bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A framework to embed Asset Management in production companies
Authors: Roda Irene , Macchi Marco
Published: August 2018

The aim of this article is to investigate how to embed asset management in production companies. A framework is defined based on literature analysis and focus groups findings, in which the fundamentals to guide the integration of asset management are systematized. Two dimensions are identified—the asset life cycle and the hierarchical level of the asset-control activities—and four founding principles—life cycle, system, risk and asset-centric orientation—as levers to integrate asset management within an industrial organization. An empirical investigation is then developed through multiple case study involving eight production companies in Italy, with the purpose to map the elements of the framework against the real mechanisms in the industrial practices. This allows testing the relevance of the framework itself and demonstrating its potential as a support for companies to implement gap analysis on asset management practices. Empirical evidence on current practices of asset management in production companies is contextually unveiled.
A social network of collaborating industrial assets
Authors: Li Hao , Palau Adrià Salvador , Parlikad Ajith Kumar
Published: August 2018

The IoT (Internet of Things) concept is being widely regarded as the fundamental tool of the next industrial revolution – Industry 4.0. As the value of data generated in social networks has been increasingly recognised, social media and the IoT have been integrated in areas such as product-design, traffic routing, etc. However, the potential of this integration in improving system-level performance in industrial environments has rarely been explored. This paper discusses the feasibility of improving system-level performance in industrial systems by integrating social networks into the IoT concept. We propose the concept of a social internet of industrial assets (SIoIA) which enables the collaboration between assets by sharing status data. We also identify the building blocks of SIoIA and characteristics of one of its important components – social assets. A sketch of the general architecture needed to enable a social network of collaborating industrial assets is proposed and two illustrative application examples are given.
Wear rate–state interactions within a multi-component system: a study of a gearbox-accelerated life testing platform
Authors: Assaf Roy , Do Phuc , Nefti-Meziani Samia , Scarf Philip
Published: August 2018

The degradation process of complex multi-component systems is highly stochastic in nature. A major side effect of this complexity is that components of such systems may have unexpected reduced life and faults and failures that decrease the reliability of multi-component systems in industrial environments. In this work, we provide maintenance practitioners with an explanation of the nature of some of these unpredictable events, namely, the degradation interactions that take place between components. We begin by presenting a general wear model where the degradation process of a component may be dependent on the operating conditions, the component’s own state and the state of the other components. We then present our methodology for extracting accurate health indicators from multi-component systems by means of a time–frequency domain analysis. Finally, we present a multi-component system degradation analysis of experimental data generated by a gearbox-accelerated life testing platform. In doing so, we demonstrate the importance of modelling the interactions between the system components by showing their effect on component lifetime reduction.
Patient Experience in Primary Care: A Systematic Review of CG-CAHPS Surveys
Authors: Holt Jeana M
Published: August 2018

The National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) vision for 21st-century health care underscored the need for increased patient engagement and charged health-care researchers to develop tools to evaluate patient experience. The most widely studied patient experience tools are the Consumer Assessments of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys. The Clinician and Group (CG)-CAHPS survey is the preferred patient experience survey for primary care, and thus a systematic review of patient reports from the CG-CAHPS empirical literature is ideal to appreciate the voice of health-care consumers. This systematic review revealed patient subjective reports regarding the acceptability of health-care delivery models, the effectiveness of interventions, the timeliness of care in different practice climates, and their responses to quality improvement initiatives. The synthesized results inform clinicians, organizations, and the health-care system where to prioritize and how to adapt services to efficiently provide equitable care, achieving the NAM’s vision for a patient-centered US health-care system.
LncRNA PTAR promotes EMT and invasion-metastasis in serous ovarian cancer by competitively binding miR-101-3p to regulate ZEB1 expression
Authors: Liang Haihai , Yu Tong , Han Yue , Jiang Hua , Wang Chengyu , You Tianyi , Zhao Xiaoguang , Shan Huitong , Yang Rui , Yang Lida , Shan Hongli , Gu Yunyan
Published: August 2018

Background

Ovarian cancer (OvCa) is one of the most common malignant diseases of the female reproductive system in the world. The majority of OvCa is diagnosed with metastasis in the abdominal cavity. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a key role in tumor cell metastasis. However, it is still unclear whether long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is implicated in EMT and influences cell invasion and metastasis in OvCa.

Results

In this study, using bioinformatcis analysis, we constructed a lncRNA-mediated competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network for mesenchymal OvCa and identified lncRNA AP000695.4, which we named pro-transition associated RNA (PTAR). PTAR was significantly up-regulated in the mesenchymal subtype samples compared with the epithelial subtype samples from the TCGA OvCa data sets. In addition, our study showed that PTAR expression was positively correlated with the expression level of ZEB1 in the mesenchymal OvCa samples. Meanwhile, we found that silencing miR-101 promoted cell migration, whereas the overexpression of miR-101 suppressed EMT and cell migration in OvCa cell lines through the regulation of ZEB1. Further analysis showed that enhanced expression of PTAR promoted EMT and metastasis through the regulation of miR-101, whereas silencing PTAR led to the attenuation of TGF-β1-induced tumorigenicity in ovarian cancer cells. Mechanistically, we found that PTAR acted as a ceRNA of miR-101, as forced expression of PTAR reduced the expression and activity of miR-101. More importantly, the knockdown of PTAR reduced tumorigenicity and metastasis in vivo.

Conclusions

Taken together, the results from our study highlight a role for the PTAR-miR-101-ZEB1 axis in OvCa, which offers novel strategies for the prevention of metastasis in OvCa.
Postdural Puncture Headache in a Postpartum Female With Previous Spinal Surgery—Successful Treatment With Caudal Epidural Blood Patch: A Case Report
Authors: Orza Florin M. , Averbakh Elena , Todd Michael M.
Published: August 2018

The occurrence of a postdural puncture headache (PDPH) is a known risk associated with epidural procedures. The primary nonconservative treatment option for PDPH is the performance of an epidural blood patch. This case report describes the use of image guidance for placement of a caudal epidural to treat a PDPH in a postpartum patient. A caudal catheter was placed under real-time guidance and visualization of the deposition of the blood was obtained. By entering via the caudal foramen and utilizing a catheter, manipulations in catheter placement could be performed to adjust deposition of the blood.
Twitter Hashtags for Anesthesiologists: Building Global Communities
Authors: Gai Nan , Matava Clyde
Published: August 2018

Twitter is a social media platform that has been encouraged for use among anesthesiologists as a way to stimulate conversation, distribute research, enhance conference experiences, and expand journal club sessions. We aimed to establish the typical baseline use of hashtags that are not related to events such as conferences. Systematic searches were performed on Twitter, as well as through hashtag-tracking services, to identify actively used anesthesia-related hashtags. The most frequently used general anesthesia hashtags were #anesthesia and #anaesthesia. The most popular and relevant hashtags within anesthesia subspecialties or interest groups include #pedsanes, #anesJC, #OBanes, #intubation, #regionalanesthesia, #neuroanesthesia, and #cardiacanesthesia. We have identified the most popular anesthesia-related hashtags on Twitter to help anesthesiologists increase the reach and degree of discussions in anesthesia-related social media or twitter verse.
Placement of a Continuous Stellate Ganglion Block for Treatment of Refractory Ventricular Fibrillation in the Setting of Known Prinzmetal Angina During Pregnancy: A Case Report
Authors: Scalercio Lauren , Vitter Jillian , Elliott Clint E.
Published: August 2018

A patient with a history of Prinzmetal angina, refractory ventricular fibrillation, cardiac arrest with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, and obesity presented to the emergency department at 17 weeks gestational age with a chief complaint of angina and multiple episodes of defibrillation. A T3/4 thoracic epidural was placed to assess the effectiveness of a partial chemical sympathectomy in alleviating symptoms of angina as well as decreasing the amount of defibrillation episodes. Once this proved to be beneficial in accomplishing both of these goals, a more specific approach was designed. A continuous stellate ganglion block was then placed controlling both her angina and preventing further episodes of defibrillation long enough for her pregnancy to progress beyond 24 weeks gestational age.
The Material Turn in Comparative Literature: An Introduction
Authors: Brillenburg Wurth Kiene
Published: August 2018

In the introduction to this special issue I investigate the feasibility of a material turn in comparative literature. I approach this turn in the sense of the Greek kronos: as a circular, not linear, movement. I propose that this material turn has materialized in the practice and criticism of artists’ books; the study of comparative textual media; research in avant-garde poetry; and a line of criticism incorporating memory studies and book as well as paper history. Through an intermedial analysis of Roland Barthes’s “The Death of the Author,” I show that the material turn in comparative literature emerges out of—rather than against—what is perceived to be its oppositional figure: poststructuralist thought and the linguistic turn. This insight urges us to reconsider the material turn not as a new development in the history of the humanities, but as a set of ongoing concerns, insights, and methods across time.
Colonial Copyright, Customs, and Port Cities: Material Histories and Intellectual Property
Authors: Hofmeyr Isabel
Published: August 2018

In the British Empire, much printed matter originated from outside the colony and was funneled through port cities, where customs checked the material to see that it was not pirated, obscene, or seditious. Customs and Excise hence became the section of the colonial state responsible for copyright. However, their task was not straightforward since officials faced a tangle of colonial, imperial, and international legislation. Unable to work out which law applied where, customs officials elaborated their own practices, which they generated from their daily routines. Any understanding of copyright hence requires a focus on the dockside politics of customs and how notions of copyright emerged from these practices. Taking southern Africa as a case study broadly representative of white settler colonies in the British Empire, the article explores the workings of customs and its implications for new interpretations of copyright.
So Many Tongues: Cixous and the Matter of Writing
Authors: Kaiser Birgit Mara
Published: August 2018

Focusing on Hélène Cixous’s OR les lettres de mon père (1997), the article considers how a prominent work of the “linguistic turn” already works with the entanglement of matter and meaning. Cixous foregrounds the materiality of language, showing it is indispensable to signification. The materially inscribed letters “or” (for example, in or, hors, Georges, gorge, Oran, mort, mord, orage, sort, oreille, corps, encore) germinate multiple narrative lines that revolve around a box of letters from the narrator’s dead father. Cixous’s work explores this entwinement of language-as-materiality with materiality-as-signification in exceptional ways, which problematizes the idea of a material turn coming “after” the so-called linguistic turn of poststructuralism. The text’s polyphonic physique resists conventional oppositions of materiality and signification and unfolds a space where they are co-productive of each other. Writing in this sense—feminine writing—sidesteps the subject/object split and explores subjectivity as uniquely textured formations of continuous meaning-mattering.
Remedial Materialism: What Can Comparative Literature and Electronic Literature Learn from Each Other?
Authors: Zuern John David
Published: August 2018

Tapping the critical resources of the disciplines of comparative literature and electronic literature, this essay conducts two cross-media comparative studies to show that a supple and dynamic concept of literary “materiality” emerges when we view the specific material characteristics of texts as inseparable from their linguistic, historical, cultural, and political attributes. The first study examines the politics of typography in the work of two Indigenous poets, Wayne Kaumualii Westlake and Jason Edward Lewis; the second analyzes the gains and losses of inter-linguistic and inter-media translation in Ingrid Ankerson’s digitally animated adaptation of a poem by the nineteenth-century Japanese artist Ōtagaki Rengetsu. The essay develops the idea of textual “integrity” as a means of grounding comparative analyses in the feedback loops between material and conceptual components of literary artifacts.
Reorienting Ourselves toward the Material:Between Page and Screenas Case Study
Authors: Pressman Jessica
Published: August 2018

Amaranth Borsuk and Brad Bouse’s Between Page and Screen (Siglio Press, 2012) is an augmented-reality book of poetry: a codex filled with Quick Response codes that, when activated by a web-camera connected to the Internet, project the appearance of text between the book’s pages and the reader’s computer screen. The work’s title suggests its formal aesthetic and also the type of reading practice it promotes: a comparative textual media approach. This essay uses Between Page and Screen as a case study for considering what new possibilities and orientations are opened up by the conjunction of comparative literature and comparative textual media and why we need such approaches now.
Visual-Verbal Materiality
Authors: Baetens Jan
Published: August 2018

This article deals with the material turn in literary criticism at the level of the visual and spatial aspects and dimensions of the text. First, it analyzes the different tendencies and changes that helped increase our awareness to this often neglected form of textual materiality. Second, it examines what may be at stake when we read these visual and spatial elements in a more conscious way. Third, it presents the work of two French theoreticians, Jean Gérard Lapacherie and Anne-Marie Christin, whose work on visuality offers both interesting theoretical insights and useful methodological tools for a better understanding of the visual material turn.
De-Indianizing Hijra
Authors: Hossain Adnan
Published: August 2018

This essay advances a regional critique of the Indian-centric scholarship on hijra, a publicly institutionalized subculture of people typically assigned a male gender at birth who often sacrifice their genitals in return for spiritual power. The unexamined Indian hegemony in hijra studies works to reify not only hijra but also India. Drawing on ethnographic research in Bangladesh, this essay offers preliminary reflections on the need to adopt a regional approach in place of a national frame in studies of gender and sexuality, arguing that hijra subjectivities are constituted at the interstice of intra-, inter-, and transregional comings and goings. The regional approach proposed here also allows us to take into account the intraregional and cross-scalar inequalities within the geopolitically constructed South Asia.
Transgender Archipelagos
Authors: David Emmanuel
Published: August 2018

This article explores the promise of an archipelagic analytic for transgender studies through an interpretive investigation of a beauty pageant in the Philippines. Drawing on transgender studies scholarship and the emergent field of archipelagic studies, this article traces how the pageant underwent a series of archipelagic turns when the slate of candidates shifted from representing nations to representing islands, provinces, and regions across the Philippine archipelago. This turn, the author argues, displaced the centrality of the nation and put forward a translocal and translingual focus that centered islandness and island-island relations as the primary categories of embodiment and performance. In the conclusion, this article argues more broadly that transgender studies, with its discontiguous and decentered character, can also be characterized in archipelagic terms. Taken together, this article adds a new heuristic to transgender studies scholarship, while also including transgender in the growing corpus of work in archipelagic American studies that challenges “continental exceptionalism.”
Under the Lights, Onto the Stage
Authors: Hegarty Benjamin
Published: August 2018

Indonesia's waria commonly assert that the bodily transformations they undertake on a temporary but daily basis, which they call déndong, are central to their understanding of the self. The onerous efforts that waria make to craft their male body in line with frequently glamorous forms of feminine beauty nests within efforts to achieve visibility on the national stage. Waria also describe their gendered embodiment in terms of a personal narrative of self-actualization that sees it as one aspect of a process they call becoming. However, waria do not see déndong primarily as the expression of an individual self but assert that it is a reflection of the work of others. In this view, meeting more waria and interacting with them results in irrevocable changes to one's outer self. This article describes the historical emergence of this common understanding of selfhood and embodiment during the New Order in Indonesia (1967–98), a period characterized by the rapid growth of the mass media in the context of military rule. Emphasizing waria's own memories of this period alongside archival sources and personal photographs helps us understand how gender presentation both animates and undermines the fragile promise of national belonging in Indonesia.
Sex/Gender Insecurities
Authors: Yi Horim , Gitzen Timothy
Published: August 2018

This article examines the South Korean military's treatment of trans people in the context of all “able-bodied men” being conscripted for two years. While trans men are exempt from service because they are not considered able-bodied men, trans women pose a significant complication for the rigid military conscription system, given that most trans women in their early twenties—the time when most will be drafted into service—have yet to change their legal gender identification. As the military's definition of one's anatomical makeup is the key criterion for conscription or exemption, the transgender body is a material manifestation of the insecurities of a rigid sex/gender system perpetuated by a masculine and patriarchal military institution. Written on the bodies of trans people is the militarization of the sex/gender system. The Cold War–born Korean military—a geopolitical binary pitting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea against the Republic of Korea—is faced with bodies in transition and resorts to anatomical determinism for the sake of national defense and (re)production.
Daydreaming Transgender in Cemetery of Splendor
Authors: Lor Prathna
Published: August 2018

This essay considers the staging of transsexual fantasy in Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Cemetery of Splendor. Considering pivotal moments of shared intimacy where knowledge of what constitutes relations are confounded, this essay argues that it is the in-distinction of the film's dreaming form that provides the formal texture to read transgender in the film. Moreover, this essay pulls at the sutures that bind dream worlds together, not to reveal its hidden content but to show how dreams touch—and how they might touch the domains of transgender inquiry.
Biyutifrom Below
Authors: Diaz Robert
Published: August 2018

This article examines kabaklaan's conflation with biyuti, pageantry, and fabulosity to better understand how such a conflation facilitates complex articulations of transgender lives and aspirations in the Philippines today. While reflecting on the significance of Out Run, a film about Ladlad's unsuccessful bid to win congressional seats during the 2013 elections, and Die Beautiful, a film about the travails of a transgender beauty queen who dies soon after she wins a nationally televised gay beauty pageant, the author gleans examples of transgender resistance that do not acquiesce to the economic demands of respectability politics. Despite their seeming frivolity, beauty pageants and beauty parlors are significant spaces to will capacious forms of transgender solidarity. They animate the vitality of transgender life. Just as they did during the Marcos regime, filmic reimaginings of what the author calls “biyuti from below” index the spectacular forms of disciplining that Filipinos continue to witness with each passing day. These performances of biyuti demand that we animate multiple versions of trans lives worth living.
Transdualism
Authors: Xiang Zairong
Published: August 2018

The author introduces the concept of transdualism to critique dualism without relying on a dualistic model of critique, the modus operandi necessary for a critique against sexual dualism and hetero/cisnormativity. Transdualism offers an opportunity to dwell within that operation by staying below (not beyond) the “dualism,” that is, below the logic of either/or. The essay will explore the notion of “transdualism” through the hexagram Tai of the Yi Jing, which is often used in medical contexts to illustrate the body-of-orifices of Huangdi Neijing or the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor. The author reads this body-of-orifices, which is primarily represented by its nine major bodily tunnels, with yinyang philosophy as gender/sex indeterminant and shows that the Inner Canon's yinyang body-of-orifices points to something more transgressive, which could unsettle from within the naturalism of gender and sexual dualism and the nature/culture as well as other dualistic divides that have informed contemporary critical rethinking of embodiment. By unpacking the hexagram Tai alongside Inner Canon's body-of-orifices. as well as contemporary feminist, queer, and transgender theorizations of the body and sexuality, this essay aims at rethinking the materio-discursive complexity of the body-of-orifices, which has been either dualistically separated into antagonisms between man and woman, sex and gender, body and discourse, yin and yang; or one-sidedly reduced to a function of “social construction,” knowable only through language—or problematically lumped together in a gender-is-fluid postmodern “both-and,” which supposedly overcomes the metaphysico-theological “either/or.”
“In the Raw”
Authors: Zubillaga-Pow Jun
Published: August 2018

Based on the critical concept of trans*aesthetics, the author examines the aesthetic agency of photography and photographs of and for trans* women living in two iconic periods within the history of modern Singapore, namely, the early 1980s and early 2010s. He prioritizes the creative production over the visibility agenda and receptive prejudices that pertain inherently to trans* activism. The author argues that the act of posing in front of the camera for trans* women cannot be reified but must be critically examined for its materialist ontology, a framework that includes the body, the dress, and the attitude of the model. The transformation of these three domains, including the different attitudes of being demure, fierce, or natural, will determine the otherwise transnormative subject position presented by the photographer.
Trans Formations of Male Falsetto
Authors: Chao Shi-Yan
Published: August 2018

With reference to the biographical documentary Doh! Oh Dear, A Female Tear (by professional falsettist Stephen Chen) and the author's personal testimony (as an untrained falsetto practitioner), this essay approaches the subject of male falsetto from three perspectives: the historical, the individual, and the geopolitical. It suggests that the male falsetto in question can be understood as a multilayered “trans” figuration that comes into being in and through historical discourses, individual embodiments, and geopolitical articulations. Given the limited scholarship on falsetto, this piece means to draw attention to and solicit further research on the much-neglected phenomenon of falsetto in queer and transgender studies.
Yao, More or Less Human
Authors: Chow Yiu Fai
Published: August 2018

This essay introduces Kiki, a transgender sex worker in Hong Kong, who is not adopting the term transgender and is not particularly involved with the transgender movement. Rather, she chose a particular Chinese term to conjure, evince, and categorize herself: renyao. While ren can be translated to “human being,” yao to “monster,” and renyao to “shemale,” those well versed in its vernacular circulation in Hong Kong would understand it as a somewhat old-school but definitely discriminatory, derogatory usage, primarily used to sneer at people who were not readily identifiable as male or female and are viewed as freakish, monsterlike, or less than human. With renyao, Kiki finds her ways to queer transgenderism. By reclaiming a shameful, derogatory term, by bringing transgenderism beyond the language of medicalization and legalization, by inserting playfulness and pleasure, by opting for sex work and founding an organization that defends the rights of male and transgender sex workers, by not wanting to pass, by being neither this nor that, she is renyao, not a transgender person. This essay is to insert Kiki's self-representation, visually and linguistically, into our examinations and explorations, to weave the narration of one Asian transgender person into the weft of trans scholarships and activisms in Asia.
Appropriate Amount of Regular Exercise Is Associated with a Reduced Mortality Risk
Authors: LEE DA YOUNG , RHEE EUN-JUNG , CHO JUNG HWAN , KWON HYEMI , PARK SE EUN , KIM YANG-HYUN , HAN KYUNGDO , PARK YONG-KYU , YOO SOON JIB , LEE WON-YOUNG
Published: August 2018

Purpose

This study aimed at investigating whether there is a continuous dose–response relationship between the amount of physical activity (PA) and longevity benefit.

Methods

We evaluated the records of 23,257,723 Koreans age ≥20 yr who had undergone one biennial medical evaluation by the National Health Insurance Corporation. Participants with ≥20 min of vigorous or ≥30 min of moderate PA or walking were stratified into four groups: 0 d·wk−1; 1–3 d·wk−1; 4 to 5 d·wk−1; and 6–7 d·wk−1. After calculating total metabolic equivalent task-hours per week (MET·h·wk−1), we created eight categories of MET-hours per week (0, 0.1–4.9, 5.0–9.9, 10.0–14.9, 15.0–19.9, 20.0–24.9, 25.0–29.9, and ≥30.0). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard analyses were performed.

Results

A reverse J-shaped risk curve was observed, with the lowest mortality risk in the participants exercising 4 to 5 d·wk−1 (reference). Participants who did not exercise at all and those who exercised with a PA frequency of 1 to 3 d·wk−1 or 6 to 7 d·wk−1 showed a significantly increased mortality risk compared with the reference group. When we repeated the Cox analysis among the 8 MET·h·wk−1 categories with the participants reporting 20.0 to 24.9 MET·h·wk−1 of PA as the reference group, we found that those with physical inactivity and 25.0–29.9 or ≥30.0 MET·h·wk−1 of PA showed a higher mortality risk than the reference group. These relationships were persistently observed after adjustment for confounders.

Conclusions

An appropriate amount of regular exercise in each specific type of PA was associated with the lowest risk of mortality. The inactive participants showed an increased mortality risk, and daily PA did not show any additional benefit in the mortality risk.
Acute High-Intensity Exercise Impairs Skeletal Muscle Respiratory Capacity
Authors: LAYEC GWENAEL , BLAIN GREGORY M. , ROSSMAN MATTHEW J. , PARK SONG Y. , HART COREY R. , TRINITY JOEL D. , GIFFORD JAYSON R. , SIDHU SIMRANJIT K. , WEAVIL JOSHUA C. , HUREAU THOMAS J. , AMANN MARKUS , RICHARDSON RUSSELL S.
Published: August 2018

Purpose

The effect of an acute bout of exercise, especially high-intensity exercise, on the function of mitochondrial respiratory complexes is not well understood, with potential implications for both the healthy population and patients undergoing exercise-based rehabilitation. Therefore, this study sought to comprehensively examine respiratory flux through the different complexes of the electron transport chain in skeletal muscle mitochondria before and immediately after high-intensity aerobic exercise.

Methods

Muscle biopsies of the vastus lateralis were obtained at baseline and immediately after a 5-km time trial performed on a cycle ergometer. Mitochondrial respiratory flux through the complexes of the electron transport chain was measured in permeabilized skeletal muscle fibers by high-resolution respirometry.

Results

Complex I + II state 3 (state 3CI + CII) respiration, a measure of oxidative phosphorylation capacity, was diminished immediately after the exercise (pre, 27 ± 3 ρm·mg−1·s−1; post, 17 ± 2 ρm·mg−1·s−1; P < 0.05). This decreased oxidative phosphorylation capacity was predominantly the consequence of attenuated complex II–driven state 3 (state 3CII) respiration (pre, 17 ± 1 ρm·mg−1·s−1; post, 9 ± 2 ρm·mg−1·s−1; P < 0.05). Although complex I–driven state 3 (3CI) respiration was also lower (pre, 20 ± 2 ρm·mg−1·s−1; post, 14 ± 4 ρm·mg−1·s−1), this did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.27). In contrast, citrate synthase activity, proton leak (state 2 respiration), and complex IV capacity were not significantly altered immediately after the exercise.

Conclusions

These findings reveal that acute high-intensity aerobic exercise significantly inhibits skeletal muscle state 3CII and oxidative phosphorylation capacity. This, likely transient, mitochondrial defect might amplify the exercise-induced development of fatigue and play an important role in initiating exercise-induced mitochondrial adaptations.
Effect of Unintentional Boosting on Exercise Performance in a Tetraplegic Athlete
Authors: GEE CAMERON M. , LACROIX MELISSA A. , WEST CHRISTOPHER R.
Published: August 2018

Boosting is the induction of autonomic dysreflexia (AD) to reflexively activate otherwise dormant thoracolumbar sympathetic circuitry to “boost” the capacity of the cardiovascular system and enhance exercise performance. AD is a life-threatening condition unique to individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) characterized by a sudden increase in sympathetic activity below the level of the SCI. Here we report on the temporal HR response to an episode of unintentional boosting during a validated field-based exercise performance test in an athlete with tetraplegia.

An athlete with SCI (C6 motor-complete, sensory-incomplete) completed a 20 ×20 m repeated sprint field test on two consecutive days. During the 13th sprint on day 2, the athlete unintentionally boosted via bladder overdistension. Average HR when boosted (i.e., sprints 14–20) was considerably higher than before boosting (141 ± 4 vs 116 ± 7 bpm) and compared with corresponding sprints on day 1 (141 ± 4 bpm vs 120 ± 1 bpm). Average time to complete 20 m sprints when boosted was also faster than the corresponding sprints on day 1 (6.70 ± 0.05 s vs 6.87 ± 0.05 s).

This case report highlights the immediate effect of boosting on HR and field-based exercise performance and supports the suggestion that exercise performance in athletes with SCI is limited by cardiovascular capacity.
Leucine Metabolites Do Not Enhance Training-induced Performance or Muscle Thickness
Authors: TEIXEIRA FILIPE J. , MATIAS CATARINA N. , MONTEIRO CRISTINA P. , VALAMATOS MARIA J. , REIS JOANA F. , TAVARES FRANCISCO , BATISTA ANA , DOMINGOS CHRISTOPHE , ALVES FRANCISCO , SARDINHA LUÍS B. , PHILLIPS STUART M.
Published: August 2018

Leucine metabolites, α-hydroxyisocaproic acid (α-HICA) and β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (calcium, HMB-Ca and free acid, HMB-FA), have been proposed to augment resistance training-induced changes in body composition and performance.

Purpose

We aimed to conduct a double-blind randomized controlled pragmatic trial to evaluate the effects of off-the-shelf leucine metabolite supplements of α-HICA, HMB-FA, and HMB-Ca on resistance training-induced changes in muscle thickness and performance.

Methods

Forty men were randomly assigned to receive α-HICA (n = 10, fat-free mass [FFM] = 62.0 ± 7.1 kg), HMB-FA (n = 11, FFM = 62.7 ± 10.5 kg), HMB-Ca (n = 9, FFM = 65.6 ± 10.1 kg), or placebo (PLA; n = 10, FFM = 64.2 ± 5.7 kg). The training program consisted of whole body thrice weekly resistance training for 8 wk (seven exercises per session, three to four sets per session, at 70%–80% one repetition maximum). Skeletal muscle thickness by ultrasound, performance measures, and blood measures (creatine kinase, insulin-like growth factor 1, growth hormone, cortisol, and total testosterone) were evaluated at baseline and at the end of weeks 4 and 8.

Results

Time-dependent changes were observed for muscle thickness (P < 0.001), one repetition maximum bench press and squat (P < 0.001), Wingate peak power (P = 0.02), countermovement jump height (P = 0.03), power (P = 0.006), creatine kinase, insulin-like growth factor-1, growth hormone, and cortisol (all P < 0.001). No significant between-group or time–group interactions were observed.

Conclusions

No leucine metabolite resulted in any ergogenic effects on any outcome variable. Supplementation with leucine metabolites—α-HICA, HMB-FA, or HMB-Ca—is not a supplementation strategy that improves muscle growth and strength development in young adult men.
Financial Performance Feedback and R&D: A Comparison of Different Models
Authors: Jirásek Michal
Published: August 2018

Purpose: Performance feedback either supports or undermines a firm’s current strategy. R&D is one of the most favoured proxies for a firm’s response to performance feedback and this relation complements the commonly studied influence of innovation (R&D) on a firm’s performance with a backward loop. The performance feedback literature works with a number of models used to empirically test these propositions and this study aims to compare the most common measures and models to locate potentially preferred alternatives for further research.Methodology/Approach: The research uses panel data with 1,558 observations. The sample consists of 208 US stock exchange listed firms followed over the years 2001-2015.Findings: The research suggests that models with separate historical and social aspirations may yield a slightly better fit with the data. However, the findings also indicate differences among R&D related dependent measures and their implications for empirical research. These differences arguably also reflect the underlying construct heterogeneity, therefore, researchers should work carefully with them to correctly explain their findings and provide results comparable to the previous literature.Research Limitation/implication: The limitations of the research rose mainly from the limited number of performance factors studied, which stems from an emphasis on standard financial performance indicators.Originality/Value of paper: The research contributes to the performance feedback literature by complementing a previous study that compared different aspiration models (Bromiley and Harris, 2014). By focusing on financial performance and R&D variables, the research offers the first concise entry point for researchers considering empirical studies on financial performance feedback and R&D relationship.
Criteria of Innovativeness and Creativity in Start-Ups and Innovative Entrepreneurship
Authors: Vnoučková Lucie
Published: August 2018

Purpose: Innovativeness and development have become one of the greatest competitive advantage of all organisations. In order to develop innovations, human resources and their development are the main sources of creativity and new ideas, skills and their application. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate and identify approaches to enterpeneurship innovativeness. Furthwermore, paper develops current success criteria of start-ups based on qualitative research made with start-up leaders.Methodology/Approach: The data were collected by means of a quantitative questionnaire research carried out among employees of organisations across sectors who take part in a talent programme in the Czech Republic. Moreover, qualitative research of start-up projects by means of content analysis was carried out among start-up organisations. For the analysis key words and short phrases were selected to find success criteria of start-ups. For the purposes of testing, the Pearson’s chi-square test and the association test were employed.Findings: The results have shown statistically significant differences between the age category and creativity (p = 0.048) and the length of job history and the creativity demonstrated when performing job (p = 0.012). Furthermore, education plays role in innovativeness. University education may cause lowering of creativity by teaching standardized thinking. Moreover, results of study have shown that key success criteria (p = 0.000) of successful start-ups are: use of education and training, development, partners, theoretical mapping, use of expert help, use of concrete technologies, knowledge of project management, project functionality, personal interest in project delivery and efficiency of solution.Research Limitation/implication: The results develop practice in defining key success criteria of innovative approach in enterpreneurships, start-ups and innovative-oriented organisations. The limits of the article can be deemed to consist in a relatively small sample of respondents; however, with respect to the exclusive approach to the talent management in the Czech Republic the sample can be described as sufficient. The results may inspire other researches to conduit further research in other conditions and deepen knowledge about this phenomenon.Originality/Value of paper: The contribution of the article lies in identification and evaluation of the factors of innovativenes of enterpreneurships. Furthermore, practical contribution lies in identification and evaluation of the areas of the sustainable development of social start-ups. Practical contribution lies in presenting the concrete results from real start-up projects and innovative-oriented organisations. The results are important for development of new start-up ideas and project while their main efficient approaches are presented.
Management of Organizational Culture in the Public Institutions of Ecuador Educational Sector
Authors: Marcillo Indacochea Mayra Mercedes , Fernández Concepción Raúl Ricardo , Lorenzo Angie Fernández
Published: August 2018

Purpose: The current study has, as its fundamental objective, the conceptual analysis of organizational culture management models that could be applied in public institutions of the education sector, as well as on management models of the organizational culture mainly those aimed at providing customer services in this sector.Methodology/Approach: It was made an analysis of the main models that exist, and the possibility of adapting them to public institutions in the educational sector, which will improve the management of the organizational culture, according to processes that take place within them.Findings: The non-existence of organizational culture management models aimed at providing customer services in public institutions of the educational sector was identified, as well as the complexity of applying other models of organizational culture management in institutions of the sector referred to from the gaps that they present.Research Limitation/implication: The analyzed models are directed to private and public companies, they do not present methodological frameworks of action beyond the elaboration of business strategies, that allow to be applied directly in organizations with academic aims.Originality/Value of paper: The document was based on the literary review of management of the organizational culture, in which it was detected that the models studied are aimed at companies, being complex their adaptation for institutions of the educational sector. No references were found about management models of the organizational culture focused on the provision of services to the client, which brings novelty to future research.
A Comparative Study on Satisfaction with Current Standard of Living and its Effects on Overall Life Satisfaction: Case of Romania, V4 and EU-15
Authors: Šoltés Vincent , Nováková Bibiána , Szabo Zsuzsanna Katalin
Published: August 2018

Purpose: The main aim of the paper is to explore the patterns of differences in overall life satisfaction in Romania and the V4 in comparison to the EU-15.Methodology/Approach: We carried out contingence analysis and linear regression analysis in order to assess the impact of income and satisfaction with current standard of living on overall life satisfaction.Findings: The main novelty of our research, which presents a significant contribution to the body of knowledge, is that we found that life satisfaction of citizens increases with income category, but there is a more relevant relationship between subjective life satisfaction and subjective self-reported satisfaction.Research Limitation/implication: Despite several limitations of our research (data from the third wave of EQOLS, restricted number of determinants of life satisfaction, absence of effects of financial crisis), we can say that material living conditions and satisfaction with current standard of living still play an important role in life satisfaction of the citizens and the well-being of nations.Originality/Value of paper: The paper focuses on the importance of material living conditions and satisfaction with current standard of living in overall life satisfaction to explore the patterns of differences of life satisfaction in selected countries, and that results are useful for policymakers.
The Reasons for Decertification of ISO 9001: Financial Aspects
Authors: Kafel Piotr , Simon Alexandra
Published: August 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the financial performance of organizations that give up their QMS (Quality Management System) according to ISO 9001 certification. Different reasons found for the cancellation of ISO 9001 certification were taken into consideration. The decrease in certification of ISO 9001 standard is, during the past few years, noticeable in many countries. Therefore, there is a need to analyze the phenomena.Methodology/Approach: The study analyses financial performance of organizations and reasons of ISO 9001 certificates cancellation based on 99 Polish organizations, which gave up certification in years 2012 and 2013. The reasons of certificate cancelation were obtained from the quality managers of studied organizations. Financial performance was estimated on the basis of the ROA indicator value.Findings: The results show that in the studied organizations, there is a big group of companies that had financial problems. There were 28.8% of organizations that did not have profits at all, and 32.9% with a financial performance, calculated according to ROA indicator value, lower than the average for the industry in which studied organizations were operating. Surprisingly, there is no evident correlation between the reasons of ISO 9001 decertification and financial performance of these organizations.Research Limitation/implication: The data cover Polish organizations that give up ISO 9001 certification, and they were obtained only from one certification body. Survey data concerning the decision of decertification cover only a two-year period of time.Originality/Value of paper: The findings of our study might be helpful for the managers of organizations and certification bodies as well as for the researchers to describe the effectiveness of activities related to QMS implementation, certification and cancellation.
Assessment of Innovation Potential of Gayo Coffee Agroindustry
Authors: Fadhil Rahmat , Maarif M. Syamsul , Bantacut Tajuddin , Hermawan Aji
Published: August 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to perform an assessment on the innovation potential of Gayo coffee agroindustry, as a basis of policymaking as an effort to promote agroindustry and to increase the revenue.Methodology/Approach: Innovation potential assessment was performed with “Map of the Company Innovation Potential” through a stakeholder survey by using questionnaire and confirmation.Findings: The result of the study shows that innovation potential of Gayo coffee agroindustry is good enough to be developed by considering today’s reality and condition, based on innovation potential assessment that had been performed. This condition is very possible for the development of innovation activity in the form of work and the agroindustry program of Gayo coffee becomes more serious concern, so that the potential of innovation improvement can continue to grow and evolve by involving various parties to create a synergy in supporting innovation development.Research Limitation/implication: This study describes the condition of innovation potential of Gayo coffee agroindustry in six aspects of assessment, which are: strategy and planning, marketing, technological process, quality and environment, logistic and human resources.Originality/Value of paper: This article is according to field data from an interview with the stakeholders, field trip, and quantitative analysis. This study is very helpful for the policy maker in expanding Gayo coffee agroindustry, and become a contribution to analyze innovation potential in other agroindustry.