Threat of resource loss: The role of self-regulation in adaptive task performance

Changes at work are often accompanied with the threat of, or actual, resource loss. Through an experiment, we investigated the detrimental effect of the threat of resource loss on adaptive task performance. Self-regulation (i.e., task focus and emotion control) was hypothesized to buffer the negative relationship between the threat of resource loss and adaptive task performance. Adaptation was conceptualized as relearning after a change in task execution rules. Threat of resource loss was manipulated for 100 participants undertaking an air traffic control task. Using discontinuous growth curve modeling, 2 kinds of adaptation—transition adaptation and reacquisition adaptation—were differentiated. The results showed that individuals who experienced the threat of resource loss had a stronger drop in performance (less transition adaptation) and a subsequent slower recovery (less reacquisition adaptation) compared with the control group who experienced no threat. Emotion control (but not task focus) moderated the relationship between the threat of resource loss and transition adaptation. In this respect, individuals who felt threatened but regulated their emotions performed better immediately after the task change (but not later on) compared with those individuals who felt threatened and did not regulate their emotions as well. However, later on, relearning (reacquisition adaptation) under the threat of resource loss was facilitated when individuals concentrated on the task at hand.

Feedbacks between vegetation pattern and resource loss dramatically decrease ecosystem resilience and restoration potential in a simple dryland model

Conceptual frameworks of dryland degradation commonly include ecohydrological feedbacks between landscape spatial organization and resource loss, so that decreasing cover and size of vegetation patches result in higher water and soil losses, which lead to further vegetation loss. However, the impacts of these feedbacks on dryland dynamics in response to external stress have barely been tested. Using a spatially-explicit model, we represented feedbacks between vegetation pattern and landscape resource loss by establishing a negative dependence of plant establishment on the connectivity of runoff-source areas (e.g., bare soils). We assessed the impact of various feedback strengths on the response of dryland ecosystems to changing external conditions. In general, for a given external pressure, these connectivity-mediated feedbacks decrease vegetation cover at equilibrium, which indicates a decrease in ecosystem resistance. Along a gradient of gradual increase of environmental pressure (e.g., aridity), the connectivity-mediated feedbacks decrease the amount of pressure required to cause a critical shift to a degraded state (ecosystem resilience). If environmental conditions improve, these feedbacks increase the pressure release needed to achieve the ecosystem recovery (restoration potential). The impact of these feedbacks on dryland response to external stress is markedly non-linear, which relies on the non-linear negative relationship between bare-soil connectivity and vegetation cover. Modelling studies on dryland vegetation dynamics not accounting for the connectivity-mediated feedbacks studied here may overestimate the resistance, resilience and restoration potential of drylands in response to environmental and human pressures. Our results also suggest that changes in vegetation pattern and associated hydrological connectivity may be more informative early-warning indicators of dryland degradation than changes in vegetation cover.

Natural disaster accounting bias and its equivalence across genetic resource stocks

Two sources of bias arise in conventional loss predictions in the wake of natural disasters. One source of bias stems from neglect of accounting for animal genetic resource loss. A second source of bias stems from failure to identify, in addition to the direct effects of such loss, the indirect effects arising from implications impacting animal-human interactions. We argue that, in some contexts, the magnitude of bias imputed by neglecting animal genetic resource stocks is substantial. We show, in addition, and contrary to popular belief, that the biases attributable to losses in distinct genetic resource stocks are very likely to be the same. We derive the formal equivalence across the distinct resource stocks by deriving an envelope result in a model that forms the mainstay of enquiry in subsistence farming and we validate the theory, empirically, in a World-Society-for-the-Protection-of-Animals application

Inside the competences evaluation, the stress tolerance of students. An empirical study based on conservation of resources theory

Competence development is considered a preventive strategy of burnout. At an organizational context some competences could be linked as precursors or consequences. In self-assessment of competence development, students perceive stress tolerance as a priority competence to ameliorate. Moreover employers and recruitment consultants agree that this is a new authentic challenge for organizations. The main reasons of this result are debated, this study should consider the importance of competence development from a holistic point of view. In addition it considers the exploration of the relationship between stress tolerance and competence development, according to Conservation Resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll 1988, 1989, 1998, 2004) where the resource loss is considered the principal component in the stress process

Los horarios laborales y su influencia en la percepción del equilibro trabajo-familia

Conciliar el trabajo y la familia es una lucha cotidiana que cada persona realiza para satisfacer las exigencias de ambas dimensiones de su vida. El no tener consciencia del problema que surge en el empleado para lograr esta conciliación y la ausencia de soluciones eficaces a éste, no sólo afecta a la organización a través de la baja productividad, el absentismo, el aumento del estrés, entre otros efectos; sino también a la vida familiar, social, física y psicológica del trabajador. Es por ello, que este proyecto de grado busca a partir de la revisión de la literatura mostrar cómo la percepción que tienen los trabajadores de su equilibrio trabajo-familia, se ve influenciada por un factor organizativo, como lo son los turnos laborales; además evidenciar las soluciones que se han implementado en las diferentes empresas de manera exitósa, para finalmente plantear estrategias que se puedan aplicar en las organizaciones facilitando el equilibrio trabajo-familia de los trabajadores.

Electronic medical record systems, data quality and loss to follow-up: survey of antiretroviral therapy programmes in resource-limited settings

OBJECTIVE: To describe the electronic medical databases used in antiretroviral therapy (ART) programmes in lower-income countries and assess the measures such programmes employ to maintain and improve data quality and reduce the loss of patients to follow-up. METHODS: In 15 countries of Africa, South America and Asia, a survey was conducted from December 2006 to February 2007 on the use of electronic medical record systems in ART programmes. Patients enrolled in the sites at the time of the survey but not seen during the previous 12 months were considered lost to follow-up. The quality of the data was assessed by computing the percentage of missing key variables (age, sex, clinical stage of HIV infection, CD4+ lymphocyte count and year of ART initiation). Associations between site characteristics (such as number of staff members dedicated to data management), measures to reduce loss to follow-up (such as the presence of staff dedicated to tracing patients) and data quality and loss to follow-up were analysed using multivariate logit models. FINDINGS: Twenty-one sites that together provided ART to 50 060 patients were included (median number of patients per site: 1000; interquartile range, IQR: 72-19 320). Eighteen sites (86%) used an electronic database for medical record-keeping; 15 (83%) such sites relied on software intended for personal or small business use. The median percentage of missing data for key variables per site was 10.9% (IQR: 2.0-18.9%) and declined with training in data management (odds ratio, OR: 0.58; 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.37-0.90) and weekly hours spent by a clerk on the database per 100 patients on ART (OR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.90-0.99). About 10 weekly hours per 100 patients on ART were required to reduce missing data for key variables to below 10%. The median percentage of patients lost to follow-up 1 year after starting ART was 8.5% (IQR: 4.2-19.7%). Strategies to reduce loss to follow-up included outreach teams, community-based organizations and checking death registry data. Implementation of all three strategies substantially reduced losses to follow-up (OR: 0.17; 95% CI: 0.15-0.20). CONCLUSION: The quality of the data collected and the retention of patients in ART treatment programmes are unsatisfactory for many sites involved in the scale-up of ART in resource-limited settings, mainly because of insufficient staff trained to manage data and trace patients lost to follow-up.

Pitfalls of practicing cancer epidemiology in resource-limited settings: the case of survival and loss to follow-up after a diagnosis of Kaposi's sarcoma in five countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND Survival after diagnosis is a fundamental concern in cancer epidemiology. In resource-rich settings, ambient clinical databases, municipal data and cancer registries make survival estimation in real-world populations relatively straightforward. In resource-poor settings, given the deficiencies in a variety of health-related data systems, it is less clear how well we can determine cancer survival from ambient data. METHODS We addressed this issue in sub-Saharan Africa for Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), a cancer for which incidence has exploded with the HIV epidemic but for which survival in the region may be changing with the recent advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART). From 33 primary care HIV Clinics in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Nigeria and Cameroon participating in the International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) Consortia in 2009-2012, we identified 1328 adults with newly diagnosed KS. Patients were evaluated from KS diagnosis until death, transfer to another facility or database closure. RESULTS Nominally, 22% of patients were estimated to be dead by 2 years, but this estimate was clouded by 45% cumulative lost to follow-up with unknown vital status by 2 years. After adjustment for site and CD4 count, age <30 years and male sex were independently associated with becoming lost. CONCLUSIONS In this community-based sample of patients diagnosed with KS in sub-Saharan Africa, almost half became lost to follow-up by 2 years. This precluded accurate estimation of survival. Until we either generally strengthen data systems or implement cancer-specific enhancements (e.g., tracking of the lost) in the region, insights from cancer epidemiology will be limited.

Genetic resource impacts of habitat loss and degradation; reconciling empirical evidence and predicted theory for neotropical trees

The theoretical impacts of anthropogenic habitat degradation on genetic resources have been well articulated. Here we use a simulation approach to assess the magnitude of expected genetic change, and review 31 studies of 23 neotropical tree species to assess whether empirical case studies conform to theory. Major differences in the sensitivity of measures to detect the genetic health of degraded populations were obvious. Most studies employing genetic diversity (nine out of 13) found no significant consequences, yet most that assessed progeny inbreeding (six out of eight), reproductive output (seven out of 10) and fitness (all six) highlighted significant impacts. These observations are in line with theory, where inbreeding is observed immediately following impact, but genetic diversity is lost slowly over subsequent generations, which for trees may take decades. Studies also highlight the ecological, not just genetic, consequences of habitat degradation that can cause reduced seed set and progeny fitness. Unexpectedly, two studies examining pollen flow using paternity analysis highlight an extensive network of gene flow at smaller spatial scales (less than 10 km). Gene flow can thus mitigate against loss of genetic diversity and assist in long-term population viability, even in degraded landscapes. Unfortunately, the surveyed studies were too few and heterogeneous to examine concepts of population size thresholds and genetic resilience in relation to life history. Future suggested research priorities include undertaking integrated studies on a range of species in the same landscapes; better documentation of the extent and duration of impact; and most importantly, combining neutral marker, pollination dynamics, ecological consequences, and progeny fitness assessment within single studies.

Detecting collusive fraud in enterprise resource planning systems

In today's technological age, fraud has become more complicated, and increasingly more difficult to detect, especially when it is collusive in nature. Different fraud surveys showed that the median loss from collusive fraud is much greater than fraud perpetrated by a single person. Despite its prevalence and potentially devastating effects, collusion is commonly overlooked as an organizational risk. Internal auditors often fail to proactively consider collusion in their fraud assessment and detection efforts. In this paper, we consider fraud scenarios with collusion. We present six potentially collusive fraudulent behaviors and show their detection process in an ERP system. We have enhanced our fraud detection framework to utilize aggregation of different sources of logs in order to detect communication and have further enhanced it to render it system-agnostic thus achieving portability and making it generally applicable to all ERP systems.

A new method to detect loss of heterozygosity using cohort heterozygosity comparisons

Background Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) is an important marker for one of the 'two-hits' required for tumor suppressor gene inactivation. Traditional methods for mapping LOH regions require the comparison of both tumor and patient-matched normal DNA samples. However, for many archival samples, patient-matched normal DNA is not available leading to the under-utilization of this important resource in LOH studies. Here we describe a new method for LOH analysis that relies on the genome-wide comparison of heterozygosity of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between cohorts of cases and un-matched healthy control samples. Regions of LOH are defined by consistent decreases in heterozygosity across a genetic region in the case cohort compared to the control cohort. Methods DNA was collected from 20 Follicular Lymphoma (FL) tumor samples, 20 Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) tumor samples, neoplastic B-cells of 10 B-cell Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (B-CLL) patients and Buccal cell samples matched to 4 of these B-CLL patients. The cohort heterozygosity comparison method was developed and validated using LOH derived in a small cohort of B-CLL by traditional comparisons of tumor and normal DNA samples, and compared to the only alternative method for LOH analysis without patient matched controls. LOH candidate regions were then generated for enlarged cohorts of B-CLL, FL and DLBCL samples using our cohort heterozygosity comparison method in order to evaluate potential LOH candidate regions in these non-Hodgkin's lymphoma tumor subtypes. Results Using a small cohort of B-CLL samples with patient-matched normal DNA we have validated the utility of this method and shown that it displays more accuracy and sensitivity in detecting LOH candidate regions compared to the only alternative method, the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) method. Subsequently, using B-CLL, FL and DLBCL tumor samples we have utilised cohort heterozygosity comparisons to localise LOH candidate regions in these subtypes of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Detected LOH regions included both previously described regions of LOH as well as novel genomic candidate regions. Conclusions We have proven the efficacy of the use of cohort heterozygosity comparisons for genome-wide mapping of LOH and shown it to be in many ways superior to the HMM method. Additionally, the use of this method to analyse SNP microarray data from 3 common forms of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma yielded interesting tumor suppressor gene candidates, including the ETV3 gene that was highlighted in both B-CLL and FL.

Consumer misbehavior: a concurrent look at the impact that the size of the victim and size of the loss have on opinions regarding the acceptance or unacceptance of 12 questionable consumer actions

This study examines the role that the size of a victimised organisation and the size of the victim’s loss have on attitudes regarding the acceptance or unacceptance of 12 questionable consumer actions. A sample of 815 American adults rated each scenario on a scale anchored by very acceptable and very unacceptable. It was shown that the size of the victimised organisation tends to influence consumers’ opinions with more disdain directed towards consumers who take advantage of smaller businesses. Similarly, the respondents tended to be more critical of these actions when the loss incurred by the victimised organisation was large. A 2x2 matrix concurrently delineated the nature of the extent to which opinions regarding the 12 actions differed depending upon the mediating variable under scrutiny.

Resource allocation in two species systems: Is it worth acknowledging species interactions?

It is becoming increasingly popular to consider species interactions when managing ecological foodwebs. Such an approach is useful in determining how management can affect multiple species, with either beneficial or detrimental consequences. Identifying such actions is particularly valuable in the context of conservation decision making as funding is severely limited. This paper outlines a new approach that simplifies the resource allocation problem in a two species system for a range of species interactions: independent, mutualism, predator-prey, and competitive exclusion. We assume that both species are endangered and we do not account for decisions over time. We find that optimal funding allocation is to the conservation of the species with the highest marginal gain in expected probability of survival and that, across all except mutualist interaction types, optimal conservation funding allocation differs between species. Loss in efficiency from ignoring species interactions was most severe in predator-prey systems. The funding problem we address, where an ecosystem includes multiple threatened species, will only become more commonplace as increasing numbers of species worldwide become threatened. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

Optimizing Multimedia Experience in a Thin Client Environment for a Resource Constrained Processor

In this paper, we study how TCP and UDP flows interact with each other when the end system is a CPU resource constrained thin client. The problem addressed is twofold, 1) the throughput of TCP flows degrades severely in the presence of heavily loaded UDP flows 2) fairness and minimum QoS requirements of UDP are not maintained. First, we identify the factors affecting the TCP throughput by providing an in-depth analysis of end to end delay and packet loss variations. The results obtained from the first part leads us to our second contribution. We propose and study the use of an algorithm that ensures fairness across flows. The algorithm improves the performance of TCP flows in the presence of multiple UDP flows admitted under an admission algorithm and maintains the minimum QoS requirements of the UDP flows. The advantage of the algorithm is that it requires no changes to TCP/IP stack and control is achieved through receiver window control.

Low loss and frequency (1 kHz–1 MHz) independent dielectric characteristics of 3BaO–3TiO2–B2O3 glasses

X-ray powder diffraction along with differential thermal analysis carried out on the as-quenched samples in the 3BaO–3TiO2–B2O3 system confirmed their amorphous and glassy nature, respectively. The dielectric constants in the 1 kHz–1 MHz frequency range were measured as a function of temperature (323–748 K). The dielectric constant and loss were found to be frequency independent in the 323–473 K temperature range. The temperature coefficient of dielectric constant was estimated using Havinga’s formula and found to be 16 ppm K−1. The electrical relaxation was rationalized using the electric modulus formalism. The dielectric constant and loss were 17±0.5 and 0.005±0.001, respectively at 323 K in the 1 kHz–1 MHz frequency range which may be of considerable interest to capacitor industry.

Low cost calibrated mechanical noisemaker for hearing screening of neonates in resource constrained settings

Background & objectives: There is a need to develop an affordable and reliable tool for hearing screening of neonates in resource constrained, medically underserved areas of developing nations. This study valuates a strategy of health worker based screening of neonates using a low cost mechanical calibrated noisemaker followed up with parental monitoring of age appropriate auditory milestones for detecting severe-profound hearing impairment in infants by 6 months of age. Methods: A trained health worker under the supervision of a qualified audiologist screened 425 neonates of whom 20 had confirmed severe-profound hearing impairment. Mechanical calibrated noisemakers of 50, 60, 70 and 80 dB (A) were used to elicit the behavioural responses. The parents of screened neonates were instructed to monitor the normal language and auditory milestones till 6 months of age. This strategy was validated against the reference standard consisting of a battery of tests - namely, auditory brain stem response (ABR), otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and behavioural assessment at 2 years of age. Bayesian prevalence weighted measures of screening were calculated. Results: The sensitivity and specificity was high with least false positive referrals for. 70 and 80 dB (A) noisemakers. All the noisemakers had 100 per cent negative predictive value. 70 and 80 dB (A) noisemakers had high positive likelihood ratios of 19 and 34, respectively. The probability differences for pre- and post- test positive was 43 and 58 for 70 and 80 dB (A) noisemakers, respectively. Interpretation & conclusions: In a controlled setting, health workers with primary education can be trained to use a mechanical calibrated noisemaker made of locally available material to reliably screen for severe-profound hearing loss in neonates. The monitoring of auditory responses could be done by informed parents. Multi-centre field trials of this strategy need to be carried out to examine the feasibility of community health care workers using it in resource constrained settings of developing nations to implement an effective national neonatal hearing screening programme.