What fuels the fire: Job- or task-specific motivation (or both)? On the hierarchical and multidimensional nature of teacher motivation in relation to job burnout

Drawing on a hierarchical (job and task level) and multidimensional conceptualisation of work motivation (intrinsic, identified, introjected, and external regulations), this study examines relationships between motivational regulations and burnout. Participants were 806 French-Canadian teachers working in public elementary and high schools. Results reveal different associations between burnout and the regulations that drive teachers to engage in their overall job or in specific tasks: autonomous regulations (intrinsic and identified) are negatively associated with burnout but more negatively at the job than task level, whereas controlled regulations (introjected and external) are positively associated with burnout but more positively at the task than job level. This study provides valuable insights into how teachers’ motivations towards both the job and tasks can foster or prevent burnout symptoms. Implications for theory and research on burnout and work motivation are discussed.     

A Bayesian dose‐finding design for drug combination clinical trials based on the logistic model

In early phase dose‐finding cancer studies, the objective is to determine the maximum tolerated dose, defined as the highest dose with an acceptable dose‐limiting toxicity rate. Finding this dose for drug‐combination trials is complicated because of drug–drug interactions, and many trial designs have been proposed to address this issue. These designs rely on complicated statistical models that typically are not familiar to clinicians, and are rarely used in practice. The aim of this paper is to propose a Bayesian dose‐finding design for drug combination trials based on standard logistic regression. Under the proposed design, we continuously update the posterior estimates of the model parameters to make the decisions of dose assignment and early stopping. Simulation studies show that the proposed design is competitive and outperforms some existing designs. We also extend our design to handle delayed toxicities. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Incremental exercise tests in master athletes and untrained older adults

This study aimed to analyze the impact of step-duration protocols, 1-min vs. 3-min, on cardiorespiratory responses to exercise, whatever the aerobic-fitness level of sedentary (65.5 +/- 2.3 years, n = 8) or highly fit (63.1 +/- 3.2 years, n = 19) participants. Heart rate and VO2 at the first and second ventilatory thresholds (VT1 ,VT2) and maximal exercise were not significantly different between the two protocols. In master athletes, the 3-min protocol elicited significantly lower ventilation at VT2 and maximal exercise (p < .01). In the latter, breathlessness was also lower at maximal exercise (p < .05) than in sedentary participants. In trained or sedentary older adults, VT1, VT2, and were not influenced by stage duration. According to the lower breathlessness and ventilation, however, the 3-min step protocol could be more appropriate in master athletes. In untrained participants, because the cardiorespiratory responses were similar with the two incremental exercise tests, either of them could be used.     

Ukraine Economy and Finance in the Reform Process and the European Partnership: A Focus on Aerospace Industry

In spite of economic stabilization and the growth rate uprise since 2003, Ukraine has received less than EUR 5 billion in foreign direct investment over the last five years (from 2000 to 2004). This is less than other less FDI-attractive countries got, notwithstanding the fact that Ukraine has a steel industry of international significance, great agriculture potential, and an automotive industry which accounts for almost 6% of the value added generated by the industrial sector. The new government of Ukraine has declared the foreign investment flows into Ukraine among its top priorities. Unfair competition as a result of past bad government policies was the reason for the low FDI inflow. The former Ukrainian government promoted private interests of a limited group of businessmen. Unfair privatization sales with a limited access of other investors, as well as violent ownership takeovers, took place. The new government has committed to stop this practice. The role of independent courts will grow in dealing with conflicts, including the revision of unfair privatization sales. The determination to be integrated with the EU represents an ultimate goal. Such a step is expected to facilitate Ukraine's movement towards European standards in all spheres. I also present a brief inside evaluation on the aerospace industry, for both the civil and military sectors, starting from a sketch of the defense industry in 2000. The situation of civil and military aviation in Russia and Ukraine has many points in common and it could not be different after such a prolonged common history in the same military-industrial complex. Ukrainian industrial capacity is more or less completely secluded from international partners and markets. EU and NATO should not miss the opportunity to take into account the human capital and the technology achievement already accumulated by Ukrainian industries, research centres, academies, laboratories. The Ukraine aviation industry has suffered a serious decline over the last 15 years. Only recently new programs and major developments in the sector, which is undergoing a major restructuring, have reopened the perspectives of new projects in both civil and military aviation, as well as in space projects. The components sectors will be affected positively if the developments will be confirmed by concrete international partnerships and investments, first of all with the EU and the United States. Mergers and restructuring of the existent production plants are a real need. As experience shows in Europe and in the global market, no national way or revival of past alliances could help Ukraine to maintain a role in the aerospace sector.     

Modelling Aggregation on the Large Scale and Regularity on the Small Scale in Spatial Point Pattern Datasets

We consider a dependent thinning of a regular point process with the aim of obtaining aggregation on the large scale and regularity on the small scale in the resulting target point process of retained points. Various parametric models for the underlying processes are suggested and the properties of the target point process are studied. Simulation and inference procedures are discussed when a realization of the target point process is observed, depending on whether the thinned points are observed or not. The paper extends previous work by Dietrich Stoyan on interrupted point processes.     

Testing for residual correlation of any order in the autoregressive process

We are interested in the implications of a linearly autocorrelated driven noise on the asymptotic behavior of the usual least-squares estimator in a stable autoregressive process. We show that the least-squares estimator is not consistent and we suggest a sharp analysis of its almost sure limiting value as well as its asymptotic normality. We also establish the almost sure convergence and the asymptotic normality of the estimated serial correlation parameter of the driven noise. Then, we derive a statistical procedure enabling to test for correlation of any order in the residuals of an autoregressive modelling, giving clearly better results than the commonly used portmanteau tests of Ljung–Box and Box–Pierce, and appearing to outperform the Breusch–Godfrey procedure on small-sized samples.     

%Gra: an SAS macro for generalized redundancy analysis

In the framework of redundancy analysis and reduced rank regression, the extended redundancy analysis model managed to account for more than two blocks of manifest variables in its specification. A further extension, the generalized redundancy analysis (GRA), has been recently proposed in literature, with the aim of incorporating external covariates into the model, thanks to a new estimation algorithm that manages to separate all the contributions of the exogenous and external covariates in the formation of the latent composites. At present, software to estimate GRA models is not available. In this paper, we provide an SAS macro, %GRA, to specify and fit structural relationships, with an application to illustrate the use of the macro.     

Quantitative Risk Assessment of Haemolytic and Uremic Syndrome Linked to O157:H7 and Non‐O157:H7 Shiga‐Toxin Producing Escherichia coli Strains in Raw Milk Soft Cheeses

Shiga‐toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains may cause human infections ranging from simple diarrhea to Haemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). The five main pathogenic serotypes of STEC (MPS‐STEC) identified thus far in Europe are O157:H7, O26:H11, O103:H2, O111:H8, and O145:H28. Because STEC strains can survive or grow during cheese making, particularly in soft cheeses, a stochastic quantitative microbial risk assessment model was developed to assess the risk of HUS associated with the five MPS‐STEC in raw milk soft cheeses. A baseline scenario represents a theoretical worst‐case scenario where no intervention was considered throughout the farm‐to‐fork continuum. The risk level assessed with this baseline scenario is the risk‐based level. The impact of seven preharvest scenarios (vaccines, probiotic, milk farm sorting) on the risk‐based level was expressed in terms of risk reduction. Impact of the preharvest intervention ranges from 76% to 98% of risk reduction with highest values predicted with scenarios combining a decrease of the number of cow shedding STEC and of the STEC concentration in feces. The impact of postharvest interventions on the risk‐based level was also tested by applying five microbiological criteria (MC) at the end of ripening. The five MCs differ in terms of sample size, the number of samples that may yield a value larger than the microbiological limit, and the analysis methods. The risk reduction predicted varies from 25% to 96% by applying MCs without preharvest interventions and from 1% to 96% with combination of pre‐ and postharvest interventions.     

A multi-user tool for enhancing the daily replanning and control of visits in home care services

The uncertainty associated with patients’ demands and operators’ availabilities is the main complexity factor in planning health care activities. Thus, activity replanning is required to react to the variations and to guarantee a good service quality. A particularly complex replanning activity is required in Home Care (HC) services, where any variation to the plans involves several decisions related, e.g. to nurses’ travels. Such complexity makes impossible for planners to integrate and to effectively handle all of the information in real time with the classical HC management tools. In this work, we design, implement and validate a new visualisation tool to support HC planners in handling the data, to better perform their replanning activities. The tool consists of a desk equipped with an interactive map, where up to four planners can manage the information together in a multilayer configuration. This solution allows to manage the high amount of data in a more effective and natural way than the tabular form of the current commercial tools, due to both the horizontal map visualisation and the multilayer information provisioning. The prototype has been tested with real HC planners and expert users; outcomes show the capability to meet the gap between planners and information complexity, and to provide adequate support for replanning HC activities.