bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cytomegalovirus Latency Exacerbated Small-for-size Liver Graft Injury Through Activation of CCL19/CCR7 in Hepatic Stellate Cells
Authors: Liu Xiao Bing , Liu Hui , Liu Jiang , Cheung Allen Ka Loon , Zheng Ming Zhu , Cheng Jin Lin , Liu Qing Sheng , Lo Chung Mau , Chen Zhi Wei , Man Kwan
Published: June 2021

Background.

The interplay between cytomegalovirus (CMV) latency and graft malfunction after living donor liver transplantation remains poorly defined because of the complexity of clinical confounding factors. Here, we aimed to investigate the effects of CMV latency on small-for-size graft injury and to get further insight into the pathogenic role of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) in this process.

Methods.

Rat orthotopic liver transplantation with small-for-size grafts was performed in a CMV latent model developed in immunocompetent Sprague Dawley rats using Priscott strain. Posttransplant graft injury including hepatocyte damage, stellate cell activation, and fibrogenesis was evaluated. Differential gene expression of HSCs in response to CMV latency was screened by cDNA microarray. Clinical validation was further conducted in human biopsies.

Results.

CMV latency aggravated hepatocyte apoptosis/necrosis in the early phase and enhanced HSC expansion and graft fibrosis during the middle-late phase in small-for-size liver grafts of the rat model. cDNA microarray mining revealed CCL19/CCR7 as one of the most noteworthy pathways bridging HSC activation and liver graft injury in the presence of CMV latency. Together with CCL19 upregulation, coherent overexpression of CCR7 in accumulated HSCs was confirmed in both rat and human CMV latent recipients. Moreover, addition of CCL19 in vitro promoted HSC migration by increasing the level of matrix metalloproteinase-2.

Conclusions.

Our data demonstrated that CMV latency aggravated early/late phase liver graft damage and fibrogenesis via CCL19/CCR7/HSCs axis. Blockade of CMV latency-related stellate cell activation may shed light on the strategy of graft protection clinically.
Kordia aestuariivivens sp. nov. and Olleya sediminilitoris sp. nov., isolated from a tidal flat
Authors: Park Sooyeon , Lee Jung-Sook , Kim Wonyong , Yoon Jung-Hoon
Published: June 2021

Two Gram-stain-negative and non-flagellated bacteria, YSTF-M3T and YSTF-M6T, were isolated from a tidal flat from Yellow Sea, Republic of Korea, and subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strains YSTF-M3T and YSTF-M6T belong to the genera

Kordia

and

Olleya

of the family

Flavobacteriaceae

, respectively. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities between strain YSTF-M3T and the type strains of

Kordia

species and between strain YSTF-M6T and the type strains of

Olleya

species were 94.1–98.4 and 97.3–98.3 %, respectively. The ANI and dDDH values between genomic sequences of strain YSTF-M3T and the type strains of five

Kordia

species and between those of strain YSTF-M6T and the type strains of three

Olleya

species were in ranges of 77.0–83.2 and 20.7–27.1 % and 79.4–81.5 and 22.3–23.9 %, respectively. The DNA G+C contents of strain YSTF-M3T and YSTF-M6T from genomic sequences were 34.1 and 31.1 %, respectively. Both strains contained MK-6 as predominant menaquinone and phosphatidylethanolamine as only major phospholipid identified. Differential phenotypic properties, together with the phylogenetic and genetic distinctiveness, revealed that strains YSTF-M3T and YSTF-M6T are separated from recognized species of the genera

Kordia

and

Olleya

, respectively. On the basis of the data presented, strains YSTF-M3T (=KACC 21639T=NBRC 114499T) and YSTF-M6T (=KACC 21640T=NBRC 114500T) are considered to represent novel species of the genera

Kordia

and

Olleya

, respectively, for which the names Kordia aestuariivivens sp. nov. and Olleya sediminilitoris sp. nov. are proposed.
A pH-eQTL interaction at the RIT2-SYT4 Parkinson’s disease risk locus in the substantia nigra
Authors: Patel Sejal , Howard Derek , French Leon
Published: June 2021

Parkinson’s disease (PD) causes severe motor and cognitive disabilities that result from the progressive loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra. The rs12456492 variant in the RIT2 gene has been repeatedly associated with increased risk for Parkinson’s disease. From a transcriptomic perspective, a meta-analysis found thatRIT2gene expression is correlated with pH in the human brain. To assess these pH associations in relation to PD risk, we examined the two datasets that assayed rs12456492, gene expression, and pH in the postmortem human brain. Using the BrainEAC dataset, we replicate the positive correlation betweenRIT2gene expression and pH in the human brain (n=100). Furthermore, we found that the relationship between expression and pH is influenced by rs12456492. When tested across ten brain regions, this interaction is specifically found in the substantia nigra. A similar association was found for the co-localizedSYT4gene. In addition,SYT4associations are stronger in a combined model with both genes, and theSYT4interaction appears to be specific to males. In the GTEx dataset, the pH associations involving rs12456492 and expression of eitherSYT4andRIT2was not seen. This null finding may be due to the short postmortem intervals (PMI) of the GTEx tissue samples. In the BrainEAC data, we tested the effect of PMI and only observed the interactions in the longer PMI samples. These previously unknown associations suggest novel mechanistic roles for rs12456492,RIT2, andSYT4in the regulation of pH in the substantia nigra.
Maternal underweight and obesity are associated with placental pathologies in human pregnancy
Authors: Scott Hailey , Grynspan David , Anderson Laura N , Connor Kristin L
Published: June 2021

Introduction

Maternal underweight and obesity are prevalent conditions, associated with chronic, low-grade inflammation, poor fetal development, and long-term adverse outcomes for the child. The placenta senses and adapts to the pregnancy environment in an effort to support optimal fetal development. However, the mechanisms driving these adaptations, and the resulting placental phenotypes, are poorly understood. We hypothesised that maternal underweight and obesity would be associated with increased prevalence of placental pathologies in term and preterm pregnancies.

Methods

Data from 12,154 pregnancies were obtained from the Collaborative Perinatal Project, a prospective cohort study conducted from 1959 to 1974. Macro and microscopic placental pathologies were analysed across maternal prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) to assess differences in the presence of pathologies among underweight, overweight, and obese BMI groups compared to normal weight reference BMI at term and preterm. Placental pathologies were also assessed across fetal sex.

Results

Pregnancies complicated by obesity had placentae with increased fetal inflammation at preterm, and increased inflammation of maternal gestational tissues at term. In term pregnancies, increasing maternal BMI associated with increased maternal vascular malperfusion (MVM), odds of an appropriately mature placenta for gestational age, and placental weight, and decreased placental efficiency. Male placentae, independent of maternal BMI, had increased inflammation, MVM, and placental efficiency than female placentae, particularly at term.

Discussion

Maternal underweight and obesity are not inert conditions for the placenta, and the histomorphological changes driven by suboptimal maternal BMI may serve as indicators of adversities experienced in utero and potential predictors of future health trajectories.
A fast, general synteny detection engine
Authors: Ahrens Joseph B. , Wade Kristen J. , Pollock David D.
Published: June 2021

The increasingly widespread availability of genomic data has created a growing need for fast, sensitive and scalable comparative analysis methods. A key aspect of comparative genomic analysis is the study of synteny, co-localized gene clusters shared among genomes due to descent from common ancestors. Synteny can provide unique insight into the origin, function, and evolution of genome architectures, but methods to identify syntenic patterns in genomic datasets are often inflexible and slow, and use diverse definitions of what counts as likely synteny. Moreover, the reliable identification of putatively syntenic regions (i.e., whether they are truly indicative of homology) with different lengths and signal to noise ratios can be difficult to quantify. Here, we present Mology, a fast, flexible, alignment-free, nonparametric method to detect regions of syntenic elements among genomes or other datasets. The core algorithm operates on consecutive, rank-ordered elements, which could be genes, operons, motifs, sequence fragments, or any other orderable element. It is agnostic to the physical distance between distinct elements and also to directionality and order within syntenic regions, although such considerations can be addressed post hoc. We describe the underlying statistical theory behind our analysis method, and employ a Monte Carlo approach to estimate the false positive rate and positive predictive values for putative syntenic regions. We also evaluate how varying amounts of noise affect recovery of true syntenic regions among Saccharomycetaceae yeast genomes with up to ~100 million years of divergence. We discuss different strategies for recursive application of our method on syntenic regions with sparser signal than considered here, as well as the general applicability of the core algorithm.
Enteric coronavirus infection and treatment modeled with an immunocompetent human intestine-on-a-chip
Authors: Bein Amir , Kim Seongmin , Goyal Girija , Cao Wuji , Fadel Cicely , Naziripour Arash , Sharma Sanjay , Swenor Ben , LoGrande Nina , Nurani Atiq , Miao Vincent N. , Navia Andrew W. , Ziegler Carly G. K. , Ordovas-Montañes José , Prabhala Pranav , Kim Min Sun , Prantil-Baun Rachelle , Rodas Melissa , Jiang Amanda , Tillya Gladness , Shalek Alex K. , Ingber Donald E.
Published: June 2021

Many patients infected with coronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV-2 and NL63 that use ACE2 receptors to infect cells, exhibit gastrointestinal symptoms and viral proteins are found in the human gastrointestinal tract, yet little is known about the inflammatory and pathological effects of coronavirus infection on the human intestine. Here, we used a human intestine-on-a-chip (Intestine Chip) microfluidic culture device lined by patient organoid-derived intestinal epithelium interfaced with human vascular endothelium to study host cellular and inflammatory responses to infection with NL63 coronavirus. These organoid-derived intestinal epithelial cells dramatically increased their ACE2 protein levels when cultured under flow in the presence of peristalsis-like mechanical deformations in the Intestine Chips compared to when cultured statically as organoids or in Transwell inserts. Infection of the intestinal epithelium with NL63 on-chip led to inflammation of the endothelium as demonstrated by loss of barrier function, increased cytokine production, and recruitment of circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PMBCs). Treatment of NL63 infected chips with the approved protease inhibitor drug, nafamostat, inhibited viral entry and resulted in a reduction in both viral load and cytokine secretion, whereas remdesivir, one of the few drugs approved for COVID19 patients, was not found to be effective and it also was toxic to the endothelium. This model of intestinal infection was also used to test the effects of other drugs that have been proposed for potential repurposing against SARS-CoV-2. Taken together, these data suggest that the human Intestine Chip might be useful as a human preclinical model for studying coronavirus related pathology as well as for testing of potential anti-viral or anti-inflammatory therapeutics.
Protein Interaction Network-based Deep Learning Framework for Identifying Disease-Associated Human Proteins
Authors: Das Barnali , Mitra Pralay
Published: June 2021

Infectious diseases in humans appear to be one of the most primary public health issues. Identification of novel disease-associated proteins will furnish an efficient recognition of the novel therapeutic targets. Here, we develop a Graph Convolutional Network (GCN)-based model called PINDeL to identify the disease-associated host proteins by integrating the human Protein Locality Graph and its corresponding topological features. Because of the amalgamation of GCN with the protein interaction network, PINDeL achieves the highest accuracy of 83.45% while AUROC and AUPRC values are 0.90 and 0.88, respectively. With high accuracy, recall, F1-score, specificity, AUROC, and AUPRC, PINDeL outperforms other existing machine-learning and deep-learning techniques for disease gene/protein identification in humans. Application of PINDeL on an independent dataset of 24320 proteins, which are not used for training, validation, or testing purposes, predicts 6448 new disease-protein associations of which we verify 3196 disease-proteins through experimental evidence like disease ontology, Gene Ontology, and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses. Our investigation informs that experimentally-verified 748 proteins are indeed responsible for pathogen-host protein interactions of which 22 disease-proteins share their association with multiple diseases such as cancer, aging, chem-dependency, pharmacogenomics, normal variation, infection, and immune-related diseases. This unique Graph Convolution Network-based prediction model is of utmost use in large-scale disease-protein association prediction and hence, will provide crucial insights on disease pathogenesis and will further aid in developing novel therapeutics.
Ethyl 4-oxo-1,4-dihydropyridine-3-carboxylate
Authors: Gao Jun , Long Sihui
Published: June 2021

The title compound, C8H9NO3, likely generated through hydrolysis and esterification of 3′-carboxy-3-methyl-(1,4′-bipyridin)-1-ium chloride by ethanol, which contained water, has a nearly planar conformation. The crystal structure is sustained by one-dimensional chains along the a-axis direction based on bifurcated N—H...(O,O) hydrogen bonds between the NH group of the 4-oxo-1,4-dihydropyridine ring and the two carbonyl O atoms.
Paradoxical tensions of the COVID-19 pandemic: a paradox theory perspective on the role of management control systems in helping organizations survive crises
Authors: Kober Ralph , Thambar Paul J.
Published: June 2021

Purpose

This paper presents paradox theory as a useful theoretical lens for researchers exploring crises such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The authors argue that paradox theory, which emphasizes a “both/and” as opposed to an “either/or” approach, is ideally suited for management control systems (MCS) research on crises.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopt a revelatory case approach to provide empirical examples of the insights that paradox theory can provide.

Findings

This paper highlights how MCS can be used to simultaneously manage short-term/operational and long-term/strategic objectives to navigate a crisis. Furthermore, it highlights how MCS can be mobilized during crises to identify and embrace opportunities.

Practical implications

This paper illustrates the importance of MCS focusing on not just the short-term, but also the long-term, and managing multiple objectives in assisting organizations to survive crisis.

Originality/value

This paper highlights the benefits of using paradox theory to understand the role of MCS in helping organizations manage crises and to use a crisis as a source of opportunity.
The impact of street food experience on behavioural intention
Authors: Ozcelik Ayten , Akova Orhan
Published: June 2021

Purpose

The aim of the study is to determine the effect of street food experience on behavioural intention and to determine the relationship between the street food experiences and behavioural intention.

Design/methodology/approach

In this research, a quantitative research method and a structured questionnaire form are used. The author has used a 48-item questionnaire. The questionnaire contains three categories. In the first section of the questionnaire form, there were 14 questions to determine gender, education, age, income state and demographic findings of the participants. In other sections, a Likert scale with 5 points (strongly agree–strongly disagree) was used.

Findings

It was found that street food experience affects behavioural intention and also there is a significant positive relationship between street food and behavioural intention. The research includes constructive propositions for many institutions and organisations such as local businesses and local governments. In spite of the shortcomings of basic research about the impact of the street food experience on behavioural intention of the tourist, there is still some need of other with a wider sample and different studies to understand the impacts of street food experience. In addition, future studies can focus on the relationship between street food experience and food culture.

Originality/value

In tourism literature, there are so many research studies that examine tourist experience. Many of these studies are about the relationships between food and cultural experience. Nevertheless, no study has been conducted on similar relationships between street food and behavioural intentions in the literature. There are also some other studies that discuss different types of tourism experience. However, there has not been found any research on tourist experience of street food. In prior studies, rather than street food impacts on experience, food impacts on tourist experience have been emphasised. In this way, this study is important in terms of contributing both qualitative and quantitative studies.
Safari Industries Ltd. – driving through the fast lane?
Authors: Tiwari Shalini Rahul , Gupta Himanshu
Published: June 2021

Learning outcomes

Understand the external environment and trends impacting customer preferences. Understanding the elements of customer segmentation and positioning for products such as backpacks and travel luggage. Understand the levers for turnaround management. Qualitative evaluation of an opportunity for investment – greenfield versus brownfield. Developing a marketing plan for growth.

Case overview/synopsis

Indian Luggage market has an oligopoly structure with three major brands – very important person (VIP) Industries, Samsonite and Safari Industries Ltd. (SIL), holding around 90% share of the organized market. The market had evolved slowly, with the players offering limited assortment and having limited manufacturing capacities in India. SIL, having been in business for nearly 25 years, had been registering a flat top line. In 2011, the top management shuffle at VIP Industries witnessed the exit of the then MD, Mr Sudhir Jatia. Mr Jatia decided to acquire the majority stake of 56.55% for Rs 29 crores for the struggling SIL. What followed in the subsequent years was the resurgence of SIL to a noteworthy position in the industry. From a merely 2% market share in 2011, SIL went on to hold nearly 16% market share in 2019. This growth in market share, along with CAGR of almost 15% for the luggage market overall, has boosted the revenue of SIL by nearly 10-folds from INR 620m in 2011 to INR 5.73bn in the year 2018. Several reasons had been identified behind the growth of this company, such as – Mr Jatia’s leadership style, focus on profitable stock keeping units, acquisition of other brands, operational efficiency and financial infusion. However, the larger question was that – Will SIL, which had been following a challenger strategy to date, be able to overcome the leaders in the industry? What strategies should it pursue now? And what obstacles can it expect on this anticipated journey of growth?

Complexity academic level

Undergraduate and post-graduate.

Supplementary materials

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

Subject code

CSS 11: Strategy.
Focusing on sociopolitical issues in a secondary sports literature class: opportunities and experiences
Authors: Rodesiler Luke
Published: June 2021

Purpose

Following recent scholarship promoting the study of sports-related texts as a vehicle for examining sociopolitical issues, this study aims to identify methods and materials used to facilitate the extended exploration of sociopolitical issues in a secondary sports literature class and to establish how students describe their experiences taking up such activities.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study stems from a greater investigation into the teaching of secondary sports literature classes. Data collection involved conducting interviews, observing instruction and gathering artifacts. Driven by guiding research questions, data analysis was conducted in an iterative and recursive manner and multiple validation strategies were used to enhance trustworthiness.

Findings

The methods and materials used to facilitate the extended exploration of sociopolitical issues included a whole-class reading ofSeason of Life(Marx, 2003) and small-group research into “controversial topics” in sports culture. Student-participants described engaging with those methods and materials as relevant to their personal interests and experiences and revelatory in terms of learning about sociopolitical issues in sports and society.

Originality/value

Scholarship promoting the potential for sports-related content to support literacy instruction has grown in recent years. This study covers new ground, for it documents classroom research to build understandings about the methods and materials used to facilitate the extended exploration of sociopolitical issues in a secondary sports literature class and the ways students describe their experiences engaging in such activities.
Complaint behaviour in multichannel retailing: a cross-stage approach
Authors: Frasquet Marta , Ieva Marco , Ziliani Cristina
Published: June 2021

Purpose

This paper analyses how the purchase channel and customer complaint goals affect the sequential choice of post–purchase complaint channels when customers experience a service failure followed by a service recovery failure (double deviation).

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey involving a scenario manipulation was conducted with 577 apparel shoppers. The study employs multi-group latent class analysis to estimate latent customer segments within both online and offline groups of shoppers and compare latent classes between the two groups.

Findings

The results show that the purchase channel has a lock-in effect on the complaint channel, which is stronger for offline buyers. Moreover, there is evidence of channel synergy effects in the case of having to complain twice: shoppers who complain in store in the first attempt turn to online channels in the second complaint attempt, and vice versa. Complaint goals shape the choice of complaint channels and define different shopper segments.

Originality/value

The present study is the first to adopt a cross-stage approach that analyses the dependencies between the purchase channel and the complaint channel used on two subsequent occasions: the first complaint after a service failure and the second following a service recovery failure.
Improving novelty detection by self-supervised learning and channel attention mechanism
Authors: Tian Miao , Cui Ying , Long Haixia , Li Junxia
Published: June 2021

Purpose

In novelty detection, the autoencoder based image reconstruction strategy is one of the mainstream solutions. The basic idea is that once the autoencoder is trained on normal data, it has a low reconstruction error on normal data. However, when faced with complex natural images, the conventional pixel-level reconstruction becomes poor and does not show the promising results. This paper aims to provide a new method for improving the performance of novelty detection based autoencoder.

Design/methodology/approach

To solve the problem that conventional pixel-level reconstruction cannot effectively extract the global semantic information of the image, a novel model with the combination of attention mechanism and self-supervised learning method is proposed. First, an auxiliary task, reconstruct rotated image, is set to enable the network to learn global semantic feature information. Then, the channel attention mechanism is introduced to perform adaptive feature refinement on the intermediate feature map to optimize the correspondingly passed feature map.

Findings

Experimental results on three public data sets show that the proposed method has potential performance for novelty detection.

Originality/value

This study explores the ability of self-supervised learning methods and attention mechanism to extract features on a single class of images. In this way, the performance of novelty detection can be improved.
Exploring the influence of channel leadership style on channel commitment in a franchising context
Authors: Sharma Dheeraj , Patel Shivan Sanjay , Pandey Shivendra Kumar
Published: June 2021

Purpose

This paper aims to explore franchisor–franchisee relationships in the context of plural forms. Plural forms implies the co-existence of franchised and non-franchised outlets of a given company. More specifically, the paper examines the impact of franchisors’ leadership styles on franchisees’ relationship commitment when the company franchised outlets co-exist with independent non-franchised outlets. Specifically, this study operationalize the plural forms phenomenon in franchising, using multi-channel complexity as a moderator. The mediating role of relational capital is also examined.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 254 franchisees. The hypothesized model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings

The results indicate that all three – participative, supportive and directive leadership styles of franchisors increase relationship commitment. In a high channel complexity context, a supportive leadership style is the most effective, whereas, in a low channel complexity context, a participative style is the most effective. Relational capital also partially mediated the relationships between leadership styles and relationship commitment.

Practical implications

Franchisors should follow a participative leadership style when channel complexity is low. However, as they add new channels and the channel complexity increases, franchisors should shift toward a supportive leadership style to maintain existing franchisees’ commitment. In current environments, managers should avoid using directive leadership in favor of the other two leadership styles.

Originality/value

The present study is the first to examine the influence of channel leadership style on relationship commitment in an environment of multiple channel complexity.
Putting marketing knowledge to use: marketing-specific relational capital and product/service innovation performance
Authors: Peñalba-Aguirrezabalaga Carmela , Ritala Paavo , Sáenz Josune
Published: June 2021

Purpose

The importance of integrating both internal and external knowledge into the product/service innovation process has been widely recognized in the knowledge management and innovation literature. Likewise, the role of the marketing and sales function as a driver of innovation has been stressed because of its market-facing role. However, limited research has investigated the complementarity of both internal and external knowledge regarding product/service innovation performance in a marketing context. The purpose of this study is to analyze marketing departments’ role in accessing internal and external knowledge resources (i.e. marketing-specific relational capital [RC]) to reach improved product and service innovation performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis uses empirical evidence collected by a structured survey of 346 respondents representing marketing and sales functions in Spanish companies.

Findings

The survey revealed that marketing-specific internal relational capital at the department and inter-department levels, as well as noncustomer external RC, are directly associated with product/service innovation performance. Further, the analyses show that the relationship between customer-specific RC and innovation performance is mediated by other types of RC, making it a fundamental antecedent to the innovation process. Finally, significant differences in marketing-specific RC subcomponents were found between business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) firms.

Originality/value

This study makes a valuable contribution to marketing and management literature by revealing the types of social interactions in the marketing function that enable access to knowledge sources that promote successful product/service innovation.
Higher accounting education curriculum development: evidence from Tunisia
Authors: Khemiri Rim , Dammak Mariam
Published: June 2021

Purpose

This paper aims to trace the process of setting up and developing the higher accounting education curriculum in Tunisian public institutions, stressing the period 1956–1981. Further, this study intends to highlight specificities of the Tunisian context during this period, focusing on the main roles of the Tunisian State and some key actors.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on a historical approach. Two complementary methodologies were used, mainly, documentary study and semi-directive interviews with key actors heavily involved in higher education. The critical accounting framework and Foucault’s power-knowledge relationship were mobilized to this end.

Findings

The paper provides a general overview of higher accounting education in the Tunisian context, focusing on three specific periods. First, in the post-independence period (1956–1960), higher accounting education was a very underdeveloped French heritage. Second, during the 1960s, the Tunisian State focused on institutional and structural measures to set up the initial foundation. Those measures were impacted by the Tunisian socialist economic system, the development of capital human and the cultural French influence, at once. Third, the 1970s were essentially marked by the role of university-scholars and professional-accountants to set up a higher accounting curriculum. The market-oriented economy and the higher social equity are assumed to influence the above-mentioned setting-up. The culmination of this extending process was the unification and publication of the first official program of accounting studies, at the start of 1981.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to trace the process of setting up and developing of higher accounting education curriculum in Tunisia. This study contributes to a better understanding of this process, shedding some light on the specificities of the Tunisian context during the period 1956 to 1981.
Shipping managers’ information behavior during a pandemic crisis
Authors: Gerakoudi-Ventouri Kelly
Published: June 2021

Purpose

A significant body of literature suggests that shipping companies operate in an extremely volatile and risky environment, relying on the effective use of information to remain competitive. However, decision-making in this market is demanding because of the high uncertainty, market competition and significant capital investments. Moreover, the rapid spread of COVID-19 renders information uncertainty a daunting challenge for companies engaged in global trade. Hence, this study aims to explore the information behavior of managers in a time of crisis seems compelling.

Design/methodology/approach

This study provides novel insights into the information behavior of senior managers by adopting a qualitative approach. Forty-nine semi-structured face-to-face interviews with individuals from Hellenic shipping companies were conducted. Moreover, this study explores the extant theory qualitatively, using the grounded theory methodology and shows that an unprecedented event (pandemic crisis) can redefine the information behavior of managers.

Findings

This study highlights the importance of information in decision-making. Moreover, the results show that, during a pandemic, managers resort to alternative information sources, adopt collaborative information behaviors and take advantage of digital technology.

Originality/value

There is limited research in exploring the information behavior of managers in times of pandemics. This research underscores the fact that during a crisis, managers seek information from digital information resources and decision-making assumes a more decentralized form. This study concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
The impact of workplace loneliness on employee outcomes: what role does psychological capital play?
Authors: Firoz Mantasha , Chaudhary Richa
Published: June 2021

Purpose

With little empirical attention devoted to the consequences of loneliness in the workplace, the present study investigated the effect of workplace loneliness on creative performance, organizational citizenship behaviors and work-family family conflict. Furthermore, psychological capital was examined as a moderator of these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed model was tested in two different studies on a sample of employees from manufacturing (Sample 1:n = 379) and service (Sample 2:n = 559) organizations in India. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires at two different points in time. Confirmatory factor analysis and multiple hierarchical regressions were used to test the hypothesized model.

Findings

While workplace loneliness was found to negatively affect creative performance and organizational citizenship behavior, its impact on work-family conflict was positive. Results revealed a significant moderating effect of psychological capital on these relationships. Psychological capital buffered the impact of loneliness in a way that the detrimental effect of loneliness on performance behaviors was less severe for the individuals with high psychological capital.

Originality/value

The study makes an original and noteworthy contribution to the loneliness and negative emotions literature by advancing the understanding around the consequences and boundary conditions of loneliness in the workplace. It carries important implications for managing loneliness in the organizations by identifying psychological capital as an important personal resource for mitigating the effects of workplace loneliness on creativity and extra-role behaviors.
Revolutionary responses to the Myanmar coup
Authors: Prasse‐Freeman Elliott , Kabya Ko
Published: June 2021

While Myanmar's recent military coup has devastated many people in the country, particularly those from the Bamar majority, who had been enjoying a decade of quasi‐democracy, it has also produced a massive uprising against the military's seizure of power that appears to constitute a revolution. This is because amidst protests, general strikes, and guerrilla warfare, this majority has also been grappling with the failures of the last 10 years: through conversations facilitated by social media platforms, some are not only demanding changes to their democratic leadership's authoritarian chauvinism but are acknowledging the structural inequalities and exclusions built into Myanmar society.
Cost‐effectiveness analysis of a community‐based colorectal cancer screening program in Shanghai, China
Authors: Li Xiao Pan , Chen Hui Min , Lei Xiao Hong , Dou Guan Shen , Chen Yi Chen , Chen Li Ping , Zhang Yao , Zhao Gen Ming , Zhong Wei
Published: June 2021

Objective

This study investigated the cost‐effectiveness of a community‐based colorectal cancer‐screening program (C‐CRCSP) in Shanghai, China, among the residents in the urban, suburban and rural areas.

Methods

A Markov model was constructed to evaluate the cost‐effectiveness of a 25‐year annual C‐CRCSP including 100 000 populations. Cost‐effectiveness was determined by the incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio (ICER); referring to either life‐years gained, or quality‐adjusted life‐years (QALYs) gained. The threshold was gross domestic product per capita. Univariate and multivariate sensitivity analyses were performed to investigate the influence of compliance, prevalence, technological performance, medical cost and annual cost discount rate (3.5%) on ICER. A probabilistic sensitivity analysis evaluated the probability of the cost‐effectiveness of C‐CRCSP at different maximum acceptable ceiling ratios.

Results

Compared with no screening, the C‐CRCSP resulted in total gains of 7840 QALYs and 2210 life‐years (LY), at a total cost of CNY 58.54 million; that is, the ICER were CNY 7460/QALYs and CNY 26650/LY. Stratifying by residency, the cumulative gains in QALYs and LY were estimated to be the lowest in the urban populations compared with the rural and suburban populations. The cost for the urban population was 3‐fold and 6‐fold that of the suburban and rural populations. The ICER for QALYs ranged from 2180 (rural) to 16 840 (urban).

Conclusion

The cost‐effectiveness of a C‐CRCSP in Shanghai was most favorable for the rural population, while the urban population benefits less in terms of QALYs. ICER could be enhanced by measures that increase compliance.
Bioproduction of L‐piperazic acid in gram scale using Aureobasidium melanogenum
Authors: Kong Cuncui , Wang Zhuangzhuang , Liu Guanglei , Chi Zhenming , Ledesma‐Amaro Rodrigo , Chi Zhe
Published: June 2021

Currently, piperazic acid is chemically synthesized using ecologically unfriendly processes. Microbial synthesis from glucose is an attractive alternative to chemical synthesis. In this study, we report the production of L‐piperazic acid via microbial fermentation with the first engineered fungal strain of Aureobasidium melanogenum; this strain was constructed by chassis development, genetic element reconstitution and optimization, synthetic rewiring and constitutive genetic circuit reconstitution, to build a robust L‐piperazic acid synthetic cascade. These genetic modifications enable A. melanogenum to directly convert glucose to L‐piperazic acid without relying on the use of either chemically synthesized precursors or harsh conditions. This bio‐based process overcomes the shortcomings of the conventional synthesis routes. The ultimately engineered strain is a very high‐efficient cell factory that can excrete 1.12 ± 0.05 g l‐1 of L‐piperazic acid after a 120‐h 10.0‐l fed‐batch fermentation; this is the highest titre of L‐piperazic acid reported using a microbial cell factory.
Performance measurement systems and client performance in fee‐generating not‐for‐profit human service organisations
Authors: Harrison Graeme , Jiao Lu , Chen Jinhua
Published: June 2021

We use survey and archival data from 271 fee‐generating not‐for‐profit human service organisations in Australia to examine how the use of performance measurement systems affects those organisations’ client performance. Using Simons’ levers of control, we find that interactive and diagnostic uses of performance measurement systems are positively related to client performance. We also find beliefs control to positively moderate the relation between diagnostic use of performance measurement systems and client performance, and boundary control to negatively moderate the relation between interactive use of performance measurement systems and client performance. The findings have implications for research and practice.
Experience with NovoSorb® Biodegradable Temporising Matrix in reconstruction of complex wounds
Authors: Li Henry , Lim Pelicia , Stanley Edward , Lee Geoffrey , Lin Sandra , Neoh Derek , Liew Julian , Ng Sally Kiu‐Huen
Published: June 2021

Background

The NovoSorb® Biodegradable Temporising Matrix (BTM) is a synthetic polyurethane dermal matrix used to reconstruct complex wounds including deep dermal and full‐thickness burns, necrotising fasciitis and free flap donor site. We hope to further explore its potential applications in this series.

Methods

Patients who received BTM application across four centres over an 18‐month period were included. Patients were followed up to assess BTM and graft take, the aesthetic, the return of sensation and complications.

Results

A total of 27 patients with 35 wounds were identified with a range of aetiologies. Thirty‐three wounds had 100% integration of BTM at the time of sealing membrane removal. Seven wounds had partial graft loss that later healed by secondary intention. In two cases, re‐epithelialisation occurred with BTM alone without split‐skin graft.

Conclusion

BTM offers a safe and reliable reconstructive option in challenging wounds that would otherwise require more complex operations.
Estimating mean potential outcome under adaptive treatment length strategies in continuous time
Authors: Sun Hao , Ertefaie Ashkan , Johnson Brent A.
Published: June 2021

An adaptive treatment length strategy is a sequential stage‐wise treatment strategy where a subject's treatment begins at baseline and one chooses to stop or continue treatment at each stage provided the subject has been continuously treated. The effects of treatment are assumed to be cumulative and, therefore, the effect of treatment length on clinical endpoint, measured at the end of the study, is of primary scientific interest. At the same time, adverse treatment‐terminating events may occur during the course of treatment that require treatment be stopped immediately. Because the presence of a treatment‐terminating event may be strongly associated with the study outcome, the treatment‐terminating event is informative. In observational studies, decisions to stop or continue treatment depend on covariate history that confounds the relationship between treatment length on outcome. We propose a new risk‐set weighted estimator of the mean potential outcome under the condition that time‐dependent covariates update at a set of common landmarks. We show that our proposed estimator is asymptotically linear given mild assumptions and correctly specified working models. Specifically, we study the theoretical properties of our estimator when the nuisance parameters are modeled using either parametric or semiparametric methods. The finite sample performance and theoretical results of the proposed estimator are evaluated through simulation studies and demonstrated by application to the Enhanced Suppression of the Platelet Receptor IIb/IIIa with Integrilin Therapy (ESPRIT) infusion trial data.
The causes of a peripheral blood eosinophilia in a secondary care setting
Authors: Wardlaw Andrew John , Wharin Sarah , Aung Hnin , Shaffu Shireen , Siddiqui Salman
Published: June 2021

Background

A peripheral blood eosinophilia of greater than 1.0 × 109/L is relatively unusual and offers a clue to the underlying diagnosis. In 2003, we established a specialist service to diagnose unexplained eosinophilia.

Objective

To describe the causes of an eosinophilia in our service and the diagnostic algorithm we developed.

Methods

Subjects were referred by physician colleagues across a range of specialties and undertook standard investigations following a semi‐structured protocol. Data were extracted from a bespoke database.

Results

Three hundred and eighty two subjects were referred over a 17‐year period. Average age was 54 years and 183 (48%) of subjects were female, with 21 of 25 (84%) females in the idiopathic eosinophilic pneumonia group (p < 0001), 22 of 30 (73%) females in the gastrointestinal disease group (p < .008), but 11 of 37 (30%) females in the eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis group (p < .04). A diagnosis was assigned after systematic evaluation using a pre‐defined algorithm in 361 (94.5%) of cases. Fungal allergy (82 subjects: 21%), parasitic infection (61 subjects: 16%) and severe eosinophilic asthma (50 subjects: 13%) were the three commonest individual diagnoses. Hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) disease including eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) accounted for 85 subjects (20%) of which seven subjects (2%) had myeloproliferative disease (M‐HES). A high IgE was common, and 79 (91%) of subjects with complete data who had an IgE of ≥1000 IU/L had fungal allergy or parasite infection. The serum tryptase was raised in 44 of 302 (14.5%) of individuals across all diagnostic groups, though none had mastocytosis.

Conclusion

A diagnosis of an unexplained eosinophilia can usually be determined using as semi‐structured algorithm. Parasitic infection and fungal allergy often with severe eosinophilic asthma were common causes, whereas HES, particularly myeloproliferative, disease was relatively rare.
Towards a Neural Graphics Pipeline for Controllable Image Generation
Authors: Chen Xuelin , Cohen‐Or Daniel , Chen Baoquan , Mitra Niloy J.
Published: June 2021

In this paper, we leverage advances in neural networks towards forming a neural rendering for controllable image generation, and thereby bypassing the need for detailed modeling in conventional graphics pipeline. To this end, we present Neural Graphics Pipeline (NGP), a hybrid generative model that brings together neural and traditional image formation models. NGP decomposes the image into a set of interpretable appearance feature maps, uncovering direct control handles for controllable image generation. To form an image, NGP generates coarse 3D models that are fed into neural rendering modules to produce view‐specific interpretable 2D maps, which are then composited into the final output image using a traditional image formation model. Our approach offers control over image generation by providing direct handles controlling illumination and camera parameters, in addition to control over shape and appearance variations. The key challenge is to learn these controls through unsupervised training that links generated coarse 3D models with unpaired real images via neural and traditional (e.g., Blinn‐Phong) rendering functions, without establishing an explicit correspondence between them. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on controllable image generation of single‐object scenes. We evaluate our hybrid modeling framework, compare with neural‐only generation methods (namely, DCGAN, LSGAN, WGAN‐GP, VON, and SRNs), report improvement in FID scores against real images, and demonstrate that NGP supports direct controls common in traditional forward rendering. Code is available at http://geometry.cs.ucl.ac.uk/projects/2021/ngp.
Layout Embedding via Combinatorial Optimization
Authors: Born J. , Schmidt P. , Kobbelt L.
Published: June 2021

We consider the problem of injectively embedding a given graph connectivity (a layout) into a target surface. Starting from prescribed positions of layout vertices, the task is to embed all layout edges as intersection‐free paths on the surface. Besides merely geometric choices (the shape of paths) this problem is especially challenging due to its topological degrees of freedom (how to route paths around layout vertices). The problem is typically addressed through a sequence of shortest path insertions, ordered by a greedy heuristic. Such insertion sequences are not guaranteed to be optimal: Early path insertions can potentially force later paths into unexpected homotopy classes. We show how common greedy methods can easily produce embeddings of dramatically bad quality, rendering such methods unsuitable for automatic processing pipelines. Instead, we strive to find the optimal order of insertions, i.e. the one that minimizes the total path length of the embedding. We demonstrate that, despite the vast combinatorial solution space, this problem can be effectively solved on simply‐connected domains via a custom‐tailored branch‐and‐bound strategy. This enables directly using the resulting embeddings in downstream applications which cannot recover from initializations in a wrong homotopy class. We demonstrate the robustness of our method on a shape dataset by embedding a common template layout per category, and show applications in quad meshing and inter‐surface mapping.