bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Changing seasonality and phenological responses of free-living male arctic ground squirrels: the importance of sex
Authors: Sheriff Michael J. , Richter Melanie M. , Buck C. Loren , Barnes Brian M.
Published: July 2013

Many studies have addressed the effects of climate change on species as a whole; however, few have examined the possibility of sex-specific differences. To understand better the impact that changing patterns of snow-cover have on an important resident Arctic mammal, we investigated the long-term (13 years) phenology of hibernating male arctic ground squirrels living at two nearby sites in northern Alaska that experience significantly different snow-cover regimes. Previously, we demonstrated that snow-cover influences the timing of phenological events in females. Our results here suggest that the end of heterothermy in males is influenced by soil temperature and an endogenous circannual clock, but timing of male emergence from hibernation is influenced by the timing of female emergence. Males at both sites, Atigun and Toolik, end heterothermy on the same date in spring, but remain in their burrows while undergoing reproductive maturation. However, at Atigun, where snowmelt and female emergence occur relatively early, males emerge 8 days earlier than those at Toolik, maintaining a 12-day period between male and female emergence found at each site, but reducing the pre-emergence euthermic period that is critical for reproductive maturation. This sensitivity in timing of male emergence to female emergence will need to be matched by phase shifts in the circannual clock and responsiveness to environmental factors that time the end of heterothermy, if synchrony in reproductive readiness between the sexes is to be preserved in a rapidly changing climate.
Long-term monitoring at multiple trophic levels suggests heterogeneity in responses to climate change in the Canadian Arctic tundra
Authors: Gauthier Gilles , Bêty Joël , Cadieux Marie-Christine , Legagneux Pierre , Doiron Madeleine , Chevallier Clément , Lai Sandra , Tarroux Arnaud , Berteaux Dominique
Published: July 2013

Arctic wildlife is often presented as being highly at risk in the face of current climate warming. We use the long-term (up to 24 years) monitoring records available on Bylot Island in the Canadian Arctic to examine temporal trends in population attributes of several terrestrial vertebrates and in primary production. Despite a warming trend (e.g. cumulative annual thawing degree-days increased by 37% and snow-melt date advanced by 4–7 days over a 23-year period), we found little evidence for changes in the phenology, abundance or productivity of several vertebrate species (snow goose, foxes, lemmings, avian predators and one passerine). Only primary production showed a response to warming (annual above-ground biomass of wetland graminoids increased by 123% during this period). We nonetheless found evidence for potential mismatches between herbivores and their food plants in response to warming as snow geese adjusted their laying date by only 3.8 days on average for a change in snow-melt of 10 days, half of the corresponding adjustment shown by the timing of plant growth (7.1 days). We discuss several reasons (duration of time series, large annual variability, amplitude of observed climate change, nonlinear dynamic or constraints imposed by various rate of warming with latitude in migrants) to explain the lack of response by herbivores and predators to climate warming at our study site. We also show how length and intensity of monitoring could affect our ability to detect temporal trends and provide recommendations for future monitoring.
Pan-Arctic modelling of net ecosystem exchange of CO
2
Authors: Shaver G. R. , Rastetter E. B. , Salmon V. , Street L. E. , van de Weg M. J. , Rocha A. , van Wijk M. T. , Williams M.
Published: July 2013

Net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of C varies greatly among Arctic ecosystems. Here, we show that approximately 75 per cent of this variation can be accounted for in a single regression model that predicts NEE as a function of leaf area index (LAI), air temperature and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). The model was developed in concert with a survey of the light response of NEE in Arctic and subarctic tundras in Alaska, Greenland, Svalbard and Sweden. Model parametrizations based on data collected in one part of the Arctic can be used to predict NEE in other parts of the Arctic with accuracy similar to that of predictions based on data collected in the same site where NEE is predicted. The principal requirement for the dataset is that it should contain a sufficiently wide range of measurements of NEE at both high and low values of LAI, air temperature and PAR, to properly constrain the estimates of model parameters. Canopy N content can also be substituted for leaf area in predicting NEE, with equal or greater accuracy, but substitution of soil temperature for air temperature does not improve predictions. Overall, the results suggest a remarkable convergence in regulation of NEE in diverse ecosystem types throughout the Arctic.
Influence of terry fabrics structure on dynamic sorption
Authors: Stoyanova Germanova‐Krasteva Diana , Dimitrova Kandzhikova Galya , Grigorov Bochev Atanas
Published: July 2013

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of some structural characteristics of terry fabrics on the rate of sorption.

Design/methodology/approach

Fabrics are produced by changing the weft density and the pile height. An experimental stand for dynamic measurement of water sorption is created. The quantities of water absorbed by the fabric over time are determined. The sorption rates are calculated and discussed.

Findings

The dynamics of the sorption process are assessed through the sorption curves presented. The sorption rates for the main sorption stages, as well the average rate for weft and warp direction, are calculated. Results are statistically worked out applying ANOVA. Appropriate conclusions about the influence of the investigated parameters on sorption process are made.

Originality/value

The originality/value of this paper is: determination of the rates of water sorption for the particular time intervals and the average rates for the entire test period; and assessment of the infuence of the loop height and weft density on the sorption rates.
Interactive assembly simulation with haptic feedback
Authors: Perret Jérôme , Kneschke Christoph , Vance Judy , Dumont Georges
Published: July 2013

Purpose

The paper aims to present interactive simulation with haptic feedback as a valid method for solving complex assembly problems in the context of industrial product development. Its purpose is to clarify the position of interactive simulation with respect to other methods, and to emphasize its specific value for design engineers.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper describes the challenges faced by design engineers in the context of design for assembly and assembly process planning. It introduces and compares automatic path planning and interactive simulation as two different approaches for checking the feasibility of assembly tasks. It provides a review of the scientific challenges and technical issues faced when implementing interactive simulation with haptic feedback in this context. It presents recent research results in the domains of final insertion and human model simulation.

Findings

The paper provides an overview of the scientific, technological and practical aspects of interactive simulation with haptic feedback. It explains how this method benefits from the manual skills and cognitive capabilities of the human operator for solving complex assembly problems. It proposes an assessment of the technical maturity using the Technology Readiness Level approach.

Originality/value

The paper gives insights about the maturity and usability of interactive assembly simulation with haptic feedback, for the benefit of design engineers seeking new ways to decrease product development time and costs while increasing quality.
On credit spread change of Chinese corporate bonds: credit risk or asset allocation effect?
Authors: Cui Changfeng , Liu Hailong , Zhang Yi
Published: July 2013

Purpose

Credit spread change is a key issue for investors to earn the excess return from corporate bonds. Generally, there are two kinds of different effects that support the changing of credit spread: asset allocation effect and credit risk change effect. The existing literature based on US data supports credit spread change is driven by credit risk change; however, this issue based on Chinese market data has not been investigated clearly. This paper seeks to address this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopt Markov regime switching model to investigate the changing mode of the credit spread in the Chinese bond market. They select three kinds of variables: the credit risk variables, the asset allocation variables and the liquidity condition variables. With ML estimators, the authors can find the changing mode and further they study the relationship between the regime switching and some observed variables, such as macro economy variables and turnover of stock market.

Findings

The authors find it is driven by asset allocation effect in most time and by credit risk change only in shorter period. Empirical results show that the switching of dominance from one effect to another isn't closely related with macro‐economy variables, but related with the turnover of stock market.

Practical implications

These results indicate that in China the credit risk of corporate bonds is relatively low and the corporate bonds are still auxiliary asset for investors.

Originality/value

In this paper, the authors have the following two contributions: first, they discuss the asset allocation effect in the Chinese bond market and introduce the stock market variables and bank credit variable to describe the asset allocation effect; second, based on Chinese bond market data, they find different findings from the existing literature about US and European bond markets, showing that the changing of credit spread is mostly related with asset allocation effect but not credit risk change.
Exercise price regulation and the timing of ESO reports: evidence from China
Authors: Dai Xingyun , Dai Sicong , Wang Kemin
Published: July 2013

Purpose

Prior research has documented that managers take opportunistic timing activities to influence the exercise prices of executive stock options (ESOs). This paper aims to add to the literature by investigating whether such behavior is mitigated by the exercise price regulation of China.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a sample of 132 ESO reports between 2006 and 2010 in China, the authors explore whether the regulation takes effect by examining stock price movements and companies' information disclosures around the report dates.

Findings

Consistent with the conjecture that the regulation could not effectively limit managers' opportunistic behavior, the authors find that the abnormal returns decrease slowly until ten trading days before the report dates, increase gradually subsequently, and rise dramatically just after the report dates. Particularly, the return pattern is more pronounced when corporate governance is weaker. The authors also find that managers opportunistically time ESO reports based on their private information. In particular, more (less) favorable (negative) news announcements occur after the report dates than beforehand. Additionally, compared to earnings announcements, managers prefer to time ESO reports with information about forward‐looking earnings and security issuances.

Originality/value

These results suggest that the regulation could not effectively constrain managers from influencing the exercise prices. The paper also provides evidence that imperfect regulations under asymmetric information may lead to additional agency costs, especially when corporate governance is weak. The authors' findings can contribute to the improvement of regulations on ESOs.
Variations of quality of work life of academic professionals in Bangladesh
Authors: Taher Abu
Published: July 2013

Purpose

The main purpose of this research was to analyze the key issues related to quality of work life (QWL), which have become increasingly important to HRD scholars and practitioners. In addition, the significant differences between the academic professionals of public and private universities in Bangladesh in terms of QWL were also addressed.

Design/methodology/approach

A total number of 202 academic professionals were selected as a sample based on stratified and random sampling techniques. Questionnaire survey method was used to gather primary data. Sirgy et al.'s survey instrument was adopted in this study. Discriminant analysis was utilized to differentiate QWL among academic professionals of the study sample and tested the hypotheses.

Findings

The study findings show that the job design of an organization can have a significant effect on its organizational performance (OP) and hence the need to give proper attention to the quality of work life (QWL). Moreover, the two factors like “creativity of outside work” and “payment for work” were significantly differentiated between academic professionals of public and private universities in Bangladesh.

Research limitations/implications

The main limitation of this paper is the relatively small sample size of only academic professionals in Bangladesh with regard to data concerning QWL, which limits the generalizability of the findings. However, the author feels that the outcomes of this research will be beneficial for policy makers and planners to formulate effective strategy of HRD in Bangladesh and other similar countries.

Originality/value

The paper discusses the role of QWL in managing human resources which determines organizational success. To make the best use of human resources, organizational leaders need to give more attention to the human network (interpersonal relationship), the nature and content of jobs performed.
Numerical analysis of fluid dynamics and thermal characteristics inside a wavy channel
Authors: Mereu Riccardo , Colombo Emanuela , Inzoli Fabio
Published: July 2013

Purpose

This paper aims to present the results of a numerical investigation of the fluid dynamics and heat transfer behavior of forced incompressible flow inside a rectangular wavy channel. Reynolds numbers, based on hydraulic inlet diameter and bulk velocity, ranging from 500 to 10000 are investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

The numerical analysis is performed by means of a finite volume commercial CFD code. A Reynolds Averaged Navier‐Stokes (RANS) approach is applied to a three‐dimensional fluid domain over a single module with periodic conditions. Further analysis over six modules is also performed to validate the periodic numerical domain.

Findings

Mean velocity and temperature fields are obtained. The global values of Nusselt number are compared with data obtained by an experimental facility with the same geometry and operating with Re from 1000 to 10000.

Research limitations/implications

Some limitations related to the numerical approach used are observed in laminar‐turbulent transitional regime at Reynolds number between 1000 and 2000 and in the transient prediction. More expensive numerical method might be used (LES approach) to improve transitional prediction.

Practical implications

The numerical model can be used to understand flow and thermal fields on the present configuration. A major knowledge of fluid dynamics and heat transfer processes may support the design and optimization of heat exchangers.

Originality/value

The validation of numerical model permits supporting experimental campaigns. A faster and cheaper optimization process for improving the performance of the component is thus made available for designers, product engineers and R&D researchers.
Numerical investigation of fast precooling of a cylindrical food product based on the hyperbolic heat conduction model
Authors: Al‐Odat Mohammed Q.
Published: July 2013

Purpose

In this study, the purpose was to introduce two‐dimensional hyperbolic heat conduction equations in order to simulate the fast precooling process of a cylindrically shaped food product with internal heat generation. A modified model for internal heat generation due to respiration in the food product was proposed to take the effect of relaxation time into account. The obtained governing equations were solved numerically using an efficient finite difference technique. The influence of Biot number and heat generation parameters on thermal characteristics was examined and discussed. The results based on hyperbolic model were compared with the classical parabolic heat diffusion model. The present numerical code was validated via comparison with analytical solution and a good agreement was found.

Design/methodology/approach

The obtained governing equations were solved numerically using an efficient finite difference technique.

Findings

The influence of Biot number and heat generation parameters on thermal characteristics was examined and discussed. The results based on hyperbolic model were compared with the classical parabolic heat diffusion model. The present numerical code was validated via comparison with analytical solution and a good agreement was found.

Originality/value

Two‐dimensional analysis of fast precooling of cylindrical food product based on hyperbolic heat conduction model has not been investigated yet.
Non‐similar solution for unsteady water boundary layer flows over a sphere with non‐uniform mass transfer
Authors: Revathi G. , Saikrishnan P. , Chamkha A.
Published: July 2013

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to make an analysis to study the non‐similar solution for unsteady water boundary layer flow over sphere with the influence of temperature‐dependent viscosity, Prandtl number, non‐uniform surface mass transfer and heat transfer.

Design/methodology/approach

The governing quasi‐linear partial differential equations have been solved numerically using an implicit finite difference scheme along with a quasi‐linearization technique. Non‐similar solutions have been obtained from the starting point of the stream‐wise coordinate to the point where the skin friction value vanishes.

Findings

It is observed that non‐uniform suction causes the point of vanishing skin friction to move downstream. The slot injection causes the vanishing skin friction to move upstream.

Originality/value

The effect of unsteadiness is more significant on the skin friction as compared to the heat transfer.
Markerstudy Group puts the fun into insurance
Authors: Gerrard‐White Tanya
Published: July 2013

Purpose

This paper aims to describe how Markerstudy Group strives to offer the best possible working environment and opportunities for its employees.

Design/methodology/approach

It details the practices and policies that helped the company to earn 18th place in the latest Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For list. It includes the views of members of staff and directors.

Findings

The paper explains how employees are valued and recognized. It describes how the group nurtures talent, and rewards and motivates staff.

Practical implications

This paper outlines how individuals and teams benefit from the company's policies and practices and the group's mission “to have fun” in business.

Social implications

It reveals that employees value the approach of the group chief executive and how they are looked after by the business.

Originality/value

The paper provides the inside story of how a company became one of Britain's top 20 employers on its first attempt.
Lean six sigma at a material recovery facility: a case study
Authors: Franchetti Matthew , Barnala Pukhraj
Published: July 2013

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the lean six sigma implementation process and its quantified benefits for the recycling industry. Specifically, the goals of the project were to improve the processes and increase capacity for a government operated material recovery facility (MRF) in Toledo, Ohio, USA.

Design/methodology/approach

The six sigma DMAIC methodology was utilized for this study. This included aligning and optimizing processes and the removal of process‐generated defects and errors.

Findings

After comparison of the current and future states of the MRF, it is found that by reducing non‐value added activities, productivity was increased by 7.3 percent for paper bales, 12.8 percent for commingled bales and 1.6 percent for old corrugated container (OCC) bales. The project generated over $65,000 in annual savings for the facility.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are limited due to the focused nature of the case study and further cost‐benefit analysis can be carried out.

Practical implications

This paper may be useful to researchers and practitioners for understanding lean six sigma implementations and its derived benefits for the recycling industry and government operated processing facilities.

Originality/value

The paper is a real case study showing lean six sigma implementation and its benefits for the recycling industry; a field that has not been explored to a high degree.
Once upon a time: the neo‐Thomist natural law approach to social economics
Authors: Sandonà Luca
Published: July 2013

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand why the neo‐Thomist natural law approach to social economics does not represent a trustworthy epistemological reference for the current social economists but, rather, definitively belongs to the past history of economics.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach ventures beyond an epistemological, methodological, and historical analysis of the causes that led to the rediscovery of Thomism, its golden age, and its abandonment. The theoretical and practical contents of the neo‐Thomist natural law approach to social economics are also carefully examined in order to identify its originality.

Findings

From this study, it clearly emerges that the modern conception of economics as a value‐free and context‐independent science is due to historical facts and ideological convictions and not to evidence in nature. This study also demonstrates that the disappearance of the neo‐Thomist natural law approach from the social economics debate is basically attributable to political, scholarly, and ecclesiastical factors and not to the loss of scientific reliability.

Research limitations/implications

The treatment of the neo‐Thomist school is deployed in general terms with special reference to the principal scholars, Taparelli, Liberatore, and Leo XIII. In order to focus on the paper's aim, the author has not explored the particularity of each neo‐Thomist author's thought.

Practical implications

The practical desirability is to always render economists more aware of the fact that the societal and ethical context significantly mattered and continues to matter in the elaboration process of the economic theories.

Originality/value

The novelty consists of the attempt to explain the theoretical and practical reasons that historically and currently determine the sharp separation between the neo‐Thomist natural approach tradition and the social economics theory.
Implementation of evidence‐based practice: confessions of an enthusiastic amateur
Authors: Jefford Tom
Published: July 2013

Purpose

The article aims to examine the process and challenges of setting up and implementing evidence‐based programmes in regular service systems.

Design/methodology/approach

The article offers a first‐hand account of a service manager seeking to implement Multisystemic Therapy and Triple P.

Findings

The process of setting up and implementing evidence‐based programmes involved significant challenges, including securing funding, managing stakeholders, finding suitable staff, arranging training, and managing supply and demand. Various relational, cultural and systemic issues need to be addressed if the professional system is to embrace evidence‐based programmes.

Originality/value

Few evidence‐based programmes in the UK have been implemented extensively in regular service systems. This is a first‐hand account of a rare attempt to do so.
Developing mindfulness with children and young people: a review of the evidence and policy context
Authors: Weare Katherine
Published: July 2013

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the growing field of the teaching of mindfulness to young people, looking at its social and policy context, its applications, and other areas of work that it might support and within which it might fit. It focuses particularly on the state of the current evidence for such teaching and the conclusions that can be drawn from it.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is a literature review, drawing mainly on the 20 or so significant and good quality studies (i.e. those with significant numbers of participants, published in peer‐reviewed journals) that make up the evidence base for mindfulness and the young, along with some comments on the policy context into which mindfulness can and might fit.

Findings

Work on mindfulness with young people is popular with both staff and students, has a developing presence and can be effective in promoting a very wide range of outcomes. When well taught and when practised regularly, it has been shown to be capable of improving mental health and well‐being, mood, self‐esteem, self‐regulation, positive behaviour and academic learning. There are many possible promising locations for mindfulness within mainstream education and the health services, including work to improve on mental health and well‐being for staff and students, social and emotional learning, special education and mainstream subject based work.

Originality/value

Mindfulness is a new and growth area. Work with adults is well developed with a convincing evidence base, but work with the young, although developing rapidly, is much younger and this review is one of only a handful attempting to bring it to wider professional awareness.
Italian state university contemporary performance plans: an intellectual capital focus?
Authors: Siboni Benedetta , Nardo Maria Teresa , Sangiorgi Daniela
Published: July 2013

Purpose

The current research aims to investigate what Italian state universities consider as intellectual capital (IC) in their performance plans. Universities assume a specific responsibility in the production and dissemination of knowledge and in the investment in research and human resources; consequently, a central role has been given to IC approaches in managing universities. Drawing from this, in 2009 Italy required state universities to issue a performance plan with a section devoted to IC.

Design/methodology/approach

A content analysis was conducted to discover the type and extent of IC strategies in a group of 44 contemporary Italian state university performance plans issued in 2011.

Findings

The findings show a variable focus on IC items, with a particular emphasis on aspects related to the development of relationships with external partners, supporting the idea that nowadays the university sector is strongly investing in the development of relational capital to achieve its third mission.

Practical implications

In assessing practices of IC planning in Italian state universities, the current study highlights the path of development that will be undertaken by the Italian university system in the near future. This path allows us to evaluate the strategic position that the Italian university system will cover in the European higher education arena.

Originality/value

The paper makes an original contribution to research on IC strategies in universities, given the lack of empirical studies on such issues. It represents one of the first attempts to analyse IC in Italian state universities’ planning processes.
Dealing with knowledge in the Italian public universities
Authors: Esposito Vincenza , De Nito Ernesto , Pezzillo Iacono Mario , Silvestri Lucia
Published: July 2013

Purpose

This article sets out to investigate the relationship between performance management systems (PMSs) and knowledge in public universities. In particular, this paper intends to verify how different choices related to PMS affect the nature of knowledge, in terms of the well‐known tacit vs explicit dichotomy.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical focus is on the recent PMS changes that have been developing in the “modernisation agenda” of the Italian public sector. In particular, 15 case studies of PMS design in Italian universities are presented. The interpretation of the results is based on the Simon's theoretical framework related to the four levers of control.

Findings

Results show how PMSs (in the different forms presented in the universities’ evaluation plans) could represent an important social tool to facilitate the management of organizational knowledge, combining explicit and tacit forms of knowledge.

Originality/value

This paper tackles a topic neglected in the knowledge management literature, aiming to open up a discussion on the possible interconnections between PMSs and knowledge in the public arena.
Tablet adoption and implementation in academic libraries: a qualitative analysis of librarians' discourse on blogging platforms
Authors: Scale Mark‐Shane E.
Published: July 2013

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is primarily to report on a 2011 online discussion on tablets and their adoption in libraries, as observed by the researcher in blog postings and micro‐blog postings.

Design/methodology/approach

The researcher examined blogs and tweets about the diffusion of tablets in academic libraries to find out why early adopters or academic librarians adopted tablets and implemented them into library services.

Findings

Results reveal that academic librarians and libraries adopt and integrate tablets into library services because they can offer wireless access to the library's e‐collection and e‐resources in ways better than e‐readers or smartphones and because librarians have some level of familiarity with using tablets for their own work purposes before they considered extending such purposes to users.

Practical implications

Academic libraries are investing in devices to facilitate users' access to growing e‐resources. Tablet devices are one such option. However, many tablets are expensive, equalling or totalling more than the costs of laptops. The decision to adopt and implement them into library services needs to be informed by the experiences of others, in order to determine if it is a worthwhile purchase.

Originality/value

This paper departs from the general pattern of library literature on the subject of tablet adoption, by breaking with the tradition of being only informed by practice and emerging trial and error, to a more reflective approach to those experiences informed by Rogers' theory of the diffusions of innovations.
Spring 2013 Mid‐Atlantic Regional Archives Conference
Authors: Klose Annamarie C.
Published: July 2013

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report on the Spring 2013 MARAC Conference.

Design/methodology/approach

This report focuses on the use of technology in archives, libraries, and museums, as presented in various sessions at the Spring 2013 MARAC Conference.

Findings

Archives, libraries, and museums are utilizing various technologies including QR codes, data visualization, open‐source platforms, and single search boxes to better reach and serve the demands and expectations of today's users.

Originality/value

The paper condenses the author's notes from various sessions.
An assessment of liquidity policies with respect to Islamic and conventional banks
Authors: Sukmana Raditya , Kholid Muhammad
Published: July 2013

Purpose

This paper aims to describe, compare and analyze liquidity policies from the central bank of Indonesia, particularly reserve requirements, with respect to Islamic as well as conventional banks.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper provides some critical assessments on the policy applied by the central bank of Indonesia to both Islamic and conventional banks with regards to the reserve requirements applied in the Indonesian banking system. The analysis is based on whether both policies (Islamic and conventional) provide fairness to the banks as well as whether those policies support the real sector. In addition, the current global practice is also briefly described as a justification of the important and relevance of the current study.

Findings

The authors find that the policy imposed on the Islamic banks is designed to boost the real sector, compared to that of conventional banks. For the policy with respect to Islamic banks, it recognizes the banks which have been doing well in their main role as financial intermediaries and “punishes” them when they fail to do so. This policy could not be found in the context of conventional banks.

Practical implications

The authors argue that the current approach used for Islamic banks can also be adopted and imposed on conventional banks. This leads to a more stable financial system, since it supports the real sector.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to analyze central bank policies with respect to banks (Islamic as well as conventional banks) in relation to their role as financial intermediaries.
Customer satisfaction management in Italian banks
Authors: Munari Luciano , Ielasi Federica , Bajetta Luisa
Published: July 2013

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey that aimed to analyse the state of organisational and operative evolution of the functions and activities overseeing customer satisfaction in Italian banks.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was conducted by questionnaire, to which 92 banks responded, representative of 77 per cent of the total assets of the Italian banking system.

Findings

The analysis of the results makes it possible to highlight the current approaches aimed at managing customer satisfaction, as well as the extent of integration between this and other management processes within the banks surveyed. The authors found that in these banks customer satisfaction is no longer a staff activity but increasingly a line activity, it involves the responsibility of top management and is a key indicator in staff incentive schemes.

Originality/value

The research aims to contribute to the literature on customer satisfaction on the one hand, by verifying if and how banks measure and manage some of the customer satisfaction cause‐effect relationships investigated by studies on the subject and, on the other hand, by focusing attention on organisation and internal processes aimed to support the assessment and improvement of customer satisfaction.
Nickel dental alloys can induce laryngeal edema attacks: A case report
Authors: Buyukozturk Suna , Gelincik Asli , Demirtürk Mustafa , Erdoğdu Derya , Pur Leyla , Çolakoğlu Bahattin , Deniz Gunnur , Erdem Kuruca Serap
Published: July 2013

Nickel is a strong immunological sensitizer and may result in contact hypersensitivity. Case reports of allergic reactions to intraoral nickel have occasionally been reported in the published work and these allergic reactions are generally of a delayed type (type IV). Here, we present a case of a nickel allergic patient displaying frequent laryngeal edema attacks which required treatment with epinephrine injections followed by parenteral corticosteroid doses. Her complaints ceased after the removal of the dental bridge and the foods containing nickel. In summary, we propose that in the case of recurrent laryngeal edema attacks without any explainable cause, an allergic reaction due to nickel exposure should be taken into consideration.
Catholic Responses to Evolution, 1859–2009: Local Influences and Mid‐Scale Patterns
Authors: Blancke Stefaan
Published: July 2013

This article discusses Catholic responses to evolution between 1859, the year of publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and 2009, the year in which the scientific world celebrated its 150th anniversary. Firstly, I will discuss how the Vatican initially responded to evolution in the period between 1859 and 1907, the year in which Pope Pius X issued the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis. Secondly, I will explore the responses of Catholic authorities and intellectuals and identify the local factors that influenced their responses. Also, I will demonstrate that, gradually, Catholics have shifted towards a more lenient position concerning evolution. Thirdly, I will demonstrate that, in the end, the Vatican has complied with this pattern. In general, this article shows that not only Protestants, but Catholics too have struggled to come to terms with evolution and evolutionary theory and that local factors had an impact on these negotiations.
The Swinging Gate: Katherine Mansfield's Missionary Vision
Authors: Cappuccio Richard
Published: July 2013

At the age of thirteen, Mansfield wrote “I want to be a Maori missionary” in her Book of Common Prayer. “The Swinging Gate: Katherine Mansfield's Missionary Vision” by Richard Cappuccio argues that Mansfield's initial diary entry is a lens through which one can read her interests in, rebellion against, and modifications of her Anglican background. The article discusses close readings of her poems “The Sea Child,” “The Butterfly,” and “To L.H. B.” as well as two of her stories — “Prelude,” and “How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped.” In addition it draws on journals and letters to focus on a relationship between Maori systems of belief, her affinities with Frank Harris's “A Holy Man (After Tolstoi),” and her final observations about G. I. Gurdjieff.
Missionaries of the Millennium: Israelite Preachers in the English‐Speaking World, 1823–1863
Authors: Lockley Philip
Published: July 2013

This article recovers the global history of the English millennial religion of Southcottianism. After Joanna Southcott died in 1814, leaving thousands of English followers still expecting the millennium that she prophesied, elements of her movement generated further prophets and a dynamic missionary division known as “Israelite Preachers.” From the 1820s onwards, these preachers took Southcott's ideas and new doctrines developed by her successor, John Wroe, throughout the British Isles, then the English‐speaking world, most notably Australia and North America. Drawing mission approaches (and recruits) from revivalist dissent, Israelite preachers forged first a Britain‐wide sect, then a global movement which followed the British settler diaspora and competed with rival American millennialisms. The spread of Southcottianism is a forgotten episode in the story of nineteenth‐century British colonial missions, and an argument for examining millennial movements beside more mainstream Christianity.
Gentrification in Spain and Latin America — a Critical Dialogue
Authors: Janoschka Michael , Sequera Jorge , Salinas Luis
Published: July 2013

Major social and political transformations such as the shift towards neoliberal urban policies have widely altered the contemporary structuring of metropolitan areas in Spain and Latin America. One key consequence is the recapture of city centres by wealthy tenants and the eviction of poorer households, a phenomenon usually designated by the term gentrification. In comparison to the comprehensive documentation of gentrification in the Anglophone environment, few scholars have paid attention to this phenomenon in this area of the world so far. This article responds to this gap, providing an exhaustive revision of the debates about gentrification occurring in Spain and Latin America during the last decade and tracking two theoretical motivations. First, it stresses the necessity of characterizing gentrification discourses in Spain and Latin America, preparing a conceptual appropriation and contextualization of the term itself. Second, it confirms that gentrification in Spain and Latin America varies substantially from processes observed in the Anglophone world. As a result, the review develops insights into emancipating and challenging debates that remain useful for the mainstream gentrification discourse too. Addressing this, it proposes a reconsideration and repoliticization of gentrification through the territorial and linguistic lens of Spanish and Latin American researchers.
Thermal Eco‐cities: Green Building and Urban Thermal Metabolism
Authors: Caprotti Federico , Romanowicz Joanna
Published: July 2013

Eco‐city projects are becoming increasingly prevalent throughout the globe and are often marketed as ‘new’ urban environments focused on achieving sustainable urban living while promoting environmental–economic transitions towards a low‐carbon technological and industrial base. The article argues for the need to consider the thermal aspects of urban metabolism, while at the same time focusing on the link between individual buildings and eco‐city master plans and wider economic development strategies at a state level. In so doing, the article encourages critical analysis of eco‐city design and planning, while keeping a focus on the role of specific building structures within eco‐cities as examples of the intermeshing of what can be termed a ‘political ecology of scale’ which stretches from specific buildings' climatic characteristics, to the metabolic master plan for eco‐cities, to provincial, regional and state‐level plans for the integration of eco‐cities within wider economic and political development trajectories. The article focuses on Masdar, in Abu Dhabi, an eco‐city under construction at the time of writing.
‘We Are Here Alone’: The Ironic Potentials and Vulnerabilities of Mixed (Up) Districts in Central Jakarta
Authors: Simone Abdoumaliq
Published: July 2013

The durability of central city districts in large metropolitan systems of the majority world has largely been attained through intricate intersections of physical, infrastructural, human and discursive materials, as these intersections are continuously remade through shifting constellations of the incremental initiatives of residents. Residents have learned to use the city as a place to continuously explore new relationships among things and extract a wide range of unanticipated capacities from them. This is a collective resourcefulness from which there might be much to draw in terms of using the carbon‐driven exigencies of infrastructural transformation as the occasion to reanimate more egalitarian political projects. Although many collective efforts are increasingly being disassembled, the reflections of a single resident of one of Jakarta's most heterogeneous residential districts points to how the revitalization of such efforts might be conceived. The efficacy of political efforts to address intensified vulnerability partly entails replenishing intense mixtures of built and physical environments as provocations and platforms for complex social maneuvers.
Effect of total milk solid content adjusted by adding ultrafiltered milk retentate on quality of set mango yoghurt
Authors: Narayana Nayana M N K , Gupta Vijay K
Published: July 2013

The quality of set mango yoghurt prepared by varying total milk solids (TMS) level in mango yoghurt mix, by adding 5× ultrafiltered cow skim milk retentate and cow milk cream, was investigated. The water‐holding capacity (WHC) and values of textural attributes of mango yoghurt increased, whereas body and texture and overall acceptability scores decreased significantly (P < 0.05) with increasing TMS level. The optimised product (10.2% TMS level) was compared with conventional mango yoghurt. Acetaldehyde concentration, WHC, values of textural attributes, body and texture, overall acceptability scores and pH were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in optimised compared with conventional mango yoghurt.
Legal Geographies of Intellectual Property, ‘Traditional’ Knowledge and Biodiversity: Experiencing Conventions, Laws, Customary Law, and Karma in Thailand
Authors: ROBINSON DANIEL F.
Published: July 2013

This article explores the existence of customary laws relating to ‘traditional’ knowledge of plants in Thailand through micro‐ethnographic case studies. This is juxtaposed against global and national frameworks of intellectual property laws that have a privatising effect on knowledge under the rubric of discovery or ‘invention’, as well as liability rights approaches of compensation and benefit‐sharing for research access. By understanding scale and legal jurisdiction as socially and politically constructed phenomena, we explore how laws at different scales and in different jurisdictions may override each other, discriminate against foreign laws and practices, and ignore customary laws. In doing so, the paper presents complex legal geographies of plants and associated knowledge, which suggest that the customary laws and norms of Indigenous groups and traditional healers are often ignored by ‘outsiders’. The paper notes that the possibility of ‘injury’ to traditional healers remains considerable without appropriate consent and given the discriminations surrounding knowledge made by patent laws. However, the ethnographies also point to the possibility of local remedies to these injuries through ritual processes, and we note resistant co‐constitutions of law and scale through the Nagoya Protocol.
Huge primary malignant melanoma of the esophagus: A case report and literature review
Authors: Zhang Lin , Ma Wei , Li Yun
Published: July 2013

Primary malignant melanoma of the esophagus (PMME) is a relatively rare esophageal malignancy accounting for 0.1–0.2% of all esophageal tumors. Because the tumor cells occur mainly in the esophagus mucosa and grow along the longitudinal axis in the lumen, it causes relatively late obstruction symptoms, even though the lesion is a much larger mass than found in most cases of esophagus carcinoma, protruding into the esophageal lumen. Invasive growth results in stenosis, followed by difficulty eating. A patient may not be aware of their illness until transesophageal endoscopic biopsy or postoperative pathology is confirmed. Positive expression of immunohistochemical markers human melanoma black (HMB) 45 and S‐100, are the most important factors in confirming diagnosis. Because of the high degree of malignancy and the poor prognosis of PMME, upon diagnosis total or subtotal esophagectomy plus three‐field systemic lymph node dissection with incisions in the left cervical, right chest, and superior belly, is critically required. In summary, early diagnosis and expanding esophageal resection may be the best approach to prevent local recurrence and distant metastasis.
Adoption of weather‐index insurance: learning from willingness to pay among a panel of households in rural Ethiopia
Authors: Hill Ruth Vargas , Hoddinott John , Kumar Neha
Published: July 2013

In this article we examine which farmers would be early entrants into weather‐index insurance markets in Ethiopia, were such markets to develop on a large scale. We do this by examining the determinants of willingness to pay for weather insurance among 1,400 Ethiopian households that have been tracked for 15 years as part of the Ethiopian Rural household Survey. This provides both historical and current information with which to assess the determinants of demand. We find that educated, wealthier individuals are more likely to purchase insurance. Risk aversion is associated with low insurance take‐up suggesting that models of technology adoption can inform the purchase and spread of weather index insurance. We also assess how willingness to pay varied as two key characteristics of the contract were varied and found that basis risk reduces demand for insurance particularly when the price of the contract is high, and that provision of insurance through groups is preferred by female headed households and individuals with lower levels of education.