bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Experimental assessment of the productivity improvement when using U-shaped production cells with variable takt time
Authors: Pujo Patrick , El Khabous Ilham , Ounnar Fouzia
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The aim of this research is to discuss the benefits of U-shaped layout for production cell operating in variable takt time. Different experiments were conducted using benchmarks to highlight the performance gap between a linear cell and a U-Cell.

Design/methodology/approach

– The implementation of the production cell, either in a U-shaped or in a straight line layout, is optimized through linear programming based on the number of operators. The two corresponding programs, in Mosel language, use the same approach to not introduce bias in the comparison of results. The study used the authors’ own datasets and other well-known academic benchmarks.

Findings

– A comparison was conducted between the obtained takt times, with equivalent operating conditions, in both U-Cell and linear cell. A significant increase of the production rate was observed. This increase has often exceeded 10 per cent, reaching 32 per cent. All the experiments show that, with the same number of operators, a cell in a U-shaped layout is always at least as efficient, in terms of attainable production rates, than an equivalent linear cell. Ninety-six per cent of the studied cases give an improvement of production rate. Moreover, the dispersion of the U-Cell results is weaker, which suggests that the U-shaped layout gives better performances in more robust manner.

Research limitations/implications

– Results were obtained through a study of various academic benchmarks. The results must be validated on industrial situations.

Practical implications

– This paper will be very useful for researchers and practitioners to understand lean implementations and their derived benefits. This paper will allow them to evaluate and analyze the expected benefits of the implementation of the production cell in the U-shaped layout (operating in variable takt time).

Originality/value

– U-Cells constitute an appropriate solution for a layout of any kind of production cells with a variable structure (variability of the number of operators, of the organization of the cell, of the takt time […]). When facing a significant variation in the demand, the response consists of adjusting the number of operators assigned to the cell. This study jointly addresses the problem of the U-shaped layout and the operation in variable takt time.
Lean office in health organization in the Brazilian Army
Authors: da Silva Iris Bento , Seraphim Everton Cesar , Agostinho Oswaldo Luiz , Lima Junior Orlando Fontes , Batalha Gilmar Ferreira
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to present management techniques in the healthcare sector through lean office.

Design/methodology/approach

– A case study approach is adopted, with data collected in the Brazilian military organization.

Findings

– The findings identify several ways to apply lean concepts outside manufacturing. From this, a future lean office health state design will be proposed.

Research limitations/implications

– The lean office health proposal has to be tested in other organizations to confirm this case study. While this may limit the generalization of the findings, there is value in demonstrating the benefits modern lean office techniques can bring to the developing world healthcare.

Practical implications

– The paper shows that lean office health techniques can provide benefits to healthcare in developing countries' hospitals and others.

Originality/value

– The value of the paper arises from providing a detailed analysis of a healthcare lean office in the developing world. There have been only a small number of other studies published in the literature about lean office health.
Theories in sustainable supply chain management: a structured literature review
Authors: Touboulic Anne , Walker Helen
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate theoretical perspectives in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and contributes to understanding the current state of research in the field and its future development.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper conducts a structured literature review and aims at mapping the use of theories in the field. The authors assess the current state of research, looking in more details at popular theories, and propose possible future avenues for the field to develop.

Findings

– Theory-building efforts in SSCM remain scarce, with the predominance of a few popular imported macro theories (resource-based view (RBV), stakeholder theory and institutional theory) having implications on the conceptualisation of SSCM and the topics researched to date. More theoretical contributions can potentially emerge from the adoption of original methodologies, the investigation of under-explored aspects of SSCM and the testing of recently developed frameworks.

Research limitations/implications

– Drawing on the analysis the authors propose an overarching map of popular theories in SSCM and define potential avenues towards the maturation of the discipline. A number of propositions are offered to guide future research. This study constitutes a first step towards understanding how theories in SSCM are developing and how SSCM has been conceptualised.

Originality/value

– The originality of this paper lies in its analytical focus on theories in SSCM, which have not been mapped to date.
Research on the phenomenon of supply chain resilience
Authors: Hohenstein Nils-Ole , Feisel Edda , Hartmann Evi , Giunipero Larry
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– This paper provides a robust and structured literature review on supply chain resilience (SCRES), the supply chain’s ability to be prepared for unexpected risk events, responding and recovering quickly to potential disruptions to return to its original situation or grow by moving to a new, more desirable state. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extant research through focussed questions and provide an insightful framework with propositions to guide further publications and identify future research needs.

Design/methodology/approach

– The findings underlie a systematic literature review methodology requiring a robust method of literature analysis. The sand cone model is adopted to develop a comprehensive SCRES framework.

Findings

– The literature review reveals a strong need for an overarching SCRES definition and a clear terminology for its building elements. It indicates that most research has been qualitative and lacks in assessing and measuring SCRES performance.

Originality/value

– This paper contributes a structured overview of 67 peer-reviewed articles from 2003 to 2013 on an emerging area of supply chain research. The review formulates an overarching definition of SCRES, groups and synthesizes the various SCRES elements into proactive and reactive strategies for the ex-ante/ex-post disruption stage and illustrates SCRES measurement through performance metrics. It provides a comprehensive SCRES framework with propositions and indicates gaps in the literature to target for further development.
Financial marketization and corporate venturing in China
Authors: Dai Weiqi , Alon Ilan , Jiao Hao
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The paper aims to empirically examine the role of intra-national institutions in business performance. In particular, the article develops hypotheses regarding financial marketization and business venturing with organizational slack and political connections as moderating variables.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors choose listed firms from the pharmaceutical industry in China and focus on the period of 2001-2009. Results from the Hausman specification test indicate that the random effects model is appropriate for data. Because the dependent variable is dichotomous, the random effects logistic regression technique in Stata is used. To check the robustness of the estimation, the random-effects Tobit regression technique in Stata is also used. Overall, models are robust and statistically significant.

Findings

– It was found that the level of regional financial sector marketization is positively associated with the likelihood of engaging in corporate venturing by firms within the region. Moreover, it was found that organizational slack significantly decreases the institutional influence on corporate venturing.

Originality/value

– This study is one of the first to theorize and empirically test the impact of intra-national institutions on corporate venturing in China’s pharmaceutical industry. Institutions matter more when organizational slack is low. Firms in the pharmaceutical industry in China do not seem completely dependent on political connections for business venturing and use organizational slack to buffer against (adverse) institutional change.
Resolving authorization conflicts by ontology views for controlled access to a digital library
Authors: Dasgupta Subhasis , Pal Pinakpani , Mazumdar Chandan , Bagchi Aditya
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– This paper provides a new Digital Library architecture that supports polyhierarchic ontology structure where a child concept representing an interdisciplinary subject area can have multiple parent concepts. The paper further proposes an access control mechanism for controlled access to different concepts by different users depending on the authorizations available to each such user. The proposed model thus provides a better knowledge representation and faster searching possibility of documents for modern Digital Libraries with controlled access to the system.

Design/methodology/approach

– Since the proposed Digital Library Architecture considers polyhierarchy, the underlying hierarchical structure becomes a Directed Acyclic Graph instead of a tree. A new access control model has been developed for such a polyhierarchic ontology structure. It has been shown that such model may give rise to undecidability problem. A client specific view generation mechanism has been developed to solve the problem.

Findings

– The paper has three major contributions. First, it provides better knowledge representation for present-day digital libraries, as new interdisciplinary subject areas are getting introduced. Concepts representing interdisciplinary subject areas will have multiple parents, and consequently, the library ontology introduces a new set of nodes representing document classes. This concept also provides faster search mechanism. Secondly, a new access control model has been introduced for the ontology structure where a user gets authorizations to access a concept node only if its credential supports it. Lastly, a client-based view generation algorithm has been developed so that a client’s access remains limited to its view and avoids any possibility of undecidability in authorization specification.

Research limitations/implications

– The proposed model, in its present form, supports only read and browse facilities. It would later be extended for addition and update of documents. Moreover, the paper explains the model in a single user environment. It will be augmented later to consider simultaneous access from multiple users.

Practical implications

– The paper emphasizes the need for changing the present digital library ontology to a polyhierarchic structure to provide proper representation of knowledge related to the concepts covering interdisciplinary subject areas. Possible implementation strategies have also been mentioned. This design method can also be extended for other semantic web applications.

Originality/value

– This paper offers a new knowledge management strategy to cover the gradual proliferation of interdisciplinary subject areas along with a suitable access control model for a digital library ontology. This methodology can also be extended for other semantic web applications.
Development of ontology from Indian agricultural e-governance data using IndoWordNet: a semantic web approach
Authors: Sinha Bhaskar , Chandra Somnath , Garg Megha
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this explorative research study is to focus on the implementation of semantic Web technology on agriculture domain of e-governance data. The study contributes to an understanding of problems and difficulties in implantations of unstructured and unformatted unique datasets of multilingual local language-based electronic dictionary (IndoWordnet).

Design/methodology/approach

– An approach to an implementation in the perspective of conceptual logical concept to realization of agriculture-based terms and terminology extracted from linked multilingual IndoWordNet while maintaining the support and specification of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard of semantic Web technology to generate ontology and uniform unicode structured datasets.

Findings

– The findings reveal the fact about partial support of extraction of terms, relations and concepts while linking to IndoWordNet, resulting in the form of SynSets, lexical relations of Words and relations between themselves. This helped in generation of ontology, hierarchical modeling and creation of structured metadata datasets.

Research limitations/implications

– IndoWordNet has limitations, as it is not fully revised version due to diversified cultural base in India, and the new version is yet to be released in due time span. As mentioned in Section 5, implications of these ideas and experiments will have good impact in doing more exploration and better applications using such wordnet.

Practical implications

– Language developer tools and frameworks have been used to get tagged annotated raw data processed and get intermediate results, which provides as a source for the generation of ontology and dynamic metadata.

Social implications

– The results are expected to be applied for other e-governance applications. Better use of applications in social and government departments.

Originality/value

– The authors have worked out experimental facts and raw information source datasets, revealing satisfactory results such as SynSets, sensecount, semantic and lexical relations, class concepts hierarchy and other related output, which helped in developing ontology of domain interest and, hence, creation of a dynamic metadata which can be globally used to facilitate various applications support.
SKO Types: an entity-based scientific knowledge objects metadata schema
Authors: Xu Hao , Giunchiglia Fausto
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– This paper aims to propose an entity-based scientific metadata schema, i.e. Scientific Knowledge Object (SKO) Types. During the past 50 years, many metadata schemas have been developed in a variety of disciplines. However, current scientific metadata schemas focus on describing data, but not entities. They are descriptive, but few of them are structural and administrative.

Design/methodology/approach

– To describe entities in scientific knowledge, the theory of SKO Types is proposed. SKO Types is an entity-based theory for representing and linking SKOs. It defines entities, relationships between entities and attributes of each entity in the scientific domain.

Findings

– In scientific knowledge management, SKO Types serves as the basis for relating entities, entity components, aggregated entities, relationships and attributes to various tasks, e.g. linked entity, rhetorical structuring, strategic reading, semantic annotating, etc., that users may perform when consulting ubiquitous SKOs.

Originality/value

– SKO Types can be widely applied in various digital libraries and scientific knowledge management systems, while for the existing legacy of scientific publications and their associated metadata schemas.
Enabling organizations to implement smarter, customized social computing platforms by leveraging knowledge flow patterns
Authors: Chandra Ramesh , Iyer Reethika S , Raman Ramakrishnan
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this study was to understand the knowledge sharing in projects based on knowledge flow patterns. The impact of attrition, thereby leading to a loss of tacit knowledge, inability to capture and reuse knowledge and inability to understand the knowledge flow patterns, which leads to lack of structured workspace collaboration, are frequently faced challenges in organizations. The change in knowledge sourcing behaviors by the current generation workforce has a high reaching impact in driving collaboration among employees.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper attempts to study this impact and identify means to improve the effectiveness of collective knowledge sharing via social computing platforms. As part of this study, customized solutions are devised based on knowledge flow patterns prevalent in teams. Knowledge network analysis (KNA), a socio-metric analysis, is performed to understand knowledge flow patterns among employees in a team which helps understand the relationships between team members with respect to knowledge sharing. KNA helps in understanding ties and interactions between human and system resources.

Findings

– Significant changes were observed in knowledge sourcing and sharing behaviors. Capture of the tacit knowledge of employees further resulted in reducing the impact of knowledge attrition. For instance, targeted communities of practice (CoPs) based on the presence of cliques within teams enabled teams to complete projects effectively and efficiently.

Practical implications

– The results are used to identify push and pull networks to enable effective knowledge management (KM). Results of this study reveal that analyzing knowledge flow patterns in a team and deploying a customized social computing platform that is tailored to address the needs of specific knowledge flow patterns within that team, significantly enhances collaborative sharing as opposed to a standardized “one-size-fits-all” platform.

Originality/value

– This paper is an original creation after research by the authors for a continuous assessment of KM within the organization.
Evaluation of scheduling using triangular whitenization functions
Authors: Maleki Hamed , Taghavi Fard Mohammad Taghi
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The time required for a certain task to be performed normally reduces on its frequent completion, as more units are produced over time, it is expected to have an increase in the total worker’s output performance. Learning curve (LC) is a mathematical representation to estimate the time of tasks which occurs repeatedly. The parameter prediction is considered a major disadvantage from which LC suffers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate grey systems theory as a method for the standard time.

Design/methodology/approach

– The proposed method starts with data which are obtained by traditional time study and then, models LC for an assembling activity of Electrogen Company. The paper studies the grey evaluation method based on triangular whitenization weight functions which includes two classes: endpoint triangular whitenization functions and center-point triangular whitenization functions. The grey system results are compared with those of the LC.

Findings

– The results show that the standard time given by grey systems theory is closer than the standard time given by LC to standard time with 100 per cent performance level.

Originality/value

– Scheduling problems are complex and uncertain, and it is very rare for such systems to be exactly determined in all their complexity. According to grey systems theory, the job processing time can be considered as the object that extension is definite but intension is uncertain. Consequently, grey systems theory with its focus on the uncertainty problems of small samples and incomplete information is proposed in the paper.
On the value of response time characteristics in robust design of supply flow
Authors: Ebrahim Nejad Alireza , Kuzgunkaya Onur
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a decision-making tool achieving robust supply flow by incorporating strategic stock and contingent sourcing in mitigating minor and major disruptions.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors consider a firm with two suppliers where the main supplier is cost-effective but prone to disruptions and the back-up supplier is reliable but expensive due to built-in volume flexibility. In order to incorporate the randomness associated with disruptions and the available capacity during response time in the decision-making stage, the authors present a multi-stage robust optimization (RO) model. The design problem is to determine optimal strategic stock level and response speed of volume-flexible back-up supplier in order to achieve a robust supply flow.

Findings

– The results show that the quality of optimal solution is improved by considering the randomness associated with available capacity. In addition, incorporating congestion effects allows identifying the appropriate level of supply chain responsiveness, thus improving the overall performance.

Originality/value

– The novelty of the proposed model is the consideration of both strategic stock and volume flexibility in maintaining a robust supply performance while incorporating response capability and congestion effects.
The relationship between environmental degradation and happiness in 23 developed contemporary economies
Authors: Tiwari Aviral Kumar , Mutascu Mihai
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamics between gross domestic product (GDP), environmental degradation and happiness, by using country-level panel-data covering 23 countries, for the period 1961-2005.

Design/methodology/approach

– For the analysis the authors employed the vector autoregression (VAR) approach in a panel framework.

Findings

– The main results show that a high level of happiness is associated with a low level of GDP on short term (one year). The joint influence of GDP and environmental degradation on happiness is not significant, while GDP and happiness are unrelated to environmental degradation.

Research limitations/implications

– The paper extends the literature on developed countries and offers a particular perspective on the relationship between environment degradation and happiness through a GDP growth impulse analysis.

Originality/value

– The paper offers two main novelties: it simultaneously investigates the “well-being – environment”, and “well-being – economic dimension”, and it uses a panel-VAR approach, including the cross-country variation.
Beyond landscape designation
Authors: Clarke Richard
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– In Europe, as in other developed regions of the world, formal protected areas (PA) are, almost by definition, conservation islands within a wider landscape of intensive farming, towns, industry and transport links. The recognised need for “more, bigger, better and joined” implies the need for complementary approaches. The purpose of this paper is to examine some innovative funding and delivery mechanisms in the UK and their strengths – and weaknesses – compared to the formal system of PA.

Design/methodology/approach

– Building on recent research undertaken for the UK Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) the HLF landscape partnership (LP) programme is described and related to other area-based approaches including the Wildlife Trust’s Living Landscapes, the Futurescapes programme of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the UK government’s Nature Improvement Areas (NIA).

Findings

– LPs represent an increasingly important vehicle for securing conservation of the natural and cultural heritage alongside the formal system of designated PA. Their reliance upon local initiative, community engagement and multi-agency participation presents significant advantages. The strength of the LP approach is that it is “bottom up” and in some ways opportunistic.

Practical implications

– Non-tax funding of innovative approaches to landscape governance presents significant opportunity for natural and cultural heritage conservation, particularly in their capacity to mobilise local enthusiasm and support. However, it fits also with neo-liberal approaches which seek to transfer to the “third sector” responsibilities previously the province of local and national government.

Originality/value

– This paper is one of a very limited number of studies of developed-country LPs. It widens the concept of “PA” beyond formal IUCN categories and indicates the potential for innovations in funding and governance.
Implementing and managing economic, social and environmental efforts of business sustainability
Authors: Svensson Göran , Wagner Beverly
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– Current research examines and reports how four companies – each committed to economic, social and environmental efforts of business sustainability – implement and manage their “sustainable business models” and application of sustainable business practices in the marketplace and society. “Business sustainability” is defined as a company’s economic, social and environmental efforts to implement and manage both its own and its business network’s impact on Earth’s life and ecosystems. The purpose of this paper is to describe constituents of business sustainability efforts within the economic, social and environmental categories.

Design/methodology/approach

– The current research is based upon a grounded methodology drawn from four in-depth case studies, spanning over five years in different countries and industries. Data were gathered from multiple sources, including secondary data, company records, internet information, face-to-face interviews and on-site observation. Transcriptions were thereafter returned to interviewees for clarification and accuracy, and for final proofreading and approval.

Findings

– The research identifies a set of business sustainability constituents within the economic, social and environmental categories of the triple bottom line (TBL) approach. It appears to be the first study over time and across contexts of the content of the TBL consisting of economic, social and environmental categories based upon empirical findings and propositions on how they can be assessed and related to each other.

Research limitations/implications

– The research provides a foundation of measurement and structural properties of business sustainability efforts. A cause-and-effect relationship between the TBL categories is a new and complementary approach to assess business sustainability that so far appears not to have been revealed in previous research and theory.

Practical implications

– The research furthers the understanding of implementing and managing economic, social and environmental efforts of business sustainability in a comprehensive, balanced and connected manner. The economic, social and environmental constituents of business sustainability need to be addressed in conjunction with one another, as they ultimately restrain the degrees of freedom in the context of the meta-constituent that frames them (i.e. the Planet Earth).

Originality/value

– The principal contribution is to demonstrate the breakdown of constituents into common denominators of economic, social and environmental categories, based upon empirical observations. The case studies reported generate a model that combines a conceptual and managerial framework aimed at implementing and managing sustainable business practices; they offer a contribution by shedding light on constituents that may be relevant and essential in framing economic, social and environmental efforts of business sustainability in the marketplace and society.
The climatic influence on sustainable refurbishments and life cycle investing in Australia
Authors: Heywood Chris , Hertzsch Eckhart , Piechowski Mirek
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to report an investigation of the effect of location on refurbishment strategies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using the temperate and sub-tropical urban locations in Australia. This occurred within a larger research project that investigated methods for sustainable refurbishments to office buildings and their optimized timing from an investment perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

– An office building in Melbourne was used to develop seven sets of improvements using an integrated approach to upgrade mechanical services and the building envelope. Using asset management trigger points the impact on net present value and internal rate of return were calculated, taking into account the capital expenditure required, the energy savings due to the refurbishment, as well as a possible rental increase due to the upgrade and lesser operational energy bills for the tenants. To investigate the importance of the location attribute the upgraded building’s performance was modelled in a different climate by using a Brisbane weather file.

Findings

– A number of unexpected results were found, including that the same sets of improvements had similar reductions in GHG emissions in the two locations, they had similar impacts on the investment criteria and when using the National Australian Building Energy Rating System it was shown that it was easier and cheaper to get an uplift in stars in Melbourne than Brisbane.

Research limitations/implications

– This location-specific analysis is the result of using a more sophisticated and holistic methodology to analyse sustainable refurbishments that more closely resembles the complexity of the decision making required to make buildings more sustainable.

Practical implications

– This paper provides a basis for property investors to make decisions about sustainable investments when location is important. This can occur when a portfolio is distributed across various climate zones.

Originality/value

– The research project that the paper reports addresses the complexity of building attributes, possible sets of improvements to reduce GHG emissions and their investment decisions, within a life cycle view of assets. It is rare that this complexity is addressed as a whole, and rarer that locational climatic differences are examined.
Land readjustment as an alternative land development tool for peri-urban areas of Ethiopia
Authors: Adam Achamyeleh Gashu
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The rapid urban population growth in Ethiopia is causing an increasing demand for urban land, which primarily tends to be supplied by expropriation of peri-urban land. The process of urban development in Ethiopia is largely criticized for forced displacement and disruption of the peri-urban local community. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to introduce how Ethiopia’s urban development system could be built on the participatory and inclusive approaches of land acquisition.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study has employed questionnaire survey results, focus group discussion with panel of experts and previous research reports to examine the peri-urban situations and then to show why an alternative land development approach is needed to be introduced in the urban land development system of Ethiopia. Desk review on land readjustment was also made to explore best lessons from other countries applicable to the peri-urban contexts of Ethiopia.

Findings

– This study has explored that land readjustment is potentially an appropriate land development tool to alleviate peri-urban land development limitations in Ethiopia.

Practical implications

– Researchers, policy makers and government bodies that are interested in peri-urban land would appreciate and consider implementing the adapted land readjustment model as an alternative land development tool. Consequently, the local peri-urban landholders’ rights would be protected and maintained in the process of urbanization.

Originality/value

– Although land readjustment has the potential to achieve participatory peri-urban land development, awareness of the method in the Ethiopian urban land development system is inadequate. This study contributes to fill this gap and create an insight into the basic conditions for the adaption of the tool.
Students’ perception of the relevance of work experience scheme to real estate education in Nigeria
Authors: Oladokun Timothy Tunde , Ayodele Timothy Oluwafemi
Published: February 2015

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relevance of students industrial work experience scheme (SIWES) to real estate education in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

– Primary data were collected with the aid of questionnaire served on 182 parts 3 and 4 students of Estate Management and Valuation, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria. The descriptive methods of mean and proportion method were used to determine the factors that are considered could contribute to real estate education in Nigeria.

Findings

– The result shows that SIWES is an integral part of real estate education and that it helps the students to acquire behavioural skills in addition to acquiring necessary experience required to set up private practice upon completion.

Research limitations/implications

– Obtaining the perception of students alone could make the findings one sided and bias. Further detailed research targeted at the employers of labour will provide a balanced view. Also, extending further studies to incorporating students of more universities will be more exciting.

Originality/value

– This paper is an effort at stimulating the interest of other researchers in conducting similar research to cover all institutions in Nigeria as well as obtaining the perception of the employers of labour in this respect.
When anthropogenic‐related disturbances overwhelm demographic persistence mechanisms
Authors: Duwyn Alisha , MacDougall Andrew S.
Published: February 2015

Population decline is associated with increased vulnerability to extinction, but also with possible density‐, frequency‐ or distance‐related ‘rarity advantages’ that increase recruitment success as individuals become isolated from their congeners. Distinguishing between these alternatives (risk vs. recovery of rare populations via demographic processes) has become critical, given how anthropogenic disturbances are causing population declines globally.

Here, we demonstrate how distance‐related rarity advantages are evident in spatially isolated recruits of a canopy‐dominant but regionally rare species of oak that appears to be suffering recruitment collapse. As distance from parent trees increased, seedlings had significantly more leaves and experienced reduced insect browsing and intraspecific competition. Long‐term field‐based experimental treatments revealed these advantages to be associated with rapid rates of juvenile maturation and survival that are unobserved in natural settings.

The discrepancy between the experimental and natural settings was explained by trophic collapse and habitat loss – two changes ubiquitous to many terrestrial ecosystems – that combine to concentrate vertebrate herbivores in habitat remnants and cause 100% juvenile mortality via the browsing of taller juveniles. Exotic grass cover, long associated with oak recruitment failure, significantly suppressed seedling height and leaf production, but appeared to delay mortality by hiding shorter seedlings from vertebrate herbivores.

Synthesis. Our work demonstrates how rarity advantages have the potential to positively influence the population performance of a declining species, but are short‐circuited by intense herbivory associated with human‐based environmental change. Regionally, there appear to be few existing conditions on the contemporary landscape that favour juvenile survival, suggesting ongoing recruitment difficulties without intervention. Our work clarifies how extinction risk can in some cases be best defined by how anthropogenic disturbances affect, and are offset by, demographic‐based persistence mechanisms, than simply by present‐day abundance or distribution.
Insulin secretion from beta cells within intact islets: Location matters
Authors: Hoang Do Oanh , Thorn Peter
Published: February 2015

The control of hormone secretion is central to body homeostasis, and its dysfunction is important in many diseases. The key cellular steps that lead to hormone secretion have been identified, and the stimulus‐secretion pathway is understood in outline for many endocrine cells. In the case of insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells, this pathway involves the uptake of glucose, cell depolarization, calcium entry, and the triggering of the fusion of insulin‐containing granules with the cell membrane. The wealth of information on the control of insulin secretion has largely been obtained from isolated single‐cell studies. However, physiologically, beta cells exist within the islets of Langerhans, with structural and functional specializations that are not preserved in single‐cell cultures. This review focuses on recent work that is revealing distinct aspects of insulin secretion from beta cells within the islet.
The hidden seasonality of the rare biosphere in coastal marine bacterioplankton
Authors: Alonso‐Sáez Laura , Díaz‐Pérez Laura , Morán Xosé Anxelu G.
Published: February 2015

Rare microbial taxa are increasingly recognized to play key ecological roles, but knowledge of their spatio‐temporal dynamics is lacking. In a time‐series study in coastal waters, we detected 83 bacterial lineages with significant seasonality, including environmentally relevant taxa where little ecological information was available. For example, Verrucomicrobia had recurrent maxima in summer, while the Flavobacteria NS4, NS5 and NS2b clades had contrasting seasonal niches. Among the seasonal taxa, only 4 were abundant and persistent, 20 cycled between rare and abundant and, remarkably, most of them (59) were always rare (contributing < 1% of total reads). We thus demonstrate that seasonal patterns in marine bacterioplankton are largely driven by lineages that never sustain abundant populations. A fewer number of rare taxa (20) also produced episodic ‘blooms’, and these events were highly synchronized, mostly occurring on a single month. The recurrent seasonal growth and loss of rare bacteria opens new perspectives on the temporal dynamics of the rare biosphere, hitherto mainly characterized by dormancy and episodes of ‘boom and bust’, as envisioned by the seed‐bank hypothesis. The predictable patterns of seasonal reoccurrence are relevant for understanding the ecology of rare bacteria, which may include key players for the functioning of marine ecosystems.
Intestinal Escherichia coli colonization in a mallard duck population over four consecutive winter seasons
Authors: Rödiger Stefan , Kramer Toni , Frömmel Ulrike , Weinreich Jörg , Roggenbuck Dirk , Guenther Sebastian , Schaufler Katharina , Schröder Christian , Schierack Peter
Published: February 2015

We report the population structure and dynamics of one Escherichia coli population of wild mallard ducks in their natural environment over four winter seasons, following the characterization of 100 isolates each consecutive season.

Macro‐restriction analysis was used to define isolates variously as multi‐ or 1‐year pulsed‐field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) types. Isolates were characterized genotypically based on virulence‐associated genes (VAGs), phylogenetic markers, and phenotypically based on haemolytic activity, antimicrobial resistance, adhesion to epithelial cells, microcin production, motility and carbohydrate metabolism.

Only 12 out of 220 PFGE types were detectable over more than one winter, and classified as multi‐year PFGE types. There was a dramatic change of PFGE types within two winter seasons. Nevertheless, the genetic pool (VAGs) and antimicrobial resistance pattern remained remarkably stable. The high diversity and dynamics of this E. coli population were also demonstrated by the occurrence of PFGE subtypes and differences between isolates of one PFGE type (based on VAGs, antimicrobial resistance and adhesion rates). Multi‐ and 1‐year PFGE types differed in antimicrobial resistance, VAGs and adhesion. Other parameters were not prominent colonization factors.

In conclusion, the high diversity, dynamics and stable genetic pool of an E. coli population seem to enable their successful colonization of host animal population over time.
Performance Management in the Public Sector
Authors: West Damian , Blackman Deborah
Published: February 2015

There has been a great deal of work undertaken on employee performance management with the Australian Public Service (APS) over the last 4 years. The objective has been to focus upon achieving high performance rather than merely preventing poor performance. This refocus was adopted to reflect the increasing complexity of the work, a rise in the need for knowledge work, and escalations in the speed and frequency of change; all this within a context requiring a reduction in costs while still meeting the growing expectations of the public and government.

This pair of papers reflects on where employee performance management has got to as a result of the work. Dr. Damian West from the Australian Public Service Commission identifies the continuing importance of effective employee performance management to the APS and public sectors more widely. He highlights the progress that has been made so far, demonstrating the importance of implementation of the process. He suggests that, now that a framework for assessing the potential for employee performance management processes has been established, accountability of the system implementation and adoption will become paramount. Professor Deborah Blackman, whilst echoing the real progress that has been made, suggests that for real improvement in performance management outcomes there needs to be a fundamental shift in thinking; not in terms of the processes or of ensuring compliance, but rather that organizations undertaking performance management need to be much clear as to the strategic direction such a process is going to support. She suggests that there has been too much emphasis on having a system and not enough on determining what such a system is for. When the papers are combined, it can be seen that much progress has been made in terms of the reorientation towards high performance and how to support organizations to work towards this. The next step, for there to be real outcome improvements, is for organizations to be more overt in determining what high performance will look like in their context, then clarifying that to all those involved in developing performance management so that accountabilities at all levels can be agreed, supported, and effective.
The Moderating Effects of National Age Stereotyping on the Relationships between Job Satisfaction and its Determinants: A Study of Older Workers across 26 Countries
Authors: Shiu Edward , Hassan Louise M. , Parry Sara
Published: February 2015

This research explores how national age stereotypes impact older workers' job‐related perceptions by examining probability based samples across 26 countries taken from the European Social Survey. Multilevel data analysis was undertaken. Results show that, at the individual level, both extrinsic rewards and intrinsic rewards directly impact older workers' job satisfaction. At the country level, significant variations are found in the relationships between job satisfaction and related rewards for older workers across the 26 countries. Society's stereotypical views towards older people explained some of these cross‐country variations. This study contributes to extant literature by explicating the process by which society's age stereotypes and the meta‐stereotypes held by older workers affect how these workers make sense and take meaning out of their job‐related circumstances leading to enhanced or diminished job satisfaction. Implications highlight the need for management to be vigilant in identifying and dealing with age stereotypes in the workplace. Furthermore, managers need to be more aware of the potential harmful consequences arising from negative meta‐stereotypes and should implement strategies to tackle workplace stereotypes that would lead to negative meta‐stereotypes held by older workers.
A Biopolitics of Immaterial Labor
Authors: Just Daniel
Published: February 2015

This article examines Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s and Paolo Virno’s use of Michel Foucault’s notions of ‘biopower’ and ‘biopolitics’ with respect to today’s hegemony of immaterial labor, i.e. work without an end product. In spite of relatively infrequent references to work, Foucault formulates these notions in markedly economic terms: biopower is inextricable from work because, unlike punitive power that represses and disciplines life, it cultivates life by fostering an efficient, productive and active population. Drawing attention to a shift in emphasis in Hardt and Negri’s and Virno’s accounts of work and biopower – from a diagnostic analysis of labor practices to immaterial labor’s latent political possibilities – it is argued in the article that what gets lost in this shift is Foucault’s insistence on questioning the role of work in modern society. Work is not an inherently valuable activity, but, as current contradictions that have emerged with immaterial labor demonstrate, a product of mechanisms which endow it with its present status as the central organizing principle of both social and personal life.
Advancing Justice and Democracy ‘beyond’ the State: Feasibility through Flexibility
Authors: Kuyper Jonathan W.
Published: February 2015

The literature on international political theory is replete with proposals to make world politics a more just and democratic place. This article explores how the cosmopolitan design project can be made more tractable in a world composed of sovereign nation states. Specifically, it argues that flexibility mechanisms – tools common in international cooperation – enhance the feasibility of design. The article draws upon the recent work on political feasibility and argues that economic, institutional and cultural constraints can be overcome by using flexibility mechanisms. In order to gain traction on the argument, prescriptions made in the field of intellectual property rights are analysed. Thomas Pogge and Allen Buchanan, Tony Cole and Robert Keohane have separately advanced institutional proposals to reform the global essential medicine system. The article details how feasibility can be enhanced through flexibility in light of these proposals, and makes a suggestion about their comparative feasibility and desirability.
A Dilemma of Green Democracy
Authors: Wong James K
Published: February 2015

Can democracy secure environmental sustainability? This article proposes a basic, yet substantial organising principle – the ‘dilemma of green democracy’ – which maps out the possibility of realising green decision outcomes under democratic constraints. The dilemma posits that there is no logical or unconditional relationship between democratic decisions and environmental sustainability. More speciﬁcally, three plausible conditions for collective environmental decision making – robustness to pluralism, consensus preservation and green outcomes – are mutually inconsistent, meaning that they cannot be satisﬁed simultaneously. To construct a logically possible environmental-democratic institution, we must avoid the dilemma by relaxing at least one of the conditions. This article explores a number of escape routes from the dilemma, and discusses each proposal by drawing on democratic theory and empirical examples in environmental politics. It concludes that as long as the dilemma of green democracy is resolved, democracy can, at least in principle, secure environmental sustainability.