When employees lack ‘soft skills’, whose fault is it?

Firms should look at their internal factors, such as job design, workloads and HR practices, argues Scott A. Hurrel

Rethinking the soft skills deficit blame game: Employers, skills withdrawal and the reporting of soft skills gaps

Soft (e.g. interpersonal and social) skills are receiving ever more attention with employers frequently reporting that employees lack these skills. The ‘blame game’ for these skills deficits is frequently directed at the individual, family or government. Scant attention has been paid to the possibility that people may possess soft skills but decide to withdraw them because of disaffection with their employer. Taking a critical perspective and drawing on three case study establishments, this article finds that some managers blamed soft skills gaps on skills withdrawal. The employee data did not, however, reveal greater employee disaffection in the establishment worst affected by soft skills gaps. Investigation of withdrawal instead revealed more about employees who had left the organizations and the propensity for employers to blame employees for soft skills gaps. The study also affirmed that organizations may be to blame for their soft skills gaps if they do not contextually integrate selection, induction and training practices with their skills needs

Emerging Powers and Global Order: Much Ado About Nothing?

This is the final version of the paper. Available from University of Hamburg via the link in this record.Part of the PRIMO Working Paper Series.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 607133

Employers beware: Generation Y loves social media, but to a point

Many young workers don't want employers using their online data for HR or hiring purposes, write Scott A. Hurrell, Dora Scholarios and James Richard

Stability of tryptophan during food processing and storage: 2. A comparison of methods used for the measurement of tryptophan losses in processed foods

1. Tryptophan losses in stored milk powders and in different model systems representing the major reactions of food proteins during processing and storage were determined using four different chemical methods and in a rat assay. 2. Similar tryptophan values were obtained by the three chemical methods which included high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) after sodium hydroxide hydrolysis. colorimetric reaction with p-dimethylamino- benzaldehyde (p-DAB) after barium hydroxide hydrolysis, and fluorescence of the Norharman derivative after NaOH hydrolysis. 3. Tryptophan losses in the treated proteins as measured by the alkaline-hydrolysis methods were generally smaller than those determined by the rat assay. Good agreement however was obtained when the chemical value was multiplied by the true nitrogen digestibility. 4. Determination of tryptophan by reaction with p-DAB after papain (EC 3.4.22.2) digestion gave lower values in the processed proteins than the other chemical methods or the rat assay. 5. A method using alkaline-hydrolysis is recommended, preferably combined with HPLC-measurement of the liberated tryptopha

Quantifying the effects of standing waves within the skull for ultrasound mediated opening of the blood-brain-barrier

Ultrasound mediated opening of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) has been shown to be effective in enhancing the delivery of therapeutic agents to the brain. However, challenges remain in targeting and specificity of BBB opening due to attenuation, aberration and reverberation of transcranial ultrasound fields. In this study, experimental and numerical assessment was performed of standing waves within an ex vivo human skull when delivering ultrasound pulses of varying lengths at 300 kHz using a large aperture focused ultrasound transducer. Simulations showed minimal distortion of the focal region but low amplitude standing waves were established within the skull with bursts of 50 cycles or more. Under the same conditions, the experimental measurements showed small variations in focal pressure which took 300 to 600 µs to stabilise. The pattern of sidelobes and superimposed standing waves was generally more complex when the focus was placed closer to the side and base of the skull. This data supports the use of large aperture diameter transducers and short pulse lengths for targeted BBB opening

An analysis of the acoustic cavitation noise spectrum: The role of periodic shock waves

Research on applications of acoustic cavitation is often reported in terms of the features within the spectrum of the emissions gathered during cavitation occurrence. There is, however, limited understanding as to the contribution of specific bubble activity to spectral features, beyond a binary interpretation of stable versus inertial cavitation. In this work, laser-nucleation is used to initiate cavitation within a few millimeters of the tip of a needle hydrophone, calibrated for magnitude and phase from 125 kHz to 20 MHz. The bubble activity, acoustically driven at f0 = 692 kHz, is resolved with high-speed shadowgraphic imaging at 5 × 106 frames per second. A synthetic spectrum is constructed from component signals based on the hydrophone data, deconvolved within the calibration bandwidth, in the time domain. Cross correlation coefficients between the experimental and synthetic spectra of 0.97 for the f 0/2 and f 0/3 regimes indicate that periodic shock waves and scattered driving field predominantly account for all spectral features, including the sub-harmonics and their over-harmonics, and harmonics of f 0

Storage of milk powders under adverse conditions: 2. Influence on the content of water-soluble vitamins

1. Storage of milk powder under unfavourable conditions accelerates the normally slow deterioration in nutritional quality. The effects of such storage on the water-soluble vitamin composition were examined. 2. (a) Spray-dried whole milk containing 25 g water/kg was stored at 60° and 70° and sampled weekly to 9 weeks. (b) Spray-dried whole milk and skimmed milk were adjusted to contain 40 and 100 g water/kg and stored at 37° in nitrogenand in oxygen. Samples were taken for analysis at intervals during storage. 3. The samples were analysed for eight B-complex vitamins and ascorbic acid, and also for total lysine, ‘reactive lysine' and ‘lysine as lactulosyl-lysine'. 4. Storage at 60° caused rapid destruction of folic acid (53% loss at 4 weeks) and slower loss of thiamin, vitamin B6 and pantothenic acid (18% at 8 weeks). There was no change in the content of riboflavin, biotin, nicotinic acid and vitamin B12. At 70° the rate of destruction of the four labile vitamins was much increased; 18% or less survived at 4 weeks. 5. At 37° and 40 g water/kg there was little change in total and ‘reactive' lysine during storage for 57 d. Lactulosyl-lysine was demonstrably present butatlow concentration. There was considerable loss of folate (72%) and ascorbate (91%) during storage for 30 d in O2, but no significant loss in N2. Thiamin fell by approximately 12% in 57 d, equally in O2 and N2. The content of the remaining vitamins was unchanged. At 100 g water/kg there were progressive Maillard changes. During 27 d in N2 the colour changed from cream to palebrown, but in O2 there was no perceptible colour change. Total lysine fell by 20% in 27 d, and ‘reactive lysine' by 30%. Folate was stable during 16 d in N2, but largely (94%) destroyed in O2. Ascorbic acid was also destroyed in N2 as in O2. Thiamin fell by 41% in 27 d, equally in O2 and N2. Vitamin B6 was more labile, especially in N2, falling by 71% in 16d. 6. With skimmed-milk powder containing 100 g water/kg, storage at 37° in O2 and N2 gave much the same results as for the corresponding whole-milk powder. The presence of milk fat had no marked effect on the stability of the water-soluble vitamins. 7. Destruction of vitamins was clearly linked to the progress of Maillard-type reactions and was strongly influenced by time and temperature of storage, moisture content and, in some instances, by the presence of O

Reactions of proteins with oxidizing lipids: 2. Influence on protein quality and on the bioavailability of lysine, methionine, cyst(e)ine and tryptophan as measured in rat assays

1. The consequences of reactions between protein and oxidizing lipids on the nutritional quality of food proteins have been investigated using a whey protein-methyl linolenate-water model system. 2. In rat assays, significant reductions were observed in protein efficiency ratio, net protein ratio, net protein utilization, biological value and true nitrogen digestibility, especially when the reaction had taken place at high moisture content, high temperature and in the presence of excess oxygen. 3. The losses of bioavailable lysine and tryptophan as measured by rat assays followed a similar pattern. The chemical value of each amino acid multiplied by the true N digestibility closely resembled the rat assay value. In general, the reaction products of lysine and tryptophan formed during lipid oxidation were biologically unavailable. 4. The bioavailabilities of methionine and of ‘methionine plus cyst(e)ine' were determined in separate assays. Cyst(e)ine was calculated as ‘methionine plus cyst(e)ine' minus methionine. In whey protein which had reacted with oxidizing methyl linolenate, the bioavailable methionine content was not significantly reduced even though 82% of the methionine residues were present as methionine sulphoxide. In hydrogen peroxide-treated casein in which all methionine residues were oxidized to the sulphoxide, methionine sulphoxide was found to be 96% as utilizable as a methionine source to the rat. Free methionine sulphoxide was 87% utilizable. 5. Cyst(e)ine appeared to be as sensitive as lysine to reactions with lipid oxidation products. In whey protein which had reacted with oxidizing methyl linolenate, the bioavailabilities of cyst(e)ine, lysine, tryptophan and methionine were reduced by 28, 24, 11 and 8% respectively and true N digestibility by 9%. These results are discussed in relation to food product

Storage of milk powders under adverse conditions: 1. Losses of lysine and of other essential amino acids as determined by chemical and microbiological methods

1. Whole-milk powders containing 25 g water/kg were stored for up to 9 weeks in sealed aluminium containers at elevated temperatures. Lysine and other essential amino acids were measured by chemical and microbiological methods. 2. Storage at 60° resulted in the progressive formation of lactulosyl-lysine. After 9 weeks, 30% of the lysine groups were present in this form. The powders still retained their natural colour and the levels of tryptophan, methionine, cyst(e)ine and leucine remained unchanged. 3. Storage at 70° resulted in the formation of lactulosyl-lysine followed by its complete degradation with the development of browning. Available tryptophan, methione, leucine and isoleucine decreased progressively during storage. 4. The different methods for lysine determination gave widely dissimilar results. The direct fluorodinitrobenzene (FDNB) technique and reactive lysine from furosine were considered to be the most reliable methods. The FDNB-difference, dye-binding lysine, Tetrahymena and Pediococcus methods all seriously underestimated reactive or available lysine in heat-damaged milk powders. Tetrahymena and Pediococcus appeared to utilize lactulosyl-lysine as a source of lysine. 5. The results are discussed in relation to storage and distribution of milk powders in hot climate