Changing from Single to Separate Records: A Case Study from the University of Nevada,Reno

The University of Nevada, Reno Libraries made the decision in early 2012 to convert its bibliographic records from a single record approach, with multiple formats of a title on one bibliographic record, to a separate record approach, where each format receives its own record. This decision was several years in the making, as it was a change that would potentially require breaking apart more than 20,000 records. It would involve numerous staff from different departments and would require adjustments for all staff who worked with library users. This article will discuss the factors that pushed the UNR Libraries to make this decision to split its records and the challenges technical services staff faced in managing the project. The authors will present the different procedures developed for splitting monographic and serial records and the different tools that were used to make the process work: Millennium (especially the ERM and Global Update modules), MarcEdit, and Serials Solutions' MARC Updates service.     

Survivors and Victims,a Meta‐analytical Review of Fairness and Organizational Commitment after Downsizing

There is a lack of consistent evidence that downsizing leads to improved financial performance. Lowered commitment after painful downsizing periods is identified as an important reason why downsizing does not show the intended long‐term effects. This paper provides a meta‐analytical overview of the impact of fairness on organizational commitment for survivors and victims after a downsizing operation. Among 37 samples (11,256 persons), a positive relationship was found between fairness and affective organizational commitment (ρ=0.40) for both survivors and victims. Three moderators of the fairness–commitment relationship were identified: (1) for survivors, procedural justice matters more than distributive justice; (2) the impact of fairness is stronger in countries with an individualistic (versus collectivistic) culture; (3) fairness matters more when mass layoff is initiated for profit maximization (versus economic necessity).     

Communication without sender or receiver? On virtualisation in the information process

A communication process can be described in terms of a sender transmitting information to a receiver. What happens if one of the two subject roles in this process is virtualised, i.e. substituted by a machine? Is it still appropriate to refer to this as an information transfer even if its source or target is missing? Can information originate from an unknown sender or be transmitted to a (completely) unknown receiver? Before examining these questions and answering them, one has to clarify what is understood by information. As it turns out, different interpretations of this term lead to considerably different answers to the initially raised questions. We consider these questions particularly important since the continuing dissemination of so called information and virtualisation technologies changes the human communication processes fundamentally. These changes are part of the ongoing formation of an information society and may eventually lead to the formation of a new image of man.     

Exploring the Uncertainties in Cancer Risk Assessment Using the Integrated Probabilistic Risk Assessment (IPRA) Approach

Current methods for cancer risk assessment result in single values, without any quantitative information on the uncertainties in these values. Therefore, single risk values could easily be overinterpreted. In this study, we discuss a full probabilistic cancer risk assessment approach in which all the generally recognized uncertainties in both exposure and hazard assessment are quantitatively characterized and probabilistically evaluated, resulting in a confidence interval for the final risk estimate. The methodology is applied to three example chemicals (aflatoxin, N‐nitrosodimethylamine, and methyleugenol). These examples illustrate that the uncertainty in a cancer risk estimate may be huge, making single value estimates of cancer risk meaningless. Further, a risk based on linear extrapolation tends to be lower than the upper 95% confidence limit of a probabilistic risk estimate, and in that sense it is not conservative. Our conceptual analysis showed that there are two possible basic approaches for cancer risk assessment, depending on the interpretation of the dose‐incidence data measured in animals. However, it remains unclear which of the two interpretations is the more adequate one, adding an additional uncertainty to the already huge confidence intervals for cancer risk estimates.     

The importance of peer relatedness at school for affective well‐being in children: Between‐ and within‐person associations

Two intensive longitudinal studies examining the association between children's feeling of relatedness to peers at school and their affective well‐being were performed. In Study 1, 110 third and fourth graders reported on their positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) 4 times daily and on their peer relatedness once a day over 4 weeks. Multilevel analyses revealed that children who reported higher peer relatedness on average also reported higher PA and lower NA (between‐person associations). Moreover, on days when children reported higher peer relatedness than usual, they also reported higher PA, but they did not necessarily report lower NA (within‐person associations). In Study 2, 55 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders indicated their PA, NA, and peer relatedness once a day over 2 weeks. We replicated the findings of Study 1 on both levels. The studies showed that feeling related to peers is associated with high PA at school and at home on a daily basis, illustrating the function of peer relatedness in promoting positive well‐being. The findings further demonstrated the necessity of intensive longitudinal studies focusing on within‐person associations and the importance of measuring both PA and NA in order to capture effects on affective well‐being thoroughly.     

Diskontinuität im Erwerbsverlauf und betrieblicher Kontext

The influence of the firm and the former work life on the probability to interrupt one’s current employment between 1993 and 1995 is analyzed. For reconstructing individual work lifes, we use data from the “German Employment Statistic Register Sample 1975–1995” of the Institute of Employment Research (IAB). Characteristics of the firm were taken from the “firm panel” (Betriebspanel) of the same institution between 1993 and 1995. Both samples were merged to create a “linked employer-employee” data-set. Therefore, firm related variables like number of employees, economic situation and industry are independent of individual characteristics. In our empirical model we included the change of the employer, the interruption of work and unemployment as competing risks. Our analysis shows that the former work life has an independent influence on the risk of interrupting work or to become unemployed between 1993 and 1995. Furthermore, qualified persons who experienced job shifts within their last firm and who are employed by larger employers which invest in their employees have a greater probability to move directly to another employer. In sum, our results indicate a “reproduction” of discontinuous employment patterns over the work life.     

OFFSHORING AND THE POLARIZATION OF THE DEMAND FOR CAPITAL

In the past decades, the importance of different capital goods has gradually changed, which has led to a structural shift in the composition of the demand for capital at the expense of more traditional capital inputs such as machinery and equipment. In this paper, we focus on a novel driver of this development by analyzing the effect of offshoring on the demand for capital by asset class using a rich country-sector panel dataset. Estimating a system of factor demand equations, we document that offshoring reduces the relative demand for non-ICT capital, thereby polarizing the demand for capital. (JEL F14, F62, E22)