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The Author\u27s Series
No full textModerator: Daphine Priscilla Brown-Jack
Guest Panelist: Carlos Wallace
Guest Panelist: Rachel B-Fo
A Country in the Throes of Crime: A Theoretical Focus on the Complexities of Kidnapping in Nigeria
Get PDFRelying mainly on review of relevant literature to obtain necessary data and information, this research theoretically explored the intricacies of kidnapping in Nigeria. Relative deprivation, frustration-aggression and routine activities theories were integrated to dissect the problem. We found evidence to justify the fact that the crime is on the increase because of the general porous security network and systemic poor economic situation, such as high poverty, unemployment and underemployment rates and their resultant frustration and aggression. Empirical evidence further revealed that politicians equip many jobless, deprived and frustrated youths with lethal weapons during electioneering against their opponents. And many of them were neither disarmed nor engaged in life-improving legitimate livelihood after elections. Thus, availability of arms and ammunition, exposure to aggression and violent behavior, coupled with untold hardship, idleness and lack of capable guardianship, become predisposing factors to kidnapping. It is on this premised that we reached the conclusion that there is a dire need to develop a strong pathway and comprehensive, informative lead/reference material that can assist the government and its policymakers, security agencies and even members of the public in grappling with the complexities of kidnapping. Issues raised suggest a policy direction: that improved general standard of living, particularly meaningful youth socioeconomic empowerment and prosocial political engagements of youths, will suffice in curbing the menace
The Role of Strategic Human Capital Management in the Performance of Federal Agencies
Get PDFThe current human capital crisis, compounded by tumultuous workforce conditions in the public sector, holds consequential implications for governmental performance. As a result, scholarship has emerged emphasizing the importance of strategic human capital management (SHCM), which is explicitly intended to curtail organizational instability and concurrently improve performance levels. There is, however, a paucity of empirical research testing whether SHCM does, in fact, influence performance in public sector organizations. In an effort to fill this gap in the literature, this study tests for such a relationship in an analysis of agencies throughout the U.S. federal government. Using data from a large sample of federal employees, within 45 agencies, hierarchical linear modeling results reveal that SHCM holds a significantly positive relationship with performance measures at the employee level, although agency level results are less conclusive. Nevertheless, findings provide foundational quantitative evidence that the performance related benefits of SHCM are generalizable to the public workforce and transcend sector boundaries
A UHPLC-MS/MS method for the quantification of JIB-04 in rat plasma: Development, validation and application to pharmacokinetics study
No full textMethylation of lysine by histone methyltransferases can be reversed by lysine demethylases (KDMs). Different KDMs have distinct oncogenic functions based on their cellular localization, stimulating cancer cell proliferation, reducing the expression of tumor suppressors, and/or promoting the development of drug resistance. JIB-04 is a small molecule that pan-selectively inhibits KDMs, showing maximal inhibitory activity against KDM5A, and as secondary targets, KDM4D/4B/4A/6B/4C. Recently, it was found that JIB-04 also potently and selectively blocks HIV-1 Tat expression, transactivation, and virus replication in T cell lines via the inhibition of a new target, serine hydroxymethyltransferase 2. Pharmacokinetic characterization and an analytical method for the quantification of JIB-04 are necessary for the further development of this small molecule. Herein, a sensitive, specific, fast and reliable UHPLC-MS/MS method for the quantification of JIB-04 in rat plasma samples was developed and fully validated using a SCIEX 6500+ triple QUAD LC–MS system equipped with an ExionLC UHPLC unit. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a reverse phase ACE Excel 2 Super C18 column with a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min under gradient elution. The calibration curves were linear (r2 \u3e 0.999) over concentrations from 0.5 to 1000 ng/mL. The accuracy (RE%) was between -7.4% and 3.7%, and the precision (CV%) was 10.2% or less. The stability data showed that no significant degradation occurred under the experimental conditions. This method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of JIB-04 in rat plasma after intravenous and oral administration and the oral bioavailability of JIB-04 was found to be 44.4%
Trends in Appendicitis Among Pregnant Women, the Risk for Cardiac Arrest, and Maternal–Fetal Mortality
Get PDFBackground: Appendicitis is the most common extra-uterine surgical emergency requiring immediate intervention during pregnancy. However, risks for mortality and morbidity among pregnant women with appendicitis remain poorly understood. This study was conducted to determine the temporal trends of appendicitis in pregnant women, and to calculate the risk of maternal–fetal mortality and near-miss marker (i.e., cardiac arrest) among pregnant women in general, and by race/ethnicity. Methods: We conducted this retrospective study using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) from January 1, 2002, through December 31, 2015. Joinpoint regression was used to estimate and describe temporal changes in the rates of all and acute appendicitis during the 14-year study period. We also estimated the risk of cardiac arrest, maternal, and fetal mortality among mothers of various racial/ethnic groups with a diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Within each group, patients without acute appendicitis were the referent category. Results and conclusions: Out of the 58 million pregnancy hospitalizations during the study period, 63,145 cases (10.74 per 10,000 hospitalizations) were for acute appendicitis. There was a 5% decline (95% CI: − 5.1, − 5.0) in the rate of appendicitis hospitalizations over the period of the study. After adjusting for covariates, pregnant mothers with acute appendicitis had increased likelihood when compared to those without acute appendicitis to suffer fetal loss (OR: 2.05, 95% CI: 1.85–2.28) and nearly fivefold increase for inpatient maternal death. In conclusion, appendicitis during pregnancy remains an important cause of in-hospital maternal–fetal mortality overall and regardless of race/ethnicity
Short-term intersection traffic flow forecasting
Get PDFThe intersection is a bottleneck in an urban roadway network. As traffic demand increases, there is a growing congestion problem at urban intersections. Short-term traffic flow forecasting is crucial for advanced trip planning and traffic management. However, there are only a handful of existing models for forecasting intersection traffic flow. In addition, previous short-term traffic flow forecasting models usually were for predicting roadway conditions in a very short period, such as one minute or five minutes, which is often too late given that a driver may well be approaching the bottleneck already. Being able to accurately predict traffic congestions in about half-hour advance is very critical for advanced trip planning and traffic management. To fill this gap, this research develops a two-layer stacking model for intersection short-term traffic flow forecasting by integrating the K-nearest neighbor (KNN) and Elman Neural Network modeling methods. It was developed using the 24-h cycle by cycle traffic data collected at a signalized intersection in Jinan, China. The developed model is evaluated by applying it to the same intersection for forecasting the short-term traffic conditions in a different set of days. The prediction performance of this model was compared with four other models developed using some existing non-parametric modeling and machine learning methods, including clustering, backpropagation (BP) neural network, KNN, and Elman Neural Network. The results of this study indicate that the proposed model outperforms other existing models in terms of its prediction accuracy
An Evaluation of Three Online Chatbots
Get PDFChatbots enable machines to emulate human conversation. While research has been done to examine how human-like communication with chatbots can be, heretofore comparisons of the systems with humans have not accounted for abnormal behavior from the users. For example, the people using the chatbot might be lying or trying to, in turn, imitate a computer’s response. Results of a study comparing transcripts from three chatbots and two humans show that student evaluators were able to correctly identify two computer transcripts, but failed on one. Further, they incorrectly guessed that one of the humans was a chatbot. The study also presents a detailed analysis of the 11 responses from the agents
Responsive Management: Municipal Leadership for an Aging Population
Get PDFThis article focuses on the responsive management of municipal leadership by identifying organizational and community values that affect age friendly policy making. The data comes from a sample of 1050 cities extracted from a national list of cities identified as place geography on the U.S. census list of geographies. The web-based questionnaire explored policy choices of 331 respondents in the areas of mobility, housing, the built environment, and public service delivery administered between May and August 2016. The institutionalization of the needs of an aging population in city management principles results in high levels of age friendly policy action by cities. Public advocacy on aging issues enhances the impact on local policy-making. Safeguarding of public interest through city management suggests municipalities may adjust procedurally to respond to the needs of an aging population. Public managers may find opportunities to facilitate increased policy action and services to support a growing older adult population. There are implications for older people to age in place when their community lacks municipal leadership on aging in place policies and older people have limited voice on aging issues
Freeman Honors Newsletter, Spring/Summer 2020 Issue
Get PDFSpring/Summer 2020 Newsletterhttps://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/freeman_honors/1001/thumbnail.jp