bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Multi-omic profiling of histone variant H3.3 lysine 27 methylation reveals a distinct role from canonical H3 in stem cell differentiation
Authors: Kori Yekaterina , Lund Peder J. , Trovato Matteo , Sidoli Simone , Yuan Zuo-Fei , Noh Kyung-Min , Garcia Benjamin A.
Published: September 2021

Histone variants, such as histone H3.3, replace canonical histones within the nucleosome to alter chromatin accessibility and gene expression. Although the biological roles of selected histone post-translational modifications (PTMs) have been extensively characterized, the potential differences in the function of a given PTM on different histone variants is almost always elusive. By applying proteomics and genomics techniques, we investigate the role of lysine 27 tri-methylation specifically on the histone variant H3.3 (H3.3K27me3) in the context of mouse embryonic stem cell pluripotency and differentiation as a model system for development. We demonstrate that while the steady state overall levels of methylation on both H3K27 and H3.3K27 decrease during differentiation, methylation dynamics studies indicate that methylation on H3.3K27 is maintained more than on H3K27. Using a custom-made antibody, we identify a unique enrichment of H3.3K27me3 at lineage-specific genes, such as olfactory receptor genes, and at binding motifs for the transcription factors FOXJ2/3. REST, a predicted FOXJ2/3 target that acts as a transcriptional repressor of terminal neuronal genes, was identified with H3.3K27me3 at its promoter region. H3.3K27A mutant cells confirmed an upregulation of FOXJ2/3 targets upon the loss of methylation at H3.3K27. Thus, while canonical H3K27me3 has been characterized to regulate the expression of transcription factors that play a general role in differentiation, our work suggests H3.3K27me3 is essential for regulating distinct terminal differentiation genes. This work highlights the importance of understanding the effects of PTMs not only on canonical histones but also on specific histone variants, as they may exhibit distinct roles.
Synergistic interaction of hyposalinity stress with Vibrio infection causes mass mortalities in oysters by inducing host microflora imbalance and immune dysregulation
Authors: Li Xin , Yang Ben , Shi Chenyu , Wang Hebing , Li Qi , Liu Shikai
Published: September 2021

A sudden drop in salinity following extreme precipitation events usually causes mass mortalities of oysters exposed to pathogens in ocean environment. While how hyposalinity stress interacts with pathogens to cause mass mortality remains obscure. In this study, we performed an experiment by mimicking hyposalinity stress and pathogen infection with V. alginolyticus to investigate their synergistic effect on the mortality of infected oysters toward understanding of the interaction among environment, host, and pathogen. We showed that hyposalinity stress (10‰, 20‰ versus 30‰) did not significantly affect proliferation and virulence of V. alginolyticus, but significantly altered microbial composition and diversity in infected oysters. Microbial community profiling by 16S rRNA sequencing revealed disrupted homeostasis of digestive bacterial microbiota with increased abundance of several pathogenic bacteria, which may affect the pathogenesis in oysters. Transcriptome profiling of infected oysters revealed that a large number of genes associated with apoptosis and inflammation were significantly induced under hyposalinity, suggesting that hyposalinity stress may have triggered immune dysregulation in infected oysters. This work provides significant information in decoding mechanisms of synergistic interaction among environment factors, host genetics, and digestive microbiota, and how they contribute to pathogenesis.

IMPORTANCE

Revealing the response of oyster host and microbial community to the interference of multiple environmental factors is an important aspect of deciphering the complex pathogenic mechanism in oysters. We evaluated the synergistic effects of hyposalinity stress and Vibrio alginolyticus infection in oysters. Results showed that hyposalinity stress significantly caused mass mortalities of infected oysters by destroying digestive microbial community structure, and triggering excessive immune response in oysters. This work provides valuable information for deciphering the mechanisms of synergistic interaction among environmental factors, host, and pathogens, and how they contribute to pathogenesis.
Quantifying the impact of ecological memory on the dynamics of interacting communities
Authors: Khalighi Moein , Sommeria-Klein Guilhem , Gonze Didier , Faust Karoline , Lahti Leo
Published: September 2021

Ecological memory refers to the influence of past events on the response of an ecosystem to exogenous or endogenous changes. Memory has been widely recognized as a key contributor to the dynamics of ecosystems and other complex systems, yet quantitative community models often ignore memory and its implications.

Recent modeling studies have shown how interactions between community members can lead to the emergence of resilience and multistability under environmental perturbations. We demonstrate how memory can be introduced in such models using the framework of fractional calculus. We study how the outcomes of a well-characterized interaction model are affected by gradual increases in ecological memory under varying initial conditions, perturbations, and stochasticity.

Our results highlight the implications of memory on several key aspects of community dynamics. In general, memory introduces inertia into the dynamics. This favors species coexistence under perturbation, enhances system resistance to state shifts, mitigates hysteresis, and can affect system resilience both ways depending on the time scale considered. Memory also promotes long transient dynamics, such as long-standing oscillations and delayed regime shifts, and contributes to the emergence and persistence of alternative stable states. Our study highlights the fundamental role of memory on ecological communities, and provides quantitative tools to introduce it in ecological models and analyse its impact under varying conditions.

Author summary

An ecosystem is said to exhibit ecological memory when its future states do not only depend on its current state but also on its initial state and trajectory. Memory may arise through various mechanisms as organisms adapt to their environment, modify it, and accumulate biotic and abiotic material. It may also emerge from phenotypic heterogeneity at the population level. Despite its commonness in nature, ecological memory and its potential influence on ecosystem dynamics have been so far overlooked in many applied contexts. Here, we use modeling to investigate how memory can influence the dynamics, composition, and stability landscape of ecological communities. We incorporate long-term memory effects into a multi-species model recently introduced to investigate alternative stable states in microbial communities. We assess the impact of memory on key aspects of model behavior and validate our findings using a model parameterized by empirical data from the human gut microbiota. Our approach for modeling memory and studying its implications has the potential to improve our understanding of microbial community dynamics and ultimately our ability to predict, manipulate, and experimentally design microbial ecosystems. It could also be applied more broadly in the study of systems composed of interacting components.
Essentiality, Protein-Protein Interactions and Evolutionary Properties are Key Predictors for Identifying Cancer Genes Using Machine Learning
Authors: Safadi Amro , Lovell Simon C. , Doig Andrew J.
Published: September 2021

The identification of genes that may be linked to cancer is of great importance for the discovery of new drug targets. The rate at which cancer genes are being found experimentally is slow, however, due to the complexity of the identification and confirmation process, giving a narrow range of therapeutic targets to investigate and develop. One solution to this problem is to use predictive analysis techniques that can accurately identify cancer gene candidates in a timely fashion. Furthermore, the effort in identifying characteristics that are linked to cancer genes is crucial to further our understanding of this disease. These characteristics can be employed in recognising therapeutic drug targets. Here, we investigated whether certain genes’ properties can indicate the likelihood of it to be involved in the initiation or progression of cancer. We found that for cancer, the essentiality scores tend to be higher for cancer genes than for all protein coding human genes. A machine-learning model was developed and we found that essentiality related properties and properties arising from protein-protein interaction networks or evolution are particularly effective in predicting cancer-associated genes. We were also able to identify potential drug targets that have not been previously linked with cancer, but have the characteristics of cancer-related genes.

Author Summary

Mutations in numerous genes are known to be involved in cancer, yet there are undoubtedly many more to be discovered. We analysed a set of hundreds of cancer genes with the aim of finding out what makes them different from genes not known to be mutated in cancer. In particular, we found that genes that are essential for the survival of an organism are more likely to be involved in cancer. We used the gene properties that we examined to develop an artificial intelligence method that can accurately predict whether a gene is involved in cancer or not. Applying the method gives hundreds of non-cancer genes that resemble cancer genes. New discoveries of cancer genes are likely to be found within this set.
Redistribution of the novelC. difficilespore-adherence receptor, E-cadherin, by TcdA and TcdB increases spore-binding to adherens junctions
Authors: Castro-Córdova Pablo , Otto-Medina Macarena , Montes-Bravo Nicolás , Brito-Silva Christian , Lacy D. Borden , Paredes-Sabja Daniel
Published: September 2021

Clostridioides difficilecauses antibiotic-associated diseases in humans ranging from mild diarrhea to severe pseudomembranous colitis and death. A major clinical challenge is the prevention of disease recurrence, which affects nearly ∼20 to 30 % of the patients with a primaryC. difficileinfection (CDI). During CDI,C. difficileforms metabolically dormant spores that are essential for recurrence of CDI (R-CDI). In prior studies, we have shown thatC. difficilespores interact with intestinal epithelial cells (IECs), which contributes to R-CDI. However, this interaction remains poorly understood. Here, we provide evidence thatC. difficilespores interact with E-cadherin, contributing to spore-adherence and internalization into IECs.C. difficiletoxins TcdA/TcdB lead to adherens junctions opening and increase spore-adherence to IECs. Confocal micrographs demonstrate thatC. difficilespores associate with accessible E-cadherin; spore-E-cadherin association increases upon TcdA/TcdB intoxication. The presence of anti-E-cadherin antibodies decreased spore adherence and entry into IECs. By ELISA, immunofluorescence, and immunogold labelling, we observed that E-cadherin binds toC. difficilespores, specifically to the hair-like projections of the spore, reducing spore-adherence to IECs. Overall, these results expand our knowledge of howC. difficilespores bind to IECs by providing evidence that E-cadherin acts as a spore-adherence receptor to IECs and by revealing how toxin-mediated damage affects spore interactions with IECs.
Long-term incubation of lake water enables genomic sampling of consortia involving Planctomycetes and Candidate Phyla Radiation bacteria
Authors: Jaffe Alexander L. , Fuster Maxime , Schoelmerich Marie C. , Chen Lin-Xing , Colombet Jonathan , Billard Hermine , Sime-Ngando Télesphore , Banfield Jillian F.
Published: September 2021

Microbial communities in lakes can profoundly impact biogeochemical processes through their individual activities and collective interactions. However, the complexity of these communities poses challenges, particularly for studying rare members. Laboratory enrichments can select for subsystems of interacting organisms and enable genome recovery for enriched populations. Here, a reactor inoculated with water from Lake Fargette, France, and maintained under dark conditions at 4°C for 31 months enriched for diverse Planctomycetes and Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR) bacteria. We reconstructed draft genomes and predicted metabolic traits for 12 diverse Planctomycetes and 9 CPR bacteria, some of which are likely representatives of undescribed families or genera. One CPR genome representing the little-studied lineage Peribacter (1.239 Mbp) was curated to completion, and unexpectedly, encodes the full gluconeogenesis pathway. Metatranscriptomic data indicate that some Planctomycetes and CPR bacteria were active under the culture conditions. We also reconstructed genomes and obtained transmission electron microscope images for numerous phages, including one with a >300 kbp genome and several predicted to infect Planctomycetes. Together, our analyses suggest that freshwater Planctomycetes may act as hubs for interaction networks that include symbiotic CPR bacteria and phages.
Pathogenicity effector candidates and accessory genome revealed by pan-genomic analysis of Parastagonospora nodorum
Authors: Jones Darcy A. B. , Rybak Kasia , Bertazzoni Stefania , Tan Kar-Chun , Phan Huyen T. T. , Hane James K.
Published: September 2021

The wheat pathogen Parastagonospora nodorum has emerged as a model necrotrophic fungal species with growing genomic resources. Recent population-level pan-genome studies were leveraged to provide novel insights into pathogen evolution and effector-like gene contents relevant to local crop disease outbreaks. In this study, we examined 156 isolates representing a regional population from the Western Australian (WA) wheat-belt region, and 17 internationally sourced isolates. We observed a highly diverse local population, within which were numerous small and highly similar clusters of isolates from hotter and drier regions. Pan-genome assembly and orthologous gene datasets resulted in 3579 predicted effector candidates, 2291 of which exhibited presence-absence variation (PAV) across the population, and 1362 were specific to WA isolates. There was an abundance of mutations (including repeat-induced point mutation (RIP)), distributed in ‘hot-spots’ within the pan-genomic landscape that were rich in effector candidates. Three characterised effector loci (ToxA, Tox1 and Tox3) were located within sub- telomeric regions of lower diversity, but were nestled within larger high-diversity regions. RIP was widespread across the genome, but non-synonymous RIP-like mutations were strongly selected against. These improved bioinformatic resources for P. nodorum, represent progressive advancements in fungal pan-genomics, with a view towards supporting region- specific surveillance of host-pathogen interactions.
Toward More General Embeddings for Protein Design: Harnessing Joint Representations of Sequence and Structure
Authors: Mansoor Sanaa , Baek Minkyung , Madan Umesh , Horvitz Eric
Published: September 2021

Abstract

Protein embeddings learned from aligned sequences have been leveraged in a wide array of tasks in protein understanding and engineering. The sequence embeddings are generated through semi-supervised training on millions of sequences with deep neural models defined with hundreds of millions of parameters, and they continue to increase in performance on target tasks with increasing complexity. We report a more data-efficient approach to encode protein information through joint training on protein sequence and structure in a semi-supervised manner. We show that the method is able to encode both types of information to form a rich embedding space which can be used for downstream prediction tasks. We show that the incorporation of rich structural information into the context under consideration boosts the performance of the model by predicting the effects of single-mutations. We attribute increases in accuracy to the value of leveraging proximity within the enriched representation to identify sequentially and spatially close residues that would be affected by the mutation, using experimentally validated or predicted structures.
High diversity in Delta variant across countries revealed via genome-wide analysis of SARS-CoV-2 beyond the Spike protein
Authors: Suratekar Rohit , Ghosh Pritha , Niesen Michiel J.M. , Donadio Gregory , Anand Praveen , Soundararajan Venky , Venkatakrishnan A.J.
Published: September 2021

The highly contagious Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has emerged as the new dominant global strain, and reports of reduced effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against the Delta variant are highly concerning. While there has been extensive focus on understanding the amino acid mutations in the Delta variant ‘s Spike protein, the mutational landscape of the rest of the SARS-CoV-2 proteome (25 proteins) remains poorly understood. To this end, we performed a systematic analysis of mutations in all the SARS-CoV-2 proteins from nearly 2 million SARS-CoV-2 genomes from 176 countries/territories. Six highly-prevalent missense mutations in the viral life cycle-associated Membrane (I82T), Nucleocapsid (R203M, D377Y), NS3 (S26L), and NS7a (V82A, T120I) proteins are almost exclusive to the Delta variant compared to other variants of concern (mean prevalence across genomes: Delta = 99.74%, Alpha = 0.06%, Beta = 0.09%, Gamma = 0.22%). Furthermore, we find that the Delta variant harbors a more diverse repertoire of mutations across countries compared to the previously dominant Alpha variant (cosine similarity: meanAlpha = 0.94, S.D.Alpha = 0.05; meanDelta = 0.86, S.D.Delta = 0.1; Cohen ‘s dAlpha-Delta = 1.17, p-value < 0.001). Overall, our study underscores the high diversity of the Delta variant between countries and identifies a list of targetable amino acid mutations in the Delta variant ‘s proteome for probing the mechanistic basis of pathogenic features such as high viral loads, high transmissibility, and reduced susceptibility against neutralization by vaccines.
Investigation of mixing characteristics of coflow rectangular nozzle of aspect ratio 2 and 3
Authors: Murugesan Vignesh Kumar , Suseela Moorthi Aravindh Kumar , Ramachandran Ganapathy Subramanian L.
Published: September 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand experimentally the mixing characteristics of a two-stream exhaust system with a supersonic Mach 1.5 primary jet that exits the rectangular C-D nozzle surrounded by a sonic secondary jet from a convergent rectangular nozzle by varying the aspect ratio (AR = 2 and 3) similar to those that can be available for future high-speed commercial aircraft.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper focuses on the experimental results of effects of AR at various expansion levels of jets issued/delivered from a central rectangular convergent-divergent nozzle of AR 2 and 3 surrounded by a coflow from a convergent rectangular sonic nozzle. The lip thickness of the primary nozzle is 2.2 mm. various nozzle pressure ratios (NPRs) ranging from 2, 3, 3.69 and 4 were chosen for pressure measurements.

Findings

For all the NPRs, AR 3 had a shorter core than AR 2. Also, AR 3 was found to decay faster in the transition and fully developed zones. The lateral plots show that the AR has an influence on the jet spread.

Originality/value

The structure of waves existing in the potential core of the rectangular coflow jet along with the major and minor axis planes was visualized by the shadowgraph technique.
Once upon an anti-black time: unpacking the counter fairy tales (CFT) model to support culturally responsive literacy instruction for black girls
Authors: Young Jemimah , Butler Bettie Ray , Strong Kellan , Turner Maiya A.
Published: September 2021

Purpose

This paper aims to argue that culturally responsive approaches to literacy instruction are necessary not only to celebrate Black girl literacies but to also expose, challenge and disrupt antiblackness in English education. However, without explicit exemplars to guide classroom practice, this type of instruction will remain elusive. The present paper expands upon the original conceptualization of Counter Fairy Tales (CFT) by further explicating the framework and providing recommendations to inform culturally responsive literacy practices to disrupt antiblackness.

Design/methodology/approach

The question that drives this study asks how can the CFT model be applied as a form of culturally responsive literacy instruction to best teach Black girls?

Findings

The CFT framework places value on Black girls’ ways of knowing and gives primacy to their voice and unique experiences through culturally responsive literacy instruction.

Research limitations/implications

The larger implication of this research is for teachers to begin to create culturally responsive literacy instruction that honors the lived experiences of today’s Black adolescent girls, particularly those in young grades. Inclusive and affirming literary practices must be established, an environment in which Black girls can share their voices and visions as they explore themselves through writing.

Originality/value

This conceptual paper is one of few that specifically focuses on how teachers can use CFTs to facilitate the inclusion of Black girls’ experiential and communal ways of knowing to support culturally responsive literacy instruction in younger grades.
Critical factors in capacity building of NGOs in the intellectual disability sector in India: PLS SEM modelling
Authors: Jain Mukesh , Dhir Sanjay
Published: September 2021

Purpose

Most of the services being delivered to persons with disabilities (PwDs) in India are through non-government organizations (NGOs). The quality and effectiveness for the delivery of services to PwDs largely depends on the capacity of the NGOs involved. This study attempts to understand the linkage between various capabilities of non-profits organizations working in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities and their value creation.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a mixed methodology, the study has conducted various interviews with the involved stakeholders and interviews to obtain a complete understanding and overcome the limitations of quantitative or qualitative approach alone.

Findings

The findings of this study exhibit that there is a significant and positive influence of financial capability, human resource capability, stakeholder capability, dynamic capability and collaboration capability on non-profit performance. However, knowledge capability has no effect on non-profit performance.

Originality/value

This study will help in making policies for policymakers in capacity building of NGOs. This research study is the first attempt in exploring the critical factors in capacity building of NGOs in the intellectual disability sector, particularly in India.
Predicting students' engagement from hope and mindfulness
Authors: Azila-Gbettor Edem Maxwell , Mensah Christopher , Atatsi Eli Ayawo , Abiemo Martin Kwasi
Published: September 2021

Purpose

The study examines a mediated mechanism for enhancing students' engagement i.e. peer, intellectual and academic engagement within a higher education setup via the interaction of hope and mindfulness.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were conveniently collected using self-reported questionnaires from a sample of 542 students. PLSc-SEM was used to test the stated hypotheses.

Findings

Results from the analysis showed hope and mindfulness positively predict student academic, peer and intellectual engagements. Furthermore, mindfulness positively mediates the effect of hope on academic, peer and intellectual engagements.

Practical implications

This study demonstrates that management of higher institutions must develop effective and efficient policies targeted at enhancing students' hope and mindful awareness.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to examine a model involving mindfulness, hope and peer, intellectual and academic engagement.
Supply chain integration, capability and performance – a business-to-business network cooperation
Authors: Liao Shu-Hsien , Hu Da-Chian , Chen Szu-Ting
Published: September 2021

Purpose

Supply chain integration (SCI) is a critical issue in the study of supply chain management in terms of working with partners on business networks to complete tasks, enhance capability and increase performance in a collaborative supply chain process. Thus, this study aims to investigate the influence of SCI and supply chain capability (SCC) on supply chain performance (SCP) which has a positive effect according to the degree of integration (DI) in a supply chain management process. Furthermore, the DI has a direct or indirect impact on how SCI affects SCP.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a questionnaire-survey, 454 valid responses were collected. This study investigates the relationships between SCI, SCC, SCP and the DI in the Taiwan elevator by using a structured equations model. The DI is considered as a variable for the effect of a moderated mediation in the research model.

Findings

It was found that SCI, directly and indirectly, affected the SCP in a positive way. In addition, the research model is a partial mediation model and that SCC plays a mediator role and DI also existing a moderated mediating effect in the research model. The indirect effect of SCI on SCP through SCC is stronger at higher levels of DI than at lower levels of DI.

Originality/value

This is the first study that suggests and empirically tests the moderated mediating impacts of the integration degree on the relationships between SCI, capability and performance with suppliers of the elevator manufacturing supply chain as the business-to-business network cooperation example in Taiwan.
The cultural landscape of the Bhagirathi-Hooghly riverfront in Kolkata, India: studies on its built and natural heritage
Authors: Bardhan Suchandra , Paul Souporni
Published: September 2021

Purpose

The paper introduces a lesser-known cultural landscape along the sacred Bhagirathi-Hooghly river in the Indian city of Kolkata, with particular reference to its built and natural heritage. The narratives cover the cultural and ecological qualities of the unique “ghat-scape” (riverfront pavilions with steps descending into the river) and their contemporary urban challenges. It also explores the suitability of the Historic Cultural Landscape (HCL) tools, or their adapted versions, in managing this exceptional landscape.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is structured under six discrete sections covering the inventory and assessment, interpretation and evaluation and possible roadmap for the ecological restoration of the riverfront cultural landscape. Primary and secondary studies were conducted to understand the related challenges and opportunities. The authors then examined the application of the HCL tools based on a conceptual framework and identified the alternative approaches suitable for its restoration. Finally, a successfully restored ghat environ is taken as a model and reviewed against the most potent approach in addressing the eco-cultural criticalities.

Findings

The paper argues in favour of a paradigm shift from riverfront “development” to riverfront “restoration” with particular emphasis on the ghat-architecture. Three eco-cultural restoration alternatives were derived out of the HCL principles. A practical case study found that a community-led approach positively influences restorative actions, cultural heritage management and long-term sustainability.

Originality/value

The HCL tools comprising planning, regulatory systems, financial designs and community engagement have been explored for the first time in the context of the unique riverfront “ghatscape” of Kolkata. An under-discussed topic, it has been brought to the centre stage to gain new insights into the Indian cultural landscape heritage. An HCL-based new approach in their management came forth through a review of a successful case study.
The digital traveller: implications for data ethics and data governance in tourism and hospitality
Authors: Yallop Anca C. , Gică Oana A. , Moisescu Ovidiu I. , Coroș Monica M. , Séraphin Hugues
Published: September 2021

Purpose

Big data and analytics are being increasingly used by tourism and hospitality organisations (THOs) to provide insights and to inform critical business decisions. Particularly in times of crisis and uncertainty data analytics supports THOs to acquire the knowledge needed to ensure business continuity and the rebuild of tourism and hospitality sectors. Despite being recognised as an important source of value creation, big data and digital technologies raise ethical, privacy and security concerns. This paper aims to suggest a framework for ethical data management in tourism and hospitality designed to facilitate and promote effective data governance practices.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts an organisational and stakeholder perspective through a scoping review of the literature to provide an overview of an under-researched topic and to guide further research in data ethics and data governance.

Findings

The proposed framework integrates an ethical-based approach which expands beyond mere compliance with privacy and protection laws, to include other critical facets regarding privacy and ethics, an equitable exchange of travellers’ data and THOs ability to demonstrate a social license to operate by building trusting relationships with stakeholders.

Originality/value

This study represents one of the first studies to consider the development of an ethical data framework for THOs, as a platform for further refinements in future conceptual and empirical research of such data governance frameworks. It contributes to the advancement of the body of knowledge in data ethics and data governance in tourism and hospitality and other industries and it is also beneficial to practitioners, as organisations may use it as a guide in data governance practices.
Corporate social responsibility in emerging social issues: (non)institutionalized practices in response to the global refugee crisis
Authors: Wang Rong , Cooper Katherine R.
Published: September 2021

Purpose

CSR reporting is an institutionalized practice. However, institutionalization has been primarily examined in the context of limited social issues and largely restricted to the presence of CSR communication. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a framework to explore how institutional and organizational factors shape CSR programming in response to an emerging social issue: the global refugee crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports from Global 500 Fortune corporations between 2012 and 2017. This study uses content coding and inferential analysis to examine how industry type, headquarters location, and partnership resources are related to programming in the refugee relief efforts.

Findings

The results reveal distinctive patterns from the technology sector and European corporations, with no clear patterns identified among other corporations. The findings indicate that although CSR is an institutionalized practice, CSR program reporting offers fewer insights as to how institutionalization occurs.

Research limitations/implications

Results suggest a preliminary framework for understanding how CSR programming becomes institutionalized and provide implications for how corporations may address emerging social issues.

Originality/value

This study applies an institutional, communicative approach to the context of the recent global refugee crisis, which contributes to theory development through the examination of an emerging social issue. It also extends prior research on the institutionalization of CSR by focusing on programming in response to an emerging social issue over time and suggests the limits of prior claims of institutionalized practices.
Expatriate adjustment over time among foreign service employees: the role of cross-cultural experience
Authors: Grill Sophia , Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge Matthias , Fliege Herbert , Rüger Heiko
Published: September 2021

Purpose

Drawing on social learning theory (SLT), this study aims to investigate how previous cross-cultural work experience influences individual adjustment in a foreign environment over time. For this purpose, the authors study foreign service employees who are characterized by permanent high mobility and frequent rotations.

Design/methodology/approach

Two cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2011 (analytical sample N = 1,097) and 2019 (analytical sample N = 1,431) amongst German Foreign Service (GFS) employees are used to analyse employees' adjustment, measured by self-perceived quality of life (QOL) and its development over time based on four time points. Locational adjustment trajectories serve as robustness checks.

Findings

Younger and therefore less experienced employees fit J-shaped patterns of adjustment, while more experienced employees show rather flat adjustment curves. Accordingly, work experience matters and “one curve fits all” approaches do not suffice to explain adjustment over time. Moreover, neither more nor less experienced employees experienced U-trajectories as proposed by previous literature on business expatriates.

Research limitations/implications

The study findings are based on cross-sectional surveys, but longitudinal designs should be preferred in future research.

Practical implications

Sending institutions may develop special support systems for inexperienced expatriates prior to departure to weaken the negative impacts of culture shock.

Originality/value

Existing literature only sparsely analysed adjustment and QOL for foreign service employees/diplomats so far. To the authors’ knowledge, no study analysed trajectories of adjustment over time for this population. This study profits from the analysis across two surveys. Both samples benefit from a high diversity, among others, regarding gender, age, education and host countries.
Islamic brands attitudes and its consumption behaviour among non-Muslim residents of Thailand
Authors: Sukhabot Sasiwemon , Jumani Zulfiqar Ali
Published: September 2021

Purpose

This study aims to discuss the influence of Islamic brand attitude, Islamic brand knowledge and Islamic brand health advantages over the consumption behaviour towards Islamic brands among non-Muslims and tests the subjective norm (Muslim friends and family members) moderating role.

Design/methodology/approach

The model was tested by adopting the PLS-SEM testing methodology after collecting data by using the convenient sampling technique. Total 497 responses were used for data analysis.

Findings

The findings indicated that the non-Muslims of Thailand are influenced by the Islamic brand knowledge and Islamic brand health advantages.

Research limitations/implications

This work examines the non-Muslims who are buying an Islamic brand, and they are the consumers and users of it.

Practical implications

These results guide future researchers and organisations to strategies accordingly to motivate non-Muslim consumers towards the Islamic brands.

Originality/value

The research presents the construction of a model for understanding Islamic brand attitudes plus its components and as well as the moderating role of subjective norm between Islamic brand attitudes and consumption behaviours of non-Muslims of Thailand towards Islamic brand.
Leveraging the organizational mission statement to communicate identity, distinctiveness and purpose to primary and secondary stakeholders during COVID-19
Authors: Ortiz Lorelei
Published: September 2021

Purpose

This study examines comprehensiveness and responsiveness of mission statements for the top 100 retailers on the 2020 National Retailers Federation list in order to (1) evaluate how effectively they communicate organizational identity, values and purpose, (2) underscore a distinctive commitment to stakeholders and (3) what extent these efforts are reflected in revised mission statements or addenda to meet global pandemic challenges.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs a 4-question metric to measure comprehensiveness and a two-pronged qualitative method of analysis consisting of keyword searches followed by content analysis.

Findings

Retailer statements are considerably comprehensive in describing purpose and audience yet very few articulate stakeholder value, differentiate themselves as distinctive or substantively reaffirm their core mission and values. Retailers seem more invested in strategic communication around diversity, equity and inclusion, based on web content in their consumer, job seeker and investor touchpoints.

Research limitations/implications

Coding and interpreting language through content analysis methods may introduce some level of subjectivity, particularly when dealing with unstructured data. Implications for how organizations acclimated in order to survive and thrive, while maintaining focus on stakeholders and strategy. Examining organizational mission statements and their contexts yields perspective into how organizations define themselves and what they do during times of crisis.

Originality/value

This study provides insights into the content, structure and functions of the statements against a specific comprehensiveness metric and reveals patterns about the texts and their contexts during a pandemic and strong cultural and societal movements.
From play to pay: a multifunctional approach to the role of culture in post-merger integration
Authors: Sales Augusto , Roth Steffen , Grothe-Hammer Michael , Azambuja Ricardo
Published: September 2021

Purpose

The literature on Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), cultural differences between organizations have frequently been identified as one of the main challenges in the process of post-merger integration (PMI). Existing research has explored a broad variety of cultural differences in perceptions, such as those relating to expectations, norms, values and beliefs within the respective organizations, and how these affect the process and success of PMI. However, less attention has been paid to the relevance of the macro-societal context to PMI. The ambition of this article is, therefore, to advance our understanding of how macro-level societal factors define organizational cultures and affect the success of PMI.

Design/methodology/approach

We draw on social systems theory as devised by Niklas Luhmann, assuming that organizations are always embedded in the macro-level societal context of distinctive realms of social reality—such as the economy, politics, religion and the arts—that make up the so-called “function systems”. Looking at the case of the integration of a Brazilian technology start-up into a market-leading corporation, we analyze the dominant orientations towards these function systems, and the changes in these orientations over time.

Findings

The results suggest that differences in organizational culture in PMI can be partly explained by differences in orientations to the function systems. Moreover, forcing dramatic changes of orientations towards the function systems within a merged entity can severely damage its raison d'etre in the first place, potentially leading to, in some sense, an account of “culture murder”.

Originality/value

This article is unique in demonstrating that organizations are multifunctional systems whose culture is defined by the highly specific and potentially varying degrees of importance they place on individual function systems and that knowledge or neglect of these functional profiles may seriously affect the success of post-merger integration. Against this backdrop, the article presents a multifunctional profiling method that may easily translate into PMI management tools.
Pre-COVID-19 evaluation of external debt, corruption and economic growth in South Africa
Authors: Olamide Ebenezer Gbenga , Maredza Andrew
Published: September 2021

Purpose

This study is a pre-COVID-19 exposition of the existing situation about external debt-GDP relationship, incorporating corruption into the hypothesis, making South Africa the object of the study. The aim is to examine the causal relationship between corruption, economic growth and external debt, and in the end proffer solutions to the problems arising therefrom.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employed ARDL technique on time series data running from 1990 to 2019 with real gross domestic product as the dependent variable and external debt, external debt servicing, corruption, inflation and capital formation as regressors. Necessary tests that include unit root, cointegration, CUSUM and CUSUMSq, normality, serial correlation and heteroscedasticity were performed on the model.

Findings

The study shows that corruption, inflation and external debt servicing exert negative influences on economic growth while the effect of investment on growth was positive. External debt's effect in the short run was positive while its long-run effect on growth was negative. Among other things, the need to improve and strengthen public institutions in addition to targeting tax evaders and avoiders for increased government revenue were emphasized.

Originality/value

The study incorporates corruption into the country specific debt-GDP debate as against earlier studies that excluded corruption in their time series analysis or that were cross-country based. The authors also exposit the existing knowledge of the debt-GDP hypothesis before the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic. This is expected to serve as a precursor to subsequent studies on the rising debt of South Africa during and after the pandemic.
Ornithine decarboxylase of the fungal pathogenColletotrichum higginsianumplays an important role in regulating global metabolic pathways and virulence
Authors: Yan Yaqin , Tang Jintian , Yuan Qinfeng , Liu Hao , Huang Junbin , Hsiang Tom , Bao Chonglai , Zheng Lu
Published: September 2021

Colletotrichum higginsianumis an important fungal pathogen causing anthracnose disease of cruciferous plants. In this study, we characterized a putative orthologue of yeast SPE1 inC.higginsianum, named ChODC. Deletion mutants ofChODCwere defective in hyphal and conidial development. Importantly, deletion ofChODCsignificantly affected appressorium‐mediated penetration inC.higginsianum. However, polyamines partially restore appressorium function and virulence indicating that loss ofChODCcaused significantly decreased virulence by the crosstalk between polyamines and other metabolic pathways. Subsequently, transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses demonstrated thatChODCplayed an important role in metabolism of various carbon and nitrogen compounds including amino acids, carbohydrates and lipids. Along with these clues, we found deletion ofChODCaffected glycogen and lipid metabolism, which were important for conidial storage utilization and functional appressorium formation. Loss ofChODCaffected the mTOR signalling pathway via modulation of autophagy. Interestingly, cAMP treatment restored functional appressoria to the ΔChODCmutant, and rapamycin treatment also stimulated formation of functional appressoria in the ΔChODCmutant. Overall,ChODCwas associated with the polyamine biosynthesis pathway, as a mediator of cAMP and mTOR signalling pathways to regulate appressorium function. Our study provides evidence of a link between ChODC and the cAMP signalling pathway and defines a novel mechanism by which ChODC regulates infection‐associated autophagy and plant infection by fungi.
Economic Aspects of Delivering Primary Care Services: An Evidence Synthesis to Inform Policy and Research Priorities
Authors: CLARKE LORCAN , ANDERSON MICHAEL , ANDERSON ROB , KLAUSEN MORTEN BONDE , FORMAN REBECCA , KERNS JENNA , RABE ADRIAN , KRISTENSEN SØREN RUD , THEODORAKIS PAVLOS , VALDERAS JOSE , KLUGE HANS , MOSSIALOS ELIAS
Published: September 2021

Policy Points

The 2018 Declaration of Astana reemphasized the importance of primary health care and its role in achieving universal health coverage. While there is a large amount of literature on the economic aspects of delivering primary care services, there is a need for more comprehensive overviews of this evidence. In this article, we offer such an overview.

Evidence suggests that there are several strategies involving coverage, financing, service delivery, and governance arrangements which can, if implemented, have positive economic impacts on the delivery of primary care services. These include arrangements such as worker task‐shifting and telemedicine.

The implementation of any such arrangements, based on positive economic evidence, should carefully account for potential impacts on overall health care access and quality. There are many opportunities for further research, with notable gaps in evidence on the impacts of increasing primary care funding or the overall supply of primary care services.

Context

The 2018 Declaration of Astana reemphasized the importance of primary health care and its role in achieving universal health coverage. To strengthen primary health care, policymakers need guidance on how to allocate resources in a manner that maximizes its economic benefits.

Methods

We collated and synthesized published systematic reviews of evidence on the economic aspects of different models of delivering primary care services. Building on previous efforts, we adapted existing taxonomies of primary care components to classify our results according to four categories: coverage, financing, service delivery, and governance.

Findings

We identified and classified 109 reviews that met our inclusion criteria according to our taxonomy of primary care components: coverage, financing, service delivery, and governance arrangements. A significant body of evidence suggests that several specific primary care arrangements, such as health workers' task shifting and telemedicine, can have positive economic impacts (such as lower overall health care costs). Notably absent were reviews on the impact of increasing primary care funding or the overall supply of primary care services.

Conclusions

There is a great opportunity for further research to systematically examine the broader economic impacts of investing in primary care services. Despite progress over the last decade, significant evidence gaps on the economic implications of different models of primary care services remain, which could help inform the basis of future research efforts.
Human resource professionals and the adoption and effectiveness of high‐performance work practices
Authors: Kirkpatrick Ian , Hoque Kim
Published: September 2021

The human resource (HR) function has become increasingly professionalised in recent times, with the development of HR certification and degree level qualifications. In this study, we assess the implications of HR professional qualifications using data from the British 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Study. Specifically, we focus on whether the adoption of high‐performance work practices (HPWPs) is greater, and the relationship between these practices and organisational performance is stronger, in workplaces with a qualified HR professional. Our analysis reveals a mixed picture. While the presence of qualified HR professionals is associated with HPWP adoption, it is not associated with a stronger relationship between HPWPs and organisational performance. Therefore, although the results suggest that professionalisation may be having some impact on the influence of the HR function, this is far from transformational.