bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Clients’ Perspective of Quality of Physiotherapy Healthcare Services Received at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kenya
Authors: Cheruiyot Davies Kipkurui , Tenambergen Wanja , Kawila Caroline 
Published: February 2025

There are few studies in physiotherapy, and which are predominantly quantitative and questionnaire-based, that evaluate patient satisfaction. Nevertheless, perceived quality of physiotherapy services has been recognized to be dependent on a range of constructs among them; the manner in which information about care is recorded and used for evaluation purposes, and the way diverse needs of different stakeholders are considered. This paper sought to investigate the factors that influence perceived quality of physiotherapy healthcare services received by clients at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH). The researcher adopted cross- sectional study and utilized mixed methods in data collection. The study sampled both inpatient and outpatient clients receiving physiotherapy health care services at MTRH. Data from clients was collected using a structured questionnaire, while six key informants were interviewed using a key informant interview guide. Findings revealed that MTRH offers quality physiotherapy healthcare services as there was no significant differences among responses across all parameters under investigation. Approximately, forty two percent agreed that physiotherapy healthcare services were reliable. Nearly half of the respondents agreed that most of the healthcare workers at physiotherapy unit were always reliable. They also agreed that physiotherapy unit at MTRH was accessible. There was positive and significant correlation between physiotherapists’ skills, space and quality of physiotherapy healthcare services received at MTRH. The study recommended that MTRH management should develop a structured way of giving feedback to the clients receiving physiotherapy healthcare services; implement the patient service charter to ensure strict time management, both in the outpatient and inpatient units so that clients can have seamless service provision; and organize continuous professional development program for the physiotherapy staff to enhance their knowledge, skills and competences
Relationship between Family Responsibilities and Performance of Staff at University Libraries in Meru County
Authors: Kimoriot Maureen Jeruto , Gichohi Paul Maku , Nzioka Catherine Mueni 
Published: February 2025

Library staff are obligated to run the day-to-day operations of university libraries by providing information materials to students and faculty to support learning and research as well as manage family needs like shopping, house management, and child care. For library staff to work effectively there is need for minimal interference of work from family responsibilities however, libraries operate throughout the year librarians are rooted within the university, leading to lack of work and family balance. Family responsibilities and work responsibilities require much attention of the university library staff leading to fatigue, burnout and poor job performance. This research aimed at examining the relationship between family responsibilities and work performance of university library staff. The objective of the study was to examine the influence of family responsibilities on the performance of university library staff. The research was anchored on spillover theory, and adopted a descriptive survey research design. Thirty eight (38) university library staff from (four) 4 universities in Meru County were selected as respondents using census method. Data was collected using questionnaires, and it was analyzed descriptively using inferential statistics. Results indicated that library employees perform well in the work place despite family responsibilities. The research concluded that family responsibilities affect university library staff work performance to a very small extent, thus they are able to carry out their work duties. The research recommends that future studies be carried out to provide a clearer understanding of the relationship between family responsibilities and performance of university library staff in Kenya.
Relationship between Systems and Programs and Business Performance of Pharmaceutical Firms in Nairobi County
Authors: Karimi James Ngari 
Published: February 2025

Organizations that aspire to be successful and competitive need to demand and find better ways to improve their business performance by utilizing their systems and programs as a construct for structural capital which comprises of non-human assets. Systems and programs are mechanisms that firms have put in place in order to execute their organizations objectives. They include succession management programs, recruitment programs, and reward systems among others. Systems and programs play a crucial role in the current ever-challenging and aggressive business environment, particularly in knowledge-intensive organizations such as pharmaceutical industry. This study sought to establish the relationship between systems and programs for business performance of pharmaceutical firms in Nairobi County. Systems and programs research question was used to test the relationship between business performances of the pharmaceutical companies in Nairobi County. Descriptive research design was used for the study. Data was collected from 19 pharmaceutical firms using structured questionnaires. Purposive sampling was used that targeted human resource managers and in their absence, their deputies were consulted. Pearson bivariate correlation and regression analysis were used to test the relationship and significance of the variables. The findings indicated that systems and programs as a construct for structural capital had positive and significance relationship with business performance of pharmaceutical firms’. The study concludes that succession management programs, recruitment programs and reward systems are critical to the success of the business and recommends that, the pharmaceutical firms should create a supportive culture that helps employees to produce new ideas and build systems that work. The recruitment programs should be comprehensive and dedicated to hire the best candidates available who can work as a team and influence Business Performance.
Effects of Moringa Stenopetala Bac. Leaf Supplement on Growth Performance of Broiler Chicken
Authors: Udofia Nathaniel Ebenezer , Misonge Onyancha Jared , Mworia Mugambi , William Ncene , Apiri Moriasi Gervason 
Published: February 2025

While broiler production is a source of income, it is a good source of protein and a profitable investment. In developing world, high feed to gain ratio and high feed costs are among the challenges in poultry keeping. Current attempts to mitigate these challenges involve the use of antibiotics in feed as growth promoters, prophylaxis and disease treatment. It is notable that the use of conventional antibiotics for promoting growth and performance has been effective. However, undesirable residual effects and antibiotic resistant pathogens due to antibiotics in conventional poultry feeds is of global health concern. Therefore, there is continuous need to evaluate natural alternatives to antibiotics to mitigate the problems encountered with conventional antibiotics. Many medicinal plants have been associated with growth performance enhancement, Moringa stenopetala Bac leaves are used as food for humans. Seeds, bark, roots, and flowers are widely used in traditional medicine. Leaf extracts are reported to have the greatest antioxidant activity. The extracts of Moringa stenopetala leaves have antioxidant potential, β-carotene, protein, vitamin C, calcium, potassium and natural antioxidants including flavonoids, phenolic, ascorbic acid and carotenoids and are thought to be responsible for their effectiveness The current study evaluated the effect of broiler chicken feed supplemented with M. stenopetala on feed conversion ratio. Results indicated increases in the chicken weight gains in all the treatment groups at the end of treatment week five but with no significant difference except for the negative control group (p<0.05). Also, at the end of 5th week, the results obtained showed that all the chicken in all the experimental groups had a significantly lower feed conversion ratios except for the chicken on the negative control experimental group (p<0.05).
Effects of Training and Compensation Practices on Employee Performance in Public Universities in Kenya
Authors: Kinyamu Sylvia Igoki , Nkaabu Clement , Moguche Abel 
Published: February 2025

Effective human resource management practices are associated with increased performance of employees. This study aimed to determine the relationship between training and compensation practices on employee performance in public universities in Kenya. The objectives of the study were to determine the effect of training on employee performance in public universities in Kenya, and to establish the effect of compensation practices on employee performance in public universities in Kenya. A survey approach was used. The study targeted all 201 Office Administration Officers working in six public universities in Mt. Kenya Region. Mt. Kenya region comprises the counties of Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Nyandarua, Tharaka Nithi, Embu and Meru. A questionnaire consisting of demographic questions and a 5-point Likert Scale was used to collect data. Qualtrics survey was utilized to administer the questionnaire. Out of 201 sets of questionnaires distributed, 176 responses were generated, representing a response rate of 88%. Descriptive statistics in form of tables, frequencies and percentages were used to present the analysed data. Cronbachs alpha was used to assess the reliability of instruments, while content validity was assessed through reviews of items. Data was tested to ensure that it did not violate regression assumptions. The study revealed that workers’ performance was significantly influenced by training practice (p<0.05), while the effect of compensation practice on workers’ performance was not significant (p>0.05). The study, therefore, concluded that training and compensation practices were associated with increased performance of the workers in public universities in Kenya. The results imply that the management of public universities needs to focus on improvement of each of the aforementioned practices through the establishment of relevant policies. There is need for further research on other human resources practices, and preferably be undertaken in a different geographical and organisational setting
Animal Rights
Authors: Rowlands Mark 
Published: February 2025

A fresh view of animals and what we owe them.
Do animals have moral standing? Do they count, morally speaking? In Animal Rights, Mark Rowlands argues that they do and explores the implications of this idea. He identifies three different waves in animal rights writing. The first wave was defined by a traditional dispute between utilitarianism (represented by Peter Singer) and rights-based approaches (represented by Tom Regan) to ethics. The second wave was defined by an expansion in a conception of ethics, which saw utilitarian and rights-based approaches supplemented by other ethical traditions, including contractualism, virtue ethics, and care ethics. The third wave was defined by an expansion in our conception of animals, driven by exciting new developments in the field of comparative psychology.
Each of these waves had ramifications for how we understand the moral status of animals, but, this book argues, and reinforces, the core idea that animals deserve moral respect. In earlier waves, discussions of animal ethics had been focused on the issue of animal suffering. But the third wave is defined by the idea that animals are far more than merely sufferers or enjoyers of experiences but are instead authors of their own lives: creatures capable of choosing how to live, shaped by a conception of their life and how they would like it to go. Rowlands writes that, no matter what moral theory you choose, the most plausible version of that theory entails that animals have moral standing and that our obligations to them are far more substantial than many of us care to acknowledge.
Bye Bye I Love You
Authors: Erard Michael 
Published: February 2025

A beautiful and intimate exploration of first and last words—and the many facets of how language begins and ends—from a pioneering language writer.
With our earliest utterances, we announce ourselves—and are recognized—as persons ready for social life. With our final ones, we mark where others must release us to death's embrace. In Bye Bye I Love You, linguist and author Michael Erard explores these phenomena, commonly called “first words” and “last words,” uncovering their cultural, historical, and biological entanglements and honoring their deep private significance. Erard draws from personal, historical, and anthropological sources to provide a sense of the breadth of beliefs and practices about these phenomena across eras, religions, and cultures around the world.
What do babies' first words have in common? How do people really communicate at the end of life? In the first half of the book, Erard tells the story of first words in human development and evolution, and how the attention to children's early language—a modern phenomenon—arose. In the second half, he provides a groundbreaking overview of language at the end of life and the cultural conventions that surround it. Throughout he reveals the many parallels and asymmetries between first and last words and asks whether we might be able to use a linguistic understanding of end of life to discover what we truly want.
Association between toxic heavy metals and noncancerous thyroid disease: a scoping review
Authors: Rafi’i Muhammad Ridzwan , Ja’afar Mohd Hasni , Mohammed Nawi Azmawati , Md Hanif Shahrul Azhar , Md Asari Siti Najiha 
Published: February 2025

Background
Toxic heavy metals such as chromium (Cr), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb) are known to be priority pollutants due to their high degrees of toxicity and widespread presence in the environment. This review aimed to explore the association between heavy metals and noncancerous thyroid diseases by synthesizing findings from observational and experimental studies. This review addressed a critical intersection of environmental health, endocrinology, and public health. The findings would be of interest to a wide range of disciplines given the ubiquitous presence of toxic heavy metals in the environment and their potential to disrupt endocrine systems. The evidence-based information from diverse fields generated from this review will provide insights into the health implications of heavy metal exposure on thyroid function and guide the necessary interdisciplinary research and collaborative interventions.

Method
Three databases were searched, namely PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. The Arksey and O’Malley (2005) framework was used as a guide in conducting this scoping review. The reporting was carried out based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and the Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA). The literature search retrieved 552 articles and 29 articles were included in the final review.

Results
As high as 83% of the 29 included studies followed an observational study design while the rest were experimental animal studies. Among the observational studies, two-thirds (66%) were cross-sectional studies while the rest were case-control studies (31%) and cohort studies (n = 1, 3%). Few number of studies in this review reported a significant association between Cr, As, Cd, Hg, and Pb with noncancerous thyroid diseases (2, 3, 16, 8, and 12) while another few (5, 8, 9, 5, and 11) did not show any significant association.

Conclusion
A heterogeneous and diverse sample population in the included studies could have potentially led to mixed findings about the association between toxic heavy metals and thyroid diseases in this review. Therefore, future research should prioritize longitudinal studies and controlled clinical trials to better elucidate the causative mechanisms and long-term impact of heavy metal exposure on thyroid health.
New job, new fundraising piece for PAARI
Authors: Knopf Alison 
Published: April 2024

Yes, it's a new job, but it has a big value. The Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI), a nonprofit focused on raising awareness of substance use disorders and engaging with law enforcement and public safety agencies to create deflection and diversion pathways, appointed a fundraiser Maureen Bilek brings with her a wealth of experience in grants and program development. This was the first position of its kind at PAARI, and it was essential for them to identify a leader with extensive experience in fundraising and someone who had a deep understanding of the opioid crisis. Bilek spent 13 years with Advocate Health Care, the largest integrated health care system in Illinois, where she served as their director of Government Grants and Program Development. There, she led philanthropic strategy for 27 hospitals and secured an impressive $100 million in grant funding throughout her tenure. “I am delighted to be joining PAARI and look forward to enhancing and supporting the great programs that PAARI, its staff, and the board have accelerated to address the opioid crisis,” said Bilek. “I emphatically endorse its national commitment to implementing deflection and diversion programs, its innovative ways to improving access to treatment and recovery for individuals suffering with addiction and its fundamental charge for social responsibility.”
Engineering Large‐Scale Self‐Mineralizing Bone Organoids with Bone Matrix‐Inspired Hydroxyapatite Hybrid Bioinks
Authors: Wang Jian , Wu Yan , Li Guangfeng , Zhou Fengjin , Wu Xiang , Wang Miaomiao , Liu Xinru , Tang Hua , Bai Long , Geng Zhen , Song Peiran , Shi Zhongmin , Ren Xiaoxiang , Su Jiacan 
Published: April 2024

AbstractAddressing large bone defects remains a significant challenge owing to the inherent limitations in self‐healing capabilities, resulting in prolonged recovery and suboptimal regeneration. Although current clinical solutions are available, they have notable shortcomings, necessitating more efficacious approaches to bone regeneration. Organoids derived from stem cells show great potential in this field; however, the development of bone organoids has been hindered by specific demands, including the need for robust mechanical support provided by scaffolds and hybrid extracellular matrices (ECM). In this context, bioprinting technologies have emerged as powerful means of replicating the complex architecture of bone tissue. The research focused on the fabrication of a highly intricate bone ECM analog using a novel bioink composed of gelatin methacrylate/alginate methacrylate/hydroxyapatite (GelMA/AlgMA/HAP). Bioprinted scaffolds facilitate the long‐term cultivation and progressive maturation of extensive bioprinted bone organoids, foster multicellular differentiation, and offer valuable insights into the initial stages of bone formation. The intrinsic self‐mineralizing quality of the bioink closely emulates the properties of natural bone, empowering organoids with enhanced bone repair for both in vitro and in vivo applications. This trailblazing investigation propels the field of bone tissue engineering and holds significant promise for its translation into practical applications.
Knotted Artificial Muscles for Bio‐Mimetic Actuation under Deepwater
Authors: Chen Wenhui , Tong Dezhong , Meng Linghan , Tan Bowen , Lan Ruochen , Zhang Qifeng , Yang Huai , Wang Cong , Liu Ke 
Published: April 2024

AbstractMuscles featuring high frequency and high stroke linear actuation are essential for animals to achieve superior maneuverability, agility, and environmental adaptability. Artificial muscles are yet to match their biological counterparts, due to inferior actuation speed, magnitude, mode, or adaptability. Inspired by the hierarchical structure of natural muscles, artificial muscles are created that are powerful, responsive, robust, and adaptable. The artificial muscles consist of knots braided from 3D printed liquid crystal elastomer fibers and thin heating threads. The unique hierarchical, braided knot structure offers amplified linear stroke, force rate, and damage‐tolerance, as verified by both numerical simulations and experiments. In particular, the square knotted artificial muscle shows reliable cycles of actuation at 1Hz in 3000m depth underwater. Potential application is demonstrated by propelling a model boat. Looking ahead, the knotted artificial muscles can empower novel biomedical devices and soft robots to explore various environments, from inside human body to the mysterious deep sea.
Enhanced Color‐Preserving Radiative Coolers for Versatile Architectural Applications
Authors: Kim June Tae , Jeon Seung Kyu , Kim Min Seong , Yeo Dong Hun , Nahm Sahn , Kim Yeong Jae , Lee Gil Ju 
Published: April 2024

AbstractGlobal climate crises are the most significant challenges to be solved these days. As one of the technological endeavors to tackle the issue, radiative cooling is amongst the most attractive approaches for sustainable heat energy regulation, which involves maximizing solar heat reflection and thermal heat emission. These green technologies inevitably require architectural applicability, considering that building facades take a large proportion of the heat‐radiating surfaces. For mass‐production suitability and durability, radiative coolers (RCs) fabricated in a fully ceramic context are recently suggested, featuring scalable, thermally insulative, and non‐shrinking advantages. However, the visual effects are also imperative for architectural instances but are seldom accounted for. In this context, this article suggests the enhanced color‐preserving radiative cooling (ECRC) structure for practical architectural applications of glass‐infiltrated ceramic RCs. By simply blending ceramic pigment into the uppermost porous alumina layer, the ECRC structure can maintain the physical, and thermal features of all‐ceramic RC, while exhibiting color by visible reflectance adjustment. ECRCs exhibit an additional cooling performance of up to ≈17.3 °C depending on their color, compared to their conventional counterparts. With additional chromatic features, ECRC can further enhance the availability of radiative cooling technology for practically realizing the energy‐saving structures in real‐world architectural circumstances.
Lyotropic Chromonic Mesophases of Chiral Organopalladium(II) Complexes for Amplified Circularly Polarized Phosphorescence
Authors: Zhou Ning , Xie Mo , Zheng Ceyuan , An Jiabo , Zou Chao , Lu Wei 
Published: April 2024

AbstractHerein, it is reported that lyotropic liquid crystals that transfer carbon‐centered chirality to helical chirality and subsequently to macroscopic chirality in the mesophases. This process is accompanied by remarkable amplification of both emission quantum yield and dissymmetry factor of the circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). Cationic tridentate cyclometalated Pd(II) complexes, once functionalized with chiral hydrogen‐bonding motifs of amide, aggregated into head‐to‐tail dimers at low concentrations in acetonitrile and further self‐organized into chiral lyotropic chromonic mesophases upon concentrated to 50 wt.%. At 25 °C, the chiral chromonics display metal–metal‐to‐ligand charge‐transfer (MMLCT) phosphorescence at an emission maximum of 677 nm with quantum yields up to 38% and lifetimes up to 0.50 µs. Notably, the dissymmetry factors ranged from 0.10 to 0.76, varying with the sample thickness in the range of 200–15 µm. Comparison studies and theoretical calculations reveal that the hydrogen‐bonding amide group is pivotal for the formation of the staggered configuration in the helical superstructures. Additionally, the carbon‐centered chirality of the amide dictate the handedness of the helices and consequently influenced the properties of CPL.