bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bringing more value to small farmers: a study of potato farmers in Pakistan
Authors: Hassan Syed Zahoor , Jajja Muhammad Shakeel Sadiq , Asif Muhammad , Foster George
Published: January 2020

Purpose

Small farmers, being the primary producers of crops, are the key players in the food supply chain. Yet, they remain the most marginalized in the value chain. The marginalization of small farmers can affect food sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to identify opportunities for bringing more value to small farmers in an agricultural value chain.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper makes use of action research, studying the potato value chain, in a developing agricultural country Pakistan. The authors conducted an in-depth study of 37 farmers in four regions, each being a large potato growing ecosystem. The study examined the end-to-end decision-making processes, sources of input (both physical and information), cultivation and sales practices, cost structure, productivity and profitability of the farmers in potato farming.

Findings

Large variations exist in the crop yield, cost structure and profitability of farmers within each of and among the four regions due to differences in cultivation practices and approach to sales. There is a significant potential to lower costs, increase yield and enhance overall profitability by using the existing better processes. By addressing the issues faced by small farmers their profits can be potentially doubled. The paper also discusses potential means of recrafting and streamlining the value chain to bring more value to small farmers.

Research limitations/implications

The paper provides a detailed account of how different interventions can increase the value for small farmers. Since the current food supply chain and sustainability are under stress, worldwide, the findings of this study have implications for farmers as well as policy makers.

Originality/value

The literature on streamlining the agricultural value chain and enhancing the share of small farmers is scarce. Improving the value chain and reducing the marginalization of small farmers is an essential step toward increasing food sustainability.
The Australian carbon tax: corporate perceptions, responses and motivations
Authors: Kumarasiri Jayanthi , Lodhia Sumit
Published: January 2020

Purpose

This study aims to explore how large Australian companies in emission intensive industries perceived the introduction of the Carbon Tax as an approach to carbon emissions regulation and as a tool for accountability. It also investigates the influence of perceptions of the new tax on the internal carbon emissions management practices and the motivations for such actions.

Design/methodology/approach

This study draws on transaction cost theory and legitimacy theory to address corporate perceptions, responses and motivations in relation to the Carbon Tax. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 senior managers directly responsible for the carbon emissions management of their companies.

Findings

The study found that the Carbon Tax, viewed by the high-emitting companies as a heavy financial burden, had a significant influence on moderating organisational legitimacy seeking behaviours. It is evident that the transaction cost issues in the form of the carbon pricing requirement has led to a change of focus to “management” rather than merely reporting to external stakeholders. This influenced companies to change their behaviour with the potential to internalise previous externalities of carbon pollution.

Research limitations/implications

This research highlights that a pricing signal in emissions regulations is essential in conjunction with external pressures to effectively stimulate emissions management actions in companies. It extends our understanding of legitimacy theory by suggesting that a mandatory pricing mechanism as explained by transaction cost economics has the potential to lead to actual changes in corporate behaviour through a focus on management rather than reporting.

Practical implications

The study highlights the important elements of any effective emissions policy designed to encourage strong emissions management actions from companies. Based on the findings of the study, it is evident that the Carbon Tax was a very effective mechanism in driving emission management actions, despite the general perception that any deficiencies associated with such a price mechanism could have a negative effect on the economy.

Social implications

Climate change is a critical issue for the modern society and this study discussed a short-lived policy tool in the Australian context that had the potential to change corporate behaviour in relation to carbon management.

Originality/value

This study is among the very few studies that have examined the influence of the Carbon Tax on internal emissions management practices of companies, and therefore, provides a unique dataset of corporate responses to the Carbon Tax. Given the short time frame that the Carbon Tax was in operation, the study enhances our understanding of the influence the Carbon Tax had on companies responsible for high greenhouse gas emissions.
Expectancies and motivational goals of self-initiated expatriates as predictors of subjective assignment achievements and success
Authors: Pinto Luisa Helena , Cabral-Cardoso Carlos , Werther Jr. William B.
Published: January 2020

Purpose

Under the framework of the achievement goal and expectancy-value theories, this study aims to examine which motivational goals lead people to self-initiate an international assignment and predict subjective assignment achievements.

Design/methodology/approach

Data was collected from a convenience sample of 141 self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) from multiple locations. The first set of analyses tested the hypothesis that demographics and expectancies of competence in living and working abroad discriminate the individuals who initiate an international assignment for learning goals from the ones who value performance goals. The second set of analyses tested the hypothesis that individual expectancies and goals predict specific subjective assignment achievements and overall success.

Findings

The results show that SIEs who had greater confidence in their ability to live and work abroad were also more likely to move to pursuit performance goals. They also reported greater host adjustment and superior professional accomplishments, but not higher family achievements or success.

Originality/value

In contrast to the dominant descriptive approach to the study of SIEs, this study underpins the adequacy and potential of a motivational approach in predicting SIEs’ behaviors and outcomes. The theoretical and managerial implications for international business and cross-cultural management are further discussed.
CEO discretion, political connection and real earnings management in Nigeria
Authors: Sani Armaya'u Alhaji , Abdul Latif Rohaida , Al-Dhamari Redhwan Ahmed
Published: January 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of CEO discretion on the real earnings management and to explore whether the discretion of the CEO to ensure accurate and reliable financial reports is influenced by the political connection of board members.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the generalized method of movement to control the potential endogeneity on the sample of listed companies in Nigeria, the study conducted several checks using Driscoll–Kraay panel data regression with standard error to robust the main findings.

Findings

The paper provides evidence that CEO Discretion reduces the tendency of real earnings management and improve the reporting quality. However, the CEO’s discretion to provide reliable financial reports and to reduce the likely earnings manipulation is overturn by the presence of politically connected directors.

Originality/value

Existing studies on CEO attributes and earnings management in Nigeria fail to explain why CEOs were involved in corporate financial scandals. This paper suggests that the presence of politically connected directors is what override and upturn the CEO discretion to dwell into real earnings manipulations. Prior studies measured political connection using a dummy variable (Chaney et al., 2011; Osazuwaet al., 2016; Tee, 2018), this paper measured political connection using the proportion of politically connected directors. This is on the idea that the presence of more politically connected directors may give them the power to override the CEOs decision.
Micro-CT for analysis of laser sintered micro-composites
Authors: Wingham James Robert , Turner Robert , Shepherd Joanna , Majewski Candice
Published: January 2020

Purpose

X-Ray-computed micro-tomography (micro-CT) is relatively well established in additive manufacturing as a method to determine the porosity and geometry of printed parts and, in some cases, the presence of inclusions or contamination. This paper aims to demonstrate that micro-CT can also be used to quantitatively analyse the homogeneity of micro-composite parts, in this case created using laser sintering (LS).

Design/methodology/approach

LS specimens were manufactured in polyamide 12 with and without incorporation of a silver phosphate glass additive in different sizes. The specimens were scanned using micro-CT to characterise both their porosity and the homogeneity of dispersion of the additive throughout the volume.

Findings

This work showed that it was possible to use micro-CT to determine information related to both porosity and additive dispersion from the same scan. Analysis of the pores revealed the overall porosity of the printed parts, with linear elastic fracture mechanics used to identify any pores likely to lead to premature failure of the parts. Analysis of the additive was found to be possible above a certain size of particle, with the size distribution used to identify any agglomeration of the silver phosphate glass. The particle positions were also used to determine the complete spatial randomness of the additive as a quantitative measure of the dispersion.

Practical implications

This shows that micro-CT is an effective method of identifying both porosity and additive agglomeration within printed parts, meaning it can be used for quality control of micro-composites and to validate the homogeneity of the polymer/additive mixture prior to printing.

Originality/value

This is believed to be the first instance of micro-CT being used to identify and analyse the distribution of an additive within a laser sintered part.
Long non‐coding RNA LEF1‐AS1 is involved in the progression of retinoblastoma through regulating the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway
Authors: He Hua , Qin Mu
Published: January 2020

The lymphoid enhancer binding factor 1 antisense RNA 1 (LEF1‐AS1) has been suggested to function as a tumour‐associated lncRNA in several types of human cancers, but there is no study to date about the role of LEF1‐AS1 in retinoblastoma. In our study, LEF1‐AS1 expression was increased in retinoblastoma tissues and cell lines compared with paired adjacent normal tissues and the retinal pigment epithelial cell line, respectively. Meanwhile, we found that patients with retinoblastoma with IIRC D‐E or undifferentiated type had notably higher levels of LEF1‐AS1 expression than those with IIRC A‐C or differentiated type. High LEF1‐AS1 expression predicted poor disease‐free survival in patients with retinoblastoma. The in vitro assays suggested that silencing of LEF1‐AS1 suppressed retinoblastoma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion through regulating the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway. In conclusion, LEF1‐AS1 functions as an oncogenic lncRNA in retinoblastoma.
Food for Thought: The Path to Food Security in Newark, NJ
Authors: MUCHHALA RUCHIKA
Published: January 2020

Mostly filmed by youth, Food for Thought is a documentary film that dissects the state of food security and access to healthy foods in Newark, New Jersey, one of the U.S's largest “food deserts”. Newark was voted the most stressed city in America 2017 based in part on high rates of obesity and diabetes, both diseases associated with the systemic issue of food insecurity. In response, RWJBarnabas Health and the Greater Newark Community Advisory Board, spearheaded the “Food for Thought” research initiative, that draws on community‐based assets and solutions to address food insecurity. The film features interviews with community activists, urban farmers, public health experts, city officials, and local youth ambassadors, all from within the community. Using participatory design research methodologies, twenty‐five youth were trained to use their camera phones as citizen journalists. The youth and community board members were then a part of the process of synthesizing the data (in the editing process), and lastly, after the film was completed, community members facilitated discussions within the community to further the research outcomes.
Clyde in Mulberry
Authors: OXBOROUGH ALLEGRA
Published: January 2020

Clyde in Mulberry is an observational film about a young man who has decided to move from his native Bronx neighborhood to rural Florida. A departure from the typical corporate ethnographic film, Clyde avoids talking heads, strategic soundbites, and bulleted takeaways. Instead, the film recreates the intimacy and breathlessness of being in‐field, and asks audiences to gather information with attention and stillness. This portrait of agency in the life of a Black American GenZ‐er questions held beliefs and stereotypes by presenting a picture of one person's experience.
Agency in the Smart Home of the Future
Authors: AGAFONOFF NICK
Published: January 2020

Agency in the Smart Home of the Future is a short documentary film about a unique design fiction social experiment. Comprised mostly of trace evidence video footage recorded by field researchers on their smart phones, the film takes audiences directly into the reflexive lived experience of four Australian households, each of whom have had their real homes transformed into fully functional smart homes. Smart speakers, smart TVs, smart fridges, robo vacs, sensor lighting, etcetera! is installed into their homes as a gestalt to generate a paradigmatic shift in their everyday living and interactions. In the process, we discover how human agency and structure reproduce in this potential living environment of the future.
Exploration of the Value of Facially Expressive Avatars with VR Developers
Authors: GOKALP AYFER , POSPISIL JACQUELINE
Published: January 2020

Ayfer Gokalp and Jacqueline Pospisil are Facebook user experience researchers from Seattle, Washington, United States, and they focus on the development of software and hardware products within the virtual reality (VR) space. For this research, they explored the value of a facially expressive avatars for avatars in VR. Facially expressive avatars is a research prototype that allows users to reflect their real facial gestures on their virtual avatars in real‐time. For example, if you smile, your virtual avatar smiles as well. They conducted focus groups with VR developers about the potential value of facial expressiveness and found that expressing both positive emotions (e.g., happiness, excitement, and humor) and negative emotions (e.g., confusion, fear, disgust) are valuable for VR avatars. For instance, expressing fear or disgust facially while playing a zombie game would be more authentic and more immersive. In this gallery presentation you will have the opportunity to try an Oculus VR headset and demo an immersive experience. You will continue by creating your own avatar and edit how it looks. This demonstration will serve as an example of the current state of social VR experiences, and highlight how face‐mimicking can improve the users' virtual reality experiences by allowing them to express a wide variety of emotions and build agency within social VR experiences.
Debris: Intermingling Ethnography with Design and Artistic Practice
Authors: LOI DARIA , McGEACHY HEATHER
Published: January 2020

This Gallery proposal focuses on the debris left behind by human's daily interactions with non‐human agents, with the end goal of providing arts‐infused lenses to investigate and help untangle our complex relationships with smart systems. Debris is the outcome of a process that intermingles ethnographic tactics with design probing techniques and artistic practice. The Debris – a series of art pieces resulting from this process – are offered to the EPIC 2019 community alongside artefacts that were used to inform art pieces: ethnographic data collected during the interviews, probing toolkit used to augment interview data, and the thought process of the two involved ethnographers/designers/artists, in the form of notes and sketches.

This collection of art pieces, objects, visual commentaries, humans‐about‐machines accounts represent the fragments that are left behind by human interactions with smart agents ‐ we offer them to prompt reflections, re‐connections, and re‐discoveries of human‐non‐human hybrid landscapes.
Interactive Storytelling: Bringing Personas to Life through an AR/VR Experience
Authors: LASATER‐WILLE AMY , FINCH ALAN
Published: January 2020

Personas are an effective way to bring customers to life, enabling business owners and designers to have a better understanding of their audiences' needs, values and behaviors in detail. Personas help with building and improving product and brand experiences.

There is a diverse set of tools and methods to create personas, and while most are successful in creating detailed stories, they're mostly limited in terms of creating an immersive experience or building a deeper level of empathy.

Our AR/VR Persona Experience is a unique, dynamic persona engagement tool that uses best‐in class interactive storytelling methods and enables audiences to better visualize and connect with their personas' emotions, habits and aspirations. Based on in‐depth, on‐site interviews, the AR/VR experience creates an ethnographic experience for the audience in the sense that they are able to deeply acquaint themselves with people and the worlds in which they live, ultimately creating greater understanding and empathy.
hi how r u?: Understanding Modern Digital Communication
Authors: RYAN ERIN
Published: January 2020

In the absence of physical cues like tone of voice and facial expressions, young people are increasingly using digital communication tools in unexpected or unintended ways to allow for more nuanced online communication. This can involve using punctuation in new ways, spelling words differently, using uppercase and lowercase letters in non‐ traditional places, and using images, letters, and emojis to create hybrid or intertextual images and emoticons that convey a hyper‐specific emotion. This is a new form of digital placemaking that merits its own scrutiny as more and more our digital relationships and interactions hold a weight that rivals our physical ones.

Through a series of workshops, this project explores how digital communication has evolved within the constraints of modern‐day messaging platforms, and how it can be furthered without them. These research methods could be used not only to understand and better document the ways in which these tools for digital communication are being used across different demographics, but also as a participatory method to understand how users think and feel in a more visual way. Furthermore, the analog method of collaging digital elements used in these workshops could be adapted to be used with a different set of “tools” to test specific digital design elements to better understand how they might be used and misused by their audience.
Where Does Cancer Live Now?
Authors: McAULIFFE JACOB , PARK REBEKAH
Published: January 2020

This gallery is a photographic representation of six ethnographic encounters from a 2018 study of people living with Stage‐IV lung cancer. Our photographs capture their lives beyond the hectic whirl of machines, medications, and medical workers, instead bringing radically ordinary expressions of agency into focus. For our subjects, the paradoxical condition of living with a terminal disease prompts a deep and ongoing reflection on the routines of everyday life. These become symbols of loss and reclamation of agency: while ruptures in routines can reveal the limitations imposed by cancer treatment, for others daily activities come to signify cancer kept in check. These photographs and narratives bear witness to those meaningful mundanities by depicting artifacts of past lives and evidence of new normals. Our aim is to show the role that rich, sensorial photography can play in presenting visual evidence for what matters most to the patient throughout treatment.

Our photographs also demonstrate the limits imposed on photography by GDPr‐regulated healthcare projects, where we must endeavor to capture the lives of people without showing their faces. We found that the very regulatory constraints that threatened to dehumanize our subjects also allowed us to bring their lives into fuller context. Instead of abandoning photography, we depicted the objects, relationships, and places that were most significant to those we met with. These totemic depictions illustrated their relationship with cancer, as well as their shifting evaluations concerning quality of life throughout their cancer journey.
A.I. Among Us: Agency in a World of Cameras and Recognition Systems
Authors: ANDERSON KEN , BEZAITIS MARIA , DISALVO CARL , FAULKNER SUSAN
Published: January 2020

This paper reports on the use and perceptions of deployed A.I. and recognition social‐material assemblages in China and the USA. A kaleidoscope of “boutique” instantiations is presented to show how meanings are emerging around A.I. and recognition. A model is presented to highlight that not all recognitions are the same. We conclude by noting A.I. and recognition systems challenge current practices for the EPIC community and the field of anthropology.
My AI versus the Company AI: How Knowledge Workers Conceptualize Forms of AI Assistance in the Workplace
Authors: SANDBERG NANNA , HOY TOM , ORTLIEB MARTIN
Published: January 2020

GSuite is changing the nature of Knowledge Work across 5 million businesses through AI‐powered assistance. To ensure that this evolution reflects the aspirations and priorities of workers, Google and Stripe Partners conducted a multi‐national ethnography of Knowledge Workers covering a range of industries. We identified that workers distinguish between ‘Core’ and ‘Peripheral’ work: the work they are paid to do and identify with, and the work that does not contribute to their success or happiness. Workers want assistance to enhance Core work and remove Peripheral work, nuanced across a spectrum of support. This framework and taxonomy has been adopted by teams at Google to inform strategic decisions on how AI is integrated by GSuite. New features are being implemented within Gmail, Slides, Docs and Sheets that bring these principles to life in the user experience.
More Than A Robot: Designing for the Unique Advantages of Sending Humans to Mars
Authors: PRITCHARD PAIGE , MURPHY NICK , SARODE SHILPA , VONGPRACHANG LOUI
Published: January 2020

NASA plans to send humans to Mars as early as the 2030s. Such a complex and expensive undertaking is justified by the fact that only humans have the unique set of abilities inherent to scientific exploration. A team of four graduate students from Carnegie Mellon's Master of Human‐Computer Interaction program took a user‐centered design approach to identify breakdowns in current processes used in the practice and execution of extraplanetary exploration. Through a combination of secondary research, co‐design, body storming, and ethnographic research including interviews and field studies, they found that current operational procedures constrain the human abilities of physical agility, adaptability, and perceptiveness. This effectively ignored the advantage of human agency over robotics. They used this insight to prototype a solution designed to streamline mission operations. This prototype was then tested against the goal of allowing team members to focus on leveraging their unique human abilities to deliver higher scientific return.
Remembering the Blister: How What Didn't Kill Me Made Me Stronger
Authors: PHILLIPS MARISE
Published: January 2020

I'm an ethnographer at a major financial institution. My work became a lot more meaningful after my family and I lost our home in a devastating arson attack. In this Pecha Kucha, I tell the story of how this catastrophic fire loss forced me to reclaim my agency. Today, I channel memories of bereavement and recovery into my quest to improve experiences for customers and in my community. “Knowledge is awareness that fire can burn; wisdom is remembering the blister.” —Leo Tolstoy
Hybrid Methodology: Combining Ethnography, Cognitive Science, and Machine Learning to Inform the Development of Context‐Aware Personal Computing and Assistive Technology
Authors: CURY MARIA , WHITWORTH ERYN , BARFORT SEBASTIAN , BOCHEREAU SÉRÉNA , BROWDER JONATHAN , JONKER TANYA R. , KIM KAHYUN SOPHIE , KRENCHEL MIKKEL , RAMSEY‐ELLIOT MORGAN , SCHÜÜR FRIEDERIKE , ZAX DAVID , ZHANG JOANNA
Published: January 2020

The not‐too‐distant future may bring more ubiquitous personal computing technologies seamlessly integrated into people's lives, with the potential to augment reality and support human cognition. For such technology to be truly assistive to people, it must be context‐aware. Human experience of context is complex, and so the early development of this technology benefits from a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to research—what the authors call “hybrid methodology”—that combines (and challenges) the frameworks, approaches, and methods of machine learning, cognitive science, and anthropology. Hybrid methodology suggests new value ethnography can offer, but also new ways ethnographers should adapt their methodologies, deliverables, and ways of collaborating for impact in this space. This paper outlines a few of the data collection and analysis approaches emerging from hybrid methodology, and learnings about impact and team collaboration, that could be useful for applied ethnographers working on interdisciplinary projects and/or involved in the development of ubiquitous assistive technologies.
Out to Dry: Change and Agency across Urban China
Authors: HYMAN ZACH
Published: January 2020

This PechaKucha will take the audience on an intimate, visual exploration of the evolving ways that clothing is dried outside across urban China as drying practices are forced to adapt to limitations by evolving regulation and perceptions of urban modernity. Increasingly, engaging in this social practice requires an act of agency against both municipal governments and one's own neighbors in China.

While drying one's laundered clothing outdoors remains a standard part of rural life, both the legal and physical space for this practice has shrunk during China's massive urbanization. This practice is being replaced by bureaucrats' desire to stimulate domestic consumption (of appliances, in this case) and their desire to erase from cities what is considered a visual embarrassment of laundry hanging out of windows and between buildings.

Today when something in urban China needs drying outside of one's privately owned space, one must assert agency over a slice of public space: A comforter is draped over a chair in a quiet, sunny corner of an apartment courtyard, or towels and sheets are thrown over a rope running between a signpost, a stop sign, and an electrical pole. While the scales and dried objects vary, the declaration of agency remains.
Ethnographic ‘Weirdness‘: Attending to Indicators of the Unfamiliar
Authors: SCULL CHARLEY
Published: January 2020

This presentation begins with ethnographic research of an Indonesian tuna fishery in which a field partner describes unfamiliar cultural behavior as ‘weird’. Using that moment as a starting point, the paper then undertakes a reflection on the usage and meaning of the term. It explores ‘weirdness’ through a range of core tenets, like cultural relativism, empathy and ethnocentrism and then plays with the meaning of weirdness across a number of disciplinary and market lenses. The talk builds to a provocation about the ways in which ‘weird’ can serve as a call to action. It concludes that researchers should use ‘weird’ as an indicator that helps them know where they need to dig deeper, in search of empathic understanding and where they need to reconcile their biases. By doing so, the talk argues, we are giving agency to the data which we don't yet understand.
Increasing Perceived Agency in Human‐AI Interactions: Learnings from Piloting a Voice User Interface with Drivers on Uber
Authors: SILVA JAKE
Published: January 2020

This case study seeks to increase understanding of how agency is fostered in human‐AI interaction by providing insight from Uber's development of a conversational voice‐user‐interface (VUI) for its driver application. Additionally, it provides user researchers with insight on how to identify agency's importance early in the product development process and communicate it effectively to product stakeholders. First, the case reviews the literature to provide a firm theoretical basis of agency. It then describes the implementation of a novel in‐car Wizard‐Of‐Oz study and its usefulness in identifying agency as a critical mediator of driver interaction with the VUI before software‐development. Afterward, three factors which impacted driver agency and product usage are discussed – conversational agency, use of the VUI in social contexts and perception of the VUI persona. Finally, the case describes strategies used to convince the engineering and product teams to prioritize features to increase agency. As a result, the findings led to substantive changes to the VUI to increase agency and enhance the user experience.
Speculative Futures Inside Corporate Realities
Authors: KUESTER BEN , PRESCOTT MEGAN
Published: January 2020

The auto insurance industry is being disrupted by insurtechs that are leveraging data and technology to solve pain points in parts of the customer journey, while emerging technology in adjacent industries threatens insurance as it currently exists. As a result, insurance companies are imagining futures beyond traditional insurance and new ways that they might meet the needs of future customers. In order to explore what a reframing of insurance as “protection” could mean to customers, we utilized ethnographic methods and speculative design practices to reimagine how the transition from non‐driver to young driver and from dependent child to independent adult could be more fully supported by an insurance company. In this case study, we review both the methodological processes and summarize learnings and opportunities critical to applying ethnofutures and speculative design practices within a large corporate setting, including: proposing a new approach to a diverse group of stakeholders; negotiating near‐ and long‐term priorities; articulating the linkages between current and future states; and developing rich stimuli to create an immersive future in the context of time and resource constraints.
Creating Agency: What Ethnography Can Learn from Storytelling
Authors: ZAVYALOVA ANNA
Published: January 2020

This PK explores the relationship between ethnography and post‐modern storytelling techniques that shift the locus of agency towards the audience and away from the protagonist. The presentation builds on insights from a project about the future of storytelling, and explores the ways in which various storytelling formats (theater, film, comics) promote creative agency through immersion and interaction. The PK shows how through a deep engagement with the lives of the people we study, and our ability and willingness to take clients along with us, we as business ethnographers assume a sense of ‘creative’ agency, which allows us and our clients to take greater ownership of the story we tell.
Nutritional quality of Drosophila melanogaster as factitious prey for rearing the predatory bug Orius majusculus
Authors: Montoro Marta , De Fine Licht Henrik H. , Sigsgaard Lene
Published: January 2020

The predatory bug, Orius majusculus (Reuter), is an important predator of thrips commercially produced for augmentative releases using the eggs of the Mediterranean flour moth Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller). In this study, we assessed the potential for using frozen adults of fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen), either as nymphal rearing diet or as diet throughout the entire life‐cycle. We compared life‐history traits and reproduction of predators when fed D. melanogaster with high lipid body content (lipid‐rich) and with high protein body content (protein‐rich), using a diet of 100% E. kuehniella eggs as control. We also analyzed the biochemical composition of both prey and predator in order to assess the nutritional quality of each diet, which partially explained the adequacy of the different diets for O. majusculus. There were significant differences between predators fed the two types of D. melanogaster, with the protein‐rich flies as diet providing the best results in terms of mortality and fecundity. Furthermore, we show that while feeding O. majusculus throughout their development with D. melanogaster increases mortality and reduces reproduction, protein‐rich D. melanogaster can be used as nymphal diet with minimal reduction in reproductivity and minimal increase in mortality.
Use of double filtration plasmapheresis for the treatment of acquired thrombocytopenic thrombotic purpura
Authors: Chauvel Femie , Reboul Pascal , Cariou Sylvain , Aglae Cédric , Renaud Sophie , Trusson Rémi , Garo Florian , Ahmadpoor Pedram , Prelipcean Camelia , Pambrun Emilie , Moranne Olivier
Published: January 2020

Double filtration plasmapheresis (DFPP) could be an alternative method to simple plasma exchange plasmapheresis in the treatment of acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (aTTP). In a retrospective single center case series, we studied clinical presentation, management care, and prognosis of aTTP patients from our academic center treated with DFPP and IV infusion of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) between 2009 and 2018. Nine patients were included for 11 episodes. Median age was 38 years old (IQR 26‐53) with 78% women. Six episodes (55%) required admission to the ICU, four of which required mechanical ventilation. Median FFP volume transfused was 35.2 mL/kg/d of session. Response was complete for nine episodes (82%). Four patients presented an early relapse, two a late relapse. Four patients died: one had an active untreated HCV infection, and two were over 80‐year‐old polymorbid patients. DFPP seems to be an efficient method of therapeutic plasmapheresis in TTP when combined with FFP transfusion and immunosuppressive treatments.
A comparison of nonlethal sampling methods for amphibian gut microbiome analyses
Authors: Zhou Jia , Nelson Tiffanie Maree , Rodriguez Lopez Carlos , Sarma Roshmi Rekha , Zhou Shao Jia , Rollins Lee Ann
Published: January 2020

Noninvasive sampling methods for studying intestinal microbiomes are widely applied in studies of endangered species and in those conducting temporal monitoring during manipulative experiments. Although existing studies show that noninvasive sampling methods among different taxa vary in their accuracy, no studies have yet been published comparing nonlethal sampling methods in adult amphibians. In this study, we compare microbiomes from two noninvasive sample types (faeces and cloacal swabs) to that of the large intestine in adult cane toads, Rhinella marina. We use 16S rRNA gene sequencing to investigate how microbial communities change along the digestive tract and which nonlethal sampling method better represents large intestinal microbiota. We found that cane toads' intestinal microbiota was dominated by Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes and, interestingly, we also saw a high proportion of Fusobacteria, which has previously been associated with marine species and changes in frog immunity. The large and small intestine of cane toads had a similar microbial composition, but the large intestine showed higher diversity. Our results indicate that cloacal swabs were more similar to large intestine samples than were faecal samples, and small intestine samples were significantly different from both nonlethal sample types. Our study provides valuable information for future investigations of the cane toad gut microbiome and validates the use of cloacal swabs as a nonlethal method to study changes in the large intestine microbiome. These data provide insights for future studies requiring nonlethal sampling of amphibian gut microbiota.
Multiple variations in pulmonary veins during a thoracoscopic right lower lobectomy: A case report
Authors: Amore Dario , Casazza Dino , Caterino Umberto , Saglia Alessandro , Bergaminelli Carlo , Cicalese Marcellino , Imitazione Pasquale , Valentino Maria Rosaria , Civiletti Roberta , Curcio Carlo
Published: January 2020

A knowledge of pulmonary vein anatomy variants allows an appropriate preoperative radiological assessment and safe surgical management of vascular anomalies in patients undergoing major lung resections. In our case, multiple pulmonary vein variations were identified pre‐ and intraoperatively in a patient undergoing thoracoscopic right lower lobectomy and included superior and common basal veins from the right lower lobe draining separately into the left atrium, middle lobe veins joining the superior segment right lower lobe vein and additional superior segment right lower lobe vein draining directly into the left atrium. The recognition of these anatomical abnormalities in pulmonary veins may help thoracic surgeons avoid surgical complications in patients undergoing anatomical lung resections.
Novel ProCore 25‐gauge needle for endobronchial ultrasound‐guided transbronchial needle aspiration reduces the puncture time and frequency, with comparable diagnostic rate for mediastinal and hilar lymphadenopathy
Authors: Yang Li , Gu Ye , Wang Hai , Yu Dongmei , Zhang Haiping , Wang Hao
Published: January 2020

Background

The ProCore 25‐gauge needle is a novel specifically designed puncture needle for endobronchial ultrasound‐guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS‐TBNA), which may improve the puncture efficiency of the procedure while ensuring the diagnostic rate. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy, mRNA yield, and complication rate of 25‐gauge needles compared to those of 22‐gauge needles in the evaluation of mediastinal and hilar lymphadenopathy.

Methods

A total of 39 patients undergoing EBUS‐TBNA at our institution were evaluated. All the procedures were performed by an experienced endoscopist formally trained in interventional pulmonology. Both the traditional 22‐gauge and ProCore 25‐gauge needles were used at each lymph node station. For all specimens obtained via EBUS‐TBNA, 50 μL was used to extract mRNA and detect the RNA concentration, whereas the other part was sent to the pathological evaluation. χ2 test and t‐test were performed to determine the differences between the two types of the needles. A P‐value of <0.05 was considered significant.

Results

A total of 88 lymph nodes were punctured by the two needles separately. The diagnostic accuracy for each puncture between the two needles did not show any significant difference (P > 0.05). No serious procedure‐related complications were reported. In addition, the mRNA concentration did not differ between the two types of needles (P > 0.05).

Conclusion

The ProCore 25‐gauge needle gained a similar diagnostic yield with less puncture time and frequency compared with the 22‐gauge needle.
Causes of recurrent miscarriage after spontaneous pregnancy and after in vitro fertilization
Authors: Bilibio João Paolo , Gama Thiago Belém , Nascimento Izabel Cristina Magalhães , Meireles Arivaldo José Conceição , de Aguiar Ariene Simona Cohen , do Nascimento Fábio Costa , Lorenzzoni Pânila Longhi
Published: January 2020

Problem

We aimed to investigate the main causes of recurrent miscarriage (RM) in patients with losses after spontaneous gestation (SG) and after in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Method of Study

A prospective case‐control study was conducted. The eligible patients were women who had experienced two or more consecutive abortions after <12 weeks’ gestation, two consecutive losses after SG, or two consecutive losses after IVF. All patients were subjected to the following evaluations: karyotyping of the aborted material, alloimmune and autoimmune marker testing, and acquired and hereditary thrombophilia marker testing.

Results

In total, 58 patients were eligible: 32 patients with RM after SG and 26 patients with RM after IVF. The factors associated with RM were genetic (29%), immune (14%), thrombophilic (21%), and thrombophilic and immune (24%), and only 12% of the cases were idiopathic. Comparing the two study groups (SG and IVF), all studied factors were similar, except for a higher ANA positivity observed in the SG group (SG 30.4% vs IVF 5.3%, OR 8.6 (CI 1.1‐21.1, P .048).

Conclusion

Our study identified the possibly factors associated with recurrent miscarriage in 86% of the cases, and these factors appear to be similar in patients with recurrent miscarriage after spontaneous gestation and IVF. This study demonstrates that IVF with PGT‐A with euploid embryo transfer could reduce abortions by up to 29%, but other factors need to be investigated even in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization.
Optimization of processing female genital tissue samples for lymphocyte analysis by flow cytometry
Authors: Stoner Kevin A. , Beamer May A. , Avolia Hilary A. , Meyn Leslie A. , Hillier Sharon L. , Achilles Sharon L.
Published: January 2020

Problem

A variety of methods have been used to process cervical cytobrush and genital tissue for flow cytometric evaluation of immune cell populations. We sought to optimize genital tract specimen processing and to determine if blood could be used as a model for assessment of tissue processing methods.

Method of study

Cervical cytobrushes, PBMCs, and genital tissue samples (cervical and endometrial biopsies) were subjected to varying processing conditions to characterize the effects on cell yields, lymphocyte viability, and surface receptors. We exposed PBMC and tissue specimens to varied collagenase types, concentrations, and exposure durations and cytobrushes to immediate vs delayed processing with/without vortexing.

Results

PBMCs and tissues exposed to varying enzymatic digestion conditions demonstrated stability of some cell surface receptors, including CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+, while others, including CCR6+, were cleaved when exposed to any concentration of collagenase B, or ≥0.25 mg/mL of collagenase D. We observed increased CD69 expression (marker of cell activation) after exposure to collagenase B. Neither a 2‐hour delay in cytobrush processing nor vortexing at a setting of 50% for 30 seconds had significant impacts on viability or quantities of genital immune cells of interest.

Conclusion

Although tissue digestion with collagenase D was sufficient to recover and analyze cells from endometrial biopsy specimens, cervical biopsy specimens required a limited exposure to collagenase B at 1 mg/mL to optimize cell yield and viability for cytometric analysis. PBMCs can be used as a model to assess the impact of tissue processing on co‐receptor expression and to optimize methods prior to study implementation.
Accompaniment Through Carceral Geographies: Abolitionist Research Partnerships with Indigenous Communities
Authors: Mei‐Singh Laurel
Published: January 2020

This article approaches “ea”—a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) concept meaning life, breath, and sovereignty—as a vital mode of abolition ecologies, and proposes accompaniment as a methodology for mutual collaboration toward this endeavour. Research draws from ethnographic fieldwork on the Wai‘anae Coast of O‘ahu in Hawai‘i, a predominantly Native Hawaiian community, and reflects upon the author’s positionality on Wai‘anae’s insider–outsider borderlands. The argument is multifold: Carceral geographies inscribe racism by cleaving humans from the environment and each other, depriving life‐giving resources from populations deemed a threat to a dominant socioenvironmental order. At the same time, abolition ecologies entail worldmaking predicated on the interdependence of all life forces, employing syncretic practices that join disparate struggles, people, and places to generate possibilities greater than the sum of its parts. Accompaniment works against racism’s practices of criminalisation and containment while contributing to radical, syncretic placemaking as part of an expansive liberatory practice.
Foreign background and older age of children were associated with infection in Swedish tuberculosis contacts
Authors: Bennet Rutger , Nejat Sahar , Eriksson Margareta
Published: January 2020

Aim

We present our results using interferon‐gamma release assays in any child <18 years or tuberculin skin tests in Bacille Calmette‐Guérin unvaccinated children for tuberculosis contact investigation in Stockholm, Sweden.

Methods

During 2000—2019, we investigated 892 children with a median age of seven years. We explored associations between TB infection and characteristics such as closeness to contact, age, sex, BCG status and foreign origin.

Results

The overall rates were for TB infection 10.2% (n = 91) and for TB disease 1.1% (n = 10). In addition to infectiousness of index case and closeness of contact, foreign background, male sex and increasing age were independently associated with infection. In foreign‐born children, the rates of tuberculosis infection and disease were 18.7% and 3.9%, respectively. In 18/46 (39%) infected foreign‐born children, a baseline negative tuberculosis test supported a diagnosis of recent infection.

Conclusion

Foreign background, older age and male sex were associated with infection. In a significant proportion of infected children, a previous negative test made recent infection likely.
Novel modified Peyton's approach for knowledge retention on newborn life support training in medical students
Authors: Nourkami‐Tutdibi Nasenien , Hilleke Anna‐Barbara , Zemlin Michael , Wagenpfeil Gudrun , Tutdibi Erol
Published: January 2020

Aim

We sought to improve retention of neonatal resuscitation skills by modifying step 3 through additional functional verbalisation in Peyton's four‐step approach (P4S).

Methods

Newborn life support (NLS) training was performed in a simulation‐based setting. In contrast to the traditional approach, students taught with the modified approach were requested to explain every step of their performance in Peyton's step 3. A total of 123 students were allocated into both experimental groups. Students were then assessed by megacode on day four (initial assessment) and 6 months (follow‐up assessment).

Results

Both groups showed similar scorings in the initial, follow‐up assessment and in mean change. On initial megacode, time to start with initial inflation and post‐resuscitation care was significantly faster in the control group. All showed a significant loss of performance irrespective of modification in step 3 in the follow‐up assessment. Only time until start with post‐resuscitation care shows a significant group difference in mean change between initial and follow‐up with increasing time in the control and decreasing time span in intervention group.

Conclusion

Both methods showed equal levels of knowledge acquisition and long‐term decline in NLS performances. Verbalisation in step 3 influenced speed of applied NLS performance.