bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Exploring the extracellular regulation of the tumor angiogenic interaction network using a systems biology model
Authors: Li Ding , Finley Stacey D.
Published: March 2019

Tumor angiogenesis is regulated by pro- and anti-angiogenic factors. Anti-angiogenic agents target the interconnected network of angiogenic factors to inhibit neovascularization, which subsequently impedes tumor growth. Due to the complexity of this network, optimizing anti-angiogenic cancer treatments requires detailed knowledge at a systems level. In this study, we constructed a tumor tissue-based model to better understand how the angiogenic network is regulated by opposing mediators at the extracellular level. We consider the network comprised of two pro-angiogenic factors: vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF2), and two anti-angiogenic factors: thrombospondin-1 (TSP1) and platelet factor 4 (PF4). The model’s prediction of angiogenic factors’ distribution in tumor tissue reveals the localization of different factors and indicates the angiogenic state of the tumor. We explored how the distributions are affected by the secretion of the pro- and anti-angiogenic factors, illustrating how the angiogenic network is regulated in the extracellular space. Interestingly, we identified a counterintuitive result that the secretion of the anti-angiogenic factor PF4 can enhance pro-angiogenic signaling by elevating the levels of the interstitial and sur-face-level pro-angiogenic species. This counterintuitive situation is pertinent to the clinical setting, such as the release of anti-angiogenic factors in platelet activation or the administration of exogenous PF4 for anti-angiogenic therapy. Our study provides mechanistic insights into this counterintuitive result and highlights the role of heparan sulfate proteoglycans in regulating the interactions between angiogenic factors. This work complements previous studies aimed at understanding formation of angiogenic complexes in tumor tissue and helps in the development of anti-cancer strategies targeting angiogenesis.
Ribosome profiling at isoform level reveals an evolutionary conserved impact of differential splicing on the proteome
Authors: Reixachs-Solé Marina , Ruiz-Orera Jorge , Albà M Mar , Eyras Eduardo
Published: March 2019

The differential production of transcript isoforms from gene loci is a key cellular mechanism. Yet, its impact in protein production remains an open question. Here, we describe ORQAS (ORF quantification pipeline for alternative splicing), a new pipeline for the translation quantification of individual transcript isoforms using ribosome-protected mRNA fragments (Ribosome profiling). We found evidence of translation for 40-50% of the expressed transcript isoforms in human and mouse, with 53% of the expressed genes having more than one translated isoform in human, 33% in mouse. Differential analysis revealed that about 40% of the splicing changes at RNA level were concordant with changes in translation, with 21.7% of changes at RNA level and 17.8% at translation level conserved between human and mouse. Furthermore, orthologous cassette exons preserving the directionality of the change were conserved between human and mouse and enriched in microexons in a comparison between glia and glioma. ORQAS leverages ribosome profiling to uncover a widespread and evolutionary conserved impact of differential splicing on the translation of isoforms and, in particular, of microexon-containing isoforms. ORQAS is available at https://github.com/comprna/orqas
Droplet scRNA-seq is not zero-inflated
Authors: Svensson Valentine
Published: March 2019

Potential users of single cell RNA-sequencing often encounter a choice between high-throughput droplet based methods and high sensitivity plate based methods. In particular there is a widespread belief that single-cell RNA-sequencing will often fail to generate measurements for particular gene, cell pairs due to molecular inefficiencies, causing data to have an overabundance of zero-values. Investigation of published data of technical controls in droplet based single cell RNA-seq experiments demonstrates the number of zeros in the data is consistent with count statistics, indicating that over-abundances of zero-values in biological data are likely due to biological variation as opposed to technical shortcomings.
An ATAC-seq atlas of chromatin accessibility in mouse tissues
Authors: Liu Chuanyu , Wang Mingyue , Wei Xiaoyu , Wu Liang , Xu Jiangshan , Dai Xi , Xia Jun , Cheng Mengnan , Yuan Yue , Zhang Pengfan , Li Jiguang , Feng Taiqing , Chen Ao , Zhang Wenwei , Chen Fang , Shang Zhouchun , Zhang Xiuqing , Peters Brock A. , Liu Longqi
Published: March 2019

The Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin using sequencing (ATAC-seq) is a fundamental epigenomics approach and has been widely used in profiling the chromatin accessibility dynamics in multiple species. A comprehensive reference of ATAC-seq datasets for mammalian tissues is important for the understanding of regulatory specificity and developmental abnormality caused by genetic or environmental alterations. Here, we report an adult mouse ATAC-seq atlas by producing a total of 66 ATAC-seq profiles from 20 primary tissues of both male and female mice. The ATAC-seq read enrichment, fragment size distribution, and reproducibility between replicates demonstrated the high quality of the full dataset. We identified a total of 296,574 accessible elements, of which 26,916 showed tissue-specific accessibility. Further, we identified key transcription factors specific to distinct tissues and found that the enrichment of each motif reflects the developmental similarities across tissues. In summary, our study provides an important resource on the mouse epigenome and will be of great importance to various scientific disciplines such as development, cell reprogramming, and genetic disease.
Post-transcriptional mechanisms distinguish human and chimp forebrain progenitor cells
Authors: Grassi Daniela A , Brattås Per Ludvik , Valdés Jeovanis G , Rezeli Melinda , Jönsson Marie E , Nolbrant Sara , Parmar Malin , Marko-Varga György , Jakobsson Johan
Published: March 2019

The forebrain has expanded in size and complexity during hominoid evolution. The contribution of post-transcriptional control of gene expression to this process is unclear. Using in-depth proteomics in combination with bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing, we analyzed protein and RNA levels of almost 5,000 genes in human and chimpanzee forebrain neural progenitor cells. We found that species differences in protein expression level was often independent of RNA levels, and more frequent than transcriptomic differences. Low-abundant proteins were more likely to show species-specific expression levels, while proteins expressed at a high level appeared to have evolved under stricter constraints. Our study implicates a previously unappreciated broad and important role for post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms in the evolution of the human forebrain.
Towards a fully automated surveillance of well-being status in laboratory mice using deep learning
Authors: Andresen Niek , Wöllhaf Manuel , Hohlbaum Katharina , Lewejohann Lars , Hellwich Olaf , Thöne-Reineke Christa , Belik Vitaly
Published: March 2019

Assessing the well-being of an animal is hindered by the limitations of efficient communication between humans and animals. Instead of direct communication, a variety of behavioral, biochemical, physiological, and physical parameters are employed to evaluate the well-being of an animal. Especially in the field of biomedical research, scientifically sound tools to assess pain, suffering, and distress for experimental animals are highly demanded due to ethical and legal reasons. For mice, the most commonly used laboratory animals, a valuable tool is the Mouse Grimace Scale (MGS), a coding system for facial expressions of pain in mice which has been shown to be accurate and reliable. Currently, MGS scoring is very time and effort consuming as it is manually performed by humans being thoroughly trained in using this method. Therefore, we aim to develop a fully automated system for the surveillance of well-being in mice. Our work introduces a semi-automated pipeline as a first step towards this goal. We use and provide a new data set of images of black-furred laboratory mice that were moving freely, thus the images contain natural variation with regard to perspective and background. The analysis of this data set is therefore more challenging but reflects realistic conditions as it would be obtainable without human intervention. Images were obtained after anesthesia (with isoflurane or ketamine/xylazine combination) and surgery (castration). We deploy two pre-trained state of the art deep convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures (ResNet50 and InceptionV3) and compare to a third CNN architecture without pre-training. Depending on the particular treatment, we achieve an accuracy of up to 99% for binary “pain”/”no-pain” classification.

Author summary

In the field of animal research, it is crucial to assess the well-being of an animal. For mice, the most commonly used laboratory animals, there is a variety of indicators for well-being. Especially the facial expression of a mouse can give us important information on its well-being state. However, currently the surveillance of well-being can only be ensured if a human is present. Therefore, we developed a first approach towards a fully automated surveillance of the well-being status of a mouse. We trained neural networks on face images of black-furred mice, which were either untreated or underwent anesthesia or surgery, to distinguish between an impaired and unimpaired well-being state. Our systems successfully learnt to assess whether the well-being of a mouse was impaired and, depending on the particular treatment, its decision was correct in up to 99%. A tool that visualizes the features used for the decision making process indicated that the decision was mainly based on the facial expressions of a mouse.
β-Mannosidosis caused by a novel homozygous intragenic inverted duplication in MANBA
Authors: Blomqvist Maria , Smeland Marie Falkenberg , Lindgren Julia , Sikora Per , Riise Stensland Hilde Monica Frostad , Asin-Cayuela Jorge
Published: March 2019

β-Mannosidosis is a lysosomal storage disorder characterized by accumulation of disaccharides due to deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme β-mannosidase. The disease is caused by mutations in MANBA and is extremely rare in humans. Although the clinical presentation is heterogeneous, common symptoms include various degrees of developmental delay, behavioral disturbances, hearing loss, and frequent infections. We report a 15-yr-old girl presenting with mild intellectual disability, sensorineural hearing loss, severe behavioral disturbances, dysmorphic traits, and evolving angiokeratomas. Copy-number variation analysis of next-generation sequencing (NGS) data indicated increased coverage in exons 8–11 of MANBA. Low β-mannosidase activity (1 µkatal/kg protein, refv 25–40) established the diagnosis of β-mannosidosis. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and cDNA analysis revealed a novel homozygous intragenic inverted duplication in MANBA, where a 13.1-kb region between introns 7 and 11 was duplicated and inserted in an inverted orientation, creating a 67-base nonduplicated gap at the insertion point. Both junctions showed microhomology regions. The inverted duplication resulted in exon skipping of exons 8–9 or 8–10. Our report highlights the importance of copy-number variation analysis of data from NGS and in particular the power of WGS in the identification and characterization of copy-number variants.
How best to use photons
Authors: Winter Graeme , Gildea Richard J. , Paterson Neil G. , Beale John , Gerstel Markus , Axford Danny , Vollmar Melanie , McAuley Katherine E. , Owen Robin L. , Flaig Ralf , Ashton Alun W. , Hall David R.
Published: March 2019

Strategies for collecting X-ray diffraction data have evolved alongside beamline hardware and detector developments. The traditional approaches for diffraction data collection have emphasised collecting data from noisy integrating detectors (i.e. film, image plates and CCD detectors). With fast pixel array detectors on stable beamlines, the limiting factor becomes the sample lifetime, and the question becomes one of how to expend the photons that your sample can diffract, i.e. as a smaller number of stronger measurements or a larger number of weaker data. This parameter space is explored via experiment and synthetic data treatment and advice is derived on how best to use the equipment on a modern beamline. Suggestions are also made on how to acquire data in a conservative manner if very little is known about the sample lifetime.
Corrosion inhibition and the structure-efficiency relationship study of two cationic surfactants
Authors: Chen Gang , Lin Jiao , Liu Qiaona , Zhang Jie , Wu Ya , Li Hong , Qu Chentun , Song Wenqi
Published: March 2019

Purpose

As an example of structure-efficiency relationship study, this paper aims to evaluate the corrosion inhibition effect of two cationic surfactants, cetyl-trimethyl ammonium chloride (CTAC) and cetyl-dimethyl-hydroxyethyl ammonium chloride (CDHAC), and to discuss the effect of structure on the performance by thermodynamics methods.

Design/methodology/approach

The effect of the two cationic surfactants, CTAC and CDHAC, on the corrosion of the mild steel in HCl solution was investigated by using weight loss measurements, and the activation energies of CTAC and CDHAC involved in the corrosion inhibition were calculated and discussed.

Findings

The weight loss measurements showed that the corrosion inhibition efficiency of CDHAC was higher than that of CTAC in any case. The effects of the structure on performance were discussed, and the following data are available from the results, all of ΔS are positive, the values of ΔG are both close to −40 kJ·mol-1 and the values of ΔH are 10.960 and 36.996 kJ·mol-1, which indicate that the surfactant molecules are spontaneously adsorbed on the surface of the steel surface, and the adsorption on the steel plate is endothermic chemical adsorption.

Originality/value

The available data show that most organic inhibitors undergo physisorption on the metal surface, while in the presence of non-bonded and p-electrons, the inhibitor molecules may undergo chemisorption. This work showed that the two surfactant molecules are spontaneously adsorbed on the surface of the steel surface, and the adsorption on the steel plate is endothermic chemical adsorption.
How EMNEs choose location for strategic asset seeking in internationalization?
Authors: Gao Qiuling , Li Zijie , Huang Xinli
Published: March 2019

Purpose

Based on the strategy tripod perspective, this study aims to address how emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) make a strategic decision of choosing a foreign location for their strategic asset seeking and under what mechanism EMNEs make foreign direct investment (FDI) location choice.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper first reviews the literature on strategy tripod and strategic asset seeking strategy of EMNEs. Then, six cases of Chinese multinational enterprises operating in manufacturing industry have been introduced, emphasizing on interactions within three dimensions of strategy tripod framework, namely, resource-based dimension, industry-based dimension and institution-based dimension. By triangulating with multiple sources of archival and interview data, this paper identified a conceptual model presenting location choice mechanisms.

Findings

Based on a comparative multi-case study, four mechanisms of EMNEs’ location choice when seek strategic asset by FDI within a strategy tripod framework have been revealed. Specifically, EMNEs make their strategic decision of choosing a foreign location for their strategic asset seeking under mechanisms of seeking complementary resources based on industry characteristics; echoing with institutional dimension of home country when exploitation of resource; matching institutional dimension of host country when consider industry fitness; and institutional leveraging combined with understanding of resource and industry dimensions inside strategy tripod.

Originality/value

The findings shed novel insights into the mechanisms under which EMNEs choose their location for strategic asset-seeking FDI. It also broadens the strategy tripod framework by looking deeper into the characteristics of each dimension within a new research context of EMNEs’ FDI location choice.
Modeling the efficiency of Tunisian and Moroccan banks using the SFA approach
Authors: Kallel Hela , Ben Hamad Salah , Triki Mohamed
Published: March 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and compare bank efficiency between the two Maghreb countries, Tunisia and Morocco, over the period 2005–2014.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors follow the stochastic frontier analysis, where the preferred cost model is determined via various hypothesis tests based on the maximum likelihood estimation. Then, the first and the second derivates of the cost function are employed to determine scale elasticities, scale inefficiencies and technological progress.

Findings

Specification tests indicate that the Fourier Flexible form provides better fit to the data set. Further, the estimated model shows that Tunisian and Moroccan banks’ efficiency is positively affected by banking service quality, but negatively influenced by both bank capitalization and GDP growth. Overall, Moroccan banks are found to be the most efficient despite the decrease of efficiency levels in both countries. Additionally, foreign banks have a higher scale inefficiency and, therefore, a lower cost efficiency. Equally, the technical progress raises banking costs in both countries, providing a decrease in efficiency scores.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide novel insights to Tunisian and Moroccan policy makers on the relevance of the smaller banks’ consolidation to improve bank efficiency by achieving unrealized economies of scale. Also, more reforms should be implemented in Tunisia to reduce non-performing loans.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first which offers a comparison between Tunisian and Moroccan banks to clarify the sources of inefficiency and to make strategic decisions.
Public value of online financial transparency
Authors: Puron-Cid Gabriel , Reddick Christopher G. , Ganapati Sukumar
Published: March 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to apply Moore’s public value model into the context of e-government research by examining online financial transparency as both an organizational goal and as a driving force for financial sustainability and public officials’ corruption. The empirical context comprises the state governments in the USA.

Design/methodology/approach

Structural equation modeling is used to examine the relationship between specific contextual factors of the authorizing environment, financial sustainability, public official corruption and online budget transparency.

Findings

The results show that contextual factors like population explain online financial transparency, while financial sustainability and corruption had moderating and negative effects.

Practical implications

Governments that struggle with issues of financial sustainability and corruption will rely more on online financial transparency. Transparency increases detection of public corruption.

Originality/value

The effects of financial transparency and financial sustainability on corruption have been studied separately. This study fills the gap of understanding the effects of both on corruption as one phenomenon.
Leadership matters: preparation program quality and learning outcomes
Authors: Ni Yongmei , Rorrer Andrea K. , Pounder Diana , Young Michelle , Korach Susan
Published: March 2019

Purpose

Informed by learning transfer theory, the purpose of this paper is to validate the instrument measuring educational leadership preparation program (LPP) quality attributes and graduates’ leadership learning and to assess the direct and indirect relationships among them, as reported by program graduates.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses data collected from the 2016 INSPIRE-G Survey, which gathers information from LPP graduates in the USA on their perceptions of program quality and leadership learning. Structural equation modeling was used to determine which program quality factors directly and indirectly influence graduate leadership learning.

Findings

The results suggest significant relationships between the assessed LPP attributes and leadership learning. Faculty quality and program rigor and relevance (PRR) had the strongest association with leadership learning, although the relationship between faculty quality and learning was fully mediated by PRR. Internship experiences and peer relationships were also important predictors of leadership learning. Studying with a cohort had a small but positive relationship with graduates’ leadership learning, although the relationship was fully mediated by perceived peer relationships.

Originality/value

This study further validates the INSPIRE-G Survey and affirms the imperative role of leadership preparation as a predictor to graduate reported learning outcomes and learning transfer. Moreover, this study illustrates the importance of leadership preparation by demonstrating positive relationships between program quality features and reported leadership learning outcomes. Finally, the INSPIRE-G instrument demonstrates its utility as a reliable measure of program quality, which opens the door to large-scale and longitudinal studies of the transfer of learning from leader preparation to practice.
School principals’ systems thinking: antecedents and consequences
Authors: Benoliel Pascale , Shaked Haim , Nadav Nechama , Schechter Chen
Published: March 2019

Purpose

Today’s educational complexities require principals to adopt a more systemic perspective toward school management. Although research has emphasized the benefits associated with the holistic perspective of systems thinking, research in the educational field has been limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of principals’ systems thinking (PST) in the relationships between instructional leadership (IL) and subject coordinators’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected by surveying a sample of 226 subject coordinators from different elementary schools randomly chosen in Israel. Subject coordinators completed questionnaires on their PST competencies, their principals’ IL, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

The results confirmed the main hypotheses: PST did facilitate subject coordinators’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Findings also showed that PST mediated the relationship between IL and subject coordinators’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction.

Originality/value

By integrating research from both educational and non-educational literature, this study contributes to deepen our understanding regarding the antecedents and consequences of the PST as perceived by their subject coordinators, providing a broader leadership framework on their functions in today’s complex school systems.
Relationship between building maintenance sourcing strategy selection factors and performance
Authors: Soh Khai Ying , Chua Shirley Jin Lin , Ali Azlan Shah , Au-Yong Cheong Peng , Alias Anuar
Published: March 2019

Purpose

The building maintenance management becomes more complicated nowadays, with several sourcing strategies springing up for building maintenance work provisions. Various studies demonstrate that the selection factors and performance measurements are both essential aspects in determining and evaluating the sourcing strategy for building maintenance management. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between the selection factors and performance measurements of sourcing strategy.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper targeted to evaluate and analyse the perceptions of the building maintenance practitioners regarding the degree of importance of selection factors and performance measurements. Through quantitative approach, the paper adopted stratified random sampling to distribute the questionnaires to the building maintenance practitioners operating in both private and government high-rise office buildings in Kuala Lumpur.

Findings

The findings highlighted the quality factors as the most important selection group factors; meantime, the ability to fulfil client’s need and requirement as well as the ability to deliver the service with reasonable reliability and predictability are identically important performance measurements. There is a significant relationship between the selection factors and performance measurement of sourcing strategy.

Originality/value

This paper provides an impetus research which uncovered the sourcing practices in the industry and guided the sourcing process in determining the appropriate sourcing strategy.
Customer insurance frauds: the influence of fraud type, moral intensity and fairness perception
Authors: Tseng Lu-Ming
Published: March 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine customers’ ethical attitudes (EA) and intentions toward two types of insurance frauds. This study proposes that the factors, such as fraud types (i.e. opportunistic and planned insurance fraud), moral intensity and fairness perception (FP), can affect the customers’ acceptance of the insurance frauds.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the research hypotheses of this study, Taiwanese insurance customers are invited in the empirical investigation, and a scenario-based questionnaire is used to collect the data. The hypotheses of this study are tested by using a partial least squares regression.

Findings

The results show that moral intensity constructs and FP significantly relate to the respondents’ acceptance of insurance frauds, while fraud types also have significant impacts on the respondents’ perceptions of moral intensity and fairness.

Originality/value

There is no research which has examined the relationships among fraud types, moral intensity, FP, demographic variables and customers’ EA and intentions toward insurance frauds. Understanding the relationships among these variables could provide implications for those involved in the practice of anti-fraud programs.
Dielectrophoresis velocities response on tapered electrode profile: simulation and experimental
Authors: Abd Samad Muhammad Izzuddin , Buyong Muhamad Ramdzan , Kim Shyong Siow , Yeop Majlis Burhanuddin
Published: March 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to use a particle velocity measurement technique on a tapered microelectrode device via changes of an applied voltage, which is an enhancement of the electric field density in influencing the dipole moment particles. Polystyrene microbeads (PM) have used to determine the responses of the dielectrophoresis (DEP) voltage based on the particle velocity technique.

Design/methodology/approach

Analytical modelling was used to simulate the particles’ polarization and their velocity based on the Clausius–Mossotti Factor (CMF) equation. The electric field intensity and DEP forces were simulated through the COMSOL numerical study of the variation of applied voltages such as 5 V p-p, 7 V p-p and 10 V p-p. Experimentally, the particle velocity on a tapered DEP response was quantified via the particle travelling distance over a time interval through a high-speed camera adapted to a high-precision non-contact depth measuring microscope.

Findings

The result of the particle velocity was found to increase, and the applied voltage has enhanced the particle trajectory on the tapered microelectrode, which confirmed its dependency on the electric field intensity at the top and bottom edges of the electrode. A higher magnitude of particle levitation was recorded with the highest particle velocity of 11.19 ± 4.43 µm/s at 1 MHz on 10 V p-p, compared to the lowest particle velocity with 0.62 ± 0.11 µm/s at 10 kHz on 7 V p-p.

Practical implications

This research can be applied for high throughout sensitivity and selectivity of particle manipulation in isolating and concentrating biological fluid for biomedical implications.

Originality/value

The comprehensive manipulation method based on the changes of the electrical potential of the tapered electrode was able to quantify the magnitude of the particle trajectory in accordance with the strong electric field density.
Empathy and apology: the effectiveness of recovery strategies
Authors: Radu Alexandru Gabriel , Arli Denni , Surachartkumtonkun Jiraporn , Weaven Scott , Wright Owen
Published: March 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of empathy and apology in service recovery, and more specifically, establish how these factors promote positive service outcomes, typified by reconciliation and mitigate negative occurrences, characterised by customer retaliation and avoidance.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used an online panel to collect data from 213 US residents, who were asked to recall a service failure episode they experienced within the past six months, write briefly about it and answer a questionnaire measuring constructs of interest in relation to their previous experience. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the quantitative data.

Findings

Both service employee empathy and apology were found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between service failure severity and reconciliation, retaliation and avoidance.

Originality/value

The combination of empathy and apology as moderators into a single framework represents a unique contribution of this research. Furthermore, outcome variables of reconciliation, retaliation and avoidance are utlilized to measure relationship outcomes following service failure. This study highlights the need for managers to design hiring and training policies to promote empathy and the use of sincere apologies throughout customer interactions.
Disclosure of sales compensations and product recommendations
Authors: Tseng Lu-Ming , Yu Tsu-Wei
Published: March 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of disclosure of sales compensations on insurance brokers’ intention to make inappropriate product recommendations.

Design/methodology/approach

This research examines the insurance brokers’ intention to make inappropriate product recommendations through an application of the theory of planned behavior. Surveys are used as the research instrument, and the hypotheses are tested with a between-subjects experimental design. One case of mandatory disclosure and one case of non-mandatory disclosure are compared in the research.

Findings

The results indicate that the disclosure of sales compensations is significantly associated with the subjective norms from the official authority and perceived behavioral control (PBC). The results of this study also indicate that, when the disclosure is mandatory, the PBC has a stronger effect on the insurance brokers’ intention to make biased product recommendations than dose the attitude and subjective norms. When the disclosure is non-mandatory, however, the subjective norms have a stronger effect on the insurance brokers’ intention.

Originality/value

The impacts of compensation disclosures on the financial professionals’ product recommendations have been less examined. This study could make a contribution to the literature by providing some empirical observations from the views of Taiwan’s life insurance brokers.
Cross-cultural impact on financial companies’ online brand personality
Authors: Shi Xingsong , Shan Xiaohui
Published: March 2019

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Chinese and American financial companies’ distinct brand personality indicators shown through culturally based linguistic features online. The potential correlation between culturally oriented brand personalities and companies’ financial performance is also examined.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs computerized content analyses to examine the cross-cultural differences among 28 American and Chinese financial companies’ online communication based on Aaker’s brand personality framework.

Findings

The findings reveal that despite some similarities, there are significant differences between the frequencies and patterns of brand personality indicators on American and Chinese websites, which demonstrate the connection between the companies’ linguistic preferences with their different cultural backgrounds. It also proves that there could be significant relationship between financial companies’ corporate brand (CB) personality expressions and their financial performance, and US financial companies’ revenues are more closely correlated with brand personality dimensions than Chinese companies’.

Practical implications

The necessity for cross-cultural adaptation of CB personality is verified in this study. Chinese international companies may have a big room to improve their online corporate communication. Similarly, foreign companies who intend to enter into Chinese market may think about laying emphasis on their personality indicators of competence in their online corporate communication.

Originality/value

This research is among the first to utilize a corpus-based analytical tool to conduct content analyses of financial companies’ online brand personalities, in addition to empirically validate the correlations between companies’ brand personality indicators and financial performance. The study enriches the literature on online marketing communication, draws attention to the connection between cultural differences and linguistic preferences in CB personality construction and emphasizes the importance of making appropriate cross-cultural adaptation in online corporate communication.
Coral reef ecosystem services in the Anthropocene
Authors: Woodhead Anna J. , Hicks Christina C. , Norström Albert V. , Williams Gareth J. , Graham Nicholas A. J.
Published: March 2019

Coral reefs underpin a range of ecosystem goods and services that contribute to the well‐being of millions of people. However, tropical coral reefs in the Anthropocene are likely to be functionally different from reefs in the past. In this perspective piece, we ask, what does the Anthropocene mean for the provision of ecosystem services from coral reefs?

First, we provide examples of the provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services underpinned by coral reef ecosystems. We conclude that coral reef ecosystem service research has lagged behind multidisciplinary advances in broader ecosystem services science, such as an explicit recognition that interactions between social and ecological systems underpin ecosystem services.

Second, drawing on tools from functional ecology, we outline how these social–ecological relationships can be incorporated into a mechanistic understanding of service provision and how this might be used to anticipate future changes in coral reef ecosystem services.

Finally, we explore the emergence of novel reef ecosystem services, for example from tropicalized coastlines, or through changing technological connections to coral reefs. Indeed, when services are conceived as coming from social–ecological system dynamics, novelty in services can emerge from elements of the interactions between people and the ecosystem.

This synthesis of the coral reef ecosystem services literature suggests the field is poorly prepared to understand the changing service provision anticipated in the Anthropocene. A new research agenda is needed that better connects reef functional ecology to ecosystem service provision. This research agenda should embrace more holistic approaches to ecosystem service research, recognizing them as co‐produced by ecosystems and society. Importantly, the likelihood of novel ecosystem service configurations requires further conceptualization and empirical assessment. As with current ecosystem services, the loss or gain of services will not affect all people equally and must be understood in the context in which they occur. With the uncertainty surrounding the future of coral reefs in the Anthropocene, research exploring how the benefits to people change will be of great importance.

A plain language summary is available for this article.
Causes and short‐term consequences of variation in milk composition in wild sheep
Authors: Renaud Limoilou‐Amelie , Blanchet F. Guillaume , Cohen Alan A. , Pelletier Fanie
Published: March 2019

Ecologists seek to understand the fitness consequences of variation in physiological markers, under the hypothesis that physiological state is linked to variability in individual condition and life history.

Thus, ecologists are often interested in estimating correlations between entire suites of correlated traits, or biomarkers, but sample size limitations often do not allow us to do this properly when large numbers of traits or biomarkers are considered.

Latent variables are a powerful tool to overcome this complexity. Recent statistical advances have enabled a new class of multivariate models—multivariate hierarchical modelling (MHM) with latent variables—which allow to statistically estimate unstructured covariances/correlations among traits with reduced constraints on the number of degrees of freedom to account in the model. It is thus possible to highlight correlated structures in potentially very large numbers of traits.

Here, we apply MHM to evaluate the relative importance of individual differences and environmental effects on milk composition and identify the drivers of this variation. We ask whether variation in bighorn sheep milk affects offspring fitness.

We evaluate whether mothers show repeatable individual differences in the concentrations of 11 markers of milk composition, and we investigate the relative importance of annual variability, maternal identity and morphological traits in structuring milk composition. We then use variance estimates to investigate how a subset of repeatable milk markers influence lamb summer survival.

Repeatability of milk markers ranged from 0.05 to 0.64 after accounting for year‐to‐year variations. Milk composition was weakly but significantly associated with maternal mass in June and September, summer mass gain and winter mass loss. Variation explained by year‐to‐year fluctuations ranged from 0.07 to 0.91 suggesting a strong influence of environmental variability on milk composition. Milk composition did not affect lamb survival to weaning.

Using joint models in ecological, physiological or behavioural contexts has the major advantage of decomposing a (co)variance/correlation matrix while being estimated with fewer parameters than in a “traditional” mixed‐effects model. The joint models presented here complement a growing list of tools to analyse correlations at different hierarchical levels separately and may thus represent a partial solution to the conundrum of physiological complexity.
Altered leaf litter quality exacerbates the negative impact of climate change on decomposition
Authors: Prieto Iván , Almagro María , Bastida Felipe , Querejeta José Ignacio
Published: March 2019

Leaf litter decomposition is a key component of global biogeochemical cycles that influence soil carbon storage, nutrient availability and plant productivity. Ongoing climate change will lead to warmer and drier conditions in many dryland regions, potentially affecting litter decomposition and nutrient dynamics. Climate change effects can be direct and/or indirect, for example, through changes in litter quality, yet their relative importance on litter decomposition remains unclear.

We conducted a manipulative study in a semi‐arid shrubland to assess the effects of leaf litter quality, forecasted climate change, that is, +2.5°C warming (W), 30% rainfall reduction (RR) as well as their interaction (W + RR) to elucidate their relative effects on litter decomposition.

Climatic effects alone reduced decomposition of a homogeneous Control leaf litter collected from Helianthemum squamatum shrubs growing in unmanipulated plots by 23.4%, 18.1% and 29.8% in the W, RR and W + RR treatments respectively. Leaf litter quality was lower in shrubs that had been growing in warmed plots (W and W + RR), as they had lower nutrient concentrations (P, Fe) and higher C:N and C:P ratios than leaf litter produced under ambient (Control) conditions. Lignin concentration was significantly lower in litter from W + RR plots, yet when both climate and litter quality were considered simultaneously, decomposition rates were 32.0%, 26.3% and 39.9% lower in W, RR and W + RR plots compared to Controls. In addition, we found greater microbial N immobilization in leaf litter incubated within warmed (W and W + RR) than within non‐warmed plots (Control and RR). Structural equation modelling showed that higher litter moisture and microbial biomass contents stimulated decomposition. Simulated climate change (W, RR and W + RR) reduced decomposition indirectly by negatively affecting litter moisture contents and litter microbial biomass. Microbial nitrogen immobilization was stimulated by the lower quality (i.e. high C:N ratios) of the leaf litter collected in shrubs from warmed plots (W and W + RR).

Synthesis. Our findings indicate that forecasted climate change conditions slow down C and N cycling in a dryland ecosystem, an effect that is further exacerbated by climate change‐induced reductions in litter quality and related reductions in bacterial and fungal biomass in litter.
A novel berberine‐metformin hybrid compound exerts therapeutic effects on obese type 2 diabetic rats
Authors: Jia Dan , Li Zi Wen , Zhou Xinxin , Gao Ying , Feng Yifan , Ma Min , Wu Zhengzhi , Li Weimin
Published: March 2019

In this study, we investigated the biological activities of a novel berberine‐metformin hybrid compound (BMH473) as an anti‐diabetic agent. BMH473 exhibited significant anti‐hyperglycaemic and anti‐hyperlipidaemic effects on T2DM rats. In white adipose tissue, BMH473 reduced the perirenal and epididymal adipose tissue mass and modulated the lesions in perirenal adipose tissue, by inhibiting the protein expressions of PPAR‐Ɣ, C/EBP‐α and SREBP‐1c as well as the mRNA expressions of lipogenic genes. Moreover, BMH473 downregulated the levels of pro‐inflammatory cytokines in perirenal adipose tissue through the suppression of p‐NF‐κB. In liver, BMH473 reduced liver ectopic fat accumulation, by regulating the protein expression levels of SREBP‐1c and PPAR‐α as well as the mRNA expression levels of lipogenic genes. In addition, BMH473 inhibited hepatic gluconeogenesis by promoting the phosphorylation levels of AMPK α and ACC, and down‐regulating the mRNA expression levels of FBPase, G6Pase and PEPCK. Furthermore, BMH473 exhibited significant inhibitory effects on lipogenesis and lipid accumulation in 3T3‐L1 adipocytes by modulating the protein expression levels of PPAR‐Ɣ, C/EBP‐α and SREBP‐1 c as well as the mRNA expression levels of lipogenic genes. In conclusion, our results suggest that the newly synthesized BMH473 is beneficial for maintaining glucose and lipid homeostasis in type 2 diabetic rats, and exhibits better anti‐hyperlipidaemic effects compared to metformin and berberine.
Caregivers navigating rehabilitative care for people with aphasia after stroke: a multi‐lens perspective
Authors: Shafer Jennifer S. , Shafer Paul R. , Haley Katarina L.
Published: March 2019

Background

Up to 40% of stroke survivors acquire aphasia and require long‐term caregiver assistance after discharge from the hospital. Caregivers assume multiple roles as they help people with aphasia to access outpatient rehabilitative care in an increasingly person‐centred model of care. Examining caregiver roles and how different stakeholders in the rehabilitative journey perceive these roles may be the first step in providing more tailored support to caregivers and improving outcomes for both caregivers and people with aphasia.

Aims

To characterize the roles caregivers assume while navigating outpatient rehabilitative care for people with aphasia after stroke from the perspective of different stakeholders in the rehabilitative process.

Methods & Procedures

Thirty‐six people participated in the study, including seven caregivers, 22 stroke survivors with aphasia and seven healthcare providers. Focus groups were conducted, and an iterative thematic analysis was used to identify themes.

Outcomes & Results

Results indicate that caregivers are perceived differently by varying stakeholders, and that caregivers adopt diverse roles as advocates, therapists, motivators and guardians. They assume these roles in order to fill gaps in services or otherwise to facilitate the recovery journey for the person with aphasia.

Conclusions & Implications

This study provides a valuable glimpse into how varying stakeholders view the role of the caregiver during rehabilitation for people with aphasia after stroke. Providing caregivers with the training and support they need throughout the recovery journey by treating them as partners in the process may mitigate the perception of caregivers as feeling compelled to adopt multiple roles.
A microfluidic platform for the simultaneous quantification of methanogen populations in anaerobic digestion processes
Authors: Mathai Prince P. , Dunn Hannah M. , Venkiteshwaran Kaushik , Zitomer Daniel H. , Maki James S. , Ishii Satoshi , Sadowsky Michael J.
Published: March 2019

Methanogens are a diverse group of archaea that play a critical role in the global carbon cycle. The lack of appropriate molecular tools to simultaneously quantify numerous methanogenic taxa, however, has largely limited our ability to study these communities in a wide variety of habitats, such as anaerobic digesters (ADs). In this study, 34 probe‐based quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays were designed to target all known methanogenic genera within the archaeal phylum Euryarchaeota. These qPCR assays were adapted to a high‐throughput microfluidic platform, which allowed for the simultaneous detection and absolute quantification of numerous taxa in a single run. The resulting microfluidic qPCR (MFQPCR) platform was successfully used to decipher structure–function relationships among methanogenic communities in four laboratory‐scale digesters exposed to a transient organic overload. Twelve of the 34 genera targeted in the MFQPCR were detected in the ADs, similar to results obtained using high‐throughput sequencing. The MFQPCR platform and conventional qPCR assays also generated similar quantitative results. The MFQPCR tool developed here will help optimize AD technologies for efficient waste treatment and enhanced biogas production and can facilitate studies that will increase our understanding of methanogenic communities in other environments.
Colonization, penetration and transformation of manganese oxide nodules by Aspergillus niger
Authors: Ferrier John , Yang Yuyi , Csetenyi Laszlo , Gadd Geoffrey Michael
Published: March 2019

In this study, the ability of the geoactive fungus Aspergillus niger to colonize and transform manganese nodules from the Clarion‐Clipperton Zone in both solid and liquid media was investigated. Aspergillus niger was able to colonize and penetrate manganese nodules embedded in solid medium and effect extensive transformation of the mineral in both fragmented and powder forms, precipitating manganese and calcium oxalates. Transformation of manganese nodule powder also occurred in a liquid medium in which A. niger was able to remove the fine particles from suspension which were accumulated within the central region of the resulting mycelial pellets and transformed into manganese oxalate dihydrate (lindbergite) and calcium oxalate dihydrate (weddellite). These findings contribute to an understanding of environmental processes involving insoluble manganese oxides, with practical relevance to chemoorganotrophic mineral bioprocessing applications, and, to the best of our knowledge, represent the first demonstration of fundamental direct and indirect interactions between geoactive fungi and manganese nodules.