Crowding out public service motivation

Employing workers with Public Service Motivation (PSM) has been proposed as a means of improving performance in the public sector. There is, however, no conclusive evidence showing PSM among individuals. In this paper we attempt to firstly find evidence of PSM by investigating why people change jobs from the private to the public sector. Secondly we attempt to identify factors that crowd out PSM and thus hinder individuals with PSM from joining the public sector

Light drinking versus abstinence in pregnancy : behavioural and cognitive outcomes in 7-year-old children : a longitudinal cohort study

To assess whether light drinking in pregnancy is linked to unfavourable developmental outcomes in children. Design Prospective population-based cohort. Setting UK. Population Ten thousand five hundred and thirty-four 7-year-olds. Methods Quasi-experimental using propensity score matching (PSM) to compare children born to light (up to 2 units per week) and non-drinkers. Main outcome measures Behavioural difficulties rated by parents and teachers; cognitive test scores for reading, maths and spatial skills. Results Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and PSM analyses are presented. For behavioural difficulties, unadjusted estimates for percentage standard deviation (SD) score differences ranged from 2 to 14%. On adjustment for potential confounders, differences were attenuated, with a loss of statistical significance, except for teacher-rated boys' difficulties. For boys, parent-rated behavioural difficulties: unadjusted, −11.5; OLS, −4.3; PSM, −6.8; teacher-rated behavioural difficulties: unadjusted, −13.9; OLS, −9.6; PSM, −10.8. For girls, parent-rated behavioural difficulties: unadjusted, −9.6; OLS, −2.9; PSM, −4.5; teacher-rated behavioural difficulties: unadjusted, −2.4; OLS, 4.9; PSM, 3.9. For cognitive test scores, unadjusted estimates for differences ranged between 12 and 21% of an SD score for reading, maths and spatial skills. After adjustment for potential confounders, estimates were reduced, but remained statistically significantly different for reading and for spatial skills in boys. For boys, reading: unadjusted, 20.9; OLS, 8.3; PSM, 7.3; maths: unadjusted, 14.7; OLS, 5.0; PSM, 6.5; spatial skills: unadjusted, 16.2; OLS, 7.6; PSM, 8.1. For girls, reading: unadjusted, 11.6; OLS, −0.3; PSM, −0.5; maths: unadjusted, 12.9; OLS, 4.3; PSM, 3.9; spatial skills: unadjusted, 16.2; OLS, 7.7; PSM, 6.4. Conclusion The findings suggest that light drinking during pregnancy is not linked to developmental problems in mid-childhood. These findings support current UK Department of Health guidelines on drinking during pregnancy

Positive Surgical Margins in the 10 Most Common Solid Cancers.

A positive surgical margin (PSM) following cancer resection oftentimes necessitates adjuvant treatments and carries significant financial and prognostic implications. We sought to compare PSM rates for the ten most common solid cancers in the United States, and to assess trends over time. Over 10 million patients were identified in the National Cancer Data Base from 1998-2012, and 6.5 million had surgical margin data. PSM rates were compared between two time periods, 1998-2002 and 2008-2012. PSM was positively correlated with tumor category and grade. Ovarian and prostate cancers had the highest PSM prevalence in women and men, respectively. The highest PSM rates for cancers affecting both genders were seen for oral cavity tumors. PSM rates for breast cancer and lung and bronchus cancer in both men and women declined over the study period. PSM increases were seen for bladder, colon and rectum, and kidney and renal pelvis cancers. This large-scale analysis appraises the magnitude of PSM in the United States in order to focus future efforts on improving oncologic surgical care with the goal of optimizing value and improving patient outcomes

Crowding Out Public Service Motivation

Employing workers with Public Service Motivation (PSM) has been proposed as a means of improving performance in the public sector. There is, however, no conclusive evidence showing PSM among individuals. In this paper we attempt to firstly find evidence of PSM by investigating why people change jobs from the private to the public sector. Secondly we attempt to identify factors that crowd out PSM and thus hinder individuals with PSM from joining the public sector.

Does Public Service Motivation provide a guide for managers?

Public Service Motivation (PSM) has attracted substantial academic interest. Thousands of questionnaires have been administered in many countries to examine and compare the motivation of public servants. After a brief introduction to PSM, this paper critically examines the management advice that has been offered by PSM advocates. The conclusion is that much of the advice seems sound, but it does not rely on the existence of PSM. However, in the area where PSM is central to the advice, that advice is more problematic. This paper appears in the ANZSOG/State Services Commission Occasional Paper series

Shell model for heavy nuclei and its application in nuclear astrophysics

Performing shell model calculations for heavy nuclei is a long-standing problem in nuclear physics. The shell model truncation in the configuration space is an unavoidable step. The Projected Shell Model (PSM) truncates the space under the guidance of the deformed mean-field solutions. This implies that the PSM uses a novel and efficient way to bridge the two conventional methods: the deformed mean-field approximations, which are widely applied to heavy nuclei but able to describe the physics only in the intrinsic frame, and the spherical shell model diagonalization method, which is most fundamental but feasible only for small systems. We discuss the basic philosophy in construction of the PSM (or generally PSM-like) approach. Several examples from the PSM calculations are presented. Astrophysical applications are emphasized.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, invited talk at International Conference on Nuclear Structure Physics, Shanghai, June 200

A random cell motility gradient downstream of FGF controls elongation of amniote embryos

Vertebrate embryos are characterized by an elongated antero-posterior (AP) body axis, which forms by progressive cell deposition from a posterior growth zone in the embryo. Here, we used tissue ablation in the chicken embryo to demonstrate that the caudal presomitic mesoderm (PSM) has a key role in axis elongation. Using time-lapse microscopy, we analysed the movements of fluorescently labelled cells in the PSM during embryo elongation, which revealed a clear posterior-to-anterior gradient of cell motility and directionality in the PSM. We tracked the movement of the PSM extracellular matrix in parallel with the labelled cells and subtracted the extracellular matrix movement from the global motion of cells. After subtraction, cell motility remained graded but lacked directionality, indicating that the posterior cell movements associated with axis elongation in the PSM are not intrinsic but reflect tissue deformation. The gradient of cell motion along the PSM parallels the fibroblast growth factor (FGF)/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) gradient1, which has been implicated in the control of cell motility in this tissue2. Both FGF signalling gain- and loss-of-function experiments lead to disruption of the motility gradient and a slowing down of axis elongation. Furthermore, embryos treated with cell movement inhibitors (blebbistatin or RhoK inhibitor), but not cell cycle inhibitors, show a slower axis elongation rate. We propose that the gradient of random cell motility downstream of FGF signalling in the PSM controls posterior elongation in the amniote embryo. Our data indicate that tissue elongation is an emergent property that arises from the collective regulation of graded, random cell motion rather than by the regulation of directionality of individual cellular movements