bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An ensemble learning approach to auto-annotation for whole-brain C. elegans imaging
Authors: Wu S. , Toyoshima Y. , Jang M.S. , Kanamori M. , Teramoto T. , Iwasaki Y. , Ishihara T. , Iino Y. , Yoshida R.
Published: August 2017

Shifting from individual neuron analysis to whole-brain neural network analysis opens up new research opportunities forCaenorhabditis elegans(C. elegans). An automated data processing pipeline, including neuron detection, segmentation, tracking and annotation, will significantly improve the efficiency of analyzing whole-brainC. elegansimaging. The resulting large data sets may motivate new scientific discovery by exploiting many promising analysis tools forbig data. In this study, we focus on the development of an automated annotation procedure. With only around 180 neurons in the central nervous system of aC. elegans, the annotation of each individual neuron still remains a major challenge because of the high density in space, similarity in neuron shape, unpredictable distortion of the worm’s head during motion, intrinsic variations during worm development, etc. We use an ensemble learning approach to achieve around 25% error for a test based on real experimental data. Also, we demonstrate the importance of exploring extra source of information for annotation other than the neuron positions.
Changes in free amino acid concentrations and associated gene expression profiles in the abdominal muscle of kuruma shrimpMarsupenaeus japonicusreared at different salinity
Authors: Koyama Hiroki , Mizusawa Nanami , Hoashi Masataka , Tan Enkong , Yasumoto Ko , Jimbo Mitsuru , Ikeda Daisuke , Yokoyama Takehiko , Asakawa Shuichi , Piyapattanakorn Sanit , Watabe Shugo
Published: August 2017

Shrimps inhabiting around the coastal area can survive in a wide range of salinity. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in their adaptation to different environmental salinity have remained largely unknown. In the present study, we reared kuruma shrimpMarsupenaeus japonicusat 1.7 %, 3.4 % and 4.0 % salinity. After rearing for 6, 12, 24 and 72 h, we determined free amino acid concentrations in their abdominal muscle, and performed RNA-seq analysis on this muscle. The concentrations of free amino acids were clearly altered depending on salinity after rearing for 24 h. Glutamine and alanine concentrations were markedly increased following the increase of salinity. In association with such changes, many genes related to amino acid metabolism changed their expression levels. Notably, the increased glutamine content at high salinity appeared to be relevant to the increase of the expression level of the gene encoding glutamate-ammonia ligase which functions in the glutamine metabolism. Furthermore, the alanine content increased at high salinity was likely to be associated with the decrease in the expression levels of the alanine-glyoxylate transaminase gene. Thus, the changes in the concentration of free amino acids for osmoregulation in kuruma shrimp are considered to be regulated by the changes in the expression levels of genes related to amino acid metabolism.

Summary statesment

Kuruma shrimpMarsupenaeus japonicuschanges free amino acid contents and associated gene expression levels in their muscle to adjust effectively to different salinity.
dmrad51/spnAmutant exhibit defects during somatic stages of developmental and show enhanced genomic damage, cell death and low temperature sensitivity
Authors: Khan Chaitali , Muliyil Sonia , Ayyub Champakali , Rao B J
Published: August 2017

HomologousRecombination (HR) is one of the key pathways to repairDoubleStrandBreaks (DSBs). Rad51 serves an important function of catalysing strand exchange between two homologous chromosomes in the HR pathway. In higher organisms, Rad51 function is indispensable with its absence leading to early embryonic lethality, thus precluding any mechanistic probing of the system. In contrast, absence ofDrosophilarad51 (Dmrad51/spnA) has been associated with defects in female germline causing ventralization of the egg, without any reported detrimental consequences toDrosophilasomatic tissues. In this study, we have performed a systematic analysis of somatic development ofdmrad51null mutant flies by using genetic complementation between multipledmrad51alleles. Our current study, for the first time, uncovers the requirement of Dmrad51 in somatic tissue maintenance at both larval and pupal stages. Also, we show thatdmrad51mutant exhibit patterning defects in abdominal cuticle in the stripes and bristles, while there appears to be only subtle defects in the adult wing and eye. Interestingly,dmrad51null mutant and other alleles show discernible phenotype of low temperature sensitivity, suggesting a role for Dmrad51 in temperature sensitive cellular processes, which thus presents an elegant system for probing temperature sensitive cellular/tissue responses that ensue when a mutation leads to the loss of protein expression (null mutant) rather than its altered protein structure. In summary, our study describes the role of Dmrad51 during somatic stages of development and provides a viable model system to study Rad51 function in a cellular process.
pdxBlacklist: Identifying artefactual variants in patient-derived xenograft samples
Authors: Salm Max , Schelhorn Sven-Eric , Lancashire Lee , Grombacher Thomas
Published: August 2017

Patient-derived tumor xenograft (PDX) samples typically represent a mixture of mouse and human tissue. Variant call sets derived from sequencing such samples are commonly contaminated with false positive variants that arise when mouse-derived reads are mapped to the human genome.pdxBlacklistis a novel approach designed to rapidly identify these false-positive variants, and thus significantly improve variant call set quality.

Availability:

pdxBlacklist is freely available on GitHub:https://github.com/MaxSalm/pdxBlacklist

Contact:

maxsalm3@gmail.com

Supplementary information:

Supplementary data are available.
The PtdIns3P-binding protein Phafin2 escorts macropinosomes through the cortical actin cytoskeleton
Authors: Schink Kay Oliver , Tan Kia Wee , Spangenberg Hélène , Martorana Domenica , Sneeggen Marte , Campsteijn Coen , Raiborg Camilla , Stenmark Harald
Published: August 2017

Uptake of large volumes of extracellular fluid by actin-dependent macropinocytosis plays important roles in infection, immunity and cancer development. A key question is how large macropinosomes are able to squeeze through the dense actin network underlying the plasma membrane in order to move towards the cell centre for maturation. Here we show that, immediately after macropinosomes have been sealed off from the plasma membrane, the PH-and FYVE domain-containing protein Phafin2 is recruited by a mechanism that involves binding to phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns3P) generated in a non-canonical manner. Phafin2 in turn regulates the actin cross-linking protein Filamin A to promote entry of macropinosomes through the subcortical actin matrix and subsequent maturation. Depletion of Phafin2 inhibits macropinocytic internalization and maturation. We conclude that PtdIns3P and its effector Phafin2 are key components of a system that allows nascent macropinosomes to navigate through the dense subcortical actin network.
Motor reattachment kinetics play a dominant role in multimotor-driven cargo transport
Authors: Feng Qingzhou , Mickolajczyk Keith J. , Chen Geng-Yuan , Hancock William O.
Published: August 2017

Kinesin-based cargo transport in cells frequently involves the coordinated activity of multiple motors, including kinesins from different families that move at different speeds. However, compared to the progress at the single-molecule level, mechanisms by which multiple kinesins coordinate their activity during cargo transport are poorly understood. To understand these multi-motor coordination mechanisms, defined pairs of kinesin-1 and kinesin-2 motors were assembled on DNA scaffolds and their motility examinedin vitro. Although less processive than kinesin-1 at the single-molecule level, addition of kinesin-2 motors more effectively amplified cargo run lengths. By applying the law of total expectation to cargo binding durations in ADP, the kinesin-2 microtubule reattachment rate was shown to be 4-fold faster than that of kinesin-1. This difference in microtubule binding rates was also observed in solution by stopped-flow. High-resolution tracking of gold-nanoparticle-labeled cargo with 1 ms and 2 nm precision revealed that kinesin-2 motors detach and rebind to the microtubule much more frequently than do kinesin-1. Finally, cargo transported by kinesin-2 motors more effectively navigated roadblocks on the microtubule track. These results highlight the importance of motor reattachment kinetics during multi-motor transport and suggest a coordinated transport model in which kinesin-1 motors step effectively against loads while kinesin-2 motors rapidly unbind and rebind to the microtubule. This dynamic tethering by kinesin-2 maintains the cargo near the microtubule and enables effective navigation along crowded microtubules.
Therapeutic targeting of PGBD5-induced DNA repair dependency in pediatric solid tumors
Authors: Henssen Anton G. , Reed Casie , Jiang Eileen , Garcia Heathcliff Dorado , von Stebut Jennifer , MacArthur Ian C. , Hundsdoerfer Patrick , Kim Jun Hyun , Stanchina Elisa de , Kuwahara Yasumichi , Hosoi Hajime , Ganem Neil , Cruz Filemon Dela , Kung Andrew L. , Schulte Johannes H. , Petrini John H. , Kentsis Alex
Published: August 2017

Despite intense efforts, the cure rates of childhood and adult solid tumors are not satisfactory. Resistance to intensive chemotherapy is common, and targets for molecular therapies are largely undefined. We have now found that the majority of childhood solid tumors, including rhabdoid tumors, neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma and Ewing sarcoma, express an active DNA transposasePGBD5that can promote site-specific genomic rearrangements in human cells. Using functional genetic approaches, we found that mouse and human cells deficient in non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) DNA repair cannot tolerate the expression of PGBD5. In a chemical screen of DNA damage signaling inhibitors, we identified AZD6738 as a specific sensitizer of PGBD5-dependent DNA damage and apoptosis. We found that expression of PGBD5, but not its nuclease activity-deficient mutant, was sufficient to induce hypersensitivity to AZD6738. Depletion of endogenous PGBD5 conferred resistance to AZD6738 in human tumor cells. PGBD5-expressing tumor cells accumulated unrepaired DNA damage in response to AZD6738 treatment, and underwent apoptosis in both dividing and G1 phase cells in the absence of immediate DNA replication stress. Accordingly, AZD6738 exhibited nanomolar potency against the majority of neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma, Ewing sarcoma and rhabdoid tumor cells tested, while sparing non-transformed human and mouse embryonic fibroblastsin vitro. Finally, treatment with AZD6738 induced apoptosis and regression of human neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma tumors engrafted in immunodeficient micein vivo. This effect was potentiated by combined treatment with cisplatin, including significant anti-tumor activity against patient-derived primary neuroblastoma xenografts. These findings delineate a therapeutically actionable synthetic dependency induced in PGBD5-expressing solid tumors.
‘Switch-like’ transition from random to directed motility of microtubules by a yeast dynein
Authors: Jain K. , Khetan N. , Athale C. A.
Published: August 2017

Processive transport by multiple molecular motors that step stochastically, requires a form of mechanical coupling. In a quantitative microtubule (MT) gliding assay with yeast cytoplasmic dynein, we investigate the nature of this coupling by examining the effect of MT length and motor density on transport. We find speed and velocity have a length dependence for low motor numbers, but are independent of MT length for high motor densities. The dependence of speed, velocity and degree of randomness of MT transport is best understood when evaluated in terms of the numbers of motors bound to a filament. A model of collective transport of MTs, based on stochastic stepping and asymmetric detachment rates, reproduces the experimental trends of decreasing diffusivity with increasing number of motors. Additionally, the model predicts a ‘switch-like’ increase in directionality of MT transport above a threshold number of motors. Such a rapid transition from random to directed motility with increasing numbers of yeast dyneins, could play a rolein vivoduring mitosis in the ‘search and orientation’ of theSaccharomyces cerevisiaenucleus.
DrImpute: Imputing dropout events in single cell RNA sequencing data
Authors: Kwak Il-Youp , Gong Wuming , Koyano-Nakagawa Naoko , Garry Daniel J.
Published: August 2017

The single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technique began a new era by allowing the observation of gene expression at the single cell level. However, there is also a large amount of technical and biological noise. Because of the low number of RNA transcriptomes and the stochastic nature of the gene expression pattern, there is a high chance of missing nonzero entries as zero, which are called dropout events. However, many statistical methods used for analyzing scRNA-seq data in cell type identification, visualization, and lineage reconstruction do not model for dropout events. We have developed DrImpute to impute dropout events, and it improves many of the statistical tools used for scRNA-seq analysis that do not account for dropout events. Our numerical studies with real data demonstrate the promising performance of the proposed method, which has been implemented in R.
Analysis of deep learning methods for blind protein contact prediction in CASP12
Authors: Wang Sheng , Sun Siqi , Xu Jinbo
Published: August 2017

Here we present the results of protein contact prediction achieved in CASP12 by our RaptorX-Contact server, which is an early implementation of our deep learning method for contact prediction. On a set of 38 free-modeling target domains with a median family size of around 58 effective sequences, our server obtained an average top L/5 long- and medium-range contact accuracy of 47% and 44%, respectively (L=length). A more advanced implementation has an average accuracy of 59% and 57%, respectively. Our deep learning method formulates contact prediction as an image pixel-level labeling problem and simultaneously predicts all residue pairs of a protein using a combination of two deep residual neural networks, taking as input the residue conservation information, predicted secondary structure and solvent accessibility, contact potential, and co-evolution information. Our approach differs from existing methods mainly in (1) formulating contact prediction as a pixel-level image labeling problem instead of an image-level classification problem; (2) simultaneously predicting all contacts of an individual protein to make effective use of contact occurrence patterns; and (3) integrating both 1D and 2D deep convolutional neural networks to effectively learn complex sequence-structure relationship including high-order residue correlation. This paper discusses the RaptorX-Contact pipeline, both contact prediction and contact-based folding results, and finally the strength and weakness of our method.
Vinyl tourism: records as souvenirs of underground musical landscapes
Authors: Sonnichsen Tyler
Published: August 2017

Purpose

This paper discusses how vinyl records become souvenirs of musical tourism. The record-as-souvenir dynamic is particularly relevant in the discussion about punk culture in cities like Washington, DC, and other scenes which defy encapsulation as touristic landscapes. Arguing a fluid perspective on musical tourism, the purpose of this paper is to present the argument that vinyl functions as de facto souvenirs of underground musical landscapes.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper incorporates literature on souvenirs within tourism studies, market research, and empirical data. It also builds upon research on emotional geographies and the resurgence of the vinyl record industry.

Findings

In many cases, musical recordings (particularly those on vinyl, for tactile and fetishist reasons), while not designed for the function of being souvenirs, come to signify counter-narrative definitions of place.

Research limitations/implications

This work focuses on the context of vinyl as souvenirs with findings derived from the intersection of tourism, critical geography, and music marketing. In offering this contextual account, there is no claim toward generalization but rather the work is put forward as a depth of insight on a phenomenon long in the making yet neglected by researchers. However, a more comprehensive approach to provide further insight on vinyl as souvenirs might include consumer interviews.

Practical implications

This paper expands the conversation about souvenirs further into the era of modern, underground tourism. It argues for the inclusion of music consumption, especially vinyl, as prototypical and unintentional souvenirs as decided by the consumer rather than the producer. It also expands the discourse on counter-narratives of places like Washington, DC, in conversations about place-based music marketing and tourism.

Social implications

This paper frames musical souvenirs in terms of the consumer deciding their value and role in the cultivation of sense of place, rather than the producer. Additionally, music retailers provide a valuable role in their city’s cultivated image, but even this is a collaboration between the retailers and consumers.

Originality/value

This paper addresses the function of vinyl records within the purview of tourism studies and positions as an original contribution connecting music consumption and tourism practices.
Cultural memory and the heritagisation of a music consumption community
Authors: O’Reilly Daragh , Doherty Kathy , Carnegie Elizabeth , Larsen Gretchen
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how music consumption communities remember their past. Specifically, the paper reports on the role of heritage in constructing the cultural memory of a consumption community and on the implications for its identity and membership.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing upon insights from theories of cultural memory, heritage, and collective consumption, this interpretive inquiry makes use of interview, documentary, and artefactual analysis, as well as visual and observational data, to analyse an exhibition of the community’s popular music heritage entitled One Family – One Tribe: The Art & Artefacts of New Model Army.

Findings

The analysis shows how the community creates a sense of its own past and reflects this in memories, imagination, and the creative work of the band.

Research limitations/implications

This is a single case study, but one whose exploratory character provides fruitful insights into the relationship between cultural memory, imagination, heritage, and consumption communities.

Practical implications

The paper shows how consumption communities can do the work of social remembering and re-imagining of their own past, thus strengthening their identity through time.

Social implications

The study shows clearly how a consumption community can engage, through memory and imagination, with its own past, and indeed the past in general, and can draw upon material and other resources to heritagise its own particular sense of community and help to strengthen its identity and membership.

Originality/value

The paper offers a theoretical framework for the process by which music consumption communities construct their own past, and shows how theories of cultural memory and heritage can help to understand this important process. It also illustrates the importance of imagination, as well as memory, in this process.
Air Asia India: competing for air space in an emerging economy
Authors: Jayakumar Tulsi
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the competitive landscape of emerging market economies (EMEs) and the implications of business models and strategies used by multinational enterprises (MNEs) to enter and operate in such landscapes. It does so by considering the aviation sector in an emerging economy – India, and by studying the strategies pursued by AirAsia India – the Indian joint venture of AirAsia Investment Limited and Tata Sons..

Design/methodology/approach

The paper follows a case study approach. Secondary data sources from the library, company website and newspaper articles have been used to build a case that would encourage students to discuss and analyze the competitive strategies followed by MNEs in EMEs.

Findings

Emerging markets offer attractive investment opportunities to MNEs across several industries. However, their markets for intermediate goods and services possess imperfections. Competitiveness in such markets will require going beyond country-specific and firm-specific advantages. MNEs will need to integrate location-specific advantages with internalization advantages of these market imperfections to operate successfully in the complex environments of EMEs. A one-size-fits-all approach of transposing successful strategies from home markets will fail to create value.

Practical implications

MNEs, such as AirAsia, will need to develop participatory skills to leverage the location-specific-advantages of EMEs and reduce their own curse of foreignness to be able to succeed in EMEs.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to extant literature by studying the competitive strategies pursued by a global leader in an EME. The case of the “World’s Best Low-Cost Airline” – AirAsia’s India operations seeks to go beyond the Eclectic Paradigm and the country-specific and firm-specific advantages framework, to provide a location-internalization paradigm for operating in EMEs.
Control circuit design and chaos analysis in an ultrasonic machining system
Authors: Hsieh Chin-Tsung , Yau Her-Terng , Wang Cheng-Chi
Published: August 2017

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the dynamic motion of an ultrasonic machining system comprising two Duffing oscillators, each with a single degree of freedom. After derivation of the differential equations of the system using the Lagrange equations and dimensionless time, numerical analysis was used to observe changes in the system caused by differences in excitation frequency.

Design/methodology/approach

To suppress this effect and improve performance, proportional differential (PD) control was used. The integral absolute error was used as the fitness function, and particle swarm optimization was used to find the best value for the gain constant of the PD controller.

Findings

The results showed that with specific changes of excitation frequency, the dynamic motion of the system became nonlinear and chaotic behavior resulted. This made the system unstable and affected performance.

Originality/value

A range of methods, including fuzzy control, was used to analyze the results, and exhaustive laboratory work was carried out. Means of control were found that were effective in suppressing the chaotic behavior, and differences in response to control were investigated and verified. The findings of this study can be used as a basis for system parameter settings or control circuit design.
Examination of carbon-water nanofluid flow with thermal radiation under the effect of Marangoni convection
Authors: Mohyud-Din Syed Tauseef , Usman Muhammad , Afaq Kamran , Hamid Muhammad , Wang Wei
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the Marangoni convection boundary layer viscous fluid flow. The analysis and formulation for both types of CNTs, namely, single-walled (SWCNTs) and multi-walled (MWCNTs), are described. The influence of thermal radiation effect assumed in the form of energy expression.

Design/methodology/approach

Appropriate transformations reduced the partial differential systems to a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The obtained nonlinear ODE set is solved via the least squares method. A detailed comparison between outcomes obtained by the least squares method, RK-4 and already published work is available.

Findings

Nusselt number was analyzed and found to be more effective for nanoparticle volume fraction and larger radiation parameters. Additionally, the error and convergence analysis for the least squares method was presented to show the efficiency of the said algorithm.

Originality/value

The results reveal that velocity is a decreasing function of suction for both CNTs. While enhancing the nanoparticle volume fraction, an increase for both thermal boundary layer thickness and temperature was attained. The radiation parameter has an increasing function as temperature. Velocity behavior is the same for nanoparticle volume fraction and suction. It was observed that velocity is less in SWCNTs as compared to MWCNTs.
Using big data to improve the performance management: a case study from the UAE FM industry
Authors: Mawed Mahmoud , Al-Hajj Assem
Published: August 2017

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how big data analytics (BDA) collected and stored through specific data software [Construction Operations Building Information Exchange [COBie], integrated workplace management systems [IWMS], computer aided facilities management (CAFM), etc.] can play an essential role in improving the performance management system in the facility management (FM) industry. It defines the big data components and explores the benefit of BDA in any business through an extensive literature review and a pilot case study in the UAE.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was carried out based on a qualitative approach. It attempts to identify through a case study how the data collected and the technologies that go along with will increase the functionality and the efficiency of the FM services. The research studies the implementation of a big FM organization, hereafter referred as “M” of software that exports the data collected from COBie and the computer aided facilities management (CAFM) system and shapes them into input to improve the performance of the FM service providers. The study includes two components in anticipation of providing a complete picture: first, five semi-structured interviews with industry experts and company employees representing the hierarchy of the staff, i.e. top, middle and operational levels; one director, two managers and two operational-level employees were interviewed to determine the current situation of the company in terms of BDA; and second, detailed documents and archives records review for the data collected on a randomly chosen sample of facilities for the period 2013-2015. The interviews were designed to achieve two specific objectives. Primarily, they were aimed at collecting empirical evidence on the existing status of big data within the UAE FM context and at investigating the importance of the data collected for performance measurement in the industry as supported in the literature. Second, these interviews sought to identify any critical issues that need to be addressed within the data collection process when devising the big data platform for FM.

Findings

The paper seeks to provide a guideline to the service providers in the FM market to understand the importance of big data to be shared from the design and construction to the operational phase as it improves their operational performance.

Originality/value

This paper studies the impact of big data on the FM performance management, a very recent topic where only few researches were conducted earlier.
Counter-extrapolation method for conjugate heat and mass transfer with interfacial discontinuity
Authors: Wang Zimeng , Colin Fabrice , Le Guigao , Zhang Junfeng
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a counter-extrapolation approach for computational heat and mass transfer with the interfacial discontinuity considered at conjugate interfaces.

Design/methodology/approach

By applying finite-difference approximations for the interfacial gradients along the local normal direction, the conjugate system can be simplified to the Dirichlet boundary problems for individual domains. A suitable method for the Dirichlet boundary value condition can then be used. The lattice Boltzmann method has been used to demonstrate the method. The model has been carefully validated by comparing the simulation results and theoretical solutions for steady and unsteady systems with flat or circular interfaces. Furthermore, the cooling process of a hot cylinder in a cold flow, which involves unsteady flow and heat transfer across a curved interface, has been simulated as an example to illustrate the practical usefulness of this model.

Findings

Good agreement has been observed in comparisons of simulations and theoretical solutions. The convergence and stability of the method have also been examined and satisfactory results have been obtained. Results of the cylinder cooling process show that a surface insulation layer can effectively reduce the heat transfer process and slow down the cooling process.

Originality/value

This method possesses several technical advantages, including the simple and straightforward algorithm, and accurate representation of the interface geometry. The basic idea and algorithm of the counter-extrapolation procedure presented here can be readily extended to other lattice Boltzmann models and even other computational technologies for heat and mass transfer systems with interface discontinuity.
Does franchising matter on IPO performance?
Authors: Ozdemir Ozgur , Kizildag Murat
Published: August 2017

Purpose

This paper has two main purposes. First, this paper aims to examine whether pre-initial public offering (IPO) franchising activity of issuing firms is priced in the financial markets and results in pricing differential between franchising and non-franchising firms at the time of IPO. Second, the paper aims to find out whether firms with pre-IPO franchising achieve better post-IPO stock performance compared to non-franchising firms.

Design/methodology/approach

To test research hypotheses, empirical models were developed and tested through ordinary least square regression analysis. Several data sources were used including Thomson One Banker’s SDC database, Compustat/CRSP and IPO prospectuses.

Findings

The paper provides further insights to the underpricing phenomenon surrounding IPOs and long-run performance of IPO shares subsequent to listing. Particularly, the study reveals that franchising firms underprice their issues to a higher degree compared to non-franchising firms, and franchising positively affects the post-IPO benchmark adjusted cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) over a three-year observation period.

Research limitations/implications

Because the study tests the proposed hypotheses using data only from the restaurant industry, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test similar hypotheses using larger sample sizes from other industries.

Practical implications

The study’s findings have important implications both for IPO issuers in positioning their offering and for IPO investors in comparing IPO stocks and forming long-run portfolios.

Originality/value

This paper contributes both to the IPO and franchising literatures by providing primary insights about how investors perceive pre-IPO franchising and incorporate their perception into their pricing at an IPO.
One eye of the future, one eye on the past
Authors: Gallagher Cathal T. , Dhokia Chhayal
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess if the GOC considers relevant factors at all stages of its deliberations into misconduct, as required by the determinations in the cases of Cohen, Zygmunt, and Azzam, and to assess whether those circumstances described in the Hearings Guidance and Indicative Sanctions as warranting removal of an optician from the relevant registers lead to that outcome.

Design/methodology/approach

The consideration of specific factors in determining impairment of fitness to practise was compared with their subsequent consideration when determining the severity of sanction. Additionally, cases that highlighted aggravating circumstances deemed as serious enough to warrant removal were monitored. Pearson’s χ2 test was used to detect any variation from the expected distribution of data.

Findings

In total, 42 cases met the inclusion criteria. Each of the four factors considered was more likely to be heard when determining sanction having first been factored in to the consideration of impairment. Where risk of harm was identified as an aspect of an optician’s misconduct, the sanctions of suspension or removal were no more likely to be imposed. Where dishonesty was involved, they were more likely to result in suspension or removal.

Originality/value

The GOC do, in general, factor the rulings of High Court appeal cases into their deliberations on the impairment of fitness to practice and, where dishonesty is involved, consider their own guidance in determining which sanction to apply. The authors were unable to show that placing the safety of patients at risk was more likely to result in removal from the register.
Deregulating planning control over Britain’s housing stock
Authors: Home Robert
Published: August 2017

Purpose

To apply path dependence theory and analysis to the regulatory framework for private-rented housing in Britain, especially affecting houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and addressing the increased involvement of the planning system through planning use classes, permitted development rights and Article 4 directions.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper identifies critical junctures in primary and secondary legislation for housing and planning and analyses individual local authority responses in planning policy documents and tribunal decisions.

Findings

The rise of the HMO reflects wider changes in society leading to new forms of household and inter-generational inequalities. Local authority discretion and locked-in responses have resulted in different regulatory regimes for housing and planning, recently favouring existing communities of owner-occupiers against HMO residents, seen as transient populations not committed to the neighbourhood.

Research limitations/implications

Potential for further research on demographics and household formation, and on reviewing planning and appeal decisions involving HMOs.

Originality/value

The research is apparently the first specifically addressing planning regulation of the HMO from a path dependence perspective, in the context of planning protection of the single-family dwelling house and marginalization of other forms of housing.
Impulse buying tendencies among online shoppers in Sweden
Authors: Ek Styvén Maria , Foster Tim , Wallström Åsa
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to characterize consumers with high impulse buying tendency (IBT) by comparing them with low-IBT consumers in an online shopping context.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected through a postal survey to a random sample of Swedish citizens, resulting in 144 responses, which were analysed statistically..

Findings

Results indicate that high-IBT consumers, compared to those with low IBT, are on average younger, more likely to be female and more frequent online shoppers with higher levels of trust in the internet. However, they seem more likely than low-IBT consumers to abandon their online shopping carts before completing the purchase, often because of need uncertainty.

Practical implications

The findings can give retailers a better understanding of consumers with high IBT and thereby increase the possibility to target and communicate with them more effectively. This is an interesting opportunity as both multi-channel shopping and impulse buying behaviour is likely to become even more common in the future.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the understanding of impulsive consumers, as it addresses the role of situational and socio-demographic attributes of high-IBT consumers compared to low-IBT consumers. The differences in online purchases, intentions to buy fashion online, shopping cart abandonment and trust in the internet suggest that even if IBT is a relatively stable and general personal trait, the tendencies to act on buying impulses may be more context-specific.
C2C value creation: social anxiety and retail environment
Authors: Becker Larissa Carine , Pizzutti Cristiane
Published: August 2017

Purpose

Most customers want to interact, whether on social networks or on company websites. This study aims to examine the relationship between customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction and value, considering the roles of social anxiety and the retail environment.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents three written-scenario experimental studies, where C2C interaction and the retail environment are manipulated, and social anxiety levels are measured. The settings and the measures are changed across the experiments to increase the results’ validity.

Findings

A three-way interaction among C2C interaction, social anxiety and retail environment has impacts on experience value and other value-related variables (satisfaction and positive mood). In the offline retail environment, as social anxiety levels increase, the effects of C2C interaction on these variables become weaker. In the online retail environment, as social anxiety levels increase, these effects become stronger.

Research limitations/implications

This paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it investigates the downside of positive C2C interactions when considering social anxiety and the retail environment where they occur. Second, this paper amplifies the literature about value by extending it to other consumers who can affect the service experience. Finally, this study explores online C2C interaction in a retail environment, an aspect that has been neglected in the research about online interactions.

Practical implications

This paper suggests strategies to manage C2C interaction for customers of varying levels of social anxiety in offline and online retail environments to maximise value for them.

Originality/value

This paper challenges the widespread idea that a positive C2C interaction always leads to value. By considering social anxiety and the retail environment in C2C literature, this paper explains why and when it is a false notion.
Prioritization of citizens’ preferences for using mobile government services
Authors: Saadi Meiaad Rashed , Ahmad Syed Zamberi , Hussain Matloub
Published: August 2017

Purpose

The identification of key criteria that influence citizens’ preferences for using m-government services, prioritization of these criteria and making them consistent with the development of m-government services can improve the relationship of the government with citizens and vice versa. The purpose of this study is to investigate and prioritize the criteria that influence the usage of m-government services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), using the technology acceptance model (TAM) and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, along with external variables of perceived security and perceived privacy.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative approach has been applied using a questionnaire with a nine-point scale for collecting data. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach has been deployed to structure and prioritize citizens’ preferences and select users of the Ministry of Interior (MOI) application.

Findings

The results of the data analysis showed that the first criteria, which refer to the intention to use m-government services, were ease of use and perceived security and were given the highest priority, and the criterion of observability was given the lowest priority.

Originality/value

This study integrates the DOI and TAM theories with other external variables such as perceived security and perceived privacy to develop a conceptual framework. AHP has been used to structure and prioritize the main criteria and sub-criteria of m-government services. The results can assist the m-government decision-makers and software developers in focusing on the criteria that should be considered for the development of m-government services.
Cultural and ethical obstacles on the road to sustainable development in the globalization era
Authors: Conti Tito
Published: August 2017

Purpose

After the Second World War, important initiatives were taken to avoid the risk of mankind self-destruction. The creation of the United Nations generated high hopes. Unfortunately, after 70 years marked by the great technological progress, humanity seems to be ready to repeat the same mistakes; with the aggravating circumstance that the technological advances will greatly increase the risks of self-destruction. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to generate awareness and then contrast such risks, by going to the deep roots of the problems, which are cultural and ethics, and by analyzing them from the systems thinking and quality thinking perspectives.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is the synthesis of many years of experience in managing as well as advising large, complex organizations and parallel research on the viability of – and conditions for – merging systems thinking and quality thinking. In front of the evidence that systems’ sustainable development can be reached only through internal cooperation, the above research expanded to the study of natural evolution, which apparently can give a lead to direct man-driven evolution toward a healthy worldwide system.

Findings

First, with the increase of the organizational size, analytical thinking must give way to systems thinking. Education in systems thinking is then becoming the main critical factor. Second, world sustainable development is challenged by an uncontrolled man-driven evolution, where technology is often used for violence and wars (win-lose relations). Ethics, which is part of quality since it aims at win-win relations, should be at the foundations of sustainable development, where cooperation should be one of the sustaining pillars.

Originality/value

What the author wrote in the last 12 years on the above subjects, culminating in this last paper, has broken new ground in the field of managing for quality, bringing it to the highest levels of human organizations. As far as value is concerned, what kind of value can be considered higher than taking care of the future of humanity – and the whole ecosystem?
A geomagnetic declination compass for horizontal orientation in fruit flies
Authors: Lee Sang‐Hyup , Oh In‐Taek , Lee Maan Gee , Ju Young‐Gu , Kim Soo‐Chan , Chae Kwon‐Seok
Published: August 2017

The Earth's geomagnetic field (GMF) is known to act as a sensory cue for magnetoreceptive animals such as birds, sea turtles, and butterflies in long‐distance migration, as well as in flies, cockroaches, and cattle in short‐distance movement or body alignment. Despite a wealth of information, the way that GMF components are used and the functional modality of the magnetic sense are not clear. A GMF component, declination, has never been proven to be a sensory cue in a defined biological context. Here, we show that declination acts as a compass for horizontal food foraging in fruit flies. In an open‐field test, adopting the food conditioning paradigm, food‐trained flies significantly orientated toward the food direction under ambient GMF and under eastward‐turned magnetic field in the absence of other sensory cues. Moreover, a declination change within the natural range, by alteration only of either the east–west or north–south component of the GMF, produced significant orientation of the trained flies, indicating that they can detect and use the difference in these horizontal GMF components. This study proves that declination difference can be used for horizontal foraging, and suggests that flies have been evolutionarily adapted to incorporate a declination compass into their multi‐modal sensorimotor system.
Effect of Type of Protein‐Based Microcapsules and Storage at Various Ambient Temperatures on the Survival and Heat Tolerance of Spray Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus
Authors: Dianawati Dianawati , Lim Seng Feng , Ooi Yasmin Beng Houi , Shah Nagendra P.
Published: August 2017

The aims of this study were to evaluate the effect of types of protein‐based microcapsules and storage at various ambient temperatures on the survival of Lactobacillus acidophilus during exposure to simulated gastrointestinal tract and on the change in thermo‐tolerance during heating treatment. The encapsulating materials were prepared using emulsions of protein (sodium caseinate, soy protein isolate, or pea protein), vegetable oil, and glucose, with maltodextrin was used as a wall material. The formulations were heated at 90 °C for 30 min to develop Maillard substances prior to being incorporated with L. acidophilus. The mixtures were then spray dried. The microspheres were stored at 25, 30, and 35 °C for 8 wk and examined every 4 wk. The addition of proteins as encapsulating materials demonstrated a significant protective effect (P < 0.05) as compared to the control sample. Sodium caseinate and soy protein isolate appeared more effective than pea protein in protecting the bacteria after spray drying and during the storage at different room temperatures. Storage at 35 °C resulted in a significant decrease in survival at end of storage period regardless the type of encapsulating materials. The addition of protein‐based materials also enhanced the survival of L. acidophilus during exposure to simulated gastrointestinal condition as compared to the control. After spray drying and after 0th wk storage, casein, soy protein isolate, and pea protein‐based formulations protected the bacteria during heat treatment. In fact, a significant decrease in thermal tolerance was inevitable after 2 wk of storage at 25 °C.
Association of daytime napping with prediabetes and diabetes in a Chinese population: Results from the baseline survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study
Authors: Yin Xin , Liu Qi , Wei Jiate , Meng Xin , Jia Chongqi
Published: August 2017

Background

Only a few studies have investigated the effects of daytime napping on diabetes, and these studies have reported conflicting results. The aim of the present study was to examine whether daytime napping is associated with a higher risk of prediabetes and diabetes.

Methods

The present cross‐sectional study of napping duration in relation to prediabetes and diabetes was conducted in 12 277 participants. Data from the first wave (2011) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study were used. Daytime napping was divided into four groups: no napping (reference) and napping for 1–30, 31–90, and >90 min. Multinomial logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Results

Individuals who reported taking daily afternoon naps accounted for 53.39% of all participants. Nappers had a higher prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes than non‐nappers. Compared with the reference group, the weighted fully adjusted ORs (95% CI) were 1.36 (1.10–1.68) and 1.61 (1.22–2.13) for napping >90 min in prediabetic and diabetic patients, respectively.

Conclusions

Long daytime napping duration was positively associated with prediabetes and diabetes. Further physiological and cohort studies are needed to confirm these results and elucidate potential mechanisms.