Those in human services, including social workers, hospital staff, and staff working with individuals with disabilities, experience high levels of stress and burnout. Those working in special education with individuals who display maladaptive behaviors can be particularly susceptible to this. This can lead to negative effects on physical and mental health. Stress and burnout can also lead to staff being less likely to perform aspects of their jobs optimally. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) posits that much burnout both results from and results in focusing on past or future events. Mindfulness training, in addition to ACT, can teach individuals to focus on the present moment. This study investigated the effects of mindfulness practice on (self-report inventory measures) of mindfulness (MAAS), psychological flexibility (AAQ-II) and WAAQ), and burnout (MBI), as well as on staff performance measures of number of staff initiated interactions with students and accuracy of data collection. for three individuals working at a school for children who display maladaptive behaviors. Post-treatment, all three of the participants improved in MAAS scores. Two improved in AAQ-II scores, and two also improved in WAAQ scores. MBI scores improved for two participants, mostly in the subsection of ‘burnout’. Two participants initiated more interactions with students post-treatment, and data collection accuracy improved post-treatment for two participants. All three participants improved post-treatment in at least three of the target areas. Implications and possibilities for future research are discussed.

Aircraft designed for naval aircraft carriers experience great airframe stress during landing due to the high vertical velocities that they must maintain as a consequence of the extremely short runway and shallow landing angle of attack. This creates a need for structural rigidity to counteract the forces that land-based aircraft never experience. This is not ideal if it otherwise limits the performance and flying capabilities of the aircraft that are otherwise necessary for the environments they might find themselves in. As such, a new approach to protecting the aircraft from the immense loads they experience during landing could be to add flexibility to the airframe and landing gear, promoting deflection instead of failure. This thesis aims to investigate this idea, starting with an elementary set of tests, looking into material flexibility, and then moving on to adding this concept to progressively more advanced structural systems. Using balls of varying material, preliminary drop tests indicated that material flexibility could assist the dissipation of landing energies, showing that the coefficient of restitution increases with the stiffness. Drop tests involving mass-spring-damper systems as well as cantilever plates and transverse beams also indicated that the strain energy a body can absorb from a set load case can be increased if its flexibility also grows. This finding led to the important conclusion and finding that a flexible body can transfer and store at least 10 times its initial contribution of energy to a system in the form of strain energy. Through these tests, it was shown that flexible structures can be a beneficial design feature in combatting and dissipating vertical landing energies. / Master of Science / Historically, airplanes landing on naval aircraft carriers are subject to high impact loads when they land because the plane is traveling at a high velocity downward and has a short runway to stop on. This impact on the runway is so severe that it requires the structure of the airplane to be reinforced, which in turn makes the plane heavier and less capable in flight. This reinforcement also implies that the plane is quite stiff in all of its components. One solution to this issue is to reverse the design logic historically taken, and impose flexible structures into the main body of the plane, which can bend and absorb some of the vertical energy that the plane possesses. This theory was investigated using a series of drop tests, starting with ball drop tests of varying materials. These tests showed that the material of a ball can affect the energy that it absorbs and how much is kept by the ball after it collides with the ground. Next, more complex structures were tested, using shock absorbers, metal plates, and metal beams. These components were combined to form drop systems, which were dropped to measure the bending in the plates and beams, as well as the shock absorbers. The conclusion made from these tests is that a more flexible structure can absorb a higher percentage of energy compared to its initial contribution, than its stiffer and heavier counterpart. This important conclusion shows that the application of flexible structures could be a vital step in improving the design of airplane wing and body structures to promote the longevity of the structure of the aircraft.

Compared to making a city solely out of one building, it is rather important for people to understand what roles a building can play in a city; especially within urban condition. How a building could actually react and respond to certain human perceptions and functions as an element of a city has become a significant issue. From place to place, the city mutates in several different phases, such as usage, terrain, orientation and material. Therefore, to embrace the urban situation and to optimize the space emerged as the main element of the whole thesis. The particular character of the site starts this program as a mix-usage building from the beginning. Whether it is the usage or orientation that mutates along the city, they should finally come to a concord of optimization and solution that represents the city either on the street or in the sky. / Master of Architecture

No / In the past, transaction cost economics (TCE) literature has largely stressed the benefits of contractual commitments in relationships. TCE traditionally recommends safeguarding specific assets against holdup, thus reducing behavioral uncertainty. In contrast, the reverse side of the coin has been disregarded for a long time. Firms may lose some of their flexibility and thus the opportunity to benefit from future emerging business activities due to prior contractual commitments. Flexibility becomes especially important in dynamic environments where there is rapid technological change. To manage the emergent trade-off between contractual commitments and flexibility in dynamic markets, the authors propose a real options approach. The value of a firm's flexibility to switch to a new trading partner is represented by a real switching option. It can be shown how contractual commitments directly affect the value of the switching option. To clarify, the authors numerically analyze the respective trade-off and derive implications for an optimal choice of contractual commitments.

Yes / The interplay between long-term potentiation and long-term depression (LTD) is thought to be involved in learning and memory formation. One form of LTD expressed in the hippocampus is initiated by the activation of the group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). Importantly, mGluRs have been shown to be critical for acquisition of new memories and for reversal learning, processes that are thought to be crucial for cognitive flexibility. Here we provide evidence that MAPK-activated protein kinases 2 and 3 (​MK2/3) regulate neuronal spine morphology, synaptic transmission and plasticity. Furthermore, mGluR-LTD is impaired in the hippocampus of ​MK2/3 double knockout (DKO) mice, an observation that is mirrored by deficits in endocytosis of ​GluA1 subunits. Consistent with compromised mGluR-LTD, ​MK2/3 DKO mice have distinctive deficits in hippocampal-dependent spatial reversal learning. These novel findings demonstrate that the ​MK2/3 cascade plays a strategic role in controlling synaptic plasticity and cognition. / BBSRC

The Research on Flexible Staffing Arrangements in High-tech Industry Given the excess supply in the global market and the pressure of little gross margin in the foreign high-tech business, the major high-tech businesses can no longer enjoy a market with high growth rates and high profit earnings. The business, as the industry matures or even slows down, starts to seek for solutions to shorten its supply chain, to lower the cost of products, and to increase competitiveness. The technology industry has been facing cyclical fluctuations and fluctuations in demand in recent years. To sustain competitiveness in this market and to secure its core worker, it has to adjust with changes of time in the management of human resources, enhance the R&D and technology levels, and pay much more attention to long-term human resource development. Thus, in terms of human capital management, the major challenges the technology industry is currently facing are the issues of flexibility in the human resource department, the most efficient use of these resources, and how to adapt the planning and development of these departments. The goal of the thesis is to provide an in-depth study and analysis of 1) the status quo of the internal/external human resources management in the technology industry, 2) the relations between the characteristic of the organization and flexible staffing arrangements, and 3) the effect of flexible staffing arrangements on the organizational performance. This study uses the questionnaire adopted by Professor Jhy-Jer Ko in the study of The Flexibility of the Labor Market and the Atypical Work Arrangement(2003). 387 copies of the questionnaire were sent out to high tech companies and 115 were returned (112 valid, 3 invalid). The return rate was 28.9%. The results of the analysis are as the following: 1.Remarkable differences of functional flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The larger the organization is, the greater functional flexibility it has. Organizations with over 500 workers have better functional flexibility than those with under 100 workers. 2.Remarkable differences of numerical flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The lower the ratio of the labor cost to the total expenditure, the better for the organization to use outsourcing. 3.Remarkable differences of wage flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The larger the organization is, the greater the wage flexibility is. Companies with lower ratios of labor cost compared to total expenditure have a higher tendency to adopt variable salary. 4.Functional flexibility has great effects on turnover rate of full-time employee. The greater functional flexibility is, the lower the full-time employee turnover rate is. In addition, the implementing of the practice of numerical flexibility can lower full-time employee turnover rate. 5.Functional flexibility and diversified skills-training opportunities have great effects on organizational performance. The greater functional flexibility is, the better the performance is. 6.Numerical flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. The use of outsourcing has a positive effect on the increase of the company¡¦s profit gains. Moreover, the use of dispatch has a positive effect on lowering employee turnover rate. 7.Wage flexibility has great effects on organizational performance. A higher rate of variable salary for full-time employees has a reverse effect on the lowering of labor cost. That is, adopting wage flexibility may increase labor cost. Keywords¡GFlexible Staffing Arrangements , Functional Flexibility, Numerical Flexibility, Wage Flexibility, Organizational Performance

In a freedom, international and global market, companies are under an intense competitive environment and with hi-pressure than before, besides increase the product and service quality, cost is a very important factor for operation. Since the margin of product is uncontrollable, personnel¡¦s cost controlling becomes a surviving criterion for businesses; therefore the typical employment relationship is no longer applicable to current challenging environment. In order to keep flexible to rapidly response the environment and sustain competitiveness, company¡¦s organization and staff placement are demanded adjustment. The goal of the thesis is to provide a retail business study and analysis of: 1) The status of the l human resources management in supermarket and hypermarket. 2) The relations between the characteristic of the organization and flexible staffing arrangements, and 3) The effect of flexible staffing arrangements on the organizational performance. 4) The influence of different management attitude between standard and non-standard workers. During this study, there are 38 copies of the questionnaire were sent out to HR supervisors of supermarket and chain-hypermarket stores, 30 were returned (no invalid). The return rate was 78.9%, nine of the HR supervisors had accepted an interview for opening questions about outsourcing training and flexible manpower policy. The results of the analysis are as the following: 1. Remarkable differences of numerical flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The lower ratio of the labor cost of the organization is, the greater functional flexibility it has. 2. Remarkable differences of management attitude are found among different characteristics of the organization. The fewer layers of the organization is, the little difference of management attitude between various type workers. 3. Remarkable differences of organizational performance are found among different characteristics of the organization. The fewer layers of the organization has a positive effect on the higher customer satisfaction. 4. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. The diversified job arrangement of full-time worker has a positive effect on management effectiveness. 5. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. The independence of job arrangement of full-time worker has a positive effect on the increase of staff productivity. 6. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. Training supply of full time worker has a positive effect on the increase of staff productivity, company¡¦s profit gains, management effectiveness, customer satisfaction and decrease the ratio of labor cost. Base on the result of this research, here are our suggestion to business: 1) Considering company¡¦s long-term objective when planning the functional flexibility to cultivate and retain core workers. 2) Continue conducting training to increase organizational performance.3) Design a complete human resource management policy to increase effort and decrease the negative effect of non-standard worker. 4) Apply Wage flexible in company.

Abstract After Joining WTO (World Trade Organization), being in international, versatile and global conflict, it is critical for enterprises to research new organization architecture and management in flexible way. That is to say, the functional flexibility, numerical flexibility or wage flexibility plays a very important role to improve capability, reduce cost and increase profit. Nevertheless, the strategy will be meaningful to improve performance when closely connecting with employees¡¦ satisfaction and involvement. This study is developed via the questionnaires on the highest executive and basic employees from 40 branches of case company. To investigate the interaction effect between human resource flexibility and performance by the highest executive survey, and to investigate the interaction effect between job satisfaction and job involvement after flexibility strategy executed by the employees¡¦ survey. Finally the analysis was done by reliability analysis, descriptive statistics analysis, one-way Anova (analysis of variance), correlate analysis and regression analysis, and find the following results: 1. The functional flexibility has significantly influences on organization performance. 2. The wage flexibility has significantly influences on organization performance. 3. Different point view on human resource flexibility will happen due to different characteristic. 4. After human resource flexibility executed, different organization performance will happen due to different characteristic. 5. Different point view on wages flexibility will happen due to different characteristic. 6. After wage flexibility executed, different job attitude will happen due to different characteristic. 7. After wage flexibility executed, job reward satisfaction has significantly effect on job attitude. According to the research result, we find a safe and fair wage reward system will have significant effect on employees¡¦ job satisfaction and job involvement. ¡§No pain, no gain¡¨, a friendly consideration will enable to improve organization performance.

Laws and regulations are controlling and have generated great impact on the pharmaceutical industry and putting high requirements on production to follow good manufacturing procedures. There is a high pressure on production to decrease the time-to-volume for new products implementations due to the long product development phases where the medicine product patent life only have 35-40% left when production can start. This have generated that production have applied a way of thinking when developing production lines that have a tendency of becoming a scale up over time where a new production line is added to the production plant to be able to produce the volume needed for customers. Astra Zeneca, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, predicts a future where they will need to handle more products launches parallel where the new product will be produced both in small and large volumes to new customers. In this thesis a single case study have been performed at where a new product is being implemented, the project Genuair at Astra Zeneca Sweden operations in Södertälje. This thesis have be executing with the overall aim of supporting the development of a new layout, a functional layout. The project Genuair is a project where a new product is introduced in a new way, by buying a patent. The project is in the beginning of building the first production line that have a continuous flow layout and there is already a plan to build a second production line to be able to produce the needed volume. The predicted future for the Genuair products is in line with the general predicted future within Astra Zeneca generating a need for higher volume flexibility and higher product-mix flexibility. This change will have an impact on the current Genuair production layout generating a decreasing of 45 % in volume output after analyzing the production line by building a simulation model. The current production layout is facing different limitations where long complex changeovers is the main reason for the decreasing in volume output. The current layout is also generating limitations where production is limited by equipment, vulnerable for shutdowns, laws and regulations and the need for fulfilling the capabilities of safety, health and environment, quality, deliverability and cost. A functional layout is presented that builds on achieving volume flexibility, product-mix flexibility and expansion flexibility. The introduction of a functional layout will generate challenges within the areas of laws and regulations, compliance, location of machines in different hygiene zones, traceability, material handling, the product-process matrix and the mind set within Astra Zeneca. The functional layout is analyzed by the development of a simulation model and compared to the current production layout and proven to handle the predicted future by primarily handling the changeovers in a different way that is the main limitation that follows by having a need for high volume flexibility and product-mix flexibility within the pharmaceutical industry. The functional layout will generate a higher degree of flexibility that will come to the expense of cost.

Title: The development of flexibility and its influence on sports training of judo Objectives: Analysis of the influence of flexibility in sports performance in judo and its appropriate methods of development. Methods: The diploma thesis was processed as a descriptive-analytical work in the form of a critical literary resource search. Results: Based on the literature search, it was found that judo in the main part of the training unit leads to the development of flexibility. It influences the speed of execution of the technique and improves sports performance. Flexibility can be amplified not only by the traditional stretching method, bud also by strength training. However, this is not the case with the development of maximum strength. There is no established test in testing methodology for evaluating flexibility. Keywords: Judo, flexibility, sports performance, resistance training, motor testing, literary research