Employees' Career Values, Perceived Organizational Support and Career Success

This study was carried out to examine the relationship between career values perceived organizational support and career success. Using convenient sampling, data was gathered using 120 questionnaires sent to two multinationals companies and Master’s degree students who work in various organizations in the Kedah state of Malaysia. Only 79 responded to the questionnaire. Correlation and regression analysis were performed to determine the significance of the two independent variables, career values and perceived organizational support on career success. Analysis of the data revealed that career values and perceived organizational support both have significant but moderate relationship with career success. The findings show that both variables, that is, career values and perceived organizational support only influence approximately 40 percent variance on career success. This means there other factors that could not be explained by this study that determine career success. Future research should look at other variables such as human capital, socio-demographic status and stable individual difference that might influence career success

Explicit and implicit motivation towards outbound tourism: a study of Saudi tourists

ABSTRACT In this thesis, the researcher investigates the implicit and other motivations for Saudi outbound tourism. The Saudi Arabian outbound tourism market is recognised as one of the biggest tourism expenditure. Despite this, research relating to the motivations for Saudi outbound tourism, especially the implicit motives is sparse. It is in response to this that the researcher carried out this study and additionally, examined the influence of Saudi culture, demographic variables and tourists motivations on destination selection. This study employs a model entitled “Integration Model of Explicit and Implicit Motives” of Push and Pull Factors developed by the researcher to examine the explicit and implicit motives of Saudi outbound tourism. Data was collected from 486 Saudi outbound tourists (81% of the total sample) who travelled to three destinations (Bahrain, Egypt and France). Factor analyses were conducted to identify tourism motivation and cultural factors of Saudi society. Pearson correlation was used to find the relationship between push and pull factors of tourism motivation (explicit and implicit) and the relationship between Saudi culture and push and pull factors of tourism motivation (explicit and implicit). A series of ANOVA and T-tests were employed to examine the influence of demographic variables on tourism motivations. Logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression were used to find out the influence of tourism motivations, cultural factors and demographic variables on destination selection. The results of the factor analyses of explicit motives in this study identified seven push factors and four pull factors. The six push factors (intrinsic desire) extracted were: 'escape', 'prestige', 'social and sport', 'experience and excitement', 'enjoying natural resources', 'knowledge' and 'relaxation'. The four pull factors (attributes of destination) identified as underlying dimensions were 'expenditure', 'outdoor activities', 'natural and historical' and 'weather and environment'. In relation to the implicit motives, the factor analysis identified two push factors and three pull factors. The push factors were 'alcohol and sex desires' and 'fun and freedom desires'. On the other hand, the pull factors were 'alcohol and sex attractions', 'drugs attraction' and 'fun and freedom attractions'. The factor analysis of cultural items resulted in seven underlying domains, that include 'uncertainty avoidance', 'individualism', 'differences of groups in society (power distance)', 'social interdependence (collectivism)', 'helping others (collectivism)', 'inequalities and hierarchy (power distance)' and 'family relationship (collectivism)'. The Pearson's correlation analyses found significant correlations between the majority of push and pull dimensions in both explicit and implicit motives in all destinations. Moreover, the Pearson's correlation revealed a significant correlation between tourism motivations (push and pull factors), in both explicit and implicit motives, with cultural factors in all destinations under study (Bahrain, Egypt and France). The results of ANOVA and T-tests indicate significant differences in tourist's motivations according to the differences in demographic variables of tourists (age, income education, gender and martial statues). In other words, the demographic variables have an influence on tourism motivations. The findings of logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression indicate that the tourism motivations, cultural factors and demographic variables have an influence on destination selection. Moreover, the researcher carried out 25 interviewees This was in order to validate the results that were obtained from the quantitative approach regarding to tourism motivation of Saudi outbound tourists (explicit and implicit), cultural factors that describe the Saudi society, and to confirm the usefulness of using the third person technique to investigate sensitive issues. The results obtained from the interviews are similar to the results obtained from the questionnaires (quantitative approach). In relation to the usefulness of using the third person technique in investigating sensitive issues, the result of the interviews revealed that the third person technique has proved as one of the acceptable technique to get information about sensitive issues especially with countries that have values grounded on their religious heritage

Dynamism of Sports Marketing on Organization of Professional Football clubs in Kwara State Nigeria

This study investigated the dynamism of Sports Marketing in the organization of professional football clubs in Kwara State, Nigeria. The objectives of this study were to assess the relationship between advertisement, a brand of sports product, and the organization of professional football clubs. A descriptive research design of survey type was used. The population for the study comprises sports administrators in the sports council and management of Kwara United and Abubakar Bukola Saraki Football club. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select 120 respondents. The researchers-structured questionnaire was used for the study. The instrument was validated by experts in the Department of Human Kinetics Education and Marketing Department, University of Ilorin. The reliability level of the Instrument was established through the test re-test method using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). A correlation co-efficiency of 0.87r was obtained. The administration of the instrument was done by researchers. The data collected were analyzed using Inferential Statistics of Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) at a 0.05 alpha level. The result revealed that there was a significant relationship between advertisement, branding of sports products, and organization of professional football clubs. The study recommends that there is a need for clubs management and other stakeholders at various clubs to encourage the private sector to partner with them in the area of market strategies by placing their advertisement on the club jersey

Comparisons of esthetic outcomes among treatment modalities for orthodontic-induced white spot lesions: split-mouth randomized clinical trial

AIM: The aim of this study is to compare, in a randomized clinical trial, the appearance improvement of white spot carious lesions (WSL) treated with resin infiltration (RI) – ICON®, 5% sodium fluoride (22,600 parts per million (ppm) with fluoride varnish (FV), and to assess the synergistic effect of adding Casein Phosphopeptide-Amorphous Calcium Phosphate- MI Paste® (MIP) to these treatment modalities. METHODS: Forty subjects with unrestored WSL, after debanding fixed orthodontic appliances, were recruited from the Department of Orthodontics, Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, Boston University. A randomized, split-mouth, and double-blind clinical trial design was used to allocate subjects to resin infiltration and fluoride varnish without MI Paste® (RI and FV), 20 patients, and resin infiltration and fluoride varnish with MI Paste® (RI-MIP and FV-MIP), 20 patients. Patients in the MI Paste® present treatment group given 6-weeks supply of MI Paste®. The assessment methods were: 1) patient self-assessment, 2) expert panel subjective assessment, 3) clinical caries assessment using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS), and 4) actual lesion size assessment. Treatment efficacy was assessed after 4-6 weeks of application. The appearance improvement was analyzed at α level of 5% and a power of 90%. RESULTS: Over 4-6 weeks, RI treatment appeared to have a higher mean difference between baseline and follow-up compared to fluoride varnish with a statistically significant difference across all assessment methods. The patient self-assessment mean difference was 1.07 (±1.49); 95% CI [0.59 - 1.55], the expert panel subjective assessment mean difference was 0.75 (±1.06); 95% CI [0.61 - 0.88], the ICDAS mean difference was 0.38 (± 0.43); 95% CI [0.24 - 0.52], and the actual size assessment mean difference was 0.07 (±0.16); 95% CI [0.01 - 0.12]. There was no statistically significant difference between the mean differences between RI and RI-MIP, nor between FV and FV-MIP across all assessment methods. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that RI is significantly better in improving the appearance of WSLs when compared to FV. There is little evidence that use of MIP adds to the improvement of the appearance of WSL in conjunction with either modality.2019-09-26T00:00:00

Impact of Micro Credit Financing on Agricultural Production

The study aims at knowing the impact of microcredit financing on agricultural production. The structured questionnaire, as well as personal contacts, was used to gather data from the farmers. One hundred (100) questionnaires were distributed randomly to farmers while Ninety-one (91) questionnaires were retrieved. The correlation coefficient was used to describe and summarize the data collected. Farmers in a rural area do enjoy this microfinance, but the effect on farming operations it not encouraging as expected. The farmers do not have access to other micro credit finance institution other than cooperative societies because there is no asset like machine collateral security that will serve as a guarantee for the commercial financial institutions. The high-interest rate is another vital thing that put farmers into a limitation in obtaining micro credit from commercial institutions. Microcredit finance institutions are important in achieving farmer’s objectives and are being promoted to be commercially viable through an appropriate policy and regulatory framework. Having realized the impact of micro-credit finance to farm production, it is highly incumbent for all the farmers to join cooperative societies in order to get credit facilities to finance their farming operations.Keywords: Microcredit, Financing, Production, Agriculture

Distribution Network Planning and Operation With Autonomous Agents

With the restructured power system, different system operators and private investors are responsible for operating and maintaining the electricity networks. Moreover, with incentives for a clean environment and reducing the reliance on fossil fuel generation, future distribution networks adopt a considerable penetration of renewable energy sources. However, the uncertainty of renewable energy sources poses operational challenges in distribution networks. This thesis addresses the planning and operation of the distribution network with autonomous agents under uncertainty. First, a decentralized energy management system for unbalanced networked microgrids is developed. The energy management schemes in microgrids enhance the utilization of renewable energy resources and improve the reliability and resilience measures in distribution networks. While microgrids operate autonomously, the coordination among microgrid and distribution network operators contributes to the improvement in the economics and reliability of serving the demand. Therefore, a decentralized energy management framework for the networked microgrids is proposed. Furthermore, the unbalanced operation of the distribution network and microgrids, as well as the uncertainty in the operating modes of the microgrids, renewable energy resources, and demand, are addressed. The second research work presents a stochastic expansion planning framework to determine the installation time, location, and capacity of battery energy storage systems in the distribution network with considerable penetration of photovoltaic generation and data centers. The presented framework aims to minimize the capital cost of the battery energy storage and the operation cost of the distribution network while ensuring the security of energy supply for the data centers that serve end-users in the data network as well as the reliability requirements of the distribution network. The third research work proposes a coordinated expansion planning of natural gas-fired distributed generation in the power distribution and natural gas networks considering demand response. The problem is formulated as a distributionally robust optimization problem in which the uncertainties in the photovoltaic power generation, electricity load, demand bids, and natural gas demand are considered. The Wasserstein distance metric is employed to quantify the distance between the probability distribution functions. The last research work proposes a decentralized operation of the distribution network and hydrogen refueling stations equipped with hydrogen storage, electrolyzers, and fuel cells to serve hydrogen and electric vehicles. The uncertainties in the electricity demands, PV generation, hydrogen supply, and hydrogen demands are captured, and the problem is formulated as a Wasserstein distance-based distributionally robust optimization problem. The proposed framework coordinates the dispatch of the distributed generation in the distribution network with the hydrogen storage, electrolyzer, and fuel cell dispatch considering the worst-case probability distribution of the uncertain parameters. The proposed frameworks limit the information shared among these autonomous operators using Benders decomposition

A similarity matrix and its application in genomic selection for hedging haplotype diversity

Mendelian sampling variance (MSV) has many breeding applications. However, its computationally intensive nature limits its widespread use. Recently proposed selection indices for long-term genetic gain combine genomic estimated breeding value and MSV. However, these indices tend to select similar parents with high MSV potential under high selection intensity, resulting in favorable haplotypes losses. Therefore, this thesis aimed to develop a faster approach for computing MSV and derive a similarity matrix for hedging haplotype diversity. The thesis first develops an efficient approach for computing MSV using marker effects, a genetic map, and phased genotypes. Then, using the same information as MSV, it derives a similarity matrix. The off-diagonal elements of this matrix represent the similarities between parental haplotypes, and diagonal elements represent the similarity of a parent to itself, which equals its MSV. A high similarity indicates that the parents share many heterozygous markers, with large effects on a trait in the same linkage phase. Similar to how covariance matrices of asset prices are used in finance to create diversified portfolios, the similarity matrix can help avoid repeated matings of similar parents and achieve expected genetic gain while hedging haplotype diversity in the next generation. The thesis then develops the Python package PyMSQ for computing MSV and similarity matrix to facilitate their use in breeding programs. Compared to gamevar (a recently published Fortran program), PyMSQ was up to 240 times faster at computing MSV in the analyzed data sets. Finally, similarity matrices for milk production and longevity traits were calculated using PyMSQ for a large German Holstein population to assess their applicability, relevance, and influencing factors. The similarity matrix presented in this thesis introduces new criteria for genomic selection, allowing for increased genetic gain while hedging haplotype diversity in breeding programs

A model for citizens' self-knowledge that influences intention to participate in e-government public decision making

The success of an e-government information system could be determined by the citizens' intention to participate in public decision-making to use the technology for future benefits. There is lack of participation of citizens in e-governments implementation in most developing countries where their opinions are not taken into considerations. This study has been conducted to identify the citizens' intentions to participate in the public decision-making of the e-government. The first objective of this research is to identify the factors that influence the citizens' intention to participate in the public decision-making of the e-government. The second objective examines the citizens‘ self-knowledge characteristics that will moderate the relationship between the influencing factors and the citizens‘ intentions to participate in the public decision-making of the e-government. The third objective is the development of a research model of the citizens' intentions to participate in the public decision-making of the e-government. The research utilised the quantitative approach by distributing 501 questionnaires to four groups of respondents. Only 474 questionnaires were usable, representing a 94.6 % rate. The data was analysed utilising SPSS v21 to examine the relationships between the study‘s contributing factors with the moderators. The following factors, the attitude towards act or behaviour (ATB), subjective norms (SN), social influence (SI), facilitating condition (FC), compatibility (CO), and culture (CU), were identified to influence citizen intention to participate. Their different requirements have a potential impact on the public decision-making in the e-government. The research also took into consideration other factors which would contribute as moderator factors like gender, age, level of education, social group, working sector, and Internet experiences. The research has contributed to the body of knowledge by merging the concepts of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), two concepts from the UTAUT2 theory, and one concept from the DOI theory in this research. A model for citizens‘ self-knowledge that influences intention to participate in e-government public decision making is presented