bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reversible Splenial Lesion Syndrome After Intravenous Immunoglobulin Treatment for Guillain-Barre Syndrome
Authors: Uygur Kucukseymen Elif , Yuksel Burcu , Genc Fatma , Ozaydin Goksu Eylem , Yildiz Sevim , Bicer Gomceli Yasemin
Published: August 2017

Reversible corpus callosum splenial (CCS) lesions have been described in patients with varied etiologies. The most common causes of previously reported reversible focal lesions of the CCS are viral encephalitis, antiepileptic drug toxicity/withdrawal, and metabolic disorders. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy is used for different immune-mediated diseases. It is generally safe, and serious adverse reactions are uncommon. We presented a rare case of disturbed consciousness with reversible CCS lesions after IVIG therapy for Guillain-Barre syndrome in an adult woman. In this case, we believe that IVIG therapy caused reversible CCS lesions with encephalopathy and probably result of cytotoxic edema and/or cerebral arterial vasospasm.
School Refusal Successfully Treated With Divalproex
Authors: Ye Lu , Shin Jeongwon , Lippmann Steven
Published: August 2017

Divalproex was successfully used in a 7-year-old boy suffering from treatment-refractory school refusal complicated with a mood disturbance and anxiety. Divalproex had demonstrated a rapid effect in reducing school anxiety and improving school attendance after multiple failures of other agents. Divalproex may be an effective agent for treating school refusal in children with emotional and/or behavior disturbances.
Substrate-triggered position switching of TatA and TatB during Tat transport in
Escherichia coli
Authors: Habersetzer Johann , Moore Kristoffer , Cherry Jon , Buchanan Grant , Stansfeld Phillip J. , Palmer Tracy
Published: August 2017

The twin-arginine protein transport (Tat) machinery mediates the translocation of folded proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane of prokaryotes and the thylakoid membrane of plant chloroplasts. The
Escherichia coli
Tat system comprises TatC and two additional sequence-related proteins, TatA and TatB. The active translocase is assembled on demand, with substrate-binding at a TatABC receptor complex triggering recruitment and assembly of multiple additional copies of TatA; however, the molecular interactions mediating translocase assembly are poorly understood. A ‘polar cluster’ site on TatC transmembrane (TM) helix 5 was previously identified as binding to TatB. Here, we use disulfide cross-linking and molecular modelling to identify a new binding site on TatC TM helix 6, adjacent to the polar cluster site. We demonstrate that TatA and TatB each have the capacity to bind at both TatC sites, however
in vivo
this is regulated according to the activation state of the complex. In the resting-state system, TatB binds the polar cluster site, with TatA occupying the TM helix 6 site. However when the system is activated by overproduction of a substrate, TatA and TatB switch binding sites. We propose that this substrate-triggered positional exchange is a key step in the assembly of an active Tat translocase.
ZC4H2 stabilizes Smads to enhance BMP signalling, which is involved in neural development in
Xenopus
Authors: Ma Pengcheng , Ren Biyu , Yang Xiangcai , Sun Bin , Liu Xiaoliang , Kong Qinghua , Li Chaocui , Mao Bingyu
Published: August 2017

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) play vital roles in regulating stem cell maintenance, differentiation and embryonic development. Intracellularly, BMP signalling is mediated by Smad proteins, which are regulated post-transcriptionally through reversible phosphorylation and ubiquitination. ZC4H2 is a small nuclear protein associated with intellectual disability and neural development in humans. Here, we report that ZC4H2 is highly expressed in the developing neural system and is involved in neural patterning and BMP signalling in
Xenopus
. Knockdown of ZC4H2 led to expansion of the expression of the pan neural plate marker Sox2 in
Xenopus
embryos. In mammalian cells, ZC4H2 promotes BMP signalling and is involved in BMP regulated myogenic and osteogenic differentiation of mouse myoblast cells. Mechanistically, ZC4H2 binds and stabilizes Smad1 and Smad5 proteins through reducing their association with the Smurf ubiquitin ligases and thus their ubiquitination. We also found that a group of ZC4H2 mutations, which have been isolated in patients with intellectual disorders, showed weaker Smad-stabilizing activity, suggesting that the ZC4H2–Smad interaction might contribute to proper neural development in humans.
Error rate on the director's task is influenced by the need to take another's perspective but not the type of perspective
Authors: Legg Edward W. , Olivier Laure , Samuel Steven , Lurz Robert , Clayton Nicola S.
Published: August 2017

Adults are prone to responding erroneously to another's instructions based on what they themselves see and not what the other person sees. Previous studies have indicated that in instruction-following tasks participants make more errors when required to infer another's perspective than when following a rule. These inference-induced errors may occur because the inference process itself is error-prone or because they are a side effect of the inference process. Crucially, if the inference process is error-prone, then higher error rates should be found when the perspective to be inferred is more complex. Here, we found that participants were no more error-prone when they had to judge how an item appeared (Level 2 perspective-taking) than when they had to judge whether an item could or could not be seen (Level 1 perspective-taking). However, participants were more error-prone in the perspective-taking variants of the task than in a version that only required them to follow a rule. These results suggest that having to represent another's perspective induces errors when following their instructions but that error rates are not directly linked to errors in inferring another's perspective.
Booming far: the long-range vocal strategy of a lekking bird
Authors: Cornec C. , Hingrat Y. , Aubin T. , Rybak F.
Published: August 2017

The pressures of selection acting on transmission of information by acoustic signals are particularly high in long-distance communication networks. Males of the North African houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata undulata) produce extremely low-frequency vocalizations called ‘booms’ as a component of their courtship displays. These displays are performed on sites separated by a distance of on average 550 m, constituting exploded leks. Here, we investigate the acoustic features of booms involved in species-specific identity. We first assessed the modifications of acoustic parameters during boom transmission at long range within the natural habitat of the species, finding that the frequency content of booms was reliably transmitted up to 600 m. Additionally, by testing males' behavioural responses to playbacks of modified signals, we found that the presence of the second harmonic and the frequency modulation are the key parameters for species identification, and also that a sequence of booms elicited stronger responses than a single boom. Thus, the coding–decoding process relies on redundant and propagation-resistant features, making the booms particularly well adapted for the long-range transmission of information between males. Moreover, by experimentally disentangling the presentation of visual and acoustic signals, we showed that during the booming phase of courtship, the two sensory modalities act in synergy. The acoustic component is dominant in the context of intra-sexual competition. While the visual component is not necessary to induce agonistic response, it acts as an amplifier and reduces the time of detection of the signaller. The utilization of these adaptive strategies allows houbara males to maximize the active space of vocalizations emitted in exploded leks.
Horizontal gene cluster transfer increased hallucinogenic mushroom diversity
Authors: Reynolds Hannah T. , Vijayakumar Vinod , Gluck-Thaler Emile , Korotkin Hailee Brynn , Matheny Patrick Brandon , Slot Jason Christopher
Published: August 2017

Secondary metabolites are heterogeneous natural products that often mediate interactions between species. The tryptophan-derived secondary metabolite, psilocin, is a serotonin receptor agonist that induces altered states of consciousness. A phylogenetically disjunct group of mushroom-forming fungi in the Agaricales produce the psilocin prodrug, psilocybin. Spotty phylogenetic distributions of fungal compounds are sometimes explained by horizontal transfer of metabolic gene clusters among unrelated fungi with overlapping niches. We report the discovery of a psilocybin gene cluster in three hallucinogenic mushroom genomes, and evidence for its horizontal transfer between fungal lineages. Patterns of gene distribution and transmission suggest that psilocybin provides a fitness advantage in the dung and late wood-decay niches, which may be reservoirs of fungal indole-based metabolites that alter behavior of mycophagous and wood-eating invertebrates. These hallucinogenic mushroom genomes will serve as models in neurochemical ecology, advancing the prospecting and synthetic biology of novel neuropharmaceuticals.
Evaluating a topic model approach for parsing microbiome data structure
Authors: Woloszynek Stephen , Zhao Zhengqiao , Simpson Gideon , O’Connor Michael P. , Mell Joshua Chang , Rosen Gail L.
Published: August 2017

The increasing availability of microbiome survey data has led to the use of complex machine learning and statistical approaches to measure taxonomic diversity and extract relationships between taxa and their host or environment. However, many approaches inadequately account for the difficulties inherent to microbiome data. These difficulties include (1) insufficient sequencing depth resulting in sparse count data, (2) a large feature space relative to sample space, resulting in data prone to overfitting, (3) library size imbalance, requiring normalization strategies that lead to compositional artifacts, and (4) zero-inflation. Recent work has used probabilistic topics models to more appropriately model microbiome data, but a thorough inspection of just how well topic models capture underlying microbiome signal is lacking. Also, no work has determined whether library size or variance normalization improves model fitting. Here, we assessed a topic model approach on 16S rRNA gene survey data. Through simulation, we show, for small sample sizes, library-size or variance normalization is unnecessary prior to fitting the topic model. In addition, by exploiting topic-to-topic correlations, the topic model successfully captured dynamic time-series behavior of simulated taxonomic subcommunities. Lastly, when the topic model was applied to the David et al. time-series dataset, three distinct gut configurations emerged. However, unlike the David et al. approach, we characterized the events in terms of topics, which captured taxonomic co-occurrence, and posterior uncertainty, which facilitated the interpretation of how the taxonomic configurations evolved over time.
The Complex Ecosystem in Non Small Cell Lung Cancer Invasion
Authors: Haney Seth , Konen Jessica , Marcus Adam I. , Bazhenov Maxim
Published: August 2017

Many tumors are characterized by genetic instability, producing an assortment of genetic variants of tumor cells called subclones. These tumors and their surrounding environments form complex multi-cellular ecosystems, where subclones compete for resources and cooperate to perform multiple tasks, including cancer invasion. Our recent empirical studies revealed existence of such distinct phenotypes of cancer cells, leaders and followers, in lung cancer. These two cellular subclones exchange a complex array of extracellular signals demonstrating a symbiotic relationship at the cellular level. Here, we develop a computational model of the microenvironment of the lung cancer ecosystem to explore how the interactions between subclones can advance or inhibit invasion. We found that, due to the complexity of the ecosystem, invasion may have very different dynamics characterized by the different levels of aggressiveness. By altering the signaling environment, we could alter the ecological relationship between the cell types and the overall ecosystem development. Competition between leader and follower cell populations (defined by the limited amount of resources), positive feedback within the leader cell population (controlled by the focal adhesion kinase and fibronectin signaling), and impact of the follower cells to the leaders (represented by yet undetermined proliferation signal) all had major effects on the outcome of the collective dynamics. Specifically, our analysis revealed a class of tumors (defined by the strengths of fibronectin signaling and competition) that are particularly sensitive to manipulations of the signaling environment. This class can undergo irreversible changes to the tumor ecosystem that outlast these manipulations of feedbacks and have a profound impact on invasive potential. Our study predicts a complex division of labor between cancer cell subclones and suggests new treatment strategies targeting signaling within the tumor ecosystem.

Author Summary

Cancer is an elusive disease due to the wide variety of cancer types and adaptability to treatment. How is this adaptability accomplished? Loss of genetic stability, a hallmark of cancer, leads to the emergence of many different types of cancer cells within a tumor. This creates a complex ecosystem where cancer cell types can cooperate, compete, and exploit each other. We have previously used an image-guided technology to isolatedistinct cancer subclones and identify how they interact. Here, we have employed mathematical modeling to understand how the dynamic feedbacks between different cancer cell types can impact the success of invasion in lung cancer. We found that successful invasion required for feedbacks to support the less viable but more invasive cell types. These predictions may have implications for novel clinical treatment options and emphasize the need to visualize and probe cancer as a tumor ecosystem.
Early afterdepolarisation tendency as a simulated pro-arrhythmic risk indicator
Authors: McMillan Beth , Gavaghan David J. , Mirams Gary R.
Published: August 2017

Drug-induced Torsades de Pointes (TdP) arrhythmia is of major interest in predictive toxicology. Drugs which cause TdP block the hERG cardiac potassium channel. However, not all drugs that block hERG cause TdP. As such, further understanding of the mechanistic route to TdP is needed. Early afterde-polarisations (EADs) are a cell-level phenomenon in which the membrane of a cardiac cell depolarises a second time before repolarisation, and EADs are seen in hearts during TdP. Therefore, we propose a method of predicting TdP using induced EADs combined with multiple ion channel block in simulations using biophysically-based mathematical models of human ventricular cell electrophysiology. EADs were induced in cardiac action potential models using interventions based on diseases that are known to cause EADs, including: increasing the conduction of the L-type calcium channel, decreasing the conduction of the hERG channel, and shifting the inactivation curve of the fast sodium channel. The threshold of intervention that was required to cause an EAD was used to classify drugs into clinical risk categories. The metric that used L-type calcium induced EADs was the most accurate of the EAD metrics at classifying drugs into the correct risk categories, and increased in accuracy when combined with action potential duration measurements. The EAD metrics were all more accurate than hERG block alone, but not as predictive as simpler measures such as simulated action potential duration. This may be because different routes to EADs represent risk well for different patient subgroups, something that is difficult to assess at present.
The limitations of correlation-based inference in complex virus-microbe communities
Authors: Coenen Ashley R. , Weitz Joshua S.
Published: August 2017

1

Microbes are present in high abundances in the environment and in human-associated microbiomes, often exceeding one million per milliliter. Viruses of microbes are present in even higher abundances and are important in shaping microbial populations, communities, and ecosystems. Given the relative specificity of viral infection, it is essential to identify the functional linkages between viruses and their microbial hosts, particularly given dynamic changes in virus and host abundances. Multiple approaches have been proposed to infer infection networks from time-series ofin situcommunities, among which correlation-based approaches have emerged as thede factostandard. In this work, we evaluate the accuracy of correlation-based inference methods using anin silicoapproach. In doing so, we compare predicted networks to actual networks to assess the self-consistency of correlation-based inference. At odds with assumptions underlying its widespread use, we find that correlation is a poor predictor of interactions in the context of viral infection and lysis of microbial hosts. The failure to predict interactions holds for methods which leverage product-moment, time-lagged, and relative-abundance based correlations. In closing, we discuss alternative inference methods, particularly model-based methods, as a means to infer interactions in complex microbial communities with viruses.

2

Importance

Inferring interactions from population time-series is an active and ongoing area of research. It is relevant across many biological systems – in particular in virus-microbe communities, but also in gene regulatory networks, neural networks, and ecological communities broadly. Correlation-based inference – using correlations to predict interactions – is widespread. However, it is well known that “correlation does not imply causation”. Despite this, many studies apply correlation-based inference methods to experimental time-series without first assessing the potential scope for accurate inference. Here, we find that several correlation-based inference methods fail to recover interactions withinin silicavirus-microbe communities, raising questions on their relevance when appliedin situ.
The genomic determinants of adaptive evolution in a fungal pathogen
Authors: Grandaubert Jonathan , Dutheil Julien Y. , Stukenbrock Eva H.
Published: August 2017

Antagonistic host-pathogen co-evolution is a determining factor in the outcome of infection and shapes genetic diversity at the population level of both partners. While the molecular function of an increasing number of genes involved in pathogenicity is being uncovered, little is known about the molecular bases and genomic impact of hst-pathogen coevolution and rapid adaptation. Here, we apply a population genomic approach to infer genome-wide patterns of selection among thirteen isolates of the fungal pathogenZymoseptoria tritici. Using whole genome alignments, we characterize intragenic polymorphism, and we apply different test statistics based on the distribution of non-synonymous and synonymous polymorphisms (pN/pS) and substitutions (dN/dS) to (1) characterise the selection regime acting on each gene, (2) estimate rates of adaptation and (3) identify targets of selection. We correlate our estimates with different genome variables to identify the main determinants of past and ongoing adaptive evolution, as well as purifying and balancing selection. We report a negative relationship between pN/pS and fine-scale recombination rate and a strong positive correlation between the rate of adaptive non-synonymous substitutions (ωa) and recombination rate. This result suggests a pervasive role of Hill-Robertson interference even in a species with an exceptionally high recombination rate (60 cM/Mb). Moreover, we report that the genome-wide fraction of adaptive non-synonymous substitutions (α) is ~ 44%, however in genes encoding determinants of pathogenicity we find a mean value of alpha ~ 68% demonstrating a considerably faster rate of adaptive evolution in this class of genes. We identify 787 candidate genes under balancing selection with an enrichment of genes involved in secondary metabolism and host infection, but not predicted effectors. This suggests that different classes of pathogenicity-related genes evolve according to distinct selection regimes. Overall our study shows that sexual recombination is a main driver of genome evolution in this pathogen.
Longitudinal evaluation of efficiency in a petrochemical company
Authors: Gilsa Charles Von , Lacerda Daniel Pacheco , Camargo Luis Felipe Riehs , Souza Iberê Guarani , Cassel Ricardo Augusto
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to longitudinally assess the technical efficiency and productivity, considering investment projects and technological change, in a second-generation petrochemical company.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) together with the Malmquist index to measure efficiency during the analysis periods. The working method consists of four main phases, namely development of the conceptual model, construction of the mathematical model, application of model to the case, and analysis of the results. The study utilizes a quantitative approach with descriptive goals seeking to evaluate the impacts of technical changes on the operational efficiency and productivity of the production process.

Findings

The use of DEA associated with the Malmquist index proved to be viable for analyzing a single company and identifying efficiency improvements, as well as the impacts of the learning process and the implementation of improvement projects. However, the results of the improvement projects and learning process were not representative and had no statistical significance on the actual change in efficiency of the company during the periods analyzed. For the case in question, the learning process and continuous improvement were not observed during all study periods.

Practical implications

The proposition that the improvement projects and investments implemented increased the efficiency of the company was rejected. Hence, with this work, it was possible to determine that the company unnecessarily invested resources in projects to increase efficiency. Furthermore, the company could have explored more internal resources before making significant investments in increased efficiency.

Originality/value

As for the value of this research in the theoretical and academic scope, this paper advances knowledge on the application of DEA because it proposes to establish an internal reference benchmarking for comparison. The literature contains few studies that analyze organizations using continuous processes, such as petrochemical processes, in longitudinal studies as a function of time, especially with the use of DEA.
Critical factors and performance indicators: accreditation of testing- and calibration-laboratories
Authors: Karthiyayini Nagarajan , Rajendran Chandrasekharan
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine the critical factors (CRFs) of IS/ISO/IEC 17025:2005 laboratory accreditation and indicators of the performance (IOPs) in the testing/calibration laboratories. The impact of accreditation on the performance is analyzed using the level of presence of critical factors that can be used to benchmark the best practices in the accredited testing and calibration laboratories.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire is designed on the basis of an extensive literature review on laboratory accreditation and performance. Based on the responses from pilot study, the developed instrument is tested for its unidimensionality, reliability and validity. Multiple regression analysis is carried out to analyze the impact of critical factors on the IOPs.

Findings

The findings reveal that the six distinct critical dimensions of laboratory accreditation (which are the independent variables) have a significant impact on the performance of the accredited testing/calibration laboratories. The performance is measured by the dependent variables which are the IOPs. The customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, laboratory performance, image of the laboratory, the number of increased customers and loyalty of the existing customers are highly influenced by the accreditation which in turn improves the performance to gain the competitive advantage.

Research limitations/implications

Contribution to research is in the area of laboratory accreditation and the performance measurement by the development of a comprehensive instrument to analyze the Laboratory Quality Management System. The results are dependent on the number of respondents who are the quality/technical managers.

Practical implications

This instrument would enable the accredited laboratories to analyze their performance through the feedback from the quality/technical managers to gain credibility and to continually improve and benchmark the quality management system in alignment with the quality policies.

Originality/value

This paper proposes an instrument to measure and benchmark the performance of the accredited testing and calibration laboratories.
A fuzzy synthetic evaluation analysis of operational management critical success factors for public-private partnership infrastructure projects
Authors: Osei-Kyei Robert , Chan Albert P.C. , Ameyaw Ernest Effah
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factor groupings of a set of 19 critical success factors (CSFs) associated with managing public-private partnership (PPP) projects at the operational stage and examine the most significant factor grouping using fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) technique.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopted a comprehensive review of the pertinent literature and an empirical questionnaire survey geared towards targeted international PPP experts. Survey responses were analysed using factor analysis and FSE modelling.

Findings

The results from factor analysis show five CSF groupings (CSFGs) for managing operational PPPs. These are proficient service delivery and adequate legal structures, simplified payment mechanism and consistent project monitoring, effective contract variations management, suitable stakeholder management mechanism and environmental health and safety control. The FSE modelling shows that “simplified payment mechanism and consistent project monitoring”, is the most critical CSFG. The operational management CSFs under this grouping are acceptable level of user fee charges, efficient and well-structured payment mechanism, consistent project performance monitoring and long-term demand for public facility.

Research limitations/implications

The major limitation lies in the low sample size that was used for analysis; however the years of research and/or industrial experience of respondents and the wide coverage of different cultural backgrounds (18 countries from five regions globally) contribute to the authenticity of the survey responses. Future research should adopt interviews and case study analysis to unravel CSFs in managing operational PPPs.

Originality/value

The findings of this study are considerably beneficial to both public authorities and private operators. They inform practitioners of the strategic procedures and measures to employ in optimising the operational performance of PPP projects. Further, the methodology employed allows project management experts to reliably select the operational management CSFs for their projects.
Measuring and mapping the emergence of the digital economy: a comparison of the market capitalization in selected countries
Authors: Mueller Simon C. , Bakhirev Alex , Böhm Markus , Schröer Marina , Krcmar Helmut , Welpe Isabell M.
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a method to quantify the digital economy using a representative measurement approach and use it to analyze the USA, Germany, the Republic of Korea and Sweden.

Design/methodology/approach

The research approach of this paper is based on a developed methodology to identify firms of the digital economy by measuring the market capitalization of selected countries in comparison over time using financial databases.

Findings

Comparing the market capitalization of the digital economy, the USA lead both in absolute as well as in relative terms. The 11 firms with the largest market capitalization are all American. For Germany, the results show that policy measures should be undertaken to ameliorate competitiveness in the field.

Research limitations/implications

This current measurement only includes public firms. An interesting avenue for future research would be to transfer the approach to investigate private firms.

Originality/value

Previous research has focused on comparing information and communication technologies adoption and infrastructure as well as innovation hubs between countries. The authors are not aware of any paper to date which has compared market capitalization in the digital economy between countries using a representative sample. This paper offers a research approach to measure and compare the digital economy between countries. The methodology could be applied to other countries which seek to benchmark their performance and derive policy measures to be able to compete with jurisdictions leading in the digital economy.
School lunch as a break or an educational activity
Authors: Waling Maria , Olsson Cecilia
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore to what extent teachers eat together with pupils during school lunches and their attitudes toward using these lunches to reach the educational goals stated in the Swedish compulsory school curriculum; and second, to study to what degree teachers see themselves and school meal personnel as role models during school lunches.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire was completed by 3,629 teachers in Swedish schools.

Findings

In total, 90 percent of the teachers ate lunch together with the pupils one or more days per week. The majority reported that meals were fully (54 percent), or partially (40 percent) subsidized when they were eating with pupils. In total, 72 percent thought that school lunches should be considered part of the school’s educational activities while 28 percent thought that it should be a time to get a break from educational activities. Most teachers thought that school lunches could be useful for learning about the issues of food waste and healthy eating while there were more diverse views on using lunches for learning about fundamental values. A majority of the teachers considered themselves to be role models in the school meal situation.

Practical implications

The authors suggest that the educational component of the school meal per se should be regulated in the Educational Act together with guidelines from the Swedish National Agency for Education.

Originality/value

This study is unique since it covers a previously little studied area; teachers’ attitudes toward using the school lunch situation for educational purposes.
Discriminatory related party transactions: a new measure
Authors: Tareq Mohammad , Houqe Muhammad Nurul , van Zijl Tony , Taylor Dennis William , Morley Clive
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop a new measure for discriminatory related party transactions (DRPTs). There are currently measures for such discriminatory transactions but the new measure has a strong theoretical basis and is less susceptible to measurement error.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper develops and tests a new measure for these discriminatory transactions. Type I and Type II error rates and the power of the new measure are compared with an existing measure using computer-simulated and real data.

Findings

The capital market sensitivity of the new measure is also tested and compared with the existing measure. The new measure is found to be superior.

Practical implications

The new measure of DRPTs has the potential to contribute to both further research on the impact of related party transactions and policy-making in relation to DRPTs.

Originality/value

This paper has developed and tested a new measure for DRPTs.
Occurrences of online fraud complaints: 2002 through 2015
Authors: Koong Kai S. , Liu Lai C. , Qin Hong , Ying Tingting
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings and lessons that were learned from the many cases of internet fraud complaints that are gathered by the Federal Trade Commission in the USA. The implications that are contained in the behavior of the complaints and trends identified are critical for addressing all types of online criminal activities in the increasing world of cybercrimes.

Design/methodology/approach

Data for this paper are extracted from the Consumer Sentinel Network Data Handbook covering a period of 13 years. Using the raw data, the occurrences were plotted and trends (number of cycles, time between cycles, and leading state and lagging states) were identified. Descriptive statistics covering the 13 years were examined and discussed. Using 20002 as the base year, the rate of growth of each of the states were ranked annually and were tested for stability and predictability using non-parametric approaches.

Findings

The key findings are indigenous to the occurrences of online fraud complaints in the USA. However, as the leading nation with the best database on fraud complaints, the findings are mission critical to fraud prevention across the globe. Specifically, this study found that since 2002, there have been four distinct cycles. Each cycle is clearly noticeable because there is a rapid growth in the number of crime complaints in the beginning half of the period followed by a slowing down period. However, the speed of change from one cycle to the next is steeper and the time gap is faster. While it is true that from the perspective of all the 50 states, the ranks appear to change every year and thus are not stable. However, the majority of the changes are relatively small so their relative positions by rank are still predictable.

Originality/value

The paper extends existing understanding of online fraud occurrences in the USA. The findings are timely and based on longitudinal data that span over a decade. The four new cycles identified are critical to the body of knowledge. The observed change in time from one cycle to another and its changes from a mathematic to a geometric one are also new. The findings are invaluable to persons working in law enforcement related occupations (auditors, lawyers, forensic experts, among others) and who must deal with the increasing problem of online fraud and cybercrimes.
Simulation evidence on the properties of alternative measures of working capital accruals
Authors: Izadi Zadeh Darjezi Javad , Choudhury Homagni , Nazarian Alireza
Published: August 2017

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the specification and power of tests based on the DD and modified DD model through the UK data between years 2000 and 2013, and make comparisons with tests using working capital accruals creating a measure of accruals quality as the standard deviation of the residuals value from firm-specific regressions base on working capital accruals on last, current and one-year-ahead cash flows from operations.

Design/methodology/approach

This study focuses both on the DD model and modified DD model to find out which of them can more accurately capture total working capital accrual estimation error and accrual quality. According to the DD model, the past, current and future net cash from operating activities as the three years’ operating cash inflows or outflows become omitted and correlated variables. In this study, the authors continue to document residuals from the DD and MDD models to demonstrate properties that are more consistent with behaviours of accruals estimation errors. Therefore, in this study, the authors are looking to compare the results from both the MDD and DD models and find which one of them is more effective in explaining the working capital accruals in the UK.

Findings

The authors find that adding additional explanatory variables may add additional explanatory power of variables to the DD model and extent to which accruals map into cash flow insights based on the UK data. This study is empirically well fitting with the internal workings of cash flows. As investors fixate only on the accounting earnings, they may fail to reflect fully on information contained within cash flow components and working capital accruals of current and future earnings.

Originality/value

The authors compare different equation to cover more items of working capital accruals. In addition, after examining earnings and accrual quality, the findings show that the average UK company behaviour was quite similar to the behaviour that was founded earlier for both models in the USA. Furthermore, this study results show that more volatility of sales, cash flow, accruals and earnings make a lower accrual quality. The results demonstrate that both models can capture the power to predict working capital accruals. Moreover, we find that adding additional explanatory variable of employee growth rate adds additional explanatory variables to DD model.
The role of person-job fit in the relationship between transformational leadership and job engagement
Authors: Bui Hong T.M. , Zeng Yolanda , Higgs Malcolm
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ work engagement based on fit theory. The paper reports an investigation into the way in which employees’ perceptions of transformational leadership and person-job fit affect their work engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the authors’ hypotheses, the authors performed structure equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation on Mplus with bootstrapping proposed by Hayes (2009) with data from 691 full-time employees in China.

Findings

The results indicate that transformational leadership has as significant influence on employees’ work engagement as person-job fit in China. Moreover, employees’ perception of person-job fit is found to partially mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ work engagement.

Research limitations/implications

There is a possible bias arising from the use of cross-sectional data. However, certain methods were implemented to minimize it, including survey design and data analysis.

Practical implications

The paper proposes a number of practical implications for policy makers, HR managers and transformational leaders relating to issues associated with improving levels of employee engagement.

Originality/value

The study contributes to developing leadership and engagement theory by examining a previously unexplored mediator – person-job fit – in a neglected cultural setting. This study promises to open new research avenues in this area.
GrandBase: generating actionable knowledge from Big Data
Authors: Fang Xiu Susie , Sheng Quan Z. , Wang Xianzhi , Ngu Anne H.H. , Zhang Yihong
Published: August 2017

Purpose

This paper aims to propose a system for generating actionable knowledge from Big Data and use this system to construct a comprehensive knowledge base (KB), called GrandBase.

Design/methodology/approach

In particular, this study extracts new predicates from four types of data sources, namely, Web texts, Document Object Model (DOM) trees, existing KBs and query stream to augment the ontology of the existing KB (i.e. Freebase). In addition, a graph-based approach to conduct better truth discovery for multi-valued predicates is also proposed.

Findings

Empirical studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the approaches presented in this study and the potential of GrandBase. The future research directions regarding GrandBase construction and extension has also been discussed.

Originality/value

To revolutionize our modern society by using the wisdom of Big Data, considerable KBs have been constructed to feed the massive knowledge-driven applications with Resource Description Framework triples. The important challenges for KB construction include extracting information from large-scale, possibly conflicting and different-structured data sources (i.e. the knowledge extraction problem) and reconciling the conflicts that reside in the sources (i.e. the truth discovery problem). Tremendous research efforts have been contributed on both problems. However, the existing KBs are far from being comprehensive and accurate: first, existing knowledge extraction systems retrieve data from limited types of Web sources; second, existing truth discovery approaches commonly assume each predicate has only one true value. In this paper, the focus is on the problem of generating actionable knowledge from Big Data. A system is proposed, which consists of two phases, namely, knowledge extraction and truth discovery, to construct a broader KB, called GrandBase.
On properties of cyberattacks and their nuances
Authors: Happa Jassim , Goldsmith Michael
Published: August 2017

Purpose

Several attack models attempt to describe behaviours of attacks with the intent to understand and combat them better. However, all models are to some degree incomplete. They may lack insight about minor variations about attacks that are observed in the real world (but are not described in the model). This may lead to similar attacks being classified as the same type of attack, or in some cases the same instance of attack. The appropriate solution would be to modify the model or replace it entirely. However, doing so may be undesirable as the model may work well for most cases or time and resource constraints may factor in as well. This paper aims to explore the potential value of adding information about attacks and attackers to existing models.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper investigates used cases of minor variations in attacks and how it may and may not be appropriate to communicate subtle differences in existing attack models through the use of annotations. In particular, the authors investigate commonalities across a range of existing models and identify where and how annotations may be helpful.

Findings

The authors propose that nuances (of attack properties) can be appended as annotations to existing attack models. Using annotations appropriately should enable analysts and researchers to express subtle but important variations in attacks that may not fit the model currently being used.

Research limitations/implications

This work only demonstrated a few simple, generic examples. In the future, the authors intend to investigate how this annotation approach can be extended further. Particularly, they intend to explore how annotations can be created computationally; the authors wish to obtain feedback from security analysts through interviews, identify where potential biases may arise and identify other real-world applications.

Originality/value

The value of this paper is that the authors demonstrate how annotations may help analysts communicate and ask better questions during identification of unknown aspects of attacks faster,e.g. as a means of storing mental notes in a structured manner, especially while facing zero-day attacks when information is incomplete.
Business models sustaining subsistence economies: evidence from India
Authors: Saripalli Bhavani Shankar , Chawan Vinaysingh
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse interventions of various forms of organisations operating with the objective of connecting subsistence entrepreneurs (SEs) with the formal economy. This work also attempts to understand and analyse the transformational role played by these organisations. Finally, the paper aims to arrive at a conceptual framework for organisations interested in playing a transformational role.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper deals with subsistence entrepreneurship and business models for subsistence economies. It draws from case studies of six organisations operating with the objective to connect subsistence entrepreneurs with formal economy. Each case chosen is unique with respect to the organisational form it takes to achieve the objective. However, a lot of similarity can be seen in the components of the business model adopted by these organisations.

Findings

Organisations which emerge keeping the context of rural producers in mind survive and support SEs in the long run. SEs need not always get converted into transformational entrepreneurs. However, with the help of organisations which collectivise SEs, they can interact with formal economy. Such organisations help large numbers of SEs to sustain and possibly move out of subsistence status over a period of time. These organisations have to fill the voids left by government or market institutions so as to create enabling conditions for SEs to thrive. Despite the efforts of the organisations, it is not possible for all SEs to move out of their subsistence status and existence in informal markets. However, it is possible in case of some SEs at least, as the institutional support gives them more certainty in incomes.

Research limitations/ implications

The paper does not take a business model adopted by government institution for the purpose of analysis.

Practical implications

The paper offers practical suggestions for organisations interested in collectivising SEs with the aim to improve their returns from market transactions.

Originality/value

The paper offers a conceptual framework to enrich the understanding of role played by organisations working towards collectivising SEs. It adds to the debate of subsistence entrepreneurship and transformational entrepreneurship. It elaborates the elements of social capital created by these organisations at the meso level. Finally, it re-emphasises the strengths of informal economy to support the customer value proposition for formal markets.
Memorable projects and aesthetic experiences in an industrial R&D lab
Authors: Ocnarescu Ioana , Bouchard Carole
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show the mechanism of aesthetic experiences of work in a research and innovation context – an R&D laboratory of a multinational communications and information technology company. Analysing memorable projects of this laboratory through the lenses of aesthetics is a useful way to understand organizational and innovation culture and the quality of life of researchers and innovators.

Design/methodology/approach

An exploratory study focusing on memorable projects of 31 researchers who worked on 70 projects during four years was conducted. The data analysis is based on the grounded theory.

Findings

The study reveals six key dimensions that describe the dimensions of R&D researchers’ aesthetic experiences: perceptive, emotional, intellectual, communicative, collective and organizational. These dimensions are closely related and support an innovation culture in an R&D environment.

Research limitations/implications

The aesthetic dimensions have to be correlated to innovation performance indicators to better understand which aspects are the most relevant for innovation.

Practical implications

The paper proposes first examples of implications for the industry to foster an innovation culture through aesthetic experiences.

Originality/value

No study has been done on aesthetic experiences in an R&D environment.
The behaviour of Arabian donkey milk during acidification compared to bovine milk
Authors: Charfi Ichrak , Rezouga Feriel , Makhlouf Anissa , Bornaz Salwa
Published: August 2017

To better understand the fermentation kinetic of Arabian donkey milk, its physicochemical properties, conductivity and viscosity were assessed during acidification, and compared to that of the bovine milk. Donkey milk showed a shorter latency phase and slightly lower acidification rate than bovine milk. Measurement of electric conductivity during acidification showed that maximum demineralisation of casein micelles occurred at around pHI 5.44 for donkey milk and pHI 5.16 for bovine milk. Donkey milk was also found to be less viscous. The technological characteristics of donkey milk were different from those of bovine milk due to intrinsic physicochemical properties of both milks.