This research contributes to the employee selection literature by examining the various aspects of value creation derived from systematic approaches to selective hiring and onboarding best practices. These best practices covering the end-to-end spectrum of talent acquisition activities from pre-recruitment to post-hiring performance management are examined through the construct of employee selection bundles. A rigorous type of employee selection bundle called Topgrading is examined across six case studies. This research builds on the employee selection literature by exploring the cross section of organizational learning theory, goal setting theory, and process management theory on the employee selection bundle as a mechanism that positively impacts firm performance.

Evidence suggests that the variability in recruitment of adult Pacific salmon is related to smolt survival during the first ocean year. Specifically, the first few weeks and first marine winter may be two critical periods of high mortality during early marine life. Mortality during early marine residency has been attributed to predation and size-dependent factors while high mortality during the first winter may be due to energy deficits and failure to reach a certain size by the end of the growing season. My study assessed factors influencing overwinter mortality and early marine growth in juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) from Marble River, Quatsino Sound, British Columbia. Juvenile salmon were collected during November 2005 and 2006 (fall) and March 2006 and 2007(winter). Mortality rates over the first winter derived from catch per unit effort across seasons ranged between 80-90% in all years. These are the first estimations of overwinter mortality in juvenile Pacific salmon. Fish size distributions showed no evidence of size-selective overwinter mortality between fall and winter fish in either 2005-2006 or 2006-2007. Otolith microstructure analyses showed no significant difference in circulus increment widths during the first four weeks after marine entry. Similarities in increment width indicated that early marine growth did not differ between fall and winter fish during early marine residency in 2006. These observations show that the high overwinter mortality rates of juvenile Chinook salmon in Quatsino Sound are not size-dependent. Total plankton biomass was significantly lower in the winter season but size distribution, gut fullness and energy density data did not show evidence of starvation. No correlation was found between early marine growth, size, energy accumulation and high mortality in Marble River juvenile Chinook salmon during their first ocean winter in Quatsino Sound. Possible factors influencing these high mortality rates may include non size-selective predation, disease, local environmental influences or an as yet unknown source. Future work should continue to focus on understanding the relationship between early marine survival and adult recruitment. The expansion of growth comparisons geographically and chronologically while determining the effects of predatory mortality on juvenile Chinook salmon along the north Pacific continental shelf and beyond are imperative to fully understanding this complex marine life stage. / Graduate

Studies were conducted to investigate relationships between trait emotion regulation variables (including reappraisal and suppression) and selective attention to negative emotional information. Correlation analyses of data in experiment 1 showed that trait-suppression was related to early attentional avoidance of angry faces, while reappraisal showed no relationship to attention. Experiment 2 directly compared selective attention to angry faces in groups of high trait-suppressors and high trait-reappraisers. Since reappraisers are also low trait-anxious and suppressors are high trait-anxious, low emotion regulating high- and low-anxious control groups were included. Contrary to findings from experiment 1, trait-suppressors did not have lower selective attention to angry faces than low-regulating high anxious controls. Trait-reappraisers in experiment 2 showed pronounced vigilance for angry faces compared to both trait suppressors and low-regulating low anxious controls. These results suggest that trait-suppression may reduce attentional threat biases. Conversely, trait-reappraisal combined with low anxiety may allow individuals to prioritize threat in attention.

In order to accelerate logic simulation, it is highly beneficial to simulate the circuit design on FPGA hardware. However, limited hardware resources on FPGAs prevent large designs from being implemented on a single FPGA. Hence there is a need to partition the design and simulate it on a multi-FPGA platform. In contrast to existing FPGA-based post-synthesis partitioning approaches which first completely flatten the circuit and then possibly perform bottom-up clustering, we perform a selective top-down flattening and thereby avoid the potential netlist blowup. This also allows us to preserve the design hierarchy to guide the partitioning and to make subsequent debugging easier. Our approach analyzes the hierarchical design and selectively flattens instances using two metrics based on slack. The resulting partially flattened netlist is converted to a hypergraph, partitioned using a public domain partitioner (hMetis), and reconverted back to a plurality of FPGA netlists, one for each FPGA of the FPGA-based accelerated logic simulation platform. We compare our approach with a partitioning approach that operates on a completely flattened netlist. Static timing analysis was performed for both approaches, and over 15 examples from the OpenCores project, our approach yields a 52% logic simulation speedup and about 0.74x runtime for the entire flow, compared to the completely flat approach. The entire tool chain of our approach is automated in an end-to-end flow from hierarchy extraction, selective flattening, partitioning, and netlist reconstruction. Compared to an existing method which also performs slack-based partitioning of a hierarchical netlist, we obtain a 35% simulation speedup.

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 1996

Cognitive-behavioural based models of chronic pain contend that appraisals of harm affect the individual�s response to pain. It has been suggested that fear of pain and/or anxiety sensitivity predispose individuals to chronicity. However, other factors such as pain self-efficacy are believed to mediate between experience of pain and disability. According to this view, pain is maintained through hypervigilance towards painful sensations and subsequent avoidance. Four studies were conducted in order to evaluate the structure of fear-avoidance models of chronic pain, and also, to examine the role of hypervigilance as an underlying mechanism in maintenance of pain. In study one, using a sample of 207 consecutive patients, two models were tested. First, fear of movement model as proposed by Vlaeyen et al. (1995a) was examined. It was found that negative affectivity has direct effects on the fear and avoidance of pain, which in turn, contributes to disability. In total, fear/avoidance accounted for a significant amount of the variance of disability. In addition, severity of pain was found to increase pain disability, while itself is influenced still by negative affectivity. These findings supported the model of fear of pain as described by Vlaeyen et al. (1995a). Further, we found that self-efficacy may mediate the impact of fear of pain on disability and reduces the perceived physical disability. At the same time, self-efficacy was shown to have direct reductive impact on disability. However, both studies indicated that people who are fearful in response to pain are more likely to develop disability, although self-efficacy may play a moderating role. In the studies one, two, and three, the role of hypervigilance in over attending to pain was investigated. In study one a large sample of 168 chronic pain patients were studied. Questionnaires measuring different aspects of pain and a computerised version of the Dot-Probe Task were administered. Four types of words related to different dimensions of pain and matched neutral words were used as stimuli. Reaction times in response to the stimuli were recorded. A factorial design 3x4x2x2 and ANOVAs were employed to analyse the data. Chronic pain patients showed a cognitive bias to sensory pain words relative to affective, disability, and threat-related words. However, contrary to expectations, those high in fear of pain responded more slowly to stimuli than those less fearful of pain. These results suggest that patients with chronic pain problems selectively attend to sensory aspects of pain. However, selective attention appears to depend upon the nature of pain stimuli. For those who are highly fearful of pain they may not only selectively attend to pain-related information but also have difficulty disengaging from those stimuli. In study two, 35 chronic pain patients were compared with the same number matched healthy subjects. Both groups completed measures of fear of pain, anxiety sensitivity, depression and anxiety, in addition to dot probe task. Results indicated that both groups show similar attentional bias to sensory words in comparison with other word types. However, the level of this biasness was higher for chronic pain patients. Lack of significant differences between patients and controls is discussed in the context of possible evolutionary value of sensitivity to pain as an adaptive reaction in healthy controls, and contrary, as a maladaptive response to pain in chronic pain patients. The results of the previous research suggest that chronic pain patients demonstrate cognitive biases towards pain-related information and that such biases predict patient functioning. The forth study examined the degree to which a successful cognitive-behavioural program was able to modify the observed attentional bias towards sensory pain words. Forty-two patients with chronic pain conditions for more than three months were recruited prior to commencing a cognitive-behavioural pain management program. Participants were assessed before the program, after the program and at one-month follow-up. Results confirmed that chronic pain patients exhibited biased attention towards sensory pain-related words at pre-treatment. These biases were still evident at post-treatment, but were no longer statistically significant at follow up. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the changes in attentional bias towards sensory words between post-treatment and follow-up were predicted by pre- to post- treatment changes in fear of movement (Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia) but not other relevant variables, such as fear of pain or anxiety sensitivity. These results demonstrate that successful cognitive-behavioural treatments can reduce selective attention, thought to be indicative of hypervigilance towards pain. Moreover, these biases appear to be changed by reducing the fear associated with movement. Theoretically, these results provide support for the fear of (re)injury model of pain. Clinically, this study supports the contention that fear of (re)injury and movement is an appropriate target of pain management and that reducing these fears causes patients to attend less to pain-related stimuli.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The BCNU + O6benzylguanine (O6BG) driven selective enrichment strategy was first established for enhanced transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells. This study describes a novel application of this BCNU + O6BG driven selective enrichment strategy in skeletal muscle stem cell transplantation. Furthermore, this study addresses the three main limitations observed in previously reported skeletal muscle stem cell transplantation strategies. Limitation of ineffective donor cells which lack the ability for successful engraftment was overcome by using a heterogeneous population of donor cells which are present during a normal skeletal muscle regeneration response. The limitation of donor cell death upon transplantation as a result of competition from the endogenous stem cells of the host muscles was overcome by elimination of host muscle stem cells with BCNU + O6BG treatment. Efficiency of elimination of host muscle stem cells was further demonstrated by the complete inhibition of a regeneration response up to 3 months in injured, BCNU + O6BG treated muscles. The limitation of localised engraftment as a result of intramuscular injection of donor cells was also addressed. The transplanted donor cells demonstrated the ability to migrate via systemic circulation. This characteristic of the donor cells would allow the transplantation of cells via intraarterial or intravenous delivery which would overcome the limitation of localised engraftment. Finally, application of the BCNU + O6BG driven selective enrichment strategy in skeletal muscle stem cell transplantation demonstrated enhanced engraftment. This is the first reported attempt of enhanced stem cell transplantation in a solid tissue achieved upon application of the BCNU + O6BG driven selective enrichment strategy. This study provides the basis for application of the BCNU + O6BG driven selective enrichment strategy in other tissues where stem cell transplantation is considered.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2005. / Adviser: Samuel P. Kounaves. Submitted to the Dept. of Chemistry. Includes bibliographical references. Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-91).

Diss. (sammanfattning). Umeå : Sveriges lantbruksuniv. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.