High Potential Programs and Employee Outcomes: The Roles of Organizational Trust and Employee Attributions

Organizations implement high potential (HiPo) programs to identify, develop and retain their most talented employees (also known as high potential employees). However, much is still unknown regarding how these programs affect employees, and the link through which employee participation in HiPo programs affects employee outcomes remains a black box. This research aims to open this black box and examines the underlying mechanism through which HiPo program participation impacts employee outcomes. Drawing on social exchange, psychological contract and attribution theories, I conduct two studies to examine the impacts of HiPo program participation on various employee outcomes. In the first study, I hypothesize that employees who are included in HiPo programs (i.e., HiPo employees) will have higher affective commitment, lower turnover intent, and higher levels of organizational trust. Moreover, I hypothesize that organizational trust will mediate the relationships between HiPo program participation and employee outcomes (i.e., affective commitment and turnover intent). A cross sectional survey was used to collect data from one division of a large multinational company (n= 65). The results provided support for all hypotheses. The second study aims to replicate and extend the findings of Study 1. In this study, I examine the process through which HiPo program participation impacts employee outcomes by incorporating other important variables. I test four mediated models to understand whether HiPo attributions (commitment-focused and control-focused) mediate the relationships between HiPo program participation and employee outcomes (i.e., affective commitment, job satisfaction, turnover intent, and OCBs), and whether organizational trust moderates the relationships between HiPo program participation and HiPo attributions. Using a cross sectional survey design, a sample of 242 employees provided support for the four mediated relationships for commitment-focused HiPo attributions, but not for control-focused HiPo attributions. The results showed significant interaction effects of HiPo program participation and organizational trust on commitment-focused attributions. However, no support was found for the interaction effects of HiPo program participation and organizational trust on control-focused HiPo attributions. Additionally, the results provided support for several mediated moderated models. This research highlights a key role of organizational trust in understanding the impact of HiPo program participation on employee outcomes

Sampled-Data Sliding Mode Control Design of Single- Link Flexible Joint Robotic Manipulator

International audienceIn this paper, we have designed a sampled data control law for the single-link flexible joint robotic manipulator using two different approaches. First, we have designed the sampled-data sliding mode control (SMC) based on the continuous time system. In the second approach, we have obtained the approximate discrete model of the system and then designed discrete sliding mode control based on this approximate system. Simulation results have been obtained and a performance comparison has been presented for both techniques

Association of WDR36 polymorphisms with primary open-angle glaucoma

Background: Various genes contribute to the pathophysiology of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). The WD repeat domain 36 (WDR36) gene may participate in T cell activation and, hence, in the pathogenesis of POAG. We investigated the association of two WDR36 gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with POAG. Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited patients aged >40 years with POAG and investigated the rs10038177 and rs1971050 SNPs of WDR36 using polymerase chain reaction and direct DNA sequencing. All participants underwent comprehensive ocular examination, visual field assessment using the Swedish Interactive Threshold Algorithm standard 24-2 threshold test, and measurement of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFLT) using spectral domain optical coherence tomography. Results: We enrolled 105 patients with a mean (standard deviation) age of 55.41 (8.56) years and a male-to-female ratio of 56 (53.3%) to 49 (46.7%), most of whom had a diagnosis of POAG for 2 to 5 years (60.0%). Most participants had diabetes (90.5%) but not hypertension (88.6%). There was a significant association of rs10038177 (P<0.05), but not rs1971050 (P>0.05), with family history of glaucoma. The association between rs10038177 and intraocular pressure was significant (P<0.05), but that between rs1971050 and intraocular pressure was not (P>0.05). No significant association was observed between mean cup-to-disc ratio and either SNP (both P>0.05). For rs10038177, a significant association was found only with the RNFLT of the superior quadrant (P<0.05), whereas for rs1971050, a significant association was found with the RNFLT of all four quadrants and average RNFLT (all P<0.05). However, pairwise comparisons revealed no significant differences between genotypes (P>0.05 for all pairwise comparisons). The association of rs10038177 with glaucoma severity was insignificant (P>0.05), and most patients with the TC genotype (71.7%) had moderate severity. There was no significant association between rs1971050 and glaucoma severity (P>0.05). Conclusions: We observed genetic links between some, but not all, characteristics of POAG and the rs10038177 and rs1971050 SNPs of WDR36. Follow-up studies on these and other WDR36 SNPs in populations with different genetic backgrounds are necessary to confirm this genetic association

Term Back / Detention Policy Revision Measures in Academic Medical and Allied Institutions of Pakistan in the COVID-19 Epidemic for the Session 2019-2020

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) is the body concerned for the medical and dental education in Pakistan.1 The council was dissolved by an order of the President of Pakistan in October 2019, 2 but the order was revoked by the decision of the High Court of Pakistan.3 According to the PM&DC return/detention policy, a medical student has two chances of exam for his promotion in the next academic class and if one of the students could not pass the two chances provided in at least one of his subjects, the student must pass the exam in 3rd attempt with loss of his / her academic year and must pursue medical studies with the junior class. If one of these students could not pass this or these subjects by exceeding the 3rd chance, the conceded institution offers the 4th and last opportunity to the student.1 If the student still cannot pass the subject in 4th and last opportunity, he is expelled from the establishment with the cancellation of his admission, and the dreams of such a student to become a doctor are fulfilled until he will only be readmitted upon reappearing in the PM&DC competitive entrance test. But due to the sudden and unexpected outbreak of Covid-19, the medical community was the most affected. In some countries, more death rates have been reported among physicians who performed Covid-19 patient care tasks.4 Due to the lockdown policy of Govt. of Pakistan across the country, academic medical institutions were closed as a result of academic months of medical and dental students have also been wasted like other academic fields. The lockdown has been continued and we expect further academic waste from these students. The Pakistan Higher Education Commission has asked for conducting online courses for these students, but the clinical subjects of medical students cannot be taught online as they require direct clinical exposure to patients for the transmission of learning. required. Therefore, as a result of Covid-19, there is expected to be a waste of courses from almost all students across the country. However, in such circumstances, detained / term-back students will suffer a greater and irreparable waste of time as there may be many other technical difficulties regarding the continuation of medical education and the examinations of these students due to the Covid-19 disaster. Therefore, it may be good to revise the Term-Back / Detain policy for these medical, dental, and related students. The authors made the following suggestions for the PM&DC and the institutions to consider this review.         1) To Revise once the Term-Back / detention policy for the period 2019-2020 by allowing students to continue academic promotion during the next academic year with a unique relaxation in the policy.   2) Students who have not passed four chances and who are expelled from the establishment can be relaxed to have an additional chance to continue their medical studies, applicable for the year 2019-2020.   3) Relaxations are similar to those mentioned in the serial number. 1 and 2 for other courses such as Pharm-D, Bachelor of Nursing, etc.   Health workers are the main force in the fight against Covid-19 in the exercise of their functions to manage the patients of Covid-19. Mortality rates among healthcare providers have also been reported due to high viral load. There may be a shortage of health care providers around the world. Therefore, facilitation attempts are necessary to help the bona fide medical profession maintain their numbers and needs in the health sectors and to meet the future needs of the world for these health workers. Consequently, in implementing the suggestions of the authors, hundreds to thousands of health professionals and paramedical services will be able to save and secure their future in the service of the sacred mission of saving and serving the sick community

Development of a Portable Seat Cushion for the Estimation of Heart Rate Using Ballistocardiography

Cardiovascular diseases are a leading contributor of health problems all over the world and are the second leading cause of death. They are also the cause of significant economic burden, costing billions of dollars in healthcare every year. With an aging population, the strain on the healthcare system, both in terms of costs and care provision, is expected to worsen. Frequent cardiac assessment can provide essential information towards diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment, which can mitigate symptoms and improve health outcomes for people with conditions such as heart failure. This has led to increasing interest in cardiac assessment at home. Additionally, for some populations like people with limited mobility and older adults, long term vitals monitoring at a clinical setting is not feasible, making at-home monitoring more viable and economical. Most devices available for cardiac monitoring at home are wearables. While wearable technology can be accurate, it requires compliance and maintenance, which is not an ideal solution for all populations. For example, people who are not comfortable using wearables or people with a cognitive impairment may not want or be able to use wearables, which could exclude these user types from at home monitoring. Keeping these factors under consideration, the past decade has seen an increased interest in the development of technologies for Ambient Assisted Living (i.e., smart technologies integrated into a user's environment). These technologies have the potential for ongoing health monitoring in an unobtrusive manner. This thesis presents research into the development of a smart seat cushion for heart rate monitoring. The cushion is able to calculate the heart rate of a person seated on it by acquiring their Ballistocardiogram (BCG). BCG is a cardiovascular signal corresponding to the displacement of the body in response to the heart pumping blood at every heartbeat. The prototype seat cushion has load cells embedded inside it that sense the micromovements of the body and translate it to an electrical signal. An analog signal conditioning circuit amplifies and filters this signal to enhance the components corresponding to BCG before it is converted to digital form. A pilot study was conducted with twenty participants to acquire BCG in real-world scenarios: 1) sitting still, 2) reading, 3) using a computer, 4) watching TV, and 5) having a conversation. Heart rate was calculated using a novel algorithm based on Continuous Wavelet Transform by detecting the largest peaks (referred to as the J-peaks) in the BCG. Excluding three outliers, the algorithm is able to achieve an overall accuracy of 94.6% compared to gold standard Electrocardiography (ECG). This accuracy is observed to be as good as or better than those of existing wearable heart rate monitors. The seat cushion developed in this thesis research can serve as a portable solution for cardiac monitoring and can integrate into an ambient health monitoring system, offering continued monitoring of heart rate while requiring no perceived effort to operate it. Future work includes exploring different sensor configurations, machine learning based approaches for improving J-peaks detection, and real-time monitoring of heart rate