Best practices in rewarding and recognising employee achievements : submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Philosophy, Institute of Technology and Engineering, College of Sciences, Massey University

Managers and Human Resource professionals are constantly seeking answers to the issue of how best to reward and recognise (R & R)their employees. Whilst there is a raft of international information the need for New Zealand-based research has been identified. The focus of this study is on Reward and Recognition (R & R) practices in New Zealand organisations so that key findings, best practices and/or recommendations in this important area can be identified and shared with other New Zealand organisations. This study involved a three phase methodology (1) a review of international and national literature on R & R, (2) the collection and analysis of quantitative data using an electronic e-mail survey, and (3) the collection and analysis of qualitative data using a structured interview process with eight organisations considered to be best practice. This thesis provides discussion on: • The impetus for this study; • Key themes from the literature; • The development of a model for rewarding and recognising employees; • Quantitative results from the survey. • Qualitative findings from the interview process; and • Key findings for organisations wishing to implement a R & R strategy

Nucleation in a sheared Ising model: effects of external field

Simulations using the Forward Flux Sampling method have shown a nonmonotonic de- pendence of the homogeneous nucleation rate on the shear rate for a sheared two dimensional Ising model [R. J. Allen et al, arXiv cond-mat/0805.3029]. For quasi-equilibrium systems (i.e. in the absence of shear), Classical Nucleation Theory (CNT) predicts the dependence of the critical cluster size and the nucleation rate on the external magnetic field. We investigate the behaviour of the sheared Ising model as a function of the external field. At low exter- nal field strength, the same nonmonotonic behaviour holds and the peak in the nucleation rate is remarkably insensitive to the field strength. This suggests that the same external field-dependence holds for the enhancement of nucleation by shear at low shear rates and the suppression of shear at high shear rates. At high field strength, the nucleation behaviour is qualitatively different. We also analyse the size and shape of the largest cluster in the transition state configurations, as a function of the external field. In the sheared system, the transition state cluster becomes larger and more elongated as the field strength decreases. We compare our results for the sheared system to the predictions of the CNT for the quasi- equilibrium case, and find that the CNT cannot easily be used to describe nucleation in the system under shear

Damage repair mechanisms in sensory hair cells

Aminoglycoside antibiotics are a class of drug used to treat bacterial infections but have the unfortunate side effect of being both oto- and nephro-toxic. Deafness caused by aminoglycoside ototoxicity results from a loss of sensory hair cells from the inner ear. In vitro, two early effects of aminoglycoside exposure can be observed. First, membrane blebs are formed around the perimeter of the hair-cell apical surface. Secondly phosphatidylserine (PS), an aminophospholipid that is normally restricted to the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane, flops to the outer leaflet. This membrane damage occurs rapidly, within 90-120 seconds of drug exposure and can be completely reversed. The aim of this thesis was to determine the molecular mechanisms underlying damage repair in sensory hair cells recovering from aminoglycoside damage. TEM studies using cationic ferritin as a tracer indicates the repair process involves membrane internalisation, but recovery cannot be blocked by inhibitors of macropinocytosis, the clathrin-independent carrier (CLIC) pathway, PI3 kinase, PKC, Pak1 or of the clathrin-coated pit pathway. Damage repair is, however, prevented by the actin stabiliser jasplakinolide and the inhibitor of Protein kinase A, H-89. In addition, the CLIC pathway inhibitor EIPA has been uncovered as a reversible blocker of aminoglycoside entry into hair cells

Transport properties of room temperature ionic liquids from classical molecular dynamics

Room Temperature Ionic Liquids (RTILs) have attracted much of the attention of the scientific community in the past decade due the their novel and highly customizable properties. Nonetheless their high viscosities pose serious limitations to the use of RTILs in practical applications. To elucidate some of the physical aspects behind transport properties of RTILs, extensive classical molecular dynamics (MD) calculations are reported. Bulk viscosities and ionic conductivities of butyl-methyl-imidazole based RTILs are presented over a wide range of temperatures. The dependence of the properties of the liquids on simulation parameters, e.g. system size effects and choice of the interaction potential, is analyzed

Small volume laboratory on a chip measurements incorporating the quartz crystal microbalance to measure the viscosity-density product of room temperature ionic liquids

A microfluidic glass chip system incorporating a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to measure the square root of the viscosity-density product of room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) is presented. The QCM covers a central recess on a glass chip, with a seal formed by tightly clamping from above outside the sensing region. The change in resonant frequency of the QCM allows for the determination of the square root viscosity-density product of RTILs to a limit of ∼ 10 kg m−2 s−0.5. This method has reduced the sample size needed for characterization from 1.5 ml to only 30 μl and allows the measurement to be made in an enclosed system

PedGenie: an analysis approach for genetic association testing in extended pedigrees and genealogies of arbitrary size

BACKGROUND: We present a general approach to perform association analyses in pedigrees of arbitrary size and structure, which also allows for a mixture of pedigree members and independent individuals to be analyzed together, to test genetic markers and qualitative or quantitative traits. Our software, PedGenie, uses Monte Carlo significance testing to provide a valid test for related individuals that can be applied to any test statistic, including transmission disequilibrium statistics. Single locus at a time, composite genotype tests, and haplotype analyses may all be performed. We illustrate the validity and functionality of PedGenie using simulated and real data sets. For the real data set, we evaluated the role of two tagging-single nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) in the DNA repair gene, NBS1, and their association with female breast cancer in 462 cases and 572 controls selected to be BRCA1/2 mutation negative from 139 high-risk Utah breast cancer families. RESULTS: The results from PedGenie were shown to be valid both for accurate p-value calculations and consideration of pedigree structure in the simulated data set. A nominally significant association with breast cancer was observed with the NBS1 tSNP rs709816 for carriage of the rare allele (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.10–2.35, p = 0.019). CONCLUSION: PedGenie is a flexible and valid statistical tool that is intuitively simple to understand, makes efficient use of all the data available from pedigrees without requiring trimming, and is flexible to the types of tests to which it can be applied. Further, our analyses of real data indicate NBS1 may play a role in the genetic etiology of heritable breast cancer

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Case Studies : Factors Influencing Divergent HTA Reimbursement Recommendations in Australia, Canada, England, and Scotland

This document is the accepted manuscript version of the following article: Nicola Allen, Stuart R. Walker, Lawrence Liberti, and Sam Salek, ‘Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Case Studies: Factors Influencing Divergent HTA Reimbursement Recommendations in Australia, Canada, England, and Scotland’, Vol. 20 (3): 320-328, 2017, is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License CC BY NC-ND 4.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The final, definitive version is available online at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2016.10.014.OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the national regulatory, health technology assessment (HTA), and reimbursement pathways for public health care in Australia, Canada, England, and Scotland, to compare initial Canadian national HTA recommendations with the initial decisions of the other HTA agencies, and to identify factors for differing national HTA recommendations between the four HTA agencies. METHODS: Information from the public domain was used to develop a regulatory process map for each jurisdiction and to compare the HTA agencies' reimbursement recommendations. Medicines that were reviewed by all four agencies and received a negative recommendation from only one agency were selected as case studies. RESULTS: All four countries have a national HTA agency. Their reimbursement recommendations are guided by both clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness, and the necessity for patient input. Their activities, however, vary because of different mandates and their unique political, social, and population needs. All have an implicit or explicit quality-adjusted life-year threshold. The seven divergent case studies demonstrate examples in which new medicine-indication pairs have been rejected because of uncertainties surrounding a range of factors including cost-effectiveness, comparator choice, clinical benefit, safety, trial design, and submission timing. CONCLUSIONS: The four HTA agencies selected for inclusion in this study share common factors, including a focus on clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness in their decision-making processes. The differences in recommendations could be considered to be due to an individual agency's approach to risk perception, and the comparator choice used in clinical and cost-effectiveness studies.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Development and application of classification methodologies for comparing reimbursement decision-making processes for new medicines

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) considers the therapeutic effectiveness of a health technology and may also evaluate cost-effectiveness. The aim of this study was to evaluate HTA agencies, their relationship to regulatory authorities and other decision-makers and to identify common appraisal practices with respect to the economic and therapeutic evaluation of new medicines. The national reimbursement pathways for 33 European jurisdictions were evaluated to identify two taxonomic sets that categorise HTA agencies by evaluating the relationship between the HTA, regulatory and decision-making functions within the reimbursement system (System taxonomy) and the processes for appraisal and conducting the clinical and economic evaluation (Process taxonomy).Ten distinct archetype groups were subsequently identified by comparing the two taxonomic sets. National HTA recommendations were identified for nine European jurisdictions with varied health care systems and approaches for HTA, to enable comparisons using the classification tool to assess correlation. HTA decisions were also identified from four countries that have generally similar approaches for HTA (Australia, Canada, England and Scotland) to understand the rationale for discordant HTA recommendations. The Canadian HTA environment was evaluated in greater detail to understand the impact of the national non-mandatory HTA recommendations for coverage decisions from four provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec). Senior representatives and final decision-makers from these four provinces completed the study questionnaire and participated in semi-structured interviews to provide further insights regarding the impact of the national Canadian HTA agency. Comparisons of HTA recommendations from national HTA agencies with general similarities (Australia, Canada, England and Scotland) identified significant differences and a range of causes for discordant recommendations, such as: submission timing, comparator choice and willingness to accept risk. Results for comparing Canadian national HTA recommendations with coverage decisions from four provinces demonstrated much greater overall concordance (κ (kappa coefficient) =0.432 to κ=0.663) than comparing Canadian national HTA recommendations with Australia, England and Scotland (κ=0.129 to κ=0.336). Feedback from the semi-structured v interviews also indicated that participating provincial payers increasingly rely on the national HTA agency. The development of a novel classification tool, comparisons of HTA recommendations from very different and also generally similar HTA agencies and the evaluation of the Canadian HTA environment have ultimately led to the proposal of a progressive alignment approach which supports on-going efforts to create a more efficient European HTA environment

A cautionary note on the appropriateness of using a linkage resource for an association study

BACKGROUND: Utilizing a linkage resource for association analysis requires consideration both of the marker data used and correlations among relatives in pedigrees. We previously developed a method for association testing in pedigrees. We applied our method to 50 replicates of microsatellite data surrounding five genes involved in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in the Genetic Analysis Workshop 13 (GAW13) simulated data and examined association with HDL as well as linkage disequilibrium (LD) between markers. RESULTS: Although no association was intentionally simulated, we found significant evidence of weak LD between microsatellite markers (flanking/~5 cM from the genes), in some but not all replicates. This level of LD compared well to that observed in the real GAW13 Framingham data. Only one region had sufficient replicates to assess power, and this was low (12.5–20.8%). More power was attained using all individuals and accounting for relationships, compared with one independent individual/pedigree, although this was not significant due to small sample sizes. Not accounting for relatedness inflated statistical significance (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: A correction for dependence is necessary in association studies to avoid an inflation of significance probabilities. Our results further illustrate that use of microsatellite marker data is not an effective approach for association testing