bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Progestogens for Maintenance Tocolysis in Women With a Short Cervix
Authors: Facchinetti Fabio , Vergani Patrizia , Di Tommaso Mariarosaria , Marozio Luca , Acaia Barbara , Vicini Roberto , Pignatti Lucrezia , Locatelli Anna , Spitaleri Marina , Benedetto Chiara , Zaina Barbara , D'Amico Roberto ,   on behalf of the PROTECT Collaborative Group
Published: June 2017

OBJECTIVE:

To assess the efficacy of progestogens for maintenance tocolysis in women undelivered after their first preterm labor episode.

METHODS:

Women with singleton pregnancies between 22 0/7 and 31 6/7 weeks of gestation with arrested preterm labor and a cervical length 25 mm or less at hospital discharge were eligible. Patients with a previous preterm birth were excluded. In a randomized controlled trial conducted in five university hospitals, women were randomized to receive vaginal progesterone (200 mg per day) or intramuscular 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (341 mg per week) or to an observation groups (control group). The primary outcome was the proportion of women with preterm birth at less than 37 weeks of gestation. A sample size of 160 per group (n=480) was planned to compare vaginal progesterone and 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate groups with those in the control group. The sample size estimation was based on the hypothesis that the risk of experiencing preterm birth in the control group would be 30% and that 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate or progesterone would decrease this risk to 15%. A P value of <.025 was defined as statistically significant. At planned interim analysis (n=254), the trial was stopped for futility.

RESULTS:

Between July 2010 and June 2015, 257 women were eligible and 254 were subsequently randomly assigned to vaginal progesterone (n=86), 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (n=87), or observation (n=81). Nineteen (8%) were excluded from the analysis because they either dropped out or information was missing, leaving 235 women available for analysis. Demographic characteristics were similar across groups. The preterm birth rate did not differ significantly between groups: 23% in the 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate group, 39% in the vaginal progesterone group, and 22% in the women in the control group (P=.949 for 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate compared with the women in the control group and P=.027 for vaginal progesterone compared with women in the control group).

CONCLUSION:

The use of progestogens for maintenance tocolysis in women with a short cervix did not reduce the rate of preterm birth.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION:

ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01178788.
Survival of solid cancer patients in France, 1989–2013: a population-based study
Authors: Cowppli-Bony Anne , Uhry Zoé , Remontet Laurent , Voirin Nicolas , Guizard Anne-Valérie , Trétarre Brigitte , Bouvier Anne-Marie , Colonna Marc , Bossard Nadine , Woronoff Anne-Sophie , Grosclaude Pascale
Published: June 2017

This study provides updates of net survival (NS) estimates at 5, 10, and 15 years as well as survival trends for 35 solid cancers in France using data from 19 population-based cancer registries. The study considered all cases of solid cancer diagnosed between 1989 and 2010 in patients older than 15 years of age who were actively followed up until 30 June 2013. NS was estimated using the Pohar-Perme method. The age-standardized NS used the international cancer survival standard weights. The 5-year age-standardized NSs ranged from 4% (pleural mesothelioma) to 93% (prostate) in men and from 10% (pancreas) to 97% (thyroid) in women. The 10-year age-standardized NSs ranged from 2% (pleural mesothelioma) in both sexes to 95% (testis) in men and 91% (thyroid) in women. The most frequent cancers (namely, breast and prostate cancers) had the highest NSs: 87 and 93% at 5 years and 78 and 84% at 10 years, respectively. Several cancers (especially lung, pancreas, and liver cancer) had very poor prognoses (5-year NSs under 20%). Fifteen-year NSs remained high for testis cancer. In most cancers, 5- and 10-year age-standardized NSs increased between 1989 and 2010. Advanced age was associated with a poor prognosis and little improvement in survival. The increases in cancer survival are probably related to earlier diagnosis and therapeutic advances over the last decade. However, poor prognoses are still found in some alcohol-related and tobacco-related cancers and in elderly patients, highlighting the need for more prevention, diagnosis, and treatment efforts.
POSTERIOR VITRECTORHEXIS: A SURGICAL MODIFICATION FOR INTRAOCULAR FOREIGN BODY REMOVAL THROUGH LIMBAL ROUTE
Authors: Baskaran Prabu , Bhandari Sahil , Govindarajan Madanagopalan V.
Published: June 2017

Purpose:

To describe a modified surgical technique of creating a posterior capsule opening for removal of retained intraocular foreign body, what we call as retroillumination-assisted posterior vitrectorhexis.

Methods:

Vitrectomy probe through pars plana route is used to create a well-controlled circular posterior vitrectorhexis.

Results:

A uniformly circular posterior capsule opening is created after standard pars plana vitrectomy for the removal of foreign body.

Conclusion:

Posterior vitrectorhexis is a well-controlled technique in the setting of a penetrating injury that can facilitate safe removal of different sizes of intraocular foreign body simultaneously preserving capsular support.
Relationship Between Serum Glucose Levels and Intraocular Pressure, a Population-based Cross-sectional Study
Authors: Cohen Eytan , Kramer Michal , Shochat Tzippy , Goldberg Elad , Krause Ilan
Published: June 2017

Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between serum glucose levels and intraocular pressure (IOP) both in subjects with impaired fasting glucose (IFG) as well as in subjects with diabetes mellitus (DM).

Materials and Methods:

Data of a cross-sectional sample of 18,406 subjects who underwent routine annual screening at a tertiary medical center in 2000 to 2013 were analyzed.

Results:

Mean (SD) age of the subjects was 46 (10) years; 68% were male. Mean (95% confidence interval) IOP measured 13.1 (13.0-13.1) mm Hg in subjects with normal glucose levels, 13.7 (13.6-13.8) mm Hg in subjects with IFG, and 14.3 (14.1-14.4) mm Hg in subjects with diabetes. The difference in IOP between subjects with normal and abnormal (DM or IFG) serum glucose levels were significant, even after adjusting for age, body mass index, and hypertension (P<0.0001). There was a positive linear correlation between serum glucose levels and IOP in both men (r=0.12; P<0.0001) and women (r=0.17; P<0.0001). For every 10 mg/dL increase in fasting serum glucose, IOP increased by 0.09 mm Hg in men and by 0.11 mm Hg in women.

Conclusions:

This study demonstrated that similar to subjects with DM, subjects with IFG also have IOP levels that are higher than those with normal serum glucose. Moreover, there is a direct correlation between fasting serum glucose levels and changes in IOP. These findings highlight another end-organ effect of uncontrolled glucose levels.
Advances in vascular thiol isomerase function
Authors: Flaumenhaft Robert
Published: June 2017

Purpose of review

The present review will provide an overview of several recent advances in the field of vascular thiol isomerase function.

Recent findings

The initial observation that protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) functions in thrombus formation occurred approximately a decade ago. At the time, there was little understanding regarding how PDI or other vascular thiol isomerases contribute to thrombosis. Although this problem is far from solved, the past few years have seen substantial progress in several areas that will be reviewed in this article. The relationship between PDI structure and its function has been investigated and applied to identify domains of PDI that are critical for thrombus formation. The mechanisms that direct thiol isomerase storage and release from platelets and endothelium have been studied. New techniques including kinetic-based trapping have identified substrates that vascular thiol isomerases modify during thrombus formation. Novel inhibitors of thiol isomerases have been developed that are useful both as tools to interrogate PDI function and as potential therapeutics. Human studies have been conducted to measure circulating PDI in disease states and evaluate the effect of oral administration of a PDI inhibitor on ex-vivo thrombin generation.

Current findings indicate that thiol isomerase-mediated disulfide bond modification in receptors and plasma proteins is an important layer of control of thrombosis and vascular function more generally.
Retrospective Analysis of Catheter-Acquired Urinary Tract Infection
Authors: Retelski Julia , Richardson Tammy , Mahabaleshwarkar Rohan , Gohs Frank X. , Spencer Melanie D.
Published: June 2017

Aims:

The objective of this study was to determine if a diagnosis of stroke was associated with a higher incidence of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). Secondary aims included examining the effect of healthcare-related variables including antibiotic and steroid use, length of stay before catheter insertion, and duration of catheter use on the incidence of CAUTI in stroke patients.

Design:

This was a retrospective chart review analysis set in a large teaching hospital in the Southeastern United States.

Methods:

A total of 300 patients with indwelling urinary catheter use who also had a stroke diagnosis were randomly selected and matched (on age, gender, race, and admission date) to 300 randomly selected patients with indwelling urinary catheter use and without stroke. Bivariate statistical tests included Wilcoxon signed-rank test and McNemar’s test, whereas the multivariate test consisted of generalized estimating equations.

Results:

The incidence of CAUTIs in stroke patients was significantly higher than that in nonstroke patients (6.0% vs 1.7%, P = .005). In the multivariable generalized estimating equations analysis, stroke patients were found to be approximately 3.5 times more likely to experience CAUTI compared with nonstroke patients (odds ratio = 3.53; 95% confidence interval, 1.24–10.03; P = .018). The proportion of patients who used steroids was greater among stroke patients who experienced CAUTI compared with those who did not experience CAUTI (55.6% vs 24.5%, P = .004).

Conclusion:

Stroke patients were more likely to develop CAUTI compared with nonstroke patients. These patients should be considered as key targets when implementing interventions aimed at reducing CAUTIs. Use of steroids may be associated with a higher likelihood of CAUTI in stroke patients.

Implications:

Clinical nurse specialists are directly influential in preventing CAUTIs. This study provides evidence regarding the association between stroke and CAUTI to clinical nurse specialists to help them plan CAUTI prevention initiatives.
A deterministic method for estimating free energy genetic network landscapes with applications to cell commitment and reprogramming paths
Authors: Olariu Victor , Manesso Erica , Peterson Carsten
Published: June 2017

Depicting developmental processes as movements in free energy genetic landscapes is an illustrative tool. However, exploring such landscapes to obtain quantitative or even qualitative predictions is hampered by the lack of free energy functions corresponding to the biochemical Michaelis–Menten or Hill rate equations for the dynamics. Being armed with energy landscapes defined by a network and its interactions would open up the possibility of swiftly identifying cell states and computing optimal paths, including those of cell reprogramming, thereby avoiding exhaustive trial-and-error simulations with rate equations for different parameter sets. It turns out that sigmoidal rate equations do have approximate free energy associations. With this replacement of rate equations, we develop a deterministic method for estimating the free energy surfaces of systems of interacting genes at different noise levels or temperatures. Once such free energy landscape estimates have been established, we adapt a shortest path algorithm to determine optimal routes in the landscapes. We explore the method on three circuits for haematopoiesis and embryonic stem cell development for commitment and reprogramming scenarios and illustrate how the method can be used to determine sequential steps for onsets of external factors, essential for efficient reprogramming.
Proteomic profiling of archaeological human bone
Authors: Sawafuji Rikai , Cappellini Enrico , Nagaoka Tomohito , Fotakis Anna K. , Jersie-Christensen Rosa Rakownikow , Olsen Jesper V. , Hirata Kazuaki , Ueda Shintaroh
Published: June 2017

Ancient protein analysis provides clues to human life and diseases from ancient times. Here, we performed shotgun proteomics of human archeological bones for the first time, using rib bones from the Hitotsubashi site (AD 1657–1683) in Tokyo, called Edo in ancient times. The output data obtained were analysed using Gene Ontology and label-free quantification. We detected leucocyte-derived proteins, possibly originating from the bone marrow of the rib. Particularly prevalent and relatively high expression of eosinophil peroxidase suggests the influence of infectious diseases. This scenario is plausible, considering the overcrowding and unhygienic living conditions of the Edo city described in the historical literature. We also observed age-dependent differences in proteome profiles, particularly for proteins involved in developmental processes. Among them, alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein demonstrated a strong negative correlation with age. These results suggest that analysis of ancient proteins could provide a useful indicator of stress, disease, starvation, obesity and other kinds of physiological and pathological information.
On the formation of fold-type oscillation marks in the continuous casting of steel
Authors: Vynnycky M. , Saleem S. , Devine K. M. , Florio B. J. , Mitchell S. L. , O’Brien S. B. G.
Published: June 2017

Asymptotic methods are employed to revisit an earlier model for oscillation-mark formation in the continuous casting of steel. A systematic non-dimensionalization of the governing equations, which was not carried out previously, leads to a model with 12 dimensionless parameters. Analysis is provided in the same parameter regime as for the earlier model, and surprisingly simple analytical solutions are found for the oscillation-mark profiles; these are found to agree reasonably well with the numerical solution in the earlier model and very well with fold-type oscillation marks that have been obtained in more recent experimental work. The benefits of this approach, when compared with time-consuming numerical simulations, are discussed in the context of auxiliary models for macrosegregation and thermomechanical stresses and strains.
Transient exposure to oxygen or nitrate reveals ecophysiology of fermentative and sulfate-reducing benthic microbial populations
Authors: Abdulrahman Beiruti Zainab , Bhatnagar Srijak , Tegetmeyer Halina E. , Geelhoed Jeanine S. , Strous Marc , Ruff S. Emil
Published: June 2017

For the anaerobic remineralization of organic matter in marine sediments, sulfate reduction coupled to fermentation plays a key role. Here, we enriched sulfate-reducing/fermentative communities from intertidal sediments under defined conditions in continuous culture. We transiently exposed the cultures to oxygen or nitrate twice daily and investigated the community response. Chemical measurements, provisional genomes and transcriptomic profiles revealed trophic networks of microbial populations. Sulfate reducers coexisted with facultative nitrate reducers or aerobes enabling the community to adjust to nitrate or oxygen pulses. Exposure to oxygen and nitrate impacted the community structure, but did not suppress fermentation or sulfate reduction as community functions, highlighting their stability under dynamic conditions. The most abundant sulfate reducer in all cultures, related to
Desulfotignum balticum
, appeared to have coupled acetate oxidation to sulfate reduction. We described a novel representative of the widespread uncultured phylum
Candidatus
Fermentibacteria (formerly candidate division Hyd24-12). For this strictly anaerobic, obligate fermentative bacterium, we propose the name
Ca.
“Sabulitectum silens” and identify it as a partner of sulfate reducers in marine sediments. Overall, we provide insights into the metabolic network of fermentative and sulfate-reducing microbial populations, their niches, and adaptations to a dynamic environment.
FUSTr: a tool to find gene Families Under Selection in Transcriptomes
Authors: Cole T. Jeffrey , Brewer Michael S.
Published: June 2017

FUSTr is a tool for finding genes in transcriptomic datasets under strong positive selection that automatically detects isoform designation patterns in transcriptome assemblies to maximize phylogenetic independence in downstream analysis. When applied to previously studied spider toxin families as well as simulated data, FUSTr successfully grouped coding sequences into proper gene families as well as correctly identified those under strong positive selection. FUSTr provides a tool capable of utilizing multi-processor high-performance computational facilities and is scalable for large transcriptomic biodiversity datasets.

Availability

FUSTr is freely available under a GNU license and can be downloaded athttps://github.com/tijeco/FUSTr.

Contact

coleti16@students.ecu.edu
A majority of HIV persistence during antiretroviral therapy is due to infected cell proliferation
Authors: Reeves Daniel B. , Duke Elizabeth R. , Wagner Thor A. , Palmer Sarah E. , Spivak Adam M. , Schiffer Joshua T.
Published: June 2017

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) suppresses viral replication in people living with HIV. Yet, infected cells persist for decades on ART and viremia returns if ART is stopped. Persistence has been attributed to viral replication in an ART sanctuary and long-lived and1or proliferating latently infected cells. Using ecological methods and existing data, we infer that >99% of infected cells are members of clonal populations after one year of ART. We reconcile our results with observations from the first months of ART, demonstrating mathematically how a “fossil record” of historic HIV replication permits observed viral evolution even while most new infected cells arise from proliferation. Together, our results imply cellular proliferation generates a majority of infected cells during ART. Therefore, reducing proliferation could decrease the size of the HIV reservoir and help achieve a functional cure.
COREMIC: a web-tool to search for a root-zone associated CORE MICrobiome
Authors: Rodrigues Richard R. , Rodgers Nyle C. , Wu Xiaowei , Williams Mark A.
Published: June 2017

Microbial diversity on earth is extraordinary, and soils alone harbor thousands of species per gram of soil. Understanding how this diversity is sorted and selected into habitat niches is a major focus of ecology and biotechnology, but remains only vaguely understood. A systems-biology approach was used to mine information from databases to show how it can be used to answer questions related to the core microbiome of habitat-microbe relationships. By making use of the burgeoning growth of information from databases, our tool “COREMIC” meets a great need in the search for understanding niche partitioning and habitat-function relationships. The work is unique, furthermore, because it provides a user-friendly statistically robust web-tool (http://coremic2.appspot.com), developed using Google App Engine, to help in the process of database mining to identify the “core microbiome” associated with a given habitat. A case study is presented using data from 31 switchgrass rhizosphere community habitats across a diverse set of soil and sampling environments. The methodology utilizes an outgroup of 28 non-switchgrass (other grasses and forbs) to identify a core switchgrass microbiome. Even across a diverse set of soils (5 environments), and conservative statistical criteria (presence in more than 90% samples and FDR q-val < 0.05% for Fisher’s exact test) a core set of bacteria associated with switchgrass was observed. These included, among others, closely related taxa from Lysobacter spp., Mesorhizobium spp, and Chitinophagaceae. These bacteria have been shown to have functions related to the production of bacterial and fungal antibiotics and plant growth promotion. COREMIC can be used as a hypothesis generating or confirmatory tool that shows great potential for identifying taxa that may be important to the functioning of a habitat (e.g. host plant). The case study, in conclusion, shows that COREMIC can identify key habitat-specific microbes across diverse samples, using currently available databases and a unique freely available software.
Homology-based hydrogen bond information improves crystallographic structures in the PDB
Authors: Beusekom Bart van , Touw Wouter G. , Tatineni Mahidhar , Somani Sandeep , Rajagopal Gunaretnam , Luo Jinquan , Gilliland Gary L. , Perrakis Anastassis , Joosten Robbie P.
Published: June 2017

Crystallographic structure models in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) are optimized against the crystal diffraction data and geometrical restraints. This process of crystallographic refinement typically ignored hydrogen bond (H-bond) distances as a source of information. However, H-bond restraints can improve structures, especially at low resolution where diffraction data are limited. To improve low-resolution structure refinement, we present methods for deriving H-bond information either globally from well-refined high-resolution structures from the PDB-REDO databank, or specifically from on-the-fly constructed sets of homologous high-resolution structures. Refinement incorporating HOmology DErived Restraints (HODER), improves geometrical quality and the fit to the diffraction data for many low-resolution structures. Using approximately 60 years of CPU-time in massively parallel computing, we constructed a new instance of the PDB-REDO databank, a novel resource to help biologists gain insight on protein families or on specific structures, as we demonstrate with examples.
Subgraphs of functional brain networks identify dynamical constraints of cognitive control
Authors: Khambhati Ankit N. , Medaglia John D. , Karuza Elisabeth A. , Thompson-Schill Sharon L. , Bassett Danielle S.
Published: June 2017

Brain anatomy and physiology support the human ability to navigate a complex space of perceptions and actions. To maneuver across an ever-changing landscape of mental states, the brain invokes cognitive control – a set of dynamic processes that engage and disengage different sets of brain regions to modulate attention, switch between tasks, and inhibit prepotent responses. Current theory suggests that cooperative and competitive interactions between brain areas may mediate processes of network reorganization that support transitions between dynamical states. In this study, we used a quantitative approach to identify distinct topological states of functional interactions and examine how their expression relates to cognitive control processes and behavior. In particular, we acquired fMRI BOLD signal in twenty–eight healthy subjects as they performed two cognitive control tasks – a local-global perception switching task using Navon figures and a Stroop interference task – each with low cognitive control demand and high cognitive control demand conditions. Based on these data, we constructed dynamic functional brain networks and used a parts-based network decomposition technique called non-negative matrix factorization to identify putative cognitive control subgraphs whose temporal expression captured key dynamical states involved in control processes. Our results demonstrate that the temporal expression of these functional subgraphs reflect cognitive demands and are associated with individual differences in task-based performance. These findings offer insight into how coordinated changes in the cooperative and competitive roles of distributed brain networks map trajectories between cognitively demanding brain states.
Phenolic glycolipid facilitates mycobacterial escape from a microbicidal population of tissue-resident macrophages
Authors: Cambier C.J. , O’Leary Seónadh M. , O’Sullivan Mary P. , Keane Joseph , Ramakrishnan Lalita
Published: June 2017

Mycobacterium tuberculosisenters the host in aerosol droplets deposited in lung alveoli where the bacteria first encounter lung-resident alveolar macrophages. We studied the earliest mycobacterium-macrophage interactions in the optically transparent zebrafish. We find that the first-responding resident macrophages can phagocytose and eradicate infecting mycobacteria. So, to establish a successful infection, mycobacteria must escape out of the initial resident macrophage into growth-permissive monocytes. We define a critical role for the membrane phenolic glycolipid (PGL) in engineering this transition to a permissive niche. PGL activates the STING cytosolic sensing pathway, thereby inducing the chemokine CCL2 that recruits permissive peripheral monocytes. The bacteria then transfer from resident macrophage to recruited monocyte via transient fusion of the two immune cells. We show that interrupting this bacterial strategy so as to prolong the mycobacterial sojourn in resident macrophages promotes clearing of infection. Because PGL-dependent CCL2 induction is conserved in human alveolar macrophages, our findings suggest the potential of immunological or pharmacological PGL-blocking interventions to prevent tuberculosis.
Crystal structure of (5-{3-[(1,4,7,10,13-pentaoxa-16-azacyclooctadecan-16-yl)carbonylamino]phenyl}-10,15,20-triphenylporphyrinato)cobalt(II)
Authors: Wu Qi , He Mingrui , Li Jianfeng
Published: June 2017

In the title compound, [Co(C57H52N6O6)], the central CoIIatom is coordinated by four pyrrole N atoms of the porphyrin core and one O atom of the crown ether. The complex has a distorted porphyrin core, with mean absolute core-atom displacements of 0.14 (10) (Ca), 0.20 (10) (Cb), 0.24 (4) (Cm) and 0.18 (10) Å (Cav), respectively. The axial Co—O bond length is 2.3380 (15) and the average Co—Npbond length is 1.968 (5) Å. Intramolecular N—H...O and intermolecular C—H...π interactions are observed.
5-Acetyl-4-(2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-6-methyl-1-(prop-2-ynyl)-3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-one
Authors: Kaoukabi Hanane , Taourirte Moha , El Azhari Mohamed , Lazrek Hassan B. , Saadi Mohamed , El Ammari Lahcen
Published: June 2017

In the title compound, C18H20N2O4, the 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-one ring has a screw-boat conformation. The mean plane through this heterocycle is almost perpendicular to the prop-2-ynyl chain and to the benzene ring, with which it makes a dihedral angle of 87.63 (6)°. The plane through the acetyl group makes a dihedral angle of 33.11 (8)° with the mean plane of the heterocycle. There is an intramolecular C—H...O hydrogen bond present forming anS(6) ring motif. In the crystal, molecules are linked by C—H...O hydrogen bonds, forming layers parallel to thebcplane. There are also C—H...π interactions present within the layers.
Assessing the impact of demographic variables on mentoring-managerial effectiveness relationship
Authors: Madan Poornima , Srivastava Shalini
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between mentoring, managerial effectiveness and demographic variables. Being in a mentoring relationship offers a low-cost experiential learning, encourages diversity and inclusion, helps in expanding professional associations and boosts engagement. The use of mentoring programs can achieve this to a larger extent by making managers effective.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was administered on 350 middle-level managers, representatives of five private sector banks in Delhi/NCR. Variables in the study were assessed using validated instruments. Descriptive statistics, t-test, correlation and hierarchical regression were used for data analysis.

Findings

The study depicts that mentoring has a positive and significant impact on managerial effectiveness. The research contributed in establishing that the demographic variables (gender and marital status) positively moderate the relationship between mentoring and managerial effectiveness.

Research limitations/implications

Although the knowledge base and skillfulness of the young mangers are taken care by the way of organizational training, mentoring relationships complement it with added focus on personal directions to deal with minutiae of organizational processes. Mentors provide a critical linkage to an organization’s competitive advantage by helping expanding connections and networks of employees, and thereby, enhancing productivity which directly affects profitability. Managers and policymakers should chart out the mentoring plans, keeping in perspective the demographic variables, specially the gender of the mentee and the marital status.

Originality/value

This is a pioneer study contributing to the present reserve of knowledge and understanding of the subject by contextualizing the impact of demographic variables on mentoring and managerial effectiveness in Indian private sector banks.
Simulation-based analysis of a supplier-manufacturer relationship in lean supply chains
Authors: Frazzon Enzo , Tortorella Guilherme Luz , Dávalos Ricardo , Holtz Tulio , Coelho Leandro
Published: June 2017

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze a conceptual framework of supplier-manufacturer relationship in a lean supply chain environment, which considers two different configurations for the integration of information and material flows, aiming to better understand the applicability of such kind of approach to realistic cases.

Design/methodology/approach

Two different configurations for the integration of transport and material flows will be comparatively simulated and tested, aiming to better understand scientific implications and the applicability of such kind of approach to realistic cases in terms of performance of delivery service level and lead time.

Findings

The findings indicate that the conceptual model provides a framework to define threshold values of production variability to support the decision-making process regarding finished goods lean strategy. Furthermore, as the conceptual model considers as inputs the process variability of both supplier and customer’s production rates, it allows for the verification of the influence of supplier’s efficiency in the inventory sizing adopted in each case.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the body of literature on lean supply chain by proposing a simulation-based model that analyzes two different theoretical scenarios enabling the assessment of trade-offs among delivery service level, inventory strategy and production stability. This analysis provides theoretical arguments that may be extrapolated to real case situations, and considered other sources of instability that can impact the performance.
Attitudes toward supplier integration: the USA vs China
Authors: Yang Yang S. , Kull Thomas J. , Nahm Abraham Y. , Li Benbo
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Studies show the benefits of supplier integration, yet negative attitudes toward supplier integration exist that research fails to explain. The purpose of this paper is to investigate managerial attitudes toward supplier integration and how intra-firm processes and culture affect the formation of such attitudes. In particular, the paper aims to examine the differing influences between the USA and China.

Design/methodology/approach

Using multi-group structural equation modeling, the authors re-analyzed the data collected by Nahmet al.(2004) and Liet al.(2014) comprised of responses from 224 US and 117 Chinese manufacturing managers.

Findings

The study finds that managerial attitudes toward supplier integration depend on the degree to which a collaborative organizational culture and synchronous manufacturing practices exist within a firm. Moreover, in the Chinese context, the influence of a collaborative organizational culture is lower than the influence of synchronous manufacturing practices. The opposite is found in the US context.

Practical implications

The results suggest that overcoming negative attitudes of supplier integration requires more than simply espousing the benefits of supplier integration; looking deeper into an organization’s internal characteristics and situational context is required. In particular, if the country context already emphasizes the collaborative culture, the organization should focus on synchronous manufacturing practices in order to form a positive attitude toward supplier integration.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to examine how managerial attitudes toward supplier integration are formed. The work is novel because the authors suggest that the formation of managerial attitudes toward supplier integration inter-firm management can be affected by intra-firm management in the minds of managers, which are influenced by country contexts.
Institutional explanations
Authors: Turkulainen Virpi , Kauppi Katri , Nermes Emma
Published: June 2017

Purpose

While classical operations strategy research argues that manufacturing organizations should be managed in line with the operational strategic priorities, recent studies have brought up potential institutional explanations for adoption of various managerial practices, including supply chain management practices. The key point in the institutional argument is that organizations are especially affected by other organizations; imitation and isomorphism are a critical part of organizational behavior. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the institutional argument in explaining the use of supplier integration mechanisms – one of the focal management practices in today’s organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors assess empirically the extent to which various economic institutional factors explain the use of supplier integration mechanisms in manufacturing plants with a multi-country and multi-industry survey sample.

Findings

The results indicate that institutional explanations play a significant role in explaining supplier integration. The findings suggest that further emphasis on building research around the institutional argument in various areas of supply chain and operations management is important.

Originality/value

As research on supply chain integration – including supplier integration – has focused on its performance implications, more research on the antecedents to integration is needed. This study provides a test of institutional theory as an antecedent to supplier integration.
Global cities, Tokyo, urban tourism
Authors: Henderson Joan
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between global cities and international tourism with particular reference to the recent experiences of Tokyo which has recently seen a marked increase in arrivals. It addresses questions of the standing of Tokyo as a global city and tourist destination, how the two functions are connected and why changes are occurring.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology employed is that of an empirical case study based on the analysis of published materials drawn from a diversity of sources.

Findings

The defining characteristics of global cities are generally conducive to their function as international tourist destinations. They possess a wealth of tourism resources and amenities which facilitate inbound tourist flows. Tokyo is a prominent example of a global city, but has tended to attract fewer visitors than others in that category. The recent significant growth in arrivals is attributed to changes in the tourism industry and wider environment, yet some challenges remain before it can catch up with its counterparts.

Originality/value

Fresh insights are afforded into the implications of global city status for tourism and the development of Tokyo as a destination which tends to have been neglected in the literature.
Knowledge reuse through electronic knowledge repositories: a multi theoretical study
Authors: Chhim Peter P. , Somers Toni M. , Chinnam Ratna Babu
Published: June 2017

Purpose

This study provides insight into factors surrounding knowledge reuse through electronic knowledge repositories (EKR).

Design/methodology/approach

A multi-theoretical framework is proposed that views knowledge reuse from both socio-technical and expectation confirmation model perspectives. Survey data are used to test associated hypotheses derived from the literature.

Findings

Results confirm the explanatory power of this approach to predict greater knowledge reuse and greater continuance of use.

Research limitations/implications

Results suggest social and technical factors modelled interdependently affect knowledge reuse and lead to greater performance, knowledge sharing and continuance of use.

Practical implications

Practical and managerial recommendations for enhancing enablers of knowledge reuse via EKR are offered.

Originality/value

This study models enablers to knowledge reuse and resulting downstream effects on organizational outcomes. It provides an original framework for studying knowledge reuse within an EKR or knowledge management system perspective.
Demographic differences in using knowledge creation tools among faculty members
Authors: Kaba Abdoulaye , Ramaiah Chennupati K.
Published: June 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze demographic differences in using knowledge creation tools among faculty members. It also attempts to identify the most knowledge creation tool used by the participants. The tools comprised of 13 items including data mining, metadata, classifications, expert profiling, Mashup and blogs.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected through an online survey questionnaire. A total of 300 faculty members from 26 universities and colleges accredited by the UAE Ministry of High Education participated in the study. The t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) test are used to validate the stated hypotheses.

Findings

The study found personal knowledge management to be the most used knowledge creation tool among the faculty members, followed by authoring tools and templates. Findings of the study indicate statistically no significant difference in using knowledge creation tools with respect to gender, qualification, academic rank, teaching experience and institutional affiliation. These findings support the stated null hypotheses (H1, H3, H4, H6 and H8) and suggest that the use of knowledge creation tools is independent from these variables. However, the results showed statistically a significant age group difference, academic specialization and research experience in using knowledge creation tools. The findings reject the assumed hypotheses (H2, H5 and H7) and suggest the impact of these variables on the use of knowledge creation tools.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is based on the data collected through a survey questionnaire. Future studies may combine quantitative and qualitative data collection methods for the purpose of comparison and in-depth analysis.

Practical implications

Findings could be an important reference for knowledge management officers and knowledge intensive organizations and institutions to develop knowledge creation tools and promote usage among knowledge workers.

Originality/value

The paper represents one of the very few empirical studies conducted on the use of knowledge creation tools. Findings of the study may contribute to the process of knowledge creation among faculty members and also to the improvement of knowledge management in the academic environment and other knowledge organizations.
Top 10 data mining techniques in business applications: a brief survey
Authors: Lin Wei-Chao , Ke Shih-Wen , Tsai Chih-Fong
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Data mining is widely considered necessary in many business applications for effective decision-making. The importance of business data mining is reflected by the existence of numerous surveys in the literature focusing on the investigation of related works using data mining techniques for solving specific business problems. The purpose of this paper is to answer the following question: What are the widely used data mining techniques in business applications?

Design/methodology/approach

The aim of this paper is to examine related surveys in the literature and thus to identify the frequently applied data mining techniques. To ensure the recent relevance and quality of the conclusions, the criterion for selecting related studies are that the works be published in reputed journals within the past 10 years.

Findings

There are 33 different data mining techniques employed in eight different application areas. Most of them are supervised learning techniques and the application area where such techniques are most often seen is bankruptcy prediction, followed by the areas of customer relationship management, fraud detection, intrusion detection and recommender systems. Furthermore, the widely used ten data mining techniques for business applications are the decision tree (including C4.5 decision tree and classification and regression tree), genetic algorithm, k-nearest neighbor, multilayer perceptron neural network, naïve Bayes and support vector machine as the supervised learning techniques and association rule, expectation maximization and k-means as the unsupervised learning techniques.

Originality/value

The originality of this paper is to survey the recent 10 years of related survey and review articles about data mining in business applications to identify the most popular techniques.
Comparative performance studies on DI diesel engine with neem de-oiled cake and Jatropha methyl ester diesel blends
Authors: S. Sendilvelan , K. Bhaskar
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Alternative sources for petroleum fuels have been the prime concern of most of the environmentalists. It is also a concern for economists due to the depletable nature of the fossil fuel. Vegetable oils are considered as good alternatives to diesel as their properties are close to diesel. This work aimed to produce a fuel by adding different proportions of de-oiled neem cake with diesel and to conduct experiments to find out its performance, emission and combustion characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

At present, biodiesel is commercially produced from the vegetable oils by esterification processes. Because most of these oils are edible, its cost restricts the usage. The de-oiled cakes after crushing the seeds containing around 2 per cent of oil with less fatty materials are aimed in this study.

Findings

The fuel is prepared by adding dry neem de-oiled cake powder at different proportions ranging from 3 to 25 per cent by weight with diesel. Experimental results reveal that the fuel has the potential to reduce smoke, CO emissions simultaneously along with marginal increase in brake thermal efficiency.

Originality/value

In this published research work, the neem oil is used as biodiesel blends with diesel. Here, the authors have used neem de-oiled cake as a replacement for diesel.
Video data image retrieval using – BRICH
Authors: Devaraj Saravanan
Published: June 2017

Purpose

Data mining is the process of detecting knowledge from a given huge data set. Among the data set, multimedia is the data which contains diverse data such as audio, video, image, text and motion. In this growing field of video data, mining the video data plays vital role in the field of video data mining. In video data mining, video data are grouped into frames. In this vast amount of video frames, the fast retrieval of needed information is important one. This paper aims to propose a Birch-based clustering method for content-based image retrieval.

Design/methodology/approach

In image retrieval system, image segmentation plays a very important role. A text file, normally, is divided into sections, that is, piece, sentences, word and character for this information which are organized and indexed effectively like in a video, the information is dynamic in nature and this information is converted to static for easy retrieval. For this, video files are divided into a number of frames or segments. After the segmentation process, images are trained for retrieval process, and from these, unwanted images are removed from the data set. The noise or unwanted image removal pseudo-code is shown below. In the code image, pixel value represents the value of the difference between the two adjacent image pixel values. By assuming a threshold for the image value, the duplicate images are found. After finding the duplicate image, it is removed from the data set. Clustering is used in many applications as a stand-alone tool to get insight into data distribution and as a pre-processing step for other algorithms (Ester et al., 1996). Specifically, it is used in pattern recognition, spatial data analysis, image processing, economic science document classification, etc. Hierarchical clustering algorithms are classified as agglomerative or divisive. BRICH uses clustering attribute (CA) and clustering feature hierarchy (CA_Hierarchy) for the formation of clusters. It perform multidimensional data objects. Every BRICH algorithm based on the memory-oriented information, that is, memory constrains, is involved in the processing of the data sets. This information is represented in Figures 6-10. For forming clusters, they use the amount of object in the cluster (A), the sum of all points in the data set (S) and need the square value of the all objects (P).

Findings

The proposed technique brings an effective result for cluster formation.

Originality/value

BRICH uses a novel approach to model the degree of inter-connectivity and closeness between each pair of clusters that takes into account the internal characteristics of the clusters themselves.
The shift step optimization of belt conveyor in self-advancing semi-continuous mining technology based on SIMIO
Authors: Li Xinwang , Li Li , Lv Huayong , Guan Tianqiang
Published: June 2017

Purpose

This paper aims to develop a computer simulation processing method to simulate the mining operation of self-advancing semi-continuous mining technology and optimize the shift step of belt conveyor by using simulation modeling framework based on intelligent objects (SIMIO). The method would effectively solve the challenge of field testing such large-scale equipment.

Design/methodology/approach

The four operational modes of self-advancing semi-continuous mining technology at single bench had been illustrated. The operational system of this technology was analyzed and broken down to single units. By analyzing the time constitution of one operation cycle, the theoretical optimization model of shift step can be established and the optimization criteria is the time utilization ratio being maximum. Once the simulation flow was determined, a three-dimensional (3D) computer simulation model of this mining technology was developed by adapting the SIMIO simulating software to the theoretical model. The models were run to investigate the outputs from different operational modes using geological and mining data from East open-pit mine.

Findings

The result of these simulations showed that the four-mining-width one-shift (FMWOS) is at maximum production capacity during all operation modes. If transfer equipment is necessary, then this mode can adapt, but system will become more complex. There are minor differences between two-mining-width one-shift and three-mining-width one-shift. If transfer equipment is not necessary, then the two-mining-width one-shift can adapt during actual production.

Originality/value

The simulation results show that the proposed method can achieve the optimal shift step of a belt conveyor and effectively reduce the time loss caused by the coordination of multiple pieces of equipment while simultaneously improving operational efficiency.