Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Organizational Commitment Scale Validation in Tanzanian Context

The study was designed to investigate Constructs Independence; Normality; Reliability and Validity of Allen and Meyer’s Questionnaire (1990) three constructs namely Affective, Normative and Continuous Commitment in Tanzanian data. It was purposively planned and conducted in two separate phases (Study 1 and 2). In study 1; Tanzanian data were tested if Allen and Meyer’s Questionnaire (1990) yielded independent constructs. In study 2; tests for validity, reliability and normality levels were primary to the study. All tests came following solid theoretical background pertaining to how Hofstede (2001) cultural dimensions determine response styles, response bias and questionnaire response across cultures. A total of total of 104 and 214 respondents from Tanzanian Councils were involved in study 1 and study 2 respectively. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) indicated Meyers and Allen three scales were component of common constructs. Specified PCA models on the three scales showed significant results indicated by p< . 05; and KMO greater than 0.6. and no loading variable was worse than 0.90. Similarly; Normality Analysis suggested data collected yielded normality; as combined graph produced Skewness (.265); Kurtosis (-1.427) and skewness value range between -. 5 and +. 5. Also; Cronbach Alpha Analyses indicated; data collected had Cronbach Alpha better than . 70 the reliability minimum requirement scores in all three questionnaire constructs. Further; Confirmatory Factors Analysis revealed that Meyers and Allen Questionnaire yielded significant validity using fit indices RMR (Root Mean Square Residual), GFI (Goodness Fit Index), TLI (Tucker-Lewis Index), CFI (Comparative Fit Index) and RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation). Thus, it was concluded that Meyers and Allen Questionnaire is reliable and valid for organizational commitment studies in Tanzanian context. Recommendations for reducing or eliminating questionnaire response bias to have better statistical analyses and estimations were included.
Hybrid Systems Modeling Manufacturing and Front Dynamics

This thesis investigates the dynamics of a certain class of hybrid dynamical systems, so called switched tank systems. By applying switched tank systems as models for manufacturing systems and front dynamics in semiconductor superlattices new insights into the nature of dynamic behaviour in these systems are obtained.Hybrid dynamical systems are characterized by an interaction of continuous dynamical systems and an automaton, which changes parameters or the complete dynamics of the system according to logical rules, if the state reaches certain thresholds in state space.In the first part of this thesis the background of modeling and investigating hybrid systems as dynamical systems is explained on a more general level at the example of switched tank systems. Methods from automata theory (state transition graphs) and nonlinear dynamics are applied. It is shown that the dynamics is governed by the rich variety of border collision bifurcations, which are not obtained in usual dynamical systems.The second part of this thesis introduces and investigates two applications from distinct areas of science in detail.One application is the modeling of manufacturing systems. Basic layouts of manufacturing systems are investigated for their dynamics dependent logistic performance. It is shown that rule based switching processes in manufacturing systems in connection with too small (or too large) buffer capacities can cause chaotic behaviour, which implies significant performance reductions.In a second application a switched tank model is used to describe the dynamics of accumulation and depletion fronts in semiconductor superlattices. By approximating basically continuous processes of front generation and annihilation by instantaneous switching-like processes, a generic description for this spatio-temporal pattern forming process is found, which in certain parameter regions can be analyzed by means of a one-dimensional map. Altough a superlattice model is investigated the applied methods are very general and are expected to work for other pattern forming systems with similar characteristics.To summarize, the objective of this thesis is twofold. First, to show that even very simple hybrid systems can produce a very complicated dynamics and deserve attention in the theory of dynamical systems at their own right. Second, applications of hybrid models in two very distinct fields of modern science (engineering and semiconductor physics) are given, underlining the significance in science and engineering.
The effect of culture on the relationship between manufacturing strategy and manufacturing practices

The purpose of the article is to investigate the importance that differences in national culture characteristics have in explaining the relationship between competitive priorities and the investments in manufacturing practices. Several studies have investigated the role that national culture has in explaining the manufacturing practices effectiveness. The article provides an evaluation of how manufacturing investments decisions are put in place in different cultural settings coherently with the way through which companies have decided to compete. From this point of view the article contributes to the research stream of global manufacturing strategy.
APPLICATION OF FUNGICIDES AND PLANT EXTRACTS IN CONTROL OF FUSARIUM ROT OF TOMATO FRUITS

In the present study few Fungicides and Plant extracts were tested for the control of Fusarium rot of tomato fruits, among fungicides Carbendazim was found to be the most effective in inhibiting the mycelia growth of Fusarium solani. In the case of leaf extracts, the leaf extracts of Neem (Azadirachta indica) reduced effectively the incidence of Fusarium rot of tomato fruits.
Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great

This PDF file contains pages extracted from Agile Retrospectives, published by the Pragmatic Bookshelf. For more information or to purchase a paperback or PDF copy, please visit http://www.pragprog. com . Note: This extract contains some colored text (particularly in code listing). This is available only in online versions of the books. The printed versions are black and white. Pagination might vary between the online and printer versions; the content is otherwise identical. Copyright © 2010 The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC.
Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day

It started with a simple observation: students need their teachers present to answer questions or to provide help if they get stuck on an assignment; they don't need their teachers present to listen to a lecture or review content. From there, Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams began the flipped classroom-students watched recorded lectures for homework and completed their assignments, labs, and tests in class with their teacher available. What Bergmann and Sams found was that their students demonstrated a deeper understanding of the material than ever before. This is the authors story, and they're confident it can be yours too. Learn what a flipped classroom is and why it works and get the information you need to flip a classroom. You'll also learn the flipped mastery model, where students learn at their own pace-furthering opportunities for personalised education. This simple concept is easily replicable in any classroom, doesn't cost much to implement, and helps foster self-directed learning. Once you flip, you wont want to go back! The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is the trusted source for professional development, knowledge generation, advocacy and leadership for innovation. ISTE is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12 and teacher education. Home of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technology (CARET), and ISTE's annual conference (formerly known as the National Educational Computing Conference, or NECC), ISTE represents more than 100,000 professionals worldwide. We support our members with information, networking opportunities, and guidance as they face the challenge of transforming education.
Effect of Combined Pallof Press and Kegels Training for Urinary Incontinence in Multigravida Women and Quality of Life

occurrence of and objective: The aim of the study was to find out the effects of combined Pallof press and Kegel’s exercise for urinary incontinence in multigravida women and quality of life.Methodology:30 women(group A-15,group B-15) of age group between 30 - 40years, participated in simple experimental study for a duration of 8 weeks. Subjects were assessed by RUIS - Revised urinary incontinence scale and IIQ7 –Incontinence impact questionnaire. Result : The critical value of U at p<0.5is 64 which means its statistically significant in controlling incontinence and critical value is not significant for IIQ7. Urinary incontinence occurrence frequency is high in women without core stability and abdominal strength. The study also revealed group of Kegel’s exercise’s alone still faces the occurrence of urinary incontinence more than those practiced both pallof press and kegels. If the core muscles doesn’t have adequate strength and stability Kegels can’t alone control the issue in a successful and Conclusion:Subjects who practiced both Kegel’s & Pallof press exercise shows less frequency of Urinary incontinence. Kegel’s, Pallof press, RUIS Revised urinary incontinence study form,IIQ7 form, Core stability,abdominal strength.
Inhibition of Tumor Microenvironment Cytokine Signaling Sensitizes Ovarian Cancer Cells to Antiestrogen Therapy

Simple Summary Antiestrogen hormonal therapy is a relatively low side effect, orally administered cancer treatment option, yet response rates have been limited in epithelial ovarian cancer despite estrogen receptor expression in many tumors. This suggests that other pathways impact estrogen response. Cytokine signaling from the tumor microenvironment promotes ovarian cancer growth, and crosstalk between cytokine signaling and estrogen signaling has been reported in other tumor types. We therefore aimed to investigate whether cytokine signaling impacts estrogen signaling in high-grade serous ovarian cancer. We demonstrated crosstalk between these two pathways in patient-derived samples, in vitro and in animal studies. We found that inhibiting interleukin-6/leukemia inhibitory factor (IL6/LIF) cytokine signaling activates estrogen signaling and blocking both pathways was synergistic in inhibiting tumor cell growth. These results suggest a potential role for combination therapy for epithelial ovarian cancer patients. Abstract Antiestrogen therapy (AET) is an alternative to cytotoxic chemotherapy for recurrent ovarian cancer, yet the often short duration of response suggests mechanisms of resistance. We previously demonstrated that tumor microenvironment interleukin-6/leukemia inhibitory factor (IL6/LIF) cytokines induce tumor cell JAK-STAT signaling to promote cancer growth. Crosstalk between estrogen signaling and cytokine signaling has been reported. Therefore, we sought to characterize the impact of IL6/LIF signaling on estrogen signaling in epithelial ovarian cancer and investigate the efficacy of combination therapy. We first assessed patient tumors for cytokine expression and compared it with response to AET to determine clinical relevance. In vitro, we determined the effect of IL6/LIF on estrogen receptor expression and signaling. Cell viability assays were used to determine the efficacy and potential synergy of cytokine blockade and AET. We then extended studies to animal models, incorporating patient-derived stromal cells. Our results demonstrated shorter progression-free interval on AET in patients with stromal IL6/LIF expression. In vitro, IL6/LIF increased tumor cell estrogen receptor expression and signaling, and combination cytokine blockade and AET resulted in synergistic inhibition of tumor cell growth. The anticancer effect was verified in a mouse model. In conclusion, due to crosstalk between IL6/LIF cytokine signaling and estrogen signaling, dual blockade is a potential new treatment approach for ovarian cancer.
Assessment for Learning

Although formative assessment is fundamental to educational theory and practices, it is a widely misunderstood term for most educators. This qualitative study defines formative assessment as short-cycle assessments in which teachers adapt their instruction to meet the learners‟ immediate needs. This study focused on the transformation of teachers‟ practices and their perspectives of the critical pedagogical principles necessary to enact The Keeping Learning on Track Program® (KLTTM) in their classrooms and in teacher learning communities. The participants in this study included 21 formally trained KLT teachers at the St. Johnsbury School. Over a one year period, I observed in classrooms, attended all KLT teacher learning community (TLC) sessions, collected field notes, attended KLT trainings and presentations, and conducted individual and focus group interviews. The primary area of transformation included: the regulation of learning, beliefs and attitudes, accountability, shared leadership, systemic supports, motivation, classroom culture, and teacher practices.
Usability Evaluation of TV Interfaces: Subjective Evaluation Vs. Objective Evaluation

ABSTRACT This study aims to design a usability test enhanced with subjective usability evaluation methods (concurrent think-aloud, post-task and posttest questionnaires) and objective usability evaluation methods (eye-tracking, emotion recognition and logging technologies). Furthermore, the relationships between the subjective metrics such as task difficulty level, PSSUQ (Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire) scores and objective metrics such as task completion time, eye tracking metrics (fixation count, fixation duration, average fixation duration, saccade count, saccade duration, scanpath length, blink count), logging metrics (keying and back keying count) and emotion recognition metrics (negative emotions count) are aimed to be analyzed. Therefore, a user testing study with 38 participants was conducted to evaluate the usability level of the TV interface of Digiturk, which is one of the digital TV broadcasting platforms in Turkey. The participants completed ten tasks related to the features of the TV interface, such as VOD (video-on-demand) watching, channel locking, and recording for future watches. Whether there is a significant difference between tasks in terms of subjective and objective metrics is investigated by using one-way ANOVA. The results show that while task completion time and task difficulty increase, values of all objective metrics increase. The relationships between the subjective and objective metrics are measured with Pearson correlation and the results show that there is a significant relationship between every subjective and objective metric except PSSUQ scores, which shows the perceived satisfaction level of the participants. Furthermore, exploratory factor analysis is performed to explore the latent structure of the usability measures. As a result of the factor analysis, a two-factor structure in which objective and subjective metrics load on two separate factors is obtained.
Two polymorphisms in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene (C677T and A1298C) frequently associated with recurrent spontaneous abortion show no association in Saudi women

: Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) de ﬁ ciency is the most common genetic cause of hyperhomocysteinemia, which has been implicated in the etiology of recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA). This study was designed to investigate the association between two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) (rs1801133 [C677T] and rs1801131 [A1298C]) in the MTHFR gene and RSA, in Saudis. These two SNPs were selected as these polymorphisms have a different effect on the activity and stability of the enzyme, and signi ﬁ cantly diverse effects have been reported in relation to the association with RSA. Ethical approval was acquired from the IRB at King Saud University (KKUH), Saudi Arabia, and written informed consent was obtained from each participant. The study group comprised of 100 Saudi women with unexplained RSA and 100 age-matched controls, both attending KKUH for a routine checkup. Blood was drawn in EDTA tubes, and DNA was extracted. Genotyping was conducted using TaqMan SNP genotyping assay kits. The frequency of the T allele of C677T was 0.165 in patients and 0.17 in controls. Genotype frequencies for CC, CT and TT genotypes were 70%, 27% and 3%, respectively in RSA, and 71%, 24% and 5%, respectively, in the controls ( p > 0.05). For the A1298C polymorphism, the C allele frequencies were 0.345 in patients and 0.28 in controls, while genotype frequencies for AA, AC and CC genotypes were 44%, 43%, and 13%, respectively, in patients, and 54%, 36%, and 10%, respectively, in controls ( p > 0.05). The frequency of CC genotype and C allele of A1298C were higher in the patients with RSA, but not signi ﬁ cantly, while C677T genotypes and allele frequencies did not differ between patients and controls. The results suggested that MTHFR gene polymorphisms are population-speci ﬁ c and may not associate with RSA in Saudi women.
Overview of Coandă jet lift enhancement and two-dimensional computational studies

Motivated by attempts to enhance wind-turbine aerodynamic performance and efficiency, Coandă Jet Lift Enhancement for Circulation Control that has drawn great attention from researchers and industries is investigated numerically. Coandă Jet Circulation Control Techniques has a long history of development, although meticulous Modelling and innovations for practical applications for energy conversion (such as for wind-turbine applications), aircraft wing lift enhancement and propulsion (such as for Coandă -MAV) are continually in progress. Along this line, the influence of Coandă effect for lift generation and enhancement is here investigated using two-dimensional CFD simulation. To that end, attention is focussed on Coandă jet configuration located at the trailing edge, to reveal the key elements that could exhibit the desired performance criteria for lift enhancement and drag reduction, or a combination of both. Parametric studies are carried out to obtain some optimum configuration, by varying pertinent airfoil geometrical and Coandă jet parameters. Particular attention is also given to turbulence modelling, by meticulous choice of appropriate turbulent models and scaling, commensurate with the grid generation, CFD code utilized and computational effectiveness. The present two-dimensional Coandă jet studies are carried out with wind turbine and micro-air-vehicle design in view, and discussed in the light of recent results from similar research.
Agro-based industry, mobile phone and youth: a recipe for success

Mobile phone has become more relevant in the modern days and agriculture is one of the sectors that benefited from it. Mobile phone without doubt is one of the main instruments that can help agriculture community especially to ease the communication process and agriculture community must be encouraged to utilize it wisely. This paper tends to know the perception of Malaysian youth agro-based entrepreneurs regarding the contribution of mobile phone in their agro-business. Results indicated that majority of respondents used mobile phone frequently while majority of the respondents had high perception on the contribution of mobile phone in their agro-business productivity. Results also indicated that majority of Malaysian agro-based entrepreneurs believed that mobile phone can help them in getting information on agriculture every time they need it. Pearson Correlation employed proved that age has negative and significant correlation with perception on mobile phone contribution.
Analyzing brain data by sex: Are we asking the right question?

The authors have withdrawn their manuscript because in revising it following a Reviewer’s comment, they realized the data no longer suit one of their requirements. Specifically, the Reviewer noted that they had a mistake in their code for ‘correction’ for brain size. Following this correction, the authors realized that most of the ‘corrected’ measures do not fit a Gaussian distribution, thereby rendering their approach mathematically unjustified. Therefore, the authors do not wish this work to be cited as reference for the project. If you have any questions, please contact the corresponding author.
Bayesian filtering for automotive applications

This thesis is concerned with how data from common automotive sensors can be processed and interpreted in order to support advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). More specifically, the thesis addresses aspects of object tracking using radar detections, mapping and self-localization for automated vehicles and driver monitoring. In automotive radar tracking, an observed vehicle typically generates multiple detections. This thesis presents a detailed sensor model that adapts to the detection properties of an object by jointly estimating the position of reflection centres and the position of the object. Moreover, the model considers the limited resolution of the radar and evaluation show results close to those achieved with a deterministic vehicle model where the reflecting properties are known. A second contribution to the area of object tracking is a generalization of the well-known cardinalized probability hypothesis density (CPHD) filter to incorporate objects that appear through spawning from existing targets. It is further shown that the generalized filter is tractable for some common birth and spawning models. For automated vehicles, some of the studied problems resemble those traditionally studied in robotics, such as mapping and localization. This thesis presents and evaluates a self-localization solution based on a set of automotive off-the-shelf sensors together with a map that contains lane markings and a simplistic description of radar landmarks. The evaluation shows that this map, in combination with real radar data, provides valuable information to the localization algorithm. With this motivation, a method for estimating more detailed radar maps is derived. The map is modelled by an inhomogeneous Poisson process describing the expected measurements from the static environment as a function of the sensor position. The estimation principle relies on a variational method where the number of landmarks and their respective parameters are found simultaneously. In addition to sensors that observe the vehicle and its surroundings, there are camera-based systems designed to monitor the driver behavior. In the context of driver distraction, this thesis presents a method for driver gaze zone estimation, i.e., estimation of which area the driver is currently looking at, using data provided by such monitoring systems. To improve robustness, the proposed solutions make use of functions that describe the gaze direction based on the head pose and eye closure. It is also shown how these functions can be learnt from data.