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PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to outline a practical perspective for testing performance in the process of institutional reform in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachThe test is presented from a donor's perspective. The paper does so by introducing a framework for testing the sustainability, impact and replication of reforms, to achieve local development. These areas of performance are set against the institutional development agenda of structures, processes and contextual reforms. The test goes on to highlight the sustainable outcomes and institutional consolidation of such reforms. This is considered at community, local and central government levels.FindingsTesting performance is an important part of United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) practice. Its current concerns for sustainability and policy impact are being enhanced by a more explicit connection between institutional reform, through decentralisation, and poverty impact.Practical implicationsThe concepts outlined are designed to be of application to a donor concerned with seeking to achieve decentralisation through local development initiatives. The paper's value is as a reflection of current UNCDF policy experiments in the least developed countries (LDCs). These experiments are designed to enrich its practice and influence its partners in the field.Originality/valueThere are few normative frameworks for testing performance on institutional reform. This test is particularly acute in the LDCs, the primary focus for UNCDF work. This technical paper is an attempt to develop a framework to allow donors to test their own work concerning institutional reform, particularly at the local government level.

The objective of the study was to investigate the impact on test technician performance of an action-sequenced, tabular test instruction manual format. Error and time scores on this tabular format were compared to those on traditional test instructions written in narrative prose. The study results showed an error rate ratio of three to one favoring tabular test instructions for the sample of technicians chosen. It is recommended that tabular test instructions be employed for manual or semiautomated test sets.

Mentors have been associated with protégé career success. In this study, two perspectives on the means by which mentoring advances careers were compared. The performance perspective implies that the effects of mentoring on career advancement operate through performance whereas the political perspective assumes direct effects. Hypotheses derived from the perspectives were tested at early and middle-career stages in a sample of American academics. The amount of mentoring as measured by the number of traditional mentors and other developers predicted achieved rank and the relationship was not mediated by publication productivity. This finding supports the political perspective. In addition, the presence of an outside developer was associated with more publications and having an emotionally-close relationship was associated with higher salary.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Three years ago, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) characterized hepatitis C as a serious national health problem that needs early detection to reduce transmission risks, ensure timely treatment, and prevent progression of liver disease. In a 1988 letter, VA outlined the process clinicians should use when (1) screening veterans for known risk factors for exposure to hepatitis C and (2) ordering tests to detect antibodies and diagnose hepatitis C infection as part of a plan to evaluate and assess risk factors for VA patients. This testimony discusses VA's progress in screening and testing veterans for hepatitis C during fiscal years 1999 and 2000. GAO found that VA missed opportunities to screen as many as three million veterans when they visited medical facilities during fiscal years 1999 and 2000, potentially leaving as many as 200,000 veterans unaware that they have hepatitis C infections. Of those screened, an unknown number likely remain undiagnosed because of flawed procedures. Although the pace of screening and testing appears to be improving, many currently undiagnosed veterans may not be identified expeditiously unless VA (1) establishes early detection of hepatitis C as a standard for care and (2) holds facility managers accountable for timely screening and testing of veterans who visit VA medical facilities."

The luminescent characteristics of the double phosphate KLuP2O7 doped with Pr3+ ions, a promising optical material for scintillator applications, were investigated using various experimental spectroscopic techniques. KLuP2O7:Pr3+ shows Pr3+ emission associated with interconfigurational 4f15d1→4f2 transitions located in the UV range (250–320 nm), intraconfigurational 4f2→4f2 transitions (weak lines in the visible spectral range) and defect-related luminescence. The light output of X-ray or cathode ray excited Pr3+ 4f15d1→4f2 luminescence is found to be nearly independent of temperature in the range of 90–400 K. The output of pulsed cathode luminescence shows thermal quenching above 450 K characterized by an activation energy of about 0.5 eV. Upon excitation with pulsed cathode rays or high-frequency (~8 MHz) X-ray synchrotron radiation, the luminescence decay kinetics of Pr3+ 4f15d1→4f2 transitions are dominated by a decay component with lifetime of about 20 ns. An additional slower decay component with lifetime of 75 ns was observed upon cathode ray excitation and was shown to result from delayed host-to-impurity energy transfer. The latter, in turn, originates from re-trapping of charge carriers at defect-related traps whose presence was demonstrated by thermoluminescence measurements. Parameters of the trapping centers were estimated. Peculiarities of host-to-impurity energy transfer are analysed and discussed. © 2020 Elsevier B.V. ; The work was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (through the basic part of the government mandate, Project No. FEUZ-2020-0060), Act 211 Government of the Russian Federation (contract № 02.A03.21.0006 ) and RFMEFI62117X0012 project as well as by Estonian Research Council (project PRG629 ) and Estonian Centre of Excellence in Research "Advanced materials and high-technology devices for sustainable energetics, sensorics and nanoelectronics" TK141 (2014-2020.4.01.15-0011) . E. Trofimva is thankful for support by European ...

BACKGROUND: The recent drive towards accreditation of clinical laboratories in Africa by the World Health Organization-Regional Office for Africa (WHO-AFRO) and the U.S Government is a historic step to strengthen health systems, provide better results for patients and an improved quality of results for clinical trials. Enrollment in approved proficiency testing (PT) programs and maintenance of satisfactory performance is vital in the process of accreditation. Passing proficiency testing surveys has posed a great challenge to many laboratories across sub-Saharan Africa. Our study was aimed at identifying the causes of unsatisfactory PT results in clinical research laboratories conducting or planning to conduct malaria vaccine trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). METHODOLOGY: PT reports for 2009 and 2010 from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) for the laboratories were reviewed as part of the process. Errors accounting for unsatisfactory results were classified into clerical, methodological, technical, problem with PT materials, and random errors. A training program on good clinical laboratory practices (GCLP) was developed for each center to address areas for improvement. RESULTS: The major cause of PT failure in the four centers was methodological. The application of GCLP improved the success rate in the PT surveys from 58% in 2009 to 88% in 2010. It also decreased the error rate on PT by 35%. CONCLUSION: A previous report from the CAP- PT participating laboratories indicated that the major causes of error were clerical. These types of errors were predominantly made in laboratories in the US, with much more experience in quality control, and varied significantly from what we found. In our centers in sub-Saharan Africa, methodological errors, and not clerical errors, accounted for the vast majority of errors. A process was started for continuous improvement which has decreased methodological errors by 35%, but more improvement is needed.

The objectives of performance appraisal are outlined, and the
problems with performance evaluation are examined. Race, age and sex
discrimination are discussed in relation to Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission guidelines. A performance appraisal model is laid down with
step by step guidelines. The model is assessed against the key
objectives of performance appraisal.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction effect of intellectual capital elements and how they fuse to affect financial performance in microfinance institutions. The major purpose is to explore the appropriate blend or mix of intellectual capital elements that explains the source of value creation – hence performance – in microfinance institutions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts the ModGraph program (Excel version) along with the Kenny and Boran approach to test conditional hypotheses.FindingsThe magnitude effect of human capital on performance depends on any of structural or relational capital; hence the assumption of nonadditivity is met. However, no significant interaction effects were established between relational and structural capital.Research limitations/implicationsOnly a single research methodological approach was employed and future research through interviews could be undertaken to triangulate. Furthermore, the findings from the present study are cross‐sectional – future research should be undertaken to examine the multiplicative effects studied in this paper across timePractical implicationsIn order to boost the wealth of microfinance institutions in Uganda, managers should always endeavor to find a viable intellectual capital mix or blend that can add value to the firm.Originality/valueThis is the first study that focuses on testing the interactive effects of intellectual capital elements on financial performance in Ugandan microfinance institutions.