bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Modifiable Lifestyle Factors and the Metabolic Syndrome in Older Men: Effects of Lifestyle Changes
Authors: Wannamethee S. Goya , Shaper A. Gerald , Whincup Peter H.
Published: December 2006

OBJECTIVES: To examine the influence of lifestyle factors and changes in these factors on risk of the metabolic syndrome in elderly men.

DESIGN: Cross‐sectional and longitudinal analyses of cohort study.

SETTING: General practices in 24 British towns.

PARTICIPANTS: Three thousand fifty‐one men aged 60 to 79 with no diabetes mellitus or diagnosis of coronary heart disease.

MEASUREMENTS: Lifestyle factors (smoking, physical activity, alcohol intake, body weight, dietary fat and carbohydrate intake) including recent changes in the previous 3 years (physical activity and body weight); metabolic syndrome.

RESULTS: After adjustment for each of the other modifiable lifestyle factors, overweight/obesity and physical inactivity were associated with a significantly higher risk of the metabolic syndrome, as were cigarette smoking and a high‐carbohydrate diet (>57% of energy). Alcohol intake and dietary fat intake were not related to the metabolic syndrome. Long‐term ex‐smokers showed similar risk to never smokers. Taking up physical activity and losing weight in the previous 3 years were associated with a reduction in risk of the metabolic syndrome.

CONCLUSION: Overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, a high‐carbohydrate diet, and cigarette smoking are associated with higher risk of the metabolic syndrome in elderly men. Modification of lifestyle factors, even later in life, has considerable potential for primary prevention of the metabolic syndrome.
Adjusted Mortality After Hip Fracture: From the Cardiovascular Health Study
Authors: Robbins John A. , Biggs Mary L. , Cauley Jane
Published: December 2006

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the risk of death associated with hip fracture (HFx), stratifying by sex and time since fracture.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study compared participants with and without hip fracture, matched on sex, age, race, recruitment period, and time since enrollment.

SETTING: The Cardiovascular Health Study, a more‐than‐15‐year longitudinal study of 5,888 older individuals from four U.S. sites.

PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred seventy‐nine individuals with HFx were compared with 1,134 without HFx.

MEASUREMENTS: Extended Cox models were used to estimate mortality hazard ratios (HRs) for different periods after fracture, adjusting for prefracture health.

RESULTS: Age‐ and race‐adjusted excess mortality was 9% in women and 24% in men 1 year after fracture, and 24% in women and 26% men 5 years postfracture. Multivariable‐adjusted HRs of mortality associated with HFx in women were 7.1 (95% confidence interval (CI)=2.3–21.5), 2.1 (95% CI=1.0–4.1), 1.4 (95% CI=1.1–2.0), and 1.0 (95% CI=0.6–1.5) for 0 to 1 months, 2 to 6 months, 7 months to 4 years, and 5 to 8 years, respectively, after index date. In men, respective HRs for the same time periods were 39.9 (95% CI=5.2–308.7), 3.8 (95% CI=1.4–10.3), 1.1 (95% CI=0.7–1.8), and 1.0 (95% CI=0.3–2.7). HRs adjusted for age and race were 20% to 40% higher.

CONCLUSION: The risk of mortality was highest in the first 6 months after HFx. In men, the risk of death approximated that of men without HFx after 6 months; in women, a moderately greater risk persisted through the fourth year. Although the mortality pattern was different in women and men, excess mortality 5 years postfracture was similar for both sexes.
Deaths Associated with Choking in San Diego County
Authors: Dolkas Laura , Stanley Christina , Smith Alan M. , Vilke Gary M.
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACT: Death from choking is the fourth most common cause of unintentional‐injury mortality, but little data are published on causes or locations of these episodes. These deaths typically are peaked at the extremes of age, with young children and the elderly having the greatest rate of fatal choking. Our objective was to characterize the causes of fatal airway obstruction in adults. The San Diego County Medical Examiner's database was searched for deaths attributed to choking in decedents 18 years and older during the 10‐year period from 1994 to 2004. Data were abstracted regarding the underlying medical conditions, items choked on, location of the choking, and treatments involved in the individual cases. We found 133 victims who died from choking, with 14% having using alcohol or other sedatives and 55% having a documented neurological deficit or anatomic difficulty with swallowing. The most common specified food objects that victims choked on were meat products, and 45% occurred at home, followed by 26% at supervised facilities, and 14% at restaurants. Of the 19 choking episodes occurring in restaurants, only one employee was documented to attempt a resuscitative effort. Most victims who choked to death had an underlying neurological deficit, and occurred at home or supervised facilities appear to have an appropriate initial‐response intervention.
Analysis of Forensic Soil Samples Via High‐Performance Liquid Chromatography and Ion Chromatography
Authors: Bommarito Christopher R. , Sturdevant Amanda B. , Szymanski David W.
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACT: Traditional forensic soil comparisons are performed via physical and/or chemical examinations of color, texture, and mineral content, leaving any organic‐ or water‐soluble fractions unexamined. This study uses high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ion chromatography (IC) to assess the qualitative and quantitative variation in these fractions of soil. Soil samples (n=120) were collected over the course of 3 weeks from urban, suburban, and rural locations in and around Lansing, MI. Additional samples from six of these locations (two urban, two suburban, and two rural) were collected once a week for 10 weeks for temporal analysis. Nine additional samples, equally spaced over a 1 m2 grid, from these same six locations were collected for spatial analyses. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the resultant chromatograms separated the 120 samples into 10 groups by HPLC and 23 groups by IC. This study shows that using HPLC and IC to analyze the organic‐ and water‐soluble fractions of soil can successfully discriminate samples. Quantitative analysis of the results eliminates some false inclusions by providing further differentiation of samples. The results of this study indicate that adding HPLC and IC analyses to traditional forensic soil analysis schemes can improve overall sample differentiation. The methods used in this study were also able to detect both qualitative and quantitative variations in soil over a relatively small geographic area. This demonstration of soil heterogeneity underscores the importance of the collection of a representative known sample population when assessing a forensic soil comparison. Significant temporal variation was also demonstrated over the course of 10 weeks of sampling; however, samples were found to be consistent over shorter periods of time. Baseline levels of inorganic anions were determined via IC; these levels may be useful in assessing the significance of anions detected in soil from cases involving low explosives.
Infant Death Due to Air Embolism from Peripheral Venous Infusion
Authors: Sowell Matthew W. , Lovelady Cari L. , Brogdon B.G. , Wecht Cyril H.
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACT: An otherwise healthy male infant was brought to the hospital because the mother suspected superficial infection at the operative site 5 days after an inguinal hernia repair. He was admitted to the pediatric unit overnight to be evaluated by his surgeon the next morning. When a venous infusion of maintenance fluids was started, the patient immediately went into cardio‐respiratory arrest and was pronounced dead after resuscitation efforts failed. Subsequently, air collections were found in both venous and arterial circulations, including the splenoportal system. Detailed review of the clinical presentation and course, laboratory results, radiological, and pathological findings, along with a review of pertinent literature provides an explanation for the death by air embolism. Apparent inconsistent findings both radiographically and at autopsy are resolved. The mechanism of distribution of air to both systemic and splenoportal circulation is discussed. We believe this to be only the eighth case reported in English‐language literature of infantile death from peripheral venous infusion. In all age groups, we find only six other cases in the English‐language literature of gas found concomitantly in both the systemic and portal venous systems.
Sexual Dimorphism in the Subadult Mandible: Quantification Using Geometric Morphometrics*
Authors: Franklin Daniel , Oxnard Charles E. , O'Higgins Paul , Dadour Ian
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACT: There have been numerous attempts, with varying degrees of success, to differentiate males from females on the basis of the immature skeleton. We investigate here whether the mandible can discriminate immature individuals by sex; the techniques we apply are from the field of geometric morphometrics. The application of these methods in forensic anthropology is still relatively new; thus, an important aspect of this research is that it demonstrates potential applications in this discipline. The sample comprises 96 known age and sex subadult individuals; the three‐dimensional coordinates of 38 landmarks are analyzed using the shape analysis software morphologika. Multivariate regressions indicated no significant sexual dimorphism in the subadult sample; this result is supported by poor cross‐validated classification accuracy (59%). Our results suggest that the subadult mandible is not dimorphic (to the extent that dimorphism is not evident within the sample we studied); thus, sex determination using previously described criteria is likely to yield poor results.
Comparison of the Effectiveness of Tenax TA® and Carbotrap 300® in Concentration of Flammable Liquids Compounds
Authors: Borusiewicz Rafał , Zięba‐Palus Janina
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACT: The aim of research was to compare two adsorbents, Tenax TA® and Carbotrap 300®, to evaluate their usefulness as passive adsorbents of flammable liquids compounds. It was also to determine whether Carbotrap 300® could be used in a passive adsorption mode, contrary to manufacturer recommendations. To compare the adsorption properties and the thermal desorption efficiency for Tenax TA® and Carbotrap, the components of test mixture were adsorbed and then chromatographically analyzed. The analysis was conducted by means of an automated thermal desorber coupled with a gas chromatograph and a mass spectrometer. This research established that although these adsorbents significantly differ from each other in adsorption properties, each of them can be successfully used for passive adsorption of ignitable liquids compounds. Tenax TA® turned out to be more effective for the adsorption of nonpolar, high‐boiling compounds, whereas Carbotrap is more effective for polar and volatile compounds. The examined adsorbents differ in their susceptibility to thermal desorption. For Carbotrap 300®, after the analysis an additional treatment is required to remove the remnants of adsorbed compounds. With Tenax TA®, this additional step is not necessary because the thermal desorption is sufficiently effective that this product is immediately ready for re‐use.
The Hooligan's Mind
Authors: Maniglio Roberto
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACT: Football hooliganism is a world phenomenon and an everyday matter. Society spends a lot of money to prevent and control it. We need to know what hooligans think in order to anticipate their actions and prevent their violent behaviors. In this paper, I propose a theory of the hooligan's conscious mind, by analyzing the thinking of a real Italian hooligan who was my patient. I will show that violent behaviors of hooligans are not unconscious, because the mental states (both beliefs and goals) of hooligans are explicitly represented in their mind. In contrast, I will suggest that both supporting and fighting are planned (i.e., goal directed), because “recognized supremacy” is explicitly represented as the ultimate goal. In fact, hooligans support and fight in order to be recognized as good hooligans, i.e. as good supporters as well as good fighters.
Run‐Specific Limits of Detection and Quantitation for STR‐based DNA Testing
Authors: Gilder Jason R. , Doom Travis E. , Inman Keith , Krane Dan E.
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACT: STR‐based DNA profiling is an exceptionally sensitive analytical technique that is often used to obtain results at the very limits of its sensitivity. The challenge of reliably distinguishing between signal and noise in such situations is one that has been rigorously addressed in numerous other analytical disciplines. However, an inability to determine accurately the height of electropherogram baselines has caused forensic DNA profiling laboratories to utilize alternative approaches. Minimum thresholds established during laboratory validation studies have become the de facto standard for distinguishing between reliable signal and noise/technical artifacts. These minimum peak height thresholds generally fail to consider variability in the sensitivity of instruments, reagents, and the skill of human analysts involved in the DNA profiling process over the course of time. Software (BatchExtract) made publicly available by the National Center for Biotechnology Information now provides an alternative means of establishing limits of detection and quantitation that is more consistent with those used in other analytical disciplines. We have used that software to determine the height of each data collection point for each dye along a control sample's electropherogram trace. These values were then used to determine a limit of detection (the average amount of background noise plus three standard deviations) and a limit of quantitation (the average amount of background noise plus 10 standard deviations) for each control sample. Analyses of the electropherogram data associated with the positive, negative, and reagent blank controls included in 50 different capillary electrophoresis runs validate that this approach could be used to determine run‐specific thresholds objectively for use in forensic DNA casework.
Fatal Mephenesin Intoxication
Authors: Fanton Laurent , Bévalot Fabien , Schoendorff Patrice , Le Meur Catherine , Gaillard Yvan , Malicier Daniel
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACT: This report describes a death related to the abuse of and intoxication by mephenesin. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report case of lethal intoxication involving solely mephenesin and reporting mephenesin blood concentrations. The victim was a 48‐year‐old woman found unconscious at home. Resuscitation was unsuccessful. Toxicological analysis was performed on a blood sample collected during resuscitation. The results being negative, the body was exhumed for an autopsy, which revealed bronchial inhalation syndrome. Analysis in a second laboratory has revealed the presence of mephenesin in samples collected during autopsy. No other drug/toxin was found, and alcohol was negative. Reanalysis of the peripheral blood collected during resuscitation found a mephenesin concentration of 15.81 μg/mL (15‐fold greater that the maximum concentration that would result from a single intake of a 500 mg formulation). The pathologist has concluded on a bronchial inhalation syndrome consecutive to a mephenesin overdose as the cause of death. The manner of this death is discussed in the light of the toxicological hair analysis and the medical past of the victim.
Evaluation of Six Presumptive Tests for Blood, Their Specificity, Sensitivity, and Effect on High Molecular‐Weight DNA
Authors: Tobe Shanan S. , Watson Nigel , Daéid Niamh Nic
Published: December 2006

ABSTRACT:Luminol, leuchomalachite green, phenolphthalein, Hemastix®, Hemident™, and Bluestar©are all used as presumptive tests for blood. In this study, the tests were subjected to dilute blood (from 1:10,000 to 1:10,000,000), many common household substance, and chemicals. Samples were tested for DNA to determine whether the presumptive tests damaged or destroyed DNA. The DNA loci tested were D2S1338 and D19S433. Leuchomalachite green had a sensitivity of 1:10,000, while the remaining tests were able to detect blood to a dilution of 1:100,000. Substances tested include saliva, semen, potato, tomato, tomato sauce, tomato sauce with meat, red onion, red kidney bean, horseradish, 0.1 M ascorbic acid, 5% bleach, 10% cupric sulfate, 10% ferric sulfate, and 10% nickel chloride. Of all the substances tested, not one of the household items reacted with every test; however, the chemicals did. DNA was recovered and amplified from luminol, phenolphthalein, Hemastix®, and Bluestar©, but not from leuchomalachite green or Hemident™.
The Drosophila Pigmentation Gene pink (p) Encodes a Homologue of Human Hermansky–Pudlak Syndrome 5 (HPS5)
Authors: Falcón‐Pérez Juan M. , Romero‐Calderón Rafael , Brooks Elizabeth S. , Krantz David E. , Dell'Angelica Esteban C.
Published: December 2006

Lysosome‐related organelles comprise a group of specialized intracellular compartments that include melanosomes and platelet dense granules (in mammals) and eye pigment granules (in insects). In humans, the biogenesis of these organelles is defective in genetic disorders collectively known as Hermansky–Pudlak syndrome (HPS). Patients with HPS‐2, and two murine HPS models, carry mutations in genes encoding subunits of adaptor protein (AP)‐3. Other genes mutated in rodent models include those encoding VPS33A and Rab38. Orthologs of all of these genes in Drosophila melanogaster belong to the ‘granule group’ of eye pigmentation genes. Other genes associated with HPS encode subunits of three complexes of unknown function, named biogenesis of lysosome‐related organelles complex (BLOC)‐1, ‐2 and ‐3, for which the Drosophila counterparts had not been characterized. Here, we report that the gene encoding the Drosophila ortholog of the HPS5 subunit of BLOC‐2 is identical to the granule group gene pink (p), which was first studied in 1910 but had not been identified at the molecular level. The phenotype of pink mutants was exacerbated by mutations in AP‐3 subunits or in the orthologs of VPS33A and Rab38. These results validate D. melanogaster as a genetic model to study the function of the BLOCs.
Portraits of the Girl‐Child: Female Bildungsroman in Victorian Fiction1
Authors: Maier Sarah E.
Published: December 2006

This article explores the origins and traditional conventions of the literary bildungsroman and investigates the possibility of a female bildungsroman in the Victorian novels Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë and Mill on the Floss (1860) by George Eliot. These novels paint literary portraits of the physical, educational and intellectual growth of two Victorian girl‐children into womanhood whose experiences are explored to determine to what extent the construction of the child subject in fiction shapes the women whom the characters, Jane and Maggie, become; further, theories of the genre are considered, as well as the alterations required to the bildungsroman paradigm in its application to female characters.
Examining the “Family Effect” on Firm Performance
Authors: Gibb Dyer W.
Published: December 2006

The purpose of this article is to provide an explanation for the contradictory evidence in the literature regarding the performance of family-owned firms. The article suggests that most of the research fails to clearly describe the “family effect” on organizational performance. The “family effect,” based on agency theory and the resource-based view of the firm, is described and propositions are generated that examine the relationship between families and organizational performance. Implications for theory and research are also discussed.
Dancing With Giants: Acquisition and Survival of the Family Firm
Authors: Steen Adam , Welch Lawrence S.
Published: December 2006

In this article, we examine the responses of family companies to the emerging environment of mergers and acquisitions, specifically within the international wine industry. At issue is the question of how the family perspective influences responses of a family firm to the prospect of merger or takeover. We examine the issue through a case study of the takeover of an Australian wine producer and family firm, Peter Lehmann Wines. The case study demonstrates ways in which the family perspective is critical in driving responses, for example, in the strength and forms of opposition to one of the potential acquirers in the case, indicating just how important the preservation of a family legacy was to key family members. However, the case also illustrates how in a takeover fight the dynamics of the takeover process itself become important in determining outcomes. In addition, the case demonstrates that family involvement and influence can be maintained in spite of takeover.
Ownership and Management Issues Associated With Family Firm Performance and Company Objectives
Authors: Westhead Paul , Howorth Carole
Published: December 2006

Agency and stewardship theories are used to explore associations between ownership and management profiles and the performance and objectives of family firms. Using data from privately held family firms in the United Kingdom, a range of performance measures and objectives were examined. Multivariate regression analysis detected that closely held family firms did not report superior firm performance. The results show that the management rather than the ownership structure of a family firm was generally associated with selected firm-performance indicators and nonfinancial company objectives. Although family CEOs were associated with lower propensity to export, presented evidence generally fails to suggest that private family firms should avoid employing family members in management roles.
A New Perspective on the Developmental Model for Family Business
Authors: Rutherford Matthew W. , Muse Lori A. , Oswald Sharon L.
Published: December 2006

This research contributes to the family business literature by providing the first empirical test of the developmental model for family business (DMFB), developed by Gersick, Davis, Hampton, and Lansberg (1997). Our testing of the DMFB, along with a review of the literature since its publication, allow us to identify key groups of variables that can help explain family business development. Specifically, we identify owner, firm, and family characteristics to augment the DMFB. Our hierarchical regression analysis of 934 firms suggests that the original model provides asolidfoundation forclassifyingfamily firms, but the augmented model explains significantly more variance in family firm development.
FAMILY LAW EDUCATION REFORM PROJECT: A FACULTY PERSPECTIVE
Authors: Lampe Gregory P.
Published: December 2006

The Family Law Education Reform Project Report calls for shifting the family law teaching paradigm from a focus on case‐based analysis toward a problem‐solving, interdisciplinary approach. This essay encourages law professors to take seriously this shifting teaching and learning paradigm. Aligning family law curriculum with the realities of practicing family law is a critical step in this process. This essay discusses the numerous intellectual challenges family law professors will face as they reflect on the proposed FLER Project curriculum.
ASSESSING AND COMMUNICATING SOCIAL SCIENCE INFORMATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD JUDICIAL SETTINGS: STANDARDS FOR JUDGES AND ALLIED PROFESSIONALS
Authors: Kelly Robert F. , Ramsey Sarah H.
Published: December 2006

Social science is increasingly important in judicial decision making and family law development. This increased use means that judges, lawyers, mental health professionals, and social scientists must assess the quality of social science information and communicate it in a multidisciplinary environment. This article provides tools for improving multidisciplinary communication by identifying logical, methodological, and community standards for assessment and communication that are fundamental both to the scientific method and to the inquiries the Daubert decision instructs judges to make in their gatekeeper evaluations of scientific information. Employing a common set of standards can result in a significant improvement in the quality of the social science knowledge used in judicial settings.
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH AND SOCIAL POLICY: BRIDGING THE GAP1
Authors: Pruett Kyle D.
Published: December 2006

Clinical examples of misapplications of social science research are reviewed with an emphasis on what can be learned with regard to dealing with and preventing such misuse of this type of knowledge. The differences in language and culture that characterize scientific research as separate from advocacy and social policy are also examined, with recommendations for improved cross‐cultural communication.
An Attitude Survey in a Typical Manufacturing Firm
Authors: Campbell James W.
Published: December 2006

Summary

The survey used was found to provide necessary information about the general and specific areas of employee dissatisfaction and the relative importance of each. This was true not only for the division as a whole, but also for the specific departments. There were many indications that employees felt better about their place of work when given an opportunity to express their opinions about their work conditions.

Follow‐up interviews to uncover the reasons that lay behind the expressed attitudes were especially informative. Despite supervisors' predictions that thirty percent of the force were so illiterate that a questionnaire could not be used, less than three percent were actually unable to complete the forms satisfactorily.
For Precision Workers at RCA
Authors: Kerr Willard A.
Published: December 2006

Summary

A standard battery of industrial vision tests was administered to 226 female radio tube workers engaged in near point mounting operations. When scores were correlated with efficiency ratings and with experience, efficiency was found to bear a significant but moderately low relationship with near acuity which persisted when experience was held constant. The use of carefully selected tests of vision in placing workers on these jobs will increase productivity.
Forced Choice—The New Army Rating1
Authors: Sisson E. Donald
Published: December 2006

Summary

The origin of the use of efficiency reports for Officers of the U. S. Army is lost in history, as is the story of the evolution of the formal procedures of reporting. Sometime after the first World War, however, a standard form was adopted and a procedure regularized for accomplishing this report. Thereafter, twice each year—on June 30th and on December 31st—every officer in the Army has been rated by his immediate superior, and this rating submitted to the War Department. Though early recognized as not completely satisfactory, the original rating form remained in force (with sporadic minor amendments) until it was superseded in July of 1947.

The new form is the product of many months of concentrated research. It is radically different in many respects from the old form, and from other rating devices currently in use in industry. Its most novel feature is the use of what has been called the “forced‐choice” rating method. Rather than indicating how much or how little of each characteristic an officer possesses, the rater is required to choose, from several sets of four adjectives or phrases, which best characterizes the officer, and which is least descriptive. In other words, it calls for objective reporting and minimizes subjective judgment. And because of the way in which the tetrads—sets of four rating elements—are constructed, it reduces the rater's ability to produce any desired outcome by the choice of obviously good or obviously bad traits. It thus diminishes the effects of favoritism and personal bias.

The technique, and the form embodying it, has been tried out on fifty thousand officers—in both experimental and official trials—and the results obtained with it have been compared with independent criteria of efficiency arrived at through group ratings. The new method is superior to all other methods examined. It produces a better distribution of ratings relatively free from the usual pile‐up at the top of the scale. It is less subject to influence by the rank of the officer being rated. It is quickly and objectively scored by machine. And above all, it produces ratings which are more valid indices of real worth.

The particular form developed for rating Army officers would probably be of little value for other groups—largely because of the specificity of the rating elements it contains. The technique, however, has already proved of value in other situations and there is every reason to believe that it is even more generally applicable.
Industry Appraises the Psychologist
Authors: LAWSHE C. H.
Published: December 2006

A symposium in industrial psychology, held during the 22nd annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association at Wayne University, Detroit, Michigan, May 5, 1950.
A Factor Analysis of Human Needs and Industrial Morale1
Authors: GORDON OAKLEY J.
Published: December 2006

When an interested management asks “How can employee morale be measured satisfactorily”, …“How is morale in my organization”, …“How can morale be improved”?…, the personnel man is faced with a choice of definitions of morale, a choice of methods of measuring it, and a choice of recommendations on how it can be improved. A search of the published writings shows that there is yet no one best answer to these questions. The present article reports another attempt to answer them.

At the beginning of the study it was proposed that high morale be defined as the feeling of well being that an individual experiences when his needs are being filled to his satisfaction. In order to measure how well the employee needs were being filled, a confidential questionnaire was administered to groups of clerical workers at a government installation. In addition, the production records and ratings of these groups were collected.

It was found that there were three separate needs that were being filled with varying degrees of satisfaction and that each of these played a different role with respect to production and to morale. The definition of morale as proposed was tentatively supported. Further studies are being made to improve the measurement of need‐satisfaction and to relate these measures to turnover rate and to programs designed to improve morale, both in clerical and mechanical work.
An Instrument for the Measurement of Job Satisfaction1
Authors: JOHNSON GEORGE H.
Published: December 2006

The construction of a 99 item job satisfaction questionnaire is described as covering the following work areas: physical and mental exertion; relations with associates; relations with employer; security, advancement, and finances; interest in, liking for, and emotional involvement in the job; job information and status; physical surroundings and work conditions; future, goals, and progress toward goals; and evaluation in retrospect.

The test‐retest reliability coefficient over a three‐week interval with 98 teachers was .90, while individual items averaged 91.4 per cent complete agreement between the two questionnaires. Internal consistence was indicated by item analysis, comparing the most and least satisfied 27 per cent of 844 female teachers and 242 male teachers respectively. Biserial correlations were significant for 97 of the 99 items for the female group, and for 87 out of 99 for the smaller male group. The average magnitude of the biserial correlations obtained was .45 for each sex group when all items were considered together, and ranged from .33 to .55 when items were grouped into the various work categories represented. Validity was inferred from the nature of the construction of the instrument, ratings of the individual items by ten judges, ratings of work characteristics for importance to job satisfaction by 1184 teachers, a correlation of .64 between self‐estimates of satisfaction and job satisfaction scores for 98 teachers and a correlation of .61 between paired‐comparison ratings of job satisfaction and scores for 18 teachers.

Such an instrument should be of value in studying and diagnosing job satisfaction in both applied and research situations.
A Scale for the Measurement of Initiative
Authors: GHISELLI EDWIN E.
Published: December 2006

Initiative is one of the traits stressed in the selection and placement of personnel, particularly those being considered for higher positions. Because of the importance of this trait, an attempt was made to develop a scale for measuring it. On the basis of responses of college students on an occupational objectives questionnaire two criterion groups were formed, one for whom initiative was important and another for whom it was unimportant. These students also took a forced‐choice inventory and an item analysis was performed to locate differentiating items. These items were grouped together to form a scale of initiative. The inventory was considered to possess satisfactory validity since it correlated positively with ratings of initiative, job success in supervisory positions, occupational level, and job success in management positions, and negatively with job success in routine line positions.
A Factorial Study of Administrative Behavior1
Authors: STOGDILL RALPH M. , SHARTLE CARROLL L. , WHERRY ROBERT J. , JAYNES WILLIAM E.
Published: December 2006

The present paper describes a study of 470 Navy officers who occupied 45 different types of positions in 47 different organizations. These officers were divided into 120 groups. Each group consisted of all the officers in the same specialty in the same type of organization. In order to avoid the computation of inter correlations among the 120 groups, an iterative method of factor analysis was employed. Eight factors emerged. The factors isolate those groups of officers who exhibit similar patterns of performance. It is found that groups of persons occupying the same type of position tend to fall in the same factor. The factors also reflect differences in organizations, in that some types of positions isolated by the factors are found almost exclusively either in large or in small organizations, or either on ships or in units ashore.
Profile of the Mechanical Engineer. I. Ability
Authors: HARRISON ROSS , HUNT WINSLOW , JACKSON THEODORE A.
Published: December 2006

A group of 240 mechanical engineers in a large manufacturing plant were examined with a battery of general mental ability and engineering aptitude tests. Percentile norms are presented. Comparisons of relative proficiency were made with test norms for the general population. It was found that mechanical engineers were clearly superior on all tests. Insofar as comparisons could be made between different normative groups, no greater superiority was found on tests which are usually regarded as indicative of engineering aptitude, such as Mechanical Comprehension and Space Relations, than on tests of general intelligence. The engineers also did as well on verbal as on non‐verbal tests. Mechanical Comprehension was much easier for them than Space Relations.
Profile of the Mechanical Engineer II. Interests
Authors: HARRISON ROSS , HUNT WINSLOW , JACKSON THEODORE A.
Published: December 2006

The interests of mechanical engineers were studied by means of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank, selected items from a personal history form, and an interview. The data indicate the following interest pattern: Mechanical engineers are extremely fond of sports and active outdoor pursuits. Their strong mechanical and technical interests tend toward immediate application rather than toward basic science and research. They are, in a sense, more technologists than scientists. There were suggestions in the tabular data that mechanical engineers are social conformists and show close rapport with commonly accepted beliefs and practices. Though they have been shown to have superior verbal problem‐solving ability, they are primarily non‐verbalists. They are basically more interested in things than in people. Their values are conspicuously masculine. Engineers as a whole have few cultural or esthetic interests. Although highly intelligent, they are no more intellectuals than they are political extremists or bohemians. The scope of their interests, relative to their intellectual potentialities, may be described as constricted.
In‐plant Communications and Employee Morale
Authors: PERRY DALLIS , MAHONEY THOMAS A.
Published: December 2006

An assumption which apparently underlies much of the importance ascribed to employee communications is that good communications bring about high morale. One aspect of this assumption is examined in the present article. Measures of employee knowledge of information given them by their companies were compared with measures of morale for the same employees. Negligible correlations were found between information and attitude scores. It is concluded that there is no significant relationship between employees' attitudes toward the company and their knowledge about the company as measured by tools used in this study. Several possible reasons for this finding are suggested. Mean scores for different subgroups of employees provide some support for the hypothesis that morale is related to the amount of information given to employees rather than to the amount retained by them.
The Selection of Card Punch Operators
Authors: McNAMARA W. J. , HUGHES J. L.
Published: December 2006

The validity of various types of tests for selecting card punch operators is reviewed.

A new test for the selection of card punch operators, the Card Punch Aptitude Test (CPAT) is described. It consists of two parts, letter‐digit substitution and name checking. Letter grade norms for female operators are available.

For five samples of operator trainees totaling 532 cases, the CPAT had validities of .23 to .44 with training course letter grades. For three samples of employed operators totaling 89 cases, the CPAT correlated .45, .50, and .67 with supervisor ratings.
Personal History Data as a Predictor of Success
Authors: SCOLLAY ROBERT W.
Published: December 2006

Personal history data, validated in a previous study, were used to predict the success or failure of men engaged in promotional activities. The subjects (N = 116), were classed in three groups by their superiors. The first group was considered successful, the second group was made up of average men and the third group consisted of failures.

Two triserial correlations were computed between scores based on the personal history items and the three groups. These correlations (0.32 and 0.23) were significant at the 1% and 5% levels of confidence.
Relation of Personnel Statistics to Organizational Structure1
Authors: WEISS EDWARD C.
Published: December 2006

On THE basis of the responses of 60 firms to a 22 item checklist, a “centralized‐decentralized” scoring procedure was developed. Thirty‐four of the firms supplied additional data on labor turnover, absenteeism, accidents, grievances, etc. One tailed “t” tests failed to reveal any significant differences between companies classified as “centralized” and those classified as “decentralized.”
Relation of Workers Expectation to Satisfaction with Supervisor1
Authors: FOA URIEL G.
Published: December 2006

A number of investigations, carried out at the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan, have shown a consistent relationship between certain patterns of supervisory behavior and workers’satisfaction (3).

The findings of the present study, which deals with Israeli workers, seem to confirm the conclusions reached at the University of Michigan: a stern attitude on the part of the supervisor goes together with lower satisfaction of the worker. When the worker's expectation, with regard to the behavior of the supervisor, is also considered, a different picture is, however, revealed : a certain supervisory attitude might lead to different levels of worker's satisfaction, according to whether such an attitude conforms or not with the expectation of the worker.
Union Leadership and Member Participation
Authors: KAHN ROBERT L. , TANNENBAUM ARNOLD S.
Published: December 2006

There is a substantial body of research which documents the importance of the leader's interpersonal skills in determining the attitudes and behavior of group members. Most of this work has been done in industry and has been concentrated on the relationship between the foreman and his men. The present article represents an attempt to replicate several of the well‐established industrial findings on a different population–union stewards and the members of their shops.

Participation in union activities was regarded as the analog of individual productivity, and it was predicted that this criterion would be related to the perceived leadership skills of the steward in (1) communicating to the men, (2) involving them in decision making, (3) providing “help” to the men, and (4) taking personal interest in how the men get along on the job.

These relationships were tested in four local unions of the industrial type in southern Michigan. The locals had been selected to differ with respect to the participation criterion. Data were collected by written questionnaire, with telephone and personal follow‐up. Results were substantially as predicted, with the rank order of locals on the leadership dimensions corresponding closely to the ranking on the participation criterion.
Management Attitudes Toward Employrnent Tests
Authors: WARE FREDRIC L. , KERR WILLARD A.
Published: December 2006

This is the second in a series of studies on attitudes of industrial personnel toward employment tests. A total of 116 executives in a variety of industries returned a questionnaire similar to that used to poll workers in a previous study. Intercorrelations were computed among variables of importance. In general, management believes employment tests to be valuable aids in selection and placement. Furthermore, executives also indicate a much more favorable opinion of how employees react to tests than was previously supposed. The authors conclude that employer reluctance to adopt scientific selection procedures probably should not be attributed to poor managerial opinions of tests and false beliefs about worker reactions toward tests.
Improved Selection For Technical Training
Authors: DAILEY JOHN T. , LEVINE ABRAHAM S.
Published: December 2006

Selection of electronics personnel in the U. S. Navy has been substantially improved during the last two years. This improvement has been effected by the use of “achievement” tests in conjunction with “aptitude” tests. These “achievement” tests, as well as being appropriate as to subject‐matter content, are also pitched at difficulty levels commensurate with the high level of the trainees in the technical schools. This results in an increment in predictive efficiency of a magnitude hitherto unattainable by the mere addition of other aptitude tests to an operational battery of a small number of effective aptitude tests. This finding has important theoretical as well as practical implications and is serving as the basis for revamping the entire enlisted classification testing procedures in the Navy.
Validation Studies Involving Successive Classes of Trainee Stenographers1
Authors: BENDER W. R. G. , LOVELESS H. E.
Published: December 2006

This article is a summary of four validation studies conducted during 1951–1955. Subjects participating in these studies were 171 young females, recently graduated from high school, who were enrolled in four separate, and successive, classes in a work‐study type of stenographer training program. As trainees, these individuals attended business school four hours a day, five days a week, over a period of 38 weeks–usually beginning the latter part of June of each year. The remaining four hours a day were spent in business offices of the Du Pont Company at clerical tasks commensurate with ability. Throughout the training period, trainees were assigned to business offices in teams of two, so that one could be at work while the other attended school. At noon, teammates exchanged places.

Certain selection techniques, such as psychological testing and interviewing, were used as an aid in determining qualifications of applicants for employment. Other techniques, including a four‐page biographical inventory and a one‐page teachers’appraisal blank, were also used, not as an aid to selection, but for the sole purpose of obtaining additional, pertinent information. Data obtained by all techniques were recorded systematically for analysis at a later date.

Approximately two years after data had been collected on applicants, appraisals of stenographic performance, with regard to those selected, were obtained from supervision. These appraisals served as the criterion for determining validity of personnel evaluation techniques.

Performance on the Turse Shorthand Aptitude Test and the Seashore‐Bennett Stenographic Proficiency Test was found to be positively related, in a statistically significant manner, to the criterion of stenographic performance. Furthermore, certain information obtained by interviewing, biographical inventory, and teachers’appraisal blank was found to be consistently related, in a statistically significant manner, to the same criterion. Consistency of these research findings from one class of trainees to the next, throughout four successive classes, are discussed in terms of a conceptual frame of reference concerning human growth, development, and behavior.
Navy Basic Test Battery Validity For Success in Naval Occupations1
Authors: MERENDA PETER F.
Published: December 2006

Summary and Conclusions

This study set out to investigate the predictive validity of the Navy Basic Test Battery in determining success of naval enlisted personnel on petty officer advancement examinations. The major hypothesis of the study was that the Battery possesses sufficient validity to warrant its use not only as a predictor of success in Navy service schools but also as a predictor of success in on‐the‐job training and on‐the‐job performance.

To test this hypothesis two independent samples were taken, one year apart, from among populations of candidates for advancement in rating to petty officer, third class, in 23 naval occupations. The first sample was used to derive multiple regression equations from which criterion scores could be predicted on the basis of the Navy Basic Test Battery scores. The second sample was used to cross‐validate the regression weights of these equations through an analysis of the zero‐order relationship existing between predicted and actual obtained scores.

For the 23 naval occupations studied, the multiple R's all proved to be both positive and significantly different from zero. Upon cross‐validation, all but one also proved to be both positive and significantly different from zero. The validity coefficients (multiple R's) of this study compared quite favorably with validity coefficients reported for the prediction of school success on the basis of the Test Battery Scores for naval apprentices in these same naval occupations.

The major conclusions of this study are:

1. The Navy Basic Test Battery has reasonably high predictive validity in determining success of naval apprentices in the 23 occupations studied.

2. The use of the Navy Basic Test Battery should be extended to the selection of recruits for specific shipboard training as well as for selection of recruits for formal school training.