This inquiry investigated the phenomenon of 'staying' as a feature of the turnover, recruitment and retention of social workers in hospital settings. In the absence of specific literature on the subject, the study made a significant and original contribution to knowledge about social work staff turnover, including the meaning attached to work, the relationship of social workers to the hospital organisation, and to job satisfaction. Using qualitative methodology, data were collected from multiple sources including in-depth interviews at two large Sydney Teaching Hospitals, a period of engagement in each Social Work Department, a comprehensive review of primary data from archival records of the Directors of Social Work Services in Teaching Hospitals (NSW) between 1981-1999, and secondary source materials of federal and state health policy documents. Two core categories emerged from the study which were social workers 'tolerance' of the hospital environment and their qualities of 'selfactualisation'. Of central importance to the inquiry was the discovery of grounded theory which explained the relationship of these categories to the phenomenon of 'staying'. The intersection of 'tolerance' and 'self- actualisation' qualified 'staying' as either a positive or negative experience for the social worker and the hospital. This theory was presented as an original model which with further refinement, could be used as a predictive tool in studies of turnover of social workers in hospital settings. The findings challenged existing theories that staff retention was preferable to staff turnover in hospital organisations and identified qualities in hospital social workers which would ensure the continuing relevance of social work to the changing hospital environment. The model has implications for hospitals, Social Work Departments and for social work education in the preparation and training of social workers to join the hospital workforce. Specific activities that supported the 'self-actualisation' of social workers, and aspects of 'tolerance' were identified which worked for the benefit of both social workers and hospitals.

Mentoring has been proposed as a human resource strategy to encourage recruitment and retention of nurses in Canada. However, very little research exists related to mentoring in nursing. The purpose of this study was to describe the mentoring perceptions of acute care, clinical registered nurses based on their years of nursing practice, age, gender, and education level. A descriptive correlational design was performed on an analysis of a subset of the pre-workshop data gathered as part of the research of Ferguson, Myrick, and Yonge (2006). The conceptual framework used to structure the research questions was Benners Novice to Expert model (Benner, 1984; Benner, Tanner, & Chesla, 1996). The main research question related to the relationship between nursing experience level and mentoring perceptions. More specifically, what is the relationship between age, years of nursing practice, education level, gender, and mentoring perceptions including perceived costs and benefits to mentoring, willingness to mentor, mentoring functions of coworkers, and satisfaction with current mentoring relationships? This research established that age, years of nursing practice on the current unit, and education level had some impact on mentoring perceptions. Older nurses believed that the mentor played a greater psychosocial function in the mentorship than did younger nurses. Nurses with fewer years of practice on their current unit perceived fewer costs to mentoring, were more satisfied with their mentor, and were more willing to mentor. Previous experience as a protégé positively impacted mentoring perceptions. Nurses with prior mentoring experience were more willing to mentor. There were no significant differences between nurses with diplomas or degrees as their basic or highest level of education in nursing and mentoring perceptions. Nurses with a baccalaureate degree in another discipline perceived more benefits to mentoring than their diploma-prepared colleagues. No significant differences were noted when comparing gender with mentoring perceptions. The results of this study will provide healthcare organizations with a deeper understanding of mentoring perceptions and mentorships. From the knowledge acquired by this study, organizations can better encourage and endorse formal and informal mentoring in acute care environments. Retention and recruitment of registered nurses can be facilitated through support for mentoring.

An improved ability to assess whether individuals have been added through immigration or natality and lost through emigration or mortality could alleviate several problems in population ecology. Fortunately, advances in stable isotope techniques now allow the movements of individuals to be retraced from tissue values and provide an opportunity to link information about the origins of individuals with demographic rates so that questions about the significance of dispersal can be assessed. I used such an approach by combining feather isotope information with demographic rates derived from capture-mark-recapture of individual mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) breeding in the Canadian aspen parklands, at multiple spatiotemporal scales, to answer questions about population persistence, settling patterns by dispersers, and the fitness of immigrant birds relative to residents.<p> Feather isotope (ä34S, äD, ä15N, and ä13C) values from an independent sample of flightless mallard ducklings sampled from across the mid-continent breeding range was used to validate an existing model used for origin assignments. Spatial resolution analysis within the mid-continent mallard breeding range generally showed a loss in prediction when attempting to assign individuals to more narrowly separated geographic origins among boreal, aspen parkland and prairie regions. For feather äD, spatial resolution may be limited by temporal patterns of local climatic events that produce variability in consumer tissue values. Thus, the use of multiple feather isotope signals would provide more reliable information about the origin of individuals for addressing questions about long-distance dispersal in yearling mallards.<p> Demographic rescue in an apparent population sink near Minnedosa, Manitoba, Canada, was due to elevated survival rates from a highly productive group of nesting female mallards using nest tunnels (i.e., an artificial nesting structure) and recruitment of yearling females having natal origins within the aspen parklands. There was little evidence that immigration by yearling females dispersing long-distances was important to annual population growth rates. Consistently high annual survival rates of adult females using nest tunnels lowered the recruitment rates needed for population stability. While tunnel-origin and within-region recruitment of yearling females were nearly equally important to local population growth rate, fine-scale limitations of isotopic origin assignments prevented further assessment of where recruits originated from within the aspen parkland region.<p> Factors related to breeding area settling patterns of yearling females are not well understood despite implications to local population dynamics. The likelihood that immigrant yearling females would settle in a parkland breeding area was positively correlated with local breeding-pair density and the amount of perennial nest cover, but was negatively correlated with the amount of wetlands. Although these relationships were not well estimated, they are most consistent a hypothesis that females were attracted to breeding sites by conspecific cues rather than avoidance. Immigrants comprised an average of 9% (range: 0 39% over 22 sites) of yearling recruits; most had natal origins in the U.S. prairie pothole region but a non-trivial number originated from the boreal forest, indicating a high degree of connectedness among breeding regions resulting from long-distance natal dispersal.<p> One of the most frequent explanations for strong site fidelity in breeding female ducks is that females benefit from site familiarity. However, evidence for differential reproductive success between immigrant and resident yearling females was weak, On sites with favourable wetland conditions and low breeding-pair densities immigrant females were more likely to breed and nest successfully than were residents whereas under opposite wetland and pair conditions, resident females were favoured. Thus, the costs and benefits of a natal dispersal decision seemed to vary with social context and environmental conditions, and further work is needed to clarify these processes.

Mentoring has been proposed as a human resource strategy to encourage recruitment and retention of nurses in Canada. However, very little research exists related to mentoring in nursing. The purpose of this study was to describe the mentoring perceptions of acute care, clinical registered nurses based on their years of nursing practice, age, gender, and education level. A descriptive correlational design was performed on an analysis of a subset of the pre-workshop data gathered as part of the research of Ferguson, Myrick, and Yonge (2006). The conceptual framework used to structure the research questions was Benners Novice to Expert model (Benner, 1984; Benner, Tanner, & Chesla, 1996). The main research question related to the relationship between nursing experience level and mentoring perceptions. More specifically, what is the relationship between age, years of nursing practice, education level, gender, and mentoring perceptions including perceived costs and benefits to mentoring, willingness to mentor, mentoring functions of coworkers, and satisfaction with current mentoring relationships? This research established that age, years of nursing practice on the current unit, and education level had some impact on mentoring perceptions. Older nurses believed that the mentor played a greater psychosocial function in the mentorship than did younger nurses. Nurses with fewer years of practice on their current unit perceived fewer costs to mentoring, were more satisfied with their mentor, and were more willing to mentor. Previous experience as a protégé positively impacted mentoring perceptions. Nurses with prior mentoring experience were more willing to mentor. There were no significant differences between nurses with diplomas or degrees as their basic or highest level of education in nursing and mentoring perceptions. Nurses with a baccalaureate degree in another discipline perceived more benefits to mentoring than their diploma-prepared colleagues. No significant differences were noted when comparing gender with mentoring perceptions. The results of this study will provide healthcare organizations with a deeper understanding of mentoring perceptions and mentorships. From the knowledge acquired by this study, organizations can better encourage and endorse formal and informal mentoring in acute care environments. Retention and recruitment of registered nurses can be facilitated through support for mentoring.

An improved ability to assess whether individuals have been added through immigration or natality and lost through emigration or mortality could alleviate several problems in population ecology. Fortunately, advances in stable isotope techniques now allow the movements of individuals to be retraced from tissue values and provide an opportunity to link information about the origins of individuals with demographic rates so that questions about the significance of dispersal can be assessed. I used such an approach by combining feather isotope information with demographic rates derived from capture-mark-recapture of individual mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) breeding in the Canadian aspen parklands, at multiple spatiotemporal scales, to answer questions about population persistence, settling patterns by dispersers, and the fitness of immigrant birds relative to residents.<p> Feather isotope (ä34S, äD, ä15N, and ä13C) values from an independent sample of flightless mallard ducklings sampled from across the mid-continent breeding range was used to validate an existing model used for origin assignments. Spatial resolution analysis within the mid-continent mallard breeding range generally showed a loss in prediction when attempting to assign individuals to more narrowly separated geographic origins among boreal, aspen parkland and prairie regions. For feather äD, spatial resolution may be limited by temporal patterns of local climatic events that produce variability in consumer tissue values. Thus, the use of multiple feather isotope signals would provide more reliable information about the origin of individuals for addressing questions about long-distance dispersal in yearling mallards.<p> Demographic rescue in an apparent population sink near Minnedosa, Manitoba, Canada, was due to elevated survival rates from a highly productive group of nesting female mallards using nest tunnels (i.e., an artificial nesting structure) and recruitment of yearling females having natal origins within the aspen parklands. There was little evidence that immigration by yearling females dispersing long-distances was important to annual population growth rates. Consistently high annual survival rates of adult females using nest tunnels lowered the recruitment rates needed for population stability. While tunnel-origin and within-region recruitment of yearling females were nearly equally important to local population growth rate, fine-scale limitations of isotopic origin assignments prevented further assessment of where recruits originated from within the aspen parkland region.<p> Factors related to breeding area settling patterns of yearling females are not well understood despite implications to local population dynamics. The likelihood that immigrant yearling females would settle in a parkland breeding area was positively correlated with local breeding-pair density and the amount of perennial nest cover, but was negatively correlated with the amount of wetlands. Although these relationships were not well estimated, they are most consistent a hypothesis that females were attracted to breeding sites by conspecific cues rather than avoidance. Immigrants comprised an average of 9% (range: 0 39% over 22 sites) of yearling recruits; most had natal origins in the U.S. prairie pothole region but a non-trivial number originated from the boreal forest, indicating a high degree of connectedness among breeding regions resulting from long-distance natal dispersal.<p> One of the most frequent explanations for strong site fidelity in breeding female ducks is that females benefit from site familiarity. However, evidence for differential reproductive success between immigrant and resident yearling females was weak, On sites with favourable wetland conditions and low breeding-pair densities immigrant females were more likely to breed and nest successfully than were residents whereas under opposite wetland and pair conditions, resident females were favoured. Thus, the costs and benefits of a natal dispersal decision seemed to vary with social context and environmental conditions, and further work is needed to clarify these processes.

Motivation: Through the increasing demand in new products, companies within international business context have to implement innovation efforts and so, they are searching for talents in an increasing amount of available employees. Problem statement: The problem of those firms is to employ the right people (talents) on one side and to ensure the innovative performance of the company on the other side. Research approach: For solving this issue, a qualitative research was chosen, while conducting a Swedish and a German case study of suitable companies and interviewing them about their practices of attracting, selecting, and integrating talents. Results: There is support found for the connection between the recruitment of talents and the innovative performance. Conclusions: The results contribute to talent management and provide lessons from successful cases as a guideline for other companies. For the reason that the case studies do not belong to a specific industry, the results are potentially generalizable.

Coral reefs have high biodiversity among the many marine ecosystems. Many hypotheses explain marine biodiversity, e.g., the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis, the Lottery hypothesis and the Resource Allocation Hypothesis, but there is no mention of the possible role of seasonal effects. Here, we propose the Seasonal Recruitment Hypothesis to explain the possible role of seasonal recruitment and succession in a disturbed ecosystem. In this investigation, we tested several prediction of the hypothesis: a. Does recruitment have seasonal variation? b. Does variable recruiting communities diverge in succession? c. Are high biodiversities of coral reefs contributed by different communities originating from patches created in different seasons? In this study, we used plastic plates as proxy of empty space generated after disturbance to survey the seasonal patterns of settling benthos. Recruitment plates were placed and retrieved at two-month intervals for two consecutive years. Then, the composition and densities of settled taxa were estimated. The PRIMER software was used to compare the community similarities. We looked for possible seasonal patterns in each benthic populations but found few not real examples of such. Although there is difference between communities started in different seasons, no cyclic pattern in similarity was found by MDS plots in two years of recruitment communities. There are variations of recruitment community between different year and month, and the community structures converged after succession. These results do not support the prediction of the Seasoanl Recruitment Hypothesis.

Many coral reefs around the world were damaged during the 1998 mass bleaching event. The acroporids in the lagoon of Dongsha Atoll were eliminated during massive bleaching, and they are still not recovered. Three hypotheses were proposed to explain how the lagoon of Dongsha Atoll has not recovered during the past twelve years¡G1. the lack of recruitment, 2. the persistent interfering on newly recruiting acroporids by hot water, 3.the interfering on those acroporids by predators. Four types of habitats, i.e., reef tops, reef slopes, reef bases, and inter-patch-reefs were surveyed on their coral communities, densities of juvenile corals, growth rates, pests and diseases of corals. The tissue samples were collected to assess reproductive status of corals. Moreover, Acropora muricata branches were transplanted from north coast of Dongsha Island to 3 m and 9 m depths in the lagoon of Dongsha Atoll for testing suitability of the environment. The acroporids were mature, and they spawned between March and May in 2010. Live coral coverage was 16% on average; small coral densities were 1.5/m2, much lower than other lagoons. Besides, acroporid represented 8% of coral coverage and 4% of juvenile corals which are lower than those of other lagoon. Water temperatures were higher in 2010 than 2009. However, coral skeletal extension rates do not show any reign of reduction. In addition, most acroporids survived 2010 summer¡]sea water temperature exceeded 30¢J¡G40-64%¡^ in the transplantation experiment. During two years of survey, only 6 individuals Acanthaster planci. So the lack of recruits might be the bottleneck to the recovery of acroporid in Dongsha lagoon.

Coral bleaching and mortality caused by ocean warming is the largest threaten to modern coral reefs. Understanding the change and acclimatization of coral communities to warming temperature is urgent for management and conservation. Using transect photo-surveys and monitoring of natural substratum quadrats with fluorescence technique, we compare the community structure and recruitment of corals between a reef artificially heated by thermal outfall of a nuclear power plant for more than 25 years (Outlet) and a nearby natural reef (Hobihu) in Nanwan Bay, southern Taiwan. Both reefs are influenced by intermittent upwelling induced by internal wave. Abundance of hard corals in Outlet was significant higher than in Hobihu, while soft corals showed an opposite pattern. Coverages of corals such as Montipora spp., Porites spp., Galaxea spp. and Favia spp. were significant higher, but Seriatopora spp. and Stylophora spp. were significant lower in Outlet than in Hobihu. Coral recruitment rates were higher in Hobihu than in Outlet with Hobihu having more Pocilloporidae recruits while Outlet having more Euphylliidae, majorly Galaxea recruits. Coral recruitment rates and their survivorship were significant higher in spring/summer season than in autumn/winter season. These results suggest that elevated seawater temperature with other contrasting environmental conditions (different exposure and current) may change the structure of coral community by influencing differently on various life stages. Massive and encrusting corals may be more resilient to ocean warming.

The purpose of this study was to assess the management of volunteers through self-perceptions of Texas 4-H volunteers. This research was an on-line questionnaire designed to assess volunteers’ attitudes toward recruitment, orientation, training, resources, utilization, motivations for continuation of service, and recognition. The population was volunteers enrolled in the Texas 4-H Program during the 2007-2008 program year. The census included 711 Texas 4-H volunteer respondents. This study used a questionnaire designed by the researcher and a team of faculty and staff at a major land grant university and a demographics questionnaire. SPSS® 16.0 for Windows® was used to analyze the data. The study revealed that most Texas 4-H volunteers are oriented and trained in their roles and responsibilities as a volunteer, have additional opportunities for training in their role as club managers or project leaders, have the resources necessary to fulfill their role, and are recognized for their contributions to the Texas 4-H Program. However, as with any program, there is room for improvement. Respondents indicated a need for curriculum development in volunteer and club management. Additionally, 83% of volunteers began volunteering because they had children or family enrolled in the 4-H program; however, volunteers are motivated to continue to serve as volunteers because they want to help youth and support youth development, the 4-H program, agriculture, and family and community development. Respondents indicated they chose to discontinue serving as a 4-H volunteer due to lack of county Extension staff support, lack of time, children aging out of the program, and burnout. The following recommendations for action were based on the findings and conclusions of this study. Volunteer orientation and training programs should become an integral part of all county 4-H volunteer management programs. Curriculum should be developed in the areas of volunteer and club management. In addition, all volunteers should be recognized for their contributions to the program. Orientation, training, and recognition of 4-H volunteers will provide opportunities for volunteers to build an affiliation for the Texas 4-H program, and in turn, motivate volunteers to continue to serve the 4-H youth development program.