Contribution of Induction Programmes to Employees’Performance in Morogoro Municipal Council, Tanzania

This study assessed the contribution of induction programmes to employees’ performance in Morogoro Municipal Council. This study focused on identification of strategies that are used by LGAs in influencing the adoption of induction programmes in organization, identification of the mechanisms used by LGAs in conducting the induction programmes and assessment of the quality of services provided by both inducted and non-inducted employees. The study employed cross sectional research design. The total of sample size was 180 respondents. Data were collected by using questionnaires, interview and documentary review. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17. This study found out that induction is highly needed by LGAs for better performance of the council. Respondents from Health Department are more inducted than other Department in Morogoro Municipal Council. The study also found that Morogoro Municipal Council use orientation as the leading mechanism to conduct induction programmes to empolyees. However, the quality of service provided by inducted employees in Morogoro Municipal Council meet goals and objectives of the organization, than those from staff who were not inducted. Finally, the study found that most of the respondents are aware of the rules and regulations of the council, while few are aware of the mission and vision of the council. The study conclude that staff are inducted as long as they are new to the council and/or new kind of service on offer using mechanisms which council can afford. The study recommend for need to raise awareness of new employees on the organization culture in order to enhance accountability

Abscisic acid induced seed dormancy and climate resilience in fox tail millet (Setaria italica L.) genotypes

A laboratory experiment was conducted at Department of Seed Science and Technology, UAS Raichur to estimate ABA content in foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) using Phytodetek ABA Test Kit. ABA estimation in millets is helpful to trace out the reason behind the dormancy in millets and is less explored. Nine genotypes were studied in the present investigation. Among the foxtail millet genotypes, the highest dormancy duration of 35 days was observed in two genotypes viz., DHFt-4-5 and DHFt-5-3 and slight dormancy was noticed in the genotype DHFt- 35-1. The genotype DHFt-35-1 recorded lowest ABA concentration of 3.199 pmol/g f. w. followed by genotypes DHFt-2-5 and DHFt-2-5-1 (3.266 and 3.291 pmol/g f. w. respectively). Highest ABA concentration was found in DHFt-5-3 (3.404 pmol/g f. w.) followed by DHFt-4-5 (3.396 pmol/g f. w.). Thus it was concluded that ABA in millet seeds makes them ‘climate smart crops’ and during the climate change regime, it is only millets that can ensure India’s food and nutrition needs in future

Effect of nano based seed treatment insecticides on seed quality in Pigeonpea

A laboratory experiment was conducted to know the effect seed treatment with nano insecticides on seed quality of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) cv. TS3R. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of macro and nano insecticides on seed germination and vigour of Pigeonpea. Different recommended seed treatment insecticides viz, malathion, fenvalerate, emamectine benzoate, thiodicarb, sweet flag and neem seed kernel powder insecticides were synthesized to nano form using high energy planetary ball mill. The Pigeonpea seed were treated with different nano insecticides i.e., 10-90 per cent reduction in actual dosage. Among the different treatments studied, seed treated with nano malathion 50 per cent lesser than normal dosage, fenvalerate 60 per cent lesser, thiodicarb 10 per cent lesser, emamectine benzoate 30 per cent lesser, sweetflag 70 per cent lesser, neem seed kernel powder 40 per cent lesser than actual recommended dosage gave significantly higher seed germination (98.0, 98.67, 98.67, 97.0, 99.0 and 98.67 percent) ,less number of abnormal seedlings (1.0, 0.33, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 and 0.33 per cent) , shoot length (10.13, 9.00, 11.47, 9.50, 10.90 and 10.87 cm), root length (12.56, 12.93, 12.83, 12.60 11.50 and 13.00 cm), seedling dry weight (85.73, 87.40, 88.47, 87.70, 88.60 and 88.27 g) and seedling vigour index (2223, 2164, 2397, 2143, 2217 and 2354) as compared to untreated seeds and macro insecticides. Therefore, it is very clear that nano based insecticides has a significant (0.1 %) impact on the seed quality improvement

Impact of measurement backaction on nuclear spin qubits in silicon

Phosphorus donor nuclear spins in silicon couple weakly to the environment making them promising candidates for high-fidelity qubits. The state of a donor nuclear spin qubit can be manipulated and read out using its hyperfine interaction with the electron confined by the donor potential. Here we use a master equation-based approach to investigate how the backaction from this electron-mediated measurement affects the lifetimes of single and multi-donor qubits. We analyze this process as a function of electric and magnetic fields, and hyperfine interaction strength. Apart from single nuclear spin flips, we identify an additional measurement-related mechanism, the nuclear spin flip-flop, which is specific to multi-donor qubits. Although this flip-flop mechanism reduces qubit lifetimes, we show that it can be effectively suppressed by the hyperfine Stark shift. We show that using atomic precision donor placement and engineered Stark shift, we can minimize the measurement backaction in multi-donor qubits, achieving larger nuclear spin lifetimes than single donor qubits

Improving quality of medical certification of causes of death in health facilities in Tanzania 2014-2019

BACKGROUND: Monitoring medically certified causes of death is essential to shape national health policies, track progress to Sustainable Development Goals, and gauge responses to epidemic and pandemic disease. The combination of electronic health information systems with new methods for data quality monitoring can facilitate quality assessments and help target quality improvement. Since 2015, Tanzania has been upgrading its Civil Registration and Vital Statistics system including efforts to improve the availability and quality of mortality data. METHODS: We used a computer application (ANACONDA v4.01) to assess the quality of medical certification of cause of death (MCCD) and ICD-10 coding for the underlying cause of death for 155,461 deaths from health facilities from 2014 to 2018. From 2018 to 2019, we continued quality analysis for 2690 deaths in one large administrative region 9 months before, and 9 months following MCCD quality improvement interventions. Interventions addressed governance, training, process, and practice. We assessed changes in the levels, distributions, and nature of unusable and insufficiently specified codes, and how these influenced estimates of the leading causes of death. RESULTS: 9.7% of expected annual deaths in Tanzania obtained a medically certified cause of death. Of these, 52% of MCCD ICD-10 codes were usable for health policy and planning, with no significant improvement over 5 years. Of certified deaths, 25% had unusable codes, 17% had insufficiently specified codes, and 6% were undetermined causes. Comparing the before and after intervention periods in one Region, codes usable for public health policy purposes improved from 48 to 65% within 1 year and the resulting distortions in the top twenty cause-specific mortality fractions due to unusable causes reduced from 27.4 to 13.5%. CONCLUSION: Data from less than 5% of annual deaths in Tanzania are usable for informing policy. For deaths with medical certification, errors were prevalent in almost half. This constrains capacity to monitor the 15 SDG indicators that require cause-specific mortality. Sustainable quality assurance mechanisms and interventions can result in rapid improvements in the quality of medically certified causes of death. ANACONDA provides an effective means for evaluation of such changes and helps target interventions to remaining weaknesses

Dressed-state amplification by a superconducting qubit

We demonstrate amplification of a microwave signal by a strongly driven two-level system in a coplanar waveguide resonator. The effect known from optics as dressed-state lasing is observed with a single quantum system formed by a persistent current (flux) qubit. The transmission through the resonator is enhanced when the Rabi frequency of the driven qubit is tuned into resonance with one of the resonator modes. Amplification as well as linewidth narrowing of a weak probe signal has been observed. The laser emission at the resonator's fundamental mode has been studied by measuring the emission spectrum. We analyzed our system and found an excellent agreement between the experimental results and the theoretical predictions obtained in the dressed-state model.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

14-3-3 zeta is a molecular target in guggulsterone induced apoptosis in Head and Neck cancer cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The five-year survival rates for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients are less than 50%, and the prognosis has not improved, despite advancements in standard multi-modality therapies. Hence major emphasis is being laid on identification of novel molecular targets and development of multi-targeted therapies. 14-3-3 zeta, a multifunctional phospho-serine/phospho-threonine binding protein, is emerging as an effector of pro-survival signaling by binding to several proteins involved in apoptosis (Bad, FKHRL1 and ASK1) and may serve as an appropriate target for head and neck cancer therapy. Herein, we determined effect of guggulsterone (GS), a farnesoid X receptor antagonist, on 14-3-3 zeta associated molecular pathways for abrogation of apoptosis in head and neck cancer cells.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Head and neck cancer cells were treated with guggulsterone (GS). Effect of GS-treatment was evaluated using cell viability (MTT) assay and apoptosis was verified by annexin V, DNA fragmentation and M30 CytoDeath antibody assay. Mechanism of GS-induced apoptosis was determined by western blotting and co-IP assays using specific antibodies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using in vitro models of head and neck cancer, we showed 14-3-3 zeta as a key player regulating apoptosis in GS treated SCC4 cells. Treatment with GS releases BAD from the inhibitory action of 14-3-3 zeta in proliferating HNSCC cells by activating protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). These events initiate the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis, as revealed by increased levels of cytochrome c in cytoplasmic extracts of GS-treated SCC4 cells. In addition, GS treatment significantly reduced the expression of anti-apoptotic proteins, Bcl-2, xIAP, Mcl1, survivin, cyclin D1 and c-myc, thus committing cells to apoptosis. These events were followed by activation of caspase 9, caspase 8 and caspase 3 leading to cleavage of its downstream target, poly-ADP-ribose phosphate (PARP).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>GS targets 14-3-3 zeta associated cellular pathways for reducing proliferation and inducing apoptosis in head and neck cancer cells, warranting its investigation for use in treatment of head and neck cancer.</p

Fusion and Fission of Genes Define a Metric between Fungal Genomes

Gene fusion and fission events are key mechanisms in the evolution of gene architecture, whose effects are visible in protein architecture when they occur in coding sequences. Until now, the detection of fusion and fission events has been performed at the level of protein sequences with a post facto removal of supernumerary links due to paralogy, and often did not include looking for events defined only in single genomes. We propose a method for the detection of these events, defined on groups of paralogs to compensate for the gene redundancy of eukaryotic genomes, and apply it to the proteomes of 12 fungal species. We collected an inventory of 1,680 elementary fusion and fission events. In half the cases, both composite and element genes are found in the same species. Per-species counts of events correlate with the species genome size, suggesting a random mechanism of occurrence. Some biological functions of the genes involved in fusion and fission events are slightly over- or under-represented. As already noted in previous studies, the genes involved in an event tend to belong to the same functional category. We inferred the position of each event in the evolution tree of the 12 fungal species. The event localization counts for all the segments of the tree provide a metric that depicts the “recombinational” phylogeny among fungi. A possible interpretation of this metric as distance in adaptation space is proposed