1,720,955 research outputs found
Digitization in Africa: The Adoption and Use of Self-Service Technology in Retail
No full textService delivery in the twenty-first generation is evolving into more digital forms expanding the consumers' experience and engaging in new forms of communications to consumers through these digital forms. Despite the initiation of self- service technology being widely accepted by consumers within the retail banking industry, the supermarket retail industry has yet to experience the same form of reception and implementation of the self- service technologies (SST). South Africa, being a developing country, any conventions that lead to the country’s progression should be embraced. Thus, the introduction of SST within retail is assumed to enhance consumer's experiences, these technologies open the prospects to generate possibilities for producing new services and enhancing efficiency.The study aimed at evaluating factors of perception through the employment of a conceptualized framework from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). An understanding of why SSTs in retail have not been widely implemented would respond to the challenges associated with the adoption of SSTs from a consumer’s perspective. The findings, from a questionnaire survey posed, revealed that there is a high expression on the intention of using the technologies should the opportunity presents itself. Most of the participants exhibited a high familiarity with the self-service technologies, online purchasing, and self- check- out services, thus the measure of intent resulted in a high margin
Investigating the susceptibility of Enterobacter xiangfangensis Pb204 to various silver(I) phosphine compounds and identifying the molecular basis of resistance though comparative genomics
No full textA dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science (Molecular and Cell Biology) to the Faculty of Science, School of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023.In developing countries, the endemic of nosocomial infections is notably high, particularly in the ICU settings and neonatal infections, where it accounts for a prevalence of 15.5% with an increased mortality rate. ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter species) pathogens are highly virulent and resistant microbes that predominantly causes nosocomial infections in clinical settings. These pathogens adhere to the surface of hospital equipment and form biofilms, thereby increasing the susceptibility of patients to acquiring such infections during extended hospital stays. Recent studies have shown that Enterobacter xiangfangensis is the main clinical culprit in the Enterobacter cloacae complex, thus making it the main therapeutic target among the ESKAPE pathogens. This study evaluated the antimicrobial properties of various silver(I) phosphine compounds on E. xiangfangensis Pb204 and E. xiangfangensis LMG 27195T. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assay was done, though the microdilution technique coupled with iodonitrotetrazolium chloride (INT) dye. The antibiofilm activity of the silver(I) phosphine compounds on biofilm formation and degradation were evaluated using the crystal violet assay, and the metabolic activity of cells in biofilms was assessed using the XTT assay. Additionally, the molecular mechanism of silver resistance was investigated by measuring gene expression of E. xiangfangensis Pb204 cells when treated with the silver(I) phosphine compound UJ1, silver nitrate and silver sulfadiazine using RT-qPCR. The MIC of the silver(I) phosphine compounds was 0.125 mg/ml for both E. xiangfangensis Pb204 and E. xiangfangensis LMG 27195T. Moreover, the compound UJ1 showed a bactericidal effect against E. xiangfangensis LMG 27195. Furthermore, the silver(I) phosphine compounds have antibiofilm activity since they inhibit biofilm formation, disrupt matured biofilms, and reduce metabolic activity in E. xiangfangensis Pb204 and E. xiangfangensis LMG 27195T biofilms. The resistance in E. xiangfangensis Pb204 strain is due to the upregulation of the silver resistance pathway encoded on the integrative and conjugative element (ICE) element. Core and unique protein coding genes between E. xiangfangensis Pb204 and E. xiangfangensis LMG 27195T were identified though comparative genomics. Functional annotation of core and unique protein revealed that E. xiangfangensis Pb204 evolved to gain genetic material coding for inorganic ion transport and carbohydrate transport metabolism. Knowledge of these can be used in future studies in the utilization of silver metals as antimicrobial agents.National Research Foundation (NRF).MM202
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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