ILR Impact Brief - Pathways to Success: Human Resource Practices Do Matter

[Extract] Most researchers agree that human resource (HR) practices affect attitudes and discretionary behavior on the job and that employee actions and motivations influence company performance. The academic literature also suggests that investing in employees, through high-commitment HR practices such as internal labor markets, selecting new employees who “fit” the company rather than a particular job, compensating employees on the basis of group and company results, and training and development programs that stress team building and long-term growth, are all indirectly related to organizational success. Missing from the literature is an exploration of the causal mechanisms that mediate between these HR practices and favorable outcomes for companies operating in dynamic environments; this research begins filling the void

Human Resource Practices, Knowledge-Creation Capability And Performance In High Technology Firms

This study examines the relationship among key HR practices (i.e., effective acquisition, employee-development, commitment-building, and networking practices), three dimensions of knowledge-creation capability (human capital, employee motivation, and information combination and exchange), and firm performance. Results from a sample of 78 high technology firms showed that the three dimensions of knowledge creation interact to positively affect sales growth. Further, the HR practices were found to affect sales growth through their affect on the dimensions of knowledge-creation capability

What do loose groups tell us about galaxy formation?

We present the results of a Parkes Multibeam HI survey of six loose groups of galaxies analogous to the Local Group. This survey was sensitive to HI-rich objects in these groups to below 10^7 M(sun) of HI, and was designed to search for low mass, gas-rich satellite galaxies and potential analogs to the high-velocity clouds seen around the Milky Way. This survey detected a total of 79 HI-rich objects associated with the six groups, half of which were new detections. While the survey identified a small number of dwarf galaxies, no star-free HI clouds were discovered. The HI mass function of the six groups appears to be roughly flat as is that of the Local Group. The cumulative velocity distribution function (CVDF) of the HI-rich halos in the six groups is identical to that of the Local Group. Both of these facts imply that these groups are true analogs to the Local Group and that the Local Group is not unique in its lack of low-mass dwarf galaxies as compared to the predictions of cold dark matter models of galaxy formation. This survey also constrains the distance to and HI masses of the compact high-velocity clouds (CHVCs) around the Milky Way. The lack of CHVC analog detections implies that they are distributed within <160 kpc of the Milky Way and have average HI masses of <4x10^5 M(sun). The spatial distribution of CHVCs is consistent with the predictions of simulations for dark matter halos. Furthermore the CVDF of Local Group galaxies plus CHVCs matches the predicted CVDF of cold dark matter simulations of galaxy formation. This provides circumstantial evidence that CHVCs may be associated with low-mass dark matter halos.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in the proceedings of "Baryons in Dark Matter Halos" Eds R-J., Dettmar, U. Klein, P. Salucci, PoS, SISSA, http://pos.sissa.i

An HI census of Loose Groups of Galaxies

We present results from our Parkes Multibeam HI survey of 3 loose groups of galaxies that are analogous to the Local Group. This is a survey of groups containing only spiral galaxies with mean separations of a few hundred kpc, and total areas of approximately 1 sq. Mpc; groups similar to our own Local Group. We present a census of the HI-rich objects in these groups down to an M(HI), 1-sigma sensitivity ~7x10^5 M(sun), as well as the detailed properties of these detections from follow-up Compact Array observations. We found 7 new HI-rich members in the 3 groups, all of which have stellar counterparts and are, therefore, typical dwarf galaxies. The ratio of low-mass to high-mass gas-rich galaxies in these groups is less than in the Local Group meaning that the ``missing satellite'' problem is not unique. No high-velocity cloud analogs were found in any of the groups. If HVCs in these groups are the same as in the Local Group, this implies that HVCs must be located within ~300-400 kpc of the Milky Way.Comment: 6 pages, to appear in the ASP proceedings of IAU Symposium 217, "Recycling intergalactic and interstellar matter", eds. Pierre-Alain Duc, Jonathan Braine, Elias Brink

Investing in Biodiversity Conservation: Proceedings of a Workshop

This document presents the proceedings of a one-day Workshop on Investing in Biodiversity Conservation held at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., on October 28, 1996. The first part of the workshop was dedicated to the presentation of key topics on biodiversity financing by five leaders in the field. The second part of the workshop was dedicated to a discussion and exchange of ideas on the role of the IDB in investing in biodiversity conservation. Three main recommendations emerged: 1) The Bank should prepare a report on on its experience in biodiversity projects and development programs with biodiversity components; 2) A task force should be formed to work on a bio-diversity policy or strategy; 3) IDB staff should be trained to understand the biodiversity concept and its implications in project preparation and implementation.Environmental Policy, Biodiversity, Natural Resources Management

Declaration of the Modern Caliphate: Understanding the Importance of Mosul to ISIL

This paper examines the importance of the Iraqi city of Mosul to ISIL. Special attention is given to the conquering of Mosul, ISIL\u27s governance, and the Battle of Mosul

Seismicity in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for the period October 1, 2004 to September 30, 2006

This report describes earthquake activity within approximately 65 km of Yucca Mountain site during the October 1, 2004 to September 30, 2006 time period (FY05-06). The FY05-06 earthquake activity will be compared with the historical and more recent period of seismic activity in the Yucca Mountain region. The relationship between the distribution of seismicity and active faults, historical patterns of activity, and rates of earthquakes (number of events and their magnitudes) are important components in the assessment of the seismic hazard for the Yucca Mountain site. Since October 1992 the University of Nevada has compiled a catalog of earthquakes in the Yucca Mountain area. Seismicity reports have identified notable earthquake activity, provided interpretations of the seismotectonics of the region, and documented changes in the character of earthquake activity based on nearly 30 years of site-characterization monitoring. Data from stations in the seismic network in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain is collected and managed at the Nevada Seismological Laboratory (NSL) at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR). Earthquake events are systematically identified and cataloged under Implementing Procedures developed in compliance with the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Quality Assurance Program. The earthquake catalog for FY05-06 in the Yucca Mountain region submitted to the Yucca Mountain Technical Data Management System (TDMS) forms the basis of this report

CEO Demographics and Accounting Fraud: Who is More Likely to Rationalize Illegal Acts?

This article proposes that key CEO demographic factors reflect alternative modes of rationalizing the choice to engage in and/or facilitate accounting fraud. Specifically the authors theorize that younger, less functionally experienced CEOs and CEOs without business degrees will be more likely to rationalize accounting fraud as an acceptable decision. Based on a sample of 312 fraud-committing and control firms, the study finds support for the authors’ predictions. It also finds that CEO stock options (a form of executive equity incentive) also predict fraud, and that this relationship is not moderated by CEO demographics. The study thus extends upper echelon theory by demonstrating how key demographic variables influence CEO decisions to rationalize accounting fraud

Operationalising factors that explain the emergence of infectious diseases : A case study of the human campylobacteriosis epidemic

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Interactive Effects of Physical Activity and APOE-ε4 On White Matter Tract Diffusivity in Healthy Elders

Older adult apolipoprotein-E epsilon 4 (APOE-ε4) allele carriers vary considerably in the expression of clinical symptoms of Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD), suggesting that lifestyle or other factors may offer protection from AD-related neurodegeneration. We recently reported that physically active APOE-ε4 allele carriers exhibit a stable cognitive trajectory and protection from hippocampal atrophy over 18 months compared to sedentary ε4 allele carriers. The aim of this study was to examine the interactions between genetic risk for AD and physical activity (PA) on white matter (WM) tract integrity, using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) MRI, in this cohort of healthy older adults (ages of 65 to 89). Four groups were compared based on the presence or absence of an APOE-ε4 allele (High Risk; Low Risk) and self-reported frequency and intensity of leisure time physical activity (PA) (High PA; Low PA). As predicted, greater levels of PA were associated with greater fractional anisotropy (FA) and lower radial diffusivity in healthy older adults who did not possess the APOE-ε4 allele. However, the effects of PA were reversed in older adults who were at increased genetic risk for AD, resulting in significant interactions between PA and genetic risk in several WM tracts. In the High Risk-Low PA participants, who had exhibited episodic memory decline over the previous 18-months, radial diffusivity was lower and fractional anisotropy was higher, compared to the High Risk-High PA participants. In WM tracts that subserve learning and memory processes, radial diffusivity (DR) was negatively correlated with episodic memory performance in physically inactive APOE-ε4 carriers, whereas DR was positively correlated with episodic memory performance in physically active APOE-ε4 carriers and the two Low Risk groups. The common model of demyelination-induced increase in radial diffusivity cannot directly explain these results. Rather, we hypothesize that PA may protect APOE-ε4 allele carriers from selective neurodegeneration of individual fiber populations at locations of crossing fibers within projection and association WM fiber tracts