Talk-about Talent: Underlying Philosophies on Talent in Thai SMEs

This paper provides insight into talent philosophies, the fundamental assumptions and beliefs about talent that are held by key decision-makers, in three award-winning Thai Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Interviews were conducted with fifteen key decision-makers: the owner-manager of each SME and four managers the owner-manager identified as ‘talent’. A discourse perspective informs the research and we draw on community of practice (CoP) theory as a heuristic device, enabling insights into decision-makers talk-about talent and the implications of this talk. We highlight shared fundamental assumptions regarding the exclusivity of talent and beliefs that talent is both stable (natural ability) and developable (mastery). We reveal an emerging dilemma between the ‘talent community’ and ‘wider community’; in particular a tension between decision-makers’ beliefs that talent are ‘promotable’ and expectations in this cultural context. We contribute a conceptual representation of talent philosophies within this Thai context and discuss how this discursive construction of talent enables and constrains participation and learning in these SMEs

Effect of boron on seed quality of peanut Tainan 9

Boron deficiency of peanut in Khan Kaen province was wide spread. The experiments were set up to investigate the effect of boron on the yield of peanut Tainan 9 and its seed quality with respect to the incident of hollow heart in the seed, seed germination and vigor. Application of boron at the rate of 0.25 kgB/ha significantly increased pod and seed yield per plant. The hollow heart incident due to boron deficiency of the large and the small seeds (a seive with a hole of 0.7 cm in diameter was used to separate the size) were decreased significantly when boron was applied at the rate of 0.5 and 1 kgB/ha respectively. However, boron applied at such rate could only reduce the hollow heart incident of the large seed group to be less than 20Jo. The application of boron omitted fertilizers to peanut growing on the boron deficient soil accentuated the magnitude of hollow heart incident of the seed. The large seed had less degree of hollow heart incident than the small one. Two-seeded pod and one-seeded pod were not significantly different in term of the production of seed with hollow heart incident. Lower boron seed (8.4-9.2 ugB/g) had less germination percentage, and vigor than higher boron one (11.1 ugB/ g). Germination percentage of seed was not affected by external application of boron

Evaluation of tuberculosis surveillance in Satun Province, Thailand, July 2011

Three main tuberculosis (TB) reporting systems were operating in Thailand: notifiable disease surveillance (R506), TB registration and control in Bureau of Tuberculosis (BTB) and TB report for reimbursement in National Health Security Office (NHSO). A cross-sectional study was conducted in Satun Province in July 2011 to determine whether the three systems responded well to the objectives of TB surveillance. Patients diagnosed with TB and received anti-TB drugs at least once in 2010 from three hospitals were compared with TB cases reported in three systems. In the hospitals, 170 TB cases, including 95 new smear positive pulmonary TB cases, were reviewed. Coverage and positive predictive value were 73% and 83% for R506, 87% and 100% for BTB, and 79% and 99% for NHSO respectively. Success rate (82%) of all cases was lower than that was reported in BTB (96%). Median duration from diagnosis to reporting in R506, BTB and NHSO were six, 61 and two days respectively. All systems had sufficient budget, human resources and regular training. In addition, all systems had good capacity to achieve the major objectives of TB surveillance and their specific objectives. However, the systems had total 295 variables which resulted in high workload for reporting. Integrating three systems as one national TB reporting system was recommended to improve coverage, timeliness and success rate