627 research outputs found
Measuring spirituality in South Africa: Validation of instruments developed in the USA
Published ArticleSpirituality is receiving increased attention in the context of the workplace. Research consistently shows that spirituality
is signifi cantly correlated with mental health and well-being. Most of the research on spirituality, particularly in the
context of the workplace, is conducted with instruments developed in the USA. However, the inter-cultural measurement
of constructs remains a concern, because instruments developed in one culture are not necessarily transferable to another
culture. In the current study, the transferability of two spiritual measures developed in the USA, namely the Human
Spirituality Scale (HSS) and the Organizational Spirituality Values Scale (OSVS) are considered for a sample from South
Africa. The results confi rm the construct validity of the HSS and the OSVS, but indicate that the factor structures of
the HSS and the OSVS should be analysed and reconfi rmed when used, particularly in a South African sample. The
study provides evidence that the HSS and the OSVS cannot be transferred indiscriminately to a South African sample.
This insight contributes to the quality of future research studies in South Africa, not only on the important aspect of
spirituality, but also when applying instruments developed elsewhere in the world
Workplace spirituality and job satisfaction
Published ArticleIn order to obtain an improved understanding of behaviour at work, employees should be studied from physical, psychological,
and spiritual dimensions. Although the physical and psychological dimensions of individuals at work have been
studied extensively, the spiritual dimension has been neglected for many years. The objective of the current research was
to determine the relationship between workplace spirituality and a positive attitude related to work, that is, job satisfaction.
A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 600 white-collar workers, chosen from two organizations in
different industries in South Africa. The research results indicate that there is a positive relationship between workplace
spirituality and job satisfaction. These fi ndings deepen the understanding of personal spirituality, organizational spirituality,
and job satisfaction. They bring new insights into the signifi cant role which spirituality plays in the context of the
workplace. To survive in the 21st century, organizations need to be spiritually based. This, in turn, will lead to workers
being satisfi ed with their entire work experience
The Experience of Spirituality in a Multicultural and Diverse Work Environment
Published ArticleWorldwide, the study of spirituality is receiving increased attention, but very little is
known about spirituality and its manifestation in African organizations. The aim of
this research was to explore the experience of spirituality in a multicultural and diverse
working environment, in order to enhance understanding of the functioning of spirituality
in relation to diversity in the workplace. In particular, the study explores workplace
spirituality from an individual and an organizational perspective within diverse
organizations operating within a multicultural society. A cross-sectional study was
conducted with a sample of 600 white collar workers from two organizations in different
industries in South Africa. The research findings indicate that there is an inverse
relationship between workplace spirituality and individual spirituality. Furthermore,
the study confirmed that the experience of both personal and organizational spirituality
is impacted by several diversity characteristics within a multicultural environment.
In order to improve understanding of the experience of spirituality in multicultural
societies and organizations, further empirical research is recommended. Globally,
organizations need to realize the importance of embracing spirituality, in order to
function effectively in a multicultural environment
Induction of heat shock protein expression in cervical epithelial cells by human semen.
OBJECTIVE: The 70kD heat shock protein (Hsp70), induced when cells are subjected to environmental stress, prevents the denaturation and incorrect folding of polypeptides and may expedite replication and transmission of DNA and RNA viruses. We analyzed whether messenger RNA (mRNA) for Hsp70 was expressed following exposure of a cultured human cervical cell line (HeLa cells) to human semen or in cervical cells from sexually active women. STUDY DESIGN: HeLa cells were co-cultured with a 1:50 dilution of semen from four men or with purified spermatozoa or cell-free seminal fluid. Endocervical swabs were acquired at mid-cycle from 53 women. Heat shock protein 70 mRNA was detected by a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction utilizing specific primer pairs and analysis on agarose gels. In cervical cells Hsp70 mRNA was measured identically followed by hybridization with an Hsp70-specific internal probe and detection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Cervical immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies to the human Hsp70 were determined by ELISA. RESULTS: HeLa cell-semen co-culture resulted in the induction of Hsp70 mRNA. In addition, cell-free seminal plasma and motile sperm incubated individually with HeLa cells also induced this mRNA. Heat shock protein 70 mRNA was detected in 28 (52.8%) of 53 endocervical samples obtained from women at various time points following intercourse. The percentage of samples expressing this mRNA was 37.5% at less than 10 hours, 64.3% at 10 hours, 70% at 11 hours, and between 36% and 50% at later times after semen exposure. The detection of cervical IgA antibodies to the Hsp70 was highly associated with Hsp70 gene transcription. CONCLUSION: Human semen induces transcription of Hsp70 in cervical epithelial cells
How to Trust Your Diffusion Model: A Convex Optimization Approach to Conformal Risk Control
Score-based generative modeling, informally referred to as diffusion models,
continue to grow in popularity across several important domains and tasks.
While they provide high-quality and diverse samples from empirical
distributions, important questions remain on the reliability and
trustworthiness of these sampling procedures for their responsible use in
critical scenarios. Conformal prediction is a modern tool to construct
finite-sample, distribution-free uncertainty guarantees for any black-box
predictor. In this work, we focus on image-to-image regression tasks and we
present a generalization of the Risk-Controlling Prediction Sets (RCPS)
procedure, that we term -RCPS, which allows to provide entrywise
calibrated intervals for future samples of any diffusion model, and
control a certain notion of risk with respect to a ground truth image with
minimal mean interval length. Differently from existing conformal risk control
procedures, ours relies on a novel convex optimization approach that allows for
multidimensional risk control while provably minimizing the mean interval
length. We illustrate our approach on two real-world image denoising problems:
on natural images of faces as well as on computed tomography (CT) scans of the
abdomen, demonstrating state of the art performance
Struktur Komunitas Karang Dan Biota Asosiasi Pada Kawasan Terumbu Karang Di Perairan Desa Minanga Kecamatan Malalayang II Dan Desa Mokupa Kecamatan Tombariri
Tujuan studi yaitu untuk mengetahui struktur komunitas biota karang dan biota asosiasi di kawasan terumbu karang. Data tutupan karang diperoleh dengan menggunakan metode LIT (Line Intercept Transect) sedangkan untuk biota asosiasi diperoleh dengan menggunakan kuadran. Penelitian dilakukan pada dua lokasi yaitu di Desa Minanga Kecamatan Malalayang II dan Desa Mokupa Kecamatan Tombariri Provinsi Sulawesi Utara. Hasil yang diperoleh pada dua lokasi menunjukkan persentase tutupan karang yang sangat rendah. Biota pada Desa Minanga dan Desa Mokupa memiliki keanekaragaman sedang. Untuk kesamaan komunitas Ascidian dan Alga ditemukan sama, sedangkan Spons, Ekinodermata, Moluska serta Ikan berbeda pada kedua lokasi. Nilai Frekuensi biota pada Desa Minanga memiliki nilai tertinggi yaitu Ascidian yang terendah yaitu Krustasea dan Alga sedangkan nilai frekuensi pada Desa Mokupa memiliki nilai tertinggi yaitu Ascidian dan yang terendah yaitu Polikaeta dan Alga. Kepadatan Ascidian, Spons dan Moluska memiliki nilai tertinggi, sedangkan nilai terendah yaitu Ekinodermata, Krustasea dan Alga di Desa Minanga, sedangkan kepadatan Moluska memiliki nilai tertinggi sedangkan Ascidian, Spons, Alga dan Polikaeta memiliki nilai terendah di Desa Mokupa
Robust generalised Bayesian inference for intractable likelihoods
Generalised Bayesian inference updates prior beliefs using a loss function, rather than a likelihood, and can therefore be used to confer robustness against possible mis-specification of the likelihood. Here we consider generalised Bayesian inference with a Stein discrepancy as a loss function, motivated by applications in which the likelihood contains an intractable normalisation constant. In this context, the Stein discrepancy circumvents evaluation of the normalisation constant and produces generalised posteriors that are either closed form or accessible using the standard Markov chain Monte Carlo. On a theoretical level, we show consistency, asymptotic normality, and bias-robustness of the generalised posterior, highlighting how these properties are impacted by the choice of Stein discrepancy. Then, we provide numerical experiments on a range of intractable distributions, including applications to kernel-based exponential family models and non-Gaussian graphical models
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