bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
USA Triathlon
Authors: Omondi-Ochieng Peter
Published: July 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the 2010–2015 financial performance (FP) of the national non-profit USA Triathlon (UST) using financial effectiveness (FE) indicators and financial efficiency (FY) ratios.

Design/methodology/approach

Archival data were used together with a case study method. FP was evaluated by net income; FE was indicated by total assets and total revenues, while FY was examined by program services ratios and support services ratios.

Findings

On average, the FP of the organization was positive ($2,100,591 net income per year), FE was moderate (66 percent increases in assets and revenues) and the FY was mixed (80 percent revenues spent on program services with an impressive return on asset of 14 percent).

Research limitations/implications

By using case study method, the results may not be generalizable to other national non-profit sports organizations with non-financial objectives.

Practical implications

The results revealed that overall FP is a product of both FE and FY, making the study valuable to managers who are often faced with unreliable financial resources.

Originality/value

The study utilized both FE and FY measures to evaluate the FPs of UST – a major shortfall in similar studies.
Abnormal audit fees and accrual and real earnings management: evidence from UK
Authors: Alhadab Mohammad
Published: July 2018

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the relationship between abnormal audit fees and accrual-based and real-based earnings management by using a sample of 1,055 UK firm-year observations from 2006 to 2015.

Design/methodology/approach

Linear regression was used to test the hypothetical relation between abnormal audit fees and accrual and real earnings management. Following prior research, several proxies have been used to measure abnormal audit fees, accrual earnings management and real earnings management.

Findings

Abnormal audit fees were negatively associated with real earnings management. A higher level of abnormal audit fees was the major driver of enhanced audit quality, in turn reducing managers’ flexibility to use real earnings management and to manipulate reported earnings. Abnormal audit fees were found to be negatively associated with abnormal discretionary expenses, abnormal production costs and the aggregated measure of real earnings management.

Practical implications

This paper outlines the importance of considering any abnormal audit fees paid to audit firms. It is expected that the abnormal audit fees might compromise auditor independence and lead to a higher level of earnings management. However, the findings of this paper provide a new insight to many interested parties, e.g. regulators, audit firms, investors and creditors, that abnormal audit fees are associated with higher audit quality and higher financial reporting quality in the UK. Regulators in the meanwhile should reform the audit market by, e.g. revising the types of non-audit services that are provided for the same client, setting a cap on the maximum fees that can charged by auditors and monitoring earnings management practices. Audit firms should take into consideration that any charged abnormal level of audit fees may have a direct impact on audit quality.

Originality/value

This is the first study to examine the impact of abnormal audit fees on accruals and real earnings management after major regulatory changes that took place in the UK. These major changes are the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards in 2005 and the new legislation concerning the ethical standards issued by the UK Audit Practice Board in 2004. These two major changes are expected to have a direct impact on both earnings management and audit fees, notably for the largest public listed firms. This study also focuses on one of the very developed and attractive stock markets in the world, the UK FTSE 350 stock index, that incorporates that largest 350 public firms.
Co-creating services—conceptual clarification, forms and outcomes
Authors: Oertzen Anna-Sophie , Odekerken-Schröder Gaby , Brax Saara A. , Mager Birgit
Published: July 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess, clarify and consolidate the terminology around the co-creation of services, establish its forms and identify its outcomes, to resolve the conceptual pluralism in service co-creation literature.

Design/methodology/approach

A focused literature review screened the articles published in five major service research journals to determine relevant contributions on the concept of co-creation of services. Then, a thematic analysis identifies the forms, themes and outcomes of co-creating services in the set of 80 qualifying articles.

Findings

The study reduces conceptual pluralism by establishing different forms of co-creating services and developing an explicit definition of co-creation in services. The authors develop an integrative framework that recognizes involvement, engagement and participation as prerequisites for co-creation. Relating to the different phases of the service process, the specific co-creation forms of co-ideation, co-valuation, co-design, co-testing and co-launching are classified as regenerative co-creation, while the specific co-creation forms of co-production and co-consumption are recognized as operative co-creation. Both beneficial and counterproductive outcomes of co-creation are identified and arranged into a typology.

Research limitations/implications

The integrative framework illustrates that service providers and customers are involved, engaged and participate in co-creating services, which manifests in specific forms of co-creation; they attain beneficial and counterproductive outcomes (personal, social, hedonic, cognitive, economic and pragmatic); and are influenced by a contextual multi-actor network.

Practical implications

Co-creation in services is actionable; the typology of outcomes suggests service managers ways to motivate customers and employees to participate in co-creating services.

Originality/value

This paper defines and establishes the conceptual forms of co-creating services and the identified outcomes, and develops an integrative framework of co-creation in services.
The impact of public debt on state borrowing cost in the US bond market before the great recession
Authors: Charles Cleopatra , Shon Jongmin
Published: July 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to use data on municipal bond sales in the US primary market for the period 1984–2007 to explore the effect of debt levels on the cost of borrowing for state governments.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper employs OLS and two-stage least squares regression model using instrumental variables.

Findings

The empirical analysis finds that despite the steady increase of state debt in recent years, there is no evidence that the market penalizes states with high-debt levels relative to other states.

Originality/value

The findings urge states to exercise prudence when making borrowing decisions because high-debt levels have the potential to crowd out spending for essential services and can lead to budget imbalances in the long term.
Institutional isomorphism and cash management practices in Mississippi
Authors: Nukpezah Julius A. , Abutabenjeh Sawsan
Published: July 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to draw on the theory of institutional isomorphism to investigate how Mississippi’s centralized cash management policy affects the cash management practices in the state’s rural and urban counties.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a sequential exploratory mixed methods design involving a qualitative documentary analysis and a quantitative analysis of a survey of Mississippi counties.

Findings

The study finds that institutional isomorphism drives cash management practices in the counties by influencing how they follow state and agency mandates. Moreover, while urban counties have superior socio-economic indicators compared to their rural counterparts, no differences exist regarding standardized financial indicators, which suggest that local governments in the state may be imitating the practices of one another.

Practical implications

First, states should consider the different financial and economic conditions of their local governments when prescribing cash management policies because uniform policies could stifle local innovation and reduce efficiency in cash management. Second, when there is pressure from a higher-level government or a state agency, local governments may end up imitating one another rather than exploring opportunities for innovation within state policies. Third, state policies should consider requiring education and training in cash management practices that help identify strategies to add value to public funds within the scope of local fiscal capabilities.

Originality/value

The study uses one state to investigate a unique case of centralized cash management practices. The lessons learned can apply to other states seeking to develop a policy for their small local governments without placing the larger ones at a disadvantage.
Does high-rise residential building design shape antisocial behaviour?
Authors: Yau Yung
Published: July 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine links between environmental design of high-rise housing communities and residents’ perceptions about antisocial behaviour (ASB).

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual framework was proposed to investigate correlations between architectural design parameters and perceived severity of ASB activity. A questionnaire was administered to test the relationships. Residents of 14 public rental housing estates in Hong Kong participated, and 422 complete responses were analysed.

Findings

Strong correlation was discovered between elements of residential design and residents’ perceptions of ASB severity. Block layout, building height and number of flats per floor affected residents’ feelings about ASB threat. Access to outside air in communal corridors also significantly reduced residents’ complaints about ASB.

Practical implications

This study offers insights into how architectural design of high-rise residences might reduce residents’ perception of ASB severity. Findings impact current ASB research, but also architects’ and developers’ designs. Better planned built environments will enhance residents’ security and satisfaction, reinforcing communities.

Originality/value

Previous studies have ignored whether architectural design of high-rises could directly influence residents’ perception of ASB severity. This study is the first to focus on the relationship.
Paradoxes of organizational change in a merger context
Authors: Cunha Miguel Pina e , Neves Pedro , Clegg Stewart R. , Costa Sandra , Rego Arménio
Published: July 2018

Purpose

The reorganization of the Portuguese national healthcare system around networks of hospital centers was advanced for reasons promoted as those of effectiveness and efficiency and initially presented as an opportunity for organizational transcendence through synergy. The purpose of this paper is to study transcendence as felt by the authors’ participants to create knowledge about the process.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper consists of an inductive approach aimed at exploring the lived experience of transcendence. The authors collected data via interviews, observations, informal conversations and archival data, in order and followed the logic of grounded theory to build theory on transcendence as process.

Findings

Transcendence, however, failed to deliver its promise; consequently, the positive vision inscribed in it was subsequently re-inscribed in the system as another lost opportunity, contributing to an already unfolding vicious circle of mistrust and cynicism. The study contributes to the literature on organizational paradoxes and its effects on the reproduction of vicious circles.

Practical implications

The search for efficiency and effectiveness through strategies of transcendence often entails managing paradoxical tensions.

Social implications

The case was researched during the global financial crisis, which as austerity gripped the southern Eurozone gave rise to governmental decisions aimed at improving the efficiency of organizational healthcare resources. There was a sequence of advances and retreats in decision making at the governmental level that gave rise to mistrust and cynicism at operational levels (organizations, teams and individuals). One consequence of increasing cynicism at lower levels was that as further direction for change came from higher levels it became interpreted in practice as just another turn in a vicious circle of failed reform.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to the organizational literature on paradoxes by empirically researching a themes that has been well theorized (Smith and Lewis, 2011) but less researched empirically. The authors followed the processin vivo, as it unfolded in the context of complex strategic change at multiple centers.
Assemblages of Urban Leisure Culture in Inner‐City Bucharest
Authors: Bürkner Hans‐Joachim , Totelecan Silviu G.
Published: July 2018

Inner‐city redevelopment in the south‐eastern European metropolis of Bucharest has been an intriguing object of analysis. Having been neglected for a long time by its inhabitants, urban politics and the local economy, the historical inner city recently experienced tremendous development of its evening/night‐time economy and leisure culture, as though it had received fresh impulses from European integration. However, there is no single cause which effected this unexpected proliferation. Therefore, this article traces the contingent ways in which the inner city has been affected, mainly through an empirical reconstruction of socio‐material assemblages of inner‐city leisure culture. A typology of (partial) assemblages is developed, which illustrates the heterogeneity, contingency and changeability of emerging temporary relations between various social, material and ideational elements. We demonstrate how localism and internal replication of limited business concepts have triggered the selective adaptation of various symbols of modernization. Against this background we argue that post‐transformational urbanity involves contingent social self‐referencing and socio‐material assemblage, rather than the adoption of prevailing translocal models of urban development. A critical reassessment of assemblage theory, as applied to this particular urban context, leads to final considerations concerning possible theoretical readjustments.
Altered brain structural topological properties in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients without complications
Authors: Zhang Yang , Cao Yujuan , Xie Yingjie , Liu Linlin , Qin Wen , Lu Shan , Zhang Quan
Published: July 2018

Background

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a risk factor for cognitive dysfunction, and white matter (WM) microstructural impairments play a critical role in T2DM‐related cognitive decline. Disruptions to the WM have been detected in T2DM patients before clinical diagnosis of cognitive dysfunction. Herein, we investigated changes in brain structural topological properties and their correlation with behavior in T2DM patients without complications.

Methods

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) structural network topological analysis was performed on T2DM patients and healthy controls. Intergroup differences in global and nodal parameters were analyzed, and correlations between the network parameters and behavioral performance were tested.

Results

Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients exhibited preserved small‐world properties, but altered nodal properties, including decreased efficiency in the right hippocampus, right amygdala, left pallidum, left postcentral gyrus, and right pole of the superior temporal gyrus, and increased degree in the right inferior frontal gyrus. Correlations were also found between the altered global and nodal parameters and behavioral performance.

Conclusions

The results verified the existence of WM structural network changes and the association between structural properties and cognitive state in T2DM patients before the occurrence of complications. Research of structural properties may contribute to our understanding of the intrinsic links between T2DM and cognition.
Implementation of Electronic Records Related to Nursing Diagnoses
Authors: da Costa Cíntia , Linch Graciele Fernanda da Costa
Published: July 2018

INTRODUCTION

The quality of nursing care is related to the execution of the nursing process, which should be properly documented. In this context, there is an evident need to implement electronic health records with the use of standardized languages.

OBJECTIVE

To implement electronic records related to nursing diagnoses in a computerized health management system.

METHODOLOGY

The project followed four stages, based on the plan‐do‐check‐act tool. This tool guided the activities to be carried out in the axes: planning, execution of activities, evaluation, and action. The activities performed included: registration of nursing diagnoses and related factors, as well as the association of these in the Tasy software, test execution, and applicability assessment.

RESULTS

We included 229 nursing diagnoses and these were associated with 1,664 related factors, a decision tree with 436 defining characteristics was also constructed, which allows the software to suggest nursing diagnoses according to the related signs and symptoms.

CONCLUSION

The practical consolidation of the steps of the nursing process was verified as well as the possibility of nurses assessing the patients by way of a clinical reasoning and decision making in coherence with the human needs of the patient.
For Good and Country: Nationalism and the Diffusion of Humanitarianism in the Late Nineteenth Century
Authors: Dromi Shai M.
Published: July 2018

Despite the growing interest in transnational fields and their influence on national-level dynamics, existing literature has not yet addressed the processes involved in creating such fields in the first place. This article provides insight into the complexities involved in national–transnational interactions amidst national and transnational field formation. It examines the nascent transnational humanitarian field of the late nineteenth century through the work of the emerging Red Cross Movement in the 1860s–1890s, drawing primarily on the archive of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The findings show that National Red Cross (NRC) societies employed a discourse drawn from a transnational cultural arena in order to gain central positioning in their national fields and to convince other parties of their necessity. Conversely, NRCs used nationalism as a form of symbolic capital in establishing themselves in their national fields, seemingly at odds with their cosmopolitan aspirations. Thus, by contrast to the ideal-typical representation of global humanitarianism as non-national, these findings suggest that nationalism and impartial humanitarianism are historically intertwined. More broadly, the article argues that national-level field dynamics as well as nationalism play important roles in the creation of transnational fields, even when field actors present themselves as acting for universal causes.
Fielding Supranationalism: The European Central Bank as a Field Effect
Authors: Mudge Stephanie L. , Vauchez Antoine
Published: July 2018

The European Central Bank (ECB), like all European institutions, poses basic problems of definition and comparability. Mobilizing Bourdieusian field theory (BFT) to resolve them, we map out the ECB's deep investments in scientific prestige and scholarly productivity – that is, its hyper-scientization – and the ambiguities therein, and then set out to explain them. Mobilizing diverse sources that include official documents, on-site interviews, and comparative data, we argue that hyper-scientization is a field effect expressing the ECB's origins and cross-location in three worlds: financial institutions, professional economics, and European politics. We then trace out the signs and symptoms of cross-location. First, we trace the origins of the ECB's directorate for research, DGR, which differentiated the ECB from most other European central banks at the time of its founding. Thus invested, the ECB accelerated its scholarly activities in step with the internationalization and scientization of economics. But this also expressed the ECB's stake in European authority struggles: research exchanges are a means of building relationships with national central banks, which was especially crucial in the lead-up to the European Union's (EU) 2004 enlargement. We thus argue that there is more to the ECB than its independence and policy operations, and that some of its most striking features are best explained as effects of its multiple field locations.
‘Western Hegemony’ in the Social Sciences: Fields and Model Systems
Authors: Krause Monika
Published: July 2018

This paper discusses the role of privileged research objects (‘model systems') in producing patterns in transnational knowledge production. In its approach it follows Bourdieu's call to focus on contexts of production and forces internal to disciplines as well as his insistence on practice. Learning from work in science and technology studies it also considers material objects of knowledge and spaces of knowledge-production. It discusses the case of sociology and argues that conventions surrounding privileged research objects matter relatively independently of authors’ national origin or field-position. Examining model systems, I argue, can contribute to our understanding of how some well-established inequalities are produced and reproduced. This focus adds specific stakes to the debates about global knowledge production: we can discuss the problem of neglected cases in ways that are not always included in current reflections that draw on general political – rather than specifically knowledge-political – categories.
Is Journalism a Transnational Field? Asymmetrical Relations and Symbolic Domination in Online News
Authors: Christin Angèle
Published: July 2018

Are all transnational exchanges ‘fielded’? This article explores the limits of the concept of transnational field by focusing on the case of journalism. At first glance, journalism might seem to be the perfect example of a transnational field. The frequency, speed and extent of international exchanges between media outlets has increased dramatically with the development of online news, leading media scholars to develop the concept of ‘global news’. Yet I argue that such international exchanges do not necessarily constitute a field. Using ethnographic methods, I analyse the circulation of online news between the United States and France, two countries with strikingly different journalistic traditions. Specifically, I compare two editorial partnerships between US and French websites, one linking prestigious online magazines across the Atlantic and the other connecting tabloid-oriented news sites. I find that editorial content does not circulate seamlessly between the two countries. Based on this study, the article proposes three criteria that must be met for transnational fields to exist: competition over the legitimate definition of the field, reciprocal field effects, and the existence of common stakes. More broadly, the article contributes to defining the limits of the concept of ‘transnational field’ for the study of international exchanges.
Cultural Epigenetics
Authors: Jablonka Eva
Published: July 2018

Taking a Waddingtonian system approach, I discuss some of the implications of recent epigenetic research for the study of social systems. A growing number of investigations show that life-style changes resulting from nutritional, toxicological, and psychological stresses are reflected in changes in the epigenetic profile of individuals, and that learning and memory have epigenetic correlates. Moreover, various types of epigenetic changes can be inherited and affect the characters of descendants. Studying epigenetics can forge new experimental and conceptual bridges between biology, the social sciences and the humanities. For example, new techniques that allow the deciphering of methylation patterns in ancient DNA could be used to study the epigenetics of human cultures in long-gone historical periods, thus enriching and extending our knowledge of human history. Conceptually, an epigenetic perspective blurs traditional distinctions such as those between nature and nurture, plasticity and evolvability.
The Turn to Biology
Authors: Newton Tim
Published: July 2018

This article firstly discusses social science reference to animal studies. The latter remain important in engagement with life science because of their frequent deployment and because of increased calls to re-examine animal research among sociologists and other social scientists. Extending from this discussion, it is argued that social scientists still tend to exhibit a questionable selectivity in their treatment of life-science research. In addition, it is suggested that insufficient attention is paid to epistemological differences between life and social science. The article concludes by outlining an approach to interdisciplinary endeavour that combines ‘parallelism’ with mutually reflexive scrutiny of social and life science assumption.
Organizing the Organism: A Re-Casting of the Bio-Social Interface for Our Times
Authors: Fuller Steve
Published: July 2018

I present a future-oriented look at sociology and anthropology's historical appropriation of the concept of organism. The ‘future’ of which I speak is one in which the biological and technological are blending together. In cultural and science studies, the figure of the ‘cyborg’ is often discussed in this context. But the cyborg tends to be treated as a specifically ‘postmodern’ innovation, whereas the organism has always invited the cyborg's ontological ambivalence. This sensibility goes back to the dawn of both the modern biomedical sciences and the social sciences. I begin on the relatively familiar terrain of the role that emerging medical conceptions of the organism in the mid-nineteenth century played in the formation of such founding figures of sociology and anthropology as Emile Durkheim and Franz Boas. I then move to the specific ‘relativization’ of Darwin's theory of evolution that fostered turn-of-the-century conceptions of the social organism, including that emergent entity, the ‘superorganism’, which figures prominently – albeit differently – in the attempts to characterize the uniquely ‘human’ character of culture and technology. Finally I look at one very explicitly ‘constructivist’ approach to the social organism promoted by the distinguished chemist Wilhelm Ostwald, who was in turn anathematized by Max Weber in one of the original episodes of sociology's disciplinary boundary maintenance. The pride of place that Ostwald gave to ‘catalysts’ in consolidating and enhancing social organisms – from business firms to academic disciplines – earns his perspective a second look in our time. I end with directions for further exploration, which include reviving Norbert Wiener's cybernetic vision.
Living Well in the Neuropolis
Authors: Fitzgerald Des , Rose Nikolas , Singh Ilina
Published: July 2018

This paper is about the relationship between cities and brains: it charts the back-and-forth between the hectic, stressful lives of urban citizens, and a psychological and neurobiological literature that claims to make such stress both visible and knowable. But beyond such genealogical labour, the paper also asks: what can a sociology concerned with the effects of ‘biosocial’ agencies take from a scientific literature on the urban brain? What might sociology even contribute to that literature, in its turn? To investigate these possibilities, the paper centres on the emergence and description of what it calls ‘the Neuropolis’ – a term it deploys to hold together both an intellectual and scientific figure and a real, physical enclosure. The Neuropolis is an image of the city embedded in neuropsychological concepts and histories, but it also describes an embodied set of (sometimes pathological) relations and effects that take places between cities and the people who live in them. At the heart of the paper is an argument that finding a way to thread these phenomena together might open up new paths for thinking about ‘good’ life in the contemporary city. Pushing at this claim, the paper argues that mapping the relations, histories, spaces, and people held together by this term is a vital task for the future of urban sociology.
Ecological control of exotic annuals in native C3 grass swards
Authors: Cole Ian , Koen Terry , Prober Suzanne , Lunt lan
Published: July 2018

While the mechanisms behind the control of exotic annuals by C4 native grasses on soils of low fertility are well understood, it is not clear how C3 native grasses sometimes achieve similar levels of control. In earlier research (Cole I. A., et al., 2016a, Aust. Ecol. 41, 40; Cole I. A., et al., 2016b, Restor. Ecol. 24, 354), the abundance of cool season exotic annuals waxed and waned over time, apparently in response to changes in the abundance of the tall C3 native grass (Austrostipa species) which at times dominated the understorey. This study used multiple linear regression and structural equation models to compare the relative influence of the abundance of the native grass sward (in autumn and spring), soil nitrate (in autumn) and the presence or absence of litter (in autumn) on the abundance in spring of exotic annual broadleafs and grasses. The most important controls of exotic annuals were native grass abundance and related soil nitrate reductions in autumn, when exotic annuals germinate. Another important control for exotic broadleafs was presence of litter in autumn. In contrast, the presence of litter promoted exotic annual grasses. Native grass abundance in spring (reflecting competition over the growing season of exotic annuals) appeared relatively unimportant. Key management objectives when attempting to control exotic annuals will be to maximize competition when exotic species are establishing by promoting the health and abundance of native grasses, and maintaining high levels of litter cover.
Fine scale analysis of intraspecific and interspecific interactions in two varanid lizard populations adjacent to a sea turtle nesting beach
Authors: Lei Juan , Booth David T.
Published: July 2018

Differential space use is one of the strategies used by species with similar niche requirements to avoid direct competition while in sympatry. Here, we used Global Positioning System devices to investigate – two sympatric species of monitor lizards in a coastal habitat adjacent to a sea turtle nesting beach. Adults of yellow‐spotted goannas Varanus panoptes and lace monitors V. varius were tracked throughout the summer sea turtle nesting season to explore their space use and investigate how often individuals were close enough to each other that direct interspecific and intraspecific interactions could occur. The two species utilized different habitat at this site. Yellow‐spotted goannas spent a greater proportion of their time in the beach‐front dune habitat where sea turtles nest, while lace monitors spent most of their time in the woodland habitat behind the beach‐front dunes, and as a consequence, encountered fewer sea turtle nests compared to yellow‐spotted goannas. Yellow‐spotted goannas and lace monitors rarely came closer than 15 m of each other, both intra‐ and interspecifically, although their home ranges overlapped.
A longitudinal evaluation of the role of alcohol self‐concept in alcohol use, motives, negative affect, and alcohol‐related problems among emerging adults
Authors: Blevins Claire E. , Abrantes Ana M. , Anderson Bradley J. , Caviness Celeste M. , Herman Debra S. , Stein Michael D.
Published: July 2018

Background and Objectives

Emerging adulthood is a time of identity formation, and is also the most common time period for individuals to consume alcohol. Alcohol self‐concept (or drinking identity) has been associated cross‐sectionally with rates of alcohol use and use‐related problems. Additionally, there is preliminary evidence that alcohol self‐concept is related to negative affect and to alcohol use motives. However, less research has evaluated the longitudinal nature of these variables, particularly in a community sample. The current study evaluated relationships between self‐concept, alcohol‐related variables, and negative affect among emerging adults. Additionally, the study explored self‐concept as a mediator between motives and alcohol use and problems.

Methods

Community‐recruited participants (n = 226, 55.3% male) involved in a health behaviors study were assessed over the course of 12 months.

Results

Results substantiated both the cross‐sectional and longitudinal relationships between these variables. Self‐concept, rates of use, and problems decreased over the course of time. Decreases in motives for alcohol use (including coping and enhancement motives) were related to subsequent decreases in alcohol self‐concept, which in turn were associated with decreases in use and use‐related problems. Alcohol self‐concept mediated the longitudinal relationship between coping motives and use as well as use‐related problems.

Discussion and Conclusions

Results from this study underscore the importance of motivation for alcohol use and internalization of alcohol identity in predicting changes in behavior across emerging adulthood and suggest future avenues of research.

Scientific Significance

Alcohol self‐concept may be a risk factor and intervention target. (Am J Addict 2018;27:501–508)
Progress of an isolated collagenoma during pregnancy
Authors: Aktaş Karabay Ezgi , Yapıcıer Özlem
Published: July 2018

Collagenomas are connective tissue naevi composed predominantly of collagen. Isolated collagenomas are usually localized to a single body region, acquired, and of rare occurrence. We describe a patient with an isolated collagenoma that showed an increase in size during pregnancy and regressed afterwards.
Multiple perianal ulcers due to suppositories
Authors: Savoia Francesco , Sechi Andrea , Tabanelli Michela , Zago Silvia , Leuzzi Miriam , Baraldi Carlotta , Patrizi Annalisa
Published: July 2018

We report a case of long‐standing inexplicable perianal ulcers. After exclusion of an inflammatory, infectious or neoplastic origin, a thorough personal history revealed that for many years the patient had been using analgesic suppositories containing indomethacin, caffeine, and prochlorperazine dimaleate, four to five times a week, for migraine. On stopping the suppositories, there was complete healing within 12 weeks. We hypothesize that vasoconstriction and vascular damage were the pathogenetic mechanisms behind the perianal ulcers.
The Impact of an Advanced ECMO Program on Traumatically Injured Patients
Authors: Grant April A. , Hart Valerie J. , Lineen Edward B. , Lai Cynthia , Ginzburg Enrique , Houghton Douglas , Schulman Carl I. , Vianna Rodrigo , Patel Amit N. , Casalenuovo Amelia , Loebe Matthias , Ghodsizad Ali
Published: July 2018

In June 2016, an advanced extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program consisting of a multidisciplinary team was initiated at a large level‐one trauma center. The program was created to standardize management for patients with a wide variety of pathologies, including trauma. This study evaluated the impact of the advanced ECMO program on the outcomes of traumatically injured patients undergoing ECMO. A retrospective cohort study was performed on all patients sustaining traumatic injury who required ECMO support from January 2014 to September 2017. The primary outcome was to determine survival in trauma ECMO patients in the two timeframes, before and after initiation of the advanced ECMO program. Secondary outcomes included complication rates, length of stay, ventilator usage, and ECMO days. One hundred and thirty eight patients were treated with ECMO during the study period. Of the 138 patients, 22 sustained traumatic injury. Seven patients were treated in our pre‐group and 15 in our post‐group. The majority of patients were treated with VV ECMO. Our post group VV ECMO extracorporeal survival rate was 64% and our survival to discharge was 55%. This study demonstrated an improvement in survival after implementation of our advanced ECMO program. The implementation of a multidisciplinary trauma ECMO team dedicated to the rescue of critically ill patients is the key for achieving excellent outcomes in the trauma population.
Being both German and Other: Narratives of contested national identity among white and Turkish German young adults
Authors: Moffitt Ursula , Juang Linda P. , Syed Moin
Published: July 2018

Recent discursive research has built on Michael Billig's theory of banal nationalism, arguing that minoritized individuals who explicitly claim adherence to a national group may be further marginalized from a perceived majority who view such acts as socially undesirable. In Germany, a master narrative of muted national pride precludes hot nationalism, while a narrative of integration calls for overt national allegiance from anyone perceived as Other. Integration is demanded not only of recent immigrants, but also of the second generation and beyond, bolstering a related narrative of unquestioned Germanness as ethnically based. We conducted narrative analysis of interviews with white and Turkish German young adults to explore these master narratives, examining national identity through the lens of banal and hot nationalism. We found it is not only hot nationalism that marginalized Turkish German participants, but also the unrealizable narrative of integration. Situated within research into exclusionary notions of German identity, we argue that the integration demand reiterates the narrative of Germany as ethnically homogenous while fostering a feedback loop of contested belonging. With the recent increase in refugees and other immigrants, this critical examination of identity and belonging in Germany offers a timely and underexamined perspective to an important discussion.
Congenital eye anomalies: More mosaic than thought?
Authors: Ohuchi Hideyo , Sato Keita , Habuta Munenori , Fujita Hirofumi , Bando Tetsuya
Published: July 2018

The eye is a sensory organ that primarily captures light and provides the sense of sight, as well as delivering non‐visual light information involving biological rhythms and neurophysiological activities to the brain. Since the early 1990s, rapid advances in molecular biology have enabled the identification of developmental genes, genes responsible for human congenital diseases, and relevant genes of mutant animals with various anomalies. In this review, we first look at the development of the eye, and we highlight seminal reports regarding archetypal gene defects underlying three developmental ocular disorders in humans: (1) holoprosencephaly (HPE), with cyclopia being exhibited in the most severe cases; (2) microphthalmia, anophthalmia, and coloboma (MAC) phenotypes; and (3) anterior segment dysgenesis (ASDG), known as Peters anomaly and its related disorders. The recently developed methods, such as next‐generation sequencing and genome editing techniques, have aided the discovery of gene mutations in congenital eye diseases and gene functions in normal eye development. Finally, we discuss Pax6‐genome edited mosaic eyes and propose that somatic mosaicism in developmental gene mutations should be considered a causal factor for variable phenotypes, sporadic cases, and de novo mutations in human developmental disorders.
“Simpli5y” a noval concept for fixed rehabilitation of completely edentulous maxillary and mandibular edentulous arches: A 3‐year randomized clinical trial, supported by a numerical analysis
Authors: Chowdhary Ramesh , Kumararama Sindhu Sudhakar
Published: July 2018

Background and Purpose

To evaluate the clinical outcome of “simpli5y” concept where in 3 and 2 implant placed cross arch in maxilla and in mandible respectively, restored with screw retained prosthesis.

Materials and Methods

Total of 30 patients were randomized, with 15 in group1 with an average of 45 Ncm insertion torque with delayed loading and 15 in group 2 with above 65 Ncm inertion torque with immediate loading with equal number of male and female in each group following parallel design with 3 implants in maxillary and 2 implants in mandibular arch placed which was supported by a 3Dimensional finite analysis comparing the stress dissipation around implants of this concept—“Simplif5y” with All‐on‐4 concept.

Results

Von Mises strain recorded in the bone in the maxillary and mandibular arch models were higher in All‐on‐four than that in the “simpli5y”, which was vice‐versa in the framework. Three‐year post loading marginal peri implant bone loss for the group 1 was less than group 2.

Conclusions

These results, suggest that in both delayed loading and immediate loading protocol that cross arch prostheses can be successfully supported by 3 and 2 implants in maxillary and mandibular arch respectively—“Simpli5y” concept of full mouth restoration.
2‐(4‐methyl‐thiazol‐5‐yl) ethyl nitrate maleate‐potentiated GABAA receptor response in hippocampal neurons
Authors: Jiang Xiao‐Mei , Wang Wei‐Ping , Liu Zhi‐Hui , Yin Hua‐Jing , Ma Hao , Feng Nan , Wang Ling , Huang Hai‐Hong , Wang Xiao‐Liang
Published: July 2018

Aims

2‐(4‐methyl‐thiazol‐5‐yl) ethyl nitrate maleate (NMZM), a derivative of clomethiazole (CMZ), had been investigated for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The beneficial effects of NMZM in AD included reversing cognitive deficit, improving learning and memory as well as neuroprotection. The pharmacological effects of NMZM on GABAA receptors were reported previously; however, the mechanisms were unclear and were explored therefore.

Results

In this study, we demonstrated that NMZM improved learning and memory by alleviating scopolamine‐induced long‐term potentiation (LTP) suppression in the dentate gyrus of rats, indicating that NMZM had protective effects against scopolamine‐induced depression of LTP. Next, we investigated the action of NMZM on GABAA receptors in hippocampal neurons and the binding site of NMZM on GABAA receptors. NMZM directly activated GABAA receptors in hippocampal neurons in a weak manner. However, NMZM could potentiate the response of GABAA receptors to GABA and NMZM positively modulated GABAA receptors with an EC50 value of 465 μmol/L at 3 μmol/L GABA while this potentiation at low concentration of GABA (1, 3 μmol/L) was more significant than that at high concentration (10, 30 μmol/L). In addition, NMZM could enhance GABA currents after using diazepam and pentobarbital, the positive modulators of GABAA receptors. NMZM could not affect the etomidate‐potentiated GABAA current. It suggested that the binding site of NMZM on GABAA receptors is the same as etomidate.

Conclusions

These results provided support for the neuroprotective effect of NMZM, which was partly dependent on the potentiation of GABAA receptors. The etomidate binding site might be a new target for neuronal protection and for drug development.
Global gap analysis of cactus species and priority sites for their conservation
Authors: Goettsch Bárbara , Durán América Paz , Gaston Kevin J.
Published: July 2018

Knowing how much biodiversity is captured by protected areas (PAs) is important to meeting country commitments to international conservation agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, and analyzing gaps in species coverage by PAs contributes greatly to improved locating of new PAs and conservation of species. Regardless of their importance, global gap analyses have been conducted only for a few taxonomic groups (e.g., mangroves, corals, amphibians, birds, mammals). We conducted the first global gap analysis for a complete specious plant group, the highly threatened Cactaceae. Using geographic distribution data of 1438 cactus species, we assessed how well the current PA network represents them. We also systematically identified priority areas for conservation of cactus species that met and failed to meet conservation targets accounting for their conservation status. There were 261 species with no coverage by PAs (gap species). A greater percentage of cacti species (18%) lacked protection than mammals (9.7%) and birds (5.6%), and also a greater percentage of threatened cacti species (32%) were outside protected areas than amphibians (26.5%), birds (19.9%), or mammals (16%). The top 17% of the landscape that best captured covered species represented on average 52.9% of species ranges. The priority areas for gap species and the unprotected portion of the ranges of species that only partially met their conservation target (i.e., partial gap) captured on average 75.2% of their ranges, of which 100 were threatened gap species. These findings and knowledge of the threats affecting species provide information that can be used to improve planning for cacti conservation and highlight the importance of assessing the representation of major groups, such as plants, in PAs to determining the performance of the current PA network.
The role of Sprouty1 in the proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of epidermal keratinocytes
Authors: Wang Ping , Zhou Yuan , Yang Jian‐Qiang , Landeck Lilla , Min Min , Chen Xi‐Bei , Chen Jia‐Qi , Li Wei , Cai Sui‐Qing , Zheng Min , Man Xiao‐Yong
Published: July 2018

Objectives

Sprouty (SPRY) 1 is one of the SPRY proteins that inhibits signalling from various growth factors pathways and has also been known as a tumour suppressor in various malignancies. However, no study elucidates the role of SPRY1 in the skin. Our study was conducted to determine the function of SPRY1 in human keratinocytes and the epidermis.

Materials and methods

In vitro primary cultured epidermal keratinocytes were used to investigate the proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of these cells. We also established overexpression of SPRY1 in vitro and K14‐SPRY1 transgenic mice.

Results

SPRY1 was mainly located in the cytoplasm of the epidermal keratinocytes from the granular epidermal layer of the skin and cultured cells. Overexpressed SPRY1 in keratinocytes resulted in up‐regulation of P21, P27 and down‐regulation of cyclin B1; decrease in MMP3 and integrin α6. SPRY1‐overexpressed primary keratinocytes exhibited a lower proliferation and migration capability and higher rates of apoptosis. Epidermis of SPRY1‐TG mice represented delayed wound healing. Proteomics analysis and GO enrichment showed DEPs of SPRY1 TG mice epidermis is significantly enriched in immune‐ and inflammatory‐associated biological process.

Conclusions

In summary, SPRY1 expression was inversely correlated with cell proliferation, migration and promote cell apoptosis of keratinocytes. SPRY1 maybe a negative feedback regulator in normal human epidermal keratinocytes and cutaneous inflammatory responses. Our study raised the possibility that enhancing expression of SPRY1 may have the potential to promote anti‐inflammatory effects.
Long non‐coding RNAs in nucleus pulposus cell function and intervertebral disc degeneration
Authors: Li Zheng , Li Xingye , Chen Chong , Li Shugang , Shen Jianxiong , Tse Gary , Chan Matthew T. V. , Wu William K. K.
Published: July 2018

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is the major cause of low back pain which incurs a significant public‐health and economic burden. The aetiology of IDD is complex, with developmental, genetic, biomechanical and biochemical factors contributing to the disease development. Deregulated phenotypes of nucleus pulposus cells, including aberrant differentiation, apoptosis, proliferation and extracellular matrix deposition, are involved in the initiation and progression of IDD. Non‐coding RNAs, including long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs), have recently been identified as important regulators of gene expression. Research into their roles in IDD has been very active over the past 5 years. Our review summarizes current research regarding the roles of deregulated lncRNAs (eg, RP11‐296A18.3, TUG1, HCG18) in modulating nucleus pulposus cell functions in IDD. These exciting findings suggest that specific modulation of lncRNAs or their downstream signalling pathways might be an attractive approach for developing novel therapeutics for IDD.