bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Phospholipase Cβ2 Promotes Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Induced Vascular Permeability
Authors: Phoenix Kathryn N. , Yue Zhichao , Yue Lixia , Cronin Chunxia G. , Liang Bruce T. , Hoeppner Luke H. , Claffey Kevin P.
Published: March 2022

Background

Regulation of vascular permeability (VP) is critical to maintaining tissue metabolic homeostasis. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a key stimulus of VP in acute and chronic diseases including ischemia reperfusion injury, sepsis and cancer. Identification of novel regulators of VP would allow for the development of effective targeted therapeutics for patients with unmet medical need.

Methods

In vitro and in vivo models of VEGFA-induced vascular permeability, pathological permeability, quantitation of intracellular calcium release and cell entry, and PIP2 levels were evaluated with and without modulation of PLCβ2.

Results

Global knock-out of PLCβ2 in mice resulted in blockade of VEGFA-induced vascular permeability in vivo and trans-endothelial permeability in primary lung endothelial cells. Further work in an immortalized human microvascular cell line modulated with stable knock-down of PLCβ2 recapitulated the observations in the mouse model and primary cell assays. Additionally, loss of PLCβ2 limited both intracellular release and extracellular entry of calcium following VEGF stimulation as well as reduced basal and VEGFA-stimulated levels of PIP2 compared to control cells. Finally, loss of PLCβ2 in both a hyperoxia induced lung permeability model and a cardiac ischemia:reperfusion model resulted in improved animal outcomes when compared to WT controls.

Conclusions

The results implicate PLCβ2 as a key positive regulator of VEGF-induced VP through regulation of both calcium flux and PIP2 levels at the cellular level. Targeting of PLCβ2 in a therapeutic setting may provide a novel approach to regulating vascular permeability in patients.

Graphic Abstract

Highlights

PLCβ2 promotes VEGFA induced vascular permeability.

Loss of PLCβ2 prevents VEGFA vascular permeability via repression of cellular calcium flux and membrane PIP2 levels.

Loss of PLCβ2 reduces vascular permeability and improves outcomes in a hyperoxic lung damage model and a cardiac ischemia:reperfusion model in vivo.

Targeting PLCβ2 inhibition may lead to a novel therapeutic for diseases such as stroke and myocardial infarction.
Performance of the cobas® HBV RNA Automated Investigational Assay for the Detection and Quantification of Circulating HBV RNA in Chronic HBV Patients
Authors: Scholtès Caroline , Hamilton Aaron T. , Plissonnier Marie-Laure , Charre Caroline , Scott Beth , Wang Ling , Berby Françoise , French Janine , Testoni Barbara , Blair Alan , Subic Miroslava , Hoppler Matthias , Lankenau Andreas , Grubenmann Andreas , Levrero Massimo , Heil Marintha L. , Zoulim Fabien
Published: March 2022

Background

The amount of HBV RNA in peripheral blood may reflect HBV covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) transcriptional activity within infected hepatocytes. Quantification of circulating HBV RNA (cirB-RNA) is thus a promising biomarker for monitoring antiviral treatment.

Objectives

We evaluated the performance of an automated, prototype quantitative HBV RNA assay for use on the Roche cobas® 6800/8800 systems.

Study Design

The sensitivity, specificity, linearity, and potential interference by HBV DNA of the cobas® HBV RNA assay were assessed using synthetic HBV armored RNA and clinical specimens.

Results

cobas® HBV RNA results were linear between 10 and 107 copies/mL in clinical samples of several HBV genotypes, and up to 109 copies/mL with synthetic RNA. Precision and reproducibility were excellent, with standard deviation below 0.15 log10 copies/mL and coefficients of variation below 5% throughout the linear range. The presence of HBV DNA had minimal (<0.3 log10 copies/mL) impact on HBV RNA quantification at DNA:RNA ratios of up to approximately one million. In a panel of 36 untreated patient samples, cirB-RNA concentrations were approximately 200-fold lower than HBV DNA. cirB-RNA was detected in all 13 HBeAg-positive patients (mean 6.0 log10 copies/mL), and in 20 of 23 HBeAg-negative patients (mean of quantifiable samples 2.2 log10 copies/mL). Finally, cirB-RNA was detected in 12 of 20 nucleoside analog-treated patients (mean of quantifiable samples 3.4 log10 copies/mL).

Conclusions

The cobas® 6800/8800 investigational HBV RNA assay is a high throughput, sensitive and inclusive assay to evaluate the clinical relevance of cirB-RNA quantification in patients with chronic hepatitis B.
Cohesin erases genomic-proximity biases to drive stochastic Protocadherin expression for proper neural wiring
Authors: Kiefer Lea , Servito Gabrielle Isabelle F. , Rajkumar Sandy M. , Langen Jennifer , Chiosso Anna , Buckley Alexander , Cha Elizabeth S. , Horta Adan , Mui Michael H. , Canzio Daniele
Published: March 2022

Clustered Protocadherin (Pcdh) proteins act as cell-surface recognition barcodes for neural circuit formation. Neurites expressing the same barcode repel each other, but this mechanism is deployed in two different ways. For instance, convergence of olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) projections requires stochastic expression of distinct Pcdh isoforms in individual cells, while tiling of neural arbors of serotonergic neurons (5-HTs) requires expression of the same isoform, Pcdhαc2. Despite their essential role, however, the molecular mechanisms of cell-type specific Pcdh barcoding remain a mystery. Here, we uncover a new role of cohesin: that of regulating distance-independent enhancer-promoter interactions to enable random Pcdh isoform choice via DNA loop extrusion in OSNs. Remarkably, this step mediates DNA demethylation of Pcdh promoters and their CTCF binding sites, thus directing CTCF to the chosen promoter. In contrast, the uniform pattern of Pcdh expression in 5-HTs is achieved through conventional cohesin-independent, distance-dependent enhancer/promoter interactions, that favor choice of the nearest isoform. Thus, cell-type specific cohesin deployment converts a distance-dependent and deterministic regulatory logic into a distance-independent and stochastic one. We propose that this mechanism provides an elegant strategy to achieve distinct patterns of Pcdh expression that generate wiring instructions to meet the connectivity requirements of different neural classes.
Extracellular prostaglandins E1 and E2 and inflammatory cytokines are regulated by the senescence program in potentially premalignant oral keratinocytes
Authors: Karen-Ng Lee Peng , Ahmad Usama Sharif , Gomes Luis , Hunter Keith David , Wan Hong , Hagi-Pavli Eleni , Parkinson Eric Kenneth
Published: March 2022

Potentially pre-malignant lesions (PPOLs) are composed of keratinocytes that are either mortal (MPPOL) or immortal (IPPOL) in vitro. We report here that MPPOL, but not generally IPPOL keratinocytes upregulate various extracellular tumor promoting cytokines (interleukins 6 and 8) and prostaglandins E1 (ePGE1) and E2 (ePGE2) relative to normal oral keratinocytes (NOKs). ePGE upregulation in MPPOL was independent of PGE receptor status, associated with some but not all markers of cellular senescence. Nevertheless, ePGE upregulation was dependent on the senescence program, cyclo-oxygenase 2 (COX2) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and partially regulated by hydrocortisone. Following senescence in the absence of p16INK4A ePGEs accumulated in parallel with a subset of tumor promoting cytokine and metalloproteinase (MMP) transcripts all of which were ablated by ectopic telomerase. Surprisingly, ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) function was not required for ePGE upregulation and actually increased in expression in IPPOL keratinocytes in line with its recently reported role in telomerase function. Only ePGE1 was dependent on p53 function suggesting that ePGEs 1 and 2 are regulated differently in oral keratinocytes. We show here that ePGE2 stimulates IPPOL keratinocyte proliferation in vitro. Therefore, we propose that MPPOL keratinocytes promote the progression of IPPOL to oral SCC in a pre-cancerous field by supplying PGEs, interleukins and MMPs in a paracrine manner. Our results suggest that the therapeutic targeting of COX-2 might be enhanced by strategies that target keratinocyte senescence.

Simple Summary

The early treatment of oral cancer is a high priority, as improvements in this area could lead to greater cure rates and reduced disability due to extensive surgery. Oral cancer is very difficult to detect in over 70% of cases as it develops unseen until quite advanced, sometimes rapidly. It has become apparent that there are at least two types of epithelial cells (keratinocytes) found in oral tissue on the road to cancer (premalignant). One type secretes molecules called prostaglandins but the other does not and the former may stimulate the latter to progress to malignancy, either by stimulating their proliferation or encouraging the influx of blood vessels to feed them. Additionally, we have identified regulators of prostaglandin secretion in premalignant oral cells that could be targeted in future therapies such as inducers of cellular senescence, drugs which kill senescent cells (senolytics), steroid metabolism, cyclo-oxygenase 2 (COX2) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase.
CRISPR-Cas12a targeting of ssDNA plays no detectable role in immunity
Authors: Marino Nicole D. , Pinilla-Redondo Rafael , Bondy-Denomy Joseph
Published: March 2022

CRISPR-Cas12a (Cpf1) is a bacterial RNA-guided nuclease that cuts double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) at sites specified by a CRISPR RNA (crRNA) guide. Additional activities have been ascribed to this enzyme in vitro: site-specific (cis) single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) cleavage and indiscriminate (trans) degradation of ssDNA, RNA, and dsDNA after activation by a complementary target. The ability of Cas12a to cleave nucleic acids indiscriminately has been harnessed for many applications, including diagnostics, but it remains unknown if it contributes to bacterial immunity. Here, we provide evidence that cleavage of ssDNA in cis or in trans by Cas12a is insufficient to impact immunity. Using LbCas12a expressed in either Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Escherichia coli, we observed that cleavage of dsDNA targets did not elicit cell death or dormancy, suggesting insignificant levels of collateral damage against host RNA or DNA. Canonical immunity against invasive dsDNA also had no impact on the replicative fitness of co-infecting ssDNA phage or plasmid in trans. Lastly, crRNAs complementary to invasive ssDNA did not provide protection, suggesting that ssDNA cleavage does not occur in vivo or is insignificant. Overall, these results suggest that CRISPR-Cas12a immunity predominantly occurs via canonical targeting of dsDNA, and that the other activities are in vitro irregularities.
Determination of physically based pseudo-Voigt powder diffraction profile terms from the fundamental parameters approach
Authors: Denney Jonathan J. , Mattei Gerard S. , Mendenhall Marcus H. , Cline James P. , Khalifah Peter G. , Toby Brian H.
Published: March 2022

A methodology is developed where a fundamental parameters approach (FPA) description of a laboratory powder diffraction instrument (configured in divergent-beam Bragg–Brentano geometry) is used to determine GSAS-II profile parameters for peak asymmetry and instrumental peak widths. This allows the instrumental contribution to peak shapes to be robustly determined directly from a physical description of the instrument, even though GSAS-II does not directly implement FPA for peak shape computation. The FPA-derived parameters can be used as the starting point for instrument characterization, or to characterize sample broadening without the use of a standard to determine the instrument profile function. This new method can facilitate generation of training sets for machine learning. A plot is generated that shows the differences between the two approaches, demonstrating upper bounds for the accuracy of the GSAS-II profile model for a particular instrumental configuration.
CSSR: assignment of secondary structure to coarse-grained RNA tertiary structures
Authors: Zhang Chengxin , Pyle Anna Marie
Published: March 2022

RNA secondary-structure (rSS) assignment is one of the most routine forms of analysis of RNA 3D structures. However, traditional rSS assignment programs require full-atomic structures of the individual RNA nucleotides. This prevents their application to the modeling of RNA structures in which base atoms are missing. To address this issue, Coarse-grained Secondary Structure of RNA (CSSR), an algorithm for the assignment of rSS for structures in which nucleobase atomic positions are incomplete, has been developed. Using CSSR, an rSS assignment accuracy of ∼90% is achieved even for RNA structures in which only one backbone atom per nucleotide is known. Thus, CSSR will be useful for the analysis of experimentally determined and computationally predicted RNA 3D structures alike. The source code of CSSR is available at https://github.com/pylelab/CSSR.
Global fitting of multiple data frames from SEC–SAXS to investigate the structure of next-generation nanodiscs
Authors: Barclay Abigail , Tidemand Johansen Nicolai , Tidemand Frederik Grønbæk , Arleth Lise , Pedersen Martin Cramer
Published: March 2022

The combination of online size-exclusion chromatography and small-angle X-ray scattering (SEC–SAXS) is rapidly becoming a key technique for structural investigations of elaborate biophysical samples in solution. Here, a novel model-refinement strategy centred around the technique is outlined and its utility is demonstrated by analysing data series from several SEC–SAXS experiments on phospholipid bilayer nanodiscs. Using this method, a single model was globally refined against many frames from the same data series, thereby capturing the frame-to-frame tendencies of the irradiated sample. These are compared with models refined in the traditional manner, in which refinement is based on the average profile of a set of consecutive frames from the same data series without an in-depth comparison of individual frames. This is considered to be an attractive model-refinement scheme as it considerably lowers the total number of parameters refined from the data series, produces tendencies that are automatically consistent between frames, and utilizes a considerably larger portion of the recorded data than is often performed in such experiments. Additionally, a method is outlined for correcting a measured UV absorption signal by accounting for potential peak broadening by the experimental setup.
Structural relationship between food quality, usefulness, ease of use, convenience, brand trust and willingness to pay: the case of Starbucks
Authors: Moon Joonho , Song Myungkeun , Lee Won Seok , Shim Ji Min
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This study aims to explore the structural relationship among food quality, usefulness, ease of use, convenience, brand trust and willingness to pay. The technology acceptance model was used as the theoretical foundation of this work.

Design/methodology/approach

Amazon Mechanical Turk was used to recruit survey participants, and 436 valid observations were ultimately used for the analysis. In the data analysis, the structural relationships between variables were explored through structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results of hypothesis testing show that ease of use positively affects the usefulness of the Starbucks mobile application. Usefulness also exerts positive impacts on both brand trust and convenience. Moreover, brand trust is positively associated with food quality. Finally, willingness to pay is positively influenced by both convenience and brand trust.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by not only validating the technology acceptance model using the Starbucks mobile application but also proposing food quality-related attributes in the domain of the café business.
Keep dreaming: how personality traits affects the recognition and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities in the agritourism industry
Authors: Leonelli Simona , Iaia Lea , Masciarelli Francesca , Vrontis Demetris
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This paper analyses how entrepreneurs recognise and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities following a sustainable approach that respects the equilibrium among environmental, social and commercial purposes, and how their personality affects this process. The main personality traits focused in this study are narcissism, locus of control and sustainability orientation.

Design/methodology/approach

This single case study involves Essentia Dimora Rurale, a small agritourism business, located in Molise (Italy), characterised by a sustainable business model that generates value for the local environment, thus revitalising abandoned territories. Data are collected using qualitative and quantitative methods and are analysed using the Gioia methodology.

Findings

The Essentia Dimora Rurale's approach is rooted in the concept of sustainability and the development of tourism in the territory. The preservation of traditional values and the creation of a network allow the firm to prosper and survive. The personalities of the two sibling entrepreneurs fuel the process, and the authors show that each personality trait plays a different role in each phase of the firm's growth.

Research limitations/implications

From a theoretical point of view, the study contributes to entrepreneurial, sustainability and personality literature. However, using a single case study can represent a limit for the research.

Practical implications

Various practical implications are recognised concerning several stakeholders, such as the owners and the entities linked to the regional promotion and tourism sectors.

Originality/value

The novelty of the research relies on the importance of entrepreneur opportunity identification, particularly in sustainable firms. Moreover, the authors fill the literature gap investigating the impact of three personality traits in this process.
WHO’s first scientific review of medicinal Cannabis: from global struggle to patient implications
Authors: Riboulet-Zemouli Kenzi , Krawitz Michael Alan
Published: March 2022

Background

“Cannabis” and “cannabis resin” are derived from the Cannabis plant, used as herbal medications, in traditional medicine and as active pharmaceutical ingredients. Since 1961, they have been listed in Schedule IV, the most restrictive category of the single convention on narcotic drugs. The process to scientifically review and reschedule them was launched by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 2 December 2016; it survived a number of hindrances until finally being submitted to a delayed and sui generis vote by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs on 2 December 2020, withdrawing “cannabis” and “cannabis resin” from Schedule IV.

Design/methodology/approach

To evaluate WHO’s scheduling recommendations, the process leading to the Commission vote and subsequent implications at global, national and patient/clinician levels. Narrative account of the four-year proceedings; review of the practical implications of both rejected and accepted recommendations.

Findings

The process was historically unprecedented, of political relevance to both medical Cannabis and evidence-based scheduling generally. Procedural barriers hampered the appropriate involvement of civil society stakeholders. The landscape resulting from accepted and rejected recommendations allow countries to continue creating decentralised, non-uniform systems for access to and availability of “cannabis” and “cannabis resin” for medical purposes.

Originality/value

Perspective of accredited observers; highlight of institutional issues and the lay of the land; contrast of stakeholders’ interpretations and engagement.
A study on entrepreneurial opportunities in digital health-care post-Covid-19 from the perspective of developing countries
Authors: Khandelwal Rahul , Kolte Ashutosh , Rossi Matteo
Published: March 2022

Purpose

The Covid-19 pandemic encourages organized structures across health sectors to react to the outbreak and digital health technologies have been identified as promising pillars to respond to the outbreak across the globe. The purpose of this study is to address the scoping review aimed at identifying the innovative entrepreneurial opportunities in digital health-care ecosystems. The study highlights the barriers to digital health in developing countries. The study is a forum for the introduction of entrepreneurship prospects in the Indian sense through other foreign readers in developing countries.

Design/methodology/approach

This archival study highlights topical literature to explore successful ways of improving market potential in developed countries with respect to digital health. The research offers insights into how a digital health environment could be applied, provides a trajectory that concentrates on key skills and a creative approach.

Findings

Health service providers require developing their competency and skills to accelerate and enhance their entrepreneurial opportunities. Social network dynamics analyzes are particularly helpful in modeling pandemic trends and in tracking post-pandemic digital health needs. The acceptability of digital solutions has to be confronted across developing countries especially in rural areas and a collective public health benefit in form of entrepreneurship to serve the society.

Research limitations/implications

The research temporarily indicates a creative solution to entrepreneurship in developed countries that can be applied in today’s digital arena.

Originality/value

To raise public understanding of the advantages of digital health systems in developed regions, health education and promotion campaigns should be focused. The idea analysis can be useful benchmarks for policymakers rather than digital health jurisdictions. The post-pandemic provides developed countries a great opportunity for advanced technology to expand connectivity and networking to digital health entrepreneurship.
The role of impulsivity and financial satisfaction in a moderated mediation model of consumer financial resilience and life satisfaction
Authors: Tahir Muhammad S. , Shahid Ahmad Usman , Richards Daniel W.
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This paper explores the direct and indirect associations between financial resilience and life satisfaction, using the moderation of non-impulsive behavior and mediation of financial satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analyze the Australian household dataset, named the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, to meet the objectives of this paper. Furthermore, the authors use the PROCESS Models 4 and 7 to test the mediation and the combined moderated mediation relationships, respectively.

Findings

The authors find the complete mediation of the relationship between financial resilience and life satisfaction by financial satisfaction. Also, this study finds that both financial resilience and non-impulsive behavior positively contribute to financial satisfaction, which is positively associated with life satisfaction.

Practical implications

This research supports the need for consumers to build emergency funds as financial resilience is related to consumer well-being. This research also recommends that impulsive behavior should be addressed by the personal finance curriculum and financial advisors.

Originality/value

This research contributes by showing that financial satisfaction is an important predictor of consumers’ well-being. The ability to access financial resources, which increases for non-impulsive consumers, is associated with increased life satisfaction but only via financial satisfaction.
A supervised data mining approach for predicting comment card ratings
Authors: Tanrısevdi Abdullah , Öztürk Gözde , Öztürk Ahmet Cumhur
Published: March 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop a review rating prediction method based on a supervised text mining approach for unrated customer reviews.

Design/methodology/approach

Using 2,851 hotel comment card (HCC) reviews, this paper manually labeled positive and negative comments with seven aspects (dining, cleanliness, service, entertainment, price, public, room) that emerged from the content of said reviews. After text preprocessing (tokenization, eliminating punctuation, stemming, etc.), two classifier models were created for predicting the reviews’ sentiments and aspects. Thus, an aggregate rating scale was generated using these two classifier models to determine overall rating values.

Findings

A new algorithm, Comment Rate (CRate), based on supervised learning, is proposed. The results are compared with another review-rating algorithm called location based social matrix factorization (LBSMF) to check the consistency of the proposed algorithm. It is seen that the proposed algorithm can predict the sentiments better than LBSMF. The performance evaluation is performed on a real data set, and the results indicate that the CRate algorithm truly predicts the overall rating with ratio 80.27%. In addition, the CRate algorithm can generate an overall rating prediction scale for hotel management to automatically analyze customer reviews and understand the sentiment thereof.

Research limitations/implications

The review data were only collected from a resort hotel during a limited period. Therefore, this paper cannot explore the effect of independent variables on the dependent variable in context of larger period.

Practical implications

This paper provides a novel overall rating prediction technique allowing hotel management to improve their operations. With this feature, hotel management can evaluate guest feedback through HCCs more effectively and quickly. In this way, the hotel management will be able to identify those service areas that need to be developed faster and more effectively. In addition, this review rating prediction approach can be applied to customer reviews posted via online platforms for detecting review and rating reliability.

Originality/value

Manually analyzing textual information is time-consuming and can lead to measurement errors. Therefore, the primary contribution of this study is that although comment cards do not have rating values, the proposed CRate algorithm can predict the overall rating and understand the sentiment of the reviews in question.
A review on prospective risks and mitigation for oil and gas projects: implication for Indian CGD companies
Authors: Rawat Atul , Gupta Sumeet , Rao T. Joji
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This study aims to focus on identifying the business risks that cause a delay in the oil and gas projects and suggest the way forward toward the better development of the city gas distribution (CGD) sector in India by suggesting the appropriate mitigation strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is a systematic review of literature on risks causing a delay in oil and gas projects. Comprehensive literature was carried out following a seven-step model to develop an exhaustive list of risk classifications and factors, risk identification methods and strategies to mitigate the risks. Weighted average ranking method is used to identify the top ten risks affecting oil and gas projects.

Findings

This research identifies the top ten risks frequently impacting the oil and gas projects, which are project cost, improper project management, change in economic parameters, currency exchange rate, government regulations and laws, contractor and subcontractors issues, lack of skilled labor, delay in approvals, health and safety issues and force majeure. These risks are primarily responsible for cost overrun and project delay. Additionally, this study recommends the implementation of joint risk management to avoid CGD project delay.

Originality/value

The CGD industry is in the growing stage with many projects under construction. However, there is a lack of research to manage risks in the CGD project. This study contributes to the limited literature available on risk management in oil and gas projects. Additionally, it highlights the need for further research to explore the different risks factors affecting the CGD business and its operations and subsequently develop appropriate mitigation strategies.
A teacher's learning of transforming curriculum reform ideas into classroom practices in lesson study in China
Authors: Zhao Wenjun , Huang Rongjin , Cao Yiming , Ning Rui , Zhang Xiaoxia
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This study aims to explore how a Chinese lesson study (LS) supports a teacher's learning of transforming curriculum reform ideas into classroom practices.

Design/methodology/approach

Data analyzed in this study included lesson plans, three videotaped research lessons, three audio-taped group meetings, interviews, the teacher's reflection journals and other related materials. Clarke and Hollingsworth's interconnected model of professional growth (IMPG) was adopted as the theoretical and analytical framework for examining the teacher's learning process.

Findings

This study found that teachers can deepen their understanding of innovative curriculum ideas and implement them through an iterative cycle of planning, enactment and reflection in LS. Involving knowledgeable others in the process and reflecting on evidence-based evaluation of students' learning outcomes is crucial for changing the teacher's knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and teaching practices. Theoretical tools, such as learning trajectory, are useful for transforming curriculum reform ideas that teachers find abstract and overly broad into concrete and actionable lesson designs.

Originality/value

Theoretically, this study can broaden our knowledge about how the under-studied mechanism of Chinese LS can contribute to helping teachers to transform reform ideas into classroom practices. Practically, this study provides suggestions for researchers and educators to reflect on and improve the effectiveness of teachers' professional development programs in a reform context.
Responses in divergence of opinion to earnings announcements: evidence from American depository receipts
Authors: Shen Fanglin , Guo Quantong , Liang Hongyan , Liu Zilong
Published: March 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between investors' divergence of opinions and the asset prices of foreign stocks and also examine the effect of home market country-level factors on the influence of divergency of opinions on stock price.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors employ panel data estimation with fixed effects to examine the host market response in divergent opinions to the earnings announcements. The paper uses the American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) of 42 countries from 1985 to 2011.

Findings

The authors find a negative relationship between differences of opinions and excess quarterly earnings announcement returns, and investors do process information asymmetrically based on good and bad earnings shocks. In addition, the authors find the negative relationship between divergent opinions and excess earnings announcement returns in ADRs is more pronounced in countries with short-sales restrictions, while other home-market country-level factors – the enforcement of insider trading law, legal origin, investor protection and rating on accounting standard – do not influence the relationship between investors' divergency of opinion and stock returns.

Originality/value

This paper is among the first to bring asymmetric effects on convergence in Miller framework and enhance the understanding of price convergence documented in Miller (1977). In addition, this study incorporates home-market country-level factors in explaining the relationship between investors' divergency of opinions and stock returns.
Overcoming the liability of origin: cross-listing in developed economies as a signal
Authors: Wei Jiang , Zheng Jie , Zuo Yan
Published: March 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of cross-listing in overcoming liability of origin (LOO) facing emerging economy corporations (EECs).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper takes Chinese firms' cross-listing in Hong Kong and the firms' establishment of international joint ventures (IJVs) with foreign partners as the research setting. This is an empirical study using Heckman's self-selection model as the primary econometric technique and two-stage least square (2SLS) regressions as the supplementary estimation procedure.

Findings

Cross-listing in developed economies can serve as a signal for EECs to overcome the LOO. In addition, the regional institutional voids of emerging economies (EEs) and state ownership are prominent boundary conditions shaping this effect.

Research limitations/implications

Only Chinese firms and the firms' cross-listing in Hong Kong are considered for the empirical context as a result of data availability.

Practical implications

This paper provides a practical solution for EECs whose internationalisation tends to be hindered by the LOO.

Originality/value

This study is of high importance in that it centres on a distinctive and challenging problem faced with EECs—the LOO. Besides, it ascribes this liability to a matter of information asymmetries and explores how cross-listing can serve as a signal to cope with this challenge.
Innovation, trade barriers and exports: evidence from manufacturing firms in ASEAN countries
Authors: Ayob Abu H. , Freixanet Joan , Shahiri Hazrul
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This study aims to integrate both internal and external factors to examine the effect of innovation and perceived trade barriers on firms’ export activity. In particular, the authors expand the scope of innovation into both technological (product and process) and non-technological (marketing and management) innovation. Furthermore, the authors examine the potential joint effect of perceived customs and trade barriers on firms.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors empirically test the hypotheses by using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey during the most recent year available for each ASEAN country, together with both firm- and country-level controls from various data sources. Specifically, the final sample for analysis includes 3,602 firms from Cambodia (100), Indonesia (1157), Laos (99), Malaysia (445), the Philippines (719), Thailand (572) and Vietnam (510).

Findings

First, the results show that firm-specific innovation capabilities (including non-technological of managerial innovation) do matter for explaining export propensity. Furthermore, in contexts in which location-bound advantages are prevalent, the effects of innovation may disappear and further deteriorate performance in the post-entry stage. Second, the findings support the notion regarding the prevalence of country- over firm-specific advantages for the international expansion of companies from ASEAN countries. More specifically, this study holds that innovation does not matter for export intensity and that factors related to the location’s institutions appear to be more important.

Originality/value

First, it acknowledges and examines the effect of not only technological innovation, but also non-technological innovation on export intention. Second, the paper measures the institutional effect at the firm level, rather than as a country-specific factor, to better understand the combined effect of internal and external variables on firms’ export strategy. Furthermore, it performs a cross-country analysis while controlling for other confounding firm and macro factors. Third, the authors test the model on both pre-entry (export propensity) and post-entry (export intensity) stages. Finally, the study responds to calls for research that examines the international competitive advantages of firms from ASEAN countries.
Antecedents and consequences of reliance in the context of B2B brand image
Authors: Kittur Prathamesh , Chatterjee Swagato , Upadhyay Amit
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This study aims to explore the antecedents and consequences of reliance and its relationship with trust in the context of business-to-business (B2B) branding. The study also explores the above relationships in various B2B contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data of 135 respondents from different B2B firms was analyzed, and the proposed theoretical model was validated using partial least square structural equation modeling technique followed by multigroup analysis.

Findings

The results suggest that commitment, management capability and innovation capability are positively related with reliance, while trust acts as mediator between commitment–reliance relationships. Moreover, while both reliance and trust lead to B2B brand image, reliance has higher relationship strength. Furthermore, reliance mediates the trust–brand image relationship too.

Research limitations/implications

The paper contributes to the literature of reliance and its role in B2B brand image by providing newer insights about the antecedents and consequences of reliance and its relationship with trust.

Practical implications

The findings provide managers with key insights for creating B2B brand image using reliance and trust by focusing on capabilities and commitment.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few papers in B2B marketing which focuses on the antecedents of reliance and relative importance of trust and reliance.
Intercultural warrant: deploying cultural warrant ethically
Authors: Choi Inkyung
Published: March 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss deployment of cultural warrant in intercultural environment, aiming to better achieve ethical warrant.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper synthesizes research on cultural warrant and classification, and uses examples of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) to illustrate cultural warrant in a case of cross-cultural adaptation of bibliographic classification.

Findings

The notion of intercultural warrant was suggested as an operational approach to cultural warrant in the context of intercultural use of Knowledge Organization System (KOS).

Research limitations/implications

The research focuses on discussions of cultural warrant in the context of intercultural uses of KOS but lacking diverse examples of KOS and beyond (such as descriptive metadata standards).

Originality/value

This paper suggests the development of intercultural warrant as a theoretical view to understand classification systems commonly used worldwide and a path to achieve ethical treatments of cultures in such systems.
Youth entrepreneurial intentions: a cross-cultural comparison
Authors: Bağış Mehmet , Kryeziu Liridon , Kurutkan Mehmet Nurullah , Krasniqi Besnik A. , Hernik Joanna , Karagüzel Ensar Selman , Karaca Volkan , Ateş Çağdaş
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This paper aims to determine the antecedents that affect higher education students' entrepreneurial intention and awareness in two developing economies (Turkey and Poland) and one transition economy (Kosovo).

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a quantitative research approach based on a sample of 342 questionnaires. Using SPSS 23, AMOS and Process Hayes, this study tests research hypotheses using explanatory and confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis and mediation analysis.

Findings

The findings show that personal attitudes (PA), perceived behavioural control (PBC) and need for achievement (NFA) variables affect students' entrepreneurial intentions and alertness (EIA) in Turkey, Poland, and Kosovo. PA and PBC mediate the impact of NFA on EIA. In addition, analyses show that the country variable does not have a moderator effect on EIA, PA, NFA and PBC variables. The findings reveal that students' perceptions of EIA differ by country.

Research limitations/implications

The sample comes from a university in three countries; therefore, these results cannot be generalised to the entire population. In addition, the study was carried out with a cross-sectional study urging the need for a longitudinal analysis of the data, which may provide better results.

Practical implications

Results can benefit policymakers and higher education administrators for resource planning, organising educational curricula and strategic policy plans for building the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Originality/value

The originality of this article is that it presents a model to reveal the effect of PA, PBC and NFA variables on EIA in three different countries.
Effects of financial development on mortgage development in Africa: an application of GMM dynamic pooled estimator
Authors: Sare Yakubu Awudu , Davies Ezekiel , Nyeadi Joseph Dery
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This study purposely re‐examine the mortgage–ﬁnance nexus in Africa.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopted a panel data set spanning over the period 1995–2017 by using system generalized method of moments (GMM) dynamic pooled estimator developed by Arellano and Bond (1991) and Arellano and Bover (1995) involving 51 African countries.

Findings

The findings discovered that financial development (bank asset) affects mortgage development positively and this effect is highly significant while broad money supply as a measure of financial development impedes mortgage development in Africa. Furthermore, with the introduction of the quadratic term, broad money supply established a U-shaped relationship with mortgage financing indicating that more money in circulation facilitates mortgage development in Africa. However, the shape of the other variables depends largely on the nature of proxy used.

Originality/value

This study is unique in many aspects. First, examining the extant literature on the financial development and mortgage financing nexus, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study is cited at the African level with this relationship. Secondly is the empirical model, as it used the system GMM dynamic pooled estimator developed by Arellano and Bond (1991) and Arellano and Bover (1995) to establish whether there is any effect of finance–mortgage nexus.
Diffusing corporate sustainability knowledge with online education: experiences from a massive open online course (MOOC) on sustainable fashion
Authors: Pedersen Esben Rahbek Gjerdrum , Andersen Kirsti Reitan , Diaz Schiavon Ana Lucia
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This study aims to show how a massive open online course (MOOC) can be used as an educational tool to diffuse specialised corporate sustainability research globally to a broad range of learners.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on insights from the design and implementation of a sustainable fashion MOOC. The MOOC was launched in late 2019 on a global learning platform and has recently passed 40,000 enrolments (February 2022). The presentation of the MOOC draws on quantitative and qualitative data available to instructors on the global learning platform.

Findings

Based on the data about the learners and their use of the MOOC, this study demonstrates how MOOC can be a powerful tool to diffuse sustainability research to new groups of learners, who differ significantly from the typical students at business schools and universities in the West. Moreover, the findings also demonstrate how the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the MOOC’s popularity.

Originality/value

This study provides new empirical evidence on how sustainability research can be translated into online education material of relevance for a broad range of learners from around the world. Moreover, the study also points to the number of practical and structural challenges linked to the future mainstreaming of MOOCs and other types of online education material.
“When” and “why” employees resort to remain silent at work? A moderated mediation model of social undermining
Authors: Xu Aidi , Ayub Arslan , Iqbal Shahid
Published: March 2022

Purpose

To date, few empirical studies have explored the boundary conditions under which employees may choose to observe silence at work. Drawing on the conservation of resource (COR) theory, the present study bridges this gap by examining the interaction effect of leader-member exchange (LMX) on the relationship between social undermining and employee silence while considering the mediating role of emotional exhaustion.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 327 employees working in Pakistan's service sector through the purposive sampling technique and analyzed using PLS path modeling.

Findings

The findings support the authors’ projections such that social undermining, i.e., supervisor undermining, coworker undermining and customer undermining, are positively related to emotional exhaustion. Besides, emotional exhaustion partially mediates the associations between supervisor undermining and employee silence, coworker undermining and employee silence, and customer undermining and employee silence. Further, the results confirm the interaction effect of LMX. The harmful impact of social undermining is exacerbated in high-quality LMX relationships compared to those at low LMX relationships.

Originality/value

This study is one of the few efforts to understand the conditions under which employee silence is more likely or less likely to occur. The authors’ findings draw the attention of researchers and practitioners to understand the uniqueness of this linkage such that variations in leaders' behavior are more detrimental for “in-group” members than their counterparts (i.e. “out-group” members).
Refugee awareness of a transformative intervention to increase blood donations
Authors: Polonsky Michael Jay , Ferdous Ahmed , Robertson Nichola , Jones Sandra , Renzaho Andre , Telenta Joanne
Published: March 2022

Purpose

This study aims to test the efficacy of the awareness of a transformative health service communication intervention targeted to African refugees in Australia, designed to increase their intentions to participate in blood donation and reduce any identified barriers.

Design/methodology/approach

Following the intervention launch, a survey was administered to African refugees. The data were analysed with structural equation modelling.

Findings

Intervention awareness increases refugees’ blood donation knowledge and intentions. Although it has no direct effect on refugees’ medical mistrust or perceived discrimination, intervention awareness indirectly reduces medical mistrust. The findings, thus, suggest that the intervention was transformative: it directly and indirectly reduced barriers to refugee participation in blood donation services.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations include a relatively small sample size, single-country context and measures that address blood donation intentions versus behaviours.

Social implications

Addressing health service inequities through intervention awareness, via the mere exposure effect, can facilitate refugees’ health service participation and inclusion.

Originality/value

This study contributes to transformative service research and responds to calls to improve individual and community well-being by testing a transformative intervention targeted towards vulnerable consumers. Not all targeted refugees donated blood, but being encouraged to participate in this health service within the host society can foster their greater inclusion.
Libraries breaking barriers through TikTok: enhancing access and visibility
Authors: Mashiyane Dina Mokgadi
Published: March 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the usage of TikTok by libraries in enhancing access and visibility of services, facilities and resources.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a review paper of literature related to the usage of TikTok in libraries

Findings

The literature revealed that TikTok is being used mostly for library marketing and advocacy. Though there is scant literature on TikTok for information literacy, this platform is being used for teaching and learning purposes.

Originality/value

This is a welcome contribution to the utilization of TikTok for enhancing library services and reaching out to users beyond the library walls.