bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Structural variety of heterosynthons in linezolid cocrystals with modified thermal properties
Authors: Khalaji Mehrnaz , Wróblewska Aneta , Wielgus Ewelina , Bujacz Grzegorz D. , Dudek Marta K. , Potrzebowski Marek J.
Published: September 2020

In a search for new crystalline forms of linezolid with modified thermal properties five cocrystals of this wide range antibiotic with aromatic acids were obtainedviamechanochemical grinding and analyzed with single crystal X-ray diffraction, solid-state NMR spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction and DSC measurements. The coformers used in this study were benzoic acid,p-hydroxybenzoic acid, protocatechuic acid, γ-resorcylic acid and gallic acid. In each of the cocrystals distinct structural features have been found, including a variable amount of water and different heterosynthons, indicating that there is more than one type of intermolecular interaction preferred by the linezolid molecule. Basing on the frequency of the observed supramolecular synthons, the proposed hierarchy of the hydrogen-bond acceptor sites of linezolid (LIN) is C=Oamide> C=Ooxazolidone> C—O—Cmorpholine> C—N—Cmorpholine> C—O—Coxazolidone. In addition, aromatic–aromatic interactions were found to be important in the stabilization of the analyzed structures. The obtained cocrystals show modified thermal properties, with four of them having melting points lower than the temperature of the phase transition from linezolid form II to linezolid form III. Such a change in this physicochemical property allows for the future application of melting-based techniques of introducing linezolid into drug delivery systems. In addition a change in water solubility of linezolid upon cocrystalization was evaluated, but only in the case of the cocrystal with protocatechuic acid was there a significant (43%) improvement in solubility in comparison with linezolid.
Li4Ru2OCl10·10H2O: crystal structure, magnetic properties and bonding interactions in ruthenium-oxo complexes
Authors: Mudiyanselage Ranuri S Dissanayaka , Marshall Madalynn , Kong Tai , Xie Weiwei
Published: September 2020

The results of the structural determination, magnetic characterization, and theoretical calculations of a new ruthenium-oxo complex, Li4[Ru2OCl10]·10H2O, are presented. Single crystals were grown using solvent methods and the crystal structure was characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Li4[Ru2OCl10]·10H2O crystallizes into a low-symmetry triclinic structure (P
1) due to the much smaller Li+ cation compared to K+ cation in the tetragonal complex K4[Ru2OCl10]·H2O. The X-ray photoelectron spectra confirm only the single valent Ru4+ in Li4[Ru2OCl10]·10H2O even though two distinct Ru sites exist in the crystal structure. Magnetic measurements reveal the diamagnetic property of Li4[Ru2OCl10]·10H2O with unpaired electrons existing on Ru4+. Furthermore, the molecular orbital analysis matches well with the observed UV and magnetic measurements.
Role and implementation of sustainability management control tools: critical aspects in the Italian context
Authors: Corsi Katia , Arru Brunella
Published: September 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show the relevance attributed to sustainability management control tools (SMCTs) and their real use. Mainly, this study aims to shed light on the approaches, motivations and difficulties encountered in SMCTs adoption by the most sustainable Italian companies, as well as their effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a pre-structured qualitative survey method, the authors grasped information about external and internal dimensions of sustainability management in light of institutional and resource-based view theories. Data are elaborated with two methods: a regime analysis to assess the relevance of SMCTs and a descriptive analysis to investigate the “aim”, “which” and “how” of the SMCTs' use by companies listed in sustainability indices.

Findings

Informal SMCTs prevailed over formal ones. There is a discrepancy between attention paid to some tools praised in the literature and their knowledge and use. In addition, a significant gap exists between what is desired and what is achieved in terms of effectiveness. Further, although sustainability management is primarily oriented towards the external perspective, SMCTs can be key to improving both the disclosure and management of sustainability.

Research limitations/implications

The criteria for the selection of the sample resulted in a small number of analysed companies, which allowed us to gain insight into what happens inside the listed Italian companies in the most important sustainability indices. These companies have sustainability-oriented management, which also probably safeguards their advantage linked to inclusion in these indices.

Practical implications

This paper provides food for thought for companies engaged in non-financial disclosure and for those who aim to implement SMCTs. It shows the need to reinforce formal sustainability control tools, also through dissemination of major knowledge about the implementation of these tools, and to encourage sponsorship from top levels of management.

Originality/value

Compared with SMCT research using a theoretical or case study approach, this study uniquely undertakes extensive research on the perceived effectiveness of SMCTs in achieving sustainability goals and the difficulties in implementing them, thereby highlighting a discrepancy between some tools emphasised in the literature and those infrequently used in sustainability-oriented companies.
About sad legacies: a study of the intergenerational occupational legacy in Brazil
Authors: Gomes Magno Rogério , Cunha Marina Silva da , Souza Solange de Cássia Inforzato de , Mourão Paulo Jorge Reis
Published: September 2020

Purpose

This article aims to analyze the workers' probabilities of following their parents’ occupational legacy and whether these individuals are paid differently compared to those who opted for occupations different from their parents, in Brazil.

Design/methodology/approach

To that end, the occupational legacy probability equation was estimated as the quantile wage equations with sample selection bias correction and the wage decomposition for Brazil from the microdata of the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) of 2014. It was found that families have a strong influence on the process of choosing the careers of their children. The average probability of a young person following the occupational legacy of their parents was 41.63%. This percentage is different when analyzing different groups of individuals, such as being male or female, being in a traditional or single parent family, being in an income household lower or higher per capita.

Findings

The results also confirm the hypothesis that workers who tend to follow the occupational legacy have lower wages than individuals who choose other occupations and that this may cause a “poverty trap” since the lower the salary quantile, the stronger the “trap” as economically disadvantaged young people tend to follow in their parents' footsteps and to contribute to family income they face a tradeoff, opt between work or study, which ends up disrupting their education and forcing young people to entering the job market early, performing secondary occupations with lower income and arduous work, generating a “vicious cycle of poverty”.

Research limitations/implications

Given the database, we are comprised to its most recent version.

Practical implications

This is the first work on Latin American problem of occupational legacy.

Originality/value

This is the first work on Latin American problem of occupational legacy.
Investigating the interplays between integrated reporting practices and circular economy disclosure
Authors: Barnabè Federico , Nazir Sarfraz
Published: September 2020

Purpose

This study seeks to: (1) discuss how the integrated reporting (IR) framework may provide the principles, concepts and the key elements to support the analysis and representation of circular economy (CE)–related activities and information; (2) explore how and to what extent current IR practices are including and disclosing CE-related information; (3) investigate through an exploratory case study the interplays between IR and CE.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on a theoretical analysis of the interplays between CE and IR, this study first performs textual content analysis on a dataset of 84 integrated reports to determine the type and extent of CE-related disclosure. Subsequently, the article presents and discusses an exploratory case study developed according to an action research perspective.

Findings

Through textual content analysis, the study provides data on CE-related reporting practices for 74 organizations operating worldwide, highlighting differences in reporting choices and emphasizing the role played by IR concepts. Through the exploratory case study, this article provides insights on how IR principles support the analysis and the (re)presentation of CE-related information.

Research limitations/implications

Content analysis is used to explore how and to what extent companies disclose CE-related information, not to investigate the quality of such disclosure. Only one single exploratory case study is used.

Practical implications

This article advocates to embed CE data into integrated reports and according to IR principles. The exploratory case study offers useful insights and examples.

Originality/value

This work represents one of the first studies advocating and exploring the interplays between CE and IR. Additionally, this study aids in the development of a more standardized and established terminology for CE research and reporting practices.
The effect of board multiple directorships and CEO characteristics on firm performance: evidence from Palestine
Authors: Saleh Mohammed W.A. , Shurafa Rabee , Shukeri Siti Norwahida , Nour Abdulnasr Ibrahim , Maigosh Zaharaddeen Salisu
Published: September 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effect of board multiple directorships and chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics on firm performance among nonfinancial firms listed on the Palestine Security Exchange (PSE) during the period from 2009 to 2016.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on 200 observations, this study utilizes panel data to examine the effect of the predictors on firm performance measured by return on assets. The analysis is repeated using the return on equity and two regression methods to evaluate the robustness of the main analysis (pooled regression, and backward stepwise regression analysis).

Findings

The results show that the “busyness” of a CEO reduces their effectiveness and is associated with losses in the companies where they are in charge. On the other hand, the results show that CEO tenure, CEO experience and CEO political connections have a positive effect on corporate performance.

Originality/value

This study is timely given that the practice of multiple directorships is widely common among firms in developing countries. Prior research in Palestine has not investigated the role of multiple directorships and the CEO characteristics on corporate outcomes. This study provides a picture of the potential benefits to firms, policymakers and professional bodies from considering CEO variables. The findings of such an examination can help them to set up suitable policies and enhance the role and the quality of the CEO in firms.
The Establishment of the Forecasting Model for Regime Switching in Time Series
Authors: Lyu Geun Gwan , Bin Gi Beom , Lee Yeong Jo , Jo Seong Jun
Published: September 2020

Efficient market hypothesis implies that the past price movements do not help forecast future price movements. Thus, it is impossible to consistently benefit by a technical trading strategy. On the other hand, technical analysts claim that the historical price movements are useful in predicting future price movements. These two lines of arguments are mutually contradictory. This paper reasonably assumes that the more efficient markets are, the worse will be the investment performance of technical analysis, and that as financial market‘s trading volume grows and with the elapse of time, the efficiency of markets should improve. This implies that after the launch of a new financial asset, market efficiency would improve with increased trading and elapsed time. In this paper, the duration analysis technique is used as a forecasting model and applied to measure the efficiency of Korean futures market and the won/dollar exchange rate market.
Risk Management with KOSDAQ50 Index Futures Markets
Authors: Mun Gyu Hyeon , Hong Jeong Hyo
Published: September 2020

This paper studies hedging strategies that use the KOSDAQ50 index futures to hedge the price risk of the KOSDAQ50 index spot portfolio. This study uses the minimum variance hedge model and bivariate ECT-GARCH (1,1) model as hedging models, and analyzes their hedging performances. The sample period covers from January 31, 2001 to December 31, 2002. The most important findings may be summarized as follows. First, both the risk-minimization and GARCH model exhibit hedge ratios that are substantially lower than one. Hedge ratios of the risk-minimization tend to be higher than those of GARCH model. Second, for the in-sample data, hedging effectiveness of GARCH model is higher than that of the risk-minimization, while for the out-of-sample data, hedging effectiveness of the risk-minimization with constant hedge ratios is not far behind the GARCH model in its hedging performance. Third, the hedging performance of KOSDAQ50 index futures is lower than that of KOSPI200 index futures, but higher than that of KTB futures. In conclusion, in the KOSDAQ50 index market, investors are encouraged to use the simple risk-minimization model to hedge the price risk of KOSDAQ50 spot portfolios.
Implied Volatility Asymmetries in Kospi 200 Option Markets
Authors: Og Gi Yull
Published: September 2020

This paper examines implied volatility asymmetries in KOSPI200 option markets. The empirical results show that the unexpected negative return has a more remarkable effect on implied volatility than the unexpected positive one in the early stages of markets. In the recent stages, markets do not show implied volatility asymmetries. These results give and interesting implication to option market participants. In addition, this paper examines whether trading activity in option markets has an effect on implied volatility. The paper finds that in the second stages of markets trading activity has a negative effect on implied volatility while trading activity do not have effect on implied volatility in the early stages of markets. When trading activity is partitioned into expected and unexpected components, the empirical result shows that all trading activities have a significant negative effect on the implied volatility of option markets.
Cost and time performance analysis of progressive design-build projects
Authors: Adamtey Simon
Published: September 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and determine the time and cost performance of progressive design-build (PDB) projects compared with that of design-build (DB) projects. The objective is to provide empirical evidence on the performance of PDB delivery method.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative research approach was used by analyzing time and cost data collected on 75 PDB and 92 DB projects from the database of Design-Build Institute of America. One-way analysis of variance was used to determine statistical difference in time and cost performance between PDB and DB.

Findings

PDB projects have a comparatively better time performance than cost performance. When compared with DB projects, there was a statistically significant difference in time overrun with PDB performing better than DB (0.41 vs 8.0%). Additionally, about 80% of PDB projects had shorter or as scheduled duration compared to 74% for DB. There was no statistically significant difference of cost performance between PDB and DB.

Research limitations/implications

The main limitation is the sample size of 72 PDB projects. It is recommended that further research should be conducted using a larger sample size to confirm the findings of this study.

Practical implications

PDB will be more beneficial for projects with sensitive deadlines. For an owner deciding between PDB and DB, the advantage of using PDB is in its time performance, which may lead to the project being completed on or ahead of time. As such, PDB can serve as another “tool in the toolbox” for owners to help in reducing construction delays.

Originality/value

This paper is the first attempt to provide an empirical evidence of the cost and time performance of PDB based on analyzing multiple projects. Owners will be better informed when selecting PDB for their projects.
Finite element analysis of ports pavement under container loading
Authors: Hasheminasab Sajad , Kashi Ehsan
Published: September 2020

Purpose

In many coastal areas where there are problematic soils, pavement construction on the soil is difficult because of the low shear strength and high consolidated. Also, given that the container terminals constitute more than 70% of the port area and as pavement in these areas is subject to heavy loads due to the long-term container storage, wheels of transport and movement equipment, the pavement must tolerate a distributed loading of at least 4 ton/m2in accordance with the type and weight of the containers imposed on the pavement. This study aims to investigate a variety of common pavement designs in coastal areas of southern Iran. The pavement type and characteristics of the subgrade layers are the same for each port; the thickness of different pavement layers is designed.

Design/methodology/approach

Due to problematic soil in the pavement subgrade, heavy and long-term container loading and the associated equipment, port pavement enjoys great importance.

Findings

The designed pavements are modeled by ABAQUS finite element software. The pavements are subject to a static load imposed by the corner casting container and resulted a distributed load 4 tons/m2. The results from data analysis show that the concrete block pavements influenced by the containers static loads of 3%–20% have less vertical displacement on the subgrade than other pavements (rigid and flexible).

Originality/value

This paper is modeling 3 port pavement in Iran. Based on field evaluation and simulation actual loading on pavement.
The value effects of green retrofits
Authors: Brounen Dirk , Groh Alexander Michael , Haran Martin
Published: September 2020

Purpose

This paper aims to decompose the value effects of green retrofits on commercial real estate. The paper disentangles various sources of value capture mechanisms that can be attained through green retrofit actions and profiles the extent to which green retrofit solutions can be effectively capitalised using transaction evidence from the Munich housing market. The insights offered can help real estate owners and investors during theirex anteanalysis of future energetic retrofit investments.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors offer their reader both a conceptual framework and the results from an empirical analysis to identify the value effects of retrofits and the associating gains in energy efficiency. The conceptual framework theorises the different value components that a deep retrofit has to offer. The regression analysis includes a multivariate analysis of 8,928 dwellings in the Munich residential real estate market.

Findings

This study’s framework disentangles the total retrofit value effect into three components: the capitalisation of energy savings, the exposure to the value discount because of stricter standards and the value uplift because of indirect benefits (health, employee satisfaction, marketing etc.). The regression results indicate that the value gains because of energy efficiency improvements are in the range of 2.4–7.4%, while the indirect benefits and reduced exposure to stricter standards amount to another 3%.

Originality/value

While numerous studies have investigated the upside value effects of energy efficiency in the real estate sector, there is scant academic research which has sought to evidence the value of green retrofit solutions and the extent to which this can be capitalised. Instrumentalising the various value effects of energetic retrofit that have been identified is not straightforward. At the same time, inadequate value capture of energetic retrofit effects could delay intervention timelines or aborting of proposed retrofit actions which should be of primary concern to policymakers and stakeholders tasked with the decarbonisation of real estate assets.
The nexus between demographic correlates, career and organizational commitment: the case of real estate employees in Nigeria
Authors: Ayodele Timothy Oluwafemi , Ekemode Benjamin Gbolahan , Oladokun Sunday , Kajimo-Shakantu Kahilu
Published: September 2020

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the influence of socioeconomic characteristics as well as organisational profile as predictors of the organisational and career commitments of real estate employees in the employment of private estate surveying and valuation firms.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 333 closed-ended questionnaires were administered on estate surveyors and valuers practicing in private real estate firms in Lagos State, Nigeria, out of which 124 (37.2%) were retrieved and found suitable for analysis. The data were analysed using frequencies, percentage, mean rating, one samplet-test and ANOVA.

Findings

The findings showed that though the male real estate employees rated a higher level of organisational commitment than their female counterparts, the female employees showed a higher level of career commitment. Besides, the results showed that across both genders and on an overall basis, there was a significant relationship between career commitment and organisational commitment. Also, while demographic factors such as age, management level and professional qualification have a statistically significant relationship with career commitment, factors relating to marital status, academic qualification, management level and firms’ year of the establishment were statistically significant with employees’ organisational commitment.

Practical implications

The study deepens the understanding of the influence of demographic and firms’ correlates in explaining the performance of real estate employees in Nigeria, an emerging African market, where issues of absenteeism, poor remuneration and low retention appear prevalent.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt at examining the influence of demographic variables on the organisational and career commitment of real estate employees in Nigeria.
The relationship between climate change and mental health information-seeking: a preliminary investigation
Authors: Williams Marc O.
Published: September 2020

Purpose

Extreme weather events are known to be detrimental to well-being, and there is a growing interest in anxiety connected to unfolding climate change. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the global association between information-seeking relating to climate change and mental health.

Design/methodology/approach

By using Big Data from Google searches and website traffic, evidence is presented that worldwide information-seeking for climate change and mental health-related terms are highly correlated. Regression analyses account for seasonal variation that is known to influence online searches for mental health terms.

Findings

There is an association between climate change and mental health-related information-seeking for the period of 2006–2020. This paper proposes causal models to account for the data, with future directions for how these could be tested.

Originality/value

This is the first paper according to the author’s knowledge to demonstrate a strong association between information-seeking for climate change and mental health and highlights the importance of considering mental health issues in the era of rapid climate change.
An optimization approach for traveling purchaser problem with environmental impact of transportation cost
Authors: Kang He-Yau , Lee Amy H.I. , Yeh Yu-Fan
Published: September 2020

Purpose

The traveling purchaser problem (TPP) has gained attention in academics to deal with different variants in real business world. This study aims to study a green TPP with quantity discounts and soft time windows (TPPQS), in which a firm needs to purchase products from a set of available markets and deliver the products to a set of customers.

Design/methodology/approach

Vehicles are available to visit the markets, which offer products at different prices and with different quantity discount schemes. Soft time windows are present for the markets and the customers, and earliness cost and tardiness may incur if a vehicle cannot arrive a market or a customer within the designated time interval. The environmental impact of transportation activities is considered. The objective of this research is to minimize the total cost, including vehicle-assigning cost, vehicle-traveling cost, purchasing cost, emission cost, earliness cost and tardiness cost, while meeting the total demand of the customers and satisfying all the constraints. A mixed integer programming (MIP) model and a genetic algorithm (GA) approach are proposed to solve the TPPQS.

Findings

The results show that both the MIP and the GA can obtain optimal solutions for small-scale cases, and the GA can generate near-optimal solutions for large-scale cases within a short computational time.

Practical implications

The proposed models can help firms increase the performance of customer satisfaction and provide valuable supply chain management references in the service industry.

Originality/value

The proposed models for TPPQS are novel and can facilitate firms to design their green traveling purchasing plans more effectively in today’s environmental conscious and competitive market.
Technology transfer and its impact on innovation and firm performance: empirical evidence from Turkish export companies
Authors: Cinar Omer , Altuntas Serkan , Alan Mehmet Asif
Published: September 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between technology transfer, innovation and firm performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The relationship between technology transfer, innovation and firm performance is examined by using data obtained from 252 Turkish export firms, which are among the top 1,000 firms in terms of export volume in Turkey. To examine these relationships, a theoretical framework is empirically tested using structural equation modeling and tested via an empirical study of Turkish export companies.

Findings

The results of this study can benefit policymakers in government at the national level and company decision-makers at the firm level. Furthermore, an understanding of the relationship between technology transfer, innovation and firm performance may help firms to make correct technology transfer decisions and focus on the correct type of innovation to increase firm performance in practice. The findings indicate the positive effects of technology transfer on innovation and firm performance. In addition, innovation mediates the relationship between technology transfer and firm performance in Turkish export companies. This study suggests that decision-makers should transfer the right technology because well-realized technology transfers lead to the improvement of corporate innovation capacities and improvement of firm performances for export companies.

Originality/value

There is no study that fully examined the relationship between technology transfer, innovation and firm performance. The proposed literature-based theoretical framework in this study is novel for Turkish export companies.
Restructuring seafarers’ welfare under the Maritime Labour Convention: an empirical case study of Greece
Authors: Zhang Pengfei , Zhao Lijun , Vata Olga , Rajagopal Sriram
Published: September 2020

Purpose

This paper aims to examine three of the major issues relating to the welfare of seafarers, including wages, social security benefits and onboard and ashore welfare facilities and services. It is impossible to research all countries here, so this paper selects Greece – which is one of today’s primary shipping countries as for shipowning, as well as for global supply and demand for seafarers – to conduct an empirical case study.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the existing knowledge and scholarship, and primary data collected in several phases of fieldwork, this paper intends to critically examine three major issues relating to the welfare for Greek seafarers, namely, wages, social security benefits and onboard and ashore welfare facilities and services.

Findings

This paper finds that they face poor labour conditions, which are getting worse due to the depressed world and Greek economies and intense financial pressures on shipping companies. The entry into force of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 has a significant impact on the world maritime industry.

Research limitations/implications

This paper critically examines the three major issues relating to the welfare of Greek seafarers.

Originality/value

Such issues, which Greece is facing are also common in other countries, so the findings and suggestions revealed from this paper are of importance for the global shipping industry and other states.
Assessing nutrient inadequacies and influence of socio-economic characteristics on diet quality of the Mbororo minority women in Northwest Cameroon
Authors: Ebile Pride Anya , Ndah Hycenth Tim , Wünsche Jens Norbert
Published: September 2020

Purpose

Limited data are available in facilitating nutritional interventions in developing countries. The objective of this study is to assess the mean dietary diversity score (DDS)of Mbororo minority women in the Northwest region of Cameroon.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used the random sampling technique within the Mbororo minority communities (Adorates). A questionnaire on dietary diversity, including 461 Mbororo women, provided information on food consumed using the 24-h dietary recall method.

Findings

Various socio-cultural and economic characteristics of the Mbororo women affected the nutrient level of their diet. Moreover, starchy staples, vitamin-A rich vegetables and palm oil and milk and milk products were consumed by more than half of the Mbororo community. Family herd size showed a positive influence on the dietary habit of the Mbororo population. The mean DDS significantly increased (p = 0.001), as herd size increased from below 50 (3.9 ± 1.1) to above 100 (4.8 ± 1.2).

Practical implications

Most of the diet consumed by the Mbororo women were low in iron, making them susceptible to nutrition anemia. The diet of the Aku women was more deficient in micronutrients than their Jaafun counterpart. These results indicate suitable areas of intervention for any nutrition program that targets the Mbororo minority group of Northwest Cameron.

Social implications

DDS can be used in assessing and classifying the population in rural communities according to the deficiencies in micronutrients of their diet.

Originality/value

The use of DDS to assess the nutrient quality of diets is frequently used to evaluate the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies but has never been applied to Mbororo minority women.
Dichotomies of method and practice: a review of literature on transcription
Authors: Shelton Stephanie Anne , Flint Maureen A.
Published: September 2020

Purpose

Transcription is an integral component to qualitative research, and as such, the ways that researchers discuss transcription in the literature matter. Scholarly discussions on the “how” and “why” of transcription not only shape discourse within interview data-based fields; they inform the ways that researchers understand the roles and ramifications of transcribing. This study aims to provide a comprehensive literature review of articles on transcription published in qualitative methods journals over the past 25 years, offering implications for research practice and pedagogy.

Design/methodology/approach

The literature review asked: How do qualitative researchers discuss transcription/transcribing? The authors first reviewed how transcription was discussed in the literature in qualitative studies in the social sciences broadly. Based on the findings, the authors then conducted a comprehensive literature review in 14 qualitative methods journals.

Findings

The authors found that overall, authors discussed transcription either as a technical tool or as a complex, researcher-constructed process. Specifically, utilitarian discussions of transcription emphasized transcription accuracy and efficiency, while theoretical discussions of transcription emphasized a continuously analytic and researcher-constructed process.

Originality/value

This study offers a comprehensive overview of the past 25 years of articles published on transcription. The authors conclude with a discussion of articles that bridge the theoretical and utilitarian discussions, as well as considerations for using transcription as a pedagogical tool for teaching qualitative research methods.
Voles mediate functional trait diversity along a resource gradient
Authors: Larios Loralee , Maron John L.
Published: September 2020

Disentangling the effect of multiple ecological processes on plant trait composition is complicated by the fact that both top‐down and bottom‐up processes may affect similar traits.

We examined the interacting role of resource variation and vole herbivory on functional trait patterns in an annual California grassland. We manipulated vole herbivory via exclosures at eight grassland sites along a steep resource gradient and measured plant composition and functional traits over 3 years.

Plants with resource acquisitive functional traits were favoured at sites with increasing resources. Vole herbivory influenced community‐weighted mean (CWM) leaf nitrogen (N) and seed mass, suggesting these traits may mediate plant susceptibility to vole herbivory. After 3 years, CWM leaf N increased in the absence of the voles, as did CWM seed mass, although this increase in CWM seed mass only occurred at higher resource sites. Vole exclusion at high‐resources sites also increased the functional diversity of leaf N and seed mass by the end of the experiment.

Overall, environmental filtering primarily structured the dominant plant trait strategies, but vole herbivory also influenced the functional diversity of traits that influence herbivore susceptibility, particularly at resource‐rich sites.

Thus, habitat filtering and herbivory can operate on different dimensions of plant functional composition to influence the species and functional composition of communities.

A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Dysfunction of perivascular adipose tissue in mesenteric artery is restored by aerobic exercise in high‐fat diet induced obesity
Authors: Liao Jingwen , Yin Honggang , Huang Junhao , Hu Min
Published: September 2020

This study investigated the function of perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) on vascular contractility within resistant arteries in high‐fat diet induced obese rats after long‐term aerobic exercise. Male Sprague‐Dawley rats were subjected to normal diet control group (N‐CTRL), normal diet exercise group (N‐EX), high‐fat diet control group (H‐CTRL), and high‐fat diet exercise group (H‐EX) (n = 8 in each group). After intervention, adipose tissues morphology was observed. Vasomotor function of mesenteric arteries with or without PVAT were assessed; mesenteric PVAT isolated from each group were transferred to chambers bath with untreated vessels (without PVAT) to evaluate the independent effect. Isolated PVAT was further pre‐treated with inhibitor of cystathionine‐γ‐lyase (CSE), a key hydrogen sulphide (H2S) enzyme. Results showed that the size of lipid droplet around mesenteric arteries from H‐EX was significantly reduced (P < .05); uncoupling protein1 (UCP1) in PVAT from H‐EX was enhanced. In N‐CTRL, N‐EX, and H‐EX, vessels without PVAT showed higher sensitivity to serotonin (5‐HT) than that with intact PVAT. Vascular tension by 5‐HT was significantly reduced in H‐EX than H‐CTRL (P < .05) in vessels with PVAT. Transferred PVAT from H‐EX compared with H‐CTRL significantly reduced vascular sensitivity to 5‐HT (P < .05), and this effect was eliminated through inhibiting CSE. In summary, the anti‐contractile effect of PVAT on resistance artery was impaired in obesity but restored by long‐term aerobic exercise. The function of PVAT modified by obesity or by exercise has an independent influence on vascular reactivity, and PVAT derived H2S may participate in this process.
The availability of LGBT‐specific mental health and substance abuse treatment in the United States
Authors: Williams Natasha D. , Fish Jessica N.
Published: September 2020

Objective

To examine the availability and facility‐level predictors of LGBT‐specific mental health and substance abuse treatment in the United States.

Data Sources/Study Setting

2016 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services, 2016 National Mental Health Service Survey, and 2015‐2016 Gallup Daily tracking survey.

Study Design

Logistic regression models and average marginal effects were used to identify characteristics of facilities that offer LGBT‐specific programs. Linear regression models were used to estimate the association between the state‐level proportion of LGBT people and the proportion of facilities that offer LGBT‐specific programs.

Data Collection/Extraction Methods

Secondary data analysis. Cases with missing values for any predictor were excluded.

Principle Findings

12.6 percent of mental health and 17.6 percent of substance abuse facilities reported LGBT‐specific programs. Several facility characteristics were statistically associated with the likelihood of mental health and substance abuse facilities providing LGBT‐specific programs, including offering outpatient or residential treatment, private ownership, religious affiliation, and payment type. The proportion of LGBT adults living within each state was statistically associated with state‐level density of LGBT‐specific mental health programs, but not substance abuse programs.

Conclusions

Findings suggest limited availability of culturally competent mental health and substance abuse treatment, despite well‐documented need.
Firearm examination: Examiner judgments and computer‐based comparisons
Authors: Mattijssen Erwin J. A. T. , Witteman Cilia L. M. , Berger Charles E. H. , Zheng Xiaoyu A. , Soons Johannes A. , Stoel Reinoud D.
Published: September 2020

Forensic firearm examination provides the court of law with information about the source of fired cartridge cases. We assessed the validity of source decisions of a computer‐based method and of 73 firearm examiners who compared breechface and firing pin impressions of 48 comparison sets. We also compared the computer‐based method's comparison scores with the examiners' degree‐of‐support judgments and assessed the validity of the latter. The true‐positive rate (sensitivity) and true‐negative rate (specificity) of the computer‐based method (for the comparison of both the breechface and firing pin impressions) were 94.4% and at least 91.7%, respectively. For the examiners, the true‐positive rate was at least 95.3% and the true‐negative rate was at least 86.2%. The validity of the source decisions improved when the evaluations of breechface and firing pin impressions were combined and for the examiners also when the perceived difficulty of the comparison decreased. The examiners were reluctant to provide source decisions for "difficult" comparisons even though their source decisions were mostly correct. The correlation between the computer‐based method's comparison scores and the examiners' degree‐of‐support judgments was low for the same‐source comparisons to negligible for the different‐source comparisons. Combining the outcomes of computer‐based methods with the judgments of examiners could increase the validity of firearm examinations. The examiners' numerical degree‐of‐support judgments for their source decisions were not well‐calibrated and showed clear signs of overconfidence. We suggest studying the merits of performance feedback to calibrate these judgments.
The impact of single nucleotide polymorphisms in ADORA2A and ADORA3 genes on the early response to methotrexate and presence of therapy side effects in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis: Results of a preliminary study
Authors: Roszkiewicz Justyna , Michałek Dominika , Ryk Aleksandra , Swacha Zbigniew , Szmyd Bartosz , Smolewska Elżbieta
Published: September 2020

Aim

Methotrexate (MTX) administered at the dose 10‐15 mg/m2 is recommended as the first‐line therapy in most juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) subtypes. The disease‐modifying effect of methotrexate is associated with release of adenosine and mediated via binding to adenosine receptor A2A (ADORA2A) and 3 (ADORA3). The aim of our study was to determine the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms in ADORA2A (rs2236624, rs2298383) and ADORA3 (rs3393) receptor genes on the disease activity and presence of MTX therapy side effects in patients with JIA.

Methods

One hundred children with JIA of all subtypes treated with MTX were recruited to the study. Demographic and clinical parameters were collected at the baseline of MTX therapy and on a control visit 4‐6 months after starting MTX. Single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping was performed using genomic DNA isolated from peripheral blood samples.

Results

The polymorphic variant of ADORA2A rs2236624 was associated with ~3.5 times higher odds of gastrointestinal side effects occurrence (odds ratio: 3.59, 95% CI: 1.15‐11.22, P = 0.0282). Children with the ADORA3 rs3393 polymorphic variants (CT/CC) after 6 months of MTX treatment had significantly lower number of joints with active arthritis (median: 0.00 vs 1.00, P = 0.0400) and value of C‐reactive protein (0.60 vs 2.40, P = 0.0242) in comparison to TT variant.

Conclusion

Although future studies are needed to verify our findings, polymorphisms in ADORA2A and ADORA3 genes may become the determinants of MTX treatment efficacy and gastrointestinal toxicity in children with JIA.
Seek and learn: Automated identification of microevents in animal behaviour using envelopes of acceleration data and machine learning
Authors: Chakravarty Pritish , Cozzi Gabriele , Dejnabadi Hooman , Léziart Pierre‐Alexandre , Manser Marta , Ozgul Arpat , Aminian Kamiar
Published: September 2020

Animal‐borne accelerometers have been used across more than 120 species to infer biologically significant information such as energy expenditure and broad behavioural categories. While the accelerometer's high sensitivity to movement and fast response times present the unprecedented opportunity to resolve fine‐scale behaviour, leveraging this opportunity will require overcoming the challenge of developing general, automated methods to analyse the nonstationary signals generated by nonlinear processes governing erratic, impulsive movement characteristic of fine‐scale behaviour.

We address this issue by conceptualising fine‐scale behaviour in terms of characteristic microevents: impulsive movements producing brief (<1 s) shock signals in accelerometer data. We propose a ‘seek‐and‐learn’ approach: a novel microevent detection step first locates where shock signals occur (‘seek’) by searching for peaks in envelopes of acceleration data. Robust machine learning (‘learn’) employing meaningful features then separates microevents. We showcase the application of our method on tri‐axial accelerometer data collected on 10 free‐living meerkats Suricata suricatta for four fine‐scale foraging behaviours – searching for digging sites, one‐armed digging, two‐armed digging and head jerks during prey ingestion. Annotated videos served as groundtruth, and performance was benchmarked against that of a variety of classical machine learning approaches.

Microevent identification (μEvId) with eight features in a three‐node hierarchical classification scheme employing logistic regression at each node achieved a mean overall accuracy of >85% during leave‐one‐individual‐out cross‐validation, and exceeded that of the best classical machine learning approach by 8.6%. μEvId was found to be robust not only to inter‐individual variation but also to large changes in model parameters.

Our results show that microevents can be modelled as impulse responses of the animal body‐and‐sensor system. The microevent detection step retains only informative regions of the signal, which results in the selection of discriminative features that reflect biomechanical differences between microevents. Moving‐window‐based classical machine learning approaches lack this prefiltering step, and were found to be suboptimal for capturing the nonstationary dynamics of the recorded signals. The general, automated technique of μEvId, together with existing models that can identify broad behavioural categories, provides future studies with a powerful toolkit to exploit the full potential of accelerometers for animal behaviour recognition.
Which Small Towns Attract Start‐Ups and Why? Twenty Years of Evidence from Iowa
Authors: Artz Georgeanne M. , Kim Younjun , Orazem Peter F. , Han Peter J.
Published: September 2020

Using data on a sample of small Iowa towns consistently collected over two decades, we investigate how agglomeration economies, social capital, human capital, local fiscal policy, and natural amenities affect new firm entry. We find that human capital and agglomeration are more conducive to new firm entry than are natural amenities, local fiscal policy, or social capital. The impact of local fiscal policy is too small to overcome the locational disadvantages from insufficient endowment of human capital and agglomeration. A rural development approach that encourages firm entry in rural towns with the largest endowments of human capital and market agglomeration would be more successful than trying to raise firm entry in every town.