The Moderating Effect of Employee Age on the Association between Affective Commitment and Human Resource Practices

Drawing hypotheses from a theory of lifespan development called selective optimization with compensation (SOC, Baltes & Baltes, 1990; Baltes, Staudinger, & Lindenberger, 1999), the study explored the degree to which employee age moderates the relationship between employee affective commitment and satisfaction with various high commitment human resource practices (HCHRPs; e.g., providing training, opportunity for advancement, work/life balance). In addition, as exploratory hypotheses, the study also tested whether other employee-level variables such as gender, job tenure, and job type also serve as moderators of the HCHRP-affective commitment relationship. Customer-facing employees (N = 6,360) representing three job types (O*NET titles: Shipping, Receiving, and Traffic Clerks; Truck and Delivery Services Drivers; Couriers and Messengers) from an international transportation company completed an eight-item version of the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ, Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979) and a questionnaire assessing their satisfaction with various HCHRPs offered by their organization. Path analyses assessed the significance of two-way interactions concerning age (i.e., age-by-HCHRP) and job tenure (i.e., tenure-by- HCHRP), as well as three way interactions concerning gender (i.e., gender-by-age-by- HCHRP) and job type (i.e., job type-by-age-by-HCHRP). Results show that, although there was a strong overall correlation between affective commitment and satisfaction with HCHRPs (r = .66), employee age was a significant moderator of only the relationships between affective commitment and maintenance-related HCHRPs (e.g., life/work balance, job security) and not of development-related HCHRPS (e.g., training opportunities, opportunities for advancement). More importantly, although the moderation effects were statistically significant, the effect size of every moderation was small, suggesting from a practical perspective that employee age is not a characteristic that organizations need to consider when making strategic decisions about HCHRPs

Development and evaluation of a technique for evaluating riparian vegetation change in the tallgrass prairie

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (June 30, 2006)Includes bibliographical references.Vita.Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2004.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Fisheries and wildlife.North America's tallgrass prairie region is one of the world's most endangered ecosystems. Recent management and research efforts have focused on the effects of anthropogenic change to upland components of the tallgrass prairie, however, little is known regarding change to riparian vegetation. Nevertheless, riparian vegetation habitat plays a significant role in the conservation of both terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity; furthermore, anthropogenic modifications to this system have often occurred before the onset of modern ecological inventories. As a result, managers, planners, and policy makers often make decisions that impact riparian vegetation without sufficient information regarding presettlement vegetation. To provide data that can be used in the decision-making process, we developed and evaluated a technique to characterize historic and contemporary riparian vegetation, within a Geographic Information System (GIS). The methodology provides an objective, scientific approach to providing the necessary data to make informed management, planning, and restoration decisions regarding riparian systems. Our findings suggest that, contrary to previous research and speculation, historic riparian zones contained a significant amount of prairie, and that the extent varied among watersheds. We found no remaining riparian prairie today. This research contributes baseline data to facilitate the evaluation of vegetation change and the success of management and restoration efforts

R-matrices and Tensor Product Graph Method

A systematic method for constructing trigonometric R-matrices corresponding to the (multiplicity-free) tensor product of any two affinizable representations of a quantum algebra or superalgebra has been developed by the Brisbane group and its collaborators. This method has been referred to as the Tensor Product Graph Method. Here we describe applications of this method to untwisted and twisted quantum affine superalgebras.Comment: LaTex 7 pages. Contribution to the APCTP-Nankai Joint Symposium on "Lattice Statistics and Mathematical Physics", 8-10 October 2001, Tianjin, Chin

Syngenetic sand veins and anti-syngenetic sand wedges, Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands, western Arctic Canada

Sand-sheet deposits of full-glacial age in the Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands, western Arctic Canada, contain syngenetic sand veins 1-21 cm wide and sometimes exceeding 9 m in height. Their tall and narrow, chimney-like morphology differs from that of known syngenetic ice wedges and indicates an unusually close balance between the rate of sand-sheet aggradation and the frequency of thermal-contraction cracking. The sand sheets also contain rejuvenated (syngenetic) sand wedges that have grown upward from an erosion surface. By contrast, sand sheets of postglacial age contain few or sometimes no intraformational sand veins and wedges, suggesting that the climatic conditions were unfavourable for thermal-contraction cracking. Beneath a postglacial sand sheet near Johnson Bay, sand wedges with unusually wide tops (3.9 m) extend down from a prominent erosion surface. The wedges grew vertically downward during deflation of the ground surface, and represent anti-syngenetic wedges. The distribution of sand veins and wedges within the sand sheets indicates that the existence of continuous permafrost during sand-sheet aggradation can be inferred confidently only during full-glacial conditions

Quantum walks based on an interferometric analogy

There are presently two models for quantum walks on graphs. The "coined" walk uses discrete time steps, and contains, besides the particle making the walk, a second quantum system, the coin, that determines the direction in which the particle will move. The continuous walk operates with continuous time. Here a third model for a quantum walk is proposed, which is based on an analogy to optical interferometers. It is a discrete-time model, and the unitary operator that advances the walk one step depends only on the local structure of the graph on which the walk is taking place. No quantum coin is introduced. This type of walk allows us to introduce elements, such as phase shifters, that have no counterpart in classical random walks. Walks on the line and cycle are discussed in some detail, and a probability current for these walks is introduced. The relation to the coined quantum walk is also discussed. The paper concludes by showing how to define these walks for a general graph.Comment: Latex,18 pages, 5 figure

Evaluating the impact of the Alcohol Act on off-trade alcohol sales: a natural experiment in Scotland

<b>Background and aims</b> A ban on multi-buy discounts of off-trade alcohol was introduced as part of the Alcohol Act in Scotland in October 2011. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of this legislation on alcohol sales, which provide the best indicator of population consumption.<p></p> <b>Design Setting and Participants</b> Interrupted time-series regression was used to assess the impact of the Alcohol Act on alcohol sales among off-trade retailers in Scotland. Models accounted for underlying seasonal and secular trends and were adjusted for disposable income, alcohol prices and substitution effects. Data for off-trade retailers in England and Wales combined (EW) provided a control group.<p></p> <b>Measurements</b> Weekly data on the volume of pure alcohol sold by off-trade retailers in Scotland and EW between January 2009 and September 2012.<p></p> <b>Findings</b> The introduction of the legislation was associated with a 2.6% (95% CI -5.3 to 0.2%, P = 0.07) decrease in off-trade alcohol sales in Scotland, but not in EW (-0.5%, -4.6 to 3.9%, P = 0.83). A statistically significant reduction was observed in Scotland when EW sales were adjusted for in the analysis (-1.7%, -3.1 to -0.3%, P = 0.02). The decline in Scotland was driven by reduced off-trade sales of wine (-4.0%, -5.4 to -2.6%, P < 0.001) and pre-mixed beverages (-8.5%, -12.7 to -4.1%, P < 0.001). There were no associated changes in other drink types in Scotland, or in sales of any drink type in EW.<p></p> <b>Conclusions</b> The introduction of the Alcohol Act in Scotland in 2011 was associated with a decrease in total off-trade alcohol sales in Scotland, largely driven by reduced off-trade wine sales

Twisted Quantum Affine Superalgebra Uq[gl(m∣n)(2)]U_q[gl(m|n)^{(2)}] and New Uq[osp(m∣n)]U_q[osp(m|n)] Invariant R-matrices

The minimal irreducible representations of $U_q[gl(m|n)]$, i.e. those irreducible representations that are also irreducible under $U_q[osp(m|n)]$ are investigated and shown to be affinizable to give irreducible representations of the twisted quantum affine superalgebra $U_q[gl(m|n)^{(2)}]$. The $U_q[osp(m|n)]$ invariant R-matrices corresponding to the tensor product of any two minimal representations are constructed, thus extending our twisted tensor product graph method to the supersymmetric case. These give new solutions to the spectral-dependent graded Yang-Baxter equation arising from $U_q[gl(m|n)^{(2)}]$, which exhibit novel features not previously seen in the untwisted or non-super cases.Comment: 19 pages, Latex fil

A proposed approach to investigate whether postgraduate health care management education in Australian universities facilitates the development of informatics competencies

Competencies have emerged as being important in healthcare. AIDH has health informatics competencies and ACHSM has health service management competencies but as health care is rapidly changing, it is important that the required competencies continue to evolve. The aim is to investigate whether postgraduate health care management education in Australian universities facilitates the development of informatics competencies. The proposed approach followed the NWCPHP ‘Steps Used to Effectively Map Preexisting Courses to Competency Sets’ to map the health informatics competency statements against the ACHSM accredited and RACMA recognised, postgraduate health care management programs offered domestically in Australia. The initial results show that only 10% of the AHICF competencies were fully addressed, 12% of the AHICF competencies were mostly addressed, 28% were partially addressed, and 50% of the AHICF competencies were not addressed at all. The proposed course competency mapping approach demonstrates that there is a need to revisit the informatics competencies taught in postgraduate health care management programs in Australia

Halting the hallmarks: a cellular automaton model of early cancer growth inhibition

Cancer treatment is a fragmented and varied process, as ‘‘cancer’’ is really hundreds of different diseases. The ‘‘hallmarks of cancer’’ proposed by Hanahan and Weinberg (Cell 100(1):57–70, 2000) are a framework for viewing cancer within a common set of underlying principles—ten properties that are common to almost all cancers, allowing them to grow uncontrollably and ravage the body. We used a cellular automaton model of tumour growth paired with lattice Boltzmann methods modelling oxygen flow to simulate combination drugs targeted at knocking out pairs of hallmarks. We found that knocking out some pairs of cancer-enabling hallmarks did not prevent tumour formation, while other pairs significantly prevent tumour growth (p ¼ 0:0004 using Wilcoxon signed-rank adjusted with the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons). This is not what would be expected from models of knocking out the hallmarks individually, as many pairs did not have an additive effect but had either no statistically significant effect or a multiplicative one. We propose that targeting certain pairs of cancer hallmarks, specifically cancers ability to induce blood vessel development paired with another cancer hallmark, could prove an effective cancer treatment option