Job Performance Modeling: A Holistic Theoretical Analysis

The purpose of this study is to investigate inconsistent findings in extant research on organizational performance prediction. Systematic review is used to (a) evaluate the overall validity of traditional antecedents of organizational performance, (b) examine their underlying casual relationships in determining organizational performance, and (c) investigate the potential existence of mediating and moderating effects of each antecedent. Rather than simply making the customary plea for more elaborate micro theories of behavior or improved research designs, it is contended that greater progress could be made by examining and organizing what is already known about performance and its antecedents. Thus, leveraging on the systematic review analysis, this research develops a holistic theoretical model by blending three job performance antecedents to study their explanatory power and to reveal how these factors may interact with each other. The proposed causal-chain framework may be regarded as representative references for future research in the organizational psychology. Practitioners can also develop a better operational strategies based on the theoretical model

Interdisciplinary study of the antidepressant effect of dexmecamylamine: a meta-analysis and computational study

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are widespread ligand-gated ion channels in the human brain, playing crucial roles in various physiological processes such as hormone secretion, learning, and pain perception. These receptors have been identified as potential therapeutic targets for mental health disorders, particularly major depressive disorder (MDD). Despite extensive preclinical and clinical investigations of nAChR agonists, positive allosteric modulators, and antagonists, no antidepressant drug targeting nAChRs has been successfully marketed. Given the substantial unmet need for MDD treatment, alternative compounds with distinct mechanisms of action, such as those targeting nAChRs, warrant further exploration. Dexmecamylamine is one such compound, and it is the dextrorotatory enantiomer of mecamylamine. Dexmecamylamine has demonstrated significant antidepressant-like effects in multiple animal studies. Nevertheless, human clinical trials have yielded conflicting results regarding its antidepressant efficacy. In this study, we employed a meta-analysis to assess the antidepressant-like effect of dexmecamylamine. After conducting an exhaustive literature search, we identified nine high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Our analysis aimed to evaluate dexmecamylamine's efficacy as an adjunct therapy for MDD treatment. The results indicated that dexmecamylamine did not demonstrate superior efficacy compared to placebo in terms of the Hamilton Depression Scale-17 score change [mean difference = 0.70 (95% CI = -0.24 to 1.64)], the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale score change [-0.52 (95% CI=-0.15 to -0.02)] and other secondary endpoints

How Corporate Social Responsibility Engagement affects Corporate Financial Performance in the UK

This study analyses the effects of CSR on corporate financial performance (CFP) in light of recent requests for identifying Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its impact on the shareholder's wealth. This research includes 132 listed companies in the UK of FTSE 350 in a three-year period between 2016 and 2018. In terms of quantifying CSR, we introduced CSR engagement in those companies using dummy variables, while we chose profitability and shareholder value to measure CFP with the indicator of return on assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q respectively. According to its accounting-based and market-based measurements, two econometric models are constructed by controlling firm size, firm age, leverage, R&D research, and sales revenues. CSR's impact on firm economic performance is examined through STATA's correlation and regression analysis, and the results obtained indicate that there is no statistically significant relationship identified between CSR and financial performance of companies, regardless of two models. This finding is partly in line with the initial assumptions and several previous studies denying any relationship between them in the past two decades in Europe, however, contrary to the resource-based view and other past papers. This study contributes to managers as well as other stakeholders regarding their decision making related to the CSR by explaining numerous possible CSR biases. Furthermore, it broadens the study of the effect of CSR on firm value in the world in academics and fills the research gap in the UK, despite many previous studies that can be found in Europe

Texture features based microscopic image classification of liver cellular granuloma using artificial neural networks

Automated classification of Schistosoma mansoni granulomatous microscopic images of mice liver using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is a key issue for accurate diagnosis and treatment. In this paper, three grey difference statistics-based features, namely three Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) based features and fifteen Gray Gradient Co-occurrence Matrix (GGCM) features were calculated by correlative analysis. Ten features were selected for three-level cellular granuloma classification using a Scaled Conjugate Gradient Back-Propagation Neural Network (SCG-BPNN) in the same performance. A cross-entropy is then calculated to evaluate the proposed Sigmoid input and the ten-hidden layer network. The results depicted that SCG-BPNN with texture features performs high recognition rate compared to using morphological features, such as shape, size, contour, thickness and other geometry-based features for the classification. The proposed method also has a high accuracy rate of 87.2% compared to the Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPNN), Back-Propagation Hopfield Neural Network (BPHNN) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)

Level of Orthographic Knowledge Helps to Reveal Automatic Predictions in Visual Word Processing

The brain generates predictions about visual word forms to support efficient reading. The “interactive account” suggests that the predictions in visual word processing can be strategic or automatic (non-strategic). Strategic predictions are frequently demonstrated in studies that manipulated task demands, however, few studies have investigated automatic predictions. Orthographic knowledge varies greatly among individuals and it offers a unique opportunity in revealing automatic predictions. The present study grouped the participants by level of orthographic knowledge and recorded EEGs in a non-linguistic color matching task. The visual word-selective N170 response was much stronger to pseudo than to real characters in participants with low orthographic knowledge, but not in those with high orthographic knowledge. Previous work on predictive coding has demonstrated that N170 is a good index for prediction errors, i.e., the mismatches between predictions and visual inputs. The present findings provide unambiguous evidence that automatic predictions modulate the early stage of visual word processing

The impact of gamification elements on the evaluation of marketing activities

Recently, gamification obtains increasingly attention in marketing. Based on the S-O-R model, this research applied gamification to marketing and examined two important gamification elements (external reward and interactive competition) on evaluation of marketing activity. It was found that external reward and interactive competition have positive impacts on evaluation of marketing activity, and perceived enjoyment and immersion mediate the effects of external reward and interactive competition on such evaluation. This research contributes to gamification literature by examining the impact of different gamification elements (external reward vs interactive competition) on the evaluation of marketing activity. Further, this study contributes to marketing literature by exploring the impact of the perceived enjoyment and immersion. This research also provides insights for firms and game administrators on how to encourage customers to generate purchase intention and purchase behavior by designing appropriate gamification elements