Challenge In Relation Research Articles

Leveraging Technology Integration in Kenya's Food & Beverage Industry for Competitiveness.

Leveraging Technology Integration in Kenya's Food & Beverage Industry for Competitiveness.

Complex Malocclusion, an Efficient Treatment Option: Tip-Edge Appliance

Abstract Orthodontic treatment has been a boon for many patients who wish to change their esthetic appearance that goes concomitantly with their psychological well-being. This treatment modality has changed strenuous appliance design to simple but excellent result delivering appliances. The duration of orthodontic treatment has always been a major challenge in relation to the patient’s compliance, so the appliance which an orthodontist delivers to a patient should always be efficient and also produce good results in a short period of time. An 18-year-old female patient came to the department of orthodontics with a chief complaint for forwardly placed upper front teeth; upon examination, the patient showed Class II skeletal and dental relation with increased overjet and overbite with horizontal growth pattern. The patient was given Tip-Edge appliance since it can reduce the large overjet in a short duration, and treatment was completed within 13 months. Tip-Edge appliance delivers faster results when compared with other appliances, which helps a lot in the patient’s compliance and satisfaction.

Oral Epithelial Cell Culture Model for Studying the Pathogenesis of Chronic Inflammatory Disease.

The interactions between bacteria, epithelium, and neutrophilic polymorphonuclear leukocytes (neutrophils) are the key to the initiation and progression of many chronic inflammatory-immune diseases. In addition, all can be influenced by external factors, such as micronutrients, thereby providing potentially novel approaches to therapy. This chapter will therefore provide detailed methods for core techniques involved in studying cellular and molecular epithelial responses to a bacterial challenge in relation to chronic inflammatory disease pathogenesis and therapy.

Queering Bolsonaro’s mediatic discourse: Strengthening Brazilian LGBTQIA+ communities through language education

Abstract Contemporary societies, especially some Western countries, have faced the return of neoconservatism, along with a desire for homogeneity, consensus, standardization, polarizations, and universalism in several social relations. With the election of alt-right, authoritarian, misogynist, and homophobe Jair Bolsonaro in 2018, many Brazilian citizens have faced a herculean challenge in relation to the maintenance of democracy and the provision of citizenship and critical education. The purpose of this paper is to problematize some media discourse produced by Bolsonaro and to investigate how such discourse has influenced the lives and education of our research participants (pre-service teachers). The first section investigates discourses and regimes of truth by explaining how discourses and ideologies influence our students’ lives and their future career. Section two points to the urgency of problematizing homophobic discourses, and section three queers Bolsonaro as an act of resistance.

Fostering a just culture in healthcare organizations: experiences in practice

BackgroundA just culture is regarded as vital for learning from errors and fostering patient safety. Key to a just culture after incidents is a focus on learning rather than blaming. Existing research on just culture is mostly theoretical in nature.AimThis study aims to explore requirements and challenges for fostering a just culture within healthcare organizations.MethodsWe examined initiatives to foster the development of a just culture in five healthcare organizations in the Netherlands. Data were collected through interviews with stakeholders and observations of project group meetings in the organizations.ResultsAccording to healthcare professionals, open communication is particularly important, paying attention to different perspectives on an incident. A challenge related to open communication is how to address individual responsibility and accountability. Next, room for emotions is regarded as crucial. Emotions are related to the direct consequences of incidents, but also to the response of the outside world, including the media and the health inspectorate.ConclusionsA challenge in relation to emotions is how to combine attention for emotions with focusing on facts, both within and outside the organization. Finally, healthcare professionals attach importance to commitment and exemplary behavior of management. A challenge as a manager here is how to keep distance while also showing commitment. Another challenge is how to combine openness with privacy of the parties involved, and how to deal with less nuanced views in other layers of the organization and in the outside world. Organizing reflection on the experienced tensions may help to find the right balance.

Understanding the chemical and mineralogical composition of commercial henna and jagua tattoos and dyes—a multi-analytical approach

Temporary tattoos and dyes constitute a great analytical challenge in relation to the regulatory control of their ingredients. Most of these commercial products are not labeled according to their content and their chemical nature is highly diverse. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze these complex samples to evaluate the potential presence of metallic impurities, to ensure the safety of cosmetic products contributing to health protection. This study proposes a multi-analytical methodology, which includes handheld X-ray fluorescence (h-XRF) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD), complemented by variable pressure scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X‐ray spectrometry (VP-SEM–EDS) to fully characterize 34 commercial samples of jagua and henna tattoos and dyes. The approach allowed the identification of the main constituents providing complementary compositional data and differences between sample types were established. In addition, information on the degree of natural pigments homogeneity was also obtained. The results’ discussion considering the current European cosmetics regulation may be useful to support the drafting of safety requirements and specific regulation.

Investigating the association of environmental exposures and all-cause mortality in the UK Biobank using sparse principal component analysis

Multicollinearity refers to the presence of collinearity between multiple variables and renders the results of statistical inference erroneous (Type II error). This is particularly important in environmental health research where multicollinearity can hinder inference. To address this, correlated variables are often excluded from the analysis, limiting the discovery of new associations. An alternative approach to address this problem is the use of principal component analysis. This method, combines and projects a group of correlated variables onto a new orthogonal space. While this resolves the multicollinearity problem, it poses another challenge in relation to interpretability of results. Standard hypothesis testing methods can be used to evaluate the association of projected predictors, called principal components, with the outcomes of interest, however, there is no established way to trace the significance of principal components back to individual variables. To address this problem, we investigated the use of sparse principal component analysis which enforces a parsimonious projection. We hypothesise that this parsimony could facilitate the interpretability of findings. To this end, we investigated the association of 20 environmental predictors with all-cause mortality adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, physiological, and behavioural factors. The study was conducted in a cohort of 379,690 individuals in the UK. During an average follow-up of 8.05 years (3,055,166 total person-years), 14,996 deaths were observed. We used Cox regression models to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). The Cox models were fitted to the standardised environmental predictors (a) without any transformation (b) transformed with PCA, and (c) transformed with SPCA. The comparison of findings underlined the potential of SPCA for conducting inference in scenarios where multicollinearity can increase the risk of Type II error. Our analysis unravelled a significant association between average noise pollution and increased risk of all-cause mortality. Specifically, those in the upper deciles of noise exposure have between 5 and 10% increased risk of all-cause mortality compared to the lowest decile.

“Staying on task — how the concept of skill-challenge balance provides a key element to the teaching of the Meisner technique”

ABSTRACT This article presents how the concept of skill-challenge balance — derived from Csíkszentmihályi’s theory of Flow — can provide a key factor in the delivery and teaching of the Meisner technique as well as other actor training methods. The American acting practitioner Sanford Meisner’s foundational actor training focuses on the redirection of attention, to keep the actor present and less self-conscious. His exercises are presented in a way that encourages external attention to be sustained by using a logical step-by-step process and gradually increasing the difficulty – either when the students’ skills develop or when the exercise becomes automated. The article offers evidence that different attentional networks are activated depending on how much attention is directed to task, which rests on the challenge-skill balance being continually adjusted for the actor to sustain task-focus and avoid mind wandering. This demonstrates that finding the balance between skill and challenge in relation to task, while layering the exercises in an extended developmental training-process, is integral to the Meisner method. As an acting tutor, the concept of skill-challenge balance has greatly influenced my own practice, as well as solidified the importance of the teacher’s ability to acknowledge the student’s understanding and growth. By focusing on the individual and the personal aspect of the skill-challenge balance, highlights not only the importance of seeing this balance as something fluid – needing constant re-evaluation and adaptation – but also as a something that should be adhered to in any forms of vocational teaching and development. .

The Legal and Political Aspects of the Eastern Mediterranean: What is at Stake?

The main challenge in relation to Mediterranean gas is the distribution of potential gas reserves which inevitably entails delimitation of maritime borders. However, in the context of the Eastern Mediterranean, this is highly problematic mainly due to the status of the Greek islands along with their close proximity to the Turkish mainland and the failure in resolving the ‘Cyprus issue.’ There are two key questions in relation to the Eastern Mediterranean crisis: (i) What are the contesting claims over maritime border delimitation between Turkey, Greece, and the Greek Administration of Southern Cyprus with reference to the international law? (ii) Why has the Eastern Mediterranean dispute been politicized so much that it has drawn in countries far from the region? This article examines the legal and political dimensions of the Eastern Mediterranean crisis by analyzing the respective countries’ standpoints through the lens of international law along with the implications of earlier such disputes. The article also investigates the political dimensions of the crisis by looking into alliance formation and how existing political tensions in the region came to the surface in the Eastern Mediterranean.

An efficient pipeline for ancient DNA mapping and recovery of endogenous ancient DNA from whole-genome sequencing data.

Ancient DNA research has developed rapidly over the past few decades due to improvements in PCR and next‐generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, but challenges still exist. One major challenge in relation to ancient DNA research is to recover genuine endogenous ancient DNA sequences from raw sequencing data. This is often difficult due to degradation of ancient DNA and high levels of contamination, especially homologous contamination that has extremely similar genetic background with that of the real ancient DNA. In this study, we collected whole‐genome sequencing (WGS) data from 6 ancient samples to compare different mapping algorithms. To further explore more effective methods to separate endogenous DNA from homologous contaminations, we attempted to recover reads based on ancient DNA specific characteristics of deamination, depurination, and DNA fragmentation with different parameters. We propose a quick and improved pipeline for separating endogenous ancient DNA while simultaneously decreasing homologous contaminations to very low proportions. Our goal in this research was to develop useful recommendations for ancient DNA mapping and for separation of endogenous DNA to facilitate future studies of ancient DNA.

Attitudes toward interprofessional education and collaborative practices in Mongolia

From the perspective of activity theory, it can be argued that the major challenge in relation to implementing interprofessional education (IPE) could be embraced as contradictions that may lead to change. Patients have complex health needs and typically require insight from more than one discipline to address issues regarding their health status (Lumague et al. 2006). The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that institutions engaged in health professional education and training consider implementing IPE in both undergraduate and postgraduate programs (WHO, 2010). The purpose of this study was to identify the needs of IPECP for health care professionals, faculty members, and students. Methods: The survey instrument contained four scales to evaluate faculty attitudes toward IPE and teamwork, adapted from the methods of Curran et al. (2007). Each scale asked respondents to rate their attitudes toward statements on a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree; 2=disagree; 3=neutral; 4=agree; 5=strongly agree). The initial factor extractions were performed by means of principal components analysis. To define the model structure more clearly, an exploratory factor analysis using varimax rotation was conducted. The level of significance was p<.0001 for all tests. Results: As shown in Table 2, the Kaiser–Meyer-Olkin index was 0.902, indicating sampling adequacy, and the Bartlett Sphericity Chi-Square index was 2246.5 (p <0.0001). Cronbach’s alpha for the 14 items was 0.731, revealing a high rate of internal consistency. The modified Attitude toward health care team scores (ATHCTS) questionnaire was categorized into four factors: “Quality of care,” “Team efficiency,” “Patient-centered care,” and “Negative factors.” Conclusion: Findings suggest that the positive attitude of health care professionals, faculty members and students towards IPE indicates the need for IPE training.

Técnicas de inteligência artificial para reconhecimento de sepse em ambientes hospitalares: revisão integrativa

A sepse é uma inflamação generalizada com elevada morbidade e mortalidade, cujo reconhecimento e tratamento precoce são fatores essenciais para uma melhor qualidade de vida para o paciente; caso não seja identificada e tratada rapidamente, poderá levar a óbito. Este artigo de revisão integrativa objetiva identificar as técnicas baseadas em inteligência artificial adotadas, sua respectiva acurácia, sensibilidade e especificidade para a identificação precoce nos casos de sepse em ambiente hospitalar. A pesquisa, adaptada do método PRISMA, foi realizada em cinco bases de dados indexadas a partir dos seguintes descritores: sepse, septic, sepsis, forecasting, predict, prediction, detection, predicting, diagnosis, assessment, machine learning, artificial intelligence, data mining e deep learning. Foram identificados 333 artigos, sendo 21 com referência ao reconhecimento precoce da sepse por meio de 16 técnicas. Os resultados demonstram que as redes neurais tiveram melhor desempenho, variando a acurácia entre 76% e 93%, as árvores de decisão entre 69,0% e 91,5% e os métodos estatísticos entre 56% e 89%. Conclui-se que o fator mais influente na identificação precoce do diagnóstico são a variedade e a qualidade dos dados. Também se evidencia o desafio em relação ao pré-processamento, visto que os dados em geral são oriundos de fontes heterogêneas, coletados com critérios, métodos e objetivos distintos.

Interproximal in situ Plaque pH after a Sugar Challenge in Relation to Caries in Adults before and after Short-Term Use of 1.5% Arginine Toothpaste

Interproximal in situ Plaque pH after a Sugar Challenge in Relation to Caries in Adults before and after Short-Term Use of 1.5% Arginine Toothpaste

Savremena radioterapija rabdomiosarkoma dece

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common soft tissue sarcoma among children and represents half of all soft tissue sarcomas. The tumor is derived from primitive mesenchymal stem cells which develop into striated muscle and common sites of occurrence are the head and neck region, genitourinary tract and extremities. Treatment is multimodal and includes surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Application of combined treatment led to significant improvement in treatment outcome. Due to long-term survival, great importance is given to the expected treatment complications. Therapy for pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma requires a delicate balance between the need to intensify therapy for certain group of patients and the desire to reduce potentially toxic therapy and risk for secondary malignancies for patients with good prognosis. Radiotherapy plays an important role in local control of disease and is performed in nearly all patients. Since it is applied to organs and tissues that are in growth and development phase, radiotherapy in childhood has its own specificity and represents greater challenge in relation to the treatment of adult patients. The use of modern radiotherapy techniques ensures excellent local control of disease with better sparing of normal surrounding tissues which reduces radiotherapy toxicity and preserves quality of life of treated children.

Enhancing Protein Recovery in Green Biorefineries by Lignosulfonate-Assisted Precipitation

Biorefining of green biomass to produce proteins for feed and food provides an important challenge in relation to development of a future sustainable and climate-neutral agriculture. In order to make it a viable value chain, all parts of the process need to be optimized. This includes careful selection of the source of biomass, the procedure used for protein extraction as well as the separation and recovery of proteins from the press juice. We here focus on recovery of proteins from juice made from screw press fractionation of four green biomasses, viz. ryegrass, red clover, ryegrass-white clover mixture and spinach. Separating out protein from the juice is a key step and several different methods have routinely been applied. We demonstrate that lignosulfonates aid in the precipitation of proteins in the juice. The optimal loading of lignosulfonate was 0.6-0.7 g per g crude protein in the juice. For ryegrass and red clover juice, this loading resulted in 10-25 % increase in precipitated protein compared to the classical precipitation by heat treatment or acidification. For spinach, up to 60% increase in protein recovery was obtained by lignosulfonate addition. We conclude that lignosulfonate-assisted precipitation holds potential for improving the protein yield in biorefining of green biomass.

Cloth as pattern: The visual language of weave for print design

Through the questioning activity of drawing this research offers a visual language exploring woven cloth as printed pattern. Drawing tools develop a dialogue for reflection and evaluation as the hand and eye communicate weave. The processes of observation and interpretation led by the drawing hand establish a challenge in relation to imitation, deception, reproduction and truth. The project confronts the abundance of digitally printed material surfaces (such as printed wood and stone) in the interiors market and develops a new pattern from cloth, for cloth.

Challenge and hindrance stressors in relation to sleep

RationaleResearch using the challenge-hindrance stressor framework shows hindrance stressors tend to have detrimental affective and work-related outcomes, whereas challenge stressors have relatively more salutary affective and work-related outcomes. The extent to which this pattern extends to health behaviors, such as sleep, is unknown. ObjectiveThe current study examines challenge and hindrance work stressors in relation to sleep quantity and quality. MethodsWe use survey data from the MIDUS II (Phase 1 and Phase 4) to test the relationship between self-reported challenge and hindrance stressors and assessments of sleep, including cross-sectional and prospective indicators of sleep quantity, sleep quality (sleep onset latency, sleep disturbance), and sleepiness. ResultsHindrance stressors are associated with prospective sleep quantity, as well as cross-sectional and prospective sleep quality and sleepiness. Further, the pattern of results for sleep quality and sleepiness reflects the expected challenge-hindrance pattern, such that hindrance stressors are more strongly associated with poor sleep quality and sleepiness than are challenge stressors. The same challenge-hindrance pattern was not significant sleep quantity. Work hours and time lag generally did not moderate associations between work stressors and sleep. ConclusionThe challenge-hindrance pattern holds for sleep quality and sleepiness, but not sleep quantity. Relationships appear to be consistent across time and differences in work hours. Results have implications for expanding the challenge-hindrance stressor framework and underline the importance of distinguishing between different types of stressors and sleep dimensions.

Multiple Cassava Viruses’ Co-Infections and Resurgence of Pests Are Leading to Severe Symptoms and Yield Losses on Cassava in the South-Kivu Region, Democratic Republic of Congo

A survey was completed during the last five years (2014-2018) to update and assess changes in the cassava pests and diseases occurrence as well as to understand how these changes occur regarding the recent new viruses spread under a climate change context in the South-Kivu region, Democratic Republic of Congo. The eight territories of South-Kivu were surveyed during the rainy seasons from 2015 until 2017 except for Uvira and Fizi where data were recorded in 2018 regarding the prevalence of unstable agro ecological factors which may influence pest and diseases dynamic in these two territories. During the data collection, pests and disease incidence and severity were recorded as well as the sampling of cassava leaves for molecular viruses’ detection. The recorded data showed that Cassava mosaic disease (CMD) remains the most encountered disease (75% - 80%) and its vector (the whitefly Bemisia tabaci) the most important pest (10 - 18 adult whiteflies per leaf). The major changes were recorded for Cassava brown streak disease, recently reported in the region, for which a significant increase was recorded, with not reports before 2012 to 70% - 80% incidence in 2018 in the Ruzizi plain area (Uvira and Fizi). Molecular detection revealed a coexistence of both two viruses, the cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) and Ugandan cassava brown streak virus (UCBSV) in single and mixed infections. Co-infections cassava mosaic and cassava brown streak diseases were frequently recorded resulting in severe expression leaves’ symptoms and tuber yields’ losses. Common pests and diseases considered as minor have drastically become serious threat to cassava production by increasing both their incidence and severity values. The cassava bacterial blight (20%), cassava green mite (20% - 70%), cassava mealy bugs and cassava grasshoppers were recorded as a great challenge in relation with an occurrence of long dry season resulting in four consecutive dry months without rain. The high occurrence of CBSD on new CMD-resistant varieties has enforced farmers to recover local CMD-susceptible varieties which revealed a relative CBSD-tolerance and moderate yield losses. This need for virus control is really challenging cassava crop in a region where the diseases pressure is high and people consume cassava and its products seven days a week. Research gaps identified in the study are the need for breeding new varieties with tolerance/resistance to both CMD and CBSD viruses as well as the extensive use of rapid multiplex diagnostic tools to ensure early diagnostic and availability of good quality planting material at farmers’ level.

Countering Involvement of Kenyan Children in Terrorism through Realization of Their Socio-Economic Rights

State and multinational efforts aimed at containing terrorism in Kenya have only yielded modest results despite the repressive nature of these efforts. The ranks of the foot soldiers of Al shabaab fundamentalist sects continue to swell even in the face of the ferocious onslaught on their membership by state troops. Abandoned by the state, coupled with poverty, children become easy targets for radicalization and are subsequently recruited into terrorist groups. This article argues that poverty is the main cause that exposes children to abuse, criminalization and subsequent mobilization into terrorism. It argues that until the practices of rampant child abuse and state neglect of children as a vulnerable group is addressed through better education, employment opportunities and poverty reduction, Kenya is likely to remain a breeding ground of violent conflicts and persistent attacks by the terrorists. The realization of the socio-economic rights of children has only been given the priority it deserves by the human rights groups as a way forward for the country of Kenya to counter the involvement of children in the terror groups. This radicalization of children must get the support from all the spheres of the country. The government must put in place the required strategies to achieve this. The rate at which Kenya’s youth are getting in the terror groups is alarming and the number is expected to rise if the realization of socio-economic rights of the youths is not urgently addressed by the state. This article, therefore, focuses on this recent phenomenon of involvement of children in Kenya into terrorism activities. The article attempts to briefly explore the impacts of involvement of children in Kenya as a new challenge in relation to the discourse of child protection. With a view of mitigating the harm on the lives, well-being, survival and development of children in some parts of Kenya, the article sets outs viable solutions that should be considered in the fight against involvement of children in terrorism.

Challenge and hindrance demands in relation to self‐reported job performance and the role of restoration, sleep quality, and affective rumination

Longitudinal research on the relationship between job demands and job performance and its underlying mechanisms is scarce. The aims of this longitudinal three‐wave study among 920 Finnish employees were to ascertain whether (1) challenge job demands (i.e., workload, cognitive demands) and self‐reported job performance are positively related over time, (2) job insecurity (i.e., a hindrance demand) and job performance are negatively related over time, (3) restorative experiences during off‐job time and sleep quality are underlying mechanisms in these relations, and (4) affective rumination mediates the proposed relations of job demands and job insecurity with restoration and sleep quality. Self‐report data were analysed with structural equation modelling. The results revealed a positive, temporal relationship between challenge job demands and job performance (task and contextual performance) across 1 year, but no temporal relationship between job insecurity and self‐reported job performance. Moreover, high challenge job demands were positively related to the restorative value of off‐job activities, and favourable restoration was positively related to subsequent task performance. Finally, affective rumination mediated the relationship of challenge job demands with both restoration and sleep quality. Job insecurity was not longitudinally related to restoration, sleep quality, or affective rumination. The implications of our findings for occupational health psychology are discussed.Practitioner points Provide employees with sufficient job resources (e.g., high autonomy and social support) to adequately deal with high job demands. Allow employees sufficient time to recover from high job demands during off‐job time and provide training sessions in recovery, relaxation, meditation, and goal setting. Employees may attempt to counteract perseverative thoughts by actively pursuing distracting restoration activities (e.g., exercise, meditation).