bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Using bibliometric analysis to map innovative business models for vertical farm entrepreneurs
Authors: Biancone Paolo Pietro , Brescia Valerio , Lanzalonga Federico , Alam Gazi Mahabubul
Published: January 2022

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the literature on vertical farming to define key elements to outline a business model for entrepreneurs. The research aims to stimulate entrepreneurship for vertical farming in a smart cities' context, recognising urban agriculture as technology to satisfy increasing food needs.

Design/methodology/approach

The research conducts a structured literature review on 186 articles on vertical farming extracted from the Scopus. Moreover, the bibliometric analysis revealed the descriptive statistics on this field and the main themes through the authors' keywords.

Findings

Different perspectives showed the multidisciplinary nature of the topic and how the intersection of different skills is necessary to understand the subject entirely. The keywords analysis allowed for identifying the topics covered by the authors and the business model's elements.

Research limitations/implications

The research explores a topic in the embryonic stage to define key strands of literature. It provides business model insights extending George and Bock's (2011) research to stimulate entrepreneurship in vertical farming. Limitations arise from the sources used to develop our analysis and how the topic appears as a frontier innovation.

Originality/value

Originality is the integration of literature strands related to vertical farming, highlighting its multidisciplinary nature to provide a holistic understanding of the themes. In smart cities' context, innovations allow traditional business models to be interpreted in a novel perspective and revealed the elements for transforming vertical farming from innovative technology to an effective source of food sustenance. Finally, the paper suggests a new methodology application for the analysis of word clusters by integrating correspondence analysis and multidimensional scaling analysis.
Gender, talent management and firm performance: MNCs' female-focused talent management practices in Russia
Authors: Latukha Marina , Michailova Snejina , Ott Dana L. , Khasieva Daria , Kostyuk Darya
Published: January 2022

Purpose

There is a substantial void in the understanding of the effect of talent management (TM) practices specifically targeted at females on firm performance. This paper investigates the relationship between female-focused TM and firm performance with the aim of demonstrating the importance of gender diversity in firms.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors developed and empirically tested a contextually embedded model using data from 103 multinational corporations in Russia to examine the effect of female-focused TM on firm performance.

Findings

The authors found an overall positive relationship between female-focused TM and firm performance. The authors’ analysis also revealed significant positive effects of female-focused talent development and talent retention, but not talent attraction, on firm performance.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the vibrant TM scholarship by focusing on female-focused talent attraction, development and retention practices.
Money as a symbol in the relationship between financial advisors and their clients: a dyadic study
Authors: Lozza Edoardo , Castiglioni Cinzia , Bonanomi Andrea , Poli Federica
Published: January 2022

Purpose

The paper aims to examine whether financial advisors can understand the symbols and meaning that investors associate with money and whether such ability plays any role in enhancing the advisor-investor relationship in terms of satisfaction, level of trust, referral propensity and loyalty.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used a dyadic research design. A total of 186 dyads of financial advisors and their clients took part in the study and completed two parallel self-administered questionnaires.

Findings

The authors found that financial advisors often can detect the emotional associations that their clients attribute to money. Such ability can enhance their relationship with investors.

Research limitations/implications

The main limitation of this study is its exploratory nature and the convenience sampling technique that was adopted. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the main findings further.

Practical implications

The results have implications for the development of ad-hoc psychological training to enhance the relationship between financial advisors and investors. Understanding the symbolic meanings and the emotions that clients associate with money may be a prerequisite for a financial services company to succeed and be competitive in the sector.

Originality/value

Despite acknowledging that money is not a neutral object but is layered with symbolic meanings and emotional associations, the behavioral finance literature has so far neglected to study these implications from either a theoretical or a practical point of view. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the symbolic value of money in the financial services industry.
Examining antecedents of residents’ support for the European Capital of Culture project – event’s sustainability perception, emotional solidarity, community attachment and brand trust
Authors: Šagovnović Ivana , Pivac Tatjana , Kovačić Sanja
Published: January 2022

Purpose

The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects on support for the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) project development of residents’ perception of the project’s sustainability, emotional solidarity toward tourists, community attachment and brand trust.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey research was conducted among 303 residents of Novi Sad, which has been selected to be the ECoC for the year 2022.

Findings

The findings confirmed the positive roles of three aspects of the event’s sustainability and three facets of emotional solidarity in shaping local people’s support for the ECoC event development. Besides, findings show the positive effect of residents’ community attachment and ECoC brand trust in predicting their supportive attitudes for the event development. Finally, results highlight which areas of the event’s sustainability are still unsatisfactory from the residents’ perspective, making it easier for event practitioners to optimally focus their attention and resources on enhancing problematic areas of the event’s sustainability.

Originality/value

The present study contributes to existing tourism literature as it is the first to explore the role local people’s perception of event sustainability, emotional solidarity toward tourists, community attachment and brand trust plays in their support for the ECoC event development. In addition, a unique contribution lies in the confirmation of brand trust as a significant antecedent of residents’ support, as this relationship remained an unexplored area in tourism literature. Practical implications, specifically derived for ECoC event practitioners, which should also find their place in securing residents’ support toward the development of any cultural event that attracts visitors, are discussed in the paper.
Digitalisation and work well-being: a qualitative study of techno-work engagement experiences related to the use of educational technology
Authors: Mäkiniemi Jaana-Piia
Published: January 2022

Purpose

The study explores techno-work engagement, which is a positive and fulfilling state of well-being with respect to the use of digital technology at work. It provides insight into the circumstances in which the educational use of ICT enhances work well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 60 Finns from the education sector wrote descriptions of situations in which they experienced techno-work engagement related to the use of educational technology. The responses were analysed qualitatively.

Findings

Participants experienced techno-work engagement not only when educational technology facilitated work, enabled progress and produced novelty value but also when working in collaboration and in a positive climate.

Originality/value

This first qualitative study of techno-work engagement deepens the understanding of positive well-being experiences associated with the use of educational technology. It also provides suggestions for leading technology-related work well-being in educational sector.
The role of tinnitus distress in the development of somatization symptoms among patients: implications for health care in Pakistan
Authors: Ahmed Ammar , Aslam Naeem
Published: January 2022

Purpose

Tinnitus patients are among the most vulnerable group to develop psychopathological symptoms over time if left unresolved. This study aims to investigate the role of tinnitus distress between tinnitus magnitude, cognitions and functional difficulties in the development of somatization symptoms among male and female patients experiencing ear-related problems due to lack of proper access to health care.

Design/methodology/approach

This study was based on a purposive sampling technique and sample consisted on 159 patients (97 male, 62 female) having tinnitus complaints, with age range 18–87 (M = 47.94, SD = 17.47) years, recruited from various clinics and hospitals of Islamabad, Pakistan, from December 2020 to July 2021.

Findings

The findings of this study showed that tinnitus distress is significant positively associated with tinnitus-related magnitude, negative cognitions, functional difficulties and somatization symptoms. Gender-related differences between male and female tinnitus patients revealed that females are more prone to depict higher levels of tinnitus distress, tinnitus magnitude, negative cognitions and somatization symptoms than male patients. Mediation analysis demonstrated that tinnitus distress serves as a mediator between tinnitus magnitude, cognitions, functional difficulties and somatization symptoms.

Research limitations/implications

Cross-sectional nature and self-reporting measures serve as a limitation of the study. An experimental study appears to be vital to ascertain the time-based relationship with tinnitus magnitude in the development of various psychopathological issues. The findings of this study contribute to the literature by highlighting the role of tinnitus distress in the origination of psychopathological symptoms like somatization and need of upgraded health-care systems in Pakistan.

Originality/value

This study has explored the mediating role of tinnitus distress between magnitude, cognitions, functional difficulties and somatization symptoms among Pakistani population, specifically mentioning the development of somatization symptoms among this population, which can contribute in the loss of earning and increased health expenses due to unawareness of proper health-care approach.
Unpacking effective mentorship practices for early career academics: a mixed-methods study
Authors: Sargent Julia , Rienties Bart
Published: January 2022

Purpose

Mentoring can be an important source of support, particularly for those who are in the early stages of their career in academia. Drawing upon data from a larger study, the authors investigated opportunities for mentorship, factors that hinder or support mentorship and the value of mentorship from the perspective of early career academics (ECAs).

Design/methodology/approach

Using a mixed-methods approach and social identity theory, the authors collected data via a survey and follow-up interviews with members of staff at the Open University, of which 19 ECA experiences were contrasted with 17 academics who received mentorship but were not early career.

Findings

ECAs and non-ECAs had equal access to mentoring, but mentoring seemed to be more visible and accessible to ECAs. Factors deemed to support mentorship included mentors having empathy and confidentiality. Mentorship was valued by ECAs because it helped to provide them with support that was in addition to their line management and to help them make sense of “being an academic”. From the data presented, mentorship supported ECAs in their academic career and identity development in higher education.

Originality/value

This research provides a mixed-methods approach to investigating early career mentoring within the context of a higher education institution in the United Kingdom. It considers the topic of mentoring of both junior and more senior staff who are often working at a distance to the institutional setting and provides a theoretical perspective in terms of social identity for academics.
Coordination mechanisms for digital and sustainable textile supply chain
Authors: Kumar Patanjal , Sharma Dheeraj , Pandey Peeyush
Published: January 2022

Purpose

Supply chain network is complicated to manage due to the involvement of a number of agents. Formation of virtual organization using Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is an approach to improve the efficiency and effectiveness and to overcome the complexities of the channel. However, the task of managing the channel further becomes complicated after incorporating sustainability into the supply chain. To fill this gap, this paper focuses on designing of mechanism and demonstration of I4.0-based virtual organization to coordinate sustainable supply chain.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, we model and compare I4.0-based virtual organization models using four other traditional contracts with centralized supply chain. The non-cooperative game theoretic approach has been used for the analysis of models.

Findings

Our game-theoretic analysis shows that investment in I4.0 and sustainable innovation are beneficial for the overall supply chain. Our results show that linear two-part tariff contract and I4.0-based virtual organization model can perfectly coordinated with the supply chain.

Research limitations/implications

This study consider deterministic model settings with full information game. Therefore researchers are encouraged to study I4.0-based coordination models under information asymmetry and uncertain situations.

Practical implications

The paper includes implications for the development of I4.0-based coordination model to tackle the problems of channel coordination.

Originality/value

This study proposes I4.0-based game-theoretic model for the sustainable supply chain coordination.
Do average higher moments predict aggregate returns in emerging stock markets?
Authors: Chamadia Sumaira , Rehman Mobeen Ur , Kashif Muhammad
Published: January 2022

Purpose

It has been demonstrated in the US market that expected market excess returns can be predicted using the average higher-order moments of all firms. This study aims to empirically test this theory in emerging markets.

Design/methodology/approach

Two measures of average higher moments have been used (equal-weighted and value-weighted) along with the market moments to predict subsequent aggregate excess returns using the linear as well as the quantile regression model.

Findings

The authors report that both equal-weighted skewness and kurtosis significantly predict subsequent market returns in two countries, while value-weighted average skewness and kurtosis are significant in predicting returns in four out of nine sample markets. The results for quantile regression show that the relationship between the risk variable and aggregate returns varies along the spectrum of conditional quantiles.

Originality/value

This is the first study that investigates the impact of third and fourth higher-order average realized moments on the predictability of subsequent aggregate excess returns in the MSCI Asian emerging stock markets. This study is also the first to analyze the sensitivity of future market returns over various quantiles.
Effects of country of origin and importers’ innovativeness in new product trials
Authors: Pegan Giovanna , Reardon James , Vianelli Donata
Published: January 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to seek to investigate whether and how country of origin (COO) cues – category-country image (CCI) and typicality – and importers’ domain-specific innovativeness (DSI) influence importers’ propensity to the trial new value and premium products. Moreover, it aims to understand whether and how the relationship between the COO effect and industrial purchase intentions is moderated by importers’ propensity to innovate (DSI).

Design/methodology/approach

International importers completed a quantitative online survey. Factor analysis was used to summarize the latent constructs into orthogonal scores. General linear modeling was applied to the scores to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The results indicate that importers’ propensity to trial value products is directly influenced by CCI and importers’ DSI. For premium products, typicality has a positive effect on their propensity to trial. Also, CCI and DSI have positive effects on the trial of value products, and the effect is more pronounced than for premium products. Importers’ DSI positively moderates CCI in premium product trials, while it negatively moderates typicality in value products.

Practical implications

This research provides important managerial implications for practitioners seeking to increase foreign sales, strengthening importers’ product perceived value through COO cues. Exporters should distinguish between value and premium products and, in the selection of international channel partners, they must be attentive to importers’ personal characteristics, such as their propensity to innovate. Exporters selling value products should communicate CCI more clearly and, when targeting innovative importers, opt for atypical products instead of traditional ones. For premium products, which require more complex decisions, exporters should especially underscore product typicality and, with innovative importers, emphasize positive CCI.

Originality/value

By focusing on the two critical issues of product selection and price levels, this study’s original contribution is to emphasize that, for the same product category, in industrial purchasing decisions of value versus premium products, the COO effect can be different. It also highlights the importance of investigating the COO effect by concentrating on industrial buyers’ personal characteristics, here the DSI of importers, as moderating variables.
Macroeconomic fundamentals, institutional quality and shadow economy in OIC and non-OIC countries
Authors: Khan Shabeer , Rehman Mohd Ziaur
Published: January 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between macroeconomic fundamentals, intuitional quality and shadow economy.

Design/methodology/approach

By utilizing data setspanning from 2004 to 2015 of 141 countries, the study has employed advanced panel technique, i.e. Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) method. In order to check consistency of the results, the study also used fixed effect and random effect for robustness.

Findings

The study finds that for the full sample, institutional quality has negative effect on shadow economy while macroeconomic fundaments effect shadow economy differently. After splitting the sample into Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and non-OIC countries subsamples, it observes same influence of macroeconomic fundaments and institutional quality on shadow economy, but the effect of macroeconomic fundaments and institutional quality on shadow economy is less observed for OIC countries. The results are found consistence by using different estimation methods.

Originality/value

The current literature has focused on estimating the size of shadow economy and literature linking the macroeconomic fundaments, institutional quality and shadow economy is scarce. Additionally, this study provides the evidence for cross comparison between OIC economies and non-OIC economies.
Investigative prevention of corruption crimes
Authors: Kassimova Madina О. , Omarov Yerbol A. , Zhilkaidarov Ramazan R. , Abulgazin Yerlan S. , Sabitova Ainur A.
Published: January 2022

Purpose

The fight against corruption, which undermines the efficiency of the state apparatus and public confidence in public institutions, remains one of the critical present-day tasks. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to identify the available possibilities and real practice of law enforcement of the norms on investigative prevention, the practical significance of this institution and its potential.

Design/methodology/approach

The study investigated theoretical materials on criminological prevention, legislative norms and available law enforcement practice.

Findings

It was discovered that, in general, the available statutory regulation is insufficient for the full-fledged practical implementation of the potential of investigative prevention. An exception is specialised prevention, assigned as one of the main tasks to the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Combating Corruption. Proposals have been formulated to improve anti-corruption investigative prevention in other bodies of pre-trial investigation, considering the identified risks.

Originality/value

The uniqueness of the situation lies in the fact that the existence of the institution of investigative prevention, in fact, is limited to the post-Soviet space. The elimination of formalism in the approach to this method of crime prevention can contribute to greater efficiency in the fight against crime, including corruption.
Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) research – a comparative bibliometric analysis and future research insight
Authors: Mukhopadhyay Sandip , Pandey Ritesh , Rishi Bikramjit
Published: January 2022

Purpose

In recent times, the growing use of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has attracted consumers, organizations and marketers alike. The objective of this study is to summarize and compare the current mass of eWOM research published in leading hospitality and tourism journals with research published in the other fields of both business and management.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses multiple bibliometric analysis methods, including citation, co-citation, keyword and co-word analysis. It compares various assessments of eWOM research published in 399 selected business publications and 398 selected hospitality/tourism publications (ABDC A and above and ABS 3 and above) between 2003 and 2021.

Findings

The co-citation analysis identified three thematic areas under each of the domains, i.e. in the hospitality/tourism field, the three themes included eWOM and behavior; eWOM and social media; and eWOM as a marketing tool. Similarly, under the business field (encompasses remaining business and management subdisciplines), the three themes are eWOM and sales, eWOM quality and attributes; and eWOM, information and consumer. Additionally, the word and co-word analysis mapped the comparative evolution of research in these two fields. The study advocates more research focusing on less researched platforms using diverse data, recommender systems adoption and application of eWOM in the business to business (B2B) context.

Research limitations/implications

This study summarizes the overall theoretical and conceptual structure of eWOM research in both business and hospitality/tourism fields; based upon which, several recommendations for future research are proposed.

Originality/value

By comparing the developments in the specialized hospitality/tourism sector with broader management literature using multiple, complementary techniques, this study brings out important insights for hospitality/tourism researchers.
How leader–member exchange affects job embeddedness and job dedication through employee advocacy
Authors: Akgunduz Yilmaz , Turksoy Selcen Seda , Nisari Mehmet Alper
Published: January 2022

Purpose

Compatible with the principles of leader–member exchange (LMX) theory and social exchange theory (SET), the study explores the effect of LMX on job embeddedness and job dedication and the mediating role of employee advocacy.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were gathered via a survey at four hotels in Izmir. To test the reliability and validity, 194 valid questionnaires were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

The results show that high quality LMX and employee advocacy increase the hotel employees' job embeddedness and job dedication. In addition, the results show that employee advocacy has a partial mediating effect on the relationships between LMX and job embeddedness, and between LMX and job dedication.

Originality/value

Although past researches have examined both various determinants of employee job embeddedness and job dedication, and consequences of high-quality LMX, they have ignored a critical factor, which is employee advocacy. This current study addresses this research gap by investigating the interrelations between LMX and job embeddedness, and job advocacy through employee advocacy in hotels. Moreover, this research is the first empirical study that analyzes the relationships between LMX, job embeddedness, job dedication and employee advocacy in the same model. Therefore, this research contributes to hospitality literature by filling this gap.
Exploring AI-healthcare innovation: natural language processing-based patents analysis for technology-driven roadmapping
Authors: Wang Yu-Hui , Lin Guan-Yu
Published: January 2022

Purpose

The purposes of this paper are (1) to explore the overall development of AI technologies and applications that have been demonstrated to be fundamentally important in the healthcare industry, and their related commercialized products and (2) to identify technologies with promise as the basis of useful applications and profitable products in the AI-healthcare domain.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts a technology-driven technology roadmap approach, combined with natural language processing (NLP)-based patents analysis, to identify promising and potentially profitable existing AI technologies and products in the domain of AI healthcare.

Findings

Robotics technology exhibits huge potential in surgical and diagnostics applications. Intuitive Surgical Inc., manufacturer of the Da Vinci robotic system and Ion robotic lung-biopsy system, dominates the robotics-assisted surgical and diagnostic fields. Diagnostics and medical imaging are particularly active fields for the application of AI, not only for analysis of CT and MRI scans, but also for image archiving and communications.

Originality/value

This study is a pioneering attempt to clarify the interrelationships of particular promising technologies for application and related products in the AI-healthcare domain. Its findings provide critical information about the patent activities of key incumbent actors, and thus offer important insights into recent and current technological and product developments in the emergent AI-healthcare sector.
The effect of audit firm attributes on audit delay in the presence of financial reporting complexity
Authors: Chen Chu , Jia Hongmei , Xu Yang , Ziebart David
Published: January 2022

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effects of audit firm attributes on audit delay associated with financial reporting complexity (FRC).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use regression models with a sample of public firms with distinct monetary eXtensible Business Reporting Language tags to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

The authors find that two audit firm attributes (audit firm tenure and non-audit services performance) moderate the effect of FRC on audit delay.

Practical implications

The study provides insights to regulators, practitioners and investors into how firms may reduce audit delay from FRC by keeping their long-tenured auditors and allowing their auditors to gain more knowledge about the firms by providing non-audit services. The results, therefore, have implications for mandatory audit firm rotation.

Originality/value

To the best of the knowledge, this study conducts the first comprehensive analysis of this topic, exploring the impact of three audit firm attributes on audit delay caused by FRC. It attempts to illustrate the impact of external audit firms on reducing the adverse consequences of FRC.
Accounting firms’ talent management practices: perceived importance and its impact on auditors’ performance
Authors: Louis Ramesh Ruben , Sulaiman Noor Adwa , Zakaria Zarina
Published: January 2022

Purpose

Prior literature on talent management (TM) in the audit setting has suggested several practices that may affect auditors’ performance. However, the study is limited in terms of a measurable set of comprehensive constructs of TM in the audit setting, as well as the impact of comprehensive TM constructs on auditors’ performance. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine TM practices perceived to be important by auditors for auditors’ performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were obtained from 307 survey questionnaires received from auditors of large- as well as small- and medium-sized firms.

Findings

The study respondents perceived TM attributes related to supervision and review practices as the most vital for auditors’ performance. This category was followed by attributes related to ethics management practices along with training and development. The findings reveal that respondents generally perceived lower significance for attributes pertaining to work–life balance (WLB) and establishing a TM policy for auditors’ performance. While both top management and staff members of audit firms regarded WLB and establishing a TM policy to be of lower significance, top management placed greater importance on attributes related to ethics management, while staff perceived training and development attributes to be more critical.

Originality/value

This study examined a comprehensive set of TM practices (establishing a TM policy, recruitment, ethics management, training and development, supervision and review, remuneration, WLB and succession planning) and assessed the perceptions of audit practitioners on the significance of these practices on auditors’ performance.
Can HRM predict mental health crises? Using HR analytics to unpack the link between employment and suicidal thoughts and behaviors
Authors: Hastuti Rina , Timming Andrew R.
Published: January 2022

Purpose

The aim of this research is to determine the extent to which the human resource (HR) function can screen and potentially predict suicidal employees and offer preventative mental health assistance.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing from the 2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (N = 56,136), this paper employs multivariate binary logistic regression to model the work-related predictors of suicidal ideation, planning and attempts.

Findings

The results indicate that known periods of joblessness, the total number of sick days and absenteeism over the last 12 months are significantly associated with various suicidal outcomes while controlling for key psychosocial correlates. The results also indicate that employee assistance programs are associated with a significantly reduced likelihood of suicidal ideation. These findings are consistent with conservation of resources theory.

Research limitations/implications

This research demonstrates preliminarily that the HR function can unobtrusively detect employee mental health crises by collecting data on key predictors.

Originality/value

In the era of COVID-19, employers have a duty of care to safeguard employee mental health. To this end, the authors offer an innovative way through which the HR function can employ predictive analytics to address mental health crises before they result in tragedy.
Nod factor‐independent ‘crack‐entry’ symbiosis in dalbergoid legume Arachis hypogaea
Authors: Guha Sohini , Molla Firoz , Sarkar Monolina , Ibañez Fernando , Fabra Adriana , DasGupta Maitrayee
Published: January 2022

Dalbergoids are typified by crack‐entry symbiosis which is evidenced to be Nod Factor (NF)‐independent in several Aeschynomene legumes. Natural symbionts of the dalbergoid legume Arachis hypogaea are always NF‐producing, prompting us to check whether symbiosis in this legume could also be NF‐independent. For this, we followed the symbiosis with two NF‐containing bradyrhizobial strains – SEMIA6144, a natural symbiont of Arachis and ORS285, a versatile nodulator of Aeschynomene legumes, along with their corresponding nodulation (nod) mutants. Additionally, we investigated NF‐deficient bradyrhizobia like BTAi1, a natural symbiont of Aeschynomene indica and the WBOS strains that were natural endophytes of Oryza sativa, collected from an Arachis‐Oryza intercropped field. While SEMIA6144ΔnodC was non‐nodulating, both ORS285 and ORS285ΔnodB could induce functional nodulation, although with lower efficiency than SEMIA6144. On the other hand, all the NF‐deficient strains – BTAi1, WBOS2 and WBOS4 showed comparable nodulation with ORS285 indicating Arachis to harbour an NF‐independent mechanism of symbiosis. Intriguingly, symbiosis in Arachis, irrespective of whether it was NF‐dependent or independent, was always associated with the curling or branching of the rosette root hairs at the lateral root bases. Thus, despite being predominantly described as an NF‐dependent legume, Arachis does retain a vestigial, less‐efficient form of NF‐independent symbiosis.
Precision patients: Selection practices and moral pathfinding in experimental oncology
Authors: Dam Mie S. , Green Sara , Bogicevic Ivana , Hillersdal Line , Spanggaard Iben , Rohrberg Kristoffer S. , Svendsen Mette N.
Published: January 2022

This paper addresses selection practices in a Danish phase 1 unit specialised in precision medicine in the field of oncology. Where precision medicine holds the ambition of selecting genetically fit medicine for the patient, we find that precision medicine in the early trial setting is oriented towards selecting clinically and genetically fit patients for available treatment protocols. Investigating how phase 1 oncologists experience and respond to the moral challenges of selecting patients for early clinical trials, we show that inclusion criteria and patient categories are not always transparent to patients. Lack of transparency about inclusion criteria has been interpreted as morally problematic. Yet drawing on social science studies of ‘unknowing’, we argue that silence and non‐transparency in interactions between oncologists and patients are crucial to respect the moral agency of patients at the edge of life and recognise them as belonging to the public of Danish health care. In the discussion, we consider the practice of placing ‘unfit’ patients on a waiting list for trial participation. Rather than representing an ethical and political problem, we argue, the waiting list can act as a valve enabling oncologists to navigate the scientific and as well as the moral uncertainties in phase 1 oncology.
Consumer Value as the Key to Trade Mark Functionality
Authors: Fhima Ilanah
Published: January 2022

This article identifies the central role of consumer perceptions of value in design and marketing literature. Relying on this literature, it proposes changes to our legal understanding of functionality, the doctrine denying trade mark protection to technical and other features traders must access in order to compete. Marketing and design literature explains that consumers approach different values inherent in products holistically, influenced by emotional resonance. Thus, in the context of a developing body of interdisciplinary trade mark scholarship, I advocate a move away from trade mark law's formalistic approach to functionality, where technical and aesthetic product values are treated as distinct. Instead I argue for a single consumer‐focussed competition‐based functionality exclusion, centred around the ‘substantial value’ exclusion to registration.
Noise levels in the dialysis unit and its relationship with sleep quality and anxiety in patients receiving HD: A pilot study
Authors: Ok Elif , Aydin Sayilan Aylin , Sayilan Samet , Sousa Clemente Neves , Ozen Nurten
Published: January 2022

Introduction

HD unit is a noisy environment for patients, and noise can affect anxiety levels and sleep quality.

Methods

The aim of the study is to determine noise level, the relationship between noise levels, and sleep quality and anxiety in patients in HD unit. A descriptive and observational study design was used. Three Benetech GM1351 manual sound‐level meters were used to measure noise. A patient information form, the State Anxiety Inventory, and the modified Post‐Sleep Inventory were used for data collection.

Results

The noise range detected in the HD unit ranges from 48.40 to 72 dB(A). Our findings show that patients in the HD unit are exposed to high noise levels and the noise significantly negatively impacts quality of sleep and anxiety level of the patients.

Conclusions

It is important to be aware that HD patients are constantly exposed to high levels of noise and to plan nursing interventions to reduce this noise level.
Does clustering of DNA barcodes agree with botanical classification directly at high taxonomic levels? Trees in French Guiana as a case study
Authors: Abouabdallah Mohamed Anwar , Peyrard Nathalie , Franc Alain
Published: January 2022

Characterizing biodiversity is one of the main challenges for the coming decades. Most diversity has not been morphologically described, and barcoding is now complementing morphological‐based taxonomy to further develop inventories. Both approaches have been cross‐validated at the level of species and OTUs. However, many known species are not listed in reference databases. One path to speed up inventories using barcoding is to directly identify individuals at coarser taxonomic levels. We therefore studied in barcoding of plants whether morphological‐based and molecular‐based approaches are in agreement at genus, family and order levels. We used Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (with Ward, Complete and Single Linkage) and Stochastic Block Models (SBM), with two dissimilarity measures (Smith‐Waterman scores, kmers). The agreement between morphological‐based and molecular‐based classifications ranges in most of the cases from good to very good at taxonomic levels above species, even though it decreases when taxonomic levels increase, or when using the tetramer‐based distance. Agreement is correlated with the entropy of morphological‐based classification and with the ratio of the mean within‐ and mean between‐groups dissimilarities. The Ward method globally leads to the best agreement, whereas Single Linkage can show poor behaviours. SBM provides a useful tool to test whether or not the dissimilarities are structured by the botanical groups. These results suggest that automatic clustering and group identification at taxonomic levels above species are possible in barcoding.
slag: A program for seeded local assembly of genes in complex genomes
Authors: Crane Charles F. , Nemacheck Jill A. , Subramanyam Subhashree , Williams Christie E. , Goodwin Stephen B.
Published: January 2022

Although finished genomes have become more common, there is still a need for assemblies of individual genes or chromosomal regions when only unassembled reads are available. slag (Seeded Local Assembly of Genes) fulfils this need by performing iterative local assembly based on cycles of matching‐read retrieval with blast and assembly with cap3, phrap, spades, canu or unicycler. The target sequence can be nucleotide or protein. Read fragmentation allows slag to use phrap or cap3 to assemble long reads at lower coverage (e.g., 5×) than is possible with canu or unicycler. In simple, nonrepetitive genomes, a slag assembly can cover a whole chromosome, but in complex genomes the growth of target‐matching contigs is limited as additional reads are consumed by consensus contigs consisting of repetitive elements. Apart from genomic complexity, contig length and correctness depend on read length and accuracy. With pyrosequencing or Illumina reads, slag‐assembled contigs are accurate enough to allow design of PCR primers, while contigs assembled from Oxford Nanopore or pre‐HiFi Pacific Biosciences long reads are generally only accurate enough to design baiting sequences for further targeted sequencing. In an application with real reads, slag successfully extended sequences for four wheat genes, which were verified by cloning and Sanger sequencing of overlapping amplicons. slag is a robust alternative to atram2 for local assemblies, especially for read sets with less than 20× coverage. slag is freely available at https://github.com/cfcrane/SLAG.
Phosphoglycerate mutase family member 5 maintains oocyte quality via mitochondrial dynamic rearrangement during aging
Authors: Li Chia‐Jung , Lin Li‐Te , Tsai Hsiao‐Wen , Wen Zhi‐Hong , Tsui Kuan‐Hao
Published: January 2022

Decline in ovarian reserve with aging is associated with reduced fertility and the development of metabolic abnormalities. Once mitochondrial homeostasis is imbalanced, it may lead to poor reproductive cell quality and aging. However, Phosphoglycerate translocase 5 (PGAM5), located in the mitochondrial membrane, is associated with necroptosis, apoptosis, and mitophagy, although the underlying mechanisms associated with ovarian aging remain unknown. Therefore, we attempted to uncover whether the high phosphoglycerate mutant enzyme family member 5 (PGAM5) expression is associated with female infertility in cumulus cells, and aims to find out the underlying mechanism of action of PGAM5. We found that PGAM5 is highly expressed and positively associated with aging, and has the potential to help maintain and regulate mitochondrial dynamics and metabolic reprogramming in aging granulosa cells, ovaries of aged female mice, and elderly patients. PGAM5 undergoes activation in the aging group and translocated to the outer membrane of mitochondria, co‐regulating DRP1; thereby increasing mitochondrial fission. A significant reduction in the quality of mitochondria in the aging group, a serious imbalance, and a significant reduction in energy, causing metabolism shift toward glycolysis, were also reported. Since PGAM5 is eliminated, the mitochondrial function and metabolism of aging cells are partially reversed. A total of 70 patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment were recruited in this clinical study. The high expression of PGAM5 in the cumulus cells is negatively correlated with the pregnancy rate of infertile patients. Hence, PGAM5 has immense potential to be used as a diagnostic marker.
Veterinary anatomy teaching from real to virtual reality: An unprecedented shift during COVID‐19 in socially distant era
Authors: Kapoor Kritima , Singh Amandeep
Published: January 2022

Teaching Veterinary Anatomy in a virtual world is an utmost requirement of the ongoing era of COVID‐19 pandemic. Due to sudden lockdown, all the educational institutes, professional medical and veterinary colleges were closed (except emergency services) and academic activities were suspended altogether. This situation was challenging as well as thought‐provoking for various academicians and professors to rethink about the means to keep the conduit of imparting education unceasing. This review focuses on the virtual reality aids that are being adopted worldwide and the initiatives taken by academicians during this era to impart best practical anatomy lessons yet being in a socially distant world. However, during the lockdown and social distancing, face‐to face interactions were not feasible, and therefore, number of distant learning methods were created on virtual platforms for continuing the process of teaching veterinary anatomy closer to reality available at their doorsteps where academic staff was actively involved to reconstruct and renovate resources, upgraded their digital competencies to develop new ways to shift from one on one and merged to remote online teaching, and anatomy teaching was transformed to an abrupt ‘virtual mode’. Adopting virtual reality (VR) aids such as 3D animations, software packages, virtual dissections and E‐museum serves as a great saviour throughout this unprecedented pandemic in a socially distant world to continue the teaching connexion.
Can a higher endometrial thickness threshold exclude endometrial cancer and atypical hyperplasia in asymptomatic postmenopausal women? A systematic review
Authors: Li Jessica X. L. , Chan Felix , Johansson Cherynne Yuin Mun
Published: January 2022

Background

Asymptomatic postmenopausal women incidentally found to have thickened endometrium (>4 mm) on transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS) often undergo hysteroscopy and dilatation and curettage despite having a low absolute risk of endometrial cancer. A low threshold for investigation may be unnecessary in these women.

Aim

This systematic literature review examines whether an increased TVUS endometrial thickness threshold has superior diagnostic accuracy for endometrial malignancies and premalignancies in asymptomatic postmenopausal women than the current threshold of ≥4 mm.

Methods

Pubmed, EMBASE and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were systematically searched using keywords for publications between 2011 and 2021. Studies were included if they reported TVUS endometrial thickness analysis in asymptomatic postmenopausal women and excluded if they were written in a non‐English language. Quality of evidence in the included articles was evaluated according to recommendations by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment Development and Evaluation Working Group and reported results were tabulated.

Results

Of seven studies (N = 2986), better evidence identified 12 mm as the optimal diagnostic threshold (area under the curve receiver operating characteristic (AUC ROC) 0.716, 95% CI 0.534–0.897, P = 0.019) for endometrial cancer in asymptomatic postmenopausal women. Two higher quality studies (n = 488 and n = 4751) identified 11 mm as optimal for diagnosing both endometrial carcinoma and atypical hyperplasia (AUC ROC 0.587, 95% CI 0.465–0.708, P = 0.144 and 2.59 relative risk, 95% CI 1.66–4.05, P < 0.001).

Conclusion

Evidence for improved detection of endometrial premalignancies and malignancies using alternative endometrial thickness thresholds is not rigorous. Evidence for improved outcomes using alternative thresholds is inadequate. Observation of asymptomatic postmenopausal women without risk factors and with an endometrial thickness of less than 10 mm may be reasonable.
Voluntary assisted dying in gynaecological cancers: A discussion of the history, ethical principles and international perspectives
Authors: Richards Anthony M. , McGauran Melissa J.
Published: January 2022

Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) is a provocative and ethically charged subject that will potentially be an increasing component of our clinical practice. This paper aims to give the history of VAD, ethical principles, controversies and international perspectives regarding the laws in each jurisdiction. It provides a discussion on the topic with respect to gynaecological oncology to enable clinicians to feel more comfortable with this difficult subject.