University of Georgia

About: University of Georgia is a education organization based out in Athens, Georgia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 41934 authors who have published 93622 publications receiving 3713212 citations. The organization is also known as: UGA & Franklin College.

Do regulated microfinance institutions achieve better sustainability and outreach? Cross-country evidence

Abstract: In spite of increasing pressure on microfinance institutions (MFIs) operating in developing countries to transform into regulated financial intermediaries, to date, no study has investigated whether regulated MFIs actually achieve better financial results and reach more poor clients than nonregulated MFIs. This article explores the impact of regulation on MFI performance using newly released data for 114 MFIs from 62 countries in an empirical model where performance is specified as a function of MFI-specific, regulatory, macroeconomic and institutional variables. Consistent with recent cross-country evidence on the impact of banking regulations on bank performance (Barth et al ., 2004), this article finds that regulatory involvement does not directly affect performance either in terms of operational self-sustainability or outreach. The article also finds that less leveraged MFIs have better sustainability. The policy implication is that MFIs’ transformation into regulated financial institutions is may not...

Explaining the Justice-Performance Relationship: Trust as Exchange Deepener or Trust as Uncertainty Reducer?

Abstract: Past research has revealed significant relationships between organizational justice dimensions and job performance, and trust is thought to be one mediator of those relationships. However, trust has been positioned in justice theorizing in 2 different ways, either as an indicator of the depth of an exchange relationship or as a variable that reflects levels of work-related uncertainty. Moreover, trust scholars distinguish between multiple forms of trust, including affect- and cognition-based trust, and it remains unclear which form is most relevant to justice effects. To explore these issues, we built and tested a more comprehensive model of trust mediation in which procedural, interpersonal, and distributive justice predicted affect- and cognition-based trust, with those trust forms predicting both exchange- and uncertainty-based mechanisms. The results of a field study in a hospital system revealed that the trust variables did indeed mediate the relationships between the organizational justice dimensions and job performance, with affect-based trust driving exchange-based mediation and cognition-based trust driving uncertainty-based mediation.

Measuring Compassion Fatigue

Abstract: This manuscript provides practitioners a gateway into understanding assessment instruments for compassion fatigue. We first describe and then evaluate the leading assessments of compassion fatigue in terms of their reliability and their validity. Although different instruments have different foci, each described instrument measures at least one component of compassion fatigue. The final section discusses three factors in selecting a compassion fatigue measure: the assessment domain or aspect of compassion fatigue to be measured; simultaneous measurement, and; timeframe of what is being measured. Finally, we caution about interpreting scores since the measures were developed as screening devices.

Progranulin is a mediator of the wound response.

Abstract: Annually, 1.25 million individuals suffer burns in the United States and 6.5 million experience chronic skin ulcers, often from diabetes, pressure or venous stasis1. Growth factors are essential mediators of wound repair1,2, but their success as therapeutics in wound treatment has, so far, been limited1,2. Therefore, there is a need to identify new wound-response regulatory factors, but few have appeared in recent years1,2. Progranulin3 (also called granulin or epithelin precursor4, acrogranin5 or PC-derived growth factor6) is a growth factor involved in tumorigenesis6,7,8,9,10,11 and development12,13. Peptides derived from progranulin have been isolated from inflammatory cells14, which led to suggestions that progranulin gene products are involved in the wound response10,14, but this remains undemonstrated. We report that in murine transcutaneous puncture wounds, progranulin mRNA is expressed in the inflammatory infiltrate and is highly induced in dermal fibroblasts and endothelia following injury. When applied to a cutaneous wound, progranulin increased the accumulation of neutrophils, macrophages, blood vessels and fibroblasts in the wound. It acts directly on isolated dermal fibroblasts and endothelial cells to promote division, migration and the formation of capillary-like tubule structures. Progranulin is, therefore, a probable wound-related growth factor.