bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
mTOR Inhibition by Everolimus Does Not Impair Closure of Punch Biopsy Wounds in Renal Transplant Patients
Authors: Dutt Shelley B. , Gonzales Josephine , Boyett Megan , Costanzo Anne , Han Peggy P. , Steinberg Steven , McKay Dianne B. , Jameson Julie M.
Published: March 2017

Background

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors are approved to prevent allograft rejection and control malignancy. Unfortunately, they are associated with adverse effects, such as wound healing complications that detract from more extensive use. There is a lack of prospective wound healing studies to monitor patients treated with mTOR inhibitors, such as everolimus or sirolimus, especially in nondiabetics.

Methods

Patients receiving everolimus with standard immunosuppressant therapy or standard immunosuppressant therapy without everolimus were administered 3-mm skin biopsy punch wounds in the left scapular region. Homeostatic gene expression was examined in the skin obtained from the biopsy and wound surface area was examined on day 7. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were examined for cytokine production.

Results

There are no significant changes in autophagy related 13, epidermal growth factor, insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3, IL-2, kruppel-like factor 4, and TGFB1 gene expression in the skin suggesting that there is little impact of everolimus on these genes within nonwounded skin. Peripheral blood T cells are more sensitive to cell death in everolimus-treated patients, but they retain the ability to produce proinflammatory cytokines required for efficient wound repair. Importantly, there is no delay in the closure of biopsy wounds in patients receiving everolimus as compared to those not receiving mTOR inhibition.

Conclusions

Everolimus treatment is not associated with impaired closure of skin biopsy wounds in kidney transplant recipients. These data highlight the importance of exploring whether larger surgical wounds would show a similar result and how other factors, such as diabetes, impact wound healing complications associated with mTOR suppression.
A neural network model for the orbitofrontal cortex and task space acquisition during reinforcement learning
Authors: Zhang Zhewei , Cheng Zhenbo , Lin Zhongqiao , Nie Chechang , Yang Tianming
Published: March 2017

Reinforcement learning has been widely used in explaining animal behavior. In reinforcement learning, the agent learns the value of the states in the task, collectively constituting the task state space, and use the knowledge to choose actions and acquire desired outcomes. It has been proposed that the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) encodes the task state space during reinforcement learning. However, it is not well understood how the OFC acquires and stores task state information. Here, we propose a neural network model based on reservoir computing. Reservoir networks exhibit heterogeneous and dynamic activity patterns that are suitable to encode task states. The information can be extracted by a linear readout trained with reinforcement learning. We demonstrate how the network acquires and stores the task structures. The network exhibits reinforcement learning behavior and its aspects resemble experimental findings of the OFC. Our study provides a theoretical explanation of how the OFC may contribute to reinforcement learning and a new approach to understanding the neural mechanism underlying reinforcement learning.
Cysteine proteases of human hookwormNecator Americanus as virulencefactors and implications for drug design with anti-heparin and heparin analogs: A bioinformatics study
Authors: Banerjee Arpita , Widmer Kevin , Caffrey Conor R , Abagyan Ruben A.
Published: March 2017

Human hookwormNecator Americanus (NA)causes iron deficiency anemia, as the parasite ingests blood from the gastrointestinal tract of its human host. This bioinformatics-based study focuses on eight of the cathepsin B-like cysteine proteases (CPs) of the worm to explore their pathogenic potential. CP1 - CP6, which harbored the active site cysteine residue for enzymatic activity, were relevantly observed to have N-terminal signal peptide for extracellular localization. The secretory CPs could be releasing indigenous worm heparin at the host-pathogen interface for anticoagulation purposes. CP2 and CP3 showed a novel hemoglobinase motif that could be a prerequisite for hemoglobin degradation. CP1 and CP6 shared similar enzymatic-pocket features with cathepsin B and cruzain that cleave high molecular weight kininogen for blood-thinning activity. CP1, CP2, CP3, CP5 and CP6 were predicted to bind heparin, at their C terminal domain, like human cathepsin B and cruzain non-covalently bind heparin to enhance their activity.NACPs’ action in concert with heparin, have implications for anti-heparin and heparin analog design against hookworm infection.
Autonomous bird sound recording outperforms direct human observation: Synthesis and new evidence
Authors: Darras Kevin , Batáry Péter , Furnas Brett , Fitriawan Irfan , Mulyani Yeni , Tscharntke Teja
Published: March 2017

1)

Autonomous sound recording techniques have gained considerable traction in the last decade, but the question still remains whether they can replace human observation surveys to sample some animal taxa. Especially bird survey methods have been tested using classical point counts and autonomous sound recording techniques.

2)

We review the latest information by comparing both survey methods' standardization, verifiability, sampling completeness, data types, compatibility, and practicality by means of a systematic review and a meta-analysis of alpha and gamma species richness levels sampled by both methods across 20 separate studies.

3)

Although sound recording surveys have hitherto not enjoyed the most effective setups, they yield very similar results in terms of alpha and gamma species richness. We also reveal the crucial importance of the microphone (high signal-to-noise ratio) as the sensor that replaces human senses.

4)

We discuss key differences between both methods, while richness estimates are closely related and 81% of all species were detected by both methods. Sound recording techniques provide a more powerful and promising tool to monitor birds in a standardized, verifiable, and exhaustive way against the golden standard of point counts. Advantages include the capability of sampling continuously through day or season and of difficult-to-reach regions in an autonomous way, avoidance of observer bias and human disturbance effects and higher detection probability of rare species due to extensive recordings.
Flipping between Polycomb repressed and active transcriptional states introduces noise in gene expression
Authors: Kar Gozde , Kim Jong Kyoung , Kolodziejczyk Aleksandra A. , Natarajan Kedar Nath , Triglia Elena Torlai , Mifsud Borbala , Elderkin Sarah , Marioni John C. , Pombo Ana , Teichmann Sarah A.
Published: March 2017

Polycomb repressive complexes (PRCs) are important histone modifiers, which silence gene expression, yet there exists a subset of PRC-bound genes actively transcribed by RNA polymerase II (RNAPII). It is likely that the role of PRC is to dampen expression of these PRC-active genes. However, it is unclear how this flipping between chromatin states alters the kinetics of transcriptional burst size and frequency relative to genes with exclusively activating marks. To investigate this, we integrate histone modifications and RNAPII states derived from bulk ChIP-seq data with single-cell RNA-sequencing data. We find that PRC-active genes have a greater cell-to-cell variation in expression than active genes with the same mean expression levels, and validate these results by knockout experiments. We also show that PRC-active genes are clustered on chromosomes in both two and three dimensions, and interactions with active enhancers promote a stabilization of gene expression noise. These findings provide new insights into how chromatin regulation modulates stochastic gene expression and transcriptional bursting, with implications for regulation of pluripotency and development.
Early candidate biomarkers found from urine of astrocytoma rat before changes in MRI
Authors: Ni Yanying , Zhang Fanshuang , An Manxia , Yin Wei , Gao Youhe
Published: March 2017

Astrocytoma is the most common aggressive glioma and its early diagnosis remains difficult. Biomarkers are changes associated with the disease. Urine, which is not regulated by homeostatic mechanisms, accumulates changes and therefore is a better source for biomarker discovery. In this study, C6 cells were injected into Wistar rats brain as astrocytoma model. Urine samples were collected at day 2, day 6, day 10 and day 13 after injection, and the urinary proteomes were analyzed. On the 10th day, lesions appeared in magnetic resonance imaging. On the 13th day, clinical symptoms started. But differential urinary proteins were changed with the development of the astrocytoma, and can provide clues even on the 2nd and 6th day. Twenty-seven differential proteins with human orthologs had been reported to associate with astrocytoma. Thirty-nine proteins were verified in four more rats as candidate biomarkers of astrocytoma using multiple-reaction monitoring. A panel of differential urinary proteins may provide early biomarkers for diagnose of astrocytoma.
A NOVEL AND EFFICIENT ALGORITHM FOR DE NOVO DISCOVERY OF MUTATED DRIVER PATHWAYS IN CANCER
Authors: Liu By Binghui , Wu Chong , Shen Xiaotong , Wei Pan
Published: March 2017

Next-generation sequencing studies on cancer somatic mutations have discovered that driver mutations tend to appear in most tumor samples, but they barely overlap in any single tumor sample, presumably because a single driver mutation can perturb the whole pathway. Based on the corresponding new concepts of coverage and mutual exclusivity, new methods can be designed for de novo discovery of mutated driver pathways in cancer. Since the computational problem is a combinatorial optimization with an objective function involving a discontinuous indicator function in high dimension, many existing optimization algorithms, such as a brute force enumeration, gradient descent and Newton's methods, are practically infeasible or directly inapplicable. We develop a new algorithm based on a novel formulation of the problem as non-convex programming and nonconvex regularization. The method is computationally more efficient, effective and scalable than existing Monte Carlo searching and several other algorithms, which have been applied to The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. We also extend the new method for integrative analysis of both mutation and gene expression data. We demonstrate the promising performance of the new methods with applications to three cancer datasets to discover de novo mutated driver pathways.
Comprehensive pathway analyses of schizophrenia risk loci point to dysfunctional postsynaptic signaling
Authors: Schijven Dick , Kofink Daniel , Tragante Vinicius , Verkerke Marloes , Pulit Sara L. , Kahn René S. , Veldink Jan H. , Vinkers Christiaan H. , Boks Marco P. , Luykx Jurjen J.
Published: March 2017

Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have implicated many low-penetrance loci in schizophrenia. However, its pathological mechanisms are poorly understood, which in turn hampers the development of novel pharmacological treatments. Pathway and gene set analyses carry the potential to generate hypotheses about disease mechanisms and have provided biological context to genome-wide data of schizophrenia. We aimed to examine which biological processes are likely candidates to underlie schizophrenia by integrating novel and powerful pathway analysis tools using data from the largest Psychiatric Genomics Consortium schizophrenia GWAS (N = 79 845) and the most recent 2018 schizophrenia GWAS (N = 105 318). By applying a primary unbiased analysis (Multi-marker Analysis of GenoMic Annotation; MAGMA) to weigh the role of biological processes from the MSigDB database, we identified enrichment of common variants in synaptic plasticity and neuron differentiation gene sets. We supported these findings using MAGMA, Meta-Analysis Gene-set Enrichment of variaNT Associations (MAGENTA) and Interval Enrichment Analysis (INRICH) on detailed synaptic signaling pathways from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and found enrichment in mainly the dopaminergic and cholinergic synapses. Moreover, shared genes involved in these neurotransmitter systems had a large contribution to the observed enrichment, protein products of top genes in these pathways showed more direct and indirect interactions than expected by chance, and expression profiles of these genes were largely similar among brain tissues. In conclusion, we provide strong and consistent genetics and protein-interaction informed evidence for the role of postsynaptic signaling processes in schizophrenia, opening avenues for future translational and psychopharmacological studies.
Demographic compensation does not rescue populations at a trailing range edge
Authors: Sheth Seema Nayan , Angert Amy Lauren
Published: March 2017

As climate change shifts species' climatic envelopes across the landscape, equilibrium between geographic ranges and niches is likely diminishing due to time lags in demography and dispersal. If a species' range and niche are out of equilibrium, then population performance should decrease from cool, “leading” range edges, where populations are expanding into recently ameliorated habitats, to warm, “trailing” range edges, where populations are contracting from newly unsuitable areas. Population contraction signals that compensatory changes in vital rates are insufficient to buffer population growth from deteriorating environments. Life history theory predicts tradeoffs between fast development, high reproduction, and short longevity at low latitudes and slow development, less frequent but multiple bouts of reproduction, and long lifespan at high latitudes. If demographic compensation is driven by life history evolution, compensatory negative correlations in vital rates may be associated with this fast-slow continuum. An outstanding question is whether range limits and range contractions reflect inadequate compensatory life history shifts along environmental gradients, causing population growth rates to fall below replacement levels at range edges. We surveyed demography of 32 populations of the scarlet monkeyflower (Erythranthe cardinalis) spanning 11° latitude in western North America and used integral projection models to infer population dynamics and assess demographic compensation. Population growth rates decreased from north to south, consistent with leading-trailing dynamics. Southern populations are declining due to reduced survival, growth, and recruitment, despite compensatory increases in reproduction and faster life history characteristics, suggesting that demographic compensation will not rescue populations at the trailing range edge.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT

While climate change is causing poleward shifts in many species' geographic distributions, some species' ranges have remained stable, particularly at low-latitude limits. One explanation for why some species' ranges have not shifted is demographic compensation, whereby declines in some demographic processes are offset by increases in others, potentially buffering populations from extinction. However, we have limited understanding of whether demographic compensation can prevent collapse of populations facing climate change. We examined the demography of natural populations of a perennial herb spanning a broad latitudinal gradient. Despite increases in reproduction, low-latitude populations declined due to diminished survival, growth, and recruitment. Thus, demographic compensation may not be sufficient to rescue low-latitude, warm-edge populations from extinction.
Force-dependent binding of vinculin to α-catenin regulates cell-cell contacts stability and collective cell behavior
Authors: Seddiki Rima , Sankara Narayana Gautham Hari Narayana , Strale Pierre-Olivier , Balcioglu Hayri Emrah , Peyret Grégoire , Yao Mingxi , Le Anh Phuong , Teck Lim Chwee , Yan Jie , Ladoux Benoit , Mège René-Marc
Published: March 2017

The shaping of a multicellular body and repair of adult tissues require fine-tuning of cell adhesion, cell mechanics and intercellular transmission of mechanical load.Adherensjunctions (AJs) are the major intercellular junctions by which cells sense and exert mechanical force on each other. However, how AJs adapt to mechanical stress and how this adaptation contributes to cell-cell cohesion and eventually to tissue-scale dynamics and mechanics remains largely unknown. Here, by analyzing the tension-dependent recruitment of vinculin, α-catenin and F-actin as a function of stiffness, as well as the dynamics of GFP-tagged wild-type and mutated α-catenins, altered for their binding capability to vinculin, we demonstrate that the force-dependent binding of vinculin stabilizes α-catenin and is responsible for AJ adaptation to force. Challenging cadherin complexes mechanical coupling with magnetic tweezers, and cell-cell cohesion during collective cell movements, further highlight that tension-dependent adaptation of AJs regulates cell-cell contact dynamics and coordinated collective cell migration. Altogether, these data demonstrate that the force-dependent α-catenin/vinculin interaction, manipulated here by mutagenesis and mechanical control, is a core regulator of AJ mechanics and long-range cell-cell interactions.

Summary statement

Combining cell biology and biomechanical analysis, we show here that the coupling between cadherin complexes and actin trough tension-dependent α-catenin/vinculin association is regulating AJ stability and dynamics as well as tissue-scale mechanics.
Genome-wide analysis in UK Biobank identifies four loci associated with mood instability and genetic correlation with major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder and schizophrenia
Authors: Ward Joey , Strawbridge Rona J. , Bailey Mark E. S. , Graham Nicholas , Amy Ferguson , Lyall Donald M. , DClinPsy Breda Cullen , Pidgeon Laura M. , Cavanagh Jonathan , Mackay Daniel F. , Pell Jill P. , O’Donovan Michael , Escott-Price Valentina , Smith Daniel J.
Published: March 2017

Mood instability is a core clinical feature of affective and psychotic disorders. In keeping with the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) approach, it may be a useful construct for identifying biology that cuts across psychiatric categories. We aimed to investigate the biological validity of a simple measure of mood instability and evaluate its genetic relationship with several psychiatric disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of mood instability in 53,525 cases and 60,443 controls from UK Biobank, identifying four independently-associated loci (on chromosomes eight, nine, 14 and 18), and a common single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based heritability estimate of approximately 8%. We found a strong genetic correlation between mood instability and MDD (rg=0.60, SE=0.07, p=8.95 × 10−17) and a small but significant genetic correlation with both schizophrenia (rg=0.11, SE=0.04, p=0.01) and anxiety disorders (rg=0.28, SE=0.14, p=0.04), although no genetic correlation with BD, ADHD or PTSD. Several genes at the associated loci may have a role in mood instability, including theDCC netrin 1 receptor (DCC) gene,eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2B subunit beta (eIF2B2),placental growth factor (PGF), andprotein tyrosine phosphatase, receptor type D (PTPRD). Strengths of this study include the very large sample size, but our measure of mood instability may be limited by the use of a single question. Overall, this work suggests a polygenic basis for mood instability. This simple measure can be obtained in very large samples; our findings suggest that doing so may offer the opportunity to illuminate the fundamental biology of mood regulation.
A theta rhythm in macaque visual cortex and its attentional modulation
Authors: Spyropoulos Georgios , Bosman Conrado A. , Fries Pascal
Published: March 2017

Theta rhythms govern rodent sniffing and whisking, and human language processing. Human psychophysics suggests a role for theta also in visual attention. Yet, little is known about theta in visual areas and its attentional modulation. We used electrocorticography (ECoG) to record local field potentials (LFPs) simultaneously from areas V1, V2, V4 and TEO of two macaque monkeys performing a selective visual attention task. We found a ≈4 Hz theta rhythm within both the V1-V2 and the V4-TEO region, and theta synchronization between them, with a predominantly feedforward directed influence. ECoG coverage of large parts of these regions revealed a surprising spatial correspondence between theta and visually induced gamma. Furthermore, gamma power was modulated with theta phase. Selective attention to the respective visual stimulus strongly reduced these theta-rhythmic processes, leading to an unusually strong attention effect for V1. Microsaccades (MSs) were partly locked to theta. Yet, neuronal theta rhythms tended to be even more pronounced for epochs devoid of MSs. Thus, we find an MS-independent theta rhythm specific to visually driven parts of V1-V2, which rhythmically modulates local gamma and entrains V4-TEO, and which is strongly reduced by attention. We propose that the less theta-rhythmic and thereby more continuous processing of the attended stimulus serves the exploitation of this behaviorally most relevant information. The theta-rhythmic and thereby intermittent processing of the unattended stimulus likely reflects the ecologically important exploration of less relevant sources of information.
Complex coding and regulatory polymorphisms in a restriction factor determine the susceptibility ofDrosophilato viral infection
Authors: Cao Chuan , Cogni Rodrigo , Barbier Vincent , Jiggins Francis M.
Published: March 2017

It is common to find that major-effect genes are an important cause of variation in susceptibility to infection. Here we have characterised natural variation in a gene calledpastrelthat explains over half of the genetic variance in susceptibility to the virus DCV in populations ofDrosophila melanogaster. We found extensive allelic heterogeneity, with a sample of seven alleles ofpastrelfrom around the world conferring four phenotypically distinct levels of resistance. By modifying candidate SNPs in transgenic flies, we show that the largest effect is caused by an amino acid polymorphism that arose when an ancestral threonine was mutated to alanine, greatly increasing resistance to DCV. Overexpression of the ancestral susceptible allele provides strong protection against DCV, indicating that this mutation acted to improve an existing restriction factor. Thepastrellocus also contains complex structural variation andcis-regulatory polymorphisms altering gene expression. We find that higher expression ofpastrelis associated with increased survival after DCV infection. To understand why this variation is maintained in populations, we investigated genetic variation surrounding the amino acid variant that is causing flies to be resistant. We found no evidence of natural selection causing either recent changes in allele frequency or geographical variation in frequency, suggesting that this is an old polymorphism that has been maintained at a stable frequency. Overall, our data demonstrate how complex genetic variation at a single locus can control susceptibility to a virulent natural pathogen.
Validation of a novel molecular host response assay to diagnose infection in hospitalized patients admitted to the ICU with acute respiratory failure
Authors: Koster-Brouwer Maria E. , Verboom Diana M. , Scicluna Brendon P. , van de Groep Kirsten , Frencken Jos F. , Janssen Davy , Schuurman Rob , Schultz Marcus J. , Poll Tom van der , Bonten Marc J.M. , Cremer Olaf L. ,   on behalf of the MARS consortium
Published: March 2017

Purpose

The discrimination between infectious and non-infectious causes of acute respiratory failure (ARF) in hospitalized patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) is difficult. Using a novel diagnostic test measuring the expression of four RNA biomarkers in blood (SeptiCyte LAB) we aimed to distinguish between infection and inflammation in this setting.

Methods

We enrolled hospitalized patients with ARF requiring prompt intubation in the ICU from 2011 to 2013. We excluded patients having an established infection diagnosis or an evidently non-infectious reason for intubation. Blood samples were collected upon ICU admission. Test results were categorized into four probability bands (with higher bands indicating a higher probability of infection) and compared with the plausibility of infection as rated by post-hoc assessment using predefined definitions.

Results

Of 467 included patients, 373 (80%) were treated for a suspected infection at admission. Plausibility of infection was classified as ruled-out, undetermined, or confirmed in 41 (11%), 135 (36%), and 197 (53%) of these, respectively. Overall, the pre-test probability of infection was 42%. Test results correlated with the plausibility of infection (Spearman’s rho 0.332; p<0.001). After exclusion of undetermined cases, positive predictive values were 29%, 54%, and 76% for probability bands 2, 3, and 4, respectively, whereas the negative predictive value for band 1 was 76%. However, SeptiCyte LAB did not outperform CRP when comparing diagnostic discrimination (AUC 0.731; 95%CI 0.677-0.786 vs. 0.727; 95%CI 0.666-0.788).

Conclusion

In a setting of hospitalized patients admitted to the ICU with ARF, the diagnostic value of SeptiCyte LAB seems limited.
Balance between mutually exclusive traits shifted by variants of a yeast transcription factor
Authors: Dorrity Michael W. , Cuperus Josh T. , Carlisle Jolie A. , Fields Stanley , Queitsch Christine
Published: March 2017

InSaccharomyces cerevisiae, the decision to mate or invade relies on environmental cues that converge on a shared transcription factor, Ste12. Specificity toward invasion occurs via Ste12 binding cooperatively with the co-factor Tec1. Here, we characterize thein vitrobinding preferences of Ste12 to identify a defined spacing and orientation of dimeric sites, one that is common in pheromone-regulated genes. We find that single amino acid changes in the DNA-binding domain of Ste12 can shift the preference of yeast toward either mating or invasion. These mutations define two distinct regions of this domain, suggesting alternative modes of DNA binding for each trait. Some exceptional Ste12 mutants promote hyperinvasion in a Tec1-independent manner; these fail to bind cooperative sites with Tec1 and bind to unusual dimeric Ste12 sites that contain one highly degenerate half site. We propose a model for how activation of invasion genes could have evolved with Ste12 alone.
Culinary nutrition education for undergraduate nutrition dietetics students
Authors: Kerrison Dorothy Adair , Condrasky Margaret Depsky , Sharp Julia L.
Published: March 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effectiveness of a combined budget-tailored culinary nutrition program for undergraduate nutrition-related majors on knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy and applicability to everyday life and future health careers.

Design/methodology/approach

A wait-list control (n=54) completed a six-week cooking with chef and shopping healthy on a budget cooking matters at the store program. Assessment questionnaires evaluated participants’ knowledge and program applicability. Data analysis included response frequency and statistical differences within and between treatment and control groups.

Findings

Significant differences identified at (<0.001) for cooking self-efficacy, self-efficacy for using basic cooking techniques, self-efficacy for using fruits, vegetables, seasonings, and the ability to use economical methods to purchase produce. Average score noted at 89 percent for knowledge of shopping healthy on a budget.

Research limitations/implications

Findings support positive effects of combining culinary nutrition training with food budget information. Concepts enhance self-efficacy in meal planning and preparation for entry level nutrition related graduates.

Originality/value

Combining culinary arts experience with applied human nutrition concepts training provide a basis for enhanced confidence for entry nutrition dietetics healthcare.
Company stakeholder responsibility
Authors: Kujala Johanna , Lämsä Anna-Maija , Riivari Elina
Published: March 2017

Purpose

Company stakeholder responsibility considers stakeholder engagement and management as key to long-term firm success. The purpose of this paper is to examine how top managers’ stakeholder responsibility attitudes change and how they balance stakeholder responsibilities and economic interests.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted empirical research using the company stakeholder responsibility framework by conducting a repeated cross-sectional survey in Finland in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014.

Findings

The study shows how development in the business context influences managers’ attitudes towards stakeholder responsibility. Simultaneously with the expansion of free competition in 1990s Finland, managerial commitment to company stakeholder responsibility strengthened in Finnish industry.

Research limitations/implications

The target group consisting of industrial managers both in a single-country context and the social desirability bias present in survey research may limit the generalisability of the results.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the discussion of the role of situational factors in the development of corporate responsibility by showing that while economic changes have some influence on managerial attitudes, the expansion of free markets, together with increased regulation in certain areas, appears to influence managers’ stakeholder responsibility attitudes to an even greater degree.
Innovation strategies in retail services: solutions, experiences and meanings
Authors: Pinto Giuseppe Leonardo , Dell’Era Claudio , Verganti Roberto , Bellini Emilio
Published: March 2017

Purpose

Notwithstanding the importance innovation scholars have accredited to design-driven innovation (DDI), no attempts have been made so far to systematically study whether and how this innovation strategy can be used in the retail context in order to gain and nurture competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to make a first step towards closing this gap, and therefore understand whether and how companies involved in retail service can create competitive advantage by the adoption of a strategy based on innovation of meanings.

Design/methodology/approach

Due to the complex ecosystem of variables that inevitably influence the problem, the case study approach represents the best option to grasp the different aspects highlighted by the research objectives. The analysis undertook a thorough and systematic comparison with the use of an ad hoc “paired comparison method”, in which common systemic characteristics have been intended as a controlled variable in order to minimise the variance and quantity of factors that can have an impact on the selected case studies; intersystemic differences have been understood as explanatory variables to decree the contribution in terms of novelty in relation to the current paradigm.

Findings

The paper provides empirical insights about how radical innovation in meanings can be a very important lever on which retail firms can act to gain and nurture their competitive advantage.

Research limitations/implications

Of course the study has several limitations, which represent however opportunities for future research. The authors say that the findings, given the exploratory nature of the study, cannot be generalised to any population of firms or markets, rather they should be used as a basis to develop theoretical understanding of a complex phenomenon and draw research propositions and hypotheses to be tested in subsequent deductive empirical research.

Practical implications

This paper highlights the importance to think, beyond shopping experience, at the role of new meanings when designing service innovation in retail firms. Although the findings do not have statistical relevance, given the exploratory nature of the study, they suggest that DDI can be a viable option for retail firm managers to improve their firms’ competitiveness.

Originality/value

The study presented in this paper has merit to broaden the generalisability of the DDI model to other industries, different from those where it was initially studied and applied. This is an important step toward conceptualising DDI as a novel management paradigm.
Corporate governance and provisions under IAS 37
Authors: Acar Ece , Ozkan Serdar
Published: March 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the extent of disclosure of provisions reported under IAS 37 provisions, contingent liabilities and contingent assets and explore the relation between provisions and corporate governance.

Design/methodology/approach

The current research utilizes a panel data analysis using a sample of 1,078 firm-year observations from Borsa Istanbul between the years 2005 and 2010.

Findings

Overall findings indicate that 62 percent of 1,078 firm-year observations recognize provisions, and among those, only 32 percent provide IAS 37’s full disclosure requirements. Firms that recognize provisions have larger board of directors and are more likely to be characterized with concentrated ownership and institutional owners. Also, firms with larger board of directors, greater independence and concentrated ownership have higher total provision/total debt ratios. Finally, firms that make full disclosure of provisions are more likely to have larger boards, higher ownership concentration and institutional owners and less likely to have CEO duality.

Research limitations/implications

As with all research, there are several limitations of this study. The study suffers from a lack of literature about provisions under IAS 37. The lack of literature directly focusing on provisions or IAS 37 appears to be one of the main limitations as well as one of the main contributions. Since this study focuses on one country, the comparison is not possible. Further research may contribute to literature by the use of other emerging economy’s capital market data. Moreover, further research can cover any other mandatory disclosure information specified in IASs/IFRSs and can provide comparative results about the compliance and strictness of the mandatory disclosure regime.

Practical implications

This study can be of interest to government, investors, business management, regulatory bodies, educators, researchers, accountants, auditors and scholars particularly in the field of accounting by seeking to make theoretical and practical contributions in the area of accounting disclosures and also serves as benchmark for future researches on corporate disclosures. Also this study provides significant insights to accounting regulators who set disclosure requirements.

Originality/value

Accurate corporate reporting is a necessary tool for the short- and long-term survival of the firms, hence the capital markets. Studying the level of disclosure will enable us to have additional insights about corporate reporting and will enhance the understanding of the nature of corporate reporting in developing countries. Disclosure practices by developing countries were empirically investigated in the past; however, the relation between provisions under IAS 37 and corporate governance has been unexplored in the literature. Thus, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is a pioneering research on provisions and corporate governance structure.
Gendered adaptation of Eritrean dryland farmers
Authors: Tesfamariam Yordanos , Hurlbert Margot
Published: March 2017

Purpose

This paper aims to report findings of a study of vulnerability that identified adaptation strategies of male and female farmers in two regions of Eritrea. The country is suffering from food shortage because of climate and non-climate stressors. As such, erratic rainfall, chronic droughts and extreme weather adversely affect crop production. This paper answers the question of how policy instruments and cultural practices, and their interaction, increase or reduce the vulnerabilities of male and female agricultural producers, including producer perceptions of how instruments and culture can be improved.

Design/methodology/approach

Interviews and focus groups were conducted in the two study regions in Eritrea. Documents and transcripts of the interviews and focus groups were coded by theme and analyzed.

Findings

Findings revealed that the main rainy season has reduced from four to two months, and the minor rainy season has often failed. As a result, exposure and sensitivity to climate change affects all farmers. These climate change impacts together with Eritrean government policy instruments, including the limited availability, affordability and accessibility of agricultural inputs such as land, fertilizer, seeds, and male labor exacerbate the vulnerability of agricultural producers. Tigrinya farm women are the least able to adapt to extreme weather because of an unequal distribution of resources resulting from cultural, patriarchal views of women which have prevented them from being regarded as equal primary farmers and further limit their access to the resources mentioned. This vulnerability is exacerbated by the prescribed military service of men in their community (which is not prescribed in the matrilineal Kunama community). Producers perceive that addressing this gender inequality and improving government instruments, most importantly getting rid of mandatory military service, will improve adaptation.

Practical implications

Concrete recommendations made by the community are reported.

Originality/value

This paper presents important findings from qualitative research conducted in Eritrea.
Regenerative failure and attribution
Authors: Walsh Grace S. , Cunningham James A.
Published: March 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the processes that occur between entrepreneurs’ primary attribution for failure and the emergent learning dimensions from failure, in the context of regenerative failures.

Design/methodology/approach

The study focusses on 21 entrepreneurs operating in the producing services sector, a major subsector of the Irish Information and Communication Technology industry. All the entrepreneurs experienced business failure and subsequently re-entered the entrepreneurial sphere at a later date. A qualitative approach examines their attributions for failure, responses to failure, and learning dimensions from failure.

Findings

Regenerative entrepreneurs’ primary attributions for business failure are examined in detail; four types of failure attributions are uncovered – internal individual level; external firm level; external market level; and hybrid attributions. Entrepreneurs’ attributions impact their responses to the failure; this in turn affects entrepreneurial learning. When failure is primarily attributed to internal factors, the entrepreneur’s response is affective, leading to deep, personal learning about oneself. External attributions (both firm level and market level) result in a primarily behavioural response, with learning focussed on the venture, and networks and relationships. Those primarily attributing failure to hybrid factors have a largely cognitive response and they learn about venture management.

Research limitations/implications

This study is a retrospective analysis of business failure.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the growing literature on entrepreneurs’ attributions for business failure by focussing on regenerative failure; it links attributions to – responses to, and learning from, failure. The key contribution to knowledge emerges from the development of a model of the underlying processes affecting learning from failure for regenerative entrepreneurs. The research also establishes and identifies clear links between attributions, responses, and lessons learned in the context of regenerative failure.
Culture, benevolent and hostile sexism, and entrepreneurial intentions
Authors: Stedham Yvonne , Wieland Alice
Published: March 2017

Purpose

In this study, the authors relate cultural masculinity to individual level sexist beliefs (hostile and benevolent sexism) and gendered entrepreneurial stereotypes. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether hostile and benevolent sexism affect entrepreneurial intentions and whether this relationship is mediated by gendered entrepreneurial stereotypes.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed relationships are explored using a sample of 192 participants from the USA and India with varying interest in starting a business. An online survey instrument was used to collect the data. Regression and mediation analyses were used to analyze the data.

Findings

The authors find that both hostile and benevolent sexism are positively related to entrepreneurial intentions of both men and women. However, only benevolent sexism is related to both the masculine and feminine gender traits ascribed to entrepreneurs. Interestingly, the authors find support that hostile sexism is actually positively related to feminine traits ascribed to entrepreneurs, albeit with a small effect size. The authors do not find any support that these results vary by participant gender; the findings are implicated for both men and women alike. The authors find that for both hostile and benevolent sexism only the feminine traits perceived as stereotypic of entrepreneurs partly mediate their relationship on entrepreneurial intentions.

Research limitations/implications

The survey consists of cross-sectional, self-report data, and therefore the authors cannot conclusively infer causality. The direction of relationships found is of theoretical value. Only two countries are included in the sample limiting generalizability to other countries. Most of the participants in the sample reported some interest or experience in nascent entrepreneurial activities, which may limit the generalizability of findings to those without any prior interest or experience as a nascent entrepreneur.

Originality/value

The relationship between ambivalent sexism (both hostile and benevolent sexism) and both entrepreneurial intentions, and the gendered traits ascribed to entrepreneurs, has not yet been explored before this work. Using the lens of cultural masculinity, we present a theoretical model of how hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes facilitate or inhibit entrepreneurship via how entrepreneurs are perceived. This is the first study we know of which explores the relationship between Ambivalent Sexism and the gender attributes ascribed to entrepreneurs, and how these gendered entrepreneurial stereotypes in turn are related to entrepreneurial intentions.
The institutional environment and social entrepreneurship intentions
Authors: Urban Boris , Kujinga Leanne
Published: March 2017

Purpose

To fully understand the concept of social entrepreneurship (SE), contextual factors need to be accounted as the influence of the institutional environment on individual behaviour has received little attention in the literature. By heeding the research call for quantitative work in this emerging field, hypotheses are formulated which predict the influence of different institutional profiles on SE intentions. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional survey design was administered in an under-researched emerging market context – South Africa. Hypotheses were then statistically tested using correlational analysis and structural equation modelling.

Findings

The results indicate that the regulatory environment has a positive and significant impact on feasibility and desirability, and furthermore both feasibility and desirability positively affect intentions.

Originality/value

The study contributes towards a new understanding of the influence of the institutional environment on social entrepreneurial intentions and its antecedents in an African emerging market context, and may serve as a catalyst for this emerging and important global activity.
Entrepreneurial intention of Danish students: a correspondence analysis
Authors: Fietze Simon , Boyd Britta
Published: March 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe the entrepreneurial intention (EI) among Danish university students applying the theory of planned behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

Using cross-sectional data from the Danish Global University Student Spirit Survey 2013 (n=1,027) the analysis is based on a joint correspondence analysis (JCA) investigating the relationships between the variables.

Findings

Results indicate that students prefer a career as employee showing a low EI. Both very high and very low EI are related to very high/low self-efficacy and perception of entrepreneurial climate and learning.

Research limitations/implications

The study points to an improvement of entrepreneurship education through customised offers dependent on the student’s level of EI and entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

Originality/value

Moreover, this study has proven that the JCA is a useful method to analyse the relationship between EI and other related variables in an exploratory study.
Quantitative analysis of Six Sigma, Lean and Lean Six Sigma research publications in last two decades
Authors: Shokri Alireza
Published: March 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend previous studies to a hybrid analysis of three business improvement practices of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) within last two decades and identify the research gaps and focusses in more comprehensive and robust classification framework.

Design/methodology/approach

A secondary data collection and a literature review were conducted to collect information about peer-reviewed journal articles under six dimensions of a tested classification framework. The frequency and distribution analysis was conducted followed by Pearson’s χ2 test to analyse any relationship between dimensions of framework in order to identify the gap.

Findings

Despite a relatively great deal of regular research outputs about Six Sigma, Lean and LSS, academic journal articles have been found mainly limited to a few industries, themes and countries. “General manufacturing”, “healthcare”, “automotive” and “electronic industries” as sectors; and “tools and techniques”, “benefits” and “success factors” as key themes have been mostly approached by LSS, Six Sigma and lean management articles. It was also found that there is still a great disparity amongst researchers and journals to publish about these three business improvement practices.

Research limitations/implications

The research publications for LSS, Six Sigma and lean management should have wider approach towards various manufacturing and service sectors, countries and journal publications. A greater level of research/enterprise activities has been found in relation to LSS and Six Sigma articles compared to lean management articles.

Originality/value

This research aims to identify the gaps in research publications during last two decades about three major business improvement practices in one package and through more comprehensive robust classification framework and also through comparative analysis.