Not all sales performance is created equal: personality and interpersonal traits in inbound and outbound marketing activities.

A long tradition of research has shown that personality traits, such as extraversion and agreeableness, and interpersonal constructs better predict job performance with a tacit but not explicit distinction in sales marketing activities. In this contribution, we aim to understand the role of job-related and interest data, interpersonal, and personality traits in affecting either inbound or outbound marketing activities and the overall sales performance. An original questionnaire integrates the interpersonal traits and personality factors reported in the literature in sales marketing activities (independent variables). The results were matched with the individual job-related and interest data (control variables) and sales performance (criterion variables) - expressed as the total number of closed contracts over the inbound/outbound related contacts of employees with responsibility in marketing activities for a large banking group. We are able to identify the relevant predictors of sales performance by creating full binary trees using control and independent variables in conditional inference forests and variable importance index measures. Higher performers in either inbound or outbound marketing activities rely on distinct personality sub-traits, which have fundamentally essential implications for interpersonal functioning, and personal data when agreeableness is central to the ability to function effectively in the interpersonal realm of sales activity.

Cobalt ions induce chemokine secretion in primary human osteoblasts.

Chemokines are major regulators of the inflammatory response and have been shown to play an important role in periprosthetic osteolysis. Titanium particles have previously been shown to induce IL-8 and MCP-1 secretion in osteoblasts. These chemokines result in the chemotaxis and activation of neutrophils and macrophages, respectively. Despite a resurgence in the use of cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloys in metal-on-metal arthroplasty, cobalt and chromium ion toxicity in the periprosthetic area has been insufficiently studied. In this study we investigate the in vitro effect of cobalt ions on primary human osteoblast activity. We demonstrate that cobalt ions rapidly induce the protein secretion of IL-8 and MCP-1 in primary human osteoblasts. This elevated chemokine secretion is preceded by an increase in the transcription of the corresponding chemokine gene. Using a Transwell migration chemotaxis assay we also demonstrate that the chemokines secreted are capable of inducing neutrophil and macrophage migration. Furthermore, cobalt ions significantly inhibit osteoblast function as demonstrated by reduced alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium deposition. In aggregate these data demonstrate that cobalt ions can activate transcription of the chemokine genes IL-8 and MCP-1 in primary human osteoblasts. Cobalt ions are not benign and may play an important role in the pathogenesis of osteolysis by suppressing osteoblast function and stimulating the production and secretion of chemokines that attract inflammatory and osteoclastic cells to the periprosthetic area.