Using multi-item psychometric scales for research and practice in human resource management

Questionnaires are a widely used research method in human resource management (HRM), and multi-item psychometric scales are the most widely used measures in questionnaires. These scales each have multiple items to measure a construct in a reliable and valid manner. However, using this method effectively involves complex procedures that are frequently misunderstood or unknown. Although there are existing methodological texts addressing this topic, few are exhaustive and they often omit essential practical information. The current article therefore aims to provide a detailed and comprehensive guide to the use of multi-item psychometric scales for HRM research and practice, including their structure, development, use, administration, and data preparation

Cause of Death and Predictors of All-Cause Mortality in Anticoagulated Patients With Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation : Data From ROCKET AF

M. Kaste on työryhmän ROCKET AF Steering Comm jäsen.Background-Atrial fibrillation is associated with higher mortality. Identification of causes of death and contemporary risk factors for all-cause mortality may guide interventions. Methods and Results-In the Rivaroxaban Once Daily Oral Direct Factor Xa Inhibition Compared with Vitamin K Antagonism for Prevention of Stroke and Embolism Trial in Atrial Fibrillation (ROCKET AF) study, patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation were randomized to rivaroxaban or dose-adjusted warfarin. Cox proportional hazards regression with backward elimination identified factors at randomization that were independently associated with all-cause mortality in the 14 171 participants in the intention-to-treat population. The median age was 73 years, and the mean CHADS(2) score was 3.5. Over 1.9 years of median follow-up, 1214 (8.6%) patients died. Kaplan-Meier mortality rates were 4.2% at 1 year and 8.9% at 2 years. The majority of classified deaths (1081) were cardiovascular (72%), whereas only 6% were nonhemorrhagic stroke or systemic embolism. No significant difference in all-cause mortality was observed between the rivaroxaban and warfarin arms (P=0.15). Heart failure (hazard ratio 1.51, 95% CI 1.33-1.70, P= 75 years (hazard ratio 1.69, 95% CI 1.51-1.90, P Conclusions-In a large population of patients anticoagulated for nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, approximate to 7 in 10 deaths were cardiovascular, whereasPeer reviewe

Evacetrapib and Cardiovascular Outcomes in High-Risk Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: The cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor evacetrapib substantially raises the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level, reduces the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level, and enhances cellular cholesterol efflux capacity. We sought to determine the effect of evacetrapib on major adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with high-risk vascular disease. METHODS: In a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial, we enrolled 12,092 patients who had at least one of the following conditions: an acute coronary syndrome within the previous 30 to 365 days, cerebrovascular atherosclerotic disease, peripheral vascular arterial disease, or diabetes mellitus with coronary artery disease. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either evacetrapib at a dose of 130 mg or matching placebo, administered daily, in addition to standard medical therapy. The primary efficacy end point was the first occurrence of any component of the composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary revascularization, or hospitalization for unstable angina. RESULTS: At 3 months, a 31.1% decrease in the mean LDL cholesterol level was observed with evacetrapib versus a 6.0% increase with placebo, and a 133.2% increase in the mean HDL cholesterol level was seen with evacetrapib versus a 1.6% increase with placebo. After 1363 of the planned 1670 primary end-point events had occurred, the data and safety monitoring board recommended that the trial be terminated early because of a lack of efficacy. After a median of 26 months of evacetrapib or placebo, a primary end-point event occurred in 12.9% of the patients in the evacetrapib group and in 12.8% of those in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 0.91 to 1.11; P=0.91). CONCLUSIONS: Although the cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor evacetrapib had favorable effects on established lipid biomarkers, treatment with evacetrapib did not result in a lower rate of cardiovascular events than placebo among patients with high-risk vascular disease. (Funded by Eli Lilly; ACCELERATE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01687998 .)

The structure and functions of codeswitching between standard Arabic and dialectal Arabic

Codeswitching (CS) between Standard Arabic (SA) and Dialectal Arabic (DA) is a characteristic feature of Arabic bidialectal speech in a number of contexts. This dissertation focuses on two aspects related to this phenomenon, namely, its syntactic structure and its social functions in Arabic-speaking communities. The purpose of this study was three-fold: first, to examine the applicability of some of the major syntactic constraints on bilingual CS to bidialectal CS between SA and DA; second, to identify the potential syntactic principles that govern CS between the two varieties; and, third, to investigate the sociolinguistic functions of CS in the Arabic sociolinguistic context. Three sets of naturally-produced data were examined, representing the domains of religious lectures/ discussions, political debates/interviews, and soccer play-by-play commentaries. The naturalistic data came from 35 audio- and video-recordings for educated speakers of Arabic. This data was supplemented by two hundred and thirty-five sentences experimentally created to test certain hypotheses about the structure of CS between the two varieties. The analysis of the syntactic patterns of CS between SA and DA shows that none of the major syntactic constraints on bilingual CS applies in the case of CS between SA and DA. This is explained by the fact that, whereas CS constraints arise as a result of certain parametric incompatibilities between typologically distinct languages, CS between SA and DA eludes these constraints because of the structural similarity of the two varieties. This also supports the view that the constraints on CS vary from one language pair to another. The findings suggest that CS between SA and DA is structurally regulated by the Sentential Functional Head Constraint, which prevents CS in a single CP between a lexical verb and its functional head(s) and between the functional heads themselves. This constraint operates only at the level of functional heads in the A-domain, that is, on the path from V to C (i.e. C, I, and Neg). Moreover, the data points to the unequal roles and statuses of SA and DA in mixed discourse. Based on the current data, DA seems to shape the structure of most mixed sentences and therefore it serves as the host language, as opposed to the guest language role which SA assumes. Sociolinguistically, the findings suggest that, unlike its bilingual counterpart, CS between SA and DA is primarily not governed by the immediate context, speech event, speaker or interlocutor, but rather by the link between status and functions of the code itself. CS here serves as a regularization mechanism through which sociolinguistic functions of varying levels of prestige, importance, complexity, and seriousness are encoded and indexed through the use of two codes???a High code dedicated for important, serious, and complex issues, and a Low code designated for less important, less serious, and simple issues. CS also serves as a marker of the speaker???s attitude toward certain details in the discourse, often indexing his/her positive attitudes toward SA-related functions and negative attitudes to DA-related ones. Lastly, speakers often shift to SA to invoke their pan-Arab or Muslim affiliation. This suggests that SA use here is meant to index their Muslim and Arab identities. Overall, the study points to a paradoxical polarity in the structural and social roles that SA and DA assume in the context of Arabic bidialectal CS. Although DA is the structurally predominant language, it assumes the functions of the Low code. On the other hand, SA assumes the functions of the High code, even though it is less influential in shaping the structure codeswitched sentences. The CS patterns therefore replicate the social and acquisitional statuses of these two varieties in the Arabic sociolinguistic landscape. The study suggests that the phenomenon of bidialectal CS should be studied on its own right as independent from bilingual CS