Evaluating the Comprehension of Euler Diagrams

We describe an empirical investigation into layout criteria that can help with the comprehension of Euler diagrams. Euler diagrams are used to represent set inclusion in applications such as teaching set theory, database querying, software engineering, filing system organisation and bio-informatics. Research in automatically laying out Euler diagrams for use with these applications is at an early stage, and our work attempts to aid this research by informing layout designers about the importance of various Euler diagram aesthetic criteria. The three criteria under investigation were: contour jaggedness, zone area inequality and edge closeness. Subjects were asked to interpret diagrams with different combinations of levels for each of the criteria. Results for this investigation indicate that, within the parameters of the study, all three criteria are important for understanding Euler diagrams and we have a preliminary indication of the ordering of their importance

LabelFusion: A Pipeline for Generating Ground Truth Labels for Real RGBD Data of Cluttered Scenes

Deep neural network (DNN) architectures have been shown to outperform traditional pipelines for object segmentation and pose estimation using RGBD data, but the performance of these DNN pipelines is directly tied to how representative the training data is of the true data. Hence a key requirement for employing these methods in practice is to have a large set of labeled data for your specific robotic manipulation task, a requirement that is not generally satisfied by existing datasets. In this paper we develop a pipeline to rapidly generate high quality RGBD data with pixelwise labels and object poses. We use an RGBD camera to collect video of a scene from multiple viewpoints and leverage existing reconstruction techniques to produce a 3D dense reconstruction. We label the 3D reconstruction using a human assisted ICP-fitting of object meshes. By reprojecting the results of labeling the 3D scene we can produce labels for each RGBD image of the scene. This pipeline enabled us to collect over 1,000,000 labeled object instances in just a few days. We use this dataset to answer questions related to how much training data is required, and of what quality the data must be, to achieve high performance from a DNN architecture

QUALITY OF WORK LIFE, PERSONALITY, JOB SATISFACTION, COMPETENCE, AND JOB PERFORMANCE: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The success of any organization is highly dependent on how it attracts recruits, motivates, and retains a high performing workforce. Explaining the factors that influence employee performance remains a fundamental question for human resources management practitioners. The expectancy theories of Vroom, Porter, and Lawler, assert that employee performance depends not only on the amount of effort exerted, but also on the intervening influences of factors such as person’s abilities and traits, as well as their role perceptions. Researchers also suggest that a range of organizational and employee factors could impact employee performance. These include Quality of work life, ability, effort, motivation, attitude, personality, competence, and job satisfaction. This study looked at selected employee related factors, namely: employee personality, job satisfaction, and competence. QWL was included because organizations are known to adopt a strategy for improving employees’ Quality of Work Life (QWL) with the aim of satisfying both the organizational objectives and the needs of the employee. On the other hand, successful organizations consider job satisfaction to be important for work performance. However, job satisfaction alone cannot lead to performance. Having the right competences is important for performance. This review therefore seeks to investigate the employee related factors that influence the relationship between quality of work life and employee’s performance

QUALITY OF WORK LIFE, PERSONALITY, JOB SATISFACTION, COMPETENCE, AND JOB PERFORMANCE: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The success of any organization is highly dependent on how it attracts recruits, motivates, and retains a high performing workforce. Explaining the factors that influence employee performance remains a fundamental question for human resources management practitioners. The expectancy theories of Vroom, Porter, and Lawler, assert that employee performance depends not only on the amount of effort exerted, but also on the intervening influences of factors such as person’s abilities and traits, as well as their role perceptions. Researchers also suggest that a range of organizational and employee factors could impact employee performance. These include Quality of work life, ability, effort, motivation, attitude, personality, competence, and job satisfaction. This study looked at selected employee related factors, namely: employee personality, job satisfaction, and competence. QWL was included because organizations are known to adopt a strategy for improving employees’ Quality of Work Life (QWL) with the aim of satisfying both the organizational objectives and the needs of the employee. On the other hand, successful organizations consider job satisfaction to be important for work performance. However, job satisfaction alone cannot lead to performance. Having the right competences is important for performance. This review therefore seeks to investigate the employee related factors that influence the relationship between quality of work life and employee’s performance

Actinopolyspora saharensis sp. nov., a novel halophilic actinomycete isolated from a Saharan soil of Algeria

A novel halophilic actinomycete, strain H32T,was isolated froma Saharan soil sample collected in El-Oued province, south Algeria. The isolate was characterized by means of polyphasic taxonomy. Optimal growth was determined to occur at 28–32°C, pH 6.0–7.0 and in the presence of 15–25 %(w/v) NaCl. The strain was observed to produce abundant aerial mycelium, which formed long chains of rod-shaped spores at maturity, and fragmented substrate mycelium. The cell wall was determined to contain meso-diaminopimelic acid and the characteristic whole-cell sugars were arabinose and galactose. The predominant menaquinoneswere found to beMK-10(H4) andMK-9(H4). The predominant cellular fatty acids were determined to be anteiso C17:0, iso-C15:0 and iso-C16:0. The diagnostic phospholipid detected was phosphatidylcholine. Phylogenetic analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that this strain formed a distinct phyletic line within the radiation of the genus Actinopolyspora. The 16S rRNAgene sequence similarity indicated that strain H32T was most closely related to ‘Actinopolyspora algeriensis’ DSM 45476T (98.8 %) and Actinopolyspora halophila DSM 43834T (98.5 %). Furthermore, the result of DNA–DNA hybridization between strain H32T and the type strains ‘A. algeriensis’ DSM45476T, A. halophila DSM 43834T and Actinopolyspora mortivallis DSM 44261T demonstrated that this isolate represents a different genomic species in the genus Actinopolyspora. Moreover, the physiological and biochemical data allowed the differentiation of strain H32T from its closest phylogenetic neighbours. Therefore, it is proposed that strain H32T represents a novel species of the genus Actinopolyspora, for which the name Actinopolyspora saharensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is H32T (=DSM 45459T=CCUG 62966T)

Organizational Performance and Chief Executive Officer’s (CEO’s) Compensation for Firms Listed in Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya

This study examined the link between organizational performance and CEO’S compensation of firms listed at the NSE. Past studies on the determinants of CEO’S compensation revealed a lack of consensus to the explanation of increases in CEO’S compensation. While most of the studies confirm linkages between organizational performance and CEO’S compensation, they measured organizational performance using financial indicators of performance, the current study investigates the relationship between organizational performance and CEO’S compensation but differs from the previous studies by expanding the measures of organizational performance to include the balanced scorecard measures of performance. The theoretical foundations of this study were based on agency theory. The study’s population constituted 60 firms listed at the NSE. Descriptive crossectional survey was adopted for this study. Both Primary and Secondary data were used to gather information required for the study. Descriptive statistics and regression were used to analyze and interpret the collected data. The study revealed that there wassignificant and positive relationship between organizational performance and CEO’S compensation. The findings of this study are of benefit to board members of organizations in identifying the performance measures that are important to consider when making decisions on CEO’S compensation

Parental Support and Boys’ Retention in Public Primary Schools in Kenya

Parents are the primary educators for the children. Their involvement in the education of the children can determine the value attached to education by the children. Keeping children in school until the completion of an education cycle is important for the attainment of educational goals. It has been noted that the retention of boys in primary school among the pastoralists in Kenya is declining. This study sought to address this concern by establishing the influence of parental support on the retention of boys in public primary schools in West Pokot County. The study employed a mixed methods approach to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The study targeted 663 head teachers, 790 class-teachers and 6861 class eight boys in all the 663 public primary schools in West Pokot Count and 5 sub-county quality assurance officers who were purposively selected. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis while qualitative data was analyzed using thematic content analysis and narrations. The study found out that lack of parental support in terms of parental involvement in boys’ schooling, engagement in child labour, negative parental attitude, parental illiteracy and inadequate provision of learning materials was a major impediment to boys’ retention. The regression model showed that the influence of parental support was statistically significant at α= 0.000 (p˂ 0.05). This led to the conclusion that parental support influenced boys’ retention in school. The study recommends that the government of Kenya through the Ministry of Education should formulate educational policies that aim to promote direct parental involvement in boys’ education, the County government of West Pokot should encourage initiatives by the community and civil rights organizations to create awareness on the importance of education and repercussions of low retention of boys in school. Keywords: Parental support, Pastoralists, Retention, Culture, Education, Boy DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-31-07 Publication date: November 30th 202

The solute-rich mesoscopic precursors of crystal nuclei of olanzapine solid forms

Olanzapine (OZPN) is a BCS class II drug used to treat schizophrenia (bipolar disorder). OZPN exhibits rich solid-state diversity. To date, 60 distinct forms have been identified, including 3 polymorphs (I, II, III), 52 crystalline solvates, 3 dihydrates (DB, DD, DE), a disordered higher hydrate, plus an amorphous form. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) results suggest that the nucleation of OZPN DD on the surface of OZPN I in water may follow a non-classical mechanisms that includes formation of solute-rich mesoscopic clusters [1]. Since the solubility of OZPN I in water is very low, the kinetics of transformation are difficult to monitor. To increase the solubility of OZPN I, we added different ratios of a co-solvent, ethanol. AFM observations revealed that clusters similar to those seen in purely aqueous environments are present on the surface of OZPN:EtOH:H2O crystals in contact with both supersaturated and undersaturated EtOH/H2O solutions. To establish the mechanism of cluster formation, we monitored the dependence of the cluster size and volume fraction on time, OZPN concentration, and co-solvent concentration using Brownian Microscopy (BM). The characteristics of the cluster population were correlated with the standard enthalpy, entropy and free energy of crystallization obtained from temperature dependence of the solubility of OZPN:EtOH:H2O crystals. We verified, using small angle x-ray scattering, that the crystal form was preserved at all solvent compositions. We observed that the cluster radius was constant, at R ≈ 37 nm, in all solvent compositions tested and at all times. The volume of the cluster population φ mapped the non-monotonic dependence of the crystallization enthalpy on the EtOH content, indicating that φ is determined by the thermodynamics of the solute-solvent interactions. The decoupled behaviour of R suggests that, in contrast to φ, the cluster size is kinetically determined. These conclusions comply with the prediction of a model of mesoscopic solvent rich clusters, based on formation of transient solute oligomers in the solutions [3]. These are the first observations of solute-rich clusters in solutions of pharmaceutically active compounds and of their role in the nucleation of crystals and the transformations between crystal forms. The suggested cluster formation mechanism may point to means to control these behaviours that are crucial for the properties of pharmaceutical preparations.  References:[1] M. Warzecha, R. Guo, R. M. Bhardwaj, S. M. Reutzel-Edens, S. L. Price, D. Lamprou and A. J. Florence, In preparation 2017.[2] Gebauer, D., Kellermeier, M., Gale, J. D., Bergström, L. & Cölfen, H. Pre-nucleation clusters as solute precursors in crystallisation. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2014, 43, 2348 [3] Vekilov, P. G. The two-step mechanism of nucleation of crystals in solution. Nanoscale, 2010, 2, 2346