Increase In Turnover Research Articles

Distributed leadership as a predictor of employee engagement, job satisfaction and turnover intention in UK nursing staff*

To investigate how distributed leadership via the Shared Governance programme influences employee engagement, empowerment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions among direct care nursing staff in a large UK hospital. Increasing turnover rates and shortages of health care staff in the UK has called for interventions to improve employee engagement and job satisfaction. 116 direct care nursing staff were sampled in a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design. A maximum variance sample of 15 participants were subsequently interviewed to gain a deeper understanding of the motivations and attitudes that influenced employee outcomes through distributed leadership. Higher levels of distributed leadership predicted increased employee engagement and job satisfaction, and lower turnover intentions. Staff also felt more empowered and committed to the organisation despite some challenges experienced in implementing the Shared Governance programme. Distributed leadership was found to be beneficial in promoting employee engagement and empowerment, increasing job satisfaction and organisational commitment and reducing turnover intention in the UK health care setting. By encouraging the practice of distributed leadership at work, health care staff can become more engaged and empowered, leading to higher rates of job retention, job satisfaction and organisational commitment.

Turnover among foreign nurses in Saudi Arabia.

Background: Globally, nursing turnover has become a contemporary concern that significantly influences the financial proficiency of healthcare systems. Not only costs, but healthcare accessibility and quality also reverberate the consequence of the phenomenon.Design and methods: The study explores the factors that attribute to turnover among foreign registered nurses working in Saudi Arabia. A quantitative-based cross-sectional descriptive study design that uses survey data to make statistical inferences about foreign nurse turnover in Saudi Arabia, was conducted to ascertain factors influencing the termination of foreign nurses working with the Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals.Results: Factors influencing turnover were categorized into 9 dimensions, professional growth and development, leadership style, management, wage and benefits, workload, interpersonal relationship, housing facilities and services, hospital facilities and intent to stay and turn-over intention, of which the professional growth (4.1±0.7) and development had the highest mean agreement scores (4.0±1.1), whereas housing (2.3±1.3) and hospital facilities (2.1±1.0) showed the lowest mean scores.Conclusions: Wage benefits and workload factors were found to be the most significant causes of expatriate nursing turnover, closely followed by inadequate housing and hospital facilities. Recommendations from nursing staff on how to improve retention were also noted.Significance for public healthThe nursing workforce is considered the backbone of the healthcare delivery system. In Saudi Arabia, foreign nurses employ a large percentage of human resources required in healthcare institutions. Thus, foreign nurses’ increasing turnover rates remain a significant problem affecting healthcare institutions across the country. Staff turnover rate is the prime source of workforce shortage that impacts the operational domain, thereby negatively affecting productivity and revenues. The high turnover rates negatively impact organizational in quality of care and resources to recruit and train new staff, prompts many scholars to investigate possible causes, and to develop a comprehensive staff retention strategies. Determining associated factors on staff turn-over, provides insights that will guide facility policy makers and stakeholders to keep pace with the demand of public health system.

YESS 2.0, a Tunable Platform for Enzyme Evolution, Yields Highly Active TEV Protease Variants.

Here we describe YESS 2.0, a highly versatile version of the yeast endoplasmic sequestration screening (YESS) system suitable for engineering and characterizing protein/peptide modifying enzymes such as proteases with desired new activities. By incorporating features that modulate gene transcription as well as substrate and enzyme spatial sequestration, YESS 2.0 achieves a significantly higher operational and dynamic range compared with the original YESS. To showcase the new advantages of YESS 2.0, we improved an already efficient TEV protease variant (TEV-EAV) to obtain a variant (eTEV) with a 2.25-fold higher catalytic efficiency, derived almost entirely from an increase in turnover rate (kcat). In our analysis, eTEV specifically digests a fusion protein in 2 h at a low 1:200 enzyme to substrate ratio. Structural modeling indicates that the increase in catalytic efficiency of eTEV is likely due to an enhanced interaction between the catalytic Cys151 with the P1 substrate residue (Gln). Furthermore, the modeling showed that the ENLYFQS peptide substrate is buried to a larger extent in the active site of eTEV compared with WT TEV. The new eTEV variant is functionally the fastest TEV variant reported to date and could potentially improve efficiency in any TEV application.

Increased Phase Cone Turnover in 80-250 Hz Bands Occurs in the Epileptogenic Zone During Interictal Periods.

We found that phase cone clustering patterns in EEG ripple bands demonstrate an increased turnover rate in epileptogenic zones compared to adjacent regions. We employed 256 channel EEG data collected in four adult subjects with refractory epilepsy. The analysis was performed in the 80–150 and 150–250 Hz ranges. Ictal onsets were documented with intracranial EEG recordings. Interictal scalp recordings, free of epileptiform patterns, of 240-s duration, were selected for analysis for each subject. The data was filtered, and the instantaneous phase was extracted after the Hilbert transformation. Spatiotemporal contour plots of the unwrapped instantaneous phase with 1.0 ms intervals were constructed using a montage layout of the 256 electrode positions. Stable phase cone patterns were selected based on criteria that the sign of spatial gradient did not change for a minimum of three consecutive time samples and the frame velocity was consistent with known propagation velocities of cortical axons. These plots exhibited increased dynamical formation and dissolution of phase cones in the ictal onset zones, compared to surrounding cortical regions, in all four patients. We believe that these findings represent markers of abnormally increased cortical excitability. They are potential tools that may assist in localizing the epileptogenic zone.

Measuring acetyl-CoA and acetylated histone turnover in vivo: Effect of a high fat diet

Cellular availability of acetyl-CoA, a central intermediate of metabolism, regulates histone acetylation. The impact of a high-fat diet (HFD) on the turnover rates of acetyl-CoA and acetylated histones is unknown. We developed a method for simultaneous measurement of acetyl-CoA and acetylated histones kinetics using a single 2H2O tracer, and used it to examine effect of HFD-induced perturbations on hepatic histone acetylation in LDLR−/- mice, a mouse model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Mice were given 2H2O in the drinking water and the kinetics of hepatic acetyl-CoA, histones, and acetylated histones were quantified based on their 2H-labeling. Consumption of a high fat Western-diet (WD) for twelve weeks led to decreased acetylation of hepatic histones (p< 0.05), as compared to a control diet. These changes were associated with 1.5-3-fold increased turnover rates of histones without any change in acetyl-CoA flux. Acetylation significantly reduced the stability of histones and the turnover rates of acetylated peptides were correlated with the number of acetyl groups in neighboring lysine sites. We conclude that 2H2O-method can be used to study metabolically controlled histone acetylation and acetylated histone turnover in vivo.

Should knowledge be distorted? Managers' knowledge distortion strategies and organizational learning in different environments

Organizational learning provides a sustainable competitive advantage for an enterprise facing a highly volatile environment, and managers' knowledge sharing strategies are of vital importance to organizational learning. This study systematically evaluates the effects of managers' knowledge distortion types (i.e., misrepresentation and omission), distortion levels, and distortion preferences in a formal organizational context under various environments. Multi-agent simulation results demonstrate that a slight level of managers' knowledge misrepresentation and a high level of managers' knowledge omission are beneficial in a closed system. With increasing turnover rate, both misrepresentation and omission are detrimental. Moreover, in an open system with environmental turbulence, misrepresentation is valuable to performance, while omission is neutral. In general, misrepresentation plays a leading role in the simultaneous combination of two distortion strategies. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

European beech leads to more bioactive humus forms but stronger mineral soil acidification as Norway spruce and Scots pine – Results of a repeated site assessment after 63 and 82 years of forest conversion in Central Germany

To reduce the effects of extended coniferous monoculture plantations on forest floor and topsoil processes, like amplified acidification or nutrient immobilization in organic layers, small interspersed groups of European beech were planted at the beginning of the 20th century amid large coniferous stands (CS) in Central Germany. Today, these so-called “Green Eyes” (GE) are 82-year old. In our study we focused on two different timelines to investigate the effects of forest conversion on vegetation composition, forest floor and mineral soil properties, encompassing a long-term (>80 year) comparison from tree planting in the 1930s to 2018 and a shorter timeframe nearly spanning 20 years (1999–2018). Since long-term forest conversion experiments (>60 years) across sites sharing a common forest land-use history are scarce, our study allows to contribute to a better evaluation of the long-term effects on changes in soil properties. We linked standard methods assessing soil pH, organic C and total N concentrations as well as stocks as indicators of soil quality changes in forest floor and mineral soil (down to 40 cm depth) to patterns in ground vegetation dynamics (most GE were characterized only by a few herbaceous species). Our results exhibited an effect of forest conversion on the activation in forest floor turnover resulting in increased turnover rates in the GE (GE contain only half of the forest floor OM of CS), hence forming more bioactive humus forms (mull, moder) and a noticeable higher forest floor pH (+0.6 units) compared to CS. The OC translocation from the forest floor into the topsoil is higher under GE (+0.7% OC content), probably building up a stable SOC pool hence contributing to C sequestration. The positive effects of European beech on forest floor quality are related to a stronger acidification of the subsoil during the past 20 years (-0.5 pH units). The base pump effect (uptake of Ca2+, Mg2+, K+ and assimilation into tree biomass in exchange release of H+) in GE led to more acidic conditions (-0.2 pH units) in the deeper mineral soil compared to CS. This bio-acidification may serve as one reason for subsoil acidification, as observed in our study, pointing out that mineral soil acidification is still an important issue in central European forests. Future restoration of soil base cation pools will still depend on the rate of bio-acidification, on the amount of acidifying air pollutant (and base cation) depositions and on forest management practices (e.g. intensity of biomass removal, soil regeneration-oriented liming).

Burnout and compassion fatigue among organ donation coordinators: a scoping review protocol.

The objective of this review is to develop a comprehensive description of burnout and compassion fatigue, including risk/protective factors, among organ and tissue donation coordinators worldwide. Research on turnover rates among organ and tissue donation coordinators has shown that job tenure generally lasts less than three years, a possible consequence of burnout and compassion fatigue. Increased turnover rates of organ and tissue donation coordinators have significant impact on the ability of ODOs to optimize organ donation. This current scoping review will help inform understanding of the nature of burnout and compassion fatigue in this population as well as the available strategies for managing it. Articles examining health care professionals working as organ and tissue donation coordinators, with the main concepts of interest being burnout and/or compassion fatigue, will be considered. Articles within the context of organ and tissue donation coordinators in acute care settings at any part of the organ donation process will also be considered for inclusion in this review. Quantitative and qualitative studies, text and opinion papers, unpublished material (eg, unpublished research data, reports, institutional protocols, government documents) provided by researchers in the organ donation field worldwide will also be examined for possible inclusion. The scoping review will be performed in accordance with JBI methodology. Published and unpublished papers from 1980 to the present will be searched. Databases will include MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL, Embase, LILACS, PsycINFO, and PTSDpubs, while appropriate gray literature will be searched. Two reviewers will screen the papers according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, extract data for specific variables, and perform descriptive examination.

Early Pro-Inflammatory Remodeling of HDL Proteome in a Model of Diet-Induced Obesity: 2H2O-Metabolic Labeling-Based Kinetic Approach.

Mice fed a high-fat diet for 12 weeks or longer develop hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and fatty liver. Additionally, a high-fat diet induces inflammation that remodels and affects the anti-inflammatory and antiatherogenic property of the high-density lipoprotein (HDL). However, the precise time course of metabolic disease progression and HDL remodeling remains unclear. Short-term (four weeks) high-fat feeding (60% fat calories) was performed in wild-type male C57BL/6J mice to gain insights into the early metabolic disease processes in conjunction with a HDL proteome dynamics analysis using a heavy water metabolic labeling approach. The high-fat diet-fed mice developed hyperglycemia, impaired glucose tolerance, hypercholesterolemia without hypertriglyceridemia or hepatic steatosis. A plasma HDL proteome dynamics analysis revealed increased turnover rates (and reduced half-lives) of several acute-phase response proteins involved in innate immunity, including complement C3 (12.77 ± 0.81 vs. 9.98 ± 1.20 h, p < 0.005), complement factor B (12.71 ± 1.01 vs. 10.85 ± 1.04 h, p < 0.05), complement Factor H (19.60 ± 1.84 vs. 16.80 ± 1.58 h, p < 0.05), and complement factor I (25.25 ± 1.29 vs. 19.88 ± 1.50 h, p < 0.005). Our findings suggest that an early immune response-induced inflammatory remodeling of the plasma HDL proteome precedes the diet-induced steatosis and dyslipidemia.

Customer-Specific Robotic Attendant for VR Simulators

With regard to virtual reality (VR) simulators, direct guidance is needed due to the complex procedures and safety of customers compared with simple coin-op amusement games. However, it is difficult for human attendants to repeatedly guide the customer with a high level of service quality. In this article, we propose a new type of robotic attendant for VR simulators, which provides personalized high-quality services and automatically operates the VR simulators in VR theme parks. In addition, the robotic attendant improves customer satisfaction by providing personalized services based on the estimation of the customer’s age, gender, and game progress. Finally, we experimentally show that the personalized services provided by the robotic attendant improve customer satisfaction. The results of the satisfaction questionnaire and independent-samples t-test validate our proposed scheme. Note to Practitioners —This article was motivated by the high operating costs of VR theme parks as the VR industry grew. At current VR theme parks, human attendants provide one-on-one services to their customers on how to operate the simulator. Therefore, we automate the abovementioned procedure to reduce operating costs and increase turnover rate and ticket sales at the same time. In addition, we also seek to improve customer satisfaction as well as automatic operation. In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, the proposed robotic attendant uses camera images to obtain the age and gender of the customer and uses the game data to track game progress. Then, the robotic attendant provides customer-specific voice services using personal information. Experimental results show that the personalized services provided by the robotic attendant improve customer satisfaction.

Warming and grazing interact to affect root dynamics in an alpine meadow

Root dynamics plays a fundamental role in determining carbon allocation and other main ecological processes in grasslands. Understanding the responses of root activities to ongoing warming in grazed alpine meadows enable us to predict the potential changes in the carbon budget and ecosystem functions in alpine regions. We conducted a controlled 4-year field experiment with warming and grazing in an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Our objective was to explore the responses of root standing crop, production, mortality and turnover rate to warming and grazing using minirhizotrons. Warming only significantly inhibited root mortality while grazing promoted all the four root metrics, which were also significantly influenced by the interaction of warming and grazing. Warming oppositely affected the four metrics under grazing versus non-grazing conditions. It significantly reduced root mean standing crop, annual production and mortality without grazing, but significantly stimulated only mean standing crop under grazing. Grazing had significantly negative and positive effects on mean standing crop in the no warming and warming plots. It promoted annual root production and mortality regardless of warming, whereas the effects were significant only under warming condition. Moreover, grazing significantly increased turnover rate in no warming plots but slightly decreased it in warming plots. These findings highlight the non-additive interactions on the alpine meadow root dynamics between warming and grazing. Therefore, grazing regimes should be considered to better model the ecosystem feedback to global warming and to improve the prediction of future ecosystem functions.

Ketosynthase Domain Constrains the Design of Polyketide Synthases.

Modular polyketide synthases (PKSs) produce complex, bioactive secondary metabolites in assembly line-like multistep reactions. Longstanding efforts to produce novel, biologically active compounds by recombining intact modules to new modular PKSs have mostly resulted in poorly active chimeras and decreased product yields. Recent findings demonstrate that the low efficiencies of modular chimeric PKSs also result from rate limitations in the transfer of the growing polyketide chain across the noncognate module:module interface and further processing of the non-native polyketide substrate by the ketosynthase (KS) domain. In this study, we aim at disclosing and understanding the low efficiency of chimeric modular PKSs and at establishing guidelines for modular PKSs engineering. To do so, we work with a bimodular PKS testbed and systematically vary substrate specificity, substrate identity, and domain:domain interfaces of the KS involved reactions. We observe that KS domains employed in our chimeric bimodular PKSs are bottlenecks with regards to both substrate specificity as well as interaction with the acyl carrier protein (ACP). Overall, our systematic study can explain in quantitative terms why early oversimplified engineering strategies based on the plain shuffling of modules mostly failed and why more recent approaches show improved success rates. We moreover identify two mutations of the KS domain that significantly increased turnover rates in chimeric systems and interpret this finding in mechanistic detail.

Orientational Switch of the Lipase A Enzyme at the Oil-Water Interface: An Order of Magnitude Increase in Turnover Rate with a Single Surfactant Tag Explained.

Interfacially active lipases can be immobilized at a biphasic interface to enhance turnover recyclability and to facilitate product separation. Extensive coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of lipase A (LipA) from Bacillus subtilis show a bimodal orientational distribution of the enzyme at an oil-water interface, arising from its ellipsoidal Janus particle-like character. The relative orientational preference can be tuned by pH. The simulations rationalize a rare experimental observation of an order of magnitude increase in the turnover rate of this lipase upon its noncovalent tagging by a single surfactant molecule at the interface, compared to its rate in bulk water. The adsorption free energy, the interfacial activation, a decrease in the number of orientational fluctuations, and an increased rate of translational diffusion, to all of which the Janus character of LipA contributes, are the factors responsible for this enhancement. This study can spur further investigations of the Janus behavior of enzymes to enhance their activity as well as to stabilize the biphasic emulsion needed for interfacial catalysis.

Impact of Nursing Staff Perception of Work Environment on Turnover Rate in Hemodialysis Unit

Abstract Background: The nursing work environment is complex with many variables affecting the nurses' perception and work satisfaction. The strongest predictor of nurse's job dissatisfac-tion and intent to leave a job is personal stress related to the practice environment. Negative work environments demoralize nurses and contribute to the development of unsafe working conditions, which are unhealthy and highly associated with nursing job dissatisfaction, low productivity, and high turnover. High nurse turnover in healthcare facilities can negatively affect the ability of hospitals to meet patient needs, provide quality care and increases both direct and indirect labor costs. Aim of Study: To explore the impact of nursing staff perception of work environment on turnover rate in hemodi-alysis unit. Subjects and Methods: A descriptive correlational design was utilized to collect data from A convince sample of nursing staff working in the selected unit (hemodialysis unit) during the time of data collection (from May to September 2017) at a governmental University hospital. Data was collected by using two tools: The Practice Environment Scale-Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) questionnaire and turnover rate sheet. Results: There were no significant relation between nursing staff perception of work environment and educational level, there were a high positive relation between nurses perception of work environment and years of experience and there were dramatically increase of turnover rate over the years. Conclusion: Poor nurse work environment is the under-lying factor of nursing turnover. Recommendation: Improving nurse work environment should be emphasized through policy to retain nurses in the workforce; Further research is needed to investigate the tools, guidelines and interventions used by managers in the nursing field to create healthy and welcoming working conditions.

Malic Enzyme Facilitates d-Lactate Production through Increased Pyruvate Supply during Anoxic Dark Fermentation in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

d-Lactate is one of the most valuable compounds for manufacturing biobased polymers. Here, we have investigated the significance of endogenous malate dehydrogenase (decarboxylating) (malic enzyme, ME), which catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of malate to pyruvate, in d-lactate biosynthesis in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC6803. d-Lactate levels were increased by 2-fold in ME-overexpressing strains, while levels in ME-deficient strains were almost equivalent to those in the host strain. Dynamic metabolomics revealed that overexpression of ME led to increased turnover rates in malate and pyruvate metabolism; in contrast, deletion of ME resulted in increased pool sizes of glycolytic intermediates, probably due to sequential feedback inhibition, initially triggered by malate accumulation. Finally, both the loss of the acetate kinase gene and overexpression of endogenous d-lactate dehydrogenase, concurrent with ME overexpression, resulted in the highest production of d-lactate (26.6 g/L) with an initial cell concentration of 75 g-DCW/L after 72 h fermentation.

CORPORATE PERFORMANCE, POLITICAL CONNECTION, FAMILY FIRMS AND CEO TURNOVER IN INDONESIA

This paper examines associations between company performances, political connection of CEO, political connection of head of commissioner and family firms to CEO turnover. This study uses 1,156 samples of listed firms in Indonesia Stock Exchange from all industries during the period of 2011-2017, except those in financial sector. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression is used, and ROA as well as family firms are found to decrease the likelihood of CEO turnover, while Tobin’s Q is found to have no association with CEO turnover. It shows that only short-term performance and ownership are taken into account to make decisions regarding CEO turnover, while long-term performance is not affecting the decision significantly. In addition, both CEO and head of commissioner’s political connection are found to increase the likelihood of CEO turnover regardless of their differences in roles and tasks. This research findings implies that one of the ways companies adapt is by choosing to appoint CEO with political connection that bring the most benefit for firms at a particular time in a complex political environment such as Indonesia, hence the increased turnover rate and political connection of commissioner is proved to increase the effectiveness of their monitoring role. Meanwhile, family firms has lower rate of CEO turnover. This research helps to explore the implication of performance, upper-management political connection, and family firm ownership influencing the event of CEO turnover in Indonesia

Changes in the Turnover of the Cellular Proteome during Metabolic Reprogramming: A Role for mtROS in Proteostasis.

The role played by protein turnover in metabolic reprogramming is unknown. Herein, using a SILAC approach, we have studied the changes in the half-life of 266 proteins of energy metabolism and of translation during the metabolic switch induced by the prolyl hydroxylases inhibitor dimethyloxalylglycine (DMOG). DMOG induces HIF-1α expression and triggers the activation of glycolysis and the concurrent inhibition of mitochondrial respiration in colon cancer cells. Changes in the activity of energy provision pathways correlated with increased turnover rates of glycolytic enzymes and the stabilization of mitochondrial proteins. Moreover, reprogramming also stabilized the proteins of translation. The partial DMOG-mediated arrest of the synthesis of mitochondrial and translation proteins results from the inhibition of the mTORC1/p70SK/S6 signaling pathway. In contrast, DMOG stimulated the synthesis of glycolytic enzymes, emphasizing the opposite and differential regulation of the two pathways of energy provision. Addition of MitoQ, a mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mtROS) scavenger, stabilized the turnover of cellular proteins similarly as when protein degradation is inhibited with leupeptin, a serine-protease inhibitor. Overall, the results show that the higher the activity of a pathway the lower is the half-life of the proteins involved and suggest a role for mtROS in cellular proteostasis. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD013482.

A Generalized Kinetic Framework Applied to Whole‐Cell Bioelectrocatalysis in Bioflow Reactors Clarifies Performance Enhancements for Geobacter Sulfurreducens Biofilms

AbstractA common kinetic framework for studies of whole‐cell catalysis is vital for understanding and optimizing bioflow reactors. In this work, we demonstrate the applicability of a flow‐adapted version of Michaelis‐Menten kinetics to an electrocatalytic bacterial biofilm. A three‐electrode microfluidic biofilm flow reactor measured increased turnover rates by as much as 50 % from a Geobacter sulfurreducens biofilm as flow rate was varied. Based on parameters from the applied kinetic framework, flow‐induced increases to turnover rate, catalytic efficiency and device reaction capacity could be linked to an increase in catalytic biomass. This study demonstrates that a standardized kinetic framework is critical for quantitative measurements of new living catalytic systems in flow reactors and for benchmarking against well‐studied catalytic systems such as enzymes.

Cultural intelligence effects on expatriates’ adjustment and turnover intentions in Mainland China

PurposeExpatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment is one of the crucial factors for multi-national corporations’ (MNCs’) global success, which if neglected can lead to poor performance and increased turnover rates. On the other hand, cultural intelligence (CQ) is an important perspective for understanding international business success. Utilizing a relatively large sample of foreign professionals (n = 402) working in Mainland China, this study aims to test the effects of cultural intelligence on expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment and their turnover intentions.Design/methodology/approachData were collected via a cross-sectional survey, and the hierarchical multiple regression technique was used to test the hypotheses. The facets of cross-cultural adjustment were treated as potential predictors of turnover intentions and mediators in the relationship between CQ and turnover intentions.FindingsWith the exception of CQ-behavioral, the other three dimensions of CQ had varying positive effects on the three facets of expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment. When the variable of turnover intentions was regressed on the four dimensions of CQ, the motivational dimension was the only predictor. Also, general and work adjustment facets had strong effects on turnover intentions, thus when they entered in the third step after CQ-motivational, they provided full mediation.Practical implicationsGiven the strong and positive effects of all CQ dimensions on all facets of cross-cultural adjustment, MNCs should assess and select individuals with high CQ levels for international assignments. Based on the correlations of the control variables, age and level of education, MNCs should keep an eye on those who are young and those with higher levels of education as they are more likely to leave their international assignments prematurely. Expatriates themselves should set long-term personal plans for acquiring the needed cultural knowledge.Originality/valueThis research extends the relationship between CQ and cross-cultural adjustment to expatriates’ turnover intentions, a very costly problem for MNCs, yet barely researched in the context of CQ. This study also extends the geographical validity of CQ to Mainland China, a very lucrative market for global MNCs, yet a challenge for Western expatriates in particular.

Diagrama de Barber y Johnson y reserva latente como herramientas para optimizar la gestión de camas hospitalarias

IntroductionThe measurement, evaluation and analysis of the bed resources are functions of the Admission and Clinical Documentation Department and are a challenge for the management of acute hospital admissions.The aim of the present study was to analyse the management of bed resources using the Barber and Johnson Diagram (B&J) and latent reserve, during epidemiological contingencies in the Hospital Universitario Río Hortega. Materials and methodsA retrospective review was carried out on hospital admission indicators, from 2008 to February 2017, using the B&J diagram as a graphic tool to compare length of stay, replacement interval, turnover rate, monthly and annual occupancy rate for the hospital and services.The latent and manifest reserve was calculated. ResultsThe B&J diagram showed differences in occupancy rate and provision of functional beds between the years reviewed and the approaches used. A lower provision of beds and higher length of stay corresponded with an increase in occupancy, decrease in replacement interval, and increase in turnover rate. The latent reserve showed that, between a discharge and a new entry into the same bed, 14 inappropriately occupied beds could be available. ConclusionsThe review of the hospital admission indicators, their integration into the B&J diagram, and use of latent reserve could be included in the hospital information system and benefit the decision-making in the operational management of beds.