bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The concentration of several perfluoroalkyl acids in serum appears to be reduced by dietary fiber
Authors: Dzierlenga Michael W. , Keast Debra R. , Longnecker Matthew P.
Published: July 2020

Fiber-rich food intake has been associated with lower serum concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in some studies, but dietary fiber per se has not to our knowledge been examined. Dietary fiber can adsorb some substances and trap them in a viscous gel matrix in the gut, resulting in excretion. We hypothesized that serum PFAS concentrations would be lower among those with higher dietary fiber intake. We examined the PFAS-fiber association among 6,483 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2003-2016. Fiber intake was estimated based on two 24-hour diet recalls. We adjusted the models for determinants of PFAS and potentially confounding factors such as intake of foods reported to increase PFAS exposure. Results were expressed as the percent difference in PFAS concentration per interquartile distance (IQD) increase in fiber (and 95 percent confidence interval), and the NHANES sampling parameters were used to make the results generalizable to the U.S. The adjusted percent difference in perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) per IQD increase in fiber was -4.35 (-6.79, -1.85); for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) was -7.19 (-10.01, - 4.27), and for perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) was -8.54 (-11.50, -5.48). These results suggest that dietary fiber increases the gastrointestinal excretion of PFOA, PFOS, and PFNA. Although the size of the associations was modest, the findings may be important in the context of studies of health outcomes in relation to PFAS if those health outcomes are also related to dietary fiber intake and the outcome-PFAS association is modest.
What’s left in the tank? Identification of non-ascribed aquarium’s coral collections with DNA barcodes as part of an integrated diagnostic approach
Authors: Colin Luigi , Abed-Navandi Daniel , Conde Dalia A. , Craggs Jamie , da Silva Rita , Janse Max , Källström Björn , Pearce-Kelly Alexander , yesson Chris
Published: July 2020

The unprecedented threats to coral reef ecosystems from global climate change (GCC) require an urgent response from the aquarium community, which is becoming an increasingly vital coral conservation resource. Unfortunately, many hermatypic corals in aquaria are not identified to species level, which hinders assessment of their conservation significance. Traditional methods of species identification using morphology can be challenging, especially to non-taxonomists. DNA barcoding is an option for species identification of Scleractinian corals, especially when used in concert with morphology-based assessment. This study uses DNA barcodes to try to identify aquarium specimens of the diverse reef-forming genusAcroporafrom 127 samples. We identified to our best current knowledge, to species name 44% of the analysed samples and provided provisional identification for 80% of them (101/127, in the form of a list of species names with associate confidence values). We highlighted a sampling bias in public nucleotide sequences repertories (e.g.: GenBank) towards more charismatic and more studied species, even inside a well-studied genus likeAcropora. In addition, we showed a potential “single observer” effect with over a quarter of the reference sequences used for these identifications coming from the same study. We propose the use of barcoding and query matching as an additional tool for taxonomic experts and general aquarists, as an additional tool to increase their chances of making high confidence species-level identifications. We produce a standardised and easily repeatable methodology to increase the capacity of aquariums and other facilities to assess non-ascribed species, emphasising the value of integrating this approach with morphological identification optimising usage of authoritative identification guides and expert opinion.
Toward a Monte Carlo approach to selecting climate variables in MaxEnt: A case study using Cassin’s Sparrow (Peucaea cassinii)
Authors: Schnase John L. , Carroll Mark L. , Gill Roger L. , Tamkin Glenn S. , Li Jian , Strong Savannah L. , Maxwell Thomas P. , Aronne Mary E.
Published: July 2020

MaxEnt is an important aid in understanding the influence of climate change on species distributions and abundance. There is growing interest in using IPCC-class global climate model outputs as environmental predictors in this work. These models provide realistic, global representations of the climate system, projections for hundreds of variables (including Essential Climate Variables), and combine observations from an array of satellite, airborne, andin-situsensors. Unfortunately, direct use of this important class of data in MaxEnt modeling has been limited by the large size of climate model output collections and the fact that MaxEnt can only operate on a relatively small set of predictors stored in a computer’s main memory. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of a Monte Carlo method that overcomes this limitation by finding a useful subset of predictors in a larger, externally-stored collection of environmental variables in a reasonable amount of time. Our proposed solution takes an ensemble approach wherein many MaxEnt runs, each drawing on a small random subset of variables, converges on a global estimate of the top contributing subset of variables in the larger collection. In preliminary tests, the Monte Carlo approach selected a consistent set of top six variables within 540 runs, with the four most contributory variables of the top six accounting for approximately 93% of overall permutation importance in the final model. These results suggest that a Monte Carlo approach could offer a viable means of selecting environmental predictors for MaxEnt models that is amenable to parallelization and scalable to very large data sets. This point to the possibility of near-real-time multiprocessor implementations that could enable broader and more exploratory use of global climate model outputs in environmental niche modeling and aid in the discovery of viable predictors.
Eleven biosynthetic genes explain the majority of natural variation for carotenoid levels in maize grain
Authors: Diepenbrock Christine H. , Ilut Daniel C. , Magallanes-Lundback Maria , Kandianis Catherine B. , Lipka Alexander E. , Bradbury Peter J. , Holland James B. , Hamilton John P. , Wooldridge Edmund , Vaillancourt Brieanne , Góngora-Castillo Elsa , Wallace Jason G. , Cepela Jason , Mateos-Hernandez Maria , Owens Brenda F. , Tiede Tyler , Buckler Edward S. , Rocheford Torbert , Buell C. Robin , Gore Michael A. , DellaPenna Dean
Published: July 2020

Vitamin A deficiency remains prevalent in parts of Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa where maize is a food staple. Extensive natural variation exists for carotenoids in maize grain; to understand its genetic basis, we conducted a joint linkage and genome-wide association study in the U.S. maize nested association mapping panel. Eleven of the 44 detected quantitative trait loci (QTL) were resolved to individual genes. Six of these were correlated expression and effect QTL (ceeQTL), showing strong correlations between RNA-seq expression abundances and QTL allelic effect estimates across six stages of grain development. These six ceeQTL also had the largest percent phenotypic variance explained, and in major part comprised the three to five loci capturing the bulk of genetic variation for each trait. Most of these ceeQTL had strongly correlated QTL allelic effect estimates across multiple traits. These findings provide the most comprehensive genome-level understanding of the genetic and molecular control of carotenoids in any plant system, and a roadmap to accelerate breeding for provitamin A and other priority carotenoid traits in maize grain that should be readily extendable to other cereals.
Phylogenetic analysis by SNP and development of SSR marker inPassiflora
Authors: Wu Yanyan , Tian Qinglan , Huang Weihua , Liu Jieyun , Xia Xiuzhong , Yang Xinghai , Mou Haifei
Published: July 2020

Information of thePassifloragenome is still very limited. Understand the evolutionary relationship between different species ofPassiflora, and develop a large number of SSR markers to provide a basis for the genetic improvement ofPassiflora. Applying restriction site associated DNA sequencing (RAD-Seq) technology, we studied the phylogeny, simple sequence repeat (SSR) and marker transferability of 10 accessions of 6 species ofPassiflora. Taking the partial assembly sequence of accessions P4 as the reference genome, we constructed the phylogenetic tree using the detected 46,451 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), showing that P6, P7, P8 and P9 were a single one while P5 and P10 were clustered together, and P1, P2, P3 and P4 were closer in genetic relationship. Using P8 as the reference genome, a total of 12,452 high-quality SNPs were used to construct phylogenetic tree. P3, P4, P7, P8, P9 and P10 were all single branch while P1 and P2 were clustered together, and P5 and P6 were clustered into one branch. A principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a similar population structure, which four cultivated passion fruits forming a tight cluster. A total of 2,614 SSRs were identified in the genome of 10Passifloraaccessions. The core motifs were AT, GA, AAG etc., 2-6 bases, 4-16 repeats, and 2,515 pairs of SSR primer were successfully developed.Tthe SSR transferability in cultivated passion fruits is the best. These results will contribute to the study of genomics and molecular genetics in passion fruit.
Influence of local landscape and time of year on bat-road collision risks
Authors: Roemer Charlotte , Coulon Aurélie , Disca Thierry , Bas Yves
Published: July 2020

Roads impact bat populations through habitat loss and collisions. High quality habitats particularly increase bat mortalities on roads, yet many questions remain concerning how local landscape features may influence bat behaviour and lead to high collision risks (e.g. influence of distance to trees, or of vegetation density). When comparing the potential danger of different road sections, the most popular method today is the use of simple bat detectors to assess the local densities of current populations at road sites. Yet, it is not known to which extent bat behaviour influences collisions (i.e. bats flying at vehicle height or on the side or above, co-occurrence of bats and vehicles). Behaviour is very rarely taken into account in practice, and this might lead to hazardous site selections for mitigation. Our goals were thus (i) to estimate how local landscape characteristics affect each of the conditional events leading to collisions (i.e. bat presence, flight in the zone at collision risk and bat-vehicle co-occurrence), and (ii) to determine which of the conditional events most contributed to collisions risks.

In this study, we recorded bat activity and characterised flight behaviour with three variables: position at collision risk, bat-vehicle co-occurrence, and flight path orientation, using acoustic flight path tracking at 66 study sites in the Mediterranean region for two to five full nights. We modelled the effect of the local landscape, i.e. in a radius of 30 m around the road (vegetation height, distance, density and orientation), road features (road width, traffic volume) and the time of year on eleven species or species groups. We built models for each conditional probability of the road collision risk (i.e. species density, presence in the zone at risk, bat-vehicle co-occurrence) and multiplied their estimates to calculate the overall collision risk.

Our results show that the local landscape had different effects on bat density and presence in the zone at collision risk. Increasing distance to trees and decreasing tree height were associated with a decrease in bat density at roads. Forests were the local landscapes where bats flew more often in the zone at collision risk. The overall collision risk was higher either in forests or at tree rows perpendicular to the road depending on species. Contrary to common preconceptions, mid-range echolocators seemed to be generally more at risk of collision than short-range or long-range echolocators. In addition, collision risk was greatest in summer or autumn for most species. Finally, bats mainly followed the road axis regardless of the type of landscape.

Our results contribute to a better understanding of bat movements in different local environments at the scale where they directly sense their surroundings with echolocation calls. Disentangling bat density from flight behaviour allowed us to better understand the temporal and spatial contributors of roadkills, and to provide guidance for road impact assessment studies.
Systematic Engineering of Artificial Metalloenzymes for New-to-Nature Reactions
Authors: Vornholt Tobias , Christoffel Fadri , Pellizzoni Michela M. , Panke Sven , Ward Thomas R. , Jeschek Markus
Published: July 2020

Artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) catalyzing new-to-nature reactions under mild conditions could play an important role in the transition to a sustainable, circular economy. While ArMs have been created for a variety of bioorthogonal transformations, attempts at optimizing their performance by enzyme engineering have been case-specific and resulted only in modest improvements. To realize the full potential of ArMs, methods that enable the rapid discovery of highly active ArM variants for any reaction of interest are required. Here, we introduce a broadly applicable, automation-compatible ArM engineering platform, which relies on periplasmic compartmentalization inEscherichia colito rapidly and reliably identify improved ArM variants based on the biotin-streptavidin technology. We systematically assess 400 ArM mutants for five bioorthogonal transformations involving different metal cofactors, reaction mechanisms and substrate-product pairs, including novel ArMs for gold-catalyzed hydroamination and hydroarylation. The achieved activity enhancements of up to fifteen-fold over wild type highlight the potential of the systematic approach to ArM engineering. We further capitalize on the sequence-activity data to suggest and validate smart strategies for future screening campaigns. This systematic, multi-reaction study has important implications for the development of highly active ArMs for novel applications in biocatalysis and synthetic biology.
The genetic architecture underlying ecological adaptation in Atlantic herring is not consistent with the infinitesimal model
Authors: Han Fan , Jamsandekar Minal , Pettersson Mats E. , Su Leyi , Fuentes-Pardo Angela , Davis Brian , Bekkevold Dorte , Berg Florian , Cassini Michele , Dahle Geir , Farell Edward D. , Folkvord Arild , Andersson Leif
Published: July 2020

Atlantic herring is widespread in North Atlantic and adjacent waters and is one of the most abundant vertebrates on earth. This species is well suited to explore genetic adaptation due to minute genetic differentiation at selectively neutral loci. Here we report hundreds of loci underlying ecological adaptation to different geographic areas and spawning conditions. Four of these represent megabase inversions confirmed by long read sequencing. The genetic architecture underlying ecological adaptation in the herring is in conflict with the infinitesimal model for complex traits because of the large shifts in allele frequencies at hundreds of loci under selection.
GAF is essential for zygotic genome activation and chromatin accessibility in the earlyDrosophilaembryo
Authors: Gaskill Marissa M. , Gibson Tyler J. , Larson Elizabeth D. , Harrison Melissa M.
Published: July 2020

Following fertilization, the genomes of the germ cells are reprogrammed to form the totipotent embryo. Pioneer transcription factors are essential for remodeling the chromatin and driving the initial wave of zygotic gene expression. InDrosophila melanogaster, the pioneer factor Zelda is essential for development through this dramatic period of reprogramming, known as the maternal- to-zygotic transition (MZT). However, it was unknown whether additional pioneer factors were required for this transition. We identified an additional maternally encoded factor required for development through the MZT, GAGA Factor (GAF). GAF is necessary to activate widespread zygotic transcription and to remodel the chromatin accessibility landscape. We demonstrated that Zelda preferentially controls expression of the earliest transcribed genes, while genes expressed during widespread activation are predominantly dependent on GAF. Thus, progression through the MZT requires coordination of multiple pioneer-like factors, and we propose that as development proceeds control is gradually transferred from Zelda to GAF.
Dissociating breathlessness symptoms from mood in asthma
Authors: Harrison Olivia K. , Marlow Lucy , Finnegan Sarah , Ainsworth Ben , Pattinson Kyle T. S.
Published: July 2020

Asthma is one of many chronic diseases in which discordance between objectively measured pathophysiology and symptom burden is well recognised. Understanding the influences on symptom burden beyond pathophysiology could improve our ability to treat symptoms. While co-morbidities such as anxiety and depression may play a role, the impact of this relationship with symptoms on our ability to perceive bodily sensations (termed ‘interoception’), or even our general and symptom-specific attention is not yet understood. Here we studied 63 individuals with asthma and 30 healthy controls. Alongside physiological tests including spirometry, bronchodilator responsiveness, expired nitric oxide and blood eosinophils, we collected self-reported questionnaires covering affective factors such as anxiety and depression, as well as asthma symptoms and asthma-related quality of life (individuals with asthma only). Participants additionally completed a breathing-related interoception task and two attention tasks designed to measure responsiveness to general temporal/spatial cues and specific asthma-related threatening words. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis across the questionnaires which gave rise to key components of ‘Mood’ and ‘Symptoms’, and compared these to physiological, interoceptive and attention measures. While no relationships were found between symptoms and physiological measures in asthma alone, negative mood was related to both decreased interoceptive metacognitive sensitivity (‘insight’ into interoceptive performance) and metacognitive bias (confidence in interoceptive decisions), as well as increased effects of spatial orienting cues in both asthma and controls. Furthermore, the relationship between the extent of symptoms and negative mood revealed potential sub-groups within asthma, with those who displayed the most severe symptoms without concurrent negative mood also demonstrating altered physiological, interoceptive and attention measures. Our findings are a step towards understanding how both symptoms and mood are related to our ability to interpret bodily symptoms, and to explore how the balance between mood and symptoms may help us understand the heterogeneity in conditions such as asthma.
The planning horizon for movement sequences
Authors: Ariani Giacomo , Kordjazi Neda , Pruszynski J. Andrew , Diedrichsen Jörn
Published: July 2020

When performing a long chain of actions in rapid sequence, future movements need to be planned concurrently with ongoing action. However, how far ahead we plan, and whether this ability improves with practice, is currently unknown. Here we designed an experiment in which healthy volunteers produced sequences of 14 finger presses quickly and accurately on a keyboard in response to numerical stimuli. On every trial, participants were only shown a fixed number of stimuli ahead of the current keypress. The size of this viewing window varied between 1 (next digit revealed with the pressing of the current key) and 14 (full view of the sequence). Participants practiced the task for five days and their performance was continuously assessed on random sequences. Our results indicate that participants used the available visual information to plan multiple actions into the future, but that the planning horizon was limited: receiving information about more than 3 movements ahead did not result in faster sequence production. Over the course of practice, we found larger performance improvements for larger viewing windows and an expansion of the planning horizon. These findings suggest that the ability to plan future responses during ongoing movement constitutes an important aspect of skillful movement. Based on the results, we propose a framework to investigate the neuronal processes underlying simultaneous planning and execution.

Significance Statement

Although skill learning has typically focused on the training of specific movement sequences, practice improves performance even for random sequences. Here we hypothesize that a fundamental aspect of skilled sequential behavior is the ability to plan multiple actions into the future, both before and during execution. By controlling the amount of visual information available for motor planning, we show that people plan at least three movements beyond current action and that this planning horizon expands with practice. Our findings suggest that coordinating ongoing movement and planning of future actions is an essential component of skilled sequential behavior and offer testable predictions for the neural implementation of online motor planning.
Quantitative proteomics reveals the protective effects of ESD against osteoarthritis via attenuating inflammation and modulating immune response
Authors: Hao Ying , Wu Yang , Wang Shanglong , Wang Chungguo , Qu Sihao , Li Li , Yu Guohua , Liu Zimin , Zhao Zhen , Fan Pengcheng , Zhang Zengliang , Shi Yuanyuan
Published: July 2020

Epimedium, Salvia miltiorrhiza, andDioscorea nipponicaMakino (ESD) have been combined to treat osteoarthritis (OA) for a long time. In this study we used quantitative proteomics to find the protective effects of ESD against OA and possible mechanism. After papain-induced rats’ OA model established ESD was intragastrically administrated to rats for four weeks. Label-free quantitative proteomics was used to screen the comprehensive protein profiling changes in both OA and ESD groups. After stringent filtering, 62 proteins were found to be significantly up-regulated and 208 proteins were down-regulated in OA model compared with sham-operated control. Functional analysis revealed that these OA up-regulated proteins were enriched in the activation of humoral immunity response, complement activation, leukocyte mediated immunity, acute inflammatory, endocytosis regulation, and proteolysis regulation. ESD partially recovered the protein profiling changes in OA model. The effects of ESD were also assessed by measurement of behavioral activity and pathologic changes in the joints. ESD showed protective effects in suppressing inflammation, releasing joint pain, and attenuating cartilage degradation. Our study presented that ESD as a potential candidate to alleviate OA damage by reducing inflammation and modulating of immune system.
Graphein - a Python Library for Geometric Deep Learning and Network Analysis on Protein Structures and Interaction Networks
Authors: Jamasb Arian R. , Viñas Ramon , Ma Eric J. , Harris Charlie , Huang Kexin , Hall Dominic , Lió Pietro , Blundell Tom L.
Published: July 2020

Geometric deep learning has well-motivated applications in the context of biology, a domain where relational structure in datasets can be meaningfully leveraged. Currently, efforts in both geometric deep learning and, more broadly, deep learning applied to biomolecular tasks have been hampered by a scarcity of appropriate datasets accessible to domain specialists and machine learning researchers alike. However, there has been little exploration of how to best to integrate and construct geometric representations of these datatypes. To address this, we introduce Graphein as a turn-key tool for transforming raw data from widely-used bioinformatics databases into machine learning-ready datasets in a high-throughput and flexible manner. Graphein is a Python library for constructing graph and surface-mesh representations of protein structures and biological interaction networks for computational analysis. Graphein provides utilities for data retrieval from widely-used bioinformatics databases for structural data, including the Protein Data Bank, the recently-released AlphaFold Structure Database, and for biomolecular interaction networks from STRINGdb, BioGrid, TRRUST and RegNetwork. The library interfaces with popular geometric deep learning libraries: DGL, PyTorch Geometric and PyTorch3D though remains framework agnostic as it is built on top of the PyData ecosystem to enable inter-operability with scientific computing tools and libraries. Graphein is designed to be highly flexible, allowing the user to specify each step of the data preparation, scalable to facilitate working with large protein complexes and interaction graphs, and contains useful pre-processing tools for preparing experimental files. Graphein facilitates network-based, graph-theoretic and topological analyses of structural and interaction datasets in a high-throughput manner. As example workflows, we make available two new protein structure-related datasets, previously unused by the geometric deep learning community. We envision that Graphein will facilitate developments in computational biology, graph representation learning and drug discovery.

Availability and implementation

Graphein is written in Python. Source code, example usage and tutorials, datasets, and documentation are made freely available under the MIT License at the following URL: graphein.ai
Global transcriptional regulation by cell-free supernatant ofSalmonellaTyphimurium peptide transporter mutant leads to inhibition of intra-species biofilm initiation
Authors: Chandra Kasturi , Muralidhara Prerana , Kamanna Sathisha , Tatu Utpal S. , Chakravortty Dipshikha
Published: July 2020

Salmonellais a genus of widely spread Gram negative, facultative anaerobic bacteria, which is known to cause ¼th of diarrheal morbidity and mortality globally. It causes typhoid fever and gastroenteritis by gaining access to the host gut through contaminated food and water.Salmonellautilizes its biofilm lifestyle to strongly resist antibiotics and persist in the host. Although biofilm removal or dispersal has been studied widely, the inhibition of the initiation ofSalmonellabiofilm remains elusive. This study was conducted to determine the anti-biofilm property of the cell-free supernatant obtained from a carbon-starvation inducible proline peptide transporter mutant (ΔyjiY)strain. Our study shows thatSalmonellaΔyjiYculture supernatant primarily inhibits biofilm initiation by regulating biofilm-associated transcriptional network. This work demonstrates that highly abundant proteases such as HslV and GrpE cleave the protein aggregates, whereas global transcription regulators H-NS, FlgM regulate expression of SPIs and flagellar genes. Relatively low abundances of flavoredoxin, glutaredoxin, thiol peroxidase etc. leads to accumulation of ROS within the biofilm, and subsequent toxicity. This work further suggests that targeting these oxidative stress relieving proteins might be a good druggable choice to reduceSalmonellabiofilm.

Importance

The enteric pathogenSalmonellaforms biofilm in the internal organs of asymptomatic carriers, and on abiotic surfaces that leads to contamination of food and water. Biofilms are highly drug-resistant life forms that also helps in host immune evasion. Therefore, recent insurgence of drug tolerant strains necessitates development of biofilm inhibitory strategies, and finding novel druggable targets. In this study we investigated the bioactive molecules present in the cell-free supernatant of a biofilm deficient strain ofSalmonellaTyphimurium that inhibit biofilm initiation by the wildtype strain. Further we showed that the supernatant treatment leads to virulence defectin vivo. Collectively, our results suggest a comprehensive view of virulence regulation inSalmonellaby the cell-free supernatant of the biofilm deficient strain.
An Antioxidant Enzyme Therapeutic for COVID-19
Authors: Qin Meng , Cao Zheng , Wen Jing , Yu Qingsong , Liu Chaoyong , Wang Fang , Yang Fengmei , Li Yanyan , Fishbein Gregory , Yan Sen , Xu Bin , Hou Yi , Ning Zhenbo , Nie Kaili , Jiang Ni , Liu Zhen , Wu Jun , Yu Yanting , Li Heng , Zheng Huiwen , Li Jing , Jin Weihua , Pan Sheng , Wang Shuai , Chen Jianfeng , Gan Zhihua , He Zhanlong , Lu Yunfeng
Published: July 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a significant toll on people worldwide, and there are currently no specific antivirus drugs or vaccines. We report herein a therapeutic based on catalase, an antioxidant enzyme that can effectively breakdown hydrogen peroxide and minimize the downstream reactive oxygen species, which are excessively produced resulting from the infection and inflammatory process. Catalase assists to regulate production of cytokines, protect oxidative injury, and repress replication of SARS-CoV-2, as demonstrated in human leukocytes and alveolar epithelial cells, and rhesus macaques, without noticeable toxicity. Such a therapeutic can be readily manufactured at low cost as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
On Cayley graphs of {\bb Z}^4
Authors: Baburin Igor A.
Published: July 2020

The generating sets of {\bb Z}^4 have been enumerated which consist of integral four-dimensional vectors with components −1, 0, 1 and allow Cayley graphs without edge intersections in a straight-edge embedding in a four-dimensional Euclidean space. Owing to computational restrictions the valency of enumerated graphs has been fixed to 10. Up to isomorphism 58 graphs have been found and characterized by coordination sequences, shortest cycles and automorphism groups. To compute automorphism groups, a novel strategy is introduced that is based on determining vertex stabilizers from the automorphism group of a sufficiently large finite ball cut out from an infinite graph. Six exceptional, rather `dense' graphs have been identified which are locally isomorphic to a five-dimensional cubic lattice within a ball of radius 10. They could be built by either interconnecting interpenetrated three- or four-dimensional cubic lattices and therefore necessarily contain Hopf links between quadrangular cycles. As a consequence, a local combinatorial isomorphism does not extend to a local isotopy.
Leading in an Amish Paradise: humanistic leadership in the Old Order Amish
Authors: Keim Charles , Shadnam Masoud
Published: July 2020

Purpose

The authors examined the traditional leadership practiced by the Old Order Amish located in the Holmes and Wayne counties of America. Despite popular stereotypes, this community is remarkably innovative and resilient. Amish leadership aligns with the central tenets of humanistic leadership and provides a rich illustration of how such a leadership paradigm can foster a vibrant, inclusive and sustainable community. Unlike current leadership models that focus on instrumental values like wealth, profit and growth, Amish leadership is concerned with faith, community and living a simple life with purpose and dignity.

Design/methodology/approach

The primary data required for this paper were collected by the lead author during a six-month ethnographic study on several Amish communities located in Ohio. The authors also consulted a large set of archival data, including think tank reports, census data, biographies, magazine features and academic publications, which helped in placing the primary data in perspective and reminding of the particularities of the contexts from which the primary data were collected. For the data analysis, the authors used a thematic analysis approach to allow the salient themes of Amish humanistic leadership emerge from the data.

Findings

A total offour themes emerged from this study: (1) leadership as local identity and practice; (2) leaders without benefits, chosen by the lot; (3) leaders present matters, followers discuss and decide; (4) community welfare as the yardstick for evaluation. These themes highlighted some of the key aspects of humanistic leadership eclipsed in the mainstream theories of management and leadership. They showed how the Amish respond to the encroachment of technology, which holds critical clues for how humanistic leaders can place the needs of their people before the demands of their shareholders. By examining Amish leadership in detail, this study demonstrated the potential of humanistic leadership for creating a strong and sustainable community while also contributing to the empirical foundation of humanistic management.

Originality/value

Given the closed nature of the Amish, only few academic studies exist, which examined their leadership style. Furthermore, the traditional and conservative nature of the Amish community has prevented critics from investigating their leadership as a model for revitalizing other communities.
Does national culture influence management's accounting behaviour and strategy? – an empirical analysis of European IFRS adopters
Authors: Reisch Lucas
Published: July 2020

Purpose

This study examines, in a European context, whether a management-induced International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) accounting strategy is affected by national culture. It analyses the association between management's accounting strategy and Hofstede's cultural dimensions of individualism and uncertainty avoidance, as well as institutional and firm-specific factors.

Design/methodology/approach

Using hand-collected accounting decisions from 301 annual reports of firms from 14 European countries in 2017, a model is developed to identify two ordinally scaled accounting strategy variables, each representing the aggregated effect of the decisions on earnings and equity ratio. Afterwards, the effect of the cultural dimensions on these accounting-strategy variables is analysed by an ordered logistic regression.

Findings

The results do not support an association between management's accounting strategy and national culture, complementing the previous critical literature on values-based theories of culture. However, there is evidence that national legal enforcement, disclosure requirements and firm size explain differences in management's accounting strategy across countries.

Research limitations/implications

Using the cultural value dimensions of the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) project, the findings are robust and stable. However, the study is limited to a European data set and the sample year.

Practical implications

This study contributes to the discussion on the transparency and comparability of IFRS accounting. The results imply that these issues are not affected by cultural differences but rather by differences in institutional and firm-specific factors. In order to bring about improvements, regulators should establish a uniform institutional setting, while the standard setter should reduce the number of implicit and explicit accounting choices embodied in the IFRS.

Originality/value

The paper advances the understanding of cultural influences on management's IFRS accounting behaviour by providing an alternative to the existing accruals approach.
Transient performance of a magnetically geared induction machine
Authors: Bidouche Badr-El-Boudour , Lubin Thierry , Mezani Smaïl
Published: July 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transient performance of an induction machine coupled with a magnetic gear for industrial applications with low speed and high torque requirements. This new solution increases mechanical reliability and does not require maintenance and lubrication. The main objective is to study the direct-on-line starting ability of the electrical machine and its stability regarding a sudden change for the load torque.

Design/methodology/approach

A nonlinear analytical model for the induction machine and the magnetic gear is first developed. The model is then linearized around an operating point to obtain the transfer function between the load angle and the electromagnetic torque from which an analytical expression for the mechanical resonant frequency is obtained.

Findings

It is shown that the direct on-line starting is possible, if the moment of inertia of the load is not greater than a maximum value. Moreover, it is demonstrated that this new system present inherent overload protection.

Originality/value

A new high-performance direct-on-line starting electrical machine is proposed to achieve high torque at low speed without mechanical gear to improve reliability and reduce maintenance.
Understanding the risk factors of BIM technology implementation in the construction industry: an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach
Authors: Sun Chengshuang , Xu Hanting , Jiang Shaohua
Published: July 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify risk factors in building information modeling (BIM) technology application, analyze the correlation between risk factors, and find the most influential risk factors using interpretative structural model (ISM), put forward a response to targeted suggestions, and provide a reference for widespread BIM technology application.

Design/methodology/approach

Literature reviews, ISM, a questionnaire survey and expert interviews were used in this paper. First, the risk factors of BIM technology application and their relationships were determined by consulting the relevant BIM literature. Second, to more intuitively reflect the relationships between risk factors, an ISM model based on expert interviews was established to structure the explanatory relationships and hierarchical relationships between factors. Finally, a questionnaire survey was conducted for relevant practitioners, and a scale was designed to evaluate the risk factors of BIM technology application to determine the risk factors that have a greater impact on implementing BIM technology.

Findings

The root risk factors of BIM technology consist of unclear data ownership, incomplete standard BIM systems, lack of industry insurance, lack of BIM technicians, lack of BIM project practice experience, BIM infrastructure preparation, inconsistent thinking about BIM from project participants, changes in delivery mode and software function problems.

Research limitations/implications

The risk-sharing of BIM technology and the analysis of responsibilities, rights and benefits of all parties in a BIM project can be used as future research directions to solve higher management problems.

Originality/value

This paper describes the risks of BIM technology application for related researchers and provides another research train of thought for the follow-up studies.
Workplace alcohol prevention: are managers' individual characteristics associated with organisational alcohol policy knowledge and inclination to initiate early alcohol interventions?
Authors: Elling Devy L. , Wennberg Peter , Almquist Ylva B. , Sundqvist Kristina
Published: July 2020

Purpose

Individual factors associated with managers' organisational alcohol policy knowledge and inclination to initiate early alcohol interventions have been understudied. This study aims to examine differences in managers' policy knowledge and inclination across a range of socio-demographic, work-related and health characteristics, and it aims to examine the association between policy knowledge and inclination to intervene, net of these characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

Questionnaire data were collected from 430 managers. Organisational alcohol policy knowledge and inclination to intervene were measured using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high). Socio-demographic, work-related and health characteristics included gender, age, education, managerial responsibility, years in current position, self-rated health and alcohol consumption. Associations were examined using multilevel ordinal regression analysis.

Findings

Managers with a greater number of employees demonstrated the highest level of organisational alcohol policy knowledge and were more inclined to initiate early alcohol interventions. Alcohol policy knowledge was associated with inclination to intervene, net of individual characteristics.

Practical implications

Considering how managers' characteristics might influence efforts to decrease hazardous alcohol consumption is potentially important when designing future workplace alcohol prevention programmes.

Originality/value

Several individual factors related to managers' organisational alcohol policy knowledge and inclination to initiate early alcohol interventions were identified, particularly managerial responsibility. However, the association between policy knowledge and inclination to intervene remained strong after accounting for these individual factors. Future studies should explore alternative explanations at the individual and organisational levels.
An efficient deep learning model for classification of thermal face images
Authors: Abd El-Rahiem Basma , Sedik Ahmed , El Banby Ghada M. , Ibrahem Hani M. , Amin Mohamed , Song Oh-Young , Khalaf Ashraf A. M. , Abd El-Samie Fathi E.
Published: July 2020

Purpose

The objective of this paper is to perform infrared (IR) face recognition efficiently with convolutional neural networks (CNNs). The proposed model in this paper has several advantages such as the automatic feature extraction using convolutional and pooling layers and the ability to distinguish between faces without visual details.

Design/methodology/approach

A model which comprises five convolutional layers in addition to five max-pooling layers is introduced for the recognition of IR faces.

Findings

The experimental results and analysis reveal high recognition rates of IR faces with the proposed model.

Originality/value

A designed CNN model is presented for IR face recognition. Both the feature extraction and classification tasks are incorporated into this model. The problems of low contrast and absence of details in IR images are overcome with the proposed model. The recognition accuracy reaches 100% in experiments on the Terravic Facial IR Database (TFIRDB).
An analysis of customer satisfaction on employee professionalism: a comparison between Islamic and conventional banks in Malaysia
Authors: Kamarudin Ainatul Aqilah , Kassim Salina
Published: July 2020

Purpose

This paper aims to make a comparative analysis about the level of customer satisfaction on employee professionalism between Islamic and conventional banks in Malaysia. It also explores the important factors that attract customers to banks and identifies the strategies to improve customer satisfaction on employee professionalism.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a quantitative approach, where questionnaires are distributed to a total of 312 respondents.

Findings

The results show that customers are more satisfied with the conventional banks’ employees in terms of their reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy, except for tangibility, where they are more satisfied with the Islamic banks’ employees. It is also found that customers who have been engaging with the bank for more than one year consider each dimension of employee professionalism as important in ensuring their satisfaction with the bank.

Research limitations/implications

This study is conducted in Malaysia and the respondents of this study are limited to 312 respondents only.

Originality/value

This study provides some insights on the area of service quality and customer satisfaction from a developing country’s environment (Malaysia) using the modified SERVQUAL model to perceive professionalism. This paper also explores a more specific area by highlighting the significance of service quality towards customer satisfaction from the perspective of gender, religion and respondents’ period of being a customer to the bank.
The changing political orientation of Air Tiris, Kampar, Riau community towards Islamic political parties in general elections (a case study: general elections in Indonesia)
Authors: Waluyo Tri Joko
Published: July 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the changing political orientation of Air Tiris, Kampar, Riau community towards Islamic political parties in general elections; to analyze the factors that influenced the political orientation of Air Tiris community in general elections; and to realize the political rights of the society including Air Tiris community.

Design/methodology/approach

The subject in this study is the political orientation of the Air Tiris community in the 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 general elections with a period of research from 2009 to 2016. This qualitative research method consists of sources, data collection, informants, data collection techniques, data analysis and processing and writing systematics.

Findings

The results of the research indicate that there are three dominant factors affecting the change in the political orientation of the Air Tiris community towards Islamic political parties characterized by the deterioration of vote acquisition for Islamic political parties in Air Tiris village in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 general elections. The weakening of the link between religious identity and voting behaviour, as well as the weakening of political movement. The identification or loyalty of the santri community towards Islamic parties has faded.

Originality/value

The originality of this research lies in the analysis of the political orientation of Air Tiris, Kampar, Riau community, in general, elections towards Islamic political parties. Traditionally, this community has more political orientation on religious/Islamic political parties but such orientation experiences developments and changes that lead to non-Islamic parties. This research contains new information about the analysis of the political orientation of Air Tiris, Kampar, Riau community in the general election of Islamic political parties.