Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed September 19 , 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

A critical aspect for organizational performance is recruiting “the right” people. Great talent serves as a foundation for great companies and a strong pool of candidates is a prerequisite for success. It is furthermore necessary to have an effective recruitment process in order to attract high quality candidates. Slow-paced recruiting processes may serve as a bottleneck to growth meanwhile an effective recruitment process within an organization speaks volumes about the company. It is a direct reflection of the professionalism and validity of the business while leaving its mark on both current and prospective employees. Referral-based recruiting is often referred to as the “holy grail” of recruiting strategies and is an industry term for when a someone, such as a current employee, supplies a candidate from their own network to the recruiter. The strategy capitalizes on the social and professional networks of people in order to generate candidates and is often combined with rewards to incentivize recommendations. Many claims that the recruitment method yields advantages such as increased candidate quality, retention rate and reduced time to hire etc. However, often, these claims are not peer reviewed and lack the empirical evidence to support these claims. This research aims to contribute with knowledge to what role referral-based recruiting plays within Stockholm and to learn more about how the social processes and human elements affects the outcome. Furthermore, how the recruitment method impacts the assessed quality of the candidate pool and recruitment process. A total of six managers active within recruiting in Stockholm has been interviewed for this research. The managers were each asked to describe and evaluate the hiring of five candidates and their respective recruitment process. The empirical results were analyzed in combination to the theoretical framework. Through the analysis, the conclusion was drawn that referral-based recruiting in fact appears to offer unique advantages in comparison to traditional recruiting strategies, such as job-adverts, headhunting and hiring the services of recruitment firms.

Social networking sites (SNS) have become a popular way for people to share information about themselves and their lives. However, the type and amount of information shared on SNS can impact an individual's desirability as an employee. This study examined the effects that personal images posted to an individual's SNS and the comments associated with the image have on their evaluation as a job candidate. The study built on prior research conducted in this area by specifically examining SNS images and not an entire SNS profile. The goal of this study was to better understand the impact of the images themselves and how the comments associated with the image impacts how the image is perceived. Additionally, by focusing on the image, the results of this study were generalized across a wider array of SNS. A quasi-experimental study was used to determine the effect that image comments have on the interpretation of those images. In this study, the impact that the image comments have on the interpretation of the image was measured using employee desirability. To conduct the study, 315 research participants were recruited from various organizations throughout the United States. The participants of the study included a number of recruiters and hiring managers from various organizations. A number of employers are using SNS to gather data on current or potential employees; therefore, it is reasonable to expect that the images and/or comments associated with the user's social network profile can have negative or positive consequences on the user's academic and professional lives. The final survey was administered to 315 participants that have experience in hiring and recruiting employees. Overall, the image comments do not have a statistically significant effect on the interpretation of the image with respect to their evaluation as a job candidate. However, an examination of the inter-group results indicated a statistically significant difference between the comments that cast the actions depicted in the image in an unfavorable light and the comments that cast the actions depicted in the image in a favorable light. The comments that cast the actions depicted in the image in a favorable light do not mitigate the negative actions shown in the image. Therefore, the images with an emphasis on drinking alcohol had a negative effect on the employee desirability; whereas, the images with a family orientation had no effect on the employee desirability. The results also found that the majority of recruiters and hiring managers only referenced the context of the photograph as the factor that influenced the decision. The content analysis revealed that the majority of recruiters and hiring managers referenced the context only of the alcohol related image as having influenced the decision. The majority of recruiters and hiring managers referenced neither the comments nor the context of the family oriented image as having influenced the decision. Therefore, negative content such as photographs and comments related to alcohol that are uploaded to SNS have an impact on the recruiters' evaluation of job candidates.

In 1992, Ross Perot, billionaire entrepreneur from Texas, headed the most powerful independent presidential candidacy of the twentieth century, garnering nearly 19 percent of the popular vote. Perot's rhetoric demanded fundamental reform through a seemingly contradictory message calling for both individual responsibility and collective patriotism and sacrifice: corporate populism, a traditional, albeit profoundly paradoxical ideological appeal. Perot spoke of rekindling the "American Dream" for the next generation, whose prospects appeared bleak because of a post-Cold War credit crisis and withering of the United States' industrial base. He saw linkages between this crisis and a host of social problems, and advocated controversial solutions that made coalition-building difficult. Perot looked to his followers to develop consensuses on many issues of the day. Heading a "grassroots" movement organized from the top down, with disciples from all points on the ideological compass, however, Perot found consensus a rare commodity. As a result, his campaign lacked cohesion. Perot's methods, personality, and wealth raised disturbing questions about the future of representative democracy, but his unfolding campaign also highlighted shortcomings in American electoral institutions and processes. Perot's treatment by the press, for example, provides a case study of the mass-production of political portraits and the impact of those images. That so many citizens voted for a man often portrayed as a suspicious, morally rigid, unscrupulous, vengeful demagogue indicates how widely disaffection with American political institutions had spread. Tapping this discontent, Perot created the potential for a new kind of politics in the United States. He catalyzed discourse on policy issues like foreign trade, welfare reform, military policy, and Executive branch responsibility. He focused attention on chronic problems like the national debt, the annual budget deficit, and the insolvency of "entitlement" programs like Social Security and Medicare. His presence seems to have provoked an unusually high turnout on election day. He helped pioneer a new era of direct dialog between candidates and citizens through the use of interactive and electronic media. Finally, Perot's candidacy symbolizes the emergence of a new centrist political movement--a force which in 1994 began to dramatically reshape the American political landscape.

The current study investigated teachers’ grading practices on achievement and non-achievement factors in the classroom of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (TCSOL). Specifically, this study investigated how teachers assigned grades in relation to students’ achievement and non-achievement factors, and further, whether this relationship between achievement and non-achievement factors and grades was different based on teachers’ past experiences. This study was a quantitative survey study. The participants were 214 TCSOL teacher candidates at Master’s level in two universities in Beijing, China. The study employed a questionnaire made up of two sections. Section One provided 32 grading scenarios that illustrated 32 students with different characteristics (achievement and non-achievement factors). Section Two included four items on teachers’ past experiences. These items were training in classroom assessment and grading, perceptions about grades previously received, teaching experience, and grading experience. Descriptive and multiple linear regression analyses were the two main statistical methods used. Results showed that teachers involved both achievement and non-achievement factors when assigning grades. Generally, sixteen students with low achievement received a mean grade higher than their achievement, and most students with high achievement received a lower grade than their achievement. Further, raw grades assigned by 214 teachers to every student demonstrated large standard deviations, indicating teachers’ decisions on grades were quite different from each other. Paired-sample t-tests found significant differences in grades among four students who presented extreme characteristics. Regression results further showed that while achievement was the main factor teachers considered when assigning grades, all of four non-achievement factors also contributed significantly to grades, with attendance being the most significant contributor, followed by effort, progress and ability. This relationship between the mean grades and all five factors did not change when teachers had different experiences in assessment training, perceptions in the grades they previously received, teaching and grading experiences. This study expands upon the limited research evidence regarding TCSOL teachers’ grading practices. It confirms the hodgepodge nature of grades in this context. It also provides teacher educators with insights and understanding in teachers’ grading practices, and has implications for preparing future teachers to assign grades appropriately. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2013-05-29 12:12:27.415

By using existing radio network infrastructure, a user can be positioned even where GPS and other positioning technologies lack coverage. The LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) supports user Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) reports based on the Time of Arrival (TOA) for a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS). In the current reporting format, only one RSTD for each base station is considered, but for indoor environments this is easily biased due to fading and multipath issues, resulting in a Non-Line of Sight (NLOS) bias. With a rich User Equipment (UE) feedback that can represent the multipath channel for each Base Station (BS), the positioning accuracy can be increased. This thesis develops and evaluates a UE reporting format representing multiple TDOA candidates, and a probabilistic positioning algorithm, in terms of positioning accuracy and amount of data reported. By modeling time measurements as Gaussian Mixture (GM), the time information can be compressed with arbitrary resolution and used in a Maximum-Likelihood (ML) estimation to find the position. Results were obtained through simulation in a radio network simulator and post-processing of simulation data in Matlab. The results suggest that several TOA candidates improve the positioning accuracy, but that the largest improvement comes from a noise based threshold by increasing LOS detectability reducing the NLOS bias, while suppressing noise. The results also suggest that the accuracy for the method can be further improved by combining multiple time measurement occasions.

The aim of this thesis is to describe the recruitment and selection process at A.T. Kearney. Thesis is focused on a description of current practices and methods of recruitment and selection process in the company, recommendations how to improve the process are part of the thesis as well. This thesis is divided into two parts. In theoretical part, reader is informed about particular phases and methods of recruitment and selection process. Practical part consists of A.T. Kearney introduction, selection and recruiting process characteristics and analysis and survey. Survey investigates the students' preferences and factors relevant when selecting future employer as representatives of the youngest generation in the working age, Generation Y. At the end, there are the recommendations for improvement of current practices of A.T. Kearney recruitment and selection process.

La coévolution ainsi que les différentes interactions entre hôte et pathogène contribuent à former la diversité génétique de ces deux organismes. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous nous sommes intéressés à l’étude de la variabilité génétique de 1760 gènes immunitaires choisis suivant des critères définis, pour essayer d’expliquer pourquoi il existe une variation individuelle face aux infections. L’objectif principal de ce projet était alors de caractériser et d'analyser de nouveaux gènes et polymorphismes immunitaires pouvant expliquer le contrôle ou la susceptibilité à certaines infections. Deux études pilotes nous ont permis de développer le pipeline de détection de polymorphismes. Pour la première, le polymorphisme des 3 gènes CD28, CTLA4, et ICOS a été caractérisé. Dans la deuxième, nous avons caractérisé le polymorphisme de 10 gènes impliqués dans la réponse immunitaire contre M. tuberculosis. Ces gènes ne sont pas très polymorphes et trois d’entre eux sont très conservés. Ces deux études nous ont aidés à préparer l’analyse à grande échelle avec les mises au point et l’amélioration du pipeline. Nous avons sélectionné 1760 gènes en se basant sur des critères définis. La variabilité génétique a été étudiée dans les populations humaines par une analyse minutieuse in silico de données de séquençage d’exomes générées par différents projets et consortiums pour plus de 700 individus représentant 20 populations à travers le monde. 30 gènes les plus polymorphes ont été ainsi identifiés. Ces gènes pourront être entièrement caractérisés et les données produites pourraient être comparées avec des données de résistance/sensibilité de certaines maladies infectieuses. / Host-pathogen co-evolution and interactions contribute in shaping the genetic diversity of both organisms. The objective of this thesis is to define the genetic basis of variability in disease resistance/susceptibility through the development of large-scale in silico screens to identify novel gene candidates implicated in host-pathogen interactions (such as tuberculosis).A pilot study was conducted on CD28, CTLA4, and ICOS to investigate their polymorphism. As a first step in our study based on data available in the literature, we selected a set of ten genes relevant for the immune response against M. tuberculosis. Seven of these genes were moderately polymorphic, while three of them were highly conserved. This analysis was used to prepare and setup the large scale analysis using the same developed pipeline for polymorphism detection and allele reconstruction. For our in silico, we used sequence data from several projects and consortiums to isolate most polymorphic human genes amongst a list of over 1760 candidates selected based on already established relevance for infections and on evolutionary considerations. A first screen of 64 individuals from eight different populations from several regions of the world was performed and most variable genes were selected for further extensive analyses on a larger panel (715 individuals). 30 most polymorphic genes were thus identified. The extent of polymorphism and the allelic worldwide variants of each of these 30 genes are ready to be fully characterized. The data generated could be compared against infectious disease resistance/susceptibility data to identify potentially relevant gene variation.

Why do people run for elective office? Indeed, it is a central topic in political science that arguably is controversial to reveal, but always appealing since public authority remains in office. This study provides an explorative analysis to investigate local elites’ motives running for local parliament and village offices respectively in Kebumen, Indonesia. In examining individual’s motives, experiences and meanings of candidates are analysed using thematic analysis methods to capture emerging ideas of initial motives, enabling and constraining factors that affect the motives, and how both motives alter. The empirical findings of this study show that “people demand” and “community service” are both socially driven motives which act as a catalyst for the initial motives in candidacy process. In contrast, “monetary incentives” and “personal satisfaction” are both individually driven motives, which in turn replace the initial motives in response to high-cost political competition, that is so-called money politics. This study also captures the emergence of religious motive in the shifting process of the socially driven to the individually driven motives. Eventually, the study affirms that both motives, in combination, constitute a political motive as a desire of power to hold an elective office.

A partir de uma biblioteca de cDNA de glândulas de veneno de Micrurus corallinus (cobra-coral), uma serpente da Família Elapidae bastante representada no Brasil e muito comum em áreas florestais tropicais, foram gerados 1.438 Expressed Sequences Tags (ESTs), agrupados em 611 clusters. O banco representa os genes mais expressos na glândula de veneno de M. corallinus. Os transcritos relacionados às toxinas apresentaram ao redor de 46% de representação nesse banco de seqüências. A composição geral das toxinas inclui: toxinas de três dígitos (3FTx) (24%), fosfolipases A2 (PLA2) (16%), lectinas do tipo C (5%), entre outros. O banco permitiu não somente a identificação de possíveis toxinas, mas também de transcritos celulares, sendo a maioria envolvida nas funções fisiológicas de células da glândula de veneno. A maior parte dessas moléculas apresenta um envolvimento na expressão gênica e protéica, o que reflete uma alta especialização do tecido para a síntese de toxinas. A análise do transcriptoma de glândulas de veneno de M. corallinus possibilitou a identificação de alguns candidatos antigênicos para um anti-soro antielapídico alternativo. Cinco candidatos antigênicos foram selecionados por meio da análise do transcriptoma obtido: Atg1 (Grupo das neurotoxinas Homolog 8), Atg2 (Grupo das neurotoxinas Homolog 7/3/1), Atg3 (Outras neurotoxinas 1), Atg4 (Outras neurotoxinas 2) e Atg5 (fosfolipase do tipo A2). Avaliamos a viabilidade de imunização com o DNA desses candidatos. Para isso, os cinco grupos de antígenos foram clonados, primeiramente em pGEM-T e, posteriormente, em pSecTag2A, que é um vetor de expressão em células de mamíferos. As clonagens foram inicialmente testadas em células do tipo COS (transfecção transiente), entretanto não ficou clara a capacidade dessas células em expressar os antígenos. Para a análise da resposta imunológica da vacina de DNA, proteínas recombinantes produzidas em E. coli foram utilizadas para o coating de ELISA para detectar anticorpos presentes no soro primário proveniente da imunização com DNA. Os resultados mostraram que o soro dos animais imunizados foi capaz de reconhecer os antígenos recombinantes. Isso indica que a imunização por DNA em camundongos poderia ser uma boa alternativa em relação à imunização do veneno puro de serpente, que é custosa e muito depende da disponibilidade do veneno. Apesar da necessidade de testes complementares, esse é um resultado promissor, já que a produção de anticorpos pode ser alcançada por via de imunização intramuscular, mais prática para objetivos de produção. / Micrurus corallinus(coral snake) is a tropical forest snake belonging to the Elapidae Family, and is very common in Brazil. From the cDNA library of its venom glands, 1.438 Expressed Sequences Tags (ESTs) were generated and grouped into 611 clusters. This database contains the most expressed genes in the M. corallinus venom glands. The transcripts related to toxins represent approximately 46% of the total genes in this database. The toxin compound consists of: three finger toxins (24%), phospholipases A2 (PLA2s) (16%), type-C lectins (5%), among others. This database allowed not only the identification of possible toxins, but also the identification of cellular transcripts, most of which seems to be involved in physiological functions of venom gland cells. The majority of these molecules are involved in gene and protein expression, revealing the high level of specialization of the tissue for toxin synthesis. The analysis of the M. corallinus venom gland transcriptome allowed the identification of some antigenic candidates for an alternative antielapidic antiserum. Five antigenic candidates were selected after analysing the transcriptome: Atg1 (Homolog group 8), Atg2 (Homolog group 7/3/1), Atg3 (Other neurotoxins 1), Atg5 (A2-type phospholipase). These five antigenic groups were used for DNA immunization. Then they were first cloned in pGEM-T and, after, in pSecTag2A, which is an expression vector in mammal cells. The cloning was tested in COS-type cells (transient transfection), without signs of expression. To analyze the immunological response, recombinant proteins were produced in E. coli and used for ELISA coating to react with the primary serum deriving from the DNA immunization. The results showed that the serum from the immunized animals was able to recognize the recombinant antigens, indicating that the DNA immunization in mice could be a feasible alternative regarding the traditional immunization with crude snake venom, which is costly and heavily dependent on the availability of the venom. Regardless the need for additional tests, this is a promising result, because the antibody production can be achieved by intramuscular immunization, a more effective method when aiming for downstream production.