Employee Loyalty: Measurement and Validation

Employee loyalty is a significant attribute to gain competitive advantage in any organization. Research suggests that retaining and nurturing a loyal workforce has many benefits and protects the organization from several disadvantages. Therefore, understanding and measuring employee loyalty is very important for organizational effectiveness. The available literature on employee loyalty is scattered, and there is a shortage of available tools to measure the affective, cognitive and behavioural aspects of the construct. In this study, we developed a scale to measure employee loyalty in terms of the cognitive, affective and behavioural components. We used the mixed methodology and grounded theory approach for this purpose. Test items to measure employee loyalty were developed and data were collected to validate them. Furthermore, the data were subjected to rigorous statistical analysis. Results suggested robust psychometric properties in terms of validity and reliability. Such a scale is beneficial to HR practitioners and professionals, policymakers and other like-minded vocations desirous of measuring employee loyalty.

The Evolution of Covid-19 in Italy after the Spring of 2020: An Unpredicted Summer Respite Followed by a Second Wave

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was particularly invasive in Italy during the period between March and late April 2020, then decreased in both the number of infections and in the seriousness of the illness throughout the summer of 2020. In this work, we measure the severity of the disease by the ratio of Intensive Care Units (ICU) spaces occupied by COVID-19 patients and the number of Active Cases (AC) each month from April to October 2020. We also use the ratio of the number of Deaths (D) to the number of Active Cases. What clearly emerges, from rigorous statistical analysis, is a progressive decrease in both ratios until August, indicating progressive mitigation of the disease. This is particularly evident when comparing March–April with July–August; during the summer period the two ratios became roughly 18 times lower. We test such sharp decreases against possible bias in counting active cases and we confirm their statistical significance. We then interpret such evidence in terms of the well-known seasonality of the human immune system and the virus-inactivating effect of stronger UV rays in the summer. Both ratios, however, increased again in October, as ICU/AC began to increase in September 2020. These ratios and the exponential growth of infections in October indicate that the virus—if not contained by strict measures—will lead to unsustainable challenges for the Italian health system in the winter of 2020–2021.

The agreement of existential haber in three varieties of spoken Spanish

This paper aims to present one of the most relevant linguistic phenomena of spoken Spanish on both sides of the Atlantic. The singular/plural forms of the verb haber with existential meaning have received considerable attention due to the fact that it is a linguistic variable that changes according to the variety of Spanish that is used. We report the findings from the research carried out within three speech communities: Valencia, Las Palmas and Mexico City, analysing the internal and external factors that may explain this linguistic variation. For this study we have selected these communities because all the data have been obtained according to the guidelines proposed in the PRESEEA (Project for the Sociolinguistic Study of Spanish from Spain and from America). The results are the product of rigorous statistical analysis and allow us to illustrate the processes of convergence or divergence.

The evolution of COVID-19 in Italy after the spring of 2020: an unpredicted summer respite followed by a second wave

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was particularly invasive in Italy during the period between March and late April 2020 then decreased in both in the number of infections and in the seriousness of the illness throughout the summer of 2020. In this discussion, we measure the severity of the disease by the ratio of Intensive Care Units (ICU) spaces occupied by COVID-19 patients and the number of Active Cases (AC) each month from April to October 2020. We also use the ratio of the number of Deaths (D) to the number of Active Cases. What clearly emerges, from rigorous statistical analysis, is a progressive decrease in both ratios until August, indicating progressive mitigation of the disease. This is particularly evident when comparing March-April with July-August; during the summer period the two ratios became roughly 18 times lower. We test such sharp decreases against possible bias in counting active cases and we confirm their statistical significance. We then interpret such evidence in terms of the well-known seasonality of the human immune system and the virus-inactivating effect of stronger UV rays in the summer. Both ratios, however, increased again in October as ICU/AC began to increase in September 2020. These ratios and the exponential growth of infections in October indicate that the virus - if not contained by strict measures - will lead to unsustainable challenges for the Italian health system in the winter of 2020-2021.

A collection of programs for one-dimensional Ising analysis of linear repeat proteins with point substitutions

A collection of programs is presented to analyze the thermodynamics of folding of linear repeat proteins using a 1D Ising model to determine intrinsic folding and interfacial coupling free energies. Expressions for folding transitions are generated for a series of constructs with different repeat numbers and are globally fitted to transitions for these constructs. These programs are designed to analyze Ising parameters for capped homopolymeric consensus repeat constructs as well as heteropolymeric constructs that contain point substitutions, providing a rigorous framework for analysis of the effects of mutation on intrinsic and directional (i.e., N- versus C-terminal) interfacial coupling free-energies. A bootstrap analysis is provided to estimate parameter uncertainty as well as correlations among fitted parameters. Rigorous statistical analysis is essential for interpreting fits using the complex models required for Ising analysis of repeat proteins, especially heteropolymeric repeat proteins. Programs described here are available at https://github.com/barricklab-at-jhu/Ising_programs.

Heats of combustion of the main carbohydrates contained in plant-source foods

In a previous review, the experiments of American chemist W.O. Atwater were critically examined, with the findings demonstrating certain weaknesses that could compromise the validity of the values currently used for metabolizable energy. An examination of published works on the heat of combustion of carbohydrates reveals 2 types of weaknesses: the inaccuracy and imprecision of the calorimetric data used, and the averaging procedure employed to estimate such representative values. The present review focuses on the first type of weakness, namely the inaccuracy and imprecision of the calorimetric data used in previous studies. An exhaustive bibliographic search yielded almost 100 heat of combustion values for some of the 6 main carbohydrates contained in plant-source foods (glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, starch, and cellulose). These heats of combustion were subjected to rigorous statistical analysis to propose the following for each carbohydrate: (1) an interval (termed a bibliographic interval) that very likely includes the actual heat of combustion value and (2) a “representative value” (calculated to produce the minimum level of inaccuracy). In addition, an estimation of the maximum level of inaccuracy that could be expected when using such a representative value is reported.

Unconventional incentive schemes in tourism enterprises, does it make sense?

The purpose of this article is to describe the model of the most important employee financial participation (EFP) programs and give some proposals aiming at wider promotion of financial participation in tourist companies in order to show the occurring relations between the programs applied and the socioeconomic results of enterprises. The research has been based on available literature and own research conducted on the sample of Polish companies listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange. The author’s research could serve as a guide to carry out similar research in the tourist resort. Financial participation programs existing in particular countries differ because of various circumstances in which they are applied, various range and eligibility of employees, though it is possible to find such elements which they have in common. What can be expected is a radical change in workers’ attitudes towards a higher commitment, stronger identification with the company, and as a result taking responsibility for its future. It is even more important in tourist industry (in transnational tourist companies) in a comparison to the traditional one. It can be assumed that the awareness aspect plays here a vital role in the way to a success of the whole company and individual employees’ as well. Unfortunately, this is not a common condition. We can expect that EFP programs generally would have a positive influence on the functioning of the tourist enterprise. However, the effects could be rather social than economic. More rigorous statistical analysis is needed to know more about economic results in tourist industry, unfortunately such studies are not conducted in tourism, so the question in the title is still open.

Correcting for cell-type heterogeneity in epigenome-wide association studies: premature analyses and conclusions

Recently, a study by Rahmani et al [1] claimed that a reference-free cell-type deconvolution method, called ReFACTor, leads to improved power and improved estimates of cell-type composition compared to competing reference-free and reference-based methods in the context of Epigenome-Wide Association Studies (EWAS). However, we identified many critical flaws (both conceptual and statistical in nature), which seriously question the validity of their claims. We outlined constructive criticism in a recent correspondence letter, Zheng et al [2]. The purpose of this letter is two-fold. First, to present additional analyses, which demonstrate that our original criticism is statistically sound. Second, to highlight additional serious concerns, which Rahmani et al have not yet addressed. In summary, we find that ReFACTor has not been demonstrated to outperform state-of-the-art reference-free methods such as SVA or RefFreeEWAS, nor state-of-the-art reference-based methods. Thus, the claim by Rahmani et al (a claim reiterated in their recent response letter [3]) that ReFACT or represents an advance over the state-of-the-art is not supported by an objective and rigorous statistical analysis of the data.