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This article examines HR managers’ and employees’ views on the factors affecting employee retention. This is done by integrating findings from the literature on retention management with the theoretical framework of the psychological contract. In a first study a sample of HR managers from a diverse group of public and private firms described the factors they believed to affect employee retention and the retention practices set up in their organization. In a second study, a large and diverse sample of employees reported on the importance attached to five types of employer inducements commonly regarded as retention factors. They also evaluated their employers’ delivery of these inducements and provided information on their loyalty, intentions to stay and job search behaviors. The results of both studies are discussed and implications for HR managers are highlighted.

The gross under-resourcing of conservation endeavours has placed an increasing emphasis on spending accountability. Increased accountability has led to monitoring forming a central element of conservation programs. Although there is little doubt that information obtained from monitoring can improve management of biodiversity, the cost (in time and/or money) of gaining this knowledge is rarely considered when making decisions about allocation of resources to monitoring. We present a simple framework allowing ...

Background: IQWiG commissioned an international panel of experts to develop methods for the assessment of the relation of benefits to costs in the German statutory health-care system.Proposed methods: The panel recommended that IQWiG inform German decision makers of the net costs and value of additional benefits of an intervention in the context of relevant other interventions in that indication. To facilitate guidance regarding maximum reimbursement, this information is presented in an efficiency plot with costs on the horizontal axis and value of benefits on the vertical. The efficiency frontier links the interventions that are not dominated and provides guidance. A technology that places on the frontier or to the left is reasonably efficient, while one falling to the right requires further justification for reimbursement at that price. This information does not automatically give the maximum reimbursement, as other considerations may be relevant. Given that the estimates are for a specific indication, they do not address priority setting across the health-care system.Conclusion: This approach informs decision makers about efficiency of interventions, conforms to the mandate and is consistent with basic economic principles. Empirical testing of its feasibility and usefulness is required. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We have designed and synthesized both the quinoline and naphthalene based molecules influenced by the unique structural make-up of mefloquine and TMC207, respectively. These compounds were evaluated for their anti-mycobacterial activity against drug sensitive Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv in vitro at single-dose concentration (6.25 microg/mL). The compounds 22, 23, 26 and 27 inhibited the growth of M. tuberculosis H37Rv 99%, 90%, 98% and 91% respectively. Minimum inhibitory concentration of compounds 22, 23, 26 and 27 was found to be 6.25 microg/mL. Our molecular modeling and docking studies of designed compounds showed hydrogen bonding with Glu-61, Tyr-64 and Asn-190 amino acid residues at the putative binding site of ATP synthase, these interactions were coherent as shown by Mefloquine and TMC207, where hydrogen bonding was found with Tyr-64 and Glu-61 respectively. SAR analysis indicates importance of hydroxyl group and nature of substituents on piperazinyl-phenyl ring was cri...

Halotolerant bacteria have multiple uses viz. fermentation with lesser sterility control and industrial production of bioplastics. Moreover, it may increase the crop productivity of coastal saline lands in Bangladesh by transferring the salt tolerant genes into the plants. The study focused on the isolation and identification of the halotolerant bacteria from three soil samples, collected from coastal Patenga area. The samples were inoculated in nutrient media containing a wide range of salt concentrations. All the samples showed 2, 4 and 6% (w/v) salt tolerance. The isolates from Patenga soil (4, 6%) and beach soil (2%) showed catalase activity and all the isolates showed negative results for oxidase activity, indole production, lactose and motility. All the samples provided positive results for dextrose fermentation. Other tests provided mixed results. Based on the morphological characteristics, biochemical tests and ABIS software analysis the isolates fall within the Enterobacter...

Trump has promised to Make America Great Again. As a self-proclaimed expert on everything of import, he knows exactly how to increase domestic investment and consumption, boost exports, reduce the country’s trade deficit, expand employment and bolster wages. And as America’s leader-and-policymaker-in-chief, he has taken the necessary steps to achieve every one of these goals. He has lowered taxes on corporations and the rich to induce greater investment, relaxed environmental standards and de-socialized medical care to cut red tape and eliminate waste, curtailed civilian government spending and raised military expenditures to make government lean and mean, warned corporations and individuals to remain economically patriotic and undermined the Fed’s “independence” to prevent interest rates from rising and the stock market from tanking. And if that wasn’t enough, he has also launched a so-called trade war to prevent America from being ripped off by other countries, especially China. C...

Bioethanol obtained from microbial fermentation can replace conventional fossil fuels to satisfy energy demand. In this respect, a fermenting isolate of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, obtained from date juice, was grown in YEPD medium as a part of a previous published research project. In this study, the isolate was tentatively characterized for alcoholic fermentation in organic kitchen waste medium, prepared from discarded fruit and vegetable peels. Fermentation in shaking condition resulted in the production of 7.3% (v/v) ethanol after 48 h, after which the pH of the medium increased slightly in response. Further research should be conducted to assess the potential of kitchen waste as a raw material in ethanol fermentation.

Validating year 2000 compliance involves the assessment of the correctness and quality of a year 2000 conversion. This entails inspecting both the quality of the conversion process followed, and of the result obtained, i.e., the converted system. This document provides an overview of the techniques that can be used to validate year 2000 compliance. It includes typical code fragments, and a discussion of existing technology, impact analysis, solution strategies, code correction, testing, and tools.

Through a review of literature and with conceptual underpinnings, this paper demonstrates that relying on the market value measurement method to ascertain value of purchased goodwill does not contribute to more accurate value of the financial worth of the firm. It argues that the use of market value for the measurement of purchased goodwill for recognition in financial statements is a mere artifact and a response to the contemporary paradigm rather than a measure of the accurate financial worth of purchased goodwill. It demonstrates the need to seek a measurement method that does not impose a transaction as a necessary precondition for ascertaining the financial value of goodwill.

Nowadays, it is commonplace to claim that the economy overuses our limited material and energy resources and that this overuse threatens both human society and the biosphere. Other than anti-science cranks, the only ones who seem to deny this claim are mainstream economists. In our view, though, this conventional condemnation of the economy is somewhat misleading. As we see it, the root of our ecological problems lies not in the ‘economy’, but in the hierarchical power structure of capitalism.

The study of economic growth is central to macroeconomics. More than anything else, macroeconomists are concerned with finding policies that encourage growth. And by ‘growth’, they mean the growth of real GDP. This measure has become so central to macroeconomics that few economists question its validity. Our intention here is to do just that. We argue that real GDP is a deeply flawed metric. It is presented as an objective measure of economic scale. But when we look under the surface, we find crippling subjectivity. Moreover, few economists seem to realize that real GDP is based on a non-existent quantum – utility. In light of these problems, it seems to us that much of macroeconomics needs to be rethought.

This article examines the weak-form market efficiency of the Australian stock market. Daily returns from 6 January 1958 to 12 April 2006 and monthly returns from February 1875 to December 2005 are examined for random walks using serial correlation coefficient and runs tests, augmented Dickey–Fuller, Phillips–Perron and Kwiatkowski, Phillips, Schmidt and Shin unit root tests and multiple variance ratio tests. The serial correlation tests indicate inefficiency in daily returns and borderline efficiency in monthly returns, while the runs tests conclude that both series are weak form inefficient. The unit root tests suggest weak-form inefficiency in both return series. The results of the more stringent and least restrictive variance ratio tests indicate that the monthly returns series is characterized by a homoscedastic random walk, but the daily series violates weak-form efficiency because of the short-term autocorrelation in returns.