bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Associative Changes with a Random CS-US Relationship
Authors: Rescorla Robert A.
Published: October 2014

Three experiments examined conditioned magazine approach in rats when a positive unconditioned stimulus (US) bore a random relation to a conditioned stimulus (CS). Experiment 1 found that over the course of conditioning the CS initially elevated responding relative to the baseline but then lost the power to do so. Transfer tests revealed that a CS-US association developed early and persisted despite the decline in magazine responding. Experiment 2 confirmed the persistence of CS-US associations and found them to be more substantial when a different US occurred during the CS than in its absence. In Experiment 3, when the situation was exposed to US-alone presentations prior to introducing the CS, there was little evidence that a subsequent random relation between the CS and US produced an association between them. These results agree with those of blocking and overshadowing experiments using discrete CSs and support an interpretation of the random procedure in terms of competition between the background and CS for conditioning.
Contextual Control of Appetitive Conditioning: Influence of a Contextual Stimulus Generated by a Partial Reinforcement Procedure
Authors: Bouton Mark E. , Sunsay Ceyhun
Published: October 2014

Three experiments with rat subjects examined the effects of a context switch after conditioning treatments in which the conditioned stimulus (CS) was either paired with food on every presentation (continuous reinforcement) or on some of its presentations (partial reinforcement). In each experiment, a target CS was given one of these treatments in Context A, and another CS was given a treatment during sessions that were intermixed in Context B. Final tests of the target CS in Context A and Context B often revealed no loss of responding with the switch to B. However, a loss was observed when partial reinforcement had been associated with Context A and continuous reinforcement had been associated with Context B. Those conditions caused equal decrements in responding to partially reinforced and continuously reinforced targets. The results suggest that under the present conditions partial reinforcement can generate a contextual stimulus that becomes associated with the physical context and controls responding to the CS.
Dynamin and endocytosis are required for the fusion of osteoclasts and myoblasts
Authors: Shin Nah-Young , Choi Hyewon , Neff Lynn , Wu Yumei , Saito Hiroaki , Ferguson Shawn M. , De Camilli Pietro , Baron Roland
Published: October 2014

Cell–cell fusion is an evolutionarily conserved process that leads to the formation of multinucleated myofibers, syncytiotrophoblasts and osteoclasts, allowing their respective functions. Although cell–cell fusion requires the presence of fusogenic membrane proteins and actin-dependent cytoskeletal reorganization, the precise machinery allowing cells to fuse is still poorly understood. Using an inducible knockout mouse model to generate dynamin 1– and 2–deficient primary osteoclast precursors and myoblasts, we found that fusion of both cell types requires dynamin. Osteoclast and myoblast cell–cell fusion involves the formation of actin-rich protrusions closely associated with clathrin-mediated endocytosis in the apposed cell. Furthermore, impairing endocytosis independently of dynamin also prevented cell–cell fusion. Since dynamin is involved in both the formation of actin-rich structures and in endocytosis, our results indicate that dynamin function is central to the osteoclast precursors and myoblasts fusion process, and point to an important role of endocytosis in cell–cell fusion.
Hrr25 triggers selective autophagy–related pathways by phosphorylating receptor proteins
Authors: Tanaka Chikara , Tan Li-Jing , Mochida Keisuke , Kirisako Hiromi , Koizumi Michiko , Asai Eri , Sakoh-Nakatogawa Machiko , Ohsumi Yoshinori , Nakatogawa Hitoshi
Published: October 2014

In selective autophagy, degradation targets are specifically recognized, sequestered by the autophagosome, and transported into the lysosome or vacuole. Previous studies delineated the molecular basis by which the autophagy machinery recognizes those targets, but the regulation of this process is still poorly understood. In this paper, we find that the highly conserved multifunctional kinase Hrr25 regulates two distinct selective autophagy–related pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Hrr25 is responsible for the phosphorylation of two receptor proteins: Atg19, which recognizes the assembly of vacuolar enzymes in the cytoplasm-to-vacuole targeting pathway, and Atg36, which recognizes superfluous peroxisomes in pexophagy. Hrr25-mediated phosphorylation enhances the interactions of these receptors with the common adaptor Atg11, which recruits the core autophagy-related proteins that mediate the formation of the autophagosomal membrane. Thus, this study introduces regulation of selective autophagy as a new role of Hrr25 and, together with other recent studies, reveals that different selective autophagy–related pathways are regulated by a uniform mechanism: phosphoregulation of the receptor–adaptor interaction.
The calcium-dependent ribonuclease XendoU promotes ER network formation through local RNA degradation
Authors: Schwarz Dianne S. , Blower Michael D.
Published: October 2014

How cells shape and remodel organelles in response to cellular signals is a poorly understood process. Using Xenopus laevis egg extract, we found that increases in cytosolic calcium lead to the activation of an endogenous ribonuclease, XendoU. A fraction of XendoU localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and is required for nuclear envelope assembly and ER network formation in a catalysis-dependent manner. Using a purified vesicle fusion assay, we show that XendoU functions on the surface of ER membranes to promote RNA cleavage and ribonucleoprotein (RNP) removal. Additionally, RNA removal from the surface of vesicles by RNase treatment leads to increased ER network formation. Using human tissue culture cells, we found that hEndoU localizes to the ER, where it promotes the formation of ER tubules in a catalysis-dependent manner. Together, these results demonstrate that calcium-activated removal of RNA from membranes by XendoU promotes and refines ER remodeling and the formation of tubular ER.
Myeloproliferative neoplasms can be initiated from a single hematopoietic stem cell expressing JAK2-V617F
Authors: Lundberg Pontus , Takizawa Hitoshi , Kubovcakova Lucia , Guo Guoji , Hao-Shen Hui , Dirnhofer Stephan , Orkin Stuart H. , Manz Markus G. , Skoda Radek C.
Published: October 2014

The majority of patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) carry a somatic JAK2-V617F mutation. Because additional mutations can precede JAK2-V617F, it is questioned whether JAK2-V617F alone can initiate MPN. Several mouse models have demonstrated that JAK2-V617F can cause MPN; however, in all these models disease was polyclonal. Conversely, cancer initiates at the single cell level, but attempts to recapitulate single-cell disease initiation in mice have thus far failed. We demonstrate by limiting dilution and single-cell transplantations that MPN disease, manifesting either as erythrocytosis or thrombocytosis, can be initiated clonally from a single cell carrying JAK2-V617F. However, only a subset of mice reconstituted from single hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) displayed MPN phenotype. Expression of JAK2-V617F in HSCs promoted cell division and increased DNA damage. Higher JAK2-V617F expression correlated with a short-term HSC signature and increased myeloid bias in single-cell gene expression analyses. Lower JAK2-V617F expression in progenitor and stem cells was associated with the capacity to stably engraft in secondary recipients. Furthermore, long-term repopulating capacity was also present in a compartment with intermediate expression levels of lineage markers. Our studies demonstrate that MPN can be initiated from a single HSC and illustrate that JAK2-V617F has complex effects on HSC biology.
Regulation of YAP by mTOR and autophagy reveals a therapeutic target of tuberous sclerosis complex
Authors: Liang Ning , Zhang Chi , Dill Patricia , Panasyuk Ganna , Pion Delphine , Koka Vonda , Gallazzini Morgan , Olson Eric N. , Lam Hilaire , Henske Elizabeth P. , Dong Zheng , Apte Udayan , Pallet Nicolas , Johnson Randy L. , Terzi Fabiola , Kwiatkowski David J. , Scoazec Jean-Yves , Martignoni Guido , Pende Mario
Published: October 2014

Genetic studies have shown that the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) 1–TSC2–mammalian target of Rapamycin (mTOR) and the Hippo–Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP) pathways are master regulators of organ size, which are often involved in tumorigenesis. The crosstalk between these signal transduction pathways in coordinating environmental cues, such as nutritional status and mechanical constraints, is crucial for tissue growth. Whether and how mTOR regulates YAP remains elusive. Here we describe a novel mouse model of TSC which develops renal mesenchymal lesions recapitulating human perivascular epithelioid cell tumors (PEComas) from patients with TSC. We identify that YAP is up-regulated by mTOR in mouse and human PEComas. YAP inhibition blunts abnormal proliferation and induces apoptosis of TSC1–TSC2-deficient cells, both in culture and in mosaic Tsc1 mutant mice. We further delineate that YAP accumulation in TSC1/TSC2-deficient cells is due to impaired degradation of the protein by the autophagosome/lysosome system. Thus, the regulation of YAP by mTOR and autophagy is a novel mechanism of growth control, matching YAP activity with nutrient availability under growth-permissive conditions. YAP may serve as a potential therapeutic target for TSC and other diseases with dysregulated mTOR activity.
Evolution of wealth in a non-conservative economy driven by local Nash equilibria
Authors: Degond Pierre , Liu Jian-Guo , Ringhofer Christian
Published: October 2014

We develop a model for the evolution of wealth in a non-conservative economic environment, extending a theory developed in Degond
et al.
(2014
J. Stat. Phys.
154
, 751–780 (doi:
10.1007/s10955-013-0888-4
)). The model considers a system of rational agents interacting in a game-theoretical framework. This evolution drives the dynamics of the agents in both wealth and economic configuration variables. The cost function is chosen to represent a risk-averse strategy of each agent. That is, the agent is more likely to interact with the market, the more predictable the market, and therefore the smaller its individual risk. This yields a kinetic equation for an effective single particle agent density with a Nash equilibrium serving as the local thermodynamic equilibrium. We consider a regime of scale separation where the large-scale dynamics is given by a hydrodynamic closure with this local equilibrium. A class of generalized collision invariants is developed to overcome the difficulty of the non-conservative property in the hydrodynamic closure derivation of the large-scale dynamics for the evolution of wealth distribution. The result is a system of gas dynamics-type equations for the density and average wealth of the agents on large scales. We recover the inverse Gamma distribution, which has been previously considered in the literature, as a local equilibrium for particular choices of the cost function.
On global minimizers of repulsive–attractive power-law interaction energies
Authors: Carrillo José Antonio , Chipot Michel , Huang Yanghong
Published: October 2014

We consider the minimization of the repulsive–attractive power-law interaction energies that occur in many biological and physical situations. We show the existence of global minimizers in the discrete setting and obtain bounds for their supports independently of the number of Dirac deltas in a certain range of exponents. These global discrete minimizers correspond to the stable spatial profiles of flock patterns in swarming models. Global minimizers of the continuum problem are obtained by compactness. We also illustrate our results through numerical simulations.
Mean-field sparse optimal control
Authors: Fornasier Massimo , Piccoli Benedetto , Rossi Francesco
Published: October 2014

We introduce the rigorous limit process connecting finite dimensional sparse optimal control problems with ODE constraints, modelling parsimonious interventions on the dynamics of a moving population divided into leaders and followers, to an infinite dimensional optimal control problem with a constraint given by a system of ODE for the leaders coupled with a PDE of Vlasov-type, governing the dynamics of the probability distribution of the followers. In the classical mean-field theory, one studies the behaviour of a large number of small individuals
freely interacting
with each other, by simplifying the effect of all the other individuals on any given individual by a single averaged effect. In this paper, we address instead the situation where the leaders are actually influenced also by an external
policy maker
, and we propagate its effect for the number
N
of followers going to infinity. The technical derivation of the sparse mean-field optimal control is realized by the simultaneous development of the mean-field limit of the equations governing the followers dynamics together with the
Γ
-limit of the finite dimensional sparse optimal control problems.
Critical thresholds in flocking hydrodynamics with non-local alignment
Authors: Tadmor Eitan , Tan Changhui
Published: October 2014

We study the large-time behaviour of Eulerian systems augmented with non-local alignment. Such systems arise as hydrodynamic descriptions of agent-based models for self-organized dynamics, e.g. Cucker & Smale (2007
IEEE Trans. Autom. Control
52
, 852–862. (doi:
10.1109/TAC.2007.895842
)) and Motsch & Tadmor (2011
J. Stat. Phys.
144
, 923–947. (doi:
10.1007/s10955-011-0285-9
)) models. We prove that, in analogy with the agent-based models, the presence of non-local alignment enforces
strong
solutions to self-organize into a macroscopic flock. This then raises the question of existence of such strong solutions. We address this question in one- and two-dimensional set-ups, proving global regularity for
subcritical
initial data. Indeed, we show that there exist
critical thresholds
in the phase space of the initial configuration which dictate the global regularity versus a finite-time blow-up. In particular, we explore the regularity of non-local alignment in the presence of vacuum.
Inverse problems in geographical economics: parameter identification in the spatial Solow model
Authors: Engbers Ralf , Burger Martin , Capasso Vincenzo
Published: October 2014

The identification of production functions from data is an important task in the modelling of economic growth. In this paper, we consider a non-parametric approach to this identification problem in the context of the spatial Solow model which allows for rather general production functions, in particular convex–concave ones that have recently been proposed as reasonable shapes. We formulate the inverse problem and apply Tikhonov regularization. The inverse problem is discretized by finite elements and solved iteratively via a preconditioned gradient descent approach. Numerical results for the reconstruction of the production function are given and analysed at the end of this paper.
Non-local crime density estimation incorporating housing information
Authors: Woodworth J. T. , Mohler G. O. , Bertozzi A. L. , Brantingham P. J.
Published: October 2014

Given a discrete sample of event locations, we wish to produce a probability density that models the relative probability of events occurring in a spatial domain. Standard density estimation techniques do not incorporate priors informed by spatial data. Such methods can result in assigning significant positive probability to locations where events cannot realistically occur. In particular, when modelling residential burglaries, standard density estimation can predict residential burglaries occurring where there are no residences. Incorporating the spatial data can inform the valid region for the density. When modelling very few events, additional priors can help to correctly fill in the gaps. Learning and enforcing correlation between spatial data and event data can yield better estimates from fewer events. We propose a non-local version of maximum penalized likelihood estimation based on the
H
1
Sobolev seminorm regularizer that computes non-local weights from spatial data to obtain more spatially accurate density estimates. We evaluate this method in application to a residential burglary dataset from San Fernando Valley with the non-local weights informed by housing data or a satellite image.
Socio-economic applications of finite state mean field games
Authors: Gomes Diogo , Velho Roberto M. , Wolfram Marie-Therese
Published: October 2014

In this paper, we present different applications of finite state mean field games to socio-economic sciences. Examples include paradigm shifts in the scientific community or consumer choice behaviour in the free market. The corresponding finite state mean field game models are hyperbolic systems of partial differential equations, for which we present and validate different numerical methods. We illustrate the behaviour of solutions with various numerical experiments, which show interesting phenomena such as shock formation. Hence, we conclude with an investigation of the shock structure in the case of two-state problems.
Boltzmann-type control of opinion consensus through leaders
Authors: Albi G. , Pareschi L. , Zanella M.
Published: October 2014

The study of formations and dynamics of opinions leading to the so-called opinion consensus is one of the most important areas in mathematical modelling of social sciences. Following the Boltzmann-type control approach recently introduced by the first two authors, we consider a group of opinion leaders who modify their strategy accordingly to an objective functional with the aim of achieving opinion consensus. The main feature of the Boltzmann-type control is that, owing to an instantaneous binary control formulation, it permits the minimization of the cost functional to be embedded into the microscopic leaders’ interactions of the corresponding Boltzmann equation. The related Fokker–Planck asymptotic limits are also derived, which allow one to give explicit expressions of stationary solutions. The results demonstrate the validity of the Boltzmann-type control approach and the capability of the leaders’ control to strategically lead the followers’ opinion.
Parasegetibacter terrae sp. nov., isolated from paddy soil and emended description of the genus Parasegetibacter
Authors: Kim Soo-Jin , Ahn Jae-Hyung , Weon Hang-Yeon , Hong Seung-Beom , Seok Soon-Ja , Kwon Soon-Wo
Published: October 2014

A Gram-stain-negative, variably shaped, non-flagellated, yellow-pigmented, aerobic bacterium, designated strain SGM2-10T, was isolated from a paddy soil sample from the Suwon region, South Korea. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that the isolate was related most closely to

Parasegetibacter luojiensis

RHYL-37T. Strain SGM2-10T showed highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to

P. luojiensis

RHYL-37T (95.1 %),

Flavitalea populi

HY-50RT (95.0 %) and

Flavitalea gansuensis

JCN-23T (94.4 %). No other species in the family

Chitinophagaceae

shared more than 94.1 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with strain SGM2-10T. The major fatty acids of strain SGM2-10T were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 1 G and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH. The only menaquinone was MK-7. The polar lipids comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, seven unknown lipids and ten unknown aminolipids. The G+C content of the DNA of strain SGM2-10T was 46.7 mol%. On the basis of the results of the polyphasic characterization presented in this study, it is concluded that strain SGM2-10T represents a novel species of the genus

Parasegetibacter

, for which the name Parasegetibacter terrae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is SGM2-10T ( = KACC 17341T = JCM 19942T). The description of the genus

Parasegetibacter

has also been emended.
Localization and expression of the Bacillus subtilis dl-endopeptidase LytF are influenced by mutations in LTA synthases and glycolipid anchor synthetic enzymes
Authors: Kiriyama Yuuka , Yazawa Kazuya , Tanaka Tatsuhito , Yoshikawa Ritsuko , Yamane Hisaya , Hashimoto Masayuki , Sekiguchi Junichi , Yamamoto Hiroki
Published: October 2014

Bacillus subtilisLytF plays a principal role in cell separation through its localization at the septa and poles on the vegetative cell surface. In this study, we found that a mutation in a major lipoteichoic acid (LTA) synthase gene –ltaS– results in a considerable reduction in the σD-dependent transcription oflytF. ThelytFtranscription was also reduced in mutants that affected glycolipid anchor biosynthesis. Immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that both the numbers of cells expressing LytF and the LytF foci in these mutants were decreased. In addition, the transcriptional activity oflytFwas almost abolished in the double (ltaS yfnI), triple (ltaS yfnI yqgS), and quadruple (ltaS yfnI yqgS yvgJ) mutants during vegetative growth. Cell separation defects in these mutants were partially restored with artificial expression of LytF. Interestingly, whenlytFtranscription was induced in theltaSsingle or multiple mutants, LytF was localized not only at the septum, but also along the sidewall. The amounts of LytF bound to cell wall in the single (ltaS) and double (ltaS yfnI) mutants gradually increased as compared with that in the WT strain, and those in the triple (ltaS yfnI yqgS) and quadruple mutants were almost similar to that in the double mutant. Moreover, reduction of thelytFtranscription and chained cell morphology in theltaSmutant were completely restored with artificial induction of theyqgSgene. These results strongly suggest that LTA influences the temporal, σD-dependent transcription oflytFand is an additional inhibitory component to the vegetative cell separation enzyme LytF.
LargeQvalue: A Program for Calculating FDR Estimates with Large Datasets
Authors: Brown Andrew Anand
Published: October 2014

This is an implementation of the R statistical software qvalue package [Dabney et al., 2014], designed for use with large datasets where memory or computation time is limiting. In addition to estimating p values adjusted for multiple testing, the software outputs a script which can be pasted into R to produce diagnostic plots and report parameter estimates. This program runs almost 30 times faster and requests substantially less memory than the qvalue package when analysing 10 million p values on a high performance cluster. The software has been used to control for the multiple testing of 390 million tests when analysing a full cis scan of RNA-seq exon level gene expression from the Eurobats project [Brown et al., 2014]. The source code and links to executable files for linux and Mac OSX can be found here:https://github.com/abrown25/qvalue. Help for the package can be found by running./largeQvalue --help.
Scaling properties of evolutionary paths in a biophysical model of protein adaptation
Authors: Manhart Michael , Morozov Alexandre V
Published: October 2014

The enormous size and complexity of genotypic sequence space frequently requires consideration of coarse-grained sequences in empirical models. We develop scaling relations to quantify the effect of this coarse-graining on properties of fitness landscapes and evolutionary paths. We first consider evolution on a simple Mount Fuji fitness landscape, focusing on how the length and predictability of evolutionary paths scale with the coarse-grained sequence length and alphabet. We obtain simple scaling relations for both the weak- and strong-selection limits, with a non-trivial crossover regime at intermediate selection strengths. We apply these results to evolution on a biophysical fitness landscape that describes how proteins evolve new binding interactions while maintaining their folding stability. We combine the scaling relations with numerical calculations for coarse-grained protein sequences to obtain quantitative properties of the model for realistic binding interfaces and a full amino acid alphabet.
Crystal structure of {μ-6,6′-dimethoxy-2,2′-[ethane-1,2-diylbis(nitrilomethanylylidene)]diphenolato}(methanol)(nitrato)nickel(II)sodium
Authors: Moroz Olesia V. , Trush Viktor A. , Sliva Tatiana Yu. , Konovalova Irina S. , Amirkhanov Vladimir M.
Published: October 2014

In the molecular structure of the title compound, [NaNi(C18H18N2O4)(NO3)(CH3OH)], the Ni2+ion has a slightly distorted square-planar coordination environment defined by two N and two O atoms which belong to a Schiff base ligand,viz.6,6′-dimethoxy-2,2′-[ethane-1,2-diylbis(nitrilomethanylylidene)]diphenolate. Seven O atoms form the coordination environment of the Na+ion: four from the Schiff base ligand, two from a bidentate chelating nitrate anion and one O atom from a coordinating methanol molecule. In the crystal, the bimetallic complexes are assembled into chains along theb-axis directionviaweak C—H...O hydrogen-bond interactions. Neighbouring chains are in turn connected through bifurcated O—H...O hydrogen bonds that involve the coordinating methanol molecules and the nitrate anions, and through π–π stacking interactions between phenyl rings of neighbouring molecules.
Quantitative and dynamic measurements of biological fresh samples with X-ray phase contrast tomography
Authors: Hoshino Masato , Uesugi Kentaro , Tsukube Takuro , Yagi Naoto
Published: October 2014

X-ray phase contrast tomography using a Talbot grating interferometer was applied to biological fresh samples which were not fixed by any fixatives. To achieve a high-throughput measurement for the fresh samples the X-ray phase contrast tomography measurement procedure was improved. The three-dimensional structure of a fresh mouse fetus was clearly depicted as a mass density map using X-ray phase contrast tomography. The mouse fetus measured in the fresh state was then fixed by formalin and measured in the fixed state. The influence of the formalin fixation on soft tissue was quantitatively evaluated by comparing the fresh and fixed samples. X-ray phase contrast tomography was also applied to the dynamic measurement of a biological fresh sample. Morphological changes of a ring-shaped fresh pig aorta were measured tomographically under different degrees of stretching.
From mines to minds: addressing the skills gap in Sierra Leone
Authors: Raufflet Emmanuel , Lohmeyer Johannes
Published: October 2014

Subject area

International business, Strategic management

Study level/applicability

BA and MA; courses: International business, Management courses with special focus on emerging and developing countries, Intercultural management, Strategic management.

Case overview

Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa, June 2013 – Representatives of the London Mining Corporation and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH were discussing the details about the official launch of the From Mines to Minds project. The From Mines to Minds project consisted of two components technical, vocational and educational training at St. Joseph's and functional adult literacy for people who could not benefit from the upgrade of St. Joseph's in 17 communities around the mine site. Each of them had committed 200,000 euros to the project. While the mining company favored an early launch due to internal and external pressures, the development agency evaluated that they needed to have a consolidated program before advertising it locally and nationally. This joint decision on the official launch revealed more structural issues in the “fit” between these two organizations in this cross-sectoral partnership designed to contribute to local and national sustainable development.

Expected learning outcomes

The purpose of the case is twofold. The first aim is to introduce students/participants to the challenges that arise when entering into a cross-sectoral partnership with another organization in a development project. The second aim is to expose students to the operational, business and strategic challenges related to operating in the volatile local and national context of a least developed economy.

Supplementary materials

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email: support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
Experience and expression of social isolation by inner-city high-rise residents
Authors: M. Chile Love , M. Black Xavier , Neill Carol
Published: October 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of social isolation and the factors that create social isolation for residents of inner-city high-rise apartment communities. We critically examine how the physical environment and perceptions of safety in apartment buildings and the inner-city implicate the quality of interactions between residents and with their neighbourhood community.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors used mixed-methods consisting of survey questionnaires supplemented by semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions using stratified random sampling to access predetermined key strata of inner-city high-rise resident population. Using coefficient of correlation we examine the significance of the association between social isolation, age and ethnicity amongst Auckland's inner-city high-rise residents.

Findings

– The authors found the experience and expression of social isolation consistent across all age groups, with highest correlation between functional social isolation and “being student”, and older adults (60+ years), length of tenure in current apartment and length of time residents have lived in the inner-city.

Research limitations/implications

– As a case study, we did not seek in this research to compare the experience and expressions of social isolation in different inner-city contexts, nor of inner-city high-rise residents in New Zealand and other countries, although these will be useful areas to explore in future studies.

Practical implications

– This study is a useful starting point to build evidence base for professionals working in health and social care services to develop interventions that will help reduce functional social isolation amongst young adults and older adults in inner-city high-rise apartments. This is particularly important as the inner-city population of older adults grow due to international migration, and sub-national shifts from suburbs to the inner-cities in response to governmental policies of urban consolidation.

Originality/value

– By identifying two forms of social isolation, namely functional and structural social isolation, we have extended previous analysis of social isolation and found that “living alone” or structural social isolation did not necessarily lead to functional social isolation. It also touched on the links between functional social isolation and self-efficacy of older adults, particularly those from immigrant backgrounds.
The Boeing blueprint for dealing with organized labor
Authors: Lueke Stephen
Published: October 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this article is to examine changing employer strategies in dealing with organized labor through Boeing’s negotiations with its local Puget Sound, Washington-based District 751 of the International Association of Machinists and the district’s international parent.

Design/methodology/approach

– Considers factors including leveraging the slow growth of the US economy and the resulting job-security issues among US workers generally and Boeing workers in particular, along with the divided age composition of Boeing’s workforce to achieve market-share competitiveness with Boeing’s chief global rival, Europe-based Airbus Industries.

Findings

– Advises that there is no substitute for early strategic analysis of bargaining goals and strategies, particularly with respect to economic bargaining.

Practical implications

– Advances the view that a well-defined bargaining plan is the most likely key to success in any set of union collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

Social implications

– Considers the tensions that may exist between younger members of the workforce, whose priority is likely to be job security, and older members, who may be more concerned about their pensions.

Originality/value

– Presents the ongoing story of collective bargaining agreement negotiations at Boeing.
Infosys nurtures the talent of tomorrow
Authors: Tiwari Shweta
Published: October 2014

Purpose

– The paper aims to describe how the Infosys leadership institute is preparing a pool of talent to take over running the company in the years ahead.

Design/methodology/approach

– It examines the priorities at the institute, considers other development initiatives in the firm and describes the company’s policies in the areas of employee well-being and engagement.

Findings

– It highlights the importance of communication, work-life balance, equal opportunities and employee engagement.

Practical implications

– It details the ways in which InStep, the company’s global internship program, draws students from business, technology and the liberal arts to work on high-impact projects involving strategy and cutting-edge research.

Social implications

– It reveals that the company’s stock-options program has helped to create some of India’s first salaried millionaires.

Originality/value

– It provides an insight into the engagement of talent at a major international organization.
Supporting staff to fight corruption
Authors: Kemp Harriet
Published: October 2014

Purpose

– This paper aims to explain the nature of bribery in the workplace and puts forward suggestions about how to end it. It also provides examples of bribery legislation in the UK, continental Europe and the USA.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper examines the challenge for companies, how to make the right decisions and the need to encourage speak-up.

Findings

– It is argued that offering staff support, whether with decision-making tools or an accessible and confidential speak-up line, can go some way toward stamping out bribery and corruption.

Practical implications

– This paper advances the view that the culture of an organization is ultimately driven by its values and is set by the tone at the top. Leaders who regularly talk about ethical issues, support staff to uphold ethical standards and behave in an open and transparent way, send the message to all employees, and to the wider world, that the fight against corruption is taken seriously.

Social implications

– This paper highlights the need to create a culture of integrity and openness, where ethical dilemmas arising from doing business in corruption hot-spots are discussed and employees feel supported to do the right thing.

Originality/value

– A set of recommendations is provided to help organizations to prevent bribery in the workplace.
Internal control over financial reporting: opportunities using the COBIT framework
Authors: Rubino Michele , Vitolla Filippo
Published: October 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the COBIT framework, integrated within the internal control framework, enables improvement in the quality of financial reporting while helping to reduce or eliminate the material weaknesses (MWs) of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR). The Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) model is a framework for information technology (IT) management and IT governance. It is a supporting toolset that allows managers to bridge the gap between control requirements, technical issues and business risks. Preliminarily, the analysis in this paper illustrates how the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) framework impacts on the MWs, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. This paper shows how these limits can be overcome with the use of the COBIT framework.

Design/methodology/approach

– This is a conceptual paper that aims to highlight the relationship between COBIT and COSO, by illustrating how the IT processes reduce or eliminate the main MW categories.

Findings

– The analysis indicates that the implementation of the COBIT framework, or more generally the adoption of effective IT controls, provides important benefits to the entire company or organization. IT control objectives have a direct impact on the IT control weaknesses and indirectly on the other categories of material weaknesses.

Practical implications

– The adoption of the framework allows managers to implement effective ICFR. In particular, the COBIT approach provides managers with a more evolved tool in terms of compliance with the Sarbanes–Oxley Act requirements. This framework also improves the reliability of financial reporting in relation to the requirements of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Auditing Standards No. 2 and 5.

Originality/value

– The analysis provides an interdisciplinary approach, connecting accounting and information systems themes, and suggest solutions and tools than can help managers to address the internal control weaknesses. This paper addresses an area of relevance to both practitioners and academics and expands existing accounting literature.
Elevating professional scepticism
Authors: Fei Gong Yi , Kim Sarah , Harding Noel
Published: October 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether accountability pressure and ignorance with regard to the preferences and views of the superior are necessary characteristics of the decision environment to effectively encourage pre-emptive self-criticism and elevate professional scepticism. Auditors continue to be called to account for a perceived lack of professional scepticism in the conduct of their audits. Pre-emptive self-criticism has been proposed as one means by which the level of professional scepticism exercised by auditors may be enhanced.

Design/methodology/approach

– The role of accountability pressure and knowledge of the superior’s preferences in an experimental setting has been investigated, eliciting self-assessed measures of accountability pressure and manipulating whether the superior’s preferences were known or unknown. Judgements are made in the context of a preliminary analytical review setting.

Findings

– It was found that greater application of pre-emptive self-criticism is associated with the presence of perceived accountability pressure, but only when the superior’s preferences are not known.

Research limitations/implications

– Prior research reports that the effectiveness of prompts to be self-critical is limited. Findings suggest that pre-emptive self-criticism may be more effective in elevating professional scepticism than the findings of these studies suggest, and that the absence of an effect may be the result of low levels of accountability pressure in previous research settings. The results of this study imply that future research investigating pre-emptive self-criticism as a means of elevating professional scepticism should incorporate, as is the case in actual audit environments, accountability pressure in the decision setting.

Practical implications

– Qualified by the need for further research, our study guides audit firms in their efforts to meet the expectations of regulators, oversight bodies, standard setters and the public at large for an elevated level of professional scepticism. Our findings suggest that placing auditors under accountability pressure might assist audit firms in meeting these expectations. Our findings also encourage auditors to exercise caution when making their preferences known to subordinates.

Originality/value

– Despite its potential to help auditors meet demands for an elevated level of professional scepticism, pre-emptive self-criticism has received very little attention in the audit literature. Moreover, the few studies that have examined pre-emptive self-criticism find that prompts to be self-critical elevate professional scepticism in only limited circumstances. We make an original contribution towards an explanation for these findings, and guide future research by showing that accountability pressure is an important characteristic of the decision environment that should be in place before attempting to elevate professional scepticism through the encouragement of pre-emptive self-criticism.
The association between PCAOB-identified audit deficiencies and small audit firms’ characteristics
Authors: Kang Fei , Farag Magdy , Hurt Robert , Wyrick Cheryl
Published: October 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this study is to examine the association between certain audit firm characteristics and the number of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)-identified audit deficiencies.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using a hand-collected sample of PCAOB inspection reports for small audit firms with 100 or less issuer clients from 2007 through 2010, an ordinary least squares model is applied by regressing the number of deficiencies on a set of audit firm characteristics.

Findings

– Results show that the number of PCAOB-identified audit deficiencies is positively associated with the number of issuer clients and negatively associated with the number of branch offices, the human capital leverage and the organization structure as Limited Liability Partnership firms. Additional analysis also shows that the PCAOB inspection length is positively associated with the number of deficiencies, the number of branch offices and the number of issuer clients, but negatively associated with the organization structure as limited liability company firms. Moreover, the PCAOB inspection lag is positively associated with the number of deficiencies and the number of issuer clients.

Research limitations/implications

– Results of this study cannot be generalized beyond public accounting firms with 100 or fewer issuer clients. In addition, there is a possibility that other measurements of firm-level characteristics that impact the number of PCAOB-identified audit deficiencies were not captured in the study.

Practical implications

– This study explains the association between audit firm characteristics and PCAOB-identified audit deficiencies. Our results caution small audit firms about not having enough professional staff, low human capital leverage and serving too many issuer clients, as those factors may potentially impair audit quality.

Originality/value

– This study helps to explain the relationship between audit deficiencies and controllable, measurable firm-level characteristics. It is, therefore, differentiated from previous studies, most of which were focused on PCAOB-identified audit deficiencies as measures of audit quality and stakeholder reactions to PCAOB reports.
How variable are the journal impact measures?
Authors: Haghdoost Aliakbar , Zare Morteza , Bazrafshan Azam
Published: October 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the variability of the impact factor (IF) and additional metrics in biomedical journals to provide some clues to the reliability of journal citation indicators.

Design/methodology/approach

– Having used ISI Journal Citation Reports, from 2005 to 2011, the authors extracted 62 subject categories related to biomedical sciences. The category lists and citation profile for each journal were then downloaded and extracted. Coefficient of variation was applied to estimate the overall variability of the journal citation indicators.

Findings

– Total citation indicators for 3,411 journals were extracted and examined. The overall variability of IFs and other journal citation measures in basic, clinical or translational, open access or subscription journals decreased while the quality and prestige of those journals developed. Interestingly, journal citation measures produced dissimilar variability trends and thus highlighted the importance of using multiple instead of just one measure in evaluating the performance and influence of biomedical journals. Eigenfactor™, Article's Influence and Cited Half Life proposed as more reliable indicators.

Originality/value

– The relative variability of the journal citation measures in biomedical journals would decrease with a development in the impact and quality of journals. Eigenfactor™ and Cited Half Life are suggested as more reliable measures indicating few changes during the study period and across different impact level journals. These findings will be useful for librarians, researchers and decision makers who need to use citation measures as evaluative tools.
Linking perceived organizational support to emotional labor
Authors: Kumar Mishra Sushanta
Published: October 2014

Purpose

– Based on two studies on different occupational groups, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and different forms of emotional labor. Drawing from social identity theory, the present study extends the social exchange theory to provide an alternate explanation to the above relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

– The survey design following questionnaire in English language was physically administered among medical sales employees and subsequently among employees in the hospitality industry.

Findings

– The study found that POS is positively related to deep acting and negatively related to surface acting. The study further found that organizational identification mediates the relationship between POS and deep acting where as there was no mediation effect of organizational identification on the relationship between POS and surface acting.

Research limitations/implications

– The research relies on a cross-sectional design with a single source of data collected from two sources at different time periods.

Practical implications

– With the emergence of service economy there is an increasing emphasis on the performance of emotional labor. The present study suggests that organizations need to focus on organizational practices as employees’ perception of organizational support is related to the way they express their emotions during customer interactions. The finding of the study suggests that on what the organizations should do to motivate employees to perform expected emotional labor.

Originality/value

– The literature is relatively silent on the relationship between POS and different forms of emotional labor. The present study adds to the existing body of knowledge by explaining POS as an important antecedent of emotional labor. Further, the study contributes by exploring the mediation effect of organizational identification on the relationship between POS and different forms of emotional labor.
An interactionist perspective on employee performance as a response to psychological contract breach
Authors: (Jessie) Lee Junghyun , Chaudhry Anjali , G. Tekleab Amanuel
Published: October 2014

Purpose

–The purpose of this paper is to investigate the inter-relationships among the closely related exchange-based constructs such as psychological contract (PC) breach, perceived organisational support (POS), and exchange ideology. The authors examine the effects of three-way interaction of them on employee performance.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study theoretically builds on a personality trait-based interactionist model of performance (Tett and Burnett, 2003) and empirically tests the model using multi-source data collected from employee-manager dyads in a non-profit organisation. Hierarchical linear modelling was employed for analysis.

Findings

– The results indicate a significant three-way interaction, such that, the negative relationship between PC breach and task performance is the strongest when employees with a high exchange ideology perceive low levels of POS.

Practical implications

– These findings suggest that organisations should ensure employees feel supported and pay special attention to employees with a high exchange ideology to minimise the harmful consequences of PC breach

Originality/value

– The study provides new theoretical insights to PC literature by integrating the interactionist approach, cognitive psychology, and exchange ideology research. It highlights the importance of simultaneously examining both a situational and an individual variable in predicting employee performance after PC breach