bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Anatomy of the Temporal and Zygomatic Branches of the Facial Nerve: Application to Crow's Feet Wrinkles
Authors: Ye Pin , Feng Xiao-Liang , Yang Zhi-Hong , Li Guo-Ping , Sun Jun , Wu Hong-Xiang , Chen Shao-Chun
Published: October 2020

Background:

Advances in the understanding of wrinkling crow's feet while improving the safety and efficacy of botulinum toxin type A injection has pointed to drug dispersion in the lateral orbital wrinkles as a cause of adverse events of botulinum toxin type A injection. The purpose of this study is to identify the distribution of temporal and zygomatic branches of facial nerve in the orbicularis oculi muscles.

Methods:

Anatomical dissection of cadavers was performed in 31 cadavers, 13 females and 18 males, with ages ranging from 20 to 60 years, which of all had been embalmed by 10% formalin solution. The facial nerve was identified within subcutaneous tissue close periorbital region and both traced proximal and distal. Its temporal branch, zygomatic branch, facial and muscular entrance were located and accurately measured relative to established surface landmarks.

Results:

Dissection of the facial nerve revealed 2 to 6 entrances of the temporal branch into the orbicularis oculi and 1 to 5 entrances of the zygomatic branch into the orbicularis oculi. Concerning the measurements of neural entering points, distance and angle from orbicularis oculi muscle to lateral ocular angle, a distribution map of its muscular entrance and their patterns of distribution were constructed. According to the dense area of the coordinate map, there were 3 points determined as the muscular entrance points to established surface landmarks.

Conclusions:

An anatomical dissection of cadavers was performed to identify the distribution of temporal and zygomatic branches of the facial nerve in the orbicularis oculi. According to the dense area of the coordinate map, the surface landmarks of 3 points were established as the muscular entrance of the facial nerve (MEF).
Anesthetic Exposure in Staged Versus Single-Stage Cleft Lip and Palate Repair: Can We Reduce Risk of Anesthesia-Induced Developmental Neurotoxicity?
Authors: Davila Armando A. , Holzmer Stephanie W. , Kubiak Jeremy , Martin Mark C.
Published: October 2020

Cleft lip and palate (CLP) repair is typically performed in a staged fashion, which requires multiple instances of anesthetic exposure during a critical period of infant neurodevelopment. One solution to this concern includes the implementation of a single-stage CLP repair performed between 6 and 12 months of age. This study aimed to compare total anesthetic exposure between single-stage and staged CLP repairs. A retrospective review of unilateral CLP repairs between 2013 and 2018 conducted at a single institution was performed. Patients underwent either traditional, staged lip and palate repair, or single-stage complete cleft repair, where palate, lip, alveolus, and nasal repair was performed simultaneously. Primary endpoints included: total surgical time and total anesthetic exposure. Secondary endpoints included: excess anesthesia time, recovery room time, length of stay, and type of anesthetic administered. Two hundred twenty-five (n = 225) unilateral CLP repairs were conducted at the Loma Linda University. Detailed anesthetic data for eighty-six (n = 86) single-stage and twenty-eight (n = 28) staged operations were available. There was a statistically significant decrease in anesthetic exposure in single-stage versus staged repairs (316 minutes versus 345 minutes, P = 0.017), despite similar procedure times (260 minutes versus 246 minutes, P = 0.224). This resulted in near double excess anesthetic exposure time in the staged group (98 minutes versus 56 minutes, P < 0.001), primarily occurring during induction. This analysis suggests that single-stage CLP repair can reduce wasted time under general anesthesia and potentially reduce harmful neuronal toxicity in the developmental period in this at-risk population.
Aesthetic Restoration of Severe Hemifacial Atrophy With Free Adipofacial Antero Lateral Thigh Flap Followed by Autologous Fat Grafting; Optimizing Result and Long-Term Outcome
Authors: Ouf Mohamed Osama , Zayid Tarek , Elbatawy Amr , Zidan Serag M. , Ismail Hany , Hamdy Abdelnaser , Sholkamy Khallad , Dahshan Hazem , Ayad Wael
Published: October 2020

Background:

Hemifacial atrophy (Romberg disease) is characterized by progressive soft tissue and bone atrophy on 1 side of the face. The process of atrophy usually starts in the late first or early second decade of life. Romberg Patients usually require soft tissue augmentation for the correction of their defect. There are many reconstructive tools available to correct such facial asymmetry. In this study, we evaluate the outcome of the free adipofacial flap followed by autologous fat grafting in the treatment of Romberg disease, regarding aesthetics and longevity of the treatment.

Patients and Methods:

A retrospective review of 12 patients with moderate to severe hemifacial atrophy from April 2016 till March 2019. All patients received soft tissue augmentation with free adipofascial anterolateral thigh flaps, followed by autologous fat grafting 6 to 12 months later for correction of residual deformity. The average follow-up period was 18 months (range, 6–30).

Results:

There were 9 females and 3 males in this study. All flaps were survived, and the effect is long-lasting during follow-up. Patients were satisfied with the result especially after refinement of the result of free tissue transfer. The donor sites were closed directly and with no apparent morbidities nor dysfunctions.

Conclusions:

Microsurgical free tissue transfer is considered a gold standard tool in the management of moderate and severe form of hemifacial atrophy. Among different flaps available, free adipofacial anterolateral thigh flap (ALT) works as a workhorse flap in the correction of a severe form of the disease. Autologous fat grafting is a versatile and reliable option to correct residual deformities. We believed that such a combination is a superb approach to optimize the outcome of the severe form of the progressive hemifacial atrophy.
Domestication of Campylobacter jejuni NCTC 11168
Authors: Pascoe Ben , Williams Lisa K. , Calland Jessica K. , Meric Guillaume , Hitchings Matthew D. , Dyer Myles , Ryder Joseph , Shaw Sophie , Lopes Bruno S. , Chintoan-Uta Cosmin , Allan Elaine , Vidal Ana , Fearnley Catherine , Everest Paul , Pachebat Justin A. , Cogan Tristan A. , Stevens Mark P. , Humphrey Thomas J. , Wilkinson Thomas S. , Cody Alison J. , Colles Frances M. , Jolley Keith A. , Maiden Martin C. J. , Strachan Norval , Pearson Bruce M. , Linton Dennis , Wren Brendan W. , Parkhill Julian , Kelly David J. , van Vliet Arnoud H. M. , Forbes Ken J. , Sheppard Samuel K.
Published: October 2020

Reference and type strains of well-known bacteria have been a cornerstone of microbiology research for decades. The sharing of well-characterized isolates among laboratories has run in parallel with research efforts and enhanced the reproducibility of experiments, leading to a wealth of knowledge about trait variation in different species and the underlying genetics.

Campylobacter jejuni

strain NCTC 11168, deposited at the National Collection of Type Cultures in 1977, has been adopted widely as a reference strain by researchers worldwide and was the first

Campylobacter

for which the complete genome was published (in 2000). In this study, we collected 23

C

.

jejuni

NCTC 11168 reference isolates from laboratories across the UK and compared variation in simple laboratory phenotypes with genetic variation in sequenced genomes. Putatively identical isolates, identified previously to have aberrant phenotypes, varied by up to 281 SNPs (in 15 genes) compared to the most recent reference strain. Isolates also display considerable phenotype variation in motility, morphology, growth at 37 °C, invasion of chicken and human cell lines, and susceptibility to ampicillin. This study provides evidence of ongoing evolutionary change among

C. jejuni

isolates as they are cultured in different laboratories and highlights the need for careful consideration of genetic variation within laboratory reference strains. This article contains data hosted by Microreact.
Co-Expression Networks in the Green AlgaChlamydomonas reinhardtiiEmpower Gene Discovery and Functional Exploration
Authors: Salomé Patrice A. , Merchant Sabeeha S.
Published: October 2020

The unicellular green algaChlamydomonas reinhardtiiis a choice reference system for the study of photosynthesis, cilium assembly and function, lipid and starch metabolism and metal homeostasis. Despite decades of research, the functions of thousands of genes remain largely unknown, and new approaches are needed to categorically assign genes to cellular pathways. Growing collections of transcriptome and proteome data now allow a systematic approach based on integrative co-expression analysis. We used a dataset comprising 518 deep transcriptome samples derived from 58 independent experiments to identify potential co-expression relationships between genes. We visualized co-expression potential with the R packagecorrplot, to easily assess co-expression and anti-correlation between genes from manually-curated and community-generated gene lists. We extracted 400 high-confidence cilia-related genes at the intersection of multiple co-expressed lists, illustrating the power of our simple method. Surprisingly, Chlamydomonas experiments did not cluster according to an obvious pattern, suggesting an underappreciated variable during sample collection. One possible source of variation may stem from the strong clustering of nuclear genes as a function of their diurnal phase, even in samples collected in constant conditions, indicating substantial residual synchronization in batch cultures. We provide a step-by-step guide into the analysis of co-expression across Chlamydomonas transcriptome datasets to help foster gene function discovery.

One-sentence summary

we reveal co-expression potential between Chlamydomonas genes and describe strong synchronization of cells grown in batch cultures as a possible source of underappreciated variation.
Psychiatric morbidity and protracted symptoms in recovered COVID-19 patients
Authors: Poyraz Burç Çağrı , Poyraz Cana Aksoy , Olğun Yeşim , Gürel Özge , Alkan Sena , Özdemir Yusuf Emre , İnanç Balkan İlker , Karaali Rıdvan
Published: October 2020

We investigated the psychiatric symptomatology and the protracted symptoms in recently recovered COVID-19 patients. This cross-sectional study assessed 284 patients recruited from a tertiary hospital. Patients completed a web-based survey on socio-demographic data, past medical/psychiatric history, and additional information relevant to the outbreak conditions. The psychiatric status was assessed using the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and MINI suicidality scale. Patients completed a checklist for the acute symptom burden and protracted symptoms that were experienced after the acute infection. After a mean of 50 days following the diagnosis of COVID-19, 98 patients (34.5%) reported clinically significant PTSD, anxiety, and/or depression, with PTSD being the most common condition reported (25.4%). One hundred and eighteen patients (44.3%) reported one or more protracted symptom(s), with fatigue, muscle aches, alteration of smell/taste, headache and difficulty in concentration, being the most common symptoms reported. Predictors of PTSD symptom severity were the female gender, past traumatic events, protracted symptoms, perceived stigmatization, and a negative view on the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that PTSD symptom severity was the sole independent predictor of the presence of protracted symptoms. Our results suggest that COVID-19 patients may be prone to substantial psychological distress in the first months after the infection. The protracted symptoms were also frequent in this period, and these were related to the posttraumatic psychiatric morbidity. Both the psychiatric morbidity and the protracted symptoms were independent of the initial infection severity. Further research on the neurobiological commonalities between the protracted symptoms and PTSD in COVID-19 patients is warranted.
Gene network modeling via TopNet reveals robust epistatic interactions between functionally diverse tumor critical mediator genes
Authors: McMurray Helene R. , Ambeskovic Aslihan , Newman Laurel A. , Aldersley Jordan , Balakrishnan Vijaya , Smith Bradley , Stern Harry A. , Land Hartmut , McCall Matthew N.
Published: October 2020

Malignant cell transformation and the underlying genomic scale reprogramming of gene expression require cooperation of multiple oncogenic mutations. Notably, this cooperation is reflected in the synergistic regulation of downstream genes, so-called cooperation response genes (CRGs). CRGs impact diverse hallmark features of cancer cells and are not known to be functionally connected. Yet, they act as critical mediators of the cancer phenotype at an unexpectedly high frequency of >50%, as indicated by genetic perturbations. Here we demonstrate that CRGs function within a network of strong genetic interdependencies that are critical to the robustness of the malignant state. Our approach, termed TopNet, utilizes attractor-based ternary network modeling that takes the novel approach of incorporating uncertainty in the underlying gene perturbation data and is capable of identifying non-linear gene interactions. TopNet reveals topological gene network architecture that effectively predicts previously unknown, functionally relevant epistatic gene interactions, and thus, among a broad range of applications, has utility for identification of non-mutant targets for cancer intervention.
RAL GTPases mediate EGFR-driven intestinal stem cell hyperproliferation and tumourigenesis
Authors: Nászai Máté , Bellec Karen , Yu Yachuan , Román-Fernández Álvaro , Sandilands Emma , Johansson Joel , Campbell Andrew D , Norman Jim C , Sansom Owen J , Bryant David M , Cordero Julia B
Published: October 2020

RAS-like (RAL) GTPases function in Wnt signalling-dependent intestinal stem cell proliferation and regeneration. Whether RAL proteins work as canonical RAS effectors in the intestine, and the mechanisms of how they contribute to tumourigenesis remain unclear. Here, we show that RAL GTPases are necessary and sufficient to activate EGFR/MAPK signalling in the intestine, via induction of EGFR internalisation. Knocking downDrosophila RalAfrom intestinal stem and progenitor cells leads to increased levels of plasma membrane-associated EGFR and decreased MAPK pathway activation. Importantly, in addition to impacting stem cell proliferation during damage-induced intestinal regeneration, this role of RAL GTPases impacts on EGFR-dependent tumorigenic growth in the intestine and in human mammary epithelium. However, the effect of oncogenic RAS in the intestine is independent from RAL function. Altogether, our results reveal previously unrecognised cellular and molecular contexts where RAL GTPases become essential mediators of adult tissue homeostasis and malignant transformation.
Electrophysiological investigation of reward anticipation and outcome evaluation during slot machine play
Authors: Fryer SL , Roach BJ , Holroyd CB , Paulus MP , Sargent K , Boos A , Ford JM , Mathalon DH
Published: October 2020

Slot machines are a popular form of gambling, offering a tractable way to experimentally model reward processes. This study used a 3-reel slot paradigm to assess psychologically distinct phases of reward processing, reflecting anticipation, and early and late-stage outcome processing. EEG measures of winning, nearly missing (a losing outcome revealed at the final, third reel), and “totally” missing (a losing outcome revealed earlier, at the second reel) were collected from healthy adults (n=54). Condition effects were evaluated in: i) event-related potential (ERP) components reflecting anticipatory attention (stimulus preceding negativity, SPN) and outcome processing (reward positivity, RewP and late-positive potential, LPP) and ii) total power and phase synchrony of theta and delta band oscillations. Behaviorally, trial initiation was fastest after a near miss outcome and slowest after a winning outcome. As expected, a significant SPN was observed for possible wins (AA) vs. total misses (AB), consistent with reward anticipation. In addition, significantly larger win (AAA) vs. near miss (AAB) amplitudes were observed for the RewP and LPP to wins and LPP to near misses (vs. total misses) reflecting early and late-stage outcome processing effects. There was an effect of reel position on the RewP, with larger effects in the final reel (AAA-AAB) relative to the 2nd-reel locked difference waves (AA-AB). Across all outcomes, near misses elicited the largest and most phase-synchronized theta responses, while wins elicited larger and more phase-synchronized delta responses than total misses, with near misses not differing from wins or total misses. Phase locking measures contrasting win vs. near miss delta and theta synchronization, within time windows corresponding to ERP measurements, covaried with RewP, but not SPN or LPP, amplitude. Lastly, EEG measures showed differential relationships with age and self-reported consummatory pleasure. In the context of slot machine play, where reward anticipation and attainment place minimal demands on effort and skill, ERP and time-frequency methods capture distinct neurophysiological signatures of reward anticipation and outcome processing.
An agent-based model of adaptation of holobionts with different microbial symbiont transmission modes
Authors: Ye Siao , Liu Zhu , Siemann Evan
Published: October 2020

The hologenome theory suggests that holobionts (host plus symbiont) with hosts that are only able to adapt slowly may be able to persist in deteriorating environmental conditions via rapid adaptation of their microbial symbionts. The effectiveness of such symbiont adaptation may vary depending on whether symbionts are passed directly to offspring (vertical transmission) or acquired from the environment (horizontal transmission). However, it has been suggested that holobionts with horizontal transmission cannot pass down their symbionts faithfully, preventing adaptation at the holobiont level because of host-symbiont disassociation between generations. Here we used an agent-based model to investigate whether holobionts with horizontal microbial symbiont transmission can adapt to increasing stress solely through symbiont adaptation and compared their adaptation to holobionts with vertical transmission. We found that holobionts with either transmission mode were able to adapt to increasing abiotic stress solely via symbiont adaptation. Moreover, those with horizontal transmission were more competitive than those with vertical transmission when hosts were able to selectively associate with the most suitable symbionts. However, those with horizontal transmission were less competitive than those with vertical transmission when symbiont establishment was random. Our results support the hologenome theory and demonstrate that holobionts with horizontal microbial symbiont transmission could adapt to increasing abiotic stress via their symbionts. We also showed that whether holobionts with horizontal or vertical symbiont transmission are favored in increasingly stressful conditions depends on the ability of hosts to recognize and foster microbial symbionts that confer stress tolerance.

IMPORTANCE

Symbiotic organisms such as reef building corals are sensitive to environmental perturbations due to anthropogenic disturbances or climate change, and it is critical to understand whether they are able to adapt to previously unfavorable conditions. To date, studies have focused on the impacts of existing microbial symbiont variation on holobiont stress tolerance but here we use agent-based models to explore holobiont adaptation via symbiont adaptation. We studied both deterministic and stochastic processes in holobiont adaptation by investigating the following four factors: holobiont transmission modes, a host’s ability to recognize tolerance-conferring symbionts, a symbiont’s mutational variance, and rate of stress increase. Our simulation provides a comprehensive understanding of holobiont adaptation under stress, which not only has implications for future endangered symbiotic species management, but also provides fresh insight into species evolution as proposed by the hologenome theory.
The Extracellular Loops of OmpA Control the Slow Rate ofIn VitroFolding
Authors: Franklin Meghan W. , Stevens Jacqueline J. , Krise Joanna , Slusky Joanna S.G.
Published: October 2020

Outer membrane proteins are all beta barrels and these barrels have a variety of well-documented loop conformations. Here we test the effect of three different loop types on outer membrane protein A (OmpA) folding. We designed twelve 5-residue loops and experimentally tested the effect of replacing the long loops of outer membrane protein OmpA with the designed loops. Our studies succeeded in creating the smallest known outer membrane barrel. We find that significant changes in OmpA loops do not have a strong overall effect on OmpA folding. However, when decomposing folding into a fast rate and a slow rate we find that changes in loops strongly affect the slow rate of OmpA folding. Extracellular loop types with higher levels of hydrogen bonds had more instances of increasing the slow folding rate and extracellular loop types with low levels of hydrogen bonds had more instances of decreasing the slow folding rate. Having the slow rate affected by loop composition is consistent with the slow rate being associated with the insertion step of outer membrane protein folding.
Transcriptional landscape of PTEN loss in primary prostate cancer
Authors: Imada Eddie Luidy , Sanchez Diego Fernando , Dinalankara Wikum , Vidotto Thiago , Ebot Ericka M , Tyekucheva Svitlana , Franco Gloria Regina , Mucci Lorelei , Loda Massimo , Schaeffer Edward M , Lotan Tamara , Marchionni Luigi
Published: October 2020

PTEN is the most frequently lost tumor suppressor in primary prostate cancer (PCa) and its loss is associated with aggressive disease. However, the transcriptional changes associated with PTEN loss in PCa have not been described in detail. Here, we applied a meta-analysis approach, leveraging two large PCa cohorts with experimentally validated PTEN and ERG status, to derive a transcriptomic signature ofPTENloss, while also accounting for potential confounders due toERGrearrangements. Strikingly, the signature indicates a strong activation of both innate and adaptive immune systems uponPTENloss, as well as an expected activation of cell-cycle genes. Moreover, we made use of our recently developed FC-R2 expression atlas to expand this signature to include many non-coding RNAs recently annotated by the FANTOM consortium. With this resource, we analyzed the TCGA-PRAD cohort, creating a comprehensive transcriptomic landscape ofPTENloss in PCa that comprises both the coding and an extensive non-coding counterpart.
Automated quality control and cell identification of droplet-based single-cell data using dropkick
Authors: Heiser Cody N. , Wang Victoria M. , Chen Bob , Hughey Jacob J. , Lau Ken S.
Published: October 2020

A major challenge for droplet-based single-cell sequencing technologies is distinguishing true cells from uninformative barcodes in datasets with disparate library sizes confounded by high technical noise (i.e. batch-specific ambient RNA). We present dropkick, a fully automated software tool for quality control and filtering of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data with a focus on excluding ambient barcodes and recovering real cells bordering the quality threshold. By automatically determining dataset-specific training labels based on predictive global heuristics, dropkick learns a gene-based representation of real cells and ambient noise, calculating a cell probability score for each barcode. Using simulated and real-world scRNA-seq data, we benchmarked dropkick against a conventional thresholding approach and EmptyDrops, a popular computational method, demonstrating greater recovery of rare cell types and exclusion of empty droplets and noisy, uninformative barcodes. We show for both low and high-background datasets that dropkick’s weakly supervised model reliably learns which genes are enriched in ambient barcodes and draws a multidimensional boundary that is more robust to dataset-specific variation than existing filtering approaches. dropkick provides a fast, automated tool for reproducible cell identification from scRNA-seq data that is critical to downstream analysis and compatible with popular single-cell analysis Python packages.
Pulmonary Embolism in Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic review and Meta-analysis
Authors: Hamam Omar , Goda Ahmed , Awad Radwa , Ussama Amr , Eldalal Moustafa , Fayez Ahmed , Elyamany Karim , Bhandari Renu , Ikram Waleed , Elbaz Abdelrhman , Baral Smarika , Elbandrawy Yomna , Egbe Alexander , Sharina Iraida
Published: October 2020

Background

There is an increasing evidence that COVID-19 could be complicated by coagulopathy which may lead to death; especially in severe cases. Hence, this study aimed to build concrete evidence regarding the incidence and mortality of pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients with COVID-19.

Methods

We performed a systematic search for trusted databases/search engines including PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane library and Web of Science. After screening, the relevant data were extracted and the incidences and mortality rates from the different included studies were pooled for meta-analysis.

Results

Twenty studies were finally included in our study consisting of 1896 patients. The results of the meta-analysis for the all included studies showed that the incidence of PE in patients with COVID-19 was 17.6% with the 95% confidence interval (CI) of 12.7 to 22.5%. There was significant heterogeneity (I2□=□91.17%). Additionally, the results of meta-analysis including 8 studies showed that the mortality in patients with both PE and COVID-19 was 43.1% with the 95% confidence interval (CI) of 19 to 67.1%. There was significant heterogeneity (I2□=□86.96%).

Conclusion

PE was highly frequent in patients with COVID-19. The mortality in patients with both COVID-19 and PE was remarkable representing almost half of the patients. Appropriate prophylaxis and management are vital for better outcomes.
Crystal structure of (N^C) cyclometalated AuIIIdiazide at 100 K
Authors: Levchenko Volodymyr , Øien-Ødegaard Sigurd , Wragg David , Tilset Mats
Published: October 2020

The title compound, an (N^C)-cyclometalated gold(III) diazide, namely, diazido[5-ethoxycarbonyl-2-(5-ethoxycarbonylpyridin-2-yl)phenyl-κ2C1,N]gold(III), [Au(C17H16NO4)(N3)2] or Au(ppyEt)(N3)2, was synthesized by reacting Au(ppyEt)Cl2with NaN3in water for 24 h. The complex has been structurally characterized and features a gold center with a square-planar environment. The Au—N(azide) bond lengths are significantly different depending on the influence of the atomtransto the azide group [Au—N(transto C) of 2.067 (2) ÅversusAu—N(transto N) of 2.042 (2) Å]. The azide groups are twisted in-and-out of plane by 56.2 (2)°.
Synthesis and crystal structure of (±)-Goniotamirenone C
Authors: Meesakul Pornphimol , Richardson Christopher , Laphookhieo Surat , Pyne Stephen G.
Published: October 2020

The structure of the racemic version of the natural product Goniotamirenone C [racemic anti-6-(2-chloro-1-hydroxy-2-phenylethyl)-2H-pyran-2-one, C13H11ClO3] at 150 K is reported. The compound crystallizes with monoclinic (P21/n) symmetry and with Z′ = 2. One independent molecule is ordered while the other independent molecule exhibits an interesting whole-molecule enantiomeric disorder with occupancies of 0.846 (4) and 0.154 (4). The independent molecules are hydrogen bonded with –OH...O=C linkages into chains that run parallel to the a axis. This structural analysis corrects our previous assignment as the syn isomer [Meesakul et al. (2020). Phytochemistry, 171, 112248–112255].
Pyridine-4-carboxamidoxime N-oxide
Authors: Padgett Clifford W. , Sheriff Kirkland , Lynch Will E.
Published: October 2020

Our work in the area of synthesis of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) based on organic N-oxides led to the crystallization of pyridine-4-carboxamidoxime N-oxide. Herein we report the first crystal structure of the title compound, C6H7N3O2 [systematic name: (Z)-4-(N′-hydroxycarbamimidoyl)pyridine N-oxide]. The hydroxycarbamimidoyl group is essentially coplanar with the aromatic ring, r.m.s.d. = 0.112 Å. The compound crystallizes in hydrogen-bonding layers built from the formation of strong O—H...O hydrogen bonds between the oxime oxygen atom and the oxygen atom of the N-oxide, and the formation of N—H...O hydrogen bonds between one amine nitrogen atom and the N-oxide oxygen atom. These combined build R
3
4(24) ring motifs in the crystal. The crystal structure has no π–π interactions.
Investigating work-integrated learning and its relevance to skills development in degree apprenticeships
Authors: Konstantinou Iro , Miller Elizabeth
Published: October 2020

Purpose

Previous research suggests that higher education provision, the government's knowledge-based economic agenda and the attributes employers look for in graduates are not always aligned, leading to a skill shortage and the production of graduates who are not “work ready”. Degree apprenticeships (DAs) are well placed to address this gap because employers are involved in both the design and delivery of higher education and work with higher education institutions (HEIs) to develop the skills both parties believe graduates need through work-integrated learning (WIL). This paper will address how DAs can be utilised to that purpose.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on data collected from students, ranging from their first to final years, enrolled in the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA) programme at a higher education provider in London, UK. The national context of the UK is crucial both because of how DAs have been introduced by the government; how the pedagogical implications defer from other national contexts and work based provision and also because there are clear contrasts in how the private and public sector in the UK are “using” degree apprentices. The authors adopted an exploratory research design using semi-structured interviews and focus groups.

Findings

The authors argue that a reflective approach in assessed coursework, in conjunction with an explicit focus on the skill development of students, can enhance the experience of degree apprentices completing WIL modules. The authors highlight the potential of WIL modules in advancing the ability of degree apprentices to reflect on their practice while they are working and studying, a process which can have long- term benefits to their professional identity. The authors draw attention to the affordances given to apprentices to develop their professional identity drawing comparisons between the public and private sector in the UK.

Originality/value

This paper adds to the work on DAs and WIL currently being undertaken in the UK. By exploring the case study of a cohort of DAs engaging in productive reflection with regards to the skills they develop at the workplace and in the classroom, the authors point to a way in which module development can integrate such reflective elements.
A randomised field experiment to test the restorative properties of purpose-built biophilic “regeneration pods”
Authors: Roskams Michael , Haynes Barry
Published: October 2020

Purpose

There has been limited investigation into how “biophilic design” (i.e. the integration of nature within the built environment) can be effectively used within the workplace to facilitate the process of psychological restoration. The purpose of this study was to focus, in particular, on the effectiveness of biophilic “restoration pods” in promoting recovery from stress.

Design/methodology/approach

A randomised field experiment was conducted. A total of 32 employees from a participating organisation completed two tests replicating typical office work (proofreading and arithmetic) and subjective ratings of stress, anxiety and task-load both before and after a 10-minute micro-break, taken in either the regeneration pods (treatment group) or an ordinary meeting room (control group).

Findings

The results showed that participants who took their break in the regeneration pod reported lower post-break anxiety and perceived task-load, and higher post-break arithmetic task performance, than the control group.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that purpose-built spaces for restoration within office buildings will be effective for helping employees to proactively manage their stress levels while at work. Biophilic design principles will enhance the effectiveness of these spaces, and this does not necessarily need to involve direct exposure to plants or views of nature.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first randomised field experiment to test the effectiveness of a purpose-built space for restoration within offices. Additionally, this paper explores different forms of biophilic design than previous studies.
Affordances for information practices: theorizing engagement among people, technology, and sociocultural environments
Authors: Zhao Yuxiang Chris , Zhang Yan , Tang Jian , Song Shijie
Published: October 2020

Purpose

In the domain of information science, affordance is a relatively new concept that deserves further exploration. It may serve as a bridge to narrow the research-practice gap that has persisted in information studies. Building upon previous research, we call for a broader concept of affordance that would help researchers understand information practices from an ecological perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The study focuses on conceptualizing affordances for information practices in order to theorize engagement among people, technology, and sociocultural environments. We develop a hierarchical model and a component model to illustrate how key tenets of affordances can be linked with the decomposition of activities and its mechanism. Following this, we describe an illustrative case of a popular Chinese cloud-based music platform to demonstrate the utility of our conceptual frameworks in guiding studies of information practices.

Findings

The study proposes to shift the focus of technology affordances, which highlights the features and functions of particular technologies, to the affordances for practices that are enacted through technology and social construction within a sociocultural environment. The illustrative case of the cloud-based music platform shows that the proposed models can provide a structured view of operations, actions and motives for music information practices. The processes of internalization and externalization offer insight into the decomposition of information practice as a chain of activity-action-operation.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on theorizing engagement among people, technology and sociocultural environments through the theoretical lens of affordances and sheds new light on the challenges of information practice.
Government spending shocks and economic growth: additional evidence from cyclical behavior of fiscal policy
Authors: Olaoye Olumide Olusegun , Okorie Ukafor Ukafor , Eluwole Oluwatosin Odunayo , Fawwad Mahmood Butt
Published: October 2020

Purpose

This study examines the asymmetric effect of government spending on economic growth in Nigeria over the period 1980–2017. Specifically, this study investigates whether the response of economic growth to government spending shocks differs according to the nature of shocks on them. In addition, the authors examine whether the stabilizing effects of fiscal policies are dependent on the state of the business cycle.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts the linear fiscal reaction function in addition to the nonlinear regression model of Hatemi-J (2011, 2012), Granger and Yoon (2002), which allows us to separate negative shocks from positive shocks to government spending. Similarly, the authors adopt the generalized method of moments (GMM) techniques of Hansen (1982) to account for simultaneity and endogeneity problems inherent in dynamic model.

Findings

The authors’ findings reveal that there is evidence of asymmetry in the government spending–economic growth nexus in Nigeria over the period of study. Specifically, the authors find that the response of economic growth to government spending shocks differs according to the nature of shocks on them. More specifically, the study established that the stabilizing effects of fiscal policies are dependent on the state of the business cycle.

Originality/value

Unlike the traditional method of modeling asymmetry, which adopts the simple inclusion of a squared government spending term or by the inclusion of a cubic government spending term, the model adopted in this study allows us to model shocks and show how the responses of economic growth to government expenditure differ according to the nature of shocks on them.
Understanding the influence of environmental production practices on firm performance: a proactive versus reactive approach
Authors: Baah Charles , Opoku-Agyeman Douglas , Acquah Innocent Senyo Kwasi , Issau Kassimu , Moro Abdoulaye Farid Abdel
Published: October 2020

Purpose

Exploring ways to sustain competitive positions as well as improve firm performance through environmental production initiatives has been a major preoccupying topic for mostly practitioners and researchers. Despite several studies on the influence of environmental initiatives on firm performance, many questions remain unanswered as to how to further extract more gains from environmental production initiatives. This study, thus, explores environmental production practices impact on firm performance from proactive and reactive perspectives.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted a survey research design, a quantitative approach and partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique in making data analysis and interpretations due to its suitability for predictive research models.

Findings

The results indicated that proactive environmental production practices positively related with process and environmental performances but negatively associated with financial performance. Although the findings contrast with majority of past findings, they gain the support of other scholars in establishing that early adoption stages of proactive environmental production initiatives strain financial capabilities and thus present a negative relationship. Reactive environmental production practices are positively and significantly related with process, environmental and financial performances.

Originality/value

The study is among the first to expose environmental production practices from a proactive and a reactive perspective and in the context of a developing country. As such, the study provides guidance to relevant authorities in further promoting sustainable production practices to preserve the environment by manufacturing safer consumer products through efficient sustainable production processes and practices.
Implementing Industry 4.0: assessing the current state
Authors: Ortt Roland , Stolwijk Claire , Punter Matthijs
Published: October 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, summarize and combine the results of 11 articles in a special issue on the implementation of Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 emerged as a phenomenon about a decade ago. That is why, it is interesting now to explore the implementation of the concept. In doing so, four research questions are addressed: (1) What is Industry 4.0? (2) How to implement Industry 4.0? (3) How to assess the implementation status of Industry 4.0? (4) What is the current implementation status of Industry 4.0?

Design/methodology/approach

Subgroups of articles are formed, around one or more research questions involving the implementation of Industry 4.0. The articles are carefully analyzed to provide comprehensive answers.

Findings

By comparing definitions systematically, the authors show important aspects for defining Industry 4.0. The articles in the special issue explore several cases of manufacturing companies that implemented Industry 4.0. In addition, systematic approaches to aid implementation are described: an approach to combine case-study results to solve new implementation problems, approaches to assess readiness or maturity of companies regarding Industry 4.0 and surveys showing the status of implementation in larger samples of companies as well as showing relationships between company characteristics and type of implementation. Small and large firms differ considerably in their process of implementing Industry 4.0, for example.

Research limitations/implications

This special issue discusses implementation of Industry 4.0. The issue is limited to 11 articles, each of which with its own strengths and limitations.

Practical implications

The practical relevance of the issue is that it focuses on the implementation of Industry 4.0. Cases showing successful implementation, measurement instruments to assess degree of implementation and advice how to build a database with cases together with large-scale studies on the state of implementation do provide a wealth of information with a large managerial relevance.

Originality/value

The paper introduces an original take on Industry 4.0 by focusing on implementation. The special issue contains both literature reviews, articles describing case studies of implementation, articles developing systematic measurement instruments to assess degree of implementation and some articles reporting large-scale studies on the state of implementation of Industry 4.0 and thereby combine several perspectives on implementation of Industry 4.0.
A performance-based budget in the judiciary: allocation of resources and performance variability in first instance courts. An analysis of three case studies
Authors: Viapiana Federica
Published: October 2020

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare the different performance-based budgeting models used in the judiciaries of three European countries: Italy, Finland and the Netherlands. In particular, this paper focusses on the criteria adopted by these three countries to fund the courts, and it analyses the effects of these criteria on the distribution of resources and performance variability among first instance courts.

Design/methodology/approach

This exploratory research is based on a literature review and data analysis of three case studies. Equity in resource distribution and equality in courts' performance are assessed using the coefficient of variation.

Findings

The preliminary findings suggest the following: (1) funding models with a close link between performance and budget better guarantee equitable allocation of resources among courts and, therefore, more equal performance among courts within a country; (2) unbalanced allocation of resources is associated with disparities among courts in terms of judicial efficiency and effectiveness and consequently, unequal treatment of/outcomes for citizens coming before the law.

Research limitations/implications

This paper is part of a broader research project aimed at analysing the impact of performance budgeting on the efficiency, quality, organization and values of judiciaries. This study only considers quantitative aspects of performance, but it will be followed by further analysis that will explore performance and judicial budgeting from other perspectives.

Practical implications

This paper describes examples of three different models of performance-based judicial budgeting from other countries, which aim to reform the budgeting processes of the judiciaries in question. The paper emphasizes the importance of adopting rational and transparent funding criteria in order to ensure judicial independence and accountability and to balance courts' performance, guaranteeing the principle that every citizen must obtain the same treatment before the law.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the existing performance-based budgeting literature by studying its application to the judiciary, which, due to its peculiarities, is an area that has been overlooked in previous studies and deserves further attention. This study contributes to the court administration literature by exploring the issue of budgeting, which, despite its importance, is still a neglected subject.
Unrecognized assets created by public-sector investments in health and social services
Authors: Milinkovic Deborah , Hurley Jeremiah , Sweetman Arthur , Feeny David , Tarride Jean-Éric , Longo Christopher J. , McCracken Susan
Published: October 2020

Purpose

This paper analyzes two types of potential intangible public-sector assets for consideration by public-sector accounting boards. Government investments in health and social programs can create two potential intangible assets: the intangible infrastructure used to deliver the health or social program and the enhanced human capital embodied in the recipients of program services. Because neither of these assets is currently recognized in a government's year-end financial statements or broader general-purpose financial reports (GPFR), these reports may underrepresent the government's true fiscal and service capacity.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses an international accounting standards framework to analyze: whether investments in health and social programs create intangible assets that meet the definition of an asset as set out by International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), whether they are assets of the government and whether they are recognizable for the purpose of financial reporting.

Findings

The intangible infrastructure asset created to facilitate the delivery of health and social programs would often qualify as a recognizable asset of the government. However, the enhanced recipient human capital asset created through the delivery of health and social programs would, in most instances, not qualify as a recognizable asset of the government, though there likely would be benefits from reporting on it through GPFRs or other mechanisms.

Originality/value

This paper makes two contributions. First, it identifies a previously overlooked intangible asset – the infrastructure created to facilitate the delivery of health and social programs. Second, it presents an argument regarding why, even when it fails to generate a recognizable intangible asset to government, it would be valuable for government to report such investments in supplementary statements.