bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Welfare concerns for mounted load carrying by working donkeys in Pakistan
Authors: Bukhari Syed S. U. H. , Rosanowski Sarah M. , McElligott Alan G. , Parkes Rebecca S. V.
Published: March 2022

Working donkeys (Equus asinus) are vital to people’s livelihoods. They are essential for carrying goods, however globally, overloading is one of the primary welfare concerns of working donkeys. We studied mounted load carrying by donkeys and associated factors in Pakistan. A cross-sectional study of donkey owners (n = 332) was conducted, and interviews were undertaken based on a questionnaire. Owners estimated that the median weight of their donkeys was 110kg (interquartile range (IQR) 100-120kg), and that they carried a median mounted load of 81.5kg (IQR 63-99kg). We found that 87.4% of donkeys carried a load above 50% of their bodyweight ratio (BWR), the median BWR carried was 77.1% (IQR 54.5-90.7%), and 25.3% of donkeys carried above 90% BWR. Donkeys that were loaded at more than 50% BWR were more likely to sit, compared to donkeys loaded with less weight (p=0.01). Donkeys working in peri-urban and urban areas were more likely to carry a greater BWR than donkeys working in rural areas (P<0.001), as were those carrying construction materials or bricks, compared to agricultural materials (p=0.004). Age (p=0.03) and breed (p=0.01) were also associated with carrying a higher weight. Overloading based on current recommendations (50% BWR) was common, with the majority (87.4%) of donkeys reported to carry more than the recommended 50% limit. This survey provides evidence of on-the-ground working practices and factors associated with mounted load carrying, which is critical for developing evidence-based recommendations for loading, in order to improve the welfare of working donkeys.
Mapping of cis-regulatory variants by differential allelic expression analysis identifies candidate causal variants and target genes of 41 breast cancer risk loci
Authors: Xavier Joana M. , Magno Ramiro , Russell Roslin , de Almeida Bernardo P. , Jacinta-Fernandes Ana , Duarte André , Dunning Mark , Samarajiwa Shamith , O’Reilly Martin , Maia António M. , Rocha Cátia L. , Rosli Nordiana , Ponder Bruce A. J. , Maia Ana Teresa
Published: March 2022

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of risk loci for breast cancer, but identifying causal variants and candidate target genes remains challenging. Since most risk loci fall in active gene regulatory regions, we developed a novel approach to identify variants with greater regulatory potential in the disease’s tissue of origin. Using genome-wide differential allelic expression (DAE) analysis on microarray data from 64 normal breast tissue samples, we mapped over 54K variants associated with DAE (daeQTLs). We then intersected these with GWAS data to reveal candidate risk regulatory variants and analyzed their cis-acting regulatory potential. We found 122 daeQTLs in 41 loci in active regulatory regions that are in strong linkage disequilibrium with risk-associated variants (risk-daeQTLs). We also identified 65 new candidate target genes in 29 of these loci for which no previous candidates existed. As validation, we identified and functionally characterized five candidate causal variants at the 5q14.1 risk locus targeting theATG10andATP6AP1Lgenes, likely acting via modulation of alternative transcription and transcription factor binding. Our study demonstrates the power of DAE analysis and daeQTL mapping to understand breast cancer genetic risk, including in complex genetic regulatory landscapes. It additionally provides a genome-wide resource of variants associated with DAE for future functional studies.
Exposures associated with sporadicCryptosporidiuminfection in industrialised countries: a systematic review
Authors: McKerr Caoimhe , Shepherd Wendi , Chalmers Rachel M , Vivancos Roberto , O’Brien Sarah J , Waldram Alison , Pollock Kevin G , Christley Robert M
Published: March 2022

Transmission of Cryptosporidium can occur via contaminated food or water, contact with animals or other people. Exposures are often identified from outbreak investigations, but sources for sporadic disease and pathways to infection are still unclear. The aim of this review is to consolidate the literature to describe exposures associated with human cryptosporidiosis in industrialised countries.

Methods followed the recommendations made in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Three steps were used to identify the literature including electronic database searching using PubMed, Scopus and Web Of Science; reference list trawling; and an exploration of the grey literature. Quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Screening of results was undertaken by two reviewers and data extracted using a standardised form. A narrative summary presented. Papers were included if they reported on sporadic cases and were published between 2008 and 2018. Exposures were grouped into pathways.

After full-text screening, eight articles (comprising 11 studies) were included, and seven (comprising 10 studies) were suitable for further synthesis. None of the identified grey literature was included. Four studies described case-control methods, two were case-case studies and one cross-sectional. Study year ranged from 1999 to 2017 and the studies were conducted in five, large countries in three continents: Europe (UK and the Netherlands), North America (USA, Canada), and Australia.

Included papers investigated water and animal exposures most frequently. Recreational water was not a major source of sporadic illness in this review. The person-to-person pathway represented the most consistent finding, with all three studies reporting on contact with a symptomatic individual demonstrating correlations between exposure and disease. This applied particularly to the home environment, which is increasingly understood to be a significant setting for spread of Cryptosporidium infection. Further work on this would help support public health messaging on preventing spread of disease at home.

Systematic review registration: PROSPERO number CRD42017056589.
A two-stage framework for neural processing of biological motion
Authors: Duarte João Valente , Abreu Rodolfo , Castelo-Branco Miguel
Published: March 2022

It remains to be understood how biological motion is hierarchically computed, from discrimination of local “life motion” animacy to global dynamic body perception. Here, we addressed this functional separation of the correlates of the perception of life motion, defined as characteristic for the local motion of parts of living beings, from perception of global motion of a body. We hypothesized that life motion processing can be isolated, by using a single dot motion perceptual decision paradigm featuring the biomechanical details of local realistic motion of a single joint. To ensure that we were indeed tackling processing of biological motion properties we used a discrimination instead of detection task. We discovered using representation similarity analysis that two key early dorsal and two ventral stream regions (visual motion selective hMT+ and V3A, extrastriate body area EBA and a region within fusiform gyrus FFG) showed robust and separable signals related to encoding of life motion and global motion. These signals reflected two independent processing stages, as revealed by representation dissimilarity analysis and deconvolution of fMRI responses to each motion pattern. This study showed that higher level pSTS encodes both classes of biological motion in a similar way, revealing a higher-level integrative stage, reflecting scale independent biological motion perception. Our results reveal a two-stage framework for neural computation of biological motion, with an independent contribution of dorsal and ventral regions for the initial stage.
Impact of Autocalibration Method on Accelerated Echo-Planar Imaging of the Cervical Spinal Cord at 7T
Authors: Seifert Alan C. , Xu Junqian
Published: March 2022

Purpose

The spinal cord contains sensorimotor neural circuits of scientific and clinical interest. However, spinal cord fMRI is significantly more technically demanding than brain fMRI due primarily to its proximity to the lungs. Accelerated EPI at 7T is particularly vulnerable to k-space phase inconsistencies induced by motion or B0 fluctuation, during either autocalibration signal (ACS) or timeseries acquisition. For 7T brain fMRI, sensitivity to motion and B0 fluctuation can be reduced using a re-ordered segmented EPI ACS based on the fast low-angle excitation echo-planar technique (FLEET). However, respiration-induced B0 fluctuations (exceeding 100Hz at C7) are greater, and fewer k-space lines per slice are required, for cervical spinal cord fMRI at 7T, necessitating a separate evaluation of ACS methods.

Methods

We compared 24-line single-shot EPI, and 48-line two-shot segmented EPI, two-shot FLEET, and GRE-based ACS acquisition methods, performed under various physiological conditions, in terms of temporal SNR (tSNR) and prevalence of artifacts in GRAPPA-accelerated EPI of the cervical spinal cord at 7T.

Results

Segmented EPI and FLEET ACS produce images with nearly identical patterns of severe image artifacts. GRE and single-shot EPI ACS consistently produce images free from significant artifacts, and tSNR is significantly greater for GRE ACS, particularly in lower slices where through-slice dephasing is most severe.

Conclusion

GRE and single-shot EPI ACS acquisition methods, which are robust to respiration-induced phase errors between k-space segments, produce images with fewer and less severe artifacts than either FLEET or conventionally segmented EPI for accelerated EPI of the cervical spinal cord at 7T.
Iterative deletion of gene trees detects extreme biases in distance-based phylogenomic coalescent analyses
Authors: Gatesy John , Sloan Daniel B. , Warren Jessica M. , Simmons Mark P. , Springer Mark S.
Published: March 2022

Summary coalescent methods offer an alternative to the concatenation (supermatrix) approach for inferring phylogenetic relationships from genome-scale datasets. Given huge datasets, broad congruence between contrasting phylogenomic paradigms is often obtained, but empirical studies commonly show some well supported conflicts between concatenation and coalescence results and also between species trees estimated from alternative coalescent methods. Partitioned support indices can help arbitrate these discrepancies by pinpointing outlier loci that are unjustifiably influential at conflicting nodes. Partitioned coalescence support (PCS) recently was developed for summary coalescent methods, such as ASTRAL and MP-EST, that use the summed fits of individual gene trees to estimate the species tree. However, PCS cannot be implemented when distance-based coalescent methods (e.g., STAR, NJst, ASTRID, STEAC) are applied. Here, this deficiency is addressed by automating computation of ‘partitioned coalescent branch length’ (PCBL), a novel index that uses iterative removal of individual gene trees to assess the impact of each gene on every clade in a distance-based coalescent tree. Reanalyses of five phylogenomic datasets show that PCBL for STAR and NJst trees helps quantify the overall stability/instability of clades and clarifies disagreements with results from optimality-based coalescent analyses. PCBL scores reveal severe ‘missing taxa’, ‘apical nesting’, ‘misrooting’, and ‘basal dragdown’ biases. Contrived examples demonstrate the gross overweighting of outlier gene trees that drives these biases. Because of interrelated biases revealed by PCBL scores, caution should be exercised when using STAR and NJst, in particular when many taxa are analyzed, missing data are non-randomly distributed, and widespread gene-tree reconstruction error is suspected. Similar biases in the optimality-based coalescent method MP-EST indicate that congruence among species trees estimated via STAR, NJst, and MP-EST should not be interpreted as independent corroboration for phylogenetic relationships. Such agreements among methods instead might be due to the common defects of all three summary coalescent methods.
Comparison of individualized behavioral predictions across anatomical, diffusion and functional connectivity MRI
Authors: Ooi Leon Qi Rong , Chen Jianzhong , Shaoshi Zhang , Kong Ru , Tam Angela , Li Jingwei , Dhamala Elvisha , Zhou Juan Helen , Holmes Avram J , Yeo B. T. Thomas
Published: March 2022

A fundamental goal across the neurosciences is the characterization of relationships linking brain anatomy, functioning, and behavior. Although various MRI modalities have been developed to probe these relationships, direct comparisons of their ability to predict behavior have been lacking. Here, we compared the ability of anatomical T1, diffusion and functional MRI (fMRI) to predict behavior at an individual level. Cortical thickness, area and volume were extracted from anatomical T1 images. Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and approximate Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging (NODDI) models were fitted to the diffusion images. The resulting metrics were projected to the Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) skeleton. We also ran probabilistic tractography for the diffusion images, from which we extracted the stream count, average stream length, and the average of each DTI and NODDI metric across tracts connecting each pair of brain regions. Functional connectivity (FC) was extracted from both task and resting-state fMRI. Individualized prediction of a wide range of behavioral measures were performed using kernel ridge regression, linear ridge regression and elastic net regression. Consistency of the results were investigated with the Human Connectome Project (HCP) and Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) datasets. In both datasets, FC-based models gave the best prediction performance, regardless of regression model or behavioral measure. This was especially true for the cognitive domain. Furthermore, all modalities were able to predict cognition better than other behavioral domains. Combining all modalities improved prediction of cognition, but not other behavioral domains. Finally, across all behaviors, combining resting and task FC yielded prediction performance similar to combining all modalities. Overall, our study suggests that in the case of healthy children and young adults, behaviorally-relevant information in T1 and diffusion features might reflect a subset of the variance captured by FC.

Highlights

FC predicts behavior better than anatomical and diffusion features

Cognition is predicted better than other behavioral domains regardless of modality

Combining resting & task FC improves prediction as much as combining all modalities

Findings were replicated over 3 regression models and 2 datasets
Interconnection between molecular regulators in LMNA related muscular dystrophy
Authors: Dutta Subarna , Vasudevan Madavan
Published: March 2022

Nuclear lamina is composed of different A-type and B-type lamin proteins and acts as major regulator of DNA replication, transcription, heterochromatin-euchromatin machinery. The majority of mutations in A type lamin are associated with some forms of muscular dystrophies,that majorly distinguishable by a common clinical feature : progressive skeletal muscle wasting. This speculates impaired skeletal muscle differentiation during development and after injury with the influence of myriad of signalling pathways. The molecular mechanism behind phenotypes of lamin A associated muscular dystrophies are still elusive . Here, we used genome wide expression analysis platform during the differentiation of murine C2C12 skeletal muscle cells to investigate the factors have been attributed to the disease. We compared the expression levels of the components of pathways that indicates important role of skeletal muscle as well as identified gene regulatory networks at two different time points of muscle differentiation in wild type and mutant cells. We also report significant perturbations in the expression and activation of Wnt signalling pathway in mutant cells among 40 dysregulated signalling pathways , presenting pronounced regulation of normal downstream myogenic signalling . Finally, with this largest data sets we evaluate in depth characterization of molecular effectors for myogenic differentiation, which could allow greater insight into development of therapeutic strategies for the remission of patients with LMNA linked muscle - related pathologies.
Crystal structures of anhydrous and hydrated ceftibuten
Authors: Nisbet Matthew L. , Puzan Marissa , Wojtas Lukasz , Samas Brian , Wood Geoffrey P. F.
Published: March 2022

Ceftibuten, C15H14N4O6S2, with the systematic name (6R,7R)-7-{[(Z)-2-(2-amino-1,3-thiazol-4-yl)-4-carboxybut-2-enoyl]amino}-8-oxo-5-thia-1-azabicyclo[4.2.0]oct-2-ene-2-carboxylic acid, is a third generation, orally administered cephalosporin antibiotic with broad antimicrobial activity and stability against extended spectrum β-lactamases. Ceftibuten can exist in various hydration states and to better understand the location of the water molecules of crystallization and their effect on the structure, the crystal structures of anhydrous (I) and hydrated (II) ceftibuten were determined and both occur as zwitterions with proton transfer from the carboxylate group adjacent to the β-lactam ring to the N atom of the thiazole ring. The β-lactam ring in (I) is almost planar but the equivalent grouping in (II) is slightly buckled. In the extended structure of (I), O—H...O and N—H...O hydrogen bonds link the molecules into a three-dimensional network. In (II), O—H...Oc, N—H...Oc, O—H...Ow, N—H...Owand Ow—H...Ow(c = ceftibuten, w = water) hydrogen bonds link the components into a three-dimensional network. A large void space is present within the anhydrous crystal structure that can accommodate between two and three molecules of water.
User oppression in human-computer interaction: a dialectical-existential perspective
Authors: Gonzatto Rodrigo Freese , van Amstel Frederick M.C.
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This research theorizes the condition of human beings reduced to being users (and only users) in human-computer interaction (HCI), a condition that favors them becoming objects or targets of commercial dark patterns, racialized profiling algorithms, generalized surveillance, gendered interfaces and heteromation.

Design/methodology/approach

The reconceptualization of the users’ condition is done by confronting HCI theories on users with a dialectical-existential perspective over human ontology. The research is presented as a conceptual paper that includes analyzing and revising those theories to develop a conceptual framework for the user oppression in HCI.

Findings

Most HCI theories contribute to the user oppression with explicit or implicit ontological statements that denies their becoming-more or the possibility of users developing their handiness to the full human potential. Put together, these statements constitute an ideology called userism.

Social implications

HCI needs to acknowledge its role in structuring oppression not just in sexism, racism, classism and ableism, but also the specific relation that pertains to HCI: userism. Similar to other fields, acknowledging oppression is the first step toward liberating from oppression.

Originality/value

The user is an existential condition for HCI theories, yet few theories can explain in depth how this condition affects human development. From the dialectical-existential perspective, the user condition can be dehumanizing. Computers may intensify existing oppressions through esthetic interactions but these interactions can be subverted for liberation.
Work–family conflict and happiness: the moderating role of national culture
Authors: Gu Manli , Tan Chee Meng , Ho Yee Sen , Liu Li
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This study aims to demonstrate how national culture, as measured using the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, moderates the relationship between work–family conflict (WFC) and individual-level subjective well-being (SWB).

Design/methodology/approach

Using a two-level hierarchical linear model, this study analysed data from the “Family and Changing Gender Roles IV” survey from the International Social Survey Programme’s (ISSP). A total of 33,044 participants across 41 countries in 2012 were interviewed, but this investigation was limited to 23,277 individuals across 37 countries when all the necessary variables used in this analysis were accounted for. National cultural indicators (the moderators) were measured using Hofstede's cultural dimensions, which are individualism–collectivism, masculinity–femininity, uncertainty avoidance and indulgence–restraint.

Findings

This study presented two main results. Firstly, although family-to-work conflict has an overall negative impact on SWB, this negativity is stronger among participants from individualistic cultures. Secondly, just like family-to-work conflict, work-to-family interference has an adverse impact on workers’ well-being as well, though this effect is more prominent in indulgent cultures.

Originality/value

This paper is novel on two accounts. Firstly, it is one of the few articles that investigates the impact of WFC on SWB using a large multi-country dataset, which allows us to generalize results across multiple cultures. This is unlike many papers in the literature that presented findings from single-country sources, which contextualizes outcomes to a single nation. Secondly, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the article is the first in examining the role played by the Hofstede’s indulgence–restraint dimension in moderating the effect of WFC on SWB.
Border-crossing frequencies of CO2 embodied in international trade of construction products for final demand
Authors: Gao Qun , Liu Bin , Sun Jide , Liu Chunlu , Xu Youquan
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This paper aims to better understand the linkage between CO2 emitters and industrial consumers. The border-crossing frequency is applied to calculate the average number of steps that a country takes in relation to the CO2 emissions of its construction industry. The maximum border-crossing frequency and declining speed of CO2 transfer are used to reveal the relationship between the length of production chains and the transfer efficiency of construction products.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper maps the CO2 transfer that accompanies global production chains using the frequency of border crossing in the production processes of construction products. As the basic analysis framework, a multi-regional input–output model is adopted to analyse the average border-crossing frequency of CO2 transfer. Additionally, indicators including the maximum border-crossing frequency and declining speed of CO2 transfer are employed. Also, the maximum border-crossing frequency and declining speed of CO2 transfer are used to reveal the relationship between the length of production chains and the transfer efficiency of construction products.

Findings

The results indicate that 85.49% of the CO2 in construction products needs to be processed in at least one country, reflecting that direct trade is the major pattern of transfer of CO2 from primary producers in global construction industries. The maximum border-crossing frequency is 4.88 for 15 economies, meaning that construction products cross the international borders up to 4.88 times before they are absorbed by the final users. The scale of the average border-crossing frequency ranged from 1.16 to 1.87 over 2000–2014, indicating that the original construction products crossed the international borders at least 1.16 times to satisfy the final demand of the consuming countries.

Research limitations/implications

The data from the economic MRIO tables in the WIOD are only available until 2014, which is a limitation for conducting this research in recent years.

Originality/value

The fragmentation of production is not only reshaping global trade patterns, but also leading to the separation of CO2 emitters and final consumers in production chains. A growing number of studies have focussed on the impact of production fragmentation on accounting for regional and national CO2 emissions, but little research has been done at the scale of a specific industry. The major contribution of this paper lies in mapping the CO2 emissions that accompany the production chains of construction products from the perspectives of both magnitude and length. Additionally, this paper is the first to propose using maximum border-crossing frequency and declining speed to analyse the characteristics of global production chains induced by the final demand of major economies for construction products.
Social media government communication and stakeholder engagement in the era of Covid-19: evidence from Italy
Authors: Fissi Silvia , Gori Elena , Romolini Alberto
Published: March 2022

Purpose

Covid-19 is a worldwide pandemic disease that changed the government communication to citizens about the health emergency. This study aims to provide in-depth research about regional Italian government communication through social media (SM) and its effects on citizens' engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a case analysis, focusing on the Italian context. In detail, the authors analyse the more involved Italian regions in Covid-19 pandemic (Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany) applying the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) model.

Findings

The results reveal that SM is a powerful tool for communication during a health emergency and for facilitating the engagement with stakeholders. However, results also highlight a different perception about the timing of the Covid-19 crisis.

Practical implications

Findings suggest a gap between the answer of the public government compared to the citizens' needs that are clear since the first earlier stage of the pandemic event. The engagement level is very high since the first phase of the pandemic event; however, to be adequately developed, it requires specific and timing information that are not always in line with the citizens’ communication needs.

Originality/value

This is the first research that aims to study the citizens' engagement in the Italian regions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Corporate governance determinants of asset quality in an emerging economy: evidence from Indian banks
Authors: Gupta Prashant Kumar , Sharma Seema
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This paper aims to identify specific corporate governance determinants of asset quality in the Indian banking system and suggest a future course of action for research in the Indian banking industry. The results will guide other developing nations to handle poor asset quality in banks. Nations with economic interest in India can take cognisance from the results.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors identify the determinants of asset quality for the Indian banks using novel data from 2010 to 2019 through a dynamic panel data approach. The authors analyse 45 public and private sector banks using general method of moments.

Findings

The results indicate that intensity of board activities, board functioning and ownership concentration are significant determinants of asset quality. Furthermore, the study hypotheses on board independence and board size are rejected as they do not significantly impact the asset quality. The authors also call for further research on the qualitative aspects of gender diversity, board independence and special committee activity for better insights.

Originality/value

This is the first study to identify specific corporate governance determinants of asset quality for the Indian banking system using a dynamic panel data approach with data spanning over ten years from 45 banks. Unlike all other studies, the authors have used both bank-specific and macroeconomic variables as control variables, making the results accurate and reliable. The authors also recognise the persistent nature of asset quality.
Outcome evaluation of an educational programme for preventing recidivism by adult firesetters
Authors: Pearson Dominic , Hayward Samuel , Blampied Shane
Published: March 2022

Purpose

In intervening to prevent recidivism by adult firesetters, there is a dearth of standardised interventions and relatedly of controlled outcome evaluations. Although education is a common firesetter intervention, it is unclear if this changes behaviour of adults; a research situation the current study aimed to address.

Design/methodology/approach

The rate of actual fire recidivism of participants of a standardised educational programme was compared using Cooke’s (1989) equation to expected rates based on the firesetting history of 93 referrals.

Findings

Results indicated a significant large effect for the difference between the frequencies of expected and actual firesetting re-offences.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations of the one-group pretest–posttest design are discussed with respect to potential confounds.

Practical implications

This paper adds to the literature on adult firesetter interventions and lends support to the use of fire education to prevent fire recidivism. It provides the first empirically validated example of a structured education programme for adult firesetters. Of interest to services piloting new intervention programmes, it reports an operationally efficient methodology for preliminary evaluation.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first reported outcome study of a fire safety education programme for adults. The methodology adopted represents a means of preliminary evaluation in safety-critical areas where traditional evaluation designs are infeasible.
“Value for money?” Exploring the consumer experience on shared accommodation platforms: evidence from online reviews in China
Authors: Zhuo Xiaoqian , Wang Wei-Tsong
Published: March 2022

Purpose

With the development of the sharing economy, the collaborative consumption model has become more popular and has changed the way people engage in tourism. This study aims to explore. consumer experience in different types of rooms on a shared accommodation platform.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, the authors divided the rooms on the shared accommodation platform into a budget type and a luxury type according to the room price and used content analysis to analyze 15,710 online reviews published on Xiaozhu.

Findings

This study found that consumer expectations varied depending on the room type. “Host,” “room,” “transportation and location” and “value” were the four common topics that consumers paid attention to in both room types. “Environment” and “objective conditions” were the particular focuses of the budget room consumers. However, consumers cared about “aesthetics” and “accommodation purpose” when staying in luxury rooms. These results reflected the influence of room prices on consumer experiences.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to compare the consumer experience in rooms at different price points based on the evidence provided in online reviews. Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) analysis was used to extract the underlying topics from the online reviews, which provided more exciting results. This study leads to a comprehensive understanding of the consumer experience from the perspective of expectation theory, enriching the prior research on shared accommodation platforms.
Money laundering in the United Arab Emirates: the risks and the reality
Authors: Teichmann Fabian Maximilian Johannes , Wittmann Chiara
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This study aims to examine the possibility of laundering money through the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the perceived risk and the stark reality. That money laundering prevention mechanisms are being circumvented is evident by reference to the international assessments by the Financial Action Task Force and information from key informants. To develop effective improvements, the modus operandi of money laundering needs to be re-examined.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical findings are based on over 60 semi-standardized interviews with alleged criminal and expert compliance officers operating in an international arena. These findings were subject to a qualitative content analysis, while a further quantitative survey of around 200 compliance officers expanded on the techniques of money laundering. This served to explore whether there was a discrepancy between the presentation of money laundering in the literature in contrast to reality.

Findings

Owing to the transnational nature of money laundering, the global financial market is dependent on the uniformity of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. Despite immense progress, there are still several key weaknesses in the financial system of the UAE, such as the existence of Free Zones and the divergence of AML awareness.

Research limitations/implications

The scope of the interviews is limited to the personal experience of the informants. This is mediated by seeking uniformity in answers as well as literature support.

Originality/value

This paper, supported by empirical evidence, discerns why the current regulatory measures are minimally effective. There is an unmistakable need for the international coordination of financial regulatory bodies. The literature describes the occurrence of money laundering, but no studies have engaged to examine the pragmatic mechanism in place which allow money laundering to persevere despite the significant improvements of AML policies.
Open-source syringe extrusion head for shear-thinning materials 3D printing
Authors: Dávila José Luis , Manzini Bruna Maria , d'Ávila Marcos Akira , da Silva Jorge Vicente Lopes
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This study aims to report the development of an open-source syringe extrusion head for shear-thinning materials. The target is to adapt open-source 3D printers to be helpful in research lines that use gels, hydrogels, pastes, inks, and bio-inks.

Design/methodology/approach

This hardware was designed to be compatible with a Graber i3-based 3D printer; nevertheless, it can be easily adapted to other open-source 3D printers.

Findings

The extrusion head successfully deposits the material during the 3D printing process. It was validated fabricating geometries that include scaffold structures, which are a possible application of bioprinting for tissue engineering. As reported, the extruded filaments allowed the porous samples' structuration.

Practical implications

This system expands the applications of open-source 3D printers used at the laboratory scale. It enables low-cost access to research areas such as tissue engineering and biofabrication, energy storage devices and food 3D printing.

Originality/value

The open-source hardware here reported is of simple fabrication, assembly and installation. It uses a Cardan coupling and a three guides system to transfer the stepper motor motion. This approach allows continuous movement transfer to the syringe piston, producing an adequate deposition or retraction. Thus, the effect of misalignments is avoided, considering that these latter can cause skipping steps in the motor, directly affecting the deposition.
The impacts of temperature on Chinese food processing firms*
Authors: Chen Xiaoguang , Khanna Madhu , Yang Lu
Published: March 2022

China supplied 4.1% of the global agro‐food exports in 2019, which is worth $65 billion in sales. The vulnerability of this sector to climatic factors has been growing with climate change that not only affects the costs of primary products but may also affect the costs of processing by reducing input productivity. Existing studies have examined the impacts of a changing climate on yields of major crops, but the sensitivity of the food processing sector to rising temperatures has not been assessed. Here we show, using a rich firm‐level data set of food processing firms and daily weather in China for the 1998–2007 period, that accounting profits of Chinese food processing firms exhibited non‐linear responses to temperature changes, peaking at a daily average temperature of 21–24°C and declining sharply at higher temperatures. Higher temperatures have wide‐ranging effects – raising final‐good inventory levels, hurting innovation activity, and reducing industrial output by decreasing TFP, investment in capital and capital stock, all of which caused the adverse impacts of higher temperatures on profits. If no additional adaptation is undertaken, the total profits and output of Chinese food processing firms are projected to decline annually by 15–25% and 14–22%, respectively, under RCP8.5 of the global climate models HadGEM2‐ES and NorESM1‐M by 2080.
Want to improve school mental health interventions? Ask young people what they actually think
Authors: Foulkes Lucy , Stapley Emily
Published: March 2022

As part of the recent ‘therapeutic turn’ in education, schools are now commonly seen as a place for mental health guidance and support. This often involves interventions—special curricula of lessons or activities (e.g. counselling sessions), which aim to either prevent mental health problems or manage those that have already started. Running these interventions in schools makes good sense: rates of mental health problems in young people are rising, and large numbers can be reached in this setting. However, evidence for the effectiveness of such interventions has been mixed. One way to improve how helpful and useful they are, we argue here, would be to ask young people themselves what they think about these programmes. This involves collecting qualitative data: gathering in-depth information about young people's experiences and opinions, rather than relying solely on numerical data, such as rating scales. The small number of existing published qualitative studies in this area show that many young people do find these interventions helpful, but there are issues that warrant careful attention. For example, some young people can feel worried or vulnerable during classroom-based exercises, and others don't see how the interventions are relevant for their own lives. Here, we explore this literature and recommend two avenues for future work: ask more young people what they think of existing interventions, and get them involved in the design of new ones. Together, this will put young people's voices at the heart of school-based mental health interventions.
Using ensemble methods to improve the robustness of deep learning for image classification in marine environments
Authors: Wyatt Mathew , Radford Ben , Callow Nikolaus , Bennamoun Mohammed , Hickey Sharyn
Published: March 2022

Deep learning has been shown to be effective for classification of coral in benthic imagery, and is becoming a tool for use in many monitoring programs around the world. Although deep learning accuracy for coral reef classification has been well published for studies where validation metrics are generated from data within surveys, little research has been done on the transferability and generalisability of deep learned models to data never seen by the trained model. Examples include data across multiple capture methods, camera systems, habitat types, water quality conditions and temporal studies.

In this paper we investigate the use of deep ensembling to measure the reliability of predictions in new or unseen environments.

In this paper we show that ensemble methods are more stable in their calibration across dataset shifts compared with other approaches.

Ensembles show more robust uncertainty quantification in unseen environments compared to alternative methods, thus providing more confidence in the use of pre‐trained models in unconstrained environments. These results show that ensembles should be the de facto standard for any practitioner using deep learning for benthic image automation, and applying deep learning approaches to coral classification.
Effects of dietary macronutrients on the hepatic transcriptome and serum metabolome in mice
Authors: Wu Yingga , Green Cara L. , Wang Guanlin , Yang Dengbao , Li Li , Li Baoguo , Wang Lu , Li Min , Li Jianbo , Xu Yanchao , Zhang Xueying , Niu Chaoqun , Hu Sumei , Togo Jacques , Mazidi Mohsen , Derous Davina , Douglas Alex , Speakman John R.
Published: March 2022

Dietary macronutrient composition influences both hepatic function and aging. Previous work suggested that longevity and hepatic gene expression levels were highly responsive to dietary protein, but almost unaffected by other macronutrients. In contrast, we found expression of 4005, 4232, and 4292 genes in the livers of mice were significantly associated with changes in dietary protein (5%–30%), fat (20%–60%), and carbohydrate (10%–75%), respectively. More genes in aging‐related pathways (notably mTOR, IGF‐1, and NF‐kappaB) had significant correlations with dietary fat intake than protein and carbohydrate intake, and the pattern of gene expression changes in relation to dietary fat intake was in the opposite direction to the effect of graded levels of caloric restriction consistent with dietary fat having a negative impact on aging. We found 732, 808, and 995 serum metabolites were significantly correlated with dietary protein (5%–30%), fat (8.3%–80%), and carbohydrate (10%–80%) contents, respectively. Metabolomics pathway analysis revealed sphingosine‐1‐phosphate signaling was the significantly affected pathway by dietary fat content which has also been identified as significant changed metabolic pathway in the previous caloric restriction study. Our results suggest dietary fat has major impact on aging‐related gene and metabolic pathways compared with other macronutrients.
Antibiotic prescriptions for children with lower respiratory tract infections fell from 2014 to 2020, but misuse was still an issue
Authors: Korppi Matti , Heikkilä Paula , Palmu Sauli , Huhtala Heini , Csonka Péter
Published: March 2022

Aim

We evaluated main trends in antibiotic prescriptions for children with lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) by Terveystalo, Finland's largest private healthcare company.

Methods

The study comprised of 89,359 children aged 0–17 years (57.2% boys) who visited Terveystalo primary care clinics from 2014 to 2020 with LRTI. The data were assessed by age, study year, location, the doctor's speciality and whether the diagnosis was bronchitis or community‐acquired pneumonia (CAP).

Results

There were gradual decreases in overall antibiotic prescription rates during the study period (37.0% in 2014 vs. 20.1% in 2020) and in prescribed macrolides (16.8% vs. 7.5%). Altogether, 31.3% of 72,737 children with bronchitis and 22.5% of those 16,622 with CAP‐received antibiotics. Macrolides were the most frequently prescribed antibiotics for bronchitis, at more than 40%, without any substantial relative decrease during the study. Costs of antibiotics increased from 2014 to 2016 and then decreased in line with the reduction in prescriptions. However, there was still a marked overuse of antibiotics, especially macrolides, for children with bronchitis. The relative use of amoxicillin for CAP increased from 41.4% to 65.4% between 2016 and 2020, in line with current guidelines.

Conclusion

Despite an overall reduction in prescribed antibiotics, some antibiotics were still overused, particularly macrolides for bronchitis.
Effect of vitamin K3 supplementation on immunoglobulin G concentration in colostrum of periparturient Holstein dairy cows
Authors: Kuroiwa Tomoko , Ohtani Yoshihisa , Obara Yoshiaki , Terada Fuminori , Watanabe Kimika , Shirakawa Hitoshi , Komai Michio , Satoh Hiroshi , Sato Shigeru , Ichijo Toshihiro
Published: March 2022

This study was to examine the effects of dietary vitamin K (VK) 3 supplementation on immune‐related substances in milk, oxidative stress indices in plasma and VK1, and menaquinone 4 (MK‐4) in plasma and milk in periparturient dairy cows. Forty healthy perinatal Holstein‐Friesian dairy cows were used in this study. Twenty‐one animals were randomly selected and categorized into the VK3 supplemented (50 mg/day/head as VK3) group; the remaining 19 were categorized into the control group. On day 3 after calving, blood and milk were sampled, and their chemical components were determined.

The VK3 supplemented group had significantly higher menaquinone 4 levels in plasma and milk on day 3 postpartum than the control group. In addition, there was a significant increase in the immunoglobulin G (IgG) level in milk. VK3 may be absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and converted to MK‐4, the biologically active form of VK, in the mammary gland and other tissues. It was thought that the increase in MK‐4 level in plasma and milk induced an increase in the concentration of IgG in milk. VK3 supplementation to periparturient dairy cows may contribute to the production of colostrum with high concentrations of IgG and MK‐4.
Killing in the name of: A merciful death?
Authors: Moore Bryanna
Published: March 2022

“Mercy” holds a well‐established place in the discourse on assisted death (AD), with mercy rhetoric used by both proponents and opponents of AD alike. In this paper, I interrogate the relationship between mercy, mercy killing and AD. Appeals to mercy introduce an ambiguity that carries implications for the enduring debate about healthcare professionals' participation in this controversial practice. The term “mercy killing” is used at different times to mean all of the following: killings that are acts of punitive leniency, killings motivated by pity, killings motivated by compassion, and acts of voluntary, involuntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia. I argue that killings that are acts of punitive leniency “track” a conceptually useful understanding of mercy and, by extension, mercy killing. However, if mercy is understood in this way, then “mercy killing” is a problematic way of characterizing physician‐AD. While reference to mercy killing has been weeded out of AD legislation over time, the same cannot be said of public discourse, where the debate about physicians' character—and the locus of power with respect to who gets to decide when a life can rightly be ended—continues.
Surviving through story: Experiences of people with learning disabilities in the covid19 pandemic 2020–2021
Authors: Bartlett Terry , Charlesworth Pat , Choksi Ajay , Christian Paul , Gentry Susie , Green Vicky , Grove Nicola , Hart Craig , Kwiatkowska Gosia , Ledger Sue , Murphy Sharon , Tilley Liz , Tokley Kate
Published: March 2022

Background

History starts from where we are now ‐ it is not just things that happened a long time ago. The global pandemic began in 2019. It has changed the lives of people with learning disabilities. We began our project during the first lockdown in April 2020. We came together to set up a website to collect stories and support and learn from each other about how to survive and keep strong. Storytelling is very important because it helps us understand what is going on. It is also a way to capture the history of people with learning disabilities at a very difficult time. We know that thousands of people with learning disabilities became ill and died in the flu epidemic of 1918. But nobody recorded their stories in their own words. We want to make sure this does not happen again, so we created an archive to help us remember.

Methods

The project was managed with an advisory group of people with and without learning disabilities who met monthly to monitor the collection and analysis of stories on the site. A site audit was performed regularly to determine the themes in the stories and who had submitted. The article describes the progress of the project, the stories we have shared, and the challenges we have faced.

Conclusions

We discuss how people with learning disabilities have been presented in the media and our views about the way we are not heard, or always shown as vulnerable victims. We have found many sad stories, but also positive ones about people being creative and supportive. We look forward to the future and share our ideas about how society could be different and more inclusive. Being part of this project has given us confidence to know we are not alone, and shown us how we can help with the recovery.