bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Survival of fossils under extreme shocks induced by hypervelocity impacts
Authors: Burchell M. J. , McDermott K. H. , Price M. C. , Yolland L. J.
Published: July 2014

Experimental data are shown for survival of fossilized diatoms undergoing shocks in the GPa range. The results were obtained from hypervelocity impact experiments which fired fossilized diatoms frozen in ice into water targets. After the shots, the material recovered from the target water was inspected for diatom fossils. Nine shots were carried out, at speeds from 0.388 to 5.34 km s
−1
, corresponding to mean peak pressures of 0.2–19 GPa. In all cases, fragmented fossilized diatoms were recovered, but both the mean and the maximum fragment size decreased with increasing impact speed and hence peak pressure. Examples of intact diatoms were found after the impacts, even in some of the higher speed shots, but their frequency and size decreased significantly at the higher speeds. This is the first demonstration that fossils can survive and be transferred from projectile to target in hypervelocity impacts, implying that it is possible that, as suggested by other authors, terrestrial rocks ejected from the Earth by giant impacts from space, and which then strike the Moon, may successfully transfer terrestrial fossils to the Moon.
Beyond Hopkinson's bar
Authors: Pierron F. , Zhu H. , Siviour C.
Published: July 2014

In order to perform experimental identification of high strain rate material models, engineers have only a very limited toolbox based on test procedures developed decades ago. The best example is the so-called split Hopkinson pressure bar based on the bar concept introduced 100 years ago by Bertram Hopkinson to measure blast pulses. The recent advent of full-field deformation measurements using imaging techniques has allowed novel approaches to be developed and exciting new testing procedures to be imagined for the first time. One can use this full-field information in conjunction with efficient numerical inverse identification tools such as the virtual fields method (VFM) to identify material parameters at high rates. The underpinning novelty is to exploit the inertial effects developed in high strain rate loading. This paper presents results from a new inertial impact test to obtain stress–strain curves at high strain rates (here, up to 3000 s−1). A quasi-isotropic composite specimen is equipped with a grid and images are recorded with the new HPV-X camera from Shimadzu at 5 Mfps and the SIMX16 camera from Specialised Imaging at 1 Mfps. Deformation, strain and acceleration fields are then input into the VFM to identify the stiffness parameters with unprecedented quality.
The shock and spall response of three industrially important hexagonal close-packed metals: magnesium, titanium and zirconium
Authors: Hazell P. J. , Appleby-Thomas G. J. , Wielewski E. , Escobedo J. P.
Published: July 2014

Magnesium, titanium and zirconium and their alloys are extensively used in industrial and military applications where they would be subjected to extreme environments of high stress and strain-rate loading. Their hexagonal close-packed (HCP) crystal lattice structures present interesting challenges for optimizing their mechanical response under such loading conditions. In this paper, we review how these materials respond to shock loading via plate-impact experiments. We also discuss the relationship between a heterogeneous and anisotropic microstructure, typical of HCP materials, and the directional dependency of the elastic limit and, in some cases, the strength prior to failure.
MIPSTR: a method for multiplex genotyping of germ-line and somatic STR variation across many individuals
Authors: Carlson Keisha D. , Sudmant Peter H. , Press Maximilian O. , Eichler Evan E. , Shendure Jay , Queitsch Christine
Published: July 2014

Short tandem repeats (STRs) are highly mutable genetic elements that often reside in functional genomic regions. The cumulative evidence of genetic studies on individual STRs suggests that STR variation profoundly affects phenotype and contributes to trait heritability. Despite recent advances in sequencing technology, STR variation has remained largely inaccessible across many individuals compared to single nucleotide variation or copy number variation. STR genotyping with short-read sequence data is confounded by (1) the difficulty of uniquely mapping short, low-complexity reads and (2) the high rate of STR amplification stutter. Here, we present MIPSTR, a robust, scalable, and affordable method that addresses these challenges. MIPSTR uses targeted capture of STR loci by single-molecule Molecular Inversion Probes (smMIPs) and a unique mapping strategy. Targeted capture and mapping strategy resolve the first challenge; the use of single molecule information resolves the second challenge. Unlike previous methods, MIPSTR is capable of distinguishing technical error due to amplification stutter from somatic STR mutations. In proof-of-principle experiments, we use MIPSTR to determine germ-line STR genotypes for 102 STR loci with high accuracy across diverse populations of the plantA. thaliana.We show that putatively functional STRs may be identified by deviation from predicted STR variation and by association with quantitative phenotypes. Employing DNA mixing experiments and a mutant deficient in DNA repair, we demonstrate that MIPSTR can detect low-frequency somatic STR variants. MIPSTR is applicable to any organism with a high-quality reference genome and is scalable to genotyping many thousands of STR loci in thousands of individuals.
Classification of RNA-Seq Data via Bagging Support Vector Machines
Authors: Zararsiz Gokmen , Goksuluk Dincer , Korkmaz Selcuk , Eldem Vahap , Duru Izzet Parug , Ozturk Ahmet , Unver Turgay
Published: July 2014

Background RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) is a powerful technique for transcriptome profiling of the organisms that uses the capabilities of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Recent advances in NGS let to measure the expression levels of tens to thousands of transcripts simultaneously. Using such information, developing expression-based classification algorithms is an emerging powerful method for diagnosis, disease classification and monitoring at molecular level, as well as providing potential markers of disease. Here, we present the bagging support vector machines (bagSVM), a machine learning approach and bagged ensembles of support vector machines (SVM), for classification of RNA-Seq data. The bagSVM basically uses bootstrap technique and trains each single SVM separately; next it combines the results of each SVM model using majority-voting technique. Results We demonstrate the performance of the bagSVM on simulated and real datasets. Simulated datasets are generated from negative binomial distribution under different scenarios and real datasets are obtained from publicly available resources. A deseq normalization and variance stabilizing transformation (vst) were applied to all datasets. We compared the results with several classifiers including Poisson linear discriminant analysis (PLDA), single SVM, classification and regression trees (CART), and random forests (RF). In slightly overdispersed data, all methods, except CART algorithm, performed well. Performance of PLDA seemed to be best and RF as second best for very slightly and substantially overdispersed datasets. While data become more spread, bagSVM turned out to be the best classifier. In overall results, bagSVM and PLDA had the highest accuracies. Conclusions According to our results, bagSVM algorithm after vst transformation can be a good choice of classifier for RNA-Seq datasets mostly for overdispersed ones. Thus, we recommend researchers to use bagSVM algorithm for the purpose of classification of RNA-Seq data. PLDA algorithm should be a method of choice for slight and moderately overdispersed datasets. An R/BIOCONDUCTOR package MLSeq with a vignette is freely available at http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/2.14/bioc/html/MLSeq.html Keywords: Bagging, machine learning, RNA-Seq classification, support vector machines, transcriptomics
Arabidopsis and Maize RidA Proteins Preempt Reactive Enamine/Imine Damage to Branched-Chain Amino Acid Biosynthesis in Plastids
Authors: Niehaus Thomas D. , Nguyen Thuy N.D. , Gidda Satinder K. , ElBadawi-Sidhu Mona , Lambrecht Jennifer A. , McCarty Donald R. , Downs Diana M. , Cooper Arthur J.L. , Fiehn Oliver , Mullen Robert T. , Hanson Andrew D.
Published: July 2014

RidA (for Reactive Intermediate Deaminase A) proteins are ubiquitous, yet their function in eukaryotes is unclear. It is known that deleting Salmonella enterica ridA causes Ser sensitivity and that S. enterica RidA and its homologs from other organisms hydrolyze the enamine/imine intermediates that Thr dehydratase forms from Ser or Thr. In S. enterica, the Ser-derived enamine/imine inactivates a branched-chain aminotransferase; RidA prevents this damage. Arabidopsis thaliana and maize (Zea mays) have a RidA homolog that is predicted to be plastidial. Expression of either homolog complemented the Ser sensitivity of the S. enterica ridA mutant. The purified proteins hydrolyzed the enamines/imines formed by Thr dehydratase from Ser or Thr and protected the Arabidopsis plastidial branched-chain aminotransferase BCAT3 from inactivation by the Ser-derived enamine/imine. In vitro chloroplast import assays and in vivo localization of green fluorescent protein fusions showed that Arabidopsis RidA and Thr dehydratase are chloroplast targeted. Disrupting Arabidopsis RidA reduced root growth and raised the root and shoot levels of the branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis intermediate 2-oxobutanoate; Ser treatment exacerbated these effects in roots. Supplying Ile reversed the root growth defect. These results indicate that plastidial RidA proteins can preempt damage to BCAT3 and Ile biosynthesis by hydrolyzing the Ser-derived enamine/imine product of Thr dehydratase.
Estimating contractors’ efficiency with panel data
Authors: Hung Chiang Yat , W.L. Cheng Eddie
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– This paper aims to explore the use of the data envelopment analysis (DEA), Cobb-Douglas and translog production function methods in estimating contractors’ efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

– In this paper, the DEA, translog and Cobb-Douglas methods were used to estimate the technical efficiency of 23 contractors in Hong Kong from 2003 to 2009. For this research, four input and three output variables were identified.

Findings

– The results suggest that the efficiency scores obtained from the DEA method were significantly different from those obtained from the translog and Cobb-Douglas methods, while the efficiency scores from the translog method were similar to those from the Cobb-Douglas method. The DEA method further reveals that the company had poor utilisation of its resources over the past few years. On the output side, the current ratio was too small, implying that the company suffered from excess current liabilities relative to its current assets.

Research limitations/implications

– Application of efficiency measurement in the built environment is still in its infancy. The current research, therefore, calls for more research to be undertaken to establish the applied literature base for the construction industry.

Practical implications

– The DEA method helps the inefficient company explore ways to improve the utilisation of the inputs as well as the process and to maximise the outputs.

Originality/value

– Knowing the relative performance of contractors helps understand their competitiveness in the construction industry. By estimating their technical efficiency, contractors can improve the conditions for enhancing performance.
A framework for the design of computer-assisted simulation training for complex police situations
Authors: Söderström Tor , Åström Jan , Anderson Greg , Bowles Ron
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to report progress concerning the design of a computer-assisted simulation training (CAST) platform for developing decision-making skills in police students. The overarching aim is to outline a theoretical framework for the design of CAST to facilitate police students’ development of search techniques in complex interactions within the built environment, learning to apply and perform the five “quick peek” techniques for information gathering, and subsequent risk evaluation.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper draws on Luckin's ecology of resources model of learner context informed with perspectives on reflective thinking from John Dewey and Donald Schön. The paper discusses design issues within the ecology of resources model applied on CAST for complex police situations.

Findings

– It is suggested that Luckin's framework with its focus on the interaction between different elements and filters in the learner's context together with Schön's perspective on reflection challenge educational designers to look beyond the immediate development of specific tools (such as the CAST in this project) and examine how these tools will be effectively embedded in the overall learning experience.

Originality/value

– This paper has presented two theoretical perspectives, Luckin's ecology of resources model and Schön's perspective on reflective practice as foundations for the educational design of CAST. Applying Luckin's framework as informed by Schön helps focus attention on issues that are important in the design process in order to facilitate educational transfer.
Sensitivity-to-diversity: a moderator of diversity – affective outcomes relationships
Authors: Zhang Lu , Goldberg Caren
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to develop two new constructs – sensitivity to gender and race/ethnicity diversity – and examined how differences in these constructs moderate the diversity – affective outcomes relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

– A sample of 250 full-time employees completed an online survey on their sensitivity, workgroup diversity, and affective reactions toward their workgroups.

Findings

– The paper performed a construct validation of the new sensitivity to diversity measures and found that they were conceptually distinct from two existing diversity perceptual constructs – gender identity salience and pro-diversity belief. Furthermore, the authors found that the moderating effect of sensitivity to gender diversity on the relationship between gender diversity and perceived cohesiveness and workgroup commitment was stronger for women than for men. The authors also found that the moderating role of sensitivity to race/ethnicity diversity on the relationship between race/ethnicity diversity and workgroup commitment and satisfaction with coworkers varied by race/ethnicity.

Research limitations/implications

– Although common method variance can be a problem, diagnostic tests indicated that it had minimal influence on the results.

Practical implications

– Organizations need to understand how individual differences among employees, especially among female and racial/ethnic minority employees, affect their responses to workgroup diversity and diversity initiatives.

Originality/value

– Prior research on diversity has generally not examined individual differences in the propensity to notice differences. This study contributes to the literature by examining the moderating roles of such important individual characteristics on the relationship between diversity and affective outcomes.
Diversity management and organizational change
Authors: Evans Christina
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– Set against a background of numerous institutionally funded programmes with a focus on gender mainstreaming, the purpose of this paper is to draw on institutional theory as an alternative lens to explain why such programmes often fail to achieve the desired outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper is based on a case of a European Social Fund EQUAL Programme aimed at enhancing employment opportunities for women in Information Technology, Electronics and Communication and related sectors. The paper focuses on the partnership working aspect, which is a fundamental mobilizing structure of European Commission programmes. Insights into the experiences of partnership working were gathered from interviews with 18, out of the 24 participating partners, on this specific programme.

Findings

– Tensions with partnership working are exposed and discussed: frustration with intra-organizational collaborative working and structures and outputs that promote a mimetic approach to change, legitimized through the symbolic use of “best practice”; findings more consistent with “institutional isomorphism”, as opposed to “institutional innovation”.

Social implications

– Given that partnership working remains a key mobilizing structure of gender mainstreaming programmes, both within Europe and in other contexts, the paper concludes with recommendations aimed at those responsible for commissioning and overseeing such programmes.

Originality/value

– This paper draws on institutional theory as an alternative lens to examine and explain why gender mainstreaming programmes do not always achieve the intended outcomes. To date, as others acknowledge, there has been limited work that has applied organizational theory to this problem.
C.U.L.T.U.R.E.: marketing education in the age of cultural diversity
Authors: Ringer Allison , Volkov Michael , Bridson Kerrie
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role Australian University marketing students’ cultural backgrounds play in their learning and their perceptions of assessment and explores whether current assessments appropriately address the differing needs of a culturally diverse student population.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper adopts a qualitative approach utilising five focus groups, each comprised of 12 students.

Findings

– Results indicate learning environments, learning and assessment approaches and assessment tasks each bring their own benefits, constraints and challenges to studying in a culturally diverse environment. Principles are presented for adoption by marketing educators in order to foster a vibrant, inclusive learning environment which meets the educational needs and wants of a culturally diverse student cohort.

Research limitations/implications

– The number of students representing different global regions or countries limited this study. With the exception of students from Australia and the Asian region, there were minimal students representing other cultural backgrounds despite every attempt being made to be culturally inclusive across global regions.

Practical implications

– The paper presents the principles of C.U.L.T.U.R.E. and recommends their integration into learning approaches and assessment practices across Schools and Faculties at the tertiary level.

Originality/value

– This paper fulfils an identified need to study a culturally diverse student cohort's perceptions and attitudes towards learning approaches and assessment practices and their perceived relevance to the provision of core graduate business and generic skills necessary for employability in the global marketplace.
Do real estate courses sufficiently develop graduates’ employability skills? Perspectives from multiple stakeholders
Authors: Poon Joanna
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accredited real estate courses in the UK have equipped real estate graduates with sufficient relevant employability skills to embark on a career in the profession. This paper considers the perspectives of four stakeholders – employers, human resource managers, graduates and course directors of RICS-accredited real estate courses – in the UK.

Design/methodology/approach

– The results of a mixed-methods study, involving two online surveys with real estate employers and recent graduates of RICS-accredited real estate courses, and two sets of interviews with human resource managers of real estate surveying firms and course directors of RICS-accredited real estate courses, are presented.

Findings

– The employers and graduates of the RICS-accredited real estate courses do not think the courses sufficiently equip graduates’ with employability skills. On the other hand, the human resource managers are very impressed with graduates’ technical skills but have concerns about their soft skills and attributes. Human resource managers and course directors of RICS real estate courses commented that commercial awareness is an important employability skill but graduates are not well developed in this area. Course directors also noted that practical experience is vital to employability, commenting that students can only obtain real-life practical experience if employers offer them opportunities.

Originality/value

– This paper makes an original contribution to the existing literature on employability skills for real estate graduates. It describes pioneering research considering the perspectives of four types of stakeholders and evaluates whether real estate courses sufficiently develop graduates’ employability skills.
Application of grey relational analysis to expose individual student's cognitive difficulties in English public speaking
Authors: Joyce Lee Yow-jyy , W. Lan Lawrence
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to propose a formative assessment framework to expose individual student's cognitive learning difficulties in English public speaking. The paper aims to provide student feedback and information during the teaching and learning process. A grey student-construct (S-C) chart is developed to represent the students’ cognitive mapping of the speech difficulties in relation to their overall speech conceptualization. This grey S-C chart can facilitate the instructors to ameliorate the classroom teaching and learning performance in English public speaking.

Design/methodology/approach

– In total, 26 students in a class of English Speech and Rhetoric participate in the experiment – each student views the online video segments of a great speaker's speech, and then decides what segments would best support the speaking skill constructs and also reflects on his/her own difficulties in the same constructs. The grey relational analysis (GRA) method is used to analyze the empirical data. The individual student's construct localization grey relation grade values are calculated to rank the grey relation for both students and constructs. Accordingly, a grey S-C matrix is constructed and a grey S-C chart can thus be developed.

Findings

– The grey S-C chart manifestly displays the cognitive difficulties in sequences of both students and constructs.

Practical implications

– According to the grey S-C chart, the instructors may modify teaching strategies to enhance the overall classroom performance. The students may adjust learning strategies to eliminate their specific difficulties. Offering individualized advanced and remedial practices to those largely deviating from the norm is also possible.

Originality/value

– The study is the first of its kind to apply the GRA method to expose individual student's cognitive learning difficulties in English public speaking. The grey S-C chart is novel in education literature, which can reveal individual student's learning difficulty patterns.
Combined forecasting of regional logistics demand optimized by genetic algorithm
Authors: He Feng-biao , Chang Jun
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to establish a combined forecasting model to predict regional logistics demand, which is an important procedure on decision making of regional logistics planning.

Design/methodology/approach

– There are several kinds of mathematical models often used in forecasting regional logistics demand. Trend extrapolation method extrapolates the future development trends bases on the hypothesis that the regional logistics will develop steadily. Grey system method predicts the change of logistics demand by the generation and development of original data sequence and excavation of inherent rules of the original data. Regression method obtains the change rules through the analysis between explained variable and explanatory variables. Each method has unique characteristics. In order to improve the accuracy of the prediction, combined methods are established. Genetic algorithm is used to determine the weights of different single models.

Findings

– The results show that the combined forecasting model optimised by genetic algorithm can improve the accuracy.

Practical implications

– Combined forecasting model can integrate the advantages of different single forecasting models. The key of improving the accuracy is to determine the weights of single forecasting models. Genetic algorithm can do well in finding suitable weights of each single forecasting model.

Originality/value

– The paper succeeds in providing a combined forecasting model using genetic algorithm to determine the weights of each single prediction model, which helps to the decision making of regional logistics demand.
Mobile communication service income prediction method based on grey buffer operator theory
Authors: Qu Pinpin
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The mobile communication industry in China is vulnerable to competition, industry regulation, macroeconomy and so on, which leads to service income's volatility and non-stationarity. Traditional income prediction models fail to take account of these factors, thus resulting in a low precision. The purpose of this paper is to to set up a new mobile communication service income prediction model based on grey system theory to overcome the inconformity between traditional models and qualitative analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

– At first, mobile telecommunication service income is divided into number of users (NU) and average revenue per user (ARPU) prediction, respectively. Then, grey buffer operators are introduced to preprocess the time series according to their features and tendencies to eliminate the effect of shock disturbance. As a result, two grey models based on GM(1, 1) are constructed to forecast NU and ARPU, and thus the service income is obtained. At last, a case on Zhujiang mobile communication company is studied. The result proves that the proposed method is not only more accurate, but also could discover the turning point of income.

Findings

– The results are convincing: it is more effective and accurate to employ grey buffer operator theory to predict the mobile communication service income compared with other methods. Besides, this method is applicable to cases with less data samples and faster development.

Practical implications

– It's common to come across a system with less data and poor information. At this case, the grey prediction method exposed in the paper can be used to forecast the future trend which will give the predictors advice to achieve fine outcomes. Buffer operators can reduce the effect of shock disturbance and the GM(1, 1) model has the advantages of exploiting information using only a couple of data.

Originality/value

– Considering the fast development of China's mobile communication in recent years, only limited data can be acquired to predict the future, which will definitely reduce the prediction precision using traditional models. The paper succeeds in introducing GM(1, 1) model based on grey buffer operators into the income prediction and the outcome proves that it has higher prediction precision and extensive application.
Discrete Verhulst model based on a linear time-varying
Authors: Long Xia , Wei Yong , Long Zhao
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to build a linear time-varying discrete Verhulst model (LTDVM), to realise the convert from continuous forms to discrete forms, and to eliminate traditional grey Verhulst model's error caused by difference equations directly jumping to differential equations.

Design/methodology/approach

– The methodology of the paper is by the light of discrete thoughts and countdown to the original data sequence.

Findings

– The research of this model manifests that LTDVM is unbiased on the “s” sequential simulation.

Practical implications

– The example analysis shows that LTDVM embodies simulation and prediction with high precision.

Originality/value

– This paper is to realise the convert from continuous forms to discrete forms, and to eliminate traditional grey Verhulst model's error caused by difference equations directly jumping to differential equations. Meanwhile, the research of this model manifests that LTDVM is unbiased on the “s” sequential simulation.
Determinants of subsidiary’s technological capability – examining the roles of subsidiary–local supplier linkage
Authors: Tseng Cher-Hung , Chen Liang-Tu
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– This study aims to explore the effects of subsidiary–local supplier linkage characteristics in a supply chain and the moderating effects of a multinational corporation’s (MNC’s) international experience (IE) and a subsidiary’s innovation orientation (IO) on the subsidiary’s technological capability.

Design/methodology/approach

– A new research framework is developed comprising four constructs and six research hypotheses. Applying the regression model, the hypotheses were tested on data from Taiwanese MNC’s subsidiaries of manufacturing industries in Asian developing countries.

Findings

– The subsidiary–local supplier linkage characteristics, including economic aspect: asset-specific investment (ASI) of local supplier and social aspect: relational capital (RC) of local linkage, are positively associated with subsidiary’s technological capability. Moreover, the MNC’s IE can enhance the positive effect of RC on the subsidiary’s technological capability and the subsidiary’s IO decreases the positive impact of ASI on the subsidiary’s technological capability.

Practical implications

– This study provides useful insights into how MNCs and subsidiaries should concentrate on the factors that increase the subsidiary’s technological capability. Moreover, MNCs’ and subsidiaries’ managers must endeavor to establish long-term linkages with carefully selected local suppliers, induce these suppliers to provide appropriate ASI, and actively develop RC in the subsidiary–local supplier linkage to enhance the subsidiary’s technological capability.

Originality/value

– This study demonstrates that subsidiary–local supplier linkage characteristics, MNC’s IE and subsidiary’s IO can be applied to examine the technological capability of subsidiaries operating in less advanced countries.
Media portrayals of older employees: a success story?
Authors: van Selm Martine , I.J.M. Van der Heijden Beatrice
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of how portrayals of older employees in mass media messages can help combating stereotypical beliefs on their employability.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors conducted a systematic review of empirical studies on mass media portrayals of older employees in order to show what these reveal about the ways in which their employment status, occupation, job type, or work setting is portrayed. The approach builds upon theory on media portrayals, media effects, and stereotypes of older workers’ employability.

Findings

– This study shows that older employees in media portrayals, when present at all, are relatively often shown in higher-level professional roles, herewith overall, depicting an image that is positive, yet differs from stereotypical beliefs on their employability that are prevalent in working organizations.

Research limitations/implications

– Further empirical work is needed to more safely conclude on the prevalence of age-related portrayals of work and employment in mass media. In addition, longitudinal research is called for in order to better understand the possible causes for the way in which older employees are portrayed, as well as effects of age-related stereotyping in mass media and corporate communication outlets over time.

Practical implications

– This research sparks ideas about how new portrayals of older employees in mass media and corporate communication outlets can contribute to novel approaches to managing an aging and multi-generational workforce.

Social implications

– This study shows how working organizations can make use of the positive and powerful media portrayals of older employees, in order to activate normal and non-ageist behaviors toward them, and herewith, to increase their life-long employability.

Originality/value

– This study highlights the role of media portrayals of older employees in combating stereotypes about their employability.
An improved background subtraction method for HRI based on image parameters
Authors: Ma Qiongxiong , Zhang Tie
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– Background subtraction is a particularly popular foreground detection method, whose background model can be updated by using input images. However, foreground object cannot be detected accurately if the background model is broken. In order to improve the performance of foreground detection in human-robot interaction (HRI), the purpose of this paper is to propose a new background subtraction method based on image parameters, which helps to improve the robustness of the existing background subtraction method.

Design/methodology/approach

– The proposed method evaluates the image and foreground results according to the image parameters representing the change features of the image. It ignores the image that is similar to the first image and the previous image in image sequence, filters the image that may break the background model and detects the abnormal background model. The method also helps to rebuild the background model when the model is broken.

Findings

– Experimental results of typical interaction scenes validate that the proposed method helps to reduce the broken probability of background model and improve the robustness of background subtraction.

Research limitations/implications

– Different threshold values of image parameters may affect the results in different environments. Future researches should focus on the automatic selection of parameters’ threshold values according to the interaction scene.

Practical implications

– A useful method for foreground detection in HRI.

Originality/value

– This paper proposes a method which employs image parameters to improve the robustness of the background subtraction for foreground detection in HRI.
The impact of social cues and effectiveness in check-in advertising
Authors: Liu Chi-Lun
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– Check-in based advertising is growing dramatically as the popularity of social media increases. The purpose of this paper is to explore which social cues are appropriate for check-in based advertising in social media based on media richness theory and how content effectiveness affects content generation intention based on achievement motivation theory.

Design/methodology/approach

– A laboratory experiment was performed to evaluate the effects of social cue strategies on content effectiveness of attitude toward the ad and self-efficacy on recall. The influence of effectiveness on content generation intention are also measured in the experiment.

Findings

– The results of a laboratory experiment indicated that a strategy of using plentiful social cues has high effectiveness as measured by the concept of attitude toward the ad. Content effectiveness measured by attitude toward the ad and self-efficacy on recall can directly affect user intentions to generating check-in based advertisements.

Research limitations/implications

– Although check-in based advertising is driven by the customers themselves rather than by the company, companies can encourage their customers to follow an appropriate check-in content generation strategy to improve effectiveness.

Practical implications

– The findings of this study provide useful information for designing the content of social media designed to facilitate the promotion of products and companies in online marketing.

Originality/value

– In theoretical contribution, this study integrates media richness theory and achievement motivation theory to explore how users intent to generate check-in advertising according to social cues effectiveness.
The allocation of sub-decision making units to parallel fuzzy network systems
Authors: Hadi-Vencheh A. , Ghelej Beigi Zahra , Gholami Kobra
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to consider the following problem; if the manager of the parallel network systems wants to add new sub-decision making units (sub-DMUs) to each parallel network system, he/she wants to know how much new fuzzy inputs allocate to new sub-DMUs and how much outputs these new sub-DMUs produce such that the efficiency of each parallel network system improve or preserve.

Design/methodology/approach

– Resource allocation and target setting is a famous topic in management science, therefore many managers attention to this field. Data envelopment analysis is one approach to apply the resource. Resource allocation and target setting is a famous topic in management science, therefore many managers attention to this field. Data envelopment analysis is one approach to apply the resource allocation and target setting. In real application the structure of many DMUs are network and the data of them are imprecise. In this work first the authors calculate the fuzzy efficiency of parallel systems by common set of weights method, after that the authors propose an approach to find how much fuzzy inputs allocate to new sub-DMUs, and how much new fuzzy outputs produce, where the efficiency of each parallel network system improve or preserve.

Findings

– It is found the value of inputs and outputs of new sub-DMUs, where the efficiency of each system not worse than before.

Practical implications

– The method can be used in many organizations such as banks, chain stores, car factory, etc.

Originality/value

– For the first time the authors allocate new sub-DMUs to each system, and the data of paper are fuzzy numbers.
Time as a constitutive element of information expressed in signs
Authors: Szulc Jolanta , Besler Gabriela
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to find a structure of information expressed in signs. Analysis shows that the arrow of time must be included in its constituent elements.

Design/methodology/approach

– The objective was achieved by discussing some important concepts of sign, both philosophical and semiotic. The results were then applied to a case study and also referred to collecting, searching and processing information.

Findings

– The results of the research are as follows: a sign structure useful for information science is composed of five elements: the sign itself, the sender of an information's content, the recipient of the information's content, a context in which a sign appears and a situation (or an object) in reality to which a sign refers. The place of the arrow of time is in the element called a context.

Research limitations/implications

– Further research should concentrate on the following subjects: the active or passive role of a person in sign-situations; and the sign as a subjective/objective entity.

Practical implications

– Such a solution seems to be useful in the area of information science.

Originality/value

– Two new ideas have appeared in this paper: the five-element conception of sign with a place for the arrow of time; and applying this idea into an analysis case study and research on collecting, searching and processing information.
Conflict analysis model and application based on intuitionistic fuzzy number
Authors: Liu Yong , Lin Yi , Liu Jian
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to establish a novel conflict analysis model so that it can well describe and deal with the real conflict problems.

Design/methodology/approach

– In order to overcome the shortcomings that the agents have only three attitudes with respect to the conflict issues in Pawlak conflict information system, so that it is too stiff to describe and portray the real conflict problems, the thought and methodology of the intuitionistic fuzzy set is employed to soften the agents’ attitudes of the conflict issues, and then a novel conflict analysis model is constructed. This method, to begin with, the intuitionistic fuzzy number is used to express the opposition and support degree with respect to the conflict issues from agents, and then the similarity measure method is utilized to define conflict coefficient; what is more, the conflict degrees between any two agents can be obtained, and then the alliances are determined by setting different threshold values. Finally, an example illustrates the validity and rationality of the proposed method.

Findings

– The novel conflict analysis model proposed in the paper can well describe and resolve a real-life conflict problems such as the conflict of national territory, employee and employer.

Research limitations/implications

– The proposed model can only do with the conflict problems in which there do not exit the correlations among conflict issues, while it does not cope with the conflict problems with the mutually interrelated conflict issues.

Originality/value

– The paper succeeds in softening the Pawlak conflict analysis information system, and describing and dealing with the actual conflict problems.
Terrestrial ecosystem loss and biosphere collapse
Authors: Barry Glen
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to propose a measurable terrestrial ecosystem boundary to answer the question: what extent of landscapes, bioregions, continents, and the global Earth System must remain as connected and intact core ecological areas and agro-ecological buffers to sustain local and regional ecosystem services as well as the biosphere commons?

Design/methodology/approach

– This observational study reviews planetary boundary, biosphere, climate, ecosystems, and ecological tipping point science. It presents a refinement to planetary boundary science to include a measurable terrestrial ecosystem boundary based on landscape ecology and percolation theory. The paper concludes with discussion of the urgency posed by ecosystem collapse.

Findings

– A new planetary boundary threshold is proposed based on ecology's percolation theory: that across scales 60 percent of terrestrial ecosystems must remain, setting the boundary at 66 percent as a precaution, to maintain key biogeochemical processes that sustain the biosphere and for ecosystems to remain the context for human endeavors. Strict protection is proposed for 44 percent of global land, 22 percent as agro-ecological buffers, and 33 percent as zones of sustainable human use.

Research limitations/implications

– It is not possible to carry out controlled experiments on Earth's one biosphere, removing landscape connectivity to see long-term effects results upon ecological well-being.

Practical implications

– Spatially explicit goals for the amount and connectivity of natural and agro-ecological ecosystems to maintain ecological connectivity across scales may help in planning land use, including protection and placement of ecological restoration activities.

Originality/value

– This paper proposes the first measureable and spatially explicit terrestrial ecosystem loss threshold as part of planetary boundary science.
Why talk of illness entrenches discrimination
Authors: Sayce Liz
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– Biological understandings of mental illness are promoted by both anti-stigma campaigners and increasingly by activists protesting against social security cuts. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the pitfalls of the “illness” conceptualisation for reducing discrimination, comments on divisions between those arguing for a right to work and those who seek a right not to work, and proposes bridge building and more effective messages, drawing on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

– Review of relevant evidence on the effectiveness or lack of it of the “mental illness is an illness like any other” message in anti-stigma work, and discussion of grey literature from campaigners and bloggers.

Findings

– There is a growing body of evidence that the “illness like any other” message entrenches rather than reduces stigma and discrimination: this message should not be used in anti-discrimination work. At the same time some social security bloggers and campaigners have argued they are “sick” in order to resist efforts to compel them to seek work or face sanctions; whilst older disability rights campaigners have argued for the right to work. The paper argues for new bridge building and use of evidence based messages in campaigning.

Research limitations/implications

– This paper is based on review of evidence on the impact of using the “illness” message to reduce stigma and discrimination; and on discussion of campaigns and blogs. It is not based on a systematic review of campaigns.

Practical implications

– There is a need for campaigns that support rights holistically – the right to a decent standard of living and the right to work. This requires bridge building between activists, which could usefully be rooted in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The “illness” conceptualisation is harmful to the effort to reduce stigma and discrimination. Mental health staff can act as allies to those they serve in securing all these rights.

Originality/value

– This is the only recent paper to analyse the evidence that the “illness like any other” message is harmful in anti-stigma work, together with its implications for the recent phenomenon of mental health campaigners moving from opposition to the medical model, to a new argument that they are “too sick” to work. This paper suggests ways forward for everyone with an interest in combatting stigma and discrimination.
Who uses herbs and spices?
Authors: Chun Wang Wei , Worsley Anthony
Published: July 2014

Purpose

– This paper aims to examine the usage patterns of herbs and spices among Australians and to identify how herbs and spices were consumed by respondents from different social backgrounds.

Design/methodology/approach

– In all, 1,023 adult Australians completed an online survey and ranked the frequencies of use of 21 herbs and spices and provided details of their demographics, cooking intentions and household types.

Findings

– Latent class analysis was applied and three types of usage patterns were identified, including high use, moderate use and low use of herbs and spices. The usage patterns were associated differentially with several covariates. For example, the chance of being in the high-usage group was positively associated with age, number of adults living in the household and cooking evening meals from scratch, but negatively related to levels of education and possession of cooking or culinary qualifications. Moreover, respondents who cooked their evening meals from scratch and who were not interested in receiving information or advice about making inexpensive but tasty meals were more likely to be in the moderate- rather than the low-usage group.

Originality/value

– The identification of groups of users of herbs and spices would enable health communications to be tailored to enhance the use of herbs and spices and reduce the use of other flavouring agent including fat, sugar and salt.