Outsourcing Strategy as a Viable Determinant of Organizational Performance: Evidence from Telecommunication Companies in Nigeria

The study aimed to determine how outsourcing core functions influence performance in relation to cost reduction, risk reduction, quality improvement and organizational efficiency of selected companies in the Nigeria telecommunications sector. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study, and census survey was used in determining the population made up 88 management and technical staff that are involved in outsourcing decisions and implementation. Structured questionnaires was used for data collection, and SPSS tool was used to quantitatively analyze the   data   using regression analysis to establish the relationship between outsourcing core functions, and performance of the organizations looking at cost reduction, risk reduction, quality improvement and organizational efficiency. The outcome indicated a strong positive relationship between Cost reduction and performance, weak positive relationship between Quality improvement, Organizational efficiency and performance, and a moderate positive relationship between Risk Reduction and performance The study therefore recommends that companies should concentrate on their core functions for competitive advantage and sustainability, and outsource non-core functions to free resources for value optimization, Firms should monitor outsourcing contracts for better performance, and conduct situational analysis before taking outsourcing decisions irrespective of whether they are core or non-core functions for efficiency and value optimization. Keywords: Core functions, Cost Reduction Non- core functions, Outsourcing, Performance. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-2-11 Publication date: January 31st 2020

Parton distribution functions and quark orbital motion

Covariant version of the quark-parton model is studied. Dependence of the structure functions and parton distributions on the 3D quark intrinsic motion is discussed. The important role of the quark orbital momentum, which is a particular case of intrinsic motion, appears as a direct consequence of the covariant description. Effect of orbital motion is substantial especially for polarized structure functions. At the same time, the procedure for obtaining the quark momentum distributions of polarized quarks from the combination of polarized and unpolarized structure functions is suggested.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Paper is accepted for publication in Eur.Phys.J.

Maternal serum concentrations of pregnancy associated placental protein A and pregnancy specific β-1-glycoprotein in multifetal pregnancies before and after fetal reduction

Placental function in multifetal pregnancies before and after embryo reduction was investigated by measuring maternal serum concentrations of pregnancy associated placental protein-A (PAPP-A) and pregnancy specific β-1-glycoprotein (SP-1). Three groups of pregnant women were studied following assisted reproduction; groups 1 and 2, were 12 singleton and 12 twin pregnancies respectively, and group 3 comprised 12 women with multifetal pregnancies undergoing embryo reduction. PAPP-A and SP-1 were measured serially at 8-21 weeks gestation. In all pregnancies, maternal serum PAPP-A and SP-1 increased with gestation. In twin pregnancies the mean concentrations of SP-1 were significantly higher than in singletons at all gestations, whereas for PAPP-A, concentrations were similar between these groups. In multifetal pregnancies before embryo reduction, the serum concentrations of both proteins were significantly higher than in twin pregnancies. Following reduction, the concentrations of PAPP-A remained significantly higher than for twins throughout, whereas the concentrations of SP-1 gradually converged towards those of twins; by 19 weeks there was no difference between the means of the two groups. These findings suggest that circulating concentrations of SP-1 reflect total placenta mass, which is proportional to the number of live fetuses, whereas the pattern of PAPP-A changes suggests that this protein is produced by the placenta, decidua and other tissue

Provider-initiated symptom screening for tuberculosis in Zimbabwe: diagnostic value and the effect of HIV status.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the diagnostic value of provider-initiated symptom screening for tuberculosis (TB) and how HIV status affects it. METHODS: We performed a secondary analysis of randomly selected participants in a community-based TB-HIV prevalence survey in Harare, Zimbabwe. All completed a five-symptom questionnaire and underwent sputum TB culture and HIV testing. We calculated the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of various symptoms and used regression analysis to investigate the relationship between symptoms and TB disease. FINDINGS: We found one or more symptoms of TB in 21.2% of 1858 HIV-positive (HIV+) and 9.9% of 7121 HIV-negative (HIV-) participants (P or = 2 weeks' duration, any symptom and a positive sputum culture had sensitivities of 48%, 81% and 65%, respectively; in HIV- participants, the sensitivities were 45%, 71% and 74%, respectively. Symptoms had a similar sensitivity and specificity in HIV+ and HIV- participants, but in HIV+ participants they had a higher positive and a lower negative predictive value. CONCLUSION: Even smear-positive TB may be missed by provider-initiated symptom screening, especially in HIV+ individuals. Symptom screening is useful for ruling out TB, but better TB diagnostics are urgently needed for resource-poor settings

Association between the acute to chronic workload ratio and injury occurrence in young male team soccer players: a preliminary study

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the acute to chronic workload ratio (ACWR), based upon participant session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE), using two models [(1) rolling averages (ACWR(RA)); and (2) exponentially weighted moving averages (ACWR(EWMA))] and the injury rate in young male team soccer players aged 17.1 +/- 0.7 years during a competitive mesocycle. Twenty-two players were enrolled in this study and performed four training sessions per week with 2 days of recovery and 1 match day per week. During each training session and each weekly match, training time and sRPE were recorded. In addition, training impulse (TRIMP), monotony, and strain were subsequently calculated. The rate of injury was recorded for each soccer player over a period of 4 weeks (i.e., 28 days) using a daily questionnaire. The results showed that over the course of the study, the number of non-contact injuries was significantly higher than that for contact injuries (2.5 vs. 0.5,p= 0.01). There were also significant positive correlations between sRPE and training time (r= 0.411,p= 0.039), ACWR(RA)(r= 0.47,p= 0.049), and ACWR(EWMA)(r= 0.51,p= 0.038). In addition, small-to-medium correlations were detected between ACWR and non-contact injury occurrence (ACWR(RA),r= 0.31,p= 0.05; ACWR(EWMA),r= 0.53,p= 0.03). Explained variance (r(2)) for non-contact injury was significantly greater using the ACWR(EWMA)model (ranging between 21 and 52%) compared with ACWR(RA)(ranging between 17 and 39%). In conclusion, the results of this study showed that the ACWR(EWMA)model is more sensitive than ACWR(RA)to identify non-contact injury occurrence in male team soccer players during a short period in the competitive season

Ameloblastic Fibrosarcoma: Clinicopathological and Molecular Analysis of 7 Cases Highlighting Frequent BRAF and Occasional NRAS Mutations

n/

Association Between the Acute to Chronic Workload Ratio and Injury Occurrence in Young Male Team Soccer Players: A Preliminary Study

[EN] This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the acute to chronic workload ratio (ACWR), based upon participant session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE), using two models [(1) rolling averages (ACWRRA); and (2) exponentially weighted moving averages (ACWREWMA)] and the injury rate in young male team soccer players aged 17.1 ± 0.7 years during a competitive mesocycle. Twenty-two players were enrolled in this study and performed four training sessions per week with 2 days of recovery and 1 match day per week. During each training session and each weekly match, training time and sRPE were recorded. In addition, training impulse (TRIMP), monotony, and strain were subsequently calculated. The rate of injury was recorded for each soccer player over a period of 4 weeks (i.e., 28 days) using a daily questionnaire. The results showed that over the course of the study, the number of non-contact injuries was significantly higher than that for contact injuries (2.5 vs. 0.5, p = 0.01). There were also significant positive correlations between sRPE and training time (r = 0.411, p = 0.039), ACWRRA (r = 0.47, p = 0.049), and ACWREWMA (r = 0.51, p = 0.038). In addition, small-to-medium correlations were detected between ACWR and non-contact injury occurrence (ACWRRA, r = 0.31, p = 0.05; ACWREWMA, r = 0.53, p = 0.03). Explained variance (r2) for non-contact injury was significantly greater using the ACWREWMA model (ranging between 21 and 52%) compared with ACWRRA (ranging between 17 and 39%). In conclusion, the results of this study showed that the ACWREWMA model is more sensitive than ACWRRA to identify non-contact injury occurrence in male team soccer players during a short period in the competitive season.The authors acknowledge the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and Open Access Publishing Fund of the University of Potsdam, Germany.We gratefully appreciate the athletes who participated in this study

Stationary Distribution and Eigenvalues for a de Bruijn Process

We define a de Bruijn process with parameters n and L as a certain continuous-time Markov chain on the de Bruijn graph with words of length L over an n-letter alphabet as vertices. We determine explicitly its steady state distribution and its characteristic polynomial, which turns out to decompose into linear factors. In addition, we examine the stationary state of two specializations in detail. In the first one, the de Bruijn-Bernoulli process, this is a product measure. In the second one, the Skin-deep de Bruin process, the distribution has constant density but nontrivial correlation functions. The two point correlation function is determined using generating function techniques.Comment: Dedicated to Herb Wilf on the occasion of his 80th birthda

Total plasma magnesium, zinc, copper and selenium concentrations in obese patients before and after bariatric surgery

Funding: This work was supported by the British Heart Foundation (grant code: FS/20/3/34956).Obesity enhances the risk of type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and inflammatory conditions and often leads to metal dyshomeostasis, which contributes to the negative health aspects associated with the disease. In severe cases, bariatric surgery can be recommended to achieve sustained weight loss and improvement in health. Here, magnesium, zinc, copper and selenium concentrations were examined in 24 obese patients (7 males; 17 females) before and 9 months after undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. All patients lost weight over this period, with the mean BMI reducing from 51.2±7.1 kg/m2 to 37.2±5.5 kg/m2. Moreover, whole-blood glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), as a marker of average glycaemia, was also measured and a correlative analysis of this parameter with metal concentrations performed. Significant alterations in the plasma concentrations of magnesium, zinc (both increased by 13.2% and 25.2% respectively) and copper (decreased by 7.9%) were observed over this period (plasma selenium concentration was unchanged), with BMI values correlating with plasma magnesium (p=0.004) and zinc (p=0.022) concentrations. At 9 months post-surgery, an increase in mean zinc/copper ratio was observed (0.86±0.29 compared to 0.63±0.14 pre-surgery). Comparison of whole-blood HbA1c concentrations pre- and post-surgery revealed a reduction from 6.50±1.28% pre-surgery to 5.51±0.49% post-surgery. Differences in plasma HbA1c and magnesium at either pre- and post-surgery correlated significantly, as did HbA1c and magnesium levels when pre- and post-surgery values were analysed together. Collectively, this work reveals that bariatric surgery, in conjunction with lifestyle/dietary changes, lead to improvements in the nutritional status of magnesium, zinc and copper. Furthermore, the observed improvements in magnesium and zinc were associated with weight loss and in the case of magnesium, to better glycaemic control.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe