bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Self-reported Lifestyle Activities in Relation to Longitudinal Cognitive Trajectories
Authors: Pettigrew Corinne , Shao Yi , Zhu Yuxin , Grega Maura , Brichko Rostislav , Wang Mei-Cheng , Carlson Michelle C. , Albert Marilyn , Soldan Anja
Published: October 2018

Background:

Few studies have examined the relationship between lifestyle activity engagement and cognitive trajectories among individuals who were cognitively normal at baseline.

Objective:

To examine the relationship of current engagement in lifestyle activities to previous cognitive performance among individuals who were cognitively normal at baseline, and whether this relationship differed for individuals who subsequently developed mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or by APOE-4 genotype, age, and level of cognitive reserve.

Methods:

Participants (N=189) were primarily middle-aged (M=56.6 y) at baseline and have been prospectively followed with annual assessments (M follow-up=14.3 y). Engagement in physical, cognitive, and social activities was measured by the CHAMPS activity questionnaire. Longitudinal cognitive performance was measured by a global composite score.

Results:

Among individuals who progressed to MCI (n=27), higher lifestyle activity engagement was associated with less decline in prior cognitive performance. In contrast, among individuals who remained cognitively normal, lifestyle activity engagement was not associated with prior cognitive trajectories. These effects were largely independent of APOE-4 genotype, age, and cognitive reserve.

Conclusions:

Greater engagement in lifestyle activities may modify the rate of cognitive decline among those who develop symptoms of MCI, but these findings need to be confirmed in prospective studies.
Neurotrauma as a big-data problem
Authors: Huie J. Russell , Almeida Carlos A. , Ferguson Adam R.
Published: October 2018

Purpose of review

The field of neurotrauma research faces a reproducibility crisis. In response, research leaders in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spinal cord injury (SCI) are leveraging data curation and analytics methods to encourage transparency, and improve the rigor and reproducibility. Here we review the current challenges and opportunities that come from efforts to transform neurotrauma's big data to knowledge.

Recent findings

Three parallel movements are driving data-driven-discovery in neurotrauma. First, large multicenter consortia are collecting large quantities of neurotrauma data, refining common data elements (CDEs) that can be used across studies. Investigators are now testing the validity of CDEs in diverse research settings. Second, data sharing initiatives are working to make neurotrauma data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). These efforts are reflected by recent open data repository projects for preclinical and clinical neurotrauma. Third, machine learning analytics are allowing researchers to uncover novel data-driven-hypotheses and test new therapeutics in multidimensional outcome space.

We are on the threshold of a new era in data collection, curation, and analysis. The next phase of big data in neurotrauma research will require responsible data stewardship, a culture of data-sharing, and the illumination of ‘dark data’.
Retrospective Evaluation of Cyclosporine in the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis in Dogs: 2010-2017
Authors: Tarini Ullal , Yoko Ambrosini , Sangeeta Rao , Cynthia RL Webster , David Twedt
Published: October 2018

Background

Idiopathic chronic hepatitis (CH) in dogs is a prevalent hepatic disorder. The etiology is poorly understood; however, there is evidence to support an immune-mediated pathogenesis. No literature exists investigating the efficacy of cyclosporine (CsA) therapy for CH in dogs.

Objectives

To retrospectively evaluate the efficacy and adverse side effects of CsA in the treatment of CH in dogs, and to identify factors that impact response to CsA therapy.

Animals

48 client-owned dogs diagnosed with CH treated with CsA for at least 2 weeks.

Methods

Retrospective review of medical records between the years 2010-2017.

Results

Twenty-two breeds of dogs were included of which 54% were spayed females, 42% neutered males and 4% intact males. Median age was 8.5 years (range, 0.7-14 years). Complete remission (normalization of alanine aminotransferase [ALT]) in response to CsA was attained in 79% of dogs (38/48). Median dose of CsA at the time of remission was 7.9 mg/kg/day (range, 2.5-12.7mg/kg/day) and median time to remission was 2.5 months (range, 0.75-18 months). None of the factors evaluated including clinical score, presence of ascites, hypoalbuminemia, hyperbilirubinemia, prolonged coagulation times, dose, or duration of therapy influenced remission. Common side effects were gastrointestinal signs in 38% (18/48) and gingival hyperplasia in 25% (12/48) of dogs.

Conclusion and Clinical Importance

CsA proved to be a tolerated and effective medication in attaining remission in dogs with idiopathic CH based on normalization of serum ALT. None of the evaluated factors were shown to negatively impact response to CsA or remission of disease.
Charting a tissue from single-cell transcriptomes
Authors: Nitzan Mor , Karaiskos Nikos , Friedman Nir , Rajewsky Nikolaus
Published: October 2018

Massively multiplexed sequencing of RNA in individual cells is transforming basic and clinical life sciences. However, in standard experiments, tissues must first be dissociated. Thus, after sequencing, information about the spatial relationships between cells is lost although this knowledge is crucial for understanding cellular and tissue-level function. Recent attempts to overcome this fundamental challenge rely on employing additional in situ gene expression imaging data which can guide spatial mapping of sequenced cells. Here we present a conceptually different approach that allows to reconstruct spatial positions of cells in a variety of tissues without using reference imaging data. We first show for several complex biological systems that distances of single cells in expression space monotonically increase with their physical distances across tissues. We therefore seek to map cells to tissue space such that this principle is optimally preserved, while matching existing imaging data when available. We show that this optimization problem can be cast as a generalized optimal transport problem and solved efficiently. We apply our approach successfully to reconstruct the mammalian liver and intestinal epithelium as well as fly and zebrafish embryos. Our results demonstrate a simple spatial expression organization principle and that this principle (or future refined principles) can be used to infer, for individual cells, meaningful spatial position probabilities from the sequencing data alone.
The essential role of feedback processing for figure-ground perception in mice
Authors: Kirchberger Lisa , Mukherjee Sreedeep , Schnabel Ulf H. , van Beest Enny H. , Barsegyan Areg , Levelt Christiaan N. , Heimel J. Alexander , Lorteije Jeannette A. M. , van der Togt Chris , Self Matthew W. , Roelfsema Pieter R.
Published: October 2018

The segregation of figures from the background is an important step in visual perception. In primary visual cortex, figures evoke stronger activity than backgrounds during a delayed phase of the neuronal responses, but it is unknown how this figure-ground modulation (FGM) arises and whether it is necessary for perception. Here we show, using optogenetic silencing in mice, that the delayed V1 response phase is necessary for figure-ground segregation. Neurons in higher visual areas also exhibit FGM and optogenetic silencing of higher areas reduced FGM in V1. In V1, figures elicited higher activity of vasoactive intestinal peptide-expressing (VIP) interneurons than the background, whereas figures suppressed somatostatin-positive interneurons, resulting in an increased activation of pyramidal cells. Optogenetic silencing of VIP neurons reduced FGM in V1, indicating that disinhibitory circuits contribute to FGM. Our results provide new insight in how lower and higher areas of the visual cortex interact to shape visual perception.
Analysing protein post-translational modform regions by linear programming
Authors: Agarwal Deepesh , Fellers Ryan T. , Early Bryan P. , Lu Dan , DeHart Caroline J. , Compton Philip D. , Thomas Paul M. , Lahav Galit , Kelleher Neil L. , Gunawardena Jeremy
Published: October 2018

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) at multiple sites can collectively influence protein function but the scope of such PTM coding has been challenging to determine. The number of potential combinatorial patterns of PTMs on a single molecule increases exponentially with the number of modification sites and a population of molecules exhibits a distribution of such “modforms”. Estimating these “modform distributions” is central to understanding how PTMs influence protein function. Although mass-spectrometry (MS) has made modforms more accessible, we have previously shown that current MS technology cannot recover the modform distribution of heavily modified proteins. However, MS data yield linear equations for modform amounts, which constrain the distribution within a high-dimensional, polyhedral “modform region”. Here, we show that linear programming (LP) can efficiently determine a range within which each modform value must lie, thereby approximating the modform region. We use this method on simulated data for mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 with the 7 phosphorylations reported on UniProt, giving a modform region in a 128 dimensional space. The exact dimension of the region is determined by the number of linearly independent equations but its size and shape depend on the data. The average modform range, which is a measure of size, reduces when data from bottom-up (BU) MS, in which proteins are first digested into peptides, is combined with data from top-down (TD) MS, in which whole proteins are analysed. Furthermore, when the modform distribution is structured, as might be expected of real distributions, the modform region for BU and TD combined has a more intricate polyhedral shape and is substantially more constrained than that of a random distribution. These results give the first insights into high-dimensional modform regions and confirm that fast LP methods can be used to analyse them. We discuss the problems of using modform regions with real data, when the actual modform distribution will not be known.
Precise optical probing of perceptual detection
Authors: Lerman Gilad M. , Gill Jonathan V. , Rinberg Dmitry , Shoham Shy
Published: October 2018

Establishing causal links between patterns of neuronal activity and perception is crucial for understanding brain function. Electrical and optogenetic stimulation experiments demonstrated that animals can detect activation of a few neurons. However, these methodologies offer very limited control of ensemble activity and yielded highly divergent thresholds. Here, we use holographic two-photon (2P) optogenetic stimulation to probe the detection of evoked neuronal activity at cellular and single action potential resolution, with millisecond precision. We find that mice can detect single action potentials evoked synchronously across <20 olfactory bulb neurons, while ruling out detection of indirect effects using a novel optical sham-photostimulation technique. Our results demonstrate that mice are acutely attuned to sparse, synchronous ensemble activity signals, introducing order-of-magnitude revisions to earlier estimates of perceptual thresholds.
SIP: An Interchangeable Pipeline for scRNA-seq Data Processing
Authors: Chen Sijie , Wei Zheng , Chen Yang , Hua Kui , Zhang Wei , Liu Changyi , Gao Haoxiang , Sun Hao , Wang Zhenyi , Yin Qijin , Chen Shengquan , Song Shaoming , Feng Chen , Lu Hairong , Jiang Rui , Wang Xiaowo , Gu Jin , Zhang Xuegong
Published: October 2018

Multiple steps of bioinformatics processing are needed to convert the raw scRNA-seq data to information that can be used in downstream analyses and in building cell atlases. Dozens of software packages have been developed and different labs tend to have different preferences on choices of the workflow. Such diversity can cause difficulties in future efforts of aggregating data from multiple labs, and also difficulties for new labs to start in this field. A few pipelines have been developed to help integrating multiple steps into a whole, but the fixed software architecture makes it hard for developers to add new features or exchange parts in the pipeline.

We presented SIP, a Single-cell Interchangeable Pipeline. It is a one-stop platform for the processing of scRNA-seq data from multiple platforms, and will also support for other types of data like scATAC-seq data. SIP utilizes container technology to solve the deployment dilemma when handling multiple packages and provides an easy-to-use interface for users to conduct the complicated multi-step process from raw data to final results with a single command. It also allows advanced users to assemble different versions of the pipeline by interchanging parts or adding new modules. SIP is available at https://github.com/XuegongLab/SIP under the GPL-3.0 license.
Mapping native R-loops genome-wide using a targeted nuclease approach
Authors: Yan Qingqing , Shields Emily J. , Bonasio Roberto , Sarma Kavitha
Published: October 2018

R-loops are three-stranded DNA:RNA hybrids that are pervasive in the eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes and have been implicated in a variety of nuclear processes, including transcription, replication, DNA repair, and chromosome segregation. While R-loops may have physiological roles, the formation of stable, aberrant R-loops has been observed in disease, particularly neurological disorders and cancer. Despite the importance of these structures, methods to assess their distribution in the genome invariably rely on affinity purification, which requires large amounts of input material, is plagued by high level of noise, and is poorly suited to capture dynamic and unstable R-loops. Here, we present a new method that leverages the affinity of RNase H for DNA:RNA hybrids to target micrococcal nuclease to genomic sites that contain R-loops, which are subsequently cleaved, released, and sequenced. Our R-loop mapping method, MapR, is as specific as existing techniques, less prone to recover non-specific repetitive sequences, and more sensitive, allowing for genome-wide coverage with low input material and read numbers, in a fraction of the time.
Robust methods for detecting convergent shifts in evolutionary rates
Authors: Partha Raghavendran , Kowalczyk Amanda , Clark Nathan , Chikina Maria
Published: October 2018

Identifying genomic elements underlying phenotypic adaptations is an important problem in evolutionary biology. Comparative analyses learning from convergent evolution of traits are gaining momentum in accurately detecting such elements. We previously developed a method for predicting phenotypic associations of genetic elements by contrasting patterns of sequence evolution in species showing a phenotype with those that do not. Using this method, we successfully demonstrated convergent evolutionary rate shifts in genetic elements associated with two phenotypic adaptations, namely the independent subterranean and marine transitions of terrestrial mammalian lineages. Our method calculates gene-specific rates of evolution on branches of phylogenetic trees using linear regression. These rates represent the extent of sequence divergence on a branch after removing the expected divergence on the branch due to background factors. The rates calculated using this regression analysis exhibit an important statistical limitation, namely heteroscedasticity. We observe that the rates on branches that are longer on average show higher variance, and describe how this problem adversely affects the confidence with which we can make inferences about rate shifts. Using a combination of data transformation and weighted regression, we have developed an updated method that corrects this heteroscedasticity in the rates. We additionally illustrate the improved performance offered by the updated method at robust detection of convergent rate shifts in phylogenetic trees of protein-coding genes across mammals, as well as using simulated tree datasets. Overall, we present an important extension to our evolutionary-rates-based method that performs more robustly and consistently at detecting convergent shifts in evolutionary rates.
Biodiversity trends are stronger in marine than terrestrial assemblages
Authors: Blowes Shane , Supp Sarah , Antão Laura , Bates Amanda , Bruelheide Helge , Chase Jon , Moyes Faye , Magurran Anne , McGill Brian , Myers-Smith Isla , Winter Marten , Bjorkman Anne , Bowler Diana , Byrnes Jarrett E.K. , Gonzalez Andrew , Hines Jes , Isbell Forest , Jones Holly , Navarro Laetitia M. , Thompson Patrick , Vellend Mark , Waldock Conor , Dornelas Maria
Published: October 2018

Human activities have fundamentally altered biodiversity. Extinction rates are elevated and model projections suggest drastic biodiversity declines. Yet, observed temporal trends in recent decades are highly variable, despite consistent change in species composition. Here, we uncover clear spatial patterns within this variation. We estimated trends in the richness and composition of assemblages in over 50,000 time-series, to provide the most comprehensive assessment of temporal change in biodiversity across the planet to date. The strongest, most consistent pattern shows compositional change dominated by species turnover, with marine taxa experiencing up to fourfold the variation in rates of change of terrestrial taxa. Richness change ranged from no change to richness gains or losses of ~10% per year, with tropical marine biomes experiencing the most extreme changes. Earth is undergoing a process of spatial reorganisation of species and, while few areas are unaffected, biodiversity change is consistently strongest in the oceans.
Choice-Related Activity during Visual Slant Discrimination in Macaque CIP but Not V3A
Authors: Elmore L. Caitlin , Rosenberg Ari , DeAngelis Gregory C. , Angelaki Dora E.
Published: October 2018

Creating three-dimensional (3D) representations of the world from two-dimensional retinal images is fundamental to many visual guided behaviors including reaching and grasping. A critical component of this process is determining the 3D orientation of objects. Previous studies have shown that neurons in the caudal intraparietal area (CIP) of the macaque monkey represent 3D planar surface orientation (i.e., slant and tilt). Here we compare the responses of neurons in areas V3A (which is implicated in 3D visual processing and which precedes CIP in the visual hierarchy) and CIP to 3D oriented planar surfaces. We then examine whether activity in these areas correlates with perception during a fine slant discrimination task in which monkeys report if the top of a surface is slanted towards or away from them. Although we find that V3A and CIP neurons show similar sensitivity to planar surface orientation, significant choice-related activity during the slant discrimination task is rare in V3A but prominent in CIP. These results implicate both V3A and CIP in the representation of 3D surface orientation, and suggest a functional dissociation between the areas based on slant-related decision signals.

Significance Statement

Surface orientation perception is fundamental to visually guided behaviors such as reaching, grasping, and navigation. Previous studies implicate the caudal intraparietal area (CIP) in the representation of 3D surface orientation. Here we show that responses to 3D oriented planar surfaces are similar in CIP and V3A, which precedes CIP in the cortical hierarchy. However, we also find a qualitative distinction between the two areas: only CIP neurons show robust choice-related activity during a fine visual orientation discrimination task.
Leader creativity expectations and follower radical creativity
Authors: Xu Feng , Wang Xiaohong
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to research the effect of leader creativity expectations on follower radical creativity. Highlighting the implications of leader creativity expectations, the authors examined employee creative process engagement as a mediator and follower perceived procedural justice as a moderator in the relationship between leader creativity expectations and employee radical creativity.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 256 dyads comprising full-time employees and their immediate supervisors were collected from the innovation teams of industry-university alliances through questionnaire in China, the authors hypothesized and found support for a moderated mediation model.

Findings

The findings show that leader creativity expectations are significantly and positively related to employee radical creativity; creative process engagement plays a fully mediating role between leader creativity expectations and employee radical creativity; procedural justice moderates the positive relationship between leader creativity expectations and creative process engagement and enhances the positive indirect effect of leader creativity expectations on follower radical creativity.

Practical implications

The creativity expectations of leaders are prerequisite for leadership to drive followers to be creative, which can pose great effect on extra-role behavior of followers such as radical creativity. Leaders can deliberately set role expectations for subordinates to achieve creative goals. Compared with the traditional management practices emphasizing planning, leaders encourage trial practice, provide enough time to ensure employees fully identify problems and provide resources to facilitate information search and coding, may achieve better results. Organizations should also place greater emphasis on the procedural justice, thereby enhancing the positive impact of other factors on employee radical creativity.

Originality/value

This study examined the relationship between leader creativity expectations and follower radical creativity based on the perspective of creative process engagement. The conclusion expanded the evidence of the impact of leader expectations besides this study strongly demonstrate that procedural justice will affect employees creative process engagement which enriches the literature on radical creativity strategic leadership and work engagement.
Automatic vehicle detection and counting approach using low-rank representation and locality-constrained linear coding
Authors: Huangpeng Qizi , Huang Wenwei , Shi Hanyi , Fan Jun
Published: October 2018

Purpose

Vehicles estimation can be used in evaluating traffic conditions and facilitating traffic control, which is an important task in intelligent transportation system. The paper aims to propose a vehicle-counting method based on the analysis of surveillance videos.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper proposes a novel two-step method using low-rank representation (LRR) detection and locality-constrained linear coding (LLC) classification to count the number of vehicles in traffic video sequences automatically. The proposed method is based on an offline training to understand an LLC-based classifier with extracted features for vehicle and pedestrian classification, followed by an online counting algorithm to count the number of vehicles detected from the image sequence.

Findings

The proposed method allows delivery estimation (counting the number of vehicles at each frame only) and total number estimation of vehicles shown in the scene. The paper compares the proposed method with other similar methods on three public data sets. The experimental results show that the proposed method is competitive and effective in terms of computational speed and evaluation accuracy.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed method does not consider illumination. Hence, the results might be unsatisfactory under low-lighting condition. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to add a term that controls the illumination changes into the energy function of vehicle detection in future work.

Originality/value

The paper bridges the gap between LRR detection and vehicle counting by taking advantage of existing LLC classification algorithm to distinguish different moving objects.
Malaysian corporate tax rate and revenue: the application of Ibn Khaldun tax theory
Authors: Azlan Annuar Hairul , Isa Khadijah , Ibrahim Salihu Aramide , Solarin Sakiru Adsebola
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The present study aims to investigate the impact of the reduction of the corporate tax rate on corporate tax revenue. The study adopts the theory of taxation by Ibn Khaldun, depicted as the Laffer curve.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper analyses time series data for the period 1996 to 2014 using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach.

Findings

The paper finds that the corporate tax rate has a dual effect on corporate tax revenue over the study period. It shows an inverted U-shape relationship between the corporate tax rate and corporate tax revenue and reveals that the optimal tax rate is 25.5156 per cent. Inferentially, a positive relationship exists between the two variables prior to the optimal tax rate, and a negative relationship prevails afterwards. A further test of causality shows a long-run unidirectional causality between corporate tax rate and corporate tax revenue.

Research limitations/implications

First, it should be noted that the policy was not implemented in isolation. Several other tax incentives were given to corporate tax payers, and therefore, such incentives should be controlled for to have a more insightful evaluation of the policy. Second and most important, there is a need to investigate whether the increased cash flow available to firms as a result of the reduction in the corporate tax rate adds value to firms. It is also necessary to investigate whether firms’ stakeholders benefited from the increased cash flow or was there managerial diversion of firms’ resources.

Practical implications

The policy of gradual reduction of the corporate tax rate in Malaysia is suspected to have a positive impact on the productivity of Malaysian companies, which has contributed to an increase in corporate tax revenue. It also has a positive impact on the economic growth of the country. It means that the lower corporate tax rate has actually reduced the cost of doing business in the country.

Originality/value

The benefit of increased corporate tax revenue needs to be investigated empirically for insightful policy evaluation. In Malaysia, however, such investigation is close to non-existent to the best knowledge of the researchers. Thus, the present study aims at investigating the impact of the policy of gradual reduction of the corporate tax rate on corporate tax revenue over an 18-year period from 1996 to 2014.
Corporate life and death: who succumbs, who survives during disruption?
Authors: Blitz Amy
Published: October 2018

Purpose

This paper provides a disruption survival guide for companies during times of macro transformation.

Design/methodology/approach

The research compared the S&P 500 – as proxy for the US economy – from 1996 and 2018. Of companies no longer on the list, 12 died, including two from manufacturing: Bethlehem Steel and Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC). Still, some US manufacturers survived or even thrived during the period. To understand why, the paper compares Bethlehem, which died in 2003, to US Steel, which has survived but was removed from the S&P 500 list in 2014, and to Nucor, which has stayed on the list. POSCO is also used for comparison. The OMC case adds a different industry perspective.

Findings

The main findings from these cases are as follows: stay fit financially and avoid overreaching in good times, use operation strategies such as Lean and Six Sigma to build a culture of continual innovation and stay close to customers to compete on the basis of differentiation, particularly if competing on price is not a realistic option. The good news is differentiation is possible even in seemingly commoditized sectors like steel.

Research limitations/implications

This paper contributes to the literature on differentiation as a strategy for competing with low-cost disruptors.

Practical implications

This paper provides insights into the use of Lean, Six Sigma and other strategies for creating a culture of continual innovation among employees, customers, suppliers and other strategic partners. And, building on this culture, to compete on the basis of value-added differentiation, particularly if competing on price is not a realistic option.

Originality/value

The paper cuts through complex, fast-changing, transformative macro issues – e.g., Chinese competition and trade uncertainties related to new tariffs – and provides practical, timeless insights for navigating in such times. The focus here is on strategies for competing on the basis of value-added differentiation, particularly if competing on price is not a viable option. The good news is such competition is possible even in seemingly commoditized sectors like steel.
How info-firms use big data to target customers
Authors: Dolfsma Wilfred , Van der Eijk Rene
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review and assess the different strategies that what we call Info-firms can deploy in the markets that they serve. In many markets, a firm’s competitive advantage is derived from its information position. Firms that actively and extensively collect customer information may develop a number of strategies to increase their competitiveness. We refer to such firms as info-firms – for some firms, this is all that they do: collect and sell data about consumers. Info-firms can target either customers or other firms, and they target either existing or adjacent markets. A 2 × 2 matrix characterizing strategies is introduced. Some strategies are known, but their effects are more pronounced on online markets because of the overwhelming amount of data available, while other strategies that are discussed are new. The strategies that info-firms develop and use change the dynamics in value chains substantially. The strategies adopted affect the market and value chain dynamics and determine which parties in the market are likely to benefit (most).

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper.

Findings

The strategies that info-firms develop and use change their dynamics in value chains substantially. Some strategies are known, but their effects are more pronounced on online markets because of the overwhelming amount of data available, while other strategies are new.

Research limitations/implications

Drawing on an economic theory, an evaluation of the strategies that info-firms develop is offered, identifying which parties stands to gain the most.

Practical implications

The effects of the use of strategies used by info-firms have been largely overlooked, and yet, strategies adopted affect the market and value chain dynamics and determine which parties in a market are likely to benefit (most).

Originality/value

The classification of strategies that info-firms can develop, and the likely effects on the market dynamics and economic prospects of different market players has not been discussed in the literature so far. A comprehensive and novel perspective is offered.
Peer-to-peer lending and real estate mortgages: evidence from United Kingdom
Authors: Gibilaro Lucia , Mattarocci Gianluca
Published: October 2018

Purpose

This paper aims to collect data from a unique database provided by LendInvest and to study the key differences in the lending features for the two types of lending solutions.

Findings

Peer-to-peer (P2P) loans are prevalently short-term financing solutions (bridge financing), and the size of the loan is above average of the market. The loan portfolio is normally more geographically concentrated with respect to the average for the overall market and the main geographical areas for P2P lending are not just the main markets served by traditional lenders. Areas served by P2P lending have a lower population income than the national average and are characterized by below-average real estate price performance.

Research/limitations/implications

The results support the hypothesis of a complementary relation between conventional and P2P lending, showing that the latter represents a solution that is servicing areas that, because of the lower value of the collateral and lower average income, do not have easy access to the traditional mortgage market.

Originality/value

The paper is a first empirical contribution on the analysis of the market served by P2P real estate lending financing solution.
Successfully developing advanced practitioner roles: policy and practice mechanisms
Authors: Officer Tara , Cumming Jackie , McBride-Henry Karen
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to lay out how advanced practitioner development occurs in New Zealand primary health care settings. The paper specifically focuses on mechanisms occurring across policy creation and in practice leading to successful role development.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors applied a realist approach involving interviews, document review and field log observations to create refined theories explaining how successful development occurs.

Findings

Three final mechanisms were found to influence successful advanced practitioner role development: engagement in planning and integrating roles; establishing opportunities as part of a well-defined career pathway; and championing role uptake and work to full scopes of practice.

Research limitations/implications

This research focuses on one snapshot in time only; it illustrates the importance of actively managing health workforce change. Future investigations should involve the continued and systematic evaluation of advanced practitioner development.

Practical implications

The successful development of advanced practitioner roles in a complex system necessitates recognising how to trigger mechanisms occurring at times well beyond their introduction.

Social implications

Potential candidates for new roles should expect roadblocks in their development journey. Successfully situating these roles into practice through having a sustainable and stable workforce supply provides patients with access to a wider range of services.

Originality/value

This is the first time a realist evaluation has been undertaken, in New Zealand, of similar programmes operating across multiple sites. The paper brings insights into the process of developing new health programmes within an already established system.
Can small, medium and micro enterprises survive in public procurement?
Authors: Mphela Thuso , Shunda John P.W.
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The paper aims to investigate challenges facing small-, medium- and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) in public procurement in Botswana from the view of a buyer.

Design/methodology/approach

The researchers conducted consultative workshops, succeeded by focus groups and follow-up telephone interviews, to collect and validate data. A total of 75 procurement officers from central government ministries and local governments participated in the study.

Findings

Results indicate that SMMEs find it difficult to deal with public procurement because of lack of capacity, unfair bias against SMMEs, inefficient government payment systems, unfair competition from their larger and established counterparts and centralized public procurement. The paper recommends a comprehensive integrated framework, improvement of SMME capacity and adopting policies to ensure greater public procurement market access.
Does corruption and the institutional characteristics of the contracting authorities affect the execution of healthcare infrastructures?
Authors: Cavalieri Marina , Guccio Calogero , Rizzo Ilde
Published: October 2018

Purpose

This paper aims at contributing to the research on the role played by corruption in the health procurement by use non-parametric techniques to examine whether the efficient execution of Italian public contracts for healthcare infrastructures is affected by socio-economic variables (including the level of “environmental” corruption) in the area where the work is localised and by the institutional features of the contracting authority.

Design/methodology/approach

A data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to a sample of 405 contracts during the period 2000-2005. Smoothed bootstrap techniques to calculate confidence intervals for the estimated efficiency parameters along with different non-parametric tests and kernel density estimates are used.

Findings

Results show that “environmental” corruption negatively influences the performance of healthcare infrastructures. Furthermore, healthcare contracting authorities appear to be less efficient than other public bodies acting as procurers.

Originality/value

The paper highlights the role of environmental corruption in the provision of healthcare infrastructures.
A comparative study of the effectiveness of sentiment tools and human coding in sarcasm detection
Authors: Teh Phoey Lee , Ooi Pei Boon , Chan Nee Nee , Chuah Yee Kang
Published: October 2018

Purpose

Sarcasm is often used in everyday speech and writing and is prevalent in online contexts. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the analogy between sarcasm comments from sentiment tools and the human coder.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the Verbal Irony Procedure, eight human coders were engaged to analyse comments collected from an online commercial page, and a dissimilarity analysis was conducted with sentiment tools. Three constants were tested, namely, polarity from sentiment tools, polarity rating by human coders; and sarcasm-level ratings by human coders.

Findings

Results found an inconsistent ratio between these three constants. Sentiment tools used did not have the capability or reliability to detect the subtle, contextualized meanings of sarcasm statements that human coders could detect. Further research is required to refine the sentiment tools to enhance their sensitivity and capability.

Practical implications

With these findings, it is recommended that further research and commercialization efforts be directed at improving current sentiment tools – for example, to incorporate sophisticated human sarcasm texts in their analytical systems. Sarcasm exists frequently in media, politics and human forms of communications in society. Therefore, more highly sophisticated sentiment tools with the abilities to detect human sarcasm would be vital in research and industry.

Social implications

The findings suggest that presently, of the sentiment tools investigated, most are still unable to pick up subtle contexts within the text which can reverse or change the message that the writer intends to send to his/her receiver. Hence, the use of the relevant hashtags (e.g. #sarcasm; #irony) are of fundamental importance in detection tools. This would aid the evaluation of product reviews online for commercial usage.

Originality/value

The value of this study lies in its original, empirical findings on the inconsistencies between sentiment tools and human coders in sarcasm detection. The current study proves these inconsistencies are detected between human and sentiment tools in social media texts and points to the inadequacies of current sentiment tools. With these findings, it is recommended that further research and commercialization efforts be directed at improving current sentiment tools – to incorporate sophisticated human sarcasm texts in their analytical systems. The system can then be used as a reference for psychologists, media analysts, researchers and speech writers to detect cues in the inconsistencies in behaviour and language.
The influence of the chief audit executive’s leadership style on factors related to internal audit effectiveness
Authors: Dal Mas Luciano Oreste , Barac Karin
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the leadership style of a chief audit executive (CAE) and the perceived effectiveness of the internal auditing (IA) function that he/she leads. Perceived IA effectiveness is based on identified attributes in the literature influencing IA effectiveness. The aim of this paper is thus to expand the IA effectiveness debate by adding individual differences in CAEs’ leadership styles as a research focus.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative approach is followed. A survey was conducted on a sample of 58 IA students enrolled in a master’s degree programme at a South African university; all students hold senior positions in IA.

Findings

The study confirms that the CAE leadership style significantly influences the identified attributes of perceived IA effectiveness. It further shows that the traditional conceptualisation of leadership (as transformational, transactional and/or laissez-faire) might not be appropriate for or compatible with leaders of professional teams in a regulated environment.

Practical implications

Practically, the study identifies and explores attributes influencing IA effectiveness that are within the purview of the CAE’s leadership style and within his/her ability to influence. This information could (re)direct leadership development training programmes presented in industry and by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), and at organisational level, it could inform appointment and retention and succession practices for heads of and senior management in IA.

Social implications

CAEs are cautioned about the limitations imposed by laissez-faire leadership on IA effectiveness. They should strive to become both transformative and transactional leaders as it has a significant influence on the effectiveness of their IA functions, and by being more effective, they can demonstrate the value proposition of IA. Organisations need to create the environment in which CAEs can act as transformational and transactional leaders. The IIA, as the pre-eminent professional body, could become involved in developing leadership skills of its members. The IIA could provide guidance on leadership styles for CAEs and could also offer formal training initiatives to internal auditors on skills needed to lead IA teams.

Originality/value

This paper may open a new research area in IA effectiveness by focussing on the role and leadership qualities of the CAE.
Effects of mixed starters on quality attributes of probiotic yogurt using statistical design approach
Authors: Ghasempour Zahra , Moghaddas Kia Ehsan , Golbandi Sahel , Ehsani Ali
Published: October 2018

Purpose

The quality of probiotic yogurt which is remarked as a healthy, therapeutic and nutritious food product strongly depends on starter types and their compositions; however, the choice of starter culture affects the taste, aroma and quality of the final product. Through this study, to obtain favorable quality attributes of probiotic yogurt, a mixture of two thermophilic/mesophilic starter cultures (YC- 350/YC- X16) was applied for fermentation.

Design/methodology/approach

The effects of starter mixture, probiotic Lactobacillus paracasei and storage time on quality indices, such as apparent viscosity, water holding capacity, syneresis, post acidification rate and probiotic viability (L. paracasei), were assessed through using a combined (mixture-process) statistical design.

Findings

The results revealed that changes in viscosity and syneresis depend on the amount of YC- X16. Acidification rate was more pronounced at higher levels of YC- 350 (1.22 per cent) in comparison to that in YC-X16 (1.08 per cent) during storage time. With respect to probiotic viability, L. paracasei count was more than 107 cfu/mL during refrigerated storage time. Moreover, a promotive effect of YC- 350 on L. paracasei proliferation was observed in this study.

Originality/value

The favorable yogurt, from qualitative aspects, was manufactured at 75:25 per cent ratio of YC- X16:YC- 350 in probiotic type yogurts. Therefore, the use of mixed starter cultures developed textural properties of probiotic yogurt beside L. paracasei survival.
Production and optimization of anthocyanin-rich food colorant extracted fromprunus nepalensis L.(Sohiong)
Authors: Swer Tanya L. , Chauhan Komal , Paul Prodyut K. , Mukhim C. , Bashir Khalid , Sehrawat Rachna
Published: October 2018

Purpose

An upsurge in health and environmental concerns over the use of synthetic color has made the development of color from cheap and easily available natural sources, namely, plants, animals, micro-organisms and algae as indispensable. This study aims to extract anthocyanins, an important natural plant pigments, from Sohiong (Prunus nepalensis). This study demonstrated that Sohiong have high anthocyanins content and antioxidant property, indicating an immense potential for the fruit producers and food processors.

Design/methodology/approach

Response surface methodology was used to optimize the conditions for extraction of anthocyanins from Sohiong using conventional solvent extraction.

Findings

The optimum conditions for extraction were found to be 36.75°C temperature, 60.32 per cent ethanol concentration and 2.39 per cent citric acid concentration with recovery of 45 per cent total extract yield, 858.84 mg C3G/100g DM anthocyanin content and 824.91 mg GAE/100g DM phenolic content with in-vitro antioxidant activity of 31.40 mmol AEAC/100g DM for FRAP and 84.66 per cent DPPH scavenging capacity (20mg/ml). TheF-values and high values of adjusted determination coefficient for each response imply high level of significance of the fitted models.

Practical implications

Extracted color can be used in food and pharmaceutical industries.

Social implications

Pigment extracted is from a natural source and possesses high antioxidative activity and potential health benefits. With increasing demand for natural colors and other additives, there is a wide range of applications of the pigment as natural colorant in the food and pharmaceutical sector.

Originality/value

Selected plant source, i.e. Sohiong, was not used earlier by any researcher to extract anthocyanins for potential applications as food colorant.
Celebrating advances in LGBT+ diversity in the accountancy profession
Authors: Unerman Jeffrey
Published: October 2018

Purpose

This paper aims to provide a commentary on evidence presented and issues raised by Egan (2018) regarding LGBT+ diversity initiatives in the accountancy profession.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is an invited commentary based on the author’s experiences of LGBT+ and other diversity initiatives in the profession.

Findings

There is cause for optimism in how far the profession has progressed in some countries on supporting LGBT+ (and other forms of) diversity.

Practical implications

As multinational accountancy firms can be agents for change in countries where there remains considerable discrimination and hostility to LGBT+ (and other) communities, constructive critique to help further improve the firms’ innovative actions on LGBT+ and other diversity issues could have a major positive impact on social justice. Egan (2018) is an example of such constructive critique.

Social implications

Where other academic studies take a disparagingly critical approach, they risk both squandering the opportunity to help achieve the progress they espouse and discouraging other firms embracing innovative diversity practices.

Originality/value

This study provides a counter perspective to some critical accounting arguments that appear to value idealism over progress.