bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“Patience, please”
Authors: Wyles Christine
Published: August 2016

A significant number of people with dementia show challenging behaviours; one of the most challenging is vocally disruptive behaviour (VDB). VDB may be difficult to manage in all settings but particularly in rest homes and private dementia care hospitals. In a 2011 study direct observation of VDB was used to analyse the incidence, content of and response to VDB in two private New Zealand residential dementia care hospitals. Examples of VDB from both hospitals are discussed to illustrate the nature of VDB, both purposive and non-purposive. The relationship of the antecedents and consequences to the VDB are highlighted. Possible interventions to reduce VDB are reviewed. This challenging behaviour is highly variable and case specific. Caregivers would benefit from specific training to equip themselves with a range of interventions to allow for the individual needs of residents and the changing nature of the behaviour. More studies that use direct observation and participatory action research would enhance the current understanding of VDB and how to effectively manage it.
Mechanisms of conflict and aggression in the dementia context
Authors: Wray Alison
Published: August 2016

It is proposed that conflict is an almost inevitable outcome, when, as in dementia communication, the delicate relationship between linguistic processing and pragmatics is upset. This relationship has been little researched, even though much is known about the two components in isolation. Making particular use of key observations and claims from the papers in this special issue, a macro-conceptualisation of the dynamics of conflict and aggression in the dementia context is developed. It is proposed that the cognitive and linguistic processing problems experienced by a person with dementia (PWD) can undermine her capacity to manage her spoken output in the way necessary to match the situational pragmatics, resulting in failure to achieve her interactional goals. The mismatch will create internal dissonance that may be expressed as aggression. Importantly, caregivers will also experience dissonance when their communicative agenda is not fulfilled. This may happen when their expectations of the situational pragmatics (e.g., old versus new information) are contradicted by the behaviour of the PWD. Here too, the dissonance may result in aggression or conflict. Modelling the mechanisms of ‘Communicative Impact’ (CI) offers a way to capture the relationship between processing and pragmatics and to examine how speakers attempt to resolve the dissonance. The CI model gives insights into how the risk of conflict in interaction between people with dementia and their caregivers might be minimised.
A particular kind of ‘action-reaction’
Authors: Dumitrescu Domnita
Published: August 2016

In this article, I discuss a particular (and little studied) action-reaction exchange in Spanish and Romanian, consisting of a dyadic exchange where an exploratory speech act (i.e., a question) is followed by a sequence-dependent reactive speech act, which repeats parts or all of the trigger’s structure in an interrogative form. Rather than being a canonical echo question, the reactive speech act under discussion represents what I call an Interrogative Echo Response (IER), by virtue of the fact that it provides an answer of opposite polarity to that of the initiative move put forward by the questioner (or Interrogative Echo Reply, when the response may or must be explicitly provided after the sequence-dependent interrogative utterance). In both languages, these IERs (and IERps) have a distinct syntactic structure, and the discourse function they fulfill is that of rhetorically challenging the validity of the initial move and providing (or implying) a response of opposite polarity with regard to the triggering question.
Post-Pussy Riot: art and protest in Russia today
Authors: Jonson Lena
Published: August 2016

This article shows that resistance and a critical discourse continue in the arts, especially in visual art, in Russia under the present political conditions when free speech has been seriously circumscribed. When in May 2012 Vladimir Putin was reinstalled as president with a new authoritarian conservative agenda, it was expected that the situation for culture would change. This article addresses the question of whether a critical discourse survived in the arts under the new conditions. It presents the new political context for the arts, and provides examples of various artistic strategies of resistance/protest in Russian contemporary art by applying Jacques Ranciere's concept of dissensus. The focus is on visual art, although references are also made to the world of theater. The first section presents the new official role given to culture and the new state cultural policy as components of a reactionary backlash against the reform policies under Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, and describes conflicts around art and art productions that followed from the new state policy. A second section gives examples of dissensus in art today by presenting artworks by Piotr Pavlenskii, Arsenii Zhilyaev, Stas Shuripa, and Anna Titova.
R.H. Tawney and Christian Social Teaching: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism Reconsidered
Authors: Kirby James
Published: August 2016

The historian and socialist R.H. Tawney’s Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926) was one of the most influential works of non-fiction to be written in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century. Fusing historical, religious and social thought, it is the central work of Tawney’s oeuvre, but commentary upon it has focused narrowly on its historiographical significance. When attention is paid to the text and its context, it becomes clear that it arose from Tawney’s project of renewing Christian teaching on economic and social conduct. Crucial to the recovery of Tawney’s purposes here is his contribution to a Church of England report on Christianity and Industrial Problems (1918), a key text in the growth of socialism in the established church in the inter-war years. This article draws on the hitherto unused papers of the committee behind this report to demonstrate for the first time that Tawney was its main author; and it reveals that this was the first place in which he set out the ideas which would become Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. These discoveries force us to reassess Tawney’s early political thought, especially The Acquisitive Society (1921), and to conclude that Tawney as a thinker was not merely an ‘ethical socialist’, but a thinker profoundly indebted to a tradition of austere, Anglo-Catholic socialism associated especially with the theologian Charles Gore. This also revises our view of Tawney’s conception of capitalism, showing that he saw ‘usury’ as pivotal to its historical ascent.
Effectiveness of lobster fisheries management in New Zealand and Nova Scotia from multi-species and ecosystem perspectives
Authors: Eddy Tyler D. , Araújo Julio N. , Bundy Alida , Fulton Elizabeth A. , Lotze Heike K.
Published: August 2016

In New Zealand and Nova Scotia, lobster (Jasus edwardsii and Homarus americanus, respectively) is the most valuable export fishery. Although stock assessments and indicators assist in evaluating lobster fisheries, ecosystem effects are largely unknown, hindering ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM). We employed ecosystem models for the Cook Strait, New Zealand and western Scotian Shelf, Nova Scotia, Canada, to evaluate trade-offs between catches and ecosystem impacts in lobster fisheries from single- and multi-species perspectives. We ran simulations to independently determine exploitation rates that produced maximum sustainable yield (MSY) for lobster, and for all fished groups. We then ran simulations using these MSY exploitation rates simultaneously, and simulations to maximize multi-species MSY (MMSY). Our results indicate that current lobster exploitation rates in both regions are greater than those producing MSY, and have significant ecosystem impacts. Simulating multi-species fisheries, in both systems the sum of single-species MSY for all fished groups was less than the sum of catches where exploitation rates were run simultaneously. Runs maximizing MMSY across the entire ecosystem increased exploitation rates on many fished groups, and produced even greater total catch—yet with much greater ecological costs—and in Nova Scotia, collapses of sharks, large predators, and lobster themselves. As fisheries management moves towards multi-species and ecosystem-based approaches, we suggest that MMSY targets should be treated similarly to MSY—not as a target, but a limit. Even then, careful evaluation is required before implementation to ensure that there are no undesirable economic or ecological consequences.
Legislating For Control: The Trade Union Act 2016
Authors: Ford Michael , Novitz Tonia
Published: August 2016

In this introduction to a special issue on the Trade Union Act 2016 (TUA), we consider the background and context in which the new legislation was enacted and then outline briefly the actual provisions which were in fact adopted after the full parliamentary process had been followed. These were by no means identical to the Government’s original proposals and involved political compromise in the build up to the Brexit referendum. As the contributions to this special issue demonstrate, the motivations and justifications behind the reforms were multiple, sometimes unexpressed, and far from straightforward. Here, we review the conclusions reached by the authors, and offer some thoughts of our own regarding the new mechanisms for controlling unions in the TUA. We conclude by suggesting strategies that workers and their organisations might deploy in resisting these controls, while conceding the limitations of these responses.
Evaluation of Chronic Pain Using Magnetic Resonance (MR) Neuroimaging Approaches
Authors: Kumbhare Dinesh A. , Elzibak Alyaa H. , Noseworthy Michael D.
Published: August 2016

Objectives:

Numerous neuroimaging techniques have been recently used to investigate central mechanisms involved in pain perception and to examine morphological and functional brain alterations associated with chronic pain. Compared to self-reporting approaches, objective imaging techniques are expected to potentially lead to better pain assessment and guide management. This comprehensive scoping review aims to identify recent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approaches that have been used to characterize the brain of chronic pain subjects, using structural, chemical and functional MRI techniques.

Methods:

A systematic search and review of the literature was conducted and the resultant studies were critically examined for relevance.

Results:

MRI neuroimaging of various chronic pain conditions were summarized. We classified the collected studies into: structural brain alterations, VBM (voxel based morphology) examination of structural changes, DTI, changes in brain chemistry, functional and blood flow brain alterations.

Discussion:

From our clinical experience, we have noted that most clinicians are not aware of the capabilities of advanced MRI methods in assessing cortical manifestations of chronic pain. In addition, many clinicians are not aware of the cortical alterations present in individuals with chronic pain. This comprehensive scoping review thus sets out to first summarize MRI neuroimaging techniques that are available in the current literature to examine chronic pain. We then identify cortical MR approaches that have been able to reliably predict transition from acute to chronic pain. Finally, we summarize MRI neuroimaging techniques that have been used to track treatment response of individuals with chronic pain.
Preoperative But Not Postoperative Flurbiprofen Axetil Alleviates Remifentanil-induced Hyperalgesia After Laparoscopic Gynecological Surgery
Authors: Zhang Linlin , Shu Ruichen , Zhao Qi , Li Yize , Wang Chunyan , Wang Haiyun , Yu Yonghao , Wang Guolin
Published: August 2016

Background:

Acute remifentanil exposure during intraoperative analgesia might enhance sensitivity to noxious stimuli and nociceptive responses to innocuous irritation. Cyclooxygenase inhibition was demonstrated to attenuate experimental remifentanil-induced hyperalgesia (RIH) in rodents and human volunteers. The study aimed to compare the effects of preoperative and postoperative flurbiprofen axetil (FA) on RIH after surgery.

Materials and Methods:

Ninety patients undergoing elective laparoscopic gynecologic surgery were randomly assigned to receive either intravenous placebo before anesthesia induction (Group C); or intravenous FA (1.0 mg/kg) before anesthesia induction (Group F1) or before skin closure (Group F2). Anesthesia consisted off sevoflurane and remifentanil (0.30 μg/kg/min). Postoperative pain was managed by sufentanil titration in the postanesthetic care unit, followed by sufentanil infusion via patient-controlled analgesia. Mechanical pain threshold (primary outcome), pain scores, sufentanil consumption, and side-effects were documented for 24 hours postoperatively.

Results:

Postoperative pain score in Group F1 was lower than Group C. Time of first postoperative sufentanil titration was prolonged in Group F1 than Group C (P=0.021). Cumulative sufentanil consumption in Group F1 was lower than Group C (P<0.001), with a mean difference of 8.75 (95% confidence interval, 5.21-12.29) μg. Mechanical pain threshold on the dominant inner forearm was more elevated in Group F1 than Group C (P=0.005), with a mean difference of 17.7 (95% confidence interval, 5.4-30.0) g. Normalized hyperalgesia area was decreased in Group F1 compared to Group C (P=0.007). No statistically significant difference was observed between Group F2 and Group C.

Conclusions:

Preoperative FA reduces postoperative RIH in patients undergoing laparoscopic gynecologic surgery under sevoflurane-remifentanil anesthesia.
Effects of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on Brain Connectivity Supporting Catastrophizing in Fibromyalgia
Authors: Lazaridou Asimina , Kim Jieun , Cahalan Christine M. , Loggia Marco L. , Franceschelli Olivia , Berna Chantal , Schur Peter , Napadow Vitaly , Edwards Robert R.
Published: August 2016

Objective(s):

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic, common pain disorder characterized by hyperalgesia. A key mechanism by which cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) fosters improvement in pain outcomes is via reductions in hyperalgesia and pain-related catastrophizing, a dysfunctional set of cognitive-emotional processes. However, the neural underpinnings of these CBT effects are unclear. Our aim was to assess CBT’s effects on the brain circuitry underlying hyperalgesia in FM patients, and to explore the role of treatment-associated reduction in catastrophizing as a contributor to normalization of pain-relevant brain circuitry and clinical improvement.

Methods:

In total, 16 high-catastrophizing FM patients were enrolled in the study and randomized to 4 weeks of individual treatment with either CBT or a Fibromyalgia Education (control) condition. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans evaluated functional connectivity between key pain-processing brain regions at baseline and posttreatment. Clinical outcomes were assessed at baseline, posttreatment, and 6-month follow-up.

Results:

Catastrophizing correlated with increased resting state functional connectivity between S1 and anterior insula. The CBT group showed larger reductions (compared with the education group) in catastrophizing at posttreatment (P<0.05), and CBT produced significant reductions in both pain and catastrophizing at the 6-month follow-up (P<0.05). Patients in the CBT group also showed reduced resting state connectivity between S1 and anterior/medial insula at posttreatment; these reductions in resting state connectivity were associated with concurrent treatment-related reductions in catastrophizing.

Discussion:

The results add to the growing support for the clinically important associations between S1-insula connectivity, clinical pain, and catastrophizing, and suggest that CBT may, in part via reductions in catastrophizing, help to normalize pain-related brain responses in FM.
Lack of Agreement Between Endocervical Brush and Endocervical Curettage in Women Undergoing Repeat Endocervical Sampling
Authors: Doo David W. , Stickrath Elaine H. , Mazzoni Sara E. , Alston Meredith J.
Published: August 2016

Objective

To evaluate agreement between an abnormal endocervical brush (ECB) collected at the time of colposcopy and subsequent endocervical curettage (ECC).

Methods

All women evaluated for lower genital tract disease at a single academic institution were prospectively entered into a database. The database was queried for those who had a colposcopic exam with ECB between April 1, 2013, and June 15, 2015, and who subsequently returned for an ECC to further evaluate eligibility for expectant management or ablative therapy. ECB and ECC results were divided into 2 groups: “low-grade” included low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL) or atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance, and “high-grade” included high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) or atypical squamous cells—cannot exclude high-grade. Women with atypical glandular cells and unsatisfactory ECB results were excluded. Percent agreement between ECB and ECC was calculated based on these categories.

Results

Seventy-nine women were included: 54 (68%) had a low-grade ECB, and 25 (32%) had a high-grade ECB. Of those who had a low-grade ECB, 4 had a low-grade ECC, 3 had a high-grade ECC, and 47 were negative, resulting in an agreement of 7.4% (4/54). Of those who had a high-grade ECB, 1 had a low-grade ECC, 4 had a high-grade ECC, and 20 were negative, resulting in 16% (4/25) agreement.

Conclusions

Our data suggest that there is poor agreement between ECC and ECB in our patient population.
Novel ciliate lipases for enzyme replacement during exocrine pancreatic insufficiency
Authors: Brock Alexander , Aldag Ingo , Edskes Stella , Hartmann Marcus , Herzog Torsten , Uhl Waldemar , Schnekenburger Juergen
Published: August 2016

Aim and objectives

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency caused by inflammation or pancreatic tumors results in nutrient malfunction by a lack of digestive enzymes and neutralization compounds. Despite satisfactory clinical results with current enzyme therapies, a normalization of fat absorption in patients is rare. An individualized therapy is required that includes high dosage of enzymatic units, usage of enteric coating, and addition of gastric proton pump inhibitors. The key goal to improve this therapy is to identify digestive enzymes with high activity and stability in the gastrointestinal tract.

Methods

We cloned and analyzed three novel ciliate lipases derived from Tetrahymena thermophila. Using highly precise pH-STAT-titration and colorimetric methods, we determined stability and lipolytic activity under physiological conditions in comparison with commercially available porcine and fungal digestive enzyme preparations. We measured from pH 2.0 to 9.0, with different bile salts concentrations, and substrates such as olive oil and fat derived from pig diet.

Results

Ciliate lipases CL-120, CL-130, and CL-230 showed activities up to 220-fold higher than Creon, pancreatin standard, and rizolipase Nortase within a pH range from pH 2.0 to 9.0. They are highly active in the presence of bile salts and complex pig diet substrate, and more stable after incubation in human gastric juice compared with porcine pancreatic lipase and rizolipase.

Conclusions

The newly cloned and characterized lipases fulfilled all requirements for high activity under physiological conditions. These novel enzymes are therefore promising candidates for an improved enzyme replacement therapy for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.
Surgical Site Infections
Authors: Calderwood Michael S. , Kleinman Ken , Huang Susan S. , Murphy Michael V. , Yokoe Deborah S. , Platt Richard
Published: August 2016

Background:

Surgical site infection (SSI) rates are publicly reported as quality metrics and increasingly used to determine financial reimbursement.

Objective:

To evaluate the volume-outcome relationship as well as the year-to-year stability of performance rankings following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and hip arthroplasty.

Research Design:

We performed a retrospective cohort study of Medicare beneficiaries who underwent CABG surgery or hip arthroplasty at US hospitals from 2005 to 2011, with outcomes analyzed through March 2012. Nationally validated claims-based surveillance methods were used to assess for SSI within 90 days of surgery. The relationship between procedure volume and SSI rate was assessed using logistic regression and generalized additive modeling. Year-to-year stability of SSI rates was evaluated using logistic regression to assess hospitals’ movement in and out of performance rankings linked to financial penalties.

Results:

Case-mix adjusted SSI risk based on claims was highest in hospitals performing <50 CABG/year and <200 hip arthroplasty/year compared with hospitals performing ≥200 procedures/year. At that same time, hospitals in the worst quartile in a given year based on claims had a low probability of remaining in that quartile the following year. This probability increased with volume, and when using 2 years’ experience, but the highest probabilities were only 0.59 for CABG (95% confidence interval, 0.52–0.66) and 0.48 for hip arthroplasty (95% confidence interval, 0.42–0.55).

Conclusions:

Aggregate SSI risk is highest in hospitals with low annual procedure volumes, yet these hospitals are currently excluded from quality reporting. Even for higher volume hospitals, year-to-year random variation makes past experience an unreliable estimator of current performance.
Selective Unidirectional Horizontal Saccadic Paralysis From Acute Ipsilateral Pontine Stroke
Authors: Pham Thong D. , Trobe Jonathan D.
Published: August 2016

Background:

Impairment of unidirectional horizontal saccades with sparing of smooth pursuit has been described in human lesions in the dorsomedial pons. They have been too large to allow localization to the pontine paramedian reticular formation (PPRF).

Methods:

Single case report.

Results:

A patient with impaired rightward saccades but spared rightward pursuit eye movements had a brain MRI showing a discrete area of restricted diffusion in the region corresponding to the PPRF.

Conclusions:

This case provides support for the concept that PPRF lesions in humans may selectively impair unidirectional horizontal saccades.
John Raymond Postgate FIBiol. 24 June 1922 — 22 October 2014
Authors: Robson Rob , Smith Barry , Dixon Ray
Published: August 2016

John Postgate was one of the foremost microbiologists of his generation. He is most famous for his lifelong research on sulfate-reducing bacteria and nitrogen fixation and for his seminal contributions to understanding the survival and death of bacteria. John Postgate is also known for his specialist and non-specialist books on science, most notably
Microbes and man
, first published in 1986 and now in several editions and translated into several languages. He played an important role in the development and dissemination of microbiology and in the leadership of science in the UK. John will also be remembered warmly as the supervisor and mentor of aspiring young microbiologists, several of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in microbiology. His other great love was jazz: he was an amateur cornet player of note, the leader of several jazz groups and a highly knowledgeable writer, reviewer and author of two books on the subject.
CIDR: Ultrafast and accurate clustering through imputation for single-cell RNA-Seq data
Authors: Lin Peijie , Troup Michael , Ho Joshua W. K.
Published: August 2016

Most existing dimensionality reduction and clustering packages for single-cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) data deal with dropouts by heavy modelling and computational machinery. Here we introduceCIDR(Clustering through Imputation and Dimensionality Reduction), an ultrafast algorithm which uses a novel yet very simple ‘implicit imputation’ approach to alleviate the impact of dropouts in scRNA-Seq data in a principled manner. Using a range of simulated and real data, we have shown thatCIDRimproves the standard principal component analysis and outperforms the state-of-the-art methods, namelyt-SNE, ZIFAandRaceID, in terms of clustering accuracy.CIDRtypically completes within seconds for processing a data set of hundreds of cells, and minutes for a data set of thousands of cells.CIDRcan be downloaded athttps://github.org/VCCRI/CIDR.
Bartender: an ultrafast and accurate clustering algorithm to count barcode and amplicon reads
Authors: Zhao Lu , Liu Zhimin , Levy Sasha F. , Wu Song
Published: August 2016

Barcode sequencing (bar-seq) is a high-throughput, and cost effective method to assay large numbers of lineages or genotypes in complex cell pools. Because of its advantages, applications for bar-seq are quickly growing – from using neutral random barcodes to study the evolution of microbes or cancer, to using pseudo-barcodes, such as shRNAs, sgRNAs, or transposon insertion libraries, to simultaneously screen large numbers of cell perturbations. However, the computational pipelines for bar-seq have not been well developed. Available methods, which use prior information and/or simple brute-force comparisons, are slow and often result in overclustering artifacts that group distinct barcodes together. Here, we developed Bartender: an ultrafast and accurate clustering algorithm to detect barcodes and their abundances from raw next-generation sequencing data. To improve speed and reduce unnecessary pairwise comparisons, Bartender employs a divide-and-conquer strategy that intelligently sorts barcode reads into distinct bins before performing comparisons. To improve accuracy and reduce over-clustering artifacts, Bartender employs a modified two-sample proportion test that uses information on both the cluster sequence distances and cluster sizes to make merging decisions. Additionally, Bartender includes a “multiple time point” mode, which matches barcode clusters between different clustering runs for seamless handling of time course data. For both simulated and real data, Bartender clusters millions of unique barcodes in a few minutes at high accuracy (>99.9%), and is ~100-fold faster than previous methods. Bartender is a set of simple-to-use command line tools that can be performed on a laptop.

Availability

Bartender is available at no charge for non-commercial use athttps://github.com/LaoZZZZZ/bartender-1.1.
Genomes of Ellobius species provide insight into the evolutionary dynamics of mammalian sex chromosomes
Authors: Mulugeta Eskeatnaf , Wassenaar Evelyne , Sleddens-Linkels Esther , van IJcken Wilfred F.J. , Heard Edith , Grootegoed J. Anton , Just Walter , Gribnau Joost , Baarends Willy M.
Published: August 2016

The X and Y sex chromosomes of placental mammals show hallmarks of a tumultuous evolutionary past. The X Chromosome has a rich and conserved gene content, while the Y Chromosome has lost most of its genes. In the Transcaucasian mole vole Ellobius lutescens, the Y Chromosome including Sry has been lost, and both females and males have a 17,X diploid karyotype. Similarly, the closely related Ellobius talpinus, has a 54,XX karyotype in both females and males. Here, we report the sequencing and assembly of the E. lutescens and E. talpinus genomes. The results indicate that the loss of the Y Chromosome in E. lutescens and E. talpinus occurred in two independent events. Four functional homologs of mouse Y-Chromosomal genes were detected in both female and male E. lutescens, of which three were also detected in the E. talpinus genome. One of these is Eif2s3y, known as the only Y-derived gene that is crucial for successful male meiosis. Female and male E. lutescens can carry one and the same X Chromosome with a largely conserved gene content, including all genes known to function in X Chromosome inactivation. The availability of the genomes of these mole vole species provides unique models to study the dynamics of sex chromosome evolution.
Escaping accountability: a case of Australia’s asylum seeker policy
Authors: McPhail Ken , Nyamori Robert Ochoki , Taylor Savitri
Published: August 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to address two questions: first, what contracts, instruments and accounting activities constitute Australia’s offshore asylum seeker processing policy in practice? Second, how are notions of legitimacy and accountability mediated through the network constituted by this policy?

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper is located in the critical interpretivist approach to accounting research. It is based on an exhaustive documentary analysis. Policy documents, contract documents, records of parliamentary inquiries (Hansard) and legislation were analysed drawing on a network policy perspective.

Findings

– The paper finds that the Australian Government has sought to escape its accountability obligations by employing a range of approaches. The first of these approaches is the construction of a network involving foreign states, private corporations and non-government organizations. The second is through a watered down accountability regime and refusal to be accountable for the day-to-day life of asylum seekers in offshore processing centres through a play with the meaning of “effective control”. Yet while the policy network seems designed to create accountability gaps, the requirement within the network to remain financially accountable undermines the governments claims not to be responsible for the conditions in the detention camps.

Research limitations/implications

– The paper focuses largely on the period starting from when Kevin Rudd became Prime Minister to the death in Papua New Guinea of asylum seeker Reza Barati on 17 February 2014. Earlier periods are beyond the scope of this paper.

Practical implications

– The paper will result in the identification of deficiencies inhuman rights accountability for extra-territorialized and privatised immigration detention and may contribute towards the formulation of effective policy recommendations to overcome such deficiencies. The paper also provides empirical data on, and academic understanding of, immigration detention outsourcing and offshoring.

Social implications

– The paper will inform debate regarding treatment of unauthorized maritime arrivals and asylum seekers generally.

Originality/value

– The paper provides the first detailed and full understanding of the way Australia’s offshore asylum seeker processing policy is practiced. The paper also provides an empirical analysis of the way national policy and its associated accountability mechanisms emerge in response to the competing legitimacy claims of the international community and national electorate.
Qualitative generalising in accounting research: concepts and strategies
Authors: Parker Lee D. , Northcott Deryl
Published: August 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to identify and articulate concepts and approaches to qualitative generalisation that will offer qualitative accounting researchers avenues for enhancing and justifying the general applicability of their research findings and conclusions.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study and arguments draw from multidisciplinary approaches to this issue. The analysis and theorising is based on published qualitative research literatures from the fields of education, health sciences, sociology, information systems, management and marketing, as well as accounting.

Findings

– The paper develops two overarching generalisation concepts for application by qualitative accounting researchers. These are built upon a number of qualitative generalisation concepts that have emerged in the multidisciplinary literatures. It also articulates strategies for enhancing the generalisability of qualitative accounting research findings.

Research limitations/implications

– The paper provides qualitative accounting researchers with understandings, arguments and justifications for the generalisability of their research and the related potential for wider accounting and societal contributions. It also articulates the key factors that impact on the quality of research generalisation that qualitative researchers can offer.

Originality/value

– This paper presents the most comprehensively sourced and developed approach to the concepts, strategies and unique deliverables of qualitative generalising hitherto available in the accounting research literature.
Religion and accounting texts in eighteenth century Scotland
Authors: Mutch Alistair
Published: August 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which Scottish pre-eminence in accounting texts in the eighteenth century was influenced by religion. By so doing, to add to the literature on the relationship between religion and accountability.

Design/methodology/approach

– An examination of religion as social practice is conducted by examining the relationship between formal, printed, sources and the extensive archives of the Church of Scotland. A sample of five administrative units of the church is used to explore local practice in detail.

Findings

– Accountability was at the heart of the theology of the Church of Scotland. It shaped local practices of accountability to give what is termed “systemic accountability”, which featured the detailed specification of roles and the recording of transactions. Lay involvement in this system was extensive amongst the “middling sort”. This system formed the backdrop to the Scottish pre-eminence in accounting texts, facilitated by widespread literacy and a propensity to publish, both in turn shaped by the broader religious context.

Research limitations/implications

– The research is confined to Scotland and does not consider the wider impact on areas such as British North America. The value of examining religion as a relationship between belief and social practice could be extended to other belief systems, as the paper only considers the Reformed Protestant tradition of Christianity.

Originality/value

– The value is in a detailed investigation of religion as a social practice, which has not been presented before in the context of accountability. It presents a new perspective on Scottish accomplishments in the field of accounting, accomplishments which have been of significance for the broader profession.
The performance of the Chinese banking system before and after the WTO entry
Authors: Nguyen Thanh
Published: August 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in January 2002 on the efficiency levels, efficiency components (technological change and scale economy), and efficiency determinants of Chinese banks.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study employs a two-stage stochastic frontier analysis to estimate efficiency and its components and identify the efficiency determinants.

Findings

– Chinese banks did not benefit from technological change and scale expansion in reducing costs in the pre-WTO period, but the reverse occurred in the post-WTO period. Chinese banks benefited from technological change in increasing profits to a lower degree in the post than the pre-WTO period. Cost efficiency declined while profit efficiency improved after China’s accession. Security investments positively drove profit efficiency in both pre- and post-WTO periods. There was an efficiency gap between joint-stock banks and state-owned banks in the pre-WTO period, but this gap disappeared in the post-WTO period. Economic freedom was related negatively to cost efficiency and positively to profit efficiency in the pre-WTO period, but opposite relations occurred in the post-WTO period.

Practical implications

– These findings appear to favour gradual liberalisation in the Chinese banking system, gradual removal of restrictions on foreign banks, certain shift from non-security investments to security investments, technology investment and scale expansion.

Originality/value

– This is the first study investigating the impact of the WTO on the efficiency, technological progress, economy of scale and efficiency determinants in Chinese banks.
SAHRIS: South Africa’s integrated, web-based heritage management system
Authors: Smuts Kathryn , Mlungwana Nonyameko , Wiltshire Nicholas
Published: August 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to introduce the South African Heritage Resources Information System (SAHRIS), developed by the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) in 2011. The paper aims to describe how SAHRIS facilitates online applications for heritage approval and/or permits for developments and research, fulfils SAHRA’s mandate as a repository for a national inventory of heritage sites and objects in the country, and serves as an integrated, responsive tool for reporting heritage crimes and tracking the progress of the resultant cases. The paper also aims to explain, simply, the application processes for each of these functions.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper provides an explanation of the design and functions of the system and outlines how each of the content types and applications are created.

Findings

– The system has improved the process of South African heritage resources management by decreasing the turnaround time for submissions to heritage authorities, raised the standards of good governance and increased public compliance with the heritage legislation.

Practical implications

– Poor uptake of the system by provincial heritage authorities has limited the impact of the system on heritage management as practiced in South Africa.

Social implications

– The system, when used effectively provides an efficient service to the public, while promoting good governance, transparency, public access to information and improved compliance with the heritage legislation.

Originality/value

– Through the creation of a single, unified platform for heritage management processes, geo-referencing of heritage sites and development areas, the provision of a national fossil sensitivity map, and the national heritage inventory, SAHRIS represents a world first in terms of proactive, integrated heritage management tools.
Research on customer switching behavior in the service industry
Authors: Chuang Yi-Fei , Tai Yang-Fei
Published: August 2016

Purpose

This study aims to analyze and explain the characteristics and findings in previous studies of switching behavior and identifies the developments within this topic in order to improve its current understanding.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors construct a literature database of studies published in prominent business and management journals from 1996 to 2013 and conduct an analysis using the variables in the data fields. Furthermore, we execute meta-analysis to combine the research goals of tracing the history of customer switching behavior studies.

Findings

Satisfaction switching costs and attractiveness of alternatives are the most commonly used predictor variables to explain switching intentions. Switching costs subjective norms and interpersonal relationships moderate the relationship between switching intentions and its antecedents. Customer switching behavior in mobile telecommunication services has received a lot of attention.

Practical implications

This study assists researchers by examining the type and topic of these studies and the research tools and findings reported in theory. The authors ultimately identify the developmental trend in the literature on switching behavior and propose a direction for future studies.

Originality/value

This study clarifies the characteristics and findings of previous studies on switching intention from a literature review and improves the current understanding.
Examining the roles played by a store satisfaction-love framework in shaping the influence of store loyalty programs
Authors: S. Sreejesh , Sarkar Abhigyan , Pradhan Sudeepta
Published: August 2016

Purpose

This study aims to investigate how the influences of store loyalty programs on store loyalty and store relations can be mediated by the store satisfaction-love framework.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey data were collected from selected retail stores using stratified random sampling. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results indicate that the impacts of store loyalty programs on store loyalty and store relations are mediated both by store love and store satisfaction.

Practical implications

This study’s findings help practitioners by empirically demonstrating that the combined cognitive satisfaction of consumers with store loyalty programs and affective store love mediate the influences of loyalty programs on consumer loyalty toward the store and on the consumer–store relation. Therefore, cognitive satisfaction with loyalty programs alone cannot create strong loyalty and a customer relationship. Cognitive satisfaction with various loyalty programs must be converted into affective store love for the mediation to be significant and effective.

Originality/value

This research adds value to the domain of store loyalty research by empirically establishing the mediating role played by the cognitive satisfaction-affective love framework in shaping the influences of loyalty programs designed by store management on the final store loyalty and customer–store relationship.
The effect of CRM implementation on pharmaceutical industry’s profitability
Authors: Bahri-Ammari Nedra , Soliman Khalid S.
Published: August 2016

Purpose

The aim of this study is examine customer relationship management (CRM) effect on enhancing customer satisfaction and on improving customer retention. In this study, the impact of CRM on loyalty in the pharmaceutical sector in Tunisia is studied. Service quality perception, customer satisfaction, loyalty, retention and firm profitability have been tested as independent variables. This study highlights the importance of CRM and service quality perception in maintaining a sustainable and profitable relationship with customers.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey research design was used to collect data. In total, 221 respondents from 5 pharmaceutical companies in Tunisia were involved in the study. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses were adopted to examine the effect of CRM technology on profitability. Structural equation modeling was used to validate results.

Findings

The results show that there are significant relationships between CRM and quality perception, satisfaction and loyalty. However, there are no significant relationships either between CRM and retention or between CRM and profitability.

Research limitations/implications

Fitting CRM scale with the context of the study and the number of the survey companies was the limitation of this research.

Practical implications

This study provides significant results to practitioners to understand the role of establishing a CRM strategy and to understand the selected factors affecting customer satisfaction and retention as well.

Originality/value

This study was conducted in Tunisia to contribute to enrich literature in the implementation of information technology and customer satisfaction.
Bridging ecology and conservation: from ecological networks to ecosystem function
Authors: Harvey Eric , Gounand Isabelle , Ward Colette L. , Altermatt Florian
Published: August 2016

Current approaches to conservation may be inadequate to maintain ecosystem integrity because they are mostly based on rarity status of organisms rather than functional significance. Alternatively, approaches focusing on the protection of ecological networks lead to more appropriate conservation targets to maintain ecosystem integrity.

We propose that a shift in focus from species to interaction networks is necessary to achieve pressing conservation management and restoration ecology goals of conserving biodiversity, ecosystem processes and ultimately landscape‐scale delivery of ecosystem services.

Using topical examples from the literature, we discuss historical and conceptual advances, current challenges and ways to move forward. We also propose a road map to ecological network conservation, providing a novel ready to use approach to identify clear conservation targets with flexible data requirements.

Synthesis and applications. Integration of how environmental and spatial constraints affect the nature and strength of local interaction networks will improve our ability to predict their response to change and to conserve them. This will better protect species, ecosystem processes, and the resulting ecosystem services we depend on.
Urban warming favours C4 plants in temperate European cities
Authors: Duffy Grant A. , Chown Steven L.
Published: August 2016

Elucidating the mechanisms responsible for the structure of urban communities is a key aim of urban ecology, but one that is often confounded by the multitude of environmental changes that are caused by urbanization. We applied trait‐based techniques to identify the specific environmental drivers that shape urban plant assemblages and predict how these drivers will further impact biotas with increasing urbanization and global environmental change.

Urbanized areas across temperate Europe have significantly higher abundance and richness of plants using the C4 photosynthetic pathway, relative to the total number and species richness of all plant records, than non‐urban areas.

Urban warming, mediated by the contrasting physiological responses of C3 and C4 plants to warming, is the main driver of observed patterns of plant assemblage structure. This mirrors broadscale and historical distribution patterns of C3 and C4 plants. The increased relative abundance of C4 plants in cities demonstrated here may be indicative of more geographically widespread assemblage changes to be expected in temperate environments under continuing global climate change.

Synthesis. Applying a combined trait‐based, ecoinformatic and remote‐sensing approach provides new insight into the landscape‐level consequences of urbanization. Specifically, we show that localized urban warming in cities across temperate Europe favours C4 plant species, which respond positively to increased temperatures. Urban plant assemblages are shaped by environmental warming and exhibit significant increases in C4 plant relative abundance compared to non‐urban assemblages.
Farm‐scale evaluation of the impact of Cry1Ab Bt maize on canopy nontarget arthropods: a 3‐year study
Authors: Arias‐Martín María , García Matías , Castañera Pedro , Ortego Félix , Farinós Gema P.
Published: August 2016

The cultivation of Cry1Ab‐expressing genetically modified MON810 (Bt maize) has led to public concern in Europe, regarding its impact on nontarget arthropods (NTAs). We have assessed the potential effects of DKC 6451 YG (MON810) maize on canopy NTAs in a farm‐scale study performed in Central Spain during 3 years. The study focused on hemipteran herbivores (leafhoppers and planthoppers) and hymenopteran parasitic wasps (mymarids) collected by yellow sticky traps, which accounted for 72% of the total number of insects studied. The dynamics and abundance of these groups varied among years, but no significant differences were found between Bt and non‐Bt maize, indicating that Bt maize had no negative effect on these taxa. Nonetheless, the Cry1Ab toxin was detected in 2 different arthropods collected from Bt maize foliage, the cicadellids Zyginidia scutellaris and Empoasca spp. A retrospective power analysis on the arthropod abundance data for our field trials has determined that Z. scutellaris and the family Mymaridae have high capacity to detect differences between the Bt maize and its isogenic counterpart. The use of these canopy NTAs as surrogates for assessing environmental impacts of Bt maize is discussed.