Therapy Dog Welfare Revisited: A Review of the Literature

During the past decade, the field of human–animal interaction(s) research has been characterized by a significant increase in scientific findings. These data have contributed to our current understanding of how humans may benefit from contact with animals. However, the animal experience of these interactions is still an under-researched area. This paper addresses the welfare of dogs who participate in animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) to improve health in human recipients. This paper builds on previous work by Glenk (2017) and provides an updated review of the literature on therapy dog welfare published from 2017–2021. New advances in scientific methodology, such as the determination of salivary oxytocin, breath rate and tympanic membrane temperature, are analyzed regarding their value and limitations for research in AAIs. Moreover, welfare-related social and environmental factors (e.g., freedom of choice, exploration of novel environments, inequity aversion, individual development, working experience, relationship with handler and handler skills) that profoundly influence dog perception and well-being are reviewed and discussed. Accounting for the globally increasing interest and the number of dogs utilized in AAIs, safeguarding therapy dog well-being, and identifying situations, circumstances and protocols that may challenge animal welfare remains an emerging and crucial area of scientific effort.

Study of Recent Sodium Pool Fire Model Improvements for MELCOR Code

The Sodium Chemistry (NAC) package in MELCOR has been developed to enhance application to sodium cooled fast reactor. The models in the NAC package have been assessed through benchmark analyses. The F7-1 sodium pool fire experimental analysis is conducted within the framework of the U.S.–Japan collaboration under the Civil Nuclear Energy Research and Development Working Group. This study assesses the capability of the improved models proposed for the sodium pool fire in MELCOR through comparison with the F7-1 experimental data and the results of the SPHINCS code developed in Japan. Pool heat transfer, pool oxide layer, and pool spreading models are improved in this study to mitigate the deviations exhibited in the previous study where the original CONTAIN-LMR models are used: the overestimation of combustion rate and associated temperature during the initial phase of the sodium fire relative to the experimental data and SPHINCS results, and the underestimation of them during the later phase. The analytical result of the improved sodium pool fire model agrees well with the experimental data and SPHINCS results over the entire course of the sodium fire. This study illustrates these enhanced capabilities for MELCOR to reliably simulate sodium pool fire events.

Pengaruh Lingkungan Kerja Dan Pengembangan Karyawan Terhadap Kepuasan Kerja Karyawan Pada Bank BTN (Persero) Cabang Karangasem

The research is conducted in order to analyze the influence of working environment, employee development toward work satisfaction in BTN Bank (Persero) Karangasem to obtain of more deep influence of employee development ,working environment toward worked satisfaction in BTN Bank (Persero) Karangasem. Data is analyzed constructively by using the technique analyze the simple regression and multiple regression analysis. Research location is the employee in BTN Bank (Perswero) Karangasem The method of this research is simple random sampling, that taken 55 Operational Division employee at Transaction Process Division, Loan Administration Division, and General Administration Division, while data collecting by using questionnaire and cultivated using SPSS 19.0. The result of t test for working environment is 2.123, and the signification is 0.038. This shows that there is an effect between working environment toward job satisfaction. The result of t test for employee development is -2.160 ,and the signification is 0.035 This shows that there is an effect between employee development toward job satisfaction. The result of F test is 5.798, and the signification is 0.005. This shows that there is an effect between working environment and employee development toward job satisfaction. The result of R2 is 0.182 or 18,2%. It means Job Satisfaction is affected by working environment and employee development as much as 18,2%. Keywords: working environment, employee development, job satisfaction

An Assessment of Factors Affecting Absenteeism: Case Study of a Major South African Manufacturer

Absenteeism is a major problem globally and, in South Africa, costs the country and companies millions of rands each year. Given the financial constraints on businesses at present, it is necessary to understand the causes of absenteeism in order to determine possible interventions to reduce these causes. A quantitative research design was used to investigate the factors that influence absenteeism at a major South African manufacturer. An exploratory factor analysis was used to reduce the number of factors. The study found that there were seven major factors that had an impact on absenteeism, namely, external factors, management factors, illness, family responsibilities, personal development, working conditions, and motivation. These factors were found to affect different employees differently, and were mainly dependent on the demographic characteristics of the employees. This study provides insights into absenteeism in a typical South African situation. The study finds that because factors that have an impact on absenteeism are different for various employees and are dependent largely on demographic and related attributes, organisations need to develop diverse strategies to deal with the absenteeism issues of different employees in organisations. Future research should investigate the efficacies of various interventions to determine which are most likely to meet the needs of the various groups of employees and thereby reduce absenteeism levels.

Developing specialists’ skills of in social sphere in the context of continuous education

The article analyzes the impact of the transformation of professional activities of specialists working in the social sphere on the new approaches development to providing their continuous education. It is proved that continuous education is a professional improvement that is realized through specialists’ acquiring relevant competencies in the process of their development. It has been emphasized that there is a need for sociological support for the specialists' continuous education working in the social sphere, which includes the formation of competencies that develop a sociological imagination, the ability to construct social problems and ways to solve them in the field of social work. It has been found that sociological imagination plays a dual role in the practice of social work: on the one hand, it enables specialists to adequately perceive their professional role, to make aware of their functions following the new social reality, and on the other – to take into account the status features of different recipients of social services in an unstable social environment. The conceptual model of specialists' professional skill development working in the social sphere in the context of continuing education has been proposed. It considers the specific features of providing social and rehabilitation services in the conditions of decentralization of the social service system, and workers' training rendering social and rehabilitation services according to various programs, taking into account the peculiarities of social agencies and institutions. The paper presents the subject matter of classes contained in a curriculum developed by the authors’ educational program for conducting professional skill development courses for employees of territorial social service centres (provision of social services) and geriatric boarding houses in the Kharkiv region. The interconnection between the specialists' professional skills development working in the social sphere and the development of normative and legal, social, methodological, management, communicative and empathetic, conflictology and ethical competencies has been substantiated following the provisions of sociological imagination put forward by P. Sztompka.

EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION AND ITS ANTECEDENTS

Employee job satisfaction is a very crucial area formanager in this day and age as far as managing their employees is concerned. Employee job satisfaction is a term to determine whether employees are happy and fulfilling their needs and aspirations in the organization. Essentially employee satisfaction is a gauge of the degree of worker‘s happiness with their job and working environment.Many measures establish that employee satisfaction is necessary for employee motivation, higher performance andbetter employee self-esteem in the organization. In this paper different variables accountable for employee job satisfaction has been identified and an attempt has been made to shed some light on the differences in variables among the studies. This study reveals that commonly acknowledged antecedents to build employee job satisfaction are salary, relationship with coworkers, relationship with supervisor, training and development, working environment, motivation, appreciation etc. In the end, the conceptual framework of this research is also presented.

An Expedient Catalytic Process to Obtain Solketal from Biobased Glycerol

Developing simple and effective chemistry able to convert industrial waste streams into valuable chemicals is a primary contributor to sustainable development. Working in the context of biodiesel production, we found that plain bisulfate on silica (SSANa, 3.0 mmol/g) proved to be an optimal catalyst to convert glycerol into solketal. With the assistance of a proper anhydrification technique, isolated yields of 96% were achieved working in mild conditions, on 100 g scale.