Sales Integration and Business Performance in the Telecommunication Industry in Nigeria

The purpose of this explanatory research is to evaluate the association between sales integration and business performance in the telecommunication industry in Nigeria. This study used a structured questionnaire to elicit responses from respondents from the Telecommunication firms in Nigeria.  Returned copies of questionnaire were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics was used to determine the mean and standard deviation of the distribution, while the Spearman rank order correlation co-efficient was used to ascertain the associations between the sales integration and the dimensions of business performance in the telecommunication firms in Nigeria. The results of the study reported herein, shows that sales integration associates with business performance in the Nigeria Telecommunication firms. It is the recommendation of this paper that managers of Nigerian Telecommunication firms should   strengthen their practice of Sales Integration strategy as a paradigm shift from the isolated functional dependence. The study reported in this paper can be carried out in other industry; and also, in other culture to ascertain whether the same, similar or different outcomes can be achieved

CUSTOMER SERVICE INTEGRATION AND BUSINESS PERFORMANCE IN THE TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA

The purpose of this explanatory research is to evaluate the association between customer service integration and business performance in the telecommunication industry in Nigeria. This study used a structured questionnaire to elicit responses from respondents from the Telecommunication firms in Nigeria.  Returned copies of questionnaire were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics was used to determine the mean and standard deviation of the distribution, while the Spearman rank order correlation co-efficient was used to ascertain the associations between the customer service integration and the dimensions of business performance in the telecommunication firms in Nigeria. The results of the study reported herein, shows that customer service integration associates with business performance in the Nigeria Telecommunication firms. It is the recommendation of this paper that managers of Nigerian Telecommunication firms should   strengthen their practice of customer service Integration strategy as a paradigm shift from the isolated functional dependence. The study reported in this paper can be carried out in other industry; and also, in other culture to ascertain whether the same, similar or different outcomes can be achieved

HUMAN RESOURCE INTEGRATION AND MARKETING PERFORMANCE IN THE TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA

The purpose of this explanatory research is to evaluate the association between human resource integration and marketing performance in the telecommunication industry in Nigeria. This study used a structured questionnaire to elicit responses from respondents from the Telecommunication firms in Nigeria.  Returned copies of questionnaire were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics was used to determine the mean and standard deviation of the distribution, while the Spearman rank order correlation co-efficient was used to ascertain the associations between the human resource integration and the dimensions of marketing performance in the telecommunication firms in Nigeria. The results of the study reported herein, shows that human resource integration associates with marketing performance in the Nigeria Telecommunication firms. It is the recommendation of this paper that managers of Nigerian Telecommunication firms should   strengthen their practice of human resource Integration strategy as a paradigm shift from the isolated functional dependence. The study reported in this paper can be carried out in other industry; and also, in other culture to ascertain whether the same, similar or different outcomes can be achieved

A Study on Outcome of 1000 cases of Diabetic Foot

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes continues to be one of the most common underlying factors associated with lower extremity amputation in post industrialized and developing countries. Amputations are perhaps the most feared but ignored complication of Diabetes by the innocent general public. For most patients, amputation is a pivotal event that alters their quality and duration of life and strain on heart, when amputated patients uses crutches or artificial limb. Amputations have been associated with an increased risk of reamputation of the same extremity, amputation of the contralateral leg, an elevated mortality in the first 3 – 5 years after amputation and placement in nursing homes or extended care facilities. There are several well accepted predisposing factors that place patients with diabetes with a high risk for a lower extremity amputation. The most common components in the causal pathway to limb loss Include peripheral neuropathy, peripheral vascular disease, ulceration and infection. Ulceration that is unattended is the most common single precursor to amputation and has been identified as a component in 85% of lower extremity amputations. As diabetic foot problems quickly reach the point of no return, it is vital to diagnose them early and provide rapid and intensive treatment. Furthermore, it is important to achieve early recognition of the at-risk foot so as to institute prompt preventive measures. The multidisciplinary foot clinic can reduce the numbers of amputations and enable us to take a new approach to the diabetic foot by early diagnosis and treatment. Systematically recording the characteristics of ulcerations is critical to planning treatment strategies, monitoring treatment effectiveness, predicting clinical outcomes and improving communication among health care providers. Most classification systems reported in the medical literature have primarily focused on the depth of the ulceration and have neglected or inconsistently included infection, peripheral neuropathy, peripheral vascular disease and previous amputation. These factors have been widely discussed in the literature. The aim of this study was to study the prevalence of the risk factors like, peripheral neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease among thousand cases admitted to hospital and their influence in deciding the final outcome of the patient. Also the prevalence of amputation at different levels is studied. AIM OF THE STUDY: 1. To study the outcome of 1000 cases of diabetic foot with respect to primary healing and amputation. 2. To study the prevalence of diabetic foot in patients admitted to GRH with regard to age, sex distribution. 3. To study the prevalence of peripheral neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease. 4. To study the amputation among these patients with regard to its incidence and level of amputation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai from July 2007 to August 2009 and included 1000 cases admitted in surgical ward. Patients treated as OP are excluded from the study. As part of the protocol patients treated in the ward have a standardized evaluation to assess peripheral neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease. The diagnosis of diabetes was verified for all patients using the criteria set forth by the World Health Organization, which include treatment with insulin, two random glucose measurements >200 mg/dl or a fasting glucose >126 mg/dl. Sensory neuropathy was evaluated with a 10-g Semmes –Weinstein monofilament wire and a modified neuropathy disability score. The diagnosis of infection was made using clinical criteria. Wounds with frank purulence and/ or two or more of the following local signs were classified as “infected”. These signs include warmth, erythema, lymphangitis, lymphadenopathy, edema, pain and loss of function. CONCLUSION: In our study, Diabetic foot ulcer was more common in males (61.4 %). The most common affected age group was between 51 to 60 years in both males and females. Mean age of males is 59.5 years and females is 51.3 years. One- fourth of the patients had Peripheral Neuropathy. 30 % of Patients who presented with neuropathy were amputated at Trans metatarsal level or proximally and it was statistically significant. • One- fifth of the patients had Peripheral Vascular Disease with a significant male preponderance. 31.3 % of patients who presented with ischemia were amputated at Trans metatarsal level or proximally and it was statistically significant. • Amputation rates was 15.4% among diabetic foot patients with a significant Male preponderance. Distal amputations was more commoner than Proximal amputations. • Thus Peripheral Neuropathy and Peripheral Vascular Disease play a definite role in the outcome of the wound and it can be detected by simple examination and non invasive test. • Awareness of Diabetic foot complications has to be increased among the Diabetic patients and their relatives by educating them, since the outcome was very good in early diagnosis of Diabetic foot. • All newly diagnosed Diabetics, must be evaluated for Diabetic foot and foot care has to be given routinely to prevent the Diabetic foot complications at latter date

KCNK3 mutation causes altered immune function in pulmonary arterial hypertension patients and mouse models

Loss of function KCNK3 mutation is one of the gene variants driving hereditary pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). KCNK3 is expressed in several cell and tissue types on both membrane and endoplasmic reticulum and potentially plays a role in multiple pathological process associated with PAH. However, the role of various stressors driving the susceptibility of KCNK3 mutation to PAH is unknown. Hence, we expose

EXPRESS: Differential IL-1 signalling induced by BMPR2 deficiency drives pulmonary vascular remodelling

Background: Bone morphogenetic protein receptor type 2 (BMPR2) mutations are present in patients with heritable and idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Circulating levels of Interleukin-1 (IL-1) are raised in patients and animal models. Whether interplay between BMP and IL- 1 signalling can explain the local manifestation of PAH in the lung remains unclear. Methods: Cell culture, siRNA and mRNA microarray analysis of RNA isolated from human Pulmonary artery (PASMC) and Aortic (AoSMC) smooth muscle cells were used. R899X+/- BMPR2 transgenic mice fed western diet for six weeks were given daily injections of IL-1ß prior to assessment for PAH and tissue collection. Results: PASMC have reduced inflammatory activation in response to IL-1ß compared with AoSMCs, however PASMC with reduced BMPR2 demonstrated an exaggerated response. Mice treated with IL-1ß had higher white blood cell counts, and significantly raised serum protein levels of IL-6 and OPG plasma levels recapitulating in vitro data. Phenotypically, IL-1ß treated mice demonstrated increased pulmonary vascular remodelling. Conclusions: IL-1ß induces an exaggerated pulmonary artery specific transcriptomic inflammatory response when BMPR2 signalling is reduced

Anosmin-1 contributes to brain tumor malignancy through integrin signal pathways

Anosmin-1, encoded by the KAL1 gene, is an extracellular matrix (ECM)-associated protein which plays essential roles in the establishment of olfactory and GNRH neurons during early brain development. Loss-of-function mutations of KAL1 results in Kallmann syndrome with delayed puberty and anosmia. There is, however, little comprehension of its role in the developed brain. As reactivation of developmental signal pathways often takes part in tumorigenesis, we investigated if anosmin-1-mediated cellular mechanisms associated with brain tumors. Our meta-analysis of gene expression profiles of patients' samples and public microarray datasets indicated that KAL1 mRNA was significantly upregulated in high-grade primary brain tumors compared with the normal brain and low-grade tumors. The tumor-promoting capacity of anosmin-1 was demonstrated in the glioblastoma cell lines, where anosmin-1 enhanced cell motility and proliferation. Notably, anosmin-1 formed a part of active β1 integrin complex, inducing downstream signaling pathways. ShRNA-mediated knockdown of anosmin-1 attenuated motility and growth of tumor cells and induced apoptosis. Anosmin-1 may also enhance the invasion of tumor cells within the ECM by modulating cell adhesion and activating extracellular proteases. In a mouse xenograft model, anosmin-1-expressing tumors grew faster, indicating the role of anosmin-1 in tumor microenvironment in vivo. Combined, these data suggest that anosmin-1 can facilitate tumor cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and survival. Therefore, although the normal function of anosmin-1 is required in the proper development of GNRH neurons, overexpression of anosmin-1 in the developed brain may be an underlying mechanism for some brain tumors

Receptors for Hyaluronic Acid and Poliovirus: A Combinatorial Role in Glioma Invasion?

Background: CD44 has long been associated with glioma invasion while, more recently, CD155 has been implicated in playing a similar role. Notably, these two receptors have been shown closely positioned on monocytes. Methods and Findings: In this study, an up-regulation of CD44 and CD155 was demonstrated in established and earlypassage cultures of glioblastoma. Total internal reflected fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy revealed close proximity of CD44 and CD155. CD44 antibody blocking and gene silencing (via siRNA) resulted in greater inhibition of invasion than that for CD155. Combined interference resulted in 86 % inhibition of invasion, although in these investigations no obvious evidence of synergy between CD44 and CD155 in curbing invasion was shown. Both siRNA-CD44 and siRNA-CD155 treated cells lacked processes and were rounder, while live cell imaging showed reduced motility rate compared to wild type cells. Adhesion assay demonstrated that wild type cells adhered most efficiently to laminin, whereas siRNA-treated cells (p,0.0001 for both CD44 and CD155 expression) showed decreased adhesion on several ECMs investigated. BrdU assay showed a higher proliferation of siRNA-CD44 and siRNA-CD155 cells, inversely correlated with reduced invasion. Confocal microscopy revealed overlapping of CD155 and integrins (b1, avb1 and avb3) on glioblastoma cell processes whereas siRNAtransfected cells showed consequent reduction in integrin expression with no specific staining patterns. Reduced expression of Rho GTPases, Cdc42, Rac1/2/3, RhoA and RhoB, was seen in siRNA-CD44 and siRNA-CD155 cells. In contrast t

Downregulation of FIP200 Induces Apoptosis of Glioblastoma Cells and Microvascular Endothelial Cells by Enhancing Pyk2 Activity

The expression of focal adhesion kinase family interacting protein of 200-kDa (FIP200) in normal brain is limited to some neurons and glial cells. On immunohistochemical analysis of biopsies of glioblastoma tumors, we detected FIP200 in the tumor cells, tumor-associated endothelial cells, and occasional glial cells. Human glioblastoma tumor cell lines and immortalized human astrocytes cultured in complete media also expressed FIP200 as did primary human brain microvessel endothelial cells (MvEC), which proliferate in culture and resemble reactive endothelial cells. Downregulation of endogenous expression of FIP200 using small interfering RNA resulted in induction of apoptosis in the human glioblastoma tumor cells, immortalized human astrocytes, and primary human brain MvEC. It has been shown by other investigators using cells from other tissues that FIP200 can interact directly with, and inhibit, proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2) and focal adhesion kinase (FAK). In the human glioblastoma tumor cells, immortalized human astrocytes, and primary human brain MvEC, we found that downregulation of FIP200 increased the activity of Pyk2 without increasing its expression, but did not affect the activity or expression of FAK. Coimmunoprecipitation and colocalization studies indicated that the endogenous FIP200 was largely associated with Pyk2, rather than FAK, in the glioblastoma tumor cells and brain MvEC. Moreover, the pro-apoptotic effect of FIP200 downregulation was inhibited significantly by a TAT-Pyk2-fusion protein containing the Pyk2 autophosphorylation site in these cells. In summary, downregulation of endogenous FIP200 protein in glioblastoma tumor cells, astrocytes, and brain MvECs promotes apoptosis, most likely due to the removal of a direct interaction of FIP200 with Pyk2 that inhibits Pyk2 activation, suggesting that FIP200 expression may be required for the survival of all three cell types found in glioblastoma tumors