Relative Frequency Distribution Research Articles

Selection of Words in Ontogeny

AbstractThis article suggests a framework for integrating a conceptual and an empirical approach to understanding human speech. Verbal activities may be understood as a result of conjoint phylogenetic and ontogenetic selection processes. The present article situates an experimental procedure investigating verbal activities as a function of ontogenetic events in the larger context of Darwinian selection. In this experimental procedure, the experimenter uttered “hmm” and “yes” contingently and contiguously on a participant’s mentioning of predefined words. To test if the experimenter’s verbal activity modified the participant’s rate of those words, 63 Norwegian participants reported individually on video recordings. Resembling the results of previous studies, cumulative relative frequency distributions of target word rates showed that three of four target words occurred at a higher rate when the experimenter uttered “hmm” and “yes” during a participant’s report than when she was silent. Methodological challenges of investigating the selection of verbal activities by their contingencies with Phylogenetically Important Events are discussed.

Abstract PO4-03-08: Enhanced Assessment of Clinical Behavior of TNBC and TPBC using Quantified Levels of HER2, Estrogen and Progestin Receptor Proteins and Expression of Their Cognate Genes

Abstract Background: Renewed interest in clinical relevance of low-HER2 protein in breast cancer management prompted a retrospective investigation of a unique de-identified Database of quantified biomarkers associated with patient outcomes. Currently, IHC of ER, PR and HER2 proteins provides semi-quantitative results, at times complicated by variation in methods and interpretation (cf. ASCO/CAP Guidelines). Our goal was to ascertain relationships of these clinical analytes to predict cancer relapse when quantified for protein products and cognate gene expression. Methods: Database contained 2756 quantified HER2 results by ELISA (Oncogene Sciences) or by EIA (Triton Diagnostics) of which 198 patients had associated clinical outcomes. No definition of HER2-low has been accepted for IHC, although > 50% of biopsies may be categorized as HER2-low (cf. ASCP CE Programs). Microarray results obtained for ~ 22,000 genes using RNA purified from LCM-procured carcinoma cells of 247 primary breast biopsies were analyzed. ESR1, PGR and ERBB2 gene expression levels in 276 biopsies had been validated by RTqPCR. To assess distribution and dispersion of HER2 protein, cumulative relative frequency distribution analyses were employed, focusing on cut-offs within interquartile range. Permutations and combinations of the 3 biomarkers based on IHC definitions (cf. ASCO/CAP Guidelines) were examined. Tertiles and quartiles of data sets were used to explore association between biomarker levels and clinical outcomes. Box plots depicted protein and gene expression levels, Progression-Free Survival (PFS), or Overall Survival (OS) across ER/PR/HER2 categories and compared differences using a Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA Rank Test. Cox regressions were used to contrast hazard ratios among the ER/PR/HER2 groups. Kaplan-Meier plots visualized survival rates among groups and a log-rank test detected statistical discrepancies. We investigated differences between groups for categorical variables using chi-squared tests (Fisher's exact test for non-normally distributed data), while for ordinal variables, ANOVA tests were used (Kruskal-Wallis for non-normally distributed data). Categorical variables were summarized as count (%), and ordinal variables were summarized as median [IQR]. Analyses were performed using R version 4.2.2 (Innocent and Trusting). Results: Neither quantified ER or PR alone nor ER/PR collectively were related to HER2 oncoprotein levels. Influence of menopausal status on biopsy biomarker profiles was investigated. With a median cutoff for HER2 protein, patients with ER+/PR+/HER2+ (TPBC) exhibited increased OS, whereas those with TNBC had decreased OS, of 8 combinations possible. Using tertiles and quartiles, TPBC was exhibited by 34-37% of specimens compared to TNBC, which represented 9.1-12.7% of biopsies when biomarker proteins were quantified. After qPCR data were stratified by ER/PR/HER2 status with a 50% quantile cut for HER2, 39% were TPBC and 10% were TNBC. Using microarray data with the same cutoffs, only 14% were TPBC and 17% were TNBC. Once TPBC were identified by either microarray or by qPCR, increased ESR1, PGR and ERBB2 expression collectively was associated with increased PFS and OS of patients. In general, biopsies that were TNBC or other combinations of biomarker’s gene expression correlated with poorer prognosis and overall survival. Conclusions: Quantifying levels of ER, PR and HER2 proteins as well as of ESR1, PGR and ERBB2 expression were correlated with prediction of clinical outcomes of TNBC, TPBC and patients with other biomarker subsets. Results support quantitative assessment of these biomarkers in biopsies to assess utility of the HER2-low type in personalizing breast cancer management and prediction of risk of relapse. Citation Format: James Wittliff, Michael Daniels. Enhanced Assessment of Clinical Behavior of TNBC and TPBC using Quantified Levels of HER2, Estrogen and Progestin Receptor Proteins and Expression of Their Cognate Genes [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO4-03-08.

تأثير النظام الغذائي والعادات الغذائية على فكي الإنسان قديماً وحديثاً في السودان

Background: The masticatory units are highly affected by diet and dietary habits which are reflected on the jaw size and occlusion. There are morphological differences between the modern population and ancient, like jaws of modern population are smaller, .and project less than those of equivalent sized ancient. Aim: To determine the effect of diet and dietary habits on jaws size (width and length) in both modern and ancient. Method: Across sectional study was done in Khartoum state, comparing ancient from Marawi (albejrawya) and modern population in Khartoum state. 44 samples, 22 jaws of ancient and 22 modern populations participate. The 22 ancient remains were examined and measured directly, while the 22 modern participants filled the diet and dietary questioner then examined orally and the findings recorded on the examination sheet. The jaws measurements for living were done on radiological (OPG&CBCT). Statistical analyses of the data set included univariate analysis to show the relative frequency distribution of each variable on the dental examination sheet. Results: According to the result of overall the median of ancient jaw size maxilla vertical length was 2cm and modern population was1.4cm. The median length of mandible in ancient was 14.1cm and modern population was 13.2cm. The width was 5.2cm in ancient mandible and 4.5cm in modern population mandible. The median width of maxilla ancient was 5.6cm and modern population was 5.3cm.

Melanin granules morphology and distribution in human black hair investigated by focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy: Differences between Asian and Caucasian hair

Melanin granules (melanosomes) in Asian and Caucasian black hairs were investigated by focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM). This technique facilitates a direct evaluation of the three-dimensional distribution and morphology of melanin granules without requiring their isolation from hair. Three-dimensional reconstructed images of melanin granule distribution in hair samples were obtained using serial SEM images observed by FIB-SEM. Melanin granules in black hair tended to be three-dimensionally dense in the outer periphery of the cortex. The morphometric parameters of melanin granules were calculated using the reconstructed three-dimensional images. The results confirmed that melanin granules in Caucasian black hair were much smaller those in Asian black hair. Moreover, it was indicated that the relative frequency distribution of the volume of melanin granules was significantly different between Asians and Caucasians.

Assessing Students Performance Using Neutrosophic Tool

Recently, a lot of educational as well as academic researchers have shown their ultimate interest in educational data mining techniques. Thus, several studies that can definitely contribute to the improvement of the educational process are conducted. The results of this lead to several issues that have to be addressed if the students general academic performances are to be improved. In this paper, we investigate the academic performance of a set of students in their core subjects. This we did by using the concept of the neutrosophic frequency, as well as the neutrosophic relative frequency distribution for the class of scores for the set of students. The results give some form of expectation for their general performance. This case serves as a means to enhance the educational process of the chosen set of students by identifying the students at risk of failure or dropping out and predicting the students' academic level at an early stage to provide the necessary support for the at-risk students.

TEACHER TALK AND STUDENTS TALK IN EFL CLASS ACTIVITY: SECONDARY SCHOOL CONTEXT

The study focuses on the dynamics and types of teacher and student talks in EFL classrooms. It highlights whether teacher or student talk dominates class and impacts students' language acquisition. It was conducted in an Eastern Indonesian secondary school and employed exploratory sequential mixed methods. The data were collected from an English teacher and 32 students through interviews and observations. Thematic analysis and relative frequency distribution table were used for data analysis. The findings showed that teacher talk dominated classroom activities and made student-centred learning lacking, thus affecting students' language acquisition. Various teacher and student talk categories were identified using the Flander Interaction Analysis Category (FIAC) framework. Teacher Talk (TT) involved indirect influences such as accepting feelings, praises or encourages, using students' ideas, and asking questions. The direct influence includes lecture, giving directions, and criticizing students' behaviour. While Student Talk (ST) had students' responses, students-initiated silence and confusion. Implications suggest enhancing teachers' conversation management skills and fostering a more student-centred approach to facilitate students' language practice and participation. Additionally, future researchers who wish to conduct similar research can develop deeper by looking at other aspects that positively impact interaction in the English language classroom.

Generation and evaluation of anatomy-preserving virtual CT for online adaptive proton therapy.

Daily CTs generated by CBCT correction are required for daily replanning in online-adaptive proton therapy (APT) to effectively deal with inter-fractional changes. Out of the currently available methods, the suitability of a daily CT generation method for proton dose calculation also depends on the anatomical site. We propose an anatomy-preserving virtual CT (APvCT) method as a hybrid method of CBCT correction, which is especially suitable for large anatomy deformations. The accuracy of the hybrid method was assessed by comparison with the corrected CBCT (cCBCT) and virtual CT (vCT) methods in the context of online APT. Seventy-one daily CBCTs of four prostate cancer patients treated with intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) were converted to daily CTs using cCBCT, vCT, and the newly proposed APvCT method. In APvCT, planning CT (pCT) were mapped to CBCT geometry using deformable image registration with boundary conditions on controlling regions of interest (ROIs) created with deep learning segmentation on cCBCT. The relative frequency distribution (RFD) of HU, mass density and stopping power ratio (SPR) values were assessed and compared with the pCT. The ROIs in the APvCT and vCT were compared with cCBCT in terms of Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and mean distance-to-agreement (mDTA). For each patient, a robustly optimized IMPT plan was created on the pCT and subsequent daily adaptive plans on daily CTs. For dose distribution comparison on the same anatomy, the daily adaptive plans on cCBCT and vCT were recalculated on the corresponding APvCT. The dose distributions were compared in terms of isodose volumes and 3D global gamma-index passing rate (GPR) at γ(2%, 2mm) criterion. For all patients, no noticeable difference in RFDs was observed amongst APvCT, vCT, and pCT except in cCBCT, which showed a noticeable difference. The minimum DSC value was 0.96 and 0.39 for contours in APvCT and vCT respectively. The average value of mDTA for APvCT was 0.01cm for clinical target volume and ≤0.01cm for organs at risk, which increased to 0.18cm and ≤0.52cm for vCT. The mean GPR value was 90.9%, 64.5%, and 67.0% for APvCT versus cCBCT, vCT versus cCBCT, and APvCT versus vCT, respectively. When recalculated on APvCT, the adaptive cCBCT and vCT plans resulted in mean GPRs of 89.5±5.1% and 65.9±19.1%, respectively. The mean DSC values for 80.0%, 90.0%, 95.0%, 98.0%, and 100.0% isodose volumes were 0.97, 0.97, 0.97, 0.95, and 0.91 for recalculated cCBCT plans, and 0.89, 0.88, 0.87, 0.85, and 0.81 for recalculated vCT plans. Hausdorff distance for the 100.0% isodose volume in some cases of recalculated cCBCT plans on APvCT exceeded 1.00cm. APvCT contours showed good agreement with reference contours of cCBCT which indicates anatomy preservation in APvCT. A vCT with erroneous anatomy can result in an incorrect adaptive plan. Further, slightly lower values of GPR between the APvCT and cCBCT-based adaptive plans can be explained by the difference in the cCBCT's SPR RFD from the pCT.

The chance of freezing – a conceptional study to parameterize temperature-dependent freezing by including randomness of ice-nucleating particle concentrations

Abstract. Ice-nucleating particle concentrations (INPCs) can spread over several orders of magnitude at any given temperature. However, this variability is rarely accounted for in heterogeneous ice-nucleation parameterizations. In this paper, we present an approach to incorporate the random variation in the INPC into the parameterization of immersion freezing and analyze this novel concept with various sensitivity tests. In the new scheme, the INPC is drawn from a relative frequency distribution of cumulative INPCs. At each temperature, this distribution describing the INPCs is expressed as a lognormal frequency distribution. The new parameterization scheme does not require aerosol information from the driving model to represent the heterogeneity of INPCs. The scheme's performance is tested in a large-eddy simulation of a relatively warm Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus. We find that it leads to reasonable ice masses in the cloud, especially when compared to immersion freezing schemes that yield one fixed INPC per temperature and lead to almost no ice production in the simulated cloud. The scheme is sensitive to the median of the frequency distribution and highly sensitive to the standard deviation of the distribution, as well as to the frequency of drawing a new INPC and the resolution of the model. Generally, a higher probability of drawing large INPCs leads to substantially more ice in the simulated cloud. We expose inherent challenges to introducing such a parameterization and explore possible solutions and potential developments.

Influence of Development of Human Capital Competencies on Crises Preparedness in Manufacturing Firms within the Kenya Association of Manufacturers

To survive and thrive in a dynamic and complex competitive environment riddled with crises, manufacturing firms need to enhance their crises preparedness. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of development of human capital competencies on crises preparedness in manufacturing firms within the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM). The research adopted the positivism approach as the research philosophy and utilized descriptive correlational research design. The study population consisted of 783 chief executive officers from the KAM where a sample of 292 was drawn using stratified random sampling technique. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaire whereas descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used to perform data analysis. Descriptive statistics focused on relative frequency distribution, means and standard deviation while inferential statistics included ordinal logistic regression. The study results are presented in form of table and numerical measures with descriptions. The results indicate that development of human capital competencies was a significant predictor of crises preparedness of manufacturing firms (β = 1.025, p < 0.05). The study concludes that development of human capital competencies is vital for the crises preparedness of the manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study recommends to corporate leaders to continually invest in human capital to create a learning organization in harmony with their companies’ purpose, intent, mission and objectives.

Study of Air and Noise Pollution Due to Transportation in Tarnaka

To assess the concentration of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and level of temperature and noise due to transportation vehicles from Secunderabad to Uppal. Road vehicles are primary source of air pollution in urban cities and they also are a considerable source of noise pollution. During this study, pollutants like Carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide were studied besides other parameters like temperature and noise levels were studied for a period of seven days, that is five working and two nonworking days’ from 4th of March till 10th of March 2018, at different time intervals in one of the busiest routes of Hyderabad. The area selected for the study stretches from Secundrabad Railway Station to Uppal Ring Road with ten sampling points. Relative frequency distribution and cumulative relative frequency distribution are used for assessing noise, temperature, CO and CO2 levels. The results of this study identify the status of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and noise pollution. During these days and these different sampling locations, I could come to a conclusion that maximum CO is 12 PPM, CO2 887 PPM, temperature 41℃ and noise is 78 decibels. The study concludes with suggestions for control of air pollution and noise pollution to avoid any health-related issues

Histomorphological Study of Different Ovarian Lessons in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Objective: The present study is to ascertain the relative frequency, histologic types, and age distribution of both neoplastic and non–neoplastic ovarian lesions in the Rajshahi medical college hospitals and compare the results with similar studies in other regions of this country and abroad.
 Methods & Materials: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, Rajshahi Medical College, over one year from January 2021 to December 2021. A total of 144 cases of ovarian lesions were included in this study. Inflammatory conditions and developmental anomalies were excluded.
 Result: Out of 144 cases of ovarian masses studied, 104 (72%) were neoplastic. The common types were Surface epithelial tumors (70%), germ cell tumors (23%), and sex-cord stromal tumors (7%). The age range of ovarian tumors was 5 to 70 yrs, and the highest incidence was between 21-50 yrs. Most of the ovarian tumors were bilateral (85%).
 Conclusion: Varying types of both non-neoplastic and neoplastic ovarian lesions were seen. Benign tumors were more common than malignant tumors in all age groups. Surface epithelial cell tumors, followed by germ cell tumors, were the most common tumor. Serous cystadenoma was the most common tumor. Tumour types varied in different age groups.
 TAJ 2022; 36: No-1: 17-22

Automatic Detection System for Velopharyngeal Insufficiency Based on Acoustic Signals from Nasal and Oral Channels.

Velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) is a type of pharyngeal function dysfunction that causes speech impairment and swallowing disorder. Speech therapists play a key role on the diagnosis and treatment of speech disorders. However, there is a worldwide shortage of experienced speech therapists. Artificial intelligence-based computer-aided diagnosing technology could be a solution for this. This paper proposes an automatic system for VPI detection at the subject level. It is a non-invasive and convenient approach for VPI diagnosis. Based on the principle of impaired articulation of VPI patients, nasal- and oral-channel acoustic signals are collected as raw data. The system integrates the symptom discriminant results at the phoneme level. For consonants, relative prominent frequency description and relative frequency distribution features are proposed to discriminate nasal air emission caused by VPI. For hypernasality-sensitive vowels, a cross-attention residual Siamese network (CARS-Net) is proposed to perform automatic VPI/non-VPI classification at the phoneme level. CARS-Net embeds a cross-attention module between the two branches to improve the VPI/non-VPI classification model for vowels. We validate the proposed system on a self-built dataset, and the accuracy reaches 98.52%. This provides possibilities for implementing automatic VPI diagnosis.

Treatment of Infected Pseudarthrosis of the Tibia Using the Ilizarov Method and the Orr Dressing.

Objective  This study aims to analyze outcomes and clinical and epidemiological data of infected tibial pseudarthrosis using the Ilizarov method and the Orr dressing. Methods  Data from n = 43 patients diagnosed with infected tibial pseudarthrosis were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistical methods. In addition, Paley's assessment criteria evaluated bone and functional outcomes. Qualitative variables were presented as the distribution of absolute and relative frequencies. The presentation of quantitative variables followed the D'Agostino-Pearson test. Results  Thirty-seven (86.04%) subjects were males, and six (13.95%) were females. The most frequent age group among patients was 50 to 59 years old (25.6%), with a p-value = 0.8610. The treatment time was longer for the trifocal treatment (23.8 months) when compared to the bifocal treatment (15.6 months), with a p-value = 0.0010* (highly significant). Excellent bone outcomes represented 72.09% of the sample; 23.25% of outcomes were good. Functional outcomes were excellent in 55.81%, good in 6.97%, and regular in 27.90% of subjects. The Orr dressing (using Vaseline gauze) proved effective, achieving wound healing with soft tissue coverage in all patients evaluated. Conclusions  The Ilizarov method resulted in a substantial change in the treatment of bone infections, especially infected pseudarthrosis. The versatility of this method has turned it into an effective tool, allowing the healing of the infectious process and the correction of potential deformities and shortening.

Profile of Liver Transplant Recipient in a Tertiary Hospital in Northern Spain.

Spain has the highest rates of liver transplantation (LT) per million inhabitants in the world, with the profiles of both donors and recipients in Asturias, a region in northern Spain, being different from the rest of the country. The main goal of this study was to carry out a preliminary analysis of the characteristics of LT recipients in Asturias, as well as of the basic characteristics of surgery and the postoperative period, and to discuss whether the results obtained in this study were comparable to what is described in the literature. This was a retrospective, descriptive, cross-sectional study, analyzing the LT carried out in a reference center of Asturias between 2002 and 2017. Relative and absolute frequency distributions for qualitative variables are provided, as are position and dispersion measures for quantitative variables. Using the multivariate Cox regression model, the prognostic factors associated with overall survival were determined. A total of 533 LTs were analyzed; 431 were men and 102 were women. The mean age was 55.1 years, concentrated between 40 and 69 years for both genders. LT was performed for chronic parenchymal liver disease (mostly of alcoholic etiology) and the recipients underwent surgery in an advanced stage of liver disease. Of these recipients, 8.1% (43 patients) were retransplantions, 65.1% in the first year due to primary graft dysfunction and complete hepatic artery thrombosis. Most patients had presented a grade II of Clavien-Dindo as the most frequent complication. Biliary complications were found in 12.3% of patients, with the main cause of death in the first 30 days being instability in the 24 h after LT. The median survival of the group was 13 years, with a 5-year survival probability of 79.3% and a 10-year survival probability of 61.9%. In view of the analyzed series, it can be concluded that the most frequent recipient profile was a male patient (mean age 55 years), with a significant alcohol habit, who was overweight, with chronic parenchymal liver disease of alcoholic or viral etiology, and who had reached the Child C stage before LT. This study could lay the foundations for future studies, to complete this analysis with the characteristics of LT surgery, its postoperative period, and the follow-up after discharge, to obtain a broader view of LT recipients in this region.

Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma - Nodal and Extranodal: 20-Year Comparative Mortality, Survival & Biologic Behavior Analysis by Age, Sex, Race, Stage, Cell Morphology/Histology, Cohort Entry Time-Period and Disease Duration: A Systematic Review of 384,651 Total NHL Cases Including 261,144 Nodal and 123,507 Extranodal Cases for Diagnosis Years 1975-2016: (SEER*Stat 8.3.6).

-To update trends in incidence and prevalence in the United States of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, examine, compare and contrast short and long-term patterns of survival and mortality, and consider the outcome impacts of anatomic location of NHL nodal and extranodal subdivisions, utilizing selected ICD-O-3 histologic oncotypes stratified by age, sex, race/ethnicity, stage, cell behavioral morphology and histologic typology, cohort entry time-period and disease duration, employing the statistical database of the National Cancer Institute SEER*Stat 8.3.6 program for diagnosis years 1975-2016.4 Methods.- A retrospective, population-based cohort study using nationally representative data from the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program to evaluate 384,651 NHL cases for diagnosis years 1975-2016 comparing multiple variables of age, sex, race, stage, cell behavioral morphology, cohort entry time-period, disease duration and histologic oncotype. Relative survival statistics were analyzed in two cohorts: 1975-1995 and 1996-2016. Survival statistics were derived from SEER*Stat Database: Incidence - SEER 9 Regs Research Data, November 2018 Submission (1975-2016) <Katrina/Rita Population Adjustment> released April 2019, based on the November 2018 submission. - Incidence rates, relative frequency distributions, survival and mortality by age, sex, stage and cell behavioral morphology, of adult nodal (N) and extranodal (EN) NHL in 2 entrant time-periods as recorded in the SEER Program of the National Cancer Institute for diagnosis years 1975-2016 (SEER Stat 8.3.6) are summarized. Shifts in trends over time are identified, and the findings are correlated with prognosis, including short and long-term observed (actual), expected and relative survival, median observed and relative survival, mortality rates and excess death rates per 1000 people. - Trends in SEER incidence, prevalence, survival and mortality by age, sex, race, stage, cell behavioral morphology, cohort entry time-period, relative frequency and percent distribution, were examined to provide a current epidemiologic and medical-actuarial risk assessment framework for nodal (N) and extranodal (EN) non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the 1975-2016 timeframe.

A Study on Error Analysis by Re-entry Overseas Korean Learners

This study aims to identify the interlanguage used by overseas Koreans who re-entered Korea for the purpose of studying Korean and entering domestic college through the methodology of error analysis. In particular, this study intends to systematically analyze the Korean language errors of overseas Koreans according to proficiency variables (beginner, intermediate, and advanced) and discourse medium variables (written and spoken language). To this end, this study made a well-balanced corpus of overseas Korean learners with 13,238 words. The results of this study are as follows: First, as a result of the distribution of relative error frequency, the frequency of errors increases as the proficiency increases, and the frequency of errors in written discourse are about five times higher than in spoken discours. Second, as a result of analyzing the frequency of errors by error location, the errors of general nouns shows the highest frequency even in advanced levels without decreasing. Also, the subjective marker was not a top 5 error in the written discourse, although it was a top 2 error in the spoken discourse. Third, as a result of analyzing the frequency of errors by error type, replacement errors were the most common, which was followed by misform, Addition, and Omission errors. At the intermediate level, the replacement error decreased, while the misform error increased. While the misform errors are rather reduced in spoken discourse, addition and omission errors appear more frequently than in written discourse.

Strategic Direction and Crises Preparedness in Manufacturing Firms within the Kenya Association of Manufacturers in Kenya

The global and local business environment in the twenty first century has become complex and unstable for firms’ strategic leadership, because of rapid development, continuous change, business disruptions, and man-made as well as natural calamities. The purpose of this study was to determine how strategic direction influences crises preparedness in manufacturing firms within the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) in Kenya. The research adopted the positivism approach as the research philosophy and utilized descriptive correlational research design. The study population consisted of 783 chief executive officers from the KAM where a sample of 292 was drawn using stratified random sampling technique. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaire whereas descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used to perform data analysis. Descriptive statistics focused on relative frequency distribution, means and standard deviation. Inferential statistics included Chi-square test for test of association, Kruskal-Wallis H Test and ordinal logistic regression. The study results are presented in form of table and numerical measures with descriptions. The study established that strategic direction had a statistically significant and positive influence on crises preparedness of manufacturing firms (β = 0.345, p &lt; 0.05). Additionally, chi-square findings showed that manufacturing businesses' crises preparedness and strategic direction were significantly associated (χ2 = 40.705, p &lt; 0.05). A statistically significant difference in the mean rankings of crisis preparedness for the different levels of strategic direction of the firms was also found according to the findings of the Kruskal-Wallis H test (H = 18.581, p &lt; 0.05). The study concluded that strategic direction was an essential antecedent of crises preparedness in manufacturing companies in Kenya. The study recommends to corporate leaders to continually investigate and evaluate potential key areas of crises informed by their evolving operating environment when developing their firms’ purpose, intent, vision, mission and objectives.  

Species composition and spatial and temporal distribution of occasional fishes in Haizhou Bay, Shandong, China.

Occasional species are often neglected in community ecology studies due to low abundance and frequence. However, they are closely related to biodiversity maintenance and marine conservation. We used index of relative importance (IRI), distribution center of gravity and Mann-Kendall trend test to elucidate the spatial and temporal distributions and changing trends of occasional fishes in Haizhou Bay based on the fishery resources survey data collected from 2013 to 2019. The occasional fishes in Haizhou Bay was identified based on IRI. Nine of the occasional species were selected to analyze the spatial distribution and interannual trends of relative biomass and occurrence frequency. The results showed that a total of 93 fish species were recorded in the multi-year survey in Haizhou Bay. Among which, 61 species had IRI<10, indicating the existence of a large number of occasional fishes in Haizhou Bay. The nine selected occasional species had distinctive spatial distribution characteristics. Erisphex pottii, Azuma emmnion, and Raja porosa were mainly distributed in the eastern part of Haizhou Bay, with a wide habitat range. Sphyraena pinguis, Coilia nasus, and Zebrias zebra were distributed in the western and southern parts, respectively. The rest species were mainly distributed in the southwestern part. In terms of interannual variation, the biomass and occurrence frequency of Coilia mystus, R. porosa, A. emmnion, and S. pinguis showed fluctuating changes, while Odontamblyopus rubicundus and Ctenotrypauchen microcephalus showed an increasing trend. The biomass and occurrence of Z. zebra, C. nasus and E. pottii gradually decreased with no catch in recent years. This study would contribute to the understanding of the spatial and temporal distribution of occasional species, and provide guidance for the conservation of occasional biological resources and species diversity, especially for the establishment of marine protected areas.

A novel approach to analyze the association characteristics between post-spliced introns and their corresponding mRNA.

Studies have shown that post-spliced introns promote cell survival when nutrients are scarce, and intron loss/gain can influence many stages of mRNA metabolism. However, few approaches are currently available to study the correlation between intron sequences and their corresponding mature mRNA sequences. Here, based on the results of the improved Smith-Waterman local alignment-based algorithm method (SW method) and binding free energy weighted local alignment algorithm method (BFE method), the optimal matched segments between introns and their corresponding mature mRNAs in Caenorhabditis elegans (C.elegans) and their relative matching frequency (RF) distributions were obtained. The results showed that although the distributions of relative matching frequencies on mRNAs obtained by the BFE method were similar to the SW method, the interaction intensity in 5'and 3'untranslated regions (UTRs) regions was weaker than the SW method. The RF distributions in the exon-exon junction regions were comparable, the effects of long and short introns on mRNA and on the five functional sites with BFE method were similar to the SW method. However, the interaction intensity in 5'and 3'UTR regions with BFE method was weaker than with SW method. Although the matching rate and length distribution shape of the optimal matched fragment were consistent with the SW method, an increase in length was observed. The matching rates and the length of the optimal matched fragments were mainly in the range of 60%-80% and 20-30bp, respectively. Although we found that there were still matching preferences in the 5'and 3'UTR regions of the mRNAs with BFE, the matching intensities were significantly lower than the matching intensities between introns and their corresponding mRNAs with SW method. Overall, our findings suggest that the interaction between introns and mRNAs results from synergism among different types of sequences during the evolutionary process.

Octave illusion: stimulation frequencies can modulate perception.

The octave illusion (Deutsch, 1974) is a well-known auditory illusion elicited by presenting a dichotic sequence of two tones separated by an octave during which the high and low tones alternate between both ears. This illusion engages an important mechanism of auditory perception, which is pitch perception. Previous studies used central frequencies of the useful musical spectrum to elicit the illusion. However, these studies did not cover part of that spectrum where musical pitch perception decreases (below 200 and above 1600Hz). The present study aimed to investigate how the relative frequency distribution of percepts changes across a greater proportion of the musical scale to better understand the influence of pitch on illusion perception. Participants were presented with 7 pairs of frequencies from 40-80Hz to 2000-4000Hz and had to select a choice (octave, simple, complex) corresponding to their perception. When using pairs of stimuli towards the upper and lower boundaries of the selected range: (1) distributions of percepts significantly differ from the classic 400-800Hz, (2) the octave percept was reported less frequently, particularly at very low frequencies. Results from this study revealed that the illusion perception differs significantly at the low and high limits of the musical spectrum where reduced accuracy of pitch perception is known to occur. These results support past studies who investigated pitch perception. Furthermore, these results support the model proposed by Deutsch where pitch perception is one of the central frameworks of illusion perception.