Organizational practices across cultures: An exploration in six cultural contexts

This study examined organizational practices in a sample of 1239 employees from various organizations in Argentina, Brazil, Malaysia, New Zealand, Turkey, and the United States. Twenty-four items measuring employee-orientation, formalization, and innovation practices showed a clear factorial structure across all samples, along with good reliabilities. Significant organizational position differences were found for employee-orientation and innovation practices. Sector differences were found for formalization and innovation practices. Cultural differences were found for employee-orientation and innovation practices, which can be explained using macroeconomic indicators,tightness–looseness, and individualism. Our study demonstrates the importance of individual, organizational, economic, and cultural level for understanding perceptions of organizational practices across a wider range of societies

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

The global political economy, politicization and consensus in international organization The case of UNESCO

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN003777 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Environmental Risk Assessment and Sources of Potentially Toxic Elements in Seawater of Jazan Coastal Area, Saudi Arabia

High levels of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in water bodies negatively affect the biota of aquatic ecosystems and surrounding environments. A risk assessment investigation of the levels and distribution of PTEs in the seawater of the Jazan coastal area, southwest Saudi Arabia, was conducted. Thirty-two surface seawater samples were collected, and contamination (Cd) and heavy metal pollution (HPI) indices, as well as multivariate statistics, were applied. The average PTE levels (µg/L), in descending order of magnitude, were Cu (2.56), Pb (2.27), Ni (1.30), Cr (1.28), Zn (1.04), Sb (0.36), Co (0.22), and Cd (0.06). A fluctuating pattern without a fixed direction was detected in the spatial distribution of these metals, with increased pollution being linked to high metal levels as shown by some samples. The HPI indicated low pollution in 50% of the samples and medium pollution in the remaining 50%, whereas the Cd indicated low contamination with PTEs. The absence of significant correlations between pairs of metals indicated different sources of metal pollution. Lithogenic sources are implicated in the supply of Co, Ni, Pb, and Sb, whereas Cr was mainly derived from an anthropogenic source, and combined lithogenic and anthropogenic sources are believed to have contributed Cu and Zn to the area. It is proposed that urbanization, agriculture, and industry are among the potential anthropogenic sources of pollutants on the Jazan coastline. Soils generated on the undifferentiated Quaternary rocks along the investigated area are the main lithogenic sources

Rational speculative bubbles in the Asian stock markets: tests on deterministic explosive bubbles and stochastic explosive root bubbles

The standard theory of asset pricing, in which a long-run relationship should exist between stock prices and dividends if there are no deterministic explosive bubbles, assumes the constancy of expected returns. However, the investor’s expected returns are more likely to be time varying, which have led to the modification for the tests of rational bubble. One modification is that the tests should be applied to the log levels of stock price and dividend for allowing the detection of the stochastic explosive root bubble, which incorporates the possibility of time-varying expected returns. Accordingly, we test the existence or otherwise of both types of rational bubbles in the Asian stock markets by applying the unit root tests and the cointegration analyses. The empirical results suggest that the rational bubbles exist in the stock markets of Japan, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippine, whereas Hong Kong is found to have no rational bubbles