bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Metabolic constraints for a novel symbiosis
Authors: Sørensen Megan E. S. , Cameron Duncan D. , Brockhurst Michael A. , Wood A. Jamie
Published: March 2016

Ancient evolutionary events are difficult to study because their current products are derived forms altered by millions of years of adaptation. The primary endosymbiotic event formed the first photosynthetic eukaryote resulting in both plants and algae, with vast consequences for life on Earth. The evolutionary time that passed since this event means the dominant mechanisms and changes that were required are obscured. Synthetic symbioses such as the novel interaction between
Paramecium bursaria
and the cyanobacterium
Synechocystis
PC6803, recently established in the laboratory, permit a unique window on the possible early trajectories of this critical evolutionary event. Here, we apply metabolic modelling, using flux balance analysis (FBA), to predict the metabolic adaptations necessary for this previously free-living symbiont to transition to the endosymbiotic niche. By enforcing reciprocal nutrient trading, we are able to predict the most efficient exchange nutrients for both host and symbiont. During the transition from free-living to obligate symbiosis, it is likely that the trading parameters will change over time, which leads in our model to discontinuous changes in the preferred exchange nutrients. Our results show the applicability of FBA modelling to ancient evolutionary transitions driven by metabolic exchanges, and predict how newly established endosymbioses, governed by conflict, will differ from a well-developed one that has reached a mutual-benefit state.
Multiple behavioural, morphological and cognitive developmental changes arise from a single alteration to early life spatial environment, resulting in fitness consequences for released pheasants
Authors: Whiteside Mark A. , Sage Rufus , Madden Joah R.
Published: March 2016

Subtle variations in early rearing environment influence morphological, cognitive and behavioural processes that together impact on adult fitness. We manipulated habitat complexity experienced by young pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) in their first seven weeks, adding a third accessible dimension by placing elevated perches in their rearing pens mimicking natural variation in habitat complexity. This simple manipulation provoked an interrelated suite of morphological, cognitive and behavioural changes, culminating in decreased wild mortality of birds from complex habitats compared with controls. Three mechanisms contribute to this: Pheasants reared with perches had a morphology which could enable them to fly to the higher branches and cope with prolonged roosting. They had a higher propensity to roost off the ground at night in the wild. More generally, these birds had more accurate spatial memory. Consequently, birds were at a reduced risk of terrestrial predation. The fitness consequences of variation in early rearing on behavioural development are rarely studied in the wild but we show that this is necessary because the effects can be broad ranging and not simple, depending on a complex interplay of behavioural, cognitive and morphological elements, even when effects that the treatments provoke are relatively short term and plastic.
Health at the ballot box: disease threat does not predict attractiveness preference in British politicians
Authors: Nilsonne Gustav , Renberg Adam , Tamm Sandra , Lekander Mats
Published: March 2016

According to disease avoidance theory, selective pressures have shaped adaptive behaviours to avoid people who might transmit infections. Such behavioural immune defence strategies may have social and societal consequences. Attractiveness is perceived as a heuristic cue of good health, and the relative importance of attractiveness is predicted to increase during high disease threat. Here, we investigated whether politicians' attractiveness is more important for electoral success when disease threat is high, in an effort to replicate earlier findings from the USA. We performed a cross-sectional study of 484 members of the House of Commons from England and Wales. Publicly available sexiness ratings (median 5883 ratings/politician) were regressed on measures of disease burden, operationalized as infant mortality, life expectancy and self-rated health. Infant mortality in parliamentary constituencies did not significantly predict sexiness of elected members of parliament (
p
 = 0.08), nor did life expectancy (
p
 = 0.06), nor self-rated health (
p
 = 0.55). Subsample analyses failed to provide further support for the hypothesis. In conclusion, an attractive leader effect was not amplified by disease threat in the UK and these results did not replicate those of earlier studies from the USA concerning the relationship between attractiveness, disease threat and voting preference.
When environmentally persistent pathogens transform good habitat into ecological traps
Authors: Leach Clinton B. , Webb Colleen T. , Cross Paul C.
Published: March 2016

Habitat quality plays an important role in the dynamics and stability of wildlife metapopulations. However, the benefits of high-quality habitat may be modulated by the presence of an environmentally persistent pathogen. In some cases, the presence of environmental pathogen reservoirs on high-quality habitat may lead to the creation of ecological traps, wherein host individuals preferentially colonize high-quality habitat, but are then exposed to increased infection risk and disease-induced mortality. We explored this possibility through the development of a stochastic patch occupancy model, where we varied the pathogen’s virulence, transmission rate and environmental persistence as well as the distribution of habitat quality in the host metapopulation. This model suggests that for pathogens with intermediate levels of spread, high-quality habitat can serve as an ecological trap, and can be detrimental to host persistence relative to low-quality habitat. This inversion of the relative roles of high- and low-quality habitat highlights the importance of considering the interaction between spatial structure and pathogen transmission when managing wildlife populations exposed to an environmentally persistent pathogen.
Uniqueness of one-dimensional Néel wall profiles
Authors: Muratov Cyrill B. , Yan Xiaodong
Published: March 2016

We study the domain wall structure in thin uniaxial ferromagnetic films in the presence of an in-plane applied external field in the direction normal to the easy axis. Using the reduced one-dimensional thin-film micromagnetic model, we analyse the critical points of the obtained non-local variational problem. We prove that the minimizer of the one-dimensional energy functional in the form of the Néel wall is the unique (up to translations) critical point of the energy among all monotone profiles with the same limiting behaviour at infinity. Thus, we establish uniqueness of the one-dimensional monotone Néel wall profile in the considered setting. We also obtain some uniform estimates for general one-dimensional domain wall profiles.
Folding and faulting of an elastic continuum
Authors: Bigoni Davide , Gourgiotis Panos A.
Published: March 2016

Folding is a process in which bending is localized at sharp edges separated by almost undeformed elements. This process is rarely encountered in Nature, although some exceptions can be found in unusual layered rock formations (called ‘chevrons’) and seashell patterns (for instance
Lopha cristagalli
). In mechanics, the bending of a three-dimensional elastic solid is common (for example, in bulk wave propagation), but folding is usually not achieved. In this article, the route leading to folding is shown for an elastic solid obeying the couple-stress theory with an extreme anisotropy. This result is obtained with a perturbation technique, which involves the derivation of new two-dimensional Green's functions for applied concentrated force and moment. While the former perturbation reveals folding, the latter shows that a material in an extreme anisotropic state is also prone to a faulting instability, in which a displacement step of finite size emerges. Another failure mechanism, namely the formation of dilation/compaction bands, is also highlighted. Finally, a geophysical application to the mechanics of chevron formation shows how the proposed approach may explain the formation of natural structures.
Absolute, not relative brain size correlates with sociality in ground squirrels
Authors: Matějů Jan , Kratochvíl Lukáš , Pavelková Zuzana , Pavelková Řičánková Věra , Vohralík Vladimír , Němec Pavel
Published: March 2016

The social brain hypothesis (SBH) contends that cognitive demands associated with living in cohesive social groups favour the evolution of large brains. Although the correlation between relative brain size and sociality reported in various groups of birds and mammals provides broad empirical support for this hypothesis, it has never been tested in rodents, the largest mammalian order. Here, we test the predictions of the SBH in the ground squirrels from the tribe Marmotini. These rodents exhibit levels of sociality ranging from solitary and single-family female kin groups to egalitarian polygynous harems but feature similar ecologies and life-history traits. We found little support for the association between increase in sociality and increase in relative brain size. Thus, sociality does not drive the evolution of encephalization in this group of rodents, a finding inconsistent with the SBH. However, body mass and absolute brain size increase with sociality. These findings suggest that increased social complexity in the ground squirrels goes hand in hand with larger body mass and brain size, which are tightly coupled to each other.
Dispersal responses override density effects on genetic diversity during post-disturbance succession
Authors: Smith Annabel L. , Landguth Erin L. , Bull C. Michael , Banks Sam C. , Gardner Michael G. , Driscoll Don A.
Published: March 2016

Dispersal fundamentally influences spatial population dynamics but little is known about dispersal variation in landscapes where spatial heterogeneity is generated predominantly by disturbance and succession. We tested the hypothesis that habitat succession following fire inhibits dispersal, leading to declines over time in genetic diversity in the early successional geckoNephrurus stellatus. We combined a landscape genetics field study with a spatially explicit simulation experiment to determine whether successional patterns in genetic diversity were driven by habitat-mediated dispersal or demographic effects (declines in population density leading to genetic drift). Initial increases in genetic structure following fire were likely driven by direct mortality and rapid population expansion. Subsequent habitat succession increased resistance to gene flow and decreased dispersal and genetic diversity inN. stellatus. Simulated changes in population density alone did not reproduce these results. Habitat-mediated reductions in dispersal, combined with changes in population density, were essential to drive the field-observed patterns. Our study provides a framework for combining demographic, movement and genetic data with simulations to discover the relative influence of demography and dispersal on patterns of landscape genetic structure. Our results suggest that succession can inhibit connectivity among individuals, opening new avenues for understanding how disturbance regimes influence spatial population dynamics.
Genetic variation in aggregation behaviour and interacting phenotypes in
Drosophila
Authors: Philippe Anne-Sophie , Jeanson Raphael , Pasquaretta Cristian , Rebaudo Francois , Sueur Cedric , Mery Frederic
Published: March 2016

Aggregation behaviour is the tendency for animals to group together, which may have important consequences on individual fitness. We used a combination of experimental and simulation approaches to study how genetic variation and social environment interact to influence aggregation dynamics in
Drosophila
. To do this, we used two different natural lines of
Drosophila
that arise from a polymorphism in the
foraging
gene (rovers and sitters). We placed groups of flies in a heated arena. Flies could freely move towards one of two small, cooler refuge areas. In groups of the same strain, sitters had a greater tendency to aggregate. The observed behavioural variation was based on only two parameters: the probability of entering a refuge and the likelihood of choosing a refuge based on the number of individuals present. We then directly addressed how different strains interact by mixing rovers and sitters within a group. Aggregation behaviour of each line was strongly affected by the presence of the other strain, without changing the decision rules used by each. Individuals obeying local rules shaped complex group dynamics via a constant feedback loop between the individual and the group. This study could help to identify the circumstances under which particular group compositions may improve individual fitness through underlying aggregation mechanisms under specific environmental conditions.
Cryptic female choice enhances fertilization success and embryo survival in chinook salmon
Authors: Rosengrave Patrice , Montgomerie Robert , Gemmell Neil
Published: March 2016

In this study, we investigated two potentially important intersexual postcopulatory gametic interactions in a population of chinook salmon (
Oncorhynchus tshawytscha
): (i) the effect of female ovarian fluid (OF) on the behaviour of spermatozoa during fertilization and (ii) the effects of multilocus heterozygosity (MLH) (as an index of male quality) and female–male genetic relatedness on sperm behaviour and male fertilization success when there is sperm competition in the presence of that OF. To do this, we conducted a series of
in vitro
competitive fertilization experiments and found that, when ejaculates from two males are competing for access to a single female's unfertilized eggs, fertilization success was significantly biased towards the male whose sperm swam fastest in the female's OF. Embryo survival—a measure of fitness—was also positively correlated with both sperm swimming speed in OF and male MLH, providing novel evidence that cryptic female choice is adaptive for the female, enhancing the early survival of her offspring and potentially influencing her fitness.
Species coexistence: macroevolutionary relationships and the contingency of historical interactions
Authors: Germain Rachel M. , Weir Jason T. , Gilbert Benjamin
Published: March 2016

Evolutionary biologists since Darwin have hypothesized that closely related species compete more intensely and are therefore less likely to coexist. However, recent theory posits that species diverge in two ways: either through the evolution of ‘stabilizing differences’ that promote coexistence by causing individuals to compete more strongly with conspecifics than individuals of other species, or through the evolution of ‘fitness differences’ that cause species to differ in competitive ability and lead to exclusion of the weaker competitor. We tested macroevolutionary patterns of divergence by competing pairs of annual plant species that differ in their phylogenetic relationships, and in whether they have historically occurred in the same region or different regions (sympatric versus allopatric occurrence). For sympatrically occurring species pairs, stabilizing differences rapidly increased with phylogenetic distance. However, fitness differences also increased with phylogenetic distance, resulting in coexistence outcomes that were unpredictable based on phylogenetic relationships. For allopatric species, stabilizing differences showed no trend with phylogenetic distance, whereas fitness differences increased, causing coexistence to become less likely among distant relatives. Our results illustrate the role of species' historical interactions in shaping how phylogenetic relationships structure competitive dynamics, and offer an explanation for the evolution of invasion potential of non-native species.
Experimental evidence of a symbiosis between red-cockaded woodpeckers and fungi
Authors: Jusino Michelle A. , Lindner Daniel L. , Banik Mark T. , Rose Kevin R. , Walters Jeffrey R.
Published: March 2016

Primary cavity excavators, such as woodpeckers, are ecosystem engineers in many systems. Associations between cavity excavators and fungi have long been hypothesized to facilitate cavity excavation, but these relationships have not been experimentally verified. Fungi may help excavators by softening wood, while excavators may facilitate fungal dispersal. Here we demonstrate that excavators facilitate fungal dispersal and thus we report the first experimental evidence of a symbiosis between fungi and a cavity excavator, the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW,
Picoides borealis
). Swab samples of birds showed that RCWs carry fungal communities similar to those found in their completed excavations. A 26-month field experiment using human-made aseptically drilled excavations in live trees, half of which were inaccessible to RCWs, demonstrated that RCWs directly alter fungal colonization and community composition. Experimental excavations that were accessible to RCWs contained fungal communities similar to natural RCW excavations, whereas inaccessible experimental excavations contained significantly different fungal communities. Our work demonstrates a complex symbiosis between cavity excavators and communities of fungi, with implications for forest ecology, wildlife management, and conservation.
Prairie dogs increase fitness by killing interspecific competitors
Authors: Hoogland John L. , Brown Charles R.
Published: March 2016

Interspecific competition commonly selects for divergence in ecology, morphology or physiology, but direct observation of interspecific competition under natural conditions is difficult. Herbivorous white-tailed prairie dogs (
Cynomys leucurus
) employ an unusual strategy to reduce interspecific competition: they kill, but do not consume, herbivorous Wyoming ground squirrels (
Urocitellus elegans
) encountered in the prairie dog territories. Results from a 6-year study in Colorado, USA, revealed that interspecific killing of ground squirrels by prairie dogs was common, involving 47 different killers; 19 prairie dogs were serial killers in the same or consecutive years, and 30% of female prairie dogs killed at least one ground squirrel over their lifetimes. Females that killed ground squirrels had significantly higher annual and lifetime fitness than non-killers, probably because of decreased interspecific competition for vegetation. Our results document the first case of interspecific killing of competing individuals unrelated to predation (IK) among herbivorous mammals in the wild, and show that IK enhances fitness for animals living under natural conditions.
Naked mole rats exhibit metabolic but not ventilatory plasticity following chronic sustained hypoxia
Authors: Chung Danielle , Dzal Yvonne A. , Seow Allison , Milsom William K. , Pamenter Matthew E.
Published: March 2016

Naked mole rats are among the most hypoxia-tolerant mammals identified and live in chronic hypoxia throughout their lives. The physiological mechanisms underlying this tolerance, however, are poorly understood. Most vertebrates hyperventilate in acute hypoxia and exhibit an enhanced hyperventilation following acclimatization to chronic sustained hypoxia (CSH). Conversely, naked mole rats do not hyperventilate in acute hypoxia and their response to CSH has not been examined. In this study, we explored mechanisms of plasticity in the control of the hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR) and hypoxic metabolic response (HMR) of freely behaving naked mole rats following 8–10 days of chronic sustained normoxia (CSN) or CSH. Specifically, we investigated the role of the major inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) in mediating these responses. Our study yielded three important findings. First, naked mole rats did not exhibit ventilatory plasticity following CSH, which is unique among adult animals studied to date. Second, GABA receptor (GABAR) antagonism altered breathing patterns in CSN and CSH animals and modulated the acute HVR in CSN animals. Third, naked mole rats exhibited GABAR-dependent metabolic plasticity following long-term hypoxia, such that the basal metabolic rate was approximately 25% higher in normoxic CSH animals than CSN animals, and GABAR antagonists modulated this increase.
A below-ground herbivore shapes root defensive chemistry in natural plant populations
Authors: Huber Meret , Bont Zoe , Fricke Julia , Brillatz Théo , Aziz Zohra , Gershenzon Jonathan , Erb Matthias
Published: March 2016

Plants display extensive intraspecific variation in secondary metabolites. However, the selective forces shaping this diversity remain often unknown, especially below ground. Using
Taraxacum officinale
and its major native insect root herbivore
Melolontha melolontha
, we tested whether below-ground herbivores drive intraspecific variation in root secondary metabolites. We found that high
M. melolontha
infestation levels over recent decades are associated with high concentrations of major root latex secondary metabolites across 21 central European
T. officinale
field populations. By cultivating offspring of these populations, we show that both heritable variation and phenotypic plasticity contribute to the observed differences. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the production of the sesquiterpene lactone taraxinic acid β-
d
-glucopyranosyl ester (TA-G) is costly in the absence, but beneficial in the presence of
M. melolontha
, resulting in divergent selection of TA-G. Our results highlight the role of soil-dwelling insects for the evolution of plant defences in nature.
AuPairWise: a method to estimate RNA-seq replicability through co-expression
Authors: Ballouz Sara , Gillis Jesse
Published: March 2016

In addition to detecting novel transcripts and higher dynamic range, a principal claim for RNA-sequencing has been greater replicability, typically measured in sample-sample correlations of gene expression levels. Through a re-analysis of ENCODE data, we show that replicability of transcript abundances will provide misleading estimates of the replicability of conditional variation in transcript abundances (i.e., most expression experiments). Heuristics which implicitly address this problem have emerged in quality control measures to obtain ‘good’ differential expression results. However, these methods involve strict filters such as discarding low expressing genes or using technical replicates to remove discordant transcripts, and are costly or simply ad hoc. As an alternative, we model gene-level replicability of differential activity using co-expressing genes. We find that sets of housekeeping interactions provide a sensitive means of estimating the replicability of expression changes, where the co-expressing pair can be regarded as pseudo-replicates of one another. We model the effects of noise that perturbs a gene’s expression within its usual distribution of values and show that perturbing expression by only 5% within that range is readily detectable (AUROC~0.73). We have made our method available as a set of easily implemented R scripts.

Author Summary

RNA-sequencing has become a popular means to detect the expression levels of genes. However, quality control is still challenging, requiring both extreme measures and rules which are set in stone from extensive previous analysis. Instead of relying on these rules, we show that co-expression can be used to measure biological replicability with extremely high precision. Co-expression is a well-studied phenomenon, in which two genes that are known to form a functional unit are also expressed at similar levels, and change in similar ways across conditions. Using this concept, we can detect how well an experiment replicates by measuring how well it has retained the co-expression pattern across defined gene-pairs. We do this by measuring how easy it is to detect a sample to which some noise has been added. We show this method is a useful tool for quality control.
Controlling for confounding effects in single cell RNA sequencing studies using both control and target genes
Authors: Chen Mengjie , Zhou Xiang
Published: March 2016

Single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) technique is becoming increasingly popular for unbiased and high-resolutional transcriptome analysis of heterogeneous cell populations. Despite its many advantages, scRNAseq, like any other genomic sequencing technique, is susceptible to the influence of confounding effects. Controlling for confounding effects in scRNAseq data is a crucial step for proper data normalization and accurate downstream analysis. Several recent methodological studies have demonstrated the use of control genes for controlling for confounding effects in scRNAseq studies; the control genes are used to infer the confounding effects, which are then used to normalize target genes of primary interest. However, these methods can be suboptimal as they ignore the rich information contained in the target genes. Here, we develop an alternative statistical method, which we refer to as scPLS, for more accurate inference of confounding effects. Our method is based on partial least squares and models control and target genes jointly to better infer and control for confounding effects. To accompany our method, we also develop a new,block-wise expectation maximization algorithm for scalable inference. Our algorithm is an order of magnitude faster than standard ones, making scPLS applicable to hundreds of cells and hundreds of thousands of genes. With extensive simulations and comparisons with other methods, we demonstrate the effectiveness of scPLS. Finally, we apply scPLS to analyze two scRNAseq data sets to illustrate its benefits in removing technical confounding effects as well as for removing cell cycle effects.
Adaptation in protein fitness landscapes is facilitated by indirect paths
Authors: Wu Nicholas C. , Dai Lei , Olson C. Anders , Lloyd-Smith James O. , Sun Ren
Published: March 2016

The structure of fitness landscapes is critical for understanding adaptive protein evolution (e.g. antimicrobial resistance, affinity maturation, etc.). Due to limited throughput in fitness measurements, previous empirical studies on fitness landscapes were confined to either the neighborhood around the wild type sequence, involving mostly single and double mutants, or a combinatorially complete subgraph involving only two amino acids at each site. In reality, however, the dimensionality of protein sequence space is higher (20L,Lbeing the length of the relevant sequence) and there may be higher-order interactions among more than two sites. To study how these features impact the course of protein evolution, we experimentally characterized the fitness landscape of four sites in the IgG-binding domain of protein G, containing 204= 160,000 variants. We found that the fitness landscape was rugged and direct paths of adaptation were often constrained by pairwise epistasis. However, while direct paths were blocked by reciprocal sign epistasis, we found systematic evidence that such evolutionary traps could be circumvented by “extra-dimensional bypass”. Extra dimensions in sequence space – with a different amino acid at the site of interest or an additional interacting site – open up indirect paths of adaptation via gain and subsequent loss of mutations. These indirect paths alleviate the constraint on reaching high fitness genotypes via selectively accessible trajectories, suggesting that the heretofore neglected dimensions of sequence space may completely change our views on how proteins evolve.
Costs of Clock-Environment Misalignment in Individual Cyanobacterial Cells
Authors: Lambert Guillaume , Chew Justin , Rust Michael J.
Published: March 2016

Circadian rhythms are endogenously generated daily oscillations in physiology found in all kingdoms of life. Experimental studies have shown that the fitness ofSynechococcus elongatus, a photosynthetic microorganism, is severely affected in non-24h environments. However, it has been difficult to study the effects of clock-environment mismatch on cellular physiology because such measurements require the precise determination of both clock state and growth rates in the same cell. Here, we designed a microscopy platform that allows us to expose cyanobacterial cells to pulses of light and dark while quantitatively measuring their growth, division rate, and circadian clock state over many days. Our measurements reveal that decreased fitness can result from a catastrophic growth arrest caused by unexpected darkness in a small subset of cells with incorrect clock times corresponding to the subjective morning. We find that the clock generates rhythms in the instantaneous growth rate of the cell, and that time of darkness vulnerability coincides with the time of most rapid growth. Thus, the clock mediates a fundamental trade-off between growth and starvation tolerance in cycling environments. By measuring the response of the circadian rhythm to dark pulses of varying lengths, we constrain a mathematical model of a population’s fitness under arbitrary light/dark schedules. This model predicts that the circadian clock is only advantageous in highly regular cycling environments with frequencies sufficiently close to the natural frequency of the clock.
Phylogenetic expression profiling reveals widespread coordinated evolution of gene expression
Authors: Martin Trevor , Fraser Hunter B.
Published: March 2016

Phylogenetic profiling, which infers functional relationships between genes based on patterns of gene presence/absence across species, has proven to be highly effective. Here we introduce a complementary approach, phylogenetic expression profiling (PEP), which detects gene sets with correlated expression levels across a phylogeny. Applying PEP to RNA-seq data consisting of 657 samples from 309 diverse unicellular eukaryotes, we found several hundred gene sets evolving in a coordinated fashion. These allowed us to predict a role of the Golgi apparatus in Alzheimer’s disease, as well as novel genes related to diabetes pathways. We also detected adaptive evolution of tRNA ligase levels to match genome-wide codon usage. In sum, we found that PEP is an effective method for inferring functional relationships—especially among core cellular components that are never lost, to which phylogenetic profiling cannot be applied—and that many subunits of the most conserved molecular machines are coexpressed across eukaryotes.
Tuberous Sclerosis Australia: a case study of a maturing patient-driven organisation
Authors: Stuart Clare Pinkerton
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– Tuberous Sclerosis Australia (TSA) is a small rare disease organisation with a large scope. TSA was established in 1981 as a peer support organisation. Since then, its role has evolved to meet the needs of its members: individuals living with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), their families and health professionals. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– This case study describes the diverse activities of TSA which include, but are not limited to: the provision of information and support services; sponsorship of research and fostering a network of TSC health professionals. The benefits of collaborations forged under the umbrella organisation TSC International are highlighted.

Findings

– The case study demonstrates some of the key challenges TSA faces, challenges shared by many similar health charities. These include: funding of health education and promotion activities; working with a large range of health professionals and the challenge of research fatigue.

Originality/value

– There is little research published describing the work of small disease specific organisations similar to TSA. This case study provides insight for those collaborating with similar organisations including health professionals and researchers.
Advances in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) research
Authors: Underwood Lisa
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief, descriptive overview of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) research with particular reference to studies on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Design/methodology/approach

– A search of electronic databases was carried out to identify English language articles on TSC. The literature was explored in more detail with a focus on neurodevelopmental disorders associated with TSC such as ASD.

Findings

– The review included 3,679 references. The earliest articles identified were published in the early twentieth century. Since then research on TSC has advanced rapidly and is being carried out worldwide. Just 62 studies have focused on ASD in TSC, although the number of publications is increasing over time.

Research limitations/implications

– More research on ASD in TSC is needed to benefit those affected by TSC and the broader ASD scientific community.

Practical implications

– Practitioners working with children and adults with ASD should be aware of the wider health issues experienced by those with genetic conditions such as TSC. Similarly, clinicians working with those who have TSC should be aware of the high prevalence of ASD in the group and implications for the way they work with their patients.

Originality/value

– This is the first paper to map and characterise the scientific literature on TSC. There remains a focus on the biomedical aspects of TSC with fewer studies on psychosocial/educational or family impacts. The review concludes with recommended research questions for the future.
Towards an improved understanding of TSC-Associated Neuropsychiatric Disorders (TAND)
Authors: Leclezio Loren , de Vries Petrus
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) is associated with many learning, behavioural, neurodevelopmental and psychiatric difficulties. Over 90 per cent of those with TSC will have some of these concerns, yet typically no more than 20 per cent receive support and treatment. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of TSC-Associated Neuropsychiatric Disorders (TAND), explore barriers to identification and management of TAND, and propose possible next steps to improve assessment and treatment of TAND.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper combines a brief review of the multiple levels of TAND with a conceptual analysis of barriers and potential facilitators to assessment and intervention for TAND.

Findings

– Results suggest that the perceived uniqueness of TAND leads to treatment paralysis for most healthcare professionals, thus explaining the assessment and treatment gap seen for TAND. This may in part be due to the multi-dimensionality of TAND, and in part due to lack of access to clear, useful and evidence-based resources for TAND.

Research limitations/implications

– Identification of natural TAND clusters through machine-based learning and data reduction methodologies may yield a manageable number of natural groups of TSC-related neuropsychiatric problems, for which a basic “toolkit” of evidence-based interventions could be developed.

Practical implications

– Families and clinicians will benefit from a toolkit of tried and tested resources and evidence-based information to guide further investigation and management of TAND.

Originality/value

– Even though individuals will have unique TAND profiles, there may be key natural TAND clusters – combinations of behaviours across multi-dimensional levels – that will simplify and improve access to further evaluation, treatment and neuroscientific research.
The Internet of Things in manufacturing innovation processes
Authors: Caputo Andrea , Marzi Giacomo , Pellegrini Massimiliano Matteo
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to contribute and enrich the scientific debate about the phenomenon called the Internet of Things (IoT) from a managerial perspective. Through the lenses of management and innovation literature, the authors investigate the main facts that characterize the IoT and developed a conceptual framework to interpret its evolution. The framework has then been applied to the case of a three-dimensional (3D) printing technology used for additive manufacturing.

Design/methodology/approach

– A theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of the IoT and its main elements has been performed to construct a conceptual framework in a managerial fashion able to describe the evolutionary impacts of the phenomenon on the manufacturing industry.

Findings

– Through consequential steps, namely radical, modular, architectural and incremental innovation, and by adopting and integrating the Henderson and Clark model, the authors explain the cornerstones of the evolutionary impact of the IoT on the manufacturing industry. Finally, the authors apply the framework to the case of additive manufacturing and 3D printing.

Practical implications

– The framework’s practical value is related to its employability in interpreting and possibly forecasting the evolution of manufacturing industries thanks to the advent of the IoT, allowing managers to capture value arising from technological changes.

Originality/value

– This study offers a clear and simple model to interpret the impacts of the IoT. Such a goal has been obtained by systematizing the disconnected research on the topic and arranging such contributions into solid paradigms of the managerial literature.
Internet of Things
Authors: Scuotto Veronica , Ferraris Alberto , Bresciani Stefano
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– An empirical testing on IBM smart cities projects was applied so as to demonstrate that the combination between the use of Internet of Things (IoT) and the implementation of the Open Innovation (OI) model within smart cities which has been changed the development of urban areas and effected firms’ innovativeness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– A case study methodology on a leading multinational firms deeply involved in smart cities projects has been chosen.

Findings

– From this study it emerged how IBM: has a clear vision of smart cities and IoT; adopt a worldwide OI approach to smart cities; delineate-specific strategies and create OI units ad hoc for smart cities’ projects.

Research limitations/implications

– The major limitation of this work is that the analysis presented has been developed only on one case of multinational firm that operate in smart cities contexts.

Practical implications

– Recommendations will be made both to public and private actor in order to plan and implement efficient strategies to improve their performances.

Originality/value

– The concept of smart city has become quite popular between scholars and practitioners in the era of digital economy. Cities become smart developing new urban area using new Information and Communication Technologies such as mobile devices, the semantic web, cloud computing, and the IoT. Smart cities make innovation ecosystem, joining together different forces like knowledge-intensive activities, institutions for cooperation and learning, and web-based applications collective intelligence. This research is of importance and significance to scholars, government, and firms who need to understand the relevance of smart cities in the current economy.
Evaluating the innovation of the Internet of Things
Authors: Murray Alan , Papa Armando , Cuozzo Benedetta , Russo Giuseppe
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The Internet of Things (IoT) represents the network connection of people, processes, data and things. Due to the relevant position that this intelligent infrastructure is acquiring, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of IoT on the companies’ value, with specific reference to the intellectual capital value.

Design/methodology/approach

– The methodology is based on a single case study approach with an empirical analysis which aims to analyse whether and how the introduction of the IoT’ innovations influences the value of the intellectual capital owned by a company. The evaluation method used for the empirical analysis is the Economic Value Added. The application is carried out on the company “Cisco Systems Inc.” by analysing the company’s financial reports covering the period 2007-2014.

Findings

– The paper demonstrates the impact of the innovation of IoT on intellectual capital owned by a high intensity cognitive company by determining its economic value. The results demonstrate that the introduction of projects involving the use of the IoT has increased the value of intellectual capital over the years.

Originality/value

– As the IoT can guarantee efficiency, social and individual benefits, the effects of the IoT on company performance and, particularly, on intangible corporate dimensions are analysed. Hence, the paper is directed to fill the literature gap on the analysis and evaluation of the IoT’ impact on intellectual capital owned by high intensity cognitive companies. The research proposes strategic advice for decision making of companies interested in new technology investments.
Business process support for IoT based product-service systems (PSS)
Authors: Zancul Eduardo de Senzi , Takey Silvia M. , Barquet Ana Paula Bezerra , Kuwabara Leonardo Heiji , Cauchick Miguel Paulo A. , Rozenfeld Henrique
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to propose a method for adopting an Internet of Things (IoT) enabled product-service system (PSS) considering business model and product enhancements. The method focusses on business process implications of IoT. The paper also discusses a real application of the proposed method to the machinery industry.

Design/methodology/approach

– Considering the IoT technologies available, failure mode and effects analysis is applied to identify what should be monitored in the product to minimize potential product failures. In parallel, in order to assist the company in deciding which PSS strategy to be followed, a Configurator of PSS proposals is applied. The results are derived to define the IoT architecture and the business process design supported by the selected IoT technologies.

Findings

– The main findings include the proposed IoT-enabled PSS adoption method, illustrated by the description of the application and its assessment. In addition, the identification of key process areas that are impacted by IoT is offered, namely: remote machine setup; corrective and predictive maintenance; material supply; product pricing; and information reporting.

Research limitations/implications

– The application of the method proposed is limited to one company. Future work includes extending the application of the method to other units of analysis.

Practical implications

– The method proposed can be considered by companies willing to increase product-service revenues based on IoT technologies.

Originality/value

– The IoT-enabled PSS adoption method is an approach grounded on the intersection theories of PSSs and the more technology-oriented IoT developments.
Internet of Things and business processes redesign in seaports: The case of Hamburg
Authors: Ferretti Marco , Schiavone Francesco
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the extant literature about the exploitation of Internet of Things (IoT) in seaports by illustrating in detail how such IT infrastructures can impact on the redesign of their business processes. Thus, the research question of the study is: how do IoT technologies redesign the business processes of seaports?

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper reports the illustrative case study of the German Port of Hamburg, one of the main European seaports, which widely adopted technologies based on IoT over the last few years.

Findings

– The results show the adoption of IoT technologies widely redesigns and improves the performance of all the main business process of the port analyzed, in particular those processes related to technology and information of the organization. The IoT-driven business process redesign (BPR) must be planned strategically by the port management and implies the involvement of all the port stakeholders and, if necessary, the hiring external professional partners.

Originality/value

– Despite some authors report generically which are the ports operational domains more affected by IoT, there is a lack of studies about the specific implications of the adoption of such technologies on the BPR of seaports. The paper fills in this gap.
Discovering the Internet of Things (IoT) within the business process management
Authors: Del Giudice Manlio
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– We still know very little about how the Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the way of interpreting the business process management inside and outside firms and this topic is progressively becoming increasingly hot in the leading managerial literature (Al-Mashari and Zairi, 2000). Furthermore, management scholars are aiming at investigating the impact and the role of the IoT on the business process management in terms of promotion of knowledge flow, innovation and competitiveness. Likewise, management researchers aim at understanding how the IoT fosters innovation within organizations and which implications this phenomenon may have on the business process management and competitiveness of firms (Al-Mashari and Zairi, 1999). The purpose of this paper is to offer a literature review on the topic, by considering the technological revitalization through the IoT as a key driver for the business process management of the industrial firm.

Design/methodology/approach

– The present paper offers a literature review of the most relevant contributions on IoT and business process management. It presents a qualitative approach to the discussion of the technological revitalization concept within industrial firms using IoT technologies.

Findings

– The rising number of technical contributions using IoT shows that technologies are evolving and there is a learning and application process supported by standardization efforts. Easy installation, standardization, stoutness, configuration and servicing are essential to keep IoT systems operational and hence offering value for the business process management within every industry. From a business process management point of view, value creation from the IoT application to technological revitalizations is pivotal and will affect the use of IoT technologies in the industry, on a progressively higher scale, in the coming years.

Originality/value

– There are still few contributions in the managerial literature that show the implications of the IoT on business process management of industrial firms and, particularly, on technological revitalization. The paper offers a literature review on the topic, at the same presenting some reflections on the application of the IoT to technological revitalizations, within industrial contexts.