated and 5. Attractiveness of diversity management should be promoted. In addition, the conducted research made clear that companies should spend more time and energy to diversity management and they should really focus on their 'ability to execute', since this will bring many advantages and will avoid future problems.

Les changements globaux, du fait de l’empreinte humaine, sont associés à de nombreux déclins de populations et de disparitions d'espèces, et ce, notamment au sein des systèmes insulaires. L'importante biodiversité abritée par de tels écosystèmes est particulièrement vulnérable aux pressions anthropiques en raison de diverses caractéristiques (p. ex. syndrome d’insularité, faible redondance fonctionnelle, isolement géographique des îles). En dépit de cette vulnérabilité accrue, peu d’études se sont jusqu'à lors intéressées à ces systèmes comme modèle d’étude pour évaluer les patrons de menaces sur les différentes facettes de la diversité (taxonomique, fonctionnelle, et phylogénétique). Pourtant, un tel travail permettrait d’améliorer notre compréhension des menaces qui pèsent au sein des îles. Dans ce sens, l’objectif de cette thèse est de décrire les patrons de diversité endémique insulaire dans le contexte actuel des changements globaux et dans un contexte futur de changements climatiques, en explorant les différentes facettes de la diversité. Une finalité de ce travail est de mettre en évidence des priorités éventuelles de conservation pour ces écosystèmes particulièrement vulnérables. Nous avons abordé l'ensemble de ce travail de thèse à une grande échelle à l’aide de deux bases données recensant les îles mondiales et les espèces qui y sont endémiques. Dans une première partie, nous avons caractérisé les menaces pesant sur les écosystèmes insulaires à l'échelle globale, et prospecté également leurs distributions au sein de différents groupes taxonomiques et régions insulaires. Dans une deuxième partie, nous avons analysé l'incidence des menaces sur la biodiversité endémique insulaire et en particulier sur la composante fonctionnelle. Dans une troisième partie, nous avons identifié les régions insulaires à forte représentativité de la biodiversité endémique menacée au travers de différentes facettes et prospecté leurs niveaux de protection via les aires protégées et les menaces les affectant. Dans une dernière partie, nous avons étudié la vulnérabilité future des îles et de la biodiversité endémique face au changement climatique à l’échéance 2050. À la lumière de nos résultats (identification de menaces majeures dont l'importance varie suivant les groupes taxonomiques, les régions insulaires et également les dimensions de biodiversité considérées), nous avons discuté de l’implication des changements globaux pour la biodiversité endémique insulaire dans un contexte de conservation. Cette thèse révèle l’importance d’intégrer de multiples menaces (et leurs associations) et dimensions de diversité pour les approches de changements globaux et de conservation. / Global changes, because of human activities, are associated with numerous population declines and species extinctions, which are especially pronounced in island systems. The important biodiversity of such ecosystems is particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures because of several characteristics (e.g. island syndrome, low functional redundancy, island geographical isolation). Despite this increased vulnerability, few studies have so far looked at these systems as a study model for assessing patterns of threats to the different facets of diversity (taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic). However, such work would improve our understanding of islands threats. In this sense, the aim of this PhD thesis is to describe patterns of insular endemic diversity in the current context of global changes and in a future climate change context, by exploring different facets of diversity. The purpose of this work is to highlight potential conservation priorities for these particularly vulnerable ecosystems. We have addressed all of this thesis work on a large scale using two databases of worldwide islands and endemic species. In a first part, we characterized threats to island ecosystems at a global scale and also explored their distributions within different taxonomic groups and island regions. In a second part, we analyzed the impact of threats on the functional component of island endemic biodiversity. In a third part, we have identified priority areas for insular endemic biodiversity representativeness and conservation across different dimensions of biodiversity and explored their levels of protection through protected areas and threats affecting them. In a last part, we studied the future vulnerability of islands and endemic biodiversity to climate change by 2050 based on endemic mammals. In the light of our results (identification of major threats whose importance varies according to the taxonomic groups, the island regions and also the dimensions of biodiversity considered), we discussed the implications of global changes for island endemic biodiversity in a conservation context. This PhD thesis reveals the importance of integrating multiple threats and diversity dimensions for global changes and conservation approaches.

This thesis proposes a method for determining the optimal antenna element radiation characteristics which maximize diversity gain given a specific power angular spectrum of the propagation environment. The method numerically constructs the eigenfunctions of the covariance operator for the scenario subject to constraints on the power radiated by each antenna as well as the level of supergain allowed in the solution. The optimal antenna characteristics are produced in terms of radiating current distributions along with their resulting radiation patterns. The results reveal that the optimal antennas can provide significantly more diversity gain than that provided by a simple practical design. Computational examples illustrate the effectiveness of adding additional elements to the optimal array and the relationship between aperture size or the description of the impinging field and the array performance. A synthesis procedure is proposed which uses genetic algorithm optimization to optimally place a reduced number of dipoles. The results from this procedure demonstrate that using the framework in conjunction with optimization strategies can lead to practical designs which perform well relative to the upper performance bound. Finally a novel array architecture is proposed where subsets of antennas are combined together into super-elements which are then combined in the same manner as the optimal array. The simplifications that result from the genetically optimized small array or the super-element array provide a design options which are feasible in many communication applications.

<p dir="ltr">Undernutrition affects millions of children in low- and middle- income countries, causing poor growth, poor development, and increased risk of mortality. Many nutrition-sensitive interventions for rural areas increase household access to nutritious foods through increasing home production, a strategy that has small positive effects on child diets. However, there is growing evidence that local markets are also important for dietary quality. Despite the importance of rural markets, the rural food environment and food purchasing practices among rural households are not well-characterized in the literature. It is possible that promoting improved household food purchase practices is an effective method for improving child nutrition in rural areas. Tanzania experiences a high prevalence of undernutrition among children under the age of 5 years, particularly among rural populations. This dissertation utilizes data from the Engaging Fathers for Effective Child Nutrition and Development in Tanzania (EFFECTS), a cluster randomized controlled trial that was conducted in rural Mara, Tanzania. The EFFECTS trial promoted improved diets through both home production and through food purchases through a social and behavior change strategy. We measured changes in dietary diversity (a proxy for diet quality), children’s nutrient intake adequacy, and diversity of foods purchased and produced. This dissertation presents evidence that food purchase diversity is positively associated with dimensions of the rural food environment, including high market food diversity (+0.37 food groups, p=0.01), living within 30 minutes of a market (+0.36 food groups, p=0.001) and household purchasing power (+0.14 food groups per additional million Tanzanian shillings spent by the household, p<0.001). In turn, purchase diversity is positively associated with dietary diversity (b=0.22, p<0.001), and intake adequacy of folate, vitamin B12, and calcium (all p<0.05) among children 9-23 months. Promoting food purchase diversity was effectively integrated into the EFFECTS interventions, resulting in purchasing +0.54 food groups at endline compared to changes in the control (p<0.01), which mediated 25% of the total improvement in child dietary diversity. In contrast, production diversity was associated with increased intake adequacy of vitamin A only (p<0.05), households produced +0.44 food groups at endline compared to control (p<0.05), and this mediated 15% of the total improvement in child dietary diversity. These findings suggest that promoting diverse food purchases, alongside diverse home production, is an effective way to improve children’s diets in similar settings.</p>

Mobile arrays employing diversity combining and adaptive beamforming techniques overcome multipath fading, improve coverage, and increase capacity in wireless communications systems. In this thesis, diversity combining and adaptive beamforming performance of different four element arrays for mobile (vehicular speed) and portable (pedestrian speed) terminals is investigated. The performance of four element arrays with different configurations and with different element patterns is compared using the square array of four half-wave dipole elements as the baseline. Results from diversity and beamforming measurements, performed in urban and suburban environments for both line-of-sight (LOS) and obstructed multipath channels are used to analyze and compare the performances of different four element arrays. At cumulative probabilities of 10%, 1% and 0.1%, diversity gain and improvement in signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) are calculated from the diversity combining measurements and interference rejection measurements respectively. Experimental results illustrating the dependence of diversity gain on power imbalance, envelope correlation and diversity-combining scheme are presented. Measurements were performed at 2.05 GHz using the handheld antenna array testbed (HAAT). Low profile linear arrays are shown to provide diversity gain values of 5 to 8 dB and 11 to 16 dB, respectively for switched and maximal ratio combining at the 99% reliability level in non-line-of-sight urban channel. Interference cancellation of 24 to 28 dB was recorded in urban and suburban line-of-sight (LOS) channels for the sectorized square array. Results of vehicular measurements with the arrays mounted on a ground plane supported above the vehicle roof are also reported. / Master of Science

Purpose: Firm innovation is relevant in the fast paced business world. Recent years, research on board diversity has found that demographic and cognitive diversity have an impact on innovation, however this research is still inconclusive. To contribute to the research this thesis introduces informal hierarchy as a moderating variable to investigate if this can explain the previous contradictory findings.  Theoretical perspective: By using concepts from resource dependence theory, upper echelons theory, and behavioral theory, five hypotheses were formulated and tested.  Method: For board diversity Blau’s index was used, innovation was defined as an index of strategic change and informal hierarchy was measured as the dispersion of rank within the board, through the gini coefficient. 186 Swedish publicly listed limited liability firms were analyzed. Findings: The results provided evidence that neither demographic nor cognitive board diversity impacts innovation and informal hierarchy does not have a moderating role on that relationship. However, the findings suggest a direct relationship between informal hierarchy and innovation. Another finding suggests that board size and informal hierarchy separately has a negative impact on innovation, however when both board size and informal hierarchy is present there is a slightly positive effect on innovation.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / The placement of two antennas on an air vehicle is one possible practice for overcoming signal obstruction created by vehicle maneuvering during air-to-ground transmission. Unfortunately, for vehicle attitudes where both antennas have a clear path to the receiving station, this practice also leads to self-interference nulls, resulting in dramatic degradation in the average signal integrity. This paper discusses application of unitary space-time codes such as the Alamouti transmit diversity scheme and unitary differential space-time codes to overcome the self-interference effect observed in such systems.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / Transmit diversity schemes such as the Alamouti space-time code have been shown to be viable candidates to enable robust dual-antenna transmission from maneuvering air vehicles. However, due to the complicated structure of shaped offset quadrature phase shift keying (SOQPSK) modulation, the Alamouti approach has not been applicable to SOQPSK systems. This paper develops a precoding and detection algorithm which allows implementation of dual-antenna Alamouti signaling for SOQPSK modulation. Performance simulations demonstrate the performance of the scheme for a realistic flight scenario.

South Africa’s unique history has produced an organisational climate where race groups forcibly separated in the past, have to now work together in harmony. Limited interaction between the ethnic groups creates a culturally uninformed society where trust between groups is lacking. The objective of this study was to confirm the levels of collectivism for the different race groups, and to determine the relationship between collectivism, propensity to trust and in group trust. A survey was administered to a Business Unit of a South African petrochemical company. 387 responses were obtained from a sufficiently diverse sample. The results confirmed that blacks and Indians are more collectivistic than whites and coloureds. Collectivistic groups had a lower propensity to trust and higher in group trust. This research creates awareness regarding the different aspects of culture and the behaviours these cultural differences drive. Trust development must be approached with a culturally informed view.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / The use of two antennas on an aeronautical telemetry transmitter is a common practice for overcoming signal obstruction that can occur during air vehicle maneuvering. However, this practice also leads to interference nulls that can cause dramatic degradation in the average signal integrity. This paper discusses the application of a transmit diversity scheme capable of overcoming this interference problem. The development leads to symbol error probability expressions that can be applied to assess the performance of the scheme relative to that of traditional schemes. Representative computational examples demonstrate the potential of the method.