Recruitment practices in small and medium size enterprises: An empirical study among knowledge-intensive professional service firms

The lesser degree of institutionalization and formalization of HR-practices in small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) usually leads to them being attested a severe (HR-)Management Deficit'. However, the vast majority of these empirical investigations argues from a perspective dominated by the viewpoint of large corporations. As a consequence, the highly differentiated HRM-systems of larger organizations are seen as the 'desirable ideal' for small and medium-size enterprises as well. On the basis of an empirical investigation into the recruitment practices of more than 300 professional service firms the study at hand tries to break from this deficit model. Instead, it is assumed that smaller organizations due to their - size-dependent - different preconditions resort to certain functional equivalents in accomplishing their elementary HR requirements. It becomes apparent that first and foremost the quality of employee relations has a high impact on various measures of recruitment success in smaller organizations. This applies especially to those businesses that do not have implemented a separate HR-department

Employer Branding: Kritische Würdigung eines personalwirtschaftlichen Gestaltungsansatzes

In der personalwirtschaftlichen Praxis hat sich das Konzept des Employer Branding mittlerweile als ein wesentlicher Bestandteil modernen Personalmanagements mehr oder weniger fest etabliert. Die Entwicklung, Implementierung und Kommu-nikation einer unverwechselbaren Arbeitgebermarke gilt vielen Unternehmen in-zwischen als bedeutsame Voraussetzung, um sich auf den strategisch bedeutsamen Arbeitsmärkten für Fach- und Führungskräfte erfolgreich behaupten zu können. Anhand einer Sichtung einschlägiger Standardwerke, Lehrbücher und Praxisratgeber zum Thema unterzieht der vorliegende Beitrag die inhaltliche Substanz des Employer Branding-Konzepts einer kritischen Würdigung. Dabei treten einige fun-damentale Schwächen, Widersprüchlichkeiten und "blinde Flecken" zutage, die nicht bloß als argumentative Unzulänglichkeiten einzelner Publikationen abgetan werden können, sondern die postulierte Leistungsfähigkeit des Employer Branding-Ansatzes ganz grundsätzlich in Frage stellen. Im Endergebnis gelangen die Autoren zu der Schlussfolgerung, dass es sich beim Employer Branding ledig-lich um eine zeitgeistgemäß aufbereitete Neuauflage des hinlänglich bekannten Themas "Personalmarketing" handelt

Fermi matrix element with isospin breaking

Prompted by the level of accuracy now being achieved in tests of the unitarity of the CKM matrix, we consider the possible modification of the Fermi matrix element for the $\beta$-decay of a neutron, including possible in-medium and isospin violating corrections. While the nuclear modifications lead to very small corrections once the Behrends-Sirlin-Ademollo-Gatto theorem is respected, the effect of the $u-d$ mass difference on the conclusion concerning $V_{ud}$ is no longer insignificant. Indeed, we suggest that the correction to the value of $|V_{ud}|^2 \, + \, |V_{us}|^2 \, + \, |V_{ub}|^2$ is at the level of $10^{-4}$

Effect of Nucleon Structure Variation in Super-allowed Fermi Beta-decay

There is a well known anomaly between the value of the Fermi decay constant extracted from super-allowed Fermi beta-decay of nuclear isotriplets and that required by unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. This discrepancy remains at the level of a few tenths of a percent after the most rigorous investigation of conventional nuclear and radiative corrections. Within the framework of the quark-meson coupling model of nuclear matter, which has been previously applied successfully to phenomena such as nuclear saturation and nuclear charge symmetry violation, we show that it is possible to understand a significant fraction of the observed anomaly.Comment: 11 pages with 1 figure and 1 tabl

Thyroid Hormones Regulate Selenoprotein Expression and Selenium Status in Mice

Impaired expression of selenium-containing proteins leads to perturbed thyroid hormone (TH) levels, indicating the central importance of selenium for TH homeostasis. Moreover, critically ill patients with declining serum selenium develop a syndrome of low circulating TH and a central downregulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis. This prompted us to test the reciprocal effect, i.e., if TH status would also regulate selenoprotein expression and selenium levels. To investigate the TH dependency of selenium metabolism, we analyzed mice expressing a mutant TH receptor α1 (TRα1+m) that confers a receptor-mediated hypothyroidism. Serum selenium was reduced in these animals, which was a direct consequence of the mutant TRα1 and not related to their metabolic alterations. Accordingly, hyperthyroidism, genetically caused by the inactivation of TRβ or by oral TH treatment of adult mice, increased serum selenium levels in TRα1+m and controls, thus demonstrating a novel and specific role for TRα1 in selenium metabolism. Furthermore, TH affected the mRNA levels for several enzymes involved in selenoprotein biosynthesis as well as serum selenoprotein P concentrations and the expression of other antioxidative selenoproteins. Taken together, our results show that TH positively affects the serum selenium status and regulates the expression of several selenoproteins. This demonstrates that selenium and TH metabolism are interconnected through a feed-forward regulation, which can in part explain the rapid parallel downregulation of both systems in critical illness

Self-Doping of the Transport Layers Decreases the Bimolecular Recombination by Reducing Static Disorder

Electron-transport layers (ETLs) have a crucial role in the solar cells’ performance. Generally, ETLs are characterized in terms of the interface properties and conductivity rather than their effect on the photoactive layer. Herein, two ETLs, 2,9-bis(3-((3-(dimethylamino)propyl)amino)propyl)anthra[2,1,9-def:6,5,10-d′e′f′]diisoquinoline-1,3,8,10(2H,9H)-tetraone (PDINN) and 2,9-bis[3-(dimethyloxidoamino)propyl]anthra[2,1,9-def:6,5,10-d′e′f′]diisoquinoline-1,3,8,10(2H,9H)-tetrone, are compared in the conventional PM6:Y6 organic solar cell (OSC) structure and the influence of the ETL on the photoactive layer is shown. It is shown that a significant portion of the unpaired electrons of PDINN is mobile by combining electron paramagnetic resonance and Hall effect measurements. It is established that the high doping in PDINN ETL changes the dark electron concentration of the photoactive layer. The impacts of this change in the photoactive layer can be observed in the reduced static energetic disorder, and subsequently in the (nonradiative) recombination of free carriers. The results can be used to suppress nonradiative recombination in OSC, which can significantly boost their efficiency

NMR evaluation of total statin content and HMG-CoA reductase inhibition in red yeast rice (Monascus spp.) food supplements

Background Red yeast rice (i.e., rice fermented with Monascus spp.), as a food supplement, is claimed to be blood cholesterol-lowering. The red yeast rice constituent monacolin K, also known as lovastatin, is an inhibitor of the hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase. This article aims to develop a sensitive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method to determine the total statin content of red yeast rice products. Methods The total statin content was determined by a 400 MHz 1H NMR spectroscopic method, based on the integration of the multiplet at δ 5.37-5.32 ppm of a hydrogen at the hexahydronaphthalene moiety in comparison to an external calibration with lovastatin. The activity of HMG-CoA reductase was measured by a commercial spectrophotometric assay kit. Results The NMR detection limit for total statins was 6 mg/L (equivalent to 0.3 mg/capsule, if two capsules are dissolved in 50 mL ethanol). The relative standard deviations were consistently lower than 11%. The total statin concentrations of five red yeast rice supplements were between 1.5 and 25.2 mg per specified daily dose. A dose-dependent inhibition of the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme activity by the red yeast rice products was demonstrated. Conclusion A simple and direct NMR assay was developed to determine the total statin content in red yeast rice. The assay can be applied for the determination of statin content for the regulatory control of red yeast rice products