The Impact of Psychological Empowerment on the Effectiveness of Job Performance: A Field Study on the Jordanian Private Banks

This research aims to identify the concept of empowerment and clarify its various dimensions and their impact, on the effectiveness of job performance in the banking sector. The research has been applied to a sample of 185 employees working at 9 private banks in Jordan. This study found that the degree of practice of employees to the dimensions of empowerment exceed the middle degree, while the level of effectiveness of job performance in these banks was high, as it showed the existence of a significant effect of the dimensions of empowerment (competence, impact) on the effectiveness of job performance, while the other two dimensions (choice, meaning) does not affect significantly in the effectiveness of job performance, the study also pointed to the existence of significant differences between the practice of employees to  empowerment according to the variables (experience, function, bank), and also indicate there are significant differences in the levels of effectiveness job performance, according to the variables (marital status, bank). Keywords: Empowerment, Psychological, Job Performance, Effectiveness, Banks, Jordan

Soil seal development under simulated rainfall: structural, physical and hydrological dynamics

This study delivers new insights into rainfall-induced seal formation through a novel approach in the use of X-ray Computed Tomography (CT). Up to now seal and crust thickness have been directly quantified mainly through visual examination of sealed/crusted surfaces, and there has been no quantitative method to estimate this important property. X-ray CT images were quantitatively analysed to derive formal measures of seal and crust thickness. A factorial experiment was established in the laboratory using open-topped microcosms packed with soil. The factors investigated were soil type (three soils: silty clay loam - ZCL, sandy silt loam - SZL, sandy loam - SL) and rainfall duration (2-14 minutes). Surface seal formation was induced by applying artificial rainfall events, characterised by variable duration, but constant kinetic energy, intensity, and raindrop size distribution. Soil porosities derived from CT scans were used to quantify the thickness of the rainfall-induced surface seals and reveal temporal seal micro-morphological variations with increasing rainfall duration. In addition, the water repellency and infiltration dynamics of the developing seals were investigated by measuring water drop penetration time (WDPT) and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (Kun). The range of seal thicknesses detected varied from 0.6 - 5.4 mm. Soil textural characteristics and OM content played a central role in the development of rainfall-induced seals, with coarser soil particles and lower OM content resulting in thicker seals. Two different trends in soil porosity vs. depth were identified: i) for SL soil porosity was lowest at the immediate soil surface, it then increased constantly with depth till the median porosity of undisturbed soil was equalled; ii) for ZCL and SL the highest reduction in porosity, as compared to the median porosity of undisturbed soil, was observed in a well-defined zone of maximum porosity reduction c. 0.24 - 0.48 mm below the soil surface. This contrasting behaviour was related to different dynamics and processes of seal formation which depended on the soil properties. The impact of rainfall-induced surface sealing on the hydrological behaviour of soil (as represented by WDTP and Kun) was rapid and substantial: an average 60% reduction in Kun occurred for all soils between 2 and 9 minutes rainfall, and water repellent surfaces were identified for SZL and ZCL. This highlights that the condition of the immediate surface of agricultural soils involving rainfall-induced structural seals has a strong impact in the overall ability of soil to function as water reservoir

The severity of pandemic H1N1 influenza in the United States, from April to July 2009: A Bayesian analysis

Background: Accurate measures of the severity of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza (pH1N1) are needed to assess the likely impact of an anticipated resurgence in the autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Severity has been difficult to measure because jurisdictions with large numbers of deaths and other severe outcomes have had too many cases to assess the total number with confidence. Also, detection of severe cases may be more likely, resulting in overestimation of the severity of an average case. We sought to estimate the probabilities that symptomatic infection would lead to hospitalization, ICU admission, and death by combining data from multiple sources. Methods and Findings: We used complementary data from two US cities: Milwaukee attempted to identify cases of medically attended infection whether or not they required hospitalization, while New York City focused on the identification of hospitalizations, intensive care admission or mechanical ventilation (hereafter, ICU), and deaths. New York data were used to estimate numerators for ICU and death, and two sources of data - medically attended cases in Milwaukee or self-reported influenza-like illness (ILI) in New York - were used to estimate ratios of symptomatic cases to hospitalizations. Combining these data with estimates of the fraction detected for each level of severity, we estimated the proportion of symptomatic patients who died (symptomatic case-fatality ratio, sCFR), required ICU (sCIR), and required hospitalization (sCHR), overall and by age category. Evidence, prior information, and associated uncertainty were analyzed in a Bayesian evidence synthesis framework. Using medically attended cases and estimates of the proportion of symptomatic cases medically attended, we estimated an sCFR of 0.048% (95% credible interval [CI] 0.026%-0.096%), sCIR of 0.239% (0.134%-0.458%), and sCHR of 1.44% (0.83%-2.64%). Using self-reported ILI, we obtained estimates approximately 7-96lower. sCFR and sCIR appear to be highest in persons aged 18 y and older, and lowest in children aged 5-17 y. sCHR appears to be lowest in persons aged 5-17; our data were too sparse to allow us to determine the group in which it was the highest. Conclusions: These estimates suggest that an autumn-winter pandemic wave of pH1N1 with comparable severity per case could lead to a number of deaths in the range from considerably below that associated with seasonal influenza to slightly higher, but with the greatest impact in children aged 0-4 and adults 18-64. These estimates of impact depend on assumptions about total incidence of infection and would be larger if incidence of symptomatic infection were higher or shifted toward adults, if viral virulence increased, or if suboptimal treatment resulted from stress on the health care system; numbers would decrease if the total proportion of the population symptomatically infected were lower than assumed.published_or_final_versio

THE STUDY OF THE SPLASH AND SOIL DETACHMENT FROM SINGLE WATERDROP IMPACT

The purpose of this project was to study soil detachability and the splash mechanism from single raindrop impact. A simple relationship that predicts soil detachment was tested for nine soils and three drop sizes. This relationship expressed splash weight of soil as a linear function of the ratio of raindrop kinetic energy to soil resistance expressed as the undrained shear strength. An improved and inexpensive raindrop tower 8.9 m in height was designed so that a single drop will hit a soil target area 1.6 cm in diameter. For the soils used in this study, clay content ranged from 3.4 to 52.5 percent, organic matter from 1.0 to 4.6 percent, CEC from 9.1 to 28.7 meq/100g, and surface area from 21 to 202 m(\u272)/gm. The surface shear strength for each soil was altered by remolding the soil to three bulk densities and by equilibrating the soil cores to matric potentials of -5, -19, -38 and -62 mbars. The weight of soil detached from the impact of single waterdrops 3.0, 4.6 and 5.6 mm in diameter was closely correlated with the undrained soil shear strength as measured by the Swedish fall cone device. The coefficient of determination values between splash weight and the force-resistance ratio for individual soils were high (r(\u272) = 0.88 to 0.97); however, the coefficient of determination among all soils was lower (r(\u272) = 0.81). A maximum coefficient of determination of 0.61 was found when soil properties other than shear strength were used as independent variables to predict soil splash. From the results of high speed photography and from soil mechanics principles, a new concept for describing the mechanism of soil detachment from raindrops impacting on saturated soil surfaces was proposed. The impulsive loading caused by the impacting drop does not permit time for drainage; thus there is no change in total soil volume under the impulsive load application of the drop; however, the vertical force of the drop is transformed to lateral shear caused by radial flow of the impacting drop. Splash angle is determined by the depth of the cavity and the size of the bulge surrounding it. Splash angle was highly correlated with the soil shear strength

Effects of hydrophobicity on splash erosion of model soil particles by a single water drop impact

Raindrop impact can be a major contributor to particle mobilization for soils and other granular materials. In previous work, water repellent soils, comprised of hydrophobic particles, have been shown to exhibit greater splash erosion losses under multiple drop impact. However, the underlying principle differences in splash behavior between hydrophobic and hydrophilic granular surfaces have not been studied to date. In this study the effects of particle hydrophobicity on splash behaviour by a single water drop impact were examined using high-speed videography. Water drops (4 mm in diameter) were dropped on beds of hydrophilic and hydrophobic glass beads (sieved range: 350–400 µm), serving as model soil particles. The drop velocity on impact was 2.67 m s-1, which corresponds to ~30% of the terminal velocity of a raindrop of similar size. The resulting impact behaviour was measured in terms of the trajectories of particles ejected from the beds and their final resting positions. The response to the impacting water drop was significantly different between hydrophilic and hydrophobic particles in terms of the distance distribution, the median distance travelled by the particles and number of ejected particles. The greater ejection distances of hydrophobic particles were mainly the result of the higher initial velocities rather than differences in ejecting angles. The higher and longer ejection trajectories for hydrophobic particles, compared with hydrophilic particles, indicate that particle hydrophobicity affects splash erosion from the initial stage of rainfall erosion before a water layer may be formed by accumulating drops. The ~10% increase in average splash distance for hydrophobic particles compared with hydrophilic particles suggests that particle hydrophobicity can result in greater net erosion rate, which would be amplified on sloping surfaces, for example, by ridges in ploughed agricultural soils or hillslopes following vegetation loss by clearing or wildfire

Halat idariyyah arabiyyah: al-manhajiyyah; wa namadij al-muntaqah, 1st. ed./ Durrah

158 hal.: ill.; 23 cm