What a performance: performance related pay in the public services.

Linking pay to performance is something employers increasingly seek to achieve. This was once seen as an objective which could only be met in the private sector. That is no longer true. In the 1990s the British public services have experienced a revolution which has attracted the interest and concern of public service managers and unions around the world. The days when government officials marched in step up incremental pay scales are gone. Virtually all civil servants are now subject to new forms of performance management, or performance pay. This approach now extends to many other areas of the public services. But are these new systems of financial reward as effective as their creators had hoped? This is one of the questions which prompted the substantial programme of research carried out by David Marsden and Stephen French under the auspices of the Industrial Relations programme of the Centre for Economic Performance (with financial assistance from the Anglo-German Foundation). It is the most extensive study of its kind, looking at performance pay systems in the Inland Revenue and the Employment Service; within the NHS; and in the teaching profession.

Does Performance Pay De-Motivate, and Does It Matter?

The sheer scale and speed of the shift of payment system from time-based salaries to performance-related pay, PRP, in the British public services provides a unique opportunity to test the effects of incentive pay schemes. This study is based on the first large scale survey designed to measure the effects of performance related pay on a) employee motivation and work behaviour across the British public services; and b) workplace performance. The latter uses an index of organisational performance based on line-manager judgements. While there is evidence of a clear incentive effect for those gaining above average PRP, it is likely that it is offset by a more widespread de-motivating effect arising from difficulties of measuring and evaluating performance fairly. These motivational outcomes are found to affect workplace performance. Organisational commitment appears to offset some of the negative effects of PRP. In contrast to the many studies of top executives, sales and sports personnel, our study examines PRP for large numbers of ordinary employees.performance-related-pay, incentives, performance measurement, organisational commitment, public sector.

Why Does Performance Pay De-Motivate: Financial Incentives versus Perfrormance Appraisal

The sheer scale and speed of the shift of payment system from time-based salaries to performance-related pay, PRP, in the British public services provides a unique opportunity to test the effects of incentive pay schemes. This study is based on the first large scale survey designed to measure the effects of performance related pay on employee motivation and work behaviour across the British public services. While there is evidence of a clear incentive effect for those gaining above average PRP, it is likely that it is offset by a more widespread demotivating effect arising from difficulties of measuring performance fairly. Organisational commitment appears to offset some of the negative effects of PRP.Performance related pay, incentives, performance measurement, organisational commitment, public sector

AIDS patients have increased surfactant protein D but normal mannose binding lectin levels in lung fluid.

BACKGROUND: Surfactant protein D (SP-D) and Mannose Binding Lectin (MBL) are collectins that have opsonic and immunoregulatory functions, are found in lung fluid and interact with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). We compared collectin levels in lung fluid and serum from HIV infected and normal subjects to determine if alterations in lung collectin levels were associated with HIV infection and might result in increased susceptibility to other pulmonary infections. METHODS: Blood and bronchoalveolar lavage samples were collected from 19 HIV-infected individuals and 17 HIV-uninfected individuals, all with normal chest X ray at time of study. HIV viral loads and peripheral blood CD4+ T cell counts were measured in all subjects. SP-D was measured in lung fluid, and MBL in both lung fluid and serum. RESULTS: SP-D levels were not significantly different in lung fluid from HIV-uninfected (median 406.72 ng/ml) and HIV-infected individuals with high CD4 count (CD4 >200) (median 382.60 ng/ml) but were elevated in HIV-infected individuals with low CD4 count (median 577.79 ng/ml; Kruskall Wallis p < 0.05). MBL levels in serum were not significantly different between HIV-uninfected and HIV-infected individuals (median 1782.70 ng/ml vs 2639.73 ng/ml) and were not detectable in lung fluid. CONCLUSION: SP-D levels are increased in lung fluid from AIDS patients but not in patients with early HIV infection. MBL levels are not altered by HIV infection or AIDS. There is no evidence that altered pulmonary collectin levels result in susceptibility to infection in these patients

Molecular biology on a microfluidic chip

We have developed microfluidic chips for automating molecular biology processes such as gene ligation and gene transformation from nanolitre sample volumes with parallel architecture. Unlike conventional tube methods with cumbersome pipetting procedures, all processes, including metering of samples, ligation and transformation, were carried out in the microfluidic chips through pneumatic control of the nanofluid. The microfluidic devices presented here offer an illustration of some of the basic physics that arises when trying to miniaturize and automate biological techniques

Handling Procedures of Vegetable Crops

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is working towards future long duration manned space flights beyond low earth orbit. The duration of these missions may be as long as 2.5 years and will likely include a stay on a lunar or planetary surface. The primary goal of the Advanced Food System in these long duration exploratory missions is to provide the crew with a palatable, nutritious, and safe food system while minimizing volume, mass, and waste. Vegetable crops can provide the crew with added nutrition and variety. These crops do not require any cooking or food processing prior to consumption. The vegetable crops, unlike prepackaged foods, will provide bright colors, textures (crispy), and fresh aromas. Ten vegetable crops have been identified for possible use in long duration missions. They are lettuce, spinach, carrot, tomato, green onion, radish, bell pepper, strawberries, fresh herbs, and cabbage. Whether these crops are grown on a transit vehicle (e.g., International Space Station) or on the lunar or planetary surface, it will be necessary to determine how to safely handle the vegetables while maintaining acceptability. Since hydrogen peroxide degrades into water and oxygen and is generally recognized as safe (GRAS), hydrogen peroxide has been recommended as the sanitizer. The objective of th is research is to determine the required effective concentration of hydrogen peroxide. In addition, it will be determined whether the use of hydrogen peroxide, although a viable sanitizer, adversely affects the quality of the vegetables. Vegetables will be dipped in 1 % hydrogen peroxide, 3% hydrogen peroxide, or 5% hydrogen peroxide. Treated produce and controls will be stored in plastic bags at 5 C for up to 14 days. Sensory, color, texture, and total plate count will be measured. The effect on several vegetables including lettuce, radish, tomato and strawberries has been completed. Although each vegetable reacts to hydrogen peroxide differently, the data suggest that 5% hydrogen peroxide reduces the shelf life of the vegetable. A dip of either 1 % or 3% hydrogen peroxide helps reduce the microbial total count while not adversely affecting the quality of the vegetable

Disability, Identity, and Cultural Diversity

Eighteen disabled individuals, nine with disabilities present at birth and nine with acquired disabilities participated in tape recorded interviews lasting between 60 and 90 minutes. For this study, disabilities present at birth were defined as those disabilities identified or diagnosed by the age 5 years; acquired disabilities were those disabilities that occur after an individual's 5th birthday. Life stages were identified as: Middle Childhood/Adolescence (ages 8 years through 17 years); Beginning Adulthood/Young Adulthood (age 18 years through 34 years); and, Middle Adulthood/Later Adulthood (age 35 years and older). The mixed method design relying on semi-structured interview and inductive analysis was used to answer the following research questions: (a) what are the nature and scope of disability cultural identity articulated by informants; (b) and what differences in disability cultural identity are related to informant age, condition and onset? Five themes emerged from the transcripts: fitting in; disability wisdom; it's just what you do; I can do it despite what you say; and disability talk as shared interest versus talk as boring. None of these themes revealed cross disability identity. Despite being unable to answer the initial research questions in the manner anticipated, the data analysis provided important and challenging knowledge and implications for further inquiry and practice

Experimentally validated quantitative linear model for the device physics of elastomeric microfluidic valves

A systematic experimental study and theoretical modeling of the device physics of polydimethylsiloxane “pushdown” microfluidic valves are presented. The phase space is charted by 1587 dimension combinations and encompasses 45–295 µm lateral dimensions, 16–39 µm membrane thickness, and 1–28 psi closing pressure. Three linear models are developed and tested against the empirical data, and then combined into a fourth-power-polynomial superposition. The experimentally validated final model offers a useful quantitative prediction for a valve's properties as a function of its dimensions. Typical valves (80–150 µm width) are shown to behave like thin springs

Parallel Picoliter RT-PCR Assays Using Microfluidics

The development of microfluidic tools for high-throughput nucleic acid analysis has become a burgeoning area of research in the post-genome era. Here, we have developed a microfluidic chip to perform 72 parallel 450-pL RT-PCRs. We took advantage of Taqman hydrolysis probe chemistry to detect RNA templates as low as 34 copies. The device and method presented here may enable highly parallel single cell gene expression analysis