bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Disrupting folate metabolism alters the capacity of bacteria in exponential growth to develop persisters to antibiotics
Authors: Morgan Jasmine , Smith Matthew , Mc Auley Mark T. , Salcedo-Sora J. Enrique
Published: May 2018

Bacteria can survive high doses of antibiotics through stochastic phenotypic diversification.We present initial evidence that folate metabolism could be involved with the formation of persisters. The aberrant expression of the folate enzyme genefauseems to reduce the incidence of persisters to antibiotics. Folate impaired bacteria had a lower generation rate for persisters to both antibiotics ampicillin and ofloxacin. Persister bacteria were detectable from the outset of the exponential growth phase in the complex media. Gene expression analyses showed tentatively distinctive profiles in exponential growth at times when bacteria persisters were observed. Levels of persisters were assessed in bacteria with altered, genetically and pharmacologically, folate metabolism. This work shows that by disrupting folate biosynthesis and usage, bacterial tolerance to antibiotics seems to be diminished. Based on these findings there is a possibility that bacteriostatic antibiotics such as antifolates could have a role to play in clinical settings where the incidence of antibiotic persisters seem to drive recalcitrant infections.
cytometree: a binary tree algorithm for automatic gating in cytometry analysis
Authors: Commenges Daniel , Alkhassim Chariff , Gottardo Raphael , Hejblum Boris , Thiébaut Rodolphe
Published: May 2018

Motivation

Flow cytometry is a powerful technology that allows the high-throughput quantification of dozens of surface and intracellular proteins at the single-cell level. It has become the most widely used technology for immunophenotyping of cells over the past three decades. Due to the increasing complexity of cytometry experiments (more cells and more markers), traditional manual flow cytometry data analysis has become untenable due to its subjectivity and time-consuming nature.

Results

We present a new unsupervised algorithm called “cytometree” to perform automated population discovery (aka gating) in flow cytometry. cytometree is based on the construction of a binary tree, the nodes of which are subpopulations of cells. At each node, the marker distributions are modeled by mixtures of normal distribution. Node splitting is done according to a normalized difference of Akaike information criteria (AIC) between the two models. Post-processing of the tree structure and derived populations allows us to complete the annotation of the derived populations. The algorithm is shown to perform better than the state-of-the-art unsupervised algorithms previously proposed on panels introduced by the Flow Cytometry: Critical Assessment of Population Identification Methods (FlowCAP I) project. The algorithm is also applied to a T-cell panel proposed by the Human Immunology Project Consortium (HIPC) program; it also outperforms the best unsupervised open-source available algorithm while requiring the shortest computation time.

Availability

An R package named “cytometree” is available on the CRAN repository.

Contact

daniel.commenges@u-bordeaux.fr; rodolphe.thiebaut@u-bordeaux.fr

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available.
Ammonium Pretreatment and Addition Improve Stability of Environmental Parameters and Biogas Production under Anaerobic Co-digestion of Rice Straw and Dairy Manure
Authors: Tang Yun , Zou Shuzhen , Kang Di
Published: May 2018

This paper optimized the anaerobic digestion (AD) pretreatment process, identified the relationship between stability of environmental factors and biogas production under ammonium hydroxide (NH3·H2O) pretreatment and analyzed the reason of NH3·H2O pretreatment to increase biogas production. Variable coefficients (CVs) of environmental factors were calculated to study the stability of environmental factors during AD process. The effect of initial AD environment factors on the stability of environmental factors during AD process was analyzed by redundancy analysis. Path analysis was used to analyze the response relationship the stability of environmental factors between and total biogas production (TBP). Results showed that pretreatment at 8% for 4 days, the TBP produced the highest value (302.5mL/g TS) and significantly higher than the other values (P < 0.01). NH3·H2O pretreatment had effect on the initial AD environment factors and the environment factors during AD process. Under the NH3·H2O pretreatment conditions, the stability of environment factors during AD process was affected by initial AD environment factors, while they had direct and indirect influences on the TBP. This research concluded that NH3·H2O pretreatment improved TBP via changing the initial environment of AD and the stability of environment factors during AD process, as well as the response relationship among initial AD environment factors and the stability of environment factors during AD process and biogas production, the changes improved the stability of environmental factors and made the environment more suitable for AD.
Novel RNA aptamers targeting gastrointestinal cancer biomarkers CEA, CA50 and CA72-4 with superior affinity and specificity
Authors: Pan Qing , Law Carmen OK , Yung Mingo MH , Han KC , Pon YL , Lau Terrence CK
Published: May 2018

Gastric cancer is the third most common cause of death from cancer in the world and it remains difficult to cure in Western countries, primarily because most patients present with advanced disease. Currently, CEA, CA50 and CA72-4 are commonly used as tumor markers for gastric cancer by immunoassays. However, the drawback and conundrum of immunoassay are the unceasing problem in standardization of quality of antibodies and time/effort for the intensive production. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of a standardized assay to detect gastric cancer at the early stage.

Aptamers are DNA or RNA oligonucleotides with structural domain which recognize ligands such as proteins with superior affinity and specificity when compared to antibodies. In this study, SELEX (Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential enrichment) technique was adopted to screen a random 30mer RNA library for aptamers targeting CEA, CA50 and CA72-4 respectively. Combined with high-throughput sequencing, we identified 6 aptamers which are specifically target for these three biomarkers of gastrointestinal cancer. Intriguingly, the predicted secondary structures of RNA aptamers from each antigen showed significant structural similarity, suggesting the structural recognition between the aptamers and the antigens. Moreover, we determined the dissociation constants of all the aptamers to their corresponding antigens by fluorescence spectroscopy, which further demonstrating high affinities between the aptamers and the antigens. In addition, immunostaining of gastric adenocarcinoma cell line AGS using CEA Aptamer probe showed positive fluorescent signal which proves the potential of the aptamer as a detection tool for gastric cancer. Furthermore, substantially decreased cell viability and growth were observed when human colorectal cell line LS-174T was transfected with each individual aptamers. Taking together, these novel RNA aptamers targeting gastrointestinal cancer biomarker CEA, CA50 and CA72-4 will aid further development and standardization of clinical diagnostic method with better sensitivity and specificity, and potentially future therapeutics development of gastric cancer.
The length distribution and multiple specificity of naturally presented HLA-I ligands
Authors: Gfeller David , Guillaume Philippe , Michaux Justine , Pak Hui-Song , Daniel Roy T. , Racle Julien , Coukos George , Bassani-Sternberg Michal
Published: May 2018

HLA-I molecules bind short peptides and present them for recognition by CD8+ T cells. The length of HLA-I ligands typically ranges from 8 to 12 amino acids, but variability is observed across different HLA-I alleles. Here we collected recent in-depth HLA peptidomics data, including 12 newly generated HLA peptidomes (31,896 unique peptides) from human meningioma samples, to analyze the peptide length distribution and multiple specificity across 84 different HLA-I alleles. We observed a clear clustering of HLA-I alleles with distinct peptide length distributions, which enabled us to study the structural basis of peptide length distributions and predict peptide length distributions from HLA-I sequences. We further identified multiple specificity in several HLA-I molecules and validated these observations with binding assays. Explicitly modeling peptide length distribution and multiple specificity improved predictions of naturally presented HLA-I ligands, as demonstrated in an independent benchmarking based on the new human meningioma samples.
Using Topic Modeling via Non-negative Matrix Factorization to Identify Relationships between Genetic Variants and Disease Phenotypes: A Case Study of Lipoprotein(a) (LPA)
Authors: Zhao Juan , Feng QiPing , Wu Patrick , Warner Jeremy L. , Denny Joshua C. , Wei Wei-Qi
Published: May 2018

Genome-wide and phenome-wide association studies are commonly used to identify important relationships between genetic variants and phenotypes. Most of these studies have treated diseases as independent variables and suffered from heavy multiple adjustment burdens due to the large number of genetic variants and disease phenotypes. In this study, we propose using topic modeling via non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) for identifying associations between disease phenotypes and genetic variants. Topic modeling is an unsupervised machine learning approach that can be used to learn the semantic patterns from electronic health record data. We chose rs10455872 in LPA as the predictor since it has been shown to be associated with increased risk of hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Using data of 12,759 individuals from the biobank at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, we trained a topic model using NMF from 1,853 distinct phecodes extracted from the cohort’s electronic health records and generated six topics. We quantified their associations with rs10455872 in LPA. Topics indicating CVD had positive correlations with rs10455872 (P < 0.001), replicating a previous finding. We also identified a negative correlation between LPA and a topic representing lung cancer (P < 0.001). Our results demonstrate the applicability of topic modeling in exploring the relationship between the genome and clinical diseases.

Author summary

Identifying the clinical associations of genetic variants remains crucial in understanding how the human genome modulates disease risk. Traditional phenome-wide association studies consider each disease phenotype as an independent variable, however, diseases often present as complex clusters of comorbid conditions. In this study, we propose using topic modeling to model electronic health record data as a mixture of topics (e.g., disease clusters or relevant comorbidities) and testing associations between topics and genetic variants. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of using topic modeling to replicate and discover novel associations between the human genome and clinical diseases.
The ecology of the Chloroflexi in full-scale activated sludge wastewater treatment plants
Authors: Nierychlo Marta , Miłobędzka Aleksandra , Petriglieri Francesca , McIlroy Bianca , Nielsen Per Halkjær , McIlroy Simon Jon
Published: May 2018

Filamentous bacteria belonging to the phylum Chloroflexi have received considerable attention in wastewater treatment systems for their suggested role in operational problem of impaired sludge settleability known as bulking. Their consistently high abundance in full-scale systems, even in the absence of bulking, indicates that they make a substantial contribution to the nutrient transformations during wastewater treatment. In this study, extensive 16S rRNA amplicon surveys of full-scale Danish WWTPs were screened to identify the most numerically important Chloroflexi genera. Fluorescencein situhybridization probes were designed for theirin situcharacterization. All abundant phylotypes of the phylum were identified as facultative anaerobic chemoorganotrophs involved in fermentation of sugars. These groups were all filamentous but differed in their morphology and spatial arrangement.‘CandidatusVilligracilis’ was predominantly located within the activated sludge flocs, where they possibly have structural importance, and their abundance was relatively stable. Conversely, the abundance of‘CandidatusAmarolinea’ was highly dynamic, relative to other genera, sometimes reaching abundances in excess of 30% of the biovolume, suggesting their likely role in bulking episodes. This study gives an important insight into the role of Chloroflexi in WWTPs, thus contributing to the broader goal of understanding the ecology of these biotechnologically important systems.
In-Search Assignment of Monoisotopic Peaks Improves the Identification of Cross-Linked Peptides
Authors: Lenz Swantje , Giese Sven H. , Fischer Lutz , Rappsilber Juri
Published: May 2018

Cross-linking/mass spectrometry (CLMS) has undergone a maturation process akin to standard proteomics by adapting key methods such as false discovery rate control and quantification. A seldom-used search setting in proteomics is the consideration of multiple (lighter) alternative values for the monoisotopic precursor mass to compensate for possible misassignments of the monoisotopic peak. Here, we show that monoisotopic peak assignment is a major weakness of current data handling approaches in cross-linking. Cross-linked peptides often have high precursor masses, which reduces the presence of the monoisotopic peak in the isotope envelope. Paired with generally low peak intensity, this generates a challenge that may not be completely solvable by precursor mass assignment routines. We therefore took an alternative route by ‘in-search assignment of the monoisotopic peak’ in Xi (Xi-MPA), which considers multiple precursor masses during database search. We compare and evaluate the performance of established preprocessing workflows that partly correct the monoisotopic peak and Xi-MPA on three publicly available datasets. Xi-MPA always delivered the highest number of identifications with ~2 to 4-fold increase of PSMs without compromising identification accuracy as determined by FDR estimation and comparison to crystallographic models.
Genome-Wide Identification of HES1 Target Genes Uncover Novel Roles for HES1 in Pancreatic Development
Authors: de Lichtenberg Kristian Honnens , Funa Nina , Nakic Nikolina , Ferrer Jorge , Zhu Zengrong , Huangfu Danwei , Serup Palle
Published: May 2018

Notch signalling and the downstream effector HES1 is required for multiple pancreatic cell fate choices during development, but the direct target genes remain poorly characterised. Here we identify direct HES1 target genes on a genome-wide scale using ChIP-seq and RNA-seq analyses combined with human embryonic stem cell (hESC) directed differentiation of CRISPR/Cas9-generatedHES1-/-mutant hESC lines. We found that HES1 binds to a distinct set of endocrine-specific genes, a set of genes encoding basic Helix-Loop-Helix (bHLH) proteins not normally expressed in the pancreas, genes in the Notch pathway, and the known HES1 target NEUROG3. RNA-seq analysis of wild type,HES1-/-,NEUROG3-/-, andHES1-/-NEUROG3-/-mutant hESC lines allowed us to uncover NEUROG3-independent, direct HES1 target genes. Among the HES1 bound genes that were derepressed inHES1-/-NEUROG3-/-cells compared toNEUROG3-/-cells, we found members of the endocrine-specific gene set, the Notch pathway genesDLL1,DLL4, andHEY1, as well as the non-pancreatic bHLH genesASCL1andATOH1. We also found a large number of transcripts specific to the intestinal secretory lineage to be increased inHES1-/-NEUROG3-/-cells. Together, our data reveal that HES1 employs a multi-layered control of endocrine differentiation, controls Notch ligand expression independent of NEUROG3, and prevents initiation of ectopic intestinal transcriptional programmes in pancreas progenitors.
A Rigorous Interlaboratory Examination of the Need to Confirm NGS-Detected Variants with an Orthogonal Method in Clinical Genetic Testing
Authors: Lincoln Stephen E. , Truty Rebecca , Lin Chiao-Feng , Zook Justin M. , Paul Joshua , Ramey Vincent H. , Salit Marc , Rehm Heidi L. , Nussbaum Robert L. , Lebo Matthew S.
Published: May 2018

Orthogonal confirmation of NGS-detected germline variants has been standard practice, although published studies have suggested that confirmation of the highest quality calls may not always be necessary. The key question is how laboratories can establish criteria that consistently identify those NGS calls that require confirmation. Most prior studies addressing this question have limitations: These studies are generally small, omit statistical justification, and explore limited aspects of the underlying data. The rigorous definition of criteria that separate high-accuracy NGS calls from those that may or may not be true remains a critical issue.

We analyzed five reference samples and over 80,000 patient specimens from two laboratories. We examined quality metrics for approximately 200,000 NGS calls with orthogonal data, including 1662 false positives. A classification algorithm used these data to identify a battery of criteria that flag 100% of false positives as requiring confirmation (CI lower bound: 98.5–99.8% depending on variant type) while minimizing the number of flagged true positives. These criteria identify false positives that the previously published criteria miss. Sampling analysis showed that smaller datasets resulted in less effective criteria.

Our methodology for determining test and laboratory-specific criteria can be generalized into a practical approach that can be used by many laboratories to help reduce the cost and time burden of confirmation without impacting clinical accuracy.
Encoding of 3D head direction information in the human brain
Authors: Kim Misun , Maguire Eleanor A.
Published: May 2018

Head direction cells are critical for navigation because they convey information about which direction an animal is facing within an environment. To date, most studies on head direction encoding have been conducted on a horizontal two-dimensional (2D) plane, and little is known about how three-dimensional (3D) direction information is encoded in the brain despite humans and other animals living in a 3D world. Here, we investigated head direction encoding in the human brain while participants moved within a virtual 3D “spaceship” environment. Movement was not constrained to planes and instead participants could move along all three axes in volumetric space as if in zero gravity. Using functional MRI multivoxel pattern similarity analysis, we found evidence that the thalamus, particularly the anterior portion, and the subiculum encoded the horizontal component of 3D head direction (azimuth). In contrast, the retrosplenial cortex was significantly more sensitive to the vertical direction (pitch) than to the azimuth. Our results also indicated that vertical direction information in the retrosplenial cortex was significantly correlated with behavioural performance during a direction judgment task. Our findings represent the first evidence showing that the ‘classic’ head direction system that has been identified on a horizontal 2D plane also seems to encode vertical and horizontal heading in 3D space in the human brain.
Capicua regulates neural stem cell proliferation and lineage specification through control of Ets factors
Authors: Ahmad Shiekh Tanveer , Rogers Alexandra D. , Chen Myra J. , Dixit Rajiv , Adnani Lata , Frankiw Luke S. , Lawn Samuel O. , Blough Michael D. , Alshehri Mana , Wu Wei , Robbins Stephen M. , Cairncross J. Gregory , Schuurmans Carol , Chan Jennifer A.
Published: May 2018

Capicua (Cic) is a transcriptional repressor mutated in the brain cancer oligodendroglioma. Despite its cancer link, little is known of Cic’s function in the brain. Here, we investigated the relationship between Cic expression and cell type specification in the brain. Cic is strongly expressed in astrocytic and neuronal lineage cells but is more weakly expressed in stem cells and oligodendroglial lineage cells. Using a new conditionalCicknockout mouse, we show that forebrain-specificCicdeletion increases proliferation and self-renewal of neural stem cells. Furthermore,Cicloss biases neural stem cells toward glial lineage selection, expanding the pool of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs). These proliferation and lineage selection effects in the developing brain are dependent on de-repression of Ets transcription factors. In patient-derived oligodendroglioma cells, CIC re-expression or ETV5 blockade decreases lineage bias, proliferation, self-renewal and tumorigenicity. Our results identify Cic is an important regulator of cell fate in neurodevelopment and oligodendroglioma, and suggest that its loss contributes to oligodendroglioma by promoting proliferation and an OPC-like identity via Ets overactivity.
TET2 binding to enhancers facilitates transcription factor recruitment in hematopoietic cells
Authors: Rasmussen Kasper D. , Berest Ivan , Kessler Sandra , Nishimura Koutarou , Simón-Carrasco Lucía , Vassilou George S. , Pedersen Marianne T. , Christensen Jesper , Zaugg Judith B. , Helin Kristian
Published: May 2018

The epigenetic regulator TET2 is frequently mutated in hematological diseases. Mutations have been shown to arise in hematopoietic stem cells early in disease development, lead to altered DNA methylation landscapes and to an increased risk of hematopoietic malignancy. Here, we show by genome-wide mapping of TET2 binding sites in different cell types that TET2 localizes to regions of open chromatin and cell-type specific enhancers. We find that deletion of Tet2 in native hematopoiesis as well as fully transformed Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) results in changes in transcription factor (TF) activity within these regions, and we demonstrate that loss of TET2 leads to enzymatic activity-dependent attenuation of chromatin binding of the hematopoietic TF CDX4. Together, these findings demonstrate that TET2 activity shapes the local chromatin environment at enhancers to facilitate TF binding and provide a compelling example of how epigenetic dysregulation can affect gene expression patterns and drive disease development.
Cryopreservation of InfectiousCryptosporidium parvumOocysts
Authors: Jaskiewicz Justyna J. , Sandlin Rebecca D. , Swei Anisa A. , Widmer Giovanni , Toner Mehmet , Tzipori Saul
Published: May 2018

Cryptosporidiosis in an enteric infection caused byCryptosporidiumparasites and is a major cause of acute infant diarrhea in the developing world. A major bottleneck to research progress is the lack of methods to cryopreserveCryptosporidiumoocysts, thus requiring routine propagation in laboratory animals. Here, we report a method to cryopreserveC. parvumoocysts by ultra-fast cooling. Cryopreserved oocysts exhibits high viability and robustin vitroexcystation, and are infectious to interferon-γ knockout mice. The course of the infection is comparable to what we observe with unfrozen oocysts. Oocyst viability and infectivity is not visibly changed after several weeks of cryogenic storage. Cryopreservation will facilitate the sharing of oocysts from well characterized isolates and transgenic strains among different laboratories.
Leveraging pathogen community distributions to understand outbreak and emergence potential
Authors: Dallas Tad A. , Carlson Colin J. , Poisot Timothée
Published: May 2018

Understanding pathogen outbreak and emergence events has important implications to the management of infectious disease. Apart from preempting infectious disease events, there is considerable interest in determining why certain pathogens are consistently found in some regions, and why others spontaneously emerge or reemerge over time. Here, we use a trait-free approach which leverages information on the global community of human infectious diseases to estimate the potential for pathogen outbreak, emergence, and re-emergence events over time. Our approach uses pairwise dissimilarities among pathogen distributions between countries and country-level pathogen composition to quantify pathogen outbreak, emergence, and re-emergence potential as a function of time (e.g., number of years between training and prediction), pathogen type (e.g., virus), and transmission mode (e.g., vector-borne). We find that while outbreak and re-emergence potential are well captured by our simple model, prediction of emergence events remains elusive, and sudden global emergences like an influenza pandemic seem beyond the predictive capacity of the model. While our approach allows for dynamic predictability of outbreak and re-emergence events, data deficiencies and the stochastic nature of emergence events may preclude accurate prediction. Together, our results make a compelling case for incorporating a community ecological perspective into existing disease forecasting efforts.
Xi-cam: a versatile interface for data visualization and analysis
Authors: Pandolfi Ronald J. , Allan Daniel B. , Arenholz Elke , Barroso-Luque Luis , Campbell Stuart I. , Caswell Thomas A. , Blair Austin , De Carlo Francesco , Fackler Sean , Fournier Amanda P. , Freychet Guillaume , Fukuto Masafumi , Gürsoy Dogˇa , Jiang Zhang , Krishnan Harinarayan , Kumar Dinesh , Kline R. Joseph , Li Ruipeng , Liman Christopher , Marchesini Stefano , Mehta Apurva , N'Diaye Alpha T. , Parkinson Dilworth Y. , Parks Holden , Pellouchoud Lenson A. , Perciano Talita , Ren Fang , Sahoo Shreya , Strzalka Joseph , Sunday Daniel , Tassone Christopher J. , Ushizima Daniela , Venkatakrishnan Singanallur , Yager Kevin G. , Zwart Peter , Sethian James A. , Hexemer Alexander
Published: May 2018

Xi-cam is an extensible platform for data management, analysis and visualization. Xi-cam aims to provide a flexible and extensible approach to synchrotron data treatment as a solution to rising demands for high-volume/high-throughput processing pipelines. The core of Xi-cam is an extensible plugin-based graphical user interface platform which provides users with an interactive interface to processing algorithms. Plugins are available for SAXS/WAXS/GISAXS/GIWAXS, tomography and NEXAFS data. With Xi-cam's `advanced' mode, data processing steps are designed as a graph-based workflow, which can be executed live, locally or remotely. Remote execution utilizes high-performance computing or de-localized resources, allowing for the effective reduction of high-throughput data. Xi-cam's plugin-based architecture targets cross-facility and cross-technique collaborative development, in support of multi-modal analysis. Xi-cam is open-source and cross-platform, and available for download on GitHub.
Consumer empowerment in insurance
Authors: Buehler Pascal , Maas Peter
Published: May 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of consumer empowerment in the relationship between consumers and service providers. It draws on self-efficacy theory to conceptualize consumer empowerment and explain the impact on perceived performance risk in insurance decision making.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs data collected from an online survey involving 487 consumers in Switzerland, who recently decided on an insurance service. A structural equation model quantifies both the psychological effects on consumers’ perception of insurance services and behavioral effects on their decision-making process.

Findings

Perceived consumer empowerment is conceptualized by perceived self-efficacy and perceived controllability. Both have a significant impact on perceived performance risk, while the former is partially mediated by the preference to delegate the decision to a surrogate. Moreover, customers’ involvement in the purchase process moderates both the direct and indirect effect of perceived self-efficacy on perceived performance risk.

Research limitations/implications

The results are based on consumers’ perceptions from a single country. Furthermore, consumers’ perceptions were surveyed with a time lag after the decision-making process. To increase rigor, perceptions should be collected during decision making.

Practical implications

Results show that consumer empowerment can be employed as a risk reduction strategy. Consumers with self-efficacy and controllability beliefs perceive significantly less performance risk; however, practitioners should consider that consumers are also motivated to make decisions independently rather than delegating their decisions. Furthermore, consumer empowerment depends on consumer will. For largely indifferent consumers, empowerment does not affect risk or decision delegation preference.

Originality/value

The study is among the few empirical works to examine the effects of consumer empowerment on the consumer-service provider relationship on an individual level. Furthermore, applying consumer empowerment in relationship marketing implies a shift in research focus to the question of how consumers construe decision-making situations rather than objectively measuring the state of consumer relationship.
How sociable is your university brand? An empirical investigation of university social augmenters’ brand equity
Authors: Eldegwy Ahmed , Elsharnouby Tamer H. , Kortam Wael
Published: May 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to integrate branding and higher education literature to conceptualize, develop, and empirically examine a model of university social augmenters’ brand equity.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on an empirical survey of 401 undergraduate students enrolled in private universities in Egypt, this study model was tested using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The findings reveal that university social augmenters’ reputation, coach-to-student interactions, and student-to-student interactions influence students’ satisfaction with social augmenters. The results also suggest that students satisfied with university social augmenters are more likely to exhibit outcomes of brand equity – namely, brand identification, willingness to recommend, and willingness to incur an additional premium cost.

Practical implications

The results offer managerial implications for university administrators in their quest to enrich students’ university experiences and build strong sub-brands within the university setting. University social augmenters are found to have strong brand equity manifestations and may hold the potential to differentiate university brands in an industry dominated by experience and credence.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the extant literature by filling two gaps in university branding literature. First, previous research has never unified separate streams of literature related to augmented services and brand equity. Second, limited conceptual and empirical research on university branding in general and university social augmentation in particular has been conducted in emerging markets, which has resulted in conceptual ambiguity for the key factors constructing students’ university social experiences.
OFDI from China: a deliberately macro re-evaluation
Authors: Giorgioni Gianluigi
Published: May 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical overview of the recent phenomenon of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from China, from a more macro and historical perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper critically reviews the extant literature and re-assesses available data on OFDI from China.

Findings

It is argued that despite the explosion of academic interest the phenomenon was neither unpredicted nor sudden.

Originality/value

The paper also argues that OFDI from China is not yet so important and neither presents insurmountable challenges to the established literature on FDI.
Determinants of Greenfield emerging market outward FDI into the UK
Authors: Godwin Eun Sun , Cook Mark
Published: May 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of Greenfield emerging market (EM) outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) into the UK, a developed market (DM) host. Despite the increasing significance of EM OFDI, this particular theme of EM OFDI to a DM host has received relatively little attention from researchers. This paper seeks to address this shortfall.

Design/methodology/approach

Considering the distinctiveness of EM OFDI in its firm-specific characteristics, given circumstances and motivations, this paper applies adapted “Resource-based view (RBV)” framework and institutional theory to build a theoretical framework. A range of hypotheses regarding “strategic-asset seeking”, “market seeking” and “institution seeking” motivations of EM OFDI, which reflect both “pull factors” (advantages in hosts) and “push factors” (disadvantages at home), were then developed. Using panel data for the years 2003–2012, the research questions were analysed using a sample of the then most important EM source countries which had undertaken Greenfield FDI into the UK.

Findings

The analysis results supported the hypotheses that strategic-asset seeking and institution seeking motivations were important in determining EM OFDI to the UK, with the coefficients of relevant variables showing statistical significance and expected sign (i.e. positive). However, the hypothesis on market seeking motivation of EM OFDI cannot be supported as the coefficient of the relevant variable, whilst showing the expected sign, had a statistically insignificant coefficient. Amongst the three control variables, the source countries’ exports and imports as a percentage of GDP was statistically significant and had the correct sign whilst, the UK’s share of intra-EU trade, whilst statistically significant, had the opposite sign to that expected. The third control variable, the exchange rate was not statistically significant, though it had the correct sign.

Originality/value

This paper provides an adjusted theoretical framework for the analysis of EM OFDI to DM with a novel application of institutional theory and RBV. It also qualifies and extends existing works on EM OFDI by including a wider range of EM source countries and DM hosts with empirical analysis results as well as theoretical suggestions. In addition, the paper offers up a range of policy implications for DM hosts.
Financial derivatives use and multifaceted exposures
Authors: Huong Trang Kim
Published: May 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of financial derivatives use on different exposures by comparing domestic firms, domestic multinational corporations (MNCs) and affiliates of foreign MNCs using a unique hand-collected data set of derivatives activities from 881 non-financial firms in eight East Asian countries over the period of 2003-2013.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors apply a two-stage approach. In the first stage, exposures to country risks, exchange rate and interest rate risks are estimated by using the market model. In the second stage, potential effects of firms’ derivatives use on multifaceted exposures are investigated by carrying out pooled regression model, and panel data regressions with random effect specifications.

Findings

The authors provide novel evidence that financial hedging of domestic firms and domestic MNCs reduces exposure to home country risks by 10.91 and 14.42 percent per 1 percent increase in notional derivative holdings, respectively, while affiliates of foreign MNCs fail to mitigate exposure to host country risks. The use of foreign currency and interest rate derivatives by domestic firms and domestic MNCs is effective in alleviating such firms’ exposures to varied degrees, while foreign affiliates’ use of derivatives can only lower interest rate exposures.

Originality/value

The primary theoretical contribution of this study is applying the market model to estimate exposures to home and host country risks. Regarding empirical contributions, the authors provide strong evidence that the use of financial derivatives by domestic firms and domestic MNCs significantly contributes to a decline in exposure to home country risks, and evidence the outperformance of domestic MNCsvis-à-visdomestic firms and foreign affiliates.
Institutional pressure and the implementation of corporate environment practices: examining the mediating role of absorptive capacity
Authors: Shubham Shubham , Charan Parikshit , Murty L.S.
Published: May 2018

Purpose

Contemporary frameworks on institutional theory and corporate environmentalism observe that institutional fields positively influence a firm’s environmental response in the form of implementation of environmental practices. These frameworks, however, provide little evidence on why firms facing similar institutional field differ in their environmental response. This paper aims to incorporate the intra-organizational dynamics within the traditional institutional theory framework to address this heterogeneity, examining specifically the role of absorptive capacity for environmental knowledge in the organizational implementation of corporate environmental practices.

Design/methodology/approach

Integrating the institutional theory and resource-based view, this paper examines the mediating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between institutional pressure for corporate environmentalismvis-a-visthe implementation of corporate environmental practices. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used for hypotheses testing based on data obtained from the Indian apparel and textile industry.

Findings

The results support the mediating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between institutional pressure and implementation of corporate environmental practices. Further, this study highlights the importance of acquisition and utilization of environmental knowledge in driving environmentalism through developing absorptive capacity; the findings also suggest that the role of institutional pressure in the implementation of environmental practices should not be analyzed in isolation but rather in conjunction with the development of absorptive capacity that forms the internal basis of implementation.

Practical implications

Managers need to focus on the development of organizational capabilities for acquiring and exploiting environmental knowledge to complement their preparedness in responding to any institutional pressures for environmental sustainability. Firms also need to link their environmental orientation with various sources of environmental knowledge and capabilities residing outside the organizational boundaries. It is important to note here that the development of absorptive capacities for the exploration and exploitation of external knowledge is indeed both required and necessary to build sustainable organizational capabilities.

Originality/value

This paper is among the very few studies that address the issue of knowledge and development of related organizational capabilities for corporate environmentalism. Recognizing that environmental knowledge resides outside organizational boundaries with regulatory agencies and special interest groups, this paper highlights the importance of developing organizational capabilities for the acquisition and exploitation of environmental knowledge.
Differential effects of omni-channel touchpoints and digital behaviors on digital natives’ social cause engagement
Authors: Dahl Andrew J. , D’Alessandro Anthony M. , Peltier James W. , Swan Eric L.
Published: May 2018

Purpose

Social causes increasingly rely on omni-channel touchpoints involving personal discussions and grassroots digital marketing efforts to engage individuals via social referrals. This paper aims to examine digital natives’ perceived effectiveness of omni-channel touchpoints for increasing social cause engagement including social media, digital media, traditional and interpersonal communications, along with an individual’s social/digital media behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reports empirical results from an online survey of 924 digital natives. The paper uses multivariate and multiple regression analyses to examine the differential effects of a diverse range of media influencing the perceived effectiveness of social cause referrals from a family member versus a close friend.

Findings

The results identify the combination of omni-channel touchpoints most likely to be effective for enhancing organ donation support and registration efforts as part of social referral campaigns. The findings suggest differences exist based on whether the campaign targets family members or friends.

Research limitations/implications

The research focuses on digital natives and does not address differences that may vary by specific messages shared across generational groups or ethnicities. More research is also necessary, which examines the effects of digital consumption versus content creation behaviors.

Practical implications

The paper includes implications for social marketers looking at increasing viral reach and engagement via social referral campaigns. Marketers should integrate the omni-channel touchpoints deemed to be most effective for each target based on specific campaign goals.

Originality/value

This paper addresses a gap in marketers’ understanding of how digital natives perceive social referral campaigns targeting their social circle via various omni-channel touchpoints.
Nutrient‐specific compensation for seasonal cold stress in a free‐ranging temperate colobine monkey
Authors: Guo Song‐Tao , Hou Rong , Garber Paul A. , Raubenheimer David , Righini Nicoletta , Ji Wei‐Hong , Jay Ollie , He Shu‐Jun , Wu Fan , Li Fang‐Fang , Li Bao‐Guo
Published: May 2018

Homeostatic responses of animals to environmentally induced changes in nutrient requirements provide a powerful basis for predictive ecological models, and yet, such responses are virtually unstudied in the wild.

We tested for macronutrient‐specific compensatory feeding responses by free‐ranging golden snub‐nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) inhabiting high altitude temperate forests, where they experience a substantial difference in ambient temperature in cold winters vs. warmer springs. The monkeys had free access to natural foods throughout the year, and to ensure that any seasonal differences in nutrient intake were due to homeostatic compensation and not constraints on food availability, we studied the monkeys during periods in which they were provisioned with the same amount of supplementary foods in winter and spring.

Thermoregulatory energy costs in winter and spring were calculated using partitional calorimetric estimations of convective and radiative heat loss obtained from thermal imaging of free‐ranging monkeys in situ. Daily nutrient intakes were measured using continuous focal follows (average 6.9 hr/day) of free‐ranging individuals (27 days in spring and 28 days in winter).

We used a nutritional geometry framework to integrate these data and test three predictions: (a) In order to remain thermoneutral (balance heat loss with heat expenditure), golden snub‐nosed monkeys increase daily energy consumption during the winter compared to spring; (b) this increase is achieved specifically by increasing intake of the primary energetic nutrients, carbohydrate and lipid, relative to protein; and (c) the seasonal increase in ingested fat and carbohydrate calories will quantitatively match the additional thermoregulatory costs in winter compared with spring.

Our results showed that daily metabolisable energy intake in winter (721.5 kJ/mbm) was 1.8 times that in spring (399 kJ/mbm). As predicted, this difference was specific to fat and carbohydrate, whereas seasonal protein intake did not differ significantly. Winter consumption of fat and carbohydrate was 326 kJ/mbm per day greater than in spring, a value that closely matched the seasonal difference in the daily energetic costs of thermoregulation (329 kJ/mbm).

This is the first study to test for a match between nutrient‐specific homeostatic compensation and environmentally induced perturbations in nutrient requirements in free‐ranging animals and underpins the potential for the homeostasis framework to provide predictive power to ecological models.
A pre‐post evaluation of a knowledge translation capacity‐building intervention
Authors: Eames Sally , Bennett Sally , Whitehead Mary , Fleming Jennifer , Low Shanling Olivia , Mickan Sharon , Caldwell Elizabeth
Published: May 2018

Background/aim

Knowledge translation (KT) aims to reduce research‐practice gaps. Few studies have investigated methods to build clinicians’ capacity for KT. To: (i) evaluate the impact of a multifaceted KT capacity‐building intervention; (ii) understand barriers and enablers to clinicians’ use of KT; and (iii) identify useful strategies.

Methods

A pre‐post study to develop KT capacity amongst occupational therapy clinicians (n = 46) in a large metropolitan hospital. A customised questionaire (baseline and 18 months) identified KT‐related behaviours and barriers and enablers guided by the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). McNemar's tests and Wilcoxon signed rank tests were completed on matched data (n = 20). At follow‐up additional items explored perceptions of change and usefulness of strategies.

Results

At follow‐up, participants had read more clinical guidelines (10 vs. 17) and more participants reported using strategies to increase the use of recommended clinical practices (P = 0.006). The main barriers at baseline were from the TDF domains of ‘attention, memory and decision processes’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘environmental context and resources’, while main enablers were from ‘social/professional role and identity’, ‘reinforcement’, ‘social influence’ and ‘beliefs about consequences’ domains. At follow‐up, significant improvements were seen in ‘knowledge’ (p < 0.001), ‘environmental context & resources’ (P < 0.001), ‘skills’ (P = 0.008) ‘beliefs about consequences’ (P = 0.011), ‘beliefs about capabilities’ (P = 0.018), and ‘memory, attention & decision processes’ (P = 0.048) and participants agreed that KT had become part of the departments’ culture. Strategies perceived most useful included working as a team, having a dedicated staff member, mentoring meetings, department leader support, learning about KT over time, and training sessions.

Conclusions

The KT capacity‐building intervention changed one clinician‐reported behaviour and perceived impact of barriers across six domains. Clinicians reported perceived improvement in understanding of – and confidence in – KT, and changes in the culture to one of engaging with KT as part of clinical practice. Further research into KT capacity building is needed.
Chronic moderate alcohol consumption relieves high‐fat high‐cholesterol diet‐induced liver fibrosis in a rat model
Authors: Sun Furong , Zhuang Zhenjie , Zhang Dai , Chen Yushuai , Liu Shu , Gao Nan , Shi Junping , Wang Bingyuan
Published: May 2018

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is a worldwide health issue and chronic alcohol consumption may have different effects on this disease. This study explored the role of chronic moderate alcohol consumption on high‐fat high‐cholesterol (HFHC) diet‐induced liver fibrosis in a rodent model. Male Sprague–Dawley rats were divided into five groups: standard chow group, standard chow plus Er Guo Tou (EGT, a Chinese spirit made from fermented cereals) group, HFHC group, HFHC plus EGT group, and HFHC plus pure ethanol (EtOH) group. Rats were fed standard chow or HFHC chow for 12 weeks. EGT or pure ethanol was administrated at a daily dose of 4 g/kg body weight via intra‐gastric gavage from week 4. At the end of week 12, hematoxylin and eosin staining, Sirius red and immunohistochemistry of liver sections were examined. The hepatic expression of F4/80, TNF‐α, IL‐1β, IL‐6, CXCL1, CXCL2, α‐SMA, Collagen, TGF‐β, MMP2, MMP9, and TIMP1 was calculated. Both moderate EGT and pure ethanol did not increase plasma endotoxin in the portal vein comparing with the FHFC group. EGT and pure ethanol did not improve hepatic inflammation, but ameliorated liver fibrosis in histology. Moderate EGT and pure ethanol ameliorated HFHC diet‐induced activation of Kupffer cells and hepatic stellate cells. In conclusion, chronic moderate EGT and pure ethanol could ameliorate HFHC diet‐induced liver fibrosis.