bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ANALYSIS OF VIRAL LOAD IN COLOSTRUM OF PUERPERAL WOMEN LIVING WITH HIV USING ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY (ART)
Authors: Gonçalves Souza Raphaela Barbosa , Pereira Ribeiro Luiz Claudio , Reis Renata Dias , Motta Bárbara , Carvalho Ancora Luz Julia Rodrigues , Araújo Thais Moraes , Fernandes Santos Julia Freitas , Azevedo Carolina Romão , Jacarandá Julia Monteiro , de Aguiar Sandy Borges , Diaz Horta Isabella Navarro , Rodrigues Gustavo Mourão , Geraldino Barbara Rodrigues , Rocco Regina , Gonçalves Rafael Braga
Published: August 2024

HIV transmission occurs during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding, and can be mitigated through measures such as prenatal HIV screening and antiretroviral therapy (ART). Health institutions are gradually releasing it if a woman has an undetectable viral load in her blood. This study aims to determine the viral load of HIV in colostrum from postpartum women using qRT-PCR, following participant selection based on informed consent criteria. The research includes monitoring participants’ prenatal routine, collecting, storing, and processing colostrum, as well as automated RNA extraction and viral RNA quantification via qRT-PCR. Thirteen participants were recruited, 13 samples of colostrum were subsequently collected, meeting eligibility criteria and signing informed consent. These samples were processed and analyzed by qRT-PCR. Six of nine samples analyzed were undetectable, and three were below the detection limit. We observed that patients with undetectable colostrum had been on ART before conception, while those with colostrum samples detectable had a detectable serum viral load at some point during pregnancy. The immunological, biochemical, and socioeconomic impact of non-breastfeeding on maternal-child health is significant, and analyzing the transmissibility potential of colostrum raises questions about possible breastfeeding with reduced risks of HIV transmission. We think that achieving undetectable or below detection limit levels in colostrum of women on ART is feasible, but further research is needed on the condition of breast milk from women living with HIV under current antiretroviral therapies used in Brazil.
Prevalence, risk factors, and impact of anxiety in early Alzheimer disease: a retrospective study of an autopsy-confirmed cohort
Authors: Patel Palak , Bernard Mark A. , Masurkar Arjun V.
Published: August 2024

Anxiety is a neuropsychiatric symptom (NPS) of Alzheimer disease (AD) patients which has been studied primarily in prospective and retrospective studies of clinically diagnosed AD. However, this can be confounded by other primary etiologies. Moreover, anxiety has not been comprehensively studied in autopsy-confirmed AD cases across subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia stages. We conducted a retrospective longitudinal analysis of 212 participants with autopsy-confirmed AD, followed from 1986-2013 at the NYU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center with staging via the Global Deterioration Scale and NPS assessed via BEHAVE-AD. We found that anxiety varied uniquely with stage and was the most common NPS in SCD and MCI (35-40% prevalence). ApoE4 carriage associated with a higher rate of anxiety only at mild dementia. Anxiety in SCD associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy and arteriosclerosis on brain autopsy, but there were no such associations with concomitant neuropathology at MCI and mild dementia. Anxiety associated with increased progression rate (∼2.5-fold) from SCD to MCI/dementia stages, but not from MCI to dementia. These results suggest an important relationship between anxiety and AD, especially at the preclinical stage. This warrants further study of anxiety as a possible modifiable factor of disease experience and course.
A New Foundation Model’s Accuracy in Glaucoma Detection using Ocular Coherence Tomography Images
Authors: Chuter Benton , Huynh Justin , Walker Evan , Hallaj Shahin , Jalili Jalil , Liebmann Jeffrey , Fazio Massimo A , Girkin Christopher A. , Weinreb Robert N. , Christopher Mark , Zangwill Linda M.
Published: August 2024

Purpose

To fine tune and evaluate the performance of the retinal foundation model (RETFound) on a diverse longitudinal clinical research dataset in glaucoma detection from optical coherence tomography (OCT) RNFL scans. Subanalyses of the model performance were evaluated across different subgroups, various dataset sample sizes and training cycles (epochs).

Design

Evaluation of a diagnostic technology

Subjects, Participants, and Controls

15,216 Spectralis OCT RNFL circle scans of 747 individuals of diverse race (56.9% White, 37.8% Black/African American, and 5.3% Other/Not reported, glaucoma severity (30.8% mild, 18.4% moderate-to-severe, and 50.9% no glaucoma), and age (44.8% <60 years, 55.2% >60 years) from the Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study (DIGS) and the African Descent and Glaucoma Evaluation Study (ADAGES). All OCT scans were labeled as “Non-glaucomatous” or “Glaucomatous.“

Methods

RETFound was employed to perform binary glaucoma classification. The diagnostic accuracy of RETFound was iteratively tested across different combinations of dataset sample sizes (50 to 2000 OCT RNFL circle scans), epochs (5 to 50), and study subpopulations stratified by severity of glaucoma, age, and race).

Main Outcome Measures

Area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for classifying RNFL scans as “Non-glaucomatous” or “Glaucomatous.“

Results

Performance metrics improved with larger training datasets and more training cycles, rising from an AUC of 0.61 (50 training images and 5 epochs) to AUC 0.91 (2,000 training images and 50 epochs). Gains in performance were marginal as training size increased beyond 500 scans. Performance was similar across race for all training size and cycle number combinations: African American (AUC=0.90) vs other (AUC=0.93). RNFL scans from older patients (>60 years) led to worse performance (AUC=0.85) compared to younger patients (<60 years, AUC=0.95). Performance was significantly higher for RNFL scans from patients with moderate-to-severe glaucoma vs mild glaucoma (AUC=0.99 vs 0.88, respectively).

Conclusions

Good RETFound performance was observed with a relatively small sample size of images used for fine tuning and across differences in race and age. RETFound’s ability to adapt across a range of OCT training conditions and populations suggests it is a promising tool to automate glaucoma detection in a variety of use cases.

Precis

The study found high accuracy for glaucoma detection from OCT optic nerve head RNFL scans in a diverse study population by adapting an existing foundation model (RETFound). Performance improved with larger datasets and more training cycles, achieving an AUC of 0.91 with RNFL scans alone. Results suggest RETFound is promising for automated OCT RNFL-based glaucoma detection across demographics and training conditions.
Foundational model aided automatic high-throughput drug screening using self-controlled cohort study
Authors: Xu Shenbo , Cobzaru Raluca , Finkelstein Stan N. , Welsch Roy E. , Ng Kenney , Middleton Lefkos
Published: August 2024

Background

Developing medicine from scratch to governmental authorization and detecting adverse drug reactions (ADR) have barely been economical, expeditious, and risk-averse investments. The availability of large-scale observational healthcare databases and the popularity of large language models offer an unparalleled opportunity to enable automatic high-throughput drug screening for both repurposing and pharmacovigilance.

Objectives

To demonstrate a general workflow for automatic high-throughput drug screening with the following advantages: (i) the association of various exposure on diseases can be estimated; (ii) both repurposing and pharmacovigilance are integrated; (iii) accurate exposure length for each prescription is parsed from clinical texts; (iv) intrinsic relationship between drugs and diseases are removed jointly by bioinformatic mapping and large language model - ChatGPT; (v) causal-wise interpretations for incidence rate contrasts are provided.

Methods

Using a self-controlled cohort study design where subjects serve as their own control group, we tested the intention-to-treat association between medications on the incidence of diseases. Exposure length for each prescription is determined by parsing common dosages in English free text into a structured format. Exposure period starts from initial prescription to treatment discontinuation. A same exposure length preceding initial treatment is the control period. Clinical outcomes and categories are identified using existing phenotyping algorithms. Incident rate ratios (IRR) are tested using uniformly most powerful (UMP) unbiased tests.

Results

We assessed 3,444 medications on 276 diseases on 6,613,198 patients from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), an UK primary care electronic health records (EHR) spanning from 1987 to 2018. Due to the built-in selection bias of self-controlled cohort studies, ingredients-disease pairs confounded by deterministic medical relationships are removed by existing map from RxNorm and nonexistent maps by calling ChatGPT. A total of 16,901 drug-disease pairs reveals significant risk reduction, which can be considered as candidates for repurposing, while a total of 11,089 pairs showed significant risk increase, where drug safety might be of a concern instead.

Conclusions

This work developed a data-driven, nonparametric, hypothesis generating, and automatic high-throughput workflow, which reveals the potential of natural language processing in pharmacoepidemiology. We demonstrate the paradigm to a large observational health dataset to help discover potential novel therapies and adverse drug effects. The framework of this study can be extended to other observational medical databases.
Design and Biophysical Characterization of Second-Generation Cyclic Peptide LAG-3 Inhibitors for Cancer Immunotherapy
Authors: Calvo-Barreiro Laura , Zhang Longfei , Ali Yaser , Rehman Ashfaq Ur , Gabr Moustafa
Published: August 2024

Lymphocyte activation gene 3 (LAG-3) is an inhibitory immune checkpoint crucial for suppressing the immune response against cancer. Blocking LAG-3 interactions enables T cells to recover their cytotoxic capabilities and diminishes the immunosuppressive effects of regulatory T cells. A cyclic peptide (Cys-Val-Pro-Met-Thr-Tyr-Arg-Ala-Cys, disulfide bridge: 1-9) was recently reported as a LAG-3 inhibitor. Based on this peptide, we designed 19 derivatives by substituting tyrosine residue to maximize LAG-3 inhibition. Screening via TR-FRET assay identified 8 outperforming derivatives, with cyclic peptides 12 [Tyr6(L-3-CN-Phe)], 13 [Tyr6(L-4-NH2-Phe)], and 17 [Tyr6(L-3,5-DiF-Phe)] as top candidates. Cyclic peptide 12 exhibited the highest inhibition (IC50= 4.45 ± 1.36 µM). MST analysis showed cyclic peptides 12 and 13 bound LAG-3 withKDvalues of 2.66 ± 2.06 µM and 1.81 ± 1.42 µM, respectively, surpassing the original peptide (9.94 ± 4.13 µM). Docking simulations indicated enhanced binding for cyclic peptide 12, with a docking score of -7.236 kcal/mol compared to -5.236 kcal/mol for the original peptide.
Random Sanitization in DNA information storage using CRISPR-Cas12a
Authors: Shen Hongyu , Weng Zhi , Zhao Haipei , Song Haitao , Wang Fei , Fan Chunhai , Song Ping
Published: August 2024

DNA information storage provides an excellent solution for metadata storage due to its high density, programmability, and long-term stability. However, current research in DNA storage primarily focuses on the processes of storing and reading data, lacking comprehensive solutions for the secure metadata wiping. Herein, we present a method of random sanitization in DNA information storage using CRISPR-Cas12a (RSDISC) based on precise control of the thermodynamic energy of primer-template hybridization. We utilize the collateral cleavage (trans-activity) of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) by CRISPR-Cas12a to achieve selective sanitization of files in metadata. This method enables ssDNA degradation with different GC content, lengths, and secondary structures to achieve a sanitization efficiency up to 99.9% for 28,258 oligonucleotides in DNA storage within one round. We demonstrate that the number of erasable files could reach 1011.7based on a model of primer-template hybridization efficiency. Overall, RSDISC provides a random sanitization approach to set the foundation of information encryption, file classification, memory deallocation and accurate reading in DNA data storage.
The Interaction Effects of Sex, Age, APOE and Common Health Risk Factors on Human Brain Functions
Authors: Li Tengfei , Chen Jie , Zhao Bingxin , Garden Gwenn A. , Giovanello Kelly S. , Wu Guorong , Zhu Hongtu
Published: August 2024

Importance

Nonlinear changes in brain function during aging are shaped by a complex interplay of factors, including sex, age, genetics, and modifiable health risk factors. However, the combined effects and underlying mechanisms of these factors on brain functional connectivity remain poorly understood.

Objective

To comprehensively investigate the combined associations of sex, age,APOEgenotypes, and ten common modifiable health risk factors with brain functional connectivities during aging.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This analysis used data from 36,630 UK Biobank participants, aged 44–81, who were assessed for sex, age,APOEgenotypes, 10 health risk factors, and brain functional connectivities through resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Brain functional connectivities were evaluated through within- and between-network functional connectivities and connectivity strength. Associations between risk factors and brain functional connectivities, including their interaction effects, were analyzed.

Results

Hypertension, BMI, and education were the top three influential factors. Sex-specific effects were also observed in interactions involving APOE4 gene, smoking, alcohol consumption, diabetes, BMI, and education. Notably, a negative sex-excessive alcohol interaction showed a stronger negative effect on functional connectivities in males, particularly between the dorsal attention network and the language network, while moderate alcohol consumption appeared to have protective effects. A significant negative interaction between sex andAPOE4revealed a greater reduction in functional connectivity between the cingulo-opercular network and the posterior multimodal network in maleAPOE4carriers. Additional findings included a negative age-BMI interaction between the visual and dorsal attention networks, and a positive age-hypertension interaction between the frontoparietal and default mode networks.

Conclusions and Relevance

The findings highlight significant sex disparities in the associations between age, theAPOE-ε4 gene, modifiable health risk factors, and brain functional connectivity, emphasizing the necessity of jointly considering these factors to gain a deeper understanding of the complex processes underlying brain aging.
Improvements in Patient-Reported Functioning after Lung Transplant is Associated with Improved Quality of Life and Survival
Authors: Seijo Leslie , Gao Ying , Betancourt Legna , Venado Aida , Hays Steven R. , Kukreja Jasleen , Calabrese Danny R. , Greenland John R. , Singer Jonathan P.
Published: August 2024

Lung transplantation aims to improve health-related quality of life (HRQL) and survival. While lung function improvements are associated with these outcomes, the association between physical functioning and these outcomes is less clear. We investigated the association between changes in patient-reported physical functioning and HRQL, chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD), and survival after lung transplantation.

This single-center prospective cohort study analyzed 220 lung transplant recipients who completed the 15-item Lung Transplant Valued Life Activities (LT-VLA) before and repeatedly after transplant. HRQL was assessed using generic, respiratory disease-specific, and utility measures. Associations between 0.3-point changes (the minimally important difference) in LT-VLA as a time-varying predictor on HRQL, CLAD, and mortality were tested using linear regression and Cox proportional hazard models. Models were adjusted for demographics, disease diagnosis, and post-operative lung function as a time-varying covariate.

Participants were 45% female and 75% White, with a mean age of 56 (±12) years. Each 0.3-point improvement in LT-VLA was associated with substantially improved HRQL across all measures (adjusted p-values <0.01). Each 0.3-point improvement in LT-VLA was associated with a 13% reduced hazard of CLAD (adjusted HR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.76–0.99, p=0.03) and a 19% reduced hazard of mortality (adjusted HR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.67–0.95, p=0.01).

Improvements in patient-reported physical functioning after lung transplantation are associated with improved HRQL and reduced risk of CLAD and death, independent of allograft function. The simplicity of the LT-VLA suggests it could be a valuable monitoring or outcome measure in both clinical and research settings.
Molecular Tracking and Cultivation Reveal Ammonia Oxidizing Archaea as Integral Members of the Human Skin Microbiome
Authors: Mahnert Alexander , Dreer Maximilian , Perier Uelkue , Melcher Michael , Duller Stefanie , Lehnen Adina , Goessler Theodora , Brunner Daniela , Graier Thomas , Wolf Peter , Ponce-Toledo Rafael Isaac , Hodgskiss Logan , Kerou Melina , Moissl-Eichinger Christine , Schleper Christa
Published: August 2024

Ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) have been repeatedly detected in the human skin microbiome through molecular and biochemical analyses, yet their persistence, physiology, and adaptations remain poorly understood. Here, we describe two cultivated strains, Candidatus Nitrosocosmicus epidermidis and Ca. Nitrosocosmicus unguis, enriched from human skin samples. These autotrophic strains grow on ammonia and urea as sole energy sources. Genomic islands and expanded gene families in their genomes testify to the capacity of colonizing skin, including specific interactions with host proteins and signaling cascades that distinguish these AOA from their close relatives from soil. Molecular signatures of Nitrosocosmicus ssp. were consistently identified on individuals in cross-sectional and longitudinal cohorts (n=47) with a higher prevalence in sebaceous areas. Co-occurrence network patterns with specific bacteria reinforce the observation that AOA of the genus Nitrosocosmicus form a stable component of the healthy skin and represent emerging commensals in the human microbiome.
Multi-species cryoEM calibration and workflow verification standard
Authors: Bobe Daija , Kopylov Mykhailo , Miller Jessalyn , Owji Aaron P. , Eng Edward T.
Published: August 2024

Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM) is a rapidly growing structural biology modality that has been successful in revealing molecular details of biological systems. However, unlike established biophysical and analytical techniques with calibration standards, cryoEM has lacked comprehensive biological test samples. We introduce a cryoEM calibration sample that is a mixture of compatible macromolecules that can be used not only for resolution optimization but also provides multiple reference points for evaluating instrument performance, data quality, and image processing workflows in a single experiment. This combined test specimen provides researchers a reference point for validating their cryoEM pipeline, benchmarking their methodologies, and testing new algorithms.
Investigating cocaine- and abstinence-induced effects on astrocyte gene expression in the nucleus accumbens
Authors: Franklin Janay P. , Testen Anze , Mieczkowski Piotr A. , Hepperla Austin , Crynen Gogce , Simon Jeremy M. , Wood Jonathan D. , Harder Eden V. , Bellinger Tania J. , Witt Emily A. , Powell N. LaShae , Reissner Kathryn J.
Published: August 2024

In recent years, astrocytes have been increasingly implicated in cellular mechanisms of substance use disorders (SUD). Astrocytes are structurally altered following exposure to drugs of abuse; specifically, astrocytes within the nucleus accumbens (NAc) exhibit significantly decreased surface area, volume, and synaptic colocalization after operant self-administration of cocaine and extinction or protracted abstinence (45 days). However, the mechanisms that elicit these morphological modifications are unknown. The current study aims to elucidate the molecular modifications that lead to observed astrocyte structural changes in rats across cocaine abstinence using astrocyte-specific RiboTag and RNA-seq, as an unbiased, comprehensive approach to identify genes whose transcription or translation change within NAc astrocytes following cocaine self- administration and extended abstinence. Using this method, our data reveal cellular processes including cholesterol biosynthesis that are altered specifically by cocaine self-administration and abstinence, suggesting that astrocyte involvement in these processes is changed in cocaine-abstinent rats. Overall, the results of this study provide insight into astrocyte functional adaptations that occur due to cocaine exposure or during cocaine withdrawal, which may pinpoint further mechanisms that contribute to cocaine-seeking behavior.
Next-to-next-to-leading order evolution of polarized parton densities in the Larin scheme
Authors: Blümlein J. , Saragnese M.
Published: August 2024

In many calculations involving polarized twist-2 parton densities to higher order in the strong coupling constant one uses the Larin scheme to describe chiral effects in dimensional regularization. Upon forming observables, the scheme dependence cancels. Still one needs a corresponding regularization scheme to compute the contributing building blocks, like massless and massive Wilson coefficients, as well as the massive three-loop operator matrix elements used in the variable flavor number scheme. These are matched to the evolved parton distribution functions in the Larin scheme. Starting with suitable input distributions we provide the solution of scale evolution of the different polarized parton distribution functions in Bjorken x space for a wide range of virtualities Q2 in the Larin scheme, at next-to-leading, at next-to-next-to-leading order for the first time. We also illustrate the deviation between the parton distributions in the Larin and MS¯ schemes numerically.

Published by the American Physical Society
2024
Assessment of conceptual understanding in student learning of evaporation
Authors: Zou Yi , Xue Xinyu , Jin Lizhen , Huang Xiao , Li Yanbing
Published: August 2024

Developing a deeper understanding of scientific concepts is one of the primary goals of science education. To improve students’ conceptual understanding, it is necessary to explore the major characteristics of their learning process. Informed by previous work on conceptual understanding, this study focuses on the concept of evaporation, exploring the level division of students’ conceptual understanding of evaporation and the development of corresponding test questions. The level-based conceptual understanding assessment was tested on 721 seventh-grade Chinese students before and after the evaporation lesson. The results of quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that the students’ conceptual understanding of evaporation could be divided into three progression levels. Students with a low level of understanding only mechanically remembered the definition of evaporation and could identify evaporation phenomena in their daily lives based on memorized examples. Students with an intermediate level of understanding grasped not only the definition of evaporation but also the factors affecting the evaporation rate. Students with a high level of understanding understood the microscopic nature of evaporation and could explain how these three factors affect the evaporation rate from a microscopic perspective. This study also provides further evidence of the value of grasping the nature of concepts in conceptual understanding.

Published by the American Physical Society
2024
Self-heating effects and switching dynamics in graphene multiterminal Josephson junctions
Authors: Kedves Máté , Pápai Tamás , Fülöp Gergő , Watanabe Kenji , Taniguchi Takashi , Makk Péter , Csonka Szabolcs
Published: August 2024

We experimentally investigate the electronic transport properties of a three-terminal graphene Josephson junction. We find that self-heating effects strongly influence the behavior of this multiterminal Josephson junction (MTJJ) system. We show that existing simulation methods based on resistively and capacitively shunted Josephson junction networks can be significantly improved by taking into account these heating effects. We also investigate the phase dynamics in our MTJJ by measuring its switching current distribution and find correlated switching events in different junctions. We show that the switching dynamics is governed by phase diffusion at low temperatures. Furthermore, we find that self-heating introduces additional damping that results in overdamped I−V characteristics when normal and supercurrents coexist in the device.

Published by the American Physical Society
2024
Corrections to Diffusion in Interacting Quantum Systems
Authors: Michailidis Alexios A. , Abanin Dmitry A. , Delacrétaz Luca V.
Published: August 2024

The approach to equilibrium in interacting classical and quantum systems is a challenging problem of both theoretical and experimental interest. One useful organizing principle characterizing equilibration is the dissipative universality class, the most prevalent one being diffusion. In this paper, we use the effective field theory (EFT) of diffusion to systematically obtain universal power-law corrections to diffusion. We then employ large-scale simulations of classical and quantum systems to explore their validity. In particular, we find universal scaling functions for the corrections to the dynamical structure factor ⟨n(x,t)n⟩, in the presence of a single U(1) or SU(2) charge in systems with and without particle-hole symmetry, and present the framework to generalize the calculation to multiple charges. Classical simulations show remarkable agreement with EFT predictions for subleading corrections, pushing precision tests of effective theories for thermalizing systems to an unprecedented level. Moving to quantum systems, we perform large-scale tensor-network simulations in unitary and noisy 1D Floquet systems with conserved magnetization. We find a qualitative agreement with EFT, which becomes quantitative in the case of noisy systems. Additionally, we show how the knowledge of EFT corrections allows for fitting methods, which can improve the estimation of transport parameters at the intermediate times accessible by simulations and experiments. Finally, we explore nonlinear response in quantum systems and find that EFT provides an accurate prediction for its behavior. Our results provide a basis for a better understanding of the nonlinear phenomena present in thermalizing systems.

Published by the American Physical Society
2024
Crystal structure of hexaglycinium dodecaiodotriplumbate
Authors: Tonoyan Gayane S. , Giester Gerald , Ghazaryan Vahram V. , Chilingaryan Ruben Yu. , Margaryan Arthur A. , Mkrtchyan Artak H. , Petrosyan Aram M.
Published: August 2024

The crystal structure of hexaglycinium tetra-μ-iodido-octaiodidotriplumbate, (C2H6NO2)6[Pb3I12] or (GlyH)6[Pb3I12], is reported. The compound crystallizes in the triclinic space group P\overline{1}. The [Pb3I12]6− anion is discrete and located around a special position: the central Pb ion located on the inversion center is holodirected, while the other two are hemidirected. The supramolecular nature is mainly based on C—H...I, N—H...I, O—H...I and N—H...O hydrogen bonds. Dimeric cations of type (A
+...A
+) for the amino acid glycine are observed for the first time.
Unpacking the black box between market culture and innovation performance: the role of absorptive capacity and resistance to change
Authors: Kara Gizem , Turkcan Hulya , Imamoglu Salih Zeki , Ince Huseyin
Published: August 2024

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the relationship between market culture and innovation performance and to reveal the role of absorptive capacity and resistance to change by building on the resource-based view.

Design/methodology/approach

Data was gathered from 222 firm managers of manufacturing firms by using the survey method. Structural equation modeling and PROCESS macro were used to analyze the data.

Findings

The results indicate that market culture is positively related to innovation performance and absorptive capacity mediates this relationship. It is also found that resistance to change negatively moderates the relationship between market culture and innovation performance, but it has no moderating effect on the relationship between absorptive capacity and innovation performance.

Originality/value

Previous research examining the association between market culture and innovation performance is scarce and provides contradictory findings. This indicates that there is an underlying mechanism of this association neglected before. This study is an attempt to reconcile contradictory findings and enlighten the fuzzy areas of this relationship. Accordingly, this study focuses on absorptive capacity as a mediator and proves its role empirically. Moreover, this study is the first to examine the role of resistance to change and demonstrates its buffer role in the market culture-innovation performance link. It is also revealed that resistance to change does not moderate the relationship between absorptive capacity and innovation performance. The findings elucidate the underlying mechanism of the relationship between market culture and innovation performance, reconcile contradictory findings of extant research, expand the current knowledge, and provide practical implications.
Structural change and employment growth in India: reinterpreting “Manufacturing as an Engine of Growth”
Authors: Padhi Satya Prasad
Published: August 2024

Purpose

The present paper aims to highlight how manufacturing expansions under conditions of increasing returns, which involve the growth of intermediate goods specializations, support advanced service employment. In addition, the increasing use of manufacturing products in services highlights additional, new service sector employment opportunities.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper investigates (1) the manufacturing and service interactions and (2) the investment behaviour in manufacturing using Auto-Regressive Distributed lags (ARDL) and Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models. The models allow for different specifications to study whether investment behaviour in manufacturing supports dynamic manufacturing and service interactions.

Findings

The results underpin how Kaldorian manufacturing as an engine of growth is still relevant in Indian growth and is key to achieving higher advanced employment, export-orientation and services and manufacturing nexus outcomes. What matters, though, is that manufacturing investments are to be guided mainly by intermediate goods specializations. The slowdown of these specializations, explaining the slowdown of manufacturing investment, is therefore, a concern.

Originality/value

A reinterpretation of manufacturing as an engine of growth in which primacy is given to investment behaviour in technical progress functions that can support the growth of specializations in manufacturing and such specialized service employment.
First Peoples economic landscape: analysis of the ecosystem
Authors: Jones Mark , Stanton Pauline , Rose Mark
Published: August 2024

Purpose

This paper focuses on First Peoples Founders of for-profit entities in Australia and the role of the Indigenous Economic Development Agencies (IEDAs). We explore the challenges facing First Peoples enterprises, influenced by historical exclusion from white settler society, and the practices of the IEDAs from the perspectives of Founders and agencies.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative study utilising Indigenous Standpoint Theory and Indigenous research methods, elevating Founder perspectives, in the Yaruwu language - the Nilangany Ngarrungunil, owners of knowledge, to that of research collaborators.

Findings

The First Peoples economic landscape is continually evolving with IEDAs contributing to that evolution despite contentious identity ownership definitions. Founders secure in their own identity, are focused on self-determination and opportunities provided by IEDAs, government and corporate sector policies. However, opportunities are undermined by ongoing racism, discrimination and prevailing stereotypes leading to homogeneity, invisibility and exclusion. Founders question organisational commitments to overcoming systemic exclusion in particular their commitment to building respectful relationships and understanding First Peoples ways of working. Instead, Founders focus on building a sustainable First Peoples economic ecosystem through relationship-based practices rather than transactional reconciliation which ignores the reality of the lived experience of everyday racism.

Originality/value

This study extends the scholarly discourse on First Peoples for-profit enterprise success written with an Indigenous voice. We demonstrate how this Founder generation are strengthened by culture with identity infused in organisational practices underpinning their aspirations of economic self-determination.
Reproductive health rights: a bibliometric analysis of childbirth
Authors: Farizi Sofia Al
Published: August 2024

Purpose

Reproductive health rights became an issue of interest long before the 1990s. Several policies were created to guarantee reproductive health rights, including birth rights. Women have the right to give birth in a way that is respectful and free from obstetric violence. Policymaking must, of course, be based on empirical evidence, so it is necessary to map studies on human rights in the context of childbirth. This study aims to investigate the viewpoint on human rights during childbirth across time by using a bibliometric methodology.

Design/methodology/approach

Bibliometric analysis was conducted using the VOSviewer application. The analysis was sourced from 301 articles on human rights during delivery for the 1976–2023 period from the Scopus database.

Findings

The studies concerning reproductive health rights encompass various topics, including reproductive health policy, human rights during childbirth, child marriage and human rights, pandemics and health care related to human rights.

Research limitations/implications

Studies related to human rights in reproductive health (especially childbirth) must be increased. Remember, policymaking must be based on the evidence found. Apart from that, empirical information about harmful actions during childbirth must be revealed so that it becomes a concern. While there has been a significant increase in the establishment of human rights during childbirth, there is a lack of research on this topic specifically in the Asian context. Researchers might consider this to be a matter of concern, given the implications for human rights. Two themes that have citations but a small number relate to obstetric violence and respectful maternity care during childbirth, so this could be a concern for other researchers for further studies.

Originality/value

This paper provides an overview of the most cited topics of human rights during childbirth, contributions by the distribution of studies throughout time, distribution of studies by country, the highest number of publications and citations.
How and when does perceived organizational politics undermine employee performance? Examination through the lens of opportunistic silence in Indian HPDOs
Authors: Randev Kadumbri Kriti , Jha Jatinder Kumar , Shukla Keerti
Published: August 2024

Purpose

The main aim of this paper is to explore the influence mechanisms of perceived organizational politics (POP) on employee performance (EP). Drawing on the job demands-resources theory (JD-R), this paper investigates opportunistic silence (OS) as a mediating factor and job level as a moderating effect in the POP-OS-performance relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

This study’s data were collected from 203 employees working in Indian high-power distance organizations (HPDOs), such as the military, police and security forces. Mediation and moderation analysis were conducted using PLS-SEM, and the moderated mediation index was calculated using Hayes PROCESS Macro.

Findings

The results indicate that OS fully mediates the POP-performance relationship – specifically, POP as a job demand activates OS, which acts as an energy/resource depleting mechanism and further deteriorates task performance. Interestingly, the overall negative influence of POP and OS on EP was stronger for employees at lower job levels than those at senior job levels.

Originality/value

This paper offers a unique set of findings that enrich the understanding of factors responsible for employees’ performance in the highly political environments of HPDOs. By using the lens of JD-R theory, this paper draws attention towards the tendency of employees to indulge in self-serving behaviours like OS in politically charged contexts which is detrimental to their performance and may also undermine overall organization’s productivity. Furthermore, this paper also highlights the conditional effects exerted by job level in the unique nexus of POP, OS and EP.
Channel diversity, constructive and destructive conflicts: the moderating role of network centrality
Authors: Pang Fanglan , Yang Qian
Published: August 2024

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the impact of channel diversity on constructive and destructive conflicts in manufacturer-distributor relationships, as well as the mediating role of distributor opportunism and the moderating role of distributor network centrality.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper collected channel dual data to represent channel behavior in manufacturer-distributor relationships accurately. Using 208 matched manufacturer distributor bilateral data from Chinese B2B firms validate the conceptual model. This paper tested the proposed hypothesis using AMOS 24.0 software.

Findings

Channel diversity strengthens constructive conflict and weakens destructive conflict between manufacturers and distributors. Distributor opportunism plays a mediating role between channel diversity and constructive conflict. Distributor network centrality reinforces the positive impact of channel diversity on constructive conflict and the impact of channel diversity on destructive conflict.

Originality/value

This research contributes significantly to developing channel diversity and conflict theory by expanding the dyadic view to a network view. It also provides valuable insights for managers, highlighting the importance of maintaining a good relationship with distributors with high network centrality. The research results allow the constructive aspects of channel conflict to manifest fully and enhance the effectiveness of channel management. Distributor firms should prioritize communication and contact with network members to increase their network centrality, enabling them to take more initiative, exert influence and establish advantageous cooperative partnerships with manufacturers.
Calculative trust, benevolent trust and supplier opportunism: the double edged role of IT infrastructure capability
Authors: Li Jiaxuan , Zhang Xihong , Wang Mengyang
Published: August 2024

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how two dimensions of trust, calculative trust and benevolent trust, affect supplier opportunism, and further investigates how information technology (IT) infrastructure capability moderates the relationship between calculative trust, benevolent trust and local supplier opportunism.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses ordinary least square regression to test the hypotheses, using survey data from 164 buyer–supplier relationships.

Findings

The findings suggest that both rational and emotional dimensions of trust, calculative trust and benevolent trust, have negative effect on the opportunistic behavior of suppliers. Furthermore, IT infrastructure capability amplifies the inhibitory effect of calculative trust on supplier’s opportunism, while diminishing the effect of benevolent trust on suppressing supplier’s opportunism.

Originality/value

This study investigates the impacts of both rational and emotional dimensions of trust on opportunistic behavior, thereby enhancing the comprehension of the multifaceted nature of trust in interfirm relationships and contributing valuable insights into interorganizational relationship governance. Moreover, this study reveals the double-edged moderating roles of IT infrastructure capability in supply chain relationships, presenting innovative perspectives within the research on exploring the role of IT capability in business-to-business marketing relationships.
Venture capital, internationalization strategy and corporate innovation
Authors: Zheng Xiyue , Wang Fusheng , Zhang Dongchao
Published: August 2024

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of venture capital participation on corporate innovation and to assess how internationalization strategies (including both the internationalization scope and speed) in mediating serve as intermediaries in the relationship between venture capital and corporate innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

Using hierarchical regression analysis, this research tests the hypothesized framework using survey data collected from 442 high-tech enterprises listed on the A-share markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen, China, spanning from 2010 to 2019.

Findings

The study reveals a non-linear (U-shaped) correlation between venture capital investment and innovation. This non-linear linkage is facilitated through the execution of enterprises’ strategies for international expansion. The primary finding suggests that venture capital participation positively influences the rapidity and extent of internationalization. Additionally, a U-shaped relationship is observed between corporate innovation and both the speed and scope of internationalization.

Originality/value

This document contributes insights into the micro-level mechanisms that explain the effects of venture capital and internationalization strategy on corporate innovation. The results offer multinational corporations practical guidance for executing their internationalization strategies effectively and fostering innovation.
Understanding food delivery service customers’ switching behavior
Authors: Ahn Jiseon
Published: August 2024

Purpose

Prompted by intense competition among providers of food delivery services, this study examines the behavior of customers using mobile applications. Specifically, based on a push-pull-mooring framework, this study aims to identify the key factors affecting customers’ switching intentions in the food delivery context. A push factor is assumed to drive customers away from an existing service provider due to dissatisfaction, while a pull element lures them to an alternative provider by supplying enhanced levels of enjoyment, usefulness and/or informativeness and mooring factors (i.e. affective commitment and perceived herd) help make these switching decisions.

Design/methodology/approach

Partial least squares structural equation modeling with SmartPLS was used because it is suited to predictive models and produces stringent assessments of measurement models using a variance-based approach. Data was collected through an online survey. Participants were 350 food delivery application (FDA) customers in the USA.

Findings

The results highlight the importance of a push factor (dissatisfaction with the present FDA) and a mooring factor (perceived herd) as determinants of customers’ perceptions of risk that can induce a decision to switch to another FDA. However, the pull factors of usefulness, enjoyment and information quality did not significantly influence switching behavior.

Originality/value

Many food delivery service providers now use mobile application technologies to provide their services. Such companies can use the factors that influence customer switching intentions identified in this study to control customers’ churn behavior by managing dissatisfied customers in the mobile context.
Shifting sands: the use of marketing communication strategies in corporate social responsibility disclosure in the United Arab Emirates
Authors: Nickerson Catherine , Georgiadou Effrosyni
Published: August 2024

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the evolution of sustainability reporting in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) against a backdrop of changing legislation. It uses qualitative content analysis within the corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication framework proposed by Kotler and Lee (2005) to investigate how corporations in the UAE disclosed information on their CSR activities in 2018 and 2023.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors refer to the CSR communication framework proposed by Kotler and Lee (2005), which puts forward a set of marketing communication strategies that can be used to promote a corporation. The authors identify the strategies used by the top 14 companies operating in the UAE in their CSR disclosure in the fall of 2018 and the spring of 2023, respectively. The authors note any changes that have occurred over time and differences between the distinct business sectors.

Findings

The findings indicate a continuing reliance on the marketing communication strategies associated with corporate philanthropy, cause promotion and being a good corporate citizen. All of the corporations in the study showed evidence of engaging in an increasing diversity of CSR initiatives and a corresponding diversity in the marketing communication strategies they used to promote them.

Practical implications

Corporations wishing to promote themselves through their CSR activities and build a positive reputation would do well to select a diverse set of CSR activities communicated in a variety of ways.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first longitudinal, comparative study examining the CSR marketing strategies of the top corporations in the UAE. As such, it contributes to the ongoing debate on CSR in the Middle East in general and to understanding more about the approach as well as the changes in approach to CSR in a Muslim-majority Middle-eastern and secular developing economy, the impact of CSR legislation and government regulation on CSR disclosures in different business sectors and the promotional opportunities afforded by effective CSR disclosure within the UAE in particular.