An empirical research on the leadership and effectiveness in public healthcare organizations： Lesson from transition economy

The aim of the paper is to examine leadership at the level of CEOs and effectiveness in healthcare setting. Previous studies suggest that there is relationship between leadership style, situation and circumstances. The relationship between leadership and performance is probably not straightforward and may be influenced by both environmental and contextual factors, yet no irrefutable support on this assumption can be found. In our paper we examine relationships between leadership, environment, organizational context and effectiveness in Polish healthcare organizations. Multifactor leadership questionnaire which has been used in a great number of researches relating to the public sector on leadership was employed in this research. Implications for practitioners and policy makers are given.     

Sequence analysis of a new short tandem repeat locus D17S2266E located in the human growth hormone gene cluster HumGH@

D17S2266E is a new, variable genetic marker exhibiting polymorphism of the number of repeats of four- and two-nucleotide motifs. This study, carried out on a group of 250 unrelated persons from various regions of Poland, revealed the presence of 24 different alleles ranging in size from 232 to 290 base pairs. Analysis of the sequenced fragments demonstrated that the alleles consisted of two flanking regions and two variable blocks that were separated by a consensus sequence. There were (AAAG)(5)(AG)(1)(AAAG)(3-4) repeats in the first block, and [(AAAG)(2)(AG)(1)](0-1)[(AAAG)(6)(AG)(1)](0-1)(AAAG)(n) repeats in the second block. On the basis of the allele frequencies in the population, we were able to do biostatistical calculations, which gave the following results: expected heterozygosity 0.8947 +/- 0.0137, power of discrimination 0.9793, polymorphism information content 0.8837, probability of exclusion (PE) 0.7859, PE for motherless cases 0.6473, and an average paternity index of 4.7470. These biostatistical parameters show that the marker D17S2266E can find a wide range of applications in forensic testing.     

BRICSAM and the non–WTO

We highlight the seeming emergence globally of a non–WTO; a patchwork quilt of regional and bilateral trade management arrangements dealing with issues well beyond what the WTO covers and reflecting a wider and different set of concerns. In particular, we discuss recent regional trade and economic partnership agreements of a group of large population, developing economies (BRICSAM: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, ASEAN, and Mexico). Perhaps 50 out of 300 agreements that exist worldwide involve BRICSAM countries; most are recently concluded and will be implemented over the next few years. They exist along with extensive bilateral investment treaties, mutual recognition agreements, and other country to country (or region) arrangements. This paper aims to document and characterize the agreements and analyze their possible impacts. Agreements differ in specificity, coverage and content. In some treaties there are detailed and specific commitments, but these also co–exist with seemingly vague commitments and (at times) opaque dispute settlement and enforcement mechanisms. No overarching bloc–wide strategies seem to exist but whether these represent an emerging structure for newly negotiated reciprocity and trade management or instead largely limited content diplomatic initiatives which co–exist alongside significant WTO (World Trade Organisation) disciplines is the issue. This paper has been written as part of the BRICSAM project underway at The Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. We are grateful to Andrew Cooper, Sylvia Ostry, Daniel Schwanen, Terry Sicular, Gilbert Winham, Ron Wonnacott, and three anonymous reviewers for discussions and suggestions.