bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fractal measures of spatial pattern as a heuristic for return rate in vegetative systems
Authors: Irvine M. A. , Jackson E. L. , Kenyon E. J. , Cook K. J. , Keeling M. J. , Bull J. C.
Published: March 2016

Measurement of population persistence is a long-standing problem in ecology; in particular, whether it is possible to gain insights into persistence without long time-series. Fractal measurements of spatial patterns, such as the Korcak exponent or boundary dimension, have been proposed as indicators of the persistence of underlying dynamics. Here we explore under what conditions a predictive relationship between fractal measures and persistence exists. We combine theoretical arguments with an aerial snapshot and time series from a long-term study of seagrass. For this form of vegetative growth, we find that the expected relationship between the Korcak exponent and persistence is evident at survey sites where the population return rate can be measured. This highlights a limitation of the use of power-law patch-size distributions and other indicators based on spatial snapshots. Moreover, our numeric simulations show that for a single species and a range of environmental conditions that the Korcak–persistence relationship provides a link between temporal dynamics and spatial pattern; however, this relationship is specific to demographic factors, so we cannot use this methodology to compare between species.
Sound can enhance the analgesic effect of virtual reality
Authors: Johnson Sarah , Coxon Matthew
Published: March 2016

Virtual reality (VR) technology may serve as an effective non-pharmacological analgesic to aid pain management. During VR distraction, the individual is immersed in a game presented through a head-mounted display (HMD). The technological level of the HMD can vary, as can the use of different input devices and the inclusion of sound. While more technologically advanced designs may lead to more effective pain management the specific roles of individual components within such systems are not yet fully understood. Here, the role of supplementary auditory information was explored owing to its particular ecological relevance. Healthy adult participants took part in a series of cold-pressor trials submerging their hand in cold water for as long as possible. Individual pain tolerances were measured according to the time (in seconds) before the participant withdrew their hand. The concurrent use of a VR game and the inclusion of sound was varied systematically within participants. In keeping with previous literature, the use of a VR game increased pain tolerance across conditions. Highest pain tolerance was recorded when participants were simultaneously exposed to both the VR game and supplementary sound. The simultaneous inclusion of sound may therefore play an important role when designing VR to manage pain.
Assessing the robustness of spatial pattern sequences in a dryland vegetation model
Authors: Gowda Karna , Chen Yuxin , Iams Sarah , Silber Mary
Published: March 2016

A particular sequence of patterns, ‘gaps→labyrinth→spots’, occurs with decreasing precipitation in previously reported numerical simulations of partial differential equation dryland vegetation models. These observations have led to the suggestion that this sequence of patterns can serve as an early indicator of desertification in some ecosystems. Because parameter values in the vegetation models can take on a range of plausible values, it is important to investigate whether the pattern sequence prediction is robust to variation. For a particular model, we find that a quantity calculated via bifurcation-theoretic analysis appears to serve as a proxy for the pattern sequences that occur in numerical simulations across a range of parameter values. We find in further analysis that the quantity takes on values consistent with the standard sequence in an ecologically relevant limit of the model parameter values. This suggests that the standard sequence is a robust prediction of the model, and we conclude by proposing a methodology for assessing the robustness of the standard sequence in other models and formulations.
Almost a spider: a 305-million-year-old fossil arachnid and spider origins
Authors: Garwood Russell J. , Dunlop Jason A. , Selden Paul A. , Spencer Alan R. T. , Atwood Robert C. , Vo Nghia T. , Drakopoulos Michael
Published: March 2016

Spiders are an important animal group, with a long history. Details of their origins remain limited, with little knowledge of their stem group, and no insights into the sequence of character acquisition during spider evolution. We describe a new fossil arachnid,
Idmonarachne brasieri
gen. et sp. nov. from the Late Carboniferous (Stephanian,
ca
305–299 Ma) of Montceau-les-Mines, France. It is three-dimensionally preserved within a siderite concretion, allowing both laboratory- and synchrotron-based phase-contrast computed tomography reconstruction. The latter is a first for siderite-hosted fossils and has allowed us to investigate fine anatomical details. Although distinctly spider-like in habitus, this remarkable fossil lacks a key diagnostic character of Araneae: spinnerets on the underside of the opisthosoma. It also lacks a flagelliform telson found in the recently recognized, spider-related, Devonian–Permian Uraraneida. Cladistic analysis resolves our new fossil as sister group to the spiders: the spider stem-group comprises the uraraneids and
I. brasieri
. While we are unable to demonstrate the presence of spigots in this fossil, the recovered phylogeny suggests the earliest character to evolve on the spider stem-group is the secretion of silk. This would have been followed by the loss of a flagelliform telson, and then the ability to spin silk using spinnerets. This last innovation defines the true spiders, significantly post-dates the origins of silk, and may be a key to the group's success. The Montceau-les-Mines locality has previously yielded a mesothele spider (with spinnerets). Evidently, Late Palaeozoic spiders lived alongside Palaeozoic arachnid grades which approached the spider condition, but did not express the full suite of crown-group autapomorphies.
Cohabitation promotes high diversity of clownfishes in the Coral Triangle
Authors: Camp Emma F. , Hobbs Jean-Paul A. , De Brauwer Maarten , Dumbrell Alex J. , Smith David J.
Published: March 2016

Global marine biodiversity peaks within the Coral Triangle, and understanding how such high diversity is maintained is a central question in marine ecology. We investigated broad-scale patterns in the diversity of clownfishes and their host sea anemones by conducting 981 belt-transects at 20 locations throughout the Indo-Pacific. Of the 1508 clownfishes encountered, 377 fish occurred in interspecific cohabiting groups and cohabitation was almost entirely restricted to the Coral Triangle. Neither the diversity nor density of host anemone or clownfish species alone influenced rates of interspecific cohabitation. Rather cohabitation occurred in areas where the number of clownfish species exceeds the number of host anemone species. In the Coral Triangle, cohabiting individuals were observed to finely partition their host anemone, with the subordinate species inhabiting the periphery. Furthermore, aggression did not increase in interspecific cohabiting groups, instead dominant species were accepting of subordinate species. Various combinations of clownfish species were observed cohabiting (independent of body size, phylogenetic relatedness, evolutionary age, dentition, level of specialization) in a range of anemone species, thereby ensuring that each clownfish species had dominant reproductive individuals in some cohabiting groups. Clownfishes are obligate commensals, thus cohabitation is an important process in maintaining biodiversity in high diversity systems because it supports the persistence of many species when host availability is limiting. Cohabitation is a likely explanation for high species richness in other obligate commensals within the Coral Triangle, and highlights the importance of protecting these habitats in order to conserve unique marine biodiversity.
Elucidating population-wide mycobacterial replication dynamics at the single-cell level
Authors: Mouton Jacoba M. , Helaine Sophie , Holden David W. , Sampson Samantha L.
Published: March 2016

Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections result in a spectrum of clinical outcomes, and frequently the infection persists in a latent, clinically asymptomatic state. The within-host bacterial population is likely to be heterogeneous, and it is thought that persistent mycobacteria arise from a small population of viable, but non-replicating (VBNR) cells. These are likely to be antibiotic tolerant and necessitate prolonged treatment. Little is known about these persistent mycobacteria, since they are very difficult to isolate. To address this, we have successfully developed a replication reporter system for use in M. tuberculosis. This approach, termed fluorescence dilution, exploits two fluorescent reporters; a constitutive reporter allows the tracking of bacteria, while an inducible reporter enables the measurement of bacterial replication. The application of fluorescence single-cell analysis to characterize intracellular M. tuberculosis identified a distinct subpopulation of non-growing mycobacteria in murine macrophages. The presence of VBNR and actively replicating mycobacteria was observed within the same macrophage after 48 h of infection. Furthermore, our results suggest that macrophage uptake resulted in enrichment of non- or slowly replicating bacteria (as revealed by d-cycloserine treatment); this population is likely to be highly enriched for persisters, based on its drug-tolerant phenotype. These results demonstrate the successful application of the novel dual fluorescence reporter system both in vitro and in macrophage infection models to provide a window into mycobacterial population heterogeneity.
Exfoliating Bark Does Not ProtectPlatanus occidentalisL. From Root-Climbing Lianas
Authors: Milks James R. , Hibbard J. , Rooney Thomas P.
Published: March 2016

Lianas are structural parasites that depress growth, fertility and survival rates of their hosts, but the magnitude to which they alter these rates differ among host species. We tested the hypothesis that sycamore (Platanus occidentalisL.) would have fewer adventitious root-climbing lianas. We reasoned that becauseP. occidentalispossesses exfoliating bark, it would periodically shed newly-established lianas from the trunk. We investigated the distribution of lianas on the trunks of trees ≥10 cm DBH in floodplains in southwestern Ohio. Contrary to predictions,P. occidentalistrees had significantly more root-climbing lianas than expected at three of five sites, and significantly fewer than expected at one site. In contrast, members of theAcergenus (boxelder (A. negundoL.), sugar maple (A. saccharumL.) and silver maple (A. saccharinumL.) had less than half of the root-climbing lianas as expected. We find no support for our hypothesis that bark exfoliation protectsP. occidentalistrees from root-climbing lianas in our study, and suggest possible mechanisms that might protectAcerspecies from adventitious root-climbing lianas.
SCPattern: A statistical approach to identify and classify expression changes in single cell RNA-seq experiments with ordered conditions
Authors: Leng Ning , Chu Li-Fang , Choi Jeea , Kendziorski Christina , Thomson James A. , Stewart Ron
Published: March 2016

Motivation

With the development of single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) technology, scRNA-seq experiments with ordered conditions (e.g. time-course) are becoming common. Methods developed for analyzing ordered bulk RNA-seq experiments are not applicable to scRNA-seq, since their distributional assumptions are often violated by additional heterogeneities prevalent in scRNA-seq. Here we present SC-Pattern - an empirical Bayes model to characterize genes with expression changes in ordered scRNA-seq experiments. SCPattern utilizes the non-parametrical Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic, thus it has the flexibility to identify genes with a wide variety of types of changes. Additionally, the Bayes framework allows SCPattern to classify genes into expression patterns with probability estimates.

Results

Simulation results show that SCPattern is well powered for identifying genes with expression changes while the false discovery rate is well controlled. SCPattern is also able to accurately classify these dynamic genes into directional expression patterns. Applied to a scRNA-seq time course dataset studying human embryonic cell differentiation, SCPattern detected a group of important genes that are involved in mesendoderm and definitive endoderm cell fate decisions, positional patterning, and cell cycle.

Availability and Implementation

The SCPattern is implemented as an R package along with a user-friendly graphical interface, which are available at:https://github.com/lengning/SCPattern

Contact:rstewart@morgridge.org
Locally Epistatic Models for Genome-wide Prediction and Association by Importance Sampling
Authors: Akdemir Deniz , Jannink Jean-Luc
Published: March 2016

In statistical genetics an important task involves building predictive models for the genotype-phenotype relationships and thus attribute a proportion of the total phenotypic variance to the variation in genotypes. Numerous models have been proposed to incorporate additive genetic effects into models for prediction or association. However, there is a scarcity of models that can adequately account for gene by gene or other forms of genetical interactions. In addition, there is an increased interest in using marker annotations in genome-wide prediction and association. In this paper, we discuss an hybrid modeling methodology which combines the parametric mixed modeling approach and the non-parametric rule ensembles. This approach gives us a flexible class of models that can be used to capture additive, locally epistatic genetic effects, gene x background interactions and allows us to incorporate one or more annotations into the genomic selection or association models. We use benchmark data sets covering a range of organisms and traits in addition to simulated data sets to illustrate the strengths of this approach. The improvement of model accuracies and association results suggest that a part of the ’’missing heritability” in complex traits can be captured by modeling local epistasis.
The Mechanistic Underpinnings of anago1-Mediated, Environmentally Dependent, and Stochastic Phenotype
Authors: Mason G. Alex , Lemus Tzitziki , Queitsch Christine
Published: March 2016

The crucial role of microRNAs in plant development is exceedingly well supported; their importance in environmental robustness is studied in less detail. Here, we describe a novel, environmentally dependent phenotype in hypomorphic argonaute1 (ago1) mutants and uncover its mechanistic underpinnings in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). AGO1 is a key player in microRNA-mediated gene regulation. We observed transparent lesions on embryonic leaves of ago1 mutant seedlings. These lesions increased in frequency in full-spectrum light. Notably, the lesion phenotype was most environmentally responsive in ago1-27 mutants. This allele is thought to primarily affect translational repression, which has been linked with the response to environmental perturbation. Using several lines of evidence, we found that these lesions represent dead and dying tissues due to an aberrant hypersensitive response. Although all three canonical defense hormone pathways (salicylic acid, jasmonate, and jasmonate/ethylene pathways) were up-regulated in ago1 mutants, we demonstrate that jasmonate perception drives the lesion phenotype. Double mutants of ago1 and coronatine insensitive1, the jasmonate receptor, showed greatly decreased frequency of affected seedlings. The chaperone HEAT SHOCK PROTEIN 90 (HSP90), which maintains phenotypic robustness in the face of environmental perturbations, is known to facilitate AGO1 function. HSP90 perturbation has been shown previously to up-regulate jasmonate signaling and to increase plant resistance to herbivory. Although single HSP90 mutants showed subtly elevated levels of lesions, double mutant analysis disagreed with a simple epistatic model for HSP90 and AGO1 interaction; rather, both appeared to act nonadditively in producing lesions. In summary, our study identifies AGO1 as a major, largely HSP90-independent, factor in providing environmental robustness to plants.
XModeScore: a novel method for accurate protonation/tautomer-state determination using quantum-mechanically driven macromolecular X-ray crystallographic refinement
Authors: Borbulevych Oleg , Martin Roger I. , Tickle Ian J. , Westerhoff Lance M.
Published: March 2016

Gaining an understanding of the protein–ligand complex structure along with the proper protonation and explicit solvent effects can be important in obtaining meaningful results in structure-guided drug discovery and structure-based drug discovery. Unfortunately, protonation and tautomerism are difficult to establish with conventional methods because of difficulties in the experimental detection of H atoms owing to the well known limitations of X-ray crystallography. In the present work, it is demonstrated that semiempirical, quantum-mechanics-based macromolecular crystallographic refinement is sensitive to the choice of a protonation-state/tautomer form of ligands and residues, and can therefore be used to explore potential states. A novel scoring method, calledXModeScore, is described which enumerates the possible protomeric/tautomeric modes, refines each mode against X-ray diffraction data with the semiempirical quantum-mechanics (PM6) Hamiltonian and scores each mode using a combination of energetic strain (or ligand strain) and rigorous statistical analysis of the difference electron-density distribution. It is shown that usingXModeScoreit is possible to consistently distinguish the correct bound protomeric/tautomeric modes based on routine X-ray data, even at lower resolutions of around 3 Å. These X-ray results are compared with the results obtained from much more expensive and laborious neutron diffraction studies for three different examples: tautomerism in the acetazolamide ligand of human carbonic anhydrase II (PDB entries 3hs4 and 4k0s), tautomerism in the 8HX ligand of urate oxidase (PDB entries 4n9s and 4n9m) and the protonation states of the catalytic aspartic acid found within the active site of an aspartic protease (PDB entry 2jjj). In each case,XModeScoreapplied to the X-ray diffraction data is able to determine the correct protonation state as defined by the neutron diffraction data. The impact of QM-based refinementversusconventional refinement onXModeScoreis also discussed.
Bis[4-(5-anilino-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)pyridinium] sulfate
Authors: Bharti Akhilesh , Nath Paras , Bharati Pooja , Gupta Sushil K. , Bharty Manoj K.
Published: March 2016

The asymmetric unit of the title salt, 2C13H11N4S+·SO4−, comprises two 4-(5-anilino-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)pyridinium cations and one sulfate anion. In one cation, the phenyl ring is inclined to the pyridinium ring at a dihedral angle of 34.82 (6)°, while in other cation the rings are almost coplanar with a corresponding dihedral angle 5.33 (10)°. Strong N—H...O hydrogen bonds link the cations to the sulfate anion in the asymmetric unit. Additional N—H...O, C—H...N, C—H...O and C—H...S hydrogen bonds further stabilize the crystal structure. Weak C—H...π and π–π interactions are also observed in the crystal structure.
2,7,10,13-Tetra-tert-butyl-N-phenylacenaphtho[1,2-j]fluoranthene-4,5-dicarboximide
Authors: Ozoe Hiroaki , Kitamura Chitoshi , Nishida Jun-ichi , Kawase Takeshi
Published: March 2016

In the molecule of the title compound, C50H49NO2, the acenaphtho[1,2-j]fluoranthene-4,5-dicarboximide framework has an approximately planar structure [maximum deviation = 0.124 (3) Å] and subtends a dihedral angle of 62.94 (8)° with the pendant phenyl group. Two of thetert-butyl groups are disordered over two sets of sites, with occupancy ratios of 0.506 (8):0.494 (8) and 0.669 (17):0.331 (17). An intermolecular short contact between a methyl group and the aromatic ring occurs in the crystal structure.
The subjective experience of adults with intellectual disabilities who have mental health problems within community settings
Authors: Robinson Laura , Escopri Nazima , Stenfert Kroese Biza , Rose John
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– Research into the views of people with dual intellectual and mental health difficulties is sparse. The purpose of this paper is to gain a greater understanding of how individuals with mild intellectual disabilities living in the community understand their psychotic symptoms and experiences.

Design/methodology/approach

– Five participants with intellectual disabilities and psychotic symptoms living in the community were interviewed. The interview schedule explored key areas: understanding and experiences of having an intellectual disability and a psychotic disorder, and of services provided. The data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

Findings

– The analysis elicited three main themes: self-concept: “How I understand and see myself”, incorporates what participants understood about their labels, their experiences, and how these labels fitted in with their self-concept; Impact: “How having mental health problems and learning difficulties affect my life”, encompasses communication barriers, lack of control, and stigma and vulnerability. The third main theme was coping: “How I cope with my mental health and learning difficulties”.

Research limitations/implications

– The findings suggest that the participants, rather than identifying with specific psychiatric labels perceive themselves as having individual and specific needs. The analysis highlights areas that can be developed to help with coping; ensuring people are respected and heard, empowerment through the development of positive social roles, and psycho-education. These results are a step towards developing understanding of this group of service users.

Originality/value

– There has been no previous research into the perspective of this service user group in the community. The study makes recommendations for future person-centred interventions.
Enhanced company performance through the development of network alliance management skills: a four-point framework
Authors: Thomas Mark
Published: March 2016

Purpose

The prevalence of corporate alliances has increased significantly in the past 25 years. However, such coalitions do not always produce the required results – a problem that is exacerbated when several partners are involved in a network alliance. Part of the difficulty is that, often, firms do not recognize all of the key issues in the successful management of an alliance. This paper aims to outline a four-point model that can be used to help companies develop their employees and work more effectively within network alliances.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is a conceptual paper that draws in examples from Apple and IBM as well as research from the automobile, oil and higher education industries. It then offers a practical ABCD framework to assist companies in developing their staff to work effectively within network alliances.

Findings

Many studies show that companies who habitually succeed at strategic alliances have developed superior management teams. Despite this, few companies actively encourage training or even set best practices for alliance management. Given the high cost of establishing alliances and the excessive failure rate, it would seem logical that companies would invest time in the development of skills for personnel, thereby facilitating alliance success. If organizations dedicated more time and funds to training staff in the efficient management of alliances, they would considerably increase the likelihood of their success.

Originality/value

This paper gives a practical framework that can be referred to when developing company employees to work more effectively within a network alliance. This framework is based on analysis from a broad range of industries.
Reflection with executives
Authors: Tracy Marianne
Published: March 2016

Purpose

The purpose for this study is to publish the author’s dissertation research.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative study used stimulated recall (Gass and Mackey, 2000) of critical incidents (Flanagan, 1954) in a structured reflection interview (Johns, 1994) to study executives’ “reflection-in-action and on action” business practices. All of the participants (60 people from 10 organizations, aged from 38 to 68) were experienced executives. Each brought an average of over 15 years of leadership and industry experience to their understanding of and experience with these phenomena. The results were analyzed using Miles and Huberman (1994) qualitative data analysis methods.

Findings

Three research questions guided this study: How do executives describe, understand and utilize reflection-in-action in their work practices? The study participants were interviewed soon after an experience, meeting with subordinates and a discussion of two critical incidents representing their reflection-in-action to isolate and illuminate the instant and better understand this often subconscious process of reflection-in-action; How do executives describe, understand and use reflection-on-action in their working life? Here the study participants were asked to describe a recent change initiated by reflection-on-action to better understand that process and how it moves from reflection-on-action to action-on-reflection: the initiation of the new action or change; How do executives learn and develop their reflective practices? The participants were asked to describe how they learned, developed and sustained their reflective practices to better understand the nature and development of reflective practice on all levels: in-action, on-action and cyclically. The results of my research included four areas of analysis: reflection as emotional interaction, reflection as development, reflection as a system and reflection as a frame of knowing.

Originality/value

In this doctoral work, the author attempted to show that reflection contributes to improved performance. What the author also learned was that there is a positive relationship between reflection and building supervisor/employee relations, especially within teams. The author also learned that as you reflect, there are a lot of emotions involved. This is largely, in the author’s opinion, where there is a results focus and during performance conversations. The importance of this is that people grow and change when this happens. There is a definitive link. This was the author’s hypothesis and was proved.
How to counter the growing disengagement with engagement programs
Authors: Greatwood Mike
Published: March 2016

Purpose

How do organizations approach the issue of employee engagement for a predominantly millennial workforce? What can leadership do to reverse the trend in organizations for high employee turnover? How can the preference among millennials for their employers to provide life experience and personal growth opportunities be used by organizations for strategic benefit?

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reviews the author’s first hand experience as an human resource department and managing director of a FTSE 100 company and executive coach. The author’s belief is verified with evidence that suggests managers and business leaders need to appreciate that a key part of their role now is to recognize the individual dreams of the people within their organizations and enable them to realize some of these aspirations.

Findings

For employees to really be engaged in their work, they have to be engaged in their lives. Dream management as an employee engagement intervention has been implemented in a number of US organizations and follows a structured program of group-based coaching to help employees to pursue their whole life dreams and in doing so, become better versions of themselves.

Originality/value

When considering the viability of dream making as an employee engagement program within an organization, it is essential for leaders to acknowledge certain enabling or limiting factors as outlined in the article.
EXQ: measurement of healthcare experience quality in Malaysian settings
Authors: Kashif Muhammad , Zakiah Melatu Samsi Siti , Awang Zainudin , Mohamad Mahadzirah
Published: March 2016

Purpose

The customer experience quality (EXQ) cannot be measured by using traditional tools to investigate service quality. There is a need to use new tools to directly measure EXQ from a customer perspective. The current study aims to contribute in this domain of knowledge and validate EXQ scale by linking it to marketing outcomes of satisfaction, loyalty and word of mouth in Malaysian private healthcare settings.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected data from 330 randomly selected Malaysians, visiting private hospitals in the city of Kuala Lumpur. The data analysis is performed by confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modelling – SEM – procedures.

Findings

The results reveal that two dimensions of EXQ scale moments of truth and peace of mind are highly valued by customers. Furthermore, the EXQ perceptions significantly contribute to satisfaction and loyalty. In a mediating relationship, the customer satisfaction is found to be a positive and significant variable.

Practical implications

Healthcare marketing policymakers should emphasize on recruitment of frontline staff – individuals with strong interpersonal skills and expertise who are able to create a memorable customer service experience.

Originality/value

The study is an original contribution to the existing body of knowledge – generally in services marketing literature and specifically in the field of healthcare marketing with a focus on customer experience in a developing country context of Malaysia.
A measure of medical tourism destination brand equity
Authors: Das Gopal , Mukherjee Srabanti
Published: March 2016

Purpose

Given the increasing dominance of medical tourism on the service economy of some of the developing nations, as a pioneering attempt, this study aims to develop a consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) measurement scale for the medical tourist destinations (city/hospital).

Design/methodology/approach

Following the traditional marketing construct development process (qualitative study, purification study and validation study), in the present study, two sets of large and independent samples were assessed to judge the dimensionality of the measure.

Findings

A well-validated measurement scale was developed as an amalgamation of four dimensions, namely, awareness, perceived quality, brand loyalty and authenticity to assess CBBE of medical destinations.

Practical implications

To reduce the financial and physical risk associated with the purchase of treatment, the customers may rely on “authenticity” of the service providers to select a treatment destination. The outcomes would help medical administrators/managers to focus more on developing “assurance” by increased reliability, responsiveness and tangibles to attract the medical tourists to a large extent.

Originality/value

The study is a pioneering attempt to develop a scale for measuring CBBE for medical tourist destinations. The study aligns with earlier CBBE scales in terms of the first three elements, namely, brand awareness, loyalty and perceived quality. However, based on predictive validity, the study puts forth five interrelated first order attributes, namely, “trust”, “value for money”, “quality of residents”, reliability and soft issues (like friendliness and ease of process) as contributing factors to a so far unexplored dimension, “brand authenticity”.
Healthcare service quality effect on patient satisfaction and behavioural intentions in corporate hospitals in India
Authors: Naik Jandavath Rama Krishna , Byram Anand
Published: March 2016

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of health-care service quality (HCSQ) dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intentions in selected corporate hospitals from South India.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on Parasuraman et al.’s SERVQUAL variables, the study tried to identify the effects of each variable to patient satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Data were collected through systematic random sampling among 500 in-patients of corporate hospitals with minimum four days stay were considered for the in-patients’ sample. Structural equation modelling technique was used to investigate the effect of HCSQ dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention.

Findings

The findings suggest that in addition to “patient satisfaction”, the only HCSQ dimension that directly affects behavioural intention is “empathy”. In addition, “empathy” affects “responsiveness”, “assurance” and “tangibles” which, in turn, have only an indirect effect to behavioural intention through “patient satisfaction”.

Research limitations/implications

This research investigated the HCSQ dimensions effects on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention from the perspective of patients and corporate hospitals run by the private players. This paper contributes to the body of academic knowledge by shedding more light into the role of HCSQ dimensions, and especially “empathy”, in the intentions for corporate hospital patients.

Practical implications

An understanding of the direct and indirect effect of HCSQ dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intentions is important to corporate hospital marketing managers because it offers them the opportunity to take certain actions for improving patients’ satisfaction and these actions increase their intention to revisit.

Originality/value

The paper manages to investigate the effects of HCSQ dimensions on patient satisfaction and behavioural intention, especially in the health-care marketing sector.
Financial development and poverty reduction: panel data analysis of South Asian countries
Authors: Sehrawat Madhu , Giri A K
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of financial development to poverty reduction in 11 South Asian developing countries using panel data set over the time period 1990-2012.

Design/methodology/approach

– The stationarity properties are checked by using Levin-Lin-Chu and Im-Pesaran-Shin panel unit root tests. The paper applied the Pedroni’s panel co-integration test to examine the existence of long-run relationship. The coefficients of co-integration are examined by fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and the causal link is checked by panel causality test.

Findings

– The empirical results of Pedroni co-integration test confirm a long-run relationship between financial development and poverty reduction in South Asian developing economies. The findings of FMOLS method confirm a strong and positive relationship between financial development, trade openness, inflation and poverty reduction. Results of panel causality test indicate that there is a unidirectional causality running from financial development to poverty reduction variable.

Research limitations/implications

– The present study recommends appropriate economic and financial reforms focussing on financial inclusion to reduce poverty in selected South Asian economies.

Originality/value

– This paper is the first of its kind to empirically examine the causal relationship between financial sector development and poverty reduction in South Asian economies using modern econometric techniques.
Individual social capital and access to rural services in Northern Vietnam
Authors: Hoang Quoc Dinh , Dufhues Thomas Bernhard , Buchenrieder Gertrud
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of network-based individual social capital on the access of rural households to services.

Design/methodology/approach

– In the context of development economics, an innovative data collection approach is used to determine network-based social capital. The approach originates from the field of sociology and entails a personal network survey. The authors define four social capital variables according to tie strength and social distance between the respondent and his/her network member.

Findings

– Social network ties are not homogeneous. The econometric results suggest that social capital with weaker ties in combination with socially distant ties can potentially improve households’ access to rural services.

Research limitations/implications

– The empirical survey focusses on a single province in Northern Vietnam. Thus, the main limitation of the micro-study is its regional focus. A more representative sample of the whole country would be desirable to backup the policy recommendation.

Originality/value

– The results indicate that access to services in rural Vietnam it still too personalized and subjective. Thus, a thorough review of the access procedures and making them more objective would be better choice. This would also root out a potential alley for corruption and nepotism.
Design and experiment of a universal space-saving end-effector for multi-task operations
Authors: Wu Jun , Fan Shaowei , Jin Minghe , Sun Kui , Zhou Cheng , Liu Hong
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to present the design and experiment of a universal space-saving end-effector for multi-task operations.

Design/methodology/approach

– The universal end-effector is equipped with capture and actuation transmission capabilities with two corresponding subsystems, which are highly integrated systems of mechanics, electronics and sensors. A trefoil-shaped capture system is developed for closed envelop. The worm gear pair is adopted for self-locking and space-saving, and it is used in a unique manner for three grapple chains’ synchronous motion. The combination of optimal straight path linkage and pantograph mechanism is proposed in the transmission system. The electrical structure and the multi-sensory system provide the foundation for control strategy.

Findings

– Simulations and experiments demonstrated characteristics of the universal end-effector. The compliance of the manipulator guaranteed the achievement of “soft capture” by the end-effector. Due to the self-locking property, the end-effector and the grapple interface could keep rigid connection when powered off.

Practical implications

– The design process takes practical requirements into consideration. Through experiments, it is proved that the proposed end-effector can be used for the multi-task operations with corresponding tools.

Originality/value

– Among end-effectors with operation function, the misalignment tolerance (MT) is originally regarded as a key factor. The adoptions of the worm gear pair and the linkage make it space-saving compared to conventional designs.
A dual-mode online optimization method for trajectory tracking of redundant manipulators
Authors: Fang Jian , Mei Tao , Zhao Jianghai , Li Tao
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to present a dual-mode online optimization method (OOM) for trajectory tracking of the redundant manipulators. This method could be used to resolve the problem of the kinematics redundancy effectively when the manipulator moves in a limited space or its movements go through a singular point.

Design/methodology/approach

– In the proposed method, the physical limits of the manipulator in the torque level is considered as inequality constraints for the optimal scheme. Besides, a dual-mode optimal scheme is developed to yield a feasible input in each control period during the path tracking task of the manipulator, especially when it moves under the limited space or around the singular point. Then, the scheme is formulated as a quadratic programming; the computationally efficient quadratic programming solver based on interior method is formulated to solve the kinematic redundancy problem.

Findings

– The traditional pseudo inverse method (PIM) for the kinematic resolution to the redundant manipulator has some limitations, such as slow computation speed, unable to take joint physical limits into consideration, etc. Relatively, the OOM could be used to conquer the deficits of the PIM method. Combining with the dual-mode optimal scheme and considering the physical constraints in the torque level, the online method proposed in this paper is more robust and efficient than the existing method.

Originality/value

– In this paper, dual-mode OOM is first proposed for the resolution of the kinematics redundancy problem. Specific design of its model and the discussion of its performance are also presented in this paper.
Referrals to the police of vulnerable adult abuse
Authors: Farquharson Jackie Ann
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the outcome of referrals made to one police force in England by three local authorities between March 2010 and April 2011, in order to identify and understand the barriers to prosecuting suspects of abuse or harm against vulnerable adults, and improve inter-agency co-operation.

Design/methodology/approach

– All referrals to this police force are given a crime number when they are recorded on the Criminal Justice System database together with a vulnerable adult flag and a status code which indicates the outcome following a police investigation. A search of the database using the vulnerable adult flag identifies the total number of referrals and outcomes for the selected period. This can then be imported into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to allow further analysis to take place.

Findings

– Over 87 per cent of all referrals of alleged abuse to vulnerable adults made to this police force did not establish that a crime had been committed. Of those that did only 1 per cent resulted in either a caution or court proceedings.

Research limitations/implications

– This is a small sample from one, predominantly rural, police force.

Originality/value

– The benefit of this research is that it contributes to a greater knowledge of the outcomes of adult safeguarding referrals made, primarily, by local authorities to the police and how police disclosures, on Disclosure and Barring Service checks, are being used as a means of providing employers of regulated activities with information on individuals who have been suspected of abusing vulnerable adults.
A review of studies on citations and journal ranking in finance
Authors: Guo Haifeng , Wang Bo , Qiao Xiaotuo , Liu Renhui
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to review studies on ranking in finance journals, which have grown substantially in recent decades.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper depicts the trend and development of ranking studies in finance area, describes the regional work and lists the studies which focus on specific journal. This paper discusses some important and possible issues of ranking studies in finance in the future and makes some conclusions.

Findings

– First, the authors find that the assessing method has changed from counting number to citation-based method. Second, the authors sort the ranking studies which focus on the research and publication quality based on regional area. Finally, in specific journal ranking studies, the authors can find how a journal reputation has changed, better or worse.

Originality/value

– This paper reviews the ranking studies in finance area and particularly focusses on three parts. Because of the importance of ranking studies in research quality assessing, a series of issues are raised to improve the assessing objectiveness of journal ranking.
Quality weighted citations versus total citations in the sciences and social sciences, with an application to finance and accounting
Authors: Chang Chia-Lin , McAleer Michael
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– Both journal self-citations and exchanged citations have the effect of increasing a journal’s impact factor, which may be deceptive. The purpose of this paper is to analyse academic journal quality and research impact using quality-weighted citations vs total citations, based on the widely used Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science citations database (ISI). A new Index of Citations Quality (ICQ) is presented, based on quality-weighted citations.

Design/methodology/approach

– The new index is used to analyse the leading 500 journals in both the sciences and social sciences, as well as finance and accounting, using quantifiable Research Assessment Measures (RAMs) that are based on alternative transformations of citations.

Findings

– It is shown that ICQ is a useful additional measure to 2-year impact factor (2YIF) and other well-known RAMs for the purpose of evaluating the impact and quality, as well as ranking, of journals as it contains information that has very low correlations with the information contained in the well-known RAMs for both the sciences and social sciences, and finance and accounting.

Practical implications

– Journals can, and do, inflate the number of citations through self-citation practices, which may be coercive. Another method for distorting journal impact is through a set of journals agreeing to cite each other, that is, by exchanging citations. This may be less coercive than self-citations, but is nonetheless unprofessional and distortionary.

Social implications

– The premise underlying the use of citations data is that higher quality journals generally have a higher number of citations. The impact of citations can be distorted in a number of ways, both consciously and unconsciously.

Originality/value

– Regardless of whether self-citations arise through collusive practices, the increase in citations will affect both 2YIF and 5-year impact factor (5YIF), though not Eigenfactor and Article Influence. This leads to an ICQ, where a higher ICQ would generally be preferred to lower. Unlike 5YIF, which is increased by journal self-citations and exchanged citations, and Eigenfactor and Article Influence, both of which are affected by quality-weighted exchanged citations, ICQ will be less affected by exchanged citations. In the absence of any empirical evidence to the contrary, 5YIF and AI are assumed to be affected similarly by exchanged citations.
The dynamics of sport marketing
Authors: Ratten Vanessa
Published: March 2016

Purpose

– Sports marketing is a dynamic subject area linking academic research, marketing practitioners and public policy planners. This special issue of Marketing Intelligence and Planning focusses on “The Dynamics of Sports Marketing” by including a number of articles on this topic. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these issues by highlighting the growing area of sports marketing, sport entrepreneurship and sport management.

Design/methodology/approach

– Sports marketing contributes to the future of the global economy because of its linkage to other industries including manufacturing, tourism, education and technology. The role of marketing intelligence and planning for the sport sector is crucial for sport and related organizations as a way to drive the global economy and spur growth. In sport organizations, marketing consists of planning and forecasting for future demand.

Findings

– The findings of this introduction paper to the special journal issue highlight how it is interesting to see how sports marketing will continue to be dynamic due to its importance in building marketing practice with theory.

Originality/value

– This paper discusses the main sports marketing issues raised by the articles in this special issue and suggest directions for future research.