General Performance Measures Research Articles

Can a general factor be derived from employees’ responses to items on the Individual Work Performance Review?

This study aimed to investigate whether permissible inferences can be derived from employees’ standing on a general performance factor from their responses to the Individual Work Performance Review (IWPR) items. The performance of 448 employees was rated (by their managers) using the IWPR. Latent variable modelling was performed through a bifactor exploratory structural equation model with the robust version of the maximum likelihood estimator. The general factor’s score was also used to inspect correlations with two work performance correlates: tenure and job level. In line with international findings, the results suggested that a general factor could explain 65% of the common variance in the 80 items of the IWPR. Job level, but not tenure, correlated with general job performance. The results support calculating an overall score for performance, which might be a suitable criterion to differentiate top performers, conduct criterion validity studies, and calculate the return on investment of selection procedures or training programmes.Contribution: The present study provides initial evidence for a general factor influencing employees’ responses to items on a generic performance measure in South Africa. In addition, the study showcases the application of advanced statistical methods in factor analyses, demonstrating their efficacy in evaluating the psychometric properties of hierarchical factor models derived from data provided on performance measures.

Using an entorhinal cortex‐based virtual reality navigation task to differentiate between individuals with and without subjective cognitive decline

AbstractBackgroundEntorhinal cortex is vulnerable to neurodegenerative changes in the earliest stages of AD. However, this early AD stage cannot be detected by currently available neuropsychological tests. The entorhinal cortex contains spatial modulated cells, known as grid cells, that play a key role in supporting path integration (PI), a crucial component of spatial navigation that supports continuous integration of self‐motion information and in combination with environmental cues provides accurate internal representation of space. Previously, PI deficits were associaed with impaired grid cell function in healthy older adults and in young APOE‐E4 carriers. Importantly, PI performance has successfully discriminated between biomarker positive and negative mild cognitive impairment patients and between healthy older adults at higher and lower risk of AD. In this study, we tested whether performance on an immersive virtual reality PI task can differentiate between patients with and without subjective cognitive decline (SCD).MethodA group of healthy older adults and SCD patients will perform an immersive virtual reality PI task. In this task, participants are immersed in an open‐field virtual environment and are guided along short, curved paths. At certain points they are asked to stop and indicate their initial heading orientation and the location of an object, providing information about distance and orientation coding. During the task participants have access to multisensory self‐motion cues (visual, vestibular and proprioceptive), all of which are pivotal for supporting grid cell function. Additionally, participants will be screened for presence of objective cognitive impairments and will undergo an assessment of their visuospatial working memory and balance.ResultWe will compare if SCD patients perform worse than healthy older controls in the general PI performance measures (e.g., PI error, response time). Furthermore, we will apply a recently developed computational model to identify multiple sources of PI error. This approach allows for a very nuanced characterization of PI deficits, and, as a result, provides additional, potentially even more sensitive markers of very early AD compared to typical PI performance measures.ConclusionThe results will be discussed with reference to the utility of immersive virtual PI as a sensitive biomarker for early, preclinical, AD manifestation.

Why Sports Should Embrace Bilateral Asymmetry: A Narrative Review

(1) Background: Asymmetry is ubiquitous in nature and humans have well-established bilateral asymmetries in their structures and functions. However, there are (mostly unsubstantiated) claims that bilateral asymmetries may impair sports performance or increase injury risk. (2) Objective: To critically review the evidence of the occurrence and effects of asymmetry and sports performance. (3) Development: Asymmetry is prevalent across several sports regardless of age, gender, or competitive level, and can be verified even in apparently symmetric actions (e.g., running and rowing). Assessments of bilateral asymmetries are highly task-, metric-, individual-, and sport-specific; fluctuate significantly in time (in magnitude and, more importantly, in direction); and tend to be poorly correlated among themselves, as well as with general performance measures. Assessments of sports-specific performance is mostly lacking. Most studies assessing bilateral asymmetries do not actually assess the occurrence of injuries. While injuries tend to accentuate bilateral asymmetries, there is no evidence that pre-existing asymmetries increase injury risk. While training programs reduce certain bilateral asymmetries, there is no evidence that such reductions result in increased sport-specific performance or reduced injury risk. (4) Conclusions: Bilateral asymmetries are prevalent in sports, do not seem to impair performance, and there is no evidence that suggests that they increase injury risk.

Output measurement in professional public organizations: insights from European justice systems

PurposeThe aim of this study is to empirically explore and analyze the concrete tasks of output measurement and the inherent challenges related to these tasks in a traditional and autonomous professional public work setting – the judicial system.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis of the tasks is based on a categorization of general performance measurement motives (control-motivate-learn) and main stakeholder levels (society-organization-professionals). The analysis is exploratory and conducted as an empirical content analysis on materials and reports produced in two performance improvement projects conducted in European justice organizations.FindingsThe identified main tasks in the different categories are related to managing resources, controlling performance deviations, and encouraging improvement and development of performance. Based on the results, key improvement areas connected to output measurement in professional public organizations are connected to the improvement of objectivity and fairness in budgeting and work allocation practices, improvement of output measures' versatility and informativeness to highlight motivational and learning purposes, improvement of professional self-management in setting output targets and producing outputs, as well as improvement of organizational learning from the output measurement.Practical implicationsThe paper presents empirically founded practical examples of challenges and improvement opportunities related to the tasks of output measurement in professional public organization.Originality/valueThis paper fulfils an identified need to study how general performance management motives realize as concrete tasks of output measurement in justice organizations.

Advanced placement course credit and undergraduate student success in gateway science courses

AbstractApproximately 2 million students take Advanced Placement (AP) examinations annually. However, departmental policies that allow students to replace introductory courses with AP credit greatly vary within and across universities, even across relatively similar universities. This study examines the impact of AP credit policies on second‐course success in introductory Biology, Chemistry, and Physics course sequences at six large public research universities (N = 48,230 students). Applying logistic regression analyses, we found that general performance indicators and measures of systemic inequities during high school were predictive of students earning skip‐eligible scores. Interestingly, we descriptively discovered wide variation across institutions and disciplines in the percentage of students who chose to skip when meeting their local policies. However, logistic regression analysis did not find general trends of inequalities for skipping courses for students with skip‐eligible scores. We then applied inverse‐probability weights with regression adjustment to examine the effects of course skipping. We found that students who skipped their first course with AP credit actually performed similarly well or better in subsequent courses than did students who did not skip, even in contexts where lower AP scores were accepted. Therefore, our study suggests administrators to increase coherence in AP credit policies across departments and disciplines. In particular, we encourage modifying AP credit policies and academic advising to encourage students to skip when they have eligible AP scores. Benefits may include reductions in unnecessary coursework that is burdensome for both students and universities, potentially freeing up resources to better support students who were not privileged to enroll in AP courses during their high school education.

System-Level Performance Analysis of Cooperative Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Wildfire Surveillance Using Agent-Based Modeling

In this paper, we propose an agent-based approach for the evaluation of Multiple Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle (MUAV) wildfire monitoring systems for remote and hard-to-reach areas. Emerging environmental factors are causing a higher number of wildfires and keeping these fires in check is becoming a global challenge. MUAV deployment for the monitoring and surveillance of potential fires has already been established. However, most of the scholarly work is still focused on MUAV operations details. In wildfire surveillance and monitoring, evaluations of the system-level performance in terms of the analysis of the effects of individual behavior on system surveillance has yet to be established. Especially in an MUAV system, the individual and cooperative behaviors of the team affect the overall performance of the system. Such systems are dynamic and stochastic because of an ever-changing environment. Quantifying the emergent system behavior and general performance measures of such a system by analytical methods is challenging. In our work, we present an agent-based model for MUAV surveillance missions. This paper focuses on the overall system performance of cooperative UAVs performing forest fire surveillance. The principal theme is to present the effects of three behaviors on overall performance: (1) the area allocation and (2) dynamic coverage, and (3) the effects of forest density on team allocation. For area allocation, three behaviors are simulated: (1) randomized, (2) two-layer barrier sweep coverage, and (3) full sweep coverage. For dynamic coverage, the effects of communication and resource unavailability during the mission are studied by analyzing the agent’s downtime spent on refueling. Last, an extensive simulation is carried out on wildfire models with varying forest density. It is found that cooperative complete sweep coverage strategies perform better than the rest and the performance of the team is greatly affected by the forest density.

Long-term repeatability of cognitive performance.

Measures of cognitive performance, derived from psychometric tasks, have yielded important insights into the factors governing cognitive variation. However, concerns remain over the robustness of these measures, which may be susceptible to non-cognitive factors such as motivation and persistence. Efforts to quantify short-term repeatability of cognitive performance have gone some way to address this, but crucially the long-term repeatability of cognitive performance has been largely overlooked. Quantifying the long-term repeatability of cognitive performance provides the opportunity to determine the stability of cognitive phenotypes and the potential for selection to act on them. To this end, we quantified long-term repeatability of cognitive performance in wild Australian magpies over a three-year period. Cognitive performance was repeatable in two out of four cognitive tasks—associative learning and reversal-learning performance was repeatable, but spatial memory and inhibitory control performance, although trending toward significance, was not. Measures of general cognitive performance, obtained from principal components analyses carried out on each cognitive test battery, were highly repeatable. Together, these findings provide evidence that at least some cognitive phenotypes are stable, which in turn has important implications for our understanding of cognitive evolution.

Performance voting, retrospective voting, and economic voting. Conceptual clarity and empirical testing

Objective The main objective of the study is to distinguish the often-used concepts and measures of retrospective (economic) performance voting. I argue that concepts that have been used synonymously—such as performance voting, retrospective voting, and economic voting—should be distinguished theoretically and empirically, as they address different phenomena. Methods I use the data of the fifth module of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems to test differences in the correlates and effects of general retrospective performance evaluations and retrospective evaluations of the economy on incumbent voting. Results Both measures are associated with other valence evaluations and economic evaluations with the personal economic situation. Both measures significantly explain incumbent voting, but the effects of the general retrospective performance measure are stronger. Conclusion By distinguishing different concepts, theoretical confusion can be avoided. Given the differences in correlates and effect sizes, future studies should select their empirical measures carefully.

A Quasi-Static Measurement Method for Analyzing the Lateral Disturbance of HTS Maglev

The high temperature superconducting (HTS) maglev with “self-stable” levitation performance is rapidly developed in recent years. In its relevant studies, the evaluation of levitation and guidance performances is a significant aspect in improving HTS maglev technology. The general performance measurement methods, namely the static measurement method and the dynamic measurement method, have limitations in reflecting the actual performance and are lack of measuring convenience. This article has proposed a quasi-static measurement method for lateral disturbance in HTS maglev. In this method, the levitation part is no more fixed but have two degrees of freedom, two extra measurands are accordingly introduced, namely the inclination angle and the vertical displacement. The measured guidance force is thus weakened in comparison with the one in static measurement. This novel method provides a measurement condition, which can synthesize the real levitation situation. This is the main improvement against the existing static method. It also has great compatibility for different electromagnetic guideway units and levitation parts in HTS maglev. The relationship among the guideway magnetic field, the lateral disturbance and the response of train body under disturbance can be further built for HTS maglev performance optimization.

TS-Perf: General Performance Measurement of Trusted Execution Environment and Rich Execution Environment on Intel SGX, Arm TrustZone, and RISC-V Keystone

A trusted execution environment (TEE) is a new hardware security feature that is isolated from a normal OS (i.e., rich execution environment (REE)). The TEE enables us to run a critical process, but the behavior is invisible from the normal OS, which makes it difficult to debug and tune the performance. In addition, the hardware/software architectures of TEE are different on CPUs. For example, Intel SGX allows user-mode only, although Arm TrustZone and RISC-V Keystone run a trusted OS. In addition, each TEE has each SDK for programming. Each SDK offers own APIs and makes difficult to write a common program. These features make it difficult to compare the performance fairly between TEE and REE on different CPUs. To obtain precise performance and behavior in TEE, we propose TS-perf which is a compiler-based performance measurement method. TS-perf accesses the hardware timestamp counter in TEE as well as REE and keeps a precise log. The codes for measurement are inserted in a TEE binary by the compiler options (i.e., profile option, constructor, and destructor). Furthermore, we utilize the separate compilation technique, and the same benchmark binary is used for a fair comparison between TEE and REE. The architecture of TS-perf is general and implemented for three TEE architectures (Arm TrustZone, Intel SGX, and RISC-V Keystone). TS-perf measures the performance of GlobalPlatform’s TEE internal APIs, matrix multiplication, memory access, and storage access. The comparisons show the difference in performance between TEE and REE and the unusual behavior of trusted applications (TAs).

Does one project success measure fit all? An empirical investigation of Brazilian projects

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to identify and accumulate knowledge on the existing developments on project success measures. The authors aim to contribute to this debate by providing both researchers and project management professionals with reliable contemporary project success criteria that permit generalization for a proper assessment regardless of the type and context of the project.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 264 Brazilian project managers from a range of industries, sectors of activities and business areas with different levels of experience. Data analysis was performed using the R software package.FindingsIn this research, the authors propose a general performance measure of project success where different projects can grade differently using the same scale. The data analysis validated five constructs of the developed model in the Brazilian setting.Originality/valueMost of the actual project success measures used in project management literature have been tested in a specific industry or sector. Combinations of the type of project, industry, sector, project nature, stakeholders and other variables make each project unique. Thus, any effort to find a context-specific tool of measure will be an endless endeavor. To fill this gap, more general project success criteria need to be explored to offer a common point of comparison between projects. This is the motivation of the present study.

Physical and performance variables for talent identification in water polo.

The aim of this work was to compare anthropometric and general physical performance variables in young water polo athletes of three competitive levels, to identify the characteristic qualities and, therefore, the best variables for the identification of talent. Fifty-seven young male water polo players between 12 and 14 years old were recruited for the study: 18 were recreational level (REC), 18 sub-elite level (SE) and 21 elite level (EL). To assess anthropometric characteristics the following measurements were used: body mass, height, waist circumference, hip circumference, chest circumference and arm span. Five general performance measures were used: counter movement jump (CMJ), triple hop jump (THJ), push up, chin up and sit up. Relative age was assessed. The whole sample was homogeneous by age (REC 13.1±0.4, SE 13.2±1.0, EL 13.3±0.7 years old) but not in terms of relative age: most of the members of the SE and EL groups were born in the first half of the year. Body mass values (REC 48.2±11.6, SE 59.3±11.6, EL 69.1±4.2 kg) show statistically significant differences between all three competitive levels (REC vs. SE P=0.007, REC vs. EL P=0.001, SE vs. EL P=0.009). As regards the other anthropometric measurements differences were mainly observed between REC and the two other groups: SE and EL had statistically significant higher values in almost all of the measurements carried out. Among the performance measures, lower limb strength (CMJ and THJ) seems to better differentiate between groups: REC group had lower values than the others and EL had the highest values. Anthropometric characteristics are useful to distinguish the basic level of youth categories from higher competitive levels and should be used for talent selection. The performance results confirm that the subjects' capacity to be trained and sporting practice are essential to reach the elite level.

Fear expression is reduced after acute and repeated nociceptin/orphanin FQ (NOP) receptor antagonism in rats: therapeutic implications for traumatic stress exposure.

Evaluation of pharmacotherapies for acute stress disorder (ASD) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is challenging due to robust heterogeneity of trauma histories and limited efficacy of any single candidate to reduce all stress-induced effects. Pursuing novel mechanisms, such as the nociceptin/orphanin FQ (NOP) system, may be a viable path for therapeutic development and of interest as it is involved in regulation of relevant behaviors and recently implicated in PTSD and ASD. First, we evaluated NOP receptor antagonism on general behavioral performance and again following a three-species predator exposure model (Experiment 1). Then, we evaluated effects of NOP antagonism on fear memory expression (Experiment 2). Adult, male rats underwent daily administration of NOP antagonists (J-113397 or SB-612,111; 0-20mg/kg, i.p.) and testing in acoustic startle, elevated plus maze, tail-flick, and open field tests. Effects of acute NOP antagonism on behavioral performance following predator exposure were then assessed. Separately, rats underwent fear conditioning and were later administered SB-612,111 (0-3mg/kg, i.p.) prior to fear memory expression tests. J-113397 and SB-612,111 did not significantly alter most general behavioral performance measures alone, suggesting minimal off-target behavioral effects of NOP antagonism. J-113397 and SB-612,111 restored performance in measures of exploratory behavior (basic movements on the elevated plus maze and total distance in the open field) following predator exposure. Additionally, SB-612,111 significantly reduced freezing behavior relative to control groups across repeated fear memory expression tests, suggesting NOP antagonism may be useful in dampening fear responses. Other measures of general behavioral performance were not significantly altered following predator exposure. NOP antagonists may be useful as pharmacotherapeutics for dampening fear responses to trauma reminders, and the present results provide supporting evidence for the implication of the NOP system in the neuropathophysiology of dysregulations in fear learning and memory processes observed in trauma- and stress-related disorders.

Using General Language Performance Measures to Assess Grammar Learning

Grammar is an important goal area for children with language impairment. The current article considers the use of General Language Performance Measures (GLPMs) to assess outcomes for this basic goal area and for 3 intermediate grammar goals that contribute to children's developing ability to construct increasingly longer and more complex sentences: production of word combinations, production of sentences with required and optional constituents, and production of complex sentences. These goals are very important because they address a significant deficit area for children with language impairment and enable these children to increase the informativeness of their utterances. Using GLPMs in addition to session data and probes enables speech–language pathologists to determine whether these forms are being incorporated into conversational speech.

The Relationship Between White Matter Microstructure and General Cognitive Ability in Patients With Schizophrenia and Healthy Participants in the ENIGMA Consortium.

Schizophrenia has recently been associated with widespread white matter microstructural abnormalities, but the functional effects of these abnormalities remain unclear. Widespread heterogeneity of results from studies published to date preclude any definitive characterization of the relationship between white matter and cognitive performance in schizophrenia. Given the relevance of deficits in cognitive function to predicting social and functional outcomes in schizophrenia, the authors carried out a meta-analysis of available data through the ENIGMA Consortium, using a common analysis pipeline, to elucidate the relationship between white matter microstructure and a measure of general cognitive performance, IQ, in patients with schizophrenia and healthy participants. The meta-analysis included 760 patients with schizophrenia and 957 healthy participants from 11 participating ENIGMA Consortium sites. For each site, principal component analysis was used to calculate both a global fractional anisotropy component (gFA) and a fractional anisotropy component for six long association tracts (LA-gFA) previously associated with cognition. Meta-analyses of regression results indicated that gFA accounted for a significant amount of variation in cognition in the full sample (effect size [Hedges' g]=0.27, CI=0.17-0.36), with similar effects sizes observed for both the patient (effect size=0.20, CI=0.05-0.35) and healthy participant groups (effect size=0.32, CI=0.18-0.45). Comparable patterns of association were also observed between LA-gFA and cognition for the full sample (effect size=0.28, CI=0.18-0.37), the patient group (effect size=0.23, CI=0.09-0.38), and the healthy participant group (effect size=0.31, CI=0.18-0.44). This study provides robust evidence that cognitive ability is associated with global structural connectivity, with higher fractional anisotropy associated with higher IQ. This association was independent of diagnosis; while schizophrenia patients tended to have lower fractional anisotropy and lower IQ than healthy participants, the comparable size of effect in each group suggested a more general, rather than disease-specific, pattern of association.

General enterprise performance measurement architecture

Enterprise performance has been investigated since the 1900s, leading to many approaches, methods, and frameworks around the world, developed either by researchers or by practitioners and consultants. The purpose of these approaches is the design and the implementation of performance indicators and performance measurement systems (PMSs). More than 65 approaches have been identified and several studies conducted to compare them. They concluded that each approach, even the most famous ones, can be improved based on the qualities of others. The objective of this paper is to propose a generic architecture for combining the ingredients of individual approaches and methods in a coherent way. This architecture must be generic enough to be widely applicable to all types of approaches and, more generally, to all types of application domains. The first objective of this reference architecture is to propose a synergy and consolidation of the best features of each approach into the best possible system. The second objective is to organise the development and use of the PMS methodologies and tools needed by potential users to integrate a PMS into their own enterprise.

Performance measurement for knowledge management project: model development and empirical validation

Purpose This paper aims to propose a model for measuring the performance of knowledge management (KM) projects in enterprises. No such model has been proposed in the literature thus far. The activities, factors and outcomes of KM are the main constructs of the model. Their operationalization and interactions are investigated. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted of 120 respondents from SME firms in Morocco. A structural equation modeling (SEM) technique called partial least squares (PLS) was used to assess the validity of the constructs and verify the hypotheses. A performance index for KM projects was derived from the model constructs. Findings The results support the model designed for KM activities and related interactions. The effects of KM activities on its outcomes are significant as well. The results also confirm that KM factors are predictors of KM activities and that the effects of these are significant. Furthermore, a performance importance analysis (importance performance map analysis [IPMA]) was performed on the data to expand the results of the PLS-SEM by identifying under-performing KM drivers that require managerial action. Originality/value This paper is one of the first to propose a generic performance measurement model for KM projects. Additionally, it is a pioneering study in the use of IPMA for KM performance measurement.

Within-Individual Age-Related Trends, Cycles, and Event-Driven Changes in Job Performance: a Career-Span Perspective

Past research on age-related differences in job performance have focused primarily between-person comparisons. In the present study, we examine within-individual changes in supervisor-rated job performance to examine the influence of age-related trends, cycles, and event-driven factors. Our analysis is based on an eight-wave dataset from a multiple-cohort sample of employees (N = 750) varying in age from 25 to 65 years. We used an age-sequential design to disentangle maturation effects from historical effects. Results showed that population-level, within-individual change in a general measure of job performance was characterized by an increase in the first phase of the career (workers of 25–30 years), and then by a progressive decline. Within-individual levels of job performance were generally higher for younger workers than for older workers, and mostly reflected the influence of population-level trends but some even-driven effects as well. Results were in line with predictions from Baltes and Baltes’s (1990) meta-theory of selective optimization with compensation and the effects of age-related losses on performance. Results also provide insights into understanding the job performance trajectory over the career span.

Resistance Training Increases Muscle Strength and Muscle Size in Patients With Liver Cirrhosis

Cirrhosis is often complicated by reduced muscle mass and strength, which limits the ability to perform daily activities and affects quality of life. Resistance training can increase muscle strength and mass in elderly and chronically ill patients. We performed a randomized controlled trial to investigate whether resistance training increases muscle strength and size in patients with compensated cirrhosis. We performed a prospective study of 39 patients with cirrhosis (Child-Pugh class A or B) seen at an outpatient clinic in Denmark from January 2015 through March 2017. Participants protein intake and activity levels were registered daily. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to a group that performed 36 1-hour sessions of physical exercise (supervised progressive resistance training for 1 hour, 3 times weekly for 12 weeks) or a control group (no change in daily activity level). Maximal muscle strength was measured as the peak torque in isokinetic knee extension and muscle size was measured as the cross-sectional area of the quadriceps muscle, assessed by magnetic resonance imaging of the thigh. The exercise group increased their muscle strength by 13% (from a mean 119 Nm to 134 Nm)-an 11 Nm greater gain in mean strength than that of the control group (P = .05). The exercise group increased their quadriceps cross-sectional area by 10% (from a mean 58.5 cm2 to 64.6 cm2)-a 4.4 cm2 greater gain than that of the control group (P < .01). The exercise group had significant increases in whole-body lean mass and body cell mass, and significant increases in 6-minute walking distance and the mental component summary of the short form-36 questionnaire. Adverse events were minor and equal between groups. In a randomized trial of patients with compensated cirrhosis, we found that 12 weeks of supervised progressive resistance training increased muscle strength and size and had beneficial effects on general performance measures, compared with patients who did not change their daily activity routine (control subjects). ClinicalTrials.gov no: NCT02343653.

Generalized Performance Measures of X- Control Charts Based on Different Sampling Schemes

Different versions of X- control chart structure are available under various ranked set strategies. In these control charts, computation of performance measures was carried out through Monte Carlo simulation method (MCSM). In this article, we have defined a generalized structure of X- control charts under variant sampling strategies followed by derivation of their different performance measures. For the derivation of different performance measures, we have proposed pivotal quantity. For comparative analysis, we have presented results of generalized performance measures by involving numerical method (NM) as computation. We found that values of generalized performance measures based on NM are almost similar to values of performance measures based on MCSM. Also, NM is time efficient and can be considered as an alternative of MCSM.