We propose a dynamic model of positive feedback between human resource (HR) investments and companies' economic performance. The model assumes that HR investment increases profitability through labor ...productivity and, in turn, profitability improves HR investment through organizational slack. Based on data from a sample of 2,497 industrial companies over a 7‐year period (2005–2011), longitudinal analysis corroborates the existence of a two‐way relationship between HR investment and profitability over time. However, the emergence of an economic crisis weakens this feedback, identifying the effect of organizational slack on HR investment as the weakest causal chain link. In a postcrisis period, HR investment is not such a high priority for managers.
We extend the 'black box' picture of public management and the 'balanced view' of HRM literature in the Spanish public context. Specifically, we explore the link between structural empowerment and ...organisational performance and the mediating role of three employee outcomes: job satisfaction and affective commitment as attitudinal variables related to eudaimonic well-being, and job anxiety as a variable related to hedonic well-being. Using a multilevel methodology with data on employees from 103 local authorities for 2016, results support the mutual gains perspective, but not as intensely as expected (empowerment does not affect attitudinal variables), since empowerment contributes to reducing job anxiety in Spanish local governments. Specifically, information and rewards are the structural empowerment dimensions that help to reduce job anxiety levels in employees and, thus, enhance performance. These results suggest that local government managers could usefully apply techniques such as disseminating information on the organisation's aims among employees or paying bonuses for meeting targets.
In this work, we analyze the kinetics of the entanglement–disentanglement process of complex fluids coupled to a rheological constitutive equation of state within an irreversible thermodynamics ...framework. In the context of the coupling between the kinetics and the mechanical phenomena, we assume that the rate constants are functions of the affinities that contain the chemical potentials, which are themselves functions of the extended Gibbs free energy containing the irreversible dissipation terms. Although the derived model has a simple mathematical structure, it is able to predict complex flow behaviors, including shear‐thickening, shear‐thinning, and more complex flow histories such as shear‐banding. As special case, we derive the constitutive equations of the Bautista–Manero–Puig (BMP) model in which the material constants have a thermodynamic basis and have been successfully used for the last two decades to predict the behavior of complex fluids such as the ones examined here.
In developed societies, the cultural value of social trust and cooperative behavior decreases when levels of poverty increase. Based on the contextual social exchange perspective, we argue that these ...societal traits can be transmitted to companies located within such societies, resulting in a reduction of human resource (HR) investment and a decrease in the effect of these HR investments on workforce performance. Therefore, poverty in society has a dual role in its connection with HR investment, acting both as an antecedent and as a moderator. The employment relationship is dependent on the deprivation and poor quality of life of people in the region. We arrive at this conclusion from a study conducted on a sample of 2192 companies during a period of six years and applying longitudinal structural equation modeling. Findings indicate the importance of placing HR practices within their socioeconomic environment, specifically living conditions, to understand their implementation and return over time.
The metabolic syndrome is defined by the clustering of a number of cardiovascular risk factors and entails an increased risk for cardiovascular disease and mortality from both cardiovascular disease ...and all causes. In the present paper, we review the most recent evidence on the association between hyperuricemia, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease.
Serum urate is frequently elevated in patients with the metabolic syndrome and increases with the number of components of this condition. Hyperuricemia has been related to decreased renal uric acid excretion, which may be mediated by enhanced proximal tubular sodium reabsorption and hyperinsulinemia. Recent epidemiologic studies have shed some light on the prognosis of hyperuricemia. While hyperuricemia appears to show a benign significance in low cardiovascular risk individuals, it clearly increases cardiovascular mortality in patients at high cardiovascular disease risk.
Clinicians should be aware of the presence of metabolic syndrome in patients with hyperuricemia or gout in order to control its components (high blood pressure, obesity, etc.) and hence reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease. Long-term, randomized interventional clinical trials are needed to test the hypothesis that urate-lowering therapy can reduce cardiovascular risk in these patients.
Data are needed to assess safety and efficacy of the 2009 pandemic influenza A H1N1 vaccine in renal patients.
We prospectively evaluated seroconversion, predictors of response, and vaccine safety in ...renal patients. Hemagglutination inhibition tests to detect serum antibodies against a new influenza A-H1N1 virus were performed in 79 transplant patients, 48 hemodialysis patients, and 15 healthy workers before and 1 month after vaccination. Healthy controls and 88 of 127 renal patients were vaccinated. Seroconversion was defined as at least 2 dilutions increase in titer.
We excluded 19 individuals seroprotected (≥1/40) against the novel H1N1 in the initial sample. Efficacy rate in the 96 vaccinated individuals was 43.7% (42 of 96 seroconverted versus four of 27 nonvaccinated patients, P = 0.007). For vaccinated subgroups, efficacy was 41.8% in transplant patients (P = 0.039 versus nonvaccinated), 33.3% in hemodialysis patients (P = 0.450), and 81.8% in controls. Healthy controls showed better response to vaccine than transplant (P = 0.021) and dialysis (P = 0.012) patients. For the transplant subgroup, longer time after transplantation (P = 0.028) was associated with seroconversion, but no influence was found for age, gender, renal function, or immunosuppression. In the hemodialysis subgroup, younger age was associated with response (55.7 ± 20.8 versus 71.6 ± 10.1 years, P = 0.042), but other specific variables, including Kt/V or time on dialysis, were not. No serious adverse events were reported, and kidney function was stable.
The novel influenza A 2009 H1N1 vaccine was safe in renal patients, although administration of a single dose of adjuvanted vaccine induced a poor response in these patients.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of how to raise organizational performance in public sector organizations through human resource management. Specifically, this ...paper aims to investigate the link between structural empowerment and organizational performance, and the mediating role of the psychological empowerment of employees.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply multilevel structural equation modeling using a sample of 103 local governments’ managers and 461 employees from Spain.
Findings
The results show that structural empowerment is positively associated with organizational performance. Surprisingly, this relationship is not mediated by psychological empowerment, although it is a powerful antecedent of organizational performance.
Originality/value
In the context of new public management, structural empowerment emerges as a useful component of human resource management for improving organizational performance in public sector organizations. Nevertheless, scant research has combined structural empowerment practices and employees’ feelings of empowerment, which would create a global view to shed light on their role to increase organizational performance. Therefore, this paper examines the mediating function of psychological empowerment (individual level) in the structural empowerment–organizational performance link (organizational level) in the context of public sector organizations.
Background: Aberrant vascular architecture and angiogenesis are hallmarks of glioblastoma IDH-wildtype, suggesting that these tumors are suitable for antiangiogenic therapy. Bevacizumab was ...FDA-approved in 2009 following promising results in two clinical trials. However, its use for recurrent glioblastomas remains a subject of debate, as it does not universally improve patient survival. Purposes: In this study, we aimed to analyze the influence of tumor vascularity on the benefit provided by BVZ and propose preoperative rCBVmax at the high angiogenic tumor habitat as a predictive biomarker to select patients who can benefit the most. Methods: Clinical and MRI data from 106 patients with glioblastoma IDH-wildtype have been analyzed. Thirty-nine of them received BVZ, and the remaining sixty-seven did not receive a second-line treatment. The ONCOhabitats method was used to automatically calculate rCBV. Results: We found a median survival from progression of 305 days longer for patients with moderate vascular tumors who received BVZ than those who did not receive any second-line treatment. This contrasts with patients with high-vascular tumors who only presented a median survival of 173 days longer when receiving BVZ. Furthermore, better responses to BVZ were found for the moderate-vascular group with a higher proportion of patients alive at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after progression. Conclusions: We propose rCBVmax as a potential biomarker to select patients who can benefit more from BVZ after tumor progression. In addition, we propose a threshold of 7.5 to stratify patients into moderate- and high-vascular groups to select the optimal second-line treatment.
There are limited data on the quality of treated blood pressure (BP) control during normal daily life, and in particular, the prevalence of 'masked uncontrolled hypertension' (MUCH) in people with ...treated and seemingly well-controlled BP is unknown. This is important because masked hypertension in 'treatment naïve' patients is associated with a high risk of cardiovascular events. We therefore conducted the first study to define the prevalence and characteristics of MUCH among a large sample of hypertensive patients in routine clinical practice in whom BP was treated and controlled to recommended clinic BP goals.
We analysed data from the Spanish Society of Hypertension ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) Registry and identified patients with treated and controlled BP according to current international guidelines (clinic BP <140/90 mmHg). Masked uncontrolled hypertension was diagnosed in these patients if despite controlled clinic BP, the mean 24-h ABPM average remained elevated (24-h systolic BP ≥130 mmHg and/or 24-h diastolic BP ≥80 mmHg). From 62 788 patients with treated BP in the Spanish registry, we identified 14 840 with treated and controlled clinic BP, of whom 4608 patients (31.1%) had MUCH according to 24-h ABPM criteria (mean age 59.4 years, 59.7% men). The prevalence of MUCH was significantly higher in males, patients with borderline clinic BP (130-9/80-9 mmHg), and patients at high cardiovascular risk (smokers, diabetes, obesity). Masked uncontrolled hypertension was most often because of poor control of nocturnal BP, with the proportion of patients in whom MUCH was solely attributable to an elevated nocturnal BP almost double that solely attributable to daytime BP elevation (24.3 vs. 12.9%, P < 0.001).
The prevalence of masked suboptimal BP control in patients with treated and well-controlled clinic BP is high. Clinic BP monitoring alone is thus inadequate to optimize BP control because many patients have an elevated nocturnal BP. These findings suggest that ABPM should become more routine to confirm BP control, especially in higher risk groups and/or those with borderline control of clinic BP.
The corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is involved in a number of physiological functions including pain perception. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of CRF1 receptor in the ...long-lasting post-surgical changes in somatic nociceptive thresholds and in local inflammatory responses, using genetically engineered mice lacking functional CRF1 receptor. Animals underwent a plantar incision under anaesthesia with remifentanil (80μg/kg s.c.) and sevoflurane. Mechanical thresholds (von Frey) and plasma extravasation (Evan's blue) were evaluated at different time points. On postoperative day 20, mechanical thresholds had returned to baseline in CD1 mice (3.07±6.21%), while B6,129CRHtklee mice presented significant hyperalgesia, which was similar in wild-type (WT) (−29.81±8.89%) and CRF1 receptor knockout (KO) (−37.10±10.75%) mice, showing strain differences. The administration of naloxone (1mg/kg, s.c.) on postoperative day 21 produced hyperalgesia revealing surgery-induced latent pain sensitization. The extent of hyperalgesia was greater in KO versus WT mice, suggesting a role of CRF1 receptors in the upward modulation of endogenous opioid release. Furthermore, two days after surgery, plasma extravasation returned to baseline in WT mice but remained elevated in KO mice. In non-manipulated B6,129CRHtklee KO mice we observed an increase in the number of writhes (41.25±11.36) versus WT (23.80±4.71), while in the tail immersion test no differences could be detected. Our results show that CRF/CRF1 receptors seem to be a protective role in latent pain sensitization induced by surgery and in the local inflammatory response to injury.
•We have used genetically engineered mice lacking CRF1 receptor to evaluate the role of this receptor in the long-lasting post-surgical changes in nociceptive thresholds and in local inflammatory responses.•Our results suggest a role of CRF/CRF1 receptor in latent pain sensitization induced by surgery and in the inflammatory processes.•The results of the present study may contribute to further understanding the mechanisms implicated in the latent pain sensitization and in the local inflammatory response to tissue injury.
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