Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION AND PERFORMANCE OF NAIROBI CITY COUNTY GOVERNMENT, KENYA

County governments in Kenya have formulated very good strategies, but their implementation is poor and hence service delivery is still not satisfactory. Challenges facing the implementation of strategies include inadequate financial and human resources. The objective of this study was to establish the effects of resource allocation in strategy implementation on the performance of Nairobi City Government. The study was anchored on resource based-view theory and balanced scorecard theory. The study used an explanatory research design. The units of observation were 161 staff working in 10 departments in Nairobi City Government. Slovin's Formula was used to estimate the sample size and stratified random sampling was used to select 114 participants from the entire population. The research used of both primary and secondary data. Secondary data was obtained from the annual reports (commission on revenue allocation annual report and county public service board annual report) of Nairobi City Government while semi-structured questionnaires were employed in the collection of primary data. Quantitative data was generated from the closed-ended questions while qualitative data from open-ended questions. Analysis of qualitative data was done through use of thematic analysis and presentation of results was in a narrative form. Analysis of quantitative data was done through use of both Inferential and descriptive statistics with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 22). Descriptive statistics included frequency distribution, mean (a measure of dispersion), standard deviation (a measure of dispersion) and percentages. Inferential statistics included Pearson correlation analysis and multivariate regression analysis. The study found that resource allocation explains 27.5% of the performance of Nairobi City County Government. The study revealed that that resource allocation has a positive and significant influence on performance of the county governments (p-value= 0.000). From the findings, the study recommended that the county government should adopt proper mechanism which ensures timely allocation of resources. Further the county should ensure that its functions are backed with the necessary resources to support their implementation.
Utility of Plasma Cell Screening Tube Kit to Differentiate Neoplastic Plasma Cells from Reactive Plasma Cells

Flow cytometry is a powerful tool for analysis of hematologic malignancies, that provides rapid, quantitative, and multiparametric analysis of het-erogeneous cell populations, but requires standardization because of complexities in panel design and interpretation. Here, we compared the Plasma Cell Screening Tube (PCST) kit (Cytognos, Spain) in conjunction with EuroFlow antibody panels for standardization of flow cytometry to a conventional method for diagnosis of plasma cell dyscrasias. Thirty-nine bone marrow samples and one peripheral blood sample from 40 patients were tested. Thirty-three patients were diagnosed with multiple myeloma (MM), and seven were in a reactive state. In PCST implementation, eight antibodies were used for staining, including anti-CD45-Pacific Blue, anti-CD19-PECy7, anti-CD138-OC515, anti-CD38-FITC, anti-CD56-PE, anti- β 2-microglobulin-PerCPCy5.5, anti-kappa-APC, and anti-lambda-APC-C750. Plasma cells were initially identified using CD38 and CD138; thereafter, CD38+, CD138+ gated cells were analyzed for CD56, CD19, CD45, cytoplasmic kappa, cytoplasmic lambda, and β 2-microglobulin. Conventional flow cytometry was performed with six monoclonal antibodies, including anti-CD56-FITC, anti-kappa-FITC, anti-CD19-PE, anti-lambda-PE, anti-CD138-PECy5, and anti-CD45-PECy7 (Beckman Coulter, USA). Monoclonal plasma cells with cytoplasmic light-chain restriction were detected in 30 of 33 (90.9 % ) MM cases by conventional methods, and 32 of 33 (97.0 % ) MM cases with the PCST method. No differences were noted between PCST and the conventional method in immunophenotyping and plasma cell percentages (P = 0.323). Among plasma cells, levels ( % ) were significantly higher by the PCST approach than those in the conventional method (97.6 % vs 95.8 % , P = 0.010). PCST exhibited better performance for plasma cell dyscrasias diagnosis, and could improve laboratory efficiency and quality.
Adaptation des mécanismes de résistance par efflux actif chez les souches de pseudomonas aeruginosa dans la mucoviscidose

Bacterie opportuniste bien connue, Pseudomonas aeruginosa est un acteur majeur de l’infection broncho-pulmonaire chronique qui se developpe chez les patients atteints de mucoviscidose (CF). Grâce a des mecanismes complexes, ce pathogene parvient a s’implanter dans les voies respiratoires des malades et a resister aux traitements antibiotiques, meme les plus agressifs. L’analyse retrospective d’une collection de souches du laboratoire de Bacteriologie du CHU de Besancon a revele chez la plupart des porteurs chroniques une diversification parfois extreme des profils de resistance au cours du temps. Les techniques de genotypage par l’analyse des microsatellites (Multiple-Locus Variable-number tandem-repeat Analysis), par la detection de Single Nucleotides Polymorphisms (puces Clondiag®) et par macrorestriction de l’ADN genomique (Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis) ont conduit a des resultats similaires pour la comparaison des isolats sequentiels provenant d’un meme patient. Aucun clone n’etait partage entre les 6 patients, traduisant l’absence de contamination croisee pendant la periode etudiee (1998-2006). Le plus souvent la souche de primo-colonisation evolue pour donner naissance a des sous-populations dont les niveaux de resistance fluctuent. Si certaines d’entres elles evoluent vers la multiresistance, d’autres, au contraire, deviennent hypersensibles a certains antibiotiques. Ainsi, dans pres de 30 % des cas et chez pres de un patient sur deux, les souches deviennent hypersensibles aux β-lactamines. Nous avons montre que ce phenotype particulier, nomme TicHS, analyse chez 11 isolats resulte d’un deficit dans le systeme d’efflux actif MexAB-OprM pouvant impliquer, soit la sous-expression du gene mexB (n=2), soit la production d’une proteine MexB (n=2) ou MexA (n=1) alteree. Chez d’autres isolats (n=6), le systeme MexAB-OprM est a priori intact, mais non fonctionnel. Par ailleurs, dans ce travail nous avons mis en evidence, pour la premiere fois, que P. aeruginosa peut s’adapter in vivo a la pression exercee par les aminosides en modifiant non plus, la quantite de systemes d’efflux produite, mais la pompe elle-meme. Par exemple, la substitution F1018L dans la proteine MexY du systeme MexXY(OprM) entraine une augmentation de la resistance d’un facteur 2 vis-a-vis des substrats de la pompe (aminosides, cefepime, fluoroquinolones). Toutefois, cette substitution n’explique qu’en partie les hauts niveaux de resistance (augmentation des CMI d’un facteur 16) conferes par le systeme MexXY(OprM) chez certaines souches ce qui suggere la presence de mecanismes additionnels susceptibles de moduler l’efficacite de cette pompe.
Comparison Between Algebraic Multigrid and Multilevel Multiscale Methods for Reservoir Simulation

Summary Multiscale methods for solving strongly heterogenous systems in reservoirs have a long history from the early ideas used on incompressible flow to the newly released version in commercial simulation. Much effort has been put into making the MsFV method work for fully unstructured multiphase problems. The MsRSB version is a newly developed version, which tackles most of the "real" world problems. It is to our knowledge, the only multiscale method that has been released in a commercial simulator. You can alternatively see the method as a variant of smoothed aggregation or as an iterative approach to AMG with energy minimizing basis functions. This will be discussed in detail. So far, most work on comparing MsRSB with AMG methods has been on qualitative performance measures like iteration number rather than on pure runtime on fair code implementation. We discuss the theoretical performance and show the practical performance for our implementation. Here, we compare performance of pure AMG, standard two-level MsRSB with pure AMG as coarse solver, as well as a new truly multilevel MsRSB scheme. Our implementation uses the DUNE-ISTL framework. To limit the scope of the discussion we restrict our assessment to AMG with aggregation and smoothed aggregation and the MsRSB method. These three methods are closely related and are primarily distinguished in a preconditioner setting by the coarsening factors used, and the degree of smoothing applied to the basis. We also compare with other state-of-the-art AMG implementations, but do not investigate combinations of them with the MSRB method. For the MsRSB method, we also discuss practical considerations in different parallelization regimes including domain decomposition using MPI, shared memory using OpenMP, and GPU acceleration with CUDA. All comparisons will focus on the setting in which many similar systems should be solved, e.g. during a large-scale, multiphase flow simulation. That is, our emphasis is on the performance of updating a preconditioner and on the apply time for the preconditioner relative to the convergence rate. Performance of the solvers will be tested for pure parabolic/elliptic problems that either arise as part of a sequential splitting procedure or as a pseudo-elliptic preconditioner/solver as a part of a CPR preconditioner for a multiphase system, for which block ILU0 is used as the outer smoother.
Initiation mechanism and quantitative mass movement analysis of the 2019 Shuicheng catastrophic landslide

The 2019 Shuicheng landslide was a typical landslide in that failure occurred in the slope deposits and there was a close correlation with the antecedent rainfall. The initiation mechanism was analysed using field investigations, laboratory tests and numerical simulations and the characteristics of mass movement were quantitatively assessed. The numerical results indicated that the infiltration of rainfall decreased the shear resistance of the slope and increased the pore water pressure and soil weight, resulting in a large deformation of the slope and a gradual deterioration in its stability. After saturation, as the pore water pressure coefficient (ru) approached 0.3, the overall safety factor decreased to 1 and failure eventually occurred. Quantitative mass assessment showed that the unique terrain aggravated the erosion and entrainment effects and that the inclusion of loose material and water promoted the movement of the debris avalanche by changing it into a fluidized state, resulting in a much larger landslide volume with a long runout distance. As a result, the volume of the failed mass, which was calculated by an unmanned aerial vehicle and terrestrial laser scanning modelling techniques to be c. 4.7 × 105 m3 in the source area, almost quadrupled to >2.0 × 106 m3.
Fractal Characteristics, Multiple Bubbles, and Jump Anomalies in the Chinese Stock Market

To consider the jump problem of the Chinese stock market, this paper takes the CSI 300 Index from April 2005 to November 2015 as the research object, uses the rescaled range analysis (R/S analysis) method to examine the fractal characteristics of the Chinese stock market in the past ten years, and deduces the possibility of multiple bubbles in the Chinese stock market. Based on this, combined with the log-periodic power law (LPPL) model, the stock market bubbles are identified in different periods. The results show that China’s stock market has some anomalies in terms of positive bubbles, negative bubbles, and reverse bubbles, as well as the cross occurrence of reverse-negative bubbles. Besides, through a comparison with the major foreign stock markets, it is found that the fluctuation range of the Chinese stock market is much larger than that of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the FTSE 100 indices in the same period and there are also more types of multibubbles, which is a connotative anomaly that makes the Chinese stock market different from other major stock markets. Furthermore, the bubble phenomenon in the Chinese stock market during the periods of 2005/4–2007/10 and 2015/6–2015/11 is studied, and it is found that there is a jump anomaly in the Chinese stock market. Finally, based on the above empirical analysis and the current state of the stock market, this paper provides some suggestions for improving the mechanism of the Chinese stock market.
PRODUCTION AND POSTHARVEST QUALITY OF IRRIGATED PASSION FRUIT AFTER N-K FERTILIZATION

Studies with nitrogen and potassium in yellow passion fruit cultivars with high yield potential are scarce in semiarid regions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence the N and K doses on productivity and fruit quality of different passion fruit cultivars in irrigated conditions in the northern of Minas Gerais state. The study was installed at experimental farm located in Janaúba-MG. This area was located at 15o 47’ S and 43o 18’ W, 516 m above sea level. The experiment was in completely randomized block with four replications, arranged in 4 x 6 factorial design consisting of four Passion Fruit cultivars (BRS Sol do Cerrado, BRS Ouro Vermelho, BRS Gigante Amarelo, IAC 275) and six N and K doses, which corresponded to 0-0, 50-125, 100-250, 150-375, 200 -500 and 250-625 kg ha-1 yr-1 of N and K2O, respectively. BRS Gigante Amarelo and BRS Sol do Cerrado cultivars showed higher productivity. Total fruit yield and average fruit weight were higher for BRS Sol do Cerrado and IAC 275, BRS Gigante Amarelo and BRS Ouro Vermelho cultivars, respectively. IAC 275 showed the highest pulp yield and along with BRS Sol do Cerrado, showed the higher soluble solids/titratable acidity ratio. BRS Sol do Cerrado, BRS Gigante Amarelo and IAC 275 cultivars showed higher pulp productivity, indicating that they are more promising for passion fruit juice industry.
Effect of the Interactive Whiteboard on Vocabulary Achievement, Vocabulary Retention and Learning Attitudes

In order to evaluate the success of integrating the Interactive Whiteboard into vocabulary lessons in terms of developing the fifth graders’ vocabulary achievement, retention and learning attitudes, the thirteen-week quasi-experimental study was conducted in two classes with the participation of 40 fifth graders as the control group and another 40 from the same grade as the experimental group, respectively. The instruments included three vocabulary tests (e
Development of a Multi-Purpose Autonomous Differential Drive Mobile Robot for Plant Phenotyping and Soil Sensing

To help address the global growing demand for food and fiber, selective breeding programs aim to cultivate crops with higher yields and more resistance to stress. Measuring phenotypic traits needed for breeding programs is usually done manually and is labor-intensive, subjective, and lacks adequate temporal resolution. This paper presents a Multipurpose Autonomous Robot of Intelligent Agriculture (MARIA), an open source differential drive robot that is able to navigate autonomously indoors and outdoors while conducting plant morphological trait phenotyping and soil sensing. For the design of the rover, a drive system was developed using the Robot Operating System (ROS), which allows for autonomous navigation using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). For phenotyping, the robot was fitted with an actuated LiDAR unit and a depth camera that can estimate morphological traits of plants such as volume and height. A three degree-of-freedom manipulator mounted on the mobile platform was designed using Dynamixel servos that can perform soil sensing and sampling using off-the-shelf and 3D printed components. MARIA was able to navigate both indoors and outdoors with an RMSE of 0.0156 m and 0.2692 m, respectively. Additionally, the onboard actuated LiDAR sensor was able to estimate plant volume and height with an average error of 1.76% and 3.2%, respectively. The manipulator performance tests on soil sensing was also satisfactory. This paper presents a design for a differential drive mobile robot built from off-the-shelf components that makes it replicable and available for implementation by other researchers. The validation of this system suggests that it may be a valuable solution to address the phenotyping bottleneck by providing a system capable of navigating through crop rows or a greenhouse while conducting phenotyping and soil measurements.
Abnormal social behaviors and dysfunction of autism-related genes associated with daily agonistic interactions in mice

Background The ability of people to communicate with each other is a necessary component of social behavior and the normal development of individuals who live in a community. An apparent decline in sociability may be the result of a negative social environment or the development of affective and neurological disorders, including autistic spectrum disorders. The behavior of these humans may be characterized by the deterioration of socialization, low communication, and repetitive and restricted behaviors. This study aimed to analyze changes in the social behaviors of male mice induced by daily agonistic interactions and investigate the involvement of genes, related with autistic spectrum disorders in the process of the impairment of social behaviors. Methods Abnormal social behavior is induced by repeated experiences of aggression accompanied by wins (winners) or chronic social defeats (losers) in daily agonistic interactions in male mice. The collected brain regions (the midbrain raphe nuclei, ventral tegmental area, striatum, hippocampus, and hypothalamus) were sequenced at JSC Genoanalytica (http://genoanalytica.ru/, Moscow, Russia). The Cufflinks program was used to estimate the gene expression levels. Bioinformatic methods were used for the analysis of differentially expressed genes in male mice. Results The losers exhibited an avoidance of social contacts toward unfamiliar conspecific, immobility and low communication on neutral territory. The winners demonstrated aggression and hyperactivity in this condition. The exploratory activity (rearing) and approaching behavior time towards the partner were decreased, and the number of episodes of repetitive self-grooming behavior was increased in both social groups. These symptoms were similar to the symptoms observed in animal models of autistic spectrum disorders. In an analysis of the RNA-Seq database of the whole transcriptome in the brain regions of the winners and losers, we identified changes in the expression of the following genes, which are associated with autism in humans: Tph2, Maoa, Slc6a4, Htr7,Gabrb3, Nrxn1, Nrxn2, Nlgn1, Nlgn2, Nlgn3, Shank2, Shank3, Fmr1, Ube3a, Pten, Cntn3, Foxp2, Oxtr, Reln, Cadps2, Pcdh10, Ctnnd2, En2, Arx, Auts2, Mecp2, and Ptchd1.Common and specific changes in the expression of these genes in different brain regions were identified in the winners and losers. Conclusions This research demonstrates for the first time that abnormalities in social behaviors that develop under a negative social environment in adults may be associated with alterations in expression of genes, related with autism in the brain.
A Review of Precast Concrete Pavement Technology

Precast concrete pavement (PCP) has proven itself to be one of the most efficient methods for repair and replacement of concrete pavement, as well as for construction of new pavement in the areas of heavy traffic. The application of PCP ensures fast construction of concrete pavement without compromising the quality of concrete. This paper provides a brief of various types of PCP that have been used worldwide and their application in the repair of damaged pavement, continuous construction of pavement, Airfield application and temporary pavement construction. It further discusses critical aspects of PCP that require careful analysis prior to its field implementation. The paper specially focuses on panel dimensioning, load transfer mechanism, lifting arrangement, stacking arrangement, transportation and base preparation for PCP. Suitability of different types of PCP for varying site conditions has been discussed. Innovative developments related to PCP and the future scope of this technology have also been discussed.
Cross-Year Multi-Modal Image Retrieval Using Siamese Networks

This paper introduces a multi-modal network that learns to retrieve by content vertical aerial images of French urban and rural territories taken about 15 years apart. This means it should be invariant against a big range of changes as the (natural) landscape evolves over time. It leverages the original images and semantically segmented and labeled regions. The core of the method is a Siamese network that learns to extract features from corresponding image pairs across time. These descriptors are discriminative enough, such that a simple kNN classifier on top, suffices as final geo-matching criteria. The method outperformed SOTA “off-the-shelf’ image descriptors GEM and ResNet50 on the new aerial images dataset.
E-Commerce Ethics into Expectation-Confirmation Model: Emerging Case of Pakistan’s B2B SMEs

1. Ph.D Scholar, Department of Commerce, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan 2. Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan PAPER INFO ABSTRACT Received: July 29, 2020 Accepted: September 05, 2020 Online: September 30, 2020 E-commerce ethics enhance the online repurchase intentions of e-commerce buyers and provide rut and rudder to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to survive in a competitive environment across the globe. Covid-19 has completely altered the game of business to business (B2B) e-commerce that led towards multifaceted ethical issues. Paradoxically, limited research in empirical side has been conducted in the area of ecommerce ethics. This study investigated the influence of ecommerce ethics in terms of buyers’ perception of suppliers’ ethics (BPSE) on online repurchase intentions. Partial least square structural equation modeling as an analysis technique has been used in this research. The data was collected through questionnaire from 387 respondents belonging to four metropolitan cities; Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Multan and Sialkot. The findings of this study revealed the direct and all indirect effects of e-commerce ethics on online repurchase intentions are significant and have positive relationship along with mediators. This study contributes to existing literature by using ethical theories and expectation confirmation theory (ECT), testing for empirical and practical side of e-commerce ethics in case B2B SMEs of Pakistan. Moreover, e-commerce services providers will be able to get advantages from BPSE to increase repurchase intentions of B2B SMEs in future.
What Is Psychosocially Inclusive Design? A Definition with Constructs

Abstract The world of design is fast moving beyond the physicality of experiences. The theory and practice of inclusive design, however, is still largely focused on considerations of physical aspects. This research attempts to fill the gap in understanding of psychosocial inclusivity in design by identifying a formal definition with constructs. Theoretical interrogation of literature (design and non-design fields) together with empirical investigations (semi-structured interviews, a creative workshop and observations) are conducted within two distinct contexts, i.e. older individuals' supermarket shopping and assisted mobility service users. The outcomes are evaluated using expert surveys. A formal definition and four evaluative constructs of psychosocial inclusivity in design are described: Cognitive, Emotional, Social and Value. The results provide first elements of an encompassing definition of psychosocial inclusivity, which is theoretically and empirically informed, and may serve as a guide for design in the future. The research enhances the knowledge of psychosocial inclusivity in design through devising a formal definition and constructs, and details the constructs within two specific contexts of supermarket shopping and assisted mobility.