419 research outputs found
What factors influence training opportunities for older workers? Three factorial surveys exploring the attitudes of HR professionals
The core research questions addressed in this paper are: what factors influence HR professionals in deciding whether to approve training proposals for older workers? What kind of training are they more likely to recommend for older employees and in which organizational contexts? We administered three factorial surveys to 66 HR professionals in Italy. Participants made specific training decisions based on profiles of hypothetical older workers. Multilevel analyses indicated that access to training decreases strongly with age, while highly-skilled older employees with low absenteeism rates are more likely to enjoy training opportunities. In addition, older workers displaying positive performance are more likely to receive training than older workers who perform poorly, suggesting that training late in working life may serve as a reward for good performance rather than as a means of enhancing productivity. The older the HR professional evaluating training proposals, the higher the probability that older workers will be recommended for training.
keywords: training; older workers; HR professionals; factorial survey; multilevel model
Precision measurements of the total and partial widths of the psi(2S) charmonium meson with a new complementary-scan technique in antiproton-proton annihilations
We present new precision measurements of the psi(2S) total and partial widths
from excitation curves obtained in antiproton-proton annihilations by Fermilab
experiment E835 at the Antiproton Accumulator in the year 2000. A new technique
of complementary scans was developed to study narrow resonances with
stochastically cooled antiproton beams. The technique relies on precise
revolution-frequency and orbit-length measurements, while making the analysis
of the excitation curve almost independent of machine lattice parameters. We
study the psi(2S) meson through the processes pbar p -> e+ e- and pbar p ->
J/psi + X -> e+ e- + X. We measure the width to be Gamma = 290 +- 25(sta) +-
4(sys) keV and the combination of partial widths Gamma_e+e- * Gamma_pbarp /
Gamma = 579 +- 38(sta) +- 36(sys) meV, which represent the most precise
measurements to date.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables. Final manuscript accepted for
publication in Phys. Lett. B. Parts of the text slightly expanded or
rearranged; results are unchange
In search of the authentic nation: landscape and national identity in Canada and Switzerland
While the study of nationalism and national identity has flourished in the last decade, little attention has been devoted to the conditions under which natural environments acquire significance in definitions of nationhood. This article examines the identity-forming role of landscape depictions in two polyethnic nation-states: Canada and Switzerland. Two types of geographical national identity are identified. The first – what we call the ‘nationalisation of nature’– portrays zarticular landscapes as expressions of national authenticity. The second pattern – what we refer to as the ‘naturalisation of the nation’– rests upon a notion of geographical determinism that depicts specific landscapes as forces capable of determining national identity. The authors offer two reasons why the second pattern came to prevail in the cases under consideration: (1) the affinity between wild landscape and the Romantic ideal of pure, rugged nature, and (2) a divergence between the nationalist ideal of ethnic homogeneity and the polyethnic composition of the two societies under consideration
Measurement of the Resonance Parameters of the and States of Charmonium formed in Antiproton-Proton Annihilations
We have studied the ( states of charmonium in formation by
antiproton-proton annihilations in experiment E835 at the Fermilab Antiproton
Source. We report new measurements of the mass, width, and for the
and by means of the inclusive reaction . Using the subsample of
events where is
fully reconstructed, we derive . We summarize the results of the E760
(updated) and E835 measurements of mass, width and (J=0,1,2) and discuss the significance of
these measurements
HEE-GER: a systematic review of German economic evaluations of health care published 1990–2004
BACKGROUND: Studies published in non-English languages are systematically missing in systematic reviews of growth and quality of economic evaluations of health care. The aims of this study were: to characterize German evaluations, published in English or German-language, in terms of various key parameters; to investigate methods to derive quality-of-life weights in cost-utility studies; and to examine changes in study characteristics over the years. METHODS: We conducted a country-specific systematic review of the German and English-language literature of German economic evaluations (assessment of or application to the German health care system) published 1990–2004. Generic and specialized health economic databases were searched. Two independent reviewers verified fulfillment of inclusion criteria and extracted study characteristics. RESULTS: The fulltexts of 730 articles were reviewed of which 283 fulfilled all entry criteria. 32% of included studies were published in German-language. 51% of studies evaluated pharmaceuticals and 63% were cost-effectiveness analyses. Economic appraisals concentrate on few disease categories and important health areas are strongly underrepresented. Declaration of sponsorship was associated with article language (49% English articles vs. 29% German articles, p < 0.001). The methodology used to obtain quality-of-life weights in published cost-utility studies was very diverse, poorly reported and most studies did not use German patients' or community health state valuations. CONCLUSION: Many of the German-language evaluations included in our study are likely to be missing in international reviews and may be systematically different from English-language reviews from Germany. Lack of transparency and adherence to recommended reporting practices constitute a serious problem in German economic evaluations
Idiosyncratic deals for older workers: increased heterogeneity among older workers enhance the need for i-Deals
The rapid aging of the workforce throughout the Western world and parts of Asia,
including Japan and China, poses many challenges on contemporary organizations
(European Commission, 2010 ; Wang & Shultz, 2010 ). The Babyboom generation,
consisting of workers born between 1945 and 1965, constitutes a large part of the
current workforce. Due to decreased fertility rates, there are fewer younger workers
entering the labor market, as a consequence of which the percentage of older workers
is rapidly increasing (Truxillo & Fraccaroli, 2013 ). Consequently, organizations are
increasingly aware that the employee population is changing, and that strategies to
employ, motivate, and retain workers have to be adapted accordingly. It is no longer
suffi cient for organizations to focus on employing younger workers (e.g., through
designing traineeships for graduates), because the infl ux of younger workers in the
labor market is stagnating, which is in particular present in certain sectors, such as
technical occupations and health care (Polat, Bal, & Jansen, 2012 ). Hence, organizations
increasingly will have to rely on older workers, and try to retain older
workers, and motivate them to stay longer in the workforce. Similarly, governments
across Europe are also increasing offi cial retirement ages, and making it fi nancially
less attractive for older workers to retire early (European Commission)
- …