Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Continuity and adaptability of home-based enterprises: A longitudinal study from Accra, Ghana

It has long been recognised that many low-income households in cities in the global South use their home not only as a means of shelter but also as a source of income. There is a tendency, however, to consider home-based enterprises as providing insignificant and temporary forms of work. Evidence collected over a period of 10 years from home-based enterprise operators in Accra shows that, although the fortunes of the enterprises vary, the majority display a remarkable ability to survive. The operators demonstrate a high degree of flexibility in adapting to changing demand and opportunities, and a few manage to consolidate and expand their businesses. In the current economic climate, in which young people especially are having difficulty finding gainful employment, some young people are taking over home-based enterprises from their ageing parents. There is clear evidence that home-based enterprises make an important contribution to urban livelihoods and should be supported, not hindered, by urban planners.
Enhancing employability of graduates from Higher Education Institutions in Botswana : a case study of Environmental Science

The main aim of this study was to explore and describe the circumstances on the ground concerning employability of Environmental Science (ES) graduates in Botswana and to provide evidence that would either confirm or refute claims that graduates in Botswana, in general, are not employable. The second aim of this study was to describe whose role it is to enhance the employability of graduates. Furthermore it was also the aim of this study to investigate whether or not employability audits could be used as a quality assurance mechanism to ensure the employability of graduates in Botswana. These issues were investigated using the contextual framework of employability which explains the quality of higher education in relation to employability of graduates. This research reports on the findings of a case study of the Environmental Science programme offered by the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Botswana which was conducted in June 2012. The study revealed and confirmed gaps among ES graduates in the knowledge, skills and competencies required for the world of work. As a result of these gaps, ES graduates were found not be immediately employable without further on the job training. This created a lot of discontent among employers interviewed. The study concluded that higher education should go beyond providing education for the general development and well-being of individuals and address issues related to employability of graduating students. Conflicts in the possible roles of higher education and industry in enhancing the employability of ES graduates in terms of the changing expectations of the world of work were identified. The study highlighted the possible role of employability audits in enhancing employability not only of ES graduates but all other graduates in Botswana. Furthermore the study recommended that employability audits should be introduced in the tertiary education system of Botswana as a quality assurance mechanism. It further recommended collaboration and partnership with industry as key to the success of any measures put in place for the enhancement of the employability of graduates in Botswana.
Patients' and healthcare professionals' views on pharmacogenetic testing and its future delivery in the NHS.

INTRODUCTION There is limited empirical evidence on patients' and healthcare professionals' views on the provision of pharmacogenetic testing services. These opinions may be used to shape the development of emerging pharmacogenetic services and inform healthcare professionals' future educational requirements. OBJECTIVES To explore patients' and healthcare professionals' views about pharmacogenetic testing services and their future development. METHODS Semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients who had been prescribed azathioprine for autoimmune conditions and prevention of acute rejection in renal transplantation. Focus groups were conducted with a range of healthcare professionals. Interviews and focus groups were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. RESULTS The views of 42 individuals - 25 patients and 17 healthcare professionals - were explored in depth. Key themes emerging from the data were: patients' and healthcare professionals' knowledge and experience of pharmacogenetics; expectations about how such a testing service could be used; and characteristics of service delivery. Knowledge and experience of pharmacogenetics varied. Pharmacogenetics was perceived to be of benefit by both groups. Patients gave opinions about pharmacogenetic services based on their experiences of illness, taking medicines and using healthcare services. Healthcare professionals based their opinions on how existing services are provided and access to limited healthcare resources. Patients had strong feelings about how this service should be delivered and expected high standards of explanation about potential pharmacogenetic tests. None of the healthcare professionals questioned expected to have responsibility for the future delivery of pharmacogenetic testing services. CONCLUSION There is no clear model of how pharmacogenetic tests will be delivered in clinical practice. Patients expect to receive pharmacogenetic services from healthcare professionals who are able to explain the test, and interpret the implications for prescribing, with confidence. The gap between patients' high expectations for information and healthcare professionals' current knowledge and reluctance to deliver pharmacogenetic services highlights the urgent need for better education and training of healthcare professionals in pharmacogenetics.
Towards a model of human resource solutions for achieving intergenerational interaction in organisations

Purpose – Achieving intergenerational interaction and avoiding conflict is becoming increasingly difficult in a workplace populated by three generations – Baby Boomers, Generation X‐ers and Generation Y‐ers. This paper presents a model and proposes HR solutions towards achieving co‐operative generational interaction.Design/methodology/approach – This paper adapts Park's theory of race relations to explain the distinctiveness of generational work groups and the challenges and opportunities that these groups present when interacting in organisations. Rashford and Coghlan's cycle of organisational change, based on the Kubler‐Ross grief cycle, is then mapped onto Park's race relations cycle in order to link generational interaction to emotional reactions to change over time.Findings – The paper sets out a research agenda for examining how generations interact in the workplace. It acknowledges the limitations of using Park's theory of race relations, in particular the criticisms levelled at assimilationist app.
Net Worth, Credit Constraints and Economic Development

This paper constructs an overlapping generations model with production in which moral hazard coming from asymmetric information leads to capital market imperfections. In a small open economy setting the initial net worth positions of borrowers affect the long-run state of the economy. An economy that is richer in the early stages is more likely to achieve a long-run rich equilibrium. In a closed economy, the multiple steady states disappear. This result is sharply contrasted with Diamond [1965] because in his model multiple steady states may be viable in a closed economy, but disappear in a small open economy. Journal of Economic Literature Classification No. D82, 016.
The Tobin q as a business game performance indicator

Various business game indicators of a company’s economic performance exist. The Tobin q was examined as an indicator of the firm’s effectiveness from an investment perspective across a variety of top management games. The Tobin q was also compared to the Altman Z as an alternative indicator of the firm’s financial viability. The q was inconsistently related to each game’s own performance indicator across game and may be a consequence of the unbalancedalgorithms created by game designers to calculate the firm’s stock price and the replacement value of its assets. This study’s results suggest game designers should pay greater attention to the theories of stock price valuations they create for their games and that game administrators should use caution when altering game weights in any performance evaluation scheme.
Evaluating the competitive market efficiency of top listed companies in Egypt

Purpose - The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to measure the relative market efficiency of the top listed companies in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach - Applying a two-stage approach, this study uses production frontier analysis (PFA) to measure the relative market efficiency of 62 listed companies in Egypt, and Tobit regression to examine the dependence of efficiency on the specific operating environment of these companies. Findings - The results indicate that the performance of several companies is sub-optimal, suggesting the potential for significant improvements over both profitability and marketability dimensions. Separate benchmarks were derived for possible reductions in resources used, and the results indicate that several companies deploy a much larger number of employees than required by a best practice company, and significant savings are possible on this account. Originality/value - From a policy perspective, this study highlights the economic importance of encouraging increased market efficiency throughout the business sector in Egypt.
The Very Long Chain Fatty Acid (C26:25OH) Linked to the Lipid A Is Important for the Fitness of the Photosynthetic Bradyrhizobium Strain ORS278 and the Establishment of a Successful Symbiosis with Aeschynomene Legumes

In rhizobium strains, the lipid A is modified by the addition of a very long-chain fatty acid (VLCFA) shown to play an important role in rigidification of the outer membrane, thereby facilitating their dual life cycle, outside and inside the plant. In Bradyrhizobium strains, the lipid A is more complex with the presence of at least two VLCFAs, one covalently linked to a hopanoid molecule, but the importance of these modifications is not well-understood. In this study, we identified a cluster of VLCFA genes in the photosynthetic Bradyrhizobium strain ORS278, which nodulates Aeschynomene plants in a Nod factor-independent process. We tried to mutate the different genes of the VLCFA gene cluster to prevent the synthesis of the VLCFAs, but only one mutant in the lpxXL gene encoding an acyltransferase was obtained. Structural analysis of the lipid A showed that LpxXL is involved in the transfer of the C26:25OH VLCFA to the lipid A but not in the one of the C30:29OH VLCFA which harbors the hopanoid molecule. Despite maintaining the second VLCFA, the ability of the mutant to cope with various stresses (low pH, high temperature, high osmolarity, and antimicrobial peptides) and to establish an efficient nitrogen-fixing symbiosis was drastically reduced. In parallel, we investigated whether the BRADO0045 gene, which encodes a putative acyltransferase displaying a weak identity with the apo-lipoprotein N-acyltransferase Lnt, could be involved in the transfer of the C30:29OH VLCFA to the lipid A. Although the mutant exhibited phenotypes similar to the lpxXL mutant, no difference in the lipid A structure was observed from that in the wild-type strain, indicating that this gene is not involved in the modification of lipid A. Our results advance our knowledge of the biosynthesis pathway and the role of VLCFAs-modified lipid A in free-living and symbiotic states of Bradyrhizobium strains.
Understanding schools' use of ‘value added’ data: the psychology and sociology of numbers

The aim of this paper is to explore the use by secondary school staff – chiefly at senior and middle management levels – of so-called ‘value-added’ data. Value added measures of performance are now relatively well developed methodologically: sophisticated statistical data is being generated by government agencies, LEAs, university departments and other agencies, including schools themselves. However, the continuing debate about value added has served to show how challenging the technical, conceptual and ethical issues are when putting such data to use. The issue of support for schools in interpreting and using such data for different purposes – school improvement and development or accountability – needs closer examination and understanding. The paper summarizes the evidence emerging from other studies on how value added data seems to have been used by schools and the questions this raises. It then discusses the findings and issues emerging from a recent NFER-funded project, whose particular focus was to explore the potential role of value added analyses in school and departmental improvement.
Comparison of iodine-123 metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scan and [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography to evaluate response after iodine-131 MIBG therapy for relapsed neuroblastoma.

PURPOSE Children with relapsed neuroblastoma have poor survival. It is crucial to have a reliable method for evaluating functional response to new therapies. In this study, we compared two functional imaging modalities for neuroblastoma: metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scan for uptake by the norepinephrine transporter and [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) uptake for glucose metabolic activity. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients enrolled onto a phase I study of sequential infusion of iodine-131 ((131)I) MIBG (NANT-2000-01) were eligible for inclusion if they had concomitant FDG-PET and MIBG scans. (131)I-MIBG therapy was administered on days 0 and 14. For each patient, we compared all lesions identified on concomitant FDG-PET and MIBG scans and gave scans a semiquantitative score. RESULTS The overall concordance of positive lesions on concomitant MIBG and FDG-PET scans was 39.6% when examining the 139 unique anatomic lesions. MIBG imaging was significantly more sensitive than FDG-PET overall and for the detection of bone lesions (P < .001). There was a trend for increased sensitivity of FDG-PET for detection of soft tissue lesions. Both modalities showed similar improvement in number of lesions identified from day 0 to day 56 scan and in semiquantitative scores that correlated with overall response. FDG-PET scans became completely negative more often than MIBG scans after treatment. CONCLUSION MIBG scan is significantly more sensitive for individual lesion detection in relapsed neuroblastoma than FDG-PET, though FDG-PET can sometimes play a complementary role, particularly in soft tissue lesions. Complete response by FDG-PET metabolic evaluation did not always correlate with complete response by MIBG uptake.
Organizational Risk Aversion: Comparing The Public and Non-Profit Sectors

Abstract Conventional wisdom of ‘sector matters’ suggests that those working in the government are more risk averse than those employed by business enterprises. However, whether public sector workers tend to be more risk averse than non-profit sector workers is unknown. Our paper examines whether the levels of organizational risk aversion as perceived by managers differ between public and non-profit organizations and explore reasons leading to this potential difference. Statistical results show that organizational risk aversion is more pervasive in the public sector than in the non-profit sector. Mediation tests further indicate that managerial trust and an organization's formalized rule constraints in rewarding good performers and removing poor performers are decisive to this difference. The findings imply that the top management's feeling of insecurity and structural reasons embedded in the merit system are the keys to organizational risk aversion in the public sector.
A Critical Role for the Innate Immune Signaling Molecule IRAK-4 in T Cell Activation

IRAK-4 is a protein kinase that is pivotal in mediating signals for innate immune responses. Here, we report that IRAK-4 signaling is also essential for eliciting adaptive immune responses. Thus, in the absence of IRAK-4, in vivo T cell responses were significantly impaired. Upon T cell receptor stimulation, IRAK-4 is recruited to T cell lipid rafts, where it induces downstream signals, including protein kinase Cθ activation through the association with Zap70. This signaling pathway was found to be required for optimal activation of nuclear factor κB. Our findings suggest that T cells use this critical regulator of innate immunity for the development of acquired immunity, suggesting that IRAK-4 may be involved in direct signal cross talk between the two systems.
The relationship between mutual fund fees and expenses and their effects on performance

Fees charged by mutual funds include front-end load charges, deferred sales charges that decrease over time, redemption fees that are imposed whenever shares are sold, and 12b-1 fees. Fees may be justified if they allow the fund to lower other costs or improve performance. In this paper, we find that, on average, 12b-1 fees, deferred sales charges, and redemption fees increase expenses whereas funds with front-end loads generally have lower expenses. We also find that funds with 12b-1 fees and redemption fees, on average, earn higher risk adjusted returns but funds with front-end load charges earn lower risk adjusted returns. Copyright 1998 by MIT Press.
Nutrition, intestinal defence and the microbiome

The interaction between nutrition and infection was the subject of important work by several groups in the 1960s. The explosion of knowledge in immunology, including innate immunity, has led to increased understanding of the impact of nutrition on host defence, but much more work needs to be done in this area. In the last decade an increasing volume of work has opened up the previously obscure world of human endogenous flora. This work suggests that the microbiome, the total genetic pool of the microbiota, contributes to the already complex interaction between nutrition and infectious disease. The established concept that nutritional status, host defence and infection all impact on each other now has to be expanded into a multiple interaction, with the microbiota interacting with all three other elements. There is good evidence that the microbiome programmes host defence and drives a metabolome that impacts on energy balance, and indeed on some micronutrients. In turn, host defence shapes the microbiome, and nutritional status, particularly micronutrient status, helps determine several elements of host defence. While interventions in this area are in their infancy, the understanding of interactions that already have an enormous impact on global health is now at a threshold. The present review explores the evidence for these interactions with a view to putting potential interventions into the context of a conceptual framework.
A simulated neuro-robotic environment for bi-directional closed-loop experiments

We have developed a new simulation environment, called NeuVision, that is able to perform neuro-robotic experiments in a closed-loop architecture, by simulating a large-scale neuronal network bi-directionally connected to a robot. We conceived it primarily as a support tool to be used in the context of the ‘embodied electrophysiology’, a growing field that could help, in the future, to realize innovative bi-directional and adaptive Brain-Machine Interfaces. The main features of our system are related to the efficient visualization of the neural activity, the possibility to define different connectivity rules and stimulation points, and the integration of statistical analysis tools for fast neural dynamics characterization. Our preliminary results show that we are able to reproduce both spontaneous and evoked activity of cultured networks. Hence, by defining a decoding strategy based on the Center of Activity, we carried out experiments with a simulated neuronal network in a closed-loop with a robot. Our results suggest the NeuVision simulated environment could be used as a tool to support in vitro experiments with real systems.
Proteomics of Secretory-Stage and Maturation-Stage Enamel of Genetically Distinct Mice

The mechanisms by which excessive ingestion of fluoride (F) during amelogenesis leads to dental fluorosis (DF) are still not precisely known. Inbred strains of mice vary in their susceptibility to develop DF, and therefore permit the investigation of underlying molecular events influencing DF severity. We employed a proteomic approach to characterize and evaluate changes in protein expression from secretory-stage and maturation-stage enamel in 2 strains of mice with different susceptibilities to DF (A/J, i.e. ‘susceptible' and 129P3/J, i.e. ‘resistant'). Weanling male and female susceptible and resistant mice fed a low-F diet were divided into 2 F-water treatment groups. They received water containing 0 (control) or 50 mg F/l for 6 weeks. Plasma and incisor enamel was analyzed for F content. For proteomic analysis, the enamel proteins extracted for each group were separated by 2-dimensional electrophoresis and subsequently characterized by liquid-chromatography electrospray-ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. F data were analyzed by 2-way ANOVA and Bonferroni's test (p < 0.05). Resistant mice had significantly higher plasma and enamel F concentrations when compared with susceptible mice in the F-treated groups. The proteomic results for mice treated with 0 mg F/l revealed that during the secretory stage, resistant mice had a higher abundance of proteins than their susceptible counterparts, but this was reversed during the maturation stage. Treatment with F greatly increased the number of protein spots detected in both stages. Many proteins not previously described in enamel (e.g. type 1 collagen) as well as some uncharacterized proteins were identified. Our findings reveal new insights regarding amelogenesis and how genetic background and F affect this process.
Expression of specific glycoconjugates in both primary and secondary olfactory pathways in BALB/C mice

Binding of cell surface carbohydrates to their receptors specifically promotes axon growth and synaptogenesis in select regions of the developing nervous system. In some cases these interactions depend upon cell–cell adhesion mediated by the same glycoconjugates present on the surface of apposing cells or their processes. We have previously shown that the plant lectin Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA) binds to a subpopulation of mouse primary olfactory neurons whose axons selectively fasciculate prior to terminating in the olfactory bulb. In the present study, we investigated whether these glycoconjugates were also expressed by postsynaptic olfactory neurons specifically within the olfactory pathway. We show here for the first time that DBA ligands were expressed both by a subset of primary olfactory neurons as well as by the postsynaptic mitral/tufted cells in BALB/C mice. These glycoconjugates were first detected on mitral/tufted cell axons during the early postnatal period, at a time when there is considerable synaptogenesis and synaptic remodelling in the primary olfactory cortex. This is one of the few examples of the selective expression of molecules in contiguous axon tracts in the mammalian nervous system. These results suggest that glycoconjugates recognized by DBA may have a specific role in the formation and maintenance of neural connections within a select functional pathway in the brain. J. Comp. Neurol. 443:213–225, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.