Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CAREER ADAPTABILITY AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AMONGST EMPLOYEES IN AN INSURANCE COMPANY

Orientation: Instability and change have significantly impacted the careers and employees‟ subjective work experiences. To gain competitive edge, organisations are emphasising the impact of these changes on human capital and performance. Research purpose: The objectives of the study were to (1) determine the relationship between career adaptability and employee engagement, (2) determine whether age, race, gender and tenure groups differ significantly regarding career adaptability and employee engagement and (3) formulate practical and future research recommendations. Motivation for the study: As a personal resource, career adaptability enables employees to deal with job demands, facilitating employee engagement. Limited research exists on the impact of occupational guidance variables on employee engagement, bearing significant relevance in the current workforce. Research design, approach and method: A quantitative survey was conducted with a convenience sample (N = 131) of employees in an insurance company within South Africa, using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003) and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) (Maree, 2012). Main findings: Correlational and inferential statistical analyses reflected significant relationships between the variables as well as significant differences between age and race groups in relation to the constructs. Practical/managerial implications: Organisations need to recognise the influence of career adaptability on employee engagement with reference to engagement interventions, and the career counselling and guidance setting. 1 Please note: The guidelines provided by the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology have been used as a general guideline for the framework of the research article.
Military Expenditure and Investment in OECD Countries: Revisited

Abstract This study examines the effects of military expenditure on investment in 13 selected OECD countries over the period of 1971–2012 by applying the Smith Demand-Side model and different estimation methodologies including panel data, cross section and time series estimation methods. Our empirical results reveal that military expenditure crowds out investment and that crowding-out effect lessens during the Post-Cold War period.
Validation of Rapid Microbiological Methods

Classical microbiological methods currently have unacceptably long cycle times. Rapid microbiological methods have been available on the market for decades and have been applied by the clinical and food industries. However, their implementation in the pharmaceutical industry has been hampered by stringent regulations on validation and comparison with classical methods. To encourage the implementation of these methodologies, they must be validated to assess that the results are straightforward. A comparison with traditional methods should be also performed. In this review, information about the validation of rapid microbiological methods reported in the literature is provided as well as an explanation of the difficulty of validation of these methods. A comparison with traditional methods is also discussed. This information is useful for industries and laboratories that can potentially implement these methods.
Europe and the Immigration of Highly Skilled Labour

The competition for highly skilled labour continues to be fierce and is taking a more institutionalized pattern across most of the developed world. This article sketches the changes in policies, legislations, and procedures across various EU countries and compares these with those of other developed countries. The article shows that EU member states not only compete with non-EU countries and regions but also among themselves in order to attract and maintain sufficient flows of highly skilled labour.
The Behavior of Option Price around Large Block Transactions in the Underlying Security

This paper investigates the behavior of stock and option prices around block trades in stocks. The results indicate that for both uptick and downtick block trades the stock prices adjust within a fifteen minute period after the block trade. Moreover, for uptick blocks there is no evidence of any stock price reaction before the block trade. However, the adjustment of stock price for downtick blocks begins about fifteen minutes before the block trade. They also find that option price behavior differs considerably from stock price behavior. Specifically, the authors' results suggest that options exhibit abnormal price behavior starting thirty minutes before the block and ending one hour after the block. The pattern is more pronounced for downtick blocks and for put options. The authors interpret this abnormal price behavior of options before the block trade as consistent with intermarket frontrunning. Copyright 1992 by American Finance Association.
‘We Earn Only for You’: Peasants and ‘Real’ Markets in Northern Pakistan

This article analyses the realisation of the exchange-value of wheat in ‘real’ markets in northern Pakistan. Three ‘real’ markets are investigated: land, fertilizer and output. It is found that members of the dominant classes—landlords, industrial capital and merchant capital—are able to ‘regulate’ wheat production and processing markets. However, the members of the peasant classes require access to such markets in order to acquire necessary use-values that they do not themselves produce. As a consequence, the members of the peasant classes must deal with their structural subordination in ‘real’ markets.
MEASUREMENT OF TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE OF PAKISTAN

The objective of this study is to measure technical efficiency, using a translog frontier production function on cross‐sectional data from 397 farms in the North‐West Frontier Province of Pakistan in 1988–89. The estimated farm level technical efficiency is found to be dependent upon levels of credit and education, farmers' ages and the extent of land fragmentation. Lack of education, restricted credit and fragmented holdings are found to be causes of inefficiency; hence policies which consolidate holdings, provide credit or educate farmers will tend to improve efficiency in agriculture.
Knowledge intensive business services and client innovation

Innovative activities, driven by a knowledge economy era, globalization, and pressure of global competition, have profoundly impacted local economies since the late 1980s. Relevant studies in the recent decade have gradually emphasized the increasing importance and continuous expansion of knowledge intensive business services in current economic development. This topic represents a major trend impacting industrialized economies. Therefore, this study elucidates the roles and functions of knowledge intensive business services as an area innovation system evolves. Exactly how technology-based firms and knowledge intensive business services interact with each other, as well as the roles of knowledge intensive business services, is also analyzed by examining how the area innovation system centered in Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park in Taiwan has evolved. Results of this study demonstrate that knowledge intensive business services function in an intermediary role in the innovation system. These services enhance their customers’ capacity for specialization, subsequently improving their evolutionary capabilities and producing tangible innovative cycles.
Human capital and FDI: Development process of the developing country in an overlapping generation model

We construct an overlapping generation model with human capital accumulation to analyze the effect of human capital level on foreign direct investment (FDI) in a small open developing country. In particular, we assume that manufactured goods have the human capital intensive technology and young agents choose whether to work or to educate themselves. When the human capital level in the developing country is sufficiently small, manufactured goods firms do not conduct FDI and the economy in the developing country is trapped in poverty. If the government of the developing country levies a tariff on the imports of manufactured goods, manufacturers conduct FDI, and the economy in the developing country can escape from the poverty trap.
Critical success factors in public‐private partnership (PPP) on infrastructure delivery in Nigeria

Purpose – Federal and State Governments began to explore more subtle alternatives for accessing private sector resources in the delivery and operation of public facilities. The purpose of this paper is to examine the types of infrastructural projects most suitable using public‐private partnership (PPP) for executions and identify the critical success factors in PPP on infrastructural projects with a view to strengthening the partnership between the public (government) and private sector. The overall goal is to enhance infrastructural projects delivery in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approach – The primary data consists of survey questionnaires, drawn based on the identified factors on existing literature on critical success factors (CSFs). The structured questionnaires were administered on participants that were involved in the execution of PPP projects, either during the initial stage, construction stage or maintenance and operating stages in Lagos State.Findings – The results of the mean score ranking ind.
Missing the Jackpot? The Proliferation of Gambling in Australia and its Effect on Local Communities

Research assessing the consequences of gambling proliferation fails to recognise the influence of local circumstances on its costs and benefits. The consequences of new gambling facilities need to be assessed at the community level. The introduction of poker machines to hotels in the South Australian town of Peterborough has exacerbated pre-existing socio-economic problems associated with the wider effects of the rural crisis. The growth of gambling worldwide requires new policies that reflect the current geographies of gambling.
Trade Size, Order Imbalance, and the Volatility-Volume Relation

This paper examines the roles of the number of trades, trade size, and order imbalance (buyer- versus seller- initiated trades) in explaining the volatility-volume relation for a sample of NYSE and NASDAQ stocks. Contrary to some previous studies, our results reconfirm the significance of trade size, beyond that of the number of trades, in the volatility-volume relation in both markets. After controlling for the return impact of order imbalance, the volatility-volume relation becomes much weaker. This suggests that one major driving force for the volatility-volume relation stems from order imbalance. Furthermore, on the NYSE, the return impact of order imbalance increases monotonically with the trade size of order imbalance, whereas on NASDAQ, there is no such monotonic relation and the largest return impact comes from the order imbalance in maximum-sized Small Order Execution System (SOES) trades.
Politics at the Water's Edge: Parties, Voters, and the Use of Force Abroad

This article examines the effects of party politics and presidential election cycles on U.S. recourse to force abroad. I analyze a game-theoretic model to generate predictions about these effects. In the unique time-consistent equilibrium outcome of the one-shot game, policy varies across political parties. In a subgame–perfect equilibrium outcome of the repeated game, the use of force is invariant to the partisan composition of government. In neither case does policy respond to the electoral cycle. An empirical analysis supports the predictions of the repeated game. Between 1870 and 1992, U.S. recourse to force abroad responds neither to partisan politics nor to the domestic political calendar. It responds only to changes in U.S. power status and to the advent of general wars.
Antecedents of Labor Turnover in Australian Alpine Resorts

ABSTRACT Previous studies have shown high levels of labor turnover to be chronic in the tourism industry, especially in hospitality. There have been few studies of labor turnover in resorts. This study examines the factors that precipitate labor turnover in isolated seasonal winter resorts. The investigation was conducted during the peak season in three Australian ski resorts. It was determined that the age of an employee had an inverse relationship with turnover intention. Management and supervisory staff were found to be the most stable group of resort employees, while food and beverage operatives and guest services operatives were the most likely to terminate their employment. The results of Kruskal-Wallis tests indicated that employment-related dissatisfaction factors contribute to turnover intention.
The Effects of Macroeconomic Policy Shocks on the UK Labour Market

This paper discusses the dynamic response of employment, average hours, and real wages to macroeconomic policy shocks in the UK in the period 1970 Q1-2003 Q1. Following a monetary policy shock the adjustment of labour input is primarily along the extensive margin. However, there is also significant adjustment along the intensive margin 1 year after the shock. A government spending shock leads to a fall in employment and hours, whereas real wages rise. This is attributed to the wage bill component of government consumption. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Alternate dosing of cetuximab for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND Many chemotherapeutic regimens used to treat colorectal cancer (CRC), including 5-fluorouracil plus leucovorin in combination with irinotecan (FOLFIRI) or oxaliplatin (FOLFOX), are administered on an every-other-week (q2w) dosing schedule. Chemotherapy in combination with a monoclonal antibody (mAb) directed toward the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has emerged as an effective treatment option. There are currently 2 anti-EGFR mAbs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration: cetuximab and panitumumab. Mutations of KRAS, a downstream protein in the EGFR pathway, predict resistance to EGFR mAbs. Thus, cetuximab and panitumumab are indicated for patients without a KRAS mutation (KRAS wild-type). Whereas panitumumab is approved on a q2w dosing schedule, cetuximab is approved as a weekly dose. However, only cetuximab is approved with FOLFIRI for frontline metastatic CRC, whereas panitumumab is approved for third-line. Because concomitant therapies are often administered q2w, the weekly dosing of cetuximab results in additional medical office visits. DESIGN Several studies have assessed the safety and efficacy of cetuximab q2w. For this review, a comprehensive literature search of studies evaluating cetuximab q2w dosing was conducted. Safety and efficacy results of these trials and retrospective analyses were summarized and reviewed. RESULTS In general, results with cetuximab q2w were comparable to those obtained with the weekly regimen. CONCLUSION These data suggest that for patients for whom weekly treatment with cetuximab presents a substantial burden to their quality of life, q2w dosing of cetuximab is a viable treatment option with a benefit:risk profile similar to that of the weekly regimen.
Positive cytokine production in failed metal-on-metal total hip replacements

Tissues surrounding failed conventional total hips have been shown to produce inflammatory cytokines that can induce osteoclastic bone resorption. We evaluated the cytokine profiles of tissues from 5 failed metal-on-metal total hip replacements. Serial frozen sections were stained using immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization techniques. Inflammatory and osteoclast-stimulating cytokines were noted in the tissues. As compared to a group of 5 metal-polyethylene hip tissues, we found fewer CD68 positive macrophages, and lower levels of TGF- g and TNF- f , but no differences in CD3 positive lymphocytes, IL-1 g , IL-6 and PDGF- f in the metal-on-metal tissues. This may be due, in part, to the presence of wear particles from sources other than the bearing surfaces. Thus, cytokines associated with bone resorption and implant loosening may occur in total hips despite the use of alternative bearing materials.
Gurus of quality: a framework for comparison

‘Quality’ is an important competitive factor and in some markets a prerequisite of survival. This is why more and more organizations are implementing BS 5750 and total quality management (TQM). The ‘quality’ field is dominated by a number of scholars, the so-called gurus of ‘quality’. Many organizations in their haste to introduce TQM turn to the gurus. Their methods are implemented in a formulaic manner. Management often fails to consider the relevance of the approach to the organization's needs and values. In this paper, we briefly describe the key features of the methods of Deming, Furan, Crosby, Feigenbaum, Taguchi, Ishikawa and Groocock. These seven are considered by many to be the main gurus of quality. In addition, we develop a matrix of key factors for each guru. This will enable the managers and researchers to compare the various methods in a systematic fashion, thus assisting the management to choose a particular method rationally. Alternatively, this paper will assist them in developing a hybri.
Determinants of creativity and innovation in the workplace: a comprehensive review

In today's competitive business environment, the global competition is forcing companies to perpetually seek ways to improve their products and services. The pressure on organisations to adapt to new technologies and external threats requires resourcefulness, creativity and innovation. The decision to innovate must be backed by actions that create an environment in which people are so comfortable with innovation that they create it. Enormous research has taken place to explain why certain organisations are more innovative than others. Drawing on earlier work, this paper reviews relevant writings to address the means of encouraging creativity and innovation in working environments and presents the key factors that influence organisational creativity. The literature review highlights three major factors that enhance creativity and innovation in the workplace: organisational culture and climate, individual characteristics and the support system. The paper explains how companies can use each of these determinants to enhance innovation within workplace environments.
The Founders of New Manufacturing Firms: A Note on the Size of Their 'Incubator' Plants

IN an article in this journal in 1955 Beesley [2] put forward the proposition that larger plants may provide better incubator environments than smaller ones for stimulating the growth of entrepreneurial aspirations in their work forces. Employees of such plants would thus be more likely to set up in business on their own account. In comparing the north-west and south-west zones of the West Midlands, he suggested that the higher rate of formation in the metal industries in the former might have been attributable in part to the fact that they had relatively more larger plants; this 'may have given the zone as a whole more experience of management techniques'. ' On the other hand, however, other writers (e.g. Cooper [3]) have suggested that there are good grounds for holding the opposite view. It is, for example, more likely that employees of smaller plants will have greater contact with individuals who have themselves set up in business. They will gain greater familiarity with the types of market that could be served by a new business, which in the early years at least is almost inevitably going to be small. They are also likely to obtain greater all-round experience in the running of a business. While these arguments in favour of the small unit as an incubator have been put forward mainly in the context of technological spin-off, i.e. the formation of new enterprises in science-based industries, they are not specific to it and could have more general applicability. The effect of plant size on fertility in terms of new business formation is not of academic interest only. The absolute size of plants has been increasing in the UK over a fairly long period (Prais [9, pp. 5i-4]) and it would be useful to know whether this trend is likely to have any effect on the rate of
sTNFRI AND sTNFRII SYNTHESIS BY FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION BIOPSY SAMPLE CULTURES IS SIGNIFICANTLY ASSOCIATED WITH ACUTE REJECTION IN KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION1

Background. Previously we reported that cultures of fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) samples synthesize different cytokine pattern depending on the alloimmune response towards the kidney graft. However, we failed to find a clear picture for growth factors implicated in early T-cell activation (interferon-&ggr;, interleukin [IL]-4, IL-12), although we observed that interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) was associated with absence of acute rejection. We have now studied tumor necrosis factor-&agr; (TNF-&agr;) and its two soluble receptors, sTNFRI and sTNFRII, IL-1&bgr; and soluble IL-1 receptor II (sIL-1RII), and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), all potential modulators of T-cell activation. Methods. Sixty-six cadaver kidney transplants (KTX) were divided into four groups: group 1, day 7 after KTX, stable (n=30); group 2, day 7 after KTX, 8±4.5 days before acute rejection (n=12); group 3, first day of acute rejection (n=17); and group 4, day 14 after KTX, stable (n=32). Patients from groups 1 and 4 remained rejection-free for the first 6 months. All rejection episodes were confirmed by core renal biopsy. FNAB samples were cultured according to our published methodology, and culture supernatants were collected at 48 hr and analyzed by ELISA for IL-1&bgr;, sIL-1RII, TNF-&agr;, sTNFRI, sTNFRII, and LIF. Serum levels for sIL-1RII, sTNFRI, and sTNFRII were also measured. Results. FNAB cultures from groups 1 and 4 synthesized significantly lower amounts of sTNFRI and sTNFRII than those from either groups 2 or 3. Both sTNFRI and sTNFRII reached high positive and negative predictive values for acute rejection. IL-1&bgr; and sIL-1RII were synthesized by all groups but without differences. No trace of LIF and TNF-&agr; was found. sTNFRII was significantly higher in serum from group 3. Conclusions. Both TNF receptors were positively associated with acute rejection and were good predictors of impending acute rejection. The ratio of sIL-1RII over IL-1 (together with IL-1ra that we previously measured in FNAB cultures) suggests that IL-1 actions may be inhibited with current immunosuppression early after transplantation.
Motivation Crowding and the Federal Civil Servant: Evidence from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service

ABSTRACT Pay-for-performance reforms create “high-powered” incentives for civil servants to meet or exceed specified performance objectives as measured by such things as customer satisfaction. Economists and social psychologists have advanced the claim that high-powered incentives for performance may empirically lessen the effect of civil servants' intrinsic motivation toward achieving agency goals (motivation can be “crowded out”). Nonetheless, well-designed pay-for-performance incentives may “crowd in” intrinsic motivation. A number of federal agencies and subagencies have undergone personnel management reforms that raise the specter of this pattern of “motivation crowding. ” Does it happen? Is intrinsic motivation crowded in or crowded out? This paper employs item response theory to create measurement models for the estimation a latent trait of intrinsic motivation for employees of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) using data from the 2002 Federal Human Capital Survey. The IRS, but not the OCC, implemented a paybanding system that imposed high-powered performance incentives on supervisors, but not on non-supervisory personnel. Results suggest that the IRS reward structure crowded in intrinsic motivation at the lowest levels, but that at the highest levels of motivation intrinsic motivation is crowded out, a pattern not seen in the OCC data.