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Selected AbstractsThe effect of management commitment to service quality on frontline employees' affective and performance outcomes: an empirical investigation of the New Zealand public healthcare sectorINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 4 2006Nicholas J. Ashill Very little attention has been given to understand the antecedents of service recovery performance in a public healthcare setting. In this study, a cross-sectional survey investigates a model of service recovery performance. Frontline hospital employees completed a self-administered questionnaire on how factors characterising management commitment to service quality (MCSQ) affect their service recovery efforts. The results suggest the influence of MCSQ is mediated by frontline employees' affective commitment to their hospital. The research advances understanding of frontline service recovery performance in a public healthcare setting and the findings indicate that public healthcare managers can take actions on a number of fronts to assist progress towards the achievement of frontline service recovery excellence. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Pharmaceutical metabolites in the environment: Analytical challenges and ecological risks,ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 12 2009Mary D. Celiz Abstract The occurrence of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals in the environment has been a subject of concern for the past decade because many of these emerging contaminants have been shown to persist in soil and water. Although recent studies indicate that pharmaceutical contaminants can pose long-term ecological risks, many of the investigations regarding risk assessment have only considered the ecotoxicity of the parent drug, with very little attention given to the potential contributions that metabolites may have. The scarcity of available environmental data on the human metabolites excreted into the environment or the microbial metabolites formed during environmental biodegradation of pharmaceutical residues can be attributed to the difficulty in analyzing trace amounts of previously unknown compounds in complex sample matrices. However, with the advent of highly sensitive and powerful analytical instrumentations that have become available commercially, it is likely that an increased number of pharmaceutical metabolites will be identified and included in environmental risk assessment. The present study will present a critical review of available literature on pharmaceutical metabolites, primarily focusing on their analysis and toxicological significance. It is also intended to provide an overview on the recent advances in analytical tools and strategies to facilitate metabolite identification in environmental samples. This review aims to provide insight on what future directions might be taken to help scientists in this challenging task of enhancing the available data on the fate, behavior, and ecotoxicity of pharmaceutical metabolites in the environment. [source] Some Empirical Evidence to Support the Relationship Between Audit Reports and Stock Prices , The French CaseINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 3 2000Bahram Soltani Acting as an independent intermediary, the auditor facilitates market transactions by providing an ,opinion' on financial statements which should help to reduce the information asymmetry between the company and its potential investors. Whether audit qualifications have informational value to investors is a question that needs further investigation, as previous empirical studies on this issue yield mixed results. Moreover, a majority of the research papers in this area have been conducted in Anglo-Saxon countries, in contrast to continental European countries where very little attention has been paid to the auditors' role in stock markets. The present study is based on a large sample of qualified opinions (543 for the period 1986,1995), using different expected event dates and market models. The results of the study demonstrate the significant negative abnormal returns around the announcement dates of audit opinions. The empirical part of this study was carried out in the French market which has some significant differences from the UK and the USA markets. The author believes that the differences, in the area of reporting, level of disclosure, and accounting and auditing practices, can play an important role in the research field of event studies. [source] City-Regions, Neoliberal Globalization and Democracy: A Research AgendaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2007MARK PURCELL This paper argues that research on city-regions could benefit from more sustained and critical attention to the question of democracy. That is, it should examine more closely how decisions in city-regions are made, why they are made that way, and how they can be made more democratically. Much current research on politics in cities has framed the issue in terms of citizenship. That work has produced great insight. However, the attention to citizenship has prompted very little attention to democracy, even though the two concepts are deeply intertwined. Current interest in city-regions opens up the possibility that a vibrant line of research on democracy can be added to and engage with that on citizenship. [source] Sensitivity of comparative analyses to population variation in trait values: clutch size and cavity excavation tendenciesJOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2000Mikko Mönkkönen Importance of within-species (population) variation in trait values to correlations of traits among species has received very little attention in comparative analyses. We use randomization and bootstrapping techniques to provide a sensitivity analysis of the influence of population variation on correlations between clutch size and propensity to excavate. These traits are predicted to be negatively correlated under the limited breeding opportunities hypothesis, but opposing results have been found by two studies using different population estimates for western Palearctic Paridae. Our analyses support the limited breeding opportunities hypothesis and suggest low sensitivity to within-species variation in trait values. Yet, a small proportion of population data provide non-significant results. Checking for the effects of this variation on the postulated association between traits is necessary in comparative studies if one wishes to avoid type I and type II errors. [source] Philosophical dialogues as paths to a more ,positive psychology'JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2008Sofia Triliva Abstract Although family support programmes have been in place for several decades in Greece very little attention has been paid to evaluating the effectiveness of such endeavours, the techniques that influence their outcomes and the receptiveness to their messages. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of research findings collected during the first qualitative research phase of a community mental health promotion project. The research was conducted in order to delineate programme outcomes and the characteristics that had an impact on the participants' lives. The 3-month family support programme intended to introduce ,philosophical dialogues' as means to developing personal and communal understandings of what makes life worth living. The programme was developed and implemented on Crete under the auspices of a non-profit community organization appropriately named ,The Lyceum for Women'. The features of the programme that contributed and enhanced the participants' tendencies to become not passive targets but active partners and stakeholders in the process will be clarified, as will the conceptualization and approach. Of the 45 evaluation protocols that were analysed the following themes were most important for the participants: ,Group as-a-whole process',the sense of sharing and development understandings in a ,parea' (in-group); ,relational outcomes',feeling of belonging, ,reciprocated kindness', and giving of self to others; personal and emotional outcomes-self-efficacy and empowerment; knowledge outcomes-learning about positive emotions and enjoying the simple things in life; and group facilitator outcomes-sharing stories, ,gives of self to the community'. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Developing an effective sell-side strategyJOURNAL OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 2 2007Dale R. Martin There's been a lot written about how to buy companies. But what about strategies to help the seller? Experts have paid very little attention to the best ways to sell a company. What can the seller do to get the most from the sale? © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Reservation wages, labour market participation and healthJOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES A (STATISTICS IN SOCIETY), Issue 3 2010Sarah Brown Summary., The concept of the reservation wage has played an important role in labour market theory, particularly in models of job search, labour supply and labour market participation. We focus on the determinants of reservation wages, with a particular focus on health, which has attracted very little attention despite its importance from a policy perspective. Using UK data we estimate an endogenous switching model which predicts reservation wages for the unemployed and market wages for the employed. Our results have important policy implications since they suggest that poor health is a major cause of economic inactivity. [source] Chronic wet cough: Protracted bronchitis, chronic suppurative lung disease and bronchiectasisPEDIATRIC PULMONOLOGY, Issue 6 2008A.B. Chang PhD Abstract The role of persistent and recurrent bacterial infection of the conducting airways (endobronchial infection) in the causation of chronic respiratory symptoms, particularly chronic wet cough, has received very little attention over recent decades other than in the context of cystic fibrosis (CF). This is probably related (at least in part) to the (a) reduction in non-CF bronchiectasis in affluent countries and, (b) intense focus on asthma. In addition failure to characterize endobronchial infections has led to under-recognition and lack of research. The following article describes our current perspective of inter-related endobronchial infections causing chronic wet cough; persistent bacterial bronchitis (PBB), chronic suppurative lung disease (CSLD) and bronchiectasis. In all three conditions, impaired muco-ciliary clearance seems to be the common risk factor that provides organisms the opportunity to colonize the lower airway. Respiratory infections in early childhood would appear to be the most common initiating event but other conditions (e.g., tracheobronchomalacia, neuromuscular disease) increases the risk of bacterial colonization. Clinically these conditions overlap and the eventual diagnosis is evident only with further investigations and long term follow up. However whether these conditions are different conditions or reflect severity as part of a spectrum is yet to be determined. Also misdiagnosis of asthma is common and the diagnostic process is further complicated by the fact that the co-existence of asthma is not uncommon. The principles of managing PBB, CSLD and bronchiectasis are the same. Further work is required to improve recognition, diagnosis and management of these causes of chronic wet cough in children. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2008; 43:519,531. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Prevalence of respiratory symptoms among wheat flour mill workers in Ibadan, NigeriaAMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 3 2004FWACP, K.T. Ijadunola MBChB Abstract Background While investigations into occupational health problems of various groups of workers have been conducted in Nigeria, so far, very little attention has been paid to the health status of workers in the grain industry. The prevalence of respiratory symptoms among wheat flour mill workers and control groups in a medium size industrial setting in Nigeria was studied. Methods The study employed a cross-sectional analytical design. Data were collected using structured interviews, work-site observations, and physical examination. Respondents consisted of 91 flour-millers, 30 matched internal controls from the maintenance unit of the same flour mill factory, and 121 matched external controls. Results Fifty-four percent of the flour-millers reported at least one respiratory symptom compared with 30% of the internal controls (P,<,0.05) and 19% of the external controls (P,<,0.001). Most symptoms were significantly more prevalent among the flour-millers compared with control subjects, and this trend was more evident amongst non-smokers than ex-smokers. Conclusions The study concluded that wheat flour mill workers in Nigeria, like grain workers elsewhere, were at an increased risk of developing both pulmonary and non-pulmonary symptoms compared with control subjects. The result has implications for improved dust control measures in the grain industry in Nigeria. Am. J. Ind. Med. 45:251,259, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Grooming patterns in Verreaux's sifakaAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Rebecca J. Lewis Abstract Lemur grooming has received very little attention in the literature. Nevertheless, allogrooming in lemurs has been suggested to be fundamentally different from the grooming of anthropoids. One reason is that lemurs generally rely on oral rather than manual grooming. Lemur allogrooming has also been suggested to serve less of a social function than has been attributed to anthropoid grooming. I analyzed the allogrooming behaviors of 29 Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) living in five social groups in the Kirindy Forest of Madagascar. Based upon 1,586 observation hours, I found that sifaka, like anthropoids, spend very little time mutual grooming (2±3%). Half of all allogrooming involved parts of the body that could have been easily groomed by the recipient, such as the limbs. Even though ectoparasite loads are expected to be greater during the rainy season, allogrooming did not increase during the rainy season. Allogrooming rates were influenced by both rank and sex, and increased by 50,100% during the mating season. The results of this study suggest that allogrooming in Verreaux's sifaka plays an important social function, even though it is performed with a toothcomb. Am. J. Primatol. 72:254,261, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The Protozooplankton,Ichthyoplankton Trophic Link: An Overlooked Aspect of Aquatic Food Webs,THE JOURNAL OF EUKARYOTIC MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 3 2010DAVID J. S. MONTAGNES ABSTRACT. Since the introduction of the microbial loop concept, awareness of the role played by protozooplankton in marine food webs has grown. By consuming bacteria, and then being consumed by metazooplankton, protozoa form a trophic link that channels dissolved organic material into the "classic" marine food chain. Beyond enhancing energy transfer to higher trophic levels, protozoa play a key role in improving the food quality of metazooplankton. Here, we consider a third role played by protozoa, but one that has received comparatively little attention: that as prey items for ichthyoplankton. For >100 years it has been known that fish larvae consume protozoa. Despite this, fisheries scientists and biological oceanographers still largely ignore protozoa when assessing the foodweb dynamics that regulate the growth and survival of larval fish. We review evidence supporting the importance of the protozooplankton,ichthyoplankton link, including examples from the amateur aquarium trade, the commercial aquaculture industry, and contemporary studies of larval fish. We then consider why this potentially important link continues to receive very little attention. We conclude by offering suggestions for quantifying the importance of the protozooplankton,ichthyoplankton trophic link, using both existing methods and new technologies. [source] Employers' Benefits from Workers' Health InsuranceTHE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2003Ellen O'Brien Most nonelderly americans receive their health insurance coverage through their workplace. Almost all large firms offer a health insurance plan, and even though they face greater barriers to providing coverage, so do the majority of very small firms. These employment-based plans cover two-thirds of nonelderly Americans and pay most of working families' expenses for health care and about one-quarter of national health spending. Despite employers' role in the health insurance market, however, very little attention has been paid to employers' motivations for providing health insurance to workers. Why do employers offer health insurance to workers? Is it because workers want it? Because their unions demand it? Or do employers offer health benefits to workers because their productivity and profitability depend on it? The standard economic theory of the availability of employer-provided health insurance focuses on worker demand (Cutler 1997; Pauly 1997; Summers 1989). Even though many employers believe that health insurance and health affect employees' productivity and firms' performance, health economists typically overlook and rarely measure firms' returns on health-related investments. Some research, however, suggests that firms may benefit economically by providing health insurance coverage for workers and their families. For example, health coverage may help employers recruit and retain high-quality workers. Health may contribute to productivity by reducing the costs of absenteeism and turnover and by increasing workers' productivity. This article reviews the evidence and proposes an agenda for future research. A better understanding of the benefits to employers of offering health coverage to workers may help clarify employers' behavior and help private employers and public officials make appropriate investments in health. [source] Application of Residence Time Distribution for Measuring the Fluid Velocity and Dispersion CoefficientCHEMICAL ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY (CET), Issue 1 2007W. Zhang Abstract Most studies on residence time distribution (RTD) have focused on the tail of the RTD curve, and very little attention has been paid to the effect of white noise on the measured results. The aim of this work is to study the effect of white noise on the calculated parameters with different data processing methods. The anti-disturbance abilities of the moment method and the least squares method are compared. The results show that the anti-disturbance ability of the least squares method was better than that of the moment method. As a result of peak overlapping in the RTD curve of a loop reactor, the moment method cannot be used to calculate the fluid velocity and dispersion coefficient. Experiments show that the least squares method is still applicable in a loop reactor. [source] | ||||||||||||||||