Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Differentiation Focus Strategy on Performance by Selected Car Rental Business: A Case of Nairobi City County, Kenya

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of differentiation strategy on performance of selected car rental business a case of Nairobi City County, Kenya. This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study design where purposive sampling technique was used to select fiftteen (15) car rental business in Nairobi City County. Stratified and simple random sampling technique was employed in recruiting three categories of respondents. The three category of staff included, top level, middle level and bottom level management. Structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data which was analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, regression and correlation analysis was used to give the results of the study. The findings of the study revealed that differentiation strategy was statistically insignificant at P value greater than 0.05 by Chi-square and analysis of variance there by accepting the null hypothesis that differentiation strategy had no effect on performance of car hire business in Nairobi City County. Correlation analysis revealed a negative relationship between indicators for performance improvement and differentiation strategy used at r = -0.05. In addition, correlation analysis revealed that there was a positive relationship between the extent of performance differentiation strategy used at r = 0.096. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that there was no significant (P >0.05) impact of differentiation strategy on performance. In conclusion, differentiation strategy adopted by the selected car rental business in Nairobi City County had no effect on their performance. The study recommended that the research be carried out using moderating effect of the car hire business on influence of differentiation strategy on performance. Key words: Differentiation strategy, performance and car rental business CITATION: Demba, R. N. , Ogal, V. O. , & Muli, J. Effect of differentiation strategy on performance by selected car rental business, a case of Nairobi City County, Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 5(4), 1880-1895.
“Why am I so stuck?”: A Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment Case Discussion

ABSTRACT Assessors from 3 continents worked together on a single multimethod case study. Their goal was to hold the client at the center and forefront of their attitudes and thinking as each assessor focused on a specific measure or group of measures. The adult client requested a neuropsychological assessment and completed a full battery of cognitive measures as well as the MMPI–2, the Rorschach, and the Wartegg. A basic tenet of collaborative/therapeutic assessment holds that the client is a full partner in the assessment process; he or she is also seen as the final arbiter of the usefulness of the ideas derived. With that in mind, the client worked with the lead assessor to create 6 questions she wished answered by the assessment. Feedback and discussion occurred in a number of ways: through discussion sessions with the lead assessor that included extended inquiry; individualized letters from the other assessors, each addressing her 6 questions; a summary letter from the lead assessor; and a metaphorical, therapeutic story that stressed key findings from the assessment. Results converged powerfully, with similar findings from each assessor. The client stated that she felt heard and understood in the process, even by individuals who she had never met personally.
Enzymatic and biochemical characterization of Bungarus sindanus snake venom acetylcholinesterase

This study analyses venom from the elapid krait snake Bungarus sindanus, which contains a high level of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity. The enzyme showed optimum activity at alkaline pH (8.5) and 45oC. Krait venom AChE was inhibited by substrate. Inhibition was significantly reduced by using a high ionic strength buffer; low ionic strength buffer (10 mM PO4 pH 7.5) inhibited the enzyme by 1. 5mM AcSCh, while high ionic strength buffer (62 mM PO4 pH 7.5) inhibited it by 1 mM AcSCh. Venom acetylcholinesterase was also found to be thermally stable at 45oC; it only lost 5% of its activity after incubation at 45oC for 40 minutes. The Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) for acetylthiocholine iodide hydrolysis was found to be 0.068 mM. Krait venom acetylcholinesterase was also inhibited by ZnCl2, CdCl2, and HgCl2 in a concentrationdependent manner. Due to the elevated levels of AChE with high catalytic activity and because it is more stable than any other sources, Bungarus sindanus venom is highly valuable for biochemical studies of this enzyme.
Natural Antibodies and Human Xenotransplantation

Landsteiner realised, in the early 1900's, that proteins regularly induce a specific response but that carbohydrates and other chemical groupings, although they regularly bind to antibodies, often do not induce them. He introduced the term 'hapten' for such molecules. He also considered the particular case of red cell agglutinins (now known to bind carbohydrates). Landsteiner's Law, or more properly Landsteiner's Theory, was formulated with respect to anti-ABO antibodies (Landsteiner 1945). It has been extended to include other similar systems including preformed anti-species antibodies. Each mammalian species has a repertoire of antibodies that are present without apparent immunization (so-called 'natural antibodies'). Each normal individual produces all the natural antibodies of the full species repertoire with only one exceptional state: there is no production of those antibodies which bind to ligands constitutively expressed within that individual in accessible cell membrane sites. Thus all humans have antibodies to blood group B except those who are themselves blood group B. This is in complete contrast to other antibodies which are critical to transplantation, viz. in a blood group O person there will invariably be antibodies to blood groups A and B, whereas antibodies to MHC antigens are only found in normal individuals following transfusion, transplant or pregnancy.
The problem of rigor in qualitative research

There are few explicit discussions in nursing literature of how qualitative research can be made as rigorous as it is relevant to the perspective and goals of nursing. Four factors complicate the debate about the scientific merits of qualitative research: the varieties of qualitative methods, the lack of clear boundaries between quantitative and qualitative research, the tendency to evaluate qualitative research against conventional scientific criteria of rigor, and the artistic features of qualitative inquiry. A framework for understanding the similarities and differences in research approaches and a summary of strategies to achieve rigor in qualitative research are presented.
Corporate Governance and Firm’s Compliance on Disclosure of International Financial Reporting Standards–Indonesian Evidence

This paper describes empirical research which investigateshow corporate governance (CG) affects the compliance level of disclosure for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2013 and 2014, the two yearsafter full IFRS adoption. The CGis proxy by the board’s structure, characteristics of an audit committee, and shares ownership structure, whereas IFRS disclosure’s level of compliance is measured by disclosure index. This research uses ordinary least square to investigate the effect of corporate governance on the level of IFRS disclosurecompliance along with profitability, industry, and leverage as control variables. This research finds that five elements of CG characteristics which are board’s independence, board’s size, audit committee’sindependence, audit committee’s size, and management’s ownershippositively affect the level of IFRS disclosurecompliance. Yet, the block holder’s ownership negatively affects the compliance level of IFRS disclosure, whereas government ownershipdoes not affect the compliance level of IFRS disclosure. This study provides additional evidence about the association of CG and the level of IFRS disclosure compliance by using Indonesian data. Furthermore, involvingfive elements of corporate governance mechanisms, this study provide additional finding about corporate governance comprehensively. Finally, this research provides values for all users of information including standard setters and other regulators to enhance reporting quality standards in Indonesia.
Pengaruh Profitabilitas dan Likuiditas terhadap Penerimaan Opini Audit Going Concern

Going concern audit opinion received by a company indicates the conditions and events which raise doubt auditor will be survival of the company. This study aims to obtain empirical evidence about the extent of influence the profitability and liquidity of the going-concern audit opinion. The sample in this research as many as 54 companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2013-2014. The data will be analyzed by using logistic regression analysis. The results showed that the profitability and liquidity have a significant negative effect on the going concern audit opinion
Serum trough infliximab and anti-infliximab antibodies in a cohort of gastroenterology and rheumatology patients’ infliximab therapeutic drug monitoring

Background Infliximab, a monoclonal antibody directed against tumour necrosis factor, is widely used in the treatment of chronic inflammatory conditions including Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Its use is limited by development of anti-infliximab antibodies, which can lead to loss of therapeutic efficacy. Serum infliximab and anti-infliximab antibody measurements have recently become routinely available in the UK. The study aimed to assess the clinical utility of antibodies as an adjunct to trough infliximab. Methods Serum trough infliximab was measured in 201 samples from 108 gastroenterology and rheumatology patients on maintenance infliximab therapy. Results were correlated with C-reactive protein concentrations. Total anti-infliximab antibodies were measured in 164 samples. Results The median (25th–75th percentile) trough infliximab was 3.7 µg/mL (1.2–5.2 µg/mL) and 23% of samples had a concentration ≤1 µg/mL. A notable proportion had positive anti-infliximab antibodies: 84/164 (51%), which subdivided to 85% and 28% with infliximab ≤1 and >1 µg/mL, respectively. Serum C-reactive protein was found to be significantly higher where infliximab was ≤1 compared to >1 µg/mL (10 mg/L [<5–24 mg/L] vs. <5 mg/L [<5–8 mg/L], P < 0.01), although a strict correlation was not observed. The relationship between trough infliximab and C-reactive protein differed depending on antibody status and there was no association between C-reactive protein and the presence or absence of antibodies. Conclusion Our findings support measurement of anti-infliximab antibodies only in the context of low infliximab concentrations <1 µg/mL. A higher therapeutic cut-off may be relevant in patients with negative antibodies. Further work is indicated to investigate the clinical significance of positive antibodies with therapeutic infliximab concentrations.
Using a pedagogical approach to integrate evidence-based teaching in an undergraduate women's health course.

BACKGROUND Evidence-based practice (EBP) is promoted as a foundation for nursing practice. However, the 2005 U.S. survey of nurses revealed that they do not have requisite skills for EBP. PURPOSE AND GOALS: To evaluate a pedagogical approach aimed at (1) fostering undergraduate nursing students EBP competencies, and (2) identifying gaps in the literature to direct future women's health research. METHODS A secondary analysis of data abstracted from required EBP clinical journals for an undergraduate women's health course in which students (n = 198) were asked to find evidence to answer their clinical questions. Content analysis was used to identify main themes of the topics of inquiry. RESULTS Students identified 1,808 clinical questions and 30.3% (n = 547) of these could not be answered or supported by evidence in the literature. CONCLUSIONS This assignment was an important teaching and assessment tool for EBP. Questions reflected critical thinking and quest for in-depth knowledge to support nursing practice. Some students lacked skills in searching databases and a significant number of knowledge gaps were identified that can direct women's health research.
Underwriting and Primary Market Price Discovery of Syndicated Loans: Theory and Evidence

Syndicated loan offerings exhibit U-shaped underpricing. We develop a model of loan underwriting that incorporates the lead bank’s loan retention to explain this phenomenon. The bank partially adjusts the offer price for “hot” loans with strong demand, resulting in underpricing to induce investors to reveal positive information. The bank retains “cold” loans with weak demand and underprices them to compensate for its retention cost. In equilibrium, the bank’s retention of cold loans mitigates investors’ false-reporting incentive and in turn reduces the need for hot loan underpricing, which leads to lower overall underpricing. Greater bank capital reduces retention costs and alleviates underpricing. Empirical evidence supports the model.
Project management practices and implementation of information technology projects among selected commercial banks in Kenya

The main objective of projects in commercial banks is efficient and effective service to customers and reduction of expenses in the banking institution. The main aim of the study was to establish the effects of project management practices on implementation of information technology projects among commercial banks in Kenya. The study used a descriptive survey method. All primary and secondary data were collected. Project Manager as well as the project team picked from the human resource, information technology, customer care, finance and credit departments were the respondents of the questionnaire in each bank. Descriptive as well as inferential statistics were used in analyzing the data. In analyzing the extent of the relationship between the variables in the project, the correlation was used. Regression was also used in obtaining an equation describing the dependent variable about the independent variable using the regression model. As per the analysis of the findings, the respondents stated that they often prepare cash flow statements. The findings showed that the respondents were in agreement that they set up credit guidelines for customers very often. Regarding monitoring and evaluation, the respondents it enhances the quality of project management. According to the findings, the risk is considered key factors for a performance management and that the banks have implemented risk management systems. The research made the conclusion that well-organized monitoring system provides a good base for the proper design of final assessment. The results indicated that project monitoring and evaluation has the strongest positive influence on the implementation of IT projects. In addition, fund management practices, stakeholder management, and project risk management are positively correlated to the implementation of IT projects. The correlation matrix states that the independent variables have a positive effect on the implementation of IT projects. This shows that these variables are very crucial and as such ought to be considered in any efforts to boost IT project implementation in commercial banks in Kenya. The study proposes that the management should involve stakeholders, fund managers, project monitoring and evaluation and project risk managers in project life cycle. The managers ought to have the will and ability to listen, truly seek and value different voices, make a special attempt to hear and comprehend. The banks ought to adopt the most upgraded ICT banking systems and open source software for non-critical internal procedures to enhance efficiency in the implementation of IT projects.
Restless legs symptoms without periodic limb movements in sleep and without response to dopaminergic agents: a restless legs‐like syndrome?

Patients fulfilling the essential criteria for restless legs syndrome (RLS), but in whom the response to conventional dopaminergic treatment and the presence of periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS) are lacking, are occasionally encountered. The aim of this study was to systematically characterize this population. In a consecutive series of 117 patients fulfilling the essential criteria for RLS, we assessed the presence of the following supportive criteria: PLMS >15/h on polysomnography, and favourable response to dopaminergic treatment. We differentiated patients with ‘classical RLS’ (RLS‐C; fulfilling at least one of the selected supportive criteria) from those with ‘RLS‐like syndrome’ (RLS‐L) in whom supportive criteria were not fulfilled. There were 103 RLS‐C and 14 RLS‐L patients. Compared with RLS‐C patients, RLS‐L patients were significantly younger, more severely affected by RSL symptoms, and were more probably to suffer from psychiatric comorbidities, than RLS‐C patients. This study proves the existence of patients with severe RLS symptoms, but without PLMS and without response to dopaminergic treatment, who are clinically distinct from patients with ‘classical RLS’.
Towards Scientific Benchmarks: On Increasing the Credibility of Benchmarks

Problem: Increasing the credibility of results from scientific benchmarks. Goal: Specify what exactly is required in order for a benchmark to be scientific. Contribution: (i) Specification of what it entails for a benchmark to be scientific, (ii) a metric for measuring the replicability of an experiment, (iii) a metric for measuring the replicability of a set of experiments, and (iv) Analysis of the replicability of SHREC 2015. Result: Replicability of SHREC 2015 can be increased by open sourcing the methods compared and improving documentation.
Transforming Growth Factor-&bgr;1 Is a Negative Modulator of Adult Neurogenesis

Transforming growth factor (TGF)-&bgr;1 has multiple functions in the adult central nervous system (CNS). It modulates inflammatory responses in the CNS and controls proliferation of microglia and astrocytes. In the diseased brain, TGF-&bgr;1 expression is upregulated and, depending on the cellular context, its activity can be beneficial or detrimental regarding regeneration. We focus on the role of TGF-&bgr;1 in adult neural stem cell biology and neurogenesis. In adult neural stem and progenitor cell cultures and after intracerebroventricular infusion, TGF-&bgr;1 induced a long-lasting inhibition of neural stem and progenitor cell proliferation and a reduction in neurogenesis. In vitro, although TGF-&bgr;1 specifically arrested neural stem and progenitor cells in the G0/1 phase of the cell cycle, it did not affect the self-renewal capacity and the differentiation fate of these cells. Also, in vivo, TGF-&bgr;1 did not influence the differentiation fate of newly generated cells as shown by bromo-deoxyuridine incorporation experiments. Based on these data, we suggest that TGF-&bgr;1 is an important signaling molecule involved in the control of neural stem and progenitor cell proliferation in the CNS. This might have potential implications for neurogenesis in a variety of TGF-&bgr;1-associated CNS diseases and pathologic conditions.
Functional representation of deformable surfaces for geometry processing. (Représentation fonctionnelle des surfaces déformables pour l'analyse et la synthèse géométrique)

Creating and understanding deformations of surfaces is a recurring theme in geometry processing. As smooth surfaces can be represented in many ways from point clouds to triangle meshes, one of the challenges is being able to compare or deform consistently discrete shapes independently of their representation. A possible answer is choosing a flexible representation of deformable surfaces that can easily be transported from one structure to another.Toward this goal, the functional map framework proposes to represent maps between surfaces and, to further extents, deformation of surfaces as operators acting on functions. This approach has been recently introduced in geometry processing but has been extensively used in other fields such as differential geometry, operator theory and dynamical systems, to name just a few. The major advantage of such point of view is to deflect challenging problems, such as shape matching and deformation transfer, toward functional analysis whose discretization has been well studied in various cases. This thesis investigates further analysis and novel applications in this framework. Two aspects of the functional representation framework are discussed.First, given two surfaces, we analyze the underlying deformation. One way to do so is by finding correspondences that minimize the global distortion. To complete the analysis we identify the least and most reliable parts of the mapping by a learning procedure. Once spotted, the flaws in the map can be repaired in a smooth way using a consistent representation of tangent vector fields.The second development concerns the reverse problem: given a deformation represented as an operator how to deform a surface accordingly? In a first approach, we analyse a coordinate-free encoding of the intrinsic and extrinsic structure of a surface as functional operator. In this framework a deformed shape can be recovered up to rigid motion by solving a set of convex optimization problems. Second, we consider a linearized version of the previous method enabling us to understand deformation fields as acting on the underlying metric. This allows us to solve challenging problems such as deformation transfer are solved using simple linear systems of equations.
An Individual Risk Prediction Model for Lung Cancer Based on a Study in a Chinese Population

Aims and Background Early detection and diagnosis remains an effective yet challenging approach to improve the clinical outcome of patients with cancer. Low-dose computed tomography screening has been suggested to improve the diagnosis of lung cancer in high-risk individuals. To make screening more efficient, it is necessary to identify individuals who are at high risk. Methods and Study design We conducted a case-control study to develop a predictive model for identification of such high-risk individuals. Clinical data from 705 lung cancer patients and 988 population-based controls were used for the development and evaluation of the model. Associations between environmental variants and lung cancer risk were analyzed with a logistic regression model. The predictive accuracy of the model was determined by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and the optimal operating point. Results Our results indicate that lung cancer risk factors included older age, male gender, lower education level, family history of cancer, history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lower body mass index, smoking cigarettes, a diet with less seafood, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, soybean products and nuts, a diet rich in meat, and exposure to pesticides and cooking emissions. The area under the curve was 0.8851 and the optimal operating point was obtained. With a cutoff of 0.35, the false positive rate, true positive rate, and Youden index were 0.21, 0.87, and 0.66, respectively. Conclusions The risk prediction model for lung cancer developed in this study could discriminate high-risk from low-risk individuals.