Universität Bayern

Although research demonstrates that employee stock ownership (ESO) is associated with increased firm performance, ESO’s influence on employees’ extra-role behaviors has been neglected. Using five-year panel data (N=156,051 employees) of a leading automotive manufacturer we find that ESO plans are related to extra-role behaviors, in the form of making suggestions for innovative work solutions. Remarkably, however and in stark contrast to expectations grounded in agency theory, equity ownership alone showed no immediate meaningful independent effect on extra-role behaviors, suggesting critical boundary conditions and additional underexplored underlying mechanisms. Our results indicate that stock discounts from an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), rather than simply employee stock ownership, drive employees’ extra-role behaviors in the short-term and over time the effect size of stock discounts is substantially larger than even long-term equity accumulation. Hence, our findings call into question agency theory expectations for most employees; the results also extend ESO understanding by integrating social exchange theory with the dominant theory in the literature, agency theory, showing that social exchange theory may be a stronger explanation for employee extra-role behaviors than agency theory. These unexpectedly weaker-than-anticipated agency effects highlight meaningful boundary conditions for ESO effects, indicating opportunities for future theoretical and empirical exploration.

Abstract Background Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a devastating disease, with most cases caused by meningococcal serogroup B (MenB) in infants and children. The multicomponent MenB vaccine (4CMenB) has already shown high real-world effectiveness in various regions. Understanding the vaccine’s duration of protection (DoP) is crucial for determining the need for boosters, ensuring long-term immunity, and protecting populations from this disease. The purpose of this analysis was to explore the DoP of 4CMenB in fully vaccinated infants and children based on real-world vaccine effectiveness (VE) data.Table 1.PICOS CriteriaFigure 1.Vaccine Effectiveness Over Time in Fully Vaccinated* Infants and Children Methods A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted per PRISMA guidelines. MEDLINE, Embase, gray literature, and clinical trial registries were searched using predetermined criteria (Table 1). Fully vaccinated infants and children were defined based on vaccination schedules specific to each region or study. VE data were extracted for each year of age for studies reporting data up to 4 years post-vaccination. Where age-specific VE was not reported, the screening method was used when feasible to calculate VE based on information on cases in included studies and vaccination coverage data from publicly available sources, enabling the observation of VE over time and the inference of DoP. Results Two studies from two regions (England and Scotland) identified in the SLR were eligible for this analysis. A further eligible study from Italy was excluded due to low case numbers that yielded highly uncertain estimates. VE was estimated for periods in 1-year increments up to 4 years since full vaccination. Following a 2+1 dosing schedule, VE (95% confidence interval) ranged between 92.9% (77.3–97.8) and 74.7% (57.1–85.1) during the first 4 years since full vaccination in England, and between 98.2% (69.9–99.9) and 67.4.% (−191.2–96.4) in Scotland. Considering the sustained high VE observed in England and Scotland during the first 4 years following full vaccination (Figure 1), a 2+1 dosing schedule of 4CMenB in infants provides a DoP of ≥ 48 months. Conclusion 4CMenB demonstrates sustained effectiveness for at least 48 months after the completion of the vaccination schedule in infants and children, providing durable protection for this age group that is most at risk for MenB-IMD. Funding: GSK VEO-001056 Disclosures Pavo Marijic, PhD, GSK: employee|GSK: Stocks/Bonds (Public Company) Iwona Zerda, MSc, GSK: Collaborator with Clever-Access, which was paid by GSK to conduct this study Lucian Gaianu, MSc, GSK: Employee Wojciech Margas, PhD, GSK: Employee of Clever-Access, which was paid by GSK to conduct this study Katarzyna Jamroz-Dolinska, PhD, GSK: Employee of Clever-Access, which was paid by GSK to conduct this study Thatiana Pinto, PhD, GSK: employee|GSK: Stocks/Bonds (Public Company) Gaurav Mathur, MD, GSK: Employee|GSK: Stocks/Bonds (Public Company) Anar Andani, BSc, Medical director, GSK: Employee|GSK: Stocks/Bonds (Public Company) Reena Ladak, MS, GSK: Employee Elise Kuylen, PhD, GSK: Employee|GSK: Stocks/Bonds (Public Company) Helen Petousis-Harris, PhD, Bexsero and gonorrhea trial (USA): Data and Safety Monitory Board Member|CDC: Funding to institution|GSK: Advisor/Consultant|GSK: Funding to institution; payment for study|Maternal pneumococcal vaccine trial (Australia): Data and Safety Monitory Board Member|New Zealand Medical Council: Advisor/Consultant|The Ministry of Health New Zealand: Funding to institution Zeki Kocaata, PhD, GSK: Employee|GSK: Stocks/Bonds (Public Company)

BackgroundThe PREDICTOM (Prediction of Neurodegenerative Disease using an AI driven Screening Platform – www.predictom.eu) project is an EU funded project aimed at developing new biomarkers to identify people at high risk of developing Alzheimer Disease (AD) (1).Here, we aim to describe the rationale behind the MR protocol that will be used at the seven different clinical centers across Europe in the study.MethodThe PREDICTOM study will collect MR data from 615 subjects (target ratio: 80/20% at higher/lower risk). The targeted population will be healthy and over 50 years old. Seven clinical centers across Europe equipped with 3T MR scanners from two different vendors and six different MR models will acquire the MR data.Learning from ADNI4 (2), the PREDICTOM MR protocol is designed to target only modern clinical MR scanners. It is intended to be a comprehensive protocol that allows extracting the most promising anatomical and functional features for AD.As PREDICTOM is a multicenter study, the protocol must be harmonized to reduce the bias across centers/scanners to a reasonable level. The total exam time will not exceed 1 hour including the subject positioning.ResultPREDICTOM MRI protocol contains eight different datatypes. Figure 1 and Figure 2 contain the main parameters and exemplary images in one healthy volunteer scanned in one of the PREDICTOM clinical centers. The choice of QSM was driven by its performance to better detect microbleeds (3). The MRS acquisition has been included due to consistent evidence of alterations in N‐acetylaspartate and myo‐Inositol in early stages of AD (4). For scanner with lower gradient performance, the rsfMRI protocol might use slightly partial Fourier and the multi‐shell diffusion will be reduced to 2‐shell protocol, excluding b=2000.ConclusionThe protocol has been tested on 4 scanners (2 vendors, 3 models) and the harmonisation is still in progress. The PREDICTOM MR protocol was designed to allow the exploration of existing and novel MRI biomarkers for early identification of people at high risk of developing AD.

ABSTRACTBackgroundIdentifying predictors for disability progression is crucial for managing multiple sclerosis (MS). This study aims to explore levels of disability and informative factors for disability progression in people with MS (PwMS) using healthcare data without detailed clinical information.MethodsWe conducted a case–control/cohort study on data from Bavaria's largest health insurance organization. The dataset included records of assistive devices, nursing care, sick leaves, rehabilitation, drug therapies, and diagnoses for individuals with MS, Crohn's disease (CD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and controls (CTR) without these diseases. We used generalized linear models to compare healthcare service utilization between MS and other cohorts. A gradient‐boosting algorithm identified informative healthcare‐related factors associated with disability progression in PwMS, defined by increased nursing care utilization.ResultsPwMS (N = 11,961) demonstrated higher healthcare utilization than CD (N = 21,884), RA (N = 105,450), and CTR (N = 82,677) groups, even at young ages. Besides expected risk factors like age, smoking, diabetes, and psychiatric disorders, the prediction algorithm revealed that PwMS with specific gynecological disorders, upper tract infections, asthma, and thyroiditis were less likely to need higher levels of nursing care.ConclusionsLeveraging healthcare data allows for an objective assessment of disability in PwMS and can identify informative factors for disability progression. Our approach can be applied to studies on disease progression in large cohorts without detailed clinical data and can be adapted to other diseases, disability measures, and healthcare systems. Higher utilization of healthcare resources even at young ages revealed an unmet need for improved treatment and management strategies for young adults with MS.

ABSTRACT Vertical stratification is a prominent driver of biodiversity in forests. As the proportion of successional forests increases worldwide and canopies are lost at a fast pace, it is crucial to understand the role of stratification as a driver of community recovery and ecological processes during succession, particularly for important plant mutualist groups essential for forest recovery. Within a well-resolved chronosequence in the northwestern Ecuadorian rainforest, we compiled an extensive database of over 20,000 diurnal and nocturnal pollinators and 2,000 interactions with plants and examined the interacting effects of recovery age and stratification on pollinator community and interaction network reassembly. In late successional and old-growth forests, stratification was a stronger predictor of pollinator abundance, alpha-diversity, functional richness and beta-diversity than forest legacy. While most groups were strongly associated with canopies (moths, social bees, and nocturnal bees), orchid bees exhibited an inverse pattern, also presenting the strongest functional response to stratification and recovery status. Within the entire chronosequence (0-38 years of recovery, plus old-growth forests), recovery status and stratification, alongside landscape features, acted synergistically as predictors of pollinator community parameters. Although structurally stable across the chronosequence and between strata, Interaction networks were richer and most distinct in canopies, while the highest pollinator and interaction diversity were found in old-growth canopies. In successional forests, networks were only comparable in size to active disturbances and early recovery with both strata combined, whereas complete networks in old-growth forests were more than twice as large as those in other recovery statuses. Our study underlines the importance of stratification in leveraging pollinator diversity during forest succession. By serving as havens for canopy-adapted species, tropical canopies may thus help safeguard pollination processes in disturbed landscapes.