Influences of mentoring functions on job satisfaction and organizational commitment of graduate employees

Abstract: A significant percentage of the workforce, within the construction sector is nearing retirement age over the next ten years. These employees have acquired a tremendous amount of knowledge about how things work, how to get things done and who to go to when problems arise. Losing their expertise and experience could significantly reduce efficiency, resulting in costly mistakes, unexpected quality problems, or significant disruptions in services and or performance. The business world has long known and relied upon mentoring as a proven technique for developing in house talent. Previous studies proved that the implementation of mentoring programme is beneficial for enhancing employee skills and attitudes. Few researchers are devoted to exploring the impact. This paper is aimed at examining the effects of mentoring functions on the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of new graduates in the South African construction industry..

Training for innovation in Spain

The capacity for innovation of an organisation largely depends on its ability to acquire and develop new knowledge. Training is particularly important in this process, as it allows employees to constantly acquire new competences. This study provides a preliminary picture of the situation of training for innovation in Spain, and identifies the characteristics of companies offering training for innovation. Results show that 35.3% of Spanish companies undertake innovation processes and 22.3% offer training related to these innovation processes. For the 82% of these companies training helped the innovation process, so training is an important tool for innovative change

Floral advertisement scent in a changing plant-pollinators market

Plant-pollinator systems may be considered as biological markets in which pollinators choose between different flowers that advertise their nectar/pollen rewards. Although expected to play a major role in structuring plant-pollinator interactions, community-wide patterns of flower scent signals remain largely unexplored. Here we show for the first time that scent advertisement is higher in plant species that bloom early in the flowering period when pollinators are scarce relative to flowers than in species blooming later in the season when there is a surplus of pollinators relative to flowers. We also show that less abundant flowering species that may compete with dominant species for pollinator visitation early in the flowering period emit much higher proportions of the generalist attractant β-ocimene. Overall, we provide a first community-wide description of the key role of seasonal dynamics of plant-specific flower scent emissions, and reveal the coexistence of contrasting plant signaling strategies in a plant-pollinator market

Models for Prediction of Factor VIII Half-Life in Severe Haemophiliacs: Distinct Approaches for Blood Group O and Non-O Patients

BACKGROUND: Von Willebrand factor (VWF) is critical for the in vivo survival of factor VIII (FVIII). Since FVIII half-life correlates with VWF-antigen pre-infusion levels, we hypothesized that VWF levels are useful to predict FVIII half-life. METHODOLOGY: Standardized half-life studies and analysis of pre-infusion VWF and VWF-propeptide levels were performed in a cohort of 38 patients with severe haemophilia A (FVIII <1 IU/ml), aged 15-44 years. Nineteen patients had blood-group O. Using multivariate linear regression-analysis (MVLR-analysis), the association of VWF-antigen, VWF-propeptide, age and body-weight with FVIII half-life was evaluated. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: FVIII half-life was shorter in blood-group O-patients compared to non-O-patients (11.5+/-2.6 h versus 14.3+/-3.0 h; p = 0.004). VWF-antigen levels correlated with FVIII half-life considerably better in patients with blood-group non-O than O (Pearson-rank = 0.70 and 0.47, respectively). Separate prediction models evolved from MVLR-analysis for blood-group O and non-O patients, based on VWF-antigen and VWF/propeptide ratio. Predicted half-lives deviated less than 3 h of observed half-life in 34/38 patients (89%) or less than 20% in 31/38 patients (82%). CONCLUSION: Our approach may identify patients with shorter FVIII half-lives, and adapt treatment protocols when half-life studies are unavailable. In addition, our data indicate that survival of FVIII is determined by survival of endogenous VWF rather than VWF levels per se

Improving implementation of evidence-based practice in mental health service delivery: protocol for a cluster randomised quasi-experimental investigation of staff-focused values interventions

BACKGROUND: There is growing acceptance that optimal service provision for individuals with severe and recurrent mental illness requires a complementary focus on medical recovery (i.e., symptom management and general functioning) and personal recovery (i.e., having a ‘life worth living’). Despite significant research attention and policy-level support, the translation of this vision of healthcare into changed workplace practice continues to elude. Over the past decade, evidence-based training interventions that seek to enhance the knowledge, attitudes, and skills of staff working in the mental health field have been implemented as a primary redress strategy. However, a large body of multi-disciplinary research indicates disappointing rates of training transfer. There is an absence of empirical research that investigates the importance of worker-motivation in the uptake of desired workplace change initiatives. ‘Autonomy’ is acknowledged as important to human effectiveness and as a correlate of workplace variables like productivity, and wellbeing. To our knowledge, there have been no studies that investigate purposeful and structured use of values-based interventions to facilitate increased autonomy as a means of promoting enhanced implementation of workplace change. METHODS: This study involves 200 mental health workers across 22 worksites within five community-managed organisations in three Australian states. It involves cluster-randomisation of participants within organisation, by work site, to the experimental (values) condition, or the control (implementation). Both conditions receive two days of training focusing on an evidence-based framework of mental health service delivery. The experimental group receives a third day of values-focused intervention and 12 months of values-focused coaching. Well-validated self-report measures are used to explore variables related to values concordance, autonomy, and self-reported implementation success. Audits of work files and staff work samples are reviewed for each condition to determine the impact of implementation. Self-determination theory and theories of organisational change are used to interpret the data. DISCUSSION: The research adds to the current knowledge base related to worker motivation and uptake of workplace practice. It describes a structured protocol that aims to enhance worker autonomy for imposed workplace practices. The research will inform how best to measure and conceptualise transfer. These findings will apply particularly to contexts where individuals are not ‘volunteers’ in requisite change processes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ACTRN: ACTRN12613000353796

Heterologous Overexpression and Mutagenesis of the Human Bile Salt Export Pump (ABCB11) Using DREAM (Directed REcombination-Assisted Mutagenesis)

Homologous recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a well-studied process. Here, we describe a yeast-recombination-based approach to construct and mutate plasmids containing the cDNA of the human bile salt export pump (BSEP) that has been shown to be unstable in E. coli. Using this approach, we constructed the necessary plasmids for a heterologous overexpression of BSEP in the yeast Pichia pastoris. We then applied a new site-directed mutagenesis method, DREAM (Directed REcombination-Assisted Mutagenesis) that completely bypasses E. coli by using S. cerevisiae as the plasmid host with high mutagenesis efficiency. Finally, we show how to apply this strategy to unstable non-yeast plasmids by rapidly turning an existing mammalian BSEP expression construct into a S. cerevisiae-compatible plasmid and analyzing the impact of a BSEP mutation in several mammalian cell lines

Proinflammatory Phenotype and Increased Caveolin-1 in Alveolar Macrophages with Silenced CFTR mRNA

The inflammatory milieu in the respiratory tract in cystic fibrosis (CF) has been linked to the defective expression of the cystic transmembrane regulator (CFTR) in epithelial cells. Alveolar macrophages (AM), important contibutors to inflammatory responses in the lung, also express CFTR. The present study analyzes the phenotype of human AM with silenced CFTR. Expression of CFTR mRNA and the immature form of the CFTR protein decreased 100-fold and 5.2-fold, respectively, in AM transfected with a CFTR specific siRNA (CFTR-siRNA) compared to controls. Reduction of CFTR expression in AM resulted in increased secretion of IL-8, increased phosphorylation of NF-κB, a positive regulator of IL-8 expression, and decreased expression of IκB-α, the inhibitory protein of NF-κB activation. AM with silenced CFTR expression also showed increased apoptosis. We hypothesized that caveolin-1 (Cav1), a membrane protein that is co-localized with CFTR in lipid rafts and that is related to inflammation and apoptosis in macrophages, may be affected by decreased CFTR expression. Messenger RNA and protein levels of Cav1 were increased in AM with silenced CFTR. Expression and transcriptional activity of sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP), a negative transcriptional regulator of Cav1, was decreased in AM with silenced CFTR, but total and free cholesterol mass did not change. These findings indicate that silencing of CFTR in human AM results in an inflammatory phenotype and apoptosis, which is associated to SREBP-mediated regulation of Cav1

Inductive Game Theory and the Dynamics of Animal Conflict

Conflict destabilizes social interactions and impedes cooperation at multiple scales of biological organization. Of fundamental interest are the causes of turbulent periods of conflict. We analyze conflict dynamics in an monkey society model system. We develop a technique, Inductive Game Theory, to extract directly from time-series data the decision-making strategies used by individuals and groups. This technique uses Monte Carlo simulation to test alternative causal models of conflict dynamics. We find individuals base their decision to fight on memory of social factors, not on short timescale ecological resource competition. Furthermore, the social assessments on which these decisions are based are triadic (self in relation to another pair of individuals), not pairwise. We show that this triadic decision making causes long conflict cascades and that there is a high population cost of the large fights associated with these cascades. These results suggest that individual agency has been over-emphasized in the social evolution of complex aggregates, and that pair-wise formalisms are inadequate. An appreciation of the empirical foundations of the collective dynamics of conflict is a crucial step towards its effective management