The Effects on Shareholder Wealth for Companies that Invest in Their Employees

Companies have been known to reduce their costs by reducing their spending on employee benefits, but in the last decade there has been an increasing interest on how these decisions affect not just employee productivity and turnover, but also overall shareholder wealth and company profitability. This thesis seeks to answer whether companies that have a greater focus on their employee welfare and satisfaction are more financially stable and profitable than their competitors. The research and analysis consists of 40 companies, 20 highly rated by their employees paired with 20 of the worst companies according to employee opinion and benefits. Each pair must consist of comparable companies based on their industry and size. All companies are also part of Fortune 1000 and must be publicly traded. After conducting multiple tests on the data collected for each company and industry, the results support the hypothesis of a positive correlation between employee spending and shareholder wealth

Multiresistant Salmonella enterica serovar 4,[5],12:i:- in Europe: a new pandemic strain?

A marked increase in the prevalence of S. enterica serovar 4,[5],12:i:- with resistance to ampicillin, streptomycin, sulphonamides and tetracyclines (R-type ASSuT) has been noted in food-borne infections and in pigs/pig meat in several European countries in the last ten years. One hundred and sixteen strains of S. enterica serovar 4,[5],12:i:- from humans, pigs and pig meat isolated in England and Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the Netherlands were further subtyped by phage typing, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis to investigate the genetic relationship among strains. PCR was performed to identify the fljB flagellar gene and the genes encoding resistance to ampicillin, streptomycin, sulphonamides and tetracyclines. Class 1 and 2 integrase genes were also sought. Results indicate that genetically related serovar 4,[5],12:i:- strains of definitive phage types DT193 and DT120 with ampicillin, streptomycin, sulphonamide and tetracycline resistance encoded by blaTEM, strA-strB, sul2 and tet(B) have emerged in several European countries, with pigs the likely reservoir of infection. Control measures are urgently needed to reduce spread of infection to humans via the food chain and thereby prevent the possible pandemic spread of serovar 4,[5],12:i:- of R-type ASSuT as occurred with S. Typhimurium DT104 during the 1990s

Genetic relationships among strains of Salmonella enteritidis in a national epidemic in Switzerland

A collection of Salmonella enteritidis strains isolated in Switzerland (1965-90) was characterized. The phage type and plasmid profile of isolates were compared with the copy number and insertion loci of the DNA insertion element IS200. Three clonal lines of S. enteritidis were identified by IS200 profile; the various phage types were subtypes reproducibly associated with one of these lines. All human and poultry isolates contained a 38 Mda plasmid which hybridized with a mouse virulence-associated gene probe. In S. enteritidis, the IS200 profile is a race-specific molecular marker of the chromosome, and may be particularly applicable for studying the epidemiology of less common serovar

Generalized Chaplygin gas model, supernovae and cosmic topology

In this work we study to which extent the knowledge of spatial topology may place constraints on the parameters of the generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG) model for unification of dark energy and dark matter. By using both the Poincar\'e dodecahedral and binary octahedral spaces as the observable spatial topologies, we examine the current type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) constraints on the GCG model parameters. We show that the knowledge of spatial topology does provide additional constraints on the $A_s$ parameter of the GCG model but does not lift the degeneracy of the $\alpha$ parameter.Comment: Revtex 4, 8 pages, 10 figures, 1 table; version to match the published on

Emerging quinolone-resistant Salmonella in the United States.

We conducted a national survey of antimicrobial resistance in human clinical isolates of Salmonella between July 1, 1994, and June 30, 1995. Every tenth nontyphoidal Salmonella isolate received at state public health laboratories in the United States during this period was tested for resistance to 12 antimicrobial agents, including two quinolones, nalidixic acid, and ciprofloxacin. Emerging quinolone resistance was detected; of 4,008 isolates tested, 21 (0.5%) were resistant to nalidixic acid, and one (0.02%) was resistant to ciprofloxacin. Continued surveillance for quinolone-resistant Salmonella is necessary, particularly after the recent approval of a fluoroquinolone for use in animals intended for food in the United States