bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Heterogeneous Tfh cell populations that develop during enteric helminth infection predict the quality of type 2 protective response
Authors: Zaini Aidil , Dalit Lennard , Sheikh Amania A. , Thiele Daniel , Zhang Yan , Runting Jessica , Rodrigues Grace , Ng Judy , Bramhall Michael , Scheer Sebastian , Hailes Lauren , Groom Joanna R. , Good-Jacobson Kim L. , Zaph Colby
Published: October 2021

T follicular helper (Tfh) cells are an important component of the germinal centre (GC)-mediated humoral immunity. Yet, how regulation of Tfh- GC responses impacts on effective responses to helminth infection are poorly understood. Here we show that chronic helminth Trichuris muris infection fails to induce Tfh-GC B cell responses, with Tfh cells expressing T-bet and IFN-γ. In contrast, Tfh cells that express GATA-3 and IL-4 dominate responses to an acute, resolving infection. Accordingly, heightened expression and increased chromatin accessibility of Th1- and Th2 cell-associated genes is observed in chronic and acute induced Tfh cells, respectively. However, both acute and chronic Tfh cell populations retained the capacity to produce IL-21 in spite of the Th-biased response. Blockade of Tfh-GC interactions impaired type 2 immunity, highlighting the protective role of GC-dependent Th2-like Tfh cell responses against helminths. Collectively, these results provide new insights into the protective roles of Tfh-GC responses and identify distinct transcriptional and epigenetic features of Tfh cells that emerge during resolving or chronic helminth infections.

Author summary

About a quarter of the world population is afflicted with parasitic worm infection. Although deworming drugs can reduce the levels of the infection, they fail to prevent reinfections. Therefore, the most sustainable goal is to develop vaccines against human helminth parasites, which has been extremely challenging due to the lack of understanding of host-parasite interactions. While the protective roles of T helper 2 (Th2) cells are well established, the regulation of T follicular helper (Tfh) cells and their roles during helminth infection remain poorly defined. In this study, we describe the differential regulation of Tfh cell responses during chronic non-protective vs acute protective responses during helminth infection. We show that Tfh cells during chronic infection are rare and have strikingly different characteristics to acute-induced Tfh cells, which appear to be more like Th2 cells. Specifically, we show that blockade of Th2-like Tfh cell response during acute infection results in the host failing to expel the worms. Our study identifies that Tfh cell populations that emerge during chronic and acute infection are strikingly heterogeneous and critically important in mediating protective immune responses against helminths.
Evidence for a conserved queen-worker genetic toolkit across slave-making ants and their ant hosts
Authors: Feldmeyer B. , Gstöttl C. , Wallner J. , Jongepier E. , Séguret A. , Grasso D.A. , Bornberg-Bauer E. , Foitzik S. , Heinze J.
Published: October 2021

The ecological success of social Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps) depends on the division of labour between the queen and workers. Each caste is highly specialised in its respective function in morphology, behaviour and life-history traits, such as lifespan and fecundity. Despite strong defences against alien intruders, insect societies are vulnerable to social parasites, such as workerless inquilines or slave-making (dulotic) ants. Here, we investigate whether gene expression varies in parallel ways between lifestyles (slave-making versus host ants) across five independent origins of ant slavery in the“Formicoxenus-group” of the ant tribe Crematogastrini. As caste differences are often less pronounced in slave-making ants than non-parasitic ants, we also compare the transcriptomes of queens and workers in these species. We demonstrate a substantial overlap in expression differences between queens and workers across taxa, irrespective of lifestyle. Caste affects the transcriptomes much more profoundly than lifestyle, as indicated by 37 times more genes being linked to caste than to lifestyle and by multiple caste-associated gene modules with strong connectivity. However, several genes and one gene module are linked to the slave-making lifestyle across the independent origins, pointing to some evolutionary convergence. Finally, we do not find evidence for an interaction between caste and lifestyle, indicating that caste differences remain consistent even when species switch to a parasitic lifestyle. Our findings are a strong indication for the existence of a core set of genes whose expression is linked to the queen and worker caste in this ant taxon, supporting the “genetic toolkit” hypothesis.
Locational memory of macrovessel vascular cells is transcriptionally imprinted
Authors: Spanjersberg Talitha C.F. , Oosterhoff Loes A. , Kruitwagen Hedwig S. , van den Dungen Noortje A.M. , Harakalova Magdalena , Mokry Michal , Spee Bart , van Steenbeek Frank G.
Published: October 2021

The locational predisposition of vascular pathologies illustrates the need for a better insight into vascular heterogeneity. To investigate the transcriptomic basis of angiodiversity, we isolated and analyzed transcriptomes from endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells from nine different adult canine macrovessels: the aorta, coronary artery, vena cava, portal vein, femoral artery, femoral vein, saphenous vein, pulmonary vein, and pulmonary artery. We identified both reported and novel expression patterns defining specialized adult blood vessels. Our findings also show that adult vascular cells in culture express a remarkably high number of transcription factors crucial to organ development in the embryo. The persistent expression of these genes in culture indicates that these genes are not regulated by the flow or surrounding cell types but are rather fixed in the molecular memory. Therefore, our findings prompt the re-thinking of the extrapolation of results from single-origin endothelial cell systems.
The superior salinity tolerance of wheat cultivar Shanrong No. 3 cannot be attributed to elevated Ta-sro1 poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase activity
Authors: Vogt Sarah , Feijs Karla , Hosch Sebastian , De Masi Raffaella , Lintermann Ruth , Loll Bernhard , Wirthmueller Lennart
Published: October 2021

Saline soils limit the production of important staple crops such as wheat, particularly in arid and semiarid regions. Salt tolerance is a multi-gene trait and this complicates breeding of wheat varieties that deliver high yields under saline soil conditions. Notably, the elevated salinity tolerance of wheat cultivar Shanrong No. 3 (SR3) has been linked to a specific proteoform of the wheat SIMILAR TO RCD1 ONE (SRO1) protein that was created in an asymmetric genome hybridization with tall wheat grass. The two amino acid polymorphisms of the Ta-sro1 proteoform enhance the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) activity of the protein suggesting that altered poly-ADP-ribosylation of unknown substrate proteins or nucleic acids underlie the elevated salinity tolerance of cultivar SR3. To elucidate the molecular basis for the elevated PARP activity of the Ta-sro1 proteoform we solved a crystal structure of the catalytic PARP domain. Surprisingly, the structure revealed that the postulated binding site for the co-substrate NAD+ substantially differs from the structurally conserved NAD+ binding sites of canonical PARP enzymes. Consistently, we find that Ta-sro1 does not bind NAD+ and lacks ADP-ribosyltransferase activity. Therefore, although the structure revealed that one of the polymorphic amino acids is located close to the proposed active site, the elevated salinity tolerance of cultivar SR3 cannot be explained by altered ADP-ribosyltransferase activity of Ta-sro1.
Highly efficient generation of canker resistant sweet orange enabled by an improved CRISPR/Cas9 system
Authors: Huang Xiaoen , Wang Nian
Published: October 2021

Sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) is the most economically important species for the citrus industry. However, it is susceptible to many diseases including citrus bacterial canker caused by Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc) that triggers devastating effects on citrus production. Conventional breeding has not met the challenge to improve disease resistance of sweet orange due to the long juvenility and other limitations. CRISPR-mediated genome editing has shown promising potentials for genetic improvements of plants. Generation of biallelic/homozygous mutants remains difficult for sweet orange due to low transformation rate, existence of heterozygous alleles for target genes and low biallelic editing efficacy using the CRISPR technology. Here, we report improvements in the CRISPR/Cas9 system for citrus gene editing. Based on the improvements we made previously (dicot codon optimized Cas9, tRNA for multiplexing, a modified sgRNA scaffold with high efficiency, CsU6 to drive sgRNA expression), we further improved our CRISPR/Cas9 system by choosing superior promoters (CmYLCV or CsUbi promoter) to drive Cas9 and optimizing culture temperature. This system was able to generate a biallelic mutation rate of up to 89% for Carrizo citrange and 79% for Hamlin sweet orange. Consequently, this system was used to generate canker resistant Hamlin sweet orange by mutating the effector binding element (EBE) of canker susceptibility gene CsLOB1, which is required for causing canker symptoms by Xcc. Six biallelic Hamlin sweet orange mutant lines in the EBE were generated. The biallelic mutants are resistant to Xcc. Biallelic mutation of the EBE region abolishes the induction of CsLOB1 by Xcc. This study represents a significant improvement in sweet orange gene editing efficacy and generating disease resistant varieties via CRISPR-mediated genome editing. This improvement in citrus genome editing makes genetic studies and manipulations of sweet orange more feasible.
Transcriptome profiling of the ventral pallidum reveals a role for pallido-thalamic neurons in cocaine reward
Authors: Engeln Michel , Fox Megan E. , Chandra Ramesh , Choi Eric Y. , Nam Hyungwoo , Qadir Houman , Thomas Shavin S. , Rhodes Victoria M. , Turner Makeda D. , Herman Rae J. , Calarco Cali A. , Lobo Mary Kay
Published: October 2021

Psychostimulant exposure alters the activity of ventral pallidum (VP) projection-neurons. However, the molecular underpinnings of these circuit dysfunctions are unclear. We used RNA- sequencing to reveal alterations in the transcriptional landscape of the VP that are induced by cocaine self-administration in mice. We then probed gene expression in select VP neuronal subpopulations to isolate a circuit associated with cocaine intake. Finally, we used both overexpression and CRISPR-mediated knockdown to test the role of a gene target on cocaine- mediated behaviors as well as dendritic spine density. Our results showed that a large proportion (55%) of genes associated with structural plasticity were changed 24 hours following cocaine intake. Among them, the transcription factor Nr4a1 (Nuclear receptor subfamily 4, group A, member 1, or Nur77) showed high expression levels. We found that the VP to mediodorsal thalamus (VP→MDT) projection neurons specifically were recapitulating this increase in Nr4a1 expression. Overexpressing Nr4a1 in VP→MDT neurons enhanced drug-seeking and drug- induced reinstatement, while Nr4a1 knock down prevented self-administration acquisition and subsequent cocaine-mediated behaviors. Moreover, we showed that Nr4a1 negatively regulated spine dynamics in this specific cell subpopulation. Together, our study identifies for the first time the transcriptional mechanisms occurring in VP in drug exposure. Our study provides further understanding on the role of Nr4a1 in cocaine-related behaviors and identifies the crucial role of the VP→MDT circuit in drug intake and relapse-like behaviors.
Natural variation further increases resilience of sorghum bred for chronically drought-prone environments
Authors: Dong Hongxu , Birhan Techale , Abajebel Nezif , Wakjira Misganu , Mitiku Tesfaye , Lemke Cornelia , Vadez Vincent , Paterson Andrew H. , Bantte Kassahun
Published: October 2021

Climate-change-associated shifts in rainfall distribution together with a looming worldwide water crisis make drought resilience of central importance to food security. Even for relatively drought resilient crops such as sorghum, moisture stress is nonetheless one of the major constraints for production. Here, we explore the potential to use natural genetic variation to build on the inherent drought tolerance of an elite cultivar (Teshale) bred for Ethiopian conditions including chronic drought, evaluating a backcross nested-association mapping (BC-NAM) population using 12 diverse founder lines crossed with Teshale under three drought-prone environments in Ethiopia. All twelve populations averaged higher head exsertion and lower leaf senescence than the recurrent parent in the two highest-stress environments, reflecting new drought resilience mechanisms from the donors. A total of 154 QTLs were detected for eight drought responsive traits – the validity of these were supported in that 100 (64.9%) overlapped with QTLs previously detected for the same traits, concentrated in regions previously associated with ‘stay-green’ traits as well as the flowering regulator Ma6 and drought resistant gene P5CS2. Allele effects show that some favorable alleles are already present in the Ethiopian cultivar, however the exotic donors offer rich scope for increasing drought resilience. Using model-selected SNPs associated with eight traits in this study and three in a companion study, phenotypic prediction accuracies for grain yield were equivalent to genome-wide SNPs and were significantly better than random SNPs, indicating that these studied traits are predictive of sorghum grain yield. Rich scope for improving drought resilience even in cultivars bred for drought-prone regions, together with phenotypic prediction accuracy for grain yield, provides a foundation to enhance food security in drought-prone areas like the African Sahel.
Spatiotemporal solidification of α-synuclein inside the liquid droplets
Authors: Ray Soumik , Chatterjee Debdeep , Mukherjee Semanti , Patel Komal , Mahato Jaladhar , Kadam Sangram , Krishnan Rakesh , Sawner Ajay Singh , Poudyal Manisha , Krishnamoorthy G , Chowdhury Arindam , Padinhateeri Ranjith , Maji Samir K.
Published: October 2021

Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) and subsequent liquid-to-solid transition is implicated in membraneless organelles formation as well as disease associated protein aggregation. However, how liquid-to-solid transition is initiated inside a liquid droplet remains unclear. Here, using studies at single droplet resolution, we show that liquid-to-solid transition of α-synuclein (α-Syn) liquid droplets is associated with significant changes in the local microenvironment as well as secondary structure of the protein, which is prominently observed at the center of the liquid droplets. With the ageing of liquid droplets, the “structured” core at the center gradually expands and propagates over entire droplets. Further, during droplet fusion, smaller, homogeneous droplets progressively dissolve and supply proteins to the larger, heterogeneous droplets containing solid-like core at their center. The present study will significantly help to understand the physical mechanism of LLPS and liquid-to-solid transition in biological compartmentalization as well as in protein aggregation associated with human neurodegenerative disorders.

Abstract Figure
Lysosome docking to Omegasomes and ER-connected Phagophores Occurs During DNAJB12 and GABARAP-Dependent Selective Autophagy of Misfolded P23H-Rhodopsin
Authors: Kennedy Andrew , Ren Hong Yu , Madden Victoria J. , Cyr Douglas M.
Published: October 2021

We report on how the ER-associated-autophagy pathway (ERAA) delivers P23H-rhodopsin (P23H-R) to the lysosome. P23H-R accumulates in an ERAD-resistant conformation that is stabilized by DNAJB12 and Hsp70. P23H-R, DNAJB12, and FIP200 co-localize in discrete foci that punctuate the rim of omegasome rings coated by WIPI1. P23H-R tubules thread through the wall of WIPI1 rings into their central cavity. Transfer of P23H-R from ER-connected phagophores to lysosomes requires GABARAP, and is associated with the transient docking of lysosomes to WIPI1 rings. Instances of lysosomes docking to WIPI1 foci are constitutive, and increase 250% upon P23H-R expression. After departure from WIPI1 rings, new patches of P23H-R are seen in the membranes of lysosomes. The absence of GABARAP prevents transfer of P23H-R from phagophores to lysosomes without interfering with docking. These data identify lysosome docking to omegasomes as an important step in the DNAJB12 and GABARAP-dependent autophagic disposal of dominantly toxic P23H-R.
Who takes care of the kids at when? Sex differences in avian parental care
Authors: Wang Daiping , Zhang Wenyuan , Richter Xiang-Yi Li
Published: October 2021

Parental care in birds consists of many elaborate forms, including nest building, incubation, and offspring provision, but we still do not know how much each parent contributes to the different forms. Furthermore, the variations, relationships, and potential drivers of sex differentiation in providing care across different care stages remain largely unknown. Here, we surveyed species in birds and uncovered remarkable differences in the sex role patterns across different care forms. This result implied that parental care should not be treated as a unitary trait but as a composite of integrated features with great variations. Further analyses revealed moderate correlations of the sex roles between care forms, indicating the existence of shared intrinsic drivers. We tested the effects of sexual selection, certainty of paternity, predation risk, and offspring’s life history traits in driving sex role variations. Results showed that species with strong sexual selection on males or uncertainty of paternity tend to have female-biased care.
A tiger in the Upper Midwest: Surveillance and genetic data support the introduction and establishment of Aedes albopictus in Iowa, USA
Authors: Hall David R. , Tokarz Ryan E. , Field Eleanor N. , Smith Ryan C.
Published: October 2021

Aedes albopictus is a competent vector of several arboviruses that has spread throughout the United States over the last three decades after it was initially detected in Texas in 1985. With the emergence of Zika virus in the Americas in 2015-2016 and an increased need to better understand the current distributions of Ae. albopictus in the US, we initiated surveillance efforts to determine the abundance of invasive Aedes species in Iowa. Here, we describe the resulting surveillance efforts from 2016-2020 in which we detect stable and persistent populations of Aedes albopictus in three Iowa counties. Based on temporal patterns in abundance and genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA haplotypes between years, our data support that populations of Ae. albopictus are overwintering and have likely become established in the state. In addition, the localization of Ae. albopictus predominantly in areas of urbanization and noticeable absence in rural areas suggests that these ecological factors may represent potential barriers to their further spread and contribute to overwintering success. Together, these data document the establishment of Ae. albopictus in Iowa and their expansion into the Upper Midwest, where freezing winter temperatures were previously believed to limit their spread. With increasing globalization, urbanization, and rising temperatures associated with global warming, the range of invasive arthropod vectors, such as Ae. albopictus, is expected to only further expand, creating increased risks for vector-borne disease.
Engineering A Fluorescent Protein Color Switch Using Entropy-driven Beta Strand Exchange
Authors: John Anna M. , Sekhon Harsimranjit , Ha Jeung-Hoi , Loh Stewart N.
Published: October 2021

Protein conformational switches are widely used in biosensing. They are typically composed of an input domain (which binds a target ligand) fused to an output domain (which generates an optical readout). A central challenge in designing such switches is to develop mechanisms for coupling the input and output signals via conformational change. Here, we create a biosensor in which binding-induced folding of the input domain drives a conformational shift in the output domain that results in a 6-fold green-to-yellow ratiometric fluorescence change in vitro, and a 35-fold intensiometric fluorescence increase in cultured cells. The input domain consists of circularly permuted FK506 binding protein (cpFKBP) that folds upon binding its target ligand (FK506 or rapamycin). cpFKBP folding induces the output domain, an engineered GFP variant, to replace one of its β-strands (containing T203 and specifying green fluorescence) with a duplicate β-strand (containing Y203 and specifying yellow fluorescence) in an intramolecular exchange reaction. This mechanism employs the loop-closure entropy principle, embodied by folding of the partially disordered cpFKBP domain, to couple ligand binding to the GFP color shift. This proof-of-concept design has the advantages of full genetic encodability, ratiometric or intensiometric response, and potential for modularity. The latter attribute is enabled by circular permutation of the input domain.
The Formation of a Stable Sliding Clamp Discriminates MSH2-MSH3 and MSH2-MSH6 Mismatch Interaction
Authors: Britton Brooke M. , London James A. , Martin-Lopez Juana , Jones Nathan D. , Liu Jiaquan , Lee Jong-Bong , Fishel Richard
Published: October 2021

MutS homologs (MSH) are highly conserved core components of DNA mismatch repair (MMR). Mismatch recognition provokes ATP-binding by MSH proteins that drives a conformational transition from a short-lived lesion-searching clamp to an extremely stable sliding clamp on the DNA. Once on DNA the MSH sliding clamps provide a platform for the assembly of MMR strand-specific excision components beginning with the highly conserved MutL homologs (MLH/PMS). Previous studies with short mismatch-containing oligonucleotides revealed an MSH ATP hydrolysis (ATPase) cycle that included mismatch recognition, the formation of an ATP-bound sliding clamp and dissociation from the end of a mismatched DNA that ultimately recovers the mismatch binding conformation. We found that ATP-bound MSH complexes on blocked-end or very long DNA are extremely stable under a range of ionic conditions. These observations underpinned the development of a high-throughput fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) system capable of clearly distinguishing between HsMSH2-HsMSH3 and HsMSH2-HsMSH6 activities that is suitable for chemical inhibitor screens.
Neural stem/precursor cells dynamically change their epigenetic landscape to differentially respond to BMP signaling for fate switching during brain development
Authors: Katada Sayako , Takouda Jun , Nakagawa Takumi , Honda Mizuki , Igarashi Katsuhide , Imamura Takuya , Ohkawa Yasuyuki , Sato Shoko , Kurumizaka Hitoshi , Nakashima Kinichi
Published: October 2021

During neocortical development, tight regulation of neurogenesis-to-astrogenesis switching of neural precursor cells (NPCs) is critical to generate a balanced number of each neural cell type for proper brain functions. Accumulating evidence indicates that a complex array of epigenetic modifications and the availability of extracellular factors control the timing of neuronal and astrocytic differentiation. However, our understanding of NPC fate regulation is still far from complete. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are renowned as cytokines that induce astrogenesis of gliogenic late-gestational NPCs. They also promote neurogenesis of mid-gestational NPCs, although the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. By performing multiple genome-wide analyses, we demonstrate that Smads, transcription factors that act downstream from BMP signaling, target dramatically different genomic regions in neurogenic and gliogenic NPCs. We found that histone H3K27 trimethylation and DNA methylation around Smad-binding sites change rapidly as gestation proceeds, strongly associated with the alteration of accessibility of Smads to their target binding sites. Furthermore, we identified two lineage-specific Smad-interacting partners—Sox11 for neurogenic and Sox8 for astrocytic differentiation—that further ensure Smad-regulated fate-specific gene induction. Our findings illuminate an exquisite regulation of NPC property change mediated by the interplay between cell-extrinsic cues and -intrinsic epigenetic programs during cortical development.
Gravity interpretation for the Bethe Ansatz expansion of the
N=4
SYM index
Authors: Aharony Ofer , Benini Francesco , Mamroud Ohad , Milan Elisa
Published: October 2021

The superconformal index of the N=4 SU(N) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory counts the 1/16-BPS (Bogomol’nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield) states in this theory, and has been used via the AdS/CFT correspondence to count black hole microstates of 1/16-BPS black holes. On one hand, this index may be related to the Euclidean partition function of the theory on S3×S1 with complex chemical potentials, which maps by the

AdS

/

CFT

correspondence to a sum over Euclidean gravity solutions. On the other hand, the index may be expressed as a sum over solutions to Bethe Ansatz (BA) equations. We show that the solutions to the BA equations that are known to have a good large N limit, for the case of equal chemical potentials for the two angular momenta, have a one-to-one mapping to (complex) Euclidean black hole solutions on the gravity side. This mapping captures both the leading contribution from the classical gravity action (of order N2), as well as nonperturbative corrections in 1/N, which on the gravity side are related to wrapped D3-branes. Some of the BA solutions map to orbifolds of the standard Euclidean black hole solutions (which obey exactly the same boundary conditions as the other solutions). there are many more gravitational solutions than Bethe Ansatz solutions, but we show that, by considering the nonperturbative effects, the extra solutions are ruled out, leading to a precise match between the solutions on both sides.

Published by the American Physical Society
2021
Crystal structure studies of 4-ethylpiperazin-1-ium 3,5-dinitrobenzoate, 4-methylpiperazin-1-ium 3,5-dinitrobenzoate and 4-methylpiperazin-1-ium 4-iodobenzoate
Authors: Archana Sriramapura D. , Kumar Haruvegowda Kiran , Yathirajan Hemmige S. , Foro Sabine , Abdelbaky Mohammed S. M. , Garcia-Granda Santiago
Published: October 2021

As part of our ongoing investigation on the chemical and biological properties of piperazinium salts, we synthesized three novel compounds: 1-ethylpiperazinium 3,5-dinitrobenzoate (I), 1-methylpiperazinium 3,5-dinitrobenzoate (II) and 1-methylpiperazinium 4-iodobenzoate (III). The crystal structures of these compounds are built up of organic layers formed by the strong connection between the molecules by hydrogen bonds of type N—H...O. These layers are linked through N—H...O hydrogen bonds and C—H...O interactions or C—I...N halogen bonding, leading to the formation of a three-dimensional network.
An ARIMA-based study of bibliometric index prediction
Authors: Song Yanhui , Cao Jiayi
Published: October 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to predict bibliometric indicators based on ARIMA models and to study the short-term trends of bibliometric indicators.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper establishes a non-stationary time series ARIMA (p, d, q) model for forecasting based on the bibliometric index data of 13 journals in the library intelligence category selected from the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) as the data source database for the period 1998–2018, and uses ACF and PACF methods for parameter estimation to predict the development trend of the bibliometric index in the next 5 years. The predicted model was also subjected to error analysis.

Findings

ARIMA models are feasible for predicting bibliometric indicators. The model predicted the trend of the four bibliometric indicators in the next 5 years, in which the number of publications showed a decreasing trend and the H-value, average citations and citations showed an increasing trend. Error analysis of the model data showed that the average absolute percentage error of the four bibliometric indicators was within 5%, indicating that the model predicted well.

Research limitations/implications

This study has some limitations. 13 Chinese journals were selected in the field of Library and Information Science as the research objects. However, the scope of research based on bibliometric indicators of Chinese journals is relatively small and cannot represent the evolution trend of the entire discipline. Therefore, in the future, the authors will select different fields and different sources for further research.

Originality/value

This study predicts the trend changes of bibliometric indicators in the next 5 years to understand the trend of bibliometric indicators, which is beneficial for further in-depth research. At the same time, it provides a new and effective method for predicting bibliometric indicators.
Co-worker support, voluntary turnover intention and knowledge withholding among IT specialists: the mediating role of affective organizational commitment
Authors: Kmieciak Roman
Published: October 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of co-worker support on horizontal knowledge withholding and voluntary turnover intention among IT specialists. The study also explores the mediating role of affective organizational commitment.

Design/methodology/approach

The data are drawn from 118 IT specialists from a Polish software company. The model is tested through partial least squares path modeling.

Findings

The results revealed that the negative effect of co-worker support on voluntary turnover intention is fully mediated by organizational affective commitment. Contrary to expectations, co-worker support is not significantly negatively related to horizontal knowledge withholding.

Research limitations/implications

The cross-sectional data, self-reports and small sample size are limitations of this study. The respondents were a relatively homogenous group of employees, so the generalizability of results to other employees and industries is limited.

Practical implications

To increase affective organizational commitment and reduce voluntary turnover intention among IT specialists, managers should create the conditions to enhance co-worker support.

Originality/value

This research clarifies the role of affective organizational commitment, which has proven to be a bridge linking co-worker support and voluntary turnover intention. Moreover, this research investigates the previously unexplored effect of co-worker support on horizontal knowledge withholding.
Growing the pie: an examination of coopetition benefits in the US lodging industry
Authors: Webb Timothy , Beldona Srikanth , Schwartz Zvi , Bianco Simone
Published: October 2021

Purpose

Coopetition is the simultaneous cooperation and competition among firms operating in a specific market. It is particularly relevant in tourism where many competing suppliers (hotels in this case) contribute to the facilitation and delivery of the tourism product, i.e. the destination. By engaging in cooperative arrangements, firms can increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of the tourism product and subsequently demand for individual firms. This study aims to explore the three types of benefits derived from cooperative relationships in the context of the hotel industry, as well as the link between coopetition and market performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts several scales from prior research to survey 475 hotels in the USA. Specifically, respondents were asked to evaluate their performance with regard to the three benefits of coopetition. The responses were used to model the benefits of coopetition as a higher-order construct in a two-stage partial least squares model. In the second stage, the higher-order construct was linked to perceived hotel performance and the respondents’ RevPAR index.

Findings

The results show that perceived benefits from coopetition are positively associated with hotel performance. Specifically, the model depicts positive links between the coopetition construct and the hotels’ perceived performance, as well as their RevPAR index. Interestingly, the results were not as strong for index performance and may be due to the relative nature of the measure.

Research limitations/implications

This study supports the notion that coopetition alliances between hotels provide a viable avenue for performance growth. Specifically, managers should consider working together to allocate resources strategically to grow the pie. It is important that managers measure the benefits of cooperative relationships outside of competitive index scores as these metrics may be relative to the cooperative arrangement.

Originality/value

The study is the first to investigate the three benefits of coopetition in the context of the hotel industry. Specifically, it is the first to establish a positive link between firm coopetition and perceived performance in the hotel industry at the firm level.
A novel design approach and ergonomic evaluation of Class I compression legging
Authors: Barhoumi Houda , Marzougui Saber , Abdessalem Saber Ben
Published: October 2021

Purpose

The conception of a compression garment that applies a desired interface pressure level has been a great challenge for therapists and compression garment manufacturers even today. The purpose of this study is to develop a new method for designing a compression legging that exerts Class I interface pressure to the lower limb.

Design/methodology/approach

This research presents a new method for the design of Class I compression garment. It consists of theoretically calculating the circumferences of the Class I compression legging based on the reduction factors. To assess the effectiveness of the method, we used both objective and subjective evaluations. For the objective evaluation, we have developed a measuring device to measure Class I legging interface pressure in different measuring points using a force pressure sensor. Concerning the subjective evaluation, 10 healthy female subjects agreed to take part in this study in order to evaluate the ergonomic comfort when wearing the designed compression legging.

Findings

Participating subjects delivered their feeling about comfort and motion restriction during the use of the legging. Referring to the volunteers’ answers, the Class I compression legging can be described as comfortable and has a satisfactory fit during wear.

Originality/value

The important feature of this study was the effectiveness of the new designing method in producing a compression legging that delivers the desired amount of pressure and offers a comfort sensation during wear. The outcome of this research is a new method that could be used to create a variety of compression garments that can apply different pressure levels.
Enhancing virtual team performance via high-quality interpersonal relationships: effects of authentic leadership
Authors: Zhang Yinxuan , Zhao Ruonan , Yu Xuan
Published: October 2021

Purpose

Based on path–goal theory and social learning theory, this research is aimed at investigating how authentic leadership can influence team performance in virtual teams, specifically the mechanisms through the mediator of high-quality interpersonal relationships and the moderator of task interdependence.

Design/methodology/approach

The valid data of this research were collected from 90 virtual teams including 388 team members and their 90 leaders with a time-lag in China, and then the data were mainly analyzed by the hierarchical multiple regression and bootstrapping method to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The research results reveal that authentic leadership can positively influence virtual team performance. High-quality interpersonal relationships mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and virtual team performance. Furthermore, the indirect relationship between authentic leadership and virtual team performance via high-quality interpersonal relationships is moderated by task interdependence.

Originality/value

Team performance as an important kind of team effectiveness is crucial to the virtual team's advantage and success. This research enriches the knowledge on the relationship between authentic leadership and virtual team performance, which contributes to the virtual leadership effectiveness and virtual team management.
Gender pay gap in explaining female entrepreneurship – industry perspective of selected European countries
Authors: Gaweł Aleksandra , Mroczek-Dąbrowska Katarzyna
Published: October 2021

Purpose

Although several theoretical concepts imply different determinants of female entrepreneurship, the literature lacks a consensus on their significance. The aim of this paper is to verify how industry specificity influences the gender pay gap and its relation to female entrepreneurship.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors distinguish industries based on the gender equality level, measured jointly by two factors: pay gap level and female participation rate. The study has been conducted among 22 European countries with relatively similar institutional backgrounds. The authors carry out the analysis based on the panel regression models, which enable the authors to verify two predefined research questions.

Findings

The results of panel regression models indicate that industry specificity plays a significant role in the relation between the pay gap and female entrepreneurship. Generally, it can be concluded that gender pay gap as a measure of gender inequality is dependent on the industry specificity. The dependence is especially visible in the breakdown of male- and female-dominated industries.

Originality/value

The findings are consistent with the assumption that the gender pay gap is a discriminatory factor for women willing to become entrepreneurs in certain industries. The findings of the study may constitute a vital tool in planning to overcome it.
Multi-viewpoints visual models for efficient modeling and analysis of Twitter based health-care services
Authors: Renigunta Mohammed Noorullah , Mohammed Moulana
Published: October 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this study for eHealth text mining domains, cosine-based visual methods (VM) assess the clusters more accurately than Euclidean; which are recommended for tweet data models for clusters assessment. Such VM determines the clusters concerning a single viewpoint or none, which are less informative. Multi-viewpoints (MVP) were used for addressing the more informative clusters assessment of health-care tweet documents and to demonstrate visual analysis of cluster tendency.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors proposed MVP-based VM by using traditional topic models with visual techniques to find cluster tendency, partitioning for cluster validity to propose health-care recommendations based on tweets. The authors demonstrated the effectiveness of proposed methods on different real-time Twitter health-care data sets in the experimental study. The authors also did a comparative analysis of proposed models with existing visual assessment tendency (VAT) and cVAT models by using cluster validity indices and computational complexities; the examples suggest that MVP VM were more informative.

Findings

In this paper, the authors proposed MVP-based VM by using traditional topic models with visual techniques to find cluster tendency, partitioning for cluster validity to propose health-care recommendations based on tweets.

Originality/value

In this paper, the authors proposed multi-viewpoints distance metric in topic model cluster tendency for the first time and visual representation using VAT images using hybrid topic models to find cluster tendency, partitioning for cluster validity to propose health-care recommendations based on tweets.
Antecedents enabling team ambidexterity: moving beyond mere microfoundation
Authors: Dean Benjamin P.
Published: October 2021

Purpose

Ambidexterity in teams represents powerful dynamic capabilities for innovation and adaptation in rapidly changing environments. This study focused on the emerging concept of team ambidexterity. Primary purposes were to consolidate emerging research on ambidexterity within teams and to synthesise antecedent inputs.

Design/methodology/approach

This study applied a systematic content-based review method to collect articles relevant to enabling ambidexterity within teams. The study integrated relevant studies on ambidexterity and on teams and teamwork. It analysed content through theoretical frameworks of ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities.

Findings

Team ambidexterity constitutes a distinct and increasingly important organisational concept beyond just supporting firm-level ambidexterity. Team ambidexterity depends on inputs that can include ambidexterity's multilevel, generic mechanisms and additional team-centric inputs specially characterising teams.

Practical implications

Organisational leaders need insights into the valuable potential of ambidextrous teams that can increase innovation and enable successful adaptation at an operational level for longterm survival and competitive advantage in volatile environments. The study highlights the essential inputs for designing and equipping ambidextrous teams.

Originality/value

Team ambidexterity research is growing, but so far it has mostly addressed team ambidexterity as a microfoundation supporting firm-level ambidexterity. Existing studies have remained mostly disparate and unorganized. This study appears unique in having identified and synthesised studies most relevant to developing ambidexterity within teams. The study articulated a more comprehensive understanding of team ambidexterity, derived a novel set of team-centric inputs and analysed ambidexterity as dynamic capabilities at operational unit level.
Analysis of uncertainty in the strength of spot welding car body solder joint
Authors: Ku Zhaoyu , Xue Qiwen , Wang Gaping , Liu Shuang
Published: October 2021

Purpose

Aiming at the problems of poor accuracy and limitation in strength assessment of spot welding vehicle body caused by uncertain factors, such as key component size and nugget diameter, the numerical models of strength uncertainty analysis of spot-welded joints were constructed based on evidence theory and fuzzy theory.

Design/methodology/approach

Evidence theory and fuzzy theory are used to deal with the uncertainty of design parameter, and differential evolution algorithms are used to calculate the propagation process of uncertainty in this model. Furthermore, efficient relationship between the strength of welded joints and each design parameter is constructed by using response surface proxy model, which effectively avoids the problem of repeated complex finite element analysis in uncertainty analysis.

Findings

The results show that the constructed uncertainty numerical model is effective for the multiple uncertainties and give interval results under different probabilities and affiliations, which can more effectively evaluate the strength of the welded body structure to avoid overly conservative estimates for deterministic design.

Originality/value

The evidence theory is improved and combined with differential evolution algorithm and response surface method to effectively improve the computational efficiency. Based on the improved evidence theory and fuzzy algorithm, the numerical models for the uncertainty analysis of solder joint strength of welded structures are constructed and their feasibility is verified.
How does differentiated multichannel collaboration matter? The boom-bust effects on online–offline store images
Authors: He Yingzhao , Yu Yan , Zuo Meiyun
Published: October 2021

Purpose

Drawing on open systems theory, this study aims to investigate the direct and moderating effects of information collaboration in the pre-sale stage, transaction management collaboration in the transaction stage and customer service collaboration in the post-sale stage on the linkages of the online–offline store image and the market performance of small sellers.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from multiple sources, including self-reported and online objective data from 148 small restaurants that simultaneously sell online and offline, for validating the developed research model. Partial least squares-based structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

Findings

This study illustrates the direct effects of an online store’s image and online–offline collaborations on the market performance of small stores. This study further reveals the boom-bust moderating effects of different collaborations between online–offline images and market performance.

Practical implications

Small stores should be aware of the importance of information congruence and functional integration concerning online–offline collaboration. They should also recognize the paradoxical intervening effects of online–offline collaboration on different channels and arrange appropriate collaboration tactics.

Originality/value

This study presents a significant contribution to the open systems theory by revealing both constructive and destructive properties of the online–offline collaborative system with offline-to-online targeting. Vertically differentiated online–offline collaboration may strengthen one side of the store image but weaken the other side for promoting the market performance of small stores.
Understanding educational leadership during times of crises: a scoping review
Authors: Striepe Michelle , Cunningham Christine
Published: October 2021

Purpose

This paper presents a review of empirical research on educational leadership during times of crises in K–12 schools. This review aimed to map the recent literature and identify key characteristics of educational leadership during crises to understand how this type of leadership is different from current understandings.

Design/methodology/approach

A scoping review of empirical research from 2010 to 2020 on how school leaders have managed and responded to crises in K-12 was completed. The empirical research was analysed and synthesised by using the preview, question, read and summarise (PQRS) system.

Findings

The findings draw attention to the fact that the notion of crisis leadership has been a neglected aspect of educational leadership research. Additionally, the review reveals six emerging characteristics which depict how school leadership has been enacted during different types of crisis across a range of contexts and crisis phases.

Originality/value

The findings add to current practical understandings of educational leadership by illustrating the complexity and multi-layered nature of leading during times of crisis. Furthermore, these findings contribute to the field by identifying how leading during a crisis is different from current understandings. Lastly, they highlight the need to develop theories and models that account for how leadership is used to deal with the unpredictable nature of crises that schools across the globe face today and into the future.