Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EFFECT OF EMPLOYEE TAKING CHARGE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SACCOS IN KENYA

Taking Charge is voluntary and positive effort by individual employees to influence or impact on organizational functions in relation to how work assignments carried out by employees. Kenya’s Sacco Sector has for years made positive strides as far as population empowerment and economic growth is concerned. Research on Taking Charge has over years enhanced the understanding of Proactivity by addressing initiative- based actions that set out to shape organizational processes and procedures. This study sought to establish the effect of employees taking charge at the place of work on the overall performance of Kenya’s Sacco Sector. The study used descriptive research design for the analysis since it was deemed suitable. The study majorly focused on the supervisors and middle cadre employees in the Sacco Sector as the target population while conducting this study. The study sample was derived from Kenya Sacco Sector population while instruments used to collect data were tested for reliability and validity prior to the collection of data. The sample size used in the study was 300 employees in Kenya’s Sacco Sector. The analysis of the study was done using SPSS-AMOS software version 21 while the model adopted for the analysis was Structural Equation Modeling. The study’s findings and recommendations included; The Kenyan Sacco Sector should enhance an enabling environment for employees to engage in initiative based actions that can help improve their performance. Employees in the sector should be supported by their supervisors or line managers to motivate them towards better performance by Taking Charge at work. Key Words: Taking Charge, Perceived Supervisor Support, Organizational Performance CITATION: Wabala, S. W. , Gachunga, H. , Odhiambo, R. , & Muchiri, R. (2019). Effect of employee taking charge on the performance of Saccos in Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 6 (1), 278 – 285.
The effect of a hippotherapy session on spatiotemporal parameters of gait in children with cerebral palsy - pilot study.

BACKGROUND Hippotherapy has been shown to produce beneficial effects by improving the most difficult motor functions, such as sitting, running, jumping, coordination, as well as balance and muscle strength in children with motor developmental delays. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of hippotherapy on spatiotemporal parameters of gait in cerebrally palsied children. MATERIAL AND METHODS 16 ambulatory cerebrally palsied children (GMFCS Level I-III; Female: 10, Male: 6; Age: 5.7-17.5 years old) qualified for hippotherapy were investigated. Basic spatiotemporal parameters of gait, including walking speed, cadence, step length, stride length and the left-right symmetry, were collected using a three-dimensional accelerometer device (DynaPort MiniMod) before and immediately after a hippotherapy session. The Wilcoxon test was used to verify the differences between pre- and post-session results. RESULTS Changes of walking speed were statistically significant. With the exception of step length, all spatiotemporal parameters improved, i.e. were closer to the respective reference ranges after the session. However, these changes were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION One session of hippotherapy may have a significant effect on the spatiotemporal parameters of gait in cerebrally palsied children.
Gastrointestinal Pathogenicity of Adenoviruses and Reoviruses Isolated from Broiler Chickens in Alabama

Adenoviruses and reoviruses isolated from commercial broiler chickens were evaluated for gastrointestinal pathogenicity in specific-pathogen-free Leghorn chickens. The viruses were originally isolated from either the proventriculus or a gastrointestinal pool of tissues of broiler chickens with proventriculitis or enteritis. Isolates were cloned by terminal dilution. Day-old chickens were inoculated by oral and ocular routes with undiluted tissue culture fluids (titers of 102-104 TCID50/ml) and then examined at necropsy on days 5, 10, and 15 postinoculation. Chickens in all virus groups (but not the control group) developed wet, unformed fecal droppings that persisted for the duration of the study. Mild lesions occurred in reovirus-inoculated chickens and included hyperplasia of lymphocyte aggregates in various organs and mild gizzard erosions. Chickens inoculated with adenovirus isolates developed marked gizzard erosions and necrotizing pancreatitis as well as mild proventriculitis. Intranuclear viral inclusion bodies occurred in gizzard epithelium and pancreatic acinar cells at the sites of lesions. Lymphocytic atrophy occurred in the bursa of Fabricius. Respective viruses were reisolated from proventriculus and duodenum collected from chickens of each group; no viruses were isolated from controls. Under the conditions of this study, adenovirus isolates were more pathogenic than the reovirus isolates in the digestive system.
Microsatellite instability occurs in defined subsets of patients with acute myeloblastic leukaemia

Using a sensitive fluorescent‐polymerase chain reaction technique we looked for microsatellite instability (MSI) as functional evidence of mismatch repair defects in 71 cases of acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML). MSI was assessed at 11 loci in matched leukaemic and constitutional DNA. Nine out of 71 patients (13%) were found to have MSI. Four of these patients had therapy‐related leukaemia and the remaining five were all over the age of 60 years. There was a high incidence of adverse‐risk cytogenetics in the patients with MSI, including abnormalities of chromosomes 5 and/or 7. Of the nine cases of t‐AML included in this study, four (44%) had MSI. MSI was also seen in five of 51 cases (10%) over the age of 60 years but not in any cases under the age of 60 years with de novo AML. Using a sensitive assay, our results suggest that MSI occurs in two subgroups of patients with AML: those with t‐AML and the elderly (> 60 years), but is rare in younger patients.
Design for standard impact pulses of drop tester using dynamic simulation

Board level solder joint reliability during drop impact is a great concern to semiconductor and electronic product manufacturers, especially for handheld or portable telecommunication devices. A new JEDEC standard for board level drop test of handheld electronic products was released to specify the drop test procedure and conditions. The standard recommends a specific input shock pulse to the PCB subassembly. However, the impact pulse is a complex function of various drop tester design parameters such as the drop block, absorbing material, strike surface materials and dimensions, as well as different testing conditions such as drop height. Therefore, many time-consuming experimental trial-and-errors are required to calibrate and characterize a drop tester to achieve the required impact pulse before actual drop testing can be performed. Thus, dynamic simulation using free-fall drop model is a useful tool to provide design guidelines to achieve the required impact pulse, and to shorten the drop tester characterization process considerably. It is found that the peak acceleration and pulse duration of the impact pulse are strongly affected by the drop block density and thickness as well as absorbing surface modulus and thickness. The drop height affects the peak acceleration but is insignificant on the pulse duration. An empirical relationship is developed to determine the different designs parameters on the peak acceleration and pulse duration. However, in a drop tester, the drop block and the strike surface are usually design constraints. The design parameters that can be varied to achieve the desired impact pulse are the absorbing material and dimensions as well as the drop height. Therefore, a design flowchart is developed to calibrate and characterize the drop tester to achieve the desired impact pulse. The settings of impact pulses for various JEDEC levels A to G are then determined numerically, which are useful references for drop testing engineers.
COMPATIBILITY WITH THE PROXY AGENT HAS BEEN TESTED THROUGH TRIAL AND TIME THAT WAS CHOSEN FOR EMAIL MESSAGES

The Digital Health Record product is a unique application that provides great convenience in medical care. In this document, we offer a unique primitive cryptography called keyword search associated with a specific test function and proxy redirection agent proxy function, a type of SE plan based on the period. We designed a file encryption plan with unique search capability that supports Safe Search for the associated keywords and authorization function. The Searchable File Encryption (SE) plan is in fact a technology that includes both security protection and operational functions that can play an important role in the eHealth registration system. Unlike current systems, the work is able to time to encrypt proxy files with effective deauthorization. The security and privacy of private confidential information will be key user concerns that can hinder further development and broad adoption of systems. Patients may be allowed to delegate legal rights to partially access others to search functions to work on their records within a short period of time. You can control the size of the time frame for that delegate to monitor and decrypt the encrypted documents of the delegate. Comparison and overall simulation indicate that they represent a low burden of calculation and storage. We have modeled a method with a security model for the proposed Re-dtPECK plan to prove that it is a competent plan that has been proven to be safe in the standard model. Experimental and security analysis results suggest that our plan is more secure than current solutions with reasonable costs for applications in the cloud.
Numerical study on transmission characteristics of photonic crystal waveguides for submillimeter and terahertz frequency applications

The photonic crystal device is potentially important for sub-millimeter and terahertz applications and will induce new breakthrough in modern electromagnetic wave circuits. The propagation loss of photonic crystal waveguides with a strong confinement wall is a key factor in design and is related to the confinement of guided mode. The dispersion characteristics of the PhC structure are firstly calculated by using the plane wave expansion method. The wave propagation properties of the PhC straight waveguides, sharp angled bends and microcavity are numerically investigated.
Enhancement of optical-amplifier noise by nonlinear refractive index and group-velocity dispersion of optical fibers

The influence of the nonlinear refractive index and the group-velocity dispersion of optical fibers on optical-amplifier noise is studied. A new method is used to calculate the spectrum of the amplified spontaneous emission. The result shows that the positive dispersion is favorable for suppressing the enhancement of the amplifier noise. <<ETX>>
Evaluating Antimicrobial Efficacy and Cost of 3 Dressings Containing Silver Versus a Novel Antimicrobial Hydrogel Impregnated Gauze Dressing Containing Oakin, an Oak Extract

PURPOSE: Antimicrobial wound dressings are becoming more popular and are routinely used in the treatment of chronic and problematic wounds. Despite the ever-growing number and types of these antimicrobial products, many practitioners often do not report significant clinical differences between various common antimicrobial wound dressings despite wide variations in cost. Although these dressings use different active ingredients or different presentations of a particular active ingredient, all attempt to protect the wound from bacterial colonization and promote wound repair. With so many topical antimicrobial dressings to choose from in the clinical setting (many having already fallen into disfavor due to their cytotoxic characteristics) it was of prime interest to determine if there was a substantial difference between some of the more commonly used antimicrobial dressings, with silver versus an antimicrobial wound dressing using Oakin (oak extract [Amerx Health Care Corporation, Clearwater, Florida]) as the active ingredient. METHODS: This article compares the antimicrobial efficacy of 4 commonly used wound dressings in vitro, utilizing a corrected zone of inhibition test followed by a cost analysis. RESULTS: In vitro testing demonstrated that there were no substantial differences in the corrected zone of inhibition measurements between the silver wound dressings and the less expensive Oakin-impregnated gauze dressing. CONCLUSION: Despite obvious limitations of this study, these results suggest that the biggest differences between many antimicrobial dressings on the market may be more in cost than in antimicrobial efficacy. The differences in cost are due to variances in cost per application and frequency of applications per week.
Enamel matrix derivative in combination with bone grafts: A review of the literature.

OBJECTIVE Over 15 years have passed since an enamel matrix derivative (EMD) was introduced as a biologic agent capable of periodontal regeneration. Histologic and controlled clinical studies have provided evidence for periodontal regeneration and substantial clinical improvements following its use. The purpose of this review article was to perform a systematic review comparing the eff ect of EMD when used alone or in combination with various types of bone grafting material. DATA SOURCES A literature search was conducted on several medical databases including Medline, EMBASE, LILACS, and CENTRAL. For study inclusion, all studies that used EMD in combination with a bone graft were included. In the initial search, a total of 820 articles were found, 71 of which were selected for this review article. Studies were divided into in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies. The clinical studies were subdivided into four subgroups to determine the eff ect of EMD in combination with autogenous bone, allografts, xenografts, and alloplasts. RESULTS The analysis from the present study demonstrates that while EMD in combination with certain bone grafts is able to improve the regeneration of periodontal intrabony and furcation defects, direct evidence supporting the combination approach is still missing. CONCLUSION Further controlled clinical trials are required to explain the large variability that exists amongst the conducted studies.
Trigger-dependent Gene Expression Profiles in Cardiac Preconditioning: Evidence for Distinct Genetic Programs in Ischemic and Anesthetic Preconditioning

BackgroundDNA chips facilitate genomic-wide exploration of gene expression. The authors hypothesized that ischemic (IPC) and anesthetic preconditioning (APC) would differentially modulate gene expression in hearts. MethodsAffymetrix rat U34A gene chips were used to explore the transcriptional response to IPC and APC, sustained ischemia (110 min) without reperfusion, and time-matched perfusion in isolated rat hearts. IPC was induced by three cycles of 5 min of ischemia, and APC was induced by 1.5 minimum alveolar concentration isoflurane (110 min). For each heart, a separate chip was used for hybridization. Data were analyzed for significant ≥ 2.0-fold changes in gene expression. Microarray results were confirmed by quantitative real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. ResultsOf the 8,799 genes represented on U34A, 217 transcripts in the APC group, 234 in the IPC group, and 29 in the ischemia group displayed significant ≥ 2.0-fold up-regulation in messenger RNA levels, and 185 transcripts in the APC group, 55 in the IPC group, and 49 in the ischemia group displayed significant ≥ 2.0-fold down-regulation. Many of these transcripts were unknown genes. A high number of commonly regulated genes were found in IPC and APC (39 up-regulated, 17 down-regulated). Genes commonly regulated included those associated with cell defense (heat shock protein 10, aldose reductase, Bcl-xS). Conversely, a pool of protective and antiprotective genes was differentially regulated in APC versus IPC (heat shock protein 27/70, programmed cell death 8), suggesting trigger-dependent transcriptome variability. ConclusionsThe novel microarray technology provides evidence for distinct cardioprotective phenotypes in IPC and APC. The observed transcriptional changes raise the possibility of a second window of protection by volatile anesthetics. The authors’ molecular portraits are the first global genomic comparison between IPC and APC.
Noise figure limits for circular loop MR coils

Circular loops are the most common MR detectors. Loop arrays offer improved signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNRs) and spatial resolution, and enable parallel imaging. As loop size decreases, loop noise increases relative to sample noise, ultimately dominating the SNR. Here, relative noise contributions from the sample and the coil are quantified by a coil noise figure (NF), NFcoil, which adds to the conventional system NF. NFcoil is determined from the ratio of unloaded‐to‐loaded coil quality factors Q. Losses from conductors, capacitors, solder joints, eddy currents in overlapped array coils, and the sample are measured and/or computed from 40 to 400 MHz using analytical and full‐wave numerical electromagnetic analysis. The Qs are measured for round wire and tape loops tuned from 50 to 400 MHz. NFcoil is determined as a function of the radius, frequency, and number of tuning capacitors. The computed and experimental Qs and NFcoils agree within ∼10%. The NFcoil values for 3 cm‐diameter wire coils are 3 dB, 1.9 dB, 0.8 dB, 0.2 dB, and 0.1 dB, at 1T, 1.5T, 3T, 7T, and 9.4T, respectively. Wire and tape perform similarly, but tape coils in arrays have substantial eddy current losses. The ability to characterize and reliably predict component‐ and geometry‐associated coil losses is key to designing SNR‐optimized loop and phased‐array detectors. Magn Reson Med, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A 3-D movable THz filter using surface micromachining process

We have demonstrated a MEMS based tunable filter with reconfigurable electric split-ring resonators (eSRR) at THz frequencies. This is accomplished by making planar arrays of eSRR with stress curved beams (eSRR-SCBs) which are actuated out-of-plane by electrostatic force. Our results have demonstrated that the eSRR-SCBs possess blue shifting capabilities and polarization dependent state at THz frequencies, while such adaptive metamaterials offer significant potential in realizing novel electromagnetic functionality with diversified applications such as sensors, switches, and filters.
The Inhibitory Effect of Natural Stilbenes and Their Analogues on Catalytic Activity of Cytochromes P450 Family 1 in Comparison with Other Phenols - Structure and Activity Relationship

In the last decade, increasing interest in the role of nutrition in disease prevention has been observed. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that one-third of all cancer deaths could be prevented, and that diet plays a key role in prevention (Bode & Dong, 2009). The term chemoprevention introduced and developed by Sporn (2005) and Wattenberg (1985) refers in general to multi-targeted pharmacological and nutritional intervention with the use of naturally occurring or chemically synthesized compounds. For this purpose, dietary phytochemicals believed to be safe for human use seem to be very promising. The importance of natural chemopreventive agents relies on their non-toxicity when given in small amounts for longer periods of time. Moreover, using a combination of phytochemicals provides synergistic or additive preventive effects.
Design and performance of a digital polar transmitter system for multiband-OFDM Ultra-WideBand

A low-voltage 3-bit Digital Polar Amplifier for MB-OFDM UWB is proposed, which comprises 7 parallel RF amplifiers driven by a constant RF phase-modulated signal and 7 cascode transistors (connected in series) digitally controlled by a 3-bit digitized amplitude signal to reconstruct the UWB signal at the output. Our DPA was able to achieve an EVM of -22 dB and drain efficiency of 21.0% while delivering 5.5 dBm of output power and consuming 17 mW of power using IBM 130-nm CMOS technology.
SigmaE is an essential sigma factor in Escherichia coli

SigmaE is an alternative sigma factor that controls the extracytoplasmic stress response in Escherichia coli. SigmaE is essential at high temperatures but was previously thought to be nonessential at temperatures below 37 degrees C. We present evidence that sigmaE is an essential sigma factor at all temperatures. Cells lacking sigmaE are able to grow at low temperatures because of the presence of a frequently arising, unlinked suppressor mutation.
Kinetics of intestinal replication of group B rotavirus and relevance to diagnostic methods

Non-group-A rotaviruses have been implicated with increasing frequency as causes of acute gastroenteritis in humans and other animals. However, the incidence and significance of infection with these agents, as well as appropriate diagnostic strategies for making these determinations, are largely unknown. Studies to make these determinations could be more accurately conducted if the relationship between the viral replication kinetics and the particular diagnostic method used is understood. We thus utilized the murine model of group B rotavirus infection to establish the viral replication kinetics by a variety of commonly used diagnostic methods. Enzyme immunoassay, routine negative-stain electron microscopy, solid-phase immunosorbent electron microscopy, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and a dot hybridization assay were used in these studies. By enzyme immunoassay, 100% of experimentally infected suckling rats tested positive for group B rotaviral antigens at 1, 4, and 5 days postinoculation. However, only 70 and 20% of infected animals tested positive at days 2 and 3 postinoculation, respectively. Dot hybridization with a complementary DNA probe also suggested a biphasic pattern of viral antigen excretion. Evidence of the virus causing infectious diarrhea in infant rats was found only on day 1 postinoculation in samples examined by routine negative-stain electron microscopy and by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Rotaviruslike particles were observed by solid-phase immunosorbent electron microscopy on days 1, 2, and 4 after viral inoculation suckling rats but were clearly the most numerous on day 1. Additionally, the enzyme immunoassay was used to quantitate the kinetics of group B rotaviral replication in the intestines of the experimentally infected animals. Levels of murine group B rotaviral antigens in intestinal samples peaked on days 1 and 4 postinoculation; however, only peak 1 represented actual intraepithelial replication of the virus. These studies thus indicate that early sample collection and selection of the appropriate diagnostic method are critical if the incidence and significance of group B and possibly other non-group-A rotaviral infections are to be accurately assessed.
Implementing Polyinstantiation as a Strategy for Electronic Commerce Customer Relationship Management

Polyinstantiation is the situation where multiple records sharing the same identifier value occur in one table. Multi-level secure (MLS) data models manage and utilize polyinstantiation to provide a secure way of handling classified information. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems for e-business can leverage the strategy of managed polyinstantiation by implementing MLS technology to coordinate B2C interactions in order to build long-term loyalty. This approach can be used to address some of the challenges faced by providers and adopters of e-business CRM technology solutions. A pilot study evaluated polyinstantiated information-presentation strategy as a means of enhancing relationships between e-businesses and their customers. The results support the idea that customers perceive the benefits of their special customer status as a function of how the relevant data are presented.