bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Diachronic collocations, genre, and DiaCollo
Authors: Jurish Bryan
Published: October 2018

This chapter presents the formal basis for diachronic collocation profiling as implemented in
the open-source software tool “DiaCollo” and sketches some potential applications to multi-genre diachronic corpora.
Explicitly developed for the efficient extraction, comparison, and interactive visualization of collocations from a
diachronic text corpus, DiaCollo is suitable for processing collocation pairs whose association strength depends on
extralinguistic features such as the date of occurrence or text genre. By tracking changes in a word’s typical
collocates over time, DiaCollo can help to provide a clearer picture of diachronic changes in the word’s usage,
especially those related to semantic shift or discourse environment. Use of the flexible DDC search engine1 back-end allows user queries to make explicit reference to genre and other
document-level metadata, thus allowing e.g. independent genre-local profiles or cross-genre comparisons. In addition
to traditional static tabular display formats, a web-service plugin also offers a number of intuitive interactive
online visualizations for diachronic profile data for immediate inspection.
Classical and modern Arabic corpora
Authors: Atwell Eric Steven
Published: October 2018

Our Artificial Intelligence research group at the University of Leeds has collected, analysed and annotated Classical
Arabic corpus resources: the Quranic Arabic Corpus with several layers of linguistic annotation; the
QurAna Quran pronoun anaphoric co-reference corpus; the QurSim Quran verse similarity corpus; the Qurany Quran corpus
annotated with English translations and verse topics; the Boundary-Annotated Quran Corpus; the
Quran Question and Answer Corpus; the Multilingual Hadith Corpus; the
King Saud University Corpus of Classical Arabic; and the Corpus for teaching about Islam. We have
also developed Modern Arabic corpus resources spanning several genres and language types: Arabic By
Computer; the Corpus of Contemporary Arabic; the Arabic Internet
Corpus; the World Wide Arabic Corpus; the Arabic Discourse Treebank; the
Arabic Learner Corpus; the Arabic Children’s Corpus; and the Arabic
Dialect Text Corpus. These corpus resources have informed Arabic corpus linguistics and Artificial
Intelligence research, and development of Arabic text analytics tools.
Scholastic genre scripts in English medical writing 1375–1800
Authors: Taavitsainen Irma
Published: October 2018

Late medieval scientific and medical writing had several different genres and levels of writing from the beginning.
Learned genres, including commentaries, were introduced into English with the vernacularization boom. The Latin “genre
script” lists ancient authorities’ opinions of a topic, finishing with the commentator’s own. Writing conventions were
adopted with a time lag, and fully-fletched commentaries emerge when the heyday of Scholasticism was already over.
Research became increasingly based on observation and new top genres were based on empirical science. This chapter
traces generic features derived from Scholasticism with genre dynamics and meaning-making practices at center stage.
The material comes from medical corpora with background metadata.
Concessive conjunctions in written American English
Authors: Schützler Ole
Published: October 2018

Based on the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA; Davies 2010–), this chapter inspects the frequencies and semantics of the concessive
conjunctions although, though and even though from the 1860s to the present day. In the data, although and
though predominantly express what Sweetser
(1990) has called speech-act concessives, while even
though mainly expresses content concessives. However, there is a general
development towards a higher proportion of speech-act concessives. Further, although and
even though increase in frequency, while though
decreases over time. Semantic properties and the double function of though (conjunction
and conjunct) are proposed as explanations. Frequency changes progress equally through all genres, but the semantic
change seems to have pervaded all genres only as far as although is concerned.
Variation of sentence length across time and genre
Authors: Rudnicka Karolina
Published: October 2018

The goal of this paper is threefold: (i) to present some practical aspects of using the full-text version of the
Corpus of Historical American English (COHA), the largest diachronic multi-genre corpus of the
English language, in the investigation of a linguistic trend of change; (ii) to test a widely held assumption that
sentence length in written English has been steadily decreasing over the past few centuries; (iii) to point to a
possible link between changes in sentence length and changes in English syntactic usage. The empirical proof of
concept for (iii) is provided by the decline in the frequency of the non-finite purpose subordinator in order
to. Sentence length, genre and the likelihood of occurrence of in order to are shown to
be interrelated.
A comparison of multi-genre and single-genre corpora in the context of contact-induced change
Authors: Trips Carola , Stein Achim
Published: October 2018

This chapter discusses results from a quantitative study of possible contact-induced change in
Middle English in a multi-genre corpus (the Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English
2 (PPCME2), Kroch & Taylor 2000, and a single-genre
corpus, the Penn Corpus of Early English Correspondence (PCEEC), Taylor et al. 2006). We claim that the data from the correspondence corpus are critical to
understanding the rise of the recipient passive (more traditionally called the indirect passive) in late ME because
they reflect the active competence of writers, much more than other genres do (at least in the PPCME2). More
precisely, we argue that our data reflect a verb class specific passive construction that seems to be firmly
established in the grammar of the writers. This construction is not calqued from the model language (Old French) but
the result of interpreting the French dative as different from the English ‘dative’.
Some methodological issues in the corpus-based study of morphosyntactic variation
Authors: Enrique-Arias Andrés
Published: October 2018

This paper has two main objectives: to point out some of the challenges surrounding the study of morphosyntactic
variation and change through historical corpora, and to present some methodological alternatives to help alleviate
these problems using the specific case study of the expression of possession in Old Spanish. The study highlights some
methodological issues such as the definition of the context of occurrence of morphosyntactic variables and the problem
of comparability of texts in diachronic corpora. In order to showcase some methodological alternatives the paper
presents the results of a study on Old Spanish possessives that uses data from a parallel corpus of medieval Bible
translations and a multinomial logistic regression analysis.
The interplay between genre variation and syntax in a historical Low German corpus
Authors: Farasyn Melissa , Walkden George , Watts Sheila , Breitbarth Anne
Published: October 2018

In this chapter, we focus on the choice of different genres in the Middle Low German part of the tagged and parsed
Corpus of Historical Low German and its implications for syntax. We discuss how the
inclusion or exclusion of genres has an impact on the study and the discovery of syntactic phenomena in Middle Low
German, such as null referential subjects, resumptive pronouns, relative particles and gaps in coordinations. This
interplay between genre and syntax also influences parsing decisions. Furthermore, we look at the influence of
(sparse) punctuation on (automatically) tagging the corpus itself, and how a closer study of genre-specific syntactic
elements contributes to the improvement of the accuracy of automatic classifiers.
Kandinsky’s colour-form correspondence theory
Authors: Walter Sebastian
Published: October 2018

About one hundred years ago, Wassily Kandinsky (1912) put forward a theory of aesthetically better or less fitting colour-form combinations, postulating that yellow corresponds with the triangle, red with the square, and blue with the circle. The present cross-cultural study, in Germany and Vanuatu (Melanesia), re-investigated the possible associations of triangle, square and circle with four colours – yellow, red, blue and green. The methodology was also extended to examine associations from the opposite perspective – of the four colours with the three forms. Results confirm the existence of non-arbitrary colour-form associations, but these are different from those posited by Kandinsky. For both German and Ni-Vanuatu participants, significant associations were found for the circle with yellow, and the square with blue. The two groups differed though in their choices of the form associated with red. The results complement findings in other recent investigations of colour-form associations and are explained by exposure to natural (and man-made) objects in the environment.
Divergence and shared conceptual organization
Authors: Bimler David , Uusküla Mari
Published: October 2018

To study associations among colour terms, we asked speakers of fourteen European languages to list terms in the order that they came to mind and converted each list into an array of “adjacencies”. Analysis of these pointed to possible differences among languages in the cognitive organization of colour concepts. Based on adjacency arrays, we defined an index of similarity between pairs of lists, within and between languages. Factor analysis identified a shared cognitive framework structuring the colour domain across languages. There is also enough heterogeneity that one can consider two alternative structures or “Points-of-View”, with individuals weighting these extremes in different proportions to yield their personal lists. Moreover, languages differ in the mean weights of their speakers.
Colour and ideology
Authors: Stanulewicz Danuta , Pawłowski Adam
Published: October 2018

The use of the Polish term for red, czerwony, was investigated in the press released in the period 1945–1954. The data have been extracted from ChronoPress: Chronologiczny Korpus Polskich Tekstów Prasowych (1945–1954), a corpus of Polish newspapers and magazines. At the time of writing this chapter, the number of occurrences of czerwony (and related words) in the corpus amounts to 3,688. The uses of czerwony are examined in the historical context of the new political system, Communism, introduced into Poland after World War II. Our analysis reveals that ideologized czerwony dominates in ChronoPress texts.
Colour terms in the blue area among Estonian-Russian and Russian-Estonian bilinguals
Authors: Loitšenko Olga
Published: October 2018

This chapter investigates the colour terms of Estonian-Russian (Estonian-dominant) and Russian-Estonian (Russian-dominant) bilinguals in the blue category. The blue category has been chosen because Russian and Estonian have different BCT (Basic Colour Term) inventories. Data was collected using a list task and a naming task. The list-task results show that both bilingual groups consider Estonian sinine and Russian sinij more salient than Estonian helesinine and Russian goluboj; therefore, the first two colour terms are encoded better in bilinguals’ semantic memories. The naming task results indicate a higher consensus in the more frequently used (dominant) language. The bidirectional (L1–L2–L1) convergence of linguistic form and semantics is apparent in both list and naming tasks, which consequently can be attributed to the activation of each language system through the priming effect.
The journey of the “apple from China”
Authors: Bogushevskaya Victoria
Published: October 2018

The designations of the orange fruit in Indo-European languages very often literally meant “apple from China”. Citrus species were known in the Chinese cultural area in the fifth century BCE and glossed in c.100 CE, but there is no basic colour term for orange in Modern Standard Mandarin. This colour category is psychologically salient, but it is still inseparable from a concrete object in the mind of a native speaker, and can therefore be defined as starting to become basic. This article also suggests modification of Berlin and Kay’s (1969: 6) first criterion for basicness in colour terms: applied to Chinese, a term should be monomorphemic and, moreover, monosyllabic – rather than just monolexemic – since almost every syllable is a morpheme in Chinese.
An empirical study on fabric image retrieval with multispectral images using colour and pattern features
Authors: Xin John , Wu Jack , Yao PengPeng , Shao Sijie
Published: October 2018

This article presents technical details of a fabric image retrieval system using multispectral images. The goal of the system is to retrieve similar fabric images effectively and efficiently when given a query image. The web-based retrieval system can be accessed through web browsers. The database contains 2,100 fabric images of both yarn-dyed and printed fabrics with a high variety of colours and patterns. The images were captured using the 16-channel multispectral Imaging Colour Measurement (ICM) System for ensuring colour accuracy. Six retrieval models are investigated and compared. Three of the models use colour features while the other three use local pattern features. Future research directions in fabric image retrieval are proposed.
Colour in the Pompeiian cityscape
Authors: Fridell Anter Karin , Weilguni Marina
Published: October 2018

Research on colour in Roman Pompeii has so far dealt almost exclusively with interiors. As part of a larger project on Pompeii’s urban space this study deals with the exterior colours of façades and pavings. Using as source material the existing remains of the town, excavation reports and artistic and other reproductions, we have tested the hypothesis that the colour character exhibited in the well-known and colourfully illustrated findings of Vittorio Spinazzola is also valid for the rest of the town. This hypothesis was supported for some streets and clearly contradicted for others. We have found certain patterns regarding colour and status, function and traffic and identified a number of typically different colour characters for different types of streets.
Chromomycin A2 potently inhibits glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from pancreatic β cells
Authors: Kalwat Michael A. , Hwang In Hyun , Macho Jocelyn , Grzemska Magdalena G. , Yang Jonathan Z. , McGlynn Kathleen , MacMillan John B. , Cobb Melanie H.
Published: October 2018

Modulators of insulin secretion could be used to treat diabetes and as tools to investigate β cell regulatory pathways in order to increase our understanding of pancreatic islet function. Toward this goal, we previously used an insulin-linked luciferase that is cosecreted with insulin in MIN6 β cells to perform a high-throughput screen of natural products for chronic effects on glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. In this study, using multiple phenotypic analyses, we found that one of the top natural product hits, chromomycin A2 (CMA2), potently inhibited insulin secretion by at least three potential mechanisms: disruption of Wnt signaling, interference of β cell gene expression, and partial suppression of Ca2+ influx. Chronic treatment with CMA2 largely ablated glucose-stimulated insulin secretion even after washout, but it did not inhibit glucose-stimulated generation of ATP or Ca2+ influx. However, by using the KATP channel opener diazoxide, we uncovered defects in depolarization-induced Ca2+ influx that may contribute to the suppressed secretory response. Glucose-responsive ERK1/2 and S6 phosphorylation were also disrupted by chronic CMA2 treatment. By querying the FUSION bioinformatic database, we revealed that the phenotypic effects of CMA2 cluster with a number of Wnt–GSK3 pathway-related genes. Furthermore, CMA2 consistently decreased GSK3β phosphorylation and suppressed activation of a β-catenin activity reporter. CMA2 and a related compound, mithramycin, are known to have DNA interaction properties, possibly abrogating transcription factor binding to critical β cell gene promoters. We observed that CMA2 but not mithramycin suppressed expression of PDX1 and UCN3. However, neither expression of INSI/II nor insulin content was affected by chronic CMA2. The mechanisms of CMA2-induced insulin secretion defects may involve components both proximal and distal to Ca2+ influx. Therefore, CMA2 is an example of a chemical that can simultaneously disrupt β cell function through both noncytotoxic and cytotoxic mechanisms. Future therapeutic applications of CMA2 and similar aureolic acid analogues should consider their potential effects on pancreatic islet function.
Falling on Deaf Ears? Exploring the Effects of Newspaper Coverage of the European Parliament on Public Support for it
Authors: Eisele Olga
Published: October 2018

The European Parliament (EP) is the only directly elected institution at the European Union (EU) level, and its empowerment was long regarded to quasi-automatically lead to greater legitimacy of EU politics. The strength of the EP has grown continuously. However, this has not translated into greater appreciation of a crisis-ridden EU which seems more fundamentally questioned than ever before. Starting from the assumption that mass media serve as the most important source of political information and therefore as a crucial connective interface, we explore newspaper contents about the EP and their effects on public support for it to assess the actual link between the people’s representation at EU level and the people at home. The analysis is conducted for EP elections of 2009 and 2014 in Finland, Germany and the UK. Results suggest that effects of coverage on public support of the EP became stronger and more direct in 2014, which is explained by the increased salience of EU politics in times of crisis. However, expectations of what the EP is or should be may have to be adapted to the reality of a second-order parliament.
LtrDetector: A modern tool-suite for detecting long terminal repeat retrotransposons de-novo on the genomic scale
Authors: Valencia Joseph D , Girgis Hani Z
Published: October 2018

Long terminal repeat retrotransposons are the most abundant transposons in plants. They play important roles in alternative splicing, recombination, gene regulation, and genomic evolution. Large-scale sequencing projects for plant genomes are currently underway. Software tools are important for annotating long terminal repeat retrotransposons in these newly available genomes. However, the available tools are not very sensitive to known elements and perform inconsistently on different genomes. Some are hard to install or obsolete. They may struggle to process large plant genomes. None are concurrent or have features to support manual review of new elements. To overcome these limitations, we developed LtrDetector, which uses signal-processing techniques. LtrDetector is easy to install and use. It is not species specific. It utilizes multi-core processors available in personal computers. It is more sensitive than other tools by 14.4%–50.8% while maintaining a low false positive rate on six plant genomes.
A Versatile Rapture (RAD-Capture) Platform for Genotyping Marine Turtles
Authors: Komoroske Lisa , Miller Michael , O’Rourke Sean , Stewart Kelly R. , Jensen Michael P. , Dutton Peter H.
Published: October 2018

Advances in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies coupled with increased interdisciplinary collaboration is rapidly expanding capacity in the scope and scale of wildlife genetic studies. While existing HTS methods can be directly applied to address some evolutionary and ecological questions, certain research goals necessitate tailoring methods to specific study organisms, such as high-throughput genotyping of the same loci that are comparable over large spatial and temporal scales. These needs are particularly common for studies of highly mobile species of conservation concern like marine turtles, where life history traits, limited financial resources and other constraints require affordable, adaptable methods for HTS genotyping to meet a variety of study goals. Here, we present a versatile marine turtle HTS targeted enrichment platform adapted from the recently developed Rapture (RAD-Capture) method specifically designed to meet these research needs. Our results demonstrate consistent enrichment of targeted regions throughout the genome and discovery of candidate variants in all species examined for use in various conservation genetics applications. Accurate species identification confirmed the ability of our platform to genotype over 1,000 multiplexed samples, and identified areas for future methodological improvement such as optimization for low initial concentration samples. Finally, analyses within green turtles supported the ability of this platform to identify informative SNPs for stock structure, population assignment and other applications over a broad geographic range of interest to management. This platform provides an additional tool for marine turtle genetic studies and broadens capacity for future large-scale initiatives such as collaborative global marine turtle genetic databases.
Communicating compositional patterns
Authors: Schulz Eric , Quiroga Francisco , Gershman Samuel J.
Published: October 2018

How do people perceive and communicate structure? We investigate this question by letting participants play a communication game, where one player describes a pattern, and another player redraws it based on the description alone. We use this paradigm to compare two models of pattern description, one compositional (complex structures built out of simpler ones) and one non-compositional. We find that compositional patterns are communicated more effectively than non-compositional patterns, that a compositional model of pattern description predicts which patterns are harder to describe, and that this model can be used to evaluate participants’ drawings, producing human-like quality ratings. Our results suggest that natural language can tap into a compositionally structured pattern description language.
Global transcriptional activity dynamics reveal functional enhancer RNAs
Authors: Kim Yoon Jung , Xie Peng , Cao Lian , Zhang Michael Q. , Kim Tae Hoon
Published: October 2018

Active enhancers of the human genome generate long noncoding transcripts known as enhancer RNAs (eRNAs). How dynamic transcriptional changes of eRNAs are physically and functionally linked with target gene transcription remains unclear. To investigate the dynamic functional relationships among eRNAs and target promoters, we obtained a dense time series of GRO-seq and ChIP-seq data to generate a time-resolved enhancer activity map of a cell undergoing an innate antiviral immune response. Dynamic changes in eRNA and pre-mRNA transcription activities suggest distinct regulatory roles of enhancers. Using a criterion based on proximity and transcriptional inducibility, we identified 123 highly confident pairs of virus-inducible enhancers and their target genes. These enhancers interact with their target promoters transiently and concurrently at the peak of gene activation. Accordingly, their physical disassociation from the promoters is likely involved in post-induction repression. Functional assessments further establish that these eRNAs are necessary for full induction of the target genes and that a complement of inducible eRNAs functions together to achieve full activation. Lastly, we demonstrate the potential for eRNA-targeted transcriptional reprogramming through targeted reduction of eRNAs for a clinically relevant gene, TNFSF10, resulting in a selective control of interferon-induced apoptosis.
Targeted genotyping of variable number tandem repeats with adVNTR
Authors: Bakhtiari Mehrdad , Shleizer-Burko Sharona , Gymrek Melissa , Bansal Vikas , Bafna Vineet
Published: October 2018

Whole-genome sequencing is increasingly used to identify Mendelian variants in clinical pipelines. These pipelines focus on single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and also structural variants, while ignoring more complex repeat sequence variants. Here, we consider the problem of genotyping Variable Number Tandem Repeats (VNTRs), composed of inexact tandem duplications of short (6–100 bp) repeating units. VNTRs span 3% of the human genome, are frequently present in coding regions, and have been implicated in multiple Mendelian disorders. Although existing tools recognize VNTR carrying sequence, genotyping VNTRs (determining repeat unit count and sequence variation) from whole-genome sequencing reads remains challenging. We describe a method, adVNTR, that uses hidden Markov models to model each VNTR, count repeat units, and detect sequence variation. adVNTR models can be developed for short-read (Illumina) and single-molecule (Pacific Biosciences [PacBio]) whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing, and show good results on multiple simulated and real data sets.
XAS/DRIFTS/MS spectroscopy for time-resolved operando investigations at high temperature
Authors: Agostini G. , Meira D. , Monte M. , Vitoux H. , Iglesias-Juez A. , Fernández-García M. , Mathon O. , Meunier F. , Berruyer G. , Perrin F. , Pasternak S. , Mairs T. , Pascarelli S. , Gorges B.
Published: October 2018

The combination of complementary techniques in the characterization of catalysts under working conditions is a very powerful tool for an accurate and in-depth comprehension of the system investigated. In particular, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) coupled with diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) and mass spectroscopy (MS) is a powerful combination since XAS characterizes the main elements of the catalytic system (selecting the absorption edge) and DRIFTS monitors surface adsorbates while MS enables product identification and quantification. In the present manuscript, a new reactor cell and an experimental setup optimized to perform time-resolved experiments on heterogeneous catalysts under working conditions are reported. A key feature of this setup is the possibility to work at high temperature and pressure, with a small cell dead volume. To demonstrate these capabilities, performance tests with and without X-rays are performed. The effective temperature at the sample surface, the speed to purge the gas volume inside the cell and catalytic activity have been evaluated to demonstrate the reliability and usefulness of the cell. The setup capability of combining XAS, DRIFTS and MS spectroscopies is demonstrated in a time-resolved experiment, following the reduction of NO by Rh nanoparticles supported on alumina.
Automatic projection image registration for nanoscale X-ray tomographic reconstruction
Authors: Yu Haiyan , Xia Sihao , Wei Chenxi , Mao Yuwei , Larsson Daniel , Xiao Xianghui , Pianetta Piero , Yu Young-Sang , Liu Yijin
Published: October 2018

Novel developments in X-ray sources, optics and detectors have significantly advanced the capability of X-ray microscopy at the nanoscale. Depending on the imaging modality and the photon energy, state-of-the-art X-ray microscopes are routinely operated at a spatial resolution of tens of nanometres for hard X-rays or ∼10 nm for soft X-rays. The improvement in spatial resolution, however, has led to challenges in the tomographic reconstruction due to the fact that the imperfections of the mechanical system become clearly detectable in the projection images. Without proper registration of the projection images, a severe point spread function will be introduced into the tomographic reconstructions, causing the reduction of the three-dimensional (3D) spatial resolution as well as the enhancement of image artifacts. Here the development of a method that iteratively performs registration of the experimentally measured projection images to those that are numerically calculated by reprojecting the 3D matrix in the corresponding viewing angles is shown. Multiple algorithms are implemented to conduct the registration, which corrects the translational and/or the rotational errors. A sequence that offers a superior performance is presented and discussed. Going beyond the visual assessment of the reconstruction results, the morphological quantification of a battery electrode particle that has gone through substantial cycling is investigated. The results show that the presented method has led to a better quality tomographic reconstruction, which, subsequently, promotes the fidelity in the quantification of the sample morphology.
Crystal structure and Hirshfeld surface analysis of ethyl 2-{4-[(3-methyl-2-oxo-1,2-dihydroquinoxalin-1-yl)methyl]-1H-1,2,3-triazol-1-yl}acetate
Authors: Abad Nadeem , Ramli Youssef , Hökelek Tuncer , Sebbar Nada Kheira , Mague Joel T. , Essassi El Mokhtar
Published: October 2018

The molecule of the title compound, C16H17N5O3, is build up from two fused six-membered rings linked to a 1,2,3-triazole ring, which is attached to an ethyl azido-acetate group. The dihydroqinoxalinone portion is planar to within 0.0512 (12) Å and is oriented at a dihedral angle of 87.83 (5)° with respect to the pendant triazole ring. In the crystal, a combination of intermolecular C—H...O and C—H...N hydrogen bonds together with slipped π-stacking [centroid–centroid distance = 3.7772 (12) Å] and C—H...π (ring) interactions lead to the formation of chains extending along the c-axis direction. Additional C—H...O hydrogen bonds link these chains into layers parallel to the bc plane and the layers are tied together by complementary π-stacking [centroid–centroid distance = 3.5444 (12) Å] interactions. The Hirshfeld surface analysis of the crystal structure indicates that the most important contributions for the crystal packing are from H...H (44.5%), H...O/O...H (18.8%), H...N/N...H (17.0%) and H...C/C...H (10.4%) interactions.
The matching process before and after the crisis in the Netherlands
Authors: de Pedraza Pablo , Tijdens Kea , Visintin Stefano
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the matching process before and after the Great Recession in the Netherlands. The Dutch case is interesting because it is characterised by increasing matching efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses data from 2001 to 2014 to study the Dutch labour market matching process accounting for the three labour market states and their heterogeneities.

Findings

The elasticity of hires with respect to the short-term employed was significant, positive and countercyclical, while elasticities relating to new entrants were procyclical. The matching function (MF) displays constant returns to scale (CRTS) when using an alternative labour supply (LS) measure that includes the short-term employed as jobseekers. The findings are at odds with the idea of mismatch and a shortage of skills. Search frictions for employers were lower and vacancies were filled faster. This can be related to the fact that in a loose labour market context with increasing short-term employment, employers increase their hiring of employed workers which generates negative externalities on unemployed.

Originality/value

The implications concern the specification of the MF and the CRTS assumption when using unemployment as a LS measure.
rESSuME: Employability Skills Social Media SurvEy
Authors: Arnedillo-Sánchez Inmaculada , De Aldama Carlos , Tseloudi Chrysanthi
Published: October 2018

Purpose

This paper presents rESSuME: Employability Skills Social Media SurvEy, which is a tool developed to understand if and how employers screen candidates’ social media (SM) to identify personal employability attributes. In doing so, the purpose of this paper is to shed light into the potential mismatch between the personal purpose of SM and recruiters’ job-related use of this data.

Design/methodology/approach

rESSuME maps personal employability attributes to elements of Facebook (FB). It was delivered to 708 employers in the UK and the USA. The 415 completed surveys were statically analysed.

Findings

More than 75 per cent of those surveyed use FB to screen most candidates. Loyalty and reliability are the personal attributes employers most search for. They look for personal attributes examining posts, comments and photos. Country and gender differences are also reported. While in the USA, they focus on determining whether candidates have good appearance, in the UK they are more interested in gauging if candidates are reliable. Females are more concerned with establishing whether candidates display common sense than their male counterpart.

Originality/value

This work is the first to articulate a rationale and systematic approach to screen candidates’ SMPs to: identify personal employability attributes and systematically map personal attributes to features of FB. Thus, it contributes a novel, systematic and structured tool to do so: rESSuME. It is the largest study with recruiters to date and the first to provide empirical evidence on how candidates’ SMPs are screened: what personal employability attributes do recruiters looked for in SMPs; and what sections and features of FB do recruiters looked at to identify the candidates’ personal employability attributes.
Estimation of rural credit demand: a study of Lower Brahmaputra valley of Assam
Authors: Das Tiken
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the rural credit demand by providing a theoretical and econometric framework which controls the problem of selection bias.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is conducted in Assam, India, and uses a quasi-experiment design to gather primary data. Heckman two-stage procedure and type 3 Tobit model are used to evaluate the rural credit demand.

Findings

It is observed that, in general, rural households’ credit demand is influenced by the ability and capacity to work, the value of physical assets of the borrowers as well as some other lenders’ and borrowers’ specific factors. But, the direction of causality of the factors influencing borrowers’ credit demand is remarkably different across credit sources.

Research limitations/implications

The study recommends that it is possible to provide an efficient credit demand estimate through a correct theoretical and econometric framework. The possible limitation of the study can be due to the exclusion of the role of “traditional community based organizations” in rural Assam while evaluating the credit demand, and therefore, this limitation is left to future research.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the literature by assessing the probable differences among formal, semiformal and informal credit sources with respect to rural credit demand.
The influence of interactive window displays on expected shopping experience
Authors: Lecointre-Erickson Danielle , Daucé Bruno , Legohérel Patrick
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The global aim of this paper is to provide managerial and theoretical contributions in order to guide retailers in their decision to invest in interactive storefront technology and to fill in the gaps in the literature in regards to the influence and the role of exterior atmospheric variables in brick-and-mortar retail experience. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of interactive technology in window displays and its influence on consumers’ affective responses, expected shopping experience and behavioural intentions at the point of sale.

Design/methodology/approach

The design of the study is founded in the presence (=1) vs absence (=0) of interactive technology in the window display. A partial least squares–structural equation modelling (PLS–SEM) approach is used to analyse the structural model and the correlations between the variables.

Findings

This paper finds that the technology has a significant influence on arousal, and that expected shopping experience has a significant influence on patronage intentions.

Research limitations/implications

This study was conducted on French individuals in a tourist bureau setting. The study should be replicated in other retail settings in order to improve the generalisation of the findings.

Originality/value

This study is the first to experimentally test the influence of an interactive storefront display in retailing. This paper also contributes to the retailing literature on exterior atmospheric variables.
The Social Value Act 2012: current state of practice in the social housing sector
Authors: Opoku Alex , Guthrie Peter
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The social housing sector is under increasing pressure to do more with less and provide value for money as part of the UK Government’s public debt reduction strategy. This study aims to explore the current practices towards unlocking social value in the housing sector through the adoption of the Social Value Act 2012. The Social Value Act seeks to ensure that public sector procurement deliver added value in terms of social, economic and environmental outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts quantitative research methodology through a survey with 100 housing professionals charged with the delivery of social value outcomes in the social housing sector in England.

Findings

The results of the study reveal that there is a low level of understanding of the Social Value Act 2012 among the professionals in the social housing sector. Once again, most organisations in the social housing sector do not have social value strategies or policies and rarely consider social value outcomes during procurement. However, employment skills and training and crime and antisocial behaviour reduction are the most social value priority outcomes/needs identified with organisations currently promoting social value in the social housing sector.

Social implications

The issue of social value has importance towards the wider society, and the study provides an insight into current practices towards the realisation of social value outcomes in the housing sector.

Originality/value

The Social Value Act 2012 came into force in January 2013, and little has been written on the impact of the Act on the social housing sector in England. This study identifies current practices in the social housing sector towards the delivery of social value outcomes in the day-to-day business operations.
The relevance of green practices worldwide: an overview
Authors: Dorantes Gisela Aguilar , Salais Fierro Tomás Eloy , Camacho Ruelas Gloria
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The paper consists of a literature review about the green supply chain management (GSCM), a concept which has been gaining ground around the organizations worldwide. The traditional supply chain (SC) was forced to evolve in GSCM as an option for companies to improve their economical, operational and environmental performance. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how green practices (GP) have a powerful dependence to the SC execution from companies around the world. A GP can be briefly defined as the actions being consciously done being responsible to the environment.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is exploratory. The topic was delimited through a review of similar papers, analyzing the different type of tools and the GP considered in each paper. For last, a conclusion will be exposed.

Findings

The “green movement” within the SC is increasing fast around the world, since the increasing awareness of industrialized countries are recurring in practices that impact directly to the environment. Therefore, costs of extra energy consumption are generated, as well as the imminent worrying reputation among customers due to the lack of responsibility to the environment.

Research limitations/implications

The document only covers the topic from a theoretical aspect through a literature review.

Originality/value

This paper covers not only strategies related to GSCM and GP from European and Asian countries are approached, but also Latin American performance, exposing briefly the adoption of GSCM.
Assessment of fluorescence polarization assay: a candid diagnostic tool in Brucella abortus strain 19 vaccinated areas
Authors: Kalleshamurthy Triveni , Shekar Ranjitha , Niranjanamurthy Harish Heballi , Natesan Krithiga , Shome Bibek Ranjan , Bambal Rajendra Gulabrao , Sairiwal Lipi , Barbuddhe Sukhadeo B. , Sahare Amol , Kilari Sreenivasulu , Rahman Habibur , Shome Rajeswari
Published: October 2018

Brucellosis caused by the bacteria of the genus Brucella is an important zoonosis and constitutes a serious public health hazard. Brucellosis is diagnosed mainly by the Rose Bengal plate test and indirect ELISA, both of which have poor specificity because false positive serological reactions occur when screening animals that have been vaccinated with B. abortus S19. Fluorescence polarization assay (FPA) was evaluated for screening samples from cattle and buffalo calves with persistent antibody titers induced by vaccination. The standardized FPA exhibited relative sensitivity and specificity of 0.94 and 0.95, respectively, and the area under the curve, kappa and accuracy were 0.98, 0.87 and 0.95, respectively. Comparison of competitive ELISA and FPA revealed that, FPA is more specific than competitive ELISA. The high specificity, sensitivity and 95% accuracy of FPA indicate that, it is suitable for testing vaccinated animals because it can distinguish between infected from vaccinated animals.
Comparison of gut microbiota composition between laboratory‐bred marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) with chronic diarrhea and healthy animals using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis
Authors: Shigeno Yuko , Toyama Mutsumi , Nakamura Mutsumi , Niimi Kimie , Takahashi Eiki , Benno Yoshimi
Published: October 2018

Chronic diarrhea in laboratory‐bred marmosets poses a serious health problem during experiments. Despite a growing demand for laboratory‐bred experimental marmosets, the mechanisms underlying the development of diarrhea and measures for its treatment and prevention remain unclear. To explore the factors affecting development of chronic diarrhea in laboratory‐bred marmosets, the gut microbiota composition (GMC) of 58 laboratory‐bred marmosets, including 19 animals with chronic diarrhea, was analyzed using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism. We found that the GMCs in these animals cluster into two groups that differ significantly in rate of chronic diarrhea (56.5% in one group, Cluster 1, and 17.1% in Cluster 2). Additionally, a higher α‐diversity and a lower proportion of Bifidobacterium spp. according to quantitative PCR was found the animals in the Cluster 1 than in those in Cluster 2. Taken together, our findings indicate that there is a relationship between GMC and development of chronic diarrhea in laboratory‐bred marmosets. This is the first study to highlight the potential of assessing GMC in relation to development of chronic diarrhea in laboratory‐bred marmosets.
Grizzly bear response to spatio‐temporal variability in human recreational activity
Authors: Ladle Andrew , Avgar Tal , Wheatley Matthew , Stenhouse Gordon B. , Nielsen Scott E. , Boyce Mark S.
Published: October 2018

Outdoor recreation on trail networks is a growing form of disturbance for wildlife. However, few studies have examined behavioural responses by large carnivores to motorised and non‐motorised recreational activity — a knowledge gap that has implications for the success of human access management aimed at improving habitat quality for wildlife.

We used an integrated step selection analysis of grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) radiotelemetry data and a spatio‐temporal model of motorised and non‐motorised human recreational activity to examine how human recreational activity on trails affects both habitat selection and movement behaviour of individual bears. Grizzly bears were captured and radiocollared in the west‐central Alberta Rocky Mountains and Foothills, and trail cameras were deployed on trails to obtain data on human recreational activity.

We found that models including data on recreational activity outperformed trail‐proximity models when interactions with movement covariates were included. Responses were highly variable among individuals and across classes: males, females, and females with cubs.

Male and solitary female grizzly bears increased avoidance of trails with a high probability of motorised activity as well as displaying increased movement rates in response to motorised recreation. Females with cubs did not increase avoidance, however they had the largest response in terms of higher movement rates. In contrast, for all classes, selection for proximity to trail increased when probability of non‐motorised activity was high, and the effect on movement was dampened relative to the motorised response.

Synthesis and applications. By combining selection and movement into a unified modelling framework, we show that bears alter selection and movement behaviour in response to trails and recreation, and that such responses are determined by the type of recreational activity. Reduced selection and increased movement in proximity to motorised trails could affect bears’ ability to exploit foraging opportunities in these areas. Future access management actions for grizzly bear recovery should consider frequency and type of linear feature use by humans rather than solely relying on thresholds relating to feature densities.
Integrating encounter theory with decision analysis to evaluate collision risk and determine optimal protection zones for wildlife
Authors: Udell Bradley J. , Martin Julien , Fletcher Robert J. , Bonneau Mathieu , Edwards Holly H. , Gowan Timothy A. , Hardy Stacie K. , Gurarie Eliezer , Calleson Charles S. , Deutsch Charles J.
Published: October 2018

Better understanding human–wildlife interactions and their links with management can help improve the design of wildlife protection zones. One example is the problem of wildlife collisions with vehicles or human‐built structures (e.g., power lines, wind farms). In fact, collisions between marine wildlife and watercraft are among the major threats faced by several endangered species of marine mammals. Natural resource managers are therefore interested in finding cost‐effective solutions to mitigate these threats.

We combined abundance estimators with encounter rate theory to estimate relative lethal collision risk of the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) from watercraft. We first modelled seasonal abundance of watercraft and manatees using a Bayesian analysis of aerial survey count data. We then modelled relative lethal collision risk in space and across seasons. Finally, we applied decision analysis and Linear Integer Programming to determine the optimal design of speed zones in terms of relative risk to manatees and costs to waterway users. We used a Pareto efficient frontier approach to evaluate the performance of alternative zones, which included additional practical considerations (e.g., spatial aggregation of speed zones) in relation to the optimal zone configurations.

Under the various relationships for probability of death given strike speed that we considered, the current speed zones reduced the relative lethal collision risk by an average of 51.5% to 70.0% compared to the scenario in which all speed regulations were removed (i.e., the no‐protection scenario). We identified optimal zones and near‐optimal zones with additional management considerations that improved upon the current zones in terms of cost or relative risk.

Policy implications. Our analytical framework combines encounter rate theory and decision analysis to quantify the effectiveness of speed zones in protecting manatees while accounting for uncertainty. Our approach can be used to optimize the design of protection zones intended to reduce conflicts between human waterborne activity and marine mammals. This framework could be extended to address many other problems of human–wildlife interactions, such as the optimal placement of wind farms to minimize collisions with wildlife or the optimal allocation of ranger effort to mitigate poaching threats.