bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Increased Risk for Type 2 Diabetes in Relation to Adiposity in Middle-Aged Black South African Men compared to Women
Authors: Kufe Clement N. , Micklesfield Lisa K. , Masemola Maphoko , Chikowore Tinashe , Kengne Andre Pascal , Karpe Fredrik , Norris Shane A. , Crowther Nigel J. , Olsson Tommy , Goedecke Julia H.
Published: October 2021

Aims

Despite a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity in black South African women compared to men, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes does not differ. We explored if this could be due to sex differences in insulin sensitivity, clearance and/or beta-cell function, and also sex-specific associations with total and regional adiposity.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 804 black South African men (n=388) and women (n=416). Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry was used to measure total and regional adiposity. Insulin sensitivity (Matsuda index), secretion (C-peptide index) and clearance (C-peptide/insulin ratio) were estimated from an oral glucose tolerance test.

Results

After adjusting for sex differences in fat mass index, men were less insulin sensitive and had lower beta cell function than women (p<0.001), with the strength of the associations with measures of total and central adiposity being greater in men than women (p<0.001 for interactions). Further, the association between total adiposity and type 2 diabetes risk was also greater in men than women (relative risk ratio (95% confidence interval): 2.05 (1.42– 2.96), p<0.001 vs. 1.38 (1.03–1.85), p=0.031).

Conclusion

With increasing adiposity, particularly increased centralisation of body fat linked to decreased insulin sensitivity and beta cell function, black African men are at greater risk for type 2 diabetes than their female counterparts.
Intimate partner violence and unmet need for family planning among currently married Afghan women aged 18-49 years: findings from a nationally representative survey in Afghanistan
Authors: Dadras Omid , Nakayama Takeo , Kihara Masahiro , Ono-Kihara Masako , Thanapop Chamnong , Thirarattanasunthon Phiman , Jandee Kasemsak
Published: October 2021

Background

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a serious public health issue, particularly in poor-resourced countries. It has been linked to a range of adverse health outcomes. In this study, we explored the prevalence and the relationship between the IPV and unmet need for family planning and identified the associated sociodemographic factors among a nationally representative sample of married Afghan women aged 18-49 years in Afghanistan.

Methods

This study used the data from Afghanistan Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2015. The data for IPV, unmet need for family planning, and sociodemographic characteristics of Afghan women aged 18-24 were extracted from the available databases. Sampling weights and survey design were accounted for in bivariate and multivariate analyses using the STATA software version 14. The significant alpha level was determined at p-value < .05

Results

More than half of the study population, with a prevalence of 55.89%, experienced some types of intimate partner violence during the last 12 months. Unmet need for family planning was documented in less than a third of the population. Illiterate employed women from poorer families who were living in the rural areas were more likely to suffer from any type of IPV. Moreover, those from Pashtun (OR = 2.12, 95% CI:1.30-3.45), Tajik (OR = 1.69, 95% CI:1.06-2.71), and Pashai (OR = 2.23, 95% CI:1.17-4.26) ethnic groups had a higher chance of being a victim of any type of violence compared to the reference group (Turkmen). Illiterate women (OR = 1.37, 95% CI:1.02-1.83) with more than 5 pregnancy experiences (OR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.19-1.74) had more unmet needs for family planning compared to the reference group. The unmet needs were almost 40% and 30% less likely to be observed among women from Pashtun and Tajik ethnic backgrounds compared to the reference group (Turkmen), respectively. The likelihood of having unmet needs was 30% less in those women who suffered from any type of violence.

Conclusion

IPV is an important predictor of several adverse health outcomes. The findings of present study portray the disastrous situation of Afghan women right violation and violence against them in a conflict setting in one the poor-resourced countries in the world and communicate an important message to the international communities and human right advocate to take immediate actions to mitigate the current situation and prevent the violence against Afghan women to improve the integrity of their reproductive health.
Analyzing human knockouts to validate GPR151 as a therapeutic target for reduction of body mass index
Authors: Gurtan Allan , Dominy John , Khalid Shareef , Vong Linh , Caplan Shari , Currie Treeve , Richards Sean , Lamarche Lindsey , Denning Daniel , Shpektor Diana , Gurinovich Anastasia , Rasheed Asif , Hameed Shahid , Saeed Subhan , Saleem Imran , Jalal Anjum , Abbas Shahid , Sultana Raffat , Rasheed Syed Zahed , Memon Fazal-ur-Rehman , Shah Nabi , Ishaq Mohammad , Khera Amit , Danesh John , Kathiresan Sekar , Frossard Philippe , Saleheen Danish
Published: October 2021

Novel drug targets for sustained reduction in body mass index (BMI) are needed to curb the epidemic of obesity, which affects 650 million individuals worldwide and is a causal driver of cardiovascular and metabolic disease and mortality. Previous studies reported that the Arg95Ter nonsense variant of GPR151, an orphan G protein-coupled receptor, is associated with reduced BMI and reduced risk of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). Here, we follow up on GPR151 with the Pakistan Genome Resource (PGR), which is one of the largest exome biobanks of human homozygous loss-of-function carriers (knockouts) in the world. Among PGR participants, we identify 3 GPR151 putative loss-of-function (plof) variants (Arg95Ter, Tyr99Ter, and Phe175LeufsTer7) with a cumulative allele frequency of 2.2% and present at homozygosity. We confirm these alleles in vitro as loss-of-function. We test if GPR151 plof is associated with BMI, T2D, or other metabolic traits. GPR151 deficiency in complete human knockouts is not associated with a clinically significant difference in BMI. Moreover, loss of GPR151 confers a nominally significant increase in risk of T2D (odds ratio = 1.2, p value = 0.03). Relative to wild-type mice, Gpr151-/- animals exhibit no difference in body weight on normal chow, and higher body weight on a high-fat diet, consistent with the findings in humans. Together, our findings indicate that GPR151 antagonism is not a compelling therapeutic approach for obesity.
Omega-3 Index is Directly Associated with a Healthy Red Blood Cell Distribution Width
Authors: McBurney Michael I. , Tintle Nathan L. , Harris William S.
Published: October 2021

Low red blood cell (RBC) membrane content of EPA and DHA, i.e., the omega-3 index (O3I), and elevated RBC distribution width (RDW) are risk factors for all-cause mortality. O3I and RDW are related with membrane fluidity and deformability. Our objective was to determine if there is a relationship between O3I and RDW in healthy adults. Subjects without inflammation or anemia, and with values for O3I, RDW, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP), body mass index (BMI), age and sex were identified (n=25,485) from a clinical laboratory dataset of >45,000 individuals. RDW was inversely associated with O3I in both sexes before and after (both p<0.00001) adjusting models for sex, age, BMI and CRP. Stratification by sex revealed a sex-O3I interaction with the RDW-O3I slope (p<0.00066) being especially steep in females with O3I ≤5.6%. In healthy adults of both sexes, the data suggested that an O3I of >5.6% may help maintain normal RBC structural and functional integrity.
Assessing the potential impact of immunity waning on the dynamics of COVID-19: an endemic model of COVID-19
Authors: Rabiu Musa , Iyaniwura Sarafa A.
Published: October 2021

We developed an endemic model of COVID-19 to assess the impact of vaccination and immunity waning on the dynamics of the disease. Our model exhibits the phenomenon of back-ward bifurcation and bi-stability, where a stable disease-free equilibrium co-exists with a stable endemic equilibrium. The epidemiological implication of this is that the control reproduction number being less than unity is no longer sufficient to guarantee disease eradication. We showed that this phenomenon could be eliminated by either increasing the vaccine efficacy or by reducing the disease transmission rate (adhering to non-pharmaceutical interventions). Furthermore, we numerically investigated the impacts of vaccination and waning of both vaccine-induced immunity and post-recovery immunity on the disease dynamics. Our simulation results show that the waning of vaccine-induced immunity has more effect on the disease dynamics relative to post-recovery immunity waning, and suggests that more emphasis should be on reducing the waning of vaccine-induced immunity to eradicate COVID-19.
Plasma metabolomics profiling and machining learning-driven prediction of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis
Authors: Ji Moongi , Jo Yunju , Choi Seung Joon , Kim Seong Min , Kim Kyoung Kon , Oh Byung-Chul , Ryu Dongryeol , Paik Man-Jeong , Lee Dae Ho
Published: October 2021

Rationale

We performed targeted metabolomics with machine learning (ML)-based interpretation to identify metabolites that distinguish the progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in a cohort.

Methods

We conducted plasma metabolomics analysis in healthy control subjects (n=25) and patients with NAFL (n=42) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH, n=19) by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) and liquid chromatography-MS/MS as well as RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses on liver tissues from patients with varying stages of NAFLD (n=12). The resulting metabolomic data were subjected to routine statistical and ML-based analyses and multiomics interpretation with RNA-seq data.

Results

We found six metabolites that were significantly altered in NAFLD among 79 detected metabolites. Random-forest and multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that eight metabolites (glutamic acid, cis-aconitic acid, aspartic acid, isocitric acid, α-ketoglutaric acid, oxaloacetic acid, myristoleic acid, and tyrosine) could distinguish the three groups. Then, the recursive partitioning and regression tree algorithm selected three metabolites (glutamic acid, isocitric acid, and aspartic acid) from these eight metabolites. With these three metabolites, we formulated an equation, the MetaNASH score that distinguished NASH with excellent performance. Finally, metabolic map construction and correlation assays integrating metabolomics data into the transcriptome datasets of the liver showed correlations between the concentration of plasma metabolites and the expression of enzymes governing metabolism and specific alterations of these correlations in NASH.

Conclusions

We found several metabolites that distinguish NASH from non-NASH via metabolomics analysis and ML approaches, developed the MetaNASH score, and suggested the pathophysiologic implications of metabolite profiles in relation to NAFLD progression.

Graphical Abstract
Vaccine hesitancy for coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in North India
Authors: Srivastava Utkarsh , Tripathi Avanish Kumar , Kaur Jagjeet , Devi Sabita , Verma Shipra , Singh Vanya , Das Debashruti , Singh Prajjval Pratap , Kumar Pradeep , Rai Vandana , Pandey Rakesh , Chaubey Gyaneshwer
Published: October 2021

With the roll-out of world’s largest vaccine drive for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by Government of India on January 16 2021, India has targeted to vaccinate its entire population by the end of year 2021. Struggling with vaccine procurement and production earlier, India came up with these hurdles but the Indian population still did not seem to be mobilizing swiftly towards vaccination centers. With the initial hesitancy, as soon as the vaccination started to speedup, India was hit severely by the second wave. The severe second wave has slowed down the vaccination pace and also it was one of the major contributing factor of vaccine hesitancy. To understand the nature of vaccine hesitancy and factors underlying it, we conducted an extensive online and offline surveys in Varanasi and adjoining regions using structured questions. Majority of respondents though were students (0.633), respondents from other occupations such as government officials (0.10) were also included in the study. We observed several intriguing opinions on our eleven questions. It is interesting to note that the majority of the people (0.75) relied on fake news and did not take COVID-19 seriously. Most importantly, we noticed that a substantial proportion of respondents (relative frequency 0.151; mean age 24.8 years) reported that they are still not interested in vaccination. People who have neither been vaccinated nor have ever been infected may become the medium for spreading the virus and creating new variants. This could also lead to a resistant variant of the vaccine in the future. We expect that this extensive survey may help the government to upgrade their vaccination policies for COVID-19 in North India.
Integrating melt-electrowriting and inkjet bioprinting for engineering structurally organized articular cartilage
Authors: Dufour A. , Barceló Gallostra X. , O’Keeffe C. , Eichholz K. , Von Euw S. , Garcia O. , Kelly D. J.
Published: October 2021

Successful cartilage engineering requires the generation of biological grafts mimicking the structure, composition and mechanical behaviour of the native tissue. Here melt-electrowriting (MEW) was used to produce arrays of polymeric structures whose function was to orient the growth of cellular aggregates spontaneously generated within these structures, and to provide tensile reinforcement to the resulting tissues. Inkjeting was used to deposit defined numbers of cells into MEW structures, which self-assembled into an organized array of spheroids within hours, ultimately generating a hybrid tissue that was hyaline-like in composition. Structurally, the engineered cartilage mimicked the histotypical organization observed in skeletally immature synovial joints. This biofabrication framework was then used to generate scaled-up (50mm × 50mm) cartilage implants containing over 3,500 cellular aggregates in under 15 minutes. After 8 weeks in culture, a 50-fold increase in the compressive properties of these MEW reinforced tissues were observed, while the tensile properties were still dominated by the polymer network, resulting in a composite construct demonstrating tension-compression nonlinearity mimetic of the native tissue. Helium ion microscopy further demonstrated the development of an arcading collagen network within the engineered tissue. This hybrid bioprinting strategy provides a versatile and scalable approach to engineer cartilage biomimetic grafts for biological joint resurfacing.
Ongoing use of SSRIs and the hospital course of COVID-19 patients: a retrospective outcome analysis
Authors: Rauchman Steven H. , Mendelson Sherri G. , Rauchman Courtney , Kasselman Lora J. , Pinkhasov Aaron , Reiss Allison B.
Published: October 2021

Background

The SARS-CoV2 virus continues to have devastating consequences worldwide. Though vaccinations have helped to reduce the impact of the virus, new strains still pose a threat to unvaccinated, and to a lesser extent vaccinated, individuals. Therefore, it is imperative to identify treatments that can prevent the development of severe COVID-19. Recently, acute use of SSRI antidepressants in COVID+ patients has been shown to reduce the severity of symptoms compared to placebo. Since SSRIs are a widely used anti-depressant, the aim of this study was to determine if COVID+ patients already on SSRI treatment upon admission to the hospital had reduced mortality compared to COVID+ patients not on chronic SSRI treatment.

Methods

A retrospective observational study design was used. Electronic medical records of 9,043 patients with a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of Covid-19 from 03/2020 to 03/2021from six hospitals were queried for demographic and clinical information. Using R, a logistic regression model was run with mortality as the outcome and SSRI status as the exposure. An adjusted logistic regression model was run to account for age category, gender, and race. All tests were considered significant at p of 0.05 or less.

Results

In this sample, no patients admitted on SSRIs had them discontinued. This is consistent with current recommendations. There was no significant difference in the odds of dying between COVID+ patients on chronic SSRIs vs COVID+ patients not taking SSRIs, after controlling for age category, gender, and race. The odds of COVID+ patients on SSRIs dying was 0.98 (95%CI: 0.81, 1.18) compared to COVID+ patients not on SSRIs (p=0.83).

Conclusion

In times of pandemics due to novel infectious agents it is difficult, but critical to evaluate safety and efficacy of drugs that might be repurposed for treatment. This large sample size of 9,043 patients suggests that there will be no significant benefit to use of SSRIs to decrease mortality rates for hospitalized patients with Covid-19 who are not currently on SSRI medications. This study shows the utility of large clinical databases in addressing the urgent issue of determining what commonly prescribed drugs might be useful in treating COVID-19.
ProS-GNN: Predicting effects of mutations on protein stability using graph neural networks
Authors: Wang Shuyu , Tang Hongzhou , Shan Peng , Zuo Lei
Published: October 2021

Motivation

Predicting protein stability change upon variation through computational approach is a valuable tool to unveil the mechanisms of mutation-induced drug failure and help to develop immunotherapy strategies. However, some machine learning based methods tend to be overfitting on the training data or show anti-symmetric biases between direct and reverse mutations. Moreover, this field requires the methods to fully exploit the limited experimental data.

Results

Here we pioneered a deep graph neural network based method for predicting protein stability change upon mutation. After mutant part data extraction, the model encoded the molecular structure-property relationships using message passing and incorporated raw atom coordinates to enable spatial insights into the molecular systems. We trained the model using the S2648 and S3412 datasets, and tested on the Ssym and Myoglobin datasets. Compared to existing methods, our proposed method showed competitive high performance in data generalization and bias suppression with ultra-low time consumption. Furthermore, method was applied to predict the Pyrazinamide’s Gibbs free energy change for a real case study.

Availability

https://github.com/shuyu-wang/ProS-GNN.

Contact

vincentwang622@126.com
Optimization of growth and electrosynthesis of PolyHydroxyAlcanoates by the thermophilic bacterium Kyrpidia spormannii
Authors: Pillot Guillaume , Sunny Soniya , Comes Victoria , Kerzenmacher Sven
Published: October 2021

The electrosynthesis of valuable compounds by biofilms on electrodes is being intensively studied since few years. However, so far, the actual biofilms growing on cathodes produce mainly small and relatively inexpensive compounds such as acetate or ethanol. Recently, a novel Knallgas bacterium, Kyrpidia spormannii EA-1 has been described to grow on cathodes under thermophilic and microaerophilic conditions, producing significant amounts of PolyHydroxyAlkanoates (PHAs). These PHA are promising sustainable bioplastic polymers with the potential to replace petroleum-derived plastics in a variety of applications. However, the effect of culture conditions and electrode properties on the growth of K. spormannii EA-1 biofilms and PHA production is still unclear.

In this study, we report on the optimization of growth and PHA production in liquid culture and on the cathode of a Microbial Electrosynthesis System. Optimization of the preculture allows to obtain high cell density of up to 8.5 Log10 cells·ml-1 in 48h, decreasing the time necessary by a factor of 2.5. With respect to cathodic biofilm formation, this study was focused on the optimization of three main operating parameters, which are the applied cathode potential, buffer pH, and the oxygen concentration in the feed gas. Maximum biofilm formation and PHA production was observed at an applied potential of −844mV vs. SCE, pH 6.5, O2 saturation of 2.5%. The PHA concentration in the biofilm reached a maximum of ≈26.8 μg·cm-2 after optimization, but at 2.9% the coulombic efficiency remains relatively low. We expect that further nutrient limitation will allow the accumulation of more PHA, based on a dense biofilm growth. In conclusion, these findings take microbial electrosynthesis of PHA a step forward towards practical implementation.
Hi-C Resolution Enhancement with Genome Sequence Data
Authors: Kriukov Dmitrii , Zaretckii Mark , Kozlovskii Igor , Zybin Mikhail , Koritskiy Nikita , Bazarevich Mariia , Khrameeva Ekaterina
Published: October 2021

The increasing interest in chromatin conformation inside the nucleus and the availability of genome-wide experimental data make it possible to develop computational methods that can increase the quality of the data and thus overcome the limitations of high experimental costs. Here we develop a deep-learning approach for increasing Hi-C data resolution by appending additional information about genome sequence. In this approach, we utilize two different deep-learning algorithms: the image-to-image model, which enhances Hi-C resolution by itself, and the sequence-to-image model, which uses additional information about the underlying genome sequence for further resolution improvement. Both models are combined with the simple head model that provides a more accurate enhancement of initial low-resolution Hi-C data. The code is freely available in a GitHub repository: https://github.com/koritsky/DL2021_HI-C.
Domestic pigs experimentally infected with Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis exhibit different disease outcomes
Authors: Niroula Nirajan , Lim Ze Long , Walker Stewart , Huang Yanyun , Gerdts Volker , Zriba Slim , Drever Kylee , Chen Jeffrey M.
Published: October 2021

Domestic pigs share many similarities with humans in their pulmonary anatomy, physiology, and immunology. Accordingly, pigs have been shown to be valuable models to study human tuberculosis (TB). Here we examined the outcome of disease in domestic pigs challenged via two different routes with either the human-adapted TB bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis or the zoonotic bovine TB bacillus M. bovis in head-to-head comparisons. We found that pigs challenged intravenously with M. bovis AF2122/97 exhibited severe morbidity and rapid onset of mortality, accompanied by higher tissue bacterial burden and necrosis compared to pigs challenged similarly with M. tb Erdman. Concordantly, pigs challenged with aerosolized M. bovis AF2122/97 exhibited reduced weight gain and more severe pathology than pigs challenged similarly with M. tb Erdman. Moreover, pigs aerosol-challenged with M. bovis AF2122/97 exhibited a spectrum of granulomatous lesions ranging from small well-contained granulomas to caseous-necrotic lesions mimicking active TB disease in humans. In contrast, pigs aerosol-challenged with M. tb Erdman exhibited arrested granuloma development. Irrespective of challenge dose and pathological outcome however, peripheral IFN-γ responses were similar in both M. bovis AF2122/97 and M. tb Erdman challenged pigs. This study demonstrates domestic pigs can support infections with M. bovis and M. tb and develop pathology similar to what is observed in humans. And although M. bovis AF2122/97 appears to be more virulent than M. tb Erdman, both strains can be used to model TB in domestic pigs, depending on whether one wishes to recapitulate either acute and active TB or latent TB infections.
Endocardium-to-coronary artery differentiation during heart development and regeneration involves sequential roles of Bmp2 and Cxcl12/Cxcr4
Authors: D’Amato Gaetano , Phansalkar Ragini , Naftaly Jeffrey A. , Rios Coronado Pamela E. , Cowley Dale O. , Quinn Kelsey E. , Sharma Bikram , Caron Kathleen M. , Vigilante Alessandra , Red-Horse Kristy
Published: October 2021

Regenerating coronary blood vessels has the potential to ameliorate ischemic heart disease, yet there is currently no method of stimulating clinically effective cardiac angiogenesisis. Endocardial cells— a particularly plastic cell type during development—line the heart lumen and are natural coronary vessel progenitors. Their intrinsic angiogenic potential is lost in adults, but studying the endocardial- to-coronary developmental pathway could identify methods of re-instating this process in diseased hearts. Here, we use a combination of mouse genetics and scRNAseq of lineage-traced endothelial cells to identify novel regulators of endocardial angiogenesis and precisely assess the role of Cxcl12/Cxcr4 signaling. Time-specific lineage tracing demonstrated that endocardial cells differentiated earlier than previously thought, largely at mid-gestation. A new mouse line reporting the activity of Cxcr4 revealed that, despite widespread Cxcl12 and Cxcr4 expression, only a small subset of these coronary endothelial cells activated the receptor, which were mostly in arteries. In accordance with these two findings, Cxcr4 deletion in the endocardial lineage only affected artery formation and only when deleted before mid-gestation. Integrating scRNAseq data of coronary endothelial cells from the endocardial lineage at both mid- and late-gestation identified a transitioning population that was specific to the earlier timepoint that specifically expressed Bmp2. Recombinant Bmp2 stimulated endocardial angiogenesis in an in vitro explant assay and in neonatal mouse hearts upon myocardial infarction. Our data shed light on how understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying endocardial-to-coronary transitions can identify new potential therapeutic targets that could promote revascularization of the injured heart.
Network analysis of England’s single parent household COVID-19 control policy impact: a proof-of-concept study
Authors: Edelman N.L. , Simon P. , Cassell J.A. , Kiss I.Z.
Published: October 2021

Lockdowns have been a key infection control measure for many countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. In England’s first lockdown, children of single parent households (SPHs) were permitted to move between parental homes. By the second lockdown, SPH support bubbles between households were also permitted, enabling larger within-household networks. We investigated the combined impact of these approaches on household transmission dynamics, to inform policymaking for control and support mechanisms in a respiratory pandemic context.

This network modelling study applied percolation theory to a base model of SPHs constructed with population survey estimates of SPH family size. To explore putative impact, varying estimates were applied regarding extent of bubbling and proportion of Different-parentage SPHs (DSPHs) (in which children do not share both the same parents). Results indicate that the formation of giant components (in which Covid-19 household transmission accelerates) are more contingent on DSPHs than on formation of bubbles between SPHs; and that bubbling with another SPH will accelerate giant component formation where one or both are DSPHs. Public health guidance should include supportive measures that mitigate the increased transmission risk afforded by support bubbling among DSPHs. Future network, mathematical and epidemiological studies should examine both independent and combined impact of policies.
Metacommunity stability and persistence for predation turnoff in selective patches
Authors: Bagchi Dweepabiswa , Arumugam Ramesh , Chandrasekar V K , Senthilkumar D V
Published: October 2021

Predation as an important trophic interaction of ecological communities controls the large-scale patterns of species distribution, population abundance and community structure. Numerous studies address that predation can mediate diversity and regulate the ecological community and food web stability through changes in the behaviour, morphology, development, and abundance of prey. Since predation has large effects on persistence and diversity, the local loss or removal of predation in a community can trigger a cascade of extinctions. In ecological theory, the effect of predation removal has been well studied in foodwebs, but it remains unclear in the case of a spatially distributed community connected by dispersal. In this study, the interaction between local and spatial processes is taken into account, we present how a predation turnoff in selective patches affects the stability and persistence of a metacommunity. Using a simple predator-prey metacommunity with a diffusive dispersal, we show the impact of predation on synchronized, asynchronized and source-sink dynamics. Our results reveal that predation turnoff in very few patches alters a perfectly synchronized oscillatory state into multicluster states consisting of various patterns. In a source-sink behaviour, predation turnoff in a source patch reduces the number of sink patches and changes the clusters. In general, predation turnoff in a finite number of patches increases the number of clusters through asynchronized (inhomogeneous) states, whereas predation turnoff in a larger number of patches can lead to the complete extinction of predators. Typically, there exists a critical number of patches below which the predation turnoff results in asynchronized states and above that predation turnoff leads to a synchronized state in prey population with complete extinction of predators. Further, our results identify the network configurations that exhibit a unique number of clusters. Moreover, prey density from the patches where predation is absent goes to a saturating state near the carrying capacity. Thus, this study stresses that predation turnoff in selective patches acts as a stabilizing mechanism that can promote metacommunity persistence.
Differences between LIS and non-LIS undergraduates’ conceptions of smart libraries: a drawing analysis approach
Authors: Tu Yun-Fang , Hwang Gwo-Jen , Chen Shu-Yen , Lai Chiulin , Chen Chuan-Miao
Published: October 2021

Purpose

This study aims to compare similarities and differences in library and information science (LIS) and non-LIS undergraduates’ conceptions and perceptions of smart libraries via drawing analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, a total of 156 undergraduate students described their perceptions of smart libraries as drawings and textual descriptions. A modified coding scheme with 8 categories and 51 subcategories was used to analyse the undergraduate students’ drawings.

Findings

Most of the undergraduate students’ conceptions of smart libraries still involve self-checkout and learning/reading, focusing on information appliances, technical services, activities and objects. The differences are that the LIS undergraduates’ drawings showed smart libraries with robots, interactive book borrowing with technology tools, intelligent services, location-aware services or mobile applications, whereas non-LIS undergraduates presented smart libraries as readers (learners), other activities and no smart technology services. LIS undergraduates focused on providing patron services with technologies. Non-LIS undergraduates were more likely to draw a complex space with immediate access to books or digital resources, quiet reading and the freedom to engage in library activities.

Originality/value

The results provide a baseline for future research on the topic and provide preliminary evidence of using the methods to discern LIS and non-LIS undergraduates’ conceptions of smart libraries.
An evaluation of force term in the lattice Boltzmann method for mixed convection with large Richardson numbers
Authors: Naghavi Sayed Mahdi , Sheikhzadeh Ghanbar Ali
Published: October 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this study is the identification of the best method to apply the body force in the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). In the simulation of mixed convection, especially for large Richardson number flows in a square cavity.

Design/methodology/approach

First, three methods for applying the body force were compared to each other in the LBM. Then, an LBM-based code was written in the FORTRAN language using these three methods. Next, that code was used to simulate natural/mixed convection in a two-dimensional cavity to evaluate the methods for applying the body force. Finally, the optimum way for applying the body force was used for the simulation of free convection heat transfer in a concentric annulus with Rayleigh number in a range of 1,000 to 50,000, and mixed convection heat transfer in a concentric annulus with Rayleigh number in a range of 10,000 to 50,000 and Reynolds number in a range of 100 to 400.

Findings

Mixed convection heat transfer was simulated in a two-dimensional cavity with Richardson number in a range of 0.0001 to 100. The results which were obtained in low Richardson number flows have shown good adaptation to the available data. However, the results of large Richardson number flows, for example, Ri = 100, have shown a significant difference to the available data. Investigations revealed that this difference was due to the method of applying the body force. Therefore, the choice of the best way to apply the body force was investigated. Finally, for the large Richardson number flows, the best method to apply the body force has been identified among the several techniques.

Originality/value

To the authors’ knowledge, the effects of methods for applying the body force were not investigated in the cavities mixed convection, even though there are numerous investigations conducted on mixed convection with the LBM. In this study, the effects of techniques to apply the body force were investigated in large Richardson number flows. Finally, the best method to apply the body force is distinguished between several techniques for the large Richardson number mixed convection flows.
Did the STOCK Act impact the performance, risk and flow of hedge funds?
Authors: Samarbakhsh Laleh , Shah Meet
Published: October 2021

Purpose

This research aims to examine hedge funds’ performance, risk and flow before and after the implementation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper includes the use of different factor models to highlight the performance and risk of hedge funds before and after the implementation of the STOCK Act. Hedge fund holdings are retrieved from Thomson Reuters Lipper Hedge Fund Database (TASS).

Findings

This study finds significant differences before and after the implementation of the STOCK Act. The results for the entire sample period indicate that hedge funds suffered lower-alpha, standard deviation and idiosyncratic risk after the implementation of the STOCK Act.

Originality/value

The paper’s originality and value lie in addressing the relationship gap between the STOCK Act and hedge fund performance.
Barriers to implementing digitalization in the Indian construction industry
Authors: Bajpai Avirag , Misra Subhas C.
Published: October 2021

Purpose

This research paper aims to analyze the critical barriers to implementing digitalization in the Indian construction industry as Indian construction companies are lagging in the implementation of digital technologies in the work environment.

Design/methodology/approach

In this research paper, a qualitative research approach is adopted, and multiple detailed interviews are conducted with industry and academic experts. Further, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques are used to finalize the prioritization among various alternatives. The fuzzy-decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (Fuzzy-DEMATEL) and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) techniques are employed to find the exact relationship among the identified alternatives.

Findings

This study identifies 14 critical barriers from an extensive literature review and multiple interviews with industry professionals, and further driving and critical barriers are identified.

Research limitations/implications

In this research paper, an exploratory study with a limited number of respondents from a large Indian construction company is carried out. Further, a detailed longitudinal analysis can be done to assess the subjectivity of the participants with more advanced statistical tools. However, this research discusses several points pertaining to the implementation of digitalization in the construction industry. The research further identifies the critical barriers to digitalization in the Indian construction industry.

Practical implications

The finding of the study has two-pronged implications. First, it provides a road-map to the construction industry by highlighting the engagement of top management as the key focus area for successful digitalization. Second, the finding also shows similarity of the digitalization process to the adoption of process improvement techniques like lean and total quality management (TQM), wherein the top management plays a crucial role in ushering in the implementation of a disruptive change.

Originality/value

The research is unique in two ways. First, this is one of the very few attempts to understand digitalization in the Indian context. Second, the research also demonstrates that the combination of fuzzy DEMATEL and ISM techniques can be successfully employed in the emerging field of construction digitalization research.
How do consumers perceive mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores?
Authors: Liang Yuli , Lee Seung-Hee , Workman Jane E.
Published: October 2021

Purpose

Mobile self-checkout refers to scanning products using a mobile device inside a brick-and-mortar store and completing the checkout process on mobile devices. Even though mobile self-checkout has been used in other industries for several years, it is a new application in the fashion industry and only limited numbers of retailers have implemented mobile self-checkout in their stores. The purpose of this study is to understand consumers' acceptance of mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores by analyzing determinants of using a new system.

Design/methodology/approach

Part of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was used as a theoretical framework. Openness to experience, variety seeking and adventure shopping were added to the model. Empirical data (with 229 valid responses) were collected from the top 20 metropolitan areas in the US via Qualtrics Panel services. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling and multi-group moderation were used to estimate construct validity and test the proposed hypotheses and theoretical framework.

Findings

The results indicated that consumers' intentions toward using mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores were predicted by facilitating conditions, social influence and openness to experience. Moreover, consumers' previous experience of using mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores moderated the path from facilitating conditions to behavioral intention and the path from social influence to behavioral intention. In addition, different genders and smartphone usage frequency did not vary significantly on the model paths.

Practical implications

The findings show how fashion retailers can understand consumers' preference and their willingness to use mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores. Moreover, the authors addressed ways for fashion retailers to promote mobile self-checkout in the future.

Originality/value

As a new technology in the fashion industry, literature is deficient concerning consumers' intention to adopt mobile self-checkout. This research provided suggestions for fashion retailers about adopting and improving acceptance of mobile self-checkout. Results will lead to theoretical and managerial implications for future technology development.
Influence of social structures on transnational migration duration: the case of Vietnamese contract workers returning from Taiwan
Authors: Phuong Nguyen Quynh , Venkatesh Sundar
Published: October 2021

Purpose

Limited previous studies about Vietnamese returned migrant workers reviewed that a relatively high rate of migrants returned home before their contract ended. This paper aims to explore how the decisions to return were made under social lenses.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper analyses data obtained through in-depth interviews of contract workers who had worked in Taiwan with a focus on Phu Tho province in Vietnam.

Findings

The authors followed O’Reilly’s (2012) adaption of Practice theory in migration research to examine a group of Vietnamese labour migrants returning from Taiwan. Under this theory, external and internal structures are the two divisions of the social environment. The authors identified external structures that might enable or constraint migrant’s mobility. When negotiating internal structures, Vietnamese women might end their contract early in response to family obligations.

Originality/value

The findings provide insights into how women make their decisions when to return, which may contribute to a better understanding of how to assist women engaged in transnational labour migration.
The cost of ignorance: reputational mark-up in the market for Tuscan red wines
Authors: Pedersen Maja Uhre , Sharp Paul
Published: October 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical investigation of the idea that imperfectly informed consumers use simple signals to identify the characteristics of wine, for example, the geographical denomination. The reputation of a denomination will thus be an important guide for consumers when assessing individual wines.

Design/methodology/approach

The price–quality relationship is studied in a fairly homogenous geographical area where a large number of wine types is present. This is done by using a simple ordinary least squares (OLS) analysis on a database of more than 2,000 different red wines produced in a period of just four years in only one Italian region.

Findings

The results show that some denominations have a lower average quality score and that price differentials between denominations are linked to differences in average quality, although consumers tend to exaggerate the quality gap between prestigious denominations and others.

Research limitations/implications

A producer in a prestigious denomination benefits from a substantial mark-up relative to an equally good producer from another denomination. Furthermore, denomination neutral wines have a stronger price–quality relationship than denomination specific wines.

Practical implications

Consumers should not be misled by what is on the bottle, but should rather consult wine guides to become better informed before purchasing.

Social implications

The fact that quality and sensory characteristics often play a minor role in determining the price of a commodity is not immediately compatible with the postulate that consumers are well informed.

Originality/value

Unlike previous work, this paper investigates a limited area (Tuscany) and only red wines, thus making it possible implicitly to control for many other factors which might otherwise confound the price–quality relationship.
The willing successor: an exploration of grit and situational cues in family firms
Authors: Medina-Craven Michele N. , Marett Emily Garrigues , Davis Sara E.
Published: October 2021

Purpose

This conceptual paper explores how the activation of the individual-level trait grit can explain variance in successor willingness to take over leadership of the family firm.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing from trait activation and situation strength theories, the authors develop a framework to examine the interactions of the two dimensions of grit (passion and perseverance) on the successor's willingness to take control of the family firm.

Findings

The authors identify how the grit dimensions would interact with the situational cues present during the succession process to predict the successor's willingness to take control of the family firm and offer testable propositions to guide future empirical work.

Originality/value

The authors help to address the growing need for additional microfoundational family firm research by drawing insights from organizational behavior theories and personality research and apply them to the family firm succession process.
Gaussian quantum particle swarm optimization-based wide-area power system stabilizer for damping inter-area oscillations
Authors: Kondattu Mony Sreedivya , Peter Aruna Jeyanthy , Durairaj Devaraj
Published: October 2021

Purpose

The extensive increase in power demand has challenged the ability of power systems to deal with small-signal oscillations such as inter-area oscillations, which occur under unseen operating conditions. A wide-area measurement system with a phasor measurement unit (PMU) in the power network enhances the observability of the power grid under a wide range of operating conditions. This paper aims to propose a wide-area power system stabilizer (WAPSS) based on Gaussian quantum particle swarm optimization (GQPSO) using the wide-area signals from a PMU to handle the inter-area oscillations in the system with a higher degree of controllability.

Design/methodology/approach

In the design of the wide-area stabilizer, a dead band is introduced to mitigate the influence of ambient signal frequency fluctuations. The location and the input signal of the wide-area stabilizer are selected using the participation factor and controllability index calculations. An improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique, namely, GQPSO, is used to optimize the variables of the WAPSS to move the unstable inter-area modes to a stable region in the s-plane, thereby improving the overall system stability.

Findings

The proposed GQPSO-based WAPSS is compared with the PSO-based WAPSS, genetic algorithm-based WAPSS and power system stabilizer. Eigenvalue analysis, time-domain simulation responses and performance index analysis are used to assess performance. The various evaluation techniques show that GQPSO WAPSS has a consistently good performance, with a higher damping ratio, faster convergence with fewer oscillations and a minimum error in the performance index analysis, indicating a more stable system with effective oscillation damping.

Originality/value

This paper proposes an optimally tuned design for the WAPSS with a wide-area input along with a dead-band structure for damping the inter-area oscillations. Tie line power is used as the input to the WAPSS and optimal tuning of the WAPSS is performed using an improved PSO algorithm, known as Gaussian quantum PSO.
What drive gender gap in financial inclusion? Evidence from Cameroon
Authors: Ndoya Hermann Hegueu , Tsala Charly Ondobo
Published: October 2021

This article analyses the drivers of the gender gap in financial inclusion in Cameroon, using Finscope 2017 data and Fairlie's decomposition method. We analyse six distinct financial inclusion variables captured by access to and use of financial inclusion products and services. The results of the decomposition show that there is a gap in all indicators of access to and use of financial products and services in favour of men. The results also show that the largest contributor to the gender gap in access to financial products and services is income, with a contribution of more than 50%. The largest contributor to the gender gap in the use of financial products and services is education, with an average contribution of more than 35%. Based on these results, policy‐makers in Cameroon must work towards an equalization of access to education between men and women, in order to promote greater economic participation of women as well as more inclusive development.