Satisfaction with knowledge and competencies:a multi-country study of employers and business graduates

This study critically discusses findings from a research project involving four European countries. The project had two main aims. The first was to develop a systematic procedure for assessing the balance between knowledge and competencies acquired in higher, further and vocational education and the specific needs of the labor market. The second aim was to develop and test a set of meta-level quality indicators aimed at evaluating the linkages between education and employment. The project was designed to address the lack of employer input concerning the requirements of business graduates for successful workplace performance and the need for more specific industry-driven feedback to guide administrative heads at universities and personnel at quality assurance agencies in curriculum development and revision. Approach: The project was distinctive in that it combined different partners from higher education, vocational training, industry and quality assurance. Project partners designed and implemented an innovative approach, based on literature review, qualitative interviews and surveys in the four countries, in order to identify and confirm key knowledge and competency requirements. This study presents this step-by-step approach, as well as survey findings from a sample of 900 business graduates and employers. In addition, it introduces two Partial Least Squares (PLS) path models for predicting satisfaction with work performance and satisfaction with business education. Results: Survey findings revealed that employers were not very confident regarding business graduates’ abilities in key knowledge areas and in key generic competencies. In subsequent analysis, these graduate abilities were tested and identified as important predictors of employers’ satisfaction with graduates’ work performance. Conclusion: The industry-driven approach introduced in this study can serve as a guide to assist different types of educational institutions to better align study programs with changing labor market requirements. Recommendations for curriculum improvement are discussed.

The role of self-regulation as a meta-competency in developing leaders: a longitudinal field experimental study

The question of how to develop leaders so that they are more effective in a variety of situations, roles and levels has inspired a voluminous amount of research. While leader development programs such as executive coaching and 360-degree feedback have been widely practiced to meet this demand within organisations, the research in this area has only scratched the surface. Drawing from the past literature and leadership practices, the current research conceptualised self-regulation, as a metacompetency that would assist leaders to further develop the specific competencies needed to perform effectively in their leadership role, leading to an increased rating of leader effectiveness and to enhanced group performance. To test this conceptualisation, a longitudinal field experimental study was conducted across ten months with a pre- and two post-test intervention designs with a matched control group. This longitudinal field experimental compared the difference in leader and team performance after receiving self-regulation intervention that was delivered by an executive coach. Leaders in experimental group also received feedback reports from 360-degree feedback at each stage. Participants were 40 leaders, 155 followers and 8 supervisors. Leaders’ performance was measured using a multi-source perceptual measure of leader performance and objective measures of team financial and assessment performance. Analyses using repeated measure of ANCOVA on pre-test and two post-tests responses showed a significant difference between leader and team performance between experimental and control group. Furthermore, leader competencies mediated the relationship between self-regulation and performance. The implications of these findings for the theory and practice of leadership development training programs and the impact on organisational performance are discussed.

Visual acuity measures do not reliably detect childhood refractive error - an epidemiological study

Purpose To investigate the utility of uncorrected visual acuity measures in screening for refractive error in white school children aged 6-7-years and 12-13-years. Methods The Northern Ireland Childhood Errors of Refraction (NICER) study used a stratified random cluster design to recruit children from schools in Northern Ireland. Detailed eye examinations included assessment of logMAR visual acuity and cycloplegic autorefraction. Spherical equivalent refractive data from the right eye were used to classify significant refractive error as myopia of at least 1DS, hyperopia as greater than +3.50DS and astigmatism as greater than 1.50DC, whether it occurred in isolation or in association with myopia or hyperopia. Results Results are presented from 661 white 12-13-year-old and 392 white 6-7-year-old school-children. Using a cut-off of uncorrected visual acuity poorer than 0.20 logMAR to detect significant refractive error gave a sensitivity of 50% and specificity of 92% in 6-7-year-olds and 73% and 93% respectively in 12-13-year-olds. In 12-13-year-old children a cut-off of poorer than 0.20 logMAR had a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 91% in detecting myopia and a sensitivity of 41% and a specificity of 84% in detecting hyperopia. Conclusions Vision screening using logMAR acuity can reliably detect myopia, but not hyperopia or astigmatism in school-age children. Providers of vision screening programs should be cognisant that where detection of uncorrected hyperopic and/or astigmatic refractive error is an aspiration, current UK protocols will not effectively deliver.

Using interior point algorithms for the solution of linear programs with special structural features

Linear Programming (LP) is a powerful decision making tool extensively used in various economic and engineering activities. In the early stages the success of LP was mainly due to the efficiency of the simplex method. After the appearance of Karmarkar's paper, the focus of most research was shifted to the field of interior point methods. The present work is concerned with investigating and efficiently implementing the latest techniques in this field taking sparsity into account. The performance of these implementations on different classes of LP problems is reported here. The preconditional conjugate gradient method is one of the most powerful tools for the solution of the least square problem, present in every iteration of all interior point methods. The effect of using different preconditioners on a range of problems with various condition numbers is presented. Decomposition algorithms has been one of the main fields of research in linear programming over the last few years. After reviewing the latest decomposition techniques, three promising methods were chosen the implemented. Sparsity is again a consideration and suggestions have been included to allow improvements when solving problems with these methods. Finally, experimental results on randomly generated data are reported and compared with an interior point method. The efficient implementation of the decomposition methods considered in this study requires the solution of quadratic subproblems. A review of recent work on algorithms for convex quadratic was performed. The most promising algorithms are discussed and implemented taking sparsity into account. The related performance of these algorithms on randomly generated separable and non-separable problems is also reported.

Parametric study of the behaviour of reinforced concrete columns in fire

The research is concerned with the application of the computer simulation technique to study the performance of reinforced concrete columns in a fire environment. The effect of three different concrete constitutive models incorporated in the computer simulation on the structural response of reinforced concrete columns exposed to fire is investigated. The material models differed mainly in respect to the formulation of the mechanical properties of concrete. The results from the simulation have clearly illustrated that a more realistic response of a reinforced concrete column exposed to fire is given by a constitutive model with transient creep or appropriate strain effect The assessment of the relative effect of the three concrete material models is considered from the analysis by adopting the approach of a parametric study, carried out using the results from a series of analyses on columns heated on three sides which produce substantial thermal gradients. Three different loading conditions were used on the column; axial loading and eccentric loading both to induce moments in the same sense and opposite sense to those induced by the thermal gradient. An axially loaded column heated on four sides was also considered. The computer modelling technique adopted separated the thermal and structural responses into two distinct computer programs. A finite element heat transfer analysis was used to determine the thermal response of the reinforced concrete columns when exposed to the ISO 834 furnace environment. The temperature distribution histories obtained were then used in conjunction with a structural response program. The effect of the occurrence of spalling on the structural behaviour of reinforced concrete column is also investigated. There is general recognition of the potential problems of spalling but no real investigation into what effect spalling has on the fire resistance of reinforced concrete members. In an attempt to address the situation, a method has been developed to model concrete columns exposed to fire which incorporates the effect of spalling. A total of 224 computer simulations were undertaken by varying the amounts of concrete lost during a specified period of exposure to fire. An array of six percentages of spalling were chosen for one range of simulation while a two stage progressive spalling regime was used for a second range. The quantification of the reduction in fire resistance of the columns against the amount of spalling, heating and loading patterns, and the time at which the concrete spalls appears to indicate that it is the amount of spalling which is the most significant variable in the reduction of fire resistance.

Copper(II) complexes with unsymmetrical pentadentate ed3a-type diamino-tricarboxylate ligands. Crystal structures, configurational analysis and DFT study of complexes

The O–O–N–N–O-type pentadentate ligands H3ed3a, H3pd3a and H3pd3p (H3ed3a stands ethylenediamine-N,N,N′-triacetic acid; H3pd3a stands 1,3-propanediamine-N,N,N′-triacetic acid and H3pd3p stands 1,3-propanediamine-N,N,N′-tri-3-propionic acid) and the corresponding novel octahedral or square-planar/trigonal-bipyramidal copper(II) complexes have been prepared and characterized. H3ed3a, H3pd3a and H3pd3p ligands coordinate to copper(II) ion via five donor atoms (three deprotonated carboxylate atoms and two amine nitrogens) affording octahedral in case of ed3a3− and intermediate square-pyramidal/trigonal-bipyramidal structure in case of pd3a3− and pd3p3−. A six coordinate, octahedral geometry has been established crystallographically for the [Mg(H2O)6][Cu(ed3a)(H2O)]2 · 2H2O complex and five coordinate square-pyramidal for the [Mg(H2O)5Cu(pd3a)][Cu(pd3a)] · 2H2O. Structural data correlating similar chelate Cu(II) complexes have been used for the better understanding the pathway: octahedral → square-pyramidal ↔ trigonal- bipyramid geometry. An extensive configuration analysis is discussed in relation to information obtained for similar complexes. The infra-red and electronic absorption spectra of the complexes are discussed in comparison with related complexes of known geometries. Molecular mechanics and density functional theory (DFT) programs have been used to model the most stable geometric isomer yielding, at the same time, significant structural data. The results from density functional studies have been compared with X-ray data.

Do managerial strategies influence service behaviours? Insights from a qualitative study

Based on a review of the extant literature, a conceptual framework for analyzing the associations between managerial strategies (internal communications, empowerment, supportive leadership and professional development), employee job attitudes (organizational commitment and job satisfaction) and prosocial service behaviours (PSBs) is developed. The authors explore the relevance of the proposed conceptual model and testable propositions regarding the associations between managerial strategies, employee attitudes and PSBs by conducting in-depth interviews of FLEs in a travel service organization. Based on the findings of the in-depth interviews, the relationships between managerial strategies, job attitudes and PSBs in the conceptual framework are largely supported.

Facial affect processing inbipolar disorder:a magnetoencephalography study

Background: Identifying biological markers to aid diagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) is critically important. To be considered a possible biological marker, neural patterns in BD should be discriminant from those in healthy individuals (HI). We examined patterns of neuromagnetic responses revealed by magnetoencephalography (MEG) during implicit emotion-processing using emotional (happy, fearful, sad) and neutral facial expressions, in sixteen BD and sixteen age- and gender-matched healthy individuals. Methods: Neuromagnetic data were recorded using a 306-channel whole-head MEG ELEKTA Neuromag System, and preprocessed using Signal Space Separation as implemented in MaxFilter (ELEKTA). Custom Matlab programs removed EOG and ECG signals from filtered MEG data, and computed means of epoched data (0-250ms, 250-500ms, 500-750ms). A generalized linear model with three factors (individual, emotion intensity and time) compared BD and HI. A principal component analysis of normalized mean channel data in selected brain regions identified principal components that explained 95% of data variation. These components were used in a quadratic support vector machine (SVM) pattern classifier. SVM classifier performance was assessed using the leave-one-out approach. Results: BD and HI showed significantly different patterns of activation for 0-250ms within both left occipital and temporal regions, specifically for neutral facial expressions. PCA analysis revealed significant differences between BD and HI for mild fearful, happy, and sad facial expressions within 250-500ms. SVM quadratic classifier showed greatest accuracy (84%) and sensitivity (92%) for neutral faces, in left occipital regions within 500-750ms. Conclusions: MEG responses may be used in the search for disease specific neural markers.

Imagined intergroup contact facilitates intercultural communication for college students on academic exchange programs

Imagined intergroup contact (Crisp & Turner, 2009) is a new cognitive intervention designed to improve intergroup relations. In two studies, we examined whether it could also facilitate intercultural communication among international students and host country natives engaged in a college exchange program. In Study 1, international students who had recently arrived in Italy and participated in an imagined contact session displayed increased self-disclosure toward, and improved evaluation of, host country natives. In Study 2, Italian students mentally simulated positive contact with an unknown native from the host country prior to leaving for the exchange. Results from an online questionnaire administered on their return (on average, more than 7 months after the imagery task) revealed that participants who imagined contact reported spending more time with natives during the stay and enhanced outgroup evaluation, via reduced intergroup anxiety. Implications for enhancing the quality and effectiveness of college student exchange programs are discussed.