bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Covert detection of own-name and semantic violations in task-irrelevant speech, in a realistic Virtual Café
Authors: Brown Adi , Pinto Danna , Burgart Ksenia , Zvilichovsky Yair , Zion-Golumbic Elana
Published: July 2022

Detecting that someone has said your name is one of the most famous examples for incidental processing of supposedly-unattended speech. However, empirical investigation of this so-called “cocktail party effect” has yielded conflicting results. We present a novel empirical approach for revisiting this effect under highly ecological conditions, by immersing participants in a multisensory virtual café environment and using realistic stimuli and tasks. Participants listened to conversational speech from a character sitting across from them, while a barista in the back of the café called out food orders. Unbeknownst to them, the barista sometimes called orders containing their own name or semantic violations. We used combined measurements of brain activity (EEG), eye-gaze and galvanic skin response to assess the response-profile to these two probes in the task-irrelevant barista-stream.

Both probes elicited unique neural and physiological responses relative to control stimuli, indicating that the system indeed processed these words and detected their unique status, despite being task-irrelevant. Interestingly, these responses were covert in nature and were not accompanied by gaze-shifts towards the barista character. This pattern demonstrates that under these highly ecological conditions, listeners incidentally pick up information from task-irrelevant speech, emphasizing the dynamic and non-binary nature of attention in real-life environments.
Structural basis of botulinum neurotoxin serotype A1 binding to human SV2A or SV2C receptors
Authors: Azzaz Fodil , Hilaire Didier , Fantini Jacques
Published: July 2022

Botulinum neurotoxin A1 (BoNT/A1) is the most potent serotype in humans with the highest clinical duration. BoNT/A1 interacts with synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2 (SV2) and gangliosides to be taken up by neurons. In this study, we present three molecular dynamics simulations in which BoNT/A1 is in complex with singly or doubly glycosylated SV2C or singly glycosylated SV2A, in a ganglioside rich (lipid raft) context. Our computational data suggest that the N-glycan at position 480 (N480g) in the luminal domain of SV2C (LD-SV2C) indirectly enhanced the contacts of the neurotoxin surface with the second N-glycan at position 559 (N559g) by acting as a shield to prevent N559g to interact with residues of LD-SV2C. The N-glycosylation at the position N573 (N573g) in the luminal domain of SV2A has a slightly lower affinity for the surface of BoNT/A1 compared to 559g because of possible intermolecular contacts between N573g and residues of the luminal domain of SV2A (LD-SV2A). In addition to the ganglioside binding site (GBS) conserved across serotypes B, E, F and G, the lipid-raft associated GT1b interacted with a structure we coined the ganglioside binding loop (GBL) which is homologous to the lipid binding loop (LBL) in serotypes B, C, D, D/C and G. Finally, we proposed a global model in which BoNT/A1 interacts with its glycosylated protein receptor, one molecule of GT1b interacting in the GBS and five molecules of GT1b interacting with the GBL and residue Y1133. These data solved the puzzle generated by mutational studies that could be only partially understood with crystallographic data that lack both a biologically relevant membrane environment and a full glycosylation of SV2.

Brief statement

We propose a full molecular description of the initial binding of a microbial toxin (Botulinum neurotoxin A1) to the surface of neural cells. Our model includes a protein receptor (SV2) in its native environment, i.e. the periphery of a cluster of gangliosides belonging to a membrane microdomain (lipid raft). A major outcome of our study is the elucidation of the role of the full length glycans (previously resolved by MS spectroscopy) covalently attached to the protein receptor. These data solved the puzzle generated by mutational studies that could be only partially understood with crystallographic data that lack both a biologically relevant membrane environment and a full glycosylation of SV2.
Timesweeper: Accurately Identifying Selective Sweeps Using Population Genomic Time Series
Authors: Whitehouse Logan S. , Schrider Daniel R.
Published: July 2022

ABSTRACT

Despite decades of research, identifying selective sweeps, the genomic footprints of positive selection, remains a core problem in population genetics. Of the myriad methods that have been developed to tackle this task, few are designed to leverage the potential of genomic time-series data. This is because in most population genetic studies of natural populations only a single period of time can be sampled. Recent advancements in sequencing technology, including improvements in extracting and sequencing ancient DNA, have made repeated samplings of a population possible, allowing for more direct analysis of recent evolutionary dynamics. Serial sampling of organisms with shorter generation times has also become more feasible due to improvements in the cost and throughput of sequencing. With these advances in mind, here we present Timesweeper, a fast and accurate convolutional neural network-based tool for identifying selective sweeps in data consisting of multiple genomic samplings of a population over time. Timesweeper population genomic time-series data by first simulating training data under a demographic model appropriate for the data of interest, training a one-dimensional Convolutional Neural Network on said simulations, and inferring which polymorphisms in this serialized dataset were the direct target of a completed or ongoing selective sweep. We show that Timesweeper is accurate under multiple simulated demographic and sampling scenarios, identifies selected variants with high resolution, and estimates selection coefficients more accurately than existing methods. In sum, we show that more accurate inferences about natural selection are possible when genomic time-series data are available; such data will continue to proliferate in coming years due to both the sequencing of ancient samples and repeated samplings of extant populations with faster generation times, as well as experimentally evolved populations where time-series data are often generated. Methodological advances such as Timesweeper thus have the potential to help resolve the controversy over the role of positive selection in the genome. We provide Timesweeper as a Python package for use by the community.
Dynamics of immune memory and learning in bacterial communities
Authors: Bonsma-Fisher Madeleine , Goyal Sidhartha
Published: July 2022

1

From bacteria to humans, adaptive immune systems provide learned memories of past infections. Despite their vast biological differences, adaptive immunity shares features from microbes to vertebrates such as emergent immune diversity, long-term coexistence of hosts and pathogens, and fitness pressures from evolving pathogens and adapting hosts, yet there is no conceptual model that addresses all of these together. To address these questions, we propose and solve a simple phenomenological model of CRISPR-based adaptive immunity in microbes. We show that in coexisting phage and bacteria populations, immune diversity in both populations emerges spontaneously and in tandem, that bacteria track phage evolution with a context-dependent lag, and that high levels of diversity are paradoxically linked to low overall CRISPR immunity. We define average immunity, an important summary parameter predicted by our model, and use it to perform synthetic time-shift analyses on available experimental data to reveal different modalities of coevolution. Finally, immune cross-reactivity in our model leads to qualitatively different states of evolutionary dynamics, including an influenza-like traveling wave regime that resembles a similar state in models of vertebrate adaptive immunity. Our results show that CRISPR immunity provides a tractable model, both theoretically and experimentally, to understand general features of adaptive immunity.
Immature human engineered heart tissues engraft in a guinea pig chronic injury model
Authors: von Bibra Constantin , Shibamiya Aya , Bähr Andrea , Geertz Birgit , Köhne Maria , Stuedemann Tim , Starbatty Jutta , Hornaschewitz Nadja , Li Xinghai , Wolf Eckhard , Klymiuk Nikolai , Krane Markus , Kupatt Christian , Hiebl Bernhard , Eschenhagen Thomas , Weinberger Florian
Published: July 2022

Abstract

Engineered heart tissue (EHT) transplantation represents an innovative, regenerative approach for heart failure patients. Late preclinical trials are underway, and the first clinical trial has started in 2021. Preceding studies revealed functional recovery after implantation of in vitro-matured EHT in the subacute stage while transplantation in a chronic injury setting was less efficient. We hypothesized that the use of immature EHT patches (EHTIm) could improve cardiomyocytes (CM) engraftment. Chronic myocardial injury was induced in a guinea pig model (n=14). EHTIm (15×106 cells) were transplanted directly after casting. Functional consequences were assessed by serial echocardiography. Animals were sacrificed four weeks after transplantation and hearts were excised for histological analysis. Cryo-injury lead to large transmural scars amounting to 26% of the left ventricle. Grafts were identified by a positive staining for human Ku80 and dystrophin, remuscularizing 9% of the scar area on average. The CM density in the graft was higher compared to previous studies with in vitro-matured EHTs and showed a greater population of immature CM. Echocardiographic analysis showed a small improvement of left ventricular function after EHTIm transplantation. In a small translational proof-of-concept study human scale EHTIm patches (4.5×108 cells) were epicardially implanted on healthy pig hearts (n=2). In summary, we provide evidence that transplantation of immature EHT patches without pre-cultivation results in better cell engraftment.
Predicting and prioritizing community assembly: learning outcomes via experiments
Authors: Blonder Benjamin , Lim Michael H. , Godoy Oscar
Published: July 2022

Community assembly provides the foundation for applications in biodiversity conservation, climate change, invasion ecology, restoration ecology, and synthetic ecology. Predicting and prioritizing community assembly outcomes remains challenging. We address this challenge via a mechanism-freeLOVE(Learning Outcomes Via Experiments) approach suitable for cases where little data or knowledge exist: we carry out actions (randomly-sampled combinations of species additions), measure abundance outcomes, and then train a model to predict arbitrary outcomes of actions, or prioritize actions that would yield the most desirable outcomes. When trained on <100 randomly-selected actions, LOVE predicts outcomes with 2-5% error across datasets, and prioritizes actions for maximizing richness, maximizing abundance, or minimizing abundances of unwanted species, with 94-99% true positive rate and 12-83% true negative rate across tasks. LOVE complements existing approaches for community ecology by providing a foundation for additional mechanism-first study, and may help address numerous ecological applications.
Dopamine Builds and Reveals Reward-Associated Latent Behavioral Attractors
Authors: Naudé J. , Sarazin MXB. , Mondoloni S. , Hanesse B. , Vicq E. , Amegandjin F. , Mourot A. , Faure P. , Delord B.
Published: July 2022

Phasic variations in dopamine levels are interpreted as a teaching signal reinforcing rewarded behaviors. However, behavior also depends on the online, neuromodulatory effect of phasic dopamine signaling. Here, we unravel a new neurodynamical principle that reconciles these roles. In a biophysical recurrent network-based decision architecture, we showed that dopamine-mediated synaptic plasticity stabilized neural assemblies representing rewarded locations as latent, local attractors. Dopamine-modulated synaptic excitability activated these attractors online, and they became accessible as internal goals, even from remote animal positions. We experimentally validated these predictions in mice, using optogenetics, by demonstrating that online dopamine signaling specifically attracts animals toward rewarded locations, without off-target motor effects. We therefore propose that online dopamine signaling reveals potential goals by widening and deepening the basin of dopamine-built attractors representing rewards.
The silent impact: codon usage bias and protein evolution in bacteria
Authors: Moutinho Ana Filipa , Eyre-Walker Adam
Published: July 2022

Bias in synonymous codon usage has been reported across all kingdoms of life. Evidence across species suggests that codon usage bias is often driven by selective pressures, typically for translational efficiency. These selective pressures have been shown to depress the rate at which synonymous sites evolve. We hypothesise that selection on synonymous codon use could also slow the rate of protein evolution if two amino acids have different preferred codons. We test this hypothesis by looking at patterns of protein evolution using polymorphism and substitution data in bacteria. We found that non-synonymous mutations that change from unpreferred to preferred codons are more common than the opposite, but only amongst codons that vary substantially in their preference level. Overall, selection on codon bias seems to have little influence over non-synonymous polymorphism or substitution patterns.
Spatio-temporal development of the urban heat island in a socioeconomically diverse tropical city
Authors: Ramsay Emma E. , Duffy Grant A. , Burge Kerrie , Taruc Ruzka R. , Fleming Genie M. , Faber Peter A. , Chown Steven L.
Published: July 2022

Urban heat islands, where temperatures are elevated relative to non-urban surrounds, are near-ubiquitous in cities globally. Yet, the magnitude and form of urban heat islands in the tropics, where heat has a large morbidity and mortality burden, is less well understood, especially for socioeconomically diverse communities such as those living in urban informal settlements. We utilised 29 years of Landsat satellite-derived surface temperature, corroborated by in situ measurements, to provide a detailed spatial and temporal assessment of urban heat islands in Makassar, Indonesia, a city that is representative of rapidly growing urban settlements across the tropics. We did so with explicit consideration of vulnerable communities living informally. Our analysis identified surface urban heat islands of up to 9.2 °C in long-urbanised parts of the city and 6.3 °C in informal settlements, the seasonal patterns of which were driven by change in non-urban areas rather than in urban areas themselves. In recently urbanised areas, the majority of urban heat island increase occurred before areas became 50% urbanised. As tropical cities continue to expand we expect that urban heat islands will develop quickly as land is urbanised, whereas the established heat island in long-urbanised areas will remain stable in response to city expansion. Green and blue space protect some informal settlements from the worst urban heat islands and maintenance of such space will be essential to mitigate the growing heat burden from urban expansion and anthropogenic climate change. We advocate for green space to be prioritised in urban planning, redevelopment and informal settlement upgrading programs, with consideration of the unique environmental and socioeconomic context of tropical cities.

Highlights

Long-term, fine-scale data are essential to understand the dynamics of urban heat

Surface heat islands reached 9.2 °C in the urban core, 6.3 °C in informal settlements

In situ data support the use of remote sensing for heat island characterisation

The majority of heat island growth occurred before land was 50% urbanised

Green and blue space can mitigate heat in informal settlements
A human mesenchymal spheroid prototype to replace moderate severity animal procedures in leukaemia drug testing
Authors: Wilson Aaron , Hockney Sean , Parker Jess , Blair Helen , Pal Deepali
Published: July 2022

Patient derived xenograft (PDX) models are regarded as gold standard preclinical models in leukaemia research, especially in testing new drug combinations where typically 45-50 animals are used per assay. 9000 animal experiments are performed annually in leukaemia research with these expensive procedures being described as moderate severity, meaning they cause significant pain, suffering and visible distress to animal’s state. Furthermore, not all clinical leukaemia samples engraft and when they do data turnaround time can be between 6-12 months. Heavy dependence on animal models is because clinical leukaemia samples do not proliferate in vitro. Alternative cell line models though popular for drug testing are not biomimetic – they are not dependent on the microenvironment for survival, growth and treatment response and being derived from relapse samples they do not capture the molecular complexity observed at disease presentation. Here we have developed an in vitro platform to rapidly establish co-cultures of patient-derived leukaemia cells with 3D bone marrow mesenchyme spheroids, BM-MSC-spheroids. We optimise protocols for developing MSC-spheroid leukaemia co-culture using clinical samples and deliver drug response data within a week. Using three patient samples representing distinct cytogenetics we show that patient-derived-leukaemia cells show enhanced proliferation when co-cultured with MSC-spheroids. In addition, MSC-spheroids provided improved protection against treatment. This makes our spheroids suitable to model treatment resistance – a major hurdle in current day cancer management

Given this 3Rs approach is 12 months faster (in delivering clinical data), is a human cell-based biomimetic model and 45-50 animals/drug-response assay cheaper the anticipated target end-users would include academia and pharmaceutical industry. This animal replacement prototype would facilitate clinically translatable research to be performed with greater ethical, social and financial sustainability.

Research Highlights

Scientific Benefit

A 3D spheroid-based approach for ex vivo co-culture of clinical leukaemia samples for further investigation into cancer biology such as blast-niche interactions, blast proliferation and treatment resistance

3Rs Benefit

To replace moderate severity animal procedures in leukaemia research and drug testing

Practical Benefit

3Rs approach that yields drug response data quickly and is more ethically, socially and financially sustainable than its in vivo counterparts

Current applications

Exploration of leukaemia biology such as blasts proliferation, blast-niche interactions, niche-impacted treatment resistance and obtain drug response data

Potential applications

Extend the approach to include other haematological cancers as well as bone cancers.
Highly sensitive quantitative phase microscopy and deep learning complement whole genome sequencing for rapid detection of infection and antimicrobial resistance
Authors: Ahmad Azeem , Hettiarachchi Ramith , Khezri Abdolrahman , Ahluwalia Balpreet Singh , Wadduwage Dushan N. , Ahmad Rafi
Published: July 2022

The current state-of-the-art infection and antimicrobial resistance diagnostics (AMR) is based mainly on culture-based methods with a detection time of 48-96 hours. Slow diagnoses lead to adverse patient outcomes that directly correlate with the time taken to administer optimal antimicrobials. Mortality risk doubles with a 24-hour delay in providing appropriate antibiotics in cases of bacteremia. Therefore, it is essential to develop novel methods that can promptly and accurately diagnose microbial infections at both species and strain levels in clinical settings. Here, we demonstrate that the complimentary use of label-free optical assay with whole-genome sequencing (WGS) can enable high-speed culture-free diagnosis of infection and AMR. Our assay is based on microscopy methods exploiting label-free, highly sensitive quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) followed by deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) based classification. We benchmarked our proposed workflow on 21 clinical isolates from four WHO priority pathogens (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, andAcinetobacter baumannii) that were antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) phenotyped, and their antimicrobial resistance (AMR) profile was determined by WGS. The proposed optical assay was in good agreement with the WGS characterization. Highly accurate classification based on the gram staining (100% for gram-negative and 83.4% for gram-positive), species (98.6%), and resistant/susceptible type (96.4%), as well as at the individual strain level (100% accurate in predicting 19 out of the 21 strains). These results demonstrate the potential of the QPM assay as a rapid and first-stage tool for species, presence, and absence of AMR, and strain-level classification, which WGS can follow up for confirmation of the pathogen ID and the characterization of the AMR profile and susceptibility antibiotic. Taken together, all this information is of high clinical importance. Such a workflow could potentially facilitate efficient antimicrobial stewardship and prevent the spread of AMR.
Asymmetric voltage attenuation in dendrites can enable hierarchical heterosynaptic plasticity
Authors: Moldwin Toviah , Kalmenson Menachem , Segev Idan
Published: July 2022

Long-term synaptic plasticity has been shown to be mediated via cytosolic calcium concentrations ([Ca2+]). Using a synaptic model which implements calcium-based long-term plasticity via two sources of Ca2+, NMDA receptors and voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs), we show in dendritic cable simulations, that the interplay between these two calcium sources can result in a diverse array of heterosynaptic effects. When spatially clustered synaptic input produces a local NMDA spike, the resulting dendritic depolarization can activate VGCCs at non-activated spines, resulting in heterosynaptic plasticity. NMDA spike activation at a given dendritic location will tend to depolarize dendritic regions that are located distally to the input site more than dendritic sites that are proximal to it. This asymmetry produces a hierarchical effect in branching dendrites, where an NMDA spike at a proximal branch can induce heterosynaptic plasticity primarily at branches that are distal to it. We also explored how simultaneously activated synaptic clusters located at different dendritic locations synergistically affect the plasticity at these locations, as well as the heterosynaptic plasticity of an inactive synapse “sandwiched” between them. We conclude that the inherent electrical asymmetry of dendritic trees enables sophisticated schemes for spatially targeted supervision of heterosynaptic plasticity.
Architecture and dynamics of a novel desmosome-endoplasmic reticulum organelle
Authors: Bharathan Navaneetha Krishnan , Giang William , Aaron Jesse S. , Khuon Satya , Chew Teng-Leong , Preibisch Stephan , Trautman Eric T. , Heinrich Larissa , Bogovic John , Bennett Davis , Ackerman David , Park Woohyun , Petruncio Alyson , Weigel Aubrey V. , Saalfeld Stephan ,   COSEM Project Team, Vogl A. Wayne , Stahley Sara N. , Kowalczyk Andrew P.
Published: July 2022

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) forms a dynamic network that contacts other cellular membranes to regulate stress responses, calcium signaling, and lipid transfer. Using high-resolution volume electron microscopy, we find that the ER forms a previously unknown association with keratin intermediate filaments and desmosomal cell-cell junctions. Peripheral ER assembles into mirror image-like arrangements at desmosomes and exhibits nanometer proximity to keratin filaments and the desmosome cytoplasmic plaque. ER tubules exhibit stable associations with desmosomes, and perturbation of desmosomes or keratin filaments alters ER organization and mobility. These findings indicate that desmosomes and the keratin cytoskeleton pattern the distribution of the ER network. Overall, this study reveals a previously unknown subcellular architecture defined by the structural integration of ER tubules with an epithelial intercellular junction.

One-Sentence Summary

The desmosome adhesive junction regulates the organization and dynamics of the endoplasmic reticulum network.
Object-centered population coding in CA1 of the hippocampus
Authors: Nagelhus Anne , Andersson Sebastian O. , Cogno Soledad Gonzalo , Moser Edvard I. , Moser May-Britt
Published: July 2022

Objects and landmarks are crucial for guiding navigation and must be integrated into the cognitive map of space. Studies of object coding in the hippocampus have primarily focused on activity of single cells. Here we record simultaneously from large numbers of hippocampal CA1 neurons to determine how the presence of a salient object in the environment alters single-neuron and neural-population dynamics of the area. Only a small number of cells fired consistently at the object location, or at a fixed distance and direction from it; yet the majority of the cells showed some change in their spatial firing patterns when the object was introduced. At the neural population level, these changes were systematically organized according to the animal’s distance from the object. This organization was widely distributed across the cell sample, suggesting that some features of cognitive maps – including object representation – are best understood as emergent properties of neural populations.
Predicting the principal components of cortical morphological variables
Authors: Mello V. B. B. , de Moraes F. H. , Mota B.
Published: July 2022

Abstract

The generating mechanism for the gyrification of the mammalian cerebral cortex remains a central open question in neuroscience. Although many models have been proposed over the years, very few were able to provide empirically testable predictions. In this paper, we assume a model in which the cortex folds for all species of mammals according to a simple mechanism of effective free energy minimization of a growing self-avoiding surface subjected to inhomogeneous bulk stresses, to derive a new set of summary morphological variables that capture the most salient aspects of cortical shape and size. In terms of these new variables, we seek to understand the variance present in two morphometric datasets: a human MRI harmonized multi-site dataset comprised by 3324 healthy controls (CTL) from 4 to 96 years old and a collection of different mammalian cortices with morphological measurements extracted manually. This is done using a standard Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the cortical morphometric space. We prove there is a remarkable coincidence (typically less than 8◦) between the resulting principal components vectors in each datasets and the directions corresponding to the new variables. This shows that the new, theoretically-derived variables are a set of natural and independent morphometrics with which to express cortical shape and size.
Can I touch the clothes on the screen? The mental simulation for touch in online fashion shopping
Authors: Lee Ha Kyung , Choi Dooyoung
Published: July 2022

Purpose

This study aims to explore consumers' vicarious experience of touch, namely, mental simulation for touch, through product pictures as visual stimuli and the use of touch devices as motion stimuli in the context of online fashion shopping.

Design/methodology/approach

Participants were randomly exposed to one of the two texture conditions (weak vs strong tactile sensitivity). The responses from the participants who used a laptop as a non-touch device and a touch device were considered in the analysis. A total of 179 responses were analyzed with analysis of variance and the PROCESS procedure for path analysis using SPSS 20.0.

Findings

The interaction effects of tactile sensitivity and device types on mental simulation for touch were significant; seeing a less tactile-sensitive product facilitated a greater mental simulation for touch when using a touch device; however, seeing a tactile-sensitive product produced a similar mental simulation for touch, regardless of device types. Furthermore, browsing a less tactile-sensitive product using a touch device increased favorable product attitudes, fully mediated by mental simulation for touch.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on online shopping behaviors of fashion consumers by showing the role of mental simulation for touch that is shaped by the tactile qualities of products and device types. Exploration of this topic can contribute significantly to online fashion retailers because studies on consumers' mental simulation for touch are limited.
Effects of WFH on educators' wellbeing: mediating role of institutional head's support and moderating role of employees' self-efficacy at university level
Authors: Khan Najmonnisa , Aslam Rabia , Asad Muhammad Mujtaba , Oad Lubna , Almusharraf Norah Mansour
Published: July 2022

Purpose

The present study aims to examine the effects of work from home (WFH) on employees' performance and wellbeing during the second wave of pandemic and to find out the effects of institutional head's support as mediating variables and employees' self-efficacy as moderating variables on employees' performance and wellbeing during WFH.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative approach with causal comparative research design was adopted to collect the data from the respondents. The participants of the study were 586 teachers from public and private universities of Karachi, Pakistan, who were teaching from home during the second wave of pandemic, selected randomly from the population. An adopted questionnaire was used to collect data which consists of six parts.

Findings

Results found the positive significant effects of WFH on teachers' social wellbeing, negative significant effects on teachers' performance, their physical and mental wellbeing. No significant effects of WFH were found on teachers' financial wellbeing. The study also found that head's support plays a partially mediating significant role in the relationship between WFH and job performance, and social wellbeing, while no mediation on physical, social and financial wellbeing was found. Moderating effects of teachers' self-efficacy exist between the relationship of WFH and teachers' job performance, mental wellbeing and social wellbeing, while no effects exist between the relationship of WFH and teachers' physical and financial wellbeing.

Originality/value

The new research model will contribute significantly to education practitioners' knowledge, especially the government of Pakistan, which needs to measure their work from home policy's effectiveness during the pandemic.
An approach based on process mining to assess the quarantine strategies' effect in reducing the COVID-19 spread
Authors: Yari Eili Mansoureh , Rezaeenour Jalal
Published: July 2022

Purpose

The feasibility of process mining combined with simulation techniques in estimating the effectiveness of COVID-19 prevention strategies on infection and mortality trends to determine best practices is assessed in this study. The quarantine event log is built from the CUSP (the COVID-19 US State Policy) database, where the dates of implemented social policies in the USA to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic are documented.

Design/methodology/approach

COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease leading to a very high death toll worldwide. In most countries, the governments have resorted to a series of drastic strategies to prevent the outbreak by restricting the activities and movement among their population for a predefined time. Heretofore, different approaches have been published to estimate quarantine strategies and the majority signify the positive effect on managing this pandemic. Notably, the process perspective of COVID-19 datasets is of less concern among researchers. The purpose of this paper is to exploit the process mining techniques to model and analyze the quarantine implementation processes.

Findings

The discovered process model has 51 process variants for 51 cases (states), which indicate the quarantine activities were executed in different orders and periods during the pandemic. The time interval analysis between activities reveals the states with the most extended quarantine periods. These primary process mining insights are applied to define scenarios and variables of an agent-based model. The simulation findings indicate a meaningful relation between enforcing quarantine strategies and a declining trend of infection by 90% in the case of following strict quarantine and mask mandates. It is observed that in the post-quarantine period, the disease repeats its ascending trend unless implementation of different intervention strategies likes vaccination.

Originality/value

This study is the first in introducing process mining techniques in analyzing the COVID-19 quarantine strategies impact. The findings provide valuable insights for policymakers to proper control strategies and the process mining research community in expanding more process-related analysis on this pandemic. Also, the results have broad implications for research in other fields like information science to estimate the impact of quarantine strategies on process patterns in library systems.
Does repurchase timing matter in promotional framing effect?
Authors: Wang Bo
Published: July 2022

Purpose

Although the evidence exists for the effect of promotional frame on repurchase intention, it is unclear whether the timing of repurchase can moderate the effect. In this paper, three experiments were conducted to answer this question.

Design/methodology/approach

In Experiment 1, a 2 (framing: bundle vs. gift) × 2 (repurchase target: focal vs. supplementary) × 2 (timing: short vs. long) between-subjects design was used. In Experiment 2, an identical design was used except that repurchase target being the within-subjects factor. In Experiment 3, the design was based on that of Experiment 2 and brand was added a between-subjects factor.

Findings

Experiment 1 showed that, with a short interval, repurchase intention under gift frame was higher than that under bundle frame. With a long interval, there was no significant difference between the gift and bundle frames. Experiment 2, however, indicated no effects for expensive products. Experiment 3 showed that brand (private versus national brand) moderate the interaction between framing, repurchase target and timing. Particularly, for private brand, no significant comparisons were found; for national brand, repurchase intention for the focal product was significantly higher than for the supplementary product, but only under the conditions of long interval and gift frame (rather than bundle frame).

Originality/value

Taken together, findings from the current study contributes to the literature by showing for the first time that repurchase timing can moderate the promotional frame effect (i.e. higher repurchase intention under gift framing relative to bundle framing occurs in the short interval but not long interval) and that brand type can moderate the joint effects of framing, timing and repurchase target (i.e. national brand, rather than private brand, paired with long interval and gift frame results in higher repurchase intention for the focal product). The findings provide marketers with important knowledge in terms of how to adjust a promotional frame depending on when consumers repurchase a product and whether the product has a private or national brand.
Negotiating insider research through reactive collaboration: challenges, issues and failures
Authors: Snellgrove Miriam , Punch Samantha
Published: July 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the ways in which reactive researcher collaboration helps to manage some of the challenges present in insider research.

Design/methodology/approach

Employing (auto)biographical reflections from across two different case-studies, the authors explore the ways in which reactive collaboration is enmeshed with issues associated with researching the familiar in a marketized university environment.

Findings

The authors develop the term “reactive collaboration” to explore the ways in which insider research projects have to deal with a range of challenges from within their own research community. Reactive collaboration is as much about insider research solidarity as it is with reacting to anticipated and unanticipated events during the research process (and how inside researchers do and do not deal with them). Reactive collaboration highlights the successes as well as the failures of insider researchers negotiating complex research situations.

Originality/value

The authors show how reactive collaboration occurs in challenging research environments, including the joys, sorrows and failures. The authors argue that the challenges and benefits of insider research can be helpfully crystalised through reactive collaboration.
Ambidexterity and Agile project management: an empirical framework
Authors: Binci Daniele , Cerruti Corrado , Masili Giorgia , Paternoster Cristina
Published: July 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the agile project management (APM) approach through the contextual ambidextrous lens by overcoming the traditional perspective that separates projects within the opposite planned-exploitation- and emergent-exploration-oriented forms.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a grounded approach to five different agile-oriented companies for discovering how agile adoption shows both emergent (exploration-oriented) and planned (exploitation-oriented) tensions in a perspective that connects, rather than separates, them.

Findings

This study discovers five main categories, namely, approach, objectives, boundaries, leadership and feedback, that capture the tensions between planned and emergent issues of agile projects. The identified variables interact with different intervening conditions of the APM attributes (i.e. road map, product backlog, team backlog and solution delivery), activating different response actions (“exploitation embedded in exploration” and vice-versa), requiring, as a consequence, the need for contextual ambidexterity.

Research limitations/implications

This study identifies different implications based on real project contexts, as the importance of a more complete picture of the APM approach, which also considers the combination of planned and emergent aspects of projects and, as consequence, the needs for dual capacities (T-shaped skills) both at project management and team levels.

Practical implications

This study identifies, in real project contexts, the relevance of integration between the corporate level and the agile project team. This implies the search for constant dialogue, with feedback exchange spread across all levels, also enabled by an integrated leadership approach.

Originality/value

This study highlights agile tensions in a real-world project context by describing how APM connects both explorative and exploitative aspects of change within the same APM initiative, in order to manage such tensions, which differs from previous studies that consider APM in alternation with a linear project management approach as stage-gate.
Does digitalization limit the proliferation of the shadow economy in African countries? An in‐depth panel analysis
Authors: Haruna Emmanuel Umoru , Alhassan Usman
Published: July 2022

We investigate the relationship between digitalization and the shadow economy in 42 African countries using unbalanced panel data from 2003 to 2016. We begin by drawing on modernization theory to hypothesize that digitalization efforts in African economies represent an augmentation of public service delivery as well as a channel through which the size of the continent's informal economic activity might be reduced. We employ the fixed effects estimation technique as its baseline estimator while correcting for potential endogeneity concerns using an instrumental variable two‐stage least squares technique. We show compelling evidence that digitalization is associated with a decrease in the size of the shadow economy in Africa. However, evidence of a larger influence is driven by the availability of telecommunications infrastructure and the expansion of government online services. These findings suggest that policymakers should invest more in digital technology to formalize Africa's hidden economic activity, particularly to fill the post‐COVID‐19 financing gap.
Stakeholder Orientation and Bank Payout Policy: Evidence from US Constituency Statutes
Authors: Chronopoulos Dimitris K. , Yilmaz Muhammed H. , Wilson John O.S.
Published: July 2022

We investigate the impact of stakeholder orientation on bank payout policy. As a quasi‐experimental setting, we exploit the staggered enactment of constituency statutes across US states, which broaden the scope of managerial duties to an extended group of stakeholders. The results of a difference‐in‐differences analysis suggest that bank holding companies (BHCs) incorporated in states enacting constituency statutes experience significant declines in total payouts, which is driven by a decline in share repurchases. This observed decline in share repurchases is stronger for banks with sizeable implicit claims, lower transparency and substantial agency conflicts. These findings remain intact following a myriad of robustness checks and alternative estimation techniques.
The development and implementation of a new hospital performance measure to assess hospital contributions to community health and equity
Authors: Plott Caroline F. , Thornton Rachel L. J. , Punwani Ekta , Dankwa‐Mullan Irene , Karunakaram Hema , Craig Kelly Jean Thomas , Rhee Kyu , Sharfstein Joshua M.
Published: July 2022

Objective

To develop and implement a measure of how US hospitals contribute to community health with a focus on equity.

Data Sources

Primary data from public comments and hospital surveys and secondary data from the IBM Watson Top 100 Hospitals program collected in the United States in 2020 and 2021.

Study Design

A thematic analysis of public comments on the proposed measure was conducted using an iterative grounded approach for theme identification. A cross‐sectional survey of 207 hospitals was conducted to assess self‐attestation to 28 community health best practice standards in the revised measure. An analysis of hospital rankings before and after inclusion of the new measure was performed.

Data Collection/Extraction Methods

Public comment on the proposed measure was collected via an online survey, email, and virtual meetings in 2020. The survey of hospitals was conducted online by IBM in 2021. The analysis of hospital ranking compared the 2020 and 2021 IBM Watson Top 100 Hospitals program results.

Principal Findings

More than 650 discrete comments from 83 stakeholders were received and analyzed during measure development. Key themes identified in thematic analysis included equity, fairness, and community priorities. Hospitals that responded to a cross‐sectional survey reported meeting on average 76% of applicable best practice standards. Least met standards included providing emergent buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder (53%), supporting an evidence‐based home visiting program (53%), and establishing a returning citizens employment program (27%). Thirty‐seven hospitals shifted position in the 100 Top Hospital rankings after the inclusion of the new measure.

Conclusions

There is broad interest in measuring hospital contributions to community health with a focus on equity. Many highly ranked hospitals report meeting best practice standards, but significant gaps remain. Improving measurement to incentivize greater hospital contributions to community health and equity is an important priority.
Implications of missingness in self‐reported data for estimating racial and ethnic disparities in Medicaid quality measures
Authors: Yee Kimberly , Hoopes Megan , Giebultowicz Sophia , Elliott Marc N. , McConnell K. John
Published: July 2022

Objective

To assess the feasibility and implications of imputing race and ethnicity for quality and utilization measurement in Medicaid.

Data Sources and Study Setting

2017 Oregon Medicaid claims from the Oregon Health Authority and electronic health records (EHR) from OCHIN, a clinical data research network, were used.

Study Design

We cross‐sectionally assessed Hispanic‐White, Black‐White, and Asian‐White disparities in 22 quality and utilization measures, comparing self‐reported race and ethnicity to imputed values from the Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) algorithm.

Data Collection

Race and ethnicity were obtained from self‐reported data and imputed using BISG.

Principal Findings

42.5%/4.9% of claims/EHR were missing self‐reported data; BISG estimates were available for >99% of each and had good concordance (0.87–0.95) with Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White self‐report. All estimated racial and ethnic disparities were statistically similar in self‐reported and imputed EHR‐based measures. However, within claims, BISG estimates and incomplete self‐reported data yielded substantially different disparities in almost half of the measures, with BISG‐based Black‐White disparities generally larger than self‐reported race and ethnicity data.

Conclusions

BISG imputation methods are feasible for Medicaid claims data and reduced missingness to <1%. Disparities may be larger than what is estimated using self‐reported data with high rates of missingness.
Anti‐glycoprotein 2 (anti‐GP2) IgA and anti‐neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies to serine proteinase 3 (PR3‐ANCA): antibodies to predict severe disease, poor survival and cholangiocarcinoma in primary sclerosing cholangitis
Authors: Wunsch Ewa , Norman Gary L. , Milkiewicz Malgorzata , Krawczyk Marcin , Bentow Chelsea , Shums Zakera , Mahler Michael , Lopens Steffi , Reinhold Dirk , Franke Andre , Schramm Christoph , Roggenbuck Dirk , Milkiewicz Piotr
Published: July 2022

Background

Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is associated with progressive liver disease and cholangiocarcinoma. Although risk stratification is crucial for making clinical decisions, it is hindered by a scarcity of proven prognostic markers.

Aims

To assess the value of novel anti‐glycoprotein 2 (anti‐GP2) and anti‐neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies to serine proteinase 3 (PR3‐ANCA) in combination with PSC‐specific clinical and laboratory markers as predictors of quality of life, disease severity, and cholangiocarcinoma in two large, independent cohorts of PSC patients

Methods

Discovery (338 Polish patients) and validation (178 German patients) cohorts with PSC were evaluated. Anti‐GP2 (isoforms 1/4) was detected by ELISAs and PR3‐ANCA by chemiluminescence immunoassay. Clinical and laboratory data were collected and analysed. The outcome was defined as liver transplantation‐free survival and occurrence of cholangiocarcinoma during follow‐up.

Results

In the discovery group, anti‐GP21/4 IgA and PR3‐ANCA were associated with liver dysfunction, anti‐GP21/4 IgA with risk scores for PSC and anti‐GP24 IgA with cirrhosis. All cholangiocarcinoma patients were positive for PR3‐ANCA and/or anti‐GP24 IgA. The association between anti‐GP2 IgA and liver biochemistry, risk scores, cirrhosis, impaired survival, and cholangiocarcinoma was confirmed in the validation cohort. Cox proportional‐hazards regression indicated anti‐GP21 IgA as an independent variable of poor outcome in both study cohorts. Analysis of the combined data showed that anti‐GP24 IgA and PR3‐ANCA were independent predictors for cholangiocarcinoma, while anti‐GP21 IgA and PR3‐ANCA were indicators for poor survival.

Conclusions

Anti‐GP2 and PR3‐ANCA are prognostic antibodies in PSC as they identify patients at risk of severe disease, poor survival and biliary cancer.
Editorial: serologic antibodies in primary sclerosing cholangitis – a tell‐tale sign of compromised gut‐liver immunity?
Authors: Tornai David , Papp Maria
Published: July 2022

LINKED CONTENT

This article is linked to Wunschi et al and Wunsch & Milkiewicz papers. To view these articles, visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.16153 and https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.16211