Improving Organizational Culture and Workers Job Satisfaction Among University Lecturers in Cross River State, Nigeria

The issue of job satisfaction among lecturers in universities in Nigeria has remained a source of concern to all stakeholders in university education system. It is a well-known fact today that, job satisfaction affects staff commitment and consequently job performance. The objective of this study was to investigate organizational culture and job satisfaction of university lecturers in Cross River State. The ex post facto research design was adopted for the study. Three hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient statistics, at 0.05 level of significance. The population of the study stood at 4020 lecturers from two public universities in Cross River State. Multi-staged sampling procedure was used in sampling the respondents of the study. In all, 402 lecturers representing 10% of the entire population were selected. The questionnaire method was used for the purpose of data collection for the study. The questionnaire is titled Organizational Culture and Job Satisfaction of University Lecturers Questionnaire (OCJSULQ). t. To obtain the reliability of the instrument, a trial test of 40 respondents was conducted outside the sample area. The Cronbach Alpha reliability test was employed analyzing the data. The exercise produced a reliability coefficient of 0.98. Results showed that there was a significant relationship between organizations’ vision/mission, management-employee relationship, standard practices and lecturers’ job satisfaction. Based on the findings, it was recommended among other things that, while trying to maintain best standard practices, organizations should ensure such processes does not infringe on the rights of its employee

Functionalized Transparent Surfaces with Enhanced Self-Cleaning against Ink Aerosol Contamination

During operation of a standard commercial inkjet printer, suspended ink particles form an ink aerosol inside the printing chamber that can cause serious malfunctions, including contamination of the transparent window of the printhead position calibration optical sensors. In this work, transparent conducting film (TCF) and surface functionalization through self-assembled monolayer (SAM) are proposed and investigated to repel ink aerosol deposition on a transparent surface and to reduce its adverse effects. The results show that the combination of the Joule heating effect induced by applying an electrical current to the TCF and hydrophobic property of the SAM reduces transmittance loss from an average of 10% to less than 1.5%. Correspondingly, the area of the surface covered by ink decreases from 45.62% ± 6.15% to 1.71% ± 0.25%. The preliminary results are obtained with glass substrates and subsequently extended to the plastic window of a commercial inkjet printer calibration sensor, thus demonstrating the potential of the proposed approach to reduce aerosol contamination in real applications.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Results of a fish health survey of North Biscayne Bay, June 1976-June 1977

Fish were collected weekly in Biscayne Bay using a monofilament gill net set from a small skiff during 20-30 minute intervals. Although weekly sampling took place for 2.5 years, only the data from samples collected from June 1976 to June 1977 were used in this document. Abnormal external conditions of fins and body were observed on each fish and recorded. Fish were returned immediately to their habitats. Fish collected in the time period for this study numbered 3,765 and included 32 species. Of these, 16 species, totaling 3,556 fish, were caught in sufficient numbers (20 or more) to warrant data analysis. Only 3 of the 16 species could be considered relatively unafflicted: Aetobatus narinari (spotted eagle ray), Diodon hystrix (porcupinefish), and Selene vomer (lookdown). More than 80% of the examined specimens of these three species were unaffected. Less than 20% of the specimens of Diapterus plumieri (striped mojarra), Micropogonias undulatus (Atlantic croaker), and Pogonias cromis (black drum) displayed normal conditions. The three most afflicted species were Diapterus plumieri, striped mojarra; Micropogonias undulatus, Atlantic croaker; and Pogonias cromis, black drum. Only 7, 3, and 7% respectively showed no external evidence of disease. Data described in this document were originally tabulated in the mid-1970s, remained unpublished, and are no longer available. This document was based on archived unpublished text, a data summary table, and figures. Most of the text and cited references were the ones used in the original manuscript and no attempt was made to update them. (PDF contains 44 pages

Realistic Wind Loads on Unreinforced Masonry Walls

Twenty full-scale unreinforced masonry walls were constructed and tested to failure in the Structures Laboratory at the University of Saskatchewan. The focus of the testing related to two primary objectives. The first objective was to study the effects that the support conditions of the walls had on their behaviour. The masonry wall specimens tested spanned vertically under the application of out-of-plane loads. Ten of the full scale walls were tested with support conditions that modeled ideal pinned connections at the top and bottom of the wall, while the remaining half of the walls were tested with nominally “pinned” supports that were similar to the supports typically encountered in practice. The second objective was to determine the effects that dynamic loads had on the behaviour of the walls. Half of the masonry specimens for each group of support conditions were loaded laterally with monotonically increasing quasi-static loads representative of the effects of uniform wind pressure, while the remaining specimens were loaded laterally with dynamic time histories that varied randomly in a manner that was representative of real “gusty” winds. The research was therefore done to determine the influence of load and connection type on the behavior of the masonry walls. When comparing the effects of the support conditions, it was found that the walls constructed with realistic support conditions were able to resist larger out-of-plane loads, with greater ductility than the walls that had ideally-pinned supports. Specifically, the realistically-pinned walls required an average moment (of both the statically and dynamically loaded walls) that was 63% larger to cause mid-height cracking than the average mid-height moment required to cause mid-height cracking in the ideally-pinned walls. After mid-height cracking occurred, the realistically-pinned walls exhibited reserve capacity, resulting in additional strength, such that the ultimate moment capacity of the realistically-pinned walls was 140% greater than the ultimate strength of the ideally-pinned walls, where the ultimate strength was the capacity of the wall at mid-height cracking. As a result, the ductility of the realistically-pinned walls was also significantly larger than that of the ideally-pinned walls. Specifically, the ductility ratio of the realistically-pinned walls was 70 (where the ductility ratio is defined as the displacement at the ultimate load divided by the displacement at mid-height cracking), while the ductility ratio of the ideally-pinned walls was unity (the ultimate load coincided with formation of the mid-height crack). The results of the dynamically and quasi-statically loaded walls were harder to evaluate. In comparing the ideally-pinned walls it was found that the specimens that were loaded dynamically had an average moment capacity that was approximately 10% larger than the walls that were loaded quasi-statically, which was found to be statistically significant at the 90% level. However, the results from the realistically-pinned walls were not as conclusive. At mid-height cracking the dynamically loaded walls had an average moment capacity that was 24% lower than the quasi-statically loaded walls, which seems to contradict with the data from the ideally-pinned walls and from the literature suggesting that dynamic strengths should be higher. At the ultimate condition, the dynamically loaded walls had an average strength that was 12% larger than the quasi-statically loaded walls; however, these comparative results were not statistically significant at the 90% confidence level. It was also found that the dynamic loading failed the wall specimens as a result of sustained, large amplitude “gusts” rather than at the largest instantaneous peak load. The displacement behaviour of the walls was generally independent of the method of loading, but, rather, largely dependent on the support conditions. The collapse of the wall specimens were all initiated when they reached a geometrically unstable displaced shape that was fairly consistent for a given support configuration, regardless of the type of load that was applied. Lastly, results from a numerical model suggested that the dynamically loaded walls exhibited higher apparent stiffness properties as compared to the quasi-statically loaded walls. The difference in the apparent stiffness between the dynamic and quasi-static specimens decreased with increasing damage levels until the dynamic stiffness converged to the static stiffness near the collapse of the walls

Mental Disability: A Retrospective Study of Socio-Clinical Profile of Patients Seeking Disability Certificate at a Tertiary Care Centre in Delhi

Background: Mental illness and mental retardation are included in "The persons with disabilities (Equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation) Act, 1995” along with other causes of disabilities like blindness, hearing impairment, locomotor disability etc. The persons with disability are eligible for various social welfare benefits from the Government under this act if they have minimum 40% disability as certified by a Government medical authority. This is among one of the few studies on various mental disability related variables and socio-clinical profile of disability certificate seeking patients and is probably the only one to compare results with a similar kind of study done at the same centre five years ago.Objective: The study aims to assess the socio-demographic profile of the cases, severity of disability in the mentally retarded and mentally ill, co-morbid psychiatric and medical conditions, pattern of utilization of different government benefits and to compare results of current study with a study done at the same centre five years ago.Materials and Methods: The study was carried out in the Department of Psychiatry of a tertiary care multispecialty teaching hospital in New Delhi. This was a retrospective file-review based study of patients who were issued disability certificate for Mental retardation or Mental illness during January, 2015 to May, 2016. The subjects were diagnosed to be suffering from Mental retardation or Mental illness as per ICD-10 and disability was assessed as per guidelines issued by Government of India in 2001 for Mental retardation and for Mental illness in 2002. Indian Disability Evaluation and Assessment Scale (IDEAS) was used to assess disability in Mental illness cases.Statistical Analysis: The statistical analysis was done by using WHO'S Epi Info version 7.2. Frequency, percentages, t test and chi-square analysis were used to analyze the data.Results: Out of total 231 cases, majority were male 163 (70.6%), Hindu 211 (91.3%), under 18 years of age 160 (69.3%), unmarried 228 (98.7%), lived in nuclear family 186 (80.5%), from urban background 137 (59.3%). Total number of cases of Mental retardation were 220 (95.2%), 11 (4.7%) cases were of Mental illness.Severity wise in Mental Retardation group (220 cases) maximum number of cases were of Mild Mental Retardation 94(42.7%) having 50% disability, in Mental illness group 10 out of 11 cases had moderate disability (40-70% disability as per IDEAS Scoring). Medical co-morbidity was present in 22(9.5%) cases mainly in the form of Cerebral palsy, Epilepsy; 24(10.4%) patients had psychiatric co-morbidity in the form of Behavior problems, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Conduct disorder. Maximum number of patients 177(76.6%) applied to get Monthly allowance. On comparison with a similar study done at the same centre five years back, the significant difference was low mean age of sample and increased rural representation in the present study and both the differences were statistically significant.Conclusion: Number of patients seeking disability certificate has risen as compared to previous study. Majority of the cases were male, mostly from urban background although rural representation in comparison to previous (2011) study has increased significantly. Cases of Mental Retardation outnumbers patients with Mental illness seeking disability certificates reflecting more number of Mental illness cases seeking treatment early in the course of illness and availability of better treatment options.Information related to disability and various beneficiary schemes by Government of India needs to be provided in detail so that maximum number of cases can avail other benefits along with monetary one

Cancer-associated epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM; CD326) enables epidermal Langerhans cell motility and migration in vivo

After activation, Langerhans cells (LC), a distinct subpopulation of epidermis-resident dendritic cells, migrate from skin to lymph nodes where they regulate the magnitude and quality of immune responses initiated by epicutaneously applied antigens. Modulation of LC-keratinocyte adhesion is likely to be central to regulation of LC migration. LC express high levels of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM; CD326), a cell-surface protein that is characteristic of some epithelia and many carcinomas and that has been implicated in intercellular adhesion and metastasis. To gain insight into EpCAM function in a physiologic context in vivo, we generated conditional knockout mice with EpCAM-deficient LC and characterized them. Epidermis from these mice contained increased numbers of LC with normal levels of MHC and costimulatory molecules and T-cell-stimulatory activity in vitro. Migration of EpCAM-deficient LC from skin explants was inhibited, but chemotaxis of dissociated LC was not. Correspondingly, the ability of contact allergen-stimulated, EpCAM-deficient LC to exit epidermis in vivo was delayed, and strikingly fewer hapten-bearing LC subsequently accumulated in lymph nodes. Attenuated migration of EpCAM-deficient LC resulted in enhanced contact hypersensitivity responses as previously described in LC-deficient mice. Intravital microscopy revealed reduced translocation and dendrite motility in EpCAM-deficient LC in vivo in contact allergen-treated mice. These results conclusively link EpCAM expression to LC motility/migration and LC migration to immune regulation. EpCAM appears to promote LC migration from epidermis by decreasing LC-keratinocyte adhesion and may modulate intercellular adhesion and cell movement within in epithelia during development and carcinogenesis in an analogous fashion

Evaluation of burnout in medical interns: an institutional study

Background: Burnout is a psychological syndrome characterised as state of emotional exhaustion, negative attitude towards the recipient of care (depersonalisation) and a feeling of low accomplishments in human service professionals. However, there is very limited literature about Burnout syndrome among medical interns from India. Thus, this study aimed to found out the prevalence of burnout syndrome among medical interns and to find any gender differences between male and female interns.Methods: The study was a cross sectional study with a convenient sample of 100 medical Interns. Subjects filled a pretested semi-structured questionnaire, which consisted of demographic data and measures of assessment. Burnout was assessed by application of Masalach Burnout Inventory. Definition of burnout was taken as high score (>27 points) on Emotional exhaustion subscale, along with high scores (>10 points) on depersonalization subscale and Low score (<33 points) on personal accomplishment subscale.Results: Mean age of the sample was 23.9 years. 48 % were males and 52% were females. Burnout syndrome was found to be present in 22% subjects. 34% scored High on Emotional exhaustion subscale, while 46% scored High on depersonalization subscale and 77% scored Low on personal accomplishment subscale. Burnout status and subscales scores did not vary significantly with gender.Conclusions: Considering the higher ratings on various domains of Burnout among medical interns there is a need for targeted action and further research for a healthy workforce development in field of Medical care