bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Syntactic lability vs. ergativity in Indo-Aryan
Authors: Stroński Krzysztof
Published: June 2016

Contemporary IA languages are considered to be purely nominative at the level of syntax. Ergativity is restricted to the morphological domain. However the scrutiny of certain syntactic constructions such as converbal clause chaining or coordinate conjunction reduction shows that they are not necessarily sensitive to the basic grammatical relations (Bickel & Yādava 2000), in other words, the notion of pivot is not fully operational in the IA languages. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate that apart from the dominating syntactic A/S pivot early NIA shows: (a) instances of converbs not controlled by the A of the main clause and (b) the dropped element in coordinate or certain subordinate constructions is not always an A/S argument. The alleged syntactic lability will be observed diachronically in four dialectal groups, namely Rajasthani, Pahari, Western Hindi and Eastern Hindi.
Nominalization and re-finitization
Authors: Givón T.
Published: June 2016

The mechanisms via which subordinate clauses arise are relatively well explored, involving two major diachronic pathways (Givón 2009): first, via clause-chaining constructions, as in many Niger-Congo, Papua-New Guinea, Southeast Asian, Athabaskan, or Southern Arawak languages; and second, via nominalization, as in Turkic, Bodic/Tibetan, Cariban, or Northern Uto-Aztecan languages. In many of the latter, erstwhile nominalized subordinate clauses later undergo re-finitization, and the question then arises: by what diachronic mechanism do nominalized clauses eventually revert to finite structure? I have suggested earlier (Givón 2000) that in Ute (Northern Uto-Aztecan), the mechanism may involve the gradual re-acquisition of finite-features such as tense-aspect, but the details of this proposal were never documented. Three other mechanisms seem to suggest themselves. First, in some Bodic/Tibetan languages (Watters 1998) a new generation of finite subordinate clauses emerges, co-exists with, and slowly supplants the older nominalized clauses. Second, in Cariban, Northern Uto-Aztecan, Indo-European, Bantu and many other languages, subordinate clauses, in particular V-complements, are de-subordinated through tense-aspect genesis and other grammaticalization processes, and their nominalized structure then becomes the new finite mainclause standard (Evans 2007, Gildea, 1998, Givón 1971). Finally, in some Northern Uto-Aztecan languages (Guarijio, Tarahumara), the re-finitization mechanism seem to involve a slow elimination of nominalized features, such as e.g. genitive subjects, or re-interpretation of their function. This paper lays the background for a more fine-grained investigation of the diachrony of re-finitization.
Shifting finiteness in nominalization
Authors: Mithun Marianne
Published: June 2016

A significant effect of clause nominalization is the loss of finiteness, of such morphological features as tense, aspect, mood, and valency, and the acquisition of such nominal features as case, gender, number, possession, and determiners. The constructions cease to function syntactically as predications; however, their evolution does not necessarily end with a complete loss of finiteness. They can continue to develop, re-acquiring morphological and/or syntactic properties of finiteness via various pathways. Here some developments of this type are discussed and illustrated with material from Barbareño Chumash, a language indigenous to California. Barbareño contains nominalized clause constructions at various stages of development, from progressive de-finitization to re-finitization, where formerly syntactically dependent clauses now function as independent sentences with special pragmatic relations within discourse.
The Manner converb in Beja (Cushitic) and its refinitization
Authors: Vanhove Martine
Published: June 2016

This paper focuses on the formal properties and uses of nonfinite constructions in Beja (Cushitic) with the Manner converb, and its refinitization as a Perfect paradigm. The analysis is carried out against the background of typological studies on converbs and copredicative constructions. This converb functions at several levels of juncture: predicate in deranked adverbial clauses, in complement and relative clauses for the encoding of inter-clausal relations; adverb and cognate object at the level of the verb phrase; verbal adjective in copredicative and attributive constructions at the level of the verb and noun phrases. The different uses and values in verbal periphrastic constructions (emphasis, volition), and the grammaticalization as a finite verb form (Perfect) in main and independent clauses, are also analyzed. A participial origin of the Manner converb is proposed on typological grounds alone, because of lack of Afroasiatic comparative evidence, with three different grammaticalization paths, one for each level of juncture, where nominal morphosyntax played a crucial role in the refinitization process.
Appendix to Juhani Yli-Vakkuri's ‘Epistemicism and Modality’
Authors: Fritz Peter
Published: June 2016

A formal result is proved which is used in Juhani Yli-Vakkuri's ‘Epistemicism and Modality’ to argue that certain two-dimensional possible world models are inadequate for a language with operators for ‘necessarily’, ‘actually’, and ‘definitely’.
Transgenic expression of Telomerase reverse transcriptase (Tert) improves cell proliferation of primary cells and enhances reprogramming efficiency into the induced pluripotent stem cell
Authors: Hidema Shizu , Fukuda Tomokazu , Date Shiori , Tokitake Yuko , Matsui Yasuhisa , Sasaki Hiroki , Nishimori Katsuhiko
Published: June 2016

The enzymatic activity of telomerase is important for the extension of the telomere repeat sequence and overcoming cellular senescence. We generated a conditional transgenic mouse line, carrying the telomerase reverse transcriptase (Tert) expression cassette, controlled by the Cre-loxP-mediated recombination. In our study, Cre recombinase expression efficiently activated Tert expression, resulting in its increased enzymatic activity, which extended the period of cellular proliferation until the keratinocytes entered senescence. This suggests that transgenic Tert expression is effective in enhancing primary cell proliferation. Notably, Tert expression increased colony formation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells after the introduction of four reprogramming factors, Oct-4, klf4, SOX-2, and c-Myc into the transgenic fibroblasts. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show that the transgenic Tert expression enhances reprogramming efficiency of iPS cells, which indicates a critical role for Tert in the reprogramming process.
Local RhoA activation induces cytokinetic furrows independent of spindle position and cell cycle stage
Authors: Wagner Elizabeth , Glotzer Michael
Published: June 2016

The GTPase RhoA promotes contractile ring assembly and furrow ingression during cytokinesis. Although many factors that regulate RhoA during cytokinesis have been characterized, the spatiotemporal regulatory logic remains undefined. We have developed an optogenetic probe to gain tight spatial and temporal control of RhoA activity in mammalian cells and demonstrate that cytokinetic furrowing is primarily regulated at the level of RhoA activation. Light-mediated recruitment of a RhoGEF domain to the plasma membrane leads to rapid induction of RhoA activity, leading to assembly of cytokinetic furrows that partially ingress. Furthermore, furrow formation in response to RhoA activation is not temporally or spatially restricted. RhoA activation is sufficient to generate furrows at both the cell equator and cell poles, in both metaphase and anaphase. Remarkably, furrow formation can be initiated in rounded interphase cells, but not adherent cells. These results indicate that RhoA activation is sufficient to induce assembly of functional contractile rings and that cell rounding facilitates furrow formation.
Canonical bundle formula and base change
Authors: Mitsui Kentaro
Published: June 2016

We study invariants of an elliptic fibration over a complete discrete valuation ring with algebraically closed residue field. The invariants are given by the relative dualizing sheaf and the first direct image sheaf of the structure sheaf. In the studies of an elliptic surface over an algebraically closed field, the invariants appear as local invariants that determine important global invariants such as its plurigenera. We determine the invariants by investigating the change of the invariants by base change.
Economic, Technological, and Organizational Factors Influencing News Coverage of Climate Change
Authors: Gibson Timothy A.
Published: June 2016

Over the past two decades, the global news industry has embarked upon a major project of economic, organizational, and technological restructuring. In organizational terms, successive waves of mergers and buyouts have yielded a global news landscape where most of the larger firms are owned by shareholders and run by executives whose singular focus is on rationalizing news production and improving profitability. Although in some cases, these shareholders and executives have used their authority to influence climate coverage directly, more often their goals are non-ideological: reducing labor costs and increasing revenues. At the same time, in a parallel development, the digital media revolution not only has spawned a host of new online competitors but also has cut deeply into the advertising revenue once enjoyed by traditional media firms.

Within legacy news organizations, these industrial and technological trends have converged to dramatically intensify the work pressures facing environmental journalists. For example, in an effort to reduce costs, many firms have reduced newsroom staff to a small core of multi-tasking reporters, supported by a wider web of part-time freelancers. In this process, the science and environment beat is often the first to go, with environmental specialists among the first to be reassigned or downsized (and pushed into freelance work). For all reporters, there is increased pressure to produce more stories in less time on multiple media platforms, a trend that, in turn, enhances the power of special interests to influence climate coverage through public relations and other external information subsidies.

Due to these converging industrial and technological trends, environmental reporters now work in a new media ecosystem that is complex, subject to contradictory pressures, and in many ways hostile to the production of high-quality climate news. When the environmental beat is cut, climate change often becomes the purview of general assignment reporters who lack experience and expertise. For their part, freelance specialists continue to cover climate news, but their ability to sustain this coverage over the long term is constrained by their part-time status. Finally, although niche climate blogs have provided welcome spaces for environmental journalists to produce in-depth coverage, these outlets usually reach only tiny audiences composed of the already-engaged.

In short, without significant action, the regrettable status quo of climate news—that is, an episodic sprinkling of climate coverage scattered across the media ecosystem—will continue indefinitely. Policy-makers should therefore restore long-term institutional and economic support for environmental journalists specializing in climate science and policy.
World-Systems Theorizing
Authors: Griffiths Thomas
Published: June 2016

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article.

World-systems theorizing has its roots in dependency theorizing and the critique of modernization theory, rejecting its claimed linear process of economic development for all nation-states. A founding premise of this work, established well before the advent of globalization studies, has been the need to take the world-system as the primary unit of analysis for understanding social reality and social change. As an approach for understanding systems of mass education, world-systems theorizing has taken on two broad trajectories. One of these, world-culture theory or neo-institutional analysis, has centered on identifying examples of global convergence at the level of education policy, explaining these in terms of a world culture of education that has spread across nation-states through their participation in international agencies and organizations. An alternative approach, world-systems analysis, takes the historical development and operation of the capitalist world-economy, across core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral zones of the world-economy, as the starting point for understanding the nature and function of mass education systems. This work includes the particular construction of knowledge structures and subject disciplines, and their function within the operation of the capitalist world-system. Where world-culture theory downplays the causal power of economic structures, world-systems analysis highlights the interaction between economics and an accompanying world cultural framework under historical capitalism, whose core features can account for the nature and purpose of education. Educational applications of contemporary world-systems analysis extend to work within the broader field of critical education to transform society. Specifically, these applications examine the potential for systems of mass education to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to understand existing social reality, to imagine more equal, just, democratic, and peaceful, alternative world-systems, and to take action toward their realization.
Middle English
Authors: Allen Cynthia L.
Published: June 2016

Middle English is the name given to the English of the period from approximately 1100 to approximately 1450. This period is marked by substantial developments in all areas of English grammar. It is also the period of English when different dialects are the most fully attested in the texts. At the beginning of the Middle English period, the sociolinguistic status of English was low due to the Norman Invasion, and although religious texts of Old English composition continued to be copied and updated, few original compositions are extant. By the end of the period, English had regained its status as the language of government, law, and literature generally.

Although some notable changes to the phonemic inventory of consonants date from the Middle English period, the most dramatic phonological developments of the period involve vowels. The reduction of the vowels of unstressed syllables, one of the changes that marks the beginning of the Middle English period, is a phonological change with substantial morphological effects, as it substantially reduced the number of distinctive inflectional forms. Constituent order replaced case marking as the primary means of signaling grammatical relations. By the end of the Middle English period, subject-verb-object order had become established as the norm.

The lexicon of English was transformed in this period by an enormous influx of French words. The role of derivational morphology declined as its functions were to some extent replaced by the adoption of French words. Most Scandinavian loans in English first appear in the texts of this period. The Scandinavian loans are typically everyday words, while the words adopted from French are more often in areas of government, law, and higher culture, reflecting the nature of the contact between English speakers and the speakers of these languages.

The density of the Scandinavian population in the northern part of England is generally held to be responsible for the earlier appearance of changes in the north than in the south. The replacement of the third person plural personal pronoun hie by the Scandinavian they is an example of a development which is apparent only in the north early in Middle English but became general in English by the end of this period.

An important phonological development of later Middle English is the beginning of the Great Vowel Shift, which affected long vowels and involved successive changes and was implemented differently in different dialects, the north-south divide being the most evident.

Early Middle English is a language that cannot be understood by Modern English readers without special study, while the language of the late Middle English period, especially that coming from the London area, can be understood with the heavy use of explanatory notes.
Accent in Japanese Phonology
Authors: Kubozono Haruo
Published: June 2016

The word accent system of Tokyo Japanese might look quite complex with a number of accent patterns and rules. However, recent research has shown that it is not as complex as has been assumed if one incorporates the notion of markedness into the analysis: nouns have only two productive accent patterns, the antepenultimate and the unaccented pattern, and different accent rules can be generalized if one focuses on these two productive accent patterns.

The word accent system raises some new interesting issues. One of them concerns the fact that a majority of nouns are ‘unaccented,’ that is, they are pronounced with a rather flat pitch pattern, apparently violating the principle of obligatoriness. A careful analysis of noun accentuation reveals that this strange accent pattern occurs in some linguistically predictable structures. In morphologically simplex nouns, it typically tends to emerge in four-mora nouns ending in a sequence of light syllables. In compound nouns, on the other hand, it emerges due to multiple factors, such as compound-final deaccenting morphemes, deaccenting pseudo-morphemes, and some types of prosodic configurations.

Japanese pitch accent exhibits an interesting aspect in its interactions with other phonological and linguistic structures. For example, the accent of compound nouns is closely related with rendaku, or sequential voicing; the choice between the accented and unaccented patterns in certain types of compound nouns correlates with the presence or absence of the sequential voicing. Moreover, whether the compound accent rule applies to a certain compound depends on its internal morphosyntactic configuration as well as its meaning; alternatively, the compound accent rule is blocked in certain types of morphosyntactic and semantic structures.

Finally, careful analysis of word accent sheds new light on the syllable structure of the language, notably on two interrelated questions about diphthong-hood and super-heavy syllables. It provides crucial insight into ‘diphthongs,’ or the question of which vowel sequence constitutes a diphthong, against a vowel sequence across a syllable boundary. It also presents new evidence against trimoraic syllables in the language.
Iroquoian Languages
Authors: Michelson Karin
Published: June 2016

The Iroquoian languages are spoken today in New York State, Ontario, Quebec, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. The languages share a relatively small segment inventory, a challenging accentual system, polysynthetic morphology, a complex system of pronominal affixes, an unusual kinship terminology, and a syntax that functions almost exclusively to combine the meaning of two expressions. Some of the languages have been documented since contact with Europeans in the 16th century. There exists substantial scholarly linguistic work on most of the languages, and solid teaching materials continue to be developed.
Volatile Profiles of 13 Foxtail Millet Commercial Cultivars (Setaria italica Beauv.) from China
Authors: Liu Jingke , Li Shaohui , Zhang Aixia , Zhao Wei , Liu Yingying , Zhang Yuzong
Published: June 2016

The volatile components from 13 commercially valuable foxtail millets from China were investigated by means of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry combined with simultaneous distillation extraction. A total of 52 volatile compounds were identified in all of the samples: 19 aldehydes, 5 alcohols, 10 ketones, 9 hydrocarbons, 6 benzene derivatives, and 3 others. Here, 23 common constituents were found in all samples. Aldehydes were the predominant volatile components in various cultivars. The importance of each volatile was assessed on the basis of odor thresholds and odor activity values (OAVs). Here, 35 volatile compounds were described using aroma character, and 24 volatile compounds were found to be odor‐active compounds. Another 11 common constituents were found in all samples. The components with the highest OAVs in most cultivars were (E)‐2‐nonenal and (E,E)‐2,4‐decadienal. Most of the other aldehydes also had high OAVs. Some of the ketones, alcohols, benzene derivatives, and other compounds were found to contain an odor‐active compound in several cultivars of foxtail millet. Principal component analysis was employed to evaluate the differences among cultivars. The results demonstrated that the volatile profile based on the OAVs of aroma compounds enabled good differentiation of most cultivars.
Genetic Bottlenecks for Two Populations of Ceratocystis fimbriata on Sweet Potato and Pomegranate in China
Authors: Li Qian , Harrington Thomas C. , McNew Douglas , Li Jianqiang , Huang Qiong , Somasekhara Y. M. , Alfenas Acelino C.
Published: June 2016

Chinese isolates of Ceratocystis fimbriata from sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and pomegranate (Punica granatum) were genetically compared with a worldwide collection of isolates from a variety of hosts. Isolates from black-rotted storage roots of sweet potato in China, Japan, Australasia, and the United States had identical internal transcribed spacer (ITS) ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequences and only minor variation in microsatellite alleles. Sequences of their mating type genes were most similar to those of isolates from various hosts in Ecuador, a center of diversity for sweet potato. Isolates from Colocasia esculenta (taro) and pomegranate from Yunnan and Sichuan had only one ITS rDNA sequence (haplotype ITS5). This haplotype, sequences of mating type genes, and microsatellite alleles linked these isolates to isolates from Eucalyptus stumps in South China and diseased Eucalyptus trees in Brazil, supporting the hypothesis that the pomegranate population originated from Brazil via cuttings of Eucalyptus. Isolates from sweet potato and pomegranate in China were interfertile with tester strains of C. fimbriata, confirming that the causes of the two epidemics in China belong to a single biological species. However, other isolates from Eucalyptus stumps were intersterile with the tester strains and had ITS rDNA sequences typical of the Asian species, C. cercfabiensis.
The diversity of Klebsiella pneumoniae surface polysaccharides
Authors: Follador Rainer , Heinz Eva , Wyres Kelly L. , Ellington Matthew J. , Kowarik Michael , Holt Kathryn E. , Thomson Nicholas R.
Published: June 2016

Klebsiella pneumoniae is considered an urgent health concern due to the emergence of multi-drug-resistant strains for which vaccination offers a potential remedy. Vaccines based on surface polysaccharides are highly promising but need to address the high diversity of surface-exposed polysaccharides, synthesized as O-antigens (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) and K-antigens (capsule polysaccharide, CPS), present in K. pneumoniae. We present a comprehensive and clinically relevant study of the diversity of O- and K-antigen biosynthesis gene clusters across a global collection of over 500 K. pneumoniae whole-genome sequences and the seroepidemiology of human isolates from different infection types. Our study defines the genetic diversity of O- and K-antigen biosynthesis cluster sequences across this collection, identifying sequences for known serotypes as well as identifying novel LPS and CPS gene clusters found in circulating contemporary isolates. Serotypes O1, O2 and O3 were most prevalent in our sample set, accounting for approximately 80 % of all infections. In contrast, K serotypes showed an order of magnitude higher diversity and differ among infection types. In addition we investigated a potential association of O or K serotypes with phylogenetic lineage, infection type and the presence of known virulence genes. K1 and K2 serotypes, which are associated with hypervirulent K. pneumoniae, were associated with a higher abundance of virulence genes and more diverse O serotypes compared to other common K serotypes.
Deciphering the Wisent Demographic and Adaptive Histories from Individual Whole-Genome Sequences
Authors: Gautier Mathieu , Moazami-Goudarzi Katayoun , Hubert Leveziel , Parinello Hugues , Grohs Cécile , Rialle Stéphanie , Kowalczyk Rafal , Flori Laurence
Published: June 2016

As the largest European herbivore, the wisent (Bison bonasus) is emblematic of the continent wildlife but has unclear origins. Here, we infer its demographic and adaptive histories from two individual whole genome sequences via a detailed comparative analysis with bovine genomes. We estimate that the wisent and bovine species diverged from 1.7×106to 850,000 YBP through a speciation process involving an extended period of limited gene flow. Our data further support the occurrence of more recent secondary contacts, posterior to theBos taurusandBos indicusdivergence (ca. 150,000 YBP), between the wisent and (European) taurine cattle lineages. Although the wisent and bovine population sizes experienced a similar sharp decline since the Last Glacial Maximum, we find that the wisent demography remained more fluctuating during the Pleistocene. This is in agreement with a scenario in which wisents responded to successive glaciations by habitat fragmentation rather than southward and eastward migration as for the bovine ancestors.

We finally detect 423 genes under positive selection between the wisent and bovine lineages, which shed a new light on the genome response to different living conditions (temperature, available food resource and pathogen exposure) and on the key gene functions altered by the domestication process.
Drift barriers to quality control when genes are expressed at different levels
Authors: Xiong K , McEntee JP , Porfirio DJ , Masel J
Published: June 2016

Gene expression is imperfect, sometimes leading to toxic products. Solutions take two forms: globally reducing error rates, or ensuring that the consequences of erroneous expression are relatively harmless. The latter is optimal, but because it must evolve independently at so many loci, it is subject to a stringent “drift barrier” – a limit to how weak the effects of a deleterious mutation s can be, while still being effectively purged by selection, expressed in terms of the population sizeNof an idealized population such that purging requiress< −1/N. In previous work, only large populations evolved the optimal local solution, small populations instead evolved globally low error rates, and intermediate populations were bistable, with either solution possible. Here we take into consideration the fact that the effectiveness of purging varies among loci, because of variation in gene expression level and variation in the intrinsic vulnerabilities of different gene products to error. The previously found dichotomy between the two kinds of solution breaks down, replaced by a gradual transition as a function of population size. In the extreme case of a small enough population, selection fails to maintain even the global solution against deleterious mutations, explaining the non-monotonic relationship between effective population size and transcriptional error rate that was recently observed in experiments onE. coli,C. elegansandBuchnera aphidicola.
LRH-1-dependent programming of mitochondrial glutamine processing drives liver cancer
Authors: Xu Pan , Oosterveer Maaike H. , Stein Sokrates , Demagny Hadrien , Ryu Dongryeol , Moullan Norman , Wang Xu , Can Emine , Zamboni Nicola , Comment Arnaud , Auwerx Johan , Schoonjans Kristina
Published: June 2016

Various tumors develop addiction to glutamine to support uncontrolled cell proliferation. Here we identify the nuclear receptor liver receptor homolog 1 (LRH-1) as a key regulator in the process of hepatic tumorigenesis through the coordination of a noncanonical glutamine pathway that is reliant on the mitochondrial and cytosolic transaminases glutamate pyruvate transaminase 2 (GPT2) and glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase 1 (GOT1), which fuel anabolic metabolism. In particular, we show that gain and loss of function of hepatic LRH-1 modulate the expression and activity of mitochondrial glutaminase 2 (GLS2), the first and rate-limiting step of this pathway. Acute and chronic deletion of hepatic LRH-1 blunts the deamination of glutamine and reduces glutamine-dependent anaplerosis. The robust reduction in glutaminolysis and the limiting availability of α-ketoglutarate in turn inhibit mTORC1 signaling to eventually block cell growth and proliferation. Collectively, these studies highlight the importance of LRH-1 in coordinating glutamine-induced metabolism and signaling to promote hepatocellular carcinogenesis.
Genetic requirement forMycland efficacy of RNA Pol I inhibition in mouse models of small cell lung cancer
Authors: Kim Dong-Wook , Wu Nan , Kim Young-Chul , Cheng Pei Feng , Basom Ryan , Kim Dongkyoon , Dunn Colin T. , Lee Anastasia Y. , Kim Keebeom , Lee Chang Sup , Singh Andrew , Gazdar Adi F. , Harris Chris R. , Eisenman Robert N. , Park Kwon-Sik , MacPherson David
Published: June 2016

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a devastating neuroendocrine carcinoma.MYCL(L-Myc) is frequently amplified in human SCLC, but its roles in SCLC progression are poorly understood. We isolated preneoplastic neuroendocrine cells from a mouse model of SCLC and found that ectopic expression of L-Myc, c-Myc, or N-Myc conferred tumor-forming capacity. We focused on L-Myc, which promoted pre-rRNA synthesis and transcriptional programs associated with ribosomal biogenesis. Deletion ofMyclin two genetically engineered models of SCLC resulted in strong suppression of SCLC. The high degree of suppression suggested that L-Myc may constitute a therapeutic target for a broad subset of SCLC. We then used an RNA polymerase I inhibitor to target rRNA synthesis in an autochthonousRb/p53-deleted mouse SCLC model and found significant tumor inhibition. These data reveal that activation of RNA polymerase I by L-Myc and other MYC family proteins provides an axis of vulnerability for this recalcitrant cancer.
Unifying the p73 knockout phenotypes: TAp73 orchestrates multiciliogenesis
Authors: Napoli Marco , Flores Elsa R.
Published: June 2016

Multiciliogenesis is essential for the function of different epithelia, and its failure results in brain defects, respiratory diseases, and infertility. In this issue ofGenes & Development, Nemajerova and colleagues (pp. 1300–1312) reveal thep53family member andp73isoform TAp73 as a transcription factor dictating the differentiation of multiciliated cells. Their findings provide the long-awaited unifying explanation for the diverse phenotypes of thep73knockout mice.
Impact of service quality on customer satisfaction in private and public sector banks
Authors: Paul Justin , Mittal Arun , Srivastav Garima
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– In today’s world, with increased competition, service quality has become one of the most popular areas of academic investigation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of various service quality variables on the overall satisfaction of customers and compare the private and public sector banks using a sample from India.

Design/methodology/approach

– With the help of forward stepwise regression, the authors explain how a variety of variables are both negatively and positively influencing customer satisfaction. The authors collected data from 500 respondents in India; 250 of which were customers of private sector banks, and 250 of which were customers of public sector banks. The authors had a response rate of 65 percent.

Findings

– In the case of private sector banks, knowledge of products, response to need, solving questions, fast service, quick connection to the right person, and efforts to reduce queuing time were found to be the factors that are positively associated with overall satisfaction. Assistance to the customer, appearance, and follow up are negatively associated with customer satisfaction. On the other hand, in the case of public sector banks, knowledge of the product and fast service are the factors which are associated positively and appearance is the only factor that is negatively associated.

Originality/value

– The components of service quality that are positively associated are not the same in public sector banks as they are in private sector banks.
The stakeholder management theory of CSR
Authors: Pérez Andrea , Rodríguez del Bosque Ignacio
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Based on the principles of the stakeholder management theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore customers’ multidimensional perceptions of both banking companies and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientations of these companies. The paper also explores how these multidimensional perceptions affect customer identification and satisfaction towards banking companies.

Design/methodology/approach

– A structural equation model is tested using information collected from 1,124 banking service customers.

Findings

– The findings demonstrate that customers’ perceptions of customer-related CSR and broad legal and ethical issues have significant positive impact on both customer identification and satisfaction with banking companies. Perceptions of shareholder-related CSR also significantly boost customer satisfaction. In contrast, perceptions of employee- and community-related CSR do not have a profound effect on customer identification or satisfaction. These findings also confirm the importance of customer identification with the company as a key mediator in their satisfaction responses to the multidimensional perceptions of the companies’ CSR orientations.

Originality/value

– The contribution of the paper is based on the exploration of a multidimensional approach, relying on the principles of the stakeholder management theory to study customer responses and perceptions of the CSR orientations of banking companies. Previous scholars have reported mixed findings while exploring customer responses to their perceptions of companies’ CSR orientations. However, they frequently considered customer CSR perceptions either as one-dimensional or a reflective second-order construct, thus ignoring the possibility of multidimensional CSR perceptions having multiple effects on customer responses such as identification and satisfaction.
Social innovation success factors: hospitality and tourism social enterprises
Authors: Alegre Ines , Berbegal-Mirabent Jasmina
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This paper aims to contribute to the existing literature on social enterprises and business model innovation. Particularly, it sheds some light on those factors that turn a social innovation initiative into a success, both in terms of meeting social needs and achieving economic sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach

By using a grounded theory approach, an inductive comparative case study is conducted. Two work integration social enterprises in the hospitality and tourism sector are selected. Both companies are located in Barcelona (Spain) under the same legal regulation and economic situation and initially run a manufacturing business. Due to the economic crisis they were forced to reinvent themselves to survive. Data were collected from different sources and coded using content analysis procedures.

Findings

Results indicate that three factors, namely, value proposition, appropriate market research and stakeholder involvement, heavily contributed to firm’s success, corroborating previous studies. Furthermore, our study reveals that social need pressures and managerial trust on employees are additional factors that drive social business model innovation.

Practical implications

Changes in the demand, the rules governing the market or economic downturns are external drivers for demand-pull innovations. In such context, firms need to reformulate their business models if they wish to survive. Acknowledging the factors that help firms overcome these obstacles is of great interest for both academics and entrepreneurs.

Originality/value

Social innovation in business models is a topic still poorly defined in the literature, yet, its boundaries to other fields are still fuzzy. This paper aims to fulfill this gap by presenting the theoretical domain in which this topic fits in and evidencing those successful factors that should be considered when designing and implementing a business model innovation which may help other firms facing a similar process.
Investigating patient loyalty
Authors: Yarmen Medi , Sumaedi Sik , Bakti I Gede Mahatma Yuda , Rakhmawati Tri , Astrini Nidya Judhi , Widianti Tri
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This research aims to investigate the simultaneous effect of trust, subjective norm, image and perceived risk on patient loyalty.

Design/methodology/approach

This research used quantitative research methodology. The authors surveyed the patient of a healthcare service institution in Depok, Indonesia, and 163 of the institution patients participated in the survey. Multiple regressions analysis was performed to analyze the empirical data.

Findings

The findings showed that subjective norm and image have positive influence on patient loyalty. However, this research also found that trust and perceived risk do not have significant impact on patient loyalty.

Research limitations/implications

The author(s) used convenience sampling method, and the sample only involved respondents from a healthcare service institution in Depok, Indonesia. Hence, the findings of this research may not be generalized to the other contexts. Therefore, we recommend further research to replicate this research to examine the stability of this research’s findings.

Practical implications

The research results show that subjective norm and image affect the patient loyalty. Thus, the management of healthcare service institution should consider and manage all of these factors proactively.

Originality/value

This study is believed to be the first to develop and test patient loyalty model that includes trust, subjective norm, image, perceived risk and trust.
Designing conceptual model of after-sales services, in companies producing the capital goods, with the idea of value co-creation
Authors: Tavakoli Gholamreza , Feyz Arefi Majid , Heidari Omid , Mirjafari Masoumeh
Published: June 2016

Purpose

This study aims to identify the key activities after sales and the intended criteria by the customers, considering their expected services after the product purchase process.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is a qualitative approach, and the co-creation logic and the Delphi technique were used in two rounds to design and validate the proposed model. To achieve this study’s aims, extensive literature, interviews, interaction and exploratory meetings were reviewed with manufacturers and consumers, and then the dimensions of the proposed model were regulated, corrected and validated in the two-round Delphi technique. The final model is presented after establishing the model in the test pilots and getting feedback from industry experts. To present a conceptual model, the enabler’s logic and the underlying results in the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model were used.

Findings

The findings of this study include the identification of dimensions for the after-sales services model and the designing of a conceptual model in both sections of enablers and results. The enabler section of the proposed model includes seven dimensions, three main sectors and four support sections.

Practical implications

This model can be used to design, deploy or improve after-sales services system in manufacturing companies.

Originality/value

For the first time in an innovative procedure, the approach of value co-creation was used to design one of the organizational systems (after-sale services system). On the other hand, the conceptual pattern was proposed inspired by the EFQM Excellence Model, to create the necessary proportionality between the enabler and results sections.
Conceptualizing transformation in the post-merger and incorporation environment era
Authors: Ngcamu Bethuel Sibongiseni
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to gauge the knowledge of the university leaders at the Durban University of Technology on transformation.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches guided by a structured survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews with the university leaders. The questionnaires generated the reliability coefficient α of 0.947, indicating a high degree of acceptance and consistency of the results.

Findings

– The study findings reveal the highest percentage of 70 per cent regarding the belief that transformation refers to restructuring the institution more than commonly anticipated variables such as race (56 per cent) and redressing the past injustices (59 per cent).

Research limitations/implications

– The limitation of the study was the scarcity of published material on the sub-dimensions of the study of transformation (transformation as referring to attracting qualified employees). Another limitation which was observed included the paucity of data regarding discipline and knowledge of transformation variables.

Practical implications

– This study suggests transformation in higher education institutions is defined through internal (operational and core) and external factors with a direct influence.

Originality/value

– This paper could potentially enrich the meaning of transformation, derived from the context and experience of South Africa.
Paradoxes of European free movement in times of austerity
Authors: Mešić Nedžad
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the capacities of social movement actors (SMAs) and interest groups to negotiate responsibility, heighten issues of accountability and earn legitimacy from authorities and the wider public for the plight of dis-privileged Roma migrant berry pickers in the Swedish labour market.

Design/methodology/approach

– The objective is guided by a multi-sited ethnographical approach to data collection and analysis, which theoretically anchors in social movement frame analysis.

Findings

– The paper proposes that SMAs, in the face of incapacities of state and industry parties, generate the potentiality to leverage immediate humanitarian distress experienced by the workers and to accentuate their political and public visibility.

Research limitations/implications

– Delimited by the internal organisational structure of a berry industry, partly operating behind informal employment schemes, future studies should devote closer attention in localising/identifying possible “back-stage” data-gathering settings.

Practical implications

– Policy-makers and special-interest organisations concerned with internal EU labour migration, labour standards and living condition issues, may consider the social and humanitarian implications of persistent responsibility ambiguities.

Social implications

– The paper raises issues of informal work and forms of labour exploitation.

Originality/value

– The paper provides deeper insight into the societal nexus in which a “hard-to-reach group” of seasonal workers faces potential and actual exploitation.
Maternal involvement in a nurse home visiting programme to prevent child maltreatment
Authors: Flemington Tara , Fraser Jennifer Anne
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Nurse home visiting programmes designed to reduce the likelihood of child maltreatment in families at risk have been widely implemented in Australia and overseas. The purpose of this paper is to examine the intensity and duration of maternal involvement in a nurse home visiting programme to prevent child maltreatment.

Design/methodology/approach

– A retrospective, longitudinal design was employed. The clinical records of 40 mothers who had received nurse home visits following the birth of a new baby for at least six months, and had provided consent for their details to be accessed for research purposes, were selected for analysis. The influence of antenatal characteristics and well-being on maternal involvement in a nurse home visiting programme was examined using reliability of change indices.

Findings

– Mothers with impaired family functioning reporting they experienced violence at home were more likely to leave the programme early and received fewer than the prescribed number of home visits compared to mothers who had been enroled into the programme for other complex psychosocial needs. At the same time, mothers enroled on the basis of impaired psychological functioning and who did not report violence in the home remained, and received more than the prescribed number of home visits over the course of their involvement.

Originality/value

– Results showed that domestic violence increased the risk of poor engagement with a targeted nurse home visiting programme. At the same time, home visitors responded to complex individual and family needs by increasing the number of home visits accordingly. This theoretically based pilot research has helped to disentangle antecedents of maternal involvement and the subsequent impact on programme outcomes. Further investigation using a larger study sample is needed.
Towards a comprehensive measurement of the information rich and poor
Authors: Yu Liangzhi , Zhou Wenjie , Yu Binbin , Liu Hefa
Published: June 2016

Purpose

– Following the assumption that studies of information inequality need to be based on precise discrimination between society’s information rich and poor and against the context that a mechanism for such discrimination is still lacking, the purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of establishing a holistic informational measurement.

Design/methodology/approach

– It does so by developing a measurement based on the conceptualization of the individual as an information agent and his/her information world as his/her characterization. The development procedure consists of four steps: operationalization of the theoretical constructs and the initial drafting of the questionnaire instrument; revisions of the questionnaire based on pilot tests with small groups of people; weighing of the questionnaire items for the purpose of calculating index-type variable scores; formal test of validity and reliability.

Findings

– The resulting measurement consists of eight variables corresponding to eight theoretical constructs of an individual’s information world, each being measured by a group of questionnaire-based items which, in turn, generate an index-type score as the variable’s value. Validity and reliability tests show that the measurement is, on the whole, able to distinguish the information poor from the information rich and to measure individuals consistently.

Originality/value

– The study demonstrates that it is possible to distinguish the information rich and poor by informational measurement in the same way as to distinguish economic groups by income, ethnic groups by race and intelligence groups by IQ; and that such a measurement has arguably multifaceted value for information inequality research.