What are Some Best Practices in Assessing Employee Performance Without Using Performance Reviews?

[Excerpt] A 2014 Deloitte Survey reported that 58% of organizations believed that performance appraisals were an ineffective use of time. This finding carries great significance given a typical manager spends on average 210 hours a year working on appraisals. Due to the incongruence between time spent and value, many companies are eliminating formal reviews. Some companies are opting to eliminate ratings all together while others are choosing to eliminate the numerical/ranking component of the appraisal. Case studies that include outcomes are a useful tool in examining how this pertains to the management of low performers

What are Benefits and Pitfalls of Using Technical Selection Tests During the Hiring Process?

[Excerpt] Talent Acquisition departments are the frontline soldiers in the war for talent. Selection tests and simulations are common mechanisms by which firm’s filter through potential job candidates. Nevertheless, a 2017 Deloitte survey reported that 71% of firms believed they were weak in their ability to use these tools effectively. Using assessments is a balancing act between false positives (hiring the wrong candidate) and false negatives (rejecting the right candidate). As such it is important to understand the benefits and pitfalls. This is especially true with technical assessments for coders and programmers

Trainyard is NP-Hard

Recently, due to the widespread diffusion of smart-phones, mobile puzzle games have experienced a huge increase in their popularity. A successful puzzle has to be both captivating and challenging, and it has been suggested that this features are somehow related to their computational complexity \cite{Eppstein}. Indeed, many puzzle games --such as Mah-Jongg, Sokoban, Candy Crush, and 2048, to name a few-- are known to be NP-hard \cite{CondonFLS97, culberson1999sokoban, GualaLN14, Mehta14a}. In this paper we consider Trainyard: a popular mobile puzzle game whose goal is to get colored trains from their initial stations to suitable destination stations. We prove that the problem of determining whether there exists a solution to a given Trainyard level is NP-hard. We also \href{http://trainyard.isnphard.com}{provide} an implementation of our hardness reduction

Personal Marketing Plan and Its Influence on Employability

The objective of this paper is to review and analyze the main components of a personal marketing plan Engineers in Business Management Graduates ITLAC for better employability in the labor market. The analys is assumes that currently personal marketing has become an in dispensable tool to achieve professional and personal success, enabling graduates of this professional profile make selling your image to achieve their objectives and goals. The method used is descriptive analytic from a literature review. Finallya marketing personal marketing plan is proposed.Keywords. Graduates, Employability, Personal image, The labor market and personal marketing plan.JEL. I21, J44, L84, M31

Optimal conditions for the numerical calculation of the largest Lyapunov exponent for systems of ordinary differential equations

A general indicator of the presence of chaos in a dynamical system is the largest Lyapunov exponent. This quantity provides a measure of the mean exponential rate of divergence of nearby orbits. In this paper, we show that the so-called two-particle method introduced by Benettin et al. could lead to spurious estimations of the largest Lyapunov exponent. As a comparator method, the maximum Lyapunov exponent is computed from the solution of the variational equations of the system. We show that the incorrect estimation of the largest Lyapunov exponent is based on the setting of the renormalization time and the initial distance between trajectories. Unlike previously published works, we here present three criteria that could help to determine correctly these parameters so that the maximum Lyapunov exponent is close to the expected value. The results have been tested with four well known dynamical systems: Ueda, Duffing, R\"ossler and Lorenz.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Accepted in the International Journal of Modern Physics

Guitartia tridentata n. gen., n. sp (monhysterida: xyalidae) and macrodontium gaspari n. gen., n. sp (chromadorida: microlaimidae), free-living marine nematodes from the Caribbean sea

Two new genera of free-living marine nematodes are described from the muddy bottom of Cienfuegos Bay, Caribbean Sea. Guitartia n. gen. (Xyalidae, Monhysterida) is characterised by three long tooth-like structures in the stegostom, second and third circle of anterior sensilla separate and posterior genital branch of the female restricted to a long post-vulvar sac. The type species is Guitartia tridentata n. gen., n. sp. Within the Xyalidae, Guitartia n. gen. is morphologically close to Amphimonhystrella, Cobbia, Elzalia, Scaptrella and Valvaelaimus, all being characterised by sclerotised structures in the stoma and transverse striation of the body cuticle. Main features for discrimination are the type of stoma structure, the shape and relative size of amphidial fovea, the presence of a post-vulvar sac and gubernacular apophyses and the absence of terminal setae on the tail. Macrodontium n. gen. (Microlaimidae, Chromadorida) is characterised by a heavily sclerotised stoma with one large dorsal tooth and two smaller subventral teeth, sexual dimorphism in size and position of the amphidial fovea and males with a single anterior testis. The type species is Macrodontium gaspari n. gen., n. sp. Within the Microlaimidae, Macrodontium n. gen. is similar to the genera Acanthomicrolaimus and Bolbolaimus due to sclerotised stoma and presence of large dorsal tooth. The new genus is similar to Aponema in sexual dimorphism in the size of the amphidial fovea, monorchic males, presence of a gubernacular apophysis and conico-cylindrical tail shape. Morphological characters of diagnostic value within the family are the ornamentation of the body cuticle, relative length of cephalic sensilla, stoma sclerotisation and number of testes

Forecasting stock prices using Genetic Programming and Chance Discovery

In recent years the computers have shown to be a powerful tool in financial forecasting. Many machine learning techniques have been utilized to predict movements in financial markets. Machine learning classifiers involve extending the past experiences into the future. However the rareness of some events makes difficult to create a model that detect them. For example bubbles burst and crashes are rare cases, however their detection is crucial since they have a significant impact on the investment. One of the main problems for any machine learning classifier is to deal with unbalanced classes. Specifically Genetic Programming has limitation to deal with unbalanced environments. In a previous work we described the Repository Method, it is a technique that analyses decision trees produced by Genetic Programming to discover classification rules. The aim of that work was to forecast future opportunities in financial stock markets on situations where positive instances are rare. The objective is to extract and collect different rules that classify the positive cases. It lets model the rare instances in different ways, increasing the possibility of identifying similar cases in the future. The objective of the present work is to find out the factors that work in favour of Repository Method, for that purpose a series of experiments was performed.Forecasting, Chance discovery, Genetic programming, machine learning

A morphometric analysis of the genus Terschellingia (nematoda, Linhomoeidae) with redefinition of the genus and key to the species

The cosmopolitan and often ecologically dominant genus Terschellingia (Nematoda, Linhomoeidae), with 37 nominal species, is taxonomically a problematic taxon. Its species show high morphological plasticity, possess few diagnostic morphological characters and identification keys are lacking. A revision of the genus was carried out based on morphological and morphometric data from the literature and from light and electron microscopic observations of specimens collected in Cienfuegos Bay, Caribbean Sea, Cuba. The diagnosis of the genus Terschellingia is emended. Of the current 37 nominal species, 15 are considered as valid species based on morphological characters related to size and position of amphidial fovea, presence/position of cephalic and cervical setae, presence/ size/ shape of oesophageal bulb, shape of spicular apparatus and shape of tail. Tabular and pictorial keys were provided based on these characters. Three sympatric species: T. communis, T. gourbaultae, and T. longicaudata were redescribed based on recently collected Cuban specimens. Each of them showed relatively large differences in body size in comparison with the respective type specimens, suggesting possible variation due to local environmental differences. The highest intraspecific variation pertains for the most widely spread cosmopolitan species T. longicaudata, suggesting that morphological plasticity enhanced adaptation to different environmental conditions. The notable taxonomic inflation within the genus (13 species inquirendae, 9 junior synonyms), probably also present in other highly specious genera of marine nematodes, can lead to an overestimation of the alpha-diversity for some taxa

RNA Seq Analysis of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) Induced by Metabolic Syndrome in a Mouse Model

Metabolic syndrome is often defined by the presence of several factors, including accumulation of abdominal fat, high blood pressure and high blood glucose levels, that increases the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and cancer. The development of metabolic syndrome has been shown to be very closely linked to lack of physical activity and is increasing concurrent with the rise of obesity rates among adults. Development of metabolic syndrome can have detrimental physiological effects throughout the body and can lead to the development of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Proper liver function is crucial for the health of the body since it is the site of essential processes such as protein production, blood clotting, metabolism of cholesterol, glucose and iron. Metabolic syndrome contributing to NAFLD can lead to liver dysfunction, hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. In this study we used liver RNA from our diet-induce obesity mouse model (mice fed with a 60% fat diet) to characterize the transcriptional landscape of NAFLD and compare it to the transcriptional signature of healthy control mice (mice fed with a 10% fat diet). Understanding the transcriptional differences between these two groups can aid in the understanding of NAFLD and consequent liver pathobiologies. More importantly, the transcriptional signatures identified could also help early detection of these diseases through the identification of novel markers. In this study, we observed significant down-regulation of genes associated with metabolic processes, and significant up-regulation of genes involved in immune responses. Additionally, we also identified up-regulated transcripts in our obese mice reported to be involved in hepatocellular carcinoma and fibrosis. However, the NAFLD livers did not demonstrate histological evidence of carcinoma and/or fibrosis. Therefore, the NAFLD livers already expressed a premalignant signature in the absence of any other indication of cancer. In conclusion, the identification of genes downregulated in metabolic processes and up-regulated in immune responses indicate that our model is indeed exhibiting liver disease. Moreover, the finding of a premalignant signature suggests that NAFLD may begin to progress towards hepatocellular carcinoma much earlier than previously thought

Examining Outcome Expectations of Athletic Performance Apparel Users: A Case Study of Recreational Activities

The information era has given birth to a new breed of sport management, which uses new technologies (e.g., performance apparel, wearable devices, data analytics) to improve athletic performance. Previous studies have established an individual adopts new technologies in 4 phases: Anticipation, Orientation, Incorporation and Identification. Additionally, these studies stated the most critical stages are Anticipation and Orientation, which are characterized by outcome expectations and user experience, respectively. However, there is minimal information available to sport managers describing or quantifying athletes’ expectations and experiences with athletic performance apparel (APA). The objectives of our project were to examine the relationships between APA use and influence on 1) self-reported TTM (Transtheoretical Model) physical activity stage; 2) outcome expectations (OE) motives; and 3) user experience (UX) factors. A PreTest-PostTest protocol established TTM stage and examined expectations while a 9-week Time-Series design recorded UX of 20 recreational athletes with updated versions of the TTM and OEE instruments and an adopted UX questionnaire, respectively. Pre-Test data indicate that participants were evenly distributed across the six TTM stages while Post-Test data illustrate a change in physical activity (Action (n=8), Maintenance (n=6) and Excel (n=4)). Results indicate that participants had ‘moderate’ outcome expectations during the Anticipation phase and these expectations being fulfilled during the Incorporation phase for Physical Performance (OE-PP), Psychological Impact (OE-PI) and Social Status (OE-SS). Also, the data indicate a positive significance difference (p\u3c.05) for OE-PP (3.67+/-0.40) and a negative significance difference (p\u3c.05) for OE-CAR (1.96+/-0.80). In conclusion, the UX data provided evidence to fast transitions between adoption phases; thus, most APA users finished the project in the Identification phase