Organizational embeddedness,turnover intentions,and voluntary turnover: The moderating effects of employee demographic characteristics and value orientations

To explain why some employees who experience high embeddedness contemplate leaving their organizations and others do not, we examined the moderating effects of employee demographic characteristics (age and gender) and value orientations (individualism and risk aversion) between organizational embeddedness and turnover intentions. Turnover intentions were further expected to increase voluntary turnover. Data were collected from 643 full‐time employees at three points in time over a 12‐month time period in a wide range of organizations in Japan, a relatively low turnover context with little prior embeddedness research. Findings show that gender and risk aversion moderate the relationship between organizational embeddedness and turnover intentions, which in turn predict voluntary turnover. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Movements of dispersing flying squirrels in relation to siblings and parents

Knowledge of kin interactions can be informative in explaining the processes underlying dispersal. By dispersing, relatives can avoid kin competition for resources or mates and prevent inbreeding. We investigated sibling movements in relation to each other and parents before and after dispersal in radio-collared juvenile flying squirrels (Pteromys volans L.). Before dispersal, most siblings moved in different areas and were not in contact while exploring the surroundings of natal area. After dispersal, all siblings settled far away from each other, as they dispersed different distances and to random directions compared to each other. No clear effect of litter size or presence of same-sex siblings was observed on dispersal. Time spent in the same nest with the mother did not differ between dispersing sons and daughters. Mother did not force dispersers to leave the natal nest; instead, the mother often moved away from the nest before offspring. Father and offspring were not observed to be in contact before dispersal. Dispersal direction was unaffected by the location of fathers’ home range. We conclude that after dispersal interaction between relatives is limited in flying squirrels, but we did not find any indication that interaction between relatives before dispersal is determining dispersal decision. Siblings’ settlement far away from each other was already indicated by the movement within the natal home range, but, interestingly, the latter could not be used to predict dispersal patterns of sexes.     

Prenatal detection of free sialic acid storage disease: genetic and biochemical studies in nine families

Sialic acid storage disorders, Salla disease (SD) and a severe infantile form of disease (ISSD), are recessively inherited allelic lysosomal storage disorders due to impaired egress of free sialic acid from lysosomes. Fourteen pregnancies at risk of adult-type free sialic acid storage disease, SD, were monitored by sialic acid assays, genetic linkage or mutation detection analyses using chorionic villus samples. Three affected and 12 unaffected fetuses were identified. The first studies were based on the sialic acid assays alone, but the location of the gene enabled the use of genetic linkage analysis and, more recently, the identification of the SLC17A5 gene and disease-causing mutations added yet another possibility for prenatal studies. A missense mutation 115C→T (R39C) is present in 95% of all Finnish SD alleles, providing an easy and reliable means of diagnostic studies. Both molecular and biochemical (sialic acid assay) studies can be used for prenatal diagnosis of free sialic acid storage diseases. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microbial Contamination of Groundwater at Small Community Water Supplies in Finland

The raw water quality and associations between the factors considered as threats to water safety were studied in 20 groundwater supplies in central Finland in 2002-2004. Faecal contaminations indicated by the appearance of Escherichia coli or intestinal enterococci were present in five small community water supplies, all these managed by local water cooperatives. Elevated concentrations of nutrients in raw water were linked with the presence of faecal bacteria. The presence of on-site technical hazards to water safety, such as inadequate well construction and maintenance enabling surface water to enter into the well and the insufficient depth of protective soil layers above the groundwater table, showed the vulnerability of the quality of groundwater used for drinking purposes. To minimize the risk of waterborne illnesses, the vulnerable water supplies need to be identified and appropriate prevention measures such as disinfection should be applied.     

DNA-based prenatal diagnosis of the infantile form of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (INCL,CLN1)

Eleven fetuses at risk for the infantile form of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (INCL, CLN1) were studied using DNA markers and the results were compared with the results of electron microscopy (EM) of chorionic villus specimens from pregnancies in the first or early second trimester of pregnancy. In four cases, the prenatal diagnosis was made independently with both methods, and in seven cases, the EM diagnosis was confirmed postnatally or from autopsy material using RFLP analysis. The two methods gave concordant results in all cases. The DNA analysis based on RFLP haplotypes also for the first time facilitates reliable carrier diagnostics. RFLP analysis based on polymorphic markers closely linked to the INCL locus is now available for prenatal diagnosis of this fatal brain disease, whose biochemical background is totally unknown and for which no treatment is available.     

Communal nesting is explained by subsequent mating rather than kinship or thermoregulation in the Siberian flying squirrel

Research on group living in animals is concentrated on highly social species, but studying less social species may hint at the factors possibly leading to the evolution of increased sociality. Thermoregulation is often thought to explain communal nesting in solitarily breeding mammals but also other factors may be involved. For example, it is observed that even solitary species may have cryptic kin cooperation. We studied factors affecting communal nesting in the Siberian flying squirrel. Flying squirrels breed solitarily but, similar to most other rodents, adults may sometimes huddle in groups. Communal nesting in flying squirrels was most frequent during winter and autumn, but also occurred during other seasons. This pattern was explained by the breeding season, which took place in the spring–summer, when communal nesting was less common. Neither monthly temperature, after accounting for breeding season, nor daily temperatures in winter explained communal nesting. Group size was small, two to three individuals. In most cases the group was a pair consisting of unrelated male and female, possibly indicating that group formation was related to mating behavior. This study contributes to the understanding of mammalian group formation in two major ways. First, our study contributes to the understanding of the role of relatedness in rodent group formation, demonstrating a case where close relatedness is not related to group formation. Second, our study indicates that in a solitarily breeding, rodent huddling may be more driven by other factors than temperature.     

Nodularin concentrations in Baltic Sea zooplankton and fish during a cyanobacterial bloom

Toxic cyanobacterial blooms, dominated by Nodularia spumigena, are a recurrent phenomenon in the Baltic Sea during late summer. Nodularin, a potent hepatotoxin, has been previously observed to accumulate on different trophic levels, in zooplankton, mysid shrimps, fish as well as benthic organisms, even in waterfowl. While the largest concentrations of nodularin have been measured from the benthic organisms and the food web originating from them, the concentrations in the pelagic organisms are not negligible. The observations on concentrations in zooplankton and planktivorous fish are sporadic, however. A field study in the Gulf of Finland, northern Baltic Sea, was conducted during cyanobacterial bloom season where zooplankton (copepod Eurytemora affinis, cladoceran Pleopsis polyphemoides) and fish (herring, sprat, three-spined stickleback) samples for toxin analyses were collected from the same sampling areas, concurrently with phytoplankton community samples. N. spumigena was most abundant in the eastern Gulf of Finland. In this same sampling area, cladoceran P. polyphemoides contained more nodularin than in the other areas, suggesting that this species has a low capacity to avoid cyanobacterial exposure when the abundance of cyanobacterial filaments is high. In copepod E. affinis nodularin concentrations were high in all of the sampling areas, irrespective of the N. spumigena cell numbers. Furthermore, nodularin concentrations in herring samples were highest in the eastern Gulf of Finland. Three-spined stickleback contained the highest concentrations of nodularin of all the three fish species included in this study, probably because it prefers upper water layers where also the risk of nodularin accumulation in zooplankton is the highest. No linear relationship was found between N. spumigena abundance and nodularin concentration in zooplankton and fish, but in the eastern area where the most dense surface-floating bloom was observed, the nodularin concentrations in zooplankton were high. The maximum concentrations in zooplankton and fish samples in this study were higher than measured before, suggesting that the temporal variation of nodularin concentrations in pelagic communities can be large, and vary from negligible to potentially harmful.     

Ecological information in the political decision making of urban land-use planning

The objective of this paper is to examine what factors determine the importance of ecological information in political decision making of urban land use in Helsinki, southern Finland. Results from the interviews of politicians and city officials show that ecological information becomes more important if there are significant conservation values connected to a plan area, contacts and appeals from plan participants, strong media attention or if a decision maker focuses more on the issue due to personal interests and values. Balancing the weight of recreational and cultural values may be one of the most difficult tasks for decision makers to handle.     

Revision of deposition and weathering parameters for the ingestion dose module (ECOSYS) of the ARGOS and RODOS decision support systems

The ECOSYS model is the ingestion dose model integrated in the ARGOS and RODOS decision support systems for nuclear emergency management. The parameters used in this model have however not been updated in recent years, where the level of knowledge on various environmental processes has increased considerably. A Nordic work group has carried out a series of evaluations of the general validity of current ECOSYS default parameters. This paper specifically discusses the parameter revisions required with respect to the modelling of deposition and natural weathering of contaminants on agricultural crops, to enable the trustworthy prognostic modelling that is essential to ensure justification and optimisation of countermeasure strategies. New modelling approaches are outlined, since it was found that current ECOSYS approaches for deposition and natural weathering could lead to large prognostic errors.