Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhancing Market Access in Kenyan SMEs using ICT

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are perceived as the engine of growth in Kenya yet face formidable constraints that hinder them from realising their potential. Limited market access remains a critical constraint to their growth and competitiveness whereas Information and Communication Technology (ICT) presents enormous opportunities for improved market access. The aim of this study was to explore opportunities offered by ICT in enhancing market access in Kenyan SMEs and the various ICT tools and applications that can be harnessed. Exploratory research design was used based on desk research that involved a review of relevant literature and studies. Findings of the study identified limited access to information, poor access to physical markets, stiff competition due to liberalization of markets and globalization, limited market research and analysis, narrow product diversity, weak capacity for e-commerce and high transaction costs as constraints to market access by Kenyan SMEs. Findings also indicate that opportunities exist for SMEs to apply ICT to facilitate communication and access to information, identify markets, for production of innovative quality products, product promotion, to improve transactions, for market research and analysis, to access international markets, for on-line selling, for networking and to lower transaction costs. The study recommends awareness creation for ICT use, improvement in ICT literacy levels and infrastructure, development of user friendly relevant ICT programs
Examining the Teaching Beliefs and Practices of Experienced ESL Teachers: A Sociocognitive-Transformative Perspective

Examining language teacher beliefs and practices has been the subject of inquiry for the past 20 years. While some studies confirmed the consistency between teachers’ beliefs and practices, others also confirmed that beliefs are not always reflected in their classroom practices. It has also been found that teachers’ beliefs and practices do not always integrate the recent and established principles in second language teaching. To this end, this study sought to explore the teaching beliefs and practices of experienced ESL teachers and to determine whether these beliefs and practices run consistent with the current principles in ESL pedagogy from a sociocognitive-transformative perspective. For the stated purpose, five experienced ESL teachers were interviewed. The findings revealed that while there are consistencies between their beliefs and practices, some divergence were also observed. These results were attributed to several factors such as the abstractness of principles and attitude toward students. Implications for teacher education and future studies are discussed. Keywords: second language teaching; sociocognitive-transformative approach; teacher beliefs; teacher cognition; teacher practices DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2016-2201-12
Introduction of unresponsive patient simulation scenarios into an undergraduate nursing health assessment course.

BACKGROUND Despite certification in basic life support, nursing students may not be proficient in performing critical assessments and interventions for unresponsive patients. Thus, a new simulation module comprising four unresponsive patient scenarios was introduced into a second-year nursing health assessment course. METHOD This cross-sectional study describes nursing student experience, knowledge, confidence, and performance of assessments and interventions for the unresponsive patient across 3 years of an undergraduate nursing program. RESULTS Overall knowledge, confidence, and performance scores were similar between second-, third-, and fourth-year students (N = 239); however, performance times for many critical assessments and interventions were poor. Second-year nursing students' knowledge increased significantly following the new simulation module (p = 0.002). CONCLUSION Findings suggest a need for more repetition of basic unresponsive patient scenarios to provide mastery. It is anticipated that addition of unresponsive patient scenarios into the second year will enhance performance by the final year of the program.
Deep Habits, Rule-of-Thumb Consumers, and Fiscal Policy

Procyclical movements in private consumption and countercyclical markup are the most prominent feature to an increase in government spending. In this paper, we model deep habits and rule-of-thumb consumers to match this feature. We demonstrate that when ruleof-thumb consumers meet deep habits in consumption, our model improves the two models that are widely used in the literature to investigate the effect of government spending. First, it generates a more realistic markup response. Second, it reduces the threshold value of ruleof-thumb share necessary to crowd in consumption. The main reason behind the success is because both deep habits and rule-of-thumb consumers mutually reinforce.
Evidence of Hidden Inflation in Zimbabwe

Unofficial inflation can be explored from two different angles which constitute either the understating or overstating of officially announced inflation figures and the two are manifested as repressed inflation and hidden inflation. In this paper the later form of unofficial inflation is investigated and there is evidence of the existence of hidden inflation in Zimbabwe. Evidence in this paper indicates that official inflation figures could have been understated by over 35% as at June 2007. These results are new from the perspective of the hidden type of unofficial inflation and they complement evidence of repressed inflation in Zimbabwe noted by Munoz (2006). The presence of hidden inflation however could be higher than this evidence if black market prices, substitute products and a formal re-weighting of the consumer price index components were to be accounted for. This paper also finds a statistically significant positive relationship between the food component of the inflation weights and the international poverty line as defined by $2 per day. The positive connection between poverty and inflation weights demonstrates the need for regular household consumption surveys in the face of increased poverty lest the integrity of officially announced figures is questionable.
Antitumor activity of a human cytotoxic T-cell line (TALL-104) in brain tumor xenografts.

Malignant glioma in adults and primitive neuroectodermal tumors/medulloblastomas in children are the most common malignant primary brain tumors that either respond poorly to current treatment or tend to recur. Adoptive therapy with TALL-104 cells-an IL-2-dependent, major histocompatibility complex nonrestricted, cytotoxic T-cell line-has demonstrated significant antitumor activity against a broad range of implanted or spontaneously arising tumors. This study investigates distribution of systemically and locally administered TALL-104 cells and their efficacy in effecting survival of a rat model of human brain tumor. In vitro, TALL-104 cells showed significant cytotoxic activity when added to human glioblastoma cell lines U-87 MG, U-251 MG, and A1690; the medulloblastoma cell lines DAOY, D283 Med, and D341 Med; and the epidermoid cancer cell line A431. In brain tumor-bearing rats, the amount of fluorescent dye-labeled TALL-104 cells in brain increased after they were given by intracarotid injection as compared with i.v. cell administration. However, TALL-104 cells rapidly decreased to low levels within 1 h after intracarotid injection. This finding suggests that TALL-104 cells given systemically may not invade brain or tumor tissues, but rather may remain in the vascular system, making this approach less efficient for brain tumor treatment. In a model of athymic rats engrafted with human A431 carcinoma brain tumor, repetitive local administration of TALL-104 cells directly into the tumor bed resulted in a significant increase in survival time compared with control animals. Therefore, local therapy with TALL-104 cells may be a novel and highly effective treatment approach for malignant brain tumors.
Apoeccrine Glands in Nevus Sebaceus

Apoeccrine glands were found in 13 of 57 specimens of nevus sebaceus. The glands showed the basic structure of eccrine glands, but differed in that a part of the secretory duct was lined by characteristic apocrine epithelium. The apocrine alteration varied from slight apocrine changes in a few secretory epithelium in other glands. The association with changes in the excretory ducts of rare glands suggested a transformation of eccrine into apocrine glands. It was nevertheless considered as most likely that a majority of the apocrine glands in nevus sebaceus had developed in the “classic” way in association with pilosebaceus structures. In nevus sebaceus, apoeccrine glands appeared to represent eccrine glands with a variable degree of apocrine metaplasia that could result in complete transformation rather than the formation of a separate category of specialized sweat glands. The capacity of eccrine epithelium to transform into apocrine epithelium is why difficulties are experienced in the precise categorization of sweat gland neoplasma into eccrine and apocrine tumors.
Composition and properties of mare’s milk of Croatian Coldblood horse breed

Mare’s milk has always been appreciated due to its medicinal properties for which it has been more and more used in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry and as a replacement for human milk in the diet of newborns. The aim of this study was to establish the chemical composition, physical properties and hygienic quality of mare’s milk of Croatian Coldblood horse breed. On the average, mare’s milk contained: 10.2 % total solids, 1.23 % milk fat, 1.76 % proteins, 0.71 % casein and 6.26 % lactose. The average pH value was 7.0, titratable acidity 2.51 °SH and freezing point -0.5318 °C. The total bacterial count was less than 58.000/mL and the somatic cell count 47x103/mL. The mare’s udder volume, environmental conditions and the presence of a foal (without a physical contact) showed a significant effect on the milk secretion. Based on the obtained results, criteria of physicalchemical and hygienic parameters of mare’s milk quality could be suggested. Possibilities of using the milk of Croatian coldblood horse breed are numerous, but until now it has almost not been used in Croatia due to the lack of information and knowledge of potential customers.
Food preferences and desire to eat in anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether eating disordered patients and controls differ in visual analog scale (VAS) ratings of liking and desire to eat various foods and whether ratings differ according to caloric or macronutrient content of the foods. METHOD Fifty-five female inpatients with eating disorders and 15 controls rated their liking of and desire to eat 50 common foods at admission and discharge using 100-mm VAS. RESULTS All patient groups rated their desire to eat high-calorie foods significantly lower than their desire to eat low-calorie foods whereas controls rated their desire to eat high- and low-calorie foods equally. Patients also differed from controls more in ratings of desire to eat than in liking when foods were classified according to macronutrient content. In restricting anorexics (N = 25), ratings of liking and desire to eat for high-fat/low-carbohydrate (CHO) and high-fat/high-CHO foods were not significantly correlated at admission. Disparity in correlations between restrictors, bulimics (N = 18), and controls was attenuated with treatment while anorexics with bulimic features (N = 12) became less like controls from admission to discharge. DISCUSSION Differences in the way patients and controls perceive foods should be borne in mind during the treatment process. Furthermore, since patients had not completely normalized by discharge, treatment strategies should emphasize acceptance of foods varying in macronutrient and caloric content, as intake of a varied diet is of key importance in regaining and maintaining good health.
Firm Size and Dynamic Efficiency in the Life Insurance Industry

This paper is concerned with the relationship between insurer size and the receptivity of insurers to adopting new computer technology. For different samples of North American life insurers, the study concludes that large insurers were slower to computerize their head office activities than their smaller rivals. This result is consistent with a finding that the productivity impacts of automation decrease as one includes the largest insurers in the sample.
Why implicit bank debt guarantees matter: Some empirical evidence

What are the economic effects of implicit bank debt guarantees and who ultimately benefits from them? This paper finds that “financial excesses” – situations where bank credit reaches levels that reduce economic growth – have been stronger in OECD countries characterised by larger values of implicit guarantees and where bank creditors have not incurred losses in bank failure resolution cases. Also, implicit bank debt guarantees benefit financial sector employees and other high-income earners in two ways, increasing income inequality. First, implicit guarantees are likely to raise financial sector pay. This is consistent with the observation of “financial sector wage premia”, or financial sector employees earning in excess of their profile in terms of age, education and other characteristics. Second, implicit guarantees are likely to result in more and cheaper bank lending. If so, well-off people tend to benefit relatively more since household credit is more unequally distributed than income. JEL classification: D63, E43, G21, G28, O47 Keywords: Bank funding costs, implicit guarantees for bank debt, bank failure resolution, finance and growth, finance and income inequality
Services and supports for young children with Down syndrome: parent and provider perspectives.

BACKGROUND As individuals with Down syndrome are living longer and more socially connected lives, early access to supports and services for their parents will ensure an optimal start and improved outcomes. The family's journey begins at the child's diagnosis, and cumulative experiences throughout infancy and childhood set the tone for a lifetime of decisions made by the family regarding services, supports and activities. METHODS This study utilized focus groups and interviews with seven nurses, five therapists, 25 service co-ordinators, and 10 English- and three Spanish-speaking parents to better understand family experiences and perceptions on accessing Down syndrome-related perinatal, infant and childhood services and supports. RESULTS Parents and providers reflected on key early life issues for children with Down syndrome and their families in five areas: prenatal diagnosis; perinatal care; medical and developmental services; care co-ordination and services; and social and community support. CONCLUSIONS Systems of care are not consistently prepared to provide appropriate family-centred services to individuals with Down syndrome and their families. Individuals with disabilities require formal and informal supports from birth to achieve and maintain a high quality of life.
Functional Outcome of Arthrodesis of the First Metatarsophalangeal Joint Using Parallel Screw Fixation

Background: Arthrodesis of the first metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint is a reliable procedure for a painful hallux. Most studies focus on the surgical results rather than the functional outcome for the patient. Therefore, we examined the effects of first MTP joint arthrodesis on activities of daily living and recreational activities. Methods: Fifty-three patients (60 feet) who had isolated arthrodesis of the first (MTP) joint using a parallel screw fixation technique were evaluated for the functional outcome after the surgery to determine the effect of the arthrodesis on the activities of daily living and on recreational sports and exercise. Results: Fusion was achieved in all patients; all but three stated that they would have the surgery again. Postoperative pain scores evaluated using the Visual Analogue Scale indicated effective pain relief. High levels of function were demonstrated in this group of patients. Conclusion: Arthrodesis of the first MTP joint is not only a successful surgical technique for relief of pain and correction of deformity but also allows a high level of function in everyday life and in recreational activities.
Correlation between regional myasthenic weakness and mental aspects of quality of life

Here we report how the different types of regional muscle involvement, i.e. bulbar, ocular or generalized, in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) influence the mental aspects of quality of life. Clinical examination according to Osserman was performed in 48 MG patients (45 women, three men; mean age 54, SD 12 years). Each patient was at the time for clinical evaluation asked to fill out the disease‐specific Myasthenia Gravis Questionnaire (MGQ) and the Short‐Form 36‐item questionnaire for health survey (SF‐36) as patient‐oriented tools. We related the regional domains (generalized domain, bulbar domain and ocular domain) of the MGQ and the clinical findings, respectively, with mental quality of life as assessed by SF‐36. Bulbar and generalized involvement results in impairment of mental aspects of quality of life, whereas ocular involvement does not.
Patient acceptance of CT colonography and conventional colonoscopy: prospective comparative study in patients with or suspected of having colorectal disease.

PURPOSE To prospectively evaluate, by means of self-assessed questionnaires, patient acceptance of computed tomographic (CT) colonography compared with that of conventional colonoscopy, when performed in patients with or suspected of having colorectal disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred eleven patients underwent CT colonography followed immediately by conventional colonoscopy. Patient acceptance was evaluated with questionnaires, and the proportions of patients who favored one examination were compared. The main variables were overall impression, discomfort during air filling or instrumentation, and perceived pain, evaluated by using ordered verbal descriptor scales after each examination. The preference for either examination was evaluated after completion of both examinations. RESULTS Of the 68 patients who favored one examination, 56 (82%) preferred CT colonography (P <.00001). Concerning overall impression of problems or discomfort in connection with the examination, 49 (69%) of 71 with a preference considered colonoscopy to be more difficult (P =.002). CT colonography was regarded as "not painful" by 62 (57%) of 108 patients compared with 28 (26%) for colonoscopy, and a larger proportion of patients rated pain as higher during colonoscopy than during CT colonography (95% CI: 30%, 56%). Discomfort from air filling of the colon was the major complaint about CT colonography. CONCLUSION CT colonography was considered less painful and less difficult overall than colonoscopy and was the preferred examination.
The Importance of Critically Disaggregating Data: The Case of Southeast Asian American College Students

The following policy brief calls for the improvement in data collection of Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) and, more specifically, Southeast Asian Americans (SEAAs) in order to facilitate college access and success. First, context and the concern for the lack of data are provided. Second, an explanation of the challenges with the existing data and importance of disaggregating data with regard to ethnicity and other important factors such as language and generational status are discussed. Also emphasized is the importance of incorporating the use of qualitative data in the policy decision-making process. Third, suggestions and recommendations that will benefit research and eventually positively influence policy decisions regarding SEAAs in education are discussed.
The Mechanisms of Social Norms’ Influence on Consumer Decision Making: A Meta-Analysis

In the past decades, marketing practitioners have embraced social norms as a powerful instrument of influencing consumers’ behavior. An important distinction has been made between descriptive norms (what most others do) and injunctive norms (what others approve of), and this meta-analysis across 297 studies examines the effects of these types of social norms on consumer decision-making processes. We argue that descriptive norms directly influence behavior, and consequently that their effect on behavior should be stronger than that of injunctive norms. Injunctive norms, by contrast, should be more strongly related to intentions than descriptive norms. Results of the meta-analysis support these predictions, and furthermore provide new insights into the moderating effects of aspects of the norm (specificity of the norm, norm source) and of the target person (gender, age).
Twenty-five years of experience with out-center hemodialysis.

UNLABELLED Twenty-five years of experience with out-center hemodialysis. BACKGROUND Out-center hemodialysis (HD) offers patients a better quality of life, a greater independence, and a better rehabilitation opportunity. A lower mortality than with other modalities of dialysis has been reported. In addition, in France the charges paid depend on the modality of dialysis, out-center HD being the less expensive, and savings are also accomplished through fewer patient transports, which are additionally reimbursed. We present a 25-year experience of out-center HD. METHODS We retrospectively studied the clinical records of 471 patients treated between 1974 and 1997 in a single nonprofit organization operating regional home HD (H-HD) and facilities for self-care HD (SC-HD). Survival results were analyzed according to: (a) causes of end-stage renal disease, (b) age at the start of HD, (c) period of start of HD, (d) modality of HD (H-HD, SC-HD), and (e) a subgroup of 174 patients defined at risk because they were contraindicated for transplantation. RESULTS The mean age at the start of HD increased from 31.2 +/- 9.7 (mean +/- SD) years in 1974 to 52.6 +/- 13.5 years in 1997. Causes of the end of treatment were: (a) transplantation (63%), (b) transfer (20%), and (c) death (17%). The overall survival was 90% at 5 years, 77% at 10 years, 62% at 15 years, and 45% at 20 years, and, for the group at risk, 78%, 62%, 46%, and 31%, respectively. Cox proportional hazard analyses showed that risk factors were older age, diabetes, and renal vascular diseases. CONCLUSION If adequate choice is given, out-center HD offers a reliable and safe modality of dialysis with better survival results than survival in full-care in-center HD. In addition, out-center HD ensures a striking financial benefit as compared with the higher costs if the same patients were treated with full-care in-center HD. These modalities should be encouraged for all HD patients who are able to be treated by out-center modalities.