The effect of a psychological climate for creativity on job satisfaction and work performance

The organisational climate for creativity has been widely acknowledged to influence various work outcomes such as employee innovation and productivity. Researches carried out on the creative climate in Malaysia have up till now, confirmed the notion. However, as far as the Malaysian context is concerned, the effect of a creative work environment on employee job satisfaction and work performance level has yet to be explored. As such, this study aims to investigate the effects of a psychological climate for creativity on job satisfaction and work performance. Additionally, this study seeks to establish the role of job satisfaction as a mediator on the relationship between organisational climate and work performance. The results from a sample of 118 electrical engineers working only within the area of the Klang Valley suggest that all variable relationships were positively and significantly correlated: Job satisfaction - Work performance, Psychological climate for creativity - Job satisfaction and Psychological climate for creativity - Work performance. Moreover, job satisfaction was found to mediate between the psychological climate for creativity and work performance when an analysis was carried out on three separate regressions

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Pooled analysis of WHO Surgical Safety Checklist use and mortality after emergency laparotomy

Background The World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist has fostered safe practice for 10 years, yet its place in emergency surgery has not been assessed on a global scale. The aim of this study was to evaluate reported checklist use in emergency settings and examine the relationship with perioperative mortality in patients who had emergency laparotomy. Methods In two multinational cohort studies, adults undergoing emergency laparotomy were compared with those having elective gastrointestinal surgery. Relationships between reported checklist use and mortality were determined using multivariable logistic regression and bootstrapped simulation. Results Of 12 296 patients included from 76 countries, 4843 underwent emergency laparotomy. After adjusting for patient and disease factors, checklist use before emergency laparotomy was more common in countries with a high Human Development Index (HDI) (2455 of 2741, 89.6 per cent) compared with that in countries with a middle (753 of 1242, 60.6 per cent; odds ratio (OR) 0.17, 95 per cent c.i. 0.14 to 0.21, P <0001) or low (363 of 860, 422 per cent; OR 008, 007 to 010, P <0.001) HDI. Checklist use was less common in elective surgery than for emergency laparotomy in high-HDI countries (risk difference -94 (95 per cent c.i. -11.9 to -6.9) per cent; P <0001), but the relationship was reversed in low-HDI countries (+121 (+7.0 to +173) per cent; P <0001). In multivariable models, checklist use was associated with a lower 30-day perioperative mortality (OR 0.60, 0.50 to 073; P <0.001). The greatest absolute benefit was seen for emergency surgery in low- and middle-HDI countries. Conclusion Checklist use in emergency laparotomy was associated with a significantly lower perioperative mortality rate. Checklist use in low-HDI countries was half that in high-HDI countries.Peer reviewe

Global variation in anastomosis and end colostomy formation following left-sided colorectal resection

Background End colostomy rates following colorectal resection vary across institutions in high-income settings, being influenced by patient, disease, surgeon and system factors. This study aimed to assess global variation in end colostomy rates after left-sided colorectal resection. Methods This study comprised an analysis of GlobalSurg-1 and -2 international, prospective, observational cohort studies (2014, 2016), including consecutive adult patients undergoing elective or emergency left-sided colorectal resection within discrete 2-week windows. Countries were grouped into high-, middle- and low-income tertiles according to the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). Factors associated with colostomy formation versus primary anastomosis were explored using a multilevel, multivariable logistic regression model. Results In total, 1635 patients from 242 hospitals in 57 countries undergoing left-sided colorectal resection were included: 113 (6·9 per cent) from low-HDI, 254 (15·5 per cent) from middle-HDI and 1268 (77·6 per cent) from high-HDI countries. There was a higher proportion of patients with perforated disease (57·5, 40·9 and 35·4 per cent; P < 0·001) and subsequent use of end colostomy (52·2, 24·8 and 18·9 per cent; P < 0·001) in low- compared with middle- and high-HDI settings. The association with colostomy use in low-HDI settings persisted (odds ratio (OR) 3·20, 95 per cent c.i. 1·35 to 7·57; P = 0·008) after risk adjustment for malignant disease (OR 2·34, 1·65 to 3·32; P < 0·001), emergency surgery (OR 4·08, 2·73 to 6·10; P < 0·001), time to operation at least 48 h (OR 1·99, 1·28 to 3·09; P = 0·002) and disease perforation (OR 4·00, 2·81 to 5·69; P < 0·001). Conclusion Global differences existed in the proportion of patients receiving end stomas after left-sided colorectal resection based on income, which went beyond case mix alone

Evaluating the electronic data interchange adoption decision among Malaysian manufacturing companies / Lee Sai Leong

Electronic Data Interchange has been in use from the early 1960s and has evolved over the last 50 years to include Internet EDI. Even though EDI has a long history, it is still very much in use today by major US and European automotive industry and the energy, healthcare, retail and manufacturing sectors. This is in spite of competing options from electronic procurement to enterprise resource systems. The main reason for its longevity is because it’s standards-based and its reliability has been proven through many years of commercial use. EDI has many benefits to offer its adopters. Notwithstanding this, businesses which adopt EDI has other imperatives to base their decisions. EDI has diffused from its early days in the United States, Europe and Japan to other parts of the world including South East Asia. Businesses which have to succeed in today’s competitive world have to resort to technology to improve their supply chain management. One of the dominant technologies which these businesses have to consider today is electronic data interchange. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has been used mainly in the shipping and logistics industry in Malaysia through the mandatory government initiated SMK-Dagang*Net for over a decade. In the non-mandatory category, EDI has been adopted by banks in Malaysia, the bigger Malaysian-based retailers as well as manufacturers in Malaysia. Until today EDI is still not widely diffused to other businesses in Malaysia. This study is exploratory in nature and has two major objectives. The first objective is to determine the function, diversity and breadth of EDI usage in Malaysian manufacturing companies. The second objective is to identify the significant factors that influence EDI adoption decisions. The motivation for the first objective is that there is a lack of current information on EDI use in manufacturing companies. The motivation for the second objective is to provide insight into why companies adopt or do not adopt electronic data interchange. The sampling frame was from the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturer’s (FMM) Directory. The usable sample of 284 companies consists of 86 (30.20%) EDI adopters and 198 (69.80%) EDI non-adopters. Manufacturers in Malaysia use EDI mainly for sales and purchase order transactions. This study found that the Internet is by far the most popular communications channel followed by private (VANs) and proprietary networks. The theoretical bases of diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, social exchange theory (SET), trust theory and critical mass theory (CMT) have been synthesized into the Tornatzky and Fleischer’s (1990) technology-organization-environment research framework which was used for this study. Fourteen research hypotheses were formulated and tested. Hypothesis testing showed that costs, size, external pressure and interorganizational trust were significant EDI facilitators, while e-commerce legal framework was a significant EDI inhibitor. The finding that interorganizational trust is significant is a revelation and points to a newer trend of the importance of developing trusting business relationships to mitigate uncertainties in the exchange relationship. t-tests showed that EDI adopters and EDI non-adopters differ significantly in size, top management support, information technology capability, internal championship, external pressure and interorganizational trust variables. The three variables of top management support, external pressure and interorganizational trust were the best differentiators for adoption. Means analysis showed that costs was perceived to be the most important variable while external pressure was perceived to be the least important variable. This study makes practical contribution by providing valuable insights to the company management when considering EDI adoption, to EDI solution vendors when considering how to sell their software and services and to government when formulating technology policies. The theoretical contribution of this study is through extending research work in the area of interorganizational information systems (IOS) by providing better understanding of the research area. This study also updates the information to the body of EDI knowledge of Malaysian manufacturers. Finally, the study has shown the appropriateness of the use of Diffusion of Innovation theory variables and Social Exchange Theory variables in the Tornatzky-Fleischer’s (1990) Technology-Organizational-Environmental framework

Job satisfaction of graduates in the public and private sector

The purpose of this study is to compare the job satisfaction level of graduates in the public and private sectors. There are few local researches done in this area. However, foreign researches done in the past on job satisfaction of managers in the two sectors indicated that public sector's managers reported lower organisational commitment, lower satisfaction of work needs, and lower job satisfaction as compared to private sector's managers (Buchanan, 1974; Rainey, 1983; Rhinehart, Barrek, Dewolfe, & Spaner, 1969). This study chose 500 accountancy graduates as a representative sample of the graduate population. Data was collected through questionnaires sent either by post or by hand. Results from the questionnaires were used to compute scores for general and specific satisfactions comparison between the public and private sectors. The specific satisfactions relate to 6 facets of job satisfaction. They are wages, promotional prospects, work environment, job nature, company identification and fringe benefits. Analysis of the findings found that graduates in the private sector are more satisfied than graduates in the public sector with regard to wages, promotional prospects, job nature and company identification, while equally satisfied with regard to fringe benefits and working environment. Moreover, graduates in the private sector also enjoys a higher level of general satisfaction as compared to their counterparts in the public sector.BUSINES

Informing Science InSITE - &quot;Where Parallels Intersect&quot; June 2003 Paper Accepted as a Regular Paper

of the size of the company. A good report generation mechanism can increase a company&apos;s productivity in terms of effort and time. This is more obvious in some startup companies, which normally use some in- house report generators. Application development could be complex and thus software developers might require substantial efforts in maintaining application program code. In addition, most of the report generators use a different kind of format to store the report model. An application is no longer considered an enterprise- level product if XML is not being used elsewhere. This paper introduces a XMLdriven and Component-based development approach to report generation with the purpose of promoting portability, flexibility and genericity. In this approach, report layout is specified using user-defined XML elements together with querie s that retrieve data from different databases. A report is output as an HTML document, which can be viewed using an Internet browser. This paper presents the approach using an example and discusses the usage of the XML-driven report schema and how the proposed reusable report engine of a customisable report generator component system works to output an HTML report format. The customisable report generator component system is implemented to support heterogeneous database models

T-Cell Receptor Rearrangement by Whole-Genome Sequencing and Copy Number Variation Analysis - A Novel Marker of T cell Clonality

109th Annual Meeting of the United-States-and-Canadian-Academy-of-Pathology (USCAP)100SUPPL 11360-136