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This article builds on Fernandez et al.'s 2015 review of Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) research by focusing on two unexplored areas: measurement models and measurement quality. Employing the notion of an auxiliary measurement theory as an organizing framework, the author assesses the use of FEVS survey items to operationalize theoretical constructs and procedures in order to establish their psychometric quality. Results indicate that there is considerable variability in how FEVS items have been used to measure theoretical constructs, which is expressed as high levels of overlap across FEVS-derived scales. Inconsistency in the assessment of measurement quality is evident as well, with a bias toward convergent validity. Three cautionary tales are presented to demonstrate the fragility of FEVS data when used with a compromised auxiliary measurement theory. The article concludes with recommendations for future FEVS studies.

Manuscript Type Empirical Research Issue/Question Self-organizing maps (SOMs), a neural computing paradigm, were introduced as a methodology to enhance and extend configurational governance research. The capabilities of SOMs include assessment of nonlinear relationships among study variables and projection of firms and clusters in two-dimensional space based on their relative similarity. Research Findings/Insights To demonstrate their application to governance research, SOMs were used to study patterns of immunity to institutional governance logics in the financial services industry. Firm sensemaking and governance logics were assessed by analyzing the language and meaning of corporate codes of conduct. Content analysis was guided by the DICTION software program. DICTION uses data dictionaries to analyze the meaning of text documents based on word usage. Our results supported a configurational model characterized by distinct groupings of firms with varying degrees of acceptance of prevailing institutional governance logics. Practitioner/Policy Implications SOM analysis demonstrated that context influences firm governance logics. Specifically, different interpretations of environmental pressures led to different adaptive responses suggesting reconsideration of the notion of universal or best governance practices.

Non-attended appointments in health care facilities create inefficiencies and loss of clinical productivity: clinical teaching hours are reduced, impacting students' ability to meet the competencies necessary for professional registration. The aim of this study was to assess demographic and time-related factors for patient non-attendance at a dental school clinic in Australia. Appointment data were extracted from the patient management system for the years 2011 and 2012. Data included the status of appointment (attended, cancelled, or failed to attend [FTA]) and an array of demographic and time-related factors. Multinomial logistic regression was conducted to assess relationships between these factors and appointment status. Attendance rates were also compared by year following implementation of a short message service (SMS) reminder at the beginning of 2012. The results showed that, of 58,622 appointments booked with students during 2011 and 2012, 68% of patients attended, 23% cancelled, and 9% were FTA. The percentage of non-attended (cancelled or FTA) appointments differed by demographic and time-related factors. Females were 7% less likely to be FTA, those aged 16-24 years were five times more likely to be FTA, and early morning appointments were 18% less likely to be cancelled and FTA. With the SMS reminder system, the odds of a cancellation were 15% higher, but FTAs were 14% lower (both were statistically significant differences). This study found that failing to attend an appointment was significantly related to a number of factors. Clinical scheduling and reminder systems may need to take these factors into account to decrease the number of teaching hours lost due to patients' missing their appointments.

Patient non-attendance can negatively impact upon clinical productivity and can prolong appointment waiting times for all patients. Patients who repeatedly fail to attend (FTA) or cancel appointments will continue to delay dental treatment and diagnosis, which is necessary for the maintenance of good oral health. This study examines demographic and time characteristics associated with appointment non-attendance at Griffith University Dental Clinic (GUDC) and compares the demographics of emergency and non-emergency patients. The study also investigates the demographics associated with repeat attendance of emergency appointments and further appointments following emergency dental treatment. A total of 58 622 appointment entries booked at the GUDC in the years 2011 and 2012 were analysed. Appointment status, patient demography and time characteristics associated with each appointment, were collected from the computer patient management system and statistical analysis was completed using IBM SPSS v 21. Bivariate analysis was conducted to determine the significance of difference between cancelled, failed to attend (FTA) and attended appointments for each of the demographic and time characteristics. A separate analysis was conducted for emergency appointments. Patient characteristics associated with repeat attendance of emergency appointments and the booking of follow up appointments were also assessed. A total of 39 917 (68.1%) appointments were attended, 13 666 (22.8%) were cancelled and 5339 (9.1%) were FTA. Differences in attendance rates were statistically significant for all demographic and time characteristics investigated (p < 0.01). Attended appointments were lowest amongst private patients 10 645 (64.0%) and patients aged 25 to 34 years; 5351 (60.8%). Males 2256 (9.1%) and patients residing outside of the Gold Coast 387 (12.3%), had the highest FTA percentages, as did appointments booked on a Monday; 1441 (10.2%), appointments booked from 5.30 pm to 7.00 pm; 999 (10.6%) and endodontic appointments 304 (10.2%). Males, patients aged 16 to 24 and private patients were most likely to book emergency appointments. Public patients and those aged over 35 years were more likely to book more than one emergency appointment and to book a further follow-up appointment following emergency treatment. Patients most likely to fail to attend an appointment are males, private patients and those younger in age. Appointments booked on a Monday or late in the afternoon are most likely to be cancelled or FTA and emergency patients are more likely to be male, younger in age and private patients. This study was supported by a Dental Student Research Grant from the Australian Dental Research Foundation Inc.

Introduction Laparoscopic bile duct exploration at the time of laparoscopic cholecystectomy has been promoted as being equally successful as endoscopic bile duct clearance. Further, if successful it offers the possibility of reducing the number of interventions required and therefore reducing overall costs. However, there is little in the literature that describe current treatment patterns in the Australian environment. Methods Medicare data were obtained for the number of patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy, intraoperative cholangiography, laparoscopic transcystic bile duct exploration, laparoscopic choledochotomy and bile duct exploration, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), sphincterotomy and endoscopic biliary stent insertion. Results Although there was significant state-to-state variation in the prevalence of laparoscopic bile duct exploration (0.6–3.7%), ERCP remained the predominant method of bile duct clearance in the setting of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (5.4%). Transcystic bile duct exploration is far more common than laparoscopic choledochotomy, which is a rare procedure. This suggests that patients with a dilated common bile duct and large or multiple stones are typically undergoing ERCP rather than laparoscopic bile duct clearance. Conclusion Despite the apparent attractiveness of laparoscopic bile duct exploration at the time of cholecystectomy, ERCP remains the most common method of dealing with choledocholithiasis in the setting of an intact gallbladder in Australia.

Three different synthetic strategies were tested to synthesize EGFRvIII peptide (1), which is a functional variant of the epidermal growth factor receptor, a protein that has been well validated as a target for cancer therapy. The initial synthesis was performed with Applied Biosystem (Carlsbad, CA, USA) 433A peptide synthesizer and it indicated that the last three amino acids coupling and Fmoc removal rates were lower than the rest of the sequence. Purity of the crude peptide was 54.5%. The second synthesis was performed manually utilizing C S Bio (Menlo Park, CA, USA) synthesizer and the Kaiser test for reaction monitoring. Because of non-optimized reaction conditions and an unexpected by-product, lower purity crude peptide (40.5%) was obtained. Quantitative assays to monitor reactions were developed and demonstrated in gram scale synthesis with C S Bio synthesizer. The optimized synthetic conditions improved the peptide purity to 68.1%. Copyright © 2012 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Commitment profiles were studied with a sample of 572 hospital workers. Seven of the eight commitment profiles in Meyer and Herscovitch's (2001) typology emerged using K-means clustering including: highly committed, affective dominant, continuance dominant, affective-continuance dominant, affective-normative dominant, continuance-normative dominant, and uncommitted. Outcome variables included: turnover intentions, turnover, absenteeism, and person-organization value congruence. Results were consistent with prior findings in that normative commitment alone and in conjunction with continuance commitment enhanced the benefits of affective commitment. Turnover rates were much higher for poorly socialized employees suggesting that there is a self-corrective effect in which uncommitted employees are more likely to leave their organizations.

This paper proposes the use of latent variable models based on principal component analysis (PCA) as a robust alternative to pharmacokinetic modeling for the analysis of the dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance images (DCE-MRI) often obtained during oncological studies. Theoretical and practical justifications are provided for the advantages of the PCA approach. A pilot study using clinical DCE-MRI data on prostate patients is presented to demonstrate the method. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Background Psychopathology and autobiographical memory were investigated in a cohort of stroke and non-stroke hospitalized patients. Both these cohorts have been identified as having high levels of psychopathology (Katon and Sullivan 1990; Burvill et al., 1995). Difficulties recalling specific autobiographical memories (overgeneral memory) have been identified as important psychological variables in depression and predictors of outcome (Williams and Scott 1988; Brittlebank et al., 1993). Intrusive autobiographical memories have also been found to be associated with depression and overgeneral memory in depressed women (Kuyken and Brewin, 1995) and depressed cancer patients (Brewin et al., 1998a). This study looked at levels of psychopathology and autobiographical memories in stroke and non-stroke hospital patients. Method 417 patients were screened, of the 176 eligible 103 agreed to participate (54 stroke and 49 non-stroke). Participants were assessed for overgenerality using the Autobiographical Memory Test and intrusiveness of memories using the Impact of Events Scale. Also assessed were PTSD-like symptoms (PCL-S), mood (HADS, GHQ-28) and cognitive ability (MMSE, verbal fluency, digit span and estimated pre-morbid IQ). Results No significant differences were found between stroke and non-stroke patients on severity of depression, anxiety, severity of PTSD-like symptoms or autobiographical memories. Backward multivariate regression analyses for combined data (stroke and non-stroke) indicated that overgeneral memory recall, intrusive memories of past events and intrusive memories of illness were significant independent predictors of depression (HADS). Avoidance of intrusive memories and reported childhood distress were not predictors of overgeneral memory recall. Significant predictors of overgeneral memory recall were; Gender, antidepressant medication, and estimated IQ. Conclusion Significant levels of psychopathology were identified in this cohort. However, there were no significant differences in the levels of depression, anxiety, PTSD symptoms and autobiographical memory between stroke and non-stroke hospitalized patients. Of particular interest was the finding that PTSD-like symptoms did not appear to be influenced by the nature of the person's illness. In combined data (stroke and non-stroke) autobiographical memories (intrusive images of their illness, intrusive memories of other events and overgeneral memory recall variables) were significant predictors of depression in this cohort. This suggests that psychological intervention of memory processes may be a worthwhile target in psychological intervention for depression in these cohorts. Gender, cognitive impairment, antidepressant medication, and estimated IQ were significant predictors of overgeneral memory recall and further investigation into the validity of these findings are warranted. Suggestions for further research and limitations of the study are also discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The relationship between work attitudes and individual job performance was investigated using artificial neural networks (ANNs). ANNs use pattern recognition algorithms that are well suited to capturing nonlinear relationships among variables thereby providing a new perspective on research on this topic area. Results from the neural network analysis provided strong evidence of nonlinearity suggesting that nonlinear models are needed to understand the work attitude-job performance relationship. In so doing, the neural network model had greater predictive accuracy than did traditional OLS regression. Implications of this finding for theory development and future research were discussed.

Despite initial enthusiasm for using survival analysis techniques to gain new insights into employee turnover, nearly one decade later hardly any studies based on survival methodologies are evident in the literature. Consequently, the potential for survival analysis to open new avenues in turnover research remains unassessed, and the need for research on this topic is readily apparent. In this study, survival analysis methods were compared with those inherent in ‘traditional’ turnover research. Results indicated significant divergences between these two methods. The traditional turnover methodology reproduced findings characteristic of the vast majority of research on this topic—job withdrawal intentions emerged as the sole predictor of employee turnover behavior. In contrast, continuance commitment and ethnicity were directly predictive of turnover behavior using survival analysis methods. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study tested the proposition that relationships among the various types of work-related commitment and job performance are affected by both the form of commitment and the facet of performance under consideration. Results provided some support for this view. As hypothesized, job involvement was related only to performance tied to intrinsically rewarding elements of work, and career commitment was positively related to overall performance effectiveness. Unexpectedly, however, organizational commitment (both affective and continuance) was unrelated to job performance. The discussion is centered on practical implications of these findings and on directions for future research. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Survival analysis techniques were used to test a model of turnover with a sample of 244 staff nurses. Estimates of survival and hazard functions indicated that withdrawal was not uniform over time, but rather occurred in distinct waves. Formal hypotheses were tested with a regression analogue of survival analysis, proportional hazards regression, and provided little support for a reasoned action model of turnover. Specifically, job satisfaction emerged as predictive of turnover while job search behaviour did not. Results from OLS and logistic regressions were consistent with prior research findings in that job search behaviour was a strong influence of employee turnover. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

A three component model of organizational commitment was used to study job withdrawal intentions, turnover and absenteeism. Affective commitment emerged as the most consistent predictor of these outcome variables and was the only view of commitment related to turnover and to absenteeism. In contrast, normative commitment was related only to withdrawal intentions while no direct effects for continuance commitment were observed. Continuance commitment, however, interacted with affective commitment in predicting job withdrawal intentions and absenteeism. The form of the interaction was such that high sunk costs tempered relationships between affective commitment and the relevant outcome variables.

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the factor structure of Meyer & Allen's (1984) commitment scales. Results supported a three-factor solution which included a bidimensional continuance commitment construct. Causal links between affective commitment and the two emergent dimensions of continuance commitment (personal sacrifices and low alternatives) were then studied with non-recursive models. Only one significant relationship emerged—the sacrifice component of continuance commitment had a positive effect on affective commitment. This finding was interpreted from a self-justification perspective.

The effect of prevocational contact on postentry behavior was studied using a sample of staff nurses. The results indicated that those nurses who had prevocational contact with the nursing occupation had different conceptions of the nursing role and more positive work attitudes than those who did not have prevocational contact with the profession. The groups. however, did not differ with respect to turnover.