The power of trust in organizations: two studies on the importance of building trusting relationships in organizational setting

Treball Final de Grau en Administració d'Empreses. Codi: AE1049. Curs 2018-2019New forms of work require approaches and methods that generate a work climate based on trust. For this reason, this research aims to analyze first the consequences of the trust of the managers in the subordinates on variables such as participation or motivation. To this end, the data from the sixth survey "National Survey of Working Conditions" was used. The results obtained show that trust in employees improves participation and motivation processes in companies. Second, a bidirectional theoretical model is proposed which aims to analyze how trust is related to relevant variables such as innovation, the common welfare, leadership style and organizational structure. A model that shows how trust can improve the functioning of the organization and the well-being of agents. These two studies highlight the importance of building relationships of trust in organizations

Synchronization of Multiple Agents in Rule-Based Development Environments

The Rule-Based Development Environment (RBDE) is recently-developed approach for providing intelligent assistance to developers working on a large-scale software projects. RBDEs model the development process in terms of rules, and then enact this model by automatically firing rules at the appropriate time. The RBDE approach has been used to develop single-user environment, but support for multiple developers cooperating on the same project is still not available because of the lack of mechanisms that can synchronize the efforts of multiple developers, who concurrently select commands, causing the firing of multiple rules (either directly or via chaining) that concurrently access shared data. Conflicts between different rules and concurrent .access to shared data may cause the violation of consistency in the project database, and thus necessitate the synchronization of concurrent activities. The conjecture of this proposal is that an RBDE can provide the required synchronization if it is provided with knowledge about what it means for the data of a specific project to be in a consistent state, and about the semantics of operations that developers perform on the data. The research that this paper proposes will formulate a frame work for specifying consistency of data in an RBDE, and formulate a mechanism for synchronizing the actions of concurrent rules fired on behalf of multiple developers cooperating on a common or different tasks

Concurrency Control in Rule-Based Software Development Environments

This dissertation investigates the concurrency control problem in software development environments (SDEs). The problem arises when multiple developers perform activities that concurrently access the project's components, stored as database objects. The interleaved execution of the developers' activities leads to interference if they access overlapping sets of objects concurrently. An SDE can ensure that activities never interfere by modeling their execution in terms of atomic transactions and allowing only serializable schedules. This prevents cooperation, which requires some degree of interference between the activities of multiple developers. To allow cooperation, an SDE must be provided with semantic information about development activities. In rule-based SDEs, the necessary information is readily available in the set of rules that defines the process model of a project. The rules are loaded into the SDE, which provides process-specific assistance through a rule chaining engine. A single user command might lead the chaining engine to initiate a rule chain. The concurrency control problem in rule-based SDEs manifests itself in terms of interference between concurrent rule chains. We present a mechanism that extracts semantic information from the process model to solve the concurrency control problem without obstructing cooperation. The mechanism is composed of two modules: (1) a conflict detection module, which models activities as nested transactions and uses two-phase locking to detect interference; and (2) a conflict resolution module, which employs two protocols to resolve interference. The first protocol, seep, uses the process model to implement a priority-based scheme that aborts the "least important" of the interfering transactions. The second protocol, peep, overrides SCCP by consulting process-specific control rules, written by the project administration. Each control rule describes a specific interference and the actions that resolve it. We have implemented SCCP and parts ofPCCP in MARVEL, a multi-user rule-based SDE developed at Columbia

Performances of the Sufi Ascent in Ibn ‘Arabī’s Metaphysics, Tunisian Ḥaḍra and DhikrRituals, and Three Sufi Plays: Journeys in God’s Vast Earth

The story of the Night Journey describes the Prophet Muhammad’s miraculous ascent to the heavens. In several Sufi communities, the ascent has become part of the Sufi path, symbolizing the different spiritual stations adepts encounter in their journey to God. Tunisia is home to many Sufi orders, including the Shādhiliya and ‘Īssāwiya, who perform the ascent in dhikr and ḥaḍra rituals. Drawing on the philosophical-theological writings of Muḥyiddīn Ibn-‘Arabī (1165-1240), this thesis explores the dhikr and ḥaḍra rituals through the framework of Islamic metaphysics in an attempt to examine what constitutes performance from an Islamic Sufi perspective. The purpose of this practice-as-research thesis is to examine the metaphysical concepts and cultural contexts that have given rise to these rituals and provide both theoretical and concrete principles by means of which theatre practitioners can experiment with Sufi modes of performance. My practice-based component – in the form of three plays – demonstrates how Sufi understandings of language and embodiment can create new avenues for theatrical experimentation. Methods of writing, corporeal techniques, and a religious culturally specific understanding of performance are embedded within the dhikr and ḥaḍra. They have not been explored specifically in terms of the theatre – a lacuna that my plays, written within the frames of reference of the religious, spiritual, philosophical and other relevant research of the theoretical part of my PhD submission, which is integral to my thesis as a composite whole, begin modestly to fill. My plays focus on the tension between the transcendent and immanent attributes of God, one of the most fundamental principles of Ibn ‘Arabī’s ontology, embodied in dhikr and ḥaḍra rituals. Three characters travel through various landscapes in search of God until they realize that the divine is both within and beyond the forms they witness in the Sufi journey that has no end

El valor de confiar en los empleados: descubriendo sus efectos sobre la participación y la motivación

Las nuevas formas de trabajo requieren de planteamientos y métodos para los cuales es necesario que los directivos o supervisores confíen en sus empleados. Por esta razón, esta investigación pretende analizar las consecuencias de la confianza en los empleados sobre variables como la participación o la motivación. Para ello se ha utilizado los datos de la sexta encuesta “Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Trabajo”. Los resultados obtenidos muestran principalmente que la confianza en los empleados mejora los procesos de participación y motivación en las empresas.New forms of work require approaches and methods for which it is necessary for managers or supervisors to trust their employees. For this reason, this research aims to analyze the consequences of trust in employees on variables such as participation or motivation. To this end, the data from the sixth survey “Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Trabajo” was used. The results obtained show mainly that trust in employees improves participation and motivation processes in companies

First time isolation of Pseudomonas argentinensis from human skin infection

This reported the first isolation of Pseudomonas argentinensis from a human infection, since the discovery of P. argentinensis in 2005. A Palestinian 63-year male practicing gardening on sunny days with exposed arms and legs had experienced recurrent skin infections of forearms and legs. The skin infection progressed from small itchy red rash into fluid-filled vesicles within three days. One type of bacteria was recovered from culture samples of these vesicles. The infection was treated successfully with 2% fucidine. Using the Universal Method, the isolate (labeled as QUBC88) was identified as Pseudomonas argentinensis. The patient’s son had suffered a similar skin infection while gardening in a different continent. The inability of the isolate QUBC88 to grow at 37°C may explain its inability to cause systemic infection. Future skin infections of the patients will be followed up to determine if the infectious agent is the same, related, or not related to P. argentinensis. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2014;4(2): 78-83.The authors would like to thank Mr. Marwan K. Younis for participating in this case report and Al-Quds University for their continuous unwavering support of research

The awareness of the international veterinary profession of evidence-based veterinary medicine and preferred methods of training

Evidence-based veterinary medicine (EVM) is an evolving discipline in veterinary medicine so it is important to periodically “benchmark” opinion about EVM across the profession. An international survey to assess veterinarians’ awareness of EVM was conducted. Veterinarians were surveyed via an online questionnaire (all countries) or a postal questionnaire (UK only). Participants were asked whether they had heard of EVM, where they had first heard the term, and their preferences of method for receiving continuing professional development (CPD). There were 6310 respondents, of which 4579 (72.5%) worked in the UK and 5384 (85.3%) were clinicians. Veterinarians that had heard of EVM (n = 5420, 85.9%) were most likely to be clinicians (OR = 4.00; 95% CI: 3.37, 4.75), respondents working in the UK (OR = 1.32; CI: 1.13, 1.54), or respondents with a postgraduate degree or qualification (OR = 1.77; CI: 1.51, 2.08). The most common sources from which respondents had heard of EVM were at vet school or university (n = 1207, 29.8%), via literature (peer-reviewed papers or other publications) (n = 1074, 26.5%), and via CPD courses (n = 564, 13.9%). Most respondents were interested in finding out more about EVM (n = 4256 of 6173, 69%). The preferred methods of CPD were day or evening seminars (n = 2992 of 6017, 49.7%), conferences (n = 1409, 23.4%), and online courses (n = 524, 8.7%), although the order of preference differed slightly between groups. There appears to be substantial awareness of EVM amongst veterinarians internationally. However, it appears that further training in EVM would be welcomed. Preferences on how CPD in general is received differs between groups, so this should be borne in mind by training providers when formulating a strategy for the dissemination of EVM training across the global profession

Consistency and Automation in Multi-User Rule-Based Development Environments

We investigate the scaling up of a class of single-user software development environments, which we call rule-based development environments (RBDEs), to support multiple developers cooperating together on a project. RBDEs model the software development process in terms of rules that encapsulate activities, and execute forward and backward chaining on the rules to provide assistance in carrying out the development process. There is a spectrum of assistance models, ranging from pure automation to strict consistency preservation. We describe three problems whose solutions are dependent on the choice of assistance model: (1) multiple views; (2) evolution; and (3) concurrency control. We discuss how the two extremes of the spectrum restrict the possible approaches to multiple views and evolution. In order to explore different aspects of the concurrency control problem across multiple points on the spectrum of RBDEs, we develop a maximalist assistance model and propose an approach to synchronization of cooperating developers within the context of this model

Concurrency Control in Advanced Database Applications

Concurrency control has been thoroughly studied in the context of traditional database applications such as banking and airline reservations systems. There are relatively few studies, however, that address the concurrency control issues of advanced database applications such as CAD/CAM and software development environments. The concurrency control requirements in such applications are different from those in conventional database applications; in particular, there is a need to support non-serializable cooperation among users whose transactions are long-lived and interactive, and to integrate concurrency control mechanisms with version and configuration control. This paper outlines the characteristics of data and operations in some advanced database applications, discusses their concurrency control requirements, and surveys the mechanisms proposed to address these requirements