bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Narratives by health professionals on solvent use and housing insecurity
Authors: DeBoer Tracy J. , Medved Maria I. , Sareen Jitender , Hiebert-Murphy Diane , Distasio Jino
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how service professionals involved in the provision of services to clientele who use solvents and are often without stable housing understand the process of healing and recovery in their work.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using a narrative methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 human service professionals (i.e. social workers, case managers, etc.) employed in providing recovery-based services to individuals who use volatile solvents.

Findings

– Despite the dominant cultural story about “street addicts” and solvent users’ limited possibilities for recovery, professionals indicate that they view their clients as “just like everyone else.” The dominant storyline was that of advocating for the capability of the client group. These stories are discussed in relation to hope for professionals who provide health and housing services to clientele with complex and multi-systemic needs.

Originality/value

– The findings have implications for how human service providers maintain hope and purpose in their work with stigmatized populations (e.g. homeless individuals, those with alcohol or other drug-related problems). This study highlights how human service professionals make sense of their role in their work and how they maintain hope for themselves and for the recovery of the clientele they work alongside.
Affordable warmth: housing strategies for older people
Authors: Stewart Jill , Dhesi Surindar
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to consolidate policy, research, evidence and good practice around strategies tackling fuel poverty and affordable warmth for older people aged over 60 to support the development of more effective services for this life course stage and to tackle physical and mental health inequalities.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors consolidate current policy, research, evidence and examples of good practice in exploring effective interprofessional approaches that contribute to affordable warmth for older people through “desktop analysis”. The authors support this with qualitative data from Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs), health inequalities and environmental health from research comprising four longitudinal case studies in the Midlands and North of England over 18 months and semi-structured interviews with members and support officers. A total of 50 interviews were undertaken and 55 hours of HWB meetings observed.

Findings

– There are numerous older people living in fuel poverty. The depth of fuel poverty increases with age particularly the over 75s and physical and mental ill health are affected. There are an increasing number of tools to help estimate health care costs around the cost effectiveness of interventions and there is a real need for more local evidence about what is working well, how and why. However, there is no mandatory requirement for fuel poverty strategies and more creative local strategies are required taking organisational and interprofessional relationships into account. The emphasis in integrated care provides new impetus and scope to encourage preventative services but these new partnerships need to be effective in what is a complex policy environment. There is still a long way to go in places. The challenges of ageing are numerous, complex and not fully understood and sit across multiple policy areas.

Originality/value

– Fuel poverty strategies tend to be delivered on a geographical or income bases rather than by life course approach and a focus on older people. We need to focus more specifically on older people, a rapidly growing population and to better understand thermal properties of our ageing housing stock and how best to intervene to protect and improve health and safety. Emerging approaches need to overcome artificial statutory and non statutory divides and move towards sustainable, evidence based affordable warmth strategies for older people to protect and improve health.
Exogenous approach to improve topic segmentation
Authors: Naili Marwa , Habacha Chaibi Anja , Hajjami Ben Ghezala Henda
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– Topic segmentation is one of the active research fields in natural language processing. Also, many topic segmenters have been proposed. However, the current challenge of researchers is the improvement of these segmenters by using external resources. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to integrate study and evaluate a new external semantic resource in topic segmentation.

Design/methodology/approach

– New topic segmenters (TSS-Onto and TSB-Onto) are proposed based on the two well-known segmenters C99 and TextTiling. The proposed segmenters integrate semantic knowledge to the segmentation process by using a domain ontology as an external resource. Subsequently, an evaluation is made to study the effect of this resource on the quality of topic segmentation along with a comparative study with related works.

Findings

– Based on this study, the authors showed that adding semantic knowledge, which is extracted from a domain ontology, improves the quality of topic segmentation. Moreover, TSS-Ont outperforms TSB-Ont in terms of quality of topic segmentation.

Research limitations/implications

– The main limitation of this study is the used test corpus for the evaluation which is not a benchmark. However, we used a collection of scientific papers from well-known digital libraries (ArXiv and ACM).

Practical implications

– The proposed topic segmenters can be useful in different NLP applications such as information retrieval and text summarizing.

Originality/value

– The primary original contribution of this paper is the improvement of topic segmentation based on semantic knowledge. This knowledge is extracted from an ontological external resource.
How do foreign direct investors group by their investments in Turkey and Germany?
Authors: Aydin Nurhan , Kulali Gulsah
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to classify the source countries of inward foreign direct investments (FDIs) to Turkey and to Germany as individual samples of developing and developed economies, to produce practical information to target company managers and owners that they can use for having much more investments or getting more bargaining power with the existing or potential investors.

Design/methodology/approach

– Cluster analysis methodology with Ward’s (1963) technique is used to create significant groups out of FDI source countries.

Findings

– The results show that foreign direct investors – labeled by their country of origin – investing in Turkey are grouped into two main clusters. First main cluster of Turkey has three sub-clusters. Investors investing in Germany are also grouped into two main clusters. First main cluster of Germany has two sub-clusters. Of all seven clustering criteria, four of them were prominent in grouping, which are: having a high equity ownership in the investment, investing in companies with high market capitalization, investing in companies with high/low financial risk and high/low financial performance, and investing in young companies. Furthermore, investors from same origin behave differently in Turkey and Germany. They adjust their attitude toward risk when the host country changes. Lastly, source countries in the sample that have a minimum distance in between, are the ones sharing similar cultural values.

Research limitations/implications

– The limitations of the study are the small number of observation with complete and standard company data needed, especially in Turkey, and the compelled shortness of time period for the empirical analysis. Some suggestions were offered for future researches to contribute to the topic by using bigger samples; by making variations in country, time, or industry; by relating country factors to social/entrepreneurial factors; and by supporting the research with qualitative techniques.

Originality/value

– This paper constitutes a contribution to the empirical field research in Turkey, an emerging country with very limited firm-level financial and ownership data, compared to Germany, a developed country with relatively more data availability.
Cross-border equity flows and market volatility: the case of Qatar Exchange
Authors: Ahmed Walid M.A.
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– Extending the extant literature and using Qatar’s equity market as a case study, this paper aims to look into the potential impacts of foreign investor groups’ trading activities on market volatility in comparison with those of Qatar’s domestic investor counterparts.

Design/methodology/approach

– The dataset is comprised of daily aggregated values of stock purchases and sales made separately by four investor groups, namely, foreign individual investors, foreign institutional investors, domestic individual investors, and domestic institutional investors. An ex post measure of volatility introduced by Rogers and Satchell (1991) is employed. Four proxies for investor trading are considered separately in the analysis. The objective of the study is empirically addressed in the context of the Generalized Method of Moments estimation technique.

Findings

– In general, there exists substantial contemporaneous price impact associated with foreign equity investment in the Qatari capital market, despite the fact that foreigners’ buy and sell trades are not as large as those of their domestic counterparts. More specifically, foreign institutional sales (purchases) tend to increase (reduce) market volatility. Like those of foreign institutions, the sell trades by foreign individuals have a positive impact on volatility. On the other hand, domestic institutional purchases are significantly negatively related with market volatility, whereas the sell trades by the same category have no impact on volatility. Finally, surprises in foreigners’ trading volumes turn out to be responsible for adding to volatility.

Practical implications

– Although a sudden reversal of foreign capital flows can pose a real threat to the stability of the Qatari capital market, such capital flows are deemed to be an indispensable vehicle for enhancing the liquidity and efficiency of the market. Accordingly, policy makers in Qatar should overhaul the current foreign investment legislation to make it even more streamlined and better suited to achieving the country’s strategic vision for the market. Foremost in these reforms is relaxing the stringent 25 percent foreign ownership restriction. Such a relaxation process is highly recommended to be phased in only gradually, in order to weigh its pros and cons. In this regard, the authorities concerned should consider embarking on a range of procedures intended to ward off the adverse ramifications of foreign capital outflows.

Originality/value

– To the author’s best knowledge, no study about the impact of foreign equity flows on domestic markets has been so far conducted using trading data from the Qatari market. This work presents one such attempt.
Research publications and economic growth in South Africa: an empirical investigation
Authors: Odhiambo Nicholas  M , Ntenga Lydia
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between research publications and economic growth – using time-series data from South Africa. The paper attempts to answer two critical questions: is there a long-run relationship between research publications and economic growth in South Africa? Do research publications from South African researchers Granger-cause economic growth?

Design/methodology/approach

– Unlike some of the previous studies, the current paper uses a trivariate ECM-based Granger-causality model to examine this linkage. Specifically, the study incorporates education as an intermittent variable between research and economic growth. In addition, the paper uses the recently developed autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL)-bounds testing procedure, which has numerous advantages, especially when the sample size is small.

Findings

– The results of this study show that there is a long-run relationship between research publications and economic growth in South Africa. The results also show that there is a distinct causal flow from research publications to economic growth in South Africa. This applies both in the short-run and in the long-run. Other results also show that: there is a short-run bidirectional causality between research publications and education; and there is a short-run bi-directional causality between education and economic growth, but a long-run unidirectional causal flow from education to economic growth.

Practical implications

– The findings of this paper underscore the crucial role that research plays in economic growth and development. Overall, the findings of this study show that research in South Africa is pro-growth. This implies that the recent significant increase in government expenditure on research and innovation, which is aimed at increasing the country’s scientific research outputs, is likely to pay off.

Originality/value

– To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first of its kind to examine in detail the dynamic causal relationship between research outputs and economic growth in South Africa – using the recently developed ARDL-bounds testing approach within a trivariate setting.
Does education transmit across generations? An evidence from Multan district (Pakistan)
Authors: Sharif Fareed , Khawaja Muhammad Junaid , Azid Toseef
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– It is consensus among the social scientist that education plays a vital role in human capital formation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of education transmission across generations.

Design/methodology/approach

– Primary data were collected from 613 households which were selected by applying the systematic random sampling technique. By using education as a continuous variable, the human capital base model has been estimated. These models have been estimated by applying the OLS technique.

Findings

– The study finds persistence in education across generations and inequality in educational achievements. Mother’s education is found to be more important for daughters in the gender analysis but for combined effect father’s education has been observed stronger than mothers. The models with interaction terms have shown a stronger son-father and daughter-mother association in educational transmission. Moreover, findings exhibit that females are more educated as compared to males.

Research limitations/implications

– This study is providing a new dimension to the social scientist about the importance of education especially in a developing country like Pakistan.

Practical implications

– The results of this study provide the guidelines to the policy makers and giving them the direction about the incremental change of the human capital through the intergenerational transmission mechanism.

Social implications

– The findings of this study can be used for upgrading of the social set up of a developing country like Pakistan.

Originality/value

– This is an original effort and the first time this type of study is conducted in Pakistan.
Deprivation in slums and child poverty: study on Kolkata
Authors: De Indranil , Nag Tirthankar
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– The study attempts to look into the poverty and deprivation in slums across various social and religious groups and its bearing on the children. It not only analyses income poverty but also looks at derivation of access to basic services including water, sanitation and drainage. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the income and non-income deprivation of childbearing and non-childbearing households.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study is based on a survey of 541 sample households selected from 23 slums of Kolkata, India. The authors have adopted a mixture of cluster sampling and systematic sampling technique. The slums of Kolkata have been segregated into three regions and further segregated by overlaying the population and average monthly income of slums. Slums have been selected randomly from these stratums. Households have been selected from the slums by systematic sampling method.

Findings

– The Muslim and backward caste households are more deprived with respect to income and access to basic services as compared to Hindu general (upper) caste. Deprivations with respect to income and basic services are more pronounced for households having child than for households not having child. Childbearing households are less likely to receive better water supply, sanitation and drainage services as compared to others due to their religious and residential identities. Slum children get affected by the complex political economy of basic service delivery. The study also finds that electoral competition has positive and political clientelism has negative impact on access to basic services.

Research limitations/implications

– The study is based on results obtained from survey in one city of India. Hence, these results cannot be generalized for India or for the developing countries taken together. Further studies across cities of developing countries are required to arrive at any generalized conclusion.

Practical implications

– The study suggests that public policies should attempt to disentangle minorities and children from the local political economy. Otherwise, deprivation and disparity even across low income households living in slums would persist. Deprivation of child bearing households would lead to a deteriorating future for the slum children.

Social implications

– This paper have pave the path for new generation public policy for the urban poor and minorities.

Originality/value

– This paper highlights the incidence of deprivation of minorities and childbearing households vis-à-vis other households in the slums. It contributes to the overall understanding on urban poverty.
An institutional theory of the informal economy: some lessons from the United Kingdom
Authors: Williams Colin C , Horodnic Ioana Alexandra
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to propose a new way of explaining participation in the informal economy as resulting from the asymmetry between the codified laws and regulations of a society’s formal institutions (government morality) and the norms, values and beliefs of the population that constitute its informal institutions (societal morality). The proposition is that the greater the asymmetry between government morality and societal morality, the greater is the propensity to participate in the informal economy.

Design/methodology/approach

– To evaluate this institutional asymmetry theory, the results are reported of 1,306 face-to-face interviews conducted during 2013 in the UK.

Findings

– The finding is a strong correlation between the degree of institutional asymmetry (measured by tax morale) and participation in the informal economy. The lower the tax morale, the greater is the propensity to participate in the informal economy. Using ordered logistic regression analysis, tax morale is not found to significantly vary by, for example, social class, employment status or wealth, but there are significant gender, age and spatial variations with men, younger age groups, rural areas and Scotland displaying significantly lower tax morale than women, older people, urban areas and London.

Practical implications

– Rather than continue with the current disincentives policy approach, a new policy approach that reduces the asymmetry between government morality and societal morality is advocated. This requires not only changes in societal morality regarding the acceptability of participating in the informal economy but also changes in how formal institutions operate in order for this to be achieved.

Originality/value

– This paper provides a new way of explaining participation in the informal economy and reviews its consequences for understanding and tackling the informal economy in the UK.
Exploring situationally inappropriate social media posts
Authors: Richey Michelle , Ravishankar M.N. , Coupland Christine
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– Social media technologies are used by many organizations to project a positive image of their strategies and operations. At the same time, however, there are an increasing number of reports of slip-ups linked to poor situational awareness and flawed self-presentations on social media platforms. The purpose of this paper is to explore the triggers of inappropriate social media posts.

Design/methodology/approach

– Data were collected during a qualitative study of social media use in 31 organizations in the UK and interpreted using concepts from Erving Goffman’s theory of impression management.

Findings

– The findings point to a series of demanding triggers, which increase the likelihood of insensitive and contextually inappropriate posts and also damage fostered impressions.

Originality/value

– The authors identify four triggers linked to inappropriate social media posts, namely: speed and spontaneity; informality; blurred boundaries; and the missing audience. The authors also discuss how extending the notion of what Goffman refers to as “situation-like” encounters provides useful insights into impression management on social media.
Systemic capabilities: the source of IT business value
Authors: Cao Guangming , Duan Yanqing , Cadden Trevor , Minocha Sonal
Published: July 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to develop, and explicate the significance of the need for a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value.

Design/methodology/approach

– Embracing a systems perspective, this paper examines the interrelationship between IT and other organisational factors at the organisational level and its impact on the business value of IT. As a result, a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value is developed. An example of enhancing IT business value through developing systemic capabilities is then used to test and demonstrate the value of this framework.

Findings

– The findings suggest that IT business value would be significantly enhanced when systemic capabilities are generated from the synergistic interrelations among IT and other organisational factors at the systems level, while the system’s human agents play a critical role in developing systemic capabilities by purposely configuring and reconfiguring organisational factors.

Practical implications

– The conceptual framework advanced provides the means to recognise the significance of the need for understanding IT business value systemically and dynamically. It encourages an organisation to focus on developing systemic capabilities by ensuring that IT and other organisational factors work together as a synergistic whole, better managing the role its human agents play in shaping the systems interrelations, and developing and redeveloping systemic capabilities by configuring its subsystems purposely with the changing business environment.

Originality/value

– This paper reveals the nature of systemic capabilities underpinned by a systems perspective. The resultant systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value can help us move away from pairwise resource complementarity to focusing on the whole system and its interrelations while responding to the changing business environment. It is hoped that the framework can help organisations delineate important IT investment considerations and the priorities that they must adopt to create superior IT business value.
Risk propagation and its impact on performance in food processing supply chain
Authors: Chaudhuri Atanu , Srivastava Samir K. , Srivastava Rajiv K. , Parveen Zeenat
Published: July 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify various risk drivers which affect a food processing supply chain and to create a map of how those risk drivers propagate risks through the supply chain and impact important performance measures.

Design/methodology/approach

This study involves experts from food processing companies to elucidate the contextual relationships among the risk drivers and between risk drivers and performance measures. This is used to quantify the relationships and to determine the indirect and overall relationships applying Fuzzy Interpretive Structural Modeling.

Findings

Three categories of risk drivers which Indian food processing companies need to pay maximum attention to minimize risks are identified. These are supplier dependency and contracting, supplier variability, visibility and traceability and manufacturing disruptions. Analysis shows that collaborating with suppliers and logistics service providers, developing mutually beneficial contracts with them while ensuring that adequate technology investments are made can significantly mitigate risks and consequently improve margins and lead to revenue growth.

Research limitations/implications

This study has been carried out with experts from large food processing companies in India, and hence, the results cannot be generalized across other types of food processing companies.

Practical implications

The proposed methodology can help understand the interrelationships between supply chain risks and between those risks and performance measures. Thus, it can help a food processing company to create business cases for specific supply chain risk mitigation projects.

Originality/value

This study is one of the earliest to create a comprehensive risk propagation map for food processing companies which helps in quantifying the impact the risk drivers have on each other and on performance measures.
Happiness research for public policy and administration
Authors: Okulicz-Kozaryn Adam
Published: July 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this viewpoint is to introduce happiness research for public policy and administration scholars and practitioners. It focuses on what can be useful for the discipline, provides relevant examples and presents the most recent findings and directions for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is a combination of literature review, argumentation and illustrations.

Findings

Over the past few decades, there has been a tremendous growth in happiness research, and over the past few years, this research has started addressing policy issues such as housing, transportation and inequality. Strikingly, public policy and administration discipline has failed to notice these developments. Happiness research has great potential, and it can be used in many theoretical and practical ways to advance the common good.

Originality/value

Happiness is extremely important and useful for public policy and administration and yet largely overlooked in the discipline. Existing literature reviews are not written with the discipline in mind, and this viewpoint is aimed at filling this gap.
How perceptions of E-participation levels influence the intention to use E-government websites
Authors: Bataineh Lana , Abu-Shanab Emad
Published: July 2016

Purpose

This study aims to predict the intention to participate (ITP) in public activities by utilizing five levels of e-participation reported in the literature. The study used the levels of e-informing, e-consulting, e-involving, e-collaborating and e-empowering as predictors of the intention to participate in e-government services.

Design/methodology/approach

An empirical test was adopted using a survey to measure the five levels of e-participation and the dependent variable, ITP in e-government initiatives. The survey included items from previous studies translated to Arabic. Subjects responded to a five-point Likert scale to measure their perceptions regarding the sub-dimensions of each e-participation level. Statistical analyses of the collected data were conducted to test the assumed hypotheses. Multiple regression of the five predictor levels was conducted to predict the ITP in e-government services.

Findings

All the estimated means of e-participation levels were moderately perceived. The regression results indicated a significant prediction of three levels: e-informing, e-consulting and e-empowering. The other two levels (e-involving and e-collaborating) failed to predict the ITP. The coefficient of determinationR2resulting from the regression test was significant at the 0.001 level, which explained 61.9 per cent of the variance in the dependent variable.

Research limitations/implications

The instrument used is a newly developed one in Arabic language, which might have influenced the results. The distinction between e-involving and e-collaborating might not have been recognized by subjects, which might have increased the limitations of the study. The results of this study call for more research to validate the instrument and try to see if new statements of e-consulting and e-involving might be employed. The other side could be to reduce the levels to three levels only or merge the insignificant ones into one (four levels only).

Practical implications

Governments need to assert the role of citizens in the decision-making process. Such assertion is done through the e-participation process.

Social implications

Jordanians perceive the e-informing and e-consulting levels to be a foundation that can be easily attained, but jumping to the e-empowering level means that the society is keen on the partnership with the government.

Originality/value

This study is the first to use the participation levels (five levels) as predictors of the ITP. Most studies have utilized theories such as technology acceptance model (TAM), theory of reseaoned action (TRA) and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and other technology adoption theories. Also, this research has established ground for an Arabic survey to measure such levels, regardless of their prediction or description purpose.
The institutional structure of experience production in the Russian tourism industry
Authors: Tambovtsev Vitaly
Published: July 2016

Purpose

The paper aligns two lines of research that tend to develop separately in tourism studies: new institutional economics (NIE) and theory of experience production. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the institutional restraints on tourism growth in developing and transit countries.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on a qualitative research methodology. A summary of key literature is presented alongside an in-depth analysis of the possibilities for NIE application in tourism research.

Findings

The notion of institutional structure of experience production is defined as an institutional arrangement supporting or inhibiting experience production. It is proposed as a promising framework for a more intensive NIE methodology application to tourism research. This framework is applied to tourist experience production stages, and some specific institutions accounting for positive experience creation are revealed for key experience production stages.

Research limitations/implications

This paper is limited in that it offers a conceptual analysis, though directions for further empirical research are proposed.

Originality/value

The paper is a first attempt at emphasizing impacts of some specific institutions on positive tourist experience production and it stresses their importance to the international tourism industry as it expands in developing and transit countries.
Plant and insect microbial symbionts alter the outcome of plant–herbivore–parasitoid interactions: implications for invaded, agricultural and natural systems
Authors: Bennett Alison E. , Millar Niall S. , Gedrovics Emils , Karley Alison J.
Published: July 2016

Understanding how soil microbial communities influence plant interactions with other organisms, and how this varies with characteristics of the interacting organisms, is important for multiple systems. Solanum spp. are a suitable model for trophic interactions in studies of agricultural and natural systems and can also provide useful corollaries in invaded systems. This study examined the influence of soil mutualist arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi on growth of different Solanum types fed on by the potato aphid, Macrosiphum euphorbiae, in relation to the presence of the aphid facultative endosymbiont Hamiltonella defensa.

Four Solanum types comprising two wild species, S. berthaultii and S. polyadenum, and two accessions of S. tuberosum, were grown with or without AM fungi and infested with one of four clonal lines of a single M. euphorbiae genotype (two with and two without H. defensa). Two experiments were conducted to (i) characterize plant responses to AM fungi and aphids and (ii) assess whether soil AM fungi could influence the success of the parasitoid wasp Aphidius ervi when attacking aphids reared on each Solanum type.

In both experiments, similar patterns of plant biomass were observed in relation to AM fungal and aphid treatments. Solanum biomass depended on plant type and aphid infection with H. defensa. Plants exposed to aphids harbouring H. defensa had smaller root biomass, and therefore total plant biomass, compared to plants infested with H. defensa‐free aphids. M. euphorbiae performance varied with aphid clonal line, Solanum type and the presence of AM fungi.

Parasitoid success, measured as the proportion of aphids from which a wasp emerged, was highest from aphids that had fed on plants colonized by AM fungi, although this result also varied with Solanum type and aphid clonal line.

Synthesis. The presence of soil AM fungi, combined with within‐species plant and insect variation in key traits, can have subtle – but significant – effects on plant fitness and insect success. This study highlights the importance of exploring genotypic variation in plant and pest responses to soil microbiota to identify suitable biocontrol options.
Native soilborne pathogens equalize differences in competitive ability between plants of contrasting nutrient‐acquisition strategies
Authors: Albornoz Felipe E. , Burgess Treena I. , Lambers Hans , Etchells Hannah , Laliberté Etienne
Published: July 2016

Soilborne pathogens can contribute to the maintenance of local plant diversity by reducing differences in competitive ability between co‐occurring plant species. It has been hypothesized that efficient phosphorus (P) acquisition by plants in P‐impoverished ecosystems might trade off against resistance to root pathogens. This could help explain high plant diversity in severely nutrient‐impoverished ecosystems. However, empirical evidence of such a trade‐off remains scarce.

In hyperdiverse shrublands in south‐western Australia, non‐mycorrhizal cluster‐rooted Proteaceae are very efficient at acquiring P. However, Proteaceae co‐occur with many other plant species using other P‐acquisition strategies, such as ectomycorrhizal (ECM) associations.

In a glasshouse experiment, we grew Proteaceae and ECM plant species from hyperdiverse shrublands alone and in competition with each other, and in the presence or absence of native soilborne pathogens (Phytophthora spp.). We hypothesized that native Phytophthora species are more detrimental to Proteaceae than co‐occurring ECM plants, due to a trade‐off between highly efficient P‐acquisition and pathogen defence, and that this equalizes differences in competitive ability between these two plant groups.

When seedlings were grown alone, biomass of non‐mycorrhizal plants was reduced in the presence of Phytopthora, while ECM species were unaffected by this pathogen. When non‐mycorrhizal and ECM species were planted together, ECM plants grew better in the presence of Phytophthora than in its absence, because Phytophthora reduced the growth of the non‐mycorrhizal competitors.

Growth of ECM plants was positively correlated with per cent root colonization by ECM fungi, but this was only significant when ECM plants were grown in the presence of Phytophthora.

Synthesis. Our study shows that native soilborne pathogens equalized differences in competitive ability between seedlings of contrasting nutrient‐acquisition strategies, thus supporting the hypothesis proposing a trade‐off between highly efficient P‐acquisition and resistance against root pathogens. We found that non‐mycorrhizal cluster‐rooted species may be the most efficient at acquiring the growth‐limiting resource, but that co‐occurring ECM species are better defended against root pathogens. Our results suggest that native soilborne pathogens and ECM contribute to the maintenance of the plant hyperdiversity in severely P‐impoverished ecosystems.
Eating attitudes and behaviours of students enrolled in undergraduate nutrition and dietetics degrees
Authors: Rocks Tetyana , Pelly Fiona , Slater Gary , Martin Lisa A.
Published: July 2016

Aim

The prevalence of disordered eating has been frequently reported in university students; however, the prevalence amongst Australian undergraduate students studying degrees with a focus on nutrition is uncertain. The aims of this study were to: (i) assess eating attitudes and behaviours of students enrolled in nutrition and dietetics, (ii) compare those to students enrolled in another health degree of occupational therapy (OT) and (iii) explore possible relationships between eating attitudes and behaviours and other characteristics of both cohorts.

Methods

This cross‐sectional observational study investigated self‐reported anthropometric characteristics, eating attitudes and behaviours and self‐esteem using a series of questionnaires.

Results

Participants included 137 students (119 females, 18 males) with a mean age of 27.1 ± 8.7 years. Fourteen percent of nutrition and dietetics and 11% of OT students had disordered eating attitudes scores that were symptomatic of an eating disorder. Mean eating attitude scores did not differ between the degrees of study. Students in nutrition and dietetics showed significantly higher levels of cognitive restraint and less emotional eating than OT students. Enrolment in the first year of study was the strongest predictor of symptomatic eating attitudes.

Conclusions

These findings support previously expressed concern about presence of disordered eating in nutrition and dietetics undergraduates. Collaboratively developed support mechanisms for preventing and managing disordered relationships with food would be of benefit to students enrolled in nutrition degrees to ensure ongoing professional integrity.
Flexibility bites back: the multiple and hidden costs of flexible employment policies
Authors: Rubery Jill , Keizer Arjan , Grimshaw Damian
Published: July 2016

Flexible labour markets are increasingly regarded as the answer to a wide spectrum of labour market and societal challenges from creating jobs to reducing segmentation and welfare dependency, improving public finances and supporting workforce diversity and innovation. The contention is that, contrary to these claims, flexible labour markets generate fundamental contradictions and unsustainable long‐term trends. The jobs miracle is exaggerated and based on low productivity jobs, outsiders often lose most from competition, claimants must work flexibly but still secure a full‐time wage, low‐wage employment is shrinking the fiscal base, jobs are not being adjusted to accommodate workers' changing needs and capacities and the disposable labour model is undermining long‐term productivity.
Variables associated with the occurrence ofIpsbeetles, red turpentine beetle and wood borers in live and dead ponderosa pines with post‐fire injury
Authors: Negrón José F. , McMillin Joel , Sieg Carolyn H. , Fowler James F. , Allen Kurt K. , Wadleigh Linda L. , Anhold John A. , Gibson Ken E.
Published: July 2016

Recently, wildfires and prescribed burning have become more frequent in conifer forests of western North America.

Most studies examining the impacts of insects on trees with post‐fire injury have focused on contributions to tree mortality. Few studies have examined fire‐caused injuries to estimate the probability of attack by insects. Scant data quantifying insect associations with one another, or with live and dead fire‐injured trees, are available.

We examined live and dead trees with varying levels of fire injury in wildfires in Colorado, Montana, Arizona and the Black Hills aiming to determine fire injury associated with insect infestation, co‐occurrence between insects and insect association with live and dead fire‐injured trees.

Bole scorch height estimated the likelihood of attack byIpsspp. Diameter at breast height, bole scorch height and crown scorch height estimated the likelihood of attack byDendroctonus valensLeConte. Diameter at breast height and bole scorch height estimated the likelihood of attack by wood borers.

Ipsspp.,Dendroctonus valensand wood borers were associated with one another.Ipsspp. beetles and wood borers were associated with dead fire‐injured trees, whereasD. valenswas often associated with live fire‐injured trees.

Focusing on certain fire‐caused injuries may identify trees targeted byIpsspp. beetles,Dendroctonus valensand wood borers.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Ordinal Data Using Full‐Information Adaptive Quadrature
Authors: Bryant Fred B. , Jöreskog Karl G.
Published: July 2016

We conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of responses (N=803) to a self‐reported measure of optimism, using full‐information estimation via adaptive quadrature (AQ), an alternative estimation method for ordinal data. We evaluated AQ results in terms of the number of iterations required to achieve convergence, model fit, parameter estimates, standard errors (SE), and statistical significance, across four link‐functions (logit, probit, log‐log, complimentary log‐log) using 3–10 and 20 quadrature points. We compared AQ results with those obtained using maximum likelihood, robust maximum likelihood, and robust diagonally weighted least‐squares estimation. Compared to the other two link‐functions, logit and probit not only produced fit statistics, parameters estimates, SEs, and levels of significance that varied less across numbers of quadrature points, but also fitted the data better and provided larger completely standardised loadings than did maximum likelihood and diagonally weighted least‐squares. Our findings demonstrate the viability of using full‐information AQ to estimate CFA models with real‐world ordinal data.
Effects of Nano‐hydroxyapatite/Poly(DL‐lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) Microsphere‐Based Composite Scaffolds on Repair of Bone Defects: Evaluating the Role of Nano‐hydroxyapatite Content
Authors: He Shu , Lin Kai‐Feng , Sun Zhen , Song Yue , Zhao Yi‐Nan , Wang Zheng , Bi Long , Liu Jian
Published: July 2016

The aim of the current study was to prepare microsphere‐based composite scaffolds made of nano‐hydroxyapatite (nHA)/poly (DL‐lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) at different ratios and evaluate the effects of nHA on the characteristics of scaffolds for tissue engineering application. First, microsphere‐based composite scaffolds made of two ratios of nHA/PLGA (nHA/PLGA = 20/80 and nHA/PLGA = 50/50) were prepared. Then, the effects of nHA on the wettability, mechanical strength, and degradation of scaffolds were investigated. Second, the biocompatibility and osteoinductivity were evaluated and compared by co‐culture of scaffolds with bone marrow stromal stem cells (BMSCs). The results showed that the adhesion, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs with nHA/PLGA (50/50) were better than those with nHA/PLGA (20/80). Finally, we implanted the scaffolds into femur bone defects in a rabbit model, then the capacity of guiding bone regeneration as well as the in vivo degradation were observed by micro‐CT and histological examinations. After 4 weeks' implantation, there was no significant difference on the repair of bone defects. However, after 8 and 12 weeks' implantation, the nHA/PLGA (20/80) exhibited better bone formation than nHA/PLGA (50/50). These results suggested that a proper concentration of nHA in the nHA/PLGA composite should be taken into account when the composite scaffolds were prepared, which plays an important role in the biocompatibility, degradation rate and osteoconductivity.
The GerdQ questionnaire and high resolution manometry support the hypothesis that proton pump inhibitor‐responsive oesophageal eosinophilia is a GERD‐related phenomenon
Authors: Savarino E. V. , Tolone S. , Bartolo O. , de Cassan C. , Caccaro R. , Galeazzi F. , Nicoletti L. , Salvador R. , Martinato M. , Costantini M. , Savarino V.
Published: July 2016

Background

Little is known about the relationship between proton pump inhibitor‐responsive oesophageal eosinophilia (PPI‐REE), eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) and gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Aim

To compare high resolution manometry features and symptom profiles of patients with EoE, PPI‐REE and GERD.

Methods

Consecutive patients diagnosed with EoE or PPI‐REE according to international criteria (presence of at least one typical symptom of oesophageal dysfunction; at least 15 eosinophils per high‐power field at mid/proximal oesophagus, persistence or resolution of eosinophils after an 8‐week PPI trial), and a group of patients with proven GERD and oesophageal eosinophilia, prospectively completed the GerdQ questionnaire and underwent high resolution manometry.

Results

Thirty‐five patients with EoE, 17 with PPI‐REE and 27 with GERD were enrolled. When compared to GERD, both EoE and PPI‐REE had higher rates of dysphagia (15% vs. 94% vs. 88%, P < 0.0001), patients with EoE reported heartburn and regurgitation less frequently (26% vs. 85%, and 17% vs. 74%, respectively; P < 0.001 for each and had lower GerdQ score [1 (0–6) vs. 8 (6–12), P < 0.001] than GERD patients. There was no significant difference comparing PPI‐REE and GERD patients. Patients with PPI‐REE had a higher prevalence of erosive oesophagitis than patients with EoE (35% vs. 9%, P = 0.04), which was similar to that of GERD (48%, P = 0.54). Patients with EoE had a lower frequency of high resolution manometry features associated with GERD than patients with PPI‐REE. There was no significant difference between PPI‐REE and GERD patients.

Conclusion

GERD, as assessed by GerdQ and high resolution manometry is common in patients with PPI‐REE, which may share similar pathogenic mechanisms.
Multivariate Bayesian Variable Selection Exploiting Dependence Structure Among Outcomes: Application to Air Pollution Effects on DNA Methylation
Authors: Lee Kyu Ha , Tadesse Mahlet G. , Baccarelli Andrea A. , Schwartz Joel , Coull Brent A.
Published: July 2016

The analysis of multiple outcomes is becoming increasingly common in modern biomedical studies. It is well-known that joint statistical models for multiple outcomes are more flexible and more powerful than fitting a separate model for each outcome; they yield more powerful tests of exposure or treatment effects by taking into account the dependence among outcomes and pooling evidence across outcomes. It is, however, unlikely that all outcomes are related to the same subset of covariates. Therefore, there is interest in identifying exposures or treatments associated with particular outcomes, which we term outcome-specific variable selection. In this work, we propose a variable selection approach for multivariate normal responses that incorporates not only information on the mean model, but also information on the variance–covariance structure of the outcomes. The approach effectively leverages evidence from all correlated outcomes to estimate the effect of a particular covariate on a given outcome. To implement this strategy, we develop a Bayesian method that builds a multivariate prior for the variable selection indicators based on the variance–covariance of the outcomes. We show via simulation that the proposed variable selection strategy can boost power to detect subtle effects without increasing the probability of false discoveries. We apply the approach to the Normative Aging Study (NAS) epigenetic data and identify a subset of five genes in the asthma pathway for which gene-specific DNA methylations are associated with exposures to either black carbon, a marker of traffic pollution, or sulfate, a marker of particles generated by power plants.