Firm Performance, Worker Commitment and Loyalty

Using matched employer-employee level data drawn from the UK Workplace and Employee Relations Survey, we explore the influence of worker commitment and loyalty on firm level labour productivity and financial performance. Our empirical findings suggest that worker commitment and loyalty enhance both labour productivity and financial performance at the firm level thereby highlighting a hitherto neglected conduit for improved firm performance. Using employee level data, we also explore the determinants of worker commitment and loyalty in order to ascertain how such attachments to the firm may be engendered. In general, our employee level analysis suggests that it is firm level characteristics (such as appraisal schemes, supervision, suspensions and redundancies) that influence attachments to the firm. Such findings suggest that firms may be able to exert some influence over the loyalty and commitment of its workforce, which, in turn, may affect firm performance

Kidnapping Terrorists: Extraterritorial Forcible Abductions in the Global War on Terrorism

For those who have an interest in targeting, neutralizing, detaining, and adjudicating terrorists amidst the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), few tools are more poorly understood than the acquisition and subsequent movement of the alleged terrorists. Rendition is that process by which the body of an individual is taken from State A to State B. It may occur in either a “regular” or an “irregular” form. Regular rendition occurs when the individual is moved pursuant to the express terms and procedures of a given extradition treaty. Irregular rendition, on the other hand, is principally comprised of the rare instances in which an individual is moved in lieu of, outside of, or in spite of an extradition treaty. These irregular forms of rendition can generally be classified into four categories: (a) Luring/Trickery, (b) Deportation as de facto Extradition, (c) Forcible Abductions for Prosecution, and (d) 3rd Party Interrogative Renditions. Although many of the irregular rendition models have strong similarities in law, each has its own unique twists. The following thesis aims to draw further upon the legal authorities relative to two of these irregular rendition models and provide a legal and political framework for their use within the analytical context of the GWOT. Comprised of two distinct monographs, this thesis project first addresses state-sponsored forcible abductions as they are utilized within the criminal field for prosecution and then moves to review their use within the intelligence arena for the purposes of interrogation. Where extraterritorial forcible abductions have been lawfully used by members of the law enforcement community since the late nineteenth century, the shift in paradigm toward their use for interrogations carried out by a third party under the Clinton Administration is more questionable both politically and jurisprudentially

Military Space Doctrine

General Thomas D. White, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, introduced the term, aerospace, during Congressional testimony in the late 1950s. He did this to anchor future Air Force functions, roles, missions, and tasks in this operational medium. We must continue this thrust—an Air Force dedicated to a future in space. Our scientific, technological, and economic communities have established the industrial base for this Nation to proceed with the conduct of space operations. Now our basic doctrine and strategy and our operational concepts, doctrine, and strategy must advance to provide the direction, scope, and vision necessary for future space programs and operations. Purposeful action must be taken to build a spaceoperations capability. We must build the conceptual foundation for space missions by understanding the opportunity for military space operations. We must develop an extended plan and strategy—with the priorities— to establish our space functions and responsibilities. We must establish the institution to organize, develop, train, equip, and sustain our space forces. And we must set up a unified organization for deployment and employment of space resources. Then we must act to bring our concepts to reality. All these efforts are required to preserve the security, freedom, and welfare of the United States

No evidence for a culturable bacterial tetrodotoxin producer in Pleurobranchaea maculata (Gastropoda: Pleurobranchidae) and Stylochoplana sp. (Platyhelminthes: Polycladida)

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent neurotoxin found in the tissues of many taxonomically diverse organisms. Its origin has been the topic of much debate, with suggestions including endogenous production, acquisition through diet, and symbiotic bacterial synthesis. Bacterial production of TTX has been reported in isolates from marine biota, but at lower than expected concentrations. In this study, 102 strains were isolated from Pleurobranchaea maculata (Opisthobranchia) and Stylochoplana sp. (Platyhelminthes). Tetrodotoxin production was tested utilizing a recently developed sensitive method to detect the C9 base of TTX via liquid chromatography—mass spectrometry. Bacterial strains were characterized by sequencing a region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. To account for the possibility that TTX is produced by a consortium of bacteria, a series of experiments using marine broth spiked with various P. maculata tissues were undertaken. Sixteen unique strains from P. maculata and one from Stylochoplana sp. were isolated, representing eight different genera; Pseudomonadales, Actinomycetales, Oceanospirillales, Thiotrichales, Rhodobacterales, Sphingomonadales, Bacillales, and Vibrionales. Molecular fingerprinting of bacterial communities from broth experiments showed little change over the first four days. No C9 base or TTX was detected in isolates or broth experiments (past day 0), suggesting a culturable microbial source of TTX in P. maculata and Stylochoplana sp. is unlikely

Randomized Clinical Trial of Intrapartum Clindamycin Cream for Reduction of Group B Streptococcal Maternal and Neonatal Colonization

Objective: In a randomized trial, we sought to determine whether 2% clindamycin cream administered intravaginally during labor to group B streptococcal-colonized pregnant women without risk factors would decrease maternal and neonatal colonization

A Study of the Communities of Aquatic Macro-Invertebrates of the Merging of the Mississippi and Chippewa Rivers, Using a Biplate Substrate Sampler

Using a biplate substrate sampler, aquatic macro-invertebrates were collected during the fall, winter and spring seasons at the confluence of the Mississippi and Chippewa Rivers along the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. The substrate sampler proved very desirable in pointing out extreme community variations which existed between the two rivers. It was found that the members of a downstream community were a blend of the communities present in upstream tributaries. However, as compared with upstream communities, a shift in dominant organisms occurred. Striking seasonal changes appeared in the invertebrate populations as well as the environment of the rivers. All sampling revealed clean water communities were present and suggested the absence of aquatic pollution